Is it Disney Time Yet?!? December, 2012 PTR

[Valgoof]

See, I'm getting the hang of WDW planning, finally!

You didnt even ask anyone's opinion before you made the changes.

 

[levenhopper]

You didnt even ask anyone's opinion before you made the changes.

This change just seemed to make sense. And I'm glad you agree.

 

[HoliPoli]

deleted

 

[levenhopper]

I'm a little late, but hope you don't mind that I join in. I, too, can claim Cleveland, Ohio as my hometown (living in Tennessee now) and I'm going in December (Dec 16 through Jan 5). We are staying at the Fort for 10 days then with my S/O in Orlando for the remainder.

I'm elbow deep in plans even though it's still four months away! Good luck with your planning. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks, and welcome! I can't wait to see your plans!

 

[levenhopper]

Made a couple big changes today:
1) Booked BOG!!!!! I was able to get the exact time I wanted, so we're in . I was worried that by the time I made it through the reservation line (1:15PM), nothing would be open...but they had 6:15, 6:30, and 6:45 open. I'm thinking that 6:30PM should have us done in time for parade/fireworks.

2) Cancelled the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise. The more I think about it, the more I think it's geared towards kids. Plus, having one night of downtime in our plans is probably a good idea. It'll give us time to explore the Boardwalk...and leave us room to go back to DTD if we need more time.

 

[Valgoof]

Made a couple big changes today:
1) Booked BOG!!!!! I was able to get the exact time I wanted, so we're in . I was worried that by the time I made it through the reservation line (1:15PM), nothing would be open...but they had 6:15, 6:30, and 6:45 open. I'm thinking that 6:30PM should have us done in time for parade/fireworks.

2) Cancelled the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise. The more I think about it, the more I think it's geared towards kids. Plus, having one night of downtime in our plans is probably a good idea. It'll give us time to explore the Boardwalk...and leave us room to go back to DTD if we need more time.

1) wow. I didnt realize you got your ADR at 1:30. I barely missed it then. Not gonna lie, that makes me a little sad. But glad you got your day and time.

2) sounds like a great idea to me.

 

[levenhopper]

United changed my flight times for the second time earlier today. The had us arriving in Orlando at 11:30AM on Saturday, instead of 10AM like originally scheduled. I started looking at options, and was able to confirm with all my professors that I'll be done with exams by the 13th (I wasn't sure of that when we originally booked airfare). And since United changed the flights due to scheduling, it means I could move the flights a day earlier without any extra fees

And who can turn down an extra day of magic?!?

I reworked some ADRs to make more sense. And I'm hoping to move the Seas Aqua tour to Sunday to avoid so much travel on Wednesday. I'll know in the AM if I'm able to move it.

 

[taaren]

United changed my flight times for the second time earlier today. The had us arriving in Orlando at 11:30AM on Saturday, instead of 10AM like originally scheduled. I started looking at options, and was able to confirm with all my professors that I'll be done with exams by the 13th (I wasn't sure of that when we originally booked airfare). And since United changed the flights due to scheduling, it means I could move the flights a day earlier without any extra fees

And who can turn down an extra day of magic?!?

I reworked some ADRs to make more sense. And I'm hoping to move the Seas Aqua tour to Sunday to avoid so much travel on Wednesday. I'll know in the AM if I'm able to move it.

Sweet! This must be the time frame for them to be changing flights for December. My Alaska Airline flights got moved back 10 minutes, with a tighter connection, and the other half of my travelling party's United flight got moved back half an hour on departure but only gets in 5 minutes later, again with a tighter connection.

 

[Valgoof]

Yay for an extra Disney day!!!!! I love your Saturday now. Much better. The old one was kinda stressing me out. It was doable, but would have been busy. That would be great if you could move the Seas Tour to Sunday. Then you would really avoid travel time the whole week.

 

[sunnysideup3]

Subbing in! Great plans so far... I love 'Ohana. If you see my PTR below you'll see the full crazy devotion we have to that place...

 

[levenhopper]

So I was able to move the Seas Aqua tour, but not to Sunday like I wanted. The tour only runs Tuesdays-Saturdays. So, I moved it to Thursday. That way, we're not short on MK time, and we'll have a real break in the middle of the day before MVMCP.

