Jen, Stacey & the December 2011 Shindig!

[DisFanJen]

Jen, Stacey & the December 2011 Shindig Table of Contents
(For those who want to skip to the meat of the report, and yes I should have made an extra post for this at the beginning of the thread)

I'll be including both the PTR and main report in here rather than posting multiple threads so that those who are subbed will get a notification of new posts.

Pre Trip Report - See below.
Pre Trip Report Update 1
Pre Trip Report Update 2
Pre Trip Report Update 3 - Mini Update
Pre Trip Report Update 4 - Another Mini Update
Pre Trip Report Update 5 - It's packing time!


Day 1 & 2 - Drive up and Flight!
Day 1 & 2 - Drive up and Flight! Pt2

Day 3 - MK!
Day 3 - MK! Pt 2

Day 4 - AK & Cali Grill
Day 4 - AK & Cali Grill Pt 2
--------

Ok, I've not had much luck with trip reports.

The first one I did was a photo report and that was OK. The second was much more wordy but it sort of just petered out (strange from an aspiring writer). The third got halfway done then the podcast and associated website shut down and the forth well, pretty much went the way of the third...

But not disheartened, (well maybe a little) I'm going to embark on a stupendous, exciting, and hilarious trip report!!!
(Note, the editor provides no guarantee as to the level of 'stupendousness', 'excitement' or 'hilarity' contained within this trip report)

The main players in this little escapade are as follows:

The amazing, stupendous and glamorous me!
​

Well let's be honest here, I don't usually look like that when going on vacation, I tend to look more like this...

It was Dale's fault! Honest!

Then there is my partner and love of my life, Stacey:

Aww, ain't she cute?
​

Oh, if you have any issues with my partner and I both having indoor plumbing, please move along because:

'Cause the thread ain't listenin' (Joke. I just wanted to find a reason to use that cute image. )

The two bit players in this piece are:

Stoner the cat (trust me if you'd seen him half asleep you'd understand the name)
Who's main contribution was annoying me and walking on my keyboard while trying to book ADRs.
​

And:

The amazing Towel Bunny! (Ok, he wasn't involved at all but to steal a phrase from the Dr, Towel Bunnies are cool...)

So, after lots of wailing and a' gnashing of teeth we decided that as long as we waited till December we could afford to go to WDW again this year.

Then somehow that 'can just afford' turned into a 16 night trip including a 4 night cruise on the Dream. (I'm dreamin' of a DCL Christmas.... ) Not quite sure how, but it did.

So a phone call DVC member services where we booked SSR & OKW; then a couple of trips to the DCL and Virgin Atlantic websites later and we're all set. Of course you guys know that's only the beginning. There's the Rental Car (I know some people prefer Disney transportation but there's nothing like the privacy of a car at the end of a long park day), the ADRs, any excursions on the cruise... The list goes on.

But the basics were done so I sat back and chilled, happy that all was well.

So the months rolled by and before you know it, it was mid September, the trip was less than 3 months away and everything was fine...

Fine! I haven't booked the ADRs, the London Hotel or car parking, I haven't done online check-in for the cruise yet! Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!


Ok, so first onto the DCL website , get checked in and check out what spots are available for Palo. Surprisingly there were spots for both Palo and Remy so we pushed the boat out and booked Palo for the 2nd night and Remy for the 3rd...

Next, London Hotel and car parking for our UK car while we're in the states. Well we didn't need the Hilton or the Ritz (Hmm, suddenly I fancy a cracker... ) so it was the Premier Inn Heathrow. Not that cheap actually but I imagine the closer to the airport the higher the price hike.

The car was booked with Heathrow long stay (obviously) and that was all set.

For those who know Virgin Atlantic I can hear the cogs whirring in your head as you think to yourself: 'Heathrow? Virgin Atlantic don't fly to MCO from Heathrow!' And you'd be right, but they do fly to Miami! Stacey wanted to fly upper class and there wasn't any spaces on the MCO flight, so we're flying into Miami then driving up. (Why oh why did I have to fly Upper Class on my 40th?! It totally spoiled her!)

Transportation to the Dream wasn't a problem as we have a rental car. So it was pick up at Miami International, drop off at Cape Cavaveral then the opposite way round when we disembark at the end of the cruise, simples!

