I'm celebrating my birthday at Disney! 4/26 Link to TR added!

[tink774]

I’M CELEBRATING MY BIRTHDAY AT WDW!!

Well, I’ve never written a PTR or a TR before, but I decided to give it a try! And I figured that since this upcoming trip is so short, it would be a good opportunity.

This is going to be a quick, last-minute, Father/Daughter trip to celebrate my 21st birthday on Tuesday, April 21st! I realize that 95% of people my age think this is a totally lame way to turn 21, but it’s fantastic to me!

When: April 20-22, 2009.

Who’s who in this PTR (quite a short list):

Tink/Anna (me): I’m a college student from Georgia, and I’ve been on more trips to the World than I can possibly count. My parents took me on my first trip when I was three years old, and I’ve been hooked ever since! We had APs for a few years, and would take frequent long weekend trips when my younger sister and I were still little enough to be pulled out of school easily. For the last few years, our trips have become much less frequent, but I still love each and every vacation to see the Mouse! My favorite Disney movies are definitely the classics. I love Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, and Aladdin. There are very few Disney movies I don’t love, although many of the newer ones don’t really fit my tastes. I’m a complete Disney addict, which most of my friends don’t understand. But it doesn’t stop me! Thank goodness for my fellow addicts on the DIS, right?

Grumpy/Dad: What can be said about my dad? He’s a wonderful guy who’s partially responsible for Disney-fying me. To be honest, I’m not sure if he has any favorite Disney movies. He isn’t an addict quite like I am, but he’s happy to go on trips to WDW with our family and share in our love of the Mouse. And he’s going to be my partner-in-crime on this short, hastily-planned birthday trip!

Next up, why so short, why a father/daughter trip, and where the heck are we staying, anyway??

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

I love to read about daddy/daughter times. I have 3 DDs who, while they love me, are daddy's little girls. Happy Birthday!

 

[Desiree430]

Hope you have a fantastic time! And Happy Birthday!!

 

[tink774]

So, how did this trip come about anyway?

As you’re all well-aware, Disney is doing the Free Admission on Your Birthday promotion. When I first heard about it, I pretty much disregarded it because my birthday is too late after spring break and too soon before summer to make this promotion useful to me. Besides, I just got back from a trip to WDW for New Year’s. My boyfriend Rob and I took a trip from December 28th to January 4th, with his parents even joining us for the last couple of days. This picture is actually from our May 2007 trip, but I love it so much I thought I’d throw it in.

Anyway, a few days ago I was thinking about my upcoming 21st birthday. For the last several years, my birthday celebrations have really consisted of nothing but dinner with my family and some cake afterwards (with the exception of my 18th, but more on that later). Don’t get me wrong, I love spending my birthday with my family, but I was hoping to do something a little different this year. I live away from home while I’m at college, and I go to school in a college town where nearly everyone’s 21st birthday is made up of drinking as much as they possibly can in one night at the various bars downtown. I enjoy having a good time, but that kind of celebration just really isn’t “me.” And since I live almost two hours away from my family now (just transferred to this university in August, and I’ll be graduating in May 2010), driving back for the standard birthday festivities just wasn’t looking that appealing, either (and I’ve already planned to spend the weekend after my birthday at home to celebrate with my family, anyway). So I’d resigned myself to just spend my 21st birthday going to my three Tuesday classes, driving out and buying a bottle of my favorite wine, and enjoying some of it before going to bed after watching some movies and staring at my textbooks. I’m sure my two roommates would go out to eat or something with me if I asked, but I’ve just gotten used to not making a big deal out of my birthdays so I was going to just let the day go by as almost any other.

Then a few nights ago, I was thinking about the Disney birthday promotion. I started wishing that I had actually made plans to take one or two days and drive down there with Rob or a friend, spend the night somewhere, and enjoy a day at MK. It would be about an 8 or 9-hour drive from where I live, which didn’t seem that much when I thought about what a great birthday celebration it could be. Then I began formulating speculative plans in my mind, such as “Well, I can afford to miss classes on Tuesday and either Monday or Wednesday… could stay in a cheap place off of I-4 and then just drive into MK Tuesday morning and leave that night… etc, etc.” The more I thought about it, the fewer reasons I had not to do it. After all, you only turn 21 once. It's actually pretty funny, I'm spending the birthday when I'm considered to be completely adult going to Disney and releasing my inner child.

