Can We Ride the Boat 1st? A first timer's Jan 2015 PTR - link to TR

[ach222]

Hi Dis!

I have recently discovered the boards and they have been soooo helpful to my planning, not to mention fun! I've enjoyed reading so many TRs so I thought I'd try my hand at a PTR/TR.

Cast :

I'm Amy, I'm a 30 year old event planner so as you can imagine, I am the planner when it comes to vacations too! I went to WDW as a kid, but so long ago that I barely remember.


Favorite Character : Snow White - that was my nickname as a kid b/c of my coloring so I have to go with her.
Favorite ride/park : That will have to be determined as I don't trust my memory from age 5
- I traditionally do not like roller coasters AT ALL but I am going to try and branch out a bit so DH doesn't have to ride everything alone and so that I don't pass on my fear to DS before he can even try them.

DH is Jon, he's also 30 and is a programmer/engineer - he's never been to WDW - he's never been that far east period. DH is a quiet guy who pretty much just goes wherever I plan for us. I try to get his thoughts on ADRs and Hotels and such and it's a lost cause haha.


DS1 is Grant (will just be DS in this report as DS2 isn't joining us) and he just turned 5. I am not a good secret keeper (Dumbledore would not have trusted me on that front) so DS has known about our trip since I booked it. He is very excited!

He says he is most excited to meet Mickey (and the rest of the fab 5) - he has also mentioned wanting to meet Anna/Elsa, Wreck it Ralph and Tink.
He LOVES the Disney Fairy movies (especially Pirate Fairy) and he's also a fan of Peter Pan, Finding Nemo, Frozen, and well all of them!

He is a bit of a reserved child so I do worry about him being brave enough for a lot of the rides, even the kid ones. The other day he ran into a wall pretty hard and I needed him to keep still enough to hold ice to his head for a while and thus we started watching ride vids on YouTube. After about 30 min of this, the title of my report came about - Small World really struck his fancy and he now informs us when we talk about WDW that he wants to 'ride the boats first!'.

DS2 will probably pop up in my PTR too. He is 4 month old Bryce (My original photos disappeared ... he is clearly not 4 months in this replacement photo haha) and he will be staying with my parents for this trip (I **hope** to go back right before he turns 3 with both boys and my parents, but it may be longer than that). He is a giant baby (85-95% in weight and height) who doesn't sleep much yet but he's adorable and we'll keep him. ;)

These PTRs (I'm still finding/subbing to a bunch) have inspired me to do some fun prep activities so hopefully I'll be able to get those in here soon. We are also going to see Disney Jr Live locally (We're in Arkansas) in September so we are looking forward to that!

I am sure I will have lots of questions for any readers that I get as I'm a newbie and really like to try to have things planned out as well as I can (occupational hazard). I am really going to try to be good about going with the flow as well!

Ok I'm going to start a table of contents with links and get going on some posts - welcome! I would be so excited to 'get to know' some of you. I have been active on another, unrelated, forum for years and have made good friends so I know how great these can be! Be sure to say hi and I hope to have something interesting to say from time to time!

Also, if you've done a TR with kids around 5 please feel free to direct me to it! I've been trying to go back and find some but would love to read more

OK!

When/Where
Mickey Mail
ADRs
WDW Circa 1989ish
Sunday/Arrival Day
Disney Shopping and Life Update
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Changes #1
Changes #2
Disney Jr Live on Tour
Double Digits, Resort Change and more
Add/Drop
Fast Pass selections
2 weeks to go - magic bands/daily plan updates
Why not add a day!?
Leaving tomorrow/going live

 

[ach222]

I had gone back and forth about when I wanted to take DS to WDW for a while. My mom had even talked about it being their gift to him last Christmas but I was pregnant so the timing wasn't right. This is one time the big age gap between the boys is a bit of a disadvantage - I know it works for some, but I didn't want to be tied to DS2s nap schedule when we were there so my parents and I decided they would keep DS2 for this trip and join us the next time. They have very fond memories of WDW so are looking forward to going again with the boys.

DH and I HATE hot weather (and yes we live in the south) so we didn't want to go in the summer. We also hate crowds (we sound like a barrel of fun don't we?) so, after looking at crowd calendars, historical room discounts, and weather averages, we decided to go Jan 17 -24.

We will be driving, so 2 -3 of those are travel days. We (wait for it) hate flying too as we were both horse show kids who are used to mega road trips. It should take us 17 hours to get there and that is pretty do-able for us road trip wise. Fingers crossed we don't have ice storms!

