First PTR For Fantastic Free Fall Food with Family and Friends!

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Alliteration aside, this is my first pre-trip report!

Reading though heath-and-javens-mom's trip report inspired me to get start on this one. Will anyone read it? I sure hope so! If not I'll make it hit 50 pages on my own.

If nothing else it will keep me busy until the trip gets here

The CAST:

Me aka Stephanie

-- I'm a cynical, serious, meticulous planner who reverts into a four year old goon when I hit the parks. I think I embarrass my husband, but he doesn't say anything... until after we get home from the trip, lol.

Lindsay

-- My husband and all around goof ball. He and I went to Disney World for the first time for our honeymoon 2 years ago and I swore to him that I would go again as soon as I could scrape together the cash. He's not excited yet. I think he holds it in until we leave for the trip, he's a doer not a planner.

Jimmy

-- My uncle, who lives with us here in London ON, Canada, but didn't get to come on our last trip cause there was no way I was taking him for our honeymoon He's as excited about this trip as I am and has helped me do the planning so far.

Jodi

-- My Mom, she'd traveling in all the way from Halifax, NS, Canada to do this trip with us. When I was 4years old I promised to take her to Disney World and now I'm making good on that promise.

Combined together Me, my uncle and my mother become a wise cracking group of hyenas... it's gonna be a blast.

And Finally...

Tigh

-- A friend from work who is tagging along because he's never been to Disney World and he's a great guy. As my mom put it when I asked if she was alright with him coming: "Who am I to prevent anyone from going to Disney World!"

The report so far:
My company is AWESOME and here's why!
Fun in the Bahamas sun: a mini trip report
The amazing fool proof plan!!
The updated plan
The epic of finding shoes

 

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Ok photos are posted! Phew... Onward!!!

The HOW:

As I mentioned my first ever trip to Disney World was nearly two years ago for a fabulous honeymoon trip. ( during free dining no less! )

I'll blab more about that trip later on.

This particular trip came about when I found out I was getting a massive tax return in April. Boo ya!

I had my travel agent on the phone April 10th trying to snag me a couple of rooms. I'd been anxiously awaiting word of free dining for months

At the time I knew that four of us would be going, so I was looking for two rooms at ASMU, or any other value resort. I asked her to look into the family suites, but I figured they wouldn't be offered for free dining or that the bounce back/visa holder crowd might have already snapped them up.

At lunch time I get a call from my TA telling me she booked us a Family Suite! I was jumping for joy! I think I spent a few hours just reading about the suites and showing everyone at work the floor layout.

I'm sooo happy my husband and I will get our own little room with a queen sized bed. I love that we'll be in the Calypso or Jazz buildings. I have a whole collection of ASMU photos to get me psyched for the trip!

If anyone has more photos they want to share, please do!

We booked for free dining September 1st - 8th. My husband was against going so close to labor day weekend, but from what I've read the parks really clear out right after labor day. I'm a little worried about the heat, but we're planning on afternoon breaks, so we should be ok.

I booked my ADR's right away since the focus of this wonderful trip will be food food food! Unfortunately that first set of ADR's had to be changed once Tigh was invited along

I'll post my ADR's later.

So yeah, the tax return pretty much paid for the majority of the trip, and we just finished paying the last of it off this week! All we have to do is pack and fly to Disney World!

That's it for now.

COMING UP:

- My company is awesome and here's why!!!
- Fun in the Bahamas sun: a mini trip report
- The amazing fool proof plan!!
- Food glorious Food!!
- The trip that was: Golden memories

and much more!

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

Great start!

 

[Step]

Great start!

Thanks! I hope to post more tomorrow

 

[hlrababy]

Good start!!! I can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[DISNEYJAZZ]

i can't wait to read more of your tr ....we were at the family suites in april and loved them!!!! really roomy for the 6 of us...no problems with space or anything! we did however find it easier to fold the beds up before we ran around getting ready each morning.i'm hoping to get the free dining and make another trip with another set of grandchildren { we have 3 kids and each is married w/children ,7 grands in all!} next sept. for the twins 5th b'day. we'll have to see ...looking forward to more of your report....

 

[heath-and-javens-mom]

I sooo wanted to be your first poster! Dang it, thats what I get for being gone all day today rather than dissing.

Great start, I cant wait to read more!!

 

[Step]

Good start!!! I can't wait to hear all about it!

