The Year of Disney - Oct and Dec 2018 PTRs

[PrincessAshlee]

The Year of Disney - Oct and Dec 2018 PTRs​

Hello and welcome to my fourth Pre-Trip Report (I can’t believe that DH and I are already planning our 4th Disney trip together ). Actually, I’ve decided that this will also be the PTR for our 5th trip as well, since our next two trips are less than two months apart, so a lot of the planning is going to be overlapping.

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If you haven’t read any of my other PTRs, my name is Ashlee. I’m 30 and I love all things Disney! Although I especially love wearing Minnie ears and meeting new characters. My traveling partner is my wonderful husband Corey. Our first trip together was in October 2016 for our Disneymoon. At that time, he wasn’t such a big fan of Disney. He only agreed to go to WDW for our honeymoon, because he knew that it would make me happy. Since then, we have been on two additional trips and I have fully converted him into a Disney Addict. DH loves collecting pins and also jokes that he is my “B roll” photographer for my reports; although most of his pictures are better than mine.

Me: Ashlee
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: Ohana - Breakfast & Dinner
Favorite Quick Service Restaurant: Be Our Guest - Lunch
Favorite Appetizer: Onion Rings at Tune In Lounge
Favorite Snack: Rose Gold Cupcake from Boardwalk Bakery
Favorite Disney Cocktail: Tokyo Sunset at Teppan Edo
Favorite Movie: Lilo & Stitch
Favorite Disney Princess Movie: Rapunzel
Favorite Character Meet: Star Lord and Baby Groot

DH: Corey
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios
Favorite Ride: Expedition Everest
Favorite Table Service Restaurant: Mama Melrose
Favorite Quick Service Restaurant: Flame Tree Barbeque
Favorite Appetizer: French Onion Soup from Shulas
Favorite Snack: Cream Cheese Stuffed Pretzel
Favorite Disney Cocktail: Lapu Lapu at Ohana
Favorite Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Favorite Disney Princess Movie: Frozen (although he was reluctant to admit it)
Favorite Character Meet: Star Lord and Baby Groot​

We recently became WDW annual passholders, so we have deemed 2018 as “The Year of Disney”. We have already taken our first trip this year (links to my PTR and TR are in my signature below), but I am really excited about our upcoming trips. For our next trip, we will be at WDW from October 13- 20 for what I like to call “Our Second Disneymoon”. Then we will be there again from December 1-15 for our two week “Christmas Vacation”!! To avoid confusion, I will try to remember to color code my posts; Orange for October and Green for December.


198 Days to Go!!! 247 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Table of Contents​

Our Home Away From Home

Counting Down: 180 Days Until Our Next Trip

Let's Party!! - Planning Update - April 27, 2018

I Wanna Get Away - Planning Update - May 31, 2018

Ho Ho Holy Crap That’s a Lot of ADRs!! - Part 1

Ho Ho Holy Crap That’s a Lot of ADRs!! - Part 2

Double Digit Day - October Update

At Last I See The Light

Disney Overload

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Our Home Away From Home

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We will be staying at Pop Century again for both of our upcoming trips. We stayed there for our last two trips and it truly does feel like our home away from home now. We had always planned to stay there in October, but I actually wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge in December (that tree is just amazing and everything looks so festive). However, then I looked into the cost and realized that we could actually stay for two weeks if we stayed at POP instead. With two weeks, we would have time to visit all of the deluxe resorts and see all of the holiday decorations.

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Our first time at POP, we stayed in the 50s section with a “lake view” (it was really more of a “tree view”, but still nice and quiet). Last time we were in the 70s section with a refurbished room and a view of the courtyard.

