Pre-Trip :: November and Using All The Points!

This is my first pre-trip report, so if it's a mess, forgive me.

Who: Me - Lindsay (32); DH (45); DD7 and DD9



When: November 27 - December 1 (added a night!)

Where: Old Key West, 1 Bedroom Villa

Why: We decided to use all of our 2016 points to make this year worth having an AP (our first time buying one). So, we booked a trip to match up with our kids' school holidays in February and April (we'll throw in one more once SWW dates are announced). We had some points left over and decided that we didn't mind the kids missing a 2 days of school to enjoy some holiday time in the parks. DD7 had one request - she didn't want to actually spend any holidays away from home because she wanted to spend that time with family in our own home (how sweet is that!?). So, we booked the only weekend we didn't have something going on.

Both of our daughters are gymnasts and November/December is a very busy time for them. They both have meets in December (on separate weeks) and we try very hard not to miss practices. We decided on November 28th - December 1st because it doesn't miss any meets and only one girl misses one practice. Not bad, eh?

Table of Contents

• The Food
• Itinerary

ADRs:
We may have possibly lost our minds this time around. We decided that we don't want to overplan this trip too much. So NO ADRs HAVE BEEN MADE! We may change this in the next 32 days, but as of right now, we decided to forego any ADRs.

We are also trying to make this a relatively budget-friendly trip, so we are planning on breakfasts in our villa. If we are feeling really smart, we'll do lunch or dinner in our villa, as well. I imagine this trip will actually turn into a lot of CS food. I think we can still do a pretty tasty trip without any TS meals. I'd love to hear any of your favorites!

Update: After adding a night at the beginning of our trip, we found that we will have more time in Epcot than originally planned. So, we snagged an ADR at Teppan Edo for a late lunch/early dinner on Saturday. I can't wait for the yumminess!

Edited 11/16 after checking crowd calendars
Edited 11/25 after adding a day

Itinerary:
Like I said, we don't want to overplan, but there are a few things we'd like to do and don't want to stand in line forever.

Friday - we're driving down to WDW from our Metro Atlanta home, so we should be arriving around 3 or 4pm. We'll check into our room and just relax for the evening. Probably grab some dinner at the resort.

Saturday - Rest and relaxation is the theme for the morning. The girls will want to go to the pool and that sounds pretty dandy to me! Then, we're going to head over to Epcot for the evening and an early dinner at Teppan Edo. I have never experienced Captain EO and that's simply unacceptable. (We were going to visit DHS, but after checking crowd calendars, we've switched our days around a bit)

FastPass+:
4:50 - Captain EO
6:05 - Soarin'
8:00 - Spaceship Earth

Sunday - Our plan for Sunday is to sleep in and be lazy bums, honestly. Then, we'll head over to MK. Since we've bought into DVC, we feel that we can now visit often enough that getting to the parks at rope drop just isn't a necessity. Whatever we can't see this time, we'll just come back in a few months and check it out then. So, we're becoming much more laid back in our Disney approach. We're going to check out the Christmas decorations at the other resorts. We'll hop on the Monorail and hop around, taking in the sights and saying "Ooh" and "Ahh" a lot. We may also visit Animal Kingdom, but that's still up in the air.

FastPass+:
2:40 - Haunted Mansion (I'm ashamed to admit that I've never experienced Haunted Mansion. Time to remedy that situation.)
3:45 - Peter Pan's Flight (DD9's favorite ride)
4:55 - It's a Small World (DD7's favorite ride)

Monday - On Monday, we're going to hit up DHS in the evening to check out the Osborne Lights. Who knows how we'll spend the daylight hours, but we know we want to be at DHS in the evening.

FastPass+:
2:05 - The Great Movie Ride
3:20 - Star Tours
4:30 - Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular

Tuesday - Heading home and resting up to get the kids back to school and gymnastics on Wednesday!

Getting our girls ready for this trip means lots of movie marathons! We've started watching Indiana Jones (since we have a FP for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular) and Star Wars. Neither of the girls have watched all of the movies in either of these and it's high time that gets moving forward! Only 25 days to go!

dvcmom14 said:

This is my first pre-trip report, so if it's a mess, forgive me.

Who: Me - Lindsay (32); DH (45); DD7 and DD9

When: November 28 - December 1

Where: Old Key West, 1 Bedroom Villa

Why: We decided to use all of our 2016 points to make this year worth having an AP (our first time buying one). So, we booked a trip to match up with our kids' school holidays in February and April (we'll throw in one more once SWW dates are announced). We had some points left over and decided that we didn't mind the kids missing a 2 days of school to enjoy some holiday time in the parks. DD7 had one request - she didn't want to actually spend any holidays away from home because she wanted to spend that time with family in our own home (how sweet is that!?). So, we booked the only weekend we didn't have something going on.

Both of our daughters are gymnasts and November/December is a very busy time for them. They both have meets in December (on separate weeks) and we try very hard not to miss practices. We decided on November 28th - December 1st because it doesn't miss any meets and only one girl misses one practice. Not bad, eh?

Click to expand...

I am doing the same kind of trip for thanksgiving week ,taking family on there very first Disney trip oh what fun that will be.

rmcildw2m said:

I am doing the same kind of trip for thanksgiving week ,taking family on there very first Disney trip oh what fun that will be.

Click to expand...

Oh how fun! That first trip is sure to be magical! Have fun!

Our resale contract has finally come through, so now we're adding an extra night to this vacation to use up the 2015 points that were left over from the previous owners! Woohoo!