A Safari Christmas Goes Pop! (w/pics)

[njdisneyfreak]

No, I'm not kidding. I was sharing some reviews about the Tusker House breakfast, and how great people thought it was, and my DH began wondering if we should maybe try to work it in more than once. Well, of course that meant looking at the itinerary again, and once again me reassuring him that once will probably be fine and we can always try to change one of our breakfasts once we're there. Whew! Avoided another potential itinerary change.

If you read my last PTR, you would understand. We changed our ADRs so often, that I began getting repeats of a number of CMs who actually remembered prior times that I had called! Now, that's bad. So, I'm really trying to minimize the changes this time.

I don't know whether to stop looking at posts or just stop sharing about them. Hah! Who am I kidding? I'm loving all of this.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

We are beginning to read some of the reviews, and it's making us want to shift some of our itinerary. . .MAYBE. We are thinking about whether or not they are going to have the T-Rex place open in time for us to go, and when they'll make an annoucement about that.

If they do open it in time for us to go, we're considering giving up Narcoossee's to go there on our first night, since we'll be in DTD shopping anyway, and possibly going to Cirque de Soleil, which we've never gone to. On top of that, we've been reading so many great reviews of Chefs de France, a restaurant we've never been to, that we are wondering whether we should switch one of our other dinner ressies to a second dinner at Chefs de France. We're considering giving up Ohana for that.

On our last trip, we weren't overly thrilled with Ohana's food quality, but we chalked it up to a possible bad night in the kitchen, and we were in the last seating for the night. Now, we're seeing Ohana reviews, and it sounds like it might be iffy. They changed the sausage to shrimp, which might be a good thing. I never really cared for the sausage. The potatoes, which I enjoyed, have been changed to noodles. That might not be so bad. They also now have pork fried dumplings among their appetizers. I can't remember what they replaced, but if they're anything like dumplings I've eaten fron Chinese restaurants around me, I'll love them.

We haven't decided anything yet. So, stay tuned. My DH is playing golf today, so I'm sure we'll talk more about this later and try to make some more decisions.

On another note, I began looking at last year's pics from our trip to WDW. I didn't go to sleep till midnight, because it was so nice remembering. It got me even more psyched, as if that's even possible, about going in just over five month. You may have noticed that I added a second ticker for my trip below. I saw the second one on another person's post and really liked it, so I added one. My DH laughed and said I was crazy, but he admitted that he liked it, too.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

On someone else's thread, they explained to me how the Segways Tour will work. She shared that "the Segways have a small storage compartment on them so you can stow your stuff there. If you have more items than can be stowed, they might be able to help you at Guest Relations, but it wouldn't hurt to call ahead and check! And they stop a few times for pictures -- the one that DH posted above was taken at the longest designated picture stop in Italy. The CMs were very happy to take pix for everyone, and you get Spaceship Earth right there in the background. I think you'll love the tour!"

I had wondered where we would keep our belongings since our tour in the park is over an hour from when the park opens. So she explained that the Segways have bags on the front. I was thrilled to learn about the picture taking opportunities!!! I think booking this tour was the right choice.

 

[bellasmommy0]

Not that I am rushing my DD to grow up, but I look forward to someday doing all of these tours.

 

[Raecheal]

On someone else's thread, they explained to me how the Segways Tour will work. She shared that "the Segways have a small storage compartment on them so you can stow your stuff there. If you have more items than can be stowed, they might be able to help you at Guest Relations, but it wouldn't hurt to call ahead and check! And they stop a few times for pictures -- the one that DH posted above was taken at the longest designated picture stop in Italy. The CMs were very happy to take pix for everyone, and you get Spaceship Earth right there in the background. I think you'll love the tour!"

I had wondered where we would keep our belongings since our tour in the park is over an hour from when the park opens. So she explained that the Segways have bags on the front. I was thrilled to learn about the picture taking opportunities!!! I think booking this tour was the right choice.

Great Tip. Thanks... I have aready booked this tour for our up coming trip. We had seen the segways while we were at Epcot (looked so much fun) but just had no clue... Thanks for this tib bit of information. I hadn't even thought about where our small backpack woud go.. etc. etc,...

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Not that I am rushing my DD to grow up, but I look forward to someday doing all of these tours.

