Aug 09 PTR: My First One! - A Week in Disney with the Boyfriend

[iixheartxyouxox]

First, let me introduce myself, my name is Brittney and im from Long Island, New York. Im 18 years old soon to be 19 in September. I have been obsessed with WDW for as long as i can remember and even though this upcoming trip will only be my third time to the world, i know enough to have been there many more times than that!

I was debating whether or not i wanted to do a PTR because that would lead to having to do a TR and i was afraid i would abandon it after a while but after being on here for a couple weeks almost every day i know thats not the case anymore. So, here goes my FIRST pre-trip report, if im missing anything let me know and feedback is welcome although i have to admit none of these plans will change as of now because im stubborn and i leave in less than a month!

oh & im going to be doing it in parts, so dont expect all my plans in the first post or so.


Me and my boyfriend, Keith will be going to WDW from Sunday Aug 9 to Sunday Aug 16. We will be staying at the All-Star Sports Resort because i wanted a value resort and Keith is wayyy into sports (they are basically his life). I had originally planned to go January of 2010 but when i saw the buy 4 get 3 free deal i couldnt resist. So i booked us for this week because it was value season and we are both out of school.

I booked a Magic Your way package with quick service dining. I knew that we wouldnt want big meals all day long and the quick service dining plan seemed perfect for us! We have a 7 day park hopper ticket but i dont plan on using all the days so i will prob purchase the no exp option while we are there.

We are flying from LGA in NY to MCO in Orlando and taking the magical Express to ASSp. Our departing flight leaves around 2:30pm ish so the first day won't be a full day in Disney. We leave Disney =[ at around 11:00 am on our last day.


Thats it for now! I will be updating again most likely tomorrow or thursday.
Up Next: Our Park Schedule and ADR's

Thanks for reading so far! :goodvibes

[DWGal210]

Great start so far! :thumbsup2

I totally know what you mean about finishing the TR / PTR...I didn't finish mine last year and felt guilty. :rolleyes1 But no big deal, we just like hearing about your plans!

Take care!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Great start so far! :thumbsup2

I totally know what you mean about finishing the TR / PTR...I didn't finish mine last year and felt guilty. :rolleyes1 But no big deal, we just like hearing about your plans!

Take care!

Hey! Thanks for reading, i was afraid that no one would want to read my PTR but im just gonna go on with it anyway =] Hope you stay to hear my plans! :)

[iixheartxyouxox]

Okay, so i totally forgot to mention what we are celebrating! Mine and Keith's 3 year anniversary is July 25, dating anniversary of course, so we will be celebrating it while in WDW.

Before I go on with my plans, i figured i would say a little about myself and Keith to give you an idea of what we are like.

Me, I'm starting my second year of college at Stony Brook University, I have always done pretty well in school and it tends to come easy to me. Last semester i did the hardest thing i have ever had to do in my life....i decided to pledge a sorority! Let me tell you its like having your whole life taken away for 7 weeks or so but now i wouldnt change a thing because i have sisters all over the country, not to mention the ones in my chapter. Ever since i can remember i have been planning anything that can be planned, i love making lists and writing out thoughts and it makes me really happy. My dream would be to become a wedding planner, which i am probably going to pursue next summer. Also, ever since i can remember my dream has been to get married at WDW! Now that i am older i've basically planned out the whole wedding lol and i have no doubt in my mind that that is where i will say "I do" in the future. I also love thrills, i absolutely love roller coasters and anything like that, maybe i'll go skydiving one day. ok this is getting too long so ill move on!

Keith, where do i start? oh yeah, Sports! Keith cannot go a day without playing some type of sport. He used to play football, basketball and baseball for school but now he only plays baseball because he is really good at it and its his passion. He is a pitcher, and as everyone else tells him he has a great arm. He really likes hanging out with his family and him and his dad and brother play games outside all the time. He is very sweet and i don't know what i would do without him!


Okay, sorry if i bored you with that but now im going to give you my day by day plans..

Sun, Aug 9: Depart at 2:26pm. Arrive in Orlando! at about 5:13pm. Take the ME to ASSp. I plan on getting settled and just taking a walk around the all-stars to see everything and take pics, then bed early.

Mon, Aug 10: Animal Kingdom in the AM. Back to ASSp for a rest. Then Magic Kingdom.

Tue, Aug 11: Hollywood Studios all day.

Wed, Aug 12: Sleep in and relax. Rent Sea Raycer at SSL. Downtown Disney at night.

Thu, Aug 13: Epcot all day! Visit the Boardwalk while we are there too.

Fri, Aug 14: Magic Kingdom in the AM, then take monorail over to Epcot.

