Going back to the World in Sept! (Update: Today is DISNEY DAY!)

[JustCor]

Hello everyone! I'm still getting back into the everyday grind after doing a trip to WDW. I had a fun time and did the TR stuff if anyone is interested:

The Pre-Game
The Party
The After Party

There are a few other trip reports from earlier stays, but I'm tired and lazy at the moment, so we'll stick to the those.

While setting everything up for that trip, I managed to book a follow-up trip for September. Until very recently, I've neglected to do much actual planning for that trip, instead sinking my time into planning the August getaway.

Where are my manners? Introductions are in order:

Me: Corey. 36. Still childish. Sometimes moderately intelligent. Currently listening to the Cake station on Pandora. Currently not eating actual cake.

Where am I going: Disney World!
Where am I staying: All-Star Movies
What am I doing: Rides and food
When am I going: September 20th through September 23rd

So, we've got the intros covered. We'll start breaking into the details shortly.

1: I've got a (dining) plan!
2: Getting the band back together
3: The Fast Pass and the Furious
4: It's all about stuffing my face

 

[JustCor]

A couple of firsts

Right off the bat, there have been a few changes. When this was originally booked, I was staying at POR. I was looking forward to going back again. I stayed at POR in February, and it's been my favorite of all the resorts so far. It seemed to be big enough, quiet enough, and priced fair enough that it felt like a pretty good deal. Some last minute financial stuff got in the way this time, so I changed my resort selection to All-Star Movies. This will be my first time in a value.

I'll be honest. I've written off values in the past. The decor is a little bit much for my tastes, and I get the impression they're louder and busier than other resorts. But, I'm unfairly judging them without actually having experienced them. So, this will be my chance to give one of them a fair shake. Secretly, I'm hoping for an upgrade, and not even because it's a value resort. I just would like to experience being upgraded. I had that hope when I stayed at AKL and Poly as well. It has nothing to do with the resorts and everything to do with just wanting to say that it happened to me.

I'm a weirdo like that.

The big deal for me on this trip is that I will be using the Disney Dining Plan for the first time. All of my other trips have had the food be all out of pocket. I'm kind of interested in seeing how it works out for me. The ADRs for my previous trips have all been more fun to plan out than the FP+ selections, so I'm looking forward to seeing how I can maximize the value of the DDP with careful restaurant selections.

One other thing that I'm really looking forward to is MNSSHP. I'll be there the first week it starts up, so I can add that to my agenda. I need to get a costume. I haven't dressed up for Halloween in a looooonnnnnggggg time. I don't even know where to begin on that. That'll be more planning to attend to at some point. I need to figure out which day I'll be going an plan that one out as my MK day. I believe (don't hold me to it) that the available dates are the Sunday that I arrive and then Tuesday. Tuesday may be the way to go. Last trip I figured that MK is a little busier on Sunday than during the week, so moving that day out to a Tuesday may make the crowds a little easier to navigate.

So, I've got a small bit of a framework to plan this all around. I've got some work to do.

 

[JustCor]

Add it to the collection

Alright, sweet! Do I need another Magic Band? Of course not. With this one inbound, the only color I'm missing now is Pink, and I don't think I'll be needing that one. Next trip, no more Magic Band, unless a new color comes out.

 

[JustCor]

Plans made to be broken

Ok, let's see what I've got set up so far:

****Updated 8/29****

 

[Gma2lillybean]

Hi Corey! I just finished enjoying your last TR and hopped over to the PTR page to make some updates on our PTR and found this!

It looks like we are going to be arriving at WDW on the same day and attending the same MNSSHP!! Maybe we will run into you there…

I would like to offer you one VERY IMPORTANT piece of advice regarding costumes: make sure you are comfortable and able to be cool in whatever you choose!!! Seriously, I can’t stress this enough We (myself 47, DS20, DIL19 and my granddaughter-11 months) attended our first MNSSHP in mid-September last year and were at first very excited with the prospect of dressing up for Halloween; however, having spent many Septembers in central FL (my parents live there and low crowds at WDW), I was all too familiar with the heat/humidity that is September in central FL, so we chose simple and cool Minnie/Mickey Mouse costumes (black shorts/skirts, polka dot top, ears, etc.) to combat the heat but enjoy the party and it worked fairly well. I will say that we were AMAZED at some of the costumes (including makeup, wigs, heavy gowns/coats, high heels, etc.) people showed up in!! They were gorgeous, but OMG I would have died of heat exhaustion just walking up from the bus stop!


