It Will Be An October Quickie!! We're in Single Digits!!!

DizNee Luver

Luver of all things Disney!
Joined
Feb 2, 2009
:eek: What did she just say?? :rotfl2: Did I really say October Quickie??? :confused3

I did, I did!!!

After a year of planning last year for a fabulous family trip to WDW in December.....then having to cancel :sad1: .......I'm happy to say....that my hubby & I are getting another chance to step foot on new territory (for us Disneyland lovers)!! We will finally make it to WDW in October!!! :cool1:

Sooooooo, what's the plan?? :teacher:

October 8-12, 4 nights & 3 days in the parks.
Staying at All Star Sports with our son Derek who is a CM in the Disney College Program.


Well let me introduce the cast of characters for this report:

This is me (Laurie) and my hubby Mike last December at Disneyland. We weren't able to swing the WDW trip but we did have a magical time at Disneyland!!



This is our son, Derek.



Derek is on his 2nd go round with the Disney College Program. Last year he worked at All Star Movies in the food court. Not a fun job for him, but he made some wonderful friends. This year, he's a captain on the boats that go from DTD to Port Orleans (and Saratoga too I believe). So if you see him......say hi!!

We tried really hard to get to WDW with the whole family, but finances being tight (always.....) and a large family....we just couldn't swing plane tickets on top of the WDW stuff. We ended up driving down from Oregon to Disneyland & Derek flew over to spend the week with us. We had a great time but after I had spent so much time researching & planning the dream trip to WDW......I was feeling let down that we didn't make it there. No one (other than Derek) has been to WDW.......so being 50 yrs old......I knew I really needed to get this done while I could still run around & have fun! ;)

Well......it really didn't look to be in the cards this year either......but my hubby forgot he had an IRA (?) through a company he no longer worked for......and we're cashing in on it. It's not a lot, but enough to squeak out a very quick, cheap trip. The most expensive thing was the plane tickets! :crazy2:

Derek was able to get us a room with his CM discounts and we added dining......so for the most part we're set. We obviously will need some spending money for incidentals (and for my hubby to go hog wild in EPCOT with the sampling of different foods).......but I think we will still have an amazing time.....even if our time is short.

So why only 3 days (+2 travel days)......we have more kiddos at home. We are leaving our 26 yr old son home (and in charge) of our 4 littles. We have a 12 yr old son, 8 yr old daughter & 6 yr old twin daughters that are special needs. Both twins are mentally delayed and autistic. It breaks my heart that we can't take everyone with us......but we also need to take some time for us once in a while.

This is Mike & I with the 4 youngest kids (all 4 were adopted after being in our home in foster care).



Adaleah (8) & Anthony (12) in the back......Shyann (6) and Michayla (6) on my lap.

This is Tyler (the one we're leaving home to watch the troops).



There are 2 more that aren't making the trip with us & it would be my oldest son, Nicholas and his soon to be wife, Marie. (September 7th!!)



Well I think that's enough for now......more info to come!!! :yay:

Thanks for stopping by & I hope you will follow along! :wave2:

 
Woohoo! Future Wife Marie!!!

I am having to wait until my boss comes back from vacation to see if i can get two or more days off to help Tyler watch the kids.
 
Woohoo! Future Wife Marie!!!

I am having to wait until my boss comes back from vacation to see if i can get two or more days off to help Tyler watch the kids.

Ok......found out that Grandma can't come up to help....she has a cat needing daily heart medicine and she doesn't have anyone that can do that for her.......so right now, Ty will be on his own! Hoping to find him some help in getting all 4 kids out the door in the mornings to school.
 


Yay I'm subbing in. So excited for you guys. That is awesome that you get to go and I hope you guys have a BLAST! You are going to LOVE the food and wine festival. That is my FAV time to go and although we are going in Nov next year I told mom the NEXT time we go whenever that might be I want to go in Oct. That way I can be there for the halloween party which I still think is WAY better than DL and also for food and wine.

