I thought I should write this quickly as after almost a year of solid planning I realise it is now only 5 weeks until my 3 week long double Disney adventure. How did THAT happen?? I will be leaving home (Auckland, New Zealand) in the evening on the Thursday 19th of November to board my time travel machine, arriving in Los Angeles on the morning of the 19th of November. I will stay for 6 nights at Disneyland: 3 nights at the Camelot Inn and 3 nights at the Disneyland Hotel. On the evening of the 25th I take the Sunset Limited train to New Orleans arriving late on Friday the 27th and staying there until Monday 30th of November when I will fly to Walt Disney World. I will stay 3 nights at the Art of Animation in a Little Mermaid room and then 8 nights at the Yacht Club before flying home, a mammoth 17 hours in a plane, separated by 9 hours sitting at an airport.
How do I come to be taking a trip to both US Disney parks at the same time you ask? Hey, thanks for asking! Well, It has been 14 years since my only trip to Disneyworld which took place in the days after 9/11 as I was on a flight to the U.S when the attacks happened. I have always wanted to go back at a less awful time, to do a Disney Christmas and to stay at Port Orleans or the Wilderness Lodge. Finally, this year I was able to go but was feeling daunted by the length of the trip to get there. Given that I have to fly to Los Angeles anyway before I could get to Orlando, and Disneyland is right there, and I haven’t been able to go to Disneyland either for 10 years, and Disneyland is my “local” Disney park, well , how could I not go to Disneyland as well? So, to cut a long story short I’m doing both resorts because I really really want to!!
Given that it has been so long since I have been I have devoted a lot of time and energy to planning my trip and have enjoyed every minute of it – I feel like I’ve turned my three week holiday into a year of happiness. My favourite resources for planning and enjoyment (other than this site of course) have been vlogs such as see ya reel soon, tim tracker, fresh baked Disney, iThemepark, Justin Scarred and Adam the Woo. My favourite has been Tom Bricker's disneytourist blog – which has great photos, informative articles and most importantly is hilarious.
I made bookings at almost every hotel in the WDW and area before settling on my current bookings. I knew I wanted to spend part of my time at AoA so I booked a Little Mermaid room quite early as thanks to these boards I knew that the room was unlikely to be discounted. When the discounts were announced for my dates there were no Wilderness Lodge or Port Orleans rooms available so I booked the Boardwalk Inn which had a pretty good price. I felt good that I was staying at a deluxe resort that was so close to the action. Then I started to stress about the price and the plunging kiwi dollar so kept looking for cheaper rooms and finally a royal room at Port Orleans Riverside opened up so I cancelled the Boardwalk Inn.
As soon as I did this I felt sad that I had given up my room and even though I had always wanted to stay at Port Orleans I felt that I had made the wrong choice. I tried to get my Boardwalk Inn room back but it was gone and I never saw a standard room at that resort for my dates again. I put this lack of interest in staying where I had thought I wanted to stay down to the fact that I was going to actual New Orleans on this trip which may have reduced my interest in staying at a New Orleans themed resort? Who knows right?
Then I booked at the Animal Kingdom in a standard room and felt good about that choice: a Deluxe room for not that much more than the royal room at Port Orleans. Then a few weeks later I was checking availability again and saw that a room at the Yacht club was available. This resort had never figured in my thoughts before as I don't like nautical theming! However, it would get me back to the Epcot area and I love the outside of the resort if not the actual rooms.
So, I made another change and settled finally on AoA followed by an expensive resort whose theming I am kind blah about but which has a great location. Do other people do this – think endlessly about hotel rooms they will probably spend very little time in?
My dining reservations are made: I will be eating at Blue Bayou and Carthay Circle at the Disneyland resort and at WDW I have made reservations for BOG breakfast and lunch, Tusker House and the Sci Fi Diner. I hope to book the Jungle cruise breakfast at Disneyland if some availability opens up for my dates at and have my fingers crossed for the Jungle Cruise Skippers restaurant to be open while I’m there as well. Other than this I am looking forward to eating Plaza Inn fried chicken, dole whips and even more dole whips but with RUM!!! (thank you Animal Kingdom).
I have my accommodation booked, fastpasses booked, memory maker booked, tickets bought, camera bought and all I need to do now is wait. I hope some people are interested in my pre-trip report and the trip report I plan to write. I have had so much enjoyment and learnt so much from reading peoples reports and seeing their photos and I hope that people will find mine useful as well.
