Star Wars or BUST! The Pre-Trip Adventure...

[skellingtonfreak]

And so it goes…yet another pre-trip report from yet another person…oh well. Since I like writing, Disney, and the DISboards, I figured why not try my hand at this?

So the title is Star Wars or bust. The meaning behind it all…the history as it were…a couple of years ago, we were treated to a weekend at WDW by one of our friends who really liked being with us at Disney. She, being a CM herself, always went by herself and with her friends and relatives, thought it might be fun to just go with me and J. We went for 3 days and she paid for everything except for food and flight. It couldn’t have been any cheaper really. This was my second time ever going to WDW 2 years ago. She also helped get us a huge discount on the first trip we took with all of our friends. So, we owed her a trip, and a good one.

Well, she is a Star Wars fanatic. She collects everything under the sun Star Wars. Combine that with Disney, and it is a match made in heaven. We bought into DVC in September of last year, and so we had all of the developer points from the incentive to use, and we figured…oh heck, why not go for Star Wars weekends? We had never been, and it seemed like fun, and since we really owed her a trip, it was the perfect scenario. We called her up and told her and she was on board wholeheartedly. This was in October.

We have been talking about this trip for months now…what we are going to do, what we are going to eat, which parks take priority, things like that. We have gotten ourselves so excited over this trip, it makes me wonder if we are going to be let down in a huge way. I mean…we love WDW, and that, in and of itself, is a great thing and we always jump at the chance to go when we can. But, we are not huge fans of Star Wars and we have never been to WDW in June, so this is a new experience for us.

So…before I get so long-winded (too late, right?), let me introduce the interesting cast of characters.

Me – lover of most things Disney right now. You wouldn’t ever know it by looking at me…all tattooed up and stuff, but I love Disney things and WDW. My first trip to WDW was May of 2007, and this will be my 6th trip to the House of Mouse. You could say I am a tad bit obsessed…I read the DISboards like a fanatic and I love reading about the World. My favorite characters are Jack Skellington, Alice, Belle, Maleficent, and most of all the Chernabog. I am a villain fan, what can I say? I like the dark side, and my wish for WDW is that they create a villain park, I mean, how cool would that be? I am a food fanatic as well. I like new things and I am not afraid of trying something new in all aspects of my life, not just food. But I do food reviews, so if you like that sort of thing, look at my sig and check it out.

J – another Disney fanatic. She didn’t use to be though. She fought it and fought it since all of her family are huge fans and collectors of the Disney stuff. But then we went to WDW two years ago, and then all hell broke loose. She writes Disney fan fiction, collects memorabilia and pins, and watches all of the cartoons. Her dream job is to be a Photopass photographer at the Magic Kingdom. She loves taking pictures of Disney World/Land and will always try to get that great shot that she has never seen. Her favorite characters are the Fantasia brooms. She is very accommodating to whatever I want to do at the World, so I love her for that.

L – the Disney crazed CM. Good thing, because she works for the Mouse himself. I never thought a job would so perfect for someone until I met her. She is Disney personified. She loves Star Wars, and Jedi Mickey. She likes the same food all the time every time at WDW. Not so much fun when it comes to the adventuresome eater like me…but I am pretty flexible and I will find something to eat no matter where I am at, so I let her pick half the places this trip.

Z – his first trip to WDW was December of last year. He was just like me at first…he figured…eh, it is Disney World, whatever. And then he went…and had a great time! LOL…go figure, huh? He is not as obsessive as the rest of us, but he decided to come along for the insanity this time around. Poor guy…he has no idea of what he got himself into. He has no favorite characters…we will try to remedy that and make him get his picture taken with as many characters as we can get. He, like me, is the foodie and will eat pretty much anything.

No pics of Z at the House......soon though.

