A very merry unbirthday to me! Sept 2016 PTR ** 8/18/16**

[saratriceratops]

Well, well well. I am turning 30! So I'm going to Disney!!!!!!!

​

Oh let me back up. My name is Sara and I have only been to Walt Disney World once in my life before. It was last year for only 1 day. I completely adored it and immediately started scheming to get back. My sugar pie, hunny bunch wanted to go to Orlando for a soccer game for his birthday last year and suggested, "Why don't we go to Disney too?"

Can you tell I was... ummm... a little excited??
​

Since we were only going for the weekend, and it was his birthday we reserved a room at Port Orleans Riverside. I used all the advice from these beautiful DISboard Fairy Godmothers and sent a lil fax and lo and behold we got an upgrade to a royal room for free. That's not even the half of it, the whole trip from the moment we arrived was totally magical and I completely fell in love with Disney. Now that my big bday is rolling around, we are going back for 6 days.

This is my very first Trip Report (so please be kind) but I've enjoyed reading them so much I thought I'd give it a try!

Very pleased to meet you!
Check out the next installment here​

 

[Raeven]

Following along ! Our trip starts the week after yours.

 

[KnK]

joining in.....you'll be warming up the park for us. We arrive about the time you leave.

 

[saratriceratops]

Thanks for following along ladies
@KnK and @Raeven

 

[saratriceratops]

Allow me to reintroduce myself....

I think I forgot a few things last time around!! Intro part 2..... Even though September seems far it is actually very close, especially in Disney time when you have to plan everything WAY ahead. Dining is mostly set, FastPasses are coming up next weekend so my planning obsession is in full swing. Here's a bit more of an intro and the basics of our trip.

WHO

Sara

excuse me I'm just enjoying this potsticker at Lotus Blossom

Birthday Girl.
Likes: Alice in Wonderland (animated), Ursula, Up, Epcot World Showcase, Dole Whip
Dislikes: crowds, waiting in line

Rene

Finds my Disney obsession totally weird, but indulges me anyway
Likes: Monsters Inc, Beauty and the Beast, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Extra Magic Hours
Dislikes: Everything else. Just Kidding!

WHAT
Birthday celebration in allll the parks!

WHERE
Coronado Springs Resort

WHEN
September 8th - 13th

WHY
Our last visit was a series of travel disasters, cutting our total vacation to 2 days and our time in the parks from around 1pm to midnight which was also my first visit to WDW, Ren's first since childhood. Sooo this time around, I want to see and do as much as possible, but also relax as much as possible impossible? Stay tuned...

see the next installment here ​

 

[bethannie203]

I am going to be there that week also! Along with my DH and his parents! They have been as a family like 15 times, and since I married my hubby 2 years ago, we have been back twice and are planning another trip in September. (Hooray for free dining! My first time on the dining plan!) I was already a lover of all things Disney, but I had only been to Disney World once as a kid and didn't have very many memories of it. They have instilled in me a MAJOR love of the parks! It's our vacation destination of choice! I hope you guys have a magical trip!!

 

[Raeven]

I know what you mean it's so close but so far So close after doing most the planning so far ahead, but it still feels like forever!

 

[kclark9830]

Sounds like a blast, and I love that pic of you in MK. Magical!

 

[saratriceratops]

I am going to be there that week also! Along with my DH and his parents! They have been as a family like 15 times, and since I married my hubby 2 years ago, we have been back twice and are planning another trip in September. (Hooray for free dining! My first time on the dining plan!) I was already a lover of all things Disney, but I had only been to Disney World once as a kid and didn't have very many memories of it. They have instilled in me a MAJOR love of the parks! It's our vacation destination of choice! I hope you guys have a magical trip!!

Awww thank you for your kind words! I have never done the dining plan either, I keep looking a menus trying to maximize it then I'm like chill out sara, it's FREE just get what you feel like eating!! Hahaha

 

[saratriceratops]

Sounds like a blast, and I love that pic of you in MK. Magical!

