"Look Ma! We're planning a Disney Trip!" - Nov 10-20 PTR (11/09 Final Update?!)

[skier_pete]

I'm here & need to catch up

Thanks for joining in. I don't know if I mentioned this, but our next trip is actually down to your neck of the woods - Myrtle Beach. We'll be there the last week of August. One of our favorite late-August destinations (next to Disney of course). Once all your kids are back in school, we get the beach to ourselves!

SkierPete

 

[skier_pete]

Our first full day is Friday, November 11th - which is also Veteran's Day. I have something very unusual planned for our first day...

...but before I get into that, a bit about how I structure my trips. I always start by filling out by looking at what days are "fixed" because of what we want to do that day. This can be something like one of the hard ticket events, a night-time show such as fantasmic, or even a hard-to-get-ADR.

So, in this case, one of those "fixed" events was Food and Wine festival, which wraps up on November 13th, giving us the first 3 days only to do it. Since they are all essentially weekend days, my feeling is the "best" of the three will be Sunday. While we will still get some local crowds because it is the very last day, I think the crowd levels will still be lower than Friday or Saturday.

So, once I fixed Sunday as an Epcot day, this essentially forced my hand for Day 1 - the only option was...

....Magic Kingdom. A good portion of my planning involves trying to avoid crowds as much as possible. We are not late night people, nor do we want to make early morning EMH - so our plans structure around going to the right parks on the right days.

With Sunday taken up for Epcot, we clearly didn't want to go to MK on the Saturday of a long weekend, and Monday the 14th is both an extra magic hours day AND being a non-party night has both MSEP and Wishes that will likely be very crowded. So, our choices for our first day at MK are either Tuesday the 15th or Friday the 11th.

Now, I have no objections to holding off Magic Kingdom to later in the trip. We often don't do MK until the 3rd or 4th day. I don't usually like starting there because to me it is the best park, and I am more of a "save the best for last" type than a "hit the top park first".

However, I do try to avoid getting in a rut with our plans, so I thought "Hey, why not start out with MK?" We've never done that since DD came along.

Plus, we have been to MK twice on Friday's when there is a hard-ticket event at night - and both times the park has been VERY, VERY empty. I know this is Veteran's day, so there is some risk there, but again I think the fact there is a party at night and also on Sunday will drive most visitors to go to MK on Saturday, when they have an additional 6 hours of park time.

We'll definitely do what it takes to hit rope drop...

...and join in the Dumbo Dash...

...while checking out the standing of the Fantasyland expansion...

after that, we'll hit Peter Pan for both a ride and FP, and will do our usual loop of Fantasyland attractions.

Next we'll probably head to Adventureland for another DD favorite...

while grabbing FP for Splash and or Big Thunder Mountain.

We will hopefully get through most of that side of the park by noon-time, stopping for lunch at Columbia Harbor House.

After lunch, it will likely be over to tomorrowland...using FP along the way.


The plan is we will probably leave the park around 4 PM to head back to the hotel for a quick dip in the pool and a change of clothes. For at night - we will be heading to

I wanted to do this for dinner with DM and with DD, but I was having a real hard time scheduling it. We did this in December 2009 where we had dinner at CG during the MVMCP, and watched the christmas fireworks from the deck. (The only thing about the MVMCP I really care about is the fireworks, and instead of spending $250 on the party, I'll spend it on food and see the show anyways.)

But, back to the planning...I really wanted to do it later in the trip, but the problem is that it is sort of a late night for DD, what with the fireworks at 9:30 PM. However, I figure this is early enough in the trip that she can handle the abuse to a degree. So, I decided to break down and do it the first night. I got a 7:30 PM ADR, so hopefully we will be wrapping dinner by the time the fireworks start. It'll still be a superlate night for DD - probably up until at least 10:30 PM. But again, I figure better to have that abuse early in the trip than later when she becomes a total cranky pants.

I also am planning on this being an out-of-pocket meal (much of the 2TS restaurants are not effective uses of the DDP). This also falls in line with the possiblity that we may not yet be on the Disney Dining plan at this point. (See my post on Hotel options.)

It's kind of a "swing for the fences" dinner to start out with, probably our nicest one of the trip. However, I am hoping to show my DM early that there's a lot more to Disney than just kiddie rides and characters...and especially since our first day will revolve around those very things, it will be a nice way to switch it up.

Coming next - Day 2!

 

[khertz]

Day 1 sounds awesome! I always love to start & end my trips with MK. That is just Disney to me! Hopefully DD cooperates with the late evening, and your DMom enjoys her dinner & a show. Since we are not attending a Christmas party this year, we might be enjoying the fireworks from our balcony while DS is snoozing.

 

[skier_pete]

Day 1 sounds awesome! I always love to start & end my trips with MK. That is just Disney to me! Hopefully DD cooperates with the late evening, and your DMom enjoys her dinner & a show. Since we are not attending a Christmas party this year, we might be enjoying the fireworks from our balcony while DS is snoozing.

