The WDW Prep

We have not expected that a trip to Orlando requires so much planning. Thus, started off our prep with the following checklist.

1. Air tickets

Besides the American airlines, not many airlines fly to Orlando. We shortlisted these routes:
United Airlines : SIN-TOKYO-HOUSTON-ORLANDO
Singapore Airlines : SIN-FRANKFURT-NEW YORK and thereafter via JetBlue to ORLANDO
Emirates : SIN-DUBAI-NEW YORK-ORLANDO
Virgin Atlantic : SIN-LONDON-ORLANDO

 

We favoured the Virgin Atlantic as it is about 12 to 13 hours each leg. Moreover, it’s a code share with Singapore Airlines from Sin to LHR. The only downside is we will have to do an airport transfer. We will have to land at London Heathrow Airport and transfer to Gatwick airport to board the flight to Orlando.

After reading more reviews, we realised that the International terminal in Orlando airport is not as efficient as the Domestic terminal. The custom and TSA clearance is slow as compared to other airports like JFK where they handle large volumes. They are also understaffed. Depending on your luck, should three A380s land at the same time, it could take you 2 to 3 hours to clear. There is also  a flight of stairs (no escalators) you will have to conquer with all your luggage.

We were constantly checking airfare promotions and visited NAFA fair in March but there was nothing to entice us to book it just yet as most promotions would require you to fly out of Singapore before November. We are not able to commit to that date as Jarod has to attend a leadership training camp in November in order to get his red shirt status. The camp dates are not known yet. We are more comfortable working with December dates.

As we approached April, we could not procrastinate further as I would explain why later in my Dining post.

We had originally settled on Emirates but decided to take a look at another Middle East carrier – Qatar Airways.

To our surprise, we found a very good deal from Singapore to New York which enables us to fly in December. The only catch is that we can only depart New York on Christmas Day. Since we do not celebrate Christmas, we did not mind spending it on board an aircraft. We booked it immediately thinking, after all it’s the World’s no. 1 airline, why not?

This is our itinerary : SIN-DOHA-NEW YORK and thereafter via Jetblue to Orlando.

Since we are flying using two tickets – Qatar and Jetblue, in order not to miss the international flight on our return which will be quite detrimental, we decided to fly out of Orlando on 22 December and spend 3 days in New York.

This will be our first time travelling with a Middle Eastern airline. We are also hoping that the new Hamad International Airport in Doha opens on time as the current airport is really small.  Hope it turns out well.

 

2. Hotel 

We will be doing both onsite and offsite Disney resort stays.

Offsite – Drury Inn & Suites Orlando

For our offsite stay from 3 Dec to 12 Dec, we will be at Drury Inn & Suites Orlando. This hotel is ranked no. 2 in Orlando by TripAdvisor. Room comes with 2 Queen size beds which caters to our need. It also offers many extras like  free hot breakfast and free Kickback® from 5.30 pm where the menu features a variety of hot food, including chicken strips, macaroni & cheese, hot dogs, baked potatoes, broccoli cheddar soup and more! There’s also freshly popped popcorn and refreshing beverage in the lobby from 3 to 10 pm. And of course free wireless internet to stay connected which we cannot do without. The most attractive part of this deal must be the price. We are getting all these at only USD 89.90 per night before taxes! It’s a steal!

Onsite – The Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside

We will be staying onsite at a Disney resort from 12 Dec to 22 Dec at The Royal Guest Room at Port Orleans Riverside. There are some perks associated with staying onsite Disney resorts. Resort guests enjoy complimentary parking and transportation throughout Walt Disney World and Extra Magic Hours which is extended park hours at a park a day. Resort guests also get to book advance dining reservation 180 days +10 days in advance. This is especially useful to snag a very popular ressie at Be Our Guest restaurant. The restaurant is usually fully booked at 180 days mark when it opens at 6am eastern time. The other advantage is you can book all your ressie at 180 day mark and up to 10 days ahead instead of booking them day by day.

