Will We Manage to See and Do It All?!?! - Sept. 25/Oct. 1st. - First PTR

[kcandbella]

I'm so glad you liked it. Were your seats good? Ours were pretty high up but free is always a good thing so I'm not complaining. I thought it was kind of a different show. I'm really looking forward to Disney on Ice coming in march. That will have Tiana and the ice shows are always so much more fun. If I get any info on that show I'll pass it on. Sometimes it pays to blog

Yeah, we want to go see that one for sure. How do you get free tickets just by blogging? Our seats were pretty high up but we could see everything. I thought the show was cute. Bella really liked it. We had a good time!

 

[Arielssister]

And to answer the questions about Photobucket, I do exactly as Sleepbooty said, I use Mozilla Firefox. It's easier and there are no trojans when going that route.

Arielssister: A trojan is a virus basically that downloads spyware on your pc.


Have a great night everyone.

Thanks for the infor and help! I will have to look into Mozilla Firefox.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Oh my goodness, those triplets! Just adorable!

 

[The4bits]

When I sat down to start planning this trip at the end of January I was sure nothing would take me away from all the planning and that we would have nothing going on.

If only that were true. We have something going on every weekend from now until the end of May. This includes two baby showers, two wedding showers and a bon voyage party for my brother. I just happen to be planning 4 of these events.

We went and saw Disney Live last weekend and we thought it was just okay. My kids liked it but it was a pretty goofy show. I think it's definitely for the younger set (even younger than mine). We are going to see Disney on Ice next Wednesday and that should be better. My DD is very excited about seeing Princess Tiana. Here are some pictures of us at Disney Live

That night we were still in the Disney mood so we decided to have a Disney movie night. We were already having a "Hawaiian" type of meal so we decided to watch Lilo and Stitch. We haven't seen it in forever. We had a lot of fun. We all wore leis and DD entertained us with a hula dance. Poor DH fell asleep but it's fine, he's not much of a Disney movie fan

In other planning news our flights have changed three times. I was just accepting the changes until today's change. They had us in Atlanta for 5 hours. Um, no that won't work. So I called and I found out that if they change our flight we are allowed to change it to any other flight that day without an increase in price.

That made me very happy. So now we are on a flight that arrives in MCO at 11:52 am. The lady on the phone told me since it's still a while away we will probably experience more changes. So I'm going to wait and hold out for the non-stop flight. Wouldn't that be heaven?!

This is a long update, sorry. I'll stop now but this is the month of our ADR date. It's March 30th so we only have a couple more weeks. I guess I'd better start thinking about what we're going to do.

I've been sewing a lot for my DD and for the trip so I'll be back with pictures of that soon. Probably more like a week, since that's my track record

 

[The4bits]

Wow that first pic is HUGE. Sorry about that

 

[MHTeacher]

Great news on your flight change---getting to MCO before noon sounds great !

ADRs this month I'm sure you have figured out where you want to eat and when, already, so now it's just a matter of waiting.......

Lilo and Stitch is one of my favorite Disney movies! I love the idea of doing a Hawaiian style night, and watching that movie. I'm definitely going to do that on one of our countdown nights!

 

[Charlefours]

I hope you like DOI better than the Disney Live.

Yay for flight changes that make more time in Disney!! I sure hope your flight keeps changing for the better. Looking forward to seeing the clothes you have been sewing. I hope I get a chance to do some after I get back this weekend.

I am so excited ADRs are this month too!!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

We typically get into Orlando around 12:30 and it's nice to be able to enjoy a park on your first day!
It was interesting, flying out of Wichita, we can't seem to get decent airfares so we thought about driving to Orlando for Spring Break, then we found great airfare out of Branson, MO. Non-stop flights! Oh well, we drive 5 hours to get there....