Sat, Aug 15: Downtown Disney for a majority of the day.

Sun, Aug 16: Depart at 11:00am =[

Okay so there is the general outline for the days, i will prob go into more detail with what we will be doing in a future post. Here are our ADR's for the vacation. Since we have the quick-service dining plan we dont have a lot of ADR's.

Tue, Aug 11: Mama Melrose at 6:10 pm
Thu, Aug 13: ESPN Club (I know they dont take res. but we are planning on eating here so i thought i would let you know!)
Sat, Aug 15: Planet Hollywood at 2:00pm

Yes, thats it! Trying to save myself money, it feels good! lol well that is it for now. Starting with the next post im going to give updates about what im doing to get ready for the trip and stuff like that, also i will go into more detail of our days =]

Hope you keep reading, and comments are welcome!

[xoktenox]

Hey girl, I'm here! Your plans sound really good and you and your BF sound like a great couple! My BF loves sports too so they would probably get along well. Did I know that you go to Stony Brook? I did too I graduated from there if I didn't tell you that LOL

Can't wait to hear more about your plans!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Hey girl, I'm here! Your plans sound really good and you and your BF sound like a great couple! My BF loves sports too so they would probably get along well. Did I know that you go to Stony Brook? I did too I graduated from there if I didn't tell you that LOL

Can't wait to hear more about your plans!

Thanks for joining in! Thats cool that you went to Stony Brook too, when did you graduate? I wish i could just graduate now, lol im so sick of school already.

[xoktenox]

Thanks for joining in! Thats cool that you went to Stony Brook too, when did you graduate? I wish i could just graduate now, lol im so sick of school already.

I graduated in 2008, a year early. I had credits from high school and took summer classes and some semesters took 18 credits to get done in 3 yrs. So we went to the same HS and the same college LOL weirdddd

[calderli]

Subbing in...can't wait to hear more of your plans:surfweb:

[iixheartxyouxox]

I graduated in 2008, a year early. I had credits from high school and took summer classes and some semesters took 18 credits to get done in 3 yrs. So we went to the same HS and the same college LOL weirdddd

it is weird, lol cuz your TR just happened to be the first one that i looked at when i started reading TRs..thats good that you got to graduate a year early i wish i could do that but i think im gonna need summer classes to graduate on time lol

[iixheartxyouxox]

Subbing in...can't wait to hear more of your plans:surfweb:

Thanks for reading! Im glad more people have been reading my PTR, i was getting a little discouraged lol

[iixheartxyouxox]

Hi again! Im here to give a mini update :goodvibes

So, Over the weekend i bought a new camera for the trip!
In the past i have had two cameras and they both gave me tons of problems, the first one i ever got was dropped by a friend of mine and the lens got stuck :mad: and the one i bought to replace that one decided to malfunction in the middle of high school prom pictures :sad1: so since then i have felt i've got some bad luck with cameras. I knew once i booked the trip that i was going to buy a new one and hopefully i would be able to keep it for a while.

So, i've been looking online for the past couple of months and i found exactly the one i wanted. I knew i only wanted to spend $150 because thats all i can afford and because you can get a decent camera for that price, i also knew i wanted a Nikon because my aunt uses one and loves it..The first camera i ever got was a Nikon Coolpix and i loved it so on saturday i bought the NIKON COOKPIX S220 10.0 MEGAPIXEL IN AQUA GREEN..see the picture below..
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/reesesgrl918/ZCamera.jpg
So, the color in this picture looks really ugly to me but when i went to the store it looked more green so i got it..yay now i am prepared to take the hundreds of pictures i am planning on taking, i just need to get a case for it but i dont wanna spend the money on the case just yet.

Yesterday i was thinking to myself that i cant wait to go to disney to buy things, so of course i went online to the disney store to see if they had anything that was cheap that i could buy to hold me over, well i was looking at shirts and then i saw the 2 for $20 t-shirts. I then saw that they had two shirts that i would love to buy! so of course after talking myself into spending the money i bought them, yay!
http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/reesesgrl918/tink.jpghttp://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y298/reesesgrl918/Mickey.jpg
So i am planning on wearing the pink one with Mickey on the day that we leave for WDW. Tink is my favorite character so i had to have that shirt and im sure ill wear it sometime while on the trip too!

I just thought i would share that with you guys because im sooooo excited and it feels so close now, only 3 more weeks of work left!

[xoktenox]

Love the camera and the shirts! I love tink and the color pink so each one is great to me.

