I got just what I wanted for Christmas!! Snow and Toy Soldiers! March pix add 5/16/11

[bouncycat]

LOL Dana!! I hope you're having a good day, it's almost friday!!! WOOHOO!! I think I got Chris talked into going to MK this weekend, to see toontown before it goes away LOL That's my excuse. So, if we do go, I'll do a pretty extensive report, on the exit of poor toontown LOL I've been using Chris's camera quite a bit, since I'm in my wheelchair, it's easier to carry!! Plus I'm learning how to deal with it alot better, and it takes awesome pictures LOL So I'll take his camera. LOVE his camera!!

I'm making pads for my wheelchair, found some foam squares that are about 2 inches thick, and a really CUTE mickey pattern of fabric, so I'm gonna sew me up some cushions. NO worries, I'll take pictures!! LOL HOpefully that'll help the ride on my hip!! Did I tell you my hip is now shot? Yea. I'm not taking it very well, but it'll be alright I guess. Anyways, gotta go pick up my old guy. I like spending time with him, he's really interesting!!! Have a happy Thursday!! I'll finish the universal day later on!!

 

[aprilisis]

Hi Dana- Just checking in to make sure everything is ok...

 

[racefanof88]

Hey everybody . I know I have been a bad person and not posted in a long time; sorry . I am still finalizing plans because Tyler hasn't told me if he is coming or not . I told him he has until the end of next week to let me know. I have to make a reservation for Niko at the kennel if Tyler is coming so he better hurry up or he will be staying home to Niko sit.........

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hey girl! you sound like me with Dayne...he keeps asking questions about our Sep trip like he wants to go...I know he wants to go. I told him I could always add him on at the last minute. But, he said he wanted to bring a friend along. So, I booked a room only reservation for him. This way he has a room if he brings a friend, if not I can CX it and just add him to my ressie (he said he did not want the DDP, told him if he comes with us and no friend he will have to do the DDP. Unless, he pays for the room to himself).

I hope Tyler decides to join you guys, been a while since he has visited.

Have a great week!

 

[racefanof88]

WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO Trevor Bayne!!!!! That was the BEST Daytona 500 since Davey Allison won.

OK, that said; I have finalized my plans for our trip in 12 days . Tyler has decided NOT to join us on the trip so.....the plans are as follows-------------

Leave Friday March 4th as soon as Dale gets home from work; yes as usual he won't take the day off. We will drive down and are staying at the Holiday Inn at DTD.

Saturday Morning, March 5th(my birthday....lol) we will check in at CSR. With this stay we will have stayed at all the mods. We will be in a preferred room so I am hoping it will be close to the food court. I promised Lisa (Mickeystoontown) that we will try out the food court. We will be staying here for two nights.

Monday Morning, March 7th, We check in to SSR. This will be our first deluxe resort stay and I am looking so forward to trying it out. We are on the DDP for our 3 night stay here.

Our ADRs are as follows

Saturday, Whispering Canyon Cafe, 1pm

Sunday, Tony's, 2:20pm

Monday, Kona, 2:05pm

Tuesday, Via Napoli, 4:30pm

Wednesday, Liberty Tree, 12:30pm

Via Napoli and Liberty Tree will be a first for us so I will be sure to let everyone know how my picky eaters do.

I am really hyped about this trip. I called to pay the balance on my room only today and spoke with a CM named Cash, he was so very helpful and gave his honest opinion. He said he liked CSR over CBR and asked me if I enjoyed staying at CBR. I told him I really enjoyed staying at CBR; that it is a beautiful resort.

So this is my finalized plans and I would love input from everybody about my plans and what I can do to make them better!!!

 

[Queenofallthings]

I am so excited .... you're trip is coming pretty quickly!! Love the plans!!!

 

[bouncycat]

Love the plans!!! We will be at DHS on the 5th for ESPN the weekend.....so I guess it all works out for everyone!! Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I didn't get your text 'til this morning. I am soooo bad about plugging up my cellphone and then forgetting it until the next day.

I like the sounds of your plans. Don't feel like you just have to try the food court at CSR if you guys don't have time or the "want" to do it. But, I wouldn't mind hearing your opinion on it. I know you're excited about trying a deluxe and I think SSR is a good one to try.

I am looking forward to hearing how you like Via Napoli. I have an ADR there on one of our Epcot days and I can't decide if I should keep it or go with the Coral Reef.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

How exciting! Dana you guys will be there so soon, and the weather has been beautiful lately!