That just left the ADRs, with which I had copious amounts of help from the afore mentioned Stoner. He had great fun stepping on the back button whilst I was trying to make reservations...

So, firstly it was 3 reservations for Boma breakfast. Personally we think it's the best breakfast on property. Absolutely love it! We'll almost certainly grab a couple of extra breakfasts there on top of the 3 but we'll do it on a walk-in basis. Never had problems just walking in if you turn up at 7:30...

Next came Chef's de France on the 16th as it's a day we're at Epcot, a booking at Sanaa for the 7th as Stacey loves their food and we're done.

Well, at least I thought I was but a thought kept floating around in my mind... 'We've got to take posh clothes for Palo and Remy, so maybe... But they'll never have a spot available this late will they?'

So I went on the online reservations system and there it was, Victoria and Albert's, December the 5th at 20:45.

So a click of the mouse later and we're off to Victoria and Albert's. Wow!


I even noticed that a certain podcast (that I won't mention here in case it breaks any rules) was having a reunion so I RSVP'd for the meets we could attend.

So that's everything, if you want to take a look at our itinerary then just click here and take a gander.

T minus 54 days and counting.

Yeah, that's everything... Isn't it?
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[jtlover]

Sounds great, we want to do the Dream next year so will be interested in your trip report.

 

[TinkerChelle]

Boma for breakfast 3 or more times....so lucky! Yummo Have you ever done Chef's de France before? Was considering it for us but not sure with two little ones? Thoughts?

Also, our kitty, Schmuley, looks a lot like Stoner

Enjoying your report!

 

[dmwang9]

Found your post about this PTR on the LGBT board and thought I'd hop on for the ride!

 

[DisFanJen]

Sounds great, we want to do the Dream next year so will be interested in your trip report.

Can't wait either.

It's not my first trip with DCL but it is my first on the Dream.

 

[DisFanJen]

Boma for breakfast 3 or more times....so lucky! Yummo Have you ever done Chef's de France before? Was considering it for us but not sure with two little ones? Thoughts?

Also, our kitty, Schmuley, looks a lot like Stoner

Enjoying your report!

We love Chef's de France. I did it for my 40th birthday that's how much we like it. Like I said I love the onion soup and my partner is addicted to their Vanilla Bean Creme Brule.

Yeah, Schmuley and Stoner look a lot alike but Schmuley looks a lot more alert!

 

[DisFanJen]

Found your post about this PTR on the LGBT board and thought I'd hop on for the ride!

The more the merrier!

 

[DisFanJen]

Well, with most of the booking done there isn't much left to do. But with neurotic me there's always something to be anal about.

Anyhoo, to speed up the disembarking process (and because we have 16kg allowance flying Upper Class) we decided to go carry on only. So we spent a night weighing individual items to be sure we could get everything in our carry on bags.

iPad, 1kg, Jeans .6Kg, etc...

Then we laid them out on the bed to have an idea of what we're packing, with help from Stoner of course.

Oh, it's a hard life eh?

Oh, DCL have contacted me and told me I've been upgraded to a 4E! But don't get too excited. I'm still on the same deck, in the same cabin, with exactly the same amenities...

All to do with their high falutin category restructure. Well, it doesn't effect me none...

 

[TinkerChelle]

Oh my! How could you possibly fit everything in carry ons? Wait until you see my baggage!

 

[DisFanJen]

Oh my! How could you possibly fit everything in carry ons? Wait until you see my baggage!

Well in Upper class you get 16kg instead of 6kg so that helps, we're using space saver bags (the ones that don't need hoovers as the ones in WDW don't work), we bought some special light weight carry on bags (a total weight of 1.25kg which is about a kg lighter that the average rolling carry on bag) and we tend to travel light.

When we travel cattle class we usually only take one hold bag that weighs around 21kg so as you can see we're only 1kg over with the hold bag than we'd be with the carry ons, add in the lighter bags and the weight of the hold bag itself and we should be fine weight wise.

The only issue will be if we can get the space saver bags to squish down enough. Once we do final packing I'll give you an update and some photos.

 

[DisFanJen]

It's getting close now, less than two weeks till we fly!

