"We're going wild - Disney style" - A Oct 15-25th Pre-TR (10/12...for the ladies!)

[skier_pete]

So, when I left off, I had been just booked AKV for 9 nights - and my plans were in shambles. Whereas I had planned going to MK/Epcot around the first 1/2 of the trip and AK/DHS around the 2nd half, now that made no sense to do. So, I took the plans and started shuffling.

Now, here's how I do my park days planning - I start with the things that can only be done on certain days, then I build around those. I try to avoid too many long days in a row. Our DD does not have as much energy as some kids have. She needs a solid 10 hours sleep every night or she starts to get really unpleasant. So, we have to really try to avoid burning the candle at both ends, and particularly many late nights.

So, my plan basically starts from MNSSHP and works out from there. We definitely want to do that this trip, and knowing that it will be a late night - I wanted to make sure the nights before and after were NOT. Also, I really wanted to leave the day of as our "off" day. We try to have an "off" day once a trip, though they never end up being completely "off". The other evening shows we usually want to see are Illuminations and maybe Spectro/Wishes. In this case, since we are going Hallowishes, I am less interested in seeing Wishes as well, but there is a possibility the Main Street Electric parade will still be running in October, and if it is, I definitely want to catch that.

Another thing that I am big on when planning Disney trips is to "try something new everyday". One thing I love about Disney is that every time you go there, it is really a completely different vacation from the time before. Yes, Splash Mountain hasn't changed, but the overall feel of the trip hasn't changed.

So, to me each vacation kind of has a "theme", with December 2009 "theme" being "Holidays" and April 2010 being "Care-free" (meaning - we weren't going to care about what we miss or what we catch, we were just going to go and see what we see.)

This trip's theme is all right there in the title of my PTR - "Let's go wild - Disney style!" For those that don't remember, that's a quote from the Disney's Top 7 countdown show - with Stacy, who DD is a big fan of. The trip is more focused on our hotel than ever - staying at such a nice resort makes me want to spend time there!

My biggest dissapointment was not getting the Concierge room, not because of the room itself, but because I REALLY wanted to be able to take my family on the Sunrise Safari. There is another private Safari - the Wanyama Safari - but has two things against it for me - the price (@ $200 per person) and the fact that kids have to be like 10 years old to do it. While thing might be a splurge trip, I don't have that much extra money to drop on a Safari.

So, anyways, back to planning. I also take the restaurants, the parks, best park days, all into account, and I start laying out my park days. For each day I have morning/day activity, lunch location afternoon/evening activity and dining location. (As a general rule, we eat breakfast in our room. While I enjoy a good breakfast, I find don't enjoy spending a lot of money to eat breakfast when these meals are easily made just as good if not better at home, and also I want to spend that time in the morning in the parks.) I lay everything out, and then I start moving things around...and around....and around. I keep coming back to it, looking at places where I am not happy with what we are doing - and moving things around again. Eventually, everything falls into place, and the plan nears perfection in my eyes. There's usually one or two items that I feel could be better - but generally, I get to the point where I am completely happy with the plan. And usually - the plan as I make it is pretty close to what actually happens on our trips. DW and I make a good Disney "team", because she is perfectly happy to let me go nuts with the planning, and then she just goes with it. And since I am such an obsessive planner, I want to be able to follow the plan pretty well. (Though one of my three Disney rules allows for this.)

Oh, the 3 Disney rules of park touring - I should probably let you know about those....

 

[skier_pete]

So, these are my three rules of park touring that whenever I have friends going to Disney World, I try and teach them if nothing else to follow these. None of these are hard/fast rules, but we generally follow them pretty faithfully. The reason - I hate wasting time waiting in lines, as most people do. Honestly in the last 5 trips we have waited in line longer than 15 minutes a grand total of about 6 times, and NEVER more than 30 minutes.

Rule #1: Arrive for Rope Drop - If you want a vacation where you laze around all morning, your in the wrong place. Get to the parks so you are at the gate at 9 AM. You get more done in the first 2 hours than you get done the rest of the day. This is especially true at MK. We tour very commando-style until about 11 AM, at which point our pace slows considerably. However, it allows us to get a LOT of the headliners done early, eliminating most of your time waiting in line.

