Are you serious? We get to go back? – Nov PTR ~ Update 3/5 A real update, I swear!

[20thingamabobs]

I think your plans look good! You are lacking in the MK area but I can understand why with being so close to DL. I think you'll really enjoy Les Chefs de France. We ate there last April and the food was really good and not to out of the ordinary. What time is your reservation? Remy from Ratatouille makes appearances at schedule times throughout the day.

I also think you'll really like 'Ohana. I could make a meal just out of the bread and little dumpling things!

Oh, and we'll be at Epcot on the 3rd too! So, maybe we'll see you there!

 

[ladybugmom]

Sooo excited about seeing you on Saturday at WCC!!! Anf it looks like we will be in MK the same day on Monday!!

 

[Raecheal]

Just a quick Hello to say that I am still reading along... how exciting that your trip is coming up soon.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

I’m so sorry for the delay in responding you’re your posts. We have had a very tough week in our house. A week ago today, one of our pugs got sick very quickly and we unfortunately had to have him put to sleep. We think that he had kidney failure but we are still not sure exactly what happened. I went to work in the morning and when I came home 7 hours later, he was lying on the couch & could not even raise his head. He was obviously in pain and he was getting worse by the hour. We did not think he would make it through the night and we took him to the vet, where we had to make the decision to put him to sleep.

We are all devastated by it and have been struggling to cope. We have had our pugs (Pluto & Mickey) for 11 years and they really feel like our kids, since we had them for 8 years before Dylan was born. Mickey has never been without his brother, so we are giving him a lot of love.

I will definitely get to your responses this weekend and have another update as well. Thanks for hanging in there with me, since I haven’t updated in a while. I have not done any vacation stuff this whole week and our trip is about 2 ½ weeks away.

RIP Pluto.

 

[ladybugmom]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear about Pluto!! (((HUGS)))

 

[Dugette]

So sorry about Pluto! I'm such an animal lover and that's so sad. The dog I had growing up (Kirby) lived to be 11 as well and he also got sick very suddenly...he was running around just fine, then collapsed, then couldn't lift his head or roll over. Never were sure what happened, either. The only time I ever remember hearing my dad cry was when he called to tell me that he had to have him put to sleep. It's been 6 years, but it's still so heartbreaking to think about. I hope Mickey does okay without his brother-dog. And Dylan. And you and Todd too. At least this didn't happen while you were gone at WDW (Kirby actually got sick at the kennel the day before my dad came back from out of town). Good thing you have a WDW trip to look forward to. That place is good for helping people get though the non-magical stuff. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

 

[dolfinjuls]

I'm so sorry about Pluto!

 

[Raecheal]

I"m soo sorry for your loss,

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Plans look great! I do agree that you don't have a ton of MK time, but it kinda makes sense given all the DL time you've had. I will say that if you are able to pull off that late EMH at MK when you arrive (especially the last couple hours of it), you will probably be able to do most everything you want to in the MK without lines. At least that has been our experience. We LOVE the late nights there. Also, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip and Dale have been known to hang out in Fantasyland and ride Dumbo and the Carousel with the little kids during those late hours.

ADRs sound great! Also, if you get hungry before you leave AKL in the morning, Boma has a great breakfast too! Yummy! And I am glad that you are leaving time to enjoy your stay at AKL. We were so busy the time we stayed there that we really didn't get as much time to enjoy it as we would have liked. We'd love to go back there. It is magical.

I think that, even without evenly-spread free days, you seem to have left enough open/flexible time in your schedule that you could probably squeeze in some of the other things you mentioned. (Harry Potter might be tricky, but DD and shopping, probably).

Oh, I almost forgot, AK is very cool at night! We were only there once after dark, but it's so cool to see Everest and the Tree all lit up! Also, in our experience, towards the end of EMH there was zero line for Everest!

We recently checked the times at MK, and it looks like that first night we are there has EMH until 3 AM! So we are definitely going to try to hit the park for a couple of hours that night. Hopefully Dylan will be able to handle it since we will still be on West Coast time.

We are still iffy on going to Harry Potter, especially since we realized the new movie will be released in the theaters right before we get there. We are trying our best to avoid large crowds, but we will just have to deal with it during the actual days of Thanksgiving. And I can't wait to see AK at night. It is one of the things I have always wanted to do.

Tuesday, November 23
Epcot Day
ADR – Kona Café for breakfast @ Poly
Monorail over to Epcot

Remember, you can walk in a short amount of time from the Poly to the TTC to get on the monorail to Epcot!

