Four Mouseketeers Pre-Trip Report

[kdzbear]

This is my first attempt at a trip report so ask questions if necessary. We will be taking my son, who turns 2 at the end of June, my daughter, who turns 7 in the middle of August, my husband, 35, and myself, 35 - next Wednesday!

We will be going during free dining from September 22-30th. I have booked all of my ADRs, which I will list later. We are staying at All Star Sports and have park hopper tickets. I am still in the planning stages. My son's speech therapist will be brining the signs for Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Pooh, Eyeore, Piglet and Tigger so he will be able to tell us who he wants to see. Right now he bounces up and down whenever he sees Tigger. He also loves to watch the Pirates of the Carribean ride video on this board and watches it at least 2-3 times a day!

I am not sure what else to add right now so I will add more soon.

 

[kdzbear]

Here are our dining plans:

Sep 22: Le Cellier: 8:20pm

Sep 23: Crystal Palace: 6:30pm

Sep 24: Fantasmic Package at Mama Melrose: 3:50pm

Sep 25: 50’s Prime Time: 6:05pm

Sep 26: Boma: 5:00pm

Sep 27: Liberty Tree: 6:45pm

Sep 28: Grand Floridian Café: 5:00pm

Sep 29: Hollywood and Vine: 2pm

We let DD6 pick four character meals and she is really looking forward to having dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming before the MNSSHP on the 28th!

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Sounds like it's going to be fun and filling.

 

[daisy_77]

Hi! I am signing on for your pretrippie!
Your ADR's sound great! We loved Le Cellier!

 

[kdzbear]

Here is my Disney history. My freshman year of high school my best friend’s parents let her pick one friend to take to Florida over Spring Break. She picked me! We went to St. Augustine, Kennedy Space Center and then spent three days at Disney. We started at Epcot, went to the Magic Kingdom and had one day let so we went back to Epcot. They were the only two parks at the time. That was all it took and I was hooked.

My junior year of college I went to Homestead for Spring Break and on the way back got to go to Epcot for one day. I loved the old Imagination Ride and the upstairs Imagination playground. We also saw Captain EO with the old purple 3D glasses.

In 1997 my husband and I took a delayed one year honeymoon to Disney. It was his first trip. We stayed for a week at the Caribbean Beach resort at Martinique. We ate at Chef Mickey’s and Dale was present when they brought us out a cupcake with a candle in it. He took out the candle and had the waiter blow it out. He then smashed and I mean smashed the entire cupcake all over my face. He was true to character. My husband took a picture of right before it hit my face and then he was laughing so hard he did not take any more pictures. It was too funny for me to be mad!

In 1998 we went to Vegas and spent three days in the LA area and took one day to go to Disneyland and were not as impressed as we preferred the Florida parks, but we did fall in love with the Indiana Jones Ride!

In 1999 we went back to Disney for 9 days and stayed at Dixie Landing (now Port Orleans – French Quarter). I loved the boats that took us everywhere. This is when we signed up for the Rainforest Cafe card. I believe it was the first year it was offered. It has saved us so much money and we get a free appetizer each time we go!

In 2000 I had my daughter so we stayed home and enjoyed her!

In 2001 we went to visit my sister in Laguna Hills and went to Disneyland and California Adventure. We met my sister’s friend Michael, who works for Disney as an artist and he gave us a tour of the parks and signed us in with his guest passes. It was great to get lots of behind the scenes information.

In 2002 we went with my sister, Michael, my husband and my now two year old to Disney in August. It was hot. We added one extra night to the trip and we stayed at All Star music for the first night before moving to the Boardwalk, since Michael had a cast member discount. It was amazing and I would love to be able to afford some day to stay there again. By the middle of our trip my daughter was beckoning characters with her hands while calling them by name to get them to our table.

In 2003 we went to New York City for a family event and had to miss Disney.

 

[kdzbear]

In 2004 I was in a minor car accident and found out I was pregnant with my son. We later discovered through an ultrasound he had club feet, which led to an amniocentesis and later the diagnosis that he had a deletion of his 16th chromosome. At 22 weeks of pregnancy I was told to terminate the pregnancy as he would not live. There was only one other baby in the world with a similar deletion to my son’s and he died at 5 months due to heart failure. I did not give up hope, but it also meant no Disney trip due to all of the increased doctor’s visits.

On June 23, 2005 my son was born. He was taken to ICU for observation. He had club feet, but no other major medical conditions that could not be overcome with some preventive therapy.

On June 23, 2006 my son celebrated his first birthday! It was amazing. He could crawl and he was learning to use sign language for what he needed. He walked right before Thanksgiving of this year.

Around this same time in 2006 while things were looking up I ran into a friend at Sam’s and I jokingly asked her when we were going to take our girls only trip to Disney. She said, “See how much it is”. It just happened that we had two days to make up our mind if we wanted to go in the Fall for free dining. She had done the dining plan before and I had not. So on the spur of the moment we booked a trip for the end of August and left the husband’s and kid’s at home. We stayed at All Star Sports. I had a free leftover airline ticket and with the inexpensive price of the trip with free dining I was able to use my Disney rewards from my Visa to pay for my trip! So we went for 6 nights. It was so much fun, but I did miss my little ones on the Early One Magical Hours Morning with the character riding the rides with the little ones. We also saw the Doodlebops without them and my daughter made sure I felt guilty for that when I got home.