Thanks! I'll keep posting away!

i can't wait to read more of your tr ....we were at the family suites in april and loved them!!!! really roomy for the 6 of us...no problems with space or anything! we did however find it easier to fold the beds up before we ran around getting ready each morning.i'm hoping to get the free dining and make another trip with another set of grandchildren { we have 3 kids and each is married w/children ,7 grands in all!} next sept. for the twins 5th b'day. we'll have to see ...looking forward to more of your report....

Thanks for the advice, I'm sure folding up the beds in the morning will make the place feel roomier. I'm really looking forward to having a couch to veg on when returning for our afternoon breaks.

Are you thinking of going back this september, or the one after?

I sooo wanted to be your first poster! Dang it, thats what I get for being gone all day today rather than dissing.

Great start, I cant wait to read more!!

I'm just excited to get more than one post

Thanks for popping in to read

 

[irky416]

Great start. I can't wait to read more!

 

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Ok, so I'm a day late and several dollars short (explanation soon), but here's my next installment:

My company is awesome and here's why!!!

First off to frame the rest of what I'll be talking about, I program video games for a living and I LOVE my job.

A year ago I moved to Ontario, Canada to start working with a fabulous company. I'd only been working with them for about 4 months when we all got to go on a trip to Niagara falls!

Did I mention I LOVE my job?

My friends and I hit almost every haunted house on the strip, got to see the falls of course, and on the second day we went to marine land.

Here's us in front of the falls:

So... snap to a year later, and this time we're being rewarded with a free cruise! Yes folks.. in 3 days I leave for a four day cruise to the Bahamas!!!

Needless to say I'm a mite busy preparing right now.

The sad part is that I'm flat broke from paying off my upcoming Disney trip. Luckily the cruise includes free food and plenty of activities and I have a card o' plastic for emergencies. (I hope buying new clothes for my trip counts as an emergency cause that's what I did today )

I should have a bevy of photos to show off next week when I return. For now here's another splash o' Niagara fun:

I'm gonna go back to packing and panicking... Adios!

 

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Phew, almost done getting ready for the cruise. Picked up some fabulous clothing and did some packing yesterday. Only one more day before I drive to Detroit for my flight! Iiiiieeeeeeeee!

I promise I'll take lots of pictures.

Next week when I get back I'll post about my Disney plans in more detail.

TTFN

 

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Wooo! Back from my cruise. It took me a whole day just to rest up after a busy weekend of fun and sand.

I'll be posting photos later.

For any who've been on a Disney cruise before, or any cruise at all... why didn't one of you tell me it was so much fun? The food was amazing! The shows and the pool were awesome!

Was it better than Disney World? No... but I may consider one of those land and sea Disney cruise packages after my experience on a Royal Caribbean Cruise ship.

I've got to get started at work, but I'll post more later.

 

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Phew, haven't gotten around to posting the cruise photos yet, and it looks like photobucket is down for maintenance.

My mother booked her airlines tickets! Yaaaaaaaa!

Only problem is, flying from Halifax isn't cheap... so to get a decent price she's booked an odd flight. She's flying in the day before us and arriving late so she'll be booking a room at ASMU. She'll be lazing about in the pool or visiting downtown Disney while the rest of us are still in the air.

Unfortunately, she'll have to be up at 3am on our final day in order to catch a 7am flight! Ah well, she saved $300 by doing this. ($200 after you factor in one nights lodging at ASMU)

Hearing my mom's news got me back into Disney planning mode. I started writing down daily plans in my Passporter. I'll post those later. I still have to finalize a few details.

We have one free table service credit to make use of. I'm not sure if we should book a dinner on the evening of our arrival or risk wasting it on a cheaper character breakfast or lunch.

 

[tiggerbell]

I'm IN!!!

Isn't it funny how reading 1 trip report leads you to see the link in someone else's, so you click theirs next, and then find someone else's through that one, and suddenly you have 37 subscriptions and you realize you're neglecting your own pre-trip report, but before you can update that, you have to check your e-mail and make sure you didn't get any updates on the 37 subscriptions...

Need. Support. Group.

 

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But hey, if you don't read other people's trip reports... they don't read yours, lol. Checking your out as soon as I'm done here at work.

 

[PISCESANGEL]

The cruise sounds like a lot of fun - can't wait to hear more about it!

I'm also looking forward to hearing more about your plans for WDW. We just stayed at ASMusic in April and we loved it!

