I have got so behind with updates although I have definitely not been idle on the planning front. I know that I said that I would not plan anything for this trip, but there were a whole lot of things that needed my attention. I have now ordered and received my Photopass+ pack for Disneyland and added Memory Maker to my account for Walt Disney World. I got the standby tickets for the trip back from Orlando. I also sorted out my transfers for Los Angeles. I have gone with Supershuttle again. At least I know what I am letting myself in for. I also paid the balance for the All Star Music Resort.
Last weekend, I finally bit the bullet and applied for our ESTAs. Mine expired in April and Graham had to get a new passport so we both needed new ones. I had been putting off this particular joy for a while. Goodness, this process has become so complicated. I felt like I had to write a dissertation. I knew that it had changed and was now asking for the names of parents, additional nationalities and employment details. However, it has changed again and now you also need to supply an emergency contact in either the USA or abroad plus a US point of contact with name, address and phone number. Fortunately I have plenty of friends in the USA so this was not an issue, but it still surprised me. Then to add insult to injury, both of them came back as pending approval. Fortunately when I re-retrieved our application number, they had both been approved. What a nightmare.
This now leaves four things to sort out. I cannot apply for my ticket that will take me to Los Angeles until one month before travelling. Strictly spoken, this is next Saturday. However, I am on a late shift on Friday and will email the application to our London office before I leave. It won’t get picked up until Monday and by then we will be inside the one month window. I am hoping that my ticket will be waiting for me when I get back from Dubai, but as another airline is involved, this may not happen quite so quick.
At some stage I need to call DVC Member Services to book the two member exclusive Fitness in the Park offerings that they now offer at Disneyland.
Now that Graham has firmed up his plans and I have his flight details, I am going to have to call Disney’s Magical Express to see if he can use this two days later than me although our hotel booking starts on 1st October. I don’t really see why this should be an issue, but we will see.
The last thing that I need to do is sort out is booking Discovery Cove. The plan is that we will spend Graham’s birthday there. I think I will just call them as I can then put a request for a specific dolphin on the reservation. I really want to swim with Dash again, who was the first dolphin I ever swam with.
Once all those things are done, all that I have left to do is print out all the confirmations and this can wait until the week before I leave.
Finally the schedule for first few days at Disneyland has been released. This has come with a few surprises. I had expected both parks to open at 10:00 with California Adventure closing at 20:00 and Disneyland at 21:00 with the exception of the party nights. Well, the only thing I called right is the closing time of California Adventure and even then I was surprised that the park is open until midnight on 25th September. I suppose this is to give people who are not heading to the party somewhere to go. On the day I arrive, Disneyland will be open until 22:00, which suits me just fine. When I arrive, I am planning to nap for three or four hours. I am then planning to head to the parks around 18:00. If Oswald is still due out then, I will head to California Adventure first to pick up my Photopass+ lanyard and to say “hi” to Oswald. I then have plenty of time to go over to Disneyland to stake out a spot. Paint the Night is on at 20:45 and Disneyland Forever at 21:30. By then I will be ready for my bed.
The next two days, the parks open at 9:00 and Disneyland is open until 23:00. This has given me an interesting problem. I had originally made a reservation for Goofy’s Kitchen for 7:40 on the first full day at Disneyland. I figured that the parks would not open until 10:00 so that would give me plenty of time to have a leisurely breakfast and maybe go for a swim before meeting friends at around 10:00 for a day in the parks. However, now I am second-guessing this and wonder if I should bring my breakfast reservation forward to 7:10 and go and enjoy some of Magic Morning at California Adventure before meeting up with my friends. I do however think that this may proof too much of a good thing and I am better off just sticking to my original plan. After all, I am getting more than enough park time on this trip.
One thing that utterly confuses me is that there are still not details about the Happiest Haunts Tour. I have not made up my mind if I want to do this or not, but I thought this could be fun. In past years, this started as soon as the Halloween season started. As tours can be booked 30 days in advance, I would have expected that by now we would have details for this. However, it still says schedule unavailable so this may require a phone call to see if this is bookable. I will wait until I come back from Dubai though that if it is bookable and I fancy it, I can make the booking on the same call.
