8 Nights With Deluxe Dining ~ Picture Heavy Pre Trip Report!

[Suellen]

This is my first pre-trip report First off the facts:

March 16th-March 24th

Characters are:
ME (35)
DH (27)
DD1(3.5)
DD2(20 months)
DM (50 something)

Along the way we will be joined by:

Niece1(6)
Niece2(2.5)

And then also a visit from
SIL
Niece (6months)

My two nieces will be dropped off so for that part of the trip we will be three adults and four kids... our first time with them outnumbering us.

Hotel
Two rooms at Pop Century

Deluxe Dining

This will be our first trip with the two girls and having my mom with us the entire time... I am hoping that will make things a little easier for us at the bus stops.

We were planning to go in April for our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary and my DH's birthday ~ but the 4/3 with the $200 GC (actually two of these since we have two rooms) changed our dates!

So we are celebrating our Anniversary on this trip
My mom's birthday (March 30th ~ so no special GC for her)
and DH's birthday which is in April.


Mom and the Girls last trip:

Me and my oldest Melina (aka Mena or Mimi ~ I use these interchangeably but rest assured... it is one child!)

DH being silly:

Links to pictures of our last three trips if you are interested:

Sept 2007 ~ Zoe's first trip ~ http://picasaweb.google.com/suellenh/DisneySept2007#

March 2008 ~ our pretrip trip ~ http://picasaweb.google.com/suellenh/UntitledAlbum#

April/May 2008 ~ the real trip ~ http://picasaweb.google.com/suellenh/DisneyAprilMay2008#

I have two more trips I haven't loaded pictures for yet ~ I will add those once the albums exist!

Chapter 1 ~ Advanced Dining Reservations

Chapter 2 ~ About me!

Chapter 3 ~ About DH

Chapter 4 ~ About Mimi

Chapter 5 ~ About ZZ

Chapter 6 ~ About The Memere

 

[Suellen]

Advance Dining Ressies

The good the bad the Ugly!

March 17th
Ohana's 9:00 (BTDT)
Crystal Place 1:05 (BT not DT for Lunch)
Chef Mickey's 8:30 (BTDT)

March 18th
1900 Park Fare 9:25 (BTDT)
SciFi Dine In 2:35 (BTDT ~ Long time ago)
Garden Grill 7:00 (BTDT)

March 19th
Akershus 9:05 (BTDT)
Coral Reef 1:00 (BTDT)
CRT 8:15 (BTDT)

March 20th
Crystal Palace 9:10 (BTDT)
Grand Floridian Cafe 1:30 (NTU)
1900 Park Fare 7:05 (BTDT)

March 21st
Hollywood and Vine 9:00 (BTDT)
50's Prime Time 1:40 (NTU)
Mickey's Backyard BBQ 6:30 (NTU)

March 22nd
Chef Mickey's 9:55 (BT not DT for Breakfast)
Le Cellier 1:00 (BTDT ~ hmmmm just realizing there is not much time here)
Ohana's 8:20 (BTDT)

March 23rd
Tusker House 9:15 (NTU)
Yak and Yeti 1:30 (BTDT)
Tutto Italia 7:30 (BTDT)

March 24th
Whispering Canyon 9:05 (BTDT)

I should mention that for the most part we make our ADR for the kiddos to have fun ~ give us a time out from touring and a breaking point to head back for naps.

You will see I tried to keep Breakfast and Lunch near one another and dinner is just willy nilly.

We love to return to places that the kids enjoyed last time ~ but definately want to try some new things. Unfortunately the new things tend to get moved to the back burner. I told DH if he wants to try new places we are going to have to plan longer trips since I am not currently will to give up any of the BTDT places. I did forgo Liberty Tree Tavern this time since the got rid of the characters.

Oh and Boma got bumped since we "just really weren't that into it".

 

[Suellen]

We are under 40 days now. So totally excited for the day to come.

