Renda Family WDW Holiday Pre Trip Report

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Karlipants's picture
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Renda Family WDW Holiday Pre Trip Report

I know it's early but.... I got started on this tonight! Please don't feel obligated to read the whole thing! I went a little overboard... :Cool. This is only pre Disney and the first day at Disney. More to come.

Renda Family * Walt Disney World Holiday Vacation * Pre Trip Report

Departing From: Nutley, NJ via Rental Car

Departing Date: December 5, 2013

Departing Time: 8:00 PM

Departing With: DH: Mark DMIL: Angela DFIL: Gus DSIL: Tara

WDW Resort: Old Key West 2 bedroom Villa

Park Tickets: 6 day park hopper passes

Ok everyone! It's that time again... When I am just too excited to keep our plans inside and feel compelled to share them with you all. As stated above we are leaving via rental car on December 5th at 8PM. My husband and I will be taking the night time shifts with me driving mostly through the night. Mark is not that great at keeping his eyes open when it's dark, but I am a serious night owl so I am ready!

Mark and I will be traveling with his mother, father and sister who have never been to Disney World. Woo hoo! We have quite the trip planned for them (and us, of course!)

Mapquest says it takes 16 hours (rounded) to get to Disney World from Nutley, NJ. I am planning on having to stop and some traffic so I am tacking on 4 extra hours to the trip, making our trip a total of 20 hours. So if we leave at 8PM we should make it to our hotel by 4PM the next day Smile. Perfect! Even if we don't make it there by then, a little later would be no big deal! Let's hope all goes as planned Wink.

I booked what I like to call a "resting" hotel room for the night we get to Orlando. I like to have a place that we can unwind from our drive and get plenty of rest so that we can wake up the next morning feeling refreshed and check into Old Key West so we can officially start our WDW vacation! The hotel that I chose to rest in is, Hampton Inn & Suites Orlando-South Lake Buena Vista. I reserved a very roomy two queen studio with a sofa bed. It's very nice and come's with a free continental breakfast. SCORE! Hopefully they have mickey waffles!

On to the WDW part of the trip! WDW Day 1:

We will be waking up quite early this morning to enjoy our complimentary breakfast, pack up, and head over to the DTD resort area where our humble abode awaits us. We are staying at Old Key West Resort in one of the luxurious (to me) 2 bedroom villa's. These villa's are HUGE. Perfect for a large family. They can fit up to 9 guests, and we only have 5 Smile. We will drive over to the resort, check in (even though I am checking in online) just to let them know we are there. I will leave them my cell phone number so that they can shoot me a text when our room is ready. I requested a room on the top floor of the building, close to the main pool. Fingers crossed!

After we check in, we will hop back in the car and drive over to Animal Kingdom. Hopefully we will make it there early enough to be a few of the first in! The park opens at 9:00 AM that day. Of course I will try my best to "rush" the family over to KS so that we can see the morning animals... But because this is their first time, I want them to be able to take in that big beautiful tree. Mark and I already decided that we are stopping for an Egg Roll at some point, but our lunch will be at Flame Tree BBQ. Oh so good!

When we are all good and done at AK (hopefully around 2 or 3), we will head back to our resort and check out our room. Settle in, get comfy. We have our first ADR of the trip that evening at Narcoosee's. After dinner we are going to head over to MK, which is open until 10PM. The Christmas parade is being filmed while we are there, so hopefully because it will be dark by the time we get over there, they will be done filming and my husband's family will get a great first glimpse of that beautiful towering castle! After some wishes we will hop back on the boat to the poly and drive back to our resort for a good nights sleep. Woo, that sounds like a busy day!

So recap...

Dec 7:
* Check out of Hampton Inn after breakfast
Head to Old Key West " Check in
Drive to AK " See all we can see
Back to OKW to check out room and relax
Drive to Poly for dinner adr at Narcoosee's
Take Poly boat to MK
Then back to OKW after park close
Snoreee

To be Continued.....

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VelcroPooh

Sounds wonderful!

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Sounds great. The timing is about right. We made it in a little less than 20 from Exit 9 on the turnpike. The relaxing hotel looks great.

Can't wait to hear more plans!

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OK I worked on a little more!

