Family’s sick of hearing me blabber on about Disney so I’m starting a PTR!

[jo-jo]

How long is your pass good for? Great price, I'm only jealous with the photos thrown in.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

How long is your pass good for? Great price, I'm only jealous with the photos thrown in.

I think you have like 3 weeks to use it, starting 1/11. And yes, it’s about what we’d pay for 10 day non hoppers without the memory maker. It’s a good deal. I think they offer 7 day tickets too

 

[jo-jo]

I think you have like 3 weeks to use it, starting 1/11. And yes, it’s about what we’d pay for 10 day non hoppers without the memory maker. It’s a good deal. I think they offer 7 day tickets too

We had gotten a 10 day ticket, but really only using 5 days as park days and the other 5 as mostly rest days but maybe go in for Fantansmic or something. I love the parks at night and at Christmas , even better.

I didn't know about the UK ticket option, but sounds like maybe the 7 day could have worked for us.

 

[zanzibar138]

How long is your pass good for? Great price, I'm only jealous with the photos thrown in.

I think you have like 3 weeks to use it, starting 1/11. And yes, it’s about what we’d pay for 10 day non hoppers without the memory maker. It’s a good deal. I think they offer 7 day tickets too

The 14 day tickets are valid for 18 days from your chosen starting date. Pretty sure the other tickets available are pretty much the same as what you get in the US, just available in different currency for international purchasers.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Decided to plot out my days so when it’s ADR time I’ll be ready.




Really only 107 days because we’re arriving on the 11th, waiting on discounts to drop and will probably book one night at the Poly. Double digits soon! Hoping time goes fast with the holidays approaching.

The hardest part of Disney planning for me is always what parks we do on what days. We have park hoppers this trip, we usually don’t hop, but I feel like since we have them we might as well use them but at the same time I don’t like to hop.

So far, this is my general plan:

Sun 1/12
Hang at WL a bit, eat lunch there, check in.
Boat to Poly, eat at Ohana, fireworks on beach. Maybe pop into MK for a bit.

Mon 1/13
Rope drop AK
Dinner at TH
Take kids to resort,
DH and I head to MK for AH

Tuesday 1/14
Late start/sleep in a bit
Epcot
Early dinner San Angel

Wed 1/15
RD MK
Midday break
Back to MK, dinner BoG
EEH MK

Thur 1/16
Late start/sleep in
HS
Eat roundup rodeo

Fri 1/17
MK til late afternoon
DS-dinner at Raglan Road

Sat 1/18
No parks
Sleep in, hang at resort
Head to contemporary, shop and hang out
Monorail to GF, eat at 1900 park fair
Shop and explore
Either head to DS or back to WL for campfire and movie maybe

Sun 1/19
RD HS
Hopefully SciFi fantasmic pkg

Mon1/20
Epcot all day
Biergarten lunch
Epcot EEH

Tuesday 1/21
Late start Mk
Dinner at the Plaza

Wed 1/22
RD AK
Lunch rainforest cafe
Hop to MK for EEH

Thursday 1/23
Late start Epcot
Dinner Chefs

Fri 1/24
RD MK, breakfast Crystal Palace
afternoon break
Close out MK

Sat 1/25
Breakfast Whispering canyon
Leave for home


“For the first time in forever” we’ll be skipping CRT and trying 1900 park fair. Hope we don’t miss the castle too much.

Now, just have to wait for ADR day!!!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I forgot that somewhere in there I also have to fit the MK fireworks dessert party and the Epcot FW cruise. Hopefully I can get them both, they’re what I’m looking forward to the most. And when I can get them will affect my other plans. Ugh first world problems!

 

[zanzibar138]

I'm struggling so much with this, particularly since it's our first trip so we don't really know what to expect! Your plans sound great

 

[disneydreamer1980]

I'm struggling so much with this, particularly since it's our first trip so we don't really know what to expect! Your plans sound great

It’s always hard plotting everything out, it’s like fitting together a puzzle. But with you having 2 weeks you should have time for everything you want to do.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Double digits, yay!! Actually yesterday was double digits because we’re arriving on the 11th but haven’t booked that night yet. Debating on where to stay but thinking Poly.

We finally got our plane tickets! Were close to BWI but for some reason the price to fly from there was more than twice the price from DCA (Reagan) so even though it’s farther away, we’ll be flying in and out of DCA. Now trying to decide if we’re going to drive there and pay for parking for 2 weeks or pay for a car service. Decisions, decisions!

Last thing left to do besides ADRS and booking our extras is to book our arrival night hotel. DH just wants a cheap place near DS but I want Poly. We’ll see who wins out!

