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

[Queila]

Jetblue released their prices yesterday. I was really hoping they would have a cheaper return flight but that didn't happen.

Right now for the flight from Bradley to MCO SW is the cheapest at $79. I am thinking I should just go ahead and book this since I doubt I'll find a better price.

On our way home SW is 156, JetBlue is 144, and Delta is only $79. I know Delta has baggage fees, but we would only check 1 bag so it would still be cheaper. I think maybe I'll just book the SW fare down and wait a bit for the return flight.

I seem to be alone here but if anyone has any opionions on Delta please let me know



I guess I'll keep Disney talk green and life stuff purple.
I am officially starting my diet today. I am hoping to lose about 20lbs before our trip. As I mentioned I starting walking/jogging 3 times a week in Aug. I seem to have lost of few rolls of fat around my hips and my thighs are smaller but I haven't lost any weight Now, I am going to incorporate healthy eating and hopefully this will change.

Wow! It is amazing how much cheaper it is to fly within the States. I am happy when I find a 300$ ticket to Orlando from Montreal.

How is the weight loss thing going? I lost 20 pounds on the last 3 months by joining weight watchres. I became a believer. Haha!

Back to reading some more.

 

[Queila]

All caught up. Oh man... what a roller coaster... I am happy you decided to take it easy. It is supposed to be a vacation after all. And I agree, when you start having to pull kids out of the pool and waking everybody super early for an ADR part of the fun is gone. Good for you.

You guys are going to have such a good time at your hotels. Isn't renting DVC points the greatest thing ever??
Apparently we will be at Epcot and Animal Kingdom at the same time. I don't plan on starting a PTR (I suck at it) but I will try to post my plans for May in my TR soon.

See you!
Q

 

[Nermel9]

I think maybe California Grill would be a good one to start with. Yachtsmen does look good, but it just seems a little boring. Plus, if I am going to annoy John I may as well go all the way.

I am surprised you guys haven't tried a signature yet. Maybe Brandon will love it and want to do all of them. There goes your shot of ever doing away with the dining plan. You'll have to start getting the dxdp.

Yeah I think I'm definitely gonna do California Grill in October, maybe the first night we are there or something, I'm not sure, since I won't be able to check park hours for another 5 years!

I would like to try the deluxe dining plan but I don't think I'd like going to so many ADR's every day, sometimes I can't even handle one! I like eating at the restaurants but I don't like having to be places at a certain time, and if you ever feel like going to a different park, forget it!

I saw you're starting a diet, I'm joining weight watchers on Friday, I want to lose 70 pounds before my trip. And I'm gonna do the Couch to 5K thing once it gets a little warmer and I can run outside. That should be interesting.

 

[pinkxray]

Wow! It is amazing how much cheaper it is to fly within the States. I am happy when I find a 300$ ticket to Orlando from Montreal.

How is the weight loss thing going? I lost 20 pounds on the last 3 months by joining weight watchres. I became a believer. Haha!

Back to reading some more.

All caught up. Oh man... what a roller coaster... I am happy you decided to take it easy. It is supposed to be a vacation after all. And I agree, when you start having to pull kids out of the pool and waking everybody super early for an ADR part of the fun is gone. Good for you.

You guys are going to have such a good time at your hotels. Isn't renting DVC points the greatest thing ever??
Apparently we will be at Epcot and Animal Kingdom at the same time. I don't plan on starting a PTR (I suck at it) but I will try to post my plans for May in my TR soon.

See you!
Q

I am pretty happy with the airfare. When I was trying to get us to Disney in Feb. they were like 500? a person. That's one reason we're going in May instead.


Weight loss? Ha! I did so good for awhile and then when I stopped training for the half marathon I just sort of quit.

I tried the new weight watchers plan and I don't like it. I guess I am used to the old way of counting points. I was just looking over the materials this weekend trying to figure it out so I could try it again. I really like the old way better. Jan. has been a tough month for me, I feel like I have been sick all month. I finally feel better and actually ran today! Hopefully I'll get back to it soon. I still have 3 months to go. We'll see.

