DLR veterans visit WDW for the first time! September 2015 PTR (UPDATED 6/5 HE'S FINALLY HOME!!!)

[SimplyGoofy]

Hi, Evie!

Your trip sounds like so much fun! You will LOVE the Animal Kingdom Lodge - I know I did when I stayed there in 2012! I have tons of pictures of the lodge in my 2012 TR (most concentrated in the "welcome to the lodge" post, the two "tours," and our departure post). You're going to have such a good time there! And CLUB LEVEL! Even better!

Good luck on your ADRs! I will cross my fingers that either you or the IPO will nab you a BOG reservation. Your other choices sound great, too, most especially Via Napoli! That is a must-do for us on every trip!

I'm a major Potter fan so Universal would be my choice, but if you're ho-hum about Potter perhaps a day at the spa and dinner at California Grill would be the better choice! You'd actually come home relaxed from a Disney vacation - and when does that ever happen?!

I look forward to hearing how Thursday goes!

 

[sailored]

I would probably go with Option A. Sounds more relaxing. We went to UA on one of our trips and we loved it. But we went for 2 days. It takes more planning to get yourself over there and back (unless you are renting a car). We liked many of the non-Harry Potter rides as well. If it were me, I would want to end with a day of relaxing over another jam packed day.

Glad you thought ahead and got that photographer. It is always nice to have one less thing to worry about.

Good luck on your ADRs. If you don't get BOG to begin with, you can keep on trying. They sometimes open up more spots or people cancel their trips. I have heard if you go on 45 days before you want you the day you want to eat there, you might get lucky, because that is the last day that people can cancel their Disney Vacation package without penalty.

We have had lunch there twice and loved it. I really want to go for dinner and see the Beast. They are going to be serving Breakfast there soon. As of now, they are not expecting it to be a character breakfast.

Have a great day!

I signed up for the $6 membership with ************** because I'm that paranoid about it right now. I might not even need it, but I was going crazy about BOG haha. If IPO doesn't book it, I will definitely be stalking the website like a crazy person.

I would absolutely LOVE if BOG had a pre park opening character breakfast, how amazing would that be? Come on, Disney! Make it happen.

Following! Your trip sounds glorious I'm sure AKL will be just amazing; it's definitely on my "someday" list, just not this time So jealous that you get to do the Halloween Party! We tried to book in October, but couldn't get the Boardwalk for the whole visit, so we just decided to save the Party and F&W for another time.

Hope you get your BOG reservation too! We snagged one for lunch, but they seemed pretty plentiful a few days ago when we got it. Dinner probably books up faster, sadly :/ . Good luck, and can't wait to read more!

We've never been to any of the Halloween parties at DL, so we are definitely excited to experience it! We are really wanting dinner, but it looks like Disney has been adding more. So there is hope that we will be able to grab one for our trip!

I'm so jealous of your club level at AKL! We were going to do club level through DVC but all the club level rooms were already gone by the time we books. I can't wait to see pictures of the yummy food and cool club level area! Holy smokes some of our plans are similar! We're planning to be in Magic Kingdom Wednesday the 16th and have dinner at Be Our Guest, be in Epcot on Thursday and eat at Via Napoli for dinner, and then be at Hollywood Studios on Friday! Maybe we'll see each other . Good news on Be Our Guest--this morning they opened up a whole slew of new reservation times after 6 p.m. for September and I'm seeing times still available for Wednesday 9/16 (as of right now) at 6:55, 7:15, 7:30, 7:45, 8:00, 8:15, and 8:25. I was able to call in this morning and get a BOG ressie for 9/16 at 6:25 pm. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that some of those slots are still open for Thursday morning!

I'll be sure to share pictures of all the club level foods! The beer portion is what grabbed my husbands attention, men and their beer.

Oh wow! Our plans are basically the same when it comes to those three park days! That's so crazy! We are even staying at the same hotel. Maybe we will run into each other at some point!

