Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it's back to the parks we go! A WDW PTR

[JoTheBookish]

Hi all!
In less than 2 weeks (two weeks!) we'll be heading down from our cold and wintry abode in CT to the relatively warm and definitely magical climate of WDW Florida for a 7 day extravaganza! While we are there, we will be celebrating DH's 40th Birthday, making him the last person in our family to celebrate their birthday Disney-style. Love the feeling of checking that off the list!

Who we are & Where we've been:
I, JoTheBookish, am the list making, Disney loving, trip planning brains behind the operation. I live for this stuff. When I am not planning something Disney, I am a full time mom, and a part time children's library assistant.

My first trip to Disney was as a high school student during a choral competition. We had two chaperones for the whole group, we stayed off-site somewhere, and I have no doubt we were the bane of everyone in that hotel's existence. We had two whole days in the Disney parks & I am pretty sure we placed in the competition. The competition has faded from memory, but it planted the seed for my Disney love, and that has only grown stronger over time.

It was about 15 years later, that I finally got a chance to go again, this time as a married adult.

(Sorry for the picture quality. We *may* have been using a disposable camera)
That's me on our trip in 2003. Oh so much younger. No kids. No grey hair. You can't see it, but under the sunglasses, I do not have dark circles. Sigh.
We stayed at Old Key West in a 1 BR Villa courtesy of my ILs who had recently become DVC members and were sharing the Dis love (and the points!).

Here is the DH from the same trip.

Wow! He was such a baby then!
DH is not as much of a Disney person as I am, but honestly, that it is a pretty high bar to reach, so we can't fault him. But he does put up with me and he is the yes man to my crazy plans, so we love him even more.

Then, BAM!, the year 2004 brought DD#1 (Miss E), and DD#2 (Miss L) followed up in 2007. They are the other travelers for this year's journey

May of 2008 brought us to the DVC villas of Wildreness Lodge (Thank you my DILs!)

Not the best shot of the place, but we did love it. Such excellent theming. We'd love to get back there.


Miss E was 3, almost 4, and Miss L was a whopping 9 months.

Miss E in the lobby. Not quite duck height!

Miss L, snacking. Seriously at 8 months, it was either snacking or napping.

See? The whole trip was like this. That's okay. There would be other trips.

Miss E enjoyed it though.

And I saw my first rope drop ceremony. I sobbed. Literally. I was a mess. Totally caught up in the magic.

(Look at the way she is all in my hair. My baby. I miss those days. Now she is a surly tween)

We've been back twice since then. The last time was just a quick jaunt after our first Disney cruise in 2011. Since then we have been on 2 more cruises. We Loooooove Disney cruises, but that is a report for another time.

Miss E only has vague memories of the parks, but poor little second child, Miss L, remembers nothing.

So heigh-ho, heigh ho, it's back to the parks we go!

Stay tuned for the trip details.... Coming soon!

 

[Dreamport]

Hey, it's DreamPort from the February board. Subbing in! Your girls are/were adorable, I hope you have a wonderful time with Miss L's first trip remembering everything!

 

[JoTheBookish]

Hey, it's DreamPort from the February board. Subbing in! Your girls are/were adorable, I hope you have a wonderful time with Miss L's first trip remembering everything!

Thanks! Going to head over to your trip report in a bit

 

[JoTheBookish]

Our 2014 Disney Extravaganza will run from 1/31 - 2/6. We'll be staying club level at the Boardwalk Inn.

Why we chose Boardwalk

Though we are not using any of my DILs DVC points for this trip, BW is their DVC home and they have been raving about it for years. That alone would probably be enough, but now that the kids are old enough to be fully ambulatory we're pretty psyched to be in walking distance to both Epcot and HS.
Also, I don't think I mentioned this in the last post, but DH and I are major foodies. I swear, 90% of the trip planning has revolved around making ADRs, looking at menus online, reading restaurant reviews, reading food blogs.... you get the picture. Being within walking distance to the world showcase is huge for us.

