Pre-Trip 199 Bottles of Beer on the Wall -- The Countdown Is ON!

WE'RE GOING BACK! In 199 days!

I rolled over this morning and checked my phone -- it was 6:26AM on a Saturday, but I couldn't get back to sleep because of the excitement...The excitement of seeing our trip countdown reach sub-200 days! A perfect day to begin our pre-trip report

First off, some introductions:
Shaun! My wonderful husband.

A little about Shaun:

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: TSMM
Favorite Restaurant: 'Ohana

Me (Shari)

A little about me:

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: PoTC
Favorite Restaurant: Liberty Tree / 'Ohana

A little about us:

We live in Colorado, land of the Rocky Mountains, limited oxygen, extreme sunshine, and the Broncos! Shaun is an avid KU basketball fan, lover of muscle cars, and spends most of his free time remodeling our house. He loves Broncos and Avs games and is the sports category mastermind on our weekly pub trivia team.

I'm originally from Oregon (go Ducks!), enjoy traveling and spoiling our niece and nephew. I love horses and spend most of my time (when not planning WDW trips) at the barn caring for our 4-year-old QH gelding, Remington. I ride quite a bit and love every minute of it. The closest feeling to the excitement of the free-fall on ToT is picking up a perfect canter transition and riding like the wind. Oh, sorry, we're supposed to be talking about Disney here...

So, last year:
We went to WDW in September 2014 and had a fabulous (despite the weather's greatest efforts to rain on our parade...or at least the parades we went all the way to Florida to enjoy!) trip. I didn't write a trip report, but here's a brief rundown:

CSR on Free Dining
MNSSHP
Lots of PoTC, TSMM, and HM

Somehow, I managed to convince (beg?) DH that we should go back again this year. He was a little hesitant -- we're remodeling our house (Read: Leaking money like a sieve), and last year I sort of ran us both into the ground on our trip. Before I moved to Colorado and met Shaun, I had lived and traveled around the world -- much of which I did solo and seeing/doing as much as possible. I am an itinerary/structure/see-it-all and sleep-when-you-get-home-type traveler, which meant that we saw and did a TON during last year's trip, but my gangbusters pace wore us out and...unfortunately, we missed a lot of details.

So, after solemnly swearing to S-L-O-W down this time, he happily agreed that we should book the trip and make our way back to the World. One stipulation: We did Hween last time, this time he really campaigned to see the World at Christmas, so without further ado, here is our next trip plan:

December 2015
Port Orleans Riverside
No free dining this time
Maybe MVMCP?
Lots of PoTC, TSMM, and HM

Pending decisions for this trip:
Disney Dining Plan -- Is it worth it for us or not?
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party -- worth it?
Bucket List -- Things we didn't get to do/see from last trip (I'm looking at YOU, Test Track & Fantasmic!)

More next time! We're in the thick of ADR discussions, park touring plans, and coordinating those. Hopefully by the next update, I'll have some of that locked down

Til next time, dearest Disney enthusiasts -- Cheers!

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

159 bottles of beer on the wall now! ADRs are officially booked (minus Liberty Tree Can't wait for that to open again...)! Now we're waffling between which side of POR we want to request. Silly? Perhaps, but I've got time to kill and it gives me an excuse to maintain an unhealthy relationship with Disney research

My coworker is planning a trip to DLR, so we get to bring our Disney sides out a few times a week. (He's the only one that doesn't flip me crap about going back to the World. I have a thick skin and can handle the digs that are thrown our way, but it does get old. Wish people would just worry about their own lives!) Listening to his plans makes me want to go back. Maybe a future pre-trip report

Still on the fence about MVMCP!!!!

 

[cfry06]

159 bottles of beer on the wall now! ADRs are officially booked (minus Liberty Tree Can't wait for that to open again...)! Now we're waffling between which side of POR we want to request. Silly? Perhaps, but I've got time to kill and it gives me an excuse to maintain an unhealthy relationship with Disney research

My coworker is planning a trip to DLR, so we get to bring our Disney sides out a few times a week. (He's the only one that doesn't flip me crap about going back to the World. I have a thick skin and can handle the digs that are thrown our way, but it does get old. Wish people would just worry about their own lives!) Listening to his plans makes me want to go back. Maybe a future pre-trip report

Still on the fence about MVMCP!!!!

We'll be there about the same time! And, oddly enough, were there in Sept 2014 also in all its rainy glory. Looking forward to Christmas at the world and hopefully a better weather forecast .