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Our refurbished room on our last trip was really nice and I’m looking forward to them completing all of the rooms that way. I like all the changes that they made with the refurbishments and it was noticeably cleaner than our room last year; which was definitely showing its age. I don’t normally bother to unpack, but all the new open storage is really great!! I also really liked that we were able to store the suitcases under the bed, so we weren’t tripping over them all week. One issue that we did have with the new rooms, was that the noise seems to carry more and we we could hear our neighbors in their room and it was pretty loud! It wasn’t clear enough to make out what they were saying, but we could hear them talking and moving around. This was easily fixed by requesting a box fan from the front desk. We ran it whenever we were in the room and never noticed any noise from our neighbors again for the entire week; plus our room stayed nice and cool.

So much storage!!!​

I’m thinking that the refurbishments should be completed by our October trip (or at least they will have the last of the non-refurbished rooms closed), so I am not really sure which section I want to request. I was thinking maybe 60s or 80s to change it up, but we really did love the 70s section.

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180 Days to Go!!! 229 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Counting Down: 180 Days Until Our Next Trip​

You know what that means! Today was dining reservation day for our October trip!!! So I got up nice and early and was able to make all of the ADRs that I wanted for our trip!!! Most of our restaurant choices are repeats but we are also trying a few new places. We prefer table service meals over quick service and when we share meals it comes out to about the same price, so I had quite a few ADRs to make.

Day 1 – Saturday, October 13, 2016

Mama Melrose (7:55pm) - This is a favorite for us. I love their steak and mac n cheese and DH loves their pizza.


Day 2 – Sunday, October 14, 2016

Crystal Palace (8:15am) - We love CP! The characters are great and there is a great variety of food. DH has decided that it is now tradition to eat at Crystal Palace for breakfast on our first full day. I guess twice makes it a tradition. I’m not really complaining though.

Yak & Yeti Restaurant (5:00pm) - I seem to have scheduled all of our favorites for the beginning of the trip, but that’s just how it worked out. We love Yak & Yeti. Although we always order the same thing: Crispy Honey Chicken, House Fried Rice, and Pork Egg Rolls. We are actually planning to go twice during our December trip, so that maybe we will try something new.

Day 3 – Monday, October 15, 2016

Teppan Edo (12:30pm) - Yet another favorite! I didn’t care for dinner as much as I liked lunch, so I am hoping that we have another great lunch experience! Plus I have to go back for another Tokyo Sunset drink, it’s just soooo good!!!

Hollywood & Vine - Fantasmic Package (5:00pm) - We have never been to H&V. I haven’t heard great things, but the characters are so cute dressed up in their Halloween outfits, so I’m hoping the food isn’t too bad. I’ve also booked us for the Fantasmic package, because DH has yet to see more than a few minutes of this show and I really want to see it again when I’m not freezing and wet.

Day 4 – Tuesday, October 16, 2016

‘Ohana Lilo & Stitch Breakfast (8:00am) - Lilo and Stitch is my favorite movie, so of course I love this meal! DH also really enjoyed it and said that they had the best scrambled eggs that he had ever had.

Day 5 – Wednesday, October 17, 2016

Cinderella’s Dinner at 1900 Park Fare (4:30pm) - This is a first for us. DH doesn’t really care for Character meals with face characters because he thinks that it is awkward, but I really want to go, so he agreed. I have heard that the stepmother and stepsisters are very funny, so I’m hoping that is true and that we both have a good time.

Day 6 – Thursday, October 18, 2016

Garden Grill (8:30am) - Breakfast is DH’s favorite meal of the day, so if it were up to him, we’d have a sit down breakfast everyday. I’ve compromised and we have one every other day. Garden Grill is another repeat for us. We first went there on our last trip and we really enjoyed it. I also really liked being able to enter Epcot before the official park opening.

Hollywood & Vine - Fantasmic Package (5:00pm) - I’ve reserved this for Monday and Thursday, but I will cancel one of them once our plans are more set.

Day 7 – Friday, October 19, 2016

Tony’s Town Square (12:00pm) - This is a first for DH, but I went there for dinner on my 2014 trip with my sister and my cousins. I had spaghetti with Italian sausage and I really didn’t care for it , but one of DH’s co-workers loves it, so he has been bugging me to go. Hopefully if I’m expecting the worst, maybe it will surprise me and not be so bad.