Once I floated the dates by everyone, I started looking at where to stay. When I went as a kid, my parents rented a house off property, but after weighing the pros and cons I decided I really wanted to stay in the Disney bubble. I was looking at a week that traditionally has room only discounts so my eyes got a little bigger than my wallet and I originally booked us at WL in a standard room.

I made all of my ADRs and roughly priced what food would cost us (we like eating out and want to do several TS) and thought maybe I was getting ahead of myself by staying deluxe - after all, how much time would we REALLY be spending in the room?!

So I broke out a price comparison of WL, POFQ, and AOA LM room along with park tickets and food estimates (this is what I do for my job anyways so it wasn't a huge undertaking) and made DH sit down and help me choose. We settled on ....

I'm drawn to POFQ mainly for the size and convenience aspect. I haven't mentioned this so far, but I have had arthritis since I was 2 and being on my feet all day is hard for me - so the compact nature of the resort was a big plus! We also love NOLA and so the theming works for us. We've also heard it's pretty quiet which we like. I know some people plan to swim in Jan but we aren't huge swimmers anyways so the pools weren't a factor. We will also have our own car so letting go of the Deluxe location was a bit easier to swallow.

I may have cut off my nose to spite my face budget wise because I convinced myself and DH that if we saved on the hotel we could add an extra day, so when I changed our hotel res, I added on Friday as a park day vs a travel day, oops! I'm excited to have that extra day for sure!

 

[Suziannie]

Following along!

Your family is beautiful!

I've always wanted to stay at POFQ! You'll really love being in the Disney Bubble!

 

[annegirl]

Woo hoo! I'm glad you started a report!
What an adorable family you have. And you do look like Snow White!
I would love to stay at PO someday.
And I think January would be a great time to go.
I also hate hot weather and crowds!
I am a little worried about our November crowds this year but hopefully the crowd calendars will be right.
Can't wait to hear more about your planning!

 

[ach222]

Readers already! YAY!

Following along!

Your family is beautiful!

I've always wanted to stay at POFQ! You'll really love being in the Disney Bubble!

Thanks so much and thanks for joining!

I am excited to stay on site, I do think we will like having a car to get around but we'll stay mainly in the bubble!

Woo hoo! I'm glad you started a report!
What an adorable family you have. And you do look like Snow White!
I would love to stay at PO someday.
And I think January would be a great time to go.
I also hate hot weather and crowds!
I am a little worried about our November crowds this year but hopefully the crowd calendars will be right.
Can't wait to hear more about your planning!

Yay! Glad to see you!

Thanks so much! The black hair and super pale skin got me that nickname pretty early on!

I am interested to see what you think of the Nov crowds as I'd love to go when it's decked out for Christmas

 

[SarahDisney]

I love your family! Bryce is such a cutie!

I'm with you on the hot weather - I won't go to Florida between May and September, it's too hot and humid for me. I don't know how people handle that kind of heat.
I went in January one year (I think it was the 2nd or 3rd week, I don't remember exactly), and the weather was nice (although a little chilly at night) and the crowds weren't too bad.

Hopefully everything will be perfect for you guys. I can't wait to see what else you have planned! (I'm a planning fanatic, so I'm excited to see how someone who actually plans for a living plans out a trip)

 

[Denovagirl]

Subbing! Following you here from Annegirls PTR! Love your intro, plans look great so far! Can't wait to see how your Jan trip goes bc we are thinking of a Jan trip in the future ourselves!

POFQ sounds like a great decision, through I really LoVED our LM room at AoA it was really far! I hope the smaller resort works great for you. I have friends staying at that resort at this very moment and they love it, it's where they always stay!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[ach222]

I love your family! Bryce is such a cutie!

I'm with you on the hot weather - I won't go to Florida between May and September, it's too hot and humid for me. I don't know how people handle that kind of heat.
I went in January one year (I think it was the 2nd or 3rd week, I don't remember exactly), and the weather was nice (although a little chilly at night) and the crowds weren't too bad.

Hopefully everything will be perfect for you guys. I can't wait to see what else you have planned! (I'm a planning fanatic, so I'm excited to see how someone who actually plans for a living plans out a trip)

Oh gosh, I find that sometimes my personal planning suffers because of all the planning I do at work so I hope it's not a let down haha! I plan weddings almost exclusively so it's a bit of a different world but I am going to do my best! Glad you're reading along!

Subbing! Following you here from Annegirls PTR! Love your intro, plans look great so far! Can't wait to see how your Jan trip goes bc we are thinking of a Jan trip in the future ourselves!

