If I say it out loud, will my wish come true.. PTR May 2011(Link to TR pg41)

[pinkxray]

Oh my gosh! In my opinion, EMHM are awesome!! Especially if you have Park Hoppers! That is really one of the main reasons we stay on-site (that and I absolutely LOVE it!!). Our normal plans for our summer vaca is to get to the parks early then take a mid-day break at the resort pool (and possibly a nap) and then head back to the parks for the evening (EMHE if they're not too busy, but hey! If they are you can always "hop" to another park!).

I have decided to add a few EMH to our schedule. Who knows if we'll stay onsite again? I got the park hoppers but we don't seem to be hopping much in our schedule. I think I have one day where the park hoppers would be helpful.

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Okay, so maybe dining is NOT finalized!
We would do EMH, but we always seem to need to be in a different park on those days. The only time we've used EMH was when we didn't mean to--they added an EMH day to Epcot once that wasn't on the schedule(or at least wasn't on the one I wrote down before leaving home...), so we showed up early for the 9am opening only to find out they opened at 8. At least we got to use most of that hour, and it was wide open!

 

[pinkxray]

Okay, so maybe dining is NOT finalized!
We would do EMH, but we always seem to need to be in a different park on those days. The only time we've used EMH was when we didn't mean to--they added an EMH day to Epcot once that wasn't on the schedule(or at least wasn't on the one I wrote down before leaving home...), so we showed up early for the 9am opening only to find out they opened at 8. At least we got to use most of that hour, and it was wide open!

Caitlin is driving me crazy with her constant mind changing! I need to just fit everything in and be done with it. I've gotten almost everything arranged the way I liked. The thing that is giving me the most trouble is fitting in Sci-fi twice. I am going to try to convince Caitlin that we only need to do it once but we'll see.

 

[Nermel9]

I like moring EMH, espeically at AK since that's the park I want to spend the least amount of time in, I'd rather get everything finished there early and get out!

You should have told me you wanted to look at touring plans, I have a subscription, you could have just used mine!

 

[Queila]

I only used EMH once and it was a morning one at AK.

We headed straight to the safari but by the time we were actually done the hour was already finished.

It was great to be able to beat the crowds to the safari early morning but since it is such a time consuming ride I did not come out with the feeling that we made the MOST out of that hour, you know what I mean??

 

[dtr_angel]

I highly recommend at least trying out the morning EMH, especially if this is the last time you are staying on site for a while!

My DH & I are not morning people on vacation, but when we do making morning EMH we are always amazed at how many rides or attractions we can accomplish in a short amount of time!

 

[pinkxray]

I like moring EMH, espeically at AK since that's the park I want to spend the least amount of time in, I'd rather get everything finished there early and get out!

You should have told me you wanted to look at touring plans, I have a subscription, you could have just used mine!

I didn't even think about asking you. About 2 days later I was sitting here and realized I could have just asked you. I think I just like to waste money.

I only used EMH once and it was a morning one at AK.

We headed straight to the safari but by the time we were actually done the hour was already finished.

It was great to be able to beat the crowds to the safari early morning but since it is such a time consuming ride I did not come out with the feeling that we made the MOST out of that hour, you know what I mean??

That's a good point about the safari. It will probably eat away at the hour.

I highly recommend at least trying out the morning EMH, especially if this is the last time you are staying on site for a while!

My DH & I are not morning people on vacation, but when we do making morning EMH we are always amazed at how many rides or attractions we can accomplish in a short amount of time!

I am trying to get in at least EMH in the morning but since we are doing a bunch a TS breakfast it is hard to fit one in.

 

[pinkxray]

5 weeks until we are in Disney


I have spent the last few days basically tossing all of my plans and starting from scratch. After talking to Caitlin who now wants to eat with all the characters, and talking to DH about when we'll go to Disney next I decided to just upgrade to the dxdp for a few extra days to get in the character meals Caitlin wants to do. There have been a few adrs that have been throw out such as RFC and Kona breakfast but Caitlin will only be 6 once right?

