Our 1st ever kid-free WDW trip PTR

Disney World just announced that Chef Mickey's is going to be switching back to a character meal. So goodbye to the $25/adult all-you-can-eat breakfast. It'll now be $42/adult. Rumor is that Mickey & his friends are going to do the quick drive-by sort of thing that they're doing at Topolino's Terrace at the Riviera. Sorry, but that's not worth it to me to pay an extra $17/person just to see Mickey walk by our table.

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...ew-food-items-to-chef-mickeys-on-december-16/
As a result, on the day I was planning for us to do a breakfast ADR at Chef Mickey's, we'll have breakfast at The Wave instead. Cheaper for our bottom line and we'll still be able to walk from CR to MK or take the monorail if DH wants to.
 
Give it a day or 2 and my plans change again. :rotfl:

I've scrapped the AK day and traded it for a 2nd HS day instead.

HS.jpg

DH will want to go on ROTR again (so will I!). It definitely won't be a park that I see us spending all day at. I envision us escaping for a few hours to a nearby resort or to DS. But I think that DH & I will want to immerse ourselves in more Star Wars than commune with the animals at AK.

On HS day 2, again, our goal will be to get into the park before the 10 am opening, so we can try for another ROTR boarding group. And since DH likes going out for breakfast, instead of eating breakfast at POP, we'll do this:

  • take a Lyft or Uber from POP to Boardwalk.
  • probably do ~ 8 am ADR for breakfast at Trattoria al Forno.
  • ~ 9:00 am - walk from Boardwalk to HS.
  • 10:00 am - do the "click and pray" bit with everyone else in HS.
According to Ride Guru's website, Uber or Lyft will cost about $9.00 for the ride from POP Century to Boardwalk. From POP to CR, it'll be ~ $13. And if we do a breakfast ADR at WL on our Epcot day like I was planning, then that'll be ~$12 to Uber or Lyft over there from POP.

I think we'll skip the breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe at WL. I'll fit in a meal there on our MK on Sunday instead. We can have dinner there after MK closes...take the boat over, then get back to POP by taking a bus from WL to DS, then bus from DS to POP.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
Don't get me started on our governor. :crazy2:

Enjoying your planning and wishing I was doing some of my own!

@imbatman - Love your name! I'm fond of saying "son of a Batman!" around my kids instead of...that other phrase. LOL!

I'm SO mad about the Disneyland situation. We still have 4 2-day 1-park-per-day tickets that I purchased in January for our cancelled March trip. I've been tempted several times to try calling Disneyland to get a refund on the tickets, but I always chicken out because I think, "Maybe they'll reopen in a couple of months." And I know when they reopen, our family is going to want to go!

However, Disneyland hasn't announced an extension of all of those tickets, which expire in January. I suspect that DL **will** extend those tickets. In the meantime, it's driving me bonkers.

I had a good cry over it two evenings ago after talking to a friend of mine whose aunt has worked at DL for 44 years. Her aunt got a lay off notice. She's getting early retirement. She's 62 and has worked there since she was 18. The job started as a summer job to earn some extra cash and she loved it so much that she stayed. She's been special friends with Pluto for a LOOOOONG time! It just plain old SUCKS in so many ways.

But back to WDW trip planning! On our full Epcot day, I think that we should do a sit down meal at a TS restaurant. I've looked at a ton of menus on www.allears.net and I'm having a heck of a time deciding. Here's what I've ruled out so far:
  • Garden Grill - not interested in the food or a character meal
  • Le Cellier - kind of expensive
  • Coral Reef - DH won't be in a fish mood.
  • Tutto Italia - too many carbs. DH is diabetic & wants to eat as low carb as possible on this trip.
  • Via Napoli - too many carbs.
  • La Hacienda de San Angel - we live in AZ, so we have lots of great Mexican food here at home.
  • San Angel Inn - ruled out for the same reason.
  • Rose & Crown dining room - all of the menu options have too many carbs.
Honestly, if Akershus was open, I would, hands down, be doing an ADR there because my grandparents were of Scandinavian descent and used to go to smorgasbords quite often. They'd make a lot of the food that Akershus serves, so it's comfort food and reminds me of them. :-) Maybe if we're lucky, Akershus will reopen in January? I'm doubtful, but hope springs eternal. I don't even care if it doesn't have characters.

