Trip Report for "Our Summer Surprise Trip", August 15-22, 2011 - COMPLETED!! 12/4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Trip Report for "Our Summer Surprise Trip", August 15-22, 2011 - COMPLETED!! 12/4
Hello everyone! We’re back for our second trip to the World. This time we’ll be plus one for a total of 5.
Our family in front of the White House Rose Garden
Intros: myself – trip planner, box checker, Disney World podcast addict. In addition to the PassPorter Moms, I also listen to Lou Mongello on WDW Radio, the DIS podcast, WDW Today, and BetaMouse. I’ve had to start checking out non-Disney audio books from the library because I think I’m getting a little nuts with them
DH – husband of 11 years, friend for 21 years. Think Cobra Bubbles from Lilo and Stitch.
DS6 Titus and DS9 Max – my homeschooled boys who are in karate and finally taking swim lessons. They got their first taste of Paramount’s Kings Dominion recently and they loved it. I have 2 new coaster fans on my hands.
Newcomer – Cousin Caleb age 10. I guess we’ll call him DC? This will be his first trip to Disney World.
Staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Village 7 nights, 8 days, August 15-22
Planning for this trip has been weird because I’ve had to do everything on the down low (secret) . We knew we wanted to go back to WDW this year, especially with all the good deals going around. It was DH’s idea to invite Caleb who lives in North Carolina. He’s a nice kid who might not get a chance to go to Disney for a long time. DH checked with his parents and we made an agreement that we’d pay for his flight, if they agreed to pay for his tickets and food. I’m not sure how Disney charges for each person in the room, but they wouldn’t have to worry about that. They also agreed not to tell him about the trip.
I had wanted to surprise the boys last trip, but Max happened to see what I was doing on the computer last time and blew the surprise. This time, I'm “planning in plain sight”. I keep telling them that I’m busy trying to find the best prices for “sometime this year.” I’m also finally scrapbooking the last trip so there’s Disney stuff out, planning books around, and they can hear the podcasts sometimes, but it’s all for “later on this year, maybe Christmas.” Hee hee! This way, if they see me on PassPorter or another Disney site, they just think I’m planning. Which I am!
We had a 30% deluxe resort pin to get a 1 bedroom. With 3 boys, we’d need the extra room. We had stayed at Jambo House last trip in 2009 and we were totally blown away. DH didn’t even want to entertain the thought of staying anywhere else. I seriously expected him to have me request the same room as last time! I, on the other hand, wanted to stay at either the Beach Club or Yacht Club because of Stormalong Bay, and proximity to Epcot. I knew it was going to be Africa hot at the end of August, but we weren’t going to splurge on the water parks this time. Having access to a 3 acre mini water park would be awesome to cool off in. I guess that 30% pin had gotten around quickly, or I wasn’t fast enough using it, but the only thing left for us that we could afford was Kidani – a standard view. DH, now an official Jambo fanboy, wasn’t exactly excited. Two separate bathrooms, one having a whirlpool bath, and a full kitchen sweetened the deal.
At some point, we had a discussion about DVC. With what we spent last time, plus this time and next year (family reunion), DVC may make sense for us. I even checked the DVC rental sites, but DH wants to sit and talk with someone first. The DVC center at Saratoga Springs is on the itinerary...
Great start, love that this is going to be a surprise and that their cousin will be coming along for the ride. I love the AKL (we ended up buying in this past year with AKL our home, I also just kept looking at the numbers and when you start looking at trips for the future it just makes sense....keeping my fingers crossed for you when you go on your tour )
Great start! The one bedroom villas at Kidani Village are so spacious. The master bathroom is huge as is the master bedroom and the main living area will give three boys lots of room. I love the washer and dryer, too. I'll be posting pictures of our one bedroom there soon. Can't wait to hear more of your plans!
Great start, love that this is going to be a surprise and that their cousin will be coming along for the ride. I love the AKL (we ended up buying in this past year with AKL our home, I also just kept looking at the numbers and when you start looking at trips for the future it just makes sense....keeping my fingers crossed for you when you go on your tour )
Can't wait to hear more of your plans.
I can't WAIT to surprise them that morning!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great start! The one bedroom villas at Kidani Village are so spacious. The master bathroom is huge as is the master bedroom and the main living area will give three boys lots of room. I love the washer and dryer, too. I'll be posting pictures of our one bedroom there soon. Can't wait to hear more of your plans!
Yes! I forgot about the washer and dryer... I can't wait to see your pics. I've seen some online, but the more, the merrier!