Rule #2 - Fast Pass, Fast Pass, Fast Pass! - When you are eligible for a FP - go and get one. And as soon as you are eligible again - go and get another! There's much debate on these boards about the "legality" of using FP AFTER the return times, but the fact is we LIVE by this. Again, especially at MK - I spend the first four hours of the day collecting FPs, and then we spend the second half of the day using them. We easily get 7-9 FP in a day. The other parks not so much - simply because DD and DW aren't that into many of the FP attractions, but it is still a rule we follow. I often get more FP than we use, but then give the unused ones away as the day goes on.

Rule #3 - Have a plan but BE FLEXIBLE. This is key to park touring. So many tourists go into WDW having NO IDEA what they are doing. But the second biggest mistake I think newbies make is OVERPLANNING. We are beyond having to worry about that, but I do put together a fairly detailed plan of what we are going to do each day. (This isn't usually done until a couple of weeks before the trip.) However, sometimes we stick to that plan pretty closely, other times, it gets completely thrown out the window on the second ride of the day. (An example was in 2008 - It was the Year of a Million Dreams - it was our 2nd MK day, and we had already done a lot of the headliner rides the previous day @ MK, but as we are getting off an early-morning Splash Mountain ride - we were handed Dream FastPasses. Suddenly, we had FP for all the FP rides at MK...guess that means we're riding them!)

So - there's my 3 rules of park touring.

 

[If U Had Wings]

That's too bad about the safari. I had wanted to book the concierge guests safari when I was staying at the BWK concierge last year, but I couldn't fit it into the schedule.

I pretty much follow your rules as well. I am really not a morning person at all, but when I'm at Disney I'm happily up and out the door for rope drop. That first hour in the parks, is so beneficial for seeing the big ticket items. I've been there when we've pretty much knocked out Fantasyland in a little over an hour. (But I'll admit, I'm also not waiting in the Dumbo line. That helps).

 

[skier_pete]

Not much of a plan today. Our flight leaves Buffalo at 4:20 PM, our DD is normally in school until about 3:30 PM, so I am figuring we have to take a 1/2 day of work, pick up DD from school about 2 PM and head for the airport. The Buffalo airport is a GREAT airport in that it is big enough to have real flights out, but small enough that it is pretty low hassle. Back in the '90s when flying for work, I would show up at the airport about 45 minutes before my flight, walk through the airport, onto the airplane and take off. I would never cut it so close now-a-days, but getting there about 90 minutes ahead of your flight is plenty of time.

I spent a lot of time debating the whole "Fly out Friday night" vs "Fly out Saturday morning". We usually do the Saturday morning thing, and if we take the early flight, we can be in the parks by noon-time and save that extra night of hotel cost. But, in this case, I decided I really liked the idea of getting into the hotel in the evening, and being able to start the first park day off first thing in the morning. I especially like the idea that we wake up our first morning, go out on the balcony, and see the animals feeding while we eat our breakfast. How cool is that!

The other thing about today will be - how long can I keep our hotel location a secret? Our ME tags will have it spelled out - so I can't let DW and DD see that. Will they be grilling me on the plane? DW seems very calm about not knowing where we are going right now...but as finding out approaches, will she be able to wait. And will I be able to resist from spilling the beans? It seems unlikely!

I was thinking about giving them clues to our plans for each day...a riddle of sorts...but how to write a clue about AKV that doesn't just give it away is a mystery to me.

Ah well, so we'll probably pack some subs or something to eat on the flight down. I don't think we'll want to wait until we arrive at the hotel, which will probably be about 8:30 PM. We tried eating at the Orlando airport on the way in last trip - and that was expensive and mediocre. I'd rather eat something on the plane, and then maybe have a snack after we arrive.

Hopefully bedtime wil be pretty close to 9 PM. If our flight is delayed, we are chancing getting DD messed up before our first day. On the other hand, she's at Disney and might well be bouncing off the walls anyways. I figure worse case we can go down and check out the night vision animal viewing.

