Me, Muffin and our very first "Welcome Home" trip!! PTR - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Me, Muffin and our very first "Welcome Home" trip!! PTR
Okay so that wasn't that original! Anyway!!
Most of you guys have travelled with me through this incredibly topsy turvy ( more than usual) planning of our upcoming WDW vacation. You guys all know we always wind up there regardless.
This year, we not only changed resorts four times, we wound up buying into DVC!! Along this route, Katie and Andy wound up coming along for part of it, (but not the WDW part) we changed our other vacations around ( but for the better and it will hopefully be totally worth it) and my Dad got really, really sick.
Virtually, the whole trip has been turned on its ear so I thought it would be prudent to start anew! Here goes:
You all know the whos but pretty much everything else has changed.
First off:
When: November 7th-19th.
Where: November 7th-13th. OKW or maybe Copper Creek or the Poly. We will go with OKW for now and we are much more in tune with that after reading many of your thoughts on the matter. We are booked in for 6 nights at 68 points. Let me stress here that if either Copper Creek or the Poly come up, we will surely grab them!! From my understanding, we have to bank our remaining 82 points by July 31st but if one of these guys come up after that, we can borrow from next years points to make up the difference. You guys really need to educate me further if I did not understand this correctly.
November 13th-16th. The Rosen Centre.
November 16th- 19th. Portofino Bay Resort.
Since we bought into DVC past our 180 day dining mark, we had to revamp our ADRs, especially considering that we will most likely not be staying at a MK resort. We also had to switch around our Park days.
We also gave up a lot of other things that we had planned this year to make our DVC purchase. We gave up our trip to Rome. We gave up going to Las Vegas. We gave up going to Canada in the fall. This is not as bad as it sounds as we have actually had the privilege of going to all of these places on previous trips.
In addition, Muffin gave up his subscription to the NYT which he loves and I am trading in my BMW for a much less expensive car. I am not going to lie. The latter hurts.
Still we feel as though we made a good decision. We aren't, by any means, going to stop travelling to other places either. We will just have to figure out another way to see the world.
We were able to pay for our initial purchase of 150 points up front. Even Muffin says he has no doubt we will acquire addonitis. We love the AP discount and we plan on still purchasing TIW as we adore a nice glass of wine with our meals.
Moving on!
Why: We love WDW and are celebrating our 35th Anniversary!! To be fair, this is also the time of year that Muffin has a trade show in Orlando for the foreseeable future.. ( We already have a Halloween trip in mind for next year)
Great re-start! I just realized we are there in October of this year and November of 2019, so our trips are close but won't overlap. Luke says we won't add on again, and he is right for many reasons. But there was a time when we both had addonitis. That does make it quite sweet now.
Looking forward to see how all this unfolds. DVC resorts are a 'first world problem' for sure. Even when you don't get exactly what you want, it's still pretty nice! That said, I hope you get lucky for your waitlist.
I'm a little new to your world, so may I ask why your DH is called Muffin?
I'm impressed you've given up your car ... that must've been hard. But there will always be nice cars later and YOLO
__________________
Don't let your heart be filled with sorrow, for all you know, tomorrow, the dream that you wish will come true.
You have to bank points a little earlier than I recalled, Tara. I was thinking the deadline about three months before the start of your new use year, but it’s four.
So, for our February use year, we have to bank by the end of September.
Great re-start! I just realized we are there in October of this year and November of 2019, so our trips are close but won't overlap. Luke says we won't add on again, and he is right for many reasons. But there was a time when we both had addonitis. That does make it quite sweet now.
That's a bummer, Cam!! I hope that we can cross paths again at some point!! You two are adorable!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
Found it!
We started with 200 and I think we’re done adding on with 600, at 3 resorts, in 3 states. Addonitis is real!
Holy crow!! You are my idol!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I think re-starting and setting out your current plans (because heck, they could always change again ) is a good idea - I really couldn't keep up!
Nor could I, Cheryl!! I hope to stick to my guns this time and just plan everything out like a normal human.
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Looking forward to see how all this unfolds. DVC resorts are a 'first world problem' for sure. Even when you don't get exactly what you want, it's still pretty nice! That said, I hope you get lucky for your waitlist.
I'm a little new to your world, so may I ask why your DH is called Muffin?
I'm impressed you've given up your car ... that must've been hard. But there will always be nice cars later and YOLO
I agree for sure that DVC is a wonderful problem to have and thank you!! Muffin got his name from my best friend 35 years ago. It just simply stuck and he went through phases of anger, denial and acceptance of it! Now, if I don't call him Muffin, he thinks I am mad at him!! I will miss my car for sure but feel it was worth the trade!! I had to look up YOLO but I am on it now and that is very true!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Her Dotness
You have to bank points a little earlier than I recalled, Tara. I was thinking the deadline about three months before the start of your new use year, but it’s four.
