You Just Got Married at WDW - What're You Gonna Do Next? LIVE Blog from WDW (p.24)!

[lurkyloo]

**** Since this has turned into the pre-trip report for TWO trips, I'll edit this post to reflect both of them.****

OK, I'm new to this whole Pre-Trip Report thing, so bear with me (although on my home planet, the Weddings & Honeymoons Board, we have wedding planning journals, which are prolly pretty similar...)

My first foray into trip reports was the story of our Epcot wedding and WDW honeymoon, and the friendly people who followed along encouraged me to start a pre-trip report about our follow-up trip this September. So here goes nuthin'!

February 2009 Anniversary Trip

Pre-trip report starts on Page 20

* Who is in your party? Me and my DH, Mr. Lurkyloo

* Your travel dates: January 28-February 7, 2009

* Where are you staying: Wilderness Lodge + Beach Club Villas

* What Advanced Dining Reservations you have made: Artist Point, Jiko, Liberty Tree Tavern, California Grill, Restaurant Marrakesh, Brown Derby, Chefs de France, Le Cellier, Narcoossee's, Flying Fish, Yachtsman Steakhouse

* Any special plans, events, etc. that you have planned: Our anniversary! The actual day, Feb. 4, is a complete surprise for DH, chock full o' fun!


September 2008 Free Dining Trip

Trip report here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1975243

* Who is in your party? Me and my DH of 7 months, Mr. Lurkyloo

* Your travel dates: Sept. 20-27, 2008

* Where are you staying: Pop Century + Polynesian

* What Advanced Dining Reservations you have made: Le Cellier, Coral Reef, Boma, Tony's Town Square, Whispering Canyon, Ohana

* Any special plans, events, etc. that you have planned: Free dining, baby! Plus, we're going to make our first-ever visit the Food & Wine Festival on its first day (eep!). Touring tips greatly appreciated...

So the reason we get to go back to WDW just 7 months after our wedding there is that when we went to WDW for our wedding planning session in September '07, there was a bounceback flyer in our room at Pop Century for the free Disney Dining Plan promotion. Knowing that we'd have free Annual Passes already (thanks to Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings), we figured that a return trip would practically be free... except for hotel... and airfare... and maybe rental car...

Also, having this trip already planned was a HUGE help when it came to post-honeymoon letdown. On our last day at WDW I started to get sad, but knowing I'd be coming back soon made me feel a lot better.

We ate our way around the World in February, hitting every Signature Restaurant I'd ever wanted to eat at. I figured that this time around, since the food is free, we should try a bunch of places I'd never pay to eat - namely buffets. I admit it - I am a table-service restaurant snob. Le Cellier and Coral Reef are the only 1 TS credit restaurants on my personal list of good WDW restaurants, so we filled in the rest with places that everyone raves about but we'd never been interested in.

We also lucked into an overlap between the end of our trip and the start of the International Food & Wine Festival at Epcot, which I've always wanted to try. Unfortunately we have to go on its very first day, and I'm worried that it will be a mob scene.

If anyone has any touring tips for F&W, let me know. Does a line form for the World Showcase during the 2 hours that only Future World is open? We're pretty much only interested in trying all the food they sell (with our stored-up snack credits!), not any of the special events.

Also, feel free to give me pointers on what all I should include in my pre-trip report. Packing lists? The trials and tribulations of buying airfare? Regular posts along the lines of "EEEEEEE! Only X More Days To Go! " perhaps?

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Yay! I'm first!! I'm so glad your going again. And I get to read all about it.

 

[Wonders10]

Hi there! I posted a couple times on your wedding/honeymoon TR and I'm so glad you decided to do a pre-TR for this trip!

How many nights are you staying at pop and poly respectively?

I love the food and wine fest! If you are only going for one day, my tips would be the following:

1. Eat lightly that day if you plan on partaking in a lot of the food and drink kiosks
2. lines can build at the more popular stands but if you start early enough in the day (i.e. when WS opens) you should be ok
3. Even though it is only the first day, try to narrow down what you want to try so you don't get too full to eat something you had been wanting to try later on in the day
4. You can also check out the menus from previous years as they often offer the same or similar items in some of the countries....just to get an idea of some kiosks you want to hit
5. When I go, whoever I am with and I will typically get one of each thing form a country (if there are 2 things we like) and share it...this way we get to try a little bit of everything. If you really like something, you can always go back and buy a second plate.

