Taking the PTR Plunge..our November F&W Extravaganza...update 7/8 a Day in Marceline

[glaserjm]

I do a similar itinerary (and I use the Waltograph font too, haha). We regularly switch things up as we go, but I like having a plan. I would probably have an anxiety attack if I had to just wing it.

Old Key West is awesome! I would love to visit in November so I can't wait to hear about your trip. I want to go during that magical time when it's Halloween at the beginning of the week and Christmas by the end.

Thanks for following along! I love Waltograph! If I were allowed to do my docs at work in that font, I totally would!

We absolutely adore OKW...this time we were waitlisted for one day in the middle of our trip (OKW as full on a random Weds. night!) and we were going to be at SSR for the night. It was a mixed feeling b/c we hate to leave OKW, but it was almost going to be better that we were being forced to see another DVC resort. I would like to stay at BWV or BCV during Food & Wine sometime just for the convenience, but OKW will always be where our heart is (and hopefully where our money is when we purchase DVC!)

I'm also really looking forward to November and getting to see the transition from Halloween to Christmas. We did MNSSHP last year and loved it so we're really excited to do MVMCP this year. We knew that whenever we went though...we had to get some Food & Wine in!

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

Hi Jayne
I'm just found your PTR! My DH and I hope to be there around the same time as you guys! We are hoping to be there from Nov 7 to Nov 17th to celebrate our 15 wedding anniversary! We have already changed our date once, so I am hoping we can keep those dates..our actual anniversary is on the 7th!

Looking forward to reading more!
Christine
P.s I had noooo idea Waltograph existed!!!!! OMG!!! That is sooo cool!

 

[glaserjm]

Hi Jayne
I'm just found your PTR! My DH and I hope to be there around the same time as you guys! We are hoping to be there from Nov 7 to Nov 17th to celebrate our 15 wedding anniversary! We have already changed our date once, so I am hoping we can keep those dates..our actual anniversary is on the 7th!

Looking forward to reading more!
Christine
P.s I had noooo idea Waltograph existed!!!!! OMG!!! That is sooo cool!

Thanks for reading along!! Waltograph was such an amazing find...I would suggest downloading it ASAP.

I hope you guys get to overlap with us, it seems like such a good week be there!

 

[holleypie]

Thanks for following along! I love Waltograph! If I were allowed to do my docs at work in that font, I totally would!

We absolutely adore OKW...this time we were waitlisted for one day in the middle of our trip (OKW as full on a random Weds. night!) and we were going to be at SSR for the night. It was a mixed feeling b/c we hate to leave OKW, but it was almost going to be better that we were being forced to see another DVC resort. I would like to stay at BWV or BCV during Food & Wine sometime just for the convenience, but OKW will always be where our heart is (and hopefully where our money is when we purchase DVC!)

I'm also really looking forward to November and getting to see the transition from Halloween to Christmas. We did MNSSHP last year and loved it so we're really excited to do MVMCP this year. We knew that whenever we went though...we had to get some Food & Wine in!

We stayed at SSR for the weekend last October. I do prefer OKW, but I think SSR's biggest advantage over OKW is the elevators! It also felt more walkable, if that makes any sense.

We'd heard that MVMCP wasn't as good as MNSSHP so our expectations were pretty low. I loved it though! I think it's a lot more fun than a regular day at the park.

 

[glaserjm]

We stayed at SSR for the weekend last October. I do prefer OKW, but I think SSR's biggest advantage over OKW is the elevators! It also felt more walkable, if that makes any sense.

We'd heard that MVMCP wasn't as good as MNSSHP so our expectations were pretty low. I loved it though! I think it's a lot more fun than a regular day at the park.

We were almost waitlisted at OKW so were going to end up at SSR for part of this trip, and we were looking forward to checking it out. It's hard to make ourselves stay somewhere other than OKW, so being forced to would have been a good way to experience somewhere else. We definitely decided we are going to walk over and explore SSR this time though. We pretty much always request ground floor as we got third floor once and it was not pleasant after a full day in the parks.

