Everything is Satisfactual - A TR (9/22-9/31) Updated 12/9 Last Day

[If U Had Wings]

A little more about the early days of Belle and Mickey.

Now that they had been the Disney World everyone wanted to go back. In 1981 they went back again to the world. This time grandma and their aunt didn't go, so Belle and Mickey got to sit in the back seat of the station wagon instead of being tossed like luggage in the back.

Once again they got to stay at the Poly.

I find it funny that I look like I have legs in this picture. Obviously all I need to do is wear really short, shorts.

Since these were the days when there was only the Magic Kingdom there was a lot of time for some relaxation by the pool. Staying at the Poly it was always fun when the characters would come water skiing up on the lake and then hang out at the pool for awhile.

Just as an aside, Belle still hasn't recovered from the fact that she never go to go to River Country back then. Mickey refused to take his swimming lessons seriously so Ma Tink and Pa Grumpy wouldn't take them. Belle was resigned to watching the promos on the in-room Disney channel that Mickey again insisted on watching continually. (More of the Hi I'm Susan lady). Honestly - so not fair.

Belle also made a good friend this trip at the pool. Her new friend, Stephanie, was from Louisiana, and they spent the entire day at the pool playing and discussing things of the utmost importance like their doll collections. Once they got past the language barrier and learned that pop and soda were the same things they had a ball. They exchanged addresses and promised to be penpals.

Once again they had a wonderful trip. How long would they have to wait for their next visit?

I was organizing my closet this week, and found my box of letters that people have sent me over the years. I miss real mail! I still have all the letters that Stephanie and I wrote each other back then, along with just about every other letter that anyone has ever written me. E-mail may be quicker, but it just isn't the same. I can't see people having a treasure box of old e-mails.

 

[Hedy]

As the proud paparazzi of two nephews going around the same time you are, I can't wait to hear more.

 

[JKMJ441724]

I wouldn't despair about the free dining. I didn't call on Monday until noon and I still was able to book at two different resorts with no problem. Not to mention the fact that people book and cancel left and right.

Not to mention, book multiple bookings, knowing that they are going to cancel all but one of them. I actually had the cast member advise me TO DO this when I booked our trip, because my first choice was not available for the full amount of my stay. I will post about that in a day or two, if you want to jump over to my report and read about it. I could not believe that was her advice.

 

[micandminforever]

Wonderful that you work out the free dining.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Hi Hedy! Glad to have you aboard! My nieces are enough of a handful. I can't imagine keeping up with 2 boys.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Getting to Disney from Connecticut is quite a hike. When Belle and Mickey were kids Ma Di and Pa Grumpy always drove. They'd stop two nights along the road visiting touristy locations before the trip and two nights on the way home. A bit leisurely, but not stressful. The first night's stay was always made at about the South of the Border area. Always a let down to Belle and Mickey after watching watching for the billboards for hundreds of miles to find it was just this little dive place. The second night's stay was always in St. Augustine where everyone would go to check out places like Ripley's Believe it or Not Musuem, and the Stars Hall of Fame Wax Museum. Belle (obviously a girl with some issues) still hasn't gotten over the fact she never got to go to Circus World and fly on the trapeze on one of these trips.

Then our family found the wonders of flying. 2 and a half hours on a plan and your in Disney. Wonderful! This is definitely Ma Tink's preferred way to travel. She is not a fan of sitting in the passenger seat of a car for 2 days.

In 2006 when all the paparazzi went with the princesses to Disney the decision was made to drive by Minnie and Mickey. They ran some numbers and figured that it would be cheaper to drive down in two cars. Mickey, Minnie and the princesses in their minivan, and Belle, Pa Grumpy and Ma Tink in another car would all head out on mother's day. Pa Eeyore drove down a week earlier and met them at the hotel Monday night. Ma Tink let herself get talked into driving, but was not happy about it. Pa Grumpy refused to let anyone else drive his car, so Belle and Ma Tink spent most of the drive sitting in the back seat watching The Sopranos and calling the other the princesses in the other car. With only one planned night on the road, Pa Grumpy was getting awfuly tired in the front, and nearly fell asleep once. Very scary.

When the planning started for this year's trip, Ma Tink flat out refused to drive again. She wanted to get on that plane and arrive in Florida 2 hours later, not 2 days later. (Can you tell who the true princess in our familiy is? )While parts of the drive were fun, as they did it as a family, it was still 2 days that could be spent in Disney instead of sitting in a car. It all came down to where to fly from. Ma Tink, Pa Grumpy and Belle all live an hour or two from 4 airports. The 2 New York airports were quickly ruled out due to their large size. (Pa Grumpy refuses to drive to LaGuardia or Kennedy - finds them too confusing). This left 2 choices - flying out of Hartford on Delta or Southwest, or flying out of White Plains, NY on AirTran or Jet Blue. Southwest hadn't released any dates past 8/22 yet, and Delta was quite a bit more. Still Bradley airport has lots of fairly inexpensive parking options close to the terminals.

The closest airport to them is actually White Plains. The problem is the airport is small. Really small. No curbside checkin, only 2 gates in the whole airport small. Normally being small is what makes it hands down the #1 choice to fly. When your plane lands you can be off, picked up your luggage and be loading into your car in about 15 minutes.

That is if you are being picked up. The problem with White Plains airport is there is precious little parking. There is one lot, that is not too big. It fills quickly, and if you are lucky enough to get a spot it is about $25 a day. (No long term rates here). The airport is smack dab in the middle of a very well to do neighborhood, and they don't want the airport to enlarge and fight having more parking. Normally it's not a problem as someone in the family is always willing to drop you off at the airport, but this trip is a problem since everyone is going on the trip.

Belle looked into car rentals. A rental from their town to the airport wasn't bad, but there were problems for the way home. Due to the fact that they'd be coming home on Labor Day weekend either the rental places where already out of cars, or if they did they were very expensive and they'd have to rent it for an additional day due to the local rental places being closed for the holiday.

Belle, Ma Tink and Pa Grumpy were all set to plan on flying out of Hartford, when thanks to the wonders of the DIS boards they found another option. There is a La Quinta Inn in Armonk, NY very close to the White Plains airport. For $150 they offer a stay and go package consisting of overnight accomodations, and then complimentary parking for up to 10 days, with shuttle service to the airport. Sold! They booked their flights on AirTran for $99 each way - leaving at 8:25 am on Friday 8/22 and flying home at 6:30 pm on Sunday 8/31. The stay and go package will be nice as they won't have to get up as early this way to make it to the airport for their morning flight.

Minnie, Mickey and the princesses are still planning on driving. They'll be leaving on a Thursday morning and arriving about 5-6 o'clock on Friday. Pa Eeyore will be flying out of Hartford late on Friday, renting a car, and then meeting Minnie and Mickey at their rental home. Everyone will meet up on Day 2.

Now, can we finally get around to the fun planning yet?

 

[If U Had Wings]

Now that our princesses are set staying with some of the paparazzi in a vacation rental home, and the rest of us are happy with our free dining reservation at Port Orleans French Quarter, we can get down to one of the most important aspects of this pre-trip report.

Itineraries and food!

Food is another one of those issues, like where to stay, that everyone in our group just doesn't agree on. Minnie and Mickey like to fix their own breakfast, have lunch in the parks, and have one or two sit down dinners in the park. The rest of the nights they typically like to leave early and have dinner at places like Bahama Breezes or Chili's.

Ma Tink refuses to cook anything on her vacation. It is just that - her vacation. She also likes to have a sit down dinner on most nights so she can sit down and take a break from the parks for awhile. Pa Grumpy likes sit down dinners as well. I can go either way, but with free dining I'll enjoy every moment of my meals. Luckily no one in the group minds planning out their meals ahead of time, and everyone is pretty open to what they will eat. Only the princesses are picky eaters, but as long as there is some pizza, mac and cheese and chicken nuggets available they are okay for the most part.

