KayleeUK
09-19-2008, 02:58 PM
The Punkin Trip Oct/Nov 2008 – Pre Trip Report
(called this as DS cannot pronounce the word Pumpkin :goodvibes )
Cast :
Alan DH age 36 – Many trips to the world, does not get excited about it until we have arrived at the airport.
Me age 34 – Many trips to the world and always excited and planning.
Joseph DS age 2 – Second trip to the world, first trip age 10 month’s. Can’t wait to go to Mickey’s house.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/KayleeRobbins/robbins.jpg
Accommodation
Planning started for this trip back in December 2007 when we booked our accommodation a Boardwalk Villa’s (BWV) for 19 nights. Originally I wanted to split our stay between the Villa’s at Wilderness Lodge (VWL) and the Beach Club Villa’s (BCV). Last trip we stayed at BWV for the whole time which was great. We had a lovely room overlooking the Luna Pool area, previous trip’s we have had Boardwalk View room’s but they can be a little noisy late at night and I didn’t want Joseph to be woken up or me! As this is our ‘home resort’ we booked the BWV at 11 months out and then hoped to change to VWL and BCV at 7 months. As March rolled around I called DVC to try and change our reservation. I was out of luck. They could only guarantee odd dates and with us having Joseph I did not want to be chopping and changing resorts if the waitlist didn’t come through. So I decided we would just stick with our reservation being at the Boardwalk.
It is a great resort and I am sure Joseph will love the pool again and this time he may get more out of the Community Hall activities. The location between Epcot and the Studio’s is great as we usually walk to these park’s. So although we were not able to get the first choice I know we will be happy with our stay at the Boardwalk.
http://www.greatorlandodiscounts.com/disney-hotels/images/pageheaders/boardwalk-villas.jpg
Flights
As usual our flights are with Virgin, we managed to get miles and money flight’s which was a bonus. We are flying from Gatwick and as we are travelling up from the West Country we have booked in to the Hilton for the night before the flight. So our holiday will start a day early! Hopefully that evening we will be able to take a look at the planes which Joseph should enjoy.
http://www.our-dream-wedding.net/virgin_plane.jpg
Tickets
We decided that apart from Disney we would visit Seaworld this year. We haven’t been here for a few years but thought that Joseph would enjoy seeing the animals. Universal and Islands of Adventure have been ruled out again until Joseph is a little older. Our dates cross both the Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) so we have decided to do both of these. Joseph has picked his Halloween costume as Woody ( the lovely Susan has managed to get him an outfit in the DisneyStore.com sale) and thinks that I will be Jessie and DH will be Buzz – we shall see…… (I hope I will be able to find myself a Jessie T-shirt and that will do) I loved the Christmas Party it was lovely to see it snowing on Main Street. So I am sure we will have a wonderful time again.
So we brought 21 day Disney Ultimate Tickets, 1 day pass to Seaworld and tickets to the Halloween and Christmas parties.
http://www.themeparkholidays.com/shared/event_media/tptd/ORO/WD_T/large-190x100.jpg
Friends
On our last trip we were lucky to spend it with so many friend’s. The lovely Sue (Florida Sun) and her daughter’s trip overlapped ours and we spent lots of time with them. Unfortunately they will not be with us this year and will be missed. Carolyn (2disneywego) our friend from Vermont joined us for a few days last year and we had a lovely time, this year Carolyn is bringing her husband Robert down, so we have lots of things planned with them. We have made arrangements with our friends Mike and Di who live in Orlando to meet up with them for a few day’s and hopefully have a couple of DIS Meets planned with Jo(wils) and family and Deb and Matt (UKDeb).
Dining
Last year we had the dining plan and although it was great to have all of the food costs covered, we did find it far too much food and even had credits left at the end of our trip. So we have decided against it for this trip.
We have made many ADR’s mainly because we like to have one sit down meal a day and with Joseph only being 2 we want to be able to eat at sensible times.
