Operation Disney in December--PTR followed by TR!

[mommyto3boys]

I found a great link here on the Disboards that talks about capacity...I am including the link in case anyone else wants to know. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2743398

I guess it doesn't reach the third tier of closed very often, but when it does not even cast members are allowed in to start their shifts. It didn't however address the park hopping.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I would just plan on hopping, but before you actually step out of the gate, get confirmation that you'll be allowed in on the other side.

Oh, and if your ticket is scanned on either side, you are considered a "re-entry" so that if they are on tier 2 you will be allowed to hop.

 

[mommyto3boys]

Thank you for your help....as much as I try to plan I keep finding new tidbits to consider.

I hope you have an awesome trip with your family!!!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Thank you for your help....as much as I try to plan I keep finding new tidbits to consider.

I hope you have an awesome trip with your family!!!

I know you'll have a great time too! I figure even the busiest day at DL is better than spending it at home

On another note, I just added up the $$ I have piked for food so far... and includind the $146 I have coming from my Disney Visa, I am up to $736!! I figured $800... essentially $150 per day ($50 per day per person--and we'll miss a breakfast, lunch and dinner due to arrival and departure times)... and I have a couple character meal vouchers on top of that... so I am super excited! I still have some package to pay off... but I have till Nov 5th, so I am knocking off a little at a time there.

 

[ociana]

We are there the same Christmas week dates and while we are tentatively set to park hop on two of the days, I am making the schedule in a way that it works with no park hopping. We did a Christmas visit in 2009 and while the parks were very full on Christmas, they got ABSURD on the 26th (which I hear is pretty common to happen each year). They reached the "no more first time visitors" level that day. I believe we were still allowed to park hop (not positive) but when the crowds get that thick you want to do a little movement from one area to another as possible. It takes much longer to get from say Indy to the park entrance than when it is a nice light crowd.

I recommend putting your non-fast pass riding in the mornings and try to hit the most important stuff before the 26th. Have late lunch reservations (I shoot for 2pm) so that you are working opposite the crowds. Plan for your things that suck up lots of time (Parade, Fantasmic, Aladdin, WoC, long meals) to happen in the afternoons and as much as possible on or after the 26th. In the evenings, use up your fast passes collected through the day and when it gets later at night you can usually slip onto some rides repeatedly when there is no line. We like to pick a particular E ticket each night by around 10:30 or 11 and just ride over and over till we are ready to call it a night.

 

[ociana]

I know you'll have a great time too! I figure even the busiest day at DL is better than spending it at home

On another note, I just added up the $$ I have piked for food so far... and includind the $146 I have coming from my Disney Visa, I am up to $736!! I figured $800... essentially $150 per day ($50 per day per person--and we'll miss a breakfast, lunch and dinner due to arrival and departure times)... and I have a couple character meal vouchers on top of that... so I am super excited! I still have some package to pay off... but I have till Nov 5th, so I am knocking off a little at a time there.

Ooohhh yay! We got the Disney Visa also, but the reward calculation is actually less beneficial to us than our Amazon Visa. I plan to just take advantage of the in park and online Disney Visa discounts instead of building up rewards on the card. I have been socking away my overtime pay to cover our food/entertainment costs while we are there. The trip itself is now fully paid for though!!!!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Okay, speaking of food, I think I am narrowing down where/when I want to eat. The big surprise is I am cutting Carnation Cafe! I love this place, and love the baked potato soup... but without Chef Oscar's Salad, I don't want to go there...

Tentative plans:

Wed (fireworks at DL): arrival day. Lunch: Paradise Garden Grill. Dinner: Blue Bayou

Thurs (early WOC): Room service breakfast, Trader Sams/Tangaroa (want to order a couple drinks that do tricks, and then get lunch next door.) WCT WOC dinner.

Fri (parade & F! dessert seating): Storytellers breakfast, Rainforest Cafe lunch, Big Thunder BBQ dinner

Sat (Aladdin @ 4:45 pm): Surf's up breakfast, Flo's Cafe lunch, Ariel's Grotto dinner

Sun (CP dining): Goofy's Kitchen breakfast, Corn Dog Castle Lunch, CP dinner.

