"Can we just upgrade one more time..?.... PLEASE....?" - My first PTR!

[SOnotLayuh]

Hello, and welcome to my first PTR!

I'm a bit nervous to start this, because even though I love reading other people's PTRs, I can't help but worry that mine will be too boring

My main issue is that when I get back from WDW I'm usually too depressed to come on the Dis for a while, but I've always wanted to do a TR. I think that having a PTR will make me get my butt in gear and write it when I get home

SO... here is the cast!

Sorry, no pics of just me at Disney! I'm the one always snapping away, yelling "DON'T EAT THAT!!!" so I can take pictures of food, and basically forgetting to get photos of me. I'm 23, and working on my Master of the Arts in Teaching for high school English. The name is Leia, but that's said Lee-ah, NOT Lay-uh (get my user name now?). Yes, before you ask, I was named after the Star Wars princess. The first couple of people to say her name in A New Hope (episode IV) say Lee-ah, and it's not until Han Solo comes along that they start saying Lay-uh. My parents obviously hated me

Are you confused about the name thing yet?

DH, 24. His name is Brian. This will be his third trip to Walt Disney World. His favorite ride is EE, and he looks forward to it more than any other part of every trip! He is a network administrator (whatever that means ), and works from home making sure the internet doesn't go down at random places. I don't get it. He tries to explain it to me all the time, and I never really understand what he's saying

We are also taking.....

DH's best friend, Dan, 20. Dan and Brian were friends online for years before ever meeting... apparently, they liked to work on internet servers together or something. They finally met in person once we moved to where we currently live, and get along in person just as well as they did online.

Dan hasn't been to WDW since he was very young.

We're all about sharing the magic with anyone and everyone who can afford to go with us, but seeing as most of our friends are still in college no one has ever been able to afford it until now

We're looking forward to sharing our passion for the Mouse!

 

[My_Pal_Pluto]

Hello LeeeeeYa (Did I get it right?) ... welcome to you, Brian, and Dan ... in reading the first part of your PTR, you definitely do not have to worry about promoting boredom on the boards ... great start with a little sprinkle of humor and sarcasm.

I'm joining in and I'll look forward to your tales!!

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Alright, so, the original plan was to buy APs and stay at PoP. We had a better-than-expected tax return, and I kept dreaming about going back... so we figured it was time . The discount was so good that we could definitely afford the stay and the QSDP.

Well... then I got back to Dis-ing obsessively, and started keeping up with The Adventures of the Purple Van. He puts up so many pictures that I had an itch to stay at POFQ; where we have never stayed. The only moderate we have ever stayed at is CSR, which we LOVED, but figured that it was time for a new mod

So, POFQ, QSDP. We were set.

Then...

I invited DH's best friend to come. While wanting to share the magic, I also made an evil plan that since Dan was helping with 1/3 of the hotel room... and the AP discount was so good... we could upgrade to AKL!

(can't wait to see this again!)

The only thing available by this time for the discounted rooms were standard and water views. I don't really care to face the pool, so we chose to actually save some money and stay standard.

I also, however, decided that we needed to upgrade to the DDP, because Dan should definitely enjoy some fine Disney dining!

Yes, I know. I have an upgrading problem.

I've also convinced everyone that upgrading to CL *IF* we could get the AP discount would be a GREAT deal. I've been calling every day and there are still no discounted rooms available... but there are still open CL rooms. I will keep trying, even until the day we check in!




UP NEXT! How many times will I change our ADRs? Will we get the Wishes Dessert Party? Will I drive the boys crazy by always trying to change everything up?

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Hello LeeeeeYa (Did I get it right?) ... welcome to you, Brian, and Dan ... in reading the first part of your PTR, you definitely do not have to worry about promoting boredom on the boards ... great start with a little sprinkle of humor and sarcasm.

I'm joining in and I'll look forward to your tales!!

YES! THANK YOU!

Also, thanks for being my first PTR comment!

 

[jenniferkeala808]

Hello!! I'm here!! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Now... just because I love looking at resort photos, and because I never posted my honeymoon pics, I'm going to entertain you with some good old resort pics. I usually take more photos of food than anything else cool1, but I LOVED AKL so we took quite a few pics there our first day.

Here is outside of the grand entrance!

The lobby... which most people know - I think this is THE most duplicated type of photo on the Dis!

This is part of the landscaping on the way to The Mara.

Kind of blurry... but I love that staircase!




Now... for this next one, I know I'm a total weirdo.

BUT HOW COOL IS THIS CARPET? Really? I loved it. I guess I'm easily excited

Here are some photos of our Savannah View King Bedroom that we had...

I was very excited that the refrigerator was "hidden". Like I said...I'm a total weirdo.

Here are some Savannah pictures. The photos make the animals look so much further away than I felt like they were!

This was my good friend Jerry... Jerry R. Affe. I was very excited to see Jerry everyday.

Interesting story!

The first night we were there... there were some giraffes right outside of our balcony that were...errrr.... celebrating their honeymoon as well

That was a very interesting lesson on natural processes

Also, did you know that before giraffes mate, they bang their necks together? It is VERY LOUD.