Thank you

 

[saratriceratops]

Accommodations & Dining


I'm back with more pre-trip planning deets! Of course it is pretty much the only thing I EVER think about! This would be INCREDIBLY boring if I included every change and detail so I'll do my best to avoid that

Last time we came to WDW, we stayed in POR which I absolutely loved but I wanted to try something new this time. My main requirements were; not totally overrun with kids (I know, I know. It's Disney. But can't a gal hope for a little romance?) fairly close in on Disney Transportation, great pool & pool bar and reasonably priced. Based on everything I was reading and seeing (and *gulp* our budget) I had narrowed it down to either CBR or POFQ. Soo what would any reasonable disney fanatic do? I took to the DisBoards. I posted asking for advice, and while there were a lot of good answers with pros and cons for each, I got one recommendation I was not even considering from @Babsy and @HopperFan - Coronado Springs! They calmed my fears that it would be too business like and assured me that I was mistaken about the distance and it is actually quite centrally located. @HopperFan sealed the deal with GORGEOUS photos. Check it out: http://www.disboards.com/threads/resort-advice-pofq-vs-cbr.3514955/#post-55854610

One more reason it is perfect for us: we recently got married in New Mexico!

We live in New York City but neither of us had ever been to New Mexico before. We love the scenery of the desert so that's where we decided to elope to! Here we are at Soda Springs, the place where we exchanged our vows. It was very windy! It was a beautiful trip but (of course) too short, so I'm hoping CSR will help us relax and bring back some memories.
THE SPECIFICS: After making my selection, I discovered we would be there during FREE DINING! So I called reservations and found out that only the business class was available for free dining (which is secretly what I wanted anyway...shhh don't tell) I explained the whole thing to DH, who doesn't really get all this Disney stuff, and he said he would think about it and I just yakked his ear off about the lounge and what a great location we would have and bla bla bla that the next day he texted me "ok book it" We will be staying in Business Class, Cabanas 9B with free dining!

Speaking of dining.....

We love food. LOVE. I am a librarian in a culinary school, and I even write a newsletter called Snacks in the Stacks. DH operates a food factory. We both LOVE to eat and cook. Last time we were at WDW we had a couple of QS duds and after our bad experiences and seeing the loooong lines we ate most of our other meals off property. One thing I don't like about WDW (SACRILEGE) is how there is no spontaneity. You pretty much need yr ADRs in place months in advance. There is no "I feel like Chinese" or whatever, you have to just plan how you will feel

Lesson learned the hard way! Those who fail to plan plan to fail! Going against my spontaneous instincts, I've booked some ADR and written lists of TS & Snacks I want to find!

ADR as follows:
9/9 - Lunch at Tiffins, Dinner at Tusker House
9/10 - Lunch at BOG, Dinner at Kona
9/11 - Dinner at Sci Fi
9/12 - Dinner at Chefs de France
9/13 - Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare

I was *really* hoping for Ohana! I have been stalking the dining site and I even signed up for the Lines app from touring plans for the reservation finder. I have also been shuffling these around like crazy. Might drop 1900 Park Fare - any thoughts? It is our last day AND my actual birthday so I may prefer to stay at the resort and chill at the pool. Also, does anyone know if Chef Remy visits at Chefs de France still? I saw that on an old TR, we love Ratatouille and that was my main reason for booking it! We might prefer to skip a table service on Epcot night because its so fun to walk around and try a bit at each country.

Fastpasses this weekend, so I will update when I have some clue of what we get! Thank you for following along & bye for now

See my itinerary here ​

 

[Raeven]

Accommodations & Dining


I'm back with more pre-trip planning deets! Of course it is pretty much the only thing I EVER think about! This would be INCREDIBLY boring if I included every change and detail so I'll do my best to avoid that

Last time we came to WDW, we stayed in POR which I absolutely loved but I wanted to try something new this time. My main requirements were; not totally overrun with kids (I know, I know. It's Disney. But can't a gal hope for a little romance?) fairly close in on Disney Transportation, great pool & pool bar and reasonably priced. Based on everything I was reading and seeing (and *gulp* our budget) I had narrowed it down to either CBR or POFQ. Soo what would any reasonable disney fanatic do? I took to the DisBoards. I posted asking for advice, and while there were a lot of good answers with pros and cons for each, I got one recommendation I was not even considering from @Babsy and @HopperFan - Coronado Springs! They calmed my fears that it would be too business like and assured me that I was mistaken about the distance and it is actually quite centrally located. @HopperFan sealed the deal with GORGEOUS photos. Check it out: http://www.disboards.com/threads/resort-advice-pofq-vs-cbr.3514955/#post-55854610

One more reason it is perfect for us: we recently got married in New Mexico!

We live in New York City but neither of us had ever been to New Mexico before. We love the scenery of the desert so that's where we decided to elope to! Here we are at Soda Springs, the place where we exchanged our vows. It was very windy! It was a beautiful trip but (of course) too short, so I'm hoping CSR will help us relax and bring back some memories.
THE SPECIFICS: After making my selection, I discovered we would be there during FREE DINING! So I called reservations and found out that only the business class was available for free dining (which is secretly what I wanted anyway...shhh don't tell) I explained the whole thing to DH, who doesn't really get all this Disney stuff, and he said he would think about it and I just yakked his ear off about the lounge and what a great location we would have and bla bla bla that the next day he texted me "ok book it" We will be staying in Business Class, Cabanas 9B with free dining!

Speaking of dining.....

We love food. LOVE. I am a librarian in a culinary school, and I even write a newsletter called Snacks in the Stacks. DH operates a food factory. We both LOVE to eat and cook. Last time we were at WDW we had a couple of QS duds and after our bad experiences and seeing the loooong lines we ate most of our other meals off property. One thing I don't like about WDW (SACRILEGE) is how there is no spontaneity. You pretty much need yr ADRs in place months in advance. There is no "I feel like Chinese" or whatever, you have to just plan how you will feel

Lesson learned the hard way! Those who fail to plan plan to fail! Going against my spontaneous instincts, I've booked some ADR and written lists of TS & Snacks I want to find!

ADR as follows:
9/9 - Lunch at Tiffins, Dinner at Tusker House
9/10 - Lunch at BOG, Dinner at Kona
9/11 - Dinner at Sci Fi
9/12 - Dinner at Chefs de France
9/13 - Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare

I was *really* hoping for Ohana! I have been stalking the dining site and I even signed up for the Lines app from touring plans for the reservation finder. I have also been shuffling these around like crazy. Might drop 1900 Park Fare - any thoughts? It is our last day AND my actual birthday so I may prefer to stay at the resort and chill at the pool. Also, does anyone know if Chef Remy visits at Chefs de France still? I saw that on an old TR, we love Ratatouille and that was my main reason for booking it! We might prefer to skip a table service on Epcot night because its so fun to walk around and try a bit at each country.

Fastpasses this weekend, so I will update when I have some clue of what we get! Thank you for following along & bye for now

​

From what I've heard Chef Remy isn't at Les Chefs anymore. I would've loved to see him he's so cute! But I think that was a couple years ago.

I hope you get Ohana!

We're staying at CSR in December! My boyfriend also wanted a resort that was more adult for his birthday trip, and I thought it looked gorgeous.

 

[saratriceratops]

From what I've heard Chef Remy isn't at Les Chefs anymore. I would've loved to see him he's so cute! But I think that was a couple years ago.

I hope you get Ohana!

We're staying at CSR in December! My boyfriend also wanted a resort that was more adult for his birthday trip, and I thought it looked gorgeous.

Oh no, no Remy! Might have to cancel I have heard CSR is great, it was a close second choice for me. Enjoy!

 

[Raeven]

Oh no, no Remy! Might have to cancel I have heard CSR is great, it was a close second choice for me. Enjoy!

I still think the food there looks really good, but I'd love to meet Remy too so I understand. We're going to be trying most of the moderates in the coming year, but that's one of the ones I'm most excited for!

 

[absolutmey]

I hope the TP reservation finder works for you (fingers crossed). It worked for me in two days to get a BOG lunch

 

[saratriceratops]

I hope the TP reservation finder works for you (fingers crossed). It worked for me in two days to get a BOG lunch

WOW that's great! Thank you for the good news and enjoy BOG!!

 

[Babsy]

WE really enjoy breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. The strawberry soup is very yummy!! The Mad Hatter can be a lot of fun, as well!

I hope that you get O'hana's. Are you looking for dinner or breakfast? We have only had dinner there, but it was amazing! It was a late reservation, but we kept it anyway and we were glad that we did! We had a table near a window and were just finishing dinner when the Wishes fireworks started! We had a perfect view right at our table! So magical!

Good luck!!

 

[saratriceratops]

WE really enjoy breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. The strawberry soup is very yummy!! The Mad Hatter can be a lot of fun, as well!

I hope that you get O'hana's. Are you looking for dinner or breakfast? We have only had dinner there, but it was amazing! It was a late reservation, but we kept it anyway and we were glad that we did! We had a table near a window and were just finishing dinner when the Wishes fireworks started! We had a perfect view right at our table! So magical!

Good luck!!

Ooh thanks for the rec! It's always so hard to decide!

At Ohanas I am only looking for dinner. Sound like late is the way to go! I would love to see Wishes from the poly!

 

[saratriceratops]

Itinerary

Hello hello, I am back with much to report! This past weekend was very Disneyeventful for me It was my FastPass+ day, which also means online checkin day. I also got an alert from the Touring Plans reservation finder about Ohana! SO of course I shuffled a bunch of my dining around. The tricky part was, I was on vacation in Charleston with my mom!

We ate at Husk - phenomenal meal, HIGHLY recommend if you are in the area.
My mother does not understand the whole Disney thing, she thinks it's so strange and was trying to convince me we should go to Miami instead.

Now 7am on a weekday would be no problem, actually perfect timing to set them up on my way to work but we got back to our hotel around midnight the night before my Sunday AM FastPass day and I was NOT looking forward to waking up early to do them. The great thing is the MDE app makes it so easy! I actually woke up at 7, did everything on my phone in about 15 m and went back to bed! Got everything I wanted. "Well that was easy" I thought, until MONDAY when I realized I had scheduled our Animal Kingdom FPs for THURSDAY - our arrival day when we get in at 11pm!!! ARRGHHH! But that's ok, I switched everything over and was still able to get what I wanted.

Also didn't mention before I have been wanting to do Keys to the Kingdom tour for a long time, so I decided it would be a birthday gift to myself. I was surprised that DH wanted to go too (was planning to leave him in bed ) but he is interested in infrastructure and city planning, so he was gung ho to join. KttK comes with lunch (FYI) so for folks not on the dining plan that could improve the value. DH is also nuts about trains so I also booked us on the Magic Behind the Trains tour.

Now, without further ado the final (ish) itenerary!

Thurs 9/8 - Late arrival, check in at Coronado Springs
Fri 9/9 - ANIMAL KINGDOM DAY Slow, relaxing am, Lunch at Tiffins, FP+ for Safaris, Kali River Rapids & Expedition Everest, Dinner at Tusker House
Sat 9/10 - MAGIC KINGDOM DAY! Early am Magic Behind the Trains tour, BOG Lunch, FP+ for 7 Dwarves, Pirates and Haunted Mansion Dinner at Ohana, wanna sneak in Trader Sams either before or after and view the fireworks from the beach or Trader Sams terrace.
Sun 9/11 - KttK & HOLLYWOOD STUDIO DAY! AM Keys to the Kingdom tour FP+ Great Movie Ride, Star Tours and Tower of Terror Dinner at Sci Fi
Mon 9/12 - EPCOT DAY! FP + Spaceship Earth, Soarin and Mission Space
Tues 9/13 - MY BIRTHDAY and we go home

I made most of my decisions based on WDW Prep and Touring Plans but DH & I are pretty laid back and relaxed while travelling. I know spontaneity can be difficult at Disney but I'm gonna give it a try!

Next Installment Here​

 

[saratriceratops]

Ch-Ch-Ch Chaaaanges

Hello it's me again! Only 49 days left Well, just when I thought I had everything settled, Disney announced that they are bringing CLUB VILLAIN back! As you all know I LOVE Ursula, and also the Queen of Hearts. I am a huge villain fan. So I could not miss this. Of course after that shuffle I had to make a few additional shuffles....SO I will be at Club Villain on Friday Sept 9th at 8:30. Ursula won't be there but I have heart that sometimes there are surprise guests, so who knows. Even if not I will be very happy to curtsy to the Queen of Hearts and say "Yes Your MAAJESTSTY" in fact I am even scheming up a little Disneybound ensemble for the occasion... pix to come soon!
Speaking of outfits, I have started to plan what I'll wear. I read later that its so hot there in Sept some folks change 2 per day can anyone report back? Who has been in Sept? My first and only visit was in March and it was lovely. That said, I am from NYC and we definitely get some heat, supposed to be 97 & 70% humidity this weekend. Either way, I'll pack a few extra simple light dresses as back up. Here's the start of my packing...

The tops are all Uniqlo AIRism. I am telling you, I swear by this stuff, it works wonders! I used it last time I went and here during the summer. The brooch is Match Acessories, they have so much cute stuff!! The skirts are Pin Up Girl Clothing and ModCloth. That tropical one is for Ohana and Trader Sams I would never go without my beloved Mickey Watch. This is vintage deadstock from Seiko, my husband found it for me on eBay. Protip - there are some incredible Disney watches on eBay. I saw a great King Louie one where his arms went around

Club Villain Disneybound to follow soon! What is everyone else wearing in the parks??

Next installment here ​