Booked a month off to go to WDW, think that's enough?

[Shir Kahn]

Hello all and welcome to my second attempt at a PTR! My last one kind of grew into a full-out trip report and ended up taking so long it ran into the trip after that! The link for that one is in my signature.

Cast of this one:

DW - Tammy
Myself - Jason
DBiL - Tim, or Indy as he likes to be called
DFiL - Len
DASMiL (er, Disney Almost Step-Mom in Law, these acronyms are getting a bit ridiculous!) Carla

Tammy, Tim and I have all been to WDW before, Len and Carla haven't, although Len has been to Disneyland a few times. Tim has Downs Syndrome and while his favorite place on earth is the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, he'll settle for the Indiana Jones show in WDW.

Tammy

Me

Tim

Don't have pictures of Len or Carla to upload quite yet, but I'll add them when I can.

One thing about my trip reports, I am an absolute picture-taking lunatic and I love to upload them. On my last trip report, I was working away at it and all of a sudden photobucket one day decided to rearrange the order of all my pictures, so I had no chronological order to them. I'm prepared for that this time though! I've just bought a new Canon SD880IS that I'll be taking the majority of my pictures with. I'll also have my Olympus Evolt 420 with me, which is perfect for the parks, as it's water resistant and compact. Tammy will have her Canon S5IS with her and we'll be using a Panasonic HD flash camcorder for video. It's getting easier to upload video nowadays, so I'll be including some of that in my trip report.

So we had originally planned to head off to WDW for spring break, just Tammy and me, as she works as an educational assistant and can only get certain times of the year off, such as spring break, summer break and winter break. I work in retail sales, so I can't be taking off winter, as that's peak sales time. For the past few years we've been going at spring break and then again in the summer, usually in August. So after we announced to the general family that we headed back yet again, Len said something about wanting to see what all the fuss was about WDW. He really has no idea how big it really is compared to Disneyland. So Tammy and I decided to skip the spring break trip and plan a July trip for all 5 of us instead.

We love driving down and usually always do, although it is a 32 hour drive each way. We live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which is pretty much the geological center of North America. It's also almost exactly the same distance from both WDW and Disneyland. 32 hours to WDW and 31 hours to Disneyland. Tammy and I will be riding in our car and Tim, Len and Carla will be going in theirs. We'll be leaving on July 5th and taking 4 days to drive down, about 8 hours a day. Normally we do the drive in 2 or 3 days, but we've got lots of time this trip and it'll be nice to take it easy. I just bought a nice $700 Garmin GPS for a measly $150 recently (one of the perks of working for an electronics store) and I'm really looking forward to trying it out on a long trip. It has the ability to have customizable voices, so Darth Vader will at some point be telling to turn left in 150 feet.

We're going to be checking into Pop Century on July 9th and Len, Carla and Tim will be staying until July 19th. Tammy and I decided to make this trip a bit more epic so we're staying until the 29th! Yep, 20 days booked at Pop Century! Just imagine how many pictures I'm going to have of Spaceship Earth this trip! We're buying annual passes, as it's much cheaper than getting two 10 day park hoppers.

The Plan so far:

July 9th - Epcot
Supper at Coral Reef

July 10th - MK
Breakfast at CRT

July 11th - AK
Supper at Tusker House

July 12th - MK
Breakfast at Crystal Palace (Booked really early so we can go in the park before it opens!)

