How Many Ways Can I Explain This? TR July 2016 -7/24, DCA Pt 1

[amalone1013]

Hello all! I thought I'd give this PTR/TR thing a whirl! Plus I love tips, so if you have any to toss my way I'll eat them right up

​

I'm Alyssa. Book-reader, crafter extraordinaire (I like to think ), Disney lover, spoiler of animals, kid at heart. My family never made it to the parks while I was growing up, but don't worry, we went a different place every summer! My first trip was February 2015 to Disneyland, and now I've also been to Disneyland Paris.

Me and my BF at DLP - they wished us a blessed spin on the teacups

​

My Partner in Crime: Zack. Became DF on that February 2015 Disneyland trip. Car enthusiast, Disney aficionado, gearhead. All around great guy. I'm lucky His family did a few trips to Disneyland over the years, including when they moved his oldest brother out to UCLA for grad school. Though somehow, I am the one who introduced him to Dole Whips

The Details:
Disneyland July 19-23
California from July 14-24


Stay tuned and we'll get this crazy thing started!​

 

[amalone1013]

Table of Contents
Cast of Characters
The Backstory
The Original Plan
The Group Grows...
The Deliberating
The New Plans/The Itinerary
How Many Ways Can I Explain This?
The Emails
Dining Plans
A Bit of Extra Time...
Family Drama
Itinerary Additions
​

The Trip Report!!
Pre Travel, Days -5 to 0

Thursday
Travel Day
Santa Monica Pier

Friday
La Brea Tar Pits
Griffith Observatory​

Saturday
Universal Studios
Part One
Part Two

Sunday
USS Iowa Battleship
Queen Mary
The Queen Mary 2018
A Two Day Mini TR
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four

Monday
Catalina Island
Part One
Part Two



Coming Soon:​

Tuesday
Disney California Adventure
Part One
Part Two

Wednesday
Disneyland

Thursday
Disneyland

Friday
Disney California Adventure

Saturday
Disneyland

Sunday
One Last Breakfast...​

​

 

[amalone1013]

Cast of Characters
​

There's a squad of people coming on this trip, so here is a cast list to help keep them straight. I think it'll be a good reference, especially for the PTR stories. Also so I can used nicknames/acronyms for a little anonymity.

Alyssa - moi!
Zack - DF
Lz - Zack's mom
Sv - Zack's dad
Dr B - Zack's oldest brother
Bt - Dr B's girlfriend
K - Zack's middle brother (Zack is the youngest)
Auntie L - Zack's aunt, his mom's older sister
Big J - Zack's cousin, Auntie L's son
Sz - Big J's wife
Little J - Big J and Sz's son, Auntie L's grandson​

 

[amalone1013]

The Backstory
​

Zack and I met in college, and after graduation I moved back home (different state) for about a year. Zack moved back in with his parents, as our long-term plan at the time was when I moved back out to our college state, we would get a place together. When I moved, I was still job hunting, and his parents offered to let us stay wit them until I found a job. That job started as a temp to hire position, then around when I hired on Zack changed jobs, and then I changed jobs, and then we got engaged...

So now we are hanging around until the wedding. Originally I was concerned about moving out ASAP because I wasn't sure how it would go, but it actually has worked out very well. We all get along quite well and I'm definitely the favorite future child-in-law. His mom often jokes she won't have anyone to talk to after we leave.

They won't take any money from us though, so I try to make dinner a lot, and bring home dog treats from work. It's helped us a lot too because we've been able to save for the wedding/honeymoon (disneymoon)/possibly house, and pay extra on our student loans. And it's nice to know that I get along with them so well!

Anyways, this led to our Disneyland trip (in part). After our 3 magical days in 2015, we were thinking of going again. Zack proposed the idea of a family trip, because the last time his family (with his brothers) went anywhere they were all still in high school. Zack and I had also planned on doing something for his parents when we moved out for letting us stay with them, so we decided we would cover all park/attraction tickets for them. We're going to do something else too, since we'll still be there another year after this trip. It'll be hard, I think, because it was pretty hard to argue them down about the tickets!

