Pre-trip Quadrilogy - planning 4 at once? No way! WAY! (9/22 - New Trip Report Link - Post 137)

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Where do you find this screen? I can only find the upcoming vacations page. It would make me really happy to see all my trips on one screen like this, especially since i have three weekends at the VGC in March and April!
 
Where do you find this screen? I can only find the upcoming vacations page. It would make me really happy to see all my trips on one screen like this, especially since i have three weekends at the VGC in March and April!

Its under "My Dashboard"
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Where do you find this screen? I can only find the upcoming vacations page. It would make me really happy to see all my trips on one screen like this, especially since i have three weekends at the VGC in March and April!

@franandaj It's under "My Dashboard" as @Dis_Yoda says. Scroll down below "My Memberships" and it shows "My Vacations Plans".
 
Well, thanks for the comments.

Our style has changed a lot over the years - however, I still have such a hard time "holding back" from park time. We used to go-go-go and then have to take a day off to recover. Nowadays, I tend to go a little slower every day, and then not really have a break day. A lot of time we spend 3-5 hours in the park in the morning, then take a long afternoon break, and head back to the parks around dinner time. We've always used rope drop and FP+ to avoid lines, but now because we keep going back, we don't sweat missing things like we used to. We usually have a few days where we pass on rope drop, and just hit the parks for a few hours mid-day as well. We ended up skipping Flights of Passage in November because I couldn't get a FP+, and we were going to try morning EMH - but said "screw it I don't want to get up that early".

That said, I still plan the hell out of a trip - it's just the pace of the plan that has slowed. I also tend to iterate the heck out of things. The last week or so, I've been going round in circles on our August trip, trying to come up with a base structure I like. The two days we have for water parks is throwing me off.

This sounds a lot like what we did on our last trip. I still want to do the Commando Touring style and my son would be right there with me. However DH and DD cannot handle that. So I have had to learn to slow down. We rope drop every morning but 1 day usually Wednesday. We stay in the parks until lunch time then head back to the resort to swim and rest. Then we head back for dinner and then stay until the night time show is over. We also will not trek all over the park for rides anymore. At MK we will do 1 land at a time.
 


Hey all - well trip #2 (BLUE) is a mere two days away. Forecast is calling for HOT (IMO - mid to upper eighties is HOT!) Glad to get away from the cold, but why we can't get nice mid-70 temperatures in February I don't understand. I just wrapped my TR for Trip Purple, so hopefully soon after I return another TR will be in the works.

Trip #3 (Red) is also falling more into place. This morning Southwest opened up flights, and I almost got tricked because they don't normally open them before 8 AM, but I went on at 6:45 AM and they were already up! I was able to get a decent deal on flights, in the end - we ended up deciding to fly down on a Friday night. The price was about $50 cheaper per person (so $200 less). We had enough points for the extra night at AKV, so even though the extra night costs us $163, we get in the night before and are able to (hopefully) get an early start the next morning - so it saves a bit of money and gives us a few more park hours - especially allowing us to tour early and return to the room. (I am planning to rarely be out in the parks between 1 PM and 5 PM that trip - unless it's a water park.) Our return flight landed perfectly on Sunday at 6:30 PM - 9 PM, so we still get Sunday morning in the parks, and probably a last few hours by the pool before our ME bus. Price wasn't great - but $225 round trip is decent. (I consider anything below $200 to be excellent, and $200 -$250 good.) Especially considering both are direct flights - I have little to complain about.

Weirdly enough - our ADRs for this trip will have to be booked next week during THIS upcoming trip - at least the first half of them.

Well, off I go...
 
Well you must be on trip blue now.

I couldn't book airfare because a conversation needed to be had regarding flights since they kill an entire day each way, and connections are required. Spousal weirdness and talking about flights that day would have been....awkward.

Glad you got what you wanted and an extra day at a savings.
 


OK so first up - TRIP Blue has a Trip Report. So, join along won't you, it's hopefully not nearly as boring as this PTR is.

LOOK AT ALL THE SUNNY BALLS!

Trip Red (#3): Dining is booked. Interestingly, it's almost entirely lunches. We find we prefer this, especially in August when it is so hot. Get out of the sun, and then also head back to the room on a full stomach.