Day 2 Dec 8:

We'll be headed back to MK this morning for our first breakfast ADR. My mother in law loves Winnie the Pooh and friends so we have an ADR at Crystal Palace at 8:30 AM. I am hoping to get there a little early to get a few snap shots of the castle and other parts of the park... Albeit that the parade hasn't taken over by then. Because we were there the night before, we will leave this park a bit early today and head over to Epcot via monorail (have to figure out where to park the car).

My husband wants his parents to see the World Showcase during daytime so we will spend the day traveling around the world. We don't have any other ADR's planned for this day so I am assuming we will be nibbling on lunch around the world.

After we have had our World Showcase fill, we will be heading over to HS to watch Fantasmic and Osborne lights. The night will be filled with shows rather than rides as I don't think we will have enough time for rides when we get there... Unless we get the magic bands and FP+ which then I will book us a ride on TSM... Once, or twice, or maybe three times!

After this fun filled day, we will head back to our resort where we will either gather around the table for some late night snacks. The next day will be a tad more relaxed.

Day 3 Dec 9:

There is no rushing this morning as we are going back for some daytime fun in HS and the park doesn't open until 9 AM. We will most likely get breakfast in the resort and take our time getting there.

We have an afternoon ADR at 50's Prime Time Cafe.. Which I haven't really discussed much with the group.. Hoping someone gets caught for something! After all, that IS part of the fun of dining there and I wouldn't want to give that away. We will be spending most of the early part of the day at HS, riding rides, watching shows, shopping.... Eating cupcakes.....!!.... And then will head back to the hotel for some swimming and relaxing before heading to Epcot.

We have a dinner ADR at San Angel at 7 PM that night and will hopefully get there before that so we can get in some shopping and site seeing. This will be the night that we sit and watch Illuminations.... From where, I'm not sure! I have always watched them from England... But I'm thinking about switching it up this time...

After Illuminations we will retire back to our room and do some late night snacking and chatting again. Maybe make it back before the pool closes and take a dip! Who knows?

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I think this all sounds wonderful!

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Thanks! I feel like it's a LOT to accomplish in 6 days but I'm ultimately going to tell them all the plan... If they don't want to keep up with me then I don't want them to feel like they HAVE to. I want them to go at their own pace...Not mine.. I'm a maniac when I get to Disney... I have to see it all, do it all, and there's really no stopping me... I've already warned my husband that I may be gone early in the morning... And that he can find me at MK rope drop if I am... lol. They will all know the ADR's and those can be our meeting points if they feel like I am going too fast for them.

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Sounds great! I can't wait to hear more mickey

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Sounds awesome Karli! I am an energizer bunny too at the World.....so much fun to be had. mickey

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sounds great so far.

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Continuing on....

Day 4 Dec 10:

My husband and I agreed that we would take a day off in the middle of the excitement to relax at the resort and hang by the pool. We have a breakfast ADR at Olivia's, which after looking at DFB, I am pretty excited about! After breakfast we will probably suit up and head down to the pool. I also wanted to use this day to resort hop and check out the different Christmas decorations. We will probably also do some DTD shopping, since we will have the time. I haven't decided yet if this evening will be the evening we do MVMCP. If we do it at all, this will be the night. We do however have an ADR at Raglan Road. So this day is still kind of up in the air. It's nice to be able to have 1 day to play with.

Day 5 Dec 11:

We have another breakfast ADR this morning at Kouzzina on the Boardwalk. I have heard that the breakfast there is something that you really shouldn't miss. After breakfast we will walk over to Epcot and spend our time in Future World. My in laws are not very big on rides... My father in law refuses to go on Haunted Mansion because, well, he doesn't like elevators. Smile. But we are trying to convince them that Soarin' is a must do... Even for non-ride lovers. Neither of them have motion sickness issues.. and they seem up for it. Also, I want to take my father in law on Test Track. He works for the company that makes the strobe lights that go off when your picture is taken on rides... And I think Test Track's camera is easiest to see. (He really wants to see it). Also, he's not afraid of speed or anything, just elevators, and feeling the confinement of say, Rockin' Roller Coaster seat straps, or Stitch's Great Escape seat straps. They are going to do great. After some riding and shopping, and possibly some character meet and greets, we will be eating lunch at Coral Reef. My sister in law and mother in law are big animal lovers so, I thought this would be a cool place to take them.

We will probably head back to our hotel after lunch and relax maybe take a dip in the pool... Before heading to MK where we will spend the rest of the night. We don't have any dinner ADR's for this night... So we might have to make do with a nutella waffle for dinner. Wink.