We conferred in secret with his brothers to find a good date for everyone before telling Zack's parents. Dr B is already out in the LA area. Zack's parents have three cuddly monsters who would need a babysitter while we were gone, so we asked Auntie L. Her response was the best, but sad at the same time: she got a sad look and said quietly, "but I like Disney."

Three cuddly monsters​

Well, it ended up that K is too popular (at least, that's what I told him) as he had already booked all his vacation time for weddings - all destination weddings. Guess his friends are too cool to get married here in the US. Since he wasn't able to take time off, he will now be watching the monsters. So we asked Auntie L to join us and she was overjoyed.

We had a week in mind, and knew who would be joining us! It was time to come up with a solid plan!
​

 

[amalone1013]

The Original Plan​

Alrighty then. We had a group! We started working off the plan of flying out Friday evening, July 15th. We were thinking something like this:

Friday arrive and get hotel,
Sat Universal studios Hollywood-- we plan on doing the fast pass here!! Its totally worth it!
Sun Disney
Mon Disney
Tuesday Disney
Wed Disney

That's all we have so far... ​

This is a direct quote from the email Zack sent his brothers - this was before we determined K wasn't coming, and we had not yet sprung this idea on his parents. This was late February.

We popped the question to his parents, figured out the K/Auntie L/dogsitting situation, and were off.

We added the USS Iowa Battleship to the itinerary for the boys, and Zack's parents were thinking of leaving Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.

We finalized the family trip days as something like this:

Friday arrive and get hotel
Sat Universal Studios Hollywood
Sun Disney
Mon Disney
Tuesday USS Iowa, Zack's parents leave tonight or Wednesday morning
​

As for the rest of the week, it looked something like this:

??????????????????????????????



​

 

[amalone1013]

The Group Grows...
​

So we left off with a general idea for the family portion of the trip. Meanwhile, Zack and I were trying to decide if we wanted to spend our remaining days at Disney (Wed through Sat), or do some other things in the area (blasphemy!). As we debated, others were also reconsidering their vacation time...

In the midst of this, Little J overheard Auntie L talking to Zack's mom about the trip…

Little J is, we’ll say, trying at times. And tends to get what he wants… So even though his family was down in Disney World over New Years (with Auntie L and Zack’s Mom tagging along), he asked to go. We were pretty sure that Big J and Sz would say no, because we heard they did not do well with the NYE crowds in the World. So we were quite surprised when they decided to do it!

Our group grew to 10 in just a few days! Good thing Zack doesn’t have a big family!

 

[amalone1013]

The Deliberating
​

So, Zack and I were trying to decide what to do with our remaining days. We considered the typical touristy LA things, like Hollywood and the Walk of Fame, Venice Beach, Rodeo Drive… and pretty quickly vetoed them. Nothing against any of these options (except maybe Venice for being kind of sketchy). As I said to Zack, I feel like we’re supposed to do them, not necessarily that we (or I) wanted to do them. When we went in February 2015, I had a lot of people ask me about going to the beach (no, I sunburn in about 12.84 minutes) or to Hollywood (I think it’d be neat, but I’d be good in about 5 minutes). And due to all of the “What? Why not?” ’s I got from people at work and such, it had me looking at those things again. Until I decided it didn’t matter what other people thought of our vacation as long as we enjoyed it. Duh.

​

We started looking for other options. Zack’s mom suggested Catalina Island. For those who don’t know (because I was one), Santa Catalina Island is an island 22 miles off the coast and takes about an hour via ferry to reach. There’s only two towns on the island, with the rest being a wildlife conservation. There’s boat tours, snorkeling, bus tours, a zipline, golf cart rentals...

