🦙Live from Utopia 🦙- Sailing with Daryl 🦙8/2-8/5 🏰with bonus feature of a week at Disney Parks post cruise🏰

[h20skibum]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

Enjoy the Mouse.  Hopefully Debbie is out of your way by tomorrow and leaves some slightly cooler temps in her wake.

Hope she doesn’t cause too many problems up your way.  It isn’t bad at the moment here.  
 

Laundry is done, lunch finished at the lodge, and we are headed to Disney Springs. 

[Luckynana]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

We are off to see the Mouse.  

 

We parted ways with our daughter and her family.  They are going to the beach for the week, and we are taking our California grandson to the Disney parks.  

 

We booked our week at Disney Parks at the end of January.  I mean, it would be crazy to fly to Florida for just a 3 day cruise.  Our home for the Disney week will be at the Wilderness Lodge.  

I'm glad your cruise was such a great success!  I would imagine that your daughter is now sold on cruising again??

Have a wonderful time in Disney.  My daughter and her family stayed at Wilderness Lodge and loved it!  Enjoy!

[Luckynana]

3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

 

Laundry is done, lunch finished at the lodge, and we are headed to Disney Springs. 

Wow!  You guys don't fool around!  Enjoy your day!

[h20skibum]

16 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

 The ship collects and then holds onto the kids birth certificates until the cruise is over?

No, you keep them with you and you just have to show them on the way out. Since our grandson was traveling with a BC, we went through that line.  They did scrutinize my passport because it looked like a shadow behind my head. 
 

I told them it was probably just my halo, because I am such an angel. 

[h20skibum]

23 minutes ago, Luckynana said:

I'm glad your cruise was such a great success!  I would imagine that your daughter is now sold on cruising again??

Have a wonderful time in Disney.  My daughter and her family stayed at Wilderness Lodge and loved it!  Enjoy!

Yeah, I think she would go again.  The grandkids all loved it.  They are already talking about wanting to go on another cruise next year.  They also think 3 days on a ship is too short.  They want at least seven. 
 

They were eyeing up Star.  Is that one going to do 7 days?

[h20skibum]

Planning for Disney now is such a PITA.  And, it is such a huge expense for families, not to mention the stress to try to see and do things. 

 

My first trip to Disney was not long after the park opened in the early 70’s.  For the outrageous sum of $5.95, we got park entry and ticket books for eight rides. 

 

A day at Disney with a couple fraternity brothers on our road trip to the Orange Bowl. 

 

JB and CB with Peppy. 

 

[#55worktoplay]

45 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

Hope she doesn’t cause too many problems up your way.  It isn’t bad at the moment here.  
 

Laundry is done, lunch finished at the lodge, and we are headed to Disney Springs. 

If you don’t mint could you share some pics of the Lodge public areas if you have time

[h20skibum]

Fast forward to our honeymoon in 1980, and we included a Disney package after that cruise on Norway.  They were still using tickets then. 
 

 

 

[h20skibum]

When we traveled south for Christmas breaks and our kids were young, we incorporated park visits on those trips.  As I recall, those didn’t take a lot of planning. 

 

Now, my head is spinning.  Had to learn about booking dining, genie+, lightning lane, individual lightning lane, virtual queues, park hopping, dining plan, dining credits, and on and on and on. 🤪

 

I started researching in February, and made a list of rides we wanted to try in each park. 
 

 

[h20skibum]

Since the two grandkids,who are not going along on this part of the trip, had been to Disney a couple times, I had them go over my ride list to see if there were any others their cousin might like.  

 

Of course, now I have all the park maps printed, with those places circled. 
 

 

These were just planning sheets to get ready to list them in the My Disney Experience app.  Yes, there is an app for that. 

[h20skibum]

I watched tons of videos, and read up on the popular dining venues.  Started putting reminders on my phone……. 

 

(X) - 75 days before arrival, they will list park hours.  

 

(X) - 60 days before arrival, dining is open for booking. 

 

When we booked, Disney was running a special that included the Disney Dining Plan for free if you were a Disney+ subscriber.  Since Disney+ is one of the perks of my phone plan, this looked like a good deal to save on food and drink. 

 

Essentially, the dining plan includes this. 

 

 

 

[firefly333]

9 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

I watched tons of videos, and read up on the popular dining venues.  Started putting reminders on my phone……. 

 

(X) - 75 days before arrival, they will list park hours.  

 

(X) - 60 days before arrival, dining is open for booking. 

 

When we booked, Disney was running a special that included the Disney Dining Plan for free if you were a Disney+ subscriber.  Since Disney+ is one of the perks of my phone plan, this looked like a good deal to save on food and drink. 

 

Essentially, the dining plan includes this. 

 

 

 

You are one brave grandpa to plan disney. My head would be spinning.

[h20skibum]

So now I know what days the parks are open, and which ones are open early and late.  

 

Alarm was set to be sure I was up at 6am, and ready to book dining 60 days out.  One benefit of staying at one of the deluxe Disney Resorts was that you could book dining for every day of your stay. 

 

I had checked at 61 days out, and nope, you couldn’t book dining yet. 

 

That night, I wrote down the places we wanted to eat, and what parks we needed for those dates.  

Edited August 5 by h20skibum

[bobmacliberty]

Disney has just become insane...both the complexity and the cost.  I can't imagine a family of 4 now spending a week vacation there.  