July 13th - DHS
Lunch at Sci-Fi

July 14th - Epcot
Supper at Rose and Crown

July 15th - AK
Lunch at Rainforest Cafe

July 16th - Typhoon Lagoon
Supper at WCC

July 17th - MK
Supper at LTT

July 18th - AK
Supper at the new T-Rex restaurant in DTD

July 19th - MK
Supper at Tony's Town Square

July 20th - Epcot
Lunch at Le Cellier

July 21st - AK, then DHS
Supper at Hollywood and Vine, Fantasmic Package

July 22nd - DHS


July 23rd - Epcot
Supper at Tutto Italia

July 24th - MK


July 25th - AK


July 26th - DHS
Lunch at 50's Primetime

July 27th - AK


July 28th - Epcot
Supper at Chefs du France

July 29th MK



I haven't quite finished the dining plans yet, but everything listed has been reserved so far. I ended up waiting too long for my ADRs so I wasn't able to get everything I wanted, such as supper at Le Cellier, but I'm pretty happy with what I've got so far. I'll keep trying for the ones I've missed until I hopefully get lucky. Strangely enough, every trip, I've been easily able to get CRT reservations.

We're going to be changing this plan as we get closer, likely we're going to head to US and Seaworld at some point during this trip. I'm even thinking about doing the Discovery Cove dolphin swim. I'll keep you updated with anything new that we decide. Thanks to anyone who reads my PTR.

 

[All7OfUs]

Looky here! I'm first!

WOW! 20 days! That's outrageously cool!! You have some great choices for dining too! I"ve tried many of them, and can't really complain about a bad meal anywhere. But then again, we're pretty easy to please.

I'm very anxious to see how your plans come together for you!

 

[Shir Kahn]

Looky here! I'm first!

WOW! 20 days! That's outrageously cool!! You have some great choices for dining too! I"ve tried many of them, and can't really complain about a bad meal anywhere. But then again, we're pretty easy to please.

I'm very anxious to see how your plans come together for you!

Thanks for reading! We've been to all of the restaurants except for Tutto Italia, T-Rex, the Rose and Crown, WCC and Chefs du France. Can't wait to try them all! I will of course be taking pictures of each meal and including them in my trip report along with a review.

 

[jewels1916]

WOW! Twenty days? Unbelievable! *jealous* Sounds like you are all going to have a blast! All except maybe that 32 hour drive....j/k, roadtrip time! I'm subbing, can't wait to hear all of your plans!

 

[Lady Lallie]

20 Days!! That sounds wonderful. I can't wait to see how your trip unfolds.

 

[All7OfUs]

Thanks for reading! We've been to all of the restaurants except for Tutto Italia, T-Rex, the Rose and Crown, WCC and Chefs du France. Can't wait to try them all! I will of course be taking pictures of each meal and including them in my trip report along with a review.

Splendid! I love food art pictures. Of all these, T-Rex looks like so much fun. The theming looks great!

 

[imhzgrlnotu]

Sounds great, I'm subbing! Maybe I can learn a thing or two for our first trip

 

[dolfinjuls]

Hi...found you from the July board!

I can't even imagine driving that long! That's twice as long as our drive!

20 days is amazing...you guys are lucky! We were thrilled w/ our 10! haha I just checked our schedules and it looks like all of our park days are different!

 

[Mindy5767]

Hi...found you from the July board!

I can't even imagine driving that long! That's twice as long as our drive!

20 days is amazing...you guys are lucky! We were thrilled w/ our 10! haha I just checked our schedules and it looks like all of our park days are different!

And I thought my 14 hour drive from Northern Virginia was long. Now it seems so short! I'll be arriving the 12th, but we have to leave the 19th by the evening. Looks like we'll be there the same time. I'm not trying nearly as many restaurants as you. We're going to be saving money and calories by our party of 7 eating most meals in our Villa. We'll see how that turns out. We often plan to do that, but then get hungry and eat in the parks on the fly. I haven't planned all of our days at which parks yet. Just know we'll be in AK for Extra Magic Hours on 7/15 after eating dinner at Boma. We plan to eat at Cape May for character breakfast on the 13th and head into EPCOT. We want to try early magic hours at MK on Tuesday. We've never gotten up early enough before to make an early magic hour. I dream of being able to take such a long Disney Vacation. Either that or retire there!! Maybe we'll see ya there.

 

[Shir Kahn]

Thanks for reading everyone. Hope to see you there Mindy! We'll have our Lime Green Mickey Heads on, so we should be visible from far away! Don't hesitate to say hi if you ever do see us, because we love talking to other Dis'ers.

