99 Days: 2017 Edition

I enjoyed the blog-post-a-day for the final 100 days of my last Disney countdown, so I'm going to give it another try!

Today is double-digit day, a momentous occasion to be sure. I think I'll celebrate by purchasing tickets to the Secrets of the Empire hyper-reality experience for the Saturday we'll be down there. I was looking on the sales website and one of the time slots is already sold. Now, there are A LOT of time slots, they book every 15 minutes, but still I don't want any surprises.

This whole booking/reserving things month in advance strikes some as weird. It works for me as planning is a lot of the fun in my case and this makes the vacation-spirit fill my life for  along time before the vacation truly begins. My parents are down this week and asked if we'd like to go to Disney World with them sometime in 2019. That's over a year away and the planning gears are already chugging away in my brain. With Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge opening sometime in 2019, this trip will benefit from as long range as plan as I can make. I'm looking forward to it :-)

The Stiteses Take Manhattan, Part One

We promised John that if we didn't get him there before he graduated high school, we'd take him to New York City as a grad gift. John graduated, with honors, about a month ago, so grad gift it was.

We planned this thing like a Disney trip, and I really think our experience with Disney and our mindset when going there actaully helped us in a big way while planning this trip. I really took on the Disney mindset and tried to nail down the important things, the things we needed (like lodging and transportation) and the things we REALLY wanted (like show tickets and a trip to the One World Observatory) as far in advance as we could. That helped not only in peace of mind but in budgeting, as some of the highest-budget items were long paid for by the time we arrived in New York.

I'll stop right here and point out that the lovely and talented Lisa did her share of planning (booking the hotel and Phantom of the Opera tickets) and takinq quite a few of the photos I'll use in this blog. I can't remember who shot what and they are all mixed up on Amazon Prime Photo (do you use that? You should!), so I'm assigning dual credit to all of them off the bat.

We paired our trip with a visit to my parents' house both because we wanted to see them and my sister's family and some of Lisa's nearby family and because it made NYC an easy Amtrak ride away. New York is like Disney in another way in that it's silly to drive a car around there. The public transportation is great, we used the subway a bunch, and the stress of driving a car along with the expense of parking it would have been too much for me. As it turns out, there is a commuter Amtrak train running several times a day from Harrisburg, PA to New York City and it stops at the Downingtown station a few minutes from my parents' house.

Amtrak was great! From what I've heard, people shy away from it due to the cost, but I think the further in advance you purchase tickets the cheaper they are. I can't confirm that, but it makes sense. Our tickets were only about $220 round trip for all three of us together. Granted, that was non-rush hour times, but why would you travel then if you didn't have to anyhow? We went up on the 10:04 am train out of Downingtown and arrived at Penn Station by 12:30 pm. It was easy and hassle-free and actually kind of fun.

We emerged from Penn Station into the thick of things and seeing John's face as he took it all in was priceless. We only had a few blocks to walk to get to our hotel, but it was a great introduction to a crowded city, especially with our suitcases rolling along with us.

We stayed in a Comfort Inn near the intersection of 39th Street and 8th Avenue, technically the Garment District (there was a shop selling buttons and grommets across the street. Nothing else, just

The view from our room

buttons and grommets), but close enough to Times Square that we really felt in the thick of things. The hotel building was funny as it only had four rooms per floor, but 80 rooms total as it was 20 stories high. We were a few hours early for check-in (and they are very specific about check-in time), so we dropped our bags with a very friendly front desk staff and set off for Times Square.

We stopped for lunch in a brew pub connected to the huge bus terminal around the corner and then we were off! On the way up to Times Square I let a friend, the wonderful Alison from the awesome Disphilharpodcast, know we were in town and she arranged to sneak out of the office and meet up with us, as luck would have it, in the Times Square two-story Disney Store. We chatted, introduced all around and got some good advice about places to see and Alison's offer to be a phone-a-friend if we got lost in the big city.

My Main Man George

We made our way back to the Comfort Inn, checked into a room on the 8th floor that was JUST big enough to fit all thee of us inside, and set off again up Fifth Avenue towards the Rockefeller Center. On the way, we saw more of the Garment District, which, as it turns out, is more of a pre-garment district. This is the place to buy fabric and ribbons and such, not a place to buy actual, finished garments. We passed the beautiful New York Public Library and began checking out some of the high-end shops until we came upon Saks Fifth Avenue and took a look inside. Lisa was in heaven, as she proclaimed, as she was among "shiny things and purses." We only looked around the first floor, feeling like gypsies in the palace, before hitting the road again and visiting St. Patrick's Cathedral.

