It's My Birthday & I'll Disney if I Wanna! ~ A Dec 2015 PTR - COMPLETE!

[kastoney]

Fingers crossed it all went as planned

 

[sunnysideup3]

ADR day!!!! Can't wait to hear what you got! Good luck!!!

 

[KathyM2]

Crossing fingers and toes that it all went well for you this am!! I am worried because when my FP+ day comes I will also be away on a short road trip and not sure how I'm gonna manage the FP+...hope it all worked out well for you!

 

[JoshAndEvsMom]

Aaak! Dying. To. Know. ....... Didja get em???

 

[Elevationist]

Best of luck resting up and all the rest of my unused ADR luck is heading your way!

Good luck! You get to make ADR's in T-13 minutes! Hope the pixie dust is with you!

6am... ADRs! Let us know how it goes

I didn't get a chance to stop by pre-ADR time to wish you luck ... I hope it went well!

What's happening with those ADRs????? Can't wait to see how it goes!

Hey! So.......how'd it go???????

Fingers crossed here, hoping you got everything you wanted!

I hope you got all the ADRs you wanted!

Fingers crossed it all went as planned

ADR day!!!! Can't wait to hear what you got! Good luck!!!

Crossing fingers and toes that it all went well for you this am!! I am worried because when my FP+ day comes I will also be away on a short road trip and not sure how I'm gonna manage the FP+...hope it all worked out well for you!

Aaak! Dying. To. Know. ....... Didja get em???

Wow! You gals are amazing! Thank you all so much for the well-wishes and pixie dust! I'm home from Charleston now and settled in and about to start writing, so an update is incoming shortly!

Thank you all so much for your patience!

 

[Elevationist]

120 days until FP+!
180 days until WDW!
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Hey, ya'll!

Okay, okay! So here's how my day went down! I was in bed by Midnight as expected, but sleep didn't come easy at all. I finally fell into a light doze right around 2am. I stuck with that light dozing until about 4:15am, when my eyes popped open. That's about when my alarm was due to start going off, so I went ahead and got up and took a shower. After I got dressed quickly, and threw on a top I'd just worn for a couple hours a few nights ago. I was out the door and on my way to the office right at 5:15am... and half-asleep.

On the way, I discovered two things: (1) There's NOBODY on the road at 5:15am on a Sunday morning. (2) There's also no place to pull in and get coffee at 5:15am on a Sunday morning.

Without the scheduled coffee stop, I got to the office a few minutes early, but that's okay. Gave me time to get logged in, open my Excel files, check and re-check my plans, and pull up each restaurant in it's own window.

Around 5:55am, I started refreshing the Be Our Guest screen compulsively... Just in case Disney's clock was faster than mine. And it was... by about a minute. At 5:59pm, it finally opened up my booking window! Hooray! Let's gooooo! So I asked for Party of 3 for dinner on 12/9 at 7:30pm. And it started spinning and thinking. And thinking. And thinking...

"We were unable to check for available tables at this time."

And then I was all...

...Then I started over and did it again... And again... AND AGAIN... FINALLY at 6:05am, it popped up times for me to choose from, and I was off a-running!

So? How did I do? How do my actual reservations look, compared to what I was hoping/planning for? Well... of course, ya'll know me... I made a chart!

SUCCESS!!!!!

Well... for the most part! As you can see, T-Rex on our Rest/DTD day is the only one that gave me any trouble at all. Every other one was PERFECT. With the exception of Ohana (which is only 10 minutes off my desired time), I got them ALL of the rest of them for the EXACT time that I wanted! Even dinner at Be Our Guest!

But for T-Rex, as you can also see, I grabbed a few back-up options. Two alternate times for T-Rex, plus an alternate restaurant at my preferred time. I'm going to keep on working on getting a T-Rex ADR for closer to 6pm, though. If it turns out I can't nab it in the next few months or so, then I'll present the 3 options that I do have to my aunt and uncle, and let them help me decide which one we should keep!

So here's an updated overall itinerary for you all! Let me know what you think!

