A first birthday in WDW! a PTR from a professional researcher

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Here is my first pre-trip report , thanks for reading!

How did this vacation come to be? Read on friends, read on...
Every year for the past 10 years or so my mom and step-dad have been vacationing in Hawaii using their timeshare. They have a 2 bedroom on the beach in Maui and always invite plenty of people to go with them. The problem is that I don't fly- I had a particularly harrowing experience a few years ago and haven’t flown since so I don’t get to indulge in the yearly trek to Maui anymore. I begged and pleaded for them to vacation somewhere else so that I can join them but they haven’t budged…UNTIL NOW! My sister, her husband and 2 children (2 yr. and 7 months) didn’t think they could fly out to Maui with the little ones so my parents actually compromised and said they would trade their timeshare. My sis and I immediately thought of Disney! They could actually trade their timeshare for several places on property at Disney but we could only get 2 bedrooms and for 6 adults and 3 toddlers that just wasn’t going to happen. We thought of every possible configuration, we soooooo wanted the convenience and benefits of staying on property, but we had to weigh that against being crammed like sardines in a hotel. So we opted to stay off property, but hey- it is still FREE for me so I can’t complain!!

We will be staying at the Westgate Town Center from July 12th to July 19th

We have quite a crew going on this vacation, so here are the introductions:
Me- a librarian with WAY too much time to research this vacation
DH- thinks I spend WAY too much time researching this vacation, yet I catch him reading posts on DISboards over my shoulder; his main goal is to drink around the world in EPCOT
DD- the birthday girl who currently loves grabbing mommy's hair, crawling to places we don't yet have childproofed and chewing on remotes;
DSIS- my sister who lives in Florida yet rarely goes to WDW- it infuriates me that she doesn’t take advantage of living so close!
DBIL- my brother in law’s goal of any vacation is to nap, so this should be interesting
DN #1- my nephew is 7 months old
DN #2- my other nephew just turned 2
DM- my mom only travels to high brow locations; she has been to MK once before but it was a horrible trip but I’ll get into that later
DSD- my step-dad has never been to Disney before except for business trips

How are we getting there?
DH, DD and I are driving to my sister’s on the west coast and we are staying there for 2 days then we are all driving over to Orlando. My mom and step-dad are flying down and meeting us in Orlando.

Coming soon…the ADR’s!

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Since I am staying off property I have to call every morning to make my ADRs instead of all at the same time. Waking up at 7am everyday isn't the best way to spend my Spring Break but I will be reaping the rewards in July!

I called this morning at 6:59:45 and got through immediately (well immediately after I finished with the 85 questions you have to answer before you can speak to anyone). I was surprised to get through so quickly! I made my 1 lonely ADR, was off the phone in 5 minutes and promptly went back to bed.

So here's what I have so far:
Sunday July 12th Sci-Fi Dine-In at 8:35pm for 2 (we will have already eaten before we get to the park but dh is a B-movie freak and I thought he would get a kick out of this place- we're just going to have a late night snack and a milkshake)

And here's what I need to get for the rest of the week:
Crystal Palace for 9 people (breakfast- hopefully we can get an ADR before rope-drop)
Tusker House for 9 people (breakfast- again hoping for an ADR before rope drop)
Tea at Grand Floridian for 3
Biergarten for 4 (lunch- as a way to refuel ourselves when we drink around the world)
Ohana for 9 (breakfast- this one I haven't 100% decided on, but I thought it would be nice for my entire family to have a nice farewell event before we all go our seperate ways. my mom, sis and I stayed at the Poly in the 80s and we did the charachter breakfast then too so I thought it would be cute to go again and get some similar pics that we had taken during our first visit)


Send some pixiedust my way that my ADRs for the rest of the week go as smoothly as they did this morning!

 

[TXmom2princesses]

That sounds like such a fun trip with the whole gang! We are going for our first trip and staying on site at ASM family suites july10-18th, but my cousins will be staying at the Westgate Town Center july 11-17th. I was trying to figure out since the WG is not on disney property do you have to rent a car to get there or do you know if they provide transportation to the parks?