Monthly Archives: April 2011

October Extravaganza: Day 3

Posted on by

0

Saturday morning, October 9th, was yet another beautiful sunny morning in Central Florida. We both got up around 7:45, went to the Mara for hot chocolate/coffee and some cereal. Today we were at the bus stop by 9:10a.m., easily caught a bus, and in a matter of minutes were at the gates to the Animal Kingdom.

Oh hai, Everest!

Walking briskly to beat the slowpokes and picture-takers, we arrived at Expedition Everest, which boasted only a 10 minute wait. After riding together we entered the single rider line and walked right back on, securing Fast Passes for later.

With Expedition Everest behind us, we leisurely walked toward the Africa section of the park, and took the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, an area I admit we visited because of…the petting zoo. Yes, I am twelve! Or maybe four. In any case, we both were eager to see some goats and such.

As a bonus we watched some veterinarians perform an ingrown toe surgery on a tiny, tiny bird.    We petted some goats. We did some learnin’ about nature.  We saw some sheep.  This is the stuff of exhilarating trip reports!

My idea of a good time...the petting zoo.

Anyway, soon we were back on the train, a bit peckish and in need of a decent cup of coffee after a couple days of nothing but Nescafe.  While heading through Asia, we ran into Devine, who really is mesmerizing to watch.  Eventually we ended up at the Royal Anandapur Tea Company where we each had chai and a muffin/cinnamon roll.  We sat and ate in this tiny hut overlooking the water, and once finished headed back to Expedition Everest to ride again with our Fast Passes.  By this time the lines were long enough to preclude even another run-through via the single rider line, so we headed out of the park, browsing the shops as we went. A quick bus ride and we were back at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

How hot must Devine be under all those leaves?!

Continue reading →

10 Days in October: Day 2

Posted on by

0

Good morning, Florida!

Against the advice of all pundits we slept in this morning – after all, we had endured a lengthy travel day and a late check-in. We’d survive.

First on the agenda this morning was a trip to the lobby to get the park tickets we’d purchased through Undercover Tourist added to our room keys.  Then it was off to the Mara, the Animal Kingdom Lodge’s quick-service food location.  We purchased refillable mugs, made a concoction of coffee and hot chocolate (about the only way to suffer through the Nescafe that Disney sadly insists upon selling throughout WDW), and grabbed a couple muffins to eat while we got dressed.  By 9:30, it was off to the bus stop.

Hello, soul-crushing bus line!

This is the point at which we want to cue the sound of a record scratch. All feelings of first-day giddiness came to a screeching halt upon seeing the bus line. Isn’t this supposed to be the low season, I thought?  We joined the masses and felt a surge of hope when the Magic Kingdom bus pulled up, but those good feelings were quickly dashed by the line-cutters and those who legitimately had waited longer than us who then piled on and quickly filled the bus. Eventually we squeezed onto the second Magic Kingdom bus – does know one know what “move back” means? It’s really easy to tell that most people don’t use buses regularly outside of their Disney vacations – commuter etiquette was not in play this October morning.

In any case, we finally got moving and were let off outside the Magic Kingdom by 10:45 a.m. So, our first Disney morning wasn’t off to the quickest of starts, but hey, we were finally there, right?

Continue reading →

Our 10-day October Extravaganza: Day 1

Posted on by

0

Ah, departure day. The BEST day of vacation.

Our departure day was on a Thursday, so CP and I both took the day off from work, as our travel plans were a bit convoluted. Door-to-door, our travel would take almost a full day.

Sound crazy? Well, it is, a bit. Where we live in Connecticut you have a few options for flying:

a)Fly out of Hartford (BDL), which is 1. sometimes very expensive 2. offers far fewer nonstop flights and 3. at the time had no JetBlue service (my favorite airline – somehow having a tv to watch during takeoff and landing distracts me from the thought of plummeting five miles out of the sky).

b) Fly out of JFK or LGA, which would mean either taking the MetroNorth commuter train to Grand Central, and then taking either a shuttle or a loooong subway/AirTrain ride to the airport. Conversely, we could take  an overpriced shuttle from where we live to either airport.

c) Fly out of Newark airport. To get to EWR, take aforementioned expensive shuttle, or take Amtrak directly to the airport.

