Our Retirement/Birthday Trip- The Plans!

[sydney]

After being able to pick fast passes this week, everything is all planned for our next trip! The following are all the details:

Travelers on this trip will be myself and DH. We've only done one other trip just the two of us- last year for our 22nd anniversary in Jan. Every other trip has been with our two boys- now 23 and 19- and two times we've taken their girlfriends too. This trip is to celebrate my official retirement from JCPenney after exactly 22 years on April 20 and DH's 42nd birthday on April 25. I will still be working at my current full time job as the office and sales manager at a cotton candy & candy apple factory, where I've been since last May. I was planning to retire from JCP this year anyway, but this opportunity came by way of one of my former managers last year and I couldn't pass it up. So I've been working during the week there and then weekends at JCP. It was worth doing to keep my pension and retirement from there, and I've been telling myself "You get to go to WDW!" so that's kept me going!

Our first day we will get up, eat breakfast at home, load the vehicle, and hit the road by around 8:00. We'll stop per tradition at Whataburger in Jacksonville, wave "Hi!" to Dave and his family, and get back on the road for another couple hours till we arrive at the Yacht Club Resort between 3:00 and 4:00. We have never stayed here before so I am super excited. Years ago I would have said it was too stuffy for our tastes, but after having visited when we stayed at Boardwalk last year I think we are going to really enjoy it. I like that it's a little more of a grown up vibe and the location will be perfect. We will be spending quite a bit of time at DHS for Star Wars and Epcot with the Flower & Garden Festival. We have dinner reservations at 6:05 at Ale & Compass (new) then we'll probably walk or boat (DH loves the Friendship boats) over to DHS or Epcot to activate our military salute tickets and get back for a good night's sleep.

Day 2 is AK day. We have breakfast at Boma at 8:30 so we'll bus to AK, then to AKL, then back to AK. We have FP for Safari at 11:20 and Navi River at 12:20. I tried to get Flight of Passage FP but since it is our first day and others had been able to book days or a week out they were already all booked. We'll either do stand by in between or wait till later in the day. Lunch will be at Satu'li Canteen (new). Next FP is Kali River at 3:20, then we have dinner at Restarauntosaurus for the burgers and sundae dinner at 6:00 (new). I'm not sure if we'll stay till closing at 8:00- it just depends on if we get to do everything we want. We may hop to Epcot before it closes at 9:00.

Day 3 is Epcot day. Breakfast is at Ale & Compass at 8:15 then we can just walk in the International Gateway. We have FP for Soarin' at 10:15, Spaceship Earth at 11:15, and Figment at 1:05. We'll likely do everything we want in Future World in the morning then head over to World Showcase for the afternoon and evening. Lunch and dinner will be eating at all the food booths for Flower & Garden Festival! We went to the festival in 2016 when younger DS was with us and really enjoyed it. There's EMH at Epcot from 9-11 too, so we'll be able to get in any rides we may have missed.

Day 4 is MK day. We have pre-park opening breakfast at The Plaza at 7:55. Last year they had just started this breakfast here and I booked it last minute for the two of us. It turned out to be really good so I went for it again. Last time it was right about at park opening but this time a full hour earlier so it'll be nice to enter when it's all quiet. We have FP for Buzz at 9:15, Peter Pan at 10:20, and BTMRR at11:50. DS1's GF works at 7DMT so she said not to book FP for it- she'd get us on. For lunch we plan to do Sleepy Hollow (I love their chicken waffle sandwich but DH has never had it) and dinner will be Pecos Bill's (probably our favorite CS). MK also has EMH 9-11 so we should be able to do just about everything we want.

Day 5 is a down day. We'll get up whenever and eat breakfast at Beach Club Marketplace (tried it when we stayed at BWI) then chill at Stormalong Bay. When we get hungry for lunch we can eat at Hurricane Hannah's. After the pool we'll get cleaned up and head to DS to do a little shopping. We have dinner at The Edison (new) at 6:00. Then we want to get back for a good night's sleep because we have to be up early the next morning.

Day 6 is DHS day. We plan to grab a quick bite at Boardwalk Bakery- which may actually be purchased the night before and kept in our room so we can eat while getting ready. We need to be at DHS early so we can get in at opening to get a boarding group for RotR! Normally we are not about getting up early on vacation, and even though DH is a huge Star Wars fan he is still questioning this. Once we get our boarding group the plan will be to get in stand by line for Slinky Dog while it's not sweltering hot. The whole tier FP at DHS is slightly annoying, but it is fair. We have FP for ToT at 10:45 (though I'll likely be riding alone- but I love it that much that I don't mind!) and lunch at Sci-fi at 12:10- the only meal DH specifically asked for on this trip. We have FP for Smuggler's Run at 2:05 (can't wait!) and Indy at 4:15. For dinner we're going to try Woody's Lunchbox since we didn't get to last trip. DHS closes at 8:30 but depending on how tired we are we may turn in early. Hopefully we'll get our boarding group called and get to ride RotR this day!

