Please stand clear of my vacation.Por favor manténganse alejado mis vacaciones (1/7)

[arbolita]

Yay! That's such a great time at WDW because it's not crowded at all!

My favorite restaurants that aren't talked about a lot are Sanaa & Raglan Road.

Sanaa is definitely on my list of places to try, but I may have to try that when I make a trip without DH because I'm not sure he's quite adventurous enough to enjoy it. Raglan Road, on the other hand, is my absolute favorite restaurant in Walt Disney World. That is definitely on our list for this trip - I need my bread and butter pudding!!

 

[arbolita]

ADRs Booked


After much deliberation, I think I'm happy with the ADRs I have booked for our trip! I decided to go with our two favorite places, and add in three new ones. So here's what we have:

Saturday, January 26:

Lunch - Raglan Road - I'm hoping we'll be able to do a walk-in lunch for Raglan Road, since I'm not entirely certain what time it will be after we check in at Saratoga Springs. It's my favorite restaurant in WDW, so I'm SO EXCITED to eat there first!

Sunday, January 27:

No ADRs for this day - yet. I am hoping a spot may open up for Be Our Guest

Monday, January 28:

Restaurant Marrakesh - 12:15 PM

Tuesday, January 29:

Yachtsman Steakhouse - 7:30 PM

Wednesday, January 30:

The Wave - 1:00 PM

Thursday, January 31:

Trail's End - 7:30 PM

 

[onelilspark]

For Raglan Road, they're also on Open Table, so you can always check on your way over.

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Joining in!!! Your plans so far sound great! I've never been to RR for lunch, but we love dinner there!!

Can't wait to hear more about your plans!

 

[glennbo123]

Mrs. Arb. Good to see that you're planning a trip.

 

[arbolita]

For Raglan Road, they're also on Open Table, so you can always check on your way over.

That's very good to know! Thanks for the tip =)

Joining in!!! Your plans so far sound great! I've never been to RR for lunch, but we love dinner there!!

Can't wait to hear more about your plans!

Welcome, glad to have you here! We've only done Raglan Road for dinner also, so I'm eager to see if there are any difference in menu items or portion sizes during lunch. I hope not, because I could eat that food daily.

Mrs. Arb. Good to see that you're planning a trip.

Hey there! I'm glad that I'm finally planning a trip again too =) Good to see you over here!

 

[arbolita]

Hey guys! Sorry it's been relatively quiet as far as updates go. I can't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but I'm covering at work for a co-workers who is out of the office for longterm illness, so I've been much busier than normal during the day, and it's the end of my semester so school work has been piling up. I figured I would give you a quick look at what we've been up to!

Last weekend, my husband and I did a quick trip to Little Rock, AR.

You may be asking, "Why Arkansas?" Believe me, I asked myself that question quite a few times when my husband told me he wanted to go!

Between December 7-9. Little Rock was home to the White Water Tavern Holiday Hangout, a weekend long concert series featuring several performers that my husband loves and who don't tour in Baltimore very often.

The music was fantastic, and we had a great time hanging out with the other people who were there for the weekend. We actually met someone else also from Baltimore that we've seen at some concerts and have some of the same friends! (They don't call it Smalltimore for nothing).

The music venue was fairly small, and I'd say there were around 150 people there each night. One of the best parts about the weekend was that when the performers were not on stage, they were just hanging out in the crowd with everybody, enjoying the music, chatting with fans, etc.

Of all the bands, my favorite was Glossary (pictured above). They've easily become one of my favorite artists at the moment, and it was great to not only see them perform live in such an intimate setting, but to have them perform songs with several of the other performers as well. Here's links to a few of their songs so you can check them out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDoNTq9CYsQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVQusUGWtiY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGUzXSZKpgk


By far the most memorable part of our weekend happened Saturday morning at breakfast. I swear to you all right now that I am NOT making this up.

So Friday night we didn't get back to the hotel until just after 2 AM - which really felt like 3 AM to our East Coast bodies. We were still feeling pretty exhausted when we woke up Saturday morning, and decided to just head over to the Waffle House nearby to get some food. It was actually pretty nice, as far as Waffle House's go. While we were eating, two adults came into the restaurant, and one was holding a stuffed teddy bear, dressed up in clothes. I thought it was a little odd, but I've seen stranger things at Disney, so I didn't spend too much time on it. They sat in the booth behind Scott, so I had a pretty clear shot of what was happening. And I almost spit out my food when the adult woman ordered a meal for the bear.

And then again as I watched her try to PUT FOOD IN ITS MOUTH.

I knew nobody would believe me that this was happening, so I tried to be a stealthy ninja and get a cell phone picture.

In case you're wondering, the bear had hash browns and chocolate milk.

