I can’t believe we are FINALLY less than thirty days from our long-awaited return to Walt Disney World! Here are some things to consider as you round the corner for your final thirty days before your vacation:
Confirm/Add Dining and Fast Pass Plus Reservations: At 45 days out, people that had booked tentative vacation plans will firm up their plans. Often, this results in cancellations, both in Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) and Fast Pass Plus (FP+) reservations. What this means for you (and me!): If there was a ADR or FP+ you wanted, you might get lucky. My rule of thumb is to check a few times a week on the couple of ADRs I was not able to get for our trip. I am already pretty happy with my FP+ reservations, so I’m not messing with those, but if I wasn’t, I would absolutely be checking and making changes as availability changed.
For this trip, there were several ADRs I wasn’t able to get, primarily because of the “early” Thanksgiving this year, and the resultant higher crowd levels than I am used to. Our trip ends up falling the weekend before Thanksgiving and a LOT of people head to Orlando for Thanksgiving week. The crowds are projected to hit peak levels by Sunday, and this definitely impacted my ability to book the meals I wanted to book for us, even though I booked as soon as our 180 day window opened up. Specifically, I wanted to do at least one more character breakfast, either at Magic Kingdom or Epcot. I keep checking, but alas, nothing has opened up. I’ve also checked for Be Our Guest reservations for breakfast or lunch as an alternative, but nothing has opened up there either. That’s a different reservation as it’s a “Quick Service” restaurant, but I still prefer to have a reserved spot rather than just wait in line. The other one I’ve been trying to get is a change to our Tusker House character breakfast on Monday, November 20. We currently have an 8:10 am reservation, which was the earliest reservation I could get, and worked when I booked it as the park opens at 9 that day. BUT Disney has since added Extra Magic Hours for that day at 8 am (AACK, now 7 am!), and I sure don’t want to spend that extra “Magic” time with lighter crowds at breakfast! Most likely will cancel, but in the meantime, I keep trying, hoping a 6-7 am will open up for us.
Review and Confirm Flight Information. I booked our flights back in June; I have often had flight times changed by the airline as the date of flight draws closer. The airline doesn’t always notify me (in my experience), so I’ve learned to double check. In this case, our outbound flight was originally scheduled for 9:05 am, with a scheduled arrival in Orlando at 12:40 pm. Unfortunately, that has changed slightly. We now depart at 9:47 am and land at 1:35 pm. Not a whole lot I can do about it, but at least I know. The worse impact is on our return flight. It now leaves Orlando almost two hours earlier than originally scheduled. THIS change pretty much completely kills my plans to visit Disney Springs on our last day. I had made a lunch reservation at the Boathouse that will have to be cancelled as it’s for 12:30, and we’ll need to be at the airport by then. I always hate leaving at the end of a vacation, and having the airline steal two of my last hours from me makes me very sad. Again, not a whole lot I can do about it, and at least I know and can change our plans to make the best of that morning…but I’m BUMMED.
No, we’re not flying Alaska Airlines OR going to Disneyland. But how cute is that plane?
Review and Confirm Transportation Plans. This is a big one for us this trip—still trying to decide what to do. As you may or may not know, Disney offers FREE transportation to your Disney resort hotel to and from the airport, called Magical Express. They will retrieve your luggage, and transport it to your resort for you, and deliver it to your room within 3 hours of your arrival.
Disney also offers FREE transportation between resorts and theme parks via monorails, buses and boats. The advantages of Disney transportation is obviously, it is free. Also, you don’t have to worry about navigation or getting lost. As long as you make sure the sign on the front of the bus says it’s going where you want to go, you’re good to get there. Generally, Disney transportation will get you closer to the “front door” than parking in the lots will. Disney transportation is easy to use, and often results in fun additional stories for your vacation memories as you meet and talk to other passengers on your mode of transportation. These are all good things.
