SURPRISE! (I Hope He Didn't Want to go to Chattanooga)-Dec. 2012 PTR-MEGA UPDATEx3

[sunnysideup3]

I don't know how I missed the link, but I'm joining in!

GREAT! Glad to have you. I'm loving your TR, but you knew that! I think our MIL's should be friends. We don't want to trash talk them, but sometimes this face is all we can do

 

[sunnysideup3]

Today I was up at 5:45am Central time. Why????​

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FREE DINING!!!

As suspected, I'm glad I bumped back our arrival date from 11/30 to 11/29. 11/30 was a blackout date, and that gives us an extra day in the park. WAHOO! Last year we saved a ton of money doing this instead of a room only discount.

I was looking at our reservation today and saw we are going to be there for 10 days. That's like a 1/3 of a month. We're crazy people!! ​

 

[sunnysideup3]

I'm glad you were able to get your LeCellier & Coral Reef.....even if you end up cancelling......at least for now....you're set!!

Were you able to get everything you wanted as well?

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I love the suitcase you got for Eli. I have to get one for my 3 year old. He would go crazy for it.

 

[sunnysideup3]

I love the suitcase you got for Eli. I have to get one for my 3 year old. He would go crazy for it.

I was so excited to get it. We'd gone to WDW last year and he'd asked for it, but I was hesitant to spend the $$ and get him more stuff, but I got such a good deal on it for this trip. They have cute Lightening McQueen ones, too!

 

[midwesternbelle]

AWESOME PTR... your adds are awesome! I am going to 'Ohana on my upcoming december 2012 trip. Ive never tried it before so i am very excited!
Cannot wait to hear more!

 

[sunnysideup3]

AWESOME PTR... your adds are awesome! I am going to 'Ohana on my upcoming december 2012 trip. Ive never tried it before so i am very excited!
Cannot wait to hear more!

Thanks! I was in the planning lull most of June (you reach the post ADR-making time and still have something like 140 days), so I NEED to update with our daily breakdowns soon!

There are lovers and haters of 'Ohana. Clearly, we LOVE it. I was looking at our dining schedule and said to DH last night... "you realize we'll be there 3 times (2 dinners, 1 breakfasts) on this trip?" and he gave me the "yeah, so?" look It's a good value on the DDP, I think!

 

[DizNee Luver]

Were you able to get everything you wanted as well?

Yes, we're all set. I have one restaurant I'll drop if we can get an ADR for the Be Our Guest restaurant!!!

Today I was up at 5:45am Central time. Why????​

​

FREE DINING!!!

As suspected, I'm glad I bumped back our arrival date from 11/30 to 11/29. 11/30 was a blackout date, and that gives us an extra day in the park. WAHOO! Last year we saved a ton of money doing this instead of a room only discount.

I was looking at our reservation today and saw we are going to be there for 10 days. That's like a 1/3 of a month. We're crazy people!! ​

I was disappointed in the dates.......we come in on the 7th of Dec and the first December date is the 10th. I don't have the leisure of holding off for a few days.....so no discounts for us.

 

[sunnysideup3]

Yes, we're all set. I have one restaurant I'll drop if we can get an ADR for the Be Our Guest restaurant!!!

I'm hoping for BOG either Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll be there with another family at the same time (not together, but we're all hoping for BOG together). Fingers crossed ADR's come out soon!

I was disappointed in the dates.......we come in on the 7th of Dec and the first December date is the 10th. I don't have the leisure of holding off for a few days.....so no discounts for us.

I definitely think the dates are a lot more sparse this year. Last year we arrived on that Friday to get Free Dining and this year it's a blackout date. Luckily, we'll just come in later on Thursday, since we both had off Friday anyway.

 

[RyansMommy1]

I'm really excited to read along with your PTR and hopefully your TR. I have a 4year old son who will turn 5 on our trip in October!! I have been really searching for a good 4y.o. boy trip report!
Your plans look great so far!!

 

[CDolacki2003]

Thanks for sharing your planning with us. I am loving it. We just got back from CBR and a 5 day double dip on the Dream so you are helping me on my Disney withdrawls. We are planning to go to POR next October for MNSSHP (first time for it, we love the Christmas party). I hope to play the free DP game too.
Again great report and I cannot wait for more.

 

[sunnysideup3]

*CRICKETS...CRICKETS.....JILLIAN, WHERE DID YOU GO??? *​

I'm so sorry...for those of you still out there. This summer has flown by and where have I been? Seriously..doesn't work know I have Disney brain 24-7 and a PTR I'd rather be writing???

So, let's get up to speed..... We last left off with scoring Free Dining pretty easy (no room category changes, resort changes, etc).... I was PUMPED about that.