Why we chose club level
This is a first for us. We (mostly DH on business trips) have stayed concierge levels at hotels, and have enjoyed the convenience of being able to easily access coffee and a light breakfast in the morning. We are early risers, and that works for us.That is part of it.

The other part? Well, we only vacation once a year, and we really want to make it something special. There are lots of different kinds of Dis travelers on the boards, and it has been really interesting to read all the different ways and whys of their choices. For us (this time anyway) we want to feel a little pampered. We want a place to come to mid day between parks and not have to sit on top of each other in the room. We want the option of a little snack now & then. And I really like interacting with the CMs. We stayed in a suite on our last cruise, and our experience with our concierge staff was wonderful. From what I hear the BWI CL staff is great & I am really looking forward to that.

Why January/February?
Low crowds. That's the number one reason. Miss E has a bit of anxiety, and huge crowds coupled with overstimulating environments, really send her over the edge. This time of year will give us a little more breathing room than summer, or spring break.

Transportation
Still trying to work out the kinks in transportation to & from the airport. We are all set to use DME, after a wee bit of confusion on their part about where to send the luggage tags, but I have read so many conflicting reports, I am now wondering if it would be better to take a towncar. I guess my main concern is how long it would take to fill up a bus before leaving the airport during this lower crowd season. That extra wait coupled with multiple stops en route to BWI would really start things off slower than we'd like. Still taking things into consideration if anyone wants to put in their two cents.

Food, glorious, food
We are doing the regular DDP. It wasn't in our original plans, but some months after we booked, Disney came out with a better offer than the one we had, and we were able to re-book, with the meal plan, for about $300 less than we would have without it on our original plan. We couldn't pass it up.

That's all for now, I'll be back later with the nitty gritty details of the plans.
Thanks for reading!

 

[ursalita]

Hi there! Looking forward to reading all about your trip. I'm especially interested in hearing how you like CL. We considered it for our upcoming trip but I went a more conservative route. I love the idea of it - convenient breakfast, snacks, free alcohol and desserts. Not only will it save some money potentially but also time. I think we'll definitely try it next trip.

Regarding ME we have traveled mostly during lower crowd times, twice in the fall and once in January, and we've never experienced long waits. Once we made it down to the DME buses it wasn't long before we were boarding and on our way. I don't have specific wait times but I definitely don't remember any major waits. The little video that they play just added to the excitement for us (I think I heard that they changed the vid ). The worst part about it was we were staying at WL and it was the last stop after the Poly and GF but that was just me being jealous that I wasn't staying at Poly or GF. I was really pleased with Magical Express.

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[JoTheBookish]

Regarding ME we have traveled mostly during lower crowd times, twice in the fall and once in January, and we've never experienced long waits. Once we made it down to the DME buses it wasn't long before we were boarding and on our way. I don't have specific wait times but I definitely don't remember any major waits. The little video that they play just added to the excitement for us (I think I heard that they changed the vid ). The worst part about it was we were staying at WL and it was the last stop after the Poly and GF but that was just me being jealous that I wasn't staying at Poly or GF. I was really pleased with Magical Express.

Thanks for sharing your experience with ME. It is always good to hear a positive experience. After some posts I've read, I just envisioned hours of sitting by while children start to lose their minds with "are we there yet?" whining
Good to know that it is not likely to be the case & I can stop worrying! But if I stop worrying about this, what can I worry about?

 

[JoTheBookish]

Arrival Day!!! (Half day)
We will be arriving midday on Saturday 1/31, and it seems (for now) that we will be taking the Magical Express from the airport to the hotel
We will NOT be taking our luggage on the bus with us.