Day 6 is DH's birthday! We'll grab breakfast at Market at Ale & Compass then head to DHS again. Our FP's are for RnR at 10:15, Mickey & Minnie RR at 12:00 (can't wait for this one either!) and Toy Story MM at 1:00. After that it will be HD's choice wherever we go. We may hop to AK just to do a Safari. We may hop to Epcot for lunch. We'll likely end the evening at MK riding HM and PotC and getting a Dole Whip!

Day 7 will be departure day. Not sure where we'll eat breakfast yet since we have lots of choices around the Epcot resort area. Normally we leave on a Saturday so we've gone to see a movie, hung out more at the resort, or shopped at DHS before heading home in the past. This time we're leaving on a Sunday and have to be back to work on Monday, so we'll likely hit the road right after check out.

I've got trading pins ordered so we'll have plenty of fun doing that on this trip too. I picked up a few new Disney tees on clearance last fall, DH got me a "the Child" Mandolorian shirt and socks for Christmas, and my mom got me one for my birthday last week too that has the 4 park icons and says "Never Grow Up." I used gift cards I got for my birthday to get a new pair of good shoes that I will wear for work but I am saving to use first on this trip. My brother and sis-in-law sent me a cute Mickey & Minnie tote bag and a glass that says "I'm Done Adulting, I'm Going to Disney" so those are coming with me too. 56 more days!!!

[Dave]

WOW! Planned to the minute. We usually plan like that and then change things on the fly depending on how we feel at the time. It sounds like a wonderful trip. Have fun planning and wearing your new shoes and shirts. If you don't get some pins that you want, let me know. I still have a couple of bags of pins that I haven't gone through. Glad to know about breakfast at The Plaza. We had Plaza ressies for breakfast on the trip we canceled. I hope those 56 days go by quickly for you.
I'll be watching for your wave at Whataburger. I promise I'll wave back.

[ilovdisney]

It sounds like it’s going to be a great time.

[sydney]

Update to the plans: Well, today we should be departing for the happiest place on Earth, but instead are stuck at home. Thankfully we all still have our health, so I really can't complain. We did already purchase our 5 day military salute park tickets, and they have to be used by Dec. so I went ahead and rescheduled the trip. After going the last two summers with the boys and their girlfriends- because that's when we could get everyone together- we said never again if we can help it because it's just too hot, even for us Southerners! Even tough I'm going to be officially retired from JCPenney, which opens up different times I can now take off work, our busiest time at my new job is mid Sept.-the first part of Nov. Ron and I decided we wanted to go while it was still warm enough to wear shirts and so we can swim, so I picked the week after Labor Day (want to avoid those crowds too). When I initially called to change the reservation I did have the CM check other dates from Sept., and in Nov. and Dec. trying to get Yacht or Beach Club so we could be close to Epcot for Food & Wine and DHS for Star Wars but nothing was available with the military rate. They checked the other deluxes we haven't stayed at but they were the larger higher priced rooms that were available or club level, which we wouldn't really take advantage of the perks for. So we're doing something kind of new but it is Ron's favorite moderate. We got a king bed tower room at Coronado. I was able to get all of our same dining reservations at almost the exact same times too. The ones I changer are Ale & Compass because we won't be at Yacht Club. For the breakfast one we'll just eat at our resort counter service and for arrival night I booked Grand Floridian Café. I figured we have to activate our tickets at a park so we can head to MK to do that then hop on the monorail to go eat at GF. I can't make FP picks until July but I'll be up early to get that done and hopefully get just as lucky.

[Dave]

I'm so glad you were able to get the dining ressies. Is your Coronado Springs Ressie in the new building? Our favorite moderate is Coronado Springs but we haven't stayed in the new building yet. Have you eaten at the GF Café? We try to eat breakfast there at least every other trip. Sorry you weren't able to get YC or BC, but at least you are going to go.

I'm going to try to convince DW to go this year. We didn't go last year because she "just didn't want to". We had all of our resort and dining ressies, MVMCP tickets and FP's and had to cancel every thing . We gave our MVMCP tickets to our niece. It was her first time and she really enjoyed it.

Please keep us up to date on your FP's.

[sydney]

We got our Magic Bands already! They arrived in the mail yesterday. Usually we get them about three weeks out, but this time it's three months out. That just gives me more time to paint them! I'm doing something Star Wars themed so I will post pictures once they are done.
I also learned that Disney has decided to extend military tickets- instead of expiring Dec. 2020 they will expire Sept. 2021. I told this to Ron but he's still on board with going this year (I think he really wants a vacation and he knows how badly I want to go- gotta love him!).

