Flowers and Gardens and Sunshine, Oh My!

[Megara84]

INDEX

The plans so far
ADRs - or "my mind exploded from trying to work out the logistics"
60 days - ESTAS, FP and what's next?
Quick update: a VERY magical Friday


I have read so many pre-trip reports and trip reports over the years but never actually done one myself. I've been taking and not given anything back. I imagine that for all those of you who have written them, it must be so lovely to use your trip report to transport you back to exciting daytimes and warm Florida evenings. I know I’m going to miss being there as soon as I get home so I love the idea of being able to read over a trip report and remember that I was happy once...

Who?
It’ll be me and my Husband going on this trip, both in our early thirties, both raised on Disney and both overwhelmingly excited. As I’m sure it does for all of us, Disney holds a very special place in my heart. I have extremely warm and fuzzy memories of being little and my Dad bringing a new Disney video home on a Friday night. Me and my sister would get into our pyjamas, Mum would make a picnic dinner (cheese on toast, ham and cucumber sandwiches, chicken nuggets, hot chocolate ) and we’d all sit down and watch the new Disney film together. As I grew up I realised the new video (VHS, showing my age) would be bought on payday and it was the first thing Dad spent his money on for us. I’m so grateful to him for those memories.

We didn’t make it to Disney World when we were little but it’s always been a dream of mine to go. We’ve been to Disneyland Paris a few times now and LOVED it of course. I’m actually a little worried I won’t like Disney World as much because DLP really does hold a very special place in my heart.

My husband has similar warm memories of Disney and has actually has been a couple of times when he was a child. He has such vivid memories of being there and on one of our first dates we confessed our love of Disney and Harry Potter to each other. At the time it felt like we were both telling a big secret that we hoped the other would forgive us for but no, both massive nerds. Thank God!

Why?
Because we’re grownups and we can is the short answer. The long answer though is that this has been in the planning for aaaaages. Pretty much since we met 6 years ago. We’ve actually booked a couple of times but had to cancel last minute due to various work trips or other circumstances out of our control. But FINALLY the stars have aligned, I travel way less now and we have a summer ahead of us with very few plans so this is it! It’s finally happening.

This is actually a very delayed, post-wedding trip. Not a honeymoon exactly (that was a trip around Italy and Sicily and it was amazing) but it’s the trip that was booked before we got engaged. We had a choice of waiting for two years to get married to afford Disney and the wedding OR getting married within the year and pushing Disney back a bit. We’re impatient and impulsive so we chose the latter. In hindsight our honeymoon was not cheaper than Disney at all but I think we also both had our hearts set on a relaxed, lazy wine, pizza and pasta fuelled honeymoon and we knew that Disney would be an intense holiday.

When, how and where?
We’ve booked at many different times of year – Christmas, Halloween/Food and Wine but I have always been most excited by the idea of Flower & Garden. So we’re going at the beginning of May. We have 8 nights there which I know isn’t a huge amount and I’m sure I’ll leave wishing we had more time but I kind of like the idea of that. We’re taking a full two weeks off work though and when we get back to the UK we’ll be heading off for a weekend away with our dog, who we would have been apart from for a whole week and will be missing desperately. Plus the idea of going on two holidays in one lot of annual leave makes me feel really fancy!

We’re flying with Virgin and got a really great deal on flights - £380 each, with extra leg room as well. Booking the flights was exciting but relatively undramatic. During a slightly less productive day than my boss would say is ideal, I was browsing flights and saw that flights to Florida were super cheap! I have actually seen them cheaper elsewhere but we wanted to fly Virgin because I never have. The flights were well within budget so I just went for it. See, impulsive.

I say it was undramatic, we got home from work that night and after about half an hour both exploded with excitement at actually having flights booked and paid for. This was the closest we’d ever got to going, trips had been cancelled long before we got to the flight stage in the past and it was just so amazing knowing it was finally happening.

We were booked the 11am flight out of Gatwick but got an email couple of weeks later telling us we’ve been moved to the 1pm flight, which is a bit annoying. Does anyone know if we can do anything about this? I’d much rather do the earlier flight if possible. Not only for the obvious reason of getting us there earlier but also I really love an early morning trip to the airport and the idea of drinking champagne in the No 1 Lounge at what would ordinarily be and unacceptable time of day to start drinking.

I want five of these for breakfast, please.

The main thing is that we get there but still, annoying that Virgin can just mess with morning drinking plans like that.

