Escaping The Brutal Northeast For Sunny, Warm Florida and Fun! Completed 7/12 About This Page:

[Cam22]

Congrats on booking POR! Your ADRs look very , too.

[Jambo]

We really enjoyed POR back when it was Dixie Landing. Our favorite part was walking the landscaped grounds in the mornings. I hope you enjoy it, too.

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by Cam22

Congrats on booking POR! Your ADRs look very , too.

Riverside is my 2nd favorite mod next to the FQ. Just love the intimacy of the latter, but can't go wrong with POR either!

Love my choices of ADRs and a few more are coming on my next update. Just got too late when I was booking them and was a bit tired!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by Jambo

We really enjoyed POR back when it was Dixie Landing. Our favorite part was walking the landscaped grounds in the mornings. I hope you enjoy it, too.

Dixie Landings was before, I began going to WDW back in 2002. I think so! My first stay at POR or FQ was 2007. This year would be my third stay at Riverside. That is a total of 22 nights between the three in 2007, 2009 and 2014!

[DLinNH]

I just love riverside; I can't wait to hear your dining reviews as I have had dinner at any of those rest before

[DLinNH]

I meant I have not eaten there before!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by DLinNH

I just love riverside; I can't wait to hear your dining reviews as I have had dinner at any of those rest before

Riverside is a great resort and feels so homey! Love walking back to my room at night and hearing the music as I walk back there! Just love these Disney touches that you get at the Resorts!

You'll certainly get my dining reviews in due time and some food photos!

[xwewhisper]

Signing in, great and yummy plans so far! Can't wait to hear how it all turned out

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by xwewhisper

Signing in, great and yummy plans so far! Can't wait to hear how it all turned out

I definitely have made some good dining choices! More of the planning stage coming up this weekend and hopefully not long after, when I can get the actual TR in gear!

[Big Baloo]

Signing in so I can follow along! We stayed at POR one time, back when the five of us could fit in one room. I really enjoyed the relaxed feel to the place, plus the boat to DTD was so pleasant and relaxing. Can't wait to hear what you thought of BOG!

[SuperDave]

Originally Posted by Big Baloo

Signing in so I can follow along! We stayed at POR one time, back when the five of us could fit in one room. I really enjoyed the relaxed feel to the place, plus the boat to DTD was so pleasant and relaxing. Can't wait to hear what you thought of BOG!

Glad to have you along here! Having the DTD boat is definitely convenient.

[SuperDave]

More ADRs, Flights and Other Trip Plans


Sunday, October 13

I was able to get all the ADRs, I chose yesterday, which was a good feeling! There are two more dinners to chose and would like to have an ADR for lunch on departure day. I won’t book that one yet as I haven’t booked my flights. I would also like to have an ADR for lunch in one of the parks on a complete free day, possibly in the MK on Day 5, Thursday, April 3. I have three free days as the other three, I’ll be playing golf in the morning through early afternoon.

Here are the remaining two dinners, I was able to book and got the choices I wanted:

Wednesday, April 2: Paradiso 37 (Downtown Disney-Pleasure Island), 7:15 pm. This will be my first time dining here and looking forward to this. Will be taking the boat from Riverside to DTD and spend some time before dinner, exploring the changes that are being made here.

Thursday, April 3: Jiko (Animal Kingdom Lodge-Jambo House), 7:30 pm. Have dined here many times before, but not in five years.

This is what my ADRs looks like so far, with two lunches still to be added shortly:

ADRS (Dinners)

Saturday, March 29: Monsieur Paul’s (Epcot-France) 6:30 pm

Sunday, March 30: Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom) 7:30 pm

Monday, March 31: California Grill (Contemporary Resort 7:45 pm.

Tuesday, April 1: Victoria & Albert’s-Queen Victoria’s Room (Grand Floridian Resort).

Wednesday, April 2: Paradiso 37 (Downtown Disney-Pleasure Island), 7:15 pm. de here.

Thursday, April 3: Jiko (Animal Kingdom Lodge-Jambo House), 7:30 pm.


Now that most of my ADRs were done it was time to look into flights to Orlando. I tried all sorts of combinations from my New York City airports. Those being, JFK, LaGuardia, Newark and Westchester. There are a couple of others, but they’re a bit farther away and not worth the extra travel time as I intended on departing on an early flight.

My first choice of airline is JetBlue as I love that airline and enjoy flying on their fleet so much! There are only limited flights from LaGuardia and Newark on JetBlue with Newark a bit far away if one of the other airports has JetBlue flights that meet my needs. My preferred choice of airport is Westchester as it’s small with only eight gates and only twenty minutes away. JFK has quite an assortment of JetBlue flights to Orlando, but is about an hour away and is such a big and busy airport, although I do like JetBlue’s Terminal 5 there.

I looked at the LaGuardia and Newark flights and didn’t really see any flights that I was interested in plus they were quite expensive! Now, I was hoping the JFK and Westchester flights weren’t that expensive as well. I looked at the JFK flights and there was a few a.m. flights to chose from that I liked. But I didn’t like the cost as they were about $425 r/t, which is more than I’m used to paying. Seeing that I’m returning two weeks before Easter, this could be part of it.

