2nd Annual Girls Only Trip!! Our first pre-trip report!!

[AliceInDisboardland!]

Hello Fellow Disers!

This will be our first pretrip/trip report and we are super excited to get started. First, let me introduce the cast...

Sarah (Me): 26 year old lover of all things Disney. I have been bitten by the Disney bug (influenced by my sister) and now spend lots of time perusing the DisBoards! My favorite character is Alice in Wonderland! I am most excited to be trying out the DDP this trip!

Kelly (DS): 28 year old Dis-oholic! Kelly is my older sister and will also be contributing lots to this report. She is the original trip planner in the family and we have at least one or two phone conversations per day talking Dis! Her favorite characters are the "originals" - Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, etc. Kelly is most excited to really slow down this trip and see things through Nora's eyes.

Nora (DN): 2 years old and this will be her 3rd trip to the House of Mouse! Nora is a princess in training and loves to watch Mickey Mouse Club House. She knows all the princesses by heart, but her favorite is "Princess Rella"! She is looking forward to meeting lots of princesses on this trip!

Debbie (DM): 50 years old and wonders how she raised such Disney-obsessed daughters?! She's content to let my sister and me do all the planning, but loves Disney as much as the rest of us! Her favorite character is Snow White and she is most looking forward to spending quality "girls only" time!

Okay, so now you have a better idea of the cast, let me give you a bit more background on our past Disney experiences. Our family has taken multiple trips to Disney World, mostly when we were younger, but now that my sister and I are older, and Nora is here we have renewed our love for Disney vacations and plan to go at least once a year!

Our 1st Annual Girls Only Trip was in March of 2007 with the same cast of characters that we've discussed here. In 2007 we stayed at POR - what a fun trip. It was Nora's first trip to Disney World, and what a good girl she was! Even at less than a year old she was hooked And if she was this fun at just 8 months old, just think how fun she'd be in a year. Yup, that meant we had to plan the 2nd Annual Girls Only Trip... little did we know that my sister's DH would crash our party!

Stay tuned for details on the "not so" Girls Only Trip in April 2008 and "You're going to Disney AGAIN?!", our first trip on the DDP, so many ADRS, and itinerary changing galore!

**As this is our first pre-trip report we welcome your feedback/questions/comments/encouragement!**

Next up: Our "2nd Annual Girls Only Trip" turned "Not Girls Only"

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Hi Sister!
Great start! It is so funny after all the hours I've spent reading trip reports on here to see photos of us! Yay! That means our trip is getting closer. Consider me subscribed! I hope we can get some other DISers on board with us, as just talking to you about all the plans gets kind of redundant! Maybe sharing our daily trivia questions with the DISers would entice them! Looking forward to reading/writing along with you!
-Kelly

 

[AliceInDisboardland!]

2nd Annual Girls Only Trip - Turned Not "Girls Only"

Okay, my turn. Hi everyone, I'm Kelly, the Disney "freak" of the family. Although I've managed to convert my sister and of course I have great influence on my DD Anyway, I have been instructed by Sarah to explain our whole code situation. (Yea, I know, a good situation to be in, right?) So, our trip this previous April was originally booked as our "second annual girls vacation." I booked a magic your way package through AAA at AKL. We had never stayed at this resort and us girls were excited to check it out. We had our ADR's all set and our itineraries written when out of the blue my DH(Kyle--thinks I'm crazy to be so Dis obsessed, but hates to admit he is a kid at heart) decides he wants to go with us! Okay, so that's it for a "girls only trip." And what do I do? A room at AKL would not work for us as a party of 5 now. We really need either 2 rooms or a villa. So, that's when I decide to give my friends at Disney a call. It was a Sunday and I knew I could talk to my AAA agent on Monday, but I was anxious and excited that my DH had said he wanted to come and really wanted to get something set up before he changed his mind! So, I called and spoke to a really nice CM--I even remember her name, Dorothy---okay, Sarah, yea, I know I'm psycho. Okay, so Dorothy really wanted to help me out to get a great vacation and guess what, I had a 40% off code attached to my name! No way! I was super excited. Availability was limited, however. I remember she checked 2 rooms at the BW for us, but even with the code it was still out of our price range. I was curious about the possibility of a villa. When I mentioned this she was like, "Yes, Saratoga Springs would be perfect for your family." Okay, so I know nothing about SSR, but that sounds great. In just a few minutes later we were booked in a one bedroom villa at SSR. Now it was time to thoroughly research (AKA DISboards!) and get our ADRs changed. Oh, and to cancel our ressie through AAA!

