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

[KathyM2]

Thanks! Although I'm not looking forward to touring the parks in the heat again. Must try and take more breaks, but we're there for such a short time I want to pack it all in and do it all over again, ya know?

Yeah I totally get that, it would be hard to not want to get another fix of all the fun things lol. But Food and Wine ))

 

[bcwife76]

Followed your trip on Instagram, looked like it went fabulously!!!

 

[ONUAtrain]

It was exhausting but fun at the same time, ya know? I think I was most exhausted because I was the tour guide pretty much every day. No one had to open a map!!
Thanks! I'm looking forward to it, but also can't believe I'm doing it all over again...the heat, the humidity, the rain...what was I thinking!

I can only imagine. We are going out to California to visit family but I convinced my wife to spend some time in Disneyland. Between 2 days I think we will only have ~8 hours of park time, she thinks I'm crazy. But at least I get a little Disney Magic with a Canadian Cruise at the end of September!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Yeah I totally get that, it would be hard to not want to get another fix of all the fun things lol. But Food and Wine ))

Yes! Food and Wine! I need it all!

Followed your trip on Instagram, looked like it went fabulously!!!

Thank you! It was hard to take and post pictures. My sister posted a little more. We were all juggling something, holding a kid, someone's bag, or helping with the strollers. It was definitely a different sort of trip that I was used to!

I can only imagine. We are going out to California to visit family but I convinced my wife to spend some time in Disneyland. Between 2 days I think we will only have ~8 hours of park time, she thinks I'm crazy. But at least I get a little Disney Magic with a Canadian Cruise at the end of September!

Any plan that involves a detour to Disneyland is a good plan! I'd have done the same thing.
That's awesome! We're probably on a similar cruise as ours is at the end of October also going to Canada. Let me know how it is!

 

[franandaj]

What a great family picture!

 

[DisneyKates]

First - I hope your family trip was wonderful. Second - OMG! How did I not realize that we were going to be at WDW at the same time? Your TRs give me so much joy that this is pretty much like discovering a favorite celebrity will be in the same palace at the same time!

We are going for a week from Nov 4-12 to celebrate my partner's 35th and our son's 5th birthdays ('cause 9 days is legit a week in WDW, right?). We arrive on the 4th and will be spending the afternoon with my partner's family (they live in FL) outside of the parks. On the 5th I think the plan is to explore Pandora in the AM and head to Epcot to use our FP/+ and watch IllumniNations in the afternoon/evening. If I wasn't working full time, and trying to finish a doctorate while raising a kiddo I'd write a PTR. Unfortunately I think I am relegated to lurking. #Dr.schoolproblems #youmakeyourbedyoulieinit....

Can't wait to read the trip report from August!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi everyone! Here's my new TR Link for our August trip!

OHANA means CHUNKY! August 2017 Family Trip Report

Hope to see you there!

 

[chunkymonkey]

What a great family picture!

Thank you!!

First - I hope your family trip was wonderful. Second - OMG! How did I not realize that we were going to be at WDW at the same time? Your TRs give me so much joy that this is pretty much like discovering a favorite celebrity will be in the same palace at the same time!

Thank you! It was a crazy whirlwind of a trip that is for sure, but it was fun!
Aww, thank you, that is so sweet! Please PM me if you'd like to meet up! I am going to post soon a schedule of our fall trip. It's changed a little because they got rid of express bus, waaaah.

We are going for a week from Nov 4-12 to celebrate my partner's 35th and our son's 5th birthdays ('cause 9 days is legit a week in WDW, right?). We arrive on the 4th and will be spending the afternoon with my partner's family (they live in FL) outside of the parks. On the 5th I think the plan is to explore Pandora in the AM and head to Epcot to use our FP/+ and watch IllumniNations in the afternoon/evening. If I wasn't working full time, and trying to finish a doctorate while raising a kiddo I'd write a PTR. Unfortunately I think I am relegated to lurking. #Dr.schoolproblems #youmakeyourbedyoulieinit....

I'll definitely be around Nov 4-6th (I added a day), and yes we'll be in Epcot the afternoon of the 5th. We have dinner at Yachtsman but we're headed to the Wine and Dine Post-Race party that night at Epcot which is from park close until I think 1am. It's open to the public so anyone can buy tickets on the Run Disney website.