Boma (5:00pm or 8:00pm) - This is a new “adventure” for us. We are not very adventurous eaters, but I’ve heard such good reviews that I really want to try this. I’m hoping that we love it, because I am also trying to convince DH to try breakfast here in December. I haven't decided which time yet, because we are also planning to go to the Animal Kingdom that night and they haven't released their park hours yet.

Day 8 – Saturday, October 20, 2016

Trail’s End Brunch (9:30am) - Another new restaurant for us, that I am very excited about. I love brunch! I don’t normally like a lot of breakfast foods, so I can eat lunch foods but DH still gets his breakfast foods.

180 days seems so very far away, but with two trips to plan, I’m hoping that it will fly by.


180 Days to Go!!! 229 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[iheartbelle87]

I'm here! All of your meal choices look great - I think you'll be happy with!

Hollywood & Vine - Fantasmic Package (5:00pm) - We have never been to H&V. I haven’t heard great things, but the characters are so cute dressed up in their Halloween outfits, so I’m hoping the food isn’t too bad. I’ve also booked us for the Fantasmic package, because DH has yet to see more than a few minutes of this show and I really want to see it again when I’m not freezing and wet.

As long as you have the idea that its not going to be the best meal of your trip, I think you'll be fine at H&V! We LOVED Goofy at H&V! And yes, I definitely agree its worth seeing Fantasmic when you don't get wet or are freezing haha!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

I'm here! All of your meal choices look great - I think you'll be happy with!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Let's Party!!
Planning Update - April 27, 2018​

We had a busy week in trip planning!! Last Thursday, the 2018-2019 NFL schedule came out. Usually this does not matter much to our trip planning, as I typically need an afternoon break anyways, so we can plan that around game time if there is one that DH really wants to watch. This year is different though. I have been looking forward to this schedule release for months, because during our December trip, we are going down to Tampa to watch DH’s favorite team, the Buccaneers!! He has seen them play twice before, but never on their home field, so he is very excited and that makes me excited too.

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Once the schedule was released, I quickly got online and purchased our tickets to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the New Orleans Saints on December 9th. The tickets cost a little more than I had thought they would, but we did decide to upgrade to club level seats, so I think it’s worth it! So now we are taking a mini vacation in the middle of our vacation.

I also scheduled our rental car for that day. We are renting from the Hertz just off property near the All Star Resorts. I had considered renting from the Car Care Center, but it was going to be about twice the price. The Hertz does offer a shuttle to pick us up, but I’d rather not wait for it, so we will take an Uber to pick up the car right when they open at 8am and then use the after hours procedures to return it when we get back, so that we will not have to pay parking fees at the resort. Then we will use Uber again to get back to our hotel.

The other reason that I was excited about the schedule coming out, was now that our game plans were set, I could buy our party tickets!!! We had already picked what days we were planning to go to MNSHHP and MVMCP, but since the party tickets are non-refundable, I wanted to be sure that there weren’t any surprises with the NFL schedule before I actually purchased them.

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For MNSSHP, we will be attending on Tuesday, October 16th. When we went to MNSSHP in 2016 for our Disneymoon, we went on our last night and we were so exhausted that we didn’t really enjoy the party very much. We got a little candy and met a few characters, but about halfway through we gave up and sat on a bench for about an hour waiting for the fireworks to start. (The fireworks were amazing though!!) This time I we are going in the middle of our trip, so we will hopefully have more energy and we will be better prepared and know what to expect. Plus, our trips have been a lot less crazy now that we’re not trying to see and do everything in WDW in one week.