The last time I flew to Orlando in 2012, I flew out of Westchester on a 6:30 am flight and flying this early allows you to not lose any of the first day there, even if you have to wake up around 3 a.m. or so! I like Westchester Airport and my first experience there in 2012 was quite good being convenient and small without the congestion of the big NYC airports. I looked at some flights and checked to see if they still had the 6:30 a.m. flight, which they did. On return, I wanted an evening flight, so I could spend a few hours in the parks on my last day. There was an 8:45 pm flight from Orlando and when I priced it out, it was a lot cheaper than the JFK flights, I was considering at $356. I was sold!.....and booked them!

Next, was seat selection and I like the extra leg room seats on the JetBlue flights. On the previous flight to Orlando on an Embraer 190 (seating is two wide on both sides), the Even More Space seats were quite a bit back and next to the wings as I also like having a window seat. At this location, there isn’t a great view with the wing blocking a lot of the view. I found out the hard way as I paid a bit extra and a lot of my view was blocked. Airline Seat Maps, Flights shopping and Flight information- Best Airplane Seats - SeatGuru this is a good site to use to find the best seats on specified flights. It’s quite handy.

On the flights I just booked, the Even More Space seats are now in row 1 also on an Embraer 190. Glad to know they’ve moved them. It was an extra $30 each way, but I think they’re worth it as you get early boarding and also the first to depart the plane. There is also speed access for the TSA security lines at the airport as well. So, I chose row 1 with a window seat on both flights, which were still available! It doesn’t get much better than this. So here’s the itinerary:

Flights

JetBlue Flight # 1895 from Westchester Airport to Orlando International Airport, departing at 6:30 am and arriving at 9:17 am on Saturday, March 29.

JetBlue Flight # 1294 from Orlando International Airport to Westchester Airport, departing at 8:45 pm and arriving at 11:22 pm.

So, now I was all set with the flights and got what I wanted. On my flight departure I would also have to pay extra bag fees of $40 on each flight as I’d be bringing my golf bag. It all adds up, even when you think you’ve gotten a deal! It would have been a lot more to fly out of JFK, so I was happy. Although, the total cost of my flights with Even More Space seating extra bag fees would just be shy of $500 at $496! These airlines certainly nickel and dime you, but in larger monetary terms!

Now that I had my flight reservations set, I could now make my lunch ADR for departure day. I wanted to spend it in Epcot as on my last trip in 2012, I spent it in Studios and had lunch at Hollywood Brown Derby. I think HBD is certainly the best dining option in Studios as it’s the only signature restaurant there. There are other good eateries to chose from there, but this is certainly my favorite.

I looked over the various Epcot eateries and decided to go with San Angel Inn as it had been a few years since I dined there. My first two experiences were a bit mixed as the service and being seated was quite slow on both occasions! The food was a bit mixed too as I loved the appetizers both times, but not my entrees as much, but food was still good overall.

I secured an ADR on Friday, April 4 at 12:30 pm at San Angel Inn at Epcot’s Mexico pavilion.

So this is how my ADRS look now:


Saturday, March 29: Monsieur Paul’s (Epcot-France) 6:30 pm

Sunday, March 30: Be Our Guest (Magic Kingdom) 7:30 pm

Monday, March 31: California Grill (Contemporary Resort 7:45 pm.

Tuesday, April 1: Victoria & Albert’s-Queen Victoria’s Room (Grand Floridian Resort).

Wednesday, April 2: Paradiso 37 (Downtown Disney-Pleasure Island), 7:15 pm. de here.

Thursday, April 3: Jiko (Animal Kingdom Lodge-Jambo House), 7:30 pm.

Friday, April 4: San Angel Inn (Epcot: World Showcase, Mexico), 12:30 pm.

So there was still a lunch or two ADR to book, on free days in the parks, but first I needed to plan out my park itinerary days first. This would before getting into My Disney Experience, Magic Bands and Fastpass+. I also had to decide what kind of park passes I wanted or purchase an Annual Pass. Not sure, if I’d return the end of the year for the Epcot Food and Wine Festival, so it wasn’t that likely for me to get an Annual Pass. May also want to get a Tables in Wonderland card (TIW), but not sure if I’d save more than the$100 for the cost of the card for a non AP holder. It would be $75 for an AP holder. Since, I couldn’t use it at Victoria & Albert’s Queen Victoria’s Room, it may not be worth to get one. If I were to do the second stay later next year, than it would be worth it.

There were also my three golf reservations to book, but I can only book those at the 90 day mark of the round and not the beginning of the trip like you can with ADRs. So there was still plenty to do in the coming months....

NEXT: How Did I Forget To Do This?

[Big Baloo]

Uhoh, what'd you forget? Magical Express? Car rental? Oh dear, this can't be good!

[Jambo]

Congrats on the flights and ADRs. The trip is coming together nicely. I look forward to your review of Monsieur Paul's. Haven't read anything about it. I recently saw an Anthony Bourdain program where he got to meet Paul Bocuse(sp?). He is a living legend and Anthony was humbled to be invited to tag along with him.

[Cam22]

Congrats on getting all your ADRs! Very delicious choices! Nice to have options for flying. We have several as well, but unfortunately, the ones furthest away have the best deals. Your itinerary is looking good, too.