The dinning plan is awesome as well. Are you doing the quick service or the table service? We did the table service one when we went in 10 and were able to have some AMAZING meals. We plan to do the deluxe one next year because we are hoping for free dinning and then will upgrade to the deluxe. That way we can have more signature meals.

Gosh so exciting. You know I LOVE your trip reports. Can't wait!! We have our DL trip coming up in Oct as well. Not as exciting as DW but I haven't been during Halloween since 09 so really excited!

Yay can't wait for more!! ;)
 
Yay I'm subbing in. So excited for you guys. That is awesome that you get to go and I hope you guys have a BLAST! You are going to LOVE the food and wine festival. That is my FAV time to go and although we are going in Nov next year I told mom the NEXT time we go whenever that might be I want to go in Oct. That way I can be there for the halloween party which I still think is WAY better than DL and also for food and wine.

The dinning plan is awesome as well. Are you doing the quick service or the table service? We did the table service one when we went in 10 and were able to have some AMAZING meals. We plan to do the deluxe one next year because we are hoping for free dinning and then will upgrade to the deluxe. That way we can have more signature meals.

Gosh so exciting. You know I LOVE your trip reports. Can't wait!! We have our DL trip coming up in Oct as well. Not as exciting as DW but I haven't been during Halloween since 09 so really excited!

Yay can't wait for more!! ;)

The Food & Wine festival was just a bonus I found out about after booking. Mike had already planned on eating his way around the world in EPCOT but now there will be even more choices for him. :rotfl2: We aren't attending any of the "events" tied to the festival.......time is just too short to even look into that.

We are doing the regular dining: 1 QS, 1 TS & 1 Snack. I didn't want the QS plan......I'm more interested in the TS restaurants. So we have 4 to chose (out of the long list I had made last year..........) I think we have a pretty good plan in place.

We're holding off on buying the party tickets, because they offer certain dates to the CM's for a discount. October dates haven't been released yet, but the Sept. dates were all the Fridays.....so we're hoping it will be the same for October. If not.......no biggie, we'll just order them & still go.

When are you going to DL? Are you doing the party?
 
Ok......found out that Grandma can't come up to help....she has a cat needing daily heart medicine and she doesn't have anyone that can do that for her.......so right now, Ty will be on his own! Hoping to find him some help in getting all 4 kids out the door in the mornings to school.

Ok I will see what I can do into being there for the 4 school days.
 


The Plan:

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8:

We are going to fly out of Portland, Oregon at 6:35am on Southwest.



We have to change planes in Chicago and then we land in Orlando at 5:10pm!!

We are going to use the Magical Express Bus to get us to our resort.



We are staying at the All Star Sports Resort!! (I'm hoping for the baseball or football area.....since these are my 2 favorite sports!!)



I'm hoping Derek will have already checked us in and can just meet us at the bus stop!! I think we will then head to Downtown Disney to check it out.....this will be our only time to do that.



Head back to resort and call it a day.......a very long day.

**Images from Google**



 
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9:

We are heading to EPCOT today!! Park hours 9-9, EMH 9-11pm.



We will use the Disney transportation to get to & from all the parks.



After planning this trip (the dates).....I found out that the International Food & Wine Festival would be going on.



Well, this works out great with my hubby's plan of "eating his way around the world".......lol We plan on getting little tastes from the different countries.....stuff we've never had before.



So this may sound strange to a lot of you......but we aren't that interested in the "attraction/rides". We will probably do some of the "countries" attractions.....like the 3 Caballero's, etc. We aren't interested in Mission: Space or Soarin'. Maybe Test Track.....but after riding Radiator Springs Racers at Disneyland (California Adventure)....I think we'd be disappointed. The main goal of this whirlwind trip is to try new things.

The thing I'm really looking forward to seeing at EPCOT is Illuminations!! (any tips on where to stand for a great view & hopefully not be totally packed in with people would be appreciated)



**Images from Google**
 
Gosh I don't know how you are going to even touch the surface with only 3 days LOL but at least you are getting to go so that is awesome! I am so happy for you. Are you going to split a day for the last two parks or just skip one? If had to skip any it would be the studios. Really not much there compared to the others and they pretty much have everything that Disneyland has. Don't waste your time on the back stage tour if you do go it is really boring and nothing compared to Universals.