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Then we had to decide when to attend MVMCP. This is our first time going to WDW when it will be all decorated for Christmas; plus we are going to be there for two weeks, so we are both really really excited. You would think that having more time would make planning easier, but I actually feel like it's harder. There are too many options! If we went the first week, then maybe it would feel like we did it too early and if we went during the second week would it feel too late? We also didn’t want to go during the weekend in the middle, because we would be at the game on Sunday and Fridays are notorious for being extra crowded. That’s when DH said “Why don’t we just go both weeks?” I’m pretty sure that I’ve never loved him more! So we will be attending MVMCP on Tuesday, December 4th AND Tuesday, December 11th!!!

Our tickets came in the mail today and it is so much more real when you can actually hold them in your hands!! I had also ordered our passholder bands, so now we have our official passholder sliders and I’m one step closer to having a band to match all of my outfits!!

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169 Days to Go!!! 218 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

I Wanna Get Away
Planning Update - May 31, 2018

Our October trip still seems so far away, but it’s time to start planning for December! Southwest flights were scheduled to open up today. So I had planned to be up bright and early to buy those. However, I got all thrown off by the holiday and forgot what day it was , so I didn’t end up looking for flights until my morning work break at 10am.

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Luckily, it was not an issue and I was able to easily book our flights. Two really great things happened when I booked our flights:

1) They had direct flights out of Detroit. Detroit is our closest major airport at about an hour away. We were able to get direct flights out of there for our last trip, but for our October trip, we could only get direct flights out of Columbus, which is two hours away. We really prefer direct flights, so we had decided that the extra drive was worth it, but I’m glad that we were able to get flights out of Detroit for December.

2) The other really great thing that happened was that I had enough points to pay for the tickets for both DH and myself. I did have to pay the security fees, but two roundtrip tickets only cost us $22.40!!! (I don’t remember if I mentioned it before, but I also used my points to pay for my tickets for October, so the total cost for airline tickets for both trips was just over $300! Thank you Southwest credit card!!)

3) I guess there were actually three exciting things. The flight times are great! We are scheduled to arrive at 10:50am on December 1st and not depart until 7pm on December 15th!

In other exciting news, I can start making dining reservations on Monday!!! We are both really excited to be going for two weeks; especially because it will be our first time seeing all of the Christmas decorations, but planning for two weeks is actually pretty difficult. I have been trying to come up with a plan for at least a month now, but every time I open up the spreadsheet, I get overwhelmed after about ten minutes and end up closing it. We are really going to have to sit down this weekend and figure it out though, so that I can make our ADRs. We usually plan 1-2 TS meals per day, so it really is quite a lot of planning. I’m estimating that we’ll make about 22 ADRs. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that we almost always split our meals, so it’s really not as much food as it sounds. ) I thought that with two weeks, we could easily find time to eat everywhere that we wanted to, but we still have more places on our list than time.

Mmmm... I want all the food!!!​

Guess we will have to plan another trip! I’m actually trying to convince DH that we need to go back again next spring. I was thinking of trying to fit in one more trip before our APs expire on Feb 25th, but I think it would be too close to our December trip. Plus, while we have not been to the Festival of the Arts yet, I really want to be able to go to the Flower and Garden festival again next year and it likely will not begin until after our APs expire. So I’m looking at going April 27th to May 4th , but I think DH would rather go from May 18th - 25th, so that he can celebrate (aka not work on) his birthday, which is on the 24th. I feel like it will be much busier if we go the later week, being the lead up to Memorial Day Weekend, but busy Disney is better than no Disney, so I’d be willing to compromise. No official countdown yet though.

135 Days to Go!!! 184 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Ho Ho Holy Crap That’s a Lot of ADRs!! - Part 1

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Yesterday was dining reservation day for our December trip!!! Even though we will be there for 15 days, because of the way that the Disney system works, I was only able to make reservations for 11 days. I knew this going in, but it’s still kind of annoying. I will have to sign on again each morning for the next four days to make the remainder of our reservations. Therefore, since all of our ADRs have not been made yet and there are just soooo many, I will be splitting this into two posts. I’ll go through the first week today.

