Don't Call It a Comeback! - An Oct. 2016 PTR! UPDATE: 8/3 (Flights/Halloween/FastPasses)

[GingerFyre]

Don't Call It a Comeback
(A trip 20 years in the making)
My October 2016 Disney Pre-Trip Report!​

AH! Welcome to my first post on this lovely forum. I've actually been lurking around on here for nearly a year now doing research and getting tips and tricks on a possible, far out future Disney vacation. I can happily say now that the future is no longer only a possibility, it is a reality! Our Disney Vacation will become a reality October 17th-24th 2016!

Perhaps the biggest deal is that this will be a vacation with my mom and we are returning to the World after a 20 year hiatus!! Crazy, I know! So let me give a bit of introductions as well as some 90s flashbacks!


WHO:
As I said this is going to be a trip for my mom and I. Both our first, and only time, to WDW was when my aunt (my mom's sister) took us on a trip allllll the way back in July 1996! We stayed in one room at the All-Star Music resort. I still vividly remember getting the Mickey wake-up calls in the morning as well as the AWFUL smell of the food court back then. I am assuming those things have changed in the last couple of decades. Another significant part of the trip was the MGM Studios Animation tour. It was basically a half day where I got to see them working on, I believe it was, Hercules (but I could be wrong) at the time. I remember the animator at one of seminars showed us how to draw Djali, the goat from Hunchback. We also got to paint animation cells and even got to ride the original incarnation of Star Tours, which I made my mom and aunt ride again with me later.

To give a reference point for how long ago this visit was:

• Animal Kingdom was still in the building stages at the time, didn't officially open until 1998.
• Cinderella's castle when we went was under construction for when they turned it into the 25th Anniversary birthday cake.
• Hollywood studios was still referred to as MGM studios.
• Alien Encounter was still a thing and I desperately wanted to go on it but my aunt wouldn't let me!
• Spectromagic was still a thing at the Magic Kingdom and Fantasmic at the Studios wasn't.
• Our resort was brand new and the resort we are staying at for this trip wasn’t even being built yet!
• NO FastPass!

So basically this visit may as well be a first visit for us because SO much has changed over the years! To say that we are both excited is an understatement.

Here are some fun pics from our first visit:

And this is us now:

As you can see we are gals that like to drink! I’m really anxious to get to experience Disney as an adult. I am a total kid at heart but now I can have more fun at Epcot and Downtown Disney (er, I mean Disney Springs) then before I was of legal drinking age!


WHEN/WHERE:
Being a foodie and an avid beer fan, also someone who is admittedly not fond of crowds, I picked mid-October/late-October so that we are right in the middle of the Food & Wine festival and the Halloween Party at the park when it is not (hopefully) as crazy busy as it can be other times of the year.

We will be staying at the POP Century resort. I would have preferred a moderate for the more relaxed atmosphere but couldn’t justify the cost when we will literally be just sleeping in the room. Plus we wanted to stay for a while to have ample time to experience everything at a not too insane pace. Everything I’ve been reading about POP makes me really happy with our choice, as is my mom who can’t wait to see the icons. She has already requested a room in the 70’s building so hopefully Disney will acquiesce our request.

During this Disney vacation we will also be taking a day trip to Universal Studios, first time for both of us! I am a Harry Potter fanatic so Harry Potter World was going to be a must see for me. I know that trying to fit both Universal parks into one day is exhaustingly ambitious. I’ve been toying with the idea of adding a second day but honestly if all we really get to do at Universal is Harry Potter I won’t be upset about it to be honest, that is my primary reason for the one day ticket splurge, expensive as one day passes are!


WHY:
My mom and I love going on trips together, even though sometimes we get on each other’s nerves! Our last trip was New Orleans back in January 2015, so we were thinking about where to go. My step-aunt and cousin’s family went on a short three day trip and shared it across Facebook. We found out afterwards that there didn’t have that great of a time, due to not realizing during trip expenses, and didn’t utilize their time effectively. So of course we both felt we could do much better and I persuaded her that we should take the plunge, and I would do all of the planning since she is kind of computer illiterate. Thus here I am!