[Dave]

That's a good extension on the tickets. Now you can go twice or three times! Can't wait to see the magic bands when you have them painted. I doubt if we'll go this year. DW is still worried about COVID-16. I'm almost ready to take a chance. I know WDW has new rules. I can obey the rules. Tell me what they are and get out of my way.

[sydney]

Jun 15, 2020 20:12:41 GMT -5 Dave said:

That's a good extension on the tickets. Now you can go twice or three times! Can't wait to see the magic bands when you have them painted. I doubt if we'll go this year. DW is still worried about COVID-16. I'm almost ready to take a chance. I know WDW has new rules. I can obey the rules. Tell me what they are and get out of my way.

Dave- the extension doesn't mean we can go multiple times (I wish!) but just that we have till next year to use them. No way I can wait that long though!

[sydney]

Yesterday morning I was on my computer at 7 am to reserve park dates- apparently along with every other person in the world! After it stalling for 20 minutes I gave up and went to work. I was busy all day but had the page pulled up so every time I had a spare second I'd try to log in, only to have it waiting on a page with a picture of the castle, then Stitch eventually popping up to say someone ate the page. I worked late so I didn't get to my home computer till after dinner around 7:00 and was happy to be able to log right in! All the parks we wanted on the days we wanted were available- yippee! After I consulted with Ron, and Jared even though he's not going, we found a good order to go in based on the new park hours. So we've got arrival date, AK, MK, Epcot, pool/Disney Springs day, DHS, then final day at MK, and departure day. I saw a list of what resorts will be opening on what dates, and it looks like CSR won't be open until Oct. So it looks like we'll be moving resorts again! We're going to wait to see where Disney offers to move us, then if we're not liking it ask to switch to somewhere else and pay the difference. I already had enough saved up to stay at YC anyway, but I'm up for a surprise!

[sydney]

Update for our trip! So originally I was going to wait to see where Disney would put us once I found out CSR wouldn't be open ( I assume because they are putting the NBA players there and YC and GF). But on our dog walk yesterday Ron suggested I try to call before all the military rate spots are taken everywhere. I tried a couple times when we got home but kept getting the message "all circuits busy, try again later." Oh well, maybe I'll try this weekend, I thought. But before going to bed I tried one more time, and the message to put my info in came on, and less than a minute after being on hold I was transferred to a wonderful CM! She happened to be from upstate SC and knew exactly where we live. I explained our situation and she checked to see where they were recommending us move. It was CBR, but like when I originally tried to move, the only option at the military rate was a pirate room- meaning double beds. She offered to look at what deluxes were available for an upcharge, and there were quite a few available. Since Beach Club was one I had her check and for just 20% more than what we booked CSR for we could get a garden view room- and it was 18% cheaper than what we had booked at YC! (On a whim I also had her check Poly, but that was 35% more than CSR, so we'll save that for another time). So now we'll be at BC for our trip and I'm so excited to try somewhere new and be so close to two parks. I have to go figure out dining plans since we can make those choices in 18 days! Yipee!

[ilovdisney]

I like the Beach Club . While most rave about the pool, I don’t think it’s special since we the beach,I do love the part that goes round and round. Don’t need to do anything just float. Were you able to reserve park days?

[sydney]

Jul 3, 2020 20:57:03 GMT -5 ilovdisney said:

I like the Beach Club . While most rave about the pool, I don’t think it’s special since we the beach,I do love the part that goes round and round. Don’t need to do anything just float. Were you able to reserve park days?

