2nd Anniversary Trip to Disney World!

[mdoll4]

Okay, okay, so I know I'm young and naive at 21 years old. But truth be told, I'm the kind of girl who never believed in love and happy endings, DESPITE all the Disney movies I watched growing up! Can you believe it?

So 2 years ago I was introduced to Alex and I guess that kind of changed. I was playing video games and he couldn't help but be attracted. You know how boys are. So anyway, we started talking. We started flirting, but we both refused to acknowledge that there was a mutual attraction. But I liked him so much. And I'll always remember one conversation we had online. I asked him if he liked Disney, and he responded, "<3". That was all I needed to hear.

We first held hands sheepishly under a blanket while watching the Lion King. That night we had our first kiss. That was it. We were a Disney couple. For our first anniversary in January 2010, I wanted to surprise him by sweeping him off to Disney world, but the timing didn't work out well with winter vacations and school, so we had to settle on the tickets being an anniversary present, and going in May after school let out for the summer.

Here we are early on. We dressed up real fancy and went to a not-so-fancy meal at Olive Garden. It was fun though, everyone thought we were on our way to prom! ​

I feel like I'm rambling.

So anyway, we went in May and it was great, yadda yadda yadda. We had 2 days + park hopper plus one GAD ticket that we used in Animal Kingdom. He loves animals, and for some reason he has the strongest memories of the Tree of Life from when he was younger. (The one time he went to Disney before meeting me!)

I haven't taken character pictures since I was so young! I forgot how much fun it was. The lines are crazy though...​

So now for our second anniversary, I want to go again. This time for a longer time, so we're not running (literally) through the parks just to be able to see everything! So now I'm planning a trip for the whole week of our anniversary, January 5.

Maybe next time, Eeyore will have figured out the concept of instant cameras and know now to write all over the center of it while it's developing!

To be continued!

 

[mdoll4]

Package:
Hotel: All-Star Movies
Nights: 5
Tickets: 5 days, Single park
Dining plan: Yes
-------------------------------------
Total: $1100

Okay, so I'm thinking January 2-7, which is a Sunday-Friday. I want to try to avoid weekend days at all cost, so Sunday would be making the drive from Atlanta to Orlando and checking into the hotel (Does anyone know what the latest check in is?)

Probably go to DTD, because I love it there. Maybe have dinner at one of the restaurants with the first sit down meal of our dining plan. (Planet Hollywood or Cap'n Jacks? I know when you stay at a Disney resort you get a $15 PH voucher... can you use that along with the dining plan?)

Then Monday-Thursday, spend a day at each park. Wednesday is the anniversary, so I'd like to make reservations for dinner. AK has extra magic hours in the evening that day, however the Epcot restaurants seem a lot nicer, more "romantic". So which restaurant should I choose?

Epcot:
Chefs de France
Coral Reef
Le Cellier (I would chose this in a heartbeat because Alex is from Canada, but it's already all filled up!)
Restaurant Marrakesh
Other?

Animal Kingdom:
Tusker House
Yak & Yeti

Or should we say "It's our anniversary week, it doesn't really matter when we have our nice meal, let's just go where the parks take us!" and spend Wednesday at AK for the Extra Magic hours and have our nice meal in Epcot at some other point during the week?

Also, any tips on possibly getting a seat at Le Cellier? Do I keep checking back to see if people cancel their reservations, or is it pretty much hopeless?

 

[cassidyh]

YAYY!!! I'm so glad you're doing a PTR!

Love the picture with AK Mickey! I just bought the Teva Hurricanes a week ago...is that what you are wearing there? I plan on wearing them on our trip. I find them super comfortable...did they hold up well at Disney?

I did not know you get a $15 voucher for PH...maybe I'll use that when we go! I want to spend our first night in DTD too...I HAVE to go to the Ghirardelli place.

I really liked Coral Reef as a kid. The atmosphere is amazing. I have heard mixed reviews about it, though, and I haven't been in years. I've also heard great things about Chefs de France, but I've never been! DBF and I went to Marrakesh over Spring Break and I didn't really like it at all. I got chicken kebabs and the chicken was really dry. He got lamb something and he liked it okay, but it was nothing special. I also felt like the service wasn't too great. I had to wait for a water refill forever. We did get an amazing goat cheese appetizer, but other than that nothing was great. I don't think I'll go back any time soon.

I've never been to any of the sit-downs at AK. Yak and Yeti looks really good to me, though. I think I would definitely try to go there, but again, I've never been!

I think you should just let the parks decide when you have your romantic dinner. It's a week-long vacation!! If nothing at AK appeals to you though, you could always have your romantic dinner at a resort restaurant like Jiko's or Kona or Cali Grill!

 

[mdoll4]

YAYY!!! I'm so glad you're doing a PTR!