 

[Sleepingbooty]

That night we were still in the Disney mood so we decided to have a Disney movie night. We were already having a "Hawaiian" type of meal so we decided to watch Lilo and Stitch. We haven't seen it in forever. We had a lot of fun. We all wore leis and DD entertained us with a hula dance. Poor DH fell asleep but it's fine, he's not much of a Disney movie fan

Sounds exactly like my husband. Not that he doesn't like Disney movies, but he absolutely cannot watch a movie on the couch without falling asleep! I guess that's what happens when you get up at 5:30 everyday.

So, what airline are you flying? Are you going out of Stl? We typically fly Southwest, so I haven't gotten our flights yet. Just for the heck of it, I did a orbitz search for flights so I could see what the other airlines are offering - OMG, what happened to all the flights to MCO? There were about half as many flight times as I'm used to seeing - and only one nonstop! What's up with that??!!

 

[The4bits]

Sounds exactly like my husband. Not that he doesn't like Disney movies, but he absolutely cannot watch a movie on the couch without falling asleep! I guess that's what happens when you get up at 5:30 everyday.

So, what airline are you flying? Are you going out of Stl? We typically fly Southwest, so I haven't gotten our flights yet. Just for the heck of it, I did a orbitz search for flights so I could see what the other airlines are offering - OMG, what happened to all the flights to MCO? There were about half as many flight times as I'm used to seeing - and only one nonstop! What's up with that??!!

Hey Rebecca, sorry it took me so long to comment back. Life's been crazy. We are flying AirTran down to MCO and yes we are flying out of STL. We are going to fly back on Southwest because of the later flights out and not having to get back too late into STL. Southwest rocks!!! Did you see that they released their dates. You probably have. Like I said I have to get caught up on everyone.

 

[The4bits]

Yes it's almost been a month since I have updated on my PTR. What is wrong with me?!?! Busy!!! Who knew that my life would become so busy in March. It's so busy that I don't have a weekend open at all from now until mid May.

But I did have to come on and say that I am super excited because our ADR date is NEXT WEEK. The 30th to be exact.

So I made my DH sit down and give me a full 30 minutes of undivided attention so we could pick the places we wanted to eat. Here is our plan as of right now....

Sun, Sept 26th - (rough draft still figuring out but definitely the park and dinner) EP and have dinner at Akershus Hall

Mon, Sept 27th - (rough draft still figuring out but definitely the park and dinner) DS with dinner at Chef Mickey's

Tues, Sept 28th - MK we'll take a break then come back and participate in the BBB and First Mate, have dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern and then MNSSHP - this is gonna be an awesome day. Super excited.

Wed, Sept 29th - Kona Cafe for breakfast, then DS again, take boat to Teppan Edo in EP, then back to DS for Fantasmic

Thurs, Sept 30th - MK or EP - whatever till we have to be at airport.

Things are starting to come together and if life keeps up like it is now our vaca will be here before we know it.

Now I'm off to catch up on some favorite threads. It may take a while.

 

[MHTeacher]

Sun, Sept 26th - dinner at Akershus Hall Having breakfast there for the first time in May

Mon, Sept 27th - dinner at Chef Mickey's Had dinner there a few years ago, going for breakfast during our May trip

Tues, Sept 28th - MK we'll take a break then come back and participate in the BBB and First Mate, have dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern and then MNSSHP - this is gonna be an awesome day. Super excited. This sounds like such a fun day! We've had dinner at LTT--Your kids will love it!

Wed, Sept 29th - Kona Cafe for breakfast, then DS again, take boat to Teppan Edo in EP, then back to DS for Fantasmic Love Kona for breakfast--eat the Tonga Toast-----Trying Teppan Edo for the first time during our May trip

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Yes it's almost been a month since I have updated on my PTR. What is wrong with me?!?! Busy!!! Who knew that my life would become so busy in March. It's so busy that I don't have a weekend open at all from now until mid May.

But I did have to come on and say that I am super excited because our ADR date is NEXT WEEK. The 30th to be exact.

So I made my DH sit down and give me a full 30 minutes of undivided attention so we could pick the places we wanted to eat. Here is our plan as of right now....