Day 1 - Saturday, December 1, 2018

??? - Now that our flight is getting in earlier than I had planned, I can’t decide whether to make a dinner ADR or stick to our original plan of eating QS at Epcot. We have yet to try any of the food from the Mexican pavilion, so that is definitely on our list for this trip!

Day 2 - Sunday, December 2, 2018

Crystal Palace (8:15am) - DH insists that it is now tradition that we go to Crystal Palace on our first morning, so this was a must!

Day 3 - Monday, December 3, 2018

Yak & Yeti (Noon) - Another favorite, we are actually going here twice during our trip, so that we can have our usual but also maybe try something new.

Trail’s End (5:00pm) - I’ve heard such mixed reviews on dinner here and I had considered booking somewhere else, but this would be really convenient considering that I also want to book a sleigh ride for this night and potentially go to Chip and Dale’s Campfire Sing-A-Long. Another option would be to eat at Crockett’s Tavern. The menu is pretty limited, but it sounds good, so we may end up eating there instead.

Day 4 - Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Boma (8:00am) - We are planning to go to Boma for dinner in October, so I’m excited to try breakfast in December. There seems to always be a debate on which is better breakfast or dinner, so now we will get to try them both.

Day 5 - Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Teppan Edo (1:00pm) - Another favorite off of DH’s must do list. He is obsessed with their yum yummy sauce.

‘Ohana Dinner (7:15pm) - We really liked dinner here on our Disneymoon and May 2017 trip, so it’s about time that we go back.

Day 6 - Thursday, December 6, 2018

Whispering Canyon Cafe (8:00am) - We have a lot of breakfast reservations, since that is DH’s favorite meal. We went to WCC for dinner during our May 2017 trip and I really wasn’t impressed, but their breakfast menu sounds good, so we’re going to give it another try.

Beaches & Cream (3:00pm or 4:50pm) - Not really a favorite, but also not a new place for us. We haven’t been since our Disneymoon, so I am excited to go back. I am hoping to book the Jingle Bell Jingle Bam dessert party this night, in which case we would need the early reservation, but there have not been any announcements that it will be returning this year, so I also made a later reservation just in case.

Day 7 - Friday, December 7, 2018

Rose & Crown (5:30pm) - DH really wants to try the famous fish and chips. I would have preferred to eat at the Rose and Crown Pub, so that I could try the battered banger and chips, but we didn’t want to risk not getting a table, so we opted for the dining room instead. I’m still kind of hoping that they will let me order off of the pub menu though. If not, the burger on the regular menu sounds good too.

Coral Reef (???) - I am still trying to make it to Coral Reef for dessert. It’s been in the plans for the last two trips and hasn’t happened, but hopefully in December it will work out. There seems to be a glitch with the reservations for this restaurant though. It isn’t showing any dinner ADRs at all, but they still have lunch, so I don’t think it is a refurbishment. I guess we will wait and see.


130 Days to Go!!! 179 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Ho Ho Holy Crap That’s a Lot of ADRs!! - Part 2

The Yummy Food-Fest Continues​

Real life has been extra crazy lately, so I've been MIA from the Disboards, but I'm back now and I'm going to work on getting all caught up. First up, I realized that I never posted the other half of our December ADRs. Oops!


Day 8 - Saturday, December 8, 2018

Garden Grill (8:30am) - I do love a good PPO breakfast and Farmer Mickey is so adorable!!

Mama Melrose (5:00pm) - This is one of our favorites, so it is a must do on each of our trips.

Day 9 - Sunday, December 9, 2018

TAMPA - This is the day that we are going to Tampa for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, so I am not really sure what we are going to eat. DH mentioned going to Disney Springs when we got back, but since we will actually have a car for a change, I was considering checking out somewhere else off property, but it's a Sunday and most of the "go where the locals go" places that I know close early, so I don't know what we will decide to do.

