"Let us plan our escape!" - Adults only for F&W/1st DVC-Oct '14 PTR(TR Link Post #99)

[skier_pete]

Totally agree. That's my biggest grip about FP+.

I would recommend you book the 3 FP+ before 2 pm (from late morning'ish) and that way you can see if the 4th is available. The only spanner in the works is if you want to use one of those for the parade/fireworks spot. If you book them late morning and get to the park early, you can get in the standby queue and maximise your time that way.

That's my thought exactly. Except for one thing...I don't have a spanner, only a wrench.

Either way, we don't care about the parades, and I refuse to waste a FP+ on the fireworks. So I think that we can go with the 3 FP+ before 2 PM theorem.

 

[Tinker326]

Ok, I have to make several observations.

a) We had the same Peter Pan in 2008 on our Grand Gathering Event at the Contemporary. If I was at home I'd put in the picture we have of the girls with him.

b) I also have a gigantic soft spot for Philharmonic. I just LOVE that show.

c) Don't get too overly excited about the Mine Ride. It's not at all that great.

d) Thanks for the giggle with the Buzz picture. I know I would be scared if I was Zurg.

Sounds like a great plan. And even being crowded, I think you'll have a good chance of getting through it all. It's amazing how fast you can get through things when there is no whining, meltdowns, ice-cream bar stops, stops to bribe children on rides & 900 bathroom breaks.

 

[skier_pete]

Ok, I have to make several observations.

a) We had the same Peter Pan in 2008 on our Grand Gathering Event at the Contemporary. If I was at home I'd put in the picture we have of the girls with him.

Wait, of COURSE its the same Peter Pan! What are you talking about?

b) I also have a gigantic soft spot for Philharmonic. I just LOVE that show.

Me too, far and away my favorite of the 3-D movies.

c) Don't get too overly excited about the Mine Ride. It's not at all that great.

Honestly I am not over-excited. I hear it's short, which immediately is a real turn-off to me. They should never make a ride anymore that's less than 3 1/2 minutes long.

d) Thanks for the giggle with the Buzz picture. I know I would be scared if I was Zurg.

I try to come up with things to do in the ride photos. Sometimes it's hard to come up with good ideas. I am not sure what made me think of that one, but it makes me chuckle every time I look at it. That was during the MVMCP after DD had her final breakdown and DW took her back to the room, I was just trying to have fun with my solo $200 park ticket.

Sounds like a great plan. And even being crowded, I think you'll have a good chance of getting through it all. It's amazing how fast you can get through things when there is no whining, meltdowns, ice-cream bar stops, stops to bribe children on rides & 900 bathroom breaks.

Well, honestly DD once she got to about 7 years old she hardly ever needs to go to the bathroom. But even before that, we had "enforced" potty breaks about every two hours, so I don't think we ever once had an "emergency" break. However, the meltdowns, whining, and especially the "frozen lemonade" searches could go on for hours.

 

[skier_pete]

Well, as usually happens with Disney trip plans, the further from the start of the trip, the more vague the plan becomes. When you get to the 2nd day in a park, what you actually did the 1st day in the park comes well into play.

In this case, we are talking about our 2nd day at Epcot, and our 2nd day of F & W. Now, while I don’t expect us to get up really early, I really expect that we will still get an early start, and if not exactly doing rope drop, we will probably be there by 9:30 AM. For while our focus is on the World Showcase section of the park, we will likely want to visit a few of our favorite rides. Namely, Soarin’ and Test Track.








My plan is to FP+ Soarin, and single rider TT. Other than MAYBE Spaceship Earth, I don’t really think there is anything else in Future World we really want to take the time to visit, so again we will be heading for WS by 11 AM. This time, we may take the opposite route from our coin toss.

