Beach or Disney? DISNEY! May 2011 PLUS TR w/pics & video from May '10

[BridetobeDisney]

Hi, I'm Brandi and this is my second PTR. I've met some amazing friends through writing my last PTR and I look forward to meeting many new friends in the next few months.

Now for introductions...

My name is Brandi. My husband, Brad, and I have been married for 4 1/2 years. We'll celebrate our fifth anniversary during this May trip. We have a three year old son named Tyson, who'll be four in March. We live in Central GA but have plans and dreams to move down to FL in the next five years. I just finished my masters in Aug. and obtained two media clerk positions at two elem. schools with hopes that the experience would lead to a full time library media specialist position within this county.

We are Disney fanatics! We've been on about 15 trips to Disney World. Tyson is now a veteran and knows the names to most rides, including which park they are in and what happens on the ride. I'm a librarian so I'm very detail oriented and love research so it's rubbing off on him. He wants to know about EVERYTHING! He has been on 6 trips to Disney starting at age 13 months.


The plans so far:

We are staying at Pop Century with free dining (upgraded to reg. dining plan) from May 29 to June 5. I'm praying that it stays this way so we can have free dining but my husband hasn't got to pick his weeks off for next year so even though he's discussed taking that week off with his five coworkers, they could still take it before he does.

We have 8 day base tickets but we'll add park hoppers when we get down there.

I've already made our ADRs and I'm really happy with it considering I did not book them at exactly 180 days out.

The Schedule:

Sunday Arrive, check in, have lunch dinner, MK after dinner 2 am EMH
Chef Mickey dinner (1 TS per person)

Monday Epcot
San Angel Inn lunch (OOP)
Teppan Edo dinner (1 TS per person)

Tuesday MK
Crystal Palace dinner (1 TS per person)

Wednesday DHS
Ohana dinner (1 TS per person)

Thursday AK
Tusker House breakfast (OOP)
Boma dinner (1 TS per person)

Friday Epcot, MK EMH 1 AM
La Hacienda de San Angel dinner (1 TS per person)

Saturday MK
Ohana dinner (1 TS per person)

Sunday QS lunch somewhere DTD then drive home


So that's the plans so far. I hope to get some input on the schedule and ADRs I've chosen. I've never been to CM, Tusker House, Teppan Edo or La Hacienda. I've love to hear some opinions. I know CM isn't the best but it's Tyson's request along with San Angel. He loves the rice there. LOL

Thanks for reading!

 

[BridetobeDisney]

Looks like there are no Pop fridge swaps available for my week. I knew things would be difficult going Memorial Day week.

Anyone know about crowd sizes during that time?

 

[racefanof88]

Hey Brandi . I'm here . I feel like Clark Griswold...... I'm glad to see you have a trip in the plans. I guess you know we just got home last Friday from our latest trip. We stayed at Pop and I must tell you that if you ask for a room on the ground floor near transportation you stand a good chance of getting it. I put the request on my online check in for our September and December trips and I got it both times . We were at ASSp in Sept and Pop last week and it was great. We didn't have to pay the preferred prices either, which was much better.

We don't bother with a fridge anymore; we take our mid sized ice chest and just get ice at the resort to keep our stuff cold. It actually keeps our drinks colder than the fridge does and costs us nothing. Dale will buy beer and put it in the sink and ice it down; it is just a hassle to wash your hand in the tub....

We aren't sure when we will go back next year. Amanda is getting married in November so we will have that to plan. We really enjoyed our trip last week as the weather was cool and we didn't get totally exhausted from the heat. Cooler months are much better on my old body .

Your plans look great so far, and I can't wait to hear more .

