Celebrating Grandmom's B-day w/Free DDP for 8- A PTR by 2 SILs :)

[Dizzymrslizzy]

Good afternoon all. DSil and I are in the midst of planning and preparing for our upcoming Disney trip in just a short 63 days! This is my first trip report so please be gentle on me . Anyway, back to the purpose of this post. We're taking a nice size family trip this September/October for the purpose of celebrating Grandmom's birthday (DH and DSil's Mom).

DSil and family are Disney-aholics. She's going to write her own introductions so I'll just leave that up to her DSil is my Disney guide, and I bow to her ultimate Disney knowledge from her years and years of experience.

DH and I are also Disney lovers. This will be my 5th trip to Disney, and I love it more and more each time. This time we have a brand new family member DS (Baby) who is a happy and joyful one year old. We're celebrating big time with Grandmom's birthday on our Day of Arrival.

So here are our important Details:
Trip dates- September 26- October 4th
Hotel- All Star Movies
And most importantly- FREE DINING!!!!!!!!!

I tried to convince DSil and GM into DDP on our last trip in 2007, but that didn't go over well. This time we made it at Free Dining time, and I'm super excited, because Dining is a BIG part of my vacation. I live to eat (instead of eating to live HA) and dining out is something I just love love love. So I'm super excited about having Free Dining, because it means we all get to eat together, and have great meals! Woot Woot!

INTRODUCTIONS
Here's the Cast of Characters coming on this trip:

DH and I:

Me: I'm a 30 something NYer, who is currently a Stay at home Mom. I've been a Disney lover all of my life. I could watch Steamboat Willy a million times as a kid and never get bored of it. I prefer the classic Disney B&W stuff, but am also a big fan of Beauty and the Beast, and the Little Mermaid. I love Disney world, and my favorite rides are: Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, and Splash Mountain. BTRRM is the ONLY Roller Coaster in the world that I will even attempt to ride on.

DH: Is turning 30 a few days before this big trip. Also a born and raised NYer, who is very technical and does Computer Programming for a living. DH's is a big Nemo fan. He never got to go to Disney as a kid, and his first trip was in 2002. DH's favorite "Ride" is Indianna Jones in DS, but don't let him fool you, I think it really is Dumbo

DS: To be known as Baby

DS: My little Matthew Bear. He's a cuddly and lovable 1 year old, who will be 14 months old on this trip. He loves Playhouse Disney, and I'm excited to see him enjoy the characters up close and personal. I don't know who his favorite is yet, but he loves his stuffed Kermit, Tigger, and Wall-E dolls, and sleeps with them all every night. He even got super cool Wall-E PJs from his Aunt for his birthday.

And Grandmom: GM from here on out

Also coming with us are:
DSil- NorweJenNY who will be reporting along with me
DBil- NorweJenNY's husband
BigGuy- DSil's oldest son (6)
LittleGuy- DSil's youngest son (4)
She'll introduce all of them with pictures

 

[NorweJenNY]

Let me introduce you to my family... (or reintroduce you to us if you've read my previous trip report... that I'm still reporting on...)

Me: I'm in my upper 20s and love Disney... as my dsil already mentioned, I'm addicted to planning trips! I love these DISboards... they've given me so many good ideas! And apparently I'm brave to be doing this with an in-law. (Just kidding, DizzyMrsLizzy!) I love all the traditional characters, and Eeyore... and I've gotten pretty fond of Nemo & friends too. My favorite ride is Soarin'!

Hubby: Also in his upper 20s (a little higher up than me )and loves Disney... he actually grew up in FL, so he can't quite count all the trips he's taken because there were so many. He admits, however, that I still know more about Disney World then he does because of my research and planning addictions. A piece of him would rather be in Las Vegas (perish the thought!) but when it comes to traveling as a whole family, Disney is his destination of choice. (Smart man! I did marry him for a reason ) He likes a lot of traditional characters, with somewhat of a particular liking for Tigger, though some mornings he prefers to be more like Grumpy. (Not a morning person... usually.) He also likes (and often acts like) Goofy. His favorite attraction is Mickey's Philharmagic. It kinda brings out the kid in him. Oh, and I also must mention he LOVES Dole Whips & Funnel Cakes. Those are about on the same importance level as doing Mickey's Philharmagic in his viewpoint.