I will love renting points as long as my reservations are on file when we check in!

I did add a few dinner adrs, but I will not stress about them . If we are in EPCOT on Sun. at 5 we will have dinner, if we miss it that's fine too.

I got called into work early so I once had a chance to skim your trip report. AKL looks great! I really want to try Boma or Sanaa but am so scared I won't like it. I am thinking Boma might be better b/c at least everyone will find something they like.

 

[pinkxray]

Yeah I think I'm definitely gonna do California Grill in October, maybe the first night we are there or something, I'm not sure, since I won't be able to check park hours for another 5 years!

I would like to try the deluxe dining plan but I don't think I'd like going to so many ADR's every day, sometimes I can't even handle one! I like eating at the restaurants but I don't like having to be places at a certain time, and if you ever feel like going to a different park, forget it!

I saw you're starting a diet, I'm joining weight watchers on Friday, I want to lose 70 pounds before my trip. And I'm gonna do the Couch to 5K thing once it gets a little warmer and I can run outside. That should be interesting.

That was from when I started my diet awhile ago. I was going to restart this week though. Have you seen the new plan. I don't like that I don't know how to calculate the points. I guess you get used to it but it seems harder to keep track to me.

Since I haven't ran all month I did a day from couch to 5 k today. I really liked it. Just so you know when I did it I ended up doing certain days a lot more than the 3 days they say. It took my awhile to finally make it through 30 non stop minutes. It was like the stars had to be aligned. If you can't do a day just keep repeating it or go back to the week before.

 

[crostorfer]

I am going to have to go back and check out your food report again.

Didn't you try HDDR? I am thinking of having a non planned arrival day and doing HDDR at 7:15. Is it worth it or should I just book WCC for dinner since we won't have to leave the resort?


Remember all of our talk about a full timer breaking a leg or something? There are 4 full timers on the 4-12 shift. One of them had to have emergency surgery last week and will be out for at least 2 months. His wife is one of the other full timers 4-12 so she will be out for a few weeks. There are so many 4-12 shifts available, I could pretty much work full time the next month and a half. Too bad I hate 4-12. I did sign up for about 3 each week just b/c I feel really bad for him and wanted to help out.

Diane, we have so much in common, it's frightening, LOL. I am doing Couch to 5K too, I'm on Week 2, workout 3 today. I'm getting ready to go and run in a minute here, I was just waiting for the rain to stop.

We didn't do HDDR, not really our thing and the menu didn't have anything on it that I thought Kassidy would eat. People seem to love it though, if you guys go there I hope you do too!

Wow, I was just kidding about taking people's knees out, but it seems like it is going to work out for you, LOL!!! I used to hate working 3-11, but money is money. Do you get shift diff? That always makes it just a little nicer.

I got my plans finally all set. We're arriving on the 14th. I was going to stay at Universal for 2 nights but I decided against it. We are at the Beach Club, water view from the 14th to the 20th. I would like to go back to Universal but I think we'll just cab over there for one day again like we did last time. This is what our dining plans look like:

Saturday night: Winging it with no ressies. Probably ESPN

Sunday: Once again, winging it. Counter service wherever in Epcot. I might see if I can snag an early Akershus here in a second.

Monday: Dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel for Illuminations

Tuesday: 8:05 Breakfast at Tusker House, 8:00pm dinner at Ohana. (although I will cancel Ohana if I can snag a Wishes Dessert Party, since we have eaten there before.)

Wednesday: 7:45 Dinner at Cape May Cafe (This will probably be our Universal day.)

Thursday: BBB at 8:00am. (Groan). 9:15 breakfast at 1900 Park Fair. 7:30pm dinner at Via Napoli.

Friday: 11:30am lunch at Le Cellier

Girl, I am so excited for the Le Cellier I just about can't contain myself.