So join me on my pre-planning adventures through my first experiences with ADRs, FastPasses and general double, triple, quadruple planning and excitement in the months ahead! Should be fun to watch!

 

[GingerFyre]

ADR Wishlist Itinerary

Honestly the most exciting part of all of this planning has been the food! Everything looks and sounds so amazing and I can justify it by spending hours and hours walking around the parks.

I live in NYC so walking is second nature to me! My mom still lives back home in PA, so restaurants and bars will be good sit down points if needed! It's been tough trying to narrow down where we want to eat. I am definitely the more adventurous eater of the two of us, mom is very blue collar so some of the Animal Kingdom Table Service places may not be up her alley. We had been going back and forth on whether to get the Dining Plan. The fact that it is prepaid plus that I can use snack/QS credits at F&W are definitely bonuses. However my mom can literally eat one meal and be good for a full day, so it would be wasted on her. In the end I think we will not do it because if we don't come out ahead then there was no point.

Being that I have a few weeks until I am able to get ADRs and MNSSHP tickets haven't been released, the below itinerary is probably going to change. Also with Rivers of Light opening up, Animal Kingdom won't be an early close park so we'd need to make a full day of it.

Monday - October 17th
Arrival at MCO around 10am.
Take ME to POP, drop off luggage (maybe our room will be available)
Head to Magic Kingdom
12pm Lunch (either Columbia Harbour House or Pecos Bill)
I am starting to consider Liberty Tree Tavern though I like the idea of not having to worry about an ADR on arrival day with how easily things can get delayed!
6pm Dinner - Kona Cafe
Back to the hotel

Tuesday - October 18th
Early Breakfast - POP Century
Head to rope drop at Universal
Lunch - The Leaky Cauldron
Head back to POP when Universal closes
Dinner - POP Century
Early bedtime due to probable exhaustion

Wednesday - October 19th
Epcot Day
Food & Wine Festival
Dinner - Via Napoli

Thursday - October 20th
Breakfast - POP Century
Hollywood Studios Day
4pm Dinner - Sci-Fi Drive-In
Head to Disney Springs
Cirque du Soleil - 9pm

Friday - October 21st
Breakfast - POP Century
Animal Kingdom Day
1pm Lunch - Tusker House
Head to Magic Kingdom when park closes for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Saturday - October 22nd
Early Breakfast - Garden Grill
Epcot/F&W/Hollywood Studios (depends on what we want to see/do)
Dinner ? (If Club Villain happens we will do that, otherwise it may be a Fantasmic package or Epcot dinner.

Sunday - October 23rd
Early Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Magic Kingdom Day
5pm Dinner - Be Our Guest

Monday - October 24th
Breakfast - POP Century
Maybe Disney Springs?


As I said, the above is definitely subject to change. I may instead do Animal Kingdom on Arrival day and have the Friday be a Magic Kingdom/Disney Springs Day. Ideally Friday is when we can get tickets to the Halloween Party and Thursday is when we see Cirque du Soleil. Regardless Tuesday is staying as our Universal Studios day because there is no Halloween Horror Nights that day so the parks will not close early. Plus crowds should be a bit lighter, or as light as they can be that time of year.

We have no booked flights yet, but we are planning on flying out of NYC at around 6am so that we can land in Orlando at mid-morning have a full day in the park. The day we fly out may be early morning too because by that Monday we may need a vacation from our vacation. Otherwise we may head to Disney Springs for any last minute shopping before we head out.

Now if they would just release tickets for MNSSHP I can feel a little better about my plans!

 

[GingerFyre]

THE TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS OF ADR DAY!

Hello anyone who may happen to be still be following along! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had any updates, mostly because I’ve been repeatedly going over plans on my spreadsheet, chatting with my mom, endlessly reading reviews and menus trying to schedule our restaurants in relation to our park days! I’ve been slightly obsessed to say the least and I’m starting to think I missed a second calling as a travel agent!

