Is it Christmas Yet? Can we Sleep with the Animals? - Updated 8-20

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

On to the last few days

Day 6 1/3 - Magic Kingdom

Start off with small breakfast in the room and then off to rope drop at the Magic Kingdom. No real plans for the day probably hit Fantasyland first and then we will do whatever we missed the previous MK day. Lunch will be at the Plaza. Depending on what we have gotten done that morning will determine whether we go back to the room and nap or not. But either way Cinderella (mommy) will be leaving a letter inviting the girls to dinner in the Castle. So it will either be in the room or left with the stroller while on a ride.
Dinner with Cinderella then off to the lodge and pack up for to leave tomorrow.

Day 7 1/4- Epcot and Home

We will load the car this morning and drive to Epcot for rope drop. First we will get fastpasses for Test Track and head over to Character Connection. After we see the charcters we will head over to the Living Sees to ride Nemo and see Crush. We will use our fast passes next and hit Living with the Land and Figment....... I know no Soarin, Kate didn't seem to like this one but that could change but probably not until her fearless little sister is able to ride.

We will start off the WS in United Kingdom where we will have lunch at Rose and Crown. Then we will go back towards Mexico (grab a Margarita for me), tour the countries and end the day with dinner in France at Chefs de France.

We will then head on our way back home. Possibly stop at DTD to use our extra snacks credits at Goofys.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Sounds like a great plan!!! You are going to love AKL!!!

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

Hi everyone

I have got some great news. We are adding a trip in Oct. This trip will include my mom, the girls and myself. More info to come just wanted to share my excitement.

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Congrats on your additional trip. Forgot to mention...don't forget to plan on seeing the storyteller at AKL. His name is Willie (if memory serves correctly) and he's fantastic!!! He then leads the children into the gift shop, gives them instruments off the shelves and does a parade through the lobby. It's really fun.

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

Congrats on your additional trip. Forgot to mention...don't forget to plan on seeing the storyteller at AKL. His name is Willie (if memory serves correctly) and he's fantastic!!! He then leads the children into the gift shop, gives them instruments off the shelves and does a parade through the lobby. It's really fun.

Thanks for the info. My kids love that kind of stuff. Is there anything else that we shouldn't miss at the lodge. Since we are no longer living all day everyday in the park we are looking forward to some resort fun and relaxation (if that can be done with 2 kids .

 

[Alysa]

How great - our girls trip was really fun - we had a blast doing all the girly stuff! Tea at the grand floridian is great - and I think they have an Alice in Wonderland tea party there too! (I am thinking of doing this for my daughter and niece on our upcoming trip).

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Thanks for the info. My kids love that kind of stuff. Is there anything else that we shouldn't miss at the lodge. Since we are no longer living all day everyday in the park we are looking forward to some resort fun and relaxation (if that can be done with 2 kids .

There are tons of activities. Games, cooking lessons, painting an ostrich egg. There is a board in the lobby (plus a channel on your tv) that tells you all that days activities.

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

How great - our girls trip was really fun - we had a blast doing all the girly stuff! Tea at the grand floridian is great - and I think they have an Alice in Wonderland tea party there too! (I am thinking of doing this for my daughter and niece on our upcoming trip).

We love our all girls trips, they are wonderful. I would love to do the Alice Party for the girls but will have to wait until Anna is old enough. Although I may let Kate go ahead and check it out for her!!

There are tons of activities. Games, cooking lessons, painting an ostrich egg. There is a board in the lobby (plus a channel on your tv) that tells you all that days activities.

Sounds great. We absolutely can't wait!!

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

Well first some background for the all girls trip.

We usually buy the florida resident seasonal passes and take 2 or 3 trips a year. We normally do aa all girls trip in December, just a family trip in October, and we alternate Birthdays between the girls each year (they are in April and May) !! But since you all have read we are upgrading a little for our December trip were not planning on taking our usual Oct. trip. This means our all girls trip would not happen this year..... or would it.