Hope we get a chance to meet up!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Now that we’re back from our August trip, I have a new-found energy to tweak our plans for the fall!

PTR Update 8/22 - Sept and Oct/Nov Plans​

First off, I wanted to say, RIP Express Bus Transportation. You were our source of unlimited park hopping for our past 3 trips and now we are spoiled. We were even able to to do the Four Parks One Day challenge last weekend on Photopass Day - not that it really is much of a challenge with the Express Bus. Because of this I had to re-think the park hopping on future trips.

Sept 1st -5th at Universal Royal Pacific and Yacht Club

Sept 1-3rd we will be at Universal Royal Pacific resort. We don't have any plans other than to be at the Orlando Informer Meetup on the night of the 2nd, so we'll just wing it at the parks most of the other days, haha. It's actually kinda refreshing to not have to think about every little detail. Since we already have the event at night, which includes unlimited butter beer and access to all the HP rides and areas, we won't have to go super early to the parks to ride all the HP stuff during the day which frees us up to ride everything else. So I'm hoping to take it "easy" a little and get in some pool time as well.

Evening of Sept 3rd - After our second day at Universal we will Uber it over to the Yacht Club. Not sure what time we will get there but probably sometime in the evening. I am thinking like 6pm. I switched my FP+ from MK to Epcot just because it seemed too hectic to check-in at YC and then bus it over to MK. Instead, I thought we'd walk over to Epcot, have dinner at the Food n Wine booths, catch a few FP+ (I have LWTL, SE and Soarin') and then watch Illuminations. Sounds like the better plan to me. If any of you are around this evening let me know. My friend Betsy @tankgirl427 will also be there so hopefully we will meet up then. Then maybe, if the pool is open late, a late night dip in SAB sounds pretty heavenly.

Sept 4th - We have morning FP+ at DHS. I somehow missed the photo ops with the SW characters last week as the lines got kinda long so maybe we'll do those again on this trip. I initially had a lunch at Sci Fi but I had to cancel as it was cutting it close to our Wine Tasting back at Epcot, and now with no Express Bus we would have never made it in time. So we'll just head to Epcot for lunch and eat at more booths around the world before our 3:30pm wine tasting at Festival Center. That will end close to 4:15 or so. After that we will hop over to the Grand Floridian for an early dinner at Citrico's. AP holders get 30% off! That's really cool and I totally wanted to take advantage of it before it expires at the end of Sept. If we eat quickly enough we can monorail or ferry it over to MK in time for Happily Ever After!

Sept 5th - We have morning FP+ at Epcot and will spend the rest of the day there until our flight leaves at around 8:45pm. We'll have all day to munch around the world! I assume ME will pick us up super early at like 5pm. And that's the end of our quickie Sept trip!

Oct 30-Nov 6th Studio Villa at Grand Floridian and WDW Swan

I have decided to add an extra day to our trip, Nov 6th. This is because the flight on the night of Nov 5th back home was insanely expensive. It's like everyone was heading back to NJ on that day, which is so weird as I was assuming many people are heading out of EWR (it's the start of what they call "Jersey Week" when kids are off from school and everyone heads to WDW). So I booked another night at the Swan and now we're staying until the afternoon of the 6th! I saved about 300 dollars for the both of us that way, and I’d rather put that money on an extra night at Disney

Because of no more express bus, I have modified our plans somewhat.

Oct 30th - Our flight arrives early, around 9:20am and we will take ME to GF. I don’t have plans for today yet. Will probably head to Epcot first, hoping for a DISmeet with @franandaj and we will probably just eat at the F&W booths. We’ll head back to the GF in the afternoon/early evening and hopefully we will get all our stuff in our room by then, rest up a bit and head out to MK to watch HEA and stay until EMH ends at 11pm. Not sure what to do for dinner yet.

Oct 31st – We have a PPO breakfast at 8:15am at BoG. This is one of the few ADRs I really wanted and one that I have kept since originally making them 180 days out. We’ll have the morning doing rides on standby at MK, then head over to Epcot in time for our 1:30pm Wine Tasting seminar. Then we have the evening free at Epcot, not sure we are going to park hop again. I do have a dinner ADR at Citricos but it is early and I am not sure I want to rush back so soon after hoping to Epcot. Maybe this would be a good night to go to Disney Springs instead. Since MK is closed early for the Halloween party we won’t be hopping there. Maybe we’ll head to DHS to watch the SW fireworks instead. I’ll keep our options open.

