You Changed Your Mind Again?! - A Oct/Nov 2016 PTR! *Updated 07/03*

[bruinsfan88]

Hi hello everyone! This is my first PTR on the Dis! It’s my first real post of any kind, really. I comment on threads here and there, but have never started one of my own, and here we are! And now that we have that out of the way, I should probably introduce myself. My name is Krissy and I shall be your tour guide through this mess of a vacation I have got planned. Now let’s get to the details!

When: October 30 – November 8 2016

Where: Port Orleans French Quarter and Old Key West

Who: That would be me, of course, and my boyfriend Kasey. I live in MA, he lives in IL. Yes, that’s right, long distance relationship (booooo). We met on a site called Twitch, which is not a dating site, but is a site for people to play video games and interact with others. By the time this trip happens, we would have not seen each other for over a year, the last time being Aug 2015 in Disney. This will most likely be our last vacation together for a while, since we would like to move in together! Which state that will be remains a mystery for now. Here are cartoon versions of us done by one of our very talented friends.

How this trip came to be: Well we went in August 2015, and it was a blast! …but it wasn’t all that great. We’re both extremely fair skinned, and we’re both on the heavier side weight wise. We went in August because his birthday is near the end of Aug, and I wanted to do something special…aaaaand the heat ate us alive. And I wanted a do-over, and not during the summer! We’ve been planning this trip since Sept 2015, and it originally started out to be the first week in Dec, but I have a confession. I don’t like Christmas, it’s not my thing. Halloween on the other hand, is the peanut butter to my jelly. And just about everything else has changed, but we’ll get back to that another time.


I hope you’ll come along with me on this adventure!

 

[bruinsfan88]

Table of Contents

Mind Changing, Explained!
Let The Plans Begin!
Daily Plans, Continued!

 

[LadyD]

How exciting!! We're going to be down at WDW during the same time period. Halloween is an amazing time of year at Disney I hope the weather is much improved for you!

 

[bruinsfan88]

How exciting!! We're going to be down at WDW during the same time period. Halloween is an amazing time of year at Disney I hope the weather is much improved for you!

Thank you LadyD! Halloween is definitely my favorite time of year and I'm very excited to be there during that time! I know there is still a chance that it can be hot and humid, just hoping it's not as bad as in August!

 

[bruinsfan88]

Mind Changing, Explained!
​

Well, I think it may be time to explain the title. I’ll start off with this: hi my name is Krissy and I change my mind 20 times a day. Pretty sure that is not an exaggeration either. The other day I was trying to figure out what I wanted for lunch, and changed my mind 3 times within 5 minutes. So planning a trip this far away was pretty dangerous. Story time!

This trip first started out being the first week in December. I wanted to see if I could get myself into the Christmas spirit, seeing as it is one of my least favorite holidays. I don’t even remember what hotel we started off with, I want to say it was Art of Animation? We stayed at Pop! last year and one day we got on an AoA bus on our way back from somewhere and decided to walk back over and explored. And I fell in love with it! I loved all the larger than life characters and the feel. (But Krissy, you’re not staying at AoA…I know, this is where my mind changes twenty times)

Then Kasey chimed in and said “Krissy, you don’t like Christmas, why are we going during all the Christmas stuff?” Well, he brought up an excellent point. Our anniversary is in December, and my birthday is mid-November so I had thought maybe that would be a good time to go, and then we changed our minds. (See a theme here?) We decided to try to go during Halloween. So we switched our dates and everything was fine. And then, I started looking at discounts, and well Little Mermaid rooms don’t get discounts. So, we changed hotels. To which one? Couldn’t tell you. I’m fairly sure in total we changed hotels 10 times. I would love to see if they keep track of that and if they think I’m insane. We even at one point had a cruise booked! And then I decided I wanted more park time, so out went that idea, and we ended up booking a room only, and this time for Animal Kingdom Lodge. And then we woke up, and realized we didn’t have the money, and switched it to Caribbean Beach Resort. And then when the discounts came out I didn’t catch it in time, and all the discounted rooms at CBR were sold out. So we switched to Pop, since we were familiar with it. And then we decided we didn’t want to stay in the same place, which lead us to where we are now: Port Orleans French Quarter. Unfortunately, there were no discounted rooms, but I absolutely fell in love with the resort so I’m alright with this. And we’ve paid off the room! I look forward to eating southern food, and trying the beignets! Our ADR day has come and gone, and we got the ones that we wanted! I’ll post those when I do a day-by-day play-by-play.

