2 Frolicking Fat Folks Hitting the World Again

[thumper*]

Hello Princess’ and Pirates

I have been debating for some time as to writing a PTR. I get really excited when some of my planning comes together and I want to brag about it, but just because I’m excited doesn’t mean anyone else is. The hubster I am afraid is getting burnt out on listening to my everything Disney talks. Yeah I got an addiction problem. But I’m amongst my people here on the Dis.

Where to start this PTR????

Humm maybe a little background. Like many of you I did not get to experience Disney as a child. I was 21 in 1985 the first time I got to experience the most Magical Place on earth. This is very difficult for children that grew up watching The Wonderful World of Disney every Sunday night and after every Superbowl you waited to hear an announcer ask what are you going to do next and the winner would respond “I’m going to Disney World” while all the confetti fell around them. Boy that Disney brainwashing really worked. I know there are lots of other folks out there that know exactly what I’m talking about. Our dream vacations growing up were always WDW not a day at Six Flags. If your one of these old timers let those hands wave in the air.

I hope to possibly get a few pictures downloaded in the next week or so from that first vacation and the two others since. You just can’t have a proper report w/o lots of pictures can you? Presently working from a computer at work w/o access to my pics.

Hi fellow Disney fanatics my name is Glenda. After reading many of your TR’s I probably can’t be classified as a fanatic because I gotta tell ya some of ya have a real problem. You know who you are. LOL. Really though is it a problem………me’s thinks not.

I just turned 50 not so long ago and will be arriving in Disney with my hubby Mark in Sept. to celebrate our 23’rd wedding anniversary. Mark is just a year older then I am and he fortunately enjoys Disney too. He was very lucky as a kid and his parents and grandparents would take him. He just doesn’t get it when I tell him how lucky he is. That’s probably because he thinks I’m talking about how lucky he is to have me. He really is lucky to have me as I love to plan vacations and I planned a heck a dream vacation to celebrate our 50’th birthdays. It took me well over a year to plan it but it was wonderful. That dream vacation was a 25 day trip to Europe where we rented an RV in Paris for 18 nt’s and traveled through France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. That was then followed by an apartment rental in Paris for 6 nt’s. This was such an experience that I actually wrote a blog about it. For those of you interested I’ll post a link there is just a wee (when I say wee I mean wee) bit of Euro Disney time mentioned in it. http://www.1hipxrayr.blogspot.com/

Now back to the real reason we’re here. Disney.

We were fortunate enough to get to spend a couple of days of our honeymoon in 1991 at Epcot and the studios. We could have cared less about the studios then and our last visit didn’t change that opinion. I think we spent a whole 2 hours there on our first visit. It was brand new and had hardly anything to experience. All I remember are a few motion simulation rides and something about King Kong. To be perfectly honest we were so excited for the rest of the honeymoon in the Bahama’s that it would have taken a lot to impress us. We did however enjoy Epcot and had a blast. Way back then you made your dining reservations at a phone bank at the front of the park upon entering. We ate at the Beirgarten our first night and made fast friends with another couple at our table also celebrating their honeymoon. The other husband got pulled up on the stage to direct the band. We had such a ball. Our dinner was over about ½ hour prior to Illuminations, we and the other couple found a great spot right there to watch it. There was a lightning storm off in the distance and we got a beautiful show of it and Illuminations. What an experience we will never forget. Ahh memories.

In 2010 we got to come back to Disney for our 19’th anniversary. We discovered on our honeymoon how great traveling in Sept. is with low crowds and off season prices. So we usually try to schedule our vacations in Sept. You can read my TR from that trip via the link in my siggy. If you want to get know us a touch more than I have described in this PTR those TR’s will give you some insight into the good, bad and ugly of us.

So with 3 Disney trip behind us and all that we learned from them and what I have learned on these boards I am hopeful for a great relaxing Disney vacation. Wait. Isn’t that an oxymoron Disney and relaxing. It is vacation after all and we do want to arrive back home rested and not exhausted. So I planned accordingly this time. But only after ending up adding an extra nt on the beginning and the end of this trip.

So we know
The Who’s…………Mark & Glenda
The Where’s……..The Most Magical Place On earth (still missing the resort but that’s not hard to guess)
The When’s……….Sept 11th-18th
The Why’s………….Celebrating an anniversary, but do any of us really need a why

But you are still missing the what as in waz up. What are the details. This is the exciting part and it will all be revealed with time. You’ll find out how the trip came to be, what ADR’s I scored and what had to be changed because of EMH changes and other little tid bit’s.

So stay tuned to this same bat channel and same bat time for further updates. Man that’s corny.

 

[Goofy442]

Joining in!! Sounds like fun celebrating your 50th birthday with the mouse. I hit that milestone this year as well. Went with whole family to celebrate with the mouse. You only turn 50 once have a good time and pamper your self.