I'm excited to try MVMCP, I've heard a lot of people prefer MNSSHP, but I definitely think I'll love it because I'm a Christmas nut!

 

[OrangeJuice]

Your sample plan looks alot like mine. I love working out ittiniraries ahead of time but once we get to the parks we are hybrid planners/gowiththeflowers. We usually arrive for rope drop, follow Touringplans in the AM till we hit all headliners then we relax for the afternoon and evening. This trip will be a bit different because we'll be focusing on Food & Wine and just spending mornings in the other parks. Our goal will be to hit our absolute favorites and then be at Epcot for when the kiosks open for lunch.

 

[glaserjm]

Your sample plan looks alot like mine. I love working out ittiniraries ahead of time but once we get to the parks we are hybrid planners/gowiththeflowers. We usually arrive for rope drop, follow Touringplans in the AM till we hit all headliners then we relax for the afternoon and evening. This trip will be a bit different because we'll be focusing on Food & Wine and just spending mornings in the other parks. Our goal will be to hit our absolute favorites and then be at Epcot for when the kiosks open for lunch.

We don't follow any written tour plan, but I'm guessing our rope drop strategy matches up pretty much with what Touring Plans recommends. Although once we hit the headliners, we don't hesitate to cross back and forth in the park.

This trip will likely be a bit different as like you, we spend most afternoons/evenings at F&W.

I'm still trying to decide if we'll have a park day on the Friday we are there (November 8th) because we are doing MVMCP that night since its the only one during our trip. When we did MNSSHP last year we just did a resort day, but that was on a Tuesday and wasn't one of the last full day of the trip. I'm going to have to think on that one since Saturday the 9th is our 5k at 7 AM...

 

[glaserjm]

Well, as previously promised, dear Joben tried his hand at our itinerary this time and needless to say...he nailed it! He even threw some things in that I had not expected and probably never would have thought of myself. I'm now looking more forward to the trip than ever. He even game me more F&W time than I originally thought I would get. Without further fanfare...here it is:

Do you see how many trips to Zaxby's are on this thing?? We don't have it in Missouri so whenver we do road trips through the South it's a must for Joe (and let's face it...I love it too!)

I will have to say though that as we all know, this plan can (and likely will) change at any time. One thing we already noticed is that we didn't make time for a breakfast at Olivia's which as become a must for us on our trips. I think it's just a great breakfast overall, with some of the best potatoes I've ever had!

- image courtesy of internet


Yes I put a picture of potatoes in my PTR...can you blame me? They're phenomenal. Some additions to this trip report that are new include all of our ADRs (these are all first time restaurants for us), MVMCP and the Jingle Jungle 5k...that's a lot of firsts! It's almost as if Disney tries to create a variety of different experiences that it could almost take a person a lifetime to achieve in order to keep their interests piqued

I would love to know about any personal experiences any of you have with our "firsts" and any tips you can give me.

One of my questions is about the logistics of the Jingle Jungle 5k...as you can see we are planning on a bit of park time after the run as we only have one other 1/2 day scheduled at AK (we always go but it's not our favorite park) and wanted to get a little more time in but since the run starts at 7 and the park doesn't open until 9, we didn't know if we'd be able to stay in the park between finishing the run and the park opening. We're not expecting to ride rides or anything until 9, but rather just don't want the hassle of leaving and then coming back in. Does anybody have experience with this?

This is last year's route, so I'm asuming it will be the same

I'll do more posts about our day to day logistics, but wanted to put this out there to see what people thought! Comments welcome.

 

[Joben]

