Two, Yes Two! Pre Trip Reports in One! (Sept and Oct 2011) - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Two, Yes Two! Pre Trip Reports in One! (Sept and Oct 2011)
And so the insanity of Disney continues. As we all knew it would.
The thing with annual passes is that they are addicting. I knew that when we started talking about buying them. But once it was firm and once they released some sweet fall discounts, I fully realized how addicting those things are!! I called my boss to talk about Disney and I referred to the passes as crack. He started laughing and teasing me by calling me his wife’s name who is a huge Disney addict. They managed to fit in four trips last year because they had annual passes. At the end of trip #2 and again at the end of trip #3, he told me that was it for the year and that they were out of DVC points, etc etc. Yeah right! There were still days left on those passes!
So, after that introduction, here is the trip report that is an ice cream topper and a floor wax in one! Yes, it’s two pre-trip reports in one!!!!
You can read the start about the pre-trip report here for the Sept 2011 trip.
Rather than keeping that thread up to date, I’m going to combine updates for Sept 2011 with updates for our Oct 2011 trip!! Yes, just one month apart we are going back to Disney!!! It’s a short trip, just four days. And it’s only Stitch and I as DB can’t take the time off of work.
Introductions, again, are always good for the new followers.
Me! Tink – the planner, the wife, the organizer, the instigator of these trips.
DB – my husband (not my dear brother). Almost nothing fazes this man and he has a wicked sense of humor. Hence why I love him.
Stitch – my girlfriend and converted Disney fanatic. Last year’s trip in Sept 2010 was her first official trip to The World. (I’ve also converted her to a Red Sox fan; I’m such a bad influence! ) She posts on the boards as KCSunshine.
Little Dude – the wonder dog. He’s Stitch’s service dog, a side effect of various past issues that you can read about in our previous reports. He’s cute, he’s adorable and he works his butt off.
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For the Sept trip, Sept 5 to Sept 14 – specifically right over *that* weekend in September. Again, read the past reports and you’ll learn that this date is heavy in our hearts and just do not want to deal with the 10th anniversary this year. We’ll be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter.
For the Oct trip, Oct 14 to Oct 16 – a free weekend! Damn we are busy people! It took us 5 days for Stitch and me to figure out which weekend we could travel due to my schedule, Stitch’s schedule and our obligations. Unfortunately, because that took so long, we couldn’t get our first choice. So we will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside. We did pay for the quick service dining plan, though, because the goal of this trip is Food & Wine Festival. I figured that we’ll get our money’s worth between the snacks and quick service meals.
I stopped updating my other trip report because things were just crazy. Work was a huge part of that (and thank you to everyone who sent pixies via my thread in the Villas section of this board!) And then Stitch started to tinker with the schedule with me and things just got even crazy from there.
The first day we arrive, Stitch and I are heading to the Magic Kingdom to upgrade our 9 day park hopper tickets to annual passes. We’re using the regular dining plan for this trip as it’s free with the room. Also, as an interesting wrinkle, DB is not coming down until Friday, Sept 9. While we are all thrilled he has a job, it is as a consultant and therefore he does not get paid time off. So we’re minimizing the time away from work for him. But because Disney requires that everyone in the room be on the same plan, that means we get all these “extra” dining credits!! Stitch and I have been having a blast planning out all sorts of places to eat. It also gives Stitch and I extra time for pin trading without DB. He’s a great guy, very much one of those “go along to get along” types of people. But he was definitely tired of our pin trading at the end of our last trip. To the point where he said something! (I may sound like I’m making a mountain out of a molehill here, but really, DB is a very relaxing person to vacation with. So when he says something like that, it’s huge news.)
We also made the decision not to go to Animal Kingdom. And I have very crazy, weird logic on this, but Stitch agrees with me. It all has to do with Magic Kingdom. When the expansion opens late 2012/early 2013, I’m expecting MK to be slammed. I’m also suspecting that crowd levels will stay higher than today’s normal for a long time. I use touringplans.com’s crowd tracker, and just due to the new Star Wars ride and Fantasmic! every night in Sept, Hollywood Studios never gets below a 4 for our entire trip. For most people, a crowd level of four would be fabulous! For us, it’s a high alert for an attack - that’s just too many people to deal with.
When the expansion opens, I’m expecting that MK will crowded and that the new rides and attractions will have an even bigger influence on the crowd estimation than just two attractions at DHS; we’re talking about a whole section of the park!
At this point I know you’re asking “so what does this have to do with Animal Kingdom???” This is where my crazy, weird logic comes in. Since MK will be crowded and we won’t be able to spend the entire day there like we do now, let’s “save” Animal Kingdom for later trips when MK is not doable and then it’s a whole new park for us to explore. By avoiding it now, we can take the time on another trip to marvel at the “new” park to explore while everyone else is at Magic Kingdom.
