She's Going Back to Back: A September 2019 and February 2020 PTR

[GrandCalifornian]

Hey everybody! Today is a super special day. Anyone want to guess why???? Because we’re starting our PTR!!!
You know what that means?

We’re Going To Disney World, again!

We’ve got a double whammy of a PTR for ya because we’re planning TWO trips at once!

Since our first DVC trip last year we have been planning our return, and since we had such a great tine there will be some similarities again this trip.

But first, we'll introduce ourselves for anyone just joining in. I'm Paul, a 39 year old Daddy, Mechaical Engineer, and car guy with a profound Disney obsession.


My obsession is most severe when it comes to Disney Resorts, and in particular Wilderness Lodge.


We write our reports together with each of us making comments, my comments are shown in Blue and Melissa's are in Orange.

I'm Melissa, Mom to Allie and Marshall and doer of lots of things at work. My family owns an elevator company which gets a little crazy sometimes. I love Disneyworld for the immersive vacation. I'm not as obsessed with the resort as Paul is but I do love it very very much.


Allie is the “she” in our reports, and is now nine. Besides her life long love of Disney she enjoys dancing and takes classes in Ballet, Jazz, and Tap.


This is Marshall, the baby of our family, he is 3 now. He loves all things with motors and is super excited for all the transportation options this year.


He too is excited about the hotel, and frequently mentions wanting to go there.

Now on with the planning. The planning for this trip started during our trip last year.

While sitting in the cabin we looked at our plans for 2019 and 2020, and figured out that we could repeat the same week in September 2019 and then try something different by going in February 2020.

It’s quite the turn around for us but we’re so incredibly excited.

This posed some new logistical challenges for us, since we have never planned two trips at the same time. Our ADR date for February is before we even go in September.
Also since we have a March use year, we had a lack of points situation, but our friendly DVC guide and close friends helped resolve that. By adding on some additional points at Copper Creek they guaranteed that we would have enough points to do our nine day trip every year in a two bedroom. We also got them before Copper Creek sold out, so we can have the 11 month booking priority for all of our points at our very favorite resort.



We have the best friends who share our Disney addiction.


So Jon and Brandy will again be joining us on both of these trips, and we will stay in a two bedroom Villa both times.
To mix things up a little bit we decided to book a lockoff two bedroom with a tub for February, which plays the odds hoping for an alternate lockoff which is at the bend in the hallway overlooking the main pool.

We really really loved our two bedroom villa last trip and sharing the room with Brandy and Jon worked out spectacular so we’re going to do that again for the next two trips.

With my obsession about floor plans and room locations, we now know where all the rooms are and decided to try for the alternate lockoff to get to experience it.

He’s seriously obsessed

So The Who of both trips will be our family of four, including me, Melissa, Allie and Marshall, as well as our good Friends Jon and Brandy. My parents won’t be making the September trip but are considering February.

The first "When" will be September 5-14th, 2019, which is just 86 days away! We have often visited during this same week in September and enjoyed the low crowds. We picked and booked it before Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge was announced to be open, so we will just go with the changes that brings.

We were kinda hoping for one more quiet September before Galaxys Edge opened.

I am surprised at the additional extra magic hours they have opened up for the entire trip. Hopefully they help balance the crowds and keep it from being too crazy. We will plan on doing Galaxy’s Edge on our last day so that we have the full benefit of booking fast passes early.

The second "When" will be February 6th through the 15th, 2020. We are looking forward to visiting Florida during a different time of year. Who knows we may even need sweatshirts!

We have never been during the winter and are looking forward to it. Since we are from Southern California we are familiar with mild winters, but it will be nice to see something different in Florida.

The Where is going to be all Copper Creek at Wilderness Lodge for both trips. We considered a split stay, but are looking forward to not having to switch rooms mid-trip after doing that last time between the 2 bedroom and the cabin.




So welcome along as we plan these two trips at once!

Check back here as we write about our plans for both trips, including our food, fast passes, and extra events. Thanks for joining in once again.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Airfare Update
September ADRs
Gold APs for Park Tickets
Custom Magic Bands
Oh Yeah, Fastpasses
February ADR Plans
A New Traveling Companion
Dwarves at Night and Shrunken Crocs
February ADRs and Soarin Tour
A New Home for the Horses
Single Digit Day!
One Week from Today!
Watching the Hurricane
Tomorrow!

February Trip Additions
AKL Moonlight Magic
Double Digit Day
A Month till February!
Mickey Mail and Festival of the Arts
Single Digit Day, in January!
We Leave Today!


