Time flies when you are counting every single day – NOT 😊. 80 days to Disney World… OMG, I just can’t wait. At this point I thought I owed you an 80 days to Disney World update on where things stand with our planning.
When I last left you, we had our dining reservations done (or so I thought), and two special events booked in – Wanyama Safari and Fantasmic! Dessert & VIP Viewing Experience.
If you may recall, I was planning to book another couple of dessert parties too – the Star Wars dessert party at Hollywood Studios and Frozen ever after dessert party at Epcot.
Since then, changes have been made to the Star Wars dessert party. I took the time to read the DISboard’s thread for the event, and made an executive decision to forgo this event. We are not really hard core Star Wars fans. There have been good changes, such as seating option during the party, but also not so good changes, especially changing most of the speciality desserts. After weighing in the cost for the event, I decided to leave this one for our next trip. I mean, you always have to leave something to look forward to on your next trip. 😉
Links to the thread and the pics from the new event setting are below:
Official star wars galactic spectacular dessert party
As for the Frozen Ever After dessert party, well, this one isn’t one we want to miss out on. I have literally been stalking the Disney World site, awaiting release of the January dates for the event. We only have a couple of possible dates we can attend the event, so fingers crossed… This is one of the more popular events, and tickets seem to run out pretty fast. It’s a bit like securing your reservation for Be Our Guest dinner – ‘You snooze – You loose’.
Early Morning Magic Toy Story Land
In the meantime, I’ve been watching my Disney World Vlogs, and discovered Disney launched a new event – Disney Early Morning Magic at Toy Story Land.
What is this new event all about?
Early morning magic has been running for some time now at Magic Kingdom. Now that Toy Story Land has opened, Disney saw an opportunity to cash in on the demand for the Land. For $79 for adults and $69 for kids, you are let in to Toy Story Land, as part of a limited group. During the event you can enjoy the Land’s rides and meet with characters from 7:30 am until ninish. Breakfast at ABC Commissary is also included.
To start with, there were great reviews. That changed slightly when Disney opened another time allocation for the event, doubling the number of people let in. But even during the busier events, visitors were still able to ride all three Toy Story Land’s rides at least three to four times, including meeting some of the characters.
I read the reviews, saw a couple of Vlogs, and as soon as it opened up for January bookings, I locked us in.
California Grill
Meanwhile, I managed to make another couple of unplanned bookings.
I’ve been eyeing the brunch at California Grill for weeks now. It was something I discovered after locking in our dining reservations. California Grill, as a whole, was a restaurant I didn’t really look at. All our previous trips were on the dining plan, and we didn’t do signature dining. But this time I wanted to experience something more. Anyway, I read the trip reviews on Disboards, and decided to go for it.
Set only on Sundays (we are in Orlando 3 Sundays all together), it is practically impossible to get a reservation for the brunch. To start with, there was no availability. I tried every day, several times, with no luck. But after my past experience with Be Our Guest, I didn’t give up. And lo and behold, a couple of days ago, performing my daily check up, an opening appears, for 10:15. Shocked me booked it as fast as I could. Only problem, that was the morning we were going to Ohana for breakfast. Well, long story short, juggling a couple of resi’s around, we now have our coveted California Grill brunch reservation, and we still have a breakfast booked at Ohana. I did have to cancel our Kona Cafe breakfast though.
I don’t know if I mentioned this, but this trip is a very special trip for us. One of the things we are celebrating is our 25th wedding anniversary. So, my husband and I decided to give ourselves at least one night out, a special date to celebrate this event. And what could be better than dinner at California Grill? Good food and a romantic Happily Ever After special viewing, what more could we need? But reservations aren’t easy to come by, especially when there are only four months to go. I was looking for a Sunday night reservation, during our Universal Studios stay. Don’t know how, but I managed to get us a reservation on my first try. Sheer luck, I suppose, knowing how popular this restaurant is.
What next?
At this point, the 80 day mark, there is really little left to do. First, as mentioned, I am waiting for Frozen Ever After Dessert party to open up for booking in January. And second, counting the days to the 60 day mark. I’m dying to book our Fastpasses already. I’m especially excited to book our Flight of Passage Fastpass.
One more thing I plan to do at the two month mark is to make an order of water bottles, energy bars and a few other bits and bobs from the Garden Grocer, and have them delivered and waiting for us when we arrive at our resort – Art of Animation.