We're heading home & taking a new friend with us! November FD, F&W & MVMCP!!!

[mackenziefaith]

Hi there!

I’ve been reading trip reports, looking at every Disney vacation picture I could get my hands on, and salivating over Disney food porn on this board for years, and finally decided to try my hand at my very own pre-trip report!

This year will be my 10th trip to the world, and my man-friend’s 1st! My oldest two DD’s have been 8 times and my sweet little princess has been once, although she doesn’t remember it.

Even better? It’s a complete surprise for my kiddos! I’ve never tried to keep anything like this from them, but I talked it over with my man friend and he agreed, let’s surprise them!

About me:

I’m Stephanie. I’m 31 (almost 32) and a Disney fantatic! I love all things Disney, even Frozen and would probably work in the parks if given the opportunity. I’m in the process of getting divorced and it should be finalized soon, so I figured why not plan a trip? What better way to start a fresh new life, than with my newest man friend, my favorite little girls and the happiest place on Earth?

Michael:

Although I won’t post his picture until I have a chance to ask him if it’s okay, this is my man friend. We’re not dating, but more like really, REALLY fantastic friends. It’s hard to describe. He LOVES my girls though and spends as much time as I’ll let him with them. When I mentioned going to Disney, he didn’t even hesitate and told me to spare no expense. He wants this trip to be full of great memories for all of us. Yes, now you see why I adore him.

Mackenzie:

This young lady is 14 and growing up way too fast for her momma. She loves Disney, but is scared to death of anything that could possibly resemble a thrill ride or include being in the dark. No joke. Thankfully, she also loves to hang out and eat ice cream while we ride swap, so she won't be pouting while her sister and I, or her sister and Michael are loving life on Tower of Terror.

Maddie:

This little girl is 11 and a thrill seeker. She’s short though, so she STILL hasn’t been able to ride some of the rides she most wants to! This year should be the year though that she’s finally able to ride Rock N Roller Coaster! She’s thrilled!

Bella:

My little princess is 3. She’s a complete mommy’s girl and loves all things Disney. She watches Disney Jr. religiously and every time they advertise Disney World, she asks me when I’m going to take her there. She did go in May 2013, but she doesn’t remember. I think I’m most excited to take her because she’ll have all of that brand new excitement that my older girls once had.

About the trip:

I just booked the trip on Monday, when they released Free Dining. We’re staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge from September 26th until October 3rd. I’ve stayed at ASM, all of the moderates and the Wilderness Lodge, so this one is new for me. I’m hoping, and praying that it lives up to my expectations. I’m not entirely convinced that I won’t change my mind and try to book Poly or the Contemporary before it’s all said and done though. You know how you want to show someone the best Disney has to offer? I can’t help but second guess AKL and wonder if I should switch to a monorail resort. AKL is SO far away from everything. We’ll see though.

As far as dining, I'm currently signed up for the regular Dining Plan. I'm toying with the idea of getting the Deluxe plan, but haven't committed yet. Michael and I are total foodies and I would love to show him some of the signature restaurants. The fact that I booked my trip after the 180 day mark is killing me though, so I think I'll probably wait to commit until I get a few more ressies booked.

For now, I’m still excited and counting down until we leave!

 

[AshBriSmi]

Hi there!!! Ashlee here!
Sounds awesome!! I love that you are hiding it from the kiddos. My mom tried to do that and she failed.... miserably... Hence the title of my PTR

Your girls are absolutely gorgeous!

After the 180 mark??? That would kill me as well!

Free-dining is another thing on my Disney bucket-list!

AKL is my dream resort. Like if I could go there, stay in a Savannah room... Life: Complete. Until then, All Star Music will do just fine, can't complain one bit

 

[mackenziefaith]

Hi there!!! Ashlee here!
Sounds awesome!! I love that you are hiding it from the kiddos. My mom tried to do that and she failed.... miserably... Hence the title of my PTR

Your girls are absolutely gorgeous!

After the 180 mark??? That would kill me as well!

Free-dining is another thing on my Disney bucket-list!

AKL is my dream resort. Like if I could go there, stay in a Savannah room... Life: Complete. Until then, All Star Music will do just fine, can't complain one bit

The struggle is real Ashlee! I've had at least a dozen instances just since Monday where I almost mentioned it to them! Ugh! I think it will help when I have dinner with my friend tomorrow night and can at least fill him in on all of my plans.

