September '09 PTR ~ A trip full of WONDERful firsts! UPDATED 10/12 TR STARTED!

yeah we had the lunch skillet, gary asked for more coke and got what was almost a bucket of it:)
 
not sure, our lunch was part of the tour so couldnt tell you if you need to order one per table or each?
 


The Skillet comes as one for everyone at the table who orders it. So some people at the table can get it but everyone doesn't have to. I have only had the dinner one, it was yummy!! You guys are making me hungry!
 
The Skillet comes as one for everyone at the table who orders it. So some people at the table can get it but everyone doesn't have to. I have only had the dinner one, it was yummy!! You guys are making me hungry!

I told Joe about the skillets and his eyes lit up. :laughing: Especially when I mentioned they were all you can eat. Since we're planning on doing Universal one day while we're there, we may do Whispering Canyon for dinner that night or breakfast the next morning.
 


Yay for upgrading your hotel! YOu will love the WL, we stayed there on our honeymoon. It is awesome to be so close the the MK. I have never eaten at Whispering Canyon Cafe but that skillet looks to die for!
 
Yay for upgrading your hotel! YOu will love the WL, we stayed there on our honeymoon. It is awesome to be so close the the MK. I have never eaten at Whispering Canyon Cafe but that skillet looks to die for!

I fell in love with it just from the pictures so I can't wait to see it in person. I work for a TA and someone just called me and booked a trip to WDW at the WL. I told her all about my plans. :laughing: She went there for her honeymoon years ago and told me I'd love it!!
 
Great PTR. I am goint in Sept. also. Staying at the POP, how did you like it??

Thanks! I love POP! I've stayed there three times! Twice in the 50s and once in the 80s. It's really cool to walk around and see all the huge icons for all the different decades. The lobby is really nice too because it has memorabilia throughout the years. It'll bring you back to your childhood :laughing: I'm sure you'll love it. Say hi to Mr & Mrs Potato Head for me!
 
Thank you! :) I feel silly for being so excited about the dining plan but I've never had it before!

haha, no need to feel silly!! the littlest Disney things make us all excited! :) And I love the WL surprise, he's going to love it!! I haven't been but I'd love to go over there and see it.
 
haha, no need to feel silly!! the littlest Disney things make us all excited! :) And I love the WL surprise, he's going to love it!! I haven't been but I'd love to go over there and see it.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures so you can visit vicariously. :)
 
So, since I work in a TA, Marriott pretty much hooks us up with great deals on their hotels. Today I booked the hotels I need for the drive to and from Florida. I've nixed flying. It was just adding up to way too much money between checking bags, transfers, cabs, etc. I'd rather drive.

Anyway, I booked a Courtyard in GA which is about a 12 1/2 ride from here and only 3 1/2 hours from Disney. We stopped in Savannah last year on the ride down but I couldn't get anything there with my Marriott rate so I moved our destination a little further south. It's just a place to sleep, ya know? The only bummer is that there is no free breakfast at Courtyards but it was the only one in the Marriott chain I could get for that area!

On the way back I booked a Fairfield Inn in VA. It's just over the SC/VA border and about 10 hours from Disney, 6 hours from home. I don't know much about the area, it seems like a small southern town, but again it's a place to sleep and free breakfast! Besides, you really can't go wrong with Marriotts.

As for surprising Joe with the WL upgrade, I know that I will have to give the security kiosk a reason why I'm there. I plan on telling security we're there to check it out for a future visit. Now the question is, what to tell Joe when we're headed over to the Wilderness Lodge? I can't use the excuse that I have an ADR because we will be eating breakfast on the ship. Joe will be like 'Why are we eating breakfast twice?' In a perfect world, he'll have dozed off and I won't have to say anything but who knows? I was thinking of blindfolding him but god only knows what security would think if they saw that. :laughing: Any ideas?
 
Hmm.. that is a dilemma.. what about just telling him the same thing you tell the security guard? The whole trip be like "OMG, wouldn't it be fun if next time we stayed at the WL! If we have time one day, we should go look at it.."...

Or, we could just give him a sleeping pill :laughing: . I'm not too sure how the guard would react to a blindfolded man in the front of the car, UNLESS, before you left your first resort, you wrote a little note saying "This is a surprise resort upgrade and I don't want my DBF to know.." and then hand that to him. When he asks you why you are there (after he's read the note) say you're there just to look around!!

That might be a little complicated but we always have the sleeping pill!! :)

I'm glad you chose to drive, I think it's more fun. It's so nice Mariott hooks you up!
 
Hmm.. that is a dilemma.. what about just telling him the same thing you tell the security guard? The whole trip be like "OMG, wouldn't it be fun if next time we stayed at the WL! If we have time one day, we should go look at it.."...

Or, we could just give him a sleeping pill :laughing: . I'm not too sure how the guard would react to a blindfolded man in the front of the car, UNLESS, before you left your first resort, you wrote a little note saying "This is a surprise resort upgrade and I don't want my DBF to know.." and then hand that to him. When he asks you why you are there (after he's read the note) say you're there just to look around!!

