Trip Planning - Disney Castle Dreaming Travel

When to go???

The number one question I get from people about traveling to Disney is WHEN? When is the best time to go?

The short answer? It DEPENDS. There are a ton of factors to consider. The weather, the crowds, pricing, discounts, work schedules, school schedules, special events, new attractions, closing attractions, budget concerns…A Walt Disney World or Disneyland vacation is an expensive trip, and to maximize the value you receive for your family or traveling group, you want to make sure that you are choosing the best time FOR YOUR SPECIFIC FAMILY, depending on what is important to you.

For example, we are right now planning a big extended family trip to Disney for 2019. This trip will include my parents, my husband and myself, and my brothers and their families—which will include two high school age kids, and two elementary school age kids. A couple of factors are playing into our decision of WHEN to go.

First: Budget and time for everyone to SAVE. Originally, we’d talked about planning the trip for the fall of 2018. However, we quickly realized that it would be too difficult for everyone to save enough money to pay for the trip in time (about 1 year out when we started tentative conversations). All those kids are expensive, 😉! We determined that planning a trip two years out gave everyone more time to budget for the trip. Not that it necessarily takes two years of concentrated saving to afford a Disney vacation, but let’s face it…the bigger window you have to figure out how to pay for something, the easier it can be to figure it out! As a family, we’ve already discussed that the Christmas holiday nearest our trip will be a no-gift exchange Christmas—we will all focus most of our holiday budgets towards the trip. If budget or time to save isn’t a concern for your family, this is a consideration you can skip.

Second: School schedules and work schedules. When I plan trips with my husband, I pretty deliberately choose dates when I know kids are in school, because that helps a little bit with crowd volumes. However, when traveling with the extended family, school schedules are a BIG factor. Especially for the older kids—we really don’t want to pull them out of school for more than a day or two…but you also don’t want to go to Disney for a 2 or 3 day trip. If school schedules are your MAIN concern, you would most likely plan your trip for the summer months, or during Christmas break or Spring Break. The challenge with that strategy is that every other parent planning a Disney vacation is looking at those same weeks or months for THEIR trips…Crowds during Christmas and Spring breaks are MAMMOTH. The last two weeks of December and most of April are considered “Peak” periods at Disney, and you’ll see the highest resort room prices and the highest crowd volumes of the entire year during these periods. Summer is not quite as crowded, but you still see fairly high crowd volumes during the summer months. For many, the intense heat and humidity in Orlando during the summer months can be detractor for those months. For others, the heat is not an issue and the summer months are the ideal time to visit—especially if you want to include the water parks in your vacation plans.

Personally, I struggle a LOT with the high temperatures and humidity in the summer months in Orlando, so we tend to avoid going during those months when I plan trips for us. My May trips with my mom for Epcot Flower and Garden Festival tend to be pretty warm (at least for me), but the beautiful May weather is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to heat in Orlando during the summer. If you’re from the South or just used to warmer temperatures in general, the heat and humidity of the summer season in Orlando may not phase you at all. However, I will point out that the heat is harder on older people so if your group includes some seniors, you may want to factor that in…Also heat and humidity can contribute to irritability and hot tempers…and the heat can negatively effect even the sweetest most well behaved children! So again, it may be something you want to consider.

Another consideration, some companies are very strict regarding WHEN employees can take time off—for example, if you’re an accountant, you most likely can’t plan your vacation any time between November 1 and April 15. Teachers generally can’t take time off during the school year. If you are in landscaping, you probably don’t want to travel during your busiest seasons. You get the idea, I’m sure. Everyone’s situation is unique, and it’s important that you don’t try to shoehorn your family vacation into a mold that doesn’t really work for you. Just because February 15 was the PERFECT week for your neighbors that had such a wonderful trip doesn’t mean it’s the best week for YOUR family.

Once mom and I ruled out Christmas and Spring Break and SUMMER, we started looking at 3-4 day weekends that come up during the school year. Over the years, we’ve identified that we personally like traveling to Florida in the Fall…so we looked primarily at October and November. We don’t know what “teacher institute” days or special school specific days off may be, but we know that Columbus Day and Veteran’s day are always days that the schools are closed, so we focused on those dates, initially. If you can carve out a 3-4 day weekend by using a school holiday, you can fairly easily carve out a 5-7 day vacation—and the kids are only missing 2-3 days of school instead of 3-4. Of course, if it’s super important that the kids miss NO school at all, you will either have to decide to travel during Christmas break, Spring break or the summer break. It’s really all about YOUR priorities and the priorities of your group.

Third: Special Events and Celebrations: Are you wanting your trip to coincide with a particular scheduled event or celebration? For example, is attending the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom a priority for your group? If so, coordinating your trip to include the official celebration will probably trump some of the other concerns. If you like to attend the Epcot Food and Wine Festival in the fall, your trip planning window will shrink to the 8-10 weeks that the Festival runs. Or if you are planning your family vacation around another event with a firm date, like a wedding or a birthday, you may place a higher priority on that event or celebration than on crowd levels or discounts.

In the example from above, our 2019 trip with the extended family, we are also planning our trip around the new Star Wars themed land, Galaxy’s Edge. Some members of our group are BIG Star Wars fans, so once we knew Galaxy’s Edge was coming, we knew that we wanted to be sure we could include that in the big family trip. Originally, it looked like Galaxy’s Edge would open mid 2019. Earlier this week, Disney announced that Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland will open in Summer 2019, but Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios in Florida is scheduled for “Late Fall” 2019. Mom and I quickly convened for a pow-wow on this issue…we know that late fall could mean November 1…but it could also mean December 20. Or later—especially if Disney falls behind schedule. Since being able to check out Galaxy’s Edge is such a big deal for our family, we immediately ruled out both the October and November 2019 dates we’d been considering, as we are pretty sure the land is unlikely to be opened by then. We are now looking at going the first week of January 2020. The dates we are now considering have an added benefit of still falling during the kids’ winter break from school, but are after the holidays, so most families have completed their holiday travel and are back home—hopefully this will mean lighter crowds for us! We also may be able to add a couple more days to the trip since we are not trying to squeeze it around a three-day weekend with a school holiday. Given our financial strategy to help diffuse the costs of the trip by taking most of the money we all would have spent on Christmas gifts and activities for each other, and putting it towards the trip, mom and I think putting the trip AFTER Christmas all helps with that strategy, especially for the kids…Santa Claus will still come, of course, but Mom and Dad won’t be getting everybody lots of presents—but hey, we are all going to Disney in 2 weeks, yay!

Fourth: Attractions and activities: Something else to think about: if you have a beloved attraction that you MUST visit while at Disney for your trip to feel “complete”, you may want to take a look at the refurbishment schedules. Disney tends to do a lot of minor refurbishments during “slower” periods—not that there’s really ever truly “slow” periods anymore. But for example, there tend to be more refurbishments in January and February. There’s usually a crane near the castle for a couple of weeks when they are putting the holiday lighting in place, and again when they take it down…If having the crane in your pictures with the castle will break your heart…plan your trip AWAY from those weeks. Disney doesn’t always give a ton of notice when they will be doing refurbishments, so a little bit of this will be luck, but they do make some announcements months in advance—especially for major refurbishments, when an attraction will be down for months. Disney tends to do the water park refurbishments on a pretty regular schedule, so if you desperately want to include Blizzard Beach in your trip, check previous years to see when that park has closed for refurbishments, historically.

You may also want to consider what, if any, non-Disney activities you want to include in your vacation. For example, if you have always wanted to see a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral, check THAT schedule when planning your trip. If you’re planning to include a visit to Tampa, or to Daytona Beach, you will want to take a look at special events or challenges that happen in those areas.

Fifth: WEATHER. This is a big one, but may end up not being a high priority for many people, depending on what other things you’re considering. The great thing about Florida is that is has better weather than much of the country for much of the year. However, there are some challenges. As we discussed earlier, it can get very hot and very humid in the Orlando area in the summer. It can also be buggy in the summer. Hurricane season is officially June 1 through November 30. Now, it’s pretty rare for a hurricane to come that far inland, however, it’s NOT unusual for Orlando to be hit with tropical storms during particularly busy hurricane seasons.

Orlando has about 30 days of what most of us would consider “winter” each year. Those thirty days happen sometime between November and March..and tend to show up in little 3-5 day increments…We’ve had years where we visited in early November and had temperatures in the eighties…and we’ve had years where temperatures were in the low forties.

