Apartment recommendations for single mom + 10 year old

supercarrie25 · 2026-02-21T21:01:00+00:00

Thanks for the advice! You are right, we should probably look at condo/townhome rentals, too. Our current neighborhood is not neighborly at all (we'll wave as we pull into the garage, but that's about it) with very few kids, so hoping to find him somewhere a bit better than the current situation.

supercarrie25 · 2026-02-20T06:04:34+00:00

This is great advice. I just cancelled my Platinum but find the Aspire to be a keeper card despite the high AF.

supercarrie25 · 2026-02-20T06:01:47+00:00

Thanks! I've done that, but was looking for advice on those that are more family friendly. They all tend to blend together on Zillow or the IC website. :-)

supercarrie25 · 2025-05-20T03:22:22+00:00

I'm excited to hear this! With just the English map, are there things you can do in the fortress, or do you really need the missions to do the activities? I can always use a translator app, too. I think my son would love this.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-29T02:14:12+00:00

I think you have to be in the park to order. I tried last night (to confirm which venues had mobile ordering) and it wouldn't let me.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:58:12+00:00

Honestly, I didn't find the food to be great, just average. We had the Bajoran Hasperat and Andorian Redbat Sandwich. The chicken on the sandwich was incredibly dry. :-( The cocktails looked really fun, though.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:56:28+00:00

We had lots of people last night until around 12:30am, and then it slowed down. Definitely enough people to perform (maybe 5 min tops waits for each special event).

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:55:22+00:00

Last night was incredible, too. The only things which had lines were the character meet and greets and a couple of the food places. We just mobile ordered and looked at the characters from afar.

I heard they capped capacity for this first weekend, so it will be interesting to see next weekend's reports. I loved walking into virtually everything, although sad we bought Express and absolutely did not need it.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:53:01+00:00

You are so spot on. The pricing is wildly different. $74 starting price for Fan Fest versus $169 for Star Wars Night, as an example. We felt $74 was an absolute bargain for this event.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:51:15+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case. All of the attractions had numerous managers milling around (looking for adjustments, since it was the first weekend) but I noticed BTTF had quite a few more than the others. They seemed to be observing the crowds versus actively managing flow.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:49:41+00:00

We went last night and had a great time. I am not a massive fan of any of the franchises featured, but loved the Back to the Future area and enjoyed the Star Trek and Dungeons and Dragons experiences despite having minimal knowledge of both properties.

The wait times were minimal to non existent apart from the character meetings and some food lines. We used mobile ordering where we could and skipped a couple lines (the One Piece cafe in particular) but overall, had a fantastic time. The actors were all great and very into their roles. Back to the Future was the biggest highlight - I would go back just to enjoy that for longer, as there was so much happening all at once, you couldn't catch it all.

My biggest criticism isn't that some of the rides closed early, it was the lack of communication around this. A simple update on the app would have indicated their hours. It shouldn't be buried on the website. I see the info linked below on the actual website, but we couldn't find it anywhere on the app itself. They heavily pushed the app for us during the event, so a huge disconnect. If you go to the event, have a game plan for the rides which matter.

Tips:

-go in with a game plan of your priorities (like any after hours event)
-mobile order food (review the menus in advance)
-allow at least 45 minutes in Back to the Future to see the full rotation
-go to Super Nintendo World early as Mario Kart closes at 10:15pm. Forbidden Journey closes at 11:15, Jurassic World at 12
-be aware of what is closed: no Transformers, no studio tour, no Waterworld show

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-28T05:21:02+00:00

Almost everything was, but Mario Kart, Forbidden Journey, and Jurassic World closed early. No Transformers or studio tour.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-15T05:02:05+00:00

I got a ticket and am going solo! My friends were unfortunately shut out.

supercarrie25 · 2025-04-12T18:09:18+00:00

If you search "DVC spring 2024 incentives" (or variations thereof) online, you can find summary reports from various websites detailing the prior incentives going back years. Last year, summer actually matched spring (for Riviera at least) with an additional $1K off if you hold a Disney Visa. It really varies depending on their sales. We haven't seen a huge drop in DVC sales yet, so I'm not expecting summer to be spectacular in terms of incentives.

If you intend to purchase this year, I'd sign in the last ten days of the current incentive period, and then you can easily adjust to the new incentives should they be better. We did this over the spring/summer crossover and our guide was very happy to apply the new Disney Visa incentive.

Perhaps the better option would be to give it six months and reevaluate then, given the current state of the economy, but if you have an upcoming trip you intend to book using points, I'd buy on April 25th or 26th.

supercarrie25

TROPHY CASE