 

[ChanFO]

I have been debating for some time as to writing a PTR. I get really excited when some of my planning comes together and I want to brag about it, but just because I’m excited doesn’t mean anyone else is. The hubster I am afraid is getting burnt out on listening to my everything Disney talks. Yeah I got an addiction problem. But I’m amongst my people here on the Dis.

I know that feeling! I was nervous about starting my PTR but I figured it was a better outlet than annoying DH every day with my exuberance. At least around here you're surrounded with fellow addicts!

 

[thumper*]

Joining in!! Sounds like fun celebrating your 50th birthday with the mouse. I hit that milestone this year as well. Went with whole family to celebrate with the mouse. You only turn 50 once have a good time and pamper your self.

I'm sure we'll have a great time at Disney.
Our Europe trip was both of our 50'th celebration. Boy did we do it right there.

I know that feeling! I was nervous about starting my PTR but I figured it was a better outlet than annoying DH every day with my exuberance. At least around here you're surrounded with fellow addicts!

It is nice to have fellow enthuisist.

Welcome to my Pretrip report. I'm happy that there are some folks interested. That encourages me to continue with it. I hope to post something new later tonight. Working on it now in word document.

 

[thumper*]

ChanFO I just finished reading your Pretrip report. How funny.

Goofy442 I saw on ChanFO's PTR that you are doing the Wanyama (spell?) safari. Your going to love it. We did it in 2010 and you can read about it in my TR in my siggy.

This is how close you can expect to get to some of the marvelous creatures. Sorry ChanFO no elephants on the savanas of AKL.

 

[thumper*]

Hi Guys & Dolls
I’m back to fill you in on some of the details. But first let me share a few photo’s from previous trips.

My mother and I in 1985


Mickey was there


So was lil bro with one of our favorite pooches






Our Europe trip was very costly and we thought that it wouldn’t be until our 25’th wedding anniv. in 2016 before we would be able to afford another nice vacation. Then a silly thing happened while paying bills one day. I checked my Disney Chase reward dollars and discovered that we had accrued approx. $1200.00 with several more big purchases nearing ( IE: new windows in the house and boat costs). Well that sounds like a big chunk of $$$ I did not want to expire so I started thinking. Thinking led to researching and researching got me back on the Dis. The Dis fueled my obsession and the next thing you know I’m presenting another Disney vacation to hubster. To my surprise he was on board. Not only was he on board but he really wanted to go back to AKL. I had just been considering moderates thinking AKL was a once in a lifetime event for us.

I got on Disney’s website and requested a planning DVD. I strongly believe that when I did this in 2010 I received an awesome PIN discount. So about 2 weeks after the DVD arrived I called up Disney to see if I had a PIN associated with my name and sure enough I did. A wopping 35% plus a free Memory Maker. No thought to it I booked on the spot. I booked us an Arusha view room at AKLJambo House from Sat Sept 13’th through Wed Sept 17’th. This is where we stayed in 2010 and loved it. This is the view from our room.


I booked the Magic My Way package w/ dining and 2 days of base park tickets. We did park hoppers the last time and felt it was a waste of money since we didn’t park hop once, so opted for base tickets this time.

So after some debate I figured 2 days at the parks wasn’t going to be enough, what if it rained Oh MY. So I did not call WDW and add the other day as I should have and of course ticket prices went up that weekend. Something I learned after booking my package is that you can purchase park tickets usually cheaper on other travel sites then directly through Disney. But mistake made and no going back now. Also I appreciate the simplicity of having everything for my reservations in one spot. Plus there was the benefit of booking FP+ at 60 days out, instead of 30. Another cool thing I learned here on the Dis is about bridging tickets and saving money. Wish I had learned that prior to paying the extra cost of the extra day of park tickets. Oh well at least I now have FP’s selected on that ticket/day instead of waiting until the day prior (when I would have bridge the tix).

So I made our resort reservations on Feb 4’th and on Feb 28’th I’m back on the phone with Disney adding another night at the AKL for Thur Sept 18’th. We really didn’t want to feel rushed and wanted to arrive back home refreshed and not needing another vacation.


Then Free Dining came out.


I waited a while for everybody else to call into WDW travel and change there ressy’s. I just wasn’t into holding on the line as I have discovered happens whenever Disney makes an announcement such as this. So I found out that I could switch to free dining and it would be a $14.70 saving. I told you that wopping 35% discount was good. So I changed to the free dining plan . While on the phone with Disney I asked about the Memory Maker probably not being included in our plan now with the free dining and she said that it never was included but was already paid for. Glad we still had it but was surprised, thinking that it was part of our previous package as per that CM’s staements.


We’re planning on driving down to Orlando and arriving on Fri Sept 12’th and thought we would stay in a hotel near Downtown Disney that night instead of spending big bucks for a night at AKL.

