Updated 12/23 - FARTS (with a side of Sesame and Universal) Jan 2023 PTR

[Araminta18]

Hi all!

I'm so not great with pre trip reports, but I need to get back into researching so starting this thread! I just (literally just) finished up our trip report from our Disneyland trip (with a side of Universal) last September (see my signature), and I'm currently in the middle of planning a trip in September to Paris (and of course Disneyland Paris), so I wasn't planning a DisneyWorld trip for the foreseeable future. But we have a couple that we're friends with who would like to go but don't really want to plan it, and in discussing things with them the other day...all four of us are going to go to DisneyWorld during Festival of the Arts next year! We're gonna do a day at Universal (or a day and a half), a half day or so at SeaWorld so they can see Sesame Street, and then 5 days at DisneyWorld.

Tentative plan:

• Fly in on Friday Jan 27th
• Stay at Universal, with check out on Sunday the 29th (debating between the deluxe hotels with the express pass or one of the cheaper Universal hotels and buying one day of express pass for Trevor and I) - mostly do Harry Potter
• Do Universal all day Saturday the 28th
• Sunday morning do Sesame Street (Sea World)
• Check in to Disney hotel Sunday afternoon (thinking Swolphin or Beach Club or Boardwalk...at the moment the Swolphin prices aren't great but we'll see)
• Disney Monday through Friday
• Fly home on Saturday the 4th

We've never done Universal Orlando, and Trevor doesn't like thrill rides, so we'd mostly be doing Harry Potter. We figure that's doable in a day if we have express pass and early morning admission (for Hagrid's since Hagrid's isn't part of the express pass). Our friends aren't ride junkies either, and would mostly hang out in Harry Potter area as well (but they've been to Universal Harry Potter land already). I do know enough to know we'd have to buy 2 park tickets so we can visit both Hogwarts and Hogsmeade!

I will say I'm totally thrown off by not being able to book things crazy far in advance -- no advance fastpasses, dining only 60 days out... I am hoping that park reservations or at the very least hopping only after 2 pm goes away by then, though I know it probably won't. This probably won't be a very active trip report until later this year when we start to get information about Festival of the Arts, but I'm excited! Now to figure out how to pay for it all...

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

I'm along for the ride! Looks like I'm planning a WDW trip for next year too - July though, for a Girl Scout event. I also have no idea how we will pay for it

Edited to add: Are you doing a ptr for the Paris trip? I love your approach to planning and would love to live vicariously through it!

 

[Araminta18]

I'm along for the ride! Looks like I'm planning a WDW trip for next year too - July though, for a Girl Scout event. I also have no idea how we will pay for it

Edited to add: Are you doing a ptr for the Paris trip? I love your approach to planning and would love to live vicariously through it!

Yay WDW trips! Plan it and the money will come, right?

I wasn't planning to do a PTR for the Paris trip, but I can def do bonus Paris posts here . It requires a lot less planning than WDW does! (or WDW used to... )

 

[DeeBee3]

You had me at "FARTS."

 

[Araminta18]

Disney Gift Card Deals + Bonus Disneyland Paris Planning!​

Ok, so I really (obviously) haven't done a lot of planning yet. Can't book Disney for 2023 yet; Universal Hotel prices seem a bit steep at the moment...basically we're in a holding pattern. But Meijer put Disney gift cards on a 10% off sale, so I grabbed $500 worth for $450 - not too shabby!

Really, hard to do any solid planning until we get the dates for FARTS announced, specifically the Broadway concert series (yes, no shame in planning the trip around the people they have coming! ) But in the meantime, I'm doing some Universal Research, 'cause I am 100% not at all familiar with Universal. First up - which hotel? Probably a deluxe so we get that included express pass, but none of the deluxes look super close to the parks? Any recommendations? It's just 4 adults (me and Trevor and our couple friends), and it's Trevor's and my first time at Universal. Our friends went once before to see Harry Potter land, but didn't stay onsite. So any reason to choose one over the others, let me know!

