I've got the Disney bug and I can't stay away. AKL June 2018 TR started 6/25

Lifelong_Dreamer

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Welcome one and all to this little PTR. If you enjoy obsessive Disney planning, itinerary making, resort roulette and deep contemplation of Disney snacks then this is the report for you!

I am very lucky and have been to the Disney parks several times throughout my life, especially in the past ten years or so. I have a serious case of Disneyitis and while I enjoy travelling the world and experiencing new places I can't help but yearn for the comfort of my happy place hence this pre-trip report.

Our last trip was December 2015 at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. This time we will be headed back in June 2018. It will have only been 2 1/2 years since our last visit but as is always the case with WDW some things have changed, new things have arrived and some have gone away. That is part of what I love about visiting WDW, every trip has something new to experience!

My name is Lessa and I am a disneyholic! I am an RN and I work A LOT (I am a sucker that finds it hard to say no to overtime) so I am very much looking forward to getting away on vacation and having a break away from reality. I love my job but it will be nice to have a break to recharge. I love pretty much everything Disney and I am a child at heart. I am the person my friends and co-workers go to when they decide to plan a WDW vacation and want advise. I am known as "the Disney girl".

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Joining me on this trip will be my mother, Beth. She also loves her trips to WDW and she gets all teary eyed every trip when we first arrive, she loves her family time at WDW that much. My mom has MS which means that we will be trying to have a more relaxed vacation. That is one of the reasons that we are going for a week and a half, lots of time to tour the parks without being rushed and no stress about missing out on anything.

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Not joining us on this trip are my brothers, Alek and Erich. They also love Disney and our family vacations but they are holding out until our "epic 2021" trip to visit WDW again. That seems so far away but it really isn't in the grand scheme of things.

Originally I was planning a Baltic cruise vacation for June but we decided to change our plans for a few reasons and so now we are headed to WDW!! I will get to the Baltic one of these days it just won't be this year!


Are you planning a summer Disney vacation? Are you a first timer? Going on your 22nd trip? Have you visited recently? I would love to hear from my fellow WDW addicts as I plan this WDW vacation!
 
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This trip is a bit strange as I booked it "last minute". Last minute for an OCD trip planner means less than six months away. :laughing:

Normally I would have everything planned out well in advance with all my park days lined out and book my dining at the 180 day mark. Well when that 180 day mark has long come and gone I find myself planning this trip all loosey-goosey.

At 4 1/2 months until the trip so far all I have booked is our airfare. My previous OCD Disney vacation planning self would have been freaking out :scared1: about this but somehow I'm not. Maybe it is because we have been to WDW several times so there is less of that "must fit it all in" mentality?

The flights are booked already as Westjest was having a seat sale and I wanted to snag seats before they got jacked up to $500 a piece. I managed to get direct flights from Toronto for $340 Canadian. I checked prices for flying from Syracuse, New York which is usually the cheaper option but after converting from American to Canadian the Westjet flight was the best deal. I was also happy to be able to book Westjet as last time we were "stuck" with Air Canada. I hate flying Air Canada and avoid it when I can. So with airfare squared away our dates are locked in and now I have to do the real planning!

I have a rough itinerary mapped out so far. I referenced Kenny the Pirate's crowd calendars and his suggestions lined up with what I had mapped out in my head. His philosophy is the same as mine, avoid Extra Magic Hours. So I usually plan to attend the parks the day after their extra magic hours as they tend to have lower crowds on those days.

Mom and I have talked about maybe having two Universal days during the trip. If we do I'm not sure if we would want to just drive over or if we would stay at Universal during that time. If we did that we would do it either at the beginning or end of the trip. I think it more likely though that we will probably stick to just WDW this trip since my brothers aren't coming along and would probably be upset with us for going without them before the "mega 2021" trip. Also this is supposed to be a more relaxed vacation and if we add in Universal it makes things more hectic.


I have a deadline for getting our tickets as well. Right now Disney has tickets at 20% off for Canadian Residents and that deal ends early February so I need to get on that sooner rather than later. The only small annoyance with buying these discounted tickets is having to get them validated at guest services before we can enter the parks by showing proof of our Canadian residency. That is just a small annoyance though and should more than be made up for by the cost savings. I'm pondering getting park hoppers but I will likely just add that onto our tickets once we get there since I'm still thinking about the itinerary and I also think the park hopper decision will likely depend on what resort we stay at.

The big question right now is where are we going to stay but that is a topic for a future post! :goodvibes
 


Following! Can't wait to see where you are staying! Exciting that by the time you have everything planned out, your trip will be here!
 
No summer trips planned for us. We have done 2 summer trips in the last 2 years and the heat was too much for DW. We do have a March Break and a Christmas trip planned already.
 


