We're going..no we're not. Well WE still are! Updated 11/18

[merbobear]

Welcome to my PTR!

Who: Me, Mike & Adison (more on us later!)

What: Our third annual Disney World vacation!
When: May 10-May 19, 2013
Where: Disney World
Why: I really like Mickey waffles! Oh, plus the attractions, parades, shows, and MAGIC are fun too!​

Now more on the WHO of this trip:

Me. I'm Merideth, "The Mom." I work full time doing inventory control & special orders for a baby store chain. I actually enjoy my job and have made some great friends there! Other than working and being a mom, I like crafting (Scrapbooking, tinkering in photoshop and some light sewing are my favorites). My number one hobby, however, is planning our Disney vacations!

Jeez, you know you are the one behind the camera when you go to look for a picture of yourself, and the best you can do is something blurry from a year and a half ago where half your face is covered with giant glasses!

Mike, "The Dad," just kind of goes with the flow of our vacations. He'll occasionally throw an ADR preference my way, but he mostly leaves the planning up to me. He wastes...er...spends his free time playing video games and he's 2 years my senior.

WHOOPS! Wrong picture!

There! Much better.

Adison, "The Kid," is 4 going on 14. Just the other day she told me that she's a model, then strutted across the living room swaying her hips to an imaginary beat! She's in preschool this year and learning how to read, which is amazing to watch. She's my fairytale princess and I am so happy we get to share our vacations with her!

See? Princess!

And in her natural habitat ​

Thanks for reading, I do hope you will subscribe and share your own plans as I plan our vacation!

Up next, Who isn't going??​

 

[merbobear]

Introductions
Who is NOT going to Disney World?
Adr Day!
Day One

 

[merbobear]

So you now know who IS going on vacation in May, but who is NOT?

The first person to NOT go is Mikey, who is a friend of Mike's. He did travel to WDW with us this past May, and had expressed interest in going again. I priced a room for him, figured out the cost if he brought a friend and they split it..checked prices in different resorts. Added water park & more, took it off. Dining plan. Airfare. You know, all of the things you run through when you are pricing your own vacation. Then he wasn't going anymore..then he was..then he wasn't, then he was, and finally, he wasn't. Who honestly knows if this might change again! He's welcome to join us, but at this point I am over the whole pricing out someone else' vacation!

Second & third are my coworker/good friend and her daughter. They had planned on joining us and we have been talking about it even prior to our May trip this year, but unfortunately, she really feels that her finances will not allow her to go. She is a single mom with VERY little help from her ex (financial only, and not much, only what is court ordered!). I will keep her name private for obvious reasons! I do understand her concerns and I simply told her that we will be going in 2014 as well, so she is free to join us then if it works out for her at that time! I really hope that it does, she has a lot of stress in life and I think it would be great for her and her dd to let loose and have a ball at Disney World!

Gosh, this update is sadly low on pictures, but it contains the info necessary to understand my PTR's title.

Now that we have the NOs thoroughly explained, how about some RSVP's to this party? Who else will be joining us at the World May 10-19?
Since my 180 mark is today!! at 7 am, I'll have my ADR schedule up next!​

 

[merbobear]

Since I last posted, I made my ADR's! Woot for that being over! I woke up at 6:45 yesterday morning and by the time 7 am rolled around, I was semi alert and chomping at the bit to get my ADR's done! I sat down at the computer to get started, and wouldn't you know it, the Disney site was not interested in cooperating. I kept receiving error messages that they could not link my reservation to my dining reservations and to call their dining number. I called and spoke to someone who was most unhelpful! I wanted to have someone "fix" my reservation so that I could plot out my ADR's online, I did NOT want to be on the phone for any extended period of time and run the risk of waking up my dd.

So, I was naturally told that they couldn't help me there, but to call support. I asked to be transferred to support but the CM told me that she didn't know how to transfer Then she hung up on me! UN-magical!

So another phone call, this time to support. Who picked up, but resort reservations! They offered to transfer me to dining, which I declined. I wanted to speak to support! At this point, dd was awake and I was getting more annoyed and feeling less and less magical.

I was again transferred to dining, and this time I figured I would just go with it and make my ressies over the phone. Not the ideal, but dd was awake already anyway and at this point I had been on the phone for 45 minutes.

Without further ado, my May 2013 ADR's are:

Hoop Dee Doo Revue
Chef Mickey
Crystal Palace
1900 Park Fare
Akershus
Boma
Sci Fi Dine In
'Ohana
Cape May Cafe
Via Napoli
Afternoon Tea

In the end, I had the ADR's that I wanted and dd's mood wasn't terrible for being woken up earlier than I had wanted on a weekend.

Next up, we'll start our daily plans!

 

[merbobear]

May 10 (FRI) is our first day of vacation! It will most likely start off like a normal day, with dd going to school (she's in a full day Pre-K program) at 7:45.

We haven't booked our airfare yet, but the plan is to fly Soutwest, as we have done in the past. There is a flight leaving Albany at 12:50pm which will put as at MCO at 3:45pm. So we will drop off dd at school and run home to leisurely sip our coffee and pack up the car. My mom will drive us to the airport, so around 11 we will pick up dd and be on our way!