And then there are Big Guy (right) & Little Guy (left)...

Big Guy: So he's not really that big... just a little bigger than his brother. Big Guy just turned 6 in Disney World earlier in July! Big Guy likes some thrills and is a very fun-loving kid. He's pretty good about going with the flow, and isn't generally afraid to try new things. He reminds me a bit of Tigger, and actually sleeps with a Tigger in bed at night. He's also a big fan of Lightning McQueen & Buzz Lightyear... which I suppose is typical for his age. And as for the main characters, he likes Goofy & Pluto. His favorite rides are BTMRR & TT.

Little Guy: He's a sweet and friendly 4 1/2 year old. If you see my signature, he's the little emoticon that's waving. Every now and then he just waves to random strangers, just to be friendly. He also has a big smile, big brown eyes, and long eye lashes that he's gotten comments on since he was a baby. (He's still my baby!) He loves goofing around and having fun, but he also has a slightly timid side. Right now he's in the midst of a stage where he fears "water in the eyes," and on our last trip (just completed last week), we discovered he doesn't like a lot of sudden surprises... like the puff in Figment's smell lab, and the headlights in TT. We'll see how he does on this next trip. Little Guy's favorite character's are Lightning McQueen & Buzz Lightyear (sound familiar?), and he also loves Nemo & friends, Remy (though he refers to him as if his name is "Ratatouille," and sometimes he says, "Little Chef" too), and Wall-E. He is most looking forward to "The Buzzlightyear Ride," "The Nemo Ride," and "Small World." headache

Originally, I was planning on surprising the boys with this trip, but I think a few too many people forgot to keep it a secret... Anyway, I'm not giving them too many specifics... maybe the day will come and they won't realize that it's already time to go back! We'll wait and see.

Anyway, we're looking forward to going with Baby for his first trip to WDW! And we're really looking forward to making Grandmom (my mom) have a great birthday! We've even scheduled her birthday lunch at 50s Prime Time, figuring it would be appropriately nostalgic for her...

Yeah, and I suppose it will be neat to return with dbro and dsil as well...

This will be our second WDW trip all together (though last time was without Baby)... so it will be just the 8 of us.

Stay tuned! We've got lots to share!

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

Hey Jen, we just need 3 more family members, and we could be Liz and Jen + 10. Anyway, this will be fun to do together. Nice family bonding [/COLOR

Here's a nice family shot of all of us during our last trip! We're missing 1 important person, who was back in the hotel room with the flu [/FONT][/SIZE]

 

[NorweJenNY]

Liz & Jen + 10... sounds cute! So are you planning on having twins or something? Cuz I'm not! I like sleeping through the night for now!

I'm so glad you found that pic of us from our 2007 trip! I was looking for that one and couldn't find it for some reason!

NO ONE is allowed to get sick this time... it's just miserable that way. I'm just hoping hubby's work schedule will allow him to come! But we have no idea what type of store he will be assigned to by then... I suppose any way in which someone may be MIA would be a bit depressing. Let's hope for the best...

I thought I'd add our temporary schedule to our thread...

(I love my color-coded schedules!)

This is where the fun begins! We booked our free dining ADRs at precisely 7am at our 90-day window. (Didn't even have to wait on hold for a CM!)

So we actually got a lot of great places!

Of course we keep reading reviews and thinking that we need to add this place and that place... who knows what might change yet!

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

Yum yum yum. My DSil did a wonderful job getting all of our ADRs. I have to give her ALL of the credit. Who said Inlaws don't get along .

Anyway, yeah as she said, I keep reading HER dinning reviews and have now decided that Chefs de France HAS to be on our list. We are undecided as to what to give up in order to fit it in, but the Peppercorn Steak and Gratin potatoes look so divine, I drooled while looking at her pictures, not to even mention the crepes. OMG YUM!

We also have the issue of who sleeps where. From my vantage point we have 3 untraditional options. We "hopefully" have 2 adjoining rooms, and 3 sleepy children. Do we all go to bed early? Or do we rearrange our rooms so that there's a Children's room and an adult hang out room. Do we do SILs/BILs in one room and Grandmom and the children in the other room? Or Grandmom and one SIL in one room, and a SIL and the children in the other room???? What's the right combination.