Yes, I black out the confirmation numbers on the screencap. I don't know for sure that putting them out there could really cause any problems, but the internet and some of the people on it are WEIRD, so I figure better safe than sorry!

But yeah! I'm extremely happy with how well my ADR morning went! Everything booked and confirmed by 6:27am!

So as I was sitting there all stoked from my relatively successful ADR run, I happen to glance down at my shirt... And it's FILTHY. In my half-awake state of being that morning, I grabbed the wrong purple shirt somehow. So I stopped what I was doing and ran out of the office to run home and change! It's about 45-50 minutes roundtrip, and I was back at the office by 7:30am. (On the plus side, the extra trip home and back gave me a chance to get that COFFEE that I so desperately needed!)

I tinkered with my spreadsheets a little, and started setting up my full-page daily itineraries (which I'll post here probably after FP+ gets booked and plugged in.) Just a little after 8am, Rachel and her daughter showed up, and off to Charleston we went for the day!

We had a good time! Charleston is about an hour and half away, and there's this ropes challenge course that opened last year and they want to do business with us. I just went to watch and cheer them on. Here's a picture of Rachel kicking butt on the course!

Afterwards, we went to downtown Charleston, which was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me. It's where I went to college, and to this day I still love that city dearly. It's so alive! We went to eat at a lovely place called Magnolia's. Like a good little DISer, I took a pic of my lunch!

Shellfish & Grits: With Shrimp, Scallops, and Lobster in a creamy lobster sauce. It was DELICIOUS. (The portion was kinda sad, though. That was disappointing!)

And now after all that, I'm finally home and settled in and feeling very content and happy!

I should also mention that I am officially on STAYCATION as of yesterday! I'm not due back at work until Monday, June 15th. I plan on doing lots of relaxing and catching up on housework. And yes, I PROMISE to use this time to get caught up on all of your PTRs and TRs, too! I'm awful, I know! I soooo appreciate all of your patience with me!

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UPDTATE @ 7:35pm: On the advice of @squeegee, I just called T-Rex directly... and got Dec. 7 @ 6:15pm!

Still makes me nervous not seeing it or having a confirmation number, though.... But YAY all the same! I guess I'll just need to let go of control and trust on this one!

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UPDTATE @ 7:54pm: OMG OMG OMG!!! I just checked on MDE again for giggles...

...AND I JUST BOOKED T-REX FOR 12/7 AT 6:00PM!

It was there! I don't know how, but it was there! So I snatched it up, and called back to cancel the one I had just made over the phone!

WHAT A ROLLERCOASTER!!!!!

But now I officially have EVERYTHING exactly how I want it!!!!!

 

[squeegee]

Is t-Rex one of those you can get on open table, or by calling direct, instead of just going through disney? I know raglan road and a couple others are on open table.

And congrats on getting everything else! Gives me hope that I'll get what I want when my ADR window opens in four days.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Congrats on getting all your ADR's!

I have heard that if you call T-Rex directly that you can often have better luck with reservations. Something to do with it not being a "Disney" restaurant? Might be worth a try!

Looks like absolutely none of our days line up! That's a bummer, no in park Dis meet in our future!

 

[Marnm02]

Great job! The 7:30 BOG is really impressive...I've only ever been able to get it in the 4 o'clock hour.

Do you have anything specific going on on your non-park day that is tying you to the 6:15 time? If it was me personally, I'd do the 4pm TREX after skipping lunch.

 

[Elevationist]

Is t-Rex one of those you can get on open table, or by calling direct, instead of just going through disney? I know raglan road and a couple others are on open table.

It is! I'm not sure if it's OpenTable, I need to check, but I know there's other ways to get a res there than using Disney's system. That's actualy what I'm about to look into right now!

And congrats on getting everything else! Gives me hope that I'll get what I want when my ADR window opens in four days.

Yesss! I was shocked how well I did, and how I was able to get 6/8 of them for the EXACT to-the-minute time I wanted, and 1 of them only 10 minutes off. PIXIE DUST!

