Daughter's Surprise 1st Visit; Best Christmas Present Ever TR!! Update: 8-21-12; P 10

[mommytominnie]

Hello everyone!! Sorry, it has taken me so long to update. We leave for our August trip in 98 days and hopefully I can finish this TR before we leave. As for the August Trip, our ADRs are secured. Like I previously mentioned, I am only waiting for the Desert Party to open up and that will be my last ADR. Here is our list for August:

Friday, Aug. 10
Arrival Day - our plane does not land at MCO until 7:30 so for dinner we are winging it!

Saturday, Aug. 11
Breakfast - something quick from OPR
Lunch - quick service, maybe CHH
Dinner - 1900 PF

Sunday, Aug. 12
Breakfast - something quick from OPR
Lunch - quick service either at DHS or resort
Dinner - O'Hana

Monday, Aug. 13
Breakfast - something quick from OPR
Lunch - Beaches and Cream (mmm, ice cream!!)
Dinner - Downtown Disney (can't decide.. anyone have any opinions?)

Tuesday, Aug. 14
Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Lunch - quick service
Dinner - 50's PT

Wednesday, Aug. 15
Breakfast - somehting quick from OPR
Lunch - The Plaza
Dinner - quick service @ MK

Thursday, Aug. 16
Breakfast - something quick from OPR
Lunch - Via Napoli
Dinner - San Angel Inn

Friday, Aug. 17
Breakfast - something quick from OPR
Lunch - Flame Tree BBQ
Dinner - Grand Floridian Cafe

Saturday, Aug. 18 (Departure Day)
Breakfast - O'Hana, then head back to POR and board DME to airport


This is completely different from the 3 table services we had in December. Also, we are dining OOP this trip. Can you believe in December because we so full, the only snack we had was popcorn. I can't wait to make myself with snacking

******************************************

Ok, so now back for the TR. I left off we had just finished riding EE. Afterwards, we mosied up to Yak and Yeti to check in for our lunch ADR. I really loved the atmosphere of the restaurant. We were seated upstairs. I can't remember what we ordered for our appetizers. For our entree, Grumpy ordered the steak and shrimp, I ordered the honey chicken and Princess ordered chicken lomain. We enjoyed our meal. Here are some pics:

We finished up and just started walking. I did not really have a plan for AK so we decided to just walk and see where we ended up.

I think from here, we took the train the Affection section, or whatever you call it. I don't know if I was already draining from the week, but I was just not feeling it. We took the train back and decided if we were going to watch FOLK or the parade since the times overlapped. Princess picked the FOLK. We went back to Camp M & M and got in line to wait for FOLK. Oh my gosh... this wait was forever. I am actually dreading this wait come August. When we finally got in, we were seated in the lion section. We loved this show!!! When we got out, I could not believe it was almost time for our dinner ADR at O'Hana. I was actually looking forward to this dinner when I had made the ADRs but I seriously was not hungry. I talked it over with Grumpy and we decided to cancel our ADR for O'Hana and head back to the room to sleep and then we could go back to DHS to see the Osborne lights since we did not get to see them the other night we were at DHS. So that is what we did. We headed out and said goodbye to AK.

Up next... Osborne Lights at DHS

 

[sharonW]

Enjoying your TR, looking forward to more!
So wishing I had a trip planned but it more then
likely won't be happenin anytime soon!..so I will
live the disney magic through your and other members
TR"S

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Just found your TR and enjoying reading along. Looks like you had a wonderful time. Happy for you to see you are returning to Disney. I agree that the DDP is really much. Took a mom's only trip for Food and Wine in 2009 and had the regular dining plan and even that was a lot. Doing another Mom's only trip this fall for Food and Wine with the Free Dining, but doing some signature dining and plan to snack our way around the world for some. Usually, I do not do a dining plan at all. When we go with the kids, I pack up a box and mail it down to the resort about 10 days before we leave. I send down snacks, Pop Tarts, cereal, bowls and spoons, and whatever other breakfasty type items I can. Makes it much more affordable, and then we can have a quick breakfast in the room and head out-get an earlier start to our day.

You will love POR. The counter service dining there is good. Make sure to catch YeeHa Bob's show in the Rooster Lounge one night while you are there. It is one not to be missed.

