401 days 'till Disney!!! But who's counting?!?! 07/18

[momabaarjo]

YAY! I am so glad things worked out and your trip is paid off! I so understand the issues you have with plane ticket costs from where we live. I became a flight stalker trying to find the cheapest out of here...driving to Dallas or Denver is a lot cheaper, but when I thought about driving home from there...well I would rather pay more!

 

[oboedm]

Yay for changing dates and getting free dining! Love it, and love that your trip is now paid off! I love that you can start planning the details now! =)

 

[jenny105]

After all that I'm glad you were able to get free dining! Calling in the morning is so frustrating because there are always crazy wait times. When this happens in our office whoever gets a CM first usually just passes him/her around LOL. It's crazy!

Yay for your trip being paid off! And yay for lower airfare! Airfare is outrageous. I'm so glad we were able to use SW points to get ours for free.

I priced out free dining for myself because I was curious how much better of a deal we were getting by renting DVC points. We're saving $1600 doing it this way! WOW!

 

[smile4stamps]

congrats on getting the Free Dining!! I saw your posts on the FB group and I felt so bad for you!! I'm glad your husband was able to get through!!

 

[Enchanted88]

AHHHH YOU GOT FREE DINING!!!! Congratulations!!!!!

Thanks, girl!! I'm soooo excited!!!!!

Congrats on Free Dining!!!!!!!!!! The hold times to get that promo can be the WORST, I've booked it several times before!!!

YES it's was NUTS!! I'm so glad we got it, though!!!! Thanks for the congrats!!

YAY! I am so glad things worked out and your trip is paid off! I so understand the issues you have with plane ticket costs from where we live. I became a flight stalker trying to find the cheapest out of here...driving to Dallas or Denver is a lot cheaper, but when I thought about driving home from there...well I would rather pay more!

hahahaha true story!! The nice thing about driving to Dallas is that Ben's mom lives there now, so when we flew back after the trip, we would have a place to stay that night so we wouldn't have to drive right back! If we didn't I don't think we would be thinking about it either, I would be a grump!!!

Yay for changing dates and getting free dining! Love it, and love that your trip is now paid off! I love that you can start planning the details now! =)

Thanks!!!! I'm super excited! I spent hours this weekend end planning, and I think i've confused myself more than ever now! hahaha

After all that I'm glad you were able to get free dining! Calling in the morning is so frustrating because there are always crazy wait times. When this happens in our office whoever gets a CM first usually just passes him/her around LOL. It's crazy!

Yay for your trip being paid off! And yay for lower airfare! Airfare is outrageous. I'm so glad we were able to use SW points to get ours for free.

I priced out free dining for myself because I was curious how much better of a deal we were getting by renting DVC points. We're saving $1600 doing it this way! WOW!

Thanks, girl! I'm super excited about it!!!! Calling on FD day is NUTSSSSS! I don't blame you guys for passing the phone around! hahaha I would do the same thing!

Everything is just piecing together now! I actually feel like we are going now!! I'm so excited!

YAY for saving $1600!!!! That is so incredible!! I'm happy for ya'll!

congrats on getting the Free Dining!! I saw your posts on the FB group and I felt so bad for you!! I'm glad your husband was able to get through!!

Thanks!!! Yes, I was a very upset lady that day!! Thank God for my wonderful husband for keeping on trying! He made my month! hahahaha

 

[Enchanted88]

