A Photo Safari Halloween Solo Trip for Oct'13: Trip Report Started!

[emmysmommy]

Hmmmm, I wonder what's is in Southern Cal that would be of interest to us.

Hmmmm... There is another castle here! And there may be a Diser or two!! That would be a great trip!

The other funny thing was each time we arrived at the restaurant, we had the exact same host take us to our table who easily recognized us after the first visit. It probably wasn’t that hard to remember us since we were the only interracial family that included a redhead (DW) . By the 5th time, we didn’t even have to say anything. He saw us, smiled, and led us to OUR table.

That second I knew he was about to get in some serious trouble and I immediately dropped my bag and camera on the ground and started running towards him from about 50 feet away. I could hear another family who was watching from nearby call out in panic towards the beach house. The rest is a blur but I managed to get down and grab DS by his arms and raise him above my waist as another wave crashed down on my head.

Dave, the update started off so funny that you had YOUR table!

What a frightening encounter at the beach for you and your DS. I'm glad it had a good outcome (other than your phone and the solid drenching) but what a heart stopping moment there.

Since my body has a very low tolerance level for alcohol, I wasn't really planning on spending too much time exploring the FW festivities. (Seriously, a glass of wine is all I can take and it would be a sad sight indeed if I over did it while touring solo! )

I think I've been that person before!!

My original plan was to arrive at Epcot right after lunch. I also made an ADR for the Flying Fish Cafe before returning to Epcot to catch Illuminations. But now I'm thinking I should cancel Flying Fish (although I reeeeeally wanted to try it this time) and not eat lunch prior to entering Epcot. Then I can spend my time in WS going from one kiosk to another and feeding myself pretty much continuously all afternoon and evening! Decisions, decisions.

Really now, how much kiosk food can you eat? I'd go for both!! You could eat the apps at FF and have a break from the crowds and heat and then pick up steam and finish strong with more kiosk food. Ok, I just wanted to be different there!

Gearing up my computer to be ready for 6 am tomorrow when our ADR 180 day window opens up tomorrow for my family's January trip! Of course, DD throws a new request tonight that required another round of ADR reshuffling.

Good luck with all your ADRs!!!!! I'm looking forward to hearing how it went!

 

[teekathepony]

Gearing up my computer to be ready for 6 am tomorrow when our ADR 180 day window opens up tomorrow for my family's January trip! Of course, DD throws a new request tonight that required another round of ADR reshuffling.

If I'm correct you should be doing your ADRs now so good luck!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

If I'm correct you should be doing your ADRs now so good luck!

Just finished! Now I need to get ready to go to work

Got pretty much what I was hoping for except maybe a 10 minute earlier slot for CRT!

 

[afwdwfan]

Just finished! Now I need to get ready to go to work

Got pretty much what I was hoping for except maybe a 10 minute earlier slot for CRT!

If missing your ideal time on an ADR by 10 minutes was your biggest failure, I'd say you did great!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Just caught on up on your DDs birthday! We just were at the New England Aquarium in Boston a few weeks ago - the trip sounds awfully similar! We too did Rope Drop, got lunch but we too exhausted to go to the Children's Museum Also, we hadn't gone in a while due to a lengthy renovation to the aquarium.... It's sounds like you had a great day though. We always try to do something special/different on our kiddos birthdays. I also liked your Nemo comments hehe, because that's exactly what I was thinking!

That does sound like our trip!

We've done a couple of family trips or outings for the kids birthdays in the past couple of years. DS' bday is in October and am thinking about a weekend trip to Williamsburg for him over Columbus Day. I would really like to get some nice pictures of the family with Colonial Williamsburg in fall colors as the background too.

Hmmmm... There is another castle here! And there may be a Diser or two!! That would be a great trip!

Aaaand, I just found a conference in San Diego that I might be able to attend. My wheels are turning overtime right now!

I think I've been that person before!!

Me too. There's a long story involving me nearly keeling over in the middle of a parking lot outside the basketball arena at Urbana Champaign, IL (U of Illinois) with my friends from residency. I'll save that one for later if we get to meet in person.

Really now, how much kiosk food can you eat? I'd go for both!! You could eat the apps at FF and have a break from the crowds and heat and then pick up steam and finish strong with more kiosk food. Ok, I just wanted to be different there!

I definitely can pack a lot in. My family and friends are always amazed how much food I can fit in my relatively medium-small body frame especially at the buffets when I'm going for my 4th or 5th plate. I usually tell people I have a very elastic stomach!

Good luck with all your ADRs!!!!! I'm looking forward to hearing how it went!

Went well! See my update below!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

If missing your ideal time on an ADR by 10 minutes was your biggest failure, I'd say you did great!

