Looking forward to a crowd-free Disney Trip! **Update 9/4**

[photographymom517]

Ha Ha Ha!!! I figured it out... You click on the deal that you get in your email and then it tells you what website to go to get that deal (there is a link for it)... It's actually pretty simple and have gotten a few deals already, but you are right... THE DEALS GO FAST!!!

Only a few more days till you can make your ADR's!!! I'm confident you will get everything you want!

I'm so glad that you figured it out because I haven't looked into it yet! Thanks for the info!

Don't the deals go fast???? I couldn't believe it!

 

[Mindy5767]

LOL you wrote a novel.. no you didn't cause I had time to read it all.

I feel especially old now because you said your brother is 22 and so is my daughter!!!

On the disunplugged podcast they were talking about how reserving your rides is a disadvantage for locals. They tend to wake up on a Saturday morning and say,... "oh, its a nice day.... let's go to Animal Kingdom". No planning. I also write out our rough outline for our daily plan, but then its all subject to change. I can think of so many times I was racing down the street and got distracted by something I saw in a shop window. My DH just doesn't understand how I could be so rushed to get to someplace, and then instantly stop to look at something in a store. Makes sense to me? And how many times have we walked past a lovely aroma and stopped in our track?! Imagine having to race to Test Track because your time is come up? They are supposedly working on a system where there will be allotments left over for stand-by/walk-in. But I know how that goes. That's what happened with ADR's. Originally, they had walk-ins along with the ADR's. Now they book it all up, esp. since the dining plan was invented. I can imagine it'll start as an option, but quickly will become pretty mandatory just like ADR's did. Once everyone is doing it, very few walk-ins will be available. And the line for them will form hours early. This is just a bad idea. But like many things Disney.... if it comes out and we HATE it.. we must let guest services know. Unhappy customers is NOT what Disney wants.

Don't stress about your ADR's. Once thing I've learned over the years. If you have an ADR, and you can't make it or you just don't want it anymore, call and cancel, and ask for something else. There's ALWAYS something. I recall one time that we were in MK, and we had an ADR someplace we couldn't get to in enough time. We called dining, and they re-booked us someplace else for a later time. I think we ended up getting in to Spoodles. I will miss that place! It was a favorite of mine.

speaking of a novel...

 

[stephielela]

That's what I did last trip...I had about 5 different scenarios but 2 were just "back up plans" if the first 3 didn't work out

I just found my planning binder from last trip & am so disappointed that I barely used it. It took alot of time & effort to make the pages for it & then I took it to Staples to have it bound with the plastic wire. I lugged it around the airport, on the plane, to all the parks, etc. and I honestly never once looked at it!

This trip, I know I will definitely need a list of all our ADR's to carry with me at all time. I also want to make a list of things we'd like to do & things that we absolutely HAVE to do! We missed out on so much last trip! I think it will be more efficient for me to carry around a few important papers rather than a giant binder full of things I'm not going to take the time to look through! LOL

Yes!!! Definitely plan that tour with your mom! She will love it!!!

I know its highly frowned upon but I do think I'm going to make the Captain's Grill and Teppan Edo ressies twice if possible. I will cancel them in a few months, I just want to make sure I get the flight times I think I'm going to get.

I know exactly what you mean about the planning binder. I think I am going to make a small notebook sized abbreviated version so maybe I will actually use it... and maybe even take notes so I don't have to make stuff up for my TR!

I don't think it's a bad idea at all to make double ressies. As long as you cancel them eventually! But there is no reason not to make sure you are covered! I personally will be making ADR's for both my A and C plans


All the new things Disney is talking about implementing have me curious... I definitely don't think you should choose from home to go on Test Track between 2 and 3 pm. I wouldn't have a problem with a 6 hour window or something though. I typically know my park plans way in advance, and 6 hours is a big enough window to give you some flexibility. I also don't think they should be "booked" 180 days out, but maybe when doing online check in? I definitely think that minute by minute plans never work, so I hope Disney keeps that in mind...