Thanks so much for being excited with me over free dining! Haha I know that many of you have had this before, but we never have, and it saved us around $400 in the long run!! We were going to upgrade to DDP anyways, so that would have been an additional ~$200, and we still had $286 to pay to pay off our trip—Now we only had to pay $15!! WOOHOO! Haha
Now I’m trying to work my schedule around ADR’s, that’s a little tough! I really hope we get to see/experience everything we want to during this trip! I want to spend ample time in each park, so hopefully we’ll be able to do that and still make our ADR times!
AND I still have 1 TS to figure out! I thought we had used up all of our 7 credits, but I forgot we got Le Cellier for lunch, so I still have one more to decide on!! I can’t decide where to go though! Oh, well—I’ll figure it out!
We are booking our flights this week, I believe! I’ve held off as much as I could, but since it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving we are flying out, I don’t want our flights to be sold out! I would cry!
I have a few questions for all of my readers concerning the upcoming trip---let me know what you guys think!
1) When we went last year, we made sure to see Wishes on our last night and now I feel like it’s wrong not to! Haha What are your thoughts on this? Do you guys spend your last night at MK? My problem with this right now is that, the 28th (Wed) We have an ADR for ‘Ohana @ 6:50p—then we are planning to watch Wishes on the beach—We still have one last full day at Disney on the 29th, so I was thinking about going BACK to MK that night to watch Wishes---BUT THEN I was thinking about going to MK the 30th morning before we have to leave to go home at about 4:00p! Sorry if that confused anyone! Hahaha My question in a nutshell---is that MK overkill? Lol AND is wishes @ the Poly acceptable as the last viewing of Wishes of the trip?! Hahaha oh, man I think my obsessive planning claws have officially come out! This is dangerous, ya’ll!
2) Candle Light Processional---I really want to watch this---but I don’t want to do the package! (It’s probably too late to do that anyways) I’ve heard stories that people start lining up HOURS before the show—I don’t want to spend park hours just sitting around, though! When we are going, Neil Patrick Harris will be doing it, so I know it’s going to be PACKED!! I really love the idea of hearing the Christmas story while at Disney—but I would have to wait hours in line—right? What do you guys think?!
3) This kind of goes back to my first question: (but kind of not) Like I stated earlier, we have an ADR @ ‘Ohana Wed (28th) @ 6:50p—Our plan for that day is to go to AM EMH @ AK and ride EE 9784230983 times, do KS, and knock out whatever we didn’t get to do on our original AK then leave—so we won’t be there too too long, probably until 1 or 2 at the latest! The rest of the day, I haven’t really planned out very well, other than going to ‘Ohana! I have a few ideas of what we could do, what do you guys think?
*DTD for shopping
*Resort hopping to look at decorations (will they even be out during this time?)
*EPCOT just because it’s EPCOT lol
*If you guys have any other suggestions on what we could do this day, let me hear ‘em!
I could TECHNICALLY switch my ADR to the next day, but I’m really not sure if that will solve anything or make more of a planning problem! Haha I know you guys haven’t seen all of my plans yet—I’m working on letting you guys in on that soon! Haha But I’m worried that I don’t have enough EPCOT and DHS time planned—so maybe I could go to DHS too this day?! OY VEY!!! (I’m sure you guys are so glad you clicked on my PTR today, huh?!?!)

Okay, I’ve already let you guys in on what we the 23rd (even though we’ll be arriving that day now, so we won’t arrive at MK until later in the day, our plans are still the same, with a Tony’s reservation at 6:15p) and the 24th!
Now we are on day 3, Sunday, November 25th (one month ‘till Christmas!)
This day is a 6 crowd level—(easywdw says parks to avoid are EPCOT and DHS) EMH is for DHS until 11:00p)
Our plans right now are to go to EPCOT!! Haha (hopefully it won’t be TOO crowded!) We are planning to stay here all day!
We’ll get up—grab some breakfast—then head out!!
We’ll focus on FW and try to knock some rides out in the morning—then hang out in WS the rest of the day!! (I’ll be back later on with more detailed plans for this day!)
The only stapled down plan we have for this day is our ADR at Via Napoli at 6:20p!! Yummy!
We might stay and watch illuminations---BUT since we will have watched it the night before, we might leave after our VN ADR and head to EMH at DHS!! If we do this, we might try to ride a couple of rides, but mostly just soak up the atmosphere, and Osborne lights!!! Do they keep these on during EMH’s?
What do you guys think about the plan?! I know it’s not very detailed right now, but I’ll get the detailed version to you guys when I have time!!
Sorry for no pictures! I’m typing like a mad woman right now! I have to leave for work in 15 minutes, and I’m not dressed yet!! hahahaha

 

[marDgreen88]

I've never had free dining before so I can't even imagine how awesome it must be! So exciting!

WHEW! GIRL. I wish I could help, but my brain is on Disney planning overload right now! I'm maxed out right now, I think! Hahah, I'm sorry.

As far as the CP goes, I've heard that the package is not worth it. Since you don't really want to do it anyway, I wouldn't bother. When I saw the CP in 2010, Jodi Benson (ARIEL!!!!) was the narrator, and we didn't get there early enough to get seats, but we still had a nice view, and could hear everything from the back. We just stood, and it was totally fine. That might be something to consider, and then you wouldn't have to wait in line for hours. It might work! That's just AWESOME that you get to see NPH. I love him.