 

[DISNEYJAZZ]

oh man the cruise sounds awesome....my dd's dmil wants to tke them on a cruise soemime but dd is scared to go...i'd say make it a disney cruise and jump on board with the kidlets in a heartbeat! lol i love your whale pic! "say cheese!"
you'd asked about when ffor the sept trip...2009 is what i am hoping for with free dining...twins { kensleigh & gracie} will be 5 sept 20th,dd { their mom} will be 27 on the 15th so it would be a great b'day get away....and the free dining would be great and save them $$$ since they are a one income family { dd works dsil is a stay at home dad] and they have a girl { chloe } who iwll be 2 1/2 by sept.09 so still free...dd wanted to wait till chloe was older but i think if you wait you could just miss your chance..and if we go now we can go in a few years for chloes b'day mayeb !
can't wait to see your cruise pix and hear more of your plans...can't wait to see your dining...we loved all the food but coral reef was everyone's fav!

 

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Sorry it's been about 2 weeks since I posted anything. My husband went away for vacation with his family for the week and I was cleaning for when they all arrived here. You know how it is cleaning house for in-laws.

Also had a small scare with my mother, that could put a damper in our plans. I'll post about that soon.

The cruise sounds like a lot of fun - can't wait to hear more about it!

I'm also looking forward to hearing more about your plans for WDW. We just stayed at ASMusic in April and we loved it!

Thanks for reading! I'm going to post those cruise photos in a few minutes. I had an amazing time and I can see myself planning a cruise again in the future.

I'm really looking forward to staying at ASMU. I'll be posting my plans for that pretty soon as well.

oh man the cruise sounds awesome....my dd's dmil wants to tke them on a cruise soemime but dd is scared to go...i'd say make it a disney cruise and jump on board with the kidlets in a heartbeat! lol i love your whale pic! "say cheese!"
you'd asked about when ffor the sept trip...2009 is what i am hoping for with free dining...twins { kensleigh & gracie} will be 5 sept 20th,dd { their mom} will be 27 on the 15th so it would be a great b'day get away....and the free dining would be great and save them $$$ since they are a one income family { dd works dsil is a stay at home dad] and they have a girl { chloe } who iwll be 2 1/2 by sept.09 so still free...dd wanted to wait till chloe was older but i think if you wait you could just miss your chance..and if we go now we can go in a few years for chloes b'day mayeb !
can't wait to see your cruise pix and hear more of your plans...can't wait to see your dining...we loved all the food but coral reef was everyone's fav!

I hope your trip plans go well.
I haven't tried Coral Reef yet, but when i post my ADR plans I'll talk about which ones I've been to before and why I love them.

Free dining is awesome! Without it I probably wouldn't be able to go for another year, lol.

 

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Fun in the Bahamas sun: a mini trip report

Finally I'm going to post these pictures from my cruise.

I had an amazing time and I highly recommend going on this kind of trip. The food and entertainment was wonderful, and you really can't argue with a free trip sponsored by an amazing employer!

In this first picture, left to right, are Me, Jason, Tigh and Jamey. I hang out with Tigh and Jason outside work hours fairly often. As you know, Tigh will be joining us on our Disney trip. Jamey sits next to me at work, and was my roomie on the cruise ship. Long story short, we became roomies so that a couple coworkers who just started going out could have a private room of their own.

This picture was taken while we were on our way from the cruise ship to Cococay island. I didn't spend too much time on the island itself. I mostly relaxed on the beach and did some souvenir shopping.

Here's me lazing in the shade.

Here's the ship off in the distance, taken from the beach at Cococay.

That evening was formal night. We had a company meeting and some networking sessions for about an hour.

Here are all the women in formal wear.

Here are the guys, looking snazzy.

The next day we went to Nassau on Paradise Island.

Here's me doing my best Indiana 'Joan' impression. (My middle name is Joan coincidently)

We headed straight for the Pirate Museum of course. No Captain Jack, but I enjoyed it anyway. I wish I had a mini Captain Jack to pose in photos like tiggerbell does.

As you can tell from my face it was HOT in Nassau.

That evening I cooled off with a 'Miami Vice' while watching the finale show of the weekend: "Boogie Woogie Wonderland"

There's me NOT getting smashed. I think there may have been a couple drops of rum. I love rum, but I only like 1/100th of a shot!

Finally here's me with Jamey at the start of the trip doing the mandatory muster drill. It was hot and sweaty and I was NOT that happy. I think we were just goofing off to forget where we were.

That smile is a good reflection of how much I enjoyed the trip overall.

Hope you like the photos. I have more if anyone wants to see something I didn't post here.

Next up. Free food plans!

 

[PISCESANGEL]

Thanks for posting pics of your cruise! Looks like a lot of fun!