(Updated on August 1)Well, here we go again....
For anyone who wants to catch up on last year's TR, here is the link:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...o-a-sept-18th-to-the-27th-trip-report.874410/
So our trip will have the same cast as every other trip we've made:
From left to right, Stephanie (our newly minted teenager), her tweener brother Liam, my wife Tammy and myself (Graham)
We are booked to be down at the World from August 19th to the 28th.
so what's new this year?
Well, a few things....
1) I messed up on the flights. I got really busy at work and didn't know that Southwest had released the flights for our time period ( I normally monitor these things closely). A friend of ours was talking to me in early March and was saying they booked their flights for September. I believe my facial expression was something like this
. I immediately went on line, but it was too late...all the direct flights with the best times were booked. We ended up booking some flights that have connecting flights at less than ideal times (the 7am departure from Orlando will SUCK) but at least we'll be at Disney. Update - Well, I thought things were bad, and then I got an email from Jet Blue saying they moved our departure time back to 6:15am..... Knowing that Disney wants you off property 3 hours before your flight, that would be a 3:15am Magical Express ride. However...I called Jet Blue to ask if there was anything we could do. It turns out since they changed the time we were allowed to change flights at no charge, so I found an almost identical flight to the one we had, except it leaves at 10:00am instead of 6:15. We're feeling much better about this (and I'm totally impressed with Jet Blue's customer service).
2) We're going in August. Every trip before this one has been in September or October. It was great. Low crowds, slightly cooler weather than the summer...ahhhh....good times. However, this year Steph starts high school (which is crazy. Here's a picture of her and Liam on our first day of our first ever Disney trip in 2008):
Here they are on our last trip:
Not sure where the time has gone. Anyways, we didn't feel it would be wise to pull her out of school any more, so we backed the trip up a few weeks to the end of August
3) We're staying somewhere new. We've stayed and AKL the last two years, and have absolutely loved it, but decided to try some of the other DVC resorts. I originally booked at SSR (our home resort), and then called at 7 months out to change it. We had originally wanted either WL or BLT, but neither was available so we wait listed. A few weeks later I called in to cancel the WL wait list and add Boardwalk instead. While I was on the phone with member services, the CM tells me that she just received a notification that our BLT wait list just came through while we were on the phone. So we have a lake view studio at BLT this year. We're a bit concerned since BLT is drastically different in terms of décor and feel than AK (I know...1st world problem), but we want to try it (looking forward to be able to walk to MK and be on the monorail loop).
4) We'll be there for our anniversary. August 22nd will be our 16th anniversary, so it will be nice to actually celebrate on the day instead of waiting a few extra weeks like we normally do. I'm not sure what we will do, but I hope to plan something..which brings us to
dining reservations
Last year was the first time we did Tables in Wonderland, and we thought it was great. The card is good until October, 2014 so we'll get this trip out of it too. Here's what we have for ADRs:
Arrival Day: nothing planned. Not sure when we'll arrive so no ADRs
August 20th: 'Ohana for dinner
August 21st: Rose and Crown
August 22nd: Jiko - figured we'd do a signature on our anniversary Update: We changed this to California Grill. We plan on getting dressed up a bit for this, and don't really want to sit on a bus in a suit and a dress.
Aug23rd: Be Our Guest for dinner
August 24th: Sci-Fi for dinner
August 25th: Whispering Canyon for breakfast Update: We changed this to Trail's End, Beaches and Cream at night for the Kitchen Sink
August 26th: Raglan Road
August 27th: Liberty Tree
5) Other stuff
We had originally planned on buying our park tickets when we arrived, but with the new FastPass+ system, we had to buy them 60 days out. We got 9 day park hoppers with waterparks and more.
At the 60 day mark we went on line and booked our Fastpass + reservations. We got the 7 Dwarves Mine Train on 3 different days (including the night we arrive), and Stephanie got an Anna & Elsa Fastpass. I am on the fence with the Fastpass reservation idea. I like being able to get them for times we wouldn't normally be able to (e.g. 7DMT for 9:30pm when we aren't arriving until 5:00pm), however I think we'll miss the flexibility we normally had. Overall I'm optimistic about the whole thing and am going in with a positive attitude.
So that's it for now. Looking forward to the trip. Thanks for reading.
For anyone who wants to catch up on last year's TR, here is the link:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...o-a-sept-18th-to-the-27th-trip-report.874410/
So our trip will have the same cast as every other trip we've made:
From left to right, Stephanie (our newly minted teenager), her tweener brother Liam, my wife Tammy and myself (Graham)
We are booked to be down at the World from August 19th to the 28th.
so what's new this year?
