Mini TR for another Boston Road Trip - updated Nov 22

[Steppesister]

They say "can we talk about it when we get together??" And I'm like yes .....but.....I NEED TO PLAN!!

YES!!! This would stress me out so badly.

Also, I have to assume at this point that for the duration of our trip, ROTR will still be on boarding groups?

I think that'd be safe to assume.

I scored a 7:15pm reservation at Rose and Crown for dinner one night.

Be very careful with this one. I and another DISser (@suse66 ) had HORRIBLE experiences here quite recently. The tables, food, service, everything sucked. INSIST on an inside table but also be prepared to wait up to an hour or more past your ADR time for it.

 

[pkondz]

I am hoping that the way we have it set up, with everyone on MDE sharing in the plans, that if they don't like what I picked they can change it for themselves?

That sounds like a pretty good plan.
"I am doing this. You're welcome to do your own thing if you want."

 

[KathyM2]

They did get an anytime pass, and free re-entry, so if you do decide to try it, I'd probably advise for early in the trip so you have a chance to try again later?

This is better than waiting in line so long, but if I get there at 7am, I hope to get a boarding group that is before dinner time...we have ADR's to get to lol!! I don't want to derail my whole day for this...but it does look very cool.

Be very careful with this one. I and another DISser (@suse66 ) had HORRIBLE experiences here quite recently. The tables, food, service, everything sucked. INSIST on an inside table but also be prepared to wait up to an hour or more past your ADR time for it.

Ugh...I don't like the sound of that!! Last time I went we had a great experience there with an outside table and great view of the show. But then, it was not March. So. Crossing fingers. I wonder if I should keep trying to get a better ADR? Is there a better one for watching EEA?

That sounds like a pretty good plan.
"I am doing this. You're welcome to do your own thing if you want."

Hey it's the best plan I can come up with lol!! I also am one of those "mid day break" type people and told them that they are free to not join me in a break if they don't need one...but then I hope they don't then wimp out on staying for night time shows...

 

[KathyM2]

Help wanted!

I know some of you have planned huge group trips and such with family and friends and DISmeets....

I'm losing my mind here trying to link everyone up on MDE....does anyone actually understand how this works? Does each person have to request to "share" with each other person? And if I screw this up will I not be able to make FP's for everyone?

And then IF I manage to make FP's for everyone and someone says "I don't wanna do that" can that person just change their own, if that person has their own MDE account? I'm soo confused...how does anyone do this without losing their mind?

Our FP day isn't for a couple of weeks, but it's stressing me out because I want to make sure it all works in advance. Also, I won't have everyone in the same room before we are actually there. I went into my DD's phone and her MDE app to try to get her to be able to share with everyone...and it had everyone listed more than once and sometimes it had different people as "managing" the account?

Gaahhh! Has anyone done this and survived?

 

[Steppesister]

Ugh...I don't like the sound of that!! Last time I went we had a great experience there with an outside table and great view of the show. But then, it was not March. So. Crossing fingers. I wonder if I should keep trying to get a better ADR? Is there a better one for watching EEA?

I've heard better things about Hacienda and we really love the Spice Road Table.

Gaahhh! Has anyone done this and survived?

I've not planned for a big huge group so can't help you much.

 

[pkondz]

Gaahhh! Has anyone done this and survived?

Sorry. But I'm sure someone will step up and help you out.
I do know that you don't have to share with everyone if that makes it easier for you. But otherwise... I guess you can?
Sorry again. Not very helpful.

 

[KathyM2]

I've heard better things about Hacienda and we really love the Spice Road Table.

I will see if I can get an ADR for one of those instead.

I do know that you don't have to share with everyone if that makes it easier for you.

This IS helpful! I am still gonna do my best to connect everyone...but if it fails...so be it lol

 

[missjackiemcg]

Not a huge group, but when planning for my family (my immediate--DH, me and DS) and my parents, I had to send the link/invitation from MDE to each of them. They had to accept it, and then they showed up in my Family & Friends list. That way when planning my ADRs and FPs, I could select all of us from the list.

