We're back! In case you forgot (which, why wouldn’t you have? It’s been a while!) I’m AJ, and my girlfriend is Alex. Here we are in the middle of going around the world, not quite three sheets yet, but it happened, from our last trip. Good to see ya!
(Hey, it’s not the best photo but we had some drunk girl take it, so deal)
Any one that can tell me which pavilion that photo was taken in wins a prize!
Having not been on this site much at all in the past few months since I didn't want to get myself upset about the fact that 1) Alex and I hadn't been to Disney in over one full year (which is truly upsetting) or 2) our WDW vacation was more than 180 days out. (Although I have been following the site's Twitter feed.) The last time we were at WDW was for Christmas/New Year's 2011-2012, December 25, 2011 - January 3, 2012. Anyone interested in that expedition can read all about it in a longer than necessary TR at this link ---> http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/christmas-new-years-and-a-birthday-10-days-of-magic.831899/
Hope you enjoy putting in the effort to get through that one; it drags, kind of like this PTR will.
Alex and I decided last year that we were going to go on a few small trips instead of one long WDW trip, but also since we were at WDW for the first three days of 2012 we could still technically say we'd been there every year since 2010. We're keeping that going strong this year. Our first trip to WDW as a couple was in October 2010, we booked it more on a whim than anything else. The one thing we both knew about WDW is that we both loved it from our younger years and hadn't been in a while so we decided to go for it without much research. We booked the first trip less than 180 days before our check-in date so we didn't really get much in terms of ADRs for that trip. I could tell you all about it, but I feel that I already have, here's a link to that TR as well ---> http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/much-delayed-trip-report-our-first-wdw-trip-as-a-couple.696439/
You can see a marked difference in our planning between the two trips, our picture taking and my writing about them. Those should keep you busy for a day.
We booked this year's trip with the Food & Wine Festival in mind because we had so much fun during it on our first trip. The only reason we didn't do it again in 2011 is because Alex really wanted to go during Christmas time, she also convinced me that we should be there for her birthday as well, which is January 2, so she really lucked out on that one since Christmas in WDW starts sometime in May, right? After booking this past January we kind of just pushed this trip to the side since we both have a lot going on, but just this past week we reached 180 days and made our ADRs. That means only one thing for me, PTR time.
The dates we settled on are October 9 - October 16, we find that flying on Wednesdays is the cheapest option (even though we're lucky enough to have the option of flying out of either JFK or Newark, because seriously who in their right mind would ever choose to fly out of LaGuardia given the other two options?). We have also flown JetBlue out of JFK and, like our last trip; we're taking the earliest flight we can see ourselves waking up for - 7:13a. That flight is good because, if it's on time, we land by 10am and get to our resort well before noon. We don't rush too much on our trips when it comes to getting to the parks early (we average 11:30a arrivals). Once we check-in, physically, it's off to the parks. If the room is ready that's great, we'll check it out, drop off our carry-ons and get going. If not than the good folk at our resort will have a few extra bags to hold.
The resort we chose is Pop Century. We had seriously debated staying at Art of Animation but after we realized it’d be more (only about $60 for the entire trip) and we saw a map of the resort we decided against that. The Little Mermaid rooms (which are the only non-suites) are all the way in the back of the resort. We’d much rather shoot for a room closer to the bus stop since we’ll be staying at a value resort this time around (even though it is Pop). We definitely will spend some time exploring the AoA though since we’ll be a bridge away, so we’re going to have to check it out. **Full disclosure: We’re hoping that a room discount comes along that will make it worth it for us to upgrade to a moderate. We aren’t willing to spend the flat rate for it since we will be spending so much at the Food & Wine Festival. If one of the xx% comes along and we can just change to a different resort (we’re aiming for Port Orleans, which of the two is something we’ll figure out if we get there).**
We’re waiting for the Halloween Party dates to be released because having not gone to this on our first trip we want to make sure to get to it this time. We were also bummed that the Christmas party doesn’t actually happen on Christmas day, oh well, some other time.
