DD's 7th Birthday Trip of Suprises!!!!!

[budbeerlady]

We are Dh (30)
DW (Me also 30)
DD (The Birthday Girl)

Pretrip you should know:

Location: We live in the snowy north so we usually travel to Disney in December, I love the Christmas decorations, the Osbourne Lights, all of it!!!!!

Food Notes : Dh loves a good chuck of meat or some seafood, DD only wants Mac and Cheese but can choke down a chicken strip if forced to. Me, I am a vegetarian who cannot stomach a mushroom.

Love of Disney: Me, at ton. I could move into the AKL and never leave unless I am bribed with cases of Rosa Regale. DD, likes it a lot and tortures DH by singing Small World, over and over and over and over.... Dh puts up with us and our obsession for the food. Honestly, if not for the dining plan we would be traveling without him.

Travel time will be Oct 11 (really the 12th is when we get to Disney) to the 20th. Hopefully the love bugs will be gone by then!

 

[Hedy]

Looking forward to eating more. We mushroom hating vegetarians need to stick together!

 

[budbeerlady]

I had a brilliant idea, I would take DD and my sister (Dsis is 23) to WDW. Dsis hasnt been, she has been to Disneyland. Dsis lives on the other side of the state, so fly outa Detroit with her and have a grand time.

I offer to give Dsis her Disney tickets for Christmas, she has to come up with airfare and food money. When should we go, where should we stay, yada yada..... I came up with October, for DD's birthday. (Actually its a week after DDs birthday but that is when she is on fall break so we are fidging it a bit but calling it a Birthday trip.) And then I can also go back with Dh and DD for December if we go in October. Its sick how Disney can make you scheme like that.

I read on the Dis boards here how Mickey can call and tell your child your coming to Walt Disney world. Great idea, so I sign up!!!! (DD didnt know anything about this yet.) Mickey calls and tells her, she didnt believe it. She tells him she was there last week, he is wrong. Mickey is a recording but anyway Dh and I were laughing and we tell her about her birthday trip.

Things are rolling along peachy, I didnt buy my tickets yet since we do a package thru AAA. (I was going to do the dining plan and cover it but not tell Dsis untill it was time to ADR. ) So we are waiting the long days of winter untill spring and I can then start to plan.

 

[budbeerlady]

Life is meandering along, DD is doing well in first grade, I am looking forward to planning. We are looking at hotels, where does she want to stay, and then it happened....

Dsis's Dh lost his job. Jobs are not a dime a dozen in MI but she might still be able to go as she has half the airline money saved up. But it wasnt to be. Dont get me wrong I was sad and worried for Dsis, but bummed as all get out that she couldnt go. So now it was the Dd and Mom trip in October. The trip must go on!!!!!

I said to Dh something about Dsis not being able to go so now Dd and I were looking back at AKL because (I really, really like it there.) and it has interior corridors. Hmmm, he isnt saying NO but he isnt too thrilled about the 2 of going without him.

 

[budbeerlady]

This was supposed to be a girls trip, and now Dh has decieded to go.

I love him dearly but he really put a wrench in our plans, and is costing me a bunch of coin. I now need airfare for 3, not 2. We defianetly need the dining plan now, thats how Dh likes to travel. We couldnt go to WDW and NOT get the dining plan in his eyes!

So our trip is on and its our new family trip. So now might be the best time to tell Dh I am booked for December, ahhh, I will wait a week or two yet. I like to see 2 tickers in my signature!

 

[budbeerlady]

We are approaching our ADR times, where do we want to eat?

I want to try all new places, Dh wants Le Cellier again and DD wants Coral Reef again. I had an excellent meal at Coral Reef so I put that one on the list. Le Cellier, hmmm, I think they will be full so what else would you like? (I really didnt enjoy my last meal here....)

I printed off a few menus from All Ears, made Dh pick 6. We are going Oct 13 to 20, Sat to Sat.