 

[Tink9721]

Hi!!! Sorry it took me so long to get over here! School has been keeping me very busy

Hooray for making ADRs soon!

 

[Mindy5767]

I told DH that you'd made your Disney ADR's for your September trip already.... hinting that because the ADR window for Sept. is up, we should get on the stick about planning our August trip. We know my son has to be back at college on Aug. 22nd... so its not really going out on a limb! He hates ADR's though. He likes to eat when he feels like eating. Planning ride times and show and character greetings would send him into a tail spin! I really don't see how that level of planning detail won't cause all sorts of problems.

I also told DH that your brother is the same age as our older daughter!! His 49th birthday is coming up in a little over a week, so we need to start planning his next year's over the hill party!!

 

[PopArtGal]

The good thing about eating at Kona that I see is that it's on the monorail and it's on the right side. By right side I mean that if you were eating at the Contemporary, you'd have to go around to make it to the MAgic Kingdom.

 

[photographymom517]

LOL you wrote a novel.. no you didn't cause I had time to read it all.

I feel especially old now because you said your brother is 22 and so is my daughter!!!

On the disunplugged podcast they were talking about how reserving your rides is a disadvantage for locals. They tend to wake up on a Saturday morning and say,... "oh, its a nice day.... let's go to Animal Kingdom". No planning. I also write out our rough outline for our daily plan, but then its all subject to change. I can think of so many times I was racing down the street and got distracted by something I saw in a shop window. My DH just doesn't understand how I could be so rushed to get to someplace, and then instantly stop to look at something in a store. Makes sense to me? And how many times have we walked past a lovely aroma and stopped in our track?! Imagine having to race to Test Track because your time is come up? They are supposedly working on a system where there will be allotments left over for stand-by/walk-in. But I know how that goes. That's what happened with ADR's. Originally, they had walk-ins along with the ADR's. Now they book it all up, esp. since the dining plan was invented. I can imagine it'll start as an option, but quickly will become pretty mandatory just like ADR's did. Once everyone is doing it, very few walk-ins will be available. And the line for them will form hours early. This is just a bad idea. But like many things Disney.... if it comes out and we HATE it.. we must let guest services know. Unhappy customers is NOT what Disney wants.

Don't stress about your ADR's. Once thing I've learned over the years. If you have an ADR, and you can't make it or you just don't want it anymore, call and cancel, and ask for something else. There's ALWAYS something. I recall one time that we were in MK, and we had an ADR someplace we couldn't get to in enough time. We called dining, and they re-booked us someplace else for a later time. I think we ended up getting in to Spoodles. I will miss that place! It was a favorite of mine.

speaking of a novel...

Oops...I actually messed up my brother's age...not sure how I did it but I'm fairly sure it has something to do with the fact that I don't want to be 29 this year!

Anyways, he is actually 23 and will be 24 in September! Don't feel old at all...my mom actually had my brother when she was 31 because they had tried for years to have children & then had me. Five years later, my brother was born

Thanks for telling me about the Disunplugged podcast. I never thought of that aspect of it, but it totally makes sense! I'm sure that locals, and even people from neighboring states, make last minute decisions to go to the parks. That would be horrible for them! I mean, they'd think that they were taking their children to see Mickey but they couldn't even see him because they didn't have a FastPass 180 days ahead of time! I just honestly don't see anything good coming out of this.

I do something similar to what you do for our trips. I write a list of what we want to do for the day, but I don't really have set times for anything. I put little stars beside the things we really, really want to do or put them first on the list. We don't follow a schedule, but I just like to have an idea of what we're going to do, especially when we split a park between 2 days. But if we're going to a certain ride or show & see another one with a 5 minute wait, we definitely stop for that! And I don't get all bent out of shape if something doesn't work out. We really wanted to ride a bunch of stuff in June that we hadn't done on our 2009 trip, but it just wasn't possible with the high crowds. We were disappointed but it wasn't the end of the world either

I also agree...there are soooooo many times when we're on our way to a ride & we decide to stop to eat if we smell good food...or I stop at a gift shop because I saw something in the window that I had to look at!