Ahhhh! So many BOG ressies! I want them!!! Two more days, two more days. I have to patiently wait and that's the hard part haha.

Hi, Evie!

Your trip sounds like so much fun! You will LOVE the Animal Kingdom Lodge - I know I did when I stayed there in 2012! I have tons of pictures of the lodge in my 2012 TR (most concentrated in the "welcome to the lodge" post, the two "tours," and our departure post). You're going to have such a good time there! And CLUB LEVEL! Even better!

Good luck on your ADRs! I will cross my fingers that either you or the IPO will nab you a BOG reservation. Your other choices sound great, too, most especially Via Napoli! That is a must-do for us on every trip!

I'm a major Potter fan so Universal would be my choice, but if you're ho-hum about Potter perhaps a day at the spa and dinner at California Grill would be the better choice! You'd actually come home relaxed from a Disney vacation - and when does that ever happen?!

I look forward to hearing how Thursday goes!

Hiiii! I am 100% guilty of staying up all night a couple nights ago to read your trip report from 2012.

The pictures/reviews from your TR are making me consider Universal again! My husband and I decided to reevaluate that decision when he returns home. So maybe we will end up going!

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

I signed up for the $6 membership with ************** because I'm that paranoid about it right now. I might not even need it, but I was going crazy about BOG haha. If IPO doesn't book it, I will definitely be stalking the website like a crazy person.

I would absolutely LOVE if BOG had a pre park opening character breakfast, how amazing would that be? Come on, Disney! Make it happen.

Hopefully, you won't need the membership and will get lucky.

So far, the breakfast will be pre park opening, but no characters. I think families with little kids would still do it, just to be close to that part of the park when it opens. They can be first in line for the SDMT.

 

[sailored]

Hopefully, you won't need the membership and will get lucky.

So far, the breakfast will be pre park opening, but no characters. I think families with little kids would still do it, just to be close to that part of the park when it opens. They can be first in line for the SDMT.

Pre Park Opening? I might have to book that myself to get into MK early! Nothing wrong with Breakfast and Dinner, right?!

 

[sailored]

We are officially 180 days away from our vacation!

You know what that means? ADRs! It's now 3:40 AM here in California, and IPO has booked my dining reservations according to My Disney Experience. Here is what they were able to get me.

Tuesday September 15th: TRex @ 8:00 PM

Wednesday September 16th: I'm not seeing anything, so I'm guessing they weren't able to get me a BOG reservation. I'll just be stalking the website until I get one.

Thursday September 17th: Via Napoli @ 5:30 PM

Friday September 18th: Sci Fi @ 6:00 PM

Saturday September 19th: Tusker House @ 8:05 AM and Raglan Road @ 7:00 PM

Sunday September 20th: I didn't request to have anything booked for this day, since we will be attending MNSSHP. But, it looks like IPO booked us a dinner reservation at BOG for 5:25 PM. I'll be cancelling that once I secure one for the date we want. I just really don't want to do a table service meal during MNSSHP. Fingers crossed I'm able to get one in the future for Tuesday!

Monday September 21st: California Grill @ 7:40 PM

I'm off to bed though, considering it's almost 4 AM here and I have a semi busy day tomorrow. I hope everyone else had luck with their ADRs!

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

If you can't get a reservation for the 16th, I would try to keep the 20th. I know it is MNSSHP, however, we went last year, and it was still kind of crowded until it was 7(party time). Unless you were planning on getting in a line for a meet and greet right away. Again, it is just an option if you can't get anything else.

 

[LindseyJo22]

Yay for ADR's!!

I just made most of ours last night Now I'm going to be busy dreaming about BOG and Crystal Palace

 

[DisneyHoover]

Sorry you weren't able to get BOG for your preferred day but I'm glad you were able to get a dinner BOG reservation in general!

 

[sailored]

If you can't get a reservation for the 16th, I would try to keep the 20th. I know it is MNSSHP, however, we went last year, and it was still kind of crowded until it was 7(party time). Unless you were planning on getting in a line for a meet and greet right away. Again, it is just an option if you can't get anything else.

