Dear Santa, I'd like a double-deluxe Disney Xmas!! Dec'12 PTR! Upd 1/20 TR & DR links

[debrapagliasotti]

So, tonight has been "research night". Been looking at menus (didnt I JUST do this??!!) for the add on nights at CR and trying to come up with a plan. Didnt want to do anything where we had to leave MK area as I want these last few days of the trip to be relaxing.

What I have figured...now that HDDR is non-rehab for Dec and we will be at CR, I figure this is a good opportunity to get there. We can take the boat from CR to FW.

Dec 28 -
dinner HDDR (hopefully 615 show as we would have time to get back to CR to see Wishes from our balcony)

Dec 29 -
lunch Kona
dinner Narcoossee's

Dec 30 -
bkfst Chef Mickey, 1900 PF or Ohana. Thats the order I would book them in.
lunch will be QS at CR

My ADR date for this package is July 1, so I still have some time, but I dont plan on changing anything (ok, dont hold me to that...)

*******************************************

Research has been in full force tonight regarding next Oct 2013 trip. I talked to WDW Travel Co today and got the "sometime between July and Aug will packages be available" line, yeah, yeah, I know...heard the same thing last year when I was getting ready to book this trip.

We would do 2 days at Epcot for F&W and 1 or 2 days at MK & MNSSHP. No AK, No HS.

So, trying to find a hotel at MK or Epcot without having to sell a vital organ after this trip.

AK - Out b/c of location. Hate the idea of busses everywhere.

Beach Club - Oh how I would love to stay here, but I cant justify the cost since we would have to be in a 2 bdrm suite CL...although the kids would love Stormalong Bay...ahh, one day!

Boardwalk - We will be staying here in Dec in a Dlx CL room. The location is great for walking to Epcot, but we would still have to bus to MK. Possibility.

CR - We will outgrow the regular tower rooms this year, so our options become limited AND expensive here. 1 bdrm suites in tower or 1 bedroom suite in garden wing. Tower suites...too much to spend, Garden Wing suite...still pretty costly. But, the location...PRIME!!

GF - Several 1 bdrm CL suites, fairly costly. Love the monorail location, but I dont love the cost for these rooms.

Poly - 2bdrm CL suite...too much to spend.

WL - Dlx CL room. Least expensive option to have us all in 1 room. The hotel is beautiful. Boat to MK. Definately a top contender.

YC - 2 bdrm CL suite...too much to spend.

So, in the end, it looks like we will be going with either WL or BW, either way would be a Deluxe CL room. I will be super happy with either of those and in the end I will let DH decide which he would rather to.

*****************************************

CP packages go on sale on Tuesday, so once that is set I will begin updates on our days at WDW.







​

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Heard from BW IPO this morning. They were able to secure our T-Rex ADR.

Now just waiting for our booking window to open up for those last few days of the trip. Still have a week to go for those. I wasnt originally planning on an ADR on the evening of the 28th, but now am, so my date is now next Sunday, July 1. I guess when I figured it the first time, I went by the 29th

Updated the list last night. We are trying for HDDR, Kona lunch, Narcoossee's, and either Chef Mickey, 1900 PF or Ohana bkfst.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Candlelight Processional bookings started today. I heard from IPO this morning and we got our 1st choice

Our booking is set for Dec 19, 815pm show, TBA narrarator. Dining at La Hacienda de San Angel @ 5pm.

So happy we got our first choice
​

 

[JoshAndEvsMom]

Candlelight Processional bookings started today. I heard from IPO this morning and we got our 1st choice

Our booking is set for Dec 19, 815pm show, TBA narrarator. Dining at La Hacienda de San Angel @ 5pm.

So happy we got our first choice
​

Sounds fun! So glad you got your first choice!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Sounds fun! So glad you got your first choice!

Thanks! We have never been to Candlelight Processional (never been to WDW during the holidays) so we knew we definately wanted to see this show. We also have never eaten at La Hacienda, so I am excited to try the menu.

 

[WDWCP96]

When we stayed at Boardwalk last June we never took the bus to MK. We just walked over to Epcot and took the monorail. I refuse to take the bus unless absolutely necessary!

I am contemplating the CP but not sure since we really want to try to get into Be Our Guest.

