Two Trips for 2023! (PTR + Dec TR)-Completed 12/22

[BroadwayHermione5]

Jollywood looks AMAZING (Muppets and max and powerline together AND rotr virtual queue is omg amazing)

And yes Last of Us!

 

[KathyM2]

What a disaster of a trip home from your Charleston trip...I can't imagine how exhausted you must have been after that!! The rest of the trip sounded fun though!! I think I'm pretty spoiled living near an airport that has direct flights to almost anywhere...I have to stop taking that for granted when I hear stories like yours!!

Looking forward to reading about all your plans...so exciting that you will be going back to alll the parks soon and lots of Orlando food and drinks

 

[Raeven]

Jollywood looks AMAZING (Muppets and max and powerline together AND rotr virtual queue is omg amazing)

And yes Last of Us!​

Yes it looks like so much fun!

I haven't played Last of Us or watched the show, but I'm planning to watch the show before we go so hopefully I'll be a little more excited. ​

What a disaster of a trip home from your Charleston trip...I can't imagine how exhausted you must have been after that!! The rest of the trip sounded fun though!! I think I'm pretty spoiled living near an airport that has direct flights to almost anywhere...I have to stop taking that for granted when I hear stories like yours!!​

It was the worst! I was tired for like the rest of the week lol

The rest of the trip was nice though! I wish it was longer so we could see and do more, but we got a lot in.

We have direct flights to some places (like Orlando), but mostly (at least for Southwest) things connect through Midway or Baltimore. Usually the smaller airport works in our favor because we seem to have less cancellations and delays, but there's also less flights in general to some places. ​

Looking forward to reading about all your plans...so exciting that you will be going back to alll the parks soon and lots of Orlando food and drinks ​

Yes I'm so excited! ​

 

[Raeven]

HHN Trip-10 weeks
Xmas Trip-20 weeks



September

So I don't have any updates for our September trip since we're still waiting on more HHN announcements. But next weekend is the day we can start booking dining reservations for the times we're dining at Disney. We will probably book Shula's, Wine Bar George (for brunch), Steakhouse 71, Frontera or somewhere else in DS, Rosa Mexicano, and maybe Crystal Palace (breakfast) for different days.

We still need to get Rush of Fear passes (when they go on sale), a 2 day Disney park ticket, and maybe a 1 day Universal ticket (since we don't have AP's anymore), but I think that's everything.

December

Yesterday Jollywood Nights and MVMCP tickets went on sale, and to my shock it was a relatively easy and smooth process to purchase them. So Kayleigh and I are going to MVMCP on the 3rd, and Jollywood Nights on the 4th.

We recently booked both hotels, and got our Orlando Informer meetup tickets so all we really need to get now is our 2 day Disney park tickets, and some more matching Christmas outfits.

As for the Imgur photos, it doesn't seem to be resolving and is taking a long time so I've been slowly updating my old TR's photos. It does mean a lot less photos since you have to keep it to 10 with the site uploader, but I feel like it still works for the most part, and it's better than having to go through again in another year or two when some other site has an issue. (I'm still working on some of the reports from 2019-2022, but this one and all the older ones are all set).

Speaking of pictures here’s a few from my birthday last weekend!

Birthday dinner:









Some early Halloween shopping:



My birthday gift from Kayleigh:




And my birthday party at my dad’s house:






​

 

[KathyM2]

Xmas Trip-20 weeks

Wow. Seeing this made me look twice. 20 weeks makes it sound like xmas is right around the corner. It's great in terms of looking forward to trips and holidays...but also...a bit scary how quickly time flies, and how much needs to get done between now and then....wow....also means in 20 weeks...my youngest will be finished half of her first year of university, and my son will be mid way through his third year...eeek!!!!

Loving all your plans...We are starting to think about a March trip to Orlando...even though that's the craziest time in those parts...it seems for a few more years if we want our adult children along...we'll still be limited by school breaks...

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Happy birthday!

