Doing Disney: Adult Style

[SaberJ]

Hey guys. I'm relatively new to the boards. Signed up when I started planning for our upcoming trip. And during that time, I've went back and forth as to whether or not I wanted to do the whole pre-trip/post-trip/review aspect of our vacation. If there was a typical Disney vacation goer, I would probably not be that person.

I'm a 28 year old travel enthusiast, married for 7 years, and a huge kid at heart. That means that I've always been a fan of Disney, cartoons in general, and theme parks in general. So while I've only went to Disney World 3-4 times in my life, I'm still a huge fan. But I'll get into more detail on all that stuff in a bit.

We started planning our trip on September 4th, 2010. That was 2 days after my wife's birthday. There were a few reasons we booked the trip. I'll mention the first reason now to explain the report title, and get to the other reasons in the report itself. The first reason is that me and my brother have never been to Disney detached from our parents. The last time I went, I was 16, and we still spent the whole trip in the family unit. Which meant everyone missed out on a few things they wanted to do. Family trips are great, but they leave something to be desired, that we hope to achieve on this trip.

So, if you guys are interested in following along with a trip for adults, I think I'll have some good things to share. But being of the non-standard fare, this report and the reports and the future will probably differ from the standard DIS fare. For starters, you'll probably notice that I've already started things off by saying my wife, and my brother, rather than DW and DB. It's just how I prefer things.

The last thing you should be aware of is that this is pre-trip report is for a rapidly approaching date. It's been almost 2 months since we booked, but as of writing this, it's only 9 days until we leave. We've finally reached the single digit days, and that's what has motivated me to move forward with plans to write this report. Hopefully someone finds it useful/entertaining as I have with so many of the reports around here.

So let's get this party started.




Table of Contents:

1> The Cast
2> The Forming of the Idea
3> Preparing for Disney
4> ADRs and Must Eat Snacks

 

[WDWisTheBest]

Welcome. Looking forward to more reports.

 

[SaberJ]

The Cast

Alright, so I gave you the basics. But let's get into a bit more detail on who is going on this trip.

Me (Randy): If you read the first post, you probably saw where I said I was a 28 year old travel enthusiast. That's all true, but there is a bit more to the story than that. First of all, not only am I a travel enthusiast, but I also went to school to become a travel agent. I have an associates degree in Travel, Tourism, and Event Management. Unfortunately, I live in Kentucky, where travel agencies apparently come to die. So I haven't been able to make use of that degree. Still, a Travel Agent is one of my dream jobs. If only I was in a different location.

Anyway, I'm also really more of an "everything" enthusiast. I have way too many hobbies. Starting with travel, I'm also a huge fan of food (Though someone's joke on me was that I destined to become a picky eater), movies, television, video games, computers, Kentucky basketball, etc, etc. Really, I've not met many hobbies I didn't like. And as a result, I've become a jack of all trades, master of none. But I'm never at a loss for things to blow my money on, at least. That's a good thing, right?

When it comes to travel, there are two things that trump all others. The first is cruising. If I could take a cruise every month, I would be a very happy person. Unfortunately, I'd also probably be a very large person, because I would never be able to stop making use of the floating buffet bar. My second favorite thing when I'm not cruising, is to go to theme parks. I'm sort of a ride junky. Primarily roller coasters and dark rides. I'm not a fan of the spinning rides, every since an unfortunate incident following a large bag of cotton candy, and a fair ride.

I try to take cruises every two years, which will be an important thing to know, once I get to the section where I explain why we planned to go on this trip. I started when I was 16, and I've been on 3 Carnival cruises, and 2 Royal Caribbean cruises. No Disney cruises so far, but I'm always up for trying new things.

I had a trip or two to Disney World when I was far too young to remember it. However, my first trip that I remember came in 4th grade. We stayed in an RV at Fort Wilderness. It was a blast, and something I will always remember.

When I was 16, we took a 2 week vacation. On the first week, we took a 7 day cruise aboard the new Carnival Destiny ship. That still amazes me to this day, because that was my first cruise, and I was so impressed with the ship. But ultimately, the ship is rather dated compared to modern ships.

After the cruise, we drove to Orlando, and began our Disney vacation to mixed results. This time, we stayed for free in one of those, "Try our time shares!" deals. That was pretty awesome. And most of the Disney trip itself was a lot of fun. But we did have a lot of negative experiences as well. We didn't have park hopper passes for that trip, and decided to go to the brand new Animal Kingdom. Little did we know that we were visiting a completely unfinished park. We were limited to a very small fraction of what would eventually be the whole park. And I believe there was maybe two or three rides that we ended up being interested in. Countdown to Extinction (DINOSAUR) and the Kilimanjaro Safari's were the only two that I can recall now. By itself, that wouldn't have been a problem. But add in a severe lack of animals, major visible construction going on, and a mid-day monsoon, and it made for a pretty lousy experience that we were stuck with. And without a park-hopper pass, or a resort pool to go back to, it wasn't a lot of fun.

I work as a contractor for IBM doing data backup. It's a job that sounds a lot more impressive than it actually is. And a job that pays far too little for all the hobbies I have.

Overall, that meant that I wasn't left with a lot of fond memories of my last Disney experiences. But I still love the park, based on memories from the previous trip.

One final note, the picture I used above is from a cruise I went on in my Travel Class. We took a cruise on the Carnival Paradise out of LA. This particular picture was near Ensenada, Mexico. At the site of La Bufadora, supposedly the world's second largest blowhole. Ironically, I'm wearing a Maui shirt. I've never actually been to Hawaii, however. It's on the "someday" list.

Wife (Tabitha): My wife, is 26 now. We got married shortly after her high school graduation. Luckily, I've managed to pass off a lot of my interests on her. She now thoroughly enjoys travelling almost as much as I do. I was worried that she would become a non-flying person, but she really enjoyed it on her first flight last year. You'd be surprised how many people in my travel classes hated flying.

She works with Cinemark as a manager, and has been there since we got married. I had a friend that worked there when she moved to town with me. He got her on, and she has loved working there since. She started out making $4/hr less than me, and as of last year, has now passed me up. Makes it a bit easier to do things we enjoy.

One of the reasons we settled on a Disney vacation this year is because she had never been. Ever. Even in Kentucky, which isn't exactly close to Florida, it's still a bit rare to see anyone who hasn't been to Disney World. So of course we had to fix that problem immediately.

It's taking everything in me to resist the urge to ramble on and on about how much she's going to love it. Usually I would. But to me, Disney World is one of those things that you really should witness for the first time without knowing every little thing about it. So that's the goal for the trip. To make sure Tabitha has the best first experience with Disney possible.

The picture above is from a cruise a few years ago. It was the same three people, plus my dad, step mother, nephew, and various other family members. I think we had 4 or 5 rooms of people. This is the Carnival Triumph...I believe. It's the only ship I don't really remember. This was her first cruise. That should be Miami in the background as we were preparing for departure. Miami is my least favorite city to leave out of, but I absolutely love sailing away down the picturesque strip.

Brother (Russell): Ok, so technically Russell is my half-brother. This is only an important fact, because we grew up in different houses. I saw him every other weekend when I went to my dad's house to visit. Which was plenty. He's almost 7 years younger than me. As a result, as a kid, I was basically a glorified babysitter for him. As such, it wasn't until after we were both adults that we started to become good friends. It's also helped that he has worked with me for the last few years. He hates it more than even me, and is at this very moment trying to land a traveling salesman job of sorts.

He is a pretty huge Disney fan. Lion King is his favorite Disney movie, and is also a pretty big fan of Lilo and Stitch (Which I can't fault him on. Totally underrated movie.)

He wen't on both Disney trips that I can remember, and also hasn't went since. He's an even bigger fan of theme parks than I am, and could probably tell you more than you would ever want to know about any particular roller coaster. He really matches my personality almost too well, and it's not surprising that we often want to vacation together.

The above picture was taken in I believe Natural Bridge State Park here in Kentucky. He went hiking and camping there. If there is anything all of these pictures should scream, it's that "We love vacations!"

So that's the gang. We're going to hit Disney this year, and we're going to make the most of it. We'll be arriving November 12th at about 7:30pm in Orlando, and leaving at about 3:00pm on November 19th. We've got a lot of glorious plans that we hope we can deviate from enough to ensure that our trip is more of a vacation and less of a military drill. But we'll get to that all in due time.

Next up, I think I'll tell you more about how this vacation came to be.

 

[SaberJ]

Good morning, everyone.

As of last night, I was subpoenaed for a court case as a character witness. I have to go in today at 1. I'm really hoping that this is all taken care of before we leave on the 12th, or there is going to be some serious issues. But all I can do is hope there.

