October 2010: Wizards, Pirates and Pixie Dust: *10/7/10: ready to go

hello everyone! I just found your PTR - I'm also perusing the PTR boards for other people going in October 2010! We are going Oct 19 - 29, staying at CSR. Our party will consist of me, my boyfriend, and my brother - all adults, no kids! This will be my 9th trip to Disney, my DBFs 8th, and my brother's 5th.

DBF and I are really big "nerds" and he is a HUGE comic book fan! I haven't told him about the Marvel section of IOA that you guys were talking about earlier in the report....Maybe one day we will try out US and IOA but for now, we are content with WDW :)

The biggest disappointment was staying till midnight on New Years Eve only to have the fireworks cancelled due to the wind. I don’t think I will be doing that again.
:scared1::scared1::scared1: OMG I WOULD BE SOOOOO MAD!!!


Favorite Park:
Zig Magic Kingdom
Diane Epcot

Me: Animal Kingdom
DBF: Hollywood Studios or Epcot...he couldn't decide between the two

Favorite resort (so far):
Zig Wilderness Lodge
Diane Wilderness Lodge

Me: CSR or POFQ
DBF: CSR or POFQ
We loved both equally

Favorite Harry Potter movie:
Zig: The Order of the Phoenix
Diane: The Chamber of Secrets

Me: Goblet of Fire
DBF: Goblet of Fire

So although I know Dinosaur is supposed to have the same basic ride dynamics as Indy I will not be riding that. Heck I wont even ride the Tea Cups and I love Alice.

I hate the teacups but somehow I always get suckered into riding them. You really should give Soarin' a try though...It's one of the greatest feelings you could ever imagine! And Dinosaur is terrifying. I don't suffer from motion sickness on rides (riding in the back seat of a car though is a whole different story :confused3) but I think Dinosaur could definitely cause some upchucking. And did I mention it's terrifying?


Favorite Hogwarts Professor
Zig: Professor Lupin
Diane: Professor MacGonagall

Me: Professor Lupin
DBF: Professor Snape

We were pretty much set on CBR since our plans for the pirate room pirate:
Then I found the Room Photos thread on the Resorts Board. Big mistake.

I know what you mean about the Resorts Boards! We stayed at CSR in October 2007, then went to POFQ in March 2008, then to Pop in October 2009, and we are booked for CSR again this coming October but part of my brain keeps floating to other resorts....If only I could afford AKL!!!


Favorite Marvel (Disney) Character
Zig: Wolverine
Di: It's hard to choose, there are so many, but I will go with Gambit at this time.

Me: Mystique
DBF: Captain America, followed closely by Green Goblin and Gambit.

So now you know we both like SF&F. Besides being a lover of Star Wars, Star Trek and Stargate, I am also a huge fan of Doctor Who and Torchwood. And, of course, Harry Potter, both the books and the films. We love movies popcorn::and have a small group of friends that go almost every Tuesday night and have been doing so for almost 10 years. I like to read too, but lately don’t seem to have as much time for that as I would like. :sad1:

We do some Sci-Fi and Fantasy stuff here... Star Wars and Star Trek definitely but we never got into Stargate. DBF loves Dr. Who. We also watch TrueBlood on HBO, Heroes on NBC, and have read all of the Sookie Stackhouse books (the series that started TrueBlood), as well as all of the Harry Potter books and seen all of the movies. I am also into the paranormal.

We actually had a "bad movie night" tradition here for a while....we started a Netflix account and rented the worst movies we could find. The tradition ended with "Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus." :sad2: We cancelled our Netflix after that one. It was painful to watch.


Favorite Fantasy Novel
Zig: The Chronicles of Amber Series by Roger Zelazny
Di: Return to Oz by L Frank Baum

Me: I would have to say either "Dead to the World" which is the 4th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, or The Looking Glass Wars - a retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story. I'm currently in the 3rd book from this series.
DBF: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire


We are hoping for some sort of discount, either on rooms or free dining. How long should we wait to see if there is an offer for our scheduled dates?:confused3 If we book our trip and then a discount offer comes along, can we just ask to have that discount applied to the package we have already booked or do we need to scrap that package and start all over again to get the discount?