Before reading the boards, I had no idea that some people even did this (or skipped riding the bus, but still sent the luggage with the tags), or that it was such a volatile topic! But alas, we are boring that way, and all or nothing when it comes to rules. We shall ride, and luggage will be yellow tagged and arrive when it arrives at some time in the future. And see what I did there? I gave the illusion that leaving the luggage transport in someone else's control doesn't bother me...oh, but it does.... I am just trying to ignore my control freak tendencies so my family can have a "relaxed" vacation. It's a work in progress

We only have one obligation for the night and that is a 5:15pm ADR at the Sci-Fi Dine-In at HS.

Here's a secret - we've never been to HS. We've had the chance but DH (ahem) has never wanted to go, so that's that. But we're going this time & even though I've missed my chance to do studio backlot tour, and see the sorcerer's hat, I will not let that ruin it! We will go and we will like it! (control freak slipping out... )
Seriously, though, I am looking forward to it. We have a few FP+ for both before and after dinner, including TSM, and I think that it sets a nice tone for the rest of vacation to do something different right off the bat! If we don't make the FP+ times, then so be it, it is one thing I will not really drive myself crazy over this vacation.

We're hoping to make it an early night, as we will have been up since 4am with travel AND we want to be at rope drop for MK the next morning.

The First Full Day aka DH's 40th Birthday

Woo hoo! DH is turning 40! And as punishment, I mean a present, we are waking up super early and hauling our bottoms over to MK for rope drop. I looooooove rope drop (see post #1. It makes me cry with delirious magical happiness, and I like that ).
I plan on swiping a breakfast pastry from the Innkeeper's Lounge and lighting a little birthday candle to sing Happy Birthday to him while we are waiting outside MK. I hope I can light a candle there. I will have to ask a CM when we get there, but in a super secret ninja way, so DH doesn't suspect anything.

Have you all been to a MK rope drop? If not, you really must do it at least once. My DILs have not yet, and it bothers me so much that they're not even interested, and nothing I can say will convince them!

So first all the CMs come out in their old-timey clothes and do a little song and dance to get you pumped up about how amazing Disney is.
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And then Casey Jr., pulls up on the tracks and all the Disney characters arrive
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And then, the family of the day, along with Mickey and Friends countdown to the rope drop, toss some confetti in the air and the new magical day can begin!
Did I mention I loooooove rope drop? It really just sets the mood for the whole day.

We do have FP+ for the AM hours at MK. Many advise to hold on to the FP+ for the afternoon/evening, but with a lot of ADRs for dinner, we didn't want to have too many nights where we are rushing around trying to do it all. Some days we will, but not all.

We have FP+ for SDMT (of course), and Dumbo (request from Miss L - who has seen a zillion promotional materials with happy children riding those little elephants and feels that it is a NECESSARY part of her trip), and for DH on his birthday:

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It is the only thing he wants. How can we say no?

The last time we went, the girls would not get past this:
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It just looked too dark and scary to even go in the queue. DH went alone that time. I think with Miss L at 7 ("and a half!") and Miss E at almost 11, we are in the clear.

We plan to split up for lunch DH and Miss E want burgers at Pecos Bills, mainly for the fixin's bar, while Miss L prefers her meat in the shape of a tube, so I will take her over to Casey's Corner for a hot dog.

Depending on moods and exhaustion we will either hit up one or two more attractions, or leave after lunch, for a midday break at the hotel.
We have park-hopper passes, & the midday break has always served us well. It will be too cold (?) to swim, and they will not likely nap, but just having a breather to refresh before hitting the parks again in the afternoon does a world of good for my kids.

The PM hours bring us over to Epcot for a 7:15pm ADR at Le Cellier. Nom nom nom.... I am loving the menu. DH wants to order all three kinds of poutine, I think that is a bit overboard. I am not going to order a cake for his birthday. We've ordered cakes for the girls' birthdays (they both have had birthdays in Disney), and though tasty, they always go to waste. There is just too much cake, and after eating a full meal, not enough room in our bodies. We could wrap it to go, but the idea of schlepping around a half eaten cake through the parks is not that appealing to me. Regular dessert is fine.


