February 2020 - Aussie girls take on a World of Food! UPDATE 29th DECEMBER - Fast Pass Fun!

[quietly]

Hello there friends!

Welcome to our first ever Pre-Trip report! I have sworn up and down over the last few trips that I would write a report. I've taken hundreds of food photos that now sit sadly abandoned in the recesses of my phone memory. I've sworn to report on cruises, rides, food, hotels... so this time I'm doing a PRT to keep myself accountable!

A little background to begin!

My name is Janelle. I'm 30 years old from rural Victoria, Australia. I first went to Disney in 2015 and this February 2020 trip will celebrate (to the month!) the 5 year anniversary of the beginning of my true obsession and love for Walt Disney World. I've been to both Disneyland and WDW but have dreams of getting to all parks around the world!

Joining me on this trip is my best friend Emily. Her first Disney trip was in 1997 to Disneyland Paris and she has fond memories of being asked to join in the parade and flying over London in Peter Pan's Flight. She was the one who got me into Disney World, insisting we should make the long trek out there on our 2015 overseas trip and I'm so glad she convinced me because, other than this year, we've snuck in a Disney trip every year since!

We both love WDW, especially the food, and to celebrate our five year Disney-versary we're going big - and doing the Deluxe Disney Dining plan. And boy do we have some ambitious plans!

Dates: February 8th 2020 - February 20th 2020.

Hotels: Animal Kingdom Lodge - 5 nights.
Pop Century - 7 Nights.

ADR's: A lot! They definitely require their own list!

If you'd like to know more - please consider joining me on this PTR! If there's specific things you'd like to know or things you think I've missed please let me know in the comments. I'm new at this and would love the direction!

Until my next post - I hope you all have a marvellous day!

 

[DisneySweetTooth]

I like the sound of ambitious plans! Following along

 

[VandVsmama]

Following along! Your adventure to WDW sounds like fun!

 

[quietly]

Thanks so much! Will write up our ADR’s list this week - can’t wait!

 

[quietly]

Thank you so much! Can’t wait!

 

[quietly]

Hello again, beautiful people!

I am here today to give you a delightful, gigantic, food-centric update to our Pre-Trip Report!

Our plan is to have a mammoth food trip and to try lots of different restaurants that we haven't tried before, as well as visiting a few favourites we couldn't leave behind!

To start I'll give you guys a run down of our culinary likes and dislikes and our current Disney favourites!

Janelle:

Likes - Steak, Cheese, Pasta, Mushrooms, Roast dinners, Red Velvet Cake, anything with custard.

Dislikes - Seafood, Onions, Capsicum (Peppers? Help me avoid these - what are they called in the USA?) Broccoli.

Favourite Disney Restaurant (to date!): 'Ohana.


Emily:

Likes - Chocolate... A LOT of chocolate! Ice cream, Fruit, Doughnuts... basically anything sweet! Also loves bread and pasta.

Dislikes - Seafood, Coffee, Alcohol. Will give most things a go but these three are definite no's!

Favourite Disney Restaurant (to date!): Biergarten because it reminds her of her Grandmother's cooking.


Ok! Now that we've got a little background let's get onto the fun bit!


So as stated - we'll be staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge from Saturday 8th of February til Thursday 13th of Feb when we transfer to Pop Century til the 20th (The 19th will be our last day). As we are doing a split stay, we've decided only to do the dining plan on the second half of our stay where we will be attempting the Deluxe Dining Plan. Before that, we will be paying out of pocket.


Our plans so far are as follows:

Saturday 8th February - This will be a very late arrival day for us (At least 11pm but most likely later so we doubt anything will be open. We're intending to head straight to bed and hopefully get an early start the following day.

Sunday 9th February - GRAND FLORIDIAN CAFE (New to us). We're intending to do a brunch style meal here after a morning at MK. This was originally later in the trip but got moved due to being able to snag a very tough to get ressie instead (See next Sunday's plans!)

Monday 10th February - VIA NAPOLI RISTORANTE and BEACHES AND CREAM. Via Napoli is a new-to-us restaurant but we love a good pizza. Beaches and Cream is a beloved favourite and is a definite must do for Emily!

Tuesday 11th February - BOMA BREAKFAST. While we have both done Boma dinner before we are so excited to try Boma's breakfast spread. It's the perfect opportunity to give this a go! After this we're heading to Disney Springs to check out some of their quick service fun! We're hoping to try things like, Chicken Guy, Polite Pig (maybe grab a Gideon's Bakehouse cookie if we're lucky!), Earl of Sandwich etc. We'd also like to try WINE BAR GEORGE. We're planning on spending some time at our resort too which will be nice before we head off to POP in a few days.

Wednesday 12th February - We're having a bit of a theme day today and giving some Disney Lounge's a try! We've included TUNE-IN LOUNGE (because the prospect of 50's Prime Time terrifies us!), HOLLYWOOD BROWN DERBY LOUNGE, NOMAD LOUNGE, then hopefully VICTORIA FALLS LOUNGE. But this might change if we undertake a special event this evening!

Thursday 13th February - Resort change day and the beginning of our dining plan (as if the start part hasn't been ambitious enough!) Today our ADR's are TIFFIN's for lunch (a new to us and slightly daunting choice!) and a late dinner at CALIFORNIA GRILL which we are very much looking forward to!

Friday 14th February - Valentine's Day! Today is LE CHEF'S DE FRANCE for lunch then heading to JIKO for dinner at AKL - both new restaurants!

Saturday 15th February - Lunch at MORIMOTO ASIA (New), then onto THE WAVE (New) for dinner.

Sunday 16th February - This is the ADR that Janelle is most excited for... CALIFORNIA GRILL BRUNCH! (New) This reservation took a lot of checking at weird times of the day and night to see if a spot opened up and when it did we snagged it! We have a very decent gap before our late dinner at 'OHANA this evening.

Monday 17th February - Onto Emily's current favourite for lunch today at BIERGARTEN. Then onto a restaurant we're incredibly excited to try after reading lots of great reviews which is CITRICO's for dinner.

Tuesday 18th February - Breakfast at GARDEN GRILL. We did this last trip and loved it so it was on the list again! Then onto another newbie which is LE CELLIER in the Canada Pavilion.

Wednesday 19th February - Our last day! We're being hella ambitious here too and going out with a bang! We've booked an early breakfast at CRYSTAL PALACE (New), then onto lunch at The Plaza (New) then dinner at LIBERTY TREE TAVERN. While 3 ADR's in one day might seem like a lot we think we've spaced them out pretty well and (hopefully!) will be able to fit it all in.


And that's our plan for now lovely people! Please leave any suggestions or comments on this Pre-Trip report, I love reading all your knowledge and titbits. If you have any favourite food items or dishes you think we'd like from any of these restaurants let us know.

Next update I'm hoping to look at our Special Events - which are much more up in the air at this point but still lots of fun to plan and think about!

Until next time I hope you all have a beautiful day, wherever you are!

 

[DisneySweetTooth]

Emily sounds like a kindred spirit with a sweet tooth!

 

[quietly]

Hello again to all you lovely DIS Folks!

Sorry for the big delay between postings on this trip report. The Christmas season is always hectic time but my family like to just hike that insanity up a notch! During the month of December we put on a giant Christmas light display where kids (and adult kids!) can come and see the lights and play with all the Christmas toys. We hand out candy canes and take donations for local charities. It's a massive undertaking and takes a month to set up as well (so November is equally nutty but just in a setting it all up way!)

I'll attach a few photos for your viewing pleasure and to get an idea of what my December looks like:

















We get loads of people come through to visit - in the last week of Christmas it would be a minimum of 300 people a night according to our candy cane count! And Christmas Eve this year had close to (my FIL thinks more) 1000 people come through! It's a lot of fun but incredibly busy and I'm very much enjoying having a well earned break now!

Anyway enough life update, more trip update!

So our Fast Pass window opened up on the 10th of December and boy oh boy does it feel real when you've gotta start booking those! Due to the time difference it was 11pm here and we set out with a trusty notebook that we'd scribbled our FP hopes and dreams into months before and set out to see if we could make those a reality.

And ladies and gentlemen - we did pretty darn well!

Sunday Feb 9th:
MK

Peter Pan's Flight
Big Thunder Mountain
Pirates of the Caribbean

All before 12pm so we can make our Grand Floridian Cafe lunch - woo hoo!

Monday 10th Feb:
MK

Peter Pan's Flight
Seven Dwarves Mine Train (Emily)
The Many Adventure's of Winnie the Pooh (Janelle)

We're only planning on doing an After Hour's event this day so we've snuck 2 in before the event starts without having to use a park ticket!

Tuesday 11th Feb:
EPCOT

Spaceship Earth (so glad we got this and it hopefully won't be down while we're there - it's our favourite!)
Frozen Ever After
The Seas with Nemo and friends

Wednesday 12th:
DHS

Slinky Dog Dash (Woo! This will be my first time on it. Emily has been before and loved it!)
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Frozen Sing Along (Darn Tiered FP system)

Thursday 13th
DAK

Expedition Everest (Another brand new one for this scaredy cat!)
Festival of the Lion King
Kilimanjaro Safaris

Friday 14th:
EPCOT

Frozen Ever After
Spaceship Earth
Living with the Land

Saturday 15th:
MK

Space Mountain (God help me - afraid of the dark and of heights!)
Peter Pan's Flight (You might be noticing a theme here... But I just love PPF so much Emily is kind enough to indulge me)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Sunday 16th:
DHS

Beauty and the Beast
Frozen Sing Along
Slinky Dog Dash (This could be changed to Toy Story Midway Mania but wanted to keep it as Slinky for now. We actually may end up not using these but undecided yet)

Monday 17th:
EPCOT

The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Spaceship Earth
Frozen Ever After

Tuesday 18th:
EPCOT
Soarin' (Emily)
Living with the Land
Spaceship Earth (we WILL ride this enough to cement it into our memories!)
Frozen Ever After (I bloody love this ride - hoping Emily can get a cheeky FP for this on the day)

Wednesday 19th:
MK

Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

and if you haven't guessed it yet...

Peter Pan's Flight for that last kick of nostaglia before the trip is up and we're back to adulting.

We basically more or less got everything we wanted and were super chuffed that we could book all our days in one hit even though it was technically more than 60+10 out. So overall other than some minor time compromises I think we totally nailed our FP's and I cannot WAIT to actually use them!

I'll update again soon about the special events we have planned out - we've have some that are definitely booked and some we're still mulling over but there's plenty to be happy about and it's getting closer every day!

Over and out!