A Fourth, A First & Free Dining all rolled into one - PTR 9/23-10/2

[EnchantedRoses]

First off – Welcome! I’m a huge TR reader! So why not try one of my own!

So this trip has been a year in the making! We booked this trip over a year in advance. Usually we’ve planned & booked our trips withing 3 or 4 months in advance, but never this far out. & I must say…the wait has not been pretty!!

This will be our 4th trip as a family & my 7th trip to the World! Our last trip was May 2010 & before that we went March 09 (DS’s first trip) & Sept 09 (Free Dining) Our last trip was a great trip! I got to spend Mother’s Day in Disney! We stayed at Pop Century & had the QSDP for free. Now once they announced all the changes to FL & all their great new additions, we had decided that maybe we should hold off going again until 2012 maybe even 2013, but of course that meant almost 3 years without Disney! Even hubby, who is not as big of Disney Fan as I am agreed that was too long to wait. So we said if they have free dining again we’ll go. (I know FD has fans & haters, & for us it’s not so much about saving money, the DP just works for us & it makes the trip a bit easier) Last year (august I believe) when they announced Free Dining for this year the hubby & I debated booking. We must have gone back & forth for about a month. First I said I wanted to go only if we booked Deluxe & I was leaning towards AKL. I figured we have a whole to pay off the trip….hubby said go for it! Then I started looking at numbers & decided that even with a year to pay, I personally couldn’t justify spending that amount on a hotel room. Trust me…I would LOVE to stay in one of the Deluxe…however I just can’t budget that amount. So then the next decision we had to make was would we stay at a Value & upgrade to the DP or just stay at a Mod. So we decided that if we’re going to pay to upgrade the DP & stay at a Value that we might as well put the money towards a Mod & already have the free Dining Plan. So moderate resort….here we come!

Of course choosing a Mod was somewhat easy for us. I knew it would be between POFQ & CBR. However upon seeing the layout of CBR I quickly crossed that one off our list! We’ve stayed at Pop twice & ASMu & we’ve been somewhat lucky with only having to walk far on one of those trips where we were at the Country Section at ASMu! I had always read & heard how compact POFQ is. So after doing some research & looking up resort pictures etc, it was decided that POFQ it would be! Next of course we had to pick the dates. I already knew which dates I wanted us to go (that was the easiest part of booking!) We wanted to go for our DS 4th Birthday! His birthday is October 10, but I want him to spend his birthday with all our family so we did what we did in 2009, and are going 2 weeks before his birthday. We will be in the world from 9/23-10/2. Our plan is to arrive late afternoon on Friday 9/23. Usually we would plan our trips Sat-Sun, arriving early Saturday & enjoying the parks & leaving early Sunday so we get a few hours at home to just relax & unwind before work Mondays. This trip however we decided to do things a bit differently & leave Friday afternoon & start fresh Saturday & as an added bonus we get an extra set of Dining Points. Now I know…paying how much & we’re not even going to enjoy arrival day!?! A bit crazy right!? But hear me out….EVERY other trip we’ve done we have flown out of LGA on the first flight, which means that I’m stressing out the night before about not getting up in time & missing our flight. Then of course we get up at the crack of dawn which is not fun for anyone! & for some reason my son on 2 out of 3 flights has gotten SICK on me! Not fun for me! Then of course you go to check in & have to wait for your room, & then you head straight to the park & are completely worn out before your first day even fully begins. So this trip I’ve decided that I’d much rather leave Friday afternoon. I plan on working at least ½ a day, depending on what time we’re leaving. Everyone is on the same page with this. Oh yeah did I mention our special guest? My mom is joining us on this Magical trip! This will be her very first time in Disney! I am so excited & so is she! It’s going to be such a great experience to see her reaction to Disney! =D I cannot wait! So back to why we’re going Friday night….we live 10 minutes away from LGA so for example if we can get a flight that leaves at 5, I can work till 2, be home at 2:30 and be I a cab to the airport by 3. My mom works till 1 so she’s good, and hubby can work till 12, it takes him an hour to get home. Of course I’ll leave everything packed & ready to go the night before (in all honesty I’ll probably be packed the weekend before or a month before) & my sister will have Mikey all ready to go! I’m hoping that the flight we do get leaves at around 5…this way we will be in MCO by 7:30, hopefully at the resort by 9. I’ve never taken ME this late in the day so I ‘m not sure how busy it will be. Well to make an already long story short, we’ll get to bed Friday night & have a good nights sleep & wake up all refreshed to tackle Disney!
I guess now would be a good time to introduce the gang right? Well here you go: First there’s Me – you can call me Rose, I’m 27 (28 by the time the trip comes) years old. I work full time in the accounting department for a Steel Company. I love Disney, I have since I was a little girl & went to see Little Mermaid for the first time! This will be my 7th trip to the world. Then we have the hubster – Mike - he is 32 & puts up with my Disney craziness! This will be his 5th trip & I can proudly say I converted my husband! He was NOT a Disney lover until his first walk through EPCOT on our firs trip. He became a true Disney world fan after our first trip with our son. Now he’s actually telling me we should go sooner than our september trip. LOL. Next up you have our beautiful son Mikey who is 3.5 & will be a week away from his 4th birthday during our trip. We are acutally celebrating his fourth birthday there! He is love all things Mickey & Cars. I’m such a Disney mom, we decorated his room after Andy from Toy Story (Blue with Yellow Stars). He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse & Cars. Loves to talk, is not shy at all & loves Mickey Waffles! Can’t wait for this trip...he was 2.5 on our last trip so I cannot wait to see him in the parks now! Next up we have our first timer….my mommy! =D She is __ year old & the best. She has been dying to go to Disney since we went on our first trip with Mikey. She is so excited to see him in the parks & with the Characters! I on the other hand can’t wait to see her face when she walks down Main Street & sees the Castle!! So there’s us…I’ll be giving you more info on us as we go along…so you’ll have to stick around.