But then I came to a problem. Who would go with me? I shared my idea with Rob because he was my first choice for a travel buddy. We don’t go to school together anymore, since he is still attending the university I transferred from back in our hometown. In fact, he’s on Spring Break right now, while mine was a month ago! He said he would love to go with me, but he’ll be way too busy with school and can’t afford to miss the classes or spend the $$ for his park ticket (I offered to pay gas/hotel for the trip since my park admission would be free). So I pitched the idea to my best friend since age 3, who also goes to school in a different city from me a couple of hours away. She’s a theater performance major, and always involved in at least one or two campus productions at this point in the semester. So she wasn’t available to go, either. And besides, she and I are taking planning a 4-day trip to St. Augustine, FL, in June anyway. And my two roommates are wonderful ladies and love Disney, but neither of them are WDW nuts like I am and I could tell when I mentioned the idea that they wouldn’t want to spend the money or take the time, either. So after exhausting these options, I couldn’t really think of any other friends that I would truly want to make this trip with; as much as I like all of them, I wanted to share this with someone close to me.

I should mention that this week (April 6th-10th), since everyone in my hometown is on Spring Break, my parents are taking my sister and one of her best friends to WDW as her birthday present since she turned 18 back in mid-March and they gave me a Spring Break Disney trip for my 18th bday, too. They’re on the way there right now, and I’m very jealous!

Anyway, I called my mom and explained to her what I was hoping to do. I told her that since it was unlikely that I could find anyone to go with so last-minute and because I felt bad asking a friend to pay $75 just to tag along with me on my birthday trip for two days, maybe it would be easier to just make it a solo trip. I’ve never done a solo WDW trip before, but I figured that I’d rather go by myself than not get to go at all! My mom mentioned that maybe I should see if my dad (Grumpy) would like to go. She said she would offer, but she definitely can’t take the time off from work, and she hated to think of me going alone (most of that was just motherly concern for my safety, though). I immediately assumed that Grumpy wouldn’t want to because it would be a little more than a week after he would get back from their trip this week, and that might be too much Disney for him. The next day, he called me to ask about picking up our pets from the kennel the day that they'll be getting back since I’m coming home for Easter weekend anyway. I explained my hopes to spend my birthday at the MK, but that I was worried it wouldn’t happen and that I was having trouble finding a travel buddy. He was quiet for a minute, and then asked if I’d mind if he came along. How could I say no to that? And thus, it became a father/daughter trip!

The more I thought about it, the more I was looking forward to spending this time with my dad. When I was younger, we took a couple of father/daughter trips such as a long weekend as Space Camp in FL back in 1997. And we probably won’t get another opportunity to do something like this, so I’m excited that we’re getting to take this trip together. As I said, I’m sure people my age will think this is a pretty silly and “lame” way to spend my 21st birthday. But I’m pumped for it, and it will certainly be a memorable experience for my father and I.

Sorry for that novel… Next up, actual plans!

 

[tink774]

I love to read about daddy/daughter times. I have 3 DDs who, while they love me, are daddy's little girls. Happy Birthday!

Thank you! I'm definitely a daddy's girl, too, and I hope our trip will provide some good reading for you!

Hope you have a fantastic time! And Happy Birthday!!

Thanks so much! I'm so excited! This has been a very hard year for me school-wise, and it's great to have something like this to look forward to!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

OMG!!! I would have loved to spend my 21st at Disney!!! This is def. not a lame way to spend your b-day! I've always wanted to go to Disney on my b-day but it's in Sept. and I can't take the time away from school and since I live so far away from disney a weekend just wouldn't be cost effective. (Hopefully this distance thing will be fixed in the next few years!) Also I love that you're going with your dad. I would love to go with my dad, we're both disney nuts and I am such a daddy's girl it's rediculous! (Hmmm...maybe I should see just how much of a daddy's girl I am ) You're so lucky to be going on this trip. Oh by the way if I knew your PTR was going to blow mine out of the water I wouldn't have convinced you to start one . (Just kidding) Can't wait to hear more!

