It Takes 2 - A First Timer and a First Time In A Long Timer Visit The World

[burberryplaid]

After reading so many pre-trip and completed trip reviews, I decided to start my own pre-trip report. I thought this would also give me a place to keep track of my ideas and remember things I don't want to forget. I also thought this report might be helpful to couples who are planning trips to Disney.

Cast of Characters -

Me- 31, (32 at the time of our trip) We'll call me Princess Cupcake
This will be my first trip to the World. I have been in love with all things Disney for a very long time now, though..especially Tigger! (That's another nickname I am sometimes called)

While I was in college I worked as a CM at the Disney Store. Those were the hay days of the store. It was a lot of fun, even if we had to wear those hideous khakhi shorts! LOL!

DH - 31, (32 at the time of our trip) We'll call him Eeyore, because he is a bit like Eeyore at times.

DH has been to Disney twice, but the last time was when he was about 10 years old. He isn't quite the Disney freak that I am, but he's a good sport and I know he'll have a good time. He has graciously put all of the travel and itinerary plans in my hands.

A Little About Us As A Couple - We've been together for 10 years now. We'll be celebrating 3 years of marriage in May. We met online through Match.com. We both signed up during a free trial period. We ended up never having to pay because we met the person of our dreams within just a few days!

Why We're Going - We wanted to have one last big vacation alone before we start a family. I know that we'll be brining our kids to Disney someday, but I really wanted to visit alone and do what we want to do before we have to worry about strollers and height requirements and kids meals!

When - September 7-14 We'll be staying at the Wilderness Lodge

So far all we've done is booked our room and MYW package. We'll be getting a 6 day Park Hopper. We will be getting the DDP. (Hopefully for free, but we'll pay if we have to)

We live near Boston, but we're planning to leave from Providence, RI. Most likely we'll be flying on Southwest. Southwest isn't selling tickets for September yet so we need to wait a bit to buy those. It's also fairly cheap to park the car there for the week so it makes sense to leave from there. We're planning a moring flight which will hopefully get us to Orlando no later than 2 PM.

Okay..well that's a decent introduction for now (I think) I'll post our tentative itinerary in the next post...

Oh..and feel free to give advice, etc...I need all the help I can get!

 

[burberryplaid]

Tentative Itinerary

Friday September 7

Fly to Orlando
Take Magical Express to Wilderness Lodge
Explore Hotel and swim

Evening Activity Possabilities:

1) DTD - Dinner at Planet Hollywood (Our package comes with 2 $15 Planet Hollywood Vouchers) explore shops..possible dessert at Ghiradelli

2) Dinner at ESPN Club Explore the Boardwalk area and possibly visit Jelly Rolls

3) Dinner at Beaches & Cream Explore surrounding area

Saturday September 8

Disney MGM Studios Day
Possible Lunch Locations -

Toluca Turkey Legs Co
Toy Story Pizza Planet
Starring Rolls
Boardwalk Bakery

Dinner
50's Prime Time Cafe

Sunday Sept 9
Animal Kingdom

Lunch
Flame Tree BBQ or
Tusker House

Dinner
Jiko

Monday September 10
Magic Kingdom

Breakfast – Crystal Palace Winnie The Pooh Breakfast

Late Lunch/Dinner – Counter Service at Magic Kingdom or Sit Down somewhere??

Tuesday September 11
Magic Kingdom

Possible breakfast at Captain Cook's People have confirmed that they sell Tonga Toast which I really want to try and if it's counter service..I am down with that! If we don't do this...

Lunch Possabilities
Cosmic Ray's
Pecos Bill's

Dinner – Ohana or Kona Café

Wednesday September 12
Epcot

Lunch - Counter Service TBD

Dinner
Le Cellier

Thursday September 13
Epcot

Lunch - Counter Service TBD
Dinner Possabilities
Rose & Crown
Whispering Canyon


Friday
Check out and Fly Home =(

 

[burberryplaid]

Things I Want To Try - Other than lunch/dinner items at restaraunts above

Figaro Fries - Based on DIS member swankybeth's dining reviews
Dole Whip - Come on? How can we not try them??

Things I want to remember

Water - We might get it delivered by Staples..need to think about this

Shoes - Get new Teva's for trip

Bag - Find a portable, comfortable bag to carry with us to the parks that can carry our camera, tickets, water etc

 

[ILMICKEY]

Hello,
I was just reading your itinerary. Sounds good. You might want to get serious about your dinner selections though. Your 180 day window for ressies is coming up. I have heard they go fast. Especially if everyone is planning on the free dining. My family and I are going for the 6th time in November. First time on DDP. I am going crazy trying to figure out where to eat, what time, which day????????? For some reason that seems to be the most important of the planning. Have you been to the Disney World website for the free maps? It is pretty cool. You pick all the things you want to do at each park and they plan it out on maps for you!! Even where you are planning to dine.
Have Fun!!!

 

[burberryplaid]

Hello,
I was just reading your itinerary. Sounds good. You might want to get serious about your dinner selections though. Your 180 day window for ressies is coming up. I have heard they go fast. Especially if everyone is planning on the free dining. My family and I are going for the 6th time in November. First time on DDP. I am going crazy trying to figure out where to eat, what time, which day????????? For some reason that seems to be the most important of the planning. Have you been to the Disney World website for the free maps? It is pretty cool. You pick all the things you want to do at each park and they plan it out on maps for you!! Even where you are planning to dine.
Have Fun!!!

