We Just Can't Make Up our Minds- Link to TR added 8/7*

[Jackiemarie21]

So, we were looking at some online dining reviews and menus and there are soooo many restaurants that we want to try! When we first started to plan this trip I asked DH which restaurants he wanted to eat at and he said CRT and Le Cellier. Both favorites from our last trip. I told him that they are both 2 table service credits now and that we would have to pick one or the other. He said CRT, because of the atmosphere, so when I made ADR's that is what I booked. Well, I keep thinking about that, and when I am thinking I start pricing and playing with reservations. When I priced out what we were paying for our oop meals it was only $150 more to upgrade to the deluxe dining plan. So I started thinking, if I upgraded, DH could get his beloved LC and a nice relaxed sit down breakfast each day. So for the $150 we would be able to get 4 more ADR, plus have 5 credits left over to use when we get there. So I upgraded us! We really like the sit down meals. We like the break from the heat and we like the fabulous dining experiences Disney offers. I was actually able to get a LC reservation at a good time for us, and so I started booking a few other reservations, mostly breakfasts for my breakie loving family! I did have to make a couple of changes to our plans I have already laid out. The first being that we needed to have park tickets on our last day which we not planning on, so I moved a few ADR's around so day 3 would no longer need a park ticket and we will be visitng a park on our last day before we go to the airport(you will find out more about that later!) Also, I will be changing one of DD's outfits.
So the changes are:
Day 1- still the same!
Day 2- Breakfast Tusker House- this one is new
Dinner- CRT (this was on day 3)
Day 3- Breakfast- 1900 Park Fare
Dinner- Chef Mickey's (this was on day 2)

Now DD will be wearing this to 1900:

She will be wearing the Winnie the Pooh dress to a different engagement, foreshadowing...maybe?

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Alrighty, lets talk about day 4!
Day 4 will be a full Epcot day. DH LOVES Epcot. His favorite ride in all of Disney is Test Track, and he really likes how educational this park can be. However, the real reason he loves it is in WS, he loves beer and trying beer from different countries. He also likes checking out the shops and different samplings of culture each country offers. So this is "his" day.
We are planning to start off with a slow morning as usual and head to the park when we get ready. I hope to be out the door by 9:00 am. We will most likely eat a small breakfast on our way out, but nothing too big because we have an important lunch ADR!
Once we get to Epcot we will check out the rides on our must do list, Sorin and Test Track. We will either ride them or get fast passes. Depending on the wait times. We will then head through the International Gateway to Canada for our ADR at LC. We made this ADR after deciding this week that we would go with the DxDDP. DH is super excited and I am happy it worked out for him.
DD will be wearing this for the occasion:

DD was not feeling a fashion show that day and would not wear the bow.
After our delicious lunch we will walk around WS a bit until DD is ready for a rest. We will then head back to our resort to rest. I feel like this might be a good time to add that DD requires a daily nap. She is in her best moods when she has 12 hours of sleep at night and a 1-3 hour nap during the day. Nap time is usually between 1 and 2 and that is a routine we stick to on vacation as well. When she has the sleep she requires she goes along really well with the flow. I also like some downtime in the afternoon as well. We tend to be night people so a rest and some A/C helps keep us going for the evening fun!
So, after our rest we will get ready to head back to Epcot. We will walk around future world and bit and then head back to WS for our ADR at Akershus. We have never had a meal here before and to be honest I always kind of over-looked it. The menu just never seemed appealing to me so I never even suggested it. When discussing our ADR's this time DH wanted to know if there were any other Princess dinners besides just CRT and I told him about Akershus. He said he wanted to do that one as well. He thinks it will be so cute to see DD with the Princesses. So, we are doing that as well. Charlotte's outfit is a little up in the air here. I made her this dress to wear:

Never mind the fact that she would not let me fix her hair and it was in her face (I hate that!) I am just not happy with this dress. It dress turned out a little big (its the same size and pattern maker as Cinderella) and DD hates wearing it for some reason. I have no idea? It is made out of the same soft cotton as the Cinderella dress. I am going to hem it so it is easier to walk in and we will take it with us but I have a back up in case she still seems to hate this dress. But, here is the back up:

Just a simple Little Mermaid tee shirt to wear with shorts. We'll just see how she feels that day. I would love to have her picture with Belle in a Belle dress, but I will not push her into wearing it!
After dinner we are going to let DH be our guide, but the night will defiantly end with me getting a grey goose slush (I haven't tried one yet!) and DH getting a beer and watching illuminations. This day's plans are much more relaxed because we are letting DH take the lead. He is not as much of a planner as I am. However, I am not worried if we don't get everything done today, because we will be back!
I will be back soon with day 5, and it will be back to my style of planning!

