Thoughts on my timetable. Updated with confirmed ADRs

[WanderlustNZ]

ARRIVAL

Day 1: Go to work for the day. Evening flight out on Air NZ.

Day 2: Check into LAX hotel for the night. (Sheraton Gateway)

UNIVERSAL ORLANDO

Day 3: Morning flight to MCO with Virgin America. Arrive late avo. Check into HRH. Wander around Universal City Walk. Pick a restaurant for dinner.
Dinner: Perhaps Bubba Gump?

Day 4: A day at Universal Studios using express passes to explore at our own pace. Will schedule a resort break in the middle of the day. Check out their new water fountain/fireworks spectacular in the evening.
Meals: No plans, although I would like to check out the new Simpson's area.

Day 5: Early entry to Harry Hotter. Start at Ollivanders, then FJ, then spend the rest of the day discovering IOA at leisure. Resort break in the middle of the day.
Breakfast: Probably 3 broomsticks.
Lunch: Mythos booked for lunch
Dinner: No plans

CRUISE

Days 6-12 Fantasy Eastern Caribbean Cruise.

Ports
St Maarten - Have booked Island tour 1 with a company called Bernards.
www.bernardstours.com Can't wait to visit Maho beach
St Thomas - Champagne Catamaran cruise to Honeymoon Beach in ST John
Castaway Cay - Float and tube hire

Specialty restaurants
Have booked a Palo Brunch and a Palo dinner

DISNEY WORLD

Day 13: Morning transfer from Port to BoardWalk Villas BoardWalk view studio booked using rented DVC points. 10 day 'Hopper & Water Park and More' tickets bought from Undercover Tourist, Photopass plus booked and paid for.
Go straight to HS to watch shows and have lunch. Back to resort for check-in and rest. Back to HS for dinner and Fantasmic. Stroll back to resort and check out the BW at night.
Lunch: Sci-Fi Diner 1:30pm
Dinner: QS

Day 14: Breakfast in Villa (as will be the case for just about every morning from now on). Spend morning resting. Head into Epcot at midday for Biergarten lunch. Pirates League booking for 3:30pm dinner, then MNSSHP
Lunch: Biergarten 12:30
Dinner: Snacks or QS

Day 15: Sleep in, then Blizzard beach till early-mid avo. Rest in hotel, then off to Epcot for F&W festival dinner
Lunch: QS
Dinner: F&W snacks

Day 16: Epcot day. Get up early for EMH and spend morning in Future World. Dismeet early avo with Pio and Jade +3 Have a late afternoon resort break. Go back to Epcot for dinner and Illuminations Fireworks.
Lunch: San Angel Inn 11:30am (getting there at opening to try and get a seat by the water)
Dinner: F&W Festival Snacks

Day 17: Sleep in. Typhoon Lagoon till early-mid avo. DTD for dinner and a few hours shopping. This day is completely interchangeable with Sep 30th, and I will make my decision when we get there based on the weather. As long as on one of these days we don't enter a park (not enough days on our 10 day pass.)
Lunch: QS
Dinner: Somewhere in DTD. Perhaps Earl of Sandwich

Day 18: Sleep in and pack bags. Check out mid morning. Go to AK until after the afternoon parade. Check into AKV (Jambo studio booked and paid using rented DVC points) Enjoy pool and resort activities.
Lunch: Yak and Yeti 12 pm
Dinner: Mara
Fastpass+: Kilimanjaro Safari, Lion King Show, Expedition Everest

Day 19: Magic Kingdom till early avo. Catch taxi to Outlet Shopping Mall. Do some shopping. Back to resort for dinner and early night.
Breakfast: Crystal Palace (Pre-park opening 8:15am)
Lunch: Not sure. May skip if we're still full from breakfact, or we may try to get into BOG for a light meal just to see what it's like inside.
Dinner: QS
Fastpass+: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Jungle Cruise (that last option may change)

Day 20: HS from opening until early avo. Short rest at resort. Go to DTD about 4ish to check out Disney Quest for about an hour, then 6pm La Nouba, and 8pm dinner at Raglan Rd.
Lunch: 50's Primetime Cafe 11:15am
Dinner: Raglan Road 8pm
Fastpass+: TSM, Star Tours, Muppets Show (that last one may change)

Day 21: Sleep in. Lazy breakfast at Boma. Head into MK till about mid avo. Spend the rest of the day relaxing at the resort.
Breakfast: Boma 8:50am
lunch and Dinner: No set plans. Perhaps a late lunch at BOG?
Fastpass+: Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh Ride (may change the last one).

