{"id":4636,"date":"2018-02-12T07:02:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T12:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/?p=4636"},"modified":"2018-01-24T21:47:00","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T02:47:00","slug":"staying-on-property-part-1-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/staying-on-property-part-1-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying On Property – Part 1: Planning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since we decided to activate our annual passes for a quick weekend trip in the summer, we decided to book a fall trip as well.  We planned to travel during a long school weekend in early November.  The girls had an early release on a Friday, plus the next Monday and Tuesday off from school.  If we could get down there on Friday, we could have four days in the parks!<\/p>\n

Flight<\/p>\n

Booking the flight portion of this trip turned out to be the easiest portion of the trip.  American Airlines had flights at the saver level on that Thursday.  The flight left from Dulles and went to Charlotte.  We would have to change planes for another flight to Orlando.  It was a bit of a long flight (as opposed to direct), but it was free.  The main problem was that if we wanted to use this itinerary, the girls would miss two half days of school.  We discussed it and decided that it wasn’t a huge amount of time away from school.  We booked the flights going down.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In order to get the flight coming back, we looked for one way flights coming back from Orlando to the Washington area.  We found a direct flight from Orlando to Reagan National, leaving at 9:00 pm and arriving at 11:10 pm.  The cost was just $84 a person.  We booked that flight at well.  We would end up with five full days in the parks, Friday through Tuesday (we would likely arrive too late on Thursday evening to visit one of the parks).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Lodging<\/p>\n

Since we were completely out of hotel points, we considered staying onsite for this visit.  Normally we stay offsite with points to cover the rooms (or make them less expensive) but need to get a rental car.   Staying onsite would require us to pay for a room, but we could use Disney transportation and avoid the expense of renting a car.  I thought finding a room onsite would be really easy, just get a room at Pop Century.  We like staying there, it is relatively cheap and its always available. <\/p>\n

You could have knocked me over after I put in the first search for rooms.  There were NO rooms available at the value resorts.  In fact, the only rooms available were very expensive Disney Vacation Club rooms, starting at $500 a night.  There were suites available at the Art of Animation for $350 a night.  At first, I couldn’t believe I was reading the information correctly.  I thought for sure I had entered the dates incorrectly.<\/p>\n

I changed the search dates to eliminate the first night, figuring we could stay at the airport Hyatt since we would be arriving late.  We could then take Magical Express early the next morning and start our vacation.  Using this method, I did manage to find a room at the Art of Animation in the Little Mermaid section.  I reserved the room and paid one night deposit.  I could always cancel the room and get my deposit back if I d canceled at least five nights before we arrived. <\/p>\n

After my initial search, I turned to one of our favorite lodging sources, renting Disney Vacation Club (DVC) points.  I placed a call to a friend that is a DVC owner to see if she could check availability for DVC studios before I attempted to rent them.  She let me know that it was a race weekend (Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon) and that was why I couldn’t find anything.  She did a quick scan and also couldn’t find anything.  That sealed that end of the search.<\/p>\n

I checked again on the Disney World web site and finally found a room!  It was even offered at a discount.  The room was at All Star Movies, which is a location we’ve stayed at before.  We really like the theme at this resort, even if I don’t particularly like the two double beds (I prefer queen beds).  The price for the room was $650, which isn’t horrible, especially considering we wouldn’t need a rental car.  I immediately booked this room and canceled the room at Art of Animation.    We had to pay for one night’s deposit.  I intended to pay for the rest of the room using Disney Gift Cards, purchased at a discount, of course!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

After confirming that our room was set, I went back to our room reservation and added Magical Express ground transportation.  I had to put in the airline flight information, but that was pretty straightforward.  There is no charge for the free shuttle service.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since we normally use a rental car to go offsite and get snacks and drinks, we would have to resort to other means to do that.  We planned to bring water bottles to the parks and refill them or to take an Uber for a quick trip to a local Target. We would just take Disney transportation around the parks, with an occasional taxi or Uber thrown in if we wanted to get somewhere in a hurry.<\/p>\n

