We weren't SUPPOSED to plan a Disney trip this year!! Oct 23-30 *TR to come soon!*

[smile4stamps]

I like how you have your pins displayed... Mine just sit in a bag!

I've not done any CS at AK so I'm not any help. I was thinking of Flame Tree for our second AK day though. The first day is all TS. Tusker House and Yak n Yeti.

[jenneth79]

Finally getting around to checking out all the PTRs from FB..... I'm in and going to go catch up now

[ash-n-brensmom]

Hey! I followed over from my PTR ...plans look great so far. It looks like we might be missing each other all week. We aren't emh people especially since we are offsite. Looking forward to reading more plans!

[PixieMama]

Love the idea of your pin boards! My DDs did pin trading on our 2010 trip, then I got into it myself last summer on my "girls only" trip. It's fun!

[kdka421]

Originally Posted by smile4stamps

I like how you have your pins displayed... Mine just sit in a bag!

I've not done any CS at AK so I'm not any help. I was thinking of Flame Tree for our second AK day though. The first day is all TS. Tusker House and Yak n Yeti.

Thank you!!
Hmm, we still have plenty of time to think about switching around restaurants...if we wanted to try one of the AK TS restaurants, we could maybe steal a TS from another day....decisions, decisions....I've never eaten at any of the AK TS before (other than Rainforest).

Originally Posted by jenneth79

Finally getting around to checking out all the PTRs from FB..... I'm in and going to go catch up now

Hi! Thanks so much for joining in!

Originally Posted by ash-n-brensmom

Hey! I followed over from my PTR ...plans look great so far. It looks like we might be missing each other all week. We aren't emh people especially since we are offsite. Looking forward to reading more plans!

Thank you! We're still switching plans around, so who knows, hehe... But yeah, good point about EMH - we know that common sense says to avoid those parks, but sometimes we really appreciate the extra time in the parks, since we are staying onsite.

Originally Posted by PixieMama

Love the idea of your pin boards! My DDs did pin trading on our 2010 trip, then I got into it myself last summer on my "girls only" trip. It's fun!

Thanks so much We really have enjoyed pin trading during our last 2 trips. Totally not just for kids

Right now I have the pins just divided up based on the ones we got on each trip, but maybe after this trip, I've been toying with the idea of rearranging them into categories; for example putting all the Mickeys together, all the WDW park-specific ones together, etc... Thoughts? Or do you think it's better having one case for each trip?

[kdka421]

Woohoo!

Thanks so much to Jennifer (zeferjen) for posting on the October dis facebook group that there is a 1-day only sale at Target.com, where you can get $100 target gift cards for only $90. You then can turn around and use these gift cards in Target store locations to purchase $100 Disney gift cards, which can be used in the parks, to pay down your vacation balance, etc.

You can purchase here if you want: http://www.target.com/c/target-giftcards/-/N-5xsxt (You'll need to buy $100 at a time to keep getting the discount)
WARNING: Do not purchase the email option ---- this is an e-gift card, which can NOT be used in stores, only online. I'm purchasing the mobile gift cards.

I'm so excited! For now, I purchased $500 worth, saving me $50...depending on how stock looks at the store, I may purchase a few more gift cards as well later tonight, since we still have our whole trip to pay off.

I love saving money!!

[PixieMama]

Originally Posted by kdka421

Right now I have the pins just divided up based on the ones we got on each trip, but maybe after this trip, I've been toying with the idea of rearranging them into categories; for example putting all the Mickeys together, all the WDW park-specific ones together, etc... Thoughts? Or do you think it's better having one case for each trip?

Hmmm... I like how you have them by trip. That way you can remember when you got them.

[kdka421]

89 days left!

In non-Disney news, we're taking a fun day trip up to Burlington, Vermont this weekend. If you read my last trip report, you might remember that during our last trip, my Mom's first book was released. Well, she's already published her second book, and we're headed up to her hometown to meet up with family (including my grandma, aunt and uncle, etc) and have a little celebration. Should be a nice day


And now, back to the Disney plans!


