My First Attempt at a Trip Report ~ only 4 days to go!!

[kadee_29]

First off....Thank You :cheer2: for reading my trip report.

This is my second attempt at planning for our first trip to Disney. Our first trip was supposed to take place last December but our house was broken into and then DH lost his job so we had to cancel it. The kids were heartbroken. So when I found out about Free Dining I talked to DH and decided to plan another trip. We decided not to tell the kids this time just in case we have to change it again.

All that just to say that we are going to Disney!!!!!:yay::woohoo::yay:

Introductions....
Me ~ Kadee (33) Stay at home mom and college student working towards my bachelors. Technically this is not my first trip to Disney but the last time I was there was spring of 88 and I don't remember much of it.

DH ~ B (31) Computer geek. Has never been to Disney and could care less what any of the plans are. He is looking forward to it though. I think

DD ~ K (11) Not a girly girl at all. Loves High School Musical and Zac Efron. Not into the princesses at all.

DS ~ N (5) My little man. Loves Star Wars. I am determined to go to Star Wars weekend one of these years. His favorite Disney character is Pluto. He would be pretty excited about Disney if he knew we were going.

DS ~ M (2) My h*ll on wheels. He loves all the Disney characters. Mickey, Pluto, Pooh and Tigger seem to be at the top of the list though. At least for today, it could change tomorrow.

This is kind of a special trip although delayed. My daughter had a traumatic skull injury almost 2 years ago and in trade for her agreeing to the surgery, we agreed to a trip to Disney. She has since fully recovered and nobody can tell she even had surgery unless we point out the scar.

We are staying at AKL Savannah View from September 20th to the 26th. Other than that we don't really have anything set it stone yet. I figured this could be a great place for me to get ideas and plans out without my daughter finding them.

Thanks again for reading and :welcome:

[nancy drew]

WooHOOOOOOO!!!!!

: chanting :

You're going to Dis-ney
You're going to Dis-ney!!!!
Neener neener nee-ner!!!

:cool1::banana::yay::dance3:

[kadee_29]

Yes I am!!! And gee maybe if I can get everything out here I can quit bugging you so much with all my questions. :upsidedow

[Shir Kahn]

Wow, sounds like you guys have had your share of bad luck and then some! Hopefully you've used it all up. pixiedust: Good start to your trip report, I'll be following along. :goodvibes

[kadee_29]

Wow, sounds like you guys have had your share of bad luck and then some! Hopefully you've used it all up. pixiedust: Good start to your trip report, I'll be following along. :goodvibes

Thanks!! I feel that Disney is our way of celebrating that we made it through all that life had thrown at us. Hopefully that is the end of it and everything will be good from here on out.

[kadee_29]

Here are the restaurants we are pretty set on. I think.

Chef Mickey's (dinner)
Boma (breakfast)
Crystal Palace (breakfast)
Garden Grill (dinner)
Hollywood and Vine (Playhouse Disney breakfast)

So we have one more open. DH was thinking of Sci-Fi or Tutto Italia but I don't know. And I think Tutto closes around that time anyways. I was thinking about Prime Time but I don't know how the kids would do with the antics. They are pretty good about veggies but I have picky eaters.

I really think we are going to MNSSHP on the 22nd. We had tickets to go to MVMCP and I was really looking forward to it but one of DH's favorite "holidays" is Halloween and I am sure I could get our whole family to dress up. OOOHHH DD has always wanted the family to dress up as the Incredibles. This would be a good time to actually do that. I would need to lose a few pounds before attempting the Mrs. Incredible costume but it would be fun. I need to see if I can find those online somewhere.

I have a few more weeks before September hours come out and a few weeks after that before I make ADR's so I have time to get all this straightened out.

[souda]

I'm in...Can't wait to hear more. Hope all the bad luck is behind you and you can make your Sept trip. Free dining must be great!!!

[ibedancin824]

Sounds awesome it will be a great suprise for the kids.... even better your going to AKL!!!! :banana:

[kadee_29]

:welcome: :welcome: to my new visitors.

I have been playing around with our schedule, well pretty much since the day I booked the trip. Since we are driving from Michigan we had originally planned on leaving early Saturday, staying overnight somewhere on the way down and then arriving at Disney sometime Sunday afternoon. Well I talked DH into leaving after he gets out of work Friday (I will have all the bags packed and ready to go when I get the kids from school that day) and stopping twice along the way so we can arrive no later than 11am Sunday morning. The drive back doesnt matter quite as much as long as DH gets to sleep before going back to work Monday.

I have also been thinking about the whole "surprise" thing with the kids. I am thinking of surprising them when I pick them up from school that day. That way they can pack their bags for stuff to occupy them in the car while we wait for DH to get home. Once hes home and changed we can leave. Of course I will need to talk to both of their teachers to get homework around without either of them knowing about it. This is not going to be easy. And I need to find a cute way to tell them. I have no clue about that one yet.