This year, my granddaughter will be almost 2, and she is all about the princesses, so the three girls (Lilly, her mommy and myself) are dressing up as princesses and my son will be Prince Charming! I found a simple, Cinderella-blue chiffon prom dress on clearance for $25 at JCPenney last week, so hopefully, other than looking like a really old version of Cinderella, I should be comfortable temperature-wise…

 

[JustCor]

Hi Corey! I just finished enjoying your last TR and hopped over to the PTR page to make some updates on our PTR and found this!

It looks like we are going to be arriving at WDW on the same day and attending the same MNSSHP!! Maybe we will run into you there…

I would like to offer you one VERY IMPORTANT piece of advice regarding costumes: make sure you are comfortable and able to be cool in whatever you choose!!! Seriously, I can’t stress this enough We (myself 47, DS20, DIL19 and my granddaughter-11 months) attended our first MNSSHP in mid-September last year and were at first very excited with the prospect of dressing up for Halloween; however, having spent many Septembers in central FL (my parents live there and low crowds at WDW), I was all too familiar with the heat/humidity that is September in central FL, so we chose simple and cool Minnie/Mickey Mouse costumes (black shorts/skirts, polka dot top, ears, etc.) to combat the heat but enjoy the party and it worked fairly well. I will say that we were AMAZED at some of the costumes (including makeup, wigs, heavy gowns/coats, high heels, etc.) people showed up in!! They were gorgeous, but OMG I would have died of heat exhaustion just walking up from the bus stop!


This year, my granddaughter will be almost 2, and she is all about the princesses, so the three girls (Lilly, her mommy and myself) are dressing up as princesses and my son will be Prince Charming! I found a simple, Cinderella-blue chiffon prom dress on clearance for $25 at JCPenney last week, so hopefully, other than looking like a really old version of Cinderella, I should be comfortable temperature-wise…

Maybe we'll run into each other! I need to figure out this whole costume thing. I'll definitely be keeping the heat in mind now, thank you! I might have an idea, but I'll need to start finding bits and pieces. I have friends who are exceedingly crafty. I may enlist their help.

 

[Gma2lillybean]

I would definitely encourage you to enlist the help of your crafty friends!! That can make such an awesome difference in having a truly unique costume!

 

[JustCor]

Here thar be food

I've been doing a lot of reading on quite a few of the Disney restaurants as I try to figure out how I want to use the Disney Dining Plan. I would like to get a good value out of it, of course, but I'd like to also use it as an excuse to try restaurants that I probably wouldn't have considered otherwise for whatever reason. So, with that in mind, I wrote down a list of the restaurants I've been to already and tried to cross them off. If it's not taking DDP, I've also crossed it off. Now, it's just a matter of finding the right ones.

I have three table service selections to make, and three counter service restaurants, as well as three snack credits. I'm less concerned about the counter service selections. If nothing else, I'd be more than happy to hit up Friar's Nook every day and get a big bowl of mac and cheese, and it would be worth every credit. Same for the snack credit. I can easily pop three snack credits.

The table service selections, so far, have been far more difficult. Do I plan dinner by the park that I'm in? Do I do all dinners? Do I add breakfasts? Character meals? All buffets?

Tough choices, especially when I tend to want to change my selections about as often as I change my underwear. This time, I'm going to try and stick with my selections. It'd be too easy to fall back on the comfortable stuff like Boma for breakfast every day. That would eat up my selections. Still, that's no fun. Where's the fun? Where's the adventure? Where's the fun? It's time to find that next thing that I would look forward to going to.

So, with all that in mind, and a rear-end load of reviews sifted through, my food planning begins. And, luckily for me, selections have been made. Here's what I've got so far:

Sunday:
Chefs de France

Monday:
Cape May Cafe

Tuesday:
Nothing yet

Wednesday:
Nothing yet

I've just noticed it's already Epcot area focused. Can't be helped. Sunday I'll be at Hollywood Studios for at least part of the day. I'd like to take the boat from DHS to Epcot for dinner, and have planned enough time between my fast passes and my dinner ADR to keep it leisurely. Monday has yet to be planned out in terms of fast passes. With Cape May on the agenda, an Epcot day seems reasonable, though I'm still not set on that one. I could be convinced to hit up AK, since I kind of skipped it this last trip. I'll mull it over over the next few days.