 

[Rozz]

So exciting! We have never been to WDW in October. I am planning us a trip for 2017. You need to do a trip report also so I can take notes!
The cartoon portraits are fantastic!

 

[bruinsfan88]

So exciting! We have never been to WDW in October. I am planning us a trip for 2017. You need to do a trip report also so I can take notes!
The cartoon portraits are fantastic!

Hi Rozz! Thanks for stopping by! I haven't been to to WDW in October either and am definitely looking forward to it! I definitely plan on doing a trip report if I can remember all the details! Looks like I need to take some notes, my memory is horrible! I hope I'm able to help in planning for your trip!

 

[ariane37]

Joining! We've been in August, October AND November and I can assure you, even though Oct. can still be hot it is nothing at all like August So you made a good decision in that respect. And the fall is actually my favorite time to go. Since you'll be there for a couple days before the Halloween parties end you'll get to see all the fall décor before they start putting up the (gasp! lol) Christmas décor before the first Christmas party
We've also stayed at POFQ and it's a really cute, compact resort and the beignets are awesome!

 

[LadyD]

We stayed at POFQ for our last trip five years ago and it is a fantastic resort. It has so much charm, and it is super nice that it is smaller than some of the other resorts. We loved getting beignets in the morning too!

 

[bruinsfan88]

Joining! We've been in August, October AND November and I can assure you, even though Oct. can still be hot it is nothing at all like August So you made a good decision in that respect. And the fall is actually my favorite time to go. Since you'll be there for a couple days before the Halloween parties end you'll get to see all the fall décor before they start putting up the (gasp! lol) Christmas décor before the first Christmas party
We've also stayed at POFQ and it's a really cute, compact resort and the beignets are awesome!

Hi Ariane! Thank you for joining in! I'm glad it'll still be warm but not as bad as August. One my never know what the weather is like in New England at any given time so I may be escaping some cooler weather! I'm looking forward to the fall decorations, with fall being my favorite month. The last day before we leave is actually the first Christmas party, so we may be hitting up both parties in one week!

We stayed at POFQ for our last trip five years ago and it is a fantastic resort. It has so much charm, and it is super nice that it is smaller than some of the other resorts. We loved getting beignets in the morning too!

I'm looking forward to exploring both Port Orleans resorts, and glad we picked the smaller one. I stayed at Dixie Landings when I was younger so I'm interested in seeing what it looks like now! I've stayed at Pop the last two years so I'm looking forward to a change!

 

[bruinsfan88]

Let the Plans Begin!​

Well, I guess is the time to start sharing what we plan on doing from day to day, and I have to admit, there isn’t much at this point. I have been reading many PTRs and TRs and it always seems that everyone has their stuff together! The two of us are kind of go with the flow and see what happens type of people. So for now, this is a tentative schedule for our time at Disney! This will be for our first two days.

October 30
I will leave from Logan Airport and take a direct flight to Orlando. As of right now I’m leaving at 7:55a and landing at 11:06a. We all know how flights can change beforehand and day of, so that is what it’s looking like for now. Kasey as of right now does not have a flight booked, and fingers crossed that will be booked soon. He leaves from Peoria IL and usually has a layover in Atlanta. I will probably end up waiting an hour or so for him to arrive, picking up lunch or coffee and then jumping on the Magical Express!

From there I’m guessing we’ll get to the resort at the very latest by 3? The flights we were looking at for Kasey had him landing about 12:30ish, so I’m hoping we will be to the resort as soon as possible. The first thing I will probably do is take a nap! I’ll have to be at the airport around 5:30ish and will grab a shuttle to get there beforehand so I probably won’t sleep that night. After the nap, I’m sure we will walk around, and wander over to Riverside because we have an ADR for Boatwrights. Looking at the menu, I’m really looking forward to eating here! Then we’ll probably look around there, and go back to the room and sleep because we have a somewhat early morning (for us at least!).

