I saw about the Halloween thing. I really wish I could go in October this year - really, really, really, really wish! But I couldn't afford to go just one month after being there. At least the months between March and September give me some $$$ saving time. My goal is to get to DLR at least once a year and I'm already thinking next year will be for Halloween. I'm even trying to talk my mom into it, but if I do Halloween '10 I already have 2 candidates to take along with me.
But you could very well have a point about SLCB and CJ. I can't really remember the one Holiday that we did spend at DLR well enough to say if that was something I noticed while I was there. But the timing does sound suggestive if it opens back up mid-November.
Either way, it wont have any other impact on this trip other than the fact it's 2 less rides I will get to do.
I know what you mean - let's face it, it is hard to come up with the cash to go to DLR often. Even one day, once a year, for some folks can be tough to manage, let alone a few times a year. Even with an AP (which expires in October), I have just been to DLR twice since I got it, and I have not been there since December, whereas everyone else with an AP has gone several times since then! (Though I will be there for a mini-trip next week to get my Fun Card, but it will literally just be for a few hours, basically.) For me, because I don't have a car, that means ANY kind of transportation will cost $$$, and since I am freelancing at the moment, if it happens to be a month when work is slow, I can't justify spending food/rent/bill money on transportation to DLR. I got lucky in that I was able to get my AP at a low price last year. If I had not gotten that low price, I wouldn't have gotten the AP. So I feel like I got lucky, but if I had paid FULL price for it, I would be upset that I wasn't using the AP to its full advantage after plunking down that kind of money. Meanwhile my friend (who is one of the people who always goes to DLR with me) lives 5 minutes up the street from DLR (close enough for the fireworks to disturb her every night) and she does NOT have an AP and is not interested in one. If I lived where she lived, I would probably go to DLR all the time - just in shorter increments, like 2 hours here, 4 hours there, a random trip to scout for Hidden Mickeys there, a trip to look i all the shops here, that sort of thing. I would just walk there and walk back.
So I know what you mean - I told myself that I would just try to plan on one day in October to go and see the Halloween decorations, but that I would not plan on a hotel at that point, and rather concentrate my efforts towards DLR at Christmastime, which is my favorite! I would rather make Decembe a more special trip than the October one, but I don't want to miss out on seeing the Halloween stuff, so I have to compromise!
As for SLCB and CJ being closed and then opening JUST in time for the beginning of Christmas season, I think they first go down in late August. Now, 3 months is a LOOOOOONNNNGGGG time for just a holiday overlay, so they must be doing a regular refurb. Maybe they are adding in some other miniature houses? Whose houses can they add, I wonder? Anyway, they have not 'officially' announced any Christmas decorations on SLCB in the past (so I think a lot of people missed them), but maybe, this year, if they go all out and REALLY do a bigger, more elaborate Christmasy thing in there, they will list it as part of their holiday events. That darn line for SLCB is so long anyway. A holiday overlay line will be crazy, if that's what they do.
So as of 10 minutes ago we have ourselves PS for our final two character meals! And I did finally stick to a decision with what time to do GK.
Sometimes I just can't make up my mind until I tell myself it's too late to change it again.
Goofy's Kitchen - Thursday, (9/10) at 7:00 a.m. for my birthday!! We will be there for breakfast nice and early. Crud. I forgot to mention while on the phone that we'll be celebrating a birthday. My mind was distracted.
Minnie & Friends - Friday (9/11) at 8:40 a.m. Same time that we went back in March. I really liked that time because we got a little more one-on-one time with the characters as everyone else filled in. I hope it works out just as well this time!!
Now I've got to get my butt moving to go pick up the movie tickets for Harry Potter!! I'm so slow today. I've gotten less than 8 hours of sleep since Friday and I am exhausted. No happy me today. Well, minus the awesome DLR planning euphoria!!
Wow, I am surprised you ended up going for the super early Goofy's time rather than a late morning brucnhy time! We did 7:00 a.m. at Goofy's last December, and we opened the place, along with maybe two other groups of people. So in terms of crowds, it was relatively quiet. In terms of characters, they slowly trickled in as the morning wore on. Goofy and Baloo were right there when we all came in, and they stood at the entrance to Goofy's as though they were sizing us all up, thinking, "Typical weekend crowd..." Eventually, Chip and Dale, Pluto, Jasmine and Aurora & Prince Phillip showed up. So you may have to wait for some of them to appear! But the food is super fresh and yummy at that time!
You've got to call Disney Dining back and make sure they know it is your birthday! Take all precautions necessary to ensure bad singing!!
Anyway, your birthday is fast approaching!!
Make sure that if you want more brunch-ish things at Goofy's on the day you are there that they are open until 2:00 p.m. Otherwise, on the non-2:00 p.m. days they close at noon, I think, and you don't want to get there so late that the characters are starting to leave. In any case, you will enjoy it and the bad birthday song, but you may still have mostly breakfast stuff to choose from. Although Goofy's has such a wide variety of things at their buffet for breakfast and dinner that you may find plenty of things that are not breakfasty.
In a perfect world I can talk my mom into going and then my sister and my dad as well. We haven't done anything with us 4 since December '03. Besides, she's mentioned she'd like to go, but she wants to do Christmas again with all of us. Not such a great idea with my sister and I both working retail. BLOCKOUT!!!! Halloween was my alternative. The good news is my car has 7 months or so until it is finally paid off which will mean a little extra cash that I can put away each month. It would also be great if stupid things didn't stop breaking on me too. Oh well. DLR has become a lot more feasible for me since I found the DIS (and especially learning about the HoJo).
2 of our 4 have had to cancel on the September trip. First my friend Karolina had a run in with a traffic light that sapped her DLR fund and doomed her time off from work and now Angelica officially has to back out because if she misses more than 2 classes this semester she'll fail her class and that's just not an option. Ho hum. I know I'll still have an absolute blast but this is not turning out to be the birthday trip that I had planned.