Zack's mom and Auntie L took Zack and his brothers to Catalina on a SoCal trip when they were young, young enough Zack doesn't remember it. Between us being pretty sure we wanted to spend a day there, and Zack's mom reminiscing, his parents decided they wanted to go too. His parents were also trying to figure out how they could see where Dr B's (oldest brother) new job was, or possibly go down to San Diego for the day to see the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier on display (which I highly recommend, even if you're not too into that kind of stuff).

So we were tentatively scheduling:

Fri night: arrive and get hotel
Sat: Universal Studios Hollywood
Sun: USS Iowa Battleship/Queen Mary oceanliner
Mon: Disney
Tues: Disney
Wed: Catalina, Zack's parents leave tonight
Thurs: Disney
Fri: Disney
Saturday: Disney​

Finally, Zack's parents decided to stay until Friday (we did not expect them to leave the dogs so long ). This actually made planning a heck of a lot easier.


Up next: The New Plans!

 

[amalone1013]

The NEW Plans
​

Something I was very conscious of this trip was our driving. Last year, we hit Universal, Disneyland, Warner Bros Studios, San Diego, and stayed a couple nights with Dr B and Bt. Our path around looked like this, starting at LAX on the left:

​

I was determined not to repeat the backtracking. WB is right down the road from Universal, why did we do them 3 days apart??? Luckily, everyone adding extra days made that easier to plan. This trip, there is no backtracking!

The Itinerary

Friday​

We ended up taking Friday off to fly out that morning instead of in the evening. We fly into Burbank around 11am, and decided to spend the day mostly bumming around. We thought about going to a beach, but decided not to because it was looking like it'd be a lot of driving for not much beach time. We're thinking of going to Griffith Park to see the views, the observatory, and possibly the Hollywood sign. We're also using this day to pick up some snacks, breakfast items, and most importantly - wine! We got a budget friendly hotel in Glendale.

Saturday​

Universal Studios Hollywood for the day! We got the Front of Line tickets (low, low price of $239 ) because we figured it will really busy. Even when we went here last February, if we hadn't had FoL tickets we wouldn't have seen everything in a day (and we didn't expect it to be that busy then). We plan on trying to get here at 7am for early entry to HARRY POTTER LAND!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? I nerdily followed a blog of an Orlando local to see updates as they built the first one, but haven't made it down there yet. I can't wait, even if it's little. Zack is less excited, but he puts up with it Also, not much sleeping in for us this trip, because we are do-ers on vacation. Same hotel this night.

Sunday​

Sunday we leave Glendale for the USS Iowa and the Queen Mary, both in Long Beach. At first, we talked about seeing the Queen Mary first, then the Iowa, and staying in our hotel in Anaheim that night (then 2 days at Disney, Catalina, then back to Disney...). When I was trying to minimize drive time, I realized that the Catalina ferry leaves from Long Beach... and to stay on the Queen Mary was about $50ish more a night than the hotel in Anaheim, and staying on the Queen Mary means we don't need a ticket for the tours and exhibits. So we're staying on the Queen Mary that night! And for about $30 more, we could get a Deluxe Harbor View room... and I thought, when will we ever stay here again? So I booked it.

​

Standard Room with full size bed

Deluxe Room with king bed
This will definitely be our fanciest accommodations on the trip, as the others are very budget friendly I'm a teeny bit bummed we have to leave it early the next morning...

Monday​

We're off to Catalina! We looked at the ferry schedules, and knowing it's about an hour trip, we chose the 8:15am ferry. We figured, that should get us out and going about 9:30am, and the next ferry time wasn't until 10:15am - we didn't want to wait that long. When we went to book, we realized that we have to be there for check in one hour before. Thank goodness the Queen Mary is about 3 minutes from the ferry dock! We aren't quite sure what we'll do on the island yet (other than see the historical casino, the round building on the right in the picture). There's lots of options. There's even a tile studio where you can create your own (Catalina is famous for their tiles, I've found out).

