Um, Villains Unleashed Party? Yes, Please!! (Trip Report)

That's the problem that I'm having, Robyn. We'll be down almost exactly a month after the party fort 11 days...

So this is actually happening!! OMG. I can't believe it! Got a flight on Frontier (never flown them before ) for $316 RT from Dulles to Tampa. It's a total budget airline, so we did add on extra stuff, but we're getting 36" of leg room and paying for a carry-on and STILL paying $130 less than the cheapest southwest flight from BWI to MCO. So no claustrophobic panic attacks and we got to choose our seat. Sweet.

We're renting a car anyway, so no problem there. Hotel is another issue. We were going to do the 1-time-purchase points from DVC to make up for our point deficit, but it would cost us $150 on top of the "real cost" of $132 for borrowing our remaining 22 points from 2015. SO we thought about using this opportunity to check out AoA ($270, but checks off an item that we do want to do) and that is still a possibility, but the more practical approach is to choose one of $40ish/night hotels on 192. So had anyone stayed on 192 and how bad are the $40/night hotels really??

Absolutely!! (I did notice at the 24-hour event that Maleficent and Evil Queen greeting together matched the typical Anna and Elsa wait time of 300 minutes. So apparently good vs. evil = tie?)

@mrhub, thanks for the map!! Still undecided. I'd love to do AoA and I'd be cool with trying Pop, but I haven't talked myself into the money yet...

Great Evil Queen pic, Matt!

We'll be flying in to Tampa--can any of our local Florida friends shed any light on the toll situation? The rental car people always try to see you the toll pass thing, but I assume that they are just trying to rip me off. Does anyone know if we will encounter tolls from TPA to WDW? Are any cashless? Is there a better way to go than I-4?

Thanks

Thanks, Scott! That's what I thought from looking at the map. Our flight lands at 3:15. We're in row 2 of the plane and we're packing a single carry-on, so we should be very expedient getting off the plane. I expect to be in WDW by 5-5:30 and hopefully at DHS by 6:00. I do wish I had looked at the times a little bit closer because I would have definitely booked an earlier flight! 3:15 to MCO would not be stressing me out nearly as much!! oh well...

This is kind of evolving into a pre-trip report, so I just relocated it and here's the pre-trip so far...

We'll depart from Dulles airport at 12:55 and arrive in Tampa at 3:15. We're flying Frontier airlines, so absolutely everything about this trip is new to us. We've never flown out of/ into either of these airports and we've never flown Frontier. We used to live 10 minutes from Dulles, but we've never used the airport because that was right after we were married and we didn't have enough money to fly ANYWHERE. Well, I suppose we could have flown places, but we would have had to give up something else like paying rent or eating... If you're not familiar with Frontier (I wasn't) it's a budget airline where you can get super low fares, but you pay a seat premium and a carry-on fee if you take more than a personal item. Since it's a 3-day trip, we're sharing a carry-on and I joined their little Frontier club and saved $5, so whatever. Their base ticket was $200 cheaper for the two of us RT than Southwest out of BWI. In fact, I'm paying to carry on a bag both ways and I upgraded us to the 36" leg room seats both ways and STILL paid $100 less than the total fee would have been on Southwest from BWI to MCO. Score. The only caveat with these folks is that they only fly certain routes on certain days of the week. We just happened to luck into the days they were flying to IAD-->TPA.

If all goes according to plan ( no storms, random delays, etc.), we should be in possession of the rental car and on the road by 4pm. I haven't rented the car yet because rates are still too high, but we'll probably rent rom Dollar when their next sale comes out as they have consistently been the cheapest. Fortunately it's Saturday, so hopefully no rush hour traffic patterns to contend with and the TB Rays are playing in Canada, so no game day traffic to contend with. (I don't know where the stadium is at in relation to the airport, but I know that I steer clear of Baltimore when the Orioles or Ravens are playing unless I've got tickets.) This should put us at the Dolphin by around 5:15.

