Celebrating at POFQ/AKL in September 2015! COMPLETE

[Angeejoe]

We love the Crystal Palace and go there for breakfast pretty much every trip. I LOVE the kids puffed french toast too!!



That's great to hear - I can't wait to try lunch and dinner at BOG!



This restaurant is one of my dad's favorites and we love the atmosphere inside. We actually recreated a meal and the theme when we got home from a trip one time - ha!



This is another "must do" on our trips for dinner but we've never had breakfast there so I'm looking forward to both!



Yep, we love Boma for breakfast and dinner. We also really liked Sanaa last time and the views were awesome with giraffes right outside the windows. Maybe we'll add it in for our 2017 trip!



We really like the Rainforest Cafe so we're looking forward to checking this one out!



We're doing a breakfast here I think and mostly because I thought my mom would like to try the Tonga Toast. We've never been here and it may get dropped since our meals that day are looking a bit too close together. We'll see!



My mom wanted to eat here - it's a little frou frou for me but I'm fine with it!



This is one I could definitely do without but my parents both love it. I like the show but I just don't really enjoy most of the food.



We've never tried the Yachtsman - I'm not big on steak though... I know, I'm picky!

I think you will be surprised that GFC is not fru fru, at least to me. In my minds th GF seems so fancy, and this just didn't seem that way at all to me. I'm telling you- seasonal salad & share the dessert sampler!

I'm not a steak person, I only get steaks at Yachtman & fancy steak house here called Mancys. Otherwise, unless my husband grills it, I don't eat steak out. I think that was why my steak at Kona didn't seem that good to me.

Also I believe that T-Rex is owned by the same company as Rainforrest Cafe.

This food talk is making me hungry....

 

[Dentam]

I think you will be surprised that GFC is not fru fru, at least to me. In my minds th GF seems so fancy, and this just didn't seem that way at all to me. I'm telling you- seasonal salad & share the dessert sampler!

That's good to hear! I'll have to try your recommendations - they sound tasty!

I'm not a steak person, I only get steaks at Yachtman & fancy steak house here called Mancys. Otherwise, unless my husband grills it, I don't eat steak out. I think that was why my steak at Kona didn't seem that good to me.

I don't really eat steak at all even if it's grilled at home... just not a fan of it for whatever reason. I'm pretty picky and always have been. I like chicken or seafood much better. Good thing there's plenty of options at WDW!

This food talk is making me hungry....

Me too!! I'm ready to leave for our vacation tomorrow!!

 

[Dentam]

After a less than spectacular week at work, I'm back in trip planning mode!!

We've made some changes to our itinerary - nothing too major but I thought I'd start going over them day by day and see what you all think!

So... ARRIVAL DAY:

I'm leaning toward getting a red eye flight out Saturday evening to arrive early Sunday morning (before 6am) - aack, I know! The thing is, I want to have as much time on vacation as possible and don't really want to waste half a day in the air/airports. Plus, I'd likely get an early morning flight out anyway which would mean getting up at the crack of dawn regardless. My parents are trying to do the same and are searching for red eye flights. Just waiting on some airfare sales!!

Okay, so we're assuming our arrival time will be around 6am. From there we will get on the good ole Magical Express and ride over to POR! No idea how long this whole process will take, so we're not making any ADR's until dinner. I'm thinking we'll eat breakfast at POR and explore the resort a bit.



We won't be able to check into our room yet, so we'll plan to leave our bags and then take the bus over to the Animal Kingdom!! Throughout the trip, I've tried to schedule our days based on the crowd calendars and go with the parks that are most recommended for each day. Originally I had planned for HS this day but none of us are too excited by that park so today's plans go against the crowd calendar recommendations. AK has an EMH in the morning so it might be more crowded. We do want to do EMH in the evenings, but we're gong to try to avoid those parks until around dinnertime to minimize our time in crowded parks... we shall see if this works!

