2 parents, 3 daughters, 10 days late October 2021 Pre-Trip Report (updated 9/26)

We love both Tusker House and Yak and Yeti! For Tusker House, we usually try to book a 10:30 am breakfast spot and turn it into brunch because when you first get there you get breakfast food and then the lunch food comes out!

If you do decide to go with Yak and Yeti, sign up for the Landry's Select Club! It's $25 to sign up but you get a $25 reward and then you get $25 each year on your birthday and you get priority seating without an ADR!
 
We love both Tusker House and Yak and Yeti! For Tusker House, we usually try to book a 10:30 am breakfast spot and turn it into brunch because when you first get there you get breakfast food and then the lunch food comes out!

If you do decide to go with Yak and Yeti, sign up for the Landry's Select Club! It's $25 to sign up but you get a $25 reward and then you get $25 each year on your birthday and you get priority seating without an ADR!

We've had a Landry's Select Club card for probably 15 years or so! We got it once at a RainForest Cafe when we only had Eli when he was still in elementary school. I can say that we haven't used that card very much though. We don't have too many Landry's restaurants in the St. Louis area (only Morton's and the seafood house). We usually forget about the $25 bonus for your birthday.

That is a good idea about booking late breakfast. Do they bring out the lunch food pretty quick once breakfast concludes?
 
We've had a Landry's Select Club card for probably 15 years or so! We got it once at a RainForest Cafe when we only had Eli when he was still in elementary school. I can say that we haven't used that card very much though. We don't have too many Landry's restaurants in the St. Louis area (only Morton's and the seafood house). We usually forget about the $25 bonus for your birthday.

That is a good idea about booking late breakfast. Do they bring out the lunch food pretty quick once breakfast concludes?

We don't use it much at home either really but it's awesome to be able to walk into Yak and Yeti at any time you're hungry and sit!

If I remember correctly from last time, they started bringing the lunch food out right around 11 am and they kinda separated the buffet for a little bit and left some breakfast foods out while they started bringing out lunch!
 
Following along- we're supposed to arrive about two weeks after you. I like the format you have going and may borrow some flows from it :) to make a TR. I need somewhere else to jot it all down- I think my husband is tired of hearing me talk about it!
 


Following along- we're supposed to arrive about two weeks after you. I like the format you have going and may borrow some flows from it :) to make a TR. I need somewhere else to jot it all down- I think my husband is tired of hearing me talk about it!

I love the format too! I KNOW my family is sick of hearing about my planning minutia. Thanks for the inspo, Storey13!

I have us booked for the Bon Voyage Breakfast at 9:25 at Boardwalk. I've never seen Boardwalk in person and I'm looking forward to it. Side note: I must remember to make a note to return to Boardwalk at some point during the trip for Ample Hills!

After spending the afternoon at HS/GE, we'll head back to Lodge to take a short break, then head to the 4pm Hoop Dee Doo show! After some thinking, we swapped Whispering Canyon Cafe and Hoop Dee Doo. So WCC will be an arrival day dinner. I really am excited to see HDD and FW!

I like your plan here. My only thoughts would be that you aren't giving yourself much time at HS. Breakfast starts at 9:25. Say it ends at 10:25 and you're in the park within 15 minutes. That makes your GE experience roughly lasting from about 11am to 3pm. I'm only guessing 3 pm as your leaving time in the case you plan on using buses/ferries to get to Pioneer Hall at FW. You may be able to squeeze a few minutes extra in if you go with a Minnie Van.

If it was me, I would probably opt for the second show. You'll have some more time to be flexible with ROTR and still be able to catch the fireworks at MK afterwards. :)

Overall, I am absolutely loving your planning and the outline you have used for your report. I'm totally gonna borrow it for my own.
It sounds like you have a stellar trip in the works.

PS- I'm a huge Mötörhead fan. Lemmy is such a cute name for a little one.
 
We don't use it much at home either really but it's awesome to be able to walk into Yak and Yeti at any time you're hungry and sit!

If I remember correctly from last time, they started bringing the lunch food out right around 11 am and they kinda separated the buffet for a little bit and left some breakfast foods out while they started bringing out lunch!

That sounds like the sweet spot to get a bigger variety of food options! We decided to do a 1130 Yak and Yeti. Serah and Zoey both looked at that menu and were sold on Y&Y. There is always the next trip for Tusker though!

Following along- we're supposed to arrive about two weeks after you. I like the format you have going and may borrow some flows from it :) to make a TR. I need somewhere else to jot it all down- I think my husband is tired of hearing me talk about it!

Welcome!

Yeah I needed a place to put my ideas and plans. I know my wife is tired of me talking about this trip. I also wanted to post my plans because I like to get some thoughts and ideas from the DIS community!

I love the format too! I KNOW my family is sick of hearing about my planning minutia. Thanks for the inspo, Storey13!



I like your plan here. My only thoughts would be that you aren't giving yourself much time at HS. Breakfast starts at 9:25. Say it ends at 10:25 and you're in the park within 15 minutes. That makes your GE experience roughly lasting from about 11am to 3pm. I'm only guessing 3 pm as your leaving time in the case you plan on using buses/ferries to get to Pioneer Hall at FW. You may be able to squeeze a few minutes extra in if you go with a Minnie Van.

If it was me, I would probably opt for the second show. You'll have some more time to be flexible with ROTR and still be able to catch the fireworks at MK afterwards. :)

Overall, I am absolutely loving your planning and the outline you have used for your report. I'm totally gonna borrow it for my own.
It sounds like you have a stellar trip in the works.

PS- I'm a huge Mötörhead fan. Lemmy is such a cute name for a little one.

Welcome!

I agree that our time at GE may be limited. I may see if I can move our breakfast reservation up a little earlier. We drive to WDW in our old Honda minivan, so we don't have to depend on Disney bus system. I think the plan at the moment is to drive to HS before rope drop (park opens at 9am), and if still doing boarding groups for ROTR, then get into park, join boarding group at take boat to Boardwalk. If ROTR has switched to fastpass by then (please please let this be true!), we'll just park at HS, and go towards the boat launch to Boardwalk. Probably will need to leave 3pm at the latest (probably leave earlier) so we can drive back to WL, then get on boat to FW. I don't really want to switch my Hoop Dee Doo for a couple reasons:
1) Category 2 seating quality is by the order of who placed their reservation first, and I am almost certain I was probably one of the first few who reserved.
2) MK fireworks are at 8pm on this night and we would miss them if we changed to the 615 show.

We have a little more HS time schedule for this trip, so hopefully we will get to see and experience everything we want at GE!

My wife will be happy to know Motorhead fans exist on the DIS! We have no regret naming our youngest Lemmy. She can always use her legal name or middle name when she gets older if she wants to!
 
Day 5-Thurs, Oct 29th-French Lunch, Around the World, Food & Wine dinner, ice cream at Ample Hills, Hollywood Studios evening

But first, my apologies!


My apologies for the delay in posting our Day 5 plans. I haven't been as active on the boards in the last few weeks. Work has been a little difficult lately, and I've been extra tired for some reason at home. I survived the first round of furloughs at my work a couple of weeks ago, and my hope is there won't be any more.

Now, on to the plans!

We plan on a slow morning at the lodge. I think we'll probably do an in room breakfast of cereal, donuts, or pastries. Even though we will have the kitchen where we could cook breakfast, I don't think we'll probably do much cooking. We will have all of these snack credits and table service meals to use.

Plan is to head out to Epcot and arrive around 1030 or so, then ride Soarin (Serah's favorite WDW ride), then head over to the France pavillion for a Chefs de France 12pm ADR.

chefs-de-france.jpg

This was a very difficult decision. My vote was to go to Teppan Edo. I live in a semi-democracy in our house, and I was out voted 4-1, so Chefs de France will be our lunch. I'm not sad or anything. In general I like French food. I love the language and culture. I took French class every year from 7th grade through my Senior year in high school. I used to be able to read French novels written in French. I could have conversations with others in French. That was a long time ago. Now, I am lucky if I can say more than just basic greetings, and ask how some one is doing in French. Oh well, perhaps one day I will pick up the language again. I have my eye on the filet here. It was mentioned a few times in a thread on the Dining section of the DIS a one of the best 1 TS steaks.

I don't think I mentioned this in a previous post, but I have an unusual food allergy. I am allergic to poultry. So no chicken and no turkey. I've never actually tried other birds, but I assume I would probably be allergic to them as well? The lighter the meat, the worse the allergic reaction is. This means I end up eating a lot of beef and pork. I developed this allergy as a child around 7 or 8 I think. At first my parents thought I was being difficult, so once they tricked me into eating chicken parm when they told me it was veal parm. Well after that dinner, that was the last time they ever tried that. I was able to get my allergy confirmed by a allergist when I was a teenager. I guess one advantage as far as Disney is concerned is that I am more likely to get my value from the DDP!

After lunch, our plan is to explore France more, ride Ratatouille with a 1pm FP if possible (my perfect trip plan is that Disney changes the FP tier system in Epcot, where Soarin is tier 2 and Ratatouille is tier 1), and also see the France film if possible.

We'll head left after France to prevent extra backtracking and walking. I am looking forward to exploring Morocco. In our past trips, I think we had past the pavilion up due to no attractions, but since our last trip, I've learned that there are a lot of details in this pavilion and I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Then to Japan. Serah is looking forward to buying a few fun things from the Mitsukoshi department store. I don't think of the daughters have mentioned anything in particular yet about Japan, but if you have some ideas, feel free to share them! I thought possibly Zoey would like to do the pearl experience, though I'm not sure how expensive that gets if you want it made into a necklace.

As of now, we plan to check out The American Adventure show. We've never done the show before, and I've heard it is pretty good.

I do want to try the American Dream slush.

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The description kind of reminds me of a gelati at Rita's Italian Ice. I'm not sure how many of you have a Rita's around you, but I really do miss getting a gelati from them. Basically a gelati is Italian ice on bottom, a layer of frozen custard (I prefer vanilla), then more italian ice, then more custard on top. We don't have a Rita's in the STL area, but when we visit Serah's mom in Nashville, we always try to make a stop there.

I haven't mentioned anything about Food and Wine snacks yet! I honestly don't know what will be offered. F & W is probably my biggest deficiency in my Disney knowledge. This gives me something to research the next few months before making FP's in late August. Let me know some of your favorite F & W dishes! I'm the only one allergic poultry, so feel free to reply with any suggestions, even if they include poultry and I'll add them to our watch-list for our trip! Our plan is to kind of do a F & W food graze for dinner using snack credits.

For Italy, just looking forward to exploring the pavilion in general. Hopefully Sergio will be there for some fun entertainment.
I'll probably be get hungry again at this point, especially if I smell Italian food. We are blessed here in STL with Italian food. We have a very vibrant, historic, strong Italian neighborhood called The Hill, and I've been on some culinary journeys with Italian food that I will never forget. If you are ever in STL or driving through, please make a stop and partake in some delicious cuisine on The Hill. A non-profit group recently installed a new Italian piazza (4 to 5 minute video in link) at the Hill, and the fountain and marble was imported from Italy. I've been to the new piazza once and it was very relaxing and beautiful.

On to Germany. Two things stick out for us on past trips. 1) There was a particular beer that Serah had that we've never seen anywhere else before and she loved it. She wants to get a big one of those if they still have it. We can't remember the name and I haven't taken the time to research it yet. 2) Karamell Kuche! Not sure what delights I will purchase here, but I am looking forward to stopping here. I love me some caramel treats!

For China, I know my two little ones are looking forward to meeting the hero of China, Mulan! We may check out the film here depending on how time is going. If Zoey hasn't had the chance to get her super fancy cotton candy yet, then we'll make sure she gets one this time. I don't think we explored the China pavilion much the last trip, so hopefully we will explore it more this time around.

In Norway, we'll check out the wait times for FEA, and the gift shop as well, though I'm not sure how much else there is to see here?

In Mexico, we'll probably spend a decent amount of time exploring here, ride Grand Fiesta Tour of course! I've heard there are some pretty good chips and queso here? I don't remember where exactly, but it was quick service or a booth of some kind?

Next we'll make the trek across to Canada. Not sure how energy levels will be, but we don't plan on doing this world tour commando style, so it will be more of a see how things go tour. I'd like to see the new Canada film, and get some of that famous Le Cellier cheese soup at Refreshment Port if it is available.

In the UK pavilion, other than general exploring, I'm not sure what else we will do here. I haven't looked into this very much and I can't recall anything in particular other than you can get a decent fish and chips here. I hope they don't scrap the future Mary Poppins attraction here. Mary Poppins is probably my favorite Disney film. I'm thinking of going as Bert to MNSSHP.

We made it around the world. I'm tired of just typing all of these plans. I have no idea what time it will most likely be after doing all of this. Hopefully we will of had some good F & W dishes by the time we get to the end.

Depending on time and stomachs, we plan to take a boat or walk (feet will be tired by now) from the IG to Boardwalk for some Ample Hills ice cream. I've had this on my to do list for a long time, ever since I saw they have Ooey Gooey Butter Cake ice cream. This butter cake is a STL original, so I think it is pretty neat that they use this in one of their ice creams.

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After Ample Hills, we plan on taking the boat back to Epcot, getting to van, driving over to HS so we can see GE at night, maybe ride a few things depending on time, and see the Star Wars Spectacular show. Hopefully the show will still be a thing by the time we go!

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After the show, get in van, most likely exhausted, and drive back to WL and crash for the night.

I will say that these plans aren't as solid as some of my other days, so please feel free to tell me I'm being too ambitious or delusional.

Up next, Animal Kingdom, a Yak and Yeti lunch, and Star Wars VOID at Disney Springs!

Thank you for reading! See ya real soon!
 
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Thanos has used the Infinity Stones on my ADR's

Quick update today. So I won't go into details about the WDW re-opening news, as if you are a reader of this forum, you already know what is going on. I saw where Disney said they were going to cancel all dining reservations. Over the last 24 hours or so, I would open up My Disney Experience, see all of my reservations, and think, well maybe they aren't going to cancel ADR's sooooo far out as mine are in late October. And until earlier this evening (May 29th), my reservations were there. My beautiful, planned, getting up at 530am ADR's were there, telling me,"Steve, don't worry, your trip is way off in late October, surely we don't need to cancel them because by then, we'll be in such a good phase where we don't need to cancel them.

And then, just like Thanos snapping his finger in Infinity War, half of my reservations have disappeared. Trattoria al Forno breakfast, it was nice knowing you. Hoop Dee Doo, bye bye. Cape May Cafe, I hardly knew ye.

Perhaps I was naive, perhaps I am too much of a half-glass full person.

In all seriousness, I do hope for everyone, that we can get this stupid virus under control, and we can all enjoy the best possible Disney experience we can this year. I don't know at this point if we will go. All depends on how the parks look near the end up September when I will need to cancel before my DVC points go into holding status. If I could go back in time like the Avengers did and stop this virus, I would gladly do so. Thanks for reading.
 
Hello! I'm joining in to follow along. pluto: We're from STL as well and are also going in October - and driving for the first time! It will be a three generations trip for us - me, my mom, and my daughter (she'll be almost 3 when we go). I've done multiple trip reports over the years (with several solo trips as well), but haven't been active in the boards in a long time - however, with how this year has gone I'm very excited to get a PTR going and I want to join a few as well. Will be following along!

Also ... ooey gooey butter cake ice cream?!?! whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!
 
Hello! I'm joining in to follow along. pluto: We're from STL as well and are also going in October - and driving for the first time! It will be a three generations trip for us - me, my mom, and my daughter (she'll be almost 3 when we go). I've done multiple trip reports over the years (with several solo trips as well), but haven't been active in the boards in a long time - however, with how this year has gone I'm very excited to get a PTR going and I want to join a few as well. Will be following along!

Also ... ooey gooey butter cake ice cream?!?! whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!

Welcome and thanks for joining!

A three generation trip sounds fun! My parents would end up staying at the resort the whole time. I might be able to talk them into a day at MK and Epcot.

We are definitely not as excited as we were before COVID, but I'm still trying to be optimistic that by the time we go, parades, fireworks, and character greetings will return. We'll see how things pan out.

Driving to WDW from STL isn't too bad. We will break up the trip and drive from STL to southern GA the first day, and then get to WDW in the early afternoon the next day.

I am so excited to try the Gooey butter cake ice cream!
 
Small life update.

We have put an offer on a home and it was accepted! This will be our first time buying a house. We usually rent due to moving around the country so much. We think we'll be staying here in the St. Louis area for a while (been here since Jan 2016).

We've decided to opt for the 100% online version of learning for our Kindergarten and 6th grade daughters. This was a very difficult decision to make for both of them. With Lucy, I can't think of a worse way to start your public education. She is pretty smart, so we'll see how things go with online instruction. For Zoey, this will not be good for her. She struggled with online learning at the end of her 5th grade year, and I expect her to have struggles this year as well. The virus spreading in schools just seems too easy to happen, and my wife and I both have conditions that would not blend well with COVID, so we chose the less schooling version that is less health risk for us, but a higher risk of not learning as well for our daughters. It was probably the hardest decision we've had to make as parents.

In Disney news, I haven't cancelled our trip yet, but I don't have much hope that Disney will change any policies before our trip. When I started working 100% remotely back in mid-March, I really thought by end of summer the virus would be mostly gone. Obviously my confidence in the public and government to do the right thing was grossly mistaken. As a nation who in the past have come together to fight for independence from Monarchy rule and defeat fascism in Europe , our thought process should really be more thinking as "we" and less of "me". I feel we have lost our way as a society to come together to solve major problems.

I have 31 days before my check in date to cancel our trip so my DVC points go back my account without penalty. My wife is not keen on wearing a mask all over WDW, and this is supposed to be my two youngest first trip, so we can wait another year in hopes of some normality. I will most likely wait till the last day or two to cancel.
 
I love your Thanos explanation. And ugh. What choices, everywhere.
 
Well, I waited until almost the last day to cancel my DVC reservation, but unfortunately, the virus outsmarted our government and we couldn't contain it. We'll shoot for a possible late May/early June trip, or try again for late October or around Thanksgiving 2021. See ya real soon!
 
Just booked our 2021 WDW vacation for the same time as the 2020 vacation was supposed to happen. October 24 through Nov 2nd, 2021. Copper Creek 2 bedroom. Hopefully 2021 will be a much better year!
 
Wow, how time flies by. I haven't updated this in a looooooong time. So 2021 has been another difficult year. Our entire family just got over Covid. 3 out of the 5 of us were completely vaccinated, Lucy and Lemmy not eligible yet. The symptoms were mild for Lucy and Lemmy thank goodness. Mild fever for a few days and some congestion, but that was it. They had to miss 9 day of school and just got to go back this week. Zoey also missed 9 days as well, and was the last one to get sick. She mostly just had fevers. I only had a fever for a couple of days, and lots of congestion. Serah faired the worst. She had 101 or 102 fevers for over 2 weeks, went to the hospital twice for dehydration, and very fatigued. She finally got over the fevers just a couple of days ago, but is still fatigued some, but you can tell she is feeling better.

So we are still on for Disney World! We are leaving Friday morning, October 22nd, and taking our new to us 2014 Honda Pilot. The Honda Odyssey we owned on page 1 was sold last year so we could afford the down payment on our home we bought in Sept of 2020. First time buying a home for us, and I must say, I should of done this years ago.

We were originally planning to arrive on Sunday, Oct 24th, but we really wanted to get to MK on that Sunday as early as possible, so I had enough points left to book a lake view Poly studio for one night! So we'll be at the Poly on Saturday the 23rd, hopefully arriving fairly early that day. We are going to enjoy the resort volcano pool, head over to DS for a Wine Bar George early dinner. Lucy and Lemmy want to check out the Lego store, and Serah wants to get some good smelling bubble bath from Basin for the Copper Creek bathtub.

Work is crushing me right now, so I won't be able to post detailed day by day pre trip planning like I did before, but here is a quick day by day run down.

Friday, October 22: Depart for trip in morning, try to get to southern GA. Find a hotel, eat, sleep.

Saturday, October 23: Try to leave southern GA hotel early, hopefully arrive to WDW around 1 or so. Enjoy pool, some captain cooks or pool bar food, and wait for room to be ready. Then head to Disney Springs for early Wine Bar George dinner, check out a couple stores, then head back to Poly for more pool if time allows, watch fireworks from balcony if we get a good view.

Sunday, October 24: Rope drop MK if I can somehow get everyone out the door in time, mid to late morning sleepy hollow for late breakfast, get some snacks/treats a little later (nothing too big), leave around 2. Grab our car from Poly, go pickup grocery order from Publix, then drive over to our home for the next week at Copper Creek, get settle in, and then have dinner at Whispering Canyon. Depending on how the family feels, swim at resort or head back to MK for evening for a few rides and fireworks. Need to remind myself to or

Monday, October 25: Epcot day. Mostly a Future World day. Breakfast in room or Roaring Fork. Food and Wine for early lunch. After lunch, we will head out for rest break for a few hours, then head back for dinner. Serah and Zoey are currently scheduled for Cape May, but may cancel if not converted back to a buffet by then, Lemmy, Lucy, and myself are going to either Beaches and Cream, The Fountain, Trattoria al Forno, Ale and Compass, or Crews Cup lounge. I have a ressie for Beaches and Cream right now, but I am very indecisive. I may even change it to something inside Epcot. Serah and Zoey may end up driving to DS for Paddlefish at this point or an off site all you can eat seafood place with crablegs. This is all up in the air at the moment. After dinner, ride a few more rides, watch Impressions de France as this apparently is only shown very late in the day now? Finally, enjoy Harmonius.

I will add some more days very soon. Thank you for reading!
 
Joining in to follow along. So glad your crew is feeling better. I'm glad you were able to re book a trip for this year to replace your cancelled one. Can't wait to read about it. On a side note, I was born a hope, skip and a jump across the river from SL in Dupo, Illinois.
 
Joining in to follow along. So glad your crew is feeling better. I'm glad you were able to re book a trip for this year to replace your cancelled one. Can't wait to read about it. On a side note, I was born a hope, skip and a jump across the river from SL in Dupo, Illinois.

Thank you for joining! We bought a house on the IL side in Edwardsville. I have a old coworker who grew up in Dupo.
 
Tuesday Oct 26th

Our first Hollywood Studios day. It will be interesting to see if Rise of the Resistance remains a standby queue by the time we go. My touring plan is telling me to go ride Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway first, then head to Toy Story Land. We are planning a late morning breakfast at Woody's Lunchbox. Serah and I want to try to gravy covered tater tots, kids want to try those fancy pop tarts. After breakfast, our touring plan says to go ride rise of the resistance. I will definitely keep optimizing my plan on touring plans as they get more data for ROTR being standby now. After riding Rise, depending on the fam is feeling, we'll either head out for rest or look around galaxy edge some more. Plan is to rest until 330pm, and then head back to HS, watch the Beauty and the Beast and Frozen sing a long shows, then head to 50's Prime Time Cafe for dinner, then try to fit in the rest of the rides and Muppetvision 3D. I was hoping the Star Wars nighttime show would be back on but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. We may plan to leave early though and just fit in a few things after dinner. We have a very early AK rope drop planned the next day which, knowing my family, we won't make it to on time. Thank you for reading!
 
I'm very curious what will happen to ROTR line as time goes on. I will say if it remains stand by then we will wait until later in the day to ride for our February trip. I was able to ride it twice in March on my girls trip but hubby has never ridden. However he isn't a huge star wars fan and would probably be okay missing it. I on the other hand would want him to experience it if the wait inst too long or if it goes back to a virtual queue and we can snag a time slot. I am not willing to wait a crazy insane amount of time for it though.
 

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