So…you may want to factor in the weather when choosing when you want to go. If you really want to go swimming or visit the water parks while in Florida, you want to be sure to go when temperatures will be warm enough for you to swim. Note: People from Florida may think it’s too cold to swim when it’s 70, but people from Wisconsin visiting in February may think 65 is warm enough…Your mileage may vary, depending on where you are from and your tolerance for temperatures.

You also need to consider your weather where you are traveling FROM. Last year, hundreds of flights were cancelled from the northeast due to snowstorms…it’s important to give the weather in your origin location at least a passing thought. While most of us probably wouldn’t mind being stranded in Florida for a few extra days, it would be very upsetting to be stranded at your home airport, unable to GET to Florida at all.

As you can see, there are a number of different factors that you’ll want to consider when deciding WHEN to go. It’s important to give at least a little thought to these different things as you’re planning…but of course, it’s also important to understand that nothing will ever be exactly perfect–and you don’t want to get so hung up on choosing the “right” time to go that you make yourself (and your family!) miserable.

In the example I’ve been using today, mom and I are pretty firmly decided now on January 1-7 or 8th…we may move the dates by a day or two, based on airfare challenges, but we are pretty committed at this point. Once you decide when you’re going, start planning on making THAT trip on THOSE dates the best trip you can. If you keep changing your mind on your dates, you’ll end up losing time and energy that would be better spent on other planning aspects! Of course, we remain cognizant that a lot can happen over the next two years that could impact our planned dates—we can’t even book our resort for another 18 months! So while I will be paying attention to major announcements, as always, and stay aware of major factors that could impat our trip, we are going to march forward with our planning based on a January 2020 trip.

Are you in the midst of planning a trip? When are you planning to go? What issues are important for you and your family??

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Note: If you need help planning your next Disney parks vacation, Disney cruise vacation, or Adventures by Disney vacation, please contact me at brooke@disneycastledreaming.com.

It’s All in the Attitude

One week to go!!

Next week, Mom and I head to Disney for a Mother/Daughter weekend, and I am BEYOND excited. We did these annually for a few years, until wedding planning and then financial strain put those weekend trips out of reach for a while. We’ve both really missed them, so this year, we decided to try again.

My work situation is different this year, which makes the trip a little bit easier. The last couple of trips we were only able to go for basically 2.5 days, which hardly made the trips worth it, financially. They’re ALWAYS worth it for the Mom/Daughter factor and of course, for the Disney factor, but with airfare and ticket prices, it’s hard to justify the expense for a trip that short. This time, we’re going down on a Wednesday morning and heading home on Monday night, so we have a few extra days to really enjoy ourselves.

And…get this…I’ve even planned a non-park/Rest day in the middle!!! Crazy, right? Seriously, I’m so used to planning quick or short trips, I never allow R&R time…as a result, we usually come home EXHAUSTED. Not this time! I still have a lot of fun planned for us, but I did plan some down time…both in afternoon “breaks” and with our rest day. This trip is all about having fun with Mom—but it’s also important to both of us that we NOT wear ourselves out!

A big focus for us this trip is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. My mom is an EPIC gardener—her yards have always been the best in the neighborhood! And Epcot is just SO SO SO gorgeous during Flower and Garden. This trip, I’ve planned two visits to Epcot so that we can really take our time and “drink it all in”.

While we are (hopefully) missing the majority of the Spring Break peak crowd madness, I am expecting significant crowds. Let’s face, Disney just doesn’t seem to ever have slow periods any more…and attraction lines just keep getting longer, even when perceived crowd levels are low. When temperatures are higher, it can feel (at least to us Northerners from cooler climates) more crowded, and sometimes, the heat can raise tempers as it raises body temperatures.

Something that has always helped Mom and I on these trips is EXPECTING it to be crowded and adopting a very relaxed attitude about it. We went one year right in the peak period of Spring Break, that was just the way it worked out that year, and we had a WONDERFUL trip—MAINLY because we had the right attitude! We focused on what was REALLY important—spending time together, soaking up the Florida sunshine, enjoying great meals, and having fun. Did we ride every attraction? Nope. Did we cover every park, stem to stern? Nope. Was it super crowded? Heck yeah! But we just did our best to stay relaxed, and we took lots of breaks to sit down, drink some water (or a glass of wine 😉) and people watch.

I think back to a really crowded trip I did about, goodness almost 20 years ago now, at Christmas time, and I’ll be honest…I did not love that trip. I actually did not visit Disney again after that trip for 7 years. And for a long time, I blamed the crowds, the lines, and the attitudes of others before I realized that it was MY expectations that had led to my disappointment. I LOVE Disney, and I had set such high (and honestly, unreasonable) expectations for that trip, and as a result, I did not enjoy it as much as I could have. I focused on silly “little” aggravations instead of focusing on what was really important…the people I was there with, the magic of Disney, having FUN, and making the best of the VERY crowded conditions.

So that’s my message for today: Traveling to Disney during the holidays, or during Spring Break, or during a very busy and HOT summer season CAN still be a terrific time, you just need to manage your expectations and make choices that make sense for you and your family or traveling companions.

Don’t plan to do “EVERYTHING” on everybody’s wish lists…Pick a FEW priorities to focus on each day…if you’re able to do those things, you’ll all feel like you had a great day…and if you squeeze a few more things in…you’ll feel even better.

If you like attractions, accept that you will be waiting in lines. Lots of them! Even the Fast Pass return lines can get really long on crowded days. THINK about the lines before you go. What attractions are you willing to wait one hour plus for? Are there any? What if EVERYTHING has a one hour wait? What will you choose? What can you do in line to entertain yourselves? We tend to play a lot of Heads Up or Trivia games on our phones…together, not independently.

In our recent epic 2.5 hour wait for Flight of Passage at Pandora in Animal Kingdom (TOTALLY WORTH IT—ONCE….I won’t ever wait that long again, but we completely felt it was worth it the first time, since we did not have a Fast Pass for it that morning), we ended up playing with the two families traveling together that were in line with us. We had a great time getting to know them, they were a lot of fun, and it definitely made the time pass faster. If you’ve got little kids, (or adults with low blood sugar concerns) making sure you’ve got snacks or water bottles in your bag can also be really critical in a long line.

The big thing for us when the crowds are high and the lines are long: take in the “non-ride” based attractions….Disney has SO much more to offer than rides! See the shows…check out the live music. For example, have you ever taken the time to watch the Jamminators perform in Epcot? They are TERRIFIC, and lots of fun!

There are several live performances in the streets of Animal Kingdom you can check out if you pay attention. I LOVE the Streetmosphere players at Hollywood Studios, and could happily spend hours watching them do their thing (most of these are 10-25 minutes). My point is, there is a LOT of “free” entertainment at each Disney park that often gets missed in the rush from attraction to attraction. Watch a caricature artist at work (or get one done…they’re very fun!). LOOK for the little things that make Disney so special…I think you’ll find so much more joy when you do this, rather than focusing on moving from one attraction to the next.

Take pictures. Have fun. Be SILLY. Remember: One of the BEST things about a good vacation are the memories that make you smile–sometimes even YEARS later–when you’re back at your desk at work, or watching your 175th soccer game of the year, or thinking about someone that’s no longer with us. Make sure you are capturing those memories–in your heart and with your camera! (Or phone. Or photopass guy. You get the idea!)

On hot days, I try to make sure we spend some quality time every couple hours in either an air conditioned restaurant or an air conditioned shop. Spread out your souvenir shopping…A little here and there will help keep you cool and get you out of the crazy crowds for a little breather. Note: The shops tend to be VERY crowded at the end of the night—You’ll be happier if you do a little shop exploration throughout the day.

Tip: Did you know that you can have your items shipped directly to your resort if you’re staying on property? This is a great benefit—then you don’t have to carry your bags around with you all day—OR worry about losing them! This won’t work if you’re heading home within a day or so…usually the merchandise arrives within 2 days, but if you check out before it arrives, that would be a problem. Alternatively, you can request your merchandise to be taken to the front of the park to be held for pickup at the end of the day. There is no charge for these services!

Don’t be afraid to take breaks! There is nothing wrong with heading back to your hotel after lunch or after the parade for a couple of hours to rest, go swimming, take a nap or just to get out of the crowds for a while. Trust me, if you’re getting aggravated? You NEED a break! Sometimes people get wrapped up in how much they are spending on their tickets for that day, and they feel like they have to spend every minute at the park to justify the expense…but I’ve learned (the hard way, I have to admit!) that you’ll get more VALUE from your experience if you adopt a bit more relaxed and positive attitude. Take a break here or there, whether that means sitting down and drinking some water and having a Mickey bar, or taking the bus back to your resort for a couple hours–just get everyone off their feet and let them cool off and relax a bit. It will make a BIG difference in everybody’s moods, and their ability to enjoy the rest of the day.