I just realized today that with our late flight we will not get to Pop until long after I am sure all the places to eat will be closed ~ and we will not have a layover (just a stopover). I am guessing I will need to pack some kind of dinner for the girls.

We love Magical Express most with these late night flights ~ since there is never a line and we leave pretty much right away. It was so smooth last time I can only hope it goes as smoothly again this time.

 

[jewels1916]

Hi Suellen! The trip is coming up soon! Your ADRs look particularly yummy! Your girls are precious! I hope we get to see more pics! I'm looking forward to reading your PTR!

 

[Suellen]

Hi Jewels! Welcome to my Pretrip report!

Thank you about the girlys We think they are adorable... but then our opinion is slightly slanted!

 

[Suellen]

More about us:

Me(Suellen) ~ I took my first trip to Disney at 6 months old in April of 1974. My parents must have been crazy because we drove down from Maine and camped at Fort Wilderness and my brother was 3. So yes drove 1500 miles with an infant in the days before car seats and then stayed in a then. Little did they know that would just be the start of a long, long love of Disney. We went several times growing up and then again several times while I was at college just south of Orlando. WDW fell off my radar when I feel totally in love with Hard Rock Hotel and front of line access at Universal. I didn't return to Disney for several years. My first trip back was when I was newly pregnant for my now 3.5 year old daughter.


Next up: DH's Bio.

 

[Suellen]

DH:

Dan ~ ahhh Dan. He is 27 and “thought” he had never been to WDW before. So we are at the movies watching POC and they have the scene with the Dogs and the keys ~ and he says rather loudly “Hey they took that from a ride somewhere!” I shush him for the time being but we talk about this later. Ummm yes that is from the POC ride at WDW. This prompts a call to his parents and yes they did go when he was about 4 years old but then had never been back. He has very little memory of this trip obviously.

So I consider his first trip to be our trip in November of 2004. I was 3 months pregnant and we decided to drive down for Thanksgiving weekend. Drive down ~ not bad ~ drive home: HORRIBLE. Anywho ~ we stayed at All Star Music and he was quite disappointed. You see we usually stay Concierge floor at HRH and obviously there is quite a difference. No big deal though ~ it is a room ~ but this is important to the story coming up. We toured slow so didn’t see a whole lot ~ but hey he had never been right?

Fast forward to when DD was about 20 months or so. DH books a surprise weekend for us at Port Orleans Riverside. This is HIS perception of the call to make the hotel ressies. DH: “Hi, I would like to book a room”
CM: “Sure what resort would you like?”
DH: “I would like a resort that is a Hotel and not a Motel”
CM: “All our resorts are resorts”
DH: “Yes but I don’t want a motel style room”
CM: “You should try POR”
DH: “Okay let’s book that”

Boy was he disappointed when we got there. So we don’t do moderate anymore. He says if it is going to be a motel style anyway ~ he would rather be at value and spend more money on having fun.

He is now as big a Disney fan as I am!

Next up: DD1 (3.5)

 

[Suellen]

DD ~ Melina “Mena” “Mimi” ~ aged 3.5 (July 2005)

Her first trip to Disney was in April of 2007. She was about 20 months old I guess and she just had a fab time! She invented what we call the triple point at her first viewing of Spectromagic ~ which we caught at the beginning of the parade on our way OUT of the park. She was in absolute AWE of it! Her chubby little hand would point at the lights not once, not twice but three times. There wasn’t enough room in the spot we found for either of us to be next to her so she struck up a friendship with the lady next to her ~ and kept triple pointing things out to her.

That night when we got back to the room she fell asleep face down in her stroller and when moved to her bed feel asleep with a smile on her face.

Yeah… we took a picture ~ mean huh?

She was in love! She met Minnie for the first time:

Her next trip was Sept 2007, first trip as the big sister, and then again in March 2008 and last time in April/May 2008.

