Crazy Eights take on the World Part 2: August PTR

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

Hey There! Hi There! Ho There! You’re As Welcome As Can Be…
Welcome everyone to my my very first PTR!!!
I couldn't be any happier to be writing this right now !!!
Our trip will be taking place from August 17th – August 24th 2011 and will be consist of the same crazy cast of characters as our August 2009 trip (hence the part 2 ).
I have been waiting to start this until we were a little bit closer seeing as I started counting down to the trip when we were a little over 180 days out and as of today we are miniscule 42 sleeps away from our trip back to the world.
After spending weeks and weeks of reading people’s dinning reviews, TR and PTR I finally broke down and decided today is the day. Hopefully I can keep adding things little by little and won’t overload anyone.

I suppose that the best way to start off this report will be to give you all the 5 W’s.

The Who:

Ok so to start off here is a little but about the family as a whole.

Once upon a time there was an 18 year old girl (my mother) who decided to drag her reluctant boyfriend (now husband/my father) to Disney for their first trip together. She was so excited to be going to Disney World and… well… he was not so enthusiastic about it to say the least. She had the entire trip planned!!! right down to the order they would do the rides in. He on the other hand thought that the place was for children. That is, until he went into the Tiki Room for the first time and the rest as they say is history.

The two of them soon got married and it was decided that they would spend their honeymoon in Disney World. A little later down they welcomed their first daughter into the world who was soon followed by another little girl. This brought forth the tradition of visiting Disney World just shortly after the child’s second birthday.

soon came along yet another little girl…

and then… another child, this time?!?... a boy (poor kid youngest of all with 3 older sisters)

The couple had 4 kids with whom they shared their love for this Magical Place. Even later down the line the two oldest girls met their prince charmings and decided to ask them to share in the Disney loving (they are still working on getting them up to the proper amount of obsessed).

Our story leads us to this photo which is the most recent group photo we have on our last trip to the World in 2009. This photo was taken at the Hoop Dee Doo Review where we celebrated our parents 25th Wedding Anniversary.

So that is the long version of who we are as a big happy Disney loving family. If you are a little more interested in getting to know who we are individually here goes…

My name is Alicia (21) second oldest daughter and I will be your host for this PTR
Favorite Character: Ariel/Minnie
Favorite Park: Hollywood Studios (to me it will always be MGM)
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite QS: Pecos Bills
Favorite Table service: San Angel Inn
Favorite Disney song: Ma Belle Evangeline

My boyfriend of 3 years
Andy (19)
Favorite Character: Donald Duck
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Big Thunder Mountain
Favorite QS down: Pecos Bills
Favorite Table service: Hoop Dee Doo
Favorite Disney song: I See the Light

Oldest Daughter Danielle (24) dis user name: dreamer7787
Favorite Character: Peter Pan
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: People Mover and Space Mountain
Favorite QS: Pecos Bill’s
Favorite Table service: Biergarten Germany
Favorite Disney song: When You Wish Upon a Star

and her boyfriend of 6 years Adam (24)
Favorite Character: Buzz
Favorite Park: EPCOT
Favorite Ride: People Mover
Favorite QS: ----------
Favorite Table service: Biergarten Germany
Favorite Disney song: You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Which brings us to the third oldest daughter Sam (19) dis user name: xoSamma
Favorite Character: Tiana
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Splash Mountain
Favorite QS: Pinocchio Village Haus
Favorite Table service: Ohana
Favorite Disney song: Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow

Followed by the poor little boy KC (15) who is not so little anymore seeing’s as he towers above his older sisters.
Favorite Character: Buzz Lightyear
Favorite Park: EPCOT
Favorite Ride: Test Track
Favorite QS: Sunshine Seasons
Favorite Table service: Whispering Canyon’s
Favorite Disney song: You’ve Got a Friend in Me

Bringing us to the final two members of our cast…

Ma (--)
Favorite Character: Snow White
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Test Track
Favorite QS: Sunshine Season
Favorite Table service: Hoop Dee Do
Favorite Disney song: Whistle While You Work

Pa (--)
Favorite Character: Goofy
Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite Ride: Tower Of Terror
Favorite QS: Sunshine Seasons
Favorite Table service: Hoop Dee Doo
Favorite Disney song: Tiki Room Song​

 

[Dreamer7787]

I'm commenting because you told me not too.