We've picked up a couple of things for the trip, some delivered directly to SSR.

We don't consider ourselves very thrifty I mean look at our ADR list and the flight!) but one thing we feel is way overpriced is the soda at Disney. Not being in the mood to keep stopping at CS locations to ask for ice water we take Hydropal Filter Bottles with us. They totally filter the fountain water making it perfectly drinkable. Drop a couple of ice cubes in the bottom of the bottle and you're all set!

Not really needed but the Geek in me has been after a Guild Logo T-Shirt for ages. So I bought one and had it shipped to SSR. Gonna let my freak flag fly in WDW!

Finally got around to picking up our DVC APs. Needed to buy new as we let our old ones lapse (they ran out in March). Just wasn't financially viable to renew them back then whereas buying them now should give us two trips on them.

I always put my tix, FPs, etc. in a holder when I'm at WDW and I find that the standard ones I've managed to pick up around the world (and given away on DCL) are just too small so I picked up some zipper passport holder with lanyards. Waterproof of course. This was from another American company so these went straight to SSR again.

Lastly, I got an email from the Armchair Astronaut club saying that for a limited time the close up tour at KSC will include a tour INSIDE the vehicle assembly building! Well the Geek in me couldn't resist, epecially as I was toying with going to KSC anyway so I booked the tour for our disembarkation day from our cruise.

Apart from picking up a TiWC when we get to Florida I think that's it!

Well, all apart from picking up some extra clothing but you really don't want to hear about my 'smalls' shopping do you?

EDIT: My DCL Paperwork just arrived! Yay!

 

[DisFanJen]

Just a quick one.

As you can tell by our ADRs we are foodies and as we have to take posh clothes we decided to get a meal at V&As.

But to 'collect the whole set' we also wanted a booking at the Cali Grill, but that one had eluded us... Until today.

I assume it was a cancellation by someone but with just over a week left we managed to get a booking for the California Grill on December the 3rd at 9:40pm.

 

[DisFanJen]

Over 800 page views and we're still in PTR stage, wow!

"You love me! You really love me!"

Well just another mini one for ya.

DVC have announced an Epcot Merry Member Mixer on certain dates including Dec 6th.

Well, the magic word 'complimentary' is in there and given how rare it is to get something free from Disney, let alone DVC I decided to re-arrange my itinerary to be able to go.

The bonus here is that it means that we go to the Magic Kingdom the day before the parade taping where as before we went the day after and if the taping had to over run it would have been manic.

I promised to post pics of our bags once they were packed to prove that we could get everything into carry on but that should be the last PTR post and it'll be onto the trip! Yay!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2837184

 

[stephensmum]

It's getting close now, I am keen to see your packing. Enjoying your pre trippie can't wait for the full one.

 

[DisFanJen]

It's time to pack!

So what we need to do is get all of this:

In here:

Good game, good game....

What we did is use six space saver bags like this:

And filled up the shoes like this:

(The left contains my swimming cozzy and the right my unmentionables )

I do have to admit that we didn't make it, but we came close:

Only the towel was left out, and that's not an essential.

And we got it in the bag in 9.2kg, loads under the 12kg we could go up to. Excellent!

The next post will be from Heathrow when the real trip starts, only five days. Woohoo!

 

[jkCT]

Lurker de-lurking to say happy, safe travels! It sounds like you have a wonderful trip planned, can't wait to read more about it!!!

 

[DisFanJen]

Woohoo! We're Here!!!!

Firstly please excuse the photos, I packed away the camera and couldn't get to it till this morning so there are all iPhone photos. But that aside...

Day 1 - The drive to London

The drive up was pretty uneventful. The only thing of note was the the fact that I only recently passed my driving test so I got to do a fair bit of the driving.

We left after Stacey got home from work and I drove as far as Membury Services, then Stacey took over for the rest of the way.

Anyhoo, we got to the Premier Inn Heathrow Bath Road at about 9pm and headed up to the room. It was very convenient for the Airport but that's the only thing I can say for the place. It was fairly basic (no flannels for pete's sake!) and everything was an optional extra, including the flannel!

Once you added on the extras I'd expect free at other London Hotels the price was more than we paid at the Gatwick Hilton!

