Audrey's 3rd annual WDW Trip - A PTR - Updated 11/9 - Airport Field Trip!!!!!!!

[michaelwilliammidd]

Well, after many trips to WDW and many years of reading TR here on the Disboards, I've decided to step out and try my hand at my own TR this year.

I suppose I could have started this PTR much sooner, seeing as how we began planning this trip with the conclusion of our last one. Either way, we are still a few weeks out from our trip and I'll do the best I can to give a recap of all the planning that took place and how we reached the decisions we did.

First some history, DW and I made our first trip to WDW together on our honeymoon in 2001, it was my first stay onsite and I was promptly bitten by the Disney bug and have been blessed with my obsessive affliction ever since.
Following our honeymoon, we made at least one trip a year to the "World", minus the year that DW was pregnant with DD. DD was born in May of 2007 and made her debut trip in December of that year, of course she had no real understanding of what was going on but she had a great time and we had a wonderful trip. We made the trip again last year and while it offered a new set of challenges with DD being around 18 months old(I'll get into those adventures at a later time), DW and I look back on it as being our best trip to date. We can only imagine how this years trip will eclipse everything from last year by leaps and bounds, DD is sooooo into everything WDW (we have obviously done our job) and we simply can't wait to see what she thinks of it now!

Introducing this years cast for the trip:

Me: 29 years old. Numerous trips to WDW and 1 trip to Disneyland as a child.
After an offsite stay at WDW with my family as a teen, I was bitten by
Disney bug with onsite stay on honeymoon with DW. Have spent every waking moment since thinking about
WDW and how to get back there, staking out on Disboards, looking at photos, watching videos and listening
to podcasts.

[DW: 28 Years old. Numerous trips to WDW, went many times as a child with
her family and always stayed onsite a POR( then Dixie Landings). My true
best friend in all ways, including sharing my Disney obsession.

DD: 2 1/2 Years old. Making her 3rd trip to WDW, always looking to have fun,
never still and lover of all things Disney. The center of our family's
universe.

Coming in for part of the trip:

DMIL & DFIL - Disney veterans in their own right. Took DW on many trips as a
child and have made quite a few with us as well. This will be
their 2nd trip with DD and they have made it clear that they, as
the rest of us are mostly there to watch DD in Disney.

DSIL & DBIL - More Disney fans here, also took their honeymoon at WDW and
have made many trips since, some with us and some not.

So that rounds out everyone who will be part of this fun filled adventure, next on to set up......

The Plan:

ME, DW & DD : November 27 - December 6. Staying first 2 nights at POFQ
then moving over to AKL (sav. view) for the rest of the stay.

DMIL, DFIL, DSIL & DBIL : November 29 - December 3. Staying entire stay at
AKL(standard view).

So there is a quick history and rundown of everything involved. In my next post I'll break down our resort situation and why we chose what we did along with recapping our resort adventures on last years trip, which was quite a mess.

I hope some of you will join in reading and like what you see, maybe doing this will help these next few weeks go by faster as well.....it seems like the trip will NEVER get here......

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

Our Resort:

When it came to deciding where to stay this year, the decision was an easy one. We had always stayed at Moderates or POP, until last year we decided we wanted to try a deluxe. I have a close working relationship with some people at ESPN, one of which was a former manager at reservations for Disney. Being that ESPN is owned by Disney, she was still part of Disney and with her resort reservation background she said it would be no problem to get me set up with a great discount. When we decided to book, she was able to get us a great deal at AKL, could only be standard view but that was fine by us. I will say that just judging by the pictures of AKL online, we hadn't ever been overly anxious to stay there but for the price we were more than happy.

Needless to say, after checking in our feelings for AKL changed immediately. We quickly decided that it was the most magical place we had seen at Disney, after having toured some of the other deluxe resorts.

While we were booked in a standard room, it ended up being an excellent view. Turned out to be sort of half pool/hotub view and half savannah view. As I mentioned in my last post, DD was about 18 months at the time of this trip and being a big talker was always trying to get words out, every morning she would point to the balcony and say "An-i-mal-s" and loved sitting out looking off to the left at the Giraffes.