Nov 1st – This is our anniversary! I decided this will be a non-park day and we’ll head to the Senses Spa at the GF for some massages then relax by the pool. I think we’ll need this day to do just that before our MNSSHP that night. Right now I have both breakfast and early dinner ADRs at GF Café booked. I do want to eat both meals there it’s just that I’m not sure I want to do them on the same day, I don’t really have much choice to move them around though as our mornings are pretty full on this trip. Another option is to get an ADR at MK before the Halloween party but so far nothing is really tempting me. Maybe Skipper Canteen. They seem to have changed the menu since I was last there and it looks better than what we had last year. We’ll see. I’d rather just change into our costumes and head straight to MK as the party is about to start and not have to eat dinner. DISmeets tonight with @soniam and hopefully @Nhebron. Anyone else going to be there?

Nov 2nd – Today is our AK day. I hope to get FP for FoP. We’ll probably eat breakfast at the GF or maybe in Pandora. The last time I went, we got there too late for breakfast at Satuli and it was something I was interested in trying. But it depends on how late our night before is at MNSSHP. I was going to do lunch at Tiffins today but I also managed to snag a late lunch ADR at The Plaza which was hard to come by this week. It looks like that may not work with our plans because we also need to get to ESPN Wide World of Sports to pick up our 5k Race Bibs and to hop from AK to MK then to WWoS may just take up to much time. Maybe today will be the day for dinner at GF Café before retiring to bed.

Nov 3rd – Today is race day! I think they moved up the race from 6am to 5:30am. Blech. So we’ll just have to do our 4am wakeup call, get ready and head to the corrals. I’m not even sure where the corrals are this year but I think the race goes through AK which will be really cool. After the race, I don’t have anything planned. I made the mistake earlier this year on making breakfast plans after the Princess 5k but we ended up sleeping instead. So I will not make any plans until the afternoon today, probably will just go to MK and have quick service for lunch because that evening is our dinner at Victoria and Alberts (with @soniam!). This dinner is a special one they are having for the Food and Wine festival. I think because this dinner is the focal point of the trip that I've been ho hum about all the other ADRs I've made. It’s all just filler for the main event, right? J

Nov 4th – We have breakfast at 1900 Park Fare, then we’ll have to check out of the GF and move over to the Swan. I think we’ll try and take a Minnie Van if it’s offered or else we’ll have Disney move our luggage and we will head over to DHS. I plan to have some morning FPs here, and then have an evening at Epcot with the Food n Wine booths and to watch Illuminations. Hoping to meet up with @kastoney today if not over the next few days!

Nov 5th – Our morning is open but I will probably make FP for Epcot. Then at noon we have the French Family Lunch at Monsieur Paul. Really looking forward to this! Maybe we’ll get to meet up with @Jenny Sanders and who ever else is in the park at the same time! We’ll probably spend some time at the pool at the Swolphin after lunch then head over to the Yacht Club for our dinner with Betsy (@tankgirl427) and friends at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Yum yum. Our evening ends with the Food and Wine Post-Race Party at Epcot unil 1am! I’m so excited as initially we were supposed to leave today so this wasn’t on the cards, but now it is. I purchased our party tickets yesterday, yay! @soniam - you will be here too, right?

Nov 6th - Our last day, boo. I don’t have plans today but we’ll probably do Epcot again since it’ll be the last time we'll get to experience Food and Wine for a while. Our flight is at 4:30pm but since we’re at the Swan we won’t have Magical Express so we’re gonna just Uber it to the airport maybe around 2pm.

And that’s the plan so far! I still want to tweak around with the ADRs for Oct/Nov. I’m not 100% into what I have so far but it’s kinda too late to get anything really good like Ohana or Be Our Guest. I’ll use the TP ressie finder and see what we get…

Sorry for the long-winded post, just had to get my thoughts out there before my latest TR takes over my life!

 

[KathyM2]

Orlando Informer Meetup

This sounds super cool!!!

which includes unlimited butter beer and access to all the HP rides and areas

Man...I would love to go to this event...those are the only things I want to do at Universal anyway!!

