PTR - First Time to WDW Jan15

[Caroline NZ]

Hi, so here is our draft plan for our first trip to WDW. I will likely change some days around when the park hours are published in a couple of months time ( in order to avoid EMH parks as we are not staying on site)

Thur 8 Jan fly Air NZ to LAX and onto MCO with Delta that day, arriving MCO late Thur night. Will stay the night in accom at/near MCO

Fri 9 Jan pick up hire car (already booked with Alamo using uscarhire.com), rest up / shopping - accom in Orlando somewhere maybe Floridays as it is close to the premium outlets

Sat 10Jan Animal Kingdom, move to Windsor Hills - are here for 14 nights
http://www.vrbo.com/255106

Sun 11 Rest day at Windsor Hills

Mon 12 Jan Hollywood Studios

Tue 13 Jan Magic Kingdom

Wed 14 Jan Islands of Adventure / Universal Studios

Thur 15 Jan Epcot

Fri 16 Jan Waterpark

Sat 17 Jan rest day/maybe revisit AK if didn't get a full day in on the 1st Sat

Sun 18 Jan rest day/shopping/DTD etc

Mon 19 Jan Kennedy Space centre + airboat ride

Tue 20 Jan IOA / USF

Wed 21 Jan IOA / USF

Thur 22 Jan Epcot 2nd visit

Fri 23 Jan MK 2nd visit

Sat 24 Jan - return hire car, flying Delta to LAX , not sure if am/pm yet, but need to connect with the Air NZ flights out of LAX, the latest being at 10pm

Mon 26 Jan - arrive home am

Now to spend the next few months filling in each day with rides, shows and dining ( will likely only do a handful of ADRs as we are not big "foodies" ).

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Looking good - we are not big foodies either. I would second the 2 days at each of Epcot and MK and that what we did for our first trip. I see 2 days IOA-not going to do the park-park thing for Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express? I forget if you were the one who said kids not into it so not?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice to see that you've got such fantastic plans in the works, Caroline. Hope you've been well.

Looking forward to travelling with you on this journey.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Looking good - we are not big foodies either. I would second the 2 days at each of Epcot and MK and that what we did for our first trip. I see 2 days IOA-not going to do the park-park thing for Diagon Alley and the Hogwarts Express? I forget if you were the one who said kids not into it so not?

That wasn't us, we are big fans. I just put IOA down as the main park, but yes we will definitely be getting park to park tickets, I just haven't researched exactly what we will be doing each day

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I will have our end of October experience (all being well) as an example

 

[Caroline NZ]

Nice to see that you've got such fantastic plans in the works, Caroline. Hope you've been well.

Looking forward to travelling with you on this journey.

Hi PIO, I have only really got excited about this trip in the last few days. A 16 night trip ( as opposed to our 32 night trip last year) has taken a bit of adjusting to, but I am sure we will have an awesome time regardless. Got back a week ago from 10 days on the Sunshine & Gold Coasts. The weather was perfection the entire time and we had a wonderful short break, sometimes the closer to home holidays can be great too. I do like the anticipation/planning of a longhaul trip though, and I am sure you will be able to offer me some great tips /wisdom over the months to come

 

[Caroline NZ]

I will have our end of October experience (all being well) as an example

Will be great to read about your trip. Having no experience of WDW I am hoping the crowds in Jan will be manageable.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Hi PIO, I have only really got excited about this trip in the last few days. A 16 night trip ( as opposed to our 32 night trip last year) has taken a bit of adjusting to, but I am sure we will have an awesome time regardless. Got back a week ago from 10 days on the Sunshine & Gold Coasts. The weather was perfection the entire time and we had a wonderful short break, sometimes the closer to home holidays can be great too. I do like the anticipation/planning of a longhaul trip though, and I am sure you will be able to offer me some great tips /wisdom over the months to come

16 days just seem so short; but I'm sure you'll be fine with the duration. At least you won't be away from home for too long.

Your vacay in Sunshine and Gold Coasts sounds awesome.. Glad you had a wonderful time.

 

[Caroline NZ]

16 days just seem so short; but I'm sure you'll be fine with the duration. At least you won't be away from home for too long.

Your vacay in Sunshine and Gold Coasts sounds awesome.. Glad you had a wonderful time.

It's a catch 22, work doesn't allow for us to be away for any longer at the moment, but without work we wouldn't be able to do these trips. We are just going to the one location as well, so no moving around

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Yay, it's exciting that you have such a great trip to look forward to.

The house looks lovely and is HUGE. How many of you are traveling?

It's great the you have some quiet activities planned for MLK weekend. Crowd wise, the rest of your park days should be quite quiet.

By the way, don't dismiss the WDW restaurants even if you aren't foodies. Sometimes the theming is more special than the food. Eating somewhere like Crystal Palace or Tusker House is way more time-effective than queuing for characters. Plus we found the midday lunch breaks a bit of a sanity saver. A chance to rest up for an hour renewed our energy without having to return to the hotel for a rest. In saying that it was so hot in Sep/Oct. You'll be able to do more in January because the heat won't get to you in the same way.

Happy planning

 

[Caroline NZ]

Yay, it's exciting that you have such a great trip to look forward to.

The house looks lovely and is HUGE. How many of you are traveling?

It's great the you have some quiet activities planned for MLK weekend. Crowd wise, the rest of your park days should be quite quiet.

By the way, don't dismiss the WDW restaurants even if you aren't foodies. Sometimes the theming is more special than the food. Eating somewhere like Crystal Palace or Tusker House is way more time-effective than queuing for characters. Plus we found the midday lunch breaks a bit of a sanity saver. A chance to rest up for an hour renewed our energy without having to return to the hotel for a rest. In saying that it was so hot in Sep/Oct. You'll be able to do more in January because the heat won't get to you in the same way.


Happy planning

We only number 4, so will be rattling around in a 6 bedroom. But they come with their own largish individual pool and spa pool, whereas the smaller bedroom ones only had plunge pools and spa pools. And the price differential is not that great. We also thought some of the extended family might have come along, but I don't think that is going to happen this time.

Yes - I think the cooler weather will suit us better, and it looks like it can still be warm in Jan as well, looking at the 2 weeks in Jan just gone the highs (daytime) ranged from 13-29 and the lows (night time) from 4-19!!. So we will pack for all weathers, and hope there is at least 1 good day for a waterpark.

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow it's so unusual on the Aussie boards to see someone going to the US and staying put somewhere DH and I are considering doing just that for our next trip though. It's so much easier than packing up and moving every few days. The house sounds awesome

And 16 days is more like the time frame I usually go away for. It's always been enough for us (well, nothing is ever enough but it's definitely long enough to feel like we've been away and had a break).

 

[DVCAustralia]

In regard to the water park just be aware they are even more strict on closure for 'cold' weather than in earlier years. You will still have a number of days when it is open whilst you are there, but it is always worth checking.

 

[LisaAJ]

Your trip looks great!! We will be there at the same time as you I should do a PTR too. Might help me keep everything straight in my head!

 

[Caroline NZ]

In regard to the water park just be aware they are even more strict on closure for 'cold' weather than in earlier years. You will still have a number of days when it is open whilst you are there, but it is always worth checking.

Thanks for the heads up on cold weather closures. I am hoping that there should be at least one day that is warm enough ( and hopefully many more, checking the temps in Jan13 & Jan14 there have definitely been some big extremes in temps.

 

[Caroline NZ]

Your trip looks great!! We will be there at the same time as you I should do a PTR too. Might help me keep everything straight in my head!

a PTR report would be great

 

[Caroline NZ]

Park hours are now up for our stay
I have purchased the Easy WDW guide ( both hard copy and Kindle version), and am looking forward to working out our detailed plan.
ADR window opens up next month, it's all beginning to feel a little bit closer now

 

[PrincessInOz]

Park hours are now up for our stay
I have purchased the Easy WDW guide ( both hard copy and Kindle version), and am looking forward to working out our detailed plan.
ADR window opens up next month, it's all beginning to feel a little bit closer now

Let the games begin!

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Park hours are now up for our stay I have purchased the Easy WDW guide ( both hard copy and Kindle version), and am looking forward to working out our detailed plan. ADR window opens up next month, it's all beginning to feel a little bit closer now

Great news. It's good to see that Disney are starting to release their hours earlier. In the past the hours weren't released until after the ADR window, making for a lot of guess work.

 

[LisaAJ]

I saw the park hours too!! It's all getting exciting now! I booked our Universal package today and am hanging out for mid-July when I am hoping they release the Disney packages.

What ADRs are you thinking about?