Thanksgiving 2014 trip report

Typing this as we fly home from 8 day trip. Love all the pre-trip planning help as well as help during the trip. Here are my thoughts for thanksgiving trip. It was me, DH, dd12 & ds9.

  1. We had booked preferred location at CSR w standard size room. But evidentially room we had booked was going to be closed for refurb. They upgraded us to 2BR villa at OKW. Wow. Loved the space and washer/dryer. However not crazy about length of bus time. Getting to and from parks was always quick and never waited long. But all the stops within the resort took awhile. We booked several meals at other resorts and that took forever. Regardless of where staying I wouldn’t do that many resort ADRs again without a car. We are too cheap to use taxi!
  2. The very best use of QS credit was Wolfgang Puck Express at DTD. (Make sure to go to market side location as Westside doesn’t have full menu). We rank it higher as far as quality as many of our TS. Bacon wrapped meatloaf was amazing. And I’m not even a meatloaf fan. Wow. I could dream about it!
  3. Best breakfast ever - H&V. Quality and variety was way better than 1900 PF in my opinion.
  4. Ate at via napoli. Some had asked if you can split a meal using TS. They did let us. Ds9 ordered off kids menu and dd12, DH and I split two adult credits. Plenty of food. We got the pizza that had cantaloupe and prosciutto. Unusual combo that we loved. Also pistachio ice cream had such a unique flavor.
  5. Marrakesh was nice as we like trying different food but didn’t “wow” us. Ask for the Moroccan mint tea. They serve it hot or cold. We liked the hot version and it counted as drink on ddp.
  6. ALWAYS hit RD unless your crew likes to close park down. We found it worked best to hit rd at one park using FPP for headliners in the morning. Then break at hotel for rest in afternoon. Evenings were spent in a different park focusing on their night activity. (ie - wishes, parades, illuminations).
  7. For us preferred doing ADR for dinner at park we hopped to or at a resort nearby.
  8. Debated forever between lunch or dinner at BOG. Had ADR for dinner and FPP for lunch up until a few days before. Picked dinner and so glad we did. Just made things more “magical” at night. Try their “natural fruit punch” for the included TS credit. Had this lemony froth on top. Steak was fabulous. And of course don’t miss the grey stuff!
  9. Made our FPP for msep the same night we did bog. Was a perfect night for us. We had seen the fireworks on a diff night. As soon as it was over ds9 and I went back to resort. DH and dd12 went over for one last btmrr and timed it perfectly for riding during wishes. She was so pumped that they did that. Prob most magical moment for her of the trip to have that special daddy time. Don’t forget to split up some. Our kids loved that individual attention.
    I loved having the FPP for parade as the pushing crowds can send me batty. But if you do FPP for parade or wishes - then RD is a MUST since you can’t have rolling 4th FPP. We did MK at RD until noon. Hopped over to contemp cafe for quiet QS lunch. Then back to room to rest until BOG dinner. Perfect day for us.
  10. In general I liked being able to book FPP in advance. Worked better at MK than the other parks.
  11. Got FPP for ds9&dh for test track. Dd12 & I had ours for soarin. But we still wanted to do test track also. she and I got in TT single rider line same time as they got in FPP line and we got through quicker.
  12. Take note if headliner is down for awhile earlier in the day in might mess up your FPP wait time later in the day as they still have to play catch up.
  13. Never had a wait for FPP kiosks in the parks. Found that trying to mess around w my FPP using iPhone app was a bad idea. I could easily see how to 'change attraction" but it didn’t let you see what time you were moving it to. Didn’t bring my laptop but did have kindle. My kindle interface worked great at night our when we wanted to see what we could change.
  14. If you have magic band - no need to tap your band to the ride photo kiosks. At first when we came out of ride we thought we had to find ours and tap band. Not necessary. It’s kinda creepy - but your band knows where you are and they get automatically linked.
  15. For frozen fans - right near the bus stop by DTD marketplace there is a wall w a painted mural of A&E ice skating. Photopass guy was there and we got a pic w dd12 ‘skating’ w them.
  16. Magic shots: at epcot somewhere near innovations we got one w Olaf.
    MK - animated one w luminarie on bridge by belles castle. Supposed to be animated one by space mountain w batmax but couldn’t find photo person. If they’re using tripod - no magic shot available. If not using tripod just ask what they have.
  17. For us - MVMCP was just not worth the $$. My kids are not late night touring people. And they don’t wait for M&Gs if longer than 15 min.
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It sounds like you had a great trip! Thanks for posting.

Excellent report and great advice. I may have to rethink my FPP selection for MK and use one for the parade once we’ve used up our 3 morning selections…

Great report - on number 14 - do you stop at the photo kiosk at all then?

We would just look as we walked by to laugh. It’s fun once you figure out where they take the pic to try and make funny face for the camera.

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@vpillers - typically the parade FPP are gone way before the trip. I wouldn’t count on that being one of your rolling 4th. We used 7dmt and A&E before noon. And then it was our third.

Nice report. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for sharing!