indoshakespeare
Reach out and find your Happily Ever After
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2011
9/2 - 9/3: POP Century
9/3 - 9/5: Bay Lake Tower
Events: MNSSHP on 9/3 and MK EMM on 9/4
FP+ 9/3 = 11:50 Tower of Terror, 1:40 Rock n Roller Coaster, 2:50 Slinky Dog Dash
FP+ 9/4 = 9:10 Jungle Cruise, 10:20 Space Mountain, 11:20 Enchanted Tales with Belle
ADR: 9/3 Akershus 8:30 AM (PPO) and 9/4 Be Our Guest 12:05.
Background
Wow, where to begin?
Okay, my family grew up with Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. In my family, going to Disney means going on the rides, see the parade and maybe do a character dining. Both Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland are perfect for this. they have the best rides and best versions of the rides in my opinion.
I've been to WDW twice before this trip, once as a kid and once as a teenager. Both times my parents arranged everything with the same mentality. We would just do the rides, see the parade and go home. Both times I was underwhelmed. With the exception of Splash Mountain, i think Disneyland has the better rides and better versions of the rides. Keep in mind that this was way back before 2001, before 7DMT, EE or FoP. Everytime people compare Disneyland and WDW, I was sure Disneyland is the superior resort. That changed when I started to watch people's blogs and vlogs
Another mentality our family had was Disney food is mostly bad, and the best ones are at most average. I spent my honeymoon in Disneyland Paris. Whenever I read TRs on DLPR, Americans comment that the food there is not as good as WDW's food. I thought thats interesting. Arent Disney food all the same? Why would people compare the food in Disney resorts? Arent they all the same? just burgers, fries, hot dogs etc. People cant be coming to Disney for the food.... so I started to read some blogs.
My first interest in revisiting WDW is when I started watching Dreams Unlimited Travel and DIS Unplugged podcasts. They talk about everything from food and resorts and other experiences. Then I came across vloggers like Jennifer Oakes and Sir Willow who talked about their experiences working there. I realized that there are a lot more WDW vloggers than Disneyland vloggers. So there must be something special about WDW that Disneyland doesn't have. I started seeing people talk about the great food there and the great character experiences, not just from the guests but former cast members as well. What really made me decide to go back to WDW was when I started to watch Tommy des Brisay's videos. The way Cast Members interact with him was amazing. I found out that meeting characters is not just about taking pictures but you can interact and chat with them. At this time, I already had 2 kids and I wasnt keen on taking them on a 24 hours flight. Hong Kong and Tokyo have to do for now.
The opportunity came sooner. My company is buying a rather expensive equipment in North Carolina. As per company policy, we would send a delegation there to meet with the manufacturer. They would send our plant manager and me to go. Looking at the map, I noticed how close NC is to Orlando, I knew this was my opportunity. With the airfare paid (by the machine supplier), all I need to do is pay for the internal flights. I told my wife about this business trip and she said I should have a vacation there since the flight is so long (24 hours each way) and she knew I wanted to visit NYC. So I decided, let's tick off 2 places in my bucket list in this trip (WDW and NYC). I would stay 4 nights in NC, then 4 nights extra (3 nights in WDW, 1 night in NYC). Since my return flight from JFK was at night, I got 36 hours in NYC, which I calculated to be enough to see what I wanted to see there. She also said that she may never want to go to the East Coast of America because of the long flight so I should enjoy myself and don't skimp on the budget. It may be a long time before I can go back there again.
My main goal in this WDW trip is to visit all the princesses and ask them to record a short message for my kids. So I booked myself a PPO Akershus breakfast where I would be the creepy solo guy eating at a Princess dining. I know Moana is only available during parties so I got myself a MNSSHP ticket. I also booked EMM for Sep 4 to maximize my time in the park. My original plan was to spend Sep 2 in Disney Springs, eat Beignets at POFQ then resort hop the monorail resort and watch HEA from the Polynesian. Then spend Sep 3 and Sep 4 park hopping on a 2 days ticket. Sep 3 is Epcot + DHS, then MNSSHP. Sep 4 is MK and AK. However, I would be willing to upgrade my tickets to 3 days if I decided to go to a park on Sep 2 upon arrival.