I loved the HDDR, we had so much fun! I hope we can do it again on our next trip.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

I guess now is as good of time as any to start with day to day plans. Since there have been a few changes in the planning world, I am going to start back at the beginning.

Pre-arrival day, Dec 17

All the week prior I will be doing tons of packing . DH has to work this day, and the kids have school , so we will plan on making the drive to the airport after they are all done for the day.

Originally, we wanted to fly out of our closest airport, which is an hour away. We had planned on spending the night close to the airport and flying our the next morning. Once SW released their fares for Dec, we quickly realized it would be quite a bit cheaper for us to fly out of a bigger airport about 4 1/2 hrs from us, no big deal, we actually have family nearby, so we can either stay with them or stay in a hotel near that airport.

So, we will make the 4 1/2 hr drive and settle in early for a long day tomorrow.

Arrival day, Dec 18

We are booked on a flight departing at 840am. We have to change planes somewhere (Austin...New Orleans...cant remember) and we arrive into MCO at 215pm. We will grab something to eat at Chic-Fil-A at the airport and head over to Magic Express counter (food in hand...no time to waste!!). We will eat our food while waiting in line for ME or while on ME. We should be at BWI by 415pm (hoping for earlier than that!) and we will be taken upstairs to the CL lounge to check in and get our KTTW cards. We will go check out our room BRIEFLY and head over to MK (after stopping by Bell Desk and getting our stroller rental).

Cant wait to get to our "home" for the next 10 nights!!

Tonight is MVMCP!!!

This will be our first time to attend a hard-ticket event at WDW. The older kids are super excited about MVMCP as are DH and I.

This past Jan, DH was at a meeting in Indianapolis for a committee he is on. One of the ladies on that committee started talking to him about WDW b/c she remembered we had a trip planned there over Christmas. She started talking about MVMCP and how great it was (she and her family go every year) and that we really needed to go if it was offered during our dates. DH was so excited about this party and thats when we initially made the change of our dates and added 2 extra days at the beginning of the trip in hopes of catching the last party.

Anyways, back to the party planning...

Our MUST DO items for this night...
Christmas parade
Holiday Wishes
Seeing the faux-snow on Main Street
Enjoy some "free" cookies and hot cocoa
Mickey & Minnie in holiday clothes
Castle lighting (even though this is before the party...still a must do)

Other things we would LIKE TO DO...
Dance party (little boys would love this)

Things we will PASS on...
7 Dwarves

I cant wait to see this beautiful sight...

The parade looks amazing!!

And Holiday Wishes...EEK!!!! I love MK fireworks!

I need to get a new camera before this trip. I have a feeling there will be LOTS of pictures being taken!

I am hoping to stay the whole party. I know the little boys will fall asleep in their stroller. We will head back to the hotel and I'm sure everyone will fall asleep quickly. I probably wont even unpack until the next morning!

Hoping for a good nights sleep because we have a full day tomorrow at Epcot!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

When we stayed at Boardwalk last June we never took the bus to MK. We just walked over to Epcot and took the monorail. I refuse to take the bus unless absolutely necessary!

I am contemplating the CP but not sure since we really want to try to get into Be Our Guest.

I loved the HDDR, we had so much fun! I hope we can do it again on our next trip.

Did you like BW? This will be our 1st time staying there, but I have heard so many good things about it.

We have a few times where we will be coming from MK and will definately take the monorail to Epcot and walk through IG back to the hotel now that we switched over to Park Hoppers.

I had considered BOG, but the menu preview I saw yesterday, nothing was jumping out at me, so I think we will stay put with what we have for ADRs and maybe give it a try next fall.

HDDR looks super fun. What category were you seated in? Seems like I read good and bad stuff about all the categories. We are paying OOP for it since we will just be doing room only for the last part of the trip at CR.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

DH found out this past week that he will be teaching a mini-semester in late December between Fall and Spring semesters. It is a web based class, but he will need to have constant access to the internet. So, we decided to drop the 2 additonal nights at CR since we all know how spotty internet service can be at WDW, especially during a super busy time of year. So, we are just back to the original plan of 10 nights at BWI. I actually dont feel upset about the loss of 2 more nights at CR. I think for us, switching resorts would have been a big hassle.

