Is 18 months to early to start planning? (12 days to go) My 1st PTR update 6-2-12

[m2zjj]

Im in. So exciting cant wait to hear more.

Welcome! Thanks for joining me.

 

[m2zjj]

Since I've never done a PTR before I'm not sure if I can talk about off topic everyday stuff or not but I'm sure if I'm not suppose to some one will let me know.

Anyway not sure where all of you are from but I'm in Michigan and it is nasty here right now. Bitter cold and blowing snow Yuck! On top of the weather Zach is sick and has been for over a week now. he's got tons of energy but is too sick for school so he's going stir crazy. We've been watching lots of netflix. His favorites right now are a couple of the Disney world videos, but today he was browsing through the options and came upon The Princess and the Frog. Crazy boy watched it 3 times in a row today and when I asked if he wanted Cars or Toy Story I got tears and a pitiful I wanna watch the frog momma. OK the frog it is.

 

[heathsf]

But wait what if I add another day to the end of the trip, 10 days would be better than 9 right?

Yes but 9 is great too!!! How exciting!

The weather stinks here in NJ too. We've had an ice storm for two days now. My school has a delayed opening so I had a little extra time to sleep (well, actually I spent the extra time Disney Planning ) but I was hoping for a day off work. Apparently the roads are very icy and my civic doesn't do well in ice/snow so I'm a little annoyed they are making us go in. Especially since all the districts around us are closed!

I'm glad your DS is enjoying his Disney movies but I hope he feels better soon!

 

[newmommy_2010]

WOO HOO! 9 days is great but 10 is even better!! We always opt to fly because with the way gas prices will be and all that time in the car we would proubally kill each other! LOL!

 

[BMC423]

But wait what if I add another day to the end of the trip, 10 days would be better than 9 right? [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

 

[MustangMom]

Since I've never done a PTR before I'm not sure if I can talk about off topic everyday stuff or not but I'm sure if I'm not suppose to some one will let me know.

Anyway not sure where all of you are from but I'm in Michigan and it is nasty here right now. Bitter cold and blowing snow Yuck! On top of the weather Zach is sick and has been for over a week now. he's got tons of energy but is too sick for school so he's going stir crazy. We've been watching lots of netflix. His favorites right now are a couple of the Disney world videos, but today he was browsing through the options and came upon The Princess and the Frog. Crazy boy watched it 3 times in a row today and when I asked if he wanted Cars or Toy Story I got tears and a pitiful I wanna watch the frog momma. OK the frog it is.

I am not sure if there are any "rules" around PTR...I say it is yours so communicate what you want....it allows us to better know one another

I am from good old Michigan too! My boys have been sick too. With the blizzard they did not have school so they keep their perfect attendance record & DH did not have to work so he got to care for them....I on the other hand had to work Hope Zach gets feeling better.

Wow 9-10 days for a trip! Cant wait to hear more.

 

[m2zjj]

Sorry for the gap in posts everyone. As much as I love planning for our trip I had to take a small break from it to plan something else. A couple weeks ago when I did our taxes we thought for about 10 minutes that we could swing a quick adults only Disney trip this year. Once reality set in and we realized that we couldn’t afford it this year we started looking at other options for a parents weekend away. We threw out several different options with DH wanting a casino trip up north and me wanting to head south to Chicago. After looking into things I came up with a solution, a trip that would make us both happy.
First we are driving down to Chicago and spending all day Saturday and most of Sunday there. Then we are going to start heading back home and make a stop at Blue Chip casino, gamble a little, swim, spend the night and then head back home Monday afternoon. I’m so excited to have my DH to myself for the whole weekend, but at the same time nervous about leaving the kids for almost three whole days.

Ok I’m off to work on the next post. Should have it up by tomorrow.

 

[heathsf]

After looking into things I came up with a solution, a trip that would make us both happy.

Yay! Enjoy that!

 

[m2zjj]

Yay! Enjoy that!

Thanks I'm sure we'll have fun but I would rather be going to Disney!

 

[m2zjj]

I know this may seem strange but other than a snack or an order of fries we have never really ate in the parks. When we went for our honeymoon back in 2004 it was my first trip and DH had only been to Epcot for a few hours so we didn’t even know that there was table service restaurants in WDW. When we went for our trip in 2008 I had found the DIS, and had learned about a few of the restaurants, but DS was only 2 and we felt like it made more sense to grab dinner and take it back to the hotel to help keep him on his usual schedule. So planning where to eat in the parks is going to be quite the challenge for me.
This is our situation. We are staying in a vacation home so we will have a full kitchen and plan to eat several of our meals there to save money. At the same time we realize that we are on vacation and we aren’t going to want to cook every night so we figured that we would eat out a few times during our trip. We are going to have enough kids that I’m thinking that character meals would be fun but beyond that I have no clue. I don’t know which meals have characters and which don’t. Adding to the challenge is that I have both boys and girls going and while I would love to take the girls to a princess meal I’m not sure how the boys would feel about it.