We got a 25% PIN code this year for booking a package stay at a moderate. But my brother is in the military so I am waiting to see if they announce a new military discount for the end of the year. The current offer is for 40% off the room rate, and then he can get 4 day base tickets for all of us for $99. So we could get 8 park days (we don't do hoppers) for $200 which is an EXCELLENT deal. Whether or not they still offer these deals (or anything at all for that matter) come October, is yet to be seen. We're already saved a lot of money using the 25% discount, the military discount would be even better. I actually tried to price out AKL with the 40% discount (just in case) and it's STILL more than we can afford. Even in a standard room, with the 40% off, we would have to pay an additional $1800. Oh...and in case you haven't already been informed, you can always change the discount code that is applied to your ressie. So like right now, we have the 25% PIN, but if the military one becomes available, I can change the PIN to that one and not have to actually change my ressie.


Let’s talk ADRs.

I make TS ressies for every day of our trip...sometimes 2 per day. I LOVE TS meals. I like being able to sit and enjoy a real breakfast without just rushing out the door to get to the park, and I like being able to relax in the evening with a good dinner. We normally do QS lunches though.

We want to do another character meal. As much as we love the Princess Breakfast in Norway, we thought we might try something different this time.
The character breakfast at Ohana is my favorite, although we had dinner at LTT (I don't know if they are still doing character meals there) and it was fantastic. We had amazing character interaction! We're trying Cape May Cafe's character breakfast this trip!

Favorite Character Meal
Zig: Princess Breakfast at Akershus Norway Epcot
Di: (ditto)
Me: Ohana
DBF: Ohana

We actually like EMH. I know a lot of people say you should avoid the parks with EMH, but we never really find it to be exceptionally crowded on those days, or maybe we just don’t know any better, since we have always gone to early EMH :goodvibes

We always go to the park that has PM EMH. We usually spend our mornings eating breakfast so AM EMHs don't mean anything to us. But the PM EMH are the best! Walk on rides, smaller crowds, and cooler temperatures! Yes, please!

We could do AK on Sunday again, just at the end of the trip instead of the beginning. Friday is a possibility too. What are the crowds like then? Anyone know? :listen:

I know that MK and Epcot are usually the parks people flock to on the weekends...mainly the AP holders and the locals. So either AK or HS would probably be a good bet for a weekend.

Favorite table service restaurant:
Zig Prime Time Café
Diane Prime Time Cafe

Me: Boma or The Plaza. I love them both
DBF: San Angel Inn

I bought the new Unofficial Guide a couple of weeks ago and have been going over it.
I'm a fan of The Complete Walt Disney World. They publish a new one every year and sometimes the info is a little...ahem...incorrect...because they go to print before plans have become official. But I read through it...cover to cover. It really just takes me there...ya know?

OK, Zig and I have decided to (separately) make a list of the table service restaurants we would like to eat at. Then we can compare the list and see if there are any matches. So here’s my list:

Rainforest Café (I want to see if it is any different from the ones I’ve eaten at before, besides they have a good menu)
Tusker House
Yak and Yeti (we’ve eaten at the counter service and I see they have the Honey Chicken at the restaurant also, yum)
Biergarten
Restaurant Marrakesh
Tutto Italia
Liberty Tree Tavern
Plaza Restaurant
Maya Grill
Raglan Road


Here are a few restaurants I would be willing to consider adding to our list if we were to be eligible for free dining:

Raglan Road
1900 Park Fare (breakfast)
Princess Storybook Breakfast at Akershus
Le Cellier
Yak & Yeti
Chefs de France
The Plaza Restaurant
Liberty Tree Tavern
Cap’n Jack’s Restaurant
Tusker House

Still need to check the menus on the Signature restaurants.

The Rainforest Cafe at AK is better than the one in DTD. We like it :thumbsup2
Yak & Yeti is fantastic!
Tutto Italia was my favorite meal of the trip when we went in October 2009.
We had a GREAT dinner at LTT back in 2007. All around, just a really good experience.
The Plaza is one of my favorites.

Never ate at any of the others but we have plans to eat at Maya Grill this year since we are staying at CSR.

So, I guess, what I’m trying to say is that there are 2 forces that need to combine to make your vacation “Disney magical.” :tink: One: the Disney experience itself, the CMs, the parks, the resorts, the attractions, the whole package. :smickey: And two: you. :goodvibes You have to be the best vacationer you can be, courteous, pleasant and ready to enjoy all that is laid out before you.

