I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti....F&W 2012!

[vickalamode]

Hi DisBoards! This is my first time making a PTR (and will hopefully be my first trip report too, if I can keep up with it!). We have been wanting to go back for a while now, and the free dining offer for October really got us craving a Disney fix so we booked last week!

The Cast...

Meet me...I am Stephanie and I will be your guide for this magical journey into the movies. This is the perfect job for me, because I love movies! I am 22 years old and LOVE Disney! My first trip was when I was 7 years old, and the castle was dressed like a cake. I hated that and my clearest memory of that trip is my epic, majestic meltdown when I discovered that the castle wasn't a castle, but a cake. I was NOT a happy 7 year old! But somehow I lived past that traumatic experience and here I am with 7 Disney vacations and 5 months as a cast member under my belt! Oh...about that. I went to school to be a funeral director, but I couldn't find a job while in school (and still can't! One day, one day...) So in the midst of a recession for a college girl who can't find a "real" job, why not pack up and work at Disney? So I did the College Program and was a Housekeeper at All Star Music for 5 months. Worst. Job. Ever. I left on June 4, 2010 and can't wait to go back!

This is Brian. He is my DBF, and he is an IT Director for a steel manufacturing company. Brian and I met in December of 2008 and started dating almost immediately. A couple of weeks after we started dating, I was contemplating how I was going to be spending my spring break that March. I was just sort of thinking out loud and mentioned that it would be fun to go to Disney, but that none of my friends would be able to afford it or want to go. Brian, who had never been to Disney, immediately said that he would be interested in going with me! So...clearly it was meant to be! We booked the trip and ended up taking our first Disney trip together, and his very first Disney trip, in March 2009! He LOVED it and always talks about it, and always talks about when we are going to go next. I think he might be worse than me (except he doesn't go on DisBoards religiously!!!)

 

[vickalamode]

The Backstory...


In January 2010 I left my sweetie for 5 months to do the College Program at Disney. I was a housekeeper at All Star Music and HATED my job, but had the time of my life anyways-hey, I didn't go to Disney for 5 months to work at a $7 an hour job...let's just say I was thinking more along the lines of a 5 month long semi-vacation to Disney. And I'll tell ya....I MILKED my free admission. Milked it, I tell ya! Well anyways DBF drove with me to Florida and then flew back to Boston. I saw him once during that time, when he came to visit me in March 2010. We spent a day at EPCOT and a day at the MK and it was sad to see him go! The last two weeks of my college program I cried every time I watched Illuminations or Wishes because I was going to miss living at Disney so much My last look at the castle was June 4, 2010. I went to Kona at the Polynesian by myself to have some Tonga Toast and take a look at the castle from across Bay Lake before I hit the road for a solo 2 day drive back to Boston.

Well...I've been home for over a year now, and it's been almost a year and a half since Brian saw the castle or had a dole whip float. Well...that's just UNACCEPTABLE! We have been discussing a trip for this October for a while, but not in any real seriousness. We were going to ask one of my co-workers from Disney who I kept in touch with on facebook to help us get a CM discount, but I feel like it's too much of a hassle to ask of somebody who I don't know that well since they have to go to our resort and help check us in by showing their CM ID before we get there. BUT THEN...Disney went ahead and released free dining for the time period when we wanted to go!

The time period we wanted to go, you ask...?? FALL! I have ALWAYS wanted to see Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party...and now that I am actually old enough, I can't WAIT for Food & Wine festival and drinking around the world at EPCOT! This was my perfect chance! We were originally hoping to go Mid-October, but since FD wasn't offered during that period of time, we went with October 26 until November 2, which means we will be IN WDW ON HALLOWEEN! OMG! I can't wait to drink around the world, and dress up for Halloween!

 

[vickalamode]

The Location...

We have been wanting to stay at the Polyneisan for a long time...but since we booked less than a month before the payment was due in full and weren't saving for a vacation at all before we booked it...there was NO WAY we could pony up $4,000 of extra cash in less than a month! We KNEW we didn't want to stay at a value resort, because when I did the college program I was a housekeeper at All Star Music and let's just say I have some pretty bad memories of looking at those rooms 18 times a day for 6 months. Let's just say that some of them were in a nightmareish condition when I got to them, and I don't want to have bad thoughts about that while on my vacation LOL.

We stayed at Coronado Springs last March and loved it. It was such a beautiful resort and felt very grown-up! But we wanted to do something different this time, so we went for Port Orleans French Quarter! I have wanted to stay here ever since I was a little kid, because I remember always seeing the picture of the pool where the waterslide is the sea serpent's TONGUE! AND YOU SLIDE DOWN IT OMGOMGOMGOMG ON HIS TONGUE! When I was a kid, I always wanted to stay there. So I could slide down his tongue. Maybe I was a weird kid, but whatever. I am 22 years old and I am going to slide down his tongue at least 100 times.

Just suspend your imagination here for a minute and pretend that it's actually me in this picture. Instead of a picture of a little girl that I stole from google and hastily put my head over hers in paint. You get the idea. This is going to be me. It's going to happen at least 100 times.

 

[vickalamode]

Maybe some day somebody will reply to my PTR, lol

Park Days!!!!

I am admittedly still in the planning phases, but this is what I am looking at for our basic park day outlines...

Oct 26: Arrival day...would NOT be complete without a trip to the MAGIC KINGDOM! Whoo!

Oct 27: Hollywood Studios...this is the ONLY day Fantasmic is showing while we are there, out of 7 nights

Oct 28: EPCOT!

Oct 29: Animal Kingdom

Oct 30: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!! MY HOPES AND DREAMS ARE COMING TRUE OMG.

Oct 31: EPCOT

Nov 1: Last full day! Leaving this PLAN FREE except for dinner reservations so we can go back to do something we might have missed

Nov 2: Magic Kingdom rope drop morning with an early afternoon departure I hate saying goodbye!