*** The Official August 2018 Thread*** - let's have some fun....

[Tomh]

See, I'm super skeptical of using the MB's to pay as well, but my DH wants to do it this year. I'm going to have him read this post and see if he changes his mind.

We always paid with MB when we were staying on site. I would say it worked perhaps 95% of the time. We always carried a card, and cash with us just in case.

So quick question. We always do the Disney gift cards, and I'm planning on buying them through Target as usual. $2000 worth of gift cards = $100 of savings!!

But, I hate that we are going to have 20 gift cards. That always annoys me. So, if I consolidate them on the Disney gift card website, what is the limit for one card? Is it $1000? I can't remember.

You can consolidate up to $1000 onto one card. When consolidating you can only move the ENTIRE remaining balance from a card, so if you have one card with $750 on it, and another with $500, you can't move $250 from the $500 card to fill the $750 card. You would have to wait until that first card is at, or below $500, and then transfer the entire $500 card to it.

Oh wow, i wish i knew about this on Friday! We got 2 $500 cards at BJ's thinking we'd save $5 a card, but apparently that only works on the ones with the pre-determined amount and i didn't want to carry 10 gift cards around and worry about losing them.

Sorry that happened. We always buy ours at Sam's Club. On this years cards, I believe we paid $485 for the $500 card. In addition, we pay for the gift cards with our Disney Visa, and get another 1% back on that, so basically another $5 per card bringing our total to $20 in savings for each $500 card.

Sorry if this sounds stupid, but what does saving them on the site do? You still have access to the physical card, correct?

Saving them on the site just makes it quicker and easier to transfer a balance. We always try to have one empty card on the site, one that we are using, and then 3 that are full $500 cards so we can transfer them as needed. The full cards stay locked in the room. The empty card we carry separately from the one we are using, in that way if something should happen to the card we are using, we can quickly transfer the balance over to the empty card, and continue on our way.

As we transfer balances off the full $500 cards, we delete them from the site, and add in new ones.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

so sorry for your loss.

Remember you can always sign up for an alternate spot as well. There are always some reserved spots for the VIP tours but the people don't always show up. And there are some special cases that can get an unofficial "extra" spot like if there is a Wish trip kid. My DD loves to get the wish trip kids in. And she got to give that spot to one kid recently (he wasn't a wish trip kiddo) who showed up at like 3 shows in a row hoping for an alternate spot. She said he was about 5 and so dang cute and excited every time he and mom showed up (and mom was really nice too). Well 2 shows the alternate slots filled up fast so this poor kiddo was out of luck. She called her coordinator on the last show and asked if she could give the "special" slot to this kiddo as he had been waiting (the alternates have to show up about 5-7 minutes before each show to see if there is a slot). She got permission to get him in the last show. From the description she gave of this kiddo's excitement it probably made his whole life to this point. This was on the busy day they had recently.

That's awesome! That kiddo will remember that, and she will be a part of his Disney Magic forever!

If we show up to the park for 8 and can't get him in a show at noon or later, I'll add him to the standby list. We asked him if he'd rather do Jedi Training or stay for the fireworks if he had to pick one or the other (because if we roll into the park for 6:30 AM that's way too long of a day so it's one or the other). He picked fireworks, so that means a later park start time and not getting a Jedi Training slot is the chance we take.

 

[capegirl]

[inute

This will impact some of us here:


Magic Kingdom Entertainment on Main Street U.S.A. Impacted on Select Dates in August

Thanks for posting this. August 20 is one of our MK days.

 

[disneyjr77]

Yes! Got this as well; it’s beautiful. Also some hours changed, as well.

I was so excited about the levels, i didn't even check the hours lol...going back now to do that

 

[Mika02]

News

New World Drive Overpass Opens August 15 Near the Magic Kingdom Auto Plaza

FYI for any one driving my MK Day is actually one day before...

 

[capegirl]

FYI for any one driving my MK Day is actually one day before...

Thanks. Good to know if we are out and about in our rental.

 

[TBGOES2DISNEY]

This exactly. Maybe it is only 3.2%, LOL, oh well. Still some savings on top of savings through our TA. I buy them online through their website so I can use my Disney Visa to purchase. Then I also get the points, so more Disney $$, $4.80 per $484 spent (that's still only 4.2%). VooDoo Disney math . Don't tell my DH.



I have only seen 10% off entertainment cards at Target on Black Friday or soon after.

Oh, sorry! I guess I wasn't clear there. At Disney World, some stores offer 10% off a $50 purchase when you use your Disney Visa card. I was asking if anyone knows what stores offer this. ???

 

[Mousemommy1]

We always paid with MB when we were staying on site. I would say it worked perhaps 95% of the time. We always carried a card, and cash with us just in case.