So far this is what I have. And this could change at any time especially once hours come out. June 1st cannot come soon enough. Except for me starting jury duty that day. Yuck.

Sunday ~ arrival AK Dinner at Chef Mickey's
Monday ~ Epcot Garden Grill for dinner
Tuesday ~ DHS??/MK MNSSHP Cosmic Rays before the party starts
Wednesday ~ ??? late breakfast at Boma
Thursday ~ MK
Friday ~ DHS breakfast at Hollywood and Vine
Saturday ~ MK breakfast at Crystal Palace and a few rides before leaving to come home :sad1:

I am thinking maybe another Epcot day for Wednesday since we wouldn't get to the parks until 11 or 12 it techincally wouldn't be another full day and I just don't see us getting through all of it in one day. We might but I'm not sure. And I picked AK for arrival day since it would be the park closest to us and we could go right there once we arrive and check in.

I am a total newbie so if anyone sees something that doesn't look right or thinks I should change please let me know. I have one friend who knows about Disney and I am sure she is sick of answering all of my questions. ;)

[Belle2007]

Hi Kadee!!! I'm joining in too. Your plans sound great! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on AKL. I've been there for Boma but I've never stayed there.

Enjoy the free dining!

Peggy

[kadee_29]

Hi Kadee!!! I'm joining in too. Your plans sound great! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on AKL. I've been there for Boma but I've never stayed there.

Enjoy the free dining!

Peggy DH was the one that picked out AKL. Our kids are huge animal lovers so it only made sense that we would stay there. I am really excited about it. I just hope we get a good room.

[kadee_29]

Sunday ~ arrival AK Dinner at Chef Mickey's
Monday ~ Epcot Garden Grill for dinner
Tuesday ~ DHS??/MK MNSSHP Cosmic Rays before the party starts
Wednesday ~ ??? late breakfast at Boma
Thursday ~ MK
Friday ~ DHS breakfast at Hollywood and Vine
Saturday ~ MK breakfast at Crystal Palace and a few rides before leaving to come home :sad1:

I am still unsure what to do for dinner on Thursday. I was thinking maybe Ohanas or 1900 but then again we could go to DTD and eat dinner there and let the kids go to the toy stores. There just aren't any restaurants inside the park that we "have" to go to. At least not for dinner. We would've gone to LTT if it still had character meals but they don't so missing it isn't a big deal.

[kadee_29]

So hours for September are supposed to be out Monday. I am not holding my breath on that actually happening but it would be nice. Unfortunately, I start jury duty that day so I have a feeling I will be stuck at the courthouse all day. If hours do happen to come out that day, I know I will be up all night long pouring over them trying to get all my ADR's in order before the 22nd.

I want those hours!!! :rotfl2:

[kadee_29]

So good news and bad news....

Good news is that somehow all jurors have been released from duty and don't have to serve. :woohoo::yay::woohoo:

Bad news is that hours aren't out yet but looking back over last years stuff I need to make some changes to my schedule. Thank goodness I have a few weeks before I need to make ADR's so I can play around with this. Changes in red.

Sunday ~ arrival AK Dinner at Chef Mickey's
Monday ~ Epcot Garden Grill for dinner
Tuesday ~ AK/MK MNSSHP Cosmic Rays before the party starts
Wednesday ~ MK late breakfast at Boma
Thursday ~ Epcot dinner at 'Ohana for Spectro
Friday ~ DHS breakfast at Hollywood and Vine
Saturday ~ MK breakfast at Crystal Palace and a few rides before leaving to come home

At least that is what I am thinking for right now. Like I said before, this could all change once hours and emh are actually released.

[jana616]

Hi Kadee, I'm here too! I think your plans sound great, and I am SOOOO jealous of you guys staying at AKL. If we could afford it, that is definitely where I would have wanted to stay-we're big animal people too. And yum, having Boma right down the hall-breakfast there is my back-up if Tusker House is full on our AK day. Can't wait to read more about your plans!

[Kriddlet]

Your plans sound wonderful so far :thumbsup2 I like the whole "suprising the kids" idea. I hope to do that next time we go. Though I do get as excited as them, I don't know if I could keep my mouth shut :rolleyes1

[Colleen27]

Since we are driving from Michigan we had originally planned on leaving early Saturday, staying overnight somewhere on the way down and then arriving at Disney sometime Sunday afternoon.