 

[Raeven]

Wow. Seeing this made me look twice. 20 weeks makes it sound like xmas is right around the corner. It's great in terms of looking forward to trips and holidays...but also...a bit scary how quickly time flies, and how much needs to get done between now and then....wow....also means in 20 weeks...my youngest will be finished half of her first year of university, and my son will be mid way through his third year...eeek!!!!

Loving all your plans...We are starting to think about a March trip to Orlando...even though that's the craziest time in those parts...it seems for a few more years if we want our adult children along...we'll still be limited by school breaks...​

It doesn't feel like Xmas is right around the corner But the September trip does feel like it's coming up fast! ​

Happy birthday!​

Thank you! ​

 

[Raeven]

HHN Trip-8 weeks
Xmas Trip-18 weeks



September

We have our HHN tickets!!! Rush of Fear passes went on sale yesterday, and we grabbed ours. They also finally announced the Stranger Things season 4 house which I'm very very excited about.



I also realized since my last post, that because we weren't staying on property at Disney we didn't really have an ADR day. So I've been making reservations all week as the days open. We aren't doing as much time at Disney so there isn't a ton of Disney dining, but we wanted to make reservations at a few places. We also decided we aren't buying any daytime tickets for Disney or Universal so we can relax during the day, and spend more on dining experiences.

Right now I've made reservations at: Strongwater Tavern, Bice, Shula's, Whispering Canyon Cafe (Breakfast), Margaritaville, California Grill, & Steakhouse 71. I made the California Grill reservation because I wanted to watch Happily Ever After, but I don't love the menu so I'm not sure if I'll keep it. And I will probably make a few more at Antojitos, Cocktails & Screams, Cowfish, and some breakfast places around Universal.

I'm also finishing up fixing the pictures on all my trip reports today so even if Imgur continues not to work you'll be able to read all my past and present reports still.

​

 

[KathyM2]

But next weekend is the day we can start booking dining reservations for the times we're dining at Disney.

Yay!! We finally have a trip on the calendar so I'm paying close attention to your dining recommendations!

Jollywood Nights on the 4th.

Amazing...that sounds like a lot of fun!!

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Just wanted to say to Raeven and everyone who comments on her posts in the wake of *gestures wildly at everything* I’ve always enjoyed your trip reports and those of you who comment on here!

 

[Raeven]

Just wanted to say to Raeven and everyone who comments on her posts in the wake of *gestures wildly at everything* I’ve always enjoyed your trip reports and those of you who comment on here!​

Thank you! I’ve enjoyed following along with you too. In light of all of that I’m not planning on finishing this report & I’m not sure when I will be posting again.

If you have instagram or other social media I’m on there! ​

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Thank you! I’ve enjoyed following along with you too. In light of all of that I’m not planning on finishing this report & I’m not sure if/when I will be posting again.

If you have instagram or other social media I’m on there! ​

I agree. I think the only reason I’m pushing through my current one is because I like to finish what I started. But between everything going on and also the strikes and being very careful I have no clue what will happen. But I will be finding you there!

 

[christophfam]

Thank you! I’ve enjoyed following along with you too. In light of all of that I’m not planning on finishing this report & I’m not sure if/when I will be posting again.

If you have instagram or other social media I’m on there! ​

Oh, no! I’m so sorry to read this and after figuring out what is going on this morning, I certainly understand why. I will follow you on Insta!

 

[KathyM2]

Thank you! I’ve enjoyed following along with you too. In light of all of that I’m not planning on finishing this report & I’m not sure if/when I will be posting again.

If you have instagram or other social media I’m on there!

Oh no!! I'm pretty oblivious to things here...and I think I used to follow you on IG but I got hacked and now use another account so I'm not sure I can see you there anymore (I'm @snickerstheschnoodle on IG) Hope I can find you there or on FB.

