Am I nuts.....Bringing In-Laws for their 1st Time!!! May 2011 PTR

[Jdougherty]

I'm subbing,

You might also consider Norway for princess interaction and The Land (rotating restraunte above sunshine seasons) this one has chip and dale at it. We also like Teppan Edo in Japan.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Hi I just wanted to let you know I was enjoying your report so far, we will be there the exact same dates as you so I like to see how your plans are going. We have a few of the same restaurants in mind too, I know that 180 mark can't come soon enough!

Thanks for joining. How exciting that you'll be there the same time. Where are you'll staying. I am trying to make the final decisions about dining so that I'm ready on November 28.

fun updates! love how a child and a man can sleep ANYWHERE! I have so many pics of Danny these last few years like that...but, don't tell him he was sleeping...

your plans sound great and I know you can't wait to start really putting them into play!

Connie

Shannon saw these pictures yesterday and still denies that he was sleeping.

I can't wait for my 180 day mark, which is November 28th.

I'm subbing,

You might also consider Norway for princess interaction and The Land (rotating restraunte above sunshine seasons) this one has chip and dale at it. We also like Teppan Edo in Japan.

We ate in Norway on our first trip in 2007 and was not impressed with the food. We also ate at The Land on our 2009 trip and enjoyed eating here. The kids were amazed that the restaurant turned. I always wanted to try Teppan Edo, but my mother-in-law is a very picky eater and would not like this place, so this is on our list for out next trip.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

Loving the mini-trip report! I always enjoy looking at pics from our past trips. It’s really fun to see how things have changed and how the kids have grown.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Loving the mini-trip report! I always enjoy looking at pics from our past trips. It’s really fun to see how things have changed and how the kids have grown.

It's amazing how fast kids grow. I miss my babies, they are growing up before my eyes. It also seems like yesterday that we took our first trip to DW and we are planning our fourth trip. I am hooked and I think Shannon is also.

 

[disneyholic family]

I am working on planning a Girls-Only trip for the dates you're talking about - the Free Dining is what got us, but we're hoping to stay in Pop Century. Looking forward to seeing more of your plans!!

pop century has quick service free dining...though i suppose you could add on for regular dining...

 

[BelleTinkMom]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Hope everyone had a great day. I ate a little too much and wish that Shannon didn't have to leave for work this morning.

Continuing with the Mini TR:

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

Don't remember where we had breakfast, possibly at the food court. Don't have many pictures from this day. We played on Pooh's Playful Spot for a while. We also went back to Toontown. I know we tried to see the princesses, but the wait was to long. We went through Mickey and Minnie's house and on the way out, Jaden fell on the sidewalk. A castmember saw her and asked if she was ok and if she wanted to see the princesses. Of course she said yes, and they brought us around the back and let us in next with only like a 5 minute wait. That was so cool. I don't have any pictures of rides except the tea cups, of course, It's a Small World, and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. We did go back to the room and take an afternoon rest because MK had evening EMH.

My mom and dad took the two little one's back to the room, they were getting tired. My sister, Shannon, Jaden and I stayed. I know we rode Space Mountain. We all got in line, telling Jaden that it would be okay, well, this is after she rode ToT at HS the day before and it scared her half to death. We tried telling her it was not like ToT, but she chickened out, so Shannon volunteered to sit out with her, I think he was sort scared to get motion sickness again. He has found a cure since then.

Day 4 - Chef Mickey's and Animal Kingdom

We had an ADR for Chef MIckey's.

We enjoyed this breakfast. The food was good and the character interaction was great.

Then we make our way to Animal Kingdom. OK, we learned our lesson. I was confused about transportation, as this was our very first trip to DW. We went to the Ticket and Transportation Center on the monorail and waited for an AK bus forever. So we arrived at AK late, like probably 10 or so. The park was packed and it was also Memorial Day and it was HOT. It seemed like there were a million people there. Now, I realize that this park is smaller than others and their pathways are smaller and their is more trees and landscaping making it jungle like. All this combined makes for a miserable day.

We saw It's Tough to be a Bug

rode Kilimanjaro Safaris

We ate at Flame Tree BBQ and decided to take a break and return later in the day. Well, we got stuck by the parade, so we watched it.

Then we headed out.

When we got back to the room, My mom, sister and I decided to make a trip to DTD instead of resting. Shannon was ok with staying with Madi since she was napping so Jaden and my niece Savannah were also going to stay because my dad also wanted to take a nap. Well, Jaden and Savannah were not having it, they wanted to come with us, so off we went. I think Shannon also got a nap in.