I'm planning a June trip as well. Our dates are June 12-17. I would love to take a longer more relaxed trip like yours but its just not in the cards for us. We were originally booked at PoR but I changed to ASMovies to a family suite to take advantage of the Summer Meal promotion. We are a family of 5 with 3 adult size teenagers so we probable need the extra room and two bathrooms though I'm really disappointed to not get to stay at PoR. We stayed at CBR in 2016 and it was crowded in that room though the resort was beautiful. Looking forward to the rest of your trip report. Especially finding out which resort you end up choosing.
 
No summer trips planned for us. We have done 2 summer trips in the last 2 years and the heat was too much for DW. We do have a March Break and a Christmas trip planned already.

I can understand the heat being a problem. That is another reason we will probably make this a more relaxed trip. Time to take things slow and hang out at the pool.

I helped a work friend plan a March Break trip for this year and I am getting so excited for her family. I hope they have a wonderful time. Christmas is a fabulous time at the parks. I love it when they are all decked out for the holiday. Really there is no bad time to go to WDW! :goodvibes

Following along! 'Last Minute' trips are so much fun!

Welcome! It is fun doing research and trying to plan out what we are going to do. It is also nice when I have a crazy day at work to tell myself I will be in my happy place soon and to just "Let It Go"!

I'm planning a June trip as well. Our dates are June 12-17. I would love to take a longer more relaxed trip like yours but its just not in the cards for us. We were originally booked at PoR but I changed to ASMovies to a family suite to take advantage of the Summer Meal promotion. We are a family of 5 with 3 adult size teenagers so we probable need the extra room and two bathrooms though I'm really disappointed to not get to stay at PoR. We stayed at CBR in 2016 and it was crowded in that room though the resort was beautiful. Looking forward to the rest of your trip report. Especially finding out which resort you end up choosing.

Our dates almost exactly line up! June 11-20 for me. A suite with the extra bathroom sounds like a good idea when travelling with that many. A crowded room can lead to unneeded stress. For our "mega 2021" trip there will probably be at least 5-6 of us going and maybe more assuming my brothers are still with their girlfriends and they decide to join us. That will be an interesting trip as it will potentially be the first family trip with significant others tagging along but also a bigger group of people to please. We will probably have to go with the suite option like you did or maybe even rent DVC points for a villa?
 
Resort Roulette

Which resort to stay at is one of the biggest questions for any Disney trip. Some are of the opinion that it is just a place to sleep so it doesn't matter and for others it adds extra pixie dust to their vacation. I have stayed at every level of Disney resort and had a good vacation each time but I have to admit that the most magical of the trips was when we stayed at Wilderness Lodge. Did that come down to the resort or was it because it was our first trip back to Disney in over ten years? I'll never know but I think it was a combination of both.

I tend to base my resort decision on what my hopes for the trip are and also on budget. I, of course, always have my fingers crossed for a good deal to be released or for a pin code to arrive in my inbox. If I plan to spend all day every day from rope drop to park closure at the park I would probably go for a value. If I think there might be a bit more downtime for relaxing at the pool or hanging out at the resort I will probably go for a moderate or a deluxe.

On this trip, I ideally want to spend time at the resort if not every day at least every other day. I want this to be a more relaxed trip so in my head I see mornings at the parks and then an early afternoon break at the hotel for some pool time and then back to the parks or other resorts for dinner etc. Or maybe we will stay at the park for most of the day and head back to the resort in the late afternoon/evening. What I am hoping for though is to pick a resort that we will want to spend time at so we can relax.

That being said I am notorious for not being able to make up my mind regarding resorts. Every trip we have taken I changed the resort reservation at least three times. :laughing: Some might suggest doing a split stay but my mom and I are not huge fans of having to pick up and move in the middle of vacation unless there is a very good reason to. But you never know, maybe I will try it one of these days. :confused3

In the past we have stayed at Shades of Green (1997), Wilderness Lodge (2007) Pop Century (2008, 2009 pre-cruise), Coronado Springs (2012), Animal Kingdom Lodge (2015).

Here are the resorts I am currently contemplating:

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Port Orleans Riverside

This would be a new resort for us and the grounds look lovely. I'm not a huge fan of the room decor, looks kind of dark and drab (maybe lighting in the photos?) except for the princess rooms which are over the top and I'm not willing to pay extra for those anyways. If we stayed here I would not spend much time in the room but the resort looks to be very pretty and has a decent pool. It is also one of the few moderate resorts not currently under renovation so that's a plus. I've heard many great things about POR and very little negative.