So anyway, on to the new stuff:

We've now decided that on the 18th, we're heading to Seaworld. We've been there before a few times and really like it. Feeding the dolphins is very fun and the shows are all wonderful. Got to watch one of the Budweiser horses get a bath last time.

The next change we've made is to add a couple more days to our stay in Florida. We're actually going to be staying until the 31st now. We're taking one of the later AK days and changing that to a Universal Studios day. We're also going to US and IoA on the 30th and 31st. We're buying Extreme Pass tickets, which give us 7 days of unlimited admission to these two parks with the bonus of having front of the line privileges! Definitely worth the extra money. Can't wait to go on the Mummy ride again. One of my favorite coasters. I'm definitely going to try Men in Black this time, we've missed it every other trip because of the hassle of finding places to put our stuff while we're in there. We've had rotten luck with those lockers so far. I really love Disneys policy of allowing you to take backpacks on rides if you want. When I'm carrying around 2 point and shoot cameras, an SLR, a camcorder and all the other miscellaneous stuff we can't seem to do without, I need a backpack! Going to trim it down to a single point and shoot hopefully for the US days. Wonder if I can find a holster that can hold my camcorder? It is pretty tiny, so it wouldn't be too bad.

Tomorrow I'm off to pay off the majority of the outstanding balance on the trip! The Canadian dollar has been rising pretty nicely lately so it's a nice bonus. It's going to be about $400 less costly than it was during March when I started keeping track.

So that's about it for now. I'm always tinkering with trip plans though, so I imagine there will definitely be a lot more updates on the way. I'll also be uploading some pictures of all the gear we're going to be taking at some point.

On a side note, this is my 1000th post on Disboards!

 

[All7OfUs]

Super-de-dooper! Two extra days! Fun, fun, fun. You can't take your pack onto rides at the other parks?? That would be a major hassle, for sure.

We too, have been enjoying a currency rise. The Kazakh tenge jumped about 11% 4 months ago and hasn't changed since. It was like getting an automatic 11% raise. It is harder though, for our local friends! Not only did the tenge get de-valued, but the prices went up. Great for us (and my upcoming trip), though.

Hope to see those plans soon!

 

[Mindy5767]

Wow... currency exchanges too!! I was just hoping that gas would be cheaper in the "south". Technically, we're in the south too, VA is most definately the south, but we're also in the Washington DC metro area so we have metropolitan prices. Once we get as far as Fort A.P. Hill, wham... down goes the gas prices. We try to leave with less than 1/2 a tank and fill up there. I say try because my gas gauge always reads 3/4 so you have to know how much is in there by mileage. A major hassle but the mechanic can't seem to get that fixed. Anyway, I'll be looking for you and your green mickey heads. Should be able to spot easily and with your BiL, that would cinch it. You also sort of resemble (from that pic of you) a friend of mine who is a CM at FtW. I'm the woman who looks like Snow White. Really, I do. If you could see my facebook profile pic. I am dressed as Snow White for the MNSSHP last Oct. My real hair and hair-do too!! We might have a friend driving to Orlando with us. We have an 8 passenger van, so it could work. We just take so much gear. I thought that one camera and one camcorder and my handbag was ALOT to carry!! I now assign my DS17 the camcorder. Unfortunately, he usually heads off with DD20 and they go their own way. We try to meet up for meals if we can. But I'll have MiL and DN10 and DH and DD7. You are so lucky that you can take off a whole month. I I wish we could. I think that if my husband can telecommute from home for work, he should be able to telecommute from WDW!! Don't you think

I can't wait to finally get on the new Toy Story Ride. We couldn't even get NEAR it in October. I hope we can get on Kali River Rapids more than once. It will be so hot, that'll be great fun! I LOVE that ride. Hope to see you there.

 

[Shir Kahn]

Went into CAA today (Canada's version of AAA) and as of today:


Trip paid in full!!