Congrats on getting all your ADR's!

Thanks!!!

I have heard that if you call T-Rex directly that you can often have better luck with reservations. Something to do with it not being a "Disney" restaurant? Might be worth a try!

I'd rather do it online if I can, but I'll call if I hafta. I just like to see it confirmed on a screen in front of me.

Looks like absolutely none of our days line up! That's a bummer, no in park Dis meet in our future!

Awww, shucks! That's how is goes sometimes, huh? Booo!

Great job! The 7:30 BOG is really impressive...I've only ever been able to get it in the 4 o'clock hour.

I was SHOCKED!!!! But thrilled!!!

Do you have anything specific going on on your non-park day that is tying you to the 6:15 time? If it was me personally, I'd do the 4pm TREX after skipping lunch.

I didn't plan on even getting to DTD until 5pm, but I don't want us to stay out terribly late either because we have an early morning the next day. 4:00pm is awful early to have dinner, but I'm leaning towards it over the 9pm. We'll see!

 

[squeegee]

I just looked and they're not on opentable, that I can find, but I did find this:

 

[Elevationist]

I just looked and they're not on opentable, that I can find, but I did find this:

This is great! I wonder what time is best to call? I know they are right in the height of their dinner service right now.

 

[squeegee]

This is great! I wonder what time is best to call? I know they are right in the height of their dinner service right now.

I'd say no harm in calling now, they ought to have someone dedicated to making reservations, I'd think.

 

[Tracy161]

Ahhhhhhhhh, BILLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited for you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats on getting most of your restaurants at the EXACT times you wanted!!! And hopefully you'll nab a better T-Rex one, too. How exciting!

OMG the first thing I thought of with your lunch today was "dang, that looks yummy" but it was immediately followed by "dang that looks like a wimpy portion!"

 

[Elevationist]

I'd say no harm in calling now, they ought to have someone dedicated to making reservations, I'd think.

HAWT DIGGITY DAWG!

I just called T-Rex and got Dec. 7 @ 6:15pm for a Party of 3!

Still makes me nervous not seeing it or having a confirmation number, though....

Ahhhhhhhhh, BILLIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO excited for you!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats on getting most of your restaurants at the EXACT times you wanted!!! And hopefully you'll nab a better T-Rex one, too. How exciting

YASSSSSSS! And I just got T-Rex over the PHONE for 6:15pm!!!!!

OMG the first thing I thought of with your lunch today was "dang, that looks yummy" but it was immediately followed by "dang that looks like a wimpy portion!"

it was so wimpy. The worst part is looking around the restaurant, all the other dishes were HUGE portions. Such a let-down!

 

[Tracy161]

YASSSSSSS! And I just got T-Rex over the PHONE for 6:15pm!!!!!

 

[Marnm02]

YAY for TREX at 6:15!!

And I totally know what you mean about feeling weird not having it on MDE. I had to do my Raglan Rd. through Open Table, and I'm so scared that it's going to disappear or that Open Table is going to be removed from the internet or something....

 

[Elevationist]

YAY for TREX at 6:15!!

And I totally know what you mean about feeling weird not having it on MDE. I had to do my Raglan Rd. through Open Table, and I'm so scared that it's going to disappear or that Open Table is going to be removed from the internet or something....

At least you have the OpenTable confirmation! I have NOTHING but the assurance of "Gabriel" who answered the phone at T-Rex. They don't even give you a confirmation number over the phone, I'm supposed to just give me last name at the podium.

 

[squeegee]

It'll all work out.

And this way, too, there's no $10/person no-show fee IF you change your mind that day, right?

 

[Elevationist]

OMG OMG OMG!!! I just checked on MDE again for giggles...

...AND I JUST BOOKED T-REX FOR 12/7 AT 6:00PM!

It was there! I don't know how, but it was there! So I snatched it up, and called back to cancel the one I had just made over the phone!

WHAT A ROLLERCOASTER!!!!!

But now I officially have EVERYTHING exactly how I want it!!!!!