Side by side with your loved one, You’ll find enchantment here - a Disneymoon PTR - 10/25 TR Link

[amalone1013]

Hello and Welcome to my Magical Disneymoon PTR!

Please join me and my fiance on our 18 day extravaganza - two WDW newbies (minus a 3 day trip to Magic Kingdom and Epcot) as we navigate this world of FP+, ADRs, Food & Wine Festival, and balancing our commando park touring style with a celebration trip that has a special event near the beginning! We're just two crazy kids trying to do it all!


Table of Contents:

Introduction
Lodging
Small Lodging Update
A Food Mishap
ADR Time!










Coming Soon:
ADRs
Matching Shirts?
Special Ears?
And so much more!​

 

[amalone1013]

Introduction

All right, let's get this show on the road!

(wait, wrong company...)


Cast of Characters:

I'm Alyssa. Book-reader, crafter extraordinaire (I like to think ), Disney lover, spoiler of animals, kid at heart. My family never made it to the parks while I was growing up, but don't worry, we went a different place every summer! My first trip was February 2015 to Disneyland, and now I've also been to Disneyland Paris, back to Disneyland in 2016 (and it's looking like 2018!), and spent a few days at the World.

My Partner in Crime: Zack. Became DF on that February 2015 Disneyland trip.

Car enthusiast, Disney aficionado, all around great guy. I'm lucky If you'd like the whole story, how'd you meet/how'd he do it, you can check it out on my Wedding PJ here. His family did a few trips to Disneyland over the years; Though somehow, I am the one who introduced him to Dole Whips


We like to spend our time re-watching all of our favorite Disney movies (along with a few non-Disney for good measure) and planning when we can get back. I also like to spend time figuring out how to add an extra day or two onto our trips. I'm a spreadsheet junkie so I do most of the planning and deal hunting. Don't worry, Zack gets his opinions in there too!


We took a quick trip to Disney World in January to visit some places for our special event.

Oh, and the Arts Festival! That was pure luck!

It's been an interesting time planning so far - not only have we had a few hiccups, but we tend to be the sleep 5 hours a night, do all the things! people on trips...

So it could be an uphill climb!​

 

[JessH87]

Following along! 18 days at Disney World?!?! Sounds like a great time and congrats on your upcoming wedding!

 

[amalone1013]

Following along! 18 days at Disney World?!?! Sounds like a great time and congrats on your upcoming wedding!

Hello! Thanks for following along!

I'm so excited that we can pull off such a long trip - luckily DF could clear it with his employer. I get quite a bit of vacation time, but his is more limited.

 

[amalone1013]

Lodging
​

I'll start with a few more generic details, like where we'll be staying.

Originally I wanted to rent DVC points for the whole trip. We tend to be budget travelers, but I wanted to splurge a little this time. I was aiming for a standard view Boardwalk studio, because 1) price, 2) we could easily walk to an Epcot ADR after a day at a different park, and 3) I was hoping we'd hit Food and Wine festival.

Well, with our original two week honeymoon plan (this was before we added a special event), renting DVC points was almost $2700. I realize that's around $165 a night for a Deluxe resort on the Boardwalk, but I had quite a bit of sticker shock. That was around half of our budget, and we had tried to budget high because we understand Disney isn't cheap. We also had around $500 in credit card rewards that I was hoping to put towards the cost, but it was still a good chunk of change, so I started looking into some other options.

I stumbled across a credit card blog and read an idea, and we already had some cash saved up for wedding expenses...

So we'll be spending 7 nights at the Dolphin, on points!​

We still get to be somewhere we can walk to Epcot, we weren't worried about DME because Disney is sandwiched between two other things so we wouldn't be going from MCO to Disney anyways, we ended up getting APs so we have magic bands... and we can't beat the price - just the resort fee, so $28 a night! I'll take it! This opened up a huge amount in the budget for other things.

I tried to get us a Boardwalk studio for the remaining time. I thought I had to wait until 12 months out to send in my request, but I was wrong... so I ended up sending my request about 12.5 months out. After about a month after the DVC window opened, I checked in, but there was no news on getting us a reservation. Then at the beginning of January, I heard from the rental company - the Boardwalk was SOLD OUT.