They were all still able to open their own apps and see our shared plans (that I had made for everyone). If they wanted to adjust any of their FPs, they were able to do that in their own apps, but they couldn't cancel or modify ADRs that I had booked.

Hope that is at least a little helpful!

 

[KathyM2]

They were all still able to open their own apps and see our shared plans (that I had made for everyone). If they wanted to adjust any of their FPs, they were able to do that in their own apps, but they couldn't cancel or modify ADRs that I had booked.

Hope that is at least a little helpful!

YES! Very helpful indeed! I think that everyone may need to "friend" everyone else though to be able to see all the plans for all the people? But as long as "I" can see ALL the people it seems ok lol! And that's good that they can't edit ADR's - I wouldn't want someone accidentally deleting a reservation!

 

[KathyM2]

OK so I've gone and done a spreadsheet - even though it may have been for nothing since the rest of my party may or may not follow it and may or may not see the benefits of getting up early on a Disney vacay...so it may go out the window! But it was fun planning anyway!! So for anyone who's interested, I will share some daily plans for our trip. Feel free to gloss over the non park stuff if you will, this is as much to organize it for myself lol.

Day 1 - March 6 - Travel Day

We'll have to get up at the fairly civilized for travel day hour, probably around 6am, still early but not too ridiculous. Probably leave for the airport by 6:45 or so. It's going to be a super busy travel day as it's the start of March break for a lot of kids here, but not ALL of them, so hopefully it won't be too crazy. We are travelling with our dog as well, so we can't do online check-in when with a dog, so we will have to allow time for that. In any case...hopefully by 7:30am we will be at the airport. Flight leaves at 9:55am. For the first day it will be just myself, my DD age 14 and my dog! The rest of the gang will be joining us piecemeal over the next few days.

By 12:49, we are supposed to land at MCO. We'll have to grab luggage and head to the rental cars. I've never actually rented a car at MCO before...hoping it isn't too crazy to find and get on our way. We'll drive probably 45 mins? I'm guessing...to get to our VRBO rental house. I'm a little concerned about finding it but hoping Waze saves me again and has decent reception in the area for the drive!

I hope to get to the house and check it out with my daughter and dog. Then I will probably have to go out again in search of the nearest grocery store to stock up on staples for breakfast. Apart from the one BOG breakfast I scored, I think we will be just eating at the house before heading to the parks, although I know I may have to indulge in a "second" breakfast of perhaps a Gaston's cinnamon roll or cheshire cat tail at some point!

By that point I think I will probably be wiped from travel day but I imagine we'll take a look around the community where we rented the house. There is supposed to be a nice pool and lazy river and club house type stuff, so let's hope the reality lives up to the pictures! I'm always a little nervous with VRBO, but so far we have had really good luck with them both in FL and CA and other places, so crossing my fingers that the streak will continue!

I think for that night, dinner will probably be either something from the grocery store, or maybe some Door Dash or some other food delivery service! Unless we are feeling more full of energy than I expect, maybe we'll head over to DS or the BW or something for some dinner.

After that we will probably spend some time getting settled in our vacay home and dreaming about parks (and crowds) that we will soon be meeting! Probably be pretty tired and call it a night as early as is allowed!

 

[missjackiemcg]

Have you flown with your dog before? I don't have one myself, but I'm just imagining my parents attempted to wrangle their luggage, carry ons and very excitable pitbull through an airport. I'd love to know what traveling with your pet actually looks like/how it work!!

 

[KathyM2]

Have you flown with your dog before? I don't have one myself, but I'm just imagining my parents attempted to wrangle their luggage, carry ons and very excitable pitbull through an airport. I'd love to know what traveling with your pet actually looks like/how it work!!

I have flown with my dog before. She is a smallish dog and she is able to go as a carry on in a bag under the seat. But she is also a therapy dog that visits at hospitals and retirement homes, so with some airlines - WestJet for one, allow her to travel without being in a carry bag and just sitting by my feet. She is very well behaved and calm.