Plus, moving it to Thursday puts it on a Hollywood Studio day, which means it's a much shorter bus ride to Epcot, which should (hopefully) mean less time wasted traveling between parks.

ADRs are finalized, and I think I'm finally happy with where/when everything is. I don't think I have much I need to do. I'm planning on paying off the trip within the next two weeks (yay for student financial aid refunds! (I had overpaid my tuition when the semester started because some scholarships hadn't cleared yet)). After that comes the waiting game for Mickey Mail!

P.S. Since I moved our arrival date up a day, my ticker is no longer accurate :. Valgoof reminded me about it, but she also reminded me that changing it would mean that the placeholder icon would restart, and that'd be super depressing to see. So I'm leaving the ticker as is, and am mentally subtracting a day from it!

 

[taaren]

Plus, moving it to Thursday puts it on a Hollywood Studio day, which means it's a much shorter bus ride to Epcot, which should (hopefully) mean less time wasted traveling between parks.

P.S. Since I moved our arrival date up a day, my ticker is no longer accurate :. Valgoof reminded me about it, but she also reminded me that changing it would mean that the placeholder icon would restart, and that'd be super depressing to see. So I'm leaving the ticker as is, and am mentally subtracting a day from it!

I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a bus between Epcot and DHS, the buses only go from the resorts to parks, and from parks to TTC/DTD, not from park to park. However, it'd probably be a pretty cheap taxi (that's what I'm planning on the days we want to go directly from park to park) since they're so close together ... or you could take a boat to Boardwalk Inn, then walk to DHS. I've been studying the route maps to and from BLT and BWV to the parks, etc a lot.

I did the same thing, we decided to fly in a night earlier and start the vacation officially on 11/30 by getting 1 night at OKW with the dining plan, but left my ticker as it was ... I've had that ticker for 18 months now, don't want to start over!!

 

[Valgoof]

I could be wrong, but I don't think there's a bus between Epcot and DHS, the buses only go from the resorts to parks, and from parks to TTC/DTD, not from park to park. However, it'd probably be a pretty cheap taxi (that's what I'm planning on the days we want to go directly from park to park) since they're so close together ... or you could take a boat to Boardwalk Inn, then walk to DHS. I've been studying the route maps to and from BLT and BWV to the parks, etc a lot.

I did the same thing, we decided to fly in a night earlier and start the vacation officially on 11/30 by getting 1 night at OKW with the dining plan, but left my ticker as it was ... I've had that ticker for 18 months now, don't want to start over!!

There are buses that go park to park and the boat goes from Epcot to DHS, stopping at the resorts along the way. A taxi might be faster, definitely faster than the boat, but you can do it with Disney transportation if you wanted.

Congrats on your extra day too!!

 

[taaren]

There are buses that go park to park and the boat goes from Epcot to DHS, stopping at the resorts along the way. A taxi might be faster, definitely faster than the boat, but you can do it with Disney transportation if you wanted.

Congrats on your extra day too!!

Cool, good to know. I'm going to have to go back to spending more times on the transportation boards ...

 

[levenhopper]

After all of the talk about the Liberty Tree Tavern on the December Roll Call thread, I started to figure out how to work it into the schedule. I had wanted it originally, but we already had all of our meals planned for our MK days, and most of the restaurants we have are ones I don't want to miss.

But, I just realized, now that I moved the Seas Aqua Tour to Thursday, we'll be in MK for lunch on Wednesday. So I just booked Liberty Tree for Wednesday's lunch

 

[Valgoof]

After all of the talk about the Liberty Tree Tavern on the December Roll Call thread, I started to figure out how to work it into the schedule. I had wanted it originally, but we already had all of our meals planned for our MK days, and most of the restaurants we have are ones I don't want to miss.

But, I just realized, now that I moved the Seas Aqua Tour to Thursday, we'll be in MK for lunch on Wednesday. So I just booked Liberty Tree for Wednesday's lunch

Seriously? You people are killing me!! Back to check the schedule to see where it can fit.

 

[levenhopper]

More changes!