Disney has in the past several years  offered Free Dining for selected dates, especially the week after Thanksgiving which is usually low crowd week. We were hoping that our stay would coincide with the free dining offer which will cost USD 55.59 per pax per day. However, the offer will not be known till late July / early August. The good thing about Disney is you can proceed to reserve a room with a deposit of USD 200 and balance only payable at 45 day mark. Whenever a promotion comes up, you can call Disney and apply the promotion to your reservation.

Details of the Free Dining Plan – Get a free dining plan when you purchase a non-discounted 6-night/7-day Magic Your Way package (includes room and theme park tickets). Enjoy one quick-service meal, one table-service meal and one snack per person, per night of your stay. Table-service meals can be redeemed for Character Dining, Signature Dining and dinner shows. Plus, each person in your party gets a Resort-refillable drink mug.  The number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited.

Our initial plan  was to stay onsite from 3 Dec to 11 Dec, visit WDW parks and thereafter move to Drury for our remaining stay for the other activities. Sometime in July, there were leaks on the Disboards that the free dining dates will not be offered for the week after Thanksgiving. It will however be available from 12 Dec to 22 Dec. We thus have to either stay with our current reservations and pay out of pocket for our dining or shift our plans to enjoy the free dining offer but we will have to get Ashley to agree to only visit WDW parks 9 days after we arrived at Orlando. To our surprise, she did! We managed to secure a booking for the Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside Garden View for our stay from 12 Dec to 22 Dec which was our preferred choice with free dining.

We also upgraded Ashley to adult dining plan by paying for the difference in price between child and adult theme park ticket price which works out to USD 20 for a 10 day Magic Your Way base ticket. Without the free dining, it would cost us USD 450 to do so.

The Royal Room as the name suggests, is a princess themed room. These recently refurbished rooms boast regal touches from Tiana and her prince and princess pals. There were special mementos left by Tiana’s royal friends from classic Disney animated films such as Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. For example, the bathroom faucets are in the shape of the genie’s lamp from Aladdin and the luggage bench is in the shape of Sultan, the dog that was turned into a bench in Beauty and the Beast. And the rug is actually Aladdin’s magic carpet. The highlight of the room is the ornately decorated beds and headboards that glitter with fibre optic lights, creating your own personal “fireworks” display.

Ashley is really looking forward to this stay and so are we!

3. Dining

We have dedicated much of our prep on dining. Jarod is not a Disney person but he is a foodie. He must have inherited this from us.

The something  unique about Walt Disney World must be the various themed and character dining options available at all the theme parks, resort hotels and Downtown Disney. The restaurants at other Disneyland – Anaheim, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong could not match up.

The Disney Dining Plan comes with one one quick-service meal, one table-service meal and one snack per person, per night of your stay, plus one resort refillable drink mug per person. One quick service or one table serice entitles you to one entree, one dessert and one non-alcoholic drink or one full buffet.

We have upgraded Ashley to adult dining plan by paying for the difference in price between child and adult theme park ticket price which works out to USD 20 for a 10 day Magic Your Way base ticket. Without the free dining, it would cost us USD 450 to do so. The selection on the child menu is usually very limited so Ashley now has the option to order from the adult menu. If she prefers the items on the child menu which usually costs around USD 5 for Quick Service to USD 8 for Table service, we will pay for it out of pocket. The extra dining credits can be used towards dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table which requires 2 credits.

Most restaurants accept reservations and are open for booking 180 days prior to your visit. It’s crazy but it’s true, Singaporeans are less kiasu in this respect. Some restaurants are fully booked once booking opens at 180 day mark. The hardest ressie to snag is Be Our Guest Restaurant where you get to dine at the Beast’s castle and get to meet the Beast. The theming is very good with 3 dining areas – The Ballroom; Belle’s Library and The West Wing. We had been monitoring ressie for this and realise that we will not be able to snag a ressie unless we are resort guest which will allow us to book the next 10 days ahead at our 180 day mark.