We had one small discussion concerning food before making reservations, just in case there was anyplace that anyone really disliked. I put in a request to avoid Tony's Town Square. When I went there for dinner in September. I was pretty disappointed. I thought the food was mediocre for the most part, and my ice cream dessert tasted like it had freezer burn. My parents had liked it when they went on vacation in October, but graciously agreed to avoid it this trip. Only I wanted to try the Moroccan restaurant, so I was out of luck on that one. Pa Grumpy's one request was for Le Cellier so he could get the crème brulee that he loves.

The rest was left in the hands of me and Mickey. It is very much a new experience for me to in charge of planning a vacation for my parents. Ma Tink really has no interest in any of the planning, but I'm surprised about Pa Grumpy. Usually he loves to be in the thick of all the planning. He an original Disney commando. This time he is telling us he's happy to let us do it. It is a tough call though over who is a more obsessive planner - me or Mickey. He doesn't read the Dis boards, but reads everything he can on the AllEars pages and we both get a bit carried away with the UG. I think that he is a bit worse than me though, because he if given his way completely, would have us on a minute by minute itinerary with all of our counter service meals planned out as well. Actually, he may have our counter service meals planned, he is just not fessing up to it.

Since him and Minnie are the one bringing the princesses, I let him go ahead and make up the master plan of what parks we would be doing on which day. (All based on the lowest park attendence days per the UG). He then went ahead and made ADR's for the two sit down meals we were planning on doing all together. I just planned the rest of the sit down meals for the meal plan portion of our group around that.

 

[Hedy]

Ooh! Food talk!

 

[micandminforever]

Now the fun part food, and even better free food. Have fun planning.

 

[If U Had Wings]

So the plan begins:

Intinerary for Day 1 - Friday Aug. 22 - Our flight arrives at about 11 am so baring any flight delays we'll have a good 8 hours or so our first day. We won't be meeting up with the princesses until the next day since they are not arriving until around 5 pm.

We are planning on going to MGM for our first day. (I know it's Hollywood studios now, but it will always be MGM to me). I've always found that MGM is a good option for the second half of the day. MGM was my favorite park when I went for the first time back in 1992. I'm a big movie fan, especially of classic movies. I loved the full backlot tour with the Bette Midler movie, the animation tour, Superstar Television, the Sorcery in the Sky Fireworks , and the view of Grauman's theater at the end of the street. I hate that so much of it is gone now. I despise the hat in front of my beloved theater. It's not so much the hat, but where they put it. To me it looks like it was plunked down in front of the Chinese Theater accidentaly.

I miss this view

They used to have really neat gift shops too. Lots of movie memorabilia items. Now sadly all you find is the same Disney tchotkes they have everywhere. MGM gets huge points for having my favorite ride - Tower of Terror. Love, love, love it. Love the Rock N Rollercoaster too. And the Beauty and the Beast show. And Star Tours (even though it could use an update). Okay, maybe MGM is still my favorite park.

Dinner our first night will be at the Hollywood Brown Derby at 5 pm (OOP). All our dinner reservations were made before we changed our reservation was changed for free dining. Our first two nights are now room only rates, but we didn't want to give up this reservation. The Brown Derby was one of those places I always wanted to try, but no one I went with ever wanted to go due to the cost. Last year when I went with my BFF and was on the dining plan I made reservations. She didn't care and was up to try it out. It was hands down our favorite meal of the trip. The food was fantastic, and the restaurant felt miles away from the parks for an hour or so. I couldn't stop raving about it, so Ma Tink and Pa Grumpy decieded to give it a try when they went. They loved it as well so it was a must do for this trip, off plan or on.

 

[pajules]

Getting to Disney from Connecticut is quite a hike. When Belle and Mickey were kids Ma Di and Pa Grumpy always drove. They'd stop two nights along the road visiting touristy locations before the trip and two nights on the way home. A bit leisurely, but not stressful. The first night's stay was always made at about the South of the Border area. Always a let down to Belle and Mickey after watching watching for the billboards for hundreds of miles to find it was just this little dive place.