They gave us a few options - we could book OKW or Saratoga right away (the only ones that were a similar price to BWV standard view), or go on a waiting list for BLT, Animal Kingdom, or Wilderness Lodge. We basically debated between BLT or WLV... picked BLT and crossed our fingers! We dropped a night too, to see if that would help the budget, since it was about $550 more than we originally thought... Well, dropping a night opened up a MK view room at BLT vs the Lake view she offered originally, and it was still a bit less so we went for it. And about two weeks later, we had our room!

So we'll be spending 5 nights at Bay Lake Tower!​

​

Now you may be thinking... 7 nights plus 5 nights does not equal an 18 day extravaganza, and you would be correct.

We wanted to visit Universal Studios on our trip, so we decided to stick it at the beginning. We booked a room at the Four Points Sheraton near Universal for the first night (also on points!). A combination of close to Universal and free, since we planned on being up early to go to the Parks.

​

Originally we were going to stay here two nights on points, for our two Universal days. Zack was really determined to get an express pass, because we've done US Hollywood twice with them (and they are awesome, don't get me wrong), but I was hesitant due to the price and wasn't sure we'll need them. I did a bit of research, and saw that certain US hotels include the express pass that's valid from check-in to check-out. Even with just two of us, a night one of the hotels was less than just buying express pass.

So we have a night at Royal Pacific Resort too!

But wait a second... 1 + 1 + 7 + 5... that still doesn't quite add up...






Well, here's a hint as to why:

We will be doing a 3 night Disney Cruise, courtesy of my future in-laws as a wedding gift.



I'm really excited for it! I got on the Disboards when I was wedding planning, and started reading TRs, and then I started reading some cruise TRs.... and then I started thinking about when we could go on one! Neither of us have cruised before, so I think it's the perfect intro to see if we enjoy it, and hopefully some relaxing time at the end of our trip!


There you are! The run down of where we'll be sleeping each night... and our first hiccup. There's a few more to come! And besides saving a few nights' hotel costs with the cruise gift, we cut about $1500 off, which opens room for more fun things in the budget!​

 

[ariane37]

I'm here I had no idea your trip was so long or so diverse, it sounds awesome! When I toured the Universal resorts in Feb. I fell in love with the theming at Royal Pacific And I think staying at the Dolphin is a great alternative to the BW! Looking forward to reading more!

 

[amalone1013]

Small Lodging Update​

About a month ago, I decided to roll the dice on a daily travel deal in hopes that it would work out for our trip, because it would make things easier... Well I just got confirmation for my reservation, so it worked!

We are going to be spending two nights at US Royal Pacific Resort! I got a 'two nights for the price of one deal' so it costs the same, and we get to hold on to our hotel points since we won't be staying at the Four Points Sheraton. Perhaps we'll use them towards another trip at the Dolphin? Perhaps we'll come down a night early for this trip? Only time will tell

I wish...​

 

[amalone1013]

I'm here I had no idea your trip was so long or so diverse, it sounds awesome! When I toured the Universal resorts in Feb. I fell in love with the theming at Royal Pacific And I think staying at the Dolphin is a great alternative to the BW! Looking forward to reading more!

Our trip turned into quite the beast I was pushing for a two week honeymoon to start, and then we added the *ahem* special event *ahem* and I was like, oh that will take time away from the honeymoon... and then his parents brought up the cruise...

I'm excited for Royal Pacific, and staying in fancy hotels the whole time We were happy with Pop back in January, and would be fine staying there in the future right now. But for this trip, I wanted to splurge a little.

 

[amalone1013]

This has been every day for me, for the last two weeks.
Actually more like the last two and a half weeks.
​

I'm training a new person at work, so everyday I feel like I'm working three times harder than if it was just me. I'm an introvert, so I'm really used to spending my downtime on the Dis (and occasionally other sites), and spending my lunchtime reading. It wears on me to have to explain myself all day

We've been working every other weekend, I also had a coworker call in on me, and due to some other circumstances, I ended up having exactly 40 hours from when I left work on Saturday until I was back at work on Monday, so that felt like no weekend (usually it'd be 60-64 hours). That was two weeks ago, and then we worked the following weekend, so the last two days it felt great not to go to work

Anyways, I'm going to try and get started on something that lots of people like to hear about:

​

A Food Mishap

Did Somebody Say Food?
​

After much reading of Allears menus, and many dining reports... and attempting to figure out park days... We decided. I felt so prepared... I split the reservations in half, ordered them in most to least difficult to get, and we set our alarms for 3:50am.

We log in, and at 4:00am we tried to get our two most difficult reservations - Be Our Guest dinner and California Grill dinner at a time you could see fireworks. Both were farther into our trip. But...