Yup! Can't complain! I do have to make one phone call to the dining line to square away an ADR but the lines are completely jammed thanks to the new promotions that came out this morning so will have to wait a bit.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Don't know what to call this update. It's a Disney update but for a different trip in January with my family. Our 180 day window opened up this morning. I got up at 5:30am. Fired up the computer. Logged myself in. Which reminds me, why does the Disney website require me to enter my password every 15-30 minutes? Anyhow, took me about 30 minutes to get everything done and I only saw the "server is down/not responding" message just once during the process. Poor Donald is the graphic they decided to include in this message. I feel for the guy who already has an inferiority complex to start with but now he's being forced to be associated with computer rage.

Anyway, going in during one of the least crowded week of the year helped. Our party size of 7 didn't help - my brother and his family are coming with us which we are ecstatic about. My chance to convert my brother into a Disney fan. And we will be staying at AKL for the first time!

So here's how it shapes up.

Wednesday January 29th
Crystal Palace Lunch 11:45am
Jiko 5:45pm

Thursday January 30th
Sci Fi Dine In 11:30pm (Still debating this one)
Boma 6:45pm

Friday January 31st
Cinderella's Royal Table 8:15am (before park opens, this is the one I wanted 10 minutes earlier. I know. Greedy. )
Be Our Guest 4:45pm (So this one is a bit up in the air. They didn't have availability for 7. If I split it into two ADRs of 4 and 3 people, I can get both in only 5 minutes apart. Of course, the website won't let me make two separate ADRs in the same time bracket so I'll have to call the dining line to make this work. For now, have one ADR for 4 people.)

Saturday February 1st
Tusker House 8:00am (before park opens)
Rainforest Cafe at AK 5:15pm

And there you have it! The Be Our Guest was a last minute addition requested by DD. Back in January we decided to put off eating at BOG until our next trip because the lines were too long during lunch. DW and I decided we may not try again this time but DD recalled last night that I had "promised" her to take her to BOG. Kids never forget those types of promises.

 

[afwdwfan]

And there you have it! The Be Our Guest was a last minute addition requested by DD. Back in January we decided to put off eating at BOG until our next trip because the lines were too long during lunch. DW and I decided we may not try again this time but DD recalled last night that I had "promised" her to take her to BOG. Kids never forget those types of promises.

No, they most certainly don't.

The line up looks good. I hope you're able to get through the phone lines soon enough to ensure that you get that other ADR for 3.

I understand why they don't let you book more than 1 ADR per meal time to keep people from making all kinds of back up plans, but it does make it more complicated if you're taking care of a larger group that might even require more than 1 ADR because they won't all be together.

 

[khertz]

Nice ADR's!

Would BoG let you make a reservation for 8 or 9, maybe? Then just say a couple people were sick and couldn't make it. I had to do that for my original Crystal Palace reservation when I was making it just for DH, DS, and myself. I had to get a reservation for 4 instead of 3 for the time I wanted.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I understand why they don't let you book more than 1 ADR per meal time to keep people from making all kinds of back up plans, but it does make it more complicated if you're taking care of a larger group that might even require more than 1 ADR because they won't all be together.

I agree. Especially now that they have the capacity to assign names/profiles to the ADRs, it shouldn't be difficult to figure out when someone is trying to split the group into two or more ADRs. I should have considered creating a separate online Disney account and housing my brother's vacation package ressie in there. Then I would have been able split the ADRs as well. Oh well.

Nice ADR's!

Would BoG let you make a reservation for 8 or 9, maybe? Then just say a couple people were sick and couldn't make it. I had to do that for my original Crystal Palace reservation when I was making it just for DH, DS, and myself. I had to get a reservation for 4 instead of 3 for the time I wanted.

I didn't think of that until I read your post. Just tried it and still no availability. But thanks for the tip! I'll have to remember that next time around as well.

 

[abbybeth]

Your dining lineup looks great! If BOG had existed when I was little and I had any opportunity to go, I wouldn't have forgotten that "promise" either!

It's always a nice weight off once you have your ADRs. And if it were me and I really wanted the 10 minutes earlier CRT, I would probably keep checking back. As they say, the enemy of good is great!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Your dining lineup looks great! If BOG had existed when I was little and I had any opportunity to go, I wouldn't have forgotten that "promise" either!

It's always a nice weight off once you have your ADRs. And if it were me and I really wanted the 10 minutes earlier CRT, I would probably keep checking back. As they say, the enemy of good is great!

Once again, simultaneous postings!

Yes, totally agree about continuously trying! I will be online checking multiple times a day for both BOG and CRT to improve my time slots. My obsessive online checking led me to the ADR for BOG for this trip in October!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Well, now I have the entire weight off my shoulders for making reservations! I tried calling the Disney Dining line a couple of times during lunch hour and got the "All circuits are busy. Please try again later" message so didn't try any further. I finished rounds a little earlier than usual just a few minutes ago so decided to call the dining line again and got a CM without any wait! Told her what was going on with our BOG ADR situation and she got us a second BOG for my brother's family just 5 minutes from my family's ADR!

