As with most Disney trips, our original plans have changed about a hundred times. If you didn't see the last blog post then don't bother going back to read it (unless you really want, of course!) Our dining plans have changed quite a bit, our park days have changed, and even our resort plans are different. As of today, actually, Disney Vacation Club notified us that we had been granted our waitlist request for the Animal Kingdom Lodge (AKL) savanna-view room so we gave up our Deluxe Studio Preferred room at Saratoga Springs (SSR). I can't say I'm too upset about this change - after all, AKL was our first choice for the split stay - but I will be looking forward to a SSR visit in future trips.
Savanna View at Animal Kingdom Lodge (photo courtesy of Disney Parks)
After all that's been upended, here's where we stand with our next trip...
Dates: November 28 - December 4
Where: Polynesian Village Resort (November 28 - December 1) and Animal Kingdom Lodge (December 1 - December 4)
Quick Itineraries:
- Nov 28 arrive in Orlando at 4:30pm, dinner at Ohana
- Nov 29 brunch at The Wave, gingerbread house monorail tour, resort day at Polynesian, Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at Magic Kingdom 4pm to midnight
- Nov 30 (Hollywood Studios) Hollywood Brown Derby lunch
- Dec 1 brunch at Kona Cafe, checkout at Polynesian, head offsite to Disney's Character Warehouse, spend the afternoon at Disney Springs (snack at the Daily Poutine, Star Wars 4D experience at The Void, annual Christmas ornament shopping, and Christmas tree trail), dinner at Sanaa
- Dec 2 (Animal Kingdom)
- Dec 3 (Epcot) Nine Dragons lunch for candelight processional package, International Festival of the Holidays, Candelight Processional, Via Napoli dinner
- Dec 4 brunch at Boma, depart Orlando at 3:45pm
A quick note about the reservation process; we spent several months tracking airfare and had our hearts set on nonstop flights on Alaska Airlines. Unfortunately, the prices never dropped below $650/each so we started looking outside of our original search parameters. On a whim, we checked American Airlines and found first class tickets with one stop both ways for about $600/each! I'll keep tracking these trends for future trips but we're pretty excited to experience first class and to have meals provided on those long trips across the country. As a quick reminder, this is our first trip during the holiday season so that may be the reason for the expensive airfare. If the parks are decently slow then I'll probably consider paying these prices year after year as the tradeoff for empty park days would be totally worth the cost! TBD
