It's all about Gabby..Character Dining Overload

[merlinspride]

Where to start……where did it begin…hmm let's see. I have been going to Disney World almost every year since the 1978, sometimes twice a year. When I was a kid my parents would pack we three kids in a
big ole van and drive to Disney for two weeks over Christmas holiday. Of course back then we would stay offsite, as there was no onsite. Then it was only the Magic Kingdom,
but we would spend DAYS there and then of course go to the 'OTHER' Florida parks. You know Sea World, Gatorland, Circusworld, Busch Gardens, Cyprus Gardens..etc…
About seven years ago, my Mom, sister and I started doing girl trips and we started staying on site and have sworn never to stay offsite again. (of course now that I have a family of my own, off site is now a consideration
due to cost).

Fast forward to 2008…Me, Stephanie…Hi everyone out there in DISer-land…36years old in the real world, ageless in the WORLD. I am a self proclaimed Disney Addict, and now a DISBoard Addict also (of course mainly an obsessive reader)
Favorite Character and Movies would have to be Mary Poppins and The Lion King…Fave song is def. Circle of Life.

DH …Gabe...39years old….we have been married for four years, but together for 18years. He loves anything PIXAR….he is a computer graphics geek…and he's mine and I love every geeky inch of him.
He had never been to the World before me…I know so sad, what a deprived childhood. Well, he thought it was kind of cool, but nothing to scream about…. WHAT!!!!! Well I have had to work on him(two more trips), but suddenly this year it started to click.
Why would it all of a sudden click for him?.....

The answer comes in a 34 1/4" package….

DD …Gabby....almost 2 1/2yo…..and Disney Brainwashed…uuhhmm I mean obsessed like Mommy. This was DD's third trip …but this was THE trip, you know she really got it this time.
Every morning in my house, we turn on the Disney Channel. We LOVE Playhouse Disney….. Our current favorite is Johnny and the Sprites….stay on track here Steph(sorry I tend to ramble)…ok anyway these are the cartoons and shows that DD loves.
We would also go on You Tube to watch Kermitt videos of him singing Rainbow Connection and Movin Right Along w/ Fozzy. You know for DHS and the Muppet 3D Movie. Must prepare the child to be excited about everything possible.
Actually I was going on You Tube to watch the parades and characters so she would get an idea of how big the characters would be in real life.
So through DD's growing excitement my husband became very exicted. One day we were driving and DH was talking to DD about going to WDW and he said something to the effect of
dancing and acting silly in WDW with DD. My heart turned to mush right there. It didn’t mattter if money was going to be really tight, or that hurricanes kept threatening our vacation , or that Sprit had changed our flights AGAIN, or a zillion other
daily stress points or family drama. What mattered was that DH was looking forward to this trip and that he would willingly and carefree dance with DD in the middle of WDW and act silly.
He made me sooo happy right then and there. This was going to be a great trip…worth every day of the year planning it.

Now that I have introduced us…let me give you a quick glimpse at my year of OVERPLANNING every little detail.

Labor Day 2007. My sister (my Disney Partner in Crime) and I flew down with our two girls to meet our Mom at WDW. The men folk flew down for the weekend.
I remember checking into SSR and looking at the bounceback flyer for free dining. I didn’t read it carefully. After we got home I tried to book it. Well, we all know what happens to people who try and book a bounceback after they come home…
yeah that is right…you get NO BOUNCEBACK . UUGGGHHH but I was just there…please oh please Mr NICE CM Reservationist…cant you help me out??? No Mam I am sorry ( hey when did I become a Mam?), but the offer stipulates
that you have to be a guest currently staying onsite. But Mr NICE CM Reservationist, I frequent the DISboards, and some people have been able to do this…I am sorry Mam we cannot help you.

So I did what a lot of people did. I booked my trip anyway and got on the phone at 7am when the codes came out in April for free dining. This was a very stressfull few hours for me , but it worked out in then end, we got Free Dining.
So we were going to PoP Century , Preferred Room , 09/20/08 - 09/27/08.

Now being the master planner that I am, I of course had already booked my ADR's two weeks before exactly at the 180 day window. But now I am thinking….hhhmmm…upgarde to the DxDDP…less than the cost of the Basic DDP.
What do you think Honey ( speaking to my DH) This would basically prepay for everything…no food budget needed at all for the trip….Oh WTH…lets try it, just this once.
WOOO HOOO!!!!! We are going to try the DxDDP. This meant more ADR's to obsess over.

Next Post …Tentative schedule and scheduled ADR's…then on to the trip!!!!

 

[merlinspride]

Ok…just a glimpse at what our tentaive plans are going to be …and then onto the trip !!!

Let me preface with something about my DH. Now you have got to know him, he wants a trip to have structure, general plans of knowing where we are going and what we are doing. HOWEVER…
he wants wiggle room…he doesn’t want every single minute planned. Let me just say that this is a TRAP!!! I have fallen for it for years. He wants to go with the flow, doesn’t want to plan every little detail.
BUT when we get where we're going the first thing he wants to know is what the plan is, what are we going to do. If I make the mistake of saying ( as I have several times in the past) that I don’t know…lets just say he gets
a little frustrated with me. So basically I tend to overplan everything. In fact, I layout a detailed plan for each day, but then have one to two alternate plans for each day depending on how we are doing.