I can’t say that Zig and I have always been the best vacationers around, :rolleyes1 there’s always something that gets you down or irritates you or just makes you react badly. But we always seem to have a really good time down at Disney and we’re planning on having a really good time next year too.:cheer2:

ITA! I've been reading all of these threads about people complaining about their rooms (who checks UNDER the mattress or UNDER the A/C unit or BEHIND the dresser? Not me!), or complaining about the food, or whatever the case may be. I swear, I have been to WDW 8 times and I have never found anything to complain about. I've only had 2 sub-par dining experiences but I wouldn't deem TERRIBLE... although I won't be going back to those restaurants for a while (don't worry - neither were on your lists!) I agree that "it's Disney" but in the same respect I know that they are a business. And like ANY and EVERY business, there are going to be people that take their jobs seriously and people that don't. But what really irks me is people who complain about how terrible their experience was to anyone who will listen (or read) but they never brought it up to a manager or anyone while they were actually THERE. If your room is dirty, SAY SOMETHING! The managers can't fix something if they don't know it's broken! And again, yes "it's Disney" but I don't go there expecting a 5 star meal every time we sit down to eat. As long as my food is cooked appropriately and there is nothing "foreign" in it (such as hair, bandaids, or thumbs) I'll be the first one to say it was a great meal. But hey, that's just me ;)

She is doing a line of Tink figurines for the Bradford Exchange, the first of which is called Kiss My Wings. I have seen the color artwork for this figurine, a spunky little Tink, and can't wait to see the finished piece. Jasmine will also be doing a line of Disney princesses princess:for Bradford. I have seen a black and white drawing of the first princess, Snow White. Very cute, and again I can't wait to see the finished figurine. Rather refreshing too, that the first princess was not Cinderella, though I would have preferred it be Aurora, my personal favorite. Jasmine told me the line will also include Ariel and Jasmine so perhaps we will get all the princesses not just the Fab Four.

I have not seen the Tink line but I have the Princesses. What started out as ONE line of Princesses turned into 3! I have now have THREE complete Princess collections! Each set contains Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, Snow White, Ariel, and Aurora.

My Toy Story Mania Wii game arrived while I was at Faeriecon so my first chance to play was this past weekend. Whoa! What an addicting game.

We bought it a couple of weeks ago and found it to be...I don't know...a bit boring almost :confused3 We were really excited to play it because we love the ride so much but there was really no enthusiasm while we were playing it on the Wii. It just isn't the same to us.

Hey, signed up for the new Disney Planning DVD today. :woohoo: Not that we really need it but it helps get me in the mood. We are waiting on the MNSSHP schedule as well.
We watched the DVD a couple of weeks ago. It just gives me goosebumps watching it. I love it. The dates for the Halloween Party were posted on a thread specifically devoted to MNSSHP. I don't think they have been announced on Disney's site yet but here is the link:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=36077517&postcount=129


WDW Dining, Mouse Memo, Park Hours, and Disney List. I love the Dining and Park hours.

I have the Touch too...must....get....apps!!!!

Ok so I've officially been DISing for about 3 hours now....it's 12:30am...going to bed!

Only 192 days to go for us!
 
hello everyone! I just found your PTR - I'm also perusing the PTR boards for other people going in October 2010! We are going Oct 19 - 29, staying at CSR. Our party will consist of me, my boyfriend, and my brother - all adults, no kids! This will be my 9th trip to Disney, my DBFs 8th, and my brother's 5th.

DBF and I are really big "nerds" and he is a HUGE comic book fan! I haven't told him about the Marvel section of IOA that you guys were talking about earlier in the report....Maybe one day we will try out US and IOA but for now, we are content with WDW :)

Only 192 days to go for us!

Welcome Simba. And thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment on our PTR. I see that we will be leaving WDW the day your arrive. Our magical trip will be ending just as yours is beginning and I hope you have a wonderful time.

We stayed at CSR our first time on property and I loved it. We hope to stay there again some day. My goal is to stay at every resort at least once. (Well maybe not every resort, I think I can skip All Star Sports.) I am also hoping we can stay at AKL very soon.

Always glad to meet another Doctor Who and Torchwood fan. I'm looking forward to the debut of the new Doctor this Saturday.
 
Tuesday, Universal Studios Day 2. It will be back to Potterland first thing today too. I want to soak in all the magic I can because I don’t know how long it will be before I get back. :wizard: Today we will be feasting at the Three Broomsticks for lunch. I have been reading reviews of some of the menu items and can barely stop myself from drooling. Shepherd’s pie and Cornish pasties. We may have to eat here twice. And I definitely have to find room for a Cauldron Cake. Chocolate exploding with chocolate? That is magic. pixiedust: Other than that the rest of the day will be spent catching up on things we missed the previous day. Depending on how long we are at US that day we could head over to DTD in the evening. Or, if we don’t feel like wandering far from the resort, we could watch the Illuminations fireworks again.

