September/October 2013 check in

[coco392]

We are headed over September/October

Me, DH, DS (Shannon) 12 and DD (Brianna) 9

Fly out 20th Sept .. planning on Qantas.. not booked yet!
Fly in to LA - couple of days, then to New York, then Washington then Florida for two nights at universal then 10 nights in Art of Animation then back to LA for a couple of days then home on 14/15thOct.

Disney is booked.. nothing else ADRs can be made from next Wed

very much like our plans, couple days Anaheim, NYC, universal, wdw, sfo and la

we leave 13th return 5th

wdw from 22/9-30/9

 

[5ofus]

Thanks for that. We ended up going through Disney just for the reassurance that everything is ok. The Disney leg is now almost booked, except for the character meals and we can't make the reservations for those until late July. At this stage we're thinking of Minnie and Friends or Goofy's kitchen early in our stay and Ariel's Grotto for the princess experience for dd1's 9th birthday. Oh and we're still hoping that the first Halloween party will be the 27th of September (yep, dd's birthday). Hopefully not too long until the dates are released for those.

Happy Easter everyone...the family and I are off to celebrate in true Aussie style at the footy to see the Magpies hopefully beat the kangaroos!

I think we might try to do four of the five character meals, Ariel's being the one we will give a miss. For some reason I don't think my three boys will be too keen to meet princesses.

We love Storytellers an the Plaza and haven't tried Minnie's. If one more gets cut it will probably be Goofys as we didn't really enjoy that too much. Wish we could book now!

 

[WAMUMOF4]

I think we might try to do four of the five character meals, Ariel's being the one we will give a miss. For some reason I don't think my three boys will be too keen to meet princesses.

We love Storytellers an the Plaza and haven't tried Minnie's. If one more gets cut it will probably be Goofys as we didn't really enjoy that too much. Wish we could book now!

That is interesting because our boys all loved Ariel's including the Princesses they had so much fun the Princesses made them stand correctly and get down on one knee for photos. I guess though it might be an age thing!

 

[5ofus]

That is interesting because our boys all loved Ariel's including the Princesses they had so much fun the Princesses made them stand correctly and get down on one knee for photos. I guess though it might be an age thing!

Yep, girls have girl germs right now. LOL

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We are headed over September/October

Me, DH, DS (Shannon) 12 and DD (Brianna) 9

Fly out 20th Sept .. planning on Qantas.. not booked yet!
Fly in to LA - couple of days, then to New York, then Washington then Florida for two nights at universal then 10 nights in Art of Animation then back to LA for a couple of days then home on 14/15thOct.

Disney is booked.. nothing else ADRs can be made from next Wed

Great plan. It sounds as though your WDW days will overlap with ours. Fingers crossed for some lovely weather while we're there

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I think we might try to do four of the five character meals, Ariel's being the one we will give a miss. For some reason I don't think my three boys will be too keen to meet princesses.

We love Storytellers an the Plaza and haven't tried Minnie's. If one more gets cut it will probably be Goofys as we didn't really enjoy that too much. Wish we could book now!

I don't think I could get my son (or husband) very excited by Princess meals either. It's not like these meals are cheap, so I say go with your gut and leave out the one/s you think you'll enjoy least.

 

[aussie shaz]

Yep, girls have girl germs right now. LOL

Yep. I cannot imagine my boys would do Ariels. They are 10 and 12 and have no interest in Princesses at all.

We're going to do Minnie's, Surfs Up and Goofys for dinner. I've booked Minnie's and Goofys, just have to decide on which day for Surfs Up.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Woohoo, I'm doing a happy dance at the moment.
I just called dining reservations and managed to make bookings for all 11 days of my stay (not quite sure how that worked), and I even made my Pirates League booking which according to my calculations is 181 days from now. Maybe I got my maths wrong?
Anyway, not going to question it any further, I'm just happy I got all the things I wanted in one call. I only had to adjust my preferred booking time slightly for 3 bookings, and for everything else I got the exact times I wanted. Did I mention that I'm doing a happy dance...