I am now 1 stinking ADR from having my plans together. I just need to get a CM dinner adr and I'll be good. I found a CM breakfast time but we would need to cancel our breakfast at Boma to fit it in. I asked Caitlin and she picked Boma. If we don't get CM we will mostly likely end up at the Plaza, WCC, or Tonys. It will depend on what I can get at 6pm the night I need it. Right now I have the Plaza at 5pm, but would much rather have 6pm. There are other places open but I want something in MK or WL/CR so we don't have to spend much time getting there.

I'll want until I get that final ADR picked before I post our new plans.

I called yesterday to add the dxdp to our first 3 nights at VWL. Since I had just purchased gift cards to pay for dining I was unsure if we would be able to upgrade, but we could use the gift cards to pay for the dxdp.

I tried to fit in some EMH in the morning but it is hard to do when you are doing a character breakfast almost everyday.

 

[tinacaplan]

5 weeks until we are in Disney


I have spent the last few days basically tossing all of my plans and starting from scratch. After talking to Caitlin who now wants to eat with all the characters, and talking to DH about when we'll go to Disney next I decided to just upgrade to the dxdp for a few extra days to get in the character meals Caitlin wants to do. There have been a few adrs that have been throw out such as RFC and Kona breakfast but Caitlin will only be 6 once right?

I am now 1 stinking ADR from having my plans together. I just need to get a CM dinner adr and I'll be good. I found a CM breakfast time but we would need to cancel our breakfast at Boma to fit it in. I asked Caitlin and she picked Boma. If we don't get CM we will mostly likely end up at the Plaza, WCC, or Tonys. It will depend on what I can get at 6pm the night I need it. Right now I have the Plaza at 5pm, but would much rather have 6pm. There are other places open but I want something in MK or WL/CR so we don't have to spend much time getting there.

I'll want until I get that final ADR picked before I post our new plans.

I called yesterday to add the dxdp to our first 3 nights at VWL. Since I had just purchased gift cards to pay for dining I was unsure if we would be able to upgrade, but we could use the gift cards to pay for the dxdp.

I tried to fit in some EMH in the morning but it is hard to do when you are doing a character breakfast almost everyday.

Wow...just five more weeks! That is super exciting! We didn't do any morning EMHs because we did so many character breakfasts, pre-park opening. I have recently asked Max what characters he wants to see again, and he says he doesn't want to see any! Of course, he's only three and a half, so I take everything he says with a very large grain of salt. And yay for upgrading to the DxDP! Its fun, that's for sure. Also nice to have all those snack credits, too.

 

[pinkxray]

Wow...just five more weeks! That is super exciting! We didn't do any morning EMHs because we did so many character breakfasts, pre-park opening. I have recently asked Max what characters he wants to see again, and he says he doesn't want to see any! Of course, he's only three and a half, so I take everything he says with a very large grain of salt. And yay for upgrading to the DxDP! Its fun, that's for sure. Also nice to have all those snack credits, too.

I don't think we will be able to make it to any morning EMH hours either since I added a bunch of ts breakfast.

Caitlin said no characters too and look how that turned out.

I am excited to do the dxdp again. Once I started adding on the character meals there was no way OOP would be cheaper. Characters meal prices are insane. Plus I was going to spend $60 for a garden grocer order and now I don't need to. Between the mugs and snack credits hopefully there won't be any OOP costs. I'm not looking forward to the extra tips but I calculated the extra costs and it really isn't that much. If we were going back soon I would not do so many character meals but since we aren't going back until Caitlin is 9 it's now or never. Plus if we skip any meals there is always room service.

 

[ksl5f123]

Goodness. I miss a week of reading your PTR and you go from everything set to starting all over again. Those 6 year olds just can't seem to give us a consistent story, can they? BTW, I think it is GREAT that you are going to be able to do more character dining. I agree, they are only young once and who knows how they will feel about these things in a year or two (or a month or two for that matter).

I am looking forward to seeing the new plan.

 

[Moira222]

Weight Watchers Weigh In

Week 1 -2.2
Week 2 -.8
That's great!!!

