Winter Wonderland in Sunny Orlando Dec 2009 PTR~NEW 12/18 We're Back! TR Link Posted! [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

khertz

03-24-2009, 02:59 PM

My name is khertz and this is my first ever pre-trip report! :wave2: I decided to give this a try, given my DH has resorted to eye-rolling :rolleyes: when I start talking Disney, and a co-worker said she wishes she had $1 for every time I mention Disney World! :laughing: I’ve been reading up on other pre-trip reports to get a feel for what I’m supposed to be doing with this, so wish me luck!

Intro - below
Where are we staying? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31207295&postcount=10)
Food Food FOOD! & trip purchases (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31502648&postcount=11)
Reminiscing (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31598851&postcount=16)
MVMCP Tickets are in! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31720795&postcount=17)
My First Dole Whip...in Hawaii! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31954375&postcount=22)
Pre-Mini-Trip-Report: Wedding Pictures! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32084858&postcount=30)
Mini-TR Post #1 - Arrival Day at POFQ (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32148153&postcount=34)
Mini-TR Post #2 - Day 1 Part 1: Animal Kingdom am EMH (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32168359&postcount=35)
Mini-TR Post #3 - Day 1 Part 2: Magic Kingdom pm EMH (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32221788&postcount=39)
Mini-TR Post #4 - Day 1 Part 3: Magic Kingdom pm EMH continued... (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32315612&postcount=43)
Mini-TR Post #5 - Day 2 Part 1: Epcot am EMH (http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32499497&postcount=51)
Mini-TR Post #6 - Day 2 Part 2: Epcot continued... (http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32499902&postcount=52)
Plane Tickets...Halfway There! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32557491&postcount=54)
Disney Challenge! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32653314&postcount=60)
Random Things (http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32832412&postcount=61)
Mini-TR post #7 - Day 2 Part 3: Magic Kingdom pm and Day 3 Part 1: MGM (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32853997&postcount=65)
Park Tickets & Trip Purchases! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32961642&postcount=66)
Disney Planning Weekend (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33188194&postcount=67)
Scrapbooking Supplies & Disney Planning Binder Pics (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33225522&postcount=73)
Mini-TR Post #8 - Day 3 Part 2: MGM continued... (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33286728&postcount=78)
Mini-TR Post #9 - Day 3 Part 3: MGM and DTD (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33286922&postcount=79)
Preliminary Itinerary (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33287393&postcount=82)
New Camera & Transportation Drama...SOLVED! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33370493&postcount=85)
Park Hours Are Here!! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33428888&postcount=88)
ADR's...Attempt #1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33471252&postcount=94)
ADR's Finished!! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33551042&postcount=100)
Keys to the Kingdom Tour booked! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33578935&postcount=105)
TSM Practice & Camera Bag (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33614402&postcount=108)
Mini-TR Post #10 - Day 4: MK & DTD...last Disney day! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33659329&postcount=109)
Revised Itinerary & Countdown Calendar (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33659570&postcount=110)
Touring Plan Cards (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33863769&postcount=115)
OT Post: Hanson concert! & ADR Additions (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34176713&postcount=126)
ALMOST THERE! - Mears Shuttle & Rental Car booked! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34319385&postcount=132)
In-Depth Itinerary: Days 0 & 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34387005&postcount=133)
In-Depth Itinerary: Days 2 & 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34421689&postcount=136)
In-Depth Itinerary: Days 4 & 5 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34432876&postcount=137)
In-Depth Itinerary: Days 6 & 7 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34459654&postcount=142)
In-Depth Itinerary: Days 8 & 9 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34470149&postcount=149)
In-Depth Itinerary: Days 10 & 11 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34484018&postcount=150)
LEAVING IN THE MORNING!!! (http://disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34555780&postcount=151)
TR Link Posted! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34700411&postcount=154)

The players for this trip report are:

khertz :tinker: (me! 23, will be 24 on the trip). – This will be my 7th trip to the World! My very first trip was in 1994 when I was 9 years old with my aunt, uncle, and a huge CYO group of high school seniors. It was one day in MK, MGM, and Epcot, and a day at Universal Studios & Busch Gardens each. It was the middle of July, hot, no Fastpass, and I mostly remember just standing in line! But it started my love for Disney World. Over the years, I visited WDW four more times with my family, and once in October of 2007 for my Disneymoon! I’ve taken over the planning of this trip, and the planning has taken over my life!!

dhertz :donald: (My DH! 24, will be 25 on the trip) – My Donald Duck loving husband! He’s excited about the upcoming trip, but doesn’t share my enthusiastic planning 24/7. He’s been to Disney 5 times, three times when he was younger, once with my family when we were dating, and of course our Disneymoon.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/Disney274.jpg

We have been happily married for a year and a half, and we’re super excited to be returning to the place where we had our amazing honeymoon!! It is also a milestone trip for us in that it will be our last time visiting Disney World alone, since we plan to start a family soon after returning! That’s right, the next time we visit Disney World, we will be seeing it through our child’s (or childrens’!) eyes!! So we are going all out and getting in every last ride on all the big coasters until we’ll be resigning to Fantasyland exclusively. LoL

Also joining us:

My DMom pooh: and DDad :eeyore: – My mom is a self-proclaimed Disney World freak, and Winnie the Pooh fanatic! She taught me all I needed to know about obsessively planning for Disney World, and has happily passed the reigns on to me. My dad also loves the World, but is fine to go along with whatever my mom has planned. He’s game for pretty much anything, and loves to enjoy new dining experiences. They went for the first time in the early 80’s on their honeymoon, and didn’t go again until 13 years later when taking me and my sister on our first big family trip. We followed that up with 3 more family trips to the All Star Music Resort at Mardi Gras, and they have since been 2 or 3 more times without me while I was suffering through nursing school. They are very excited to be joining us this time around!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/9fc32ae0-02f9-4c89-b792-509bb95eea7.jpg

My DMIL :ccat: and DFIL :goofy: – My husband’s mom and step-dad will be tagging along. They haven’t been in about 15 years, since they took my DH when he was a kid. I think they may be a little overwhelmed by all of the changes that have taken place in the parks since they were last there, and with all of the information my Mom and I have been sending their way. But they are ready to go with the flow and have an awesome trip!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1066copy.jpg

This trip originated in my brain when I saw a friend’s pictures posted on Facebook. She had just come back from a December :santa: trip to WDW, and her picture of the castle in icicle lights absolutely took my breath away. I decided right then and there than a trip to Disney in December to see the Christmas decorations and take part in the Christmas activities was a must! Our dates are December 4th through December 14th. Our parents will be with us until the 11th, and then DH and I will stay a couple extra days before flying home. It is everyone’s first time to Disney in December, since my family is a Mardi Gras week family, and DH’s parents went in the Spring and Summer months.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/IMG_1106.jpg
Here's the whole group of us, plus my little sister who is very upset to be missing out on this trip! But college finals, unfortunately, take priority over a Disney trip!

I think I’ve provided enough (maybe too much!) info for an intro post…so I’ll save the rest for later. But that’s the gang, should you choose to follow us on our December Disney Adventure! :woohoo:

Plumeria

03-24-2009, 04:40 PM

Hi there!

Sounds like you've got a fun trip planned. You have almost as long to wait as I do. I'm going in Febuary of 2010 and I just started my very first pre-trip report too.

Have a great day!

tiggersam00

03-24-2009, 05:20 PM

December is amazing! I went tho the world the past 2 Decembers with my DF and it is the best. Just remember to pack a sweatshirt or 2 lol, it got a bit breezy at night, nothing us northerners couldn't handle though lol! You guys will have a blast! Make sure you do MVMCP while you are there, it is a must see at Christmas-time:santa:

khertz

03-24-2009, 07:55 PM

Hi there!

Sounds like you've got a fun trip planned. You have almost as long to wait as I do. I'm going in Febuary of 2010 and I just started my very first pre-trip report too.

Have a great day!

Isn't it so frustrating?! On the one hand I'm so ready for the trip to be here, but on the other hand, I don't want it to come & go too fast, if that makes sense. :laughing:

I'll have to check out your PTR and we can be newbies together! :) Thanks for stopping by!

December is amazing! I went tho the world the past 2 Decembers with my DF and it is the best. Just remember to pack a sweatshirt or 2 lol, it got a bit breezy at night, nothing us northerners couldn't handle though lol! You guys will have a blast! Make sure you do MVMCP while you are there, it is a must see at Christmas-time:santa:

Our plan is to do ALL of the Christmas offerings, so MVMCP is definitely on our must-do list! And I'm planning to pack for all weather possibilities. :rotfl: I actually got a few pairs of cute cropped sweatpants that will keep my legs warm in the morning but that I can roll up if it starts warming up! I'm a south Louisiana girl, so I get chilled easily...a sweatshirt is a must!! Thanks for the December tips, and throw any more my way if you think of something!!

tiggersam00

03-25-2009, 12:26 PM

Our plan is to do ALL of the Christmas offerings, so MVMCP is definitely on our must-do list! And I'm planning to pack for all weather possibilities. :rotfl: I actually got a few pairs of cute cropped sweatpants that will keep my legs warm in the morning but that I can roll up if it starts warming up! I'm a south Louisiana girl, so I get chilled easily...a sweatshirt is a must!! Thanks for the December tips, and throw any more my way if you think of something!!

I will make sure I pass on all the WDW December tips... although truth be told, there where never any crazy waits or lines when we go so the tips are pretty minimal.... it really is the perfect time to go:thumbsup2

Oh one thing we don't wait for was the candlelight processional... the wait for that is literally hours long... I did book a dinner on our last night at Rose and Crown Pub in Epcot and we sat right by the window and watched Illuminations (they add a Christmas ending to it that time of year) and had a wonderful meal. IMHO the perfect way to end a trip to WDW:goodvibes

khertz

03-27-2009, 11:06 AM

I will make sure I pass on all the WDW December tips... although truth be told, there where never any crazy waits or lines when we go so the tips are pretty minimal.... it really is the perfect time to go

Oh one thing we don't wait for was the candlelight processional... the wait for that is literally hours long... I did book a dinner on our last night at Rose and Crown Pub in Epcot and we sat right by the window and watched Illuminations (they add a Christmas ending to it that time of year) and had a wonderful meal. IMHO the perfect way to end a trip to WDW:goodvibes

That's good to hear! I'm hoping for minimal waits on things, but I keep hearing that December is getting more & more crowded. But I'm optimistic! I plan to make the best of it, no matter what is thrown our way (especially since we'll be there during the dreaded Pop Warner week! :scared1:)

I'm really hoping to be able to book the Candlelight Processional dinner package for us for this very reason. I don't want to spend hours in a line, and then still not even make it into the show! And we all really wanted to eat at Le Cellier, so I'm hoping that's where I can get the package to knock out two things at once.

tiggersam00

03-27-2009, 12:03 PM

That's good to hear! I'm hoping for minimal waits on things, but I keep hearing that December is getting more & more crowded. But I'm optimistic! I plan to make the best of it, no matter what is thrown our way (especially since we'll be there during the dreaded Pop Warner week! :scared1:)

I'm really hoping to be able to book the Candlelight Processional dinner package for us for this very reason. I don't want to spend hours in a line, and then still not even make it into the show! And we all really wanted to eat at Le Cellier, so I'm hoping that's where I can get the package to knock out two things at once.

Don't worry about POP Warner week at all! That is when we went and it was fine, I even saw one of my students (I'm a dance teacher) there for her cheering comp, waiting in line at the Malestrom:laughing:. You will see a few groups all wearing matching outfits and having fun, but it was no big deal at all. I think people on here make it out to be wayyy worse then it actually is.

Ohhh I am dying to try Le Celier, we eat there in 3 days yippee! The line for the CP was all the way past Japan! It was really insane! But you could stand behind the stage and watch it from there without a wait at all so that was fine with us! :goodvibes

MomLC

03-28-2009, 09:21 AM

:goodvibes I just loved reading your story about you and your family. I will be coming aboard to continue reading about your adventure. When you do have your family and travel to WDW it is the most amazing next adventure in your life.:woohoo: My DD(7) has been going to WDW since she was 22 months old, twice a year, and it is the most wonderful feeling I have just watching her having sooooooo much fun. I am "training" her to be a WDW fanatic just like me.:laughing: Her father is almost there but will never admit it to anyone.:lmao: I wish you all the best in the future and I hope you have a "magical" time in WDW with your family.:wave2:

khertz

03-28-2009, 01:17 PM

Don't worry about POP Warner week at all! That is when we went and it was fine, I even saw one of my students (I'm a dance teacher) there for her cheering comp, waiting in line at the Malestrom:laughing:. You will see a few groups all wearing matching outfits and having fun, but it was no big deal at all. I think people on here make it out to be wayyy worse then it actually is.

Ohhh I am dying to try Le Celier, we eat there in 3 days yippee! The line for the CP was all the way past Japan! It was really insane! But you could stand behind the stage and watch it from there without a wait at all so that was fine with us! :goodvibes

I'm really not TOO worried about PW week, just because most of the horror stories seem to involve value resorts and Disney busses, both of which we'll be avoiding this trip. :laughing:

I can't wait to read your experience at Le Cellier! I'm absolutely dying to eat there...I love me some steak!!

:goodvibes I just loved reading your story about you and your family. I will be coming aboard to continue reading about your adventure. When you do have your family and travel to WDW it is the most amazing next adventure in your life.:woohoo: My DD(7) has been going to WDW since she was 22 months old, twice a year, and it is the most wonderful feeling I have just watching her having sooooooo much fun. I am "training" her to be a WDW fanatic just like me.:laughing: Her father is almost there but will never admit it to anyone.:lmao: I wish you all the best in the future and I hope you have a "magical" time in WDW with your family.:wave2:

Thanks for joining! I really can't wait to start my future children in on the Disney love! I've already started collecting the movies from my childhood on DVD since all I had were VHS tapes from back in the day. I'm ready to start them on the Mouse young! My DH just laughs because I'm already planning my first visit with my kids in my head, and that's many years away!!

:goodvibes

khertz

04-06-2009, 06:21 PM

NOT ON-SITE! I know, I know, sad, right?? :sad1:

For the first time since my very first trip as a kid, I’ll be living the offsite life at Disney World. I’m admittedly a little nervous about it, but I think it’ll be great nonetheless. In the past I have stayed at the All Star Music four times on family trips, and at the Port Orleans French Quarter once on our honeymoon. My parents have also spent a couple of trips at POP Century. The in-laws have stayed at the Royal Plaza and offsite, so I don’t think they will really know what they are missing out on! Can we survive without EMH to take advantage of? I sure hope so!

Instead, we will be staying at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek. My DH and I bought into Wyndham on our honeymoon, and so far have had a great experience with staying with them in Las Vegas. This will be our first time at the Orlando resort, though. For the first 7 nights, we will be shacked up in a 3 bedroom deluxe, which if it is anything like our Las Vegas suite, will be PLENTY of room for the 6 of us. After our parents leave, we will spend 3 more nights in a 1 bedroom deluxe. We are hoping for a fireworks view on one or both reservations!

If you have never seen or heard of the Wyndham Bonnet Creek, here's a link to a website with some pictures & information on the resort: http://wyndhambonnetcreek.com (http://wyndhambonnetcreek.com/)

Also, a couple of days, I went out to the mailbox and saw this waiting for me!:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/DSCN4043.jpg

I have been reading up like crazy...I even brought it to work with me this weekend! And if you work in a hospital, you know you are asking for trouble when you bring something to do in the hopes that the shift will be "quiet"!

I've enjoyed the access to touringplans.com so far that I got after purchasing the book. Even though it is WAY too early to be working out park strategies, I started playing around with the pre-made and customized touring plans just to get an idea of how everything works. And I'm sure I'll be watching the crowd calendar OBSESSIVELY in the coming months!! :rotfl: So far, it's looking good for the days we'll be there, with the only big numbers (9s) coming on both Saturdays. The first Saturday is the parade taping at MK, so that's not a surprise. The second 9 on Saturday the 12th was surprising, but that's a day DH and I will be straying to "the dark side" and visiting Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure anyway, so no biggie!

Hope everyone has a great week & thanks for reading!

khertz

04-24-2009, 12:17 PM

Food Food FOOD!

Even though it is WAY TOO EARLY to make ADR's, I've been thinking a lot about...DISNEY FOOD! I've been reading reviews & looking at pictures non-stop. So I thought I'd post what I'm looking forward to now to see what changes/compromises are made when ADR-makin' time rolls around!

We are not the type to indulge in many table service meals while in Disney. In fact, on our honeymoon, DH and I lived entirely off of counter service! But, we tend to be picky eaters, and our parents definitely are not! My parents have done the dining plan the last few trips, but since we are staying off-site dining plans are a no go for us. We have decided to schedule just a few sit down meals for our upcoming trip. Almost all of them will be in the parks so we don’t have to spend a lot of time traveling to and from resorts for our ADR’s. Here are some of the meals we are considering at the moment:

1. Chef Mickey’s breakfast – Ideally, we’d like the earliest sitting possible to scarf some breakfast from the buffet, meet the characters, and make it to Magic Kingdom at a decent time. My parents are the only ones to have ever done character meals, but this isn’t one they’ve tried. The other four of us will be character meal virgins! I’m excited to have the opportunity to get pictures with Mickey and friends without having to stand in long lines!

2. Tusker House breakfast – This one will be just DH and I! DH is a huge Donald Duck fan, so we thought one more character breakfast where we are guaranteed to see him wouldn’t hurt. For this one, we are planning on a later sitting so that we can hit some rides in the early hours then stop for the grub.

3. Le Cellier lunch or dinner – My goal is to book this meal for the Candlelight Processional package. I’m hoping for lunch just for the lower prices, but I’ll just be happy to book it, quite honestly! DH and I have been excited about eating here, we both love a good steak! I’m also excited to try the cheddar cheese soup and the chocolate moose.

4. Beaches and Cream – I know this place doesn’t take ADR’s but we are hoping to get in without too much of a wait for some ice cream one night after Epcot…maybe even the Kitchen Sink!

5. Rainforest Café (Animal Kingdom) lunch – This one is a maybe. Probably only for the atmosphere. But I don’t know that it’ll be worth missing time in the parks for this place. Opinions?

6. The Melting Pot dinner – Not on Disney property, I know! But DH and I had a GREAT meal at this restaurant in Houston and would like to take our parents to experience it. For those that don’t know, it is a fondue restaurant. There’s a location between Disney World and Universal, so we may try to eat there one night after visiting Universal Studios.

All other meals will be counter service. We have always had good luck with Cosmic Ray’s in Tomorrowland, and we’ll probably also eat at Pecos Bill’s and Pinocchio’s Village Haus while in the Magic Kingdom. DHS has slim pickin’s when it comes to counter service, but Toy Story Pizza Planet isn’t bad. Same goes for Pizzafari in Animal Kingdom (we love pizza, obviously!). As for Epcot, we may stick with the Electric Umbrella or Sunshine Seasons, though I’m looking to give the Cantina de San Angel a try this year also for something a little different than burgers.

Any other suggestions are welcome & encouraged!!

And I made another vacation purchase! I actually bought it for the trip to Hawaii DH and I are taking in a few weeks, but the lazy river at Bonnet Creek is calling my name!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4116.jpg
The front

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4118.jpg
The back of the bottom

Have a great weekend & thanks for reading!

khertz

04-24-2009, 05:18 PM

:cool1: I just figured out how to link to individual posts! Yes, I am a dork & extremely excited about this discovery!!

:rotfl:

annnewjerz

04-25-2009, 10:47 AM

khertz

04-29-2009, 10:11 AM

So I popped in for a look at your first PTR after you visited mine, and so far the plans look good!

A few comments:

1. Rainforest Cafe---we have those around us and while we went to the one in DTD last trip because we couldn't get an ADR elsewhere, I don't know if I would go again. It was fun, but the food is nothing out of the ordinary and if you are just looking for a place with better themeing, I would seriously consider trying to get Sci-Fi Dine In Theater in DHS instead. Can't beat the themeing there, IMO.

Sci-Fi is a maybe for DH and I. My parents LOVE 50's Prime Time and want to eat there with his parents, but my DH hates it. We might just stick with CS, but we are toying around with the idea of eating at Sci-Fi instead while they eat 50's Prime Time.

2. The Melting Pot---I don't blame you at all for going off-site for this one. We have a few of those around us in NJ and while we have only gone once and it was a little pricey, it was well worth it, especially for the dessert fondue part of the meal. Mmmmmmmm.

We don't have any of these close to where we live, and we LOVED it when we went in Houston. As soon as we decided to go to WDW, I immediately looked to see if they had one in Orlando! :goodvibes So so so good!!