Yep! Originally we were going to do AK, Epcot, MK, pool/shopping day, DHS, then DHS in the morning and hop the rest of our last day, that all changed with only being able to do one park per day. We honestly would have probably hopped every day by spending our evening somewhere different than the day. Because the hours are so different we planned around that. Since AK is open 8-6 we made that our first park day. We'll arrive the afternoon before between 3-4, unpack, go have dinner (Ale & Compass* or Beaches and Cream*) and activate our military tickets at a park entrance, and get to bed relatively early, so we can then get up early, be in AK at opening and grab something quick for breakfast there. Lunch will be Satuli Canteen* and then we'll head back to our resort for a dinner around 7 pm at Ale & Compass* or Beaches & CReam*, whichever we don't do the night before. Day 2 we switched to MK, again because they have earlier hours 9-7. I wanted to go to Capt. Cook's at Poly for breakfast (I love Tonga Toast, Ron loves their breakfast burrito), but it seems you can't go to another resort unless you have a reservation, so we'll either do Kona or maybe The Plaza at MK if they are doing pre-park opening breakfasts, because I don't want to waste too much park time eating. Day 3 will be Epcot and since they are open 11-9 I thought this would be a good day for Boma breakfast. We can drive over, eat and visit the animals, come back to BC and walk over to Epcot. For food we'll be snacking at all the festival booths, since they're combining Flower & Garden with Food & Wine. We've done both, so this should be interesting. Day 4 will be chilling, so Beach Club Marketplace for breakfast followed by lounging at Stormalong Bay. Of course we have to try the water slide but I see a lot of time in the lazy river for us! For lunch we'll probably just grab something at Hurricane Hanna's* (funny because Hannah is our dog's name) so we can eat outside. Eventually we'll get cleaned up and head to Disney Springs for some shopping then dinner at The Edsion* around 6 pm, then more shopping. Day 5 will be DHS which is open 10-8. Since we can walk, boat, or Skyliner over I though maybe we'd try breakfast around 8 am at Ale & Compass*. We definitely want to do Sci-Fi for lunch (Ron's only food request) then we'll try Woody's Lunchbox* for dinner. Day 6 will be our last day so we decided we're going to spend it at MK. We'll grab breakfast at Boardwalk Bakery and head to MK for opening to be there all day 9-7. I want to get a reservation for Skipper Canteen*for lunch then just do cs for dinner at like Friar's Nook or Columbia Harbor or Gaston's. On our last day we'll pack up, grab breakfast at BC or YC Market, maybe hit DS if there's anything we want to buy, then head home. I don't want to get back too late since it's a Sunday and we'll both have to work the next day. In about a week and a half I can make dining picks so I'll update what we end up getting!
*=new to try

[sydney]

I got to make ADR's on Wed. Although some of the places we were originally booked for are not going to be open because they are limiting how many restaurants they will use or like Boma, they won't want buffets open for health and safety reasons, I was able to get some pretty good ones. This is literally the 3rd time I have booked dining for this trip, so let's hope it sticks this time!
*= new for us

Arrival day:
breakfast at home
lunch at Whataburger in Jacksonville
dinner at 6:00 at The Grand Floridian Café* (we'll activate our military tickets at MK before this)

AK day (8-6):
breakfast at AK cs- probably Isle of Java
lunch at Satuli Canteen*
dinner at Beaches & Cream* at 6:15 (it was the best time I could get, but I will try to push it back if I can)

MK day (9-7):
breakfast at Beach Club Market
lunch at Jungle Navigation* at 12:55
dinner at Friar's Nook* or Gaston's*

Epoct day (11-9):
breakfast at Kona Café at 9:05
lunch & dinner eating at the booths for International Food & Wine Festival

Down day:
breakfast at Beach Club Market
lunch at Hurricane Hanna's*
dinner at City Works Eatery & Pour House* at 6:00 (highly recommended by Taylor)

DHS day (10-8):
breakfast at Boardwalk Bakery
lunch at 50's Prime Time at 1:00 (Sci-Fi was completely booked !)
dinner at Woody's Lunchbox*

MK day (9-7):
breakfast at Whispering Canyon at 9:00
lunch at Sleepy Hollow
dinner at Pecos Bill's

Departure day:
breakfast at Beach Club Market

We'll be leaving on a Sunday, so we'll probably get on the road after breakfast to get back sooner. I can't wait!!!

[Dave]

Everything sounds great. You have ressies at several restaurants / CS where we have never eaten. Based on your previous great trip reports, I expect that you will have a full description of the food and service. We have eaten at places you said were good, and have never been disappointed.

Different subject: our niece and her family got a large box of cotton candy this week. They were thrilled. They were like kids on Christmas day. I think I'll do that for other family / friends. No reason, just because.

[sydney]

Another change! We got an email yesterday saying that Beach Club would be closed during our upcoming stay (some other resorts have also pushed back their openings), and that they would contact us to make changes. I was too busy at work to address it, so I called Disney when I got home. I didn't want to wait for them to contact us, because even though the email said there would be no additional charges to move, I didn't want to get stuck being moved to somewhere we didn't get to choose. I was surprised I only had about a five minute wait before a really nice and helpful CM answered. I explained that this was now the fourth different resort we were trying to pick, and since we were now at BC he suggested he try to find a spot at YC. I wasn't holding out hope since I was originally told there were no military rate rooms available, which I explained to him just so he knew. He took a second and found garden/woods view room that he said they would change to the military rate so we'd be paying the same rate we currently had at BC! So now we've come full circle, from YC, to CSR, to BC, back to YC! While he was typing the info up to send to guest services (they are the ones that actually have to change the rate) he was chatting with me about how Disney made the decisions about not opening as many resorts right away because they don't need the capacity, and they are trying to distance certain areas, like the Boardwalk, by only having YC, BC Villas, and BW Villas open.