Right now I’m thinking that we will eat 3 different meals on Disney property. I do know that we will have hoppers so where the restaurants are located doesn’t matter, but I still have a few things to figure out.

Which TS have characters and which ones would be best for us?
What days do we want to eat on site?
How early can I make reservations since I’m sure getting all 9 of us in without one would be next to impossible. I seem to recall reading something about 180 days out.

I welcome any advice from all of you since I’m beyond confused when it comes to dining in the world.

 

[heathsf]

My last trip was my first time eating at the table service restaurants (because we had the free dining plan) and I was so pleasantly surprised by how good the food was! I had always just stuck to counter service to save time and money.

With that said, I don't have that much dining experience but I'm hoping to get a lot more on my next two trips!

The only character meal I have booked is at Crystal Palace for dinner and I will take notes for you and report back!

For a list of all restaurants that have character dining check here: http://allears.net/din/cb.htm#mk

And here is a list sorted by character: http://allears.net/din/cbchar.htm

 

[newmommy_2010]

The weekend trip sounds like a blast! Hope you guys have a good time!

About the ADRS's
I believe its 180 days if you stay on property but I am unsure about if you don't or it may be for everyone.
We have done Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary Resort..VERY GOOD!
Crystal Palace was awful and a waste of money we thought
The Castle- was an experience you have to do at least once. They have all different characters depending on when you go.
We have also done the chip & dale on at Epcot (can't remember the name) and we werent very impressed.
We are looking at doing Hollywood & Vine this time along with Donald's Safari breakfast and Cape May.
The best thing is to look at menus and see what your kids will eat the most of at what place!

 

[heathsf]

About the ADRS's
I believe its 180 days if you stay on property but I am unsure about if you don't or it may be for everyone.
I think it's for everyone with the difference being that if you're staying on property you can book for the entire length of your stay 180 days from your first day. You may not be able to do that if you're off property. I'm not 100% sure on that...
We have done Chef Mickeys at the Contemporary Resort..VERY GOOD!
Crystal Palace was awful and a waste of money we thought
Uh oh, I'm eating there with my mom next week! I wanted Kona Cafe instead but she wanted to stay in the park. Oh well.....
The Castle- was an experience you have to do at least once. They have all different characters depending on when you go.
We have also done the chip & dale on at Epcot (can't remember the name) and we werent very impressed.
Garden Grill?
We are looking at doing Hollywood & Vine this time along with Donald's Safari breakfast and Cape May.
You reminded me that I ate there on my last trip for a character lunch. We didn't have any kids with us and thought it was just okay.
The best thing is to look at menus and see what your kids will eat the most of at what place!

.

 

[m2zjj]

Thanks for the info and the links.

I'd love to hear a second opinion on Crystal Palace since that is one of the places I was looking into.

 

[heathsf]

Thanks for the info and the links.

I'd love to hear a second opinion on Crystal Palace since that is one of the places I was looking into.

I'm going to do my best to write detailed restaurant reports. I'm super excited. I feel like I'm going to Disney on a mission!

 

[m2zjj]

One major problem with starting a PTR on a trip that is still over a year away is that it's going to be kind of boring for a while. Until we get closer and can start booking the rental home and airfare. It's driving me crazy that I can't do anything more right now.

But on the bright side in a just a week and a few hours I will be leaving for Chicago for my weekend away with DH. We really need this time away. Things have been super hectic and we need a chance to reconnect with each other.

For all of you that have been reading along and posting, thanks! I promise as soon as I have something to write about you will be the first to hear about it.

 

[heathsf]

How was Chicago??

 

[m2zjj]

How was Chicago??

Chicago was Great! thanks for asking. I have had internet problems since I got back but I plan to post a short recap of our weekend in a couple days.

 

[m2zjj]

I know it's been forever since I've been in here. first there was the internet issues and then family issues and maybe the trip wont happen issues. anyway it's been a big mess here lately and now it's finally calming down a bit so maybe I'll have something to post soon.

On the bright side I started with over 18 months to go and right now we have just over 11 months left before we leave.

 

[m2zjj]

Funny what can change in 16 months. We're down to just over 2 months and this trip has changed completely from what it was when we started planning.

My sister lost her job several months ago and had still planned on going using her savings but after months she is still unemployed and is now unable to go because she is having to use the savings to live on right now. So that eliminated one sister and her 2 kids.

Then a few weeks ago my other sister decided to back out of the trip. She has been living off her savings for several months while unemployed and even though I offered to pay her way she wasn't comfortable going if she couldn't pay for it.

So now were down to just me, my husband, and our 3 kids. Which meant that we had a much smaller budget and had to rework several things. Our vacation home was much to large and more than we could afford so we had to scramble to cancel the original reservation and find a smaller and more affordable rental that was still available for our vacation dates.

We did manage to find a condo that was perfect for us and is still in our new budget. 15 minutes from Magic Kingdom and although it doesn't have a private pool like the original home we had rented did it does have a community pool and it's only a few yards away from the condo.