Wednesday, November 24
AK day
No ADR’s but probably one meal will be at the Flame Tree BBQ
Late EMH. I am so excited about this because we have never been at the AK when it is dark out. Can’t wait to take pictures of everything lit up.

AK is so neat at night! It looks like a different park!

Thursday, November 25 (Thanksgiving Day)
FREE day
Switch hotels – moving to the Marriott
ADR – Thanksgiving meal at either Olivia’s (Old Key West) or 1900 Park Faire (Grand Floridian). We have an ADR for both, but we haven’t decided which place we will be going to.
We will probably avoid the parks altogether this day because of the crowds, but if we decided to brave it, we will go to DHS .

That's a good idea-avoiding the parks because of the holiday! Both Olivia's and 1900 PF are good, IMO. I guess it just depends on whether or not you want to meet characters and which menu appeals to you more. Both Resorts are great for walking around and exploring.

Friday, November 26
Watch the fireworks from the beach at the Poly to end the evening?

Wishes from the Poly beach is so neat!

Saturday, November 27
ADR – Whispering Canyon Café for dinner @ WL
Spend time at the WL looking at their decorations. Also possible DIS meet with Becky & family (ladybugmom).

I hope you guys enjoy WCC! WL is beautiful! Head over to the Villas there and walk around the lobby. Off to one room there are some games like checkers and stuff. It'd be a fun, relaxing time. There's fireplaces in there as well, so it'd make things nice and cozy.

Sunday, November 28
Epcot day
ADR – Ohana for dinner @ the Poly. This is another first for us and I could not be more excited about eating here.

When you check in to Ohana, ask if there's any tables open by the window with a MK view. It's not guaranteed, but it's worth a try!

Thank you for the tip on the walk to the TTC from the Poly. That will definitely save us time over taking the monorail all the way around to the TTC. I would never have thought of that. Also, we have never been into the villas at the WL, so that will be fun to explore too.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

the plans look good and make a lot of sense. I think you will love Ohana and I'm curious to see what you end up deciding for thanksgiving day.

Feel free to PM me here or on FB if you want any IOA/HP info. It will be quite a while before I get to it in my TR...you might be on your trip or back from it before that happens!

I can't wait for Ohana. We were supposed to go last time and cancelled our ADR at the last minute because it was so late. I'm a little worried that Dylan won't want to eat anything there so I think we might bring him a PB&J sandwich to eat.

As of right now, I am leaning towards Olivia's for Thanksgiving day but it is not just up to me. That used to be one of our favorite places to eat, but they changed the menu a few years ago and it kind of lost it's appeal for us. But now that it is an option, I am really excited to go back.

I think I will be sending you a PM about Harry Potter. We are still up in the air about that decision and I would love some input from you. Thanks!

I think your plans look good! You are lacking in the MK area but I can understand why with being so close to DL. I think you'll really enjoy Les Chefs de France. We ate there last April and the food was really good and not to out of the ordinary. What time is your reservation? Remy from Ratatouille makes appearances at schedule times throughout the day.

I also think you'll really like 'Ohana. I could make a meal just out of the bread and little dumpling things!

Oh, and we'll be at Epcot on the 3rd too! So, maybe we'll see you there!

I was talking with Todd about possibly switching one Epcot day for an MK day. I think we might make that decision once we get there and see how the first MK day goes. That is the only bummer about not buying park hoppers...there is only one option per day.

Our ADR in France is 1:20 for lunch. I am looking forward to that place now that I have looked at the menu. I would real other's TRs and they would be ordering food that I would never order, so I think I assumed it was all fancy-type stuff (which is soooo not me). I love trying new things at WDW!

Sooo excited about seeing you on Saturday at WCC!!! Anf it looks like we will be in MK the same day on Monday!!

Me too! We should probably exchange info through FB or something so that we can touch base when we get there. I can't wait for our families to meet!!

Just a quick Hello to say that I am still reading along... how exciting that your trip is coming up soon.

Thanks so much for reading! It is so hard to believe that it is 2 weeks away!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear about Pluto!! (((HUGS)))

So sorry about Pluto! I'm such an animal lover and that's so sad. The dog I had growing up (Kirby) lived to be 11 as well and he also got sick very suddenly...he was running around just fine, then collapsed, then couldn't lift his head or roll over. Never were sure what happened, either. The only time I ever remember hearing my dad cry was when he called to tell me that he had to have him put to sleep. It's been 6 years, but it's still so heartbreaking to think about. I hope Mickey does okay without his brother-dog. And Dylan. And you and Todd too. At least this didn't happen while you were gone at WDW (Kirby actually got sick at the kennel the day before my dad came back from out of town). Good thing you have a WDW trip to look forward to. That place is good for helping people get though the non-magical stuff. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans!