 

[crostorfer]

AND, we both just cancelled Ohana ressies, LOL. I JUST got a Wishes Dessert Party, they finally opened up for May. 8pm on the 17th.

 

[KatMark]

After just reading Tina's post I just took a shot in the dark and checked the availabilty for Callifornia Grill and there was a 7:30 time available. Wishes goes off at 9. It would be so easy to take the boat from WL to CR. I guess CG is getting added to choices.

We've never done the California Grill. If I'm not mistaken, Nicki went last year and was not happy with it at all (she could have hit a bad night...you might want to check out her last two reports to see if you can find her review).

 

[pinkxray]

Diane, we have so much in common, it's frightening, LOL. I am doing Couch to 5K too, I'm on Week 2, workout 3 today. I'm getting ready to go and run in a minute here, I was just waiting for the rain to stop.

We didn't do HDDR, not really our thing and the menu didn't have anything on it that I thought Kassidy would eat. People seem to love it though, if you guys go there I hope you do too!

Wow, I was just kidding about taking people's knees out, but it seems like it is going to work out for you, LOL!!! I used to hate working 3-11, but money is money. Do you get shift diff? That always makes it just a little nicer.

I got my plans finally all set. We're arriving on the 14th. I was going to stay at Universal for 2 nights but I decided against it. We are at the Beach Club, water view from the 14th to the 20th. I would like to go back to Universal but I think we'll just cab over there for one day again like we did last time. This is what our dining plans look like:

Saturday night: Winging it with no ressies. Probably ESPN

Sunday: Once again, winging it. Counter service wherever in Epcot. I might see if I can snag an early Akershus here in a second.

Monday: Dinner at La Hacienda de San Angel for Illuminations

Tuesday: 8:05 Breakfast at Tusker House, 8:00pm dinner at Ohana. (although I will cancel Ohana if I can snag a Wishes Dessert Party, since we have eaten there before.)

Wednesday: 7:45 Dinner at Cape May Cafe (This will probably be our Universal day.)

Thursday: BBB at 8:00am. (Groan). 9:15 breakfast at 1900 Park Fair. 7:30pm dinner at Via Napoli.

Friday: 11:30am lunch at Le Cellier

Girl, I am so excited for the Le Cellier I just about can't contain myself.

I am really kicking myself for not booking the BCV the whole trip. With all the snow we have been having lately I have been dreaming of the BC while I shovel. I have to say WL doesn't really pop into my head. Oh well, live and learn.

For some reason I thought you did HDDR. I think we are going to skip it and go to Ohana instead. In the spirit of my go with the flow trip at least we can cancel Ohana if we want. Plus I have watched the clips on youtube and it just doesn't seem funny to me. Maybe you have to be there to really get into it?

We do get shift differential for night and then extra for weekends. I'm telling you if I do a 4-12 on a weekend I have to repeat to myself night/weekend differential, night/weekend differntial to make it through. Then, I calculate how much it actually is and think of what I can spend that on in Disney. Pathetic, I know.

There are so many open nights and so few people to help cover them I know that my boss is going to end up posting a lot of them as overtime pay. I am working Sat. 4-12 with even/ weekend differential and she posted it as time and a half since no one would take it. Hmmm.. what will that buy me at Disney?

I have been slacking with the running so I am starting over at week 4. At least I am doing something. I am jealous you only have rain, once again it is snowing today and most likely tomorrow.

Your plans look great. So relaxed! I want to try the Wishes Dessert Party but I am not paying for DH and Caitlin to go and not eat anything. How did I get stuck with these people who don't eat dessert. Now if they would just install a self serve ice cream station that would be another story.

 

[pinkxray]

AND, we both just cancelled Ohana ressies, LOL. I JUST got a Wishes Dessert Party, they finally opened up for May. 8pm on the 17th.

We've never done the California Grill. If I'm not mistaken, Nicki went last year and was not happy with it at all (she could have hit a bad night...you might want to check out her last two reports to see if you can find her review).

