Planning A Trip to Disney World-What the Heck is a Touring Plan?

Long gone are the days of picking out a week on the calendar a month or two in advance, loading up the family van and heading to Disney World for a fabulous vacation.  Now dining reservations are made out 180 days in advance, FastPass+ (FP+) reservations (this allows you to essentially skip the line) are made 60 days out for resort guests or 30 for nonresort, and any special extras like Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique also need 180 day advance notice.  It is difficult enough if you plan six months out-but if you are like us and only four months out-well it can get quite complicated!
I love planning and logistics so honestly, cultivating the details of our trip was really fun-almost as fun as the trip itself!  Researching, deciding on where we would eat, and the rush of getting a hard to come by Advanced Dining Reservation (ADR) was worth the extra headaches.
So where to start?  For me, since I was already within the 180 days, I started with my ADRs.  I googled meal reviews, stalked various forums and instagram for food pictures and narrowed it down to 7 different table service (TS) restaurants that I wanted to eat at.  I will go much more into the dining plan, but just know that I had 7 TS meal credits that were included which in most cases, would be an equal amount of ADRs.
The next thing I had to decide to do was figure out which parks would be best to visit on which days.  There are a multitude of websites that will give you crowd calendars, suggested parks, etc-the one I have found to have the best interface, the friendliest people and great results was Touring Plans (TP).
TP is a community that utilizes software that basically tells you when and where to go once inside the parks.  They have, as they put it, eerily accurate crowd calendars that suggest which parks will be the busiest vs slowest during your stay.  I utilized this information to rank which park I wanted to go to each day and then cross compared which restaurants/resorts my preferred dining locations were.
My method to my madness was to get an ADR for the restaurants I really wanted, even if it wasn't a preferred time.  Since I wasn't planning 180 days out-it took a lot of stalking Disney's reservation site and luck to get slots at each place.  Eventually I managed to get an ADR at every place I wanted, even it wasn't the perfect timing (for example, a 9:25 pm dinner the night before we are leaving).
The next step, which was probably the most stressful/satisfying was obtaining our FP+.  There were only a few things through all of the Disney Parks that are absolute must dos and luckily, we could arrange for a FP+ for those and know we won't have to wait three hours in line for something (ahem, Frozen sisters).
I did plan 60 days out and since I was a resort guest I was furiously searching for my FP+ at midnight hoping to grab all my desired passes.  About an hour later I had everything set up and knew that even if we only completed our FP+, Evelyn was going to be able to do the best of the best.
So at this point, I have my ADRs and my FP+ but you still can't just show up-what if your FP+ is at 10:00 am but all the rides have a 90 minute wait and its already 9 am.  Do you just have to sit around and do nothing?  Sound confusing?  Well it can be!  I started to get overwhelmed with everything so I started a spreadsheet to help me understand where I was going to be at what time.  Of course the one below has been tweaked tremendously, but it gives you an idea of how scheduled you are at Disney.

From here is where the sheer brilliance of what TP does for you-it creates an actual touring plan.  You put in your FP+ and ADR times, any breaks you may want to take, what hours you imagine you will be at the park and all the other rides and shows you want to see while at the park and it spits out a (hopefully) pretty little document that tells you not only when to go where, but approximately how long each line will be.

The best part of all of this-not once are any of my lines listed to be longer than 20 minutes!  Granted, it does have us walking in not the most sequential order of the parks so we will be getting in extra steps but it is worth it knowing we can maximize our touring time and not spend hours throughout the day waiting in a line.

Boyfriend and I have used TP before-on our trip in June 2009.  It was so successful that we managed to tour all of Hollywood Studios and be done by 1 pm that day.  It was actually one of our favorite days that trip because we went back "home" to swim and nap.  After that we went back to the park to hit up some our favorites from earlier in the day.  That year we didn't have Park Hopper passes, but had we upgraded-we would have just visited another park.  That experience was a prime motivator in us upgrading our tickets this trip.

Not only is TP a great tool to make your plans but the community is fantastic.  You can interact with individuals on their website, chat feature on your phone application or through a Facebook group.  I have come to them with serious questions (Will I get sued by Disney for using their font on my t-shirts?) to fun ones (What extra special things did you bring to make your kid's trip more magical).  I feel like I am learning something new every day and by being a part of their community I truly have made our trip extra special.

One last note about Touring Plans-this is a subscription based service.  I think I paid around $12 for a years worth of access and it was money well spent!  Even though I know realistically there is no way we are sticking to our TP exactly (nor do I want to be so rigid, we are on vacation afterall) my TP gives me a great base of where I could be at what time and what kind of lines I can expect. 
We are officially T minus 24 hours before our trip starts and I couldn't be more excited! I keep getting a lump in my throat thinking about all my magical moments to be, especially over revealing to Evelyn that we are finally going!  The blog will be quiet over the next week or so but please feel free to follow me over at Instagram-I promise I will be an over poster!