I booked our return flight this afternoon. We fly out at 7pm, so we should expect a pick up for ME around 4pm. That will still give us time to go eat an early lunch and have a few hours to spare. So, all flights are booked and early bird check in has been booked for both.

We also decided that we are going to send the little boys to Sand Castle Club at Beach Club on our Candlelight Processional night. There is no way they will sit happily and QUIETLY for almost an hour. Trust me, everyone at CP will be happy we made this decision. I talked to IPO this morning and they booked the little boys for Sand Castle for that night. We will drop them off before our CP dinner and then pick them up after Illuminations that night.

I will update May and June movie nights in the next day or so.


​

 

[WDWCP96]

Did you like BW? This will be our 1st time staying there, but I have heard so many good things about it.

We have a few times where we will be coming from MK and will definately take the monorail to Epcot and walk through IG back to the hotel now that we switched over to Park Hoppers.

I had considered BOG, but the menu preview I saw yesterday, nothing was jumping out at me, so I think we will stay put with what we have for ADRs and maybe give it a try next fall.

HDDR looks super fun. What category were you seated in? Seems like I read good and bad stuff about all the categories. We are paying OOP for it since we will just be doing room only for the last part of the trip at CR.

We definitely did like BW. It was really nice. The only downside for us was that we were kind of far from the elevator so at night when my oldest would fall asleep in the car on the way back from the parks carrying him down the hall was hard.

When we went to HDDR we were actually seated in category 1 but when we do it next summer we will most likely go with category 2 because it was really loud being that close to the stage. Since you are paying OOP I would go with category 2 or even 3 if you can guarantee you are seated closest to the railing so you can see. It is a really fun show though and definitely worth seeing.

Yeah we might just do counter service at BOG depending on availability.

For our trip we are doing one night at AKV and I am nervous about switching resorts since it looks like we won't have our own car.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Packages for 2013 go on sale on July 11 .

DH and I discussed it, and we had it narrowed down to BW or WL, in the end he wanted to do WL for something different. So, thats the direction we are going with for Oct 2013, WL CL Dlx room.

Looks like we will be staying 5 nights, 2 days at F&W, 2 days at MK & MNSSHP, some swim time.

I will be booking 4 day tickets and regular dining plan.

**************

167 days until Christmas at WDW




​

 

[debrapagliasotti]

We definitely did like BW. It was really nice. The only downside for us was that we were kind of far from the elevator so at night when my oldest would fall asleep in the car on the way back from the parks carrying him down the hall was hard.

When we went to HDDR we were actually seated in category 1 but when we do it next summer we will most likely go with category 2 because it was really loud being that close to the stage. Since you are paying OOP I would go with category 2 or even 3 if you can guarantee you are seated closest to the railing so you can see. It is a really fun show though and definitely worth seeing.

Yeah we might just do counter service at BOG depending on availability.

For our trip we are doing one night at AKV and I am nervous about switching resorts since it looks like we won't have our own car.

We ended up calling off the 2 extra nights at the end of our trip in Dec, but I definately would still like to do HDDR next year when we go back in Oct.

I have heard the hallways are quite long at BW!!

 

[DsnyMama]

Packages for 2013 go on sale on July 11 .

DH and I discussed it, and we had it narrowed down to BW or WL, in the end he wanted to do WL for something different. So, thats the direction we are going with for Oct 2013, WL CL Dlx room.

Looks like we will be staying 5 nights, 2 days at F&W, 2 days at MK & MNSSHP, some swim time.

I will be booking 4 day tickets and regular dining plan.

**************

167 days until Christmas at WDW




​

Looks like a GREAT plan!!!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Looks like a GREAT plan!!!

Thank you! Just waiting until I book it next week before I add my new ticker

 

[debrapagliasotti]

May & June dinner and Disney movie nights.

