AliceNWonderland
This was not an encouraging opening for a conversa
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2009
- Messages
- 176
Background: First and foremost I need to admit that we actually have been to WDW once. My DD was 4 years old, my DH (still in training) was called to do a Disney commercial. Yes, we did not know how lucky he was at the time! He came back saying we need to go to Florida and take her, it will be great!
So we booked at the Portofino Bay Hotel and went for around 5 days.
The only reason I am adding the pre-trip info is to tell you we did not know our head from a hotel in the ground. I did little to no research and we did back to back parks. MK, HS, E, Ak & BB. Each taking one day. Oh, did I mention this was in July? We departed Florida on July 5th. Oh, my!
Years later, My DD and I started going to DL. As time passed we purchased our first AP. We have now been APH for two years and could never turn back!
Since the purchase of our AP my DD has turned into a Disney machine!
She is obsessed with all things Splash. So when the chance presented itself I said (very calmly) to DD "you know we could go to WDW for our vacation."
Please keep in mind the DD is now all hearts and flowers like me and DD are. So I was shocked when he said sure. SUPER WOW! We had been stashing money away in a vacation account for a while and I was hoping to see a good deal and jump on it ASAP. The Disney angels smiled and the 4/3 was introduced not long after our conversation. I called DD at work and explained to him what a fantastic deal this would be for us. He said go for it and we booked our trip for June in 09 on November 08. Little did I know I had stumbled upon the right path this time. December passed and I started to look into sites and guide books. I joined DIS and checked out various materials at the library. In January I decided to add the DDP. I wanted our vacation to have a no stress feel to it and the DDP looked like just the ticket. I posted on the DIS for the first time in January and joined chat as well. Scared and nervous I started to obsess about out trip. WHAT IF’s started popping on my head all day long. OH NO! Is this the stress before the no stress? I thought. Then I came across a post that said quality not quantity. Ah, yes this is a vacation, a Disney vacation so let’s have some fun with it! I added a counter to my posts and recruited DD to help me with all our planning decisions.
I started an item of the week box. Anything I knew we would need for our trip was put into my book. I would pick on item each week to add to my shopping list. After purchasing the item I put it in my box, waiting to be pack at a later date. I asked question after question on the boards and called Disney when I had the time. I contacted DT and purchased our airfare. We will red eye to and leave late for our return. CM suggests for us to add an extra day onto our tickets for $6.00 and I say YES, PLEASE!
Next I purchased a Passporter and started taking notes in my special Disney notebook. Mapping out a rough ADR plan, March was around the corner and the wait for the June calendar had began. I was pleased that we had booked so far in advance so that I could let my mind rest and return to my research. Late February we added PH and opted to use EMH at the parks.
During this entire time DD and I had not been to DL. It had been way to long. I decided to wake her up and take her last Sunday. This would be both a fun Disney day and time for a little recon. I started to look at Disney in a different way. The lines, the service counters, and the fast pass time clock. I was thinking about our upcoming trip and planning in my head.
Rough itinerary:
Arrive AM to WL June 14
Sunday – Arrive use Magical express. Check bags, off to MK.
B L D (R) Plaza
Monday – Epcot FW
B L (R) Coral Reef D (R) Garden Grill
Tuesday – Epcot WS
B L Yakitori D Cantina de San Angel
Wednesday – AK
B L (R) Tusker House D Yak & Yeti
Thursday – MK
B L Dinner (R) LTT
Friday – HS
B L Dinner (R) 50’s PT
Saturday–
B L Dinner (R) Whispering Canyon
Sunday –
B (R) Trail ends L Depart 7 pm
Well…a lot has been going on around my house and I am sad to report it is not Disney related. Hopefully all things non-Disney have passed and I can get back to my um hobby (obsession!).
When you last looked at my pre-trip report the June calendar was released, (yes, I cried a little) and I had taken my DD on a surprise trip to DL. A rough ADR itinerary was made and I posted my VERY FIRST pre-trip report. Now that a little time had passed I have been looking at the boards and rethinking my ADRs. This is crunch time people! I have six days to go till my ninety day mark. THIS IS IMPORTANT STUFF! I am going with some advice to go against the EMH but leave time open to park hop over to them if we feel like it.
Let me prologue my update with the fact that I have read bad reviews about Coral Reef as of late. One or two bad reviews would not turn me away from a restaurant but I would like to spare myself an unpleasant experience if I can. Please let me know if you would book or not?
Arrive EARLY Sunday – MK
Dinner – Plaza
Monday – Epcot WS
L Yakitori
D Cantina de San Angel
Tuesday – HS
B Trailends
D 50’s or Sci Fi
Fantasmic Show
Wednesday – Epcot FW
L Sunshine
D Garden Grill
Thursday – AK
L Tusker
D Yak & Yeti
Friday – AK*
B Whispering Canyon
D LTT in MK
Saturday open
Last day leave PM Sunday
B Cindy's or CP for rope drop
*Friday-AK optional extra day; use as needed.
