"DIS meets galore!" - Oct 15-23, 2016 -Link to New TR added - March 2nd

[franandaj]

Your plans sound good, much more detailed than mine!

However, the idea here is to get the FPs off the books quickly so we can get a 4th one for later in the day, likely either another Test Track or maybe Soarin'. We have heard from others this technique works, so we'll give it a try.

You might have to use the first one to get the fourth. I missed one and the system let me reschedule it after the fact. But that was back when you had to choose three.

Again, it's about burning the FP early to maybe get another useful one for later - maybe another Test Track one. Today we are hoping to meet up with @franandaj in the afternoon, but it is mostly about enjoying some more food and wine festival and meeting whoever else wants to meet up.

My FP plans start around 1PM and we're planning on arriving in the park around 11AM to snack our way around. Fran will probably go back to the room and let me do all the FP. We have our travel day the day before so well be on West Coast time a still tired.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

The burning fastpasses should work fine as long as it isn't Frozen Ever After you want another - kind of annoying that the system in place results in "wasting FP" being the best option.

Also just keep an eye on standby times for Soarin' - with the third theater (assuming they are running all three) wait times have been lower

Should be a fun time at Kona and then Trader Sam's. We were there around 6pm on a Friday in July and it wasn't super crazy crowded - so not sure if 4pm is bad since they just open then or if it really isn't bad until later.

 

[franandaj]

When we waited for Trader Sam's to open, there were at least four parties with us. They seated the parties who waited with pagers first, or let us in to choose our table. Fran had either gone to the restroom or to park her scooter. By the time she joined me at our table, all the others and bar seats were full. Plus other parties had stolen the extra chairs since we were sitting on the bench seat against the wall. It was about an hour until folks finished their one drink and started to leave. We stayed for about three hours and during this time almost everyone else came and went.

 

[skier_pete]

You might have to use the first one to get the fourth. I missed one and the system let me reschedule it after the fact. But that was back when you had to choose three.

My FP plans start around 1PM and we're planning on arriving in the park around 11AM to snack our way around. Fran will probably go back to the room and let me do all the FP. We have our travel day the day before so well be on West Coast time a still tired.

Hmmm....never thought that I would HAVE to use it. If that's the case, we might not end up with a fourth. Not really that critical.

Didn't think you would be in the park that early. Hopefully we can catch up with you in WS.

The burning fastpasses should work fine as long as it isn't Frozen Ever After you want another - kind of annoying that the system in place results in "wasting FP" being the best option.

Also just keep an eye on standby times for Soarin' - with the third theater (assuming they are running all three) wait times have been lower

Should be a fun time at Kona and then Trader Sam's. We were there around 6pm on a Friday in July and it wasn't super crazy crowded - so not sure if 4pm is bad since they just open then or if it really isn't bad until later.

No - we have one FP already from Frozen Ever After. I don't really even know if we NEED the fourth FP. Our experience is during the week everything in Future World is pretty much walk-on, except TT and Soarin', so if we can't use it for one of those, we probably won't bother. Even with lower wait times, saving 30 minutes of waiting is still better than nothing.

What I read was specific to opening. As Alison mentions below...

When we waited for Trader Sam's to open, there were at least four parties with us. They seated the parties who waited with pagers first, or let us in to choose our table. Fran had either gone to the restroom or to park her scooter. By the time she joined me at our table, all the others and bar seats were full. Plus other parties had stolen the extra chairs since we were sitting on the bench seat against the wall. It was about an hour until folks finished their one drink and started to leave. We stayed for about three hours and during this time almost everyone else came and went.

It's kind of crazy how small they made that place. With a big party of people I could see us having trouble. Might be made better by the fact it is a Tuesday. Seeing as DW and I have been there before, I am not going to stick around a wait a long time to get in if it comes to that.

 

[franandaj]

Didn't think you would be in the park that early. Hopefully we can catch up with you in WS.

Well that's MY plan, I don't know how compliant Fran will be. That's 8AM our time, but if past trips are any indication, well only get 4 hours or less sleep on Monday night. (Although our plane leaves at 10 instead of 8, which means we don't have to leave home until 6:30AM.) Maybe we willget as much as 6 hours sleep! But regardless we'll go to sleep right after dinner, which will help to put us on East Coast time. I mean that's 12 whole hours for us to sleep and get up and go to Epcot.

