Pre-Trip Woo Hoo! We’re going (back) to Disney (And Universal)

Hello everyone! Planning is in full swing on the longest trip (Disney or otherwise) we’ve ever taken so I thought this might be a good time to take a shot at a trip report.

The Cast:

DH & me on our 20th anniversary Fantasy cruise in May 2014. We’re fairly seasoned Disney addicts and this will be our 10th trip together since 1992. In addition Dave had gone several times as a kid with his parents and has done one solo trip. I have done two solo trips and two trips that were just me and my mom. We’re DVC owners so our gift to our travel companions is going to be a no charge room :happy:

D&J.jpg


My Cousin Brian & his wife Christine will be out travel companions for this trip. Here they are on our rainy DHS day in December 2009.

B&C.jpg



On that last trip we took with them in 2009 we laughed so hard we cried, and there was a lot of “Woo Hoo”ing (hence the title of this trip report). I honestly don’t think I ever laugh as hard as I do when we’re all together, so I’m incredibly excited for this trip (I think we all are).

The dates:

September 25 through October 5, 2015. Right now the plan is to try to coordinate flights from two different cities in Michigan. DH & I live on the East side so we’ll fly from Detroit and Brian & Christine live on the West side, so they’ll fly from Grand Rapids. We’re going to be renting a vehicle, so we’d like to try to all arrive close enough to the same time that we can meet up at the airport. If that doesn’t work out, someone can always take the ME to the resort and we’ll meet up there.

The location:

Two bedroom villa at Disney’s Old Key West Resort. This will be our first time staying in anything other than a studio villa, so we’re excited for that as well.

One other thing that will be very different on this trip is our dining. On the 2009 trip we purchased the DDP and did a lot of buffet meals. DH & I have also tried using the DDP and the Deluxe DDP on past trips. This trip will not involve a DDP as DH had bariatric surgery in October (he’s already lost 80 pounds) and can only eat a few ounces of food at one time. We’re still planning on a few TS meals and two dinner shows, but I anticipate DH and I sharing a lot of meals. We’ll also be packing a lot of our own snacks since he needs to eat every two to three hours. Since we’ll have a car and a full kitchen we’ll be taking a trip to the grocery store to stock up on food (and I’ll probably purchase most of our toiletry items there, rather than pack them in suitcases). We’re still planning to enjoy our meals and food, just not as much of it!
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
Sounds like a fun crew! Congratulations to your husband on his weight losss. Enjoy your planning. Looking forward to hearing more.
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks LisaBelle! I'm really proud of him. It was not easy those first few weeks post surgery, but he's doing great now!
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The (tentative) Plan:

Well, we made our ADRs on Sunday, March 29. I can’t believe how fast that sneaked up on us! So we have a pretty solid plan as of right now. Oh, one thing that did change is the flight plan. We snagged a pretty decent deal and some really good departure times for all of us to fly from Detroit. Brian & Christine couldn’t find any decent flights out of Grand Rapids so they will drive to our house Thursday evening and get ready for our 7:45 AM Friday departure.

We had initially thought that we would do a later flight and arrive at the resort sometime in the early evening in Friday and then do our shopping on Saturday, but somewhere along the line that plan was changed big time!

Since we’ll be arriving so early on Friday we decided to do our shopping and probably hit up an outlet mall (or two) that day. We didn’t make any dining plans for this day so we’ll most likely get dinner offsite.

The plan for the rest of the trip looks like this:

Saturday 9/26: Probably a mix of Epcot and MK with dinner at Mickey’s Backyard BBQ at 6:30. MK has EMH tonight, so we may try to see Wishes this night.

Sunday 9/27: Universal with no dinner plans yet.

Monday 9/28: Universal with no dinner plans yet.

Tuesday 9/29: Universal with no dinner plans yet.

Wednesday 9/30: Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare at 8:30 followed by a day at Epcot and grazing at F&W. No dinner plans since we intend to eat all day!

Thursday: 10/1 AK day with dinner at the 8:15 Spirit of Aloha show.

Friday 10/2: MK & Epcot mix day with dinner at Kona at 6:25.

