They get it now! They really get it! - A November 2019 PTR (updated 11/18/19 - TTFN!)

kimberwee

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jun 12, 2011
Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping in to check out my very first PTR, as we get ready to head back “home” with our best friends!!

A little background on our cast of characters:
From right to left…ok, I know that’s backwards, but humor me…


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Me: The vertically challenged one in the Mickey Shirt and the designated Chaos Coordinator – aka Kimberwee… just turned 40 and still obsessed with all things Disney…I was also the one to push DH for DVC at The Polynesian a couple of years ago. We found a great deal via resale market, I had a spreadsheet with all of the data and now I have the Magic of Disney to look forward to for years to come.

DH: Right next to me…Happily lets me do all of the planning and requires a good plan with contingencies. He is easily sold on Disney trips due to their outstanding customer service alone…

CW: DH’s best friend since middle school. We live 15 minutes away from CW’s family and DH and CW talk to each other every day…

CW: Ok, I need to come up with a different abbreviation here because they both have “C” names… she also grew up with DH, married CW…maybe CWW for CW’s wife…or, CCW because her maiden name began with a C…IDK…Let’s go with CCW, because I am spending too much time thinking about it. Regardless, she’s my bff and one of the few people that totally get me.

Now, on to "the littles"…

Our DD is the non-vertically challenged one in the middle. I swear she is going to be taller than us. She’s going to be 12 for this trip and humors my love for all things Disney.

Then, on her left, we have
RW and on her right we have HW…you guessed it, they are twins. They will be 8 on this trip.
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We’ve known each other for so long, and do so much together, that we travel really well as a group.

Our First Bestie Trip to DW as a group of 7 happened back in the October of 2017 for F&W, as well as the MNSSHP, and when CCW mentioned experiencing Christmas season at the parks, they didn’t have to ask me twice. I'd love to experience a trip for each season eventually.


After checking school calendars and crowd calendars, we are heading back "home" to help kick off our Holiday Season! Dates are set for 11/20-11/26 and we are back at the Poly in 2 (hopefully connecting) Studios, booked using our points. :cool1:


Prior to our October ’17 trip, the W’s didn’t really understand the full planning involved in “having fun” at Disney. Suggesting planning discussions about where you want to eat on any particular day over 180 days away from any vacation, seems crazy to most. BUT, we all know that...
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Throughout the actual trip though, they totally got it (hence my PTR title). There were many “fastpasses are amazing” type comments and “how do people do this without a plan”… There’s nothing quite like walking right past a 210 minute wait line for FOP with your FP. I tell you, it makes you feel like you are a hero.

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Because of this, CCW says she won’t ever do Disney without me. She’s not a planner and I am happy to do it.


What we did right in October: We did character meals instead of M&G lines. We maximized park times with what works for us. My family wakes up early…W family does not. So, we really liked the extended magic hours as a group and tried to not plan things with them too early. We really used our park hoppers to jump around when we wanted to and we didn’t feel pushed to do everything at every park. My insistence on grocery delivery day 1 for snacks, soft drinks and bottled water also came in handy. CW totaled it up and we probably saved over $50 in bottled water alone.

Recapping Rookie Mistakes: I didn’t plan enough for food breaks…I really need to be more conscious about breaks. This trip, we are planning on at least 1 TS meal a day and having better breakfast snacks in our DVC Poly Studios. And, parks that we thought we loved were replaced with new favorites...so, this time we will keep an open mind.

Will we learn from our last trip? Will it be just as magical this time around? Guess we will see. In the meantime, here’s the plan:


- Where To Begin...
- Just An Update
- Where To Eat - Day 1
- Where To Eat - Day 2
- Where To Eat - Day 3
- Where To Eat - Day 4
-
Where To Eat - Day 5
- Where To Eat - Day 6
- Where To Eat - Day 7
- We Did It!!
- Let The Changes Begin
- Flights Are Booked!!
- Crowd Calendar Craziness!
- The Saga Really DOES Continue

- Feeling Crafty
-Wait! This isn't Disney World
-Airfare Update
- OH, TP Reservation Finder...how I love thee...
-Bless Southwest - A Pre-trip Pixie Dusting...kind of
- Hello F&W Festival
- Brace Yourselves: FP+
-Praying for Pixie Dust
-Done Stalking
-Fastpass List
-TP Reservation Finder for the Win!
-Fastpass Eve
-I did it!
-Deep Breaths
-Crowd Calendar Math
-Magic Band Time
-Evening Drinks at Oga's
-Change in hours
-Merry Christmas
-THE ONE WHERE THINGS MIGHT CHANGE COMPLETELY
-And We're Back
-Starting Our Final Touches
-Crowd Calendars & Summary
-GET THE SUITCASES OUT!
-TTFN!
 
