help me plan! February 2016 PTR- update 2/20 Five days to go!!

[CQuinn]

EDIT!! Okay well this post was initially a plea for help with planning but once I posted, I went into full planning mode. DISboard magic

So.. guys I'm going to Disneyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

When: 2/25-3/4, we will be there for leap day! Obviously this means I have now started a tradition of being in Disney on leap day

Who: My husband and myself, both 28 year old, no kids. Well, we have a dog we treat like our child and I am beside myself that he won't get to meet Mickey.

Where: Pop Century as of now, but may upgrade to a moderate when discounts come out

Why: the green light to book was my "passing the nclex gift" and DH's birthday is March 2nd. Also, because Disney.

Disney History:

This is our third trip together. I've been a bunch of times, I don't really know how many. This will be his 5th time ever. Our first trip together was our honeymoon, we stayed at Pop Century and blew through way too much of our wedding gift money. Our last trip was our 2nd anniversary. We rented points at BWV and I discovered I missed mousekeeping, but you can't beat that location. We probably would have rented points for this trip if we had the money upfront and enough time to get a SV studio.

I'm the Disney person, but he has grown to love WDW. I love parks, he loves relax and resort hop days. BUT TO BE HONEST he was totally telling people that we were going in February way before we actually planned on going. We had also made a million pretend plans, I even made a little PTR for Fall 2016. I haven't completely given up on that trip either, I want some F&W!

Looking forward to sharing our plans and hearing suggestions

 

[CQuinn]

Well I've nailed down some plans!!
I've cut the hoppers since I couldn't really see us using them. I did add another day of park tickets though. So now we have 6 day tickets, no hoppers.
Honestly my plans are mostly food haha

Alright so, this is me:

Okay, now you know, I'm short and I like Mickey Mouse.
I also don't really know what I'm doing with adding photos.. so if that is way too big or not working please let me know

On to the plans!

Arrival Day 2/25: MK! This is our first time doing a park on arrival day so I am PUMPED
We are scheduled to land at about 8:30 so to be safe I'm thinking we will arrive at the resort at 11ish
I'll start planning park things for 1pm. We aren't super schedule people so if we get there later or earlier it'll be okay. This will be our "light" MK day
FP+ plans are 7DMT, Peter Pan, Space Mountain
We will do DTD that night, Raglan Road and just hanging around. That's our first night tradition, why mess with it

2/26: No park, just relax. Swim if the weather is nice. A friend of ours will be in Disney the first couple days of our trip so we might meet up with her that day. Meal plan is Boma for dinner. Might head over to Port Orleans in the daytime, I want to see the resort and try the beignets.

2/27: Epcot. This will be the full Epcot day. Dinner at Via Napoli. FP+ plan is TT. Soarin will be our other Epcot day. Or vice versa. We love Epcot!

2/28: MK, the full day. Dinner at Be Our Guest, unless the new Adventureland restaurant opens and I'm able to get a reservation. Otherwise BOG it is! Hopefully in the West Wing this time. I am really set on seeing Wishes from the park this time. We've usually skipped out because we start to get antsy with the crowds. I might do the FP section. No other set FP+ plans for this day yet

2/29: No parks. I was originally thinking of doing MK this day because it'd be neat to do it on leap day but I've read that the parks are supposed to be busy this day.
Dinner plan is California Grill which I am sooo looking forward to. Goat cheese ravioli, come to me! I was thinking of Yachtsman but would really like to try CG first.

3/1: Epcot (light day), probably just WS this day. Dinner at Chefs De France. We got lucky with a window table during Illuminations on our honeymoon, totally by chance. Maybe it'll happen again. Either way I'm looking forward to the macaroni and cheese again

3/2: Husband's birthday!
Hollywood Studios is his favorite park so we are doing that. Dinner at 50's Prime Time cafe. The catch here is that I'm going to have to get brave enough for Tower of Terror because I can't make him go on alone on his birthday
Jellyrolls is his one absolute birthday request so we will be heading there that night
We loved it so much on our last trip, can't wait to enjoy it again
Any tips on getting back to another resort late night? It will probably be too late to try to get to DTD to get a bus back to Pop. I'm planning on a taxi or Uber

3/3: Recover from the late night! No day plans, we'll see how we feel. Dinner plan is 'Ohana, definitely checking out Trader Sam's. Planning on seeing the Electrical Water Pageant for the first time too. Possibly doing a little monorail crawl before dinner

3/4: Ugh, departure day! But first, Animal Kingdom. Our flight out is at 9, so DME will probably get us at 6. Plenty of time for a nice AK day, trying to pretend we aren't leaving. Dole whip with rum should help dull the pain a little.. Planning a QS dinner (either a credit or OOP if we are out of QS credits) so we can use 2 credits the night we go to CG.