Since this is for all intents and purposes basically a first trip do over, I’m trying to hit a lot of the big ones so that next time (which will hopefully not be after another 20 year hiatus) we can do our favs and explore others!

My ADR day was April 20th. Between my Wishlist update and then I think I was psyching myself up a little bit too much on how this day was going to go. I work early in the morning, and live in NYC, so I am always up hours before 6am. Though I knew I’d be working I knew I’d be able to get away if needed at the 6am start time. I kept reading of people’s disappointments on here about not getting their ADRs even 180 days out to the popular spots, BOG dinner during the Fall being a huge issue for some. A reservation I had planned on a Sunday, on a party day. Yes, I was taking some chances on this trip!

Even though most of the restaurants stayed the same, the timings of them did not due to things outside of my control and some better scheduling on my own part. The schedule for Cirque changed up on me, it was actually scheduled for 6pm instead of 9pm so I had to work around that.

As expected Club Villain is not scheduled that far out so I had to make a reservation somewhere else if on the off chance it does not happen at all.

Since Animal Kingdom will be open late by the time I go, I decided to switch the day of the Halloween Party to Sunday. I think this works out even better since Sunday is our last full day and we will get to spend an entire day at MK and end with the party! You couldn’t ask for a better day!

So on to April 20th, my official ADR day! I woke up for work at 3am because I had to be there by 5am. I figured at 6am I’d take a break and attempt to hop on a computer and reserve everything. Well as I found out, even the best laid plans don’t alway go perfectly. We got rather busy and I didn’t realize it and the next thing I knew it was 6:40am! Expecting the worst I quickly excused myself to the bathroom and took out my phone and (bypassing the MDE because I know it doesn’t always do 180+10) went on my phone’s browser and started quickly making my reservations.

So how did it go?

I GOT EVERYTHING I WANTED ON THE DAYS AND TIMES I WANTED!

I was so worried that I was going to have major issues with a lot of my choices, but it all went so smoothly! I couldn’t believe it! I will chalk this up to my timeframe of vacation is unofficially officially not included in the Free Dining promotion. So reservations probably weren’t being reserved en-mass like during September. I’m kind of bummed because it would have been nice to get free dining but I in no way expected that to happen. Whatever the reason I am happy that it went so smoothly! So here is the official Restaurant List for our trip!

Monday - October 17th
Kona Cafe - 5:05pm

Wednesday - October 19th
Via Napoli - 6:05pm

Thursday - October 20th
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater - 11:45am
Portobello Italian Trattoria - 8:30pm

Friday - October 21st
Tusker House - 10:10am

Saturday - October 22nd
Garden Grill - 9:30am
Rainforest Cafe @ Disney Springs - 8:30pm

Sunday - October 23rd
Crystal Palace - 9:30am
Be Our Guest Restaurant - 5:35pm

Monday - October 24th
Kona Cafe - 9:15am

On Oct. 20th I added a dinner in Disney Springs for after La Nouba since the show was scheduled earlier and we would be eating at Sci-Fi much earlier than originally planned. Plus I came across the restaurant and I know my mom will love it!

On Oct. 22nd I have Rainforest Cafe as a placeholder in case Club Villain doesn’t happen. I originally was going to go to Big River Grille but based on the feedback I received on here I changed my mind. The decision was made in that thread when someone said the beer wasn’t good, which was my whole reason for going there in the first place. Based on my mom’s tastes, I figured Rainforest Cafe would be a safe option because then we can barhop in Disney Springs after. Plus the theming for Rainforest looks adorable and I actually think we may have eaten there on our first trip, but I don’t remember too clearly. If Club Villain happens though, and we don’t get sold out, then Rainforest will be scrapped and we will go there! So fingers kind of crossed for that!

