You Get a Suite! You Get a Suite! Everybody Gets a Suite! December 2023 Trip Report! (RL Update 10/6!!)

[VAtink]

Sounds like the perfect Sunday Funday! I’m so excited for all the trip reports I imagine all that planning on Sunday took the sting out of your laptop situation (at least for a bit).

Yes! It definitely put me in a better mood about the whole laptop dying thing. Seriously Disney just makes things better. I'm so excited for these trips, and of course trip reports!

 

[VAtink]

AP's are very addictive because they are so easy to justify.

I'd believe that! We'll see if these get extended beyond the two years we've planned

We have an upcoming trip Sept 29-Oct 3rd at the YC.

Oh, we actually overlap a few days! We'll be moving over to the YC on the 1st. If there's time it would be fun to meet up!

 

[VAtink]

Those APs are addictive! You will want to just continue them. We will be there 9/13 - 9/26 at AKV this year.

Haha, I mean I wouldn't complain. I've been keeping a spreadsheet with all the savings we've gotten so far with them, trying to prove by the end of the year to my mom that it's 100% worth getting them. Hoping she doesn't point out that we'd do far fewer trips without them and save more money...

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I am very impressed by your future trip planning!!

 

[KPeterso]

Haha, I mean I wouldn't complain. I've been keeping a spreadsheet with all the savings we've gotten so far with them, trying to prove by the end of the year to my mom that it's 100% worth getting them. Hoping she doesn't point out that we'd do far fewer trips without them and save more money...

Well when you go, don't forget about the merchandise and food discounts too! Those do add up.

I have AP for both WDW and DL. I figure every time I go to DL that I save $35 since the parking is covered with the pass I have. So if I go 20 times, I have saved $700 (and I typically go closer to 30-40 times in a year) which is almost the price of the pass. Add in other discounts I am in good shape. I have 1 friend that if they are going to DL that she always invites me and then picks me up so she can use my parking benefit. LOL

 

[precious pixie]

My biggest break even as a solo traveler (bonus for additional people) always took TablesInWonderland into consideration. I

 

[beachmama3]

I’m jumping in here totally late but have really enjoyed reading this trip report (and hopped over to your retro report!!) So hi! And can’t wait to read more!

 

[VAtink]

I am very impressed by your future trip planning!!

Haha, thanks! I'm so excited for all the Disney coming up! The only downside is we're cutting out trips to other places for the next year or two, but we'll get back to those after our Disney fix!

 

[VAtink]

Well when you go, don't forget about the merchandise and food discounts too! Those do add up.

Yes! I have a tab on my spreadsheet for merchandise and food, I can't wait to start tracking that. So far our biggest savings is on tickets for all our trips, but I can't wait to see what the total savings comes out to when we add in all the other stuff.

I have AP for both WDW and DL. I figure every time I go to DL that I save $35 since the parking is covered with the pass I have. So if I go 20 times, I have saved $700 (and I typically go closer to 30-40 times in a year) which is almost the price of the pass. Add in other discounts I am in good shape. I have 1 friend that if they are going to DL that she always invites me and then picks me up so she can use my parking benefit. LOL

Nice! Yeah just our savings on the tickets have covered the costs of the APs which is wild, I wish we had gotten them earlier to use on years we've done multiple trips, we could have saved so much!

 

[VAtink]

My biggest break even as a solo traveler (bonus for additional people) always took TablesInWonderland into consideration. I

Ohhh, I haven't heard that mentioned in years! After a quick search looks like they discontinued it, that's a bummer.

 

[VAtink]

I’m jumping in here totally late but have really enjoyed reading this trip report (and hopped over to your retro report!!) So hi! And can’t wait to read more!

Thanks for joining!

 

[VAtink]

Day 6, Part 6: Living with the Land – Christmas Edition!​

We last left off eating dinner at Coral Reef.

After dinner, we headed over the land to ride LWTL again, this time after dark! I believe we had a G+ for this, thankfully since the standby line was crazy!

I was soooo excited to see this at night with all the lights on, and it did not disappoint!
​

https://flic.kr/p/2q2A6Cc

This was our favorite holiday overlay, it was so well done!

After LWTL we still had some time before I wanted to head over to the Candlelight Processional, so we hopped over to Soarin for a spin over California.

By the time we were done with Soarin’, it was a bit before 7, so I wanted to get into line for the Candlelight Processional. This evening the narrator was NPH, and I had seen so many stories about how long the lines get for him, even with the dining package, and we wanted good seats, so we planned to get there very early, the goal was to be there around 7 for the 8:30 show.

So after Soarin’, it was time to make our way back into World Showcase and over to America!

Next up: Candlelight Processional!​

 

[Wood Nymph]

By the time we were done with Soarin’, it was a bit before 7, so I wanted to get into line for the Candlelight Processional. This evening the narrator was NPH, and I had seen so many stories about how long the lines get for him, even with the dining package, and we wanted good seats, so we planned to get there very early, the goal was to be there around 7 for the 8:30 show.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience with NPH. I understand that he is popular, but I don't quite understand why.