We hit a snag.

The dates wouldn't open! What the heck!

Apparently, the Swan and Dolphin don't count for the 180+ ADR date, which I figured out after poking around on the Dis. With all of the research I did, I never thought to check that. I knew we'd have two ADR and fastpass days because of our split stay. I guess I assumed that because they count for the 60 day FP+ window, they'd count for dining too. You know what they say when you assume...

​

So after 30-45 minutes of fighting with the ADR system and figuring that out, I booked a room at Pop for the same length as our Dolphin stay... and the dates immediately opened up. And we booked everything the best we could.

So our second ADR date rolls around, and I booked everything on my phone. In bed.

You know what, I lied about Be Our Guest dinner, that was in the second round. I don't remember what I made priority number one for Zack - I kept the important one for myself

But wouldn't you know it... BOG was the only one I couldn't get.

But never fear, for the Dis was to the rescue again! Seriously, I don't know how I would ever plan a trip without all of the awesome people on these boards I did some more poking around on the boards and ran into a thread talking about how hard it is to get a reservation for two with Disney And someone said they book everything as a table for four, and modify it down to two people.

And a few days later, I had a BOG dinner reservation!

So we had everything, except we were waiting for the Rivers of Light dining packages to come out. I checked our date a few times, didn't see anything. Some more Dis-ing... come across people discussing the dining packages, and how they're CURRENTLY NOT SCHEDULED TO RUN THE DANG SHOW EVERY NIGHT. And of course, both nights we planned for AK are non-show nights.

Now I'd like to at least see ROL. So we switched some days around and tried for all of these reservations again, on the new days, because we wanted to be sure we could get them. And it basically worked out, except I'd like to scoot the times a bit, so here's hoping. Currently we've still got both sets of reservations. A small part of me would like to think that the dream that I wish will come true... and they'll show ROL every night.

Also I left out one small thing... the first few days we were trying to book ADRs for, we were trying to book for 10-12 people. Because we've invited family to spend a few days with us at the parks. Because we're gluttons for punishment, and no one here knows how much because I haven't finished my Disneyland TR (but it should be okay, because I don't think the difficult people are coming).

But hey, even with all of our mishaps, we've got ADRs! Coming up next!

 

[Raeven]

Following along! I'll have to take a look at your other threads too.

 

[amalone1013]

Following along! I'll have to take a look at your other threads too.

Hello! I swear, someday I will finish my Disneyland TR... lol

 

[fallonkendra]

I'm almost certain I started reading your Disneyland trip report, and your wedding planning report... and now I'm here too! Looking forward to seeing what you've chosen for ADR's!

Your trip sounds similar to our wedding trip haha - it started off as a 5 night trip for marathon weekend followed by a 4 night cruise, then we decided to cancel the cruise, have a Disney wedding and extend our trip to 11 nights at Disney. Now we're almost positive we're going to extend it to 14 nights...

 

[amalone1013]

I'm almost certain I started reading your Disneyland trip report, and your wedding planning report... and now I'm here too! Looking forward to seeing what you've chosen for ADR's!

Your trip sounds similar to our wedding trip haha - it started off as a 5 night trip for marathon weekend followed by a 4 night cruise, then we decided to cancel the cruise, have a Disney wedding and extend our trip to 11 nights at Disney. Now we're almost positive we're going to extend it to 14 nights...

Yay! Someday I'll finish Disneyland lol. I just posted on it today!

Hey, I keep trying to add a night at the beginning and end of our trip... but I might have to give that up. We got APs and they're good through February, and I'd really like to do another 4/5 day trip in January. We have to carefully plan out vacation time... I get a lot, but Zack's is more limited.

We almost went this weekend too Addicted! And now we know Zack's brother is getting married next Spring in LA, so of course we have to visit Disneyland again! I've made a spreadsheet to figure out how much time we have

 

[Araminta18]

Oooh, sounds like fun! 18 days and a Disney cruise? Nice!

If you don't mind me asking, what agency were you trying to rent points through? My husband and I just decided to do a trip Sept 2018, and I really want to try and rent points for a Boardwalk standard view studio as well...hoping it all works out!

 

[amalone1013]

Oooh, sounds like fun! 18 days and a Disney cruise? Nice!

If you don't mind me asking, what agency were you trying to rent points through? My husband and I just decided to do a trip Sept 2018, and I really want to try and rent points for a Boardwalk standard view studio as well...hoping it all works out!