Today was my second weigh in since recommitting to WW. It has been going very well. I’m happy with the weight I lost but really I am more concerned with being more active and just eating healthier. I’ve been walking/ jogging almost every other day. I’ve been doing between 3.5-5.5 miles and trying to increase the jogging portions.

Earlier this week I set out to do 4 miles, but when I got to the road to turn that makes me loop back around it was blocked by a huge clock of wild turkeys. There are woods on each side of the road and there were turkeys on both sides of the road, plus a stream of them crossing the road. Rather than mess with them I just keep going. Once I got home I logged my route and it was 5.5 miles. I have to say that once I finished I felt great. Earlier this year I started jogging on my treadmill b/c I hated being out on the road. I was too worried about who might see me huffing and puffing with my flab jiggling, but I have to say I just don’t care anymore. I just feel too good at the end of my walk to care what people who drive by think.

Also with the latest weigh in I have reached a pretty big milestone for me. Based on my BMI, I am now back to normal weight. I have not been “normal” weight since I became pregnant with Caitlin. I have been close at times but I just haven’t gotten there. I still need to lose more so that I am not a slice of pizza away from being overweight though.

I have also been tracking measurements in case I don’t see a loss on week. For some reason when I lose weight the roll around my midsection is the last to budge. Today I measured and I lost an inch off my waist. This also brings me down past the waist measurement that they recommend to stay under to avoid all types of health issues.

I have to say that I feel great and have much more energy. DH is impressed and when he came home yesterday to find me on the floor doing sit ups, he asked me what is motivating me. Honestly, I don’t even know. It started just wanting to lose some weight for Disney, but now I don’t really know. I guess I just realize it has taken me 6 years to get back to where I was before I had Caitlin. I am almost 29 and hope to have another kid or 2 in the next few years. After that I doubt I will have the time, energy or drive to do this all over again. I guess I just want to enjoy being young(er) and normal weight while I can.

I also hope to get pregnant sometime this year and I figure the healthier I go into it, the better it will go. Also, if I go into it walking 15 miles a week it will be much easier to stay active during pregnancy.

Wow.. I really rambled away, didn’t I?
Guess I’m a bit excited. I called DH when I weighed myself. “Guess what I weigh… I’m normal weight.. How does it feel not having an overweight wife?”
“Um, good I guess?”



Caitlin also had a big day yesterday.

She got her gold belt in karate. (You start with white, next is gold)

Last night was also the Father/Daughter dance at her school. DH and DD received the award for best dancers. They love to practice dancing and DH spins and throws Caitlin all over the place. I guess all the practice paid off.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Wow congrats on your big achievement!! You have to feel really proud of yourself for getting back to "normal" . I don't think even at my thinnest ever I have been below the "overweight" mark.... Way to Go!!!!

Musta been daddy daughter dance week, huh? Your DH & DD look so sweet in the pics. Congrats to Caitlin for her new belt.Don't tell Katie because she has been asking for Karate classes....we just need more budge in the budget.



so did you get your ME package yet?

 

[Moira222]

Last night Caitlin and I were on the computer looking at some Disney stuff and I came across a picture of the kid's Mickey sundae at the Plaza. I showed her and she got all excited about getting it and then asked "What characters are there?" Seriously?!?!?!

Since I have been under the assumption she wants no character meals I only had 2 left in my plans- Akershus and Cape May. So I ask her which character she wants to eat with.

"All the characters." Her #1 choice - 'Ohana with Lilo and Stitch which has not been on the list at all in my planning.

I shuffled around a few things and we are having a 7:40 breakfast with Lilo and Stitch.




I also broke down and purchased the touring plans subscribtion. Of course none of my parks match the best parks on the best days. I am not too worried since the crowd predictions for the parks I have aren't too bad.

But I got to thinking... we are staying on site. Who knows if we will stay on site next time. DH and DD liked the 2 bedroom offsite villa we had last year and I'm sure on day we will end up at a Universal resort for at least part of our stay. Shouldn't I try to squeeze in some morning EMH. We have never done them and I think being in AK at 8am sounds pretty cool. Head right to the Safari?


Anyway, I guess my question to everyone is....how do you feel about morning EMH. Plan them in or avoid them? We will have park hoppers so we would most likely do the EMH in whatever park and once it gets busy, head somewhere else.

now I see how Caitlin messed up your plans. Sorry, but you know it is funny girls.!

I love doing the EMH morning hours. we are more the morning people so we love getting there early, getting in before the mobs. I am going to try to get in an extra EMH am at the AK with Katie later in the week -- we'll catch up with Joe elsewhere but I am really hoping to do the safari first thing with Katie.

 

[AKL LOVER]

I don't think we will be able to make it to any morning EMH hours either since I added a bunch of ts breakfast.

Have you thought about making a breakfast ADR for a little after EMH hours are over in the morning? We are doing that a couple of days. For example, EMH at MK then breakfast at CRT at 10:20. It's a nice way to sit and take a break after getting a couple hours of rides in! Just a thought!

 

[pinkxray]

Goodness. I miss a week of reading your PTR and you go from everything set to starting all over again. Those 6 year olds just can't seem to give us a consistent story, can they? BTW, I think it is GREAT that you are going to be able to do more character dining. I agree, they are only young once and who knows how they will feel about these things in a year or two (or a month or two for that matter).

I am looking forward to seeing the new plan.

I am just glad I never finalized my travel notebook. It would have gone right in the trash. I am excited about doing some extra character meals but trying to find the times I want on the days I want isn't getting any easier as our trip gets closer. I have an okay line up now, but am going to keep checking onine for better times.

Wow congrats on your big achievement!! You have to feel really proud of yourself for getting back to "normal" . I don't think even at my thinnest ever I have been below the "overweight" mark.... Way to Go!!!!

Musta been daddy daughter dance week, huh? Your DH & DD look so sweet in the pics. Congrats to Caitlin for her new belt.Don't tell Katie because she has been asking for Karate classes....we just need more budge in the budget.



so did you get your ME package yet?

now I see how Caitlin messed up your plans. Sorry, but you know it is funny girls.!

I love doing the EMH morning hours. we are more the morning people so we love getting there early, getting in before the mobs. I am going to try to get in an extra EMH am at the AK with Katie later in the week -- we'll catch up with Joe elsewhere but I am really hoping to do the safari first thing with Katie.

I have been normal a few days this week and overweight others. I had an awful WW week last week. Too much going on and no motivation. I decided yesterday after having a fantastic meal from Five Guys to just do the old WW plan until the trip. I am sure the new one works but with only 5 weeks left I can't handle the learning curve right now. Hopefully sticking with the old way will be better for the time being.

No ME for us. We always rent a car. I am so jealous of everyone who gets Mickey Mail. I would love to rely on ME but we go offsite so much it is cheaper to rent a car than rely on taxis to get us to Universal and other places.

Have you thought about making a breakfast ADR for a little after EMH hours are over in the morning? We are doing that a couple of days. For example, EMH at MK then breakfast at CRT at 10:20. It's a nice way to sit and take a break after getting a couple hours of rides in! Just a thought!

I was thinking of that but most I guess everyone else has that idea too. I even tried Yak and Yeti for an early lunch on AK EMH and it was a no go. That's what I get changing everything 5 weeks out.

 

[AKL LOVER]

I was thinking of that but most I guess everyone else has that idea too. I even tried Yak and Yeti for an early lunch on AK EMH and it was a no go. That's what I get changing everything 5 weeks out.

I had a feeling you were going to say that you couldn't get ADR times for then. Crowd levels are going to be lower anyway, so even if you can't do EMH, you'll still be in the parks early which puts you at an advantage over people sleeping in!

And keep checking for those later ADR's...you never know when you might get lucky, even if it was only for 1 or 2 days out of your trip. That May 2011 canceled ADR thread has been really busy lately!!

Good luck!

 

[pinkxray]

I had a feeling you were going to say that you couldn't get ADR times for then. Crowd levels are going to be lower anyway, so even if you can't do EMH, you'll still be in the parks early which puts you at an advantage over people sleeping in!

And keep checking for those later ADR's...you never know when you might get lucky, even if it was only for 1 or 2 days out of your trip. That May 2011 canceled ADR thread has been really busy lately!!