Turns out that they had made a mistake somewhere and that we were being charged an extra $600 for the dining plan! Not sure how that happened, but it was definitely a nice surprise.

 

[jewels1916]

Woohoo! Congrats on being paid in full! And on the 1,000th post !

 

[Lady Lallie]

Congrats on being paid in full! That is such a great feeling.

 

[All7OfUs]

OOOOOOhhh! That's great!! All paid for! One more thing to check off that planning list, now it's just fun from here on out!

 

[Peter Panic Attack]

We live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, which is pretty much the geological center of North America.

Not so fast my friend....I happen to know for a fact that Rugby, North Dakota is the geographical center of North America because I had to drive by their cheesy cobblestone monument every time I drove home from college.

Here's a little known fact....my great grandfather Gladstone hailed from Winnipeg along w/ his twin brother Garfield before they relocated to North Dakota. Yup....twin brothers named Garfield and Gladstone...maybe you've heard of them.

Yep, 20 days booked at Pop Century!

Great....now I'm suffering from trip duration envy.

We'll have our Lime Green Mickey Heads on, so we should be visible from far away!

So....if I'm understanding you correctly....you will actually be wearing a Mickey head. Now...I'm not sure what kind of laws they have up north of the border but.....

On a side note, this is my 1000th post on Disboards!

Congratulations. Great PTR by the way.

 

[Shir Kahn]

Not so fast my friend....I happen to know for a fact that Rugby, North Dakota is the geographical center of North America because I had to drive by their cheesy cobblestone monument every time I drove home from college.

It's probably something to do with continental shift. Yep.

So....if I'm understanding you correctly....you will actually be wearing a Mickey head. Now...I'm not sure what kind of laws they have up north of the border but.....

It's amazing what you can get away with when the border is only a stones throw away!

 

[Peter Panic Attack]

It's amazing what you can get away with when the border is only a stones throw away!

Hmmmmm...as closely as that border is guarded...I can only assume you are utilizing a complex network of tunnels to hop back and forth

 

[Shir Kahn]

Hmmmmm...as closely as that border is guarded...I can only assume you are utilizing a complex network of tunnels to hop back and forth

Well, after seeing the Utilidor system during the Keys to the Kingdom tour, I kind of got some ideas...

Short update today. It's actually snowing outside right now. Makes July look a long way off but kicks the anticipation up a notch at least! We really have some crazy weather here.

Started looking at ideas for hooking our Ipod Touch up to the radio in the car today at work. 32 hours is a long drive without music and we still have the regular factory deck in the car. I work for Future Shop, which is owned by Best Buy and is pretty similar. The guys in the Mobile Audio department gave me three options that would work. A Monster I-Car charger/FM transmitter for $35, a hardwired system that hooks up to the antenna directly, which is supposed to be much better quality ($80), and lastly, an actual car deck replacement that I can just plug the Touch straight in to ($250ish). The deck would be the nicest option, as it would look a lot nicer but I'm not sure I wanted to shell out $250. Especially since I started looking at the $35 option first.

It's amazing, all the little odds and ends you discover that you need to buy for the trip. Most of it is the result of all the electronics we've bought since I started working at Future Shop. Car Lighter jack splitters so we can plug in the Ipod, the GPS, the Laptop, the Nintendo DS, the Sony PSP, the portable DVD player, who knows what else I might be missing! We certainly won't be bored in any of the lines we'll be facing at WDW! Then there are the adapters so we can charge all of this, plus the cameras and camcorders. Batteries, memory cards, mini-dv tapes for my DBiLs camcorder, blank DVDs so we can make backups of pictures and video while we're there, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something else. I may need to hire a porter. DW says that some day I may actually see a live parade without a lens in the way, but she doubts it.

Side note: Just got a check back from CAA for $240 today for an overcharge, which is a nice bonus! Maybe I should put it towards that car deck!

Ok, enough rambling for now, hope you're all doing great and that it isn't snowing where-ever you are.