I didn't mention it but I am just planning QS lunches so I didn't note them specifically.
We might shoot for breakfast at Kona and/or Trattoria al Forno (husband loved their caramel apple pancakes) on a day or two. We didn't have any trouble making last minute ADRs for those on our last trip so I'm not going to do it ahead of time.

I've spent today making a sweet spread sheet and planning what to get from Garden Grocer. Not a ton of stuff, just some cereal, almond milk, water, bananas, wine and beer. The essentials.
One thing that might help someone out, last time we got the "store brand" water from them and it tasted a little funny. We are splurging on some fancy Dasani water this time

That's all I've got! Now I just need ADR day to get here!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hi! Followed you here from my TR! I should start a PTR soon now that we have our resort booked...just have to get around to doing it!
Great plans so far...I love Epcot too. Happy b-day to your DH! Although we are waaaay older than you guys.
We still act like kids though.

Getting from resort to resort after a late night would probably require a cab. I didn't even know you can do Uber, but the last time I took a cab at WDW I don't think Uber was around! It was in 2012 and we just did the Tower of Terror 10 miler after party (no we didn't run, we just went to meet friends and play!). The party went until 3 or 4am...and so there were no buses unless you were one of the resorts where the runners stayed in. We were in AoA which was not. So we just called a cab.

BTW, is this your first time going during that time period? It is for us...not sure what the crowds are and what to expect in terms of weather.

Looking forward to more!

 

[CQuinn]

BTW, is this your first time going during that time period? It is for us...not sure what the crowds are and what to expect in terms of weather.

Looking forward to more!

Thanks for checking out my PTR! This is my second time going in February, but last time was 10 years ago and I wasn't the planner then. We have gone in mid January recently. Our honeymoon trip was beautiful warm weather, last year our anniversary trip I wore my winter coat the entire trip. To be fair it was during a "polar vortex" week and it was STILL 30 degrees warmer than Jersey. The average weather for February/March is warmer than January so fingers crossed for no winter coats! Crowds shouldn't be bad since it's after the marathon and before spring break.
Low crowds, nice weather, Disney, who can really complain.

 

[CQuinn]

Hello Humans!!!
I'm going to go ahead and pretend I've got lurkers, but I'm also probably fine talking to myself. I really just need a place to release all of my Disney thoughts.

So I thought I might introduce us a little further since well, I have no idea what I'm doing.

So anyway, me
I'm Corrie

I had a really bad time with my hair on our last trip, but that's pretty much my face in Disney most of the time

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom, but I hate choosing
Favorite Ride: Space Mountain!
Favorite Snack: Dole Whip Swirl (RIP)
Favorite Restaurant: Boma
Favorite Disney Movie: The Emperors New Groove (please let me have a llama Kuzco plush Disney!)
Favorite Princess: Aurora, but again I hate choosing
Favorite Fab 5 Character: Minnie Mouse forever

My husband's name is Rich. Saying DH makes me feel weird so I'm going to just go ahead and use his name.
I'm going to do his favorites without actually asking him so it might just be what I THINK his favorite is

Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Snack: Beer (he had his first Dole whip on our last trip and he also discovered Mickey waffles, but I think beer still wins for him)
Favorite Restaurant: Be Our Guest (that's a big guess, he's pretty much happy anywhere that has steak, especially on the DDP)
Favorite Disney Movie: Aladdin
Favorite Disney Princess: Anna? I don't think he's got a big opinion on this one..
Favorite Fab 5 Character: Donald

This is us that time we got married

This is the time we went on our honeymoon

This is our Dogchild

His name is Rivers. We are obsessed dog parents.

(Technical help.. can anyone help me with the size of these photos? I try to resize them in photobucket but they still seem big. What dimensions are good to resize them to?)

So this trip.. I've made the schedule and the schedule has been changed!
Some things to note: I don't follow crowd calendars (much), I don't care too much about EMH, Rich prefers rest days over park days

In my last post I mentioned that I decided against park hoppers in favor of a sixth park day. I know
you're thinking "why not 6 park hopper days!?" and believe me, I've thought of it. Ultimately it wouldn't be worth it for us. I couldn't figure out any days that it would really work out to hop parks. Maybe if we were planning on parks for every day it would be worth it, but we aren't.
Rich also noticed that I planned Epcot then MK the next day. I wanted to avoid MK on a Saturday but we do tend to drink in Epcot, and will probably want to go to Jellyrolls, so a long day at MK the day after isn't going to work.So MK on a Saturday it is!