New York City Public Library

St. Patrick's is absolutely, mind-blowingly, ornately beautiful. The stone arches holding up the ceiling far above, the saints in the alcoves, the massive altar, the biggest pipe organ I've ever seen......it all blew me away. I told John he'd not see a church anything like this outside of Europe. We were all humbled by this place, and all a bit saddened by the security check on the way in. But New York post-9/11 is a different place. We'd seen police with assault rifles and shotguns in Times Square and would see the NYPD Counter-Terrorism team the next day at Ground Zero. We felt safe the entire time we were in the city, but we were very aware of the efforts to make that happen.

We Love Public Art. This is possibly the largest Inflatable Woman ever.

Rockefeller Center was the next stop and we thought about grabbing a drink in the little outside cafe in the square, but after being seated directly under some equipment blowing hot air we wandered off. We looked around the inside of the Center but didn't even try heading up top as we were getting to be in a dinner-thinking kinda way.

Night Time Times Square

I might have loved looking out the window.

We headed back towards the hotel by way of Times Square and spotted a Scottish restaurant and pub that looked promising until we discovered it was closed up. Luckily, there was a Cuban place across the street that turned out to be spectacular. We had a delicious meal, walked though Times Square as the last of the light left the sky and the electric lights took over, and tucked ourselves into our cozy quarters to rest up for an exciting first full day in The Big Apple.

My Favorite New Stuff Of 2016

We were lucky to be able to experience a lot of the newest offering around Walt Disney World on our fall trip last year. We missed Disney Springs entirely, but we did hit each of the parks. Here's a run-down of what we saw.

Magic Kingdom

I think we only got to experience two really new things here, but they were both glorious. The Muppet show in Liberty Square is a must-do. It's perfectly Muppet-esque. The show is funny, the Muppets look exactly as you'd want and expect and it was carried off flawlessly. The setting is great, right in an open courtyard area, and you can sit yourself down on the wall surrounding the Liberty Tree and have a terrific view. We loved it.

MUPPETS!!!!!!

We also got to try the newest table-service restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, the Jungle Navigation Company Skipper's Canteen. This place is themed perfectly to the 1920s-30s era of adventure in far-flung lands. We ate in the main dining room, which was great, but next time I'll request the Adventurers' Club room, which is even better. The menu is a bit different, but for us that's a good thing. We enjoyed pork, chicken and fish all cooked very well and presented in unique ways, especially the fish which was a whole deep fried lion fish with spines and all poking out and its little fishy face looking right at you. This place is really worth a try if you are looking for Magic Kingdom dining options. And now it even serves beer! So go ahead and give it a shot :-)

The waiting room at Skipper Canteen is even cool

Epcot

Not a lot new here, especially since we decided not to even attempt the new Frozen ride. We did, however, really love the new Soarin' movie, so much so we rode it twice in a row. We also got to see Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker on their Mobile Muppet Lab. Apparently this is headed for Hollywood Studios sometime, but wherever it ends up, you need to track it down. It's a hilarious interactive show with, again, very Muppet-y looking Muppets. I just can't get over seeing these guys in the parks. Love it.

Hollywood Studios

With so much of the park closed and under construction, this one is getting a lot of shade thrown its way. We had a good day there, though. We enjoyed all the Star Wars stuff immensely, from the March of the Stormtroopers to the Chewbacca greet. They may seem like little things compared to a Star Wars Land, but they were some of my favorite things on our trip.

Animal Kingdom

This was my favorite. And none of the highly anticipated things, like Avatarland and Rivers of Light, were open. The thing is, they've begun leaving Animal Kingdom open into the evening hours, after dark, and it's the best thing ever. The nighttime safari was great! It's quiet and just different enough to be a lot of fun. Plus, we got to see the male lion roaring at the fireworks going off in another park, which was thrilling. But the entire atmosphere of Animal Kingdom at night is the real draw in my opinion. People left in the afternoon, so the place was empty. No lines for anything at all. We did Expedition Everest several times in a row with no wait. But just wandering around that place at night is great. It's the best-themed park Disney has, I think, and it becomes absolutely magic after dark. We were so very impressed.