Day 10 - Monday, December 10, 2018

Liberty Tree Tavern (11:30am) - This is a new restaurant for us and I am so excited to try it!

Morimoto Asia (5:30pm) - Since this is the year of splurging at Disney, DH wanted to check something off of his bucket list - trying authentic Wagyu Beef. There are only a couple places on property that offer it and while I prefered the other options at the Yachtsman, the reviews that I read said that Morimoto was the place to go for Wagyu. I’m sure I will find something that I like. Those ribs look pretty good.

Day 11 - Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Cape May Cafe (8:00am) - Another new to us restaurant! Neither of us really like fish, so dinner here never appealed to us, but I am very excited to try the breakfast buffet and meet the characters in their beach gear!

Day 12 - Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Sanaa (1:00pm) - Also a new restaurant for us. Going for two weeks is really allowing us the time to try new places while still going to all of our favorites. We’re not very adventurous, so the menu is a little daunting, but DH loves bread, so we have to try out the Bread Service and then we may split an entree.

1900 Park Fare (7:00pm) - I originally wanted to go to Cinderella’s Royal Table, but DH was not very interested and ultimately I decided that it probably wasn’t worth the cost for just the two of us. So we decided to wait until we have a little prince or princess. We decided to go to 1900 Park Fare instead. This was on our list for October, but I have already changed those plans (more about that in my next post), so we are going to go in December instead.

Day 13 - Thursday, December 13, 2018

Trattoria al Forno (8:00am) - Rapunzel is my favorite princess , so I need to go to this breakfast and once I told DH about the breakfast calzone, he was definitely on board (even though he doesn't really care for "face character" meals).

Day 14 - Friday, December 14, 2018

Ohana Breakfast (8:00am) - Stitch is my favorite non-princess character, so this is a favorite for me and DH really enjoys the food; especially the scrambled eggs, which he said were the best he had ever had. Also Lapu Lapu at 8am? Yes please!! It is vacation after all.

Yak & Yeti (5:30pm) - Our last dinner is another favorite for us. As I noted in my last post, this will actually be our second time going there during our December trip. The plan is to be "adventurous" and try something new, since we've ordered the same food, the last three times that we were there.

Day 15 - Saturday, December 15, 2018

Be Our Guest (Noon) - Our last ADR for December is lunch at Be Our Guest. While we did not care for our dinner there on our last trip, we are looking forward to trying lunch there again, as we both really enjoyed it on our Disneymoon. I am also looking forward to seeing the castle decorated for Christmas.


100 Days to Go!!! 149 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Double Digit Day - October Update

Time for the Double Digit Dance!!​

*The day may be almost over, but it was an exciting one, because today was double digit day!! Only 99 days until our October trip!!

Trip Dates? October 13 - 20, 2018

Resort? Disney's Pop Century Resort, 7 nights

Park Tickets Purchased? Annual Passes!!!

Memory Maker? Included with Annual Passes!!!

Room Only Reservation Payment Progress? Paid in Full!!! I received a Unique Offer Code in my email and was able to save about 10% on our reservation ; which is not very much, but it’s better than nothing (the general public discount was only 5%) and it’s probably the best rate we are going to get, so I went ahead and called to pay off the balance. I will still keep an eye out for an AP discount though.

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Dining and Souvenir Savings? Savings Complete! We have $2,000 in Disney gift cards to go towards food and souvenirs for this trip. Since there are only 41 days between our October and December trips, we had to start saving early. I’ve been buying the gift cards at Kroger during their 4X fuel points events, so we having been saving quite a bit on gas.

Airline Tickets? Purchased! We are flying Southwest again this time. Unfortunately they didn’t have any direct flights out of our closest airport (Detroit), so we decided to fly out of Columbus instead, which adds about an extra hour to our drive, each way. On the plus side, the tickets were less than I expected and I used points to purchase my ticket, so we only had to pay for DH’s ticket.

TSA Pre-Check? We got TSA Pre-check before our last trip and it was awesome! We were through security in less than 15 minutes each time. It was well worth the cost!