Wow, driving from Michigan... You're a lot braver than I am! I was terrified of flying as a teen/young adult, but I got over it in record time when the choices were that or driving from Detroit to Disney. :rotfl:

[kadee_29]

Hi Kadee, I'm here too! I think your plans sound great, and I am SOOOO jealous of you guys staying at AKL. If we could afford it, that is definitely where I would have wanted to stay-we're big animal people too. And yum, having Boma right down the hall-breakfast there is my back-up if Tusker House is full on our AK day. Can't wait to read more about your plans! :welcome: DH picked out AKL because at this point "we" (more him than me) are thinking this will be our only trip to Disney so we are doing it up right. :lmao: Little does he know I am already looking into a June trip for Star Wars weekend next year or the year after.

I saw some pics of the Boma breakfast and knew we had to try it. It just looks so good. The food thread has really helped me make decisions about where I want to go. So much looks good though that it will take numerous trips to get through it all.

[kadee_29]

Your plans sound wonderful so far :thumbsup2 I like the whole "suprising the kids" idea. I hope to do that next time we go. Though I do get as excited as them, I don't know if I could keep my mouth shut :rolleyes1 :welcome: and :thanks: for getting me to the second page!!

I really want to surprise the kids for some reason. I think that when I was planning before I just saw so many cute surprise reveals that I knew I had to do it once. So when we started planning for this trip, I knew it would be hard to tell them and then have a possibility that we wouldn't be able to go so I just decided not to tell them. It has been really hard for me to keep it a secret though. I want to talk about it all the time.

[kadee_29]

Wow, driving from Michigan... You're a lot braver than I am! I was terrified of flying as a teen/young adult, but I got over it in record time when the choices were that or driving from Detroit to Disney. :rotfl: :welcome: Don't think I haven't looked into plane tix. :lmao: Maybe when the kids get older and I wouldn't have to carry car seats and strollers and stuff on the plane we might go that way but we just have too much stuff and this way we have our own car if we need it.

[kadee_29]

I have less than a week left to get everything in order!! :scared1: My ADR day is a week from today and I am second guessing everything. TGM has his least crowded park recommendations out and most of my days are ok but I think I need to rearrange the last few days. Although I am thinking I just might brave the crowds on our last day because I just really want that to be an MK day for one last look at the castle and a ride for each kid before we have to leave to come home.

Ugggghhhhh so stressful. And I haven't even thought about which rides we should or shouldn't do yet.

[crocko]

Hey there! Put me down as another reader.

My family will be at the AKL same time as you! (Sep 17-26th)

Looking at our schedule (depending on your changes) we may be at the same place a few times.

Thursday we'll be at Magic Kingdom and Friday we will be doing the Hollywood & Vine character breakfast.....this Friday is when we get to call in and try to get our ADR's.


Look forward to following along as we countdown.....yay for double digits.

[kadee_29]

:welcome: crocko!!!! We are really excited about AKL. If you see a family a five and the youngest is a wild redhead, say hi!! :rotfl:



So just a few days left before I make ADR's. Then pay the trip off and not much left to plan until its time to go. We have exactly 3 months left and we will be at Disney!!! If I could just figure out my days and my ADR's I would be good to go. :rolleyes1

[kadee_29]

ADR DAY!!!!

I have been up since 4 going over everything. I thought I might try the online system but realized I can't because I booked through a TA. I should've just had her make my ADR's but since I still wasn't sure exactly what I wanted, it was kind of hard to get her my information ahead of time. That's what I get for being a procrastinator.

A few things have been changed around. I am still not sure on a few days but those days we are eating at resorts so it won't make a difference which park we go to.

So these are what I am hoping for.

9/20 Chef Mickey's 7:00 (dinner)
9/21 Garden Grill 6:30 (dinner)
9/22 Hollywood and Vine 8:00 (breakfast)
9/23 Boma 9:00 (breakfast)
9/24 'Ohana 7:00 (dinner)
9/25 Crystal Palace 8:00 (breakfast)

I will post after I make the call with the times I actually got. I hope they aren't too far off what I want. :scared:

[kadee_29]

Got right through at 7 but didn't do so hot with the reservations. I was on the phone about 25 minutes total.

9/20 Chef Mickey's 7:00 (dinner) 'Ohana 8:10 p.m.
9/21 Garden Grill 6:30 (dinner) 4:25 p.m.
9/22 Hollywood and Vine 8:00 (breakfast) 8:20 a.m.
9/23 Boma 9:00 (breakfast) 9:50 a.m.
9/24 'Ohana 7:00 (dinner) Chef Mickeys 7:00 p.m.
9/25 Crystal Palace 8:00 (breakfast) 8:50 a.m.

The H&V will be ok and I guess CP will still work. I just wanted to get in before RP for pics. I had to switch CM and 'Ohana because nothing was open for CM except 1:45. Luckily it was open on the 24th which worked perfectly. I am not too bummed about what I got. The guy (I think Ansel?) was awesome and we talked a lot. He knew that I had done my homework on this trip. ;) I am hopping over the the ADR Wanted/Trade/Exchange/Cancelled thread now to see if anyone has anything better.