Nice report. Is it time to leave yet?

 

[Sappermont]

Your trip sounds great!! I can't wait to hear more. My husband and I are going down at the end of August, too!!

 

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

The When/ Where
Ok so now that you have read about the big ol’ Disney lovin’ family that’s going down, it’s time to tell you when we will be there and where we will be staying!!!

As I mentioned before we will be headed down for round two of crazy eights from August 14th – August 24th. We scored some great airline tickets that will give us maximum Disney time (no one wants to get there half way through the first day and waist half a park pass or even worse have to stay away from Disney once you are there). Our plane will leave from the Buffalo International Airport at roughly 6:05am which means we should be in Orlando around 8:40am and hopefully be to the hotel by 10am I can not get over how wonderful this is . Also I feel very privileged to live so close to the airport (we live about a 5 minute drive away). Until I started reading other people’s trip reports I took that for granted. I mean I only have to wake up about an hour early where as most people have to travel at least an hour to get there!!! In addition to a great arrival time on our last day our plane doesn’t leave until 7:30!!!

After landing in Orlando and hopping on the Magical Express we will be headed towards….



Drum roll please….

That’s right we will be spending our stay at the lovely Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa!! We have never stayed at this resort before seeing as we are not members of the DVC (one day we will be maybe ). We got a great deal on the 2 bedroom villas and it was a toss up between here and Old Key West. To be honest I don’t really know what made us go with this one but after doing my research I LOVE it already. I must admit I was crushed to hear that we would not be staying at Port Orleans Riverside, as that is where we stayed on our last trip and I loved everything about it. I have grown to love this hotel already and I haven’t even seen it yet! But hey, who wouldn’t love to say that they stayed at a DVC resort? We are hoping to score a room in the congress park section with a view of Downtown Disney. Although we have a back up plan incase that doesn’t work out and that is a room in Paddock because it just recently got a new pool put in (the pool in congress will be down for refurb when we are there. why on earth would you close a pool in august in Florida?!? )

In my mind I am still thinking about the beautiful tree house villas, which my mother has wanted to stay at for as long as she can remember. This was one of our original choices as it would have been the perfect fit for all 8 of us. I did my research and found out that when staying there you had to get on a bus and be taken to the main section of the SSR and then get on another bus to be able to get to the parks which for me did not sound like fun, adding an extra 20+ minutes to your travel plans?.. No thanks. So I was turned off to them, that is until I look and the beautiful insides of these places!!!! Holy cow it was love at first sight. I was torn between the two choices and I still am but alas the room rate did not apply to the tree houses so I guess that solves that dilemma . But I have not given up hope! I am still trying to talk my mother into a split stay After all a girl can dream can’t she?

That’s all I have for you today but up next our Disney ADRs!!
​

 

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

Who needs a reason for going to disney?! & ADRs

Ok so I realized that I never really mentioned the reason for us going on this trip (but I mean who really needs a reason?! It’s Disney, am I right?) Anyways the reason for this trip fits in perfectly here… The dance studio, which my family has been a part of for the last 15 years, is participating in Magic Music Days!! This will be our family’s 4th trip down to “dance in Disney”, Sam and K.C. will be performing on August 22 this year I’m pretty sure it is going to be in DTD like the last time but in previous trips we performed in the Magic Kingdom, both times in tomorrow land. As a result there are a few times throughout the trip where we will have to split up in order to eat, for example the day they dance.

Now.. into the story of the hectic ADR reservation process… Let me start off by saying that I am an extreme planner. As soon at the park hours came out for August I started to compile everything I could find (park hours, EMH, parades, fireworks ect.) onto a Microsoft Excel sheet so that I could maximize park time by place our reservation on days depending on the park we would be in. For the most part it was easy seeing how we pick out the restaurants we wanted when we got back from our last trip. The problem was we had no idea what our real vacation dates would be, we had a rough estimate so I was going off that, but then my mother said that we were going to go on our own rather than with the studio so that we could get free dinning. Eventually after a long period of limbo we decided on dates, but by then we were way past the l80 day mark so all of the good reservations were taken!! After much rescheduling and switching of things we ended up getting almost every reservation we wanted minus a few.

