Celebrating my Un-Birthday Disney Style-April 2010-New 5/3 - The TR has started!

[DisMomAmy]

Amy,

I don't think MK is actually all that bad on Spectro nights...maybe just me...

but here is a thought you are planning on skipping it anyways yes? so you could actually tour Tomorrowland (SpMt, Buzz, LF, TTA, speedway) and Adventureland (POC, JC, Tiki room) during the parade

everyone (well just about everyone would be lined up to view the parade and those areas of the park will be practicaly empty...

we love Spectro...and try not to ever miss it. Hopping over from Epcot to see Spectro at MK in 08 was nutty but just this past March I really don't think the crowds were bad.

JAT

I thought about that & I think I'm going to keep our MK night on a Spectro night. That way we can either catch Spectro or skip it while the rest of the park watches the parade.

Good luck tomorrow morning! Are you trying to get Chef Mickey's?

Thanks Jackie!! Yes I'll be trying for Chef Mickey's but not until tomorrow.

Amy,

I wish you much luck tomorrow. Hopefully, things will have settled down a bit!

I, too, am having to look at my itinerary again because for once, they've extended hours at MK on many nights that I'm there. It'll give us more flexibility.

I've heard from a few people that F! nights are really busy now at DHS. Did you hear that they are thinking of going back to more nights of F! because on non-F! nights revenue is down? Or were you the one that posted that...?

Things settled down quite a bit! More on that later. Yes - I saw something about adding F! due to $ - but so far there are still limited showings on the schedule. We'll see...

Amy!

Oh my goodness, those hours changes really did a number on your itinerary! I hope that the system settles down by tomorrow. Personally I didn't find Spectro to impact the overall crowds other than right around Spectro times BUT it was so darn busy that whole week I think it was irrelevant.

Not much help am I!

I had heard the same rumor about more F! nights....and showings...I hope so. It would really help balance things out.

Good luck tomorrow and have fun scrapping!

I did have to switch a few things around but overall I think I've come up with a good itinerary. I'll post it in a few minutes.

It would be great if they added more F! to the schedule. We probably won't be seeing it again until then.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Today was Day 1 of ADR week. Tim got up a little before six so since I was awake I grabbed my laptop and logged on to the WDW website, fully expecting the dining portion of the site to still be down. Surprise!! It was working. I had put Teppan Edo & Hollywood & Vine in my favorites so could easily pull them up. I started with Teppan Edo. I reqeusted 5:00 pm and that's exactly what I got!! I added that one to my cart and moved on to H&V. I wasn't exactly sure what time they switch over breakfast to lunch so I started with 10:30am (assuming we'd be seated late). I was surprised to find that it wasn't available! It gave me a choice of 10:15 or 11:00. So I dug around a little and found out that breakfast runs until 11:20. I took the 11am ADR, added it to my cart & checked out. I logged off at 6:11am.

I was really surprised that things went so well. Let's hope that continues throughout the week.

Here's the itinerary I'm working with now:

Monday 4/26: DHS am/Epcot pm (flipped around from original plan) Made ADRs for H&V at 11am & Teppan Edo at 5pm.

Tuesday 4/27: AK am/MK pm - Chef Mickey's 5pm (hopefully) & Wishes

Wednesday 4/28: waterpark am/5:00 HDDR

Thursday 4/29: Epcot am/DHS pm - Teppan Edo for 4 or 8?

Friday 4/30 - AK am - open pm - no ADRs (no good pm park - Grad night at MK, Epcot has EMH & DHS has F! - so we'll see what we feel like & just deal with the crowds. Maybe we'll hit a waterpark this afternoon for a couple hours?)

Saturday 5/1 - MK am (Crystal Palace for 4)/Epcot pm - Illuminations?

So that's the plan! I'm going to go play around with the dining website some more to see what availability looks like for Chef Mickey's, Crystal Palace & HDDR today - maybe that will give me a sense of my chances later in the week.

 

[mousescrapper]

YAY! for the 1st two ADR's down....

 

[eandesmom]

Great day 1!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continued for the rest of the week.

 

[DisMomAmy]

YAY! for the 1st two ADR's down....

Great day 1!!!!!!!!!!!!

Continued for the rest of the week.

Thanks mousescrapper & eandesmom!!

Let's hope my luck continues!

I went back on the dining website to see how I would have made out if I had been looking for Crystal Palace 8am, Chef Mickey's 5pm or HDDR 5pm and ALL of them were available at the time I wanted. CP was 8:05 but the other two were both available at exactly 5pm. Hopefully that's a good sign for what's to come later this week.