So…next post…the trials and tribulations of making sure everyone gets to do and eat what they want in a short trip. The agony of it all…

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more! We first went to WDW in 1998 and were hooked. We now have 13 trips under our belt and number 14 is scheduled for August. I always say that Disney World is like a Lay's potato chip....you can't go just once!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

After all of the rigamorole of trying to get everyone together long enough to get an idea of what everyone wanted to do and try to plan dates around non-florist holidays (J works for a florist) and other things and still leave enough time for everyone to save some money, we FINALLY got a date set! Yay!!!! The first weekend of June was the plan. June 5-7. Not a bad time frame. Not enough time, but it will suffice since we are going again in September.

So, L gets transferred to Albuquerque permanently, so that throws another problem onto the planning fire. It was nice when we all lived in the same city and hung out together because then we could actually sit down and look at things together and talk about everything. Couple that with all of our works being completely crazy…I got new software at work, J had holidays galore, L had a new staff and city to acclimate to, and Z as going through an election and all of that. Planning was put on hold until after December.

Now, the problem was this…I am a crazy insane OCD planner. I like to have all of my days mapped out with hours and EMH and reservations made at 180 days out. So, Disney decided to change things up…nice, huh? Let’s make everything 90 days. Ugh. This is not a good idea for someone who likes to plan things so far in advance. But, this gave me enough time to get opinions about what people wanted to do and where they wanted to eat and if we would do the dining plan or not. And then which dining plan if any?

The original plan was to do the QSDP since it was new and we didn’t want to be held down to being somewhere at a specific time. Good idea since it is supposed to be a relaxing weekend to get a quick Disney fix. A month or so goes by, and Z and I get it in our heads that we want to do Victoria and Albert’s after reading a review on the boards…great idea! J will have L to play with and I will have Z to play with. Since I will never be able to do V&A by myself (just way too weird), and Z is my food buddie…why the heck not? So I made reservations for that. Yay!!! We were still going to do the QSDP and just deal with all of the credits.

So another month rolls around and Z, J, and I were sitting around talking, and J says…why don’t we go for another day? Z is all down with this as he needs a break from work, and what was one more day? So we decide on adding Thursday, June 4th to the mix. This gave us a whole extra day to do what we wanted. We knew L couldn’t get off of work early like us, and since she had an extra 2 hours tacked onto her flight time, we had the whole day to ourselves to go wherever we wanted. Yay!

We all decide we want to go to Biergarten since we all love German food. And who doesn’t like a good sausage? That is heaven on a plate man. I call and make reservations for Biergarten.

So we call L and let her know the plan. She says she can’t get out of work like the rest of us but she will meet us when she gets there. Okay…but, while we are on the phone…do we get to ride Expedition Everest? Well….not me (I don’t do coasters as they make me very ill), but I am sure J and Z will. She begins to give me a hard time about not going on it again, but we strike the same deal we have with her. If she rides Tower of Terror (my favorite ride), I will ride EE. LOL…no way man, she says.

L’s requirements for this trip were one day at SWW and EE. That meant we had to spend some time at AK…ugh, not my favorite park. Since I don’t ride the rides, this meant I was stuck just sitting around waiting for everyone else. Boring!!! But oh well, since we were giving her this trip, I caved.

Z’s requirements for this trip were V&A’s and half a day at the resort in the pool. Okay…that I could do. We were of the same mind frame on this one. He just wanted to relax more than anything. We actually told him he could stay at the resort all weekend if he wanted to and not go to the parks. He was down with whatever.

J ‘s requirements for this trip were pics of everything she could do, even if it meant not riding the rides. Whoa…really? Say it isn’t so. She has gotten on this kick of Disney photos and that is all she wants. So I gave her my digital SLR and bought me a new camera (details on all of this in another post).

My requirements for this trip were V&A’s and food reviews. I wanted nothing else. I figured since the parks might be a little insane, it would be best if I didn’t plan anything ahead of time.

The finalized plans with all of our requirements were, Epcot on Thursday, SWW on Friday morning, MK Friday night, AK on Saturday morning, resort Saturday evening, and MK on Sunday morning. We HAD to get MK in there somewhere and since EMH are on Friday night (from what I read anyway), we could throw it in there twice. Yay!!!

So, all was well until the very next month…plans always go out the window, no matter how hard I try for them not to. Ugh.