I have had somewhat better luck with my reservations though. I was able to get a few cancellations using the Sept cancellation thread and snagged a BOG lunch ressie! Woohoo!

We stayed at ASM one of the first years I took the kids to Disney and loved it. Let's be real, if I'm at Disney, I don't care where I am...I'll be happy.

 

[stitchfan75]

Following because we are headed to AKL the exact same dates as y'all! I think I'm going to get a shirt with my Disboard name

 

[mackenziefaith]

Following because we are headed to AKL the exact same dates as y'all! I think I'm going to get a shirt with my Disboard name

Welcome! How are your plans? Did you book early enough to get all of the dining reservations that you wanted?

 

[stitchfan75]

Welcome! How are your plans? Did you book early enough to get all of the dining reservations that you wanted?

I booked after the 180 days so I didn't get them all at once. I was missing Garden Grill (Chip & Dale are my faves) and BOG. My TA has an alert app that tells him when reservations open so he got me GG a couple weeks ago and then today got me BOG!
We've never been to Disney before so I relied a lot on friends for recommendations.

 

[BibbitybobityLu]

Following along. Sounds like a fun trip. Your kiddos are super cute! As far as AKL goes it's one of the resorts I've been excited to try and we are staying there in September 2016. But I get what you are saying about it being far away from everything. I have stayed at the Contemporary and I love it, you can't beat the Monorail actually going through the lobby! Plus you can walk to Magic Kingdom. As far as the Poly goes I would check the construction for your dates...nothing worse than a jacked up resort when you are going for the wow factor! But ultimately you can't really go wrong with any of them really!

 

[mackenziefaith]

Following along. Sounds like a fun trip. Your kiddos are super cute! As far as AKL goes it's one of the resorts I've been excited to try and we are staying there in September 2016. But I get what you are saying about it being far away from everything. I have stayed at the Contemporary and I love it, you can't beat the Monorail actually going through the lobby! Plus you can walk to Magic Kingdom. As far as the Poly goes I would check the construction for your dates...nothing worse than a jacked up resort when you are going for the wow factor! But ultimately you can't really go wrong with any of them really!

I've never been lucky enough to stay at a Monorail resort, but have stayed at Wilderness quite a few times and LOVED the convenience of being a boat ride away from MK or the Monorail. I'm excited for AKL though!

 

[mackenziefaith]

In case you didn't notice, my trip dates have changed! Part of the reason for my man friend joining us this year was a to help take his mind off of some upcoming stressors in his life. Well, he got great news and an answer he didn't think he'd have until later this year came last week. It's a life changing answer too, so he's THRILLED. As a result though, the trip he was planning to take back home to visit his mother (she lives outside of the US) has been bumped up to, you guessed it, the end of September. Where he's originally from has horrible weather toward the end of the year, so I don't blame him one bit for wanting to change his travel dates. On the flip side though, now I have to rebook everything! I've been scrambling to get dining reservations since I originally booked outside of the 180 day window, so now I actually have time to plan out my days and hopefully get the dining reservations I want a lot easier than before.

The new dates for the trip are looking like 11/14 to 11/21 or 11/15 to 11/22. I still think we'll go to AKL because that's where I can get free dining, but even without free dining I'm hoping for a room discount. Have there been any rumors of a RD for this time of year? If we get a room discount of 30% off, it would bring the cost of the trip down to only about $100 more than when we were getting free dining. The benefits are SO much better too. I LOVE going when the Christmas decorations are out. I'm most excited though that they have both Food & Wine and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party during that week, so it's like a double whammy! I'll probably book today with FD and then hope and pray the RD comes out. Right now the only FD option has an 11/15 checkin, and while it's not ideal (I prefer Saturday check-ins) I'll take it. As soon as the RD comes out though, I'll most likely rebook and do a 11/14 check-in. I'll try to get dining reservations for that day too, just in case.

I love planning! Is there really anything better than planning a Disney vacation? Well, other than BEING at Disney. Haha!

 

[mackenziefaith]

I was looking thru pictures the other day and stumbled upon these gems from some of our past trips. How stinking cute are these little ladies? I hate how fast they're growing up!

Okay! That's all for now. I'll start working on my plans for the new week and post soon!

 

[Kingdome8]

How are you going to break the news?
We did a scavenger the hunt the morning of trip. It worked great and my girls loved it. Had fun clues and they got a present at every new clue.
Actually got idea from someone on here.