I have to say we had some serious battles about where we were eating, what day we would eat where and even our times. I think we still might be mulling some of the things over silently; I wouldn't be surprised if we end up not holding all these reservations. Some of them are definitely locks though, I won't say which, but true Disney folk will know which *cough**cough*OHANA*cough*. Without further adieu here is our list (tentative? we'll find out once the summer ends I'm sure) of ADRs:
Day 1 - Teppan Edo. We figure we’ll be able to get in a fair amount of time early in the afternoon at MK and then head over to Epcot for our meal, and with them having EMH that evening we’ll have some time afterward to wind down after an early day.
Day 2 - Yak & Yeti Restaurant (lunch). When we first made ADRs for our last trip this was one of the places we had booked and one of the first places we had decided to eat at. After talking and talking we decided in the end that we didn’t want to “waste a meal at AK,” or something along those lines. The day we reserved for AK (because let’s face it that park is a one day park, we’re in and out in about four hours) we ended up getting some QS food (check the TR, Alex’s was pretty good and mine was eh), and sitting at Dawa Bar for a good hour or two. We know that we’re going to go to AK and we figure “we may as well just get it out of the way,” a phrase I’ve been using lately much to Alex’s chagrin. Another note on this ADR is that it’s on the late side (2pm), it’s always better to give yourself plenty of time to work with on your second day, especially when you have to be up at 4am for your flight the day before
Day 3 – Mama Melrose . It’s still a toss up between this and 50’s Prime Time, we were so close to clicking confirm on an ADR for 50’s but the flatbreads on the menu put the edge in Melrose’s favor. Don’t be surprised if when the TR rolls out you read about us eating at the bar at 50’s while still keeping out ADR at Mama Melrose.
Day 4 – Big day here, we’re going for the Delicious Double. First we’ll be taking in a late breakfast at KONA where I’ve been dying to try the Tonga Toast (although I’m giving strong consideration to the Samoan, please feel free to weigh in on this to give me some help. YOU HAVE FIVE AND ONE HALF MONTHS, GO!). We haven’t been able to agree to going to breakfast on either of our previous trips yet, I think we’ve finally hit that point where we’re OK with waking up a bit earlier (AKA setting an alarm <the horror>) and going to breakfast. Truth be told, we may even try and get to MK for rope drop that day. Why not?
Second, we’re taking a late dinner at ‘OHANA! Having eaten here last time around there was no way we were going to miss this one. What better day to go ‘Ohana than the day we’re all ready eating breakfast at the Polynesian? The Poly Double: many have tried (?), all have probably followed through. We can’t wait. **Full disclosure (again, however this one may not be so fun to read): Last time we ate at ‘Ohana I enjoyed the food so much that I literally ate myself to the point of being full. So full that I ended up throwing up. Best vom of my life. I can’t wait to do it again.**
Day 5 – No ADR for this day, yet. Most likely going to just QS and F&W the day through. I do say “yet” though because we would love to get to the Wishes Dessert Party again, this night would be the night we prefer to do that. We are at the whim of the available dates for it once it opens, but we will get to it again.
Day 6 – Trail’s End. I keep telling Alex how I wanted to go back to Hoop Dee Do since we had such a great time on our first trip but we had some trouble justifying the price for that type of thing, having done it in the past. Alex loved the chicken and I loved the ribs but something about paying so much just for all you can eat food didn’t sit well. We tossed around a few other ideas and then settled on Trail’s End since, well, how different could the food be? DON’T ANSWER THAT AND RUIN IT FOR US IF IT’S NOT THE SAME!
Day 7 – Shula’s. This is our last night so we want to have a very (very, very?) nice dinner. We had actually booked a dinner here for our first trip but ended up with the DDP and it either wasn’t on the list or we didn’t want to use two credits on it so we ended up dropping this one. Last trip we went to Yachtsman for Alex’s birthday dinner which also happened to be our last night there, maybe that started some sort of steak-dinner-on-the-last-night tradition. We’ll see, but we’re looking forward to someplace different and also having a reason to stop into the Dolphin to check out a non-Disney resort.