 

[DisMomAmy]

180 Days from today we'll be having dinner at Chef Mickey's at 5:05pm! Followed by a walk over to MK where we'll hit our favorite rides and finish the night off wish Wishes!

I logged on to the online reservation system at 5:58 and loged off at 6:00am.

 

[Charleston Princess]

180 Days from today we'll be having dinner at Chef Mickey's at 5:05pm! Followed by a walk over to MK where we'll hit our favorite rides and finish the night off wish Wishes!

I logged on to the online reservation system at 5:58 and loged off at 6:00am.

Awesome! That will be a wonderful night! It's so good to hear that things are going so smoothly now with the online reservations.

 

[eandesmom]

love it!

 

[mousescrapper]

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

so glad the online system is working well for you....so 180 days out for me will mean almost 1 month out to making my 180 days out ADR's....

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great news on getting Chef Mickey's!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Awesome! That will be a wonderful night! It's so good to hear that things are going so smoothly now with the online reservations.

I'm glad I don't have to try to deal with the phones every day! The online system is so fast - when it works right.

love it!

EXCELLENT!!!!!!!

so glad the online system is working well for you....so 180 days out for me will mean almost 1 month out to making my 180 days out ADR's....

Gotta have something to look forward to, right? When do you get to make that DVC reservation?

Great news on getting Chef Mickey's!

Thanks!! I'm excited!

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While I was online this morning I decided to check on Crystal Palace again and it was available just like it had been the day before so I'm not worried about it at all. For those of you who haven't used it yet, you enter the restaurant, date, time and party size and it searches for you. It will pull up your choice if available or some alternate times if it isn't. It also suggests other restaurants. The funny part today was that I accidentally entered 7am for Crystal Palace and it came up as unavailable (when I entered 8am it was fine) and it gave me a suggestion of an 8am ADR at CRT!!! Can you even believe that - people do all sorts of crazy things to get CRT ADRs and the computer it practically throwing it at me!! Got me thinking though... this is my un-birthday after all.

 

[KathyRN137]

180 Days from today we'll be having dinner at Chef Mickey's at 5:05pm! Followed by a walk over to MK where we'll hit our favorite rides and finish the night off wish Wishes!

Fantastic!!

...The funny part today was that I accidentally entered 7am for Crystal Palace and it came up as unavailable (when I entered 8am it was fine) and it gave me a suggestion of an 8am ADR at CRT!!! Can you even believe that - people do all sorts of crazy things to get CRT ADRs and the computer it practically throwing it at me!! Got me thinking though... this is my un-birthday after all.

Do it!! Go for it!!


Kathy

 

[jordanyosh]

180 Days from today we'll be having dinner at Chef Mickey's at 5:05pm! Followed by a walk over to MK where we'll hit our favorite rides and finish the night off wish Wishes!

Congrats!

I logged on to the online reservation system at 5:58 and loged off at 6:00am.

Rub it in why don't you.

I'm happy for you though. I think that's how the system is supposed to work.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Congrats!

Rub it in why don't you.

I'm happy for you though. I think that's how the system is supposed to work.

Thanks Jordan!! And I do know how lucky I am that I didn't have to deal with things on Tuesday morning!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

This morning I decided I didn't need to hop right up at 6am to make my ADR since there has been plenty of availability for HDDR later in the day each day this week that I've checked. I logged in around 6:50 - booked 5pm HDDR (category 1) and logged out around 7pm. I had a little credit card processing problem - but once I stopped transposing two numbers I was fine.

In 180 days we'll be sleeping a little late after a night at MK with Wishes. We'll make our way to a waterpark around the 10am opening and have a wonderful time!! Then we'll take a little afternoon break before heading to Fort Wilderness for Hoop-Dee-Doo at 5pm. I just have to figure out how/where to get the tickets. It says we can pick them up at any resort Guest Services.

I assume that means we can't pick them up ahead of time at a park? Otherwise we just have to show up early to pick up the tickets the night of our show - but I'd rather avoid any extra waiting around for the kids.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Amy, I am thinking this whole just one ADR to book each day is quite nice -- there is something to be said for not having to do a whole bunch at once.

 

[mousescrapper]

Amy,

are you going to try and book CRT? that would be so sweet!

great on getting HDDR too

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I don't think I have an actual date or something that I have to call on to book my first ressie. What I do know is that for home resort ressie's (which I will be making) is 11 months out from your arrival month....so December is the time!