Prior Reports:
She's free before she's three, touring the world with a toddler: September 2012 Trip Report
She turned 3, but the DDP's Free, a WL Bounceback PTR: September 2013
She's a Princess, a Superhero, and a Rockstar -a September 2013 Trip Report
She's Turning Five at Disney World - a September 2014 PTR
She's Five at Riverside - September 2014 Trip Report
She's Going to Show Him The World - September 2016 PTR
She's a Big Sister and an Expedition Leader: A September 2016 TR
She's Sleeping on the Top Bunk: An August 2017 WL TR with a Party of 10
She's Staying DVC, a September 2018 PTR
She's On Top of The World, a September 2018 TR at Copper Creek Villas and Cabins

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Following along!!!

Two trips is exciting and overwhelming sometimes!

Now on with the planning. The planning for this trip started during our trip last year.

All good Disney trips are like that!?!

We were kinda hoping for one more quiet September before Galaxys Edge opened.

We are going the end of August this summer for the first time and it is literally right before it opens. And I am kind of happy to go one last time before the craziness!

zy. We will plan on doing Galaxy’s Edge on our last day so that we have the full benefit of booking fast passes early.

Hmm, not sure that will help. They said there will be no fast passes for the Star Wars ride and rumor is that they are moving RnR and ToT up to be tier 1 fast passes. I mean it cannot hurt. I feel the farther away you can get from opening day the better!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Joining in. Two trips sound great.

I'm interested to hear how you fare with the daily EEMH in September. Between the 7am at MK and AK and the 6am at HS, you will have to be out of the room super early to take advantage of any rope drops there. Given that you're coming from West Coast time, that's going to be quite early.

As mentioned above, check out the HS fp tier changes. That's going to seriously impact both of your days.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Following along!!!
Two trips is exciting and overwhelming sometimes!

Thanks! We're glad you are following along again. Yeah, it takes another level of planning to be clear on which trip you are talking about, but it is a great problem to have.

All good Disney trips are like that!?!

That might be our favorite benefit of DVC, knowing that there will be a next trip, and knowing that it won't be far away!

We are going the end of August this summer for the first time and it is literally right before it opens. And I am kind of happy to go one last time before the craziness!

That was our plan! Oh well, it will be fine and we'll make the most of it.

Hmm, not sure that will help. They said there will be no fast passes for the Star Wars ride and rumor is that they are moving RnR and ToT up to be tier 1 fast passes. I mean it cannot hurt. I feel the farther away you can get from opening day the better!

Yes, thanks for pointing out that there are no SWGE Fastpasses. I still figure that there will be huge Fastpass + demand in the park, and that we will need the extra booking window to get what we want for the rest of the park, and then we'll try to see what we can of it while we are there. Once we've done what we really want to at HS, we will escape to anywhere else.

Joining in. Two trips sound great.

I'm interested to hear how you fare with the daily EEMH in September. Between the 7am at MK and AK and the 6am at HS, you will have to be out of the room super early to take advantage of any rope drops there. Given that you're coming from West Coast time, that's going to be quite early.

As mentioned above, check out the HS fp tier changes. That's going to seriously impact both of your days.

Thanks. I am usually up early on vacation and enjoy my early morning quiet time at WL. I don't expect that everyone else will get up early enough to make it to parks for early rope drop more than once or twice during the trip.

With two visits to HS during our trip we can make sure that we get to ride Rockin Roller Coaster and Slinky Dog Dash, and catch what we can of SWGE, but that might not be much. It isn't a huge deal to us, but the impact at other parks is what we are more interested in. Time will tell...

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Since we had this trip booked at 11 months out, we started watching airfare rates. When they dipped in late January, we decided to go ahead an book our flights for September, once again nonstop from LAX.

It's really tough to pass up cheap airfare.

We got all four of our tickets for $946, so we went for it. This time the Airline was American, so we were hoping to avoid the issues we had last year.

After the debacle with our flights last year though we decided we weren't flying United this year.

Jon and Brandy were able to book the same flights, and even got in the same row as us, so we would have an entire row to ourselves.

Until this morning....

I got the dreaded text, for some reason addressed to Allison, saying that our itenary had changed.

Lol I didn't know it was addressed to Allison

Yeah, for some reason that was the one notification they sent. Our flight to Orlando had been moved up about three hours, and now is leaving at 8:00 AM. When you figure in a couple of hours for security, a few hours for mid-week LA traffic, and an hour or so to be extra careful, it is gonna be an early morning.

plus last minute packing

Fortunately we will now be arriving in Orlando at 4PM, which might be our earliest ever. I scrolled down a little further and saw that our flight home had a different flight number now. I had serious Deja Vu thinking I had definitely done this just last year. Fortunately it is still a nonstop, but is now leaving at 5PM instead of 8:15 PM, so our total time in Orlando remains about the same.

