Double the Anniversaries, Double the Fun! Jan 2013 PTR | TR HAS STARTED! 2/13

[GrimGrinningStitch]

I KNEW IT! I totally remember that but I was thinking I was confused or something. It was like... some name with a bunch of M's or something?

Yeah, it was the remarkably unimaginative mjmagnuson. I didn't put much thought into it since, at the time, I assumed I would be lurking only. Dani got me hooked though!

 

[PISCESANGEL]

Hello there!
I've just been reading your January 2012 TR when I stumbled upon this PTR... then I noticed... we are going AT THE SAME TIME!
I was going to read the rest before I commented but I'm so excited to know of another DISer going when we are!

I'll be back... your plans look great so far!
Carla

 

[__disneygirl]

Hi there! I loved your last TR and I am so on board for this!

You have the best car decals ever, I can't decide which one I love the most. And your framed photos on your wall are so adorable. It looks so great.

You have a good Vinylmation collection - I've been debating doing it on my next trip, but on one hand I'm like... do I really need more Disney stuff to sit around the house? The answer is probably yes. LOL.

Your dogs are BEAUTIFUL!!!! And congrats on becoming an aunt and getting to go to Disneyland! I can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[danimaroo]

Your niece is sooooo cute!!

And a big HELLO to you Matt.

Aww, thank you so much! She really is adorable!

Yeah, it was the remarkably unimaginative mjmagnuson. I didn't put much thought into it since, at the time, I assumed I would be lurking only. Dani got me hooked though!

Haha, yes I did, mwahahaha. Now I hope you start posting more often! Heck, maybe you can do a guest update or two around here.

Hello there!
I've just been reading your January 2012 TR when I stumbled upon this PTR... then I noticed... we are going AT THE SAME TIME!
I was going to read the rest before I commented but I'm so excited to know of another DISer going when we are!

I'll be back... your plans look great so far!
Carla

Hi! I'm so glad you are enjoying my January 2012 TR... and HOW COOL is it that we'll be there at the same time?! What are your dates? I always love hearing from others who are going at the same time as me... January is my FAVORITE time to go! Can't wait to hear from you again!

Hi there! I loved your last TR and I am so on board for this!

You have the best car decals ever, I can't decide which one I love the most. And your framed photos on your wall are so adorable. It looks so great.

You have a good Vinylmation collection - I've been debating doing it on my next trip, but on one hand I'm like... do I really need more Disney stuff to sit around the house? The answer is probably yes. LOL.

Your dogs are BEAUTIFUL!!!! And congrats on becoming an aunt and getting to go to Disneyland! I can't wait to hear all about it.

AWW YAY! I'm so glad you joined my PTR! I hope you are doing a TR for your next trip! I need to finish reading your last TR!

Anyway, I like to think that our cars are lookin' pretty snazzy and are pretty Disneyfied, haha. I love our decals! I actually just the other day saw someone with an HM decal that said "My other car is my doom buggy".

JUST BE PREPARED... If you get into Vinylmation, it's all over. It's an insane addiction and you will end up with so many of them! I have already! Though I'm kind of taking a little break at the moment, and saving my money for more important releases (like the Haunted Mansion one that HOPEFULLY comes out in the Fall!)... It's so much fun trading though; I can't wait to do it on our trip in the parks!

We love Disney in our house! Our upstairs landing is all Disney stuff.

I'm SUPER excited to go DL and write all about it! I hope everyone joins me for that TR... and plus, it's going to help pass the time until we're back in Disney World a month and a half later!!

 

[smile4stamps]

I'll definitely be following your DL TR! I wish I had plans to go back!

 

[__disneygirl]

AWW YAY! I'm so glad you joined my PTR! I hope you are doing a TR for your next trip! I need to finish reading your last TR!

Anyway, I like to think that our cars are lookin' pretty snazzy and are pretty Disneyfied, haha. I love our decals! I actually just the other day saw someone with an HM decal that said "My other car is my doom buggy".

JUST BE PREPARED... If you get into Vinylmation, it's all over. It's an insane addiction and you will end up with so many of them! I have already! Though I'm kind of taking a little break at the moment, and saving my money for more important releases (like the Haunted Mansion one that HOPEFULLY comes out in the Fall!)... It's so much fun trading though; I can't wait to do it on our trip in the parks!

We love Disney in our house! Our upstairs landing is all Disney stuff.

I'm SUPER excited to go DL and write all about it! I hope everyone joins me for that TR... and plus, it's going to help pass the time until we're back in Disney World a month and a half later!!

