Never say Neverland: Easter '18, May/June '18, July '18, Sept '18, Nov '18 TRs (8/22 UPDATE!)

[kittylady1972]

OOOOH! I can't wait to hear what you think of this restaurant...

I know...it sounds pretty interesting and something we will like. I actually moved it to a different day though...but it's still on the agenda.

It IS crazy how fast the time goes! We have no vacation plans until September and I am already starting to panic. And it's just to visit my parents! LOL Your upcoming schedule sounds....exhausting.

Staying in a Treehouse would be amazing. I don't remember if you have before? And the Craft Cocktail Event would definitely be something I would look forward to!

So as of today we are now also at ZERO vacation points...because I just made a change to that Treehouse as promised. We have stayed in one back in November of 2012 but I don't even have any photos of it...as I just learned tonight when I looked. Crazy. Yes definitely looking forward to the cocktails event.

 

[kittylady1972]

So...another update for today. After weeks of being unable to successfully link my DVC room reservation to my account, and two emails where the response was "call DVC Member services" I finally got around to calling today. I've never had an issue before and I was sure it had something to do with me using a different email on the confirmation, even though I logged into my DVC account with the same email I use for MDE. As it turns out it was all hoarked up and the kind lady at member services had me on hold for quite some time before they finally got it fixed. She suspected it had to do with my FIL and DH having the some name (one is a JR and one a SR and they are listed that way in MDE) which makes sense as I remember years ago we had an issue on checkin with my FIL being on our reservation. Anyway....just when she finally got it fixed and asked if there was anything else she could do...I decided to just go ahead and borrow our remaining points PLUS buy some one-time DVC points to use to book a TREEHOUSE. So it's done...TREEHOUSE for us in a few weeks!

Also today my husband and FIL were able to their GKTW Orientation online (that option wasn't given to my daughter and I earlier this year) so now they are ready to do some volunteer shifts with us for this trip. And so we've booked a few...which means more changes for our schedule. And I've shifted some dining. So now here is what we have:

FRIDAY: Depart the DC area around 6pm, land in Orlando after midnight (we do have a connecting flight because it was the cheapest on points). Still deciding on our first night hotel...near the airport or near Disney...not sure yet. UPDATE: We want to stay near Disney, but SOG is booked as of when I checked today. I'll keep checking though.

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day, dinner at WHISPERING CANYON.

SUNDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Dinner at Flying Fish.

MONDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at night, but with any luck we will be able to enter as early as 2pm (but if not by 4pm for sure). We have a 5:30pm dinner at WCC (family request) so we may have to leave to park to go do that. This may change...not sure I'll want to leave the park on my ONLY day doing a Disney park.

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Dinner at TOLEDO at CSR.

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 4pm to catch a 6:40pm flight back home.

 

[Mopedmom1]

Are you doing whispering Canyon twice or is wcc something different?

 

[Jenny Sanders]

So cool you're staying in the Tree Houses! Totally jelly!!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Are you doing whispering Canyon twice or is wcc something different?

Ack! Just didn't see I still had it there for later in the week. I really don't want to leave the ONE park I'll be visiting to go have dinner, so I moved up WCC to another day. Since we plan to attend MNSSHP we'll just eat there probably at a quick service.

So cool you're staying in the Tree Houses! Totally jelly!!!!

We are looking forward to returning, since our last time staying there was in November and I also recall it was a trip with a few sick kids so perhaps that's why I really don't feel like we got the full experience...and maybe why I have ZERO photos for some reason of the inside or outside of the treehouse. It's simply going to be a much better layout for our group of 6 people.

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok so just a minor change to our plans. I checked SOG yesterday and it was AVAILABLE for Friday night...so I've booked it. Also to go along with that plan, we had hopes of heading to the Polynesian for breakfast. Now usually I'm happy to just get Tonga Toast from Capt Cooks but since we have NOTHING else planned for Saturday other than dinner, I decided we would go ahead and do Kona Cafe for breakfast instead. I haven't had breakfast there in years, though we've done many lunches and dinners there. I'm looking forward to it for sure.

I think that's it for now, though I'm still trying to decide on some other surprises. Blue Man Group is still in the running as an option. Also Discovery Cove is having a GREAT sale right now for some of our dates that I thought that would be nice too, maybe even as a last day thing? If we did that though, we'd probably need to pick another day to do Universal parks since we have that planned for Wed and Thur right now.