The line up is:
Spoodles
Wolf Gang Puck
Coral Reef
Whispering Canyon
Chefs De France
Sci Fi
Rose and Crown (got the 7:30 for Illuminations )

The only repeat is Coral Reef, and Le Cellier was full. I was thrilled with this line up. But then I started to read more on the dis, well more about traveling in October. Food and Wine???!!!!???! I need to rethink things a bit!

 

[budbeerlady]

I should not read it, it is bad, bad, bad. I second guess all my ADRs. I hack off Spoodles, and put on The party for the Senses. Now I have an extra Ts to fill, and do I really want to go all the way to Wolf Gang, the reviews lately have said over rated. Ughhhhhh! The indecision!!!!

But there is good news, after the bad news. The flights we wanted on 10/13 are not good. All the Non-stops are full, I hate layovers and I dont handle flying well in general. I take a Xanax just to get onboard, take offs and landings are heck on Dh's arm. Then Dh says the magic words, can we leave on friday? Sure we can, if you will leave friday morning I will try to get Lecellier for you. (WDW can make you delirious! ) So we got the early nonstop and an early dinner at Le Cellier. (I couldnt believe we got into Le Cellier, on the first phone call no less.)

 

[budbeerlady]

This is our 3rd family trip, I wanted it to be special, especially for DD.

So I worked on the following, and it was some work to pick and plan:

-Sharing an illuminations cruise with some other great Dis'ers who offered to let us on board.

-Basket by Ferlpeg

-Limo pickup by Southern Elegance

-Banner and menu at Coral Reef

-Delivery of Mickey and balloons from Disney Florist to DD at Garden Grill

-Secret BBB appointment before MNSSHP

-Suprise breakfast at CRT, she has always wanted to go to CRT.

The work part came in hiding it all and paying for it all with my moms card (so Dh doesnt see it on the bill) and then paying her back. Thank goodness for cell phones and emails! It has been really, really hard to keep quiet!!!

So hopefully it all goes off without a hitch in 15 days! I have been on and off the fence about a cake. But since there are only us 3 we are going with the small $12.50 one at Garden Grill.

 

[budbeerlady]

10 days left, only 10 days left and so much to do!

I have been brushing up on the food and wine festival, it is our first one and I cannot wait. We are also trying the party of the senses, I love Cirque so I am really hoping this is good. I also love to try wines, so lets mix my two favorite things to do/see and slap $135 price tag on it. Sold!!!!

 

[Hedy]

This is our 3rd family trip, I wanted it to be special, especially for DD.

So I worked on the following, and it was some work to pick and plan:

-Sharing an illuminations cruise with some other great Dis'ers who offered to let us on board.

-Basket by Ferlpeg

-Limo pickup by Southern Elegance

-Banner and menu at Coral Reef

-Delivery of Mickey and balloons from Disney Florist to DD at Garden Grill

-Secret BBB appointment before MNSSHP

-Suprise breakfast at CRT, she has always wanted to go to CRT.

The work part came in hiding it all and paying for it all with my moms card (so Dh doesnt see it on the bill) and then paying her back. Thank goodness for cell phones and emails! It has been really, really hard to keep quiet!!!

So hopefully it all goes off without a hitch in 15 days! I have been on and off the fence about a cake. But since there are only us 3 we are going with the small $12.50 one at Garden Grill.

How about a Cinderella slipper at CRT? Your plans sound awesome, though.

 

[princessjv]

Wait! You are going to be there at the same time as my DS & I...we are going for a surprise Mommy/son trip for his b-day too! NO WAY! We are also staying at the POP! Can you join us for our mini DIS meet on the 17th by the pool? (check out my siggie).

I am so envious that you found a cruise! You are so lucky!

 

[budbeerlady]

Wait! You are going to be there at the same time as my DS & I...we are going for a surprise Mommy/son trip for his b-day too! NO WAY! We are also staying at the POP! Can you join us for our mini DIS meet on the 17th by the pool? (check out my siggie).

