He SAID no, but I FOUND a way to GO! ~ a Dec AKL/WWoHP PTR (Updated: 11/30)

[Pylegirl]

Oh sooo excited we just joined! We are planning our 1st family trip in June 2015 and are driving with 4 kiddos from Iowa!

 

[CatNipRules]

Subbing... I'm also writing a trip report. It's a long time from now,but it gives me something to look forward to. LOL!!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

A big welcome to all of the new comers! Glad to have you on board! I decided I should post a little summary of what we're thinking just to make an update...

The Plan... (so far)

Traveling from 12/1 - 12/8
Staying at Pop Century in a Preferred Room
Aiming to Park Hop
Going with the DDP, but hoping it comes off as free (though we will likely do it anyway even if it doesn't)

ADR's we have in mind:
- Coral Reef dinner
- Ohana dinner
- 1900 Park Fair breakfast (NEW! for us)
- Le Cellier Steakhouse (candlelight package, if possible)
- Liberty Tree Tavern dinner
- Be Our Guest lunch
- Teppan Edo dinner

We have yet to:
- Book Airfare
- Solidify if these are the dates we want
- Determine if we want to do a DDxP
- Decide between 6 or 7 park ticket days depending on flight times

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Our dates are officially sealed in stone with the purchase of flights!

Found round trip airfare from Minneapolis to Orlando at $200 each. We fly in on December 1st leaving MN at 7:15am and arriving around 11:30am in Orlando. We fly out December 8th at 5:45pm and arrive back in MN at 8:15pm. It's starting to feel real!!

 

[Pylegirl]

Our dates are officially sealed in stone with the purchase of flights! Found round trip airfare from Minneapolis to Orlando at $200 each. We fly in on December 1st leaving MN at 7:15am and arriving around 11:30am in Orlando. We fly out December 8th at 5:45pm and arrive back in MN at 8:15pm. It's starting to feel real!!

Awesome that's a great deal! We always fly out of MSP but are driving this trip since 6 tickets never seems to be in the budget anymore! So excited for you!!!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Today marks another milestone in our trip planning. DH and I decided we wanted to do MVMCP and as of this morning, we have tickets for December 2nd!

I'm having a hard time figuring out when I want to do my ADRs (and kind of where) because I'm still waiting for a few big planning things, such as park hours and the narrator list for the Candlelight Processional (as well as dining packages). I feel like I have so much left to do, but I need to remember I have plenty of time!

Also, for those familiar with My Disney Experience, I've been playing with it and trying to add our MVMCP to the timeline, but it doesn't give me the option? I can see it but the "add to my plans" button does not appear.

 

[DisneyLifer87]

BIG UPDATE

With the announcement of free dining being outside of DH and mine's travel dates, we have been extensively discussing whether the dining plan is worth the money. Usually DH and I come awfully close to breaking even with the DDP, so it makes sense to not have to worry about having money set aside for meals. However, with the 2014 increase in price, DH and I made the choice to cancel our DDP as we do not see how we would possibly spend $850+ on dining. That's so much money even if we were to eat out at a table service every night (which we will likely still do). We realized that with our QS credits we hardly ever ate the desserts - just stuck them in our bags and threw them away after they didn't survive the parks. We also felt miserable most TS meals when we did eat the dessert. Our final push in this decision was when DH and I ran figures from our previously saved receipts and realized that we want to return to some lower priced restaurants (Ohana, 50's Prime Time) and it just wasn't going to stack up to $850+. Instead we will be setting aside money within our goal food budget and aim to save around $200 without the DDP.

Now, that is not all of our big news... we've also decided to take this savings and pamper ourselves a bit more by switching resorts. I cannot believe this is real and I am going to type this out, but DH and I, as of this morning, have switched from Pop Century to AKL!

We have always dreamed of staying Deluxe, but I could never justify the price. Since this trip is a celebration of my graduation in December with a master's degree in Teaching (which also comes with a hefty raise) DH told me to spend the money. AKL has been my dream resort and while my frugal mind just couldn't justify paying for the Savannah View, we did elect for a Pool View and will be wandering the resort. (We find we aren't in the rooms enough to enjoy a view as is).

Life is good today!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Well, hello there. It has been far too long! I'm afraid that I have been lacking on updating this PTR, but there has been very little to update until most recently with ADRs. I woke up very early to snag what we wanted, and thankfully it paid off. Our ADRs are as such:

12/1 @ 7:05pm - Tony's Town Square
12/2 @ 7:30am - Boma
12/2 @ 5:45pm - Liberty Tree Tavern
12/3 @ 7pm - Planet Hollywood
12/4 @ 5:25pm - Coral Reef
12/5 @ 6:15pm - LeCellier Steakhouse
12/6 @ 5:15pm - 50's Prime Time
12/7 @ 7:30pm - Rose and Crown Pub

We also purchased our La Nouba tickets for Wednesday, December 3rd at 9pm. This is something that DH and I have been wanting to do for awhile now. It's getting closer!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

As I jump back on the Disney planning train, I have a few ideas in mind for our park days. I have to admit that I was a little concerned for some of them, though, because in comparison to the crowd calendar, I seemed to have picked the most busy day for each park. Any insight from December travelers to if this truly makes a difference?