It's always exciting to get to Orlando early, not so exciting to come home early but it might make the transition home a little easier if it isn't so late when we get home.

Yes, and 5:00 is late enough for our departure day, especially since we'll be back in a few months instead of the usual year or longer.

We also were able to coordinate our seat selection on the website, and have an entire row to ourselves on the way there.


Things got messed up for the trip home, but we'll all be within a couple of rows, and nobody will have to sit next to one of our kids by themselves, so things should be good there.

It's gonna be a party.


We can't wait!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Yes, thanks for pointing out that there are no SWGE Fastpasses. I still figure that there will be huge Fastpass + demand in the park, and that we will need the extra booking window to get what we want for the rest of the park, and then we'll try to see what we can of it while we are there. Once we've done what we really want to at HS, we will escape to anywhere else.

It's hard, cause no one really knows what it will be like. It could be as bad as they say or maybe it won't. Who knows

 

[rdkeim]

Following along!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Yay, glad to see that your PTR has started! Looking forward to reading more about your plans and then your new adventures.

I did try Teppan Edo, and specifically the filet, last month, as a result of having read about them in your previous trip report. It was great. But next time I'd like to go to that restaurant in winter, so the heat from the grill won't aggravate the heat from the weather.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Joining in! Awesome trip plans so far!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

can't wait to read along again!!!!

 

[shairpdrh]

Following along! We went the week after you last year and it was fun to compare notes. No September trip for us this year, but we are going in February. Excited to hear your plans as you make them!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Following along!

Great, thanks, we're glad to have you here.

Yay, glad to see that your PTR has started! Looking forward to reading more about your plans and then your new adventures.

I did try Teppan Edo, and specifically the filet, last month, as a result of having read about them in your previous trip report. It was great. But next time I'd like to go to that restaurant in winter, so the heat from the grill won't aggravate the heat from the weather.

I'm glad that you enjoyed the filet. I'm surprised we don't hear more about the food quality here, but that's ok with us. We didn't notice the heat, and actually enjoyed the break from a relatively hot day since the AC kept it nice, but will plan on experiencing it in February as well.

Joining in! Awesome trip plans so far!

Thanks, glad to have you here again!

can't wait to read along again!!!!

We can't wait to do it again. Is it time yet? Thanks for joining in.

Following along! We went the week after you last year and it was fun to compare notes. No September trip for us this year, but we are going in February. Excited to hear your plans as you make them!

That's neat, I remember that you were going right after us. We thought we'd skip a September and then do February as well, but doing it in this order worked better for our schedules, and we didn't want ot turn down the opportunity to repeat our September trip if we could. February should be a lot of fun too, and we'll be making those ADRs before too long. It will be fun to plan together again.

 

[Leesha.Monster]

Following along! Our first CCV stay is next month! We’re stopping at the Poly first. I already feel like I need to buy more points and we haven’t even made our first trip with DVC yet

 

[storey13]

Following along. Always enjoy your PTR's and TR's! We bought into CCV this past February, but due to some surgeries needed for my wife, we aren't going till October 2020. Long time, but it will be worth it to be at CCV in a 2bdrm villa. Excited to hear about your dining plans and FP selections!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Following along! Our first CCV stay is next month! We’re stopping at the Poly first. I already feel like I need to buy more points and we haven’t even made our first trip with DVC yet

Congratulations, your trip is so close! Like anything Disney, it is so easy to want more... Deciding how often we can fly across the country is a limiting factor for us, which I know you understand too. We'd love to make trips more often if we could though, and then would need even more points... Thanks for joining in as you count down the days till your trip.

Following along. Always enjoy your PTR's and TR's! We bought into CCV this past February, but due to some surgeries needed for my wife, we aren't going till October 2020. Long time, but it will be worth it to be at CCV in a 2bdrm villa. Excited to hear about your dining plans and FP selections!

Congratulations on the DVC purchase! Copper Creek is so neat, we just love it. It is nice that DVC is flexible with using the points thanks to banking, borrowing, and even the option of renting out points before they go unused. Your trip will come before too long, and getting to stay in a 2 bedroom will be wonderful. We can't say enough how much we enjoyed that room last trip.

Thanks for joining in and we hope to add a post discussing our ADRs soon.

 

[dnllmz]

Following along!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Following along!