Mon: departure day. Room service breakfast.

Now, I am hoping to do the CP dining package... if it isn't for dinner, then we'll do Rancho del Zocolo for dinner. I hope it is somewhere yummy like Storytellers... or ???

The mornings we will take advantage of EE we do room service, because I can have it delivered early enough (my lion of a hubby and bobcat of a dd need real food in the morning.) The days we have character breakfasts, I will schedule the earliest breakfast (7 am usually) and then we will head to the park after.

 

[ociana]

Mommy2PrincessAbby - I think I would be supremely FULL on some of those days if I followed that meal plan! Especially Friday when there are two buffet/AYCE style meals. That said, it looks delicious! My plan also removes Carnation Cafe. We used to do breakfast there and have even met Chef Oscar (neglected to grab a photo dang it) but we are doing breakfast on the go this trip. Our tentative plan is as follows:

Day 1 (Monday - Christmas Eve) - Welcome to Disneyland Tour
Lunch - Big Thunder BBQ
Dinner - Cafe Orleans

Day 2 (Tuesday - Christmas) - Aladdin, World of Color
Lunch - Carthay Circle
Dinner - Corn Dog Castle

Day 3 (Wednesday) - OPEN DAY
We aren't booking anything this day. It is tentatively a half DCA, half DL day depending on how much we finished in DCA on Day 2. Flos, Hungry Bear and Pacific Wharf Cafe are likely food stops.

Day 4 (Thursday) - Magic Morning, Parade and Fantasmic Dessert Seating @ 2nd show
Lunch - Blue Bayou
Dinner - Plaza Inn

Our plan is to get some groceries and combine it with the food offered at the hotel for breakfast that we can eat on the way into the park. Then we will do a snack at around 10:30 each day and try to get our lunches booked around 1:30 or 2 and dinners around 7-8. That keeps us staggered off from the main meal crowds by about an hour or so. You think that sounds good?

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Our plan is to get some groceries and combine it with the food offered at the hotel for breakfast that we can eat on the way into the park. Then we will do a snack at around 10:30 each day and try to get our lunches booked around 1:30 or 2 and dinners around 7-8. That keeps us staggered off from the main meal crowds by about an hour or so. You think that sounds good?

We have done Vons every trip, and it always worked out great... but I think we are going to skip it this time. I know, it looks like we have a lot of food planned... but even the buffets, we aren't all you can eat-ers... we are paying for the characters I figure, and we love the character breakfasts. I have no hope of making a 6:30 am line up for rope drop with my lion and bobcat... both tend to get cranky when they don't have enough protein. So, real breakfasts with eggs are usually in order. DD doesn't like protein bars and the like so as long as we are going to go sit somewhere, it better be good!

Breakfast will usually be at 7 or 7:15. Lunch at 11:30, and dinner at 4:30. I've done this enough times to know that we barely make it to 11:30 or 4:30 without growling tummies. We don't get a lot of snacks at the park--that is where Vons always came in (lots of prepared fruit--apple slices and the like)... so that will be different for us this year. I even have on the plan to try a pretzel at the cozy cone! I like your staggered plan... thats what we do too... just earlier... as we don't stay up past 10 usually (thats the benefit of off-season hours... parks close earlier except weekends!

I was looking at your dates... are you there during Christmas week?! How fun!! It is really good that you stagger your meals... especially for counter service... the lines for them when it is busy can be stupid long. We waited on a Friday night our 1st October visit for an hour for Hungry Bear! Never again will I go without a ressie on a weekend night!

