A year without Disney? Who am I kidding?!(a PTR) LINK TO TR!

[DisneyCrafter]

Friday September 30

Our first full day!

We won't be waking up early this day, that's for sure! It will be a slow starting day. We'll have to catch a cab over to the Dolphin after breakfast to check-in as well. Once we've done that there are a few ideas I have as far as plans go.

We can either head over to Epcot to eat our way through the booths as the Food & Wine festival begins today. Yum!

We can always hang out by the pool if it is terribly hot because I don't see us having much of an appetite if we're eating out in the hot sun!

or perhaps we'll just head over to the Animal Kingdom for the afternoon!

It really is up in the air as far as what we'll do this afternoon.

What I do know we'll be doing today is heading over to the Magic Kingdom in the early evening. As far as dinner, to be honest, I'm not a fan of the CS options in MK but 'm sure we can find something to satisfy us when hunger strikes! Perhaps we'll stop at Contempo Cafe before going over to the MK to have our dinner. I love that place!

At 7pm MNSSHP begins and we have tickets for this night!

We missed out on this last year and I debated about seeing it this year but Greg would like to attend and my cousin Jackie said it is really neat, so we're going!

I'm most looking forward to seeing "Hallowishes", the headless horseman, having some great photo opps with the villains and getting our picture taken with all of Snow Whites little friends, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the Cinderella carriage will be out as well!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Sounds like a great start to me!! I would absolutely start a vacation like that if it were just me & DH!

 

[Nermel9]

Your first day plans sound great! I think the way you are starting your day is perfect, I would love to relax on our first day! I'm HOPING our room is ready when we get there so we can rest a little before heading to the parks!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I think you guys will have an awesome first day That plan sounds great!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Sounds like a great start to me!! I would absolutely start a vacation like that if it were just me & DH!

I went back and forth about going to Food and Wine at 11am when WS opened and then go back to the pool later but I don't want to go in the heat of the day. I'd rather be by the pool!

Your first day plans sound great! I think the way you are starting your day is perfect, I would love to relax on our first day! I'm HOPING our room is ready when we get there so we can rest a little before heading to the parks!

I think one of the most important things to do when visiting Disney is to SCHEDULE rest time. If you're not having fun in the parks it's time to leave, rest, and go back later. I usually have my melt downs in Animal Kingdom for some reason...

I think you guys will have an awesome first day That plan sounds great!

Thanks! I'm just really excited that Greg loves Disney just as much as I do now. I bought him a lanyard and a little green alien shirt and I plan on purchasing some pins on Ebay to give him as part of his birthday present in August.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Saturday October 1

This is our Universal Studios day! I was here only once before in 2004 and we only visited the IoA side. DH was in Universal Studios Hollywood in 2008 and I couldn't tell you (and neither could he, I'm sure) when he last visited Universal Orlando-if ever. We both want to go primarily for...

We plan on arriving as close to opening as possible but the rental car desk at the Dolphin doesn't open until 8am so we may be delayed just a bit. I'm sure we'll head over to the Forbidden Journey first. Then take our time walking through the stores and such before exploring the rest of IoA. We will definitely head over to the other side of Universal before leaving as I have never been on that side. I'm not sure where we'll eat lunch but it will be counter service somewhere.

Once the park closes or once we're finished, I want to stop at the Disney Outlet Store. We had meant to return here on our last trip but we never went back and they had so many Walt Disney World items!

Once we've had our fill of Disney shopping, we'll head to...

(Downtown Disney)

for dinner at...

However, depending on our mood, we may just end up eating at WGPE. We'll obviously shop through the stores before returning the car and crashing! I've also listed alternate plans as going to the Magic Kingdom or or walking along the boardwalk. Heck, maybe we'll even go to Epcot to eat around the world!

 

[Nermel9]

You're going to Universal on the 40th anniversary of MK???

That's actually probably a good plan! I want to avoid MK that day, but at the same time, if they do anything special and I miss it, I'm going to kick myself, so I'm leaving that day kind of open!