I've narrowed it down to Biergarten and...

epcot.jpg

All of these have options that would work for DH. DH & I both love Mediterranean food and there's a bunch of options that would work for him there. On the other hand, we have NEVER dined at a French restaurant, so that might be fun to try. However, DH also really likes German food and there's enough on their menu between the meats and the non-potato sorts of salads and vegetables that he would be a really happy camper there.

At least we don't have to decide yet! I have until late November to decide. :-)
 


Quick fun fact:
I love Google Maps. :-) And since we're going to be doing 2 days at Hollywood Studios, I wanted to take a second look at what the walk would be like from a couple of different locations. So here goes!

Option #1:
Take Uber/Lyft from POP to the Speedway gas station at 300 E. Buena Vista Dr. Looks like it's 0.7 miles to walk that and it'll take ~ 14 min (depending on how fast we walk).

We can leave POP later than if we eat breakfast at Yacht Club or Boardwalk.
I can get DH breakfast from the POP food court and bring it back to the room, so he can have breakfast in bed!
Breakfast will be cheaper than if we eat at Yacht Club or Boardwalk.
531565

Option #2: Eat breakfast at Trattoria al Forno and walk from there
- not that much farther to walk (0.8 vs 0.7 miles)
- not that much longer in terms of time to walk
- breakfast more expensive than QS @ POP.
- has the weirdest of the omelet options on the menu (DH loves omelets, but not ones with Italian cheese in them)

531570

Option 3: Walk from Ale & Compass @ Yacht Club to HS
- has the better breakfast menu
- but has a longer walk
531571

Option 4: Eat breakfast @ the Swan, walk from the Swan to HS.
About as expensive as eating at Yacht Club or Trattoria al Forno.
531574

Meh. :crazy2: Now that I think about it, none of the POP off-site breakfast & walk options sound all that great. But, on the other hand, Trattoria al Forno has a steak & eggs option on the menu and he'd go for that instead of the weird Italian omelet. I'm just not interested in getting into line at 7:30-8:00 am for the Skyliner. DH is going to HATE that if we do that.

I think that we'll get an Uber/Lyft to the Speedway gas station for 1 of our HS days. And for the other HS day, we'll do a breakfast ADR at Trattoria al Forno and then walk over...mostly because my DH will get bored eating the same breakfast every morning @ POP. :-)
 
Let's talk about food!

According to https://allears.net/dining/menu/everything-pop/breakfast/, the current price of the Disney World resort refillable mugs is $19.99 each and "Eligible for refills at Self-service Beverage Islands at Quick-Service locations at any Disney Resort Hotel during the length of your stay."

I find the "at any Disney Resort Hotel" part especially interesting. I would swear that when we went to WDW 2 years ago, you could ONLY use the refillable mug at your home resort. DH is going to be STOKED that we can use this at any QS at any other hotel, too.

I did the math and between the 2 of us, it's going to save us about $160. Here's how that calculates out, in case you want to nerd out on this like I do. LOL. :flower:

Ok, at breakfast, DH will drink basically 2 cups of coffee. I'll probably drink 2 sodas or 2 lemonades or something like that.
2 cups of coffee = $3.29 * 2 = $6.58

Then if you assume that the rest of the day, he drinks 3 resort QS sodas...
3 sodas = $3.99 *3 = $11.97

Total for DH for 1 day = $18.55 JUST IN DRINKS ALONE!

Cost of the above for 5.5 days (because we arrive late afternoon on our 1st day):

$18.55 * 5.5 = $102.03

Multiply that times 2 (since there's 2 of us):
$102.03 * 2 = $204.06 JUST IN NON-ALCOHOLIC DRINKS!