My mom and I are extremely close and live next door to each other. My grandmother lives across the street. I know how cool I have built in babysitters. The girls and I have lived with my mom twice in the past five years. The first being when Kate was born and Nathan was in Iraq. I moved home from Tn., where we were stationed and the second was when I was pregnant with Anna and Nathan was in Kuwait. This time I sold our house in TN. and when I moved back home I started building our house here in Florida. We knew Nathan would be getting out of the army when he arrived home from Kuwait and we could finally get settled as a family. After all this my mom still wants to vacation with us!!!!

So when the girls and I were visiting my mom at work she had the Disney Web site up on her computer. When I asked her about it she mention she would like to book a Cabin at Fort Wilderness in October. So we looked at the calendar and picked Oct 9th-13th.

We are waiting on the passholder rates to come out for October so that will depend on where we actually end up staying. We are not that picky as long as we are at Disney who cares!!!

Once the dates were chosen I immediately got on the phone with Disney Dining and booked the following.

Sorry I don't have the dates and times of each right now, I left them with my mom and will get them from her to add to my folder later.

Hollywood and Vine Lunch
Crystal Palace Breakfast
Liberty Tree Tavern Dinner
Garden Grill Dinner
WCC Dinner (although I am going to keep trying for the Hoop De Doo)


Here is my mom with one of our closest friends

We are also planning on doing MNSSHP. This is my favorite party at Disney!!

Here are the girls last halloween at my grandmothers house.

And here they are both being Pirates

Up next the UPS truck arrived, I wonder what it brought, could it be Disney related? Probably so!!!

 

[joelp]

Subbing ...

Haven't read much yet cuz the DD just woke up, jumped on my lap, and wants breakfast!! (And boy - did she gave a bad case of "morning breath"!! )

But I did notice your daughter's blue (BLUE) eyes in one of the pictures as I quickly flipped through ... Amazing!!

Back later ...

 

[joelp]

There are tons of activities. Games, cooking lessons, painting an ostrich egg. There is a board in the lobby (plus a channel on your tv) that tells you all that days activities.

One of the things I noticed in your itinerary is that you don't seem to be spending a lot of time at the AKL - except for some afternoons and evenings (when the girls - and you!! - may want to sleep instead of doing something ...)

So you may want to plan in a morning at the AKL (after breakfast at Boma!! Boma!! Boma!!) and do a lot of the actvities (there is apparently something going on every hour!), rest up, and then head to a park in the late afternoon ...

Also - Jiko and CRT cost 2 TS: it may be more "cost-effective" to pay for them OOP and use the TS elsewhere ... And since Jiko is a "signature" restaurant, you may want to put the girls in the AKL "Kid's Club" for a couple of hours while you and the DH enjoy a nice and quiet dinner alone ...

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

One of the things I noticed in your itinerary is that you don't seem to be spending a lot of time at the AKL - except for some afternoons and evenings (when the girls - and you!! - may want to sleep instead of doing something ...)

So you may want to plan in a morning at the AKL (after breakfast at Boma!! Boma!! Boma!!) and do a lot of the actvities (there is apparently something going on every hour!), rest up, and then head to a park in the late afternoon ...

Also - Jiko and CRT cost 2 TS: it may be more "cost-effective" to pay for them OOP and use the TS elsewhere ... And since Jiko is a "signature" restaurant, you may want to put the girls in the AKL "Kid's Club" for a couple of hours while you and the DH enjoy a nice and quiet dinner alone ...

Morning.
Thanks for the ideas I would love to have dinner with DH alone but Anna is too young for the clubs at this point. I was thinking of one of the babysitting services but I just can't decide. Does anyone have any experience with them? I don't want to arrive at the hotel and immediately get rid of the kids (well I might ). So I have been looking at changing up the itinerary if I decide on one of the services.

As far as our early park mornings, my kids are definately morning people. And since we are going at such a busy time I am a little worried about arriving later in the day. We have too full afternoons at AKL ,our arrival day and on the 30th we are coming back immediately after lunch is over. We also may end up dropping a dinner at some point depending on the football Bowl Game schedule!! It is DH only request during the trip. I don't mind either.

