But We're Ready to Go Already! (Summer 2017 PTR)

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Hi guys!

This is my...fourth? We'll say it's my fourth PTR on the DiS, and my very first one over on the Disneyland side! I have been trying really, really hard to not start planning my next Disneyland trip, but it's become way too hard for me to keep my excitement under control - and I still have like 8 months to go!

So, especially on this side of the board you've probably never met me (us!) so let's make some introductions:

This is me:


I'm Elle! I'm 28 years old but will be 29 by the time we go on our trip. I'm a middle school English teacher who loves all things Disney, musical theater, and nerd culture. I'm a huge planner (which is why I'm making this thread in October and not in January like I promised myself I would) and really should have been a travel agent lol. I love Merida and Tiana, Aurora and Daisy, and Nick Wilde. My favorite rides are Haunted Mansion, Pirates, Big Thunder, Star Tours, and Small World.

My two travel companions on this trip are:


Jen! Jen has been my best friend since we were 16. She is also 28 going-on-29 and works doing accounting. We have very similar tastes in travel and what we like, so we've gone to Disney together almost every year since we were 20. She loves Haunted Mansion, Star Tours, and Space Mountain. Her favorites are Judy, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Ariel, and Alice. She's a former CM for the Disney Store.

And -


Liz! I have known Liz since we were kids and she became one of my best friends when we were teenagers, and soon after she became good friends with Jen as well. She's 25 but will be 26 by the time we go to Disneyland. She's a former CM as well, who loves all things Beauty and the Beast and Big Thunder.

This will be my second time to Disneyland, Jen's third, and Liz's first. Right now, we're looking at July 6-13 at the Camelot Suites. We may be adding two more to our party if everything works out so we figured that would give us all enough space. I can't wait to share my planning with you guys and I apologize in advance for the posts where I bemoan my planning woes!

 

[Jaina]

Sounds so fun! I'll be following along!

 

[Tasscrapper]

I'm following along too! I'm tentatively thinking of going to Disneyland next year and will love to see the planning!!

 

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Sounds so fun! I'll be following along!

Welcome!

I'm following along too! I'm tentatively thinking of going to Disneyland next year and will love to see the planning!!

Oooh yay! I love planning - I'm a little obsessed lol - so hopefully I'll be posting more of the planning side!

 

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And We Already Have A Change of Plans

So, I realize I haven't posted much. Sorry guys! One of the things I forgot to mention is that I'm also a theatre person and do a lot of work in my local community group. And besides November being an absolutely insane month to begin with, our production of Mary Poppins opened this weekend. So it's been...busy.

And of course, the day after I posted my first post? We had to change things around!

Of course we did.

I wasn't really thinking when I suggested our tentative dates to the others, I know that now. Because I completely forgot that my friend is getting married on the 8th of July. Normally it wouldn't be a huge issue, but he's one of my closest friends. And Liz, understandably, doesn't want to miss her niece's birthday, which is the next week.

And then I work the last two weeks of July.

So right now we have a tentative time of August 8-14. Fingers crossed we can hammer that date down soon and I can start looking at hotels!

 

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It's Never Too Early to Start Dreaming, Right?

Last Monday and Tuesday I was home sick. Today I have a snow day. We all know what that means, don't we?

Disney planning.

Not that I can do MUCH for Disney yet, but we started to make our master list of what we definitely want to do. Unsurprisingly, it revolves around food for the most part. Liz made the list primarily because she hasn't been before. She was worried we wouldn't want to do some things but c'mon - it's food and Disney!

Liz's List:
1. World of Color Package (Jen & I did it last time we went and she'd like to experience it too)
2. Cove Bar
3. Trader Sam's
4. Ralph Brennan's Brunch (if we're there on Sunday)
5. Mint Julep Bar

This isn't in any particular order, just the order I remembered. I'm 100% okay with all of these and so is Jen. Poor Jen, she had to deal with Liz and I blowing up her phone while at work last week and let's be honest, it'll probably happen again.

I'm now looking at pricing of stuff and trying to figure out the cheapest ticket option for us, as well as the best option for hotel. While we have a hotel in mind (Camelot) I just want to check out all our options before making a decision. It's not even January, guys. I have seven months to plan. This thing will probably be planned by February knowing me.

 

[Frozen2014]

Following along. Glad to see that I am not the only one planning for way out in August when it's only fall...lol. (We're going last week in August...so just after you). So would love to follow along with you as you plan. So fun to be going with your two best friends.

 

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Following along. Glad to see that I am not the only one planning for way out in August when it's only fall...lol. (We're going last week in August...so just after you). So would love to follow along with you as you plan. So fun to be going with your two best friends.