love that you say the itinerary might be revised. The one posted was the third revision before I sent it to Jayne.
The map for the jingle jungle seems a bit odd to me. I wonder if anyone has made this run and an explain why the running route cuts through what appears to be unpaved Florida wilderness?
Jayne mentions another reason why it seems perfectly rational to return to Disney world again and again...and that is because there is always something new to try. Granted we have only been going seriously for a few years, but it seems like there is always something new to try!
Having said that it seems our must do list keeps growing each year, and I fear we will get to a point that our must do list gets so long that it leaves no time to explore new things...guess we will have to just start going for two weeks at a time, then three, then a month.
The must do's are the things I really look forward to. When we first get to OKW we have to stop in for a drink at the gurgling suitcase. I really fell in love with this place on our first trip. It is such an unassuming bar. I remember on our first trip I kept popping in for a drink and noticed a group of older guys all drinking together and shooting the breeze. Trying to describe it does it no justice, it just grew on me and really made me fall in love with the whole OKW environment.
After our initial drink it's usually around 5pm or so and thought the day is mostly done, trying to keep Jayne out of the park is no easy feat. We have kind of made a tradition of heading to MK and getting a bite to eat (turkey leg for me!!!!!) and grabbing a dole whip. We don't really ride much but we have to go see Mickey's Philharmagic. Each park has some must haves, but this is our must for our first night "home"

 

[Li Li]

My husband is usually the one making the plans in terms of which parks we are hitting which days. But, we usually only make one or two ADRs as it is fairly easy to get walk up tables or bar seats when there is just two of you, right?

Also, we have been spoiled by going during traditionally low times so I am sure we are in for a shock when we go over Columbus Day weekend!

Surprisingly, we have not been to a lot of your first time places either. We traditionally do breakfast at Boma but I have heard good things about dinner. I can speak with authority on one: 50's Prime Time Cafe. We liked it. I got the Mom's favorite which comes with a sampling of fried chicken, pot roast and meatloaf. It was a lot but good especially as I wanted to try all three. DH got the chicken pot pie which he really liked. I don't think we got dessert but DH got a milkshake with his meal.

We would go back but if given a choice, we would probably pick Brown Derby over 50's. We're suckers for the Cobb Salad!

 

[Joben]

Jayne, even though you are a Cards fan- I'm in!!!

Great start to a PTR & I like you already.. after all, you are an anglophile. ME too!!! Me too!!!! Love those Britts & their land! I assume you are a Downton Fan? How about some favorite Britt movies? Mine are Sense and Sensibility (original version), Jane Eyre (Tim Dalton Version) and North and South (LOVE RICHARD ARMITAGE!!!).

I also love that your DH has a screen name of Joben- that is beyond awesome! I absoutely LOVE that movie as well and it's one of my 'go-to's' when I want to pop in something I've already seen. "Rockin' the Bass" (Why do you sound like a leprachan?)

We have driven lots of times down to FL- and take the same route (we're from Chitown) 75 on Spring Break.. yup, been there, done that- it's miserable!!

Looking forward to following along with the same timeline!

Tinker326: I kind of wonder why they still call the cards cubs a rivalry. While we clearly have more trophies and titles, I'm pretty sure the cubs have many more head to head wins.
Jayne has been traveling to Wrigley the past five years to watch a game, however I had to stop here because we lost every year. She is clearly a jinx.
There is no animosity between fans, which kind of negates the whole rivalry thing. Jayne would tell me stories about cubs fans pretty much paying for her drinks after the game to extend condolences. I guess they were so happy to get a win.
Driving from Chicago to Orlando? That is rough, that's gotta be a 24 hour drive. Jayne convinced me to try alternate routes, she loves secondary highways and insists they are more interesting. After 75 I was willing to try anything. (THE LEFT LANE IS FOR PASSING PEOPLE! COME ON) having to slow down through every town is a bit annoying, but all in all it is about the same time. Plus I get to explore new places to eat, my favorite part of driving.

 

[Tinker326]

Tinker326: I kind of wonder why they still call the cards cubs a rivalry. While we clearly have more trophies and titles, I'm pretty sure the cubs have many more head to head wins.
Jayne has been traveling to Wrigley the past five years to watch a game, however I had to stop here because we lost every year. She is clearly a jinx.
There is no animosity between fans, which kind of negates the whole rivalry thing. Jayne would tell me stories about cubs fans pretty much paying for her drinks after the game to extend condolences. I guess they were so happy to get a win.
Driving from Chicago to Orlando? That is rough, that's gotta be a 24 hour drive. Jayne convinced me to try alternate routes, she loves secondary highways and insists they are more interesting. After 75 I was willing to try anything. (THE LEFT LANE IS FOR PASSING PEOPLE! COME ON) having to slow down through every town is a bit annoying, but all in all it is about the same time. Plus I get to explore new places to eat, my favorite part of driving.