We agreed on one thing for this trip…..This trip was all about Gabby our daughter . She was 2 years 4months on this trip and we were going to try and avoid as many meltdowns as possible. We would take this trip on her schedule not ours.
In the past our WDW trips were more commando style….well that doesn’t work with a toddler in our minds. So for the first time, we would take our cues from Gabby. A break everyday for naps or swimming. We would NOT do the parks
commando style. We had 8 days in the parks, so we felt no pressure to open and close them everyday. This would be a trip as I had never experienced Disney before. We were truly trying to see it through a toddlers eyes.

Ok…so my plans were as follows:
Day one….DHS Lunch at Hollywood & Vine, Playhouse Disney and Dinner at Whispering Canyon Café

Day two….EPCOT Lunch at Garden Grille, Dinner at O'Hana

Day three …AK Breakfast at Tusker House, Dinner at Boatwrights, evening at DTD

Day four..MK…Breakfast at Cystal Palace (before park opens) Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern

Day five..EPCOT Breakfast at O'Hana, SURPRISE GABBY Grandmom, Poppop, Aunt Amy, Uncle John , Cousins Megan, Katie and Stever are joining our trip!!! ..Dinner at Le Cellar

Day Six…MK Breakfast at Kona Café Dinner at 1900 Park Faire

Day Seven…EPCOT Breakfast with Princesses at Norway Dinner at Cape May Clam Bake

Day Eight…Breakfast at Chef Mickey's…going home

So behind this 'schedule', I also had created my own touring plans (with alternatives) for each day on a huge excel spreadsheet.

Next Post…onto the trip!!!!! Day one…I cant believe I forgot that!!

 

[merlinspride]

The alarm goes off at 3:30am…DH and I scramble to get ready, I go into check on Gabby and she is awake and smiling. We leave the house a little after 4am.

We are making pretty good time. We get to the airport, park the car and check in. Gabby is still wide awake. We are **hoping** that she will fall asleep on the plane so we can catch some zzz's ourselves.
We get in line for security. This is what I dread. Now I have learned my lesson before, so I already had Gabby's shoes off ( let's just say we have had issues going through security before). We get up to the line and start piling
all of our carryon's and shoes onto the conveyor. So far soo good. Gabby gets out of the stroller…not too bad. I get the stroller up on the belt. At this point, they take DH to a different line(he cant go through medal detectors). That is when it starts.
I want to go with DDAAAAADDDDDDYYY!!!. Sorry honey, you have to stay with Mommy. **Please realize that Daddy is literally right next to us, not three feet away.
So what happens, the meltdown. That is right. I swear Gabby must have some flower child protestor spirit in her, because she knows what to do when she doesn’t want to go anywhere. As soon as I go to pick her up, her body goes limp and she slides to the floor.
I try to get her off of the floor and she wiggles out of my grip, all while saying she wants to go with Daddy. As soon as you think you have a grip on her, her body goes slack once more and slips to the floor.
Finally, DH is finished and on the other side of our medal detector and is calling DD to walk through. Now I walk through, completely frazzled.
We survive and make it to boarding. DD is awake the whole trip, but since it is only a 2 hour flight, we have no problem keeping her occupied and we are landing before we know it.
Smooth flight, we get our baggage and head to Magical Express.

Cool ….no line at the ME counter!! We check in and head for our line. There is no one in front of us, I am hoping this doesn’t mean that we just missed a bus…..but wait no, here comes the greeter. We are taken right away.
We get on the ME bus and pull out about 5min later. We are on our way!!!!

We pull into PoP and I get in line to check in. A really SLLLLOOOOOOOWWW line. I waited and waited. My DH is trying to keep my DD occupied, and I am thinking 'oh lord, please let booking here at Pop not be a huge mistake' I waited in line for over 1/2 hour. I finally get up to the counter, get all checked in. Our room isnt ready, as it is only 9:30 am, but that is ok.
We stow our luggage and grab a quick bite to eat at Everything PoP. DH asks what are our plans. I am ready. I explain that we are heading to DHS and we have lunch ADR's at Hollywood & Vine/Playhouse Disney. I am soo excited, this would be our great test.
Would DD love the characters or would she freak out and not want anything to do with them. If she freaks out, then we are in trouble because I planned soo many character meals (so we wouldn’t have to wait in line at the parks to see them).

We get ready to leave and I am searching my purse and saying Oh no… DH wants to know what's wrong. I say, I left my list of ADR numbers and all my plans/itineraries at home. When I was going through my final checklist this morning
I had them on the couch and left them there. DH…I cant believe you forgot that!! You who has been obsessing over this that and the other thing…how could you forget that? What can you do? I tell him I have to get back in line at the
concierge desk and they can print them out. DH…Oh..that's no big deal then, it is easily remedied.

So I get our list and we go outside to the bus stop. The bus was waiting for us and it wasn't too crowded. In fact let me say that all week, we had GREAT bus service. I think our longest wait was 10 minutes…and most times it was less than that.
We agreed early on that if we were ready to get on the bus and it was packed, with DD and the stroller we said we would wait for the next bus. We did this four times and each time, a second bus pulled up with minutes.

Up next…will Gabby freak out at lunch????