A Disney Spring Break - March '09

[anthonut]

Welcome

Last year I took a late planned spring break to WDW, thinking it would be solo mostly to catch some baseball and lacrosse games my school's varsity teams were playing at Wide World of Sports. As the dates got closer my Mom decided to fly down and join me as she had never been to Disney. (I will give more details of the previous trip in a different post.)

We had such a good time that we started to think of another trip this coming spring. The teams are going down again so that gives me a proper excuse I really don't need one though as I am not the most likely to be accused of acting like a child. I think that honor goes to my Mom (details later on her meeting last year with Spongebob ).

We were discussing the possible trip this past October on a short trip home and my sister and BIL decided they would like to join us. This will only by my Sister's second time having made a class trip back in 1996 and it will be my BIL's first time visiting the world.

We will be going March 14th to 21st and are staying at Coronado Springs.

Coming up, a little more info about the 4 of us, a quick recap of last years trip and our current plans for this adventure.

For those out there who have made many more trips than I have any advice is great. The DIS was a massive help in planning last years trip and I'm sure I will learn many new things this year as well.

 

[anthonut]

Ok, So I left off with just a brief synopsis of the trip. We have been debating over X-mas break whether to find a cheap place to stay one more night on the 21st as a lot of the flights in the afternoon are already booked or are a bit expensive. However a few more flights have come available at a lower rate today so we will still probably leave on the 21st.

Cast of Characters - and with my family it is heavy on the characters

Mom - 55 going on 12 - I would say my mom is the one that has kept us all young at heart. She is a huge Spongebob fan, but since this is a Disney site, we'll go with her second favorite character, Piglet. Last year was her first visit to the world so I made sure to get her a 1st visit pin. Here she is on Main Street after receiving it:


Sis - 30 - she will be turning 31 a month after the trip so we are celebrating her bday during the trip. Hey gotta have some excuse to make it a celebration vacation Her favorite character is Snow White so we are definitely working in a trip to Akershus in hopes of seeing her there. We may be a group of 4 adults but we are not averse to a character meal. As I mentioned in the previous post, she has not been to WDW since 1996 so much has changed, plus being that she was on a school trip, she did not have her excessively planning brother to help show her around

BIL - 35 - This is his first time to the World, so he will be getting the button this time. We also won't be giving much warning about Whispering Canyon Cafe when we eat there, just to see how he reacts. I'm not sure what his favorite character is, but I think it may end up being the food He is Irish, so we are definitely eating at Raglan Road at least one night.

Me - 34 - Prior to last year's spring break trip, I had previously been to WDW one time on spring break during college. Since it was just 4 poor college students we did the world on very tight budget, so having a little more to spend last year was quite nice. My favorite character is probably now Wall-E, though there are so many good Pixar characters to choose from. I am a huge photo buff, so I lug some heavy glass around on trips, so I hope to be able to write a trip report full of photos. In the meantime here is one from last year when we walked by Adventureland and there was no line.


Well, that is all for now. Coming up, a brief recap of last years trip - aka 6 parks in 4 days, and the current plans for the upcoming trip.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Can't wait to hear more! We will be there spring break too.

 

[anthonut]

Can't wait to hear more! We will be there spring break too.

Thanks dismom. Hopefully will have another post up shortly.

 

[anthonut]

Just to give you a little more insight into those traveling on the trip, I thought it would be nice to mention a few other members of the family that won't be making the trip.

First, my older brother, age 35. We are just over a year apart in age and my mom says it was almost like raising twins, not in that we were all that similar, just that we weren't that far apart. I was the surprise three kids Personally I think there are many things he would enjoy at Disney, but he isn't one for crowds so going there during Spring Break might mean it would be the first and last time he goes . Actually we made a number of trips to DLR when we were in grade school when we visited our uncle in LA so its not like the experience is entirely new. He would just prefer his vacations a little more subdued, so I think we are going to go to the gulf coast of florida for a week this summer to just chill.