CONGRATS ON GETTING YOUR MASTERS

 

[BridetobeDisney]

Hey Brandi . I'm here . I feel like Clark Griswold...... I'm glad to see you have a trip in the plans. I guess you know we just got home last Friday from our latest trip. We stayed at Pop and I must tell you that if you ask for a room on the ground floor near transportation you stand a good chance of getting it. I put the request on my online check in for our September and December trips and I got it both times . We were at ASSp in Sept and Pop last week and it was great. We didn't have to pay the preferred prices either, which was much better.

We don't bother with a fridge anymore; we take our mid sized ice chest and just get ice at the resort to keep our stuff cold. It actually keeps our drinks colder than the fridge does and costs us nothing. Dale will buy beer and put it in the sink and ice it down; it is just a hassle to wash your hand in the tub....

We aren't sure when we will go back next year. Amanda is getting married in November so we will have that to plan. We really enjoyed our trip last week as the weather was cool and we didn't get totally exhausted from the heat. Cooler months are much better on my old body .

Your plans look great so far, and I can't wait to hear more .

CONGRATS ON GETTING YOUR MASTERS

DANA!!!!!!!! I've missed talking to you. I haven't been on the DIS in a while but I have been following you on facebook! Yes, I saw that you just got back. I hope yall had fun! I loved going last year at this time. It was soooo fun and I love the temps. We just couldn't do it this year both financially and because I am working.

Thanks for the congrats! It's so nice to be finished with school for a while. Now I'm just praying for a professional position but the experience and mentoring I'm getting right now is priceless. I feel like it's a paid internship. It's great! I think being a librarian is the perfect job for me. I couldn't have found something I love more.

I'm excited about the May trip. Just hoping Brad gets that week off work.

 

[BridetobeDisney]

I've got a couple updates!

We decided to invite my brother to go with us on this trip. He went for half the week on our Christmas trip last year and had a lot of fun. I'd love to have him with us the whole week. We're paying for the room and gas money. Food is free with the special offer we used so all he would pay for is 2 OOP meals, his ticket and a Park hopper. So that would be around $400! 8 days at Disney for that price is awesome so he'll probably take us up on the offer. He's still deciding but I think he's going to go.

Secondly, I'm second guessing eating at Chef Mickey on our first night. I want to pick something different and I don't think I want to do Ohana twice. So I need to either pick two more restaurants or pick a signature restaurant.

What do you think?

 

[BridetobeDisney]

I thought it would be fun if I posted some pictures from our May 2010 trip. I'm thinking about doing a trip report for it but it might be fun to do a trip report within my pre trip report!I did that on my last PTR and it was a lot of fun.

We stayed at Pop from May 14 to May 22.

Normally, I wait to pack last minute. Don't get me wrong. Two weeks to a month before the trip, the suitcases are out and I throw stuff in as I think about it. But I don't neatly pack into the night before. It's a bit stressful but I never sleep that night anyway so it gives me something to do. This time I packed earlier in the day so I actually slept for about 4 hours. I gave Tyson a bath the night before and put him in his Disney pajamas. He could barely sleep but I don't blame him. I was excited too. I got up around 3 am and got ready. I started loading things in the car before I woke up Brad and Tyson.

Mickey had left Tyson something special in his car seat. Tyson was so surprised to find a Mickey and Pluto plush waiting for him. They stayed in his lap during the entire drive down. We left the house around 7 am, got breakfast at Chickfila and started driving.

We stopped at the Florida Welcome Center to get our free orange juice (grapefruit juice for me) and our Disney brochures. It keep Tyson quiet for a little while.

We arrived around 1 pm and checked in at Pop. Our room wasn't ready so we drove to visit Brad's Grandma, Nan, at her house in St. Cloud, about a 15 or 20 min. drive from Pop. She took us to lunch at the Catfish Place, which is tradition. Pop called me when our room was ready and gave us our room number. We had a GREAT room! We were in the 70s section, 1st floor and only 5 rooms down from the Goofy play fountain. Tyson loved this and played almost every evening when we returned from the parks.

Our room was a newly refurbished one with a flat screen! I LOVED it.