 

[h20skibum]

6 am at 60 days out, and all the days of our stay became available to book. 

 

 

The advantage of staying at the Disney resort is you can book dining further out than those not on property.  

 

Of course, the disadvantage is all those people, with stays that started earlier than ours, had already booked many of the popular places that we had planned for early in our stay.  

 

We did get all the restaurants we wanted, and close to the times we wanted, but I now had to change what days we would go to the different parks.  

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

When we traveled south for Christmas breaks and our kids were young, we incorporated park visits on those trips.  As I recall, those didn’t take a lot of planning. 

 

Now, my head is spinning.  Had to learn about booking dining, genie+, lightning lane, individual lightning lane, virtual queues, park hopping, dining plan, dining credits, and on and on and on. 🤪

 

I started researching in February, and made a list of rides we wanted to try in each park. 
 

 

Ahhh, but we 9+ anal people love pre-planning.

 

Disney planning is a totally different beast compared to cruise planning.

 

How many versions of the schedule did you go through? The last time we went to WDW back in 2018, it was with my in-laws, brother-in-law's family, and my wife's friend's family of 4 so I had to plan for a very large group.

 

I sent everyone a weekly update of the schedule so they know what's happening - I'm sure they deleted the email without ever opening it. 

 

I think my anal score jumped up to 9.8165 at that point. I know it's hard to imagine but I have since mellowed out in my old age...🤪

 

 

 

I am looking forward to this part of the report. I can read cruise reports regularly here but seldom get to read WDW reports.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BonTexasNY]

2 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Planning for Disney now is such a PITA.  And, it is such a huge expense for families, not to mention the stress to try to see and do things. 

 

My first trip to Disney was not long after the park opened in the early 70’s.  For the outrageous sum of $5.95, we got park entry and ticket books for eight rides. 

 

A day at Disney with a couple fraternity brothers on our road trip to the Orange Bowl. 

 

JB and CB with Peppy. 

 

Looks like you have some nice Disney memories. The guy on the left in the picture, not holding his nose, looks like Chevy Chase.  Is that you?

[Sea Dog]

3 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Planning for Disney now is such a PITA.  And, it is such a huge expense for families, not to mention the stress to try to see and do things. 

 

My first trip to Disney was not long after the park opened in the early 70’s.  For the outrageous sum of $5.95, we got park entry and ticket books for eight rides. 

 

A day at Disney with a couple fraternity brothers on our road trip to the Orange Bowl. 

 

JB and CB with Peppy. 

 

 

I was so lucky for so many years to go to Disneyland and Disney World for free. As a member of an ABC owned affiliate television station which is owned by Disney  I could get up to 4 tickets free every time we visited. It saved us so much money. When we would take Jonathan a couple of times he was under three which would get him in for free.  We would take the extra two tickets and just give them away to some random family walking up to the ticket booth. I can't tell you the joy I saw on their faces to get two free tickets.

[Momof3gurlz]

2 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

Disney has just become insane...both the complexity and the cost.  I can't imagine a family of 4 now spending a week vacation there.  

 

You’re absolutely right. The amount of planning required now is insane. I leave any plans up to my daughters, but since we go often we’re able to play it more by ear. I feel for families who might be making it a once in a lifetime trip and all the pressure to fit everything in.  
 

@h20skibum Mark, you and Susan are going to need a vacation from your vacation 😂! 

[DelMom18a]

3 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Ahhh, but we 9+ anal people love pre-planning.

 

Disney planning is a totally different beast compared to cruise planning.

 

How many versions of the schedule did you go through? The last time we went to WDW back in 2018, it was with my in-laws, brother-in-law's family, and my wife's friend's family of 4 so I had to plan for a very large group.

 

I sent everyone a weekly update of the schedule so they know what's happening - I'm sure they deleted the email without ever opening it. 

 

I think my anal score jumped up to 9.8165 at that point. I know it's hard to imagine but I have since mellowed out in my old age...🤪

 

 

 

I am looking forward to this part of the report. I can read cruise reports regularly here but seldom get to read WDW reports.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 5 by DelMom18a

[DelMom18a]

 

The first time we took my kids, we were 4 adults and 3 four year olds and one 10 year old.  Pre-internet or cell phones.  My BIL had one of those bag phones in the car.  Anyway, we planned everything by the minute.  How long each ride was, how long the pre-ride show was, how long it would take on the buses......  Absolutely crazy but it worked and we all had a good time!

[jmh2006]

@h20skibum  Thanks for live report from Utopia Mark!  I just got caught up and so enjoyed Daryl's adventures!  Will he be meeting up with Mickey and Minnie?

[h20skibum]

6 hours ago, #55worktoplay said:

If you don’t mint could you share some pics of the Lodge public areas if you have time

Haven’t taken many yet. This is the view of the inside of the main lodge from the 6th floor. 
 

 

Our room

 

 

a d the view from our room

 

[h20skibum]

5 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I can't imagine a family of 4 now spending a week vacation there.  

 
My daughter did it a couple times with her kids.  Now we are doing it, essentially as a family of three.  I do admit, the pricing is insane. 

[h20skibum]

4 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

I am looking forward to this part of the report. I can read cruise reports regularly here but seldom get to read WDW reports.

Glad to have you along for this part of the trip.  As a Disney expert, be sure to point out where I made my mistakes.