Thanks for the tips on the maps. I sort of saw that on the site, but hadn't really explored it.

Yes, we're definitely going to firm up our dining plans. We can make our ADR's on March 13th and I am planning to have everything figured out by then. (I hope)

Thanks for visiting!

 

[burberryplaid]

Back again. So now I can say we are officially booked! :yippee: We paid the deposit to Dreams Unlimited last week. I did a lot of research, mainly here and at the website for the Unofficial Guide to Disney World and have now come up with a new itinerary, based on the predicted crowds and the Unofficial Guide to Disney's recommendations for best parks to visit on the days we'll be going.

Itinerary Update

Friday - We're planning to just have this be a free day as we'll be arriving this day. We're planning to have a quick dinner at somewhere informal..no where that requires reservations. We're also hoping to get a swim in on this day. We may also be interested in the Night of Joy festivities, depending on which acts will be performing. We know this is a seperate ticket event, but we would like more info as it becomes available so we can decide if this is something we'd like to attend.

Saturday - Epcot
dinner at Le Cellier

Sunday - Disney Studios.
dinner at 50's Prime Time

Monday - Epcot
dinner at The Rose & Crown at Epcot, or Whispering Canyon back at the Wilderness Lodge. (I am letting DH decide..he has until Sunday to make a decision)

Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
breakfast at Crystal Palace

Wednesday - Magic Kingdom this day.
dinner at Kona Cafe .

Thursday - Animal Kingdom
dinner at Jiko

Friday - Checkout and fly home

We can make ADR's on 3/12 so hopefully Merrie will take care of those then, and DH will make a decision on Rose & Crown vs. Whispering Canyon

Next big To Do is to buy our plane tix.

I'm also going to subscribe to the Unofficial Guide's site. I really like the Unofficial Guide to Disney World, but I'd like too see there other touring plans and see if we can't find one better suited to us. It's only $7 for one year, vs. $20 for Tour Guide Mike's plan..I figure it's worth a shot!

 

[burberryplaid]

WOW! I haven't visited my own little report in a while! Oops!

Well, the big change from when I last visited was the change in our dates. We are now going 9/3-9/10 to take advantage of Free Dining! I am thrilled we got it because I know that at least initially WL was really hard to come by. We're saving about $600!

Shortly after I booked our new dates, I updated our ADR's. The new schedule is as follows:

Monday Sept 3
6:45 @ Whispering Canyon
Tuesday Sept 4
6:30 @ 50's Prime Time
Wednesday Sept 5
5:50 @ Le Cellier
Thursday Sept 6
8:15 AM @ Crystal Palace
Friday Sept 7
6:30 @ Kona Cafe
Saturday Sept 8
6:30 @ Rose & Crown
Sunday Sept 9
6:30 @ Jiko

I think I decided I am going to wear Teva's while there. I have been eyeing some new Terra-Fi 2's and I think I'll order them soon so I can break them in through out the summer

I was also really resistant to getting a baggallini, but now I think I am going to get one. I like the red, I think.

Thanks to any visitors who happen by..comments and thoughts are always welcome!

TTFN..Ta Ta For Now!

 

[burberryplaid]

98 days to go!!! I'm so excited!!

We paid Disney the balance and we booked our flight out of Boston on Jet Blue. We've never flown Jet Blue, but I've heard good things. It was only slightly cheaper to fly out of Providence (No thanks to Soutwest whose fares were extremely high!) and the flights out of Providence would have had us doing layovers. We decided to just spend the extra $15 per person, take a cab to Logan, and fly Jet Blue. It's so nice to have everything paid off!

Next task will be looking for luggage. The luggage we have is old and not in great condition. (We've had our perspective pieces since college) It's time to buy matching luggage and be adults (I guess!) I have my eye on the Marina Collection by Liz Claiborne. It has good reviews on Ebags and Macys.com but we need to see it in person. Right now it's 20% off at Ebags. It comes in brown and pink (which I love, but DH may not want pink on his luggage! :lol: ) and navy with cornflower trim. Maybe we can go take a look at Macy's tomorrow

 

[burberryplaid]

Holy Cow!

It's been a long time since I posted here! 2 weeks to go and I'm SOOOO excited!

Since our last episode, a lot has gone on personally and trip wise.

Personally, I had gallbladder surgery last month. It was scary as I've never had surgery before, but all went well and I was back to work in a week, and felt about 100% within 2 weeks. I'm happy to have the dang thing gone because of all the aches and pains it caused.

Trip wise, I've made a lot of purchases for the trip.

I did end up getting the Teva Terra-Fi 2's but I got the green ones as opposed to the purple because they were on sale at Sierra Trading Post (I love this board! I would have never found them if it wasn't for this place!)

We bought our luggage. It was the Liz Claiborne I mentioned previously. We got 2 medium bags which I think is all we'll need for this trip. We can add on to the set later.

I started working on the itinerary and downloaded some touring plans from the touring plans (dot) com site.

I think we've purchased every trial size/travel size product we could find that we might need.. advil, Excedrin, Imodium, Pepto, hand sanitizer, sunblock, etc. I will post a more detailed list later for anyone interested.

I think that's just about it. With 2 weeks left, my goal is to post in here daily and hopefully make this pre-trip a bit more successful so I can build a following for our trip report.