Day 22: Animal Kingdom for EMH. Leave midday for a rest at the resort. Early dinner at Ohana. Go to MK for electrical light parade, wishes, and Late Magic Hours (if not too tired)
Breakfast; Tusker House (to celebrate my son's birthday - in NZ time zone) 9:50am
Lunch: snack
Dinner: Ohana Birthday Dinner 5:20pm
Fastpass+: Dinosaur, Nemo Show, and Kali River Rapids. If MK opens up Wishes and Electric Light parade fastpasses, I may switch to this.

Day 23: Today is my son's birthday in US time zone. An unrushed day where my son gets to pick the park. I have Epcot Fastpasses booked for the morning, but may make changes when we're there based on my son's preference. Early dinner, pack bags, and then early to sleep.
Lunch: no plans
Dinner: Sanaa 5pm (earliest booking time in a hope we get a window seat)
Fastpass+: Soarin, Test Track, Epcot Character Spot.

FAREWELL

Day 24. Magic Express to MCO. Farewell Disney 9:30am flight to LAX (American Airlines) Check into dayroom at LAX Marriott for about the next 7 hours to nap, swim and perhaps visit Manhatten Beach. Overnight flight home to NZ arriving 2days later..

So, if you have read this far. Thank you All thoughts appreciated.

 

[Travel Mum]

Wow, what fun you must have had doing that! I'm just wondering if you have planned your park days around the expected crowds? I highly recommend you check out EasyWDW and use Josh's crowd predictor calendars but I doubt they will be out yet for your dates. For our trip, I subscribed to both Tour Guide Mike and Touring Plans plus used the free EasyWDW - all to work out which parks to visit on which days and what order to do the rides in. In the end, I probably could have just used EasyWDW though. It was quite a bit of work figuring out the daily plan/order (but I enjoyed it) but it was really worth having done it once we were there.

 

[Dean1972]

Wow , it sounds like you have an awesome trip planned !

My DW & I will be travelling to WDW in December 2013 and have as considered renting DVC points.
Like yourself we are from abroad (Aussies) & DW is worried about the process booking etc. I am looking at a studio either at BLT or BCV. Happy days

 

[PrincessInOz]

sounds like its all pretty well planned except for one thing.


Where are you planning on scheduling in the DisMeets with some of us fellow Anzacs???

 

[australiankaren]

sounds like its all pretty well planned except for one thing.

Where are you planning on scheduling in the DisMeets with some of us fellow Anzacs???

I'll be there 7-15 sept and 29 sept - 3 oct...... And food and wine festival starts around 28 sept so Epcot dvc villas get full very quickly.

We may skip wdw 29 sept - 3 oct and stay at iOa / ust instead .... Too many choices.....

 

[Dean1972]

I'll be there 7-15 sept and 29 sept - 3 oct...... And food and wine festival starts around 28 sept so Epcot dvc villas get full very quickly.

We may skip wdw 29 sept - 3 oct and stay at iOa / ust instead .... Too many choices.....

Ooh two visits..... Heading back to oz between 15th sept & the 29th?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Wow, what fun you must have had doing that! I'm just wondering if you have planned your park days around the expected crowds? I highly recommend you check out EasyWDW and use Josh's crowd predictor calendars but I doubt they will be out yet for your dates. For our trip, I subscribed to both Tour Guide Mike and Touring Plans plus used the free EasyWDW - all to work out which parks to visit on which days and what order to do the rides in. In the end, I probably could have just used EasyWDW though. It was quite a bit of work figuring out the daily plan/order (but I enjoyed it) but it was really worth having done it once we were there.

I had so much fun. This trip is feeling more and more real all the time.

Thanks for those tips on good crowd calendars. I haven't factored crowds in yet.

My main consideration at present is to do pretty much all our Epcot and Hollywood Studios visits while we're at the BWV and all our AK visits while we're at the AKV. IMO, it would seem silly not to take advantage of the Villa's great locations. Likewise, I figure it's best to visit Typhoon Lagoon while we're at BWV and Blizzard Beach while we're at AKV to cut down on transfer times.

MK and DTD will be reasonably long transfers whichever resort we come from, hence the reason they're the only locations spread out across both halves of the split stay.

Not sure at this stage to what depth I want to plan each day. I think my DH would get really annoyed if I had all our rides planned out in order. I think I know what rides I want to try to head to first (Toy Story, Soaring, Kilamanjaro Safari etc) when we visit parks in the morning. Both otherwise I'm hoping we might be able to take each day as it comes. Has anyone had any success touring the parks in a relaxed, unplanned way? Or do you think ubber-planning is what is needed if we're to avoid spending many extra hours in queues?