Maybe we’ll try one of these:


Or one of these:


Or one of these:


And at some point I’m definitely gonna get me one of THESE:


And we’ve already discussed that while It’s not a food and wine item, we BOTH want to get one of these:


We again have close to three hours to enjoy F&W and World Showcase as the crowds build, after which we head back over to the Festival Pavillion for our 2 seminars as previously mentioned:

2:00 PM Palm Bay International (Chile and Argentina) Category: Wine
3:00 PM Carl Bertka, Roy’s, Sarasota, FL Category: Pastry

Once those are done, we will make a choice whether to again go back to our hotel for a short break, or to forge on. Knowing DW, it will be the former, and we will return refreshed and ready for an evening of more tastes and sips.

The evening we will likely check out the eat to the beat concert which is Night Ranger – famous for Sister Christian and, well, not really anything else. Should I dig out my old lighter? Meh, could take or leave this one. (I am disappointed that as of tomorrow, the EttB band is Smashmouth, which is one of my favorite late-90s bands. I actually have 4 of their albums, though I’ve never seen them in concert. They have some great songs beyond the ubiquitous “All-Star”. Unfortunately it isn’t possible to extend our stay just to see them.)

In the evening, we are going to again head over to Jellyroll’s (AGAIN!), this time I think before the crowds sweep out from Illuminations. This is the main reason I am thinking a mid-day nap may be in order. Three late nights out in a row, not since our ABD Disneyland trip!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Looks like another great day planned out.

If you're heading towards Soarin', would you consider stopping in at the Living Seas?

 

[skier_pete]

Looks like another great day planned out.

If you're heading towards Soarin', would you consider stopping in at the Living Seas?

Well, DW and I talked about the rest of Future World. Since we have such an animal/ocean loving daughter, we have had to ride/see Nemo/Living Seas twice each trip. DW finds the Pavillion "dizzying" (her words) and doesn't really like it in there. I like it, but have seen it SOOOO many times now, we feel we can skip it.

If there is a chance we maybe do something else in Future World, I would maybe say Mission Space or some part of Innoventions. DW may want to do Living with the Land, but not me. Figment I know we can skip, as well as Ellen's EA.

Our feeling really is that we just don't get to spent a TON of time in WS. Not that we don't go there, but we never really just go and explore. That's one of our big things. With 13 pavillions, we figure if we just devote time each day to 4 or 5 we should be able to really spend time in WS. With pulling out to go to the Festival Center I am still worried we won't have as much time as we hope, but FW will definitely not see a lot of us!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I guess you can always fill in time shopping if you have to wait for WS to open.

 

[skier_pete]

Last day already??

It's going to all end way too soon!

The final day is always a sad one, but especially on a shorter trip like this. Our flight doesn’t leave until 7 PM, so all plans are built backwards from there – we need to likely be at the resort of ME by 4 PM, which means we need to be leaving Epcot by 3 PM, which means we will want to check out of our room in the morning and check out bags with Bell Services. I am not anticipating needing to get to the park for rope drop today, that’s for sure. I think the target will be around 10 AM. Again, maybe we do a ride or two in future world, or maybe we walk through Innoventions, which we haven’t done in a while. From 11 AM to 3 PM - it's world showcase, and our last 4 hours of F & W. The goal will be to get to the booths/countries we didn’t have time to hit before. Expect today to have shorter lines as well.

While we don’t expect to try every single food, we do want to try every single BOOTH. There’s a passport book they give as a souvenir, and we intend to stamp all 30 booths over the course of our 3 days. This doesn’t seem at all unreasonable, but it DOES seem expensive!

So, our flight heads back to Buffalo at 7 PM and gets in at 9:35 PM, which is not bad at all. We'll have to both go to work the next day but it will be worth it!

So, no pictures in this post, because I wanted to get this updated before we leave. It's 64 days until Disney, but only 4 days until Myrtle Beach. So, I won't be posting for a bit, but a few things dear readers you can look forward to when we get back.

1) FastPass+ schedule. Yup, we can get those booked soon.
2) Throwback pix - DW and I realized this is our first time going to DisneyWorld as a twosome in EXACTLY 14 years to the week. We decided to dig out some pictures from our two previous trips (1997 and 2000) and try to recreate them in 2014. I'll scan them and share!
3) Some myrtle beach photos - for those of you that aren't Facebook friends, I'll post a few pictures from our pre-Disney trip coming up next week.