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Bonus Disneyland Paris content (feel free to ignore/skip! ) for @FeistyDisneyMom
Soooooo Disneyland Paris! We're going Sept 18th (my birthday!) to Sept 23rd - I'm spending the week before in Paris by myself (I've booked several tours already, but if anyone has any recs for good tour companies, send them my way please!) and then Trevor is joining me in Paris on the 18th. We'll do a whirlwind highlights tour of Paris so he can see the Arc de Triomphe, Eiffel Tower, etc, and then head out to Disneyland Paris! We fly out fairly early on the 23rd, so only 4 park days (well, 4.5 if you count the 18th). We're booked at the Hotel New York - Art of Marvel, which Trevor especially is excited about. It is interesting seeing the difference in booking between DLP and WDW - for DLP, the only thing you can book online is a package with the hotel and tickets, and you can't customize the tickets at all. If you're staying for 5 nights, 6 days, your only option is to get a package that comes with 6 days of park tickets. Which is irritating if you would like the option to save any money because you're not planning on going to the park on your last day. If you want to book hotel only, you have to call in.

​

That's eventually what I did: did a free trial on skype so I could call Paris without having to pay (bonus pro tip there), and then booked a single night with no tickets, in addition to the package that I'd booked online. It only ended up saving me like 150 euros or so, but *shrugs*. Also, if you're from the US, poke around the different regions on the site -- booking on the US site was much more expensive. I booked on the Irish site, paying in Euros (using a no fee for foreign transactions card), and saved money that way too.

So with our hotel all booked, including our tickets, the only thing left now is dining reservations. Which are a dumpster fire.

​

100% accurate representation.

So, get this: you can only make dining reservations on the app, or by calling their dining reservation line. Which has ridiculously long hold/wait times - like an hour at least. Which is pricey when you're calling from overseas. They say you can only make reservations two months in advance. But! none of that is true? They randomly update the app with reservations further out, and if you have linked your hotel/tickets package in the app you can book whatever restaurants they've put times/reservations in for, no matter how far out. And they have no rhyme or reason as to when they put reservations in to make them available for bookings? And sometimes they put in reservations for lunch but not dinner, and oh, they will allow you to book character dining and pay in advance if you do it on the website as an "add-on" to your package, even though those same character dining reservations aren't in the app....it is all chaos and I hate it.

​

All that to say, I've gotten booked everything I'm interested in, except for two: Cinderella character dining (Auberge de Cendrillon) and Walt's American Restaurant. And since there's no rhyme or reason to anything related to dining reservations, I just get to keep randomly checking the app. I'm in a couple fb groups for DLP planning but man the constant repetition of the same basic questions gets to me (does no one do a google search anymore?). Once I get those booked though, that's basically it!

​

I'm pretty excited, especially since the new Avengers Campus should be open by then (*fingers crossed*).

 

[KailaH]

Joining in for the ride! You have inspired me to start my Feb 2023 TR! I was scared it was too early, but I have been going crazy!

But in the meantime, I'm doing some Universal Research, 'cause I am 100% not at all familiar with Universal. First up - which hotel?

My favorite hotel is Cabana Bay! The theming is so fun, and the amenities cannot be beat. It does not offer express passes, but there is two pools, a lazy river, a bowling alley, in lobby bar, and the food is really good too! The deluxe resort I would choose is Loews (sp?) Portofino Bay

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

Thank you for the DLP update! I find it a bit hilarious and shocking that there is a Disney park with even weirder dining reservations than DLR! Glad you were able to get almost everything you wanted, and fingers crossed those last two fall in your lap too

I am definitely in a pre-planning phase - I might even pull the trigger and book a campsite. I'm thinking we'll do a RV rental there to stay onsite but keep costs down a bit. Otherwise I am looking at 2 rooms at a value hotel. I think either is doable!

I need to start finding these gift card deals! $50 in savings will add up!