 

[tink774]

Oh by the way if I knew your PTR was going to blow mine out of the water I wouldn't have convinced you to start one . (Just kidding)

Ha! I'm totally jealous that you're getting to spend more time there! I can't wait to read your TR after you get back! I'll be anxious to see how your boyfriend reacts to his first trip to Disney.

I'll update later today about where we're staying and a brief itinerary for our brief trip. With my OCPD, I just can't help myself.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Sounds like a fun trip! I would much rather spend my 21st birthday in Disney World than drinking the night away. That's not my idea of fun either.

 

[julezdisney]

Hi Anna! I'm Julia!

This is a cute little PTR w/the trip being right around the corner- I'm excited for you! I'm also spending my birthday in the 'World so I can't wait to read all about your special day!!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Hooray for OCPD!!!!! Haha. Can't wait for your next update!

 

[katiebelle21]

I have to subscribe! My birthday is April 21st too.

I realize that 95% of people my age think this is a totally lame way to turn 21, but it’s fantastic to me!

I think it's adorable and a much more memorable way to spend your birthday!

 

[tink774]

I’m excited that you’re interested in reading about my trip! Now I’ll definitely feel the pressure to remember as many details as possible while we’re there!

There are actually some pictures to enjoy in this update. Sorry it took so long but Photobucket is so sloooooooow on my computer.

So you can put some faces to names, I have pics of me and my dad each with one of my absolute favorite characters, Dale!!

I was so happy to see him out that morning!

These next two were taken around 3:30am during New Years EMH back in 2007.

They loved my shirt!

And finally, where we’ll be staying:

It may sound silly, but I actually came close to agonizing over this for at least two hours. Right away, we decided to take advantage of the special rates at the Values ($68 a night). Before my Dad was my travel buddy, I was planning on just staying somewhere off I-4 for $50 or so using my Borders Rewards membership. Staying on property is always my first choice, but if I was going with a friend or by myself, I was planning on going much cheaper. But my Dad was adamant that we enjoy the on-property resorts, and who am I to argue? So the plan to use the Value discount rate obviously narrowed the choices down to four: Pop Century and the three All-Stars.

My family first stayed at POP back in April 2006, and we liked it so much that it became our favorite Value resort. Up until then, we usually chose to stay at CBR, but it wasn’t available for that trip. The design of POP is so friendly and fun, that we couldn’t help but enjoy our surroundings. And I love the fact that the resort uses its own bus system rather than share with any others. So for this trip, it seemed like the natural choice right away. But of course, I dwelled on the subject and began to doubt myself (a horrible habit of mine when it comes to decision-making). This would make my fourth stay at POP in three years, and since my Dad is there right now, I started to wonder if maybe we could use a change for this trip. Why not one of the All-Stars? He told me that the choice was up to me and he would just go with whatever I pick. Having stayed at ASMu in a family suite a couple of years ago, we knew that we liked the resort a lot. Then I considered the ASMo (correct DIS term?), but knowing that they were last to be dropped off on the shared buses, I decided to rule them out for this trip. I do want to try that resort one day, though! So what about the Sports? I’m not really a sports person, so I wasn’t sure that I would enjoy the theme of this resort as much as any of the other choices.

The long and short of it is that I ultimately decided on POP and booked our reservation for two nights using the discount rate yesterday. While it would have been fun to try a different resort, I decided to go ahead and stay at my favorite. And now… gratuitous pictures from previous trips at POP!

And finally, a horribly blurry picture of me and “dear ole Dad,” as he calls himself.

Next post, a brief itinerary complete with a list of birthday wishes!

 

[tink774]

Sounds like a fun trip! I would much rather spend my 21st birthday in Disney World than drinking the night away. That's not my idea of fun either.

To each his own, but I just don't get the appeal of drinking so much that they won't remember anything that they did anyway. And then it seems like most of the time, it results in some form of embarrassment.

Hi Anna! I'm Julia!

This is a cute little PTR w/the trip being right around the corner- I'm excited for you! I'm also spending my birthday in the 'World so I can't wait to read all about your special day!!

Hey, Julia! I'm glad that you're onboard! When is your birthday trip? I'll have to check out your PTR soon!

