It could happen this time. (Dec 2014?)

[toonaspie]

My last attempt to surprise my friend with a WDW/UO vacation didn't pan out so well and I had to cancel. I'm happy to say that times have changed and we're going to be far more financially stable this year than we ever were ever.

It's probably too late and too hot and too much of a hassle to plan a WDW/UO vacation anytime this summer so we're gonna try for a December break vacation, the week before Christmas (Dec 14-20.) The timing should be much better since there's more stuff to experience such as the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and the new Diagon Alley.

I'm not sure what the game plan will entail but more than likely we will use MyMagic to our full advantage. Let the planning begin!

 

[toonaspie]

Basic Review:

My friend is a grad student and he has no idea how close he will be to ever graduating or if he even will graduate ever. Dec 2014 is the next possible date that it could happen so this could be quite the gift for him if he does since his graduation date would be the day prior to our vacation should we decide to head out on Sunday Dec 14th.

The biggest challenge at the moment will be if I can get the time off in that particular week. I'm in a better paying job but the time off may not be so flexible. I'm sure hurdles will be had.

Hotel(s):

I was very detailed in my attempts to plan our last trip but this time around I don't plan on being so picky. We're definitely doing a Disney hotel (likely in the value or moderate range). The only other challenge will be how we plan to do Universal in the midst of all of that. I could definitely afford the splurge of FOTL passes for Universal to save us both lots of time.

Since it is possible that we will need more than one day at Universal, another option would be to resort hop from a Disney hotel to Universal's Cabana Bay to a Disney hotel again. Any thoughts on that are welcome. My friend really loves Disney's Magical Express so I wanna try and do that for both going there and leaving there.

For Disney hotels, I would like to do a hotel that we haven't done yet. I could the choice coming down to either All Star Sports, Pop Century, or TLM rooms at Art of Animation.

Dining:
No Dining Plan. We want to be flexible in our dining. I hate the food court experience we had when we stayed at the value resorts. I'd like to do breakfast in the parks for maybe one occasion or two. Somewhere in the mix I would like to try Be Our Guest.

 

[Pattil1960]

Look at the cost of staying at one of the other on site Universal hotels. If you add the $160 dollars per day for the Express Pass to the price of the room, you could be surprised where you can stay. We were when we were there this February. The other thing about the pass you buy is that it is only good on each ride once per day. Staying on site also gets you in an hour early to the Hogsmead area.

 

[toonaspie]

Look at the cost of staying at one of the other on site Universal hotels. If you add the $160 dollars per day for the Express Pass to the price of the room, you could be surprised where you can stay. We were when we were there this February. The other thing about the pass you buy is that it is only good on each ride once per day. Staying on site also gets you in an hour early to the Hogsmead area.

I was just thinking that.

Resort hopping would be a hassle (since we've never done it before). However if I crunch the numbers and staying at say Royal Pacific and getting all the goodies included does turn out to be the better deal, I guess it's worth a shot. I would still need to figure out how much time we plan to do what we wanna do at Universal.

 

[toonaspie]

So right now, I should not have a problem getting a week off from work so that's good. Much of the plan involved is very dependent on whether or not we plan to add Universal into the mix.

If we include Universal:
We would leave Sunday Dec 15th and stay at All Stars Sports with a couple of nights at Royal Pacific in the mix.

If we don't include Universal:
We would leave Sat Dec 14th and stay at Port Orleans French Quarter.

Either way the latest we would end the vacation would be Sun Dec 22nd. Since there's a free Dining Plan involved in both cases, we might as well use it though I'm not a fan of the Dining Plan either way.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is a maybe in either case but most likely if we decide NOT to do Universal since we would have more money in that situation.

Days in the Parks

1 full Day at Disney's Animal Kingdom
1 full Day at Disney's Hollywood Studios
1 full Day at Epcot
1 day minimum at Magic Kingdom

If Universal is in the plan we would do two days there (one for each park) any free time would be at DTD. Undecided about park hoppers.

 

[toonaspie]

I won't be too detailed like last time. I'm just gonna list what I hope to do (or must do) at each park and what restaurants I might be interested in.

Magic Kingdom:

• Dumbo
• Teacups
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• The Little Mermaid
• Peter Pan
• Small World
• Pirates of the Carribean
• Jungle Cruise
• Tiki Room
• Carousel of Progress
• Country Bear Jamboree
• Splash Mountain
• BTTMR
• AstroOrbitor
• Haunted Mansion
• Hall of Presidents
• Philharmagic
• TTA

Would like to try one meal at Be Our Guest (either lunch or dinner).

Epcot

• Spaceship Earth
• The Seas with Nemo
• Test Track
• Soarin'
• Maelstrom
• Illuminations
• Living with the Land

I dunno what the deal is with the Imagination Pavilion. Is it crazy to say that I want Captain EO to still be open when I'm there? I only hope this because I want to be able to experience this attraction just once in my life.

Would like to try one meal at Le Cellier but I hear that's known to be impossible even with advanced reservations. Coral Reef could be a secondary choice.

Hollywood Studios

• Toy Story Mania
• Star Tours
• Tower of Terror
• Great Movie Ride
• Fantasmic! - could do a dinner package depending

Animal Kingdom

• It's Tough to be A Bug
• Kilomanjaro Safaris
• Kali River Rapids
• Dinosaur
• Festival of the Lion King

Finding Nemo the musical is a maybe and I'm also on the fence about Expedition Everest. I have a problem with high roller coasters.

We might wanna try Yak and Yeti.

Considering how short the list for the non-Magic Kingdom parks are and how we utilize FP+, parkhoppers could be a way to go...maybe. Depends on how many of the other things in each of the parks we decide to do. We are doing all parades.

With the list mentioned above, I would love for people to recommend for me how my friend and I should utilize our FP+ (which rides should we use for our 3 per park and such).

 

[toonaspie]

In the event that we do Universal, our top two must-dos will be The Simpsons land and the soon-to-be-two Harry Potter lands. I'm not very familiar with the majority of attractions. I've only been to Universal once in my life and that was before the existence of IOA.


Universal Studios
The Simpsons Ride
Harry Potter - Diagon Alley
E.T. the Ride
Shrek 4D
Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem
Transformers the Ride
Men in Black: Alien Attack
Twister: Ride It Out
Disaster!: A Motion Picture Ride

Islands of Adventure
Harry Potter - Hogsmeade (minus Dragon Challenge)
Jurassic Park River Adventure
Amazing Adventures of Spiderman
The Cat in the Hat
Seuss Trolley
Ripsaw Falls
Bilge-Rat Barges