 

[Araminta18]

Bonus Paris/Disneyland Paris Update!
​

I can't believe it that it's only about a month and a half until Paris! I've honestly been mostly focused on the Paris portion of my trip - trying to nail down all the tours I want to do when they're only offered at certain times and on certain days...it's like a giant game of Tetris! I think I've finally got it about set? If you're interested I'll post it when it's all final and nailed down. As far as Disneyland Paris, I'm at the point where I'm just kind of overwhelmed! Avengers Campus is open, and I'm excited...and I got all my dining reservations set but I'm nervous about how long the sit-down restaurants will take and eating up time there, but the places all look neat! I don't want to give anything up! So we'll just have to see and play it by ear - at least DLP has no penalty if you ditch a reservation. Not that I'm planning to do so, but at least I'll have the option for last minute cancelations.

Sunday, September 18th

• We'll be arriving, best case scenario, at 6 pm (Trevor will arrive in Paris at 11 am via train, and we'll be doing a private tour from 12 to 1, then a pastry/chocolate tour from 2 to 4 in Montmontre (I hope... ), and then we'll head to DLP from Gare de l'Est probably via uber). We have tickets for the first day so depending on park hours (which haven't been released yet and no, that doesn't bother me AT ALL...the below is not an actual gif of me...it's fine

​

• Anyways, back to Sunday. So depending on park hours, we'll probably drop luggage off at the hotel and then run into the park just for a tiny little bit...maybe see the castle or grab a snack (Croque Monsieurs from Market House Deli)...not sure. No real plan for this first night in the park. I currently have a reservation for the Manhattan Restaurant at 10:30 pm, which is definitely late, but it's at the hotel we're staying at, and I don't want to waste park time eating . Manhattan gets good reviews, so I figure this will be a good end to the night​

Monday, September 19th

• We'll probably start at Disney Studios and Avengers Campus! That's Trevor's big thing, and I'm hoping that the line to get into the land will have gone away by then. If the early morning hours come back though, we'll definitely be doing that -- gotta rope drop! And that's one of the perks of staying onsite, the extra hour in the morning, but they got rid of it in Disney Studios, which is a bummer. We have a reservation for Pym Kitchen at 12 noon, and then another reservation for Manhattan at 6:15 pm in case we ditch the reservation the night before.
• Maybe this will be when we catch the Mickey and the Magician show? 2:10 pm maybe?

Tuesday, September 20th

• We have dining with the princesses (Auberge de Cendrillon) at 12 :15 pm! Can't wait. Otherwise this will probably be a Disneyland day. I'm so excited to see Sleeping Beauty's castle -- Sleeping Beauty is my favorite princess and Disneyland's baby little castle doesn't count.
• Probably gonna catch Dream and Shine brighter today, 10:50 pm?
• And the parade at 5:30?

Wednesday, September 21st

• Back to Disney studios! We have Bistrot Chez Remy at 1:15 pm which I am SUPER excited about, and then at 8:15 pm, Pym Kitchen. We may not eat there again, but I'm keeping the reservation in case we need it to get into the land (if you have a reservation you don't have to wait in line for the land). We'll probably eat at the QS place, honestly - Stark Factory
• Probably catch Frozen show today? 10:30 am or 11:15

Thursday, September 22nd

• Back to Disneyland! We have a reservation at Walt's at 11:45 am. I'm not that enthused about the menu, actually, but it looks like a fun place to eat so...keeping this for now. We'll see. Then at 7:45 pm, Pym Kitchen again. We'll probably cancel this one
• Probably see the Lion King today? We'll see.

Friday, September 23rd

• breakfast at the hotel, then off to the airport. We fly out at 11:55 am, so it will have to be an early breakfast. Hopefully the crazy lines for security and stuff will have died down so we can get there at 8:55 am and have plenty of time.

Somewhere in there I definitely want to meet Phantom Manor Mickey, as well as Mary and Bert, and ride all the rides. Trevor's gonna up his thrill quotient and ride both Hyperspace Mountain and the Avengers Campus roller coaster.

So yea...it's gonna be exciting but I'm also a bit overwhelmed by the unfamiliarity of it all! We'll see how it goes...the whole bit of not speaking French is also making me nervous. I'm sure it will be fine, but it's just all the craziness at the moment that's overwhelming me.

Which is partially why I started planning, a bit more concretely, the DisneyWorld trip in January/February! DisneyWorld is comforting and familiar...can't wait! Look out for a post from me tomorrow about the plans on that trip.