Still have some time to make many changes of course!


FRIDAY: Depart the DC area around 6pm, land in Orlando after midnight (we do have a connecting flight because it was the cheapest on points). Head to Shades of Green for one night.

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast at Kona Cafe, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. Maybe we will look into renting some of the watercraft vehicles for a little while after breakfast and then head over to SSR. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day, dinner at WHISPERING CANYON.

SUNDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Dinner at Flying Fish.

MONDAY: Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at night, but with any luck we will be able to enter as early as 2pm (but if not by 4pm for sure).

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Dinner at TOLEDO at CSR.

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 4pm to catch a 6:40pm flight back home.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

MONDAY: Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge.

Oooooh! Tell me about this...

 

[kittylady1972]

Oooooh! Tell me about this...

I believe it is a DVC Member event only...takes place at Reunion Station. Info below:

Highlights
Learn about some of your favorite beverages—or try something new! Our weekly Beverage Tasting Series is a fun opportunity to taste craft cocktails or delectable wines.
Choose from 2 distinctive sessions:

• Speak Easy Craft Cocktails – Mondays from 1:30 to 3:30 PM
  Sample lively libations as you immerse yourself in the era of prohibition and create homemade cocktails with a little help from our bootleggers!!
• New World Wines – Saturdays from 1:30 to 3:30 PM
  Sample wine varietals from the Pacific during an immersive and interactive tasting session

Each tasting session also includes a small-plate food pairing that complements the beverage served

Hopefully it will be as good as it sounds. We aren't doing the Wine one...just the Speak Easy version.

 

[kittylady1972]

Admit it...you knew this was coming right?

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!

So with our room at SOG booked, it seemed a shame to be arriving so late, amIright?

It isn't complete quite yet, since both DH and I have booked the flights with our SWA accounts and so we need to make the remaining changes, but so far this has happened:

FRIDAY: Depart the BALTIMORE area around 3:30pm, land in Orlando around 9pm We do still have a small layover and connection to make though. land in Orlando after midnight (we do have a connecting flight because it was the cheapest on points). Head to Shades of Green for one night.

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast at Kona Cafe, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. Maybe we will look into renting some of the watercraft vehicles for a little while after breakfast and then head over to SSR. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day, dinner at WHISPERING CANYON.

SUNDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Dinner at Flying Fish.

MONDAY: Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at night, but with any luck we will be able to enter as early as 2pm (but if not by 4pm for sure).

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Dinner at TOLEDO at CSR.

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 4pm to catch a 6:40pm flight back home. catch a 7pm flight back home...another connection....putting us in just after midnight.

 

[kittylady1972]

And in other fun news, my daughter and I had the pleasure of attending Hamilton in Baltimore last night. What a FUN FUN show!





Of course it was an 8pm show that ended around 11pm, putting me home close to 11:30pm and not really asleep until after midnight. Still worth it.

 

[kittylady1972]

So SWA was giving me a fit this morning...I only managed to change ONE flight (my 19yo son's) and not the other 5 since they were 2 different reservations. When I went to book us on the same flight as him...the prices had increased even more. It was killing me.

That means I just *HAD* to move us to an even EARLIER flight on Friday. Sad, right?

FRIDAY: Depart the BALTIMORE area around 3:30pm 2pm, land in Orlando around 8pm We do still have a small layover and connection to make though Atlanta now. land in Orlando after midnight (we do have a connecting flight because it was the cheapest on points). Head to Shades of Green for one night. We should be early enough to head over to the Polynesian and maybe catch some fireworks and grab a dole whip (or Lapu Lapu).

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast at Kona Cafe, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. Maybe we will look into renting some of the watercraft vehicles for a little while after breakfast and then head over to SSR. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day, dinner at WHISPERING CANYON.

SUNDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Dinner at Flying Fish.

MONDAY: Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at night, but with any luck we will be able to enter as early as 2pm (but if not by 4pm for sure).

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Dinner at TOLEDO at CSR.

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 4pm to catch a 6:40pm flight back home. catch a 7pm flight back home...another connection....putting us in just after midnight.

I still have to decide if we should purchase our MNSSHP tickets NOW and try to book some FPs or just wait on the weather. I know we are taking chances again with hurricane season, but I'm really hopeful that this time we'll have a better party experience and see the parade.

 

[kittylady1972]

How can we already be 35 days away from this trip? Wow.

