A Very Merry unBirthday! We're taking a stroll on the Boardwalk_A Sept 2018 PTR_link to TR

[reyasmommy]

Great Trip report !

How is Miles doing?

I had wanted so badly to get my daughters first hair cut at the Main Street Barber, I prayed everyday that her hair would grow so it could be a possibility. ALAS, it did not and this is what she looked like on her first trip to WDW!




I think she was 5 when she ended up getting her first haircut!

Anyway ........ I look forward to reading more and hope all is well with Miles.

 

[ld4483]

OK, so, I'm finally back. I feel like the next month is a big month for my trip planning. Not only do Southwest flight schedules get released in a couple days (which will dictate a few other things), I also get to make dining reservations in one month! And then there is a decision to be made about park tickets because they'll probably be going up in price really soon, so...

Here we go!

First things first, where are we going to eat?! We won't have the dining plan, so that will change the way we eat. We went once without the dining plan. That was the first time we ever went, but it was a Make A Wish trip, so it was a little different. We stayed off property at Give Kids the World, and we ate most of our meals there. With that being said, there are definitely a few choice reservations I plan to try to snag!

Be Our Guest - lunch
I would honestly leave this one out if it wasn't a quick service for lunch (well, if it remains QS, with all these rumors going around!). We ate here back in 2014, and we did enjoy it, so I would like to do it again. I'm going to be trying for this either Sunday or Tuesday.

O'Hana - supper
I really want to do a meal that's a little more of an "experience" without the price of a dinner show, so I've settled on O'Hana. I'm going to be trying for this either Tuesday night (I'm guessing that'll be a MNSSHP night, so we'll plan to go to MK until party time), or possible Friday night or Sunday night.

Sci-Fi Dine In Theater
I could do without eating here again, even though I liked it, but Ashlyn specifically requested this one and I'm not going to turn her down.

Bon Voyage Breakfast at Trattoria Al Forno
This will be my one pick for a character meal. It's convenient to our staying at the Boardwalk (THE BOARDWALK, GUYS!!! sQUEeE!!!), and it's princesses, so...Hoping to get this on for Friday morning, our last day before flying out on Saturday. (Here are a few pictures of us meeting these princesses at other times, just so we won't go pictureless )

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Beaches N Cream
I've wanted to eat here for years, and again it's convenient to us staying at BWV. I want to get this either Saturday night (arrival day), or Friday night, or maybe Tuesday night if we can't get O'Hana. I'm flexible.

That's all of my MUSTS. We may slip a Cape May Cafe breakfast in there because my nephew is a huge Mickey/Minnie/Goofy/etc. fan. I don't remember who all greets at this one, but I know at least a few of them do. Which brings up another point -- my sister and her family are coming and staying at BWV too! That's no surprise to anyone, though, as we like going together.

Now on to flight stuff...
We will be flying in on a Satruday and out on the following Saturday. I'm hoping to take the earlist flights (well, earliest after the red eyes) on both days. But this will depend on pricing, of course. If prices aren't good just yet, I'll be waiting to see if tickets get discounted later. I should be able to find out soon, so fingers crossed!

And lastly, I have my great ticket debate. I'd like to buy tickets before the prices go up, but I can't decide if I want regular tickets or park hoppers. We'll be doing 6-day tickets. I love park hoppers, but I'm not sure if I want it bad enough to shell out the extra money. Think, think, think...

Speaking of think think think, has anyone seen Goodbye, Christopher Robin? We rented it tonight, so I'll let you know what we think.

Following along as we will be there September 1-8 also! We'll be across the lake from you staying at the Beach Club for the first time! Can't wait!

 

[kclark9830]

Following along as we will be there September 1-8 also! We'll be across the lake from you staying at the Beach Club for the first time! Can't wait!

Thanks for joining in! The Beach Club sounds AWESOME!

 

[kclark9830]

Great Trip report !

How is Miles doing?

I had wanted so badly to get my daughters first hair cut at the Main Street Barber, I prayed everyday that her hair would grow so it could be a possibility. ALAS, it did not and this is what she looked like on her first trip to WDW!

View attachment 321678


I think she was 5 when she ended up getting her first haircut!