Stay tuned!!!

 

[NorweJenNY]

We also have the issue of who sleeps where. From my vantage point we have 3 untraditional options. We "hopefully" have 2 adjoining rooms, and 3 sleepy children. Do we all go to bed early? Or do we rearrange our rooms so that there's a Children's room and an adult hang out room. Do we do SILs/BILs in one room and Grandmom and the children in the other room? Or Grandmom and one SIL in one room, and a SIL and the children in the other room???? What's the right combination.

Stay tuned!!!

BTW, "adjoining" or "connecting" rooms? I'm not sure what we requested at the moment, but I think we have to find out...

I've recently read that there's a difference... "adjoining" meaning "next to," but "connecting" meaning you actually have a door to get between the two rooms... now, adjoining rooms could be connected, but not necessarily...

I do like the idea of Grandmom & kiddos all in one room ...but seriously... do we dare do that to her when this trip is mainly in her honor?

 

[scoot241]

I'm liking the schedule so far. I do have to say that I'm not a fan of Planet Hollywood, which is probably why they send the vouchers with the packages. I ate two not-so-great breakfasts there on high school band trips to WDW. When it comes to those types of places I'm more of a Hard Rock Cafe fan anyway. Too bad it's at US.

Everything else looks good. Lots of places that I want to try to eat at eventually (my Sept. trip is pretty set at this point). It's interesting trying to get two families on the same page. On the upcoming trip, my parents and sister are coming along with my DW, DD and myself. Fortunately, both of you know what you're doing when it comes to WDW trips. I've had to remind my parents when an important date was coming up (flights, final payment date, etc.).

 

[NorweJenNY]

I'm liking the schedule so far. I do have to say that I'm not a fan of Planet Hollywood, which is probably why they send the vouchers with the packages. I ate two not-so-great breakfasts there on high school band trips to WDW. When it comes to those types of places I'm more of a Hard Rock Cafe fan anyway. Too bad it's at US.

Everything else looks good. Lots of places that I want to try to eat at eventually (my Sept. trip is pretty set at this point). It's interesting trying to get two families on the same page. On the upcoming trip, my parents and sister are coming along with my DW, DD and myself. Fortunately, both of you know what you're doing when it comes to WDW trips. I've had to remind my parents when an important date was coming up (flights, final payment date, etc.).

Yeah, we're just doing Planet Hollywood for the vouchers, otherwise we wouldn't have... I don't know about my dsil, but our family doesn't really intend to do a full meal here... we'll probably grab some desserts at Goofy's Candy Company afterward or something... though it might be busy on a Sat night... we'll just play it by ear! Anyhoo, maybe hubby and I will share an entree, or maybe we'll just try some appetizers... We figure we'll get full enough the rest of the week with all the food you get on the DDP.

We'll see how much our families can be on the "same page" when we get down there... So far so good though!

 

[scoot241]

Yeah, we're just doing Planet Hollywood for the vouchers, otherwise we wouldn't have... I don't know about my dsil, but our family doesn't really intend to do a full meal here... we'll probably grab some desserts at Goofy's Candy Company afterward or something... though it might be busy on a Sat night... we'll just play it by ear! Anyhoo, maybe hubby and I will share an entree, or maybe we'll just try some appetizers... We figure we'll get full enough the rest of the week with all the food you get on the DDP.

We'll see how much our families can be on the "same page" when we get down there... So far so good though!

My parents and sister are primarily interested in following DD around (and of course we'll be with her). Once everyone is in Orlando, I don't expect too much trouble.

 

[NorweJenNY]

My parents and sister are primarily interested in following DD around (and of course we'll be with her). Once everyone is in Orlando, I don't expect too much trouble.

Good plan!

Some parents have too much of their own plan and end up having children with meltdowns, and then they have their own meltdowns... takes away from the Disney magic, dontcha think?

I hope you and your family have a great trip, Scoot!

 

[NorweJenNY]

So apparently there's an issue with doing trip/dining reports that a relative is checking out, while you are also planning a trip with that relative...

DSIL wanted to add Chefs de France because of my review/pictures from our August trip. (You can link to that dining review in my signature.)

Not that I didn't want to do it, but we had our ADRs in place and didn't really want to change any...