Animal Kingdom Lodge

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We stayed here on our last trip and I loved the resort. One of the best themed resorts on property in my opinion. It has a great pool area with a good mix of loungers in sunny and shady spots. Perfect for a relaxing afternoon floating in the pool or lounging poolside with a good book and a drink in hand. It also has a decent counter service location and two restaurants on-site. Parking there was really annoying last time as the lot was always full with day visitors and even though we were actual guests staying at the resort we always had to park at the furthest areas of the parking lot.

The rooms are lovely and even though they are "small" for deluxe resorts they are still big enough to suit our purposes. If I book here I will be booking a standard room and hoping for an upgrade unless I get a discount somehow. Last time I had 30% off and we booked a savanna view. It was wonderful waking up to this outside our room every morning.

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That's another thing I am hoping for in a room, a balcony to sit on while enjoying breakfast. We always stop at Publix or Target at the start of a trip and stock up on breakfast food for the room.


Wilderness Lodge

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We loved Wilderness Lodge when we stayed here in the past. The resort has recently undergone a big renovation though adding tons of DVC rooms and cabins and so I will need to do some more research to see how that has impacted the resort before I book here. It ticks off most of my boxes though, nice pool area to relax at though not as large as AKL. Balcony in the room to sit on in the morning while eating breakfast. Beautiful grounds. There are restaurants here but we are not too interested in them. We have tried Whispering Canyon on two different trips and we were not impressed. It has the boat launch to the Magic Kingdom and the Contemporary which we have enjoyed taking in the past.

Beach Club

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Beach Club is a resort my family has been wanting to stay at for awhile now. It is walking distance to Epcot, has a reportedly fantastic pool, home to Beaches and Cream (yum!), and is across from the Boardwalk. This is the priciest of the resorts that I am looking at and I'm not sure I want to book it without a discount of some kind. Also, I may want to save staying at this resort for our "mega 2021" family trip. The rooms here were redone a few years ago and look lovely. A minor issue here is that not all the rooms have balconies. Some have a full balcony and some have standing room only "Juliet" balconies.


Art of Animation

If I end up wanting to save money I may book a Little Mermaid room at this resort. The decor is not to my taste but if we stay here I doubt we will spend all that much time in the room. The food court is supposed to be really good with many options and the resort is also connected to POP Century which also has a good food court. The pool areas at this resort are fine and would probably suit our purposes. The theming of the resort is well done, we walked around to view the resort on our last trip.



So those are the resorts I am considering! Do any of you have any opinions or suggestions? Experiences that you would like to share? Please feel free to comment!
 
My family stayed at POR this past June and it was perfect for us! There was 8 of us in 2 alligator bayou rooms. It wasn't far to the main lobby and food court from anywhere at the resort, the landscaping was beautiful! My mom and I would take my niece out in the morning and watch the otters play in the river!
The pool was big enough that even when it was crowded, there were still loungers available and it didn't feel overly cramped.

The only real downside, that I saw, was that the buses were almost always full by the time that they got to the stop closest to our room, so we spent a lot of time waiting for them.

I think you would enjoy POR immensely! But no matter what you pick, you will be at Disney, so you will have an AMAZING time!
 
Following along! The first thing I noticed looking through your introduction is that I totally have that floral dress and am planning on wearing it at Disney to Disneybound Rapunzel :rotfl2:

So excited to see all of your plans.
 
My family stayed at POR this past June and it was perfect for us! There was 8 of us in 2 alligator bayou rooms. It wasn't far to the main lobby and food court from anywhere at the resort, the landscaping was beautiful! My mom and I would take my niece out in the morning and watch the otters play in the river!
The pool was big enough that even when it was crowded, there were still loungers available and it didn't feel overly cramped.

The only real downside, that I saw, was that the buses were almost always full by the time that they got to the stop closest to our room, so we spent a lot of time waiting for them.

I think you would enjoy POR immensely! But no matter what you pick, you will be at Disney, so you will have an AMAZING time!

Thanks for the good review on POR! It always makes things easier when you hear good things. I'm not too concerned about the bus situation as we usually have a rental car but at the rates I'm being quoted right now maybe this will be our first trip fully utilizing Disney transportation!

Following along! The first thing I noticed looking through your introduction is that I totally have that floral dress and am planning on wearing it at Disney to Disneybound Rapunzel :rotfl2:

So excited to see all of your plans.

:laughing: I never really thought about it but I guess the colour scheme of the dress would work for disneybouding Rapunzel.
 
So Disney announced their Summer "Promotion" today. Unfortunately not a hotel discount promotion but a summer activity promotion. Coming to the parks this summer "Incredible Summer"

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The cast of the Incredibles lead a dance party in Tomorrowland - my reaction - ambivalence. I might snap a few pictures if I happen to be in the area but nothing I will go out of my way for.