Wednesday we start doing Disney in earnest. We hope this will be our KTTK tour day. I’m sure we will stay at the park for a few hours after the tour finishes though we may have to take a break if Di’s knee is acting up. We will definitely make time for the first PotC pirate: ride. We are long past the commando stage so we will be taking a break every afternoon. It’s usually just a couple of hours, time to relax, take our shoes off, put our feet up and cool off. We have done this the past two trips and it really works for us.
 
Since we are planning our KTTK tour on Wednesday, we already know we will be having breakfast at the resort and lunch at Columbia Harbor House. (OMG, we can make ADRs today!!! I’d almost forgot:cool1:). Dinner will be a question.:confused3 We may want to eat at the resort again, or if we do decide on Epcot that night (which is a pretty good possibility since it’s late night there:woohoo:), we can eat there. Now we have eaten at Sunshine Seasons before, and they have pretty good food, also have eaten at America, China, France, and Norway. But since this time we will be coming in the front gate (last time we stayed at Beach Club and always entered Epcot through the IG), I have suggested to Zig that we should probably stay with Sunshine Seasons, otherwise we will be walking around half of World SHowcase to get our dinner. Depending on how hungry I am, I don’t think that’s going to be a good idea.:rotfl: So it will probably be either the resort or Sunshine Seasons for supper.
 
Just got off the phone with Disney Tours. Our KTTK tour is booked:yay: for Oct 13th. I'm really excited about this, it's our first tour. And now that we have that done we know we will be doing Chef Mickey on the 18th. Tonight we will try to get our ADRs booked.
 
ADRs are booked! :woohoo: We booked online Friday evening, as soon as I got home from work. It was our first attempt at online booking. It took a little time to figure out just exactly what we were doing but once we got the hang of it, it only took about 20 minutes. Has anyone else had trouble finding the “Add to Disney Dining Cart” button? The white writing on the pale, pale, pale blue background was almost indistinguishable on our computer. Once we finally found that things moved along smoothly. So here’s what we have:

Friday, Oct 15th – Rose and Crown at 1:00 PM
Saturday, Oct 16th – 50s Prime Time Café at 12:25 PM
Monday, Oct 18th – Chef Mickey’s at 9:10 AM
Tuesday, Oct 19th – Whispering Canyon Café at 7:30 AM

I’m really happy about the ADR for Whispering Canyon. I was not sure we would be able to get anything earlier than 8:00. We have made it a tradition to have breakfast at Whispering Canyon Café on our departure day. Breakfast at 7:30 means we can get on the road that much earlier.:car:
 
OK, time to get on with the calendar. Thursday is Magic Kingdom day. I like to hit early EMH. It’s a good time to do all the attractions in Fantasyland and about the only time we ride Peter Pan. We are also planning to go to MNSSHP Thursday night. We think it might be less crowded than going on Sunday.

We have scheduled Epcot on Friday, at least during the day. We will be doing Rose and Crown for lunch and are considering the possibility of Sunshine Seasons for breakfast. I guess that will depend on how much we want to get done that day. If we think we might need the extra time it would be better to eat at CBR before heading to the park. We are going to try to avoid the F&W Festival crowds on the weekends so we will be heading over to MK in the evening.

Saturday will be our first opportunity to take advantage of early EMH at HS. Usually we are either arriving or departing on Saturday and never have the chance. We will be having lunch at Prime Time Café, one of our newly discovered favorites. We ate here for the first time on our Sep 08 trip and really enjoyed the food and the experience so now we try to make that one of our table service treats. MK is having a late night on Saturday so we will be back over there for the evening.
 
Sunday is going to be Animal Kingdom day. :simba: We were hoping to avoid early EMH here as our first experience with that found the park to be exceptionally crowded. Last trip we chose a non-EMH day and the crowds were much more manageable. Unfortunately, the way the schedule has worked out for this trip, we aren’t going to be able to avoid EMH day.

AK is usually a shorter day for us so we will have a bit of time to relax back at the resort. Maybe we will actually make it to the spa this time. We say we are going to every trip but haven’t made it yet. We will probably head for Downtown Disney in the evening. Di likes to be sure she hasn’t missed any shopping opportunities.

