DREAMing of new experiences and familiar places.

[Wolfhunt]

Hello everyone,

We are gearing up for a trip and I thought I'd try my hand at a PTR/TR. I am pretty new at posting here at Disboards but have been a frequent poster on another board. I decided to do a trip report here because one of the friends going with us on this trip with us will be posting a TR there and I didn't want to compete.

So without further ado, here's the cast of characters:

Me (John aka Wolfhunt)
Heather (my wife)
Cherese (our friend)
Dwayne (our friend and Cherese's husband)

The itineraray:
Arriving at AKL villas Jan 6 - DVC studio at Jambo house with a savanah view (John and Heather), Cherese and Dwayne have a regular room booked at AKL

Heading to the Dream for a 4-night Bahamian cruise (our first ever cruise) - Jan 8 - 12

Heading to Port Orleans Riverside after the cruise - Jan 12 - 16.

And that's the basics. We have already booked all of our dining at the parks and are checked in for the cruise. I'll post our dining plans later (alot of this trip revolves around the food )

This is the first cruise for any of us and January can't come soon enough. I'll be back in a bit to post our dining and park plans along with the few things we have planned for the cruise.

 

[Wolfhunt]

So with both resorts and the cruise booked and everything PIF except Port Orleans Riverside we are getting pretty excited for the trip. When we go to Disney our dining plays a big role in the planning. My wife and I have our favorites but always try to get in at least one or two new dining experiences each trip. Since we are staying at AKL for the first time getting in a few new dining experiences was pretty easy since we have not been to any of the restaurants at AKL. On the second half of the trip (POR) we are doing the DxDP and have loaded up heavily on signature dining.

Here is our dining schedule:
1/6/2012 - Arrival day - Lunch on somewhere at AKL or AK dependeing on when we get in.
1/6/2012 - Dinner at Boma (new experience)
1/7/2012 - Breakfast at Tusker House (my favorite breakfast buffet)
1/7/2012 - Lunch at Flametree (new experience)
1/7/2012 - Dinner at Jiko (new experience)
1/8/2012 - Breakfast at Boma (new experience)
1/8 - 1/12/2012 - Cruising in the Dream. Possibly dining at Remy along with the other regular places. All new experiences for us.
1/12/2012 - Dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse (new experience)
1/13/2012 - Lunch at Marrakesh (new experience)
1/13/2012 - Dinner at Flying Fish (new experience)
1/14/2012 - Lunch at Mama Melrose's
1/14/2012 - Dinner at Hollywood Brown Derby
1/15/2012 - Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern
1/15/2012 - Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table (Friend's birthday dinner)
1/16/2012 - Breakfast at 1900 Park fare (new experience)

Toss in a few dole whip floats, several cinnamon rolls from Main Street bakery, and some pineapple frozen bars and that's our dining plans.

Guess we have a few more new experiences than I realized. I love trying new restaurants so this trip will be a blast with the new dining both at the resorts and on the Dream. We have a rough park day schedule in place and everything looks like it is ready to go. Only two months to go before a trip of new experiences begins.

 

[Wolfhunt]

Down to 8 days to go and we are ready. We have checked in online for AKV, the cruise, and will be doing the check in for POR in a few days.

This trip is all about slowing down. We don't want to spend this trip rushing from attraction to attraction. For example, on the AKV portion of our trip I plan on spending an hour (or two) just photographing as many animals as I can at the tree of life. I'm sure I can find other details to point my camera at too in all the parks and resorts we will be in.

In another twist since we planned this trip is I have finally decided to take the jump and start up a second career that will have me looking at Disney a bit differently. I am now training to be an independent travel agent specializing in Disney. This will really make me look at things in ways I haven't before.

So, with a week to go and the weather here looking like it's going to cooperate with the flight out we are ready to go. We are a bit nervous about the cruise portion since it our first ever cruise and don't know quite what to expect but are excited to give the new experience a try.

Now if the next 8 days would just go a bit quicker...