Nomad Lounge bar

Oh, and we ate at Tiffins, which was spectacular. It's not cheap, but the food and service are some of the best I've experienced on the Disney property. Next trip I hope to spend more time in the attached Nomad Lounge, which looks across a river at the forthcoming Pandora.

I know there are some biggies planned for 2017, the opening of Pandora chief among them, but I'm wondering what else we'll see. Some of the coolest things from 206 were quietly introduced without a lot of pre-opening fanfare, like the Muppets in Liberty Square. Here's to 2017 bringing more of that!

Highway In The Sky Dining Tour

So I'm just minding my own business and DisTwitter throws this new Official Disney-Sponsored Monorail Bar Tour headline in my unsuspecting face. We loved our own little bar tour last year, so I clicked through to read the article, figuring it would be out of reach. But what's this? Food and drinks at four stops including a main course at Citricos all followed by a Contemporary rooftop viewing of Wishes? And it's how much? $150? Has to be a catch, I think to myself.

Later on I get another minute and look on the official Disney Dining website and see that, yes indeed it is as was advertised, and the $150 even includes gratuity. I read it again. It's true.

People were already beginning to talk about the price being steep. Silly people. People who haven't ever done their own Monorail Bar Tour. This is as reasonable, as close to a "deal" as you'll find in Disney food service. Trust me.

Our tour went to Mizners for a couple cocktails and appetizers, just drinks at the Contemporary, dinner at Captain Cook's and more drinks at Trader Sam's and it cost well over $200 for the two of us. We did see pieces of the Electrical Water Pageant, but certainly not Wishes from the roof.

The Highway In The Sky Dine Around (the official, and super-cool name of this event) begins with cocktails and apps at The Wave in the Contemporary, moves on to the Poly for tropical cocktails and more appetizers, heads to the Grand Floridian for diner at Citricos and the champagne and cheese in the lobby and finishes with desserts and cordials on the top of the Contemporary. The food and drinks alone are worth the money, I'm guessing. I mean, I don't know for sure what they are offering, but I'm guessing it's not potted meat on a Tricuit. And that doesn't even toucht he fact that there's no hassle at all. Disney books the times, Disney herds us from place to place, Disney makes sure we make the fireworks in time and don't spend all night in Mizners. And the price, after all taxes (and it includes gratuity remember), is $316.80. Deal.

The long and short of it is that I blathered all about this deal to Lisa at lunch later that day and one ting led to another and by that afternoon I had reservations for the Highway and two nights at Pop Century booked for the first weekend in February.

I can't wait. I hope they have a commemorative pin!

3 Days: Animal Kingdom at Night

First off.......OH. MY. GOD. Three Days!!!!! :-)

Wednesday will be our Animal Kingdom day. We'll get (hoping anyhow) an early start with 8 am Extra Magic Hours and a first stop on Kilimanjaro Safaris. Our first FastPass+ of the day is for Expedition Everest between 11 and 12, so we should have plenty of time to poke around Africa and Asia. We're bummed that Dinosaur is still closed for refurb, but I'm looking forward to Primeval Whirl as I've never experienced that ride.

Lunch is at Tiffins and I can't wait for that! It looks amazing and the menu has me drooling already.

Our second FastPass is for another attraction we've never tried, Kali River Rapids, in the late afternoon. I'm dying to ride and planning to bring flip flops and ponchos to make the remainder of the day a little more comfortable after a possible drenching.

But the most exciting thing about this visit to DAK, even better than Tiffins, is experiencing the park at night. I'm imagining it being a whole new experience. Animal Kingdom is my second favorite Disney park, after the Magic Kingdom, because of it's incredible themeing. Seeing all of that at night, including the safari with our last FastPass, will be amazing, I'm sure.

4 Days: Our First Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Tuesday will be Epcot day! We hope to arrive at rope drop and hit the new Soarin' before crowds build. Our Test Track FastPass+ is for the 10-11 am window, so we figure we can get at least the Living With The Land boat ride in before heading over.

