Reservations for Walt Disney World.

The Boardwalk at Twilight (Internet picture)

Our next trip to Walt Disney world is booked.  We have booked our favorite time of year and at the place where we have wanted to stay for some time now. Its hard for me to believe that I'm actually going to get to stay at the Boardwalk Villas.  We have reserved a studio there.  This includes a Queen sized bed and a double sleeper sofa with a standard view. I don't think we will see the pool or the boardwalk from our room but that is fine with me.  The advantages of staying at the Boardwalk villa's out weigh any lack of view.  The way my wife and I look at it, about all we are going to be doing in the room is sleeping.  The advantage of the Boardwalk Villa's is the location.   We will be just a short walk to EPCOT and the walk to Disney's Hollywood studios is only about 20 minutes boat service is offered to both parks from the Boardwalk. I suspect that we will take the boat to and from Hollywood studios. Our location is such that if we wanted too, we could take a combination of boats and monorails and never touch a bus to get to the Magic Kingdom. While Buses are available  from the Boardwalk  to all the locations except EPCOT and Disney's Hollywood studios, to get to the Magic Kingdom, we could take the boat to EPCOT World Showcase,  another boat to EPCOT future world, then the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.   We will probably do this when we aren't in any hurry to get to a particular location and we want the fun of using the monorail and riding the monorail is a big part of the fun of going to Walt Disney World.  A bus also runs from the Boardwalk Villas to the Magic Kingdom for the times when we are on a tighter schedule. Of course,  because of there is no connectivity to the Animal Kingdom on the monorail system and, its a bit further away than the other parks the only way to reach the Animal Kingdom from the Boardwalk Villas is by bus.

2010 Spreadsheet Reservation Numbers Removed to protect the innocent.

Planning a Disney Vacation, especially in the vast expanses of Walt Disney World can be pretty complex.   Visitors must weigh where they plan to eat against what events they plan to attend and what park they want to visit.  For example,  It doesn't bode well for the visitor that is staying at the French Quarter and going to the Magic Kingdom to eat at Mama Melrose's  watch Illuminations and then eat at Jiko's.  It could be done but most of your day would be spent on the bus.  Usually, We try to figure out what we want to see and do, then find out when its available.  Then we plan our park visits and meals accordingly. To illustrate the complexities of planning a Disney World vacation, On our upcoming visit we have planned this late November early December  we absolutely don't want to miss the Candlelight processional. Well,The Candlelight Processional is being held 3 times a day each day on the days we are In Disney World. We wanted one of the many Candlelight Processional Dinner packages because we get preferred seating to the Processional and access to the VIP section for viewing Illuminations.  So we started our search for restaurants that had packages available.  Our first choice was Le Cellier, a wonderful Steak House in EPCOT World Showcase. We found that Le Cellier had no reservations times available  for the Candlelight Processional Dinner packages for when we wanted to see the show on any day of our planned stay.  Later, we discovered that Le Cellier was only offering the Dinner Packages for the early show and only with lunch.  After perusing what Le Cellier was serving for their Candlelight processional lunch  package we were glad we decided to eat at Le Cellier on another evening. We found that that Tutto Itialia had packages for about the right time for us to attend the 6:30 showing of the Processional on the Thursday after we arrive.  Having never eaten at Tutto Itialia we decided that it would be fun to give that restaurant a try.  We made our reservations and confirmed our dinner package.  Because our dining and our special events were in EPCOT, we made EPCOT the park we plan to visit on Thursday.  There, wasn't that simple?  Fortunately, we put our plan into a spread sheet that lists where we are eating, what special events we want to do and what park we are visiting for each day of our trip.  As complex as some of these plans get, its good to have something in hand to keep it all straight.

Holiday Decorations At Epcot (Internet Picture)