But you do have a point, my daughter is 14 so luckily she can help wrangle luggage etc. It was a lot more difficult when my kids were young! Even when the dog doesn't have to go in the bag on the plane, they still require me to bring the dog bag and put her in it as we go through customs and show her paperwork, and when we go through security they make me carry her sometimes depending on which agent we get, so that can be a bit of an ordeal! If we are going away for less than two weeks I do not do it, but for two weeks or more, it's worth it because my dog loves her people and she also loves two weeks away from winter with dog boots!!

 

[KathyM2]

Not sure anyone's reading lol but I will soldier on with the plans to keep myself organized.

Day 2 - Sat March 7

We'll have a leisurely start to this day with hopefully a reasonable sleep in, and get organized. If we didn't get enough supplies at the grocery the day before, we'll do that. The next couple people, my family friends M and T, will roll in probably around lunch time. They will probably want to to a Target run, which I'm always up for!!

I managed to find a dog walker who works in the area, since we'll have our dog with us, and will be spending a lot of time out, so we wanted to make sure she wasn't left alone too much in a strange house. So on this day she is coming by for a meet and greet and to make sure she knows how to get to the house and take care of our baby - Snickers the Schnoodle BTW. Assuming all that goes well, she is a sweet and reasonably well behaved pup, so we'll schedule a few walks for her for the days when we will all be out theme parking for more than a half day at a time. We ARE mid day break people, so I don't think we are going to schedule a walk for her every single day, but I also don't want to worry if we are delayed getting back or have an unexpected rush of energy and decide the break isn't needed!

Then later that afternoon I will have to drive back to MCO to pick up my DS (age 17) who will be flying to join us that day. We'll head back to the house for a bit and get him settled. Hopefully we will have already figured out the sleeping arrangements here...so hoping there will be no drama with that!! My family is pretty high drama so...hoping this house we rented works out well. You can only tell so much from pictures and...you just never know until you get there!! In any case...hoping he will be satisfied with the bed we decided would be his for the vacay and move on!

After a short rest and hang at the house, we will head over to DS. Being Canadian residents we are purchasing the Canadian resident tickets (unless I do decide to go with an AP, then I will have that) but in any case we will have to show our Canadian ID at guest services to activate our tickets. I'm told you can do this at the guest services near DeLuxe Burger in DS! Hoping this is accurate!

Hoping this process won't take too long. We also may pick up some MB's just for fun if everyone is into that as opposed to just carrying our tickets around.

After that, we have a 7:30 ADR for House of Blues that night. I have been tinkering with this one and it still may change if I get something better - though the menu there looks pretty good. I've been having a hard time finding a table for 5 anywhere for that night. I will keep at it, but I will be ok with this if we end up keeping it.

Following dinner depending on energy levels we will maybe wander DS for a bit, or head back to the house for hopefully a reasonably early night. We have to rest up for first park day next day.

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[KathyM2]

I can confirm that if you are staying offsite you will only get to book one day of FP+ at a time, 30 days out from each day, so that will be a challenge.

Good to know. I guess this means getting online super early each day for many days in a row trying to book...ugh...hey at least it will make Feb go by quickly!!

 

[suse66]

It's going to be a super busy travel day as it's the start of March break for a lot of kids here, but not ALL of them, so hopefully it won't be too crazy.

I think private schools start that week but we are still in school until the 13th. My twin boys and I are heading to NYC!

After a short rest and hang at the house, we will head over to DS. Being Canadian residents we are purchasing the Canadian resident tickets (unless I do decide to go with an AP, then I will have that) but in any case we will have to show our Canadian ID at guest services to activate our tickets. I'm told you can do this at the guest services near DeLuxe Burger in DS! Hoping this is accurate!

Yes, that is correct. You will have no trouble activating your tickets there. Then you will be in a perfect spot to grab dinner at Deluxe burger which is so yummy!