Sun, Sept 26th - (rough draft still figuring out but definitely the park and dinner) EP and have dinner at Akershus Hall

Mon, Sept 27th - (rough draft still figuring out but definitely the park and dinner) DS with dinner at Chef Mickey's

Tues, Sept 28th - MK we'll take a break then come back and participate in the BBB and First Mate, have dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern and then MNSSHP - this is gonna be an awesome day. Super excited.

Wed, Sept 29th - Kona Cafe for breakfast, then DS again, take boat to Teppan Edo in EP, then back to DS for Fantasmic

Thurs, Sept 30th - MK or EP - whatever till we have to be at airport.

Things are starting to come together and if life keeps up like it is now our vaca will be here before we know it.

Now I'm off to catch up on some favorite threads. It may take a while.

Akershus.... We loved the cold salad buffet especially our son! The cold cuts, cheese, and fruit!

Chef Mickey's always fun, fun, fun!

Liberty Tree Tavern great dinner we love it there!

Kona Cafe... Tonga, Tonga, Tonga.....

Have fun at Teppan Edo!

What time do you have to be at the airport? Is DME picking you up?

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Hey, don't feel bad - I've been out of the loop for a while, too! I think your ADRs look good! I was able to get mine last week (or was it the week before?) and my TA got us everything we wanted! Oh, and in case you haven't been over to my PTR, I got a FANTASTIC deal on Southwest!

 

[MHTeacher]

Just checking in.

 

[The4bits]

I need to learn to say NO. I have been so busy because of my inability to say NO that I haven't even thought about Disney (gasp) Luckily my daughter is graduating from Kindergarten this week so my time at school being needed will decrease. I'm so ready for summer. We are heading to Chicago at the end of this month and I kind of wish we weren't going. It's going to be expensive and all that money could go towards paying off Disney. But a promise is a promise and we made one to our daughter that we would take her there for her birthday.

So recently I received an e-mail that kicked me back into high gear Disney planning. Can you believe I didn't realize that free Disney dining had been released for my dates?! The horror. So I called tonight to make our dining plan a free dining plan but sadly they did not have a free dining plan for a 4 night stay with a standard view at the Wilderness Lodge. So we checked 5 days because we were considering a side trip to Universal for Harry Potter and some superheroes and who doesn't LOVE an extra day

For the extra day our package would have gone up $40. It doesn't seem like much but we were hoping for the package to decrease in price. Wrong way. So we changed resorts and I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet. We went from a Deluxe resort to a Moderate resort. We are now staying at Port Orleans - Riverside. I know it's a wonderful resort and I'm still excited, we're saving money too, which is good. But I'm still a little apprehensive.

The money we are saving on a room and dining we can afford another day and tickets to Universal's Islands of Adventure. Or that's the plan anyway.

We still don't have a flight home because all flight prices have gong up. I still haven't purchased our tickets to MNSSHP but I do have all of our reservations made for dining.

I just need to get my stuff together and get back on the bandwagon. Hopefully I made the right decision. It just feels like I sold out.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

I think you made a great decision! We absolutely LOVE Port Orleans! And the extra day will be great. We too are going to spend a day at Harry Potter. The kids don't know it yet Did you make your ADR's yet? I just made some on Friday for a client (I have 3 now!) and I was a little surprised at the difficulty of getting some at normal times. It wasn't like we were going for Le Cellier or anything, either. One good thing- the crowd calendar predictions have gone WAY down!

 

[Charlefours]

I'm sorry you are not happy about moving down to a moderate. The DDP offer released to the GP said five nights on everything I read. POR gets great reviews, so hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised. :

Did you get the ADRs you listed above? I sure hope so!!

 

[The4bits]

You just keep coming back and I always leave you hanging

Like I said earlier I am back in planning mode but unfortunately I am in full on budget mode. I have to save, save, save. So I'm a little down in the dumps because instead of running out and buying stuff for the trip whenever I can... I'm saving and trying to get work.

What set us so off schedule??? We had promised our daughter a trip to Chicago for her birthday so she could spend her money at the American Girl store. She had over $200. So we went this past week and Chicago is expensive. It really cut into our trip savings. I still have about $1365 to save before August, plus still buy return airfare. Sigh.