Hi, and welcome! I'm glad there's another person like me planning for August too! I just can't help it - my WDW trips are all going to be as "spontaneous" as trips can be this year and it's driving me batty, gotta plan something! Hopefully as we get our pieces of our trip together I'll be posting more and more in here , so I hope you have fun following along!

 

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Room For Two More? Maybe?

I think we've (we being me, since I had a snow day a few days ago and we kind of all agreed based on my research) officially decided on Camelot Inn & Suites. We're going to spring for a suite, one with a king bed and two queens so that we have enough space, and if it stays the way we're planning it then we all have our own bed. We've all shared beds together in the past, so if we had to it's not an issue, it's just a nice bonus that we don't have to share. And with my AAA discount it gives us a nice reason to spring for the extra space.

If it stays the three of us is the thing. Y'see, when we first started talking about this trip seriously, back in September, Liz and I invited our friend Amanda and her husband Tim. When we moved from talking to planning we kept them in the loop but we hadn't really included them at their choice - they just moved, just got married, etc.

Well, last Thursday Liz and I went out with Amanda for dinner. As it always does the conversation looped around to Disney and we told her what information we had gotten so far. Amanda really wants to pull the trigger and come with us, but they are not 100% if they have an expensive family event coming up. Once all that is figured out they'll make their decision.

Except I was the idiot who did the math to see how much it'd cost for 5 people to stay in the hotel instead of 3 and oh, that price hurt so much with how nice and cheap it was. I should NOT have done that.

 

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Oh Hey, This Was When I Was Actually Going to Start This Thing!

Originally I was going to start my trip report around this time. We can all see how well that happened, can't we?

Yesterday I kind of had the moment of "darn it, if no one else is going to solidify dates then I should!" See, we threw out the dates of the 8-14 of August (with 9-13 being Disney dates) and we all agreed on it. The biggest obstacle was my parents.

They haven't solidified their travel dates yet.

I'm the de facto house sitter. I mean, in all fairness, it makes sense - dad will always drive me to the airport and will always take care of my dog while I'm away, so it's only fair I do the same for him. I just knew they were going beginning of August.

Well, I kind of decided for them, because I booked a suite at Camelot Inn and Suites for the 8-14. They seemed fine with it when I asked them about it, so there's that.

(Sorry to anyone who read this at any point in the last hour - I suddenly realized the time and had to get ready for work, oops!)

So! This means that we are officially staying at the Camelot Inn and Suites. With the AAA discount we're staying in a suite with a king bed and two queens at just about $200 a night. It's a bit more expensive than our normal go-to of the Faifield Inn but it also gives us more room to relax and everyone can have their own space.

I'm also kind of selfishly hoping I get the king bed - only because I'm always the first one awake so I wouldn't be bothering anyone while I get dressed - but it's not a big enough deal for me to actually care about deciding until we get there. And, if our friends Amanda and Tim decide they want to go as well we'll have the room for everyone to stretch out and be comfy!

 

[VandVsmama]

Sounds like you're going to have a great trip! We've never stayed at the Camelot, so I'm curious what your stay there will be like.

 

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Sounds like you're going to have a great trip! We've never stayed at the Camelot, so I'm curious what your stay there will be like.

Thanks! I'm curious about it too - all the reviews I've found have been good, and the extra space will be nice - none of us are over-packers or anything but we'll all have counter space and everything so that'll be nice!

 

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Ride Appreciation Day!

We have a few outfit days planned for our trip to Disneyland -

1. Snapback day
2. Princess day
3. Ride Appreciation day

Ride Appreciation Day comes out of a night of a lot of cocktails and a mission to be crafty that turned into a weekend. I had just gotten a Cakeworthy plaid and we had a very long conversation about how much we liked the plaids but wished they had more variety. Cue a mad trip to get plaids and iron-on sheets.

We spent the entire night (until 2 in the morning!) making our own versions of plaids for a Ride-bound day.

They came out like this:

Liz's is the Big Thunder one, as she used to work at BTMRR. Mine is Dead Men Tell No Tales because it's my favorite ride, and Jen's is Grim Grinning Ghosts for the same reason. The second day our friend Amanda came to help and made her own - the Ohana one. I haven't figured out what we're wearing under then yet.

 

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Flights

Okay guys. I've been stuck in this house for three days straight. This is also my third snow day in a week. I'm trying really, really hard to not be obsessively planning Disney but I think we all know that's not happening, right?

So, I come with a question! Hopefully someone will see this!

We're probably not going to get plane tickets for another couple of months (yeah, I know guys - if I were going by myself I'd already have them but I have to take my friends and their budgets into consideration), but I was wondering how you guys feel about flights?

We're obviously taking a morning flight with a plan to get to LAX early afternoon. It'll give us time to get settled in our hotel room at a decent time and have some time to get dinner and probably spend a couple hours in Downtown Disney.

