Tag Archives: ADR

Thank Disney it’s Friday – August 24!

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Yes folks it’s Friday again….it only seems like a few days since our last question!! ;)

So it’s been an exciting week in Walt Disney World with the ‘Be Our Guest’ ADR booking window opening….if you were one of the guests trying to get through I hope you had success! :)

 

I think we should have a relaxing stroll down Main Street USA and answer this week’s Friday question….

We’re in Magic Kingdom for rope drop and the park has just opened….which attraction shall we ride first today….and of course, why???

 

Thanks for joining in and happy daydreaming :) :) :)

 

 

The great wait….

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So we’ve researched, planned, booked and now what? ….We…..wait…….

My planning posts have been about us Disney fans who plan and book our trips to Walt Disney World months and often years in advance. It’s great, I love it that way, the build up is totally part of the vacation process for me.

At first it’s all about the researching and making decisions on when to go and where to stay. Once the vacation is booked we research dining and the parks, awaiting the release of the park hours and our ADR window. At the same time as booking our ADR’s we set up our draft daily itinerary and book behind the scene tours. There’s a flurry of activity and it finally sinks in that we are returning to the World.

And then….comes ‘the great wait’….

I’ve spoken to others who have experienced the same. There is a period in our WDW countdown when all we can do is wait it out. Once all the plans have been made around the 180 day mark, and maybe you’ve tweaked a few of your ADR’s, there’s nothing else to do until you get to a month or so before your departure date.

Sure you keep reading the daily Disney news, re-checking park hours, special events and restaurant menus but there is a time where you cannot actually do anything other than wait.

News might come out about special events but they will be over before your trip, news might come out about merchandise being released in the parks but you can’t get too excited as it might be gone before you get there. News about future changes to attractions might be released but often the dates are so vague you don’t know if you need to take the changes into account until a few weeks or even days before your trip.

Now I’m not saying that this wait is necessarily a bad thing…it just seems to be a natural stage of the WDW planning process, something that many of us have experienced….a time when we have to be patient ;)

But don’t worry, the great wait will end. And then the real countdown begins. Then we’ll be able to start thinking about printing off that final itinerary, preparing our vacation clothing, buying our toiletries and magazines for the plane….and soon enough it will be our time to travel to the magic :)

So what about you? Have you experienced ‘the great wait’ whilst waiting for your Disney vacation to arrive???

 

 

I’m making a list….

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…and checking it twice…okay, so I’ll probably check it more than twice but that’s how the song goes!

After the highs and lows of deciding where to stay, when to go and which travel provider to use…we now reach the start of my favourite part of planning a WDW holiday. It’s time to identify everything I have to do before that all important trip. This is the time when the countdown begins and I put down on paper all the wonderful ways I can plan and research my holiday.

It doesn’t matter how many times I visit WDW and how well I know the routine, I always make a monthly timeline of everything I have to do. When you book your vacation as far in advance as I do it’s a wonderful way of building up the excitement and making the most of all that Disney information available to us from a variety of sources. It can usually mean adding a little bit of Disney planning to every month leading up to the holiday….and stops me from panicking each week about how much I have to do!!

I set up a Microsoft Word or Excel document, broken down into months, and list everything that I need to complete before my trip. I try to spread the tasks out but obviously there will be some months with several things to do. Here is a timeline example.

I usually start the timeline from about 12 months before my trip. If flying with Virgin you can reserve your seats on-line 11 months before the return flight so I use this as my starting point. I’ll add in the boring (but vital) stuff like checking passport and ESTA expiry dates fairly early on as then I’ll know if that aspect is covered or whether further work is needed.

I’ll then add in researching my resort, dining, and any special tours that I’m considering booking for this trip. Obviously one of the most important months will be when I can book my ADRs and I’ll also want to make a note of the park hours at the same time.

Depending on the time of year that I’m visiting WDW I may want to pick up some summer clothes for my trip; heading to the end of summer sales is a perfect time for this so that goes on the timeline too.  The last month or two will be dedicated to finalising my daily itinerary and printing off all related paperwork (maps, reservations etc).

I save the populated timeline in my holiday folder and print a copy to stick on my notice board, that way I can refer to it each month and identify which tasks I’ve allocated myself for completion.

This may seem like an ‘over the top’ way to prepare for a holiday but its part of the magic for me!! It stops my head from becoming a jumbled up ‘mental’ calendar and actually encourages me to continue learning new things about my trips to WDW.

So how do you start planning your plans for Walt Disney World???

 

Food glorious food!

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I love American food….and I love planning and researching my WDW trips…imagine my delight when I came across a website that connected the two!

It was December 2010 and we were at the WDW Radio 200th episode party. Despite feeling overwhelmed (in a good way) I was trying to mingle and chat to as many people as I had the courage to approach. Whilst waiting to say goodbye to Lou we got chatting to a girl called AJ. We were talking about the UK, about the States, and of course the subject got onto food! Until AJ gave us her business card I didn’t know that we had been speaking to THE expert on ‘Disney’ food!!

When we returned to the UK at the end of our holiday I picked up AJ’s card and went to seek out her website www.disneyfoodblog.com and that was where my WDW food journey began!

Don’t get me wrong; I’m aware of the vast array of food choices at WDW. I’m aware of many counter service and restaurant style facilities in each of the parks. I’m aware of the Disney Dining Plan and refillable mugs. But I never really understood many of the details until becoming a regular user of The Disney Food Blog.

This website covers everything you need to know about food at WDW and Disneyland; it has food news, reviews, photographs, menus, details on discounts, food related merchandise, dietary requirements and more!

I personally enjoy the dining reviews posted on the website. AJ has a very open and honest style of writing; if she likes something she’ll say it, if she thinks something could have been done better she’ll say it. This gives me the option of forming my own opinion and deciding whether to try that restaurant, meal, or snack for myself. And there’s a simple thing that makes this website fun; if you leave a comment on a post AJ will do her very best to respond to what you’ve written, it makes you feel like every comment is appreciated :)

In the last few months AJ has also launched a series of Disney Food Blog e-books. Not only are they downloadable, so that you can have them to hand on your digital reader or phone, but they have links to various pages on the website so the information will always be up to date. A must for every serious WDW planner like myself!

Reading the information and reviews on this website has made me enthusiastic and intrigued about the variety of food available at WDW. So much so that I’ve opted for the Disney Dining Plan for my trip next year and will be using The Disney Food Blog for a lot of planning and advanced dining reservations (ADR’s). It will also be our first visit to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival, but no need to panic as AJ has that covered as well!

And on a more serious note, I’ve been training for ‘The Disney Food Blog WDW Cupcake Crawl’….yes, you read that right…earlier this year AJ produced a map of WDW and ten different cupcakes to eat at various locations on property…now that’s my kind of exercise!!!! ;)