A Grand August 2016 Vacation PTR

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Good thoughts! It is useful to have a plan but exactly like you say it is not set in stone. There are variables on the day, fatigue, weather and mood! So important to remember it is a vacation. We do this also. Now I call our plan a guideline for the day! That way if we decide to enjoy that sunny afternoon by the pool and let our FP for Soarin go to someone else so be it!

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

So happy to be following along - making me even more excited about our August trip ITA about the family feeling at Disney - that's the magic for us

 

[Ferrentinos]

Good thoughts! It is useful to have a plan but exactly like you say it is not set in stone. There are variables on the day, fatigue, weather and mood! So important to remember it is a vacation. We do this also. Now I call our plan a guideline for the day! That way if we decide to enjoy that sunny afternoon by the pool and let our FP for Soarin go to someone else so be it!

So happy to be following along - making me even more excited about our August trip ITA about the family feeling at Disney - that's the magic for us

It really IS all about family... if we are all together and we can focus on one another without the distractions of daily life... it is a perfect vacation!

I have had an insanely busy few days - DD5 had to have ear surgery to remove her one ear tube that never fell out - then I was back in the classroom from spring break with all of our end of year paper work due (even though we aren't done until June 22nd!) - on top of packing up our house and moving to store at my parents' house... I am thoroughly enjoying my glass of wine tonight! Tomorrow is the same line up with packing and shifting things to my parent's house... we have movers coming in 2 weeks to get all of the big furniture (they are storing that for a month for us... big $$ that we didn't realize!) - moving is just so expensive that I can't wait for it to be over!

On a Disney note... we have 72 days until we can make FP... I'm interested to see what happens tomorrow with the rollout of the new mobile way to make 4th FP... I'm very happy that we will be able to do it on our phones but I worry that because everyone can, 4th FP will be harder to come by than before... time will tell how this works out!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Sorry to hear about DD ear problems I hope the surgery has helped. It's a lot of work moving thank goodness it is not often but worth it!

I think it is useful with regard the 4th FP and it can be another park. But I think a lot of people will not use it they will leave at 3. We never get through ours. I think you will be fine. I would read carefully the parks to visit on what days if you follow avoid high crowd days then you will be golden!

 

[Ferrentinos]

I know that I've been MIA for a while... we are in the final process of moving out of our home and into my parents' house until we can move into our new house. This process is very long, involved and exhausting. As much as I am trying to think of our Disney trip and get lost in that magic, the reality of moving can't be escaped.

At this point in my planning, I'm trying to speculate on RoL and whether or not it will actually open - I saw last night that there will be a Jungle Book version starting Memorial Day weekend so I am still left wondering, when will that discontinue and RoL take over? At least now I know that Tiffins will be open by our trip and all of the other nighttime entertainment will be occurring, so I can keep our AK evening set. I'm also wondering about the Star Wars a Galactic Spectacular - timing and dessert party. We tend to treat ourselves to a few perks each trip and we loved SWW dessert party and the FSF dessert party so hopefully we will get to indulge this time as well. But still wondering if it will be available...

I've started working on FP+ plans - I'd gotten pretty good and arranging them and have used the old system so many times that I really understood my way around it. I'm curious to see how the new system works with selecting times, adding 4th FP+s in the park, etc. I think I will play with it a little bit - but I have quite a while before I actually have to do our FP+'s so that is a relief!

Enjoy your Wednesday! Thanks for sticking with me even though it has been a while! Once we are out of this house and with my parents, all I will be doing is waiting until we can move into the new house so I am sure I will be occupying my time more with Disney then!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Good luck with moving and your temporary stay at your parents house. It is a stressful time moving but with one stage complete and just the new house to look forward to this should be one less layer of stress for your family!

I saw about the memorial weekend at AK. I like the look of the Tree of life and the lights on that now. Plus the night safari and carivals going on. Hopefully the ROL sorted out well before your trip.

It is great news about that 4th FP+ and being able to park hop for that. Exciting.

How wonderful to get a dessert party!

 

[dina7]

I live in NY and just wanted to put you at ease about flying out of Westchester Airport. It is a very small airport and is a breeze to fly from. I wish I could book all my flights out of there! Our return flight is landing in Westchester. Sadly our flight heading to FL is not, as the other NY airport we are leaving from is cheaper. Our trip is in August too and we are staying at the GF Garden View for the first time since our honeymoon, over 23 years ago. We booked a Magical Deal too. Enjoy your trip and good luck with the move!!