 

[kthshh]

I love all the new dresses. Especially the ladybug one. Really cute!

I would love to book the DxDDP for one of our trips. I'm a huge fan of breakfast like your husband and daughter. But my family doesn't exactly like to wake up for it. Then when they do wake up, I feel like we need to rush to get on with our day. This trip we only have one breakfast planned at the one that I believe you foreshadowed to. I sold it as getting in the park early. Of course they will go along with what I have planned, but I try to take everyone's feelings into consideration.

Epcot is my favorite park. I love everything about it.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I love all the new dresses. Especially the ladybug one. Really cute!

I would love to book the DxDDP for one of our trips. I'm a huge fan of breakfast like your husband and daughter. But my family doesn't exactly like to wake up for it. Then when they do wake up, I feel like we need to rush to get on with our day. This trip we only have one breakfast planned at the one that I believe you foreshadowed to. I sold it as getting in the park early. Of course they will go along with what I have planned, but I try to take everyone's feelings into consideration.

Epcot is my favorite park. I love everything about it.

Thank you! I totally understand. I too have found that it is much easier to do what everyone is comfortable with. We have not done Disney yet with DD, but we have done other trips. I found that trying to force her into my routine just backfired on me. So as much as I will be itching to get to the parks, I will have to take things more leisurely like DD and DH like to do. That way I save myself from having to deal with meltdowns later.
I have always wanted to do the DxDDP and I think this time it will be for the best. We will need the breaks to get out of the heat. Plus since DD is not 3 yet we don't have to pay for her and she can share off of our plates, so this way we can share some of our large portions!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

So, I am really keeping with the can't make up our minds theme! I don't want to disappoint in case that is what made you start reading this. I have been messing with our ADR's once again
So here is what we have now:

Day 1: Stays the same arrive and 'Ohanna for dinner
Day 2: Yak and Yeti Lunch(New) and CRT dinner
Day 3: Stays the same 1900 Breakfast and CM dinner
Day 4: Le Cellier lunch and Hoop-Dee-Doo dinner (New)

Actually playing with ADR's is always a hobby of mine while I am planning a WDW trip. In fact it becomes an obsession of mine. I would love to say that this is how they will stay, but lets be honest I will probably change my mind again. Even though right now I feel like I have a pretty perfect plan!

Okay, so let me tell you why I made these changes. When we changed our dining plan I made a Tusker House ADR. We went there on a previous trip and liked it a lot! But, I really really wanted to try Yak and Yeti TS. I have seen TR's with pictures of the food and it looks fantastic! I know my family will really like it as well. I can not really explain my DD. She would not touch a hamburger or hotdog, the only "kid" food she likes is chicken nuggets and mac and cheese. But, she will eat lots of foods other kids wouldn't touch, clam chowder, shrimp any way you make it, just about any type of fish prepared any way, any kind of veggie, rice, are among her favorites. I think its because we never really did baby food and I always gave her what we eat. But what ever the reason she will be fine with the menu at Yak and Yeti. Sorry, I got off topic a little there! So we will be doing lunch on day 2 at Y&Y. After lunch we will head back to our resort and rest and then we will go to CRT for dinner.

On day 3 we will have breakfast at 1900 and then dinner at CM. I mentioned before I had to free up one day of park tickets for our last day ADR so this has not changed any more!