It's kind of crazy how small they made that place. With a big party of people I could see us having trouble. Might be made better by the fact it is a Tuesday. Seeing as DW and I have been there before, I am not going to stick around a wait a long time to get in if it comes to that.

I'm amazed at how big it is and how little tables they have in there. Compared to DL's version, there is tons more space, but the tables are really spaced far apart. At DL's, the tables are right on top of each other.

Speaking of DL, I'm working on Fran to hit TS possibly tomorrow before they sell out of the special mug.

 

[skier_pete]

Well that's MY plan, I don't know how compliant Fran will be. That's 8AM our time, but if past trips are any indication, well only get 4 hours or less sleep on Monday night. (Although our plane leaves at 10 instead of 8, which means we don't have to leave home until 6:30AM.) Maybe we willget as much as 6 hours sleep! But regardless we'll go to sleep right after dinner, which will help to put us on East Coast time. I mean that's 12 whole hours for us to sleep and get up and go to Epcot.

I'm amazed at how big it is and how little tables they have in there. Compared to DL's version, there is tons more space, but the tables are really spaced far apart. At DL's, the tables are right on top of each other.

Speaking of DL, I'm working on Fran to hit TS possibly tomorrow before they sell out of the special mug.

I've told you we are easy on that day - so you can just text us when you are coming into the park - and we'll figure our where to come to meet you.

Yeah, both Trader Sam's are pretty small - but the layout in WDW seems really poor - like they weren't really expecting many people to want to go there. Weird. The DL one seems mostly taken up by the bar. I've never actually say inside it, even though I've been there a few times, we always end up out on the patio.

Hope you are able to get that mug - I knew when I saw it you would be a fan.

 

[Disneymom1126]

Hmmm....never thought that I would HAVE to use it. If that's the case, we might not end up with a fourth. Not really that critical..

Stopped by to check out your plans! It looks like a lot of fun so far! Your DD and my DD have in common that they know what they like and are difficult to persuade otherwise! For my DD she refuses to go on IASW (she says it gives her bad dreams) and Dinosaur (too realistic/scary for her). She's also pretty shy and refuses to meet any of the male fave characters after an obnoxious Peter Pan encounter last year lol...

As for the quote above - you will be able to book a 4th FP+. I'm pretty confident the window just has to expire for all 3 even if you don't use one of them. Maybe we will see you at HS - we will def be checking out the fireworks the Saturday we arrive now that they have finally released the schedule for them!! Have to fix that in our plans since our 2nd day at HS doesn't have them!

 

[skier_pete]

Stopped by to check out your plans! It looks like a lot of fun so far! Your DD and my DD have in common that they know what they like and are difficult to persuade otherwise! For my DD she refuses to go on IASW (she says it gives her bad dreams) and Dinosaur (too realistic/scary for her). She's also pretty shy and refuses to meet any of the male fave characters after an obnoxious Peter Pan encounter last year lol...

As for the quote above - you will be able to book a 4th FP+. I'm pretty confident the window just has to expire for all 3 even if you don't use one of them. Maybe we will see you at HS - we will def be checking out the fireworks the Saturday we arrive now that they have finally released the schedule for them!! Have to fix that in our plans since our 2nd day at HS doesn't have them!

Really - she'll ride Tower of Terror, but not It's a Small World. Don't let her read the Disney Kingdom Keepers books.

Thanks for the note on the 4th FP, I was pretty sure if you blew over the whole time, they would reset your FP completely. Guess I will find out for sure. We will hopefully all be there for the fireworks . DD is pro-Star Wars but anti-fireworks, so this one will be a tough one for her!

 

[skier_pete]

Final 3 days of plans:

Day 6: No park plans. We are going to spend some time around the Kidani resort today - hopefully get some time to check out a pool that we have never seen before. (We've been to the Jambo pool, never the Kidani pool.) We have a lunch reservation at noon at Sanaa, one of our favorites, and love the idea of trying lunch here.