The Plan Thus Far:
Monday, December 1st - Traveling and MK
We are traveling this day and should get to the World around 10am. I have left some wiggle room here for DH and I to wander our beautiful resort and grab some lunch in the food court area. We are aiming to hit the parks around 2pm for an ADR at Tony's, catch MSEP, and a non-MVMCP Wishes

Tuesday, December 2nd - MK and MVMCP
We will hit our first Disney day with breakfast at the Grand Floridian Cafe and checking out the Gingerbread House and resort decorations. We will then make our way over to MK hopefully just after RD and spend the day/evening with our MVMCP tickets

Wednesday, December 3rd - AK and DtD w/ La Nouba
Animal Kingdom is usually our shortest day. We will hit this park at RD and try to get out of there by 3pm to rest up before our ADR at Planet Hollywood and showing of La Nouba at 9pm

Thursday, December 4th - Epcot w/ Candlelight Processional
We have two days booked for Epcot and can be flexible on the narrator for the CP depending on if we have a preference. I'm waiting to book a CP dining package, but at the moment I just have an ADR at Coral Reef for this night. Ideally we will catch the CP this evening.

Friday, December 5th - Epcot
This is a half day as I have to do some morning grading and progress reporting for my online high school students (blasted midterms). We should hit Epcot around 2pm after I finish work and we catch some lunch in the food court. I'm hoping to make this a relaxing "wander the world showcase" kind of day with a debate on adding a nighttime safari at our resort. Has anyone done one of these? Is it worth it?

Saturday, December 6th - DHS w/ Fantasmic!
Back to a normal RD schedule with an early viewing (6:30) of Fantasmic! Usually DH starts to wind down around this point in the trip, so an early night may be requested. If not, there's always the shops on the Boardwalk!

Sunday, December 7th - DHS w/ OF Lights
We might try to squeeze in a second Fantasmic! showing this evening if time permits, but with an ADR at Rose and Crown around 7:30, it'll probably be a Illuminations end to our Disney Trip.

Monday, December 8th - Traveling and ?
I'm not sure what to do this day because DH and I have a later flight that has DME pickup around 2:30pm. I'm open to suggestions on what those who have this situation have done? DtD?

 

[DisneyLifer87]

I don't know if anyone is still lurking around. But, I thought I'd post a little real life update.

I've been very busy writing classes for Fall, writing my Master's Thesis, and reading through Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime. I guess you could say I'm a little preoccupied - never a dull moment. As it is, DH and I are debating whether we want to take a one-day excursion to the darkside and see Harry Potter expansion. Still up for debate. Does anyone have ideas on crowd levels?

Well, back to writing!

 

[StitchBuddy]

Harry Potter is worth it! I don't know about crowds, depending on that, you might want to get passes that allows you to go in the line resort guest use.

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Harry Potter is worth it! I don't know about crowds, depending on that, you might want to get passes that allows you to go in the line resort guest use.

Thanks for the tip. We went to the original harry potter section in Sept 2012 and loved it! But of course we did not get those passes. I'll have to look into this.

 

[ZehnJahren]

I don't know if anyone is still lurking around. But, I thought I'd post a little real life update.

I've been very busy writing classes for Fall, writing my Master's Thesis, and reading through Amazon's 100 books to read in a lifetime. I guess you could say I'm a little preoccupied - never a dull moment. As it is, DH and I are debating whether we want to take a one-day excursion to the darkside and see Harry Potter expansion. Still up for debate. Does anyone have ideas on crowd levels?

Well, back to writing!

There is a crowd calendar at undercovertourist.com! I don't know how accurate it is, but I do trust them for my tickets..... We just decided to take a one-day excursion ourselves, and bought tickets this morning.

If you have exact questions, try the Universal forum on this website! It's down at the bottom of the main page. I posted some questions last night while we were debating.

Harry Potter is worth it! I don't know about crowds, depending on that, you might want to get passes that allows you to go in the line resort guest use.

The express pass doesn't work for Gringott's, Hogwart's Express, Forbidden Journey, or the Pteradon Flyers according to the website. It seems to work on everything else though!

However, I have read that if you're willing to ride single rider, you can get on the rides pretty quickly that way.

 

[AmyKat]

Fellow December traveler following along. It will be our first time there for the Christmas decorations. We are staying at CBR 12/12 - 12/18.

 

[DisneyLifer87]

to all the new followers!

DH and I have decided that we are going to head to Universal/IOA for one day in our trip. We are planning on Friday, December 5th as that was a lighter day for us anyway Disney-wise. I have yet to purchase our tickets (and probably won't get around to it until the end of August), but I did move our Le Cellier reservation to Sunday, Dec 7th (8:20pm seems awfully late, but it's all that was left Oh well!) and canceled our Rose and Crown ADR which we weren't too upset to let go of.