Then it'll be Food and Wine time! We've never experienced this, so we're very excited. We have all three been pouring over the menus of all the booths and I have a map now, so by the time we go we'll have a good game plan. There's just so much that looks good! I mean , it looks like I'd be perfectly happy living inside either the Belgium or New Zealand booths. I'm thinking of maybe lobster roll at Hops and Barley and some buttered chicken at the Africa booth. A few of the Asian dishes look great as well as many of the Latin American ones. I'm just looking forward to grazing all over the World Showcase.

We have FastPasses spread out in the late afternoon and early evening to try to draw us away from the feed bag for a while. You know, so we don't explode. It's evening Extra Magic Hours and I'm told the booths remain open for at least a portion of the extra time, so more chance to munch before stumbling to the bus depot to get back to bed to rest up for....

JAMBO!

6 Days: Hollywood Studios Day

I figure for my sake as much as anyone reading this I'd take the next few days to go over our plans for touring next week. One week from today, next Sunday, is our first day on property and our Hollywood Studios day.

Since we'll be arriving Sunday morning and some of us will likely be napping after an over-night car trip, I figured we'd hit the rather abbreviated Hollywood Studios. I made our first FastPass+ for the Tower of Terror with an arrival between 3:40 and 4:40. I figure that's plenty of wiggle room to get everyone rested up and to the park. Besides that, my personal priority is the new Star Wars LAunch Bay to hug Chewbacca and hopefully see the stormtrooper march and if we're lucky some Jawas. I'm packing a few old flip phones to trade so I'm really hoping to see the little guys!

Other than that, we want to see much of what's left--the Great Movie Ride (with the Ark of the Covenant now in the queue), Star Tours, Muppetvision 360, One Man's Dream and the associated Dr. Strange preview, and if the line isn't silly long Toy Story Mania.

I'm playing food by ear and hoping Pizza Rizzo is open. If it isn't (and maybe even as a second stop for grub) I'm considering dropping into the Tune-In Lounge.

We'll finish the day using our second FastPass+ for the Fantasmic show before heading back for some well-deserved rest to prep for a HUGE Day Two at the Magic Kingdom!

7 Days: ONE WEEK!!!!!!!!

I'm trying to catch up on the whole "blog-a-day" thing. This week hasn't been the best for that. And this coming week doesn't look like it'll be much better. But I've come this far and while they haven't all been on time, I have done a post for each day of the 100 Day Countdown so far, and I plan to ee it through.

This is yesterday's post, and yesterday marks one week until we leave for Disney. We'll be taking a bit of a non-traditional route, meaning we'll be driving about 2 1/2 hours in the wrong direction first and leaving for our trip at 9 or 10 pm. See, John's last band competition of his high school marching band career is Saturday and we aren't going to miss that. We'll be spending the day we leave in Cary, NC watching the Pride of the South Coast compete. We'll leave when the show is over and the awards all handed out, drive through the night, and arrive at Coronado Springs for or Saturday reservation at about 8 or 9 Sunday morning.

I'll have to call down there and explain that to the front desk, because we still want our Saturday reservation so we can have a room to sleep in when we get there. I don't see that being a problem. The question is, will I be able to sleep, even nap? I'm kind of doubting that. I suspect at least Lisa will be able to doze off and likely John as well. So I may just spend the morning chilling at Coronado Springs. Which sounds pretty ok to me!

Here, for your edification, is why are plans for Disney start off in such a strange manner. That face. How could we do this any other way?

8 Days: Disney Visa Rocks

We're terrible about discovering and utilizing the perks and rewards and discounts available through our Disney Visa, but even so, we are taking advantage of a few this year, including a couple of meet-n-greets exclusive to card holders. I bring this up because they've just moved the Epcot meet and greet location from Innoventions West to the Imagination Pavilion, and the new spot looks awesome!

We also saved 15% on our Keys to the Kingdom Tour by utilizing a Disney Visa discount I didn't even know existed until the cast member asked me if I was a cardholder. That's a decent bit of change, really. The card also gets you discounts at Disney Stores all over as well as many merchandise locations in the parks. Many restaurants, including the wonderful Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, offer a Disney Visa discount. I had no idea it could have saved us 10% at Artist Point last fall, which also would have been a not insignifcant amount of money.