I just really can't imagine anything good coming out of the FastPass for rides/characters/shows. Yes, I do make a list of what we want to do for the day...but I like to keep it generalized & its not a detailed time schedule! For example, on this trip we really want to see the shows at Animal Kingdom. We didn't see any of them last trip. However, I don't want to have to say..."Ok, we're going to see Nemo at 4pm on the 14th and we're going to see Lion King at 11am" and then we're going to eat lunch at 1pm after Nemo and dinner after the second show at 6pm. NO THANKS!!!

This is my favorite part of what you wrote & I completely agree 100%!!!

But like many things Disney.... if it comes out and we HATE it.. we must let guest services know. Unhappy customers is NOT what Disney wants.

Thanks for sharing your experience with ADR's! I've decided not to stress so much over them. I mean, I'm sure there are some we might not make it to & I will just call & cancel. We had an ADR at Crystal Palace for 8:30am last June...I reserved the ADR 14 days before our trip so I was super lucky!!! We ended up cancelling the day before just because it was at the end of our trip & we were exhausted after 8 days in the parks! I keep a list of all the important phone numbers with me in my park bag & also on my cell phone. I have the dining ressie number, resort number, general Disney reservation number, Magical Express & airport numbers, and last trip I also had the PhotoPass and Photo Session numbers! Its very helpful to have them!

Too bad that Spoodles is gone now. I've heard alot about it from lots of people! Wish I would've had a chance to experience it for myself. Sorry you will miss it! I hope you find something great to replace it with!

I told DH that you'd made your Disney ADR's for your September trip already.... hinting that because the ADR window for Sept. is up, we should get on the stick about planning our August trip. We know my son has to be back at college on Aug. 22nd... so its not really going out on a limb! He hates ADR's though. He likes to eat when he feels like eating. Planning ride times and show and character greetings would send him into a tail spin! I really don't see how that level of planning detail won't cause all sorts of problems.

I also told DH that your brother is the same age as our older daughter!! His 49th birthday is coming up in a little over a week, so we need to start planning his next year's over the hill party!!

Good idea about telling your DH about the ADR's for September! I'm actually soooo glad that you posted this. I had no idea that you didn't make your August ADR's yet...and it has given me such a sense of relief when it comes to my own ADR's! I cannot thank you enough for that!!!!

I was just very stressed over it. I think sometimes the boards make me feel a huge sense of urgency...like I should be doing things that I'm not doing or not thinking of...just because other people are doing it. Peer pressure

I don't want to be one of those people who try to plan the perfect trip & when it doesn't work out, they have a huge melt-down. I know from experience that our best days & best experiences were things that were not planned. There are some things that I must do for every trip, but its not a huge deal to me if things don't go exactly according to plan. I like to have a list of what we really want to do, things we don't want to do, things we will do if we have extra time, and things we'd like to do more than once. I also like to know which park we're going to each day. But I'm not about to plan where we'll be every 15 minutes of every day

Its great that you know the date your son needs to be at college. That will help alot with planning out your ADR's! I hope that you & your DH can plan them soon & that you're able to get all the ones that you want.

I can relate to how your DH feels about just eating whenever you feel hungry. That's what we've always done on vacation even at Disney! Its nice to walk by a restaurant & smell something good or see their menu & decide "yes this is where I want to eat lunch!" Too bad we aren't able to just walk up to TS restaurants, you know? Last trip when we were on the QSDP, we were soooo sick of QS meals after 10 days. The few TS restaurants that we've tried have been delicious & definitely better than QS. We can't wait to try more TS this trip! I'm just not sure we'll be hungry six months from now at the times I will be scheduling!

