A Tale of Two Castles: A Summer PTR! (Update 7/16)

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Hello one and all!


For those of you who may or may not know me, I'm Elle:


That'd be me, this past August. I'm 27 years old living in the current snow capital of America, a 7th grade ELA teacher, a writer, and a Disney nerd (duh).

I wrote my first Trip Report ever on my last trip I took (which can be found here) and can't wait to write a new one again!

Except....well, this PTR will be a bit different then my last one because this is going to be a crazy summer for me.

Why?

Well, I'm going on not one but three vacations this summer!




It's all a strange set of circumstances, but I'll explain that in my next post, since this is just the introduction. Two of these trips are Disney trips while one is just a beach trip, but since they're all kind of intertwined with the planning and whatnot this PTR and probably my TR this fall will all intertwine in a ton of different ways.

So welcome! Please stay and make yourself comfortable

 

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Where Are We Going?


So this entire story is a strange set of circumstances that all came together over the last few weeks into an awesomely epic adventure!

Everything began in December...

The second week of December Jem and I went up to New Hampshire for a Christmas party. Jem, for those of you who haven't read my other PTR or TR is one of my closest friends - in fact, she's been my best friend since high school - and is my usual partner in crime when it comes to Disney trips. We were visiting friends up there, and while we were out shopping for the last minute dinner items that we'd need that night the topic of conversation went to our friends' honeymoon cruise. While we were talking we all started talking about a road trip a few of us had taken years ago to South Carolina. We all really wanted to have a road trip again, but the conversation was dropped once we got back to our friend Diane's apartment and later Jem and I just assumed that it was done.

Then it was Christmas. I always talk about disney with my family. My parents are huge Disney trip takers and my grandparents, while not really big into Disney, were the ones who took me on my very first trip to Disney sixteen years ago ('99 was 16 years ago. I just had a moment, excuse me. I'm kind of shocked! No wonder everyone was impressed my old car - which was made in '99 - had lasted til May!). My aunt is not a Disney person. She's been once, years ago, and she didn't do much. She liked it well enough but it wasn't her cup of tea. She always kind of mocked the fact that we loved it so much.

But recently her cousin and one of her closest friends began going, so over Christmas she started talking about it. When it was brought up at Christmas (my parents are going with students in March and we were talking about their trip, et cetera) so I told her flat out that if she wanted to go to Disney I would go with her. She kind of waffled about it, brushed me off thinking I was kidding, so I brought it up again in casual conversation at a dinner a week later - if she wanted to go I'd go with her.

Then, on my birthday a few days later, Jem and I were texting back and forth about going to Disney. Suddenly we were making a plan - we were going not to Disney World, but to Disneyland. Her mother said that the time we were going was perfect for her so we invited her along with us - we had gone down to Disney with her mother last March and it was a really great time so we were really glad that she wanted to come too.

Then, suddenly, last week I got an email from Heather, one of our friends. She had started looking for rentals down in Myrtle Beach for us for a week in the summer and the price was ideal for our group of friends. It was a great price and we haven't gotten to take a vacation together since college. The Saturday after that my aunt asked me out for lunch and asked if I'd do a five day/four night vacation with her to Disney.

So.

That's where we are now and the situation I'm in. And believe me, it's an amazing situation to be in. If any of you read my PTR from my last trip, last year was kind of a bummer of a year for me - we had a lot of issues with our apartment company, I had a job that I was constantly on pins and needles about constantly and ended up leaving, and I was panicking about expenses and the problem of having to buy a new car. For both Jem and I last year's trip was kind of a "well, life stinks - let's go to Disney!" trip. It seems like this is a complete turn around and I'm really glad for it!

Here's a breakdown:

Walt Disney World
Dates: June 29-Jul. 3
Where: Boardwalk
New Things: This is my first Deluxe resort. Seriously. The best part about staying with my aunt is that she's very picky about where she stays and she wouldn't even look at the Value Resorts. But since we're staying for fewer days we're staying here and I couldn't be more excited! One thing that does make it difficult is trying to figure out what to do with my aunt who is not a big ride person, so I think we're going to be focusing a lot on shows and food.

