3rd Annual We are "NEVER" going to Disney in the summer again"

natebenma · Aug 3, 2010

Meet & Greet:

Thanks for clicking on my first trip report.

Hi. My name is Dee and I am a Plan-aholic. If theres a 12-step program for obsessive planners, I would become a member, get the guidelines and rewrite them to be condensed in 8 steps or less. Since a trip to Disney World has so many levels of planning opportunities, it is the ultimate vacation for me. One of the things I love about the DIS is that there are so many others like me out there. You people get me.

I am mostly a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) to two sons, but I do have a part-time job teaching at a local historical farmhouse built in 1690. I am also the treasurer of our PTA, secretary of our middle school parent group and treasurer of the community theatre group my kids belong to.

I spend a lot of time on the DISboards- mainly the Theme Park and Beach Club Resort threads, occasionally I will venture over to Trip Reports or Restaurant Boards. My other hobbies are swimming, snorkeling, reading, traveling, trivia, and trips to the beach. Im a fan of Jimmy Buffett, Stephen King, Caribbean islands and Ting, a Jamaican grapefruit soda. Im also a pretty darned good cook.

I love to take pictures. Nothing fancy or professional, just for my own enjoyment. If you were at the Disney parks July 10-17, you may have seen us. I was the mom walking a few steps behind my DH and two sons, snapping a picture of something, then catching up until it was time for another photo. I took over 2,000 photos on this trip! I havent joined the world of scrapbooking yet, though. Im a little afraid I might not be able to escape from the pit of time and money I would spend if I was armed with special scissors, pretty stickers and an endless array of border paper.

Age? As grown-up Wendy tells Peter Pan I am ever so much more than 20

Disney Favorites- strolling the countries in EPCOT, The Land, Beet and Goat Cheese salad at Sunshine Seasons, Beach Club, Big Thunder Mtn, WEDway Peoplemover (TTA), Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes at Kona, Toy Story Mania, Kali River Rapids, Everest, everything at Boma, Cappuccino Smoothies, sitting on the balcony of my room at 5 am with a cup of coffee, a book and my camera while everyone else is sleeping, Teena the Beach Club greeter
Things that have been retired from EPCOT that I really, really miss- Kitchen Kabaret (Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit), The Living with the Land song and the original Figment with Dreamfinder.

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My DH Mark and I were high school sweethearts and have been married for 24 years. He is a very logical and observant guy- his desire for efficiency makes him the perfect Disney companion for me. He has a really quick, sharp sense of humor which I enjoy, especially when I am not the focus! Mark is the manager of a software development team. His office recently moved from Beverly, Mass ( 40 minutes from home) to Cambridge (2 hour commute each way), so he needed this trip more than anyone. Although a Disney trip is NOT a relaxing vacation for our family! At home, he spends lots of time with the boys. When he is not working, Mark is busy around the house. We are all looking forward to the upcoming football season. Go Patriots!

Disney Favorites: Watching fireworks from the balcony in our room, watching lightning storms from the balcony in our room, the monorail, Boma, Tower of Terror, Soarin, Beach Club, WEDWAY People Mover (TTA), Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pans Flight, Winnie the Pooh ride, crème brulee, Sum of All Thrills
NOT a fan of: the boat from Hollywood Studios to the Beach Club (too hot) or the Downtown Disney bus

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Nate just turned 12 and will be entering 7th grade in the fall. Football and Xbox games are his main interests. He is also learning to play an electric guitar. He was Curley, the lost boy who shoots Wendy-bird at Tinkerbell's request, in a production of Peter Pan, but I am not supposed to write about this. OOPS! He loves to travel and he can be a planner like his mom. Nate has been a picky eater most of his life, but he really has expanded his palate and tried a lot of new things on our last few trips.

Disney favorites- Steak, RockNRoller Coaster, Space Mtn, T-Rex Restaurant, MK Shooting Gallery, Pirates of the Caribbean, Test Track, Pork Chop at Sunshine Seasons, O Canada movie with Martin Short, Mission Space, Tower of Terror, Great Movie Ride, The Lego Store at DTD, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Dole Whip Floats, Orange Pineapple Smoothies, the back seat on Big Thunder Railroad, Club Cool (Especially Watermelon from China), Sum of All Thrills, Mickey ice cream sandwiches , steak. Yes, I know this is here twice, Nate REALLY likes steak!