 

[Araminta18]

Ok, Disney/Universal content! We have final dates and flights and (sort of) hotels!

We had a planning session with our friends, and now I get to really dive in and do the planning. I've not paid any attention to anything about G+ or ILL or VQs, since our last trip was before all of that really. So I have a bunch of questions, and would appreciate all the help and any pointers to any good threads you've got.

So we've booked flights! We're flying Southwest (2 free bags!)

• Friday, Jan 27th: DC down to Orlando - we leave at 1:30ish, and arrive around 4:30ish.
  
  • Check into Loew's Royal Pacific
• Saturday Jan 28th: Universal - Harry Potter! and Velocicoaster Any rumors on when Velocicoaster and Hagrid's will be added to express pass?
• Sunday Jan 29th: Sesame street at Sea World, then check in at Disney (debating between Beach Club and Swolphin )
  
  • dinner at Wine Bar George at Disney Springs!
• Monday - Friday Jan 30th-Feb 3rd - DISNEY! Not sure on the days yet
  
  • the whole park pass and no park-hopping til 2 thing is just lame. I like this not at all. FARTS is our main priority, but I feel like Epcot is kind of a lame park for a park reservation considering most stuff doesn't open til later, so yea. I'll have to see.
• Sat Feb 4th - we fly back home at 4:30, and land at like 6:30 ish

Now, for all my questions!

• when do park hours get released? with EMH and night time extra hours? Currently looks like they're only 70 days out?
  
  • we'll be staying at either Beach Club or Swolphin, so we should get both early extra hours and night time extra hours. the 30 extra minutes in the morning is available every day right?

• Park reservations and ILLs/VQs - do I have to have a reservation for the park in order to get an ILL or VQ for a ride in that park? Could I get a VQ for Guardians if my park reservation is for Magic Kingdom? Can I buy ILL at 7 am for ride I don't have a park pass for? (ie, i have a park pass for Magic Kingdom but I buy an ILL for Guardians?)
• Is it still true that you can only purchase 2 ILLs a day? So if I buy an ILL for Guardians, I can buy one for Star wars, but I couldn't buy a third for Seven Dwarves? (if so, LAME Disney. Let me give you my money.)
• any rumors of rides moving in/out of ILL/G+ in the nearish future?
• Dining reservations - 70 days out if staying on site, right?
• Any rumors of annual pass sales coming back? Anyone have the old prices? Trying to think if an AP may be worth it for us, assuming the sales come back...
• Hotel discounts: any general idea on when discounts for Disney in Jan 2023 will drop? Also, I have no experience with Universal - any idea on when/if there will be discounts for Universal?
• General Universal tips: anything we should know if we want to do Harry Potter and Velocicoaster, and we'll stay at a hotel with express passes?
• disney gift card deals? Anything coming up? I'm stalkign the gift card thread, but curious if there are any predictable ones that are coming up soon

Phew! That's it for now. thanks for any help/pointers - you all are the best!

 

[Araminta18]

More Bonus Disneyland Paris content!​

I'm pretty sure no one is reading these, but...don't care

We are 17 days out from the start of our trip, and 28 days out from our check-in to Disneyland Paris...I can't wait! I'm super super super burned out at work (I have a lead on a new position internally...so wish me luck with that) and I desperately need a long vacation. Trevor and I have been trying to get our carry-ons and luggage all set (why are international carry-ons so much smaller than US carry-ons? And why is there a weight limit on carry-ons?!), and while this trip will have pretty well gutted my leave balance, I figured out I'll just work some extra hours the week before and take off the day we leave (since we leave at like 10:30 pm) to get everything set before we go. We also are flying out of the Baltimore airport (which is like an hour from our house), and we need to be there right in the middle of DC rush hour, so we decided to rent a car and drive ourselves up there and drop it at the airport. Only $46! That's way cheaper than an uber and gives us a bit more flexibility. We fly back into Dulles airport which is significantly nearer our house and less of a pain to get to, so we'll ask a friend to pick us up.