Sarah, back to you....

Thanks for the detail filled recap sister...Now, back to the pretrippie!

The trip Kelly just described was in April of this year. It was the first trip we planned by using the Disboards and boy were we organized! As Kelly said, we stayed in a one bedroom villa at SSR (my sister informs me that it was room 1541 at Congress Park - told you she was a Dis-oholic!). What a beautiful resort! If you are thinking of staying here - I would highly recommend it! We loved being close to DTD and one of the quiet pools was just steps away from our room. It was also nice to have a kitchen (mickey shaped pancakes!) and the washer and dryer were also a plus. We were off to a great start, however, after only one full day at the parks, both Nora and I ended up getting sick and as a result we missed many of our precious ADRs and were forced to lay low for a couple days. As you can imagine, being sick in the happiest place on Earth is actually not all that happy! Nevertheless, Nora was a trooper and I managed to peel myself off the couch in order to salvage the rest of the trip!

Now, lets get down to business - here's how our 2nd trip of this year came about

WARNING: if you are easily annoyed by those who receive multiple trip codes you may want to skip this paragraph!

Since our trip in April was a little bit of a disappointment with the sickness cutting into a lot of our park time, my sister and I just kept talking Dis and longed to plan another trip! Spring seemed too far away, so we started thinking about how we have always wanted to see the Christmas decorations at Disney! And then it happened! I got a code in my email! It was 30% off, so that was good enough for me! I called up Dis and booked a trip for the 2nd week in December at the Beach Club! Of course this was a fun secret between Kelly and I for a few months, until we decided to get mom on board...but how to tell her? Hmm....turns out all we needed to do was mention the word Disney and she was sold! (I told you she was just as crazy about Dis as we are, she just has a hard time admitting it! ) The only problem now was working with the dates. We decided that the 2nd week in December, which I had booked BC, wasn't the ideal time to go as far as work schedules, etc., so we came up with the week before Thanksgiving (Nov. 19th - Nov. 25th) which was a much better fit for everyone. Now, even though we had all agreed that the Beach Club sounded wonderful, we have all always wanted to try out the Poly. Did we dare see if it was available?! Yup! It was! It was available for the dates we wanted, but there was just one problem!! The dates were blacked out for our code! Oh well, we did it anyways and hoped that maybe another code would come along. And guess what - soon the general code was released and we were able to apply it to our room. Now we're talkin'... Super excited and already sketching out the itinerary the 2nd Annual Girls trip was shaping up very nicely! One morning as I was getting ready for work, Kelly called me and asked me to check her email for her (she needed a phone number or something and was not able to access the internet at the time)...Anyways, as I opened up her email I see an email from Disney Destinations, "Pack Now, and the Dining's on us!"...yippee! Another code! What lucky ducks we are! We called up 407 W DISNEY and got the free dining plan applied (nixed the general code - but still saved a bunch)...what a trip this is going to be!

Next up: ADRS! Our first trip on DDP - oh my - so many options, so little time...

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Hi Sar
I guess we're the only ones interested in our upcoming trip! Just in case anyway cares to join us, I'll share our trivia question of the day with them....no cheating!!

What is the official "icon" of Disney's MGM Studios/Hollywood Studios?

a. The Earful Tower
b. Sorcerer Mickey Hat
c. Mann's Chinese Theater
d. Crossroads of the World

-Kelly

 

[AliceInDisboardland!]

Now, the important part - the FOOD!

Okay on to ADR's

How did we come up with where to eat??