I reviewed all of our plans last night and updated my schedule. There are a few things on there that I don't have listed here because I'm not sure if I'll keep them yet. I did a few dining searches last night but in the end I haven't changed too much.

Tuesday I do have a Chef Mickey's lunch. I probably won't keep it but I was looking for a meal to do before the Halloween Party.

Thursday I booked Maria and Enzo's as a late lunch to have before our flight home based on @ariane37 's reviews of it. Of course, since right now we plan to spend the day at Universal we could just eat something in that area. There's a great sports bar just outside of Universal that I wouldn't mind returning to since we ate there in April and enjoyed it. They had a great prime rib special the night we were there. UPDATE: Yep that is Thursday night...that may be a good plan for us and Maria and Enzo's may have to wait.

 

[kittylady1972]

Perhaps a slight change of plans....well really an addition to our plan. So I spent my weekend attending two big family events...and I have a LARGE family on my dad's side. One of those events was a surprise 75th birthday for one of my aunts. Her son happens to live in Tampa (which I knew) and he is around my age with 3 small kids. As I left the party yesterday, he mentioned visiting them in Florida (I have a hard enough time getting together with my friends who live near the Orlando area) and then he mentioned he was taking the kids to Disney for a weekend in August. So of course, it happens to be the weekend that we will also be there! They are doing parks (and I told him I have no park tickets) but I mentioned maybe seeing if they would be interested in maybe spending an evening at the Top of the World Lounge (with the kids) and watching the fireworks at MK. I'm not getting my hopes up, since it's always so hard to connect with people when we are on vacation, but maybe just maybe on Saturday night, after we have dinner at WCC, we can try to meet up with them at Bay Lake Tower and head up to the lounge.

Many of my relatives asked me this weekend when I was going back to Disney...it's like they know me or something??? I told them our plans to visit in August but not for a major Disney park visit.

Oh my cousin also asked when I was planning to move to Florida, because it is in my plans. I told him that there is a chance in the next few years that we could end up down in Tampa for work purposes and if that's the case we would be there to scope out where to retire as well.

Overall it was just a wonderful weekend surrounded by so many of my family members. I am truly so blessed to have such a great great family and it's sad I don't see them more often than I do.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

CH-CH-CH-CH-CHANGES!

LOVE!

 

[ariane37]

MONDAY: Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge.

This sounds amazing, it stinks it's just for DVC but I can't wait to hear about it!

You would love Maria and Enzo's I'm sure but it does make sense to eat by Universal. Your trip is so close and even though you aren't doing a "full" Disney trip AND we just got back - I'm jealous lol!

I want to see Hamilton, I've heard it's so good!

 

[kittylady1972]

This sounds amazing, it stinks it's just for DVC but I can't wait to hear about it!

You would love Maria and Enzo's I'm sure but it does make sense to eat by Universal. Your trip is so close and even though you aren't doing a "full" Disney trip AND we just got back - I'm jealous lol!

I want to see Hamilton, I've heard it's so good!

It does sound fun...we are looking forward to it. We can bring guests, so if our trips ever coincide...well we will have to have you join us!

I know so many Disney restaurants, so little time. We like to visit favorites, but it's nice to try new ones also. Things could still change of course. Maybe we will end up squeezing it in after all.

I'm jealous of everyone else's Disney trips for sure, and as much as I'm looking forward to ours I'm not in a rush...since once it gets here it is close to the end of "unofficial" summer. Crazy that we are almost out of July already.

Honestly wasn't sure I'd like Hamliton when it first started. It took me a few numbers to really get into it but once I did...I truly did enjoy it and so did my daughter. Do you enter any of the ticket lotteries up there in NYC? I entered the one in B'more here every day but never won. The other one we both want to see is Dear Evan Hansen.

 

[kittylady1972]

No major changes on the Disney planning front I don't believe. I may have tweaked some of those dining reservations again...but they are bound to change up until the day we leave and even during the trip. I'm trying not to look at them too much. I think I have my car rental set also but I may need to just check on that also.

I'd really like to see if we could fit in Discovery Cove for our last day since they are having some GREAT deals on the tickets there right now and for our timeframe. I don't know because it would mean we would have to find a different day to squeeze in Universal in order to do 2 days there. Plus more $$$ to put out. I told my son we would go if he got a new job and earned enough money to pay for ALL of the tickets...which really is quite unfair. Well he started a new job this week and he should be making some pretty good money there, much better than the job he's had for over a year. Let's hope he is able to do well there. He applied as a host, but they are now training him as a bar back.

