*****Official October 2011 Thread*****

[disneygal58]

Another week gone by without October discounts. We're still going no matter what, but FD or a percentage off would allow us to upgrade to a moderate. It's been 5 years since our last trip and I am chomping at the bits - 195 days to go!

Dawn

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Kay, I've added your ADRs to the master list on the top of page 40. Do you want to give your times? That way everyone will know to look for each other if they have similar reservations.

 

[sjs314]

Kaymouse, congrats. I'm hoping to have as much luck in another week. I'm so excited!!

SJS, not on touring plans, I'm assuming 1's and 2's are good? That is great news!! I guess maybe since no discounts have been offered for this time period it's still fairly quiet. Maybe it will convince disney to put something out there and if not, we get no lines and easy ADR's, lol

Yes 1's and 2's are good since they are out of a possible 10 Of course this is still all subject to change especially if FD or discounts come out further on down the road.

Another week gone by without October discounts. We're still going no matter what, but FD or a percentage off would allow us to upgrade to a moderate. It's been 5 years since our last trip and I am chomping at the bits - 195 days to go!

Dawn

I had heard the rumers about April 15th but nothing, I do hope they hold off now if they do offer FD until after I book our ADrs next Friday

I am not holding out hopes for our dates of a better discount than what we have since we are traveling mid-week and most of our dates have been excluded from the GP and pin# offered so far.

I have done the math and FD would only save us $29.88 so I am not even going to bother with that unless I can upgrade our room to CL still have to do the math on that one so I will be prepared

As much as I would love a better % off discount on our room( currently booked on 20% pin DH rec'd) I am sure most of our days will be excluded since the pin we used was sorta an oddball , runing from Oct 18 to Dec 22.

Most of the discounts offered for Oct seemed to be from Oct 23-29 or earlier in the month nothing mid month.

 

[KEPE]

SJS, 1's and 2's out of 10??? OMG, I was thinking out of 5! That is SWEET!! Yes, I know subject to change but still not off to a bad start. I too now am hoping for a GP discount (FD or % off) not to come out before I do my ADR's. I was hoping for the 15th but now that it didn't happen I hope it holds off until the end of the month.

 

[Catira]

Hi.. hoping to get everyone's thoughts on my upcoming girls only birthday trip. We will be staying at Old Key West 10/22-10/29 and will be buying 7 day park hoppers. I have my kitchen table surrounded by calendar hours, park maps, etc and I don't think I have ever stressed out so much on a disney trip I met with my friends last weekend, and they basically told me that since I am the "disney veteran" they trust that whatever I organize will be for the best. Wow, that puts a lot of pressure on me. They have all been to disney before, but have never done all four parks. One of them has only been to disneyland once, so this will actually be her first disneyworld trip. We are not on the Dining Plan.

Sat. 10/22.. flight departs at 7am arrives MCO 12:17 p.m.
pick-up rental car, see if villa is ready, and head to DTD for a late lunch. Then go buy groceries for quick snacks, etc. Hopefully back at villa by 6:30 p.m. Not sure if we will do a park that night, maybe head over to MK to walk around.

Sun. 10/23.. Hollywood Studios @ rope drop. Park opens at 9am
lunch: 50's prime time rest. ?
dinner: ??
Stay for Fantasmic and take advantage of evening magic hours 8pm-11pm

Mon. 10/24.. AK rope drop for early morning hours at 8am-9am
lunch: Flame Tree
dinner:??
Park hop to MK for Electrical Parade 8pm and hopefully get a reservatin for "Wishes Dessert Party"
MK has evening magic hours 9pm-12 am

Tues. 10/25.. Breakfast at Konas Cafe
opt #1 Epcot for mainly Food & Wine
opt#2 MK after breakfast
MNSSHP at 4pm
CS during party or before party

Wed. 10/26 No major plans yet. Will go to a park, but not sure which and definitely not at rope drop since we hope to stay late at MNSSHP. But hoping to do the Illuminations cruise that night

Thurs 10/27.. MK rope drop @ 8am for Morning magic hour
lunch: Crystal Palace
dinner: ??