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Wow , it sounds like you have an awesome trip planned !

My DW & I will be travelling to WDW in December 2013 and have as considered renting DVC points.
Like yourself we are from abroad (Aussies) & DW is worried about the process booking etc. I am looking at a studio either at BLT or BCV. Happy days

I have found the renting process surprisingly easy. I have gone through two different Brokers and both have been excellent in different ways. I probably could have saved another hundred or two by going directly to renters, but I would have felt considerably more nervous about the whole process. Also, because the brokers I'm using have secure payment links where you can input your cc, transferring the money has been easy. I've been able to link my reservations to my WDW login, so I can see that they're there and booked. Now when I log into Disney's website I get a countdown clock and a date for booking ADR's. So exciting!

The most difficult part of the process so far was getting exactly what I wanted. The cheapest DVC rooms (AKV Value Studios and BWV Standard Studios) seem to book out right on the 11 month mark. The popular resorts and rooms with popular views seem to book out pretty quickly as well, and most it seems, before the 7month mark.
Getting them also depends on the Broker being able to find a renter who has these as their home resorts and is prepared to part with the points. I probably would have slightly preferred the BCV for my first 5 nights as it's that bit closer to Epcot and apparently the pool is great. But neither broker had points for this. In fact, I feel really lucky to have got the BoardWalk at 9 1/2 months out, and even luckier that a BoardWalk view studio was still available. I'm pretty much as excited about the BWV now as I would have been about the BCV.

With the exception of Savannah view, the AKV rooms are slightly cheaper than most of the other resorts. This is great for me as this resort (along with the Wilderness Lodge) has, IMO, the best theming of all Disney Resorts. I can't wait to look up at that impressive lobby.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

sounds like its all pretty well planned except for one thing.

Where are you planning on scheduling in the DisMeets with some of us fellow Anzacs???

You make a good point.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I'll be there 7-15 sept and 29 sept - 3 oct...... And food and wine festival starts around 28 sept so Epcot dvc villas get full very quickly.

We may skip wdw 29 sept - 3 oct and stay at iOa / ust instead .... Too many choices.....

I can see your dilemma. F&W or Harry Potter? Tough choice. I must admit, I'm really looking forward to the Universal section of our stay and the relaxed way we're going to be able to tour due to having the express passes and being just a 5 min walk from our hotel. Apart from the WWOHP, we will pretty much just roam around the park and do activities as we come across them.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

Ooh two visits..... Heading back to oz between 15th sept & the 29th?

Karen is going to enjoy back to back cruises during this time. So exciting.

Karen, out of interest, have you booked these cruises or are you holding out for last-minute specials? Being September there's likely to be some pretty good reductions after the final payment date. I had this quandry with my Fantasy cruise.

 

[battymum]

We were in the world September 2011 - we had a plan worked out according to crowd calendars, and like you an idea of where to head first, but not a ride by ride plan. Worked fine for us, crowds are light that time of year and we never queued for very long, although we may have missed some things I'm sure.
It's a good idea to have a park map, so you can tick off the attractions. For all the reading I did, it was easy to get overwhelmed when you are in the parks, with heat and jetlag and forget what is actually there to see.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

We were in the world September 2011 - we had a plan worked out according to crowd calendars, and like you an idea of where to head first, but not a ride by ride plan. Worked fine for us, crowds are light that time of year and we never queued for very long, although we may have missed some things I'm sure.
It's a good idea to have a park map, so you can tick off the attractions. For all the reading I did, it was easy to get overwhelmed when you are in the parks, with heat and jetlag and forget what is actually there to see.

That's a good idea. The WDW website has those printable maps you can make that include all the attractions you're interested in. I might have to make a set closer to the time.

 

[marvel]

sounds like an awesome trip. Could i ask the price ranges for the rooms you are getting? Thinking of renting points some time in the future if it's feasible.

 

[australiankaren]

Karen is going to enjoy back to back cruises during this time. So exciting.

Karen, out of interest, have you booked these cruises or are you holding out for last-minute specials? Being September there's likely to be some pretty good reductions after the final payment date. I had this quandry with my Fantasy cruise.

hey, we have booked already our 2 cruises thru our awesome USA TA , we wanted a certain cabin and since we have sailed on FOS twice before we get a little discount anyway.....and prices were good so we bite the bullet and booked...got out cabin (the same one for both cruises) and we are happy!

