"I Want To Go Back!!!"....a Sept 2010 PTR(upd 10/12-TR Started!)

[Northern Disney Girl]

Looks great Meghan! I Love your ADR choices! Could that 8 be due to the opening weekend of the Food and Wine Festival?? I can't think of anything else!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Looks great Meghan! I Love your ADR choices! Could that 8 be due to the opening weekend of the Food and Wine Festival?? I can't think of anything else!

Maybe that's when they were predicting F&W to start, but I read somewhere it's not starting until Oct 1st or 2nd (or something like that). I'm sure the crowd levels will change if (WHEN!) free dining gets released.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Maybe that's when they were predicting F&W to start, but I read somewhere it's not starting until Oct 1st or 2nd (or something like that). I'm sure the crowd levels will change if (WHEN!) free dining gets released.

Oh I'm sure they will too! For now just enjoy the thought of all those Glorious "4" days! Crowds??? What crowds??? And free food to boot! I think I might just start planning a trip for NEXT Aug/Sept!!!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Oh I'm sure they will too! For now just enjoy the thought of all those Glorious "4" days! Crowds??? What crowds??? And free food to boot! I think I might just start planning a trip for NEXT Aug/Sept!!!

I'm hoping that free dining won't bring huge crowds. I've been reading other Sept trip reports and the parks look like they did in Jan.

 

[swwake]

What about Night of Joy at DHS? Maybe they have a big headliner that night? I couldn't find dates for that, other than Autumn, 2010.

I read on the Disneyworld website that F&W starts Oct 1.

Maybe (and let's hope) TP has just made an input error! Maybe it's a 3 instead of an 8!

 

[lexmas]

Yup...I'm back with my 2nd update today. While eating dinner tonight, I went over a rough schedule with Tony & Madison and I'm feeling much better than I was earlier. The stress is gone and I'm feeling good. So..I decided to come back to my wonderful readers and post the ADR's that I'm hoping to get and a rough outline of our plans for the week. Here it goes!

Sept 22nd-No idea what time we will leave Buffalo; Want to go to AK for EMH (5-8pm) because we've never been at AK past 3pm!! We're always done so early there; No ADR's for this day

I want to get to AK for EMH too, but I don't think they have it when we're going. Definitely go if you get the chance!

23rd-MK AM EMH; Mama Melrose Fantasmic pkg; Fantasmic at 8pm

24th-Sleep in a bit; Chef Mickey's for a late bfast; DTD?; rest up for MNSSHP that evening

I love Chef Mickey's! The characters are all so cute dressed up!

25th-DHS AM EMH; either Tutto or Coral Reef for dinner; IllumiNations at 9pm

26th-Crystal Palace before the MK opens; maybe head to Epcot, DTD or go back for a swim; MK EMH (8pm-11pm); Wishes at 8pm

Is your DD a night owl? She will be on this trip!

27th- AK AM EMH; 50's PTC for dinner; DHS EMH (7-10pm)

50's PTC is so funny, you'll love it!

28th- EP AM EMH; 'Ohana for a later bfast; hotel for a swim?; back to Epcot; Cape May for dinner; maybe IllumiNations again?

We went to Ohana for breakfast on our last trip, and it is a new favorite. The food is great and the view is so beautiful!

29th-Departure day ; since we don't have airfare yet, I have NO idea what we'll do this last morning

Maybe you'll be able to get a late flight. I think the flight we're eyeing (for the following sunday) leaves FL at about 7 or 8 and gets into Buffalo around 11.

So there you have it! Tutto Italia, Coral Reef and Cape May are at the top of the list for our Epcot evenings. A very close 2nd is Garden Grill or Teppan Edo. I guess it all depends on what I can get once my 180 days comes. Let me know what you guys think!

We really loved both Garden Grill and Teppan Edo, they were both lots of fun. Teppan Edo was really cool since they cook the food right infront of you. And the food and characters at Garden Grill were amazing. We had a late seating at Garden Grill so we got most of the characters to ourselves! Great Plans!

see above!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Your adr choices look very similar to mine!

