We're going back after 7 years!!! PTR - updated 12-26

[petals]

STOP PRESS! We've actually booked a Disney World trip!

Who are we you say?
Well there's me, 33 year old Disney addict from Ireland! Love Stitch, Olaf, Baymax, Beast, Eeyore, Tigger, Dopey, Grumpy, Mickey and Ariel... well they're my top 10 that list goes on for a while

Human two is Momma who loves Dopey and Grumpy the most. She likes Disney, doesn't love it but follows along to make me happy because she's awesome like that!

Then there's Angel. He's our trip mascot and comes all over the world with us and is usually the only one I will post photos of.. I always say if you want to see me join me on facebook! ​

​

So as the title would suggest we have not been to WDW for 7 whole years We had been 5 times before, once when I was younger, twice with an Irish dance school and we actually danced in Magic Kingdom and they told us we were in the Disney Hall of Fame because we broke park records at one of those performances, something about being the first time an outdoor venue was full for the entire 20-25 minutes of a non Disney show, we went twice more after that for MNSSHP and MVMCP (the link to those two trip reports is in my signature if anyone fancies going back to read them)

We've also been to Disneyland California once and Disneyland Paris 5 times... I'm currently writing the trip report for our last trip to Disneyland Paris which can been found here:
Catching a late Christmas in Disneyland January 2018 TR


Anyway on with the planning!​

 

[wisteria1019]

I'm going back for the first time in seven years, as well. Heard there are lots of changes....

 

[petals]

I'm going back for the first time in seven years, as well. Heard there are lots of changes....

I've been reading that. Everything is online now it seems like fastpasses and you can even order at restaurants online now and go in and collect at a different counter to save queuing

 

[petals]

Sooo stuff about the trip. Since we travel so far we like to visit all the Orlando parks and hit the outlets as well so we are staying on International Drive for a week and then moving to a Disney hotel for a week... you'll have to join the trip report after to find out which hotels

Today's big news though is our Disney tickets arrived


Oh and I am soooo out of the WDW loop, I downloaded that My Disney Experience app thing whatever and have been trying to figure it out so when I got the park tickets naturally I entered them in to see what it did and I realised our dining reservation window is already open We don't have dining plan... yet! We've been discussing it and I think another discussion is needed on the matter and we may or may not add it on but for now I booked a temporary Disney day 1's adr.

The people we got the tickets from sent us a Dining and mobile SIM Card also, it says go to dine4less website to see offers has anyone ever got one of these before. How do they work?​

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Following! Wow, 7 years since you were last there! A lot has changed but so much is still the same as well. Definitely get used to MDE as it will be your best friend during your Disney time.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I am just marking my spot. I will come back to read tomorrow.

Corinna

 

[petals]

I am just marking my spot. I will come back to read tomorrow.

Corinna

Welcome

Following! Wow, 7 years since you were last there! A lot has changed but so much is still the same as well. Definitely get used to MDE as it will be your best friend during your Disney time.

Yeah the more I research the more I find that's new I've been trying to book ADRs loosely just to have them because we haven't fully decided where we're going each day yet, we're kind of waiting to see what Universal have on in the evenings because we plan how many days at Disney. Be our Guest though I am sitting on that app literally at the time they put the reservations up and it's gone for lunch straight away, I reckon I'm just going to stand outside and cry til they let me in

 

[dolphingirl47]

Since we travel so far we like to visit all the Orlando parks and hit the outlets as well so we are staying on International Drive for a week and then moving to a Disney hotel for a week...

That sounds like a great split.

I realised our dining reservation window is already open

I always find that this makes a trip feel so much more real.

Corinna

 

[petals]

That sounds like a great split.

It kind of made sense because the International Drive hotel shuttle buses tend to leave before the fireworks shows so this way we can do Universal, Seaworld etc using the iride and then move to Disney and do all the fireworks shows although we will be going to Disney before we move there anyway because our tickets have to be activated by a certain time.

I always find that this makes a trip feel so much more real.

Corinna

I think I've got used to going to Paris and having a shorter booking window for the restaurants there because I just didn't realise that they would be open now although last time we went to America I booked 180 days in advance, maybe it's the heat over here right now I'm blaming that for everything I do wrong atm

 

[petals]

TRIP NEWS:

I managed to get a lunch and dinner reservation for BE OUR GUEST


Now my question is, is the Beast always at dinner there because if not we're probably going to cancel the dinner one and just keep the lunch reservation because we won't have dining plan and it's expensive without it.

Turns out we can't add dining plan on because our travel agent didn't book the Disney hotel through Disney. Apparently you can only get dining plan if you book the hotel, park tickets and dining plan together through Disney. Our TA uses some outside group or something I don't fully understand and we got our park tickets from attraction tickets. We got a really good deal on those though because we got adult tickets at kids prices and it included free memory maker and we got 14 days for the price of 7. We won't use 14 days but it's always handy to have extra days in case plans change I guess ​

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I have heard he is always at dinner, he was for us. The dinner is getting changed up this month though from what I heard so maybe wait to make your decision until reviews of the new dinner come out.

So glad it worked out and you got reservations!

In my opinion the food at dinner was far superior to the lunch offerings.

 

[petals]

I have heard he is always at dinner, he was for us. The dinner is getting changed up this month though from what I heard so maybe wait to make your decision until reviews of the new dinner come out.

So glad it worked out and you got reservations!

In my opinion the food at dinner was far superior to the lunch offerings.

If Beast is a definite we'll prob cancel some of the others and keep the dinner one for BOG. I've heard he's not at lunch usually but will wait and see closer to the time. We won't have dining plan so it'll be alot more expensive for dinner than lunch there but I also really want to meet the Beast

 

[Raeven]

I managed to get a lunch and dinner reservation for BE OUR GUEST


Now my question is, is the Beast always at dinner there because if not we're probably going to cancel the dinner one and just keep the lunch reservation because we won't have dining plan and it's expensive without it.