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Following along! It's nice that you have another family to travel with- and that they appreciate your planning!
 
I would love to see Christmas at Disney one day. Looking forward to hearing about all your plans!
 


Where to begin...
Every trip I have planned has always started with a crowd calendar. Here is why:
1. We want to adjust our dates slightly based on lower crowds
2. We really want to attend EMH for Magic Kingdom
3. And, we want to start planning our park days in order to get our restaurant choices lined up...

This is what I consider my recipe for success and exactly what we started with for this trip.


That was, of course, until the announcement came...

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SO, our excitement over crowd levels of 2-3 has been replaced by trepidation on what a 7-8 crowd level would feel like... I hate to admit this in public, but my DH and DD have never even seen a SW movie and could care less. The W Family is in the same boat.
Typically, I would start researching threads about crowd levels, but no one really knows what to expect other than it will be crowded. Realistically, it doesn't really matter. We will still go on the dates we've already picked. We will still have a good time. AND, being the optimist that I am, I love what this might do to the FP tier system...plus, maybe this will clear some of the crowds for TSL?

Anyway, as of today, based on ALLLLL of that rambling theory...
here are our "high-level" tentative plans:

11/20 - Travel Day + Magic Kingdom
11/21 - Hollywood Studios
11/22 - Animal Kingdom
11/23 - TBD

11/24 - Epcot (will this be Dapper Day?)
11/25 - Back to Animal Kingdom
11/26 - Magic Kingdom + Travel Day


The change in this plan versus what I had "pre-swge" is the park day for HS. We had to move it up in our trip, considering the closer we get to Thanksgiving, the heavier the crowds will be.

Next step = what to eat and when...
 
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UPDATE:
Breaking in before the next installment about dining to mention tentative plans for our Saturday. I think we are going to head to Universal for the day...
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...and try to get a Grinch character breakfast in before exploring the parks with a park-to-park ticket. I know that it will be a long day and we won't get to everything, but we'd like to check it out. I am the only HP fan of the group, but think there will be enough to keep everyone entertained... and, now the girls are all tall enough to experience 95% of it!

Any tips or tricks on surviving an ambitious day at Universal? I do have a touring plans membership and have seen their suggestions, but wonder if real life experience from the boards is similar.

 


We did the grinch character breakfast a few years ago and it was so much fun! The Grinch literally followed my sister around the restaurant at one point and took her hand and started skipping with her!

My biggest Universal tip is to pack as light as possible! They make you stow your belongings in lockers for just about every ride and they recently changed it so the only ones the are free are extremely small.

We've always found wait times at Universal pretty manageable. I would start with the new Hagrid's ride first probably then finish the rest of the HP stuff in IOA then take the Hogwart's express over to Universal Studios to do Diagon Alley. After that, knock out everything you want to do in Studios before going back to the rest of IOA.
 
We did the grinch character breakfast a few years ago and it was so much fun! The Grinch literally followed my sister around the restaurant at one point and took her hand and started skipping with her!

My biggest Universal tip is to pack as light as possible! They make you stow your belongings in lockers for just about every ride and they recently changed it so the only ones the are free are extremely small.

We've always found wait times at Universal pretty manageable. I would start with the new Hagrid's ride first probably then finish the rest of the HP stuff in IOA then take the Hogwart's express over to Universal Studios to do Diagon Alley. After that, knock out everything you want to do in Studios before going back to the rest of IOA.

Thank you so much for the advice! I've seen that about the lockers and it makes me a little anxious to think of having to run back and forth to a locker to check phones, etc. BUT, I am probably thinking about it on a Disney scale.

Do you think we should look at doing an express pass for each of us since we will only be there for a day?
 
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Thank you so much for the advice! I've seen that about the lockers and it makes me a little anxious to think of having to run back and forth to a locker to check phones, etc. BUT, I am probably thinking about it on a Disney scale.

Do you think we should look at doing an express pass for each of us since we will only be there for a day?

There’s lockers outside all the rides that require them. A lot of them you can keep your phone on you still as long as it’s not out on the ride itself but some of the bigger ones like Hulk and Rip Ride Rock It make you go through a metal detector so you can’t have anything at all.