We were going to be doing an Illuminations Cruise with another group, but their plans changed and they won't be able to join us on the cruise. And, $347 is too much to spend for a one-hour cruise for the two of us. So, the new plan (for Monday night):

Tour AK as planned during the day. Do a 5:05PM ADR at California Grill (just booked). We'll get a great view of the sunset, which is predicted to be around 5:30PMish. Then, we'd monorail hop the resorts to see holiday decorations, before heading back to the Contemporary to head up to the California Grill to watch MK fireworks from their balcony (allowed to return because we ate their earlier that day). After fireworks, head to Jellyrolls if we want for an hour or so.

Or, if it's warm enough, we could watch fireworks from the beach outside the Polynesian.

It'll give us a nice dinner, plus we'll still get a unique fireworks viewing experience. We originally had 1900 PK booked before the cruise, but I think California Grill + fireworks will be more special/memorable than just doing 1900 PK.

 

[mnmrmustard]

Hey Jordan!

Don’t know how I missed your PTR up to this point, I’ve been scanning the threads for anything with “December” in it.

Very cool to have your first WDW experience being during the holidays – I know you and Abby will have a blast! Especially with the Birthday mojo both of you will have going. We’ve been to WDW twice before, but never during the holidays so some of this is new to us too.

Nice job landing a room at AoA, it looks like a very cool resort. Great itinerary – good call starting each day early and nice job getting the Crystal Palace reses before MK opens Great ADRs overall! I noticed that Disney still doesn’t have an actor set for reading the Story of Christmas on your EPCOT day – it took forever for them to get the actors listed for our days. We ended up with Neil Patrick Harris and Whoopi Goldberg.

I’m wondering the same thing about the Osbourne Lights in relation to Fantasmic! showings. We want to see them turn on the lights, but would it be worth missing Fantasmic???

As far as your question of what else goes into a PTR, you’re doing great with it! Here’s some common themes I see (and do on mine):

- Travel plans – check!
- Itinerary – check!
- ADRs – check!
- Family Disney Parks history – any story you have about yourself or other family and their adventures at any of the Disney theme parks
- Custom T-Shirts – many parkgoers have custom T’s done up with Disney/Holiday theming. Our fam always has two of them made up for each trip
- Packing List – this can be an important one as just posting it will start up conversations and bring things to your attention that you never would have thought of


I feel for ya with the flight changes, the earlier you make them the more things shift. Delta “discontinued” our original flight home so we now have to leave first thing in the morning on our flight day. At least yours shifted in a way to allow you more Disney time – whoohoo!

We’re going to be taking the boat ride from DHS to EPCOT via the two resort stops. It isn’t the fastest transportation (30-45 minutes total), but it is very relaxing. Nice addition of Liberty Tree Tavern!! My wife and I ate there on my birthday last year and LOVED it

Bummer about the Illuminations Cruise not working out. As far as watching the MK fireworks from the California Grill I have a tip. If you go outside to the balcony to watch them and it is too crowded, just take the outside stairwell down one floor to the secondary balconies. They still have a great view and are usually not nearly as crowded

Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[levenhopper]

When WDW released their updated park hours for December, they moved MK opening up to 8AM almost every day. That means that my two pre-park opening ADRs were no longer pre-park opening. I wanted to try and move around my ADRs to allow us to be a rope drop for at least one of the days, and I think I did.

Original plan:
Tuesday - Crystal Palace breakfast ADR, 'Ohana dinner
Wednesday - CRT breakfast ADR, Liberty Tree Tavern lunch ADR, BOG dinner ADR

New plan:
Tuesday: Be at MK for rope drop. Liberty Tree Tavern lunch ADR at 11:35AM, 'Ohana dinner ADR at 4:45PM.
Wednesday: CRT ADR at 8:05AM, Crystal Palace lunch ADR at 1:30PM, BOG ADR at 6:30PM.

I think this is a best of both worlds plan. It gives us one morning to be at rope-drop, but doesn't cause us to lose any of the ADRs we wanted.

 

[levenhopper]

I think I made my last set of changes! I found out that we were selected for FP+! However, since the trial is only running on the first two days of our trip, we had to rearrange so that we'd be in a park that is using FP+ on our first day. We were planning on being in Epcot, but they aren't using FP+. I added on park hoppers, so we'll head to MK when we arrive, and then hop over to Epcot for PM EMH when they're done.

We'll also use the hoppers on Thursday. We'll be able to start in Epcot before our tour, and then head to DHS when we're done. I know we won't be using them excessively, but having them in our back pocket, just in case, is a good feeling to have.