So, for our February use year, we have to bank by the end of September.
Thanks, Dot!! This still confuses me a little because we have until July 31st to bank our points. Our plan is to use them next summer with Logan but if either of our waitlisted resorts comes through, they may need to be reallocated. The DVC guide I spoke with assured me that we could then borrow them if that were the case, but it seems a little like playing Candyland and landing on the spot where you slide back down to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by patclairesmom
Great new start to your pre-trip report! That's sad that you're giving up your car, but I think in the long run you will be fine!
I have been lucky enough to drive a BMW for seven years now and this is my second one. I will surely miss it but I feel like most cars are pretty nice these days and the price of them is getting outrageous anyway. I can literally cut my car payment in half by doing this and it seems like a great trade!
The answer is a lot! The first thing I did before cancelling our original ( sort of) resort reservations was to make sure that our ADRs did not disappear! I called my friends at Disney Dining and after being assured that they would not, I still hesitantly cancelled our first reservation and felt much better when I saw that all of our ADRs were there! So I went ahead and cancelled the remaining resort reservation, checked again and sure enough everything else was intact!
We already felt that we had traded on a lot of other things to buy into DVC and decided that we would keep our plans for a nice dinner every night for now. There were two ADR's in particular that if we let them go, we knew we would never see them again, so we kept those two and started from scratch with the rest!
The two must do's were California Grill as we haven't been there for dinner in a while and BOG before MVMCP. Especially the latter! I not only managed to snag an ADR for BOG after making my other ADRs, I was able to switch our dining time from 6:10 PM to 4:50 PM, making it a perfect choice before the Party!! So!
With those two intact we began to look at our other choices and realized that they were all made with the thought of staying at a MK resort (which we understand we may still wind up at ). Now that we were staying more toward DS, we decided to focus on that area for our meals instead.
We love the idea of taking the boat over to DS. On our last trip to WDW, we noticed the landing next to Jock Lindsay's for the first time ever and thought it looked really cool. So here is our current plan:
11/7- Our flight should arrive in Orlando around 1:15 PM. We will just take it easy and explore OKW and maybe swim if it's nice and then head over to DS for dinner at Wine Bar George. We both love wine and charcuterie and we feel like this restaurant is worth checking out! We plan to walk off dinner at DS and maybe do a little shopping.
11/8- Food and Wine Festival for lunch and Teppen Edo for dinner. I'll bet our choice of Park is pretty clear for today as well!!
11/9- California Grill for dinner.
11/10- We wound up cancelling Victoria and Alberts for tonight ( Dave and Dot ). We definitely hope to make it back there at some point but we feel very strongly that this will be the last PFTS event for the F&WF and we are making this our Anniversary present to each other. If it doesn't pan out, we will eat at Morimoto Asia as we both love that place!!
11/11- We left this night open for either another DS restaurant or some street food!!
11/12- BOG for dinner.
11/13- Olivia's for breakfast. We have yet to try this restaurant and have heard good things and we'll be right there.
On the 13th, we'll be moving over to the Rosen Centre and will have dinner either on City Walk or International Drive. But! We still have a few more ADRs booked for the rest of the week:
11/14- Biergarten for lunch (me and Andy)
11/16- The BOATHOUSE for dinner.
Andy and I will be at AK on the 15th but he does not care for either African or Indian food ( that boy really needs to expand his tastes) and no way am I going to WDW to eat at the Rainforest Café. I love that place but we have ample access to it around here. I would have loved another ADR today but we will most likely wind up eating burgers, ribs or pizza for lunch.
That pretty much takes care of our WDW dining choices.
We also switched a couple of Parks around but I will tell you about that a little later.
Found you!! The DVC purchase is awesome and certainly gives you a good reason to change plans. Sorry about losing out on your BMW, but the result will surely be worth it. Here's hoping that Copper Creek or the Poly open up for you, but I think you will love OKW as well. Fun, fun, fun planning this first visit "home."
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Anyway!!
Along this route, Katie and Andy wound up coming along for part of it,
(but not the WDW part) we changed our other vacations around ( but for the better and it will hopefully be totally worth it) and my Dad got really, really sick. 
To be fair, this is also the time of year that Muffin has a trade show in Orlando for the foreseeable future.. ( We already have a Halloween trip in mind for next year
)
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Pixie Dust
PassPorter Guide Author
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You are my idol!! 
Now, if I don't call him Muffin, he thinks I am mad at him!! I will miss my car for sure but feel it was worth the trade!! 
I had to look up YOLO but I am on it now and that is very true!! 
So I went ahead and cancelled the remaining resort reservation, checked again and sure enough everything else was intact! 
Dave and Dot ). We definitely hope to make it back there at some point but we feel very strongly that this will be the last PFTS event for the F&WF and we are making this our Anniversary present to each other. If it doesn't pan out, we will eat at Morimoto Asia as we both love that place!! 
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