Chunkymonkey & Chubbyhubby's Year of Disney PTR! NEW 12/27 THE END and New TR Link!

[KathyM2]

Going over to check out your TR now...though I followed the goings on on FB but want more details lol

 

[scrappydew]

Can't wait to hear what you think of Pandora. I'm really interested in the ride vehicles in FoP. I'm such a ride chicken, I'm on the fence with this one. have fun with your trip!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

YESSSS, I'm heading over there right now to read your new TR! Feels good to be back on the DIS.

Yay!! We need more Yuki on the DIS!

Going over to check out your TR now...though I followed the goings on on FB but want more details lol

Oh I have lots of details! Maybe too much lol.

Can't wait to hear what you think of Pandora. I'm really interested in the ride vehicles in FoP. I'm such a ride chicken, I'm on the fence with this one. have fun with your trip!!

I'll be sure to report back! We leave tomorrow night! Thanks!

 

[chunkymonkey]

PTR Update 5/17 - 2nd May trip begins tomorrow night!

May 18-21 Pandora AP Preview
Lot's of exciting stuff happening this weekend!

We're back in WDW!



We leave tomorrow night, pretty much an exact same start to our trip as in early May...night flight to MCO, a night spent at the Hyatt MCO, and then we'll take ME to AKL the morning of the 19th.

May 19th: We're gonna spend most of the day at Epcot taking in F and G again! Can't believe I'll be here again I have to pinch myself. I made no ADRs so we're just going to eat our way around the world...We have FPs for Spaceship Earth, Soarin' and Character Spot, my 3 go-tos Hopefully a Dismeet with @ariane37 since she'll be in Epcot too! But we're both at AKL this weekend and have pretty similar schedules so we'll definitely at the opportunity to meet if not that day. Then we'll hop on over to MK at around 5 or 6pm or so. I have booked us the Fireworks Dessert Party for Happily Ever After with Plaza Garden Viewing. Sooooo excited to watch this show first hand. I saw the live stream on the Disney Parks Blog and I was hooked. I mean, yes Wishes was great but this looks amazing, one of those shows that probably you have to experience with a good view at least once so I jumped at the opportunity to do the dessert party. Never done the Wishes one before. I wonder how it compares to the SW dessert party in terms of food, maybe @Raeven can help me out with this since she's done both!

May 20th: We have breakfast at Boma and then I made the decision to do...absolutely nothing that morning. I intend to sit by the pool and just relax a bit. We didn't get to do that too much on our last trip so I want to just take a morning to enjoy a leisurely breakfast, bask in the surroundings of AKL, watch the animals, and chill by the pool. Then at around 1:30pm or so we'll head to AK. I do have a few FPs for today but since I made them really late I did not get really great times. We have FoTLK at 3pm, and then Meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurer's Outpost at 4:40. We'll meet up with my friend Betsy (@tankgirl427) in time to line up for our Pandora preview! However, our Pandora Preview is from 6-8pm and they are allowing us in at 5pm it seems therefore we'll have to line up closer to 4pm. This means we'll probably have to forgo meeting Mickey and Minnie, which is too bad. I have another Dismeet with @krrrristen although she'll probably be leaving Pandora as we're entering...Kristen, maybe we can just meet up inside Pandora? That is if they don't kick you out, but I've heard plenty of stories of people hanging out longer than their preview time. If not, hope to meet you while we are in line! In Pandora we'll hopefully get to ride the two rides, get some food at Satu'li Canteen and do some shopping. As it gets closer to 8pm, I'm hoping it will get dark enough to see some of the "bioluminescent" lighting. We do have a Safari FP for 8pm. I'm not sure if we'll make it or not. I did want to park hop over to DHS to watch the SW fireworks, while my friend Betsy will probably head to MK to catch HEA. If we do go to DHS, we'll try and meet up with @LindseyJo22 if she decides to watch the SW fireworks too! If not, we'll try and meet up the next day.

