Going Down the Bayou .... 5 Weeks in WDW and a Dream Cruise

[WickedDreamer]

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[WickedDreamer]

The Not So Scary, Very Merry Christmas and Birthday Celebration! 5 Weeks in WDW and a Dream Cruise!

Table of Contents​

Introductions​

Potential Plans to Avoid Going into the Parks.....17th-20th October

Park Plans and Just a couple of ADRS..

Condensed ADR List​

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Disney_Princess83]

Following along!

Thank you!

 

[dizzi]

Can't wait to following along on your adventure. Have arrest time I ams ure I will just reading along.

 

[MataHari22]

Wow! 5 weeks at WDW and a cruise sounds awesome to me! Hope you guys have a great time.

 

[megveg]

I love catching trip reports right at the beginning! 5 whole weeks?! and a DCL trip? I am so ready to hear of your adventures! The Wilderness MUST be Explored!

 

[WickedDreamer]

Hey everyone,

Thanks so much for reading our introduction to this trip, hope you have left a bit of your Starbucks, Dole Whip or Coke float left for the next update

We’re flying out on the 17th October to LAX and have a 3 hour layover before boarding our plane to Orlando (AKA destination Disney!!) After travelling for almost 25 hours…. (yes really!) we arrive at about 5:10pm and have decided to organise a town car to pick us up and take us over to hotel.

After checking in, our plans are to head over to Guest Relations at DTD and purchase our AP’s and grab some dinner at Earl of Sandwich, possibly a quick ride on the DTD carousel and more than likely (read: definitely) a quick run into Goofy’s Candy to make a rice Krispy!! (My sister said she cannot live any longer without making Goofy’s Candy!) We made about 4 over the course of our last trip to share between us:

We have decided to TRY and not go into any of the parks on the 18th and 19th - I’m not sure how successful this will be since we’ll have AP’s. On the 18th our plans are to head over to DTD and walk over to Saratoga Springs resort in the morning. I’m a massive horse lover and thought the décor of this resort looks really cute and am hoping to maybe buy a few souvenirs from the gift shop. We might (read: definitely) take a peek into the pin shop to see if the board is open before walking to our lunch reservation at T-Rex for 11:30am.


For this afternoon our plans are to head over to the Boardwalk to spend a few hours and possibly heading over to try out Mini Golf. We really want to try Beaches and Cream after hearing some amazing reviews and seeing some incredible photos of all the deserts available. We have made a dinner reservation at Portobello so might try and fit in some time at Disney Quest.

On the 19th we are hoping to wake up early enough to head over to Port Orleans and try the Beignets – Princess and the Frog has become our favourite movie this year, we didn’t see it when it was first released at the movies, but this year our local movies reshowed most the Disney Princess movies and we decided to go and see it and the rest if history as they say [Side note- OMG our movies are showing the Little Mermaid this weekend]

We want to go over to Fort Wilderness to check out the horse stables, and then shall head over to the Wilderness Lodge to have a look around before jumping on the Monorail for our High Tea reservation at the Grand Floridian. We have made a Kona reservation for dinner this night, the best time we could get was 5:10pm – we made this reservation quite late, so are hoping for a later time if possible, but would like to be able to hang out on the beach for a little bit and watch Wishes and hopefully the water parade as we only saw the tail end of that last trip. Then we will head back to our resort for a slightly early night.

Sunday the 20th is the day we embark on our cruise, we will be checking out of the hotel in the morning and heading to the Hilton character breakfast at Covington Mill. We aren’t sure what characters will be appearing but know it will more than likely be Minnie Mouse and friends.

We have organised a town car to drive us to Port Canaveral, so it will be picking us up at about 10am after the breakfast, the drive is approximately an hour and half so we should be at Port around 11:30-12pm
.
We are embarking on the Disney Dream cruise for a 4 night Bahamian Cruise, stopping at Nassau and Castaway Cay with a day at Sea before heading back to Port Canaveral. We have decided to stay in a Concierge Family room with a balcony. This is because it is our first cruise and we would like a little bit of extra space in our room and also to get away from the busier parts of the ship particularly on our at Sea Day. We haven't organised too many activities to do but have booked brunch for the two us at Palo for the at sea Day and are also planning on taking part in the Stingray encounter at Castaway Cay.


That’s all from us today. We will update again in the next day or so with our reservations (there is A LOT!)

Shannon and Amanda​

 

[dizzi]

You are sailing on the Dream cruise just before ours I guess we will be getting on as you are getting off.

We once did wdw/universal for a 2 week stretch. We had a blast. Such great memories with our kids.