 

[jessg]

Thanks for joining! We are flying out of HPN (West Chester) - it makes sense to make the drive from Ontario - we have about 4 airports in the area to pick from and we always go with the one that will save us the most $$! It sounds like you are going to stay at some excellent resorts! We were originally at BC but we got cold feet and canceled - when we realized our mistake, the room was no longer available! We LOVE staying on the monorail - we sometimes just take a ride for fun! I wish I could escape this move for 2 weeks and let DH to it all... but that will never happen! I've been dubbed "In charge of packing everything" because I'm just "so good at it" - Dh's words! I guess I always do our WDW packing too so this is just on a bigger scale! DH is taking care of all of the other stuff... so many phone calls to make and things to arrange... ugh! moving is the worst!



Thanks for joining in! I LOVE the Poly - it is our #1 resort. We decided on GF this time instead because we just stayed at Poly in Dec. and wanted a change. We will be visiting there though for Kona Cafe dinner and just to check out the new Oasis pool!

When are you going we going from HPN 8/5/16

 

[jessg]

I live in NY and just wanted to put you at ease about flying out of Westchester Airport. It is a very small airport and is a breeze to fly from. I wish I could book all my flights out of there! Our return flight is landing in Westchester. Sadly our flight heading to FL is not, as the other NY airport we are leaving from is cheaper. Our trip is in August too and we are staying at the GF Garden View for the first time since our honeymoon, over 23 years ago. We booked a Magical Deal too. Enjoy your trip and good luck with the move!!

Yaaay another one going in August what dates are you going in Aug as we too are flying from the same Airport in August

 

[Ferrentinos]

Good luck with moving and your temporary stay at your parents house. It is a stressful time moving but with one stage complete and just the new house to look forward to this should be one less layer of stress for your family!

I saw about the memorial weekend at AK. I like the look of the Tree of life and the lights on that now. Plus the night safari and carivals going on. Hopefully the ROL sorted out well before your trip.

It is great news about that 4th FP+ and being able to park hop for that. Exciting.

How wonderful to get a dessert party!

We are all settled in at my parent's house - our townhouse is officially sold so it is a huge weight off of our shoulders. Now to wait 2 more weeks to close on our new house! My parents are awesome so we are quite comfortable here and being spoiled a bit!

I live in NY and just wanted to put you at ease about flying out of Westchester Airport. It is a very small airport and is a breeze to fly from. I wish I could book all my flights out of there! Our return flight is landing in Westchester. Sadly our flight heading to FL is not, as the other NY airport we are leaving from is cheaper. Our trip is in August too and we are staying at the GF Garden View for the first time since our honeymoon, over 23 years ago. We booked a Magical Deal too. Enjoy your trip and good luck with the move!!

Thank you! We are excited to fly out of there - how is security there? We are used to long lines at JFK and Newark - will we still need 2 full hours to get through everything? Our flight is at 8am. If we could let DD5 sleep an extra half hour, it can always help! I never sleep the night before we go to WDW - way too excited - but I'd love her to get a little extra beauty sleep!

When are you going we going from HPN 8/5/16

We aren't going until the 19th. I'm so excited!!

 

[samara]

Thanks for joining! We are flying out of HPN (West Chester) - it makes sense to make the drive from Ontario - we have about 4 airports in the area to pick from and we always go with the one that will save us the most $$! It sounds like you are going to stay at some excellent resorts! We were originally at BC but we got cold feet and canceled - when we realized our mistake, the room was no longer available! We LOVE staying on the monorail - we sometimes just take a ride for fun! I wish I could escape this move for 2 weeks and let DH to it all... but that will never happen! I've been dubbed "In charge of packing everything" because I'm just "so good at it" - Dh's words! I guess I always do our WDW packing too so this is just on a bigger scale! DH is taking care of all of the other stuff... so many phone calls to make and things to arrange... ugh! moving is the worst!



Thanks for joining in! I LOVE the Poly - it is our #1 resort. We decided on GF this time instead because we just stayed at Poly in Dec. and wanted a change. We will be visiting there though for Kona Cafe dinner and just to check out the new Oasis pool!

We'll also be at the Poly in August! We used to live in Connecticut and flew out of HPN many times. It's a much more relaxing experience than any of the bigger NY airports!

 

[Ferrentinos]

We'll also be at the Poly in August! We used to live in Connecticut and flew out of HPN many times. It's a much more relaxing experience than any of the bigger NY airports!

We'll actually be at GF for this trip - we LOVE Poly but stayed there on our last trip so it was time for a little change.

 

[Ferrentinos]

A little happiness dance going on here... we are officially moved and settled in our new home! We've been here for 2 weeks now and I am finally feeling more normal and at home. Not too many boxes left around the house and our to-do list is dwindling - now I can spend more time and energy focusing on our WDW trip - I have FP to do in 2 weeks so that is where most of my energy is going - I'm a little nervous about the change to 7am booking. I was one of the crazy ones who would wake up at midnight just to get those accomplished. Now I worry that I will be fighting the masses to get the hard-to-get FP's. Although I know that persistence pays off and if I need to continue to tweak some up until the day we leave, I can.

