How a September trip for 2 became a December trip for 10... AKA: YIKES!!!!!! - PTR

[MadilynnsMomma]

HA!! I was wondering the same thing??????

I went around knocking on a few stagnant PTR this morning...

 

[KGH]

OH HAI!

Well, this PTR was a snoozefest for a while. Between school starting back up and continuing to work some rediculous hours, I have been SWAMPED. OH, and DBF and I adopted a baby kitten... such a sad story. His momma was an indoor cat who would vanish outside for days at a time, leaving the litter of kittens alone and unfed. Momma cat brought home fleas at one point, so the baby was infested, hungry, and abandaned. We adopted him about three weeks ago, and he was just shy of 5 weeks old. So young for adoption, but he was in real trouble, so we took him. I spent that WHOLE first night up with him, giving him baths with dial dish soap (the only thing safe to use on such a young kitty for fleas...). Took a few days and alot of patience to get rid of them, but he is now flea-free and well adjusted! He eats like a moose (poops like one, too ) and has made himself right at home with us!

And now, here I am, just a mere, what, 8 or so hours from making those much anticipated, dreamed about, planned, replanned, and then planned one more time ADRs. I am so excited I could just plain explode!

CHANGES to our trip:
*Well, apparently we have added one more traveller. Never met him, don't know the first thing about him... he is joining in so late in the game, though, that most everyhting is planned according to everyone else's tastes, and hopefully he will have just as much fun tagging along.
Ok well, that is I guess the only real change.

NOW, ADRs: This is what I plan to be booking just as soon as I can tommorrow morning...

Dec. 12- Our arrival day:
PARKS: Epcot for the afternoon, MK for the evening.
ADRs: Early dinner at EPCOT's Le Chefs de France

Dec. 13 - Sunday
PARKS: AK for the morning, DHS at night.
ADRs: 50s Prime Time for dinner

Dec. 14 - Monday
PARKS: Sleeping in, Epcot for the afternoon, MK at night
ADRs: Teppen Edo for another early dinner.

Dec. 15 - Tuesday
PARKS: MK for the morning, followed by a break at the resort, and than AK for dinner. Possibly some mini-golf action?
ADRs: Yak & Yeti for dinner.

Dec. 16 - Wednesday
PARKS: DHS for the morning, break at midday, AK for the afternoon; EPCOT for dinner
ADRs: San Angel Inn; laaaaaate.

Dec. 17 - Thursday
PARKS: EPCOT in the morning, MK at night. Meeting up with the other 9 members of our party at some point.
ADRs: Whispering Canyon Cafe: 9 of the 11

Dec. 18 - Friday
PARKS: DHS in the morning, EPCOT in the afternoon. Fireworks cruise HOPEFULLY this night!
ADRs: Le Cellier for lunch; just DBF and I (I know, this is a longshot!) Teppen Edo for the rest of the crew.
**** this day is a planning NIGHTMARE. the odds of everything comin together perfectly are pretty slim, but what the heck, might as well dream big, right?

Dec. 19 - Saturday
PARKS: DHS in the AM; MK afterwards.
ADRs: Breakfast at Kona Cafe (really want some tonga toast!); dinner at Tony's Town Square with the whole crew, minus the big bro & sister-in-law. This day is brother's birthday, so they are going to Yatchsmen Steakhouse... I sent them there on their honeymoon last year, they really loved it.

Dec. 20 - Sunday (LAST FULL DAY... )
PARKS: AK in the morning, MK till 2:00am. Going out with a BANG!
ADRs: O'hana for all 11 of us. I know. It's ambitious. It's irrational. It's impossible. I NEEEEEEEEEEED IT!!!!!

Dec. 21 - Monday
No ADRs... no real plans. we have a late flight, so we will play it by ear and see what we want to do when the time comes.


So, my friends. I will be hitting up the Ressie line at the crack of dawn to secure as many of these ADRs as I possibly can. Wish me luck! No, I am off to catch up on everythign that has happened in everyone else's PTRs during my sabbatical here

 

[KGH]

Let's talk for a moment about Walt Disney World Karma.
It seems as if the powers that be at WDW have caught wise to my disappearing act. Because I was not as faithful a dis-er as a should have been in these past few busy busy weeks, I was punished.

I was punished in a way that would try the heart and soul of any Disney vacation planner. It was a long, rough journey, but I have come out the other side, wiser for that which I have just experienced.

Let me tell you a little about my morning. Today, being my 90 day mark cheer2:) I was valiently ready to set my alarm, wake up early, and BOOK BOOK BOOK those ADRs. Well, stumbling through the dis, I caught wind of a little rumor that the online booking was becomming available at 3:00am instead of the previous 6:00am. Being the trooper that I am (well, when the mood strikes,) I decided I would stay up till 3, check it all out, and see where it got me.