I'm Not a Fruit

The other day a friend and I doing what women do-chat about their bodies.  We were talking about how women's bodies are compared to fruits and I honestly couldn't think of a fruit to compare my body to.  

All of a sudden an image of a popsicle came to mind.  From the hips down I'm pretty stick straight, like a popsicle stick.  I have a flat butt and solid legs-nothing to really speak of.  But from hips up--out of nowhere I have this one continuous shape all the way up to my head.  

While it is hardly my favorite shape to be I suppose I don't mind.  I've always been this way-I remember someone referred to me as a beach ball on toothpicks when I was around ten.  

Well, maybe I care a bit.  I can't control my boob size but I could reduce the amount of overflow that occurs at my waistline.  First I just have to stop eating all those delicious popsicles.  I guess you really are what you eat.

Planning A Trip to Walt Disney World-Should I Use A Travel Agent?

  Once we had the dates of our trip-it was time to officially start planning out the details of our journey to the House of Mouse.   As I mentioned, this wasn't our first trip to WDW but our first with kids-not just one, but two.  I knew putting in the legwork planning up front would be well worth it once we got there.  There are many things that have changed since our last trip, and we are taking advantage of some things we haven't before (Disney Dining Plan is one big example) so I really wasn't sure where to start.   After reading a ton of blogs online, I found a highly recommended travel agency (TA).  With it being of no cost to us and what seemed like some additional perks-I thought why not?  I will go into the details as to why a bit later but at this point (pre-trip) I will say that for someone who is a natural planner and doesn't mind doing the work upfront, I personally don't think I will utilize a TA in the future.   Some perks of utilizing a TA-first the obvious:they will actual create your reservations, make payments and advise you on particular aspects of your trip.  My TA did assist me on what week to decide on since my original dates weren't kosher with my work schedule. Additionally I found my TA to be a wealth of knowledge and someone I could ask targeted questions and know that I will get a prompt response.   Another TA perk is the additional discounts that Disney provides for planning with a Disney approved vendor.  The offers/discounts that I received at the time of my January 2015 booking were:  

Disney Quest - Guests will receive two vouchers, each valid for a 1-Day admission ticket to DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park located in Downtown Disney® West Side (vouchers must be exchanged for tickets at DisneyQuest Indoor Interactive Theme Park ticket window; valid for two tickets per package; restrictions apply).

Planet Hollywood - Receive a $10 voucher valid for food and non-alcoholic beverages and a souvenir merchandise keepsake at Planet Hollywood, Downtown Disney West Side. VIP Preferred Seating is available from 11:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. Not valid with any other offers or discounts. (One per package).

Miniature Golf - Guests will receive two vouchers, each valid for one round of miniature golf prior to 4:00 p.m. on one day at either Disney's Fantasia Gardens or Disney's Winter Summerland Miniature Golf Courses (valid for two rounds of golf per package).

Spa Discount – 15% off most 50 minute or greater services at select Disney Resort hotels. (Hand and foot treatments are excluded. Age restrictions apply. One per package).

Walt Disney World Marina Discounts – 15% off the non-discounted price of any boat rental at participating Walt Disney World marina location. (One per package).

Guided Fishing Excursions Discount – 15% off the non-discounted price of a 2 hour Guided Bass Fishing Excursion or a Bass Nitro Fishing Excursion at select Walt Disney World marinas. Excursions include fishing equipment, rod, reel, shiners, artificial bait, non-alcoholic beverages and a 1 year membership to B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sportsman Society. One per package).

Sammy Duvall's Watersports Discount – 10% off the non-discounted price of all activities including parasailing, water skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing trips at Sammy Duvall’s Watersports Centre located at Disney's Contemporary Resort. (Subject to availability; restrictions apply. One per package).

Children Activity Centers – 15% off the non-discounted hourly rates at the Children Activity Center located at select Disney Resort Hotels. Minimum charge of two (2) hours per child. Services available for children age 3-12. (One per package).

Arcade Game Card - 100 points game play in arcades located in Disney Resorts. (One card per package; available only with Magic Your Way Packages).

Downtown Disney® Area Shopping and Dining

*  Planet Hollywood® - Receive a $15.00 voucher valid for food and nonalcoholic beverages and one souvenir merchandise keepsake. Not valid with any other offers or discounts. (One per package).