[kadee_29]

How did I know that as soon as I was off the phone and could finally go back to bed that the youngest would wake up?? :headache:

[kadee_29]

Thank you Thank you Thank you for moving me back!!!!!!


(I got moved to the completed section and couldn't post anymore. :sad1: )


So we leave in 13 days!!!!!!!!!!!!! :yay::woohoo::yay::woohoo::yay:

I am completely clueless as far as what's supposed to be done. I starting digging the kids disney shirts out of their closets and setting those aside for packing. I need to go buy a new luggage set. Ours just isn't big enough for the 5 of us anymore. I printed out the ultimate packing list that I got off here a while ago. I am headed to Target later today to start picking up some of the littler stuff. I know I can do an online check-in but not sure how. Need to figure that out. We have no game plan. I just know what days we will be at which park. I think we might just wing most of it this time because I really am clueless. I don't think we will be doing many of the bigger rides so dealing with FP's won't be a huge issue. At least not the first few days. By mid-week that could change.

Our dd did figure out that we were going but has actually been helpful with some stuff. I'm ok with her knowing. She is really excited but I'm not sure if it's being at Disney or because she gets to miss a week of school. She has moved on from HSM and onto Twilight but I think she will survive. ;)

Off to clean up around the house so I can head to Target. Shopping time!!!

[kadee_29]

Got new luggage today!! A 7 piece set at that!! :woohoo: Even better was that it was under $100!!! :yay::woohoo:

I also picked up throwaway sippy cups (just in case we lose one its not a big deal), a dishwand that holds dishsoap so I can wash cups if I need to, purell, travel sizes of so much stuff, granola bars for the kids, wet wipes, bug spray, bandaids, neosporin, coloring books, playing cards, and a shoe organizer for the bathroom stuff.

I am so excited to get packing. I can't wait until the kids go to bed so I can get started.

[kadee_29]

SINGLE DIGIT DANCE!!!!!!!!!!!

:banana::cheer2::yay::woohoo::lmao::woohoo::yay::c heer2::banana:

9 days from today my family will be at Disney for the first time!!!!!!

I rolled all of our change that I have been collecting for the trip. I think it came to around $90 and that does not include the $50 I took out for the penny press machines. Got tons of pennies out and cleaned and looking nice. I have stuff for the kids to do in the car. I filled out the paperwork for them to miss school. I won't be able to really pack suitcases until the last day because some of the clothes I want, the kids need for school.

I am getting excited but I also think I am getting sick. I can feel a sore throat kicking in. Yuck.

[crocko]

My wife's battling a bad headache...hoping everyone can get through their ailments before travel begins.

Good luck feeling better! and yay for only 6 more days for you!!

[kadee_29]

I hope your wife is feeling better.

We are all still sick but we are at the end of it I think. I have 3 days to finish up what's left on my to do list which isn't too much. Oil change/tires rotated and vacuum out the car tomorrow. Just need to get snacks for the car/hotel room probably on Thursday. Finish up laundry and pack pack pack on Friday before I get the kids from school. I still haven't decided how I am going to tell the boys. Probably won't tell them until after we are on the road. Who knows.

Only 5 more days until we are at Disney!!!!!

[kadee_29]

I can't believe that the time has finally come. Only one more sleep until we leave for Disney. Two more sleeps until we are there. We are seriously thinking of trying to drive straight through but I think we are insane. :lmao: As much as I don't want to stop anywhere (that just means that much longer to wait) I think we need the break to relax and clean up before we finish the drive. That and we have an 8:10 ADR for Ohana our first night and I don't want to miss it because I crashed at the resort. :headache:

[ProPhotoGA]

I know you and your family must be so excited that you can hardly sleep.

I would agree that driving straight through from Michigan to Orlando is insanity.
Heck, we are contemplating stopping midway and we are only 8.5 hrs to
Orlando.

Have fun and be safe, we will be waiting for the final TR with pics!

Gene

[kadee_29]

Everyone is asleep but me. Finishing up last minute stuff.

I don't think we will be getting the early morning start that I want but I think it will be ok. I think the plan is that we are going to drive as far as we possibly can before we stop but we are going to stop somewhere along the way.

I should be going to sleep but I feel like I have a bazillion things left to do.

[Stephanie VanMeter]

Have a great time! We were just there in June and I am so ready to go back again. I think you all will have a great time.

[nancy drew]

I cannot WAIT to see a post/get an email from you that says "WE ARE HERE!!!!!" You have been waiting for this so long, and it is going to be so wonderful!!!!!!!! Make sure you stop an enjoy it, OK? Make sure you take the time to feel the magic and savor the whole experience.

I am SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!!!! :banana::dance3::banana::cool1::cheer2:

[crocko]

Hope the trip went/is going well.

[lbuzz52]

late to join, but curious to see how you broke the good news.
hope the trip is going smoothly.