Fri. 10/28.. Epcot rope drop for Morning magic hour
Do rides early, then late breakfast________?
Enjoy F & W , maybe lunch at Via Napoli
Dinner:?

Sat. 10/29.. checkout then go to _______park
Lunch_________
Go to airport by 4:00 P.M. return car. Flight leaves at 6pm

What should I add or change?

 

[Catira]

Congratulations on getting all the ADRs you wanted, your plans look great.!!!

I woke up to find Touring Plans revised crowd levels for the days we will be there and they mostly went down I hope they stay that way should be wonderful, TP is showing the overall park levels for our dates all 1's , one 2 day and one 5.5 day
I am so happy I could dance just have to go over my plans again now real fast to see if I want to make any changes before I call for our ADRs next Friday

Hi I have never used Touring Plans but am contemplating it for our 10/22-10/29trip. I assume if I buy it today, it expires same time next year? Thanks

 

[KayMouse]

Congratulations on getting all the ADRs you wanted, your plans look great.!!!

I woke up to find Touring Plans revised crowd levels for the days we will be there and they mostly went down I hope they stay that way should be wonderful, TP is showing the overall park levels for our dates all 1's , one 2 day and one 5.5 day
I am so happy I could dance just have to go over my plans again now real fast to see if I want to make any changes before I call for our ADRs next Friday

Thanks! I was super excited

But a big YAY for crowd levels during your trip! Let's hope all of October stay that way

 

[KayMouse]

Kaymouse, congrats. I'm hoping to have as much luck in another week. I'm so excited!!

SJS, not on touring plans, I'm assuming 1's and 2's are good? That is great news!! I guess maybe since no discounts have been offered for this time period it's still fairly quiet. Maybe it will convince disney to put something out there and if not, we get no lines and easy ADR's, lol

I'm sure you'll be fine! It was my first time making reservations on opening day and for some reason I thought it was going to be some super manic, frenzy with pages not loading and/or crashing, but it was perfect.

Good luck next week! Here's to hoping that you get exactly what you want!

 

[KayMouse]

Kay, I've added your ADRs to the master list on the top of page 40. Do you want to give your times? That way everyone will know to look for each other if they have similar reservations.

I'll go back through and post the times. Didn't think about that!

Thanks!

 

[sjs314]

Hi I have never used Touring Plans but am contemplating it for our 10/22-10/29trip. I assume if I buy it today, it expires same time next year? Thanks

As far as I know it is good for 1 year, I bought it for the first time last August myself. So I will have to renew before my trip in Oct. Have you checked out easywdw.com? It is a free site which also tracks crowds levels etc.

Also I think it is mousesaves but I could be wrong........they offer a discount so if you sign up for touring plans it is only $7+ a little bit cheaper than on the TP site

 

[BaysMom]

OK....so, we just did our taxes and found out that we are getting money back!!!! woooo hoooooo. so, I am now adding another character meal to my list! LOL. How sick am i??? LOL.

10/6/11 - Crystal Palace for dinner 5:55 pm.
Yay!

 

[Parla]

One week for me, I can not wait, it will be so good to have them all booked(hope on the 1st try). Tried testing again today and the two hardest for me it looks like are going to be Via Napoli for lunch on arrival day and Biergarten for dinner on our second day which totally surprised me. Fingers crossed I do not have to start shifting places around again Something just occured to me and I went back to the online dining reservations and it seems no matter what day I enter for Via Napoli it only gives me on lunch time as available 12:45pm............I have to wonder if it is a glich in the system??? May have to call for that one.