I think I've got all my Paris stuff basically set - I'm starting to get a little bit worried about pickpockets when I'm on the train with all my luggage so wish me luck. And I'm getting pretty well-set for Disneyland Paris! They've finally posted park hours (well, for the first few days but I assume they'll be the same the whole time we're there): 9:30 to 9 pm for both parks, with an extra magic hour at Disneyland Paris from 8:30 to 9:30. I'm a little sad it won't be open til 11, but Trevor is excited cause you know me - I'd 100% stay til 11 and if it closes at 9, then we'll leave at 9. I think the nighttime show will be at 9 pm, so that'll be good (no losing park time to the night time show).

With the release of park hours, they've also updated the refurbishments calendar...and I'm super disappointed. Ratatouille and Indiana Jones are both closed for the Monday and Tuesday (and presumably Wednesday and Thursday too) that we're there. I really wanted to ride Indiana Jones, even though I know what everyone says about it being old and rattly and not worth my time - I still wanted to ride it. Ratatouille though...that might be a possibility! Walt Disney Studios is open til 9 pm, and we should (hopefully) make it to the park before then...so definitely gonna head there first and try and ride the original Ratatouille! I told Trevor and he was like "can we buy the fastpasses for that ride ahead of time?! we have to make sure we ride it!" So...that clears up my concern about what to do our first night.

Sunday, September 18th - parks close at

• Best case scenario, we'll arrive at 7 pm. Parks close at 9, but we're running to Ratatouille! We'll arrive, drop our stuff at the hotel, get our tickets, and then run over to Walt Disney Studios (we may/will probably buy the fastpass )
• After Ratatouille, it's kind of up to whatever we want. We may hang out at Avengers Campus - see it at night. Or we may run over to Disneyland Paris and watch the night time shows. The world is our palm tree (shout out to Tim Tracker )
• I'm wondering if Avengers Campus will still stay open til 10:30 -- currently it says Avengers Campus will stay open til 10:30 "all summer long"...not sure what that means but I have a sneaking suspicion that it'll close early when the normal park hours go back to 9 pm. But if it does stay open til 10:30...could we leave Studios, go to Disneyland for the fireworks, and then go back for Avengers Campus? ie enter Studios after the park has closed but Avengers Campus is still open?
• We have a dinner reservation at Manhattan Restaurant at 10:30 pm at our hotel, which is a bit late, but...could still work.

Monday, September 19th

• The plan is to start at Disneyland Park! Extra Magic Hours start at 8:30, so I figure if we leave the hotel at 7:30 we should be at the front of the rope drop crowd...
• Where are we ropedropping? The Fantasyland rides that don't have fast pass lines! We've made peace with the fact that we're ok with buying the fastpasses for any long lines, so we want to knock out the rides that do get somewhat long lines (I consider anything more than 20 minutes to be a long line ) and don't have fastpass lines. So we'll rope drop Peter Pan and then just work our way around.
• Breakfast croque monsiuer from Main Street Deli maybe? or pastry from Cable Car Bakeshop?
• I really want to meet Mickey in his Phantom Manor outfit, and I think he starts meeting at 10:45, so we'll probably ride Phantom Manor and then try and meet him.
• Lunch: Pym Kitchen at 12 noon! So over to Studios we'll go
• Maybe this will be when we catch the Mickey and the Magician show? 2:10 pm maybe? Though they say to get there 30 min early, so 1:40 pm
• The Avengers Campus rides are unpredictable - so if they're short we may ride them
• Really we're just doing lots of riding of rides - maybe the Toy Story rides if they have short lines? Since they don't have fastpasses either...
• Dinner: Captain Jack at 6:15 pm.
  
  • I am a bit concerned about how long the sitdown restaurants will take, but we'll see...hopefully it's not too bad and we can get a seat near the waterfront.
• Definitely want to see the fireworks show!