Next, my mom's dog Banagh (pronounce Bon-if, its Gaelic). He is a nice dog but a bit unruly around those not in the immediate family. He is quite spoiled but likes to share his affection with those who are not strangers.


Then there are my sister's three cats: Shamus, Eilish and Bailey. Shamus is the loud cat, always meowing and making his presence known. Seems to say "no" when being removed from the top of the dinner table.


Eilish is the mellow one, just sort of lounges around watching carefully over whatever activity is proceeding at the moment.


Bailey, frankly I sometimes wonder if Bailey actually exists. He is so afraid of anyone that doesn't live in my sister's house that I when I visit, at times for over a week, I may not actually see him. Occasionally at night if I need to grab a drink of water he will be moseying around, stops for a second staring at me then runs off to wherever it is he hides. In fact he is so sneaky that I don't have a picture of him uploaded anywhere, and I'm not sure I have one of him at all.

Finally, there is Ella. She is my french bulldog, so ugly she is cute

Many that have met her say she reminds them of Stitch. I'll also call her my vacation wildcard as I never know when a trip to the vet will take a dent out of my traveling budget. Frenchies are probably overall a bit healthier than English Bulldogs, but they are still walking genetic monstrosities. Back problems, breathing problems, skin problems, stomach problems, you name it they probably have it. But they are also the most goofy, entertaining breed of dog I have met. While I'm sure she would enjoy the world, it would be in very small spurts. Mostly she lounges around all day, with brief 15 minute bursts of energy. No endurance walking here Here is a slightly more flattering picture of her.


More to come soon.

 

[anthonut]

Here is the current plan we have for the first 4 days of the trip. Keep in mind that we may not keep all ADRs, we just wanted to be sure we were covered at this time and not wishing later we could sit down to eat and not have anything available. Also, the days we have chosen for parks is somewhat based on using the UG and TGM best days but also keeping in mind certain things we want to see (i.e. Fantasmic) and also trying some evening EMHs.

Day 1 - March 14th

Perhaps this would be better called Day 0. Originally we were arriving on the 22nd, however the 3 free night package allowed us to extend the trip to include this Saturday.

I will be arriving much earlier in the day than the other 3 cohorts. I'm hoping that they may have either a lacrosse or baseball game scheduled in the morning so I can catch some games before the family arrives. This early arrival will also allow me to get to CSR beforehand and hopefully work into getting one of the upgraded rooms .

I'm also planning to rent a car for easier transportation while in the world. Not a huge fan of waiting for buses and we plan to go all over place, even in single days as you will see.

Mom, sis and BIL don't land until around 4pm so I'm assuming even if on time they won't get to the resort until around 6pm. We are currently thinking they will use DME to get there. Even with a rental car, I'm not sure there will be enough room for luggage if we get a compact or even mid-size.

Dinner - Raglan Road

It seems that currently you cannot book St. Patty's Day dinner at Raglan Road. Not sure if they are holding a private function or not. So in lieu of dinner here on the 17th we currently have an 8:00pm ADR for tonight. We may make it a little later so we can be sure of catching the entertainment. This also seems a good night for RR because we don't plan to go to any parks this day so we can sort of chill at DTD.

I think it is nice to peruse the shops to get an idea of items we might want to bring back as souvenirs, and then purchase later in the week. I am also sure we will come back another night if only because I want a Sundae at Ghirardelli but would also love to try the Bread Pudding at RR. Ahh decisions, decisions.

Up next - Day 2 - the first full day

 

[anthonut]

Ok, so I figured I might as well get back to this PTR. I have obviously left it in a state of neglect soon after it got started. This is just a quick update on our first day. Some discounts and openings on Southwest are allowing the rest of the family a little more time at the World. They will now be arriving at 2pm instead of 4pm and leaving at 2pm instead of 11am. That gives us a little more time on arrival and departure day to do a few things. They are going to be using ME to get to the resort which frees me up to catch some baseball and lacrosse games now that their schedule is set. Not sure if the fam will be up for watching high school sports so they may just check out the resort, maybe hang at the Dig pool for while.

