“October Surprise” (or ICOT25 Celebration) Pre-trip Report
As many of you know from my past trips, I like to post a pre-trip report a few days before my trip and then (lengthy) day-by-day reports, so, in the words of Peter Pan..."Here we go!!!!"
Trip Dates: October 11 – October 18
Resort: All Star Music
Transportation: Southwest Airlines, then Mears Connect to resort.
First off, the reason for the title to this series of reports…I activated an Annual Pass on my January trip and knew I wanted to make at least one more visit during the pass year, but was actually thinking of early December for the Christmas/Holiday season. When John started posting about ICOT25 in October, I decided to change it up and join in the celebration…SURPRISE!!!! LOL
In an unusual move for me, I am NOT taking the first flight out of BWI to Orlando. Taking a midday flight with arrival scheduled for a little after 2pm. Going to ‘ease’ into this trip as there are many things happening.
Initial plans were to go to MK after arrival and check in to ASMu, but this turns out to be a MNSSHP night, so I switched it out to be an EPCOT evening. Get a little Food and Wine Festival in early.
The INTERCOT 25th Celebration starts with a ‘mixer’ on the evening of the 13th and continues through the 16th, so I am not making any real definitive plans, except for Park Reservations for the 14th, 15th and 16th. In that I am not the most extroverted person in the world, we shall see how this works out. [It’s easy to SEEM extroverted on an ‘anonymous’ discussion board or social media site, but doing face-to-face meets are a bit different.]
The Plan:
Tuesday, October 11th: Arrival, then EPCOT for the evening.
Wednesday, October 12th: DHS for the ‘early entry’ and morning hours, followed by MK for the evening and “Disney Enchantment” fireworks.
Thursday, October 13th: EPCOT for the ‘early entry’ and morning hours, followed by a ‘rest’ break before going to Disney Springs for the “Hang out at the Hangar Bar” mixer.
Friday, October 14th: INTERCOT 25th Celebration ‘officially’ begins. MK is the ‘park of the day’ with a few ‘meet ups’ on the schedule. This is a MNSSHP night, so the park closes at 6pm. Meet up(s) listed for Steakhouse 71 Lounge and Trader Sam’s starting at 7pm.
Saturday, October 15th: Day 2 of INTERCOT 25 with AK being the ‘park of the day.’ This is the night of the ‘Ticketed Event’ from 4pm – 6pm, at Planet Hollywood, so a relatively short park day. I haven’t done a lot at/in Disney Springs, so this should give ample opportunity for exploration.
Sunday, October 16th: Day 3 of INTERCOT 25 with EPCOT being the ‘park of the day.’ This will be followed by an ‘Evening on the Boardwalk’ starting at Boardwalk Joe’s (after HarmoniUS!) (We shall see how much energy I have by this point of the trip! LOL)
Monday, October 17th: DHS for ‘early entry’ and morning hours, but nothing on my list for evening. A lot will depend on how my body feels at this point. My last couple trips had me ‘flagging’ after the 4th or 5th day. (‘Old, fat, and ugly’ doesn’t hold up well anymore. LOL)
Tuesday, October 18th: Departure Day! :( AK for ‘early entry’ and as long as I can hold up. I have a later flight, so Mears Connect won’t be picking me up at the resort until around 5:30pm. If I’m smart, I will leave AK somewhere around noon, go back to the resort and have a good swim to relax and cool down before heading home.
Something to note…All parks have had updated Park Hours, with each one opening earlier than expected. The BIG change is EPCOT, which is going from an 11am opening to 8:30am (‘early entry’ at 8am) I expect that this means that high crowd levels are expected. Will I need to buy Genie+ or will I be able to ‘wing it’ like I did in January? We’ll find out soon enough!
One more “SURPRISE” for me is that one of the people I worked with, who left the company a few years before I did, will be down for a conference at the same time, so we are going to try to ‘meet up’ ourselves sometime during the week.
For those of you who stayed with me through this ‘report’…Thank you! For those who I will meet during ICOT 25, bear with the idiot who will either be a ‘wallflower’ or try to talk your ears off. I don’t seem to have a ‘middle ground!’ LOL
Stay tuned for daily reports…if you dare!!! LOL