So when I last left off, I had introduced the family that I will be attending Disney with in about 8 days. Today, I want to discuss how that plan came together, and how we decided on Disney.

How it came to be

If you haven't got the message yet, my family is a huge fan of vacationing. As I said before, we try to cruise every two years. Last year, we left out of Port Canaveral for a cruise on the Freedom of the Seas, which has been by far my favorite ship I've ever been on. And next year, we are going to try our best to find a good deal on the Oasis of the Seas out of Fort Lauderdale.

Well, that meant that we didn't have anything to look forward too. Still, at the beginning of the year, me and my brother had said that we definitely wanted to go somewhere together again this year. Well, as it often happens, when you don't get set plans in place, time flies. Before we knew it, we were staring at August on the calendar and realizing that we had not managed to take one single vacation.

We began thinking of possibilities for short trips just so we could go somewhere. We considered Kings Island in Ohio, as we are huge fans. Cedar Point in Ohio, which we also love, but is a significantly longer drive to get to. Pigeon Forge in Tennessee, which has been a family favorite a good number of years. Myrtle Beach, which is like the beach equivalent of Pigeon Forge.

Ultimately, the theme parks were out because we were looking at October for our trip. We'd either face scheduling conflicts, large Halloween crowds, or both. Eventually, we decided to look into Myrtle Beach. When I looked up how long it would take to drive there, the first thing that popped into my head is, "If I'm going to drive that far, I'd rather just go to Florida." So I started looking at airfare to Myrtle Beach. Over $500 per person. That's not going to happen.

Finally, I began to look up airfare to Orlando, just to compare the costs. Under $120 per person. That was the cheapest I had saw airfare to anywhere in a very long time from my area. Looking at Travelocity, they also had some deals where you could stay at Resort hotels in the area for what amounted to about $30 extra per night.

When I saw my brother the next day, I presented my findings on Myrtle Beach, and mentioned that "I'd almost rather spend 3-4 nights at a resort hotel in Orlando doing nothing for our vacation". He agreed that it would be a good idea. At this point, we weren't looking for a longer vacation, because he was working 2 jobs, and it was going to be quite difficult to get off from both for any extended period of time. But when we started talking about the hotel, I mentioned that I would hate to go to Orlando again and still not take my wife to Disney World, since she's never been.

Last year when we took our cruise, we flew into MCO in Orlando, and drove to Cape Canaveral in a rental car for our cruise. On the way back, we stayed an extra night in Orlando because it was going to be cheaper to wait until the next day to fly out. So much cheaper that we were able to get a hotel, and go to Islands of Adventure and their Halloween event, and it barely cost more money than flying out the night before would have cost.

So going to Orlando again, and still not going to Disney was going to be painful. Then we came up with the idea of maybe just going there for a day or two. Better than nothing. So we began to price that, and explore the options. As most people know, if you start looking at ticket prices for Disney, they are completely front loaded. If you pay for 2 days, you might as well get more than that. Plus, I decided I didn't like the idea of taking to someone to Disney on their first trip for 2 days.

As we went back and forth on the idea for a couple days, my brother finally said, "Screw it. Let's do it right. See how much it would cost to just go all out and do a full week". At this point, I started to do full research on Disney. From there, the vacation dramatically changed in a domino effect. The first thing we did was push the date back to November. For a full vacation we would need more time to come up with the money. And if we weren't going to a local theme park, we didn't have to worry about it's hours quite as much.

First I decided on a value resort on site, to get the benefits of transportation and included food. Then we decided on a 7 day pass. Decided we wanted park hopper, and possibly water parks, depending on the weather. Then we decided we wanted the Regular Dining Plan, rather than the quick service. Then we decided if we were going to pay extra for the dining, we might as well upgrade to a moderate resort and have the nicer room as well.

Before we knew it, we had decided on November 12-19 at the Caribbean Beach Resort. 8 days, 7 nights, Regular Dining, and all that sort of fun stuff. I was pretty sure I had found as good a price as I could. But just to be safe, I looked around for Disney travel agents. I sent in for a quote from Small World, and got back pretty much exactly what I expected. But I still went ahead through them. I'm rather glad I did, ultimately, because even though I didn't save anything extra, it was nice to have someone there to answer all my questions, remind me of when things were due, etc.

