5th timers 1st experience with DDP(free!) TR!

[lori1043]

Hey Dis'ers! This is my family's TR for the week of September 12-19, 2009! This trip was a longshot for us b/c of my hubbys' pevious layoff(thank goodness he had a severance and is nowemployed again!). All depended on his being re-employed and it happened! So off we go....

Like said, this is our 5th time to WDW as a family. We DID have a WDW hurrication in September '08 from Gustav, so I guess you can count it as a 5 and a HALF timers TR! The hurrication was 2 nights at ASMovies with a family day at TL and a girls day(daddy worked) at MK.

Family cast:

DH39- audit manager for a big bank, LOVES God and his girls, LSU and Saints fan, loves the Cubs and the Stars too. Watches lots of financial shows, keeps up with the stock market(his passion), loves Jim Kramer's Mad Money.
Favorite Disney character: Donald Duck
Favorite WDW ride: Rock'n Roller Coaster
Favorite DL ride: California Screamin

Me39-homeschool mom, also loves Jesus and is thankful for all He does for our lives, BIG Disney fan from the time I was 16, likes to draw(but hasn't done it except at WDW or DL for years), loves her laptop and iTouch (a little too much I think). Enjoys her kids being around, trying to cook different things but very happy to have free food made for me for a week!
Favorite Disney character: Mickey
Favorite Disney ride: Splash mountain
Favorite DL ride: Space Mountain(only b/c Splash Mtn was closed!)

DD11-loves to sing constantly, hum, or whatnot, became a thrill seeker this trip. Cancer(leukemia) survivor.
Favorite Disney character: Donald Duck, and Aurora
Favorite Disney ride: Expedition Everest

DD9-loves to draw, color, has these big brown puppy dog eyes, likes horses, loves her teddy bear named 'Rose Beary bear' who is a princess!
Favorite Disney character: Belle
Favorite Disney ride: Soarin' and Pirate of the Carribean

So, we left last Saturday, September 12 and stayed at All Star Sports with 4 day PH's with water park and more. I will tell you about each place we ate and what each of us thought about it.

We have never had so much food, ever!

We are a family who does Disney on a budget. I love the budget boards for tips and ideas. We usually bring sandwiches every other day and eat CS meals on the days we don't bring sandwiches. I always bring a hotpot and make macn cheese and soup and grits, etc in that little wondrous appliance. We usually pick 1-3 TS places to eat per trip and we have a habit of going to Rainforest cafe after a long day at AK. We eat b/fast every morning in our room b/c #1, we're not big breakfast people, and #2, I want to spend my money where I want to spend it, and b/fast is not usually one of them. IF we choose to do a character b/fast on a trip, we go at the latest time possible. before this trip we really learned to hate the DDP b/c we could no longer walk into our favorite TS places. Everything was booked. We used to walk into Crystal Palace and we no longer could do that since the DDP has started.

I have a slightly different view now, but will explain as this TR goes along.

Soooo, the 1st day, we had no park plans, but we did have plans to meet my aunt and uncle in DD at Capn Jacks and to get my Disney reward card from Guest Relations. I had quite a bit of money accrued on it! $250! So we decided to use it for tips for our TS meals plus some! I had previously stuffed a bunch of cute little made up envelopes(from themouseforless.com) with cash for tips for each TS place we ate at.

So, I am not a fan pof DDP, but since it was FREE and has been for the past 5 years in the fall, we decided to try it.

pictures and story coming soon! uploading pics to site....

Day 1.....http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...7&postcount=13
Day 1, part 2......http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...9&postcount=21
Day 2......http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...4&postcount=20
Day 3 part 1-EPCOT.......http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...7&postcount=48
Day 3, part 2.........http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=49
Day 4.........http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...2&postcount=63
Rest of day 4.........http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...7&postcount=79
last of day 4...........http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...0&postcount=80.

[scoot241]

Gotta join up for this simply because you're Tiger and Saints fans!

[TigerKat]

Signing on, can't wait!!!!!

[Terry36]

[Where'sPiglet?]

I'm in!

[zipuzee]

I'm here. Can't wait to hear all about it!

[mymainmouse]

Signing on. We were there almost the same time as you were. I am curious to hear what you thought about the past week.

[rie'smom]

Can't wait for more!!!

