*** The Official August 2018 Thread*** - let's have some fun....

[jneen277]

When are your dates? My DD works at Muppets until program end on August 9th!

Launch Bay, Path of Jedi theater, Frozen show, even waiting for star Tours all provide A/C experiences. Even Indiana Jones show-if you have water and fans-can provide a decent cooling experience. Or get a drink inside ABC Commissary for a seat in the A/C

Our FL days are 8/24 through 9/1, but our park days are 8/27 (DHS), 8/28 (MK) and 8/30 (Legoland). Definitely taking notes for all of the A/C places, it feels like it's been forever since I've been there (it's only been four years). We'll miss your DD by a couple of weeks though!

 

[Monykalyn]

Well-decided to take one last advantage of DD's CM discount - booked last 2 nights for a studio (Jambo) at AKV! Still can't believe I did that, but I have a couple weeks to cancel if I need to. But DD rallied the other kids and they are going to pitch in a bit as it is for our anniversary and DH birthday, so the difference (with taking a couple days off Pop stay) isn't bad.

 

[DaniMoon]

Or D-Lux Burger, or the Polite Pig. Both quite yummy.

The Polite Pig is on our list. Definitely some yummy looking food there.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Woot woot! Our magic bands came today. Always happy to get Mickey Mail. Very nearly opened the box in front of my 8 year-old who doesn't know about the trip; but closed it quickly. Fortunately his World Cup Soccer ball also came today so he was easily distracted.

There were also some cute luggage tags in the box along with a Magical Benefits card.

 

[pd1138]

Do you know if you can buy the passports in advance anywhere? The less time spent in park gift shops, the better for my budget! Lol

If you are staying on site at a Disney Resort this may work: we bought ours last trip on the shop Disney park app and chose deliver to hotel. You have to be within three days of checkin. Ours were waiting at our hotel gift shop at BC the day we checked in!! I was glad since that year the gift shop at the hotel didn’t have them.

Edit: I just checked the app and this year it says passport books for Epcot are In Store only. That’s a bummer I am still trying to figure out why Disney has a shop parks app and then put in store only items on it!! They could make a little more money!

 

[pd1138]

@OurLaughingPlace and @Monykalyn I am now looking for an 8 am OR 10 am Garden grill breakfast!! Chocolate sauce on waffles, YUM! We love dinner there, but we have never had breakfast! Kids are excited! I have the reservation finder on it!! Plus I keep checking when I have a minute. Gives me something to do now that fast passes are done, magic bands are customized, and the little surprises for the kids are already bought and ready to go! Fills the gap until packing begins!!

 

[Eeyore1220]

If you are staying on site at a Disney Resort this may work: we bought ours last trip on the shop Disney park app and chose deliver to hotel. You have to be within three days of checkin. Ours were waiting at our hotel gift shop at BC the day we checked in!! I was glad since that year the gift shop at the hotel didn’t have them.

Edit: I just checked the app and this year it says passport books for Epcot are In Store only. That’s a bummer I am still trying to figure out why Disney has a shop parks app and then put in store only items on it!! They could make a little more money!

Yeah, exactly! I saw that it keeps saying "out of stock" on the Shop Disney App. Oh well, don't take my money! I did see cheaper versions of it on Etsy but I might hold out and buy the real thing in the park.

 

[Davkind76]

Is it August yet?

 

[Funfire240]

Is it August yet?

Almost!!!!

 

[DisneyObsessed87]

Is it August yet?

So close!!!

 

[MamaJessie]

What does everyone do on your first day? Do you go to the hotel and wait for a room text or do you go to the front desk? Do you head straight to the parks?

Who has encountered problems using your tickets or dining plan on your magic bands? On our last trip, we went straight to the water parks, and our bands wouldn't scan, so we had to go to customer service. He had to get on the phone and call someone to get it fixed. It took probably 20-30 minutes and all of our 7 bands had to be slid under the window to him - not a big deal in the grand scheme of things - but when you are itching to go, it's a little annoying. We may do something similar again. Is there anything we should do differently, or is this just what happens?

We hang out at the resort, maybe go to Disney Springs. We drive overnight so we are tired and need to decompress a bit. I always pack a swim bag since we never seem to get a room early. Last time we had an issue the first couple times with our MBs but we were just in the food court so it was easy enough to go back to the desk and fix.

I always regret not enjoying the resort more on our trips. I am making it a point to spend more time in the pool. I feel like in the heat we will need more downtime than we are used to. We have never been in the Summer.