Make sure to let me know how the camera works for you. My camera is just the worst and I was so disappointed on our trip when I couldn't take a single good nighttime picture or one where the subject was moving :headache: $150 is a good price, I hope you like it! Only 20 more days!

I forgot if you've mentioned this before but are you flying out of Islip or LaGuardia or JFK?

[iixheartxyouxox]

Love the camera and the shirts! I love tink and the color pink so each one is great to me.

Make sure to let me know how the camera works for you. My camera is just the worst and I was so disappointed on our trip when I couldn't take a single good nighttime picture or one where the subject was moving :headache: $150 is a good price, I hope you like it! Only 20 more days!

I forgot if you've mentioned this before but are you flying out of Islip or LaGuardia or JFK?

Yeah, i will def let you know how it works out..im gonna try to take pictures this weekend and im gonna see how they come out and ill let you know & of course when i post pics when i get back from disney you can see how they turned out too.. We are flying out of Laguardia, it wasnt my first choice but back when i was looking it was the cheapest so i took it, & i still can't believe the trip is so soon, i feel like i've been waiting forever!

[xoktenox]

Yeah, i will def let you know how it works out..im gonna try to take pictures this weekend and im gonna see how they come out and ill let you know & of course when i post pics when i get back from disney you can see how they turned out too.. We are flying out of Laguardia, it wasnt my first choice but back when i was looking it was the cheapest so i took it, & i still can't believe the trip is so soon, i feel like i've been waiting forever!

k, can't wait to see how the camera works!

LaGuardia isn't too bad, none of the 3 are terrible actually. Of course Islip is more convenient but we flew out of JFK when we just went because it was cheaper at the time too. I would rather drive a little more to save some money!

Yess your trip is in less than 3 weeks, so lucky! :yay:

[iixheartxyouxox]

SOO I just wanted to say that i am def going to update and go more in depth of our plans on sunday night hopefully..Tomorrow or actually its today already since its after 12 is mine and keith's 3 year anniversary! :lovestruc So im gonna be spending the whole day with him :goodvibes

Stay tuned because we leave in almost 2 weeks!!! :yay: :woohoo: :cheer2:

[dd50]

Does Keith go to Stony Brook also? I will be going the day before you and leaving the day before you.

[iixheartxyouxox]

Does Keith go to Stony Brook also? I will be going the day before you and leaving the day before you.

no, he doesnt...& thats exciting! i havent talked to anyone yet who will be there the same time as me..have fun!!

[iixheartxyouxox]

2 weeks from now i will be in WDW!!!! :goodvibes

So im soooo excited because time has been flying by and we leave in 2 weeks! Now im going to go day by day and tell you where we plan on going and what rides we plan on going on. Im only listing our "must do" rides, i actually got keith to listen to me for 10 minutes and we went through all the attractions and i made of list of what we definitly did not want to miss. Here we go...

Sun Aug 9 - After we arrive at MCO around 5 or so we will catch a ride on the magical express to ASSp. Obviously we will check in and then settle into our room. Then i want to check out the resort and take pics and grab something to eat. If we have time i wanna walk over to music and movies and take pics there too. Then i just want to go back to the room and rest and try to go to bed early!


Side Note: Keith absolutely refuses to get up early, so that i why i am avoiding morning EMH and hopefully i can get him up at a decent time so we can do everything we want!

Mon Aug 10 - Animal Kingdom! Keith claims to love animals so im looking forward to seeing how he likes it here. Must do at AK: It's tough to be a bug, Kilimanjaro safari, Dinosaur,Pagani forest trail, Maharaja jungle trek. Normally i HATE water so Kali river rapids is not a must do but since its going to be hottttt im not ruling it out. I wanna try to grab lunch at pizzafari. After we decide to leave AK, since we are so close i figured we would stop back at the room to rest and such. Then Magic Kingdom! Since i plan on going back to MK later in the trip im not going to try to fit in everything on this night. here are our must do's for MK: Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, Haunted mansion, Mickey's Philharmagic & Tom sawyer Island. So i want to take it slow here and exlpore and take everything in rather than rushing from ride to ride. Then Wishes of course at 10. Back to ASSp for bed!

Another side note: Keith is afraid of heights. I do not know why because he is6'2". He also hates roller coasters. He claims he will go on whatever i want to make me happy but last year for my bday at six flags we went on the dark knight ( a very small indoor coaster) and he came off shaking and refusing to go on anything else for the whole day! So I've included what he claims he'll go on, i guess we will see. Good thing space mountain will be closed because now i dont have to be sad about missing it, as for expedition everest its going to kill me to walk right past it.