 

[skellingtonfreak]

Signing on for more! We first went to WDW in 1998 and were hooked. We now have 13 trips under our belt and number 14 is scheduled for August. I always say that Disney World is like a Lay's potato chip....you can't go just once!

Totally! We have had to cool it...only two trips a year from now on. This three or four trips a year is killing us...and our bosses aren't too happy about it either.

Thanks for signing on!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

Another month goes by, and it is now March. We have decided the days of our trip, and what we are going to do. Plane tickets have been bought and Magical Express has been ordered. All was going according to plan.

One day I decide to actually be kind and donate some money to a charity and write out a couple of checks so a couple of teenagers could get credit for their sales. $5 each and it wasn’t a huge imposition to do so. Well, a week or so later, I check the bank account, and what the heck? No way man! What happened? Well, upon further review, the two checks I wrote were forged to $700. Holy cow. I get on the phone with my bank find out what to do and now I have to file a claim. Yikes…what a nightmare. After fighting with the bank for days about how I was going to get my money back (of which I still haven’t btw), I decide to just deal with it and move on.

So this brings us to changing up the plans for the June trip. Since most of that money was going to be my extra spending money on the trip, I had to rearrange some things. No go on the V&A…huge bummer there as Z and I were both so excited about that. So I had to cancel that. Z said, if we are going to cancel eating at the most expensive restaurant in all of Florida, why don’t we do the dining plan instead? You know…the good one with the appetizers. LOL…I had to laugh at that.

Now, more back story. L is stingy to a fault when it comes to WDW trips. She doesn’t tip well and she doesn’t like to spend a lot of money on food ever because she doesn’t consider it a priority. She would rather have things. Since this would be our 4th trip with her…we knew how this would play out.

I got my little e-mail together and e-mailed everyone and told them the plans. Of course, I got an e-mail back from L right away saying how she didn’t want to spend that much money. Weird woman…food should always be the priority on vacation! So we look at the regular dining plan. Still too much money, she says. Oh bother…what to do, what to do. I got it in my head that I would just forego all dining plans and pay out of pocket this trip. Why not? We hardly ever eat dessert anymore, and it would end up being cheaper doing it this way anyway. That way, everyone could get what they wanted and if all they wanted was soup, they could have soup.

Now, the new problem was where did people want to eat? L said Sci-Fi without a doubt (the ONE place she loves going to). I personally don’t think it is all that, but I promised she could go to one place she wanted. J didn’t care, and neither did Z. Since I was the one making the plans, I could choose whatever in the heck I wanted anyway.


New plans were Z, J, and I eat at Biergarten for lunch on Thursday. Since Z and I are big sushi fans and L was coming in late and we were staying at Saratoga Springs, dinner was going to be at Wolfgang Puck Café. Friday we could do Sci-Fi for lunch and Tony’s Town Square for dinner around SpectroMagic time so we could hopefully get a table on the patio and watch the parade. Saturday we would do Yak and Yeti for lunch and Turf Club for dinner. Sunday we would do the Plaza for late lunch since we were leaving that day.

No big deal, right? Well…Sci-Fi is a popular place…I still don’t know why, but it is. I tried to get reservations, I really did. Booked up the entire day. Maybe it was my person who I had on the phone, maybe they really were booked up on my first phone call. I called that afternoon and they had a 12:00 opening. Weird. We got all of the other reservations taken care of and we would be able to eat. Hooray for us!

Next up…What do you mean we aren’t doing the dining plan? This is what happens when people don’t listen.

 

[lauren5406]

Well, upon further review, the two checks I wrote were forged to $700.

Holy Cow indeed! That's awful, I really hope you get it all worked out.

Your plans do sound great so far, can't wait to read more.

 

[jmskinner]

Your title got me, I love SWW! Went to WDW for the first time 2006 and fell in love. Couldn't do the SWW that year, but hoped to go back. Well, DH got orders to transfer to the Tampa area, so we went househunting for a week and then traveled an hour up I-4 to spend a week at WDW and attend SWW. Now that we are so close, we plan on going every weekend this year. Just might see ya there.