I have done Disney end of August in 2008-in between 2 hurricanes. We had beautiful weather the week we were there. We hit rope drops daily and left the parks midday for a rest/swim in the pool. Put water bottles to the back of your room fridge-they will freeze and you will have cold water all day. Most important thing to remember then is to stay hydrated. Dehydrated people are crabby people, no matter what their age. POR pool is nice for kids-not so large that you can't see your people, but large enough that you are not on top of one another.

Can't wait to read how the rest of your trip went. THank you for sharing your family with us.

 

[FancyNancy]

I'm all caught up and subbing in! Your little princess is adorable!

For your Downtown Disney reservation I would suggest T-Rex. It is awesome as you will see later on in my TR! My DD8 loved it so much that she requested I make reservations for our stay next year

 

[sharonW]

Hope you return for an update soon, love to hear more about your aug trip plans too!!

 

[mommytominnie]

Enjoying your TR, looking forward to more!
So wishing I had a trip planned but it more then
likely won't be happenin anytime soon!..so I will
live the disney magic through your and other members
TR"S

Thank you so much!!!! Glad I can help you out while you wait for your next trip. We weren't supposed to be going until the end of 2013... umm, nope that was not going to happen

Just found your TR and enjoying reading along. Looks like you had a wonderful time. Happy for you to see you are returning to Disney. I agree that the DDP is really much. Took a mom's only trip for Food and Wine in 2009 and had the regular dining plan and even that was a lot. Doing another Mom's only trip this fall for Food and Wine with the Free Dining, but doing some signature dining and plan to snack our way around the world for some. Usually, I do not do a dining plan at all. When we go with the kids, I pack up a box and mail it down to the resort about 10 days before we leave. I send down snacks, Pop Tarts, cereal, bowls and spoons, and whatever other breakfasty type items I can. Makes it much more affordable, and then we can have a quick breakfast in the room and head out-get an earlier start to our day.

You will love POR. The counter service dining there is good. Make sure to catch YeeHa Bob's show in the Rooster Lounge one night while you are there. It is one not to be missed.

I have done Disney end of August in 2008-in between 2 hurricanes. We had beautiful weather the week we were there. We hit rope drops daily and left the parks midday for a rest/swim in the pool. Put water bottles to the back of your room fridge-they will freeze and you will have cold water all day. Most important thing to remember then is to stay hydrated. Dehydrated people are crabby people, no matter what their age. POR pool is nice for kids-not so large that you can't see your people, but large enough that you are not on top of one another.

Can't wait to read how the rest of your trip went. THank you for sharing your family with us.

Thank you so much for the compliment and for all the wonderful tips. I will definitely remember about putting water in the back of our fridge for the next day. I definitely want to see YeeHa Bob. I believe he plays on Friday nights and since we arrive on Friday evening, our plans was just to hang out at the resort so hopefully we can catch him then!

I'm all caught up and subbing in! Your little princess is adorable!

For your Downtown Disney reservation I would suggest T-Rex. It is awesome as you will see later on in my TR! My DD8 loved it so much that she requested I make reservations for our stay next year

Thank you so much for complimenting Princess!! She is adorable, if I can say so myself After looking up T-Rex, I just called and we have a 6 pm reservation. I cannot wait. Not only will I think Princess will love it but Grumpy is going to be ecstatic. Yes, he is a boy at heart, even if he wants to fight it . Thank you so much for the suggestion.

Hope you return for an update soon, love to hear more about your aug trip plans too!!

Hey there!! I can't believe it has been a month since I last updated. Will be back hopefully this week to hopefully begin to finish this TR since I can be ready to the other one when we get back. We leave for DW in 64 Days Not that I am counting or anything

 

[Goldeelox9]

HI! Your Princess is adorable! You can see she enjoyed evey second of this trip! I can not wait to read more!

I don't know how you got 3 meals a day in. When we do the deluxe dining we make sure to book a Signature dining meal atleast once a day to use up two credits!

I am sad you had to cancel 'Ohana. It's my favorite, but I can totally see why you would not have been hungry! HA! I do see it on your August list though...

 

[mommytominnie]

Hello everyone!!! Yep, a month later, but I made it back. First off, for our August Trip, we only have 63 days left before we leave And I have lost exactly 0 pounds But it is my own fault. I am too lazy to do anything about it and I keep hoping that I will wake up thin. Obviously that is not going to happen.