We don’t live that far from Gatwick so no need to stay in a hotel the night before. Plus I like the idea of waking up at home and going to sleep in POR. I do want to get the airport in plenty of time though. There’s nothing I love more than a leisurely stroll around duty free, spending like I have a trust fund and feeling the buzz of holiday excitement. I’ll feel like this….

The hotel was a relatively easy choice in the end. We really wanted to stay somewhere like Yacht and Beach or Polynesian. All three of the hotels look gorgeous and are in amazing locations. However, we’re there for such a short amount of time and I know we’ll really only be using the room for sleeping in so couldn’t really justify the cost. I’d rather use that money for another holiday later in the year. So, we went for the next hotel down on our list which is Port Orleans Riverside. We both love anything New Orleans themed so that’s already a massive win and I quite like the idea of being close to Disney Springs for evening wanderings. The parks don’t seem to be staying open very late when we’re there, 9pm closings mostly, so having bars and shops to keep us entertained will be great.

Dreamy sun lounger, pool, tree situation

I honestly don’t have any knowledge/strong feelings about the best place to stay so if anyone else does, feel free to shout your opinions at me!

Whilst the fanciness of the hotel isn’t hugely important to us, food is. Very much so. So we’ve upgraded to DDP. “But you could have staying in Animal Kingdom for just a small amount more and have DDP thrown in” I hear the majority of you cry. Yes we could have but we don’t really want to. I love the idea of going there for dinner (ADR spoiler) but for our first time at Disney together, we don’t want to be that far away from everything.

So that’s the plan! Beginning of May, 8 nights DDP, staying POR and flying with Virgin. Boom! Flights paid for obvs but the full Disney balance still to pay….next month…..YIKES.

I dream of being here!

And this is 100% our first stop after we've checked in.

[Megara84]

"ADRs" or "ARGH! HOW DO I PLAN THIS PROPERLY? "

The keen mathematicians amongst you would have noticed that our ADR day has passed. OH MY GOD THAT WAS FUN. Seriously. I love it when a plan comes together and I got a huge rush out of logging into MDE and booking the exact restaurants we wanted, when we wanted them. I think it helped that I had a window of time we wanted to eat in, say between 2pm and 3pm, rather than a very specific time, so I could just grab what was available. We got them all and I could not be more excited.

Planning the ADRs was a bit of a head spinner though. Having never actually made it to the full ADR planning stage in the past, I was tres confused about how I make sure that our ADRs fit around us being in the right park at the best time, and matches up to EEH and EMH and maybe the current lunar cycle and probably something to do with Brexit….It was a lot to think about. Turns out you can just get your husband to do all that though, which is nice.

After consulting the park hours and busy day guides, working out the day we wanted to drink around the world (drinking heavily in the hot Florida sun is undoubtedly a bad idea but it’s happening anyway) and when we needed to have some recovery time in, a rough plan was formed for our 8 nights and I could then go in and just chose the restaurants. Lovely.

Ah, Paris! You will feature heavily in our world showcase wanderings, my love!

Choosing where we want to eat was obviously a huge amount of fun. Our ADRs are almost entirely sponsored by DFB – we’d basically watch videos while eating dinner, get disappointed that we weren’t eating that food now, and then put it on “The List”. There was a list of around 30 places on “The List” when we’d finished so that had to be narrowed down a little but we had a fairly strong vision of how we wanted to spend our time there so it wasn’t too tricky.

Breakfasts will largely be snack credits, we don’t eat a huge amount in the morning anyway and so a coffee and a pastry/bagel will be just fine. I'm looking at you Gaston's Tavern. We tend to prefer evening meals over big lunches as well so that sorted out the times of day we’d be doing the heavy duty dining. We also knew that we wanted to keep our usual holiday vibe of having long dinners over a bottle of wine and a few cocktails beforehand, so a couple of signature restaurants were a must. Other than that we just went for restaurants that had menus we like the sound of the most.

Cannot wait to have an evening meal here! The Romance of it!

We have 8 TS, 8 QS and 16 SC each of course. We’ll be going over a little on the TS though as we love an evening meal out and I’m not good at making decisions.

So, these are our ADRs:

Day 1: Crystal Palace breakfast and Skipper Canteen dinner

Day 2: Yak and Yeti lunch, paying OOP and we’ll have a landry card (might therefore cancel this ADR as I believe we’ll be seated anyway? Is this correct?)