Darn it people! Just when I think I have my plans in order I read these comments. I am so easily influenced. I don't know what to do about Cali Grill. We could replace it with Ohana and then we will have an open night for the Dessert Party. I think that maybe the family would be happier going to Ohana.

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Just read your PTR and am in for the journey!
I know it's so frustrating not knowing which plans to keep/cancel! I think I ended up canceling Boma to try O'hana in hopes of seeing Wishes. It was a total disaster! Late seating, crummy view, yucky food. I wasn't totally impressed, but I know there are people out there who LOVE it! Our surprise enjoyment was Garden Grill in the Land! Everything was so delicious!!
I'm hoping to get a trip planned for this summer (ssshhh, hubby doesn't know yet). Last time I was 16 weeks pregnant and got totally cheated! Hubby promised to take me back, so hopefully this summer will be it!

 

[pinkxray]

Just read your PTR and am in for the journey!
I know it's so frustrating not knowing which plans to keep/cancel! I think I ended up canceling Boma to try O'hana in hopes of seeing Wishes. It was a total disaster! Late seating, crummy view, yucky food. I wasn't totally impressed, but I know there are people out there who LOVE it! Our surprise enjoyment was Garden Grill in the Land! Everything was so delicious!!
I'm hoping to get a trip planned for this summer (ssshhh, hubby doesn't know yet). Last time I was 16 weeks pregnant and got totally cheated! Hubby promised to take me back, so hopefully this summer will be it!

We really liked the food at Ohana last year. The issue was that I booked it late on our arrival night after we had been up since 3am. I would love to give it another shot. Plus, I love seeing the Poly.

I want to try Garden Grill so bad, but DD refuses to go. I have showed her cute pictures and still no. We were watching a Chip and Dale cartoon that aired before Phineas and Ferb and I tried convincing her that we needed to eat with Chip and Dale. "Plus you get to see Pluto and Mickey in his farmer outfit" NO MOM! I was going to just book it anyway but she said no character meals and I accidentally booked two character breakfast.

You have to take another trip. I was considering waiting until Oct. to take the trip and would love to be pregnant by then. I was thinking maybe I could just make the trip pregnant and then I started reading about all the rides you can't do. I am sure it is nice to just be in Disney but I would not enjoy hearing DD talk about how fun EE is while I watched a bird show by myself.

Bummer that you cancelled Boma. I really want to try it but I know that DH and DD will end up with a plate of fries and chicken tenders. Why pay that much when we can just go to Mara and they could eat for 1/3 of the price.

Anyway, thanks for joining in for the constant plan changing.

 

[pinkxray]

I think that I am getting closer

to finalizing my plans. Finally!

We will have 8 full days. Only 3 days are locked into certain parks on

those days. MK, DHS and Discovery Cove are not moveable. The other 5

are all interchangeable as long as we get to each park once. Of course I

have a back up plan that will be used to recommend what we should do

each day. I have tried to think of what everyone wants out of this vacation

and really take those wants into consideration while still making myself

happy.

What does DH want- “I don’t want to go.” Okay, well that is not an opinion.

I have provided plenty of pool time and he gets to use 3 of my days! 2 days

at Universal and 1 at Discovery Cove. Not only have I given up those park

days, but on the 2 days I think we should go to Universal our dining plans

are wide open after breakfast. Steak and Shake? Giordano’s Pizza?

( by the way has anyone ever had their pizza? I always see it

recommended on these boards and it looks pretty good. Worth a try?)

Hot dogs at a cart in US? Totally open.

Caitlin- What does Caitlin want out of her trip? She told me the other

day that she wants to go in the pool, go to the animal place and eat

at the place with the cars and milkshakes. Done!

What do I want?

A nice, relaxed vacation with a happy family. Lots of yummy foods and

magical moments. My favorite part of Disney is just getting out of CT for

8 days and leaving the world behind. No work, no school and no

stress. Turn off the phones and unplug from the world a bit.