I am also looking at adding another day to our stay to just relax. We would arrive on the 28th and play at the hotel on the 29th and maybe have dinner in a park.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Great planning so far, and how cool to be going to WDW twice in such a short time period. How are you not bouncing off the walls?! You're girls must be so, so excited. I can't wait to keep reading about your trips, as you continue to prepare.

 

[Whipperwhirl]

Im onboard for this PTR - Us Christmas Surprise moms need to stay together.

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

Im onboard for this PTR - Us Christmas Surprise moms need to stay together.

Welcome aboard!!

Well I now have a closet full of Disney stuff for Christmas thanks to Disneyshopping and the wonderfull people at UPS!!! I still can't believe the great deals I got with an extra 40% off the sale prices.

I have also picked up things from the dollar store, Michaels, Target, and some clearance items at Sears. I think I am almost done with my shopping already. Not that I don't love to shop I will try and post some pictures later.

Yesterday the girls and I were talking about Christmas. Kate then informed me that she wanted 1. A picture frame and 2. A trip to Disney.

I told her she should tell Santa, that it cost alot of money to go to Disney World.

She said no that she didn't want to ask Santa for the trip.

I asked her Why, you don't think Santa can plan a Disney trip like Mommy!!

And her response NO.

So now I am better than Santa Well probably not really but I am at least better at planning trips to see Mickey.

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

Well I decide on a few changes in our itinerary, the main one being that DH and I now have a night completely to ourselves. We will be using Kids Nite Out for babysitting.This will be the first time the girls have stayed with anyone other than family. They are not shy and love new people to play with so I think they will be fine. We just never used a sitter because we have an abundance of family or people I consider "family" so close to home that love to watch them for us. So here is the new ADR schedule.

12/29
BBB 1:00
Dinner 1900 Park Fare 7:00

12/30
Breakfast Akershus 8:40
Lunch Le Cellier 12:00 -New to us
Dinner O'hana 7:00 - New to us

12/31
Breakfast Donalds Safari Tusker House 8:05 - New to us although we did do the breakfast when it was at Restuarantasaurus (sp?)
Lunch Yak and Yeti 12:00 - New to us
Dinner Boma 6:30 - New to us

1/1
Lunch Crystal Palace 11:30- Must Do each visit
Hoop De Doo 7:15 - We couldn't resist adding this back into our line up, the girls love the show

1/2
Breakfast Hollywood and Vine 8:10 - New to us kinda- Our last visit for breakfast the power went out in that section of the park so they brought pastries and fruit with coffee and juice out at no charge and they also brought out the characters.
Lunch Mama Melrose 12:00-New to us
Dinner Jiko 7:10 - New to us and Date Night!!



1/3
Lunch The Plaza 11:30 - OOP
Dinner Cinderella's Royal Table 5:45

1/4
Lunch Rose and Crown 12:00 New to us
Dinner Chefs de France 6:00 New to us

 

[Alysa]

Love those date nights! Ours is at Chef du France! Jiko is lovely - have a wonderful time!

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Welcome aboard!!Well I now have a closet full of Disney stuff for Christmas thanks to Disneyshopping and the wonderfull people at UPS!!! I still can't believe the great deals I got with an extra 40% off the sale prices. I have also picked up things from the dollar store, Michaels, Target, and some clearance items at Sears. I think I am almost done with my shopping already. Not that I don't love to shop I will try and post some pictures later. Yesterday the girls and I were talking about Christmas. Kate then informed me that she wanted 1. A picture frame * and 2. A trip to Disney. I told her she should tell Santa, that it cost alot of money to go to Disney World. She said no that she didn't want to ask Santa for the trip. I asked her* Why, you don't think Santa can plan a Disney trip like Mommy!!And her response NO. So now I am better than Santa Well probably not really but I am at least better at planning trips to see Mickey.

