Long time no see

Evening everyone!

So sorry for the lack of communication. That paper for school was giving me all sorts of grief! But the first draft is written, which means I finally have time to give you an update!

First off, the packing templates are up and running. Head on over to the planning templates page. I'll explain how to use them tomorrow, but for now you can find them under "Long Form Packing List" and "Quick Cross-Off List."

Next up, is MNSSHP. My family's trip is this Friday (and we're totally excited)! I do have some information that I recently discovered. If you choose to print your tickets via the e-ticket option, but you still want to try for some fast passes (which you can't do with a printed ticket), you cannot change the ticket option later. In other words, if you printed you ticket then changed your mind about how your ticket is formatted, there really isn't much you can do. This is what I was told when I called to ask about it last week. HOWEVER, the person my husband talked to (yes, I had him call for me the second time) said that they give you a regular ticket at the ticket check place (where you present your ticket in order to enter). I'll let you know if that information is in fact true.

Ah, I've been planning so hard this week. That coupled with my brains inability to put sentences together for my paper have left me feeling more than a bit exhausted! Not to mention that tomorrow's my hubby's birthday AND that I have to finish my daughters costume in time for MNSSHP. There's a good chance that tomorrow night might be an all-nighter for me. Oh boy.

I probably won't have much of an update tomorrow, or Friday, but I'll try for something on Thursday. I also hope to have my review of MNSSHP up by Monday night.

Until then,

TTFN,
-Nikki

(From Alice to Zazu is now on Facebook! Come check us out: facebook.com/AlicetoZazu)

Restaurant to Attraction travel times are up!

Hey kids!

Alrighty, well today I have the restaurant to attraction travel times for Hollywood Studios ready for you. These always take the longest for me, but luckily there wasn't as much information to go through as there was for the Magic Kingdom.

My countdown to MNSSHP has dwindled down from 33 days to 7 days, and honestly, I'm not too sure where the time went (though when I first started the countdown, it felt like the time was never going to come). Today I'll be tracking the wait times during MNSSHP so that I get a better feel for who busy the 21st is going to be. I already made a 4th revision of my plans so tonight I'm just going to see how it all matches up. I'll probably make my final revision on Tuesday once I have those numbers.

Next week is going to be really, really crazy for me (paper for school is due, hubby's birthday, packing), so I will not be posting any travel times. The following week I should have Epcot's travel times done for you. I will, however, be posting the packing templates sometime within the next few days.

TTFN,
-Nikki


(From Alice to Zazu is now on Facebook! Come check us out: facebook.com/AlicetoZazu)

Incase you were wondering...

Good morning, Lovies!

Last night I mentioned that in preparation for my family's trip to MNSSHP I'm writing down and "analyzing" the wait times for the attractions we're interested in. I'm doing this so that I know, more or less, what to expect when we go. Last night was the first night of MNSSHP, and consequently, it's also one of the busiest nights (or so I've heard) in September. I'll be analyzing this upcoming Friday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday as well. Yes, I know that the party isn't hosted on Sunday and Monday, but I want to see the difference between the norm for non party nights vs. the norm for party nights.

Once I'm done, I'll show you my findings, but I'm just letting you know that I'm just doing the times for the attractions my family is interested in. as much as I'd love to have all the attractions represented, I just don't have the time to do that. But, if you want to look up a wait time for an attraction you're interested in and you have a smart phone, look up the WDW Maps (Free) app. It's fantastic. I can see the wait times from home. Another app that's good for finding out other information (fast passes and such) is the official Disney Parks app. It's Disney's own app for both the Florida and California parks. However, there are certain things they won't let you see unless you're in the parks. (I'll let you know what when we go).

I've also prepared a list of questions I'm going to ask while I'm there. These are questions that have come up while planning for the party that I haven't been able to find the answers for. My hope is to find out the answers and bring them to you.

Alright, that's all for now.

TTFN,
-Nikki

Hollywood Studios restaurant to restaurant travel times

Here's the last bit of info i promised for today. (and with 7 minutes to spare, too! Haha). It's the restaurant to restaurant (r to r) travel times for Hollywood studios. I'll be updating the Travel Times page tomorrow.

Until then, TTFN,
-Nikki

Busy, busy and now an update!

Well, I've been busy, busy, busy! I've been working on the attraction travel times for Hollywood Studios (with an update now and one later tonight). Needless to say this is a much easier park to make these charts for. (I'm dreading EPCOT...) I hope to have the restaurant to attraction times up by the end of the week. But for now, here are the attraction to attraction (a to a) times.

Today is also the first day of MNSSHP 2012. Yay! In preparation for our trip on the 21st, I'm looking up the wait times for the attractions we want to do. I'll be tracking for 6 nights to try to find some sort of pattern so that I can make my final itinerary. Here's what the wait times charts look like:

Anyways, I'll be back later with the restaurant to restaurant (r to r) travel times for HS.

TTFN,
-Nikki

MNSSHP 2012 Map!

Hey guys! Just a quick (but awesome) update.

The Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) map for 2012 is finally here! I was going to post the map after I got it this upcoming Tuesday (the first day of the event), but Disney beat me to it! I still plan on getting the map early and posting my scan of it this week, but for now, here you go!

Happy plannings!
-Nikki


(Note: The link above with the map is not mine. I'm simply pointing you in the right direction.) :)

The goodies I promised.

Hi everyone! Yesterday and today have been very busy over here getting everything together so that I could deliver it to you.

Today the itinerary templates are ready for you to use (head on over to the Planning Templates page for instructions)! Luckily for me (and you, too!), my husband is AWESOME at making things pretty using Adobe products, so now you have pretty templates to use. Yay! There's a color version and a printer friendly version of each. (The color example of one of the templates is shown on the right.)







I also have for you today the restaurant to attractions travel times! Man, oh man, did that one take me a while! But now all the travel times for the Magic Kingdom are up and running. Next up is Hollywood Studios. The first two batches of travel times should be up this week (though I'm not sure about the exact days yet). Something else coming this week is up-to-date maps of the parks, including (hopefully) the 2012 map for MNSSHP (which I'm SUPER excited about. Ha!).

Thats all I have for now. More goodies coming soon!


TTFN,
-Nikki

Hey guys! So sorry I haven't posted in the past couple of days! It's been a busy couple of days over here. However, planning templates should be up and running in a few hours and so should the restaurant to attraction travel times chart (man oh man are there a lot of numbers!).

In the mean time, it crossed my mind that while I sign off with "TTFN" that some of you may not know what that means. It stands for "Ta ta for now," and it's what Tigger says instead of "goodbye." I know, kind of silly, but it fits! :)

It also occurred to me that I haven't told you all when we're going to be going to MNSSHP. We're going on the 21st (only 13 days left!), and hopefully I'll be able to get my review of the evening out to you guys by Sunday (latest Monday). I'd have it sooner, but we're having a fun-filled family weekend with family and I don't do well with writing in a car. I will keep you as posted as possible during that time, though.

Ok, I'm going to go finish up the two goodies I promised you and I'll be back with another post later today!


TTFN,
-Nikki

Lookie what I found...

Well, today I came across a planning gem of mine from when we celebrated my daughter's second birthday last March. It's a version I ended up not using (see the double dinner reservation times? We weren't sure, yet, what time we wanted, or where).

This was from (total) day 3, day 2 of the Magic Kingdom which is why it kind of looks a little lacking of action. Looking back at this, and thinking about the itinerary I made for Hollywood Studios, I'm sure I'd laugh at how impossible my planning was. (Things look a lot closer on a map! Haha).  I'll be putting this template up sometime later this month along with some other useful planning templates.

Besides this, I really wasn't able to do much planning today (lots of school work), but I should be back on the ball tomorrow.

TTFN,
-Nikki

More travel times!

Hey kids. Today I have the travel times from restaurant to restaurant for the Magic Kingdom up and running. I was able to get these done faster since there isn't quite as many restaurants as there are attractions. Something to note, food carts are not included. I also will not be including merchandise carts. At least not for now. 

I also added a page for the travel times that has a little bit more information about them, so if at any time you find yourself needing to look them up, that page might be a simpler way to do it. Other than that, there really isn't much to report. Our trip to MNSSHP is coming up and I haven't made our packing list yet. Eep! I know that most people would probably ask, "Do you really need a packing list when you're just going to the event for one night?" The answer is, "It's up to you." It really depends on what your family's needs are and what your budget is. For example, we have a toddler who is still in diapers, so we'll need to bring some, along with an extra change of clothing, and water tends to be quite expensive at the parks, but since they allow outside food and drinks (and even coolers, though there are restrictions), we'll be bringing along our own water. 

Needless to say the packing list for a one night event won't be as extensively long as it would be for several days at the parks, but having one could be helpful. 

Anyway, I should  have some more fun goodies for you tomorrow.  :) 

TTFN,

-Nikki

Attraction travel times for the Magic Kingdom are here!

Sorry for the slight delay, guys. They took a bit longer to write out than expected and I had to figure out how I wanted them posted. (Thank goodness for hubbies who are more computer literate than you!) But now they're here and ready for you to view! As of right now I just have the travel times for the attractions at Magic Kingdom. The restaurants will come later this week. The times are done in minutes, but occasionally you'll see "<1," which means that the two attractions are only a few seconds away from one another. I'm providing a picture of the chart, but if you want to see a larger version, click on the image. Enjoy!

TTFN,
-Nikki


(Please do not republish my chart without my expressed, written consent.)

Sneak Peek

Just a quick post with a sneak peek of what you can expect in full tomorrow.

Attraction Travel Times. What on Earth am I talking about? Let me 'splain. Attraction Travel Time is the distance between two attractions measured in minutes. For example, Big Thunder Mountain is eight minutes walking distance from Astro Orbiter (on average, but I'll go into detail about this tomorrow). This kind of information can come in very handy when you're planning a trip to an event that is only 5 to 8 hours long, or even if you want to see if you'll make it to a character Meet and Greet on time.

I should have the Magic Kingdom times (at least for the attractions) up sometime tomorrow.

TTFN,
-Nikki