We loathe the price increase on MVMCP but are planning for it anyway - good times! Best way to kick off the holidays in my opinion!

PoTC and Ohana are my fave too!

Happy planning!

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

We'll be there about the same time! And, oddly enough, were there in Sept 2014 also in all its rainy glory. Looking forward to Christmas at the world and hopefully a better weather forecast .

We loathe the price increase on MVMCP but are planning for it anyway - good times! Best way to kick off the holidays in my opinion!

PoTC and Ohana are my fave too!

Happy planning!

What!!! We're basically Disney twins. I love it! Tell me more about MVMCP -- I don't know if I haven't read enough, or if I'm past the point of convincing, but I can't seem to catch the fever for this one.

Yes, let's hope for better weather this time around! I swear, it was every time we stepped into Epcot that the rain rolled in. We'd like a "do-over" on that park because we ran through it with a tiny peephole through our rain ponchos. We were there September 23-30. Did any of those dates overlap with yours?

PoTC and Ohana! Yes! Absolute favorites.

Cheers to your trip planning!

 

[cfry06]

What!!! We're basically Disney twins. I love it! Tell me more about MVMCP -- I don't know if I haven't read enough, or if I'm past the point of convincing, but I can't seem to catch the fever for this one.

Yes, let's hope for better weather this time around! I swear, it was every time we stepped into Epcot that the rain rolled in. We'd like a "do-over" on that park because we ran through it with a tiny peephole through our rain ponchos. We were there September 23-30. Did any of those dates overlap with yours?

PoTC and Ohana! Yes! Absolute favorites.

Cheers to your trip planning!
View attachment 98538

We did overlap! We were there September 24 - October 4th. So. Much. Rain! I read later that it was the rainiest September for Orlando in 100 yrs! We still had a blast, but I agree - was so over ponchos and being soaked!

We only have done MVMCP once, and our son was pretty little (1 1/2). It happened to rain that night too, and those two things combined kind of interfered with fully enjoying the event (got there late bc the monorail was down and the ferry line was craaaaaazy backed up, had to leave early, couldn't run around as quick as we wished). But - Parade was magical, and we loved seeing it snow on Main St. Everything felt so festive! Ride lines were pretty short but we mostly wandered that night. Took some wonderful pictures, including our Xmas card shot ! We attended MNSSHP in September and just loved it!! Really looking forward to heading back to the Christmas celebration and hope we love it just as much as Halloween!!

We arrive December 3rd this upcoming trip. So darn excited to see the World at Xmas!! In case we overlap parks on our upcoming trip, here is a recent pic of us from our Outer Banks, NC trip. Chelsea, Phil and Wesley.

 

[brb1006]

What characters are you looking forward to meeting during you're trip?

 

[FlaggNL]

Loved the old TRs!!!!

Thanks for taking your time

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

We did overlap! We were there September 24 - October 4th. So. Much. Rain! I read later that it was the rainiest September for Orlando in 100 yrs! We still had a blast, but I agree - was so over ponchos and being soaked!

We only have done MVMCP once, and our son was pretty little (1 1/2). It happened to rain that night too, and those two things combined kind of interfered with fully enjoying the event (got there late bc the monorail was down and the ferry line was craaaaaazy backed up, had to leave early, couldn't run around as quick as we wished). But - Parade was magical, and we loved seeing it snow on Main St. Everything felt so festive! Ride lines were pretty short but we mostly wandered that night. Took some wonderful pictures, including our Xmas card shot ! We attended MNSSHP in September and just loved it!! Really looking forward to heading back to the Christmas celebration and hope we love it just as much as Halloween!!

We arrive December 3rd this upcoming trip. So darn excited to see the World at Xmas!! In case we overlap parks on our upcoming trip, here is a recent pic of us from our Outer Banks, NC trip. Chelsea, Phil and Wesley.
View attachment 98641

Chelsea, have no idea how/why I missed this until just NOW! We are trip twins. Our trip begins December 2nd!!! Seriously hoping for 1) dry weather this time around and 2) the Christmas decor is fabulous because the Hween stuff was so fun. We should just not pack ponchos. Maybe that won't tempt the weather this time! Does your son know the trip is happening yet, or are you surprising him?

 

[ColoradoEquestrian]

What characters are you looking forward to meeting during you're trip?

I'm not too much of a character meet-and-greet gal, but I think Gaston would be fun!