The card also racks up Disney Dollars, redeemable for purchases throughout the parks and Disney Stores worldwide. I have no idea how many we've accumulated. I figure I'll check when I start planning our next adults only, non-park trip.

We've used the card's early shot at the Free Dining discount before, and many if not ll discounts are offered for a few days to cardholders prior to the general public. That's really helpful in getting the room you like in the resort you most prefer.

Here's a link to the Disney Visa site explaining all the perks and discounts. Give it a look, you might just find a way to save yourself some money!

34 Days: Non-Magical Day on Disney Roads

Photo Credit: WDW Today

An SUV crashed into a support and brought a big sign down across World Drive a few days ago. It snarled traffic quite a bit, apparently, and I'm hoping everyone involved is ok.

But it also made me think about how happy I am to let the driving to Disney when I'm inside "the bubble" of Walt Disney World.

I drive a lot for work, sometimes as much as close to 1,000 miles in a five-day week. I don't dislike driving, but being able to put the car keys away for an entire week is pretty magical for me. I don't mind waiting in a bus line at the beginning or end of a day one tiny bit. I figure you'd spend that time trudging out to find your car in the acres of parking lot anyhow, and then have to drive it back to your resort and find a place to park there. No thanks.

Not only do I not mind taking Disney Transportation, I truly enjoy it. I love all the variety, from buses (both regular and the newer, super-cool bendy ones) to monorails to boats, I love them all! We've actually taken a bus to Hollywood Studios just so we could take the boat from there to Epcot's World Showcase gate because we'd not experienced that particular boat ride before. And it was a good choice, as our boat had a broken horn so the captain and mate had to use one of those canned air horns like you see (and hear) at football games. They were having a blast tooting it at the other boats, and the other boats knew ours had no horn so were mocking us on the way by. It was great fun :-)

Anyhow, that's just one more escape for me on a  Disney trip. Mickey is welcome to take the wheel.

51 Days: Rivers of Light Rumors!

Photo By Blog Mickey

There are rumors floating around that Animal Kingdom's Rivers of Light show has been released from Walt Disney Imagineering to the Animal Kingdom park. This would be a step toward actually installing and running the show, hopefully soon. The show presented some problems when it was tested this spring, so let's hope the Imagineering wizards have worked out the kinks and the show can be brought to life (see what I did there?) this fall.

Let's be honest, I just hope it's running by November 2nd, when we'll be in the park. If so, I'm assuming, and hoping, a restaurant or two will offer a dining and seating package as they did for the Jungle Book show this summer. If I'm not mistaken, Tiffins was a part of that. I'd love to have a good excuse for a meal there!

Here's a link to some more really cool photos on Blog Mickey of the Rivers of Light floats during their test earlier this year.

55 Days: Extended Star Wars Fireworks and Animal Kingdom Hours

Yeah, I'm still catching up on the countdown.....

Kenny the Pirate announced yesterday that October's WDW park hours had been adjusted, allowing for extending the Star Wars fireworks at Hollywood Studios and the after dark experiences at Animal Kingdom. If you aren't familiar with Kenny the Pirate, you should be. He is huge into character meet and greets and is the absolute king of helping you find exactly the character you want to meet. But beyond that, he is great for keeping abreast of park hours, show times and pretty much anything that affects your planning for a Walt Disney World trip. I'd recommend signing up for his email alerts via his website here as well as following him on Facebook and Twitter. 

Lately Disney planning has been more challenging than in the past due to the frequency with which they change shows and times and hours and such. I'm not complaining, mind you, this is the result of new experiences being added for the most part, so hooray that. But it is tricky making plans as far out as Disney encourages and then keeping an ear to the ground to see if the changes require moving ADRs or FastPass+ reservations or even shifting plans for which park to visit on which day. You've got to plan but remain flexible and sometimes that's a hard balance to keep.

In this case, we were ready to forgo Fantasmic (for which we'd secured FastPass+es) to be able to catch the Star Wars fireworks, but as it turns out they will not be offered on the night we are at Hollywood Studios. Kind of a bummer, but it means we can stick with our plans there that day. But Animal Kingdom's longer hours are another story. The park will be open until 8:30 pm rather than the previously announced 6:30 pm on October 31. We won't be there until November 2, and new hours haven't been released for November yet, but I have every idea those days will be extended as well. If this is the case, we'll cancel our Morimoto Asia ADRs and plan to stay in Animal Kingdom to enjoy the new nighttime experiences. There is even a rumor that Rivers of Light may be up and running by the end of October, which would mean trying to find an ADR at an Animal Kingdom restaurant that offers viewing and dinner combos.