Now, I do have to tell you that leading up to this trip DW had some fears that were keeping her from looking forward to it with nothing but all out excitement. You see, since day 1 DD has not been what you would call the "best of sleepers", to put it oh so very lightly. She had finally reached a point at home that she would do pretty well with sleeping through the night in her crib at home, but DW had a feeling things wouldn't go so well sharing a room with us. We made all the arrangements we can, DD has never liked pack n play's so we got everything booked from "Baby's Best Friend". Everything she could ever need, crib, rocking chair, brought her own bedding from home to make it more like home etc. I, personally, felt we were as prepared as we could be and that having a crib with her own bedding, DD would feel perfectly at home. I, unlike DW, had no fears standing between me and my excitement for our upcoming trip. No, I took more the Clark Griswold giddy-innocent approach of this being the greatest trip ever and we would have no issues that I could see. Well, as we turned out the lights and settled in to bed that first night in our magical accomodations of AKL, it didn't take long to see who was right. Oh, there would be no sleeping for us this week, that was clear or not so clear as it were, actually more of a foggy haze than anything after a couple of days at Disney minus sleep.

Still, we pressed on with our trip, I mean going home wasn't an option so we said we will find a way to work this out. And we did, DW would stay up and let me get some sleep overnight and in the early morning hours I would put DD in her stroller and take her down to the lobby and some of the side areas of the lobby of AKL. Here she would sleep, I'd roll her back and forth in her stroller and she would eventually doze off for a couple of hours and I'd sit and take in the resort. Out of this is where a big part of my love for the AKL came from, most people probably never stop and sit that long in some of the areas of the resort and I found it to be a peaceful and magical place.

This system worked for a few days and we went on enjoying our days in the parks, the nights not so much but we were surviving. That is until the 5th night of it came, when we had been up for I don't know how many hours straight and DD showed no sign of sleeping anytime soon, I took her out in her stroller, DW rocked and rocked her, nothing would work. Just as a note, never make any big decisions with no sleep in the wee hours of the morning, say 3 or 4 am. I say this because, it was in these hours that we heartbreakingly decided to go home early. I got on the phone and changed our flights to depart early that morning, mind you paying the change fees for doing such. I went to the front desk of AKL and after explaining our situation was told that we would be able to check out and wouldn't be charged for our remaining nights. We packed up the rental car and tearfully left AKL for the airport in total disbelief of what we were doing.

On the way to the airport DW called DMIL and explained that we were all just too tired to keep going like this and that we had decided the best thing to do was to come home. DMIL quickly scoffed at our plan and said that we better not come home, saying that we would only regret our decision, which truthfully we already were. So, we are now miles from the airport, DW hangs up with DMIL and asks "What do you think we should do?". I said it was too late now we had checked out, DW said lets give it a shot to see if we can go back. DW jumps back on the phone with AKL, explaining that we had made a terrible mistake by leaving and wondering if we could come back. As we were afraid of, our room was no longer available and any further inquiry would have to go through reservations. They connect DW with reservations and again she explains the horrible mistake that we have made and begs for help finding a room. At this point, we have reached the exit for the airport and I have pulled off on the shoulder, we have about an hour and a half before our flight departs so we are right at the point of go/ no go. The reservation agent says she will do her best to work something out for us and did she ever, she said "I have 2 options I can give you for the rest of your stay....BC or Poly, both will
have the same rate of $225 a night." $225 a night?!?!?!? Are you kidding me, I guess I was totally expecting the worst here as that kind of rate at Poly seemed unheard of to me, not to mention for immediate availability. I say let's do it! But wait, our flight....gotta make sure our original is still available, I jump on my phone while wife holds with reservations on hers and indeed I am able to move our flights back to our original date, again mind you while paying the change fees.

All this said, we drive happily back to "The World" now with a totally new outlook on the rest of our trip, this whole affair having shaken us from our sleepless stupor. We pull up to Poly, get checked in, get to our room which isn't the greatest of views but we can see monorails passing by and we couldn't be more happy to be where we were.

We kept this positive outlook for the rest of the trip, remembering that we may not be getting much sleep but we were in WDW and we weren't going to let anything get us down. Being at the poly, we spent a ton of time in MK and DD had the time of her life, as we did watching her.