I was just looking over the crowd calendar (thank you touringplans.com) and I am totally loving what I see! However, I'm wondering why they are predicting a crowd level of 8 on the Saturday that we'll be there. Seems strange because the rest of the time (make that the entired month of Sept & Oct) the crowds are 4's or 5's. Isn't that strange? Is there something going on Sept 25th that I don't know about?

I noticed that too, except they had it at a 9. My subscription has since expired, so I can't check to see what's changed - but a week or so ago all my dates (the week before yours) were 4's or 6's, so that 9 really stuck out! I have no earthly idea what it could be for

 

[stacikristine]

First of all, I'm so excited that yall are going to be able to go back!! And I'm glad that Maddie has enjoyed looking at our pics--the fall really is a gorgeous time to go!

Now...I know that you've still decided on ADRs (probably) but I want to comment on your choices!

Yak & Yeti-don't know if Maddie would like it I've never been here, but it's one of our closest friends' favorites!
50's Prime Time Cafe-haven't eaten here since I was 15 yo Lots of fun. The food isn't my favorite, but the desserts are amazing!
Mama Melrose-thinking about the Fantasmic pkg Never been...
Garden Grill-haven't heard much about it This was a really fun restaurant! We loved the food, and the character interaction was fantastic. My cousin and his wife went earlier this year, and they say it's still great!
Teppan Edo- heard wonderful things, again, not sure about Maddie Love it! I've been twice, and it's a great experience. I like the food more at some other places, but the entertainment is really neat. A must-do at least once (but maybe when Maddie is older?)
Tutto Italia-ate here when it was still Alfredo's Never been...
Coral Reef - heard mixed reviews This was our first ADR and we loved it!! Ask to sit by the fish if you eat here.
CRT- I've always wanted to eat inside the Castle! This is wonderful!! I've only eaten breakfast here, but it was so great.
Crystal Palace- DD and DH loved it here in Jan My little sister, mom, and I went here our first morning when I was 15, and my sister (5 yrs old then) thought that it was how we started every morning! She got ready really quickly and said, "Daddy, I'm ready to see Pooh now!"
Cape May Cafe-We were supposed to eat here in June, really want to check out the BC Never Been...
1900 PF-I think the Step-Sisters are hysterical! Never Been... My cousin and her little girls went a few years ago and weren't super impressed.
Chef Mickey's- One of the favs! Never been, but I know yall love it!
Kona- I really want to try tonga toast Oh gosh. this was our very favorite dinner!!! But I hear the breakfast is incredible too...
'Ohana- could be bfask or dinner; both seem yummy Never Been...
WCC- mixed reviews Never Been...
Hoop Dee Doo-this looks like so much fun Never Been, but it's BellaSoliel's favorite!
Spirit of Aloha- heard nothing but wonderful things Never Been...

Now, I just need to narrow this down to 7 TS credits. I'd love to do a dinner show or CRT, but do I really want to part with 2 credits? I would love to hear everyone's input because I haven't eaten at the majority of these places. If a place has all meals, which is better (bfast, lunch, dinner)??

When we went to CRT, we ended up paying OOP for the breakfast. It was much less expensive than dinner there, and that way we didn't use up 2 TS credits. It was worth it for us, but it's just whatever works best for your family!

We chose to do dinner at most places since we'd be getting the most for our DDP money, and we wanted to make all of the rope drops. But I know a lot of people like breakfasts. My family loved CRT and CP for bfast in previous trips, and Michael and I loved Boma for bfast on our trip. We ate dinner at most other places.


Sept 22nd-No idea what time we will leave Buffalo; Want to go to AK for EMH (5-8pm) because we've never been at AK past 3pm!! We're always done so early there; No ADR's for this day I can't wait to hear about your experience at AK at night!

23rd-MK AM EMH; Mama Melrose Fantasmic pkg; Fantasmic at 8pm I'll hopefully have our thoughts about Fantasmic up pretty soon...you can PM me if you are curious before then.

24th-Sleep in a bit; Chef Mickey's for a late bfast; DTD?; rest up for MNSSHP that evening Good plan! Eat at WPE for lunch. YUM! You will LOVE LOVE LOVE MNSSHP!!! It was a highlight of my 06 trip!

25th-DHS AM EMH; either Tutto or Coral Reef for dinner; IllumiNations at 9pm Nice. I bet both restaurants will be fabulous!

26th-Crystal Palace before the MK opens; maybe head to Epcot, DTD or go back for a swim; MK EMH (8pm-11pm); Wishes at 8pm I love walking into an empty MK. Aaahhh. It'll be fun to see what you end up doing in the afternoon. And Wishes to end it--perfect!

27th- AK AM EMH; 50's PTC for dinner; DHS EMH (7-10pm) Busy, busy day! But it'll be lots of fun I'm sure!

28th- EP AM EMH; 'Ohana for a later bfast; hotel for a swim?; back to Epcot; Cape May for dinner; maybe IllumiNations again? So 'Ohana instead of Kona? What made you decide that? We've never been to either for bfast--I'm just curious! I saw some pics of Cape May recently and it looks really good!

29th-Departure day ; since we don't have airfare yet, I have NO idea what we'll do this last morning Sad... But hopefully you'll have at least a little time to be in the parks before you leave!

So there you have it! Tutto Italia, Coral Reef and Cape May are at the top of the list for our Epcot evenings. A very close 2nd is Garden Grill or Teppan Edo. I guess it all depends on what I can get once my 180 days comes. Let me know what you guys think!

I think they sound great!!! ADRs are the greatest!

 

[Dancegrl624]

What about Night of Joy at DHS? Maybe they have a big headliner that night? I couldn't find dates for that, other than Autumn, 2010.

I read on the Disneyworld website that F&W starts Oct 1.

Maybe (and let's hope) TP has just made an input error! Maybe it's a 3 instead of an 8!

Night of Joy is earlier in Sept (MK closes at 6pm those nights). I will just have to keep checking!

see above!

Thanks for all of your input!

Your adr choices look very similar to mine!

I noticed that too, except they had it at a 9. My subscription has since expired, so I can't check to see what's changed - but a week or so ago all my dates (the week before yours) were 4's or 6's, so that 9 really stuck out! I have no earthly idea what it could be for

Strange! It is quite confusing.

First of all, I'm so excited that yall are going to be able to go back!! And I'm glad that Maddie has enjoyed looking at our pics--the fall really is a gorgeous time to go!

Now...I know that you've still decided on ADRs (probably) but I want to comment on your choices!

Yak & Yeti-don't know if Maddie would like it I've never been here, but it's one of our closest friends' favorites!
50's Prime Time Cafe-haven't eaten here since I was 15 yo Lots of fun. The food isn't my favorite, but the desserts are amazing!
Mama Melrose-thinking about the Fantasmic pkg Never been...
Garden Grill-haven't heard much about it This was a really fun restaurant! We loved the food, and the character interaction was fantastic. My cousin and his wife went earlier this year, and they say it's still great!
Teppan Edo- heard wonderful things, again, not sure about Maddie Love it! I've been twice, and it's a great experience. I like the food more at some other places, but the entertainment is really neat. A must-do at least once (but maybe when Maddie is older?)
Tutto Italia-ate here when it was still Alfredo's Never been...
Coral Reef - heard mixed reviews This was our first ADR and we loved it!! Ask to sit by the fish if you eat here.
CRT- I've always wanted to eat inside the Castle! This is wonderful!! I've only eaten breakfast here, but it was so great.
Crystal Palace- DD and DH loved it here in Jan My little sister, mom, and I went here our first morning when I was 15, and my sister (5 yrs old then) thought that it was how we started every morning! She got ready really quickly and said, "Daddy, I'm ready to see Pooh now!"
Cape May Cafe-We were supposed to eat here in June, really want to check out the BC Never Been...
1900 PF-I think the Step-Sisters are hysterical! Never Been... My cousin and her little girls went a few years ago and weren't super impressed.
Chef Mickey's- One of the favs! Never been, but I know yall love it!
Kona- I really want to try tonga toast Oh gosh. this was our very favorite dinner!!! But I hear the breakfast is incredible too...
'Ohana- could be bfask or dinner; both seem yummy Never Been...
WCC- mixed reviews Never Been...
Hoop Dee Doo-this looks like so much fun Never Been, but it's BellaSoliel's favorite!
Spirit of Aloha- heard nothing but wonderful things Never Been...