I’m not sure where to put my trip report with it encompassing both Disneyland and Disneyworld – half of it will be irrelevant to the Disneyworld boards and vice versa. Perhaps I could split it? Does anyone have any advice?
How do I come to be taking a trip to both US Disney parks at the same time you ask? Hey, thanks for asking! Well, It has been 14 years since my only trip to Disneyworld which took place in the days after 9/11 as I was on a flight to the U.S when the attacks happened. I have always wanted to go back at a less awful time, to do a Disney Christmas and to stay at Port Orleans or the Wilderness Lodge. Finally, this year I was able to go but was feeling daunted by the length of the trip to get there. Given that I have to fly to Los Angeles anyway before I could get to Orlando, and Disneyland is right there, and I haven’t been able to go to Disneyland either for 10 years, and Disneyland is my “local” Disney park, well , how could I not go to Disneyland as well? So, to cut a long story short I’m doing both resorts because I really really want to!!
Given that it has been so long since I have been I have devoted a lot of time and energy to planning my trip and have enjoyed every minute of it – I feel like I’ve turned my three week holiday into a year of happiness. My favourite resources for planning and enjoyment (other than this site of course) have been vlogs such as see ya reel soon, tim tracker, fresh baked Disney, iThemepark, Justin Scarred and Adam the Woo. My favourite has been Tom Bricker's disneytourist blog – which has great photos, informative articles and most importantly is hilarious.
I made bookings at almost every hotel in the WDW and area before settling on my current bookings. I knew I wanted to spend part of my time at AoA so I booked a Little Mermaid room quite early as thanks to these boards I knew that the room was unlikely to be discounted. When the discounts were announced for my dates there were no Wilderness Lodge or Port Orleans rooms available so I booked the Boardwalk Inn which had a pretty good price. I felt good that I was staying at a deluxe resort that was so close to the action. Then I started to stress about the price and the plunging kiwi dollar so kept looking for cheaper rooms and finally a royal room at Port Orleans Riverside opened up so I cancelled the Boardwalk Inn.
As soon as I did this I felt sad that I had given up my room and even though I had always wanted to stay at Port Orleans I felt that I had made the wrong choice. I tried to get my Boardwalk Inn room back but it was gone and I never saw a standard room at that resort for my dates again. I put this lack of interest in staying where I had thought I wanted to stay down to the fact that I was going to actual New Orleans on this trip which may have reduced my interest in staying at a New Orleans themed resort? Who knows right?
Then I booked at the Animal Kingdom in a standard room and felt good about that choice: a Deluxe room for not that much more than the royal room at Port Orleans. Then a few weeks later I was checking availability again and saw that a room at the Yacht club was available. This resort had never figured in my thoughts before as I don't like nautical theming! However, it would get me back to the Epcot area and I love the outside of the resort if not the actual rooms.
So, I made another change and settled finally on AoA followed by an expensive resort whose theming I am kind blah about but which has a great location. Do other people do this – think endlessly about hotel rooms they will probably spend very little time in?
My dining reservations are made: I will be eating at Blue Bayou and Carthay Circle at the Disneyland resort and at WDW I have made reservations for BOG breakfast and lunch, Tusker House and the Sci Fi Diner. I hope to book the Jungle cruise breakfast at Disneyland if some availability opens up for my dates at and have my fingers crossed for the Jungle Cruise Skippers restaurant to be open while I’m there as well. Other than this I am looking forward to eating Plaza Inn fried chicken, dole whips and even more dole whips but with RUM!!! (thank you Animal Kingdom).
I have my accommodation booked, fastpasses booked, memory maker booked, tickets bought, camera bought and all I need to do now is wait. I hope some people are interested in my pre-trip report and the trip report I plan to write. I have had so much enjoyment and learnt so much from reading peoples reports and seeing their photos and I hope that people will find mine useful as well.
I’m not sure where to put my trip report with it encompassing both Disneyland and Disneyworld – half of it will be irrelevant to the Disneyworld boards and vice versa. Perhaps I could split it? Does anyone have any advice?
I thought that our 9 hour flight was long! Enjoy the pre feelings! You will be there before you know it! Hope to see gtrip reports from bogth parks here!! Absolutely following along!