In the afternoon, maybe 2 or 3 PM, we will head over to Disney Springs for a while I really mostly want to check out Jock Lindsey's Hanger Bar - which is where I think we will get some light snacks or appetizers for dinner. It wasn't yet open when we were here last - but I am SUCH a huge Indiana Jones fan - I just want to try a Hovito Mojito. (You could tell them, Dr. Jones, if only you spoke Hovitos....)



After that - I figure we will take the water bus over from DS to meet everyone at Riverside for Yee-ha Bob. This is another group event - and we have never seen Yee-ha Bob at POR. I doubt we will stay super-late for this maybe 8:30 PM at the latest...this is our version of a "Lazy" day on a Disney vacation.

Day 7: Well, this is a bit of an up-in-the-air day, isn't it. Today was really about Animal Kingdom and especially getting together as a group to see Rivers of Light - the "new" nighttime show. Well, as you probably all know, even though it was supposed to open in May, the Rivers of Lights show STILL is not open - and no opening date is announced. There are lots of rumors floating around about it possibly opening between now and then, but nothing definite. In the meantime, the park is currently listed as closing at 8 PM.

It's also a day that a lot of the group is going to hopefully meet up to spend some time together - though again nothing concrete - so I am making a tentative plan with the suspicision it might get partly or mostly tossed out.

Honestly, we LOVE Animal Kingdom, and I sort of hated to only leave one day for it in the plans. We used to spend two days there and could easily still do so. But because of Food and Wine I really wanted to set aside 3 days for Epcot, which compromised AK.

So, this is definitely a rope drop day - but heck it's 5 minutes by bus from our hotel. We normally do the safari first thing in the morning, finding that the animals are most active then. (Except the lions.)





We discussed how to handle the new nighttime safari - do we want to just do it in the evening? Well, we decided we would do it twice. If current park closing does occur at 7 PM, sunset is at 6:45 PM in Orlando on this day, so we would hopefully get over there for a "end of the day" safari as well. Initially, I booked this as a FastPass. Here are our FastPasses for the day - but I am really up for changing these around:

Expedition Everest: 12:25 PM - 1:25 PM
Kali River Rapids: 1:50 PM - 2:50 PM
Kilimanjaro Safaris: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM

I am very much up in the air on these. I booked the Everest FP more for a case if anyone else wants to meet and go on that. Ulana and Adriana both won't ride Everest - Adriana tried it last time - I am hoping maybe group peer pressure can get her on it again. Anyone have a suggestion for a time we could all try and book? She also won't ride Dinosaur again she says. (She tried it last time and closed her eyes for the ENTIRE ride.)

The only FP we are really likely to use are the Kali River ones. I did these mid-day, because the possibility that we may do a mid-day break back at the hotel after getting drenched on this ride - and then give us a chance to change for the evening. With the hotel so close to the park, a mid-day break seems perfect!

Besides that - I asked DD, and said we may only have time for two of the three shows today, between Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo and Flights of Wonder, she picked Lion King and Nemo. I would agree with her that these are must sees.

The last thing of the day is something we just decided on. If Rivers of Light does NOT come on-line, DW and I made a reservation for dinner at 8:30 PM at Jiko. We were trying to squeeze it in somewhere on the trip but just couldn't come up with a good choice. We decided a late dinner might be fun, especially if the park is closing at 7 PM. If that gets delayed, or if Rivers of Light opens up, we can always cancel!



This is from our trip in 2010 - it would be 6 years almost to the day since we last ate there.



So we are already up to our last day - Day 8. We planned a Magic Kingdom day. Every other day of the trip was planned to go to parks on least crowded days - but this one we are going into the mouth of the beast. MK has Halloween parties on Thurs, Fri and Sun, therefore this is the only day of the weekend where the park is open to the public late - so we KNOW the crowds will be coming. The plan though is that we already got the biggest headliners out of the way on Tuesday, and this will be more of a "catch the little stuff" day.

That's not to say we don't plan on taking advantage of rope drop today. And Fastpasses. Probably will start out in Tomorrowland, and then will work our way around to use our Fastpasses as follows:

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 10:35 AM - 11:35 AM
Jungle Cruise 11:35 AM - 12:35 PM
Splash Mountain 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

I may change the Splash Mountain one depending on if we got on it on Tuesday.