 

[arbolita]

One month from today I will be arriving in Orlando!

 

[Nermel9]

Joining in, I know I'm a little late, but better late than never right?

Your plans sound great for your trip! SSR will be nice even if it's not your first choice, every time I read a TR where someone stays there, I always think it looks so pretty and peaceful! And your ADR's look awesome, I hope you get to go to Be Our Guest! I went for lunch in November and I LOVED it!

So since you adjusted your vacation dates, are you definitely going to Disneyland?? Ahhh I'm hoping to go there sometime this year, I just don't know if it's possible! I also want to go to Disney World like 7 million times!

Oh, I follow you on twitter, I'm minnie_ears!

 

[arbolita]

Joining in, I know I'm a little late, but better late than never right?

Your plans sound great for your trip! SSR will be nice even if it's not your first choice, every time I read a TR where someone stays there, I always think it looks so pretty and peaceful! And your ADR's look awesome, I hope you get to go to Be Our Guest! I went for lunch in November and I LOVED it!

So since you adjusted your vacation dates, are you definitely going to Disneyland?? Ahhh I'm hoping to go there sometime this year, I just don't know if it's possible! I also want to go to Disney World like 7 million times!

Oh, I follow you on twitter, I'm minnie_ears!

Welcome! Glad to have you!

I agree about how nice SSR looks in photos, especially looking over to Downtown Disney. I wish it had better food options, but I can always walk to DTD and get food there, or take a bus from there to one of the other resorts, so it'll all work out!

Disneyland is much more likely since we moved our trip up, but it will mostly depend how things go the next few months. Disneyland seems to have less of an issue with things getting booked up in advance, so we're just going to keep an eye out for deals on flights/hotels for that week and see what happens. Fingers crossed!

Just followed you back!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Glad you had a fun weekend in Little Rock!

 

[arbolita]

I hope everybody had a great Christmas and has some fun plans for new years! I hear that Disney will be sharing another announcement during ABC's New Years Eve presentation, and it likely will contain another Disney vacation sweepstakes similar to last year's One More Disney Day contest. Looking forward to it!


Since I will be in Disney 4 weeks from today (YIPEE!) I figured I would start posting some of our general plans for our trip!

We'll arrive at MCO on January 26 around 10:30 AM, and will be taking the Magical Express to Saratoga Springs. After we check in, we'll make our way to Raglan Road for some lunch, then walk over to Buena Vista Palace across the street to visit the National Car Rental they have. Yes, that's right - my first day at Disney and we're going to be heading off property! But it is for a good reason. My husband has some friends from high school who live in Deland, FL, and he hasn't seen them for many years. So we will be renting a car for the evening to meet them for dinner and spend some time with them.

On Sunday, January 27, we'll be meeting up with more friends, but fortunately this get together WILL happen at Disney! We will be going to the Magic Kingdom for our first look at New Fantasyland with our friends and their 3 year old daughter. None of them have been to the park since New Fantasyland opened, so I think they are as excited as we are about finally getting to see it! Depending on what time they will be meeting us, we may try to pop over to the Polynesian first to get some Tonga Toast from Cap'n Cooks. Since dinner reservations are still completely booked for Be Our Guest, we'll be heading there for lunch and hoping for not too long of a wait. Other highlights for this day - trying a citrus swirl for the first time, riding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (one of my favorite attractions) for the first time since it's refurbishment and seeing Celebrate the Magic. I've managed to avoid all video footage of Celebrate the Magic, so the first time I ever see it will be live. Magic Kingdom has EMH until 11 PM this night, so this will be the one day where we won't be park hopping and will spend out entire day at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Nermel9]

I'm excited for the announcement about Disney on New Year's too! I have to be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with the first Limited Time Magic week, a Tomorrowland dance party? They do that all the time!

Your plans sound great so far! That's too bad you have to leave Disney property as soon as you get there, but at least you're getting it out of the way, right?

New Fantasyland is sooooo amazing, you're going to love it! And I saw Celebrate the Magic during MVMCP and I LOVED it, it's just as good as MM&Y! I always try to avoid seeing things online until I see them in person too, I didn't want to see any New Fantasyland stuff until I got to see it in person and it really made it so much more exciting, not really knowing what I was going to see!

 

[MrsZ]

Jumping on board! Late I know but I love your plans so far!

Can't wait to follow along and hear all about your trip!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

I'm very interested to see what the announcement will be!!!

 

[arbolita]

I'm excited for the announcement about Disney on New Year's too! I have to be honest, I wasn't all that impressed with the first Limited Time Magic week, a Tomorrowland dance party? They do that all the time!

Your plans sound great so far! That's too bad you have to leave Disney property as soon as you get there, but at least you're getting it out of the way, right?

