Good Morning,
I had a super amazing Disney trip planned for over July 4th. We had reservations at Caribbean Beach Resort, 6 park hopper tickets, and used a leading reservation for all of the best dining reservations, plus building droid/lightsabers before an Ogas reservation at park closing. Long story short, my husband had two cerebral spinal fluid leaks and had surgery on Wednesday. We were optimistic that although we would be moving much slower, we could still have a pretty cool trip. Unfortunately, he can barely tolerate sitting in a chair for an hour without a crazy amount of pain/pressure behind the eyes… so I don’t see him being Disney ready in 46 days. Not to mention he won’t be allowed to swim for at least 3 months, which was a big part of our “relaxing” trip. So we are rescheduling…
The only time that works with work/school is the week between Christmas and New Years. I’m lying to myself that since we were going to be there over 4th of July, it won’t be THAT much busier, and the weather will be cooler so we can tolerate more.
A lot of the resorts are already booked for that week. CBR is not available for that whole stay. My DS2 (will be 3 at the time of trip) is OBSESSED with Toy Story. And I mean OBSESSED. So my plan for now is to stay at All Star Movies from 12/26-12/30, and then move to the Boardwalk for 12/30-01/02. I will keep checking to see if anything opens up at Yacht or Beach Club, but for us the location is more important than having the most updated room. We would plan on doing Epcot on NYE, so we can bail whenever we need to and walk back to the resort and not be dependent on any mode of transport.
I know in the past, parks have reached capacity on NYE and the advice was to NOT leave the park for fear of not being able to get back in. With the APR in place, do you think we would be able to take a midday break and give the kids a break/nap prior to returning for the evening festivities, or should be plan on being in the park all day?
Also - because of the split stay, buying two packages with tickets is going to be more expensive than buying room only, and getting tickets separately. Right now I’m looking at undercover tourist for tickets. I went to compare to buying directly from Disney, but it won’t let me buy tickets that run into Jan 2022. Is that normal? Will there be an issue with buying from undercover tourist? Would it be better to buy tickets with the rooms as two packages, and pay more in order to get APR? Right now, there is currently full availability for that week. If we booked a “fake” package for the week with tickets and then cancel that, would any APR we have stay? Is that using too many loop holes?
I had booked the 4th of July trip through a travel agent. Is she able to book my current plan of two room only reservations, and buying tickets through 3rd party, or can she only do packages? I’ve asking her a bunch of questions, and am waiting on responses. I get that right now I’m in super planning mode as I’m trying to numb the pain of losing the perfect July trip, as well as trying to distract myself from the current DH being hospitalized situation and my travel agent has a normal life and therefore isn’t as invested in this as I am at the moment. I don’t want to screw her out of any commission, but I also don’t want to pay more than absolutely necessary, since we DS2 will be 3, therefore we have to already add his tickets on to cost, and then it being a more expensive week, etc. Trying to balance what is best for us as a family, and helping out the travel agents as well. I know there are several travel agents on here, so please help me navigate this!
Lastly, if anyone has any MUST DOs for that week - let me know! We probably won’t come during Christmas again, so want to experience as much as is open post-Covid.
Thanks for those who have read this very long post. I have been lurker on this forum for 3 or so years now, with minimal posting, but have taken a ton of advice from you all. And clearly, my head is swimming so hopefully most of this makes sense.