Preparing for WDW 2017

So today marks the last day of 2016 and pretty looking forward to seeing the back of it. Not just because bad things happened but also because it means it's a step closer to my next trip to Walt Disney World and is now only 303 days away!

I booked this trip back in April 2016 when the free quick service dining promotion was on. Though this time round I made sure to pay £100 each to upgrade to the dining plan as I don't think I could do another year on the quick service dining plan. I will go into a bit more detail in another post about that.

We decided to go with Port Orleans Riverside and opted to upgrade to the Royal Guest Rooms. It was a bit more expensive than last year by opting this compared to Carribean Beach Resort earlier this year. It was on our dream list of Disney Resorts and we really wanted to do it because who doesn't want to sleep in a princess themed room?!?

stock photo courtesy of PortOrleans.org

This time round it's myself, Ant and my friend Sam who I've known for 18 years and previously been to Disneyland Paris with. She has also been to Walt Disney World and is dying to go back. The one way we can afford to go to Disney World is by sharing the rooms. It really does cut the costs down pretty significantly.

We are just got another week or so before Disney will allow us to book our flights alongside our holiday. We are hoping to go back with Virgin Atlantic as the experience this year was superb. We were offered drinks every hour or less, it was comfortable, the food was good and they made Halloween special. Whereas BA was just okay and only offered 2 drinks throughout the flight and I was thankful that I did take on board my own drinks.

We have timed it this time to make sure we do both Mickeys Not So Scary Halloween Party and Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party. Back on my first ever trip to Walt Disney World in 2015, I managed to do both and it was phenomenal. Just gutted Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights won't be around this time.

It's also really super quiet time to go to Orlando between these two times and even most attractions at Universal back in 2015 was either a walk on or 20 minutes maximum wait. Same could be said as well with the attractions in Disney apart from Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was around 40+ Minutes.

We are aiming this time round to go to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, sadly being hit with a redundancy and the terrible exchange rate due to Brexit made us have to forfeit the idea this year. Which I was gutted because I wanted a chance to finally ride Hulk as it was closed for the big refurbishment in 2015.

We have a few things that we have said we want to do this time round. Make sure to do at least 1 evening just at Polynesian. Probably start off at Trader Sams and go to Aloha (or vice versa). Get a brioche bun from French Pavillion in Epcot as it been on my list the past 2 trips to try. Get fastpasses for Frozen and the rides in the land of Pandora. Get a reservation at Skipper Canteen.

Those are probably the main things Disney based I've focused on so far. I will go through and sort out where we are planning to reserve to eat. Be Our Guest is the highest priority, as that is Ants favourite place on property and also we are hoping to do one of the dessert parties.

I will be updating and adding more stuff about this trip as the time gets closer. Sorry it's not super exciting, but I just want a place to track when I planned things etc.

Have a Happy New Year guys!

Chevi XxX