Winter Sister Trip to WDW - Pre-Trip Report!

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MandaLynn's picture
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Joined: 09/22/2013
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Winter Sister Trip to WDW - Pre-Trip Report!

Hello all!!

I have just hit the 80 day mark for my next Disney trip, so I thought this would be a fun time for me to get a pre-trip report on the books Smile

Megan and I have been wanting to go in the winter since we have yet to experience this time of year at WDW. We love Food & Wine as well as Flower & Garden, but in a weird way, we have been wanting to go at at time where there aren't many special events...to see the World in it's purest sense. So we looked into a few things as well as what would work for our schedules and picked the end of January as our ideal time. We immediately looked into DVC rental and got our ideal booking: 3 nights at Kidani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and 2 nights at Bay Lake Tower! Both of these will be first-time visits (although we have visited the AKL before, it was before Kidani was added and we have never stayed there).

So far, the plan is as follows:

Wednesday - We haven't arranged our flight yet, but will probably travel from Nashville to Orlando in the late morning and take DME to AKL. We always look forward to the Magical Express! It's kind of like crossing the threshold from the real world into the magic before even getting to the resorts or parks Smile After checking in and dropping off bags, we are planning on heading over to the Poly for drinks at Trader Sam's and early dinner at Captain Cooks (this has become a delicious tradition for us over the past few visits!). At some point this afternoon/evening, we will take the boat or monorail over to the TTC to activate our ANNUAL PASSES!! This is a first for us, but because we have 3-4 trips in the works for 2016, it definitely makes sense...we are SO excited!!! Later in the evening, we are planning to watch the Movie under the Stars and get a couple good lounge chairs (and hopefully a drink!) to prepare for Wishes on the shore of the Poly. This is another tradition of ours and we just love it Smile

Thursday - This morning, we will catch an early bus over to DHS. We really want to be there at rope drop so that we can jump on Rock N Roller Coaster before the line gets long. We will then probably stop in at Starbucks on our way to our FPs. We haven't sorted these out completely as we still have 20 days before we can lock them in, but we are thinking TSMM (duh!), Star Tours, and maybe the Frozen Sing-a-long. We have lunch reservations at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. I haven't been there in forever and I don't think Meg has ever eaten there! We are looking forward to comfort food and trying someplace new Smile After lunch, we may go back to AKL to relax for a bit. Later this afternoon, we will make our way over to the Magic Kingdom to stroll down Main Street and hopefully snag a couple more FPs. We are planning on having a counter service or snack for dinner and staying until Wishes (possibly watching from Dumbo!).

Friday - We are headed to the Animal Kingdom! Again, we want to get there early so we can catch Everest first thing. We will have our FPs here for the day, but might want to ride Everest (one of our favorite rides) more than once! For our 3 FPs, we are thinking Everest, Dinosaur, and Kali RR (if we think it will be warm enough...the Safari if not). We also think Primeval Whirl is so fun and are looking forward to walking the trails and maybe catching a show. The theming at AK is awesome and we just love being there! Once we've spent a busy morning on rides and attractions, we will eat a late lunch at Harambe Market, which we are very excited to try, and then catch a bus back to AKL to relax for a couple hours. We really wanted to build in some down time on this trip (which is new for us as we normally like to see EVERYTHING...which is impossible Smile Later this evening we are thinking of taking a bus to DHS to ride TSMM again during Fantasmic (obviously another fave for us!) and then taking a boat over to EPCOT for a snack and drink during Illuminations.

Saturday - We are changing hotels today, so will take our time this morning getting everything together and then make our way over to EPCOT. This is the only day we probably won't park hop, but might make a stop at the Boardwalk to grab a cupcake or snack. It looks like Soarin will be closed, so this makes our FP plans very easy: Test Track, Spaceship Earth, and Mission Space. We LOVE Spaceship Earth, and will probably ride this a couple times throughout the day! This is also our favorite park, so we will have a lot on our must-do list here! We have dinner reservations at Marrakesh this evening and this will be our first time there. We both love Moroccan food and are really excited about this place!! We will stay for Illumations (this will be a running theme!) and then probably take the monorails at the end of the day to get over to BLT Smile

Sunday - We will rope drop MK today and have our FPs here as well. After this, we will play it by ear. We are thinking of possibly eating lunch at Pecos Bills (we are psyched about the new menu!) or the new Skipper Canteen. We might hop back over to EPCOT at some point to try some more food/drinks around World Showcase.