She loves rollercoaster and thrill rides and is just DYING to ride the “Momma rides”. I keep explaining to her she may not be tall enough this trip so she is preparing what she will say to the CM who tells her she is too small. It is cute but I of course would never let her actually do it. She puts one hand on her hip and points her little finger says “I AM tall enough to ride this ride and you ARE going to let me on!” She wakes up every morning saying she dreamt she could ride the ride and has started making Mickey heads out of any round object she can find three of…. Including the ham in her snack pack last night.  She is in love! I feel like I have accomplished what I set out to!

Up next: DD2 (20 Months)

 

[Suellen]

Okay ZZ’s turn! Zoe is 20 months old (June 2007). She first enjoyed WDW at the ripe old age of four months old. She enjoyed MNSSHP in September of the year she was born. She went as a Green M&M and didn’t make it the entire night.

So that was her first visit ~ lots of bottle eating and sleeping.

She really enjoyed her next two trips but was totally terrified by every character ~ and we did a lot of character dining on our April/May trip. She eventually warmed up though!

She couldn’t get far enough away:

We kept at it though and she eventually warmed up to Chip and Dale:

And Mickey too:

She enjoyed Epcot though:

We are hoping that she will be much more outgoing this time around. Since she was just starting to walk on our last visit ~ I think we are in for it this visit ~ another whole new experience!

Next up: DMom!

 

[Suellen]

Okay ~ DMom’s turn!

She is celebrating her 59th birthday on this trip. My memories of her on our trips as a child were always from behind her. She was on a mission to see everything and DB and I could hardly ever keep up! Boy has that changed! LOL!

She joined us for part of our trip last year ~ but not nearly enough ~ so I guilted her into going with us for the entire trip this time. Like me she would be hard pressed to give you the number of times she has been to WDW.

She took me down to look at a college when I was a senior in HS and we had the best day at Epcot I think I have ever had. I rained like a son of a gun ~ but still it was great!

Here are some pictures of her from last trip (oh and btw ~ in case the pictures don’t show it enough ~ my Mimi totally adores her!)

That’s her on the right:

This is her with my youngest

Mimi so wanted a picture of the three of them with these on and my youngest just refused:

So that’s my mom. Yay! She is coming with us ~ and yes DH feels this way too!

 

[jenseib]

Love all the pictures.
I would love to do the deluxe dining, but for one, DH wouldn't ever pay to upgrade. LOL! And two, I think I would not like having so many ADR's to go to with so little time that we have. I know I would enjoy the meals and gain 20 lbs. LOL! But I know alot of time would be tied up for eating, and then I would miss out on park time. But I sure would like to try it and prove my theory wrong!

So somewhere along the line your DH must've decided he liked Pop after all!
My DH could care less about how clean or nice a hotel is. He just wants it cheap. I told him some day I would love to try out WL, and he was clueless to why I would want to, and why anyone would spend the high dollars to do it. So I guess until I win the lottery, I'm lucky to be at Pop and not some Hovel in a dark alley. LOL!

 

[Suellen]

He actually likes Pop best now! Of course he would love to buy a DVC or stay at CR ~ but the cost isn't justified to me since we are barely in the room!

As far as DxDDP goes ~ DH likes to not have to worry about spending anything while we are there. We love getting to do all the character meals and actually find it WAY easier with the little ones that CS ~ ordering, finding a place to sit ~ one adult juggling two kids while the other trys to get and carry all the food.... PITA!

So we do deluxe... not to say that won't change as the kiddos get older and like the character meals less and can handle standing in line to order...etc.

We have never walked away saying....wish I had seen X. We usually get to see everything we want! With precise planning and execution I think that TS actually takes us less time that CS.

Thanks for reading Jen!

 

[DisneyGalAlways]

We'll be here at the same time! March 14-21, to be precise.

We've never stayed onsite at anywhere except Pop and agree that it's just a room and allows us to spend more money on "fun and food".

We're also doding the Deluxe Dining Plan.