The problem is that I’m a control freak. I admit it freely and clearly. I don’t have a lot of patience, especially when it comes to going from park to park. Disney recommends you allow AT LEAST an hour to go from point A to point B if you are using Disney transportation. When we are ready to go, I like to GO. I don’t want to wait. I like the freedom of having a car. I like the freedom of knowing that if we need to leave property and go to the grocery store, we can. I like the freedom of knowing that if I want to leave the park in the middle of the day and go to another park, or back to my hotel, I just have to get to the car, I don’t need to wait for a bus or a monorail. But given our current financial situation, is it smart to rent a car? Maybe not. I found a pretty good deal, and I have a car reserved for us at the moment. But I’m wrestling with the decision. I hate buses. I tend to get carsick. Even the bus that goes to the rental car places at the airports can make me ill. But we’re staying at a monorail resort that is walking distance from the Magic Kingdom. So, we have two parks that we will definitely NOT drive to—MK and Epcot. It’s just easier to walk or take the monorail. That leaves general errands, getting to and from the airport, going to Disney Springs potentially on the way to the airport, and driving to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. I WANT to have a car. I like having a car. I like driving around Disney property. I like driving to different resorts and going exploring. I don’t want to NOT have a car. BUT it would be smarter to NOT rent a car. So I’m debating.
Currently have a reservation and I continually check for better rates. Also on my list: I have to call and find out if we can rent the car we have on reserve currently with a debit card instead of a credit card. Again, given our current financial situation, this may be a deal breaker. And the reality is, we don’t have a lot of fluff time built into this trip. The only real “exploring time” we have is the day we arrive and the day we leave. I don’t know. Hate to give up the car, but….
Start Planning Touring Strategies. It’s time to start thinking about your strategies for each park. Let’s face it, you don’t want to wait in long lines and you want to maximize your time at attractions your group wants to do. Review your Fast Pass Plus reservations, park hours, ADRs and start to make a plan of attack. I tend to have a loose strategy, based on my experience over the years and many, many park visits, but I also visit sites like Disboards and Touring Plans and review their strategies and advice.
At thirty days, I also check Disney’s posted park hours and fireworks/evening entertainment schedules as those often change closer to trip time. Especially around the holidays, Disney pretty frequently will add hours and/or second shows, based on anticipated demand. I believe Disney HAS extended park hours for several days of our trip; however, their website has been down a LOT the last few days and I haven’t been able to confirm on their site. I have a full-time job (and a second job too!) and unfortunately, I can’t play on the internet all day. Bummer. Fortunately for me, I also use TouringPlans.com, and they are great about updating park hours and show times.
As suspected, park hours have already changed:
Friday, November 17: No change so far on this, our first full park day. We are planning to hit Epcot, which is currently scheduled to be open from 9am to 9 pm, with Illuminations at 9pm. We had an Illuminations Dessert Party for our guests on our wedding day, so this show holds a lot of sentimental value for us and will be a highlight of the day for us for sure! We’ve got ADRs booked for lunch at Via Napoli and dinner at Le Chefs de France (one of our favorite restaurants at Disney theme parks).
Saturday, November 18: I have planned this as a Magic Kingdom day. We have ADRs for lunch at the Plaza and dinner at the Jungle Skipper’s Canteen. Original park hours were 9 am – 10 pm, with Happily Ever After Fireworks at 10pm. NEW HOURS: 8 am – 12 am; Fireworks still at 10 pm. This changes our plans for that day…not by a lot, but it does relieve a little pressure and ensures we take an afternoon break. We’ll plan to walk over to the park around 7:15, and will probably leave shortly after lunch to return to the resort and rest for a few hours. While the crowds will be high, I think with a good touring strategy, we’ll be able to do everything we want to do and not wait in significant lines. I’m pretty happy with the three hours Disney has added. Means a nice relaxing afternoon break for us for sure!
Sunday, November 19: This day is planned as a Hollywood Studios day. When I originally booked our ADRs, the park hours were 9 am to 8 pm. Disney later added EMH for 8am. I cancelled our breakfast reservation at Hollywood and Vine, partly because the last time we did that one it was terrible and partly because if it wasn’t going to be something we could do BEFORE the park opened, I didn’t want to do it. We also have ADRs for lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater (a FAVORITE of our, so FUN) and the Hollywood Brown Derby for dinner. Now the park hours have been extended to 9 pm and they’ve added a Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! Parade at 8 pm. Not sure yet if we will check that parade out as Fantasmic is currently scheduled at 8:30 pm and we enjoy that…but we have seen Fantasmic several times and may want to take advantage of lighter crowds in the park during that last hour before it closes—and we’ve never seen the Jingle Bell Jingle BAM parade.
