crazycatperson pre-trip reports - September 2014 (done), November 2014 (done), and February 2015

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Spook's picture
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Happy packing! Have a great trip! I'm not big on heat either but were planning on going September 2015 so I'm interested to hear what you thought mickey

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Cat's just know how to tug heart strings, ours always give us "that look" and sit on the outside of the cases. I love black cats (cats in general) and yours is beautiful

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Have a great trip, Jan & Dan!! We haven't seen the daytime Frozen stuff yet, but the fireworks were pretty cool. We'll probably try to catch them again at the end of the month.

It is hard to leave the kitties behind. Merlin especially gives us the most pathetic looks as we're packing.

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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Have fun CCP!

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Hope you have great weather, clear skies and tons of pixie dust!
mickey mickey mickey mickey mickey mickey mickey

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Looking forward to hearing about it! mickey

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Have a great time can't wait to hear all about it!!!

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Well, our September stay at Saratoga Springs is over...time to get to work planning the next trips.

And it is trips, plural! You may have noticed from my tickers that in addition to our November week at Animal Kingdom Lodge's Kidani Village (savannah view!), we now have a winter trip planned involving a week's stay at Wilderness Lodge (DVC). This will be our first stay at WL and our first trip to WDW in the winter. That will be the last trip on my annual pass sad and an extra vacation for hubby; his AP expires after our November trip, so he'll be using a length-of-stay pass for the winter vacation. So no idea when we'll be back to WDW, although since we're attempting to buy some resale DVC points, we know another trip will happen in the not-too-distant future.

But even after the Wilderness Lodge stay is over, we'll still have something to plan - a big blowout bash for our 25th wedding anniversary involving a Disney cruise to Hawaii along with a weekend at Disneyland Resort before we head for home. This will all be new and exciting for us - we've never cruised at all, much less with Disney, and we've also never visited the original Disneyland before. We're hoping we can use those DVC points we're buying to book three nights at the Grand Californian's DVC section, but we know it's really hard to get in there, so we might end up in a Good Neighbor hotel instead.

Anyway, the next few weeks will have me tweaking those November plans. We're travelling with friends on this trip and also meeting some old WDWFG friends while we're there. We already have our ADRs, although we might change them up a bit before we arrive at the resort. And even though our FP+ window is open, we haven't done them yet because I need to get our traveling companions to make themselves a My Disney Experience account and then link them up to my account so I can make FPs for all four of us.

So, on to the planning!

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crazycatperson wrote:

But even after the Wilderness Lodge stay is over, we'll still have something to plan - a big blowout bash for our 25th wedding anniversary involving a Disney cruise to Hawaii along with a weekend at Disneyland Resort before we head for home.

yay I'm green with envy! Oh my gosh I can't wait to hear all about that cruise!!

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Whoo hoo! More Disney awesome All those trips must help with the post Disney blues from the September trip. I can't wait to hear about them especially the cruise and DL as I've never done those either.

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Woohoo to the anniversary plans, they sound amazing! I love the look of WL, looking forward to hearing what you think of it. Can't wait to meet up in November Laughing out loud

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Our Very Merry 24 nighter Nov/Dec 15
Watson's go West May 15
The one with all the birthdays Oct 14 4 Big Birthdays and a Vow Renewal thrown in
The OMG trip June 14 30th Birthday present from the hubs
Girly trip March 14 A last min cheapy week
September 13 our first all DVC stay
TR May 2013 the last min bargain trip offsite
Oct 2012 TR with a cruise!big family trip featuring the beach club, AKL, the dream and a villa offsite
TR on a budget May - June 2011offsite condo
TR Sept - Oct 2010 big family trip in an offsite villa

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Always good to have another trip planned!!!! yay for more trip reports!!!!

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Wow so much Disney in your future! awesome Love it!

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Thanks to getting our friends' park passes linked to our account and getting them onto our DVC reservation, I now have almost-final plans for our November visit to Animal Kingdom Lodge. Of course, last-minute changes to the park hours and crowd estimates could completely change things up, but I'll worry about that if/when I have to.