You can consolidate up to $1000 onto one card. When consolidating you can only move the ENTIRE remaining balance from a card, so if you have one card with $750 on it, and another with $500, you can't move $250 from the $500 card to fill the $750 card. You would have to wait until that first card is at, or below $500, and then transfer the entire $500 card to it.



Sorry that happened. We always buy ours at Sam's Club. On this years cards, I believe we paid $485 for the $500 card. In addition, we pay for the gift cards with our Disney Visa, and get another 1% back on that, so basically another $5 per card bringing our total to $20 in savings for each $500 card.



Saving them on the site just makes it quicker and easier to transfer a balance. We always try to have one empty card on the site, one that we are using, and then 3 that are full $500 cards so we can transfer them as needed. The full cards stay locked in the room. The empty card we carry separately from the one we are using, in that way if something should happen to the card we are using, we can quickly transfer the balance over to the empty card, and continue on our way.

As we transfer balances off the full $500 cards, we delete them from the site, and add in new ones.

Awesome, I was able to consolidate 18 cards down to 2, but I will go ahead and add an empty card on there just in case!

 

[Mousemommy1]

Oh, sorry! I guess I wasn't clear there. At Disney World, some stores offer 10% off a $50 purchase when you use your Disney Visa card. I was asking if anyone knows what stores offer this. ???

I know I was able to use that at World of Disney in February.

 

[ColonelHathi]

Oh, sorry! I guess I wasn't clear there. At Disney World, some stores offer 10% off a $50 purchase when you use your Disney Visa card. I was asking if anyone knows what stores offer this. ???

Ah, I know you can get 10% off at the Emporium on Main Street and Agrabah Bazaar in Adventureland for sure.

 

[DisneyFansInNYC]

It is! Finally! 15 days to go for us. I was very excited for today to be August, but I got sad news that my grandmother passed away this morning.

I am so sorry for you loss.

So excited, just got an crowd calendar update for out trip and most of our crowd levels have gone down I know i should take crowd levels with a grain of salt, but it's still promising that they are predicting lower crowds

I got it too - I was shocked that some of the parks went down to a 4 - at this time of year it seems weird. It even had HS as a 4 crowd level in the middle of August.
Aug. 16, 2018 Thursday
▵ Walt Disney World Overall Crowd Level decreased from 6 to 5.
» Magic Kingdom Park Hours: 9:00 AM-11:00 PM
▵ Magic Kingdom Crowd Level decreased from 6 to 5.
» Epcot Park Hours: 9:00 AM-9:00 PM +EMH Morning
▵ Epcot Crowd Level increased from 5 to 6.
» Hollywood Studios Park Hours: 8:00 AM-10:30 PM +EMH Morning
▵ Hollywood Studios Crowd Level decreased from 8 to 4.
» Animal Kingdom Park Hours: 9:00 AM-9:30 PM
▵ Animal Kingdom Crowd Level decreased from 5 to 4.

 

[Monykalyn]

That's awesome! That kiddo will remember that, and she will be a part of his Disney Magic forever!

If we show up to the park for 8 and can't get him in a show at noon or later, I'll add him to the standby list. We asked him if he'd rather do Jedi Training or stay for the fireworks if he had to pick one or the other (because if we roll into the park for 6:30 AM that's way too long of a day so it's one or the other). He picked fireworks, so that means a later park start time and not getting a Jedi Training slot is the chance we take.

Truly-with predicted (knock wood) crowd levels dropping I hope you have zero issues signing up. The Jedi training is such a unique experience.

Our DAK day dropped to a predicted level 3-not sure I have ever been in a crowd "3"-maybe in February 2004?? with the old paper fastpass?

Packed, house cleaned, nails done, flight checked in. I will be at Disney tomorrow!!

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

Truly-with predicted (knock wood) crowd levels dropping I hope you have zero issues signing up. The Jedi training is such a unique experience.

Our DAK day dropped to a predicted level 3-not sure I have ever been in a crowd "3"-maybe in February 2004?? with the old paper fastpass?

Packed, house cleaned, nails done, flight checked in. I will be at Disney tomorrow!!

Sounds like you’re ready! Have fun!

Our HS day is a 3 also, and I’m not sure I even know what anything below 5 looks like. I have high hopes now!

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Disappointment of the night

HEA. Saw it for the first time. I just didn’t like it. I kept wishing it was wishes. I felt no emotion with it. Good fireworks but it just didn’t work for me. The people singing the songs honesty didn’t even sound good to be honest. The Tarzan song was terrible. He was cracking the entire time.

Hopefully they redo the entire soundtrack one day. The voices didn’t sound professional. Just play the normal original songs imo.

I missed star light star bright.