Now, keep in mind that today I have a bridal shower, followed by a 4 hour long meeting, followed by a sorority business meeting which will last somehwere between a hundred years and an eternity. It's going to be a long day.

I stayed awake until three, logged in to the Disney website, typed in all the information it asked for... AND I GOT AN ADR! I was able to get Les Chefs de France, easy as pie, for the first night! It all seemed too easy! I would be eating those words sooner than I could have guessed.

For some reason, the website was coming and going in functionality. Sometimes I could get all the way through, one screen shy of another ADR before it would bump me out and crash my dreams. Other times, it would immediately give me an error screen. I played this game for about an hour and a half. I walked away with my Chefs de France ADR, and my bruised pride.

Now, a sane person would call it quits, and go to bed.

A slightly insane person, the likes of which you only really find around here on the Dis, would set her alarm for 5:50 to check if the system would be back by 6:00 am. So, this is what I did. You can imagine the fun I had from 6-7am, maddeningly typing in information only to get shot down each and every time. It was like beautiful trays of lovely food from Le Cellier and Whispering Canyon were being snatched away right before my helpless, drowsy eyes.

But than, at 7am EST, a curious thing happened. All of a sudden, things started working. And, hey, thinks were working WELL! I booked and booked till my fingers bled. And in the end, my friends... in the end, it was worth it! (Well, let's see if I say that at the end of this upcoming long day on an hour of sleep...)

SO, here is what I ended up with-

Resteraunt/ time I wanted/ time I got:::

Les Chefs de France/ wanted- 4:45/ got- 4:30
50s Prime Time/ wanted- 7:00/ got- 7:45
Teppan Edo/ wanted- 4:15/ got- 4:15
Yak & Yeti/ wanted 4:15pm/ got 4:15pm
San Angel Inn/ wanted- 8:30/ got- 9pm
Whispering Canyon Cafe/ wanted: 8:15/ got- 8:25
Le Cellier/ wanted- 2pm/ got- 2pm.
Tony's Town Square/ wanted- 8pm/ got-8:30pm
O'hana/ wanted: ANYTIME/ got: 8:25 for a party of 10!!!!!!


SO, on the whole, I really did end up with pretty much everything I wanted. I see one snafu though... the telephone bookings were down (i called and spoke to 6 CMs, hoping it would maybe work for one of them) but I couldnt make an ADR for 11 over the phone, and the most you can have is 10 when booking online, so I booked o'hana for a party of 10, knowing if I wait to long for the phone lines to be working, I will miss my chance. I am torn, though... I know they may not be able to accomodate us showing up with an extra person, (and they shouldn't have to...) but at the same time I can't help but wonder what we will do if I can't get an ADR for 11. I would hate to have to drop my ressie for 10 and come up empty handed.

This will be a road to cross some other time. Preferebly on more sleep than what I am working on right now.

OK, time to get busy on this long, long day.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Did you ever call back to check on Ohana?

Everything else looks great! WAY TO GO

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

YAY!!! Congrats on the ADR success! Glad to see you are back on here! Before we know it, it'll be time to get to WDW!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[KGH]

Happy, but not PSYCHED...

Well, I booked a fireworks cruise, just like I ALWAYS wanted. Backstory is that, since we are a huge party, when else would I be able to load up a pontoon boat and cruise out to see fireworks at WDW? So the original idea was that I would book it as a gift to everyone else. Well, my mom caught wind and decided it would be HER gift, so I lost custody of the whole affair... (well, except who do you THINK would be up at 7am three days in a row calling to book it?!)

So, after a few days of TRYYYYYING to get Illuminations cruise on the 18th, I have "settled" and taken a Wishes cruise for the 19th.

Problems with this:
1- the 19th is my brothers birthday, and he would MUCH rather enjoy a nice steak somehwere with his wife than be on a birthday boat. He is game for a fireworks cruise, but I think the phrase "birthday fireworks cruise" makes him wet himself a little, and not in the good way!

2- it's wishes. Don't get me wrong, I love me some Wishes. But, I read that Illuminations is much better from the boat than Wishes is. Also, it will be Holiday wishes by the 19th, and as much as I LOVE traditional wishes, I DETEST holiday wishes. OK, well, detest is putting it a little harshly... but I would definately prefer regular old wishes, or illuminations.

3- this issue was declared long before i got the ressie, but here is the conundrum: we WERE a party of 10. Now, my sister's new BF is coming along, so that makes us 11. These boats only seat 10. SO, quite literally, someone needs to be thrown overboard.

As much as I would have prefered Illuminations and what not, I am really very excited just to take any fireworks cruise at all... Now, I have to go adjust all the ADRs I made when I planned for the cruise on the 18th not the 19th!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Ahhhh the forever evolving trip plans... hopefully we can all feel set in concrete soon!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Hello?!