I was trying to hold off on posting my "Desired ADRs" or "To Eat" list until the trip got a little closer, I feel like I'm posting stuff left and right and will run out of things to say. After reading yours though, I think I might go ahead and get mine done too---so much good food to think about in the coming months!

I'm trying to keep this thing up so I don't forget about it and let it fall by the wayside. But I also don't want to post a ton of stuff now and run out of things by December! :laughing: I guess we'll be in the same boat for awhile. It's so much fun though!!

Thanks for the food suggestions & for reading! :thumbsup2

annnewjerz

04-29-2009, 10:38 AM

More than happy to try to keep another December WDW vacationer motivated and updating their PTR. I have liked reading yours so far since we're sort of in the same boat: Both will be 25, going in December, going with at least one parent (or in law), taking the KTTK tour---the only difference so far are the dates!

I understand about not wanting to run out of material too quickly when the trip is like 7 months away, but c'mon---there is always stuff to talk about. I'm thinking of starting a "Disney thought of the day" on my PTR just to keep it bumped and get more readers on board!! :lmao:

Looking forward to more updates!

khertz

04-30-2009, 02:15 PM

I was digging around in my closet today (we are having a much-needed garage sale on Saturday!) and came across a photo album of pictures from my first ever trip to Disney World! I don't remember very much about that trip at 9 years old. I remember a LOT of long, hot lines. But there are a few memories that stand out, and it got me a little nostalgic. :hug:

I wish wish wish I had the picture my mom took of me when I got the phone call from my aunt that she was taking me to Disney World! I remember all day my mom told me that Aunt Sheri & Uncle Mike would be calling me that night at a certain time with a surprise, so I better be ready by the phone. Well, my aunt called me from her dad's work, and there was a recorded voice telling me I had to accept the call. Not understanding that, I quickly hung up so that the phone line wouldn't be busy when my aunt called!! :rotfl: She teased me when she called back, saying since I had hung up on her, I wouldn't get my surprise! But then she asked if I wanted to go to Disney World with her and my uncle and I just remember screaming and screaming because I was SOOOOOOO excited!!!

We drove there in my uncle's tiny truck, following the big bus of high-school CYO teens that we were accompanying. My aunt's dad was one of the guys in charge of this particular CYO group, and some kids had cancelled, so they had spaces open for the trip, which is how the three of us got to go along. The backseat of the truck was TINY, and I was crammed in there along with a gigantic box of snacks. popcorn:: We drove all night, and made it to Orlando in the morning, and only got a couple hours sleep before we hit a park. (Bless my uncle's heart, I don't know how he made it that day in the park after driving all night, but he was a trooper!).

This is me & Uncle Mike:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/img014.jpg

We had one day in Universal Studios, one at Busch Gardens, and one at each Disney park: MK, Epcot, and MGM. Needless to say, middle of July and no fastpass? We didn't ride a lot of rides! But we still had a lot of fun. The most vivid memory that I have is being brave enough for Tower of Terror even though my uncle wasn't! He started out in line with me, my aunt, and a couple boys from the group, then chickened out. I remember getting stuck at the bottom after our big drop, and we were just sitting there for what felt like forever without the doors opening. I had been so tough, but then the boys started saying the other elevator was going to fall on top of us and I started panicking! But it was my first "thrill ride" and I was proud for getting through it. :thumbsup2

It was a long trip, and I know I was whiny so my aunt had to keep me in line sometimes. But that was/is normal for our relationship. She and my uncle were dating when I was born, but she always treated me as a blood relative, and loves me just as much as my uncle (my dad's brother) does. I was even the flower girl in their wedding a couple years before that trip! We have always had a close relationship.

Here's me & Sheri with the castle:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/img011.jpg

And a couple more pics before I close this post...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/img012.jpg
Me & Uncle Mike outside of MGM Studios.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/img010.jpg
Me with a girl from the CYO group (I think her name was Cherilyn?). She kind of "adopted" me on the trip, and took me on a lot of rides. I have a bunch of pictures with her!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/img013.jpg
I think this one was taken in Universal, but oh well!

khertz

05-07-2009, 09:34 PM

Today is an exciting & not-so-exciting day. DH ordered us a new camera to take with us to Hawaii next week, and it still hasn't arrived! It was supposedly shipped on 4/23 and was supposed to be delivered by 5/4. We're keeping fingers, toes, and everything else crossed that it shows up tomorrow or Saturday before we leave. So I was disappointed when I came home from work today and didn't see a package on my doorstep.

BUT...

We did get our :santa:Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party:santa: tickets in the mail!! We called and ordered them on 4/30 when they went on sale a day early, and man, am I glad we did. DH waited on hold for about 20 minutes before getting through to order. But I heard that people had MUCH longer waits when they called on May 1st. We'll be attending the party on 12/08, and I'm a little nervous since I found out after ordering that it is one of the nights that the AP discount is offered. But we are optimistic that we will have a great time regardless of the crowds.

Here they are:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4125.jpg

Another milestone to cross off of my list of to-do's!! Next up will be hopefully booking a flight next month.

Have a great weekend & thanks for reading (and if you are lurking, I love getting comments so please think about leaving one!)!!

jewels1916

05-11-2009, 01:17 PM

kawc1945

05-12-2009, 12:04 AM

Hey there...we'll be there 11/28 to 12/5! I'm new to the boards and am already addicted! I saw you have gotten your MVMCP tickets already and mentioned about it being on the same night as something else. What is it? Are there other nights to avoid when ordering the tickets? We haven't ordered ours yet but need to decide on a date. QUICK!

Forgive me for sounding dumb but when you get your ADR, is that when you get the package deal for Le Cellier and the candle light processional? Does the package just guarantee better seating?

I loved reading your PTR! :)

stacikristine

05-12-2009, 10:46 AM

Hi khertz!! I love your PTR so far. I'm so excited to hear all about going to Disney in December. It's one of my dreams...maybe someday. ;) So were you and your DH high school sweethearts? I saw that he went to Disney with you when he was 18... :lovestruc

khertz

05-15-2009, 06:41 PM

Hi Khertz! I just read on stacikristine's ptr that we will be going at the same time! Your plans look great! I am so excited to be going in December, I've always wanted to go see all the Christmas decorations, especially after I was there in September and saw all the Halloween decorations. I am going with my best friend from college. We are planning on doing MVMCP too, bit we have not ordered our tickets. I am wondering now if we should go ahead? Anyway, your plans look great! :) I am subbing to follow along!

Thanks for joining! :goodvibes My DH and I are practically the same as you. I had never been to Disney World when it was decorated for anything until we went on our honeymoon in October and saw all of the Halloween decorations. Then I decided Christmas decorations had to be next! I was probably over-anxious to order the MVMCP tickets just because I wanted to do SOMETHING with this trip since it is still so far away and too early for a lot of things! :laughing:

Hey there...we'll be there 11/28 to 12/5! I'm new to the boards and am already addicted! I saw you have gotten your MVMCP tickets already and mentioned about it being on the same night as something else. What is it? Are there other nights to avoid when ordering the tickets? We haven't ordered ours yet but need to decide on a date. QUICK!

Forgive me for sounding dumb but when you get your ADR, is that when you get the package deal for Le Cellier and the candle light processional? Does the package just guarantee better seating?

I loved reading your PTR! :)

Thanks for commenting! As far as the MVMCP tickets, I'm worried because I chose a party night that is also a discount night for annual passholders, so I'm worried that will increase the crowds. But I'm ready and amped for a good night no matter what. The only other dates I have read to avoid is weekend nights because more locals may attend on the weekends. Hope that helps. :)

The CP package gives you a voucher to get into the show earlier than standby, but it doesn't guarantee a better seat or even that you'll get a seat...you still have to line up pretty early from what I understand. But the package is seperate from a regular ADR for Le Cellier. You have to purchase the package to get the vouchers for the show. Head over to the Theme Parks & Strategies board and do a search for the Candlelight Processional (if you haven't yet), you'll find LOTS of info that way!! :thumbsup2

Hi khertz!! I love your PTR so far. I'm so excited to hear all about going to Disney in December. It's one of my dreams...maybe someday. ;) So were you and your DH high school sweethearts? I saw that he went to Disney with you when he was 18... :lovestruc

Thanks for commenting!! DH and I did start dating in high school. :love: We started dating right before my 16th birthday, and are about to make 8 years together at the end of May! He came with my family during my last year of high school, when he was a freshman in college and his quarter break fell on Mardi Gras week when we were going to WDW. :lovestruc I look forward to reading more on your PTR!!

khertz

05-23-2009, 12:43 PM

No Disney news, but DH and I did just get back from a trip to Hawaii, where I had a Disney-type experience. :thumbsup2

I have been reading about Dole Whips for a LONG time now, and had it on my list of things to try in Disney World this year. While we were in Hawaii on our way to a luau on the North Shore, we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation for a quick look around. As we walked through the gift shop and out towards the gardens, I noticed a lot of people walking around with ice cream in cones and cups, until I looked closer and realized they were actually DOLE WHIPS! So of course, I just HAD to get my own!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Hawaii/IMG_2347.jpg

Here it is, my first ever Dole Whip! It was even better than I had expected. So light and refreshing. And it was crazy all the stuff you could get on it! They had the floats, but you could also get it topped with crushed pineapple, caramel sauce, chocolate sauce or strawberry sauce. And if you got it in a waffle cone, it came with a stick of fresh pineapple stuck in it! Since I wasn't sure if I'd like it or not, I stuck with the plain whip in a cup.

And I've gotten this idea from reading other PTR's, but I'm thinking of doing a mini-TR of our Disneymoon from October '07. I wasn't a dis member then, so no TR was ever done except for on my livejournal. Anyone interested?? I may just do it anyway to keep myself occupied until I can accomplish something else with our December trip. :laughing:

Hope everyone has a great 3-day weekend & thanks for reading!

exwdwcm

05-26-2009, 11:24 AM

jewels1916

05-26-2009, 11:32 AM

Ha ha...I followed your lead and ordered my MVMCP tickets. Six months, shmix months. Since we can't make ADRs, or really make any plans yet, since we won't have December park hours FOREVER (dramatic, anyone? ;) ) I needed something to do for Disney. So, went ahead and did it. :) Now if only I can come up with a few more reasons to call Disney between now and when I can make my ADRs, I'll be all set.

Yay for your first Dole Whip! That looks yummy! I had my first one on my September trip, and it was a very memorable experience. I'd love to read a mini-TR of your Disneymoon, I think you should do that, definitely!

What night are y'all going to MVMCP?

stacikristine

05-26-2009, 11:47 AM

Thanks for commenting!! DH and I did start dating in high school. :love: We started dating right before my 16th birthday, and are about to make 8 years together at the end of May! He came with my family during my last year of high school, when he was a freshman in college and his quarter break fell on Mardi Gras week when we were going to WDW. :lovestruc I look forward to reading more on your PTR!!

How sweet that you started dating so young!! :lovestruc My parents dated in HS and I always thought that it was so great they were able to spend so much of their lives together. That's so special! Your Dole Whip looks so yummy! I have to admit, I've never had one, and I'd never even heard about it before I started DISing! :scared1: I know... I can't wait to try one!!!

annnewjerz

05-26-2009, 04:23 PM

Glad to hear the Dole Whip was all you expected and more!! I plan on having my first on our trip in December and was worried that it was over-hyped (like lots of things in WDW are, depending on your tastes) but your description of being light and sweet and refreshing convinced me that I'll love it :lovestruc

Did your camera arrive in time??

khertz

05-26-2009, 09:09 PM

Hi Khertz- enjoying your pre-trippie! how was hawaii? we had a dole whip there too! although at the MK - my fav is actually the pineapple/vanilla swirl dole float! it is yummy!

so your food plan sounds great- we also obsess over the food- it is a big part of the trip. we are doing the dining plan and really looking forward to it! you will love having all the table service meals, we try and do one at least once a day. the problem is it does 'eat' into your time, no pun intended! :rotfl:okay, it was intended! but it makes for a good 'break' too.

We have done Chef Mickey's dinner, but never breakfast. it sounds very good though!

Le Cellier is a fav of ours---lunch is much easier to get into and i heard Le Cellier is very hard to get nowadays. we like doing hte first lunch seating. the soup is amazing and I love the chocolate mousse too. you can also get great chocolate mousse in the cafe in france too.
We are not fans of rainforest cafe, I really feel it is overpriced bar food. we have one here in Dallas and only go to entertain the kids. The food just isn't great to me. it is fun to peek in and see the atmosphere, but i feel you pay for the atmosphere and the food is secondary. we avoid eating here when we can. I would vote for skipping it, there are so many other fabulous places to eat at the world instead.

Melting Pot- i LOVE it! we have one here in Dallas, but rarely go since it is pricey. but it is one of my favorites! you guys will enjoy it.

sounds like you are the coutner service expert! we love flame tree barbeque at AK---great food and you can find a seat on the deck area on the water overlooking EE! we always eat here.

on sit down meals- some other favs of ours are Sci Fi Dine inn (for the atmosphere more than food, although the BLT soup is great!). 50s prime time- love it- and HUGE portions to share. O'hana is a new fav of mine- it will be my family's first time on this trip. we really love the dinner there and time it just right to see the fireworks.

if you are looking for a great romantic get away dinner- California Grill is just incredible- great steak, sushi and wine. Plus if you time it right with a late seating, you can see WISHES from the window. WE did this and it was amazing. Or if you don't want to splurge for dinner (it can be pricey) then just go and have a glass of wine- they have a bar area and several seats near the window for the bar area too where you can enjoy a drink or appetizer and watch WISHES! very romantic.

Can't wait to read more!!! :thumbsup2

Hawaii was AMAZING! I just wish we could have stayed longer. We stayed on Oahu and in 4 1/2 days we hiked Diamond Head, went snorkeling, hiked to a waterfall, visited a palace and a botanical garden, shopped, and took a tour of LOST and movie filming locations! It was a great little trip.

Thanks for all the suggestions!! I think the more we look into it, we are going to skip Rainforest Cafe. I haven't heard many great things about the food, so it would just be for atmosphere, but that's a lot of $$ to pay just for atmosphere!!

DH & I are skipping 50's Prime Time just because he really doesn't like it there for some reason. It's my parents' favorite though, so they will probably eat there with my in-laws, and DH & I might do Sci-Fi at that time. We thought about doing it as a group, but my FIL is VERY tall, and I think he'd be uncomfortable cramming into the small car booths.

I will send DH the menu for California Grill though (he is working offshore right now)...it's one we hadn't really considered but might be nice for just the two of us once our parents go back home. :goodvibes

Ha ha...I followed your lead and ordered my MVMCP tickets. Six months, shmix months. Since we can't make ADRs, or really make any plans yet, since we won't have December park hours FOREVER (dramatic, anyone? ;) ) I needed something to do for Disney. So, went ahead and did it. :) Now if only I can come up with a few more reasons to call Disney between now and when I can make my ADRs, I'll be all set.

Yay for your first Dole Whip! That looks yummy! I had my first one on my September trip, and it was a very memorable experience. I'd love to read a mini-TR of your Disneymoon, I think you should do that, definitely!

What night are y'all going to MVMCP?

We will be there Tuesday December 8th! I can tell you, I was so psyched to get that envelope in the mail with the Lake Buena Vista return address!! I'm with you, I need SOMETHING to do for Disney! Even though I knew the night we wanted probably wouldn't sell out until much closer, I just felt like I needed to be accomplishing something. LoL Today at work I printed out a bunch of info for my binder...have to keep busy somehow!

How sweet that you started dating so young!! :lovestruc My parents dated in HS and I always thought that it was so great they were able to spend so much of their lives together. That's so special! Your Dole Whip looks so yummy! I have to admit, I've never had one, and I'd never even heard about it before I started DISing! :scared1: I know... I can't wait to try one!!!

Aw, thanks! We actually have our "dating anniversary" coming at the end of this month...8 years together! Sometimes it feels like the time flew by and sometimes it feels like we've known each other forever! :love:

I have to say, I was skeptical about the Dole Whip, but it was actually VERY good! I hope you get to try one. :thumbsup2

Glad to hear the Dole Whip was all you expected and more!! I plan on having my first on our trip in December and was worried that it was over-hyped (like lots of things in WDW are, depending on your tastes) but your description of being light and sweet and refreshing convinced me that I'll love it :lovestruc

Did your camera arrive in time??

I started out skeptical about the Dole Whip, but it won me over in the end. :rotfl: I think now since I've tried a plain one, I may get the swirl in Disney. Hmmm...so much to think about!

And no, the camera had actually NEVER been shipped, even though amazon told us it had! But we took my dad's camera and took over 1,000 pictures! It worked out in the end.

jewels1916

05-28-2009, 10:23 AM

We are going to be there on Tuesday the 8th too! I figured it wouldn't be QUITE as crowded since it was a weeknight. Ours came in the mail yesterday, and when I saw that Lake Buena Vista return address, I was giddy. It was the first official piece of mail I had received regarding this trip! Good times! :santa:

khertz

05-28-2009, 10:50 AM

khertz

06-01-2009, 05:15 PM

Pre Mini TR? I think I just made that up! But since I loved wedding pictures (especially my own! :love:), I thought I would start there before beginning the Mini-TR of my honeymoon. I have to apologize in advance for the pictures in the Mini-TR...I went into the trip not planning to scrapbook or document the trip in any way, so I didn't take a lot of pictures of the things we did! I promise to remedy this before the next TR! :laughing:

DH and I got married on September 29th, 2007. I did my best to push it as far back into September as I could, praying God wouldn't send us a hurricane that week, and He didn't! Even though a Disney World wedding wasn't an option, we decided to add some Disney touches to the wedding since that's where we were honeymooning.

I got a lot of grief for choosing that as our honeymoon destination. I ran into a friend of my grandmother's at the AAA office when I was going to pick up our vacation package. When I told her where we were going, she kind of scoffed and said, "Haven't you been there already?" Unfortunately I got that a lot. But DH and I couldn't have been happier with our choice to honeymoon Disney style! Even though he had already been with my family on a trip a few years before, it was so different just being the 2 of us (that's why we've tacked on some days to the December trip for just us!). We only had to make ourselves happy, not three other traveling companions who all had different priorities when it came to food, attractions, and shows. Not to mention my parents drove him crazy because that was the trip when they decided to video tape EVERYTHING! :rotfl: But he lived.

So anyway, on to the pictures. Our photographer was Robert Faust (http://robertfaustphotography.com) and I will recommend him to the highest degree! So if you know anyone in Baton Rouge or New Orleans with a wedding coming up and no photographer, send them to Robert!! He was amazing.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/004.jpg
My bouquet & accessories

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/017.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/052.jpg
Me with my bridesmaids, junior bridesmaid & flower girls!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/094.jpg
DH with his guys.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/098.jpg
Handsome DH. :goodvibes

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/153.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/191.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/204.jpg
The kissing Mickey & Minnie bobble heads on our guestbook table. :love2:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/252.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/265.jpg
Our first dance...I was so excited!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/317.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/338.jpg
DH's Mardi Gras float grooms cake! Mardi Gras is his favorite holiday. :laughing:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/404.jpg

Next post will be our first day in Disney World for our honeymoon...unless Southwest opens up more flights. Then the next post might be plane tickets! :dance3:

Have a great week & thanks for reading. :goodvibes

stacikristine

06-03-2009, 08:03 PM

exwdwcm

06-04-2009, 11:10 AM

Love the wedding pics- just gorgeous!!!

and lol at the 'dating anniversary', DH and I have that too- we dated for 8 years before getting married (wanted to graduate, get jobs etc.), so in 2009, we hit our 16th 'dating anniversary' and our '8th wedding anniversary'! :goodvibes Man, that almost makes me sound really old! :confused3;)

I also ordered our MVMCP tickets after seeing your post! I was afraid of it selling out, since we are going closer to Christmas. We selected Tuesday, Dec 15th. We did the Tuesday of our trip in 2005- it was like the first week in Dec and it was great. it didn't sell out. TIP- we skipped the first parade at MVMCP and managed to ride a LOT while everyone else was lining up for parade and watching. I think we did Peter Pan, Small World, Pooh, Dumbo, Philharmagic, Pirates and JC in like 2 hours. it was great.

khertz

06-04-2009, 10:10 PM

Awww!! Thanks for sharing wedding pictures! :goodvibes You were a gorgeous bride! Didn't you just love having red as a wedding color? I had never planned on it, but it just made sense with a Dec. wedding, and now I wouldn't change it for anything! I love the Disney touches. I can't wait to hear about your WDW honeymoon too! :)

I'm glad you liked them! Thanks for the compliments. :goodvibes I absolutely fell in love with that red when I started looking at dresses. I had thought I wanted more pastel-type colors until I saw that red and almost the whole wedding came together in my head! :laughing: It couldn't have been more perfect except if I could have gotten that color duplicated on my wedding cake. But unfortunately the only reds she could do was a BRIGHT red that I didn't like or a red that was more burgundy and looked a little brown in pictures. So we went for all white instead.