Day 4 is where the big change happened. We will still do the lunch LC ADR and Charlotte will still be wearing her polka dot dress, but that night has totally changed! We decided to do the Hoop-De-Doo! I am so excited about this! I really want to make the best use of the DxDDP we can, but I think that 2 TS meals a day is plenty of food. We may need a QS here and there but I still think we would have a few credits left over. So, I started thinking about the different 2 credit meals out there. I really did not want to do another fancy meal where DD had to be on her best behavior the whole time, and so it came to me lets do the Hoop-Dee-Doo! I have always wanted to try it! DH went with his family on their only trip to WDW when he was a kid and they all loved it, so he was on board. I have a feeling DD will really enjoy it as well. She LOVES music and dancing, so that will keep her entertained. We went to the Dixie Stampede(another dinner show) the last time we were in Branson and she loved it! We had a fantastic time, so I think this will be great. She can sing and dance a little and won't necessary have to sit still the whole time, so it will be a nice break for her. DH also loves beer with dinner and since that is included in the show it will be an even better value for us! He can drink several with out worrying about the high prices at Disney. Plus, the food looks pretty good. So, overall I am super excited about this! I also got a great idea for a cute outfit for DD to wear to this dinner and I hope to start working on that next week. I will post pics as soon as its done! Originally, we had planned to do Akershus this night, and I did not want to totally do away with the that, so we will be doing that later in the week. I will be back soon with more posts. We have a movie night tonight, and the rest of our day by day plan!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Day 5 is going to be another laid back kind of day. I have been to WDW 5 times and can you believe I have never been to a resort pool? We seriously never take the time to swim. This time DH said can we please swim? He is so good about letting me do my thing, so I can't say no to that request. So on to day 5! We are planning on night 4 being late night since we will be going to the Hoop Dee Doo, so, morning 5 will be a slow and easy one! We have an ADR at 'Ohanna for a late breakfast. We love 'Ohana dinner and we are really looking forward to trying the breakfast! I wanted Charlotte to have a Lilo dress for this ADR but I wanted something she could wear more than once. So I decided on making this dress:

I wanted a flower for DD's hair to go with this dress, but I could not find the exact flower that I had in mind. Then, I happened to find this one on Etsy and it was a good price. I could not have made it for the price she was selling it for, so I purchased two. I decided to get one for myself too, because I occasionally wear flowers in my hair. I also made myself a skirt out of the same fabric as Charlotte's dress, so we will be kind of matchy, I think a little matchy can be cute. It can be cheesy too, but I like it and will do it also long as Charlotte lets me get away with it.

So, we will have breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. Then head back to our resort. Our main goal is to swim, and finally use a resort pool. After we get our fill of swimming we will take a nap and relax.
After a nice slow and relaxing day we will get cleaned up and walk over to the Magic Kingdom. We have an ADR that I am so excited about! We will be dining at Be Our Guest! From the pictures I have seen this restaurant looks absolutely beautiful! I think the menu looks promising as well. My DD loves Beauty and the Beast. It is by far the movie that holds her attention the most. She really likes the beast a lot, so I am hoping he still does appearances when we are there. I think she will really like seeing him. As far as DD's outfit, I am still working that out. I kind of wanted to do matching shirts as a family, so I may make them for the BoG night. Or I have one more princess dress idea that I may make. I still need to make up my mind, once I do I will add pics for sure! After dinner we will hit up any rides we haven't done yet and try and catch wishes in the park. When ever DD poops out we will head back to the resort and call it a day!

Follow along with me to the next post because last night we had a fun movie night I am going to tell you all about!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Last night we had a movie night and this week's feature was Peter Pan. This was my favorite as a kid so I was happy to share it with my own daughter! For decorations I made paper shadows of Peter, Windy, Michael, John and Tink. I also threw some Mardi Gras beads on the table (pirates treasure), our punch bowl full of ocean water (blue punch) served as a centerpiece. I also made paper Peter Pan hats for all three of us (which would not stay on anyone's heads so we did not wear them, we just used them as a table decoration. I defiantly did not go all out this time, but we still had good quality time together and that's the point. For dinner we had Hook's cod fish filets, Mr. Smee's slaw, Lost Boy fries and Tink's wands for dessert. I coated pretzel rods in white chocolate and then rolled them in pixie dust (colored sugar crystals) to make the wands. We just got take-out fish, fires and slaw. After dinner, we watched the movie. Charlotte really liked this one. I judge if she likes the movie or not by how long she sits still and she was still for a long time. We did not get around to coloring this time, but we still had lots of fun!
Here are some pics:
Our table scape

The paper shadows

Attempts at wearing the hats:

Blurry, but DH tired to go along with me!
Our movie next week: The Little Mermaid! I am so excited about this one! DD has not seen it yet and it really reminds me of my childhood!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Well I have continued to make changes to this trip to the point that it almost not even close to the original plan!
Some might find this behavior obsessive, or over the top. People in the 'real' world would claim that I spending way too much time on a simple vacation. However, I am hoping that here, on this dis, I am understood and in the "norm" with my changes! I blame my indecision on reading trip reports here. I see these awesome pictures of food and it makes me want to try that restaurant, its so hard to decide! First world problems, right? All of our other trips I made our ADR's at 180 days and never touched them again. My DH asked why this trip is so different, I told him, I have never belonged to the Dis before so I am now "educated" on Disney travel. He just laughed at me and said "well I know we will have a wonderful trip because of your efforts". At least he appreciates all this right?

Anyway so instead of filling you in on the rest of our plans day by day I thought I would just go through the whole week, my updates in the future will include our weekly movie nights, and other trip planning items.

Okay so for a reference here was our original plans:
Thursday July 25:
Arrival day/ 'Ohanna dinner
Friday July 26:
QS Breakfast at Resort,
AM Park: AK QS lunch Flame Tree BBQ
Dinner: Chef Mickey's
PM Park: MK
Saturday July 27:
MK all Day
Breakfast1900 Park Fare
Dinner CRT
Sunday July 28:
Epcot all day
Breakfast and Lunch: Undetermined QS
Dinner: Akershus
Monday July 29:
The only day that Stayed the same!
Rest Day, After Dinner: MK
Breakfast: 'Ohanna
Dinner: Be Our Guest
Tuesday July 30:
Day: HS
Breakfast: Hollywood and Vine
Evening: Epoct
Dinner: The Garden Grill
Wednesday July 31:
MK all day
Breakfast and Lunch: Undetermined QS
Dinner: 'Ohanna
Thursday Aug. 1:
Departure day
Pack, hang out at DTD until time to meet :ME
Okay so that was the original plan, the new plan is very different! But I am even more excited about it!

New Plan:

July 25:
Will stay the same, arrive and 'Ohanna dinner
July 26:
AM Park: AK
Lunch Yak and Yeti
PM Park: Epcot
Dinner: Le Cellier
July 27:
Epcot all day
Lunch: Akershus
Dinner: Garden Grill
July 28:
Breakfast: Chef Mickey's
Day: DTD
Dinner: Hoop Dee Doo
July 29:
Rest Day:
Breakfast: 'Ohanna
Dinner: Be Our Guest
July 30:
HS All Day!
Breakfast: Hollywood and Vine
Dinner: Hollywood Brown Derby
July 31:
MK all Day!
Breakfast: CRT
Dinner: 'Ohanna
Aug. 1:
MK until we meet ME
Lunch: Liberty Tree tavern

I will be back with more Charlotte outfits and more explanation as to why I made some of these choices. But I just wanted to keep you all updated! Also, I have last week's movie night to update as well. It was fun! I will be back soon!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Last Friday 4/16 we had our Little Mermaid movie night. I was so excited to share this movie with Charlotte for the first time, it is my favorite Disney movie. I knew she would love it too. For dinner we had Aeriel's cheesy stuffed shells, seaweed (asparagus), Scuttle's salad, Triton's toast and ocean water punch to drink. For dessert we had Sebastian's "crab" cakes (cupcakes). This was a very enjoyable evening!
Here are some pictures:

DD and DH coloring while I made dinner.

Charlotte seemed to enjoy the movie, so it was a success!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

This week's movie night was Lilo and Stitch. This was another movie night I was excited about! I love Lilo and Stitch, it is probably my second favorite Disney movie! As many times as I have seen I still cry at the end when Stitch realizes he is a part of a family, it is very heartwarming! Charlotte and I have watched it a few times while we are waiting for DH to come home from work, but we never did a movie night for this movie. We had a very special dinner planned for this one! We had and 'Ohanna style meal. I got the 'Ohanna recipes for the beef marinade and noodles from Allears.net, and I used the bread pudding recipe from my Disney cookbook. DH grilled the beef on skewers over a fire pit just like at 'Ohana (he had to do it in the garage since it was raining today). We also had stir fry broccoli and grilled pineapple. To drink we had ocean water (blue punch) I found lots of decorations from the dollar store so even though today was gloomy and rainy here in St. Louis, we had sunshine inside!