The only thing left to do is book that darn Dessert Party. But obviously, Disney is toying with my emotions.

Now for some other news. I began looking at TRs for the DCL. I fell in love After coming across Lisa's TRs, I saw that she was a TA for Pixie and Pirate Destinations. I found the website and requested a quote for one of these sailing out of Galvestion. Since Galveston is only 4 hours away, I thought this would be a cheaper route for my family. My mother, brother, hopefully his girlfriend and my mother in law have all expressed an interest in vacationing with us. I thought this would be perfect. As soon as I pressed send, I received a call from Grumpy. I swear... that man knows exactly when I am up to something. When he asked what I was doing, I responded:

Me: Promise me you won't get mad when I tell you.
Grumpy: Laughing... Nice try.. I need more information.
Me: I just requested a quote from the TA on a Disney Cruise
Grumpy: crickett. crickett.. Hugh?
Me: It's just a quote, I don't even have the credit card out... yet
Grumpy: Hmmm, we'll talk when we get home.

So yeah, when I got home I plead my case. Explained how the price for DCL pretty much includes everything, yada, yada, yada. When I was done, he did not have a heart attack like I was imagining. The next day, he began asking questions. Yes!! I knew I had him. See, with Grumpy, when he is not interested in something, it is not mentioned again. It will go through one ear and out the other. If it peaks his interest, he will ask questions.

The main question he had is: Does the boat from Galveston have the Aquaduck? I told him as of now the boat that is docked at Galveston is the Magic and I believe only the Dream has the Aquaduck which you can catch from Florida. Puppy eyes set in.

After hearing back from Lisa, she gave me great prices for 2012 - 2013; however, after discussing with Grumpy and my mom, I don't think it will be enough time for them to save up the money. So this is what I suggested and everyone agreed,.. Yep, even Grumpy

We will go to Disney World in the summer of 2014. We will include a 4 night cruise. This way, I get my DW and cruise and Grumpy gets his Aquaduck.

Sorry for the long update but I am excited that after this current trip, I will have another trip to plan. And as a compromise, since we will not be doing anything Disney next year, we will go on two mini vacations here in San Antonio and Dallas where we do Six Flags and Sea World. Grumpy and Princess loves roller coasters and thrill rides so I know they will love this. And since Grumpy is being such a great sport with my Disney addiction, I can at least do this for him.

Now onto the Dec. Trip Report:

 

[mommytominnie]

When we last left off, I had made the decision to cancel O'Hana. Yes, I know. What was I thinking. But after eating so much the previous days and literally just a couple of hours from lunch, I just couldn't do it. We decided to head out of AK and go take a nap and recharge.

Once we returned to POFQ, we closed the curtains, turned up the A/C and knocked out. My mom called me later on to check in and I am glad she did or we would have slept right through. I woke everyone up and we all took quick showers and got ready to head to DHS for the Osborne lights.

We made pretty good time waiting on a bus and before we know it, we were scanning our thumbs and going through the turnstile at DHS. Here are some pics:

Princess decided to photobomb Grumpy!! And do you see how prepared Grumpy is... We have not even got to the park yet, and he is prepared, with video camera ready to go

Once we entered DHS the only thing we had plans for was to get PP pictures and see the lights. The lights are breathtaking. And yes, I did tear up. Just sitting there listening to the music and seeing the lights twinkling together was a magical sight. I love Christmas and if we could, I would have sat down on the street all night, just seeing it over and over. Princess and Grumpy were in awe too.

Here is a crowd picture

While we were waiting in line for a PP, I decided to pass the time while taking pictures of my own. I asked Princess to turn around and smile for the camera... and she was photobombed

I bursted out lauging and Princess had no idea what happened. The little girl's mother pulled her back to her and apologized profusely but I told her not to worry about it. Grumpy and I had a good laugh.

After we got our dinner, we head back to the room to eat. Got undressed and slipped under the covers. Tomorrow would be our last full day in the World

Afterwards, we made our way out to head back to POFQ so we can grab dinner. Once there, before heading to the food court, we decided to take some pictures around the hotel.