That dinning plan is the one we did in 10 and it was great. We ended up just paying for a meal one night at our resort (the coronado) and we did 1 signature meal at Narcosses which was incredible. We timed it so we could see the fireworks. It was GREAT!

I am sure you are going to list all your dinning choices. Can't wait to hear what you are going to pick. So exciting.

When we go next year we are going for 10 or 11 days. We are flying out on a Sat and probalby will do the same type southwest flight you are doing. You pretty much HAVE to get one of those early morning flights to be able to do ANYTHING on the first day. If you nap on the plane you will be amazed that you still have a lot of energy when you get there and will enjoy DTD. That is what we have done the last few times as well.

WE took the ME and checked in and then headed to DTD. We looked around and then ate at Fultons. It was a perfect first night. In fact that is our plan again next time. WE won't get in till around 4 or 5 and plan to eat at Fultons our first night again.

We are planning on eating at Coral Reef (have never been) and Le Cellier (been once), Crystal Palace (character breakfast), Be Our Guest dinner, Doing the Luau at Polynesian, Brown Derby for lunch, Ohana Character breakfast, Cinderellas Table for dinner, San Angel for lunch and Narcooses again for dinner and our last meal on property will be another character breakfast at 1900 Park fair. WE normally probably wouldn't do any character meals but since we are doing the deluxe we will get 3 meals a day and so we are going to do some quick service lunches and do the breakfasts. For us that has become one of our fav parts of the trip is the dinning and seeing new places and trying new things. We are going to be at DW Sat to Sat and then checking in to Universal and doing 2 days there and flying home on a Tuesday.

I am so excited and we still have more than a year to go. I bet you can't wait!! Sooo exciting.

I am excited just to be going to DL for halloween LOL.

We are leaving on Thurs 10/24 early so we will have that day to fool around and then Friday we are doing the party Saturday doing the happy haunts tour and then spending sunday and part of monday before we fly home. Short and sweet but sooo looking forward to it!!
 
You will LOVE Epcot. We always alot 2 days there because it is so huge and so much to see. In future world (or the front part of the park) I would at least go on Spaceship
Earth. It is a really cool ride and nothing like it at DL. It is cool and relaxing and we love it. I think you might like test track as well. I know they have re-done it since we were there but I enjoyed it. True the themeing at Cars is better but it is different and we love it. And while Mission Space is neat it makes me sick so I skip that one. Def have to hit Ice Station cool and try the sodas around the world! And another really neat thing you may enjoy is Living with the Land. It is a boat ride with all the horticulture and very neat. I would skip soaring as it is just like DL. And I wouldn't even bother making dinning ressies for that day because if you plan to do the food and wine that is a LOT. You can use your snack credits as well and you can use them all in one day on snacks if you want. There are some amazing restaurants in Epcot but if you are like me you will def fill up on the snacks at the booths.

As for Illuminations we always sat back by Great Britain. We got there early and found a spot down by the water. I haven't done it since 08 though so I know now they have fast passes. You may want to ask or do some research. It is a huge lake though and the globe spins so there are a lot of good places to see it.

The other rides I would not want to miss would probably be Carousel of Progress at the Magic Kingdom and of course the people movers. Their haunted mansion is different and neat. I like their thunder better (is on an island) and splash is also different. And of course there is all the new stuff in Fantasyland you will have to check out. At Animal kingdom the must do's are the safari ride and possibly EE if you like coasters. And the Festival of the Lion King and possibly Nemo if you have time are great shows.

IF you go to the studios they have an exhibit about walt's life that is cool, the great movie ride is neat and Tower of Terror is different than DL so cool and of course rocking roller coaster. I wouldn't even bother with Fantasmic unless you want to as I don't like it as well as ours. And the Lights Motors Action show is neat if you like that kind of thing.
 
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10:

Today we're going to get 2 parks in. We'll start at Animal Kingdom. Park opens at 9am.



