PopPhan Party of One Pre-Trip Musings
Dates: November 29 – December 6, 2017
Resort: Pop Century – Standard Room
Visitors: Me, myself, and I -- 55 and proud to be a Disney Phanatic!
It has been a while since my last visit, and even longer since I put up any kind of pre-trip or post-trip report, so I decided it was about time…
Sorry for all of you reading this…It may (did) get long!! :blush:
OK, first the lead in…My last visit was the end of April thru the beginning of May 2015. I took my elder sister down for the Flower and Garden Festival. It was her first visit to WDW. (Maybe not her last!!!!) We had met my younger sister and her wife down there and enjoyed a day and a half together before they had to leave to go back to Pittsburgh. It was a great visit for all!
Now, since then, I have taken a trip out to Anaheim to visit the original – DisneyLand – for the first time. That was back at the beginning of December 2015. It was a solo trip and a learning experience for me.
Last year, I went nowhere. Did not take a vacation trip at all, as I needed to get some things done around the house and property. Believe me, I missed it!!
2017 rolls around and I start getting the itch again. Should I go early in the year? Wait for Flower and Garden again? Forget summer!! I don’t deal well with large crowds and ‘surface of the sun’ heat and humidity. How about in autumn -Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, Food and Wine Festival, decorations, etc.? Late-Fall/Winter - Christmas decorations, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, cooler temps? OH, Pandora is open now too!!!!!
Well, I finally decided to pull the trigger and get booked. Thanks to Denise at Magical Journeys, we put together a nice 8 day/7 night package for me for the week following (US) Thanksgiving. (Love the Wednesday to Wednesday trips.) This is another solo trip, but that is fine by me. You are never ‘alone’ on a Disney vacation!
I had already purchased a 7-day MYW ticket with Park Hopper before the last price increase (Feb. ’17) and just needed to book a Room Only stay and find my flights. Got in to Pop Century, in a standard room, as I really only use the room to shower and sleep. Unfortunately, I missed the ‘free dining’ offer as it ends the Sunday before I get there, but again, that’s OK, as I can hit the many fabulous Quick Service restaurants throughout the parks and resorts.
I have some FP+ options selected, so that takes care of SOME of the park planning, but I am intending to take full advantage of the Chase Disney Visa Cardmember Character Experience in EPCOT and the Chase Disney Visa Cardmember Star Wars Character Experience in DHS, so I will definitely be hopping about during the day. (I got the taste for character photos on my DisneyLand trip and liked it!!! LOL)
Avatar Flight of Passage wasn’t as hard to book as I had expected. I started looking with my last day and worked backward. Was able to book the last 3 days of my trip without thinking twice. Took one morning and one evening FP+ for it and left the rest to someone else. I’ll see if I can do the Na’vi River Journey on standby.
Not going to do the MVMCP because I just cannot justify $100+ for what you get. I have done the MVMCP before, and that was pretty much a ‘one and done’ for me. In my opinion, you get a lot more ‘bang for the buck’ with the MNSSHP than you get with the MVMCP.
There are 3 different narrators for the Candlelight Processional during my visit – Ana Gasteyer, Whoopi Goldberg, and Pat Sajak. Haven’t decided which one I would like to see…maybe all! We shall see what timing and inclination are when I am there.
Not sure why, but there are some really screwball park hours, especially in MK, for my trip. There is even one day where MK opens at 8am, with EMH morning which brings the open to 7am!! Oh heck, I can sleep when I get home!!! LOL
Last item…With parts of Toy Story/Pixar Land set to open sometime next year, I have given serious thought to converting my MYW ticket to a Platinum Annual Pass and visit at least one more time before next Thanksgiving. Running the numbers, and NOT even thinking about the discounts for the AP, I figure that one more trip would more than cover the cost and two more would be saving me beaucoup bucks!!!! Just the Memory Maker being included would mean that my second trip would save me over $600 and a third trip would more than double that. OK…OK…I would still have to book a room and flights, but it is really hard to pass this up when I know I want to come back soon.
OK…Train of consciousness has derailed. Thank you all for your patience IF you made it this far.