How exciting that you guys are doing a split stay, you guys are going to really get spoiled on this trip. You will never want to look back at the values and the dbl bed mods after this go round

your ADR's sound great, can't wait to hear what you guys think

Connie

 

[aprilisis]

Your trip is almost here!!! I would love to know how Via Napoli is- I'll be trying it for the first time in May. Liberty Tree is one of my favorites- I totally carb-load there, though, because I LOVE the mashed potatoes and macaroni & cheese!! I can't wait to see photos from SSR, too. Your plans sound great to me. I can't wait to hear what they do for your birthday at WCC!!

 

[leamom2princesses]

Hiya Dana! We loved our stay at SSR in July. I don't understand why some folks don't love it. We thought it was really nice and beautiful. Haven't tried CSR so no comment on that one.

We ate at Liberty Tree in 2009. It was Joe's favorite meal of the trip. We enjoyed Tony's and Whispering Canyon so another from us. Haven't done Kona or Via Napoli so I'm interested to hear what you think. I can't make our ressies for the Sept/Oct trip until next month so I'm researching and reviewing everyone's thoughts. Take lots of pics ok!

I miss ya girl and hope that you're doing well and know that I think of you often.

Have a wonderful trip if I don't make it back this way!!

 

[deslynnpatterson]

Dana!!! long time no chat I am so excited to see you are going to disney again that is awesome!! Let me tell you , that you will LOVE CSR!!! I would highly recommend the Cabanas area!! We loved in when we went in Sept! That is so exciting that you are going again! I wish i could go more I am trying to plan a second trip and looking into renting some points. I will have to catch up on your TR and get on these boards more!!! Miss ya!!!

 

[aprilisis]

Happy Birthday!!! I hope you have an awesome lunch at WCC today. I can't wait to read about your trip when you get back.

 

[racefanof88]

Thank you April!! I had an awesome birthday at Disney.


Now that we are back I will try and do a quick TR for the March trip. I know I have never finished our December TR

I am trying to upload my pictures to photobucket so hopefully I will have them loaded by this evening. Here is a quick outline of the trip with more to come later..............

Left Friday March 4th. Checked into Holiday Inn for Friday night. Saturday, March 5th, checked into CSR with new and updated ADRS, and spending time with good friends.............lol. Sunday more park fun. Monday, March 7th, check into SSR, very pretty resort and more time with friends!! When my pix are loaded I will be back with more.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Good to see ya back on the boards. I've been slacking with my trip report. I've got to hurry up and get it finished before it's time to start my next one.

 

[racefanof88]

Good to see ya back on the boards. I've been slacking with my trip report. I've got to hurry up and get it finished before it's time to start my next one.

Thank you Lisa . I don't know that I will finish the December TR because my memory of the trip is fading fast..........lol. I will try to finish this one up in as few a posts as I can so I don't get off track .

Your trip is coming up soon. I don't know if we will go back before Amanda gets married. Dale just does not want to go back during the hot months .

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hey girl! happy to see you back, followed you on FB for your last trip. Can't wait to hear what you thought of the two new resorts.

Just a thought, why don't you skim through your Dec pics that you have not shared and just do a photo TR for the rest, if you are starting to get fuzzy on the details.

Happy to hear you had a wonderful day on your bday!
Connie

 

[racefanof88]

Hey girl! happy to see you back, followed you on FB for your last trip. Can't wait to hear what you thought of the two new resorts.

Just a thought, why don't you skim through your Dec pics that you have not shared and just do a photo TR for the rest, if you are starting to get fuzzy on the details.

Happy to hear you had a wonderful day on your bday!
Connie

Hey Connie . Thank you .

I may do that with the December trip. I have tons of pix from that trip. I didn't take as many pictures this trip with my camera; most were with my phone.

I can't wait to give my opinion about the resorts. I was really surprised by how I felt .

 

[racefanof88]

So we pulled out of our driveway at 11:45am, March 4th. I had the van packed, sandwiches made and drinks iced down in the ice chest. We had a pretty uneventful drive down, but it started raining as soon as we got to Disney.

We checked in at the Holiday Inn and went up to our room. We were on the 4th floor, the hotel has a balcony, and this is our view of DTD. Sorry for the bad quality, it was taken with my phone.

And the room

Of course we had to order Flippers pizza as it is a requirement of Dallas'. The pizza was delivered while I was in the shower and I almost didn't get any. By the time we all had eaten and gotten our showers it was about midnight.

The view the next day

So after a night of not sleeping, the beds were HORRIBLE hard, we went down and ate breakfast. They have a free buffet and it was pretty decent. We checked out and headed toward the parks.

We were going to go meet Chris, Christie, and Tyler at DHS, but it was so crowded we decided to go over to Epcot.

And my favorite monorail

With the Flower and Garden Festival going on there are some really pretty topiaries and flowers.

We made it right after park opening so we headed straight to Soarin' to get our fast passes. Then Dallas wanted to ride SSE so we made our way back to the front of the park. Bad idea because TT would be a NO GO after we got off SSE.

I love the story at the end of SSE; this is the closest I will come to getting on skis.........lol.

After SSE we took some pictures.

We walked over toward TT, but the wait time was 60 minutes and since we had FPs for Soarin' we couldn't get any for TT. The decision was made that I would go ride MS and Dale would go with Dallas to Universe of Energy(or as Dallas says "I want to go see Ellen"..........lol).

I had been texting with Christie all morning and they were coming over to Epcot to meet us after they finished up at DHS. Dale, Dallas and I met back up and decided to head on over to World Showcase and start walking around.

Continued in next post.

 

[racefanof88]

We found the Pixie Garden and of course I had to get pictures

I couldn't talk Dallas into going and getting his picture made with Tink.........lol. Soooooooooo since he wouldn't do that we walked on toward WS.

Dale hates it when Dallas turns his hat around backward so he had to do it just to aggravate his dad.

We made it to Mexico and took a tour with the Three Caballeros and when we got off Christie sent me a text saying they were in the park. Now everyone who knows me knows I had to get a margarita while in Mexico and as I was in line I saw Christie and her gang. I got to meet Jen, one of the Central Florida Diser!!! Dallas and Tyler had to do the Kim Possible Mission so they got their phones and we headed to their first mission at China.

Christie surprised me with a birthday card and great gift. Thank you again Christie . Dale, Dallas and I had an ADR at Le Cellier for 1:00pm so we had to say TTFN and planned on meeting up again later.

I have to say the food was out of this world delicious and when we left we were more than full. I didn't get pictures of the food because they just never seem to turn out because it is so dark. It is funny that this was my birthday meal and two days later, when we ate here again, I got my birthday dessert..............lol. After we ate we went to use our Soarin' FPs and meet back up with Christie.

On the way back to Soarin'

When we got off Soarin' Christie was talking with another Central Florida Diser so I was able to meet her and her family too. Jen had to leave us at this point and after goodbyes Christie, Chris, Tyler, Dale, Dallas and I rode Living with the Land and then moved on to try and find Nemo. After we found him it was time for us to head over to CSR and check in. We said our goodbyes, again, and we headed for the exit.

We made our way over to CSR to check in

Inside the lobby

I took a picture of the fountain in the lobby, but a little boy walked by as I snapped it and it actually looks like I was talking a picture of him. His dad said, "Yep he got right in your way didn't he?"........lol. Sooo needless to say I don't have a picture of the fountain.

I posted the following on another thread about our experience during check in.

"Our first problem was at check in. Since the start of online check in I have taken advantage of the service because I had always found it to be much faster. Not this time. When we got in line there was a nice lady asking guests if they had done online check in; she would then go behind the desk and pull one of the folders and bring it back to the person in line then they would go to the counter and presto they were all ready. When I came to the head of the line she was pulling a folder for someone else, but a lady at the counter motioned me on to the counter. She asked if I had done online check in and asked for my drivers license. She went to the file cabinet and looked all through the files, NO folder. She came back and got my license, checked the cabinet again, NO folder. She got on the phone and called someone and tells them that she can't find my stuff. By this time people walking in AFTER us have already checked in and LEFT. She leaves the desk and goes into a room behind the desk, she returns, still NO folder. By now I'm starting to wonder what is going on and was getting prepared to be EXTREMELY upset if they had lost my reservation as it had been paid off for weeks. Finally, she just prints us out new KTTW cards and makes up a new folder. She tells us our room isn't ready but she gave us our room number anyway. We had requested a ground floor room, but ended up on the 3rd floor . We were in the Casitas which was a nice area."

We needed to run and get drinks and snacks for the room so we left and headed to the Hess station. By the time we finished up at the store our room was ready so we went back to the resort. We were in room 1336. We had payed for a preferred room and even though I loved the location of our room Dale had to complain that we were a mile from the parking lot . We actually were not that far and we had some beautiful court yards all around us.

I really LOVED the decor of the rooms.

Continued