Take a break! (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

SONY DSC

Finally: Spend some time at the end of every day talking about the highlights of your day. What were each traveler’s favorite activities of the day? What was the best meal? Did anything really funny happen? I make envelopes for each day and print forms with some basic questions on them to help us to jot down these memories—super helpful later when you are putting together photo albums, or even just trying to remember and talk about your wonderful trip.

And there’s a bonus–when you take a few minutes to really think about the best moments of the days, those great moments take up more space in your memory, and the little irritations or aggravations fade to the background. Focus on what matters, LOOK for the happy and trust me, you will find it! They don’t call Disney the Happiest Place on Earth for no reason….it really IS…but we each bring our attitudes with us into the parks, and it’s up to US to make sure we are READY to be Happy. Know what I mean?

Mom and I are SUPER excited for our trip next week and we are DEFINITELY Ready to be Happy!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Fast Pass Plus Planning Spring 2018

Today (March 3) marks 60 days until my spring trip to Disney World with my mom for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. I can’t believe it’s coming up so fast!! As you all might recall, I made Advance Dining Reservations for this trip back in December, at 180 days out. (You can read about that here). The next big activity in our trip planning is making our Fast Pass Plus reservations, and today was the day!!

A couple things to keep in mind: In order to book your Fast Pass Plus (FP+) reservations at 60 days out, you must have both a Disney resort reservation AND your ticket media for all guests in your party linked in My Disney Experience online. If you are not staying at a Disney resort, you will not be able to make FP+ reservations until 30 days before your trip. Also, if you do not purchase your park tickets in advance and have them linked in My Disney Experience for EACH guest in your party, you will not be able to book FP+.

I had purchased an annual pass last summer in preparation for my November anniversary trip with my husband. Mom and I had already decided to go to the Flower and Garden Festival this year, so I knew I had at least one more trip within a year—those extra days combined with the food and merchandise discounts available to annual passholders made it an easy decision for me to get an annual pass. Plus, at the time, DVC members were being offered a pretty good deal on annual passes. I did spend a lot of time evaluating the 5 day and 10 day passes first, especially for my husband’s pass…but ultimately decided on an annual pass for both of us. I still have hopes we might be able to do a short visit in the fall before our passes expire, but finances may prevent that this year…time will tell. Regardless, my annual pass was already in my account…but my mom had to get her pass in time so that we could enter the information into My Disney Experience.

As many of you are aware, Disney raised ticket prices in February. Fortunately, my mom purchased her 5-day pass a few days before that increase. She also purchased her pass through Undercover Tourist—which is a great site that does offer a slight discount on Orlando area theme park tickets. Mom purchased her ticket online from Undercover Tourist and received the actual card in the mail a few days later. She immediately took a picture of the back of the card with all the important numbers on it (this is a critical step, just in case you ever lose your ticket!) and sent it to me. I used those numbers and added the ticket to my account and assigned it to her. [To add ticket media to your My Disney Experience, log in and choose My Reservations and Tickets. Then click on the Link Tickets button.

Once you’ve selected “Link Tickets”, you’ll see the screen pictured below:

Disney offers several examples of different ticket media to help you figure out what information you need to enter. Once you’ve entered the ID number and hit enter, you’ll be directed to the list of Family and Friends you’ve tied to your account so you can assign the ticket to a particular person. Note: You MUST have the person whose ticket you are adding set up as a Family member or Friend in your My Disney Experience BEFORE you add their ticket media, or you won’t be able to assign the ticket to them. Also, tickets are non-transferable, so don’t plan to share a tickets between family members–it won’t work.

Once you’ve linked the ticket to your account and assigned it to the family member you are traveling with, you will be ready to book your FastPass Plus reservations. (Make sure that your friend or family member is ALSO linked in your resort reservation as a member of your Travel Party…without that, they won’t have the sixty day access that is for resort guests. If you made dining reservations at 180 days, you’ve most likely already done this!)

I had already linked mom in the hotel reservation we have for May 2-7 at Old Key West, and in all the Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) I had made for us for that trip; all that was left was to reserve our FP+. Once her ticket media was linked, I knew I would be able to make FP+ reservations for the two of us at 6 am March 3 (the window opens at 7 am eastern time, 60 days before the first night of your resort reservation). An important note to remember: If you are doing a split resort stay, where you are staying at two (or more!) different resorts during your trip, you will have a sixty-day window for each “leg” of your trip. For example, if you are staying at Saratoga Springs for 2 nights and then at the Grand Floridian for 5 nights, your first sixty-day window will open up sixty days before your first Saratoga Springs night…but you will only be able to book FP+ for the two days of that reservation. You’ll have to log back in two days later for the Grand Floridian five days to open up. If you have any questions about this, please reach out. You can email me at brooke@disneycastledreaming.com if you need help.

To prepare for this morning’s FP+ booking session, I spent about 20 minutes yesterday reviewing the plans I’d already made for our trip. I took a look at which parks I’d planned for which days, and what dining reservations I’d made for each day. This trip, we are visiting parks on both our inbound travel day and our outbound travel day, so I took a look at what times I was anticipating we will have available on each of those days. I made a quick list of the days of our trip, which park or parks I have planned for each day, and which restaurants and the times for our ADRs.

It looks like we will be pretty lucky from a crowd perspective for this trip; estimated crowd levels are relatively low for the days we are there, especially the first few days of our trip. Hopefully, this means that standby lines will be shorter, reducing the need for FP+ reservations and/or increasing our ability to be flexible and reschedule FP+ while we are at the parks. Late March through most of April tend to be very busy at the parks due to spring break visitors, so we deliberately planned our trip for early May, and it looks like it will pay off for us, at least from a crowd perspective. I also like the look of Epcot a lot during May. The Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot runs from February 28 through May 28 this year, and while Epcot is stunning throughout the festival, I think it gets more beautiful later in the festival, as more flowers bloom and plants mature.

Because the Flower and Garden Festival is our PRIMARY motivation for this trip, I’ve planned two days at Epcot this time, and am hoping we’ll be able to take in some of the special presentations and tours offered only during Flower and Garden.

When planning your FP+ reservations, be sure to take into consideration the preferences of everyone in your traveling party. For example, my husband LOVES thrill rides, so when I plan our trips, I make sure I plan for those “exciting” attractions, like Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror or Expedition Everest. My mom does NOT enjoy thrill rides, so I focused more on attractions and shows that she’ll enjoy. If you’re planning for a larger group with diverse interests, you’ll want to either split up a little bit to allow everyone to do the things they want to do, or you’ll want to let each person pick ONE attraction that’s most important to them for FP+ planning and try and balance everyone’s priorities. It can be challenging, but involving the whole group in the planning process can help build excitement and enthusiasm for the trip.

Normally, Saturday is the one day per week that I sleep in a little bit…but NOT today! 😊 That FP+ window is too important! So I set my alarm for 5:45 a.m., and as soon as it went off, I was up and in vacation mode!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Disney is serious about this window…your access to Fast Pass Plus reservations for your trip will not open even 30 seconds early…If you try, you will see the dates after 30 days grayed out. I know it’s hard, but try to be patient. Your window opens at 7 am EASTERN time.

It’s important to start with the Fast Pass Plus reservations that will be most difficult to get. There’s an understandable tendency to want to book each day’s FP+ in order as you’ve planned your trip. BUT, keep in mind that there are thousands of other people visiting the parks the same days you are, and for some of them? Their 60-day window opened a couple days ago because they’re arriving before you. If your most desired attraction is Pandora Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, but you’re not visiting AK until the last day of your trip, waiting even 10-15 minutes to make that reservation will most likely result in either not being able to get a FP+ at all for that attraction, or one much later in the day than you might have wished. I can’t say it enough…the more planning and prep work you do up front, the more relaxed and laid back you’ll be able to be on your trip. So, when you’re planning your FP+ attack, focus on those hardest to get FP+, no matter which day of your trip that park might fall on. Some “HOT” attractions include:

Pandora Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom

Pandora Na’vi River Journey at Animal Kingdom (note: Disney only allows you to book a FP+ for ONE of the two Pandora attractions, so you’ll have to choose!)

Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom

Kilamanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom

Frozen Ever After at Epcot (in Norway)

Soarin’ Around the World at Epcot

Test Track at Epcot (note: Disney places Frozen, Soarin’ and Test Track in one FP+ tier, so you’ll only be able to choose ONE of these, unless you’re visiting Epcot more than once during your trip)

Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios

Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios (note: Disney groups Toy Story Mania, Fantasmic, Beauty and the Beast and Rock-n-Roller Coaster all in one tier, so you’ll only be able to choose one of those!)