 

[skier_pete]

There was no way I could not plan our first full day around Animal Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom lodge! Our first day will involve getting up and enjoying our Savannah view, and then hopping a bus over to AK to DDs favorite park. We will probably hit the safari first thing, and try to focus this day on seeing animals, including heading out to Rafiki's planet watch. Will mostly focus on Africa, RPW and Asia today. I'd like to try the QS Yak and Yeti for lunch. We usually do Flame Tree, but want to try something different. We have a second AK planned later in the trip, so I am considering that today we will probably only stay in the park until around 3 PM, and then head back to the hotel. We will probably do Kali River Rapids last, as this way if we are soaking wet it won't matter, as we head back to the hotel to change into our bathing suits. DD loves swimming, and we definitely will want to hit the pool in the afternon.

For dinner, we are trying Boma. This has got to be one of the best reviewed restaurants at WDW, but we have never tried it. We love the lunch/dinner Tusker House buffet, and this is said to be similar, and maybe better. Can't wait to try a Zebra Dome. I decided to just incorporate our ADRs right into the plans, as I got every ADR I wanted. Almost all of them involve new dining experiences for us. This ADR was booked for 5:50 PM, which is about perfect supper time for us. After dinner, we can either have more pool-time or maybe one of the many activities going on at the resort. A reasonable early bed-time is planned for tonight though - I would think Friday would be a long day for DD no matter what, so our first full day should end fairly early, and hopefully she will be asleep by 9 PM.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Mmmmm Boma! It's one of my favorite places to eat at Disney. I'm a real soup addict, and love the selections they offer. It's a great place to try some new things, yet they still offer enough basics to satisfy the less adventerous eater.

 

[skier_pete]

Mmmmm Boma! It's one of my favorite places to eat at Disney. I'm a real soup addict, and love the selections they offer. It's a great place to try some new things, yet they still offer enough basics to satisfy the less adventerous eater.

I know, I am really looking forward to ALL the AK restaurants...if I'm not giving too much away.

I hope I am not making this all too boring...I have been wracking my brain with ways to make the tales of my plans remotely interesting to strangers...no good ideas so far! But, thanks for sticking with...

 

[khertz]

Solid plans so far!

Your 3 park rules are pretty much a MUST! Whenever someone tells me they are planning a Disney trip, I at least tell them those three things as well. One of my co-workers is leaving for Disney tomorrow, and the trip was sort of last minute, so I'm hoping all of the tips I gave her help her have a good time.

(BTW, it's Kristy! )

 

[skier_pete]

Solid plans so far!

Your 3 park rules are pretty much a MUST! Whenever someone tells me they are planning a Disney trip, I at least tell them those three things as well. One of my co-workers is leaving for Disney tomorrow, and the trip was sort of last minute, so I'm hoping all of the tips I gave her help her have a good time.

(BTW, it's Kristy! )

Hi Kristy! It's funny how the web is...you can get to know someone and their whole family, and fell happy for them having a baby...yet you don't actually know their name!

Truthfully, my 3 rules are not anything new to regular Disney fans like yourself and most of the folks on the board. I guess my point on those is that's the piece of advice I give to anyone that's never been. It's real easy as a DIS fanatic to give people hours of advice because you are so excited for them. But, I think when you overload people with information, they tend to tune in ALL out...so I usually just start with my 3 rules.

One of our next door neighbors just told us yesterday they are going in September for free dining. They haven't booked anything yet, she is signing up for AAA to let them do most of the planning. I told her two things - if she has any questions I am an absolute expert and that she should try and get her dining reservations booked sooner rather than later because it's FD season. I haven't even mentioned the 3 rules yet...but I probably will should I get the chance.

 

[skier_pete]

OK, here's my first idea for making the PTR more interesting. I thought I would share some images of our summer activities, and let people know a bit more about Western New York in the process.

One thing that people from outside the area (and some from inside the area) don't think about is that we live 20 minutes from one of the top tourist destinations in the world: Niagara Falls. It's funny that people come from all over the world to see it, but most people I know around here NEVER go there. Well, there is a ton of stuff to do, especially on the Canadian side.

One of DD absolutely favorites is a place just over the Rainbow Bridge in Canada called the "Bird Kingdom". It is a free-flying aviary where the birds mostly roam free. They've also added a reptile room as well, where you can get your picture taken holding a lizard, baby crocodile, or a snake. We recently went over. It normally cost $16.95 CA to get in, but we are Buffalo Zoo members and so we got 1/2 off, so it was like $23 for all 3 of us.