Now, I just need to narrow this down to 7 TS credits. I'd love to do a dinner show or CRT, but do I really want to part with 2 credits? I would love to hear everyone's input because I haven't eaten at the majority of these places. If a place has all meals, which is better (bfast, lunch, dinner)??

When we went to CRT, we ended up paying OOP for the breakfast. It was much less expensive than dinner there, and that way we didn't use up 2 TS credits. It was worth it for us, but it's just whatever works best for your family!

We chose to do dinner at most places since we'd be getting the most for our DDP money, and we wanted to make all of the rope drops. But I know a lot of people like breakfasts. My family loved CRT and CP for bfast in previous trips, and Michael and I loved Boma for bfast on our trip. We ate dinner at most other places.


Sept 22nd-No idea what time we will leave Buffalo; Want to go to AK for EMH (5-8pm) because we've never been at AK past 3pm!! We're always done so early there; No ADR's for this day I can't wait to hear about your experience at AK at night!

23rd-MK AM EMH; Mama Melrose Fantasmic pkg; Fantasmic at 8pm I'll hopefully have our thoughts about Fantasmic up pretty soon...you can PM me if you are curious before then.

24th-Sleep in a bit; Chef Mickey's for a late bfast; DTD?; rest up for MNSSHP that evening Good plan! Eat at WPE for lunch. YUM! You will LOVE LOVE LOVE MNSSHP!!! It was a highlight of my 06 trip!

25th-DHS AM EMH; either Tutto or Coral Reef for dinner; IllumiNations at 9pm Nice. I bet both restaurants will be fabulous!

26th-Crystal Palace before the MK opens; maybe head to Epcot, DTD or go back for a swim; MK EMH (8pm-11pm); Wishes at 8pm I love walking into an empty MK. Aaahhh. It'll be fun to see what you end up doing in the afternoon. And Wishes to end it--perfect!

27th- AK AM EMH; 50's PTC for dinner; DHS EMH (7-10pm) Busy, busy day! But it'll be lots of fun I'm sure!

28th- EP AM EMH; 'Ohana for a later bfast; hotel for a swim?; back to Epcot; Cape May for dinner; maybe IllumiNations again? So 'Ohana instead of Kona? What made you decide that? We've never been to either for bfast--I'm just curious! I saw some pics of Cape May recently and it looks really good!

29th-Departure day ; since we don't have airfare yet, I have NO idea what we'll do this last morning Sad... But hopefully you'll have at least a little time to be in the parks before you leave!

So there you have it! Tutto Italia, Coral Reef and Cape May are at the top of the list for our Epcot evenings. A very close 2nd is Garden Grill or Teppan Edo. I guess it all depends on what I can get once my 180 days comes. Let me know what you guys think!

I think they sound great!!! ADRs are the greatest!

Staci-Thanks so much for all of your comments! We chose 'Ohana over Kona because we love character breakfasts. Even though we've never seen Lilo & Stitch (gasp!), Madison loves meeting all the characters.

I know that our plans make us look crazy (up late at night, wake up early for EMH), but it really works for us. Madison has never ever complained about being tired or her feet hurting while we're at WDW. Even last June when it was unbearably hot, she was such a little trooper. Besides, we never have trouble waking up early while at Disney! In June, we didn't get to utilize PM EMH very much because the parks were already open pretty late. We would get about an hour or so into EMH and we would be so tired! On our Jan 09 trip, we stayed off property so EMH wasn't even an option. The only really late nights will be the night of MNSSHP and MK EMH (midnight and 11pm). I don't even know if we'll stay at MK for the entire EMH. It all depends on how we feel!

 

[stacikristine]

Staci-Thanks so much for all of your comments! We chose 'Ohana over Kona because we love character breakfasts. Even though we've never seen Lilo & Stitch (gasp!), Madison loves meeting all the characters.