[mickeystoontown]

Another Louisiana resident and Jesus lover here! Looking forward to reading all about your Disney adventures!

[portocall]

I made it, can't wait!

[Katie's Gram]

count me in

[jwhtewolfd]

I'm here. GO SAINTS!

[lori1043]

Okay, so we tried to make this a suprise for the kids, but that didn't work out... 26 days before the trip we found out that all of thier friends knew, so we broke down and told them one day after church.... they squealed like they've never been!

So they came home and IMMEDIATELY begged me to print up the countdown chain off of themouseforless.com

Anyway- 26 days later we found ourselves with one last chain link and packed and ready to fly to Orlando to go to Disney.

We always have driven, except for the 2002 Make a Wish trip for Ashton. It is a 10 hour or so drive from here to there. Not horrible, BUT since my hubby used to trvel often with his job, he had accrused some free flights, so we flew b/c it was much cheaper and faster than driving-yay!

My DD9 was a bit nervous......

just buckling in on SWA.

But she ended up LOVING it!


Stitch

I spontaneously was thinking we should have a theme for our pics on the trip b/c i wanted a little different type of pics, so Bethany(a dis friend) and I were at Disney store having fun and we picked out birthday Stitch for the pics since we were celebrating birthdays on this trip. BUT he was BAD and DH decided he needed to stay in when we went to the parks(so he stayed in the window with the towel creations from the mousekeepers)....he read and tore my magazine, he stowed away in the town car, he kept biting our doxies, etc.... here are some pics of him....




Disney
So we get to the airport in Orlando and the town car guy was holding that sign with our name!! We picked Tiffany towncar. It was $104 round trip. My friend Caron suggested it from a Disney site she was on. The guy Steve was nice enough, and we had a 30 minute grocery stop to get waters and cokes, apple juice and a foam ice chest, which was a smart thing to do we found out!

We arrive at All Star Sports, check in, got the top floor as requested(no one above you making noise) in the baseball section(yay! we've been there before and liked it)- our room was ready so we got settled, ate 2 QS meals and split it 4 ways(we had a Capn Jacks ADR for 4pm and it was abhout 1:30). We took a short refreshing nap, then headed for DD marketplace to play till our dinner with my aunt and uncle , who were driving from Gainesville to see us!

I SO want this table!


BTW- I picked All Star Sports b/c the kids and hubby said that the next time we did Disney, that was the place they wanted to stay.

So I call my aunt from the bus.....


...and she and her hubby were there already(it was about 3pm) walking around browsing. We had a GREAT meal at Capn Jacks. This meal was our family's overall favorite TS meal we had the whole week. The kids asked to come back here a couple times. We didn't though since I had made ADR's at that 6 month mark.

DH and I had the crab cakes, DD11 had chicken alfredo, DD9 had mac n cheese and we shared a spinach dip. Our first DDP TS meal and we skipped desert we were SO full!


I thank DD's for these pics! they are taking after mom with pics of food!

After dinner and a walk to say goodbye, we headed to Disney Quest- our first time there.




We did not stay long- it was cool and all, but didn't keep our interest. Put it off to having girls or just that all the games were a teaser to the REAL rides awaiting us in the upcoming days. Of course, we didn't get to every floor there and while we DID have fun, we were just anxious to get a good night sleep and head to Typhoon Lagoon the next day(Sunday). We DID find time to walk through the T Rex restaurant- it was pretty cool, esp the ice cave room-it was like the castle at night colors, but inside a icy room...


DD11 loves rocks and crystals...


for some reason photobucket didn't upload my ice cave pics....hmmm.

and we passed this place up....


next update.... Day 2, Typhoon Lagoon incident with a Garbage Pail, teaser in MK and dinner at the wrong time at 1900 Park Fare....

Lori

[Where'sPiglet?]

Yay! An update! AND I got a shout out!

As always, your photos are great!

I'm glad to hear Haley did well on the flight. I know she was really nervous!

Your teaser is....hmph! *Scowl* I wanna know NOW what happened!

[zipuzee]

Wow! Those crab cakes look awesome. We'll need to consider this when we go next year. Cute pics of the kids, too. I guess its been a while since I've seen pics of them, they look so grown up! Can't wait for the next installment.