In another controversial move, I've decided against BOG dinner

Don't worry, I'm planning on BOG lunch instead.
I don't like the vegetarian dinner option at BOG, but lunch looks good. And sorry but cupcakes are not TS dinner dessert.

(also Rich is basically Nick Miller)

So the schedule is looking like this now:


Arrival Day 2/25: MK! QS Lunch (Cosmic Rays, CHH, not too particular). Dinner at Raglan Road. We always see Drey-C on our first night. Anyone else love him and his band?
2/26: Relax day! Hoping for swimming weather. QS Lunch somewhere (our resort or another). Dinner at Boma! Fun fact, my favorite wine is Jam Jar and Cape Town Lounge carries it! Of course, my local liquor store also carries it for much cheaper, but it'll be fun to get it at a lounge.

2/27: Magic Kingdom, on a Saturday, omg guys. Lunch is BOG, and so far by dinner plan is Crystal Palace. I've never tried this one but the character interactions look adorable.
2/28: Epcot. Lunch is probably going to be Sunshine Seasons but I'm open to QS suggestions in world showcase. I'm vegetarian (dairy and egg is okay, no fish or chicken) but not really picky other than that, Rich isn't into anything too crazy but will usually at least try anything. Dinner is Via Napoli
2/29: Rest day, California Grill dinner baby!
3/1: Epcot. Probably planning on getting there a little later, leisurely drinking around WS (not a true "drink around the world" but drinking and snacking where we please). Dinner at Chefs de France
3/2: Rich's birthday!
Hollywood Studios QS lunch, dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe
3/3: Rest day. 'Ohana dinner!!! Trader Sam's, EWP, being lazy in Disney
3/4: Departure Day (late flight), Animal Kingdom during the day

Rich was not super thrilled with my adding another park day but once I explained my plans and how it would be less stressful than trying to park hop he was into it. He still isn't thrilled at the idea of only three rest days (he thinks vacation should be about resting or something) but hopefully he'll enjoy himself too.

So that's all I've got for now. 24 days until ADR day!!
Also really excited for October to see if discounts come out. We really want to upgrade to a moderate resort if we can. I feel like I'm just wishing the summer away but I can't help it!

 

[CQuinn]

Hello Self! I've changed plans again..

Thanks to chunkymonkey's awesome PTR, I found out the Flower and Garden festival begins while we will be in Disney!! I've got not idea how I missed this detail while planning, but I AM SO EXCITED!!
I've never been to any of the Epcot events. I've been absolutely dying to go to F&W and I've heard F&G is like a mini version. It starts on Rich's birthday, so I am switching the HS and Epcot days. He loves Epcot too, so it's all good. I can't wait to see the festival, and try the delicious food.
I've also decided on Sanaa instead of Boma. I haven't been to Sanaa before and Rich isn't crazy about Boma, so I thought it'd be nice to try it. Can anyone tell me if the steak is good for not so exotic eaters?

Other than that I'm just waiting impatiently for ADR day to finally get here

 

[captaindavidhook]

Ok I am here and following. Looking forward to reading everything. Good luck with your adrs. I stayed at pop last year and loved it. The food court is one if the best.

 

[CQuinn]

Ok I am here and following. Looking forward to reading everything. Good luck with your adrs. I stayed at pop last year and loved it. The food court is one if the best.

Thanks for joining in
The Pop food court is good! Lack of quick service was one of the few downsides of staying at the Boardwalk Villas (ah, I love point renting) on our last trip. You really can't beat the convenience of a food court. Plus the Pop cheesecake!! I'll be happy if we stick with Pop, but trying a moderate would be fun too.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Hello Self! I've changed plans again..

Thanks to chunkymonkey's awesome PTR, I found out the Flower and Garden festival begins while we will be in Disney!! I've got not idea how I missed this detail while planning, but I AM SO EXCITED!!
I've never been to any of the Epcot events. I've been absolutely dying to go to F&W and I've heard F&G is like a mini version. It starts on Rich's birthday, so I am switching the HS and Epcot days. He loves Epcot too, so it's all good. I can't wait to see the festival, and try the delicious food.
I've also decided on Sanaa instead of Boma. I haven't been to Sanaa before and Rich isn't crazy about Boma, so I thought it'd be nice to try it. Can anyone tell me if the steak is good for not so exotic eaters?