Let me know what you think, I look forward to hearing from you all.
(Hey, it’s not the best photo but we had some drunk girl take it, so deal)
Any one that can tell me which pavilion that photo was taken in wins a prize!
Having not been on this site much at all in the past few months since I didn't want to get myself upset about the fact that 1) Alex and I hadn't been to Disney in over one full year (which is truly upsetting) or 2) our WDW vacation was more than 180 days out. (Although I have been following the site's Twitter feed.) The last time we were at WDW was for Christmas/New Year's 2011-2012, December 25, 2011 - January 3, 2012. Anyone interested in that expedition can read all about it in a longer than necessary TR at this link ---> http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/christmas-new-years-and-a-birthday-10-days-of-magic.831899/
Hope you enjoy putting in the effort to get through that one; it drags, kind of like this PTR will.
Alex and I decided last year that we were going to go on a few small trips instead of one long WDW trip, but also since we were at WDW for the first three days of 2012 we could still technically say we'd been there every year since 2010. We're keeping that going strong this year. Our first trip to WDW as a couple was in October 2010, we booked it more on a whim than anything else. The one thing we both knew about WDW is that we both loved it from our younger years and hadn't been in a while so we decided to go for it without much research. We booked the first trip less than 180 days before our check-in date so we didn't really get much in terms of ADRs for that trip. I could tell you all about it, but I feel that I already have, here's a link to that TR as well ---> http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/much-delayed-trip-report-our-first-wdw-trip-as-a-couple.696439/
You can see a marked difference in our planning between the two trips, our picture taking and my writing about them. Those should keep you busy for a day.
We booked this year's trip with the Food & Wine Festival in mind because we had so much fun during it on our first trip. The only reason we didn't do it again in 2011 is because Alex really wanted to go during Christmas time, she also convinced me that we should be there for her birthday as well, which is January 2, so she really lucked out on that one since Christmas in WDW starts sometime in May, right? After booking this past January we kind of just pushed this trip to the side since we both have a lot going on, but just this past week we reached 180 days and made our ADRs. That means only one thing for me, PTR time.
The dates we settled on are October 9 - October 16, we find that flying on Wednesdays is the cheapest option (even though we're lucky enough to have the option of flying out of either JFK or Newark, because seriously who in their right mind would ever choose to fly out of LaGuardia given the other two options?). We have also flown JetBlue out of JFK and, like our last trip; we're taking the earliest flight we can see ourselves waking up for - 7:13a. That flight is good because, if it's on time, we land by 10am and get to our resort well before noon. We don't rush too much on our trips when it comes to getting to the parks early (we average 11:30a arrivals). Once we check-in, physically, it's off to the parks. If the room is ready that's great, we'll check it out, drop off our carry-ons and get going. If not than the good folk at our resort will have a few extra bags to hold.
The resort we chose is Pop Century. We had seriously debated staying at Art of Animation but after we realized it’d be more (only about $60 for the entire trip) and we saw a map of the resort we decided against that. The Little Mermaid rooms (which are the only non-suites) are all the way in the back of the resort. We’d much rather shoot for a room closer to the bus stop since we’ll be staying at a value resort this time around (even though it is Pop). We definitely will spend some time exploring the AoA though since we’ll be a bridge away, so we’re going to have to check it out. **Full disclosure: We’re hoping that a room discount comes along that will make it worth it for us to upgrade to a moderate. We aren’t willing to spend the flat rate for it since we will be spending so much at the Food & Wine Festival. If one of the xx% comes along and we can just change to a different resort (we’re aiming for Port Orleans, which of the two is something we’ll figure out if we get there).**
We’re waiting for the Halloween Party dates to be released because having not gone to this on our first trip we want to make sure to get to it this time. We were also bummed that the Christmas party doesn’t actually happen on Christmas day, oh well, some other time.