I know that our plans make us look crazy (up late at night, wake up early for EMH), but it really works for us. Madison has never ever complained about being tired or her feet hurting while we're at WDW. Even last June when it was unbearably hot, she was such a little trooper. Besides, we never have trouble waking up early while at Disney! In June, we didn't get to utilize PM EMH very much because the parks were already open pretty late. We would get about an hour or so into EMH and we would be so tired! On our Jan 09 trip, we stayed off property so EMH wasn't even an option. The only really late nights will be the night of MNSSHP and MK EMH (midnight and 11pm). I don't even know if we'll stay at MK for the entire EMH. It all depends on how we feel!

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about 'Ohana being a character breakfast! We didn't really pay much attention to the characters this trip, b/c we knew we would LOTS more in the future! Now that you reminded me, I remember hearing a lot of people loving the character interaction at 'Ohaha bfast! We stayed in the parks lots more than most people do too! We couldn't handle the late nights (we're usually in bed by 10:30 during the week), but we had no problem getting up early. I think that if your kids can handle it, go for it! We loved being in the parks as much as possible!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Oh yeah! I completely forgot about 'Ohana being a character breakfast! We didn't really pay much attention to the characters this trip, b/c we knew we would LOTS more in the future! Now that you reminded me, I remember hearing a lot of people loving the character interaction at 'Ohaha bfast! We stayed in the parks lots more than most people do too! We couldn't handle the late nights (we're usually in bed by 10:30 during the week), but we had no problem getting up early. I think that if your kids can handle it, go for it! We loved being in the parks as much as possible!

On a normal night, I usually can't fall asleep until around midnight. I think it's because I'm so active at night (dance practice, teaching dance) it's hard for me to wind down. On vacation, I usually fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow!

 

[klacey1]

Great plans, Meghan! That's the thing about Disney-- you'll never get to do EVERYTHING, but I think you guys will get a lot accomplished with your plans! A sleep-in day is ALWAYS good-- you'll be rested up for the party. I'm just glad you guys have more time this trip to get stuff done!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Great plans, Meghan! That's the thing about Disney-- you'll never get to do EVERYTHING, but I think you guys will get a lot accomplished with your plans! A sleep-in day is ALWAYS good-- you'll be rested up for the party. I'm just glad you guys have more time this trip to get stuff done!

On our June trip, we definately didn't get to do everything, but that was ok because on our Jan trip we did. I will never forget our 2nd MK day back in January (we didn't have hoppers). It was a Wed and the park was so empty! We really didn't have a plan at all. We wandered around a lot and just did whatever we wanted. I think the only things that had a "line" were Peter Pan (40 min), Splash Mtn and Space Mtn (which closed down for a bit). It was so wonderful to just take our time and enjoy the park. That's what I'm really hoping for on this trip!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Hi everyone! I don't have any news on the Disney front, but I wanted to post something anyways. On our Jan trip last year, I bought a 2009 scrapbook. I had never scrapbooked before, but I've always been interested. Upon returning home from our trip, I bought stickers and paper like a crazy person! But.....I never did anything with it. When we booked our 2nd trip for 2009, I again went nuts buying even more stickers and papers. It was just so much fun walking down the aisles of the craft stores looking at all of the scrapbooking stuff. Around the middle of July, I finally uploaded all of my pics onto Walmart.com and ordered them through there. They arrived fairly quickly and I didn't have to pay too much for them either. I still had no idea what I was doing, so everything just sat in my closet gathering dust.

My DH constantly asked when I was going to start scrapbooking. I told him I would talk to my mom (a wonderful scrapbooker) and work out a time to get together. Yeah.....that never really happened. Fast forward to Feb 2010. I still hadn't done any work on my scrapbook. I finally decided to go to Target and print out 2 cd's worth of Photopass pictures. Not the best idea.....it was pretty expensive there. Next time, I will go to Walmart (my least fav store in the entire world) because their pictures are much cheaper.

Once I had ALL of my trip pictures, I called my mom (finally). Over our mid-winter break (the week of President's day), my mom came over and brought a ton of her supplies with her (scissors, papers, stickers, paper cutters). She taught me a non-stressful way to scrapbook. We first picked out which pictures would go on a page (I decided to go day by day of our vaca) and then we picked out a paper to complement them. We then pawed through my massive amount of stickers to go with the pics. After all that had been decided, she took a piece of notebook paper, folded it in half, put the pics/stickers/paper inside of it and then wrote on the outside what it was (for example: Princess Breakfast). We did this for almost 1/2 of my January pics. We then layed them on in the scrapbook to make sure it flowed how I wanted it to. By doing this technique, it would save a lot of time later.

