PTR: BFFs Holidaze Adventure, November 29-December 7 2016 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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PTR: BFFs Holidaze Adventure, November 29-December 7 2016
I think I tried a PTR for my last trip in 2013, and didn't get very far with it. I'm determined to follow-through with this one, though! We'll see how far I get. LOL
WHO: Willie (me) and Tammy, both 54, have been BFFs since fifth grade (We tried to get our other Bestie—Willie has been BFFs with her since Kindergarten, and Tammy since fifth grade—to join us as well, but she wasn’t able…THIS time! We're already working on her for the NEXT trip!) We’ve both been to WDW multiple times—Tammy many more times than me—with each of our first visits being in the early days of the Magic Kingdom. We haven’t been to the World together, though, since 1989.
WHAT: A holiday-themed visit to Walt Disney World! We have six-day park hopper tickets, tickets for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, a Candlelight Processional dining package, and reservations for a Sleigh Ride at Fort Wilderness. We also have Mickey Mouse stockings and other decorations for our resort room window.
WHEN: November 29-December 7, 2016
WHERE: We’re staying in a Little Mermaid room at Art of Animation.
WHY: After seeing all the wonderful Fall/Halloween decorations during my last trip (September, 2013), I decided my next trip had to be during the Winter/Christmas season! I asked my BFFs if they’d like to come along, and Tammy was all in!
Once we decided we were going, it didn’t take us long to work out the basic details. Neither of us has stayed at Art of Animation before, and we wanted to try it out. We figured out our dates, and made our room-only reservation at the end of February. We know we’ll have some extra walking, being in a Little Mermaid room, but I can stand to lose a few pounds, and with all the goodies on my must-eat list, a few extra steps can only do me good! LOL
We scheduled flights on Jet Blue in early April, as soon as they were open to book travel on our dates. We were going to fly in and out of Reagan National, in Washington, DC. (I live in the Maryland suburbs; Tammy’s a little further out in Maryland.)
We’ve been having fun the past few months, getting together for planning sessions and doing research together. June 2 was our ADR day, and we got most of the dining ressies we wanted! (More on that later.)
Shortly after we made our ADRs, Jet Blue threw a wrench into our plans by changing the times for both of our flights. We weren’t happy with either change, and the flight home would have messed up our last dining reservation. After doing some research, we called Jet Blue and found that they would allow us to cancel our flights and issue us a full refund. We acted quickly, and booked flights on SouthWest instead. In order to get times/prices that we liked, we decided to split airports, so we’re flying to Orlando from Reagan National (DC) and flying back into Baltimore-Washington International.
We purchased our park tickets from Undercover Tourist, to save a few dollars. On Fast Pass day, I think we were each on our laptop AND our cell phone, trying to get what we wanted!
Here’s an outline of our plans so far, not including Fast Pass+ reservations:
Tuesday, November 29: Land at MCO around 9:15am, take DME to Art of Animation. If our room is ready, we’ll check in, and then head out to Disney Springs. If the room isn’t ready, we’ll still head out to Disney Springs. We’re probably going to check out a movie at the AMC theaters—one of the showings where we can have table service—and wander around DS. We’re hoping the weather is good to take a ride on Characters in Flight. Tammy’s tried to do this multiple times, and the weather has never cooperated! She's convinced she's got bad juju when it comes to that balloon! I especially want to check out the cupcake ATM at Sprinkles.
Wednesday, November 30: Magic Kingdom Day. We have breakfast scheduled at Be Our Guest, and dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern.
Thursday, December 1: Epcot Day. Lunch with Chip & Dale at the Garden Grill. For dinner, we have a Candlelight Processional Dining Package at the Rose & Crown Dining Room. We have reservations for the 8:15 pm Candlelight Processional show. Barring any schedule changes, we’ll have Neil Patrick Harris as our narrator!
Friday, December 2: Hollywood Studios Day. Lunch at 50s Prime Time Café. Since Disney has announced the Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! Holiday Party, we should probably re-think our evening plans. I think we had originally figured we wouldn’t stay long at DHS, and would go to Disney Springs. Something to add to my list for our next planning session!
Saturday, December 3: Resort-Hopping, and Possible Off-Site Day. Breakfast at Kona Café. 8 pm Sleigh Ride at Fort Wilderness. We’d originally planned this exclusively as resort-hopping, to see the gingerbread houses and decorations at the deluxe and some of the moderate resorts. We were going to go off-site on Sunday. However, when we decided on the rental car (we’re going with Alamo, from the Car Care Center on Disney property), we decided to pick it up Saturday afternoon and return it Sunday afternoon. I’m Catholic, and will go to Mass during the weekend. Picking up the rental car on Saturday opens up the evening Mass at Mary, Queen of the Universe. And we could pop over to the Disney Character Outlet on Vineland.
Sunday, December 4: Possible Resort-Hopping, Off-Site Day. Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. If I don’t go to the evening Mass on Saturday, I’ll go at 9:30 am on Sunday. And if we didn't visit the Character Outlet on Saturday, we'll do it this day. While we have the car, we also plan to visit the Orlando Eye. We hope to be at the MK entrance promptly at 4pm for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party.
Monday, December 5: Animal Kingdom Day. Breakfast with Donald and Company at Tusker House. I hope to have dinner at Flame Tree Barbecue. We keep hoping to hear something about Rivers of Light before we leave! We’ll most likely hop to Epcot for the evening.
Tuesday, December 6: Magic Kingdom and DHS. Breakfast at the Crystal Palace. We’re both HUGE Eeyore girls, so we’re really looking forward to seeing him together. Hop to DHS for dinner at Sci-Fi Dine-In.
Wednesday, December 7. Last day. Brunch at Chef Mikey’s at the Contemporary, then head to the MK for some last-day magic. We both agree that MK needs to be the last park we visit. We’ll take the Tragical Express back to MCO for our 10:10 pm flight to Baltimore.
That's it for now! I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions anyone has!
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I especially want to check out the cupcake ATM at Sprinkles.
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