I'm hoping to do the first honeymoon post tomorrow because DH is coming home from offshore (:yay:) tomorrow afternoon, and I don't spend as much time on the computer when he is home.

Love the wedding pics- just gorgeous!!!

and lol at the 'dating anniversary', DH and I have that too- we dated for 8 years before getting married (wanted to graduate, get jobs etc.), so in 2009, we hit our 16th 'dating anniversary' and our '8th wedding anniversary'! :goodvibes Man, that almost makes me sound really old! :confused3;)

I also ordered our MVMCP tickets after seeing your post! I was afraid of it selling out, since we are going closer to Christmas. We selected Tuesday, Dec 15th. We did the Tuesday of our trip in 2005- it was like the first week in Dec and it was great. it didn't sell out. TIP- we skipped the first parade at MVMCP and managed to ride a LOT while everyone else was lining up for parade and watching. I think we did Peter Pan, Small World, Pooh, Dumbo, Philharmagic, Pirates and JC in like 2 hours. it was great.

It makes me happy to hear y'all had a good experience with a Tuesday night party in early December! I'm a little nervous about it, but I had read that strategy before about going to the 2nd parade, and I think it will really work to our advantage that we'll be a group of 6 adults with no kids. We can take advantage of short lines during the first one when everyone with small kids wants to see it so the kids won't sleep during the 2nd one. :laughing: I'm hoping we'll all be able to make it to midnight for the party ending so we can maximize our time in MK.

DH said he doesn't think our "dating anniversary" should count, but I told him that basically then negates almost 6 years that we were together! Such a man, can't take that he has to remember one more date out of the year. :rotfl:

khertz

06-05-2009, 04:07 PM

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30th - ARRIVAL DAY!

The morning after our wedding, we got to the New Orleans airport and went through security pretty quickly, so we had lots of time to spare. I was so nervous about the whole experience because I had never been on a plane before in my life. And I had no idea what to do at the airport, so I was glad DH knew where to go and all that because I’d have been so lost otherwise. :laughing: We grabbed some lunch and walked around a bit before going to sit and wait to board. I was beyond nervous at that point, as we headed onto the [tiny] plane. I sat by the window, so that I could see the take-off and anything, and I relaxed pretty well once we got in the air. After flying, I will NEVER AGAIN drive to Orlando. It took only an hour and a half to get there, versus 10 hours in a car.

Navigating the Orlando airport was a little more difficult, and we had no idea where to go to catch the Disney’s Magical Express that would take us to the hotel. We ended up finding a family who was asking someone at the airport where to go to catch the Magical Express, so we just followed them all the way there. After a thirty minute bus ride, we ended up at the Port Orleans French Quarter.

After checking in, they gave us our “Just Married” pins and showed us to our room. We were in a building close to the main building where the food court is and where you catch the busses, which was great. And we had a corner room with two windows that overlooked a gorgeous courtyard and the river behind the resort. It was gorgeous. Absolutely nothing like the REAL French Quarter of course, but an incredible place to stay in Disney, nonetheless.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney01.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney02.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney03.jpg
Our king room

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney04.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney14.jpg
Sporting our pins!

That night, we planned out which days we’d go to which parks based on which ones had the Extra Magic Hours for the resort guests.

UP NEXT: Animal Kingdom (morning EMH)

khertz

06-07-2009, 11:22 AM

MONDAY OCTOBER 1st - ANIMAL KINGDOM (am EMH)

We were up bright and early Monday morning to head out to the busses and get to Animal Kingdom. DH convinced me to wear the Just Married pin, at least for the first day, even though I thought they were dorky. Let me tell you, after all the attention we got on that first day with people telling us “Congratulations” all the time, we wore those things every day! It was great!

Photopass guys were out & about already, so we stopped outside to have our pictures taken in front of the park. This was our first time using Photopass and we LOVED it! (It was actually a pain in Hawaii a few weeks ago to have to ask strangers to take our picture all the time...I kept hoping a photopass photographer or two would pop up!)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney14-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney15.jpg
I <3 the Tree of Life!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney15-1.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney15-6.jpg

The first thing we did was head to Africa and get a Fast Pass for the Kilimanjaro Safaris, because the line was ridiculous. On the way, we passed Baloo, Timon & Rafiki, and stopped for pictures!

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I love Timon, he's just my size! :rotfl:

Then we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, and took some pictures of the animals. It was actually kind of fun, because I’ve never done the exploration trails any other visit. And the weather was nice and cool, so the animals were all out and about.

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Then we went back to the Safaris, and took our ride. That’s definitely one of my favorites!

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And then, we headed over to Asia for Expedition Everest. I was SO excited about it, because it was one of the only rides that neither of us had ever been on. And my parents had raved about it the last time they had gone to Disney. The line was surprisingly short, considering by that time, the park was open to the public. We were able to ride it twice in a row! It was easily one of the best roller coasters in Disney, and one of the highlights of the trip.

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Per DH's insistence, because I would have been happy to skip them altogether, we then went to Dinoland U.S.A to ride DINOSAUR [the one Disney ride I truly hate because it scares me so badly still], and the Primeval Whirl, which I don’t like just because I can’t stomach spinny rides all that well. And just as it started raining, we jumped in line for Finding Nemo the Musical and were able to escape it inside.

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The show was so cute! Probably one of the best in Disney, including Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which has long been one of my favorites. It was interactive and bright and colorful. And I'm a big kid at heart and absolutely love Nemo, so it was definitely a big hit in my book.

We headed through Discovery Island and had lunch at Pizzafari. After riding Everest one more time, we headed out to the busses and made our way to the hotel for a nap, and then to Magic Kingdom, which was having EMH that night from 9-12 am!

UP NEXT: PM EMH at Magic Kingdom!

dhertz

06-07-2009, 01:30 PM

MONDAY OCTOBER 1st - ANIMAL KINGDOM (am EMH)

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UP NEXT: PM EMH at Magic Kingdom!

I love the MeerKat. This was the highlight of Animal Kingdom for me. I still remember when he popped up and started looking around trying to find me in the crowd.

stacikristine

06-08-2009, 10:50 AM

Great mini-TR updates!! :thumbsup2 I'm really looking forward to photopass pictures too...we have to ask people to take it or just take the arm-length pictures all the time... :rolleyes:

khertz

06-08-2009, 09:42 PM

I love the MeerKat. This was the highlight of Animal Kingdom for me. I still remember when he popped up and started looking around trying to find me in the crowd.

:rotfl: You are so crazy about the meerkat! I love you. :love:

Great mini-TR updates!! :thumbsup2 I'm really looking forward to photopass pictures too...we have to ask people to take it or just take the arm-length pictures all the time... :rolleyes:

We have mastered the arm-length pictures! :laughing: I'll be glad to be back in Disney where we don't have to do that all the time!!

And just so you know, your kick *** Disney binder inspired me, so I scrounged for supplies around the house and knocked out a pretty good chunk of stuff for mine! When I'm finished "decorating" it, I'll have to post pics. :goodvibes

khertz

06-10-2009, 07:49 PM

MONDAY OCTOBER 1st Part II: Magic Kingdom (pm EMH)

After finishing up at Animal Kingdom, we hopped on a bus over to the Magic Kingdom!! I was ecstatic about this, because of course, it's my favorite park.

There’s absolutely nothing that can be said about walking into the Magic Kingdom for the first time on each trip. It’s hands down one of my favorite parts of every Disney trip. And this time, since it was October, everything was already decorated for Halloween! I Neither of us had ever been to Disney World when it was decorated for anytihng so this was a nice, unexpected treat. I guess we hadn't really thought about things being decorated so early in October? And this was of course, a trip taken before I joined the DIS, so I knew a LOT less than I know now. :lmao:

So before entering the park, we took some pictures of the decorations, and spotted a Photopass photographer!

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We walked down Main Street, U.S.A, got our pictures taken in front of Cinderella’s Castle from several angles. The sky was kind of dreary in the background, but that is pretty representative of our whole week in Orlando, so it's kind of fitting.

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After take allllll those pictures, we headed into Tomorrowland!

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First we did Stitch’s Great Escape, which was still a lot like the original Alien Encounter except not scary and with Stitch. I remember how terrifying that ride was the very first time my dad and I went on it! And then we hit Space Mountain with no wait! We actually rode it a bunch of times this trip, but for some reason we would always get Fast Passes "just in case." We never needed them though, and tried giving them away, but always found people who were trying to give away their own SM Fast Passes! Then we went on the Carousel of Progress which has always been one of my favorites. I know some people think it's boring, but I love it! And to finish off Tomorrowland, we went on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. DH of course kicked my butt on this every time we rode it. :rotfl: I have no hope of beating him on games like this, but that's a good thing because he is so competitive. I'm sure he wouldn't appreciate me beating him!

We spotted some CM's passing out the wristbands for EMH, so we picked ours up before heading to Toontown!

UP NEXT: Finish up pm EMH at Magic Kingdom!

khertz

06-12-2009, 10:07 AM

stacikristine

06-16-2009, 03:55 PM

Not an update, just a little distressed post to get it off my chest. I lost the ring DH gave me while we were dating as the promise ring that someday he'd ask me to marry him. :sad1: So if you remember, I said we'd been together 8 years, and I got the ring after about a year, so I've been wearing it every day for 7 years, and now it's just gone! I've torn the house apart looking for it, and said a prayer to St. Anthony, but no ring yet. So if any of y'all have a spare moment in your day and are the praying type, say a little prayer for me that I find that ring. It was only something like $100, but the sentimental value is priceless.

:hug: I'm sooo sorry. I'll say a prayer that you find it. I know that the sentimental value is what you'll miss. I'd help you look for it if I could!

And just so you know, your kick *** Disney binder inspired me, so I scrounged for supplies around the house and knocked out a pretty good chunk of stuff for mine! When I'm finished "decorating" it, I'll have to post pics. :goodvibes

I'm so glad I've inspired you to make a binder! YES--post pictures!!! I still need to take more pics of my new pages and post them up here...

Great job on the mini TR! I'm loving reading about your trip :thumbsup2

khertz

06-17-2009, 03:27 PM

:hug: I'm sooo sorry. I'll say a prayer that you find it. I know that the sentimental value is what you'll miss. I'd help you look for it if I could!

I found it!! It was in one of my dresser drawers. I must have taken the rings off and had them in my hands when I went to go grab something out of the drawer. I went into it a few days later, and grabbed a shirt, and the ring just came rolling across the bottom of the drawer. Such a relief!!

khertz

06-17-2009, 03:36 PM

MONDAY OCTOBER 1st Part III: Magic Kingdom (pm EMH continued...)

We came out of Tomorrowland and went through Mickey’s house in Mickey’s Toontown Fair, but the line to meet Mickey was incredibly long, so we didn’t do that, but put in on our list to do another day. In all my trips to Disney World, I realized I had NEVER gotten a picture with Mickey Mouse, and that just didn't feel right!

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We had dinner at Cosmic Ray’s, and I scored 2 free brownies because of our Just Married pins! :woohoo: Unfortunately, they tasted terrible and we ended up throwing them away, but it was fun getting all of the extra treatment!!

That night with the Extra Magic Hours, we were able to do pretty much everything we wanted to do in Magic Kingdom. As it started getting darker, we went over to Fantasyland and rode Mad Tea Party. I had never ridden this ride because spinning rides make me sick even to THINK about riding them. But it's DH's favorite, and we were on our honeymoon, so I decided to strap on my big girl panties and ride with him. :rotfl: But I made sure to tell him he wasn't allowed to spin it TOO FAST!

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Then we rode Snow White’s Scary Adventures, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and “it’s a small world” while the SpectroMagic Parade was going on. We caught Wishes! from Fantasyland. It was very close to where the fireworks were going off, and it wasn’t the full effect because you had to look in so many different directions to see all of the fireworks. But it was still incredible.

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Once the fireworks were over, we did some more in Fantasyland, like Mickey’s PhilharMagic, which DH had never done and he loved because it starred Donald Duck, his favorite Disney character. I really wanted to do Peter Pan’s Flight, but throughout the whole night, the wait for that was over 40 minutes, even though all the major attractions had less than 10 minute waits! We went to Liberty Square and rode the updated Haunted Mansion, which was very cool. We headed for Frontierland, only to find out that Splash Mountain was having technical difficulties and wasn’t running that night, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was closed for repairs! :sad1: That kind of stunk. The last thing we did that night was go to Adventureland to ride the new Pirates of the Caribbean with Jack Sparrow in it. Very cool! But we decided to skip Jungle Cruise since it was so dark outside.

On our way out of the park, we started looking in some of the shops on Main Street to get an idea of what we’d like to buy for souvenirs, but didn’t buy anything. And then we headed back to the hotel and literally crashed because it had been SUCH a long day!

UP NEXT: am EMH at Epcot!

mmmbop

06-20-2009, 01:55 AM

There's nothing like Disney at Christmas time!!

It'll be nice to be with all your family! And at least you'll get some time alone as well ;)

khertz

06-20-2009, 12:41 PM

There's nothing like Disney at Christmas time!!

It'll be nice to be with all your family! And at least you'll get some time alone as well ;)

I'm soooooo excited to see the World dressed up for Christmas!! :yay:

As much as I'm looking forward to the trip with everyone, I kind of wish DH and I had planned more time for just the two of us. I'm still trying to convince him to add just ONE more day! But I don't think I'll be successful in that department. :rotfl: I'm just so happy that after all of this time planning, it really is starting to feel closer & closer!

exwdwcm

06-24-2009, 10:01 AM

I'm soooooo excited to see the World dressed up for Christmas!! :yay:

As much as I'm looking forward to the trip with everyone, I kind of wish DH and I had planned more time for just the two of us. I'm still trying to convince him to add just ONE more day! But I don't think I'll be successful in that department. :rotfl: I'm just so happy that after all of this time planning, it really is starting to feel closer & closer!it really will be here before you know it! I know we are counting down.

I've also considered adding more days, but I think DH would kill me......i thought about making our return flight later in the day (it is at 9:30am, which means an EARLY morning that last day), but he might kill me for htat too. :rotfl: how long are you guys staying again?

khertz

06-25-2009, 09:50 PM

it really will be here before you know it! I know we are counting down.

I've also considered adding more days, but I think DH would kill me......i thought about making our return flight later in the day (it is at 9:30am, which means an EARLY morning that last day), but he might kill me for htat too. :rotfl: how long are you guys staying again?

We'll be arriving on the 4th, parks from the 5th-14th, and flying out late that night on the 14th...probably around 7:30-8ish. I'm trying to really maximize our time in the parks!!

I know what you mean about it being here before I know it...after all this time planning, I can't believe we're already down to less than 6 months! That alone has me really excited about it. Unfortunately, it feels even farther away though because the weather has been so excruciatingly HOT here...it feels like December will never come!

cjackearl

06-29-2009, 02:54 PM

I'm in and going back to catch up.:thumbsup2

khertz

06-29-2009, 05:29 PM

I'm in and going back to catch up.:thumbsup2

:welcome: & thanks for joining!!

cjackearl

06-29-2009, 08:20 PM

khertz

06-30-2009, 11:13 AM

TUESDAY OCTOBER 2nd - EPCOT (am EMH)
The next morning was an Extra Magic Hour in Epcot, so that’s where we went first. It was already raining that morning, and it rained for the first little bit that we were in the park, which wasn’t much fun. Just inside, we spotted our favorite thing...Photopass photographers!

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We headed into Future World and went immediately to Mission Space, which was new to DH, but I had done it a couple years before on a trip with the family. And it was the first time I had been on it where they had a spinning and non-spinning version of the ride. But we are thrill junkies, so it was no question that we were riding Team Orange! While we were waiting to load into the "space shuttle" a dad and his son that were in the line with us to get in the pod chickened out last minute, so it was just DH and I in it and we did all the buttons for the different “jobs” they give you to do. It was fun to have our own personal ride into space!

We went on Test Track a couple of times, which was fun. I found my new ride while I was there too. Haha

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We walked through some of the Innoventions stuff, but didn't spend a lot of time with anything since this was our only day in Epcot. I'd like to spend more time here next trip, which is why I'm allotting two days for Epcot!

Then we headed over to the Land and went on Soarin, which was new to both of us also and pretty cool. I liked it but didn't quite get all the hype over it. We also waited in line forever for The Seas with Nemo & Friends, which was cute, but probably not worth the wait. At least they’ve made Epcot a little more interesting over the years. I remember dreading our Epcot days on my trips as a kid because I thought it was so boring!

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After riding Journey Into Imagination With Figment, anda quick lunch at Electric Umbrella, we went over to World Showcase and wandered a bit, but didn't really experience much...another thing I'd like to change on the next trip! I've never seen any of the movies in the countries, which is something I'd like to do. All of the photopass pictures in this batch were from the same photographer who followed us to a bunch of locations around Canada to take our pictures! She loved my rings and kept encouraging me to show them off. Haha. So I'll let the pictures tell our trip around the World Showcase.

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Continued in next post...

khertz

06-30-2009, 11:40 AM

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The only ride we did in WS was the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico, which was changed since the last I had been there. DH was excited because he LOVES Donald Duck! It was cheesy, but cute and relaxing. Unfortunately, Maelstrom was down, so we didn't get to ride that one. Bummer!

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On our way out of the park, we hit up The Art of Disney store, and found out that Larry Dotson was there. We ended up buying an oil painting of Cinderella’s Castle, and he was going to personalize it with “Congratulations Kristy & Dustin” and our wedding date. We had to get it sent to the hotel so that he had time to personalize it, and so the store could frame it, but that turned out crappy. When we went to pick it up, he had spelled my name Kristi, so the lady at the store in the resort where we picked it up was very helpful. She called the store, and found out the artist wouldn’t be back till Monday, so we had to get it sent back so the artist could fix it, and then they had to ship it to our house. That was kind of disappointing, but it's now hanging in our living room with my name spelled CORRECTLY!

By this time, my Dramamine fatigue was starting to catch up with me, so we caught a bus back to POFQ for a nap before heading to MK for the evening!

khertz

06-30-2009, 11:49 AM

All caught up.:goodvibes I'm so jelous of your Hawaii trip. I'd love to go there someday.:cloud9:

Your wedding pictures are just darling. You and your husband make a gorgeous couple. I really liked the last photo with you and DH in color and everyone else in B & W.:thumbsup2

Disney all dressed up for Christmas sounds heavenly.:love: You're smart to take Disney trips at less crowded times before school schedules start to run your vacation plans.:thumbsup2

Hawaii was amazing, and definitely unexpected. DH works offshore, and they were slow for a long time, so the bosses started encouraging people to take vacation now while there weren't any jobs to send them out. Of course, my first suggestion was Disneyland for his birthday! But then we saw how affordable Hawaii was that time of year, and found availability at our timeshare resort in Waikiki Beach, and it all kind of fell into place! I hope you get to go someday. It's gorgeous.

Thanks...that's one of my favorite pictures too. Our wedding photographers were awesome! :thumbsup2

khertz

07-04-2009, 11:49 AM

We just booked our return flight! :banana:

I have been anxiously checking the Southwest website for the entire month of June, waiting for them to open dates beyond October 30th. We were only really checking Southwest because they are the ONLY airline we have found with direct flights from New Orleans to Orlando. Finally, on June 23rd, they had flights available through January 2010, so it was time to start booking. Luckily, we waited a few days and watched before buying. When they had first posted flights, all flights to and from Orlando were $96, which was great. But just waiting a few days really paid off, since we just booked our return flight for $73 each! Can't beat that!! :thumbsup2

So we are officially booked on Southwest flight 2818 departing from Orlando (MCO) at 7:10 pm EST and arriving in New Orleans (MSY) at 8:00 pm CST!

We already know what flight we want to get to go to Orlando. It leaves from New Orleans at 8:00 am and arrives in Orlando at 10:40 am EST. It's still at $96, so we are going to watch it for a little while before buying to see if we get lucky and that one goes down in price too!