Now, here we are, all paid up for the trip, with the small exception in that we are waiting to see the weather forecasts for the week before we decide whether or not to add on the Water Park. Sadly, Typhoon Lagoon will be closed. But I've wanted to try out Blizzard Beach for a long while as well. Plus, nobody else that lives around me will be in the water during this time of the year.

Hopefully this wasn't too drawn out and boring. I get a bit long winded at times. But I think things will be getting a little more interesting in the next couple posts. I plan to cover the preparations we've made since we booked, as well as the ADRs and our Must-Eat Snack List. That will all be coming soon. How soon? Well, that depends on how drawn out this court issue is, I guess.

But until next time, thanks for reading!

Up Next: Preparing for Disney!

 

[SaberJ]

Preparing for Disney


Preparing for any trip is a relatively easy process for me. Make sure everything is paid off, you have everything you need packed, and you triple check to make sure all documents are with you. But for a variety of reasons, this trip was different. So I've actually spent a lot more time preparing for this trip than others.

Preparing Ourselves

The first step in preparing for the trip actually started a week or two before our discussions on a vacation started. And that was a goal to lose weight. As I said, I'm a food fan that happens to be very picky. Unfortunately, that means I don't typically eat as healthy as I should. And prior to this trip, I was also working 3rd shift (Though luckily I have now moved to a 1st shift position). So when we finally planned our trip, my goal was easy to set. Lose 25 pounds before we leave for Disney.

But the trade-off was that I wasn't going to watch myself while at Disney, so I wanted to actually lose a few more. That way, when I returned home from this trip, I could pick back up more or less from my first goal weight check point. My wife used this as a reason for her to lose some weight as well, which has made it easier on both of us.

With just under a week to go before our trip, I'm happy to say that I have exceeded my goal weight loss by 6 pounds. I'm currently sitting at 219, which is 31 pounds lost. I'm pushing for another 2 pounds in the next week, but even if I head out at my current weight, I'm happy for what I've achieved. I can eat mostly guilt free, though part of me thinks that I've probably developed some habits that will stick with me during the trip. Like a smaller appetite. We will see.

Preparing Information

If there is one thing I like to do before going on a trip, especially one at a theme park, it's to prepare myself. I have a friend that once called me "Master Tourist", because at a theme park, I'm so the stereotypical tourist. Camera around the neck, map out at all times, and fanny pack ever present (It's functional, even if it isn't fashionable ). So a big part of this trip was to make sure I was up to date on the latest Disney information out there.

A big part of that was to join these boards. Here, I was able to read up on our resort (The Caribbean Beach Resort, with it's awesome "new" pool and rooms), the best snacks, the best restaurants, etc. But I also made sure to grab "The Complete Walt Disney World 2010" and read it cover to cover. While I was familiar with a lot of the information, overall, I feel a lot more prepared to take on the park now than I did before.

Preparing to Capture Memories

When I went on my trips with my travel classes, I got into the good habit of snapping every little thing on my camera, and getting albums made up. We took a trip to New York/Boston, and then another that was Universal Hollywood/Carnival Paradise. It was nice to have those pictures to look back on fondly. But as of late, I haven't felt that I had a camera that did my trips justice. So I've kind of shied away from snapping shots all that often. And I almost never take pictures at theme parks, because I'm a huge fan of actually riding rides.

But this trip, I wanted to make sure that we were able to capture the memories. Luckily, I had invested in an HD camcorder a couple years back that is just fantastic. So I had been planning to take that along with me. But the week before last, I decided it was time to take the plunge on a new camera. But I had actually been wanting a DSLR for a while. The right deal presented itself, and I grabbed up a new Nikon D3100 bundle package.

Now I'm ready to start taking serious video AND pictures. Anyone have any requests?

Final Preparations

When the opportunity came for online check-in at the resort, I went ahead and did that. We are flying via AirTran, so we can't check-in for that until we hit the "under 24 hours" time frame. But other than that, we just have to make sure we wrap up the typical stuff. Pack, check, and re-pack. All while trying to avoid crazy baggage fees.

6 days now, and I couldn't be more ready to leave. It has been a terrible week. Disney can heal all manners of things, and that's exactly what I'm relying on for next week. This vacation couldn't have been planned for a more perfect time, it appears. 2 more days of work left, and then my brain starts to rest prior to the departure.

