Destination D is the place for me and Bill *New trip report started link page 12*

[Pyrate_Pryncess]

Whoa Tracy! I am so happy for you! You and Bill should just move to Florida!!!!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Whoa Tracy! I am so happy for you! You and Bill should just move to Florida!!!!!

Thanks Rebecca. If we didn't have so much family close we would move .

 

[mrsksomeday]

Schedule for the 2nd day:

SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2011

Sunday Morning Surprise with the Walt Disney World Resort Ambassador Team
9:30 a.m. - 10 a.m.
You won't want to miss this very special — and did we mention surprising? — presentation at the start of your day!

Walt Disney World in Detail
10 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Think you know everything there is to know about the Walt Disney World Resort? Find out as we join Disney author and Imagineer Jason Surrell as he uncovers the little-known details and design references that have made ride vehicles, cast member costumes and even unassuming trash cans such treasured parts of the magic.

Imagineering Walt Disney World: From Yesteryear to Tomorrowland
11 a.m. - 12:15 p.m.
Join longtime Imagineer Eric Jacobson, who oversees the portfolio for Disney's largest resort in the world. Eric will share insider stories and images of yesteryear, as well as new and exciting surprises of things on the horizon at Walt Disney World.

Lunch Break
12:15 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.

Creating "A Whole New Disney World"
2:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Hear the stories of how it all happened in this impressive panel discussion featuring: Debra Browne, Orlando Ferrante, Bob Foster, Bob Gurr, and Ron Logan. Hosted by Disney Legend Marty Sklar.

Making the Magic Happen
3:30 p.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Opening and maintaining a resort the size of the city of San Francisco was no easy task and our panel of Disney Legends — Jack Lindquist, Bob Matheison, Tom Nabbe, Charlie Ridgway and Bill Sullivan — will recount what life was like making the magic happen, from opening the Magic Kingdom through the debut of EPCOT Center.. Hosted by Tim O'Day.

Quick Break
4:45 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Autograph Session with Disney Legends and Authors
5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.
Please note, there is limit of one item per person to be signed for each guest. Thank you.

Dinner Break
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Magic Journeys: A Flight of Fancy through 40 Years of Walt Disney World Musical Memories
8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
As a spectacular conclusion to Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th, Disney Legend and Oscar® winner Richard M. Sherman, who along with his brother Robert has contributed a multitude of tunes to the Disney parks songbook, headlines this unforgettable tribute to the melodies that helped shape the World.

Micks N' Mingle
9:30 p.m. - 10:45 p.m.
One last opportunity to meet your fellow D23 Members, the D23 Team behind Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th and some of our special guest participants before we officially bring our extraordinary event to a close.


I admit it mentions of “surprises” drive me insane. You never know what will happen at a D23 event and I can’t wait. I feel like a little kid with birthday presents in front of me with all my old relatives singing Happy Birthday off key and out of sync when all I want to do is RIP THE GIFTS OPEN

!!!
We both hope they will talk about the future of what is to come in the future for WDW. PLEASE say more attractions in DHS

!!


We are looking forward to the autograph session. Toni has given me a great idea about what to have them sign. I will let you know about it after the trip.

I was listening to a Lou Mongello’s podcast about the event, he thinks it will be comparable to the one in Disneyland. They had about 2,000 people there.

How do they expect all these people to eat in a 2 hour window? We are going to either bring something or try to eat at the counter service place at the Contemporary. I think the CS plan is a bad one, too many people not enough space to eat at. I am thinking of taking a small soft sided cooler with us.


Does anyone have ideas for food to take with us?


Getting to see Mr. Sherman sing the songs he created with his brother is truly a gift. It will be a highlight of the event for us.


I have been a podcast nut lately and admit it would be great to get to meet Lou Mongello in person, I also hope to say hi to a DISer Lurkyloo. She has fantastic trip reports and is so humorous. I hope we get to see MyMuse again as well. She is such a great person. WDW is fast becoming more than just a fun vacation spot, it is great to meet and talk with others that love it just as much as we do.


After we are done, we will head over to MK and take a bus back to Pop.


