Friday Disney Day!

I’ve decided on Fridays we’re going to write about Disney. By we, of course, I mean me.

So we are just about 60 days away from our next trip and we are SO EXCITED! We can make our FP reservations on Sunday and I have everything all lined up because of course I do.

So what plans have we already made??

Kidani Village at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge! photo courtesy of The Walt Disney Company

AT 7 months out we made our reservations using our Disney Vacation Club membership. Where we’re staying – a LOVELY 2 bedroom, Savanna view villa at Animal Kingdom Kidani which I ADORE. This will be my, um, maybe 4th time staying there?? Others say it seems far away and not as Disney as they would like, but for me it’s heaven on earth. That may be partially because the 2 bedroom has 3 bathrooms and I have 3 sons? But  the animals, the staff, all of it. I literally can feel my blood pressure lower just talking about it. The only bummer here is we’re in a 2 bedroom LOCK-OFF the first two days and then switch to a 2 bedroom DEDICATED for the rest of the trip. I have a wait list for the same type of room the whole time so hopefully we won’t actually have to move, but since you don’t get housekeeping with Disney Vacation club, if we DO have to move I’m just going to view it as free housekeeping as we’ll get a fresh room. No worries! (if you have questions about everything I just said, there’s a lot of Disney Vacation Club lingo there. Here’s my post about how to join and our family’s experience!)

This is NOT a great picture but I do love Sci-Fi and had to show proof that we’ve been eating there for 10 years

At 180 days out we figured out where we were eating! So far we have reserved Sci-Fi at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Biergarten at Eccot, Grand Floridian Cafe (because we’re making a special trip to GF to see the gingerbread house, listen to the band play Christmas carols and take pictures in front of the tree), Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge for breakfast, and 50’s Prime Time Cafe at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. A bit less sit-down for us than normal this trip but we’re trying to save a little bit of money (because #college). This list may change as I am a total sucker for last minute availability at restaurants I love (Ohana for example) but this is all we have set in advance. I have a horrible habit of compulsively checking the My Disney Experience App and switching things very quickly. That’s bad. Don’t do that. Especially if you’re trying to stick to a budget (not sure if you knew, but 5 adults at a sit-down restaurant at Disney is VERY VERY EXPENSIVE)

Seriously LOVE the lobby of the Grand Floridian at Christmas time (which starts before Thanksgiving at WDW) photo courtesy of the Walt Disney Company

And now,  here we are, almost at 60 days, when will be we making those lovely FP reservations!

Yes, I have a binder (of course I do) and I have all the priorities written down for each day with Flight of Passage being #1. BTW, how awesome is this Disney planner from LimeLife Planners?? I am LOVING it. And it’s on sale right now.

Is it necessary to do this much planning to have a great Disney trip? Frankly, no. You can still have a wonderful time and not make it a second part-time job like I do, but I LOVE LOV E LOVE it.

When the real world (hurricanes, fires, threat of nuclear war, etc, and that was just this past week!) starts to get me down, the escapism of vacation planning is perfect. And it’s better for me than drinking excessively.

Not sure what we’ll talk about next Friday (maybe all about Fastpass Plus and if I got the times we wanted!), but if you want to read all my Disney posts you can click here.

Have a magical day!

 

2 thoughts on “Friday Disney Day!

  1. I made our Fast Passes about two weeks ago! I also fell down the rabbit hole of constantly changing our dining plans. Because we had to rearrange and ENTIRE DAY so I can take my daughter to Universal Studios because HARRY POTTER. So I lost our reservations at Sci-Fi and Be Our Guest. However we do have reservations at Ohana, 50’s Prime Time and VIa Napoli at Epcot. I am excited to be back at Disney to race!! We are only running the 5K this year, but it is Trey’s first time ever running a Disney race!

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