Hooray for OCPD!!!!! Haha. Can't wait for your next update!

I'm happy there are so many others with OCPD around here! Not only do I feel better about my own addiction, but I can live vicariously through other planners!

I have to subscribe! My birthday is April 21st too.


I think it's adorable and a much more memorable way to spend your birthday!

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY!! I hope that yours is wonderful!

 

[MAGGIED]

Your birthday trip sounds like its going to be great!!!! How fun you and your dad get to travel together!!!!

 

[tiggersam00]

Awww I am loving the PTR! How great that you get a father/daughter trip for such a milestone birthday... also it's a little funny that on you 21st birthday your going to the only park that doesn't serve alcohol in WDW. I know your college friends won't "get it" but we all totally get it! I would love to be at MK for my b-daywith my dad too! Subbing!

 

[tink774]

The Itinerary!

Because of my OCPD, writing out an itinerary is one of my favorite parts of getting ready for any trip, but it’s especially fun for a Disney trip! I won’t have quite as much to plan out as I usually do, mainly because the bulk of my birthday/the MK day is just “Go with the flow.” But I just couldn’t let this trip go by without writing some sort of itinerary! So here is an outline of the entirety of our trip.

Monday, April 20th

- Leave my college campus at 3:30pm. I live in an off-campus apartment, but because I only have class from 1:25-3:20pm on MWF, I just decided to go ahead and drive myself to campus with the car completely packed (I usually just take the bus from my apartment complex because it’s free!). This way I can leave ASAP after I walk out of my last class rather than have to wait an extra half hour to get home on the bus.
- Arrive at my parents’ house by 5:30pm. Most days the drive takes anywhere from 1.5-2 hours, depending on “traffic” (a.k.a. how slow the other drivers are ). I’m hoping that maybe I can stop and see Rob for like five minutes on the way to their house, because he lives about fifteen minutes away from them and is on the way. Or perhaps he won’t mind stopping by their house to bid us farewell. We’ll see! And here’s hoping there are no road blocks to stall my arrival.
- Hopefully Dad and I will depart for Orlando no later than 6:00pm, with any luck we can leave earlier than that. We haven’t decided whose car we will take yet, but I love to drive so I’m going to try and talk him into agreeing to take the trip in my car.
- Uneventful drive through to Orlando. The fastest that I’ve ever gotten there from my hometown was in 7 hours (I admit, I’m a speed demon, though). It will more realistically take about 8 hours. I’m sure we’ll grab some fast food for dinner rather than make our usual stop at a Waffle House (I’m sorry, it’s the southern girl in me! In my car there is actually a map of every single Waffle House in the country, although I’m not sure why).
- Get to Orlando and arrive at POP at whatever time. I’m really hopeful that we can push ourselves to leave as soon as we can and try to get there before 1:00am, because we’ll definitely need some rest for the next day. We’ll check in and crash in the room for a good sleep.

Tuesday, April 21st… MY BIRTHDAY!

- Wake up at 6:30am, if all goes well. (I am NOT a morning person, so we’ll have to see how this one goes). Take showers, get ready, and hopefully grab some breakfast from the food court before there’s a crowd. “Dear ole Dad” will probably volunteer to run there and bring some food back to the room while I make myself pretty. And I will definitely need at least one of my favorite coffee drinks ever (sorry for the grainy pic, I’ll try to find my better one)!

- Get to the bus stop between 8:15-8:30am. I’m not trying to make rope drop, but would like to get there as early as we can drag our lazy selves there. Actually, my Dad is a morning person, so he shouldn’t have as much of a problem as me.
- Walk into the Magic Kingdom around 9am, or as close to it as possible. Since I’m doing the Free Admission on Your Birthday thing, I’m not sure how long it will actually take to get in the gate.
- This is where “Go with the flow” kicks in. At the moment, I have no plans (gasp!) for our actual time at the MK. At this point, we’re not trying to make any shows or parades, not even Wishes! I was going to try and catch SpectroMagic, but it’s not going to be put on that night (I hope that doesn’t mean we’re going to get lots of rain…). So no real plans for the next several hours at this point. But see a later post of my “Birthday Wishes” for a list of things that I’m hoping to do at least sometime during this day and our entire trip.
- Sometime before 9:15pm, we will have to bid farewell to the MK. We’ve got to hop on the monorail to the Poly to make our 9:40pm ADR (although I hear they don’t call them ADRs anymore) at KONA CAFÉ! I don’t think I have a favorite restaurant on property, but if I did this would probably be it. All I can say is that they’d better not be out of the Sticky Wings or the Prime Rib… I might cry. Oh, and this is where I will probably get that long-awaited "first legal drink" if they have anything that looks good. To be honest, I don't remember at all what drinks they have here. But I do remember the old Concourse Steakhouse!

