Today I booked my Welcome
Home trip using my recently purchased DVC points to use in a September
trip. I chose this time of year for two reasons,
first to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. It is also Jewish High Holy days, so my job
wouldn’t miss me too much since there is little work this time of year.
Since I joined, I have 200
points. September 1st, I will
get another 200 points. So I will have a
total of 400 points to use. I figured to
use about 300 points. I wanted to
splurge a little too. My home resort is
The Polynesian, so I am looking to stay elsewhere for this trip. My first choice would be The Boardwalk. The Boardwalk is based on
So I called DVC customer service… made sure I mentioned the magic words…
Welcome Home stay. A Welcome Home stay,
the workers will try to pull strings to make your first visit special. So I called, gave them my dates Sept 16 to
the 24th. Told them, I prefer
to stay at the Boardwalk. They asked
what other resorts, I prefer the Grand Floridian, then added BLT. He put me on hold a couple of times, while
they searched. They said I could do a
split stay at the Boardwalk. That means,
I stay in one type of resort category, then transfer to another. Not really something I want to do.
Oh yea. I also told them I want to stay in a studio. They found a studio at BLT, less then 200
points I believe. I am concerned about
having too many points, so he looked again.
He offered a 1 bedroom studio, lake view for 253 points. I went for that. That uses up the 200 points that I received
when I bought DVC, and 53 points I will get in September. At that point, I will need to bank 147
points, to use in a possible Sept 2024 trip.
One of the reasons I want to go this time of year, to go to Not so scary
Halloween party. Big positive, walking
distance from the
Next up, my preferred methon of travel. I booked my Amtrak tickets, included Travel
Insurance. I wasn’t sure this is of a
good move or not, but September is hurricane season. While I went many times
this time of year, I had some close calls and one direct hit.
Next up, theme park tickets and the hated park reservation system. While if I could of purchased a annual pass,
would probably have been cheaper then using a TA discounted ticket for my April
trip, and full price ticket for September.
But you cant worry what you cant do. At first I started
to use the Disney website to buy the theme park ticket, then remembered to use
the Travel Agent website, so at least I will get some money back.
Ticket purchased, next came the hated Park reservation. I used my April trip as a guide line as to
what parks I hit on what days. My second
day, made a mistake, chose
Next up at the 60 day mark, dining reservations.
Date unknown
my job recently went through a ownership change, with
it, I report to different people, different rules, including taking
vacation. This concerned me. My old boss was very liberal. I had a unpleasant
run in with the new person I report to.
So I finally got around to send a email to request it. He responded, I need to do it officially
online, the request, he will ok it. It
turns out I really didn’t have enough hours to cover it. I was concerned, loose thousands of dollars
of a trip? Or maybe a couple of hundreds of pay? Well, instead of putting 8 hours of pay per
day, I lowered the numbers so it all fits.
Previous trips when I ran into a situation of not enough PTO hours, they
converted over time into PTO time. Not
so this trip. But I entered all my
dates, and it was submitted. I got a
call it will be approved. A significant
weight off of my shoulders.
It was the night before ADR. I already
went through the hated park reservations.
I mimicked my last trip with the parks I visited. That night, I made sure I could get into My
Disney Experience account. I was having
password issues, but fixed that. And
this is what I did they following morning.
My alarm went off at
Arrive Sept 16- Epcot
Tradition dictates I head to
Epcot and eat at Coral Reef. Before the
hated park reservation system, I would go to Animal Kingdom, just to eat at
Flame Tree BBQ. If I tried to do that. I
would be stuck inside Animal Kingdom till
Sept 17 – Studios
Whether you call it by its old name Disney MGM Studios or its current
name Disney Hollywood Studios, I just
call it studios.
Of course I do the Fantasmic Dinner Package at
Sept 18 –
Its been awhile since I ate at
Sept 19 –
I felt I had a good meal at
Steakhouse 71 last trip for dinner.
Staying at
Originally wanted to do the Fireworks dessert party today, but they don’t have
one scheduled, so did it the day before.
For dinner, I originally wanted to do
Sept 20 – Epcot
I ate at Garden Grill years ago. Decided
to try it again. This is a character
breakfast. But I intend to eat there for
the food. Dinner at Le Cellier. No brainer.
Sept 21 – Animal Kingdom
For breakfast, originally was going to eat at Steakhouse again. I asked on FB and several people suggested
Rainforest Café. Looking at the menus,
it interest me, so I canceled Steakhouse and made one
for RFC.
Dinner is a no brainer… Boma.
Sept 22 –
I bought my Mickey’s Not so scary Halloween Party. So this is my plan. Tradition has me eating at Boma for breakfast
the day after eating there for dinner. I
plan to spend a couple of hours at a water park, Typhoon Lagoon most
likely. I find the wave pool
refreshing. Then have a late lunch at
Sept 23 – Epcot
The morning I did my ADR’s, I didn’t do anything for today. Again, after asking for recommendations, I
went with Trattoria.. whatever. Its by the Boardwalk. Take the bus to the studios and scoot over
here.
After looking at menus and recommendations, I decided to try Big River
Grill. BRG doesn’t take ADR’s. A couple of days later I remembered Round up
BBQ in Toy Story land at the studios. Right now its
for
Two months of tweaking,
more changes to come.
August 31, 2023
I just tried to register for DAS. I
couldn’t press request for chat button till I figured out how to delete
cookies. Once I did that, the button
appeared from hour glassing.
I went through the online check in, started the chat around 7:47 pm. About an hour later, it asked… are you still
here?? I said yes. About 30 minutes
later, I get a message saying so and so is going to chat with me shortly, have
information ready. 10 minutes later, I
get a message that since they couldn’t hear me, they closed the chat
window. I tried to reinitiate the chat window, current time is 9:20 pm. They said the office is closed for the
night. Insert Snoopy crying here ☹
September 3, 2023
Secured my DAS pass. It took me longer
to figure out how to delete cookies from Micro Edge browser then waiting for a
video interview. Like I mentioned above,
they ask me three questions, name of person needing DAS, arrival date, and how
many people will be with me. I was
supposed to answer that last time. I
really didn’t know that was what I was supposed to do, but I did it this time.
Also ordered my scooter from scooterbug. I called
up, told them look at what I ordered in April, get the same. Problem, they don’t have a sun shade, which I
really use for rain then sun. I will
need to keep checking in chance they cancel.
And ordered my owners locker
to be delivered to Bay Lake tower.
Once thing I don’t
understand. The Owners Locker will go to
Bay Lake Tower. The scooter will go to
The Contemporary.
September 4, 2023
So last night I contacted Scooterbug via email to ask if I wanted to purchase my own
sun shade, what to get. They responded
back this morning saying they do have them available. They modified my order to include it. Feeling better 😊
September 14, 2023
Twas the night before…. Am I excited?
Not really. Nervous, yes. 😊 Just typing out some thoughts before I pack
up the computer. Planning a Disney World
vacation, I compare to Apollo moon flight, lots of prep work. Then you just sit back and let the countdown
go to zero, blastoff.
It seems my previous trips, I make dozens of dining changes, this trip
none. I got everything I wanted at good
times 60 days out. Does that mean the
parks will be empty? I guess I will see
soon.