 

[zanzibar138]

Yay for double digits

What time does your flight get in? We were originally due to land at about 4pm, which I considered perfect timing to spend a relaxing evening at the resort with a drink and a view of the fireworks. Of course, then our flight was rescheduled to land after 9pm I couldn't stand the thought of paying all that money for our first night to not arrive in time to enjoy any of it, so we've now changed to a red eye which will arrive at 7:30am.

As someone who only has the 1 major airport within a 28 hour drive it always spins me out when people talk about having a choice of airports to fly in and out of.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Yay for double digits

What time does your flight get in? We were originally due to land at about 4pm, which I considered perfect timing to spend a relaxing evening at the resort with a drink and a view of the fireworks. Of course, then our flight was rescheduled to land after 9pm I couldn't stand the thought of paying all that money for our first night to not arrive in time to enjoy any of it, so we've now changed to a red eye which will arrive at 7:30am.

As someone who only has the 1 major airport within a 28 hour drive it always spins me out when people talk about having a choice of airports to fly in and out of.

You’ll be in double digits before long! I don’t know why but it makes it seem closer. We land at 3. For some reason flying in on Saturday is much cheaper than Sunday which is why we’re flying in a day earlier than originally expected.
Yay to the earlier flight! Coming in on a red eye will give you all day to explore your resort and maybe start to get over any jet lag. Hopefully that flight doesn’t get rescheduled!
I’ve been to Australia and it is crazy the vastness of it and the distances! It’s a beautiful country and we’re hoping to visit again in a few years. That’s a long flight for you coming from Australia to Florida! When we flew to Australia it was part of a multi stop trip (California, Hawaii, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand) so the flight wasn’t as long because we were sort of hopping there and staying at each place a while. But that is a long flight! It takes me about 6 hours to fly to Europe and I complain about that lol.
Is this your first time in America in general or just in Disney? Disney is amazing and as long as you’ve done some research beforehand (yay Disboards!) it’s really amazing.

 

[zanzibar138]

You’ll be in double digits before long! I don’t know why but it makes it seem closer. We land at 3. For some reason flying in on Saturday is much cheaper than Sunday which is why we’re flying in a day earlier than originally expected.
Yay to the earlier flight! Coming in on a red eye will give you all day to explore your resort and maybe start to get over any jet lag. Hopefully that flight doesn’t get rescheduled!
I’ve been to Australia and it is crazy the vastness of it and the distances! It’s a beautiful country and we’re hoping to visit again in a few years. That’s a long flight for you coming from Australia to Florida! When we flew to Australia it was part of a multi stop trip (California, Hawaii, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand) so the flight wasn’t as long because we were sort of hopping there and staying at each place a while. But that is a long flight! It takes me about 6 hours to fly to Europe and I complain about that lol.
Is this your first time in America in general or just in Disney? Disney is amazing and as long as you’ve done some research beforehand (yay Disboards!) it’s really amazing.

I'm ok with still being in triple digits for now We actually leave for our trip on 17 January, and we've got our wedding a week before that, so right now I'm in the 'so much to do, so little time' stage.

I find it fascinating that Australia and the US are so similar in size, but the US has so many large cities so close together. Perth (where I live) to Adelaide (our closest major city) is about the equivalent of LA to New Orleans, with no major cities (or even really large towns of more than 1000 people) in between. Sorry for the geography lesson lol!

Unfortunately for us, Western Australia is pretty much the furthest you can get from Florida lol! We're not going straight there though. We're going to KL for a few days (just a 'short' 5 hour flight for us), then we have the big flight across the Pacific to LA, driving from there to Vegas, and flying from there to WDW. It's worked out well since we'll be arriving in the US just after our LL access opens up (and being international, we can't access it until we're in the US). On the way back it'll be more direct, flying out via LAX but we've got a few days in Singapore on the way home. I've been planning for a big trip like this for a long time and stashing points, so we had enough to be able to do the long-haul flights in business class, which helps a lot!

We've both been to the US before, I've been several times and spent a bit of time at DLR and other international parks. This trip was supposed to be ticking off my last castle, but unfortunately we had to cancel our trip to TDR last year due to complications with the purchase of our house caused by buyer default on my apartment (fortunately it all worked out relatively quickly, but it was a rough few months). It's been a while though (my last trip to the US and DLR was 2015), and I'm aware that WDW is a whole different beast!

