Waiting can be so stressful.
I’m in a similar boat. 155 day countdown. Everything is booked except airfare and FPP. I also should have booked airfare when I had the chance. SW had a $70 rate for a one way ticket and I choked. Now it’s $150+ for the same one way ticket that day.
Have you heard about the Hopper app? It’s telling me to wait until mid Sept for a late Oct trip. Anticipation is driving me crazy!
Yes i have the hopper app. I just downloaded Google flight app and I like that one better. Easy to filter only the airlines I want to see. I’m not an expert but waiting til Sept for an Oct flight sounds risky. My best rate was $89 and now it’s $110 Not a crazy difference. I’m starting to see a few of them come down slightly. My calculations say end of June will be optimal time to purchase.
My biggest issue is having enough points to purchase one way tix for each leg on 2 different airlines. As long as the tix are under $100 each way. Not a bad problem to have but it gets tricky. Our main priority is arrival and departure time, followed by airports, then pricing comes third. Even if I have to pay OOP for some of the tix I’m ok as long as it’s not crazy.
We want an early arrival, we prefer R.I. airport over Boston and we prefer to fly into Orlando vs. Tampa. Im willing to be flexible and Fly from either airport and land at either one but I can’t find anything under $150 with that criteria on either airlines (JB or SW)
Coming back we want a late departure and prefer to fly into R.I. I can get that on either airline for around $110 right now but don’t want to commit to one airline for just the departure in case the other airline has nothing to meet our criteria for the arrival flight. So I pay the $110 and get the departure time and city I want on JB and then I’m committed to using SW for the arrival flight and can’t get an early arrival or the airport we want unless I pay $200 a ticket.
Too many variables. I’m just gonna play the wait and see game for now. I’m hoping a half way decent deal will become available for an early arrival flight while the 2 deals for the late departure stay as low as they are now. At least I have 2 departure flights that meet all my criteria right now ( time, city, and price) I couldn’t say that a few weeks ago.
omg these pics of you guys on 7dmt are so funny! ! love it!
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Thanks, we had more but for some reason not all showed up on memory maker. EMM was awesome. We rode 7dmt so many times we lost track after 12 or 13. We asked the CM if there was a record for consecutive rides during EMM and he said the # was like 23 or something close. We knew we weren’t going to come close to that number but I want to say we got in the mid to high teens. I guess if you had low attendance, (which we did) and you headed straight for it and rode it exclusively I can see beating 23. We also rode PP and WtP once each. But it was walk on after walk on for 7dmt. After 3rd or 4th ride we were getting the whole train to ourselves and there were only the 3 of us. EMM has gotten much more popular since we went so seeing low crowds like we did again will be tough to come by.
I was just reading through your park day plans. If you are staying offsite you will not be able to use EMH in the mornings. You may want to adjust your plans to account for that. I sw you had them scheduled for Epcot and AK Mornings.
Thanks, I have 2 one day onsite reservations @ FW for the 9 of us which will cover our EP and AK emh.
Believe or not, I’ve just read all the posts in this thread from top to bottom! What a rush! lol. I got interested as:
- We are going in Oct too! from 30-Sep to 20-Oct, so we may cross each other (I’d love to).
- We are also a big group: party of 8, but only 2 generations, my and my wife (40) and 6 kids (son, nepews, nieces).
- I’ve also booked a Ford Transit as I’m the only who drives!
- We are also staying offsite at ChampionsGate!!! I’ve also procrastinated with the house reservation, but I think I got a good one nevertheless. But shhh… its a surprise, no one knows we are going to a house, they think (wife included) we are going to be packed in 2, 1-bedroom apt. with just 2 bathrooms for 8.
- I’m also using lots and lots of miles from my airline (LATAM).
The difference is that we are coming from Argentina so it’s a longer trip, and we will be mixing WDW with Universal in a 19-Day period (10 Days and WDW + MNSSHP)
I’ve missed ADR window as I couldn’t get the flight dates with such anticipation, so I’m praying the Res Finder to do magic for me. We don’t plan to have that much Disney food (due budget restrictions), but I’d like to take advantage of early morning park access thru Breakfast and Character meet & greet to save time later in the parks. But fortunately, I’ve got late lunch in GG (EC) the first day, TH in AK for Dinner the day of my son’s Birthday, a 8:20am H D&V (HS) that plan to use to have access to JEDI training too, and BOG (MK) for the last day, but just for 2 out of the 8 guests, I’ll see if there is opportunity to grow that party to up to 8. Finally, I’ve got OHANA for our non-Disney last day brunch (Breakfast at 11:25am) as one of the kids is fan of Lilo&Stich and everybody told me the Polinessian is awesome to visit.
So all your plans, updates and posts make me feel very identified and really help as I’m the planner of the whole trip and it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for most of the travelers, so I want to minimize risks as much as possible and have “alternative” plans as much as I can (e.g.: having a nice house to stay just in case someday we cannot go to the parks, they’ll enjoy the pool and fusball).
Side question: Are you (and @SillySamsMom) worried about hurricane season?
PS: Your story about your mother was very touching, she’ll be remembered more than you think.
