Home for the Holidays: A Thanksgiving and Christmas Mashup (A Cam and Luke PTR) Updated 11/4 - Page 10 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Glad to hear you were able to get Flights of Passage and Navi' River. You really have great rides for your FPs. I know many who did not get any rides in Pandora. We were lucky to get them both for our November trip. Also today we were very lucky to get our return flights cheaper than what I paid.Our last trip all the Big Resorts had some beautiful Christmas decorations. We miss the chocolate Carousel Horse at the Beach Club. It was put up the day we returned home.
Your FP+ plans are great. Four of our days coincide with yours and I have been unable to get an Avatar Flight of Passage Fastpass+ on any of our days! Guess I will keep on trying. If not we can always try standby.
If you'd like, we ought to meet up at least one of the days we are in the same park. Bummer that you've not been able to get a Flight of Passage FP+.
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Originally Posted by purplegal
Great choices, and two flights of passages how lucky.
Thanks!
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Originally Posted by guerns17
Great plans so far!!
Flights: I can definitely relate to your airline situation! We like to try to fly out of our local airport too. Southwest does fly out of it but is hit and miss on direct flights. I've had too many connection headaches so we drive the almost 3 hrs to Chicago and fly non stop. It's always cheaper too!
Dining: Your dining plans look great! I have gone back and forth on Coral Reef so often. The menu just doesn't look that exciting. The atmosphere is great and I know my kids would love it, but I wish they would update their food.
Fastpasses: I'm so happy that you were able to get the Pandora rides! I am so nervous for this when we can book our fastpasses but it seems like there is some availability!
Can't wait to read more!
We did Delta once with a layover at Atlanta once. Our connecting flight's gate was changed and meant move all the way across that crazy airport. I thought we were going to wear poor Stefanie out. Then on the way home our connecting flight was delayed over 3 hours. Never, ever again.
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You dining choices look and sound yummy! And your FP choices are great! Can't wait to see you and Luke!!!
Can't wait to see you all again!
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Originally Posted by chezp
Congrats on getting the Pandora attractions - I'll be trying to do the same thing at the 60 day mark... out of curiousity, were you trying for any early morning times for those two rides? That's what I'm going to be looking for and I'm wondering if I'm just fooling myself....
Luke did the Pandora FastPasses and I didn't think that day to ask what his process was. What he does remember is trying first for our second AK day as it was later in the trip and he thought that gave us a better chance. The time he got was afternoon, which he thinks was the earliest available though he is not certain. Then he went to our third AK day and scored one for the morning. After that he went back to our first AK day and got Nav'i River Journey.
Glad to hear you were able to get Flights of Passage and Navi' River. You really have great rides for your FPs. I know many who did not get any rides in Pandora. We were lucky to get them both for our November trip. Also today we were very lucky to get our return flights cheaper than what I paid.Our last trip all the Big Resorts had some beautiful Christmas decorations. We miss the chocolate Carousel Horse at the Beach Club. It was put up the day we returned home.
Congrats on getting both Pandora rides! Always great to save money! In 2010 when we were there the week before Thanksgiving, we stayed at the Beach Club and got to see the chocolate carousel being built. That was very cool!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Great FP choices! Glad you were able to get some of the Pandora attractions!
Luke was very proud of what he managed to accomplish that morning.
Resort hopping sounds like so much fun. I hope to stop in to view a few of them for the decorations, but I'm not sure how many will have stuff up while we are there. When we went the week before Christmas back in 2010, Christmas decorations were up in some but not others.
Probably not enough resort decorations will be up yet, Cam, to justify taking time to go to some hoping theirs are.
The last year ('14) we were home the week before Thanksgiving, none of the monorail resorts had anything up until the Monday of Thanksgiving week. We got to see WL's only because they were up that morning finally, the day we left. A CM expressed surprise they were, adding that usually WL was last of the MK resorts. Most of those resorts won't have decorations up until Thanksgiving weekend, another CM told me. Used to be they went up the week before or week of for the MK resorts. Not anymore.
If there are any to speak of, that'll be heartening to learn. We're thinking of going back the week-before next year.
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“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” —Winnie-the-Pooh
Just got all caught up with your last two postings. How wonderful that you were able to get the F/P's for the Pandora Rides! They are so coveted that you really must be online by 7:00 EST ! Looking forward to riding Mission Space with you both on November 15th. Your dining ressies look so good and I hope you enjoy your meal and the great ambiance of Coral Reef as much as we did on our last trip. So looking forward to our dinner together at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I know you will enjoy meeting my friends.
How lovely of Luke to get up early and do the FPs - you've got a keeper there
And is it awful to say I'm a bit envious of your Pandora FPs? I couldn't get FOP for our upcoming trip, but then we're only doing a long weekend. We'll be getting up super early to attempt standby at park opening on EMH day ... I prefer Luke's plan to get up super early on an at-home day, though
I'm just now joining this party ... fascinating to read your intro about your first disney trip - and how our planning - or lack thereof - has changed so much over the years.
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Last edited by Lumieregirl; 09-17-2017 at 02:12 PM..
Probably not enough resort decorations will be up yet, Cam, to justify taking time to go to some hoping theirs are.