Anyone been able to get a time other than 12:45pm for lunch at Via Napoli? I tried putting in actual times ie: 1:00pm, 1:30pm and by just asking for "lunch" times with the same results, I tired just pulling up Via Napoli and also all Epcot Restaurants for a specific time, also with the same result of only 12:45pm Ugh .....maybe it will be fixed by next Friday

Parla: I was fortunate that there wasn't anything I couldn't get at all, but I was just surprised at how few options I had after I'd chosen the time and date I wanted. For example, I requested SciFi (at DHS) for Monday night at 7. I don't need 7pm exactly - it was just a starting place. But what showed up was 6:35, and that was IT. That was my only choice in a window from 5-9pm. I took it, but I still found it surprising that it was the only choice.

Another was Whispering Canyon on Tuesday. I had requested 7am, but the only time offered to me between 6am and 10am was 7:30. Again, it's totally fine, but it made me wonder if I'd had any luck at all a week from now. The other one that I didn't really get the time I wanted was the Mexico restaurant. I was looking for a late lunch, and the latest I could get was 1:30ish. The next slot it offered me was 6pm. I've never had issues getting ADRs anywhere else in the mid-afternoon, so it struck me as odd.

So no worries - we've got most of our commando trips behind us, and are just trying to make sure we've got a few ADRs to look forward to. I'm just glad I didn't wait too much longer.

So it looks like the site has very specific blocks of time to make reservations for? The thing is I don't remember the people on the phones being any more flexible but for some reason this is making me nervous that online booking isn't giving all the options. For instance it tells me it searched a four hour period but only shows me one time. If I change me meal time by three hours it will show me another time within the original four hour period. Why didn't it show me all of the times it found to begin with?

We just need 1 more person to get 10 people for the Illuminations cruise 10/26. Please PM if you are interested

I imagine it will be hard to find a single person. Are people that you book with usually flexible to kick in a few dollars more per person to make up for a 10th person that it might be impossible to find?

Congratulations on getting all the ADRs you wanted, your plans look great.!!!

I woke up to find Touring Plans revised crowd levels for the days we will be there and they mostly went down I hope they stay that way should be wonderful, TP is showing the overall park levels for our dates all 1's , one 2 day and one 5.5 day
I am so happy I could dance just have to go over my plans again now real fast to see if I want to make any changes before I call for our ADRs next Friday

Touring Plans! I checked again since you mentioned numbers changing. We are planning on heading over to Epcot for lunch when we get there but they've almost doubled the number. It went from 5.4 to 9.4 AVOID. Eeek! Now I also have to decide if we want to do the Spirit of Aloha Dinner at 5:15 or 8 as well as if we really want to head into Epcot for fish and chips or shepherd's pie. The problem is that all the places that we want to eat in other parks are spread out on other more appropriate days. Arrival day is always so hard. I think I will just plan on Rose & Crown and make the best of it.

What's going on with Biergarten? I can't even find an available time to eat there in the week leading up. Is it that popular or will it be closed?

 

[Catira]

I imagine it will be hard to find a single person. Are people that you book with usually flexible to kick in a few dollars more per person to make up for a 10th person that it might be impossible to find? QUOTE]

I agree that it will probably be extremely unlikely to find one more person. Luckily, it isn't much of a differnce we are only 9 people.

10 people= $40.00
9 people= $44.00

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

OK....so, we just did our taxes and found out that we are getting money back!!!! woooo hoooooo. so, I am now adding another character meal to my list! LOL. How sick am i??? LOL.

10/6/11 - Crystal Palace for dinner 5:55 pm.
Yay!

 

[sjs314]

So it looks like the site has very specific blocks of time to make reservations for? The thing is I don't remember the people on the phones being any more flexible but for some reason this is making me nervous that online booking isn't giving all the options. For instance it tells me it searched a four hour period but only shows me one time. If I change me meal time by three hours it will show me another time within the original four hour period. Why didn't it show me all of the times it found to begin with?



I imagine it will be hard to find a single person. Are people that you book with usually flexible to kick in a few dollars more per person to make up for a 10th person that it might be impossible to find?