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom

Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom

Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom

For us, I had three “high priority” FP+ reservations I wanted to make: Pandora Flight of Passage (Mom loves Soarin’, so I’m hopeful she will love Flight of Passage as much as I did), Frozen Ever After (it’s new since the last time we went, and I want Mom to experience it) and Toy Story Mania (it’s just FUN and we both love it!). Everything after that was pretty much gravy for us—I know we won’t be riding the thrill rides, and we are both big fans of getting to the park early in the morning so we can ride the things we want to ride before the lines get long. This works really well everywhere except for Animal Kingdom Pandora (as I learned the hard way!), so I’m relatively confident we’ll be able to do all the things we want to do, especially with the (relatively) lighter crowds projected for the first few days of our trip.

I was victorious with two of my three goals. I booked FP+ for Pandora Flight of Passage for early evening on arrival day; I booked Frozen Ever After for after lunch on our first Epcot day and I also grabbed FP+ for those attractions on our “return” days at those parks. I’d rather have them and decide to cancel then NOT have them and regret it!

Unfortunately, I was NOT successful with Toy Story Mania. All those FP+ were already gone for the afternoon we are planning to visit Hollywood Studios. And because we are doing two parks that day, we won’t be taking advantage of the early morning arrival to head to Toy Story—we’ll be at Magic Kingdom in the morning. So…odds are fairly high we will miss this attraction this trip. But that’s ok. Soon, Toy Story Land will be opening, and with it, more crowd absorbing attractions AND an extra Toy Story Mania track! So, next trip, it should be easier to book FP+ for this attraction.

Once I had my “hot” FP+ attractions booked, I filled in the days with other attractions, shows and character greetings that I think we’ll enjoy. When I visit with Mom, we tend to be pretty relaxed about our touring, so we may not use all the FP+ reservations that I’ve made, or we may end up tweaking these reservations based on what’s going on each day, but it’s good to have them booked in case there are unexpected crowds, or if we REALLY need a break from the heat.

Reminder: Disney only lets your reserve three FP+ reservations per day, and all three must be in the same park. Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom all use a “tier” system for their FP+ reservations, grouping the most popular and highly sought-after attractions together, and limiting guests to choosing just one of those, with the other two reservations coming from the rest of the attractions that use FP+. As a result, you may find yourself booking a FP+ reservation for an attraction you aren’t likely to need it for, unless you are visiting during busy times. For example, you will rarely need a FP+ to ride Living with the Land at Epcot or It’s a Small World at the Magic Kingdom…BUT if those rides are super important to you and you want to make sure you don’t miss them, go ahead and book the FP+. You can always cancel later if you get to the park and ride the attraction without a line ahead of your FP+ reservation.

Also: After you’ve used all three of your FP+ reservations for the day, you can book additional FP+ reservations, one at a time. Those can be in any park—but again, only one at a time. So, from a strategy perspective, you may NOT want to use a FP+ to book a reservation for something late in the day, like Fireworks viewing, because you won’t get the opportunity to book any other FP+ until AFTER that last one is used. Usually, I won’t book FP+ for the first couple of hours the park is open as USUALLY the lines are pretty short during that time, and I’d rather save FP+ for when lines are longer. But I also like to have used all our FP+ reservations by 3-4pm, so we can book additional FP+ reservations as needed later in the day. So my “ideal” FP+ window is usual from 11:30ish to around 3pm. The one exception to the early morning short lines scenario is Pandora at Animal Kingdom. That area seems to OPEN with already long lines, haha.

Character greetings: I rarely use FP+ for character greetings because I’m usually concerned about getting all those thrill rides in. BUT if character greetings are important to you, book the FP+ reservations…those lines can be maddening, and with FP+, your wait time will drop to minutes (in most cases). I booked us a couple this trip since we had the available FP+ space left, and I like character greetings…I just HATE waiting in line for them. So we’ll do a couple this trip.

Shows: Unless you are visiting at a busy time of year, you usually won’t need FP+ reservations for any of the shows; however, if you want to make sure you have great seats or you’re super concerned about seeing a particular show at a particular time, you may want to use a FP+ reservation to lock that down. This trip, I did use a couple FP+ for show reservations—mainly because both days we are visiting Animal Kingdom are travel days and we have a compressed window of time to visit the park—I wanted to be sure we’d have time to see Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo. In all likelihood, we won’t need them…but why not have them, just in case?

As we get a little closer to our trip, I’ll revisit all our meal and Fast Pass Plus reservations, and make decisions to make changes if necessary. I’m also trying to find out as much as I can about this year’s Flower and Garden Festival, since that’s the big draw for us this trip. Can’t wait to see Epcot in all it’s Spring glory!

Happy Dreaming everyone!

Brooke

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Excitement moved throughout the world of Disney and Star Wars fans yesterday as Disney released a “Flyover” video showing construction progress at the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge “land” currently being built at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Check out the video here.

I don’t know about you guys, but I think it looks pretty impressive. I’m especially excited about the descriptions Disney has posted so far about this “land”. It sounds like they are really going for something truly immersive, and I suspect it will be unlike anything we’ve seen from Disney so far. Scheduled to open in 2019, Disney hasn’t released a whole lot of details about this project yet, so this video is VERY exciting to see.

Technology keeps improving so quickly, and Disney certainly takes advantage of those gains as they design and create new attractions and experiences for Disney fans worldwide. I was so impressed by Pandora when we visited Animal Kingdom in November (read about that visit here), and I think what Disney has planned for Star Wars is light years beyond what they did with Pandora.

Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, I suspect Galaxy’s Edge will still capture your imagination!

Check out this short video that Disney released last year featuring Disney Imagineers talking about the project.

My stepdad took us to see the original Star Wars movie way back a million years ago when it first came out and I can still remember what an impact it had on all of us! We’ve all been fans ever since (well…there were that unfortunate group of THREE movies 1999-2005 that I hated, but otherwise….), and it is so much fun watching the kids of today getting into Star Wars now just as much as we did when we were kids!

I’m really looking forward to seeing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge when it opens, and I’m even MORE excited to visit with my step-dad and brothers because I know they will be AMAZED and thrilled. I just can’t wait!

Take a look at this concept art that Disney released last year:

Does that look out of this world amazing??

How about you? Are you loving the recent additions to the Star Wars franchise? Are you excited to plan a trip to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge??

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

Hollywood Studios During the Holidays!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to update since our trip. I can’t believe how busy it has been since we got back! Between being sick and working LOTS of extra hours trying to earn a little Christmas money, it’s been NUTS!

Getting back on track though. With that said, here’s the first of several posts about our trip.

I have to tell you, I really feel like Disney has upped their game in the Holiday celebration arena in recent years. They’ve always done a good job decorating each resort and they always decorated Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. And they had the Osborne Spectacle of Lights at Hollywood Studios, but unfortunately that closed a couple of years ago. With that gone, other than Christmas Trees at Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, they didn’t do a LOT of decorating in the past at the parks.

I feel like that has changed. During our trip, I felt like the holiday spirit was EVERYWHERE. The Holidays were much more in evidence everywhere we went. If you needed help getting in the Holiday Spirit, Disney is definitely the RIGHT place to be, that is for sure! Going relatively early in the season gave us a nice kickoff to our 2017 holiday season.

Hollywood Studios was where I noticed the biggest change: It looks like Hollywood Studios is really trying to attract crowds this year with their Holiday decor and activities, perhaps partially to make up for all the attractions that have closed to make way for the upcoming Star Wars land and the expansion of Pixar Place? Whatever the motivation, it really scored with us!

I have to add that we LOVED the Osborne Spectacle of Lights that used to be on the Streets of America at Hollywood Studios, and were heartbroken when it closed due to all the refurbishments. We were lucky enough to visit it one last time on the last night of our wedding trip, and I’m so glad that we did! The display was festive and magical and very fun…and we DEFINITELY missed it this year!

The Studios is really trying to still be a destination for visitors wanting Holiday Magic, though…They have added a lot of Holiday decor throughout the park, and they’ve added a new Jingle Jam Jingle BAM show in the evenings that is outstanding. While we still missed the Osborne Spectacle of Lights, we really felt that Hollywood Studios held its own as a Holiday destination with the new additions.

Check out the recently refurbished Echo Lake area at Hollywood Studios! Even Gertie the Dinosaur got decked out for the holidays with the addition of some snow and a giant Santa Hat. There are floating Christmas ornaments all over the lake and a gorgeous holiday tree at one end. It was fun and festive and looked really great at night, too.