DD caught naps here and there in her stroller which would allow me and DW to sit and rest some ourselves, this was enough to keep us going through the end of the trip, "we'll sleep when we get home" was our motto for the rest of our journey.

In the end, we had not only got to try out one deluxe but had taken on a second one as well in the Poly. And, although the Poly had been our saving grace for getting to come back to WDW, it wasn't as magical to us as AKL had been and we found ourselves dying to get back there this year. Well, in April of this year I got my first PIN code email for 40% percent off which would allow me to book a Savannah view room as well for $185 a night, needless to say we were ecstatic with this news and I booked it right away. Only one problem, we always go down the Friday after Thanksgiving and the PIN discount didn't start until that Sunday. We decided that with such a big price difference, being holiday rates, we would spend our first 2 nights at our favorite mod POFQ, before moving over to AKL to finish up our trip. DMIL, DFIL, DSIL & DBIL had decided they didn't want to miss out this year and all were going to come down for part of the trip, however not staying as long as we are. We talked and talked to them about AKL and how magical it is. Always staying Mod or Value they were a little leary about springing for something more expensive but in the end I found them a deal on standard rooms at AKL and they decided to give it a try. Outside of the anticipation of this trip for DD, DW and I are so anxious to see what everyone thinks of AKL and hope that they like us will find it so magical nothing else will compare. One thing is for sure, we WILL NOT be going home early!

 

[eliz991]

Hey, we both started our first-ever PTRs yesterday!

Your little girl is adorable! It must be so fun to see the changes year to year as she gets more into Disney. Hopefully she will sleep this year too.

Unbelievable story about the resorts last year - I'm so glad you decided to stay - even though you paid two change fees on the airline tickets!

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

Getting There:

So, 2 of the big trip planning decisions are out of the way. #1 - when to go -this was no issue for us as we go at the same time every year, at least for the past few, the day after Thanksgiving through the following week. #2 - where to stay - again no big decisions to be made here as we were so overwhelmed by AKL we couldn't imagine staying elsewhere. There was some debate/deliberation over what moderate we would spend our first 2 nights at all thanks to the addition of the Pirate rooms at CBR.Seeing the photos of Pirate Ship beds and carpeting that looked like wood planks was TOO much for me to resist and I lobbyed seriously with DW for this to happen, however she didn't feel that DD would fully appreciate things such as the Skull curtain bathroom divider as much as I would. In the end she left it up to me and refering back to her crystal ball like accuarcy of the sleep situation last year, I thought better of it and we went with our overall favorite mod POFQ.

All that said one big question mark was still out there, that being transportation down to WDW. Would we drive or would we fly? We live in central Arkansas, just north of Little Rock and are around a 15 hour drive away from Disney. We probably have an equal balance in trips taken between driving and flying, just depending on what deals were out there and what the budget allowed. The past 2 years, since DD has come along we have flown down, price wasn't bad given the fact that she was under 2 and could fly for free riding in our laps. We thought that our decision had come to a quick answer when in August we purchased a new vehicle. It is very comfortable with more than enough room for us and our stuff, along with built in rear entertainment system with DVD for DD to stay entertained throughout the long journey. I had accrued a few free hotel nights through travel with work over the past year, which would give us a free place to stay on the way down and the way back, helping to break up the long drive. "Well, its decided then." we said to ourselves, we will drive and DD will do just fine.

This WAS the plan until we made a quick weekend trip out of town, which by the way, I will tell you we made mostly for the fact that it's one of the closest places with 2 Disney stores, one being a regular store and the other being an outlet. On a side note, going to a Disney store for us only seems to add fuel to the fire of wishing for the upcoming trip, also giving a sneak peek of the excitement and joy DD will find in the parks once we get there, as seen here with a big Minnie plush she found......

Sorry got a little sidetracked there....so we make this quick weekend trip which is around a 2 1/2 hour drive from home. DD is doing very well with potty training and is great about telling us when we need to make a stop. Well, in the first hour of our drive, I imagine we stopped probably 4 times. Being that MOST of the time, especially this close to it, I am thinking about our upcoming trip, this was very concerning. DW and I start talking about it and doing the math, we figure with the stops we would be making, not just for potty breaks but just for rest, etc. Our long drive could turn into a VERY long drive. We had also worried about DD being exhausted when we arrived just from the car ride alone, not to mention the drive all the way back home. We decided it would be best to bite the bullet and fly again, now just to figure it out.