We also were able to get Be Our Guest reservations!! SCORE!
I was up at 5:50am on Monday to get on the phones. I dialed in exactly at 6:00am.. and got through to the automated system. For some reason she "didn't understand my request" and sent me to the queue where I waited for.... 72 minutes. It wasn't as horrible as it sounds, though... I had great hold music. It was loop of Main Street, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. And I just did most of my normal morning routine, but just carried my phone with me. Wouldn't you know it just as I squirted foundation on my finger the CM picked up... But we got our 2nd choice booking, December 3rd at 6:30pm! We're so excited!

Now would be a good time to (try) to explain our "special guests" (as I've called them). Way back in early 2007, I joined a chat board through the What To Expect When You're Expecting book/website. I was with other mothers who were due in November 2007. Since then, some of maintained relationships, real life and online, and have evolved into a Facebook group. Some of my favorite people have come from my friendships and relationships through this site. Anyway, a mom on there and her family are Disney-holics like us. There was a group of us talking on the boards one day about various Disney trips and when we were going. Turns out, we were planning on the same dates! So we started talking about it and planning joint activities/reservations. We are both staying at POR, they in a preferred room, us in a Royal Room. They will be joining us for our T-Rex, Be Our Guest, and 'Ohana reservations! We're so excited. They have a will-be-5-at-time-of-trip son, so Eli will have a built-in playmate! I'm just excited to share the Disney spirit with other people!

And lastly..... AIRFARE! My in-laws graciously bought our flights for us for our trips so there's no turning back now (cue duh-duh-duh music!!) We leave earlier than I'd planned on Thursday (I'm so so sad, can you tell? ) and come back later on Saturday! I feel so happy!

I can't believe it, we're only:

99 DAYS AWAY FROM DISNEY!

(Coming soon..day by day breakdowns!)​

 

[Caretames1]

Hi Jillian! I thought I'd stop by and jump on the Surprise wagon with you. I love a good surprise!

Anyway, I'm really loving your plans and even more I'm so jealous that your staying at POR. John and I LOVE it there and can't wait to get back. I'm hoping for a revisit in early 2015 since I've been overruled for this and next year at AoA.

You little guy is adorable! I think he will freak when he sees that bag! My nephew is the same age and he had a Lightning McQueen backpack that he won't let go of even to go to bed.

Congrats on getting an ADR for BOG! I can't wait to see everyone's experience with it. I'm sad I'll be just missing it by 10 days, but you had better believe it's on for next time.

I hear you on meeting some awesome people online! I've become friends with some DIS'er and will be lucky enough to meet them in Nov.

Can't wait to see the rest of your plans!

 

[sunnysideup3]

Hi Jillian! I thought I'd stop by and jump on the Surprise wagon with you. I love a good surprise!

Anyway, I'm really loving your plans and even more I'm so jealous that your staying at POR. John and I LOVE it there and can't wait to get back. I'm hoping for a revisit in early 2015 since I've been overruled for this and next year at AoA.

You little guy is adorable! I think he will freak when he sees that bag! My nephew is the same age and he had a Lightning McQueen backpack that he won't let go of even to go to bed.

Congrats on getting an ADR for BOG! I can't wait to see everyone's experience with it. I'm sad I'll be just missing it by 10 days, but you had better believe it's on for next time.

I hear you on meeting some awesome people online! I've become friends with some DIS'er and will be lucky enough to meet them in Nov.

Can't wait to see the rest of your plans!

Thanks for coming over! I love a good surprise, too! I want to catch it video, but you never know when they're going to realize it, right? Our flight leaves Milwaukee at 9:20am, so we will have to be there around 7:30am. We plan on packing the car with his special luggage the night before and he'll see that when we get to the airport. I just don't know exactly how we're going to tell him so that it's exciting and not like "OH, by the way...."

I can't wait to read your TR about AOA. It looks cool, and I know Eli would love the Lion King and Cars rooms...maybe someday.

We love POR. We'd originally booked at CSR, but when our friends tried to book it seemed really full and that scared us off, so we went where we felt "at home". Plus we have the Royal Room this year, so that should be fun and different!

 

[marDgreen88]

I'm here! AHHH omg, Eli is SO CUTE. Precious! And I love that you're surprising him! And... I'm all caught up! Hooray!

 

[WendyBelle]

Hi Jillian,
I'm enjoying your trip report. I've been on the lookout for early December trip reports. My family and I are going to be in Disney at almost the same exact time as you. We're staying at Pop Century Nov. 28- Dec. 8th and have upgraded our free quick service to regular dining. Looks like our only overlap right now is Crystal Palace Breakfast on Sunday, Dec. 2nd. We have an 8:10 resv.