Progress...FINALLY!! :woohoo: :dance3:

:yay: Today is exactly 5 months before we leave!! :yay:

cjackearl

07-04-2009, 07:57 PM

Score on the airline tickets.:thumbsup2 And here's a dancing banana for 5 months until Disney.:banana: Your trip will be here before you know it.:)

stacikristine

07-06-2009, 12:45 PM

YAY! Those prices are great! I've heard that if you book with Southwest, you can get money credited to you if the price goes down between your booking time and your departure. You might check into it! :thumbsup2

khertz

07-06-2009, 08:26 PM

Score on the airline tickets.:thumbsup2 And here's a dancing banana for 5 months until Disney.:banana: Your trip will be here before you know it.:)

Thanks for the dancing banana!! I'm giving myself two more because I'm sooo excited!! :banana: :banana:

YAY! Those prices are great! I've heard that if you book with Southwest, you can get money credited to you if the price goes down between your booking time and your departure. You might check into it! :thumbsup2

Yeah, the prices aren't bad even if they don't go down anymore. $96/person is still pretty cheap with the way things are in the economy right now! I'll look into that Southwest thing, because that would be great if that were the case. Thanks for the tip!

jewels1916

07-10-2009, 12:03 PM

Hey, I'm back! Yay for the plane tickets! I know finding those tickets is a huge weight off your shoulders! And aren't you glad that we are LESS THAN 5MONTHS TIL OUR TRIPS?

khertz

07-10-2009, 05:10 PM

Hey, I'm back! Yay for the plane tickets! I know finding those tickets is a huge weight off your shoulders! And aren't you glad that we are LESS THAN 5MONTHS TIL OUR TRIPS?

Girl, I am SUPER PSYCHED that my counter starts out with 4 months!! We are already discussing a weekend for the 6 of us to get together and have a Disney planning session. Can't wait!!

khertz

07-10-2009, 05:17 PM

DH and I went to my parents' last night for a great dinner and came home with a great idea! We are challenging ourselves to watch a (LONG!) list of movies related to all of the attractions featured in the parks. We got the idea from my parents, who have been getting some of the movies from the Universal attractions that they haven't seen in awhile or never seen at all. I decided to stretch that to include Disney movies too! So this morning, DH and I pulled up park maps online and compiled a list. I'm hoping to watch them ALL before we leave! DH won't be able to watch them all since he goes offshore for two weeks at a time, so in those weeks, I'll watch the movies he's not as interested in seeing. Here's our list!

Magic Kingdom

Toy Story
Cinderella
Dumbo
Alice In Wonderland
Monsters Inc.
Peter Pan
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Snow White
Lilo & Stitch
Aladdin
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

Epcot

Honey I Shrunk the Kids
Finding Nemo

Hollywood Studios

Beauty & the Beast
Indiana Jones
The Muppet Movie
The Little Mermaid

Animal Kingdom

Dinosaur
The Lion King
A Bug's Life

Universal Studios

Shrek
The Mummy
Twister
Terminator
The Simpsons Movie
Men In Black
Jaws
E.T.

Islands of Adventure

Spiderman
The Incredible Hulk
Jurassic Park

I'm excited and up to the challenge! :thumbsup2

khertz

07-22-2009, 10:21 PM

Probably not exciting to anyone else, but I think DH and I have finally come up with a plan for who is going to keep our babies while we are in Disney...

Backstory: DH's grandmother has kept them for every trip we have been on since getting married, which is quite a few. She lives minutes from the New Orleans airport, which is usually cheaper (and easier!) to fly out of than the small Lafayette airport. So we drive the two hours to NOLA, stay with her the night before we leave, and she drives us to the airport, watches our kitties, and picks us up when we fly home. It's worked perfectly for 4 trips now. BUT...now she is moving to McComb, Mississippi, which is about two and a half hours from NOLA and even further from Lafayette, where DH and I live. We were killing ourselves trying to figure out to do with them and trying to think of how we'd get ourselves to the airport!

DH's parents also live in McComb, and we found out that his grandmother was going to be staying at their house to keep an eye on their dog Nutmeg while they were in Disney with us, so we started thinking...and this is what we came up with.

On Thursday before we leave, we will have all our stuff packed and drive to McComb. Leave the cats there for his grandmother to keep an eye on too, then drive to my parents' house to stay the night. It'll make for a full house since DH's parents will be staying there too. Friday morning, we'll get everyone up early, and they will "drop us off" at the airport before they begin their long journey on I-10 to Orlando!

On the Monday we come home, my Mom said she would pick us up from the airport, and we can stay that night at her house. The next morning, we'll either drive all the way to McComb to collect our kitties, or see if my DMIL would be willing to drive them to my parents' house and save us some driving. Hopefully it will all go as smoothly in reality as it sounds in my head. :rotfl:

Here are the babies in question, so you can see their cuteness...who wouldn't want to keep my little darlings for 10 days?? Linus is on the left, and Callie is on the right.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/DSCN2761.jpg

As I type this, Callie is streaking around the house in one of her crazy spells. :rotfl2:

In other planning news, the flight we want to book going to Orlando went up in price and is now $101. You win some, you lose some. Still not a terrible price though! Hopefully we can get those booked soon!

DH and I have been making serious progress on our movie list! We have already knocked out Shrek, Jurassic Park & The Lost World, Beauty & the Beast, The Lion King, Peter Pan, and we just got Jaws and E.T. in the mail from Netflix, so those will likely be next.

Working on more mini-TR posts...I need to finish those before the real TR starts!

As an aside, who has seen HARRY POTTER & THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE?! I loved it!! And just like every other time I've seen an HP movie in theaters, I've started reading the series AGAIN! I'm already on Prisoner of Azkaban, which is my second favorite book after Order of the Phoenix. Fun stuff. :thumbsup2 I admit it, I'm an HP nerd through & through!

stacikristine

07-23-2009, 09:59 AM

cjackearl

07-23-2009, 11:13 AM

Aw, if Michigan were a little closer to Louisiana I'd keep them for you.:flower3: I miss my fur babies.:sad1:

khertz

07-24-2009, 10:50 AM

Yay! I'm glad you found someone to keep your "babies"! :goodvibes Yes--I hope it all goes SUPER smoothly!! And YAY for watching so many Disney Movies! If I finish my papers (I have 2 due Sunday/Monday) today, we might have a Disney Date Night... :rolleyes: Your trip is getting closer and closer!

Thanks! We are too! :goodvibes It's been stressing me out for quite some time, trying to think of who else could keep them. Callie can be high maintenance (she likes to try to escape!), and all the people who knew her quirks and would know to watch for her were all going on vacation with us or moving! So it'll take some driving and gas money on our part, but at least I can rest easy that my kitties are taken care of.

Good luck on your papers!! I sure don't miss that. :laughing:

Aw, if Michigan were a little closer to Louisiana I'd keep them for you.:flower3: I miss my fur babies.:sad1:

Thanks for the offer anyway! :thumbsup2 They are really fun to keep, Callie can be quite entertaining, and we call Linus our gentleman because he just loves being sweet to you.

khertz

07-24-2009, 11:09 AM

TUESDAY OCTOBER 2nd - MAGIC KINGDOM

We started off by hitting the rides we hadn’t gotten to ride the night before, so we went to Adventureland first to ride the Jungle Cruise [our guide was easily one of the funniest and most entertaining in all of the times I’ve been on that ride!], and then to visit The Enchanted Tiki Room. DH loves the Tiki song, so this attraction is kind of a disappointment because you only get to hear it for a minute or so. But it's still something we find ourselves doing every time we are in Disney.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney54.jpg

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The line for Pirates was ridiculous, so we didn’t ride that again. But as it started getting later, we went over to Frontierland and rode Splash Mountain twice in a row because the line was so short. And it’s my favorite ride in Magic Kingdom, so I was very excited about it. DH...not so much. :laughing: He absolutely HATES getting wet, but I still convinced him he had to ride with me being my favorite ride and all, so he obliged. You know the part when you go down the little short drop and don't really get wet, but then you end up stopped right where the big drop is and the water cannons are shooting? Yeah, got stopped there and the cannon got DH SOAKED! He was not happy about that, yet somehow I managed to convince him to go on a second time, but only after I promised to swap sides with him so that I got blasted by the cannon instead. :lmao:

We tried to get over to Fantasyland, but we got stuck in Liberty Square by the parade, so we figured we might as well get some pictures since we weren’t going anywhere.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney54-3.jpg

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After the parade, we went to the shops on Main Street to wait for Wishes and to do some shopping so we could get everything sent to the hotel, since the park was about to close anyway. I got to see most of the fireworks from Main Street, including seeing Tinkerbell come out of the Castle. But since we had seen most of the fireworks the night before, we left before it was over so that we wouldn’t get stuck in the huge crowd leaving the park at the end and have to wait forever for a bus. It worked out perfectly, and we were back in our room and crashed once again.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3rd - MGM

Wednesday was MGM all day! I’ll start off by saying how thoroughly disappointed I was in the fact that the Rock’n’Roller Coaster was CLOSED, and scheduled to reopen Friday while our last day in Disney was Thursday. I tried unsuccessfully to convince DH to buy a one-day ticket for Friday just to go ride it before going to Universal. If I had known then what I know now, I'd know I could add a day to our tickets for dirt cheap, but oh well. Something to look forward to in December, I guess!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney55.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney57.jpg

First up...Photopass photographer!

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We got some great pictures with some celebrities...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney58.jpg

This one was for my dad, he's a HUGE fan of The Andy Griffith Show.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney59.jpg

Not sure what we are pointing at. lol

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney61.jpg

DH & I with Walt Disney

And then as we were walking towards Star Tours, we heard some voices including Darth Vader, so we hurried over there and found them doing the Jedi Training for kids. It was so cute watching them all “fight” Darth Vader. The line for Star Tours was short, so we jumped in of course.

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UP NEXT: More MGM...and DH gets soaked AGAIN!

khertz

07-31-2009, 01:32 PM

:banana: WE HAVE PARK TICKETS!! :banana:

After months of bugging the crud out of him, I finally convinced DH that we should go ahead an buy our park tickets now before the price increase rumored to be coming in August. I don't know that this would have even affected us because I bought them from ticketsatwork.com, a website my hospital participates in to get its employees discounts on all kinds of tickets, not just Disney parks. They have had the same ticket prices most of the year, so we bought two 5-day park hoppers for DH's parents and two 7-day park hoppers for us, plus 7-day 2-park Universal tickets for all four of us. My parents will be buying theirs through AAA to get the parking passes.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4245.jpg

We saved quite a bit of money through using this website, which is awesome because Disney tickets can be expensive! They technically were Buy 3 Get 2 Days Free, and Buy 4 Get 3 days Free tickets.

Without including tax, this is how much we saved. From Disney, 2 adult 5 day park hoppers would be $544 ($272/person). We got them for $516 ($258/person). From Disney, 2 adult 7 day park hoppers would be $556 ($278/person). We got them for $523.30 ($261.65/person). I think after doing all the math, even with taxes & shipping costs, DH and I still saved about $20 per person on our two tickets, and his parents saved about $15 or so per ticket. We could have saved more and picked them up at the Orlando office, which would have knocked off the shipping cost entirely, but we both knew we didn't want to have to do that, that we wanted to arrive in Orlando with tickets in hand!

As for the Universal tickets, we still saved some, but not as much as on the Disney tickets. The 7-day 2-park tickets are offered on the Universal website for $99 each, and we got them for $94.75 each. But I'll take whatever savings we can get!

We still have a few more big purchases to make before the trip, most importantly (and most expensive) of which will be a new camera. But I still find ways to save here and there by catching clothes on sale that will be perfect for the trip. My latest find was some fleece capris on sale at Aeropostale. I bought a few pairs, thinking they will be perfect to keep my legs warm in the mornings and evenings when it will probably be coolest, but I can roll them up if it warms up in the middle of the day. Here's what I have so far, but I'm eyeing a few more colors on their website at the moment. lol

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4248.jpg

We are ALMOST under 4 months!! :dance3:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

khertz

08-16-2009, 09:20 PM

So after many changes in the original plans (we were supposed to go stay the weekend in McComb, MS with my in-laws on their property), DH and I ended up spending most of the weekend at my parents house for our Disney Planning Weekend. We drove into New Orleans on Saturday afternoon, and DH's parents (Kathy & Jamie) arrived not too much later, and we all went to dinner (along with my sister and her boyfriend) at a seafood restaurant on the water. It was also my MIL's birthday, so there was a little drinking going on at dinner. ;)

After stuffing our faces with fried catfish and shrimp, we went back to the house and there was a little more drinking going on, but not for me. DH and I aren't big drinkers. For some reason, I couldn't convince the parents that having the discussion of the plans while they were intoxicated wasn't a good idea, so I decided to stick it out anyway. It was a little frustrating on my end, being one of the only sober people trying to keep them under control, but we did manage to make some decisions that will help me when it comes time to book. We picked Le Cellier as our first choice for the Candlelight Processional Dining Package, and Biergarten as our second choice. And we'll hopefully be seeing it on Saturday December 5th which means the narrator will be Steven Curtis Chapman. We also planned into the schedule the other extras we want to do, like La Nouba, miniature golf at Winter Summerland, and dinner at the Melting Pot. Some of those plans may change when the hours come out in a few weeks, but at least we have a starting point!

Today we got up and had a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, hash browns, and homemade pancakes, which was delish! After breakfast, we worked on dividing up the packing list of who is going to be buying what toiletries and kitchen items. Then we played a game of The Wonderful World of Disney Trivia, and DH and I LOST! I think they were giving us bogus questions to keep us from squashing them. :rolleyes1

After the game, we settled down to watch Finding Nemo which my in-laws had never seen, and they seemed to like it. After a late lunch/early dinner of grilled chicken sandwiches and mac & cheese, DH and I headed home. It was a jam packed weekend, for sure!

And in the past week or so, I've gotten SUPER excited about scrapbooking this trip. DH and I raided Hobby Lobby one afternoon last week, and I bought some paper (they were 4 sheets for $1!), and that evening I went online and bought 2 paper packs and some picture embellishments. The stuff I ordered online should be here Tuesday, and I'll post pics along with the stuff I already had from Christmas. DH's grandmother bought me a TON of scrapbooking stuff last Christmas to get me started! So excited!!

Sorry no pictures this post. Hope everyone has a great week & thanks for reading!

stacikristine

08-17-2009, 03:48 PM

cjackearl

08-17-2009, 06:50 PM

How did I miss your last update? Anyway, congratulations on your great ticket purchase deals and your cute capris, you skinny minnie! It sounds like your planning weekend went well. Hopefully everybody remembers what they agreed to when the booking dates come along.:rolleyes1 Steven Curtis Chapman is a narrator for the Candellight Processional? I LOVE him!! Well, his music anyway.:laughing: I hope you get everything you've picked.:goodvibes

khertz

08-17-2009, 09:00 PM

It sounds like one busy weekend!! I'm glad you got to figure some stuff out though :thumbsup2 And YAY that you got to watch Nemo because they'll appreciate The Seas more now :goodvibes Oh--and super cute capris!!! I think my sister has some of those. She loves them!

Yeah, I was glad to just get a few things accomplished, since we start booking SOON! I'm so excited for the hours to come out!!

We were trying to think of movies with lots of attractions based off of them for my in-laws to see because they haven't seen a lot of the more recent Disney movies. And I figured since they have The Seas and Turtle Talk at Epcot and the musical at AK, that was the best choice! They seemed to enjoy it, so that's a plus.

The capris are sooooo comfortable! I can't wait for it to get cold!! :goodvibes

How did I miss your last update? Anyway, congratulations on your great ticket purchase deals and your cute capris, you skinny minnie! It sounds like your planning weekend went well. Hopefully everybody remembers what they agreed to when the booking dates come along.:rolleyes1 Steven Curtis Chapman is a narrator for the Candellight Processional? I LOVE him!! Well, his music anyway.:laughing: I hope you get everything you've picked.:goodvibes

Thanks! I'm hoping everyone remembers everything, but I think they are leaving most of the planning up to me and trust me to guide them all well. :rotfl: On Sunday I made a list of all the "extra" costs (La Nouba tickets, mini-golf, parking fees, CP Package, etc) to give everyone an estimate of how much money to budget, and everyone seemed to agree, so I guess they heard more about the booking things than I thought. lol

Everyone says Steven Curtis Chapman is a good narrator, so I'm hoping we think so too. I'm just glad there wasn't anyone on the narrator list that I would be disappointed to miss, so it makes picking a date more flexible if that Saturday doesn't work out.

Thanks again!!

exwdwcm

08-18-2009, 11:21 PM

Thanks! We are too! :goodvibes It's been stressing me out for quite some time, trying to think of who else could keep them. Callie can be high maintenance (she likes to try to escape!), and all the people who knew her quirks and would know to watch for her were all going on vacation with us or moving! So it'll take some driving and gas money on our part, but at least I can rest easy that my kitties are taken care of.

.glad to know i am not the only one worrying about where my furbabies will stay while we are gone - this far out anyhow. Dh i think looks at me like i am crazy when i bring it up, since we still have 3.5 months to go, but i like to plan, whether it is disney or otherwise. he is the type that will tell me the day of, that his friend is having a party that night. lol

anyhow, glad you got that worked out- i don't know if we will have to kennel ours (two boston terriers that are 10yo) or get my MIL to take them- but she lives 2.5 hours away, so logistics to work out there.

YEAH on the tickets and the great deal too. the disney weekend sounds fun. Did you get a lot accomplished? we did something similar with a peter pan planning party this past weekend- mom had games planned, including trivia, scavenger hunt, sword fights and more with disney dollar prizes. i walked away with $115 between me and my son (she went way overboard with the prizes!!!!!). so that was fun. we firmed up our schedule and dining choices more too and selected a few backups in case our 10 sit downs aren't available.

looks like your plans are coming along nicely!!! what date do you make your adrs?

khertz

08-19-2009, 12:12 PM

glad to know i am not the only one worrying about where my furbabies will stay while we are gone - this far out anyhow. Dh i think looks at me like i am crazy when i bring it up, since we still have 3.5 months to go, but i like to plan, whether it is disney or otherwise. he is the type that will tell me the day of, that his friend is having a party that night. lol

anyhow, glad you got that worked out- i don't know if we will have to kennel ours (two boston terriers that are 10yo) or get my MIL to take them- but she lives 2.5 hours away, so logistics to work out there.

I know what you mean! I was mostly so worried because Callie is an escape artist, and only a few people in our family are aware of the lengths she will go to escape! I always have a hard time letting someone watch them for the first time because I worry she will pull one over on them and get herself out and lost. Boarding wouldn't be an option for me just because she is also a very social cat and loves to be around people. I wouldn't be able to have fun if I knew she was being left to her own devices in a kennel! I hope everything works out with your babies too. We'll have to make a 3 hour drive to drop them off at my MIL's house, so I definitely understand logistics when it comes to furbabies!

YEAH on the tickets and the great deal too. the disney weekend sounds fun. Did you get a lot accomplished? we did something similar with a peter pan planning party this past weekend- mom had games planned, including trivia, scavenger hunt, sword fights and more with disney dollar prizes. i walked away with $115 between me and my son (she went way overboard with the prizes!!!!!). so that was fun. we firmed up our schedule and dining choices more too and selected a few backups in case our 10 sit downs aren't available.

We did get a lot accomplished, more than I thought we would, actually! We made a lot of decisions about what extra things we'd like to do, what activities are highest priority, and travel arrangements. We aren't planning on many sit-down meals to save money, so luckily that wasn't something we had to spend a lot of time deciding. It looks like we will just be doing the CP package and Chef Mickey's for sure, and The Plaza is a maybe.

looks like your plans are coming along nicely!!! what date do you make your
adrs?

Since we are staying offsite, I won't be able to do the 90+10. So I think I'll be making the CP package reservation on September 6th, and our Chef Mickey's ADR on September 12th unless our schedule changes with the hours! When do you get to make yours??

:goodvibes

khertz

08-19-2009, 02:56 PM

My history with scrapbooking is a VERY short one. I decided when we returned from our honeymoon that I'd take a shot at scrapbooking it. I set a budget for myself, and decided to spend most of the money on a book and stickers, so I didn't splurge on decorative paper and in the end I finished a book that while I liked it, it was a little boring. And I realized I hadn't taken pictures of some important parts of the trip, most glaringly my first EVER plane ride! So I've decided this year to give it another try, hopefully with even better results.

Some changes this time around include using lots of patterned paper, taking a ridiculous amount of pictures while there that will hopefully tell a complete story, and using the expertise and tools of my friend Kim who scrapbooks EVERYTHING and is basically a pro at it. I already called her on my trip to Hobby Lobby to ask her some questions before I bought anything.

Here is what I have so far...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4274.jpg

Last year for Christmas, DH's grandmother bought me this Disney scrapbook (8x8) and two paper packs (12x12). At first, I was thinking of cutting the 12x12 pages to fit then 8x8 book. But then I actually opened the box and saw just how small an 8x8 book is. I thought of buying a new 12x12 scrapbook instead, but then realized I have a TON of pages left in my first scrapbook. So rather than spend the money on a new one, I'm just going to add this trip into the first book. I'm thinking for the 8x8 book to use it as just a photo album. Maybe using it for 5x7 photos or ride photos that would take up too much space in the scrapbook? I'm still not 100% sure on what to do with it, but it's so cute, so I'm definitely going to find something for it!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4275.jpg

Also for Christmas, she bought me a bunch of character stickers! I'm still planning to look for some holiday themed ones and maybe a few others, but I'll probably buy those once we come back from the trip and I have all my pictures so that I can choose appropriate stickers for those pages.