For those of you reading our pre-trip report, (oh wait, there isn't anyone reading this ) this is Kelly again, the neurotic big sister. Anyway, on to one of the most important parts of any well-planned Disney vacation-the ADRs! We had gone back and forth about a million times on whether or not we should try out the DDP, so when we got the offer for free dining, it was perfect! This would give us the opportunity to try the DDP for FREE! On our trip in April we were unable to go to a couple restaurants that we were really excited to try. Due to Nora and Sarah getting sick we missed out on Whispering Canyon. Le Cellier was also basically a loss because once we got there, finally got seated, and ordered, Sarah and Nora were both sick again! Waa! I'm not sure if we'll ever care to go back there--bad sickness memories! We also originally had ADR's at Chef Mickey's and Coral Reef, but weren't able to change them to ressies for 5 when my husband decided to join us. Since we got the code for the free dining so "close" to the date of our trip, we were totally scrambling to figure out where we wanted to eat. We had pretty much laid out the plans for which park we were going to be in for each day, so we kind of based our choices around that. We knew for sure that we definitely wanted to get WCC, Coral Reef, and Chef Mickey's. Those were our first priorities. Here is what we ended up with, why we chose them, and what we are most looking forward to eating!!!

Whispering Canyon Cafe: Since we missed out on this ressie in April, we are all anxious to get to try it this time. We are hoping Nora will enjoy the fun and crazy atmosphere and who can forget about the all you can eat skillets and bottomless milkshakes!!! Can't wait to ask for more ketchup and more soda!!! We have this booked for the first night of our trip, so we're hoping this will start things off with a bang!

Chef Mickey's: Mom has been talking about Chef Mickey's ever since we weren't able to go there on our last trip. She just loves the Contemporary Resort eventhough she's never even been inside it, so I think that is part of her excitement. Of course, we are all anxious to see the characters, especially the mouse himself!

Jiko: This one is easy. The one reason we just had to eat here: Oak-Grilled Filet Mignon - with macaroni and cheese and red wine sauce. Oh, and I guess seeing AKL was just a bonus--haha--AND getting the frequently raved about Zebra Domes!

Coral Reef: Another place that we have been really building up in our minds. We're hoping that it will live up to our expectations with the atmosphere in addition to the food. Nora loved "The seas" at both of her previous visits, so we're assuming that she will be more than adequately entertained with the restaurant-or at least the aquarium!

Mama Melrose's (Fantasmic Dinner Package): Kelly is the only one of us who has experienced Fantasmic so this is a must-do for this trip for the rest of us! We figured it would be a good idea to get the dinner package so we don't have to wait in line too long with Miss Nora. We have heard a few mixed reviews on Mama Melroses, but we are hoping to be pleasantly surprised with the food (we've seen lots of good food porn out there on this one!) Plus, an appetizer is included, nothing wrong with more food, right?!

Akershus Royal Banquet Hall: Okay, so Nora is probably most excited about this one. Yes, she is only two, but this child is in love with all things Disney--especially Princesses. She is planning on wearing her Snow White costume, so we are hoping to get some really cute pictures. We definitely are most looking forward to Princess sightings and less so on the food, which might be a good thing according to some of the reviews we've seen!

Counter Services we plan on trying:

Wolfgangpuck Express: We chose Earl of Sandwich instead of this in April, and after looking at all the posts on these boards, we wish we had given it a shot. Not to worry, we will most definitely be eating here on this trip. It is definitely going to be a tough choice on what to get. One of us will be ordering the pizza for sure!

Sunshine Seasons: We have been "hearing" nothing but positive things about this CS stop in Epcot. We are thinking that we'll give it a try if we find ourselves in that area with empty bellies. CS are not something we are really planning ahead for (with the exception of WPE) so we'll see what happens.

Cosmic Rays: We plan on returning to Cosmic Rays if we get the opportunity. We love the fun atmosphere and the loads of options. Certainly will be able to please four picky ladies!

Snacks: Since we are on the DDP this trip, we are all looking forward to sampling a lot of different snacks. Like many other DisBoards posters, I am very interested to try the school bread at Norway in Epcot! We also enjoy funnel cakes, dole whips, and goofy's candy shoppe! Nora is anxious to try her first Mickey shaped ice cream bar (not sure how we have deprived her of this thus far!). We also want to hit up Main Street bakery for one of those yummy-looking desserts with the 2 cookies filled with ice cream! Can you tell that we are big on the sweets?!?! Oh, lets not forget about the popcorn bucket! Mmm..this is making me hungry! Don't worry, we won't have any problem using up all our snack credits!

take a look at our Nora cutie on her first Disney trip - that popsicle felt good on her new tooth!

What do you all think of our choices?!?! Hopefully we chose wisely - although I'm sure we won't go hungry on the DDP!!!

Next up - our ever-changing itinerary!!