An already overplanned, April 2013 PTR.

[DMLAINI]

We're doing base. Are you hopping? Idk when EMH will be out but I'll be planning around them for sure. We're doing a lot of character dining (If I get the reservations I want)-Akershus lunch, 1900 Park Fare dinner, Chef Mickey's Dinner, CRT breakfast, Tusker House Breakfast, Crystal Palace dinner, & Hollywood & Vine breakfast. We're doing 1 day @ each park (2 for MK) and one day to relax & do to DTD. We're going to DTDthe day we check in as well & we're heading over to AKL on the day we leave.

 

[Missy13d69]

We're doing base. Are you hopping? Idk when EMH will be out but I'll be planning around them for sure. We're doing a lot of character dining (If I get the reservations I want)-Akershus lunch, 1900 Park Fare dinner, Chef Mickey's Dinner, CRT breakfast, Tusker House Breakfast, Crystal Palace dinner, & Hollywood & Vine breakfast. We're doing 1 day @ each park (2 for MK) and one day to relax & do to DTD. We're going to DTDthe day we check in as well & we're heading over to AKL on the day we leave.

We're doing base also. I think hoping would be to much to try with our little ones. We're also doing one day at each park, 2 for MK. We're doing 2 down days though. One, we're doing DTD in the morning, then going to the beach for the afternoon and evening. The second down day, my mom is going to watch the kids at the resort and husband and I are going to sneak off to DTD and hang out in the evening to celebrate our anniversary. The EMH days have been released for Jan. and from what I have seen, the days of the week that each park does them, stay the same all year, so you should be able to look at that and plan. MK is Mon. and Thurs. I think, and Epcot is Fri. I can't remember the others. I did our planning to AVOID the EMH parks since we are staying off site.

 

[DMLAINI]

We are only using EMH our second day @ MK (4/24) because I plan on a lot of 8 am breakfast reservations. When is your anniversary? Ours is on 4/20, which is why we planned our trip in April + we're hoping on low crowds & nice weather.

 

[Missy13d69]

We are only using EMH our second day @ MK (4/24) because I plan on a lot of 8 am breakfast reservations. When is your anniversary? Ours is on 4/20, which is why we planned our trip in April + we're hoping on low crowds & nice weather.

Ours is the 26th. That's a big part of why we went with that week. We were going to do the next week, but we would be traveling home all day in the car on my birthday if we did that, so we decided to do the week of our Anniversary instead. We've never been able to really "celebrate" our anniversary so we thought this would be really nice to include it on our vacation. The low crowds was why we started looking at that time of year in the first place. We wanted good weather, but low crowds. We got lucky and get to celebrate our Anniversary! Are you guys going to wear the Anniversary buttons?

 

[DMLAINI]

Yes we are! Will your kids have the 1st. visit buttons? I'm really enjoying all of the planning. I just want April to get here soon. Are you having a sit down dinner @ DTD? I've really struggled with that decision. I'm 90% sure we'll go to Rainforest Cafe.

 

[2mnyprincesses]

We're in for April 2013 too! I am a total planning freak. I booked 11 months out by renting DVC points and had so many different itineraries, knowing that Easter week would be hard to book. But, we've got our reservation now and I already wrote down the dining list in my notes (have lots of saved files on my laptop and keep adding to them). We will be treating my mother and father-in-law on this vacation with us, so I am trying to make sure I take their likes into account. We do Disney with plans for everything and triple back-ups for each item. I think I will need to learn a more relaxed style for April. As for guidebooks, I totally agree with the PP. Passporter (have 5 editions myself) and Birnbaum's kids. My son loved having his own guidebook (age 6 last trip). He wants to be a reviewer in Birnbaum's next edition.

 

[DMLAINI]

I'm going with a Passporter too. It was highly recommended. I bought an old one to get familiar with it & I love it!

 

[Missy13d69]

Yes we are! Will your kids have the 1st. visit buttons? I'm really enjoying all of the planning. I just want April to get here soon. Are you having a sit down dinner @ DTD? I've really struggled with that decision. I'm 90% sure we'll go to Rainforest Cafe.

We're doing T-Rex at DTD. You should check it out! We were going to do Rainforest Cafe, but the reviews kind of turned me off. It's a chain restaurant apparently (we don't have them here) and is about the same as Applebee's according to the reviews. After reading that, I wanted something a little more "original" I guess. I think the thought of eating something you can get "anywhere", didn't seem "Disney" enough for me. T-Rex is by the same company, but has a dinosaur theme, including animatronic dinos in the dining room!