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These are the 12x12 pages I bought from Hobby Lobby at 4/$1. So I got 12 pages for only $4! The two on the left of clouds I'm planning to use either for our plane ride or our Characters In Flight Balloon Ride pictures. The red with white dots is for hopefully when we meet Minnie! I'm probably going to use that one just to mount my pictures on. I got a couple of animal prints for AK, and all of the Christmas/winter ones to use on the MVMCP pages, and other holiday themed events we'll be experiencing while there!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4273.jpg

After some searching (and searching, and searching, etc) online, I found scrapbooking-warehouse.com which has a ton of great stuff for not a lot of $$. So I bought these two paper packs and some Mickey head photo corners for only $17, including shipping! Not bad.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4284.jpg

These I actually got from work. :laughing: If you didn't know, I'm a pediatric nurse at a local hospital here in Lafayette. We have two kinds of face masks, plain blue adult ones, and child sized ones with Mickey & friends on them. These all came off of the boxes for the child masks! My plan is to paint them black and use gold sticker letters to put our names on the back like the Mickey ear hats. My good friend from work is Janie, who is our Child Life Specialist. Her job is to help the kids cope with hospitalization through medical play and distraction, so she has lots of activities for the kids, including paint! So she helped me "practice" by painting some black to see which paint will work best to cover them, and we have decided spray paint will be my best bet. Can't wait to see how they come out!

And now I'll close this post (which turned out longer than I expected!) with some pictures of my planning binder. We just got new ink for our printer, so I can finally spruce up my pages with some clip art, so I'm very excited about that! Here's a few that I have done so far...

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Front Cover

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I traced, colored, and cut each of those letters individually until my hands had callouses from the scissors! :eek: And that is only a fraction of the letters I cut. lol

We are now under 4 months!! :woohoo:

cjackearl

08-19-2009, 03:41 PM

khertz

08-20-2009, 09:53 PM

Oh I love your scrapbooking supplies!! My girls and I scrapbook once a week. Tonight's actually our night! I think using the 8x8 album for photos is a good idea. Will you do any character autographs? If you do, the album would be a cute way to display them. You could cut the autograph out, paste it on one page with the photo on the facing page.

Good job with your binder. The letters definitely look callous worthy!:laughing:

Thank you! I love it all too, and can't wait to use it!! The autographs is a good idea...we were thinking of bringing index cards for them to sign to use some kind of way in the scrapbook, but that may work in the photo album too! Lots of ideas to choose from. :goodvibes

stacikristine

08-24-2009, 11:12 AM

khertz

08-24-2009, 12:08 PM

khertz

08-24-2009, 12:09 PM

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3rd - MGM continued

After a wild ride on Star Tours, we headed to The Backlot Tour. As we were stepping to go in line, along with another family, the guy working said they were looking for two volunteers to use in the stunt show at the beginning. I said no, even though DH tried to convince me, but the dad from the family volunteered too. I’m so glad I DIDN’T say yes so that I could take pictures, because it was great! As the guy led us to the special line for family members of volunteers, so that we could be in the front to get pictures, I asked him if DH would get wet, and he said, “Yes, is that okay?” To which I replied, “He’s going to hate it, but I’m going to love it!”

After all the drama the night before with him being so upset about getting soaked on Splash Mountain, they chose him to be the guy who sits in the booth and has 8,000 gallons of water dumped on him!

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He said it wasn't as bad as Splash Mountain because he was wearing the suit, but I still found it pretty amusing!! And the other participants were funny too...

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Then we went to the Muppet Vision 3D. On the way in, the lady working told the couple ahead of us Congratulations, and then us Congratulations right after, so we talked to them a bit and found out they had gotten married the same day as us! Cute.

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After that, we went to get seats for the new Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, which was VERY cool! I had some trouble keeping my eyes at points because of that darn Dramamine, but we both really enjoyed the show. We were cracking up laughing at parts, like when pulled a kid up on the stage and made him think he was controlling the car with a remote controller, but there was really someone driving it. The kid's face was priceless!

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We ate lunch at Toy Story Pizza Planet Arcade, then ran into Woody & Buzz!

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I think DH and I would make good Space Rangers! After our meet & greet, we wandered the Streets of America snapping pictures.

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In our wanderings, we stumbled across Mike & Sully, two of my FAVORITE characters, and we made it into the line just in time to get a picture with them! Monster's Inc is one of my fav movies, and I especially love Boo! One of my favorite oncology patients at work is a little 3 year old girl who reminds me so much of Boo when she gets excited and starts talking fast and you can't really understand what she's saying. :laughing:

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Next, we made our way to the Sorcerer's Hat with The Great Movie Ride on our minds!

Continued in next post...

khertz

08-24-2009, 12:23 PM

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 3TH - MGM continued & Downtown Disney

Even though I know it probably by heart, I still adore The Great Movie Ride. Always have to take a ride on this one!

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Our most favorite rides at MGM are of course Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster, but since the latter was closed, we did a marathon on ToT and rode probably 3 or 4 times in a row! I never get tired of that feeling of leaving my stomach behind as we shoot to the bottom.

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Then we went through The Magic of Disney Animation, and at the end, we met the Incredibles, and Emile from Ratatouille.

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This is one of my favorite character pictures! Mrs. Incredible orchestrated this whole thing using only hand gestures after she saw our Just Married pins!

Once we exited the Animation Studio, we caught a showing of Voyage of the Little Mermaid. That is such a cute show, and I love singing the songs! We rode ToT a couple more times, then spent some time wandering around the Hat. We saw some characters were supposed to come out shortly, so we hung around hoping to see Donald for DH to get a picture, but no luck. But we did see Lilo, another favorite of mine!

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After a rest at the hotel, and a change of clothes, we headed to Downtown Disney to get dinner at Planet Hollywood since we had an AAA voucher for there. We ended up getting off at the wrong bus stop, so we had to walk pretty much through the entire Downtown Disney to get to the restaurant. The wait wasn’t too long to get a table, and the meal was delicious, especially since we had been eating crap every day for lunch and dinner in the parks. I got some chicken alfredo that was to die for, and DH got fajitas, and then we got this delicious hot chocolate brownie with ice cream for dessert. Needless to say, we left stuffed and with leftovers. We walked through some of the shops on our way back to the bus stop, and DH ended up buying an original sketch of Donald Duck and having it framed at The Art of Disney store. We shopped at the huge Disney store there, and ended up buying DH a really cute Donald shirt of him with a bunch of baby chicks on it that said “Chicks Dig Me!” That was the end of day three in Disney!

UP NEXT: Our last day in Disney! :sad1: MK all day & some more DTD

khertz

08-24-2009, 12:26 PM

How cute!! I love all of the scrapbook stuff :thumbsup2 I'm a HUGE scrapbooking fan...but I'm behind 4.5 years. :rolleyes1 I have a feeling I'll want to scrapbook Disney when I get back instead of catching up on college though! :upsidedow Very, very cute stuff! Can't wait to see what you do with your scrapbook! And I can't believe you cut all of those letters out! You're dedicated!!

Thanks!! It took me FOREVER to scrapbook the wedding and the honeymoon...After almost a year, I finally sat down and banged the whole thing out in just a few days. I'm planning with this one to start sooner and take my time to make it awesome. :goodvibes There's absolutely no way I could ever scrapbook everything, because I would be forever behind. :laughing:

The letters were the bane of my existence for those few days that I was doing them, because my fingers were absolutely killing me, but I was so excited to finish them and make the book look better!

stacikristine

08-24-2009, 12:33 PM

Great update! It looks like you all had a blast at DHS (well...MGM back then)! :thumbsup2 The picture of you and the Incredibles is just adorable!! So fun! And that's hilarious that your DH was chosen to get soaked :rotfl: I could definitely go for some Planet Hollywood right now :rolleyes:

khertz

08-24-2009, 12:52 PM

Since park hours should hopefully come out sometime next week and ADR time will be coming up, I'm going to post our preliminary itinerary that we discussed during our planning meeting. Hopefully I won't have to change too many things around when the hours are posted, but we'll have to be dodging EMH since we are staying offsite which we've never had to worry about before. Most of this is based off of the projected best/worst days listed on touringplans.com.

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4th
· Airport at 6 am
· Fly out from New Orleans at 8:00 am
· Arrive at Orlando International at 10:40 am
· Cab to Wyndham Bonnet Creek – check bags
· Resort hopping to see decorations (Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, Beach/Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge), Ride Monorail loop
· Lunch at CS at resort
· Downtown Disney – shopping, dinner, Characters in Flight balloon ride
· Miniature Golf at Winter Summerland

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5th (ABC Christmas Parade Taping at MK)
· Epcot Future World
· Lunch at Biergarten (Candlelight Dining Package - we changed this from Le Cellier because of the set menus. :sad2: We expected a price increase, but none of us want to spend that much for so few menu options.)
· World Showcase
· Candlelight Processional at 5 pm (Steven Curtis Chapman)
· Illuminations 9:30 pm
· Magic Kingdom for late hours?

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6TH
· Animal Kingdom
· Lunch at Pizzafari/Flame Tree BBQ
· Camp Minnie-Mickey – character greeting trails, character trees
· Jingle Jungle Parade?
· Rest at resort
· Church at 6 pm at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine
· Boardwalk? Ice Cream at Beaches & Cream?

MONDAY DECEMBER 7TH
· Hollywood Studios Rope Drop
· Lunch at Pizza Planet
· Park of choice in evening
· Magic Kingdom for SpectroMagic/Wishes? (Hopefully they will be having them this night, because it'll probably be our only chance to see them!)

TUESDAY DECEMBER 8TH
· Church at 9:30 am at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine
· Lunch at hotel
· Park of choice before party
· Magic Kingdom at 4 pm
· Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 7pm-12am

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Dinner at The Melting Pot

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Lunch at City Walk
· La Nouba at Downtown Disney 9 pm

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH (Last night with our parents)
· Early breakfast at Chef Mickey’s
· Monorail to Magic Kingdom
· DHS/Park of choice in afternoon
· Osbourne Lights at DHS in evening

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf?

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13TH
· Keys to the Kingdom Tour – MK early entry
· MK or other park in afternoon

MONDAY DECEMBER 14TH
· Breakfast at Tusker House?
· Park(s) of choice, favorite rides
· Depart Orlando at 7:10 pm
· Arrive in New Orleans at 8:00 pm

What do you think?? Any suggestions are welcome! But who knows, this whole thing may be drastically different when I have the official park hours.

stacikristine

08-25-2009, 10:08 AM

khertz

08-27-2009, 09:48 PM

Your plans sound great! I think it's awesome that you're going to Universal inbetween Disney Days. :thumbsup2 I'm sure you're really going to like this. Oh--I'm SOOO wishing I could be there at Christmastime!! :goodvibes

Thanks for the feedback on the plan. I'm sure it'll change a lot though. Gotta love Disney for keeping us waiting! :laughing:

Doing Universal in the middle is something we've never done before, but it just kind of worked out that way. Usually we'd do two Universal days at the beginning and spend the rest at Disney. But this time, we couldn't do that because our Universal passes are 1 week passes, and DH and I wanted to go a third day after our parents left. So if we used them at the beginning of the trip, we'd run out of days before we could go again. And of course, our parents wanted their last day of vacation to be in Disney!

khertz

08-30-2009, 11:00 AM

Our new camera came in the other day!! :yay: Y'all might remember that we had tried ordering a new digital camera before our Hawaii trip that never came, so we cancelled the order. We took my dad's DSLR Canon on our trip instead (our point & shoot is awesome, but there is a smudge on the lens that sometimes shows up on the pictures...annoying!), and we loved it! We were worried about it being too bulky to carry around all day, but we found it worked great. We took it hiking, sightseeing, everything!

So we decided that we'd go ahead and buy ourselves one. We bought the updated version of my dad's camera, a Canon Rebel XSi 18-55. DH found it online as a bundle, so we got the camera, plus a second (zoom, I think) lens for only $849. Separately, they would have cost over $1,000! So I am excited about it, and DH is already looking up different cool effects and stuff to try using this camera.

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We also know which camera bag we want, and we found it at Best Buy, but it is a little expensive, so we'll try to find it cheaper online. It fits the camera and all the accessories, plus there is a pouch for all the stuff we'd need to carry with us in the parks, since we don't carry much. And it's all smaller than a standard backpack. It also has a water resistant cover that pulls out from the bottom and covers the bag for if it starts raining! It's just what we need.

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I also think I may have SOLVED our transportation issues!! Since we are flying in, we'll be arriving several hours earlier than our parents, who are driving to meet us in the rental car we'll use for the week. When they left, we were thinking we'd have to rent our own car for those last three day. But there were still a lot of logistical issues with that. For one, we'd have to get a cab from the airport to the hotel, which would be about $50. We'd have to find a way to get to the rental office to pick up the car, so that would probably be another cab fare, plus we'd have to drop the rental off on our last morning, meaning we'd have to get another cab back to the airport anyway. Round trip to the airport in a cab would probably cost us $100+ alone. It was looking expensive.

So I started thinking maybe we can just rely on Bonnet Creek shuttles the last few days and forget the rental. We want to go to Universal one day, but that's fine because BC has a pretty cheap shuttle to and from Universal. But there was still the issue of getting to and from the airport that was making the whole thing so expensive and frustrating. Then I started poking around online last night...

MEARS SHUTTLE! :woohoo: Round trip to/from the airport for 2 adults is only $66. That kicks out the much expensive cab fare. We can do the Bonnet Creek shuttles to and from Disney parks (free), and to/from Universal the day we want to go out there ($28 round trip for both of us). We may have to take a cab the morning we want to go to MK for our KTTK just to be sure we are there on time and not waiting on the shuttle. But even all of that combined is still WAY cheaper than cab fare between the airport and our hotel and a rental car for 3 days. I can't believe I never even thought to look into Mears! This is one of the things that has been driving me CRAZY recently trying to figure it out, so to finally have it under control is such a relief!!

Park hours are hopefully coming out this week, and then it will be time to make ADRs!! :dance3:

MyMuse

09-02-2009, 04:21 PM

I'm going the same time you are! :santa: Dec 4-13th, with the last few days near the Tampa area. I'm also staying off-site at my timeshare as well.

Your park plans look pretty cool :thumbsup2 and hours are definitely out. YAY! :yay:

khertz

09-03-2009, 11:37 AM

khertz

09-03-2009, 11:49 AM

So I found out the park hours were posted while I was at work on Tuesday (I know, I know, bad nurse creeping on the dis while at work!). Only the computers at work wouldn't open the Disney Travel Agents pdf file with the hours and EMH! I immediately called DH at home and had him print them for me so that I could be ready with my red pen at home and start mutilating my itinerary based on avoiding EMH...

Only I didn't have to change a thing!! I was very surprised to find that the plans I had set up worked out perfectly. The only day we will be in a park coinciding with EMH is our very last morning when DH and I wanted to do breakfast at Tusker House, and Animal Kingdom is having am EMH. But by that point, I don't think we'll mind, and we can hop somewhere else after our breakfast and a few rides.

We have made a couple significant changes that have nothing to do with the hours, though. DH and I have decided to skip out on La Nouba. Our parents are still doing it because it is the one thing my MIL really wanted to do. So instead of going to the later show on one of our Universal nights, I think our parents will be going to a show the night they arrive. DH and I will probably play mini-golf at Winter Summerland and explore DTD while they see the show.

The other change is that since the set menu issue seems to have been a rumor, DH and I and his parents are going to still try for Le Cellier lunch for our CP dining package. My parents still would rather spend less and eat at Biergarten since they are doing La Nouba, but we don't mind spending the money for a great meal since we are saving about $200+ by not seeing La Nouba. If we aren't able to get 4 packages for Le Cellier, Biergarten is our backup choice anyway, so we'll all be able to eat together. I'm really hoping we luck out though and get Le Cellier... I've had my heart set on eating there since last trip!

And as a little aside, we finally got our plane tickets for our flight to Orlando!! :cool1: Over the past few months, we have watched the flight we wanted (8:00 am out of New Orleans to arrive in Orlando at 10:40 am) creep up in price to the highest of $123...but our patience paid off and we got them for $91. So we got both flights for less than their original posted price of $96! Pretty good!!

And completely unrelated to Disney, I'm PSYCHED that my favorite band in the world Hanson (yes, of Mmmbop fame!) added a New Orleans date to their upcoming tour, so I'll be seeing them on October 30th at the New Orleans House of Blues!! SO EXCITED!! I'm hoping to get a picture with them again this time, but I won't be too upset if I don't because at their last show, I not only got a picture with them and an autograph, I got to interview them for about 25 minutes. It was amazing!! (End dorkfest :rotfl:).

stacikristine

09-03-2009, 02:38 PM

skier_pete

09-03-2009, 03:02 PM

khertz

09-03-2009, 03:25 PM

Wow! You've had quite a few updates! :thumbsup2 YAY for park hours being released and you not having to change a thing!!!! :woohoo: That's so perfect! And GOOD LUCK on getting LeCellier!! :thumbsup2 Get online 20 minutes before 6 (FL time) and then you can "check out" right at 6!! Hopefully they'll have somehthing then! That's so funny about Hanson! I didn't even know they were still singing :upsidedow

I have been busy, finally things are starting to happen! :woohoo: That is a good tip about using the online system...hopefully that will work for Chef Mickey's! I think I still have to call to book the CP Package. I don't think you can book packages online yet.

Yes, they are still singing! I have loved them since I was 12 years old. :love: Luckily, DH tolerates my affection for them. Their new stuff is really great, you should give it a try sometime. I am always up to converting new fans! :thumbsup2

khertz

09-03-2009, 03:32 PM

Hi Khertz!

I figured since you were reading my PTR, I would hop over here and check out yours...love that your PTR is doubling as a TR - for your Disneymoon.

First thing I noticed...we appear to be ships passing in the night. We LEFT WDW the same day that you arrived for your Honeymoon! Even though my Signature says the 29th, we actually were there 1/2 a day on the 30th, back when they had the Little Ones program for little kids, we saw a concert at DHS that morning before we had to leave for the airport. We were even at POFQ! I know you didn't get our room though...we didn't have the King Bed.

Now this trip, we are arriving on the 12th of December, with you leaving the 14th. Doesn't seem like we will be overlapping plans on the 13th or 14th, but if your plans end up sending you to MK on the 14th, maybe we will see you and you can wish me happy birthday! (I am perfectly willing to give out my cell phone via PM if you would like - I love to meet fellow DISers.)

Anyways, enough about me...I have to comment that you and DH look so happy in your Disneymoon pictures...it's wonderful seeing two people in love.

A little sad for you staying off-site...on-site is better - but with a bigger group off-site often makes more financial sense...and that is no reason not to have a good time. We wanted to get a family trip, but couldn't convince my parents to go. ("Disney is for kids!" they say, just like DBIL...how little they know.)

Good luck with ADRs...you 90 days are around the bend!

SkierPete

Wow, that is too crazy that we were in the same place on the same day!! How funny would it be if we had passed in the lobby or something? :goodvibes DH and I will for sure have our LGMH's on, so if you see us, definitely come say hi!

Trust me, I am sad that we are staying offsite too, even though it is our timeshare and basically free lodging (we are still paying it off, so not totally free!). We actually bought at Bonnet Creek while on our honeymoon, and we figured being very close to on-property was at least second best. I will miss being able to take advantage of EMH, but we will have plenty to keep us busy outside of the parks!!

Thank you for the compliment on our disneymoon pictures. That was an amazing trip, and we could not have been happier to spend such a special time in our lives at Disney!

I will be calling to get the CP Package soon, so I will definitely take some well wishes! Good luck with yours as well!!

skier_pete

09-03-2009, 04:04 PM

Wow, that is too crazy that we were in the same place on the same day!! How funny would it be if we had passed in the lobby or something? :goodvibes DH and I will for sure have our LGMH's on, so if you see us, definitely come say hi!

I will be calling to get the CP Package soon, so I will definitely take some well wishes! Good luck with yours as well!!

I always have a LGMH on my camel-back (water backpack), which is dark rust orange in color. Last trip met only two DIS'ers on the trip - one "If_You_Had_Wings" will be there at the same time as you are this year. (Gonna miss seeing her too.) Always looking to meet more, it's fun to chat with other DIS'ers...even at Disney World, not everyone is as crazed about it as we are!

Make sure to post your luck with the CP package for Le Cellier...we have not tried this restaurant before, as I am usually not impressed with specialty Steak Houses. I love steak, but no place have ever beaten our local Outback in terms of quality. But, we decided if we could get in this trip we would give it a try....so we are going to try for it with the CP package on Dec 17th. If you can get it, it will give me hope that maybe I can too!

