Free Dining or BUST! A NOV. PTR with plenty of laughs, and hopefully free food!

[DisneyJillian18]

For your listening pleasure

"WALT DISNEY WORLD is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney ... and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney's dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring Joy and Inspiration and New Knowledge to all who come to this happy place ... a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn ... together."

Is it sad that it makes me teary eyed just reading that? No? Didn't think so.
Now try with the music, that gets me

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I CAN'T GET THE CODES TO LEAVE, JUST IGNORE THEM.



Okay, moving on now.



HHHHEEELLLOOOOO HUMANS!
​

I wish I could say this was my first PR, but I kinda have a tendency to forget to update them, whoops!
But I am bound and determined to see this one through!

Oh, who am I? Duh.

My name is Jillian and I am a Disney fanatic! I am the planner and organizer of everything Disney in the family. (I'm also the one who refuses to go anywhere else on vacation in the family.)
I figured I'd save the favorites for the actual TR, but just know in my mind,Disney does no wrong!
I like to think I'm just like any other 21 year old. (minus the whole party scene, no I like Netflix and food)
I'm very health conscious person, I workout quite a lot and eat very healthy!
But being from Louisiana, I am still a bit of a foodie!

Like I said, I'm the planner.
So here is an example of me talking about our trip

And here's everyone else

Up next is my boyfriend, we've been dating for 5 years to date! He really is my best friend and I am so excited we are going back to Disney together! We've been together once before in 2010 and I am so ready to experience it with him all over again!



So this might get confusing, my boyfriend's name is Robbie, but everyone calls him RJ. Well I shortened RJ, to just Jay. So he may get called a few different names, try to keep up.

Jay is into to a lot of the same things as I am. He loves to workout as well, and has even started considering competitions! I'm very proud.

Jay isn't quite as much into Disney as I am. He still likes to go to Disney, and he'll watch Disney movies. He just doesn't like to hear all the planning stuff.

Here is a typical conversation:
Me: Hey babe, where is a place you'd like to eat in Disney?
Jay: I don't care.
Me: Well, what about Coral Reef?
Jay: Sure, whatever you want.

And that's why I love him.



Up next we have my parents! We are all very close, and tend to have a great time together!
As I am the only child, my parents and I have a great relationship.

First we have my Mom, she's probably the second in command for trips and in terms of Disney World loving. She's not very into planning, but listens to me anyways!

Then we have my Dad, we're very silly together. We are always making jokes and he keeps me rolling. I seem to have gotten his dark and twisty sense of humor! Dad likes Disney, just not crowds, we went one year for Easter when I was little, and I think it traumatized him. But we managed to get him to go back and he likes the Sept/Oct time!

That about wraps it up for my first PTR post!

I would like to make a weekly update for sure while in the planning stages, so hopefully I get one that one up tomorrow. Maybe even a post on our current ADR!
I say current because you know they never stay the same!

See ya' real soon!

​

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Table of Contents-

Who are we?!

Did we just BUST?!

I am a bad updater.

88 DAYS!! I'm EXCELLING!

80 DAYS!! And tons to eat!

Fastpasses have been selected! Part 1


Weekly Updates-

Week of April 12th
Week of April 19th

 

[dvc at last !]

Great beginning !

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Great beginning !

Thank you!

 

[karen4546]

Enjoyed your post. We are returning to WDW Sept. 12-19 this year. We love the lower crowds but the rain was awful last year. It wasn't just a small shower here or there ... IT POURED SEVERAL DAYS IN A ROW-ugh! But hey we were still at Disney. We are from NELA as in northeast Louisiana and fly down. We will have our DD22 with us sine she hasn't been to WDW in 3 years. We usually stay at POFQ with free dining from bounce back, but we decided to check ou CBR and their newly refurbished rooms.

I hope you enjoy your trip and enjoy the planning ! That's part of it. I LOVE the planing! And now that Disney Springs has new restaurants and shops, that adds another layer of excitement!