Up Next:

Let's switch gears, and start talking about food. Coming up is our ADRs and "Must Eat" snack list. My favorite part of trip planning.

 

[francis6306]

Welcome to the Dis! You guys are gonna have a GREAT trip! I actually lived in KY for a few years as a child- so I have been to the "Natural Bridge" several times. My husband is from Madisonville, KY. He has never been to Disney either! His parents weren't much for vacations... Sad, huh?

I LOVE Cedar Point. Been there once. Literally drove all night to Sandusky from North of Atlanta, GA JUST go to CP.

We're going in Dec and my PTR link is in my signature.

 

[SaberJ]

Welcome to the Dis! You guys are gonna have a GREAT trip! I actually lived in KY for a few years as a child- so I have been to the "Natural Bridge" several times. My husband is from Madisonville, KY. He has never been to Disney either! His parents weren't much for vacations... Sad, huh?

I LOVE Cedar Point. Been there once. Literally drove all night to Sandusky from North of Atlanta, GA JUST go to CP.

We're going in Dec and my PTR link is in my signature.

Thanks for stopping by.

Me and Kentucky have a love/hate relationship going. There are many things I hate about the area (Winter, allergens, etc). But there are also a lot of natural beauties to love here.

I was spoiled as a kid with vacations, and as a result, I'm addicted to them now. It kind of sucks, because the world doesn't quite work to the level of letting me take as many vacations as I want.

Cedar Point is awesome. Great coaster park. I think as a whole, I'm a bigger fan of Kings Island. It just has a much nicer layout. Easier to get from ride to ride. But they are both great in their own ways.

Good luck and have fun on your trip!

 

[PalmettoPrincess]

WELCOME! Isn't it funny how much vacations can change? But I totally agree with you, two days just isn't enough for a Disney first-timer! Can't wait to hear about your dining plans! What is your wife most excited about? Congrats on your weight loss!!

I agree with your assessment of Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg.... definitely the Myrtle Beach of the mountains. I went with my boyfriend's family last year and didn't really enjoy the towns all that much. Great food and the scenery was gorgeous, but I could have driven 1.5hrs to see pretty much all the same stores in Myrtle Beach. I'd like to go back, but I will definitely bypass all that again and concentrate on the mountains.

BTW, I'm totally jealous about your new camera purchase! I want one so bad! Last trip, I filled up two memory cards with pics. I have a standard digital camera and the pics came out really good, but I know they would have been spectacular if I had a really good camera. Happy shooting!

 

[francis6306]

Yeah, I was totally spoiled by my grandparents... retired people travel a LOT in my family apparently!

 

[SaberJ]

WELCOME! Isn't it funny how much vacations can change? But I totally agree with you, two days just isn't enough for a Disney first-timer! Can't wait to hear about your dining plans! What is your wife most excited about? Congrats on your weight loss!!

I agree with your assessment of Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg.... definitely the Myrtle Beach of the mountains. I went with my boyfriend's family last year and didn't really enjoy the towns all that much. Great food and the scenery was gorgeous, but I could have driven 1.5hrs to see pretty much all the same stores in Myrtle Beach. I'd like to go back, but I will definitely bypass all that again and concentrate on the mountains.

BTW, I'm totally jealous about your new camera purchase! I want one so bad! Last trip, I filled up two memory cards with pics. I have a standard digital camera and the pics came out really good, but I know they would have been spectacular if I had a really good camera. Happy shooting!

I love Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg because I grew up on it. It wasn't uncommon for us to go 2-3 times a year. And since I'm still a big kid, I can have a blast with Go Karts and Miniature Golf still. But since the two places are so similar, it makes sense to go to the one that's closest to you. I think we are still like 4 hours away from that area of Tennessee, but it's worth the drive when you stay more than a couple days.

I'm really looking forward to shooting with the new camera. I've been trying to shove in as much studying about DSLR techniques as possible in the time I've owned it. But I'll still be learning as I go with it. The good thing is that it's such a nice camera, and does a good job of holding your hand through the right shooting techniques if you put it on guide mode. Hopefully I'm decent enough to make it a worthwhile purchase.

Now I've got to get to work on my food post. Only 5 days left until we leave. I have to pick up the pace.

 

[SaberJ]

ADRs and Must Eat Snacks!


So I mentioned before that I'm a huge food fan. So I'm really looking forward to this part of the trip. We are going to manage to catch the very last day of the Food and Wine Expo I believe. But I haven't managed to do much planning there. I think we are just going to wander around, and see what catches our attention.

But what we have managed to plan out are our ADRs, and our Must-have snack list. Because the trip was on such short notice, we weren't able to get everything we wanted. And even worse, often the ADRs are far too close to the parades/fireworks that we have to see. So hopefully everything will work out, otherwise we will be using our "free days" (5 parks in 5 days, 2 days to make up what we miss) to park hop and see those events then.

So let's break this down by day for the ADRs, and then I'll post the must have snacks at the end:

ADRs/Meal Plans

Friday, November 12th

We won't be arriving into Orlando until 7:30pm. After we get through with check-in and such, it will likely be too late to make it to one of the parks. So the current plan, should we have enough time, is to head into Downtown Disney. From there, we'll have to make the tough choice between Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express.

We definitely want to make a return trip sometime during the week for the other option. But we also want to do way more than we have time for. So who knows if that will happen. Maybe I could get some sandwiches for the room, and Wolfgang's for dinner. I'm not sure if that would be a good idea or not.

Following dinner that night, we'll probably hit up Goofy's Candy Company at some point. I'm a huge Rice Krispy Treat person, so I have to get some sort of concoction made there to snack on during the nights at the hotel.


Saturday, November 13th

Because we won't do much Friday night, Saturday will be an early start. We have an 8:10 ADR for Ohana's. We are all fans of Lilo and Stitch, and this will be the only character breakfast we have during the week. Honestly, I'm more of a biscuits and gravy breakfast kind of guy, but the characters won out here. This is also the only planned Breakfast for the week, so maybe I'll do an OOP somewhere along the line and get a restaurant that serves my kind of breakfast.

For lunch, we are considering either Pecos Bill's or Cosmic Rays. I've heard good things about them both, but I think it's one of those things that will go either way for people. It's just a middle ground between the two main dining events anyway.

For dinner, we have our first conflict of the trip already. We really wanted 1900 Park Fare for one extremely dumb reason. Yes, we booked the entire meal because of this. Strawberry Soup. When we go on cruises, and this is served, we generally end up ordering about 10 bowls to our table. I'm an absolutely huge Strawberry fan, and my wife/brother are similar. So we booked this ADR for 8:15. The problem is, the MSE parade starts at 9. I the MSE Parade. But there is almost no way we can get into 1900, eat, and get back to Magic Kingdom in 45 minutes.

The plan is to try and get there early, and just hope for the best. If it doesn't work out, we have to make it back sometime that week for the parade. I can't go to Disney without seeing it.

Sunday, November 14th

Saturday involved 2 full table service meals. Sunday will only have one, but we'll probably eat just as much if not more. It's Food & Wine festival day as we hit Epcot. Epcot is probably my favorite park. I love futuristic stuff, even if it is retro futuristic stuff. So we are going to be having a tough time balancing between taking the park in, and enjoying the food and wine festival. If there is one park we have to revisit on a second day, it will probably be this one.

I'll mostly be taking in the food portion of the festival. My brother will mostly be taking in the wine portion. And by wine, what I really mean is beer. He wants to hit up every beer he can. I'm a lite drinker, and even then, all my drinks end up being "girly" frozen concoction. Why does the type of alcohol you drink speak of your gender?

Immediately, we have our second conflict of the trip with dinner that night. We are going to be trying out Teppan Edo. I'm such a huge picky eater. No seafood, no veggies (Except for salads, taco toppings, etc), and no fungi. My wife is the same, except she likes fish. So I'm not sure how this is going to work out for us. But the place looks great, gets rave reviews, and my brother loves sushi. So we had to give it a shot.

The problem is, our ADR time is 8:20, and we really want to watch Illuminations. Now I know that Teppan Edo is really close to the Illuminations area, but I'm not sure if A> We would have enough time to get in and out, or B> If there is any sort of view from within. So that may cause problems. We have also considered a 4-4:30 ADR, but that would be in the middle of Future World being open, and I think Dinner would be better for that restaurant. But we haven't decided yet.


Monday, November 15th

Monday is one of the days that we couldn't get the reservations that we wanted. We was going to hit up the Sci-Fi Dine-In for dinner while at DHS. However, it wasn't available. So instead, we got it for a 2:10 lunch. We are possibly going to do something like Backlot Express for dinner instead. But this could be the opportunity to go back to DTD, instead. It's a tough call. DHS doesn't have a whole lot that needs to be done, so a full day seems like a bit of an overkill. And I think the Food & Wine festival will be over.


