2015 Planning Disney Parks, Cruises, Universal & NY - Did I forget anything? **We're here! Upd 02/01

[lffam]

I stayed at The Liaison last year and loved it. Very comfortable room, extraordinarily good restaurant and just a couple of blocks to Capitol Building and Union Station. It's actually the closest hotel to Capitol Building (although there's another across the road) and while I don't think you can see any of the mall from the rooms (I could be wrong) you can see it from the front of the hotel. The dome was covered in scaffolding while I was there so you may want to check on that.

just looked at The Liaison and looks great. amazing prices also. A serious contender thanks FireflyFi

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

Well like I said over at my belated trip report , I would start a new threat dedicated to the planning for our next trip.

I had started some discussion over on the trip report thread and was getting some great feedback and ideas, so much so that it took over from me completing my trip report. The discussion started here for anyone interested but I will try and catch you up.

I had been suffering from major no travel sickness which coincided with the 12month anniversary of our last trip. I thought finally writing my trip report would help and it started out being quite cathartic, but soon I got sucked into the Disney planning vortex!

So our initial ideas were for a White christmas in 2015. After various incarnations our latest plan is as follows :

leaving end Nov early Dec 2015
Disneyland 4 nights
Disney Fantasy Cruise 7 nights
Universal Studios/IOA 4 nights (inc 1 day at outlets)
WDW 6 nights
Disney Magic Cruise 5 nights ( Cruising over Christmas - Disembark Boxing day)
Miami 2 nights
New York 4 nights
Home (maybe!)

Now I think this is option 5 on my spreadsheet and it wasn't the last one we tried out. The reason this one has front running at the moment is that it suits the direction of travel we want, ie not doubling back unnecessarily, it gives us something Disney for Christmas, we wont be at the parks at the busiest times, it includes New York which DW said we cant miss this time.

Now my first question is about the cruises. They say the board at 3:45pm. Is this the actual board time or the departure time? Do you board much prior to this? We are thinking of doing Kennedy Space centre and not sure if we should do it before or after the cruise. Different reports say KSC is 2hrs to a whole day, so I'm not really sure. if its more than half a day then we would likely have to do it the day before he cruise

They also say arrive back at 7:30am. Is this the case and then you are off early morning ?

Has any one boarded a cruise from Miami Port? the plane trip is about 1hr from Orlando , the bus is about 3-4hrs. When you add the extra time for the airports then its probably going to come out not that much different. I assume the Magical Express is only for Port Canaveral? Any experience in getting to Miami would be appreciated.

For Disneyland accommodation we want to stay at Grand Californian again. WDW is a toss up, we want to try AK(club), but to be honest we would be happy with any of the DVC resorts. New York accommodations haven't considered yet, but will definitely be looking for ideas.

Still too far out to book anything yet, aside from the Cruises, but need to firm up a few things before I can do that.

please drop me your ideas/suggestions /feedback etc

I live on Long Island NY. Just about 60 miles from NYC. Just wanted to let you Know you can find many nice hotels in Brooklyn and or Jersey City. Brooklyn is actually on Long Island and is only a five -ten minute subway ride from Penn Station (the mid town railway hub) and Jersey City is also only a short subway ride from mid town. You will save a serious amount of money by staying at a hotel that is not in the city, and both Brooklyn and jersey city will have a variety of hotels with one meeting your needs I'm sure.

 

[lffam]

I live on Long Island NY. Just about 60 miles from NYC. Just wanted to let you Know you can find many nice hotels in Brooklyn and or Jersey City. Brooklyn is actually on Long Island and is only a five -ten minute subway ride from Penn Station (the mid town railway hub) and Jersey City is also only a short subway ride from mid town. You will save a serious amount of money by staying at a hotel that is not in the city, and both Brooklyn and jersey city will have a variety of hotels with one meeting your needs I'm sure.

thanks HMANSION. we ended up booking The Beacon Hotel which was recommended by a few friends who have stayed there and had some good reviews.

 

[lffam]

Our WDW and USO tickets arrived in the mail yesterday, that was pretty exciting!

 

[lffam]

I just read this in the Mousesavers email...

Ticket Prices Going Up At Walt Disney World!

The big news in Orlando right now is that Walt Disney World ticket prices are expected to rise this Sunday, February 22nd, by about $5-$6 for a one-day ticket, with proportional increases for other tickets and annual passes. Disney has not confirmed this yet, but we’ve heard it from enough reliable sources to convince us this is the real deal.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Our WDW and USO tickets arrived in the mail yesterday, that was pretty exciting!