My avatar is DH and I last year arriving at POFQ-they met us out front with that sign and were thanking us for returning and congratulating us on being married 26 years! This year is 27 years. They said we must have gotten married as toddlers...lol. I loved that! I may be 46 on the outside but when I'm at Disney I'm 10 again.

Looking forward to your future PTR posts.

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Enjoyed your post. We are returning to WDW Sept. 12-19 this year. We love the lower crowds but the rain was awful last year. It wasn't just a small shower here or there ... IT POURED SEVERAL DAYS IN A ROW-ugh! But hey we were still at Disney. We are from NELA as in northeast Louisiana and fly down. We will have our DD22 with us sine she hasn't been to WDW in 3 years. We usually stay at POFQ with free dining from bounce back, but we decided to check ou CBR and their newly refurbished rooms.

I hope you enjoy your trip and enjoy the planning ! That's part of it. I LOVE the planing! And now that Disney Springs has new restaurants and shops, that adds another layer of excitement!

My avatar is DH and I last year arriving at POFQ-they met us out front with that sign and were thanking us for returning and congratulating us on being married 26 years! This year is 27 years. They said we must have gotten married as toddlers...lol. I loved that! I may be 46 on the outside but when I'm at Disney I'm 10 again.

Looking forward to your future PTR posts.

Awesome! I love hearing that crowds in Sept are low! Not crazy about the rain, but you're right still in Disney! It's MAGICAL RAIN!
We are looking at those resorts as well! We still haven't decided yet! I'm really hoping they include either POFQ or PORS, we'd love both! But if neither of those, we'll probably go with CS, maybe..

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Weekly Update!
Week of April 12th, 2015

Sunday-

Today I got a little bit of a later start than I normally do, I'm usually awake for 5 A.M.!

But yesterday we had our annual Relay for Life function. We started at noon and it lasted until midnight!
It unfortunately was rainy weather, but we still had a great time, for a great cause!

So this morning, I slept in a little.

I ended up waking up around 7:30, and decided it was the perfect time for a run!


Except it was raining...

But I decided to go anyway!!
Smart decision #9052

First terrible picture of me!


It actually wasn't that bad!!

It ended up stopping once I got out there!
It kept the temps. in a comfortable range.



It was a great run, until I lost my keys!!
I never noticed that they had fell out of my FlipBelt.
Thankfully, I ended up finding them, and I ended up running more than I planned.
So yay for new PR's and finding keys!

The rest of today will probably be a chill day.
It's still rainy outside.

I'll try to post a small update like this every day in the Weekly Update, if not everyday, a weekly recap!

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Hi everyone!
It's Saturday April 18th, and I'm here to finish up this week's update!
And I'm so excited to let you know that.....


NOTHING HAPPENED!!

Yep, I had a very boring week! I ended up catching a little stomach bug and didn't really get anything accomplished. I did spend tons of times stalking the DIS Boards for research and tips!

OH! Yesterday I talked a little with a Cast Member about ticket options, questions we had, etc. etc. etc. So hopefully we will be booking in the next week!!!

Sorry there isn't much more to update on!
I will for sure be getting more information up once we re booked

Until my next update!


See ya' real soon!


​

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Week of April 19th

Hello all!
A little late night update for you!
This week is going to be hectic so hopefully I can get a few other updates up here!

Sunday was uneventful, just the way I like it.

Monday is where things get fun!

As usual, I woke up nice and early.

I did some cleaning and got lunch ready, as today is my volunteer day at my local Civic Center.
Got dressed and headed out the door for 11

When I got there, I had a great surprise, the director offered me a part-time paid position!

This was such an appreciated sign as we are a non-profit, so money is always tight. I will be working 3 days a week for a few hours each day cleaning up most of the files and helping with upcoming events. I'm very excited!
Plus, this gives me a little spending money for Disney!!

And that's always a good thing!!
Another great thing that happened is the rumor going around that Free Dining will be open to the public on May 1st!
I haven't talked it over with my Mom to see if we should still plan to book this Friday or just wait and do everything in one shot.

I may wait until the Visa offer comes out and see the blackout resorts.
I'm really hoping for PORS, I just feel like it would be a great resort for us! But honestly, anything will work!

Well that's about it for today's update, I'll keep you all posted as the week goes on!

See ya' real soon!

Rest of the week's update:
This week went really well!
I started my job at my local Center, and I really enjoyed it. I will admit it is a little rough getting use to, when I'm not use to working, but that's okay!
On Thursday they even invited me to an event held by our local Chamber of Commerce!
I thought it was really nice and was very much appreciated.
Friday was my "day off" and I was a busy bee!
I have been working on my Disney Scrapbook from our trip last August.
Well actually, I'm just getting around to it..
That has taken up the majority of my weekend, as it will today.
Jay and I did make time to treat ourselves yesterday though,
we had lunch at a local pizzeria, although we both got pasta!

We also stopped into our local running store and Jay got himself a new pair of shoes!
They were having a great sale and he got a pair of Asics for $70.00!
I didn't think about it until this morning, but I probably should have got myself a pair for Disney! They would have made great walking shoes. Oh well!

Today will mainly consist of scrapbooking, oh and lots of wishing for FREE DINING TO FINALLY BE ANNOUNCED!
I keep seeing rumors and now DISBoards even have banner up for it, really hoping to find out this week!
That's really all for now, hopefully we'll get exciting soon!

See ya' real soon!
​

 

[DisneyJillian18]

I know what you're thinking, I forgot about my pre-trip report, or even worse free dining was a bust..



IT WASN'T, WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!!

Nothing went according to plan, but that's okay because we're still going!
So here's what happened...

On the Sunday before rumors were flying everywhere about free dining dropping this week.
As always, I assumed Visa would come first then general public.
Well, we all know that didn't work!
I woke up the Monday at 5 as I always do, check my Facebook, and FREE DINING!
I ran to my computer and logged on as soon as possible.
Of course it felt like it took forever, and I looked something like this.

FINALLY, I was online and at the Disney website, I quickly went straight to Port Orleans Riverside, nothing.
No surprise there, it's popular.
Next Coronado...
nothing but a junior suite, I could have stayed in a deluxe for the same price, but we'd have a sofa bed. So nothing.
Next Caribbean, pirate rooms..
I didn't bump us up to a moderate just to stay in double beds!
That was a big selling point for us with the mods.

At this point I panicked, I didn't know what to do.
I check values, nothing!
Plus I knew we really didn't want to stay there, we wanted a mod!
By this time, I had a little meltdown.
Just a tiny one.

All the planning, all the work that I had already put into our trip, and it wasn't going to happen.
By this time, my Dad got up and could see I was visibly upset.
Clearly having pity on me, he gave me a big hug and said Disney wasn't going anywhere.
He wasn't getting it. I know Disney wasn't going anywhere, but our vacation...
Then it hit me like a brick wall, why not look at other dates.

DUH!
It was a stretch, but maybe it would be better.
I quickly went over what dates the promo was going on, October was out. So what about November, we'd miss the Halloween Party (still upset about this) but we could still go.
I rushed to look up a crowd calendar and saw that the week of my Mom's birthday (hint hint) looked great! Lower crowds than our September dates, great temps, POTC would be open, now just to see if we could get a room!

I jumped over to the Disney website, quickly put in our possible new dates, and our second choice resort Coronado Springs. Anddddddddd......


WE GOT IT!!!
THERE WAS A ROOM!
As I've said before, we aren't worried what view we have, so I grabbed a standard room and moved onto tickets!
Here's where it got interesting,
At the ticket screen it automatically selected the water park and more option, so I clicked back over to park hopper, we've never gotten that before, why now?
Well,the price didn't change..
I went back over to water park and more, stayed the same.
Did it again, the same..
I have no idea if it's usually the same price, or if for some reason with the promo it is...
BUT WE UPGRADED TO WATER PARK AND MORE OPTION!
YES YES YES!
Already this trip is turning into so many first: first moderate resort, first time dining plan, and first time with Water Park and more tickets!

I couldn't contain my excitement! The rest of the day all I could think about was DISNEY!

That's when it turned into one of the busiest weeks of my life and why I haven't been able to post this sooner!!

But fear not, it is a new week and a new chance to start the planning process all over again!
I can't wait to revisit dining options, and park touring!
SO HERE'S THE OFFICIAL WHEN, WHERE, AND WHO OF THE TRIP!

WHEN:
NOVEMBER 14- NOVEMBER 20TH
(My dad's birthday is on the 1st and Mom on the 13th! So we'll be celebrating both birthdays!)
WHERE:
CORONADO SPRINGS RESORT!

(not my photo)
WHO:
MOM, DAD, JAY, AND I!

I'm so excited and will be back with more updates as they come!
See ya' real soon!
​

 

[dvc at last !]

Yeah for you !
Glad it all worked out fine !

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Yeah for you !
Glad it all worked out fine !

Thanks! I am very happy it worked out

 

[dvc at last !]

We will be at WDW in November.
We will just miss each other. Leaving on the 11th.

 

[DisneyJillian18]

We will be at WDW in November.
We will just miss each other. Leaving on the 11th.

Just missing each other!
Did you get free dining for your stay?

 

[dvc at last !]

No free dining - DVC member stay for the Wine & Dine half marathon.
Glad you got it !

 

[DisneyJillian18]

No free dining - DVC member stay for the Wine & Dine half marathon.
Glad you got it !

AWESOME! I have always wanted to run that one, good luck with the training!

 

[dvc at last !]

Not me.
Our son, daughter and her husband. They have done the marathons, halves and 10k for a few years.
You should do it - they have a blast !
Put it on your Bucket List.
Check Run Disney site for the info.

 

[DisneyJillian18]

So, I'm not saying I forgot to update my PTR, I just well, got super busy!

But no excuses now!
BECAUSE WE'RE ONLY 103 DAYS!!!

AND I AM SO UNPREPARED!

Literally, the only thing I have planned is Dining Reservations.
This is so unlike me.

But life has just really gotten in the way lately, so hopefully I can start buckling down, and getting things together!

We are only a few weeks away from our Fastpass+ booking window, and I'm already nervous about it!
I did simplify things for myself (hopefully) by purchasing a membership to TouringPlans.com.
I've been able to play around with it, and it looks really fun!
I'm just hoping it makes things easier for me!

I've been thinking of outfit ideas (girly girl)
Window decorations
Snack ideas
When to start packing....
You know, the usual!

Now that we're getting closer, I plan on updating much more!!

I can't wait!!


​

 

[MarieLightning]

I so get you on the Free Dining situation. The morning it came out was a crazy morning. We were lucky to get what we needed, probably because our resort pick wasn't the most popular on the list (it's alright All-Star Sports, we love you!) but the website was a joke.

Looks like we're just missing you, or I guess not entirely since our departure day is the 15th so we'll sort of be crossing paths with your arrival on the 14th being our last park day.

Single digits is coming soon for you, that's always a great milestone! And the planning definitely is a tricky thing when you're still this far out. On one hand you want to plan EVERYTHING, but on the other, I don't think it's bad you have little planned - it's good to pace yourself so that the remaining months don't drag by too slowly with nothing left to plan!

 

[dvc at last !]

Forgot your dates ...?

 

[DisneyJillian18]

I so get you on the Free Dining situation. The morning it came out was a crazy morning. We were lucky to get what we needed, probably because our resort pick wasn't the most popular on the list (it's alright All-Star Sports, we love you!) but the website was a joke.

Looks like we're just missing you, or I guess not entirely since our departure day is the 15th so we'll sort of be crossing paths with your arrival on the 14th being our last park day.

Single digits is coming soon for you, that's always a great milestone! And the planning definitely is a tricky thing when you're still this far out. On one hand you want to plan EVERYTHING, but on the other, I don't think it's bad you have little planned - it's good to pace yourself so that the remaining months don't drag by too slowly with nothing left to plan!

Glad you got your dates for Free Dining! I feel the same with the planning, I've been waiting long enough, I don't want it to drag on anymore!