Oh, my. I need to stop talking to DH about areas I have reservations about.
Gregg had hoped that we could start our trip by leaving at midnight and be in Orlando by 8 am. It has it’s good points. We are now concerned that he is not going to be able to do that easily. He tried changing his sleep schedule recently and it was a disaster. We have an ADR at Artist Point at 4:45 PM. DH will need to rest and nap when we get in. We don’t even know if we’ll have a room yet. I can’t change the time of the ADR because there are no offerings ANY time we are there. I have the reservation finder working to find one. So, we decided to make a reservation for Raglan Road rather late. That will be better, I think, so that DH can rest when we get there in the afternoon and DD and I can explore AoA and Pop.
Then I mentioned it might be easier to eat at Jiko on our last day instead of Christmas Day, because then we can leave the park later, drive to AKL, eat, and then pick up our stuff from bell services at AKL and head to our hotel room in Orlando.
Okay, so maybe I’m the one related to Profmatt…
So, we still have the AP ADR, but I’m hoping to move it to Christmas Day.
Gah!!! I don’t know. I should just leave well enough alone.
I drive like this when I travel to FL. The last time my 18 hour drive turned into 26. If I driving to WDW I would drive from NJ to Daytona straight through. Then stop at our La Quinta, that we like to rest. It has a indoor pool and fitness room so DD and DW can enjoy that while I sleep. Then the next day drive to WDW. We do this when visiting my sister in south FL or my parents in the Keys. I try to have the car all packed up and then take a nap for 2-3 hours and I’m good to go. If I get tired I pull into a rest stop for a 20 min nap. That is easier said then done I have sleep apnea and use a breathing machine while I sleep. So I bought a dc to ac converter so I can us my machine in the car. It may look funny but it works and I’m good to go again. Worst case 5 hour energy and a couple of red bulls or monsters work lol.
Well, Gregg has some major issues health-wise which make doing things like that difficult. He’s just now starting to feel better after trying to stay up change his sleep schedule; and he was just at the beginning of the process. I would drive, but he can’t sleep while riding in a car; it makes him motion sick. He has a very sensitive system. I feel better about our choice of a much later dinner. That will give him the chance of resting once the room is ready.
There’s a concept in art called “overworking”. You’re painting a masterpiece. You achieve the likeness. But you keep tinkering with it to “improve” it and you lose it.
I’ve thought to myself that a similar concept applies to Disney planning. At some point you have to walk away from the plan.
I just tinkered with mine. Then I untinkered it. The original plan was better.
Well, there are a couple of other ADRs I would like to move around, but decided that it would be more problematic to change them than to leave as is… See? There’s hope for me, yet.
The main thing is that you get there safe and have a wonderful time. If you do get to go to AP or whatever they are calling it now I hope you will let us know all about it.
If I sleep while DW is driving I run the risk of heart failure. As soon as my eyes close and I start to drift she is screaming OMG look a pretty bird or something and I think we are going to crash. Last trip I actually let DD drive for awhile she had just received her license, that being said she did a great job and this was the first time I had driven with her. The other reason I usually do all the driving is I don’t fit in the passenger seat all that well the car is low to the ground and the seat does not move like the driver side does. But now we have a SUV so I fit in all the seats. So next time I guess I’ll drive or I’ll pack zanex and rosary beads.
No she also slams on the breaks and swerves a lot when I try to sleep. Don’t get me wrong I love my DW with all my heart but she is a bad driver. What is funny is she is the one who taught DD to drive.
I have a 7-7.5 hour drive to WDW. There is NO WAY that I could start a drive at midnight and go through 8:00 AM without being a hazard to myself and anyone else on the road. I’ll go to bed early, get up at 4:00, leave the house by 5:00 AM, and pull into WDW around 2:30 (I have a time zone change). Except for those rare times when I’ve had an AP, I never plan on going to a park on arrival day; I use that day to explore my (or some other) resort, go to DS, etc. Or sometimes just go to the lounge, have a drink, and take a nap. I do usually plan a latish resort or DS TS meal to relax, get in the mood, and then head to bed to be ready to hit my first park first thing in the AM.
We aren’t going to a park on our arrival day, thank goodness. Originally, DH wanted to change his sleep schedule for a month so that by the time it was time to go he would be sleeping during the day and able to drive through the night. That’s why I made our Artist Point reservation at 5ish. However, that isn’t going to happen, which I should have foreseen. Odds are that we won’t have a room available that early anyway.
Unfortunately, there are no reservations for Artist Point any other time, so we may have to just chunk it, or hope we are there in time, if the reservation finder doesn’t find something for us. This may be a good thing, though.
I think we are going to try to leave as early as possible. I’ll pack the car the night before except for things we will need in the morning. Hopefully the room will be ready so that he can rest a bit before heading out to Disney Springs.
No, that can’t happen for many reasons. First of all, I work on the 20th, and may have to work over to get all my projects finished. Secondly, DH is in school for his MFA, and he’ll need that day to finish all of his classes. Finally, I talked DH into adding on two days at Pop Century through MVT to our already expensive AKL free dining package because it extended our vacation enough to not go to the park on the first and last day of our trip, which turned out cheaper than trying to find a hotel for coming down and back up. He’s already balking at how much this trip is costing us. LOL! Otherwise, it’s a very good idea.
We just talked it over, and we are going to cancel Artist Point altogether and not try to fill that. I have a breakfast at the Wave on 12/26 (in order to park at the Contemporary for the morning for DH and DD to rope drop MK) that I was going to pay out of pocket for that I can apply 1 credit to, and maybe we can buy something from Cookes of Dublin on our last day for our trip back home.
We feel good about this decision because it’s not like we are planning a trip of a lifetime. We’ll be back and can try it out after the new menu has all its kinks worked out.
Thanks for all of your suggestions! I do appreciate it more than you can imagine!