The rest of the evening is a "let's see how things go" kind of night.
Miss E MUST head over to Japan. She MUST go shopping. She is a anime/manga/vocaloid lover & she has watched at least a dozen walk-through videos on YouTube of Mitsukoshi, and has already picked out what she wants. Thank goodness she was given Disney gift cards from our family for Christmas!

If we are up for it, we'll stay for Illuminations, but if not, there will be other days. No need to try to cram all the good stuff into one day

Stay tuned... more posts coming soon!

 

[ursalita]

You have a great day planned! I can't wait to see the Welcome show for the first time in April!

Thanks for the heads up about the Youtube videos of Mitsukoshi. I found one and showed it to my boys. They were mesmerized by all the Pokemon and anime stuff. I've been trying to convince them to save their xmas and bday money for Disney and I think they're finally willing.

 

[JoTheBookish]

My driveway is a sheet of ice from yesterday's storm, so I am stuck in the house until it melts enough for me to scrape it up.

That means it's time to think about our upcoming Disney trip! (as if I needed an excuse!)

When we got around to planning this vacation, I realized there are so many things that we have never done at the parks. It seems that we have a few favorites and we just do them over and over.

Mine: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh & It's a Small World
DH: Pirates of the Caribbean & roaming around the World Showcase
Miss E & Miss L: nothing yet, probably because we were too busy dragging them on our favorites!

These are our new must dos for this trip:

1. Character meeting
We've never done this in the parks before, as I abhor lines, but we got Memory Maker this go around, and we don't have a character agenda*. So, if we're in the right place, at the right time, and the line isn't more than 15 minutes, I'm in.
Anna & Elsa, you can wait to meet me another time

*Well, 3/4 of us don't have a character agenda, but Miss L's favorite movie is Pocahontas & she REALLY wants to meet her. Still on the fence about this, as it would require a trip to AK, which was not part of our original plans. It's hard to say no, since it is her only request. We'll see...

2. The oldies but goodies: I'm looking at you Carousel of Progress and Living with The Land . With FP+ taking care of the wait times on the bigger attractions, I think we'll have more time to give some attention to the older, slower attractions, that we have overlooked in the past.

3. The Magic Kingdom Railroad
In a nod towards slowing our pace down a bit, I would love to take a ride all around the park on the train & see it from a different perspective.

4. Take advantage of Photopass/Memory Maker opportunities
Have you seen that commercial for PP/MM where the mom is photo-shopping her husband in all the pictures of family vacations because he is always the one behind the camera? That's us, but in reverse. I am the photographer 99% of the time. I would just love to have more pictures of us as a family.

5. New foods!
The list of restaurants (both TS & QS) that we have gone to in the past has been quite limited, and like our ride choices, we tend to go to the same ones over and over. All our ADRs are to new places, and I really want to make an effort to try new places for QS & snacks as well.


I am sure that I could give a long sub-list for each item, but I will spare you for now. Time to check on that driveway!
TTFN

 

[JoTheBookish]

Thanks for the heads up about the Youtube videos of Mitsukoshi. I found one and showed it to my boys. They were mesmerized by all the Pokemon and anime stuff. I've been trying to convince them to save their xmas and bday money for Disney and I think they're finally willing.

Watching the videos was what finally pushed Miss E over the edge in terms of wanting to have some spending money of her own. Unfortunately, she was probably a little too late to save the kind of $ she was hoping to spend.
And making me the least popular mom in the house - I refuse to spend my own $ on Japanese candy (like Pocky) since that is something that we have easy access to here at home.
However, if there is something really special, I am sure that we can help her out

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I thought I would stop by and check out your trip plans! Sounds like it is going to be a really fun trip! We like to go and do it up big a little bit too! Although the deluxe resorts are pretty pricy the luxury they offer is worth it to us to have a fantastic trip! The extra transportation options, little bit bigger rooms and extra amenities like CL make your trip that much better!

We have only used ME once, but it went flawlessly for us. Although I too hate to give up the control of our trip, it really was worth it not to have to worry about lugging our luggage around.