Anyway ........ I look forward to reading more and hope all is well with Miles.

Bless her! How sweet! Both my girls were bald as cue balls for the longest. I do think Miles has more hair than they did.

Miles is doing good . He will have a procedure Monday to check his heart and clear him to be off meds 100%!!!

 

[kclark9830]

Oh my gosh, that first haircut is going to be *adorable*!! Super exciting!

Your park days sound awesome! Busy, but not overly so--lots of relaxing time.

I can't wait. I just hope he behaves! LOL

 

[kclark9830]

Hiya guys! It is the eve of Mother's Day, which is not my favorite day (my mom is blessedly still alive; all of my children are not). I can't seem to shake the frowny face today, so what do I do to cheer? Look at Disney stuff, of course!

I've come to you with a question of "this or that?" It's not for our Disney trip, but it IS Disney related. I'm going to a writer's conference in July, and one night will be a costume banquet. I don't really want to wear a costume (a lot of people will dress up as characters from their own books, while others will dress as their favorite superhero or characters from...well, anywhere). I'm thinking of Disneybounding. I don't want to spend extra money on this, as I'm already spending a pretty penny just to go to the conference. That means borrowing clothes from my mom and sisters.

My two choices that I'm considering are:

SNOWHITE (I would wear a yellow skirt, blue shirt, and red sweater. Also, some type of an apple necklace/earrings) (think something like ... but no middrift)

OR

WINNIE THE POOH (I would wear same yellow skirt, with a yellow shirt, and a red sweater. Also, some type of honeybee/honeypot jewelry)

(think something like this...)

At some point I will have real pictures to share, but I have to actually gather these pieces of clothing from the fam. So, what do you think? Who do you like better? I don't have any of the actual jewelry yet, but I hope I can get something cheap for whatever character I go with.

 

[SweetSerenity]

Joining in! I'm looking forward to reading more about your PTR!

 

[Araminta18]

I'm sorry about Mother's Day being an unhappy day for you. But your distraction is an excellent one! I vote for Snow White, but mostly 'cause I like the princesses more than Pooh. That being said, I think both are excellent ideas and recognizable, without being too in your face or anything.

 

[ariane37]

Whoa, where have I been??
Your trip sounds great, and I vote for Snow White

(THE BOARDWALK, GUYS!!! sQUEeE!!!),

Excellent, I know you'll love it! We've stayed at all the Epcot resorts and while WL is my favorite, nothing beats the location of these resorts. And the evening entertainment on the boardwalk is so fun!

Beaches N Cream

Love it, just ate there again in March.

TODAY is whether I want to shell out the money in advance and do Hoop Dee Doo. I would love to do it, and had planned to do it when we were going to go in January. But now I can't decide. Any opinions on that?

Well after quoting this I read through the rest of your report so I know you're going with Mickey's Backyard BBQ, but want to say that we LOVE HDDR. We did it back in 2014 and the kids have been asking to do it again ever since. I had liked it then but could live without it. Well, we ended up doing it last minute in March and OMG, it was SO much more fun than I remembered! And the food is great. So if you happen to change your mind I don't think you'll be disappointed with HDDR.

What I would really like to know is if O'Hana and HDD are on equal footing, for both food and entertainment. If HDD is hands down better, then I would do that (and same with O'Hana)

We haven't been to 'Ohana in a few years for dinner; it's good. DH likes the meat lol. I prefer HDDR but since you want to eat at 'Ohana and have a dinner show booked anyway keep it, especially since you may not be back for a few years.

First off, baby Miles has a minor heart thing called SVT. He was diagnosed at 2 weeks old, and has been in and out of the hospital several times with it. He's been on two heart meds for it. Well, last month his doc cleared him to drop 1 of them! And next month he'll have a procedure to see if he's possibly outgrown it. If he has, he'll get to drop the other med!!!! I

I read that he was having a procedure yesterday? Fingers crossed it went well

he second happy thing is that my 7th novel released on Friday, and that is always exciting for a writer . So yay for books!

Congratulations!

 

[kclark9830]

Joining in! I'm looking forward to reading more about your PTR!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[kclark9830]

I'm sorry about Mother's Day being an unhappy day for you. But your distraction is an excellent one! I vote for Snow White, but mostly 'cause I like the princesses more than Pooh. That being said, I think both are excellent ideas and recognizable, without being too in your face or anything.