Saturday 10/3: HS day with lunch at 50’s at 1:10.

Sunday 10/4: MK for most of the day with lunch at BOG at 12:45. We’re also planning on MNSSHP this night.

Monday 10/5: No plans except making sure we’re at the airport in time for our 6:20 pm flight home!

We may change a couple things up on the fly since we only planned on one day each at AK & HS. But for now this seems like a good plan.

Guess there really isn’t much to do now except wait for our FastPass+ selection day and keep checking for a better deal on a rental car!
 

LisaBelle

Well-Known Member
I think it's nice that you all will be flying out together and will get a chance to do some shopping before hitting the parks. Your ADRs look good. I loved Kona and BOG when we were there last summer. Hope you enjoy them!
 

mrdrift

Well-Known Member
Love the plans. It's great that you can spend time at Disney and Universal and enjoy everything that both locations has to offer. Congrats to DH for the 80 pounds lost, keep up the great work.
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I think it's nice that you all will be flying out together and will get a chance to do some shopping before hitting the parks. Your ADRs look good. I loved Kona and BOG when we were there last summer. Hope you enjoy them!

Thanks! The only "new to us" ADRs are the two dinner shows, which I'm sure will be amazing and 1900 Park Fare! Brian & Christine have not been to BOG yet and I can't remember if we all went to 50's the last time, but Dave and I love those two places, so I'm sure they will too!
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Love the plans. It's great that you can spend time at Disney and Universal and enjoy everything that both locations has to offer. Congrats to DH for the 80 pounds lost, keep up the great work.

Thank you! I'm excited to go back to Universal, if only for the WWOHP! As far as I'm concerned they can leave me in that section and go off to see the rest of Universal. I enjoyed it the last time we went, but it wasn't on the top of my list to do again until WWOHP was done!
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
175 Days!! We're planning on another "planning session" get-together over Memorial Day to look at FastPass+ plans and go over some other fine details.
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tickets for MNSSHP on October 4 purchased last night! Wish there was more to do and report on, but until we nail down our FastPass+ selections, it's just a lot of waiting :arghh:
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
141 Days 23 Hours 55 Minutes until flight time!

Brian has decided that he can't pass up the opportunity to attend Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. The rest of us are going to take a pass. I love horror movies, but I need the zombies and whatnot to stay on the screen! It looks like exact dates have not been released yet, but we'll figure out a way to make this happen for him :eek:
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well, Delta did it again. Every time we book the 7:45 AM flight it gets changed to 8:45. I'm serious, every time!! If they can't fill that flight, why do they keep offering it? At least this time the flight number stayed the same. The last time I flew by myself they must have cancelled that flight number all together because my flight number and seats changed in addition to the time! So, we're now at 128 days, 16 hours, 27 minutes.

Still no ticket info for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. Anyone know when they typically go on sale? We have what is probably going to be out last in person planning get together this weekend and it sure would be nice to get that nailed down!
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
30 days to go and I'm so excited I can't stand it! For once we haven't made any changes to the initial plan. That has a lot to do with this trip being four people instead of just me and DH, for trips that are just the two of us, we're making changes up until the last minute.

DH & I did book 4 nights at Pop next May for SWW. That trip has already changed once and all we've done is make the room reservation. We were going to stay 3 nights, but changed to 4 as we were booking!
 

djpoore94

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Been away from the boards for a while and I can't believe that in just about one week I will be walking out of my office, ready to head home and finish last minute stuff for our trip. I'm already in vacation mode! In true DJPoore fashion, we are still making last minute changes to the trip as well. Yesterday I added a dinner ADR at Kona for October 4, before we go to MNSSHP. After looking at the lunch and dinner menus, I'm satisfied that there are enough different choices to justify another meal there two days after our lunch. And, hey, any excuse to go to the Poly!

We are also now revisiting next year's vacation. As DVC member's it's really hard to justify paying out of pocket for a room at Disney when there are still lots of other places we want to see! Also in the running are a cruise on Royal Caribbean :jawdrop:, checking out some other areas of Florida or whatever else we can come up with!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom