First DVC Trip!!! 11/10/2012

[homeatssr]

Okay, so after a lot of time searching menus, park hours, etc..., we tentatively penciled in our meals, what parks we plan to be at. Then, I compared to Josh's recommendations on his calendar and our park choices look pretty good. The first two days we're going to the least recommended parks, but we knew it would be that way. We have to catch a glimpse of the Magic Kingdom on Saturday night and hit the last day of F+W festival on Sunday.

BTW, I seemed to have "lost the battle" on getting DTD out of the way the first day, but that's okay

So, here's what we're thinking so far(meal-wise), depending on what ADRS we can actually get. Because of our two different hotel ressies, we will have two different "180 days out" Am I right? We will be able to do the first night on May 15th, but then will have to call back the 16th for rest of the week, correct?

Saturday, 10th: lunch:WPE, dinner:CRT
Sunday, 11th: lunch:Biergarten, dinner: California Grill
Monday, 12t: lunch: Liberty Tree Tavern, dinner: O'hana
Tuesday, 13th: lunch: Yak & Yeti for DH, DS,and myself, Rainforest for the grandparents, DD, and DS4, dinner: Fulton's(possibly changed to Flying Fish)
Wednesday, 14th: lunch: Sci Fi, dinner: Cape May Cafe
Thursday: 15th: lunch:Le Cellier, dinnr: Chefs de France
Friay, 16th: bfast:Cape May Cafe, dinner: Nacosse's
Saturday, 17th: lunch:Beaches/Cream(or counterserve at Epcot) dinner:Kona(before we head home

Any thoughts? I'll start my daily planning reports soon!

 

[homeatssr]

Day 1: Arrival Day

We usually arrive between 9:30-10am. We're always a little bit tired, but more excited than anything. The kids are usually well-rested, of course after the drive. They sleep all night, while DH and I take turns.

Here's our plan for Day 1:

Arrive and SSR. We'll check in and then either find our rooms, or just head right to the pool. We plan on just packing one duffel bag for this night, since we will be switching hotels in the morning. We'll leave everything else packed in the car.

We'll let the kids enjoy the pool for a little while, before getting showered/dressed.Then, we plan on heading over to DTD for a little bit. We'll let them look around the shops and hit WPE for lunch.

Later, in the early evening, we'll head to Magic Kingdom for CRT. This will be our first time, believe it or not. When my DD was younger, she never had any real interest. Now that she's 9, she has been begging. So, assuming we can get the ressie, that's where we will be.

Our only real plans at MK that night are the parade and Wishes. If we have any remaining energy, we may try for some other rides/attractions. If not, we'll head "home" to bed

 

[eaj1228]

Awesome plans for day one. Great idea to hit the pool right away after the car ride. Jealous of your CRT plans. I was thinking about booking CRT but didn't want to part with 2TS credits when we already had two princess meals planned. Dining at the Cinderella's Castle is so magical and I can't think of a better way to start off a trip. Keeping my finger's crossed you are able to get an ADR and hopefully a table by the window.

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Yay! Terrific day 1 plans!! Pool time and CRT sound terrific!!!

 

[homeatssr]

Awesome plans for day one. Great idea to hit the pool right away after the car ride. Jealous of your CRT plans. I was thinking about booking CRT but didn't want to part with 2TS credits when we already had two princess meals planned. Dining at the Cinderella's Castle is so magical and I can't think of a better way to start off a trip. Keeping my finger's crossed you are able to get an ADR and hopefully a table by the window.

I really hope it works out. A table window would be magical

 

[homeatssr]

Yay! Terrific day 1 plans!! Pool time and CRT sound terrific!!!

We're usually pretty bad about letting the kids get their pool time in. We go to a pool all summer, so we've always gone with the thought that, "We didn't drive 14 hours to go swimming." This year with the two great pools at our two resorts, we are definitely making a point to allow them more pool time. I still can't wait to see their faces when they find out we're transferring to BCV our second day!

 

[homeatssr]

200 days! 200 days!Still a long way to go, but still another landmark in our trip countdown! To celebrate, we are making our version of one of our favorite Disney meals: WPE bacon-wrapped meatloaf

 

[homeatssr]

So, our tribute to WPE meatloaf was a success last night. The kids are super-excited because it finally feel like a real countdown to them. I almost blew it when I was asking them about some ADRs last night. I almost gave away that we would be heading to the Beach Club and not staying at SSR all week. Hopefully I can keep the secret because Ithink it's going to be an amazing surprise

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Woohoo for under 200 days!! That meatloaf sounds amazing!! I am impressed that you are keeping the surprise...I am so bad at keeping stuff a surprise! Good for you!!

 

[homeatssr]

Well, I know it's been a while since I updated. There just hasn't been to much going on planning-wise. At least, not until today!!

ADR Day part 1
Remember that we have the first night ressie at SSR and the rest of the week at BCV. So, we did end up getting the dxDP for the first night. Today was our ADR day for that night. We'll do the rest of our ressies tomorrow.

BAD NEWS(in Disney terms, not in the scope of life terms)

CRT is only open until 6PM that night and was already completely booked at 6AM!!!! Now, what????? We already added the dining plan for the one night because we had that money already and knew we were going to try to book CRT. We didn't want to get charged, so we made sure to add the dining plan right away. We don't have the money together yet for next dining plan. If we book CRT for another night and add the dining plan later, will the money spent on CRT be applied to that or returned????

I am so bummed this morning!!! I'm driving myself crazy trying to figure out what to do now I guess I'll be glued to the computer all day, trying to figure it out

 

[homeatssr]

Update: We were able to get all of our reservations this morning. This included a new ressie for CRT with all of us together for the original time we wanted. We were also able to get 'Ohana, Le Cellier, California Grill, Narcossee's and many more for the exact times we wanted. What a great morning!!! 179 days to go!!!!!!!!!!

 

[homeatssr]

Day 2

First things first. This is the day we switch to BCV!!!! Hopefully, it will still be a surprise for the kids.

Our current plans are to head over, get checked in and hop in the pool for a short time. We have to give the kids some time in SAB because they were bummed to find out we'd be staying at SSR and not BCV. This will be such a nice surprise for them!

We have Biergarten scheduled for lunch. So, we'll get dressed after the pool and walk over to Epcot. Love the idea of just walking over!!!

I'm thinking this will be a good day to do the Perry the Platypus thing that's replacing Kim Possible, if it's open. It will probably be a good day to do most of our "world-wide shopping."

Later, we'll take the monorail over to California Grill for dinner. I'm so excited for SUSHI! From there, I'm thinking we'll just walk over to the MK to get a bus back to the BCV!

 

[homeatssr]

Wow! It's been a while since I've paid any attention to this thread! Well, today marks 85 days until we leave!!!

Since my last post, I've been reading/researching almost every day

We paid off our dining plan the other day! Actually, it was a gift to us from my in-laws. We haven't made any changes to our ADRs! Can you believe it??? I usually change things several times! However, I'm still not 100% sold on the Fulton's reservation. I would like to switch it to Flying Fish, so we can just walk over and stay local to our resort that night. DH is not sold on that idea yet. We went to Fulton's on our honeymoon, 11 years ago, so I'm thinking it's kidna nostalgic for him. Maybe?

We are currently waitlisted for our first night at VWL and BWV. I'm not really banking on either coming through. We'll be happy either way. I'm actually looking forward to the idea of spending the first night of our 1st DVC trip at our home resort. I just waitlisted the others, thinking I may be able to avoid the DTD visit that day! I think DTD can be such a time-sucker.

Next step, trying to plan our touring strategy for our first MK day! Although, I'm looking forward to the yummy food this trip, I'm a little overwhelmed by the idea of stopping so often to eat! Well, this will be the only time we ever do the DxDP, so may as well just enjoy the food, and not worry about the small things!!

 

[homeatssr]

Happy Birthday to me! I just checked availability and stumbled upon a 2BR @BLT. So, our first night will be at BLT instead of SSR. We can walk to Magic Kingdom the first night of our first DVC trip. Sounds magical to me!! Now, we'll just have to figure out where to eat lunch, instead of WPE that day!

On a related note, we changed our Fulton's reservation to Flying Fish. So, I think I may manage to avoid DTD this trip!! I love DTD, but mostly because of the boatride from POR all these past trips. I know we could have taken a boat or walked from SSR, but I don't think I'm going to miss it that much while I'm at BLT that day!!