With the plans that I originally made I was only needing to take off 1 nt from work, but……..I have a lot of vacation time accrued so I took off 3 more days prior to the trip, to allow time for haircut, mani& pedi and any last minute stuff. But wait all that stuff doesn’t take 3 days, so you know what that means??? That’s right more Disney time. We have now decided to leave a day earlier.

I still had not yet made reservations for arrival night so I went back to my travel website to start pricing the hotels I had originally researched to see if they were now running any specials as it was much closer to our travel dates. What do my wondering eyes find but Disney fall rates have come into effect and I can reserve a room in a moderate w/ 20% off. So since we were wanting to spend our first day near DTD I reserved a room at Port Orleans Riverside for 2 nights.

So we will be at the world from Thur Sept 11’th – Thur Sept 18’th with a split stay between POR & AKL.

I’ll post more details later because I really have to brag about my ADR’s that I scored and to let you know about who we may run into and who will come visit us.

 

[Goofy442]

You did get a good deal. We sadly used all our points, so out of pocket it is. Regular discount was better then passholder, makes no sense to me. But did get a good deal at the Polynesian CL for November. Some are saying don't stay there and others are saying it's fine. It's construction I think we will all survivor this. Thanks for the pictures can't wait to do the safari.

 

[thumper*]

Let me start by bragging about the great ressy’s I scored.

So I had to wait a little over a month to make ADR’s, a day I thought would never come. I was up at the butt crack of dawn to score some highly prized ADR’s.


I was able to get
Sat 10:50 am lunch at Boma
Sat 7:00 pm dinner at Jiko
Sun 7:30 pm dinner at Monsieur Paul for our Anniversary dinner with a request for a table with a view of Illuminations
Monday 6:10 pm BOG dinner
Tues 6:00 pm Le Cellier
Wed 7:00 pm Cali Grill for dinner with a Wishes view

Our original plans were to check in to AKL on Sat am and enjoy a resort day. We were going to start with a big lunch buffet at Boma. Then go play some mini golf at Winter Summerland then come back and lounge by the pool all afternoon. Followed by a wonderful dinner at Jiko. I just love Jiko. Then I discovered that Boma doesn’t offer lunch but breakfast. We had no desire to hit a buffet in the last 10 minutes of service. Boma may be different but my experience w/ last minute buffets hasn’t been pretty. So I cancelled that reservation. Dang I’ve yet to get to experience Boma.

Then in June they announced a change in hours at MK. They extended opening hours on Sat. Sept. 13’th to 1:00 am. I had so wanted to experience MK at night. It appears gorgeous in all the pics ppl take after dark so we pushed our MK day from Monday up to Sat. Of course at this point I wasn’t able to get a BOG dinner reservation for a Saturday nt. so I cancelled the one I had. We still wanted to have some adult beverages during our meal and after hearing so many great things about the Lapu Lapu I knew we had to go to the Poly for our dinner, so I made reservations at 5:25pm at Kona Café. Mark is looking forward to trying the Lapu Lapu too. They sound similar to the Bahama Mama’s we fell in love with on our honeymoon in the Bahama’s.

Sunday the 14’th is our actual anniversary. I had some special plans to sleep in then order room service for breakfast and enjoy it sitting on our balcony watching all the animals then go to Epcot.


Since we changed our MK day and decide to make Sunday our resort day, I changed our Monsieur Paul reservations to Jiko.

Then on July 4’th I spoke with my step brother who lives in Tampa area and tried to set up some plans to stop and see them on either our drive down or back up. But he and his wife really wanted to come visit us down at Disney so they will be coming to spend the day with us on that Sunday. So now I have changed the Jiko reservation to Boma at 7:00pm. This may change yet again depending on if my adult nephew, niece & her B.F. will be coming with them. If they do come I’m going to check w/ concierge to see if it’s possible to get an IllumiNations Crusie, just in case somebody cancelled out at the last minute. We’ll see if they all come or not before I really start thinking to hard about this.

Now we will be going to Epcot on Monday instead of the intended MK. I loved the Za at Via Napoli when we ate there last (seriously I think the best pizza I’ve ever had) so I made a 7:00pm reservation. Oh yum can’t wait to have it again.

So there are only 2 reservation’s I kept and that would be Le Cellier on Tues & Cali grill on Wed.


Now that we have the original part of our vacation covered here we had a few surprise pop up regarding our added on nt’s at the beginning of our trip. We discovered that some friends of ours will be down at the world about the same time we’ll be there. They are going with their son, DIL and 2 grandkids and staying off site. We are planning on meeting them at DTD for dinner and lot’s of drinks (almost always lot’s of drinks w/ us, just wait til you read our T.R.)


So that does it for the basics of this trip. We’ll see how it all unfolds.

Yippee we got our magic bands last Monday. I have been painting them I’ll post some pics once done. Until then have magical days y’all.