January 2018 Disney Planning — Pink Glitter Pumpkins

It is that time of year again when mom and I go on our annual girls' trip. We bought a Disney World Annual Pass last year, so it only made sense to do Disney again. All of the cold weather at home almost makes me wish we did a cruise, but it really didn't make much sense. Plus, I am not sure I can be away from Melody quite that long yet. Below is all of the planning that went into this year's trip!

Dates

When mom and I were starting to plan this trip back in late October, we discussed the idea of taking Melody. I really wanted to take her because I knew that is something that my mom would love. However, I really wasn't sure how the trip would be just the three of us. I knew that it might require a lot of work, so I wasn't entirely sold on the idea. We decided to book the trip assuming she was going with us, but we would make our final decision when I returned from our December Disney trip.

With that said, mom was having surgery early December. We wanted to make sure she was cleared from her recovery on the dates we picked. After surgery, she had to wait at least 6 weeks to lift anything greater than 10 pounds. Melody is over double that, and I knew she would require some holding in lines and such. My mom would be cleared around January 22. We decided to pick a weekend in case we opted not to take her. That would allow Brad to miss minimal amount of work so that he could watch her. I gave Brad the option between two set of dates. I did this so that it would better suit his work schedule. He picked the last weekend in January to be best. So our final dates picked were January 26-29.

Hotel

We made the decision on a hotel mid-November. Since we already had our annual pass, we knew this trip would be relatively cheaper than past trips. So I made the decision for us to stay in a moderate or deluxe resort. We always stay value to save money, but this time we had room to spend a little more if we wanted. Luckily there was an AP discount for the dates we were going, so that helped with cost too. We ended up picking Port Orleans - French Quarter. I have always wanted to stay at this moderate resort, and money-wise it made the most sense. It was going to be quite a lot more to stay deluxe, so we kind of ruled those out. Coronado Springs and Caribbean Beach both are under construction. With it being just mom and me, I had no desire to stay in the cabins. And we both have already stayed at Riverside. So French Quarter made the most sense.

Tickets

As I mentioned above, we bought annual passes last year, so we didn't have to buy tickets this year. I also doubt we will renew our annual passes. We don't plan on going back until next January at best, so it really doesn't make sense! But we will see.

Transportation

Mom and I opted to fly since we were only doing Disney. We were only staying 3 nights, so we wanted to maximize our time. And if we took Melody, it would be easier to fly with her since it was just the two of us for a short time. We booked a Delta flight out of Huntsville with a layover in Atlanta. Unfortunately, Huntsville does not offer any direct flights to Orlando these days. Our flight on Friday left Huntsville at 5:30 am, but we landed in Orlando by 10:30 am. This would give us plenty of time to do things at Disney on Friday including lunch. Our flight home left Orlando at 4:30 pm, and we would get home at 7 pm. This still gave us some time to do a few last minute things at Disney, but I would get home in time to see Melody before she went to bed.

Dining Reservations

I made several dining reservations as usual. Of course, I only kept the ones we actually planned to use. I changed them frequently as needed, but below are the final ones we used.

Friday: Beaches and Cream - 6 pm
Saturday: Be Our Guest - 8:15 am; The Plaza Restaurant - 11 am
Sunday: Garden Grill - 8:40 am; Teppan Edo - 12:30 pm; Hollywood Brown Derby - 5:30 pm

Fastpass+

Just like our dining reservations, I changed up our Fastpasses quite a bit leading up to our trip. A few days pretty much stayed the same however. Check them out below.

Friday (this one changed a few times)

Living with the Land - 12:45 pm
Soarin' - 1:55 pm
Spaceship Earth - 3:05 pm

Saturday (this one never changed because we wanted to do Flight of Passage)

Kilimanjaro Safaris - 5:05 pm
Flight of Passage - 6:30 pm
Dinosaur - 7:30 pm

Sunday (this one didn't change)

Living with the Land - 9:35 am
Frozen Ever After - 1:20 pm
Spaceship Earth - 2:30 pm

Monday (this one wasn't set in stone because we weren't sure what we would be doing)

Kilimanjaro Safaris - 10:05 am
Flight of Passage - 11:50 am
Dinosaur - 12:50 pm

Touring Plans

I did make touring plans for three of our days. I did not make one for Monday because I wasn't entirely sure where we would end up. I simply made Fastpasses at Animal Kingdom since it is the hardest to get just in case. I also knew we may go to Hollywood Studios Friday night after dinner. We had dinner reservations at Beaches and Cream. Lastly, we thought about potentially going back to Magic Kingdom Saturday night since they were open to midnight. I did not include any of those things though.