One thing we have going for us is the fact that we are in Disney World for 7 nights.  The last time we stayed for a full week, We had plenty of time for almost everything we wanted to do.  Doing everything we want to do is very different than doing all the things there are to do at Walt Disney World.  On our last Christmas trip we did many things that we are not planning to do this time around.  In 2010 we did the Hoop Dee Doo review, an amazingly corny show, and the Pirates and Pal's Fireworks cruise.  We have done the Hoop Dee Doo twice and the Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise was fun but I was disappointed in the deserts.  I had anticipated much more sophisticated deserts and snacks that pretzels  peanuts and Little Debbie cakes in plastic wrappers. Getting out on the Lagoon and on Bay Lake was lots of fun. We got a close up view of the Electric Water Show.  The electric water show is one of the original presentations at Walt Disney world and has been around since it opened in 1971.  The show was dated and the music was compose performed on a Moog synthesizer, but even with all its age spots and wrinkles I found the Electric Water Show to be charming and somewhat nostalgic.   The people on the starboard side of the boat got a great view of the fireworks. We, of course, were on the port side but we had seen the fireworks earlier in the trip from Main street, USA in the Magic Kingdom so we were happy to let others have our place on that side of the boat.  Rather than spend the $54.00 it costs per person, we won't go on the Pirates and Pals and use the money for another special event. We haven't made the arrangements yet, but I believe that our little group will be enjoying a tour of all the parks and seeing what Disney Imagineers and Designers have done to Decorate the parks for the holidays.  Disney offers a guided tour of all the parks specifically to show off their Christmas decorations on their Yuletide Fantasy tour which is something it think we  would enjoy.  Also,  I've been on the Living with the Land attraction a number times and have been pretty fascinated by what they do there.  Maybe this time we will take the Behind the Seeds tour and get a closer look a all the research that is done in Aqua Culture and Hydroponics.

In addition to the tours we are discussing buying tickets to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.  Once again the debate has begun.  We have attended this event in the past and we had loads of fun.  It was neat to see snow in the middle of Florida and Disney provided hot chocolate and cookies through out the Magic Kingdom.  Disney limits the number of tickets to the Very Merry Christmas party so essentially people with tickets pretty much walk onto the best rides with very little wait. One of my favorite moments on our last Christmas visit to Disney occurred during the Christmas Party at the top of splash mountain.  Just before we plunged into the chilly abyss, we were treated to a view of Cinderella's castle that i can still see in my mind when I close my eyes to this day.  It was one of those perfect moments Disney visitors get to experiences from time to time and something I wrote about in an earlier post.  But, at the end of the day,  we still debate if the cost of the ticket is worth the extra benefits we get attending the Party. The cost of the ticket is nearly $63.00 per person making the cost for the three of us around $189.00.  I'm sure we will debate this for a while longer.  One of the contributing factors involved is the fact that when took a Holiday trip to Disney the last time, we had tickets for Christmas Party on the first day we arrived.  I thought that attending the party was a terrific way to get our visit to Disney world off with a bang.  This time, our plans delay our visit to the Magic Kingdom till Sunday.  We have reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table lunch at 2:20 that day.  I wonder, since we will be in the park earlier this time that we will get our fill of the Magic Kingdom before the party commences.  I suppose one way to insure that doesn't happen is for us to not go to the Magic Kingdom right at opening, perhaps riding any of the more popular attractions at the Christmas Party.

La Nouba Preforms here. (Internet Picture)

There might be more reasons to delay our arrival at the Magic Kingdom on Sunday.  My wife, kids and I went one summer on a single day trip to Downtown Disney when we were visiting my wife's aunt who lived in Clearwater at the time. During that visit we were lucky enough to score tickets the La Nouba, the Cirque de Soleil show that runs all the time in Downtown Disney.  It was one of the most amazing things I had ever had the good fortune to witness.  For those who haven't seen a Cirque de Soleil show before a little explanation might be in order.  Cirque de Soleil (Circus of the Sun)  uses no animals.  I was amazed at the athleticism of the performers at La Nouba.  Performers hang from curtains and fly over the audience   People use giant wheels to perform incredible stunts.   Trampolines and Bicycles are used in unimaginable ways.  There is even a section with a flying trapeze. Cirque de Soleil is the most athletic and physically taxing performance you are likely to witness eclipsing almost any sporting event I've seen.  We will probably buy Tickets to La Nouba for the Saturday night before we would be going to the Magic Kingdom.  Our commitment to diner at Le Cellier on Saturday prevents us from going to La Nouba at the 6:00 showing.  but Tickets to the 9:00 showing were still available at the time of my writing this post.  That would make for a late evening on Saturday making an early arrival at the Magic Kingdom the next day unlikely.  Of course sometime during the evening we will find a bite to eat at one of the restaurants at downtown Disney.  We will probably visit some of the shops in that area as well.

Well that's probably enough for this post. I'm sure that i will write more over the next 60 days or so before we go.  Also,  once we get to Disney world, I'll try to post some Pictures and comments while we are there. While the days exploring the parks and enjoying the food are loads of wonderful fun.  I take a lot of enjoyment helping my wife pull the plans together and writing a bit about what I know or guess about the upcoming trip.  I have said this before about my wife, but  without her, none of this would be possible.  She finds things that I would never guess.  She seeks out bargains that will save us a ton of money.  My attempts at finding bargains at Disney are almost laughable compared to what my wife finds.  I look forward to sharing another wonderful week in Walt Disney World with her.