Monday - Our last day Sad We haven't booked our flights yet, so this will determine how much time we have on this day. We might go to a park if we feel like we missed something, or we might go over to Disney Springs to shop and eat lunch before jumping on the DME. I'm sure before we even get to the airport, we will be making plans for our trip in the spring!!

JMed's picture
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Sounds like a great plan! I tried really hard to work down time into our trip in a couple weeks, there is just too much to do and see. I know we will be back sooner than later and it will all get done, I just can't imagine going down and NOT doing anything LOL

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JanJ's picture
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Looks and sounds like a great trip. We might see you around as I believe we're there at the same time. wink

MandaLynn's picture
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Joined: 09/22/2013
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JMed wrote:
Sounds like a great plan! I tried really hard to work down time into our trip in a couple weeks, there is just too much to do and see. I know we will be back sooner than later and it will all get done, I just can't imagine going down and NOT doing anything LOL

I know what you mean JMed! We do the same thing...will see if we actually make time for relaxation or if we decide to relax when we get home! Haha

JanJ wrote:
Looks and sounds like a great trip. We might see you around as I believe we're there at the same time. wink

Would love to meet up!! Let me know your thoughts Smile

Allie's picture
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Joined: 06/26/2012
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I always look forward to trip reports from you two! Are you going to do videos again this time? And congrats on the APs! yay

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Allie wrote:
I always look forward to trip reports from you two! Are you going to do videos again this time? And congrats on the APs! yay


Aww Thanks Allie!! I have been slacking the last few months, but excited to get back on the forum Smile We will probably do a couple videos again because we had so much fun with them last time. We hadn't really edited much video before, so we had no clue what we were getting into! haha

Looking forward to reading about your upcoming trip as well Smile

amy1989's picture
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Joined: 12/30/2013
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Can't wait to hear about your trip it's always great to read/watch!

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MandaLynn wrote:
JanJ wrote:
Looks and sounds like a great trip. We might see you around as I believe we're there at the same time. wink

Would love to meet up!! Let me know your thoughts Smile

I was going to say, I don't see anywhere in those plans saying "meeting up with Mrhub & Scrappy & KenJ & JanJ!".
sad

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MandaLynn wrote:
JanJ wrote:
Looks and sounds like a great trip. We might see you around as I believe we're there at the same time. wink

Would love to meet up!! Let me know your thoughts Smile

We (Ken & I, MrHub and scrappy) could probably meet up either Wednesday or Thursday as our schedules are pretty open, except for lunch at Yak & Yeti on Wednesday, which means AK in the morning. On Thursday we'll be at Epcot and Tokyo Dining for lunch. We can figure out details once we get closer. awesome

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MrHub wrote:
MandaLynn wrote:
JanJ wrote:
Looks and sounds like a great trip. We might see you around as I believe we're there at the same time. wink

Would love to meet up!! Let me know your thoughts Smile

I was going to say, I don't see anywhere in those plans saying "meeting up with Mrhub & Scrappy & KenJ & JanJ!".
sad

Haha!! Well I am definitely adding this to the plans!! We would absolutely LOVE to grab a drink or snack with y'all Smile It sounds like we will be at the Magic Kingdom both Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, but we were actually just talking about possibly going over to EPCOT on Thursday evening, so that might work as well! As JanJ mentioned, we can sort out the details later, but I wouldn't think of missing out on this biggrin

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Joined: 09/12/2013
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I love your trip reports awesome Will there be any cute Disney bounding outfits this trip? I don't Disneybound but I enjoy living vicariously through the people that do Disney bound biggrin

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AnnielovesDisney wrote:
I love your trip reports awesome Will there be any cute Disney bounding outfits this trip? I don't Disneybound but I enjoy living vicariously through the people that do Disney bound biggrin

Thanks AnnielovesDisney!! You know we can't resist at least a couple Disneybounds when we are in the World Smile Planning our outfits is almost as fun as planning the trip! I also have a tradition of designing or buying a new Disney-inspired shirt and/or accessory to wear on each trip. I've narrowed this down to a vintage Epcot or Cinderella castle theme on this trip, but haven't decided. I'm also thinking about getting some new ears off Etsy...so many cute choices!! Once we have an idea of our DBs, we will be sure to write up an update mickey