We got in the standby line for an unknown narrator who was doing it for the first time. He was a local guy who had first attended the Candlelight Processional when he was 6 years old. He did a really good job. This was in Dec 2022. We never made it over there in 2023.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Living with the Land holiday after dark is absolutely not to be missed. So happy to see this attraction getting some love. I've forgotten, did you do a dining package or are you hoping to join Candlelight via stand-by? NPH is SO popular.

 

[Stacybaeasm]

I have never seen LWTL after dark. Wow. I clearly have been missing out!

 

[VAtink]

I'm looking forward to hearing about your experience with NPH. I understand that he is popular, but I don't quite understand why.

He was good, but I don't understand the draw I guess. I thought he's do a bit more of a preamble off script, but he made like one or two remarks and jumped right into the script!

We got in the standby line for an unknown narrator who was doing it for the first time. He was a local guy who had first attended the Candlelight Processional when he was 6 years old. He did a really good job. This was in Dec 2022. We never made it over there in 2023.

Wow, that must have been an awesome experience for him! The show is so beautiful, I imagine no matter who narrates it, its a great show!

 

[VAtink]

Living with the Land holiday after dark is absolutely not to be missed. So happy to see this attraction getting some love. I've forgotten, did you do a dining package or are you hoping to join Candlelight via stand-by? NPH is SO popular.

LWTL after dark was so incredible! I wish we had time to ride it more than once after dark, the CMs did an amazing job decorating.

We did do a dining package for Candlelight, thankfully because even the dining package line was bonkers this night! NPH really draws a crowd!

 

[VAtink]

I have never seen LWTL after dark. Wow. I clearly have been missing out!

It is amazing, the CMs do such a great job decorating. I can't wait to go back in December and see it again!

 

[VAtink]

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long break in updates, things have been crazy around here this month! Sadly nothing fun, just work stuff, but I think things are slowing down so I'm getting back into updates, yay!

In just over a week we'll be booking our ADRs for our September/October trip, and I can't wait! We're not doing a lot this time around, and only one that I think will be hard to get (Victoria and Alberts), so besides that one I'm not too concerned, and if we don't get that our backup is Monsieur Paul, which we loved last fall so would be more than happy to eat at again. It's wild that back in the day when we booked at the 180 day mark it was soooo stressful and even so far out I couldn't get the things we wanted at the times we wanted, but these days it just doesn't seem as stressful/difficult. Maybe I just don't care as much anymore, or maybe it really is a lot easier to get the things we want, either way I'm happy it's a less stressful morning!

That being said, I'm curious to see how this prebooking LLMP/SP goes and if that'll bring back the stress! Since we have a triple split stay again (why do we keep doing this?) I'm hoping it'll be like back in the FP+ days where you could book the full trip, regardless of # of hotels, so we can book everything for the whole week at once. I will admit, I like the idea of prebooking again and being able to select times, but I am a bit annoyed that my stacking strategy for HS in the evening is kinda out the window now. I just really really hope that APs don't have to book their LLMP in the park they have reservations for, the way our schedule works out we'd want to use it for our afternoon park and not the morning park, so it'll be super annoying if we have to book them in the park we have reservations for.

Anyways, updates coming shortly, I can't believe this TR is almost over! Fortunately a new one is just around the corner, and until then the throwback TR is going strong! ​

 

[VAtink]

Day 6, Part 7: Candlelight Processional!​

We last left off making our way to America for the Candlelight Processional!

We arrived at 7:04, and ooph, the line was already insane! It was still about 1.5 hours before the show! I expected the line to fill up early, but I also expected if we got there around 7 we’d be close to the front of the line. Oops, guess I underestimated the draw of NPH!

While in line CMs came through to verify we had the package tickets, and ask us to stick them onto our clothes for easy verification. We hadn’t realized the tickets were actually stickers! So we got them stuck on our sweaters. Mine is still stuck on my sweater, it is like glued on, I seriously still can’t get it off!



They finally started letting us in at 8, so not a horrible wait, and we were along the edge of the lagoon so my parents just sat on the little curb there to rest their feet.



Being our first CP we didn’t know which seats would be good, so picked the 3rd row, thinking it was odd that people who got in before us were sitting much further back.







Well, we soon learned why people sat further back, the view was not so great that close! The instruments, especially the drums, really blocked the podium where the narrator stood. Oh well, you live you learn!









The show was amazing, I was practically in tears throughout! Although I will say I don’t understand the draw of NPH. Like he was great and all, but he only made like one or two remarks off script, so it wasn’t like we were getting a special show with him. And frankly I think I’d much prefer to see Brendan Fraser the following week since I used to have the BIGGEST crush on him back in the day!

Anyways, I only took a few pictures during the show, but not many as I wanted to really take it in. And it was just so beautiful, we will definitely do this again!

Next up: Our First Luminous!​