9/3 - 9/5: Bay Lake Tower
Events: MNSSHP on 9/3 and MK EMM on 9/4
FP+ 9/3 = 11:50 Tower of Terror, 1:40 Rock n Roller Coaster, 2:50 Slinky Dog Dash
FP+ 9/4 = 9:10 Jungle Cruise, 10:20 Space Mountain, 11:20 Enchanted Tales with Belle
ADR: 9/3 Akershus 8:30 AM (PPO) and 9/4 Be Our Guest 12:05.
Background
Wow, where to begin?
Okay, my family grew up with Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland. In my family, going to Disney means going on the rides, see the parade and maybe do a character dining. Both Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland are perfect for this. they have the best rides and best versions of the rides in my opinion.
I've been to WDW twice before this trip, once as a kid and once as a teenager. Both times my parents arranged everything with the same mentality. We would just do the rides, see the parade and go home. Both times I was underwhelmed. With the exception of Splash Mountain, i think Disneyland has the better rides and better versions of the rides. Keep in mind that this was way back before 2001, before 7DMT, EE or FoP. Everytime people compare Disneyland and WDW, I was sure Disneyland is the superior resort. That changed when I started to watch people's blogs and vlogs
Another mentality our family had was Disney food is mostly bad, and the best ones are at most average. I spent my honeymoon in Disneyland Paris. Whenever I read TRs on DLPR, Americans comment that the food there is not as good as WDW's food. I thought thats interesting. Arent Disney food all the same? Why would people compare the food in Disney resorts? Arent they all the same? just burgers, fries, hot dogs etc. People cant be coming to Disney for the food.... so I started to read some blogs.
My first interest in revisiting WDW is when I started watching Dreams Unlimited Travel and DIS Unplugged podcasts. They talk about everything from food and resorts and other experiences. Then I came across vloggers like Jennifer Oakes and Sir Willow who talked about their experiences working there. I realized that there are a lot more WDW vloggers than Disneyland vloggers. So there must be something special about WDW that Disneyland doesn't have. I started seeing people talk about the great food there and the great character experiences, not just from the guests but former cast members as well. What really made me decide to go back to WDW was when I started to watch Tommy des Brisay's videos. The way Cast Members interact with him was amazing. I found out that meeting characters is not just about taking pictures but you can interact and chat with them. At this time, I already had 2 kids and I wasnt keen on taking them on a 24 hours flight. Hong Kong and Tokyo have to do for now.
The opportunity came sooner. My company is buying a rather expensive equipment in North Carolina. As per company policy, we would send a delegation there to meet with the manufacturer. They would send our plant manager and me to go. Looking at the map, I noticed how close NC is to Orlando, I knew this was my opportunity. With the airfare paid (by the machine supplier), all I need to do is pay for the internal flights. I told my wife about this business trip and she said I should have a vacation there since the flight is so long (24 hours each way) and she knew I wanted to visit NYC. So I decided, let's tick off 2 places in my bucket list in this trip (WDW and NYC). I would stay 4 nights in NC, then 4 nights extra (3 nights in WDW, 1 night in NYC). Since my return flight from JFK was at night, I got 36 hours in NYC, which I calculated to be enough to see what I wanted to see there. She also said that she may never want to go to the East Coast of America because of the long flight so I should enjoy myself and don't skimp on the budget. It may be a long time before I can go back there again.
My main goal in this WDW trip is to visit all the princesses and ask them to record a short message for my kids. So I booked myself a PPO Akershus breakfast where I would be the creepy solo guy eating at a Princess dining. I know Moana is only available during parties so I got myself a MNSSHP ticket. I also booked EMM for Sep 4 to maximize my time in the park. My original plan was to spend Sep 2 in Disney Springs, eat Beignets at POFQ then resort hop the monorail resort and watch HEA from the Polynesian. Then spend Sep 3 and Sep 4 park hopping on a 2 days ticket. Sep 3 is Epcot + DHS, then MNSSHP. Sep 4 is MK and AK. However, I would be willing to upgrade my tickets to 3 days if I decided to go to a park on Sep 2 upon arrival.
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