Otherwise. The dessert party was great and had a great spot. Having a wonderful night.

 

[Monykalyn]

Disappointment of the night

HEA. Saw it for the first time. I just didn’t like it. I kept wishing it was wishes. I felt no emotion with it. Good fireworks but it just didn’t work for me. The people singing the songs honesty didn’t even sound good to be honest. The Tarzan song was terrible. He was cracking the entire time.

Hopefully they redo the entire soundtrack one day. The voices didn’t sound professional. Just play the normal original songs imo.

I missed star light star bright.

Otherwise. The dessert party was great and had a great spot. Having a wonderful night.

It took a couple showings to really get HEA for me too. But my all time favorite night time show was SWW fireworks soooo...
The desserts at the party are quite good though!!

 

[MamaJessie]

So excited to read that Free dining bouncebacks are available to book as of today! Gah! Spent some time crunching numbers for our next trip already

You can also buy the Disney Gift cards online at Target. You still get 5% off with your redcard.

Thank you, I didn’t even think about buying online!

I order them online often, just beware they can take awhile to arrive sometimes.

My DD says the sign ups (as of Sunday when she last worked) were still slow. She has her last shift at Jedi August 5th so if you remind me I can give an update then too. But as of now-slots aren't usually filling up until noon, and even then there's random afternoon slots left. I think she said there was one Monday this past several weeks where they were pretty busy.

Hmm... I have always skipped that mad dash in the morning but maybe we will give it a try this trip, I feel like my 9yo would really enjoy it.

Yes! Got this as well; it’s beautiful. Also some hours changed, as well.

Oooh I will have to go check to see if anything changed.

So exciting to know we are all going THIS MONTH

 

[Davkind76]

How do you find information about the bounce back offers?

 

[Leesha.Monster]

I haven’t posted on this thread yet but I’ve been watching/reading since February!! We leave in 15 days and we’re staying at the Polynesian from Aug 16th - 24th!! It’s our 2nd time going to WDW and 2nd time at the Poly! We loved it so much we had to go back. Anyway, I’m super excited and love reading everyone’s comments on here.

 

[luvmy2babies]

3rd park day is in the books. We spent the morning sleeping in...way in. I brought some work with me and have spent two evenings working and I needed more rest. Thankfully we wanted some evening time in the parks so it was a good day to sleep in. We had some pool time then a late lunch before heading to Hollywood studios. We saw the Little Mermaid show, then headed over for our first look at Toy Story Land. We had TSM fast passes for today. They did a really great job. My kids loved it.

We took a hydration break afterwards then a bathroom break. There was a large shelter outside the bathroom and the sky was looking a bit scary so we decided to wait there for a few minutes to see what happened. Sure enough the sky opened up. Thunder and lightening and wind...the whole bit. I checked the radar and it looked like it was going to move on in about 15 minutes. Once the rain calmed down enough we put on our ponchos and headed to the Launch Bay. My son wanted to meet BB-8 and I figured, something to do indoors was needed. The storm had cleared things out. We saw BB-8 with no wait at all. Waited 20 minutes for him last year. Then ds saw the "Build Your Own Droid" section. I let him build two to buy.

The rain had stopped so we went over to use our Star Tours fast pass to find we had no need for it. The wait time said 10 minutes; but it was probably 5. I rode it last year because my children didn't want to. They went on this time and loved it. After that we saw the Muppet Vision 3D show, looked around for a bit and headed out. It was nice seeing the park in the dark. We took a few photos on the way out. I got us a late dinner from the food court and we settled in. We have our 2nd DHS day tomorrow. We're going out early this time, probably around 10. We have Alien Swirling Saucers fast passes. Will probably try to see a few shows (Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast) and some characters. The kids want to ride Star Tours again too. We have dinner reservations at Cape May. My daughter loves crab legs so this is mainly a treat for her.

 

[capegirl]

I got it too - I was shocked that some of the parks went down to a 4 - at this time of year it seems weird. It even had HS as a 4 crowd level in the middle of August.
Aug. 16, 2018 Thursday
▵ Walt Disney World Overall Crowd Level decreased from 6 to 5.
» Magic Kingdom Park Hours: 9:00 AM-11:00 PM
▵ Magic Kingdom Crowd Level decreased from 6 to 5.
» Epcot Park Hours: 9:00 AM-9:00 PM +EMH Morning
▵ Epcot Crowd Level increased from 5 to 6.
» Hollywood Studios Park Hours: 8:00 AM-10:30 PM +EMH Morning
▵ Hollywood Studios Crowd Level decreased from 8 to 4.
» Animal Kingdom Park Hours: 9:00 AM-9:30 PM
▵ Animal Kingdom Crowd Level decreased from 5 to 4.

WOW!!!! This is awesome.