Wake Me Up When September Ends

With all that sunbathing nonsense out of the way, let’s get down to the serious business of getting ready for a holiday I think we can all understand and get behind.

We are just 44 days away from our Orlando theme park bonanza folks and whilst you’ve all been snoozing/trudging through endless blogs about sand and food, I’ve been busy planning our October trip.

There’s a lot to get through and rather than be sensible and eek that content out over the next few weeks, I’ll no doubt just shoot my shot this week and worry about next week when I’m staring at the blank page in a week’s time.

The first thing to report is that whilst we were all “at” Delray Beach, once again, Bob Iger has taken on board my feedback from this blog and scrapped Genie+. Good lad Bob, but you missed the bit about not charging for this stuff on top of the sky-high theme park tickets, but we’ll take a win where we can get it.

I approve of the change in general but of course, it came with some baggage.

1. Why does it cost money?
2. Why are off-site guests penalised? (I know the answer and I only care as we’ll be off-site this time)
3. Why are International visitors massively penalised unless you spend enough time reading WDW internet content to come across the fairly simple workaround? The workaround of setting the country of your address in the app to the US is so easily preventable that I strongly suspect Disney has left that in intentionally to mitigate a problem they couldn’t solve properly. (Isn’t the issue something about card payments for non-US folks?) My day job involves developing stuff for online products and it smells of a handy “oops we didn’t realise that was possible”. I applaud it.

Being weeks behind the release of this change I won’t go on about it anymore as I’m sure every angle has already been covered. I look forward to being able to secure some rides before we arrive in the parks again.

Moving on to our personal plan, one of the first things I did after getting home from our Delray trip was upgrade to Premium. I think it was about £150 each to do so and having experienced the economy seats, we were keen not to again, especially with two small kids who we will definitely want to go to sleep on the way back. The slightly enhanced room in Premium will be worth that investment and, much to my surprise (I am blissfully unaware lots of the time) until Rebecca told me, that entitles us to Lounge access and a free breakfast at Manchester airport so we’ve already made some of the £150 each back. Add the same sort of thing on the return journey and we’ll be close to a profit.

I’m under no illusions that we’ll be lying down in some sort of Business Class bed-seat, as we sat just behind the magic curtain of Premium on our last trip with TUI and could see the forbidden fruits clearly, but we’ll take the larger seat, slightly better food, more luggage allowance and hopefully getting our cases off more quickly.

This past week has been ADR time and as ever, the success has not been as complete as I may have liked. Overall though, I’ve done OK. Of course, I had sworn that we would eat off-site almost all the time and I have then caved and made more ADRs than I first intended, but we will still be dining off-site a fair bit.

With a two-year-old with us, all dining plans live and die with him, so there are a fair few early meal slots booked and only the odd late one, where that was the only availability, which will be in the lap of the toddler Gods.

To once again demonstrate my masterful planning skills, with the plan pretty much locked and loaded, including our ADRs, a last-minute decision to add in a trip to Universal just last week may have flummoxed other less awesome planners, but no. A ten-minute conversation with Rebecca, whilst staring at the plan, along with some swift internet interrogation saw us expertly evaluate options and then move stuff around with minimal disruption, ADR cancellation or pain. If only I were this good at my day job.

So let’s take a trot through our plans, shall we? I will say that after a few trips where we have not done a great deal and bored you to death with beaches and pools, this trip is hard-core, jam-packed and will probably kill us. Being (even if I say so myself) an elite-level WDW trip planner I recognise and embrace this and should we need to amend stuff on the hoof due to exhaustion and/or killing each other with our bare hands, then I shall rise to that challenge with ease. This is nobody’s first rodeo and we go into the plan with eyes wide open and loins girded.

Day One

As you now know we fly Premium out of Manchester with TUI on October 15th. Airport parking has been secured (which is getting a bit pricey these days I must say) and we are scheduled to be wheels up at 11.25 so we should be in the air at around 1pm if things go to form.

We arrive in Melbourne mid-afternoon and have a suitable vehicle awaiting us courtesy of Discount Florida Car Hire again. An unwelcome but necessary 90 minutes in the car should see us pull up outside our favourite villa on Amelia Downs Trail in Kissimmee and we shall unpack, do a shop and eat no doubt. The boys will be in the pool if they are still awake I’m sure.

Day Two

It goes without saying that this is a Magic Kingdom day. Who knows what time Dougie might be awake so it could be a short or long one. Eating wise, we have gone for an old favourite and a regular tactic on our first park day in Whispering Canyon Cafe at 5.20, as it seems these days that all the shenanigans and fun are back after their suspension for the pandemic and for Tom’s benefit they still offer unlimited refills on milkshakes so he intends to bankrupt them. I suspect we’ll be done at that point and will head home.

Day Three

A rest day but with a twist. On recent theme park trips, we have done Typhoon Lagoon on day two which works really well, offering rest for the oldies and slides and stuff for the youngsters. We will eat off-site that evening at Sickies on the 192.