We'll stay at the AK until the park closes at 5pm. I love this park and especially my all time favorite ride there!


My mom doesn't want to go on Expedition Everest but I'm going to do my best to talk her into it! It's such a cool ride and I love the theming as you wait in line. Disney does such an awesome job with all the little details!

We'll probably see the FOTLK and do Bug's Life... oh, and of course Kilimanjaro Safari which we'll try to hit first thing when we arrive. I'm not sure if all the construction walls I've heard so much about will still be up when we're there (guessing they will be) so that will probably affect how much wandering around we do if it feels too crowded. I would like to try to eat lunch at Yak and Yeti but since we don't know how our morning flights and transportation to the resort and park will go, we won't be making an ADR for this one.


Once the park closes, we plan to take the bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma!!

This is one of our favorite restaurants (I say that about quite a few WDW restaurants! ) and we have an ADR for 6:25pm. Depending on how the crowds are in AK we may leave before closing and give ourselves even more time before dinner to just wander around the lodge and take it all in. They did such a great job on this resort. We stayed here during our last trip in 2009 and loved it - only problem was the bus situation during Christmas week! But just look at our view from our lunch at Sanaa! Boma won out for this trip but I LOVED Sanaa. I have a weird light fetish and loved all of the different lights in that restaurant!

Okay, totally got sidetracked there - oops!

After dinner we'll take the bus over to the Magic Kingdom to enjoy the rest of the evening there. It is supposed to be open until midnight (those aren't EMH's) so we're going to try to go check it out! It'll be great to round out our first day with the MSEP and Wishes!!


And... I just realized that these pics are of SpectroMagic which was the parade going on during our 2009 trip but it has since been retired. Oh well, you get the idea!

I think this looks like a pretty good first day... only concern is that I can never sleep on planes so a red-eye flight followed by staying up until past midnight the following day might take some extra caffeine to get through!

 

[dayvewc]

We won't be able to check into our room yet, so we'll plan to leave our bags and then take the bus over to the Animal Kingdom!! Throughout the trip, I've tried to schedule our days based on the crowd calendars and go with the parks that are most recommended for each day. We do want to do EMH in the evenings, but we're gong to try to avoid those parks until around dinnertime to minimize our time in crowded parks... we shall see if this works!

We'll stay at the AK until the park closes at 5pm. I love this park and especially my all time favorite ride there!

My only experience with early morning arrival was this past spring break at the Grand Californian at DisneyLand, but .... I was able to check-in at 8 am.

I left my luggage with Bell Services and went through the check-in process. They gave me the welcome packet and keys to what would be my room, then took my cell-phone number and around 2 pm I got a text that my room was ready and which room it was. All I had to do at that point was go back to my room and call BS to have them bring my luggage up.

I realize that DL and WDW do operate slightly different, but I would bet that there is something similar. Not to mention, I have seen a couple of threads recently about WDW offering a "by-pass the check-in and go straight to your room" as a test option at some resorts. Apparently, you can do an online check-in early, and they will text you your room number when it is ready - already linked to your MagicBand.

Other than plopping my $0.02 in on that, the rest of your fist day sounds great. Though I agree that if you have problems sleeping on flights it might be a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG day!

 

[Dentam]

I have seen a couple of threads recently about WDW offering a "by-pass the check-in and go straight to your room" as a test option at some resorts. Apparently, you can do an online check-in early, and they will text you your room number when it is ready - already linked to your MagicBand.

That would be great if we could check-in online early and the room would be linked to our magic bands! I don't think we're going to want to go back to check into the room mid-day and doing it after midnight probably won't be such a great idea either. Hmm... I'll have to check into our options as the trip gets closer!

Other than plopping my $0.02 in on that, the rest of your fist day sounds great. Though I agree that if you have problems sleeping on flights it might be a LOOOOOONNNNNGGGG day!

