2015 Planning Disney Parks, Cruises, Universal & NY - Did I forget anything? **We're here! Upd 02/01

[lffam]

I got an email from Loews Hotels today, with a promotional PIN. I called up and got a further $USD65 per night off our Hard Rock Hotel Club room. Bonus!

 

[Zosha]

How did you get the email from Loews? Is it something that you can sign up for?

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Lucky you!

 

[lffam]

How did you get the email from Loews? Is it something that you can sign up for?

I am a member of their loyalty program. Free to sign up. they send out lots of promos, though this is the first one I've ever got that was personalised. I had to give them the PIN code that was on the email and it is linked to my loyalty account. I had to call up to do it, couldnt do it on line. Was a good deal

 

[Zosha]

Cool. I'll sign up and cross my fingers LOL

 

[lffam]

Cool. I'll sign up and cross my fingers LOL

good luck!

 

[lffam]

I just booked Candlelight Dinner Procession Dining package. We already had an ADR at the Garden Grill for the Sunday. As luck would have it I could book the Dining Package, albiet at an earlier time which gave us the 8:15 show. We have never seen this before, so it will be a new experience. The Narrator for this day is Meredith Vieira.

 

[ColinA]

I just booked Candlelight Dinner Procession Dining package. We already had an ADR at the Garden Grill for the Sunday. As luck would have it I could book the Dining Package, albiet at an earlier time which gave us the 8:15 show. We have never seen this before, so it will be a new experience. The Narrator for this day hasn't been announced yet.

Sunday the 13th for you. We are booked to go to MVMCP that night. We have booked for the 5pm of Candlelight Processional on Monday 28th with lunch at Chef de France. Keep in mind seating starts 30 minutes before the time and I would line up long before that to get good seats.

You will enjoy the Processional.

 

[lffam]

Sunday the 13th for you. We are booked to go to MVMCP that night. We have booked for the 5pm of Candlelight Processional on Monday 28th with lunch at Chef de France. Keep in mind seating starts 30 minutes before the time and I would line up long before that to get good seats.

You will enjoy the Processional.

thanks for the advice Colin. I wasn't sure if we would have to go early but but clearly we will. I thought the narrator was still TBC but I read it wrong on the disney site, its Meredith Vieira .

We dont think we are going to do MVMCP this time.

 

[lffam]

The only two ADR's that we did want to get were for Be Our Guest and Dining with an Imagineer. I am not sure if they book out incredibly fast or if they haven't released yet as every day for either lunch or Dinner shows nothing available.

 

[LivingforDisney]

I got Bog lunch and Bog dinner in different days in Dec.
In fact when I did my adr's 180 days out , I got everything I wanted, even hard to get ones.

 

[lffam]

I got Bog lunch and Bog dinner in different days in Dec.
In fact when I did my adr's 180 days out , I got everything I wanted, even hard to get ones.

Oh well I guess we will still have something new to do on our next trip,after this one LOL!

 

[ColinA]

Oh well I guess we will still have something new to do on our next trip,after this one LOL!

You could start planning the next trip to fit those in.

Sometimes dining places are not released on the 180 days and you need to keep trying. Mama Melrose is one of those, my DW has only got those today. I would think MM was a problem this year as it is one of the Fantasmic packages. Sometimes the dining places in a resort are not loaded at the 180 days and you need to keep trying.

Be Our Guest should be able to book at the 180 days but need to get in quick as it is still new.

 

[lffam]

I found this ADR cancellation thread and as luck would have it there was someone cancelling BOG which suited my dates. I PM'd the member and further luck would have it they contacted me while I was online, so within 15 mins we had coordinated , they cancelled ADR and I picked it up. woohoo Might go buy a lotto ticket tomorrow!

 

[lffam]

Booked my flights from LAX to MCO this week. Virgin America is our USA domestic airline of choice and it helps being able to family pool status credits to my Velocity FF account. 121 days today till we leave

 

[lffam]

Has anyone stayed in the LA Live area, around the Staples Centre ?https://goo.gl/maps/zOTxQ We normally stay in Hollywood at Loews which is adjacent to Hollywood Boulevard, but we thought we would try somewhere else. We have done the Hollywood area a couple of times so a change would be good. We are looking at one of the Marriotts in the LA Live area.

 

[lffam]

I forgot to update I bought our Radio City Christmas Spectacular tickets. I had signed up to their mailing list and got a promo offering tickets without the booking fee which was $25 per ticket so was nice bonus. We also booked a backstage tour. Because of the backstage tour tickets we couldn't do print at home tickets so have to pick up at Radio City in person.

I want to finalise our New Years Eve function/venue in the next couple of weeks. We have a shortlist but I am still looking at other possibilities .

 

[lffam]

It's been a while since I've updated our progress. 49 days today till we leave ..woohoo!!!

We booked our New York , New Years Eve event, which was difficult to decide but in the end we chose the Brooklyn Diner.

Our booking window opened up for both the Cruise check in excursions etc and this afternoon, Fastpass+ opened up. I have done our cruise check-in which was new given its our first cruise. We are not to sure with the port excursions yet, I hadn't really done much research prior so might have to do some ore just be happy to wing it. I did go on to see if we could book a cabana at Castaway Cay. I logged on about 4/5 hours after it opened and they were all gone. They were quite expensive anyway (circa $US600) so not sure I would have booked on even if there was one available.

Disneyland dining has opened up also, but I haven't booked anything their yet. Last time we went to DL (2010) we didn't really do any planning and didn't have too much trouble. I think the only place that we wanted to get into that we didn't was The Story Tellers Cafe and Grand Californian so might do that. Do many here book DL dining in advance?

I've done a few fastpass+ bookings today on various days. I do find this a bit difficult doing so far in advance as we like to be a bit more fluid with our plans but I'[ve got some FP+ for some of the big ones booked now so we will work around them.

Really cant wait for the 49 days to pass now !!

 

[Zosha]

Wow, time is flying - exciting!

 

[lffam]

Has anyone done any Wedding renewal Vows in New York before? I am thinking of surprising DW with something for our 15 years. I am sure there would be something we could do inCentral park but just looking to see if anyone might have had any experience with it before i start to dig in with some research?