You mean I DO get to go to WDW in 2014?? - Link to TR in post #523

[mvf-m11c]

I can't believe I missed your update at the Star Wars Exhibit. I should consider going to that exhibit since it is not too far from San Jose. All of your pictures from the exhibit are very nice.

Great update.

 

[franandaj]

Alison - Did you see the "live stream" of the new Festival of Fantasy parade on the Dis? It looks great. There's an amazing Maleficent float. I hope you'll go to MK and see the parade and take pictures.

I didn't see it, but I'll have to add it to the list. I think MSEP will also be on the list. Fran really enjoys that parade and after seeing your pictures I think it would be fun for her. I'll just have that song stuck in my head until the Christmas Parade at DL starts, then I'll have that one my head instead!

I can't believe I missed your update at the Star Wars Exhibit. I should consider going to that exhibit since it is not too far from San Jose. All of your pictures from the exhibit are very nice.

Great update.

You really should go see it, but there is only two weeks left so you better hurry! ............................

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm ready for them to release the schedule for SWW too. At least with the Tips thread, we should know as soon as its posted! I would like to be able to plan out my final weekend more. At least we aren't planning on any other park than Hollywood Studios that weekend.

Then again, I've been more into planning my Fall Trips lately as I'm training for the ToT 10 Miler.

 

[franandaj]

I'm ready for them to release the schedule for SWW too. At least with the Tips thread, we should know as soon as its posted! I would like to be able to plan out my final weekend more. At least we aren't planning on any other park than Hollywood Studios that weekend.

Then again, I've been more into planning my Fall Trips lately as I'm training for the ToT 10 Miler.

I'm ready too, but from what they say, we have another few weeks or so before they actually start to let things out.

Combined with the fact that they are changing things completely, it might take longer than normal. I totally understand the whole thing about canceling the Hoopla thing. With Disney's strict Character Policy each character must remain in their character profile.

Disney may be completely rewriting the SWW format, who knows?

I don't think you're following my "House" thread, but we may need to cancel our May non Disney trip, so I'm all into worrying about that. I have a lot of trips planned this summer that need planning so I'm lucky in that respect. I still have yet to worry about my cruise out of Miami before I even start to worry about making reservations for my April 2015 WDW trip.

 

[mvf-m11c]

You really should go see it, but there is only two weeks left so you better hurry! ............................

I might consider going down one of these next few days since I don't have work or basketball this week until next Saturday. Did you take the pictures with your DSLR or a point and shoot? I am wondering if I can bring my DSLR into the museum. But after seeing your pictures it is highly likely.

 

[franandaj]

I might consider going down one of these next few days since I don't have work or basketball this week until next Saturday. Did you take the pictures with your DSLR or a point and shoot? I am wondering if I can bring my DSLR into the museum. But after seeing your pictures it is highly likely.

I used my P&S but I think DSLRs are allowed unless they are the totally tricked out with massive lenses. I think if you have your normal lens they'll be OK with it. I know they did have a restriction on massively tricked out press style cameras.

 

[Dis_Yoda]

I'm ready too, but from what they say, we have another few weeks or so before they actually start to let things out.

Combined with the fact that they are changing things completely, it might take longer than normal. I totally understand the whole thing about canceling the Hoopla thing. With Disney's strict Character Policy each character must remain in their character profile.

Disney may be completely rewriting the SWW format, who knows?

I don't think you're following my "House" thread, but we may need to cancel our May non Disney trip, so I'm all into worrying about that. I have a lot of trips planned this summer that need planning so I'm lucky in that respect. I still have yet to worry about my cruise out of Miami before I even start to worry about making reservations for my April 2015 WDW trip.

At least its something to look forward to with the changes being something new.

Hopefully you get to go to the April Board Meeting! I get about canceling trips. My husband's position at his work was eliminated last Monday but the trip up in the air from that is our cruise. I'm going to give it a month until we totally decide on what we are doing dependent on some things.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

What an awesome exhibit! That must have been so cool!

PLEASE tell me someone with better photoshop skillz than I is working on adding some laser effects to your picture on the "hovercraft".

 

[mvf-m11c]

I used my P&S but I think DSLRs are allowed unless they are the totally tricked out with massive lenses. I think if you have your normal lens they'll be OK with it. I know they did have a restriction on massively tricked out press style cameras.

Thank you for the reply Alison. You got a lot of great pictures with the P&S. Now I know what lens to bring when I go to San Jose.

 

[franandaj]

At least its something to look forward to with the changes being something new.