Again - for most people, this is crazy, weird logic. But for us, it works. We’re basically “saving” Animal Kingdom to be a brand new park to make up for MK being too crowded for us to do full days in the future.
So with all these tweakings, here is an update as to what our schedule looks like as of today (8/16, with 19 days left to go...)
Monday - arrival day.
Goal: Convert the tickets to annual passes. Hit up DTD and get official pin bag holders (we have too many pins for trading!!)
Tuesday - Magic Kingdom day
Goal: Ohana’s for breakfast and Wishes Dessert party at night. And maybe Tony’s Town Square for a late lunch. This day is marked for possible burn out.
Wednesday - Um, now what?
Goal: Since we’re not doing Animal Kingdom this day, it’s gone back into the planning stages.
Surprise of the day (which I already know about ) Stitch is taking me to a dinner at Boma. This is the one restaurant that I wanted to go to that I hadn’t made a reservation for because I didn’t know how to fit it in. It sounds wonderful, I’m so looking forward to the buffet!!
Thursday - Epcot Day
Goal: 1900 for breakfast
Friday - DB’s arrival day and Hollywood Studios Day
Goal: Last day for pin trading!!. Also try to time the activities at DHS so that we can hand Little Dude off to DB when he arrives so we can do Tower of Terror over and over again! We only rode it once last trip, that was a mistake.
Saturday - Magic Kingdom day (again)
Goal: Cape May Cafe for breakfast and catch up with DB’s long lost brother Goofy. Dinner is at 1900 since I couldn't get early enough reservations at Chef Mickey’s. The goal today is the rides at MK that we can’t do with Little Dude and anything that DB wants to ride on.
Sunday - Epcot and Pin Trading Day!
Goal: Le Cellier for lunch and Cape May Cafe clam bake for dinner (it’s all about snow crab legs!!!) In between will pin trading at the public part of the show at Epcot and see if I can possibly get the limited edition Mickey pin that came with the breakfast on Friday (I wasn’t going to spend the money for the pin show, and then the extra for the breakfast for this one pin - it was the only pin that I really liked that they were releasing. Hopefully I’ll be able to trade for it)
Monday - Lazy Day
Goal: Wishes Dessert party at MK tonight - it’s booked twice and you can see why in my pre-trip report link above, it’s on one of the last pages.
Tuesday - Halloween.
Goals: First, Cinderella’s Royal Table, our first time, for a late lunch/early dinner. And then it’s the first night of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party.
I really wish my trip overlapped yours instead of missing you by one day. But I did get an SO so Jan might become a reality!!
Plans sound great so far.
SO?
I mentioned to Stitch about a possible meeting - she's neutral right now. She's very protective of her privacy, hence the lack of real names any where on this board.
Wow! Just a little jealous that you have two trips so close together! But for all that Disney time! Plans are looking great for both September and October!
I mentioned to Stitch about a possible meeting - she's neutral right now. She's very protective of her privacy, hence the lack of real names any where on this board.
I understand. It is totally up to you gals. Just let me know!
Wow! Just a little jealous that you have two trips so close together! But for all that Disney time! Plans are looking great for both September and October!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
Love that you added an extra trip in there, and the F&WF no less, sounds like you have two wonderful trips planned.
I know, I can't believe that we're going back to WDW in one month.
I'm calling it my "I'm INSANE" trip. Because, really, it's insane to be going back so soon. But I set a very careful budget (and worked some extra hours) and the whole trip, including air fare, room & food is $1,026 and change. Which is $26 more than I had budgeted, but we're staying at Riverside instead of POP.
As for F&WF - I did it almost 11 years ago on my honeymoon, back before it got so big like today. DB and I had a wonderful time with it. So I'm taking Stitch down this time so she can enjoy it as well. And we did get the quick service plan, thinking that we will definitely get our dollars worth at F&WF for snacks and counter meals. I'm a little concerned because F&WF is supposed to be extremely crowded on the weekends, but from what I've read and listening to podcasts, it's mostly adults. And we're hoping that an adult crowd, who are more conscious of personal space, will not cause too much of a problem for Stitch. And if it does, there is always Magic Kingdom
Sounds like some good plans! And two trips within a month, can you say jealous??? I hope you and Stitch enjoy the F&WF!
Quote:
Originally Posted by KMB733
Great start and great plans!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lazanya
Great start! You have some great plans!
Thanks all!!!
I have almost nothing planned for October other than F&WF. But I'm not sure you can plan much more than that anyway! Especially since we're not planning on doing any table service restaurants (this trip is to be on the cheap side!)
btw - did anyone notice (what I thought was) my very funny joke?:
"So, after that introduction, here is the trip report that is an ice cream topper and a floor wax in one! Yes, it’s two pre-trip reports in one!!!!"
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As we all knew it would.
Yes, it’s two pre-trip reports in one!!!!
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I hope you and Stitch enjoy the F&WF!
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