Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Back To Disney We Go! February/March 2022

[caitlinsmummy]

Hope everyone is ok, not sure about you guys but I can't believe we're into May already! Total madness.

Just a little update. We didn't book our Disney part of the stay as we're waiting for Port Orleans Riverside to open back up again ... BUT ... We've been talking and I am really tempted to see about extending the villa hire to 3 weeks instead.

I've been trying to weigh up the pros and cons of staying onsite to justify the price difference as prices for next year are shocking. I've also looked at renting DVC too.

Pros

Onsite Moderate

• Disney transport to parks
• Extra magic hours
• 60 day fastpasses
• Disney bubble
• Deposit and can cancel closer to the time

Onsite DVC

• Stay in a Deluxe
• 1 sofabed and 1 murphy bed to pull down daily
• Extra magic hours
• 60 day fastpasses
• Free parking
• Disney Bubble

Villa

• Around £1500 cheaper (more spends)
• Own space

Cons

Onsite moderate

• Around £1500 more expensive than villa
• Still need to pay car parking $22 per day
• No guarantee extra magic hours and fastpasses will be back to normal

Onsite DVC

• Around £600 more expensive than villa
• No guarantee extra magic hours and fastpasses will be back to normal
• Needs to be booked ASAP and can't cancel

Cons

• Daily travel to parks
• Villa may not have availability
• It's not the Disney bubble

My head is totally mashed with it all and Chris isn't much help. What would you guys do? X

[Milpston]

We had some similar decisions for next year.
Looked seriously at renting DVC which I think is the best option for a Disney stay at current prices. However, with so many holidays cancelled I did just feel it could be throwing a lot of money away... however the slim the chances of it happening again.
I couldn’t get away from the fact the moderates are a lot of money for what you actually get.
We opted for a villa for the length of our orlando stay. We have gone for a villa on Windsor Hills. We have 6 bedrooms, our own pool and plenty of amenities on the ‘resort’ if we want them. The kicker for me was that it’s so close I’ve worked out we can get an Uber or lift to the parks and back for a similar cost to the Disney parking so we can drive or not depending on what suits us that day. We preferred driving to mk and ak when we stayed at bc anyway so it doesn’t really make any odds to us. The villa we are in will offer us so many more positives than we would get by staying on site... for us, on site just makes no sense without the DDP... but I do get the draw for many as well.

[Elsa42]

Hey! I hope your ok? Sorry to see your trip was cancelled again but so glad to see you’ve rebooked for 2022! We’ve just done the same thing!
I know how you feel about the choice between the villa and staying onsite it’s a tough choice. The money side of things being cheaper is so appealing but it’s always so magical staying onsite. I’d be swinging more towards the villa for those extra spends means you can maybe do something extra or have a nice meal somewhere! Look forward to reading more 😁

[caitlinsmummy]

Originally Posted by Milpston

We had some similar decisions for next year.
Looked seriously at renting DVC which I think is the best option for a Disney stay at current prices. However, with so many holidays cancelled I did just feel it could be throwing a lot of money away... however the slim the chances of it happening again.
I couldn’t get away from the fact the moderates are a lot of money for what you actually get.
We opted for a villa for the length of our orlando stay. We have gone for a villa on Windsor Hills. We have 6 bedrooms, our own pool and plenty of amenities on the ‘resort’ if we want them. The kicker for me was that it’s so close I’ve worked out we can get an Uber or lift to the parks and back for a similar cost to the Disney parking so we can drive or not depending on what suits us that day. We preferred driving to mk and ak when we stayed at bc anyway so it doesn’t really make any odds to us. The villa we are in will offer us so many more positives than we would get by staying on site... for us, on site just makes no sense without the DDP... but I do get the draw for many as well.

See more...

This is exactly how I feel. It's such a minefield with the uncertainty still isn't it?

That's really good and yep that's what I said, without the dining plan it's so expensive!

Originally Posted by Elsa42

Hey! I hope your ok? Sorry to see your trip was cancelled again but so glad to see you’ve rebooked for 2022! We’ve just done the same thing!
I know how you feel about the choice between the villa and staying onsite it’s a tough choice. The money side of things being cheaper is so appealing but it’s always so magical staying onsite. I’d be swinging more towards the villa for those extra spends means you can maybe do something extra or have a nice meal somewhere! Look forward to reading more 😁

See more...