 

[KathyM2]

Interrupting this riveting day by day plan to share....I bought ALL of our theme park tickets today. I'm going to go into shock when the credit card bill comes, but since that will be before the trip, perhaps I will be able to stop thinking about it and just enjoy the time in the parks - rather than imagining how many dollars each day is costing us ...and trying not to feel guilty not spending every waking moment DOING something!! It's a tall order when you spend more than my first car on a week's worth of theme park tickets for the family...sigh! But it's done.

AND I AM AN AP HOLDER folks!!!! Yes, I did!! Of COURSE I did the Disney math and did all kinds of reading about how to justify it. With an estimate of two trips in the year - it could go either way. But now that it's done...OF COURSE I have to plan another trip within the year with at least three park days to make it all worthwhile lol. Isn't Ratatouille opening within the year too? Maybe that will be a reason to go back for a quick trip!

I got 10 day park hoppers for my kids and a 7 day park hopper for my mom. The funny thing is...yes we are trying to do it ALL and do one Universal day on this trip. So we really broke the bank on that and got the 2 parks 1 day park hopper plus express passes. That one day is costing almost as much as my AP plus the rest of the family's Disney tickets with the Canadian Resident special. It's really nuts. But at least we will be able to see both Harry Potter areas, AND ride the Hogwarts Express. When I did the math on that it actually made sense just for that, so I'm cool with it, but I still want to hopefully put it out of my mind once we're there. The money is spent, and we will enjoy it as much as we can, but I will tell myself not to stress about whether we will get our money's worth or not...right? Right?

Now I "think" we are all properly linked up on MDE and everyone's tickets are showing...our FP+ day is coming up this Friday or Saturday (I'm never entirely sure...yes I can count to 30, but is it 30 days from today or 30 days until the day before? Ugh. I will start trying on Friday and see if it lets me, our first park day is March 8.

I've been doing a lot of reading since I haven't stayed offsite in a while, about booking FP's offsite. I'm getting the feeling that in a lot of cases, you can't get what you want when you first try, but with some tinkering (daily) you can eventually get what you want as people keep changing their plans. I hope this is true because of course everyone wants to do the headliners. I'm not as worried about my kids and I because will have more park days and have a few cracks at getting the FP's we want, but for my two friends who are only doing 4 park days, 1 park per day, it's gonna suck if we can't get at least one of the headliners each day. We have decided for them on 2 MK days, 1 HS day and 1 EP day. I know a lot of people would have differing opinions on this but I don't think that's a bad way for them to play it because there are so many rides at MK and one day won't be enough. And besides, my kids and I can go to AK later since we'll have more days there than they will...

OK back to regularly scheduled day plans next...

 

[suse66]

Interrupting this riveting day by day plan to share....I bought ALL of our theme park tickets today. I'm going to go into shock when the credit card bill comes, but since that will be before the trip, perhaps I will be able to stop thinking about it and just enjoy the time in the parks - rather than imagining how many dollars each day is costing us ...and trying not to feel guilty not spending every waking moment DOING something!! It's a tall order when you spend more than my first car on a week's worth of theme park tickets for the family...sigh! But it's done.

Awesome!! Yes, lots of $$$ but money well spent!

AND I AM AN AP HOLDER folks!!!! Yes, I did!! Of COURSE I did the Disney math and did all kinds of reading about how to justify it. With an estimate of two trips in the year - it could go either way. But now that it's done...OF COURSE I have to plan another trip within the year with at least three park days to make it all worthwhile lol. Isn't Ratatouille opening within the year too? Maybe that will be a reason to go back for a quick trip!

So exciting!! I loved having an AP. I couldn't justify renewing this year but hope to have an AP again soon.

 

[missjackiemcg]

So exciting that you got your AP!!!! I probably should have gotten one for myself seeing as I went to WDW in May, again in December and will be there in April AGAIN!!! BUT, when I did the May trip, I didn't know I"d be going back so frequently within one year!

I always have that same fear of missing my FP day!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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