Where did you go in Australia when you visited? That sounds like an amazing trip - I haven't been anywhere in that Pacific region yet! From Perth, our closest international destination is SE Asia. We considered going via Fiji for this trip for some more traditional honeymoon vibes, but it's peak typhoon season in February, so we thought we'd leave it for another time.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Wow, sounds like an amazing trip! I’m jealous lol! And congratulations on your wedding! Australia is such a cool country and the “geography lesson” was very interesting. We were in and around Sydney and spent some time in the Blue Mountains (where I got to hold a koala! lol) It was beautiful.
You must be so excited for your honeymoon! And being in business class for all of those flights will make a huge difference. It’s awesome youve been to other Disney parks, I’ve only ever been to WDW, despite being in Paris almost yearly I still haven’t made it to that one. I’d love to visit TDR, it’s a shame you had to cancel. Gives you something to look forward to though. But for now I imagine you’re pretty focused on planning your wedding and epic honeymoon lol. Soon enough you’ll be able to relax snd enjoy the fruits of all of that planning

 

[foodiddiedoo]

How can your kids miss so much school? We're going from the 17th through 25th of January and we have to leave after school is over on Friday and needed MLK so my daughter wouldn't get dinged for excessive unexcused absense at 5 days.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

How can your kids miss so much school? We're going from the 17th through 25th of January and we have to leave after school is over on Friday and needed MLK so my daughter wouldn't get dinged for excessive unexcused absense at 5 days.

They’re all good students and most of their works online, so they do schoolwork when they can on the trip and finish it up after. The school marks the absences as unexcused but doesn’t do anything about it. In 20 years they’ll remember the trip but would have no memories of what they went over in school. Family time and fun is important too and as long as my kids are confident they can get the missed work done, and as long as their grades are good, I’m fine with them missing school.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

They’re all good students and most of their works online, so they do schoolwork when they can on the trip and finish it up after. The school marks the absences as unexcused but doesn’t do anything about it. In 20 years they’ll remember the trip but would have no memories of what they went over in school. Family time and fun is important too and as long as my kids are confident they can get the missed work done, and as long as their grades are good, I’m fine with them missing school.

That's great! After 5 days they send a threatening letter home in our district and threaten to hold back after 7. My daughter's a great student and I wish she could miss a bit more.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

That's great! After 5 days they send a threatening letter home in our district and threaten to hold back after 7. My daughter's a great student and I wish she could miss a bit more.

That’s crazy. As long as a students doing well that’s not the schools place. It should be the parents right to take their kid out of school however long they choose as long as their child’s not failing because of it. Imagine threatening to hold a student who’s doing well in school back because they missed 7 days, that’s crazy. Schools routinely pass kids who read well below grade level and can’t do basic math!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

85 days to go!!

I’m hoping the holidays in between now and then will make it go quick.
Had a “Trunk or Treat” at my kids school last night, so I hosted a Nightmare before Christmas trunk and it turned out so cute!



I’m also hosting a “Halloween movie night” this weekend, where we watch classic Halloween movies and I go all out making Halloween themed foods. The kids invite their friends and our friends come as well and it’s pretty popular. Here’s some pics from last years




We also host a popular monthly “Disney night” where I make food themed to the movie we’re watching and decorate accordingly too. That’s next weekend, we’re going to do Princess and the Frog. I’ll have to post pics sometime of some of our past Disney nights food, they’re so cute.

And then I’ll be hosting Thanksgiving for 26 people before too much longer, not to mention parties for the winter holidays, so time should fly by.

Sorry for the tangent. Keeping myself busy and occupied while I excitedly wait for vacation. We typically visit Disney in late November/early December so I feel like January is so far away, even though it’s only about a month after when I usually go.

Still haven’t booked the 11th yet, wanted Poly but can’t justify the cost so thinking POR or Caribbean beach since they both sleep 5 and there’s nothing available with DVC. Decisions, decisions!

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow I love your cooking and decorating! I'd be super interested to see your Disney nights food

Halloween is still becoming a thing here in Australia. I'd say it's probably still the minority that really do anything for it. Our ballroom studio puts on a Halloween dance, but most people just wear black or some sort of Halloween accessory rather than full costumes. What is a 'trunk or treat'?

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Wow I love your cooking and decorating! I'd be super interested to see your Disney nights food

Halloween is still becoming a thing here in Australia. I'd say it's probably still the minority that really do anything for it. Our ballroom studio puts on a Halloween dance, but most people just wear black or some sort of Halloween accessory rather than full costumes. What is a 'trunk or treat'?

A “trunk or treat” is where a bunch of people (usually sponsored by a school or church or some community organization) get together and decorate their car trunks and kids dress up in their Halloween costumes and go from trunk to trunk to trick or treat. There’s also music and food and a party atmosphere. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a shame Halloween hasn’t caught on in Australia, it’s really a lot of fun. The whole season is fun. I’ll definitely post some pics of some of our “Disney night” food some time soon, they’re a fun way of experiencing a little bit of Disney and looking forward to our trip. Hope your wedding and trip planning is going well!