We always knew this day would come...this is most likely our last September PTR

Hi all. Well, we're under 180 days now, so it's time for the annual PTR. Before we get into the details, first the introductions:

(this is probably our favourite family picture - we had it taken last year at EPCOT). From left to right...Our DS Liam (10), DW Tammy (I'm not stupid enough to put her age...), Me (Graham (38)) and Our DS Stephanie (12).

First let me say that we are really looking forward to this trip. We came home from our last trip really excited about going again, and then the company I work for announced a huge company-wide reorganization that put any vacation planning on hold. Four months of uncertainty followed, until I was called into my director's office in late January to be told that my position and the group that I lead were all staying as is. Talk about relief. So with that out of the way, we started planning our next trip...

Our current plan is to be down at WDW from Sept 18th to Sept 27th. We have a 1 bedroom villa at Kidani Village - standard view (we stayed here last year and loved it). March 22nd was our 180 day mark, but I had problems using the on-line reservation system in the morning, so had to wait until after work to book our ADRs. I was a bit concerned that some of the more popular places would be booked, but everything worked out great. Here's what we have:

Sept 18 - 'Ohana
Sept 19 - Be Our Guest
Sept 20 - Sci-Fi (Liam's choice)
Sept 21 - Rose & Crown
Sept 22 - Whispering Canyon (Steph's choice)
Sept 23 - Boma
Sept 24 - Teppan Edo
Sept 25 - Cape May Cafe
Sept 26 - Mama Melrose
Sept 27 - Liberty Tree Tavern

We're not sure if there is anything "extra" we want to do this year. I love the MNSSHP, but we've done it 3 times now. I would do it again, but may have to convince the better half that it would be fun again. We also really loved the water parks last year, so may add that on. There has also been talk of the Dessert Party if that is extended to September. We'll wait and see though. I'm also really looking forward to getting the Magic Bands. I hate carrying around a wallet with all the room keys in them.

As the title says, this is probably our last September trip. This will be Steph's last year before high school, and we don't think it will be wise to take her out of school any more (we always clear our September trips with the kids teachers and make sure they have work to do to keep up so they aren't behind when they get back). We've always loved travelling in September due to the lower crowd levels (and it works best from my work schedule), but it looks like we'll have to pick another time of year to go after this year (or a cruise maybe).

 

[foreverbelle]

Since you're in Virginia, I'm pretty confident we don't work at the same place. Regardless, it's never an easy time no matter where you are when things like that happen and there is nothing you can do but wait.

Oh exactly....I agree with you there. Best of luck and will be waiting on a TR when you return.

 

[gwhb75]

So we finally booked our flights this weekend. We have an 8:00am flight out of Buffalo and a 5pm flight home. We also added a breakfast reservation at Whispering Canyon on our last day since we're going to be there for a good chunk of the day now. We're doing something a bit different with our flights this year, in that we're using two different airlines. We fly down on Southwest (actually, Air Tran - has anyone flown with them before? How does the seating thing work with them? We've only ever flown Southwest so we were used to the boarding groups/cattle call thing), and we fly back on Jet Blue. Now that the flights are booked it seems a bit more "real".

 

[TheMouseFan]

We always fly Airtran as they are the only one that has a direct flight to MCO from Dayton. I always pay the fee to get assigned seats ahead of time because I'm afraid that otherwise the 5 of us wouldn't end up together and it's a necessity with young children. I think you can pick seats when you check in if you didn't pay extra. You are able to check in 24 hours before the flight online. Hope that helps! Have a great trip!!

 

[gwhb75]

We always fly Airtran as they are the only one that has a direct flight to MCO from Dayton. I always pay the fee to get assigned seats ahead of time because I'm afraid that otherwise the 5 of us wouldn't end up together and it's a necessity with young children. I think you can pick seats when you check in if you didn't pay extra. You are able to check in 24 hours before the flight online. Hope that helps! Have a great trip!!

Thanks. We actually booked our flights through Southwest, so we can't pay the fee to get our seats in advance. Fortunately, our kids are a bit older (12 and 10), so it's not too big a concern if we can't all sit together. We'll definitely be on-line at the 24 hour mark though.

 

[gwhb75]

You know...you'd think after planning for 6 trips we'd have this thing down pat. A few days ago we were looking through our dining reservations and I came across a mistake I made...I have a whole extra day in there. Our dining reservations were as follows when we first booked them:

Sept 18 - 'Ohana
Sept 19 - Be Our Guest
Sept 20 - Sci-Fi (Liam's choice)
Sept 21 - Rose & Crown
Sept 22 - Whispering Canyon (Steph's choice)
Sept 23 - Boma
Sept 24 - Teppan Edo
Sept 25 - Cape May Cafe
Sept 26 - Mama Melrose
Sept 27 - Liberty Tree Tavern

Problem is, the Liberty Tree reservation on the 27th was at 6:30pm, and unless Jet Blue has some crazy way to make this happen, we're going to be about 1/3 of the way home by then. I'm glad we found this out now as opposed to when we got there. My wife is a big Liberty Tree fan, so we had to make some adjustments (we normally change things a few times between original booking and our final list anyways). Here's the revised list:

Sept 18 - 'Ohana
Sept 19 - Be Our Guest
Sept 20 - Sci-Fi (Liam's choice)
Sept 21 - Rose & Crown
Sept 22 - Whispering Canyon (Steph's choice)
Sept 23 - Boma
Sept 24 - Teppan Edo
Sept 25 - Chef Mickey's
Sept 26 - Liberty Tree
Sept 27 - Whispering Canyon (for breakfast)


One other thing we've been talking about is trying to find things we haven't done before that we'd like to try (not rides...we've already done all of those at least once). Here are a few things I've come up with:

1) Watch fireworks (preferably Hallowishes) from the Top of the World Lounge
2) Try the new pirate adventure game in Adventureland
3) Have counter service meals from countries we've never eaten at before

I'm sure we'll think of more over the next few months.

 

[farrellbarrel]

I like the changes! September always looks like a great time to go down, that's when I plan to go once I graduate and finally get my DVC membership.

 

[gwhb75]

I like the changes! September always looks like a great time to go down, that's when I plan to go once I graduate and finally get my DVC membership.

Thanks. September is a fantastic time to go. If you go late enough in September you can go to one of the Not So Scary Hallowe'en parties which is fantastic. Also, the crowds are much lower. The only risk you take is that it is hurricane season, but we've never had a problem (the closest we came to having a problem was our first trip when hurricane Ike was heading towards Florida. It hit the keys on the day we were flying down, but didn't hit mainland Florida).

 

[gwhb75]

So, we're fast approaching the under 100 days mark and starting to get more into the planning mode (yes, we do the preliminary planning at the 180 day mark, but then really get into planning the closer we get). Yesterday we made two changes to our ADRs

1) we replaced Teppan Edo with Sanna. The reviews for Sanna all look outstanding, and we are always up for trying new places (we've already done Teppan Edo). We're actually pretty pumped about this one.

2) Changed the time of our Rose and Crown reservation to as late as possible (7:05 was the latest we could get). We're hoping to get seats out on the patio and watch Illuminations from there.

That's it for now. We are considering the Photopass + thing this year. Has anyone done that? Was it worth it?

That's it for now. More to come I'm sure.