Instead, I thought we'd walk over to Epcot, have dinner at the Food n Wine booths, catch a few FP+ (I have LWTL, SE and Soarin') and then watch Illuminations.

Sounds like a perfect day and a much better pace than trying to rush over to MK.

And that's the end of our quickie Sept trip!

That sure is a quickie!!

We have a PPO breakfast at 8:15am at BoG.

You are a lucky duck!! You will get lots of empty park pics and prime rides as well )

Maybe this would be a good night to go to Disney Springs instead.

If you are interested, we really liked the Polite Pig. It's QS but good food.

I also managed to snag a late lunch ADR at The Plaza which was hard to come by this week.

Again...lucky...and another place I really never took notice of and now all of a sudden their ADR's seem hard to get...hmmm I wonder if that is the Dis' fault lol

ESPN Wide World of Sports to pick up our 5k Race Bibs

So excited for you doing another race. One day I will do one of these. Trying to think how and when I can make it happen. Doing a half in Vegas in Nov so not then...but...scheming for spring maybe lol

I think they moved up the race from 6am to 5:30am

You will be thankful for that if it's cooler out...and then you can also take a nap and still have a lot of the day ahead of you!

 

[soniam]

Nov 5th – Our morning is open but I will probably make FP for Epcot. Then at noon we have the French Family Lunch at Monsieur Paul. Really looking forward to this! Maybe we’ll get to meet up with @Jenny Sanders and who ever else is in the park at the same time! We’ll probably spend some time at the pool at the Swolphin after lunch then head over to the Yacht Club for our dinner with Betsy (@tankgirl427) and friends at Yachtsman Steakhouse. Yum yum. Our evening ends with the Food and Wine Post-Race Party at Epcot unil 1am! I’m so excited as initially we were supposed to leave today so this wasn’t on the cards, but now it is. I purchased our party tickets yesterday, yay! @soniam - you will be here too, right?

Yep We will be at MNSSHP on 11/1. I will be doing the 5K. We are still doing V&A on 11/3. Really looking forward to this. I could use this right now We will also be at the post-race party on 11/5. We leave late on Monday. I have been setting up my Touring Plans getting ready for FP+ selection on 9/1. The party day has been hard to plan. I might end up ditching some of our MK plans for before dinner 4pm @ Ohana and after dinner before the party starts, especially since we have another day at MK. I'm leaving a lot of space for just hanging out at Epcot and noshing on food and drink.

 

[chunkymonkey]

UPDATE TO SEPT TRIP: Hope to have DISMeets with: @dolewhipdreams, @dizneeat, @DLo and @cinderkelly a some point during this trip!

UPDATE TO OCT/NOV TRIP: @ariane37 will be there too! Hope we get to meet up since we didn't get to in August!

 

[ariane37]

UPDATE TO OCT/NOV TRIP: @ariane37 will be there too! Hope we get to meet up since we didn't get to in August!

Whoo!!! We'll definitely make it happen!! We get in at 6pm on the 4th so I think we'll just do dinner, probably at Yachtsman. I don't really have any plans as of yet except I know we'll do Citricos at some point. I'm waiting to work some meet ups out with Kari @kastoney but I know we'll be in Epcot a lot too. Can't wait to see you guys again FOR SURE this time

 

[cinderkelly]

Any set plans yet for the 4th and 5th? We will be at MK all day on the 4th and have a late Ohana dinner that night. Maybe going to try to go to the Top of the World lounge that night? Then we are doing EMM Tuesady morning before we have to be on the bus around 1:30.

It's just Bob, Kiya and I this trip.

Edited to add... Whoops! Guess I should have read your previous post first! durp.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Man...I would love to go to this event...those are the only things I want to do at Universal anyway!!

Haha you and me both, although I did like some other rides...they have that cute Dr. Seuss version of the people mover that I liked!

Sounds like a perfect day and a much better pace than trying to rush over to MK.

Yeah...sometimes I wonder what I was thinking when I make these plans. I yes, I made them BEFORE our August trip and now I'm like, yeah let's just keep it simple!

You are a lucky duck!! You will get lots of empty park pics and prime rides as well )

Haha it will be semi-empty with all the people there for the opening show. I have yet to see this show.