We chose a 5:30pm ferry to return to Long Beach. We should have somewhere around 7 hours on the island, and if we decide we want to leave earlier (or later) it's maybe $10 each to change our tickets. After we get back to Long Beach, we are driving to our Anaheim hotel. We're currently thinking we'll eat dinner in Downtown Disney (and shop! we didn't get much time there last year) and hopefully get a drink at Trader Sam's.

Tuesday​

California Adventure day with everyone. We debated doing Disneyland first, but this is opposite the EMH/MM schedule so we're hoping that helps a wee bit. Zack and I will have a MM, but his parents only have 2 Day Hoppers. We have some things in mind to try and hit with his parents. The last time Zack's mom had been was before they redid the park, and his dad hasn't been since it opened. I'm interested to see Grizzly Peak/Condor Flats, because that area was closed last year. We're going to do a World of Color dining package.

Wednesday​

Disneyland Day! We're starting the morning with a reservation at Storytellers, early. 7am early... But hey, everyone doesn't have to stay until park close (though Zack and I probably will). Then it's off to Disneyland. I'm ridiculously excited to see the castle, because last year they were bedazzling it and so it (and Small World) was covered up...

Thursday through Sunday​

Zack and I will spend the rest of the week at Disney. On Thursday, I think everyone else is going to San Diego for the day. Friday Zack's parents will be hanging out with Dr B, then fly home that night. We fly home Sunday afternoon

Coming up next... emails, drama, and food!

​

 

[tzeitel]

Sounds like a fun trip! We did the whole Hollywood thing this past Oct and we were all kinda bored We did the La Brea tar pits, Farmers Market (loved this), The Grove, and walked around the Hollywood area and then went to El Capitan to watch Nightmare Before Christmas 4D (the whole reason for a Hollywood day). I wanted to go to Griffith Observatory but did not think we had time - we did - might try to do it on another trip, it looks like they have some great exhibits/programs.

 

[amalone1013]

Sounds like a fun trip! We did the whole Hollywood thing this past Oct and we were all kinda bored We did the La Brea tar pits, Farmers Market (loved this), The Grove, and walked around the Hollywood area and then went to El Capitan to watch Nightmare Before Christmas 4D (the whole reason for a Hollywood day). I wanted to go to Griffith Observatory but did not think we had time - we did - might try to do it on another trip, it looks like they have some great exhibits/programs.

I looked into the tar pits a little, but now I don't remember why I stopped! I just pulled them up again and they're not far. Maybe we can make it there/to the Farmer's Market... we have a bit of extra time now...
I'm excited for Griffith!

 

[tzeitel]

I looked into the tar pits a little, but now I don't remember why I stopped! I just pulled them up again and they're not far. Maybe we can make it there/to the Farmer's Market... we have a bit of extra time now...
I'm excited for Griffith!

It was all in the same area, did not take us very long to do and have lunch at the Farmer's Market. The Grove and the Farmer's market are next to each other, the tar pits was like a 10 minute drive and to get to El Capitan was around 15 minutes. http://www.farmersmarketla.com/

 

[amalone1013]

How Many Ways Can I Explain This?​

So, perhaps you were wondering where the name of this PTR came from. Or perhaps not, but I'm going to tell you anyways

As we were finalizing our itinerary, Big J and Sz were debating if they would join us. Like I said before, they did not handle Disney World crowds well over New Year's, so we were all quite surprised when said they were in.

The first order of business was buying Universal tickets. Well, first flights, then Universal tickets. That may sound a little backwards, since we had no hotels yet. Zack was worried about missing out on the Front of Line tickets, because you have to buy them for the specific day and they only sell so many for each day (supposedly ). When we went to purchase our plane tickets, we decided we should call up Big J and Sz and let them know what flights we were choosing, partly because Auntie L gets very concerned about them missing out on things. We did not expect them to try and buy the flights out from under us (part of the flight choosing was based on the cheaper flights, like any budget-minded travelers) - luckily there were enough for everyone. Grumpy words may have been said until we were sure

Big J and Sz decided to fly back on Saturday July 23. Auntie L ended up booking her tickets with them, even though she is going to share hotel (really motel - budget!) rooms with Zack's parents.