Day 3: No ADRs, this is DATW day so we’ll be hitting up the food booths in world showcase as and when we get snacky

Day 4: Lunch at Homecomin’ – we’ll have the morning at typhoon lagoon and, following the previous day’s activities, by around this time I imagine we’ll be desperate for some fried chicken

Day 5: Dinner at Jiko. This is my ideal menu so I can’t wait for this meal! I hear they have a pretty decent wine list as well

Day 6: Dinner at Le Cellier. I really love the idea of getting a bit dressed up and having relaxing meals in the evening so I’m so looking forward to these signature meals

Day 7: Dinner at O’hana. This will be an early dinner because we want to try and get a table in Trader Sam’s

Day 8: Possibly lunch at Via Napoli. Pizza is basically our ride or die so it would be lovely to be able to go but we would be paying OOP sooooo we’ll have to see how wealthy we’re feeling at the end of the holiday.

I will eat you.

And I will be drinking you.

Outside of these planned ADRs there are QS places we’ll try for lunch but I don’t want to over plan that. I’m sure we’ll get to most of them but I don’t want to be preoccupied with where we’re going to have lunch and not enjoy our time in the parks. We’ll just eat when we’re hungry and see if there’s anything nearby we can tick off the list.

Of course there’s also a HUGE list of Snacks we want to try, we want to spend a non-boozy afternoon taking in the world showcase, go to all the luxury resort hotel bars, have a night out on the boardwalk and spend some time relaxing by the pool. I think you’ll agree that’s all totally doable in 8 days.

Still to do…
• Fast Passes
• ESTA’s
• Pay Disney
• Check park hours every day in the hope the hours would have changed and we suddenly have some 2am closing time
• Pack

Fast pass day is in early March and I have no clue how to approach this. I had thought about getting on rides early doors then going for 10am 11am and 12pm fast passes and then grabbing what I can in the afternoon. BUT I watched a touring plan video the other day where they did no morning fast passes and just used a good touring plan, then went for afternoon fast passes so now I’m undecided again. Realistically the latter will involve a level of organisation and planning that I’m not capable of so I think I know which way I’m leaning. I’d love to hear what’s worked for others though.

And as there are a lot of words and no pictures, I thought I'd leave you with a couple of images that I frequently drool over on these dark and cold days...

Lounging around in Gatwick

CANNOT wait to do BTM at night time

Assuming we'll be allowed on the GF beach even if we're not staying there... ?

That’s all for now!

[loldis]

Great pre-trip report! Love the title, F&G is my favourite time of year too.

Regarding the flight, they usually only move you to the later flight if they're consolidating to a single flight that day. So nothing you'll be able to do, but equally nothing to stop you turning up at Gatwick early to commence drinking.

FPs are a personal preference more than anything else. I'm in the camp of making early FPs because I'm usually ready to leave the park by lunch (afternoon heat and crowds are not my thing) and I'd rather have a FP and not need it than the other ay around. Or I make evening FPs and spend the morning either at a park where FP is useless (looking at you, Epcot) or doing non-FP required things.

For your 2am closing time dreams, they might release some After Hours nights in May? I'm going to one in early March (mostly 8pm closes, just before the longer spring break hours start) and can't wait for that midnight on Main Street. Happy place.

ETA: Just one quick comment on your ADRs, what time is your CP breakfast? It's better to make this closer to brunch to get a few rides first. But some people dream of doing that first as a tradition, which is OK too. The hardcore TP members will frown though.

[Megara84]

Originally Posted by loldis

Great pre-trip report! Love the title, F&G is my favourite time of year too.

Regarding the flight, they usually only move you to the later flight if they're consolidating to a single flight that day. So nothing you'll be able to do, but equally nothing to stop you turning up at Gatwick early to commence drinking.

FPs are a personal preference more than anything else. I'm in the camp of making early FPs because I'm usually ready to leave the park by lunch (afternoon heat and crowds are not my thing) and I'd rather have a FP and not need it than the other ay around. Or I make evening FPs and spend the morning either at a park where FP is useless (looking at you, Epcot) or doing non-FP required things.

For your 2am closing time dreams, they might release some After Hours nights in May? I'm going to one in early March (mostly 8pm closes, just before the longer spring break hours start) and can't wait for that midnight on Main Street. Happy place.

ETA: Just one quick comment on your ADRs, what time is your CP breakfast? It's better to make this closer to brunch to get a few rides first. But some people dream of doing that first as a tradition, which is OK too. The hardcore TP members will frown though.

See more...