I'm very happy to have booked the Early Morning Magic for on of our MK mornings. I know that for many it is an unnecessary expense, but for us, we'd rather spend our money there to have unlimited rides on 3 of our favorites and a breakfast that DD5 will actually eat (as opposed to BOG where she won't eat anything on the menu). I have high hopes for the amount of times she and I will ride Peter Pan and Pooh and I can't wait to see how many times DH rides Mine Train!

We've also booked the Behind the Seeds Tour in Epcot. It was relatively inexpensive and Living with the Land is a favorite in our house so I am sure we will have a good time. We've never been disappointed with experiences in WDW so I am sure we will love this. We did the Family Magic Tour last summer and LOVED it. I highly recommend that tour if you have children!

Now, I'm just waiting for Star Wars dessert parties to be announced for the summer and I am just trying to change our GF tea time to a little earlier in the day. We had planned it later because we had CRT booked, but with the EMM now we will be canceling CRT and wanting to move our tea a little earlier.

Have a magical Monday!!

 

[kathyfog]

A little happiness dance going on here... we are officially moved and settled in our new home! We've been here for 2 weeks now and I am finally feeling more normal and at home. Not too many boxes left around the house and our to-do list is dwindling - now I can spend more time and energy focusing on our WDW trip - I have FP to do in 2 weeks so that is where most of my energy is going - I'm a little nervous about the change to 7am booking. I was one of the crazy ones who would wake up at midnight just to get those accomplished. Now I worry that I will be fighting the masses to get the hard-to-get FP's. Although I know that persistence pays off and if I need to continue to tweak some up until the day we leave, I can.

I'm very happy to have booked the Early Morning Magic for on of our MK mornings. I know that for many it is an unnecessary expense, but for us, we'd rather spend our money there to have unlimited rides on 3 of our favorites and a breakfast that DD5 will actually eat (as opposed to BOG where she won't eat anything on the menu). I have high hopes for the amount of times she and I will ride Peter Pan and Pooh and I can't wait to see how many times DH rides Mine Train!

We've also booked the Behind the Seeds Tour in Epcot. It was relatively inexpensive and Living with the Land is a favorite in our house so I am sure we will have a good time. We've never been disappointed with experiences in WDW so I am sure we will love this. We did the Family Magic Tour last summer and LOVED it. I highly recommend that tour if you have children!

Now, I'm just waiting for Star Wars dessert parties to be announced for the summer and I am just trying to change our GF tea time to a little earlier in the day. We had planned it later because we had CRT booked, but with the EMM now we will be canceling CRT and wanting to move our tea a little earlier.

Have a magical Monday!!

Glad you are settled in. I'm kinda nervous/excited about fast pass window opening soon. Still not sure what we will fp at EPCOT. Am giving great thought to DHS dessert party. I heard it was a great location, which I love but not sure of the price. School is finished on Thursday so the countdown for ore Grand vacation is on!

 

[Ferrentinos]

Glad you are settled in. I'm kinda nervous/excited about fast pass window opening soon. Still not sure what we will fp at EPCOT. Am giving great thought to DHS dessert party. I heard it was a great location, which I love but not sure of the price. School is finished on Thursday so the countdown for ore Grand vacation is on!

How exciting to be done with school in a few days!!! Our last day is the 22nd :-( Still two weeks to go for me! But they always go so quickly with lots of fun activities planned.

About the Star Wars Dessert party - we have done it once and we did the Frozen one twice - they were amazing experiences! I haven't done dessert parties any where else but I was very much impressed with them - hopefully they will continue this dessert party when they open up the summer dates for the fireworks.

We are doing an Illuminations Dessert Party this summer too - it is a private event sponsored by a private group - I am really excited for that one too!

We'll both be at the Grand soon enough!

 

[Landslide305]

We aren't going until the 19th. I'm so excited!!

We're heading there on the 19th as well but staying at Coronado Springs. I've never been in the summer before.

 

[Ferrentinos]

We're heading there on the 19th as well but staying at Coronado Springs. I've never been in the summer before.

We've done a trip to WDW every summer since 2012 - and we love it! Being a teacher, it is the easiest time for us to go for an extended vacation - no worries about work for me! It is much more crowded in July when we have gone then when we did the last week of August - which is part of the reason we are doing an August trip this summer. We are upgrading to AP while we are there and it will cover a June/July trip next summer!