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Ben is 9 years old and will be going into 4th grade. He is a water rat- loves swimming and the beach. He is also interested in dinosaurs, marine life and science. He enjoys learning about history. Mythbusters, Wipeout and the Simpsons are his favorite tv shows. Ben has been involved in a Community Theatre group for the past two years and performed as a flying monkey in the Wizard of Oz in April 2009, Ignorance in a Christmas Carol, December 2009 and the Crocodile in Peter Pan, April 2010. Ben is argumentative. He debates EVERYTHING! In fact, he is reading this over my shoulder and saying No, I dont!

Disney favorites- Big Thunder Railroad, T-Rex Restaurant and the Lego store, Mission Space- Green, Tom Sawyer Island, Primeval Whirl, Kali River Rapids, Club Cool, Kim Possible missions, Splash Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Backlot Tour, Indiana Jones show, Lights Motor Action, Star Tours, Great Movie Ride, Space Mountain, Itzakadoozie frozen treat, making a silly story on Spaceship Earth, Jungle Cruise, Toy Story Mania, wooden shotgun souvenirs (not easy to get these home)

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39397607&postcount=407
I swim with the fishes, continued http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39398049&postcount=408
Ohana Means (Exhausted) Family http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39470539&postcount=417
A spectacular, solitary finale http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39535262&postcount=421

The Return Home :sad1:

http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40277757&postcount=521
Mexican Food Porn http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40381813&postcount=535
Kyoto Restaurant- Eating Japanese in Mexico http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40408418&postcount=542

Slipping Disney a Mickey- we have dates with Harry and Shamu, July 2011 http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2703929

jmskinner · Aug 3, 2010

Joining in!

First off, I love that last pic that looks like you are holding the boys. :cool1:

Got to remember to try that sometime.

We were at WDW on some of your days, and we are normally never relaxing at WDW like you said, but this time, we did.

I'm also normally way behind my DH taking pics.

mickeystoontown · Aug 3, 2010

I'd love to join in! Can't wait to read all about your Disney adventures.

daisyallen123 · Aug 4, 2010

I agree with you petty good interesting and all the details you presents in descriptive manner so easy to understood and most important that it becomes great guide for newbie and for that who are far away from it .

natebenma · Aug 4, 2010

jmskinner said:
Joining in!

First off, I love that last pic that looks like you are holding the boys. Got to remember to try that sometime.

We were at WDW on some of your days, and we are normally never relaxing at WDW like you said, but this time, we did.

I'm also normally way behind my DH taking pics.

Thanks for joining in! The photopass photographer suggested and composed this shot. I haven't seen it in others' photos. Streets of America were not very crowded at the time.

natebenma · Aug 4, 2010

mickeystoontown said:
I'd love to join in! Can't wait to read all about your Disney adventures.

So glad you are here!!! I love your trip reports. The titles are hilarious!!!

I am concerned about my title. It is meant to be tounge-in-cheek. I hope that comes through! Explanation follows in the next installment.

natebenma · Aug 4, 2010

My first trip to WDW was with Mark in April 1983. It was our senior high school class trip. EPCOT had just opened in October and we LOVED it! Our classmates hung out at MK and got sun poisoning at Daytona Beach on that trip, but we preferred the attractions at Future World and the World Showcase. We returned to Disney many times in the 13 years before Nate was born, including a sorta Disneymoon trip. We were married in July 1986, but because we didnt want to travel to Florida in the summer, we took a short summer trip to Montreal right after the wedding, with a plan to continue/resume our honeymoon in January 1987. All of these trips were at off-site hotels on International Drive.

We have had 3 previous trips as a family. In August 2004, Nate was 6 and Ben was 3. Family friends invited us to join them and they made us an offer we couldnt refuse! My friend Wendy was going with her 3 children to visit her parents who live in Florida. They had an extra condo that was not rented at the time, just for the 4 of us, so we had a free place to stay. Round-trip airfare for our family, non-stop Manchester NH to Orlando was $452. Total! Including all fees and tax! Her mom worked at Sea World and is friends with Disney World CMs, so we had free admission to Sea World and discounted admission to Disney World. We spent a full day at Seaworld, about 4 hours Animal Kingdom and a full day hopping from MK in the morning to EPCOT in the afternoon. The kids LOVED their first visit to Disney, but our vacation was situated right in the middle of two hurricanes that hit the area. We also encountered the typical afternoon thunderstorms every afternoon. This information remains lodged in Marks memory banks.