DD loves feeding the Lorikeets. They will crawl all over you. At one point, she had three of them hanging on her pony tail.

On our way out, they were having a membership special. It was like $30 for an adult to join for a year, and $20 for kids, and we could apply the admission price towards it. We figure we go about 3 times a year anyways, so for $85 CA we joined up. DD would go there all the time if she could anyways.

So now we have season passes to the Buffalo Zoo, the Bird Kingdom, and Disney World!

One last set of photos...DD recently had a dance recital. I took these snaps of her:

TTFN!

 

[Disneychix]

Happy Father's Day!
Your DD is so brave to let those birds hang on her braid! I love the dance costume

You could always not put the tags on your bags on ME and take them on the bus with you. Just tell DW that there was a mixup with the tags and you couldn't get new ones in time.

 

[luvfigment]

I am jumping on board! You are going to love AKV! I have stayed AKL twice and it is an amazing place. Boma is also really good and will be fun to try. I am looking forward to reading the rest of your plans.

 

[disneychard]

I am enjoying reading your tr, looking forward to more.

 

[skier_pete]

Happy Father's Day!
Your DD is so brave to let those birds hang on her braid! I love the dance costume

You could always not put the tags on your bags on ME and take them on the bus with you. Just tell DW that there was a mixup with the tags and you couldn't get new ones in time.

Thanks for the well-wishes! DD is very brave with animals. I also have pictures of her holding a 4 ft python and the baby crocodile as well! There's not too much that scares her that way. She's pretty timid when it comes to movies / rides and the like. She doesn't even want to see the new Toy Story movie. DW and I are going to have to go by ourselves!

As far as the bag tags, I can't bring myself to drag all those bags around. Plus, if we collect the bags ourselves in Orlando, then as soon as we get to the bus, they'll know. I figure I will just put the stickers on at the airport check-in and shoo DW and DD away.

I am jumping on board! You are going to love AKV! I have stayed AKL twice and it is an amazing place. Boma is also really good and will be fun to try. I am looking forward to reading the rest of your plans.

Thanks, I am seriously looking forward to staying there!

I am enjoying reading your tr, looking forward to more.

Welcome, welcome!

 

[skier_pete]

On Sunday I have us scheduled for Epcot. I really only have the one day planned at Epcot, so I don't know if we'll spend the whole day here, or take a mid-day break. The reason for a break is I was thinking we would do Illuminations tonight - which would be a late-night for DD. A break during the day might be better, but again with only 1 day at Epcot, we'll have a hard time seeing everything in a single day. A lot will depend on how Friday and Saturday went. I am thinking that this park might be a likely destination on our last day - which is predominantly a free day.

As far as food - we might take advantage of Food and Wine, and just snack our way around WS. There is also a possibility that we eat a CS along the way there too.

Our dinner ADR is set for the Garden Grille. Again, we've never done this restaurant, but it's kind of always been on the "like to try" list, but we always want to eat at other restaurants here. DD loves the "living with the land" ride, and I think we'll all enjoy the meal. She also loves these characters, but i really didn't want to do Chef Mickey's again. So, this will be a fun change.

Again, a long day today - probably not much hotel time.

 

[skier_pete]

After a long day on Sunday, I wanted Monday to be a shorter day. Decided on a water park day. Monday is listed as a bad day for water park crowds, but we find we usually don't have a problem. We hit the slides first, and then spend most of the day in the wave pool and play areas.

We are planning on trying out Blizzard Beach. We were going to try it in April, but DD wanted to go back to Typhoon Lagoon. At the time, the big raft ride (Teamboat Springs) was down for refurb, and I thought she would like that ride a lot, so I was OK with waiting. This will be DW and I's first trip to BB since 1997. I really do enjoy the water parks. In a way, they are a bit of the ******* step-children, as I think a lot of people don't bother with them, but they are well worth checking out, as these rides and massive and lots and lots of fun...even if you don't want to take the Summit Plummit plunge.