A bit of background: this is the trip we're staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge's Kidani Village using hubby's coworker's DVC points, which she couldn't use. It's also the trip we're taking with friends, our frequent travel companions who've been to WDW twice already with us as well as Myrtle Beach, the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and Colonial Williamsburg. I tend to be a theme-park commando who doesn't want to rest; our friends and, to a lesser extent, my hubby prefer to take things a little easier. But AKL is the perfect place for that; they can head back to the resort for breaks and enjoy a cold beverage or three while watching the animals from our savannah-view villa while I run around the park du jour doing anything and everything I can think of doing. We're focusing this trip on two things: the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and Animal Kingdom Lodge. Since AKL is a bit inconvenient to get to from most other parts of WDW, we want to experience as much of AKL as possible during this week. We have reservations at all three table-service restaurants, and I hope we can hit the counter-service restaurant at least once, if only for breakfast. And in addition to spending time out on that balcony watching the critters, we'll also see what else the resort has to offer while we're there.

Day 1 - Arrival Day. We have an afternoon flight and likely won't arrive at Animal Kingdom Lodge until 7:00 p.m. if not later. Our friends only have 6-day park passes and probably won't use them for just an evening, but hubby and I have FP+ at MK for Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and Buzz Lightyear. We ought to be able to make at least two of the three, and even if we miss the Pirates window it shouldn't take too long to get on using the standby line. This is MK EEMH night, so we can stay till midnight if we feel up to it. Also, it's one of the days our schedule synchs up with that of RobynPrincess and her hubby, so I really hope we can pull off a meet-up. Only a delayed flight or other complications will keep me away. Dinner this evening might be at The Mara, the AKL counter-service restaurant, but if we're running late getting to MK we'll probably switch to counter-service in the park somewhere.

Day 2 - Epcot and maybe DHS. This is the Food and Wine Festival, so our schedule is really heavy with Epcot days, this being the first of several. FastPasses will be Mission Space, Soarin', and The Seas with Nemo for hubby and our friends, while I'll be doing Test Track, Turtle Talk with Crush, and then meeting up with them for The Seas. Lunch will involve grazing the F&W Fest booths, starting with the new Scotland booth and working our way past Canada and the UK until we've had enough. Then for dinner I snagged a Le Cellier ADR right at the 180-day mark; it'll be the first time for all of us at this restaurant. I chose it because we'd tried and failed to get in on standby in 2005, when we visited WDW with the same friends, and I recalled that the hubby in particular had expressed an interest in finding a good steak. Hope he gets one here; I've read the mixed reviews on this place lately. As for me, I hope the venison finds its way back onto the menu because I really want to try something a little out of the ordinary (Elk or bison would do in a pinch, or maybe some interesting game birds). If we have time after dinner, we might take the boat over to Hollywood Studios for EEMH, but they only last till 9:00 according to the latest published schedule, so might not have time for that. Or, hubby and our friends might prefer to call it a night after dinner, in which case I might hit DHS alone.

Day 3 - Epcot again. This morning we have an ADR at Boma for breakfast - we've done Boma for dinner several times and thoroughly enjoyed the meal, but have never had breakfast here before. Since we're staying at AKL, this is the perfect time to try it - don't need to worry about transportation to AKL, just have to walk over. Then it's back to Epcot. This time we all have the same FastPasses - Test Track, Imagination with Figment, and Spaceship Earth. I can't guarantee all of us will use those last two, though; our friends (the guy in particular) wasn't terribly interested in either those or most of the other Tier 2 attractions, so I won't be surprised if he, or they, or maybe my hubby also, skip out after another lunchtime stroll among the F&W Fest booths and take a break at AKL. Then it's dinner at Jiko, our first time ever for that restaurant.