Hmm i would say play it by ear. The express passes can be very expensive. We’ve always managed to do everything we wanted in a day without them but we also didn’t have kids with us. A lot of times people will book one night at a Universal hotel that includes express pass because the one night is cheaper than buying passes for the whole family but with so many of you, you’d have to do the math on the cost of rooms vs express passes
 
There’s lockers outside all the rides that require them. A lot of them you can keep your phone on you still as long as it’s not out on the ride itself but some of the bigger ones like Hulk and Rip Ride Rock It make you go through a metal detector so you can’t have anything at all.

Hmm i would say play it by ear. The express passes can be very expensive. We’ve always managed to do everything we wanted in a day without them but we also didn’t have kids with us. A lot of times people will book one night at a Universal hotel that includes express pass because the one night is cheaper than buying passes for the whole family but with so many of you, you’d have to do the math on the cost of rooms vs express passes

Ok, I think we will just play it by ear...if we don't get to everything on our list, it will just entice us to visit again some point next year. :rotfl2:
 
Hmmm, wonder what we will want to eat 180 day's from now...I'm going to guess:

DAY 1


11/20 - Travel Day + Magic Kingdom - This is always a hard one. We are flying Southwest and the flight schedule hasn't been released yet for our dates, so it's hard to tell what time we will arrive and what lay-overs will look like. If we leave early in the morning as planned, we would land around lunch time... add in ME and who knows what time we will arrive at the Poly. Last trip, we ate at Captain Cooks upon arrival, which was just ok. We never dined at Ohana with the W Family, so I was going to suggest a quick bite and cocktail at the Tambu Lounge, but looking at the pictures, I am thinking the lack of actual "table space" may make everyone a little cramped and cranky after being on a plane and then bus all morning. It may be best to just save that as a quick random bite some other time. The menu and ambiance does look good though.

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Other choices in the running are all QS, so I don't have to worry about lunch...but that does leave dinner. One of the big sticking points from our last trip was to have at least 1 TS meal a day, so that we can unwind. Because we will be at MK, and the food choices aren't our favorite, I am really struggling. Will we try to pry the kids from the parks for a meal elsewhere? We weren't impressed with BOG last time and we aren't into buffets, so I am wondering about these restaurants that we haven't tried...The Plaza, Skipper Canteen and Torguga Tavern (which isn't TS, but still might be a good break)

Thoughts? Suggestions?

To recap -


Day 1 Restaurants: Still Unknown

RESERVATIONS NEEDED:

Day 1 = 0



 
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DAY 2

11/21 - Hollywood Studios + MVMCP - This is notoriously my least favorite park for food. The big question in play now is how crowds will be for SWGE. I am going to assume chaos and plan accordingly. We are going to start the morning with some breakfast pastries in the room and head for:

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...to grab our favorite Starbucks drinks after entering the park, while on our way over to RNR. We didn't get to ride last time due to the little's height, but I have always wanted to. Putting my foot down this year and demanding it be first. Based on wanting to ride both RNR and ToT, before lunch, we are going to finish up there and walk back towards:

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...to grab a drink and some food. We'd thought about 50's prime time, but didn't really want to deal with an actual reservation. Hopefully, we can arrive about 20 min early and get a table (or a couple near each other) for 7.

NOW, because this is the MVMCP night, we will be back at the Magic Kingdom and suckers for chicken & waffles, I really want to try:

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...Y'all, doesn't this look ridiculously good!?!?! Seems like the perfect way to save room for MVMCP snacks throughout the night.

So to recap -

Day 2 Restaurants: Trolley Car Cafe, Brown Derby Lounge & Sleepy Hollow

RESERVATIONS NEEDED:
Day 1 = 0
Day 2 = 0
 
DAY 3

11/22 - Animal Kingdom - Animal Kingdom replaced Epcot for me as my 2nd favorite park (MK will always be my #1) during our last visit. The layout of the park helps you to feel less packed in with the thousands of people visiting along with you. We also fell in love with the food. To us, the QS is above and beyond what you will find anywhere else in DW.

The plan is to eat breakfast in the room before heading out to the park. Depending on where we are around lunch, we may get a bite at either...


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or
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I really want to try Harambe Market and the location is perfect after coming off of Kilimanjaro Safari if I can snag a FP around 11:00.