May 21st: We have a morning at DHS. We have FPs for Star Tours, RnRC, and The Little Mermaid. Hopefully we can ride Toy Story on standby as I couldn't get an FP+. It is EMH that day but not sure if we'll make it for EMH. Then we'll hop on over to the Grand Floridian for brunch with Betsy at Narcoosee's! I've heard so many good things about this brunch and it looks really good. I definitely want that signature bloody mary which has a shrimp and crab claw. Yum! After that we'll probably head to MK. I do want to meet Gaston again! Or at least watch him interact. Not sure how long we will spend at MK but I definitely want to get that Lemonade Jug from Peco's Bill that @Raeven got! Then we'll hop over to Epcot for the final few hours of the day. I'm hoping I'll be hungry enough to get a few more things to eat around the world, but that Narcoosee's brunch looks super filling! We have a 10pm flight that night, so I'm assuming ME will pick us up at 7pm, which is horrendously early but it is what is is. Maybe, just maybe, I can convince DH to get an uber to the airport so that we can stay in Epcot just a little longer! But he's taken the firm stance that if he's paid for a Disney resort we must use everything that comes with it, namely, ME. Haha.

Anyways that is the gist of our very short trip back to the World! I think we have decided that we WILL get express bus transportation just because we do want to park hop and make the most it. It's also kinda nice to have that insurance that we'll get somewhere within a certain amount of time, when it's a trip that short every minute counts . I will hopefully post another update to my TR tonight before it's radio silence for the weekend!

I've also made a few changes to my August and Oct Trips...but that is a WHOLE other post. See you all when we get back!​

 

[ariane37]

I was just catching up on your TR because, as usual, I'm way behind So I'll continue reading but saw this post and wanted to say 1.Safe travels tomorrow and 2. I'm looking forward very much to meeting up!! Whether it's Epcot Friday, AK Sat. or even HS on Sunday, it'll happen I'll be in touch

 

[KathyM2]

so I jumped at the opportunity to do the dessert party.

This is so exciting!! I look forward to hearing about this. The dessert parties seem like such a good idea...food...great view...what more could one want?

In Pandora we'll hopefully get to ride the two rides,

Are they not letting people do FP's for the rides during the preview? I guess not..I hope you manage to do both..I wonder how crowded it will be? How many people go to these previews? I definitely can't wait to hear your reviews of these...especially the river ride...those boat rides are my fave.

Your post made me think maybe it's time to start describing my day to day plans for our trip so that I can maybe get some feedback and tweak as needed before my FP+ day....do you know if they have started allowing people to book FP's for the new Pandora rides?

 

[soniam]

I am so jealous! We won't get to see Pandora or the new MK fireworks until August. However, we leave for Universal and the 2nd day of opening for Volcano Bay the end of next week.

 

[franandaj]

Sounds like some good plans for a short trip! I like the idea of the express bus pass. Whenever we get back we might try that!

Someday before I go back to WDW, I'll need to watch the Avatar movie!

 

[LindseyJo22]

I have booked us the Fireworks Dessert Party for Happily Ever After with Plaza Garden Viewing. Sooooo excited to watch this show first hand

Ooh, I'll be excited to hear about this! We loved our Wishes dessert party last year, but I think they upped the price yet again after last summer, so I've been hesitant to book it again. We debated doing it for this trip since it's my in-laws' anniversary, but we booked Tusker House instead So excited for the new show! I can't wait

That is if they don't kick you out, but I've heard plenty of stories of people hanging out longer than their preview time

Seems like you can hang out basically as long as you want from what I've read - I'm kind of hoping this means we'll be able to grab a snack or dinner at the canteen during our preview since it starts after lunch. But it depends on how much we want to hang around Pandora

If we do go to DHS, we'll try and meet up with @LindseyJo22 if she decides to watch the SW fireworks too! If not, we'll try and meet up the next day.