Great, we're glad to have you joining in again.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Some of the biggest decisions for our trips are where to eat. Food is a huge part of our trips, and we really enjoy watching the Disney Food Blog videos. We are often excited to find that AJ shares the same opinions as us, and therefore are excited to try places she recommends.

We have a couple old favorites coming up for our September trip but we're also excited to try some new restaurants

We do seem to have a growing list of favorites that we want to repeat every time, so for the September trip, let's start with our repeats from prior trips.

First up, we are going to pick up where we left off and have our first ADR at Boathouse. This was the surprise hit of last trip, and one we all enjoyed.


Boathouse was one of our favorites last trip, in fact we ate there twice! It's only fitting that we kick off our trip this year with Boathouse.

Another repeat is lunch at Teppan Edo, where the only change we are making is moving it to earlier in the trip. So far the filet here is my favorite meat at Disney world, and we all enjoy the show and the food. Jon and Melissa can also get Sushi here without us all going to a dedicated sushi restaurant.


We are the only two who enjoy sushi and we had a volcano roll here last year that was amazing.

Then we are going to repeat our breakfast at Crystal Palace as well. We are in a bit of a rut here, but we all love the food more than any other Disney breakfast we've tried, and the kids love the characters.


It's a really hard restaurant to pass up for sure. Unfortunately with the expanded Extra Magic Hours this year we probably won't make a reservation before the park opens but it'll be a great breakfast none the less.

Yeah, the park will be open for extra Extra Magic hours the morning we are there, but that's ok, we know we'll have a nice breakfast.

Then there's another perennial favorite, Yak and Yeti for lunch at AK. We have done Tusker House instead before, but the variety of great food here makes it a big hit with everyone.


The food really is better at Yak and Yeti.

Finally the last complete repeat is Trail's End.


This is our one restaurant we've done every trip to WDW, and is my personal favorite. We will keep this one up as long as we can, and hopefully it will remain in place and relatively unchanged witht he construction and eventual opening of Reflections nearby.

I have teased in the past about not visiting Trail's End on a trip and there were divorce papers on my pillow the next day.

It is the one place that keeps us from doing a trip with all new restaurants. Then, since we repeat it, we might as well repeat our other favorites too...

Then there's Ohana. We've done it before, and we're going to do it again. It was Jon's request, but it is hard to argue with a restaurant where the biggest problem we have with it is that we eat too much good food.


That really is my only problem with Ohana, I just eat too much.

Finally, we have Garden Grill for Breakfast. We have done lunch and dinner here before, but have never had breakfast at Epcot.


Garden Grill is going to be a great breakfast option for us. I think Marsh is really going to enjoy the characters this year and it's a great opportunity to have Mickey waffles and meet Mickey at the same time.

Then there's the new stuff. Over at Hollywood Studios, besides the new park attractions we are going to finally eat at 50's Prime Time.

Allie is for some reason strangely excited about getting in trouble for putting her elbows on the table here.

Maybe they'll put her in the corner? I'm looking forward to the comfort food here.

Another one that we are excited to finally make it to is California Grill. This might be the pinacle of our WDW dining, because it will be a few years before we consider Victoria and Albert's.


Cali Grill looks like an amazing experience and after visiting Top of the World Lounge last trip we're super excited to eat here.

Finally, we are going to continue our tour of WDW steakhoses by trying Shula's.

Brandy loves steak, and not being on the dining plan we can venture out a little bit more.

It'll be the first time we've ever even been in the Swan or Dolphin, I'm kind of excited to explore that area a bit more this trip.

I think that about sums it up for our ADRs for September, but we just finalized our list last night for February, so check back soon as we look at where we'll eat then.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Hi Melissa and Paul,

I found your pre-trip report the other day and wrote a nice reply, but somehow it disappeared. Maybe I forgot to hit the post button.

Anyway, I am really glad to see that you have started your report. It is always fun to follow your plans. I agree that you just have to keep Trail's End in the rotation. It kind of belongs with a WL trip. It is really hard to get to Trail's End from any other resort than WL.

I'm sorry that we won't overlap trips this fall but you never know, we usually plan a winter trip and February is a great month to go to Florida. The average rainfall in February tends to be the lowest of the year.

You got a great deal on airfare. Now let's hope that they stop messing up the flight schedules for you.

I have read some great reviews of Shula's steakhouse. I bet it will be good. We have only eaten at Picabu's Restaurant in the Dolphin resort. It is just a quick walk from the Yacht and Beach Club resort and has a lot bigger selection than the Disney resorts.