Tuesday, September 20th

• I think we're going to ropedrop Disneyland Park again, and this time ropedrop Tomorrowland (Astro Orbiter, Space... )
• Catch the 10:50 Dream and Shine Brighter show
• Lunch: We have dining with the princesses (Auberge de Cendrillon) at 12 :15 pm! Can't wait.
• Poke around the castle, look at the mobiles...
• Catch the parade at 5:30 pm
• Dinner: No dinner plans, really. I may try for Downtown restaurant...but maybe not. We may just try one of the counter service in the parks: Fuente del Oro, or wander over to Studios and try Super Diner or something from one of the booths over there. Dunno!
• Maybe the fireworks again?

Wednesday, September 21st

• Gonna ropedrop Disney Studios I think! Crush's Coaster...anything else that may be short...who knows.
• However, we have to head back to Disneyland so we can be at the gazebo by 11:15ish. Why? I want to meet Mary and Bert! They apparently meet at the Gazebo in Disneyland from about 12 to 12:45, and I want to make sure we meet them, so I want to make sure we're there early and can meet them.
• Lunch: then we have to run back over to Disney Studios because we have Bistrot Chez Remy at 1:15 pm which I am SUPER excited about
• Dinner: we have a Pym Kitchen reservation but we'll probably cancel it. Probably dinner at Stark Factory

Thursday, September 22nd

• Not sure what we'll rope drop today!
• Lunch: We have a reservation at Walt's at 11:45 am. I'm not that enthused about the menu, actually, but it looks like a fun place to eat so...keeping this for now. We'll see.
• Dinner: Pym Kitchen reservation at 7:45...we'll probably cancel this and do more of the other food from Avengers Campus

Friday, September 23rd

• breakfast at the hotel, then off to the airport. We fly out at 11:55 am, so it will have to be an early breakfast. Hopefully the crazy lines for security and stuff will have died down so we can get there at 8:55 am and have plenty of time.

So yea! I need to plan out which ears and the shirts we're going to wear...that'll probably be my next post, unless Disney does anything weird with the hours or closures or things.

 

[Araminta18]

I'm back! We had an amazing time in Paris and Disneyland Paris, though I think WDW is still my favorite. But I kind of want to do a trip report for the whole trip? Would anyone be interested? Though let's be real, even if no one is interested I may still do it

some teaser pictures...

 

[Araminta18]

Disney finally announced dates for Festival of the Arts! January 13 through February 20, 2023, so yes, our dates are definitely in the sweet spot. Now we just have to wait for more information...never my strong suit.

I did find our Universal hotel on Priceline for about $150 cheaper, so I booked that. Anyone have any troubles with hotel bookings on priceline? I've booked them a couple times at Disney and it went fine, but never at Universal. But I figured for $150, why not

Also, I'm thinking of booking a couple of the dining packages - Fantasmic dining package, and maybe the Festival of the Arts Broadway Concert Package. Not sure yet if it'll be worth it, but I'm thinking about it.

Mostly I just want more details! Come on Disney!

 

[Araminta18]

I need more details about the festival! I hate waiting. But at least it's getting close(ish) to the time to make dining reservations! Below is my tentative plan/schedule for Disney, including the ADRs I want to make:

• Sunday the 29th: Disney Springs, with a 6:15 ADR at Wine Bar George (already made). Trevor and I are tossing around the idea of doing Trader Sams after this...but we'll see.
• Monday the 30th: Animal Kingdom, with a lunch ADR at Sanaa.
• Tuesday the 31st: Hollywood Studios, with a lunch ADR/Fantasmic Dining Package at Hollywood Brown Derby
• Wednesday Feb 1st: Magic Kingdom, with a lunch ADR at Be our Guest and then an After-Fireworks Dessert Party.
• Thursday Feb 2nd: Epcot, with a breakfast ADR at Garden Grill for the Broadway concert reserved dining package
• Friday Feb 3rd: Magic Kingdom, though planning to rope drop Gideon's at Disney Springs too Maybe a late lunch Skipper Canteen ADR (time to get to Gideon's and back...)
• Saturday Feb 4th: Hollywood Studios

For all of these, the plan is to likely do Epcot in the later afternoons/evening - enjoy the festival booths, etc. But for the ADRs, this is still fairly tentative, as which days we do the Fantasmic Dining Package and the MK Fireworks party will depend on who the Broadway singers are at Epcot, as that's my priority. I have no doubt they'll release who the singers are after all these go live for making reservations, so we'll just have to hope flexibility is possible.