And please don't feel old! You definitely do not look old! My mom will be 55 this year and my dad will be 53 in two weeks. They honestly act younger than some 30 year olds I know (but of course more mature! lol) They get alot of compliments that they look like young grandparents & are often mistaken for the parents of my brother's or my son!

 

[photographymom517]

I know exactly what you mean about the planning binder. I think I am going to make a small notebook sized abbreviated version so maybe I will actually use it... and maybe even take notes so I don't have to make stuff up for my TR!

I don't think it's a bad idea at all to make double ressies. As long as you cancel them eventually! But there is no reason not to make sure you are covered! I personally will be making ADR's for both my A and C plans

All the new things Disney is talking about implementing have me curious... I definitely don't think you should choose from home to go on Test Track between 2 and 3 pm. I wouldn't have a problem with a 6 hour window or something though. I typically know my park plans way in advance, and 6 hours is a big enough window to give you some flexibility. I also don't think they should be "booked" 180 days out, but maybe when doing online check in? I definitely think that minute by minute plans never work, so I hope Disney keeps that in mind...

I completely apologize, Stephanie, for not visiting your PTR recently. I need to catch up! I'll try to over the weekend

I'm going to take some pictures of my planning book from last year...wait until you guys see it...you will ALL think I am completely NUTS!

I believe it was around 145 pages or something like that, so obviously I can't post all of the pages, but I'll show you the main ones. I did find a really good schedule page (it was on DIS and I'll try to find where I got it from). I wish I would've just printed out 2 or 3 of those for each day along with a few blank pages for notes. I ended up going back to the resort each night & writing in a journal but I skipped a bunch of things that had happened during the day. I also occassionally took notes in my cell phone but that's hard to do because I'm limited to how many characters I can use per note. Usually I would just put times into my phone...like when we left the resort, when we arrived at the park, how long it took to wait for our ADR, etc.

I definitely learned alot for this trip & will be changing my planning book! The only page I really used alot out of it was the "important phone numbers." I never looked at any of the pages dealing with the parks because I just marked things on my maps. And I saved a bunch of pages in the back for notes & never wrote down 1 thing.

You are right...minute by minute plans don't ever work! I agree that Disney should keep that in mind. I can't imagine where they got this idea. I feel absolutely horrible for 1st time visitors! I talk to so many people planning Disney trips & they ask me what ADR's are or why they have to schedule character meals for their kids. They are so confused just over dining. My parents also refuse to use the dining plan just because they don't understand it. Can you imagine telling a 1st timer that they have to decide 6 months ahead of time what & when they're riding at each park & when they're going to see the shows PLUS when they're eating! Yikes!!!

Plus, what about people that don't know ANY of this information & they pay huge prices for airfare & park tickets & their resort...only to get to the parks & find out they can't do anything because its the middle of the summer & its ALL booked ???

I just really don't know. Guess we'll just have to wait & see what happens.

 

[photographymom517]

Hi!!! Sorry it took me so long to get over here! School has been keeping me very busy

Hooray for making ADRs soon!

Hi Christine!!! Glad you made it!

Don't worry, I completely understand about school keeping you busy! Congrats again for getting into your first choice college! That's so awesome!!!

 

[photographymom517]

The good thing about eating at Kona that I see is that it's on the monorail and it's on the right side. By right side I mean that if you were eating at the Contemporary, you'd have to go around to make it to the MAgic Kingdom.

And last but not least...responding to my good buddy!

I completely understand what you mean about Kona. How long do you think it would take to get from the Poly to the MK? I think I'm going to make an ADR at Kona for around 3 or 3:30pm on the day of MNSSHP. If they open MK to the party ticket holders around 4pm, we'll still have plenty of time to eat & get to MK before 5 or so. That will still give us an hour before the party starts at 6 or 7...I'm too tired right now I can't even remember when the party starts! Oops!