Tuesday is the wild card. It's an MK day. The one MK restaurant I really wanted to try (Liberty Tree Tavern) is closed the entire time I'm there. Crap. There's nothing else in MK itself that I care to try. So, do I try to keep it semi-close and hit up one of the restaurants in the mono resorts, or plan out something at DTD semi early? However I do it, the plan is to make it back to the resort to shower and change into my costume for MNSSHP and then make my way to MK. I think that means dinner no later than 5pm. The other option I'm mulling over is doing a breakfast and then a counter service meal for dinner (Friar's Nook!). 1900 Park Fare does have Alice at the breakfast buffet. That's a pretty tempting thing, though I tend to prefer my meals to be sans character interaction. I just don't look pleasant in pictures while chowing down. Unless someone wants to put me on a spit and roast my succulent body on an open flame for all to enjoy, I prefer to enjoy my meals with a certain level of privacy. At least, as much privacy as can be found on Disney grounds. Still... Alice.

I've made no further fast pass choices. I think I just have one day to really plan out, so it shouldn't be too much of a hassle. One day for fast pass, one day for food. I've got this.

27 days left.

 

[JustCor]

Stuff me with candy and roll me home

First an update/test:

If the picture worked, then I've figured out my picture posting solution. If not, there's a blank space baby, but I won't be writing any names.

My Magic Band arrived today. It's getting real. Again. I know I just got back from a trip recently, but it's just as exciting getting the band in the mail and counting down to the the next trip.

I also purchased my MNSSHP ticket! September 22nd is go for candy! I can't begin to describe my level of excitement for this. I seriously need to figure out a costume now.

More updates later.

 

[JustCor]

Looks like the picture worked. Sweet! That was easy.

 

[JustCor]

Value versus Happiness

I have one more meal to choose to use up my DDP choices. I've come to realize something very important and kind of unfortunate:

The Disney Dining Plan does not work for me.

It has changed the way I select my ADRs, and I don't think it's for the better. I'm looking for restaurants that are just expensive, but still within the confines of my level of the dining plan. I've completely dismissed restaurants because the highest priced item is below some kind of threshold in my brain that I feel like I need to hit in order to get the most value out of my dining plan. I'm not putting the food first. To be fair, I enjoy a buffet, and the DDP is a great way to experience them.

Ok, enough grousing about a trip to Disney. That's completely not necessary.

Back to selections. This last selection is proving to be the most difficult. There are circumstances to contend with, naturally. The day that I'm planning is also the day I go to MNSSHP. I'd like to do an early enough dinner that I can get back to the resort to shower up and get into costume and make my way to MK. With that in mind, I don't really think it'll matter where I go for food because I will have to eventually make my way back to the resort regardless. So, I have options. The other option is to do a breakfast and do some light eating through the rest of the day.

My brain is stuck. Again. And it feels like the Disney Dining Trap.

Let's discuss options for a moment. Maybe writing it out will provide some clarity. Here are my thoughts:

Dinner options
- Yak and Yeti - I've had an ADR here before, though briefly. It ended up getting cancelled so that I could pick somewhere else. This is a selection where I know, right off the bat, what I'm ordering, because there's only one meal there that I want: Kobe Beef Burger. It's very tempting. I love a good burger. In fact, burgers are my favorite food. I will take a good burger over a good steak almost every time. I could eat burgers every day. The caveat is that I've had kobe burgers twice before, and I haven't been super impressed. The meat is almost too tender to be put in burger form. It makes the consistency of the burger too fine, and borderline mushy. The taste is great, but the texture doesn't add up. Still, I see the potential of it. A very course grind to the meat could maintain the texture component and maintain the kobe beef flavor. It's tempting to try it to see if they've managed to make it in a way that I would prefer it to a normal burger, but that's a tough one.
- Grand Floridian Cafe - This is also another burger selection. How could I not be tempted by a Surf and Turf burger? It's very tempting actually. I'd love to try it, though I'm not sure if this is the trip for it. It's up there though.
- Boma - I've been to Boma for breakfast before, and I loved it. It was excellent. I've been to Tusker, and I hear this buffet selection is similar to that. I like that it's not a character dining experience. Still, I've been to Boma prior and I'm trying to stick to new places. True, I haven't had their dinner, but this feels a tiny bit like cheating.

Breakfast options
- Boma - This is beyond cheating and breaking my own breakable rule. I've had Boma for breakfast before and it was excellent. I'd be very tempted to deat it again.
- 1900 Park Fare - Character buffet... meh. Alice? I'm interested. The food seems to be fairly reviewed across different threads and websites. Still, it's a character meal, and it's just one of those things that I'm questionable on.