Bookings include:

Sci-Fi Diner
Pirates League (3:30) then Liberty Tree Tavern (5:35) for night of MNSSHP
San Angel Inn (this was the booking I was least sure about. I was tossing up between this and just about all the other restaurants in Epcot. I decided that because we love spicy, ethnic food, but don't get to try Mexican very often, it might be fun. Also, the inside volcano looks cool).
Biergarten
50's Prime Time Cafe
T-Rex
Raglan Road
Tusker House (Breakfast)
Ohana
Boma (Breakfast)
Sanaa

 

[WAMUMOF4]

Woohoo, I'm doing a happy dance at the moment.
I just called dining reservations and managed to make bookings for all 11 days of my stay (not quite sure how that worked), and I even made my Pirates League booking which according to my calculations is 181 days from now. Maybe I got my maths wrong?
Anyway, not going to question it any further, I'm just happy I got all the things I wanted in one call. I only had to adjust my preferred booking time slightly for 3 bookings, and for everything else I got the exact times I wanted. Did I mention that I'm doing a happy dance...

Bookings include:

Sci-Fi Diner
Pirates League (3:30) then Liberty Tree Tavern (5:35) for night of MNSSHP
San Angel Inn (this was the booking I was least sure about. I was tossing up between this and just about all the other restaurants in Epcot. I decided that because we love spicy, ethnic food, but don't get to try Mexican very often, it might be fun. Also, the inside volcano looks cool).
Biergarten
50's Prime Time Cafe
T-Rex
Raglan Road
Tusker House (Breakfast)
Ohana
Boma (Breakfast)
Sanaa

Congrats on your bookings

 

[Caroline NZ]

Yay for making your bookings Wanderlust
Showing my ignorance here, but is it only onsite guests that can make reservations, or can anyone? And does it have to be by phone? I thought there was an online system, but is by phone better?

Also was wondering what flight/day are you heading out on ( Looks like we might possibly be onthe same day or a day apart ,we are planning on leaving on the 17th Sep )

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Congrats on your bookings

Thanks Wamumof4. It's nice to have people here on the Dis who understand how exciting these things can be.
Not even my DH gets my excitement. He tolerates my excitement with a bemused smile. I told him that I'm going to show him our bookings tonight and he has to pretend to be at least a little bit interested.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Yay for making your bookings Wanderlust
Showing my ignorance here, but is it only onsite guests that can make reservations, or can anyone? And does it have to be by phone? I thought there was an online system, but is by phone better?

Also was wondering what flight/day are you heading out on ( Looks like we might possibly be onthe same day or a day apart ,we are planning on leaving on the 17th Sep )

Exactly the same day! We are flying on the 9:30 Air NZ flight. What about you?

The Disney World website is having a few issues at present and wasn't recognising my 180 days + 10. Resort guests get to make up to 10 days (or in my case 11) of bookings when the 180 day mark comes up. Non-resort guests can also make dining reservations, but they don't get the head-start resort guests do.

Last night (180 days from arrival) I was only able to make my arrival day dining reservation on the internet rather than all of them. I used the internet to make this first booking and wasn't impressed. It needed a US cellphone number (which I didn't have) and it wasn't as flexible with booking times. Ringing up ended up being way less hassle and the lady was really helpful. She also made my Pirates League booking which can't be done online at all.
I hope this makes sense. The 180+10 is a bit confusing to explain.

 

[Travel Mum]

Oh I wiiisssshhhh I was going back and Wanderlust, I totally understand your excitement! I remember the day my dining bookings opened and how my American TA got on her computer at something like 5am her time to try and get the Fantasmic dinner booking I wanted (plus all the rest which included Sci-Fi, Biergarten, San Angel Inn, Saana and Tusker House breakfast like you)

 

[Caroline NZ]

Exactly the same day! We are flying on the 9:30 Air NZ flight. What about you?

The Disney World website is having a few issues at present and wasn't recognising my 180 days + 10. Resort guests get to make up to 10 days (or in my case 11) of bookings when the 180 day mark comes up. Non-resort guests can also make dining reservations, but they don't get the head-start resort guests do.

Last night (180 days from arrival) I was only able to make my arrival day dining reservation on the internet rather than all of them. I used the internet to make this first booking and wasn't impressed. It needed a US cellphone number (which I didn't have) and it wasn't as flexible with booking times. Ringing up ended up being way less hassle and the lady was really helpful. She also made my Pirates League booking which can't be done online at all.
I hope this makes sense. The 180+10 is a bit confusing to explain.