Enough about all that. It's depressing and I don't want to bring anyone else down.

I'm very excited now about POR. I've been doing lots of reading and viewing pictures and we are getting excited about staying there. I do have all of our reservations made. So here's all of our info thus far.

Saturday, September 25th
We arrive at 11:50 am via AirTran (they changed my flight AGAIN but only by a few minutes)

We will check into POP and hang out. If our room isn't ready we'll have lunch at the food court and then head for DTD and walk around til we get word of our room but if it is ready we'll eat and then swim. We have an ADR at T-Rex right now for 3:30 I will try to change this the closer we get to later but if not we'll have a light snack and then have linner (lunch/dinner) at 3:30. Not perfect but we'll go with the flow.

Sunday, September 26th
We check out of POP and check into POR. Some of you may be wondering why POP first - well we really want to check the resort out and see if it's a good way to go for impromptu visits.
I think we will take a cab from POP to POR, taking a cab will save us from lugging all our luggage on the bus to DTD and then catching the POR resort bus.
After we drop all our stuff of at POR we explore a little and then hit EP. My hubby and I love EP and we've never done Soarin and now that the kids are big enough they can do it with us. YEAH!!!

I actually just had a thought - what if we left our stuff in our room at POP till check out time and made sure we hit EP at rope drop. Did Soarin and Test Track, went back to our room to check out and then check in to POR then head back to EP with the knowledge that we got to do what we want... Hmmmm. Just a thought. What do you guys think?

That night we have an ADR at Askerhus Hall at 5:25 pm. It's too far away now but Lillie will be thrilled when the time comes because she loves Belle.

To break up all this "talk" here's a picture of the kids meeting Dale as we walked in the back entrance at Epcot from Beach Club in 2008

My babies were so little "sniff" Okay back to the plan

Monday, September 27th
Disney's Hollywood Studios day. Since it's all about my guys this trip (birthdays) we decided to do DHS first because Jack loves this park

We have an ADR at Chef Mickey's at 5:25 pm. Great time for us.

Tuesday, September 28th
MK DAY - a day we'll be waiting impatiently for. We plan on being there at rope drop because at 9:25 am jack has an appt at Pirates League and at 9:40 am Lillie has an appt at BBB.

We have an ADR at 4:25 pm for LTT and as of right now we won't be going to MNSSHP - too expensive. But if I get a lot of work maybe it'll be possible. But right now there are too many other things that we would like to do.

Wednesday, September 29th
A day to do whatever we want. I'll decide when it gets closer but we could do more MK, EP or even AK (we're not huge fans of AK though).

We have two ADR's this day... Kona Cafe at 8:55 and Teppan Edo at 5:30 pm so we know we'll be at EP that night.

Thursday, September 30th
We are leaving WDW property for the day and going to Universal's IOA for the day. We know that Jack will love to see the Marvel heroes and Jeff and I secretly cannot wait to see Harry Potter. No ADRs.

Friday, October 1st
We will be checking out this day, so no ADR because we will be out of table service credits anyway so just snacks and quick service for us. We will definitely be ending our trip with a visit to MK and hopefully be catching a late flight home. I'm hoping for 6:00 or so but prices are still up so we're (un)patiently waiting to book our flight home.

Then the sad march home happens.

Every day that ticks by we get that much closer just wish we could really do it the way we want to. But we will still be at Disney and isn't that what it's all about.. Not all the other small things. Sure they add to the experience but my kids won't be sad because they will still be at Disney. Who's to say this is our last time there

 

[The4bits]

Akershus.... We loved the cold salad buffet especially our son! The cold cuts, cheese, and fruit!

Chef Mickey's always fun, fun, fun!

Liberty Tree Tavern great dinner we love it there!

Kona Cafe... Tonga, Tonga, Tonga.....

Have fun at Teppan Edo!

What time do you have to be at the airport? Is DME picking you up?

We have to be at the airport about 4:50 am - UGH!!! Yuck. But we can sleep on the plane