Here are some pictures from our fun night:

We like our ice cream on the side, I hate how much it melts when you put the sauce on it.
I put Charlotte in her dress that she is supposed to wear to 'Ohanna for breakfast on our trip. She had a jacket on when she was outside "helping" DH with the grill and refused to take her jacket off when she came inside so her tropical outfit was ruined with her spring jacket. Oh well! She had a good time anyway!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I wanted to add a little insight as to why I made the changes I did. This trip we had a few must do ADR's: CRT, GG, Akershus, 'Ohana (breakfast and dinner x2), BoG, H&V, 1900, Chef Mickey's. We knew going into the trip that these were must do's! We loved CRT and 'Ohana our last trip, they were stand outs for sure! Last trip I wanted to try GG but we opted for Coral Reef instead (big mistake in my opinion), so it made the short list for sure! I also wanted to try H&V since we have a huge Disney Jr. fan in the house. As I did more research I just kept adding places to our "must-do" list. I wanted to try and find a way to get to Tusker House, Le Cellier, and Liberty Tree Tavern. We went to Tusker House last time and enjoyed it, we also went to Le Cellier last time and LOVED it! I have always had my eye on LTT, it looks fantastic to me! So, I discussed this with DH. He and I both agree we are not fans of counter service meals. We hate having to wait in long lines in the heat to order and then walk around with your tray of food stalking someone to get up. Both of these tasks seem even more painful with a two year old! We much prefer an ADR with a table in the A/C waiting for us at meal time. We also like scheduling the ADR's ahead of time, it helps us to plan our days out. Our DD is used to going to a lot of different restaurants and does very well. I also think right now it is a better deal for us, since DD is under three we do not have to purchase a meal plan for her. Having the DxDDP will work out great because we will have plenty of food for her to share with us. In a few years when we have to purchase her a plan as well, I don't think it will be much of a cost saver for us, so I think now is the best time to splurge on the DxDDP.
After upgrading the plan, I added on meals at TH, LC, LTT and CP. I also decided that Yak and Yeti was a must do for us. I was happy with our plan for about a week. I then decided to start reading dining reviews. That was when the crazy changing began. Almost everyday I changed an ADR or two, stalking to dining page for new times, and looking at menus. I wanted to be sure to get the "most" out of our upgraded plan. Our new must do list changed, a few times. Then it came to me to look at some of the other two credit meals. I always wanted to try the Hoop Dee Doo and the Hollywood Brown Derby, so I found a way to add those in. In order to get all of these meals in I had to do some reworking. We had to change some of our dinners to lunches and breakfasts in order to get all of these meals scheduled. So, my first move was to make Akershus lunch rather than dinner, then Hoop Dee Doo took its dinner spot, next I made Chef Mickey's breakfast to work in Brown Derby. We only had six days of park tickets so I had to work it so that one day all of our meals were in resorts, so I axed CP and did CRT for breakfast instead leaving day 4 a non park day. That freed up a day of park tickets for our departure day allowing us to have a lunch at LTT before we leave for the airport. Then, I got rid of TH breakfast in favor of Y&Y lunch. This change was based on the fact that while we liked TH breakfast, we really want to try Y&Y so it won out over TH. I think I have now have a plan that I am satisfied with. I have tried looking at my plan to see if I should make any other changes but right now I just don't see that happening. I have a few places I wish I still wish I could fit in, Sci-Fi, Biergarten, Restaurant Marrakesh, and Chefs De France are on my wish we could fit them in list, but I just can't find a way. As it stands now we have three credits per adult left and only two ADRs scheduled per day. I really did not want more that two per day, because I think that would be too much time spent in restaurants and too much food. I think two meals with snacks along the way will be perfect. This plan also leaves us with three credits, so if we need a QS breakfast or lunch we have a few to fall back on.