Touring Plans! I checked again since you mentioned numbers changing. We are planning on heading over to Epcot for lunch when we get there but they've almost doubled the number. It went from 5.4 to 9.4 AVOID. Eeek! Now I also have to decide if we want to do the Spirit of Aloha Dinner at 5:15 or 8 as well as if we really want to head into Epcot for fish and chips or shepherd's pie. The problem is that all the places that we want to eat in other parks are spread out on other more appropriate days. Arrival day is always so hard. I think I will just plan on Rose & Crown and make the best of it.

What's going on with Biergarten? I can't even find an available time to eat there in the week leading up. Is it that popular or will it be closed?

I wondered the exact thing , when I was booking ADR last November Biergarten was so easy to come by unless maybe it books up more in October because of its being Octoberfest? In fact when we went in 2009 we were able to get a walk up table there and it was crazy busy being Spring Break.

 

[dvc at last !]

OK....so, we just did our taxes and found out that we are getting money back!!!! woooo hoooooo. so, I am now adding another character meal to my list! LOL. How sick am i??? LOL.

10/6/11 - Crystal Palace for dinner 5:55 pm.
Yay!

Love you spirit !

 

[exwdwcm]

Making my ADRs tomorrow! cross your fingers i get it all.

Booked our flights on Friday too! yeah- one more thing done. Went with the Airtran flight, connecting in ATL and arriving by 6pm, so that is good. means taking an extra day off (were originally going to fly direct after work or afternoon, but too pricey!).

10/14- leave DFW noon, arrive MCO 6pm (connect in ATL)
10/22- leave MCO 8pm, arrive DFW 9:47pm (good thing we have Sunday to recover!!)

and super excited- got an iPhone 4 today too- so excited to use in the parks. i had a 3G previously, so excited to have flash, video and zoom now for my iphone camera. i tend to take a lot of pics with my phone vs. my canon powershot.

 

[PoohNFriends]

Hi.. hoping to get everyone's thoughts on my upcoming girls only birthday trip. We will be staying at Old Key West 10/22-10/29 and will be buying 7 day park hoppers. I have my kitchen table surrounded by calendar hours, park maps, etc and I don't think I have ever stressed out so much on a disney trip I met with my friends last weekend, and they basically told me that since I am the "disney veteran" they trust that whatever I organize will be for the best. Wow, that puts a lot of pressure on me. They have all been to disney before, but have never done all four parks. One of them has only been to disneyland once, so this will actually be her first disneyworld trip. We are not on the Dining Plan.

Sat. 10/22.. flight departs at 7am arrives MCO 12:17 p.m.
pick-up rental car, see if villa is ready, and head to DTD for a late lunch. Then go buy groceries for quick snacks, etc. Hopefully back at villa by 6:30 p.m. Not sure if we will do a park that night, maybe head over to MK to walk around.

Sun. 10/23.. Hollywood Studios @ rope drop. Park opens at 9am
lunch: 50's prime time rest. ?
dinner: ?? Since HS is usually the least favorite as far as food choices go maybe one of the nearby resorts connected by the boat at HS so like Beaches & Cream?
Stay for Fantasmic and take advantage of evening magic hours 8pm-11pm

Mon. 10/24.. AK rope drop for early morning hours at 8am-9am
lunch: Flame Tree
dinner:?? Would you and friends like something like Boma or Sanaa at AKL?
Park hop to MK for Electrical Parade 8pm and hopefully get a reservatin for "Wishes Dessert Party"
MK has evening magic hours 9pm-12 am

Tues. 10/25.. Breakfast at Konas Cafe
opt #1 Epcot for mainly Food & Wine
opt#2 MK after breakfast
MNSSHP at 4pm
CS during party or before party

Wed. 10/26 No major plans yet. Will go to a park, but not sure which and definitely not at rope drop since we hope to stay late at MNSSHP. But hoping to do the Illuminations cruise that night

Thurs 10/27.. MK rope drop @ 8am for Morning magic hour
lunch: Crystal Palace
dinner: ??