A couple of photos from this trip (both from Sea World)

natebenma · Aug 4, 2010

We planned our first on-site visit to WDW for August 2008. We booked a room at All Star Music, decided the Deluxe Dining Plan was a good idea because we love to eat and chalked up complaints that my son’s tummy hurt to nerves about the trip. We had a very quiet room at ASMu, it was a corner room on the other side from the pool, and it was a building close to the food court. I knew going in that the All Stars do not have in-room coffee makers, so I brought my own and arranged with the organizer of one of the fridge swaps to leave it behind for her to add to the swap. She was checking in the day after we left.

I was excited as I picked and planned the restaurants we would eat at. Although we were staying on-site, I really hadn’t been introduced to the Disboards, so I followed the UG advice to avoid EMH parks and made my reservations based on that. We are early risers, so each of our days included a breakfast at 7 or 7:30, so we could arrive to the parks by 9. On Monday afternoon, Nate started complaining that his stomach did not feel well. We returned to our resort and took it easy that night. The next day, he was feeling so poorly that he and I stayed back at the room, reading Harry Potter and sucking down Gatorade. We called our pediatrician and arranged for some medication to be delivered to our resort. This helped for the remainder of the trip, but Nate did not really want to be around food. The Deluxe Plan has WAY too much food, especially when you have one family member who doesn’t really want to be around food and you have lots of sit-down reservations scheduled. We ended eating a lot more than we cared to in the ASMu food court.

Mark and Ben went to Hollywood Studios Tuesday morning, the day Tropical Storm Faye arrived in Florida. Ben and Mark had a nice time, and in fact Ben was picked for Jedi training, PLUS invited for a backstage visit and photo with all of the characters after the show. Wish I had been there, but at least I have this great photo taken by my DH!

It pretty much either rained or poured for the rest of our trip. The storms and Nate’s health really messed with our plans and we ended up cancelling a lot of our dining reservations like our Fantasmic dinner, Tony’s, Cape May Café . Ben and I went by ourselves to Kona and Boma for breakfast while Mark and Nate “enjoyed” breakfast from the food court. We would then meet up at a park.

On Thursday, it rained off and on all day while we were at Hollywood Studios. We finally decided to pack it in around 6 PM. We had dinner reservations that night for Cape May, but the family was not up for it, so I cancelled. Very disappointed! :guilty:

There was no way I was going back to the resort to have yet another meal from the All Star Music food court when there was a world of food at my fingertips. So Mark and the boys headed back to the room and I boarded the Friendship Boat to take me from HS to EPCOT.

The boat takes about 30 minutes to go to EPCOT, stopping at the Swan/Dolphin resorts, the YC/BC (where I longingly tried to glimpse the Cape May and lament that I should be there) and the Boardwalk area. We arrived at EPCOT, and I walked over to Japan for some takeout sushi, then Morocco for Swarma platter. The Tangierine Cafe does an awesome job of packing up their dinners to go. I told them I didn't want the drink because I still had a long way to travel, so they gave me an extra container of olive salad instead.

Then I had to decide whether to take one of the boats or walk to the front of the park for the bus. Rain had let up a bit, so I decided to walk. About 30 minutes to the bus stop. Another 25 or 30 minute or so bus ride to the All Stars. People on the bus were really nice, asked me what was in the bags and when I told them I was bringing back takeout to my family from around the world, they said they hoped my family appreciates me. I think they do (even when I don't hear it!)

Highlight of this “Year of a Million Dreams” trip- on our last full day, we were at EPCOT. We decided to go on the Imagination ride while waiting for our Soarin’ fastpass time. At the entrance, the Dream Squad awarded us Dream Fastpasses for the Day. Yeah!!! Extra rides on Soarin’, Livin’ with the Land and Test Track.

My one major rant about our All Star stay. They started a renovation of the food court area during our trip. This resulted in an OUTSIDE detour to get to the buses from the food court. This would not normally have been a problem, except that the detour took us all around the outside of the building in the pouring rain. Could they not have delayed the start of the construction for a day or so until AFTER the forecasted Tropical Storm left the area?

Although this trip had many challenges, we still had a nice time. But on the plane as we reflected back on the trip my husband declared

“We are NEVER going to Disney in the summer again!”

jmskinner · Aug 4, 2010

So now we know where your title came from. :rotfl:

I keep saying that myself, especially since we live so close and can make day trips, but with school being in the way we keep ending up doing about a week in the Summer. :confused3

heaven2dc · Aug 4, 2010

We have been to Florida in August and the heat/humidity was horrid! I vowed to never return in summer again - now our trips have been in the winter months and even during our last trip in Dec 2008, it was in the lower 80's. Perfect! :thumbsup2

Loved your old trip pictures! It's so fun sometimes to look at those pics (although I wonder what in the world was I thinking when I look at the clothes I wore! :scared1:

) Can't wait to read all about this trip!

natebenma · Aug 4, 2010

jmskinner said:
So now we know where your title came from.