 

[DisFan84]

I've been trying to nail down specific plans for my BF and I but struggling with not knowing what's all going on, on the days that we are there. We are going to be in Anaheim from the 1st of December and leaving the 8th but only have 3 days at DL/DCA. I'm debating adding a day but not sure if we'll have the time as we have plans at other parks and activities in So Cal. We were originally going to go to the parks M, T and W but I'm assuming they don't do certain things during the weekdays, such as Fantasmic (and I heard that they don't do the fireworks during the weekdays?) and the chances of us going to DL again in the near future are pretty slim... therefore we want this trip to be as incredible as we can make it.

I have a tentative plan for food and since it's just the two of us, we don't need to do character meals, or anything over the top (or maybe just one of the nights ) We got our hotel from bidding on Priceline and although we got a smoking deal, it doesn't come with breakfast so we'll have to do some grocery shopping when we arrive. I'm curious about how the the crowds will be with the Candle Light Procession happening every night as well.

We were supposed to fly back to PDX on the 7th but I received an email from the airlines and they changed our flight both arrival and departure pretty drastically so I called and they bumped us to leave the following day (the 8th) so we can make it to our plans on the 7th without cutting the day short. We still have to extend our hotel stay another night.

Hope everyone is excited as I am!! All I can do with my spare time is research, research, research. I can't wait till the DL calendar has December dates. My BF won't hear a peep out of me for a good week or so.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

I've been trying to nail down specific plans for my BF and I but struggling with not knowing what's all going on, on the days that we are there. We are going to be in Anaheim from the 1st of December and leaving the 8th but only have 3 days at DL/DCA. I'm debating adding a day but not sure if we'll have the time as we have plans at other parks and activities in So Cal. We were originally going to go to the parks M, T and W but I'm assuming they don't do certain things during the weekdays, such as Fantasmic (and I heard that they don't do the fireworks during the weekdays?)

You can look here to get an idea of the calendar to see what is typically shown on the days you choose: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2291124

Now, with CP every night, who knows what they will change. For now I planning that fireworks will be Wed when we are there, and WOC pretty much everyday, and F! for sure on Fri-Sun nights... which is how I came up with my plans... if fireworks is not on weekdays, then I have Saturday night open to put it in there, since I want to see it from the hub and not just from the F! seating area... they are such different views!

 

[DisFan84]

Awesome! Thank you!! We hadn't yet booked an additional night anywhere (since our flight got pushed out a day) and we were super close to booking a hotel near LAX just for the night but decided to Priceline it today for Anaheim and somehow managed to score another night at the hotel we are already staying at. Since we'll be in Anaheim Friday night, I may just save one of our days for DL for Friday... unless I can just convince the BF to add another day to our hopper passes . That will fix my F! dilemma. As a planner I can't help but rethink about everything and changes I want to make or add. I booked this trip when it was 150 days out, now I'm at 75 and feel like I'm running out of time lol. You've got to be really excited having planned this a long time ago!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Awesome! Thank you!! We hadn't yet booked an additional night anywhere (since our flight got pushed out a day) and we were super close to booking a hotel near LAX just for the night but decided to Priceline it today for Anaheim and somehow managed to score another night at the hotel we are already staying at. Since we'll be in Anaheim Friday night, I may just save one of our days for DL for Friday... unless I can just convince the BF to add another day to our hopper passes . That will fix my F! dilemma. As a planner I can't help but rethink about everything and changes I want to make or add. I booked this trip when it was 150 days out, now I'm at 75 and feel like I'm running out of time lol. You've got to be really excited having planned this a long time ago!

Yay!! More days is always better than less!

Yes! I am about dying here... so excited. Hubby does an annual fishing trip with his dad in October... and I am already trying to figure out how to do another trip October 2013... ridiculous right? We haven't even gone on this trip that I have been planning for like 18 months for... but, October 2013 would just be dd and I, and we can do it for less. I am always tempted to save $$ and stay at Hojos, and then I chicken out, because I love being immersed in the magic of Disney!

 

[Crazy4Disney06]

Loving readying all the other Oregonian's trip plans!! We pretty plan to really relax this trip with very few scheduled activities and just play it by ear this trip, but what we do have scheduled is:

Sunday 12/16: Arrive at LGB 3pm, check into off site hotel, visit DTD and have dinner at GF.