Oh yay, Thanks for reading my TR! I hope you're enjoying it. I will absolutely be doing another one for my next trip...and a dining report...and I plan to make videos as well. So the trip will be well covered all around!

Yes, I can see myself becoming addicted to Vinylmation. Once I saw this Nightmare collection, I wanted all of them! So that's my goal, since the trip is in October, to make it a Nightmare themed Vinylmation hunt, and trade to find as many as possible! I think it'll be really fun!

Ooh, I want to see pics of your upstairs landing when you get a chance! That sounds amazing!

I will definitely join in on your DL TR. I can't wait!

 

[GrimGrinningStitch]

I think there needs to be another update, since I know for a fact you're already trying to plan our next trips to WDW and DL after the ones we'll be taking in the next 6 months.

 

[danimaroo]

I'll definitely be following your DL TR! I wish I had plans to go back!

Hooray, I'm glad you will be! Hopefully you can make some soon.

Oh yay, Thanks for reading my TR! I hope you're enjoying it. I will absolutely be doing another one for my next trip...and a dining report...and I plan to make videos as well. So the trip will be well covered all around!

Yes, I can see myself becoming addicted to Vinylmation. Once I saw this Nightmare collection, I wanted all of them! So that's my goal, since the trip is in October, to make it a Nightmare themed Vinylmation hunt, and trade to find as many as possible! I think it'll be really fun!

Ooh, I want to see pics of your upstairs landing when you get a chance! That sounds amazing!

I will definitely join in on your DL TR. I can't wait!

So glad to hear you are going to do a TR! Can't wait; and I LOVE when people do dining reports! It's funny because I was just telling Matt how I really want to spend more time taking video this trip, because even though we were stuck for 50 minutes, I still watch the video we took on Splash Mountain, showing off the worst place to be stuck.

The NBC collection is awesome! I'm not sure it's still in stores, but hopefully you can find it in trading boxes! I have seen a few pop up at my local Disney Store a few times, so I think it's definitely a possibility! But I love that plan, and can't wait to read about it!

I will take more pictures of our upstairs soon, so you can see it all! Glad you'll be joining my DL TR; I am so excited to see the NBC takeover of HM, it's not even funny.

I think there needs to be another update, since I know for a fact you're already trying to plan our next trips to WDW and DL after the ones we'll be taking in the next 6 months.

Okay, Mr. Magoo, I have an update coming up here quite shortly. And I know, I'm mega guilty of already trying to plan trips to both parks, even though we haven't been on either of our planned trips, but AHHH, you know how excited I get. Hahaha, you know you love me and my planning ahead-ness.

 

[danimaroo]

Bahaha, so per MATT nudging me this morning (see his above comment)... and also just because I've been wanting to write a new update... WELP, I'm here, with more fun stuff going on!

Okay soooo, real life has been kind of just tootin' along. This past weekend, Matt had his guy board game day. Once a month, he plays board games with his buddies, and I take it as an opportunity to do one of my favorite things ever: SHOP!

The past 2 months I've actually be going out with my friend Amy, who as you all know, is going to be going on our trip in January! It's nice having some girl time, getting to talk about life, and also talk about our trip.

Being someone who has only been to Disneyland (and you tour DL very different than you do WDW), I think she is in for a huge surprise when we go to WDW... but a good one!

While shopping, I totally bought Matt this amazing shirt, and I think he looks quite cute with Jake in his pocket (Adventure Time is seriously the funniest show):

Anyway, in other news, we've done a bit more research/planning for our Disneyland trip, and also made a decision on the Premier Annual Pass.. so I figured I'd share some of our plans so far:

Okay, number one big awesome news. After much discussion, and doing research, we are 99% sure we are going to buy the Premier Annual Pass.

This is very exciting for various reasons, buuut I mean, when we were initially looking at it, we didn't realize all of the awesomely awesome discounts you get, too! It's going to make our food in DL a bit cheaper, and 20% off merchandise is NOTHING to cough at... and if you know us, you know that we buy a LOT of Disney merchandise during our trips, so that'll be a big savings.

So with the discounts, and the trips we already had planned for the next year, this makes total sense for us to buy the passes... PLUS, who DOESN'T want to own a special card that looks like this?! (and no, this is not my photo, not claiming it is either!):

Man, I will feel like quite a fancy lady with one of those bad Larrys in my pocket! I mean, not gonna lie, they kind of look like GOLDEN TICKETS! Perhaps that is what I will refer to them as, because I mean, a pass that gets you into 2 of the best places ever pretty much IS a Golden Ticket... to MAGIC!