I don't if you're oing Playhouse Disney character breakfast. It was highly recommended to me (because of DS2) by the reservation CM.

I've begun my own pretrip report. I can't post a link, since I'm still "earning my ears" and haven't posted 10 times yet. (I think this may be my 10th post.)

I look forward to reading more of your plans.

 

[Suellen]

Hello! Yes we are doing Play and Dine! We did it last year and my oldest DD LOVED it!

Here are some pictures:

Okay so she wasn't so totally excited about Jojo and the rest of my pictures came out black....

 

[disneydreamer1970]

Hi, Suellen! Trish from Maine again! You family is beautiful...and those girls are just adorable! Thank you for sharing your pictures....maybe I should start a pre-trippie...although we are not going until June to celebrate our oldest's graduation from high school and the baby will turn 3 on that trip as well!! I can't wait to read about your trip! Keep it coming!!

Trish

 

[Suellen]

Hi Trish! I probably owe your DH a big thank you! Our home burnt to the ground on Feb 5th 2007. Since it was a 5 alarm fire IN Biddeford I am sure he was there!

We are under one month now! I am expecting our Mickey Mail today according to the TA. Of course DH has to work late tonight so I don't see us waiting for him to open it!

My dad drove down this past weekend so I was able to pack up two boxes of drinks, diapers, snacks and wipes to send down. He will stop on his way back in 2 weeks and leave the boxes for us. Yay!

I am having what I call my one month blues. I calculate everything on one month. In 1 month we will be only two weeks away from going etc. Well now that we are under 1 month I am ticking away my vacation and I know by next Tuesday I will be very blue as I will be thinking "In 1 month our vacation will be over"

I know I am not crazy but my mom and DH think I am! Guess I will have to try and book a bounce back to make me not so blue.

 

[Suellen]

Getting so very excited! On Monday we went out to the Dollar Store and got some glow in the dark bracelets and barrettes! The girls will love both for the Spectro Magic Parade! I was also able to find four Disney coloring books and a three box package of Mickey crayons for the plane ride. Love me some Dollar Store!

We also hit Target (by we I mean me and mom since the girls were in school and we had the day off) and got some travel detergent and fabric softener and some Tinkerbell bandaids for the trip.

Having sent my box of drinks and snacks down with Dad I am feeling pretty good!

Mom made the girls some little outfits ~ polka dots with a Minnie Face on them… little bloomers and an A Line shirt with a ruffled bottom… so totally adorable!

I had Z try on her Belle dress this weekend and it is just perfect! Mimi’s Cinderella dress was a little big in the chest area… so Mom is going to take it in for me.

Things are moving along nicely and we are happy to be under a month now!

 

[marcielm]

We were planning to go in April for our 5 Year Wedding Anniversary and my DH's birthday ~ but the 4/3 with the $200 GC (actually two of these since we have two rooms) changed our dates!

Hi Suellen! I'm a newbie here... and I see you will be at WDW the same week we are going! We will be in the ASMu in a family suite, thanks to an awesome deal an agent was able to get me. The reason I'm posting to you is I am curious how you were able to get the $200 GC, because I thought these were only available the weeks before & after the week we will be at the parks.
I didn't do the 4/3, but rather had a code for kids stay/play/dine for free. We are doing the standard dining package for the trip. We booked TOTALLY last minute... as in 10 days ago. Thanks IRS for the awesome refund this year!

 

[Suellen]

Hi there! We booked in December with the 4/3 deal and got the GC as part of the package. Perhaps the dates have changed now? I believe you had to book by a certain date to get it ~ so that might be why!

I am just getting ready to order the Sit and Stand for our trip. Walmart has it cheaper than I can rent it! So even if we just decided to leave it there ~ who cares!

Maybe I will start a stroller swap with it.

 

[Suellen]

Woohoo! Mickey Mail just arrived!! We opened it all together... but the girls are trying to rip the books apart ~ well more fighting over them... so we will look over it all after bed time!