So here is the line up for our trip…

August 17 – Chef Mickey’s (dinner) we put a character meal on each end of our trip to start and send off us with the full magical experience, these will be the only two meals where we will eat all together at the same table due to the gratuity added onto parties over 6.

August 18 - Whispering Canyon (dinner) Ma, Pa, Sam & K.C. will be going here. This was our first dinner of the trip last year Sam LOVES the steak. Danielle & I were not really fans of he restaurant probably because we got stuck in the back room away from the fun AKA Andy and Adam have to go to different places because their pain in the butt girlfriends don’t want to go back (we are lucky we picked out such laid back guys). This is the night where Andy and I will be going to ESPN Club since he is a HUGE sports fan. Not sure where Danielle and Adam are heading this night

August 19 – Chefs de France (dinner), This is one of Andy’s choices and mine. I cannot wait to get the French onion soup!! Sam and K.C. will tag a long with us here
- Le Cellier (lunch), Danielle and Adam did not like the menu at Chefs so they decided to go her for lunch because they love steak and lunch is he only meal available on the dinning plan for 1 credit

August 20 – Sci-Fi Dine in Theatre (lunch) This one is Sam’s choice; she flip flopped around a lot but finally decided on this one. Most of the family (excluding Andy and I) are big burger fans so this seemed like a perfect fit. On our last trip Andy and I went in for dessert and loved the themeing so we don’t mind going back at all

August 21 – Coral Reef (Lunch) Another one of my choices, Weird thing is none of my family (except Andy and Ma) like seafood. I just wanted to eat in a big Fish tank. Danielle and Adam opted out of this and will be going to
- Tepan Edo (dinner) Danielle and Adam opted out of this and will be going here because they were not the least bit interested in coral reef

August 22 – Yak & Yeti (lunch) This is one of my choices again and since the kids are dancing they decided to make this their day off from food (aka paying out of pocket) So Andy, Danielle, Adam and myself will be heading over here.

August 23 – San Angel Inn (dinner) Sam, K.C., Andy and I loved it here last time, went there for mine and Andy’s 1 and a half year anniversary dinner basically it was a must to for us again. It is so beautiful in that place
- Kona Café (dinner) Ma and Pa were not as blown away by the San Angel so they decided to have a date night at Kona since they couldn’t get into Ohana.

August 24 – 1900 Park Fare (breakfast) we originally wanted to go to Cape May Café but the only reservation they had was for 9am and Ma didn’t want to get up that early on our last day because then we would have not been able to get back into the room due to check out at 11.

So as you can see trying to accommodate 8 people was rough, but I think we did a pretty good job at it. I can’t wait to go eat all the yummy food and take tons of pictures for our TR/Dinning Review!!!

Coming up next: Park Day Play by Play
​

 

[Dreamer7787]

Psst, you forgot Adam and I are going to the Biergarten on August 23.

 

[cbcrockett]

I enjoy OCD planning myself, so I'm on board for the rest of your PTR!

 

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

I enjoy OCD planning myself, so I'm on board for the rest of your PTR!

great it's nice to have you along for the ride

if you have any tips feel free to chime in at any time!!!!!

 

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

Sleeping?!? There's no sleeping in Disney!!!​

So on today’s PTR agenda is the agenda of our trip!!!
Now as I have stated before I am OCD planner all the way, I have an excel document on my computer that lays out everyday by the hour.

I may have mentioned before that we have park hoppers and I plan to use those abilities TO THE FULLEST!!! AKA some days we will spend the day in two or more parks, I love EMH when combined with the hopper because I NEVER really eve get to go to sleep.