Hopefully you get to go to the April Board Meeting! I get about canceling trips. My husband's position at his work was eliminated last Monday but the trip up in the air from that is our cruise. I'm going to give it a month until we totally decide on what we are doing dependent on some things.

With the addition of Symphony in the Sky, I think we're going to have to schedule a "come back" to DHS one of the nights, we have to figure that one out.

What an awesome exhibit! That must have been so cool!

PLEASE tell me someone with better photoshop skillz than I is working on adding some laser effects to your picture on the "hovercraft".

OK, this is the extent of my Photoshop, I got Version 12 for Christmas. Can you tell what I did? I think based on this, there are no laser effects coming to the photo on the hovercraft!

Thank you for the reply Alison. You got a lot of great pictures with the P&S. Now I know what lens to bring when I go to San Jose.

I'm glad you had a good experience at the Star Wars Exhibit. You're right it was only a couple of hours, but I think it was a couple hours well spent!

 

[franandaj]

So I’ve taken a bit of liberty on this TR to take you on a side trip to Disneyland Resort (even if we pretty much just stayed in our resort and indulged in food and drink), and then an exhibit of Star Wars props and other items. Now it’s time to get back to the issue at hand. What are we doing on our upcoming trip?

It seems that we have another several weeks until they might actually release some information and then I will have to re do days 3-4 as things seem to be panning out differently than I had expected, but for now:

Day 5 of our trip says we are “Star Wars Weekends! out!”

After relating the plan thus far to Fran she agrees that we will definitely be “Star Wars’d out”. Although I don’t put it past her to have been brewing over some figurine that she thought about buying Friday and decided not to, but waking up Sunday she decides she wants it. I’ll give her that leeway, but otherwise we don’t plan to hit DHS.

So far there are a variety of options. If we haven’t had sufficient time to play the Sorcerer’s of the MK game, we might head over there at rope drop and give it a go. We may decide just to take it easy, sleep in and have nice breakfast in the room. Since we’ve had DVC (seven years now!), I like to make a hot breakfast including bacon at least one or two days each trip. Whether it’s bacon and eggs, French toast with bacon, pancakes and bacon, or just a bacon and cheddar cheese topped English muffin, to me nothing says “vacation” or “the good life” like bacon. Whether Sunday (Day 5 of our trip), is the day remains to be seen. I might do it the day before, I’m sneaky like that!

Regardless I will definitely want to get to Epcot sometime on this Sunday. We will not yet have visited this place, and you all know from my previous trips, we like to stock up!







I’ll probably be making some FP+ for



And



This is almost always a “walk on” so I think I will save my FP+ here.



And use it to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy!

We’ll need to get lunch somewhere and since I don’t plan on making a reservation that leaves any of the many CS restaurants. I’d like to try Spice Road Table, Tangerine Café, Katsura Grill, or Tutto Gusto Wine Cellar. However, I have a feeling that we might end up at Yorkshire County Fish Shop, Cantina de San Angel, or Sommerfest.

We shouldn’t stuff ourselves too much for lunch, we have a nice dinner planned and I wouldn’t want to spoil our appetites. We may even snack our way around the world. I would also really like to try one of the ice cream Martinis in France, so who knows? We’ll see what happens when the day arrives, this is more up in the air than we normally are! How utterly spontaneous!

We will need to leave Epcot by 4PM as we have a rental car to pick up this evening. I haven’t booked it yet, but I think we went with a midsize the last time and I think that will suit us just fine.

After we get back to the hotel, we will call up the rental car company for their complimentary shuttle. Last time from the VWL it was only a ½ hour to 45 minute process, so it should be even quicker from the VGF. Once the rental car is safely secured we can relax in the room until it’s time to head to dinner. Luckily our restaurant is at the resort, albeit on the complete other side of the resort! We have a 7:15PM reservation at Narcoosee’s. Last time we dined there, we split the lobster and two appetizers. We had enough room for dessert and it was an excellent meal. I am definitely looking forward to this one again!

I went out on the deck to watch the MK fireworks the last time, perhaps this time Fran will join me. After dinner, I’m sure we will get back to the room just in time for our heads to hit the pillows before we crash. At least I hope we make it to the bed before we crash!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Your plans sound great. As you know, I love playing The Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom. Just be aware that that Epcot has a tiered system for Fastpass+ and you can only have Fastpass+ for Test Track or Soarin on the same day. I love Narcoosee’s. This is our favourite Walt Disney World restaurant.

Corinna

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice day planned. I love Karamel Kuche! I'll be so envious when I see what you stock up.

Corrina's pointed out that FP+ is now tiered. I hope that you managed to get on both TT and Soarin'. I suspect you might have to go stand-by for one of those. If it came down to it, TT does have a single rider queue line; which might be the shortest queue.

