Argopelter
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2013
Hello and welcome to my first trip report.
One morning while checking my notifications I opened an email from Jetblue informing me of yet another sale. While looking through the destinations from my choices of origins I noticed the fares to Orlando were actually pretty good this time. Somehow at some point I also became a subscriber to the Disney Destinations email and decided to check what offers I might have recently received. After a short call to the wife I was booking a free dining week at Disney world about 110 days out.
This will make it just short of two years since our last trip. This time our party will include myself, my wife, daughter (4) and son(7 months). We are staying at Pop Century September 22nd- 28th. The last time we were there we never park hopped so this time we only got 5 day base tickets. I also post trip purchased a photopass CD, this time I pre-ordered photopass +. The two events we have planned are MNSSHP and the first day of F&W, for the most part we planned our itinerary around them. This kind of put us outside the suggested itinerary for avoiding crowds according to the popular crowd calendars. This is my fifth time planning a Disney vacation. The other three times were to Disneyland 4, 6 and 10 years ago. Every time I feel like I get better at planning and it usually starts with visiting the forums and listening to the Dis unplugged a few months in advance. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do about a double stroller rental but convenience is important.
One thing I found interesting was that after I had already customized, ordered and received our Magicbands I got a snail mail letter offering participation in the Magicband program and several email reminders.
ADRs
These are mostly character meals for my daughter.
Breakfast - O'hana , Chef Mickey , 1900 Park Fare and Kona cafe
Lunch - Hollywood & Vine
Dinner - Chef Mickey , Hoop Dee Doo revue and Mamma Melrose fantasmic package
Day 1
After spending a couple days in Clearwater we will drive back to MCO (with a stop at DTD to redeem the photopass + voucher) to return a rental car and take the Magical Express to Pop. Right now we have an ADRs for Chef Mickey @ 8:45 pm . I thought it would be a good way to start. My only concern is the timing from leaving Clearwater and doing everything in between to make it on time for the ADR. My other thought was to walk over to AoA for the food court for dinner so I wouldn't have to watch the clock so much.
Day 2
I chose DHS on Monday for fantasmic and the EMH. Our daughter is a big Disney junior fan so we planned the Play n Dine at Hollywood & Vine. We have an adr for the Mamma Melrose fantasmic dinner package so we won't have to use a fast pass on fantasmic. After looking at the menu I'm thinking about cancelling the adr and maybe going to pizza planet or trying my luck with sci-fi dine in.
Day 3
I chose AK for Tuesday since it closes earlier than the other parks and we are going to MNSSHP that night. Right now we have no ADRs for this day.
Day 4 and 5
I chose MK for Wednesday and Thursday. We wanted multiple days at MK since it's our favorite park and there is more we want to do there. On Wednesday we have ADRs for breakfast at O'hana and the 4pm Hoop Dee Doo revue. On Wednesday we have an ADR for breakfast at Chef Mickey at 11:30 which I might cancel if we make it to Chef Mickey on Sunday.
Day 6
I chose Epcot on Friday for F&W. We have an ADR for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare.
Day 7
We're checking out on Saturday. We have an ADR for breakfast at Kona Cafe. We might go to DTD if I think we have time before taking the Magical Express back to MCO for a 5 pm flight.
One morning while checking my notifications I opened an email from Jetblue informing me of yet another sale. While looking through the destinations from my choices of origins I noticed the fares to Orlando were actually pretty good this time. Somehow at some point I also became a subscriber to the Disney Destinations email and decided to check what offers I might have recently received. After a short call to the wife I was booking a free dining week at Disney world about 110 days out.
This will make it just short of two years since our last trip. This time our party will include myself, my wife, daughter (4) and son(7 months). We are staying at Pop Century September 22nd- 28th. The last time we were there we never park hopped so this time we only got 5 day base tickets. I also post trip purchased a photopass CD, this time I pre-ordered photopass +. The two events we have planned are MNSSHP and the first day of F&W, for the most part we planned our itinerary around them. This kind of put us outside the suggested itinerary for avoiding crowds according to the popular crowd calendars. This is my fifth time planning a Disney vacation. The other three times were to Disneyland 4, 6 and 10 years ago. Every time I feel like I get better at planning and it usually starts with visiting the forums and listening to the Dis unplugged a few months in advance. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do about a double stroller rental but convenience is important.
One thing I found interesting was that after I had already customized, ordered and received our Magicbands I got a snail mail letter offering participation in the Magicband program and several email reminders.
ADRs
These are mostly character meals for my daughter.
Breakfast - O'hana , Chef Mickey , 1900 Park Fare and Kona cafe
Lunch - Hollywood & Vine
Dinner - Chef Mickey , Hoop Dee Doo revue and Mamma Melrose fantasmic package
Day 1
After spending a couple days in Clearwater we will drive back to MCO (with a stop at DTD to redeem the photopass + voucher) to return a rental car and take the Magical Express to Pop. Right now we have an ADRs for Chef Mickey @ 8:45 pm . I thought it would be a good way to start. My only concern is the timing from leaving Clearwater and doing everything in between to make it on time for the ADR. My other thought was to walk over to AoA for the food court for dinner so I wouldn't have to watch the clock so much.
Day 2
I chose DHS on Monday for fantasmic and the EMH. Our daughter is a big Disney junior fan so we planned the Play n Dine at Hollywood & Vine. We have an adr for the Mamma Melrose fantasmic dinner package so we won't have to use a fast pass on fantasmic. After looking at the menu I'm thinking about cancelling the adr and maybe going to pizza planet or trying my luck with sci-fi dine in.
Day 3
I chose AK for Tuesday since it closes earlier than the other parks and we are going to MNSSHP that night. Right now we have no ADRs for this day.
Day 4 and 5
I chose MK for Wednesday and Thursday. We wanted multiple days at MK since it's our favorite park and there is more we want to do there. On Wednesday we have ADRs for breakfast at O'hana and the 4pm Hoop Dee Doo revue. On Wednesday we have an ADR for breakfast at Chef Mickey at 11:30 which I might cancel if we make it to Chef Mickey on Sunday.
Day 6
I chose Epcot on Friday for F&W. We have an ADR for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare.
Day 7
We're checking out on Saturday. We have an ADR for breakfast at Kona Cafe. We might go to DTD if I think we have time before taking the Magical Express back to MCO for a 5 pm flight.