Well, I started thinking about it, and then decided I wanted it too! So I figured we'd check out the possibilities for a dinner ADR there on a night that we didn't have anything else scheduled. If we could find an available ADR, we'd take it.

Yeah, an available ADR for a decent dinner time at Chefs de France during free dining AND the Food & Wine Festival AND for a party of eight! What were we thinking, a month AFTER our 90-day window.

Well, there was exactly ONE ADR that fit our criteria... so without hesitation I booked it! Now we have an updated schedule to include Chefs!

Hmmm... 9 ADRs & 8 nights of dining... Nope, not giving anything up... we plan on having a few sharing situations, and/or paying OOP for some meals. We're gonna make it work...

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

So with 20 days to go DH and I decided that we needed to test out some scenarios to see how well Baby would react.

Two weeks ago we took him to see his most favorite character.....Elmo. We saw the que for meeting Elmo, and we hopped right on line. I think it helped that there was a line, because Baby got a chance to peek at Elmo while being protected by Mommy and Daddy! We kept creeping up the line (it wasn't that long of a line) and finally got to the front about 5 minutes later. (See told you it wasn't too long). And I held out my hand for DS to take, and he toddled right up to Elmo and gave him the hugest hug in the world! Success # 1!!! So now I'm not concerned over whether DS will be scared of life sized characters. I'm THRILLED that he doesn't have that fear.

Last night was the second test. I am a HUGE HUGE Fan of Wishes, and Fantasmic. Heck I love just about all firework shows, but from experience I know that a lot of toddlers/kids are afraid of them. This was a big fear of mine, because really I wanted to try and catch at least Wishes one night. I know DSIL isn't to hot on the idea because I think LittleGuy is afraid of them. I could be wrong on that though. So this was probably going to be a solo mission for DH and I one night if we could get back in time after dinner. So last night we tested the waters again. We went to my Aunt's house for a BBQ and her town has Labor Day fireworks. So we decided that this would be a great place to test it out and see how DS reacts to fireworks. After all he had a lot of his loved ones around (Except for DSIL's family and Grandmom who live too far away). Well DS thinks that fireworks are big bubbles in the sky. He giggled at them, and reached out to grab them, and said Buh-buh a few times! SUCESS # 2.

20 days to go until we're with the Mouse. What more could happen?

 

[NorweJenNY]

Baby Matthew - so glad you'll be joining us in WDW in a few weeks!

My Big Guy & Little Guy love having their pictures taken with the characters... I bet we're gonna have some really cute pictures!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Guess what? Hubby still hasn't gotten his promotion at work, despite the fact that he's been totally ready... just waiting for that opening... which will likely be appearing in another week or so.

That means taking on a new position a week or two before our trip, which means no, he can't come the whole time when adjusting to that new position.

Now the question is will he be able to come at all?

Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that he'll be able to come down at least for a little bit...

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

"]Ugh DSIL that is really frustrating. I guess this will be the ongoing trip report theme. Will DBIL be joining us in Disney or not. I certainly hope he can come...he's one of the sane ones (J/K DSIL)

 

[NorweJenNY]

Hubby... one of the sane ones?

Have you met him?

 

[NorweJenNY]

Oh DSIL... where are you? We've got some plannin' to do!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Important News... Important News...

This just in...

It appears hubby's boss has seen it fit to give him off next Friday & Saturday, October 25 & 26...

That's two days in a row!!! Do you know how rare that is???

Oh... and Oct 26 is the day we check in... yay! Hubby's going to at least start the trip with us!

And since he is free Oct 25, we decided we'd travel straight down on Friday! We may stay with his family down in FL for a night, but if they don't have room for us, we'll just get an inexpensive room down there for Fri night. And we get to check in before lunch time on Sat! Hopefully we'll be able to snag a good location at ASMo!

Our first choice is Toy Story! The boys would so love that! But we've got Mighty Ducks as second choice, because of its close proximity to ASMu's buses and food court. I wonder where we'll end up...

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!

So when does he have to go back? Does he have to go back on the 26th in time for work on the 27th?

Come on Mr. Boss man! Give DBIL a few more days off so that he can enjoy our vacation!!!!!!

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

[COLOR="dark red"]I'll leave the room location to you! I'm completely fine with any room we get, as long as it's not too far from the buses/food court.[/COLOR]