Originally, we were going to skip this park because we only have the 3 days.....but Derek said we could easily do AK & DHS in one day....so that's the plan. The main reason I was sad at missing AK, was not getting to see the Festival of the Lion King. Now it's the MAIN reason we'll go that morning!!



Hopefully we'll get a ride on Expedition Everest too!!

We'll leave Animal Kingdom and head to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Park open until 8pm.



We are going to have a mid afternoon lunch at the 50's Primetime Cafe.



This restaurant looks like fun.....hope we get a good waiter/waitress!!

Things I'm looking forward to doing at DHS is the Rock-n-Roll Coaster (I think......) :eek: and doing the Backlot Tour, Great Movie Ride and maybe the car stunt show!

After closing down the park, we'll head to the Polynesian Resort.....maybe watch the fireworks from the beach (was hoping to do this to see Wishes, but realized this was a MNSSHP night) and then head inside for our very late dinner (9:55pm) at Ohana's.



**Images from Google**

 
As you can see....(now)......we are splitting one of the days.....lol

Mike and I think we can skip the safari, as we have a place here in Oregon where you drive thru and see all these animals.....so not sure we want to spend the time doing that (this trip). AK is going to be a quick trip......see the Lion King show, ride EE and head out. We might try to do Dinosaur or the rapids (forgot the name).....but we originally were going to skip this park.

I've seen a youtube video of the Backlot Tour......I liked it for the reason of seeing the cars & plane, etc. Not everyone's cup of tea....but I like seeing stuff like that (when it has to do with Disney). We really don't see us riding a ton of rides......we see this more as a pictorial opportunity.

I wish we had more time, but leaving the kids home.....it's just not possible. Who knows if we'll ever get to go again.....so we want to have lots of pictures to remember it by. We are heading to Disneyland in December for a few days.....so we'll get our "ride" on then......lol
 
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11:

Today is all about the Magic Kingdom!! Park hours are 9-7pm with the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party from 7-Midnight.



We will have lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern....have to try that Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake!



I'm looking forward to seeing the New Fantasyland (not like I saw the old one......).



So even though I said we'd only be doing "new" things......my absolute favorite ride at Disneyland is Big Thunder Mountain Railroad......so it's a must to ride at WDW!! I'm also going to try Splash Mountain (only rode once at DL) and we want to see the Haunted Mansion there. Other than that.....I think riding the train around the park, Mickey's Philharmonic & getting on the People Mover are the other things we're interested in.

We are planning on attending the MNSSHP......so that should be lots of fun!! A great way to spend our last night at WDW!!



**Images from Google**
 
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12:

This will be a sad day......as this is departure day. We are going to head up to the Grand Floridian to have breakfast at 1900 Park Fare.



We will come back & check out, say our goodbyes to Derek.....and then I'll do a lot of this.........



We'll get on the Magical Express & head back to the Orlando airport and catch our 4:10pm flight on Southwest back to Oregon.



**Images from Google**
 
Hi, Laurie!

I am so excited for your trip! I have gone to DL from Boston for 3 ngts and WDW for 3/4 ngts many times so it can be done. It will be so much fun. One thing if no one else mentioned it would be the weather - your dates can still be very hot and humid, just like August so be prepared. :thumbsup2 Late October is usually 70's with comfortable mornings and evenings. Fingers crossed it cools down early this year!

:cheer2: :dance3:
 
Hi, Laurie!

I am so excited for your trip! I hae gone to DL from Boston for 3 ngts and WDW for 3/4 ngts many times so it can be done. It will be so much fun. One thing if no one else mentioned it would be the weather - your dates can still be very hot and humid, just like August so be prepared. :thumbsup2 Late October is usually 70's with comfortable mornings and evenings. Fingers crossed it cols down early this year!

:cheer2: :dance3:

Hi Christine!! :wave2:

Well after having to cancel last years......I was hesitant to say anything until the plane tickets had been purchased. NOW it's a done deal.....we'll be going....no matter what!!

I've heard the humidity can be awful....... :scared: I want sunshine, warm and maybe a nice little breeze to keep temps down.....a girl can dream!! :p
 

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