Annual Solo December Trip 12/1 thru 12/11, 2010 All Star Movies

[AlexDurrani]

Well its been 9 months since Disapalooza and I am already set to go back to WDW in December again. First thing I did was contact Dreams and make request for a reservation for the time period I was interested in. This was a mistake I made last year and waited till the last minute to make the reservation and ended up cutting my trip in half to afford the trip.

After a few days of waiting I was finally contacted from Dreams with a Quote for the All Star Movies resort and I immediately grabbed it. I was then assigned to Kathy Werling for my vacation support advisor and started making ADRs (on my own) for the trip. All the more popular restaurants are pretty much taken up. I wish we still had the 90-Day reservation rule.

The next thing to go on the reservation route is a first for me, I reserved a SUV for the trip. In the last 12 trips I made to WDW as an adult I have never rented a car. This time I felt I needed one to get around because it will make it easier to take breaks and by chance to go to US/IOA.

The last Thing I did and looking back should have been done second, made my air reservations. I used Frequent Flyer miles for the trip and found it to be cheaper to fly home a day later then on the day I originally planned. After going over the costs of the room reservation and the car rental I went ahead and booked the tickets for the extra day and thanks to Kathy added a day to my reservation. I ended up modifying my car rental to being picked up from the Car Care center on the day I arrive and dropping it off on the day I leave.

By renting from the Car Care Center instead of the airport I saved a boat load of money.

 

[AlexDurrani]

I was checking Alamo for their rates to see if the rate for my Car Rental (SUV) had gone down or not and somehow acidentally canceled my previous reservation. Don't ask me how that happened but it did. Anyway lucky I was able to get the reservation again and actually it came down in price, roughly $10usd in price.

Something else I found out about the rental companies, they charge a convenience fee if you add a Airline Freequent Flyer program to your reservation. This fee varies depending on the airline, ie. Continental One Pass is 7.50. Is that worth the miles, who knows.

I've come to the realization that when you go to WDW for 11 days you pretty much are going to be repeating restaurants for meals.

I have made ADRs for most of my trip so far and it goes as follows:

Dec 2, Boma (B), Tepon Edo (L), Wave (D)
Dec 3, Trail End (B), San Angelo (L), Marrakesh (D)
Dec 4, Wave (B), Mama Melrose (L), Sanaa (D)
Dec 5, Boma (B), Yak & Yeti (L), Via Napoli (D)
Dec 6, Grand Floridian Cafe (B), Cape May Cafe (D)
Dec 7, Cape May Cafe (B), California Grill (D)
Dec 8, Kona Cafe (B), Crystal Palace (L), Narcoossee's (D)
Dec 9, Boma (B)
Dec 10, Yachtsmen Steakhouse (D)

As you can see I have repeated my favorite place (Boma) for breakfast 3 times and am trying the Wave for dinner and Breakfast. I just wish I could get Chef Mickeys for breakfast at least once.

Well I will keep trying to see what comes up next.

 

[AlexDurrani]

Just a small update on my trip planning. I have submitted a rental request to my regular scooter rental company, Scooter Vacation, for their Destination SUV Scooter. Waiting on the confirmation for it.


Now I am just counting the days to my trip. Still trying to think of when to try the Dessert party at the MK for Wishes. I know i have to plan on it soon. Another thing I just saw the schedule for the Candlelight program and saw my favorite actress doing the narration while i am there so I am now redoing my schedule a bit to work around it.

 

[AlexDurrani]

Well my schedule is pretty much in the dumpster for the last couple of days of my trip. I have added two tours, one of which is a repeat but hey I like the tour. One of the tours is the Magic behind the steam train tour and the other is the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. The Steam Train Tour is one of the last couple of tours I am interested in that I have not taken yet.

New developement regarding my rental car situation. I have switched to National for my rental and was surprised that the rental was cheaper from MCO then it was from the CCC. The prices came out to be the same as Alamo for a Mini Van versus Alamo's SUV.

Had some trouble with WDW Dining line while trying to get the Wishes Desert Party. I was hung up on several times and at the time was told that there was place available on the 9th of December. After waiting for the system to come back up I found I could not make the reservation because there were no tickets left. Talk about a disappointment and all.

TRON Legacy comes out a week after I get back from the World. I am looking forward to it.