One of our favorite activities at Hollywood Studios is to watch the Streetmosphere Character Actors. They come out several times a day, mostly on Sunset Boulevard, in various groupings and do crowd-interactive, at least partially improvisational, performances. And they are TERRIFIC. If you don’t take time to check them out when you visit, you are really missing out!

The Streetmosphere players really embraced the Holiday spirit as well. In one scene we watched, they were a group of singers, trying to get on the Bing Crosby Holiday Radio Show. They did a hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas, with a few members of the audience participating.

Another really funny one we watched was a riff on the Holiday Parade Celebrity Hosting idea. They basically pretended everyone walking by was part of the parade and they threw out jokes and interacted with various “participants” as they went by. Some people really played with them too, it was really funny. It happened to be Dapper Day, so they had a fashion parade at one point, really letting those folks shine!

The Hollywood Studios Streetmosphere players are so talented, and they think so fast on their feet! They really added to our enjoyment of the day, that’s for sure!

Sunset Boulevard has gotten a festive update, and at night…wow. Disney has really embraced their projection technology all over the World and boy is it everywhere at night at Hollywood Studios during the Holidays! The Tower of Terror is the canvas for several themed festive vignettes, set to themed music and coordinated with projections on nearby billboards as well. It’s overwhelming and a little disconcerting to be honest…you see all this festive happy Holiday magic on the Tower…and then people are screaming up at the top of the Tower. You don’t see them, but you hear them, at least a little bit. It was a little odd..but still really really cool. Disney even used the old snow machines that used to over at the Osborne Lights display to make it snow on Sunset Boulevard (I’m assuming they are the same ones…maybe they’re new 😊!). Unfortunately, none of my pictures turned out — the low lighting on the street combined with the quickly moving images on the Tower turned out a big blurry mess on my camera.

Here’s a picture of the Tower from Disney’s website:

And another:

Like I said, it was pretty astonishing. What really blew our minds, though, was the Jingle Jam Jingle BAM show at the parks original landmark, the replica of Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

Much like the shows over at the Magic Kingdom that use the Castle as a giant projection screen, Hollywood Studios uses the Chinese Theatre and surrounding buildings as giant screens for all kinds of holiday magic. Coordinated with music, lights and fireworks, the show is festive and fun.

The crowd around us really seemed to enjoy it, too. Lots of oooo’s and ahhh’s. It was super bright, colorful and to be honest…kinda dazzling!

We really enjoyed seeing Hollywood Studios decked out in her Holiday glory. This park is fairly limited at the moment, as so many areas and attractions have been closed to make way for upcoming attractions…I wasn’t sure we’d be able to make a full day of it. But we had a great day, and it was pretty action packed, too. I’ll give you a full day recap in my upcoming trip report, but I’m happy to say Hollywood Studios during the holidays is a definite MUST-DO if you’re at Disney. There’s still quite a few attractions and activities and the Holiday decor and nighttime entertainment is well worth a visit during your next holiday trip!

Happy Dreaming and Happy Holidays!

Brooke

It was AMAZING!

Hi everyone! I’m back from our wonderful anniversary trip and it was everything I’d hoped for and MORE. I can’t begin to tell you how great it was to FINALLY be back at Walt Disney World!!! We had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

We’ve been back for more than a week now, but it’s been crazy. First, back to work and then to Michigan for a family Thanksgiving and I brought home an ugly cold, BLECH. Sorry I haven’t updated you all yet! Still feeling dreadful and have to be at work extra early tomorrow, so my trip report and the restaurant and event reviews I have planned will sadly have to wait a bit longer, I’m sorry to say!

Here are a few quick pictures to tide you over until I can tell you all about it.

Thanks for your patience everybody! I promise to get lots of juicy updates for you in the next few days! In the meantime, if you have any specific questions, let me know!

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party: Party Map and Schedule Released

Tonight is the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party of the season! Click here to read my detailed post about MVMCP. Disney has officially released the entertainment schedule and the map for this year’s party, so I thought I would share them here with you guys, in case you are planning a visit this year.

No real surprises this year, but here are the highlights:

Holiday Wishes Fireworks: 10:00 pm

Once Upon a Christmastime Parade: 8:30 pm and 11:00 pm

Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration: 7:40 pm, 9:25 pm, 10:30 pm, and 11:55 pm

A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas!: 7:45 pm, 8:35 pm, 9:25 pm, 10:45 pm and 11:35 pm

A Frozen Holiday Wish: 8:15 pm

Club Tinsel (Dance Party): 7:00 pm – 12:00 am at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe

VoicePlay (Rockettower Plaza Stage): 8:10 pm, 9:00 pm, 10:20 pm and 11:10 pm

The map highlights holiday treat locations, character meet and greet locations, attractions open during the party and the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade route.

In related news, Disney Parks hosted a live stream this evening, and broadcast tonight’s 6:15 pm showing of A Frozen Holiday Wish. Did you get a chance to watch it? Here’s a link to the rebroadcast if you’d like to see it: DisneyParksLive: A Frozen Holiday Wish (Replay)

The Disney Parks Blog also released information about the exclusive Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party merchandise this week. Here’s the post: MVMCP Merchandise.

Looks like some pretty cute stuff this year. Can’t wait to see it in person.

We’re attending the party next Thursday, so I’m planning to post updates and a detailed report about this year’s party after my trip. I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself. I think I’m driving my poor husband crazy! Lucky for him, he’s on the road a lot and can escape the madness, haha.

How about you? Are you planning to visit on of the twenty-one Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parties held this season?

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

Planning Ahead: Advance Dining Reservations

In last week’s post, I talked about the advantages and disadvantages of making advance dining reservations (ADRs) for Disney table service restaurants. If you read that post, you know that I am a FIRM believer in ADRs, and ideally, I recommend booking as soon as your window opens, whenever possible.

Currently, I am 8 days away from my November anniversary trip with my husband, and in the midst of planning a spring trip with my mom. This weekend, the 180 day window opened up for the May trip I’m planning with mom, and I promised to let you know how my ADR mission went.

In a nutshell…Very smoothly. I was able to book every reservation that I wanted, and in fact, I booked several extra as I’m not 100% on our vacation schedule and our plans just yet. I’ve set reminders in my calendar to make sure I cancel extra reservations as we get closer to finalizing our plans. It helps that our dates fall in the first week of May—after most of the heavy Spring Break crowds are gone, and before all the kids get out of school for the summer. Generally, this is a slightly less crowded time to visit, and it works perfectly for my mom and I. We’re going the weekend before her birthday and Mother’s Day, and while I’m expecting pretty warm temperatures, the heat and humidity won’t be at the extremes of June and July, making for a more tolerable visit for us northerners.

When mom and I go to Disney, generally the big draw is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. My mom is an avid and gifted gardener, and Epcot is never more beautiful than it is during Flower and Garden. In past years, my job made it difficult for me to take time off work, so our trips were usually very short weekend trips, sometimes two full days, sometimes three. This year, my work schedule is a little more accommodating, so we’re planning a full 5-6 days for our trip, which is very exciting. I’m planning two days at Epcot for sure, and we’ll have one day where we don’t visit any parks at all—probably spend a few hours at the pool and visit Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney).

We have not made flight arrangements yet and Disney has not released official park hours yet, so I’m not able to completely plan our agenda this early. However, I don’t want to lose the advantage that can be gained by booking ADRs 180 days out, so even though I don’t have an EXACT plan yet for our trip, I made a loose plan, with a couple contingencies, and went ahead and booked the reservations that I wanted. That’s the strategy I recommend for you, whenever possible. Take advantage of that early booking window. You can always make changes later!