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I am slightly worried about hurricane season. I will be purchasing travel insurance soon. Our 2017 Thanksgiving Puerto Rico vacation cancelled because of a Hurricane Maria. With several months notice, and Expedia and the airlines being accommodating, we didn’t lose any money.
Yes, definitely purchase travel insurance! My sister had to reschedule her Disney vacation last year due to Irma (I think…it was Irma last year, right?). Since she was offsite and didn’t have travel insurance she lost some money, though thankfully not too much, all things considered…
Those are some amazing coincidences. I’m sure we will cross paths at some point. How many large groups of family, driving a Ford Transit, staying in a home within Champions gate during mid October for their Disney vacation can their be??? Maybe the Oasis clubhouse wthin Champions Gate would be a good place😀. Even our ADRs are quite simi!ar. Yes!! Use the reservation finder. Very helpful. Also, are you looking for any Disney ADRs from 18th-20th? We seem to overlap during those days and I may have some extra ones planned that we may not use. Let me know.
Haven’t put much thought into travel insurance. Guess I should though. Just itching to book the flights already. I was paying so much attention to arrival flights that I missed another fantastic deal on booking departure flight. Jet blue had a return flight with every request we were looking for at 5,500 points pp. Missed the notification of the reduction but got the notification of the increase. Now I’m checking all legs multiple times a day.
And thanks for the kind words about Mom.
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I just posted this in another thread but wanted to reference here as well:
I’M purchasing MM for our 4 generation family trip but I’m concerned of the amount of time it will take out of the TP and the etiquette invloved. We obviously want shots of the entire group.
DD29 is going to want pics of her family (DD29, DH, and DgD3) then there will be the 4 generation woman picture ( great grandma, grandma, mom, and daughter). Sister in law is Godmother to all children and grandchild and she will definitely want her own set of pictures. Then theres my family, … the combinations seem endless. I’m not sure how to go about this. We will be touring together at all times. I can see a PP opportunity taking upwards of 10-15 minutes with this group.
Should I limit them to only the must haves? How would you factor them into a TP? What about the etiquette factor? Are there rules like getting back in line after the group picture?? All comments welcome
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I don’t remember that many hurricanes going through Orlando (obviously they do but not many). Most times people are sent to Orlando to avoid them. But the way these storms are popping up no where is safe. I’ve been in my house for 21 years and my neighbor over 40. We live on a Island and my neighbor said water has never touched our houses, that all changed during Super Storm Sandy 13 foot tidal surge covered the whole Island. If you saw pictures of the roller coaster in the Ocean that was 2 blocks from my house.
Love MM - getting it for my solo trip in Sept!
My opinion, just be aware of the lines for the photo’s. When you first walk in all the parks there are multiple photo pass photographers - sometimes I have walked past 2 or 3 with lines, to come across another one that no one is going to.
I got some great pictures on the bridge between fantasy land and the hub - no one else in the shot & wonderful view of the castle!
I like to get magic shots & I in two different parks came across photographers with no lines - and they spent tons of time with me.
Think about some of the less standard places when you want to do all the shots & then maybe think about doing the ‘must have’ pictures at a couple of different times instead of all at once if there are a lot of people waiting.
Going to be much longer lines on main street right after park opening than at 10 or 11 AM.
All that being said. Would I be annoyed to be waiting for a picture behind someone with that many combos - yup, BUT you should still do it 
(although hopefully take a few suggestions too lol) If I were going on a trip like this I would too!
I’m not sure if you can order an uber from your phone for a different location, do look into that. The pick up point always homes in on your phones location, you might be able to give it a different address though.
The issue with hurricanes is that Disney will shut down the parks due to winds, airlines will cancel flights, etc. Damage to property or life during a hurricane at Disney is slim due to its location. I find it worth every penny!
Whenever you see a photopass photo, have a different group get pix. Like at Tree of Life, there are several, have individual groups go to different photogs to speed up the process. And I agree with above poster that off the beaten path places and at off times (not park opening) are always good for getting lots of pix without waiting or feeling guilty for making others wait.
Sure, the oasis looks like a great place the chill out. I really appreciate you offer for ADRs between 18-20, that’s very kind from your part. But our last “Disney” day will be the 17th. On the 18th I have the Poli ADR but that will be our last meal at Disney, I’m thinking going to NASA Space Center in our way back to Miami where our flight departs the 19th at midnight.
Sad to report we have to cancel our trip for now. My wife has a medical condition that unfortunately took a turn we were not expecting. We thought we had put it behind us after a surgery a few years ago but it decided to resurface and needs to be addressed. If everything goes well she will be laid up for about 4-5 months.
Sometimes life deals you lemons and when it does, you just have to make lemonade.
She’s such a strong woman. I consider myself a strong individual but I could not have gone through what she has endured.
She is more upset about how everyone else will be disappointed about canceling the trip. She asked the Doctor if she could postpone the surgery til after the trip.
Anyway, we are looking at it with rose colored glasses. We are not canceling, we are merely postponing it temporarily.
Looking forward to updating this post in 5 or 6 months from now with our new itinerary.
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I am so sorry to here this. Sending well wishes to your wife for a full & speedy recovery!