I think the majority is like you, especially starting at MK, which is partly why the crowds are so big on Sundays and Mondays. I've always been more of a save the best for later type. (My DW always eats the favorite thing on the plate first. I do the opposite, whatever the last bite on my plate is, it's probably my favorite.)

Anyways, its certainly not a hard and fast rule - it's usually more about avoiding crowds. Even though this day is a holiday, I think it will be the least crowded until we get well into the following week, so it actually made for an easy decision.

The dinner was much harder. Again, I didn't want to do it the first night - but sometimes the circumstances make something that you don't really want to do be your best choice.

Hope you are able to resolve your Eat to the Beat conflict! We get "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy" while we're there, which I am actually a big fan of, so it worked out great for us.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice Day 1 update!

I'm in that majority...I usually start with MK; and end with MK. I'm glad you got an ADR locked in at Cali Grill. You can always cancel an ADR but you can't always secure and ADR when you do decide you want one.

 

[skier_pete]

Nice Day 1 update!

I'm in that majority...I usually start with MK; and end with MK. I'm glad you got an ADR locked in at Cali Grill. You can always cancel an ADR but you can't always secure and ADR when you do decide you want one.

Yeah, this was the first ADR I went after...I figured Friday @ 7:30 pm is prime time for dinner.

 

[skier_pete]

One of my many planning criteria is that we try not to have what I would consider "long" days back-to-back. While we are pretty hard-core with our Disney trips, part of the reason we like to take a 10-day trip is because this way we DON'T have to go all-out morning to night.

So, our first day was what I would consider a "long" day, even though we only are planning at most 8 hours of park time, the addition of a later dinner at the California Grille will make it a pretty long day...

So, day 2 would be preferable to be shorter, and one good way to do that is spend that day at:

My DM is looking forward to this park the most, and it is DD favorite park, and probably DW and mine second favorite park. We spend two full days here and never get bored...I am definitely not one of those "Animal Kingdom is a half day park" people! DM visited AK a few years ago with DDad, but it poured rain and they never really got to see much.

We have our pattern pretty well set for our first AK day...we start with the safari

Swing through the Pangori Forest and then off to Rafiki's Planet watch. While it's really a sin to go there during prime park time, we like the chance to see the CM performing examinations / surgery on the animals. We've seen work being done on a Lion, Turtle, Kingfisher and a Seahorse! (Bet you couldn't guess how they anethestitize (sp?) a seahorse.)

We will probably very early on need to pick up a frozen lemonade. DD has been talking about it non-stop as one of the things she most wants to do! Perhaps we can pick it up on the way to Rafiki's.

We would likely have lunch at Flame Tree BBQ before catching “Flights Of Wonder” another DD favorite, and a sure hit for DM as she loves birds as well.

We would then probably check out the Maharajah Jungle Trek

and possibly doing Kali River Rapids – though I pretty much hate this ride - before wrapping the day with “Festival Of the Lion King”, another show I think DM will love. This is also my favorite show at WDW and a “must see” and on my top 10 list.

The plan, as of today, is at the end of the day to travel over the AKL – Kidani and have dinner at Sanaa:

This was probably our favorite meal of the last trip…again sticking with the theme of “greatest hits”. The reason I put Sanaa today is that it is another restaurant I wouldn’t mind paying OOP just in case there is free dining which doesn’t start until Sunday. The meal structure there involves getting an appetizer, and the meals themselves are relatively inexpensive. However, if we are already on the Dining Plan on Saturday, there is a decent possibility I will which this with Tusker House, which is already slotted for our OTHER AK day, and another of our favorites.

If we DO end up paying OOP, we may travel over to the Jambo house at this point and pick up some Zebra Domes for dessert. Travel from AKL back to our hotel will depend. If we are staying at Pop Century, we may just take a taxi. If we are at POFQ – we will likely have to use the bus service, transferring through either Epcot or DHS. We will hopefully be back at the hotel by 8 PM – which will allow time for a brief swim. (Yeah, a REAL short day – I know!)

 

[DisMomAmy]

Subbing... Now I have to catch up!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Short or not, it still sounds like a great day.

Nice pictures.....

 

[skier_pete]

Subbing... Now I have to catch up!

Short or not, it still sounds like a great day.

Nice pictures.....

Yeah, OK, I'm just recycling pictures from my previous TRs...but it's either that or just have words and more words...which is probably even more boring!

And again...i don't know how others feel, but myself though I enjoy reading TRs, I generally can't be bothered reading too many PTRs...so again I'm writing this more as a placeholder with occasional updates. (Also, I pointed my DMom to this thread, so she can follow along too.)

Hi mom!

 

[khertz]

We LOOOOVE Animal Kingdom too! I don't know how people can consider that only a 1 day park?? I guess if ALL you do is the rides, then yeah. But there is so much more to see & do there. We are planning one full day there as well. I think DS will love seeing the animals! What times do they usually do the procedures/exams on the animals? We have never been to Rafiki's Planet Watch, etc and are looking forward to doing that with DS. I'd love to see that!