We decided not to go to any park that day even though we had a ticket. It was too late and we were too tired. We went to DTD and got take out from Wolfgang Puck Express.

Sorry took a bite first.

Tyson got a Mickey rice crispy treat.

And that's it for the first day!

Up next, what will be our first park? Where will we eat?

Next installment probably coming up tonight.

 

[eecteacher82]

I'm here! I took a break from my TR and hopped over. I'm so excited you guys get to go back (sucks that you couldn't go this month and then we could have met up at Pop)!

Let's see if I can remember everything I wanted to comment on:
*I would say keep CM! We love that place! I know it gets a bad rap, but we have never had any issues there, and what better way to start a trip than with Mickey and the gang?!
*I would say, based on our experience ditch one of your Ohana adr's. Have you ever been to Cape May? We loved it there!
*I love the idea of the TR within the PTR! Keep those updates coming!
*As for the fridge swap, I have no idea, since we always get a fridge to keep meds in. I have heard from lots of people that the cooler with ice works great though.

Well, I know I left some things out, but that is all I can remember right now! Can't wait to read more of your plans!!

 

[BridetobeDisney]

I'm here! I took a break from my TR and hopped over. I'm so excited you guys get to go back (sucks that you couldn't go this month and then we could have met up at Pop)!

Let's see if I can remember everything I wanted to comment on:
*I would say keep CM! We love that place! I know it gets a bad rap, but we have never had any issues there, and what better way to start a trip than with Mickey and the gang?!
*I would say, based on our experience ditch one of your Ohana adr's. Have you ever been to Cape May? We loved it there!
*I love the idea of the TR within the PTR! Keep those updates coming!
*As for the fridge swap, I have no idea, since we always get a fridge to keep meds in. I have heard from lots of people that the cooler with ice works great though.

Well, I know I left some things out, but that is all I can remember right now! Can't wait to read more of your plans!!

Yay!! Glad you made it over!!! I'm going to your TR as soon as I write this!
Ok so we should keep CM? I told Brad that and he said that's fine so I may keep it and cancel the second Ohana. I just don't think I want it twice. We've never tried Cape May but I just don't think there would be enough food that Tyson would like. I'll look at the menu again. Brad's always begged me to book it.

I'm glad you're loving the TR within my PTR. I did it once before and made a lot of friends because they got to know us through the TR and planning of the PTR. It was more to talk about.

I decided to take a cooler like you said. I'm not paying their prices for a fridge and every swap is booked for my week. We should need it for cokes and water. I can go get Tyson a milk each morning from the CS at Pop. We get some kind of breakfast there most mornings anyway.

When's your next trip? I wish we could have made the Dec. trip like we planned but financially we just couldn't make it.

I'll post more of the TR tomorrow. Going to read yours now!!

 

[eecteacher82]

Yay!! Glad you made it over!!! I'm going to your TR as soon as I write this!
Ok so we should keep CM? I told Brad that and he said that's fine so I may keep it and cancel the second Ohana. I just don't think I want it twice. We've never tried Cape May but I just don't think there would be enough food that Tyson would like. I'll look at the menu again. Brad's always begged me to book it.

I'm glad you're loving the TR within my PTR. I did it once before and made a lot of friends because they got to know us through the TR and planning of the PTR. It was more to talk about.

I decided to take a cooler like you said. I'm not paying their prices for a fridge and every swap is booked for my week. We should need it for cokes and water. I can go get Tyson a milk each morning from the CS at Pop. We get some kind of breakfast there most mornings anyway.

When's your next trip? I wish we could have made the Dec. trip like we planned but financially we just couldn't make it.

I'll post more of the TR tomorrow. Going to read yours now!!

We have eaten at Cape May for dinner twice in the past, this trip we did breakfast. Olivia is a pretty picky eater, and she was fine. They have the typical kids meal stuff-chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, spaghetti, plus the yummy seafood!