Plan on making "rope drop" for the water parks. I am not sure how the buses from AKL go there - as typically the other resorts its the AK bus that stops at BB. That's usually 10 AM, so it allows us a little extra sleep-in time this morning. I also think we'll only stay around until about 3 PM at BB.

In the evening, I have DD signed up for Camp Kidani from 6PM to 8PM. This is a thing for kids at Kidani (the "other" DVC location) that teaches kids about animals with demos and games and crafts. The guide describes it as "Participants will work alongside a guide to achieve a goal revolving around around the culture and animals of Africa." I think DD will love this. We will have to get her some food ahead of time, as DW and I are going to dine at Jiko while DD is in the Camp. The inconvenience here is that Jiko is at Jambo house and of course the camp is at Kidani. I made the dinner ADR at 6:15 PM, so my thought is we would have 15 minutes to get from Kidani to Jambo, which could be done easily by walking if necessary. We should have 90 minutes for dinner, and then get back over to pick up DD. Another meal I am really looking forward to...we are paying this one OOP - and I really am looking forward to one meal without our DD.

I thought this would be a better choice then Simba's Clubhouse, the daycare center at AKL/AKV. I debated out doing a "night out" with the Clubhouse - but decided against it. The problem is, we COULD go out for an evening out, but keeping DD up real late at this clubhouse is something we would pay for badly the next day...and while I think DD would be fine with the things at Simba's Clubhouse, it's basically watch TV and play games...I think Camp Kidani would be way better. In fact, I am considering an option where she could do Camp Kidani again on Friday if she really likes it. Truthfully, while we enjoy getting away from DD - I also really enjoy spending time with her at Disney - so "getting out" for an evening isn't that big a deal. Though - I would say if the Adventurer's Club was still open, we would be spending a night out there at some point this trip!

So, in the end, Camp Kidani wraps up at 8 PM, and then it will be back to the room to settle down for bed. So hopefully for how yesterday was a long day - today is a much shorter day, with both sleeping in, and a bit early to bed, as well as some downtime in the hotel in the afternoon. This is a could match with a water park day - which really wears everyone down.

 

[Overexcited]

Great Plans! Look forward to reading more. Your are right, upstate NY has so much to offer. I live in Rochester (my brother is in N. Tonawanda).
We have many great things in a short drive

I could never keep the secret, I have thought about surprising the kids with a trip, but I find myself needing to talk about it all the time

 

[skier_pete]

Great Plans! Look forward to reading more. Your are right, upstate NY has so much to offer. I live in Rochester (my brother is in N. Tonawanda).
We have many great things in a short drive

I could never keep the secret, I have thought about surprising the kids with a trip, but I find myself needing to talk about it all the time

Hey, my DW is from Rochester (Irondequoit), and WE live in N. Tonawanda!

I think it's going to get hard. DD was quizzing me before bedding time. "Where are we staying? Is it Kingdom Lodge? Is it near animals? Is it shaped like an animal? Is it square or triangle shaped? Is it near the Jaws ride?" (She saw the Jaws ride on youtube when we were watching videos of EE - and doesn't completely get that this is not at Disney.) As we get closer, she might possibly explode without knowing.

Oh - and I meant to post - yesterday was triples-3s - 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days!

 

[luvfigment]

That is cute that your DD was quizzing you about where you are staying. I am sure it is hard to keep it a secret but will be so worth it to see their faces when you get there.

As for dinner at Jiko....it is so good. It is one of my DH and my favorite restaurants. I am sure DD will have fun at the Club Kidani...I read about others who send their kids to the clubs when they go on dates nights and the kids all seem to really enjoy it.

 

[Overexcited]

Hey, my DW is from Rochester (Irondequoit), and WE live in N. Tonawanda!

I think it's going to get hard. DD was quizzing me before bedding time. "Where are we staying? Is it Kingdom Lodge? Is it near animals? Is it shaped like an animal? Is it square or triangle shaped? Is it near the Jaws ride?" (She saw the Jaws ride on youtube when we were watching videos of EE - and doesn't completely get that this is not at Disney.) As we get closer, she might possibly explode without knowing.

Oh - and I meant to post - yesterday was triples-3s - 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days!

Wow, small world, I work in Irondequoit at the hospital!