Option three
- Signature restaurant - I could always change another of my ADRs to a fine dining/signature restaurant instead. That'd cover my DDP credits, and it'd open things up to some of the better reviewed restaurants. It's an interesting idea that I'm mulling over in my head.

Food choices are always the tough choices. Sometime in the future, I need to figure out my empty day for FP+ selections. Time's is slowly disappearing.

24 Days to Go

 

[JustCor]

Get me my finest sheet and a pair of scissors

I don't know what kind of costume to get. I have no idea what to go as. Do I just get a regular costume or do I find some kind of Disney theme? Are there male, adult, Disney themed costumes that aren't a prince? I don't see myself as the price type. They seem to be boringly generic. I'm prodding my crafty friends for some help, but they're not exactly Disney types.

Costume problems aside, I think I may turn my empty day into a park hopper day. I did it with my first visit to Disney World last year and had a lot of fun. I ended up hitting all of the parks in one day. I was able to hope on one or two rides or see things at each park before hopping a bus/mono/boat to the next park. With a little careful planning, I can fill a sun up to sun down kind of day.

In fact, as I write all of this out, my brain keeps adding more ideas to this idea. I've never done a rope drop at any of the parks. Perhaps I can start with a rope drop and end with fireworks at MK. I'm like this idea. I need to really look at how best to accomplish this without burning myself out. That's a whole lotta Disney time, but the more I think of it, the more I see it happening.

So, I'm penciling that in. Monday is all day Disney.

We're getting somewhere!

 

[JustCor]

Another piece of the puzzle

Just a short update today. Nothing too fancy schmancy. It took a little bit of reading and coin flipping, but I've managed to pick my final ADR for the DDP: Spice Road Table. A majority of the reviews seem to be quite positive, and I'm looking forward to trying something a little bit out of the norm. I'm looking forward to a little bit of change. So, yay! I've been doing a half planning type of thing with the quick service stuff. Friar's Nook and the delicious Pot Roast Mac and Cheese will easily consume one of those credits. I could be tempted to use all of my quick service credits on just that, but I will attempt to curb my appetite for it.

I'm ready for my vacation now. Please advance time by three weeks. Gracias.

 

[JustCor]

One burger, please

I've added one additional day to this trip, kinda sorta. Wednesday is checkout day. Normally, checkout day for me is just throwing all of my crap in my car, hitting up a gas station to feed my car and me, and taking a 2 hour trek back home to go back to work the next day. It seemed like a waste of a potential day at the parks. So, this time around, I added an extra day off from work to give me a full day home to recover and get back into a work routine. With the extra time, I decided to plan out another day.

With that in mind, here's a quick look at Wednesday:

This day exists because I really want to try the surf and turf burger at Grand Floridian Cafe. This meal, and most likely anything else I do on this day, will be completely out of pocket.

My current plan is to ride 7DMT, maybe grab a travel snack, and then head home. I haven't decided if I'm going to leave the car at the resort and then head back there before heading out, or taking the car to MK and just heading out from there. I'm leaning towards the bus, but that'll be a last minute decision that may change.

So that's where I'm at so far. I think I have a decent plan in place. Now, just three weeks of waiting.

Hooray...

More waiting.

 

[JustCor]

Food, please

I've been reading a lot of Disney food reviews and just collecting a small list of things I'd like to eat, and it just looks like there are so many things in Epcot that I just had no idea even existed. My day of park hopping is in danger of turning into a day of munching on food in the World Showcase. I don't think it'll take much twisting of my arm to snack out all day. My only real knock against that plan is the buffet dinner I have scheduled that night. I really don't wish to be stuffing my face all day just to throw away a DDP credit on half a plate of random food. So, maybe just a mini pig out before hopping to the next park.

The problem is, at least for this moment, that I'm hungry and waiting for dinner, so of course I'm focused mainly on the food portion of this trip. I'm not really sure how I'm going to handle my fast passes for that park hopper trip. It'd be much easier if I could select one ride from each park, rather than dumping them all into one park and winging it for the rest of the day. It'd be great if I could do Tower of Terror at DHS, then pop over to Epcot for Soarin', and eventually make my way to MK for Space Mountain. Or something at AK, something at DHS, food at Epcot, and something at MK. Just being able to spread it out over the parks would make it a little more appealing to be a park hopper.

More planning to come.

 

[JustCor]

Is this single rider line taken?