So a few weeks ago I had to task of getting up at 5:30 am & get ready to make all our reservations for our great 2011 Trip! Boy did I spend hours upon hours trying to figure out where we are going to eat. My mom is easy – she will eat anything. She loves seafood, pork, beef, chicken etc. Me on the other hand LOVE seafood but am allergic to shellfish  which totally sucks because I do love shrimp!!! Oh yeah I’m also allergic to peanuts – but not deathly allergic like some people are. Hubby hates pork or anything that’s not beef or chicken but he eats veggies – me not so much. Our son is 4 - & picky like most 4 year olds. One day he likes something, the next he hates it. See what I mean….so many picky eaters. Then I had the daunting task of trying to get our reservations be close to what parks we’ll be in that day. We will be going with park hoppers – a first for us. We never really park hopped because it was just so much work with a huge stroller and a toddler. But now since it will be 3 adults & I want to get the most of our trip, I decided that park hopping would be the way to go this trip.

So I’ve been planning our days a bit more just to make sure that I can get the most out of everything & I’ve had to change things around & re-arrange meals including canceling a few and making a few new ones. Here is my itinerary including our reservations. I tried to plan where we were eating only. I’m not going to plan every ride in order. I think that would scare my mom a bit! LOL! Of course since we are going in the Fall I cannot pass out on MNSSHP. I am willing to go on either on Tuesday 9/27 or Friday 9/30. I would REALLY like to go on Tuesday, it’s smack in the middle of the week so you’ll have a lot less locals. On our 2009 trip, we went in Sept with Free Dining & a few weeks before we left they ended up extending a lof the the park hours. Which if they do will be welcomed….however I’d like to know what you all think. Should I go for plan A with MNSSHP being on Friday or Plan B with MNSSHP being on a Tuesday.
9/23 - Arrival day!! This will be the first time we have ever arrived at Disney in the evening. I am hoping that I can book a flight that gets us into MCO by 7. I don’t know how busy DME will be on a Friday evening…but I am hoping we can be at our resort by 9 the latest. We’ll probably head to the food court and grab a snack unless we’re really hungry & then MAYBE we’ll go to DTD & have something at Wolfgangs. Hoping to unpack & organize all our stuff & prep everything for the following day.

9/24 – ::SIGH:: Our first morning at Disney World! =D I don’t know about you guys but I find it hard to FULLY sleep knowing that you’re only hours away from walking down Main Street USA! Hopefully we won’t have too much trouble getting up because we need to be at the bus stop by 7:30 the latest ( I am really hoping we can all be ready by 7 and out the door)! Where is our first stop you ask? To see Cinderella Castle of course!! Now I am super excited for our first day due to the fact that this will be my mom’s first full day at Disney…EVER! Our tradition has always made Magic Kingdom our first park. We have a breakfast ADR at 8:20am! MK doesn’t open till 9 this morning so I am super excited to get some great shots in front of the Castle without a million other people. I can’t wait to see my mom’s reaction when she first sees Cinderella Castle! I’m sure I’ll cry ( I always do during our first walk through Main Street!) After some Mickey Waffles we’ll head to Fantasyland. Not sure at this point what will be open. I am really hoping that Dumbo is still there so my mom can get on with her grandson! For this morning we’ll try to do as much of FL as we can, then move onto Liberty Square & Adventureland. I would LIKE to head out of the park around 1. Depending on how hungry we are we’ll either eat lunch in MK or wait for the resort. If Mikey is tired we’ll try to get him to nap or we’ll take a swim. After that we’ll head off to Epcot! By this point I’m sure we’ll be hungry so we’ll head straight to Sunshine Seasons, first I’ll check to see if there are any FP for Soarin & then we’ll eat. After dinner we’ll do Living with the Land, and mostly stay in Future World. On our last trip we found out about Innovations (Sad I know) We had never really gone in the two buildings so we didn’t really know what to expect. We ended up LOVING it. I got to try out a Segway, and we played a few games & even made our own video game. We’ll jump on SSE & do whatever else we can do in FW since mostly everyone will be heading towards WS for Illuminations! Once Illuminations starts we’ll make our way towards the bus & leave before the crowds. Hopefully we’ll be in bed & asleep by 10.