** On 5/2 some more info was released about the closing night concert and it has us thrilled!!!!


(from the D23 website)


During the past eight months the D23 team has pulled together a cast of performers whose combined experience represents a whopping 200 years of entertaining many of the 600 million guests who have visited Walt Disney World Resort since 1971.


Devotees of the largest and most elaborate Disney resort on the globe will definitely see a few familiar faces on stage. Reaching back through the years, guests will be entertained by alumni of the Empress Lilly Riverboat, Pleasure Island Comedy Warehouse, Kids of the Kingdom, Voices of Liberty, Top of the World Lounge, Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue and EPCOT Center grand opening, plus the incredible Walt Disney World Resort Cast Member choir and band — Encore!


The star of the evening will be Disney Legend and Academy Award® winner Richard M. Sherman, making a rare Florida appearance. In addition to highlighting the many song hits he and his brother Robert contributed to such classic Disney films as Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, The Parent Trap, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and many others, Richard will also showcase their contributions to the Walt Disney World Resort songbook. Featuring rare film footage, original song demos (anyone familiar with "World Showcase March"?), and Richard's inimitable charm and showmanship, this portion of the concert is sure to be a showstopper!

Next installment… Back to AK finally!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Thanks Rebecca. If we didn't have so much family close we would move .

Alex is always asking why we can't move to Florida!

If we didn't have such a great school situation & family here, I'm sure we'd be down there in a second too!

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Wow! What an amazing trip you will have!! Feel free to text me--OFTEN and let me know about this surprises! Perhaps you will win something cool again this time!!!

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Such fantastic plans! Love the Fuzzy Disney math

 

[ChiCat]

Dinner is at Tutto Italia, let’s see which servers Bill flirts with this time. We will also be catching Illuminations from our favorite accessible area. Here is where we will see how the bus situation is for people in wheelchairs and ECV’s for the Pop Century bus line. I am going to be taking notes of how long it takes from the time they have us split off from the regular line to the time Bill gets on the bus. Let’s see how many busses get loaded while he sits there. I have the transportation number that a manager at Epcot gave me and will be using it if there are issues again. I have no problems waiting in line for our turn, but I am not ok with us getting up to the front and them double loading busses while people in wheelchairs/ECV’s wait and wait and wait.

Next installment… Friday, Friday Friday Plans

Wow interesting. So if I'm reading this right people in wheelchairs ride the same bus as people not in wheelchairs yet they load the people not in wheelchairs first? On our city buses people in wheelchairs go on first, apparently there was a study done that this is the most efficient way to load buses, which to me makes sense. That's terrible

Anywho I'm loving your PTR

 

[hollybearsmom]

Day 2 sounds more exciting

maybe grab some deli sandwiches the day before and have those for lunch, you have a frig in room right? some fruit cups and granola bars could finish it off

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

Tracy,
Do you think you'd have time to hop the monorail over to the Poly and eat at Cap't Cook's? The crowds wouldn't be like they will be at the Contemporary and I'm pretty sure they have pre-made sandwiches and stuff in the refrigerated section so you wouldn't have to wait on your food.

The events of the weekend sound really fantastic!

 

[exwdwcm]

wow i am green with envy at all the fantastic events they have planned over the 2 days. I so need to do one of these events sometime. I especially can't wait to hear how it all goes- the 'disney that never was' looks so cool- attractions that never made it! you have to share with us all the details after the trip!

Smokey Mountains? we are heading there too- June 11-19th! We are driving from Dallas, my entire family, parents and my two sisters with their families. We are renting a huge 15 passenger van to drive plus taking mom's mini van. should be interesting. we rented a cabin near Pigeon Forge. We are looking forward to it. Plan to check out Dollywood, go rafting, shopping etc. Anything else worth seeing you can recommend? We will have a 6mo old baby, 4yo, 5yo and 7yo with us, plus 8 adults!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Alex is always asking why we can't move to Florida!

If we didn't have such a great school situation & family here, I'm sure we'd be down there in a second too!

Those pesky family members keep us from living by our happy place .

Wow! What an amazing trip you will have!! Feel free to text me--OFTEN and let me know about this surprises! Perhaps you will win something cool again this time!!!

Bill says he is planning on winning something. I will text you if I remember, my brain has been mush lately .