We tend to get a junior suite which doesnt have deep discounts like maybe a inside cabin etc..and if the price does drop, my TA lets me know and adjusts accordingly

I am looking forward to it, just waiting for airfares to drop for sept.....

 

[australiankaren]

That's a good idea. The WDW website has those printable maps you can make that include all the attractions you're interested in. I might make to make a set closer to the time.

there are disney world apps you can use.....they have maps, current waiting times etc....

 

[WanderlustNZ]

there are disney world apps you can use.....they have maps, current waiting times etc....

Thanks. I've found a few good ones for my iPad, but I don't suppose you know of any good ones for Android phones. I was going to get my DH to connect to the wifi in the parks using his phone so we can try and make use of a wait times app.

 

[WanderlustNZ]

sounds like an awesome trip. Could i ask the price ranges for the rooms you are getting? Thinking of renting points some time in the future if it's feasible.

Of course. I would have been wondering the same thing if someone else had been renting the points.

All up the 11 nights are costing us about US$2000 (approx $180 p/n). Because the BoardWalk studio is a preferred Boardwalk view, the 5 nights there are costing about the same as 6 nights in a Standard studio at the Animal Kingdom.

Had we got in early enough (right on the 11 month mark), the cheapest price we could have secured through a broker is all 11 nights in an AK Value studio for just $1400. I would have been so excited by this bargain, but alas, I left it too late. Either way, I'm really happy with what I've booked.

Just as a comparison. The Disney rack rate for what I've booked is at present, $5148+ (I say plus because the system won't give me a price right now for preferred view at the Boardwalk, only standard view). I could never justify paying this, it seems far to exorbitant for me.

The cheapest room available at present at CSR (my top choice of moderate) is $2600. Should they offer a 30% room only discount, the price would drop to about $1800 - a few hundred less than what I am paying. Free dining would make it cheaper again.

So technically, to save money, I would have been better off going with a moderate. But, I'm just so darn excited about the location and themeing of the resorts I've booked, I seem to have become a bit frivolous

If you want any more info about the brokers I've gone with, let me know and I'll message you. I've liked them both for different reasons, but I don't know how much I'm allowed to say on these forums.

 

[cola]

Sep 29th: Breakfast in Villa (as will be the case for just about every morning from now on). Spend morning at Epcot Future World. Lunch at Epcot - perhaps Sunshine Seasons? Resort Time. Head out about 5 for MNSSHP and begin with Quick Service dinner at the Magic Kingdom.
.....

Oct 6th: No main parks today as I will have 10-day tickets and 11 days in which to use them.

I can't remember the prices, but you can just get length of stay tickets when you check in. Not sure they are as cheap as a 10 day ticket. Hopefully someone else will know those details? I don't think the Disney website makes the availability easy to find. Just checked, all ears say they are discontinued but some other sites say they are called 'unlimited magic' now, so no idea if they are available or not.

Now if you do go with a 10 day ticket park hopper and water park ticket (that's what it looks like you are getting), I'd recommend MNSSHP you just go to water park or shopping that day, that way you won't be using a day of your park ticket AND paying for MNSSHP. Unless something has drastically changed, a 10 day park hopper and water park ticket gives you 10 days of park entries and 10 visits to water parks, BUT the 10 visits to water parks don't have to be on a day you use a park ticket, they just have to be used within 14 day of first use (unless you get the no expiry option).

I think having a couple of days of no park is fine You need a day shopping, and I like having a day resort hopping, you pay all the money to stay onsite for the total immersion and then to spend every moment in a park means you miss a lot of what the resorts offer just wandering around, but it sounds like you are checking out the resorts you are staying in well, but there are a lot of other resorts

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I think having a couple of days of no park is fine You need a day shopping, and I like having a day resort hopping, you pay all the money to stay onsite for the total immersion and then to spend every moment in a park means you miss a lot of what the resorts offer just wandering around, but it sounds like you are checking out the resorts you are staying in well, but there are a lot of other resorts

I would really like to visit the Wilderness Lodge if the chance presents itself.

It is very high on my bucket list to stay in Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone NP; it's such a beautiful example of Parkitecture. The WL looks equally beautiful with it's stunning big lobby.

I will also probably try and check out the Poly if we go for dinner at Ohanas (or breakfast at Kona).

Other than that, I'll just have to leave the other resorts for if I'm ever fortunate enough to visit again in the future. So much to see; not enough time.