We went with DVC-Rental

 

[ariane37]

I swore I commented on this update, I know I read it while we were down in Disney last week

So after 30-45 minutes of fighting with the ADR system and figuring that out, I booked a room at Pop for the same length as our Dolphin stay... and the dates immediately opened up. And we booked everything the best we could.

Good thinking!!

And a few days later, I had a BOG dinner reservation!

Excellent! One of our faves, we've had dinner there 6x and our August trip is actually the first time we haven't been able to get a reservation there Yet!

Also I left out one small thing... the first few days we were trying to book ADRs for, we were trying to book for 10-12 people. Because we've invited family to spend a few days with us at the parks. Because we're gluttons for punishment, and no one here knows how much because I haven't finished my Disneyland TR (but it should be okay, because I don't think the difficult people are coming).

Oh man, NOT FUN booking for that many people! I just booked ADR's a few days ago for a client traveling Thanksgiving week. Most of their ADR's had to be for 11 and sometimes 15 people-not fun or a success at first. Many restaurants don't allow you to book online once you go over 10, 11, or in some cases 12 people so you need to call, and many restaurants won't sit that many together and therefore you have to make 2 reservations and hope everything gets seated together

Bottom line, you got what you wanted and that's great!! Looking forward to hearing what they all are

 

[amalone1013]

I swore I commented on this update, I know I read it while we were down in Disney last week

My problem is I read updates on my phone, but I don't like to comment there because it's a pain... and then I forget...

Excellent! One of our faves, we've had dinner there 6x and our August trip is actually the first time we haven't been able to get a reservation there Yet!

Fingers crossed! I'm super excited - we did a breakfast there back in January. The detail is amazing! Also I really need a gray stuff cupcake...

Oh man, NOT FUN booking for that many people! I just booked ADR's a few days ago for a client traveling Thanksgiving week. Most of their ADR's had to be for 11 and sometimes 15 people-not fun or a success at first. Many restaurants don't allow you to book online once you go over 10, 11, or in some cases 12 people so you need to call, and many restaurants won't sit that many together and therefore you have to make 2 reservations and hope everything gets seated together

Bottom line, you got what you wanted and that's great!! Looking forward to hearing what they all are

Mostly lol. Oh my, what a pain that large group is! The worst part is I think I'm going to have to try and move some of them a little bit... and people are not committing to plans They just don't get it. One of Zack's brothers hasn't told us what days they're planning, so I don't know when to include them for. And I may have invited two more people last night...

 

[amalone1013]

ADR Time!

I love this short
​

I’m going to break this down by park, and group time vs alone time

Group ADRs

Magic Kingdom

Skipper Canteen - Lunch​

Right now we have four ADRs for lunch, because I’m crazy. But really, it’s because of that whole ROL not playing every night thing, and this was one of the three days we ended up switching. I’ve got the original ADRs and new ones, and we had to split this one into two groups. I’ve mainly been holding off on canceling because I don’t know what days everyone else plans on tagging along.


I thought about trying to get a PPO Be Our Guest breakfast, maybe for part of the group… we’ll see lol.

Epcot

Garden Grill - Lunch or Dinner​

Three ADRs here… we had to split them to get a lunch time, or I could get one large group reservation for an early dinner. We went here in January for an early dinner and had awesome character interactions, and I think it would be fun to have some certain family members interact with characters.



Otherwise, Food and Wine alllllll dayyyyy

​

Animal Kingdom
​

Originally we had a Tusker House PPO Breakfast booked, which I wanted to change into a ROL package. And then I figured out that right now they’re not playing ROL everyday in September. So date switching. Now we have:

Tiffins - Lunch, ROL Package
​

I am still a bit hesitant on the price and entrees, because I’m picky, but I’ve seen some really good reviews now We’ll see how everyone else feels about this one.

Hollywood Studios
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Now the places I really want to eat here are Sci Fi, and 50s Primetime. Do either of them do the Fantasmic dining package? Of course not. Zack’s a bit hooked on the packages… we’ve been to Disneyland twice and we’ve done the Fantasmic, World of Color, and Paint the Night packages. We’ve been to Epcot a total of 1.5 days (in our lives!) and we did the Broadway package for Festival of the Arts. I wasn’t against this package, I just wished the restaurant choices were different. We ended up with:

Mama Melrose’s - Lunch, Fantasmic package

50's Prime Time Cafe - Dinner
​

This is a really early dinner, and these are both on the same day. Not sure how I feel about that. I was trying to find a slightly later dinner time but it’s hard with a big group. Once again, we’ll see how everyone else feels… hey, maybe some won’t want to go and we’ll be able to get a better time with a smaller group!