I don't know why but the monorail confuses me for some reason. We accidentally went to the T&TC last trip & I couldn't get there again if I tried to!

Once it gets closer to the trip, I'm sure I'll be asking you a million questions about the monorail!

 

[lbuzz52]

Hi! I just read your trip report and followed it over here. (we are taking our 2 yr old and staying at cbr this time). I enjoyed it and hope your crowds are less this time! Now I have to go catch up on this one.

 

[photographymom517]

Hi! I just read your trip report and followed it over here. (we are taking our 2 yr old and staying at cbr this time). I enjoyed it and hope your crowds are less this time! Now I have to go catch up on this one.

WELCOME!!!!

I'm so glad that you're joining my PTR! I'm also very impressed that you read my whole trip report from June...that must have taken you hours!!!

So you are staying at CBR this trip? When are your trip dates? I'll have to look at your signature & see if you have a PTR too

If you need any advice staying on Disney property with a 2 yr old or anything regarding CBR (if you've never been) please ask! I'm always open to helping others out with Disney vacation planning!

 

[photographymom517]

I hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend! Yesterday was gorgeous!!! My mom took Luke to the park with my nephew & then they came to my house for the evening. They had alot of fun & definitely enjoyed the wonderful 70 degree day!!! Yesterday morning my car temp said 64 but it quickly rose in the afternoon to 71 degrees!!!

I, unfortunately, didn't get to enjoy it because I had an eye doctor appointment which I ended up being 20 minutes late for...and therefore had to wait an hour for another opening. I should've went outside & taken a walk but instead I shopped inside the store!

I did come home after my appointment & open up the windows which was great! As I look out the window, there are birds flying everywhere & the grass is turning greener! Spring is coming...I just hope it hurries up!

Moving right along to the good news . . . . . . . .

I made my ADR's!!!!

​

I got pretty much everything that I had originally told you guys, but did change a few things around. Here is what I got & then I'll explain the changes!

Arrival Day -- Dinner at Captain's Grill
Day 2 -- Lunch at Chefs de France, Dinner at Garden Grill
Day 3 -- Lunch at Sci-Fi Dine in
Day 4 -- Lunch at Crystal Palace
Day 5 -- Breakfast at Tusker House, Dinner at Kouzzina
Day 6 -- Breakfast at Cape May Cafe
Day 7 -- Lunch at Kona or Chefs or 1900 Park Fare (all at different times)
Day 8 -- Dinner at Teppan Edo
Day 9 -- Lunch at Prime Time Cafe
Day 10 -- Departure day - no ressies

First of all, I changed the Crystal Palace from breakfast to lunch. First because we prefer Disney's lunch/dinner instead of breakfast. I also didn't want to schedule 3 breakfasts in a row. The only reason I had CP as a breakfast was to see Main St empty...but I'll take the low crowds & just hope to limited people when we arrive at the parks

I also changed Day 5 to dinner at Kouzzina instead of Teppan Edo. My husband and I decided to just eat lunch or a QS in Mexico instead of using a TS...so I changed Teppan Edo to Day 8 on our Epcot day. We will eat a late dinner at Kouzzina after arriving back at the resort from AK which closes at 5pm. I got the ressie at Kouzzina for 7pm but am going to keep checking back to get something closer to 6 or 6:30pm at the latest.

I also triple booked (yes, don't scream at me) on Day 7 for lunch. I will cancel one (or two) soon but I just have to figure it out. I really want Kona but the only lunch time available was 2:35pm. So I scheduled that as well as Chefs and 1900 Park Fare (they are both back-ups). I guess that time for Kona will work, but I really wanted closer to 3:30pm. Although now that I'm typing this, I realize 2:35 might be good. We could stay at the resort all morning & head over to the bus stop around 1:15 or so...make it to MK, get on the monorail & go to the Poly. If we eat & it takes around an hour, we'd still be ok with arriving at MK by 4pm. I just don't want to get there too early because this is our MNSSHP day & we won't be allowed in the gates until 4pm. I'm not wasting a regular park pass just for 1 or 2 hours.