I think that if we don't get BOG for the 16th, we might just have to skip it for this trip. Or maybe even just try to get a pre-park opening breakfast if they continue to offer it in September.

Yay for ADR's!!

I just made most of ours last night Now I'm going to be busy dreaming about BOG and Crystal Palace

YAY! Having ADRs booked is always a good feeling. But, it's kind of like well what next?!

Sorry you weren't able to get BOG for your preferred day but I'm glad you were able to get a dinner BOG reservation in general!

I'm determined to get BOG for the date we want! If not, we might just skip it this trip. We might try to do the breakfast option if they offer it in September.

 

[LindseyJo22]

YAY! Having ADRs booked is always a good feeling. But, it's kind of like well what next?!

I know! I started my report, and now I was just thinking about what else I could add I'm probably going to make a list of must-ride/see attractions, and maybe do a tentative schedule of park days. But that's basically just killing time until Fastpass Day

 

[sailored]

Hello! I'm back again, and you're probably going to think I'm absolutely crazy with this update. But, I promise you that I'm not that crazy.



Before we get to my craziness, just a quick update on the BOG mission. Literally as I was beginning to type this update, I received an email alert that a reservation for BOG had opened up. It was for 9/16/15 at 4:45 PM, it was perfect! So, I click on the link immediately after I get the alert. I get to the part after I select who is attending and then the reservation vanishes! I was SO close to obtaining it! I am determined to get a BOG for the 16th. If not, I will try to grab a breakfast reservation for that morning if they decide to still offer that option in September. I really do believe we are going to drop the one for the 20th, we want to spend that time riding rides especially since it will be our last park day. If BOG doesn't happen on the 16th, it just wasn't meant to be. But, let's move onto my craziness.

I've added some changes to our trip including dining. Here is the new plan, we are 90% sure this is the final plan. But, things can always change.

September 14th, 2015: Phil will probably check out on leave this day if he didn't check out on leave on the 11th. We will be flying out of San Francisco around 5:00 - 6:00 AM, and San Francisco is about 3-4 hours away. We decided to drive up the night prior and stay the night in a hotel. We will drop off our fur child at the boarding place and then start our adventure to San Francisco! While there, might as well take advantage of some of the dining options they have there. I'm really hoping to do dinner here again. It's one of our favorite places! We absolutely looooove this place and have missed it so much since we moved away from San Diego. Why not go here for dinner?! I'm super excited! After we have dinner, we will probably head to the hotel room and try to get some sleep. I'm sure we will be way too excited to sleep.

September 15th, 2015: Departure Day! We plan on leaving our car at the hotel for the week and just taking a shuttle, it saves us quite a bit on parking. The day will consist of travel and then arriving at our resort. We have a dinner reservation at T-Rex that evening. After dinner, we will probably just head back to the room to prepare for our first day in the parks!

September 16th, 2015: Our very first visit to Magic Kingdom! We have always been rope drop people at Disneyland, so I assume we will be rope drop people at Disney World. As stated above, I have not been able to obtain an ADR for Be Our Guest yet. But, I have high hopes that I will! I did manage to book us for the Wishes Fireworks Dessert Party at Tomorrowland Terrace. I'm pretty excited for that, as well as Phil.

September 17th, 2015: We will be spending our second day in Epcot! We have a dinner reservation for Via Napoli and are very much excited to travel the world.

September 18th, 2015: Unfortunately, the hat is no longer there and we will never get to see it in person. But, we plan on spending our third park day at Hollywood Studios. We also have a dining reservation at Sci-Fi for dinner.

September 19th, 2015: We will be spending the day at Animal Kingdom and visiting all of the animals. We have a pre-park opening at Tusker House where we will get to visit with Donald Duck! After the park closes we will be heading to Downtown Disney for our dinner reservation at Raglan Road.

