A November To Remember

[carlaewalter]

First PTR, so hopefully I'm doing this right.
Dates: November 6-November 13
Staying at: Art of Animation (Little Mermaid)
Transportation: AirTran & Magical Express
Who: Myself (34), Tim-DH (41), Noah-DS (8), Gianna-DD (2)
Why: Get one last trip in before my daughter turns 3, and my husband has been working way too hard this summer, so we need some family time.

Unfortunately, we didn't qualify for Free Dining (our arrival date didn't jive up) and when I called about the Fall Room Special, all moderates were booked up for our dates but oh well, it's paid in full and I'm counting down the days



List of ADRs
Day 1-Arrival (Part 1)
Day 1-Arrival (Part 2)
Day 2-Animal Kingdom & 1900 Park Fare
Day 3-Epcot (Round 1)

 

[swimgirl1771]

Enjoy! Have a great trip

 

[carlaewalter]

Fortunately, I had most of our ADR's made before the Free Dining offer came out. Some of them are pretty late, but my kids are night owls, so I'm not expecting too much of an issue.

Tuesday, November 6-Chef Mickey's(9:05pm)
Wednesday, November 7-1900 Park Fare (8:00pm)
Thursday, November 8-Garden Grill (4:00pm)
Friday, November 9-The Crystal Palace (8:45am)
Saturday, November 10-Coral Reef (3:00pm)
Sunday, November 11-'Ohana (9:30pm)
Monday, November 12
Tuesday, November 13-Cape May Cafe (8:50am)

We had Biergarten, but changed over to Garden Grill to try something different. Nervous though because I haven't been reading good things about GG. Thoughts would be appreciated

 

[carlaewalter]

So day 1 starts off with us hitting the polls. DH was concerned that we would have to get absentee ballots, but I assured him that our flight wasn't until 11:16. We live about an hour from the airport, so considering the polls open up at 6:00, we shouldn't have a problem.

I haven't flown for 2 years (since DH's 40th birthday trip to Las Vegas) and our two kids have never flown. I'm definitely nervous about that. Noah (8 years old) won't chew gum either, so I'm hoping I can get him to eat a sucker or maybe fruit snacks during take-off and landing. Gianna (2 years old) will gladly eat any candy, anytime.

Once we've landed, we are taking the Magical Express. This is also new to us as the last 2 times we went, we drove. While I'll miss the convenience of having a car (mainly for grocery & beer runs), I love the idea of a 2 hour trip vs. a 15 hour one

We are staying at Art of Animation (Little Mermaid), and I've heard that DME drops off there first, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm sure we will be so excited to just be on Disney Property, that if we have to ride around a little while, we'll survive.

To be continued...

 

[carlaewalter]

We left off at us being dropped off from ME at AoA (LM). Our flight lands at 1:27, so I am hoping we can be at our hotel by 3:00 pm.

Originally, this was just going to be a pool/DTD day, but I've since did the math and decided to go ahead and add additional park days onto our package.

So, we're going to MK for a little while. We had ADR's for Chef Mickey's at 7:05, but since we've added the days, I went ahead and pushed our time back to 9:05. Kinda late, but my kids are night owls and will be flying high from the excitement, so I don't anticipate any problems.

We are also renting a stroller, so DD (2) will be able to snooze if needed while in the park.

I'm hoping to see Wishes at 8:00 and then head over to Contemporary for our ADR.

By this point, I'm sure we'll be ready to head back home for a much needed night's sleep. Or not , my son just may have enough energy to hit the pool.

 

[vleeth]

The Little Mermaid are looks cool. I think you'll have a great time!

 

[carlaewalter]

So now it'll be Wednesday, November 7. Plans today include hitting Animal Kingdom for most of the day. I'm sure we won't be there from 9:00-5:00, but will spend the majority of the day. Hoping to see Festival of the Lion King, as we missed it last time and also Finding Nemo. Depending on the air temp we may do Kali River Rapids, but I don't want to be chilly & damp for the day.

Of course we'll do the safari trek and I really want to get my son on Expedition Everest, but he's a bit chicken, so we may have to rider swap that one.

After AK, we don't have any plans until an 8:00pm ADR at 1900 Park Fare. I'm kind of nervous about this one as I haven't been hearing the best reviews. But, we are there mainly for the characters, so not too worried about it.

One night we would like to check out the Electrical Water Pageant since we've never seen it. With ADR's at Contemporary, Grand Floridian and Polynesian, hopefully we can catch it at least once

 

[lightmoonstone]

I am going to be there from the 2-15! I hope you and yours have a good time! i am so excited to see the new resort and Ariel is my favourite!!!

 

[carlaewalter]

Thursday, November 8 brings us to Epcot.

I hope to do Soarin' (never been) and also Spaceship Earth. For the life of me, I can't think of why we didn't do these last time. Probably because it was our first visit to Epcot and we were just enjoying the atmosphere. The kids were happy just looking around, so we went with the flow.

Epcot actually became my son's favorite park. So we have 2 days dedicated to it this trip. DH & I are looking forward to using some of our snack credits at the Food & Wine Festival

We also have an ADR at Garden Grill at 4:00. Nervous about this one since there are so many mixed reviews. Guess it's one of those that you either love or hate.

Depending on how much we get covered we may zip over to Magic Kingdom for the Main Street Electrical Parade. This is a strange day because DHS is closing at 4:00 and AK closes at 5:00. So because of this, MK & Epcot may be swarmed, so we may just head back to the resort.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

We had Biergarten, but changed over to Garden Grill to try something different. Nervous though because I haven't been reading good things about GG. Thoughts would be appreciated

i think you will be fine with garden grill, i have heard mixed reviews as well, but i think the kids will enjoy the characters, and the pictures of the food it actually looks pretty good to me.

Once we've landed, we are taking the Magical Express. This is also new to us as the last 2 times we went, we drove. While I'll miss the convenience of having a car (mainly for grocery & beer runs), I love the idea of a 2 hour trip vs. a 15 hour one

i found it a little later in our trip, but if you dont want to pay the 6 dollar per beer fee at the pool, they have 6 packs for 15 bucks in the coolers in the food court....i have also found a guy who runs a business in orlando who delivers beer to your resort, just have to get a case minimum and there is a flat delivery fee PM me if you want more info.

We are staying at Art of Animation (Little Mermaid), and I've heard that DME drops off there first, but I'm not going to hold my breath. I'm sure we will be so excited to just be on Disney Property, that if we have to ride around a little while, we'll survive.

on our bus we stopped at AKL first then our resort, but according to the sign for our ME line, it should have just been caribbean, pop, and art of animation...so might have been a special run that day, also there was no one at the airport when we arrived so they might have consilidated a line for convinence.