We chose option “C.” Sort of. JetBlue flights out of Newark were cheap and nonstop.  Amtrak fare was pretty reasonable, although we had to make a brief stop at Penn Station in NYC to change trains. For our return trip, however, fares TO Newark were ridiculous, so we decided to fly back into LGA and take a shuttle home. That is until JetBlue canceled our flight and rebooked us on one that left several hours earlier, thereby eliminating day 10 of our 10-day extravaganza. With one call to JetBlue, I rebooked us, for free, on a flight that left Orlando at the same time as our original flight, except it arrived at JFK. I even found a not-too-ridiculously priced shuttle home. Sold.

Continue reading →

Our 10-day October Extravaganza Trip: Introduction

Posted on by

0

The idea for our October trip was born sometime during the sultry, humid days of last summer. I think we were feeling a bit stir crazy, a bit too chained to our desks and confined to the house in the air conditioning at night. We were a few months off our incredibly successful April family trip, and I can’t remember which one of us had the itch first, but oh, did we have the itch.  It also didn’t hurt that I possessed both a) a highly sought-after Disney PIN code (What’s a PIN code, you ask? Read this.) for free dining, and b) knowledge of an upcoming 40% off (!) room-only discount at deluxe Disney hotels. So, a game of Disney discount roulette began. When to go? Where to stay? Which discount to use? Which discount would save us more money?

Originally we began planning to book a December trip. In fact, we *did* book a December trip (everything except the airfare, that is. Good decision!).  And then I started to feel….weird about it. December was shaping up to be a busy time at work. I don’t exactly love to fly, and wasn’t thrilled about the idea of airport delays or cancellations or de-icing procedures.  Granted I had always (and still do!) wanted to see Disney at the holidays, but for some reason it just didn’t feel right.  I tweaked. I tinkered. I moved our days slightly, and then panicked when I realized I had lost all of our dining reservations and it was impossible to get new ones in our new week.

So, well, we kind of said to heck with it. Let’s not going in six months, let’s go in three months!  It turned about to be a good plan – the discounts worked out better, we could attend the Food and Wine Festival, and neither of us would face much difficulty getting out of work for seven days. Because yes, my friends, this was to be a trip of epic proportions, ten days of eating and drinking and riding rides and taking photos and not checking work e-mail. Go big or go home, that was our motto.

Once again, we did the Disney discount math.  We eventually decided on the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We splurged a tiny bit for a pool view. Both of us were excited to book this reservation; after all, we had loved AKL in April, and this time we would have a chance to stay in the main (Jambo) building and be closer to the food and the action. We decided against the dining plan (too much food, too expensive, vegetarians can’t really get their money’s worth, etc), but booked a lot of good meals.

What can we learn from this? Well, spreadsheets are your best friend. Before deciding whether or not to buy the dining plan (regular or deluxe version), I actually figured out by hand the cost of each meal we intended to eat, so as to compare the out-of-pocket cost to the cost of each dining plan:

Ultimately, we decided that neither the regular nor deluxe dining plans offered us the savings or flexibility we were looking for. I can’t tell you how many hours I tinkered with the above spreadsheet, but it was in the long run completely worth it.

Your game of Disney discount roulette will depend greatly upon what discounts are available and at which resort(s) you intend to stay.  It’s worth calling a few Disney reservations employees and having them run different scenarios for you. For us, a 40% room discount outweighed the value of free dining, but for others – especially with larger families – free dining could be worth its weight in gold.

Lastly, I think it’s worth mentioning here (although I’ll subsequently discuss it in more detail, I’m sure) that we did not rent a car. This came back to haunt us. At the time, though, CP in particular was enamored with the idea of being sort of benevolently trapped on Disney property, forced to enjoy the magic 24/7. Well, let’s just say that fantasy was short-lived. We are now committed car-renters, and this nerd advocates that you should be, too.

Up next: Day one of our ten-day odyssey.