I really want to squeeze in Universal on our trip at some point, but I can't figure out when or where! It looks like so much fun, I haven't been there in so long!

They decorate DTD for Halloween? That looks so cute! Portobello sounds great, I'd love to try it someday!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I'm loving the plans so far! I think your arrival day sounds great. I think it's nice to kind of ease into the vacation and not hit the ground running immediately. My "desired" itinerary for any trip is to arrive late afternoon and just spend the evening getting familiarized with the hotel and then either a fun ADR or some shopping at DTD. I feel like if I get to Disney in the morning, I have to go to a park, you know?

 

[DisneyCrafter]

You're going to Universal on the 40th anniversary of MK???

That's actually probably a good plan! I want to avoid MK that day, but at the same time, if they do anything special and I miss it, I'm going to kick myself, so I'm leaving that day kind of open!

I really want to squeeze in Universal on our trip at some point, but I can't figure out when or where! It looks like so much fun, I haven't been there in so long!

They decorate DTD for Halloween? That looks so cute! Portobello sounds great, I'd love to try it someday!

Don't think for a second that it hasn't crossed my mind. However, I have been reading on the DIS that they really aren't planning on doing anything special. If it changes and I really want to be there, we can change our plans.

We had the same problem on our last trip. I just couldn't fit it in. This trip, however, we are spending one day less in WDW but adding Typhoon Lagoon AND Universal Studios. Go figure!

Portobello's menu sounds the best to me out of the others in Downtown Disney. I'm very excited to try it!

I'm loving the plans so far! I think your arrival day sounds great. I think it's nice to kind of ease into the vacation and not hit the ground running immediately. My "desired" itinerary for any trip is to arrive late afternoon and just spend the evening getting familiarized with the hotel and then either a fun ADR or some shopping at DTD. I feel like if I get to Disney in the morning, I have to go to a park, you know?

Technically, that's not our arrival day. We arrive the night before but we won't get to bed until late and it definitely won't allow us a full night's sleep if we try to make it to a park early that day.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Cruise TR Day 6 and 7: The End!

Okay, I’m going to finish this February Cruise TR portion of this PTR completed so I can move on to the Disney World Girls’ Weekend Trip!

Unfortunately, I don’t have very many pictures to share with you but all the better to move on!

This day was our last day on the cruise, our day at sea. We definitely slept in this morning as we had been up late the night before enjoying the late night activities the cruise had to offer. We went to the buffet (again) and managed to find something to eat. I think at this point in the trip my body had enough of the processed, below par food. Once we ate breakfast we headed to the pool area, which was PACKED. We managed to find 2 loungers on the second level overlooking the pool area. We changed the direction of them once or twice to face the ocean but the sun was particularly hot that way so it didn’t last long.

Again I dozed and eventually I headed over to the buffet to grab us some food while Greg headed to get us some BBQ chicken that they were grilling near the pool. Except…he DROPPED it on the way back. BUMMER. It looked sooo good!!! Oh well! (Speaking of, I can smell BBQ right now. Literally.) We lasted until the late-ish afternoon before we had enough of the sun and we headed to our room. We did the majority of our packing at this point so we wouldn’t have to worry about it later this evening.

After we were finished packing, changing, and freshening up, we headed to one of the lounges to play Bingo. It was EXPENSIVE. I believe it cost us around $50 for 6 games. Ah well, I enjoyed an apple martini while playing and it was delicious! I remember glancing out the window at one point to see that it was raining.

What perfect timing that we chose to come inside when we did. The rain did not affect our sun time ONE time this cruise! YAY! After bingo we headed to the dining room to eat and we were sat with a different waiter who basically ignored us. We still gave our tip to the other waiters, however. They really were amazing! We then went to the goodbye show which was decent but not anything spectacular. I don’t remember what we did after this, so we most likely went back to the cabin to go to bed. We were both really feeling the motion of the ship this night. UGH.