Day 4 - Animal Kingdom and yet more Epcot. Once again we'll split up for our FastPasses. I alone have an early-morning FP for Kilimanjaro Safari, not a problem since I'll likely be the only one up and out that early anyway. We'll all get together for Finding Nemo: The Musical, after which everyone but me will ride Expedition Everest. Then it's back to AKL for lunch at Sanaa, yet another first-time restaurant for us. After our meal and perhaps a short break in our rooms, we'll head back to the park for the Festival of the Lion King show. Once the park closes at 5:00 anyone who's still up for adventure will head over to, you guessed it, Epcot for more Food and Wine Festival fun.

Day 5 - Epcot yet again. This is another day when we all have the same FastPasses, although I seriously doubt we'll use most of them. First up is Spaceship Earth, which the hubby among our friends has no interest in, so I scheduled it for first thing in the morning. I'll probably make it, and they can sleep in and ignore it. Next on the agenda is Test Track, because it's worth doing more than once. Then we have an ADR at Restaurant Marrakesh, a particular favorite of our friends both for the food and because the husband really appreciates the belly dancer. After lunch we have an FP for the character spot, but I'll be amazed if we actually do it - and once that's over we can try to grab another Tier 1 FP. This is EEMH day at Epcot, and I will definitely be staying to enjoy the park and have F&W Fest food for dinner, but our friends and my hubby might decide to head back to AKL to lounge with the animals some more.

Day 6 - Hollywood Studios. Our first and only full day at this park, and the guys and gals have completely different FastPasses. The guys will hit Tower of Terror, Rock'n Roller Coaster, and Star Tours, while we gals will do Muppets 3D, the Frozen Sing-Along, and Toy Story Mania. I built enough of a gap between everyone's second and third FPs so we can take the boat to Epcot and do Food and Wine for lunch, but if our friends aren't interested we'll get a counter-service lunch somewhere at DHS. Then for dinner it's 'Ohana! First time there for our friends, and our reservation is late enough that I hope we can catch Wishes from our table before we leave.

Day 7 - Magic Kingdom. Again, our first and only full day at this park, and once again we'll be splitting up for our FastPasses. The guys will do all the mountains, starting with Space Mountain before lunch and finishing up with Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. The gals will start with Monsters, Inc. before lunch and hit Peter Pan's Flight after lunch, then join the guys for Splash Mountain. Lunch will be at Liberty Tree Tavern, our first time eating there (and we're only doing it because I know I couldn't talk anyone into taking the monorail to Epcot for more Food and Wine Festival). The park closes early for the first Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party of the season, but we'll probably head out right after Splash Mountain because this will also be the first night this season for the Osborne Festival of Dancing Lights at DHS, and we all love that show. If we can cram Fantasmic in without having to wait an hour in line, we might do that also.

Day 8 - Departure Day. Our friends have an earlier flight than we do, so once we check out we might not see them again till we get back home. Hubby and I have an evening flight, so we'll have time to hit Epcot for one last graze around the World Showcase. We also have FastPasses for Spaceship Earth, Imagination with Figment, and Living with the Land, but honestly, we'll probably skip the first two (I made them really early just for that purpose), and if we can get onto The Land without using the FPs I'll switch them over to Test Track, then maybe try to get hubby on Soarin' one more time. As for Food and Wine, this will be the day to revisit all our favorites one more time before we have to go. And then it'll be back to AKL to catch the Magical Express and wrap up this trip.

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Sounds like a great trip! Have you seen the F&W map yet? I've been studying quite intently over the past few days and there seems to be quite a large concentration of booths right around the entrance to WS, which kind of surprised me. I expected them to be more evenly spread out around the lagoon.

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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alicemouse wrote:
Sounds like a great trip! Have you seen the F&W map yet? I've been studying quite intently over the past few days and there seems to be quite a large concentration of booths right around the entrance to WS, which kind of surprised me. I expected them to be more evenly spread out around the lagoon.