Yay! We'll have to play it by ear - I know we want to catch Happily Ever After at least once, and maybe try to hop for the fireworks. But otherwise it sounds like we both had brunch plans so Sunday Epcot meet should work well either way

 

[Raeven]

We leave tomorrow night, pretty much an exact same start to our trip as in early May...night flight to MCO, a night spent at the Hyatt MCO, and then we'll take ME to AKL the morning of the 19th.

So soon! Have a great trip!

I mean, yes Wishes was great but this looks amazing, one of those shows that probably you have to experience with a good view at least once so I jumped at the opportunity to do the dessert party. Never done the Wishes one before. I wonder how it compares to the SW dessert party in terms of food, maybe @Raeven can help me out with this since she's done both!

Okay so the Wishes dessert party had all kinds of non alcoholic beverages and milk which I thought was nice since the HS one only had milk for coffee and I like milk with chocolate. They had the area we were in which had dark chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry tarts, brownie cheesecake things, mickey oreo tarts, red velvet HEA cupcakes, assorted macarons, a pineapple upside down cake type thing, a villains chocolate cupcake (which was my favorite I think it was actually a really good cupcake). I'm going by pictures and I think that was it there. In the other room for it near the bathrooms there were cheese cubes of different types, sugar cookies, make your own sundaes, and some other design your own cupcake type thing. The desserts were better than when we did the Hallowishes one, and I would say close to what we had at SW. Josh got a very nice GF plate there which never happens at dessert parties it's usually all prepackaged stuff that's just okay. There definitely wasn't that one big "had to have" item like the bread pudding and nutella stuff at SW, but the desserts were better than I thought.

Maybe, just maybe, I can convince DH to get an uber to the airport so that we can stay in Epcot just a little longer! But he's taken the firm stance that if he's paid for a Disney resort we must use everything that comes with it, namely, ME. Haha.

We normally do this, but this last trip we ended up leaving 3 hours early because we were ready to go and just sitting in the lobby doing nothing (we couldn't get on ME last minute so they got us a complimentary taxi which was really nice because it was kind of our fault for not booking ME because we don't usually use it). I would normally vote for Ubering over, but we actually just barely made it through the airport with enough time to eat something quick before the flight because it was really busy and we ended up stuck in traffic for awhile.

 

[MeghanEmily]

Have an amazing weekend!! Looks like we'll just miss each other at Epcot tomorrow. Hopefully I'll catch you for a meet in August

 

[Tracy161]

I made no ADRs so we're just going to eat our way around the world

That's a fabulous idea!

Hopefully a Dismeet with @ariane37 since she'll be in Epcot too!

YAY!!!

I have booked us the Fireworks Dessert Party for Happily Ever After with Plaza Garden Viewing.

I'm so excited to hear about this! I bet it'll be magical

But he's taken the firm stance that if he's paid for a Disney resort we must use everything that comes with it, namely, ME.

Have a wonderful, wonderful time!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Sorry I know I said I was gonna post an update last night, but you know, packing happened. Haha. So I will be back next week with a new installment. I will actually jump around and start the next post with the Pandora preview because I know some of you are going to be heading down there pretty soon after it opens and may want some info. Crosses fingers it will go well for us.

Also here's the weather for this weekend, UGH is pretty much what I'm feeling:
Friday: High of 91 deg, possible showers in the afternoon
Saturday: High of 92 deg, t-storms in the late afternoon (hopefully ends before our trip to Pandora!)
Sunday: High of 91, partly sunny with a shower

Well I guess I'll finally have to buy those ponchos which I haven't had for the past year.

This is so exciting!! I look forward to hearing about this. The dessert parties seem like such a good idea...food...great view...what more could one want?

Totally! Although it's a high price for ice cream and cake. I guess you are just paying for the privilege of a good viewing spot.

Are they not letting people do FP's for the rides during the preview? I guess not..I hope you manage to do both..I wonder how crowded it will be? How many people go to these previews? I definitely can't wait to hear your reviews of these...especially the river ride...those boat rides are my fave.