Trevor and I are leaning towards getting the fancy new magic bands (*sigh* I know, we're part of the problem), but I still have to talk to our friends about if they want magic bands, 'cause they'll probably stay at the Swan.

Have I mentioned I hate waiting?

 

[Araminta18]

I forgot to drop the link here, but I finally started my Disneyland Paris trip report! Come follow along if you're interested - there likely won't be an update on the WDW trip until after I make ADRs.

"But Your Back is Broken!" WDWers do Disneyland Paris - A Sept 2022 TR

ALSO! Last year Disney announced the Broadway Concert lineup on Nov 23rd (2021). Last year they announced the Festival of the Arts on Oct 21 (2021); this year they announced the Festival on Oct 27th (2022). So if the pattern holds, they'll announce the concert lineup on Nov 29th...here's hoping!

 

[Araminta18]

Only 55 days to go! Disney was kind enough to announce the Broadway concert series just in time for me to make reservations, so that helped, as I did switch around my park days based on who was singing on which days.

So here's the tentative plan!
Times - Starting at 5:30 PM, 6:45 PM and 8:00 PM

Monday, Jan 30th:
Animal Kingdom in the morning, and then Epcot in the evening.

• I want to stop at Nomad Lounge when it opens (11ish), but we also kind of want to do a lunch at Sanaa (bread service!). I made a 2:55 pm Sanaa lunch ADR, but I figure it's Sanaa...if we want to show up early that's probably fine
• Possible nap
• Evening at Epcot!
  
  • I wanna catch the Broadway concert (with Patti Murin (Frozen) and Robert Creighton (Frozen). Those are at 5:30, 6:45, and 8 pm - so probably the 5:30 show
  • 6:35 pm reservation at Space 220 Lounge - I figure that'll be a fun Epcot intro
  • Harmonious at 9 pm
  • Extra Evening Hours at Epcot - closes at 11 pm, so hopefully the Festival booths are still open and Festival things are happening

Tuesday Jan 31st:
Epcot day!

• I'm trying to decide if we want La Creperie de Paris for breakfast or lunch - I have a lunch reservation now but trying to decide if I should switch it.
• We may decide to do the Broadway dining package, though none of the restaurants look all that great to me, so maybe not.
• I made another reservation for the Space 220 lounge at 5:40 pm - not sure if we'll want to do it today or yesterday.
• We have to see the Broadway concert tonight too: Mandy Gonzalez (Aida) and L. Steven Taylor (The Lion King)! I love Mandy Gonzalez, so I'm excited. Probably the 6:45 pm or even 8 pm show
• Not sure if we'll see Harmonious again tonight...it'll depend

Wed Feb 1st:
Magic Kingdom!

• 12:10 pm: Be Our Guest lunch!
• 7:15 pm: MK Fireworks Dessert After party
• Extra Evening Hours tonight: closes at midnight!

Thursday Feb 2nd
Hollywood Studios Day!

• 12 noon Hollywood Brown Derby. I really want the Fantasmic Dining Package, but they haven't released it yet. So I have this restaurant reservation
• 6 pm: Oga's Cantina
• 8 pm - Fantasmic!

Friday Feb 3rd
MK (maybe) in the early morning, then Epcot in the afternoon

• rope drop Gideon's at Disney Springs! They have that rainbow frosting cake every Friday and I really want it, so I'm determined this year to actually get it. They open at 10 am
  
  • also maybe rice krispies from Goofy's? those custom ones are my fave
• Jock Lindsay's for an early lunch/snack
• Magic Kingdom early dinner at Skipper Canteen
• Then over to Epcot for food booths and Broadway!