 

[mvf-m11c]

You have a nice planned trip.

 

[Leshaface]

Hold on a sec...did you say you may make french toast for breakfast?! How do you even have time for that?! You must be amazing. I only make it when I have like 20 minutes extra time to spare in the mornings. I absolutely LOVE french toast/pancakes/waffles!

You may need to check out SRT so you can give me the scoop on it Also, Tutto Gusto is fabulous!

 

[franandaj]

Your plans sound great. As you know, I love playing The Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom. Just be aware that that Epcot has a tiered system for Fastpass+ and you can only have Fastpass+ for Test Track or Soarin on the same day. I love Narcoosee’s. This is our favourite Walt Disney World restaurant.

Corinna

OK, I'm starting to wrap my head around this "Tiering" thing. Something else I read on the SWW thread said about which attractions were Tier 1 and Tier 2. I couldn't do FP+ at all on my last trip (well, I had to call in, and then I didn't have a list of what was available so it was worthless) so this will all be new to me. If I had to pick, I'd choose TT. Soarin' is such an easy walk on in CA that I can just do it there on my next trip out that I decide to go to DCA, but TT, I can't do that very often. Kind of like Star Tours. I can usually get a FP to ride that in CA, but I can't get one for TSMM.

My window opens up in two weeks, so I think I will be slightly pulling my hair out at that point!

Nice day planned. I love Karamel Kuche! I'll be so envious when I see what you stock up.

Corrina's pointed out that FP+ is now tiered. I hope that you managed to get on both TT and Soarin'. I suspect you might have to go stand-by for one of those. If it came down to it, TT does have a single rider queue line; which might be the shortest queue.

Fran always goes way over board, so it will be amusing to see what we come up with. Going so late in the trip, we might actually have some left to take home!

Yeah, this tiering thing is starting to sink in, but until I can see the options, I won't really understand it at all.

You have a nice planned trip.

Thanks Bret!

Hold on a sec...did you say you may make french toast for breakfast?! How do you even have time for that?! You must be amazing. I only make it when I have like 20 minutes extra time to spare in the mornings. I absolutely LOVE french toast/pancakes/waffles!

You may need to check out SRT so you can give me the scoop on it Also, Tutto Gusto is fabulous!

We only make breakfast like that on a day that we have decided to take it slow. Although there was one day on our trip in Jan/Feb 2013 when we made bacon & pancakes from a "just add water" mix at 6:30AM and we were done with breakfast by 7:00 and saw the opening show at MK. That was at BLT.

There are some mornings where we just say, "our vacation is worth it for us to have nice breakfast and get to the park when we get to the park." There are other mornings when we want to get outta there and we grab a yogurt, glass of V8 and don't even have time for toast!

I've already told Fran that we need to check out SRT, so hopefully that will be our choice for this day, if we go back to Epcot, hopefully we'll try the others.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I did just did a dummy Fastpass+ reservation.

Hollywood Studios Tier 1 (one selection)

Beauty and the Beast
Rock'n'Rollercoaster
Fantasmic!
Toy Story Mania

I am really surprised that Tower of Terror is not on this list, but this is a tier 2 attraction.

Epcot Tier 1 (one selection)

IlumiNations!
Maelstrom
Character Spot
Soarin
Test Track

Corinna

 

[rentayenta]

Nice day planned. I love Karamel Kuche! I'll be so envious when I see what you stock up. Corrina's pointed out that FP+ is now tiered. I hope that you managed to get on both TT and Soarin'. I suspect you might have to go stand-by for one of those. If it came down to it, TT does have a single rider queue line; which might be the shortest queue.

Tiered?



Great day planned Alison. So many good CS to choose from in Epcot. We love the CS in Morocco best but also enjoy Yorkshire and Mexico's CS. Gabby loves Japan's CS.

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I agree re Star Wars / HW out by then! Sounds like a nice plan to go to MK in the morning and hit EPCOT. It is so lovely to have breakfast in the DVC unit. We do this we rent a car and stock up at Walmart

Lol re fixating on some figurine. With me it's always a t shirt! We then have to get CM to phone and find out where they have any left. One year had us go to the shop at the contemporary resort...then to the shop at AK...both showed stock but they weren't there! Finally my patient DW found one in OKW store lol. I still look at the t shirt and smile.

Narcooseers sounds lovely! Hoping the car is for your trip to a certain place that stocks lots of Disney props....

 

[PrincessInOz]

Tiered?

Yup. They are sure taking the fun out of it all.