Day Four

Unusually it is Animal Kingdom today. Typically we would visit the parks in the correct order, which is the order in which they opened, and today would be Epcot, but for reasons I cannot now remember we will be at DAK, for what might be our one and only day here. The second day had to be sacrificed recently to squeeze the two Universal parks in.

Day Five

A rest day, and we plan to spend it at the villa and most likely at the large resort pool on offer. We may go for a sit-down breakfast at a new place I have seen online called @The Diner. Then we will do our best to be hungry again for dinner at The Cheesecake Factory at LBV.

Day Six

Ah Epcot, there you are. This will be our Future World day and after some skilful manoeuvres on my part with ADR bookings, I managed to secure us the “hen’s teeth” booking of Space 220 for lunch. Freddie is incredibly keen to go here so that was pleasing.

Then in the evening Rebecca and Tom will activate their built-in babysitters and allow us to watch the boys whilst they head up to experience Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. We will probably drive us all up there and drop them off and then Louise and I will eat with the boys on City Walk, maybe Toothsome. Rebecca and Tom will get a Lyft back home when they are done.

Day Seven

Hollywood Studios, our nemesis from recent trips, delivering THE worst theme park experience from a “getting on things” perspective consistently, driven by the recently deceased Genie+ nonsense. We hope things will be better now. Knowing from past experiences that whenever we want to do Fantasmic it will be rained off, we have taken the earliest opportunity possible to book a Fantasmic Dining Package, choosing the SciFi Diner for lunch.

Day Eight

A much-needed pool day again. We may again avail ourselves of a sit-down breakfast and possibly return to a real favourite of ours in Hash House A Go Go. Then after some serious lying down in the sun, we shall visit The Outback and I will without doubt have a large steak. It takes some real skills to make yourself hungry enough to dine out twice in one day but it is a challenge we intend to rise to.

Day Nine

We head to Universal and a one-night stay at Royal Pacific to get the Front Of Line access. We shall get there as early as possible, check in and head over to IOA first (I think). With this being very fresh into the plan, there are no firm dining plans for that evening but City Walk is our lobster so that will get firmed up shortly.

Day Ten

Universal Studios of course. And should stamina and timings permit, then we will return to Teak Neighbourhood Grill for dinner. It’s been a while since we dined here. I think our last visit was on the trip amid all the Covid restrictions and the experience wasn’t perfect. The menu looks great and hopefully, everything is back as it should be with the service so it’s definitely worth another try.

Day Eleven

Epcot again today with a likely focus on World Showcase. A huge stroke of fortune came our way in the shape of the Eat To The Beat concert series. A few months ago when the lineup was announced it was the usual mix of the odd famous person or band amidst a load of artists we at least had no idea about. Anyway, it turned out that during our trip, Hanson would be performing. We saw them recently supporting Busted and have liked them ever since the one song everyone knows them for back in the 90’s. So I have booked lunch at Garden Grill as part of the Eat To The Beat package which secures us a seat in their 5.30 show.

I wanted to get us into Beaches and Cream for our evening meal and did so but the only slot available by the time I’d sorted the Garden Grill booking was at 9.15pm. We will just see how everyone is doing by that time and play it by ear. I think leaving Epcot in the early evening for a Boardwalk stroll will be on the cards either way. There’s a Banana Bread Espresso Martini at The Boardwalk Bellevue Lounge that I have my eye on.

Day Twelve

Day two at Hollywood Studios and lunch is to be at the Rodeo Roundup place in Toy Story Land.

Nothing is booked for tea/dinner so we may head off-site and try to help the budget by going to Olive Garden. If energy permits, then we might head to Disney Springs for a stroll and with a following wind, one of the Espresso Martinis from Wine Bar George.

Day Thirteen

With one day left on our three-day Universal tickets, we will use that up today at Volcano Bay. A first for Louise and I and I suspect this will be a welcome break from the parks and a chance to rest up a little bit for those who want to.

Dinner is pencilled in for Cowfish at City Walk.

Day Fourteen

The emotional last full day and of course that means Magic Kingdom for the farewell lap of honour. Having, much to our surprise, thoroughly enjoyed our unplanned visit there on our last trip to the parks, I have booked us in at The Liberty Tree for a 5.40pm ADR.

Fireworks and tears will be experienced as we leave the park for the final time.

Day Fifteen

The usual mix of packing, a visit to Disney Springs, some food, perhaps at The Polite Pig and then the longer-than-usual drive back to the airport. We don’t fly until 7pm so that should work out OK.

So there you have it. It’s a humdinger and no doubt some of that won’t happen, but he who dares wins. As ever, the thinking is that despite the last few decades telling me otherwise, who knows if and when any of us may get to return.

In other news, Emily and her boyfriend go to WDW on September 12th for a long-awaited trip they booked well before we booked ours. It is Mikey’s first visit and they are both ridiculously excited. They are staying at the All-Stars and flying Aer Lingus. I can’t wait to hear all about it. You can’t beat a first-time visit, especially when an experienced guide is with you to show you the ropes.

Till the next time…..