And yes, I totally recognize it'll burn a hole in my pocket, because I haven't even bought it yet and I'm already trying to convince Matt on another WDW trip in 2013 (more on that later).

OKAY SO! Onto our (very loose) current DAY ONE DL plans...

Thursday, November 29th:

We should be arriving around 1:15ish at Long Beach Airport. Right now, I'm planning on us using Zippy Shuttle, as recommended to us by a few people now. We figure if traffic isn't bad, we should be at our hotel by 2-2:15ish (maybe 2:30 to be safe?).

Check-in at Desert Inn isn't until 3pm, and from what I've seen, we'll probably have to wait until 3pm. Nooot a big deal, we figure we'll drop off our luggage and walk across the street (gotta love literally staying across the street from DLR!), and go find Guest Relations.

First priority? Getting our GOLDEN TICKETS (aka Premier Annual Passes)... AND, celebration pins! Not one, but TWO for me, because I'll be celebrating my First Visit AND my Birthday (we arrive a day after, but that still counts)!

I told Matt he should get a pin, too, but he said he doesn't really qualify for any. I think he deserves an "I'm Celebrating" for getting us getting our Golden Tickets.

Anyway, after we get all of that squared away, we'll probably head back to our hotel if we haven't been able to check in yet, throw our stuff in our room, then make our way to Disneyland! If we checked in when we got there, obviously we won't have to run back.

Thursday is our day where we don't have any plans in terms of dinners/tours/etc. We want to be able to do whatever we want this afternoon due to the fact that the parks will probably be closing earlier this night, my guess at around 8 or 9. So we'll probably end up trying to ride whatever we can, grab some dinner at a counter service spot, and probably watch the fireworks.

After our day in the parks, my hope is that some spots at DTD will still be open so we can peruse that area a bit. I know it's not as big as WDW's DTD, but it'll still be fun to check out!

PS Fun fact: They are building an EARL OF SANDWICH at the DTD in DLR! How cool is that? We may have to grab lunch there at least once day while we're there!

We have many more plans for the following two days, but I figure I'll save those for other updates, because hey, I've gotta make this PTR last and stay interesting, right?!

Oh, and on a kind of bummer note... We found out that Indiana Jones will be CLOSED while we're there. I was bummed out, but then Matt reminded me that we'll more than likely be back in May, so it's not even a big deal. Then I realized, yeah, he's right, and honestly, I'm looking forward to riding HM and IASW in all of their holiday glory, more than anything else.

Okay, this section might be better for those of you who prefer hearing more about WDW! Well... we found out the scoop on Be Our Guest reservations. They're starting to take them on AUGUST 20th! Problem is, that means I will have to get up at 4am to HOPEFULLY get us reservations.

4am, on a work day.

Um... yeah.

I'm going back and forth on this. If I knew I was going to get right through on the phone and be able to make my reservations and then go to bed, I'd be all for it. Problem is, that isn't going to happen. I'm willing to bet I'll be on hold for awhile before I get a CM on the phone. And honestly, if I am up for an hour or so trying to get it, I will be the ultimate crab apple at work on Monday.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I think if I wait until like 6am my time, all reservations will be gone for the date that I want. So, yeah, I'll probably just get up at 4am and pray I'm not on hold for hours. We want dinner on the 18th, and if that's not available, I'll ask if there's any availability any of the nights we're there, and we'll take whatever we can get and just change another one of our ADRs around, no biggie.

Outside of all THAT, I've been working on making special luggage tags for us, which when completed, I promise I will show off! I've also got 2 countdowns going on, on my iPhone:

We're almost in the single digits for our DL trip!

Oh and lastly, these just came in the mail and are now on my desk at work. They're quite adorable... now I'm just keeping an eye out for Wall-E to show up at my local Disney Store!

I'm sure I'll have another update soon for you guys and gals!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Please tell me you're planning on running around singing, "I've got a Golden Ticket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" You must. It would be a major let-down if you didn't.

I'm thinking you should add a September trip in 2013 because you KNOW what awesome family loves Septembers! And then we could meet and all my dreams would come true. (Does that remind you of the planning video? To make their dreams, their suenos, come true? Anybody?)

 

[GrimGrinningStitch]

I'm thinking you should add a September trip in 2013 because you KNOW what awesome family loves Septembers! And then we could meet and all my dreams would come true. (Does that remind you of the planning video? To make their dreams, their suenos, come true? Anybody?)