August 17 – Day One: Animal Kingdom. This will be our only day in animal kingdom (minus the day 4 of us go to Y&Y for lunch) because to be honest with you, my family hates this park . It’s to hot and spread out. So Sam decided we should just get it out of the way. I have always wanted to go here at night because I think it would be awesome, but the latest it is open our whole stay is 6 so… that’s a no go. After the park closes at 6 we have to wait until 9:10 for our chef mickey’s reservation so we are going to hang out the poly (I adore this hotel )

August 18 – Day two is an out of the park day aka Typhoon Lagoon/Disney Quest Day (which is open late for EMH). We could really use a relaxing day after I made my family get up at 4am to catch a flight and stay out until like 11pm and since we only have 6 park days for an 8 day trip this was perfect!!!

August 19 – We are headed out to EPCOT for morning EMH (we originally had Akershus reservation here but we switched it because I was dying to go to France). Then we hop over to Magic Kingdom to get in some 2am extra magic hours

August 20 – Next morning there are 8am EMH at Hollywood studios and you bet your bottom that I will be there even after staying out till 2am the night before!!! Later that night we head over to Disney Quest to soak up some late night EMH.

August 21 – The next morning I gave the family the night off (simply because there are no EMH that morning ) so they can either sleep in or do like me and head to the pool to soak up the Florida sunshine that is so hard to come by in Buffalo. Keeping in relax mode we will spend the early afternoon in DTD shopping, then it’s over to EPOT again and then we get some more Magic Kingdom with 1am EMH!!!

August 22 – This day is the day K.C. and Sam dance so while my parents waste precious Disney minutes watching them Andy, Danielle, Adam and I will head over to Animal Kingdom for our lunch reservation and get in some last minutes rides. Then we are heading back to the hotel to relax for the afternoon and then it’s off to Hollywood Studios until 12am to ride that tower of terror until I can’t keep my eyes open anymore.

August 23 – Our last park day… how sad. But not to worry I have worked it out so that we can spend a little more time at all the parks (minus AK we have seen enough of that place by this point) Magic Kingdom has EMH this morning and it has been decided that if we don’t make it to any other rope drop that that is ok but this one is a MUST do for Sam and I. After we say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom one last time (I am getting sad just thinking about it!!! ) We go to my favorite park Hollywood Studios until our late dinner reservation over in EPCOT where we will spend our last night running around the world until 12am!!!

August 24 – The last day we will spend at Typhoon, we always do this on our last day, it’s so nice to just sit in the sand and talk about your trip while trying desperately to get some last minute rays that we missed out on because of running around the parks like the crazy people we are.

So as of now that is the day by day play by play, that is until they change the EMH on me and I have to rework my entire schedule!!!
Tomorrow’s post will include some of the DYI projects that Sam and I have been working on to help us pass the time. Thanks again for joining in!!​

 

[Leasha_Loves_Disney]

Exciting News & Things to Do:

Hello hello hello to anyone who is reading along! (and I hope that there are some people out there reading/possibly enjoying this ) Sorry for my lack of update but I had to work 29 hours this weekend between Friday and today and then my boyfriend took me out to lunch because we haven’t seen each other in a while but now I am back!!!

Boy do I have an update for you. As I promised in my last post I am going to show you some of the do it yourself projects that my sister and me have started on for our upcoming trip!!! There are a few things that I will show you and some ideas for upcoming projects that we have but first!!!...
Today we are 37 days out and GUESS WHAT!!!!!!

WE GOT SOME DISNEY MAIL

My brother went out to get the mail today just as I was getting out of the shower and as I was in my room getting ready for the day he came in screaming DISNEY MAIL!!! Let me tell you… that was the quickest I have ever gotten dressed/ready in my whole life!!! I read on someone’s PTR that they got their Disney mail 37 days out but I never put two and two together when I pulled a number off my countdown today and revealed the number 37 haha.

Ok so that exciting news aside here are the projects that I promised.

1st off Disney Shirts Revamped:
The other night Sam and I decided to make some new clothes for our trip so while I was at work the two of them went to a local thrift store and got us some shirts (I know this may sound weird but they got 4 shirts for $2 each, pretty good deal if you ask me). So when I finally got a night off of work we had a Disney sing-alongs night and had fun making these…

If anyone is interested in how they are made I have one of mine left to cut up and I will do step by step photos for you.

here is how ours turned out...

this is sam's...

this is mine...