If you are interested, we really liked the Polite Pig. It's QS but good food.

Cool! Thanks for the rec! We passed by this when we were in DS!

Again...lucky...and another place I really never took notice of and now all of a sudden their ADR's seem hard to get...hmmm I wonder if that is the Dis' fault lol

Haha I blame it on @ariane37 who inspired me and when I saw the picture for the fried green tomato sandwich I was sold. It looks better than the one from Disneyland!

So excited for you doing another race. One day I will do one of these. Trying to think how and when I can make it happen. Doing a half in Vegas in Nov so not then...but...scheming for spring maybe lol

Haha I think this may be our last one for a while, I mean they are fun but they really take up so much time away from the parks, and I'm such a park person. At least we get to run through them. I am thinking you need to do a race as it is totally up your alley!

You will be thankful for that if it's cooler out...and then you can also take a nap and still have a lot of the day ahead of you!

Yeah probably. I hope it's good weather!

Yep We will be at MNSSHP on 11/1. I will be doing the 5K. We are still doing V&A on 11/3. Really looking forward to this. I could use this right now We will also be at the post-race party on 11/5. We leave late on Monday. I have been setting up my Touring Plans getting ready for FP+ selection on 9/1. The party day has been hard to plan. I might end up ditching some of our MK plans for before dinner 4pm @ Ohana and after dinner before the party starts, especially since we have another day at MK. I'm leaving a lot of space for just hanging out at Epcot and noshing on food and drink.

Yay! We will have plenty of chances to meet again!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Whoo!!! We'll definitely make it happen!! We get in at 6pm on the 4th so I think we'll just do dinner, probably at Yachtsman. I don't really have any plans as of yet except I know we'll do Citricos at some point. I'm waiting to work some meet ups out with Kari @kastoney but I know we'll be in Epcot a lot too. Can't wait to see you guys again FOR SURE this time

Yes! We'll make it happen! And it'll be fun if we meet with Kari too!

Any set plans yet for the 4th and 5th? We will be at MK all day on the 4th and have a late Ohana dinner that night. Maybe going to try to go to the Top of the World lounge that night? Then we are doing EMM Tuesady morning before we have to be on the bus around 1:30.

It's just Bob, Kiya and I this trip.

Edited to add... Whoops! Guess I should have read your previous post first! durp.

Ooh what time is your dinner at Ohana? I kinda wanted to eat there again but of course there isn't anything left, LOL.
Dammit if only express bus was still around I could easily have come meet you in MK after our wine tasting and before our early dinner. How late are you staying in MK that day?
What are you guys doing the night of the 3rd? Any chance you'll be in Epcot?

 

[kastoney]

So jealous you have not 1, but 2 trips coming up!!!! But at least i'll be there for one of them We've made zip, zero, zilch plans so far but at least we finally got our tickets this week so progress, right? With FP day around the corner I better get on the ball. Will be sure to let you know what our plans are so we can figure out the best time to meet.

 

[cinderkelly]

Ooh what time is your dinner at Ohana? I kinda wanted to eat there again but of course there isn't anything left, LOL.
Dammit if only express bus was still around I could easily have come meet you in MK after our wine tasting and before our early dinner. How late are you staying in MK that day?
What are you guys doing the night of the 3rd? Any chance you'll be in Epcot?

Our dinner at Ohana is @9:20. I just grabbed it a couple of days ago. We wil most likely be at MK until 8:30 or so I'd assume.

I know, damn express bus! I'm still super bummed it went away.

I think the 3rd is going to be kinda busy, we are doing EMH at HS then going to Epcot for the early afternoon, maybe back to POR for an afternoon swim and perhaps trying to squeeze in AK before it closes.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Nov 5th – Our morning is open but I will probably make FP for Epcot. Then at noon we have the French Family Lunch at Monsieur Paul. Really looking forward to this! Maybe we’ll get to meet up with @Jenny Sanders and who ever else is in the park at the same time!

We actually arrive on the 5th (late morning), and no plans for EPCOT...
Perhaps a meet up sometime in the morning???? We will be at MK on the 6th (all day)...

 

[KathyM2]

I am thinking you need to do a race as it is totally up your alley!

I really would like to do a 10K or half there...just have to figure out how to make it happen..I wish they didn't sell out so early..