I think the cooler is the way to go. If we didn't need the fridge for meds (keeping them in the ice gets them too cold), we would use a cooler too.

Sadly, I'm not sure exactly when our next big trip is! I know it will be sometime next year though! Our APs expire on Monday, so we are waiting until we get our tax refund to renew them, and then we will probably book our next trip at the same time. For our late winter/spring vacation we are debating between a cruise and going up to Wisconsin to visit my family since they haven't seen Olivia since she was 3 months old, and she had lots of little cousins around her age that she would have a blast playing in the snow with!

 

[BridetobeDisney]

We have eaten at Cape May for dinner twice in the past, this trip we did breakfast. Olivia is a pretty picky eater, and she was fine. They have the typical kids meal stuff-chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, spaghetti, plus the yummy seafood!

I think the cooler is the way to go. If we didn't need the fridge for meds (keeping them in the ice gets them too cold), we would use a cooler too.

Sadly, I'm not sure exactly when our next big trip is! I know it will be sometime next year though! Our APs expire on Monday, so we are waiting until we get our tax refund to renew them, and then we will probably book our next trip at the same time. For our late winter/spring vacation we are debating between a cruise and going up to Wisconsin to visit my family since they haven't seen Olivia since she was 3 months old, and she had lots of little cousins around her age that she would have a blast playing in the snow with!

The cruise or Wisconsin would be fun. Tyson just got to meet a few cousins about 2 weeks ago. He loved it.

I forgot to mention on your TR that you live were we are thinking about moving!!! But this is like a five year plan, not any time soon. I keep leaning towards St. Pete. Living and hour and a half from Disney, do yall go on weekend trips often? Especially since you have APs. That's what I want to do. Be able to wake up on a Saturday and say I want to go to Epcot today. But I don't want to be so close that it's a 20 to 30 min drive. I just can't find anywhere in GA that I want to live and FL is the only other state I'd consider. I'd love to know more about the area and more about the schools. I just finished my masters so I'll be looking for a Library Media Specialist position and I'd rather have Tyson in public school. I just can't afford private school. I'd love to know if you have suggestions about St. Pete or other areas and specific neighborhoods to look at because of schools. I want a suburbs type community. I don't want to be out totally in the country but I don't want to be on top of the house next door. I also want things to do like good museums, restaurants, festivals, fishing, hiking, parks, beaches, etc. Let me know what you think!!

 

[AKL LOVER]

The Schedule:

Sunday Arrive, check in, have lunch dinner, MK after dinner 2 am EMH
Chef Mickey dinner (1 TS per person)

Monday Epcot
San Angel Inn lunch (OOP)
Teppan Edo dinner (1 TS per person)

Tuesday MK
Crystal Palace dinner (1 TS per person)

Wednesday DHS
Ohana dinner (1 TS per person)

Thursday AK
Tusker House breakfast (OOP)
Boma dinner (1 TS per person)

Friday Epcot, MK EMH 1 AM
La Hacienda de San Angel dinner (1 TS per person)

Saturday MK
Ohana dinner (1 TS per person)

Sunday QS lunch somewhere DTD then drive home


So that's the plans so far. I hope to get some input on the schedule and ADRs I've chosen. I've never been to CM, Tusker House, Teppan Edo or La Hacienda. I've love to hear some opinions. I know CM isn't the best but it's Tyson's request along with San Angel. He loves the rice there. LOL

Thanks for reading!

I'm joining in on your PTR too! I also love reading about other people's plans

I say that you should keep CM. It's worth it to go at least once. We've never had a problem with service or food whenever we've eaten there. And like the PP said, Mickey and the gang is a great way to kick off your vacay!

Also, we LOVE Donald's safari breakfast @ TH. We do this one every trip without fail--it's my kids favorite! Your son is going to love this one Do you by chance have it booked before rope drop? If so, it puts you in a prime spot to be one of the first in line for the Safari...just finish breakfast and head straight there!