Well, I definately got hit by the scrapbooking bug because over the next 3 days, I completely finished by 1st scrapbook! I worked on it for about 3 hours each day. I was so proud of myself and whenver someone would come over, I would pull it out and show it to them. After putting it off for so long, it felt so good to be done with it. Since I had finished it so quickly, I decided to take some time off before I started my June trip. I just started on June yesterday evening and I am well on my way. It was a shorter trip, but I feel like I have a ton more pictures. I am happy to say that I worked on it again and I have completed so much! I hope to finish laying out my pages tonight, but I don't know if I will be able to work on it again this week. I have to work tomorrow and then I'm volunteering at the Irish Center on Friday for a luncheon that they're having. Sat & Sun are parades, so it looks like it will have to wait until Monday.

Thanks for letting me ramble on about my new love of scrapbooking. Maybe I will take some pics of some of the pages and post them on here.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Congrats!!
Isn't scrapbooking fun??? It's also addicting! It sounds like your mom taught you a good way to organize and then assemble. I try to do that too! I'd love to see some of it if you could take some pictures to post!

My biggest problem is finding chunks of time to get it done! That's why my girls' weekends are great for that! The last one I went on I did 75 pages of Sarah's album.

 

[tinkgurl]

I love looking at scrapbooks! I just wish I could be that creative. PLEASE take pics of yours!

 

[stacikristine]

How exciting! I LOVE scrapbooking, but I haven't even started my college album--not to mention our wedding, Disney, or our first year of marriage.... Goodness. I have SOOO much to catch up on!

Please, please post pictures! I'd love to see your pages!

 

[Monny2AE]

From one addicted scrapper to another...PLEASE SHARE!!!!!!!!

Before I went digital, I ordered my pics through Shutterfly. I always waited until they had a free shipping promo and then ordered tons all at once. I liked Walmart but sometimes the pics would come out a little darker than they should have.

Welcome to the addiction!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Congrats!!
Isn't scrapbooking fun??? It's also addicting! It sounds like your mom taught you a good way to organize and then assemble. I try to do that too! I'd love to see some of it if you could take some pictures to post!

My biggest problem is finding chunks of time to get it done! That's why my girls' weekends are great for that! The last one I went on I did 75 pages of Sarah's album.

Wow! 75 pages!!! That is awesome. It is very addicting and I can't wait to finish my June trip. I think I have about 11 pages left to finish.

I love looking at scrapbooks! I just wish I could be that creative. PLEASE take pics of yours!

I will take some pics when I get the time. I promise!

How exciting! I LOVE scrapbooking, but I haven't even started my college album--not to mention our wedding, Disney, or our first year of marriage.... Goodness. I have SOOO much to catch up on!

Please, please post pictures! I'd love to see your pages!

These are the 1st scrapbooks I've ever done. I have pics of Madison from birth- about 3 years old in photo boxes. After 3, I have them in Kodak galleries online. Someday, I will do a scrapbook for her. I'm thinking about what my mom did for me and my sisters. She gave us scrapbooks as HS graduation gifts and they're beautiful! She has birth through Senior year of HS and all the things we did inbetween.

From one addicted scrapper to another...PLEASE SHARE!!!!!!!!

Before I went digital, I ordered my pics through Shutterfly. I always waited until they had a free shipping promo and then ordered tons all at once. I liked Walmart but sometimes the pics would come out a little darker than they should have.

Welcome to the addiction!

I will share pics of my scrapbooks soon. I'll try not to leave you hanging for too long!

 

[swwake]

Congrats on getting so much done so quickly! Maybe you'll inspire me. I have almost 18 years of pictures and memorabilia in several boxes (organized by year, at least), with the promise that I'll eventually finish Katie's scrapbook. She laughs about it. It's all about finding (or making) the time. I would love to see pics of some of your finished product!