Then subtract the cost of buying 2 refillable mugs:
$204.06 - (19.99 * 2) = $204.06 - $39.98 = savings of $164.08

SON OF A BATMAN, THAT'S A LOT OF DOUGH!

son of a batman.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
Supposedly, the CA governor is going to have another press conference today at noon Pacific time to announce their theme park reopening guidelines. I have zero hope that Disneyland will be able to reopen any time soon. It's very frustrating and feels a bit like this...
still waiting.jpg


And this happened, too. LOL!

coffee yes.jpg
 


Today has been a really horrible day for this Disneyland fan. This afternoon, the CA governor announced theme park reopening guidelines for California. Large theme parks can't reopen until the area is in "yellow," which basically won't happen until the daily new infection count is <1 new person infected per 100,000 people.

And even then, they'll only be able to reopen at 25% capacity.

I tried calling Disneyland today in an attempt to get a refund on tickets I purchased in January of this year for our postponed March trip. Right now, they're not giving refunds on regular tickets. In addition, my tickets expire at the end of January 2021. At this rate, DL will not be reopening in January 2021.

The current policy at DL is that you CAN apply the $$ value of an unused expired ticket to the purchase of a new ticket. BUT...and this is a big "BUT," you can only do that in person at the ticket booth.

Well, we live in Arizona. A 6 hour drive from Anaheim. DL, when it DOES reopen, will have the same park reservation system that WDW does. And after probably a year of pent up demand to go to DL all across California and neighboring states, there's NO way that I'll be able to get a park reservation the day before we want to go.

I'm so frustrated. I really was hoping to take YDD to DL next May at the end of the school year to celebrate her 13th birthday. ODD will be on a 10-day long choir trip. YDD is sad that ODD won't be here w/the rest of us for YDD's birthday. And she's also jealous that her big sister is going on a cool trip. So I want to do something special for her.

I looked into maybe doing a Universal Orlando trip for the 3 of us (me, DH, YDD). But DH isn't keen on Universal Studios. Other than the Harry Potter areas, none of us will be to thrilled with the other rides and attractions that they have there (DH hates most thrill rides other than Disney ones, but he will totally not go on Space Mtn). Ok, well, that's out.

So I've been crunching the numbers for us to go on a 6 day, 5 night trip to WDW with just DH, me, and YDD instead.

I think we'd probably stay in POP Century again. Or if one of the All Star resorts (like All Star Movies) ends up reopening before then, we'd stay there. Rough ideas for that trip would be:

  • 1 day at Cape Canaveral. Probably drive over, renting a car from Alamo.
  • 1 water park day at WDW
  • 2 WDW theme park days. Probably both MK or 1 MK and 1 HS. Will skip AK (way too hot at that time of year) and Epcot (YDD wasn't a fan of Epcot when we went 2 yr ago).
  • would also love to take YDD horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. Maybe we could do this on water park day as well?
I'm finding the ticket information on how this would work to be confusing, so I posted some questions in the big ticketing thread on the Theme Parks & Strategies board. Hoping that someone can steer me in the right direction!
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
This was totally me yesterday...

california.jpg

And I'm still mad about that.

But then WDW announced a whole BUNCH of hotel discounts early this morning. And before I knew it, our Dreams Unlimited Travel agent had sent me an email stating that she got the Pop Century discount applied to our package and now our trip is costing is $168 less!

HOW AWESOME IS THAT?

Then I was pretty much like this...

minions.jpg

Of course, you all can see the total irony and foolishness with that statement. :rotfl2:
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
Quick fun fact:
I love Google Maps. :-) And since we're going to be doing 2 days at Hollywood Studios, I wanted to take a second look at what the walk would be like from a couple of different locations. So here goes!

Option #1:
Take Uber/Lyft from POP to the Speedway gas station at 300 E. Buena Vista Dr. Looks like it's 0.7 miles to walk that and it'll take ~ 14 min (depending on how fast we walk).