There were a few other thoughts that led to some of this changing. One thing that I was worried about was only a half day at HS. HS is my second favorite park and I really think we need a full day there, especially since we will be taking a mid day break. I am not crazy about Fantasmic, but I would like to be in the park until the evening. The other thing I was worried about was not having enough time in the MK. I worked it out so that we have two half days and one full day in MK, which I think will be a good amount of time. However, the way our plan works out is we won't be there until day 5 but, since we can see it from our resort, I think that will be fine. The only way to get all of the ADR's we wanted CRT had to be breakfast. I am a little disappointed with that. Last time we went we had our anniversary dinner there and watched the sunset as we ate in the castle. When we left the restaurant it was just about time for the fireworks to start and we were able to walk out of the castle and sit right in front. To say it was amazing would be an understatement. I wanted that experience again, but, it just would not work out. It seems though that lots of people prefer the breakfast there over dinner, so we will try it. I am sure it will offer a magic experience of its own right? 1900 Park Fare, ended up getting cut and at first I was a little disappointed, but it was cut in favor of some new experiences. I might still have to stop in a take a peek at the GF. I would have really liked it if we could have gone to TH, but it was not that hard to cut. CP breakfast was the one cut I had a hard time doing. I still keep thinking maybe I should try to squeeze it in, but I can't find a place for it. Oh, well that gives us something to look forward to next time right?

Up next, I am going to start over with our daily plans since they are totally different now.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Alright so day 1 will stay exactly the same, so I am not going through that plan again. In a nutshell, airport, fly to Orlando, arrive, explore resort and 'Ohanna dinner. A great first day, nice and relaxing!

Day 2:
We will probably have a snack for breakfast at the Contempo Cafe before heading out to the AK. I would like to leave by 9:00 at the latest, we will see if my family complies or not.
Charlotte will still be wearing this:

Our plan for this park, is to do the safari ride, meet some characters, I will ride EE, we would like to catch Its Tough to be a Bug and the Nemo show. We will probably do rider swap to ride dinosaur. Charlotte will probably want to play in the boneyard. We also have our early lunch ADR at Y&Y. That is really our only priority in this park. As I mentioned before AK is not our favorite park so we don't need a ton of time there. I hope to leave this park by 2:00 to head back to the resort to rest.
We will rest for a few hours, and hopefully DD will sleep! We will get cleaned up and changed for dinner. Charlotte will be wearing this dress to dinner:

Since we are no longer doing CP or 1900, I was not sure when she should wear this. I thought she could wear it tonight since we will be near the UK pavilion and we could get her picture with pooh in this dress. So, that was I picked this dress on this particular evening. We have dinner ADR at Le Cellier so will most likely do that first. After dinner we will walk around WS (hopefully meet Pooh) and enjoy an evening around the world. I hope to stay for Illuminations but it all depends on DD. This will be a pretty laid back evening. We will just take things as they come.

Coming up soon...Day 3! and this week's movie night: Brother Bear!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Well its been a while since I have updated this PTR, but we have been busy! Disney has been kind of been on the back burner the past few weeks, its unbelievable I know, but please don't hate me. I am going to fill you in on my reasons.

Well, in the past month I have been working hard on two big orders. You all know I sew but what you don't know is I have a small home sewing business which is partially what funds our Disney fun! This month two teachers who worked with me when I taught contacted me to make full size T-shirt quilts for their kids for 8th grade graduation. They have been very time consuming but last night at 3:00 am I finally finished! Their kids graduate today, so nothing like waiting until the last minute, right? I feel so relived that they are all fished.
I have a few plans for my hard earned money from the quilts the first:

DD and I will both be getting sparkly Toms! I am still deciding between pink or sliver, but right now I am leaning towards pink because we are girly girls. I think they will be great for our Disney trip, comfy, a good sturdy walking shoe, and super cute so that is exciting. But when are sparkly shoes not exciting?

I am also going to get DH a new pair of tennis shoes, but those are boring and not so cute. So we will all have nice new shoes for the summer!

I also just ordered this today with my earnings:

I have a slight stroller obsession. I love strollers. We currently have a big Jeep stroller, a Minnie Mouse Umbrella stroller and a Jeep umbrella stroller. I am planning to sell the umbrella Jeep stroller. I loved our big jeep stroller, but one day it feel over in the garage and I ran over it with the car. It is still functional, but really hard to open and close. Not good for a WDW trip. It is also super heavy so that is no good. DD doesn't really like sitting in the umbrella stroller for long periods of time plus it doesn't have a basket so it is no good for traveling. This one will be good because it is in between a full size stroller and and umbrella stroller. I am excited about it!