I also went ahead and booked Pirates League and Pirates and Pals Cruise for that same day to save myself a phone call! So now I am truly done with my ressies! At least until about 90 days from now when I have the inevitable panic attack believing that I planned the park days ALL wrong and do a complete reshuffling of my ADRs.

 

[chattadisser]

Awesome for being able to square away the BOG ADR!

It's always good to have the ADR's squared away. AKL should do a good job in getting your brother to convert!

Christine

 

[afwdwfan]

Well, now I have the entire weight off my shoulders for making reservations! I tried calling the Disney Dining line a couple of times during lunch hour and got the "All circuits are busy. Please try again later" message so didn't try any further. I finished rounds a little earlier than usual just a few minutes ago so decided to call the dining line again and got a CM without any wait! Told her what was going on with our BOG ADR situation and she got us a second BOG for my brother's family just 5 minutes from my family's ADR!

Congratulations! I'm glad you managed to get everything you wanted!!!

So now I am truly done with my ressies! At least until about 90 days from now when I have the inevitable panic attack believing that I planned the park days ALL wrong and do a complete reshuffling of my ADRs.

And that's what I hate about having to make ADR's 180 days out!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

AKL should do a good job in getting your brother to convert!

I'm hoping so! I spoke with my sister in law yesterday and so far they sound very excited about the trip especially because they don't have to stress out about the planning. I think it'll be great. Our kids love spending time with them especially their cousin who is the same age as DS.

My wife's sister also eventually wants to take her family on a Disney trip with us because of our "expertise" The only problem is that they can only go during the summer or one of the extremely crowded winter/spring breaks (she's a school teacher) which just doesn't sound appealing to us when we can go in January. I'm pretty sure in the next couple of years, we'll end up going with them at least once.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Congratulations! I'm glad you managed to get everything you wanted!!!

And that's what I hate about having to make ADR's 180 days out!

Thanks!

It just never fails that I get this sudden onset of panic somewhere around the 90 to 100 day mark. I think I'll be okay this time For my past trips, my reshufflings were triggered by the realization that I should have used EasyWDW's crowd calendar instead of Touring Plans for mapping out the park days. This time, I just started with EasyWDW's and also looking at last year's crowd calendar around the same week.

 

[afwdwfan]

Thanks!

It just never fails that I get this sudden onset of panic somewhere around the 90 to 100 day mark. I think I'll be okay this time For my past trips, my reshufflings were triggered by the realization that I should have used EasyWDW's crowd calendar instead of Touring Plans for mapping out the park days. This time, I just started with EasyWDW's and also looking at last year's crowd calendar around the same week.

I always look at both EasyWDW and TP, but then the last minute changes always come as a result of some kind of an unexpected park hour change that Disney releases about 30 - 60 days out that always screws up one of my ADR plans.

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I always look at both EasyWDW and TP, but then the last minute changes always come as a result of some kind of an unexpected park hour change that Disney releases about 30 - 60 days out that always screws up one of my ADR plans.

Yes, not a big fan of those either especially when it could impact crowd levels!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

I know this is going to look like over planning but it's lunch time. I'm hungry and I'm pretty sure the measly lunch I just had is not going to be enough from keeping me from getting hungry in an hour. So I decided to spend the rest of my lunch hour putting together a plan for touring the Food and Wine Kiosks at Epcot. I'm using the 2012 map to get an idea of the location of the kiosks around WS. It looks like I'll be starting at Mexico and going clockwise! So here are the kiosks I would like to hit and the food items I would like to try.

Argentina
Beef Empanada

Mexico
Taco de Ribeye with Salsa de Chipotle

China
Chicken Potstickers

Korea
Lettuce Wrap with Roast Pork and Kimchi Slaw (sorry but the kimchi dog just doesn't sound right to me)

Africa
Spinach and Paneer Cheese Pocket (gotta mix in some vege dishes!)

Germany
Apple Strudel with Werthers Original Karamel and Vanilla Sauce (need a dessert dish to mix it up a bit)

Poland
Kielbasa and Potato Pierogie with Caramelized Onions and Sour Cream (aaaand we're back to the heavy stuff!)

Morocco
Kefta Pocket

Belgium
Belgian Waffle with Berry Compote featuring Driscolls® Berries and Whipped Cream

Ireland
Lobster and Seafood Fishermans Pie

Canada
Le Cellier Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle Butter Sauce (if my stomach hasn't busted open by then!)

Greece
Chicken Gyro with Tzatziki Sauce

Hawaii
Tuna Poke with Seaweed Salad and Lotus Root Chips

Scotland
Scottish Banoffee Tart with Bananas, Scottish Whisky Toffee, Walkers Shortbread Crumbles and Sweet Cream

Hmmmm, now that I have them all listed out I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be able to eat all that food even if it's spread out over 8 hours. Wish there was a way to get smaller portions of 2-3 bites.