And again, I’ve got two sets of these because of the switching days. Last time, I promise!

The Mushy Part

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Magic Kingdom

Liberty Tree Tavern - Lunch
​

Originally we wanted to eat here, and then when our ADR date rolled around the menu had been changed (which I knew because I am a good Dis-er). I was not crazy of going for an AYCE lunch, but Zack still wanted to go, so we booked it (does that score me fiance points or wife points? By the time we go, I won’t be fiance any more ) Good news, the menu has changed back! I’m so happy.

Be Our Guest - PPO Breakfast
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This is at 8:40, but I haven’t been able to get an earlier time. I was trying to avoid days with the extra cost morning fantasyland thing? We ran into that in January… On a fluke I had booked BOG PPO on a non extra fantasyland day, and it was the greatest thing ever because we rode Mine Train before the park opened! Our other MK day, we hit rope drop and ran to Mine Train… and the wait was already an hour because of that. So this day is not morning fantasyland thing, but after I grabbed the ADR I realized we also have the lunch and dinner below booked on the same day.

Tony's Town Square Restaurant - Lunch
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I love Lady and the Tramp, but could have skipped this because I keep reading it’s a bit mediocre italian. Zack is determined to go. I had another Italian restaurant in mind....

Be Our Guest - Dinner
The elusive ADR...

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Hollywood Studios

Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater - Lunch




Animal Kingdom

Yak & Yeti - Lunch
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Where I want to order all of the appetizers... Also free due to credit card rewards Also I'm done with Rainforest Cafe for a few years

Epcot
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San Angel Inn - Dinner
​

Will I try an avocado margarita? Only time will tell! Zack really wanted to go here.

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Le Cellier Steakhouse - Dinner
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And our only two ADRs currently that are not in a park... because we basically got done picking places, and I realized that, and all I could think is we haven't even scratched the surface!

​

California Grill - Dinner​

with Fireworks!


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Kona Cafe - Breakfast
And one last meal before we head to port

Because I need this:

And that is where the strawberry sauce will stay, if it knows what's good for it.​

 

[fallonkendra]

I'd really like to do another 4/5 day trip in January

Keep me updated on the dates of this if it ends up happening! If it's in the first half of the month, dates may overlap!

Right now we have four ADRs for lunch, because I’m crazy.

I have a feeling I'll end up being the same once our ADR day actually comes around...

Garden Grill - Lunch or Dinner​

Three ADRs here… we had to split them to get a lunch time, or I could get one large group reservation for an early dinner. We went here in January for an early dinner and had awesome character interactions, and I think it would be fun to have some certain family members interact with characters.

Tiffins - Lunch, ROL Package
​

I am still a bit hesitant on the price and entrees, because I’m picky, but I’ve seen some really good reviews now We’ll see how everyone else feels about this one.

I'm also a super picky eater, and I'm so on the fence about this place...

Zack’s a bit hooked on the packages… we’ve been to Disneyland twice and we’ve done the Fantasmic, World of Color, and Paint the Night packages

Which restaurant did you do your World of Colour package at? We did Wine Country Trattoria back in 2015, and it was awesome. We did it again this past January, and

all I could think is we haven't even scratched the surface!

I feel the same way! We did so many ADR's on our trip this past January, and I still feel like we've barely scratched the surface of what they offer....

Kona Cafe - Breakfast
And one last meal before we head to port

Because I need this:

And that is where the strawberry sauce will stay, if it knows what's good for it.

Check out Capt' Cook's, the quick service at the Polynesian! They also serve Tonga Toast, and it's like half the price of Kona Cafe!

 

[amalone1013]

Which restaurant did you do your World of Colour package at? We did Wine Country Trattoria back in 2015, and it was awesome. We did it again this past January, and

Oh no lol. That's where we did it in July 2016 and had a good experience. This gets me thinking, we'll have to look at Disneyland restaurants again, for next year... Not that that's anywhere near the undertaking for World lol.

Check out Capt' Cook's, the quick service at the Polynesian! They also serve Tonga Toast, and it's like half the price of Kona Cafe!

Oooh! I'll have to look into it! I didn't look too much at resort QS if we weren't going to be there, but this might be easier time-wise. Thanks!