So, please don't lose the thread, we are only a few months from the good stuff - the actual TR!

 

[PrincessInOz]

YAY. Sounds like a great day.

BOO. Last day.

 

[skier_pete]

YAY. Sounds like a great day.

BOO. Last day.

 

[MidnightParade]

Okay officially out of lurkdom and saying aloha!!

I love the idea of recreating some old pictures! That will be awesome and so fun!!

Nice that you can fit in so much park time on your last day, they may need to roll you onto the ME though after so much F&W...atleast thats my plan! lol

Have a great time in Myrtle Beach!!!

 

[AAshleySEG]

Just read through all of your plans! Everything sounds awesome! Had to LOL at you guys going to Myrtle Beach, we live really close to there, about 45 minutes or so, and even pass through there when we drive to Disney World!

It is definitely doable to get at least one thing from each booth at Food & Wine Festival, I myself am proud of my two full passports! I am a little sad that they have changed a bunch of the menus but there are still plenty of yummy looking food options to get! Tons of it actually! Those chocolate orange cupcakes in that photo were so good! I loved those little orange sprinkle balls on top!We made them at home last year after the festival!

Food & Wine is definitely my favorite time of year in the parks! We were able to plan it out so we could go to it 3 times this year, they are only weekend trips but I am just happy to get to go and eat everything! We will be going the first weekend of the festival, then 10-13th of October, then the very last day of the festival in November!

There are so many things I could comment on, but I don't want to take up your entire PTR with a giant post I will add that yes, the Pirates at DL is better than at WDW, but the one at Disneyland Paris, is pretty freaking awesome too!

 

[Teetah]

I cannot wait to see your throwback pics! I love me some older photos before life became digital! Enjoy your vacation!!!!

 

[skier_pete]

Hey everyone! Back from Myrtle Beach. I see a lot of interest in those retro pictures! They'll be coming, but first another update.

So, as of today we are at 49 days and counting. If DD was coming, we'd be using the countdown calendar!

However, with FP+ and MDE, when you pass the 60 day mark, you get that exciting point at which you get to book your FP+ experiences, and that day occurred when we were in Myrtle Beach. Our hotel luckily had good wi-fi coverage, and so we were able to log on and pick all the FP+.


Before I start, I don't really have full opinion of FP+. I actually like the concept of pre-booking them. However, with the tier system in two parks, and the limitation to three rides, in many ways the system is LESS advantageous than the old system in terms of shortening our wait times. I used to be about to get 6 or more FP per day, and using them late certainly helped as well. (I honestly don't mind them getting rid of that aspect of them.) However, this will be our first trip with ONLY FP+, last November they actually had BOTH, which was nice. The fourth FP+ in the new system seems inconvenient and of questionable use. We shall see...

Day 1 - Epcot:
Spaceship Earth 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Mission: SPACE® 3:30 PM - 4:30 PM
IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth 8:35 PM - 8:55 PM
Of the three, the only one I'm expecting to use is the IllumiNations one. SSE is just in case we are able to get to the park earlier than I think. Unless we arrive before 11 AM (realizing our flight lands at 9:15 AM - so while possible it is unlikely) we won't use that one. The same with the Mission: SPACE one. I put it there, but I don't think we will use it after we complete the food/wine seminars. This would only be if we can actually get into our room first thing in the morning, so again I don't think so.

Day 2: DHS
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ 9:40 AM - 10:40 AM
Toy Story Midway Mania! 11:05 AM - 12:05 PM
Star Tours® – The Adventures Continue 1:25 PM - 2:25 PM
With the tiers in place, I find the FP+ for DHS to be pretty useless. I might use the ToT one after we hit TSMM and RnRC in the AM. The TSMM one will definitely get used, I scheduled it right before our lunch at the Brown Derby. The Star Tours one is right AFTER lunch, we may or may not use it.