Thank you! It ended up being a good day overall, which was nice. Winnie the Pooh is a favorite of mine, but Im thinking Snow White might be more recognizable. We'll see!

 

[kclark9830]

Whoa, where have I been??
Your trip sounds great, and I vote for Snow White


Excellent, I know you'll love it! We've stayed at all the Epcot resorts and while WL is my favorite, nothing beats the location of these resorts. And the evening entertainment on the boardwalk is so fun!


Love it, just ate there again in March.



Well after quoting this I read through the rest of your report so I know you're going with Mickey's Backyard BBQ, but want to say that we LOVE HDDR. We did it back in 2014 and the kids have been asking to do it again ever since. I had liked it then but could live without it. Well, we ended up doing it last minute in March and OMG, it was SO much more fun than I remembered! And the food is great. So if you happen to change your mind I don't think you'll be disappointed with HDDR.


We haven't been to 'Ohana in a few years for dinner; it's good. DH likes the meat lol. I prefer HDDR but since you want to eat at 'Ohana and have a dinner show booked anyway keep it, especially since you may not be back for a few years.


I read that he was having a procedure yesterday? Fingers crossed it went well


Congratulations!

Thanks for all of the advice! I am still undecided about OHana. I've got the reservation...just haven't decided! Haha

Miles's procedure went FABULOUSLY! He did so well, and they found no evidence of SVT! YAY!!!

 

[reyasmommy]

YAY!!!!!! That's wonderful news! I love his big smile!

 

[KingdomBound]

Sunday - We'll be doing an early service at a local church, then Ubering straight to Animal Kingdom

I love this sooooo much! My husband is a pastor and our original plan was to leave right after church and head to WDW. We're in Augusta, Ga so only abt 6 hrs away. (We'll be there Sept 16-21) But he recently told me that he is going to take off that Sun and we will probably head down on Sat., stay in a hotel and go to church somewhere in Orlando. Do you mind sharing where y'all are going?

 

[kclark9830]

I love this sooooo much! My husband is a pastor and our original plan was to leave right after church and head to WDW. We're in Augusta, Ga so only abt 6 hrs away. (We'll be there Sept 16-21) But he recently told me that he is going to take off that Sun and we will probably head down on Sat., stay in a hotel and go to church somewhere in Orlando. Do you mind sharing where y'all are going?

I don't mind at all. Our plan is to attend Celebration Community Church in Celebration, just off WDW property. Our reasoning is basically that I can easily discern where it is, it's close by, and it has a 9AM service (having an early service was a must for me).

 

[kclark9830]

View attachment 322794

YAY!!!!!! That's wonderful news! I love his big smile!

He does have a GREAT smile. I just love this little bugger.

Y'all, the more I look at this picture the more I think his hair appt at Harmony Barber Shop is going to end up getting cancelled. Seriously, unless his hair grows quite a bit in the next 3 months, what are they even going to cut?! Haha!



On a different note, I've started a walking routine in prep for our trip. Anyone ever do Leslie Sansone's programs?

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I love her. For now, I'm doing 1-2 mile walks every couple of days. I'll build up my distance as the months go by.

We also printed this cute Disney countdown paper. We put it in a frame with a glass front so we can use a dry erase marker to change the number. Our count is at 104 days now! Squee!

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That means our Fastpass day is approaching in just over a month. I'm trying to put a plan together for that, but I'm not 100% on what I'm going for yet. I'll share it soon, though.

 

[reyasmommy]

LOL ..... I think you might be right about the hair! I would just keep the appointment just in case, it's easy to cancel if you need too. I'll keep my fingers crossed though!

 

[Araminta18]

Love your countdown board! And count me in the "keep the haircut appt just in case" camp

 

[kclark9830]

TECHNICALITIES
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I've been slowly working out more details for the trip. I've rearranged our plans (big surprise!), and made some other decisions. Let's see...where to begin?!
We've got -

ADR's
Buying Tickets/booking Fast Passes
Grocery Delivery

ADR's
I've made some pretty big changes to our ADR bookings. It all started because I was working out a schedule for choosing FP's (in just 27 days!!! Squee!!!). I realized I had really packed in a LOT of stuff for us to do, and it felt way too overwhelming. We're going to have a 1 yer old in tow, and I know we're going to get overwhelmed quickly if we don't make conscious effort to slow down a bit. Here's what I'm fairly committed to at this point:

- Garden Grill 11:30AM on Sunday (this got put back on the agenda at my sister's bidding, and I do want to eat here so...)
- Beaches & Cream 3:20PM on Sunday for a Kitchen Sink (yummo!) (this will happen durnig a planned resort break)
- San Angel Inn 5:45PM on Tuesday
- Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre 5:45PM on Thursday
- Bon Voyage Breakfast 9:45AM on Friday (resort day)
- Mickey's Backyard BBQ 5:30PM on Friday (resort day)

*You'll see I've cut out Be Our Guest, The Plaza Restaurant, O'Hana, and Yak & Yeti (which I had added on last week, but cut out already!!! hee hee)

Buying Tickets/Booking FP's

I will be buying our 7-day park hopper tickets in the next week or so (guys, we had SO MANY financial issues come up in the last couple months, and we were seriously discussing going to WDW and not buying tickets to the parks. We'd already paid for our DVC points, our plane tickets, and have Disney reward dollars to buy all of our food. BUT! It has worked out, and I can hardly believe how well. So no, we will not be spending 8 days at WDW without tickets.)

We book FP's in 27 days!!! Here's what I'm thinking:

* Saturday, MK, Buzz Lightyear around 3:30PM, Peter Pan around 5PM, and 7DMT around 6PM (this is Labor Day weekend, so I'm planning on MK being packed. I don't think we'll last much longer than 7PM)
* Sunday, Epcot, LwtL around 10:30AM, Pixar shorts around 1PM, Test Track around 2PM
* Monday morning, MK, Splash around 10:30AM, BTMRR 11:30AM, Jungle Cruise around 1:30PM (this is a party day, so I'm hoping for lowish crowds in spite of it being Labor Day. Any predictions on that? We hope to fit in all of Adventureland and Frontierland, and maybe Liberty Square). [We also have a 9:40AM rez for Harmony Barber Shop, and a 1PM rez for Pirates League] We plan to *maybe* hop to HS that night, if we can pick up any good 4th FP's.
* Tuesday, AK, Dinosaur 10:30AM, Kali River Rapids 12noon, Flights of Passage 2PM. We hope to do the UP! bird show, and Finding Nemo the musical. Today is the day I had hoped to do Yak & Yeti, but it will just be too busy. Will hop to Epcot this night, but plan to do WS only.
* Wednesday, ???, This day is really up in the air. I don't know where we'll end up, but I wouldn't mind booking a Navi River Journey (is that what it's called?) FP for sometime on this day. If we don't finish Liberty Square on Monday, we might come do it this day.
* Thursday, Hollywood Studios, ToT around 1PM, Star Tours around 3PM, SDD around 4:30PM. We hope to fit in shows throughout the day, including Indiana Jones, Muppets, and Frozen sing a long. We've never done any of these.
*Saturday, Epcot, Frozen Ever After around 9AM, and who knows after that!


Grocery Delivery:

I've never needed to do grocery delivery, but we'll be doing it this time. Considering Safeway delivery (I think that's what it's called?). They have a coupon for $20 off first order, and free delivery. We want breakfast foods, drinks, and snacks, mostly. We usually have the refillable mugs that come with free dining, but instead of buying them for $60 total, I'm thinking we'll just get 2-liters, and use ice and glasses.


Nighttime entertainment:
We've never done fireworks at MK, or seen Illuminations, or done Rivers of Light at AK. So, I'm determined to do at least one of these on this trip!

 

[KingdomBound]

I'm a total newbie at this but I've been doing alot of researching about FPs (42 more days! eek!!). Is there a reason you want your MK FP so late on Sat? It seems if you can get earlier FP times, then you have the opportunity to pick up more FPs in the afternoon, especially considering that it will be Labor Day weekend. Just a thought!

So glad that your finances worked out and you don't have to go to WDW without park tickets!