The past 2 years we have flown on NWA out of Memphis, which is around a 2 hour drive for us. That option was much cheaper being that the flight from there was direct to Orlando as opposed to a connecting flight out of Little Rock. We looked at that option again this year but the deal wasn't quite so good, so we started looking for deals out of Little Rock. Can I just say that I am SO jealous of some of you and the flight deals you get out of your cities, when I read the transportation board here I am blown away at some of the rates you get, we aren't so lucky in Little Rock. Well, after monitoring prices and flights for a couple of weeks we finally settled on one of the better deals we could find, flying American Airlines out of Little Rock at 5:40 am, connecting through Dallas, then arriving in Orlando and 11:35 am. We decided on these flight times because we wanted to get there early enough to get checked in at POFQ (hopefully room will be ready) and DD can take a nap before we get started with everything else.

In the end,we are SO glad we are flying! It's just so much more fun for us to get up early that morning at home and in what seems like no time being pulling up to WDW! DD is so excited about going on an airplane, she always spots every one in the sky so she was ecstatic when we asked her if she wanted to go on a plane to Disney World. The other day while shopping in Little Rock, DW and I took her over to the airport to let her see everything. We stood and watched airplanes come and go, went inside and watched everyone collecting their luggage at baggage claim and she even picked out a toy American Airlines plane from one of the gift shops, which she has been showing to everyone telling them this is the plane she will fly in to Disney World.

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

Hey, we both started our first-ever PTRs yesterday!

Your little girl is adorable! It must be so fun to see the changes year to year as she gets more into Disney. Hopefully she will sleep this year too.

Unbelievable story about the resorts last year - I'm so glad you decided to stay - even though you paid two change fees on the airline tickets!

Thanks so much eliz! We are really counting on some sleep this year, things are much better in that department this time around. Despite our troubles last year it was amazing to watch DD in the parks, we can't imagine what this trip will be like!

Congrats on starting your first PTR as well! I'm gonna go over and check it out.

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

DD - Disney Diva

So as I mentioned in my last post, we LOVE going to the Disney Store as some sort of brief satisfaction for our obsessive desire to get back to WDW. DD loves taking trips, to anywhere, she just loves traveling. Getting suitcases packed, being in new places, staying in hotels....she loves it all now. Guess she gets it from me and DW, who are both HUGE fans of being on the go and staying in hotels. Well, given her love of all things travel we thought it would be a fun idea to get her a little rolling suitcase of her own, that would seem just like our big ones, that she could take on the trip. We thought it would be a great idea to fill it up with things here and there as we lead up to our trip, and would act as a countdown of sorts, once the bag is full it will be time to go!

On one of our Disney Store trips this summer we found the perfect suitcase. DD is VERY into the princesses of course and when we saw this bag we knew it was the one for her......

Prior to our trip last year, DW found a lady in our town who designed and crafted custom outfits for kids, including (much to our delight) Disney outfits for trips. We decided this was much to cool a thing to pass up so DW picked her out a couple of outfits for our trip which were perfect....

And my personal favorite outfit of all time for DD.....

The dress is big enough that DD can still wear it, so it will probably make a return apperance on our trip this year. Sadly, and the cause of much heartache for me, DD has out grown the overalls. We had planned on going all out on these outfits this year, thinking we might have a different one made for each day of the trip. Well, as is the case for alot of trip planning, budget gets in the way sometime and that just wasn't a possibility as those outfits aren't the cheapest to have made. We did, however, want DD to have special clothes that she could wear each day of the trip. We decided that we could get a shirt for everyday at the Disney Store Outlet we go to for less than what we spent on her 2 outfits last year. This gave us the perfect excuse to make, yet another, run up to the Disney Stores and take a little overnight trip. DD picked out a few that she liked and DW and I picked out our favorites, along with a couple pairs of pjs and a hat and glove set in case we run into some cool weather as in years past.

DD's new WDW wardrobe has gone a long way in filling up her suitcase, now just to add some fun and games stuff for the flights and we will be set to head out......22 days.....come on teens!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I wanna join in! Now, let me go back and read all the details. Oh, by the way, you live not too far from me. I'm in West Monroe, Louisiana.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Whew! I've gone back and read all of the details. You guys are such a cute family!