Oh darn, looks like I'll have to keep hanging out on all the Disney websites..... Poor me :-)

60 Days: FastPass Day!!!!!

I know I already wrote of my FastPass+ plans, but 60 days out is FastPass Day, so I thought I'd tell you how it went.

We finally got John's band schedule nailed down, and we are going to be leaving for Disney from Cary on the Saturday night before Halloween, so our park visits will begin on Sunday, October 30 and we'll leave about lunchtime on the following Thursday.

My FastPass+ strategy is pretty unique to our trip. Most of the published touring plans have the goal of getting as many attractions fit into as little time as possible. We have different priorities. It's a good example of why you should either know Disney's systems well enough to sort out your own plans, or talk to someone who does before you make your own plans. To be right for you, they need to fit your needs. In our case, we have some sort of special circumstance affecting each day's plans.

On Sunday, we're headed to Hollywood Studios, but doing so on likely just a few hours sleep. We will be leaving directly from a band competition on Saturday night, maybe as late as 8 or 9 pm, so we may not get to Coronado Springs until the very wee hours. I don't know how early we will get up, but we will definitely not be rope dropping.  We only get two FastPasses for this park, and Rock'n Rollercoaster wasn't available (hoping that doesn't mean it's closed....), so our first reservation is for Tower of Terror in the early afternoon. I looked through the other options and didn't see anything that was likely to offer a huge line we needed to avoid, so I made our second FastPass for Fantasmic, ensuring us seats for a show we haven't seen in probably ten years.

Monday is Magic Kingdom day but we have the Keys To The Kingdom Tour in the morning and MNSSHP at night, so our window for FastPasses runs from about 3-7 pm. I made one for Jungle Cruise at 2:30 thinking we may be able to make the hour-long window, then for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and finally one for the Dumbos just before the party begins just because I had one more and Dumbos fit.

Tuesday is Epcot, but we are looking to spend a good bit of time at the Food and Wine Festival, so I took that into account. I figure we'll rope drop this park and hit Soarin' first so I made my first FastPass for Test Track at 10 am as our second stop (or third if we can fit Livin' With The Land in first). I spread our next two out into the afternoon and evening with Mission space around 3 pm and Spaceship Earth around 7 pm. My idea is bounce back and forth between Future World and World Showcase so we can graze at the food booths. We'll see how that works.

Wednesday is the most "normal" day we have and it will be Animal Kingdom day. We'll rope drop the safari then head to Expedition Everest with our first FastPass. It's an Extra Magic Hours day, so that should work out well. Our next FastPass is for Dinosaur in the early afternoon and our last is Kali River Rapids just before the park closes at 5 and we head off to dinner at Morimoto Asia, hopefully giving us ample time to dry.

We'll be leaving Thursday, but will spend a good half day at Magic Kingdom first. I just fit in two FastPasses for this day with Space Mountain early then Tomorrowland Speedway at 1 so we can keep that our traditional last ride before we leave.

I think I've done well. The only other advance FastPass experience I have was on a one-day Epcot trip, but it worked well so I believe I have a handle on this. I will certainly be reporting back on the results!

65 Days: New Bus Routes To Disney Springs

I'm not saying Disney noticed that I needed to get from Animal Kingdom to Disney Springs during our trip this October, but I DID just make Morimoto Asia ADRs two days ago and this announcement came out today, sooooooooo......

Whether it was my vacation panning that brought it on or not, as of this Sunday Disney will begin offering Disney Bus Transportation from each of its theme parks to Disney Springs. Buses will run from 4 pm to 11 pm, or two hours after park closing, whichever comes first. There will be no transportation the other way, from Disney Springs to any of the parks. You'll still need to transfer at the nearest resort for that trip. Buses will depart Disney Springs for the resorts as always, making a trip for drinks after a day in the sadly dry Magic Kingdom easy as pie.

The awesome Kenny the Pirate has a good article on this addition where he predicts buses will arrive bound for Disney Springs about every 10-20 minutes at park exits.