Ohana 8/25/2018 11:00 AM
BFF is a HUGE Lilo and Stitch fan - I was hoping to have this booked for later in the trip, but I wanted Be Our Guest here, but I just couldn't get it in. I think with the change to the dinner people are more interested than ever in lunch at this restaurant. This is our first day. (Arrive the night before.) Figure we'll hit rope drop at MK for a few hours, and then boat/monorail over for a late breakfast.

Sanaa 8/27/2018 1:00 PM
A break on our planned AK day - one of our favorite restaurants. Can't stay at AKV and not eat here!

Beaches & Cream 8/28/2018 2:10 PM
For obvious reasons - this is the day we switch from AKV to Beach Club, and it's also our planned MNSSHP day - so it seemed like a good date for it.

Via Napoli 8/29/2018 1:00 PM
We were considering Garden Grill - but decided that it was just too expensive with two kids of questionable appetite. (DD doesn't eat a lot, and especially doesn't eat a lot at a time, so "all-you-can-eat" is wasted on her.)

Yachtsman 8/30/2018 6:00 PM
Also can't stay at Beach Club without dinner at Yachtsman. The girls will not be joining us for this one.

Be Our Guest 8/31/2018 11:40 AM
Another MK morning was finally able to snag a BOG lunch. (Park opens for EMH at 8 AM, so we'll have a busy morning.)

Sci-Fi 9/1/2018 1:05 PM
DD is excited to take BFF to the Sci-Fi. One of my favorites too, so happy we're going here.

We still have a day at the end we could book a meal, but haven't settled on anything yet....we'll see. Since it will be the start of Food and Wine festival, we may just eat our way around the world. Honestly we are less enamored with Disney TS restaurants than we used to be.

Trip Green (#4): Even an update here. We were able to book our flights with pretty good prices! Got the usual long weekend "Fly out 6:30 AM Saturday morning and fly back 9 PM Wednesday night" to stretch our 5 days to the fullest. I hate to even think too much about this trip, because once it comes, we'll have 12-24 months before our next WDW - and that just too long. I know such first world problems. We are so excited to be going back to the Boardwalk for that trip.
 
Sci-Fi 9/1/2018 1:05 PM
DD is excited to take BFF to the Sci-Fi. One of my favorites too, so happy we're going here.

This evening I have a reservation for a party of 7 at Trattoria al Forno, and hoping you might want to meet us over at Jellyrolls after we have dinner.
 
I may have to stalk you all too...

here is what my mother has planned so far for us:

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This evening I have a reservation for a party of 7 at Trattoria al Forno, and hoping you might want to meet us over at Jellyrolls after we have dinner.

Boy - that would take a real arm twist to get us to go to Jellyrolls!!! That's definitely a "yes".

I may have to stalk you all too...

here is what my mother has planned so far for us:

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Oooh...that looks like fun. I am trying to convince myself I can afford V&A in October. Not sure I can...
 
I may have to stalk you all too...

here is what my mother has planned so far for us:

View attachment 307920

Bummer you have such a rigorous food schedule on Sept 2nd. We're doing a potluck in our Grand Villa that evening. At this point it's going to be quite a DIS party! But I don't know what time it's happening.
 
Oooh...that looks like fun. I am trying to convince myself I can afford V&A in October. Not sure I can...

Do it! I'm lucky on this trip that most of it will be paid for by my mother. I will have to pay for the Food & Wine special events + my half of V&A.

Bummer you have such a rigorous food schedule on Sept 2nd. We're doing a potluck in our Grand Villa that evening. At this point it's going to be quite a DIS party! But I don't know what time it's happening.

Our reservations are really up in the air because we will adjust based off the Food & Wine Festival Special Event schedule if the Food & Wine festival starts.

Maybe we'll crash your party then ;).
 
Bummer you have such a rigorous food schedule on Sept 2nd. We're doing a potluck in our Grand Villa that evening. At this point it's going to be quite a DIS party! But I don't know what time it's happening.

Ah...too bad we fly out on the 2nd...that sounds like fun!
 
Do it! I'm lucky on this trip that most of it will be paid for by my mother. I will have to pay for the Food & Wine special events + my half of V&A.

Well, that's the thing - we want to do a couple of F&W events - and those tend to run $200 a couple minimum...with those expenses, I just can't see us also paying for V&A...we could end up spending $2000 on food!
 
Our reservations are really up in the air because we will adjust based off the Food & Wine Festival Special Event schedule if the Food & Wine festival starts.

Maybe we'll crash your party then ;).

I'm torn about F&W. Labor Day weekend is going to be crazy.