 

[pjennings]

joining in on your PTR. We are going the same time (may 28-Jun 3) you are and staying at Pop. Look forward to reading your PTR.

We have a ADR at La Hacenda at Epcot. A family friend told us they had eaten at the CS portion of La Hacenda and it was really good, I figure the TS can not be bad if the CS is good.

 

[BridetobeDisney]

I'm joining in on your PTR too! I also love reading about other people's plans

I say that you should keep CM. It's worth it to go at least once. We've never had a problem with service or food whenever we've eaten there. And like the PP said, Mickey and the gang is a great way to kick off your vacay!

Also, we LOVE Donald's safari breakfast @ TH. We do this one every trip without fail--it's my kids favorite! Your son is going to love this one Do you by chance have it booked before rope drop? If so, it puts you in a prime spot to be one of the first in line for the Safari...just finish breakfast and head straight there!

HI!! I'm so glad you're going to join my PTR!

We've definitely decided to keep CM. I have changed or modified some others though. I'll post about it tonight.

My TH ADR is at 8:30 am and I think the park opens at 9 am. Is that cutting it too close?

Well, I look forward to getting to know you!!

 

[BridetobeDisney]

joining in on your PTR. We are going the same time (may 28-Jun 3) you are and staying at Pop. Look forward to reading your PTR.

We have a ADR at La Hacenda at Epcot. A family friend told us they had eaten at the CS portion of La Hacenda and it was really good, I figure the TS can not be bad if the CS is good.

HI!!!

Awesome! We'll be there at the same time and staying at Pop! We'll have to meet up!

I'm thinking La Hacienda will be good too. But we actually love San Angel Inn. We stayed away from it for so long because of all the bad reviews but finally tried it. We loved it and Tyson (our 3 year old) specifically requested it for this trip because he LOVES the mexican rice there. I don't know what made it special for him but he raved then and still does. I'm glad he asked though because I didn't plan on booking it. I ended up decided on lunch there because I didn't want to waste our TS points. Lunch will be a somewhat cheap OOP there for Disney standards.

I'm so you've come over to my PTR!! Stay tuned!

 

[BridetobeDisney]

So I have some updates!

Since Brandon, my brother, is probably coming with us, I decided to add him to all the ADRs. I'd rather have it for 4 and just show up with one less than show up with 4 and only have an ADR for 3. I know for a fact that you can have less number of people than you booked for at a TS and they'll try their best to accommodate you. I know issues arise but I've never had trouble.

We've also decided to change a couple ADRs and added one. Here's the new schedule..


Sunday MK May 29 7:55 pm Chef Mickey

Monday Epcot May 30 San Angel Inn 12:30 pm OOP
Les Chefs de France 6:00 pm

Tuesday MK May 31 Crystal Palace 6:05 pm

Wednesday DHS June 1 Hollywood and Vine 8:00 am
Ohana 7:35 pm

Thursday AK June 2 Tusker House 8:30 am OOP
Boma 7:05 pm

Friday Epcot June 3 La Hacienda de San Angel 7 pm

Saturday June 4 MK Kona 6:10 pm

The changes are we took off Teppan Edo and replace it with Chefs de France. Added H&V for bfast. Changed second Ohana to Kona.

What do you think of the changes? We added H&V because OSO is now one of the characters. When Tyson heard that he was squealing, "We need to go there!" I guess that made my mind up. It's not something I'm super excited about but he doesn't make a fuss over stuff like that. It must mean a lot to him. He LOVES OSO. Who wouldn't though? He's adoroble, more or less. LOL

We aren't going to Teppan Edo because they are always so backed up in the evenings and people seemed to be all waiting for it when we go eat at TD. Tyson can't wait that long to eat. He's not that patient especially after a day at Disney. Plus there is nothing on the kids menu that he'll eat. I'm hoping Chefs de France will be good. I've heard great things though.