Other than that I'm just waiting impatiently for ADR day to finally get here

Yay!!! I'm all caught up! You will love the F and G!! It's so much fun to eat at the food kiosks! They seemed to have a decent amount of veggie options. I really liked Frushi which is the dessert/fruit sushi with coconut rice. Yum.
I've been to Sanaa and really enjoyed it. I do not know if the steak is exotic as I didn't have it, but I tend to think Disney does a good job with "introducing exotic" without it being too overwhelming (in a nutshell, no I don't think it'll be too exotic, LOL). But it really depends on how picky your DH is.

 

[captaindavidhook]

Thanks for joining in
The Pop food court is good! Lack of quick service was one of the few downsides of staying at the Boardwalk Villas (ah, I love point renting) on our last trip. You really can't beat the convenience of a food court. Plus the Pop cheesecake!! I'll be happy if we stick with Pop, but trying a moderate would be fun too.

That's why I'm trying out Port Orleans Riverside this trip. I thought I'd give it a shot and it looks really beautiful.

 

[sara1215]

Congrats on passing the NCLEX!! I'm an RN too, so I know how difficult it is.

I wish we were going during F&G. It looks so beautiful.

 

[CQuinn]

Yay!!! I'm all caught up! You will love the F and G!! It's so much fun to eat at the food kiosks! They seemed to have a decent amount of veggie options. I really liked Frushi which is the dessert/fruit sushi with coconut rice. Yum.
I've been to Sanaa and really enjoyed it. I do not know if the steak is exotic as I didn't have it, but I tend to think Disney does a good job with "introducing exotic" without it being too overwhelming (in a nutshell, no I don't think it'll be too exotic, LOL). But it really depends on how picky your DH is.

Ah yes the frushi!! I cannot wait to try it!!
DH really isn't very picky so I'm sure it will be fine. I'm excited to see animals while we eat, and get some of the paneer tikka, and delicious naan. Ugh all I can think about is food haha

 

[CQuinn]

Congrats on passing the NCLEX!! I'm an RN too, so I know how difficult it is.

I wish we were going during F&G. It looks so beautiful.

Thank you!! It was a stressful summer.. and a stressful two years in nursing school, and now a stressful job hunt haha. It'll be nice to relax at Disney

 

[NPRinLA]

Hello!! Following along and just finished getting caught up! It sounds like you're on a roll with your plans! I love that you incorporated rest days. I never usually plan for them, but then I end up running out of steam and they end up planning for me! I've never been during the Flower & Garden festival, but it looks so beautiful!! I'ts definitely on my bucket list! (That and F&W). It sounds like you guys are going to have a great time! Looking forward to hearing more as the date gets closer!

 

[CQuinn]

Hello!! Following along and just finished getting caught up! It sounds like you're on a roll with your plans! I love that you incorporated rest days. I never usually plan for them, but then I end up running out of steam and they end up planning for me! I've never been during the Flower & Garden festival, but it looks so beautiful!! I'ts definitely on my bucket list! (That and F&W). It sounds like you guys are going to have a great time! Looking forward to hearing more as the date gets closer!

Thank you for following along
I probably wouldn't incorporate rest days if my husband wasn't so adamant about it haha. He really enjoys the relaxing part of vacation. I would love to do ALL park days but you know, compromise.

 

[CQuinn]

So some random Wednesday musings:

• Saturday is ADR day, I'm so excited for that
• I am way too excited to make dining reservations, but at least I know people here understand that feeling
• Skipper's Canteen is giving me ADR anxiety
• It's almost Fall which means it's kind of almost time for Winter discounts to hopefully come out
• I hope I get a job so we can actually afford this trip

And a question.. we are planning F&G on March 2nd, the first official day of the event. The crowd calendar I looked at gave me a green for Epcot that day, is that true? I am a little worried the first day might be nuts, but the only other day we could switch it to is our departure day. If I do that I have to flip around the whole schedule so I need to decide before I making ADRs.

 

[CQuinn]

Hello! I haven't updated this in quite a bit and lots of things have happened. This trip has been SO on and off. An emotional rollercoaster! Since I passed my NCLEX the plan was to get a job and move out after vacation (we lived with my parents while I was in nursing school). I got myself a job and then we got super antsy to move out as soon as possible. Living with your parents the first three years of marriage is challenging.


So we were planning on cancelling the Disney trip to move out more quickly. Sad times, but you gotta do what you gotta do, no? We even compromised on a less expensive vacation and put a deposit on a short Royal Caribbean Cruise. I cancelled our flight to Orlando. Then we got extremely lucky and found a nice AND affordable place to rent. After some back and forth, math, and three friends going to Disney and posting pictures all over facebook ON THE SAME WEEK (it was brutal guys) we decided we were BACK ON. Luckily my husband convinced me to ask if I could get the money from the airline cancellation fee back and they did it! So flight is re-booked AND we were able to upgrade when the SPD package came out (we booked this before we were going to cancel the trip and I never actually called to cancel our reservation because I was holding on to a little sliver of hope). So here's the new and improved and almost paid in full plan!