That might be a little complicated but we always have the sleeping pill!! :)

I'm glad you chose to drive, I think it's more fun. It's so nice Mariott hooks you up!


I like the idea of the note and I'm sure they would be more than happy to play along. I just don't know what to tell Joe when we're headed over there! I was thinking of telling him I wanted to rent out one of the Sea Raycers since we'll have a voucher for it. I keep saying I want to get one from an MK resort so we can drive it out in front. Or maybe that I want to check out WCC before I make an ADR. Or maybe I won't say anything at all and see if he realizes I'm not headed in the direction of ASMo at all and not answer him when he asks 'Where are we going?' :laughing:

Marriott is awesome to us! We can get rates for as low as $44/nt!! For that, I always try to give them business whenever I can.
 
I haven't updated in awhile and this isn't really trip related but I figured I'd put it in here anyway! I apologize for the lack of pictures, I didn't get a chance to upload any yet.

Joe and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary this past weekend with a trip to Williamsburg, VA. It was a first for both of us. We had a blast and absolutely loved the area; it's beautiful! We were lucky to have gorgeous, warm (HOT :laughing:) weather.

We left on Friday morning at around 10 am. I decided to take the "scenic" route via the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel because I've had many clients go that way, so I wanted to see what it was all about. Two words: never. again. A 5-6 hour drive became a 8-9 hour trip. I didn't realize US-13 had stoplights :confused3 and there were two accidents on the way down. One on 13, which had us detour through country farm land and took us out of the way, and the other on I-64 in the tunnel which shut the whole road down for about an hour. Although the bridge-tunnel was beautiful, it wasn't worth that ride.

So we got to the Couryard Williamsburg at 6:30-7. The hotel was really nice and only about a mile away from Busch Gardens. I took a power nap while Joe showered and then it was my turn and we went to Kyoto, a japanese steakhouse in town. It was awesome! I think I would have chopped my finger off if I was trying to do all of the things our hibachi chef was doing. The food was great and we had a really fun time. I think Joe got a little buzzed because he was drinking sake like it was water! We got back to the hotel and watched a little tv and fell asleep.

On Saturday we woke up around 8 am and got ready to go to Busch Gardens. We were there by 9 (you could see the park from our hotel) and had breakfast at Squire's Grille. They serve the biggest breakfast sandwiches I have ever seen. :scared1: I was full for the rest of the day! We worked our way counter clockwise around the park, starting in Ireland. Our first ride was Corkscrew Hill which is a 4D simulator ride. That was rough on my back but a lot of fun. We were slowly working our way toward Griffon, this mammoth bad boy of a rollercoaster located in the France area. Before that, we went on Le Scott log flume and then decided to tackle this coaster. Oh. My. Lord. 90 degree vertical drop and they stop your cart to let you dangle and stare down the hill before you drop. You can't even see the track, that's how steep it is! I took a video of it once we got off which I will try to post in the upcoming week.

I have never been so terrified on a ride in all my life. I absolutely loved it though. We worked our way around the rest of the park and did 4 out of the 5 coasters. Loch Ness Monster, which I was really looking forward to riding because it's been there forever, was shut down! :sad2: It started getting really crowded and since we had done most of the attractions, we left around 3.

Here's some pictures from BG:

3495271881_9b459e9e97.jpg

Corkscrew Hill in Ireland ;)

3496092816_24233276bc.jpg

Me and my buddy Bob in front of Loch Ness Monster and Alpengeist.

3496091500_8f09855245.jpg

One of the Griffon drop :scared1:

We hung out around the pool til about 4 and then got ready to go into Colonial Williamsburg. We had a ghost tour that night, after all! We got dinner at this place called Retro's, which was a counter service, 50s inspired burger joint. Yum! :thumbsup2 We walked around Merchant's Square for a little while and then met up with our guide around 7:45. The tour was about 90 minutes and took us all through town, on a walking tour. Our guide, Don, told us the folklore and of the spirits that linger in the houses and buildings of the William & Mary campus and he also gave us a little bit of history of the town itself. I took a picture of one of the houses and it looks like the outline of a person is looking out, watching. Creepy! :scared: If anyone is down that way, I definitely recommend it. It was really interesting.

3495294031_80f0ae5be7.jpg

Joe and Thomas Jefferson

3495295569_bd42f15c05.jpg

A creepy old house with lots of orbs...friendly ghosts?

On Sunday, unfortunately we had to leave. :guilty: We took I-95 back this time and it didn't take us nearly as long to get home! Next time we're down that way, we'll definitely take a long weekend so we can explore more of the town and Jamestown and Yorktown as well.

All in all, it was an amazing time! :)
 
Hey! I just wanted to say HI and I'm subbing!

We're arriving the exact same day you are!! :yay: We're staying in AKL...a first!

Smart thinking with canceling the land part of your pkg so you can get free dining! My cousin is staying at POR for his honeymoon in a couple of weeks. I'll let you know how they like it.

Your mini TR was great--looks like you had a lot of fun! I LOVE rollercoasters!

I'm excited to see the rest of your plans unfold!! :thumbsup2
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!






Top