Monday, November 20: Wow this one has a big change, so glad I checked! We are planning Animal Kingdom for Monday, November 20. Crowds are at peak levels on this day as Thanksgiving week has arrived. I’m expecting crazy crowds. Original park hours were 9 am to 7 pm. Later, EMH got added for 8 am. NEW Hours are now 8 am to 10 pm, with EMH at 7 am!! Also they’ve added two shows of Rivers of Light: one at 7 pm and one at 8:45 pm. I may completely re-work our touring strategy for this day…I’m very excited to see Rivers of Light, and Animal Kingdom is SO beautiful at night. Very excited they’ve extended the hours BUT I had planned to go back to MK maybe (or at least our resort) to watch one last Happily Ever After fireworks at 10 pm…may need to rethink that. (And see where the car comes in handy? We could stay as late as 9:15 at AK and comfortably make it back to MK for fireworks by 10 if we have a car. If we are using buses? Probably need to leave by 8:30, just to be safe.)
Tuesday, November 21: This is our last day, and now, thanks to earlier departure flight, probably means we won’t do much at all. MK opens at 8 am instead of 9 am, so maybe we’ll stop by one last time for an hour or two before we go, assuming we’re all packed. More realistically, we will probably use the morning to pack and IF WE HAVE A CAR, visit Disney Springs and at least the GIANT World of Disney store on our way to the airport. {Sigh, the thought of leaving is already making me sad and we haven’t even gone yet!!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I’m a little crazy!}.
Review and Confirm “Other” Reservations. For us, “Other” includes our Owner’s Locker. Owner’s Locker is a service we use to store a box full of “stuff” in Orlando in a temperature controlled environment. It’s a genius idea and a GREAT solution for frequent Orlando vacationers. Basically, you get this big purple plastic storage tote, it’s 20” x 22” x 13” deep. They deliver it to your resort on the day you arrive. The first time, it’s empty. You fill it with non-perishable items you don’t want to have to pack and carry down every time you visit. On the last day of the trip, you pack it up, zip tie it closed, and they come and pick it up and take it back to the warehouse. Next trip, they deliver it to your resort on your arrival date. Once you check in, you tell Bell Services you have an Owner’s Locker and they will bring it to your room. (Side note: They’re usually heavy, packed with all your stuff, so be prepared to tip the bell person a little bit). Owner’s Locker also will store golf clubs; they rent strollers, too.
Our membership includes one visit per year; additional visits are $27.50 per visit. We keep all kinds of stuff in ours. Shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, hair spray, a frying pan and burner (we usually stay in DVC studios that don’t include a stove), rain ponchos, general first aid supplies like band-aids and blister packs…. all kinds of stuff. It makes packing for our Disney trips a lot quicker and easier. We basically just need to worry about clothes. This trip, we’ll have to clean our box a bit, as there’s been an unplanned delay of three years between visits. No doubt some stuff has expired or deteriorated. This service is especially perfect for DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members as most DVC members visit at least once per year, but I think it’s great even if you are a regular vacationer that tries to visit every 10-18 months. Especially if you have kids…lots of stuff you want to have “just in case” but don’t always want to take up suitcase space with…store it in a locker.
There’s a onetime fee at the beginning of $75 and then you pay annually, based on how many lockers you have and which plan you select. There’s a basic storage plan, where you pay $85 per year, and just pay the $27.50 each time you visit. {Prices are based on ONE locker}. This plan is best if you don’t visit every year. There a moderate plan, which is $105 per year, and includes one visit per year. Finally, there’s a Deluxe plan that is $196 per year, but includes unlimited visits. For us, it’s been a pretty good deal. Especially in years where we went a few times. We can pack in 20 minutes and head to the airport. (NOT that my husband would ever be happy with that…he’s a planner…likes to be organized and packed WAY ahead. I’m just saying we COULD pack and leave in 20 minutes!) They deliver the lockers to the resorts in a purple van…if you ever see a bright purple van zipping around Disney property or at Orlando resorts, it’s probably Owner’s Locker. When the box is delivered and we open it, it’s a little like Christmas. This time, it’s been forever since we’ve seen our beloved park bag with all it’s pins…Can’t WAIT to see it again!