SkierPete

khertz

09-06-2009, 08:48 PM

I had my very first foray into ADR making this morning, and it was quite interesting! :cutie: I worked at the hospital this weekend, and I normally wake up at 6, but I woke up about 20 minutes earlier so I could get ready for work first before trying to call to book our CP Package. Since I'm staying offisite, I have the "pleasure" of doing this about 2 or 3 more times as my 90 days rolls around for each one. :sad2:

So anyway, I was ready at 6:00:01 (central) to call and book the CP Package. I was hoping but not counting on 4 spots at Le Cellier for DH, myself, and my in-laws. My parents were fine with getting Biergarten. It was kind of amusing, because I was sitting on hold on DH's cell (I was using his so that when it was time for me to leave for work, I could pass the phone on to him if I was still on hold). But he got up to see what was going on (bless his heart, he wasn't working today!), and decided to call on my phone. So we are both sitting there on each other's phones comparing waiting music! :rotfl:

I ended up having to leave for work and left my phone with DH, so when I left for work, he had both phones on speaker in front of him waiting for someone to answer!

Needless to say, we were unsuccessful in getting Le Cellier for lunch OR dinner. So we have instead a reservation for all 6 of us at Biergarten for a late lunch (I think around 2:45?). Not bad, I'll take it. At least we won't have to 1) brave the standby line or 2) run the risk of the meal taking FOREVER and making us late to get in line. Better than nothing!

I get to try again tomorrow for a breakfast at Tusker House, and on Saturday for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. Hopefully I'm able to get something decent!! I have my fingers & toes crossed tight. :woohoo:

Hope everyone had a great weekend! :goodvibes

MyMuse

09-07-2009, 06:19 AM

skier_pete

09-07-2009, 09:44 AM

We went to Beirgarten 3 years ago and was pleasantly surprised. The food was a decent simulation of German fare. (My Dad is Austrian, so I have had the "real" stuff...this isn't it, but it's close.) The entertainment is a fun show too, and if you have the daring, you can get up and dance. WE won't be going this trip, since we went there with DMIL, and are trying to get to restaurants that are all new to her.

SkierPete

khertz

09-07-2009, 12:07 PM

Aww. sorry about the CP package is not what you want. You never know if a space opens u later. :goodvibes

I am doing the same since I'm staying off-site. I own at Westgate to answer a previous post. :)

A friend of mine is staying on-site and she booked me in with her CP packge with her mom. She also tried for Le Cellier but did not get it. So, we ar going to Garden Grll instead. I kinda wanted Teppan Edo, but since she is the one booking it, I'll go with it. ;)

I just got up...again today and got another day of reservation. I'm a little like :surfweb: and heading back to bed until the sun fully rises!!

Here's for ADR Good Luck :wizard::wizard:

I was interested in trying Garden Grill as well, but we all decided we'd rather do the lunch price and save a little $$ where we could. Bummer they stopped doing lunch there!

I didn't have high hopes for actually being able to get Le Cellier, so I wasn't all that disappointed really. It would have been a nice surprise, but I'm looking forward to Biergarten also. I'm just excited that we were at least able to get our 2nd choice, and we won't have to brave the standby line!

Thanks for reading! :thumbsup2

We went to Beirgarten 3 years ago and was pleasantly surprised. The food was a decent simulation of German fare. (My Dad is Austrian, so I have had the "real" stuff...this isn't it, but it's close.) The entertainment is a fun show too, and if you have the daring, you can get up and dance. WE won't be going this trip, since we went there with DMIL, and are trying to get to restaurants that are all new to her.

SkierPete

My parents have been to Biergarten, and told us it's pluses, so DH and I are still excited about it. Le Cellier just would have been a really great surprise to be able to book it! I highly doubt I'll be doing any dancing, but hey, you never know!!

Good luck with your ADR's, I hope you get everything you want!!

stacikristine

09-08-2009, 03:16 PM

khertz

09-09-2009, 10:00 AM

Sorry you didn't get LeCellier, but that's great that you were able to get in at Beirgarten! :thumbsup2 I've heard it's awesome! That really stinks that you have to wait to make all of your ADRs...I was completely stressed before we made ours. Good luck! :flower3:

It's okay that we didn't get Le Cellier. As much as I wanted to eat there, I'm actually a little relieved that we are going to be able to save some money on the package by going with Biergarten. And I expect that the meal will move faster since it is a buffet so we don't have to worry about hurrying to get into line for the show! So it really all worked out for the best. :goodvibes

I really only have one more ADR to worry about but it's a big one. So I'll be up at 4:30 am on Saturday (:scared1:) hoping to score breakfast for 6 at Chef Mickey's! We have a backup character breakfast scheduled just in case, but we all really want to eat at CM!!

khertz

09-12-2009, 06:09 PM

I think I am done making ADR's! I already posted that we were able to reserve our CP packages for lunch at Biergarten at 2:10 pm on Saturday December 5th. The only other ADR I really really wanted was Chef Mickey's on the last morning our parents will be with us, which is on Friday December 11th.

Since I knew that CM reservations may be difficult to come by, I got up at 5 am on Monday morning to try for a Tusker House breakfast on Sunday December 6th which is our AK day. I figured that if we at least had that to fall back on, we would be able to have a character breakfast even if it couldn't be at Chef Mickey's. I managed to get us a reservation for a late breakfast at 10:25 am. So far so good!!

Last night I had trouble sleeping, as did DH. He has unfortunately broken out with a poison ivy rash that is mostly concentrated on his face, so he was up and down all night. At 2 am, I decided to check online and see if the next day had opened up on the booking calendar, which would be December 11th, the day we needed. It was! So I checked for a party of 6 at Chef Mickey's. They had one! And it let me book it! I don't understand the hours of the online system so I have no idea if it was a fluke or not, but I got us Chef Mickey's for 8:15 am!! :dance3: I'm so excited! Mostly because I was so worried we wouldn't get it at all. We won't make it to MK for rope drop, but that's okay. I may still keep searching for an earlier time, but if nothing comes available, I'm still happy with what we have.

So my ADR week is officially over. :laughing: It's been a little crazy and tiring being up at all hours of the night to make them, but it was worth it to get the few ADRs we really wanted. The only thing I think I have left to call and book is the KTTK tour for DH and I, which I'll be doing on the 15th.

Have a great weekend everyone!

skier_pete

09-13-2009, 07:22 AM

MyMuse

09-14-2009, 10:00 AM

Whoo-hoooo :woohoo::woohoo: on your ADRs!

I did Chef Mickey's for a late dinner last May and ...wellll....I really don't have to do it again. :rolleyes:

I hear fantantic things about Tusker House, but since I really wanted Yak & Yeti, I let it go for this trip. Plus, since I think I will be solo, I really don't want a character meal unless I have someone with me. It's just too weird. Does that make sense? :confused3

Thank god for finishing ADRs! It's rough when you are off-site. I finally finished mine on Friday morning.

Hope the poison ivy is gone for DH!

stacikristine

09-14-2009, 11:41 AM

Yay! Congrats on all of your awesome ADRs! :woohoo: That's awesome that you were able to book it early for CM! You're going to have an incredible trip :goodvibes

khertz

09-14-2009, 12:19 PM

Good for you! :thumbsup2 I just got done with my Dining Reservations...and nailed it - 8 for 8! We even got Le Cellier for dinner, and I wasn't even planning on it, I just typed in for it, and when I got it, I said "oh well, I guess we're eating there!" Check my PTR shortly for details!

SkierPete

Thanks! I'm mostly just relieved we were able to get a good time for CM...I was SO worried it wasn't going to work out, and everyone was really looking forward to it since I have been hyping it up!

Whoo-hoooo :woohoo::woohoo: on your ADRs!

I did Chef Mickey's for a late dinner last May and ...wellll....I really don't have to do it again. :rolleyes:

I hear fantantic things about Tusker House, but since I really wanted Yak & Yeti, I let it go for this trip. Plus, since I think I will be solo, I really don't want a character meal unless I have someone with me. It's just too weird. Does that make sense? :confused3

Thank god for finishing ADRs! It's rough when you are off-site. I finally finished mine on Friday morning.

Hope the poison ivy is gone for DH!

I feel ya on the character meals. I was worried about doing them as 6 adults! But I eventually got over it. I can understand feeling really weirded out by characters coming by for pictures if I was solo! I'd rather a nice quiet meal somewhere else if I was alone.

His poison ivy is finally starting to clear up. He had to go to a class all this week and the first day is today. I told him it looks more like road rash now, so he should just tell anyone that asks that he wiped out on a motorcycle or something cool like that but I don't think he went for my idea. :rotfl:

Yay! Congrats on all of your awesome ADRs! :woohoo: That's awesome that you were able to book it early for CM! You're going to have an incredible trip :goodvibes

Thank you!! I'm soooo excited!! Have you started packing yet?!?!

khertz

09-14-2009, 08:48 PM

So I had a major brain fart today, and even after doing Disney trip related things ALL day and listening to Christmas music and looking at the calendar about 20 times, I still forgot until just a few minutes ago that I could book KTTK today! As soon as I realized this I hurried to call, and I just got off the phone. We are booked for the 8:30 tour on Sunday December 13th! :woohoo: I'm so so excited about this tour!

Also, our park bag came in the mail today. I spent all day making Touring Plan cards for each day, complete with ridiculously cute fonts and clip art, and I don't know if they will even fit in the bag! They are based on the size of 8x5 index cards, so I may have to downsize or hope I can stick them in someone else's bag. :laughing: They are so cute though, I don't care how they get to the park, they are coming with us no matter what!

I just went through the "calendar" of things to do/book before we leave, and most of it is finished!! We just need to pre-order our Photopass CD, reserve our Mears shuttle to and from the airport, and check with the resort when the trip gets closer for a fireworks view room, and maybe an upgrade to a 4 bedroom if my sister and her boyfriend decide to join us late.

I'm SO excited!! :yay:

stacikristine

09-15-2009, 10:34 AM

khertz

09-17-2009, 01:41 PM

Aaah!! So exciting! :yay: I hear we'll both love the KTTK tour :lovestruc I'll tell you all about it so you can get excited for it. I can't wait to see pictures of your notecards!! :goodvibes I'm sure they're adorable. What bag is it that you got? You might have said earlier, but I don't remember. Oh--and yes, I've packed quite a bit already!

I think I'm the most excited about the KTTK tour, just because it is something SO different than anything we have ever done before! Plus it'll be just DH & I which will be nice. From everything I have read about it, I think you are right, we'll love it! :love:

I'm about to post pics of the bag. :thumbsup2

khertz

09-17-2009, 02:11 PM

Tuesday after his class, DH went out and bought the new Dan Brown book (we <3 Robert Langdon!), annnnnnnnnnd...THIS:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4286.jpg

I'm so excited!! I came home from work last night and DH was already playing and complaining that his arms hurt. :rolleyes1 I think I might go play some after I close this post so I can start practicing. I'll definitely need it!!

Also, I posted that our bag came in the mail also, but I took some pictures of it today. We bought a Lowepro Sling Shot 100 Bag. It looks like it will be perfect! It has one strap that you wear across the chest, and the zipper for the camera part is on the side of the bag, so you can just slide it down in front of your chest and open it up for easy access to the camera. Here is a picture of the tag to show you what I mean because I know that was a terrible description! :rotfl:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4297.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4287.jpg

The whole bag...the camera zipper is on the left when you are looking at it like this.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4288.jpg

This is a close-up of the top pocket where we can store the junk we'll be bringing to the parks each day like hotel keys, car keys, cell phone, etc.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4289.jpg

This is the bag with the top pocket open.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4290.jpg

The camera pocket opened. It's hard to tell but the two gray parts on the right and left are raised and the middle sinks in to accommodate the camera lens. The right and left parts are velcroed to the sides, so you can store the extra lens under the right part and extra batteries and cords under the left part.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4291.jpg

And this is it with the camera inside!

Some itinerary changes have occurred over the last few days. My mom was distraught about not being able to do Fantasmic since it was scheduled only two days that our parents will be with us. Tuesday, which is our MVMCP night, and Thursday, which was supposed to be our second Universal day. So we have decided to swap the plans for Sunday and Thursday...Sunday instead of Animal Kingdom, we'll go to Universal. Then Sunday, we'll go to Animal Kingdom for most of the day, then go the DHS that afternoon for Fantasmic at 6:30 and possibly Osbourne Lights that night also. It stressed me out greatly until I realized it wasn't messing with much that I had already planned on doing. DH and I might skip Fantasmic, but not sure yet. Either way, DMom is happy now. :goodvibes

The only other change is I think DH and I are going back to the rental car idea. I was able to find a pretty cheap rate for 3 days from Alamo, which we can pick up and drop off from the Disney Car Care Center, which would be so convenient. Even with the rental and parking at the parks and the airport shuttle, it'll probably come out cheaper and easier not having to take any cabs, which it was looking like we'd have to take a few since we want to get to the MK early for our KTTK tour, and we'd have to get to church at some point Saturday or Sunday, so that's 3 cab rides right there, plus the Universal shuttle through Bonnet Creek. I think the rental car will be less headache.

And to close, here's Callie saying, "Stop Disney planning & pay attention to me, Mom! I'm way cuter than Mickey!!"

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4293.jpg

khertz

09-21-2009, 11:48 AM

THURSDAY OCTOBER 4TH - Magic Kingdom & Downtown Disney - Last Disney Day

On our last day in Disney World, we spent the whole day at Magic Kingdom re-riding rides that we loved. Plus, how can you end a stay in Disney World in any other park BESIDES Magic Kingdom??

The very first thing we did was head to Mickey’s Toontown Fair to see if we could meet Mickey before the line got too long. But it was like 9:15 and Toontown didn’t open until 10, so we thought about giving up. As we were walking through Tomorrowland and past the Indy Speedway, the guy working the line stopped us and asked if we had been on the ride yet, which we said we hadn’t. He told us he had a special Honeymoon car, and that he could jump us to the front of the line if we wanted to. We hadn’t planned to ride it, but we figured why not. The girl putting us in our car ended up announcing our names and that we had just gotten married, got the crowd to applaud us, and then slapped a “Just Married” sign on the back of the car!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney94.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney95.jpg

By the time we finished that ride, there was a crowd forming in front of Toontown, so we went back that way. Goofy and Pluto came out, and as soon as one of the cast members moved the rope that was blocking it off, people went RUNNING into Toontown, and Goofy took off running away from all the kids that were chasing him. It was hilarious! The first place we went was to Mickey’s House to walk through to the Judge’s Tent and meet Mickey before the line got too long. It was perfect timing!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney96.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney97.jpg

And then we went to the Toontown Hall of Fame Tent to see who would be doing character greetings there. One line was the Princesses, which neither of us were interested in, but the other line was Goofy, Donald, and Pluto with only a 15 minute wait, so of course we did that one so DH could meet his favorite character...Donald!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney98.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney99.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney100.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney101.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney102.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney103.jpg

We re-rode Space Mountain [several times], and Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland. Walking around, we saw my favorite character, Stitch!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney104.jpg

DH failed to tell me he was doing the arm-cross like Stitch, so I ended up looking awkward. :laughing: Oh well

Then it was off to Fantasyland to finally ride Peter Pan’s Flight for the first time. After one more round on Splash Mountain and an attempt to ride Pirates again, we hit the Emporium and I bought a pink Minnie hoodie, a Mickey Mouse canvas bag to use for work, and a little Stitch stuffed animal whose hands and feet are magnets so that I could wrap him around my stethoscope at work and entertain the kiddos. And then for spending $50, we got a Mickey blanket with the MGM Sorcerer’s Hat, the Tree of Life, Spaceship Earth, and Cinderella’s Castle for $15.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney105.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney106.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney107.jpg

By early afternoon, we were wiped, so we decided to get lunch at the resort and nap before heading to Downtown Disney to pick up our framed Donald sketch, which came out awesome!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney108.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney109.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Honeymoon/disney110.jpg

I was seriously so sad to go back to the hotel that night and pack everything up to go to Universal. Disney is my absolute favorite, which is why in every family vacation, we’ve saved it for last. It worked out opposite this time because we decided to add Universal at the last minute. But it was by far the best four days in Disney I’ve ever spent, because DH and I just had a blast together, and I was so sad for that part to be over. Universal was still a lot of fun (and pretty much NO crowds), but it just wasn't the same, and it felt weird to leave to go home from there instead of from Disney.

That's the end of the Mini-TR! :goodvibes

khertz

09-21-2009, 12:05 PM

Friday, I realized we were at 77 days out...so naturally I decided to make our countdown calendar! I was inspired by the one created by stacikristine (who is in WDW right now...so jealous!), so it shares some similarities. Instead of going to Home Depot and collecting 75 Mickey head paint chips to use, however, I decided to do it the hard way! I have a few LGMH chips that I had gotten awhile back, so I took one and cut out the Mickey head from the background. I traced it on construction paper 75 times, and then cut them each out. Ouch! But I think it came out really cute!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4299.jpg

I had a few made in white that I decorated with Christmas patterns/colors, and I had a pattern all set up, but then I decided I wanted the best two to be the last two before we left. So I kind of messed up the pattern, but I still love it. I got to cross of the first number last night! I'm so excited that it's getting closer after over a year of planning and anticipating!!

I updated our itinerary with all of the changes, so this is probably what we'll be taking with us to Florida. I can't imagine any more changes, but I guess you never know for certain! So for now, this is the final itinerary unless something crazy happens...

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4th
· Airport at 6 am
· Fly out from New Orleans at 8:00 am
· Arrive at Orlando International at 10:40 am
· Mears shuttle to Wyndham Bonnet Creek – check bags
· Resort hopping, Monorail loop (Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, Beach/Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge)
· Lunch at CS at resort
· Downtown Disney – shopping, dinner, Characters in Flight
· Miniature Golf at Winter Summerland

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5th
· Epcot Future World for rope drop
· Lunch at Biergarten – 2:10 pm -CP Dining Package
· Candlelight Processional at 5 pm
· Illuminations 9:30 pm
· Hop to Magic Kingdom for late hours

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Lunch at City Walk
· Church at 6 pm at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine
· Boardwalk/Downtown Disney?

MONDAY DECEMBER 7TH
· Hollywood Studios Rope Drop
· Lunch at Pizza Planet
· Magic Kingdom for SpectroMagic/Wishes

TUESDAY DECEMBER 8TH
· Church at 9:30 am at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine
· Lunch at hotel
· Park of choice before party (AK or DHS)
· Magic Kingdom at 4 pm
· Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 7pm-12am

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Dinner at The Melting Pot

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10TH
· Animal Kingdom
· Lunch at Pizzafari/Flame Tree BBQ
· Camp Minnie-Mickey – character greeting trails, character trees
· Hop to DHS in afternoon
· Fantasmic 6:30
· Osbourne Lights
· Boardwalk?

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH (parents last day)
· Check out of 3 bedroom/check into 1 bedroom
· Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s – 8:15 am
· Monorail to Magic Kingdom
· Park of choice in afternoon
· Osbourne Lights at DHS in evening if not done Thursday

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13TH
· Keys to the Kingdom Tour – 8:30 am
· MK or other park in afternoon
· Church at 6 pm – Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine

MONDAY DECEMBER 14TH
· Park(s) of choice, favorite rides
· Depart Orlando at 7:10 pm
· Arrive in New Orleans at 8:00 pm

74 DAYS!!

stacikristine

09-29-2009, 12:48 PM

cjackearl

09-29-2009, 01:27 PM

Our Dis times must be way different, because somehow I keep missing updates. So sorry!:flower3:

Your camera bag is extra cool. I might have to look at one since our cameras are super similar.

Do you like the TSMM game? I may be buying it tonight, but I'd love to hear someone's review before I spend $50!

What a sweet daughter to rearrange plans to accomodate her momma's request.

Very cute countdown calendar. Ah, Christmas with the Mouse. I may be just the teeny tiniest bit jealous.;)

khertz

09-29-2009, 10:32 PM

Woo-Hoo! Your calendar is sooo cute! :thumbsup2 You definitely worked a lot harder than I did. Soooo adorable!

And I love the honeymoon car. Very cute. And that's awesome you were able to meet all of those awesome characters. :goodvibes

Your trip will be here before you know it!!!! :woohoo:

Aww, thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

The honeymoon car was one of my favorite memories of our honeymoon! We had NO intention of riding those slow little cars, but having not 1 but 2 CM's go out of their way to make it special for us was amazing. :lovestruc

Our Dis times must be way different, because somehow I keep missing updates. So sorry!:flower3:

Your camera bag is extra cool. I might have to look at one since our cameras are super similar.