Tuesday, November 16th

Tuesday is the first of our "free" days. We can do anything we want. I hope that the weather is good enough that we can hit up Blizzard Beach. But if that doesn't happen, or if we have to return to a park, then we'll be going somewhere else instead. We're going to hit a quick service for lunch. But we have 'Ohana's for dinner that night at 9:30pm. I've heard the complaints of overcooked meat and such. But I actually usually get my meat well done anyway, so that's nothing unusual. But I'm excited to try just about everything on the table, except the veggies. I've actually never tried a pot sticker, so I'm going to give that a shot. Though I'm cautious of the fact that it's called a "Pork and Vegetable Pot sticker" at some places. Not sure where the veggie comes from.

I'm also very excited for the Bread Pudding. I've never actually had Bread Pudding before. But I guess that doesn't really matter, since I've heard that Disney's is different than almost everyone else.


Wednesday, November 17th

Wednesday is Animal Kingdom day. The first trip back since the disasterous first experience. But I generally love parks like that, so I don't think it's an issue. Plus, I have a park hopper pass, if it turns sour.

For lunch, we are going to choose between Flametree and Pizzafari. They both look quite good, and obviously different. So I guess it depends on which looks/sounds better that day. The one thing I really want to try that I don't think I'll get to comes from Animal Kingdom. I really want the Fried Wontons from Yak and Yeti. But there isn't anything on the menu that even remotely interests me there other than that. So unless they would let me order one to go, I guess I'll be doing without.

For dinner, though, we are hitting up Boma. After AK closes at 8, we will head over there for a 9pm reservation. This will be one of my more adventurous eats. I see enough on the menus that I'm going to be fine. But since it's a buffet, I may even experiment with some of the more questionable items. But without a doubt, my two must haves are the Potatoes with Afritude (Love potatoes), and the Zebra Domes. Great reason to plan a full meal at the place, huh?


Thursday, November 18th

Thursday is our last full day, and it's the second open day we have. Though we definitely want to check out Fantasmic that evening. We have a lunch planned at 2:00 at Whispering Canyon. I definitely wanted to try it at some point, but I'm a bit put off by the confrontational reputation that the restaurant gets during dinner. So lunch it is. Plus, that works well with Fantasmic. I just hope that their lunch menu compares decently with their awesome looking dinner menu.

Friday will probably consist of spending our left over credits before our flight at 3:30. It will be a sad day.


Whew. That was a bit longer than I expected. But there will be time to rest after the trip. For now, let's press on.

Must have snacks

Magic Kingdom
Dole Whip
Citrus Swirl

Epcot
Cloudberry Horn from Norway
Crepes from France
Napoleon from France

Resorts
Zebra Domes from Boma
Beignets from Sassagoula in NOFQ

Downtown Disney
Dipped Rice Krispy Treat from Goofy's Candy Company
Pretty much anything from Ghirardelli

Not to mention, several things that I haven't had time to go through and list from the Food and Wine festival. I just hope I don't gain ALL of my weight back over the week.

 

[francis6306]

I wanna go to Port Orleans for the Beignets myself!! I'm only about 2 hours from new orleans right now and I have NEVER had them... I know- what am I thinking?? I'm sooo ready to go to Goofy's to get my rice krispy treats!

 

[Jack Talon]

Beer and sushi, that's all I need. Oh, and a picture with Stitch of course.

 

[SaberJ]

WELCOME! Isn't it funny how much vacations can change? But I totally agree with you, two days just isn't enough for a Disney first-timer! Can't wait to hear about your dining plans! What is your wife most excited about? Congrats on your weight loss!!

I forgot to answer the question about my wife. I think she's just excited to be going. It's hard to pinpoint what she's excited about the most, since she doesn't know a lot of the specific experiences.

I wanna go to Port Orleans for the Beignets myself!! I'm only about 2 hours from new orleans right now and I have NEVER had them... I know- what am I thinking?? I'm sooo ready to go to Goofy's to get my rice krispy treats!

I had never even heard of a Beignet until I started looking up Disney snacks. But it definitely looks like my kind of snack.

Beer and sushi, that's all I need. Oh, and a picture with Stitch of course.

I see you found the party.

