We are going back! Some of you may have read my 2 trip reports from 2014, some of you should check those out: Winter 2014 http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/the-cold-rainy-and-first-ever-trip-report.879967/
Fall 2014 http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/a-very-dapper-not-so-scary-sept-oct-trip-report.891476/
Essentially Cara and I had so much fun during both our trips, but especially during the fall trip. We loved being there during Epcot Food and Wine, Mikey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, and the Dapper Day Fall Event, that we told ourselves we had to come back during that same time, and guess what? It's happening!!!
Who
My wife Cara and I, we are both 31, well we will both be 32 by the time this trip starts. We lived in New York City for the past 7 years, but we just recently moved to the city of brotherly love, Detroit.
Two friends of ours, Heidi and Brian, also in their early 30s, may be joining us. They just don't know for sure yet.
Once again we will be staying at the Boardwalk Inn. We thought about staying somewhere else, primarily Beach or Yacht Club, since they are in the location we like best, within walking distance to Epcot and DHS, but the prices for those 2 were much higher than BW at the time, even BW only had water view rooms available. I double checked a few weeks later to see if prices had gone down, they had, it seems either there was a plethora of cancelations, or Disney released more rooms. We thought about rebooking, but ultimately decided we would try the water view room at Boardwalk Inn. One day, I will stay at each monorail resort. We just like Epcot a lot, especially during F&W so walking back and forth to there is great for us.
Itinerary (so far...)
We head for Orlando Friday, September 25th, leaving Detroit Metro Airport at 7:50 pm and arrive in Orlando at 10:26 pm. This is much later for us than usual, we usually leave at the crack of dawn and try to get a full day of fun in. This usually backfires and we need naps. Instead we are trying to leave right after work on Friday, and be able to wake up fully rested for a wonderful semi-rested trip. We have no idea what we can do for dinner that night, hopefully something in Disney Springs is open late that serves food. If not, airport food it is!!
Day 1 - The (Disney) world is our oyster! We will probably head to DHS. On each of our previous trips together our first ride of the trip has always been Star Tours, we both want to keep this tradition alive! We have dinner plans that night at Citricos at 7:25, we have never eaten there and are both excited to try it. After dinner we plan on heading over to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours which run until midnight, and since we won't have flown in that day, maybe we can actually make it until midnight!
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom day, there are morning EMHs here this day, assuming we wake up in time, we will get there in time for that. We are having breakfast at 10:25 at Tusker House, I have heard good things about this character breakfast so I am excited to try it. Cara is always concerned the characters will skip us since we have no kids at these meals, so far we have only had one sub-par character interaction, and that was Pluto at the Ohana breakfast, he kind of just waved at us and kept moving. There is a lot we have not done at AK before, Festival of the Lion King, the bird thing whose name I can't remember, Finding Nemo the Musical, Kali river rapids. I am really hoping we get to experience some of these this trip, we always get caught up talking to CMs at AK about the animals, I love how passionate they are. If I worked at Disney this is the park I would want to work at, with the monkeys, to be specific. For dinner, we have ADRs at Le Cellier at 8:15. We know people seem to have mixed feelings about this place, but we still enjoy it, we have had the same fantastic server both times we have been, and have always found the food to be very good, although, I do need to try Yachtsman sometime.
Day 3 - Not too much planned this day, I think this will be a fantastic day for one of our favorite activities, drinking around the world!!! We had a blast doing this last year, and met a lot of fun people while we did it, and also ate a lot of great things that F&W had to offer. I know there are some people who are not too fond of what goes on in the World Showcase this time of year, I for one am a huge fan of the Epcot atmosphere during this fantastic event. We do have EMHs at DHS and late dinner reservations at Todd English's Bluezoo at 9:45.
Day 4 - I would love for us to get to MK for rope drop today, but the chances of that happening are astronomical, we will be there most of the day though. We scored 10:25 reservations at Crystal Palace! I am so excited to have breakfast lasagna. I like having the late breakfasts too, when we do this we tend to skip, or share a small lunch, and save a little money over having 3 full meals each. It kind of serves as a brunch really. We have dinner scheduled at 6:15 for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. I have consistently heard great things about this show/meal, so I am very excited, Cara is a little nervous that it won't be fun for adults with no kids. We were only able to get tier 3 tickets, if this drastically takes away from the experience please let me know. After dinner Epcot has some night EMHs that we want to take advantage of.
Day 5 - We have this scheduled as our "day off" we have talked about extending our trips and taking it easy one day in the middle of the trip. See, when at Disney I am going a mile a minute, I would do rope drop until they kick me out of the park every day, getting on every ride I could, Cara, likes doing things at a more relaxed pace, so we came up with this plan. Sleeping in, maybe resort hop a little, hang out at the pool, potentially visit a spa, or just casually eat more in the WS. Even though this was Cara's idea, I am very excited to see how it works out and hope this becomes how we handle all of our visits in the future. We are on the waitlist for Victoria and Albert's that night, and we both have our fingers crossed, if it doesn't work out we have reservations at Monsieur Paul at 7:30.
Day 6 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!!! We loved this event last year, the parade, the fireworks, short lines, special meet and greets, costumes, candy!!! We knew we were going to attend again. We were thinking about costume ideas from the moment the party started for next year, some top contenders included the couple from the ToT pre-show, complete with make-up to make us look black and white. As of right now though, it appears like Cara will be going as the red head from Pirates of the Caribbean, anyone who has any advice on costume making please offer and help you can. As for me, I haven't decided yet, right now I am thinking Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, I could also go as one of the Pirates from the Red Head scene. What do you all think?
Day 7 - We plan on going to Universal all day, we want to check out Halloween Horror Nights, and see the new Harry Potter stuff, plus we are huge Simpsons fans and will always be excited about visiting the Simpsons area of the park. I have hear Uber is a fantastic way to get to Uni from Disney and we will probably test that theory this day. As for dinner, we will probably just eat at Uni, which isn't as exciting as eating at WDW from what it seems.
Day 8 - Dapper Day! Last year we arrived on Dapper Day and had to wear our finery on the plane ride, not the best idea. We really enjoyed this unofficial event last year, it's really fun seeing so many people dressed up at the park. Last year things were kept confined to DHS, they haven't released the details for this year, but we are going to assume the same as last year, until we hear otherwise, as a result we have dinner reservations at the Brown Derby at 7:15 at 12:45 lunch reservations at Sci-Fi. If we have to change those, so be it, no big deal. If you will be in WDW on this day, look up dapper day, and you should plan on packing some fancy outfits, you will not regret it (unless it is 100 degrees).
Day 9 - Our last day, I am pretty sure we will spend it at Epcot, getting any last F&W things in that we want to try. We will also probably try to have lunch at Coral Reef, I should go see if I can get ADRs there after this. On our last two trips we had reservations there, on our last day, and both times ended up canceling them for other things lol. Our flight back to Detroit leaves at 4:00, but that is not fun or exciting.
I am willing to bet a lot will change in the next 100 days, I wanted to wait to write this until about the 60 day mark but I couldn't wait. There was a little scare for awhile with work denying the trip request, but everything is hunky dory now, and my excitement went up to 11! If you will be in the world during these dates, hit us up, we are always looking for partners to drink around the world with! Thanks for reading!!
Fall 2014 http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/a-very-dapper-not-so-scary-sept-oct-trip-report.891476/
Essentially Cara and I had so much fun during both our trips, but especially during the fall trip. We loved being there during Epcot Food and Wine, Mikey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, and the Dapper Day Fall Event, that we told ourselves we had to come back during that same time, and guess what? It's happening!!!
Who
My wife Cara and I, we are both 31, well we will both be 32 by the time this trip starts. We lived in New York City for the past 7 years, but we just recently moved to the city of brotherly love, Detroit.
WhereOnce again we will be staying at the Boardwalk Inn. We thought about staying somewhere else, primarily Beach or Yacht Club, since they are in the location we like best, within walking distance to Epcot and DHS, but the prices for those 2 were much higher than BW at the time, even BW only had water view rooms available. I double checked a few weeks later to see if prices had gone down, they had, it seems either there was a plethora of cancelations, or Disney released more rooms. We thought about rebooking, but ultimately decided we would try the water view room at Boardwalk Inn. One day, I will stay at each monorail resort. We just like Epcot a lot, especially during F&W so walking back and forth to there is great for us.
Itinerary (so far...)
We head for Orlando Friday, September 25th, leaving Detroit Metro Airport at 7:50 pm and arrive in Orlando at 10:26 pm. This is much later for us than usual, we usually leave at the crack of dawn and try to get a full day of fun in. This usually backfires and we need naps. Instead we are trying to leave right after work on Friday, and be able to wake up fully rested for a wonderful semi-rested trip. We have no idea what we can do for dinner that night, hopefully something in Disney Springs is open late that serves food. If not, airport food it is!!
Day 1 - The (Disney) world is our oyster! We will probably head to DHS. On each of our previous trips together our first ride of the trip has always been Star Tours, we both want to keep this tradition alive! We have dinner plans that night at Citricos at 7:25, we have never eaten there and are both excited to try it. After dinner we plan on heading over to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours which run until midnight, and since we won't have flown in that day, maybe we can actually make it until midnight!
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom day, there are morning EMHs here this day, assuming we wake up in time, we will get there in time for that. We are having breakfast at 10:25 at Tusker House, I have heard good things about this character breakfast so I am excited to try it. Cara is always concerned the characters will skip us since we have no kids at these meals, so far we have only had one sub-par character interaction, and that was Pluto at the Ohana breakfast, he kind of just waved at us and kept moving. There is a lot we have not done at AK before, Festival of the Lion King, the bird thing whose name I can't remember, Finding Nemo the Musical, Kali river rapids. I am really hoping we get to experience some of these this trip, we always get caught up talking to CMs at AK about the animals, I love how passionate they are. If I worked at Disney this is the park I would want to work at, with the monkeys, to be specific. For dinner, we have ADRs at Le Cellier at 8:15. We know people seem to have mixed feelings about this place, but we still enjoy it, we have had the same fantastic server both times we have been, and have always found the food to be very good, although, I do need to try Yachtsman sometime.
Day 3 - Not too much planned this day, I think this will be a fantastic day for one of our favorite activities, drinking around the world!!! We had a blast doing this last year, and met a lot of fun people while we did it, and also ate a lot of great things that F&W had to offer. I know there are some people who are not too fond of what goes on in the World Showcase this time of year, I for one am a huge fan of the Epcot atmosphere during this fantastic event. We do have EMHs at DHS and late dinner reservations at Todd English's Bluezoo at 9:45.
Day 4 - I would love for us to get to MK for rope drop today, but the chances of that happening are astronomical, we will be there most of the day though. We scored 10:25 reservations at Crystal Palace! I am so excited to have breakfast lasagna. I like having the late breakfasts too, when we do this we tend to skip, or share a small lunch, and save a little money over having 3 full meals each. It kind of serves as a brunch really. We have dinner scheduled at 6:15 for the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue. I have consistently heard great things about this show/meal, so I am very excited, Cara is a little nervous that it won't be fun for adults with no kids. We were only able to get tier 3 tickets, if this drastically takes away from the experience please let me know. After dinner Epcot has some night EMHs that we want to take advantage of.
Day 5 - We have this scheduled as our "day off" we have talked about extending our trips and taking it easy one day in the middle of the trip. See, when at Disney I am going a mile a minute, I would do rope drop until they kick me out of the park every day, getting on every ride I could, Cara, likes doing things at a more relaxed pace, so we came up with this plan. Sleeping in, maybe resort hop a little, hang out at the pool, potentially visit a spa, or just casually eat more in the WS. Even though this was Cara's idea, I am very excited to see how it works out and hope this becomes how we handle all of our visits in the future. We are on the waitlist for Victoria and Albert's that night, and we both have our fingers crossed, if it doesn't work out we have reservations at Monsieur Paul at 7:30.
Day 6 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!!! We loved this event last year, the parade, the fireworks, short lines, special meet and greets, costumes, candy!!! We knew we were going to attend again. We were thinking about costume ideas from the moment the party started for next year, some top contenders included the couple from the ToT pre-show, complete with make-up to make us look black and white. As of right now though, it appears like Cara will be going as the red head from Pirates of the Caribbean, anyone who has any advice on costume making please offer and help you can. As for me, I haven't decided yet, right now I am thinking Star-Lord from Guardians of the Galaxy, I could also go as one of the Pirates from the Red Head scene. What do you all think?
Day 7 - We plan on going to Universal all day, we want to check out Halloween Horror Nights, and see the new Harry Potter stuff, plus we are huge Simpsons fans and will always be excited about visiting the Simpsons area of the park. I have hear Uber is a fantastic way to get to Uni from Disney and we will probably test that theory this day. As for dinner, we will probably just eat at Uni, which isn't as exciting as eating at WDW from what it seems.
Day 8 - Dapper Day! Last year we arrived on Dapper Day and had to wear our finery on the plane ride, not the best idea. We really enjoyed this unofficial event last year, it's really fun seeing so many people dressed up at the park. Last year things were kept confined to DHS, they haven't released the details for this year, but we are going to assume the same as last year, until we hear otherwise, as a result we have dinner reservations at the Brown Derby at 7:15 at 12:45 lunch reservations at Sci-Fi. If we have to change those, so be it, no big deal. If you will be in WDW on this day, look up dapper day, and you should plan on packing some fancy outfits, you will not regret it (unless it is 100 degrees).
Day 9 - Our last day, I am pretty sure we will spend it at Epcot, getting any last F&W things in that we want to try. We will also probably try to have lunch at Coral Reef, I should go see if I can get ADRs there after this. On our last two trips we had reservations there, on our last day, and both times ended up canceling them for other things lol. Our flight back to Detroit leaves at 4:00, but that is not fun or exciting.
I am willing to bet a lot will change in the next 100 days, I wanted to wait to write this until about the 60 day mark but I couldn't wait. There was a little scare for awhile with work denying the trip request, but everything is hunky dory now, and my excitement went up to 11! If you will be in the world during these dates, hit us up, we are always looking for partners to drink around the world with! Thanks for reading!!
