Don’t you hate it when life gets in the way of your Disney vacation?
The B Family likes to vacation in September. The B Family has always vacationed in September. The B Family will always vacation in September.
Except that the B Family can’t vacation in September anymore.
We thought we had at least one more September in us, since the Little Mermaid still has one more year of pre-school before she hits the Big League of Kindergarten. The agreement we made with ourselves was that we could pull from pre-school for vacation, but our school district has pretty rigid rules and we didn’t want to mess around with it once we hit Kindergarten. Luckily for us, this isn’t such a big deal since we’re on a balanced school calendar. We get two weeks for Fall, Winter, and Spring, with six weeks for Summer break, so we can be a little creative with dates.
But this is where the trouble started. I made our vacation dates based on last year’s school calendar and wouldn’t you know, things changed. The week we were supposed to be gone is the one week we really can’t miss.
Thanks a lot, life.
No use crying over spilled Dole Whip. We picked ourselves us, brushed ourselves off, and picked new dates.
If you’re heading to Walt Disney World in late August, look for us, because that’s when we’ll be there. Our dates have pushed up about three weeks. We’re anticipating the same heat, slightly heavier crowds, and probably saying see ya real soon to Free Dining.
Free Dining is never a sure thing anyway, so that’s an easy one to let go of. The heat is the heat is the heat. We know what we’re getting into. We drink lots of water. The slightly heavier crowds I’m not in love with, but as long as we go in with good touring plans and take advantage of FastPass Plus, we’ll be good.
We did end up having to change our resort, which was a bummer. Wilderness Lodge was a steal for our original dates, but the new August dates saw those rates jump, and as much as I wanted to try something new I have a budget. I know I have a budget because I write about it on a blog every week. (But let’s be real for a second. Ya’ll know I was trying to convince Mr.B we could do Wilderness Lodge on our new dates. One gesture to the budget and that plan was shut down real quick.) On the bright side, we were able to book at another resort I’ve been dying to try. We’ll get to that in my One Year Savings Check In in April, but I’d love to hear your guesses in the comments. ;)
The biggest difference, of course, is that our final payment date will be coming a little sooner. We’ve got five months to meet our savings goals, and I’ll be honest, I’m feeling pretty good about it. I’m also holding out hope that in the next five months, some late summer discounts are released and can be applied to our reservation, saving us even more money.
One amazing, wonderful aspect of this change is that the change itself was completely stress free. We worked with the official travel specialist for Couponing to Disney, Kari O’Dell, and she literally took care of everything for us. Last minute pricing package options? Kari can do it. Changing resorts the day before your ADR window opens up? Kari can do it. Finding dining reservations three weeks before you initially needed them? Kari can do it. If you’ve got big changes to make to your Disney vacation, I highly recommend using a travel agent, and if you’re using a travel agent I highly recommend Kari.
Total Goal: $3500
Last Week: $350.38
Total Deposit: $75
$40, from free gym membership budget
$25, PayPal deposit from Swagbucks
$10, Amazon Gift Card from Swagbucks
Still Need: $275.38
Have you ever had to retcon your Disney trip at the last minute? Any tips from your experience? Anybody want to make a guess what resort I booked? Hit me up in the comments!
Kristen B. is wife to the best Prince around, mama to the spunkiest little princesses, and lover of all things Disney. She started her savings journey three years ago and is now dedicated to making her family’s wishes come true one coupon at a time. She is so excited to take her love of saving to the next level and share her journey with you! Click here to catch up on Kristen’s Savings and join in on your own savings adventure!