I am with you on Sci-Fi. I love the atmosphere, but don't enjoy the food. Biergarten is wonderful. Actually going next Saturday for an early Mother's Day lunch. But it sounds like your ADR's changed again.

I hope you get your money back soon. I had a teenager come to the door yesterday requesting donations for Relay for Life, after reading your story I'm glad I found that $5 in quarters instead of writing a check.

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Cool! I saw the link in your sig on one of the dining threads so I had to come read! I'm not a big SW fan either but apparently Memorial Day weekend is also SWW?? We'll see how that goes...

I'm trying Sci Fi for the first time on this trip, mostly b/c I'm bringing a first-timer and I wanted to go places she wouldn't find at home. Plus, I gave her a list of restaurants and she thought it looked cool.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

Cool! I saw the link in your sig on one of the dining threads so I had to come read! I'm not a big SW fan either but apparently Memorial Day weekend is also SWW?? We'll see how that goes...

I'm trying Sci Fi for the first time on this trip, mostly b/c I'm bringing a first-timer and I wanted to go places she wouldn't find at home. Plus, I gave her a list of restaurants and she thought it looked cool.

Can't wait to hear more!

Hey! Welcome to the insanity that is this pre-trip report. I don't think I have ever had so many things happen before...but you will have to let me know how SWW goes for you! Take some pics!

Your title got me, I love SWW! Went to WDW for the first time 2006 and fell in love. Couldn't do the SWW that year, but hoped to go back. Well, DH got orders to transfer to the Tampa area, so we went househunting for a week and then traveled an hour up I-4 to spend a week at WDW and attend SWW. Now that we are so close, we plan on going every weekend this year. Just might see ya there.

I am with you on Sci-Fi. I love the atmosphere, but don't enjoy the food. Biergarten is wonderful. Actually going next Saturday for an early Mother's Day lunch. But it sounds like your ADR's changed again.

I hope you get your money back soon. I had a teenager come to the door yesterday requesting donations for Relay for Life, after reading your story I'm glad I found that $5 in quarters instead of writing a check.

I am getting my money back this week. Yay!! I am glad some people can learn from my mistakes on donating when people go from door to door. you just never know what can happen. And I am excited to go to WDW, more than I am for SWW. It is a new experience and I am glad for that...but I am a trekkie through and through. But it ought to be fun seeing all of the stormtroopers everywhere.

Holy Cow indeed! That's awful, I really hope you get it all worked out.

Your plans do sound great so far, can't wait to read more.

Thanks for joining. Things always work out in the end, so I can't really complain, but it is what it is. (my new philosophy on life in general)

Welcome to the insaneness of it all!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

I had bought a new camera last year before we went to WDW in September. After lugging it around for a week, I decided it wasn't for me, so I relegated it to being my "art" camera. So after being signed to a gallery for that, and then being dropped because it was just too far "out there", I had a great SLR camera that wasn't being used anymore.

That camera was the Canon Rebel XT. It is a great camera, and if it weren't so bulky and difficult for me to use on a trip, I would totally use it on more trips. J had been eyeing my camera for a while though, so it made sense to let her have it and then get a new one myself that was much smaller, yet had a lot of the same functionality of that camera.

On my last trip I used my Canon SD1000, which is a great camera, but it didn't take great indoor shots in low light without them being too grainy. I told myself that I was going to get a different camera to get better food shots. See for yourself.

A better camera was definitely necessary in my opinion. I had some money saved just for a camera and I had a budget. I wanted some very specific things for this camera, and I couldn't ever find one that met every single criteria I had within the budget I had. My budget was $250. A good amount for a good digital camera.

Criteria -

1. Good zoom.
2. Regular batteries as opposed to rechargeable ones.
3. SD Card since I already owned a few different ones.
4. Manual capabilities along with automatic capabilities.
5. Small and lightweight.

Not too many criteria, right? I didn't think so. Well, it just so happened that Canon just released a new model in the Powershot series that looked promising. After going to Best Buy and playing around with it, I decided that it was definitely the camera for me. I don't know how good the zoom will be yet, but I got pretty close to some things in the store.

