Sept '17 Yacht Club Trip (1 more day, 1 more plan, 1 more hurricane)

In 11 days I can make my fast pass selections! This trip is starting to come in fast! I've been playing with the idea of making a few changes to my trip that sound good in my head for different reasons, but might mess up some things. One idea was to move the trip forward or backwards a day or two to hit the Brunch at the Top at California Grill. I really enjoyed it quite a bit when I got to try it and have been looking for a good excuse to go back. It's a very nice thought that I'm weighing out right now. Another idea that I have been pouring over is cancelling two of the days at Yacht Club and using the money saved to book three or four nights at Bay Hill Resort down the road. There are some good rates going on, and I really did enjoy staying there previously. It's a completely different kind of vacation than a Disney trip, and now that I do a little golfing, it opens up a whole new world to me for that resort. So tempting! These are just mental what-ifs at the moment that I'm not overly committed to yet. There is something very nice about both ideas, but I'm still pretty happy with what I have at the moment. I think the lull from waiting for fast passes to open up has left me looking at a bunch of different options to vary things up a little bit.

In the meantime, my sister has been talking about bringing her family down for a Disney trip some time next year, so we've been talking about the resorts and different places to potentially go to eat and slowly pulling things together to book something and meet up, but that's down the road a bit. Still, it's nice to plan something else that's fresh. The waiting on this trip has been killing me. I don't know how some of you manage to book something so far out and not go mental just waiting. I like the 2 or 3 month out thing quite a bit more. It's ever so slightly more immediate in the gratification department. I'm so close to the next big milestone, I can't wait!
 
Yesterday was the 60 day point, so fast pass selections have begun. With work being as busy as it has been and not much to do until this point, I had forgotten what meal choices I had already made, so it was a nice bit of rediscovery to find out what I picked before to work in some fast passes around those times. I've only picked a few FP choices so far to cover the harder to get rides (TSMM, 7DMT, Soarin'), but we're off to a good start. It's also nice to realize that I'm only two months away from my trip! I've been really getting pumped up about this in the last few days and am really looking forward to getting away for a bit.

I realized that I've left a day completely open so far with no fast pass or food plans. I think I had a good reason for it in the past, but that reason may have been lost. I think I had planned on meeting up with friends and going to a restaurant that was not on Disney grounds for that one. For now, I'm going to throw something together on the chance that things fall through and just have something ready just in case.

So, this is round two of trip planning. This is where it gets fun! I've got a few more fast passes to pick out in the next few days and more food to plan. I'm now 59 days out. I'm ready to go now, now, and now.
 
We booked our August trip in April. We have to book early because of flights, availability and prices. If we were to drive, it takes 2 days to get there and 2 to get home, so that limits actual WDW time.
 
We booked our August trip in April. We have to book early because of flights, availability and prices. If we were to drive, it takes 2 days to get there and 2 to get home, so that limits actual WDW time.
Living in Florida definitely makes planning a little easier and cheaper. Just being able to skip the flight planning saves a bunch of time and aggravation. I do think there's something extra that gets lost from living so close to Disney. I think the anticipation and build up seems like it would be different. I kind of want to plan a trip to Disneyland or EuroDisney just to see how things are different (as well as enjoying a new park).
 


There are 50 days left until my trip, and it's starting to really feel exciting. My trip is completely paid now, so that has added another bit of reality to it. We're getting close to the home stretch! After taking a bit of a break from the planning, I've started looking at restaurants again to see if there are any additions or changes that I would like to make and with those changes, any additions or changes that would need to be made to the fast passes so that everything works well together.

I've had a day open with nothing planned that I'm finally filling in the spaces for. I've booked a 6pm tee time at the Palms Golf Course for their Sunset 9 promotion. I did the Sunset 9 in April at the Magnolia course and really had a great time. Now I'm looking forward to trying out the other courses as well. I've got a bit of time built in to the other days to try out another course or two, so I'll have to see how my plans come together.

For now, I'm chugging along and really getting amped up for this trip. It's so close yet so far away!
 
At just over a month out from my trip (40 days on the nose!), I'm starting to look over my selections. What I shouldn't have done is look at food selections on an empty stomach. I've written down a list of places to potentially add or swap to go try out for dinner or lunch, and that list started to get massive. Then it started to sound like a really, really good idea to set an ADR for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day. Plus snacks. It wasn't until my stomach made an awfully evil noise did I snap out of food hypnosis and get my head straight. That would be absurdly expensive and I'm not sure I could actually eat all of that food and still manage to walk around the parks. I think I'm back to normal now.

I just realized I have little time left until my MagicBand ships. Do I NEED another MB? Gosh no. I've practically got them coming out the wazoo, though I only have one of the new style, so of course I'm going to add another to the collection. I do wish there was an option to pay a slight premium and get something with a design on it, or even have a premium design that's exclusive to resort guests using the MDE site. I can hope, at least. I do wish they would produce an updated version of my favorite band with the Mickey sketch designs. It might be one of my favorite designs that have been released so far. I'd love to have it on the new style MB.

So, 40 days out and not a lot to add. I'm looking to add another meal at some point, and potentially another bit of golf. We'll see how it all goes. Can't wait to go!
 
At just over a month out from my trip (40 days on the nose!), I'm starting to look over my selections. What I shouldn't have done is look at food selections on an empty stomach. I've written down a list of places to potentially add or swap to go try out for dinner or lunch, and that list started to get massive. Then it started to sound like a really, really good idea to set an ADR for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for every day. Plus snacks. It wasn't until my stomach made an awfully evil noise did I snap out of food hypnosis and get my head straight. That would be absurdly expensive and I'm not sure I could actually eat all of that food and still manage to walk around the parks. I think I'm back to normal now.