Still on the agenda is hit up Raglan Road for dinner and take a first perusal of Downtown Disney.

 

[dvc at last !]

I'm in !

 

[anthonut]

Day 2 - DHS and MK

This day has already been modified since my last postings, so maybe I can use that to justify my absence in getting this thing written (yeah, right). Originally we had a breakfast scheduled at Boma, but chatting with the others they wanted to get to a park first thing to hit some rides. We decided we will go to DHS to catch the big attractions such as TSM, ToT and RnR. Still haven't decided if I will try RnR, but I might. We figure by doing this, on our full DHS day, we won't feel the need to rush and do these if it is crowded. We can just take our time, catch some shows and other attractions.

Since we will be at DHS, we have added a lunch ADR at 50's PTC. We have not eaten here before, so we are hoping for some fun and homestyle food.

Because this isn't a full park day, we may just head back to the resort and chill out before dinner. One nice thing about adding the extra day, we don't feel quite so rushed.

For dinner we have an ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe. This was one of my Mom's favorite's during our visit last year. We are hoping Chef Eddie still works there, as he was great working with my Mom's food allergies and we'd love to say hi again. I do wonder though if how it will be with two meals where we could get berated by the wait staff. I think my sister and BIL are in for quite a surprise Oh, and here is a pic of Chef Eddie with my mom



We did WCC on our MK day last trip and really liked taking the boat from MK, so we will probably do that again. We can then take advantage of the EMH at MK that evening and catch Spectromagic and Wishes as well as hit some attractions.

 

[anthonut]

Day 3 - MK

Ok, so we will have just been at MK for EMH, but not knowing what the crowds are like, I'm not sure what all we will have hit. Hopefully the others will be up for getting there at rope drop to see the show and get some quick rides in before the crowds build up. Probably start with Space Mountain and work through some of Fantasyland before hitting the other two mountains. Even with a full day last year we didn't get to the Jungle Cruise or a number of other things. Mostly because we were dead tired since my mom did not arrive until midnight the night before

Our plan is to just pick up some breakfast snacks either at Pepper Market, or more likely Main Street Bakery. For lunch we have an ADR at Crystal Palace. This will our first adventure into character dining, so it will be interesting. Thankfully I have a Mom who will probably make sure we get good interaction with the characters even if we are a group of adults. She loves to play along. In fact I think the entire trip last year would have been worth it if we were only able to accomplish one thing we did...getting a picture with Spongebob Squarepants at Universal Yes, that's right, my 50 something mom had an entire week made by meeting a sponge. Anyway, we will see how this goes as I have read varying accounts of how the characters interact with adult only groups.

For dinner we are going to do our one visit to a signature restaurant, a late ADR at California Grille. I'm not sure if we will just walk over or take the monorail. My BIL and I love sushi so we are really looking forward to this meal. In addition we have the meal timed so we should be able to catch wishes while dining.

So all in all another busy day, but then again, we don't get down to the world that often, so we are going to make the most of it

 

[anthonut]

Day 4 - Here, There and Everywhere

Ok, I don't know what else to call this other than a miscellaneous day. The day will start with the Princess Story Book breakfast in Norway. I will be interested to see how character interaction will be with non-masked characters and a table full of adults. We decided to try this as my sister is a big fan of Snow White and it seemed like a good way to possibly get a picture without a long line as well as enjoy a nice breakfast. Our ADR is for 8:30 and it is a EMH morning at Epcot so we may get there right at 8 and get a Fast Pass for Soarin' (do they do FPs during EMH?) and visit some of Future World.

Another option we are considering is visiting a water park after breakfast. Too bad Typhoon Lagoon will still be in refurb while we are there so our only choice is Blizzard Beach. Actually that isn't too bad, but it would be nice to have a choice. Then again, it is the last week of the rehab, so maybe there is a possibility they reopen early, though I doubt they do that.