The biggest task was doing the Fastpasses. However, this actually went surprisingly smoothly. I have heard horror stories about people who logged in a couple of hours after the booking window opened at 60 days and not getting what they wanted anymore. I was not willing to get up at 5:00 the morning my Fastpass window opened as this was the only day that I did not have to be up at 5:00 that week. In one way, I was rather laid back about it as I really had two must have Fastpasses. However, those are some of the hottest tickets in town: Anna and Elsa and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I did not need to worry. I had no problem getting Seven Dwarfs Mine Train on every day I am planning to be at Magic Kingdom and although Fastpasses for Anna and Elsa were not available on my first choice of day, my second choice was no issue. On some days the times that the system suggested actually worked for me straightaway, but on most days I changed the times once I had the Fastpasses I wanted confirmed. Here is what I ended up with.
1st October:
17:50 to 18:50 – Mission:Space
19:00 to 20:00 – Meet Disney Pals at Character Spot
20:00 to 21:00 – Soarin
2nd October:
9:55 to 10:55 – Spaceship Earth
10:55 to 11:55 – Test Track
12:00 to 13:00 – Journey into Imagination with Figment (don’t really expect that I need this)
3rd October
10:00 to 11:00 – Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater
11:15 to 12:15 – Big Thunder Mountain
13:15 to 14:15 – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
4th October
15:00 to 16:00 – Meet Ariel in her Grotto (I will be dressed up as Ursula for
MNSSHP)
16:00 to 17:00 – Meet Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall
17:25 to 18:25 – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
5th October
9:45 to 10:45 – Soarin
11:40 to 12:40 - Meet Disney Pals at Character Spot
16:05 to 17:05 - Mission:Space
7th October
9:30 to 10:30 - Meet Disney Pals at Character Spot
10:35 to 11:35 – The Seas with Nemo and Friends
11:40 to 12:40 – Soarin
8th October
9:20 to 10:20 – Enchanted Tales with Belle
10:30 to 11:30 - Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
11:45 to 12:45 – Peter Pan’s Flight
9th October
11:30 to 12:30 – Meet Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost
12:55 to 13:00 – Kilimanjaro Safaris
14:00 to 15:00 – Expedition Everest
I pretty much made the Fastpass reservations for the last day just in case I do fancy popping into Animal Kingdom, but I think it is more likely that I end up cancelling them nearer the time. I have the strange feeling that I will be all “parked out” by then and sitting in a rocking chair in a public viewing area at either Kidani or Jambo House will be much more appealing. However, I wanted to keep my options open.
I am in two minds about the first day as well. I figured that it would be nice to get some park time after travelling all day. By then my body clock should be on West Coast Time so it will still feel really early in the day when I get to Orlando. Unfortunately there are no Extra Magic Hours this day so Epcot sounded like the best option. Now things have changed. When I booked my ticket for MNSSHP, I expected that I would arrive in Orlando much later. Best case scenario was that I would arrive in Orlando shortly after 18:00 but more likely even later. So doing the party on 1st October was not an option. However, now I arrive at 15:45. So even with delays along the way, I should be able to get to the park by 19:00. Some people I know are going to MNSSHP and I am kind of tempted to add another party on 1st October. I am just not sure if this would be overkill as I am already doing two Halloween parties at Disneyland and one at Walt Disney World.
When I was booking my Fastpasses a couple of weeks ago, I was prompted to do online check in for All Star Music. I have never stayed at a value resort before and I have to admit that I am a little apprehensive about this. So I asked for some tips from people I know who have stayed there before. I was told that a good request to make is for ground floor in building 10, away from the courtyard so it is quieter. I looked into this and realised that building 10 is part of the preferred category and I have booked a standard room. So I did not think this would be an option. However, when I came to do the online check in, even though I have booked the standard category, one of the request options that came up was Calypso section, which translates to buildings 1 and 10, which are both preferred category. I decided to use my two requests on Calypso section and landscape view so I am hoping that this translates to away from the main building and not facing the pool. I know that this is a request only and I will make do with whatever I will be assigned, but I figured it was worth a try.
A week after this, it was time for me to do online check in for our one night at Kidani Village. I have only ever stayed at Jambo House. At Kidani, what my choices really boiled down to is which savannah I ideally want to be on. Initially was leaning towards the Pembe savannah as they have red river hogs and okapi on that savannah. However, Okapi are relatively shy and red river hogs are small so I figured I would be better off with animals that will be easier to see from the balcony. In the end I requested a high floor overlooking Sunset savannah. I figure I will have better luck seeing okapi and red river hogs from the public viewing areas.
Corinna