Itinerary? I have a general plan of what parks we are planning for each day and where we are going to eat, but I haven’t worked out which fastpass I want to try for yet.

ADRs? I have all of our ADRs set and don’t plan to change them unless for some reason there is a conflict with our fastpasses (but the only FP that I think I would consider changing plans for is probably Slinky Dog Dash). I did make two changes since I last posted about our ADRs though. I cancelled our October 17th ADR for 1900 Park Fare (we are going there in December instead) and now we are going to Le Cellier at 8:15pm (although I’m still looking for a slightly earlier time). The other plan that I changed was our October 18th ADR for Garden Grill. I made the reservation for 8:30am thinking that it would be pre-park opening, but then I realized that there are EMHs that day, so I moved our reservation to 9:35am, so that we can take advantage of the EMHs.

Le Cellier - Steak + Poutine = ​

Food and Wine Seminar? DH and I really loved the beverage seminar that we attended during the F&WF in 2016, so we were looking to book another for this trip. Unfortunately, almost all of the beverage seminars during our trip were for wine and neither of us really love wine, so we were not too excited about those options. We looked through the other special events offered and settled for one of the Mix It, Make It, Celebrate It! workshops. It is on October 17th (before our Le Cellier ADR) and is hosted by Dan Pashman (who appears on the Cooking Channel and has a podcast titled “The Sporkful”). The description was pretty vague, so I don’t really know what it is going to be about, but I looked up a few Youtube videos and Pashman seems entertaining, so we decided to give it a try.

Dan Pashman​

FastPasses? Will be made on August 14th.

Shirts? Since our trips are so close together, I am trying to get a head start on making our shirts. We will be repeating some of the same shirts that we wore on our last trip, but I am still making 16 new shirts. I have 6 new shirts made so far and will make more next week when my shipment of heat transfer vinyl arrives.

We had to have some Disney Halloween Shirts!​

Magic Bands? I’ve decided on orange and DH got orange as his passholder band, but also wants to get a black band. We have until mid-September to finalize our choices, so I am waiting to see if by chance they add black as one of the standard options. I don’t really think that they will though, so we will likely end up ordering it off of the Shop Parks app.

Packing? I procrastinated packing for our last trip and it led to a pretty stressful day/night before our trip. This time I am working to pack as much as possible in advance. I’ve accumulated spares of almost everything we will need (toothbrushes, shampoo, hairspray, etc.), so the goal is to be almost completely packed a week in advance.


99 Days to Go!!! 148 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[fallonkendra]

Jumping in to follow along! We have a few days of overlap in December!

 

[PrincessAshlee]

At Last I See The Light

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Today is a really exciting day!!! We are 50 days out from our October trip, but it is also double digit day for our December trip!!! I still can’t believe that over a nine week period, we are going to be spending three of those weeks at Disney World! I am so beyond excited!!!

It’s been a busy few weeks of planning. I made all of our Fastpasses last week and I’m so excited that I got everything that I wanted!! I didn’t book FOP, because DH wasn’t able to ride last trip , but I did get Slinky Dog Dash on two different days!! Here are all of the FPs that I made:

Saturday, October 13th - Hollywood Studios
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Slinky Dog Dash

Sunday, October 14th - Magic Kingdom
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Splash Mountain

Monday, October 15th - Epcot
Test Track
Mission Space
Spaceship Earth

Tuesday, October 16th - Magic Kingdom
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Haunted Mansion

Wednesday, October 17th - Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Na’vi River Journey

Thursday, October 18th - Hollywood Studios
Star Tours
Alien Swirling Saucers
Tower of Terror

Friday, October 19th - Magic Kingdom
Haunted Mansion
Mad Tea Party
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

Saturday, October 20th - Hollywood Studios
Slinky Dog Dash
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror

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In December news…
I booked the DestiNations Discovered tour at Epcot! I am really excited about this. I have really been wanting to explore the World Showcase and take in all of the little details in each of the pavillions. We did make time to do this a little bit on our last trip, but there is still so much that we haven’t seen. I am particularly excited to be able to learn all about the different countries, while the World Showcase is basically empty, since the tour begins at 8:15am and most of the World Showcase does not open until 11am. I’m sure that it is going to be so amazing and I can’t wait!!!