Monday morning it’s breakfast with Chef Mickey. ::MickeyMo This will be our first time at this character meal and I am really looking forward to it. We have a 9:10 ressie so we will be able to sleep in a bit.

Then we are going to attempt something we have not tried before, 3 parks in one day. We will head to MK after breakfast to ride PotC pirate:and HM one last time, plus any other rides, attractions and shopping we might want to do. Then it’s over to Epcot for the same thing. We will take our usual afternoon break, perhaps a little later than usual depending on how much we still want to finish. HS had late EMH Monday night and we hope to make it over there for part of the evening. How long that will be will depend on how much packing we still have left to do. I would also like to be back pretty early as we have a long travel day the next day.
 
Hey shopping is good for you and the economy and shopping at Disney is even better. :cool1:I got an email from Disney the other day about buying new Marvel shirts. I am actually looking forward to buying my Disney Marvel shirt to wear to Universal's Islands of Adventure.:lmao: We are even going to get a locker at Epcot to store all the packages we (notice how I said we;)) will be getting at MK. But Epcot is my favorite shopping venue, Mitsukoshi Dept Store, here I come!:woohoo:
 
Tuesday will be our last day at WDW. :sad1: We will be up bright and early (well, early anyway) to finish packing and load up the car before heading over to Wilderness Lodge for our early ADR at Whispering Canyon Café. Then it will be time to hit the road. :drive: I will be hoping for good driving weather so we won't be too late getting home on Wednesday because it will be back to work on Thursday.
 
Actually I was really surprised about the 7:30am ADR at Whispering Canyon, I didnt think they opened that early. Well at least we can get breakfast done and on the road early. Last year when we went in March, we took 2 1/2 days to go down to WDW, and back again, and after breakfast at Whispering Canyon we went over to DTD and spent way too much time there. We were supposed to leave by 1pm to be on the road home, I dont think we left til after 2pm. I hate not being on time.
 
Party Time! Just called for our MNSSHP tickets. We will be going Thursday, October 14th. Hope to see some other Dissers there. Guess it's time to start working on that costume.:)
 
I probably should have posted this a couple of days ago but I've been fighting a cold and it's really been wearing me down.:sick: I have to say how disappointed I was to learn free dining only runs to Oct 2nd, just one week before we leave. :sad1: I was really really hoping we would finally be able to take advantage of this offer. Let's keep our fingers crossed that Disney decides to extend the offer. Di and I are working on additional table services options just in case.
 
Yes, I think we have 3 more tables set for sure, Yak and Yeti, Liberty Tree Tavern and Ragland Road. However, we are going to need 9 if they go with Free Dining for our stay, and we only have a total of 7 now. So we still need 2 more and it's starting to be a real hard decision. Well, here's hoping we will need to make that decision.
 
Our MNSSHP tickets arrived in the mail the other day. I must say I was a bit disappointed that they did not have a Halloween theme. I thought I remembered that from our 2008 trip but I coould be wrong. But wouldn't it be cool if they had the hitchhiking ghost from HM on them? Instead we have Minnie and Pluto.
 
Wow, that means we have our room, our ADRS, our park hoppers and our MNSSHP tickets!:cool1: Guess we'd better start looking into Universal tickets so we can get over to Harry Potterlandpixiedust:
 
Oh no! :scared1: Say it ain't so, Joe! No Small World for us this time! Whatever shall we do!?! This is so sad, we are not really Small World fanatics (especially after reading that part of the first Kingdom Keepers book), but the ride was usually not so crowded and it was good for a nice cool relaxing rest. Sigh Well maybe we will be lucky and they will finish their refurb early.:goodvibes
 
And now we get the word that One Man's Dream is going down for refurb while we are there.:scared1: *sigh* Wow, the attractions are dropping like flies. We dont usually have a lot to do at DHS, since we dont like the thrill rides, so we always make time for this. I wonder what the refurb is going to be. I hope they dont change the movie, I love the movie,:lovestruc it always makes me teary-eyed. I guess we will have more time to stand in line for Toy Story Mania.:woohoo:

Oh, I see it's been a while since i posted here.:guilty: Sorry, I have been over on the Universal threads, trying to get info on Harry Potterland. :wizard:I still would like to know how IOA and the Studios compare in size to Disney.
 
Hi,

I hadn't heard about One Man's Dream being down. DANG! But on the plus side did you hear about the new carmel shop in Germany? YUMMM!
 

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