We'll check-in at the Dolphin (couldn't get a DVC room in the Boardwalk Resorts area for Saturday night on such short notice) and walk to DHS and barring complications, we should be in the park by 6pm. That should give us time to grab some dinner and scope out any character meet & greets that we want to prioritize. I'm hoping for Maleficent, but with the movie being out and doing very well at the moment, that will be an absolute circus. At the 24-hour event, Maleficent + Evil queen was a 5-hour wait. Oy. So we'll see. We're also doing MNSSHP and Villains Bash after the ToT 10-miler a month later, so we might prioritize the villains that are the most rare--like Cruella, Frollo, Mother Gothel, maybe Prince John or the Sheriff of Nottingham? We've not heard a confirmation on anyone except Oogie Boogie and Hades, but after Maleficent and Evil Queen, that's my wish list! The priorities for party time are meet & greets, Villainy in the Sky, which I understand they are enhancing from last year's Friday the 13th show, Fantasmic with special villains party tag, and Oogie Boogie's variety show.

After the party, we'll enjoy some sleep. You may notice that early in this post, I was trying to justify the cost at AoA ($120/night) to myself because I really want to stay at AoA and we're nearly out of 2015 DVC points anyway, but after listening to the DISunplugged podcast today where Craig said that last year he and his girlfriend walked to DHS from AoA because the traffic was so heinous, we decided that the Dolphin (40% off--$159/night!!) was an excellent value to be able to have walking access to DHS. Even though it's a hard ticket event, I'm sure it will be sold out if it's not already. The 2nd day tickets were on sale for AP holders, I called with a question and waited 35 minutes to talk to someone. That's a lot of people trying to get into DHS all at once!! I suspect that the walkway will be our best friend--if not on the way in, then certainly on the way out!

On Sunday morning, we'll check out of the Dolphin, toss the suitcase in the car, and head for MK. In two weeks, I'll be vigoursly trying to secure a FP for both 7DMT and Anna & Elsa. My third will probably be Peter Pan or BTMR. We'll either grab lunch at Casey's or maybe head over to Bahama Breeze or Earl of Sandwich. This will definitely be a break day because we'll be checking in to BWV (we had enough points for one night and they actually had a room on Sunday night) and we want to swim in the pool since we were too busy playing at the parks in April and we didn't take time to use it. In the evening, we'll either go back to MK or get dinner in EPCOT--maybe Les Chefs or Rose & Crown. We haven't been to either in ages. We haven't been to Teppan Edo in a while either, but our hibachi place at home is way cheaper and I think the quality is even better!

On Monday, we'll hit a park (probably MK or DHS) until around 12:30 or 1:00 and then head straight back to TPA to catch our 3:55 flight. On the Monday of the week that a lot of schools start back, we probably don't even need to make FP reservations. Maybe I should try for 7DMT and Anna & Elsa for Monday and try a water park on Sunday. I'd kind of like to go to AK, but I can't do that to Benn in August. It always feels 10 degrees warmer in AK than anywhere else and I'm not trying to kill Benn or make him hate Disney!

We should be back in PA around 8pm. So, it's a really quick trip, but I'm pretty excited about it! Thanks for reading and I'll keep you posted when we change things!

I "test-booked" 7DMT a few weeks ago just to see if availability was likely to be a problem in the fall and I was able to get a FP for July 4 week with no trouble at 30 days out. I'm more worried about Anna & Elsa because with a standby line like that, it has to be one of the most valuable FP at MK at the moment! Assuming of course that meeting princesses is a priority for you.

Do you think we're on target time-wise with making it to DHS by 6? I figure even at 6:30, we're still in ok shape. I almost wish I'd have sucked up the extra cost and booked a morning flight on SW...It's so hard to estimate arrival times when there are so many factors to consider. 2 hour drive + airport security and junk + 2 hour flight + deal with rental car company + another hour and a half drive + hotel check-in + 1/2 mile walk--so many opportunities to upset the timetable!

Thanks, Scott & Annie for the logistics advice! It's so hard to picture how everything will fit into place until you've done it and it really helps to have reassurance from people for whom the are is familiar!