New Fantasyland is sooooo amazing, you're going to love it! And I saw Celebrate the Magic during MVMCP and I LOVED it, it's just as good as MM&Y! I always try to avoid seeing things online until I see them in person too, I didn't want to see any New Fantasyland stuff until I got to see it in person and it really made it so much more exciting, not really knowing what I was going to see!

Yeah, I was a little underwhelmed by the dance party announcement also. However, the return of the Golden Horsehoe Revue at Disneyland is pretty awesome! I wonder why they didn't do the same for the Diamond Horseshoe Revue for WDW.

That's why we decided to see his friends first - since we wouldn't be able to get a full park day in anyway, and so we're not taken out of the magic in the middle of our trip.

I really can't wait to see it! I'm usually really bad at avoiding spoilers for things in the parks - I just get so excited and I want to see them right away! It's a pretty big deal for me to wait, haha.

Jumping on board! Late I know but I love your plans so far!

Can't wait to follow along and hear all about your trip!

Welcome, thanks for joining!

I'm very interested to see what the announcement will be!!!

In case you missed it - http://disneytimesweeps.com/

I've already entered myself and my husband today! Hope we can remember to enter ourselves while we're in Disney, haha. Maybe being there will be just the added magic we need to win!

 

[arbolita]

On Day 3, our first stop of the day will be to Epcot, and the big question is which ride do we get FPs for - Test Track or Soarin'?? My mind is trained to always make a mad dash for The Land to get those coveted Soarin' FPs, but with Test Track 2.0 still so new, how will that affect the standby times for each attraction? I definitely think I'm going to have to stalk out some Wait Time apps once the holiday crowds die down and see what we might be in for.

We'll remain in Epcot for lunch, where we have reservations at Restaurant Marrakesh, which is a new restaurant stop for us. I'm actually really impressed with my DH for agreeing to go here, because he is NOT all that adventurous with his eating. The Morocco Pavilion is one of my favorites, so the more time we can spend in there, the better!

After Epcot, we're going to be heading to DHS, where they will have Extra Magic Hours until 9, and I will be reunited with my love, Gertie! I'm leaving dinner up in the air, depending on how we feel - if we need a quick room break between parks, we'll probably eat at Downtown Disney. If we decide to take the walking trail from Epcot to DHS (which I really want to do!), we'll either grab dinner on the Boardwalk or at DHS. We've never seen Fantasmic, so here's hoping that will finally work out for us! And of course, I'll have to go on my favorite ride in WDW, the Tower of Terror. It too bad Starring Rolls will already be closed when we arrive, because getting one of those cupcakes would just make this the perfect day.

 

[arbolita]

Going to try and finish posting my trip plans in the next week, since we're moving on January 19th and won't have internet right away!

Tuesday, January 29

We're going to start our day at Animal Kingdom. DH and I are not huge fans of this park, and usually rush through it. My main goal for this trip is to see Festival of the Lion King because we've never seen it before, and I've heard it's one of AK's redeeming factors! I'm sure we'll also check out and see how Disco Yeti is doing and see if we can save Little Red from the poach- I mean, check out some new zebras. Initially, I was planning for us to do lunch at Restaurantosaurus, but then they got rid of my beloved Shrimp Po'Boy, so we'll probably head back to Downtown Disney for lunch. We have dinner reservations this evening at Yachtsman, so while we're near SSR we'll stop by the room to change and head to Epcot or DHS until it's time for dinner. After we eat, we'll head back into Epcot to watch Illuminations.

Wednesday, January 30

On this day, we'll start off in MK and head for the attractions that we were unable to ride on Sunday when we were with our friends and their daughter. My main in-park goal for this day will be to ride Astro-Orbiter. I've never done it, partially because of my mild fear of heights, partially because I'm a little nervous about motion sickness, but I want to say I've done it at least one time! Provided I don't start to feel sick from the experience, we'll take the monorail over to the Contemporary for lunch at The Wave. After this point in our vacation, our time is a little less scheduled. I'm not sure which park we'll wind up visiting in the evening! I'll probably leave it open for whichever one has night time entertainment we may have missed out on earlier in the week in the event something came up.

Thursday, January 31

Similarly the the previous afternoon, this day is WIDE OPEN in terms of which parks we'll visit. A good friend of mine who is a cast member has off on Thursdays, so I am assuming we will find out what she is in the mood for, and wing it. We have a dinner ADR at Trail's End at 7:30 at Ft. Wilderness with some of the people I hung out with during One More Disney Day. I've heard that you can watch the Electrical Water Pageant from Ft. Wilderness, and that is another thing i have never seen, so I'm VERY excited for that, as well as checking out Ft. Wilderness.