On our departure day we decided on Kona Cafe for breakfast. I talked with my mom that it didn’t make sense to leave super early so we decided to push our proposed flight back and will hit up a few hours in another park to be decided. Maybe DHS so we can get another ToT ride in! I almost had my mom wanting to add another park day on to our trip but alas, it’s not worth the additional cost at this point in time!

Well now that the stress of ADRs are out of the way, my next concern is Halloween Party Tickets and hoping I don’t get sold out. In addition I can now start to plan my trip wardrobe which I’m really looking forward to! More updates to come soon!

 

[GingerFyre]

Flights, Halloween Tickets & FastPass+

Happy August!

For anyone who has been following, I apologize! It has been months since I’ve posted an update! I’ve been enjoying the summer months, spending time with friends and trying not to melt too much in the NYC heat! I also spent almost a month out in the Bay Area for work (an all expenses paid trip!) so was eating / drinking my way through the Bay as well as visiting with friends who live out there and enjoying the perfect weather! So, with all that going on, I’ve honestly not been too in depth with my planning simply because there isn’t much else to do.

However I do have some little updates!

Our trip is now officially paid in full!

I have also booked our flights!

We are very early flight people, depending on where we are going, we’d prefer to fly out super early so that we have a full extra day. We will be flying out at 6am and should be landing around 8:40am! Our plan is to get to POP, drop off our bags and spend our first day in Magic Kingdom. I will see if we can get an early check in but we are not counting on it and since we have to go to POP first anyway, we are prepared for either scenario.

This time around we are also going to be doing a super late checkout day. We usually fly out early on our last day of vacations but because we paid for 7 days of parks, and will be spending a full day at Universal midweek, so we have a day of hoppers to use. So we won’t be leaving Orlando until 7:58pm on our last day. We are keeping that last day open to basically do whatever. Our only plan that day will be our Kona Cafe breakfast ADR, which I’m super excited about!

We may hit up Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios that day to go on our favorite rides. Maybe also Disney Springs? Would love any input in what we should do!

Guess what those are? Our MNSSHP tickets!

If you remember I was debating which Halloween party we were going to do. Especially once the party ticket prices were released I had a bit of sticker shock. Looking at my day to day itinerary I decided to go with the party that made the most sense so we will be attending the October 23rd Halloween Party. This will be our last full day of vacation so a full day in Magic Kingdom closing with the party seemed to be perfect for us! This will be our only day when we will probably take a nap at the hotel midday so that we can be up all night. We are also planning on dressing up, my mom is stressing a tad about that, so we will need to go back to our hotel to change and freshen up before our BOG ADR at 5:35pm. I’ve been debating getting rid of the Crystal Palace ADR so we don’t have to be up super early that day but there is really no other day to do that one so I’m not sure what to do yet. I think that will be one we will play by ear the day before, if our vacation is proving too exhausting. So we will see on that front.


I now have two weeks until the final phase of vacation planning: FastPass+ and Online Check-In!

Right now I have a vague idea of what FastPasses I want since I already know how my park days will be planned out. The biggest bummers for me will be that both Dinosaur and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will be down for refurbishments during my trip. So that is two extra FastPasses that I now have to work with. Though Thunder Mountain was a ride I vividly remember from my first visit and I’m rather devastated that I can’t go on it. Though I know, first world problems, and I’ll survive!

For our Check-In the only things I’m really going to be checking off for POP is early check-in and 70’s Building (as per my mom’s request). The resort will be going through a refurbishment while we are there but since 70’s is a closer building I’m going to assume maybe the 80’s or 90’s will be the first ones to be touched since they are less requested. Either way I’m a New Yorker so we will be fine if we have a bit of a walk to the buses every morning.

Apart from FastPasses and Check-In the only main things I need to purchase to complete this trip are the Universal Studios tickets and La Nouba tickets and then there will be nothing to do but wait for October and second guess every step I’ve made! So stay tuned for my next update with my FastPass+ pics and fun Disney wear for our trip!