October 31
We will wake up and get ready for my favorite day of the whole year! Halloween yay! We will jump on a bus and head towards Magic Kingdom, but we’re not going there quite yet! Instead we will jump on the monorail and get off at the Poly for breakfast at ‘OHana! I’m pretty excited to be eating here, we decided for breakfast here because we’re both kind of picky eaters and I knew there wouldn’t be much for us to eat for dinner, Kasey isn’t a fan of breakfast, but suck it up buttercup! Kasey is also a Stitch fan so this is perfect! However, confession time, I’m not a huge fan of character meals, or meeting characters in general. I have some anxiety issues and people in costumes freak me out. I did pretty well at Crystal Palace last year, but this will come into play later with some plans.

After breakfast we will take some time to roam around the monorail parks. I’m mostly interested in looking around at the Poly and Grand Floridian, we ate at Chef Mickey’s last year and I wasn’t all that impressed with the Contemporary. Depending on the time, maybe we will hop on a boat and see what happens as well. We will go to MK at 4 when we can get in for the Halloween party! I’m so very excited for this. I’m hoping to secure some FP+ for the three hours before the actual party begins. I was looking at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan, and Space Mountain. If not, I’m sure we’ll jump in some lines and wait a bit. I’m hoping to ride some rides, catch the parade, fireworks, and shows while at the party, along with trick or treating!

That's it for the first two days! A pretty laid back, but wonderful beginning to our little vacation!

 

[ariane37]

Your first 2 days sound good I need to get going on my plans for November and do a day by day in my PTR, I have parks outlined for each day and of course my ADR's but that's it.
We ate at Boatwrights a few years ago when staying at POFQ and enjoyed it, and I read positive reviews on it all the time. Good choice for a travel day dinner, you get to have a TS meal but don't have to travel far. Also, if Kasey lands 12:30ish then 3 is a good assumption on resort arrival time.

Whoo Hoo, MNSSHP my favorite WDW event!! I absolutely love it! Make sure you definitely watch the Boo To You parade, it's incredible. I used to love the villains stage show when the villains would come down and do a quick m&g afterwards but unfortunately they don't do that anymore. However, I heard the new Hocus Pocus show that started last year is great!

 

[bruinsfan88]

I have parks outlined for each day and of course my ADR's but that's it.

That's pretty much what we have. I have looked over the FP+ choices and have picked out what I want for those, but nothing is guaranteed until FP+ of course!

Make sure you definitely watch the Boo To You parade, it's incredible.

I've seen videos of the parade, the Hocus Pocus show, and the fireworks and I must say, I am so excited! When we went last year, we didn't get to see any fireworks because we were so tired from the heat. We would get there earlier, go back to the resort to rest, and then just not want to go back. So I am making sure fireworks are one of the priorities this year!

 

[bruinsfan88]

Daily Plans, Continued!​

November 1
This day we plan on going to the other side….yes we’ll be traveling over to Universal. I went with my parents two years ago, just before the second part of the Harry Potter portion opened, and I would love to go back and see it. Kasey had seen the movies, but never read the books, so I made him read them all. We’re pretty much going for the Harry Potter portions, and I’d like to take a peek around Springfield at the Simpsons things. Not quite sure how we’re getting there yet, looking into renting a car for the day, but we’ll figure it out. (In case anyone cares about Hogwarts houses, I’m Slytherin, and Kasey’s Gryffindor).

November 2
This is the first of two days we have planned at Epcot. Epcot is my favorite park, and yet there are so many things that I haven’t done yet! Seriously, the amount of things I haven’t done I’d be shamed off the Dis. It is also Food and Wine so that gives us even more to explore! We have an ADR for 1 pm at Via Napoli. I’ve never eaten here and I look forward to it. I’m hoping to snag FP+ for Soarin’, Seas with Nemo (probably not needed, but there’s slim pickins at Epcot), and Mission Space. I’ve been making sure to try and keep up all the changes to the tiers for FP+, but man it’s confusing! I’m not exactly sure what we’ll be up to on this day, but we have another day planned, so we’ll take it easy!

We’re at 59 days before FP+ and on-line check in! Which means only 119 days until we’re at Disney. Super excited!