Character Meal’s feature in our plan’s as Joseph loved these last trip and I have a feeling he will like them even more this year. He already talks about having dinner with Mickey. Chef Mickey’s, Donalds Breakfastauras, Cape May Café, Ohana will feature for some of our breakfast meal’s and Le Cellier, Hollywood and Vine, Garden Grill and Liberty Tree Tavern are some of our evening meal’s.
During our trip the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival is on and I am sure we will spend a lot of time strolling around World Showcase and tasting the delights on offer.
We will be eating off site for only about 4 night’s which suits us, not sure where yet our friends will sort this out for us.
I am looking forward to having a Lapu Lapu but I am not sure how I will get away with it as Joseph loves pineapple!!!
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/KayleeRobbins/trippie%202006/d82.jpg
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So here we are just over 5 weeks until we leave, I hope to be more prompt with my trip reports this year than I have been in the past.
Joseph is very much into ‘Car’s’ at the moment so I am hoping there is lots of merchandise available and he can’t wait to meet Lightning and Mater. We have a Disney Bear book that we got on our last trip which follows Mickey spending a day at the Magic Kingdom and we have been reading that and pointing out the rides, he currently seems keen to go on them all. I am trying not to focus on the Mountains as he will be too small for them. We have watched some of the rides and parades on Youtube to get him use to them. He is looking forward to going on Goofy’s Barnstormer with Daddy. I showed him a video on Youtube of a little girl being taken through Minnie’s house by Minnie Mouse herself, unfortunately Joseph thinks Minnie is going to be doing this with him. Maybe watching these video’s isn’t a good idea!
We have the DIS Girlie Meet next weekend and then after that I will be so excited about our trip. I am going to make Joseph a countdown chart which will have pictures of the character’s we are going to meet to highten the excitement even more.
Sue (Florida Sun) does a brilliant Mickey Mouse voice so I am going to get her to call Joseph the weekend before we leave and talk to him about the trip.
Update :- 19th September 2008
When I got home from work today we had a lovely UPS envelope with the Magical Express infomation in:banana:
(called this as DS cannot pronounce the word Pumpkin :goodvibes )
Cast :
Alan DH age 36 – Many trips to the world, does not get excited about it until we have arrived at the airport.
Me age 34 – Many trips to the world and always excited and planning.
Joseph DS age 2 – Second trip to the world, first trip age 10 month’s. Can’t wait to go to Mickey’s house.
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/KayleeRobbins/robbins.jpg
Accommodation
Planning started for this trip back in December 2007 when we booked our accommodation a Boardwalk Villa’s (BWV) for 19 nights. Originally I wanted to split our stay between the Villa’s at Wilderness Lodge (VWL) and the Beach Club Villa’s (BCV). Last trip we stayed at BWV for the whole time which was great. We had a lovely room overlooking the Luna Pool area, previous trip’s we have had Boardwalk View room’s but they can be a little noisy late at night and I didn’t want Joseph to be woken up or me! As this is our ‘home resort’ we booked the BWV at 11 months out and then hoped to change to VWL and BCV at 7 months. As March rolled around I called DVC to try and change our reservation. I was out of luck. They could only guarantee odd dates and with us having Joseph I did not want to be chopping and changing resorts if the waitlist didn’t come through. So I decided we would just stick with our reservation being at the Boardwalk.
It is a great resort and I am sure Joseph will love the pool again and this time he may get more out of the Community Hall activities. The location between Epcot and the Studio’s is great as we usually walk to these park’s. So although we were not able to get the first choice I know we will be happy with our stay at the Boardwalk.
http://www.greatorlandodiscounts.com/disney-hotels/images/pageheaders/boardwalk-villas.jpg
Flights
As usual our flights are with Virgin, we managed to get miles and money flight’s which was a bonus. We are flying from Gatwick and as we are travelling up from the West Country we have booked in to the Hilton for the night before the flight. So our holiday will start a day early! Hopefully that evening we will be able to take a look at the planes which Joseph should enjoy.