Barring any delays, our 3:45 MCO arrival should put as at POP Century at approximately 4:45-5pm, aka Dinner Time! Before we eat, I will want to get checked in to the resort and most likely drop our carry ons at our room, so empty bellies will have to wait for just a few minutes.

Once we are somewhat settled, our next mission will be something to eat..something quick but delicious, which I am sure we will find at Everything POP. I just took a quick glance at the menu, and found a few things that sound great! I am vegetarian, my family is not, so for me a nice veggie lasagna or calzone with a side salad, or maybe the veggie burger with fries, would hit the spot. Mike is a meat & potatoes kinda guy, so I envision him ordering the Mom's Night Out meatloaf dinner. Adison will eat pretty much anything I put in front of her, she could have the kids penne pasta with meatball or something simple like a sandwich. Sugar desserts, of course, will be consumed by all!

Dinner eaten, our next order of business is still up in the air. Initially I had thought of day one as being a travel and hang out at the resort kind of day. A take a dip in the pool kind of day. Maybe even a shop around at Downtown Disney kind of day..but the more I think of day one at Disney World, the more I think of Magic Kingdom. After school and packing and flying and eating, we will likely be pretty tired...but that Disney adrenaline keeps us going longer than we normally would be able to, so I just cannot fathom the idea of eating dinner and relaxing. I will be too wound up to relax..I'll be IN Disney World! I will NEED to play..and it's only 30 bucks to add a tenth day of tickets to our package, so it's basically a done deal at this point.

What we will do at MK is still up in the air, though currently my heart is set on the Wishes Dessert Party. We haven't done this yet, and it's something that I've had in the back of my mind "for when we have time." Well, this night we will be most likely entering the MK no earlier than 7pm, after all is said and done, so that will give us a little bit of time to take in the atmosphere and go for a few spins on the Carousel, mix and mingle with our favorite princesses and generally let the magic take over, before we head over to gorge ourselves on sweets and watch our favorite nighttime spectacular. MK closes at 10 this night, and the next day we will be up bright and early for Mickey Waffles & Rope Drop (best morning combo ever!) so we will head straight home and likely drift to sleep immediately.

 

[blessedmom4]

You have PTR...How EXCITING!!! I am subscribed (I HOPE) and will be able to follow along.

​

 

[blessedmom4]

Where did you go??????

Just waiting on the children to wake up and sharing holiday wishes.

​

 

[marDgreen88]

Hi there, I'm joining in! I hope you post more soon. Adison is such a cutie!

 

[blessedmom4]

SO excited ot see you back on the DIS!!!

 

[merbobear]

Thanks, ladies, for joining in and stopping to say hello! The holiday season kept me pretty busy and then Adison's birthday was on the 21st this month, but now I am free to plan my vacation non-stop (well, my job gets in the way, but I do spend quite a good bit of my day dreaming of Disney!).

I know that I started posting my day 1 plans, but my how they have changed! I had every day pretty much planned out (as far as what park & having ADR's set) and then Disney went ahead and announced their Star Wars Weekends dates - we will be there for the opening weekend and it is a HUGE priority for Mike, so I had to do a bit of shuffling. By "a bit" I mean I spent a good 3 hours staring at my ADR's & park hours shuffling things around before I came up with our new plan.

Next up: New day 1 plans!

 

[merbobear]

So, rolling right along with Day 1:

We haven't booked our airfare yet, but we are looking at flying Southwest (we love them, great fares and we have had no issues thus far with their service!) and our flight should be leaving at 7:45am on Friday May 10. The flight is non stop and is scheduled to land at MCO at 10:35.

From MCO we will take the Magical Express.
Here are Adison & Mike on our first family WDW vacation in 2011. SQUEEE She was so little here!

We are very happy to be returning to POP Century Resort this year!

We stayed there in 2011 and we absolutely loved the place! In 2012 we went on a larger family trip and stayed in a 2BR villa at Old Key West Resort. Believe me, OKW was beautiful and the villa was more than fine for our needs, but we both kept saying that we missed POP! There's just something about the gluttony of Mickey waffles every morning that makes me smile!

Of course, we are hoping that our room will be ready when we check in. So far, we have had great luck with that happening! If the room is ready, we'll go dump our carry on stuff, if it's not then we will just leave them with bell services. Our first order of business will be to grab a bus and head straight to Epcot!

More in next post!

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!!

 

[blessedmom4]

Excited the planning has restarted! Great pics, Adison will have so much fun exploring all over again! ​

 

[merbobear]

Count me in!!!

Thanks for joining in!

Excited the planning has restarted! Great pics, Adison will have so much fun exploring all over again! ​

I can't wait, and she is excited too. We talk about WDW daily (well..multiple times daily!). Ok, make that non stop!

 

[merbobear]

We left off on Day 1, heading to Epcot:

We don't get a rental car for WDW, so we will be relying on Disney Transportation to cart us around. We have experienced crowded buses in the past, but nothing that is worth the cost of a rental. I am always telling friends, family and coworkers that Disney is expensive, but that you get SO MUCH for your money - and transportation is a big part of the value, so we take full advantage.