No matter what our final decision is regarding the morning, we eventually need to freshen up and then head over to the Grand Floridian for afternoon tea. We booked this as my mom would really enjoy it as well as my sister. I think I will probably enjoy it as well, though at the least my BIL and I will endure it Haven't really decided yet which option we will go with, guess it will depend on how hungry we have gotten after the morning. Since it is at 2:30, I'm sure we will be craving some food.

Our afternoon plan is then to relax and play some mini-golf. We really enjoyed our round at Fantasia Gardens last year.



Not sure whether we will play Fantasia Gardens again or try Winter-Summerland at Blizzard Beach. I figure we get one free round for one person with our package, so why not take advantage of it. I'm thinking we may go to Winter-Summerland and play two rounds to take advantage of the half price rounds on the same day.

Finally, we do have an ADR late that evening at O'Hana's. Looking forward to that meal, if only to get some grilled shrimp and a Lapu Lapu

 

[anthonut]

First a quick update. I was able to change my flight to a late evening Friday flight without affecting the price of the airline ticket or the rental car, so now I am flying down a half day early and arriving at 11pm. I found a relatively inexpensive yet well reviewed room at the Best Western Lakeside which will serve exclusively as a place to sleep that evening. By getting in that night I can catch our girl's first lacrosse game the next morning as well as a couple baseball games before meeting up in person with the rest of the family. I think this will be the last change to flight times and plans, but we will see

Day 5 - Animal Kingdom

We have a pre-park opening reservation at Tusker House for the Safari breakfast. By this time I figure we will have decided if character meals are for us My mom and I ate lunch at Tusker House last year and really enjoyed the meal. The variety of food both somewhat exotic to just plain good was great. So we are anxious to see the options for breakfast.

After Tusker House my guess is we will try to hit the biggies while the crowd is still small, EE, Safari, etc. Then just take our time enjoying some of the shows. We only did a half day at Animal Kingdom last year so there is still a lot to see.

Yak and Yeti is also on our ADR list for lunch, though I think it is one of our more tenuous ones. I don't think we would have a problem canceling if during the trip we find that two table service restaurants are too much time out of the park. Then again, we could go and just eat a small lunch. I plan to do that to keep some room and calories available for dinner at Boma. While we canceled our Boma breakfast, we are definitely keeping the dinner ADR. It will give us a nice chance to check out the AKL and once again try new foods.

Finally, if we are still not completely zonked out, we can head back to AK for the end of the EMH that evening.

 

[anthonut]

Day 6 - DHS

Our sixth day at the world is planned to be a full on DHS day. Whether we get there at rope drop or not will be mostly determined by how much we get done on Sunday. My guess is we will still want to get there early and hit some of the biggies again.

After that we will probably settle into a more leisurely pace and do a few of the less crowded attractions, such as the Great Movie Ride and Backlot Tour. These were a few rides we didn't get to last year because we hit DHS on the last afternoon of our trip and the crowds were so large that we didn't even get to ToT or RnR. We will also plan these rides around the times for Light, Motors, Action and Indy Stunt Show.

At some point we will have to stop for lunch at Sci-Fi. While the food isn't spectacular we did enjoy it last year and loved the theming of the restaurant. My mom was sure to make this a definite restaurant to hit again. Our lunch ADR is a little early as we also wanted to do the Fantasmic Dining Package and the reservations are all between 3:30 and 4:30, or so we were told by the CM when booking. Not sure why they have to be so early, but oh well, we will just be glad to have the reserved seats for the first showing of fantasmic. They have added a second showing, but we figure we can go to some other attractions when the crowds flood into the show.

Our dining package is at Mama Melrose. Haven't eaten there before so hopefully we will have a good Italian meal.

Since we have the full day planned at DHS, I'm also hoping to get to meet a few Pixar characters. Mainly so I get get a pic with Sully and Mike. My friends 2 year old son is in love with Monsters, Inc. (which he just calls Inc, as well as referring to Sully as Inc.) so I'd love to have a pic to show that I met him I also am going to search for some Playhouse Disney items for him as well.

Just looking back at the PTR so far, I am starting to wonder whether we are going to be capable of walking by this point in the trip