Buy One, Get Two Free: An October 2015 Report *updated 3/22*

[MnNsmom]

Hi and to my first pre-trip report, or any kind of report actually. I look forward to meeting more DISers and thank you for reading. My name is Crystal and I’ve been a lurker since the planning days of our first trip in June of 2013, and have recently started participating in some discussion. Confession: when I first started reading trip reports, I dug around to find all the complete ones to binge read all the details—patience is not one of my strongest traits. Because I mostly read completed reports, I never commented much because it just seemed kind of weird to comment on the details of a trip that was so long ago, especially since I would read the past reports some link in their siggys…we’re talking trips from years past!

Anyhow, let’s get down to business! You are probably wondering about the title of this PTR, if not humor me for a minute We have a new trip booked for October, 2015! I am beyond thrilled, but then I started with the obsessive planning (that’s normal, right?) and realized the best place to start was to revisit the details of our last trip to remember what we loved, what wasn’t terribly important, and what we had missed. As I was digging through the pictures and memories I had jotted down, I realized that some of you might enjoy those details and they would help make sense of the planning process of this trip. Yep, I know that’s only 2 for the price of 1, but I am a food lover and obsess over ADRs. As I was reading through my past notes I realized that this could totally be a PTR, mini TR, and a dining review sans pictures. But that’s what Google Image is for, right? So there you have it, 3 for the “price” of one. This will be a PTR, mini TR of our 2013 trip, and a dining review of sorts!


Trip Details
When: October 24-31
Who: Myself and my husband, Matt, and our 3 boys Matthew 13, Nolan 5, and Brady who will be 1 1/2 .
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort Standard room


Intros
Like I said, my name is Crystal and I am a stay-at-home-mom, full time student working toward a dual degree in Elementary Education and K-12 Special Education, and a Disney addict. I also love to read and watch baseball. We are die hard St. Louis Cardinals fans in this house! My favorite Disney movie is Oliver and Company, but I love most of them.

This is me on an evening cruise in Chicago.

Matt, my husband of almost 11 years, although we have been together for 15 years now!
He is an awesome dad and works as a pipe fitter/welder. He isn't as enamored of Disney as I am, but he adores seeing the kids' reactions. He also plays softball and coaches our oldest's baseball team. His favorite Disney movie is Lady and the Tramp.

I forgot to dig up pics of Matt and myself when I was digging up pics of the kids...typical. But here is one of us on our wedding day as it was handy.


Matthew is our oldest and will be 13 before we leave for our trip. He is a parent's dream, honestly. He is mature, responsible, intelligent, respectful, and empathetic. I think this is why we thought it was a good idea to have two more, but we will talk about them soon He also really enjoys watching and playing football and is OBSESSED with baseball. All of it. I think the MLB channel has been playing in my living room for at least an hour everyday for the last year and a half. His favorite Disney movies are A Goofy Movie and the Monsters movies.

This is what he looks like most of the time.


That's better!

And this is him looking too darn grown. Yep, I took a picture of a framed picture, but figured it was OK if redneck ride pics are OK.


Next is Nolan, who will be 5 for our trip. He is nothing at all like Matthew, but that's not a bad thing. Matthew takes after me and is very reserved, but Nolan lives it up! He hasn't met a person he wasn't interested in meeting or an experience he wasn't interested in trying. He LOVES trying new things and is pretty fearless. He's very sweet and thoughtful, but is also VERY vocal when he's displeased. Nolan is a riot and so much fun to be around, except when he's making us beat our heads against the wall. Did I mention that he is headstrong? His favorites are Lilo and Stitch, Toy Story, and Toy Story 3.

Here are some pictures of Nolan.



This one pretty much represents Nolan. Life is a party and fashion is subjective. Nolan has strong preferences in what he wears.