 

[Raeven]

Hey guys so I know it's been awhile and I've missed you guys! I know my departure before was kind of sudden, and not all of you follow The Dis podcast. But since I've been on here I've listened to the podcast/watched the videos as well as posted on the boards, and it always made me so happy. Finding out all the things that were going on with The Dis behind the scenes and what the employees were going through was really upsetting so I decided to take a break from the boards for awhile.

Since then it seems like they've restructured things within their company, and in the podcasts/vlogs coming out now everyone seems a lot happier. I'm really glad to see that, and I also feel ready to come back and finish this report.

I didn't really take notes when we went in September, but I took tons of photos so I'm going to write a little report.

Sep TR

I also took a little trip to Sleepy Hollow recently that I want to share some pictures of too. & we're so close to our December trip that I have a few updates I can share on that as well! ​

 

[Raeven]

Dec Trip-26 days

Now that my September TR is done I can share some updates about my December trip which is coming up in less than 4 weeks!



One big thing we changed is that during the Disney portion instead of staying at the Swan, we decided to stay at All Star Movies. And while I did want to be in the Boardwalk area, the discount rate that saved us like $400 a night which was too good to pass up.

Other than that I don't think we changed anything, and the only things we've purchased since then are Photopass and our Disney tickets.



The plan so far is we will be staying at Aventura first. Our flights get in a little earlier than they did last year so we have a bit more time. Currently we're planning to see the new Hunger Games prequel movie after dinner that night since we both read the book and it comes out the week before we go. The following night is the Orlando Informer event, and then we move to Disney.

At Disney we're planning to go to Animal Kingdom, Epcot for Festival of the Holidays, Jollywood Nights, and the Christmas Party.

We have reservations at: Vivo, Wine Bar George, Boma, Sci Fi Dine In, Wolfgang Puck’s, Be Our Guest, and Kona Cafe.


​

 

[Raeven]

Dec Trip-13 days

We're under 2 weeks now!



I don't have any changes or new plans, but the reviews from the first Jollywood Nights were not good. I'm not too worried about that since I'm hoping they'll fix any major problems before our party, but we were also planning to do mostly rides so I'm sure we'll have a good time no matter what.

Here's the itinerary so far:

Day 1: Arrive, see the new Hunger Games movie
Dinner: Vivo or Toothsome

Day 2: Disney Springs, Orlando Informer Event
Lunch: Daily Poutine
Dinner: Mythos/Orlando Informer Event offerings

Day 3: Animal Kingdom, Epcot resorts & Disney Springs
Breakfast: Boma
Dinner: Wolfgang Puck's

Day 4: Disney Springs & Magic Kingdom resorts, Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom
Brunch: Wine Bar George
Dinner: Be Our Guest

Day 5: Epcot, Jollywood Nights
Lunch: Festival of the Holidays/San Angel Inn
Dinner: Dluxe Burger

Day 6: Leaving
Breakfast: Kona Cafe

Random pictures

Our ears came! And they're so cute!



My dad made us fall crepes with the crepe maker I got him for his birthday:



Had my first hot chocolate of the season:



My dad and Alisha have become crazy about going to trivia every Thursday. We've gone three times, and we usually place. Last week we won second, but my dad would not pose with the trophy.



And finally I went to the movies the other day, and we saw this cutout for the new Thanksgiving movie.

​

 

[saskdw]

We're going to Jollywood Nights on Dec. 6th.

We don't care much about the shows and character meets either. We were planning to use it like an after hours event and go on as many rides as possible. Reviews from the first party indicate that the rides were all pretty much walk-on so should be a good time regardless.

 

[Raeven]

We're going to Jollywood Nights on Dec. 6th.

We don't care much about the shows and character meets either. We were planning to use it like an after hours event and go on as many rides as possible. Reviews from the first party indicate that the rides were all pretty much walk-on so should be a good time regardless.​

I hope you enjoy it! I’ve heard the improvements have been pretty good. ​

 

[Raeven]

I don’t have any new updates but we leave for our trip tomorrow morning!!!

Here’s some pictures from Thanksgiving and tree decorating this past weekend:











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