Ashley was very much into Beauty and The Beast and she loves Belle. If we have to get only one ressie, this will be the one! This explains why we expedited the purchase of our air tickets so that we can start planning the resort stay reservation.

There are simply too many restaurants that we will like to try and we have narrowed them to those below:

Princess Storybook Dining Lunch at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall – Epcot

Chefs de France – Epcot

Teppan Edo – Epcot

Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Harvest Feast Dinner at The Garden Grill – Epcot

Tomorrowland’s Terrace Dessert Party with reserved seating to watch Wishes Nighttime Spectacular – Magic Kingdom

Mama Melroses Lunch Fantasmic with reserved seating to watch Fantasmic! Nighttime Spectacular
– Disney’s Hollywood Studio

T-Rex – Downtown Disney

Be Our Guest Restaurant – Magic Kingdom

Fairytale Dining at Cinderella’s Royal Table – Magic Kingdom

‘Ohana Dinner – Disney’s Polynesian Resort

The Wave – Disney’s Contemporary Resort

Tusker House Lunch – Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Cinderella’s Happily Ever After Dinner at 1900 Park Fare – Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

Whispering Canyon Cafe Dinner – Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

Chef Mickey’s Fun Time Buffet Dinner at Chef Mickey’s – Disney’s Contemporary Resort

For our quick service credits, we are likely to use them here:
Pizza Planet – Disney’s Hollywood Studio
Studio Catering Company – Disney’s Hollywood Studio
Be Our Guest Lunch – Magic Kingdom
Pinocchio Village Haus – Magic Kingdom
Columbia Harbour House – Magic Kingdom
Earl of Sandwich – Downtown Disney
Wolfgang Puck Express – Downtown Disney
Riverside Mill Foodcourt – Port Orleans Riverside
Contempo Cafe – Disney’s Contemporary Resort

   Snack Credits

You can redeem a snack credit on any item with the above logo off the menu. While it can get you the usual box of popcorn, Mickey’s premium ice cream bar or bottled water, we have found interesting items which we plan to redeem for like Starbucks’ Frappuccino Blended Beverage and these below:

Click on the ice cream sandwich to view more snacks

We wonder if we have enough snack credits?

The sweetest part of all is that we are getting to dine at all these restaurants for FREE!

There are other restaurants offsite that we will like to try as well:

The Cheesecake Factory
Five Guys Burgers
Hard Rock Cafe
Lombard’s Seafood Grille + Dessert Buffet with exclusive viewing area for Universal Studio’s Cinematic Spectacular
Joe’s Crab Shack
Ihop
The Medieval Times Dinner Show
Sharks Underwater Grille at Seaworld
Olive Garden
Forgo De Chao
Abracadabra Ice Cream
Savion’s Place
Longhorn Steakhouse
Texas Roadhouse

Last but not least, our all time favourite – Krispy Kreme!

 

4. Car Rental

We have planned not to have a car during our stay at POR resort as there is transportation within the whole WDW and transfers to and from airport via Magic Express. We’ve also read reviews that what take you normally 10 to 15 minutes of travel will take you at least an hour by bus. That means you will be spending time unnecessarily on the road. On top of that, you will be battling with huge crowds at theme park closing to board a bus back to the resort. Since it is holiday. we definitely do not wish to get frustrated with the transportation and will enable us to travel from place to place with ease. We can also store spare change of clothes in the car in case we need it. As resort guests, parking is also free throughout WDW.

We checked around and decided to have a rental car throughout our stay as we could get very good rate with ZA’s corporate plan with Hertz. We compromised a more exotic car for a full sized sedan which we booked for 3 weeks at USD 600+ with insurance.

With the air tickets, hotels and car rental booked, we are all set. The countdown begins!