I am so envious that you found a cruise! You are so lucky!

That is so great, I will plan on being there. It is our first time at Pop and DD is so excited.

 

[budbeerlady]

We are really flying out tomorrow, but driving down to Chicago tonight. The day is dragging on. I had all my stuff done this morning at work, had lunch with a friend and am trying to kill the last 3 hours here.

Packed and ready to go, pick up DD from school, throw the bags and Dh in, head out!

 

[princessjv]

Happy, safe travels! I am hoping to see you there!

 

[budbeerlady]

We drove in the lake effect rain down to midway, it took us alittle over 2 hours to get our hotel. We stayed at the Sleep Inn in the midway hotel center. It was clean and cheaper than the others so it worked great.

Dinner was across the parking lot to TGI Fridays, this was not so great. The service was slow, so slow our appitizer came out after our entrees. It was bad, really bad. We gave up on getting dessert and went back to the hotel to sleep. Or try to sleep, we were too excited!

Even at 5:30 in the morning there is traffic. It took us forever to be able to make the left onto cicero, ughhh. We then missed the turn for the economy lot by the airport. (This is why I always give us lots of extra time!!!) We stood in the wind for about 15min for the yellow bus and were on our way. Upgrade to first class was one of my many secrets of the day!

 

[budbeerlady]

We didnt get turned around for once at the airport! Either airport!!!! I am so proud of us and our limited memories. I somehow get lost in airports, its an odd thing but I always head the wrong way somehow!


Its off to bag claim for the next surprise of the day, a happy birthday sign for DD with a lady holding it? Dh doesnt know, dd doesnt know but Southern Elegance Limonsine has a car waiting for us. We easily grabbed our bags and headed out the door toward a cab. Dh is looking at me like this is never going to hold all of our stuff and what did you do to ME and the bus? Past the cab to the big limo behind it!

DD was thrilled, it was playing Madagascar for her. We sped off to Goodings, I had done their on line ordering to pickup at the Lake Buena Vista location. Dh goes in, and comes out empty handed in 2 min. Hmmm, they dont have anything he said.

I head back in, this isnt good and the employee is gawking at the limo instead of directing me. She said they dont do pickup only delivies, I had emailed back and forth with them 3x about this so I know they had my order to be picked up. Then another lady tells me pickups arent ready untill 6pm. Fine, I will not be recommending your service to anyone was my remark as I grabbed a cart. Hmm, they might have my order being built in back. She will go look for me. She comes out with a box and has most of what I needed. We add the beer and head out. Point to the story, dont bother with Goodings.

We were finally off to Pop!!!!

 

[budbeerlady]

We arrived at the same time as the ME bus, so I hurried to check in while Dh and DD got the bags outa the limo. I had faxed a room area request 3 days before and gotten exactly what I requested for a room. We wanted 60's building, ground floor, lake view if possible. We got room 5131 viewing the lake and walking past the jungle book guys to the pool area.

And better news, our room was ready for us! I love that, I like being able to freshen up and dump off all of our stuff before we head to the parks. So we relaxed, picked up the fridge and coffee pots, changed and headed to Epcot. Dinner was at 4:40 @ Le Cellier for Dh.

The park was packed being Food and Wine on a Friday afternoon so we rode Figment and browsed around for an hour. DD started her Kidcot mask in Canada and we checked in at 4:30, being seated right away. (Always a plus, we have waited 30min past our adr here before.)

We had an excellent server, I forgot her name but she was very good! She directed Dh toward the duck appetizer (he loved it!) and I had the cheese soup. Dh had the ny strip, good enough for him. I had the squash ravioli. It was alright, it didnt taste like I though it would but it was alright. I was saving room for dessert! DD ate her hot dog without the bun.

Dessert, I tried the ice wine, excellent! Too sweet for Dh but I loved it. Then I had the creme brulee (I almost licked the bowl) and Dh the choc wiskey cake.

We were beat after dinner so we headed back to swim!