We basically did 8 days in the parks and other things the other few days. Don't know if you are interested in doing other things than Disney but if you check out the goorlando card it is a great deal.

Also the Gaylord Palms resort is pretty awesome too not Disney but you can def spend several hours in there. My firiend and I spent like 5 including lunch

 

[HollowGrl]

Wohooo! I'm in
OMG, 5 weeks in WDW and a cruise!! It sounds so much fun! Can't wait to read more, really!!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Following along!

 

[WickedDreamer]

Wohooo! I'm in
OMG, 5 weeks in WDW and a cruise!! It sounds so much fun! Can't wait to read more, really!!

Thanks so much for following along!! We are looking forward to our first cruise, we have been wanting to do the Disney cruise for years now and have finally gotten around to it!!

You are sailing on the Dream cruise just before ours I guess we will be getting on as you are getting off.

We once did wdw/universal for a 2 week stretch. We had a blast. Such great memories with our kids.

We basically did 8 days in the parks and other things the other few days. Don't know if you are interested in doing other things than Disney but if you check out the goorlando card it is a great deal.

Also the Gaylord Palms resort is pretty awesome too not Disney but you can def spend several hours in there. My firiend and I spent like 5 including lunch

We have added in a few days to spend at Sea World this trip, we are planning on maybe doing a few encounters and than just looking around the park. Thanks so much for the tips and suggestions, shall make a mental note of them for the free days we have tried to fit in.

It shall be a cross over between our disembarkation and your embarkation! We can't wait to do the cruise,and now they have also added Halloween events to the sailings around than as well!! Are you planning on dressing up for the night?

Following along!

Thanks so much for following along!!! Can't wait to share more of our plans and ideas for this trip and to share some photos and experiences from our last trip.

 

[deedee2177]

Following along as well! I can't imagine 5 weeks of Disney Magic, but would love to give a go at it

 

[WickedDreamer]

Following along as well! I can't imagine 5 weeks of Disney Magic, but would love to give a go at it

Thank you so much for following, sorry it has taken us awhile to type up our next updates, promise they will be a bit more frequent now as we get closer. Originally we were only going to be going for 2 weeks and it sort of just kept getting extended, not sure what happened . But we're looking forward to all the special events happening around WDW!!

 

[WickedDreamer]

Hey Everyone,

Can’t believe it’s been over a week since we updated our pre trip report, where is the time flying? I remember when we first started counting down at 355 days, and now it is only 43 days till we fly to Orlando !!!

Because we have been planning this trip since last year September/October, we created a few mock up versions of our ADR lists and the ones that we HAD to fit in no matter what. These versions changed over a dozen times and we’re not joking, I don’t know how I could fit in all our favourites in a 5-10 day trip!!! We always made sure either one of us would be home in time, particularly for the more popular ones like CRT, BOG, Akerhaus ETC.

So I though thought I would do a quick overview of our park days and what ADR we have chosen to do. We normally TRY and just have one ADR a day, we don’t like feeling pressured and like we have to continuously be clock watching, that was one of the mistakes we made last trip, we decided to book Coral Reef and Le Cellier on the same day, and then had plans to go off property at night, let’s just say it didn't really end well that afternoon, but we have learned from these mistakes.

For the beginning part of the trip the Food and Wine Festival is happening in Epcot. We have tried to stick to one ADR either in the morning or later into the night to take advantage of all the different food booths. We are real “foodies” so are looking forward to trying all the new types of food around the World.

BEFORE YOU READ ANY FURTHER….. Warning this post might make you hungry, thirsty, and Wish your next meal, snack or drink would be coming to you from WDW Property…. I know I wish mine was [There is a condensed list also here of all our ADRS]

Thursday 24th October – We will be heading into Magic Kingdom finally!!! We have decided to grab some QS at either Casey’s Corner or Pinocchio’s Village Haus, and maybe (definitely) Starbucks and Funnel Cake for a mid afternoon snack. There is a Halloween party on tonight so we have decided to make a reservation at Chef Mickey for dinner, the park shuts to non-party guests at 7pm. We have made our CM reservation for 7:45pm so we might be able to go out and watch Hallowishes after dinner.