Following along!

He's never out for lunch, but both times we've had dinner there he's been there. I think it's only very rarely would something come up that would cause the Beast to not be at dinner, because he is supposed to be. We preferred dinner to lunch too, the new dinner menu will probably be out by the time you go, but we really didn't like the sandwiches at lunch.

 

[petals]

Following along!

He's never out for lunch, but both times we've had dinner there he's been there. I think it's only very rarely would something come up that would cause the Beast to not be at dinner, because he is supposed to be. We preferred dinner to lunch too, the new dinner menu will probably be out by the time you go, but we really didn't like the sandwiches at lunch.

Welcome

I really want to meet the Beast so maybe we'll keep the dinner reservation we'll see what happens though I've seen the new fixed menu will be 55 dollars plus tax though which is alot for one meal with no dining plan

 

[Raeven]

I really want to meet the Beast so maybe we'll keep the dinner reservation we'll see what happens though I've seen the new fixed menu will be 55 dollars plus tax though which is alot for one meal with no dining plan

I definitely agree the new fixed menu sounds pretty expensive, and I don't know how the food will be on the new menu; I didn't think the food was very good quality in the past at BOG, but it's definitely a place worth seeing.

 

[petals]

I definitely agree the new fixed menu sounds pretty expensive, and I don't know how the food will be on the new menu; I didn't think the food was very good quality in the past at BOG, but it's definitely a place worth seeing.

We’ll wait and see. For now I’ll keep both and cancel one closer to the time

 

[dolphingirl47]

It kind of made sense because the International Drive hotel shuttle buses tend to leave before the fireworks shows so this way we can do Universal, Seaworld etc using the iride and then move to Disney and do all the fireworks shows although we will be going to Disney before we move there anyway because our tickets have to be activated by a certain time.

I always used to use the Lynx bus from International Drive to Magic Kingdom and the last bus left after park closing. However, if you are planning to visit Seaworld and Universal, this makes more sense as it cuts down on travel time.

I managed to get a lunch and dinner reservation for BE OUR GUEST

Well done for getting both of them. I only ever have done lunch at Be Our Guest, but I have always enjoyed this.

Turns out we can't add dining plan on because our travel agent didn't book the Disney hotel through Disney.

Oh, what a pain. I know that in order to add it, you need to get both hotels and tickets as a package.

Corinna

 

[petals]

I always used to use the Lynx bus from International Drive to Magic Kingdom and the last bus left after park closing. However, if you are planning to visit Seaworld and Universal, this makes more sense as it cuts down on travel time.

I have memories of using the Lynx bus to get back to a hotel near Universal Studios from Disney on one of the dance trips and I don't know if we took the wrong bus or what happened but I know we were put off somewhere random on international drive as it was the last stop or something and nowhere near our hotel and we were lost and tired and I'm pretty sure I cried So now we use taxi's and won't go near the Lynx bus. But it is just handier to be able to use the iride to get to Seaworld and Universal studios. We will go to Disney the first week as well because the tickets have to be activated but we'll use the hotel bus and go back earlier.

Well done for getting both of them. I only ever have done lunch at Be Our Guest, but I have always enjoyed this.

Yeah I want to move the dinner one though because atm I have them both the one day and an early dinner so they're to close together but keeping it until I get another day for sure and then we can decide closer to the time what to cancel.

Oh, what a pain. I know that in order to add it, you need to get both hotels and tickets as a package.

Corinna

I think there's enough choice in counter service to get by without it, it just would have made the character meals seem cheaper, but I've also copped that breakfast is cheaper than lunch or dinner in the character places so I reckon loads of breakfasts and then counter service/quick service the rest of the day

 

[petals]

Dining Reservations are done... for now! OMG this morning was the worst trying to get those because the app kept telling me it was having trouble loading the screen. I eventually gave up and tried it on the computer and it was slow but I got something but not the times I had originally gotten

Anyway I've booked the following:
Crystal Palace - we've eaten here before and Momma liked it because it had "proper food." I'm easy food wise mostly but Momma likes to get traditional Irish things like potatoes, vegetables a few times on the trip if not she says we didn't have proper food and ate junk food the entire trip
Be Our Guest - I've this booked for lunch and dinner. We might do one but I'm hoping both because I need to meet the Beast. In 11 Disney trips I've never met him
Sci-fi - we've eaten here before but the thoughts of 50's Prime Time scares me a little if they call you out for not eating your greens and stuff.
Ohana - Again we've done this before for breakfast but I love Stitch. Only thing about this one is it's at 9.10am because this is the last full day and because of the stupid app I got an earlier dinner reservation than I wanted so thinking what we might need to get done that day 9.10 seems early but if we don't do that time I can't see us getting to the dinner reservation on time
Garden Grill - Breakfast, this one is new for us

Those ones we will keep if I can convince Momma to keep them. Then I also have these booked and can see me cancelling these ones:
Via Napoli - We ate here before and the sights were great..... I meant they had great food yeah that's what I mean but it is expensive without Dining plan and there are cheaper counter service places we could go with instead.
Trattoria al Forno - I booked this for breakfast and again it's new for us but I'm not sure Momma will be into it.
Tusker House - I booked this for breakfast, as we're not on the dining plan I can see us not keeping this one. We've been before and it was fine but there was a waiter there that was friendly and trying everything he could to entertain us but Momma was having none of it she wanted to be left alone to eat. I thought it was hilarious! ​

 

[meldobe]

Looking like its going to be a great trip, we have done lunch and dinner at Be our guest and im sure the beast is only around at dinner, i like Lunch there but my Ma preferred dinner.