Well, that's the thing - we want to do a couple of F&W events - and those tend to run $200 a couple minimum...with those expenses, I just can't see us also paying for V&A...we could end up spending $2000 on food!

Been there done that!
 
It's been a while since anything has been updated - and a few BIG updates yet to come, but I have a little bit of news here to share:

Red Trip (August): We are only 80 days out now, and know the time will go by quickly as every summer does. Fastpasses are coming in 20 days, and we still have to come up with the plan for this which includes DD and her BFF. Once the FP are in place I will post more details.


Green Trip (October): So we were debating how to start this trip, as we try to avoid Epcot on Saturday's of food and wine. We had settled on that we were going to go to DS in the evening, and I even had a reservation at Art Smith's Homecoming which we were then going to follow-up with an evening enjoying the entertainment at the Edison.

But just in the last 36 hours we've been throw for a loop. A little background first. There is not much I am a bigger fan of than Disney, but one that is pretty close is the 90s TV series "Mystery Science Theater 3000". I love bad movies, and I love referential jokes that most people won't get - and this show combined those two things perfectly. Well, the show was revived through Kickstarter back in 2015, and aired new episodes on Netflix last year for the first new episodes in 18 years. In addition, the crew did a live show tour that didn't come any closer to us than Cleveland - about 3.5 hours away - and we went to see the live show last year, dragging my DM, DW, and DD with me. (My wife enjoys the show, but not nearly as much as I do.)

Yesterday, they announced a tour with all new shows in October and November, again coming no closer than Cleveland, with the date falling the day after we return from this trip. UGH! But wait! Unbelievably, the tour is passing through Orlando on October 20th - the day we arrive! And, unlike in Cleveland, they are doing TWO different shows at the venue in Orlando - the Hard Rock Live hall at Universal! Tickets went up for pre-sale to backers this morning - and my wife agreed that we could go to BOTH shows in Orlando!!! SQUEEE! I was very tempted to get VIP tickets (including cast M&G) until I saw the price was $200 A PIECE, which stopped me in my track. As it is, tickets were $47.50, so after Ticketmaster got a hold of them, it was $125.80 a pair for each show, meaning I'm out of pocket a cool $251.60 for both shows. But I don't care in that I am totally psyched to see these shows! Last year was so much fun even though the seats we had weren't great and the sound was lousy in Cleveland. This time we are in row H (eight?) and row D (four?) as opposed to a 4th row of the balcony. And MSTies are a great bunch of people- very similar to the Disney nerds in that they are generally very positive and especially since they are a relatively small demographic we just love meeting each other. (I got a couple of comments at Universal about my kickstarter shirt last year...)


So, the plan that was forming for October Day 1 was we were going to land at 9 AM and from there go to the Boardwalk, drop our bags and head to MK for a while. Then come back once our room is ready for a bit of R&R and maybe a nap before going out at night. My concern with this plan is it may be too ambitious as far as we will likely have to leave for Universal by 3 PM, and our room may not even be ready by that point.

So now I'm thinking even though I usually want nothing to do with Epcot on Saturday of F&W, we will head into Epcot right when we get there just for some food and drink, and then come back out to the hotel by 1 PM or so and relax by the pool for a while if our room is not ready. The head over to Universal for the shows. The first is at 4 PM and the second is at 8 PM, so looks to me like we will have roughly two hours in between to enjoy a nice dinner. Tempted to hit Toothsome's again, but does anyone have any recommendations for Citywalk as far as the best food? After the second show we will guarantee be pretty beat, and will want to head back to the hotel. It looks like we'll miss checking out the Edison again unless we decide to do it later in the trip, but I don't think they have the nighttime entertainment there during the week.

The other point of thought is how to get there - at first I was thinking the same technique we used the last few trips, rent a car for a day and then drop the car and the car care center. But as I thought about it, we are talking $35 for the one-day car rental PLUS $20 to park at Universal, so if you work out the numbers, it's actually cheaper to just Lyft/Uber over to Universal and back, so that's what we'll do.
 
I have also found that Ubering to & from Universal and Sea World is cheaper than renting a car and paying for parking, even if you make the trip over there multiple days. I used to always rent a car but now I rarely do.
 
That's cool that it overlaps with your trip dates! That will be a great way to start the trip.

We haven't eaten around City Walk a lot, but Cowfish gets lots of good recommendations, and we enjoyed our food at NBC Sports Grill & Brew last year, though it wasn't anything super special.
 

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