I just realized I have little time left until my MagicBand ships. Do I NEED another MB? Gosh no. I've practically got them coming out the wazoo, though I only have one of the new style, so of course I'm going to add another to the collection. I do wish there was an option to pay a slight premium and get something with a design on it, or even have a premium design that's exclusive to resort guests using the MDE site. I can hope, at least. I do wish they would produce an updated version of my favorite band with the Mickey sketch designs. It might be one of my favorite designs that have been released so far. I'd love to have it on the new style MB.

So, 40 days out and not a lot to add. I'm looking to add another meal at some point, and potentially another bit of golf. We'll see how it all goes. Can't wait to go!


Yay for getting close! Being the foodie that you are, have you thought about picking a certain food item or drink and trying it at different places? As we are going during August heat, we are looking to take things slower and sit and relax more. We are going to go on a hunt for cheese plates!
 


Somebody has been a lazy slacker and hasn't updated this post in a while. Maybe they should get on it since their trip is only 9 days away! That's like... soon!

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At some point in the past two weeks, this showed up in the mail, which kind of surprised me. I kind of spaced the MagicBand portion of the trip and had just planned on using one of my old bands. At some point I was going to just decline the band all together, but I think I just ended up doing that in my head and not actually on the website. I do kind of wish that they would let you pick from the bands with a design at some kind of premium, but I'm still pretty happy with this band. it's taken me a bit to warm up to the new style of MagicBand, but I think I'm there.

This next week will end up being a lot of little prep work to get ready for the trip. At some point I do need a haircut and a good shave. The trusty Kia is due for an oil change and a nice bath. All of my typical shops will need to be done as well, like getting a nice stock of water and Gatorade for the room, as well as some snacky stuff. Really, it's all of the boring stuff.

I've been mulling over whether or not to dive into the crowds at Animal Kingdom and check out Pandora. I think part of the problem is that I have no real attachment to that universe. As visually appealing as the movie was, I really didn't care for Avatar. I'm sure that the Pandora area is beautiful, and have no doubt that it's incredibly well done, but my stubborn self prefers avoiding crowded areas as best as possible, even at Disney. Avatar doesn't feel like it has the pull to overcome that. Though, like every other trip, whether or not I end up at Animal Kingdom will have as much or more to do with which bus is has the fewest people in line when it's time to go park hopping.

As much as I've talked about potentially changing up my food choices, I've stuck to them. The restaurants all sound very good in my head. Cape May and The Wave were always going to be solid options, but I had worries about Liberty Tavern. I went through a period when the thought of eating a Thanksgiving style meal lost it's appeal. Thankfully (hah! puns!) I'm back on the wagon. This actually might be the meal I'm looking forward to the most so far. I (still) need to add a selection for my Thursday, but it will need to be a breakfast or lunch. I've got golf plans for the evening.

My love of golf has grown since starting not too long ago, and it has seeped into my plans a little more. The goal, which I think is fairly realistic, is to play at least three rounds. My Thursday night is booked for 9 holes at The Palms, and I would like to get out on Oak Trail and Lake Buena Vista too at some point. That would put all four of the Disney courses under my belt. I've left some gaps in my plans to give me an opportunity to set up a tee time for both courses, so it's definitely doable. I think some of my reluctance will be from what the weather is like. We've caught a fair bit of rain down here in South Florida, and it has been brutally hot most days. If that trend continues, my golf hopes will be on hold until another trip. I may enjoy golf quite a bit now, but I'm not so super into it that I'll play into a nice bout of heat stroke.

So, this slacker managed to get off his butt and do a proper update. More to come shortly.
 
The time is almost here, as tomorrow begins my Disney vacation! I've been looking forward to this all week, as work seemed to get longer and longer and stretch out into infinity. On Friday I packed for my trip. Yesterday I repacked. Today I'm going over any last minute things I may need for this trip. I've picked up some water and snacks for the room, and figured that now was as good a time as any to replace some socks that have seen better days.

Last night I added one more ADR, but it's going to depend on Hurricane Irma. I've been following this storm for some important reasons. Yes, being in a hurricane sucks, and as Harvey has just shown, it can really devastate an area. There are selfish reasons, like not wanting my vacation to be flooded out, but those are small things. One of the big things that I'm tied to is my work. I work in a hospital and we have teams that have to be there during and after a hurricane. For this year, I'm on the team that has to be there during the storm. It looks like Irma won't be near Florida until late Friday/early Saturday if it tracks towards Florida. In that case, I should be able to make it home in time to potentially be called in for hurricane duty. There are early indications that it may end up tracking in a more northerly direction and miss Florida. In that case I have an idea to extend my vacation a little bit.

So, the plan:
I've booked the Brunch at Narcoossee's. I was hoping to get the Brunch at the Top again, but it's all booked up for next weekend. I kind of thought that might be the case. Anyway, the brunch is outside of my current planned Disney stay. I'll be checking out on Friday (barring any hurricane changes) and will have to figure out other accommodations. I haven't booked anything yet because of the storm, but I've got a handful of places in mind that may fit the bill and will hopefully be available last minute. It's a bit of tight scheduling that may fall apart for a number of reasons, but should everything work out, I'll leave Yacht Club on Friday and check in elsewhere for a very laid back weekend that may end up being a day or two at Universal, though I haven't quite figured that part out yet.

These plans were slightly more solid earlier, but now I'm just in a holding pattern. Otherwise, my other Disney stuff continues on unchanged. I'm hoping for good weather, but there are worse things in the world than Disney in the rain. These fingers will be crossed for now!
 
Have fun....we will just miss you, we arrive on Saturday. Hoping that Irma doesn't slow you down.
 

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