Everything's Premier, including the price!

No photos of that day, partly because I was driving and Stacey doesn't to the photo TR thing and well, who wants to look at pics of the motorway and a Premier Inn?

Day 2 - The Flight

Ok, time for photo overload! might have to split it into two posts...

So, we got up at about 6:30, got ourselves together at a leisurely pace then headed for Heathrow's Long Stay Car Park. Promptly missed the turning then had to back track... Hay give me a break! We usually go from Gatwick!

We got parked up (We're in C24 people, everyone remember where we parked! ) then on the bus to T3.

Once at T3 a very nice person from Virgin Atlantic pointed us at the Upper Class wing and we were whisked through their exclusive security channel and into the clubhouse.

Very civilised.

Now we got out of the room without grabbing breakfast, and this was deliberate as we knew that the clubhouse had complementary food. Well, it'd be rude not too really...

Stacey grabbed an Eggs Benedict but asked for the ham to be removed (we're both veggies) and I had the Veggie breakfast with no egg (There's only one place that I eat egg from and we'll see them later in the trip).

Now in classic Disboards tradition it's time for the food photos!

Stacey's Eggs Benedict.

My Veggie Breakfast.

They were very yummy but quite small so we both ordered another. It's free people!

So after about two hours it was time to head to the gate and get on this girl.

Lady Penelope.

We were travelling upper class so got to get on first, and got ourselves settled in with a glass of champers.

There seemed to be a traffic jam at Heathrow jetway so it took a while before we got moving (about an hour late leaving) but eventually we were off.

The Miami route had the interactive IFE which was great, I got to choose what I watched and could pause it for a stretch.

Lunch was pretty good.

\
Aww! Aren't these cute?!

The starter was a spicy pumpkin soup.

Really nice but the spices were a bit strong for some.

Then it was a vegetable risotto.

It was OK but a bit bland in my book. Probably to counteract the soup!

For desert I had the cheese platter (Darn you Diabetes! Darn youuuu!!!!!)

It was ok, not much you can say about a cheese platter.

And Stacey had the Chilly Cheesecake.

Stacey thought it was a strange combination.

Then I had a snooze till it was time for afternoon tea.

 

[DisFanJen]

Hmm, afternoon tea...

Being veggie and diabetic they had a bit of trouble making up something for me, but eventually came up with this:

A scone without the jam, a cheese sandwich and a profiterole. Yeah, I don't know how a profiterole is diabetic friendly either...

Stacey had the scone and the cake platter.

Then finally, 45 minutes later than scheduled, we landed at MIA.

But once we disembarked there was no TSA staff waiting, we stood there for 20 minutes then they rolled up ant a leisurely pace and finally let us in to the country. Good work if you can get it eh?

At this point we just wanted to get to the car so no pictures for a while. Especially given that we got to the Avis desk and they didn't have the car we paid for.

Well, he tried to get us to pay extra for a volvo hard top convertable and I said no, then he offered us a free upgrade to something else and half listening I just said "yeah, as long as it's a soft top and American' as we originally ordered a Mustang. Lastly in fit of madness I put myself on as a driver, hey I always wanted to drive a Mustang, even if it was only a little bit.

Well we got to the car and Holy Moley!!!!

It was a Comaro! We're driving Bumblebee!

I love it!!! It even had a Head's Up Display!

Only problem is the thought of driving it actually scares me. Stacey can take the wheel for now.

It's definitely the Gaston of vehicles. Why?

Because it's "roughly the size of a barge!!!!!!"

Well, the long drive from MIA to Orlando went fairly quietly and after about 3 1/2 hours we were in Kissimee and within spitting distance of WDW.

But we had to do one stop. For all that we are foodies and like fine dining there is one US 'delicacy' we can't pass up...

A BK Veggie Burger!

They're the best fast food burger we've ever tasted, so we grabbed on on the way to the room.

Then it was into SSR and we collapsed in the room for a well earned rest.

Ahh, home.

 

[Linda67]

Oh this is going to be good

 

[jkCT]

YAY!! You made it! Oh, I can see I'm going to love this trip report already...lots of photos! (and hey, some of us like pics of the motorway! )