Love the picture with AK Mickey! I just bought the Teva Hurricanes a week ago...is that what you are wearing there? I plan on wearing them on our trip. I find them super comfortable...did they hold up well at Disney?

I did not know you get a $15 voucher for PH...maybe I'll use that when we go! I want to spend our first night in DTD too...I HAVE to go to the Ghirardelli place.

I really liked Coral Reef as a kid. The atmosphere is amazing. I have heard mixed reviews about it, though, and I haven't been in years. I've also heard great things about Chefs de France, but I've never been! DBF and I went to Marrakesh over Spring Break and I didn't really like it at all. I got chicken kebabs and the chicken was really dry. He got lamb something and he liked it okay, but it was nothing special. I also felt like the service wasn't too great. I had to wait for a water refill forever. We did get an amazing goat cheese appetizer, but other than that nothing was great. I don't think I'll go back any time soon.

I've never been to any of the sit-downs at AK. Yak and Yeti looks really good to me, though. I think I would definitely try to go there, but again, I've never been!

I think you should just let the parks decide when you have your romantic dinner. It's a week-long vacation!! If nothing at AK appeals to you though, you could always have your romantic dinner at a resort restaurant like Jiko's or Kona or Cali Grill!

Hi Cassidy! I'm not exactly sure what kind of Tevas they are, but they did hold up nicely. I wore tennis shoes the rest of the trip though. The Tevas don't have a lot of give in them, so I preferred wearing the cushier shoe. But Tevas are nice for hot weather! Nothing worse than hot, sweaty, tired feet. Bleh.

And thanks for the tip about Marrakesh! I thought it looked exotic, but I guess maybe you're going more for the atmosphere than the food, huh? I think Coral Reef also looks really cool. Maybe a little quieter than Marrakesh too, which I would find preferable. I hadn't really thought about the resort restaurants either! There are so many to choose from though, I guess I'd feel lost trying to pick a good one. We went to Sanaa though in May in AKL. I got the paneer cheese there which was only so-so, but Alex really liked his food. I guess I'll have to do some more research!

The other annoying thing about planning this trip, is that if we're going to eat at all these restaurants, I need to make reservations, which means everything is going to have to be pretty carefully planned out hour by hour, and I'm kind of a fan of "winging it" on vacations. Especially this time around I didn't want to be "we're going here, then we're going here, then we're doing this, then we're going to eat here at this specific time." I wonder if there's any way to avoid it...

 

[cassidyh]

Ooo thanks for the advice about the shoes. I'll probably bring those and tennis shoes just to be safe...I just hate going on water rides like Splash and then having my socks be all nasty wet!! Haha.

The atmosphere is pretty cool. We were really close to the belly dancer and instrument (no idea what it is called) player, and the Morocco Pavilion is really stunning. I wouldn't really recommend it though unless you're into Moroccan food and feel like you have to try it out. I've actually heard their counter service is better.

I've never been to Sanaa! I've actually never been to any of the AKL restaurants. We're doing Boma breakfast one day and it will be my first time. You're right about the issues with ADRs too. I like to have a loose plan, and having a specific time to eat even if I'm not hungry yet can throw some stuff off. But, if you find the perfect restaurant then I'm sure it will be worth it!

 

[firecracker725]

Just saw that you are a UGA grad. My DH is a grad student, and we too live in Athens.

We did mostly QS during our trip, but I wanted really badly to do Restaurant Marrakesh in Epcot. We ended up doing Tokyo Dining for lunch, and while the view was amazing, it wasn't particularly romantic.

 

[mdoll4]

Just saw that you are a UGA grad. My DH is a grad student, and we too live in Athens.

We did mostly QS during our trip, but I wanted really badly to do Restaurant Marrakesh in Epcot. We ended up doing Tokyo Dining for lunch, and while the view was amazing, it wasn't particularly romantic.

Yay, lots of Athens residents on these boards! I'm kind of wondering if maybe we'll get tired of a full service meal every day and if maybe we should stick to QS. But I'm thinking maybe we can switch up the meals and have a FS breakfast at the Crystal Palace, or FS lunch at 50s Prime Time. Hopefully we won't get too overwhelmed. It'll probably nice to have a place to sit down for a while and enjoy each other's company. I'm usually not a fan of eating out every day but I guess if you're on vacation you should make the most out of it! Do the value resorts come with a gym..?

 

[mdoll4]

Well, Alex wasn't sounding too excited about the trip, which I thought was just attributed to stress from schoolwork, etc. So I asked him flat out how he felt about going, if he was just indifferent or if he actually wanted to. He said he was indifferent. That it was expensive and hadn't even been that long since our last trip. Well, that wasn't really a good enough answer for me to go through with planning a whole trip. I want him to be looking forward to it as much as I am!

So for now, I guess, trip postponed.