Key things to think about:

Who is in your traveling party? Are you traveling with kids? With seniors? With people that love sushi or only eat fried food? It’s important to understand WHO you are traveling with. I’ve learned that my trip is much more enjoyable when I plan the trip keeping everyone else’s preferences and priorities in mind.
Are there any special celebrations during your trip? Are you celebrating anyone’s birthday or an anniversary? If so, make sure that at least some of your plans center on that person or that event.
1. Make sure you note any celebrations on both your resort reservation and any meal reservations you make. While you should never expect special treatment, Disney will sometimes add some extra magic to make your celebrations extra special.
2. Make sure you get celebration buttons at the front desk or at guest services. Again, you don’t want to expect any special treatment, but if the person in your group with a celebration is wearing a button advertising that fact, you’ve increased the odds that SOMETHING COULD happen for them. At minimum, they’re likely to get a lot of happy wishes from total strangers, and that’s always fun, right?
How does your party like to travel? Is everyone a night owl that would sooner starve than be up early for breakfast? Or do you have a group of early risers that will be chomping at the bit to get going by sunrise? It’s important to try to structure your touring (and, by extension, your meal plans) to accommodate your group. This minimizes the stress on everyone, and significantly increases the odds that everyone will be happy with your plans.
How many meals per day will your group eat? Some families always eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, while others skip breakfast completely, but might have a late-night supper a few hours after dinner. It’s important to consider the habits and needs of your unique group.
How many days of your trip will be “Park” days? How many will be “Resort” days? Do you have any water park visits planned? How about Downtown Disney? While I don’t want you to feel that you have to nail down exact activities for each day of your vacation, it is a good idea to map out at least a general outline.
Does anyone in your group (or more than one) have a FAVORITE restaurant or quick service meal location that they MUST visit during your trip or [insert dramatic tone here] their “vacation will be ruined!!!” ? (You’d be surprised how often I hear that a vacation will be RUINED if something is left out, or a particular attraction is closed, or it rains, or is cloudy…you get the idea.) Perspective is important! But, while I don’t think we want to assign vacation destroying potential to any one meal or attraction, if your party has favorites, you may want to try to include at least some of those considerations in your planning.
If you have people in your group with very different tastes or priorities, you may find it helpful to give everyone a day where THEY are the primary focus. For example, if you have one kid that LOVES Sci Fi, and the Rock-n-Roller Coaster is their FAVORITE attraction, perhaps you plan your Hollywood Studios day to include lunch at the Sci Fi Dine-In Theatre and fast pass plus reservations for Rock-n-Roller Coaster and Star Tours. Then plan another day around a different child’s interests at their favorite park. If you have eight kids and a 5-day vacation, you may have to get more creative than that, but hopefully, you get the general idea.
What kind of budget are you working with? I’ve found the farther in advance I plan my trip, the better I’m able to manage my budget to make sure we can do the things we want to do. Shorter notice trips generally mean more economical meal and snack choices—perhaps more meals back at the resort or in the room, or perhaps even off property. Eating at Disney is not a budget friendly proposition, so it’s a good idea to review menus and prices when you are planning to help set expectations and to help set goals for pre-trip savings. In the trip I’m planning for the spring, I have a couple higher end meals planned. If, as we get closer, I’m not able to save as much money for the trip as I currently plan, I may cancel or change those reservations. Right now, I have lots of time, so I’m optimistic, but we all know that things can happen to derail the best laid budget plans.

Over the years and planning MANY trips to Disney, I have learned that my strategy in planning a trip for my husband and myself is very different than when I plan for trips that include my nieces and nephews or the trips that I plan for my mom and myself. Consider your audience. Just because your read about “the perfect Disney itinerary” on a Disney trip planning website, doesn’t mean it’s perfect for YOUR group. YOUR perfect itinerary may be very different, based on what is important to your group. AND that may change year-to-year, as your family or travel group changes. Don’t be afraid to re-assess and re-focus during your planning. People change, priorities change and Disney changes.

I realize I’m advocating a lot of planning ahead, both in this post, and in some of my other trip planning posts. And absolutely, I think advance planning is KEY to a successful and enjoyable Disney vacation. BUT, I have also learned to relax a little bit, and to build some flexibility into my plans. I think it’s just as important to include some blocks of time in each day where anything can happen. I might have a loose idea, for example, we will hit Park A, and we will be there ½ hour before the Park opens. We have lunch reservations at X and dinner reservations at Y. I’ll plan some fast pass plus reservations for late morning or early afternoon, and have a plan for where we will start when the park opens. If there is nighttime entertainment, I’ll be cognizant of what time that’s happening and have a general idea of when and where we want to get positioned to enjoy that. Otherwise, I try to relax and see where the day takes us.

The trips I take with my husband tend to be a little more structured, because we both have a TON of favorite attractions and I want to make sure we both get to do as much of the things we like as possible, so I will have a stricter plan of attack, to make sure we get to everything. Trips with kids tend to be much more loosey goosey, just because there are so many variables and unexpected surprises that pop up with kids…you have to be much more flexible—but it’s also critical that you have a broad idea of the major attractions that are a priority because you will have more distractions making it more challenging to stay on track and get the major stuff on your list accomplished.

My trips with my mom are less structured than when I travel with my husband, but more structured than when I travel with children. When I travel with mom, our schedule tends to be more relaxed, and we spend more time sitting, talking, and people watching with a glass of wine 😊 and not quite as much time going from attraction to attraction. I also don’t usually plan any character meals with mom as she’s not really into the character thing. (Although I do generally drag her in for some character photos here and there, and she’s always a good sport about it!)

Also, neither one of us are much into breakfast, so we’ll probably get some bagels or toast and fruit and just eat light breakfasts in our room at the resort. Saves a few bucks and helps get the morning off to a bit more relaxed start. It’s been a few years since our last trip, and I’m really looking forward to some quality time with mom.

I’m hoping we’ll have some time to stop by the newly remodeled Wedding Pavilion where Frank and I got married…I want mom to see it since they’ve redone it. We also may tour a couple of the resorts that have changed a lot in the last few years. I’d love to see the Polynesian now that it has DVC Villas on Seven Seas Lagoon, and Wilderness Lodge now that it has new additions. We’ll play it by ear, but resort hopping is always fun. Lots of great places to sit and relax, have a glass of wine and enjoy the views!! We haven’t decided how many park days we will do this trip yet, so I built a few different options into my preliminary plans.

We will arrive on a Wednesday—since we don’t know yet what time our flights will be, I don’t know if we’ll end up visiting a park that day or not. Usually on a travel day, we’ll visit Disney Springs or check out the Boardwalk area. I made reservations for dinner at the California Grill. Located at the top of the Contemporary Resort, California Grill offers great views of the Magic Kingdom and the Seven Seas Lagoon, terrific food and a diverse and large wine list. An added benefit is that the restaurant features a couple of catwalks where guests can walk out onto the roof and watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks. During the daytime, the catwalks are a terrific location for pictures. I usually try to plan one really good meal during our trips where we can dress up a little bit and take our time and have a leisurely meal. This trip, this is that meal.

I also have an alternative plan, in case we decide to visit a park that day: I booked a dinner reservation at Tusker House at Animal Kingdom with preferred access to Rivers of Light. I don’t expect we’ll end up doing this, but I have a couple of months to make that decision.

Since the primary focus of the trip is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, I’ve planned two days at Epcot: Thursday and Sunday. I made reservations for lunches at Rose and Crown in the UK and Via Napoli in Italy, and our dinners are planned for Chefs de France (in France 😉) and La Hacienda de San Angel in Mexico. These are all places we’ve visited before and enjoyed. Via Napoli was a favorite on the wedding trip, and mom and I both really like Chefs de France, so I wanted to make sure we hit both of those.

Friday is a little up in the air at the moment. We will either do Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios that day. Or, if we decide to park hop, we will visit Magic Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon and evening…probably with a break in between. To allow for any configuration of those two parks on that day, I booked one lunch and one dinner reservation at each park. Once I have a better idea of our actual plan, I will cancel the extra reservations. At MK, I booked lunch at the Plaza and dinner at Jungle Skipper’s Canteen. At HS, we have lunch at Sci Fi Dine In Theatre and dinner at the Brown Derby. The Plaza is one of our favorite restaurants at Magic Kingdom and is a great place for a sandwich or a salad. Brown Derby is a higher end dining experience at Hollywood Studios; we’ve eaten here for both lunch and dinner before and had great experiences each time. Jungle Skipper’s Canteen is new, and we haven’t been there before. Frank and I are trying it out next weekend–how THAT goes may affect this reservation!

Saturday, I have planned as a rest day—possibly a water park day or maybe a pool and shopping day. I booked a dinner reservation at the Boathouse in Disney Springs in case we end up over there, and I figured we’d grab lunch at our hotel or by the pool. The Boathouse is one of the new places at Disney Springs, and I thought it sounded like a place we’d both enjoy.

Monday will be our last day and will be a travel day. Depending on how many park days we decide to do, we will either visit Animal Kingdom today, or we will have a casual day, maybe at Disney Springs or hanging around the resort until we go to the airport. In case we go to Animal Kingdom, I made lunch reservations for Yak and Yeti.