So that is all pretty good news, but we also had some really bad stuff happen this past month. My DH's best friend since college, (he was the best man in our wedding) passed away. He had cancer the past three years, but he was in remission the past 12 months. He went into the hospital in the Morning of May 7th because of some pain, and was gone by 8:30 that evening. It was a total shock and has been somewhat earth shattering for my husband. It has really hit him hard! A few days later a good friend of our family lost their mother. So we have had lots of tragedy in our lives the last month. We are still working on healing our hearts but diving back into our Disney plans has helped things a lot!

We have a non-Disney trip (a scary thought, I know!) planned for this holiday weekend that I have been busy preparing for this week. We are heading to Colorado to visit my brother. I am excited for this trip. I have not been to CO since I was in middle school, so it will be fun to try something new. I am also interested to see how Charlotte does on a plane.

So that is what has been going on. The fog is starting to lift for us and life is getting back to normal, but whoa has it been a crazy month!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Yes, you read correctly we made another change! I know you are thinking I am nuts by now, and I guess I am a little nuts, but I made yet another change to our trip. What aspect you ask? Well, I have changed our resort once again! So where are we staying now....

Drum roll please.......





I know you are sitting in suspense trying to figure this one out!




Well, we are staying at the Polynesian!!!​

Of course if you looked at my ticker this is not a surprise!



I can not believe that we are actually staying at the Polynesian!!! I know, I know I said I would not be changing our resort anymore, but if you listen to my logic it all makes sense.

A little backstory... the poly has always been my dream resort. I have always said if I can stay anywhere that would be my choice, hands down. This year as we went through our various resort changes I always looked at the poly but it was just too expensive. When we thought we were going for the WL it was because it was the cheapest in the deluxe category. Then DH deiced that we could spring for a monorail resort but it had to be the cheapest monorail resort. When we priced out the monorail resorts Contemporary was the cheapest. So we went with that. When the summer discounts came out in order to apply the discount at the contemporary we had to upgrade our room to one that cost a little more. I still thought it was cheaper than the poly so I moved on. Then one day I thought I would just price out the poly with the discount and see the cost. Well, I found that the garden view rooms at the poly would actually be $6 less than our package at the Contemporary. I was surprised to find this, and then I was faced with a choice. I had gotten very excited to stay at the Contemporary and I really was happy with our choice, but Poly was my dream. Decisions, Decisions I decided to talk to DH about it. He looked at the pictures of the poly and said, it is a beautiful resort, do what you want. I thought about it over night and first thing the next morning I changed our resort, again. We are now in a garden view room, with a request for a patio and the Tokelau long house. I was very happy about the contemporary, but I am over the moon excited about the poly. I literally can not believe this will be my trip!

So now we really are settled! This is going to be the best trip ever!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I am going to lump the last two movie nights we had this month because I am so behind with this PTR.

Earlier this month we had a Brother Bear movie night. DH and I had not seen this one yet so I had to refer to the movie night thread on Dis to get some ideas for food. I did not do much in the way of decorations because of how busy we have been, for food we had Le Cellier Cheddar Cheese soup, homemade pretzel rolls, Northern light punch and bear paw cupcakes. It was all quite yummy and got us excited for our dinner at Le Cellier. Here are some pics of the food:

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We thought the movie was okay, a little sad. We enjoyed it, but it won't be one we play over and over.



The following week we did Beauty and the Beast. DD loves this one, it is tied with Cinderella for her favorite! DD and I have seen this one lots of times, but DH hasn't seen it since his own childhood. I only had time to make one decoration. I cut off a soda bottle, spray painted the cap gold and put a rose in the bottle, to make an enchanted rose. For dinner we had French onion soup, quiche, tea and the grey stuff for dessert. We have french onion soup and quiche for dinner on a semi-regular, so this is a favorite dinner. Here are some pics:

We loved the movie as always, overall , it was a great night.


We skipped this weeks movie night because I was busy getting those quilts finished. We will resume them nest week when we get back from CO.

 

[Brooksie13]

I love these PTRs makes me so excited for our trip. Just booked for our honeymoon in July without telling the DF I am surprising her she thinks that i am unable to get the time off. Any way these PTRs have inspired me to do my own and hopefully the DF will be able to help out .

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I love these PTRs makes me so excited for our trip. Just booked for our honeymoon in July without telling the DF I am surprising her she thinks that i am unable to get the time off. Any way these PTRs have inspired me to do my own and hopefully the DF will be able to help out .

How exciting! You should totally write a PTR and include her reaction to the surprise! I would love to surprise my family with a trip someday, but I can never keep my excitement to myself.

 

[laurenvic1312959]

Love your PTR so far, especially all the movie nights and your dd's outfits, So adorable

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I bet you are thinking, wow I can't handle all of these trip reports all of a sudden! Well, it just so happens with all of my sewing complete for the time being, I have time! What a feeling to have time look around here on disboards again, it so exciting!

Anyway on to Day 3, the new plan.

Because of some of the dining reservations I made 180 days out, and all the rearranging I have done to our schedule, our park days worked out kind of funny. We have lots of time at Epcot in the beginning of our week, but we don't visit MK until day 5, but we will also be there day 7 and 8. So, rather than spending a little time here and there we are doing Epcot in the beginning, and MK at the end. I am still not sure that is what I want to do, but it works out with all of our ADR's, so I think it will be fine.

Anyway, that is a long drawn out way to say that Day 3 will be spent at Epcot. Since the night before this we will also be at Epcot this will give us a total of 1 1/2 days at Epcot which I think will be enough time. This day we will eat a snack for breakfast and head to Epcot as soon as my crew will get it together. We will be doing rider swap passes for Sorin' and Test Track. DH and I are a little sad about having to ride these rides alone, they are both in our top 5 favorite rides in the "World", but at least we will get to experience them. I am happy that Disney has a program like rider swap, it makes things go just a little more smoothly for families with young kids. While DH rides I will probably take DD to ride Nemo and maybe turtle talk. Not sure what DH plans to do while I am gone, he will figure something out when they are there, he likes to be spontaneous.
Eventually we will head over to World Showcase because we have a lunch ADR with some royalty! We will be having lunch at Akershus. I have been on the fence about this ADR for a while. I have never had an interest in this restaurant for any meal, the menu just doesn't appeal to me in any way. And there are so many great places in Epcot! I am princess loving girl and I am working on raising my DD to love the girls in gowns also, but I never wanted to try this meal. It was DH who is insisting on this one, which I think is kind of funny. He really wants DD to do both of princess meals. So, here we are with a lunch ADR at Akershus, per my DH's request. I am sure I will enjoy it and I am glad that I will be getting some great photos with Belle on my photopass plus so that is good. So I know I told you what DD will be wearing to Akershus before but I will show you again:

I hope that she will wear this. She loves Belle and Beauty and the Beast is one of her favorite movies, but she hates wearing this dress for some reason. I have to alter it a bit for her to wear it comfortably, but in case she protests it I have an alternative:

I really think this shirt is cute too, so we will just see what kind of mood we are in that day.

After our lunch we will head back to the poly for a rest and maybe a swim depending on timing.

We will clean up after our rest and head back to Epcot for dinner and evening fun. Our ADR for dinner is one that I am super excited about. I have wanted to try this one for a long time! I think it looks fantastic and the concept of the restaurant using food grown in the land is so neat. So I am excited. I made DD this look to wear for the occasion:

She would of course not sit still, but you get the idea. We will spend the evening finishing up our must do lists in Epcot which include illuminations, the Mexico ride, living with the land and spaceship earth. There are also a couple of food related must dos. I really want to try a grey goose, and/or a grand mariner slush, ice wine from Germany, and several margaritas from Mexico (avocado, blood orange, and the blue one, I love blue drinks!). I am not an alcoholic I swear, and I will try them over the 1 1/2 days we will be there so I will pace myself. I also want to try something from the bakery in France, school bread and something made of caramel from Germany. Most of these will be taken to go to enjoy at a later time.
Epcot is DH's favorite park so I am going to let him take this lead on this one. If there is something he really wants to do, then we will do that as well.

Well, that wraps up day 3! Coming up soon...... Day 4!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Love your PTR so far, especially all the movie nights and your dd's outfits, So adorable

Thank you! I love doing the movie nights and making DD's outfits it really gets me in the Disney state of mind!