Little presents like beach towel sunglasses and a gift card. Final clue had the suitcases and their disney shirts my wife made. It was a fun day

 

[mackenziefaith]

How are you going to break the news?
We did a scavenger the hunt the morning of trip. It worked great and my girls loved it. Had fun clues and they got a present at every new clue.
Actually got idea from someone on here.

Little presents like beach towel sunglasses and a gift card. Final clue had the suitcases and their disney shirts my wife made. It was a fun day

I had originally planned to tell them the morning of the trip. We will be driving so my man friend is planning to pick up the rental car the day before and then drive to my house the morning of the trip at 5am. I had thought about just telling the kids we were going somewhere early that day (we often travel for sports so it's not unheard of) and then once they saw him at the house with the rental, we could tell them in the car.

But, the scavenger hunt sounds wonderful! We couldn't do it that day because it'll be too early. They'll be sleepy. Maybe the day before? Or the weekend before? It would be nice to tell them a week before so they (the older two) could pack some of their own car stuff. Goodness knows I don't have a clue what they need for the long drive. I was going to wing it, but now you've given me the idea. Maybe I need to start planning something fun!

 

[mackenziefaith]

Well, I'm back. I have somehow changed our plans AGAIN! My dream resort is Poly and there was FINALLY an opening for a standard room. Go big or go home, right? Oh wait...Disney is HOME! Ha! So anyways, I moved us over to the standard room at Poly. I've priced it out and may even be able to do a Theme Park view for similar cost if they come out with a 30% room discount promotion. Fingers crossed!

Yesterday was the 180 day mark and like most true OCD planners, I had my spreadsheets ready and was up at 4:30 central time so I was 100% ready to book online at 6am eastern time. Sadly, dining was tough to get! This is supposed to be the 4th lightest week of the year, but I'm thinking free dining has definitely affected availability. I kid you not, there was NO availability for any of the World Showcase restaurants the entire week! Apparently that was a glitch though. So here's what I've currently got planned. Know that it will change no less than 100,000 times between now and November 14th. Haha!

11/13 - Leave home at 4 or 5am, drive until we cross into FL and stay in a hotel room overnight. This is our typical plan and has worked well in the past. I have enough Marriott points that it will be free too, woohoo!

11/14 - Magic Kingdom - I never feel like I'm actually back HOME until I've seen the castle, so this is always the first stop for us. I have a ressie for California Grill for dinner, but it's at 5 and I'd really like something later so we can see the fireworks. Fingers crossed something else pops up. I won't complain though. I had trouble finding ANYTHING for dinner that day.

11/15 - Epcot - This will probably be crazy because it's the 2nd to last day for Food & Wine, but the way my dining ressies were working out, I had to go with it. If it's painfully busy, we'll go somewhere else and then go back for dinner. We're eating at Marrakesh, and it'll be a first for me, so if you've eaten there, I'd love your feedback.

11/16 - Hollywood Studios - Even though I should do Animal Kingdom this day, my kids are going to be making me crazy over Hollywood Studios. They LOVE it more than Epcot so if I'm thinking about them I need to compromise. We're going to eat at Boma for an early breakfast and Sanaa for dinner. Super excited to try Sanaa and Boma is always a must for us.

11/17 - Animal Kingdom & then maybe Epcot for EMH that night if we're not too tired. - NO DINING ressies! I seriously can't get anything. I'm sure I'll come up with something but seriously...nothing? I'd love to get California Grill or Narcossee's that night. We'll see.

11/18 - Hollywood Studios - I would ideally like to go to Magic Kingdom on this day, but I also wanted to do Sci-Fi and this was the only date I could get it for dinner so we're running with HS for now. I've got 1900 Park Fare for breakfast too, which is a fave.

11/19 - Magic Kingdom & Epcot EMH - Breakfast at Ravello's in the Four Seasons. We LOVE the breakfast buffet at our local Four Seasons hotel, and after reading the reviews, I've decided to give it a go. Who can argue with a "Disney's best hidden gem breakfast" review? Dinner is at Coral Reef. I haven't eaten there in years and I know my sweet Bella will love eating in that environment.