Love that you're surprising your DS. What a fun idea! I've never had the patience/will-power to do that, but I've always thought it would be so much fun.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[WDWRids]

Joining in....love your PTR so far and can't wait to hear more!!

 

[sunnysideup3]

I'm here! AHHH omg, Eli is SO CUTE. Precious! And I love that you're surprising him! And... I'm all caught up! Hooray!

Yay! Glad you're caught up..not like there's a lot to be caught up on, I've been kinda slacking.. (cough, cough)... I thought you might be really busy watching Full House or something

Hi Jillian,
I'm enjoying your trip report. I've been on the lookout for early December trip reports. My family and I are going to be in Disney at almost the same exact time as you. We're staying at Pop Century Nov. 28- Dec. 8th and have upgraded our free quick service to regular dining. Looks like our only overlap right now is Crystal Palace Breakfast on Sunday, Dec. 2nd. We have an 8:10 resv.

Love that you're surprising your DS. What a fun idea! I've never had the patience/will-power to do that, but I've always thought it would be so much fun.

Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for coming over! It's amazing that with the exact same times, we'll only overlap once! Well you know what we look like now, so if you see us at CP, don't be a stranger. I love putting faces with names, especially members of the DIS family!

The surprise has taken on a life of it's own! It's actually become comical. He asks all the time to go, and we just say the "oh, when you're bigger" line. The Splash Mountain song came on in the car today, and he said "I really wish I could ride that again soon.." I just kinda laughed to myself ...it's going to be SO much fun. I just wonder when that morning he will actually catch on!

Joining in....love your PTR so far and can't wait to hear more!!

Thanks! I'm actually scheduling time for myself to update more! Thanks for coming over!

 

[sunnysideup3]

Day 1: The Departure

Off Topic for a second: If any of you are on Twitter, which I know some of you are…. I’m @quirkyinwi and would love to interact with you there! I’ve been chatting with a lot of great DISers and it’s so nice to have that bonus interaction!

Anyway, I’m finally getting down to the day by day breakdowns! Now that our flights are set, we will be leaving Milwaukee a little after 9:00am. Now, that is WAY earlier than I’d thought, but DH is able to take that day off from work and I’ll be off already so why wait around, right? The surprise, as of now, is to pack the car that night so he doesn't see the Tow Mater suitcase. Our friend, Ali, will come over, take us to the airport, take our car back home and leave to go to work from our house. She's AWESOME When we get to the airport, we'll give him a belated birthday card (hoping to make it look like it's from Mickey and SOMETHING (TBD) that screams DISNEY WORLD!! (Any suggestions are welcome: Shirt? Ears? Something packable is my only requirement) Anyway, with our flight time, it puts us in Orlando at 1pm.


We will take the DME to Port Orleans-Riverside! I can’t wait to see our Royal Room. I think Eli will love it! He loved “Princess and the Frog” and I think the LED headboards and little hidden touches (The faucet is supposed to represent Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast!) will be fun to discover.

After we settle in (and I’m sure we’ll be waiting for our luggage, which is fine!), we will head out on the boats to DTD. I love that feature at POR. Those boat rides are so relaxing and it’s fun to go past POFQ, SSR and OKW!

When we arrive, we will be dining at one of our favorite CS spots!


Earl of Sandwich!! I can’t wait for one of these! Yummmmm…

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We will stroll around the area, maybe partake in our first Disney shopping (who can resist, right?), which I’m sure will include a trip to the Disney LEGO store. DH has gotten Eli addicted, so I’m sure there will be multiple purchases here… And we can't wait to try out this!

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We have to get it in this day, as it's reported to only be there until December 1st!

After a while we’ll head back to POR and unpack, get situated and relax. DH has expressed, just recently, that he’d like to return to Raglan Road for “the best Shepard’s Pie and Bread Pudding he’s ever had.”

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I wish he would have told me this sooner! I did book a 7:15 reservation there this night that we can debate going to or not…shouldn’t be a bad boat ride over!
We are not doing any parks this day because we want to save our energy for the days ahead. I like that we will be there earlier in the day than we did last year, giving us time to see POR in the daylight for our “first glance” and actually hang out without being SOOO TIRED.
You’ll start to notice that a lot of our reservations are very “meat and potatoes” heavy. That’s DH’s influence. He wanted to do Ohana…TWICE. Fine by me. It’s our “welcome and goodbye dinners.” More on that to come!

That should bring us to the end of Day 1! We’ll be plenty hyped up and tired and excited to get to our first park of the trip…

Where are we headed? Stay tuned!​

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[JessiMommy]

Ok I'm in! We are staying at POR also... in mid November! It is such a beautiful resort! Can't wait to hear more about your trip!