Time To Start Planning!

My much anticipated Walt Disney World Annual Pass Exchange Certificate arrived in the mail today! I had ordered it last Monday for my upcoming December trip. Its arrival means I can really start planning the rest of the trip - booking a room, arranging flights, etc.

I'm not used to doing all this so early; usually I book about a month out from when I plan to travel. However, when I tried that for my trip last December, I was unable to get a reasonably priced room (like one much less than a few hundred dollars per night) at a Disney resort for the days that I wanted. This year I decided to book early and prevent that from happening again.

After some difficulties logging into the Passholder web site with my Exchange Certificate (the trick seems to be to enter only the last 4 digits of the last group of numbers), I managed to snag a room at the passholder rate of $59/night. Next step is to book my flight. I have to decide whether I want to drive all the way up to Albany Airport just to use a Southwest credit from last year, or fly on JetBlue from the much more convenient Stewart Field.

I've also begun my list of new "Must See's" (in no particular order):

• The refurbished Haunted Mansion;


• The new Golden Dream montage in The American Adventure;


• "National Treasures," the new American Heritage Gallery exhibit;


• The new "O Canada!" movie;


• The Gran Fiesta Tour in the Mexico Pavilion;


• The refurbished Spaceship Earth (including the new Project Tomorrow post show);


• The Muppet Mobile Lab [Update: this is only at Epcot for a couple of weeks, after which it will be shipped to Hong Kong Disneyland. Maybe I can catch it there next year!];


• The Laugh Floor Comedy Club;


• The Country Bear Christmas Special (rumor has it that it will be back);


• Finding Nemo, The Musical (so I can take photos this time);


• Dream-Along With Mickey (to see the new articulated faces).

Any other suggestions?