11/20 - I have no idea what to do about this day. It's our last day. Right now I have CRT for breakfast, BOG for lunch, and Ohana for dinner with BBB at 1pm and MVMCP scheduled for that night. You KNOW that's a lot to cram in your last day. Ideally I'd like to have this be a no plans morning, Ohana dinner and MVMCP evening, but let's be real...this was the only time I could get CRT and BOG. I think if I can get BOG on a different date, I'll probably cancel both of those and just keep my dinner ressie.

11/21 - This is our departure day and the ONLY time I could get Hollywood and Vine for breakfast! Ugh! I'll be feverishly trying to get a different date because that is a MUST for my littlest princess. Otherwise, we'll be detouring in HS before heading home. We'll drive to TN, stay in the nearest Marriott and then be home sometime on 11/22.

Please critique! I'd love the input!!!

 

[JoshAndEvsMom]

Hi Stephanie! I can't believe you started your PTR and I missed it! The Poly, Food & Wine, MVMCP! Your trip sounds amazing. And your girls are precious!

Your ADRs sound fun too. I'm so nervous about booking mine during the busiest day of the year (new years eve)! I've never eaten at Marrakesh but we've eaten at Tangirine Cafe and it was fantastic! I'd think that they'd be similar..

Can't wait to hear how you're going to surprise your kiddos. I've almost spilled the beans SO many times!!

 

[mackenziefaith]

Hi Stephanie! I can't believe you started your PTR and I missed it! The Poly, Food & Wine, MVMCP! Your trip sounds amazing. And your girls are precious!

Your ADRs sound fun too. I'm so nervous about booking mine during the busiest day of the year (new years eve)! I've never eaten at Marrakesh but we've eaten at Tangirine Cafe and it was fantastic! I'd think that they'd be similar..

Can't wait to hear how you're going to surprise your kiddos. I've almost spilled the beans SO many times!!

Your trip is going to be SO much fun! I've been during the beginning of December, but never over a holiday and I bet NYE is going to be incredible! I'm not going to be too disappointed about the crazy dining reservation system. I feel like everything will work out. Worst case scenario, I fork out a little bit of $$$ and pay for a dining watch service.

I'm still working on how to surprise them. I feel like if I can make it to the week of the trip, I should just wait until we're in the car and driving there. I've almost told them SO many times!!! Just last night we were watching the vacation planning video (they're trying to convince me to book a trip for next year) and my youngest went on and on about how she just wants to meet Mickey. Haha! It was hard!

 

[mackenziefaith]

It's been a while since i updated, so here's what's going on! 166 Days to go!!!

I've pretty much finalized my dining. I do have 4 remaining ressies I'd like to secure, but even if I don't, I won't lose sleep over it. I have pretty much everything I wanted, I'd just like to move a few of the dates/times around. I signed up for WDW Tools and shelled out the $10 a piece to save myself the hassle of having to stalk the dining reservations page. Here's what I got:

Hollywood & Vine - This is a MUST DO for us. My little princess love Disney Jr. I do have it booked, but it's for our departure date and goodness knows we most likely won't want to go there before we leave. Well, actually we may WANT to, but being responsible, I will probably hope we can just get on the road early.

Be Our Guest - Although I have it scheduled for lunch on our last day, I'd like to have it the day before, or even at the beginning of the trip. I never know what we'll do on the last day, and I like having it kind of open. I normally leave it up to the kids and we float around getting one last "must do" in for each of us.

Cinderella's Royal Table - I have it scheduled for the last day too and for the same reason would rather have it the day before, or really, even earlier. We'll most likely do Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on Thursday that week, and I'd like to do CRT & BBB on that date instead. That way my little princess can go to the party that night fully decked out in her new hair/nails/dress. It's not a deal breaker, but if you're going to dream, and plan a vacation 190 days in advance...dream big. LOL!

Cali Grill - I have it booked for 5pm on our arrival day, but I'd really like to have it around 7. I have heard it is THE place to see fireworks and that 7pm is the perfect ressie time for that, so it's worth the $10 for me to not have to stress for the next 6 months. LOL!

Otherwise, all is well! I've picked up a few Disney things to start hiding for the trip. I'm thinking we will tell the kids that morning in the car, and use some of my Disney things to add to a present with their magic bands as part of the surprise. What do you think? I'm open for ideas! I'll take pictures of what I've gotten so far. It's nothing exciting, but the kids will enjoy it. Just some coloring stuff and cute little necklaces and bracelets. Mackenzie won't love it because she's too old for that stuff, but she'll still think it's cute.

I hope all is well for you guys! Is it November yet???

Stephanie