I'm so sorry about Pluto!

I"m soo sorry for your loss,

Thank you everyone for your kind comments about Pluto. We are really missing him around our house and although it gets a little easier each day, I think it is going to take a while to really recover from the loss.

One of the hardest things is that Dylan does not understand death, although we have decided to be pretty straight forward with him about it. We have told him that he died and he is in Heaven with God and he seems to accept that, but every few hours he will say "Where is Pluto?" So we have talked about it a lot, which is very sad for us, but important for him to realize the finality of it all. Our other dog Mickey is still depressed but is doing better now than he was a week ago.

Duggette - I can't imagine losing a pet while being away from home. We were worried that was going to happen with Pluto while we were gone on this trip. I guess we can be grateful that it didn't happen that way. We are trying to use our trip to have something to look forward to, when we get a little sad about missing him.

Hopefully an update will be here shortly!

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

We are 2 weeks away!!! We are trying to get some organization going in our house and it is not going well. Volleyball season just ended for Todd’s team last Thursday, so that is going to help a lot. He still has to help with the Varsity team, which is going to playoffs, and if they make it to the championships, that final game is the day before we leave on our trip. Grrrr. Don’t get me wrong. I love volleyball….but it is really messing up our time that we need to commit to getting ready to go.

Before I get started on trip stuff, here are a few pictures from Halloween. Dylan was a football player this year, and he had a great time going to trick-or-treat. We tried to get him to take pictures looking tough in his costume, but he kept smiling instead. Oh well.

This is where we tried to get him to be tough, but he wasn’t getting it.

We tried it again, and he gave us some sort of “Jazz hands” pose, so we gave up. LOL

Yesterday, I started making a (long) list of all the things that I need to get done. One of them is figuring out Photopass. We have never used PP before but since we have so many family members going, I thought it would be a good time to figure it out. I have a few questions and I’m hoping that you all can help me out.

I have read somewhere that if you pre-order the CD, it is about $100. I went to their website and it says it is $150. Is there a special code that I need to use to get the discount and do I need to order it before I leave on our trip?

I know that between all of our family members that we will have multiple cards and I know we can combine those cards at the end of the trip. When you combine cards, does it put them in order by date or will I have to do that when I get home?

We are also considering a photo session at one of the resorts for group family shots. I think it would be nice to get family photos done where we are all together in the pictures, but I don’t know if we will have it in our budget yet. I have heard one good review so far (thanks Cynthia!) but I need to discuss it further with the family.

Sorry, this isn’t much of an update as it is a big set of questions for you. I just don’t want to mess this up somehow and forget to order this ahead of time (if I need to).

Thanks everyone!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hello!! I have to go back and read, but I browsed a bit because I was curious where you were staying. I lurked a bit on your previous TR when we were considering Sheraton Vistana Resort. We are II members and usually stay off-site as well. We've stayed at Marriott Grande Vista (loved it) and Sheraton Vistana Resort (loved it just as much & are staying there in Feb/March for a second time).

I'll get caught up this week - can't wait to read about the rest of your plans. Based on your on-site/off-site combo it sounds like an exciting trip!

 

[1971DBday]

Here is the link for the savings on the pre-ordered photopass cd:

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/previsitoffer.aspx

I registered my card to, but all they offered was a $15 dollar saving under special offers. This one is much better. Photopass is only beneficial if you like them taking the posed pictures at some of the main attractions (castle, tree of life, sorcerer's hat, etc.) or if you are doing something like BBB. They have photographers at some of these places and can usually take better pictures then my quality. Basically, each photo is about $14 each so by the time I order 8 pictures I have spent the price of the cd (if I do the deal above).

 

[Dugette]

Sorry, I know next to nothing about Photopass, but I just wanted to say what an adorable little football player Dylan makes!

 

[tinkgurl]

Cutest football player ever! Little Guy was Batman!!

 

[Raecheal]

omgosh...Dylan is getting sooooo big! He did a great job for those photos for halloween!!! I"m glad you all had a blast, we didn't even have 1 trick or treater at our door..