Well, a few things....
1) I messed up on the flights. I got really busy at work and didn't know that Southwest had released the flights for our time period ( I normally monitor these things closely). A friend of ours was talking to me in early March and was saying they booked their flights for September. I believe my facial expression was something like this
. I immediately went on line, but it was too late...all the direct flights with the best times were booked. We ended up booking some flights that have connecting flights at less than ideal times (the 7am departure from Orlando will SUCK) but at least we'll be at Disney. Update - Well, I thought things were bad, and then I got an email from Jet Blue saying they moved our departure time back to 6:15am..... Knowing that Disney wants you off property 3 hours before your flight, that would be a 3:15am Magical Express ride. However...I called Jet Blue to ask if there was anything we could do. It turns out since they changed the time we were allowed to change flights at no charge, so I found an almost identical flight to the one we had, except it leaves at 10:00am instead of 6:15. We're feeling much better about this (and I'm totally impressed with Jet Blue's customer service).2) We're going in August. Every trip before this one has been in September or October. It was great. Low crowds, slightly cooler weather than the summer...ahhhh....good times. However, this year Steph starts high school (which is crazy. Here's a picture of her and Liam on our first day of our first ever Disney trip in 2008):
Here they are on our last trip:
Not sure where the time has gone. Anyways, we didn't feel it would be wise to pull her out of school any more, so we backed the trip up a few weeks to the end of August
3) We're staying somewhere new. We've stayed and AKL the last two years, and have absolutely loved it, but decided to try some of the other DVC resorts. I originally booked at SSR (our home resort), and then called at 7 months out to change it. We had originally wanted either WL or BLT, but neither was available so we wait listed. A few weeks later I called in to cancel the WL wait list and add Boardwalk instead. While I was on the phone with member services, the CM tells me that she just received a notification that our BLT wait list just came through while we were on the phone. So we have a lake view studio at BLT this year. We're a bit concerned since BLT is drastically different in terms of décor and feel than AK (I know...1st world problem), but we want to try it (looking forward to be able to walk to MK and be on the monorail loop).
4) We'll be there for our anniversary. August 22nd will be our 16th anniversary, so it will be nice to actually celebrate on the day instead of waiting a few extra weeks like we normally do. I'm not sure what we will do, but I hope to plan something..which brings us to
dining reservations
Last year was the first time we did Tables in Wonderland, and we thought it was great. The card is good until October, 2014 so we'll get this trip out of it too. Here's what we have for ADRs:
Arrival Day: nothing planned. Not sure when we'll arrive so no ADRs
August 20th: 'Ohana for dinner
August 21st: Rose and Crown
August 22nd: Jiko - figured we'd do a signature on our anniversary Update: We changed this to California Grill. We plan on getting dressed up a bit for this, and don't really want to sit on a bus in a suit and a dress.
Aug23rd: Be Our Guest for dinner
August 24th: Sci-Fi for dinner
August 25th: Whispering Canyon for breakfast Update: We changed this to Trail's End, Beaches and Cream at night for the Kitchen Sink
August 26th: Raglan Road
August 27th: Liberty Tree
5) Other stuff
We had originally planned on buying our park tickets when we arrived, but with the new FastPass+ system, we had to buy them 60 days out. We got 9 day park hoppers with waterparks and more.
At the 60 day mark we went on line and booked our Fastpass + reservations. We got the 7 Dwarves Mine Train on 3 different days (including the night we arrive), and Stephanie got an Anna & Elsa Fastpass. I am on the fence with the Fastpass reservation idea. I like being able to get them for times we wouldn't normally be able to (e.g. 7DMT for 9:30pm when we aren't arriving until 5:00pm), however I think we'll miss the flexibility we normally had. Overall I'm optimistic about the whole thing and am going in with a positive attitude.
So that's it for now. Looking forward to the trip. Thanks for reading.
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It's one of our must-do's every trip, mostly because of the theming. I had always found the food to be pretty good, but not "knock your socks off" GREAT until this past January. I deviated from my norm of some sandwich (I tend to go with the Rueben) plus fries and instead opted for the shrimp and pasta dish. OMG it was so delicious!! I cleaned my plate on that one for sure. I also thought that it was way better than any of the dishes I had on the cruise we just got off (a 4-night Dream cruise). I dunno if they were just having a super awesome day in the kitchen, but I still think of that dish when I see people talking about the Sci-Fi. I am getting hungry now just telling you about it! 
Oh -- I also recommend the fried pickles ... super tasty. Although, I don't think I've ever met a fried pickle I didn't like!