And last but not least, Brady. We call Brady our bonus baby because, frankly, he was a surprise. Brady is almost 1 already He will be about 18 months when we are in Disney. I know this is a cliche, but it is so true. I cannot imagine our lives without Brady. He is such a joy to all of us. He's the perfect mix of Matthew and Nolan; he's laid-back and easy-going, but he is always laughing and smiles at everyone. Both of my older boys were total Mama's boys, but Brady loves his whole family. He lights up and reaches for his Dad and brothers just as often as he reaches for me Brady doesn't have a favorite movie yet, but he LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

This is right before I broke down and trimmed his hair. Look how long the top is! He would make a pretty girl...

And Brady says hi.


Whew! That was longer than I thought it would be. If you are still reading, I appreciate it and the rest will be a little more interesting!

Up next: Struggling to choose a date.​

 

[MnNsmom]

Table of contents

2015 PTR
Choosing is Tough
Arrival Day​

2013 Trip Report
Travel Day and our First Taste of Disney
Day 1 Part 2
Day 2 Epcot
Day 2 part 2
Day 3 Hollywood Studios
Day 3 part 2
​

2013 Dining Review
Boatwright's
Chefs de France
Mama Melrose​

Tusker House lunch
Jiko
The Wave​

 

[goofy4prez]

Love a first time TR, count me in as following. Perhaps like you, I will eventually do one myself. I've been here since July 08 and have taken 5 trips to WDW with another coming up this June and still have never done a TR.

 

[CaseFace5]

Following along! Loved the intros. You have yourself a great group of men it looks like! Can't wait to keep reading along!

 

[wellesleyprincess]

Joining in! I'm going the last week of October too and am also doing my first PTR and TR. I totally did the same thing about binge reading the old ones.

 

[KatMark]

Crystal, I am here. I have to do something for one of my assignments, but I will be back to read a bit later this morning. Thanks for letting me know on my PTR that you started.

 

[MnNsmom]

Love a first time TR, count me in as following. Perhaps like you, I will eventually do one myself. I've been here since July 08 and have taken 5 trips to WDW with another coming up this June and still have never done a TR.

Thanks for following along and . You should do one! It's a tad daunting, but I'm already having fun with it. And way to go on the weight loss!!!

Following along! Loved the intros. You have yourself a great group of men it looks like! Can't wait to keep reading along!

and thanks for following along! They are pretty awesome, but a house full of boys is definitely *interesting* at times.

Joining in! I'm going the last week of October too and am also doing my first PTR and TR. I totally did the same thing about binge reading the old ones.

Maybe we will run into each other! I will be over to check out yours soon! It's so fun to read a completed report! I used to read 30 or more novels a year, but for some reason that number has gone down quite a bit since I discovered the DIS

Crystal, I am here. I have to do something for one of my assignments, but I will be back to read a bit later this morning. Thanks for letting me know on my PTR that you started.

Kathy! I'm so glad you are here. Like I said, I know you are busy planning trips and catching up on other TRs. Thanks for stopping in.

 

[KatMark]

Okay...I'm back. Great intros of your beautiful family.

I forgive you for being a diehard Cardinals fan and will read this despite that.

You arrive the day before we leave.

I'm looking forward to the mini-TR and the food reviews and the plans for the October trip.

 

[MnNsmom]

Okay...I'm back. Great intros of your beautiful family.

I forgive you for being a diehard Cardinals fan and will read this despite that.

You arrive the day before we leave.

I'm looking forward to the mini-TR and the food reviews and the plans for the October trip.

Thank you.

I'm going to assume you are a Cubs fan. Sox fans don't tend to despise us

Wow! I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but we will be in a park that night after dinner.

 

[KatMark]

Thank you.

I'm going to assume you are a Cubs fan. Sox fans don't tend to despise us

57 years die hard...through all the heartache and pain. The only team I despise more than the Cardinals is the White Sox.

Wow! I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but we will be in a park that night after dinner.

Hmmmm...which park? I already know where I'll be or am planned to be anyway.

 

[MnNsmom]

Who knew it was so hard to choose?