May 11 - Finding Nemo (Hunter's pick) - Baked fish, shrimp poppers, SHELLS and cheese, steamed broccoli (algae), Ocean water (blue raspberry Kool-Aid), Ocean water dessert (blue Jello with sweedish fish)

May 25 - 101 Dalmations - Chili dogs, macaroni and cheese, chocolate chip cookies (dalmation spots)

June 8 - Enchanted (Harper's pick) - Homemade chicken pot pie, salad, chocolate chip cookies

June 15 - Apple Dumpling Gang (DH pick) - Prospectors chili, gold nugget cornbread, apple turnovers

June 22 - Monster's Inc. (my pick) - Mike's mini meatloaf muffins, I have my EYE on Celia's carrots, Roz's CDA corn bites, Boo-berry muffins, Sully's scary-silly cherry Kool-Aid with Yeti's lemon yellow ice cubes, Randall's disappearing Oreo's

After the movie, we watched one of the bonus features on the DVD which was monster orientation as if though it was our first day on the job.

​

 

[JoshAndEvsMom]

Your plan for October 2013 sounds so fun! It actually sounds like it could be a relaxing WDW vacation!

Fun movie nights! I'ver got to plan another one here pretty soon...

 

[DsnyMama]

HOW FUN!! Disney movie nights look GREAT!!!!!

 

[khertz]

I must had forgotten to add a subscription for this thread, sorry! Think I am all caught up now though.

I love your plans so far! I am reading way too many Christmas PTR's right now, it is making me want to plan my own Christmas trip again! I think you are making a good choice sending the little ones to the kids club while the rest of you see the CP show. They will definitely have a lot more fun playing and hanging out with other kids than sitting through the show and being "shushed" the whole time I'm sure!

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Your plan for October 2013 sounds so fun! It actually sounds like it could be a relaxing WDW vacation!

Fun movie nights! I'ver got to plan another one here pretty soon...

I dont want to wear out everyone for the Oct 2013 trip. DH will have to return to work the following day, and the kids will have school the day after we return also.

We love our movie nights. I have gotton such great ideas off Dis

HOW FUN!! Disney movie nights look GREAT!!!!!

Thank you!

I must had forgotten to add a subscription for this thread, sorry! Think I am all caught up now though.

I love your plans so far! I am reading way too many Christmas PTR's right now, it is making me want to plan my own Christmas trip again! I think you are making a good choice sending the little ones to the kids club while the rest of you see the CP show. They will definitely have a lot more fun playing and hanging out with other kids than sitting through the show and being "shushed" the whole time I'm sure!

Welcome! Glad to have you here

I know what you mean about Christmas PTRs...everytime I read one, I get new ideas that try and derail my planning

Everyone at CP will greatly appreciate my little boys NOT being there that night. We had waivered back and forth on what to do, then being at a wedding a few weeks ago with them just solidified that they were not ready to sit through something like CP. I began asking IPO about Sand Castle Club (since its the closest to Epcot) and they answered all my questions, so we made a reservation for the boys.

 

[debrapagliasotti]

Houston...

We DONT have a problem,

We HAVE an October 2013 trip on the books



I called WDW Travel Co late this morning and had ZERO wait.

I normally would have booked online myself, but I had to call so we could switch over our Oct 2012 package to an Oct 2013 package so we would be able to keep that money we had already paid for that package in play.

Of course by doing this, I also had to change kids ages...most importantly Harper would be 10, Evan would be 3.

I didnt realize how much of a pain this would be! I had talked to another CM a few weeks ago and she said it would be easy as pie.

About 30 min later (yes, literally!), the CM is confirming everything with me, she was about to tell me the new package due date and I suddenly get the survey prompt at the end of the call!!

I pull up the reservation a few minutes later online since it was going to be the old reservation number and found out the ages had not been changed, so the price was not accurate. Also ME had not been added.

I proceed to call back to WDTC and again had zero wait time and the friendly CM went over everything with me and corrected everything. An hour later, I got my confirmation email with all the correct info.

So, what did we book...

Oct 15-20, 2013

Staying at...

Wilderness Lodge, Deluxe CL room

4 day tickets

Dining Plan

ME

I dont have concrete plans as of yet, but I am playing around with 2 options...

Option A...2 days at Epcot for F&W, 2 days at MK (including MNSSHP)

Option B...2 days at Epcot for F&W, 1 day at MK (including MNSSHP), 1 day at AK

Right now I'm just not entirely sure, luckily I have plenty of time to get it all sorted out.

Anyways, just wanted to share those plans with everyone


​