I keep saying that myself, especially since we live so close and can make day trips, but with school being in the way we keep ending up doing about a week in the Summer.

Once my son entered Middle School, the only choices for vacation for us are summer or the February and April school breaks. But from what I understand, the World is pretty crowded at those times and we know for a fact (because we check) that the airlines jack up the fares for travel on those weeks.

We did take the kids out of school for a week (preK and grade 2) for a family reunion cruise, (K and grade 3)- cruise and (grade 1 and 4) for a trip to Jamaica. But then my son's 4th grade teacher wrote on his report card that "Nate has not really been putting in much effort since returning from his trip" Seriously?

natebenma · Aug 4, 2010

heaven2dc said:
We have been to Florida in August and the heat/humidity was horrid! I vowed to never return in summer again - now our trips have been in the winter months and even during our last trip in Dec 2008, it was in the lower 80's. Perfect!

Loved your old trip pictures! It's so fun sometimes to look at those pics (although I wonder what in the world was I thinking when I look at the clothes I wore! ) Can't wait to read all about this trip!

Thanks for stopping in Debbie! The sad thing is realizing I still have the t-shirt in the photo!

When my DH and I traveled BK (before kids) it would usually be in January or February to get a break from the lovely New England winters.

Docarino · Aug 5, 2010

natebenma said:
I love to take pictures. Nothing fancy or professional, just for my own enjoyment. If you were at the Disney parks July 10-17, you may have seen us. I was the mom walking a few steps behind my DH and two sons, snapping a picture of something, then catching up until it was time for another photo. I took over 2,000 photos on this trip! I havent joined the world of scrapbooking yet, though. Im a little afraid I might not be able to escape from the pit of time and money I would spend if I was armed with special scissors, pretty stickers and an endless array of border paper.

Great trip report so far, can't wait to see more! As for the scrapbooking thing, I totally understand. I started scrapbooking briefly but it led to the need for so much "stuff" and, what turned into clutter, that I found an alternate option- digital scrapbooking! Self contained, no mess, no need to purchase paper and accessories and a permanent copy that I can use to reprint the book if need be!

natebenma · Aug 5, 2010

Docarino said:
Great trip report so far, can't wait to see more! As for the scrapbooking thing, I totally understand. I started scrapbooking briefly but it led to the need for so much "stuff" and, what turned into clutter, that I found an alternate option- digital scrapbooking! Self contained, no mess, no need to purchase paper and accessories and a permanent copy that I can use to reprint the book if need be!

Thanks for reading, Docarino! I haven't tried digital scrapbooking yet. I would probably enjoy this. I put my photos into albums with pockets, and I sometimes embellish those pages with stickers and I have just started to journal. I will type up descriptions and put those in one of pockets instead of a photo.

I love to take photos and I was testing out a new camera during our recent trip- a Canon D-10 point and shoot (submersible to 33 feet). More about the camera later. I noticed when we returned from our trip that a lot of my photos are slanted to one side or the other, so I need to get used to the camera a little more. I loved the beautiful photos in your trip report. I am more of a quantity over quality kind of gal.

natebenma · Aug 5, 2010

One afternoon the boys took out their Disney photo albums and were looking at the pictures and talking about our vacation. Next thing I know, Mark is on the computer, pricing trips. Disney was in the final days of the Buy 4/Get 3 Free Promotion, and Mark declared the deal too good to pass up. We decided on the Beach Club. If you are going to get some nights free, you might as well do it at a Deluxe! Thats the kind of logic I love in my DH! We always dreamed of staying at an EPCOT resort and having such easy access to our favorite park!

Eight months after Mark issued his anti-summer proclamation, we were booked for a July trip to Disney!

With apologies to Robert Fulghum and everything he learned about life in Kindergarten I learned what NOT to do on a Disney vacation during our 2008 trip. And from the DIS.