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Also for December, last week they finally opened up bookings for the Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam Dessert Party! We have never done a dessert party before and I’ve read mixed reviews on this one, but DH is obsessed with Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam, so I really wanted to make this something extra special for him. This was the last thing for this trip that I have to reserve until fastpass day, so it is nice to be able to relax now that all of our dining plans are set.

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Speaking of dining, I also purchased us a Tables in Wonderland membership and the card arrived a few days ago. I originally did not think that the membership was worth the $150 fee, especially because we already get a 10% discount at most places because we have annual passes. However, I crunched the numbers and we really should save quite a bit with it. We usually eat at least one table service lunch or dinner per day, plus a table service breakfast every other day (bc as I've mentioned before DH just loves breakfast). The discount is also good at the Pop Century food court, so that will add to our savings as well. We should break even on our October trip and then December is just all discount. Plus the membership is good through September 2019 and I’m hoping that we can fit in another trip next spring, so we could use it then too.

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I am soooo excited for these trips! Work has been so exhausting lately, so we really need a vacation! I think I may actually start packing this weekend.

50 Days to Go!!! 99 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!

 

[crazycatstacy]

If you feel adventurous at Yak and Yeti you should try the ahi tuna nacho appetizer. I know it sounds weird but it is to die for!

 

[10MoreMinutes]

Following along! I'll be there for a short trip in December with my brother and sis-in-law, and our dates overlap yours (we'll be there Dec. 6-9 at Pop).

 

[PrincessAshlee]

Disney Overload

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We still have 10 days until our October trip, but it was already time to make our December fastpasses yesterday!!! I’m so excited for our trips, but I am finding it pretty overwhelming. We currently have 63 scheduled fastpasses and 32 ADRs for 22 days. Initially I was concerned because I had read that Annual Passholders were limited on the number of days that they could have fastpasses at one time, but this turned out not to be true for us, since we are staying on property the entire time for both trips.

Here are the fastpasses that I made for December:

Saturday, December 1st - Hollywood Studios
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Slinky Dog Dash

Sunday, December 2nd - Magic Kingdom
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Monday, December 3rd - Animal Kingdom
Na’vi River Journey
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Expedition Everest

Tuesday, December 4th - Hollywood Studios
Alien Swirling Saucers
Star Tours
Tower of Terror

Wednesday, December 5th - Epcot
Spaceship Earth
Test Track

Thursday, December 6th - Magic Kingdom
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Haunted Mansion
Peter Pan’s Flight

Friday, December 7th - Epcot
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Frozen Ever After

Saturday, December 8th - Hollywood Studios
Slinky Dog Dash
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror

Sunday, December 9th - Tampa
None

Monday, December 10th - Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Rivers of Light
Expedition Everest

Tuesday, December 11th - Hollywood Studios
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror
Slinky Dog Dash

Wednesday, December 12th - Animal Kingdom
Na’vi River Journey
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest

Thursday, December 13th - Epcot
Spaceship Earth
Test Track
Mission Space

Friday, December 14th - Magic Kingdom
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Haunted Mansion
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

Saturday, December 15th - Magic Kingdom
Pirates of the Caribbean
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad


I said that I was going to start packing over a month ago, but it's still not done. The suitcases are out and mostly everything that I'm going to pack is spread all over the floor of my home office, but the actual packing just hasn't happened yet. Next week is going to be super busy, so I really need to try and get all packed by this weekend. We'll see how it goes...

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10 Days to Go!!! 59 Days to Go!!! I Can’t Wait!!!