A Commando on Valium - A 7 Day Solo Trip at AKL ***Update 3/23 page 19

[Girldreamer02]

ADRs are made!!!

I got everything I wanted:

9/16 - Raglan Road 9pm
9/17 - Plaza Restaurant 5:40pm
9/18 - Le Cellier 7:10 pm

I think the only change to my itinerary is that I am choosing to do Plaza for dinner instead of lunch. I figure it will be a good way to wind down my day before Wishes!

I'll be calling in the next few days to book my tours.

176 days to go!!!

Hurray for you! I would to go to disney right now. I miss it! Hehe. At least I have my cruise to look forward to in July. Good luck booking your tours.

 

[Quacktatty]

Have we all heard about the new menu at Le Cellier? I think it Le Cellisucks The only thing I would have wanted to eat is the Maple BBQ Filet. Now it's off the menu - bah.

So, I need to find a replacement restaurant. Probably something at Epcot or at an Epcot resort. Or maybe Kona...sigh, too much to think about right now.

On a happier note, all my tours are booked! I'll be spending approximately 4 hours on a Segway - yippee!! This has also inspired me to look into booking a Segway tour of Washington, D.C. for this summer. We'll see if my mom and stepfather are up to it - they probably won't be.

If anybody has an idea for a good restaurant, let me know...I'll be looking and will want to book soon!

 

[PEANUT1]

I would keep the reservation at Le Cellier. They may bring it back to the menu. I think it is great that you go on solo trips. I think I would enjoy that too. Have fun planning.

28 days til Beach Club Villas with the kids.
6 months til trip to Boardwalk Villas just me and my honey!

 

[Native NYer]

You're plans look great

I'm joining in. I can't wait to read more.

 

[PEANUT1]

btw could you tell us more about the segway tours? my hubby and I are taking a couple only trip in October and that may be something fun we can do without the kiddos.
Thanks.
Andrea

 

[Quacktatty]

btw could you tell us more about the segway tours? my hubby and I are taking a couple only trip in October and that may be something fun we can do without the kiddos.
Thanks.
Andrea

The Segway tours are a lot of fun! I did the Around the World Epcot tour last January. It's a two hour tour. The first hour you spend inside learning the basics of the segway. You practice turns, stops and the like. Then you head to the World Showcase where the CMs take you through various Challenge Courses throughout the countries. They also give some country information along the way. There is also a stop for pictures and free riding. I obviously enjoyed it so much that I'm doing it again in September! I would recommend doing it earlier in the trip rather than later as you need to be standing for two hours. I know that at the end of a long week walking around WDW my feet hurt like nothing else.

 

[Quacktatty]

...that seems to be the question.

I'll save you the suspense and say up front, no free dining for me. This question has been asked to me a few times already since the promotion was announced. I have many reasons for why Free Dining does not work for me which I'll go ahead and explain since I'm sure you are all dying to know

The first reason is cost:
Rack rate for an AKL Savannah view room during value season comes in at $290 per night.
The Value of the Disney Dining plan is $37.99 per night.

I just so happen to have a AAA card, free of charge (Thanks, Dad!)

With the AAA card I get a 15% discount on the room. That's a savings of $43.50 a night. So in short, the so called free dining would actually end up costing me $5.51 a night.

I'm sure you are saying, but Quacktatty, $5.51 a night is not so much, why not just bite the bullet? And I say to you, bullets are not tasty. One of the biggest reasons is that I am currently in the process of losing a good deal of weight. I hope to be down about 40 to 50 pounds by my trip, with about that much to go after my trip too. I will certainly not be eating dessert in every restaurant I go to. Even so, I am much more of an appetizer person anyway.

Also, I'm a picky eater. If I had to find 6 TS restaurants to eat at over my trip, this would be a very difficult task for me. I have spent so much time on wdwinfo.com and allearsnet trying to find 3 restaurants I would eat at that I couldn't imagine having to pick 6. I also have a lot of days where I would just prefer to snack all day.

I will be doing a dining report. It'll be a mostly CS, picky eater dining report, that's for sure.

 

[Girldreamer02]

Have you considered eating at Coral Reef since you want to cancel that other place? I really enjoy the food and atmosphere. I am a picky eater too so I can't blame you for not doing the dinning plan. Good luck with your tours.

 

[Quacktatty]

I don't think there is anything I would eat at Coral Reef. Plus I generally don't hear good things about it. I'm considering Beaches and Cream or ESPN Club instead since that is my Epcot day.

 

[Quacktatty]

I am not sure what took me so long, but I finally got around to cancelling Le Cellier. I knew I would not enjoy it and there was no reason to keep the ADR out there. I wanted to replace it with Whispering Canyon, but there was no availability. So instead, I'll be dining at Teppan Edo. I loved this place when it was Teppanyaki, and I've heard good things about it recently, so I'll give it a shot.

Chances are I will probably try to score Whispering Canyon again once I'm on property, but for now Teppan Edo will work. This shifts around a couple other things on my schedule, but for the most part it remains in tact.

That's it for now, I'll probably be back sometime this weekend to post a little more extensive update!

 

[Girldreamer02]

glad to hear from ya again...wondered how the planning was going.

 

[Quacktatty]

So I promised a bigger update, not that I have too much to say, but I'll give it a shot!

One of the things that I wanted to do before my trip was get a new camera. I had some very important criteria that the camera had to meet. It had to be pocket sized, it had to be easy to use and it had to be a fun color. Here's the one I chose:

This is the Fujifilm Finepix Z20fd 10MP camera - in DIS Green! Also in Keith and the Girl green (my favorite podcast - Keith and The Girl)

I've tried it out a few times and it takes great pictures and also takes video. I'm having some trouble getting the video to properly download to my computer - but I can work out the kinks before September.