2.) Our Disney Coutndown:
We started this at 70 days out (that was a lot of paper scraps) Once again Sam and I made this on a cork board that I brought back from college. We used the maps that come in the Disney Planner DVD, we added the Mickey Mouse photo from Sam’s graduation trip the buttons from our last trip, one of my old Disney Dollars, Some stickers we got in the mail, and some maelstrom fastpasses that we never needed to use due to the lack of line.

3.) Last and possibly my favorite project we have done so far my Disney day planner:
I found this idea in someone’s trip report and loved it, so after I got my first paycheck I went out Joann Fabrics and bought some scrapbooking stickers that were 40%-50% off at the time and a cheap little photo album.

Front:

Back:

I started to print out the insides but we ran out of ink for the printer and then I decided to hold off incase plans change.

That’s all the projects we have in progress right now but we are thinking about making snack punch cards for when we go down to keep track of the snacks that we each get, since we will all be in one room we all want to get our fair share of snacks!! Also I have in works a Disney diary so that I can write about each day while we are waiting in lines/on buses or food breaks and come back and share it with all of you.
​

 

[Merida]

Joining in as well! The pictures of your parents is really sweet - my mom is reluctant to show us her old pictures on account of her 80s hair.

 

[Jillianv29]

Exciting News & Things to Do:

Hello hello hello to anyone who is reading along! (and I hope that there are some people out there reading/possibly enjoying this ) Sorry for my lack of update but I had to work 29 hours this weekend between Friday and today and then my boyfriend took me out to lunch because we haven’t seen each other in a while but now I am back!!!

Boy do I have an update for you. As I promised in my last post I am going to show you some of the do it yourself projects that my sister and me have started on for our upcoming trip!!! There are a few things that I will show you and some ideas for upcoming projects that we have but first!!!...
Today we are 37 days out and GUESS WHAT!!!!!!

WE GOT SOME DISNEY MAIL

My brother went out to get the mail today just as I was getting out of the shower and as I was in my room getting ready for the day he came in screaming DISNEY MAIL!!! Let me tell you… that was the quickest I have ever gotten dressed/ready in my whole life!!! I read on someone’s PTR that they got their Disney mail 37 days out but I never put two and two together when I pulled a number off my countdown today and revealed the number 37 haha.

Ok so that exciting news aside here are the projects that I promised.

1st off Disney Shirts Revamped:
The other night Sam and I decided to make some new clothes for our trip so while I was at work the two of them went to a local thrift store and got us some shirts (I know this may sound weird but they got 4 shirts for $2 each, pretty good deal if you ask me). So when I finally got a night off of work we had a Disney sing-alongs night and had fun making these…

If anyone is interested in how they are made I have one of mine left to cut up and I will do step by step photos for you.

here is how ours turned out...

this is sam's...

this is mine...

2.) Our Disney Coutndown:
We started this at 70 days out (that was a lot of paper scraps) Once again Sam and I made this on a cork board that I brought back from college. We used the maps that come in the Disney Planner DVD, we added the Mickey Mouse photo from Sam’s graduation trip the buttons from our last trip, one of my old Disney Dollars, Some stickers we got in the mail, and some maelstrom fastpasses that we never needed to use due to the lack of line.

3.) Last and possibly my favorite project we have done so far my Disney day planner:
I found this idea in someone’s trip report and loved it, so after I got my first paycheck I went out Joann Fabrics and bought some scrapbooking stickers that were 40%-50% off at the time and a cheap little photo album.

Front:

Back:

I started to print out the insides but we ran out of ink for the printer and then I decided to hold off incase plans change.

That’s all the projects we have in progress right now but we are thinking about making snack punch cards for when we go down to keep track of the snacks that we each get, since we will all be in one room we all want to get our fair share of snacks!! Also I have in works a Disney diary so that I can write about each day while we are waiting in lines/on buses or food breaks and come back and share it with all of you.

How did u make the black and gray shirts?? Love them