They do give out paper FPs when you enter Pandora for Flight of Passage. But they are only in 15 minute windows. I've heard them running out of FP or the ride was down and people couldn't ride it. That would be unfortunate. Navi River you just go whenever. So hopefully we get to do both, get some food, take some pictures and shop within the 2 hours.

Your post made me think maybe it's time to start describing my day to day plans for our trip so that I can maybe get some feedback and tweak as needed before my FP+ day....do you know if they have started allowing people to book FP's for the new Pandora rides?

Yup you can book as soon as your 60 day window opens which for us is in mid-June.

I am so jealous! We won't get to see Pandora or the new MK fireworks until August. However, we leave for Universal and the 2nd day of opening for Volcano Bay the end of next week.

Nice! Volcano Bay looks awesome. I'm not a water park person but if I were Volcano Bay would be #1 on my list. Have a great trip! BTW I booked MNSSHP for Nov 1st too.
Did you hear the whole fiasco where they decided to not open a bunch of big ticket rides for the party? 7DMT was not on the list but I think after the uproar they added it back. BTMRR and Jungle Cruise still not on the list of open attractions. Seriously though, I am annoyed they tell us this AFTER we bought tickets.

Sounds like some good plans for a short trip! I like the idea of the express bus pass. Whenever we get back we might try that!

Definitely try it, it's well worth it!

Someday before I go back to WDW, I'll need to watch the Avatar movie!

I don't think I've seen it since it came out in theaters. I've seen bits and pieces on TV but it's the sort of movie that is more visually stunning on the big screen so I kinda lost interest. But definitely see it before you go!

Ooh, I'll be excited to hear about this! We loved our Wishes dessert party last year, but I think they upped the price yet again after last summer, so I've been hesitant to book it again. We debated doing it for this trip since it's my in-laws' anniversary, but we booked Tusker House instead So excited for the new show! I can't wait

Enjoy Tusker!! I'll definitely let you know how HEA dessert party is.

Seems like you can hang out basically as long as you want from what I've read - I'm kind of hoping this means we'll be able to grab a snack or dinner at the canteen during our preview since it starts after lunch. But it depends on how much we want to hang around Pandora

Yeah I am not sure how long everything is going to take but as long as we can cover the 2 rides, get some food, and browse the shops and take some pictures of the land, I'm good

Yay! We'll have to play it by ear - I know we want to catch Happily Ever After at least once, and maybe try to hop for the fireworks. But otherwise it sounds like we both had brunch plans so Sunday Epcot meet should work well either way

Yay!! See you this weekend!

So soon! Have a great trip!

Thank you!!! It's gonna be like deja vu!

Okay so the Wishes dessert party had all kinds of non alcoholic beverages and milk which I thought was nice since the HS one only had milk for coffee and I like milk with chocolate. They had the area we were in which had dark chocolate covered strawberries, strawberry tarts, brownie cheesecake things, mickey oreo tarts, red velvet HEA cupcakes, assorted macarons, a pineapple upside down cake type thing, a villains chocolate cupcake (which was my favorite I think it was actually a really good cupcake). I'm going by pictures and I think that was it there. In the other room for it near the bathrooms there were cheese cubes of different types, sugar cookies, make your own sundaes, and some other design your own cupcake type thing. The desserts were better than when we did the Hallowishes one, and I would say close to what we had at SW. Josh got a very nice GF plate there which never happens at dessert parties it's usually all prepackaged stuff that's just okay. There definitely wasn't that one big "had to have" item like the bread pudding and nutella stuff at SW, but the desserts were better than I thought.

Can't wait!!!!

We normally do this, but this last trip we ended up leaving 3 hours early because we were ready to go and just sitting in the lobby doing nothing (we couldn't get on ME last minute so they got us a complimentary taxi which was really nice because it was kind of our fault for not booking ME because we don't usually use it). I would normally vote for Ubering over, but we actually just barely made it through the airport with enough time to eat something quick before the flight because it was really busy and we ended up stuck in traffic for awhile.

Yeah I figure it will be more crowded this weekend than 2 weeks ago so I should just play it safe.