So, it was decided. The Canon Powershot SX110 IS was the camera for me. I have not really played with it yet, so I don't know how great this camera is, but I like the feel of it along with what I can do with it. We will see.

So I took a pic of my dinner...here it is. I think this camera is going to be just what I needed.

Anyway...we will be taking this trip with a Canon Rebel XT and a Canon Powershot SX110 IS. Tons of pics will happen and we are going to do a live food report and I hope everything will come out great. Only time will tell.

 

[AlohaPolynesian]

Nice new camera! I love my Powershot! Your dinner just made me hungry!!

 

[jmskinner]

The Canon Powershot does take a great pic. I keep reading about everyone not using their SLR's. I just got mine for Christmas and can't put it down. I've always been a little different.

Good to hear that you are getting your money back.

 

[dvc4life]

Hey - just reading your report and we will be down there at the same time. We arrive in Florida on the 5th and will get to SSR on Saturday morning and be at SWW hopefully by mid morning. We are staying through the 12th! We are so excited. A month from today we leave!!!!!!

Have fun and maybe we'll see ya there!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[skellingtonfreak]

Nice new camera! I love my Powershot! Your dinner just made me hungry!!

Yeah, I really like my new camera. I was even debating on going old school and taking the Polaroid this trip again, but I might wait until September for that. Along with my Holga, which takes amazing shots like this...no instant gratification, but I love that camera.

The Canon Powershot does take a great pic. I keep reading about everyone not using their SLR's. I just got mine for Christmas and can't put it down. I've always been a little different.

Good to hear that you are getting your money back.

Thanks...me too. We are still taking the SLR, but I won't be the one using it. It takes amazing photos, but since it is so bloody hot in Florida in June, I just didn't want to be bothered with it. J wanted it so badly though, so I let her have it. I did love my camera at first, and I still do...but we only really take pictures at Disney and for my art, which I have a pic below.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Looks like the new camera is just what you needed. I'm on the lookout for a camera that takes good firework and night time pictures. Anyone have suggestions?

 

[skellingtonfreak]

Hey - just reading your report and we will be down there at the same time. We arrive in Florida on the 5th and will get to SSR on Saturday morning and be at SWW hopefully by mid morning. We are staying through the 12th! We are so excited. A month from today we leave!!!!!!

Have fun and maybe we'll see ya there!

Can't wait to read more.

Hey! We just might run into each other at SSR. Have a blast if I don't see ya!

Looks like the new camera is just what you needed. I'm on the lookout for a camera that takes good firework and night time pictures. Anyone have suggestions?

My new one supposedly has cool fireworks settings and night shots. I haven't tested them yet and won't be able to until I get to WDW, but from what I am reading, and all reviews, it will be even better than my old one. So you might want to look at the Canon Powershot SX series to see what is available. The proper way to get great night shots is to get yourself a mini-tripod (I got one for $1), and put it on a trash can or something and hold it really still...movement ruins the greatest night shots.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'll definitely be checking out this camera. I bought a little mini tripod for $1.00 at our local Dollar Tree and it's just as sturdy as the more expensive ones I looked at.

 

[skellingtonfreak]

I'll definitely be checking out this camera. I bought a little mini tripod for $1.00 at our local Dollar Tree and it's just as sturdy as the more expensive ones I looked at.

My friend actually bought one of those $30 mini-tripods, and it is almost falling apart on her, I have had mine for 3 years and there is nothing wrong with it at all.

And I highly recommend going to Best Buy and holding all of the cameras after you do some serious research on the internet about which camera takes certain shots and look at people's opinions of them before making a final decision.

One thing we learned...if you have a camera store where you live (We have Wolf), go there and ask them to pull out a camera out of the case so you can really feel how it feels and maneuvers in your hands. That was my deciding factor...how light it was.

Good luck on finding the perfect camera!

 

[skellingtonfreak]

When we last left off, we had just figured everything out, who was doing what and where and the park hours had been posted so we could figure out the best plan of action for trying to get all of the parks in and still have a half day at the resort. We all bought our plane tickets and called DVC to set up the ME. All was figured out, and we were all happy, so it seemed.