Whoo!! I remember running around the house like a 10 year old when ours arrived.

 

[lffam]

Whoo!! I remember running around the house like a 10 year old when ours arrived.

certainly was. all added to My Disney Experience also! when I look at my ticker in my signature it doesn't seem so far away!

 

[Zosha]

Yay *tickets*!! LOL

 

[lffam]

Yay *tickets*!! LOL

just waiting on Disneyland tickets now

 

[bswift]

just looked at The Liaison and looks great. amazing prices also. A serious contender thanks FireflyFi

I stayed at the Liaison in December 2012! We paid $100 a night right before Christmas. We loved it, had no problems at all. There's a little deli across the road where we bought things for breakfast and even had dinner at a few times. We also ate at Union Station a few times. We used the tourist double decker buses (I think it was the Big Bus company) and the stops were walking distance from the hotel. Oh and an extra nice touch was the hot apple cider they had in the lobby every day

 

[lffam]

Bit more progress Washington DC hotel booked.

BNE > LAX [booked]
6 Nights Disney Grand Californian [booked]
4 nights at Hard Rock Hotel Universal Studios Orlando [booked]
8 nights at WDW Boardwalk Villas 1Bedroom [booked]
7 night Cruise on Disney Fantasy - Disembark Boxing day [booked]
3 nights Washington DC Capital Hilton [booked]
7 nights in New York including NYE - Beacon Hotel [booked]
2 Nights in LA
LAX > BNE [booked]

 

[lffam]

Hello all
haven't posted in a while. not much more development on our plans. It is 174 days till we leave now, so that countdown has certainly begun. The 180 day mark for WDW ADRs is looming also (we have DLR & Universal first )

I got some info from the Brooklyn Diner which we are looking at for our New Years Eve in NYC . Still have another few on the short list, but the other two are much more expensive.

Still haven't booked internal flights yet or train from DC to NYC. Will look to do this in July most likely. Have to get back and finish reading some of the trip reports I was reading to help prepare and build the excitement again!

 

[LivingforDisney]

Where did you buy your Disneyland tickets?

 

[lffam]

We bought them through a travel agent who helps us with some parts of our bookings. She had tickets prior to price increase and before dollar dropped a little so worked out well.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I seem to recall we booked the train from NY to Washington quite late in the planning with no trouble. Only thing annoying they only gave you the platform the train left from shortly before (not well in advance like most train stns) and then it was a mad rush of people, in this case downstairs, to the platform around 10 mins prior.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I should have added around 180 days out - getting exciting

 

[lffam]

I should have added around 180 days out - getting exciting

yes it certainly is! I have started booking some ADR's. Trying to do some different ones this time that we didnt do last time, but there will be some we we want to do again, like Garden Grill, we really loved that. I looked at the Dessert spectacular for Illuminations but it does not seem to be one we will do. While I do like the idea of a dedicated area for view, the reviews I read weren't stellar, plus at $49 for each of us incl DS who wont really eat any of it , is a waste.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Can buy a lot of souvies or other stuff at $49 pp saved!!

 

[lffam]

Can buy a lot of souvies or other stuff at $49 pp saved!!

Totally agree! Slowly filling up my ADR's. Cant seem to get any availability for "Dining with and Imagineer". Not sure if this is really booked out or just not released yet. I did having something odd happen. I was trying to get The Garden Grill for dinner. Tried all our dates, not available. Then later that evening about and hour later, I tried in on my iPad (was using macbook) and there was availability on most days I checked. I snapped up a suitable day so didn't check them all,but I had definitely checked all days on the website and nothing. Glitch maybe? worth a try if you cant find anything on one platform.

 

[lffam]

I've done quite a few ADR's . We don't want a full schedule, just most days one booked with the others we will just see what takes our fancy depending on where we are. We might book a few more from these but this will be most of them.

Thursday (Check in) Disney's Beach Club Resort

Dinner Cape May Cafe

Friday The Campsites at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort

Dinner Mickey's Backyard BBQ

Saturday Disney's Animal Kingdom® Theme Park

Lunch Tusker House Restaurant

Sunday Magic Kingdom® Park

Breakfast The Crystal Palace

Epcot®
Dinner The Garden Grill

Monday

Maybe ESPN for Monday night football experience.

Tuesday Disney's Hollywood Studios®

Dinner 50's Prime Time Café

Wednesday Epcot®

Dinner Teppan Edo

Thursday

Nil (yet)

Friday (Check out)