Good luck!

Thanks The Disney dining website has been open pretty much whenever my computer is on. If I was a bit more flexible on my days I could have pretty much found everything I want, but I would rather like my park schedule than start switching around my days again around ADRs. I have an ADR for every meal I need, but I wouldn't mind if CRT or CM happened to open up. I did find CRT for our last day but I wasn't planning on being near MK that day so I dropped it.

If I end up with what I have know I'll be happy enough. It is crazy how when you check the website multiple times there is always something new on there, so we'll see.

 

[pinkxray]

The other day Lifelong Dreamer listed this info in her pre-trip report. Once I saw it I knew I had to add a full day at EPCOT to our arrival weekend. Originally we were just go to pop over for a few hours on our first night, but the chance to see Remy, Emile, Boo, Carl And Dug, Wall-e and Bullseye made me have to switch our EPCOT days. Ratatouille is one of my favorite movies ever and I love the rest of the Pixar movies. I am a bit worried EPCOT will be very busy, but I just don’t care!
http://attractionsmagazine.com/blog...-weekend-of-epcot-flower-and-garden-festival/


Disney has big plans for their Pixar characters the weekend of May 13 to 15, 2011. That’s the last few days of the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival and it’s dubbed Disney-Pixar Weekend.

Although Disney hasn’t officially released much information about the event, an Attractions fan (JL_Davis on Twitter), told us they’re planning on having multiple meet and greet areas with Pixar characters all around Epcot. This includes some characters never before seen at Walt Disney World. This is also the same weekend the Cars Tour 2011 will be stopping at Downtown Disney.

• Banners will be hung at the Epcot auto plaza designating it Disney-Pixar Weekend.

• The Green Army Men from Toy Story will be at the Epcot entrance handing out maps to all the character locations.

• Carl, Russell, and Dug will be appearing at the fountain stage, along with an Up inflatable house.

• Mike, Sulley, Boo, Smitty, Needleman and George from Monsters Inc. will be at the Universe of Energy.

• Mr. and Mrs. Incredible from The Incredibles will appear at Innoventions West along with Frozone.

• Wall-E will be meeting guests at Mission Space.

• Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater and the Rust-eze girls from Cars 2 will be at Test Track.

• Living Coral stiltwalkers will be appearing at The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

• Flik, Atta, Gypsy and Slim from A Bug’s Life will be at Village Traders in World Showcase.

• Remy and Emile from Ratatouille will be appearing in the France Pavilion.

• Buzz, Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, Lotso and Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story 3 will be at the American Adventure.

• A theater will be set up at World Showplace with a “garden” of photo stills from the Pixar movies. Guests will be able to listen to informal discussions from Pixar and sneak peeks at Cars 2. There will also a Pixar gift shop set up with some exclusive merchandise.

• Watch for the Cars 2 logo on Spaceship Earth after Illuminations.

In addition to the weekend events at Epcot, the Cars Tour 2011 will be stopping at Downtown Disney. (Click Here to see if the tour is coming to a town near you.) At the tour stop, fans can meet Lightning McQueen, Tow Mater, Finn McMissile and Mac Truck. There is expected to be a inflatable obstacle course and a classic car show.

As always, everything is subject to change as the event draws near. But it looks like a great photo-op weekend.




In ADR news, I have been stalking the dining website for a week and am close to finalizing my dining plans. I was just on the website and I was able to book

CRT for 9:25 am!!!! I am so excited!! Not as great as 8:05, but at least we get to still see the rope drop show which I wanted to catch.

PIXAR weekend and CRT. Could this trip get any better???!!! I don’t think so!

 

[KatMark]

Diane, the PIXAR weekend sounds awesome. I do have to admit we've not seen a lot of those movies, but I love the guys from Monsters, Inc. And congrats on your CRT ressie.

 

[dtr_angel]

Oh my goodness that is SO awesome! I'm so jealous! If I had known when we booked our trip that I was taking my final on 5/12 instead of 5/16, we would've been there on the 14th. I hope you have fun and can't wait to see your pictures!!!