 

[skier_pete]

We LOOOOVE Animal Kingdom too! I don't know how people can consider that only a 1 day park?? I guess if ALL you do is the rides, then yeah. But there is so much more to see & do there. We are planning one full day there as well. I think DS will love seeing the animals! What times do they usually do the procedures/exams on the animals? We have never been to Rafiki's Planet Watch, etc and are looking forward to doing that with DS. I'd love to see that!

I agree, if you just do the rides, you can breeze through that park in half a day, but then I think you are missing the point of it. One of the great things that makes it beat a zoo is the way they station CM EVERYWHERE to answer questions about the animals. I hope that's something that never gets hit with cutbacks, because it's part of what makes the park what it is...

The procedures are usually in the morning. I think they schedule them between 9:30 and 11 AM. What we found is they station a CM at the entrance to the train station, and you can ask them about what procedures they are doing and at what times, and they will radio to RPW to find out. As I said, it's sometimes hard to tear away from morning touring to do a part of the park with no rides, but the operations can be pretty cool. If you ride the safari first thing, then you can ask what's going on and decide if it's something you want to see. The rest of the day, They also bring out animals at the indoor stage and outdoor stage for animal demos. There's also a petting area, which your DS might just love, even if he's not old enough yet to brush the animals.

 

[khertz]

Great! I will have to add this to our plans, I thin that would be so cool to see! And since we are not rushing to the "headliners," once we ride the Safari we can head over there and hopefully see something cool. I had already planned on the petting zoo for DS because he already loves petting our cat and my mom's dogs. I think he will really enjoy a petting zoo!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Looks like we'll get to see the Osborne Lights!! They'll be starting on 11/10!! We'll be there on the 10th & 12th.

 

[skier_pete]

Looks like we'll get to see the Osborne Lights!! They'll be starting on 11/10!! We'll be there on the 10th & 12th.

Thanks for the update - I just saw this on your TR! That's awesome news.

I also heard separately about Fantasmic expanding back to every night through September. While we are not big Fantasmic fans, I might consider going with my mom if it turns out it is every night!

SkierPete

 

[khertz]

I just heard about the Osbourne Lights starting Nov 10th & knew you would be joining me in a little Happy Dance!!

 

[skier_pete]

I just heard about the Osbourne Lights starting Nov 10th & knew you would be joining me in a little Happy Dance!!

 

[skier_pete]

Gosh...I've been so busy lately, it's been hard to post updates...I've been working on it slowly, so here are our Day 3 plans:

So, it’s pretty obvious from my previous statements where we are going today. Epcot and Food and Wine.

It’s funny, I am not a huge Epcot fan…I would rank it third amongst the parks even though it’s a very close third (Hollywood Studios gets the lowly 4th ranking for me). However, I find that it has just about the MOST stuff to do, and it seems like we NEVER, EVER have enough time for this park to see everything we want to. Last trip, we really only had 1.5 days in Epcot, but even this trip it is 2+ days.

So, we have our first day – which we intend to spend focusing on Food and Wine / World Showcase. However, we still intend to go for rope drop…and we have a very traditional opening plan:
1) The Character Connection

2) Fast Pass for Soarin’
3) The Seas with Nemo and Friends

4) Ride Soarin’

I am figuring this will cover the day until 11 AM when world showcase opens. DW has requested that we tour WS counterclockwise this time…since last Food & Wine we did clockwise touring. So, we’ll start in Mexico and work our way around the Lagoon. We of course will have to do a couple of the Kim Possible World Showcase adventures, as DD is a huge fan. We also will probably check out Maelstrom…though DD has already stated that she won’t ride it because the trolls are too scary.

Moving on to China, we might stop for the Circlevision movie...and hopefully this will be one of the KP countries we do.

Next on to Germany – where a stop at Karmel Kuchen is probably in order.

Brief stops in Italy and America will likely be followed by a longer stop in Japan, which is one of our favorites.

The remaining goals are to see one of the Eat to The Beat sets – of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I like swing music, and have a couple of their CDs…and DD and I used to jump around to them when she was really little – what she at the time called “Bat Music”. (don’t ask me why – I think it was a 2 year-olds mispronouncation of “Fast Music” but I’ll never know for sure).

We have an ADR for dinner in Morocco @ Restaurant Marrekesh…it’s quite possible we will make it past Morocco and have to come back, but based on prior years, I think if we get that far before our dinner ADR we’ll be doing really, really good. We've eaten here before, but it was wayyy back in 2006, which almost makes it "new" to us.

After dinner, we will probably head back to our hotel rather than stay for Illuminations. DD is taking on Disney for the first time without a stroller, and I think the parks most likely to do her in are Animal Kingdom and Epcot. I expect this will truly be a “Food and Whine” day.

Coming up...day 4...

 

[khertz]

Mmmmm I can't WAIT to get into that candy shop!!

 

[teekathepony]

Subbing and caught up! Love the plans. I got to see the Osbourn Lights last year for the first time, how unbelievably breathtaking!