Ah yes.....the wonderful days of driving to Disney. Been there done that and prefer not to do it again. Like you, as kids my parents always drove for vacation. I'm pretty sure I was a teenager the first time I flew. DGM and DDad would love us into our station wagon around 8pm at night. We would roll out the sleeping bags with the "way back" seat down and DB and I would sleep until morning. By the time we woke up in the am we were usually in South Carolina. Then we would do our South of the Border sign counting, but never got to stay. DDad always wanted to drive straight through so that's what we did

As an adult I have driven to Disney once and am pretty sure I have reached my lifetime quota. I love to drive and sometimes when the weather is nice I will pack a lunch, DS and head out somewhere with no real destination in mind. Of course this is pre $3.45 a gallon gas! But one drive to WDW is enough for me. I swear I never knew South Carolina was so big. I think driving through is the worst part of the trip, because you feel so close, but so far away!

But anyway, glad you got free dining, you hotel of choice, and are flying. I'm sure your brother will be jealous when you arrive relaxed and refreshed and he's ready to pull his hair out and need a stiff drink or two

 

[If U Had Wings]

Ah yes.....the wonderful days of driving to Disney. Been there done that and prefer not to do it again. Like you, as kids my parents always drove for vacation. I'm pretty sure I was a teenager the first time I flew. DGM and DDad would love us into our station wagon around 8pm at night. We would roll out the sleeping bags with the "way back" seat down and DB and I would sleep until morning. By the time we woke up in the am we were usually in South Carolina. Then we would do our South of the Border sign counting, but never got to stay. DDad always wanted to drive straight through so that's what we did

As an adult I have driven to Disney once and am pretty sure I have reached my lifetime quota. I love to drive and sometimes when the weather is nice I will pack a lunch, DS and head out somewhere with no real destination in mind. Of course this is pre $3.45 a gallon gas! But one drive to WDW is enough for me. I swear I never knew South Carolina was so big. I think driving through is the worst part of the trip, because you feel so close, but so far away!

But anyway, glad you got free dining, you hotel of choice, and are flying. I'm sure your brother will be jealous when you arrive relaxed and refreshed and he's ready to pull his hair out and need a stiff drink or two

Last year was quite enough for me. You are right, South Carolina just goes on forever with nothing to really look at out the windows. No hills, no buildings just nada. It gets a bit hypnotic after awhile. I don't think it helped on our last trip that it was downpouring the entire time.

I might not mind so much if I had been allowed to drive, but my DF refuses to let anyone else drive.

I love the plane! I think my nieces are a bit jealous though. We were telling them this weekend that we'd get on the airplane and be in Disney in 3 hours. They were a bit amazed.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I went and ordered something I completely didn't need last week.

A Disney Passporter. At least I've refrained so far from buying yet another copy of the Unofficial Guide, although I did buy a 1 year online membership to their site back in January so I could get the park attendence forecasts. Why I keep buying a new one every trip I'll never know, as they don't make that many changes between publishing. Last year I picked up "The Complete Disney" book, which Minnie and Mickey pilfered from me, and have yet to return. (That was back in November).

This is my first Passporter though. Has anyone else ever bought this before? I'm wondering if I should have not bothered since I have the UG. I had been resisting buying one until I saw people discussing how great they were for organizing their scrapbooking stuff from a trip. That I could use as my stuff ends up all over the place.

I've been suffering from serious Disneyitis lately. I want my vacation now! I guess I'm just feeling a bit exhausted lately and need a break. I had the whole family over this weekend for a birthday dinner for Ma Tink. I'm not the only one getting a bit itchy for the trip. But heh, 4 months from today!

 

[Hedy]

I went and ordered something I completely didn't need last week.