I have seen it, and I also noticed the same thing. Not complaining, though; we ought to be able to get our first festival lunch done without walking very far. Then the same thing next visit going in the other direction. And then on our third visit we'll take the boat across and hit the other end of the World Showcase.

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alicemouse wrote:
Sounds like a great trip! Have you seen the F&W map yet? I've been studying quite intently over the past few days and there seems to be quite a large concentration of booths right around the entrance to WS, which kind of surprised me. I expected them to be more evenly spread out around the lagoon.

I thought they would be more spread out too. I guess we will hit a couple and sit then hit a couple more.

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Your plans sound good (especially the first night of of course Wink ) my husband would appreciate the belly dancer too Wink however I can't eat anything on the menu so I guess his luck is out.

I'm very very queasy, I find the most basic of rides make me feel awful however soarin doesn't bother me in the slightest... Have you ever given it a go? It moves so gently closing your eyes wouldn't be a problem if it did make you feel ill.

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Our Very Merry 24 nighter Nov/Dec 15
Watson's go West May 15
The one with all the birthdays Oct 14 4 Big Birthdays and a Vow Renewal thrown in
The OMG trip June 14 30th Birthday present from the hubs
Girly trip March 14 A last min cheapy week
September 13 our first all DVC stay
TR May 2013 the last min bargain trip offsite
Oct 2012 TR with a cruise!big family trip featuring the beach club, AKL, the dream and a villa offsite
TR on a budget May - June 2011offsite condo
TR Sept - Oct 2010 big family trip in an offsite villa

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RobynPrincess wrote:
Your plans sound good (especially the first night of of course Wink ) my husband would appreciate the belly dancer too Wink however I can't eat anything on the menu so I guess his luck is out.

I'm very very queasy, I find the most basic of rides make me feel awful however soarin doesn't bother me in the slightest... Have you ever given it a go? It moves so gently closing your eyes wouldn't be a problem if it did make you feel ill.

Unfortunately, I can't handle big-screen theaters even when I'm sitting still. Can't do IMAX. Can't even watch the films in the China, France, and Canada pavilions at Epcot without closing my eyes from time to time. So there's no way I could handle Soarin'.

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Sounds like another great trip! We are doing Boma for breakfast for the first time in October so i'll be sure to let you know what we thought and take pictures awesome I'd like to do Sanaa some day too so I look forward to hearing what you think.

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Sounds like an awesome plan! All the food sounds delish! awesome

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CCP had my photo taken with Marie yesterday and thought of you! What a nice character she is.

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Sally-Ann wrote:
CCP had my photo taken with Marie yesterday and thought of you! What a nice character she is.

She is lovely, isn't she? And especially nice to the cat people. But maybe she's like that with everyone.

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OMG we are 5 days away from departure and I have been very very bad...

Not only have I not started preparations for our trip, I haven't even updated my pack and prep lists for this trip. eek

I guess having just gone in September makes it feel less urgent. I don't know. Maybe it's the new KITTEN we got a couple of weeks ago biggrin Yes! We have a new kitten! She is a lovely little one, young enough to be kittenish but old enough at 4 to 5 months so she can hold her own with the adult cats. I'd seen her around at my favorite local farm produce stand, she was a barn kitten, and I just fell in love with her. And the farmer was more than happy to send her off to a good home. So now she is out and about making lots of mischief. She thinks dry cat food is a wonderful toy and had it scattered all over the floor when we woke up Sunday morning. Although there's still a little hissing going on, she seems to feel totally at home in our house and with the other cats. One of the cats has even started to make playful overtures toward her. I think she'll do just fine.

But anyway, back to the trip. I have 5 days, today through Friday, to get all my stuff done - cleaning, stopping mail, stocking up on cat supplies, talking to the pet sitters and introducing them to that kitten, making the packing list, actually packing, making the prep list, actually prepping, etc. Oy vey. But this time Saturday we'll be on our way to the airport and this time Sunday we'll be in one of the parks, so I think I'll find the incentive to get it all done.