- After dinner, I’m not sure what we’ll do. If DTD is open late, maybe we’ll race over there on the Poly bus and try to do some shopping. If not, then I guess we’ll bum around Poly for a little bit and admire the atmosphere before going back to POP to rest after a long day.

Wednesday, April 22th

- Wake up at 8:00am and be sad because I won’t want to leave!! Get ready, eat some breakfast, pack the car, and check out of POP sometime around 10:00am.
- Head to either the Boardwalk or to DTD. There are two things that I want to try and do at the BW (one involves cake!), so we may go ahead and do those first. Then I’d like to go to DTD to 1) Do some last-minute souvenir shopping and 2) Pretend that I’m not about to go home. Don’t know which of these two we’ll do first, but at some point at either the BW or DTD we’re going to squeeze in some lunch.
- Depart from WDW around 3:00pm and begin the long drive home.
- Arrive back at my parents’ house sometime between 10:00pm and midnight. I hope we get there closer to 10:00, because right away I have to make the drive back to where I live!
- Get back to my apartment anywhere between midnight and 2:00am, and try not to wake my roommates.
- Go to sleep immediately, because I have to be awake at 7:30am to get ready for class. Oh, the real world…

Sorry there was so much detail! But because it’s such a quick trip, I needed to feed my OCPD.

I just realized something: I was going to let my dad drive into WDW from I-4 so I could take a picture of the big welcoming gate. But it’s going to be about midnight! So I may not be able to do this. Oh, well. There’s always the next trip!

Aha! Courtesy of Facebook, here is my favorite frappuccino pic with a cameo by Rob's nose and glasses.

Coming up... My list of "Birthday Wishes" for the trip!

 

[tink774]

Your birthday trip sounds like its going to be great!!!! How fun you and your dad get to travel together!!!!

Thank you! I can't wait!!

Awww I am loving the PTR! How great that you get a father/daughter trip for such a milestone birthday... also it's a little funny that on you 21st birthday your going to the only park that doesn't serve alcohol in WDW. I know your college friends won't "get it" but we all totally get it! I would love to be at MK for my b-daywith my dad too! Subbing!

LOL I actually considered spending the day in EPCOT rather than MK for that very reason! But then I figured that since MK is my favorite park (with EPCOT in close second), I'd rather spend the day there. So I'm hoping I can find something good to drink at our ADR that night at the Poly, but I don't remember what they have there. If all else fails, there's always the next day after lunch before we actually leave WDW.

By the way, I constantly lurk on the Wedding boards. Occasionally I post, but since I'm not a DISbride YET (with any luck, it's in my future somewhere), I'm usually just content to read everyone's PJs and TRs. And I'm already really looking forward to reading more about your upcoming DFTW and I'll be so happy when you get to write your TR!

 

[DisneyFaeriePrincess]

Your plans sound good. I would def. want to be at MK on my birthday too, gotta see that castle!!! Hope you find something good as your first legal drink (in my opinion anything that's red or some variation of red is always a good bet! hehe). Can't wait to hear your birthday wishes!!!

 

[tink774]

Your plans sound good. I would def. want to be at MK on my birthday too, gotta see that castle!!! Hope you find something good as your first legal drink (in my opinion anything that's red or some variation of red is always a good bet! hehe). Can't wait to hear your birthday wishes!!!

Definitely gotta get a picture with the castle on my birthday!

By the way, when can you make your ADRs?

 

[december14disney]

Im turning 22 at Disney on April 21st and we'll be at the Magic Kingdom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How cool. Subbing in for your report!