I'm enjoying the planning, but I'm kind of an OCD control freak, so I'm kind of going mental. I've been at this since March. It's kind of insane all the things you have to take into consideration, and all the things you have to do in order to plan a Disney vacation. I think I've read every menu from every restaurant, trying to find places to eat that will have something everyone in the party will eat. Then I had to do it again when my picky eating brother finally decided he was going to go with us. I looked at HUNDREDS of off site townhouses, to lose the one I decided on, to someone else who's email to the owner came in half an hour before my call. So I was back to square one, because did I choose a back up? NO!

Now, I have to start working on our touring plan...

 

[Missy13d69]

We're in for April 2013 too! I am a total planning freak. I booked 11 months out by renting DVC points and had so many different itineraries, knowing that Easter week would be hard to book. But, we've got our reservation now and I already wrote down the dining list in my notes (have lots of saved files on my laptop and keep adding to them). We will be treating my mother and father-in-law on this vacation with us, so I am trying to make sure I take their likes into account. We do Disney with plans for everything and triple back-ups for each item. I think I will need to learn a more relaxed style for April. As for guidebooks, I totally agree with the PP. Passporter (have 5 editions myself) and Birnbaum's kids. My son loved having his own guidebook (age 6 last trip). He wants to be a reviewer in Birnbaum's next edition.

Notes! I wish I had a dollar for every note on my computer that pertained to Disney. I would only have about $17 , but that seems like too much. Notes about dining, notes about attractions, notes about park hours, notes about parades, PDF maps of the parks, Word documents with our driving directions, and shopping list for the townhouse, PNG files of the calendar I made for the week...

When and if you learn how to take a relaxed approach, will you send me instructions on how to do it please?

Since the PP never responded to my question about the Passporter, will you? Should I go ahead and get the 2012, or wait for the 2013? I know there are changes because of the additions in Fantasy Land...I should wait, shouldn't I?

 

[Dream426]

The approach of that 180 day mark is scary isn't it? I keep reading all these things saying that you have got to be on top of it, you have to be early on the 180 day mark to get your ADR. It took me 5 months of reading menus and reviews to get our ADRs figured out. Now I get to breath a little for 3 months until I actually have to make the ADRs. That is unless my husband decides to start reading menus again and changes his mind about something. I have a feeling he may decide he wants Le Cellier instead of Coral Reef at Epcot.

Yes it can get very stressful..haha I am hoping to work on them this weekend a little more. I really need to finalize the list and then decide when to make the reservations.

 

[DMLAINI]

I've made some touring plans & then I change them and then I change them again. I'm taking a break from them right now & I can't be too sure on anything until the Fantasyland expansion opens. DH is a picky eater also.

 

[Missy13d69]

I've made some touring plans & then I change them and then I change them again. I'm taking a break from them right now & I can't be too sure on anything until the Fantasyland expansion opens. DH is a picky eater also.

I wish they would give more info on the Fantasyland expansion. It would make things so much easier.

 

[DMLAINI]

Hopefully soon since it will be opening pretty soon.

 

[Missy13d69]

Hopefully soon since it will be opening pretty soon.

I'm impatiently wait for Be Our Guest to release the whole menu. I want to eat there on our Anniversary, but need to make sure they have something everyone will eat.

 

[Dream426]

I'm impatiently wait for Be Our Guest to release the whole menu. I want to eat there on our Anniversary, but need to make sure they have something everyone will eat.

I am waiting as well. I have it on my list for our trip in March. It SHOULD be done by then and I hope it is.

 

[Missy13d69]

I am waiting as well. I have it on my list for our trip in March. It SHOULD be done by then and I hope it is.

They say it will be open "By the Holidays". To me, the "Holidays" start with Thanksgiving, so I wonder if the mean it will be open by Thanksgiving? I read on the Disney Food Blog, that they are going to start taking ADRs on August 28th, but they haven't said what dates they are going to be taking ADRs for.

 

[Dream426]

They say it will be open "By the Holidays". To me, the "Holidays" start with Thanksgiving, so I wonder if the mean it will be open by Thanksgiving? I read on the Disney Food Blog, that they are going to start taking ADRs on August 28th, but they haven't said what dates they are going to be taking ADRs for.

That is what I heard also but you never know. Haha

 

[Missy13d69]

That is what I heard also but you never know. Haha

Ain't that the truth? I remember the first time I saw something about the Fantasyland expansion, it had the openings listed as all being done by Spring 2013, now they are saying Summer 2014. Crossing finger that Be Our Guest will open on schedule. It looks amazing, and the menu so far, sounds pretty good!

 

[DMLAINI]

Last I have heard is that Fantasyland will be done by when we go in April, except for the 7 Dwarf Mine Ride. I hope this is true.

 

[WyldLynx]

Joining in, I'm not going until Sept 2013 but I too am OCD when it comes to planning. Driving myself a little squirrelly but I love it and keeps my mind off how long I have to wait.