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I like reading about what others are planning - honestly the more I read about expert recommendations the more overwhelmed and ready to just wing some of it I seem to get. Not first time there but first time to Magic Kingdom in years. Reading real plans like your's are good to get ideas from. We like the idea of a day off from the parks to tour resorts too. Looking forward to reading the rest of your plans.

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As far as the taping of the Christmas parade goes...they actually do the filming bright and early in the morning. I was lucky enough to attend a taping in 2004, we had to be there very early, and they were finished in the mid-morning so there should not be any problem visiting in the evening. The visit sounds great!!!

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I just bought our tickets! woo hoo!! As soon as I finished my purchase, I was able to.... Customize my Magic Bands! I'm getting Magic Bands! Yay!!

Does anyone know when you can make your Fastpass+ selections?

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When you link your tickets to the website.

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Yay! Sounds like a magical trip! Can't wait to hear more!

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Ok... I took a break from this as there were some changes being made to our schedule. Always trying to make things better... But I will just continue on and tell you the changes afterwards.

Day 6: December 12th

This day is my sister in law, Tara's, birthday. She is turning 23 and this is her first trip to Disney World. A few weeks ago she was joking around with my in laws about how they never took her there and she never got to meet the Princesses when she was younger... I don't take things said like that lightly... lol.

Anyway, we are going to start out our day at Animal Kingdom. Tara is a vegan and she loves animals, so I figured this would be a great place to start her birthday. I know from DFB that they have some awesome vegan and vegetarian food stands there, that I figured we could try for lunch. We'll do some rides and some animal sight seeing along with the Nemo musical and Lion King. Then we head to EPCOT for the duration of the day.. We have a Fastpass for Test Track and then a dinner reservation at Akershus. What about those princesses again?

After dinner we will hang out in the park for a bit until it closes at 9:30.

I think that's a pretty good birthday for an animal lover who has never met the Princesses. haha.

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Your trip sounds awesome, Karlipants!

Quote:
I am an energizer bunny too at the World

Quote:
I'm a maniac when I get to Disney

haha--me too. We're taking my parents in April and my dad refuses to get a scooter despite having chronic knee pain from being hit by a volkswagen when he was a teenager (as in the volkswagen hit his body and flipped him up over the hood) and a smattering of ongoing cardiac issues. I've promised him that I'll take it easy, but something happens to my brain when I get to Disney...I go into hyperdrive.

We could possibly be at MK on December 7 as well. We have a Premium Annual Pass this year so we are trying DisneyQuest this year since it is "free". If we need more time there, this is our night to go back. Otherwise it's MK all the way, baby!!

We are also likely going to hit Osbourne Lights for a second lap on December 8, provided that we're seen all of the holiday storytellers in EPCOT and have sufficiently explored the Christmas decorations at the Boardwalk area resorts. PM me if you're interested in maybe trying to meet up!

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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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Yay! Either night would work for us! We have a Fastpass for Fantasmic at 6pm on the 8th and we're heading to Osbourne Lights afterwards. Would love to meet up at some point! That would be so much fun!

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Haha what a fun idea to take her to Akershus for her birthday! I'll bet she's going to love it! awesome

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It's almost time....

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Have fun, Karli! I love that you all picked different colors. Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up at MK on the 7th or at HS on the 8th! I'll text ya mickey

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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 an awesome trip, Karli! stars

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Have a great time. mickey

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Thanks so much guys! yay

The packing has begun! We are so excited.

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yay yay yay yay yay yay clapping clapping clapping clapping clapping clapping clapping

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Well... we're leaving Connecticut today to go to my in laws house in New Jersey! Takes about an hour and a half to two hours to get there... We have all of our things packed and ready to go. Tomorrow we pick up our rental car at 3:00pm and then we hit the road at 8:00pm! Yippee! My GPS is telling me roughly 17 hours but I'm still betting on 20.

Also, if you want to follow along with my trip (live updates and pictures), be sure to like Karli in Wonderland on facebook! (If you haven't already) The link is below

mickey

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VelcroPooh

clapping clapping clapping

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safe travels. have a great time

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Safe travels!!!!!!

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we are back! we had a great time! lots of pics posted on the facebook page. Some pics on the camera. Will TR soon.

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Welcome back! Can't wait to hear about your trip!