It's a rivalry for me only because my sister-in-law NEVER LETS IT DIE with me. Like, ever. So..................... I go along!!! Someday, some year... it'll be our year!!! The goat curse will be lifted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just hope it's in my lifetime!

Chicago to Orlando is 18 hours with no traffic- which, let's be honest... on 75- we spend HOURS in traffic. And my husband speeds- so that negates some of the time lost. Still, usually around 20 hours! Every single time we do it we swear, never again! And then we do it again.

 

[Tinker326]

Well, as previously promised, dear Joben tried his hand at our itinerary this time and needless to say...he nailed it! He even threw some things in that I had not expected and probably never would have thought of myself. I'm now looking more forward to the trip than ever. He even game me more F&W time than I originally thought I would get. Without further fanfare...here it is:

Do you see how many trips to Zaxby's are on this thing?? We don't have it in Missouri so whenver we do road trips through the South it's a must for Joe (and let's face it...I love it too!)

I will have to say though that as we all know, this plan can (and likely will) change at any time. One thing we already noticed is that we didn't make time for a breakfast at Olivia's which as become a must for us on our trips. I think it's just a great breakfast overall, with some of the best potatoes I've ever had!

- image courtesy of internet


Yes I put a picture of potatoes in my PTR...can you blame me? They're phenomenal. Some additions to this trip report that are new include all of our ADRs (these are all first time restaurants for us), MVMCP and the Jingle Jungle 5k...that's a lot of firsts! It's almost as if Disney tries to create a variety of different experiences that it could almost take a person a lifetime to achieve in order to keep their interests piqued

I would love to know about any personal experiences any of you have with our "firsts" and any tips you can give me.

One of my questions is about the logistics of the Jingle Jungle 5k...as you can see we are planning on a bit of park time after the run as we only have one other 1/2 day scheduled at AK (we always go but it's not our favorite park) and wanted to get a little more time in but since the run starts at 7 and the park doesn't open until 9, we didn't know if we'd be able to stay in the park between finishing the run and the park opening. We're not expecting to ride rides or anything until 9, but rather just don't want the hassle of leaving and then coming back in. Does anybody have experience with this?

This is last year's route, so I'm asuming it will be the same

I'll do more posts about our day to day logistics, but wanted to put this out there to see what people thought! Comments welcome.

I love that your hubby found that flaw with that map- that you are running through that wilderness. Let me know how that goes and if you run into any alligators.

Also, I see you are joining us 1/2'ers at the Victory party on Saturday night in Epcot? Perhaps we can do a quick meet up. You know- if I'm not passed out or being wheeled out while throwing up............... Most likely, that would be somewhere around the vicinity of 1-2am when I finally make it into Epcot. My best guess..........

 

[glaserjm]

I love that your hubby found that flaw with that map- that you are running through that wilderness. Let me know how that goes and if you run into any alligators.

Also, I see you are joining us 1/2'ers at the Victory party on Saturday night in Epcot? Perhaps we can do a quick meet up. You know- if I'm not passed out or being wheeled out while throwing up............... Most likely, that would be somewhere around the vicinity of 1-2am when I finally make it into Epcot. My best guess..........

He is obsessed with that "wilderness" (which I haven't really looked at, but I'm assuming is a path back towards Rafiki's Planet Watch). I'm surprised I haven't been presented with Google Earth images of the suspected wilderness... which is usually what happens when a better look is needed at something.

We would love a meet up when you've regained consciousness. We have some friends that were contemplating running the 1/2 so we wanted to do the party... but they ended up not registering in time... but we still want to do the party anyway!

 

[Joben]

I love that your hubby found that flaw with that map- that you are running through that wilderness. Let me know how that goes and if you run into any alligators.

Also, I see you are joining us 1/2'ers at the Victory party on Saturday night in Epcot? Perhaps we can do a quick meet up. You know- if I'm not passed out or being wheeled out while throwing up............... Most likely, that would be somewhere around the vicinity of 1-2am when I finally make it into Epcot. My best guess..........

I had to laugh at Jayne for this. Though she is a different woman in WDW much as I change personality a bit too, Jayne has a hard time staying awake late. Often she has cursed herself for seeing double digits on the clock(meaning anything past 10pm) We do stay up later on vacation, and this will be close to the end so I'm sure she will want to pack as much Disney time in as she can, however I look forward to watching her attempt to stay up till 2am!

 

[glaserjm]

I had to laugh at Jayne for this. Though she is a different woman in WDW much as I change personality a bit too, Jayne has a hard time staying awake late. Often she has cursed herself for seeing double digits on the clock(meaning anything past 10pm) We do stay up later on vacation, and this will be close to the end so I'm sure she will want to pack as much Disney time in as she can, however I look forward to watching her attempt to stay up till 2am!

Maybe I will finally take up coffee...and be like Sheldon in that episode of BBT where he tries it and turns in the The Flash! Regardless, that day will mostly consist of napping and downtime anyway after the morning 5k as I want to get the most out of the party as possible!

I will admit though on school nights (what I still call them even though we don't have kids and aren't in school) I really do like to make it in bed before I see double digits...but on vacation anything goes!

 

[glaserjm]

My husband is usually the one making the plans in terms of which parks we are hitting which days. But, we usually only make one or two ADRs as it is fairly easy to get walk up tables or bar seats when there is just two of you, right?

Also, we have been spoiled by going during traditionally low times so I am sure we are in for a shock when we go over Columbus Day weekend!

Surprisingly, we have not been to a lot of your first time places either. We traditionally do breakfast at Boma but I have heard good things about dinner. I can speak with authority on one: 50's Prime Time Cafe. We liked it. I got the Mom's favorite which comes with a sampling of fried chicken, pot roast and meatloaf. It was a lot but good especially as I wanted to try all three. DH got the chicken pot pie which he really liked. I don't think we got dessert but DH got a milkshake with his meal.

We would go back but if given a choice, we would probably pick Brown Derby over 50's. We're suckers for the Cobb Salad!

This was Joe's first attempt and I think he did great. I have to admit it was kind of nice not to be the one poring over the park schedules...although the control freak in me had a quick peek!

We haven't attempted to do any TS restaurants as walk-ups. We are fairly early into our obsession (only three years) so our first couple of trips we really didn't know the ropes and really winged it (we had one reservation each trip and both were with the larger groups we were traveling with). It wasn't until the DIS (March 2011 for me) that I really started understanding the ins and outs of ADRs and also started seeing all the great restaurants and menus that I wanted to try out.

We're now at the stage where we are trying to force ourselves to try all the TS places on our "must do" list before revisiting others. The exception to this is Olivia's where we must have breakfast once per trip as it's just that good!

I'm excited about the three we've chosen this time (we pay OOP so don't make that many reservations per trip, especially during F&W) as they're all pretty varied and give us the opportunity to eat at two resorts where we've never stayed (Poly & AKL).

50s Prime Time was more Joe than me, but I'm looking forward to it. In addition to being a certified BBQ judge (yes that's a real thing) he considers himself an expert in fried chicken and tries it at most places that have it on offer.
His favorite spot?? The cheap Mexican restaurant a block from our house that randomly serves fried chicken!! We'll see how 50s Prime Time stacks up...I'm personally looking forward to a milkshake!

 

[Tinker326]

Maybe I will finally take up coffee...and be like Sheldon in that episode of BBT where he tries it and turns in the The Flash! Regardless, that day will mostly consist of napping and downtime anyway after the morning 5k as I want to get the most out of the party as possible!

I will admit though on school nights (what I still call them even though we don't have kids and aren't in school) I really do like to make it in bed before I see double digits...but on vacation anything goes!

This is me too. Bed by 10. Up at 5. I'm not really sure how I'm going to handle running at night because of this............... Could be interesting.

You all could be real tired after fending off alligators in your 5K.

 

[Joben]

My husband is usually the one making the plans in terms of which parks we are hitting which days. But, we usually only make one or two ADRs as it is fairly easy to get walk up tables or bar seats when there is just two of you, right?