I hope you are able to get your plans together! I really wish I could help, but when I started trying to think about it my brain was just like, "No, stop it."

 

[Enchanted88]

I've never had free dining before so I can't even imagine how awesome it must be! So exciting!

WHEW! GIRL. I wish I could help, but my brain is on Disney planning overload right now! I'm maxed out right now, I think! Hahah, I'm sorry.

As far as the CP goes, I've heard that the package is not worth it. Since you don't really want to do it anyway, I wouldn't bother. When I saw the CP in 2010, Jodi Benson (ARIEL!!!!) was the narrator, and we didn't get there early enough to get seats, but we still had a nice view, and could hear everything from the back. We just stood, and it was totally fine. That might be something to consider, and then you wouldn't have to wait in line for hours. It might work! That's just AWESOME that you get to see NPH. I love him.

I hope you are able to get your plans together! I really wish I could help, but when I started trying to think about it my brain was just like, "No, stop it."

It's all good, girl! I know you have a trip to plan of your own, and it's a lot closer than mine is!! hahahaha I think I just overwhelmed myself for a little while, and just had a freak out on my PTR!!hahaha

That's too cool that Ariel was the Narrarator for you!! I bet that was awesome!
I still can't decide if we should try! I guess we could just try when we are there, and if we don't get it, I won't be sad!

I am getting so excited for our trip though, I just feel like it's all working out!

 

[Enchanted88]

I'm letting you guys know right now, I have no pictures for this post!! I'm sorry!!!! I haven't had time to upload anything to photobucket!! Please bear with me, and my next post will have pictures!! hahaha

I’m back!!
I just wanted to share a little more in detail what I want us to accomplish Sunday, November 25th!!
We’ll head to EPCOT, like I said, right at opening!
We want to get as much done in FW as we can, so we’ll head towards the Land first, and grab some Soarin FP’s and maybe hope in line as well!
We might hop on Living with the Land as well, since we are over here! I really liked this attraction last time; it was very interesting!
We’ll probably stop by innoventions E&W and just hang out! As long as we do Soarin and Mission Space, Figment, Nemo, and TT (if it’s up, which I’m not sure about) I’ll be happy!
I really enjoyed spending time at the aquarium section last time, so I’m sure we’ll spend some time there, and try to catch Crush!
By this time, it should be getting close to lunch, so we’ll either head over to Sunshine Seasons (I love that place!) or head over to WS and try out a CS from a country!
What do you guys think? What should we try for lunch this day?!
We’ll spend the rest of the day at WS just having fun, taking in the sights, watching the shows, soaking up everything WS has to offer!
Here is a list of things I want to do/see! (this list is subject to change, and probably will like 35 times in the next 3 months hahaha)
--Snack around the world! I kind of want to make it a game with DH and I!!! It would be fun to have to pick a food item in each country and share it! The only thing about doing this this day, is that I don’t want to be stuffed for our ADR! I want to enjoy the food for dinner! Beyond the obvious, School Bread, Caramel from Germany, etc, what other snacks should we try?!
--Pick a Pearl! I’m considering doing this—I’m not sure if I’ll do it this visit to EPCOT or a later day—but I think it would be so fun!! I’ll definitely buy a setting on Ebay before I go! Do you guys know a trustworthy source to buy one from?
--I want to see the side shows, too! We only saw the Beatles tribute band, and the drummers in Japan last time, so there are a lot of other shows I would like to see! (Oh, yeah, we saw the Italian ladies,too! They were funny!) What other ones do you guys suggest?
--Shop!!! I haven’t worked out a souvenir budget yet, but I will more than likely buy something from WS as a souvenir! I may wait ‘till later in the week, though, so I can make sure I’m making the right choices! Haha
--Pin trade!!! I want to get some pins on Ebay,too! Do ya’ll know a good person to buy from there?? haha
The only thing we have set in stone tonight is Via Napoli at 6:20p! Yummy yummy in my tummy!!! In one of my earlier posts, I already let you guys know what I wanted, but I’ll say it again! Either the pizza or the spinach lasagna!!!  YUM!
After eating, we may leave EPCOT, and head over to DHS for EMH, and the Osborne lights!! WOOHOOO!
What do you guys think about my plans? Do you guys have any suggestions for this day?!
I hope your week is going great!!