We are going to be spending a lot of afternoons at our pool, but agree that I always regret not having a resort day. Lately our down days end up being water park days or outlet shopping - thinking of skipping both to just hang at Ft. Wilderness for the day.

I think the only park we are not planning to take a midday break in is AK - probably the hottest park because it feels like a jungle. But we have a KRR FP+ and plan to take advantage of A/C as much as possible that day.

Same here. It is just a lot of travel time to take a break there since we are over at Ft W.

So now I'm trying to figure out if I should tell my kids where we are staying. I was keeping it a surprise. But I just told boys that we aren't staying at POP and they are unhappy cuz they didn't get to play in the Bowling pool on our pool day last year because it rained and they closed the pool down. So now I'm wondering if I should let the secret out. Unfortunately my boys have the worst anxiety smh.

My anxious son would not enjoy a surprise, I am the same way. Even my happy go lucky kid was upset by a surprise once and we vowed never again.

 

[DaniMoon]

Trip paid off, 40 days to go!

Have been following the waits for the new rides in TSL and all I can say is they look a LOT better than the waits for FOP when we went a month after that opening last year. Early in our trip there are still 7am openings, so we plan to do that one morning.

 

[DisneyObsessed87]

Trip paid off, 40 days to go!

Have been following the waits for the new rides in TSL and all I can say is they look a LOT better than the waits for FOP when we went a month after that opening last year. Early in our trip there are still 7am openings, so we plan to do that one morning.

41 days for us! Right behind you. I paid off the Universal portion of our stay today! Yippee! I feel like it is getting real now! Is it too soon to pack? I feel like for previous trips I packed earlier because it was off season and I did not need our summer clothes. This time I will have to wait until closer.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Hey, I remember some people were having trouble with online check-in like I was and getting error messages. I went in today and was finally able to do it successfully.

 

[MinnieWebster]

Hey, I remember some people were having trouble with online check-in like I was and getting error messages. I went in today and was finally able to do it successfully.

A CM told my husband not to do online check-in until we are within 30 days of our arrival, even though it says you can do it earlier, it doesn't work properly. So maybe that's it?

 

[DisneyFan119]

Magic Bands arrived today!!Leaving home on July 30 and checking in on August 1. The kids have a sticker countdown going, and I'm obsessively stalking app wait times and doubting/over-analyzing our touring plans!

I'm trying not to rush through summer, but... is August here yet??

 

[luvmy2babies]

A CM told my husband not to do online check-in until we are within 30 days of our arrival, even though it says you can do it earlier, it doesn't work properly. So maybe that's it?

Could be. I was exactly 30 days out the last time I tried. I decided to just wait a week. I had called in our room request and set my pin code on a different page so the only thing I really needed to do was set our arrival time. We are starting out driving the day before and I'm hoping to get most of the way there the first day. Planning to arrive around noon and hoping our fortune continues as far as getting into our room before 3 when we arrive early.

 

[chiisai]

Added a Star Wars dessert party after reading that it’s seated now and cancelled the HEA dessert party.

I tried to puzzle our UO days to the front of our trip, but couldn’t make it work with flight times so it stays put where it is.

I think I’m done tinkering. I need to be done because I keep making things more expensive!

 

[Rach73]

27 days for us! Looking forward to staying at the beautiful AKL again! Plans are pretty set. I may drop our dinner reservation at The Plaza. I have it scheduled on our first day but have read some bad reviews. Anyone dine there recently? I have definitely scheduled afternoon breaks for the pool/nap. We were just there June 4-12 and saw the least amount of rain ever for a Summer trip. The skies were beautiful but the lack of cloud cover during the day really beat us down. We are from South Louisiana so we are accustom to the heat but our June trip zapped us. Laying low midday and going back until close is the plan. Crafting some Mickey Ears with DD this afternoon!

 

[capegirl]

Pre-packing drama begins. Just took my giant bag of Disney wear that I've been collecting down from the attic today. We are roadtrippers who will be flying for the first time in years. I usually pack everything into my huge duffels, but this year I splurged and bought a Samantha Brown carry on with a matching tote bag so I would look cool at the airport, like Samantha, the frequent flyer. I realized today that there is no way that my Disney stash, along with my Clark's flip flop collection in every color, will fit into Samantha's bag. Yup, I'm already driving myself crazy so August can't come soon enough!