The Flower & Garden Festival will be in full swing during our stay, so I expect we might see something like this when we arrive at Epcot:

Or maybe something like this:

And definitely something like this:

And this:

Le Sigh! I wish I was there right now!

Mike took a trip to WDW with his mom in 2001 and did the "Leave a Legacy," so we usually stop and find their photo on our way into the park. I have pictures of their actual square, but I can't seem to locate a single one right now! But it is one one of these guys:

Now, with a 5 year old, you might be wondering why we are headed to Epcot first, and not Magic Kingdom. Believe me, this has weighed on my mind. We love to head to MK first and see that first glimpse of Cindy's castle. It's that moment of "AHHHH we are HERE. We are on vacation now!" that we get walking down Main Street. I feel like we might miss that being our first park, but...a family has to eat, right? So we are heading into Epcot for our first ADR of the trip!

But, first, we will probably take a quick trip over to Test Track to see if there are any fast passes still available. I am estimating that we might arrive in Epcot around 1pm, so we might be out of luck, but that won't make or break our day! If we can score FP with a return time of 5pm or earlier, we will grab them. If not, we will be back to Epcot before the trip is over!

After we check out the FP situation, we will make our way to the World Showcase. Where are we headed?

You guessed it, Norway! Not to sail the rough seas of the Maelstrom, though - to dine with royalty! Our ADR is set for 1:55 pm.

Btw, I apologize for so many older pictures, as I think everything I've posted so far is from 2011, but I am loving this blast from the past and I'm getting nostalgic looking at Adison when she was still such a baby!

Have you guys eaten at Akershus yet? It is honestly one of my favorites, the food is so good! It's a cold buffet full of various salads, lunch meats and cheeses and then you get a plated entree as well. After the entrees, they serve a dessert trio that is seriously to DIE for! YUM.

Mmmm the asparagus is divine!

I am vegetarian, so no meats or seafood for me, but Mike and Adison are both omnivores!

yumyumyum! I have gotten this dish twice so far, and this year will be no different!
"Mushroom-stuffed Pasta with Swiss Chard, Shiitakes, and Parmesan Cream"

And finally...

While we are there, of course Adison will eat up the attention from the princesses.

After looking at those two pictures next to each other, I feel like this restaurant is a place we will be going year after year..and when she is 16, I'll still be demanding that we get a picture with Ariel just so I can look back at how much Adison has grown! The second Ariel, by the way, was amazing. Seriously, she was adorable and so sweet to Adison..she kept calling her Angel Fish!

After we finish our meal, we will likely take in a couple of attractions. I will likely take in one of these guys:

Maelstrom & Gran Fiesta usually have short little wait times, and if we have Test Track FP's we will head over to use them. If we are sans FP then we will head out of the park. We will be back at Epcot plenty before we leave the World, and on this first day of vacation, we still have a Kingdom to visit!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Following over from the Facebook page. Can't wait to read more.

 

[lovethattink]

Followed your link from facebook. I recognize your DIS name from Judy's PTR/TR.

We were almost neighbors at POP, but I cancelled our resie. We will be there for SWW just not staying on property.

I will go back and read. Thanks for the heads up on the link.

 

[lovethattink]

Since I last posted, I made my ADR's! Woot for that being over! I woke up at 6:45 yesterday morning and by the time 7 am rolled around, I was semi alert and chomping at the bit to get my ADR's done! I sat down at the computer to get started, and wouldn't you know it, the Disney site was not interested in cooperating. I kept receiving error messages that they could not link my reservation to my dining reservations and to call their dining number. I called and spoke to someone who was most unhelpful! I wanted to have someone "fix" my reservation so that I could plot out my ADR's online, I did NOT want to be on the phone for any extended period of time and run the risk of waking up my dd.

So, I was naturally told that they couldn't help me there, but to call support. I asked to be transferred to support but the CM told me that she didn't know how to transfer Then she hung up on me! UN-magical!

So another phone call, this time to support. Who picked up, but resort reservations! They offered to transfer me to dining, which I declined. I wanted to speak to support! At this point, dd was awake and I was getting more annoyed and feeling less and less magical.

I was again transferred to dining, and this time I figured I would just go with it and make my ressies over the phone. Not the ideal, but dd was awake already anyway and at this point I had been on the phone for 45 minutes.

Without further ado, my May 2013 ADR's are:

Hoop Dee Doo Revue
Chef Mickey
Crystal Palace
1900 Park Fare
Akershus
Boma
Sci Fi Dine In
'Ohana
Cape May Cafe
Via Napoli
Afternoon Tea

In the end, I had the ADR's that I wanted and dd's mood wasn't terrible for being woken up earlier than I had wanted on a weekend.

Next up, we'll start our daily plans!

Great choice of ADRs. Sorry you had trouble making them, but glad it all worked out in the end.


The F&W Festival looks like it's going to be even better this year with the addition of the food and beverage!

 

[MagicalMerida]

Joining in! I'm enjoying reading this so far, i can't wait for the next installment!

 

[blessedmom4]

Bumping your thread up and letting you know I am still here! Have a blessed Sunday!