I have to say we had some serious battles about where we were eating, what day we would eat where and even our times. I think we still might be mulling some of the things over silently; I wouldn't be surprised if we end up not holding all these reservations. Some of them are definitely locks though, I won't say which, but true Disney folk will know which *cough**cough*OHANA*cough*. Without further adieu here is our list (tentative? we'll find out once the summer ends I'm sure) of ADRs:
Day 1 - Teppan Edo. We figure we’ll be able to get in a fair amount of time early in the afternoon at MK and then head over to Epcot for our meal, and with them having EMH that evening we’ll have some time afterward to wind down after an early day.
Day 2 - Yak & Yeti Restaurant (lunch). When we first made ADRs for our last trip this was one of the places we had booked and one of the first places we had decided to eat at. After talking and talking we decided in the end that we didn’t want to “waste a meal at AK,” or something along those lines. The day we reserved for AK (because let’s face it that park is a one day park, we’re in and out in about four hours) we ended up getting some QS food (check the TR, Alex’s was pretty good and mine was eh), and sitting at Dawa Bar for a good hour or two. We know that we’re going to go to AK and we figure “we may as well just get it out of the way,” a phrase I’ve been using lately much to Alex’s chagrin. Another note on this ADR is that it’s on the late side (2pm), it’s always better to give yourself plenty of time to work with on your second day, especially when you have to be up at 4am for your flight the day before
Day 3 – Mama Melrose . It’s still a toss up between this and 50’s Prime Time, we were so close to clicking confirm on an ADR for 50’s but the flatbreads on the menu put the edge in Melrose’s favor. Don’t be surprised if when the TR rolls out you read about us eating at the bar at 50’s while still keeping out ADR at Mama Melrose.
Day 4 – Big day here, we’re going for the Delicious Double. First we’ll be taking in a late breakfast at KONA where I’ve been dying to try the Tonga Toast (although I’m giving strong consideration to the Samoan, please feel free to weigh in on this to give me some help. YOU HAVE FIVE AND ONE HALF MONTHS, GO!). We haven’t been able to agree to going to breakfast on either of our previous trips yet, I think we’ve finally hit that point where we’re OK with waking up a bit earlier (AKA setting an alarm <the horror>) and going to breakfast. Truth be told, we may even try and get to MK for rope drop that day. Why not?
Second, we’re taking a late dinner at ‘OHANA! Having eaten here last time around there was no way we were going to miss this one. What better day to go ‘Ohana than the day we’re all ready eating breakfast at the Polynesian? The Poly Double: many have tried (?), all have probably followed through. We can’t wait. **Full disclosure (again, however this one may not be so fun to read): Last time we ate at ‘Ohana I enjoyed the food so much that I literally ate myself to the point of being full. So full that I ended up throwing up. Best vom of my life. I can’t wait to do it again.**
Day 5 – No ADR for this day, yet. Most likely going to just QS and F&W the day through. I do say “yet” though because we would love to get to the Wishes Dessert Party again, this night would be the night we prefer to do that. We are at the whim of the available dates for it once it opens, but we will get to it again.
Day 6 – Trail’s End. I keep telling Alex how I wanted to go back to Hoop Dee Do since we had such a great time on our first trip but we had some trouble justifying the price for that type of thing, having done it in the past. Alex loved the chicken and I loved the ribs but something about paying so much just for all you can eat food didn’t sit well. We tossed around a few other ideas and then settled on Trail’s End since, well, how different could the food be? DON’T ANSWER THAT AND RUIN IT FOR US IF IT’S NOT THE SAME!
Day 7 – Shula’s. This is our last night so we want to have a very (very, very?) nice dinner. We had actually booked a dinner here for our first trip but ended up with the DDP and it either wasn’t on the list or we didn’t want to use two credits on it so we ended up dropping this one. Last trip we went to Yachtsman for Alex’s birthday dinner which also happened to be our last night there, maybe that started some sort of steak-dinner-on-the-last-night tradition. We’ll see, but we’re looking forward to someplace different and also having a reason to stop into the Dolphin to check out a non-Disney resort.
Let me know what you think, I look forward to hearing from you all.