We can leave POP later than if we eat breakfast at Yacht Club or Boardwalk.
I can get DH breakfast from the POP food court and bring it back to the room, so he can have breakfast in bed!
Breakfast will be cheaper than if we eat at Yacht Club or Boardwalk.
View attachment 531565

Option #2: Eat breakfast at Trattoria al Forno and walk from there
- not that much farther to walk (0.8 vs 0.7 miles)
- not that much longer in terms of time to walk
- breakfast more expensive than QS @ POP.
- has the weirdest of the omelet options on the menu (DH loves omelets, but not ones with Italian cheese in them)



Option 3: Walk from Ale & Compass @ Yacht Club to HS
- has the better breakfast menu
- but has a longer walk


Option 4: Eat breakfast @ the Swan, walk from the Swan to HS.
About as expensive as eating at Yacht Club or Trattoria al Forno.


Meh. :crazy2: Now that I think about it, none of the POP off-site breakfast & walk options sound all that great. But, on the other hand, Trattoria al Forno has a steak & eggs option on the menu and he'd go for that instead of the weird Italian omelet. I'm just not interested in getting into line at 7:30-8:00 am for the Skyliner. DH is going to HATE that if we do that.

I think that we'll get an Uber/Lyft to the Speedway gas station for 1 of our HS days. And for the other HS day, we'll do a breakfast ADR at Trattoria al Forno and then walk over...mostly because my DH will get bored eating the same breakfast every morning @ POP. :-)
Thanks for drawing that out. Do you know if there are sidewalks from the Speedway?
 
Today has been a really horrible day for this Disneyland fan. This afternoon, the CA governor announced theme park reopening guidelines for California. Large theme parks can't reopen until the area is in "yellow," which basically won't happen until the daily new infection count is <1 new person infected per 100,000 people.

And even then, they'll only be able to reopen at 25% capacity.

I tried calling Disneyland today in an attempt to get a refund on tickets I purchased in January of this year for our postponed March trip. Right now, they're not giving refunds on regular tickets. In addition, my tickets expire at the end of January 2021. At this rate, DL will not be reopening in January 2021.

The current policy at DL is that you CAN apply the $$ value of an unused expired ticket to the purchase of a new ticket. BUT...and this is a big "BUT," you can only do that in person at the ticket booth.

Well, we live in Arizona. A 6 hour drive from Anaheim. DL, when it DOES reopen, will have the same park reservation system that WDW does. And after probably a year of pent up demand to go to DL all across California and neighboring states, there's NO way that I'll be able to get a park reservation the day before we want to go.

I'm so frustrated. I really was hoping to take YDD to DL next May at the end of the school year to celebrate her 13th birthday. ODD will be on a 10-day long choir trip. YDD is sad that ODD won't be here w/the rest of us for YDD's birthday. And she's also jealous that her big sister is going on a cool trip. So I want to do something special for her.

I looked into maybe doing a Universal Orlando trip for the 3 of us (me, DH, YDD). But DH isn't keen on Universal Studios. Other than the Harry Potter areas, none of us will be to thrilled with the other rides and attractions that they have there (DH hates most thrill rides other than Disney ones, but he will totally not go on Space Mtn). Ok, well, that's out.

So I've been crunching the numbers for us to go on a 6 day, 5 night trip to WDW with just DH, me, and YDD instead.

I think we'd probably stay in POP Century again. Or if one of the All Star resorts (like All Star Movies) ends up reopening before then, we'd stay there. Rough ideas for that trip would be:

  • 1 day at Cape Canaveral. Probably drive over, renting a car from Alamo.
  • 1 water park day at WDW
  • 2 WDW theme park days. Probably both MK or 1 MK and 1 HS. Will skip AK (way too hot at that time of year) and Epcot (YDD wasn't a fan of Epcot when we went 2 yr ago).
  • would also love to take YDD horseback riding at Fort Wilderness. Maybe we could do this on water park day as well?
I'm finding the ticket information on how this would work to be confusing, so I posted some questions in the big ticketing thread on the Theme Parks & Strategies board. Hoping that someone can steer me in the right direction!
We have been to universal twice. There are so many more rides than the thrill rides. We are a family that doesn't do thrill rides and we have so much fun at Universal. I personally wouldn't throw that option out.
 