This is the day we are scheduled for possibly a Pontoon boat ride on Bay Lake, and I know the group is doing Hoop-Dee-Do, though we skipped out on that one. (I enjoyed the show previously, but it's expensive and needed to cut something out of our selections.) I think after the Pontoon boat we will likely go back to the hotel for a bit and maybe pack. The plan would be to come back to the park in the evening, though there's a possibility that DD will be way too tired by this point and want to stay in the room, then it will be just DW and I to close down the park. Current closing time is listed at 10 PM, but I expect based on time of year for them to extend that to midnight at some point. Maybe not, but that would be OK also.

At that's it, we have a fairly reasonably timed flight out the next day - I think it leaves at 11:30 AM, which probably means a 8:30 AM magical express. We are home by mid-afternoon, allowing us a little relax time before work and school pick up again on Monday.

 

[rteetz]

Plans look great! I have only eaten at Boma at AKL but have wanted to try the other restaurants.

AK is my favorite park and I am excited to experience the changes and nighttime stuff. Rivers of Light continues to test daily pretty much so hopefully we get some info soon!

 

[Teetah]

Pete! Hi! Joining in! Finished up your last TR (and my own, LOL), finally! Awesome you are going in October - I will miss you guys - going in November with my DSIL. I did start a late PTR (you are shocked, I know), but hopefully this one is better, as my DSIL will be more into than The Hubs.

That pic of DW sleeping on TT is a riot!

Your plans sound great - I can't wait to hear what you think of Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar -that one is on our list!

 

[skier_pete]

Plans look great! I have only eaten at Boma at AKL but have wanted to try the other restaurants.

AK is my favorite park and I am excited to experience the changes and nighttime stuff. Rivers of Light continues to test daily pretty much so hopefully we get some info soon!

You and me both @rteetz - last few trips we have only had one day there - and the draw of food and wine dropped us to a single day again. It would be awesome if it fell in place to see it.

Pete! Hi! Joining in! Finished up your last TR (and my own, LOL), finally! Awesome you are going in October - I will miss you guys - going in November with my DSIL. I did start a late PTR (you are shocked, I know), but hopefully this one is better, as my DSIL will be more into than The Hubs.

That pic of DW sleeping on TT is a riot!

Your plans sound great - I can't wait to hear what you think of Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar -that one is on our list!

Hey @Teetah . Thanks for joining in. At times life gets hectic. You can see towards the end our DL trip report really tapered off as I didn't have time to work on it. Life is smoother at the moment - so now problems there. Looks like you have a fun F&W trip planned. We will likely be down there for another solo trip early November next year - but that's for another report.

 

[UKDisneyJoe]

Really enjoyed your last two trip reports Pete so looking forward to this one too. Plans all look really good and interesting with the DVC stay

 

[skier_pete]

Really enjoyed your last two trip reports Pete so looking forward to this one too. Plans all look really good and interesting with the DVC stay

Thank you very much - just 18 days until we leave!

So - a quick update is probably appropriate - though as I pointed out before, this really ISN'T a Pre-Trip Report.

Our ME passes and our Magic Bands are in hand - we've started to pack. My wife pointed out to me that she shouldn't be allowed to buy any more Disney clothes, as she has more Disney clothes than she can wear across the 9 days of the trip. PSHAW! I say.

Still waiting on Rivers of Light - now just over 3 weeks until our Animal Kingdom day. No news isn't good news in this case!

In even further in the future trip news - I just purchased 3 GOLD Annual Passes. But not for this trip. It's a case of "You know you are a Disney Freak if..."

Here's what we are thinking is going to happen over the next two years:

February 2017 (This one is 100%) - President's Week to Orlando Offsite / Universal trip with Universal APs
November 2017 (Maybe 80 % this happens) - DW and I for 4 nights "Adults only" F&W trip / also maybe use our Uni APs.
February 2018 (Near 100%) - Disney/Universal trip Uni APs will still be valid at start of trip so can go to both resorts. 2 nights at Uni resort to take advantage of FOTL, the 6-7 nights at WDW.
August 2018 (90% Chance) - 8-9 nights at WDW. With luck, bringing a friend of DD if we can find a parent that will allow it.
October 2018 (80% Chance) - 4 nights - this time booking 2 rooms and bringing along another couple for a "couples weekend" of F&W. (We would pay for the room - the other couple would have to pay for flights/tickets/food...etc.)