Were to start…
I guess the reason I didn’t continue on was because we didn’t have a computer. BUMMER!
I seriously did our check in on the local library computer. I am happy that it worked.
Before we left I joined Tour Guide Mike and I found it to be very helpful.
I revised my last APs and we hit the redeye to Florida from California.
Thank you United for the upgrade into the bulk seats ☺ that did not recline and were positioned like the slant of a wall. ☹ We landed super early, hit the ground running with luggage in hand (carry on only) and got in the queue for ME. After a short wait we were off the WL. WOW,WOW,WOW! It is as beautiful as everyone says. We quickly changed in the women’s, checked our bags, grabbed our Key to the World Cards and made our way to the boat lunch to see the MK. Running on little to now sleep and pure childish glee and excitement we made it shortly after rope drop.
LIFE IS GREAT! At 11:30 – noon we headed back to see if our room was ready and feel asleep in the lobby until we woke to the sound of my cell. It was a Cm telling me our room was ready. Off we went to room 4004, end of lodge near boat dock, woods view. The rug was a little damp due to it had just been cleaned. Our Garden Grocer order was arriving and our shipped items came up with our checked bags. YESSS!
After a shower and another short nap we were off to MK again.
We ate at Pecos Bill and Harbor the first day. Yum!
Our second day was Epcot (FW)
We arrived early for rope drop and holy cow these people are serious! They all ran to Soaring so we went in the opposite direction. By lunch we were off to Sunshine (yum x3!) and rode The Land. ☺ Dinner at Garden Grill was lovely as well. Time with the characters was ample and food was great.
The third was spent exploring AK.
Now up until our third day we had left the park around noon to go back to WL during the heat of the day. We slept, ate, swam whatever until today. This parks closes early so we decided to stick it out. Ok, when people say AK is the “hottest” park they ARE NOT kidding. I broke down and bought a mister fan because this place is smokin’! We rode ride after ride and had the pleasure of eating at Tusker House and Yak & Yeti (TS). OM! TASTY! Even my DD was impressed. It was nice to see the closing parade but the bus seemed it took forever to pick us up to go back to WL. PoP had a bus every minute we waited an eternity. Hello Disney the park is closed. We would like to go home. When we returned to WL we caught the water parade, which made it all better. (Sigh)
Day four and we are back at MK.
What can I say? My daughter’s fav ride is Splash and since the Splash in MK is different from Disneyland we HAD to ride it as many times as possible while we are in Florida. Lunch at the CP was awesome! Tragedy struck as my memory card got wiped when my camera malfunctioned. OH MY!!! It was nice that we had the photo pass as a back up. I am still sad we lost all those wonderful pictures but I still have the wonderful memories.
On day four we did find out soup was a great snack item, we had back stairs from the dock up to our room and there was an elevator closer to us that we didn’t know about. ☺
Day five we said Hello to Hollywood Studios.
This is a very strange feeling for me being in HS in Florida when I actually go inside some of these places in California.
With that said we really enjoyed the Back Lot Tour. RR was fun, but short. We loved the difference in ToT at WDW compared to ToT at DL. The Great Movie Ride was super fun too! We had a light snack at Starring Rolls and headed back to WL for a rest. We had a thunderstorm start up while we were on the bus back to HS. We did a serious rookie maneuver and got off the bus early. DON’T EVER DO THIS! Why, oh why did I think this was a good idea? Long story short, we waited at Epcot for FOREVER almost missing our dinner reservation at BD for the F! Package. We made it in the pouring down rain and after a wonderful meal we enjoyed Fantasmic!
The bus service was awful after F! Every bus went to Pop or anywhere but WL. Bummer but F! was well worth it.
Our sixth day we were back at Epoct to see the World Showcase. We walked around and had lunch at Tokyo Dining and shopped at Mitsukoshi. Sadly, I became ill, not from anything I ate but from the heat so we had to leave early.
Our seventh day brought us back to MK. Splash, Splash and more Splash. We rode our fav rides and walked around. We had reservation at the Plaza but the CM was rude so I canceled them on the spot and we went to Tony’s. Must have not been my day because after we were lucky enough to get in our server was rude and ignored us half the time.
Oh well.Our eighth and last day was spent shopping. We even went back to HS to get a shirt DD HAD TO HAVE! That took up most of the day. ME came and took us back to get a on a plane to make us come back to reality. I could see tears in DD’s eyes are they did the “See ya real soon” part on ME.
It is always hard to say goodbye to Mickey and his friends!!!
Sunday – MK 
leave PM Sunday 