September 20th, 2015: Our very first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! We are super excited for this day, and haven't quite decided what our costumes will be yet. We plan on spending the first part of the day hanging around the pool and taking advantage of the slide. I did book us a lunch reservation at Beaches and Cream, so we will head there before going to the party. After our late lunch, we will head to Magic Kingdom for the party! Stay tuned for costume ideas!

September 21st, 2015: So, we originally planned on a spa day. But, we can do a spa day here in Lemoore. After a little bit of begging via email, I was able to convince Phil that we visit Universal Studios for the day! We plan on doing both parks in one day, so I'm pretty sure we will be purchasing express passes to make it a bit more doable. We just have to do a spa day as soon as he returns home from deployment, which is fine by me!

September 22nd, 2015: The saddest day of our entire trip, the day we head home. Our flight leaves around 11:00, so we don't have any plans for this day besides to be all sorts of sad. Maybe even start brainstorming for our next trip!

These are our plans as of now and I'm super excited for them! We aren't able to make FP+ reservations until July, and by then Phil should be home!

Thanks for following along and baring with my craziness!

 

[jandlinz]

It all sounds great! I hope you get your ADR to BOG on the night your prefer. Just a suggestion, you could keep the BOG reservation on the party night. We've been to the party twice once with three kids and once with four kids. We got there a little after 7, although you can enter as early as 4. Both times we were able to do pretty much all the rides, the parade, and fireworks and that was trucking two strollers and bathroom breaks. I know when we went in September the park was less crowded. You'll pretty much walk on most rides. I think you'll be surprised at how much you'll be able to do, so I don't think having the ADR will be a bad idea. Hope you have fun!

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Love the plans and ideas. Universal! Loved The Hulk roller coaster. We did the first of the Harry Potter rides but haven't been back since the 2nd expansion was completed.

Costume planning is fun. Plus, you will be amazed at how many times that you change your mind. I was always moving my ADRs around or my FP+ selections. Hopefully, you will get that September 16th BOG ADR.

 

[sharona]

Joining! Great PTR. Thank you to you and your husband for your service! My family greatly appreciates it.

Your plans look wonderful and so much fun. We've stayed at AKL and it is beautiful so I know you will love it. I hope you get your BOG reservation, make sure you subscribe to the September cancelled ADR thread and check at 45 days out when final payments are due. We found a pre RD ADR for CP just last week - 5 weeks before our trip (4/24) and I've seen a lot of BOG cancellations in the April cancelled ADR thread. We are doing the opposite of you. We're going to Universal and planning one crazy full day at MK! Just made our FP+ reservations last night at midnight. We can rest at home .

 

[lilmape]

Universal is fun but it wasn't busy when we went. We accomplished everything we wanted in 4-5 hours. It's a shock having been in disney magic for so long. We took a shuttle service over, mears I think.

 

[SimplyGoofy]

You're going to try Universal! I think you're going to love it (especially the phenomenal theming throughout the Wizarding World).

I think your day-to-day plans sound great!

 

[Sisa]

Congrats on all your ADRs!!! Keeping my fingers crossed you can snag a BOG ressie for the 16th.

Yay for Universal. I totally think you are making a great decision there, like you said you can do a spa day at home.

Your plans look awesome, can't wait to see what costumes you guys decide on.

 

[sailored]

I'm so sorry that I've been MIA. I recently started a new job and have been busy, but I promise to have an update soon!

 

[ariane37]

Hi joining in! I'm excited for you, going for the first time! I am also crossing my fingers you get your BOG for the night you want. We've had dinner there 5x and absolutely love it. I will say though, I agree with you that cancelling the ADR on the 20th is the way to go. MNSSHP is my absolute favorite thing to do in WDW and even though the party doesn't officially start until 7, we always get in there by 4 so we're where we want to be and ready for the festivities right when they start We always do a late lunch ADR on party days, like what you have planned at Beaches and Cream.