I know absolutely nothing about photopass...Sorry, can't help you there.

 

[LilAnn]

Awww, I am sorry to hear about Pluto. At least you know that he is no longer suffering and that you could be there with him at the end.

Dylan looks great in the costume, and soo grown up now! He looks so tall. I love that he is too happy to be "tough" in the pics.

Yesterday, I started making a (long) list of all the things that I need to get done. One of them is figuring out Photopass. We have never used PP before but since we have so many family members going, I thought it would be a good time to figure it out. I have a few questions and I’m hoping that you all can help me out.

We loved PP our last trip. We finally managed to get some decent family pics on vacation. Plus if you are going to be meeting some characters, many of them have PP photographer with them so you have even more chances of capturing the moment on film. You have their camera and yours!

I have read somewhere that if you pre-order the CD, it is about $100. I went to their website and it says it is $150. Is there a special code that I need to use to get the discount and do I need to order it before I leave on our trip?

I can't remember how Ii got the info, but I know there are threads here on the DIS about preordering the CD. We paid about $100 and we got over 200 pics on it. So it was definitely worth our money. I dont when you have to order it by, but we did it before we left. You then get an email confirming the order and instructions on how to claim it later.

I know that between all of our family members that we will have multiple cards and I know we can combine those cards at the end of the trip. When you combine cards, does it put them in order by date or will I have to do that when I get home?

Once you preorder the CD, make sure you claim all the cards on that account. Once you claim the pics on a card, you can't claim them on another account. They organize the photos by theme park/locations on the website. I can't remember if they do it by date as well. My CD came with the photos in date order though. And if you add the fun borders to the photos as save those as copies, they will also show up on your CD. But you only have 30 days to do all of this in, once you claim your first card, I think.

We are also considering a photo session at one of the resorts for group family shots. I think it would be nice to get family photos done where we are all together in the pictures, but I don’t know if we will have it in our budget yet. I have heard one good review so far (thanks Cynthia!) but I need to discuss it further with the family.

We didn't plan out any photo sessions, but we came across a lonely PP photographer at AKL. So we got some nice family pics there too. Most of my PP pics are on the TR.

 

[eecteacher82]

I have to say the Dylan is the cutest little football player ever!! The smiling instead of looking tough cracked me up!

We are doing Photopass for the first time this trip as well. I am super excited and since we are pre-ordering I am going to make a point to have tons of pics taken to make sure we get our money's worth! Since we are taking Olivia to the BBB and the photo session afterward, that helped with the decision to do PP. Also, if you find that after you get home and look at all your pictures and don't really like them, they will refund your money.

I'm still sad that we are just barely missing each other on this trip!!! It would have been great to have the kiddos meet up! I have to say that I am jealous that your trip is only 2 weeks away!!! We still have 27 days (much better than the 108 we started our countdown with)!

 

[ladybugmom]

Oh my goodness--Dylan is PRECIOUS as a football player!!! LOVE the costume!!

We LOVE PP and I would HIGHLY recommend it!! Go to the link that was posted above and preorder the cd for $99!! Yes, if you have different cards you can add them to the same account. Once you add the card all of the pictures are automatically put into chronological order which is nice (not sure how it knows, but it does). And if you have any meals that come with a picture package or you buy a picture at a meal, you can add those pics as well (there is a code on the back of the pic). We've ended up getting soo many pics that each time we end up with TWO cds full of pics. But you need to know where to find the PP photographers.

Here is the link for Magic Kingdom: http://www.disneyphotopass.com/skins/100147/help/AboutDPP-Maps-Tips.pdf.

Epcot: http://www.disneyphotopass.com/aboutdpp_map_epcot.aspx

Hollywood Studios: http://www.disneyphotopass.com/skins/100147/help/AboutDPP-Maps-Tips.pdf

Animal Kingdom: http://www.disneyphotopass.com/skins/100147/help/AboutDPP-Maps-Tips.pdf

other locations: http://www.disneyphotopass.com/aboutdpp_map_other.aspx

And of course there are tons of PP photographers at many of the character meet and greets! I've heard that there are some at the resorts as well--especially around Christmas! I'm hoping to get our family pic taken at WL and GF!! I'm also planning on using some of the pics on our Christmas card this year. Not sure we'll get the cd in time but I will be sure and have them take pics on my camera as well!! I hope this helps!!

Oh--and I also LOVE this website for PP info: http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disneysphotopass/. It tells you all of the magic shots you can ask for, etc!!!