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I know the feeling! I feel like I barely planned for our last trip. Maybe partially because after 4 trips in 9 months, every shred of WDW information is just imprinted on my brain biggrin

You'll get everything pulled together with time to spare! It doesn't seem like it should be time for you to go yet because it can't possible be almost November already!! Have a fantastic trip awesome

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Be good at something. It makes you valuable. Have something to bring to the table because that will make you more welcome. --Randy Pausch

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Trip Reports:
December 2013: 10th Anniversary, 1st DVC Stay | April 2014: Birthday on the Boardwalk | May 2014: Star Wars Weekend, Navigating WDW with a wheelchair | August 2014: Villains Unleashed | September/October 2014: MNSSHP, F&W, Tower of Terror 10-miler | March/April 2015: Disneyland and California Coastal Cruise | November 2015: Wine & Dine Half, Food & Wine, 1st Disney Cruise | February 2016: Presidential Classic Gymnastics Meet | March 2016: "Work" Trip, Tours, F&G Festival | April 2016: Conference at Disneyland | Fall 2016: Festive Fall Fun | January 2017: Festival of the Arts | May 2017: AbD Backstage Magic | July 2017: AbD San Francisco | Sorry I had to give up doing trip reports. Too many time commitments right now.

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congrats on your new fur baby! What is her name?

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The farmers named her Munchkin, and we decided to stick with that name. It suits her.

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awesome muchlove

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So! The November trip is over (see trip report elsewhere) and now we're working toward our winter stay at Wilderness Lodge. It'll be our first stay there and we're very much looking forward to it, although I can't imagine it's even better than Kidani Village and having giraffes wandering outside our windows. More on that soon. And I'm working on catching up on everyone else's trip reports - I am SOOOO behind but want to read every single one.

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And now for the winter vacation.

It's 7 nights at Wilderness Lodge DVC 1-bedroom unit on an RCI timeshare exchange, meaning we won't get the most desirable rooms (assuming there is such a thing at Wilderness Lodge) but any rooms will be awesome, I'm sure. We arrive Friday, January 30 and depart Friday, February 6, both flights booked for midday so if there's anything frozen falling or on the ground we can at least do our driving during daylight hours. If snow is actually falling, we might head to the airport the night before and stay at an airport hotel before departing.

Our tentative itinerary is done, but subject to change depending on future changes to the park hours and crowd estimates. Also subject to change if we schedule any meet-ups with WDWFG folks.

Hubby's annual pass has expired, but mine runs through mid-April of next year - he got his during the trip last November when I wasn't able to come along, but mine was obtained during our Pop Century trip last spring. So hubby will have a length-of-stay pass for this trip. After touring with friends who didn't have park-hoppers a couple of weeks ago, hubby suggested that we save a bit of money by not getting him a park hopper for the upcoming trip, and that is probably what we will do. I checked the itinerary and we only have two days of park-hopping planned, both days when we would start out at DHS and finish up at MK or Epcot. On the first of the two days, we both will start at DHS, stay until we have to leave for our ADR at California Grill, and then if I want I'll park-hop alone to MK after dinner. On the other day, I'll go alone to DHS first thing in the morning just to ride my favorites (Toy Story Mania), then I'll meet hubby at Epcot and stay there for the rest of the day.

Our current ADRs include the aforementioned California Grill, both of the Wilderness Lodge TS restaurants, including Whispering Canyon for both breakfast and dinner, Via Napoli and La Hacienda de San Angel at Epcot, and Sanaa. All but Sanaa will be first-visits for us.

FastPasses won't be made until December along with online check-in.

This is our first winter Disney trip so we're not sure how to pack. We might get some unusually warm days with shorts weather, unusually cold winter-jacket weather, or anything in between, so we'll have to bring a selection of all kinds of clothes just in case. Meaning we won't have a large variety of any one season's outfits. Good thing the unit has a washer and dryer.

And those are the plans up to this point. More closer to the trip.