After purchasing Universal tickets for everyone, we sent Big J and Sz an email with their ticket costs and this itinerary:

​

We gave them a rundown on the hotels.

• Safari Inn: was not a certain thing, best I had found near Universal at the time with good reviews
• Queen Mary: made sense logistically neat experience...
• Alpine: clean, basic motel, 10 min walk to park gates, good price (we stayed there last year and had a good experience)

In all of this, we stressed the fact that they did not have to do everything we did. We didn't think they would be interested in Catalina, and possibly want nicer hotels. This was more of an informative email.

I really like my spreadsheets (I have a whole excel workbook dedicated to this trip ). I thought this was pretty clear, though I do understand everyone having different learning styles and what-not. So I was surprised when she asked what Zack's parents were doing. She also asked if we paid for late checkout on the Queen Mary. So we sent back this:

7/15 Friday: Fly into Burbank. Have lunch, visit Griffith Park & Observatory, see Hollywood sign. Stop at Costco (there is one in the area) for snacks, drinks, check for deals for Catalina ferry (have them sometimes at CA Costcos). Dinner - not sure, maybe go to Universal Citywalk. Stay at hotel near Universal.

7/16 Saturday: Universal Studios. Park hours are 8am to 11pm. Our tickets allow admission one hour early at 7am to the Harry Potter section. Parking at the park is $18. Stay at hotel near Universal again.

7/17 Sunday: Drive to Long Beach area to see USS Iowa Battleship and Queen Mary ocean liner, using the combo ticket. Hoping to go to the Iowa first. Parking at the Iowa is $2/hr with the first hour free. Luggage will have to stay in the cars until we can check in at the Queen Mary. Then on to the Queen Mary, as hotel guests of the Queen Mary we will be allowed to park overnight for $10. Their exhibits are mostly open until 8pm. Stay onboard and set sail with ghosts* *I mean, sleep well!

7/18 Monday: Take the ferry to Catalina Island (Catalina Express). The ferry takes 1hr each way and is $72 roundtrip for adults, $65 seniors, $56 kids 11 & under. Our plan was to call and make reservations, and pay in person (because we are hoping they will have the deals at Costco). We haven't decided on times yet. Parking is available at the Long Beach port and is $17 for the day. Luggage will have to stay in the car. Drive to Disneyland hotel (Alpine Inn). We are going to drop our rental car off at Alamo, which is right next door. Dinner/activities will probably depend on when we leave Catalina.

7/19 Tuesday: Disney, stay at Alpine Inn

7/20 Wednesday: Disney, stay at Alpine Inn

7/21 Thursday: Sv and Lz are going to spend the day with Dr B, possibly go to San Diego. They are staying the night with Dr B. We (Zack & Alyssa) are staying at Disney and the Alpine Inn

7/22 Friday: Sv and Lz hang out with Dr B, and fly home midafternoon. Zack & Alyssa - Disney

7/23 Saturday: Zack & Alyssa - Disney

7/24 Sunday: We are flying home midafternoon.​

And then, the emails began...

 

[Sew into Disney]

Following along quietly. I just realized we are going to be in the parks in the same days.

 

[amalone1013]

Following along quietly. I just realized we are going to be in the parks in the same days.

If I had a nickel for every thread I am following along quietly on, I could throw a nice Disney wedding

 

[casagray]

Okay, I am also breaking the silence ... following with interest, this sounds like my family.

 

[amalone1013]

Okay, I am also breaking the silence ... following with interest, this sounds like my family.

I keep telling Zack, it's your family!

But at least his is small, my extended family is about 100 people - I've got my fair share of trying family members in there!

 

[amalone1013]

The Emails
​

After sending the itinerary email, I started getting a few questions... and a few more questions... and a few more questions!

Well really, the first question went to Zack. Then he copied me on his reply, and then Sz started replying only to me. I'm not sure if that was on purpose, or if she just didn't know the difference between reply and reply all.