Those are all I can think of off the top of my head, but if I think of more I'dd be sure to post them.

 

[jackdis]

I'm here from your great wedding report. Anything you write about will be great reading! Include pictures. I'm excited about your report. We have been to the POP many times, and we are going to the POLY the last week of August. Dining plan, but not free this year. We've never stayed deluxe....value and moderate only. I think we're in for a great trip! We booked as part of bounceback from our March trip. Totally know what you mean about the letdown part.......having the next trip in the works completely helps. I think you can see in my sig, we're going to POFW in Feb. '09. The AP's come with a brain washing of sorts......LOL......

Can't wait to hear details........

 

[Camster0307]

I'm here!

And, to add one more piece of advice:

Takes lots of pictures!

 

[stagemomx3]

I'm here.

 

[Camster0307]

lurkyloo - Get a ticker! It will tell you exactly how many days you have to wait.

Try: www.magicalkingdoms.com

or

www.tickerfactory.com

 

[olydizknee]

Yes! I'm so excited! You got your trip report started.

I went at the end of free dining/beginning of food & wine last year. If I remember correctly, they actually have the stands up the night before their scheduled start for a cast member preview, but you can use them too and the lines are much shorter. I used most of my snack credits at F&W and had a great time. I didn't make it for the free wine tasting, but I made it for the free beer tasting and had a blast.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Kimberly815]

I loved your wedding report. . . so I am sure this one will be great too! Count me in!

 

[lurkyloo]

I loved your wedding report. . . so I am sure this one will be great too! Count me in!

Thanks! Glad to see you!

I went at the end of free dining/beginning of food & wine last year. If I remember correctly, they actually have the stands up the night before their scheduled start for a cast member preview, but you can use them too and the lines are much shorter.

FABulous tip! I have never heard of this - what a great opportunity!

lurkyloo - Get a ticker! It will tell you exactly how many days you have to wait.

I don't think it will fit in my siggie under the new height guidelines However, I have one over on my PassPorter boards account, so I'm watching it like crazy!

I'm here.

Hi!

And, to add one more piece of advice:

Takes lots of pictures!

Yes, ma'am!

I think you can see in my sig, we're going to POFW in Feb. '09. The AP's come with a brain washing of sorts......LOL......

And HOW - we'll be back in Feb 09 too! I wanted to spend our anniversary back at the Beach Club... What are your dates?

How many nights are you staying at pop and poly respectively?

We are staying at Pop the first 5 nights and Poly the last. We added that night while we were on our honeymoon - they had yet another bounceback offer in our room at GF. I can see how this is going to turn into an annual (or semiannual!) trip...

Also, thanks for the F&W tips! I'm going to be uber prepared.

Yay! I'm first!! I'm so glad your going again. And I get to read all about it.

And now... you're last! But only cuz I haven't figured out what makes the quoted text line up in reverse order or posted order....

 

[ArmyWife3-4]

I'm joining in as well! Sounds like a GREAT trip!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Yeah! I'm so glad you're doing a pre-trippie. I love, love, loved your wedding report! Your plans for this trip sound fun! I'm going to F&W for the first time too! PTR's are for including anything you want to - could be airfare (ugh!), itinerary, must-do's, count-down and anything you want to talk about!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

I'm here and will take the credit for suggesting you do a Pretrippie don't you know

 

[jessi1375]

I caught on late to your wedding report and am glad you decided to do a pre-trip report for your upcoming trip!!

 

[Becx N Gav]

Yay, so pleased you are starting this pre-trippie, I can't wait to hear how the Poly part goes I'll have to get hubbie to buy more DVC points I think so we can get a couple of night there

Have you made your ADR's yet? We did ours a couple of weeks back and were so happy we got all the ones we wanted

Excited to read more

Hi there! I posted a couple times on your wedding/honeymoon TR and I'm so glad you decided to do a pre-TR for this trip!

How many nights are you staying at pop and poly respectively?

I love the food and wine fest! If you are only going for one day, my tips would be the following:

1. Eat lightly that day if you plan on partaking in a lot of the food and drink kiosks
2. lines can build at the more popular stands but if you start early enough in the day (i.e. when WS opens) you should be ok
3. Even though it is only the first day, try to narrow down what you want to try so you don't get too full to eat something you had been wanting to try later on in the day
4. You can also check out the menus from previous years as they often offer the same or similar items in some of the countries....just to get an idea of some kiosks you want to hit
5. When I go, whoever I am with and I will typically get one of each thing form a country (if there are 2 things we like) and share it...this way we get to try a little bit of everything. If you really like something, you can always go back and buy a second plate.