 

[mommytominnie]

HI! Your Princess is adorable! You can see she enjoyed evey second of this trip! I can not wait to read more!

I don't know how you got 3 meals a day in. When we do the deluxe dining we make sure to book a Signature dining meal atleast once a day to use up two credits!

I am sad you had to cancel 'Ohana. It's my favorite, but I can totally see why you would not have been hungry! HA! I do see it on your August list though...

Hey,there!!! I know... I think that is what we should have done, was do more signature dinners, CRT, something... It was so hard for me not to do O'Hana and at that time, I did not know when we would go back. Once I started making my ADRs for the August trip, that was the first one I looked for. Thanks for reading along

 

[Goldeelox9]

That 2014 plan sounds great! I will send you an email as soon as the rates come out! AND yay for an update. I love the photobombing picture!!!

 

[mommytominnie]

Hello everyone!! Wow, it has been a while since I have been on here. We leave in 4 days back to WDW

We are so excited. I thought I would finish up my December trip report so I can be ready for my next one when we return...

So, when we left off, we were heading into our last official day at Disney.

We woke up this morning bright and early since we had an early ADR at Crystal Palace. Now, I was so excited to have this ADR since MK opened at 9 which meant we would be done with breakfast before RD. Umm, yeah.. that did not happen. Right before we left, they changed the hours and MK was now opened at 8 am that morning. Oh, well.. can't win them all.

Princess woke up just like she did the previous mornings and found Mickey had left invitations and shirts for us today. We would be going to MK during the day and would be finishing up the evening at Epcot.

Here are the shirts "Mickey" left for us:

.

We got dressed and headed out for the bus to Magic Kingdom

Once we got to MK, we found the line to check in for breakfast. We had a few minutes before we were let in, so I took a picture of the crowd waiting at the turnstyles.

Soon, we were let in and was able to take some pictures of an empty park. Well, I tried to. Grumpy was rushing us along since we had an ADR to get to. He is a stickler for time..

We were able to stop for some PP pictures. These, he had no problem with since we had already shelled out the money for the CD, might as well make it worth it!

Umm, seriously Grumpy!! We are at Disney World, you can smile

We finally make it to Crystal Palace. We were given our jig a ma jig and decided to take some more pictures while we waited to be calle in.

Up next: Dining with the Pooh Gang!

 

[jane2073]

Awesome trip report! A lot of fun to read!

Hope you all have a real good time in four days!!

 

[Dreamsdocometrue9112]

AHH!! I can't believe you're going back in 4 days!!! I am soooo happy you found a way to manage another trip I am so excited for you all! The weather will definitely be different Have a blast! Can't wait to finish up reading this TR and move onto the next!!!

 

[sharonW]

Have A wonderful magical trip, can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[lightmoonstone]

Congratulations on your first visit!

I was like that,too! I had gone as a kid, but I thought it was be more expensive as well!

What a lovely family and great pics :]

 

[Reberella]

Just caught up on your whole trip report! Loved it!
You have a really cute family! Princess is precious! That was so sweet about Mickey inviting the other family next time
I LOVE all the letters, shirts, and surprises... very clever!
I also loved the Photopass pictures of Princess with the princesses... she looks so caught up in the magic, I love it!
Yay for Disney in 4 days!! Those ADRs sound awesome! For DTD I would recommend Wolfgang Puck Express or Earl of Sandwich

 

[mommytominnie]

Hey everyone!! We are back from our August trip and we had a blast!!!! I still have to load up all my pictures to photobucket and then I will be able to start on that TR. For now, let me try to wrap this one up....

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We begin where we left off previously, we were waiting to eat breakfast at Crystal Palace.

Our buzzer finally went off and we were seated on the right hand side of the restaurant. We were told to go ahead and get our plates since the characters had not started yet. Oh my!! The selections were scrumptious. We really enjoyed eating here. Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures of our food execpt for this one

Soon, Pooh and the gang began coming around. Which meant Grumpy had to put his fork down so he can videotape and I picked up the camera.

We really enjoyed this breakfast and we would definitely do it again. All the food was hot and plentiful.

Next up, more characters hunt!!

 

[sharonW]

omg, great pics, i just love crystal palace!
Can't wait to hear all about your latest trip and
how long its gona to take to dream of taking the
next one!!!