Tue Aug 11 - This day i convinced keith that we have to wake up early and get to Hollywood Studios around opening time. Of course if we have any hope of riding Toy Story Mania..other must do's: Lights, Motors action! , Star Tours,One Man's Dream , The great movie ride, Studio backlot tour. Obviously my favorite, Tower of Terror is out because of the fear of height factor :sad1: anyway we have a ADR at Mama Melrose at 6:10. And of course i have to see Fantasmic because i havent seen it before! Then off to bed again!


This is taking longer than i thought so im gonna stop here for now and continue tomorrow hopefully..Let me know what you think! ;)

[xoktenox]

Your tentative plans look good! I can't believe you're going so soon :woohoo:

I know what you mean about getting Keith to "listen to you for 10 mins." Thats how it is with Chris too, its hard to get him to listen to the plans until like the week of the trip LOL

For the rides that Keith wont ride, why dont you just ride them alone? You can get on the single rider line and he probably wouldn't have to wait long. Just an idea, I tried to get Chris to ride Mission: Space by himself in Epcot since I was having trouble with motion simulator rides and he wouldnt go without me...so maybe Keith will say that too, but its worth a shot so you don't miss out on EE and ToT!! :thumbsup2

[iixheartxyouxox]

Okay before i post anything else i need everyones help!!!

I got an email with the pin code for the merch credit..basically for $395 i get a $500 merch card...what should i do???

I planned on spending prob $200 on merch and stuff but who knows once i am there...

Since there are a lot of exclusions, i am leaning toward not doing it but ill regret it if i get there and spend over $395 because then i could have gotten more for free..

PLEASE HELP! thanks:goodvibes

[xoktenox]

Its only good for merchandise like strictly souvenirs? Does that include PP pictures? Is food included? If its strictly for merchandise I would go with not doing it!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Its only good for merchandise like strictly souvenirs? Does that include PP pictures? Is food included? If its strictly for merchandise I would go with not doing it!

yeah basically only souvenirs...almost everything else is excluded..here's the small text at the bottom of the email..

*Purchase of the Walt Disney World Merchandise Credit (the “Credit”) is acceptance of its terms and conditions. The Credit may only be used towards the purchase of merchandise items at participating merchandise locations that are owned and operated by the owners of the Walt Disney World Resort. The Credit cannot be used towards the payment of a Walt Disney World Resort hotel room night or reservation or a Disney Cruise Line® reservation, aboard Disney Cruise Line®, or towards the purchase of any food and beverage items, spa services and products, personal services such as face painting, hair braiding, hair wrapping, recreation activities, tours, Disney Gift Cards or Disney Dollars. The Credit is not accepted at Walt Disney World Resort Operating Participant locations, including but not limited to, China, Japan, and Morocco Pavilions at World Showcase in Epcot®, or any other locations or kiosks that are not owned and operated by the owners of the Walt Disney World Resort. The Credit may not be used with any other merchandise discounts, including but not limited to, AAA member discount, Passholder discount or Cast Member discount. Except and only to the extent required by law, the Credit will not be replaced if lost or stolen and no portion of the Credit balances are redeemable for cash. The issuer of the Credit, Disney Gift Card Services, Inc. is not responsible for unauthorized use of the Card. See www.disneyworld.com/mywshopping or call 1-877-650-4327 for a complete list of the terms and conditions for the Credit.


so im almost positive im not doing it because its very limited but i still feel like im going to miss out on something! oh well

[iixheartxyouxox]

I have been so busy lately and been feeling guilty about not updating as much as i would have liked but im here now! lol so im really bummed because i was going to the mets game tonight with my family and we got all the way to Citi Field and they cancelled the game due to rain! so now we have to go all the way back there tomorrow for the rescheduled game, which would be fine except im leaving at 5am on friday morning to go to Hershey park with my aunt and sister for the weekend. Im gonna be sooo tired.

Anyway yesterday i got my hair cut! It was getting really long and i knew i wanted to try and not put it up while at WDW cuz i come out bad in pics with my hair up so i got it shorter. I like it a lot, thank god for friends who went to school for cosmetology!