So far, we had:

• We sent the spreadsheet itinerary version
• Sz asked if we had done the late check out option on the Queen Mary, oh and by the way, what night were we staying on it?
• I typed out the itinerary, as in "7/16 Saturday: Universal Studios. Park hours are 8am to 11pm. Our tickets allow admission one hour early at 7am to the Harry Potter section. Parking at the park is $18. Stay at hotel near Universal again."

After this, I pretty much went through and booked the Queen Mary and the Disney area hotel to make sure we didn't miss out.

Random fun fact - we ended up booking a 'family suite' at the Disney hotel, so we'll be rooming with Zack's parents and Auntie L. I think this would be much more awkward if we weren't living with them already. It's essentially a regular motel room with two queen beds, and then a third queen bed in a separate room. We get that one! It saved everyone a good chunk though - splitting this, in total our group will be paying about $500 less than we would have with two rooms for three nights.

So as I was researching hotel options for Universal (other than the Safari, which was $170 a night for a motel, not even that close - it was hurting my budget-minded self ), Sz kept texting and emailing about what nights we would be at the Safari. I was already stressing about finding something that didn't have reviews of bugs and such, so that didn't help.

It went something like this (via email):

• Sz: Is everyone staying at the Alpine from Monday to Saturday?
• Me: We are all staying at Alpine Inn Monday 7/18 to Thursday 7/21. Lz and Sv are checking out Thursday morning to spend time with Dr B. Zack and I have it booked until Sunday 7/24.
• Sz: Are you staying at the Safari Friday and Saturday?
• Me: I've been looking at some other options near Universal (looking for a deal) and should have it figured out tomorrow. I'll let you know about the Universal hotel and the ferry - I think that we will be able to pay in person when we get there but I'm not 100%.

We also made multiple offers to get together to make sure all of our hotels and such lined up, but no dice. When I sent the email saying, I'll let you know tomorrow, it was 8:45pm. I got an email the next morning at 7:00am asking where we were staying.

So we chose the Econolodge, and sent her the info. Sz was also struggling/asking lots of questions about the Catalina Ferry. I found that if you called in to book, you could pay in person when you arrived and could split it as needed, so I offered to book the whole group on one reservation. Also, I saw online that sometimes at Costco out there they have $100 gift cards for $80... there's multiple in areas where we'll be so I figured it'd be worth 5 minutes to run into one to check... fingers crossed!

I've also kept Sz informed of any discounts I found... even though they are a bit better off than us. But things like, Costco has discount tickets for the USS Iowa, and the USS Midway in San Diego (Zack's parents are going with Dr B and Auntie L, and Big J would like to - not Sz's thing though and she's pretty controlling for vacations I found out...). I would typically get the same reply: "Cool, thanks for the info" Well, alrighty then!

Silly me, I also mentioned the Target Redcard 5% discount on Disney gift cards... I figured, we're going to spend the money no matter what, so might as well get a teeny bit off. Zack and I sat down and calculated out approximate food costs, including covering a character meal and a WOC dining package for his parents, plus their Disney tickets and ours, and bought that amount. So we saved about $120 - made us feel less guilty about something we splurged on! Plus, we'll buy a few souvenirs, so if our dining calculations were a little high the remaining will go to that. Sz didn't necessarily struggle with this so much as ask questions that I had already explained. I told her:

1. Buy Disney cards at Target with Redcard.
2. Go to Disney gift card site to combine them into one large gift card.
3. Go to Disneyland site to purchase tickets.

Yet, she asked (10 days later):

• Auntie L said her ticket was only $XX and ours are coming to $XX+$30, is that right? (because I bought Auntie L's ticket with ours, so she benefited from our discounted gift cards. I re-explained, basically resending the original email)
• Did you get the Disney gift cards at Target?
• Can I buy the tickets on the gift card site?

<--- Me every time my phone made the email notification noise.

After saying yes, and no, and here is the link to buy Disney tickets...