Yep, it could be a very long day but we're used to being sleep deprived at Disney! We can always sleep in a bit the next morning since we don't have any breakfast ADR's and don't plan to do rope drop the next day. Oh, and let's not forget the caffeine!!

 

[dayvewc]

That would be great if we could check-in online early and the room would be linked to our magic bands! I don't think we're going to want to go back to check into the room mid-day and doing it after midnight probably won't be such a great idea either. Hmm... I'll have to check into our options as the trip gets closer!

Found the thing I was thinking about. It says that it is available at POR as of Feb, so should be good - if you do all the other required hoops. ;-)
http://www.wdwinfo.com/news/walt-disney-world-resort-guests-can-now-bypass-front-desk-check-in/

Yep, it could be a very long day but we're used to being sleep deprived at Disney! We can always sleep in a bit the next morning since we don't have any breakfast ADR's and don't plan to do rope drop the next day. Oh, and let's not forget the caffeine!!

Yes, we must not forget the caffeine!!!

 

[Dentam]

Found the thing I was thinking about. It says that it is available at POR as of Feb, so should be good - if you do all the other required hoops. ;-)

Hmm... it sounds good until they mentioned you have to be met by a cast member outside the resort. Not so sure that would happen by the time we get back that first evening around 1am! Thanks for the link though - we still might give it a try!

 

[DonnaBeeGood]

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[Choozee]

Joining!

 

[KathyM2]

Wow...sounds like an amazing arrival day!!! I only caution you that...I'm exhausted just reading about taking a red-eye or super early flight and then doing all that....it's pretty ambitious!! But then...I probably don't have as much energy as you lol. I love your pics though and yay for Boma!!

 

[Angeejoe]

You must be like the energizer bunny, I don't know if I could do a nonstop arrival day like that! Rest up the day before, but then again I can never sleep well the day before Disney!!!

 

[Dentam]

Well maybe this will be your first trip where you doze on the plane, and start your day totally refreshed, lol! I think we're going to spend our first day at AK as well, but I suspect that DH will have his fill of people by mid day each day, so I'm not going to get hopper passes for our trip. I, on the other hand, would have no problem with heading to MK for the evening!

Yeah... I seriously doubt that I'll sleep a wink but one can hope! I do remember a truly awful red eye flight from Vegas one time where I was rocking back and worth in my window seat trying not to go crazy as everyone slept around me. Hmm... may have to rethink this plan...

We've always gotten park hoppers since we love the flexibility it gives us each day of our trips!

 

[Dentam]

Joining!

I'm so glad to have you along - chime in if you think any of my plans are crazy! Or even if you don't - ha!

 

[Dentam]

Wow...sounds like an amazing arrival day!!! I only caution you that...I'm exhausted just reading about taking a red-eye or super early flight and then doing all that....it's pretty ambitious!! But then...I probably don't have as much energy as you lol. I love your pics though and yay for Boma!!

Yeah, I don't want to set us up for total exhaustion right off the bat... however, this is kind of how my family rolls! We tend to cram as much in as possible (afternoon pool breaks have never happened that I can recall but that may need to change on this trip due to the heat) and we always take a ton of photos so we can remember what we did later! I'd rather this be a more relaxing trip but we'll see... I think our overachiever personalities will take over as per the norm.

 

[Dentam]

You must be like the energizer bunny, I don't know if I could do a nonstop arrival day like that! Rest up the day before, but then again I can never sleep well the day before Disney!!!

I never sleep well before a trip either - too excited!! My family is just kind of go, go, go with these trips. On our trip to Disneyland this January there were times (such as the day it rained) that I would have been perfectly happy with hanging out by the fireplace in the GCH (guess I'm not as overachieving as the rest of the fam) but no one was on the same page as me so we powered through. I think I would slow the pace quite a bit if I was on a solo trip!

 

[Angeejoe]

I never sleep well before a trip either - too excited!! My family is just kind of go, go, go with these trips. On our trip to Disneyland this January there were times (such as the day it rained) that I would have been perfectly happy with hanging out by the fireplace in the GCH (guess I'm not as overachieving as the rest of the fam) but no one was on the same page as me so we powered through. I think I would slow the pace quite a bit if I was on a solo trip!