Friday 25th October- Animal Kingdom today!!! We have made a 10:10am reservation for our favourite character meal breakfast on property, Tusker House. We went there on our last trip one of our last days, and we both wished we had the time to add it again before we left. We found the chefs and CM’s here one of the best on property. Amanda has a few (MANY!!!) different allergies so the Chef came out and talked to us about what was available at the buffet, and made sure to come out and check a few times. He offered to make us fresh food to avoid any cross contamination. [Currently we do have a reservation for Raglan Road for the evening, but think we are swapping it to another night in the trip]

Saturday 26th October Magic Kingdom- – Heading back into MK for our first full day, we have made a reservation for Crystal Palace – funny story last trip, we ending up missing our reservation completely for CP, we both slept through our alarms, our reservation was for 8:15am in the morning, and we both didn’t end up waking up until after 10am, but we still ended up in MK that day by 11am, not too bad considering we had to get ready, grab the bus from downstairs and go to TTC to get the ferry across to MK. So hopefully we won’t miss this reservation. I think we will be getting a wakeup call this time, we did decide for a later time of 9:40am, so we still have time for breakfast and to try the famous Pooh Puff Toast.

One of the toughest things we has heard about was making an ADR for Be Our Guest, this restaurant was a number one priority for us, not only is it one of Amanda’s favourite movies, it is now the only place on property where you can meet Beast!! He is one of our favourite Princes, and a visit wouldn't feel complete without being able to meet him at least once. Our reservation is for 4:15pm – which is a little early for us for dinner but we couldn't say no when the time became available on our first attempt.



Sunday 27th October- SEA WORLD – we will be spending the day at Sea World participating in a Beluga Interaction program and maybe the Wild Arctic Tour as well. We have made a new Raglan Road reservation at 9:30pm, as SW is open till 8pm that night, so we will head back to the hotel and drop of our things before walking over to DTD.

Monday 28th October – HS- This is our least favourite park in WDW, we have only allocated a few afternoons after our first full day, to see Fantasmic and the Osbourne Lights later in the trip. We have made a reservation at Sci-Fi Dine In for 2pm, we have both heard some wonderful things about the food here including the onion rings and the shakes!!

Tuesday 29th October –MNSSHP!!! OMG our first time celebrating Halloween!!! We have made a breakfast reservation here for Kona Café – we both want to try Tonga Toast and also the Macadamia nut pancakes. We are sort of hoping to be able to swap this ADR for one at 1900 Park Fair breakfast, and make this reservation later on in the trip if possible.

Because this will be our first Halloween party, we have decided to make a reservation for Cinderella’s Royal Table for 4:15pm, we both love the idea of being dressed up as our favourite characters in the castle.

Wednesday 30 October – Epcot – this day feels quiet late in the trip, but we decided to swap this day in order to take advantage of the EMH hours in the evening. We have booked Teppen Edo for 6:10pm. During the day we will take advantage of the Food and Wine Festival and possibly duck into Sunshine Seasons before or after going on Soarin and Living with the Land [this is honestly one of the rides I LOVE at Disney, it’s so much fun looking at all the plants and fresh food.

Thursday 31st October​

– HALLOWEEN –We have decided not to make any reservations for today. We are not actual sure where we will end up during the day. Our plan is to go into AK in the morning to meet Mickey in his Halloween outfit and possibly resort hop if any characters are meeting. We have also bought tickets to the party tonight in MK. We will definitely be attending the party, we aren't sure if we will be going in costume due to the hopping around earlier in the day, but we would like to go and celebrate the holiday, as it isn't a day that is celebrated commonly in Australia.

Friday 1st October – MNSSHP – we will be attending the Halloween Party again tonight this time in our costumes!! We have an ADR for 1900 Park Fare for breakfast at 10:05am which we are currently trying to swap around with Kona on the 29th October.

Saturday 2nd November – Animal Kingdom!! – Because we will have a later night on the 1st we have decided to have no ADR for Breakfast so we can sleep in, and wake up when we’re ready and go into AK for a few hours in the afternoon before heading over to the Grand Floridian for our dinner ADR for 1900 park Faire at 7:05pm

Sunday 3rd November – Magic Kingdom!! - we have a lunch ADR for the Plaza at 1:20pm, giving us time to head out to find a spot for the parade, [What Time is it on again??] - don’t worry of course we know what time the 3pm parade is on!!

Monday 4th November – Epcot - We have made a ADR for my second favourite Character Breakfast on property where else could you meet an Alien, a Mouse, a Dog and a little girl AND receive a flower Lei! We have made an early reservation at 7:55am for O’hana so we will be able to catch the monorail over to Epcot and be there just after opening for our quick dash to Living with the Land Pavillion for Soarin.

Over the past few months, Amanda has been showing me episodes of Rescue Rangers, and so I have a new fondness for Chip and Dale, but I’m sorry Dale, I have a favourite of the Duo which is of course Chip!! We have made a ADR at Garden Grill at 6:30pm, hopefully we can try and grab a FP for Soarin for before or just after our ADR.