Day 3: MK
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 11:40 AM - 12:40 PM
Space Mountain® 12:50 PM - 1:50 PM
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin® 1:50 PM - 2:50 PM
We'll definitely use all 3 of these. Note that they are basically consecutive starting at noon. I can't bring myself to book early morning FP+ when I know the lines are going to be short anyways, so I am hoping by using them all up by 2 PM that we can possibly book a fourth one for later in the evening when we return to the park. Between that and the EMH we will hopefully not get stuck waiting in many lines.

Day 4: Epcot
Soarin'® 9:40 AM - 10:40 AM
Meet Disney Pals at the Epcot Character Spot 10:40 AM - 11:40 AM
Spaceship Earth 5:05 PM - 6:05 PM
The first two we will likely use before heading back to WS - I think we'll do TT first thing, or even Single Rider. Then Soarin', then go visit with Mickey before the eating/drinking commences. The SSE one is more or less a place holder. I don't expect to use it, though we might.

Day 5: Epcot
Spaceship Earth 9:10 AM - 10:10 AM
Soarin'® 10:10 AM - 11:10 AM
Mission: SPACE® 2:20 PM - 3:20 PM
First off, I wouldn't be surprised if we don't use ANY of these. Most likely would be if we get to the park early enough and decide to ride Soarin' again. The other two are more than likely to be burned off.

You may be wondering why I never picked Maelstrom. Well, there are NO FP+ available for Maelstrom after September 27th. This is being seen as an indication that the ride is going down for a Frozen makeover. I am on the side of those that like the idea, as long as they keep the ride about Norway and just use the Frozen characters to tell that story. (There are those out there that hate the idea of characters in EPCOT, I am not one of them.)

Finally, I did also do on-line check-in already. There is nothing exciting about this, except in theory it will get us through the SSR lobby and on the way to the parks faster. It also allowed me to sign up that Disney will text me when our room is ready, which if it works will make it easier for us to know whether we should head back to the resort. As I've said before, I fully don't expect our room to be ready at 10 AM when we arrive, but it would certainly be a lovely bonus.

 

[PrincessInOz]

In spite of the tiering system, your FP+ look decent. Hopefully, you'll get on all the others as well.

 

[Tinker326]

Congrats on booking your FP+!!! Looks exciting & you are getting so close to your trip!

Woo Hoo!!!

 

[skier_pete]

In spite of the tiering system, your FP+ look decent. Hopefully, you'll get on all the others as well.

I'm not too worried about getting stuck waiting in long lines THIS trip. It really isn't all about the rides.

Congrats on booking your FP+!!! Looks exciting & you are getting so close to your trip!

Woo Hoo!!!

Yeah, Sorry it didn't work out that we were going at the same time! That would've been fun.

Are we going to get the kids to Skype again? Mine hasn't started school just yet...

 

[MidnightParade]

Happy you were able to log on easily and make your selections. Even if you don't use them its nice to have them there!

 

[skier_pete]

Happy you were able to log on easily and make your selections. Even if you don't use them its nice to have them there!

Yeah, I might not have even bothered except I had heard trouble with getting the 7DMT FP+ after 60 days, so I figured might as well get them booked. It's nice that you can change them any time, so it's not like we would HAVE to use these, but I don't really foresee us changing anything.

 

[skier_pete]

Here's a few picture of our most recent (non-Disney) vacation

The beach in front of our hotel. I LOVE Myrtle Beach. Wide sands, shallow surf and warm water - probably 85 degrees while we were there.





Ripley's Aquarium.



DD was obsessed with these Doctor Fish that suck off your dead skin. People pay $100s of dollars for this treatment














The Mermaid show


Wild Water & Wheels water park. It's no Typhoon Lagoon, but it was free from our hotel:







Lunch at the Giant Crab - Calabash Buffet


We went and saw the Carolina Opry - Good Vibrations show. 2nd row center seats. And they allowed pictures:








Aztec Mini-Golf pose!


Also attended Pirate's Voyage dinner show. This was lots of fun. A very stunt/acrobat heavy show, but alas no photos allowed once the show started:







We had a great time, though we had a few very hot days. A very different pace from Disney trips, as we spent a lot of downtime just hanging in our room. (It rained quite a bit, though.) This was our fourth time at the same hotel/resort and we plan on changing it up next time.
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