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Dates: July 18-25
Where: Beachfront condo
Why?: A lot of things I'll be buying for Disney World and Disneyland will also be used for Myrtle Beach. Also a lot of planning's going to overlap, since there's like two weeks between each trip they'll kind of all be talked about. Obviously this PTR will be mostly about Disney but there's no way around talking about everything at times so I'm just adding it here.

Disneyland
Dates: Aug. 9-14
Where: Fairfield Inn
New Things: I've never been to the West Coast or California (my mother will argue against that but I don't count in the womb) and Jem hasn't been to Disneyland since she was 2. So this will be basically an entirely new experience for both of us. And it's the 60th! Which we didn't realize when we first planned. I joked that they better put diamonds all over the castle when I found out and, well, I guess I was right!

 

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Calling All "Picky" Eaters


I hate that term, "picky eater." It makes it sound like those people who just aren't adventurous eaters pick at their food. Like literally poke at it and prod it and ick.

Anyway, I need your help if you identify yourself as picky or non-adventurous or a traditional eater or what.

See, I'm a pretty adventurous eater. I'll pretty much try anything once (I even went to San Angel Inn last summer and I have a huge dislike for Mexican food - and I actually really liked it there!) but my aunt just is not that adventurous.

So here's the situation I'm in:

We're going to be there for five days, but knowing my aunt and how she'd like to travel (food will be the experience for her moreso than the rides) we'd probably want to do more than one sit-down meal a day. What are some of your favorite TS restaurants? Especially for lunch/dinner because knowing what the two of us generally eat for breakfast the CS breakfast in the hotel is more than perfect for us. Also if there are any places with great salads that'd be helpful too, since I tend to not eat salads in Disney, but they're definitely something she'd look for.

 

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes


So thankfully we haven't made any concrete plans! My aunt found out that the class she has to take for PD ended up being scheduled during our dates. It hadn't been scheduled at all yet when we initially started planning but she asked me to put off putting down the deposit until after the dates were set. She emailed me yesterday while I was moving my furniture out of my apartment and asked if I could do any other dates so we decided on July 27-31.

This gives me a week between WDW and DLR with Jey, which is a little crazy but you know, whatever. I still have time to repack and do laundry, etc.

The one thing I'm worried about is the fact that we would be leaving the Monday after I get back from the beach. Which isn't a huge issue, but if we end up having to stop for the evening during the ride home then I'll only have a few hours to repack. I talked with my mother about it while running errands today before I committed to the date changes just to get an outside opinion and she and I decided it should work - I won't necessarily need all the same things for the beach as I would WDW and if I needed to wash anything beforehand she'd be willing to help me repack.

So! We're officially going at the end of July! We had to change our hotel. Well, okay, we didn't have to, but I suggested that we do to because the Boardwalk went up a tiny bit in price for the new dates and it pushed it juuuust out of my price range, especially with three trips in a row now. So we're staying at Wilderness Lodge instead.

I'm also thinking of taking her to the Garden View Tea. My dad (her brother) and I both think it'd be a nice surprise and I think she'd enjoy walking around the Grand.

 

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Hey, I'm in!

I was excited to see you were planning to stay at BWI, because we're really interested in trying it out in the future, and I would've liked to hear your take on it. We love the Wilderness Lodge (I've never stayed anywhere else!!), and I think you'll LOVE it.

I think I'm just as excited about your trips as I am about mine, lol. I'm really looking forward to the insider info on DL!

 

[esmee1sttip]

Subscribed to thread....

Sounds like a busy Summer for you! I am looking forward to hearing what you come up with for the more "reserved palate". While my family is willing to try new things, they aren't always in the mood to do so at Disney. We try to stick with less adventurous, fresh veggie/fruit while avoiding a lot of fried foods (notice I didn't mention anything about avoiding desserts .

We went to Myrtle Beach last summer. We loved the warm water (being from the Pacific NW, the water is quite cold) and the Sea Captain's House was absolutely the best food we had out there. Fish is so fresh and the hush puppies were heavenly (we still talk about them!).

I stayed at the Fairfield in DL in 2006 and could see the fireworks from our room. It is definitely a lot different from WDW resorts...it will be interesting to read about your observations.

 

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Hey, I'm in!

I was excited to see you were planning to stay at BWI, because we're really interested in trying it out in the future, and I would've liked to hear your take on it. We love the Wilderness Lodge (I've never stayed anywhere else!!), and I think you'll LOVE it.

I think I'm just as excited about your trips as I am about mine, lol. I'm really looking forward to the insider info on DL!

Thanks for joining in again! I was excited about BWI but it juuuust pushed the price out of the price that I could feasibly afford now that the time of the trip has changed. I'm excited about Wilderness Lodge! I've never stayed there. I've been inside and love the way it looks - I have stayed at Sequoia Lodge in Paris, which is definitely based on Wilderness Lodge but it was pretty shabby (pre-refurb) so I'm excited for the real deal

Subscribed to thread....

Sounds like a busy Summer for you! I am looking forward to hearing what you come up with for the more "reserved palate". While my family is willing to try new things, they aren't always in the mood to do so at Disney. We try to stick with less adventurous, fresh veggie/fruit while avoiding a lot of fried foods (notice I didn't mention anything about avoiding desserts .

We went to Myrtle Beach last summer. We loved the warm water (being from the Pacific NW, the water is quite cold) and the Sea Captain's House was absolutely the best food we had out there. Fish is so fresh and the hush puppies were heavenly (we still talk about them!).

I stayed at the Fairfield in DL in 2006 and could see the fireworks from our room. It is definitely a lot different from WDW resorts...it will be interesting to read about your observations.

Thanks for subbing!

Oh, I like the term "reserved palate" so much more than "picky eater." I'm hoping to get a solidified list of places by the end of the week (if not today; I've been playing around with ideas since Sunday) and any suggestions once I put it up would be helpful!

It's definitely a busy summer. I'm coming from MA so our normal beaches are in New Hampshire, down the Cape, or if we're especially brave Long Island Sound, and the water's definitely chilly up here in New England, even on the hottest summer day so it'll be great to spend time in the warm water. I went exactly five years ago this week but the water at that time of year was definitely still cold. I'll keep that place in mind when we go to Myrtle Beach and suggest for dinner one night!

I have a close family friend who, when he found out we were going to DLR, said he loved Fairfield Inn for exactly that reason. We chose it because it was the closest Marriot to Disneyland and was a great price for the week. I'm very curious to see the differences, and after spending the same amount of days in WDW a week earlier I'm very interested in the comparison.

 

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The Cavalcade


So, I figured I'd introduce the people I'd be with all summer, just to give you guys an idea of who I'm going to be talking about a lot in this PTR.

South Carolina:

I'll be going to SC with my best friends, known collectively as The Sitcom (from an inside joke):



From left we have Avery, Heather, Dan, Tierney, Diane, myself, Jey, and Rik. With the exception of Jey we all went to college together though she spent a lot of weekends with us once we had our own apartments. We'll also be going down to SC with Avery's fiancee Jacqui and we'll be meeting up with our friend Jon whilst there.

While I won't be putting much about the SC trip in my TR I will post a link to it in here and in the TR I do for my Disney trips to my (currently sadly unupdated) blog so I figured I'd mention them here. Most of us (minus Diane, Jey, and Jacqui) were in SC together 5 years ago today, weirdly enough.

Disney World:

I'll be going down with my aunt.



She's my father's older sister. We don't have a lot in common when it comes to our touring styles. I've been to Disney more times than I can count and she's only been once over ten years ago. She's shown vague interest in going bck in the recent years even though she was initially rather unimpressed the last time she went so I had to coax her to come with me. I'm trying to change my travel style for the week for her so she has fun and doesn't feel like I'm pushing her to do too much.

Disneyland:

I'm going with Jey and her mum.



Sometimes going by "Jem" or "Jey", we've been best friends for years. We lived together for the past two years though we've recently parted ways because we both needed to be closer to our new(ish) jobs. She's a very important part of my life and I'm so glad that we have so many things in common. Her mum's also an awesome woman, and is a great go with the flow travel partner. She also has an advantage over the two of us this time because she's the only one who has been or remembers going to Disneyland. She brought Jey when she was 2 years old but I've never been.

 

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Exciting News!

I've been in such a tizzy with my packing and unpacking that I completely forgot that this came in the mail!

!!!

I'm so excited to get this! It means we're just that little bit closer to going to Disneyland!


I also booked our WDW trip AND did our ADRs today (I'm running on some seriously extreme energy today I swear!) !!

By the time I went to book, there were no standard rooms available at Wilderness Lodge that fit our plans and my aunt was definitely coaxing me towards staying at BWI so um...yeah. We're staying at BWI!!!

I've been trying to figure out our meals all day whenever I had a chance at work. I think I ended up basically with my original plans that I had sent my aunt as a guestimate earlier this week but I'm not 100%. And! Everything was chosen off of the list of suggested places I had given her so they are places that we're both hopeful she'll like:

Monday, 27 July -
Dinner: California Grill

Tuesday, 28 July -
Lunch: Plaza Restaurant
Dinner: Via Napoli

Wednesday, 29 July -
Dinner: Artist's Point

Thursday, 30 July -
Dinner: Raglan Road

Friday, 31 July -
Lunch: Be Our Guest

 

[esmee1sttip]

I love getting the mail from Disney! It makes it seem so much more real and not just the plan floating around in our heads You have such an exciting Summer ahead and it is great to live vicariously through you.

 

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I love getting the mail from Disney! It makes it seem so much more real and not just the plan floating around in our heads You have such an exciting Summer ahead and it is great to live vicariously through you.

Mail from Disney is the best! And it also keeps my excitement going and gets me out of my head worrying so that's always a mega plus

Thanks for following along! This summer is either going to be awesome or I'm not going to know which way is up when I get back to work in August but we'll find out one way or another!

 

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Flights! (Part One)

For South Carolina we're not flying. It's just not necessary to us. It's only a day of driving. We've driven it all before, together, so we're not so worried about that.

As for Disneyland, well....I need to start finding flights for that.

But Sunday afternoon I went over to my aunt's to show her some pictures of the Boardwalk and show her the menus for the places we were eating at on Allears so she had an idea of what I had booked us for. While I was there she made a call to SouthWest. She wants to use the last of her points on her card so we used them to book our flight. We're leaving at 7 am on the 27th and heading out at 7 pm on the 31st. I'm glad she listened to me! She was saying that we'd need to get a hotel (we'd be going out of Providence. I don't really know why she thinks we'd need a hotel either way as her apartment is an hour away from Logan and Green no matter what) but I talked to my parents (who just got home from their own Disney trip with my father's students yesterday) and they're willing to drive us to the airport and pick us up.

 

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One More ADR!

My aunt, who I've explained in the past, is not an adventurous eater. Well, Sunday at Easter dinner my parents were talking about their favorite meals (they're planning on going around the same time, not the same dates but just after we come back so I can dog-sit) and they mentioned that they loved Boma. My aunt was incredibly interested in what they were saying, because it was a buffet without a character meal, so I decided to surprise her with an ADR there for breakfast one day!

 

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Another Trip?!

Yes! But, not for another year. Next April, Jem and I are thinking of going to Disney, since she's not going at all this year and I'm only going for a few days with my aunt. So we've been talking about going during my April vacation next year, April 16-23, 2016. We'll probably stay at All Star Sports to save money unless there's a great deal going on, and we'll be doing a regular meal plan. I should be working on my drafts right now but all I want to do is start working on this trip (even though, I mean, what is there to work on 361 days out?) so I'm thinking that, while I'm watching the marathon, I'll make some lists. Because I'm an over-planner.

 

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Ok, I'm a super-slacker and got behind!

First of all, Woohoo! BWI is back on!

Second, I really love the Disneyland mail! We're still over a year out from our trip West, but I'm very excited about it.

Third and finally...another trip!! Hooray!! I'm already making notes for our big trip in 2018 and our potential mini-trips for MNSSHP and Christmas 2016 or 2017. There is ALWAYS Disney planning going on at our house, lol!! So based on that, your April 2016 trip is basically tomorrow

 

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Ok, I'm a super-slacker and got behind!

First of all, Woohoo! BWI is back on!

Second, I really love the Disneyland mail! We're still over a year out from our trip West, but I'm very excited about it.

Third and finally...another trip!! Hooray!! I'm already making notes for our big trip in 2018 and our potential mini-trips for MNSSHP and Christmas 2016 or 2017. There is ALWAYS Disney planning going on at our house, lol!! So based on that, your April 2016 trip is basically tomorrow

Thanks! I'm so excited BWI is back on! The Disneyland mail is adorable, and it's so weird because we don't have to do as much planning for DLR, so I'm really glad to have another Disney trip to get my hands into! I wish we were going (back) for MNSSHP - I haven't been since one of the first years and Jey's never been...someday lol. Happy planning!

 

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Flights! (Part Two)

So, we have our flights sorted away for California! Well, almost - Jey and her mum booked their tickets today, but I have to wait to buy mine until tomorrow when my money transfer goes through (Sundays are not the most opportune time to move money around). We'll be leaving Boston at 6:30 in the morning on a flight to Phoenix. We have a few hours of layaway in Phoenix then a flight at noon to LAX. Coming home we'll be going from LAX to Charlotte, then from Charlotte back to Boston. Not too shabby and the layovers aren't all that horrible (a couple hours in Phoenix and less than an hour in Charlotte).

 

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Flights! (Part Three)

I got my tickets this afternoon! I'm flying to California for the very first time ever! I'm way too excited for this you have no idea!! I honestly never thought that we would get to this point. Last time we were planning to go to California we had a hotel booked and then didn't follow through. I had the feeling that this was going to be our time to go because Jey's mum is coming with us but I was always really nervous that we weren't going to get here. that something wold come up and we woldn't be able to go.

So! Here's my current checklist!

* South Carolina hotel paid (Check!)
* WDW paid off
* WDW ADRs made (Check!)
* WDW FP+ made
* WDW plane tickets purchased (Check!)
* DLC paid off
* DLC bus tickets purchased (Check!)
* DLC plane tickets purchased (Check!)

I only have three things to check off! I'm almost done paying off my WDW package. I only have about 2 more payments to make, and then I'll do my DLC payment in one (possibly two) payments and I'll be done!

 

[KathyM2]

Hellooo! So glad to have found you!! Wow, you have a lot of trips planned and I'm trying to keep it all straight...I can only imagine how YOU can keep all the planning straight lol...but what a lot of fun!! You have some great ADR's...I LOVE Raglan Road...and BOG...those are the only ones I think I've tried on your list...oh and BOMA which was awesome too. So excited for you. How cool that you get to do both DLR and WDW in one summer!! Amazing!! Looking forward to following along. Also very jealous of your BOG ADR...have been trying to get one with no luck so far...but I'm not giving up!

 

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Hellooo! So glad to have found you!! Wow, you have a lot of trips planned and I'm trying to keep it all straight...I can only imagine how YOU can keep all the planning straight lol...but what a lot of fun!! You have some great ADR's...I LOVE Raglan Road...and BOG...those are the only ones I think I've tried on your list...oh and BOMA which was awesome too. So excited for you. How cool that you get to do both DLR and WDW in one summer!! Amazing!! Looking forward to following along. Also very jealous of your BOG ADR...have been trying to get one with no luck so far...but I'm not giving up!

Glad you found me! Welcome!

CALENDARS!! lol. It's the only way I'm keeping anything straight right now and even then...my desk calendar doesn't go far enough out (both it and the calendar I use for lesson planning only go to June) so as of right now I have to rely on my iCal to keep it all straight lol.

I love Raglan Road too, and I'm really hoping my aunt likes it. I've never been to Boma but I'm looking forward to it! And good luck trying on BoG!