Guardians of the Galaxy join an alien rock band to play music from the movies at Epcot - I'm a little more enthused about this as I love the movies and the music but again I don't know if I would include it as a must-see, more like a "if I have time".

New Bird Show at Animal Kingdom featuring Russel and Dug - I will definitely check this one out. I loved the previous show so will be interested to see what this new UP! themed version will be like.

"Dino-tastic" celebration with Donald Duck - Donald takes over Dinoland for a character celebration. Not sure what that means exactly?? Guess we will find out!


Toy Story Land - No set opening date for this but people seem to think it will open on Memorial Day weekend. If it is open we will definitely be checking it out!


What do you all think of these summer "promotions"? Will you be checking any of them out?
 
I just purchased our park tickets for the trip! I had to purchase them soon as the Canadian pricing promotion was going to end within the next few days so I figured I better do it now so I wouldn't forget/lose track of time.

I bought 9-day basic tickets. I figure we can always add the park hopper option on once we get there if we decide that we want it but we usually do not park hop.

Since they are Canadian resident tickets Mom and I will need to make a trip to guest services at one of the parks or Disney Springs on our arrival day to provide proof of residency to activate them. All said we saved $180 so worth the small inconvenience.
 
I'm in! It sounds like you've got some great plans!!


It will have only been 2 1/2 years since our last visit but as is always the case with WDW some things have changed, new things have arrived and some have gone away.

I totally agree, its so nice to have new and refurbished attractions to check on when its been a little since your last trip

My name is Lessa and I am a disneyholic! I am an RN and I work A LOT

Ahh, fellow RN here!

Joining me on this trip will be my mother, Beth.

Awww,I love mother/daughter trips!

His philosophy is the same as mine, avoid Extra Magic Hours.

I am just learning of this philosophy! Maybe I need to adopt it :o

Every trip we have taken I changed the resort reservation at least three times. :laughing:

hahahahaah too funny!!

Some might suggest doing a split stay but my mom and I are not huge fans of having to pick up and move in the middle of vacation unless there is a very good reason to. But you never know, maybe I will try it one of these days. :confused3

A split stay always sounds good in theory, but I agree, the idea of packing up and moving sounds horrific

hat's another thing I am hoping for in a room, a balcony to sit on while enjoying breakfast.

AMEN

So those are the resorts I am considering! Do any of you have any opinions or suggestions? Experiences that you would like to share?

I would lean towards Beach Club! Its my fav resort (so far... still need to check out other deluxes') and its just so perfect for a mother/dtr trip... late night walks back from Epcot, early morning strolls on the Boardwalk, coffee on the beach chairs...

New Bird Show at Animal Kingdom featuring Russel and Dug - I will definitely check this one out. I loved the previous show so will be interested to see what this new UP! themed version will be like.

I hope the new show is as 'good' as Flights of Wonder!

I bought 9-day basic tickets. I figure we can always add the park hopper option on once we get there if we decide that we want it but we usually do not park hop.

yay! its getting real now!!
 
I totally agree, its so nice to have new and refurbished attractions to check on when its been a little since your last trip

Yes! That is the great thing about Disney is there is always something new to keep things from getting stale.

Ahh, fellow RN here!

You understand my need for a vacation then! :laughing:

I am just learning of this philosophy! Maybe I need to adopt it :o

It works great for me. Extra Magic Hours are really only good, in my opinion, if you plan to park hop which we don't usually.

A split stay always sounds good in theory, but I agree, the idea of packing up and moving sounds horrific

Exactly, to me it seems the opposite of relaxing which a trip to WDW should be if at all possible. Enough energy is spent at the parks I don't want to worry about moving my luggage around resorts every few days. For some people that is part of the thrill and that is great for them but doesn't really work for me.

I would lean towards Beach Club! Its my fav resort (so far... still need to check out other deluxes') and its just so perfect for a mother/dtr trip... late night walks back from Epcot, early morning strolls on the Boardwalk, coffee on the beach chairs...

The proximity to Epcot, the Boardwalk, the pool, the general atmosphere are all huge draws. If only I would get a PIN code! :laughing: I have never been to Disney and paid rack rate for a hotel and so have been spoiled with great deals. I'm getting antsy that no discount for mid-June is out yet and no PIN code has arrived. Will I have to pay rack rate ?:scared1:
 
I am not interested in any of the "summer promotions" with the exception of Toy Story Land. TSL we will all enjoy because we are huge fans of the movie. I was originally booked at PoR. We would have to stay in the Alligator Bayou section. I actually think the décor in that section is better. Certainly not as dark as in the mansion sections. I will probably never be able to afford but if I did I would probably pick Wilderness Lodge or Beach Club. I like the themeing and location best out of the ones you mentioned.
 

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