I did take advice and checked Undercover tourist for crowds - it seems that Friday is yellow for US and green for IOA I'll keep my fingers crossed that is how it actually turns out.

Planning To-Do List:
(I figure I might as well start this as I just added a handful of activities!)
- Purchase US/IOA tickets in September
- Make Fastpass+ Reservations in October
- Create touring plans based on Fastpass+ arrangements in October
- Make Reservations at Margaritaville (where DH and I celebrated with some drinks post-wedding) in November (30 days out)
- Schedule Mears Transportation 2 weeks before we leave (right before Thanksgiving, ideally)

Until then, it's just a waiting game! But, with my thesis writing almost finished, summer curriculum writing drawing to a close, and the Fall school year creeping up, I'm sure it will go fast!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Just added the 30% discount to our reservation saving $830!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Now that I have finished writing my master's thesis and am simply taking relaxing time prior to my oral defense (if you have written a thesis, you may understand this one )... I have jumped back into planning mode and am going to start planing out our days with fingers crossed on snagging the fastpass+ I desire. Feedback is always welcome!

Day One (12/1/2014): Traveling and Epcot
Our outbound flight from Minneapolis has us departing at 6:55am and arriving in Orlando around 11:03am. My plan is to be at the airport by 5am and on the DME bus by 11:30am and finally to our new home at AKL around 12:30pm at the latest. From there, the plans are as such:

12:30pm: Arrive, leave carry on items with guest services if room is not available. Grab lunch at the Mara as well as our resort mugs. After lunch we will tour our beautiful resort!
1:45pm: Grab a bus to Epcot
- The following guide through Epcot was made with help from Touring Plans -
2:42pm – Soarin’ (FP+ 2:05pm – 3:05pm)
3:04pm – Club Cool
3:24pm – Pin Trading/Shopping
3:54pm – The Seas with Nemo and Friends
4:11pm – Turtle Talk with Crush (FP+ 3:20pm – 4:20pm)
4:55pm – Coral Reef ADR #442461507041
5:39pm – Spaceship Earth (FP+ 5:40pm – 6:40pm)
6:18pm – Explore World Showcase
7:00pm – Line up for Candlelight Processional
8:15pm – Candlelight Processional
9:30pm - Illuminations


It's a bit of a packed day, but I think we will do just fine. I had originally intended to do a low key MK day on arrival, but DH has wanted NPH as a narrator and I already have MVMCP tickets for 12/2 - so looks like we have a late night after an early morning!

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Day Two (12/02/14) - MK and MVMCP

This morning we have a breakfast ADR and some resort exploring to do before the Magic Kingdom!

7:00am - Take the bus from AKL to MK to see the opening show that I have yet to see!

The following was made using Touring Plans:
8:00am – Opening Ceremony
8:09am – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
9:00am - Grab breakfast in Gaston's Tavern
9:48am – Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid
10:35am – Big Thunder Mountain (FP+ 10:35am – 11:35am)
10:54am – Peter Pan's Flight
11:40am – Enchanted Tales with Belle (FP+ 11:40am – 12:40pm)
12:18pm – Lunch - Be Our Guest (FP+ 12:25 - 12:50pm)
12:55pm - Meet Tinker Bell at Town Square Theater
1:21pm - Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
1:53pm – Space Mountain (FP+ 1:15pm – 2:15pm)
2:12pm – Monster’s, Inc. Laugh Floor
2:45pm – Festival of Fantasy Parade

3:30pm – Leave and Park for a rest
5:15pm – Head back to Magic Kingdom

5:45pm – Liberty Tree Tavern ADR #441551867540
6:48pm – Jungle Cruise
7:30pm – Celebrate the Season Castle Show
8:15pm – Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas Time Parade
9:30pm – Holiday Wishes
9:45pm – Meet the Princesses

 

[QueenJen]

Hi - DH and I travelled Dec 1-13 last year and stayed at Animal Kingdom Kidani and loved it. We were fortunate to have really great weather except for a single hot humid day. We loved visiting the pool daily.

I knew your DH would come around. Mine always put up a front about Disney...blah. HE is the one that requested we plan another trip after our one time trip. HE is the one that wants to ensure we renew our passes next year (we live close to DL so we bought passes for our trip). Hubby's really just want to make us happy (as we like to make them happy).

Hope you have a blast and I look forward to reading more about your trip.

Congrats on your masters degree. Be proud of your accomplishment.

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Hi - DH and I travelled Dec 1-13 last year and stayed at Animal Kingdom Kidani and loved it. We were fortunate to have really great weather except for a single hot humid day. We loved visiting the pool daily.

I knew your DH would come around. Mine always put up a front about Disney...blah. HE is the one that requested we plan another trip after our one time trip. HE is the one that wants to ensure we renew our passes next year (we live close to DL so we bought passes for our trip). Hubby's really just want to make us happy (as we like to make them happy).

Hope you have a blast and I look forward to reading more about your trip.

Congrats on your masters degree. Be proud of your accomplishment.

I am very proud, I just wish it was done, but almost there! I hope that we have decent weather, but I know it's always up in the air for December!