Okay, maybe put the phone on vibrate. After all DH will not be

a happy person if we get separated and can’t find me all day. Oh yeah,

and a new Disney mug. Can’t go to Disney and not get a new mug.
​

​

[/SIZE]

Up next Day 1 plans

 

[KatMark]

I think that I am getting closer

to finalizing my plans. Finally!

We will have 8 full days. Only 3 days are locked into certain parks on

those days. MK, DHS and Discovery Cove are not moveable. The other 5

are all interchangeable as long as we get to each park once. Of course I

have a back up plan that will be used to recommend what we should do

each day. I have tried to think of what everyone wants out of this vacation

and really take those wants into consideration while still making myself

happy.

What does DH want- “I don’t want to go.” Okay, well that is not an opinion.

I have provided plenty of pool time and he gets to use 3 of my days! 2 days

at Universal and 1 at Discovery Cove. Not only have I given up those park

days, but on the 2 days I think we should go to Universal our dining plans

are wide open after breakfast. Steak and Shake? Giordano’s Pizza?

( by the way has anyone ever had their pizza? I always see it

recommended on these boards and it looks pretty good. Worth a try?)

Hot dogs at a cart in US? Totally open.

Caitlin- What does Caitlin want out of her trip? She told me the other

day that she wants to go in the pool, go to the animal place and eat

at the place with the cars and milkshakes. Done!

What do I want?

A nice, relaxed vacation with a happy family. Lots of yummy foods and

magical moments. My favorite part of Disney is just getting out of CT for

8 days and leaving the world behind. No work, no school and no

stress. Turn off the phones and unplug from the world a bit.

Okay, maybe put the phone on vibrate. After all DH will not be

a happy person if we get separated and can’t find me all day. Oh yeah,

and a new Disney mug. Can’t go to Disney and not get a new mug.
​

​

[/SIZE]

Up next Day 1 plans

Sounds good to me!

We LOVE Steak & Shake and go at least once a month here at home. We've had Giordanno's pizza here in Chicago and it is pretty good. I am very relucant on pizza of any kind in Florida. I don't think they use the right ovens and there is something about their water...pizza everywhere we have ever had it in Florida is awful.

 

[bouncycat]

Yep, sounds good to me!!! I do like Universal, but their food sucked saturday. They do have City Walk there, and a Panda Express, LOVE PE!! LOL Can't wait to see the first day plans. I'm gonna take pictures of the new stroller tomorrow, and work on my WWHP day trip report LOL Since my old guy gave me the day off!!!

 

[pinkxray]

Sounds good to me!

We LOVE Steak & Shake and go at least once a month here at home. We've had Giordanno's pizza here in Chicago and it is pretty good. I am very relucant on pizza of any kind in Florida. I don't think they use the right ovens and there is something about their water...pizza everywhere we have ever had it in Florida is awful.

We love Steak and Shake. I wish there was one in CT, we would be there every month too.

I never really noticed that FL had bad pizza. The only pizza we had last trip was Pizzafari which was digusting. Maybe we should skip pizza altogether and try somewhere on Citywalk.

Yep, sounds good to me!!! I do like Universal, but their food sucked saturday. They do have City Walk there, and a Panda Express, LOVE PE!! LOL Can't wait to see the first day plans. I'm gonna take pictures of the new stroller tomorrow, and work on my WWHP day trip report LOL Since my old guy gave me the day off!!!

Universal food did stick. I was happy that we found a Nathan's hot dog cart last time since you can't really mess those up. I would love to try somewhere on Citywalk, but whenever we are US we pretty much wait until we are hungry and just find the nearest food place.

I can't wait to hear about you day at WWOHP!

 

[tinacaplan]

Darn it people! Just when I think I have my plans in order I read these comments. I am so easily influenced. I don't know what to do about Cali Grill. We could replace it with Ohana and then we will have an open night for the Dessert Party. I think that maybe the family would be happier going to Ohana.