A Disney Passporter. At least I've refrained so far from buying yet another copy of the Unofficial Guide, although I did buy a 1 year online membership to their site back in January so I could get the park attendence forecasts. Why I keep buying a new one every trip I'll never know, as they don't make that many changes between publishing. Last year I picked up "The Complete Disney" book, which Minnie and Mickey pilfered from me, and have yet to return. (That was back in November).

This is my first Passporter though. Has anyone else ever bought this before? I'm wondering if I should have not bothered since I have the UG. I had been resisting buying one until I saw people discussing how great they were for organizing their scrapbooking stuff from a trip. That I could use as my stuff ends up all over the place.

I've been suffering from serious Disneyitis lately. I want my vacation now! I guess I'm just feeling a bit exhausted lately and need a break. I had the whole family over this weekend for a birthday dinner for Ma Tink. I'm not the only one getting a bit itchy for the trip. But heh, 4 months from today!

I had a Passporter for the first time in Dec 07-I loved it-the pockets are great, there's just enough information to help.

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

I miss this too!!!

 

[buffy0214]

Ma Tink refuses to cook anything on her vacation. It is just that - her vacation.

I'm with her

MGM gets huge points for having my favorite ride - Tower of Terror. Love, love, love it. Love the Rock N Rollercoaster too. And the Beauty and the Beast show. And Star Tours (even though it could use an update). Okay, maybe MGM is still my favorite park.

I tend to have the most fun at MGM, too. I think maybe it is because of some of my favorites are there and it is a slower-paced park.

I have a passporter, too. Like you, I bought a UG every year, even if I wasn't planning a trip. It's just fun readin'. I think you will find you passporter is similar as well. It's a fun read and I love their maps. Now all you need to do is join TGM

For $150 they offer a stay and go package consisting of overnight accomodations, and then complimentary parking for up to 10 days, with shuttle service to the airport. Sold! They booked their flights on AirTran for $99 each way - leaving at 8:25 am on Friday 8/22 and flying home at 6:30 pm on Sunday 8/31. The stay and go package will be nice as they won't have to get up as early this way to make it to the airport for their morning flight.

It's amazing that it will cost more to park the car than to fly.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Day 2 Itinerary- Saturday Aug. 23 - Magic Kingdom -

No ADRs. No reservations made at this point. Anything we do this day will be OOP as our free dining doesn't start until Sunday. This will be our first day with the rest of the party. We thought about just going off-site with them for dinner, but this is the only day of our trip when we will be able to see the Spectromagic parade so we don't want to go to far. (It's not running for quite a few nights during our trip). Minnie and Mickey aren't really parade people, but Ma Tink and I think the princesses would love this one. Princess Cin would especially love the Ursualla float. (Ursualla is one of her favoritie characters - I know she's a strange princess sometimes).

I'm thinking of seeing if Ma Tink and Pa Grumpy want me to make a reservation at the Plaza if they want to have a reasonably priced sit down dinner. I myself would love the Crystal Palace, but I know I'd be shot done. We will probably just end up doing counter service for dinner.

We definitely need to get some better family shots this year. Last time we made the family trip, Princess Jasmine chose to be difficult and had a puss on her face in all the pictures. This time we will probably have to worry about Princess Cin making goofy faces to the camera, or sticking her butt in the camera. Yes, that is her new fun thing to do. They were over my house on Saturday, and all she wanted me to do was take pictures of her rear end. I love her, but she's a goofball.

I am also determined not to come in last place with scores on Buzz Lightyear. I'm incredibly bad at it. In my defense, on our prior family trip, I was on with Princess Cin. She didn't care about shooting anything, all she wanted to do was spin the car around, which didn't help my score any.

Also I want to make it to toontown to have my picture taken with the mouse!

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

Also I want to make it to toontown to have my picture taken with the mouse!

I haven't done this since I was 12. I want to do this too!

 

[buffy0214]

I'm not a big parade person, either, but I agree that Spectro is a must!

 

[Hedy]

Princess Cin and her butt...