As you can tell, I’ve left a lot kind of up in the air. At this point, that’s ok. I’ve made sure we have reservations for most meals, and I have a loose plan for our trip. I may still play around with reservations over the next few weeks, until we firm up our travel plans a little bit. Given specific week we are traveling, most reservations should be attainable for another month or two. If we were going during a busier week, booking early like this would have been CRUCIAL. Now, it’s just more of a security blanket. By about 90 days out, I like to have a pretty solid plan, and at that point I’ll release any extraneous reservations, if I haven’t already, and I’ll start planning our fast pass plus reservations.

Also starting to make lists for a potential big family trip with the nieces and nephews in late 2018 or sometime in 2019. The more people involved, the more lists 😊 I find myself making. Absolutely love seeing the kids at Disney; their perspective is so different and so much fun to watch.

What trips are on your horizon? I’d love to hear what you’re working on!

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival: Cogswell

SONY DSC

Happy dreaming,

Brooke

Emert’s Vinyl Graphics and Designs: Adding a Little Extra Magic to Our Disney Vacation

It’s official. I’ve become one of THOSE people. THOSE people that wear matching shirts on their family vacations to Disney. I admit, I didn’t used to be one of those people…but I must warn you…it can be fun and it’s addictive!

A couple of years ago, when I was planning our Disney wedding, a friend introduced me to the magical place that is Etsy. Wow! Talk about a rabbit hole!! I found so many amazing treasures that became part of our wedding trip on Etsy…bridesmaid gifts, groomsmen gifts, gifts for my husband and my mom…you name it, I searched for it and probably found it on Etsy. During my rabbit hole exploring, I discovered many adorable options for matching shirts–each one cuter than the last. I was HOOKED. I ended up doing matching shirts for Frank and I for almost every day of our wedding trip and it added an extra element of magic…and made it easier to figure out what to wear each day, haha. It ended up being a lot of fun, and we looked pretty cute in our pictures, too.

In planning our Anniversary trip, I knew I wanted to take at least one or two shirts that matched and celebrated our anniversary. So I started down the Etsy rabbit hole…which these days is supplemented by a dazzling array of Facebook shops.

I think it was kismet, because I made an amazing discovery. A fellow Disney Bride and friend had opened her own Etsy and Facebook shops and she just happened to be making Disney themed shirts and vinyls. So of course, I had to check out her shops: Emert’s Vinyl Graphics and StitchesNBows.

Jennine knew I was in the midst of planning a trip for our anniversary and she wanted to help us celebrate. She offered to make us some iron-on decals so I could make matching shirts for Frank and I. She knew I loved the kissing mice, and had used them in our wedding materials, so she designed a vinyl that used the kissing mice and added a “Mr. & Mrs.” along with the words “Celebrating 3 Magical Years”. Jennine uses a high-quality vinyl and her Silhouette Cameo electronic cutting machine and produces customizable items that can be ironed on shirts, magnetized or even attached to walls or windows.

Jennine designed and produced an absolutely adorable iron-on for us from white vinyl and I received them a few days ago. It took me a few days to decide which shirts I wanted to get to actually iron on the designs…Ultimately, I decided to go with long sleeved shirts, since it looks like the temperatures during the evenings on our trip will be in the fifties. The vinyls were very easy to position and iron-on. Jennine provided clear and simple instructions. Basically, I positioned the vinyl where I wanted it, and placed a piece of parchment paper on top. I ironed over the parchment for about 20 seconds in each area. I then let everything cool for a few seconds and then lifted the parchment and tried peeling off the plastic backing…which came off very easily. I did overheat one corner of the design on my first one…I got distracted and left the iron in one place for too long, but I don’t think it’s noticeable. I’m really pleased with how well the shirts came out, and I can’t wait to show them to my husband!

As an added bonus, Jennine stuck an extra little surprise in my package.

She knows I have a deep affection for the original Cinderella animated film, and a particular fondness for Gus and Jacques, two of Cinderella’s mice friends. Look at what now graces our wall??

How cute is that?? And SO easy to put up, and will not damage the wall at all.

If you get a chance, please check out Jennine’s Facebook store, Emert’s Vinyl Graphics, or the Etsy store she shares with her mom, StitchesNBows.

Jennine does the vinyls and her mom offers custom embroidery. I suspect you’ll find something you’ll like. I already have several things on my wishlist to add a little extra Disney magic to our home!

I have gotten a couple other things from other Etsy shops in preparation for our trip…I’ll be sharing those in my next post. How about you? Have you gone down the Etsy rabbit hole? Have you jumped on the matching shirts train?

Happy dreaming,

Brooke

Making your Disney Vacation More Enjoyable: Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs)

One key way to make your Disney vacation more enjoyable is to plan ahead and make some Advance Dining Reservations for sit down meals (Disney calls them “table service” meals) during your trip.

In the early days of traveling to Disney, I never wanted to “waste time” on table service dining. I was very focused on attractions and shopping, and didn’t want to sacrifice time to sit down and order and wait for my food. What I didn’t realize is that often, so-called “quick service” meals take just as long to get through and are often so much more stressful than a table service meal.

If you visit during crowded times, you can end up waiting in line for long periods of time just to get your food. Then, you and your family are walking around with trays of food in your hands, searching for an empty table — or watching people like vultures waiting for them to finish and leave so you can battle the nearby family, also standing there with trays in their hands, for the space. Ah, quick service dining…survival of the fittest! And when you finally get your seat, your food is cold (if it was hot to begin with) and you find yourselves being watched by more vultures waiting for you to hurry up and vacate your hard-won table. It’s so NOT relaxing and recharging. And, to make matters worse, (yes I’m generalizing here) many many quick service offerings are very basic, blah and overpriced. I’m not saying there aren’t exceptions to this—there are definitely some VERY good quick services places on property—but for the most part, Disney’s “quick service” options are like most fast food offerings. They fill the hole in your stomach, but don’t offer much in the way of flavor or experience.

As Disney’s popularity has grown with travelers from all over the world, there are rarely slow times with light crowds any more. During seasons that used to be slower, Disney now offers promotions designed to attract budget conscious travelers, and they are very successful. These days, you can expect at least mid-level crowds almost every day of the year…and the number of days with high volume crowds seems to increase every year. Higher volume crowds mean table service restaurants fill up way in advance, leaving the average day guest to rely on quick service…which can too often lead to the scenario I described above.

A Disney vacation is an expensive vacation. Your park tickets are pricey. It can be very easy to think that you have to spend every minute possible on attractions or in shows to maximize the value of your ticket. However, I have found that I’m actually able to accomplish more, AND the day is much more enjoyable when we take a couple of breaks to sit and enjoy leisurely table service meals. And let’s face it—this is the actual REAL goal of vacation, isn’t it? To have a good time with our loved ones? Sometimes we forget in the overwhelming baggage that an expensive vacation with a lot of expectations brings with it—the goal is to have a good time. If you have a good time, you’ve gotten good value. If you ride every single attraction but everyone is cranky and crabby and fighting…did you get good value? I argue that you did not. So slow down a LITTLE bit, take a break, and sit down and eat. 😊

Advantages of Table Service Dining:

You know what time and WHERE your next meal will be.
If you are budget conscious, you can review menus and pricing online prior to your vacation so you can plan for what you’ll spend on the meal. (To be fair, you can do this with quick service meals too, but generally, if you are going the quick service route, you won’t necessarily know WHICH quick service restaurants you will want to visit, so you’d have to review a lot more menus and prices.)
You get to SIT DOWN AND RELAX. I cannot stress this one ENOUGH. Taking a little time during a busy theme park day to sit down in a comfortable seat and truly REST for a meal is PRICELESS. I realize for many parents or caregivers, even a sit down meal is not a chance for you to relax because you have to take care of your kids—however, sitting down at a reserved table is MUCH more relaxing than standing in line, carrying trays and trying to keep your kids corralled while you search for a table. I promise!
There is air conditioning. Many quick service restaurants offer outdoor seating, usually covered but not always. Some do offer indoor seating, but not all and for those that do, it’s often not enough seating. 8-10 months out of the year, Orlando weather feels uncomfortably warm to most of us that live in other areas of the country. And at least 5 months out of the year, the weather truly is HOT, and even seasoned Orlando residents avoid being outside in the heat and humidity as much as possible. Running all over the parks in that heat can really wear you out. Taking 30 – 60 minutes out of the heat to rest in the A/C is good for all of you…babies to seniors. Have a relaxing meal, recharge your batteries, and you’ll be ready to face the next part of your adventure.
There are no vultures circling. Now, I’m going to be brutally honest here: Disney is a business, and all of their dining options, quick service and table service, are based on the concept that the more people you serve, the more money you make. So the table service restaurants have gotten pretty good at turning tables fairly quickly. The upside to this is that when you’re really hungry, you are usually getting your food very quickly. The downside? Once you’re done, the servers do expect you to move on. BUT you don’t have to. If you need a little time to regroup, to rest, take your time. There won’t be other diners swarming around you with trays, but you may get some extra attention from your server or the host or hostess as they keep an eye out to see when you leave.
You can have amazing experiences. Some table service dining are character meals, where various characters stop by your table to interact with your group and pose for pictures. Most character meals also do little mini-parades where all the children join in and march around the restaurant. Sometimes, various characters will wander through table service restaurants that AREN’T character meals. If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary, you may end up with a surprise or two at a table service meal that they just don’t have time or resources to offer at a quick service restaurant.
Early morning table service meal reservations can get you into the park before it opens to the public. I have to tell you, if you are a Disney fan, there are few things more exciting than walking up Main Street with 10 or 12 other guests on it instead of hundreds!!! And after breakfast, when you are held at the hub until the park opens, and you can turn and look down Main Street and watch the surge of people coming in and heading towards the castle…it’s a magical moment, that’s for sure!