 

[MEK]

Also, did you know that before giraffes mate, they bang their necks together? It is VERY LOUD.

Ummmm...No.....I did not know this interesting fact, but thanks for sharing. Love you PTR so far. Looking forward to reading more and catching up with your upgrade antics.

 

[tink713]

Joining in! That is funny about the giraffes mating.

This is our first trip with AP's too.

Looking forward to the rest of your PTR!

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Ummmm...No.....I did not know this interesting fact, but thanks for sharing. Love you PTR so far. Looking forward to reading more and catching up with your upgrade antics.

Welcome! Thanks for being here

Joining in! That is funny about the giraffes mating.

This is our first trip with AP's too.

Looking forward to the rest of your PTR!

Hoorah for APs! I'm so excited! Thanks for joining




I'm glad I was able to educate you all about giraffes. It seemed like some pretty interesting information

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Alright, so without further ado.... the thing everyone on the DIS always asks....

What about ADRs?!?!?!?!

I won't keep you waiting any longer!!!

Day 1

The first night we are there we will be eating at Jiko. We just HAVE to go back. This evening AK has PM EMH, which are my favorite out of all parks... there is just something magical about being there when evening has descended upon the land...

Also, EE is scary as heck to me at night - I love it!

We will be eating at Jiko at 9. I hope we can make it - we usually don't eat this late!!

Day Two

Thursday is the only showing of Fantasmic! on our entire trip. We missed it on our honeymoon and have regretted it every. single. day. We will brave the DHS crowds and the awful line to make it this time!

I couldn't get the dining package because we planned this trip relatively late (in February). Instead we will be having lunch (and paying OOP - yikes!) at 50s Prime Time Cafe! It will be a late lunch... at 3. Hopefully that means we won't mind a QS dinner later!

Now, the reason why I'm excited about this is because Dan is VERY easy to pick on, and plays right into it. I'm really hoping he takes the heat instead of me

Day Three

This evening we will be dining at Epcot, at Teppan Edo. We've done this before, and enjoyed it, but we're only doing one new place this time around, and that is tomorrow. I wish we could have gotten in somewhere else that we hadn't been before... like Garden Grille (!), which I really REALLY want to try... but, alas, the last minute trip thing isn't helping us here. We will be eating dinner at 5:20.

Day Four

Woohoo! First time trying Liberty Tree Tavern! I'm not very excited, TBH. It just looks a little boring. Hopefully I will be proven wrong!! We really wanted to be in MK today.

We originally had CP at 7:20, but we were lucky enough to score a ressie for the wishes dessert party!

I wanted to make sure we would be hungry enough to want to take advantage of the dessert buffet, so I cancelled the 7:20 and made a 4:40 for LTT.




aaaaaaaaaaaaand that's it for now! I keep asking DH if it's too soon to start packing... he keeps telling me it is

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Im subbing! Your ptr is off to a good start. The pics of AKL are great. Too funny about the giraffes. Never new that I just can't imagine looking out my hotel window to see that lol.

 

[MikeandSulley]

I'm joining in, I've been wanting to start my first trip report and get what you're saying about making it boring, it's my fear. Yours is off to a good start and can't wait to read more.

 

[SOnotLayuh]

Im subbing! Your ptr is off to a good start. The pics of AKL are great. Too funny about the giraffes. Never new that I just can't imagine looking out my hotel window to see that lol.

Thanks for joining in!

I'm joining in, I've been wanting to start my first trip report and get what you're saying about making it boring, it's my fear. Yours is off to a good start and can't wait to read more.

Thanks!!! I'm definitely still worried about it being boring. Just jump in and go for it! If people are bored, they don't have to read it

 

[SOnotLayuh]

So... I'm evil.

The Double Tree Castle is running another special for 59$/night right now. So I convinced DH and Dan that we need to drive down then, and that DH can work from the hotel on Tuesday while Dan and I lounge around the pool and check out the outlet malls

DH works from home, so Tuesday shouldn't be a problem.

I wish that we had rates like that to stay on site... MK has PM EMH on that Tuesday night!! I'm so jealous! That is the only night that we will be there that they will have them, and we will be missing out

Oh well!! YAY! I'm so excited!

And I'm so devious.

 

[cantwaittoseemickey]

Another night sounds great! Even though you don't have EMH you still have an extra day so it sort of works out. But that would be really nice to stay extra late. WOW on the price. That is not bad at all. Outlet malls sound great. My dh forbids me to do any shopping other than disney (well we will go to walmart once on our trip) How far are the Outlet malls from Disney?

 

[BabyEeyore]

Loving your PTR so far! I'm writing one, too, and am always afraid that it'll be boring. We are staying at POFQ in September (our first time at a mod) and I've always wanted to stay at AKL so now I am telling DH about your PTR to hopefully get the idea in his head to upgrade. Maybe he'll think it was his idea all along. Nah, I'm not that sneaky. I'll probably just come right out and say "I wanna upgrade!" Can't wait to read more!!!