Departure Day (Day 7)

On our departure morning we woke up bright and EARLY to disembark the ship. We went to the buffet and it was packed! We got a little something to eat and had to go upstairs to the pizza seating area. We hung around there for a bit before we made our way to the theatre to wait for our number to be called. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. They were running 30 minutes behind. It definitely was a hurry up and wait kind of morning.

Once we exited, we grabbed our luggage (same as an airport with the luggage on large conveyer belts) and headed out to find our bus. Wow, did we encounter some RUDE and UNHELPFUL people. I had our vouchers so I went up to the man standing at the podium and grunted and gestured toward a bus so we went over to the driver and luggage handler and showed them to our voucher and he was clueless as to whether or not Southwest was at the Terminal he was stopping at. He must have thought it was going to be an extra trip for him so he called the other guy over and yelled at him. Seriously?! I will NEVER use RCCL transportation AGAIN. I don’t appreciate being treated like that. Making me feel bad for taking transportation that we paid over $70 for!

We made it to the airport and grabbed some lunch from Panda Express and believe it or not it was our best meal in days. We had a bit of a wait before our flight departed so we headed to the Disney EARport and did some souvenir shopping! That was, again, just one of the times I wished I had spent the entire vacation surrounded by Disney.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I enjoyed your mini-TR - thanks for sharing the good & the bad.

I can't wait to hear about the girls weekend at Disney!!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

I enjoyed your mini-TR - thanks for sharing the good & the bad.

I can't wait to hear about the girls weekend at Disney!!

You're welcome. I enjoyed sharing it with all of you!

I am debating whether to create an actual TR for the Girl's Trip. I actually think it may keep my PTR flowing better. We'll see...

 

[DisneyCrafter]

This past weekend I went shopping at Old Navy and pretty much right when I walked in the door I saw this...

Of course I bought it!

That's all for now, stay tuned for another update coming soon!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Ooo... you got that at Old Navy? Wow - I'll have to find time to get over there this week!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Ooo... you got that at Old Navy? Wow - I'll have to find time to get over there this week!

Yup! They actually had another one, too!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

I think I need "help". I just changed our flight from Chicago to Florida...AGAIN. That makes 3 times. I guess 3rd time is the charm. Well, I mean, I do have good reason. Greg's new job doesn't allow him to carry over vacation days, so instead of having a half day on our departure day, he'll have the entire day off. We are supposed to land in Florida around 11am instead of at 11pm!

I think we are going to take a limo/town car to the airport so we don't inconvenience Greg's parents on a weekday morning. I called and from our house to the airport it's $87 one-way. Not too bad and definitely worth it to sleep in our own bed the night before. It's the same limo service my library used to take us to a conference and they were punctual and efficient.

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

It sounds like the change in flights is a good decision! How great that you'll get all that extra time! I also like the idea of the car service. I don't think that price is bad at all!

 

[Nermel9]

Yay for changing flights! It's always nice getting to Disney earlier! And the car service sounds like a great idea! I'll have to look into that, I don't want to bother anyone asking for a ride to the airport, but I hate leaving our car in long term parking!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Yay for an extra Disney day!!!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

It sounds like the change in flights is a good decision! How great that you'll get all that extra time! I also like the idea of the car service. I don't think that price is bad at all!

I think it's best to use the transportation. The only downside for coming back we won't have our car so if Greg's parents pick us up they'd have to drive us all the way back home-and we live about 45 minutes from them. I think we may end up using it both ways. I still don't know what to do with our cats, however. Greg's dad just found out that he's allergic so I don't think they will watch them for us. May be time to find a pet sitter in the area to come over each day to feed them.

Yay for changing flights! It's always nice getting to Disney earlier! And the car service sounds like a great idea! I'll have to look into that, I don't want to bother anyone asking for a ride to the airport, but I hate leaving our car in long term parking!

I don't like the idea of our car sitting in the long term parking lot, either. Especially after being on vacation to have to worry about taking a shuttle to your car. Just a big hassle when all you want to do is go home!

Yay for an extra Disney day!!!

We don't have any plans to visit the parks but just to relax, settle in, and have a nice dinner!