And for dinner...Last trip, we fell in love with Yak & Yeti. The food was great, the ambiance was fantastic and it was nice to sit down for a relaxing meal after braving Pandora. So, when we started planning this trip, that was one of the "must do again" things listed by everyone in the party. So we are going back! The big question is regarding time. Right now, it looks like park close is going to be 8, and we don't care about ROL, so I am thinking 6:30. This might just give us a chance to walk back through to Pandora to see it at night on our way out. If we hurry, maybe we can jump into the FOP or NRJ line one last time...


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So to recap -

Day 3 Restaurants: Harambe Market and Yak & Yeti
RESERVATIONS NEEDED:
Day 1 = 0
Day 2 = 0
Day 3 = 1 (Yak & Yeti @ 6:30)
 
We love Skipper's Canteen but look at the menu beforehand. With kids/picky eaters it might not appeal to them. We find the Plaza to be decent and affordable for TS. The options are pretty basic but tasty.

The waffle sandwiches from Sleepy Hollow are delicious!

Look into signing up for the Landry's Select Club. Yak and Yeti is our favorite and we use the Landry's card to eat there instead of making a reservation. It allows us to eat when we're actually hungry instead of when we plan to be hungry 180 days before :rotfl: and we often get seated ahead of those with ADRs. It's a $25 sign up fee but then you get a $25 reward to use towards your meal.
 
We love Skipper's Canteen but look at the menu beforehand. With kids/picky eaters it might not appeal to them. We find the Plaza to be decent and affordable for TS. The options are pretty basic but tasty.

The waffle sandwiches from Sleepy Hollow are delicious!

Look into signing up for the Landry's Select Club. Yak and Yeti is our favorite and we use the Landry's card to eat there instead of making a reservation. It allows us to eat when we're actually hungry instead of when we plan to be hungry 180 days before :rotfl: and we often get seated ahead of those with ADRs. It's a $25 sign up fee but then you get a $25 reward to use towards your meal.

Thank you for the tip about the Landry Card! I was looking at it and it specifies that it is under parties of 6. Wonder how lenient they are...
 
Thank you for the tip about the Landry Card! I was looking at it and it specifies that it is under parties of 6. Wonder how lenient they are...

Oo I never realized they specified a party size. I assume it's because it's harder to guarantee large parties a table right away when it's busy but that's a good question.
 
DAY 5

11/24 - Epcot (will this be Dapper Day? Nope) - So, when we originally started planning, this looked like it would be Dapper Day at Epcot. It would be pretty fantastic to see people dressed to the nine's walking around. Heck, we may have even gotten fancy ourselves. BUT, it looks like Dapper Day will be the weekend prior to our visit. No biggie. Moving on.

There are 3 things I love about Sunday's in general.
1. Going to church with my family
2. BRUNCH
3. Napping after Brunch

Saturday's Universal Trip is probably going to wipe us out and more than likely be a late night. BUT, it's Disney and...

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...so I am making an effort to just wake up late and take it easy with planning.

The park hours for Epcot are projected to be 9-9 and the crowd calendar is a 10. This means that the park will be a zoo and this is a day we would be better off eating elsewhere. Disney Springs it is! As for food in general, we love southern cuisine. To be fair, DH and I own a restaurant in Oklahoma that specializes in what we call "Okie Cuisine"...which is truly just a twist on southern comfort food. We specialize in things like bison meatballs and deep fried deviled eggs. Our brunch menu is fantastic and when we travel, we love doing comparisons with similar restaurants, calling it "market research" :thumbsup2
As you could have guessed from Day2, I have a thing for Chicken & Waffles. More than chicken & waffles, I ADORE DEVILED EGGS...This made our choice for brunch VERY easy...

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I can't even get over their menu. Seriously. The Bee Haven Bay Fried Green Tomatoes...The Church Lady Deviled Eggs. Short Rib Hash!! And don't even get me started on the Moonshine Mash!! I'll take 2, please! They will have to roll me out of this place.

We did Food & Wine the last time we were there and walked around the WS a thousand times (though not really making it from Mexico to France completely...can't really remember why) and Frozen was more interesting to our littles than Soarin. So, despite the high crowds, I think we will just try snacking WS QS for dinner. There is no sense in making a TS reservation when we might still be full from brunch.


So to recap -

Day 5 Restaurants: Homecomin' & WS QS Snacks

RESERVATIONS NEEDED:

Day 1 = 0
Day 2 = 0
Day 3 = 1 (Yak & Yeti @ 6:30)
Day 4 = Universal
Day 5 = 1 (Homecomin' @ 11:30)
 

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