At that point I was spending a lot of time on the DIS, so I was a lot more prepared in my planning, and knew that

(1) Early Extra Magic Hours are the right thing for our family of early risers and I based my dining reservations on that.
(2) The Deluxe Dining plan has WAY too much food. The regular dining plan is PERFECT for us!
(3) If you dont like the info you get from a CM over the phone, call again. When I called at 7am, 90 days out for my dining reservations, the CM told me I was a day early. I waited about 30 minutes, called again, and booked my meals

The meals we booked: Cape May Café for arrival night, T-Rex at DTD (OOP, booked through restaurant), Boma dinner, Mama Melrose Fantasmic Package, lunch at Sci-Fi, Le Cellier, Chef Mickey breakfast, Kona breakfast (OOP), Coral Reef

natebenma · Aug 5, 2010

Im a big believer in reading as much as humanly possible as I plan for a trip, so I spent a lot of time lurking on the Beach Club resort thread. The more I heard about the Beach Club, the more excited I became about our stay. As anyone who goes to this thread knows, Teena, one of the greeters at the Beach Club, posts frequently and answers detailed questions about types of rooms, views available and the resort itself. She is a sweet, sweet woman and it is so helpful to have a CM willing to answer all of the questions guests may have.

As my trip approached, I had a brainstorm! To thank Teena for all of her helpful information, I decided I would put together a surprise photo album of guests she had met and helped. I contacted a few of the frequent BC posters by PM and asked them to e-mail photos to me if they wanted to be included in the album. About 6-7 families responded and sent photos, so I printed them, made copies of their screen names and avatars along with any information they gave me about trip dates or hometowns.

We were greeted by name at the Beach Club as we exited the Magical Express bus. Teena was in the lobby to meet us and I presented the photo album to her. She told me she loves having a keepsake of guests she has met or helped. She meets SO many people every day she works and she told me it was nice to be able to match families faces to their screen names.

I mention this here because I promised Teena I would continue to keep the album up to date with new guests she meets. Every so often I will PM frequent BC posters to see if they want to add photos to the book. I have been able to send a few batches of photos to Teena over the past year, and I would love to add more, so if you are interested in including photos of your family in the book, please PM me! I will give you more info and the e-mail address to send photos.

I enjoyed visiting with Teena a few times during our vacation. I knew that a shuttle launch was scheduled on our first night of the trip, but Teena informed us that it had been rescheduled for later in the week due to inclement weather and she got a map to show us where we should look to see it. We were able to view the launch, looking towards the Mexican pavilion, right before our Le Cellier reservation. Sorry, it happened so quickly that I dont have a photo!

Teena has become a good friend since our visit and in fact, we informed our boys that we booked our 2010 trip by having them read the PM I sent to Teena saying we would be coming in July. Unfortunately, Teena was away during our visit, so we didnt get a chance to see her on our latest trip.

Next up will be some highlights and photos from our July 2009 trip.

Docarino · Aug 5, 2010

natebenma said:
I love to take photos and I was testing out a new camera during our recent trip- a Canon D-10 point and shoot (submersible to 33 feet). More about the camera later. I noticed when we returned from our trip that a lot of my photos are slanted to one side or the other, so I need to get used to the camera a little more. I loved the beautiful photos in your trip report. I am more of a quantity over quality kind of gal.

I'm excited to see more of your pictures! I'm a quantity girl myself- I took 6000 pictures during my last trip! But I sorted through them and ended up with about 600 good ones. I guess I shot for quantity and then sort for quality

heaven2dc · Aug 5, 2010

That was extremely sweet of you to compile a photo album for Teena! I missed seeing Art the Greeter when we visited WDW in 2008. We had breakfast at Cape May and I hoped to be able to see him. I will have to watch out now for Teena - what a sweet gal!

natebenma · Aug 6, 2010

heaven2dc said:
That was extremely sweet of you to compile a photo album for Teena! I missed seeing Art the Greeter when we visited WDW in 2008. We had breakfast at Cape May and I hoped to be able to see him. I will have to watch out now for Teena - what a sweet gal!

I knew who Art was, but I never had the chance to meet him before he retired. Teena is definitely a gem! So friendly and helpful! Definitely say hello if you see her at the Beach Club.

kldmom2000 · Aug 6, 2010

SUBSCRIBING!!! :banana:

I'm absolutely loving the detailed background about your family! I think it's so funny that we were both there for Faye and then almost crossed paths on this last trip! :goodvibes

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my Shutterfly album from this trip.... I find that I can do those MUCH quicker than if I scrapbook them myself and I love instant gratification when it comes to looking at our trip pictures!

I'll be tuning in to see the rest of your report!

3rd Annual We are "NEVER" going to Disney in the summer again"

Beach Club Dee

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Earning My Ears

Beach Club Dee

Beach Club Dee

Beach Club Dee

Beach Club Dee

DIS Veteran

DIS Veteran

Beach Club Dee

Beach Club Dee

Mouseketeer

Beach Club Dee

Beach Club Dee

Beach Club Dee

Mouseketeer

DIS Veteran

Beach Club Dee

DIS Veteran

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