Saturday Feb 4th (departure day )

• Honestly, I haven't yet decided if we want to do Epcot or Hollywood Studios today. We'll be picked up for our flight at around 1:30 pm, so no park hopping for us today (unless Iger fixes that.... )
• We'll probably decide once we're there - its looking like the only park that is sold out most of the time is MK

I also bought our Universal and DisneyWorld tickets over Black Friday, and the Universal hotel is already booked as well as flights... Oh! I didn't mention it here! A friend of a friend of ours had a DVC reservation at Boardwalk for exactly the time we were there, but something came up and they couldn't use it. So they offered it to us for a decent price, so I jumped on that. Definitely better than rack rate at Beach Club! So now we're staying at Boardwalk. I'm slightly disappointed to not be staying at Beach Club (since I've never stayed there and wanted to up my Disney hotel count ) but not too much - we love Boardwalk and are excited to go back.

 

[Araminta18]

I was checking Priceline today and somebody must be drunk, because Portofino Bay had Bay View rooms for $339! Which was about $20 cheaper than the current regular room we had at Royal Pacific, so I totally switched us. Boom!

 

[Araminta18]

Is it time to go yet? I hate waiting...I just want to be at Disney now!

I think the last thing I have to book is getting from the airport to the hotel. I've basically decided to go with Away We Go. It's slightly cheaper than Tiffany Town Car and I won't have to worry about having too much luggage or anything.

There's no buses from the theme parks to Disney Springs, right? Google seems to indicate no, but I was thinking that there used to be? At some point? maybe only after 4 pm? Am I just making that up?

And one last question: Sunday is gonna be the weird day. We check out of Universal, but before we go to Disney, our friends want to stop by Sea World and see Sesame Street at Sea World. But I'm a little perplexed on the best way to do the transfer - if we check out at Universal and leave our bags at Bell Services, we'll have to go back to Universal to pick up the bags and then head to Disney. There aren't big enough lockers at Sea World for us to take the bags with us, and renting a car for a day or for the whole Universal part of our trip isn't cost effective, what with the daily parking fees and everything. Are there any other possible options that I'm just not thinking of? Otherwise we'll just suck it up and go back to Universal after Sea World and then onward to Disney.

Also I was doing my whole plan document (a day-by-day itinerary with all our reservations and my notes of things I want to do, etc), and I realized that we have to leave for the airport at 2 pm...which means unless we do an Epcot park reservation on our last day, we won't have time to hop over to Epcot and ride Guardians before we have to go to the airport. BOB IGER PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ABOLISH 2 PM PARK HOPPING!!!

 

[Araminta18]

BEST DAY EVER!

Not only did my magic bands arrive in time for me to give them as Christmas gifts….

But my friend came back from Disney and brought me

GIDEONS!!!! Love those cookies so much.

 

[Araminta18]

We go to Disney this month! Can't wait!

They finally announced all the artist schedules so I've been going through and figuring out where and when the artists that I want to see will be. I probably won't make it to everyone but at least this way I've got a plan, and then I can deviate as necessary.

I'm also trying to finalize all our dining. I definitely want to eat at all the food booths...I love the FARTS food booths! But I definitely want to eat at La Creperie and Space 220, and then I'm debating on whether or not to do a Broadway Concert dining package, and if so, where? We've never eaten at Le Cellier, but that seems awfully expensive and awfully heavy for a lunch. Spice Road Table is the cheapest reservation you can make and I liked it when I ate there before; Regal Eagle is the cheapest but its standby only. And the last time I did FARTS we didn't even really need a dining package....so I dunno. I'm conflicted!

Otherwise though, I think it's just a waiting game until they release the food booth menus. Can't wait!

 

[Araminta18]

They released the food booth menus! Huzzah! I already went through and figured out our list: We have 18 things we both said "yes" to; 9 things that one of us said "yes" and the other said "maybe"; 8 things we both said "maybe" to; 7 things where one of us said "maybe" and the other said "no"; and then 4 things we both said "no" to. We'll see how much we actually get through.

Also I finally remembered to renew my Touring Plans subscriptions, and found out that Rock the Universe is happening the Saturday we planned to go... blergh. I'm hoping it won't be a big deal - any tips or comments on that? We'll have express pass, but I really don't want it to be super crowded. Also, anyone else find Universal's website to be difficult to navigate? Good grief. We may need to switch days...do a half day on Saturday and then go to Sea World and then do another half/almost full day on Sunday when Touring Plans says it will be less crowded.