*  10% to 20% off at the following locations – some exclusions apply:  Arribas Brothers, Basin,Bongos Cuban Café, Curl® by Sammy Duvall, Fulton's Crab House, House of Blues,Hoypoloi Gallery , Little MissMatched, Paradisio 37,Pop Gallery, Portobello Country Italian Trattoria, Something Silver,Splitsville Luxury Lanes,Wolfgang Puck Café

While those things are a great perk, so far they just haven't weighed far enough on the plus side to warrant me feeling like I need someone to assist me next time.  I am an obsessive researcher so while I wouldn't have a direct contact-there are a copious amounts of blogs and forums of Disney obsessed invidiuals who could assist me in whatever I needed to find out.   Another disadvantage is that you can't make changes yourself.  For example, we initally planned and scheduled arrival on one day and then later on decided to add an extra night at the start of our trip.  We are traveling during a promotional period and when we first decided to make the change, I was able to secure a room that was included in the promotion and just add onto the trip.  But due to the fact that I had worked with a TA, by the time she had gotten around to secure the room for us, less than 12 hours later, she was only able to reserve a room only at the rack rate (without a discount).   Now I am saying this all before our trip.  I will be sure to update how I feel once I have taken it, my mind may change.  Hopefully everything goes smoothly as far as my reservations go, but if not I do have an advocate to assist me.  Also, at this point I don't anticipate utilizing any of the discounts/offers but if I do that could greatly sway me towards using a TA in the future.   Only a few more weeks to go, I will be sure to update this post with my experienced thoughts!

Five

One. Two. Three. Four. FIVE.  Apparently I didn't write a blog post to commemorate Evelyn turning  two.  Whoops.    

Last year I wrote about how Evelyn was very adamant she is no longer a baby, but a big girl.  In the last year she has gone from a big girl to a kid.  A real live kid with her own thoughts, ideas and opinions.  Oh the opinions this girl has.  Ask her about her about the smell of her daddy's food and she will let you know exactly what she thinks of it-much to her father's displeasure.  

Four was as much of a struggle as it was awe inspiring.  Watching her evolve into the best big sister ever was awe inspiring.  My heart aches sometimes at when I think of how much courage she has displayed in taking on the role, and how much she loves her sister.  

Every parent seems to have a particular year that challenged them the most.  I have a feeling I am going to look back at her early childhood and say year four was our most difficult year (until she becomes a pre-teen).  While I still very lucky that her bad days are better than many kids good days, the hard days were hard.
I'm not so blind to see though that the more demanding days were directly related to one of her more endearing or impressive qualities.  When I found myself getting frustrated because she was just being a pill around the house-if I stimulated her mind, she instantly became a new kid.  I know every parent thinks their kids are brilliant-mine really is and sometime it flat out scares me.
When I am struggling with the fact that she is holding a grudge against me for saying the wrong thing, I know it is because she is just wonderfully sensitive and in turn has the ability to show her sweet heart and compassion towards others.    

  Five is another year of changes, but I am so excited for her.  I can't wait to see what is in store for our future because I know this girl can handle anything.

We Are Going to Disney World!

In just a few weeks, my little family will pack our bags and depart on a trip I have been so excited for  since the day Evelyn declared her love for all things Princess related-Disney World!    Boyfriend and I have talked about taking Evelyn to Disney World (DW) for a couple of years now.  We actually went to Disneyland June 2011 when Evelyn was just over a year old.  Of course she doesn't remember but we have the pictures to prove she was there and that she loved it.    In my head, five always seemed like a good age to bring them for the first time.  A five year old is old enough to understand what is going on, but everything is still *magical*.  Boyfriend and I have taken a couple of trips to DW before kids, all during the first week of June immediately following Memorial Day. This week was also successful for us in crowd levels (right before schools let out for the Summer) so our intention was to go around the same time period in 2015.   At the start of the year I looked at my work calendar and realized that there were already vacation requests for that same time period so I wouldn't be able to go.  I thought, "No big deal-we can go in September."  Boyfriend may have a conference in September in Orlando so he would just add onto that trip and we would meet him out there.  I thought to myself that would be great timing since the crowds would be low then since school had started.   I spent about a week pricing out our trip, figuring out how much we needed to save, what special events would be going on, etc. when all of a sudden something hit me.  Sure the crowds would be low because school was in session-but my own kid would be in school.  I had completely forgotten that Evelyn starts Kindergarten this August!   Back to the drawing board on what week to go, it seemed as though the only option was late April (I refuse to go during actual Summer-heat and crowds, no thank you!).  So finding ourselves just over three months out vs nine was a bit stressful but after a lot of work we are ready!   Through all of my planning, I have relied on various websites and blogs to help create a trip as magical as possible.  No longer are the days where you just buy a ticket and go to Disney.  I mean you can, but there are some serious advantages to spending time on the front end planning so that once you are there you can maximize your fun.  These websites and blogs have been so helpful I wanted to contribute our experiences and what I agreed/disagreed with.   My packing list has been written down, itinerary spreadsheets have been created, customized shirts have been ordered-this Phantastic family is ready to go!