POFQ sounds like a great decision, through I really LoVED our LM room at AoA it was really far! I hope the smaller resort works great for you. I have friends staying at that resort at this very moment and they love it, it's where they always stay!

Can't wait to read more!

I'm glad your friends like POFQ! I wish those LM rooms weren't quite so far away but after all day at the parks I think I want to minimize my resort walking in case my joints are acting up. Glad you're here, I jumped over to your PTR as well!

I see that you're from Boerne! One of my favorite places! We love TX - I went to college there (in Georgetown) and DH and I both spent a lot of time there for horse shows. We debate moving to Ft Worth all the time

 

[jchurch0409]

Subbing! We are going in May of 2015 for our first family trip too! I am like you, I went when I was almost three, and I don't remember anything of course!

I can't wait to read along on your PTR! I love to read anything/everything about Disney!!

 

[ach222]

Subbing! We are going in May of 2015 for our first family trip too! I am like you, I went when I was almost three, and I don't remember anything of course!

I can't wait to read along on your PTR! I love to read anything/everything about Disney!!

Hi! Glad you're here - so exciting that you have your first trip planned as well! Are you doing a report?

 

[Suziannie]

I am excited to stay on site, I do think we will like having a car to get around but we'll stay mainly in the bubble!

We had a car for a portion of the stay last year, and while for the most part it sat on the lot it was really nice to have it as an option. I'm used to staying at All Star Movies where the bus transportation can be time consuming. It wasn't the same at Art of Animation at all though-but one of the things I'm excited about this year is having a car again. It really made our Downtown Disney trip and some of our resort ADRs easy to manage!

 

[ach222]

Over the last couple of weeks we've received our first pieces of Mickey Mail!

I was very excited to show Grant the planning DVD, so we plopped down on the couch and went through the parks and DTD sections. Of all of the things shown, he seemed to think bowling in DTD looked like the most fun

I suggested that we could go bowling here anytime and maybe we might do other things in Disney. To which he responded "but if I really want to, can we?" and I tried to

and said "yes buddy"

Glad he has honed in on the really special parts of WDW

 

[STLMickeyMom]

HI! followed over from annegirl's PTR and am joining in! we took our first trip with kids (2012) when they were 5 and almost 3. we also just went again this past January and stayed at POR. we're now planning another trip that will be here in 29 days!!! if you want to check out any of our trips or current plans, there are links in my signature.

your family is too cute! love the first day of school pics! our oldest was in kindergarten last year and now feels like an old pro in 1st grade this year. it's so exciting/scary when they start school, isn't it?

I think you'll love POFQ. when we stayed at POR, we went over one morning for breakfast and beignets. it was very pretty and quiet. we didn't explore much but it looked like an awesome place to stay. we didn't swim when we were there in January either. it was either too chilly for swimming (to us) or we just didn't have time. you'll like going in January though. we had a great trip, actually had to get out jackets because it was not hot at all and didn't have crowded parks (did have Brazilian tour groups EVERYWHERE, but they were avoidable for the most part).

can't wait to hear more about your plans!

 

[ach222]

Oh gosh, ADRs! Honestly, my ADRs are what led me to the Dis - I LOVE picking out restaurants whenever we go places - I love food, it's a problem! So once I knew we were going to WDW I immediately started looking at places to eat. Now, I am a true WDW novice and had NO IDEA about the 180 day window or that you really even had to make reservations at all!

Luckily, my obsessive googling brought me to the Dis where I learned about all things Disney dining (well, not all things) and by the time my 180 day mark rolled around (not too long after my Dis finding) I was ready.

I have a 4 month old who does not sleep through the night, so checking in on my app to see if the system was up and running at 5am was no problem! I quickly found that I didn't like the app interface for this and switched over to my computer.

Now, I had spent hours on the Dis dining boards but hadn't yet learned about recommended park days, looked at crowd calendars and EMH so they are not perfect but when it was all said and done, this is what I ended up with :

(VERY subject to change) :

Sunday - Arrival Day

Dinner at T-Rex

I know this might draw an eye roll or two from dining board gurus but I showed this place to DH and DS and they were so excited. I don't plan to have park tickets this day so DTD it is. I need to remember to watch the walk through of the restaurant on YouTube that I saw someone here mention to prepare DS. I somehow think I'll be roped into a build-a-dino too!

I mean it does look cool! Pic from orlandocity.com

Monday - MK

Breakfast - Chef Mickey

Dinner - BOG

Again, my dining friends will shake their heads at CM but DS is very excited to meet the fab 5 and I have accepted that the food will not be 5 star!

The BOG res is the reason this is still a MK day for us, it's not recommended, (I kind of forgot all about it being MLK day) but obviously I'm not going to get another 6:45 BOG res so we are sticking with it!

pic from disney food blog

Tuesday - Epcot

Lunch - Coral Reef

Dinner - Biergarten

pic easywdw.com

This is kind of my nostalgia day. I kind of remember eating at both of these places as a kid and I think both will be fun for DS. People seem to be split on CR food quality so I'll just cross my fingers. This is also a non recommended park day so I may switch these around at some point

Wednesday - HS/Epcot

Lunch - 50s Prime Time

Dinner - Via Napoli

Depending on budget and the way the schedule works out, I could get rid of 50s PT without being too upset but we'll see.
Via Napoli was a late addition last week after reading some great reviews. I think if we split a pizza it will also be a fairly reasonable TS dinner.

pic wdwforgrownups.com

Thursday - WWoHP

Dinner - Raglan Road

We plan to be at Universal during the day and not use Disney tickets. I am really excited to try RR - The bread pudding especially!

pic raglanroad.com

Friday - park hopping/DS choice

Breakfast - Kona

Dinner - Chefs de France

This is the day we added onto the trip. I really want some macadamia nut pancakes as well as some french onion soup haha - DHs favorite dessert by a mile is creme brûlée so i figured Chefs would be a good way to end the trip - both of those are subject to change though!

pics wdwinfo.com

ok that's it - any thoughts!?

 

[ach222]

We had a car for a portion of the stay last year, and while for the most part it sat on the lot it was really nice to have it as an option. I'm used to staying at All Star Movies where the bus transportation can be time consuming. It wasn't the same at Art of Animation at all though-but one of the things I'm excited about this year is having a car again. It really made our Downtown Disney trip and some of our resort ADRs easy to manage!

I think knowing that even if we oversleep or something that we have an easy way to get places will be great! Like you mention, I hear a lot about how loooong the busses take so I'm glad we will have wheels.

HI! followed over from annegirl's PTR and am joining in! we took our first trip with kids (2012) when they were 5 and almost 3. we also just went again this past January and stayed at POR. we're now planning another trip that will be here in 29 days!!! if you want to check out any of our trips or current plans, there are links in my signature.

your family is too cute! love the first day of school pics! our oldest was in kindergarten last year and now feels like an old pro in 1st grade this year. it's so exciting/scary when they start school, isn't it?

I think you'll love POFQ. when we stayed at POR, we went over one morning for breakfast and beignets. it was very pretty and quiet. we didn't explore much but it looked like an awesome place to stay. we didn't swim when we were there in January either. it was either too chilly for swimming (to us) or we just didn't have time. you'll like going in January though. we had a great trip, actually had to get out jackets because it was not hot at all and didn't have crowded parks (did have Brazilian tour groups EVERYWHERE, but they were avoidable for the most part).

can't wait to hear more about your plans!

Hi! welcome! I am bookmarking your TRs to look over - thanks! Oh geese tour groups! I am hoping we can see them coming and run the other way! Glad you enjoyed POR and eek 29 days!!!! exciting!

 

[SarahDisney]

We don't usually do ADRs, so I can't really tell you much about your dining choices, but I think that if your DH and DS are interested in a restaurant, you should absolutely try it, even if others don't like it. The important part is for you guys to enjoy the trip. And if you end up not liking something, you know for next time not to bother with that restaurant.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Hello, we're following along too. Congratulations on your trip, it looks like it should be great. Going in January and avoiding the heat sounds really nice.

The ADRs sound great too. You did your research. There are so many great options at WDW, it is hard to go wrong. I wouldn't worry about the CM breakfast. That was one that I really wanted on our first trip too, and the characters were great. Then you'll have great food with dinner at BOG.

We like hopping from HS over to Epcot too, and are looking forward to trying Via Napoli for the first time in just 19 days. We'll let you know how it is, but we expect it to be great. We didn't know about the boats between HS and Epcot during our first trip, and now we really enjoy using them.

Enjoy your ongoing planning and we'll be here following along.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Oh, your ADRs look great! I'm so glad you found the DIS in time to get some info before your 180 day mark!

Here's what I can say about some of your choices.....

T-REX--we did it last time and the girls loved it. It's a lot like rain forest cafe. It was pretty loud in there, but the food was good, our waitress was friendly and we enjoyed it. If DS likes dinos, he'll love it

CHEF MICKEY'S--we've been there once for dinner and loved it. It was the girls first character interaction on our first trip and they had a blast! Food was fine but I don't think anybody really goes there for the food, rather to see the characters. I think it's worth it to get to see them without having to wait in a line

BOG--very fun, we went for dinner so we could see beast. I don't love it as much as others do, but still fun to try

BIERGARTEN--we didn't enjoy this one too much because I'm not a fan of the seating arrangements and our girls didn't want to eat anything and complained a lot. However, we loved the music and entertainment!

50s PRIMETIME--don't cancel this! The food is awesome and the atmosphere is excellent! It might be our favorite Disney restaurant. I can't say enough good things about it! It's the reservation we're most looking forward too and crossing our fingers that we'll get in trouble!

The others we haven't tried yet-can't wait to hear what you think!

 

[LoJoDisney]

Hi Dis!

I have recently discovered the boards and they have been soooo helpful to my planning, not to mention fun! I've enjoyed reading so many TRs so I thought I'd try my hand at a PTR/TR.

Cast :

I'm Amy, I'm a 30 year old event planner so as you can imagine, I am the planner when it comes to vacations too! I went to WDW as a kid, but so long ago that I barely remember.

Hi Amy!! I came over from my PTR. You have a beautiful family

Favorite Character : Snow White - that was my nickname as a kid b/c of my coloring so I have to go with her.
Favorite ride/park : That will have to be determined as I don't trust my memory from age 5
- I traditionally do not like roller coasters AT ALL but I am going to try and branch out a bit so DH doesn't have to ride everything alone and so that I don't pass on my fear to DS before he can even try them.

I hope that you enjoy some of the roller coasters! They really are more fun and exciting than your typical thrill ride roller coaster.

DH is Jon, he's also 30 and is a programmer/engineer - he's never been to WDW - he's never been that far east period. DH is a quiet guy who pretty much just goes wherever I plan for us. I try to get his thoughts on ADRs and Hotels and such and it's a lost cause haha.

This sounds just like my DBF.... he listens to me when I talk about the ADR's and hotels and seems excited, but usually his answer is "sounds good to me"...he really just goes with the flow. I guess in a way that's good for us


DS1 is Grant (will just be DS in this report as DS2 isn't joining us) and he just turned 5. I am not a good secret keeper (Dumbledore would not have trusted me on that front) so DS has known about our trip since I booked it. He is very excited!

AHH DUMBLEDORE
Grant is adorable!


DS2 will probably pop up in my PTR too. He is 4 month old Bryce and he will be staying with my parents for this trip (I **hope** to go back right before he turns 3 with both boys and my parents, but it may be longer than that). He is a giant baby (85-95% in weight and height) who doesn't sleep much yet but he's adorable and we'll keep him. ;)

Look at that smile- he is adorable too! I really hope you can take them right before he turns 3!


These PTRs (I'm still finding/subbing to a bunch) have inspired me to do some fun prep activities so hopefully I'll be able to get those in here soon. We are also going to see Disney Jr Live locally (We're in Arkansas) in September so we are looking forward to that!

The prep before the trip makes time go by more quickly! My mom lives in Arkansas actually! She's lived there for 2 years.

Can't wait to follow along!

 

[ach222]

We don't usually do ADRs, so I can't really tell you much about your dining choices, but I think that if your DH and DS are interested in a restaurant, you should absolutely try it, even if others don't like it. The important part is for you guys to enjoy the trip. And if you end up not liking something, you know for next time not to bother with that restaurant.

Yeah DH and I have already said this trip is for DS so if we're paying more than we normally would for just ok food but get character interaction we're a-ok with it!

We like hopping from HS over to Epcot too, and are looking forward to trying Via Napoli for the first time in just 19 days. We'll let you know how it is, but we expect it to be great. We didn't know about the boats between HS and Epcot during our first trip, and now we really enjoy using them.

Enjoy your ongoing planning and we'll be here following along.

Welcome! I didn't realize there were boats, thanks for the tip! I'll look for your Via Napoli thoughts when you do your TR

Oh, your ADRs look great! I'm so glad you found the DIS in time to get some info before your 180 day mark!

Here's what I can say about some of your choices.....

50s PRIMETIME--don't cancel this! The food is awesome and the atmosphere is excellent! It might be our favorite Disney restaurant. I can't say enough good things about it! It's the reservation we're most looking forward too and crossing our fingers that we'll get in trouble!

The others we haven't tried yet-can't wait to hear what you think!

Thanks of all of the great thoughts! I'm glad you love 50's PT - I am pretty sure we liked when my family went when I was young as well- I'll try and hang onto it - honestly, if one goes, it will probably be the Kona b-fast as we aren't huge b-fast eaters.

Can't wait to follow along!

Hey Lauren - welcome!