http://www.our-dream-wedding.net/virgin_plane.jpg
Tickets
We decided that apart from Disney we would visit Seaworld this year. We haven’t been here for a few years but thought that Joseph would enjoy seeing the animals. Universal and Islands of Adventure have been ruled out again until Joseph is a little older. Our dates cross both the Mickey’s Not so Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP) and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP) so we have decided to do both of these. Joseph has picked his Halloween costume as Woody ( the lovely Susan has managed to get him an outfit in the DisneyStore.com sale) and thinks that I will be Jessie and DH will be Buzz – we shall see…… (I hope I will be able to find myself a Jessie T-shirt and that will do) I loved the Christmas Party it was lovely to see it snowing on Main Street. So I am sure we will have a wonderful time again.
So we brought 21 day Disney Ultimate Tickets, 1 day pass to Seaworld and tickets to the Halloween and Christmas parties.
http://www.themeparkholidays.com/shared/event_media/tptd/ORO/WD_T/large-190x100.jpg
Friends
On our last trip we were lucky to spend it with so many friend’s. The lovely Sue (Florida Sun) and her daughter’s trip overlapped ours and we spent lots of time with them. Unfortunately they will not be with us this year and will be missed. Carolyn (2disneywego) our friend from Vermont joined us for a few days last year and we had a lovely time, this year Carolyn is bringing her husband Robert down, so we have lots of things planned with them. We have made arrangements with our friends Mike and Di who live in Orlando to meet up with them for a few day’s and hopefully have a couple of DIS Meets planned with Jo(wils) and family and Deb and Matt (UKDeb).
Dining
Last year we had the dining plan and although it was great to have all of the food costs covered, we did find it far too much food and even had credits left at the end of our trip. So we have decided against it for this trip.
We have made many ADR’s mainly because we like to have one sit down meal a day and with Joseph only being 2 we want to be able to eat at sensible times.
Character Meal’s feature in our plan’s as Joseph loved these last trip and I have a feeling he will like them even more this year. He already talks about having dinner with Mickey. Chef Mickey’s, Donalds Breakfastauras, Cape May Café, Ohana will feature for some of our breakfast meal’s and Le Cellier, Hollywood and Vine, Garden Grill and Liberty Tree Tavern are some of our evening meal’s.
During our trip the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival is on and I am sure we will spend a lot of time strolling around World Showcase and tasting the delights on offer.
We will be eating off site for only about 4 night’s which suits us, not sure where yet our friends will sort this out for us.
I am looking forward to having a Lapu Lapu but I am not sure how I will get away with it as Joseph loves pineapple!!!
http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g143/KayleeRobbins/trippie%202006/d82.jpg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
So here we are just over 5 weeks until we leave, I hope to be more prompt with my trip reports this year than I have been in the past.
Joseph is very much into ‘Car’s’ at the moment so I am hoping there is lots of merchandise available and he can’t wait to meet Lightning and Mater. We have a Disney Bear book that we got on our last trip which follows Mickey spending a day at the Magic Kingdom and we have been reading that and pointing out the rides, he currently seems keen to go on them all. I am trying not to focus on the Mountains as he will be too small for them. We have watched some of the rides and parades on Youtube to get him use to them. He is looking forward to going on Goofy’s Barnstormer with Daddy. I showed him a video on Youtube of a little girl being taken through Minnie’s house by Minnie Mouse herself, unfortunately Joseph thinks Minnie is going to be doing this with him. Maybe watching these video’s isn’t a good idea!
We have the DIS Girlie Meet next weekend and then after that I will be so excited about our trip. I am going to make Joseph a countdown chart which will have pictures of the character’s we are going to meet to highten the excitement even more.
Sue (Florida Sun) does a brilliant Mickey Mouse voice so I am going to get her to call Joseph the weekend before we leave and talk to him about the trip.
Update :- 19th September 2008
When I got home from work today we had a lovely UPS envelope with the Magical Express infomation in:banana: