Pre-Trip When one trip becomes TWO! Now we're going in January 2016

This plan all started with a November trip for 2016...

Okay so I am planning to retire in 2017 so a last blast kind of trip was in order (not that we won't be back; we just don't know when we'll be back). Our favorite time to visit WDW is in the fall but recently our daughter has been doing cross country running at school and we weren't sure if she was going to continue once she got to high school. That's over with by mid-October but when can we take her out of school without missing too much. I know...a holiday would cushion the absence and in 2016 Veteran's Day is on a Friday. We could do a check out and hit the road Thursday, finish the drive Friday AM and hit the park with Friday, Sat, Sun, Monday being park days (I wanted Tuesday also but the hubby wanted it shorter so the school miss wouldn't be so bad), drive home on Tuesday, and back to school Wednesday. Her 15th birthday is that Monday.

She was bummed about the shorter trip so we offered that we could either do that one or go for the whole week of Thanksgiving (did that in 2014). She wanted the birthday trip.

A pin code comes in the mail...this got the hubby thinking. Christmas break was like 3 weeks and she's off the whole first week of January...

"What if we go after New Year's, then the short November trip wouldn't seem so wee. Is that crazy?"

Why would he ask me that?

"No, that's not crazy at all. Let's do it!"

So we are. Okay, I want to post a picture so I can make sure I can do it and then I'll get back to the pre-report.
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This is Princess Meagan on our first trip in 2005.
 
Click to expand...
jjbuster2

jjbuster2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yay! I hope everyone else can see the picture. Now I'll do introductions.

Julie (me)
Brent (the hubby)
and Meagan (the princess and sometimes hooligan)

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This is Spring Break 2014.

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This is what I always feel like I look like in pictures.

We actually didn't use the pin code because the offer on their website was better. We wanted Wilderness Lodge but there was no availability for the deal, our usual stomping ground POFQ did not seem to be an option either. We looked on the monorail loop and quickly realized what they would let us have was way out of range, so Caribbean Beach it is! We did dining reservations last night but can't do fast passes for two weeks. I had no trip planned when I when I got off work on Friday and now I'll be making fast pass reservations in two weeks!

January 1 -Everybody will be off work/school so we're going to start making our way south and get as far as we can. Last time we did the two day drive we made it to Live Oak near where I-10 meets I-75. Maybe we can make it to Gainesville this time.

January 2- Saturday-Finish the drive and check in at CBR. We got a preferred room so maybe we're not to far out there. We stayed here once long ago but it was a trip with a cruise so we were not here but a couple of days (3 maybe?). MK is open until midnight so that's probably where we'll end up (not until midnight though ;)) and dinner will be The Grand Floridian Cafe. We've been there twice and it's really good...a hidden gem, if you will.

January 3- All (or most) of our past trips have something in common...Animal Kingdom Sunday! Breakfast is Rainforest Cafe and late lunch at Ragland Road. We're doing Ragland as a transition point for if/where we park hop. Never been there before; I hope it's good.

January 4-Hollywood Studios in the AM with Mama Melrose lunch. We went there a couple of times on the early trips but found other dining that we like. Meagan doesn't remember it so it will be like a new place to her. We have MK penciled in for the evening hop.

January 5- EPCOT has the late night on Tuesday so we got a 5:30 Rose & Crown. They didn't have anything even close to Illuminations time so we'll just do like we usually do and stop wherever we are in the world and see what we can of it. Nothing's been decided on that morning so it'll be like "What do you want to do today?"

January 6- The park hours have started tapering off pretty good by now so the one that's open late gets our evening vote. MK is the winner here so we've put in a 5:00 at The Wave. Never eaten here but the menu seems good. The morning park will be wherever the winds take us...

January 7-All parks are closed by 9:00 so whatever we do we're going to end this with an 8:30 Boma and waddle back to the resort after. Love this place; it has become a must do for us.

January 7- Friday is going to be a jam packed day of eating (as well and last minute must do's-last park day) 11:00 BOG for lunch and we're going to close down Hollywood Studios with a late Sci-Fy dinner.

And then drive home...10 hours. But up until that part it'll be fun :D

I'll let ya'll know how the fast pass reservations go...
 
jjbuster2

jjbuster2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Added Kona breakfast on Thursday where we have Boma dinner. That still leaves all parks on the table for fast passes that day but I get the feeling it might be a MK morning after breakfast.
 
jjbuster2

jjbuster2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It's Fast Pass Day! I'll have to wait until I get home from work though. It'll be the usual suspects I suppose...we're not really ones for waiting around for parades and Meagan's not into character meets so roller coasters and other headline attractions are likely (at least I hope we can get some of that :)).
 
jjbuster2

jjbuster2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Got the Fast Passes! Actually, we calculated wrong and Monday was 61 days so it was last night that we did them. And then there was Meagan...she twisted her ankle running on Monday so Tuesday she needed and x-ray and a splint so it was like 6:00pm by the time we got to do them but the good thing is that there is no break in her ankle and it is just a sprain so she has two months to recover before we walk around the world. When she was in 2nd grade she broke her arm in gymnastics class and we took her to Disney like that. That was fine; she/we had a great time and we just avoided a few hurky/jerky rides and all was good. I cannot imagine doing Dis with someone in our party with a lower extremity injury!
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Awe, see her little purple cast on her arm...doesn't seem to bother her though.

Anyway, Fast Passes! We've got some good stuff but let me just say that the tiered system at EPCOT and HS are just not right...Hey, let's put all the good stuff in tier 1 and you can pick two of the other five attractions for tier 2. Makes sense right?

Without doing a full on chart for which day/what thing, this is what we have:
MK-7Dwarf (twice-different days), Buzz, Space MT. (twice), Pooh, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder MT., Peter Pan
AK-Everest, Dinosaur, Safaris
HS-ToT, TSMM, Star Tours (twice), Rock-n-Roller Coaster, Voyage of Little Mermaid
EPCOT-Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Figment (Oh pooh, it looks like Soarin' is getting it's refurbish while we're there.)

The only real hiccup is Pooh actually. We have dinner at The Wave (5:00 pm) in the Contemporary that night and MK is open late so that's our park. I got Haunted Mansion and 7 Dwarf after dinner just fine but the only thing I could get for Pooh was during dinner. I tried switching attractions but all of a sudden nothing was available after 5:30! So I kept Pooh Bear and backed it off to a 3:30-4:30 window which, if we keep it, will have us clown-fishing in and out of the park around dinner. Maybe something else will open up before then.

We have other must do attractions but we'll dot them around our Fast Passes. We still have one day and one other night unaccounted for as far as not being committed to a certain park via dining or fast pass plans. We'll have several visits to MK and HS with only a couple to EPCOT and one to AK. Those last two seem to be likely candidates to fill the voids. Gosh with Halloween over and the Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays coming, this trip is going to be here in no time! Yay!
 
jjbuster2

jjbuster2

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I did find out more on Soarin'...
It goes down for refurbish on Monday January 4. We were planning on Animal Kingdom Sunday with no plans for the evening. We're not willing to give up our AK Fast Passes to get EPCOT ones but I think we will go to Epcot on Sunday evening and see if we can get lucky with the stand by line...maybe if we stay until park closing, we could catch a break there at the end.;)
 

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