Day 5 10/27:
Here is where our plans have started to be switched around from our original plans. Originally, this was scheduled to be our Hollywood Studios day (doing one day at each park the first 4 days of the trip is a pretty standard plan for us). However - since we both instantly fell in love with the Party for the Senses event, we had to swap parks for day 5 and 6, so now day 5 has become our second EPCOT day!

Like I've already said, we had hoped to avoid EPCOT on the weekends, since we've heard that it's much more crowded on the weekends during F&W due to local visitors. However, since we don't get park hoppers, this is the only way to attend PFTS, since it's only held on Saturday night. So, we're going to brave the F&W crowds!

I think we'll try to accomplish most of our F&W stuff on our first day, Wednesday, when presumably the crowds will be better. If there's anything we miss, we can leave that for Saturday, but hopefully plan for a more leisurely day in the park. So I'm not exactly sure what our morning plans will be (maybe we'll sleep in a little?!). But I've gotten a late lunch reservation for 2pm at Via Napoli, which we're super excited to try for the first time. Originally we were going to do this for dinner, but since we're doing the Party, that will become our evening meal.

So that leaves us with the Party for the Senses, to finish the evening. I know a lot of people say they dress up a little for the event (although some people remain casual)...we both like dressing up, so maybe we'll take a quick break back to the hotel beforehand to change into something a little nicer. I'm sure we won't be wearing uncomfortable dress clothes/shoes around EPCOT all day. (Remember, we're trying to avoid the EPCOT first aid station this time around!) We absolutely can't wait for this event!

Anyone else checking out any of the F&W events??

[smile4stamps]

I'm planning to check out WAY too MANY F&W events!!

3D Dessert Party
Sweet Sundays
PFTS
Possibly Italian F&W pairing
Possibly Cheese Seminar
Possible smaller seminars

We will have hoppers though. I can't imagine doing F&W without them. Too many days will involve going to Epoct for a little while and since we don't want to spend our entire trip in Epcot Park Hoppers are a must.

[ash-n-brensmom]

Excellent plan..I know it's hard to follow the "best" advice when it means missing something like a special event. You just have to go with your plans and brave the crowds. But like you said, you will have already accomplished much on Wed! Have fun in Burlington. My Brother was just there over the weekend, he had a great time!
And wow, congrats to your Mom on her second book!

Oh, and as for F&W...we will just be eating and drinking around the world on our Epcot day. And probably bribing the girls to let us do this...! I think it's going to be a very expensive day.

[kdka421]

Originally Posted by smile4stamps

I'm planning to check out WAY too MANY F&W events!!

3D Dessert Party
Sweet Sundays
PFTS
Possibly Italian F&W pairing
Possibly Cheese Seminar
Possible smaller seminars

We will have hoppers though. I can't imagine doing F&W without them. Too many days will involve going to Epoct for a little while and since we don't want to spend our entire trip in Epcot Park Hoppers are a must.

Awesome!! You're going to have a blast at all those events!
We've never done F&W at all, so I don't have any past experience to compare to...but I do know that we've never in our past trips felt like we've needed hoppers. It might make a few parts of the trip more convenient (such as this upcoming PFTS day), but as a whole, we have no issue spending full days at any park.
I just checked again what the price difference was to get hoppers, and it wasn't as much as I thought it was, however I really don't see us using it any other day other than this Epcot day, so I still don't think it'd be worth it. Will keep it in the back of my mind though...

Originally Posted by ash-n-brensmom

Excellent plan..I know it's hard to follow the "best" advice when it means missing something like a special event. You just have to go with your plans and brave the crowds. But like you said, you will have already accomplished much on Wed! Have fun in Burlington. My Brother was just there over the weekend, he had a great time!
And wow, congrats to your Mom on her second book!

Oh, and as for F&W...we will just be eating and drinking around the world on our Epcot day. And probably bribing the girls to let us do this...! I think it's going to be a very expensive day.

Thanks! I'm pretty pleased with how the plan is working out so far. We typically don't follow "best" advice anyway, haha, we've never ever looked at a crowd calendar. I'm sure you're going to have a blast just eating/drinking your way around the world.