Disadvantages of Table Service Dining

You MUST plan ahead. There is just no getting around this. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been sitting waiting for our reservation to be called and I’ve watched MANY people approach the podium, hoping to get a last-minute reservation for later that same day, or hoping to walk up and get seated—99% of the time, those people walk away disappointed. DO NOT ASSUME you will be able to get seated at a table service restaurant at any of the parks at any time during your trip without an advance reservation. You will most likely be disappointed.
You have to be aware of your table service dining reservations when planning your fast pass plus reservations and as you go through attractions during your day. You don’t want to be in a 45 minute line for Space Mountain when you have a dining reservation at Jungle Skipper’s Canteen in 15 minutes.
Table service dining can be more time consuming. Personally, I have found that we can usually get seated, order, get our meals and pay in 30-45 minutes for lunch and 45-90 minutes for dinner, depending on if we include appetizers and/or dessert. Theoretically, you COULD probably do quick service more quickly than that, especially if you choose to eat at non-peak periods (before 11:30 am or after 2:30 pm for lunch, for example). BUT honestly, I believe in my heart of hearts, that you need (at least) a 45 minute break in the middle of your day—so while you may save time doing quick service dining, I suggest you still take a full 45 minute break.
Table service dining is usually more expensive than quick service. There are a couple exceptions, and it of course depends on what you order, but generally speaking, you’ll spend more money to dine table service than you will to dine quick service, especially if you choose specialty locations (Cinderella’s Royal Table in the castle, for example) or character meals. Careful planning can minimize the difference if character meals and specialty locations aren’t important to you, but if you are extremely budget conscious, you won’t be able to plan as many table service meals unless you stick to the most economical options.
Disney charges a $10 per person cancellation fee if you cancel with less than 24 hour notice or don’t show for your reservation. They implemented this policy a few years ago, and they are not kidding around. They used to have issues with restaurants booking up and then half the reservations not showing up, it was awful. People would go booking crazy and never go back and cancel the extra reservations, which made it difficult for anyone else to get a reservation for anything EVER. Note: They will work with you for emergencies or special situations that come up—just make sure you call BEFORE the reservation time.
Less flexibility: The biggest disadvantage is the loss of flexibility. I know for many people, true freedom is important to them on their vacation, and having to be tied to a particular park or meal reservation feels constricting and less fun for them. I know this is aggravating for some people, and I understand. If freedom is more important, you won’t want to be tied down with dining reservations—but understand the trade-offs. You’ll probably stand in more lines waiting for food, and the quality of food you get may not be as good as it would be if you had a dining reservation for a table service meal. It’s all about trade-offs, and only you can decide what’s most important to you!

Even if you’re not a planner, and don’t want to be tied down to a particular park or meal, I strongly suggest that you take a look at the dining options available at each park you plan to visit to see if there are any that you REALLY want to make sure your family is able to do. If so, make the advance dining reservation as early as you possibly can…just in case. You can always cancel it later. (Make sure to cancel at least 24 hours before your reservation to avoid $10 per person fee). Even just a couple of reservations will ultimately help make your trip more enjoyable in my opinion.

Booking Your ADRs

You can book online at Disney Dining Reservations or call 407-WDW-DINE (939-3463). If you are booking online, you will want to be signed in to My Disney Experience so that the system will recognize you and your hotel reservations (assuming you have one!). If you are calling, you will need your reservation confirmation number.

When Can I Make My Reservations?

Reservations can be made up to 180 days in advance for most table service restaurants. If you are staying at a Disney resort hotel (including Disney Vacation Club resorts), your window opens up 180 days from the first night of your reservation…and you can book dining for the entire length of your reservation—up to 10 days.

Disney is a pretty popular place, and seasoned Disney travelers (or those Disney travelers working with savvy travel agents) KNOW that many Disney table service restaurants book up months in advance, so if at all possible, you want to plan ahead and book your dining reservations as early as possible.

You can always cancel or make changes later…but better to have a reservation and later cancel it, than to decide you want a reservation later on but be unable to get one.

What this means for you:

Best case scenario, you want to be planning (at least the basics) your trip at least 6 months in advance—ideally 8-10 months in advance.
If you are planning to stay on Disney property, book your hotel reservation at least 7 months out to ensure you have that full six-month window to book your dining.
Generally park hours are not released until 90-120 days out. While this most likely won’t really affect decisions you make about lunch or dinner, this could impact breakfast reservation decisions. You can use sites like touringplans.com to see anticipated park hours and crowd levels, based on previous years, but understand that those hours may be different that the actual hours, once Disney releases them. And even then, Disney may change the hours a little closer to your trip, based on resort reservations and anticipated crowds.
You need to decide, at least loosely, which parks you plan to visit on which days of your vacation. You also need to consider whether you plan to park hop or not.
You need to review the various table service dining options available at each park and create a short list of the ones you’d like to try and visit during your trip.
Do you have any special occasions you are celebrating during your trip? If so, are there any places you’d like to try for your celebration?
Don’t forget about the resorts. There are many really good table service restaurants at the various resorts around property—if you’re a foodie, Victoria and Albert’s at the Grand Floridian is an award winning fine dining experience that is consistently rated one of the finest restaurants in the American southeast. The California Grill at the Contemporary is located at the top of the Contemporary resort and offers stunning views of the Magic Kingdom as well as an award-winning dining experience.

Fine Dining; Signature Dining. Disney Dining Plan. Food.

Photo: Disney Parks

Photo: Disney Parks

Are you planning to spend any time at Disney Springs? If so, you may want to plan ahead there as well…there are lots of quick service and table service options at Disney Springs, and the reservations aren’t quite as challenging to get as they are in the parks, but during peak periods, you’ll be grateful you made reservations months in advance!
Decide if character meals are important for your group. If they are, decide WHICH ones are highest priority. I tend to recommend Character meals for early pre-open breakfasts…I personally think the breakfasts are a better value than lunch or dinner and you can get the added bonus of getting into the park early before the rest of the visitors.

Disney Character Breakfast Crystal Palace

Character Breakfast at the Crystal Palace at the Magic Kingdom

Disney's Chef Mickey Character Breakfast

Chef Mickey Character Breakfast at Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Find out if any of the restaurants you plan to book require upfront payment. For example, Cinderella’s Royal Table in the castle at Magic Kingdom requires 100% payment at the time you make the reservation. Most table service restaurants do NOT require this payment, but I don’t want it to be a shock when you go to book.
Determine which of your desired reservations are the most difficult to get, and try to take care of those first. Some of the most difficult reservations on property include Le Cellier Steakhouse in Canada at Epcot (Warning: this is a “signature” dining experience and is PRICIER than you would probably expect, especially at lunchtime. Be sure and review the menus and prices before you book!), Cinderella’s Royal Table at the Magic Kingdom, Be Our Guest (dinner) at the Magic Kingdom, The Plaza Restaurant at Magic Kingdom, Akershus Royal Banquet Hall at Epcot, and most other character meals.
If you’re not sure, take some time to review the menus and reviews on Disney’s website and on other great sites like the Disney Food Blog.

I’m currently getting ready to book the advance dining reservations for the trip I’ve got planned with my mom to go down for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival in May. My reservation window opens tomorrow, so in my next post, I’ll update you all with how that goes! I’ll also talk a bit about which restaurants I personally prefer for this trip, and why.

In future posts, we’ll take a look at the Disney Dining Plan and unique dining experiences at Walt Disney World. I’ll also take a look at the best (and WORST) table service and quick service options to be found. Do you have a favorite Disney restaurant? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

Category: Trip Planning

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