Do you like the TSMM game? I may be buying it tonight, but I'd love to hear someone's review before I spend $50!

What a sweet daughter to rearrange plans to accomodate her momma's request.

Very cute countdown calendar. Ah, Christmas with the Mouse. I may be just the teeny tiniest bit jealous.;)

I'm WAY excited about our bag! I think since we don't plan to carry a ton of stuff in the parks it's going to be just what we need. I can't wait to try it out since we haven't even had much excuse to use the new camera yet.

We LOVE TSM on the Wii! It's a lot of fun to play, especially with at least 2 players because you can help each other out to meet the objectives while still competing against each other for points. I think it's going to help us out with the ride too because it basically has you doing all the "hidden" things from the ride that score you more points! :thumbsup2

My momma is VERY happy that I budged & changed the schedule. She actually wanted to leave the MVMCP, go see Fantasmic, then come back! Instead of letting her waste all that money we spent on party tickets (because I am pretty sure she would have done it!), I decided just to switch & be done with it. Luckily it didn't disrupt things! :rotfl2:

khertz

09-29-2009, 10:42 PM

Not much going on with planning, but I had to pop in for a little exciting tidbit for today (to me, anyway!).

Today is our two year anniversary! :love:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/191.jpg

Unfortunately, I had to work today. :rolleyes: But I'm off tomorrow, so we are going to have a nice lunch together (we are more lunch people than dinner when it comes to eating out), and then maybe go shopping, and just enjoy each other for the day. :goodvibes

Hope everyone is having a great week!

khertz

10-07-2009, 02:49 PM

Since it's probably going to be awhile before I get to print out my super cute touring plan cards, I decided to share them with y'all the poor way by taking a picture of them on my screen and posting! :rotfl:

I only made them for the first 7 days when our parents will be joining us because I figure those will be the days we'll need a plan to make sure we accomplish everything we want to do together. I figure the last 3 days we'll be there by ourselves, DH and I won't need as much of a plan. I'll probably just make one more card for all three days with the park hours and confirmation #s for KTTK and stuff like that.

These took extraordinarily longer than I had thought they would to make because of course I had to make them each with very cute fonts and graphics. I hope y'all think they are as cute as I think they are! ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4321.jpg
Epcot on Saturday December 5th

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4311.jpg
Islands of Adventure (and probably Universal Studios) on Sunday December 6th

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4313.jpg
Disney Hollywood Studios on Monday December 7th

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4316.jpg
MVMCP on Tuesday December 8th. Since this is our "take it easy" day in the morning, I didn't think we needed a touring plan for the earlier part of the day before the party. This is more just an "info" card for the party, and may be modified as more information becomes available.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4317.jpg
Universal Studios on Wednesday December 9th

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4314.jpg
Animal Kingdom on Thursday December 10th

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/DSCN4318.jpg
Magic Kingdom on Friday December 11th

Of course, none of this is set in stone. What we decide to skip, we'll skip. Some things we'll split up for depending on preference. And of course, we'll be hopping to other parks some days. So whatever we don't complete on the "main" day we are at each park will be completed on a day we hop there. Mostly this was just a starting point for each day and an excuse for me to search for and use cute fonts and graphics. :lmao:

mandy2012

10-14-2009, 12:42 AM

khertz

10-14-2009, 08:59 PM

I just got done reading your honeymoon trip report. I must say your wedding pictures were beautiful! You made an amazing bride. I also enjoyed reading what a great time you had on your honeymoon! I am going to Disney in December too and I can't wait too see how your trip will be! have a nice day :)

Thanks!! You are too sweet. :lovestruc DH and I had a BLAST on our honeymoon, which was some of the inspiration behind this December trip. I can't wait to take our own kids, but I wanted one more trip just us as adults doing all the "big" rides to get it out of our system before we are doing Dumbo and child swaps. :laughing: When will you be there in December? Are our dates overlapping any??

mandy2012

10-15-2009, 01:10 AM

Thanks!! You are too sweet. :lovestruc DH and I had a BLAST on our honeymoon, which was some of the inspiration behind this December trip. I can't wait to take our own kids, but I wanted one more trip just us as adults doing all the "big" rides to get it out of our system before we are doing Dumbo and child swaps. :laughing: When will you be there in December? Are our dates overlapping any??

Me and my boyfriend are thinking the same way as you. We want to have as much fun as we can and do all the thrill rides before we settle down first. We will be there Nov. 30 til Dec.7. This will be our first the going to WDW so I am super excited! :banana: We live in CA and we go to Disneyland all the time, so i'm pretty sure we will have a feel for the Magic kingdom ;)

skier_pete

10-15-2009, 08:28 AM

You guys all have the right idea...get a couple of trips in before the kids come along.

Though, I have to tell you nothing beats bringing your kid(s) to WDW and seeing the place through their eyes. I also highly recommend packing an in-law so you can have some evenings out as well. :cool1:

SkierPete

stacikristine

10-15-2009, 10:51 AM

YAY!!! Your park plan notecards are SOOO cute! :thumbsup2 I love all of the graphics and cute fonts. I thought you hand wrote the first one, and then I saw it was a font! Good job! Even though we didn't fully follow our plans, we still loved having them!

khertz

10-16-2009, 10:10 AM

Me and my boyfriend are thinking the same way as you. We want to have as much fun as we can and do all the thrill rides before we settle down first. We will be there Nov. 30 til Dec.7. This will be our first the going to WDW so I am super excited! :banana: We live in CA and we go to Disneyland all the time, so i'm pretty sure we will have a feel for the Magic kingdom ;)

I have always wanted to go to Disneyland! I wish I lived close to any Disney park, so that I could go whenever I felt like it. Have a GREAT time on your first trip. There is so much to see & do! I bet it won't be your last. ;)

You guys all have the right idea...get a couple of trips in before the kids come along.

Though, I have to tell you nothing beats bringing your kid(s) to WDW and seeing the place through their eyes. I also highly recommend packing an in-law so you can have some evenings out as well. :cool1:

SkierPete

That is exactly the plan! I'm excited to have one last adults only trip, but I can't WAIT to bring my kids in the future. It will probably feel like an entirely different vacation! I am thinking the ideal age will be about 4-5. I never got to go that young when I still believed in all the Disney magic, so I want my kids to have that. When I went at 9 for the first time with my aunt and uncle, my aunt said I refused to do a lot of rides that were too "baby" so I don't want to wait too long to take them and miss out on all of those experiences while they are young!

YAY!!! Your park plan notecards are SOOO cute! :thumbsup2 I love all of the graphics and cute fonts. I thought you hand wrote the first one, and then I saw it was a font! Good job! Even though we didn't fully follow our plans, we still loved having them!

Thank you! :goodvibes I have a ton of handwriting fonts downloaded, so I thought it would make them look more interesting than having just Times New Roman typing, but still leave them readable. I don't know that we'll fully follow these if we find we don't really need them, but we'll have them if we find it more crowded than we expect (which I really hope is note the case!!).

skier_pete

10-16-2009, 11:03 AM

That is exactly the plan! I'm excited to have one last adults only trip, but I can't WAIT to bring my kids in the future. It will probably feel like an entirely different vacation! I am thinking the ideal age will be about 4-5. I never got to go that young when I still believed in all the Disney magic, so I want my kids to have that. When I went at 9 for the first time with my aunt and uncle, my aunt said I refused to do a lot of rides that were too "baby" so I don't want to wait too long to take them and miss out on all of those experiences while they are young!

Your thinking here is spot on...I think 4 or 5 is best. The hard part is waiting all those years to go. We want to go in 2005, when DD was 2.5, but after going with her to a local amusement park, we decided to wait another year.
We first took DD @ 3.5 for a short (5 day) trip. The trip went well, but she was scared / intimadated by a bunch of rides...and we are still paying for that now with her resistance to trying anything new...but she is also a bit on the timid side. (Doesn't like loud things for instance - so doesn't really like the fireworks.HATES Fantasmic. Doesn't like seeing good characters in danger.) But she LOVES going to WDW...so the early travel delivered another WDW addict.

Anyways, I always think the "sweet spot" age for WDW is 6-10 years old. Before 6, there is still a lot of things you can't do yet, even though there are plenty of things to do. As you pointed out, past 10 and many things are thought of as "lame"....though I think if you start them early, the nostalgia kicks in, and they will still like many things.

(It's interesting how the cycle goes...I remember as a kid loving the Jungle Cruise. Then, going back as a young adult, thinking it was the worst ride ever. Now, it's one of DD favorites, she is so wide eyed the whole time. In addition, I find that I personally get a total kick out of the awful "jokes", so I now have a blast on this ride again: "Uh, oh, a plane crash...and everyone knows what that means....hippos!", "There's old smiley, he's always looking for a hand-out, and there's his girlfriend Ginger. Now everyone, stay away from Ginger, because...you know...Ginger Snaps!" :rotfl2:)

Sorry, I'm hijacking the thread....back to your regularly scheduled Khertz.
SkierPete

mandy2012

10-18-2009, 02:15 PM

[QUOTE=khertz;33971061]I have always wanted to go to Disneyland! I wish I lived close to any Disney park, so that I could go whenever I felt like it. Have a GREAT time on your first trip. There is so much to see & do! I bet it won't be your last. ;)

Yes it is awesome living close to a disney park. I live an hour away from DL so it is home to us :love: I wanted to go next week to see all the halloween decorations and check out the holiday themed space mountain, but it looks like we need to save more money for our wdw trip lol. Oh well, wdw is more important now! Haha we haven't even had our first trip yet and I am already talking about future WDW trips. No way will this be our last!!:wizard:

exwdwcm

10-20-2009, 10:44 PM

the countdown calendar is so cute!!!! I will have to do one for our next trip.

We will be at MK on that friday morning 12/11 too!

those cards are just great- love that font too. HOw big are the cards?
That is exactly the plan! I'm excited to have one last adults only trip, but I can't WAIT to bring my kids in the future. It will probably feel like an entirely different vacation! I am thinking the ideal age will be about 4-5. I never got to go that young when I still believed in all the Disney magic, so I want my kids to have that. When I went at 9 for the first time with my aunt and uncle, my aunt said I refused to do a lot of rides that were too "baby" so I don't want to wait too long to take them and miss out on all of those experiences while they are young!

yes, the adult trips are great and get them in now. I gotta tell you though- while I know that 4-5 is probably the better age for taking kiddos.....there is no way i could possibly wait that long. Heck, we waited 2 years just trying to have a kid and through many fertility issues. now that he is here and talking and has a little personality- we simply can't wait 2 more years. We are so excited to take him- he will be 26 months- just over 2 when we go in Dec. Will he remember- probably not, but we will and we will have those memories and pictures forever! I can't wait to see the look on his face when we eat with Pooh-Pooh- as he calls Pooh! :lmao::goodvibes

We took my 2.5yo niece back in 05 and she had a ball. She will now be 6 and probably a better age this time around. But its amazing what each child at each different age enjoys and can do. it is an adventure for all!!!

but yes, enjnoy the adult and alone time while you can!!! :thumbsup2:wizard:

khertz

10-23-2009, 09:40 AM

the countdown calendar is so cute!!!! I will have to do one for our next trip.

Thanks! It was VERY time consuming, and my hands were killing me at the end, but I love being able to cross off a number every night when I go to bed! :woohoo:

We will be at MK on that friday morning 12/11 too!

Fun!! :yay: DH and I will be wearing our LGMH! I am a little oblivious sometimes, so if you see us, please come say hi, and I will do the same, if I am paying attention! :laughing:

those cards are just great- love that font too. HOw big are the cards?yes, the adult trips are great and get them in now. I gotta tell you though- while I know that 4-5 is probably the better age for taking kiddos.....there is no way i could possibly wait that long. Heck, we waited 2 years just trying to have a kid and through many fertility issues. now that he is here and talking and has a little personality- we simply can't wait 2 more years. We are so excited to take him- he will be 26 months- just over 2 when we go in Dec. Will he remember- probably not, but we will and we will have those memories and pictures forever! I can't wait to see the look on his face when we eat with Pooh-Pooh- as he calls Pooh! :lmao::goodvibes

Thanks again! At the moment, I have the files big enough for 5x8 index cards, but I may have to shrink them down because they won't fit in our camera bag unless they are folded, and I'd like to keep them looking as decent as possible to put in the scrapbook. So that's still a little up in the air at the moment...

I have a feeling I'm going to be just like y'all! Even though 4-5 sounds like the best age for us to take them, I know it's going to absolutely KILL me to wait that long!! I'm already dreading it, and I still have 1 trip ahead of me! :rotfl: So my "long term plan" is to take the first kid at 4, before having a 2nd, because if I have to wait like 8 years until my youngest is 4...I'll just go insane! That's my plan if I can't convince DH to take them when they are any younger. :lmao: He thinks I'm already crazy for even thinking about all of this!

Our trips are getting SO CLOSE!! :dance3:

khertz

11-02-2009, 11:56 AM

Not much has been happening Disney wise, but on Friday, I went into New Orleans to see my favorite band in the world, Hanson! I went with my sister and one of my good friends from high school, that I haven't seen in forever, and we had a GREAT time! They played for about an hour and a half, and I had such an amazing night, jumping & singing at the top of my lungs. It was my 5th time seeing them live, and my 4th time seeing them at the House of Blues in New Orleans.

Most people don't know this, but for the past couple tours, Hanson has paired with Tom's Shoes (http://www.tomsshoes.com/default.asp), a company that donates a pair of shoes to a child in Africa for every pair bought in the US. So before every show, the guys do a 1 mile walk around the city barefoot to raise awareness. They usually stop somewhere along the way to give a little speech about their cause, and sing a quick song. This year, I didn't make it in enough time for the walk, but I did it two years ago when they came through. Luckily my friend went and send me the pictures she took! The walk took place around the Tulane University campus.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/IMG00261-20091030-1354.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/IMG00258-20091030-1349.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/IMG00257-20091030-1326.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/IMG00260-20091030-1352.jpg

And just because I LOVE this picture, here's me with the guys from the show two years ago when I was lucky enough to be chosen as the reporter! I got to interview the guys for about 25 minutes in the green room prior to the show, and I was able to go in front of the front row barricade for the first few songs of the show to take pictures for their website. I have been a fan for 12 1/2 years, so needless to say, it was an amazing experience!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/Disney%20World%202009/neworleans05.jpg

Now back, to the PTR...

I posted my "final" itinerary a few posts ago...I should have known! ;) No big changes really. I was just talking to my mom, and she said she may still want to do a lunch at either 50's Prime Time or Sci-Fi on our DHS day. So I went ahead and made a reservation on Monday December 7th for 12 pm for all of us. We may not end up keeping it, if the parents all decide they would rather eat at 50's. DH is not a fan of 50's, so if they decide to eat there, we'll skip the sit down lunch altogether and just eat a CS meal instead.

Also, I happened to check the website for The Melting Pot and found out I could make reservations online 60 days in advance, so I booked us for 7 pm Wednesday December 9th, which our second Universal day.

I think now, I am REALLY done with ADR's, but I guess you never know. :rolleyes1

32 MORE DAYS!! :woohoo:

exwdwcm

11-04-2009, 02:25 PM

ah, hanson is all grown up and much cuter than i remember! lol love the pics! sounds like a great time and what a great cause for Tom's shoes too.

love love love Melting Pot- we have quite a few here near us- about 10 minutes away. But we don't go a lot. Enjoy it!

did you have any issues booking sci fi or 50s for a party of 12? I was trying to get our 12/12 ressie for 13 of us at Sci Fi bumped up a bit and there was NO availability anywhere almost. crazy. i guess it is because all the DIS fan web groups (including the DIS) will be there celebrating what used to be mousefest.

khertz

11-04-2009, 03:58 PM

ah, hanson is all grown up and much cuter than i remember! lol love the pics! sounds like a great time and what a great cause for Tom's shoes too.

Haha Thanks! I have been a fan since I was 12 & in 7th grade. If you had asked me then would I still be a fan over a decade later, I probably would have said no! But they are still around & better than ever, in my opinion. :goodvibes

love love love Melting Pot- we have quite a few here near us- about 10 minutes away. But we don't go a lot. Enjoy it!

DH & I ate there for the first time last December when I spent a weekend with him in Houston while he was at a 2 week long seminar thing for work. We had never even had fondue before, and we were a bit nervous since we are such picky eaters, but we LOVED it! The closest one to us is an hour away in Baton Rouge. When we saw one in Orlando on the way back to our resort from Universal, we knew we wanted to eat there again. Our parents never have, so it'll be new to them!

did you have any issues booking sci fi or 50s for a party of 12? I was trying to get our 12/12 ressie for 13 of us at Sci Fi bumped up a bit and there was NO availability anywhere almost. crazy. i guess it is because all the DIS fan web groups (including the DIS) will be there celebrating what used to be mousefest.

When I booked the reservation a few weeks ago, I had my pick of times from both Sci-Fi and 50's. But our group is of 6, so it may be a little easier than a group of 13. Even now, there are still a few times available for groups of 6. Maybe you could book 2 reservations for each half the group for times close to each other? I wish you luck, because I though getting reservations for 6 people was rough...I don't want to imagine 10+! Hopefully you can catch a cancellation and get a time that's better for you.

mandy2012

11-06-2009, 01:05 AM

khertz

11-07-2009, 09:46 AM

Aww Hanson is all grown up :) And they are barefoot lol. I have never heard of the Meltion pot before and when you mensioned you were eating there I knew I had to check what it is. I looked at the menu and I have never had fondu before, but the desserts look absolutely deleciaous! And it just so happens there is one 30 mins away :) So my boyfriend said he will take me there for Valentines Day :lovestruc

Melting Pot is DELICIOUS! When we went, we did the Entrees for Two, and they let us do the chocolate course in place of a cheese course, since we weren't crazy about the cheese offerings but definitely wanted some chocolate! We got the Chocolate S'mores one and it was SO GOOD! And it's really a lot of food, but it takes awhile to cook your meats and eat them, so you get full slowly because you are forced to eat slowly. I hope y'all like it!!

mandy2012

11-07-2009, 10:09 PM

Melting Pot is DELICIOUS! When we went, we did the Entrees for Two, and they let us do the chocolate course in place of a cheese course, since we weren't crazy about the cheese offerings but definitely wanted some chocolate! We got the Chocolate S'mores one and it was SO GOOD! And it's really a lot of food, but it takes awhile to cook your meats and eat them, so you get full slowly because you are forced to eat slowly. I hope y'all like it!!

Mmm that sounds amazing. I bet it will be good because I eat slow all the time lol :laughing:

khertz

11-13-2009, 12:15 PM

Our trip is exactly 3 weeks away today!! :woohoo: :yay: :dance3: :woohoo: I'm so ready to be there already!

This past week was DH's last week at home before coming home for vacation (he'll be out on the rig for the next two weeks). So we pretty accomplished everything we still needed to do so that when he comes right before vacation, we can be focused on laundry, packing, and getting the house ready for us to leave.

So the first thing we did was book our round-trip Mears shuttle. They'll pick us up from the airport when our flight lands and bring us to Bonnet Creek, where we'll leave our bags and hop the first shuttle to a park to start our tour of resorts! :santa: On our departure day, the shuttle picks us up at 4 pm for our 7:10 pm flight. It's a little earlier than I had expected to be leaving, but it was the time that defaulted when I plugged in our flight time, so I figure it's safe. Total cost for round trip for the two of us was $66, which is pretty good considering our other option would probably be cabs, which may cost closer to $100.

And we booked our rental car for the days after our parents leave. We got it through National for a great price of about $85 for two days. Saturday morning, we'll catch a shuttle to the TTC and pick up the car from the Disney Car Care Center, and keep it until Monday morning when we drop it off again. Everything worked out really well price and location wise.

Now a few disappointing moments...I was pretty bummed when I found out they had done away with Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas show at MVMCP and replaced it with a Stitch show. Don't get me wrong, I love Stitch...I tend to think of him as the sweet & loyal Stitch from the end of the movie more so than the mischievous and gross Stitch from the beginning. But I was really looking forward to seeing that show. Now, I find out that the Lights of Winter display at Epcot is cancelled! I'm really starting to feel like we should have gone last December instead of waiting!! :eek: Don't get me wrong, I'm still VERY excited about all the things we will be getting to experience, because everything is all new to me. But I'm quite disappointed that two things I was so looking forward to have been discontinued with things I think will be subpar compared to the original as replacements. I'm still trying to stay positive, because hey, we are going to be in DISNEY, and it will be beautiful, but I can't help feeling a little cheated. :confused3

Also, on a more personal note, if you are of the praying kind, please keep my co-worker Heather in your thoughts/prayers. I'm covering a shift for her this afternoon because her husband was killed last night. :hug: She is only a few years older than me, I can't even imagine being a widow so young, so she definitely needs the prayers.

khertz

11-18-2009, 05:24 PM

My trip is creeping closer & closer! So I thought now would be a good time to break down our plans a bit more, so here goes...