Also, we have been spoiled by going during traditionally low times so I am sure we are in for a shock when we go over Columbus Day weekend!

Surprisingly, we have not been to a lot of your first time places either. We traditionally do breakfast at Boma but I have heard good things about dinner. I can speak with authority on one: 50's Prime Time Cafe. We liked it. I got the Mom's favorite which comes with a sampling of fried chicken, pot roast and meatloaf. It was a lot but good especially as I wanted to try all three. DH got the chicken pot pie which he really liked. I don't think we got dessert but DH got a milkshake with his meal.

We would go back but if given a choice, we would probably pick Brown Derby over 50's. We're suckers for the Cobb Salad!

hey just subscribed to you your PTR! so if I'm mostly interested in Fried Chicken should i bother with the sampler or just stick with the pollo? I love meatloaf too and pot roast can be good, but i'm a slave to for fried chicken

 

[glaserjm]

We interrupt this PTR for a mini-PTR! I thought I would break in because we've had a development in our summer plans that just happened today. As mentioned in the introductions earlier in the PTR, Joe is one of 12 children. Most summers we do a large family vacation with his side of the family, usually hitting up the beach (although we have done WDW before!). This summer for a variety of factors including options and time we didn't get anything together. Joe's mom is a big traveler and was upset about the prospect of not having a family vacation this summer.

Here's a pic of some (there's a lot!) of us in our Outer Banks vacation from 2009...I'm in the bottom right corner holding one of my nephews who didn't feel well.Hence the e-mail I received at 7:09 titled "Mini family vacay...respond ASAP". Joe's mom has kindly offered to take the family on a long weekend to Kansas City. She's springing for hotels and buying us all dinner on Saturday night...which just also happens to be my birthday!
The where/when of this trip is Friday, July 5th to Sunday July 7th. We will be driving from St. Louis to KC, which is a straight 4 hour shot west on I-70.
We will be staying at the Embassy Suites on the Plaza

(Image Courtesy of TripAdvisor)
Which I believe is one of the first Embassy Suites. It looks like a really nice hotel with all two room suites, a cooked to order breakfast every morning and a cocktail hour each evening. Basically we will have very little we will have to pay for on this trip, which is so generous of my MIL.
Joe and I think that our plan of attack is going to be to leave super early on Friday the 5th and head up to Worlds of Fun in KC for the day. We are both already off work that day, so we felt like throwing a little theme park action in there. Not sure which of the family members will join us on that part of the trip as I know some of them do have to work.

(Image courtesy of Google images)
Has anybody ever been to Worlds of Fun? The only theme parks I've been to besides Disney are Six Flags St. Louis, Six Flags Great America, Universal, Sea World and Busch Gardens (Williamsburg & Tampa). I am assuming our experience there will be pretty simliar to a day at Six Flags...which I haven't been to since high school!! I'm going to try not to compare it to WDW as I know it won't match...but it will be a good way to get a theme park fix until our November trip comes along.
Some other ideas for the trip are:

The Nelson Atkins Art Museum which will have an interesting Frida Kahlo exhibit while we're there (image courtesy of cityprofile.com)

The Power and Light District which is an area of outdoor/indoor entertainment and shopping (image courtesy of powerandlight.com)

Powell Gardens...Kansas City's botanical gardens which I've been wanting to see for a while. We have a great one here in St. Louis but it's in an urban area and this one seems more expansive and open.

Since we'll be staying at Country Club Plaza we'll likely be spending at least a bit of time there strolling the shops and such. I think we'll probably end up doing the dinner at one of those restaurants on Saturday night. Has anyone been to KC that has a recommendation? I'd prefer something that is not a chain so I can get more of the local atmosphere in...but I know a lot of the things in the Plaza are a chain since the rent can be so high! Hopefully we can find some place that's close but kind of funky!

I'm really looking forward to this trip as I haven't been to KC for a long time even though it's not far from home. It just seems most of our trips take us east and south and when we go west we just drive through!

Looking forward to reading what anyone has to say about KC!