 

[dawnmichele]

Those cameras sound fantastic! Congrats and I can't wait to see your pics!

 

[SaberJ]

Thanks to everyone that has contributed in my short PTR. We're down to 2 days until departure at this point, and I'm off until we get back. So the vacation has basically started. We just won't get to leave for another 56 hours or so.

Here is the details on our expected planned days. I've mentioned a few of the plans in the ADR section, but I thought I'd give the full details as they are:

Friday - Weather: High of 80, Low of 59 0%, chance of rain

• Depart Kentucky at Approx. 5:30
• Arrive in Orlando at Approx. 7:30
• Board Magical Express
• Check into Caribbean Beach Resort
• Head to Downtown Disney
• Eat at WPE or EoS
• Stop by Goofy's Candy Company
• Return to CBR hopefully in enough time to get some sleep

Saturday - Weather: High of 78, Low of 56, 0% chance of rain

• Wake up early
• Breakfast at 'Ohana at 8:10
• Make it back to Magic Kingdom close to the park opening at 9
• Ride rides!
• Eat Lunch around 1:30pm
• Watch A Dream Come True Parade at 3
• More Rides! Get to the MK Must Eat Snacks
• Head for 1900 Park Fare at about 7:15, and hope for the best in/out time possible
• Hopefully make it back in time for Main Street Electrical Parade at 9
• Watch Wishes at 10
• Enjoy EMH from 10-1, or until we want to pass out
• Head back to CBR for a good night's sleep

Sunday - Weather: High of 80, Low of 54, 0% chance of rain

• Go to Future World in Epcot between 9 and 10
• Ride some rides!
• Head over to World Showcase at 11
• Start trying out the Food and Wine Festival's offerings
• Go back to riding rides
• Eat more from F&WF
• More Rides
• Catch Big Bad VooDoo Daddy at 5:15
• Continue riding
• Teppan Edo at 8:20
• Illuminations at 9
• Head back to CBR after the show for possibly some pool time and relaxing before bed

Monday - Weather: High of 82, Low of 58, 0% chance of rain

• Hollywood Studios opens at 9
• Ride some rides, see some shows
• Sci-Fi Dine In at 2:10
• Block Party Express at 3
• More Rides
• Get some Dinner
• Potential for EMH from 7-10
• More relaxing after the park

Tuesday - Weather: High of 83, Low of 62, 10% chance of rain

• Hopefully hit up Blizzard Beach, weather permitting, at 10am
• If need be, hop parks for missed rides
• Dinner at 'Ohana at 9:30
• Back to CBR for the night

Wednesday - Weather: High of 82, Low of 58, 10% chance of rain

• Animal Kingdom opens at 9am
• Enjoy a leisurely day at the park, rushing only to get some FastPasses to the rides that need it
• Take in the shows, Ride the rides
• Lunch at 2:30
• Jungle Jammin' Parade at 3:45
• Park closes at 8
• Boma at 9
• Back to CBR

Thursday - Weather: Isolated T-Storms, High of 82, Low of 59, 30% chance of rain

• Make-up day
• Whispering Canyond Lunch at 2
• More make-up
• Fantasmic at 6:30
• Final Chance for make-ups, possibly Downtown Disney for Dinner
• Back to CBR

Friday - Weather: High of 81, Low of 61, 20% chance of rain

• Last chance to spend dining credits, maybe catch a couple rides
• Leave for airport by about 1
• Fly home at about 3:30
• Trip is over

The weather comes from weather.com. I've been tracking it for the last few days, and the storm has went from Saturday/Sunday, to Tuesday, and now to Thursday. So hopefully it'll keep on going right out of our trip.

Obviously, we have a lot of open spots where we haven't decided on WHAT to eat for most breakfasts, and some other open spots.

 

[francis6306]

Sounds like fun!! Have a great trip!

 

[Jack Talon]

It's almost time for our trip to start ending! D: I am not happy about this!

 

[SaberJ]

Sounds like fun!! Have a great trip!

Thanks!

 

[steelek_29]

This is maybe a dumb question. I will like to know how you decided the places where u are going to eat?? I'm from Puerto RIco and I am doing a SOLO (completely solo) trip. I will stay DEC 28 in POP. DEC 29 to JAN 3 Disney Cruise (no problem there with the food),and from JAN 3 to Jan 8 I'll stay again in a WDW resort. I'm not sure what dinning plans to make...