As much as it pains to me admit this, your whole family probably will be happier at Ohana, based on what you've already said on this PTR. I am hoping that California Grill doesn't dissapoint me this year, but there are a lot of
sort of out there flavor combinations on their menu.

I think that I am getting closer

to finalizing my plans. Finally!

We will have 8 full days. Only 3 days are locked into certain parks on

those days. MK, DHS and Discovery Cove are not moveable. The other 5

are all interchangeable as long as we get to each park once. Of course I

have a back up plan that will be used to recommend what we should do

each day. I have tried to think of what everyone wants out of this vacation

and really take those wants into consideration while still making myself

happy.

What does DH want- “I don’t want to go.” Okay, well that is not an opinion.

I have provided plenty of pool time and he gets to use 3 of my days! 2 days

at Universal and 1 at Discovery Cove. Not only have I given up those park

days, but on the 2 days I think we should go to Universal our dining plans

are wide open after breakfast. Steak and Shake? Giordano’s Pizza?

( by the way has anyone ever had their pizza? I always see it

recommended on these boards and it looks pretty good. Worth a try?)

Hot dogs at a cart in US? Totally open.

Caitlin- What does Caitlin want out of her trip? She told me the other

day that she wants to go in the pool, go to the animal place and eat

at the place with the cars and milkshakes. Done!

What do I want?

A nice, relaxed vacation with a happy family. Lots of yummy foods and

magical moments. My favorite part of Disney is just getting out of CT for

8 days and leaving the world behind. No work, no school and no

stress. Turn off the phones and unplug from the world a bit.

Okay, maybe put the phone on vibrate. After all DH will not be

a happy person if we get separated and can’t find me all day. Oh yeah,

and a new Disney mug. Can’t go to Disney and not get a new mug.
​

​

[/SIZE]

Up next Day 1 plans

Sounds like your priorities are clear! Can't wait to hear more about your plans.

 

[pinkxray]

As much as it pains to me admit this, your whole family probably will be happier at Ohana, based on what you've already said on this PTR. I am hoping that California Grill doesn't dissapoint me this year, but there are a lot of
sort of out there flavor combinations on their menu.



Sounds like your priorities are clear! Can't wait to hear more about your plans.

It pains me to cancel Cailfornia Grill! I just have a feeling it will not go well, so I think I will wait until Caitlin is a bit older. I am unsure about Ohana. I loved it last trip, but maybe we should try something new. I think I have just the thing to take its place.

I just have to keep telling myself there will be other trips. I will get to a signature someday.

 

[pinkxray]

Snow Day!
Once again we woke up to another foot of snow. We are running out of places to put it.

The good news is that I happened to purchase a new waterproof, weatherproof camera recently that needed to be tested out.

Scout

Sadie

Sadie hates the snow. DH threw himself in the snow and Sadie quickly tried to lay down on top of him.

DH kept trying to play with Caitlin in the snow and she was not having it.

Backyard

This wasn’t today , last week maybe?

 

[crostorfer]

HOLY FRIJOLES!!! That is a lot of snow! We don't have that here, just rain, but to be honest I might prefer the snow for a bit, at least it would seem a little brighter outside and less grey and blah.

I'm sorry you cancelled your Cali Grill. :-( But you will have fun no matter what you do! I keep telling myself everytime I stress over my reservations that it's Disney. I could eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches three meals a day there and still be all good.

I felt the same way about Ohana, we loved it, but we have already done it before so we were wanting to try new things this time. The only meal we are going back to a 2nd time is Tusker House. That breakfast was so yummy and you can't beat being in the park at 8am when it opens at 9. I booked our Wishes Dessert Party for the time slot we had Ohana booked in instead. My husband isn't a big dessert eater either. Hey, maybe we could meet and send our hubbies out to the Contemporary to have a beer and we could take our girls up and watch Tinkerbell fly right over our heads before the fireworks while eating cheesecakes. LOL! I keep thinking of diversions for my husband who I can already tell is NOT going to enjoy this trip.

--Casey