Those are all I can think of off the top of my head, but if I think of more I'dd be sure to post them.

We've done F&W twice and I would agree with all this

We just spend the day going round WS and trying a little bit of everything Alcohol as well as food

The only other thing I would recommend is staying at BC / YC / BWI so you can crawl home afterwards Esp. if there is EMH

 

[lurkyloo]

I'm joining in as well! Sounds like a GREAT trip!

PTR's are for including anything you want to - could be airfare (ugh!), itinerary, must-do's, count-down and anything you want to talk about!

Thanks for the tips! This is going to be fun (well, fun for me to gripe about airfares, maybe not so fun for you to have to hear about it!)

I'm here and will take the credit for suggesting you do a Pretrippie don't you know

I caught on late to your wedding report and am glad you decided to do a pre-trip report for your upcoming trip!!

Thanks for joining in!

Have you made your ADR's yet? We did ours a couple of weeks back and were so happy we got all the ones we wanted

Yes - I was the nerd phoning Disney Dining exactly 180 days beforehand to book such hot ADRs as Tony's Town Square (I'm sure they were like, "Geez, lady, you could call the day before and Tony's would have availability..."). But maybe I'd better check on them again now that we're getting close.

 

[snowbell]

Yeah -- I am on board for the pre-trippie..

I must say I was at Epcot for the F&W festival back in 04. I do remember it being crowded....but - I went with three couples and we were too busy drinking around the world to care... :rotfl2 (I promise we were not the sloppy you irritate me drinkers...) just having a good time.

 

[Camster0307]

Yes - I was the nerd phoning Disney Dining exactly 180 days beforehand to book such hot ADRs as Tony's Town Square (I'm sure they were like, "Geez, lady, you could call the day before and Tony's would have availability..."). But maybe I'd better check on them again now that we're getting close.

Better to be safe than sorry. I'm a nerd too!

We just ate at Tony's for the first time during our trip two weeks ago; was ok - basic Italian food.

 

[lurkyloo]

Yeah -- I am on board for the pre-trippie..

I must say I was at Epcot for the F&W festival back in 04. I do remember it being crowded....but - I went with three couples and we were too busy drinking around the world to care... :rotfl2 (I promise we were not the sloppy you irritate me drinkers...) just having a good time.

Hee hee! I will be prepared for crowds. We'll be the only two people lining up to get into World Showcase at 9am, menu print-outs in hand....

Better to be safe than sorry. I'm a nerd too! We just ate at Tony's for the first time during our trip two weeks ago; was ok - basic Italian food.

Hooray for nerd-dom! Tony's is one of those places I'd never pay to eat - it sounds like the food quality is middling, at best, and I'm not a huge fan of red-sauce Italian. But we wanted to check out the decor (and have a character-free 1 credit TS meal inside the MK!).

 

[lurkyloo]

OK, I just did something for our trip, so I came running back here to tell you all about it. Get ready.... I confirmed our ADRs!

Becx got me thinking about checking on them, but when I opened my little PassPorter Sidekick ADR Worksheet, there were no times or confirmation numbers - only dates and restaurant names...

So I phoned up and got all the info I needed to plug into my worksheet. I'll list them here in case you care!

Sun 21 - Coral Reef - 5:30

Mon 22 - Le Cellier - 4:10 (yes, I called at 180+10 days out and this was the only time I could get before 8pm! No wonder DVC members are up in arms over the new, similar DVC reservation policy!)

Tues 23 - Tony's Town Square - 7:00

Wed 24 - Whispering Canyon - 5:30 (Are you noticing a trend here? We like to eat early to avoid crowds and get seated quickly)

Thur 25 - Boma - 5:05

Fri 26 - Ohana - 7:40 (We pushed this one later so we could catch Big Bad Voodoo Daddy beforehand at Epcot's Eat to the Beat concert series and still catch the MNSSHP fireworks on the Poly beach after!)

We'll see... maybe trying these all-you-can-eat restaurants will make me a convert, but mostly I'm just curious to see why those places are all so popular!

We'll also prolly add an ADR at Raglan Road for the night we get in once we've bitten the bullet and bought airline tickets. And of course there will be multiple trips to Ghirardelli sprinkled in ... Ooh! Now I'm getting excited again!