I figure after Thanksgiving I will call my guide and start the ball rolling. I need to find out if I can call anytime in December or if has to be on or after the actual 11 month out date...

I also know my guide will be conferneced in my call to DVC member services to help me thru this 1st time process...though I can't imagine it is that different from making a regular ressie which I have done multiple times myself...but I do know I can only book a consective 7 night stay at one time...so I don't know how that exactly works when our planned stay is at least 8 nights/9 days...though I am going to ask how much it would cost to add a cash night to stay 1 extra night to get one extra full day and leave on Sunday after Thanksgiving in the late morning....trying to a) maximize our possiblities of the Christmas/Holiday stuff that begins the day after Thanksgiving and b) thinking if we leve in the morning then maybe Michael wouldn't have as hard of a time managing flying home like this past trip...

so we'll see....

sorry to highjack your PTR as my own mini pre-PTR.....

oh and Happy pre-Halloween...

J~

 

[eandesmom]

yeah for the HDDR!

Just arrive early and pick up your tickets there, it is off to the left kind of by the exterior restrooms lol if memory serves. I somehow didn't realize they needed to be picked up, we got in the check in line and someone told us we needed to get them. So I got them while the rest stood in the line, it worked out just fine and we were not exactly what I'd call "early". Not late mind you but it was just fine.

We still had time to get the obligatory show photo and look at the pin kiosk.

Cat1 is the best!!!!!!!!!

 

[jordanyosh]

Amy, I am thinking this whole just one ADR to book each day is quite nice -- there is something to be said for not having to do a whole bunch at once.

Jackie,

I completely agree.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Amy, I am thinking this whole just one ADR to book each day is quite nice -- there is something to be said for not having to do a whole bunch at once.

It is nice but it's causing me to spend too much time analyzing everything over and over again. And to make a few too many back up ADRs...

Amy,

are you going to try and book CRT? that would be so sweet!

great on getting HDDR too

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I don't think I have an actual date or something that I have to call on to book my first ressie. What I do know is that for home resort ressie's (which I will be making) is 11 months out from your arrival month....so December is the time!

I figure after Thanksgiving I will call my guide and start the ball rolling. I need to find out if I can call anytime in December or if has to be on or after the actual 11 month out date...

I also know my guide will be conferneced in my call to DVC member services to help me thru this 1st time process...though I can't imagine it is that different from making a regular ressie which I have done multiple times myself...but I do know I can only book a consective 7 night stay at one time...so I don't know how that exactly works when our planned stay is at least 8 nights/9 days...though I am going to ask how much it would cost to add a cash night to stay 1 extra night to get one extra full day and leave on Sunday after Thanksgiving in the late morning....trying to a) maximize our possiblities of the Christmas/Holiday stuff that begins the day after Thanksgiving and b) thinking if we leve in the morning then maybe Michael wouldn't have as hard of a time managing flying home like this past trip...

so we'll see....

sorry to highjack your PTR as my own mini pre-PTR.....

oh and Happy pre-Halloween...

J~

You are always free to highjack Julie - until you get a PTR of your own going. Hint, hint... I know - it will come in time.

Can't wait to hear all about your first DVC experience though. Tim wasn't too excited about the info you shared with me and we haven't talked about it since. But I'm sure it will come up again.

Yes - CRT - I'm seriously thinking about it. I had planned Crystal Palace for our last morning, mainly to get into the park early and experience that walk up Main Street before the crowds. But the kids aren't really into Pooh anymore so I may switch things up and try CRT just because.

yeah for the HDDR!

Just arrive early and pick up your tickets there, it is off to the left kind of by the exterior restrooms lol if memory serves. I somehow didn't realize they needed to be picked up, we got in the check in line and someone told us we needed to get them. So I got them while the rest stood in the line, it worked out just fine and we were not exactly what I'd call "early". Not late mind you but it was just fine.

We still had time to get the obligatory show photo and look at the pin kiosk.

Cat1 is the best!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the info - that doesn't sound too complicated. I've seen HDDR twice but it's been a long time. The first time was on our first family WDW vacation when we camped at Fort Wilderness - I was 9 and my brother was 6. I still remember HDDR - and not much else. I took Tim there on our trip the year after we got married. We had fun, but we were way up in category 3. I think category 1 with kids who love corny humor will be great!

Jackie,

I completely agree.

Fortunately I have't run into any trouble - if I'd had to book everything at 6am every day it would't have been such a pleasant experience. Especially for someone like you who has to deal with the time change. Can you imagine making ADRs every day for a week at 3am!