"Is it September yet?" My first PTR :)

[Symphony]

Hello and welcome to the Pre-trip report for our much-anticipated September 2010 trip to WDW. This trip was booked way back in May last year so we’ve had a while to get excited and save save save.

I'm fairly new here so this is my first ever report so hope I don't make too bad a job of it, really I'm putting it here as my space to get excited so without further ado I shall introduce you to my family.

Me, Debbie (23)
Student at Glasgow University Studying Primary Education.
This will be my 7th time visiting WDW as a guest (I did the International College Programme summer ’06 but I don’t count that) my first three trips were offsite then we stayed in POR and fell in love. Did a land and sea package with CBR and the DCL but for our last trip we were back in POR. My dad just adores it and so do I. We just love walking through those grounds at night so peaceful.
I have visited WDW, Disneyland Paris, Disneyland, Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Disney Sea. So as you can see I am Disney obsessed, my old nickname in school used to be Debbie Disney.

DBF, Sean (23)
Works for Scottish Southern Energy (electricity crowd in my neck of the woods).
This will be his first ever trip! He doesn’t know what to expect but is finally getting very excited. I’m hoping that this trip will be the first of many we take together and that he loves the place just as much as I do. Not only is this his first trip to WDW but it’s his first holiday ever so he’s excited about that.

Also going on this trip are:

My mum and dad

This will be their 9th time at the World and are big kids at heart. They’ve enjoyed trips to the World, Disneyland Paris and Disneyland but of course WDW is their absolute favourite. Both are hard workers and very much looking forward to this trip although nobody is as excited as me.

When, Where we are staying and Why

We will be staying at Port Orleans Riverside for this trip. The initial plan for this trip was gonna be me, mum and dad going out for my dad’s 50th birthday in December. Well, we’ve done New Years in Disney once before and while it was lovely it was rather expensive so after pricing a few different dates we settled on September 1st -15th. We picked these dates because it meant I didn’t have to worry about slotting the trip around University and it then turned out we got a great deal! Flights from Glasgow to Gatwick and back, Flights to and from Orlando, 14 nights in POR, 14 days for the price of 7 Disney tickets and free QSDP which we upgraded to DDP just to try it out really after a recommendation from a friend. It was a very good deal as I recently priced this trip a few months back and the price we’re paying for it would only have gotten us the hotel and the Gatwick to Florida flights.

So it was originally only going to be our family and then mum said “Hey why don’t you take Sean?” He said yes so we’re all going out together but of course have different rooms. Me and mum in one and dad and Sean in the other according to my dad (of course he's kidding). So it is two separate reservations but same hotel and hopefully we won’t be too far away from each other.

So the plan is...

On the 31st of August we leave our little town and drive 104 miles down to Glasgow. From there we get a flight to Gatwick Airport near London and stay in a hotel just by the airport. This is a very short flight but it’s easing Sean in gently to the idea of sitting still in a plane.

On the 1st of September we board our Virgin Atlantic flight to Florida! We leave at 11.15am and arrive at 15.25 (Florida time of course, if only the flight was that short). We have no park day planned for that day so we’re just gonna collect our cases, hop on the Magical Express and head for POR. Ah POR how we love you. our plans so far are just to check in, dump the bags and possibly hop on the boat to DTD for dinner. It's a long flight and we are going to be tired so we've got an easy day planned ready to hit the parks first thing the next morning.

Up next. Some ADR and extra plans

 

[TheNewMrsB]

Yay! Just finished my first PTR, too! I was so worried about messing up...but I guess you can't really mess up!

Looking forward to reading more about your plans!

 

[Symphony]

Time for another mini update

Our Dining Reservations

We're not really big planners but we have a few TS meals booked just so we have something, most of the bookings we have no worries about cancelling if we need to it was just to have an option really. The only TS experience we’ve had at WDW has been Teppan Edo and the Sci Fi Diner So we’re looking forward to a new experience.

So far we have reserved:

Cinderella’s Royal Table! Now this is one I am not giving up, I’ve wanted to go here since I was knee high to a grasshopper but it was always too expensive, I was excited to find out we could go on the DDP so had my poor mum phone up at the 180 day mark. I’m looking forward to it even if nobody else is we have dinner there the day after we get there. This is one for all four of us on September 2nd

Chef Mickey’s for breakfast, September 3rd, again this is a reservation for all four of us

Kona Café for dinner, mum and dad on the 4th of September, me and Sean on the 9th

Teppan Edo for dinner, 5th of September, again as a party of four. Looking forward to this one

Yak and Yeti for lunch for me and Sean, 6th of September

Rose and Crown for dinner for mum and dad, 6th of September

Mamma Melrose for dinner for me and Sean, 7th of September

Tutto Italia for dinner for mum and dad, 9th of September

Planet Hollywood for dinner, all four of us on the 11th of September

Via Napoli, again all four of us for dinner on the 13th of September

They started off very spaced out because we didn’t want to be too tied down but then we started adding more in just because we found places we wanted to go to. We’ve left some free days just because we’re not big planners and we’ll just see what we can get when we get there.


Other Plans

We are planning one trip out to go to IOA, we’ve only ever been once and I want to see HP land, so far we have this scheduled for the 8th of September. We may go to Sea World, money permitting, we’ve not decided yet.

We have no set itinerary, we tend to just bounce around from park to park but we noticed we’d be there for MNSSHP! We’ve never done as Disney party before and I thought that this would be a perfect way to end our trip! The 14th is our last night and it’s the very first party night. As a tradition we always do MK on the last day for one last shot of Wishes so why not do the party. This will be a completely new experience for us and one I am very excited about, I just won't count down to it because it is on our last night.

 

[Symphony]

Currently freaking out waiting to hear news on this reported BAA strike. Luckily it won't affect our Disney Flights from Gatwick on the 1st of September but there is a possibility it may affect our Glasgow to Gatwick flight on the 31st of August

 

[Symphony]

Currently trying to decide whether or not to get the photopass pre-order deal. Never used photopass before but it would be nice to have some of the candid shots they take instead of the traditional pose and smile ones, and of course everyone else's photos look so nice when they've used it

On a seperate note: This time next week I'll be finished my summer job taking a week off before I go on holiday to get everything packed for both the holiday and University since I'm straight back into it when I get back. That and to get the last minute exercising done before all that food

 

[Symphony]

our tickets arrived today it's now only 15 days until we start the first leg of our journey

 

[Symphony]

I know I'm talking to myself but woo hoo! Single digit dance

We're almost completely packed too