When we went on our first trip I was working for our school district, which of course meant we had to go during peak season. At least we were able to go for the tail end of the spring discount and mostly avoided huge crowds, but I loved the idea of going in the fall for Food and Wine and possibly free dining. Since I am no longer working for the district I definitely wanted to go during Food and Wine. And then something weird happened. You see Matthew claims to not care about Disney, which isn’t true as you will read, but he just doesn’t care about the planning details for the most part.

He specifically asked me if we could go to this.
(Borrowed from the internet)

So he could meet this guy.
(Also borrowed)

As we all know, kids can be weird. Matthew loves Jack Skellington, but doesn't care for Nightmare Before Christmas
Nolan on the other hand, loves the movie, but doesn't want to meet Jack because he is "crapey." That's how Nolan pronounces creepy.

This sounded like a great idea to me! Then I checked the school calendar and realized that we had October 30 and 31 off for parent teacher conferences in 2014. Perfect! Assuming that is the case for this year, we could leave Wednesday and spend Halloween and the first week of November in Disney! Then I realized that was Jersey week. Not gonna happen. I was also basing this decision off the free dining dates from 2014 and decided our best shot was mid-November. Until I remembered that last year the “Super Bowl” was November 16th.

Matthew’s football team went undefeated last year and won the Super Bowl in their league! Yes, it was absolutely freezing and a wet snow.


Of course that meant mid-November was also a no go. Again, going by the free dining dates from 2014 we settled on mid-December with plans to enjoy the Christmas decorations and go here.

(Yep, "borrowed" this one, too.)

One of Matthew’s favorite things from our first trip was the pool at Pop, so I checked out December weather and started waffling again. It was then that I decided we would leave the week before Halloween and plan to see this.

(Borrowed)

This plan means that we might have to book a split stay as that Saturday was blacked out from free dining last year, but that could work to our advantage as I will explain soon.

So our dates are October 24-31, but if something should come up we will revert to our mid-December plans.


Next up: 2013 travel day and our first taste of Disney World!
​

 

[KatMark]

I love both the Halloween decorations and the Christmas decorations. If it weren't for Mark's new part time job, we'd go at both times of year.

I have never seen the Nightmare Before Christmas.

It just looks cold at that football game. I don't miss that at all.

 

[MnNsmom]

Hmmmm...which park? I already know where I'll be or am planned to be anyway.

I'm fairly certain we will be heading to Hollywood Studios that night. It was the best way for us to get extra rides on the big 3 without devoting 2 park days to the Studios.

How do you replace links with text? I like the chapter links that are words instead of an actual link.

 

[KatMark]

I'll send you a PM if I can figure out how to explain it.

 

[princessbelle2015]

Joining in. Lovely I intros for your family. I look forward to reading more.

 

[KatMark]

We will either be at the Studios or Animal Kingdom on the 25th...it depends when the calendar comes out. I know up until the 21st when Todd and Nicki leave we will only be at MK and Epcot, so I have to get our Studio and AK time in.

 

[MnNsmom]

Joining in. Lovely I intros for your family. I look forward to reading more.

Kristen! Thank you. I'm glad you are here!

 

[MnNsmom]

We will either be at the Studios or Animal Kingdom on the 25th...it depends when the calendar comes out. I know up until the 21st when Todd and Nicki leave we will only be at MK and Epcot, so I have to get our Studio and AK time in.

Thanks again, the link worked. As of now, we will be at the studios the evening of the 24th and at MK the 25th. But that's based off predictions by Touring Plans, so it could change.

 

[MnNsmom]

Let's see if I can get day one of our 2013 trip done before the baby wakes!

This trip was the four of us and Matthew was 10 and Nolan was a little over 2 1/2. This was our very first trip and we were all excited, though Matthew and Matt were not sure if Disney was the right destination for them. Matt is not a huge Disney fan and Matthew thought he was too old for Disney. We left Saturday June 1st and came home Saturday June 8th. The plan was to leave St. Louis by 1:30 pm after picking Matthew up from a birthday party. I may be slightly insane, but we had tickets for six park days and only eight days planned for vacation, so we were trying to drive through the night and make rope drop at MK Sunday morning. Of course, things don't always go as planned and I knew this plan may be difficult to stick to with two kids. Magic Kingdom was open really late that day, I think it was open until 1 am, so we would have time to rest when we arrived if needed.