Then after that trip I made a dining spread sheet of everywhere we ate and how much we would have spent if we did not have free dining. It was over $500 for 5 days and 6 nights. This was amazing savings. Next, I mapped out the times for extra early and magic hours and placed them in a spread sheet. Then I waited and waited.... for free dining. It popped up on Disboards and I began presenting the trip to my husband. He told me I could book the trip since it was refundable, but if I did not come up with the money I would have to cancel it. I am almost half way to my goal right now. If I could just find cheaper airfare I would be able to finish my plans.

 

[TNKBELL]

Howdy neighbor!

 

[kdzbear]

Howdy neighbor!

Did I mention that TNKBELL, her DH and 5 kids will all be going to MNSSHP with us on 9/28? It will be so fun!

 

[kdzbear]

I went to AAA today and purchased my MNSSHP tickets for my family and for TNKBELL's family. My other friend also purchased hers today! It is going to be so much fun.

Then yesterday I finally broke down and decided to order some Crocs. I have large feet so I went with Navy blue and hope they will not be too hot or make my feet look too large. I used all of the coupons in the Croc threads on this board and only spent $15. I also ordered by DH some Croc Scutes in Navy as he throught the regular ones were ugly. We will test these out and see how they work.

 

[kdzbear]

We picked up Tyler's glasses today. He must really be able to see better with them on since he does not try to take them off. Now he will be able to see the Disney characters he is meeting and enjoy the rides more.

Here are picture of him with his new glasses on. There is also a picture of big sis at her tap/ballet recital.

 

[kdzbear]

Well, we have had a little bit of excitement in our lives, but the trip is still on. On June 8th I went to the hospital at 4 am in the morning with stomach flu symptoms and was worried about dehydration since we had recently found out I was pregnant. On the 9th of June I had an emergency appendectomy. Doctors do not like to do surgery in the first trimester, but it would have been worse if the appendix had ruptured. Everything went fine and the baby is doing great. I am due Jan. 21, 2008! It just means that when we go to Disney I won’t be able to ride the big coasters, but I can ride everything else, pin trade and just soak in the atmosphere of Disney. And of course I will enjoy my free dining plan!

I need advice on one more dining choice. I am thinking about cancelling my ADRs for my Fantasmic Package at Mama Melrose and replacing it with a trip to Whispering Canyon at Wilderness Lodge. I think the crowds should be light enough that we will not need the package for Fantasmic and I would like to try a restaurant that we have not tried before. Any comments?

 

[Avivasmom]

First off BIG CONGRATS on the baby and glad you are doing well.

You will love WCC...we went there when my DD was almost 5 1/2 and she had a blast. We are going back again end of Nov.

Your children are just adorable! Tyler looks so cute in his glasses!

 

[twob4him]

Hi! I love all of your ADR's. As you mentioned, you are thinking of having dinner at WCC. Now would you then go to MGM and see Fantasmic the same night??????? If so, leave plenty of travel time. I found we had to leave our room about 1 1/2 hours before our ADR time and we stayed at POR. That gave us a window of about 10-20 min before our ADRs. I found we were seated at or before our ADR time....no hour waits which I have read has happened during busy times. Your travel dates seem like the perfect time to travel! Let us know what you decide!

 

[TNKBELL]

Glad to see you back in the saddle KDZ!!!
You'll have come over for a dip!!

 

[kdzbear]

I made some changes to my dining plans:

Sept. 29th -Chef Mickey's for brunch at 11:10 - Paying out of pocket and attending with TNKBELL and her crew of 7

Sept. 30th - Hollywood and Vine at 12:15 for last DDP Table Service Meal

Then I tried to book WCC for the 24th to replace Mama Melrose, but the only time available was 9 pm. Then I tried for the new restaurant in Italy and I was told they were only taking reservations for the Candle Light Processional in December???? So, I will try again later and hope someone cancels!!!

 

[kdzbear]

Hi! I love all of your ADR's. As you mentioned, you are thinking of having dinner at WCC. Now would you then go to MGM and see Fantasmic the same night??????? If so, leave plenty of travel time. I found we had to leave our room about 1 1/2 hours before our ADR time and we stayed at POR. That gave us a window of about 10-20 min before our ADRs. I found we were seated at or before our ADR time....no hour waits which I have read has happened during busy times. Your travel dates seem like the perfect time to travel! Let us know what you decide!

I looked back over my dining plans and we were at MGM for 3days. I love MGM, but we do not need to be there that much. On the 24th they have extra evening hours so I am hoping they have two showings of Fantasmic that night, but if they do not we are eating at 50's Prime Time the next night so we can go then. I did not want to sit on the far right of the theater where the Fantasmic Package places you. It requires a credit card to hold that reservation (and cancellations must be made 48 hours in advance)and if it rains there are no refunds so I decided to free up that night and choose somewhere else. We have park hoppers and I am pretty good at navigating monorails, boats and buses to get to where I need to be. I have seen Fantasmic before and it is amazing! I missed it last year due to rain both nights we tried to see it. I will just hope that a WCC opens up before our trip or I will wait until Italy takes reservations! It will work out!

 

[kdzbear]

13 days to go....

Now each family member including the youngest has Crocs so hopefully we will have dry feet after the afternoon rain showers!

I have started to prepare a packing list and am starting to gather things to put into the suitcase such as pins to trade, autograph books, glow bracelets to take for evening parades and rain ponchos.

I can not believe it is finally getting so close. I picked up all of my package information, tickets and MNSSHP tickets from AAA on Thursday. I can not wait to get on the plane and head to Disney!