Have an amazing weekend!! Looks like we'll just miss each other at Epcot tomorrow. Hopefully I'll catch you for a meet in August

Have a great time! And August for sure!

That's a fabulous idea!

I knew you'd approve!

I'm so excited to hear about this! I bet it'll be magical

I hope so!!!

Thank you Tracy!!!



Have a wonderful, wonderful time!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[soniam]

Nice! Volcano Bay looks awesome. I'm not a water park person but if I were Volcano Bay would be #1 on my list. Have a great trip! BTW I booked MNSSHP for Nov 1st too.
Did you hear the whole fiasco where they decided to not open a bunch of big ticket rides for the party? 7DMT was not on the list but I think after the uproar they added it back. BTMRR and Jungle Cruise still not on the list of open attractions. Seriously though, I am annoyed they tell us this AFTER we bought tickets.

I am not a huge water park person either. We live about an hour away from the original Schlitterbahn, and we have only been once My son, on the other hand, loves swimming and water parks. Since this trip is for his elementary school graduation, I thought it would be mean to not go. So, we are going.

Cool! We can meet up at the party. I read about some of that not being open during the party. I didn't even think about it when I bought the tickets. I had just assumed that almost everything would be open. 7DMT was added back, but BTMRR and JC are still not listed on the Disney website as being open during the party. That's pretty annoying and cheap, in my opinion. We will be at MK earlier that day, so I guess I will book FP+ for those. That's a bummer too, because I like to ride JC at night.

 

[Neverland_Girl]

I have booked us the Fireworks Dessert Party for Happily Ever After with Plaza Garden Viewing. Sooooo excited to watch this show first hand. I saw the live stream on the Disney Parks Blog and I was hooked. I mean, yes Wishes was great but this looks amazing, one of those shows that probably you have to experience with a good view at least once so I jumped at the opportunity to do the dessert party. Never done the Wishes one before.

I watched the live stream and I feel like you need to have a really good view for this show, so the dessert party is probably a good idea. I can't wait to hear your thoughts about it.

 

[soniam]

I am not a huge water park person either. We live about an hour away from the original Schlitterbahn, and we have only been once My son, on the other hand, loves swimming and water parks. Since this trip is for his elementary school graduation, I thought it would be mean to not go. So, we are going.

Cool! We can meet up at the party. I read about some of that not being open during the party. I didn't even think about it when I bought the tickets. I had just assumed that almost everything would be open. 7DMT was added back, but BTMRR and JC are still not listed on the Disney website as being open during the party. That's pretty annoying and cheap, in my opinion. We will be at MK earlier that day, so I guess I will book FP+ for those. That's a bummer too, because I like to ride JC at night.

They just added 7DMT and BMTRR to the list!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Su-Lynn! Have another great trip!!!

 

[reelmom]

I just saw a tweet from TouringPlans and there is a picture of y'all waiting in line to be let into Pandora. Hope you are having a wonderful time.

 

[krrrristen]

I have been SO lousy on here with a ton of stuff going on at work. I work at a university doing admin stuff, but I got the opportunity to teach online this year for some extra money. Well, teaching last semester kicked my butt (and I've been doing it again in a shorter time period this May, ack!). But! I am back and can finally get caught up on everything I looked for you as we were leaving Pandora (we were there for about 3.5 hours, after getting in early and moseying on out slowly) but didn't see you guys We had a blast, hope you guys did too! And I can't wait to hear how the Happily Ever After Dessert Party was. We are debating between that and the Star Wars Dessert Party for our (newly planned, as of this morning) short July trip!

 

[ArielSRL]

I just saw a tweet from TouringPlans and there is a picture of y'all waiting in line to be let into Pandora. Hope you are having a wonderful time.

I just went and saw it! So cool! You two are famous!

Plans look good! I can't wait to read about it...well if it gets posted before we leave in 12.5 days! I did see your Dessert Party post. I'm hoping it was just an off night as I have seen a few good reviews here on the Dis.

Anyway, safe travels home!