Can't go wrong with Via Napoli pizza!

Do you think you'll do a TR too? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the differences between DL and WDW

 

[sailored]

It all sounds great! I hope you get your ADR to BOG on the night your prefer. Just a suggestion, you could keep the BOG reservation on the party night. We've been to the party twice once with three kids and once with four kids. We got there a little after 7, although you can enter as early as 4. Both times we were able to do pretty much all the rides, the parade, and fireworks and that was trucking two strollers and bathroom breaks. I know when we went in September the park was less crowded. You'll pretty much walk on most rides. I think you'll be surprised at how much you'll be able to do, so I don't think having the ADR will be a bad idea. Hope you have fun!

I ended up cancelling the BOG ADR for the party night, we want to do as much as possible prior to and during the party.

Love the plans and ideas. Universal! Loved The Hulk roller coaster. We did the first of the Harry Potter rides but haven't been back since the 2nd expansion was completed.

Costume planning is fun. Plus, you will be amazed at how many times that you change your mind. I was always moving my ADRs around or my FP+ selections. Hopefully, you will get that September 16th BOG ADR.

We are excited to check out Universal Studios as well! It's going to be a very busy but exciting trip!

Joining! Great PTR. Thank you to you and your husband for your service! My family greatly appreciates it.

Your plans look wonderful and so much fun. We've stayed at AKL and it is beautiful so I know you will love it. I hope you get your BOG reservation, make sure you subscribe to the September cancelled ADR thread and check at 45 days out when final payments are due. We found a pre RD ADR for CP just last week - 5 weeks before our trip (4/24) and I've seen a lot of BOG cancellations in the April cancelled ADR thread. We are doing the opposite of you. We're going to Universal and planning one crazy full day at MK! Just made our FP+ reservations last night at midnight. We can rest at home .

Thank you! Universal and then a full day at MK? I don't know if I could do it! Are you going to be doing a trip report at all? I would love to read about your trip! Exactly! No resting at Disney, you can rest when you get home!

Universal is fun but it wasn't busy when we went. We accomplished everything we wanted in 4-5 hours. It's a shock having been in disney magic for so long. We took a shuttle service over, mears I think.

I'm really hoping that we have the same luck with Universal, I want to try to accomplish as much as we can in one day. We aren't too sure when we will visit it again.

You're going to try Universal! I think you're going to love it (especially the phenomenal theming throughout the Wizarding World).

I think your day-to-day plans sound great!

I knew you would be excited when I annoucned we were visiting Universal! We are certainly excited.

Congrats on all your ADRs!!! Keeping my fingers crossed you can snag a BOG ressie for the 16th.

Yay for Universal. I totally think you are making a great decision there, like you said you can do a spa day at home.

Your plans look awesome, can't wait to see what costumes you guys decide on.

Costumes are still a work in progress, we might just wait until a couple months out to decide. I just don't know what I want to do!

Hi joining in! I'm excited for you, going for the first time! I am also crossing my fingers you get your BOG for the night you want. We've had dinner there 5x and absolutely love it. I will say though, I agree with you that cancelling the ADR on the 20th is the way to go. MNSSHP is my absolute favorite thing to do in WDW and even though the party doesn't officially start until 7, we always get in there by 4 so we're where we want to be and ready for the festivities right when they start We always do a late lunch ADR on party days, like what you have planned at Beaches and Cream.

Can't go wrong with Via Napoli pizza!

Do you think you'll do a TR too? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the differences between DL and WDW

Hello! Welcome! I did end up cancelling the BOG ressie on the 20th. I gave it to a mother & daughter in a September planning FB group I am in. They are excited about it.

I'm definitely most excited to try Via Napoli. I look at pictures often and my mouth just waters and it makes me so hungry! I have to stop myself from looking at pictures of their food all day.

I'm going to try my best to do a trip report, and I would love to include my thoughts on the differences between DL and WDW. So, be on the look out for that starting sometime after 9/22!