Better than Santa? That's pretty cool! What did you end up purchasing?* I love hearing what items people were able to get to surprise their family on these trips.*

Well I decide on a few changes in our itinerary, the main one being that DH and I now have a night completely to ourselves. We will be using Kids Nite Out for babysitting.This will be the first time the girls have stayed with anyone other than family. They are not shy and love new people to play with so I think they will be fine. We just never used a sitter because we have an abundance of family or people I consider "family" so close to home that love to watch them for us. So here is the new ADR schedule. 12/29 BBB 1:00Dinner 1900 Park Fare 7:00 12/30Breakfast Akershus 8:40Lunch Le Cellier 12:00 -New to us Dinner O'hana 7:00 - New to us 12/31Breakfast Donalds Safari Tusker House 8:05 - New to us although we did do the breakfast when it was at Restuarantasaurus (sp?)Lunch Yak and Yeti 12:00 - New to usDinner Boma 6:30 - New to us1/1Lunch Crystal Palace 11:30- Must Do each visitHoop De Doo 7:15 - We couldn't resist adding this back into our line up, the girls love the show1/2Breakfast Hollywood and Vine 8:10 - New to us kinda- Our last visit for breakfast the power went out in that section of the park so they brought pastries and fruit with coffee and juice out at no charge and they also brought out the characters. Lunch Mama Melrose 12:00-New to usDinner Jiko 7:10 - New to us and Date Night!!1/3Lunch The Plaza 11:30 - OOP Dinner Cinderella's Royal Table 5:451/4Lunch Rose and Crown 12:00 New to us Dinner Chefs de France 6:00 New to us

A night out to yourselves is awesome!* Right now, it's just my DH and me, so every day we're there is a date night.* * It's really a lot of fun to get to enjoy WDW, in any way, with just the two of you.*

As for your restaurants, I have been to most of them and they are awesome.* Le Cellier and Ohana are great choices. I don't think you can go wrong with the choices you made. Isn't it exciting to do all this planning?

 

[askelton]

After lunch we will head back to the lodge (after I get my Grand Marnier Orange slush for the walk to the bus).

Don't forget the Grey Goose slushy.

We will then nap/rest and prepare for dinner at O'hana. Plans after dinner.... Sleep. This will become a theme throughout the trip. I do not like cranky kids especially when they are mine.

Very smart!

Hi everyone

I have got some great news. We are adding a trip in Oct. This trip will include my mom, the girls and myself. More info to come just wanted to share my excitement.

Yippee!

How great - our girls trip was really fun - we had a blast doing all the girly stuff! Tea at the grand floridian is great - and I think they have an Alice in Wonderland tea party there too! (I am thinking of doing this for my daughter and niece on our upcoming trip).

Tea is lovely. If you have time, it's a must do. And don't forget to wear a hat.

Great picture!

Dinner Jiko 7:10 - New to us and Date Night!!

You'll love it! The food is very good and the atmosphere is great for a date!

 

[Mom2Kate-Anna]

Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay in posting. Things have been crazy around here. My husband was out of town for 2 weeks with work and I went back to work myself. Between that and trying to get Kate ready to go back to school (which she did today ) it has been hard to get to the computer to post.

My first week back to work was especially crazy. My boss (the studio owner of the dance studio I teach at) recieved some bad news concerning a brain MRI the first day back to work. The first week they did multiple test and hopefully will get some answers within a few weeks. So I was the only instructor that week as the two of us are the only instructors at the studio. Although she was in and out, her mind was understandably elsewhere most of the time. But I am just happy to do whatever I can for her and her family. She is not only my boss but has become one of my bestfriends.

Now on to happier news. We have booked our Oct. trip for the 9th-13th at All Star Movies. It was the only value or moderate left with the passholder discount when we called. We don't mind where we stay though as long as we are at Disney.

This trip we added the regular dining plan on to our room.

Our ADR's are
Dinner at LTT on th 10th for MNSSHP
Dinner at Garden Grill on the 11th
Lunch at Hollywood and Vine on the 12th
Dinner at Capt Jacks on the 12th
Breakfast at Crystal Palace on the 13th (we will pay out of pocket although I am thinking of dropping Hollywood and Vine.)

Glad to back and planning!!!