That would get us 4 trips and ~26 days in the parks out of our APs - that's roughly $22 a day for park entry. Even if just two of the trips happens - it still would be worth the APs. The problem - this plan would use our remaining 2016 points, all our 2017 & 2018 points - totaling about 350 points. We'd still actually be a few points short of what we need - so might need to rent some DVC points or stay on-site elsewhere a few days, but it actually would make for 4 rather inexpensive vacations between the APs, our DVC points, and our Southwest free flights (Should have at least 4 free flights of the 10 that would be needed.)

What this would also do is likely mean no trip at all in 2019, and maybe none in 2020...not sure we could handle that.

We were on a bike ride, and we were talking specifically about something we might do as part of the Feb 2018 trip...and I was laughing saying "Do you realize we are talking about plans 4 trips away? There's really something wrong with us!"

Anyways - since this is definitely NOT a pre-trip report...stay tuned for the actual trip!!

Edit: Oh I neglected to mention the reason I bought the APs - we are approaching 1 year since the last AP price increase. If we assume an increase in October 2016 and again in October 2017, that means we would miss TWO price increases by buying them now. That's probably around 8-12 %. I figure that's a better investment than the money in my bank account!!

 

[Teetah]

You should up that November 2017 trip to 100%! We will likely go the beginning of November next year, as well. We shall see how this year goes.

I am REALLY hoping for Rivers of Light by the time we go. Crossing my fingers for you guys!

 

[ALEXandFAB]

Not long to go now!
Your plans sound wonderful. I had a little chuckle at your "lazy" day plans.
Waiting for ROL is driving me bananas! I had such high hopes that we'd be able to catch it in November
That trip line-up is

 

[skier_pete]

You should up that November 2017 trip to 100%! We will likely go the beginning of November next year, as well. We shall see how this year goes.

I am REALLY hoping for Rivers of Light by the time we go. Crossing my fingers for you guys!

Well - I am looking at the first weekend of November 2017 - which would likely be November 4th through 8th. I don't want to call it 100%, but since I will be booking the room in December, it will be pretty close by that point.

That would be fantastic if you and Tim were coming the same weekend - we would definitely have to plan some seminars together!

Not long to go now!
Your plans sound wonderful. I had a little chuckle at your "lazy" day plans.
Waiting for ROL is driving me bananas! I had such high hopes that we'd be able to catch it in November
That trip line-up is

Yeah - I'm probably approaching 100 days at Disney World the last 10 years - I am not sure one of them could truly be counted as "lazy". Someday we'll just spend the day hanging around the resort....someday!

The trip line-up: I'm pretty pschyed about the idea - we did something similar in 2009-2010 when we bought an AP to go in Dec 2009 and Oct 2010, and then added a "surprise" trip for DD in April - so we did 3 trips in 10 months. Other than that - we typically have been at most one WDW trip a year, and we didn't go at all in 2012 and 2014 (well, we did a long weekend). Ever since we went DVC, we wanted to try and take advantage of APs and do i this way - do 3 or 4 trips in a 12 month window, and then take 12-18 months off before going for a bunch of trips again. We've pretty much decided "too much Disney" is not an issue - at least for DW and I. DD maybe not.

 

[skier_pete]

First official TR Update - I wanted to get something up so everyone knows I am not going to shirk on this!

When leaving for WDW – it’s always fun to get to the park by lunch time. We had a great flight to do this – we had to wake up about 5:30 AM and leave the house by 6:30 AM, but hey we were going to Disney so even DD had no problem waking up for this!



Arrived at the airport before 7 AM, and on the plane and in the air just after 8 AM, touchdown in Florida 10:40 AM. We had a quick potty break, and then off to the magical express. A teeny wait of maybe 20 minutes for our bus to load, but Yay! Jambo House was the first stop! These pictures of the lobby were taken at 12:20 PM, which means < 6 hours after leaving our house we were ensconsed within the Disney bubble. No work, no politics, no worries for the next 8 days!