It's like you can read her mind!

There may have been some talk of looking into a mid-late September trip, depending on price of rooms, and if we can get the vacation time!

I have a feeling next year will be pretty much filled with Disney.

 

[marDgreen88]

BAH. Look at yall, gettin' all FANCY. Can I just say... jealous! That's amazing!!! And yes, there is a certain Willy Wonka song stuck in my head. It's no big deal.

So listen... if you're planning two 2013 trips, might I recommend October?

(Why October, you ask?)

Because there is a 90% chance as of right now that I will be taking an October 2013 trip (it'll be my 25th birthday) and wouldn't it be AWESOME if we could meet? I THINK SO.

Even though I've already read that you're thinking about September... hahaha, but hey, I can try.

OY. I really hope you can manage getting an ADR! That would completely stink if you couldn't. I'll be trying to get one as well, in case my Dec. trip actually happens! GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[smile4stamps]

Wo-hoo on deciding on the Premium pass!!!

DL has some excellent restaurants! The Monte Cristo at Cafe Orleans (or Blue Bayou for lunch)! Peanut Butter pizza at Goofy's Kitchen!! MMMMM!! And saving money on them all is a great thing!!

I've thought of upgrading my pass and trying to get a few short trips into DL while I still live in CA but its quite a drive to make by myself! However money is an issue and I try and spend all my vacation time with my hubby so we will see what happens after October!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Please tell me you're planning on running around singing, "I've got a Golden Ticket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" You must. It would be a major let-down if you didn't.

SECONDING THIS.

Yay for your golden ticket!!!! 20% off merchandise??? That's awesome! Hopefully you'll be able to get an ADR for Be our Guest!! I CANNOT wait to hear all about that restaurant!!

 

[__disneygirl]

Woooohoooo!!!! A Premier pass!! That is TOO awesome. Congrats!

 

[PISCESANGEL]

Hi! I'm so glad you are enjoying my January 2012 TR... and HOW COOL is it that we'll be there at the same time?! What are your dates? I always love hearing from others who are going at the same time as me... January is my FAVORITE time to go! Can't wait to hear from you again!


Hello again!

Our dates are January 21- 25 and we are staying at the Art of Animation hotel in the NEW Little Mermaid rooms- I am so excited!

It will just be myself and my 2 kids who are not so little anymore- my DD is 20 and my DS is 13. Everyone always tells me my daughter and I look like sisters though, so we thank genetics for that I guess.

Anywho, I've been getting some great ideas reading your last TR since you also went in January then. This will be my first time to go when it isn't CRAZY BUSY, so we are really pumped.

Hope you are well, we'll talk again soon I'm sure!

Carla

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

It's like you can read her mind!

There may have been some talk of looking into a mid-late September trip, depending on price of rooms, and if we can get the vacation time!

I have a feeling next year will be pretty much filled with Disney.

Let me just go ahead and tell you that the school calendar dictates our week will be September 14-22, 2013. GET PLANNING! Make it happen, Cap'ain.

 

[DnA2010]

Woohoo for the premier passes! We must have a video of you guys singing "I've got a Golden Tiiiicket!!" in front of/in the Dland!

 

[danimaroo]

Okay my dears, gather around... It's time for a story. This is how my morning has gone:

3:55am.

My alarm was going off. I sat in bed for a moment, looking around as it's completely dark, confused for a moment... until I snap out of it and realized... BE OUR GUEST RESERVATIONS!

I jumped out of bed, grabbed my glasses, my iPhone, and iPad, looked over at Matt who looks SO comfortable in bed. I quietly strolled out of our bedroom, so I wouldn't disturb him or our slumbering pups... and went into our office.

3:58.

I gave the Disney Dining phone line a ring. It's still not open. Okay, no big deal, I'd be ready the second it rolled over to 4am.

Finally my phone read 4:00am, I immediately hit redial and...

BUSY.

Okay, I'm starting to think at this point that this may be a little more difficult than I thought...

DOO-DOO-DOO. We're sorry, the person you are trying to reach is not available.

BUSY... DOO DOO DOO.. CALL FAILED... BUSY...

Oh my gosh, are you joking me right now?

So at this point, I ran downstairs thinking that maybe I could use our landline. My iPhone kept saying "call failed" and I was getting annoyed with it.

So yes, picture me sitting on our living room floor, in the dark with my PJs on, iPad on the floor in front of me... I've got my landline phone to my ear, and my iPhone to my other ear. Yes, I was totally double-fisting it, alternating redials on each phone. I don't mess around when it comes to getting Be Our Guest reservations!