Our vacation will officially start on Thursday December 3rd [DAY 0] when we leave to take our kitties to my in-laws house in Mississippi. I'm not looking forward to an almost 3 hour car ride with the cats, because Callie tries to get into everything (you can't leave that girl in her carrier, she won't stand for it!), and Linus cries and howls the whole way. It'll be a long trip, but I guess I should feel lucky that they aren't able to ask, "Are we there yet?!"

Here they are, so excited for Disney that they packed themselves up already! (We haven't had the heart to tell them they aren't coming... :rotfl:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/DSCN2719.jpg

After dropping the kitty cats off, we'll start driving south towards my parents' house, where we'll all 6 be spending the night. But there's a little detour along the way. My newest cousin Sawyer will be turning 1 years old on December 5th, so we'll unfortunately be missing her first birthday party! My aunt & uncle's house is right along I-55, so we'll be stopping there to visit since I hardly see them now anyway, living so far away. We'll probably have dinner there while visiting with two of my favorite girls, baby Sawyer, and her gorgeous big sister Skylar!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/4962_105243273720_704418720_2026438.jpg
The Birthday Girl!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v62/zorianna/4962_105243143720_704418720_2026416.jpg
Her silly sister!

It'll be a packed in night once we get to my parents' house, as there are only so many beds and 6 of us! But we'll manage, though we'll probably all keep each other awake whispering, "I'm too excited to sleep!" :banana:

On Friday morning [DAY 1], we'll be up bright & early! Rise & shine time will likely be around 5 so that we can all be in the car early. DH and I will be dropped off at the airport for our 8 am flight while our parents continue their journey on the road.

DH & I should land around 10:40 am Orlando time. Our parents will be taking our big luggage in the van with them, so we'll be able to skip right past baggage claim and find our Mears shuttle to take us to Wyndham Bonnet Creek! Once there, we plan to hop the first MK shuttle we see so that we can start exploring some resorts. High on the list are the Grand Floridian and the Wilderness Lodge, but we'll likely ride the whole monorail loop before taking the boat to WL. Lunch will be at whatever CS in whatever resort we are in when we decide we're hungry. We might also take the Epcot monorail to check out some of the Epcot area resorts like the Boardwalk and the Beach & Yacht Club.

When our parents arrive into Orlando, we'll meet up either at the resort or make our way to Downtown Disney and have them meet us there for some shopping, a Characters in Flight balloon ride, and dinner (Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express are my two front-runners). After grubbing, we'll take in a round or two of mini-golf at Winter Summerland before calling it a day and heading back to Bonnet Creek for the night!

:woohoo: 16 DAYS LEFT!! :woohoo:

thadarkslayer

11-20-2009, 09:08 PM

khertz

11-21-2009, 12:37 PM

Just found your TR, and that's AWESOME that you got reporter for the New Orleans show. I managed to have my first first row Hanson experience at my show in Atlanta. It was amazing as usual.

Looks like I'll be missing my fellow likeminded Disney/Hanson fan by a few days. I'll be going to MVMCP on the 3rd. Bummer.

It was such an amazing experience, especially since I had missed out on meeting them SO many times (I had an M&G for the St. Pete show in 2005 that got cancelled because of a hurricane!). They were so laid back and nice, and I was surprised by how comfortable I felt after only talking to them for a little while. Front row is so great! But this last show, I stayed to the back and had tons of room to jump and spazz, and it was just as great! :goodvibes

What dates will you be there total? DH & I will both be wearing our LGMHs on our bags while in the parks.

khertz

11-21-2009, 02:37 PM

Our first park days!!

Saturday December 5th will be DAY 2 of our Disney vacation! Since it is also the day of the Christmas Parade Taping in Magic Kingdom, we'll be avoiding that entirely and heading to Epcot. :thumbsup2

The plan is to be there and ready for rope drop and tackle Future World aggressively. Our must-dos in FW are Soarin', Mission:SPACE, and Test Track. My mom will probably want to ride Ellen's Energy Adventure, but DH & I don't care to do that again, so we'll likely spend that time cruising around Innoventions and checking out the exhibits and games. I'd also like to ride Journey Into the Imagination with Figment, as it is one of my nostalgia rides. :goodvibes

Another thing to accomplish before finishing up in Future World and heading to World Showcase is getting our picture taken with the characters at the Disney Visa Meet & Greet! I have my fingers crossed for the whole Fab 5 to be there, but I'll be happy with any of the 5!

Once finished, we'll head to World Showcase and start exploring. My only real must-do here is Maelstrom in Norway, especially since we missed it last trip to do technical difficulties. I'd also like to catch a couple of the movies, like in France and Canada. And I'll gladly get a margarita while cruising through Mexico! :drinking1

At 2:10 we'll be eating at Biergarten for our CP package. I'm hoping the meal won't take up too much time since it is buffet style. I'm a picky eater, but I plan to at least give things a try, even if it's not something I think I'll like!

We should have time to visit a few more countries before heading to the American Gardens Theater for our 5 pm Candlelight Processional narrated by Steven Curtis Chapman. I had never heard of him before the DIS, but I hear he is a great narrator, so I'm excited about this show! After the CP, we'll finish up the countries, grab a snack from Cantina de San Angel if we're feeling hungry again, and settle into our reserved section for Illuminations at 9:30.

The MK is open until 1 am, so if we are feeling up to it, we may head over there following Illmiations to get in a few rides before calling it a night and heading back to Bonnet Creek.

Sunday December 6th is DAY 3 when we will be leaving the world of Disney to head to the "dark side." I'm not going to lie, DH & I LOVE Universal! In the past, we have always done 2 consecutive days at US/IOA, usually at the beginning of the trip before spending the rest of the vacation at Disney. This year, we decided to do 3 days and to spread them out throughout the vacation.

I don't have much of a plan for our US/IOA days, only because I'm really hoping we won't even need much of a plan anyway. Both parks are open until 6 pm, and I think we'll get a lot accomplished. I think we'll probably start out in Universal Studios, where our must-dos are The Simpsons Ride, Revenge of the Mummy, Rip Ride Rockit, Men In Black, and Shrek 4-D. For lunch, we may eat in City Walk, where my top restaurant is definitely Margaritaville (where I may even have a margarita or two). My parents raised me on Jimmy Buffett.

DH and myself and my parents are Catholic, so we'll have to leave the parks a little early this evening to go to 6 pm mass at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine. We have gone to mass there every vacation, and it's such a stunning church.

If we're not totally exhausted, we may go check out the Boardwalk area before heading back to Bonnet Creek for the night. Maybe grabbing a Kitchen Sink at Beaches & Cream?? :rolleyes1

:woohoo: 13 DAYS!! :woohoo:

khertz

11-22-2009, 04:24 PM

Moving on to DAY 4, which will be on Monday December 7th, we'll be heading to DHS for rope drop! Our first stop, along with everyone else, will be for our first ride on Toy Story Mania! So excited about this one! I think our best bet will be to ride first, then get a fastpass for later, before heading to our other top attractions, Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roller Coaster. I'm sure we'll ride some combination of these three rides multiple times throughout the day. :thumbsup2

I think that's about it as far as must-dos. Other things I'd like to do would be the Beauty & the Beast show and the Indiana Jones show since we missed both last trip. We also enjoyed Lights Motors Action, so I'm sure we'll catch one of those shows, along with a Backlot Tour. And I love the Great Movie Ride, so I'll definitely want a ride on there.

For lunch, we have a reservation for 12:00 at Sci-Fi Dine In. I have only eaten here once, and it was a day we were escaping the rain, so we took the first available seats, which weren't in the cars. So hopefully we'll be able to have a real drive-in dining experience!

We plan to catch the Block Party Bash in the afternoon, then late afternoon/early evening, we'll make our way to Magic Kingdom for SpectroMagic and Wishes! I LOVE LOVE LOVE me some Wishes, so I'm excited to see the regular version and the holiday version as well. The park closes for us at 8 pm (pm EMH), so we may just stay and shop a little bit before calling it a night. Our other alternative would be to make our way to the Polynesian beach to catch the Electrical Water Pageant, but that's not a must-do.

Moving on, we come to DAY 5, which is Tuesday December 8th, or as I have been calling it, MVMCP day! I mentioned last post that we are Catholic, and December 8th is a Holy Day of Observation. So since we have a long night planned, we'll sleep in that morning and head to mass at Mary Queen of the Universe for 9:30 or possibly even 11 am Mass. Lunch will be at the resort before we head out for a slow day at Animal Kingdom. We probably won't ride a lot of rides, but use the time to explore Camp Minnie-Mickey, check out the character trees and greeting trails, and maybe take in the Lion King and Finding Nemo shows.

Around 3:30, we'll leave AK and hop over to Magic Kingdom for some Christmas Party fun! I'm VERY excited about this night!! During the few hours before the party officially starts, we'll probably ride some rides and grab dinner at Cosmic Ray's or Pecos Bill's. We'll watch the Castle lighting ceremony at 6:45 and then I'd like to head for Toontown right at 7 to get in line for Mickey in his holiday clothes, and hopefully we can catch Minnie without too much line as well. If not, we'll probably save it for later in the party when more people have left.

During the first parade, my goal is to get a ride on Dumbo, since I have NEVER ridden it before, ever! As the parade is winding down, we'll head back towards Main Street for Holiday Wishes, which I expect to be packed! After that, we'll stay on Main Street and find a spot for the second parade, and maybe send some of us for some cookies & hot chocolate to enjoy while waiting.

We'll ride some more rides, and take in the Castle Forecourt show at 11:20 pm. We plan to stay until they kick us out! And that'll be the end of Day 5.

skier_pete

11-23-2009, 09:09 AM

khertz

11-23-2009, 08:41 PM

Ooooh....going to Universal...you'll get blackballed here on the DIS.

Just kidding...I love Universal too...but won't go over there until DD is old enough to really go on all the stuff...right now it would be a huge waste of money in my view.

Your trip looks good so far, though super busy. Good thing you are taking that "break" to go to church...otherwise I think you'd burn yourself out!

I know what you mean about Universal...I am still debating whether or not to include it when I do my TR! Still have some time to decide about that, though. We are roller coaster junkies, so we love it, but I can see where most of it is too intense or scary for little ones.

We are definitely going to be super busy! But I think with all adults, we'll handle it okay. And if we need a nap in the middle of the day, we'll do that too! I'm kind of afraid I'll end up taking said nap while in church. :rotfl:

thadarkslayer

11-24-2009, 06:16 AM

It was such an amazing experience, especially since I had missed out on meeting them SO many times (I had an M&G for the St. Pete show in 2005 that got cancelled because of a hurricane!). They were so laid back and nice, and I was surprised by how comfortable I felt after only talking to them for a little while. Front row is so great! But this last show, I stayed to the back and had tons of room to jump and spazz, and it was just as great! :goodvibes

What dates will you be there total? DH & I will both be wearing our LGMHs on our bags while in the parks.

It's funny that you mention that St. Pete show in '05. I was living in Florida at the time, and had tickets for both the Orlando and St. Pete shows. I would have been there, too if it weren't for stupid Hurricane Wilma.

I met them at a M&G at a music store back in 2000. It was a quick signing at a table sort of thing, but at least I can say I've done it. :thumbsup2

I'm not actually going to be at the parks full time. I'll be down in Florida for about ten days total, starting with Thanksgiving in Lakeland with family, and that's where we'll be for most of our time. We're spending a few days in Miami, and taking a day or two to come over for the Christmas party and Ice at Gaylord Palms before we leave on 12/5.

khertz

11-24-2009, 06:17 PM

It's funny that you mention that St. Pete show in '05. I was living in Florida at the time, and had tickets for both the Orlando and St. Pete shows. I would have been there, too if it weren't for stupid Hurricane Wilma.

I met them at a M&G at a music store back in 2000. It was a quick signing at a table sort of thing, but at least I can say I've done it. :thumbsup2

I'm not actually going to be at the parks full time. I'll be down in Florida for about ten days total, starting with Thanksgiving in Lakeland with family, and that's where we'll be for most of our time. We're spending a few days in Miami, and taking a day or two to come over for the Christmas party and Ice at Gaylord Palms before we leave on 12/5.

Even though we won't cross paths, have fun at the Christmas party! :santa:

khertz

11-24-2009, 06:28 PM

Wednesday December 9th will be DAY 6! Another Universal Studios day. We'll probably use this day to tackle Islands of Adventure, my favorite! Must-dos are the Incredible Hulk Coaster, Dueling Dragons, and Jurassic Park River Adventure. We'll grab lunch in the parks, and maybe head to Universal Studios in the afternoon since IOA doesn't seem to take as much time. Definitely need to be there in time for the Macy's Holiday Parade at 5 pm. Excited for that!

After the parks, we'll head to The Melting Pot for dinner at 7:00 pm. I'm already thinking about what I want to order! Last time, DH and I shared a salad, entree, and dessert course for a set price. We liked most of it, but some of the meat wasn't our favorite. So I think this time, we're going to skip the salad, go for a individual entree, and share a dessert course. Very much looking forward to the s'mores chocolate fondue for dessert!!

DAY 7 will be Thursday December 10th at Animal Kingdom! The goal is to make it for rope drop and hit Expedition Everest immediately. My favorite Disney coaster, by far! Other must-dos are Kilimanjaro Safari, and the nature trails. I'm sure I'll get dragged onto Dinosaur, even though it terrifies me...it always makes for a pretty funny picture, if nothing else.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to stay and see the Jingle Jungle Parade at 3:45, but it may not be feasible since our evening plans are to hop to DHS for Fantasmic at 6:30. This is top priority for my mom, not so much for me and DH. I'm still not sure if we're even going to go to the show or just wander around DHS until it's over. But when it's over, we'll be cruising the Streets of America to take in the Osbourne Lights!

:woohoo: 9 DAYS LEFT!! :woohoo:

skier_pete

11-24-2009, 09:26 PM

Oh man, single digit dance!

I am a bit jealous of you going to Uni and IOA...someday!

We love Melting Pot...they built one here in Buffalo, but we have yet to go. Sometime soon I think.

khertz

11-25-2009, 10:56 AM

Oh man, single digit dance!

I am a bit jealous of you going to Uni and IOA...someday!

We love Melting Pot...they built one here in Buffalo, but we have yet to go. Sometime soon I think.

:dance3:

I posted that as my facebook status, and didn't realize how much it really needs a dancing banana to get the point across! :banana:

Someday you'll make it to US/IOA, and probably by that time they'll have even cooler stuff than they do now! I have to say though, I really miss King Kong!!

The closest Melting Pot is in Baton Rouge, which is only about an hour away from us, but we rarely feel like driving an hour each way for dinner. We lucked out finding one that was literally on the way to our resort from Universal.

stacikristine

11-25-2009, 11:43 AM

khertz

11-25-2009, 01:01 PM

Wow!! You've planned it all out! :thumbsup2 Your plans look great! I'm really anxious for your US day--Michael and I want to go there next time! I can't believe you're leaving SOOOO soon!!! :dance3::yay::woohoo:

Thanks!

I don't think we could ever do Disney and NOT do Universal, with DH being as big of a fan as he is. If you do go next time & have the money, spend a couple days at one of their resorts. Not only are they beautiful (we have stayed at both Hard Rock and Royal Pacific), but you can't beat the 5 minute walk to the parks and using your room key as your express pass for almost every single attraction! I'm just sad we are missing out on Wizarding World of Harry Potter by a few months. :sad1: All the more reason to go again soon!

I can't believe I'm leaving so soon either!! :yay:

MyMuse

11-25-2009, 02:33 PM

khertz

11-25-2009, 04:17 PM

So close!! :yay:

I think our first 2 days are the same! :laughing:

The last time I went to Universal was when Simpson ride opened. Went on it 3 times, it was great! I would put it in the TR; it was part of your experience, still magical.

I'm not Catholic anymore, but I heard about Mary, Queen of Universe Church and how stunning it was. Anywhere, I go, I usually visit a church. So much beauty there. Of course, having seen the Vatican, it may take alot to top that one. :lmao:

Cool on the Mears & rental booking - sounds like great deals. :goodvibes

I would LOVE to see the Vatican! I have been wanting to visit Italy for such a long time now. I love all the history, the art, the architecture...Jealous!!

We have gotten lucky in our deals so far, and haven't had to pay full price for most things, which is good considering how quickly this vacation is adding up!

khertz

11-25-2009, 04:28 PM

DAY 8 will be Friday December 11th, which also happens to be the last day we'll be spending with our parents. It is also the morning we'll have to check out of our 3 bedroom suite at Bonnet Creek and move to a 1 bedroom.

Up first is an early breakfast at Chef Mickey's! I'm very excited about this, as it will be my first ever character meal. Originally, I wanted this breakfast to get a picture with Mickey without having to wait in line. But when I realized he will be dressed up for the Christmas party, in his Christmas sweater at AK, and available (maybe) for the Visa Meet & Greet, it more became about the character breakfast since it looks like I'll be standing in line for Mickey several times on this vacation!

After breakfast, we'll hopefully take the monorail to the MK (if we are moving early enough in the morning to park at TTC instead of at the Contemporary). We'll spend the morning there doing anything we want. But since it's a night with MVMCP, we probably won't stay past early afternoon. After that, we are leaving it up to our parents where they want to go since it's their last day. But they are thinking they may want to start driving early that evening and possibly stop overnight before getting back home Saturday morning. If they decide to call it quits early, DH and I will likely head to whatever park we are in the mood for. We may possibly head back to DTD that night for another ride on Characters in Flight at night, do some more shopping, and grab dinner.

Saturday December 12th is DAY 9! Before heading to a park, we'll need to catch a shuttle to the TTC from our hotel and make our way to Disney's Car Care Center to pick up our rental car. After that, we hit the road for our last Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure day! I'm thinking we'll have accomplished everything at both parks on our previous day, so this will be a day to ride our favorites over and over again. I think we'll probably have dinner at a CS in the parks, or we may eat at City Walk, probably at The Hard Rock. I love that place!

After the parks, since they close pretty early, we may stop on our way back to the resort for a game of mini-golf at Pirate's Cove Adventure golf. Or if we feel like our wallet is going to cry in pain from opening it again, we may just play mini-golf at the resort, where I think it's free? And relax in the lazy river if it isn't too cold. I'm sure we'll probably need it by then!

Friday I'll post about our last two days. :sad1:

But yay, only :woohoo: 8 MORE DAYS!! :woohoo:

khertz

11-27-2009, 11:23 AM

It makes me sad to write about our last two days, and the vacation isn't even here yet! :sad2:

But moving on...DAY 10 will be on Sunday December 13th. Our first order of business will be to arrive at the Magic Kingdom very early for our Keys to the Kingdom Tour at 8:30 am! I'm SO excited about this, because it is something I didn't even know about before the DIS and may never have done if I hadn't read about it here! DH and I spent a lot of time researching all of the different backstage tours and really wanted to do Backstage Magic, but didn't want to spend so much and have so little park time once the tour was over. So instead, we settled for KTTK, and are both excited about it! I'm also chomping at the bit to get those early morning castle & Main Street photos without anyone else in them.

We'll have lunch at Columbia Harbour House during the tour, which should finish around 1:30 or 2. We may stay in the Magic Kingdom that afternoon, but I'm thinking we'll probably hop somewhere else to spend our last day in MK instead. So the afternoon will be a free for all so that we can visit some of our favorite rides again. We'll have to go to Mass at 6 pm that night, then head back to the resort to pack up our stuff.

Our last day is DAY 11, Monday December 14th. :sad1: We'll get up early and check out of the resort room, and bring our rental car back to the Car Care Center. After that, I'm imagining our last day in MK, but we might be MK'd out at that point, who knows? This day will be our one truly spontaneous day where we do whatever we want whenever we decide to do it. We just have to be back at Bonnet Creek between 3:30 and 4 to catch our Mears shuttle back to the airport. :scared: I'm not going to be a happy camper when that time creeps up on us!

Our flight home leaves at 7:10 pm, and then my mom will be coming to pick us up from the airport to bring us to her house for the night. In the morning, we'll have to get in our car and drive to Mississippi to gather up our cats and all their stuff, and start the drive back home and back to reality. How's this for a slap in the face? We officially get HOME (as in our own house) on Tuesday, and Wednesday I'm back at work! It's going to be oh so hard to get up early that morning knowing I'm not heading to a day of Disney magic, but instead heading to a day at work.

But then I can come home and start my TR!

DH is on his way home from the rig at this moment. This week will be busy, but hey, 1 week from today, I'll be landing at MCO and starting my Disney vacation!!! :dance3: :woohoo: :yay: :cheer2: :banana: