Australian heading to Disneyworld, December 2015 - PTR

[NaturalNine]

Hi All!

Hoping to start a PTR over the next few weeks. Have been planning for a trip to Orlando since June this year, now getting to the pointy end.

About Us:

Family of 5, Me James, my wife Tahlia (Both in our early 30's), Madison (13), Sebastian (7) and Chloe (8 months). We both work very long hours so enjoy holidays as a way to have quality time each year without interruption, I'm in Real Estate and my wife works for a Car Dealership.

We are reasonably experienced Dis'ers after a 2 week stay at Disneyland California in March 2013, followed by a trip without our eldest daughter to Hong Kong Disneyland in March 2014. Tho I must confess this Disneyworld trip has been overwhelming and seems to require a depth of planning and research many times more in depth than Disneyland ever did!


Some photos from our 2013 DL Trip

This trip:

So for this years trip, We're flying Cathay Pacific from Perth to Hong Kong on the 4th December followed by:
2 nights in Vegas staying at the Venetian
2 nights at Universal Orlando
10 nights at Disneyworld, Staying at the Port Orleans Riverside
Washington for 2 nights
New York for 6 nights spending the week of Christmas and Christmas Day in NYC.

On the way home we've got 2 days in Hong Kong planned, with a quick trip out to HKDL to surprise the kids. Whow, I'm tired just writing about it!!

Overall we are super excited about our trip! I'm a bit of an OCD planner, having made a number of ADR's including one for the candlelight processional, have secured some Be our Guest ADR's also and some others. So far i've got our days mapped our reasonably thoroughly, taking into account crowd predictions (See below photo) - with our Fast Past + window opening up soon I will be spending the next few weeks looking at some more in depth touring plans in my spare time and planning some FP+ strategies

Look forward to hearing from you all!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome to the Dis, @NaturalNine.

Sounds like you have a GREAT trip planned. Enjoy!
Look forward to seeing how your precision WDW planning proceeds.

 

[Meemoo]

Looking forward to reading about your exciting trip

 

[LivingforDisney]

Looking forward to reading more.
We are flying out 16th Dec, I have my adr's booked, now just waiting to do fp's, it is so much planning, but I have sort of lost my mojo now, and as long as I can get the fp's sorted , I am leaving the rest up to fate!
Your trip sounds really busy, make sure you plan in some free time, especially with all that flying.
I will put up my plans later today.

 

[mimishat]

Looking forward to reading more about your trip. We are thinking of going Cathay Pacific too (out of Brisbane) - you'll have to report back on the flights

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Great plan. You'll love MJ One, it is a fantastic show. Looking forward to hearing what you think of Port French Quarter, that is where Crazy Cat Boy wants to stay next time.

 

[Montanabel]

Wow - what a great holiday you have planned. Looking forward to reading more. Looks like you are doing Port Orleans French Quarter and Port Orleans Riverside. I'd be interested to hear which you like better. (Its a tough job but someone has to do it )

 

[NaturalNine]

Thanks everybody
We are doing just PORS now - We really don't like moving rooms unless we have to once all unpacked etc, so thought we would just do the one.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Cathay is like, I haven't flown with Cathay since I was about 12 years old, I've heard mixed reports but the most recent ones seem to be OK, We almost always fly Qantas but couldn't get reasonably priced fares with them this time, so it was between Etihad and Cathay, and Cathay won out as it was a shorter flight, less time at the stopover on the way over and the arrival times were more family friendly.

Really looking forward to it tho, I've drawn up the spreadsheet for our FP+ which also has our ADR"s and EMH's detailed - We've got two "Date nights" planned on the 9th and 10th, kids free so Tahlia and I can enjoy MK and Epcot just the two of us (with the other 12,000 people there haha)

 

[Meemoo]

Cathay is my favourite so far! The food is very nice (and that is rare with airline food!) the entertainment was great, service great and kids packs kept kids very happy (HK Disneyland themed!)

 

[Zosha]

Wow, I'm completely bowing down to your spreadsheet planning prowess!! I'm using paper and pen!

 

[NaturalNine]

Haha thanks Zosha The spreadsheets have been a lifesaver, they get changed so frequently!

This is our latest FP+ Plan, I think i've got it as "Perfect" as I can, it's hard having never been to WDW before, but I think this flows nicely

 

[NaturalNine]

P.S the colour codes mean:

Red Park is High Crowds
Yellow Park Mid Crowds
Blue Park Low Crowds

Numbers next to Park is Crowd Level

Red Attraction = Tier A attraction for FP+
Purple Attraction =Tier B attraction for FP+

Numbers next to attraction is how many FP+ are required (To maximise Rider Swap we are only taking 2 FP on certain attractions)

Grey EMH = Park open late
White EMH = Park open early

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

I can only see one flaw in your plan and that is Wednesday... you'll need to factor RnR Coaster in more than once because it is AWESOME! LOL. Crazy Cat Boy and I actually went back to HS twice so we could ride again.

Seriously though, it all looks great.

 

[PrincessInOz]

OOh! Two date nights? Sounds fantastic!

 

[NaturalNine]

Our FP+ window opens tomorrow

Yayyyyyyy

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Love the spreadsheet planning - makes me feel normal!! Can I confess to Google maps marked up with options of places to eat for whichever new city we go to too! Sounds like a great trip especially the nice long time at WDW to relax and take things a bit slower. Looking forward to hearing how it all goes, the highs and lows, and all the goodies you get to eat (we all love Food Porn here!) Have an amazing time.

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

Our FP+ window opens tomorrow

Yayyyyyyy

So, don't keep us in suspense... did you get everything you wanted??

 

[NaturalNine]

Sorry about the late reply everybody, been very busy at work, gotta pay for the trip somehow! lol

Yup, got all my FP+ and even had a choice of dates and times for A&E, I either got lucky or the weeks we are there line up with the touring plan indicators of crowd levels being low.

Silly me, made our ADR's 3+ months ago for 2 adults and 2 children, didn't think to add in a fifth resie for our baby, so I've been keeping a daily check on ADR availability and have managed to also secure all our ADR's for 5 pax now instead of just 4 (Even tho the 5th isn't dining, seems silly to make a booking for 5)

Now we're only 7 weeks out the excitement is incredible! Everything except a small portion of our Disney accomodation and our New York accomodation is now pre paid in full, all our internal flights are all booked and paid for too. So other than paying off the remainder of our accom over the next few weeks, we're good to go!!

 

[SafferMom]

Sounds like an amazing trip. Wish we had another trip in planning. Our first trip to WDW last December got our whole family hooked

 

[Tahlzy]

Pew Pew! So excited