When we got back from shopping, no one really felt like going back to AK. We decided to take a swim and order Pizza and get a good nights rest. We have been getting up early, 7 am and staying out extremely late. We all could use a break.

That's all for now. I need to download more pics to photobucket. I will also download our photopass pics.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

WooHoo!! I made my Dining Reservations this morning. I am in central time zone so I set the alarm for5:45 to start calling when they opened at 6am my time 7am Disney time. Well, I didn't hear the alarm and I didn't wake up until 7:30 my time which is 8:30 Disney time. I figured that I could not get Cinderella's Royal Table now. This was a place on both my girls' list and they were upset when we didn't have a reservation on our April 2010 trip. So, I was going to try my hardest.

My plan was to call and wait on hold and to get on the computer and try to get anything I could online and the rest on the phone.

I was having no luck online. I couldn't book any day except the day we arrive. I even put in my resort reservation and still nothing. I was getting so frustrated. My call finally gets answered, even though I love to listen to the Disney music while on hold. So the first one I try for is Cinderella's table. I will even take any day of our trip and at any time for breakfast.


And guess what



I was able to get the day I wanted and for 8:15am. Just what I wanted. I will be able to take a Main Street picture while it is empty.

So here are our ADR's and plans:

Friday, May 27
Arrive and DTD
Wolfgang Puck Express

Saturday, May 28
Epcot
Ohana's Best Friends Breakfast 8:00 am
Sunshine Seasons
watch Illuminations - haven't seen this since our first trip in 2007

Sunday, May 29
MK
Cinderella's Royal Table 8:15 am
Rest/Nap
Ohana's dinner 5:30 pm
Wishes and Main Street Electric Parade
MK Evengin EMH til 2am

Monday, May 30
HS - but this may change
No ADR's
Resort breakfast or may change to Main Street Bakery (Madi's favorite - a huge cinnamon roll)

Tuesday, May 31
AK
Tusker House Breakfast with Donald 8:00 am
Hoop Dee Doo Review 9:30 pm - this may change. We usually like to get the 9:30 showing to have Cat 1 seating (only time for this seating with the dining plan). I could only get the Cat 2
seating. I may change to an earlier time for Cat 2.

Wednesday, June 1
Any Park
Resort breakfast or Main Street Bakery
Wispering Canyon Cafe dinner 6:00 pm

Thursday, June 2
Any Park
Crystal Palace 8:05 am

Friday, June 3
Any park til we have to be back at resort for ME bus.
Chef Mickey's 8:05 am

If we decide not to go to HS on Monday, May 30, we can always go either Wednesday, June 1 or Thursday, June 2. We don't have any specific parks planned for these days. One of these days may be better because according to past showtimes, Fantasmic should be showing on these days and we may be out really late at MK the night before. I will wait till official hours are posted.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Hey guys, I need a huge favor from my DIS friends. My dad is very ill. He was diagnosed with Cancer at the beginning of the year. While was having aggressive chemo treatments, he had a stroke and was paralyzed on his left side. He is still in a wheelchair and not walking except at physical therapy. After his stroke, they had to reduce the chemo treatment because he was so weak. He is 100% blocked on one side and they can't do surgery because he is not well enough. He has been in remission for a few months.

He went to the doctor on Monday because he was sick. They ran tests and thought he had pneumonia. Well, today we got some results that its not pheumonia the cancer is back. At this point, we don't know how much the cancer has spread. We should find this out tomorrow. But it's not looking good. He had another appointment today and they wanted to send him home with hospice, but my step-mom wants more answers first. So they agreed to keep him and run tests.

The hardest part in all this is that I hadn't spoken to my dad or his side of the family in about 11 years. I know everything happens for a reason.

Anyway, I think I've rambled enough. Please keep him in your prayers. Thanks, Jaime

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Day 5 - Epcot

Epcot was the park I was least excited to visit. I assumed that it was all space stuff and boring. Well, I didn't realize what Epcot was all about.

First up was an ADR in Norway for the princess breakfast. Out of all of our breakfast ADR, this one was the most chaotic. We were crammed in a corner and the pricesses more or less took a picture and left, hardly no interaction at all. Needless to say, we have not returned.

Need to upload more pics.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

We hit the Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush.

I know we waited forever for Soarin' and we hopped on Living with the Land. We had a wait of about 20 minutes with Living with the Land, I didn't realize how odd this was. We have never waited for this ride on our next 2 trips. Yes, this is a ride that we have to go on every time, both girls like this ride for some odd reason.

We visited a few countries. We didn't have a chance to visit them all. We visited Mexico, Norway, China, and we also did the Ladybug release (don't remember which country) for the Flower & Garden Festival. We also had an ADR at LeCellier for dinner. The food was very good, although we never returned. Don't really know why.

Here are a few topiaries from the Flower and Garden Festival

That wraps up my Mini TR from our 2007 trip. I will post our plans possibly tomorrow. The June hours are finally out, so I sort of finalized our plans.

 

[I Believe n Fairies]

SO excited that I came across your pre trip report! We are headed to WDW May 27-Jun 2. It will be our second time staying at Pop. We went in 2006 when my dd was 5 and left my ds with Grannie. In 2007 it was mine and hubby's 10yr anny so we went without the kids. This will be our first trip with the entire family and we are so excited!

This will be our first time on the QSDP. Honestly, I am very much looking forward to it this trip. It will be nice to take our trip at a leisure pace and not have to worry about adr's. Gives us something to look forward to on our next trip!!

 

[BelleTinkMom]

SO excited that I came across your pre trip report! We are headed to WDW May 27-Jun 2. It will be our second time staying at Pop. We went in 2006 when my dd was 5 and left my ds with Grannie. In 2007 it was mine and hubby's 10yr anny so we went without the kids. This will be our first trip with the entire family and we are so excited!

This will be our first time on the QSDP. Honestly, I am very much looking forward to it this trip. It will be nice to take our trip at a leisure pace and not have to worry about adr's. Gives us something to look forward to on our next trip!!

We may run into each other on our trip. I thought about the QSDP, but we like sit-down meals and my in-laws are going with us.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

I know it's been awhile, but not really much to update on for our trip. But, I do have big and exciting news.....................................................................................................................................................................................
We booked a Disney Cruise today. We are going in June of 2012 on the new Disney Fantasy.

A little history on cruising...Shannon and I took a cruise in January of 2006 and left the kids with my mother. It was a 5 day cruise. Well, I would not recommend a cruise in January. It was very rough due to cold fronts, but we made the best of it. Shannon has been wanting to back on a cruise ever since. The kids always remind us that we left them and they want to go on a cruise. When we returned from out cruise, that's when we decided to plan our first DisneyWorld trip, and the Disney Addiction began. We have inquired about Disney cruises before, but didn't want to spend the money, because they are a little pricey.

For our last week of dancing before the holiday break, a few of the moms were discussing this Disney Cruise that they were going on and if anyone else was interested were welcome to join them. This same group went on a Carnival cruise this past October and they wanted us to go with them, but it was to last minute for us. So, I came home from dancing and mentioned it to Shannon and he was like, what are you waiting for. We have enough time to save and the rest will be history. I contacted the travel agent that they are using and made my deposit today. So we will be sailing on June 2, 2012, yes its not until 2012. That will be a long wait. The girls don't know about it yet, and I don't know when to tell them. I would like to surprise them some sort of way, have to come up with a good idea.

OK, enough with my rambling.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

Congrats on the cruise!! That's so exciting!!

 

[BelleTinkMom]

I know I'm a little late, but MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I am still trying to get my house back in order from Christmas Day. I have everyone over to my house on Christmas Day, from my family to my in-laws to aunt, uncles and cousins and anyone else who might stop by. I enjoy not having to be on the road all day trying to visit everyone. The only thing missing was Shannon. He is working, and I figured he still has 3 more years to work for Christmas.

We also celebrated Christmas with my parents last Sunday because my step-dad and Shannon both would not be there Christmas Day. Here are some pics:

Jaden doesn't normally wear makeup. She was at a friend's house earlier in the day and they had makeovers.

My neice got a red Wii for when she is at my sister's house:

We opened a few presents before Shannon left for work:

Here is Christmas day:

I also took a few pics for our Christmas cards a few weeks ago:

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Congrats on the cruise!! That's so exciting!!

Thanks. I am so excited.

 

[BelleTinkMom]

happy new year!!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hope your new year has been a wonderful one so far;
I have not forgotten about you, I will be back to catch up this week.
Hope you have a wonderful day!
Connie

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Hope your new year has been a wonderful one so far;
I have not forgotten about you, I will be back to catch up this week.
Hope you have a wonderful day!
Connie

The new year and holidays have been good and stressful.

I am trying to revive my PTR. I think I will post our favorite things countdown or something along those lines.

Have a great day.

 

[I Believe n Fairies]

How exciting about the Disney Cruise!! Sounds like so much fun, especially going with friends.

We are beginning to look for items for our trip. The kids know that we're going and are super excited. We keep a change jar for our Disney fund and the kids are always finding coins and adding them to the jar. They've already saved up a good bit for their souvenirs. As of today, only 145 more days to go!!