Thanks so much for the explanation Wanderlust. I haven't started researching WDW yet, too overwhelming with our West Coast trip to do first this year.
We will hopefully be on one of the Air NZ AKL-LAX flights that night. Was originally meant to be the 20th but have decided to go on the 17th ( though my boss has yet to sign off on the additional 3 days, fingers crossed he does). We should arrange to say hi to each other

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Oh I wiiisssshhhh I was going back and Wanderlust, I totally understand your excitement! I remember the day my dining bookings opened and how my American TA got on her computer at something like 5am her time to try and get the Fantasmic dinner booking I wanted (plus all the rest which included Sci-Fi, Biergarten, San Angel Inn, Saana and Tusker House breakfast like you)

Travel Mum, it sounds like we had similar preferences in mind when we made our dining reservations. Out of interest, of all the restaurants you ate at in Disney World, what one ended up being your favourite?
At the moment I'm thinking I'm going to enjoy Sanaa the most, but obviously I won't know until the holiday is over. Can't wait.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Thanks so much for the explanation Wanderlust. I haven't started researching WDW yet, too overwhelming with our West Coast trip to do first this year.
We will hopefully be on one of the Air NZ AKL-LAX flights that night. Was originally meant to be the 20th but have decided to go on the 17th ( though my boss has yet to sign off on the additional 3 days, fingers crossed he does). We should arrange to say hi to each other

That would be cool if we're on the same flight. Fingers crossed you get your days approved. We'll have to share seat numbers so I can go for a stroll up the aisle to say hi.

Researching a WDW trip is really overwhelming. I've never done a holiday before that involved so much research and advance planning. Part of me loves it, and the other part of me finds it all a bit exhausting. Was grateful that I wasn't working today and was able to make my ADRs. Had I been working, I actually think I might have pulled a sickie. Now that's over-the-top even for this obsessive holiday planner.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Woohoo, I'm doing a happy dance at the moment.
I just called dining reservations and managed to make bookings for all 11 days of my stay (not quite sure how that worked), and I even made my Pirates League booking which according to my calculations is 181 days from now. Maybe I got my maths wrong?
Anyway, not going to question it any further, I'm just happy I got all the things I wanted in one call. I only had to adjust my preferred booking time slightly for 3 bookings, and for everything else I got the exact times I wanted. Did I mention that I'm doing a happy dance...

Bookings include:

Sci-Fi Diner
Pirates League (3:30) then Liberty Tree Tavern (5:35) for night of MNSSHP
San Angel Inn (this was the booking I was least sure about. I was tossing up between this and just about all the other restaurants in Epcot. I decided that because we love spicy, ethnic food, but don't get to try Mexican very often, it might be fun. Also, the inside volcano looks cool).
Biergarten
50's Prime Time Cafe
T-Rex
Raglan Road
Tusker House (Breakfast)
Ohana
Boma (Breakfast)
Sanaa

Congrats! Nice set of ADRs.

 

[Minniemum]

Bookings include:

Sci-Fi Diner
Pirates League (3:30) then Liberty Tree Tavern (5:35) for night of MNSSHP
San Angel Inn (this was the booking I was least sure about. I was tossing up between this and just about all the other restaurants in Epcot. I decided that because we love spicy, ethnic food, but don't get to try Mexican very often, it might be fun. Also, the inside volcano looks cool).
Biergarten
50's Prime Time Cafe
T-Rex
Raglan Road
Tusker House (Breakfast)
Ohana
Boma (Breakfast)
Sanaa

Congrats on your ADR's. Looks as though ours are similar.

Hardest part was leaving out some of our favourites to try out new ones. Five new ones this time around.

Be Our Guest
Biergarten
Chefs de France
Coral Reef (lunch)
Le Cellier (lunch)
Liberty Tree Tavern
'Ohana
Raglan Road
San Angel Inn
Sanaa
T-Rex (early dinner)
Teppan Edo
Yak & Yeti (lunch)

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Congrats on your ADR's. Looks as though ours are similar.

Hardest part was leaving out some of our favourites to try out new ones. Five new ones this time around.

Be Our Guest
Biergarten
Chefs de France
Coral Reef (lunch)
Le Cellier (lunch)
Liberty Tree Tavern
'Ohana
Raglan Road
San Angel Inn
Sanaa
T-Rex (early dinner)
Teppan Edo
Yak & Yeti (lunch)

Wow, they are similar.
Out of interest, which ones are the new ones and which ones are your favourites? I take it that if you're going back to some again, you must have really enjoyed them the first time.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Congrats! Nice set of ADRs.

Thanks. If I'm correct, your 180 days must be around now also?