There are a lot of tours she'll love, as will the two of you, as she gets older. But, have you considered the Disney's Family Magic Tour? It's meant for families, particularly young kids. Here is the description of it from the wdwinfo website:

Family Magic Tour: A fun filled scavenger hunt at the Magic Kingdom that the entire family can enjoy. You’ll follow clues in pursuit of a Disney villain to thwart his evil plan. Lots of fun surprises and character interaction are in store as your detective skills save the park from dastardly deeds.

It's a 2 hour tour and there's no age restrictions. Maybe this is something you can do on your upcoming trip or something to try for next time. They say it's done at 10 a.m. daily.

Great Tip. Thanks... I have aready booked this tour for our up coming trip. We had seen the segways while we were at Epcot (looked so much fun) but just had no clue... Thanks for this tib bit of information. I hadn't even thought about where our small backpack woud go.. etc. etc,...

Cool! You'll have to tell me how the experience is when you get back. I loved the short intro I got of it in Innoventions, though I know that some people have a hard time handling it. I have a good sense of balance, so I enjoyed it immensely and can't wait to ride it around for a longer period of time.

Did you find the Crocs flip flops or are you going to order online?

 

[bellasmommy0]

There are a lot of tours she'll love, as will the two of you, as she gets older. But, have you considered the Disney's Family Magic Tour? It's meant for families, particularly young kids. Here is the description of it from the wdwinfo website:

Family Magic Tour: A fun filled scavenger hunt at the Magic Kingdom that the entire family can enjoy. You’ll follow clues in pursuit of a Disney villain to thwart his evil plan. Lots of fun surprises and character interaction are in store as your detective skills save the park from dastardly deeds.

It's a 2 hour tour and there's no age restrictions. Maybe this is something you can do on your upcoming trip or something to try for next time. They say it's done at 10 a.m. daily.

I will have to check into that, it sounds like fun

 

[Raecheal]

Did you find the Crocs flip flops or are you going to order online?

Hmm... still looking. I have been so busy.. my inlaws are coming to visit tomorrow for a couple of days. In cleaning mode.. I'm hoping to sneak out tomorrow for an hour and check. I am so excited. I didn't even noticed, but looking back at our trip in 'o6 i wore my black crocs the entire time.. clearly this purchase will be a good one.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

I will have to check into that, it sounds like fun

If you are able to book it, you'll have something else to share in your TR!

Hmm... still looking. I have been so busy.. my inlaws are coming to visit tomorrow for a couple of days. In cleaning mode.. I'm hoping to sneak out tomorrow for an hour and check. I am so excited. I didn't even noticed, but looking back at our trip in 'o6 i wore my black crocs the entire time.. clearly this purchase will be a good one.

Understandable that you haven't been able to go look. I go nuts cleaning whenever company is coming over, even rooms you know they will never go into. . .you know, just in case. Oh, so you have already worn Crocs before. At least you'll know that you like them. I can't wait until my pair arrives so I can see what I think.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Like I said in one of my last posts, we were rethinking some of our dining. After looking over menus, reviews and our itinerary we made the following changes:

Tues. 12/23 - Narcoossee's was changed to Planet Hollywood (Don't think we've lost our minds. We moved Narcoossee's.)

Sat. 12/27 - Flame Tree or Toy Story Pizza (We were going to do one or the other.) was changed to Nine Dragons

Sun. 12/28 - Ohana was changed to Narcoossee's (We weren't sure if we wanted to go back to Ohana after our not so great experience last time and so many bad reviews from others.)

Tues. 12/30 - Wolfgang Puck Express was changed to Bongo's Cafe Express Window, though while we are DTD we may choose to eat anywhere, since we're paying for this meal.

Also, right now we plan to eat lunch at Mara when we arrive at the AKL, and when we head over to DTD get a nice ice cream treat at Ghiradelli's. That has to be one of the best ice cream places ever! YUMMY!!!

If we make any more changes to the itinerary, I think I'll do the changes in this format, with a final overview of the itinerary before the trip. What do you all think of the changes?

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Last night, I began reading reviews about Planet Hollywood. We hadn't been to PH since 2002, so we wanted to see if anything had changed. Wasn't happy with what was in the reviews. They were overwhelmingly negative. The food was mentioned as subpar, the service okay, the food portions if on the dining plan smaller than if you pay OOP, and on the dining plan, you have to share a dessert. Something told us that this was not what we remember from 2002 and that we might not be happy with our experience, especially with it being our first dinner.

