W minus 179
Minnie joins Mickey in
MGM, sort of. Sounds like the same line but separate rooms. Olaf also has a meet and greet in an attempt
to maintain Queen Elsa’s hold on the park and prevent total First Order
encroachment. Fast Pass planning just
got harder…again.
Phone call with awesome
happy Disney guy Lamont kills plans for Art of Animation as
A: It’s full
B: Any discount that
shows up won’t apply to it.
Back to the POP we
go! You know how great the place is when
we can settle for awesome!
May 9, 2016
W minus 178
Phone call with mom to
happy Disney guy Lyle books the trip.
YAY! And there’s a mystery
discount on Kim’s account for some reason…YAY!
Checking on line to link
our accounts later that evening…confusing and not much yay.
The trip is booked just inside
the “180 day limit” for dining reservations…AAAAAAAAAAH! MUST GRID!
May 10, 2016
W minus 177
Still confused but some
linking progress. Looking at online meal
bookings finds nothing with 9 places anywhere we want to eat veeeery scary…too
late to call direct. Poop.
May 11, 2016
W minus 176
Long and painful phone
call leads to only 5 meals booked, including a too late one at Anabelle on fire
central. Nothing else available.
Realization that “it’s still Disney” helps but there are some sad and
stressed moments. Ironically, we’re also switching back to my initial gut
instinct for park days instead of the one I thought about later and was
switching to. Always go with the gut.
Until we look on
mydisneyexperience to grab a non character meal on a day we need food and
stumble into new availabilities!!!! Anabelle’s
reminder of the Crystal Palace insures characters on that day. Eight meals booked (including probably
dropping flaming hair location) and hopes that a couple more will surface.
May 12, 2016
W minus 175
Dropped far too late to
be a good idea Chef Mickey’s and put in a Brown Derby mid-day. Not the Sci-Fi, but we gotta eat, and we know
it’s really good. Plus it’s the site of
a “Perfect Dad Story” recounted later in the “Next Month” saga.
May 13, 2016
W minus 174
Called Disney IT to make
sure all account link ups are correct, which was a far more fun experience than
regular IT. Many compliments for Grandma who did everything right.
Rosa learns Castle
tables only seat eight and the Sci-Fi cars have four and six person varieties.
She starts looking for split reservations close to each other.
May 14, 2016
W minus 173
Rosa finds Castle
breakfast space on the last Sunday, between check out and church, that’s going
to be interesting, but we take it anyway.
May 15, 2016
W minus 172
I show Kim how to log in
and set up stuff on her mydisneyexperience before we go see Alice Cooper. The
concert has no real connection to Disney planning, but was still awesome!
May 19, 2016
W minus 168
Rosa’s on meal watch online
for the Castle and Sci Fi dining. Couple
minor Castle things show up either during extra magic hours, or two
reservations too far apart. Looks like
Sunday morning will be extreme chaos.
May 20, 2016
W minus 167
Band trip to Dorney
Park. First day its open means many
maintenance shut downs, but Anabelle tries her first upside down roller coaster
and thinks it’s awesome. (Big shock.) The slow initial corkscrew puts my butt over
my head far longer than it should be at my age.
May 31, 2016
W minus 156
No Up the Lake this year
is going to put a major kink in my planning feedback loop, since we tend to all
talk about Disney hanging around at the cabin or Lake. It’s also going to put a big kink in my
sanity so here’s hoping I can fend off “Raving Lunatic” land before we even
leave. Also not helping my
reconnaissance is the Disney App which is having “technical difficulties” with
the wait times, and NEVER shows them.
June 2, 2016
W minus 154
Well, crap! The Disney App updated and no longer allows
sorting by wait time. The more map based
features will make it easier to use in the park, but its recon use has gotten
way tougher.
I did notice that Toy
Story Mania no longer has the longest wait with the second track opening. FastPass Plus planning just got weirder.
June 9, 2016
W minus 147
The new format Disney
App also almost never shows wait times.
Fast Pass planning time just switched back to 7AM instead of midnight.
Looks like no sleep Labor Day morning for me.
June 14, 2016
W minus 142
With full knowledge of
the trip driving many of our decisions, Anabelle puts the playlist on Disney almost
every time we’re in the car, and has cued up a list of Disney films to
watch. Many of these are in Spanish as
Abuelita is visiting. They’re fun AND educational.
June 15, 2016
W minus 141
An alligator grabbed a
two year old at the Grand Floridian!
Most of me is reacting with incredible horror imagining the massive
switch from joy to the worst feeling humanly possible. The tiny part that’s
left has decided we’re going to keep staying at only value resorts any time we
go.
June 17, 2016
W minus 139
New show in Magic
Kingdom castle stage, new Soarin’ movie with an extra theater…same old Disney
app not showing wait times. So much for
recon.
June 21, 2016
W minus 135
Frozen ride in Norway
opens…and has a five hour wait. I don’t
think I’d wait five hours to be IN Frozen. The Disney page a day calendar has a picture
of Anna and Elsa. They’re good.
June 25, 2016
W minus 131
Finally, some proof that
we’ve chosen the right time to visit. If
we went the same week we did last time, there may have been longer hours and
fewer crowds, but “it’s a small world” would have been closed. The kids could not have handled that.
June 30, 2016
W minus 126
We got the Birnbaum’s Guide. Grandma got hers a while ago. Because:
that’s what you do. In this
modern age, they are no help in planning anymore, they just serve as a tangible
reminder that we’re going.
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