Now im gonna continue on with wednesday, which is where i got up to i believe :goodvibes


Wed Aug 12: This is my sleep late day! we arent doing any parks today so we can sleep in. After we eat and are ready for fun I wanna head over the the seven seas lagoon to rent a Sea Raycer! Most likely we will go to the Polynesian and rent it there since its the only resort on the SSL that i havent explored yet. I think im gonna rent it for an hour so we get half an hour free with the voucher that came with the package. Im rly excited about this!! All my plans after this are totally not set in stone because i dont want to be following a schedule for just one day. But here's what else i was thinking..Mini-Golf! at fantasia gardens because in jan i did wintersummerland. Then i was thinking we could go to downtown disney for a while but other than that it rly doesnt matter to me! i bet we will end up just sitting at ASSp cuz Keith gets lazy but im going to try my best to stop it hah


Thu Aug 13: Today is our Epcot day! Here's our must do rides...Spaceship Earth,The Seas, Soarin, Honey I shrunk the audience,Test track, Mission:space, & Maelstrom. At some point throughout the day i want to go to the boardwak via the international gateway to get ice cream at beaches & cream! yumm. I also plan on eating dinner at the ESPN club..i love the nachos there!!! of course my absolute favorite place in all of WDW is the boardwalk at night so i want to just sit and enjoy it. Then i want to go back to Epcot to catch illuminations.


Fri Aug 14: So today is the day to get to anything we missed or want to go on again. In my plans we are going to Magic Kingdom for the first part of the day because im sure we wont have finished touring on that first night we went there. Then i figured we would take the monorail over to Epcot because im not sure we will have finished touring there either. Most likely we will do world showcase this night. If by chance we have gotten everything in then i wanna go back to our favorite rides. After MK and before we go to Epcot i plan on taking keith over to the wedding pavilion, to show him where we are getting married of course =] he already knows all my plans and is totally into it so i cant wait to show him how beautiful it is there and take a lot of pics! Of course i have no hope of getting married there for at least 4 to 5 years because of school and stuff but its set! lol


Sat Aug 15: Our last full day :sad1: So today is Downtown Disney day..we have lunch res. for 2:00pm at Planet Hollywood and then i wanna SHOP! i cannot wait to buy everything i see lol. So i figured after im done shopping and keith is bored out of his mind we would take the boat over to Port Orleans Riverside to check it out there. I've heard how great it is and it will be a relaxing ride there. After this i have no plans because who knows how long ill be shopping? haha but before i leave for the trip ill write a list of the things i know i am buying while i am there lol

Sun Aug 16: :sad2::sad1: we have to be up really early to leave because our flight is around 11:00am so we really cant do anything but pack an take a last look at ASSp. I bet im going to be so depressed on this day! ill just have to plan another trip soon then lol


So thats it for the days. If anyone has good suggestions of things you wouldnt want to miss let me know because im up for doing anything.

Tomorrow as i've already said ill be busy and then this weekend ill be at Hershey park so ill be back to update at the beginning of next week, which by the way is the week we leave!! im going to go crazy before then, i can't wait...thanks for reading so far and leave comments and tips :goodvibes

[iixheartxyouxox]

Im back from Hershey & i leave for Disney in 1 week!

I decided not to pay for the merch credit because i would prob end up wasting my money..


So, i really can't believe it is so close..i feel like i've been looking forward to it for so long but now im like im going in a week?..really? i still have so much to do and i can't wait to start packing!

If anyone has any suggestions of things that they believe are not to miss at wdw then let me know! & if you have any advice on things that you wish you packed or forgot let me know because i dont want to forget anything!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Only 5 more days!!!!

[xoktenox]

4 days now!!!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Yay...3 more days!


Im starting to pack!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Still can't believe it...


2 more days!

[iixheartxyouxox]

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:
so excited! I just wanted to say im gonna try and take tons of pics for my TR which i will start as soon as i can once i get back! I hope you follow me to my TR and for all the lurkers out there who read this i'd love to hear from you because it does get discouraging when only 2 or 3 ppl actually reply to the thread..anywayyy i will prob make one more post before i leave sunday & then its off to WDW!!
:dancer:

[xoktenox]

Ahh you leave tomorrow!!!!! I thought it was today LOL Have suchhhh a great time and a safe trip! Can't wait to hear all about ittttttt! :goodvibes

[iixheartxyouxox]

Ahh you leave tomorrow!!!!! I thought it was today LOL Have suchhhh a great time and a safe trip! Can't wait to hear all about ittttttt! :goodvibes

yeah! =] thanks & i cant wait to come back and do a TR!

[iixheartxyouxox]

Okay last post before i leave...


So instead of feeling excited i feel really stressed! i didnt get everything i wanted done and i still have things to do tomorrow before i leave! oh well im sure once im on that plane ill be is fun mode...hopefully!


Bye!!!! :banana:

[iixheartxyouxox]

I'm Back!

So sad it's over but now i get to do a TR! We had a great time! I am hoping to start the TR within the next week..im going to make it a new thread and ill post the link here once i start it..

thats all for now!

[iixheartxyouxox]

I just started the TR!

Here is the link..
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2261984