Fri. 10/28.. Epcot rope drop for Morning magic hour
Do rides early, then late breakfast________? I can only think of Sunshine Seasons, but I'm sure there would be other options
Enjoy F & W , maybe lunch at Via Napoli
Dinner:? More F & W? I've heard it can take awhile to get around to all of the kiosks

Sat. 10/29.. checkout then go to _______park
Lunch_________
Go to airport by 4:00 P.M. return car. Flight leaves at 6pm

What should I add or change?

I put a few ideas up there in red, I can't remember what OKW has for restuarants, is one of them Olivia's? I've heard that's a good place, but not a lot of people talk about it.

Hi I have never used Touring Plans but am contemplating it for our 10/22-10/29trip. I assume if I buy it today, it expires same time next year? Thanks

Yep, it's good for one year; they also have options to buy a subscription for 2or 3 years at a discount. It works well as a place to help guide your plans, but you also don't have to follow it exactly. The information is less necessary when the crowds are predicted to be smaller, which is the case for most days and parks you are there. Since I used it to help plan our week and you and I have the same week, I can tell you your schedule would fit fairly well with what Touring Guides predicts. However, as a general rule the guide recommends avoiding parks on EMH days so those would be the days that the guide might suggest avoiding those parks. But again, since crowds are predicted to be lower, this may not matter as much. I got a discount code from AllEars emails, Mousesavers might have one too? I'll post what I planned next so you can compare our dates .

 

[Catira]

I put a few ideas up there in red, I can't remember what OKW has for restuarants, is one of them Olivia's? I've heard that's a good place, but not a lot of people talk about it.



Yep, it's good for one year; they also have options to buy a subscription for 2or 3 years at a discount. It works well as a place to help guide your plans, but you also don't have to follow it exactly. The information is less necessary when the crowds are predicted to be smaller, which is the case for most days and parks you are there. Since I used it to help plan our week and you and I have the same week, I can tell you your schedule would fit fairly well with what Touring Guides predicts. However, as a general rule the guide recommends avoiding parks on EMH days so those would be the days that the guide might suggest avoiding those parks. But again, since crowds are predicted to be lower, this may not matter as much. I got a discount code from AllEars emails, Mousesavers might have one too? I'll post what I planned next so you can compare our dates .

I'll check my latest email from mousesavers.. glad to hear the week we are going is predicted to be lower in regards to crowds. I thought if crowds get too bad at an EMH park we can always park hop. Looking forward to seeing your plans

 

[PoohNFriends]

10/22
Arrival day (flights not booked yet)
Grab something in DTD (probably Earl of Sandwich)
Go to MK for the parade and Wishes

10/23
Open at AK, leave early afternoon to go back to resort for rest
Go to MK for MNSSHP
Eat CS at somepoint somewhere

10/24
Late AM arrival at EP
F & W snacking and late lunch at Rose & Crown

10/25
Resort day
Late lunch or early dinner at Sanna
Option for 2nd MNSSHP (I have a feeling we will want to end up attending a 2nd one since it's our 1st year going)

10/26
DTD
Eating options include Earl of Sandwich again, Wolfgang Puck Express, Raglan Road, or Cooks of Dublin
Maybe some time at EP before Illuminations Cruise

10/27
Open at EP
Snack at F & W
HS for Fantasmic

10/28
Open at HS
Late lunch or early dinner at 50's Prime Time

10/29
Depending on when flight leaves, will head to AK for opening

We are staying AKV - CL so we'll do some snacking there too and I'm sure add a few more CS meals at parks, but not making any specific plans.
I just realized we also didn't make any decisions if we would do the Wishes Dessert Party (Sat PM) or the Sunrise Safari (Sun AM) so we might add those.

Any questions, comments, and concerns are welcome !