I went to find my previous two posts about Walt Disney World Planning and I read them and I read the comments and I think I feel better! By the way, in my original post, I mentioned that I was not happy that we would have to visit WDW in October but our sons' school schedule had vacation in October, thus we had no choice. Based on that information, I made our reservations for October, 2009. Subsequently, the school district announced a change to our school calendar for the 2009-2010 school year. That's right! Our vacation next year will be in... NOVEMBER!
Tee-Dah!
I have already been in communication with the school attendance clerk and the principal. Everyone is very supportive and understanding about the situation. They know I was trying to make arrangements to coincide with our vacation. They are also frustrated by the flip-flopping by the school board. Our inconvenience is minor compared with families who will have to pay to go back to court to adjust custody agreements or who have child-care issues when their children are out of school. The school is more than happy to accommodate our plans with Independent Study Contracts which will not penalize our children for missing two full weeks of school. They told us that they wish us a grand adventure!
So here's why I started to get anxious again...
I was talking to someone who is very familiar with WDW, who asked where we're staying. I quickly answered "All Star Music Family Suite" and her response was. "Oh."
Oh.
Oh?? What does OH mean? So I said, "What? Where did you expect me to stay??" (I said it with two question marks, too. It was an emphatic question.)
She responded, "A moderate."
So then I went back to that place of "How horrible is this resort going to be?"
The room will have a queen bed (very important,)
a separate room for the children (not so important for short term but is very desirable for an 11-night stay,)
each boy will have his own bed (I remember sharing with my sister without a fuss but my kids don't do that,)
two bathrooms (it's not a requirement but golly this is going to be nice to have,)
and a refrigerator, coffee maker and microwave (regular value rooms don't have that!)
We will have a rental car so the on-site transportation issues that many value resorts have with the bus system are not relevant. Guests staying on-site get free parking throughout the resort. Ka-ching!
According to the Deluxe Edition 2009 Passporter which my husband has been studying diligently for the past two nights, the value resorts only offer soap. No little bottles of shampoo, lotion, etc. Well, I am not one of those people who can pack everything in a carry-on for an 11-day vacation. I cannot carry everything I need for a 4-day vacation in a carry-on. Yes, I take my own travel-sized shampoo and bath gels and lotions with me. So "only" having soap really is not going to be a deal-breaker for me. Plus, with a rental car, if we really need to, I can get to a store. I have read trip reports and I am good friends with Google. I know there is a Le Tarjay near WDW.
If there were a chance down the road to upgrade my package to a comparable room in a resort with a pool with a water slide, I could probably be convinced to spend a little more to upgrade. But I suspect that my idea of "a little more" and Disney's idea of "a little more" would not be the same.
In the meantime, if we cannot get a resort upgrade, we will have to rely on crashing the Animal Kingdom Lodge slides with my future-potential-daughters-in-law. (I say "potential" only because I don't expect all three of them to fall in love with all three of my boys. I only need one to fall in love with one of my three boys. Is that really too much to ask for? No. We don't think so, either.)
Issue 2- Dining Plan.
I am so grateful for Cathy commenting on my earlier post: "Don't bother with the dining plan (it'll drive you bonkers)"
Thank you, Cathy!!!! This was our thought, too. I feel so overwhelmed, worried that we would not eat that much food. I would be wanting to make sure we got our money's worth but concerned about how to best use our credits. We would have to purchase the plan for every day of our stay even though some days we would not be in Florida for the full day, or not even at WDW. In reading reports from others who have used the Dining Plans recently, the service staff has treated them poorly when they know that their tip is automatically set and guaranteed. There are just too many concerns to worry about the Dining Plan.
We have a three-month reprieve in worrying about making our ADR/PS/Reservations for meals, with the 180-day reservation window now only 90-days. This will be my new anxiety.
I know Boma. I think dinner but I am not sure. Maybe I want breakfast at Boma?
I know that for Daddy Doc's 40th birthday, we will take our children to one of those club thingies and we will go to Artist's Point, hopefully to co-celebrate someone else's birthday who did not want me to advertise his monumental birthday so I will just omit that name because I forgot I had made that deal with said unknown person.
A dear friend recently advised me that Biergarten has a walk-up counter in addition to the sit-down restaurant so I can eat there but not have to spend a lot of money. I think.
And I am starting to hyper-ventilate about the cost of additional packages. The Halloween Party tickets seem to be about $250 for a family of five. We are also considering a special "Grand Gathering Experience" with another family for dinner, a character interaction, a dessert reception, and VIP seating for Illuminations for our group and "only" about 150 other guests. These things are adding up!
And in the case of Illuminations, I suspect that my anxiety about finding the "perfect" seating will win out over my anxiety about money.
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3 comments:
Just a couple comments:
1. Based on what you've said, I suspect the Dining Plan probably isn't for you, but I figured I'd at least jump in to point out that it does work well for some people. We've used it on our past 3 trips and it worked very well for us. Whether or not it will work really largely depends on how much time you want to devote to table-service meals. We visit WDW often enough that we enjoy dedicating a couple hours every day to a nice leisurely meal. For first time or infrequent visitors, I could easily see it shifting more towards an obligation/burden than a money-saving convenience.
We did occasionally notice some issues with service when using the Dining Plan during the first 2 years, although it varied from place-to-place and server-to-server. Starting last year, they modified the plan so that the gratuity is no longer included or automatic. While I do have some qualms about that change in policy, we did find that the service was noticibly better on our last trip.
The one other thing I wanted to comment about was Biergarten. Yes, there is a walk-up/take-out counter there (as there is in many of the Epcot countries), but it is a >very< different experience than the full restaurant. The quick serve counter (called Sommerfest) has hot dogs, bratwursts, pretzels, and a couple desserts.
The main restaurant is an all-you-can-eat buffet with an enormous variety of German foods, including various salads, carved meats, various sausages and cold cuts, some great bread selections (I absolutely love their pretzel bread), and an impressive dessert buffet. There is also live entertainment featuring a German polka band.
Biergarten is one of my family's absolute favorite restaurants and while we often also grab a quick lunch at Sommerfest at some point during our trips too, it isn't remotely a substitute for the full restaurant.
Hmmmm. This vacation is even getting more expensive. I very strongly suspect we'll have to do the Biergarten Buffet. I love me the German food. And bratwursts and hot dogs just aren't going to cut it. I need some schnitzel and saurkraut and spaetzle. And red cabbage. Oh, sauerbraten is only at dinner. Crap. Ok, yeah, we're going to end up there, I'm sure.
I think you'll be fine at All-Star. I went with 3 other adults, we stayed in one room, one bathroom, and we were still happy and perky, even when it rained and we stayed in the hotel all day.
We also didn't go for the dining plan because we were not going to be around during many of the evenings, because we were attending drum corps competitions at night. We only made one reservation, which was breakfast at the Polynesian, but we didn't even do that until we actually arrived at the hotel.
It was my first time there, as well as two others in our party, so we didn't really have the time to sit down for dinner, especially with the drum corps thing, so I say plan for maybe one dinner and make reservations for that before you go. You just need to pick a day.
Have fun!
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