Lastly Kona is always great...except for this horrible waitress we had on two separate trips there..once in 2008 and once in 2009. She just can't balance having that many people to wait on and she's horrible. She didn't bring us stuff we ordered at both meals, she doesn't refill your glass, she cut me down for having an allergy to macadamia nuts. That's actually pretty funny looking back.

I asked for regular butter since I'm allergic to mac. nuts. and at Disney if you are allergic to ANYTHING the chef comes out to talk the menu over with you. It's really great. I def. appreciate that gesture. Well she comes back and tells BRAD that the chef said for him to make sure his wife doesn't eat so and so because it has mac. nuts in it. I'm sitting right here. Tell me I shouldn't eat something. I'm not a kid. My husband does not have to relay messages to me that you just told him in front of ME!! Hilarious....I must look like a dummy or something. I definitely don't mind the chef or her telling us that. It's appreciated. BUT tell me I shouldn't eat something. Don't tell my husband to make sure your wife doesn't eat something.

OK off my soap box....

I'm going to get another day of my TR done tonight. I unfortunately was not as picture happy on this trip. I think I may only have 100 pics. I know not much.

 

[BridetobeDisney]

Day 2:

We got up late because we were so tired. I think we left the room around 10 am. We didn't really want breakfast and we were headed to Epcot so we decided to just find lunch there. We didn't have an ADR for lunch but decided to try for San Angel. We've never been able to walk up for lunch or dinner there but we gave it a shot again and low and behold they said ok. We had a table down the flight of stairs near the bathroom but hey it's a table and Tyson was starving. We got chicken nuggets and fries for him. I don't know what I ordered but I have a pic and it was yummy!! Brad got the same thing. We paid OOP for all meals on this trip, which I hate. I love the DP and prefer it over having to budget food money for the week. Here's the food and Tyson with his little dessert ice cream.

Side order of plantains

Tyson's meal

We both ordered this...no clue what it's called

Then we decided to walk around the world showcase. We normally get to WS so late in the day so we decided to reverse it. Do WS early and ride everything later or the next day we go to Epcot. I love the train and village over near Germany maybe? They decorate it for flower and garden too so I had to get pics.

Then we went see the American Adventure. I love the Voices of Liberty. The CM saw our anniversary buttons and said someone special wanted to talk to us. He took us over to a phone and told us a number to dial. I did and Mickey wished us a happy anniversary!! Then the CM filled out an anniversary certificate. He had gorgeous hand writing so it's really a very pretty cert. We went outside to watch the band play then came back in to see Voices of Liberty. The same CM asked if we were staying for the Amer. Adv. show. We said yes so he led us to an elevator and sent us upstairs to watch V of L from there and get first choice of seating for the theater. It was great.

PLEASE CLICK FOR VIDEO


It was so hot so we decided to buy one of those $9 misting fans. Of course, Tyson finds a new use for it.

PLEASE CLICK FOR VIDEO


Then we headed to spaceship earth before we went back to the room to cool off.

PLEASE CLICK FOR VIDEO


I think we went to MK later that night but I'm not sure. I have no pics to share of it.

Up next...Will we actually get up early or be lazy and leave at 10 am?

 

[2girlsmom]

Hi, great TR and pre-TR! I loved La Hacienda in December, and also had Chefs then, love it! My oldest is VERY picky, but she chose this one last trip, and had the Macaroni di Gratin (Mac & cheese, but grownup with gruyere). She absolutely adored it. Plus fun to see Remy! We love Tusker House, it was our only repeat in December from our previous trip in 07, character interaction is great for breakfast, and the food is good, and has some stuff different from all the other buffets, but still all the faves too, including DONUTS (huge to my kids).

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

loving ur trip report

 

[2girlsmom]

Great tr and pre trip! We love Tusker House breakfast, it is one of our faves, too. Also, we went to LaHacienda and really enjoyed it last december.