I'm pretty sure those are the only changes that I made since I wrote my "final schedule"

I'm very happy with what I got & for the few I'm unsure of, I will make decisions soon. I'll also be checking back for a few times that I'd rather have, but if I have to keep all of these, I will still be very happy!!! Its a good day!!!

 

[Tink9721]

Yay! I'm so glad you got the ADRs you wanted! I love lunch at the Crystal Palace. We always do it every trip!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Yippee for getting your ADRs booked!

I think you'll be fine with a 2:30 ressie at Kona. It will probably take you at least an hour to eat and then if you still have some time to kill you can take a stroll around the Poly and check it out - such a pretty resort!

 

[lbuzz52]

WELCOME!!!!

I'm so glad that you're joining my PTR! I'm also very impressed that you read my whole trip report from June...that must have taken you hours!!!

So you are staying at CBR this trip? When are your trip dates? I'll have to look at your signature & see if you have a PTR too

If you need any advice staying on Disney property with a 2 yr old or anything regarding CBR (if you've never been) please ask! I'm always open to helping others out with Disney vacation planning!

I have to admit- I did read it all but only the updates and I skipped the comments. It killed me because I knew that you probably responded to questions where I could use the response but the day is only so long! I had a filing/ sorting/ cleaning day at work yesterday so I used your report to break up my boredom!
Any cbr or toddler tips are always welcome! We are new to cbr.

Your plans look great! My only comment would be to make sure you have a plan for MNSSHP. There are so many things there that you can't normally do!! The time goes by very quickly! We planned our must do characters first thing for much shorter lines. And against my advise everyone wanted to wait and eat at the party instead of before so we wasted a lot of valuble time.
The boo to you parade Is my favorite! I wished we had watched it twice that night. We had made "if they are needed" touring plans for our fall trip and the party was the only time I wished we had stuck to them.

I have to go find that cake thread. I had thought about getting the chocolate slipper for my dd but didn't want ds to get jealous. But that pirate ship sounds interesting...

 

[stephielela]

Yay for getting all your ADR's!!!! How exciting! I can't wait till my ADR day, and I am only really planning on making a couple!! Of course now that I am pushing my trip back, I have to wait a whole extra month!! I think Kona at 2:35 will work well. And I really enjoyed Mexico's QS last time.

 

[stephielela]

HOPE!!! Did you hear that the MNSSHP dates have been announced??

wdw news today announced today the MNSSHP and MVMCP dates - No surprises for Sept at least Don't know about the others.

2011 Halloween and Christmas Party Dates

March 19, 2011 at 11:34 AM EST

Hot off the press, here are the dates for this years Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween and Very Merry Christmas Parties at the Magic Kingdom:

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party
Sept. 13,16,20,23,27,30
October 2,6,7,10,11,13,16,18,20,21,23,25, 27,28,30,31
Nov 1

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
November 8,9,11,13,15,18,27,29,30
December 2,4,6,7,9,11,13, 14,16,18

Tickets are not on sale yet, but we will be sure to let you know once they become available.

 

[Megablocks]

I saw on Facebook that Luke wanted to know where the nice weather went today -- so cute! It was gorgeous here yesterday, as well, and back to the 40's today. I'll take it b/c at least it isn't the 20's and 30's and snowing!

So glad you got your ADRs booked and that you got all you wanted. I'm very excited that you may be eating at Kona; I have been dying to eat there!

 

[photographymom517]

Luke has a fever so I'm heading to town right now to get some meds for him

and...a Taco Bell run for mom...

I will respond to all of you later while he's napping!

Also, anyone know if Brook started her TR yet? I haven't been on here alot catching up on my subs (but I need to!) -- Don't want to miss out! Her pictures & reports are AMAZING!!!