February 25th - March 4th
Port Orleans Riverside - Garden View Room

yayy!!

Another thing that happened in between my last post and this whole fiasco was booking ADRs
They are as follows:

25th- Arrival day: Nothing booked! I might try from Skipper Canteen if ADRs become available and I notice in time. Otherwise we can wing it this day. We usually do Raglan Road on arrival day and find seats at the bar

26th- Sanaa Dinner! So excited about this! I've been drooling over the menu forever

27th- BOG lunch, first time for lunch here. I'm not crazy about the vegetarian dinner options but the quiche sounds good and I really want to try the soup
Crystal Palace Dinner. The only character meal I booked and the interactions look adorable. I've never eaten here but it looks so pretty.

28th- Chefs De France Dinner

29th- California Grill dinner

1st- 50's Prime Time Cafe

2nd- Via Napoli, my husband's birthday dinner! Also the first day of Flower and Garden so we be snacking at the outdoor kitchens too

3rd- 'Ohana another first, and another one I'm super excited about

4th- Departure day We are going to AK this day so probably some quick service here, no ADRs as of right now

I'm sort of wishing my way through Christmas because we get to make FP+ reservations and do online check-in on the 28th. I also just recently purchased Memory Maker which I'm so happy I did. I have so many picture frames from our wedding and engagement party and finally have a place to display them, can't wait to fill some of them with Disney photos!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Just catching up...I can't believe our trips are almost here. We'll be there from 2/27-3/4.
I'm really super excited about all the Star Wars festivities. We are doing the dessert party at DHS on 2/29!
Your ADRs look great! I would like to go to Sanaa as we had a great meal there but I just can't seem to fit it in our schedule!
Hope you lucked out with your FP+! I found that it was very easy to get everything we wanted and I did it all through the app. I didn't even remember to wake up early as I usually do. LOL.
I also just purchased Memory Maker. It's my first time using MM with just DH and I. Usually I only do it when my sister comes along as she's more of the photo-taking kind, but I figure it would be nice to get some pics of DH and I that aren't selfies of our faces.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi,

Following! I have not been on the DIS in forever but thought I'd check it out since we're going next month. We are also staying at POR! I can't wait!

Skippers Canteen is giving me ADR anxiety as well. Lol. It is the only thing that we want that we don't have booked. Lol

 

[CQuinn]

Hello! Things have been crazy and I haven't updated this and now it's 5 days until are in Disney!

So we made our FP+ selections and it was VERY different this time because in December we found out I'm pregnant! Needless to say I felt a bit lost choosing FP+ attractions...

• For MK I picked things like Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion. No mountains for me. I managed to get an A&E FP+ and I didn't even get on at midnight! I wasn't expecting or planning on that one but it was there so I went for it. I also chose to get a Wishes FP+. I think in general we may do more character meets than we normally do. We purchased memory maker this time so might as well get our money's worth!
• I was completely lost on Epcot, Soarin is closed and I can't ride Test Track or Mission Space. I picked a couple useless ones and then an Illuminations FP+. I'm REALLY looking forward to Flower and Garden Festival.
• For HS I went with RnRC and ToT for the husband, they were the only ones he requested and I'll just wait on line with him for those. The third FP+ that day is for the Indiana Jones show. I may have seen it when I was younger but don't remember it at all so I wanted to make sure we saw it before it's gone.
• We are still debating on going to AK at all this trip. We were planning on going on our departure day but we might just do an extra day at another park instead. I loveeee AK but feel I might be kind of bummed missing my favorites there, and the husband doesn't care for it. I might just hold off until next trip when some of the new attractions are open and I can enjoy it more.

Our trips are usually pretty laid back anyway, but with this pregnancy added to it I think we'll be moving even slower and relaxing more. I'm 17 weeks now and my appetite is still not really back. I'm not really showing much and haven't really gained weight but I've been having a lot of pain in my legs (weird nerve side effect of pregnancy, lots of fun) so we are both mostly looking forward to just lounging around in some warmer weather and not being at work. I'm so excited to explore POR. We usually do a lot of resort hopping but we've never even been over to just check that one out so it'll be completely new to us. I'm hoping my stomach cooperates and lets me enjoy some beignets from French Quarter. I've been dreaming about them for months

This last week feels like it's moving so slowly! I have three days of work left and it seems like an eternity. Soon enough though!