Plan for Real World Complications: Now’s the time to make sure your pet sitter or house sitters are confirmed. Make sure you know when you need to refill your prescriptions, and that you won’t be running out of critical medication while you’re on vacation. If you’re going to be gone for more than a few days, you may want to place a vacation hold on your mail and newspapers. Now’s the time to start making plans for coverage at your job. Remind your boss when you’ll be gone, and let them know your plans for getting the important stuff done while you’re gone. For previous trips for us, this meant processing payroll and taking employee and vendor phone calls at the parks…fortunately, my current job is a little less demanding and will more easily wait for me while I’m on vacation. I’m processing some things early before I go, and a few things will have to be done FIRST thing on my first day back, but for the most part, my company won’t be TOO affected by my absence this trip. But it’s important to make a list of everything you do that’s mission critical that may come up while you’re gone, and have a plan to make sure those things get addressed or at least, have a plan to deal with it if a ball gets dropped while you’re gone. You don’t want to come home to giant piles or big fires…it will make vacation a punishment and not a reward. Knowing its covered while you’re gone will make your trip MUCH more enjoyable. Confirm the plan for when you get home: are you picking your pets up that night, or the next day? Are you dropping the kids off at your mom’s as soon as you get home or a few hours later? Are you going straight to work from the airport? How are you getting to and from the airport? Will you drive and park? Uber? Cab? Is a family member or friend taking you? Now is the time to get that all figured out. Side note: If you park at the airport, take a picture of where you parked your car. And where it is in proximity to the transportation pickup point. One year, we spent a LONG time in blazing heat trying to find our car; we’d written down the lane number, not realizing both sides of the building used the same lane numbering strategy and we were on the opposite side of the building. OOPS!
Check the Weather. Check the planned weather for the time you are going and start thinking about what you want to pack.
Plan ahead…we use the guest room bed, just like my mom taught me when I was a kid 😊 and start putting things on the bed that we think we’ll want to take. It’s our anniversary trip and I have a few surprises planned, so not EVERYTHING will go on the guest room bed but we’ll start the piles in the next week or two. Note: Make sure to check the weather when it gets closer to your trip date. One year, the weather changed dramatically a couple days before our trip, and the originally predicted 70’s and sunny changed to 40’s and SNOW. Yes, we went to Disney in early November and had SNOW. And it hadn’t snowed in Chicago yet that year. Ay yi yi! While it was a good excuse to buy some new sweatshirts and some Disney gloves, it’s usually better (and more economical) to pack for the right weather!
Break in your Shoes. I think I mentioned this in a previous blog post, but if you are getting new shoes for your trip, get them now and start breaking them in. If you’re not getting new shoes, make sure whatever shoes you are taking are comfortable and that you’ll be ok standing and walking in them for 12 plus hours per day, up to five miles (on average) per day. If the answer is NO, better come up with a back up plan!
Online Check-in/Add Celebrations. Anytime after thirty days, you can check in for your resort reservation online. This simplifies and expedites check-in (theoretically) when you arrive at your resort. This is also the time when you can make room requests and/or add celebrations to your resort reservation. At the moment, the online functionality is NOT allowing you to add celebrations; you’ll need to call Disney to do that. It’s a nice touch though. If you’re celebrating a birthday, they’ll have a birthday button ready at check-in for the celebrant, and they’ll usually wish them Happy Birthday. In our case, we’re celebrating our wedding anniversary AND Frank’s birthday, which falls the day after we get home. It only takes a few minutes, and while you should never EXPECT cast members to do anything special for you, the additional information SOMETIMES can result in something special. Note: If you call to add a celebration to a trip, you will need your reservation confirmation number. DVC Members will also need your DVC Member ID.
I’m planning a little something special to help us celebrate our anniversary, but I’ll tell you about THAT in a separate post. HINT: It involves CAKE.
Well as usual, I’ve probably told you way more than you EVER wanted to know. And of course, I have lots more to share in future posts 😉. Just can’t seem to help myself. And I’m so excited to share my first trip report with all of you once we get back!
Happy Dreaming,
Brooke