Clearly this is Disney's way to encourage after-park dinners and cocktails and shopping, but it's another one of those win-wins, ya know? I WANT to go to Jock Lindsey's for a nightcap after a long day in the parks. Thanks, Disney!

67 Days: To Plan or Not To Plan

I read this morning someone saying that planning out each part of a vacation is bad as it makes the entire experience seem like it goes by too fast. It makes even something you've not done before too predictable and robs you of potentially great spontaneous experiences. As someone on Twitter pointed out, that's about the opposite of what Disney pushes us to do. We are asked to plan dining reservations six months out and even schedule rides 60 days in advance. Is that a bad thing?

I'm in general a big fan of spontaneity in travel. I've decided upon waking up that I'd rather be in Charleston and off we went. We've gone on day trips and decided not to come home at the end of the day. It's not unusual for us to just want to GO and leave the driveway without any clear destination in mind. You'd think the planning and scheduling required for a Disney trip would drive me nuts. But it doesn't.

In reality, I am a huge fan of Disney planning. I even go on the Disney website and plan imaginary trips. Just for fun. For a real trip, I am online the minute I'm able scheduling ADRs or FastPasses. I know what we'll be doing and where we'll be doing it most every hour of our trips. Jeez, as I write that, it doesn't even sound fun to ME. But it is.

Done well, proper and thorough Disney trip planning can lead to a truly stress-free vacation. I'm lucky. I know my way around,between and through Walt Disney World's resorts and parks intimately and I plan accordingly. I know my family and what we like and thankfully we're a very mellow bunch, so scheduling to make sure we see everything in the least time isn't required. As odd as it sounds, I manically schedule us into relaxation.

68 Days: I Lack Adult Supervision

I mean you just innocently go on to check availability for adding a night to your October trip and before you know it you're talking yourself into Wilderness Lodge for that night instead of remaining at Coronado Springs. It's totally the website's fault. And my new friends' of the Small World Club Twitter community. They are, in the words of the lovely Miss Lisa, enablers. Not that she was any sort speed bump, she's just sitting next to me on the couch saying "Oh yeah, that sounds great. Do it!"

I lack adult supervision.

Adult supervision is totally over-rated.

69 Days: FastPass Dreamin'

Home from our end of summer trip and finally got the final (hopefully) schedule for John's high school marching band competitions. That finally settles which day of our trip will be spent in which park, and just in time as my window for making FastPass reservations opens one week from Tuesday! How exciting is that?

We'll be leaving straight from John's last competition on Saturday, October 29 in Cary, NC. Not ideal, as we'll be driving through the night and that will make Sunday a bit sleepy for us. Seeing as Hollywood Studios is very much under construction, we'll spend Sunday there. Monday will be Magic Kingdom Day with the Keys To The Kingdom Tour and then Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We'll hit Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival on Tuesday and Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. We'll leave Thursday, but are in no hurry so will probably be hitting Magic Kingdom again until lunchtime.

I'm thinking play it safe and secure afternoon FastPasses in the Studios, Rock-n-Roller Coaster for sure and also Toy Story if we can. We'll need to squeeze Monday's at the Magic Kingdom between the end of the tour and 7:00, so I'm think Seven Dwarves and Haunted Mansion (thinking it'll packed on Halloween). We may miss the new Frozen ride at Epcot in favor of the new movie version of Soarin', but definitely in the morning so we can hit the Food and Wine soon as it opens. I'm thinking we rope drop the safari at Animal Kingdom and use the FastPass for Expedition Everest later in the day.

This is just a basic, preliminary plan. I haven't even researched exactly how many we get in each park and what the tiers look like yet. I feel so behind already :-)

Any suggestions on the plan as it is so far?

77 Days: #5ThingsINeverDidAtWDW

This hashtag has been floating around Twitter this week and I figured I'd take a stab at it as a blog post. I'm thinking the caveat is that it should include things I haven't done but want to do, so that's how I'm coming at it. These are in the order as they come to me :-)

#1--Kali River Rapids-- We've tried to ride a few times, but the line was longer than we wanted to wait. Also, the lovely Lisa is hesitant to hit this too early as she doesn't want to wander around in wet clothes all day. I'm going to make a concerted effort to fit this in on this trip because I really do love this kind of ride, and I think John would really enjoy it.