Tuesday 5th November – We will be taking part in the Wild Africa Trek today, we haven't booked any ADR’s for today as lunch is provided on the trek, we aren't sure how long we will spend in AK after trekking through Africa.

Wednesday 6th November – MK/Epcot – we are going to be hoping between these two parks so have made an ADR for Liberty Tree Tavern , we just miss out on celebrating Thanksgiving in America, we we wanted to try out the Pilgrims Feast, we today shall be the day we celebrate our own little Thanksgiving!! We have no night ADR so will grab QS somewhere along the line probably somewhere in World Showcase.

Thursday 7th November – Epcot/MK – doing a park hop day again, we have an ADR for Coral Reef at 1:15pm. This another one of the restaurants that we experience wonderful CM’s and Chefs, the chef made both our meals from scratch last time to avoid contamination, our items weren't on the normal menu, but he made us each both a salmon fillet with risotto. [share photo]

Friday 8th November – Festival of the Masters and our first MVMCP!!! We have no lunch ADR but will possibly try out Wolfgang Puck Express after checking out the festival in DTD.

Saturday 9th November – Blizzard Beach- heading over for a few hours in the morning to BB and than we have a reservation at Narcoossee’s at 5:40pm. Depending on park hours we might head to MK after dinner to as MSEP and the fireworks.

Sunday 10th November - Epcot- going to spend the early afternoon in Epcot and then head out through International gateway to the Yacht and Beach Club, for dinner we have an ADR at the Yachtsman Steakhouse for 6:30pm, hopefully this will give us time to walk back into World Showcase to view Illuminations, or we might just sit at the Beach Club boat dock.

Monday 11th November – Going to use the morning to go over to Art of Animation to look around the hotel and will take a walk over to POP As we would like to try the Tie Dye Cheesecake if it’s available. We have a reservation at Crystal Palace [Crusta] for 4pm and then will be going to the MVMCP for the evening!!

Tuesday 12th November – Sea World – no ADRS for today. If we come back to the hotel earlier we might go over to DTD to grab some dinner or just something at the hotel.

Wednesday 13th November - 4 Parks 1 Day – we want to try and complete the challenge, our rough plan is to start in AK, then head over to HS, walk over to Epcot and then get the monorail to MK.

Thursday 14th November – Animal Kingdom!! We have a dinner reservation for Boma at 7:40pm , we might head over to the resort earlier to check out the animals in the safari section and check out the lobby. We visited AKL last trip and loved the outside sections along the savannah and the chairs around the fire.

Friday 15th November- Heading to Discovery Cove for the Day.
‘
Saturday 16th November – Free Day – we have allocated the morning to head over to the outlets to do some shopping and have kept the afternoon/night free, we so might go into one of the parks or go to the Polynesian and watch the fireworks from the beach.

Sunday 17th November – Epcot - We have a reservation for Akerhaus at 11am this morning, going to head into Epcot earlier to ride Test Track and Soarin’ before the reservation as we won’t be back in Future World, as we want to use the early afternoon to walk through world showcase. In the evening we have gotten tickets to the WTT Charity tennis match at ESPN, so will head over there and grab dinner from the QS that is available.

Monday 18th November – MK Morning/Free Afternoon – we have a reservation for CRT at 8:30am, our plan is to have breakfast and then spend some time in MK. We have kept the afternoon free so we might park hop depending on EMH and park hours.

Tuesday 19th November – Sea World – Heading over to Sea World again, depending on what we want to do , not sure how long we will spend over at SW, we might come back in to afternoon and visit the Boardwalk or DTD.

Wednesday 20th November – AK/ HS – going to send the day in AK and than hope over to HS after the parade to do a few rides and watch Fantasmic, and maybe check out Osbourne Lights.


Thursday 21st November – Animal Kingdom Day- this will be our last day in AK this trip we have made a Tusker House reservation for 8:15am. We have no other reservations for today, we want to be at AK all day, and might finish the day off with Festival of the Lion King .

Friday 22nd November – MK & MVMCP – we have a reservation at O’Hana for 7:55am at the moment, but are going to try and swap to a later breakfast as we are also attending the MVMCP the same night. We also have a reservation for Tony’s Town Square at 1:15pm – for us this is one of the nicest restaurants we visited on our last trip, and one of MK’s hidden gems.