So, we booked Boma's for that night instead. It made sense, since we don't usually spend more than a few hours in DTD. Besides, it would be nice to see what our resort is like in the evening and what they have to offer, also we will get to sleep at a reasonable hour for our first full day at WDW!!!

 

[Raecheal]

Your ticker countdown looks good. Way to go on the weight loss! I lost 40 pounds last year, so I understand how hard that is. I am working on losing more before this upcoming trip. It's the only reason I'm glad that the trip isn't literally around the corner. Definitely continue on with your goal. Then, you can really celebrate when you go to WDW!!!

Congrats on the 40pounds. Keep at it. It's def worth it, especialy when 2/3 of my clothes no longer fit.

I haven't started.. but i really should get my butt in gear. I get up at 430-530 am every morning and I just find by the time i get home from work (a 1 hour commute) I"m exhausted. Then to have to go back out to the gymm.. it always feels like so much work.

 

[Raecheal]

Understandable that you haven't been able to go look. I go nuts cleaning whenever company is coming over, even rooms you know they will never go into. . .you know, just in case. Oh, so you have already worn Crocs before. At least you'll know that you like them. I can't wait until my pair arrives so I can see what I think.

I am the exact same way.. no matter who is coming over to stay... i go nuts cleaning. You never know when a person might end up in your home.
Yah, I got a pair a crocs years and years ago before they became known everywhere.. it was just by chance. My dbf and i were walking through the mall and came across them they were ugly, but when i tried them on they were sooo comfortable. So i bought them.. like a couple of months after that they were EVERYWHERE. THey def. are comfy. How long is does shipping take?

 

[Raecheal]

Like I said in one of my last posts, we were rethinking some of our dining. After looking over menus, reviews and our itinerary we made the following changes:

Tues. 12/23 - Narcoossee's was changed to Planet Hollywood (Don't think we've lost our minds. We moved Narcoossee's.)

Sat. 12/27 - Flame Tree or Toy Story Pizza (We were going to do one or the other.) was changed to Nine Dragons

Sun. 12/28 - Ohana was changed to Narcoossee's (We weren't sure if we wanted to go back to Ohana after our not so great experience last time and so many bad reviews from others.)

Tues. 12/30 - Wolfgang Puck Express was changed to Bongo's Cafe Express Window, though while we are DTD we may choose to eat anywhere, since we're paying for this meal.

Also, right now we plan to eat lunch at Mara when we arrive at the AKL, and when we head over to DTD get a nice ice cream treat at Ghiradelli's. That has to be one of the best ice cream places ever! YUMMY!!!

If we make any more changes to the itinerary, I think I'll do the changes in this format, with a final overview of the itinerary before the trip. What do you all think of the changes?

Those look like good plans.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Congrats on the 40pounds. Keep at it. It's def worth it, especialy when 2/3 of my clothes no longer fit.

I haven't started.. but i really should get my butt in gear. I get up at 430-530 am every morning and I just find by the time i get home from work (a 1 hour commute) I"m exhausted. Then to have to go back out to the gymm.. it always feels like so much work.

I was like that with each gym I joined. Depending on how my day went or sometimes even the weather, I wouldn't always want to go to the gym. Finally, I decided that if I'm going to stick with exercising, I might as well put the money towards exercise equipment and videos. It's worked.

We got an exercise bike, an ab lounger, weights and various videos. My favorites are the dance/exericse videos and the Billy Blanks boot camps videos. They're fun and make you sweat a lot. Having this stuff here gives me no excuses and has worked for me. I also never did well at gyms where I too often found too many catty women who seemed to be compare other women with themselves and too many guys who think they are amazing specimens and have a right to check out every female who passes their way. Just too much hassle for me.

It helps that my DH participates with exercise and eating well with me. The support is key.

I am the exact same way.. no matter who is coming over to stay... i go nuts cleaning. You never know when a person might end up in your home.
Yah, I got a pair a crocs years and years ago before they became known everywhere.. it was just by chance. My dbf and i were walking through the mall and came across them they were ugly, but when i tried them on they were sooo comfortable. So i bought them.. like a couple of months after that they were EVERYWHERE. THey def. are comfy. How long is does shipping take?

Those look like good plans.

I ordered mine from a sporting goods store, http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/home/index.jsp since it was a little cheaper than buying from Crocs. But I found that the Crocs website has a Canada website. Since you're in Canada, I thought you might be interested. Here it is: http://www.crocs.ca/. Happy Shopping!!!

Oh, I wasn't sure if you realized you could respond to various posts all at once. I noticed that you responded to three of my posts separately, which is cool with me, so I thought I would mention how to do it. All you do is click on the second button on people's posts. It has the quotes and plus sign on it. When you have done that on each person's post, click the Quote button on the final post you're responding to. Just be sure you also clicked the second button on that one, too. Does that make sense? Then, you'll see all the postings come up, with space for you to respond in between. I hope this helps.

Did you see that I changed my itinerary yet again?

 

[njdisneyfreak]

That is one of my favorite attractions at the MK. I've gone to see it since I was a young kid. My only complaint is that it has remained the same, as far as memory serves me, through my entire life. I just read that it's being refurbished from 9/28-10/31. I wonder if this means a change is in store. That would be kind of neat. I know that I liked the improvements that were made to the Tiki Room attraction. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

You may have noticed that I haven't mentioned airline tickets in my planning. That's because we haven't booked them yet. Fortunately, we are going to get at least one of our tickets for free, through our points from whenever we make purchases with our card. We have enough points for one ticket already, but are hoping that the prices go down just a bit. If they do, we may be able to get both tickets for free! We almost have enough points for two tickets (when we make our final payment for the trip, we'll have more than enough points), but the prices have to go below $1,000 total to use them on the selected airlines that are part of the program. So, send some pixie dust our way, and we'll see what happens. The one airline we'd like to use has a 6:50 a.m. departure that would be perfect for us. We'll just keep monitoring the prices. With gas prices they way they've been, I'm not overly hopeful to get more than the one free ticket, but hey, Disney is all about the magic, so I haven't lost all hope.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Yup! We changed some of our dining once again. This time, we were looking at our New Year's plans. We looked at the Brown Derby restaurant for our dinner choice that we had, and after looking at the menu, we couldn't remember why we chose it. The menu didn't look that great to us, though I'm sure it's a nice place.

So, we looked at our other Studios choices, and decided to go with Mama Melrose. I know we had it earlier in the trip as a lunch, so we switched that meal to 50s Primetime, which has good food and is always entertaining! Then, for our first day, we scheduled Wolfgang Puck Cafe for lunch. We figure that if we make it in time for the lunch that's great, and if not, no biggie. We'll eat at Mara's as originally planned.

So, are you all sufficiently confused now? Should I just go ahead and post all of my itinerary all over again?

Also, we contacted one of the Disney sites to see if we could be one of their guest bloggers on our trip. How cool would that be? It was actually my DH's idea. I hope they agree. It would definitely be something new. I'll let you all know if they contact us with a response.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

The Crocs arrived today! I'm so psyched. The flip flops fit perfectly and feel real cool. It's a strange sensation against your feet, but good strange. I am going to wear them as much as possible, to see how I like it. I still haven't decided which shoe style I want though. I still have time for that. My DH will get to try his shoes on tonight. I hope he likes his.

Also, we've been accepted as guest bloggers for our trip!!!! We got a response this morning. Is that too cool or what? We'll be doing a blog on WDW for the holidays, including pics, each day of our trip. My DH and I are so excited about this. I am so glad my DH suggested that we look into this. Hopefully, doing these PTRs and TRs will have prepared me for doing this.

This is going to be the best trip ever!

 

[Raecheal]

The Crocs arrived today! I'm so psyched. The flip flops fit perfectly and feel real cool. It's a strange sensation against your feet, but good strange. I am going to wear them as much as possible, to see how I like it. I still haven't decided which shoe style I want though. I still have time for that. My DH will get to try his shoes on tonight. I hope he likes his.

Also, we've been accepted as guest bloggers for our trip!!!! We got a response this morning. Is that too cool or what? We'll be doing a blog on WDW for the holidays, including pics, each day of our trip. My DH and I are so excited about this. I am so glad my DH suggested that we look into this. Hopefully, doing these PTRs and TRs will have prepared me for doing this.

This is going to be the best trip ever!

Thanks for the tip about the quotes. Your sweet!! WOW You got your flip flops. Congrats. Did you DH like his?

I made my way to the mall with the Dbf tonight, i found every style of crocs EXCEPT the flip flops... i may have to call around the city and/or order online. I still have two months.
what is a guest blogger?