Such fantastic plans! Love the Fuzzy Disney math

Thanks, I love Fuzzy Disney Math too .

Wow interesting. So if I'm reading this right people in wheelchairs ride the same bus as people not in wheelchairs yet they load the people not in wheelchairs first? On our city buses people in wheelchairs go on first, apparently there was a study done that this is the most efficient way to load buses, which to me makes sense. That's terrible

Anywho I'm loving your PTR

What happens especially at Epcot at closing is there is a line for wheelchairs/ecv's, the busses can take 2 to 4 mobility devices, they load them first then able bodied people get on. In the mean time they have other busses pull up beside the first bus and load ONLY able bodied people even if the wheelchair/ecv users were in line first.

Day 2 sounds more exciting

maybe grab some deli sandwiches the day before and have those for lunch, you have a frig in room right? some fruit cups and granola bars could finish it off

Thanks for the input, we were thinking about sandwiches too. Bill won't eat granola bars for fruit cups .

Tracy,
Do you think you'd have time to hop the monorail over to the Poly and eat at Cap't Cook's? The crowds wouldn't be like they will be at the Contemporary and I'm pretty sure they have pre-made sandwiches and stuff in the refrigerated section so you wouldn't have to wait on your food.

The events of the weekend sound really fantastic!

We might hop the monorail for Cap't Cooks, good idea!!

wow i am green with envy at all the fantastic events they have planned over the 2 days. I so need to do one of these events sometime. I especially can't wait to hear how it all goes- the 'disney that never was' looks so cool- attractions that never made it! you have to share with us all the details after the trip!

Smokey Mountains? we are heading there too- June 11-19th! We are driving from Dallas, my entire family, parents and my two sisters with their families. We are renting a huge 15 passenger van to drive plus taking mom's mini van. should be interesting. we rented a cabin near Pigeon Forge. We are looking forward to it. Plan to check out Dollywood, go rafting, shopping etc. Anything else worth seeing you can recommend? We will have a 6mo old baby, 4yo, 5yo and 7yo with us, plus 8 adults!

I will try to keep good notes if I am not in awe of it all.

I hope you have a great time in the mountains, it is so beautiful there. Dollywood was cute, it sounds like you have a good plan in place. Are you going up into the National Park, there are great look out points, as for recommending something, we mostly hang with his parents, she likes some of the night time shows. There is a parrot sanctuary she is taking us to this trip. I will probably post about the mountain trip in our trip report too.

 

[mrsksomeday]

I am so looking forward to going back to Animal Kingdom. We have not been there since 2008, yes you read that right. Well, we were there for about 30 minutes in 2009 but there was a huge blow out with my son there

and I was starting to get sick so we left. In 2010 we went in December, it was freezing

and we just didn’t make it over there. We need a do over.

We are going to try to see all the shows in one day. This will probably not work, but we are going to try it. Festival of the Lion King is a must for us, so is the safari. We hope to see Flights of Wonder then head to lunch at Yak and Yeti, I am going to have one of their drinks and then we hope to see Finding Nemo. Maybe somewhere in there we can see Devine and one of the walking trails. I know that is ambitious but we are going to try. We are both just really happy to go back there.

The last day is always DHS, we want to catch Beauty and the Beast one last time, ride TSM, and see the Streetmosphere characters, we will hop a boat to the ESPN Club for lunch then go back to Pop. ME should pick us up around 4pm. We should arrive in Nashville about 8pm central time.

Here is The Daily Itinerary

After all the changes we made, I thought it would be a good idea to put our plans all in one place. If you happen to be in WDW at the same time as us and want to meet up, PM me and we will do our best to try to meet you.

Monday May 9th Driving to Nashville, TN spending the night

Tuesday May 10th Flying to MCO, ME to Pop Century, 6:15pm dinner at Kona Café, DTD

Wednesday May 11th DHS morning, MK afternoon, Crystal Palace 3:15pm, Wishes

Thursday May 12th Epcot, 6:25pm dinner Tutto Italia, Illuminations

Friday May 13th Epcot, 12:45pm Coral Reef, Contemporary Resort to check in for Destination D

Saturday May 14th Contemporary Resort Destination D, 6:25pm dinner The Wave (we are thinking of dropping this reservation)

Sunday May 15th Contemporary Resort Destination D

Monday May 16th Animal Kingdom, 2:30pm Yak & Yeti, DTD T-Rex dinner

Tuesday May 17th DHS, ESPN Club lunch, ME MCO to Nashville

That’s it, I hope to take tons of pictures and have a good time with Bill and his parents when we get back from Disney.