What else....
My ADRs are all set for the most part, as is the rest of my dining schedule. I will probably try one more time to get in to Whispering Canyon in place of Teppan Edo, but if not, no big deal - there is always next time!

I've also done up some custom touring plans at the Unofficial Guide website, Touring Plans.

A subscription is pretty cheap and you can use their pre-set touring plans to customize your own. I have used the Unofficial Guide for my last three trips and it's done we quite will. Granted I do not go during busy times but for those that do I have heard it works quite well.

I really like the custom touring plans because you can put in ANYTHING you want and it prints up a nice page with a map of the park and numbers where each attraction is located. That way you can see that even though you think it would be nice to do Kilimanjaro Safari and then Dinosaur and then go see the Festival of the Lion King that in fact you'll be running like crazy all over the park! Sure, some backtracking is always going to be necessary to get the most out of a touring plan, but you gotta save those feet as much as possible while in the world!

That's all for now, I follow this post up with an updated schedule!

 

[Quacktatty]

Day 1 - Arrival and Favorites Day
Arrive at MCO 10:02am
DME to AKL hopefully by 11:30am
Check-in and then head to AK hopefully by 12:30
AK until close (5pm)
Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ
DHS for approx 2 hours - I HAVE to check out Toy Story Mania on my first day and get my TOT and RNRC fix
MK for EMH until 11pm
Dinner at Casey's

Day 2 - Backstage Safari, AK, DTD and DS
Breakfast at Mara
Backstage Safari - AK (8:30am)
Lunch - Yak and Yeti (CS)
AK until close
DTD
Dinner - Wolfgang Puck Express (thinking about changing this...don't know to what)
DS for EMH until 11pm

Day 3 - Segway Tour, DS, DTD
Breakfast - Room Service (!)
FW Segway tour (11am)
To the Poly for lunch a Capt Cooks
DS until close
DTD
Dinner - Raglan Road

Day 4 - MK
Breakfast - Mara
MK all day
Lunch - Columbia Harbor House
Dinner - Plaza Restaurant

Day 5 - EP
Breakfast - Mara
EP all day
Around the World Segway tour (9am)
Lunch - Yorkshire Fish Shop, Beaches and Cream or ESPN Club
Dinner - Teppan Edo

Day 6 - AK, EP
Breakfast - Mara
AK until close
Lunch - Flame Tree
EP for EMH
Dinner - Tangerine Cafe

Day 7 - DS, AK
Check-out
Breakfast - Mara
DS for EMH
AK until 2:00pm or 3:00pm if I can get a later ME pick up
Lunch - Flame Tree
ME to airport for 6:30 flight

 

[Girldreamer02]

Wow you have a jam packed schedule and it sounds like a blast and a half! I can't wait to go in Dec!

 

[Quacktatty]

I'm officially doing the double digit dance

98 days to go!!!

I did some shopping today to get some travel items for both my Disney Trip and my upcoming Washington, D.C. trip. Mostly travel sized things, but I also picked up two pairs of Crocs! I've had the fake ones for a while now and really like them, but I decided I would invest in the real ones. I got the regular pair and also the flip flops. The flip flops were probably a mistake as the fabric really irritates the spot between my toes. But the regular ones are great so far! I am going to be trying them out in DC and if they work as well as I hope they do, I'll pick up another pair before Disney. I tend to get super sore feet no matter what I do, so we'll see how these treat me!

I also got an email today that Delta changed my return flight, they moved it up almost an hour...boo!!!! But it also means I'll get home an hour earlier, which won't necessarily be a bad thing. I'll need a full day after I get back to recover for sure!

 

[Girldreamer02]

Yay for crocs! Did you get the capri crocs? I have those and I don't have any trouble with them...well I do have one problem with them...the little nubs sometimes start to irritate my feet if I wear them a few days in a row, but now that I know that I alternate and I am alright. I bought another pair of croc flip flops that hurt so bad they gave me horrible blisters, but the thing that went in between the toes was rubber and fat unlike the capri flip flops...thats just a little piece of fabric. Good luck with your crocs in d.c. We go to d.c. just about every other weekend b/c we live so close and its a lot of fun! What are you planning to do while there ?

 

[Quacktatty]

Yeah, the crocs capri were the ones that I got. I wasn't sure of the name of them, but I just looked it up and that's the one! I'm going to wear them to see if I can at least get my toes to adjust because otherwise they are very comfortable!

 

[Girldreamer02]

if i remember correctly they bothered me a little at first too. Just wear them around the house and break em' in and I think you'll be okay. Good luck!

 

[Quacktatty]

Croc update:

I wore the croc capris to Washington, DC last Sunday. We did a ton of walking around and my feet only hurt a little bit by the end of the day. That was a big relief as I was thinking I might have wasted 40 bucks on shoes that I couldn't wear to Disney.

Vacation update:

I just called to see if I could apply the new Room Only discount that was just released. Unfortunately, they had NO availability for my dates at AKL. The lady was super nice and offered to check other resorts, but I just couldn't pass up staying at AKL. I don't think I would have even taken a non-savannah view room if they had them available. I am looking forward to this way too much. And my excitement was only increased when I visited the National Zoo this past week.

Everything is status quo for the time being. My Delta flight times are holding, but I am watching them like a hawk.

That's it for now, only 78 days to go!!!!!!!

 

[Girldreamer02]

I'm glad the capri crocs worked out for you! I wore them to d.c. a few weekends ago and they did well for me too. I figured they would though since I wore them all over disney in dec with little trouble. I haven't been to the national zoo yet, but I want to go so bad! I am so excited for you! Savanah view at akl is AMAZING!