Hey we are thank you, I hope you guys are too! Fingers crossed for your trip. I really can't wait to start seeing trip reports again on here! That's what we were thinking too. We're going to sit and go through it properly this weekend.

Not sure if you guys seen today's announcement of a dining spends offer on being released on Thursday

I'm really hoping that this is where they're going to announce the reopening of Port Orleans. I contacted the villa and they only have the 3 days prior to our stay available to book. So we've decided to see what offer comes out on Thursday for Disney and the prices. If it's not within our budget I think we're going to book a hotel on I-Drive for the first 4 days then add the extra 3 days onto the villa if the Disney offer doesn't suit.

The offer for those who don't know is 14 days for the price of 7 on tickets, free memory maker and up to $950 dining credit. From the T&Cs I think it's around $61 a night for moderates. I know it's not as good as the free dining plan, but we had lots of credits leftover from our stay before so this might be a better option and we won't feel like we're wasting credits.

Anyway Thursday will tell more x

[caitlinsmummy]

Hi everyone, I hope you're all keeping well! We're all still in limbo still keeping everything crossed that things start opening up again soon so we can all get back to our happy place

Life Update

Not a huge lot to update, we're all ok. Just preparing for back to school in the next week or so. Noah starts year 4 tomorrow, Thomas year 8 a week today and Caitlin year 10 a week tomorrow. Mr Grump is doing ok, full of busy with weddings again after all the cancellations from last year. I am STILL working from home We were told September so just awaiting to find out more in next weeks managers meeting. Fingers crossed we'll be back in the office in the next few weeks (or rather I'll get to go to the office!)

We haven't done too much trip wise this year. We went to Alton Towers in July for a few nights which we all really enjoyed. We typically choose to go the week when we had the heatwave hitting 30C heat in a hotel with no aircon

Now onto the trip updates ...

Trip Updates

So we weighed up the pros and cons and decided to extend the villa stay from 14 nights to 21. Sadly they were only available for 17 nights so we've booked that and booked 4 nights at the Holiday Inn at Lake Buena Vista at the start of our trip.

After the most recent announcement from Disney regarding the changes to onsite stays I must say I am glad we didn't book. It really is not worth it for us to stay on site anymore which is very sad. Staying onsite now would incur parking charges, no FP's, no extra magic hours in moderates, no free dining. Such a shame really. Maybe in the next few years if they bring back free dining we might reconsider it.

We're trying to stay optimistic for February but deep down inside something tells me we still won't make it ... I suppose that the pessimist in me If I set myself up for the worst I don't feel as bad when it happens Chris thinks things will be fine in a few months ... we shall see x

[Rescuer]

Hi Kelly

Nice to read your pre trip report.

We will be passing at the airport as we are there for the Scottish Feb holiday week and we will be flying home a few hours after you land.

Your plans sound great with the villa and 4 night hotel stay.

The weather was so nice on our Feb 2020 trip, can’t wait to get back. Fingers crossed!

[Bootrip2]

Just caught up with this - i so want this to jappen for you- its the dates i was meant to be going, but we planning on 2023 instead feb half term + 2 weeks.

I think your plans sound great, and i would choose similar i think. X

[Charlangela]

Nice to see an update Kelly.

I know what you mean about the optimism. We are 3 months after you and I wonder whether we will even make it. xx

[DisneyDaffodil]

Fingers crossed for February for you Kelly, nice to read your update and to hear that the family are well xx

I’ve booked a 5 night one person booking for CSR for July next year but too nervous to look into booking anything else for it yet as I’m still unsure about how things will be by then. We’ve decided that, due to the genie and no real dining plan, that we will stay offsite for the rest of the trip if we do go though as sadly, on-site isn’t worth the extra cost anymore. At least the 5 nights on-site will give us a little taste of the resort stay though

[Goldia]

A lovely photo of you all 😍 I hope the kids all get on OK back at school and that you finally get to go into the office!

Good idea to extend the villa for your trip. I soooo hope it goes ahead. I keep flip flopping again between thinking surely by next year we will be back to normal traveling to the USA and then the next moment worrying that we will have another horrific winter.

I'll be keeping everything crossed that some Dibbers get to go on their Christmas trips, then we will all get to see their lovely photos and can start getting excited for our trips next year.