Monady12/17: Welcome tour at DL - DL/DCA

Tuesday 12/18: Check out of off site hotel and into 1 bedroom villa at the Grand Californian DL/DCA

Wednesday 12/19: DL/DCA

Thursday 12/20: DL/DCA

Friday 12/21: Check out of Grand Californian and into Knotts Berry Farm hotel, visit Knotts for the day

Saturday 12/22: Check out of Knotts Hotel, enjoy afternoon at Garden Walk in Anaheim, drive to SNA for 6pm flight back to PDX.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Whoa Crazy4Disney06--lots of hotel hopping for you! Sounds like a great trip! I tried to do the 3pm flight back from SNA, and that was what I originally booked but it got moved to 1pm... awfully early for our last day. Part of me is wishing we could stay till 6, but we have work and school the next day, so I guess its good we'll be back in PDX at a decent hour!

I just noticed I've hit 10,000 views! Wow!!

I was wondering if any of you Oregonians know for sure what type of Disney Store is going in at Woodburn? It opens October 6th... and we'll be there that day... I tend to buy some little gifts that Tink leaves for dd when she is sleeping... I may have to get sneaky and buy them when dd isn't looking (done it before!) Anyhow... I emailed Disneystore, and they told me the Southcenter and Bellevue Square malls in Washington have the new Magical Interactive stores... but she couldn't tell me if Woodburn would be one or not. DD and I are going to Seattle the weekend of Oct 12th--so we may have to hit Southcenter on the way home!

 

[ociana]

I was looking at your dates... are you there during Christmas week?! How fun!! It is really good that you stagger your meals... especially for counter service... the lines for them when it is busy can be stupid long. We waited on a Friday night our 1st October visit for an hour for Hungry Bear! Never again will I go without a ressie on a weekend night!

Yes we are there during Christmas week. Lots of fun and lots of CROWDS. I couldn't imagine waiting an hour for Hungry Bear! I once waited about 40 minutes at Pacific Wharf for a bread bowl of soup - I thought I was going to die of starvation before I got to the head of the line.

I hadn't heard anything about Woodburn getting a Disney Store - but that is awesome news! I just googled and learned from the Woodburn facebook that: "Disney Store Outlet opens October 6! The first 500 people in line get free Mickey ears!" I guess I gotta drag my butt out of bed...

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

We won't be in the early rush for the Disney store. DD has gymnastics and swimming that morning. But we'll be there at 2 pm or so. At least to check it out.

Our now infamous wait at hungry bear... It was our 1st trip and I didn't comprehend distances really yet. We stayed at the DLH. DD woke up from nap at 4 and we headed to DL on a Friday nite. I had 6 pm ressies for steakhouse 55. Yep. There was no freaking way we were going back for them. So at 6 pm on an off-season Friday-which was wall to wall people- we were stuck in the new Orleans square area with no ressie. No one was accepting walk ups so reluctantly we got in line at hungry bear. Took an hour to order and twenty more minutes to get food. It was horrible. So now I always have an in-park dinner reserved!

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

1 week till I can start making my dining ressies!!



Unfortunately this means it is still 3 weeks until the DL calendar will start showing my dates

 

[DisFan84]

Yay! I'm officially 60 days away! I keep checking the DL website just in case they decide to add the hours of operation to their site I want to start making more confirmed plans!! The waiting game is so hard.

 

[Mommy2PrincessAbby]

Yay! I'm officially 60 days away! I keep checking the DL website just in case they decide to add the hours of operation to their site I want to start making more confirmed plans!! The waiting game is so hard.

Yay!!! Calendar or not, I am going to start making my PSs this weekend... I hit 2 months on Friday! I figure I can change things later.... but there are certain seatings I want for sure and the hours aren't dependent on that!

I did send a note to vacay planning asking about special Christmas goodies that you can have delivered to your room... they had great ones for Halloween this year.... so we'll see what they come up with. It might be "check back later."