Well, the end of March rolls around, and J got a call from her sister saying that her son (J’s nephew) decided to get married before going to boot camp. The day? Saturday, June 6th. Now, we have been planning this particular trip since we received the developer points for signing up with DVC in September. So, J’s nephew is getting married the same weekend we will be in WDW. Now, that just sucked…what to do, what to do…J decided that since they were the ones that decided at the very last second to get married, and she couldn’t exactly change her plans (nor did she want to), and she didn’t want to be out the money for the plane ticket either, that she wasn’t going to the wedding. And besides…WDW is so much more fun than being around family! Lol…

Well, April rolls around, and J got it in her head that she would play a joke on L and tell her that she had to cancel plans to go to WDW. So, on April 1, J texts L and tells her that she had a change of plans. L texts me the next day and tells me she is sorry that I can’t go to WDW. I said what, since when am I not going? J is the one not going, not me. I then get a call from her and I have to go through this big old tirade of how J can’t go because she had to go to her only nephew’s wedding. L was all upset that her ride buddy wasn’t going now…bummer.

I eventually find out that I will have to make my ADR’s for our September trip on this trip. The Friday we are supposed to go to DHS for extra magic hours even. I try to figure out the best way, and of course, I turned to the boards to get advice. The best way to deal with this is to have everyone else go to DHS without me and I go to the concierge desk right at 7am to make the ADR’s. I will have my list with me and I will be able to meet up with everyone else later. I hope, anyway. So, crisis averted. Well, not really a crisis, but a minor inconvenience.

A week or so passes and L calls me up and asks if I can get a room with 2 beds in it instead of one. I had to laugh at this…the original plan was to have L and Z share the fold-out sofa in the living room since we got a one bedroom at SSR. That means J and I get the king bed in the bedroom. L was perfectly okay with this (she said so at the very beginning when we made the reservations). Now, since J was supposedly not going…she wanted to have her own bed. I really have to laugh at her sometimes. She changes her mind so quickly so often, it is hard to keep up. I told her that SSR doesn’t have the same set up as OKW. She often stays at OKW when she goes to WDW. They have 2 queen beds in some of the one bedroom suites. She got all sad and said okay, like she was all defeated. Oh well….she agreed to it…Mine and J’s points, we get the good bed. Those are the rules that L set up on the very first trip. We are just going by her rules.

Z and L now want to look at the ADR’s and know the plans down to the day to whichever park we are going to and everything…We don’t have to worry about L the first day since she won’t be there until 8pm, but we need to worry about everything else. L’s idea of WDW vacation is this…get up whenever (sometimes noon), go to a park for a couple of hours, then go back to the resort for a nap and pool time, then go back to a park for however long it is open. The first time we travelled with L, we saw this and we wondered how in the heck can someone claim to love WDW so much and then sleep all of the time when they are there? It floored us. We like to get up first thing in the morning, get ready, get to a park before it gets hot, eat lunch in the park, then head back to the resort around 2 or 3ish, depending on if we want to see the parade or not, then rest for a couple of hours and then go back out somewhere. We like to go go go when we are at WDW…we don’t kamikaze the parks anymore when we go, but we at least spend most of our time there because we enjoy the ambiance.

Back to the issue at hand…L doesn’t like the plans so far. She doesn’t get any time at Epcot, and it looks like we only have half a day of down time. Well, in order to get everything in, I told her, we had to make some sacrifices. She didn’t want to come in a day earlier and fly out with us like originally planned because she didn’t want to have a connecting flight or layover or anything. So, that was her fault. This is the shortest trip to WDW J and I have ever taken. We go for 5 days minimum…that way you have time to do the things you want to do. It makes everyone happy that way. L concedes that she is just going to have to get her butt up early if she wants to do the things she wants to do, like autographs at SWW. No sleeping in for her this trip…mwahahahahaha!!! My evilness is coming out.

Now enough complaining….the next post…The plans! The food! The excitement!