Leaving St. Louis.
Of course things didn't quite work out as planned, but we were fed and getting on the highway around 3 pm. Not too bad as that was the time I was originally planning to leave then decided to give ourselves an extra hour and a half.

Driving through downtown St. Louis.


I made the kids some travel bags with movies, activity books, coloring books, and a few cheap Disney toys I found at Target. Here is Nolan with his.



We had just driven through Illinois and crossed into Kentucky when we had to stop for a restroom break. It was around 5:30 in the evening and we still had a very long drive ahead of us. The details are a little foggy at this point, but I know we stopped for gas in Tennessee right before the steep mountain grades, then stopped for dinner just outside of Nashville around 8:30.

You can see the fog on the mountains here.



Matt drove from St. Louis to a bit past Nashville while I tried to get a nap in. I took over from 10 pm until 4 am when we crossed the Florida line. We stopped at the welcome center and I tried to get a bit of sleep while Matt woke up and began the hunt for coffee.



I slept for about 30-40 minutes and we were stopping for coffee for Matt and iced tea for me. I just stayed up at this point to try and catch the FL sunrise and help Matt find Disney.

Good morning!
If you have to stay up all night driving, this is a pretty good way to start your morning. We were getting close!


At 8:15 am we see this! I was wide awake at this point.


Then we were home!


Matthew was awake now and Nolan was still asleep, so we left the kids in the car with the AC running and checked in. I did online check-in and there was nobody in line. We were helped right away and had exactly what I wanted planned for us, but it wasn't ready. They were able to give us a room in the same building, just a bit further from the bus stop, that was available then and we took it. We were in our room and unpacking by 9 am. At this point I'm thinking we already missed rope drop and MK is open till 1 am, maybe we should just sleep for awhile and hit the park after our dinner ADR. That was the plan for all of 20 minutes before we decided to hop a bus to Magic Kingdom! We were just too excited to sleep.

It must have been close to 11 when we got in the park because the parade was going on right when we walked in. Matthew was started to get really excited at this point and Nolan was just in awe.





I told the guys that I wanted our first ride to be as a family and I knew we should hurry to new Fantasyland, so we chose Under the Sea! The stand-by was posted as 30 minutes, but I think it was actually closer to 20. Matthew wasn't too impressed, but it was gorgeous and Nolan loved it!

Disclaimer: Most of these pictures were taken with a cell phone on a moving ride.

After Under the Sea we were starving since we skipped breakfast, but we were also chomping at the bit because we wanted to see and do as much as possible in the short time we were there.


One thing that was an absolute must-do for me was Be Our Guest and we were in Fantasyland and starving! The line looked pretty intimidating, but I was determined. We get in line and a CM tells us the wait is about an hour, Matthew looks at me and says "are you really sure you want to wait for this?" I said absolutely and sent him and Matt to grab FPs for Space Mountain while I waited. I swear it was 10 maybe 15 minutes before it was our turn to be seated. I told the CM that we were waiting for 2 more and she asked how long it would be. I replied that it should be any second as they were just running to grab FPs and she said we were all supposed to wait in line together. She wasn't really rude, just matter of fact. I told her that the other CM told us the wait would be an hour and they would be right back. She said we could sit on the rocks in front of the castle and wait. Nolan was starting to get a little antsy and I was afraid the guys might take their time, but they arrived 3-5 minutes later.

Apparently I have hit my picture limit.

To be continued...​

​

 

[KatMark]

Nice travel day (although we could never go the whole time without stopping and spending a night). I do love that view in St. Louis (been a few times).

There's nothing better than seeing that sign.

I'm so glad you ended up hitting up MK and then getting to eat lunch at BOG.

Our June trips overlapped...I was there May 29 - June 6 on our "girls trip."