Some shots from the lodge:



I know a lot of people like it, but I personally think the whole – “Welcome Home” pitch of DVC is really cheesy. Do people really think that because you are an “owner” it makes the trip extra special? Personally, what makes it special is that I can stay at Deluxe level resorts for comparable to what I was spending to stay at a moderate. However, since this resort is our actual “home” resort – I did take a picture of the sign…



Jambo everyone! In my opinion, the most beautiful lobby on Disney property:





The view out to the Savannah:





This trip was an experiment of sorts – as owners at the AKV we are able to book at the 11-month premium window, and as such can get a “value” room, which is one of the lowest point rooms in the DVC system. A value room however is a smaller room – the studio size is only 315 square feet versus the standard/Savannah rooms being 365 square feet. They are also hard to book because there’s only 18 of them. We had booked 4 nights in a value room at Jambo to start the trip. Then we would switch to a standard room at Kidani. This would allow us to try out the two different resorts as well as the two different room sizes – for future trip planning! Overall, the 8 nights would only cost us 96 points – which is slightly more than half our annual point allocation of 160. This was important too, as we had used 93 points for our 3 nights at DLR in February, so we didn’t have a lot of points to spare. (We actually had to borrow these points from our 2016 UY which doesn’t start until December – but that’s DVC minutiae.)

Anyways, we checked to see if our room was ready – it wasn’t. We were offered the opportunity to take a parking lot view room that WAS ready – or stick with our assigned room which was a pool view. We decided to stick with what we were assigned and just head out to the park. We did a quick changeover of bags in the lobby of the hotel, and decided to head out to the bus. Wouldn’t you know it, the bus pulled up JUST as we were getting to the bus stop! Yay again! (We actually had EXCELLENT Bus Karma on the trip overall, only ONCE did we fare poorly on a bus situation, and multiple times did a bus pull up very shortly after we arrived at the bus stop. For those that don’t know – I call the fortune you have with the Disney transportation system Bus Karma: This is because I try to be a polite guest at all times at Disney World, treat the CM and other tourists with respect, allow older people or small children seats on the buses, and generally be on by best behavior – with the HOPE that this will be repayed to me by not having to wait for long periods of time for a bus. )

While the bus karma was good, the room karma was not as good – as we were pulling away from Jambo House, my phone buzzed to let me know that my room was ready! Dang – 5 minutes later and we could’ve dropped our stuff in the room! Oh well…

We had plans for a late lunch at the Sci-Fi, but as we a got to the park about 1 PM we had a little time, so I suggested first up should be the Great Movie Ride – DD wouldn’t ride this for the longest time until we FINALLY forced her on it in 2015. She loved it and rode it twice that trip. We hit it again here – I don’t love the ride, I really think there is something missing about it, it just doesn’t really capture the magic of movies to me until the very last scene with the Wizard of Oz. The other scenes are all too short and too static. It’s not that I hate it, but it’s not really on my “must do” list.

Walking in on Hollywood Boulevard:



Still no hat!!







Wait time was only listed at 20 minutes to get on. It was probably pretty spot on. Not bad for the middle of the day though!



Apparently they just put this in the queue – it’s one of the Ark of the Covenant props. (I won’t pretend it’s THE prop – that one’s in a warehouse in Area 51.)



This ride gave me the first chance at WDW to really test out my new camera. I bought it specifically to try and be able to get low light shots inside the rides. It has a “reduce motion blur” mode that takes several shots and composites them. While not every shot I took worked, I was able to get quite a few good ride shots without using a flash.





They were running both cars – but we STILL got the gangster. I’ve never seen the cowboy takeover…one of these days.







These Bogie and Bergman AAs look so terrible.



My favorite part – the only scene that feels to me like you are really in the movie;





…and your little dog, too!





Dude, it’s not that scary!



Follow the Yellow Brick Road!





...to be continued.

 

[franandaj]

Nice shots so far! I havent had a chance to check mine out yet. You are lucky that it's such a short trip to get to WDW. Wit the time it takes you, we still have half our plane ride left!

 

[rteetz]

Yay for early flights!

I am with ya Pete AKL lobby is the best. I have never seen the WL lobby which was done by the same person but AKL is just beautiful.

I prefer the no Hat.

Great movie ride is still enjoyable but I am interested to see if the ride survives or becomes Mickey-fied like rumors say.