11 days and counting

Posted on by

0

I suppose it’s time for an actual comprehensive update about our upcoming spring getaway. 11 days from right now, I will have arrived (knock wood) at the Magic Kingdom for our first night. There will be fireworks. There will be ice cream. There will be…shorts! (Shield your eyes from my poor, pasty legs.) Right now, the plan is this:

Depart Thursday, May 5th. I’m going to work half a day; CP is going to take a full day off to finish packing, console the cat, and get us ready to depart. We arrive in Orlando late evening, will proceed directly to the National Emerald Aisle (with thanks to MouseSavers for providing this incredible link which gets you Emerald Aisle membership for FREE), get our rental car, and then head directly to the Magic Kingdom, do not pass go, do not check in, head straight to Space Mountain.With the MK open until 12am, we can get in a few hours of fun on our first night, and since the sixth day of our tickets were free (oh yes! another fantastic discount, this time on Disney tickets, can be found here), and we only have five full days on this trip, we wanted to get our (free) money’s worth.

Thanks to a lovely spring discount of 35% on Deluxe Villa hotels, we are staying at the Boardwalk Villas from May 5th-May 10th on a cash reservation.  (DVC membership is definitely in my plans, but not in the immediate future.) Truth be told we could have stayed at the adjacent Boardwalk Inn for nearly the same price (maybe twenty dollars more?), but we were persuaded by the kitchenette that would come with the Villas studio. On the downside, I can’t say I’m blown away by the color scheme or soft goods in the BWV studio (even Hampton and Holiday Inns use duvets these days, hello!), but we’re big fans of not having to rely on Disney “pastries” or “coffee” for breakfasts in the morning. (You’ll notice both of those words are in quotations. That was very, very intentional. Bleccch.)  Sure, we could have made do with just a refrigerator in a regular room, but there is something to be said for flatware and a microwave and a toaster. So, BWV it is. Technically I could check in on-line tomorrow to try and maximize my chances of getting us the best “standard” view available, but I kind of like the idea of playing check-in roulette to see what we get – with our late arrival, I can always cross my fingers and toes for a pool view or some other unexpected upgrade.

With a longer trip planned for December, and with both of us having busy spring work seasons, this trip was designed to be short. Our main goal is to spend time at Epcot (another perk of BWV is the short walk to Epcot and DHS, swoon) and take in the Flower and Garden Festival. We’re spending a scant few hours at the Animal Kingdom on our first day, and after that we are mostly rising early to ride Toy Story Mania!, spend long days at the MK and Epcot, and eat some good meals at night.  No dining plan for us; it’s way too much food, way too much commitment to eat three scheduled meals a day, and probably not a good value for only five days. We’re thinking breakfast in the room with goods procured from Whole Foods Market and Target, counter service lunches/snacks during the day, and so-called signature meals at night.

Continue reading →

18/228/hooray!

Posted on by

0

Time for an update.

18 days until our spring getaway! Our dining reservations are set (until the next time I play around with them, which will probably be in, oh, another five minutes?), the basic plan is laid out (we’ll see if we stick with it; a recent analysis of our October, 2010 trip showed that we stuck to our plan from dawn-to-dusk on only four of our nine days. Still thinking about what that means.),  and soon I can start pondering our packing list and debating the merits of online check-in. It’s been a long couple of months at work, and this lackluster spring isn’t making things any easier. This vacation is well-timed.

In other news, the nerds will again be visiting Disney with an entourage – our next trip (after our next trip) is 228 days away and counting! This December I will finally get to experience my childhood dream of seeing this:

Cinderella Castle at Christmastime. Swoon!

I don’t know what it is about the potential of seeing fake snow in Florida, but the idea of Christmastime in Disney gets me a little giddy in a way that I am loathe to admit to anyone over the age of, say, 10. I can’t help it. I’ve wanted to see it for years, and now it looks like (knock wood) I’ll have my chance.

The plans are still a bit unformed – it will be CP and my grandparents at the very least. Perhaps my aunt and cousin(s) will also join? We will be staying in a DVC villa on my grandparents’ points; we’ll find out tomorrow what is available. Hopefully it will be a two-bedroom villa with three bathrooms (especially if our travel party includes four women again), so that would make Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary Resort the two best options. The former costs significantly fewer points than the latter, so that’s where I’m putting my money. Either option – or something else entirely – would be lovely. How can you resist this?

The Animal Kingdom Lodge, decorated for Christmas. (c) AllEars.net

In any case, it will be early December with family  in WDW. I can’t wait.

On tap this week: some pre-trip thoughts before our imminent spring trip, and a comprehensive review of our October Food and Wine Festival- Animal Kingdom Lodge-Incredible 10-Day Extravaganza Trip ™.