Saturday 23rd November – Epcot – we will be spending the day in Epcot, but have a reservation at Chef Mickey at 7:55am , we like finishing our character dining experiences with CM as it gives us a chance to say goodbye to the fab 5 and grab last minute photos with them. We have booked Le Cellier for 2pm, we had to keep changing our ADR for Le Cellier but have finally managed to fit it in for our last day in Epcot.

Sunday 24th November – MK – our last day ;( - this will be our last day this trip at MK, so our plan is to hit rope drop and stay will the park closes. We have made another ADR at Tony’s Town Square, it is one of our favourites and we couldn’t seem to be able to fit it in any earlier in our plans. We also have a last minute Be Our Guest reservation for 5:50pm, Amanda is a huge B&tB fan so we wanted to be able to have a chance see see Beast again, and we also can’t wait to try the food after reading all these reviews and drooling over all the amazing photos!!

Monday 25th November – the day you wish would never come… the day you leave WDW!!!!!!! In the morning we will do some last minute packing and then we will check out of the hotel before heading to DTD. We will probably get either Earl of Sandwich or maybe head to Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch. Our flight doesn’t leave MCO till 7pm, so we will head back to the hotel and wait for our town car to pick us up and take us to MCO.


Sorry it took us so long to type this up, Thanks so much for reading along, we promise we’ll update ASAP with our costume plans for the parties and we will start sharing some photos from our last trip to Disney!!

Shannon and Amanda ​

 

[WickedDreamer]

Hey Everyone,
Thought we might give a brief overview of all our reservations. We have managed to book all our favourites and also some new places that we are looking forward to trying. Our previous update went into the details of each day and our ADRS, this is just a condensed version of the list.

October 2013:
24th : Chef Mickey 7:45pm
25th: Tusker House 10:10am
26th : Crystal Palace 9:40am
Be Our Guest 4:15pm
27th : Raglan Road 9:30pm
28th : Sci Fi Dine In 2:15pm
29th: Kona Café 10:15am
Cinderella’s Royal Table 4:15pm
30th :Teppen Edo 6:10pm
31st :N/A

November 2013
1st : 1900 Park Faire 10:05am
2nd : 1900 Park Faire 7:05pm
3rd : The Plaza 1:20pm
4th : Ohana 7:55am
Garden Grill 6:30
5th : Via Napoli 7:45pm
6th : Liberty Tree Tavern 1:15pm
7th : Coral Reef 1:15pm
8th : N/A
9th : Narcoossee’s 5:40pm
10th : Yachtmans Steakhouse 6:30pm
11th : Crystal Palace 4pm
12th : N/A
13th : N/A
14th : Boma 7:40pm
15th : N/A
16th : N/A
17th : Akerhaus 11am
18th : Cinderella’s Royal Table 8:30am
19th : N/A
20th : N/A
21st : Tusker House 8:15am
22nd : Ohana 7:55am
Tony’s Town Square 1:15pm
23rd : Chef Mickey 7:55am
Le Cellier 2pm
24th : Tony’s Town Square 12:45pm
Be Our Guest 5:50pm


Shannon and Amanda
​

 

[WickedDreamer]

Hey everyone !!!

I know it has been ages since we have updated our PTR, life has been a little crazy this past month , with a few family things and planning the final parts of the holiday.

On top of this I had an accident at work falling down some stairs at work which resulted in me straining all the ligaments in my ankle, I have ended up needing the full month off work due to the injury and have been back and forth to the doctors and the physiotherapist. It has been a slow process but it is healing, so hopefully we will be fine to fly out this Thursday.


We have finalized most of our plans now for WDW just need to finish organizing our days at Sea World , we have organized to do the Beluga Interaction one our first Sea World day , and are thinking of either the Penguin or Seal encounter. Has anyone participated in any of these?

Will hopefully post some photos and another update this weekend thanks to everyone for following along , and for everyone on Twitter for all the well wishes and support over the past month!!!

Shannon and Amanda

PS- Amanda has created a Twitter - Ozgoofyprincess - so if you're interested follow along - we will both be tweeting through our trip with photos and updates.

 

[scrpbookr]

What an amazing trip you two have planned! I'm subbing so I don't miss a bit of it! Enjoy!

 

[brocklesnar69]

This sounds crazy! (in a good way)

I'm just wondering though.... How did you guys afford to be there for SOOOO long, and how did you guys not get bored?

I usually go to WDW for 12 days at a time (10 of which are spent in the parks) and by the last day, although I'm sad to leave, I feel like I've done what I need to do. Until next time.

 

[DisneyFive]

So how did it go???

Would love to hear back about your trip!

Dan