It looks like according to www.wdwinfo.com, Disney announced the dates of the January-February food & art festival at Epcot.

https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...-of-epcot-international-festival-of-the-arts/
So the good news is that this falls during the dates that we will be at WDW. Yay! It runs from Jan. 8 to Feb. 22. Looks like we will have a full day of exploring on our Epcot day. I kind of hope that they extend the park hours a little bit though because 12 - 7 pm doesn't seem like quite enough time.
 
Hello! Love reading your pre-trip report! We are going (childless too.... but we're 65 ish.. so kids are grown) about the same week that you are (Jan 20-26) and we are also staying at POP. We always stay at POP because we like it, we LOVE the skyliner, and we've stayed there about 15 times in the last 10 years so it feels like home. Just want to reassure you that Uber/Lyft drivers at WDW are wonderful... some are also CM's. Cape Canaveral is amazing if you get to go. Today, Disney announced a discount on room only and I jumped on it and saved a couple of hundred bucks... yay me! I'm the Disney Nazi Planner for my DH and I... and I understand the need to go back to the quiet, cool, people-less room for a few hours in the afternoon... then I'm a happier camper ready to go back to the park. The Festival of the Arts is my favorite Epcot Festival and was so excited to see that announced today.
So, Wishing you much Pixie Dust for your trip... We leave in about 90 days!
 
Hello! Love reading your pre-trip report! We are going (childless too.... but we're 65 ish.. so kids are grown) about the same week that you are (Jan 20-26) and we are also staying at POP. We always stay at POP because we like it, we LOVE the skyliner, and we've stayed there about 15 times in the last 10 years so it feels like home. Just want to reassure you that Uber/Lyft drivers at WDW are wonderful... some are also CM's. Cape Canaveral is amazing if you get to go. Today, Disney announced a discount on room only and I jumped on it and saved a couple of hundred bucks... yay me! I'm the Disney Nazi Planner for my DH and I... and I understand the need to go back to the quiet, cool, people-less room for a few hours in the afternoon... then I'm a happier camper ready to go back to the park. The Festival of the Arts is my favorite Epcot Festival and was so excited to see that announced today.
So, Wishing you much Pixie Dust for your trip... We leave in about 90 days!

Thanks! It's been so long that we've been on a trip anywhere without kids that it'll be a fun change of pace.
 
Thanks! It's been so long that we've been on a trip anywhere without kids that it'll be a fun change of pace.
Gwarsh... we've done it ALOT.... It's easy, It's fun, it's cheaper, and we can do what we please in our choice of rides and restaurants.. (lol) my DH says "Kids just slow us down" but in reality we're just big kids..
 
I got an email today from Southwest Airlines re: our return flight home, which will be on Thursday, 1/28/2021. Here's what the original itinerary was:

MCO 6:25 pm --> Houston Hobby 8:05 pm
Houston Hobby 9:20 pm --> Phoenix 11:10 pm.

Giving us 1 hr, 15 min layover. Ok, not bad. Gives us some breathing room in case the flight leaves MCO a little late.

Southwest Airlines rearranged the flights. It looks from their website like they eliminated those 2 flights altogether and replaced them with flights that are a little earlier in the day. It's not too bad. We automatically got assigned to the new itinerary, which is:

MCO 5:45 pm --> Houston Hobby 7:20 pm
Houston Hobby 8:10 pm --> Phoenix 10:00 pm

So we end up arriving back home a little over an hour earlier than. That's fine. This will mean that we'll be leaving on the Tragical Express from Pop Century at 2:45 pm instead of 3:25 pm. And if we take that backwards by an hour to allow for an hour's travel time from Magic Kingdom to Pop Century, then we leave MK at 1:45 pm.

Therefore, our last day is definitely going to be a rope drop day. Gotta get as much WDW in as possible!

Now I know that since this will be the last flight of the night from Houston to Phoenix on Southwest, there's a possibility that if we miss that flight due to MCO-->Houston delays, then we will end up spending the night in Houston. That's ok. I can handle that.