Our first trip to Disney was when our son was just 1 and our daughter was 11. They are now 12 and 22 and have 14 trips under their belts. We drive to Disney and it takes us anywhere from 14 to 16 hours depending on weather and traffic.

We have an airport in Monroe but the rates to fly out of Monroe are outrageous! Believe it or not, I've priced out driving to Little Rock and flying from there to Orlando. It was cheaper than flying out of Monroe. I've also priced out driving to Jackson, Mississippi and flying out. It was cheaper too. What I wouldn't give for those $59 one way airfares I keep reading about.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

Whew! I've gone back and read all of the details. You guys are such a cute family!

Our first trip to Disney was when our son was just 1 and our daughter was 11. They are now 12 and 22 and have 14 trips under their belts. We drive to Disney and it takes us anywhere from 14 to 16 hours depending on weather and traffic.

We have an airport in Monroe but the rates to fly out of Monroe are outrageous! Believe it or not, I've priced out driving to Little Rock and flying from there to Orlando. It was cheaper than flying out of Monroe. I've also priced out driving to Jackson, Mississippi and flying out. It was cheaper too. What I wouldn't give for those $59 one way airfares I keep reading about.

Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for reading! I'm totally with you on the $59 rates for flights, the only place that will get us out of Little Rock is to Dallas. If not for DD being so small, we really don't mind the drive down as it can be fun in it's own way to make a road trip to Disney. I'm sure we will be doing it again in the future.

I have been a couple of different places in Louisiana, but never in Monroe. Done quite a bit in Morgan City and Shreveport/Bossier City with work. Have been to quite a few Razorback games when they were playing Louisiana-Monroe though.

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

A Surprise Countdown:

I had a most excellent surprise waiting for me when I arrived home from work last night. I walked in and DD met me at the door (as she does every night ), she was screaming "Come see our poster we made!!!!!!!". So, she led me into the kitchen, where there was hanging a fantastic countdown to our trip.

DW had taken DD out on a supply hunt yesterday and had rounded up everything from custom Disney Vacation stickers to the well known Home Depot Disney paint chips and they had worked all afternoon on making our greatest Disney Countdown to date!

DD did her part along the way and was in charge of stickers, a job which she took VERY seriously.......

I must say this is a perfect job for DD, one who, for as long as I can remember has been obsessed with any and all stickers.....

DW said that DD was very particular about the placement of said stickers, making sure the tiny birds all sat together and that Mickey and Minnie where at the top. Mickey btw holds a large cotton candy, which I was told by DD is just like she will always have at WDW.....

In the end the countdown is perfect, except for the fact that there are WAY too many numbers left on it . Now, we have a big time everynight letting DD take off that days number, the real challenge now is keeping her from pulling off EVERY number!

I LOVE our countdown my girls made....but I'll love it alot more when it's empty!

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

"Whats For Dinner?"

More precisely should be called "Whats for lunch?", as this is when we tend to do most of our TS meals while at WDW. If you haven't guessed by now it's time for the all important, big reason alot of us love Disney.....ADR'S!!!!!!!(AHAHAHAHAA.........AHAHAHAHAHAHA.....that's type for crowd sounds giving a rousing ovation....but I'm sure you already knew that....right?) Anyway, lets get to em......

So,as I mentioned before we are arriving on the Friday after thanksgiving and have chosen to only do CS that Friday and Saturday so that our schedule can be more open and we can just do as we please. If we do decide we want TS, we will just call and get something that is in less demand and has an opening, we are good for about 1 or 2 of those a trip. All that said, our first ADR is set for that.....

Sunday, November 29

10 am - CRT - This will be DD first trip inside the castle and she is so excited
about this....which means DW and I can't wait either, although
we were big CRT fans even before DD.

This is the day that DMIL, DFIL, DSIL and DBIL arrive to WDW as well, and if you recall they are all making their first stay at AKL. We wanted to kick this thing off the right way so we decided to have a late-ish dinner at....

