We’re in the car on the way to the airport so I thought I would take the opportunity to start a trip report that I probably won’t finish 
This is our “Use 'em or Lose 'em” trip. We had points that were expiring at the end of the month, so here we are. We’ve got 6 nights in 2 AKL Kidani Savannah View Studios. And, because we were trying to minimize the airline points used, we tacked on 3 nights in 2 BWV Standard View Studios to the beginning of the trip (Disney math working hard there!). We will be renting a van as we are a group of 8 (Me, DH41, DMom68, DAunt70, DS9, DS6, DD4, and DD8mo) and will have a double stroller and 2 ECVs. Both DH and DA are recovering from injuries that may limit their mobility so I thought it best to go ahead and have the ECVs as backup.
To minimize our time from airport to park (we arrive at 4pm) I’m trying a couple of hacks. First, we signed up for Preferred at Avis so we can skip the counter. Turns out you still have to go to the counter for your first rental as a Preferred, so we did a cheap rental near home to take care of that requirement. I wouldn’t have known about it if I hadn’t called about something else, so I’m thankful I found out. I hear the rental car lines at MCO can get crazy. My second hack is using Bags, Inc (the company that used to handle the luggage and check in at the resorts) to pick up our bags from baggage claim and deliver them to our resort. I think it cost us around $60. Assuming it works the way they say, well worth it IMHO. I also downloaded the Florida Visitor Toll Pass app and reserved a pass to pick up at MCO.
Hopefully everything will run smoothly and we’ll be at HS by 6pm. The plan is to ride RotR (BG3 woohoo!) and SDD. SDD was the first roller coaster for both DS9 and DS6, so I thought that would make a fun tradition to carry on with DD4. We’re all very excited to be headed Home!
46 Likes
The car ride has been rough on DD4 
14 Likes
Love the picture of the kids together. 
Safe travels!
5 Likes
Safe travels! I cannot wait to hear about Bags Inc!
8 Likes
Me too! I truly hate the schlep from main area to side a baggage, back to main area cross to side b, then go down to floor one. I’ve done it twice now, and if Mears Connect doesn’t do baggage like old ME, I think Bags Inc is the way to go!
3 Likes
With every trip report I read, the budget for mine just increases! Bag Inc…added to the list!! Have a fabulous vacation, looking forward to following along~
2 Likes
I can’t wait to follow along! It’s such a shame you were “forced” to take such a lovely sounding vacation. Have a great time!
2 Likes
Love the baggage tip! Going to definitely look into it! Thanks!
Also, do you mind sharing why you chose 2 savannah studios vs a standard 2 bedroom at Kidani. We have the same reserved for December but I was having second thoughts that we might appreciate the space more than the view. (For basically the same pts ~ 2 pt diff for our dates) Would love to hear how you thought through it!
2 Likes
Can’t wait to see how the Bags Inc works.
1 Like
What gorgeous kids! Have all the fun!
1 Like
We made it to Orlando. Unfortunately, not without incident. As we were boarding our flight our group got separated as they let some Priority folks go through. I’m not sure why the gate agent didn’t wait for our entire group to go through first, but she didn’t. My husband was at the back of our group with the car seat strapped to his rolly bag (I always buy a seat and bring a car seat for my littles). As DH walked toward the plane a flight attendant told him he needed to unstrap the car seat and gate check it. He told her it needed to go on the plane, she insisted he couldn’t take it on. He didn’t want to argue and risk getting kicked off the flight, so he complied. When he got on the plane and told me what happened I went to closest flight attendant to plead my case. I told her I paid for the seat and I needed my car seat. She made a call and found out they had already grabbed it and taken it down. They are not allowed to send it back up. Nonetheless, the First Officer went down to try to receive it. No dice. The flight attendant was very apologetic. I was kind, but not happy. It is a pain in the behind to pay for a seat and lug a car seat, but it is the safest option for my baby. The flight attendant that told DH he couldn’t bring it on wouldn’t even look us in the eye. My poor DH was obviously flustered by the whole situation and felt bad for not pressing the issue and knowing that the magic phrase was “I paid for a seat.” That shouldn’t have been his responsibility though, the flight attendant should have asked. Thankfully DD8mo is the most content baby and didn’t do too much wiggling in my lap during the 2.5 hour nap. Just praying the rest of travel day goes smoothly!
16 Likes
More space would be nice, but we prioritized the view. With the points we had we would have had to shorten our stay to stay in a 2bdrm Savannah view.
2 Likes
I’m sorry that happened. Quite annoying. Hopefully the rest of trip goes well.
2 Likes
It sounds like they owe you a refund for a seat that they made impossible to use?
11 Likes
They said I can talk to the gate agent about it, but I’m not wasting our park time. I’ll write a letter/email later.
9 Likes
I went through the two studio/two bedroom question for my September trip. We will have 5 adults at BWV and although we could all fit in a studio- there is no way I was doing that. I could have booked a 1 bedroom BUT there are only 4 sleeping surfaces. I am happy I did the two studios. A 2 bedroom at BWV is more points than the two studios and I saved more by booking a standard studio for my son (I would have booked two). The real benefit was that I booked these at 11 months. Now, my son’s girlfriend is starting a new job and they can only stay one night. I was able to modify their reservation to save even more points.
5 Likes
That’s really bad, they definitely should have asked.
4 Likes