And thanks for the sweet words on my mom's book, we're pretty proud of her!

[Chelley00]

Originally Posted by kdka421

I just checked again what the price difference was to get hoppers, and it wasn't as much as I thought it was, however I really don't see us using it any other day other than this Epcot day, so I still don't think it'd be worth it. Will keep it in the back of my mind though...

We've never had hoppers either. Some people get really freaked out that we don't We just pick a park and stay there, and if it gets crowded, we leave, or if we take a mid-day break, we go back to the same park. It's never been a big deal.

[silverhaze269]

I would love to take in more F&W events, but I'm not sure we'll be able to. Getting to PFTS might be a bit of a stretch in and of itself, so we'll see what happens. The 3D Dessert Party sounds awesome though, and so does the Sweet Sundays, so we'll see how much all of the events are and double check the dates, and go from there.

Also, I love the way your pins are displayed! I've been wanting to do something like that for a while, but just didn't know where to get the frames/stuff to frame them. I currently have all my pins on my YOAMD lanyard, which is hanging on the door knob to the closet in the office ...it's also a little

[kdka421]

Originally Posted by Chelley00

We've never had hoppers either. Some people get really freaked out that we don't We just pick a park and stay there, and if it gets crowded, we leave, or if we take a mid-day break, we go back to the same park. It's never been a big deal.

Yup, we're exactly the same.

Originally Posted by silverhaze269

I would love to take in more F&W events, but I'm not sure we'll be able to. Getting to PFTS might be a bit of a stretch in and of itself, so we'll see what happens. The 3D Dessert Party sounds awesome though, and so does the Sweet Sundays, so we'll see how much all of the events are and double check the dates, and go from there.

Also, I love the way your pins are displayed! I've been wanting to do something like that for a while, but just didn't know where to get the frames/stuff to frame them. I currently have all my pins on my YOAMD lanyard, which is hanging on the door knob to the closet in the office ...it's also a little

Yeah, I think we'll all be able to better plan the F&W events once more details are released! I really hope that's going to be soon.

You should totally do something with your pins, this is SUPER easy. I got the frames at Michaels (and they usually have sales or coupons too, I don't remember but I think these were probably about $15-20 each), they are just standard shadow boxes. The front panel opens like a book, and the inside wall is a material that you can just stick the pins directly into, kind of like a fabric bulletin board. So you just buy the frame, stick all the pins directly onto the back, and you're done!

[kdka421]

85 days!

Day 6 10/28:

Since we had to rearrange our schedule a bit, day 6 is now our Hollywood Studios day. And as such, we don't really have much specific planned for this day. We haven't heard many good things about the table service options in Hollywood Studios (the only one I've tried before is 50's primetime during a childhood trip, and I have no desire to go back there again), so our HS days are always purely counter service, so we have no ADRs. The only thing to plan for timewise is to be sure to catch Fantasmic.

As for attractions - rope drop we'll probably head over and do RnRC and ToT, maybe more than once depending on how the lines shape up. I did RnRC for the first time on our last trip - I was quite concerned that I was going to be terrified (for some reason the thought of upside-down scares me a lot, although I can handle drops like Tot, Everest, Splash, etc just fine), but personally I thought it ended up feeling less intense than Everest. Absolutely loved it, but we only got to do it once since the ride was down for a few hours, so I'm looking forward to go on this a couple times hopefully.

It'll also be good to avoid the masses going to Toy Story - like the ride a lot, and I'm sure we'll get FPs for it at some point, but not going to rush over there right away. As for the shows (Indiana Jones and Lights/Motors/Action), we've seen them both before, and might or might not see them again...they're just so brutally hot most of the time.

There's really not all that much to do in Hollywood Studios. Maybe we'll stumble on some hidden gems we haven't seen much before? I know we haven't done the animation thing in our recent trips, maybe there are some other things like that as well. Worst case scenario, we can always take a mid-day break.

That's really all we have planned for Day 6. Anyone have any tips or favorite things you love doing in HS?