Ah good to know about the flight, I'll hold off on an angry email to Virgin then

I'm with you in the FP as well. Our plan is to get to the parks early and then do some sunbathing/disney springs wandering in the afternoons. Then freshen up and back out for the evening. Until 9pm that is Fingers crossed for some changes to the park hours or a ticketed event!

And CP, so we're booked v early, like 8am or so I think. I figured that would get us a quieter main st for our first morning and then out by around 9 to rush to some rides... not a good idea? I just thought we wouldn't be able to get into the parks until 9am anyway so we wouldn't be losing out on low queue times. Happy to be corrected though!

Not long until you go now! I'm going to go and read your pre-trip report!

[Unexpectedpenny]

Great plans so far. We’ll be just up the river from you at French Quarter! May and Flower & Garden is my absolute favourite time to visit WDW

Yes you can cancel your ADR at Yak & Yeti. You’ll get a table quickly with the Landry card and it means you don’t have to be so fixed with your time. Great choices of ADR’s. We have ‘Ohana, Skipper Canteen, Yak & Yeti and Homecomin’ on our list too!

I book early fast passes then book another once we’ve done them. We tend to have a break in the early afternoon at the hotel/Disney Springs so that way works better imo.

[loldis]

Originally Posted by Megara84

And CP, so we're booked v early, like 8am or so I think. I figured that would get us a quieter main st for our first morning and then out by around 9 to rush to some rides... not a good idea? I just thought we wouldn't be able to get into the parks until 9am anyway so we wouldn't be losing out on low queue times. Happy to be corrected though!

See more...

It used to be a good strategy, but they changed how they open MK. On a 9am open day, all guests are let in at 8am right up to the castle. So when you exit CP shortly before 9, you'll have about an hour's worth of people queued ahead of you to get into the lands. Not a big deal depending what you wanted to rope drop, most of the crowd is heading for 7DMT. So if you FP that and go pretty much anywhere else, you should be fine.

But I always try to warn people in advance as they're used to reading older trippies where an 8am CP reservation would guarantee empty Main Street pics and first on the rides - no longer the case. Don't want nasty surprises on your first morning!

[Goldia]

I love a catchy title! I've been humming follow the yellow brick road while reading all about your plans. It sounds like you're going to have a fab time.

Reading about your memories of watching videos with your parents and your carpet picnic was lovely, what great memories to have!

For what it's worth we don't really bother with early breakfasts as we're just not that big eaters in the morning, plus first thing is a great time to hit the rides and I don't like 'wasting' time sitting and eating when we could be doing stuff. Last summer we only had 1 breakfast ADR and that was for 10.45! This summer I'm going to do the same. Lots of people love the early morning buffet though. If we're peckish then we grab a snack, cinnamon loaf from Gastons yes you are right it's yummy, Or the Cheshire cat tail was also really tasty...but there are so many fab snack options.

I'm also a lover of the DFB videos and am totally addicted to watching them and have very many notebooks filled with food wish lists!

For the FP I've always tried to do the 10, 11 and noon slots or as close as possible. We tend to do rides from park open until nearly 11am, while lines are short, then FP 1 followed straight away by FP 2. Often we will then stop for an early lunch (cos everyone is starving as I don't let them eat breakfast) then fp 3. We have had some success in getting 4th, 5th etc FP even for popular rides...Soarin at Epcot, the mountains at MK...but usually these are for later in the day as we do tend to leave the parks by around 2pm and have a swim in the resort before heading out for the evening.

Any way, whatever you decide I'm sure it will be fab and you'll be planning your return trip on the flight home!

[Inky]

Go to blaze for pizza at Disney Springs

[Megara84]

Originally Posted by Inky

Go to blaze for pizza at Disney Springs

See more...

Yes! That’s on the list already. V excited about it.

[Megara84]

Originally Posted by loldis

It used to be a good strategy, but they changed how they open MK. On a 9am open day, all guests are let in at 8am right up to the castle. So when you exit CP shortly before 9, you'll have about an hour's worth of people queued ahead of you to get into the lands. Not a big deal depending what you wanted to rope drop, most of the crowd is heading for 7DMT. So if you FP that and go pretty much anywhere else, you should be fine.

But I always try to warn people in advance as they're used to reading older trippies where an 8am CP reservation would guarantee empty Main Street pics and first on the rides - no longer the case. Don't want nasty surprises on your first morning!

See more...

THANK YOU! This has convinced us to change the time of our booking to later in the day. To be honest I didn’t think I’d be able to make the most of the buffet that early anyway so at least this way I can go in hungry.