IF Southwest changes our flights again later on so that we'll have to almost entirely skip a park day on our departure day, then I just might add another night's stay at Pop Century and have us fly home on Friday morning instead of Thursday afternoon.

Hm...OR I could contact our Dreams Unlimited Travel agent and ask her now how much an extra night's stay at Pop Century would cost. And just go ahead and move the return flight to Friday.

The email from Southwest said that we can get expedited service to change our flights if we go to a particular website within 3 days of today's email (so I have until probably Thursday morning of this week to decide). The email said that flights at no additional cost will display as "Available." Our original base fare was $108.38 per person. Right now, all of the options showing on the Southwest website are ~$129-133 per person.

The email also says "In the event this new itinerary does not work for you, we are offering the opportunity to change your flight date(s) and/or time(s) by up to 14 days from original travel date at no additional cost in accordance with our established reaccommodation practices."

So I think that I'm going to research some of this first thing in the morning to see what my options might be.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
After poking around a bit on the WDW site, it looks like staying an extra night at POP would cost ~$150. Meh, I think we'll stick to the current plan. And if we're lucky, then MK will open at 8 am instead of the 9 am opening that they currently have on the schedule.

Side note:
I'm betting that they'll keep the 9 am MK opening time instead of opening at 8 am since we're going at a historically slower time of year.

** Edited to add **

I just played around with Touring Plans and it came up with an optimized itinerary based on attractions I selected. I picked the option to reduce ride wait time. Here's what it came up with based on a 9 am start and leaving the park at 1:45 pm:

9:08 am - Buzz Lightyear
9:26 am - Peter Pan
9:35 am - HM
10:01 am - POTC
10:17 am - BTMRR (26 min wait)
10:51 am - get on the train in Frontierland
11:14 am - Country Bear Jamboree
11:50 am - lunch at Skipper Canteen
12:47 pm - People Mover
1:06 pm - Carousel of Progress
After that, we leave the park!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
Then I created a Touring Plan this evening for Sunday, which we will spend at MK. Put in an assumption of us being there open to close (predicted park hours of 9 am - 6 pm, of course I hope those hours change!) with the plan optimized to minimize wait times. Here's what it came up with:

  • POTC
  • go on POTC again (DH loves going on it multiples times in a row at DL) then...
  • HM - 11 min wait
  • Peter Pan - 6 min wait
  • Mickey's Philharmagic - 6 min wait
  • Carousel - 5 min wait
  • Splash Mtn - 28 min wait
  • spend some time on Tom Sawyer's Island (because it's slightly different than the one at DL)
  • lunch break at Pecos Bill's
  • Country Bear Jamboree
  • Hall of Presidents
  • Peoplemover (assuming it's operational when we go)
  • Monsters Inc Laugh Floor - 16 min wait
  • Carousel of Progress - 5 min wait
  • Buzz - 11 min wait
  • Dumbo - 4 min wait
  • Mad Tea Party - 5 min wait
  • Winnie the Pooh - 14 min wait
  • 7 Dwarfs Mine Train - 28 min wait
  • riverboat - 5 min wait
  • Jungle Cruise - 12 min wait, last ride of the day!
I think that those wait times are pretty dang good. They'll make DH really happy. He's not big on thrill rides, but I can convince him to join me on Splash Mtn and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train one time each.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DLo
I got an email today from Southwest Airlines re: our return flight home, which will be on Thursday, 1/28/2021. Here's what the original itinerary was:

MCO 6:25 pm --> Houston Hobby 8:05 pm
Houston Hobby 9:20 pm --> Phoenix 11:10 pm.

Giving us 1 hr, 15 min layover. Ok, not bad. Gives us some breathing room in case the flight leaves MCO a little late.

Southwest Airlines rearranged the flights. It looks from their website like they eliminated those 2 flights altogether and replaced them with flights that are a little earlier in the day. It's not too bad. We automatically got assigned to the new itinerary, which is:
If your flight number/ID is different, please call Magical Express and update that info so they can get you on the right bus in time for your flight. Otherwise, you might miss your flight and have to stay at POP forever and ever.... just sayin'.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top