 

[momabaarjo]

I would NOT miss the Candlelight Processional! I know you do not want to stand in line for this show, but without the dinner package that really is your only choice and with it being Neil Patrick Harris...I expect a sell out package which means you are standing in line for no reason. I would go with a package on someplace you want to eat in Epcot...


I like Ohana as the last meal, Ohana means family...and wishes from the beach....yep, way to end the trip!

 

[marDgreen88]

If you start early enough with the snacking, you might still have some room for dinner! Hahah I don't know. I've never had a CS meal there, OR any snacks! (In fact... that only think I've eaten in WS at all was Via Napoli.) But I've heard great things about the Boulangerie Patisserie and I personally have plans to try something from there... so I'll let you know! Haha

I really hope Test Track is open! I miss that ride!

 

[smile4stamps]

I would do the CP package if you wish to see it! NPH is mighty popular!!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

As far as World Showcase CS places, I love Boulangerie Patisserie, or La Cantina. Both are great!

I've heard awesome things about the Candlelight Processional. I've only seen little bits from passing by on the sidewalk, but it looks gorgeous!

 

[Enchanted88]

I would NOT miss the Candlelight Processional! I know you do not want to stand in line for this show, but without the dinner package that really is your only choice and with it being Neil Patrick Harris...I expect a sell out package which means you are standing in line for no reason. I would go with a package on someplace you want to eat in Epcot...


I like Ohana as the last meal, Ohana means family...and wishes from the beach....yep, way to end the trip!

Thanks for the advice! I'm constantly going back and forth on whether to do CP or not!! I realllly want to see it, but I'm just not sure if I can fit it into my touring plan now, without having to rework everything! I guess I'll see what I can do! haha

If you start early enough with the snacking, you might still have some room for dinner! Hahah I don't know. I've never had a CS meal there, OR any snacks! (In fact... that only think I've eaten in WS at all was Via Napoli.) But I've heard great things about the Boulangerie Patisserie and I personally have plans to try something from there... so I'll let you know! Haha

I really hope Test Track is open! I miss that ride!

Yummy! I think Boulangerie patisserie is on my list, too! I'm super excited! I'm excited to try all the food, and thanks to all the walking you do a WDW, hopefully we'll burn off a majority of the calories!

I can't wait to read your TR for your upcoming trip, so i know what you liked and what you didn't there!!

GET THIS, Test Track opens the DAY WE LEAVE!! How rude!! haha

I would do the CP package if you wish to see it! NPH is mighty popular!!

I know, NPH would be great to see! I just don't know about how it would fit in with my touring plan! I'm already freaking out about scheduling around ADRs this trip! I'm so thankful that I got Free Dining, but now I just have to figure out how I'm going to do everything we want to do! lol I'm NOT complaining though!

As far as World Showcase CS places, I love Boulangerie Patisserie, or La Cantina. Both are great!

I've heard awesome things about the Candlelight Processional. I've only seen little bits from passing by on the sidewalk, but it looks gorgeous!

Yum!! Thanks for the tips! I'll definately try both out!! I shouldn't be craving mexican food this early in the morning!

I know, CP would be such an awesome experience!! I still haven't decided, yet! haha Have a great weekend!

I should have an update with pictures tonight or tomorrow! And I plan to get caught up on everyon's TRs and PTRs, too!! This week has been crazy!! But, I got the okay from my boss to start working 10 hour days and get Fridays off!!! YAYAYAY Well, today, I only have to work 'till 10:00 am! I'm so not mad at that!

I'm attempting to plan around ADRs right now, so we'll see how successful I am at that!

 

[jenny105]

I'm with you on Sunshine Seasons. That place is so yummy! I don't think I've ever had CS in the countries but I hear Rose & Crown and the Mexico CS are pretty good. Leave room for Via Napoli!!

I've never done Pick a Pearl but I think I want to try it this trip. I have to look for the carriages on Ebay. If I buy one and have no problems receiving it, I'll let you know.

 

[smile4stamps]

One thing to think about as you try and decide what to do is: Will we be able to do this on a future trip?!? You were originally planning October so you didn't have CP or Osborne Lights in the Mix. Now you are going in November and have the opportunity to see CP and the lights! I say to take advantage of the things that are special to the season you are going as you may not go during that time again!

The rides will (mostly!) always be there so if you end up missing a few is it going to kill you? Will you regret not getting to see CP just so you could do something you did the last trip and will do again the next trip?

Did that make any sense?