At this point (just over a month to go!) we still haven’t decided if we are doing the Disney Dining Plan again. The problem is that the 1 bedroom comes with a full sized kitchen. Why pay for this and then get the DDP on top of it? We were set on getting the 1BR – we want to be comfortable for the week. Having a kitchen is going to be a given. I went ahead and made ADRs way back at the 180 day mark, just in case, but for months have been going back and forth about what to do about dining.
1st plan – save $1100 by not using the ddp. Instead, spend $150 on groceries and make simple meals during the week, like tacos and spaghetti. We would budget 4 table service restaurants that we really wanted to eat at. But who wants to cook on vacation??
2nd plan – consider the Quick Service ddp. I don’t have to cook, we get to enjoy eating at the parks, have enough snack credits for breakfast and even get a refillable mug. Problem: Kidani doesn’t have a drink station. We’d have to walk or catch the bus over to Jambo House to refill, then bring them all the way back to our room if we want to use our mugs. AND no table service meals on the plan! Kidani also doesn’t have a quick service restaurant – again, we’d have to go over to Jambo for the Mara.
3rd plan – Go for it and get the Dining Plan. We are big eaters, we like to sit down and eat, and we’re planning on doing the Fantasmic! Dinner Package with Hollywood Brown Derby anyway. Problem: The only thing DH didn’t like about the ddp is that you have to be at a certain place at a certain time. This kind of puts a damper on spontaneity. It’d be so much easier if we could just walk up and be seated wherever, but oh well.
The problem with cooking on vacation is (wait for it) that it’s cooking on vacation! Now normally I’m whiz-bang at whipping up a quick, good meal, but as DH points out, we’re going to be hot and tired from touring the parks. Also, what happens when we get hungry when away from the room? We’d have to catch a bus all the way back to Kidani (after waiting for one), get to our room, then I’d have to prepare a meal. Sounds dreary. We could carry a cooler or back pack with snacks, but DH doesn’t like that idea. If we give in and get something from a quick service place, we’d be spending money anyway.
If in some dream world we owned DVC (shine on you crazy diamond ), then it would be understood that it’s our home away from home, and cooking would be easier to swallow, heh heh. But right now we’re “going to Disney”, and I’d like the convenience of a dining plan. Plus - part of the fun of Disney is the food!
So at this point, I’m about ready to call Disney and add on the basic ddp. We added up the cost of all the places we’d eat anyway and for us, it just makes sense to use the plan. The last time, I remember that it seemed like it wasn’t enough food for us. I seriously don’t see how people end up with extra snack credits at the end of their vacation. We used the plan correctly, except for knowingly using 2 credits for the Brown Derby. We used the snack credits for breakfast and had some items from the Garden Grocer to tide us over if we got the munchies. When our last day came, we had to pay out of pocket for lunch and snacks for the plane. I guess we do eat a lot. Ds9 was 7 at the time, but the kid’s meals were boring to him and not enough. This time, he’ll have to switch every other time with his cousin who is 10 and gets to have an “adult” meal, or get him an appetizer to go with his kid’s meal. We’ll also get more snacks from the GG. Just gotta make that call. Yup.
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I hear ya on the struggle to DDP or not to DDP. We always struggle with it but end up doing it because it just means there's one less thing we have to worry about. My DH loves the freedom that knowing all the meals are paid for brings. We like being able to sit down at a nice restaurant (BD is on of our favs!) and not worry about how much the bill will be, you know? And I totally agree: the food at WDW is more the half the fun of the trip!
I'm really enjoying your PTR! Thanks for sharing with us!
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. We knew we wanted to go back to WDW this year, especially with all the good deals going around. It was DH’s idea to invite Caleb who lives in North Carolina. He’s a nice kid who might not get a chance to go to Disney for a long time. DH checked with his parents and we made an agreement that we’d pay for his flight, if they agreed to pay for his tickets and food. I’m not sure how Disney charges for each person in the room, but they wouldn’t have to worry about that. They also agreed not to tell him about the trip.
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but as DH points out, we’re going to be hot and tired from touring the parks. Also, what happens when we get hungry when away from the room? We’d have to catch a bus all the way back to Kidani (after waiting for one), get to our room, then I’d have to prepare a meal. Sounds dreary. 
We could carry a cooler or back pack with snacks, but DH doesn’t like that idea. If we give in and get something from a quick service place, we’d be spending money anyway.
But right now we’re “going to Disney”, and I’d like the convenience of a dining plan. Plus - part of the fun of Disney is the food! 
Ds9 was 7 at the time, but the kid’s meals were boring to him and not enough. This time, he’ll have to switch every other time with his cousin who is 10 and gets to have an “adult” meal, or get him an appetizer to go with his kid’s meal. We’ll also get more snacks from the GG. Just gotta make that call. Yup. 
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~Megan~
Carla
deciding on whether or not to get the DDP.
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