I finally noticed that my iPhone looked like this:

Yes, I was well past the 100 redials and it'd taken up all of my "recent calls".

Sooo, after 45 minutes of calling (and around 200 redials between both phones) and not getting through, I was starting to just say the heck with it, I'm going back to bed and perhaps try when I woke up for work at 7.

Right as I'm about to hang up, I hear the most magical noise ever... the twinkle noise... meaning... I ACTUALLY GOT THROUGH!

I am pretty sure at this point I was dancing as I went through the automated process. I was reading the DISboards and saw that people who asked for the agent ended up being on hold for like an hour, so I decided to just try booking it the automated way and talk to the automated lady.

Let's call her Tracy, just because we can.

I spoke like a robot so everything would register correctly, so my exchange wasn't something like:

Tracy: What restaurant?
Me: Be Our Guest
Tracy: Okay, OHANA. Is that correct?
Me: No, BE. OUR. GUEST.
Tracy: Okay, great, AKERSHUS! What time?

Anyway, fortunately my girl Tracy and I were on the same page, as she knew I wanted Be Our Guest, so then I sat back and listened to Tracy's spiel about ADRs.

She talked about how if you don't show up for this ADR, you will be charged $10 per person... so I figure, okay, I'll make sure to put my credit card # down for this... but then good ol' Tracy never asked for it! I shrugged, because whatever, Tracy knows what she's doing and tells me that I've got a reservation for Be Our Guest on January 18th at 4:55pm!

SCORE! I hung up the phone, did another little dance in the dark, then went upstairs feeling like a champ. Matt groggily asked me how it went, and I told him the good news. I'm fairly certain he mumbled "Oh good, thanks Dani!", but I'm not entirely sure because he was asleep again within a minute of me getting into bed.

I couldn't fall back asleep for an hour due to my excitement, so before I knew it, my alarm to get up for work was going off.

I stroll into work feeling pretty tired but happy, and then I read the DISboards and my heart sinks. Someone says that they called back and talked to a CM, who said that the automated system isn't working properly (DANGIT TRACY, YOU'VE FAILED ME!) and should have asked people for a CC# to put on the reservation, but didn't, so anyone who made a reservation this way would lose their ADR unless they called back and talked to a CM to put their CC# on the reservation.

This sounds about right, since in my experience I thought it was really odd they didn't ask me for my credit card number, so I called back and surprisingly got through on my 3rd attempt (much better than earlier this morning!).

I'm fairly certain I went through all of the songs they play while you're on hold, but I didn't mind since I'm at work and just threw on my headphones so I'd hear when the CM came on.

25 minutes later, I spoke with a lovely CM who knew what she was doing, telling me it was very good that I called back because yes indeed, my reservation would have been canceled without the CC# on file.

HOLY COW, thank GOD for the DIS!

She did a workaround, where she charged my credit card a penny, then was able to add it to my reservation.

This saved me time, because it sounds like others were having to be put on hold again to talk to some other person who would basically rebook your reservation.

By the end of the call, the CM confirmed I was all set, my CC was attached to my reservation, and I didn't have to worry about being canceled.

I got off the phone, stood up in gave a little "WOOHOO!" Matt (who sits close to me at work) had mentioned I'd been up since 4am to my boss, so he of course asked about WHY I'd been up early, so I told everyone my story.

I think they thought I was both crazy but also were excited I got my reservation. Hahaha.

But I must say, this is a beautiful sight (yes, I put a mustache over my confirmation number, not messing around with that ADR, hahaha):

So yes, that is my crazy Be Our Guest reservation-making story. I'm totally exhausted, my eyes burn, but I am SO happy we got reservations for our trip! I can't wait to experience the restaurant on our FIRST night in Disney World!

Though I'm a little sad we won't be eating at Crystal Palace our first night, I am thrilled that we will be eating at Be Our Guest. Talk about a great way to start our trip!

More updates soon, and I have many replies to get to from my last update, but I just HAD to tell you guys my crazy BOG story!

 

[GrimGrinningStitch]

I am crazy excited to go, and I think (hope) it'll be worth all the effort! At least we know our friends will love it, since they are huge Beauty and the Beast fans.

I agree that I'm a little sad to not be going to Crystal Palace our first night (mainly since I'm a big fan of traditions), but I think this will be awesome. Plus it's always exciting to see a brand new addition to the park!