There are three rides at WDW that have single rider lines. I think I've found my park hopper plan. This is all mental planning at the moment, and since I can't really fast pass it, I'll jot it down here to mull over when I'm slightly more awake:

1st: AK - Expedition Everest (single rider), Kilimanjaro Safaris, some walking around. Hop on the bus to...
2nd: DHS - RNRC (single rider), see if I can hop on any other rides at a not terrible wait time, some walking around. Hop on a boat to...
3rd: Epcot - TT (single rider), maybe Nemo, walk around, kill time until dinner at Cape May. Hop on the mono to...
4th: MK - Ride whatever I can ride without terribly long wait times and finish out the day with fireworks and more rides.

As much as I would love to do a rope drop, I suck at waking up early. I'm a night person. I would rather have the extra bit of sleep and begin my day whenever I happen to wake up, rather than be stuck on an early schedule trying to knock the sleep zombie out of my brain. If it happens, it happens, but I'll most likely be passed out when any of these rope drops happen.

The only thing that I might end up adding is some fast passes for the MK part. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to fast pass, but MK seems like the only place I can't hop on a single rider line and cut some of it short, so it could be a little more productive to add some late fast passes to get me through until the fireworks. Maybe a late night snack at Plaza around that time would be nice. Hmmm, I'll have to think on that. It'll be roughly five hours after a big meal. I might be hungry by then. I sure do like their fries!

 

[JustCor]

And that's about the time I went crazy

Sunday - Mac and Cheese
Monday - Mac and Cheese
Tuesday - Mac and Cheese
Wednesday - Mac and Cheese

Mac and Cheese, all day every day. Peace out Disney.

And that's about how I wake up, craving a big ol' bowl of pot roast mac and cheese, and ready to burn off every ADR to replace them with a mac and cheese feast.

Never go to bed hungry.

Nothing new on the planning front, just a bunch of maybes and a few perhapses. I'm approaching a point of planning burnout.

20 Days.

 

[JustCor]

Small change of plans

I'm on call for work tonight. I sleep awful when I'm on call. So, since I'm annoyingly awake at 2:30am, what better time to actually plan things than now?

This may be the first of many, though I'm trying to stick to my initial plans. I'm iffy on Spice Road Table. I've been looking over the menu and I'm just not seeing stuff that appeals to me. I was kind of into the lamb dish, but my experience with lamb is... iffy. I've had some incredible tasting lamb and some really awful lamb, but it's got a very, very bad habit of wrecking my stomach either way. I'm not sure why I keep eating it. It never ends well. So, in a moment of realization that 1.) there's decent chance that any lamb dish I eat has a very good chance of ruining my night, and 2.) that night happens to be my MNSSHP night, I've decided to pass on Spice Road Table for now and have cancelled the ADR. New plans are in place. Fattening plans. I'm breaking my self-imposed rule of not doing previous restaurants and have booked breakfast at Boma. I considered doing dinner (and briefly considered doing both ) but decided to go with breakfast. Perhaps a big huge heavy meal isn't the best thing to do right before MNSSHP. I think (don't hold me to it just yet) that I'm going to swing over to The Boardwalk and give Big River Grille and Brewing a try. They have a nice selection of burgers, including a Kobe beef burger, and their prices don't seem too outrageous. I'm currently (at 2:45am) a fan of that idea. I'm also kind of hungry, and that's not helping.

 

[4EverFigment]

Good morning.

Please please please do a live trip report when you're actually there.

I'll literally miss you by a day. I arrive 9/25.

May I make a costume suggestion? You referenced Alice at least twice; Mad Hatter would be very do-able with thrift shopping and crafty friends.

I'm going to my first MNSSHP on Sunday 9/27. As Alice, although that had no bearing on above suggestion. It's an easy choice for me as I can be either Alice or Rapunzel without a wig. And Alice makes slightly more nonsense, whimsically speaking.

In closing please write a live report as well

 

[ThemeQueen]

Ok, thanks for making me crave mac and cheese at 8 am. You are already a bad influence.. I like you.

For unique snack credits to get the "bang for your buck":

MK - pork shank from Gaston's, waffle sandwiches from Sleepy Hallow, specialty fries from Golden Oak.
HS - cupcakes from Starring Rolls Cafe
Epcot - jalepeno stuffed prestzel from Fife & Drum, certain sushi rolls at Kabuki Cafe in Japan

Halloween costume ideas: Wreck it Ralph, Carl or Russell from UP, Captain Hook, Dr. Facilier, Jack Skellington, Chestire Cat