#2--Wilderness Lodge-- I hadn't even been to visit the place before our anniversary trip last September, and now that I have it's on my list of have-to-do's. It doesn't enjoy monorail service to the Magic Kingdom, but it the alternative is a BOAT ride!!! I love that, and it reminds me of the Fort Wilderness trips with my family growing up. The resort is absolutely beautiful, too, and seems really tucked away. I think it would make a perfect home base.

I totally want to stay here

#3-- Amphibicar--I mean if I'm going to drive one as my Dream Disney Job someday, I had better ride one first, right?

rest

Amphibicars!!!!

#4-- Victoria and Albert's Chef's Table-- This is quite pricey. We're talking over $200 per person with an additional $100 for wine pairings (and how could you not do the wine pairings?). But this is one of the very best restaurants in Florida if not the nation and with up to 13 courses prepared just for you right in front of you by some of he best chef's in the business, we're really and truly planning to indulge in the experience. Disney Food Blog has a mouth-watering review. 

#5-- Treehouse Villas-- I remember seeing these when they were brand new and they captured the imagination of our family. I had about forgotten them until John and I chanced upon them while cruising the Sassagoula River in a rented boat. If you haven't ever seen these, they are built like treehouses, with the living area in a round, second story space. It's soooo cool. They've apparently been refurbished and are ready to rent as part of the Saratoga Springs resort and Spa. They sleep up to 9, so I'm thinking maybe a trip with my sister and brother-in-law and the kiddos someday....

The best way to tour the Sassgagoula River

88 Days: Typhoon Lagoon Gets A New Ride!

Disney announced today a new attraction coming to the Typhoon Lagoon water park, a raft adventure called Miss Fortune Falls. The trip clocks in a two minutes of ride time, apparently making it the longest ride at either Disney water park, which is cool. It's themed as a trip both up and down in which guests will get to check out some of the artifacts collected by adventuress Captain Mary Oceaneer on her journeys around the world.

Miss Fortune Falls is scheduled to open in the spring of 2017, one of many cool additions coming to Disney parks in the near future.

97 Days: Return to Coronado Springs

The ceiling of Coronado Springs' Lobby

There's really no question any more of us staying anywhere but on the Walt Disney World property. There are just too many advantages for us and the way we like to vacation. So the question was which resort for our next trip? My original idea was to rent an RV and stay at Fort Wilderness, but even as far ahead as January, all the sites were reserved for Halloween weekend. Lesson learned there. That left us thinking of which resort we'd like to book, and we decided on Coronado Springs.

We are in our hearts moderate resort people. We had a great time last fall at Pop Century, and I'd go back with just Lisa and I, but I didn't want to chance fighting crowds for transportation on this trip. We were wowed by Animal Kingdom Lodge the one night we got to stay there, and all the deluxe resorts we've visited look great, but they are just so much more money than the moderates. We've stayed at all the moderate resorts with the exception of Port Orleans Riverside and actually Lisa and I like Port Orleans French Quarter the best, but John really loved Coronado Springs last time we were there and we've not been in ten years so decided we'd head back this trip.

Coronado Springs gets a bad rep sometimes among the Disney Geek crowd because it's so big. It is really large, but a good bit of it is dedicated to conventions and conventioners, so it really seemed to us not too spread out at all. On our last trip we stayed directly across the lake from the main buildings housing the restaurants and shops and such. There was a bus stop right behind us and a bridge along the lake to take us to El Centro (the restaurants and such).

The night view on the walk to El Centro

And during the day

That bridge, and the walk along it, became one of our favorite things about this resort. The place is absolutely beautiful, especially at night. The lights reflecting in the lake are mesmerizing. And staying a bit of a walk away was nice. It was like we stay "here" and the stuff is "there" and we like that separation. Besides, if walking bothers you, you would probably do best avoiding Walt Disney World in the first place.

The Dig Site Pool water slide

Another plus to Coronado Springs is the pool. It's plenty big enough and features a huge pyramid water slide with a spitting jaguar at the end. It is super cool and I think one of the reasons John was so impressed.

We have such great memories of Coronado Springs we're excited to be going back and making new

I can't wait to find this sign and re-take this photo with 17-year-old John

ones.