7:55 pm - Jiko - Our only trip over to AKL prior to our first stay last year was
for dinner some years ago. Everyone really enjoyed the meal
and we thought it would be nice to close their arrival day out
with a meal at Jiko, so that afterwards we would already be
at the lodge for everyone to relax.

Monday, November 11


Today, we are doing DHS, our normal spot here is one of our faves in all of WDW that being......Sci-Fi Dine In, we have also eaten at Mama Melroses a couple of times, which I think is good but nothing special. This year we decided to go with something new to us.....

12:30 pm - The Hollywood Brown Derby - We have always wanted to try it but
it's just one of those places we never seem to make it to so we
decided to lock it in with an ADR this year.

I must say, I'm already starting to have some second thoughts about this, not so much about DOING Brown Derby but more about NOT DOING Sci-Fi. I'm not sure if we would cancel Brown Derby or just add Sci-Fi to another day but, I just feel like a change is gonna be made here. Anyway, moving on to.......

Tuesday, December 1

Today is an EPCOT day which means it's time to eat at not only my favorite restuarant in all of WDW but probably my favorite restuarant anywhere.....

12:30 pm - Biergarten - So if you couldn't tell by that little description, I am
QUITE the fan of Biergarten. I'm quite the fan of
German food period, but mix in a German buffet,
throw in the fact that it's in WDW, top it off with an
Oompa band and you've got a match made in
cholesterol heaven!

Wednesday, December 2

Moving back over to MK for the first day there with everyone, we have another one of our favorite TS traditions at.....

2:30 - Tony's Town Square - While the reason we dine here not being the
food, it's always been very good in our
experience. Our main reason for stopping here
every year at this time of day is to make a
request for patio table so that we can catch
the parade at 3 with our lunch. It always
works out well and it's nice to enjoy the parade
from up top.

Thursday, December 3

So, I'm not sure how we will swing this logistically and in fact we may end up cancelling it for that reason alone, which wouldn't be a huge loss because we like it but it's not necessarily a must do. This is our day at AK, so we'd have to work our way over awfully early to make this happen.....

1:05 pm - Rose & Crown - We had our first meal here on our trip 2 years ago
on a ADR that we made moments before we arrived
at EPCOT for the day. We all had a great meal and
DW, DD and I did the same thing last year and
enjoyed another fantastic meal. Here is a quick
shot I took of DD having fun with the waiter there
on our trip 2 years ago.

I may look into moving this ADR to the later part of the day and if that doesn't work out then maybe DW, DD and I can continue our tradition of making an impromptu call to get an ADR moments before arriving.

The rest of our group will be departing at this point and DW, DD and I will stay Friday, Saturday and then depart on Sunday. Like the start of our trip, I have left these days free of ADR's, giving us some room to just do what we feel like at the time. I'll get into our must do CS spots in a post very soon.

 

[michaelwilliammidd]

Airport Field Trip

So, as I mentioned in a previous post DD is VERY excited about the fact that we are flying to WDW. She loves airplanes and constantly points them out, even when DW and I have to search to find what she's talking about. As I also mentioned before, we have already made one trip to the airport in recent weeks just to let DD check everything out, see some airplanes and for us to see her get so excited about everything.

Well, yesterday morning DD started talking to me about the airport and how she wanted to go back, so I thought it would be the perfect day to make a trip back over and have lunch at one of the restuarants that we can get to without going through security. I told DW my idea and she was all about it, so we headed down.

As we were driving up to the airport and DD could see runways and start seeing some planes she exclaimed "I love the airport! It is my favorite place!"
We pulled in and took our parking spot high in the parking deck up next to a wall, which gave us a good view of one of the main runways so we could watch some planes taking off and landing, as you can tell DD enjoyed herself....

After catching a couple of planes we headed on in to grab some lunch, we decided we would like to bring DD back down the last time we came when we noticed that the restuarant had tables next to big windows where DD would be able to watch everything going on down on the tarmac as she ate her lunch. It worked out perfectly and DD had a great view of all the coming and going out there.....

As an added bonus, the lunch turned out to be pretty good as well, something we weren't really counting on. It was a fun little trip down to the airport, but has only fueled our fire of being ready to make the trip down to ACTUALLY catch our flight for WDW!

 

[rosiep]

More!! More!!

You have a beautiful family and you sound like such a great DAD!