The last year ('14) we were home the week before Thanksgiving, none of the monorail resorts had anything up until the Monday of Thanksgiving week. We got to see WL's only because they were up that morning finally, the day we left. A CM expressed surprise they were, adding that usually WL was last of the MK resorts. Most of those resorts won't have decorations up until Thanksgiving weekend, another CM told me. Used to be they went up the week before or week of for the MK resorts. Not anymore.
If there are any to speak of, that'll be heartening to learn. We're thinking of going back the week-before next year.
We just thought we'd check for decorations whenever we are eating at a resort like AKL and GF. But it's not a must for this trip as we'll get quite a bit of Christmas with the party and some events at HS.
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Originally Posted by wheezie
Catching up!
Your ADRs and FP are all great! You were able to score on both of those. Congrats on getting the ROL package too.
Thanks! I am so thankful not to be checking on a ROL dining package any longer.
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Originally Posted by lindawdw
Just got all caught up with your last two postings. How wonderful that you were able to get the F/P's for the Pandora Rides! They are so coveted that you really must be online by 7:00 EST ! Looking forward to riding Mission Space with you both on November 15th. Your dining ressies look so good and I hope you enjoy your meal and the great ambiance of Coral Reef as much as we did on our last trip. So looking forward to our dinner together at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I know you will enjoy meeting my friends.
Luke was fantastic getting up that morning and getting all our Pandora FP+. Not long before we see you again!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lumieregirl
How lovely of Luke to get up early and do the FPs - you've got a keeper there
And is it awful to say I'm a bit envious of your Pandora FPs? I couldn't get FOP for our upcoming trip, but then we're only doing a long weekend. We'll be getting up super early to attempt standby at park opening on EMH day ... I prefer Luke's plan to get up super early on an at-home day, though
I'm just now joining this party ... fascinating to read your intro about your first disney trip - and how our planning - or lack thereof - has changed so much over the years.
So sorry you all couldn't get Pandora FPs! Good luck on the EMH morning!
One of the reasons Luke and I enjoy going back every fall to Disney World is to sample culinary delights around Epcot during the annual Food & Wine Festival. But I’m not going to start with my food both wish list. Instead I’m going cover first another aspect of the festival that we enjoy. Several trips back (2013) we were notified early in the summer that because we were DVC members, Chase Rewards Visa cardholders, AP holders, and Tables in Wonderland members, we had the privilege of booking early festival events. Now many of the events are out of our price comfort range, but the information we received mentioned some low-cost Beverage and Culinary seminars. That first time I hadn’t yet discovered Disney Food Blog’s website, so I made our first seminar selections in the blind by selecting times that worked into our schedule. One was a wine seminar for Middleton Family Wines of California. We learned all kinds of information about wine and even why we both like sweet whites over the others. We loved it! The second seminar was a culinary seminar done by Daniel Joly who used Stella Artois in each dish. We were even given a glass of Stella Artois to drink with our food samples. I’m not into beer so Luke was blessed with two glasses. Again we loved it!
The second time around in 2014, I received the same early information and I now knew about Disney Food Blogs where I found a list and descriptors for each beverage and culinary seminar. For our first Epcot day, I chose a wine seminar for Pacific Rim Winery. These wines were delicious and the speaker very informative. Our second Epcot day was supposed to be another wine seminar, but unfortunately, the presenter had to cancel. Instead of wine we sampled Bunratty Mead and Liqueuer Co. Ltd. with a host who might have been three sheets to the wind but she was a whole lot of fun. We sampled a larger than intended serving of mead, and then the second sampling was Moonshine. Yep, moonshine! One sip and I had had enough. Luke though finished his, and maybe mine, I can’t remember. Even though this was not the seminar we’d signed up for, this presentation was fun and the mead was tasty.
In 2015 we did not visit Disney World, instead we traveled out West for our first Disneyland Resort experience. Then last year in 2016, we took my sister and family along with us. Our trip with them was a little shorter than our usual stays and with all we wanted to pack in for them, we decided seminars would not fit into our plans. This year we knew we wanted to do at least two seminars again. When I got information on the seminars for this fall from Tables in Wonderland, I began checking out Disney Food Blogs weekly until I discovered the list and descriptors were up. Chase is no longer a sponsor of the festival, but we are still DVC members so we could use that to book early. I was so excited to discover that one of my favorite sparkling wine companies was hosting a seminar this year. So on our first Epcot day (11/9) we are slated for a beverage seminar with Iron Horse Vineyards at 3:30. When I looked over the options for our second Epcot day, I wasn’t familiar with any of the vineyards. We’ll be taking a chance with Paul Hobbs Wines at 1:30 on November 13.
To say that we are eagerly looking forward to these is an understatement. So nice to have a little time to relax and enjoy some wine.
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We have a few scheduled fairly close to you on the 15th. We will also be in AK on the 8th and MK on the 5th.
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get the FOP FastPasses.
the week before Thanksgiving, none of the monorail resorts had anything up until the Monday of Thanksgiving week. We got to see WL's only because they were up that morning finally, the day we left. A CM expressed surprise they were, adding that usually WL was last of the MK resorts. Most of those resorts won't have decorations up until Thanksgiving weekend, another CM told me. Used to be they went up the week before or week of for the MK resorts. Not anymore. 
So looking forward to our dinner together at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I know you will enjoy meeting my friends.
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