I will probably be tweeting from time to time on the trip. If you want to follow on twitter you can @mrsksomeday (if you add me on twitter please send a tweet saying who you are on the boards, I regularly block spammers and I don't want to block a DISer.)

I hope everyone has a blessed Mother’s Day.

 

[jcc0621]

Looks like you and Bill have a great trip planned. Have a wonderful time and I can't wait to read all about it when you get back!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hope you have a wonderful trip! Doesn't look like any of our days match up, too bad, I would have loved to run into you.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Looks like you and Bill have a great trip planned. Have a wonderful time and I can't wait to read all about it when you get back!

Thanks Janet. I will do my best to take good notes, I have been slack on that on the last couple trips .

Hope you have a wonderful trip! Doesn't look like any of our days match up, too bad, I would have loved to run into you.

I hope you have a great trip too, you never know if we will park hop or what, I will keep an eye out for you .

 

[Tinker_Tam]

You and Bill are going to such a great trip! I can't wait to read all about it! If you run into Chip and Dale give them a big hug from me!!!!

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

Sounds like an exciting trip. I think taking the Monorail to the poly is a great idea for lunch. Captain Cooks gets good reviews and Kona Cafe is good but their service has been slow the few times we have eaten there.

How is the bus service from Pop? On our upcoming trip, my Mother-in-Law will be in a scooter. We will be a big group of 16, will we all be able to stay together and get on the bus together?

 

[mickeyfan71]

Just in case I miss you before ya'll leave I wanted to say have a great trip and I look forward to hearing all about it!!

 

[mrsksomeday]

You and Bill are going to such a great trip! I can't wait to read all about it! If you run into Chip and Dale give them a big hug from me!!!!

I will do that Tammy. Chip and Dale love Bill's wheelchair .

Sounds like an exciting trip. I think taking the Monorail to the poly is a great idea for lunch. Captain Cooks gets good reviews and Kona Cafe is good but their service has been slow the few times we have eaten there.

How is the bus service from Pop? On our upcoming trip, my Mother-in-Law will be in a scooter. We will be a big group of 16, will we all be able to stay together and get on the bus together?

We are doing Kona the first night, we might go to one of the counter services on teh monorail line who knows.

We like the bus service from Pop, they don't share busses with any other resort. About the trip with 16 people, only 5 or less people should be in the designated wheelchair line to load with her in the back of the bus. The others need to go through the regular line. If you want to ride the same bus I would say who ever gets to the front of the line first stay off to the side and wait for the other party to go through their line.

The reason they were changing the way the lines where and how mobility devices were loaded is because huge parties would all load in the back and the able bodied people standing in line were complaining that even if they were in line first they were not getting seats.

Just in case I miss you before ya'll leave I wanted to say have a great trip and I look forward to hearing all about it!!

Thank you so much.

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

We are doing Kona the first night, we might go to one of the counter services on teh monorail line who knows.

We like the bus service from Pop, they don't share busses with any other resort. About the trip with 16 people, only 5 or less people should be in the designated wheelchair line to load with her in the back of the bus. The others need to go through the regular line. If you want to ride the same bus I would say who ever gets to the front of the line first stay off to the side and wait for the other party to go through their line.

The reason they were changing the way the lines where and how mobility devices were loaded is because huge parties would all load in the back and the able bodied people standing in line were complaining that even if they were in line first they were not getting seats.

Thanks for the tips. It helps to know there is a designated line for her. We kind of need to stay together because MIL hasn't been to Disney since 1997 and will get lost very easily. Are there CM's at Pop's bus stop to help manage the loading? My family and I have been there many times and my BIL and his wife have been there a couple times. But my 2 SIL's haven't been since they were young children so this is all new to them.