"I've got that one. Was just wondering if I could buy tickets directly from that GC site."

Then WHY DID YOU ASK ME WHEN I TOLD YOU YOU COULDN'T DO THAT TWICE???

Then about 4 days later: "Tickets purchased. Check"



In the midst of all of this, I learned that Big J and Sz have basically been two places since they were married - driving to SD to visit her family, and 2 trips to DisneyWorld - both planned by travel agents. So we deduced that they made all the same plans as us because she doesn't know how/is scared/intimidated of doing all the research, and Big J leaves all trip planning to her.

Next time, someone else can plan!

 

[amalone1013]

Dining Plans
​

The fun things!

We knew we wanted to do a World of Color dining package, and we wanted to take Zack's parents to a character meal because they've never been. We had fun last year - even though we had no kids with us, the characters spent lots of time at our table.

Even though I totally chased Meeko down for this picture.​

Breakfast was easy. We got a 7:00am reservation for Storyteller's on our Disneyland day. That will just be us, Zack's parents, and probably Auntie L. Because most importantly:

​

For WOC, I looked at all the menus to see what was a decent price and would appeal to everyone in the group (one ten year old, one picky eater - me - and one vegetarian). I got a 4:50pm reservation at Wine Country Trattoria - hard to go wrong with Italian, right? I'm hoping for a patio table so we can see some of the Pixar Play Parade. We watched it last year, and we might not go out of our way to sit and watch it this time, but from the patio during dinner would be cool.

We'll wing any other meals on the first two days, since it will be everybody. Most likely counter service. But Zack and I wanted to try a few places when we're alone, so we did some looking and ended up with:

Blue Bayou, 6​

:30pm on Thursday: We wanted to eat here again, and originally we're going to do an early lunch... Then figured what the heck, and changed it to a Paint the Night package. If nothing else, I get dessert without feeling guilty ​

Friday we plan to be in California adventure, and we're winging it. I have a surprise card up my sleeve though...

Saturday will be our last day in the Parks We're going to have breakfast at Carnation Cafe (8:10am), and then a late lunch/early dinner at Cafe Orleans (4:00pm maybe?).

I'd like to hit a few random places over the trip... Bengal BBQ, Cove Bar, Cozy Cones, get a tigger tail... We'll see how it goes!


On May 2nd, I sent an email asking if anyone else would be interested in Storytellers or the WOC package. I asked them to let me know by the 17th so we could book. Sz replied, she'd chat with the boys and let me know. We saw them on Mother's Day, and Sz mentioned the character breakfast sounded fun. On May 24th, I booked both meals for everyone, figuring I could always go back in and adjust the number of people. I heard nothing until June 11th. And that is because Zack emailed a video of WOC to Big J, who emailed it to Sz, who emailed Zack asking how to get tickets for it. Is there a *head**desk* smiley? I sent an email explaining the dining package again, and said I had them on there so I would leave it that way if they wanted to do it. And by the way, did they want to be on the character breakfast reservation? She said Big J and Little J would not want to do the character breakfast, so they'll pass. Would it have been hard to have let me know without having to ask multiple times? ​

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Loving the trip report so far. A couple of those recounting of email discussions had me wanting to hit my head on my desk. Since your trip is right around the corner, I hope things have settled a bit more. Love the spreadsheet. Every Disney trip I plan has a spreadsheet. I think my daughter was a bit embarrassed at first when I chaperoned her high school choir trip, but she got over it pretty quickly. Many of the students would find me (I had a spreadsheet of every food / drink item sold at DL/CA and location and price) to figure out where their favorite snack was. I probably won't bring that again, it was pretty bulky to carry around.

 

[casagray]

To give Sz a bit of slack, if she's never had to plan a trip, she probably has no idea what is involved in the research and planning, or how important these deadlines are. It's clearly an area she is clueless about, and you've been super patient. If she's not done a trip like this, BTW, don't be surprised if she remains clueless about what was involved during the trip too...
Sounds like a fantastic trip, though!