9/25 – Day #2! I’m hoping that we can get up at around 6:30 & rush to get breakfast by 7:30 at the Sassagoula & be at the bus stop by 8. We have never seen RD at Epcot so I’m hoping we can make it this morning. First stop…SOARIN’! Going to try to do as much of FW as we can & then head on over to WS! Lunch will be somewhere in the WS…depends in what country we are in when we get hungry. We’ll head back to the resort around 2 & just relax at the room till 5. At 5 we’ll jump on a bus to Epcot & transfer to the Monorial and head over to the GF for our 1900 Park Fare @ 6:10p. I am planning on checking in as soon as we get there & maybe be sat a bit early. I want to try to catch the monorial right after dinner & try to make it to MK to hopefully catch the 8pm Electrical Parade. MK is open till 1 am tonight & I plan on having us take advantage of that! We’ll hit Tomorrowland & hopefully ride the Mountains at night! Get a few Mickey ice creams and enjoy MK!

9/26 – Day #3 - Sleep in day!!!! I’m sure we’ll be getting up late! If we wake up earlier than expected we’ll grab something small for breakfast & enjoy a swim. At around 1 we’ll head back to Epcot. Well start on the Canada side & work our way around. We won’t stray to far from France thought…we have dinner at Les Chef De France @ 4:40p. After dinner we’ll leave Epcot through International Gateway & take a walk to the closest resort to board a bus heading over to DHS for EMH till 10. The new Star Tours will up & I am hoping we can get FP for this! We’ll hit up all the rides/attractions that are open take a few pics here & there and then leave around 9. I want us to go to bed early because the next day we have to be up early!

9/27 – Day #4 – Back to DHS in the morning! Run for FP’s for TSM! Hopefully we luck out! For lunch we will head over to our favorite pizza: Pizza Planet!! Yes I know….but for some reason the pizza here tastes the best out of all the other CS places & my son enjoys playing the games. Not sure what time we plan on leaving but hopefully we are done with the park by 3 or 4. We’re gonna head back to the resort & take the boat ride to DTD to have dinner & do some shopping. Once back at the resort we’ll go for a late swim & off to bed. Or we’ll do plan be which is:

***Plans may change & we may end up with doing the morning the same but then doing MNSSHP at night. If we do we’ll leave DHS at like 3 head to the resort, rest for a bit and head back out at like 5:30. I didn’t make any TS this day because it was my original day to do MNSSHP. ***

9/28 – Today we’ll head on over to AK in the morning (if we do MNSSHP we’ll sleep in a bit & I’ll try to change the tusker house reservations if not just cancel it since I did make a few extra reservations) We have Tusker House reservation at 9:20 for Breakfast. Honestly for us AK is a one day park. I love the park & it is a beautiful park. But for us we always end up finishing in one day & are satisfied with it. We’ll leave at 4 before the hordes of people leave at 5. We’ll go to the room for a bit and just wind down & head back out to Epcot at 7. We have reservations at Coral Reef at 8:15 at Epcot so we’ll spend the night there & FW has EMH. I want to try to finish up the WS tonight. If we do end up doing MNSSHP the night before we’ll make it to AK one other day if not this will be the only day.

9/29 – Back to our lovely MK! We have Chef Mickey ressies at 9:25 for breakfast! I want to try to catch the RD show for MK and then from there head over to the Contemporary for breakfast. After breakfast back to MK we go. I plan on taking it a bit easier and not rush as much this day. We have dinner reservations at Captains Grille at 5p and after dinner we are heading to DHS for our only chance of catching Fantasmic! Hopefully we can catch the show, we have missed it on our three previous trips & I don’t care if we stand….we have to see the show! After fantasmic back to the resort we go!

9/30 – Today we’ll sleep in a bit and then head on over to Epcot! We have a lunch reservations at Le Cellier @ 12:55! After lunch we’ll head back to the resort & start getting ready for MNSSHP! If we end up doing MNSSHP on 9/27, then plans for today will be get up early & head on over to AK. We’ll then have lunch at Via Napoli at 3 & maybe dinner at Tutto Italia & of course we’ll cancel our Le Cellier reservation.

10/1 – If we do MNSSHP the night before then we’ll sleep in, if we don’t then we’ll head over to Epcot and enjoy our last day with a nice lunch at Le Cellier at 1:30. We’ll do a quick walk around to do any last minute things we may want to do again. Then bid farewell to Epcot! We’ll monorail it over to MK for our last night at MK. Dinner will be at Tony’s at 7:05. We’ll stay till closing! & then off to the resort to start on packing. =(

10/2 - Departure day! =( Let the tears being. We’ll wake up and start packing & head over for the breakfast. We may take a quick boat ride to DTD for a bit and then come back and head on out!