The Pipes at Port Orleans ... again! Aug 2018

[pcnine28]

Hello!
It has been a looooong time since I have posted on here, but with a trip fast approaching and the big possibilty that it may well be our last for many years, I would like to document as much of the trip and planning as possible.

Cast -
Me - HUGE Disney lover. 8th trip to WDW. Yr5 TA. Planner-aholic. Thrill rider fan. Fave ride TOT and fave characters Ariel and Mickey.

DH - moderate WDW fan but lover of US food and sport. Lawyer and financier of trips. Fave park AK and characters Donald and Mike. 10th trip.

DD - AKA Tink. 8 years old. 4th trip. HUGE Disney fan too (well she was born to love it). Fave rides are IASW and Barnstormer. ADORES Mickey.

We will be returning to POR for the last 2 weeks of August. We are flying VA from Gatwick and this time will just be doing the WDW parks. We have upgraded the free QSDP to the full DDP as we like to do character meals, and last time ended up paying way too much OOP. It will be our third time at POR and we really like it there.

[pcnine28]

So far -

We have booked POR, VA flights, WDW tickets, Hertz car hire and upgraded the free QSDP to the full DDP all with Virgin Holidays. We missed the initial offer so will only get $100 gift card but this will help with paying for tips.
Our last trip was in Aug 2016 and we had a similar holiday but we stuck with QSDP. It served us fine with a fussy 6 year old who liked to eat immediately, but we still did 'Ohana and Chrystal Palace paying OOP.
I desperately wanted to do CRT this time, DH wanted Tusker House and Tink wanted 'Ohana. A quick call to VH and it worked out a better option to upgrade. As we are only doing WDW this time (last trip we did US, IOA and KSC too) we had more time to stay in the parks eating a restful meal and explore the resorts.
Last time we paid to upgrade to a preferred room and this was AMAZING! We were literally 3 minutes from the food court and the parking lot was right in front of us. Despite being close to the action, the room was still fairly quiet for the busy season. We requested a 2nd floor corner room in Alligator Bayou via Touring Plans and this was just right for us.

[pcnine28]

As we are on the full DDP this year, I have already sorted all of our ADRs which is very exciting.
We have booked -
Askershus breakfast
Chrystal Palace breakfast
Whispering Canyon lunch
Tusker House lunch
Planet Hollywood dinner
BOG breakfast and lunch counter service
Chef Mickey's lunch
'Ohana breakfast
CRT dinner
Boma dinner
Mama Melrose Fantasmic package lunch
50's Prime Time Diner lunch
1900 Park Fayre dinner
San Angel Inn

Some of these are new to us and some are old favourites. As you can see, we love character meals and buffets. They are a great way to get autographs without waiting in long lines and buffets mean instant food which is perfect when you have an 8 year old who just suddenly announces she is starving as soon as she sees food!

[Goldia]

It looks like you're going to have an amazing trip. You've booked some of my favourite restaurants. I hope you enjoy CRT we did it on our last night back in 2016, it was awesome.

We have 2 nights at POR at the end if our trip so we might see you around!

[GezzasGem]

Love the sound of your plans so far! We have just booked for last 2 weeks in August next year and our DD will be 7 so really looking forward to reading about your trip! 😊