After booking the travel portion, we waited to book FastPasses.  As Disney Annual Pass holders, we normally only get 30 days in advance to book our tickets.  Since we would be staying onsite this time, we get a full 60 days to plan our FastPasses.  Once our window was open, we booked our FastPasses, including snagging some for Flight of Passage!<\/p>\n

After we got our FastPasses, it was time to sit back and wait for our travel day to arrive!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since we decided to activate our annual passes for a quick weekend trip in the summer, we decided to book Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,15,7,6],"tags":[51,124],"class_list":["post-4636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disney-parks","category-flight-cost","category-hotel-cost","category-travel-cost","tag-american-airlines","tag-walt-disney-world","no-post-thumbnail","no-read-more-tag","no-sticky","use-excerpt","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4596,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/last-minute-trip-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":4636,"position":0},"title":"Last Minute Trip – Part 1 Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"October 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Planning | Travel | Animal Kingdom | Epcot | Magic Kingdom | Hollywood Studios | Summary We usually take a family trip each summer.\u00a0 For various reasons this past summer, we hadn't planned anything and the days were beginning to wear on us.\u00a0 So, with less than 7 days notice,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disney Parks"","block_context":{"text":"Disney Parks","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-parks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/map2.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/map2.gif?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/map2.gif?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4972,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/staying-on-property-part-4-return-travel\/","url_meta":{"origin":4636,"position":1},"title":"Staying On Property – Part 4 Return Travel","author":"Joseph","date":"February 26, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"We had checked out of our room at the All-Star Movies resort in the morning before we headed off to the parks.\u00a0 We didn't quite know what to do with our bags though.\u00a0 We could have checked them through to the airlines, but didn't want to do that because the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disney Parks"","block_context":{"text":"Disney Parks","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-parks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Magical Express Picks Up Near Bells Services","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6542-576x1024.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6542-576x1024.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_6542-576x1024.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4484,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/march-23-2018-spring-break-cruise-part-1-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":4636,"position":2},"title":"March 23, 2018 Spring Break Cruise, Part 1: Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"October 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The Disney Cruise Line Spring 2018 itineraries were released near the end of October 2016.\u00a0 We started scanning them as soon as they came out because we knew our Spring break trip for that year would be a DCL cruise.\u00a0 We eventually decided to go back on the Magic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disney Cruise"","block_context":{"text":"Disney Cruise","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-cruise\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8145-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8145-1024x768.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/IMG_8145-1024x768.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10100,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/08-14-2019-alaska-cruise-part-1-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":4636,"position":3},"title":"08-14-2019 Alaska Cruise, Part 1: Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"December 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 For the summer of 2019, we had originally decided on a 10-night Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic.\u00a0 As we got into the Summer of 2018, we came to the conclusion that we couldn't make the cruise work with our schedule and our budget.\u00a0 We already had a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Royal Caribbean"","block_context":{"text":"Royal Caribbean","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/royal-caribbean\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":805,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/updated-jacksonville-special\/","url_meta":{"origin":4636,"position":4},"title":"Updated Jacksonville Special","author":"Joseph","date":"March 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Before our summer trip to Universal and Walt Disney World, we started thinking about converting our Disney tickets to annual passes.\u00a0 In order to justify the cost, we needed to see if we could add some additional trips in throughout the year.\u00a0 One way we could keep the cost down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disney Parks"","block_context":{"text":"Disney Parks","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-parks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"fp-2-signed-in","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-1024x707.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-1024x707.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-2-signed-in-1024x707.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11087,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/walt-disney-world-solo-trip-part-1-planning-and-travel\/","url_meta":{"origin":4636,"position":5},"title":"Walt Disney World Solo Trip, Part 1: Planning and Travel","author":"Joseph","date":"February 29, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"*The other half of the Back to the Mouse trip planning duo, Nancy, shares her experiences on a solo trip to Disney in December 2019* In the fall of 2019, my family asked me for ideas about celebrating a big birthday milestone.\u00a0 After considering several options, I asked if I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disney Parks"","block_context":{"text":"Disney Parks","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/disney-parks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Picking Park Tickets","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-7-1024x707.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-7-1024x707.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/fp-7-1024x707.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peu3ZL-1cM","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4636"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5479,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4636\/revisions\/5479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}