So both my 19yo son and 16yo daughter now have jobs in the restaurant/service industry as of this week. My daughter is at a large chain restaurant making okay money so far and she's a bit "meh" about it but hopefully will be happier once she gets her first paycheck. She is just a hostess for now, but she comes home every day smelling like Italian food and makes me hungry! My son is host/bar back at another restaurant, this one is a small local business only about 3 miles from our house if that, so very nice. It's more popular as a bar, but the restaurant does okay. He has spent the last 2 years or so in restaurant service, but his last job, which he had for over a year, they just started cutting his shifts as busser/runner to the point that at MOST he was getting one shift a week for maybe 4 hours total despite him asking for more hours. We are sure there is a reason he wasn't getting more hours and they most likely wanted him to quit but didn't fire him because they may have to pay him unemployment. We will probably never know why things went south there when he used to get many shifts and do well. What can you do...kids have to find their own way and at 19 he needs to figure that out.

Still it is nice that both of my kids, now that they are driving, can make their own money to do things they want to do. For my 19yo that usually involves food, for my 16yo it's food and/or shopping of course.

 

[ariane37]

Tell me about it with the jobs! It's so nice not to be shelling money out to both kids now that Ricky is working. And since he and his friends all drive, most of the time if they're hanging out here and get hungry they go out and get something instead of eating my food lol!

 

[kittylady1972]

Tell me about it with the jobs! It's so nice not to be shelling money out to both kids now that Ricky is working. And since he and his friends all drive, most of the time if they're hanging out here and get hungry they go out and get something instead of eating my food lol!

ABSOLUTELY agree! My kids are always going out and getting their own food, although last night my 19yo asked if he could go grocery shopping as he does like to fix a few things at home himself. We said go for it. These days I am RARELY eating dinner at home as I play tennis almost every night of the week and tend not to eat meals beforehand. That will change in about a week or so though and then maybe I'll consider making meals again.

 

[kittylady1972]

So I keep going back and forth and the schedule for our upcoming trip (now only 3 weeks away) and the sentiment I keep hearing from my family...."what are we going to dooooo???" because...well no park tickets. I think for our 5.75 days there we should be able to figure things out.

I'm still tweaking our volunteer schedules at GKTW. Right now it's 3 mornings but I'm not sure if I'll change that up a bit. We might want to reserve one of those days for something else. I am still considering Discovery Cove which has a great deal doing if you book before July 31st, so I have about another week to make that decision.

Then this morning I thought of something else...what about a VIP Tour of Universal? I have a friend who did one with her son and loved it. What better way to tour both parks and be able to do everything? However that won't be cheap so I'll need to look up some pricing for our dates. If we did that, then I wouldn't do Discovery Cove also this would be instead of that. I don't know.

Oh and I've moved that dinner at Toledo to another day...on the same day as our Craft Cocktails event. So here is the current (and always changing) schedule:

FRIDAY: Fly out on a 2pm flight with connection, arrival at MCO around 8pm. Hoping to grab our rental and head directly to Shades of Green and with any luck we can maybe head over to Bay Lake Tower to the TOTW Lounge and catch the late night Halloween fireworks from there (I think they are at 9:30pm and 11:30pm or something like that). I may see if my cousin (who is from Tampa but will be at Disney with his wife and 3 small kids for the weekend) can join us there.

SATURDAY: Get up, have breakfast at Kona Cafe, drive to Saratoga Springs Resort. Maybe rent some of the watercraft vehicles for a little while after breakfast and then head over to SSR. If room is ready, check in there but if not just hang out in the area. Nothing else planned for the day, dinner at WHISPERING CANYON. (And if we didn't get a chance to meet up with my cousin and family Friday night, then this is another night for that...and I even added a few people to our WC reservation just in case)

SUNDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Dinner at Flying Fish.

MONDAY: Volunteering in the morning at GKTW. Adults doing the 1pm Speak Easy Craft Cocktails event at Wilderness Lodge. Dinner at Toledo at CSR.

TUESDAY: Volunteering at GKTW in the morning. Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party at night, but with any luck we will be able to enter as early as 2pm (but if not by 4pm for sure).

WEDNESDAY: Spend the day at Universal Studios. Maybe Blue Man Group that night?

THURSDAY: Another day at Universal Studios and then leave around 5pm to 7:30pm flight back home...another connection....putting us in just after midnight.