Anyways, in order to motivate me to start actually producing well-written trip reports, I figured why not start with a pre-trip report?! There's no turning back now, right?
Here's the basics of my next trip to Walt Disney World:
Who: Chaz (my fiance), myself, and guest appearances by everyone I met during the CP who is still in Orlando!
When: January 11-20, 2016
Where: One of the value resorts, for privacy purposes I'm not going to specify which one until after get get home.
Being a broke college student, I do like to go into some detail about how I budget my Disney trips. I know it's a topic a lot of people are interested in, and I like to think I have it down to a sort of science.
We booked our hotel room at one of the value resorts, which came in at under $1,000 for nine nights. The room was booked using a 20% off offer that can be found in the special offers section of the official Walt Disney World website. We paid the deposit when we booked the trip, and as of right now we owe almost $700 on the room still. This extra $700 we already have set aside on Disney gift cards, so when we arrive at the hotel on January 11, we can just pay it off with that.
In case anyone is interested, we're flying Jet Blue, from Boston to Orlando, which cost about $500 round trip for the two of us. We booked our airfare in September, and we have already added the Magical Express service to our trip.
In addition, we've decided to purchase annual passes, because we will more than likely be going to Disney more than once this year, and we're already going to be in the parks for ten days in January alone. In addition to saving money on tickets by purchasing annual passes, we'll also be able to receive merchandise and some dining discounts, and we'll have Memory Maker included, which is well worth it to us.
Now the fun stuff-- advanced dining reservations!
Breakfast:
Sci-Fi Dine in Theater - We've eaten breakfast here before, but only when it's offered during Star Wars Weekends as a character dining experience. From the sounds of it, this breakfast opportunity is a test that runs for a limited time before they decide if they're going to keep it or not. We really enjoyed the breakfast here last May, and could not pass up the opportunity to come back, especially if it might turn out to only be a limited time thing.
Lunch:
Tony's Town Square Restaurant - I've been here before, but Chaz has not. He worked on Main Street during his CP and has been dying to try it!
Yak & Yeti Restaurant - Neither of us have been here before. It always smells so good when we walk by, so we're finally trying it out.
Le Cellier Steakhouse - Both of us have been here before, although Chaz was acting like a grumpy gills last time and so he didn't enjoy it. Last time we were here was the day I got engaged, and apparently he thought it would have been nice to propose to me by the garden outside the restaurant. He wanted to do it while the PhotoPass photographer was out front to capture the moment, but I was starving and wanted to go right in and get out table! When we came out the photographer was gone, and he ended up proposing to me outside of Spaceship Earth, which was exactly what I would have really wanted anyway, but to this day he still tells me about how grumpy he was that I ruined his plan that day! As a result, we need to have a re-do of Le Cellier.
Dinner:
San Angel Inn - We both love it, I can't wait to go back!
Kona Cafe - I named my cat after this restaurant. Enough said.
Yachtsman Steakhouse - I've been, he hasn't, he needs to realize what he's been missing.
'Ohana - This needs no explanation.
Liberty Tree Tavern - I've been before, Chaz has not. I also haven't been in years, the last time I ate here it was still character dining!
Boma - One of our favorites!
Be Our Guest - Another favorite!
Contrary to how my previous failed trip reports have turned out, I'm actually planning on taking some decent pictures and writing fairly detailed reviews of the above restaurants.
Now for the last order of business, something that a lot of you have been asking me recently-- Are Chaz and I going to the alumni homecoming events? No, we're not. I would love to go, if the price were cheaper. I'm fully on board with Disney charging for CP alumni events if that keeps the cost down and/or limits the crowd, but the $200 each price tag was a little much for us, especially during the time that we would have needed to pay by. If more was included for the $200 we would definitely go. As far as the events go, the only ones we would really be interested in would be the fireworks viewing party from the Contemporary and the character meet and greet (that costs extra and cannot be booked on its own without registration). For us, it makes more sense to just eat dinner at California Grille if we want to see the fireworks from up there. I'm sure the meet and greet is going to include some cool characters, but we just can't justify the price tag for the limited events we'd be interested in going to. We would like to go to alumni events eventually, especially if we think we'd go to the majority of the individual events, or at least if more of our friends are also going.
So basically, no, we are not going to the homecoming weekend. But if you are, and you see us out and about in the parks feel free to say hi!
That's all I've got for now. To be continued in January...
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