I like the relaxing times on vacation, I enjoy the pool, people watching on the balcony, naps- these things make my vacation more enjoyable. I know I will be back!

 

[Dentam]

I like the relaxing times on vacation, I enjoy the pool, people watching on the balcony, naps- these things make my vacation more enjoyable. I know I will be back!

I agree completely! When I worked at WDW, I spent plenty of time doing those things and really enjoyed the relaxed pace. Of course, I was there for about 10 weeks so I had the luxury of just going to a park after work to ride a couple of rides, eat dinner, and maybe go hang out by the pool at a nearby resort. I think part of the reason behind our trip craziness is trying to get our "money's worth" out of it and knowing we probably won't be back for awhile... it's been five years since our last trip. And now there's also all this new stuff to see and do since our last trip along with all of our old favorites!

 

[Angeejoe]

I agree completely! When I worked at WDW, I spent plenty of time doing those things and really enjoyed the relaxed pace. Of course, I was there for about 10 weeks so I had the luxury of just going to a park after work to ride a couple of rides, eat dinner, and maybe go hang out by the pool at a nearby resort. I think part of the reason behind our trip craziness is trying to get our "money's worth" out of it and knowing we probably won't be back for awhile... it's been five years since our last trip. And now there's also all this new stuff to see and do since our last trip along with all of our old favorites!

I totally get wanting to do it all, especially if you haven't been there in 5 years! I think the new Fantasy Land will blow your hair back as I think it's so cool. I've found that my personal "money's worth" is just taking the time to smell the roses, I don't enjoy rushing. I think after I lost my dad in a car accident 3 yrs ago my outlook on life has changed. I don't need to ride every ride to have a good time, I think that's why I love WDW so much, there's so much to see, do & enjoy. I think the queues are amazing, the architecture is wonderful, the landscaping is beautiful, it really is my happy place. We all know what works for us to make us happy, you're ready for a fun filled adventure with your family, you can't beat that kind of time-the best memories to be made. Do your parents live far from you?

 

[Dentam]

I totally get wanting to do it all, especially if you haven't been there in 5 years! I think the new Fantasy Land will blow your hair back as I think it's so cool. I've found that my personal "money's worth" is just taking the time to smell the roses, I don't enjoy rushing. I think after I lost my dad in a car accident 3 yrs ago my outlook on life has changed. I don't need to ride every ride to have a good time, I think that's why I love WDW so much, there's so much to see, do & enjoy. I think the queues are amazing, the architecture is wonderful, the landscaping is beautiful, it really is my happy place. We all know what works for us to make us happy, you're ready for a fun filled adventure with your family, you can't beat that kind of time-the best memories to be made. Do your parents live far from you?

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad.

I can't wait to see new Fantasy Land! I agree with you completely - if I were on a solo trip the pace would be more relaxed. My mom would be happy with some afternoon pool time and will probably do that due to the heat. My dad wants to cram as much in as possible and I'd like to have the time with him so I'll probably do the same. My parents live in Oregon so a few states away. I usually see them about twice a year. If I could swing it, I'd love to plan a WDW trip every year from here on out so we could have the time doing something we all love together.

 

[Angeejoe]

I'm so sorry to hear about your dad.

I can't wait to see new Fantasy Land! I agree with you completely - if I were on a solo trip the pace would be more relaxed. My mom would be happy with some afternoon pool time and will probably do that due to the heat. My dad wants to cram as much in as possible and I'd like to have the time with him so I'll probably do the same. My parents live in Oregon so a few states away. I usually see them about twice a year. If I could swing it, I'd love to plan a WDW trip every year from here on out so we could have the time doing something we all love together.

It must be so hard to live so far from your family! WDW seems like a great place to reconnect.