It's about 6-8 hours in a plane to get from Boston to LAX. This is where I need opinions - would you guys rather fly non-stop to potentially get there earlier or choose a flight that has one stop so you can get out and stretch your legs?

I ask this because last time we went to California, non-stop wasn't an option - or at the very least none of the airlines we were looking at were currently offering a non-stop flight.

My opinion is to have a layover. It's always a bit nerve-wracking but I'd much rather a stop so I can stand and stretch a little bit than stay on a flight for that long, but that's my own biases from when I took long flights all the time and I know it's a personal thing, so I just kind of want to hear other people weigh in with their opinions, just out of curiosity. Which would you choose?

 

[Khokhonutt]

Personally, I'll always go non-stop if it's an option and affordable. There's just too much that can happen with a layover (delays, missed connections, bags not making the transition, long distances between gates). The other thing we found is with most long flights is you're typically on a larger aircraft, which means it's a little easier to get up and walk a bit. We've done several cross country trips and been over to Hawaii from the east coast a couple of times (10+ hours) and the larger aircraft has always been more comfortable and easier to move around than most "hop" flights.

Like you said, though, it's really personal preference. And if you're on a budget, the layover flights are typically cheaper.

 

[Frozen2014]

We had the opposite scenario (for different reasons). We could take a non-stop flight but it would have cost us much more than a flight with one-stop. We really wanted the non-stop as it's less stress worrying about connecting flights (and makes the day overall shorter), but couldn't justify paying the additional extra $1000. We were going to compromise and do non-stop there and one stop home, but then a direct prices dropped so we grabbed our tickets. I can't sit for long periods of time so I get it...wanting to stretch, etc...but I would personally take the non-stop and make sure to get up every hour or so. Go for "a walk" up and down the aisles or stand in spot if you can. However, if you feel better with a layover, then nothing wrong with that. I may mentally split up the time too since shorter flight times.

 

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Personally, I'll always go non-stop if it's an option and affordable. There's just too much that can happen with a layover (delays, missed connections, bags not making the transition, long distances between gates). The other thing we found is with most long flights is you're typically on a larger aircraft, which means it's a little easier to get up and walk a bit. We've done several cross country trips and been over to Hawaii from the east coast a couple of times (10+ hours) and the larger aircraft has always been more comfortable and easier to move around than most "hop" flights.

Like you said, though, it's really personal preference. And if you're on a budget, the layover flights are typically cheaper.

We had the opposite scenario (for different reasons). We could take a non-stop flight but it would have cost us much more than a flight with one-stop. We really wanted the non-stop as it's less stress worrying about connecting flights (and makes the day overall shorter), but couldn't justify paying the additional extra $1000. We were going to compromise and do non-stop there and one stop home, but then a direct prices dropped so we grabbed our tickets. I can't sit for long periods of time so I get it...wanting to stretch, etc...but I would personally take the non-stop and make sure to get up every hour or so. Go for "a walk" up and down the aisles or stand in spot if you can. However, if you feel better with a layover, then nothing wrong with that. I may mentally split up the time too since shorter flight times.

Thanks for the input guys!

I used to have to travel from Boston to London for graduate school so after those flights where you really COULDN'T get a non-stop flight my brain's been pretty focused on "you have to stop." lol

 

[VandVsmama]

If the goal is to get the least expensive flight possible, then go with whichever flight is cheaper. And sometimes the cheaper flights are the ones that have a stop/layover in between.

 

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If the goal is to get the least expensive flight possible, then go with whichever flight is cheaper. And sometimes the cheaper flights are the ones that have a stop/layover in between.

This is super true! At the moment with JetBlue the nonstops are the cheapest (surprisingly!)

 

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Oh, Hello Neglected PTR


I'm sorry guys. I was suddenly going to WDW and had basically the month of March to plan it, so I had to put California on the back burner. It's now my next Disney trip, since I'm not going back to Florida until October for a super short trip, so I'm back on the Disneyland train!

I've done nothing since I last checked in. I have thought about changing to a Disneyland hotel instead of Camelot Inn & Suites, but I haven't pulled that trigger yet. I've also decided I'm going to pay for the World of Color Dessert Party as a present for Liz and Jen since I didn't get them anything for their birthdays this year. I do super want to do a Carthay Circle dinner too as a surprise because I know how much they want to go there, so I might do that.

Not that I can make any solid plans yet.

I am trying to get bows and Minnie ears for bounding purposes though! I'm thinking I'm just wearing dresses every day in California - I'm not a huge fan of shorts to begin with and I just love the comfort of dresses.

So, this is a long winded way to say I'm back, I promise. Let the Disneyland planning really begin!