Just the 2 of us - A Mommy and Me trip 9/25 - 10/1 - Update 7/2

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I am pretty sure I am going to change my dates. With Free Dining coming out for September it seems like too good of a deal to pass by. I am going to call tomorrow to see if I can get the deal. If everything goes as planned my new dates will be September 25th - October 1st!!! I have already lined up the reservations in hopes that this will work out. Fingers crossed when I call tomorrow!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I did it...I changed the dates!! We are now going September 25th - October 1st and we are staying with Free Dining!! It is going to save us about $400 with the switch.

Last night I made the switch with my airfare with the new dates. I am now able to fly in and out of Portland!! That alone is worth making the switch. We are leaving at 6 AM and will arrive in Orlando at 10:30 AM. It is like we gained a whole day. I was nervous all night because I was afraid if the switching didn't work out than I wasn't sure if I would be able to get my original flights back.

This morning I was ready to call right at 7:00 AM. The first call I heard a message that they were having technical difficulties and I hung up. I called right back and got the same message and almost hung up again but then heard some Disney music and decided to hang on.

I went about my morning getting myself and Gabrian ready for work and school while I was on hold. It was very awkward trying to get dressed and stay on hold at the same time. At least it was really fun music to listen to while I was waiting.

After about 20 minutes I started to get nervous that I wasn't really on hold and was just in limbo somewhere. I tried to call on my cell phone several times but the call wouldn't go through it all. Now I was really nervous plus I was getting nervous that I was supposed to leave the house at 7:40 in order to make it to work on time.

At 7:30 I realized there was no shot at all that I was going to make it to work on time and I definitely wasn't willing to hang up at this point. I went online to see what other people were doing and found out that everyone was in a similar predicament. Apparently they were having routing problems and a lot of people were ending up in dining and told to call back in 30 minutes.

7:35 my call was finally answered by....Dining . I was so upset that all that waiting was for nothing. The CM was very nice and took my information and offered to get me over to Customer Service.

I waited another 10 minutes on hold and was able to get to the next CM. She confirmed that there was free dining and said it shouldn't be a problem to switch. She struggled for quite awhile until she admitted that she couldn't open up my reservation. She had to get me to another CM!

Another 5 minutes on hold and I got to the final CM. She was able to open my reservation . I asked to me be switched to a standard room and then upgrade to the Regular Dining Plan. I also added another day to our passes so that we now have 6 days of parks.

It took her awhile but she was able to get everything switched over. I requested a Herbie Room because Gabrian would love to be in the building with the Car on it. She was really interesting to talk to. She was saying how the CM's came in early today knowing it would be a high call volume day.

So overall it wasn't too bad of an experience...although a little nerve wracking. I have started working on reservations and post once I have them finalized.

 

[1000HappyWishes]

Tell your son that I give him a Brohoof from a fellow Pegasister! Plus, he got a Doctor Whooves Shirt! That's like, the best pony ever! Especially since it's based off DOCTOR WHO. You official gave your son the best birthday ever, in my opinion!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Tell your son that I give him a Brohoof from a fellow Pegasister! Plus, he got a Doctor Whooves Shirt! That's like, the best pony ever! Especially since it's based off DOCTOR WHO. You official gave your son the best birthday ever, in my opinion!

Thanks!!! I will definitely pass it on!

 

[indimom]

Wow! Lots of big changes! Sounds like your trip just got 100% better, if that's possible! Free dining, resort updates, better flight times, You are the master!!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Shew! Congrats on FD!!! I love FD, it saves my family so much money...I wish they weren't cutting it down to nothing, we had it in January 2012, I sure would love to have it in February 2014, but I know that's probably not going to happen! Enjoy!!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Wow! Lots of big changes! Sounds like your trip just got 100% better, if that's possible! Free dining, resort updates, better flight times, You are the master!!!

Shew! Congrats on FD!!! I love FD, it saves my family so much money...I wish they weren't cutting it down to nothing, we had it in January 2012, I sure would love to have it in February 2014, but I know that's probably not going to happen! Enjoy!!!

Thanks guys!!! I never thought I would make so many changes while planning a trip. I guess I probably normally do during trip planning but this time I am documenting it!!

Overall I am really pleased with all the changes. I can't believe how everything just fell into place.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

It is a dreary, rainy, cold, wet night and it is very depressing. I wish I was in Florida right now (picture me stamping my foot right now).

I have been researching a Transatlantic cruise for us today. We are supposed to go to Europe next year but we are thinking about the cruise instead. It would be for 16 nights next April. We would leave from Ft. Lauderdale and we would go to Azores, Portugal - Cork, Ireland - Paris, France - Belgium - Amsterdam and finally we would arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark. We are strongly leaning towards this trip. It would almost be 2 trips in one.

I have started shaping up my reservations. I will probably have to cut or change some. Since changing seems to be the theme of my trip I guess it has become my normal. So far I have reservations at:

Trail's End (lunch) - I really want to try that pumpkin waffle chicken sandwich. I would have to check before we left to make sure that they still had it on the menu.

Kona Café (Dinner) - Magic Kingdom Day

Boma (Dinner) - Animal Kingdom Day

T-Rex (Lunch) - Free Day - this one will probably be out of pocket and we would just get appetizers.

'Ohana (Dinner) - Free Day - I got a reservation for 6:25 PM - I was so lucky to get this. Someone must have just cancelled this and I snapped it up. At this point if you are lucky enough to find a reservation it is after 9.

Hollywood & Vine (Breakfast) - Hollywood Studios Day

Paradiso 37 (Dinner) - Hollywood Studios Day

Food & Wine Festival (Lunch) - Epcot Day - ok...its not a reservation but definitely something I need to plan for.

Cape May (Dinner) - Epcot Day

Kona Café (Breakfast) - This will be paid out of pocket - it doesn't seem to waste a credit for this

I think the ones up for change are the Kona Café Dinner and Cape May Dinner. I also have been thinking replacing the Kona Café with my Planet Hollywood Voucher and than doing something for 2 credits on the Epcot night (which would also be our last night). Or Trails End was going to be OOP so I could use a credit there and either keep Cape May or change it for something else. So many decisions to make!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Sorry...I did not fall of the face of the earth. I haven't had tons of planning to do and I have become a lurker. I have been spending my time reading trip reports and dining reports. I am still not super confident about my dining line-up. The only ones that are definite are Boma and 'Ohana. Everything else I have been wishy washy. Oh...and I have a Be Our Guest Reservation. I don't even want it but I hate to give it up because everyone else wants it.

Today was Gabrian's birthday party. We had a party at the Children's Museum. We had a blast and it was a complete success. Gabrian had such a good time.

We only had one issue with the touch tank. When you book it they tell you that other kids that aren't at the party may come up to the tank which we were ok with. The problem was they had the time our tank scheduled up on the board so the public thought it was up for grabs for everyone. They did make an announcement that only the party kids could come up but we had a bunch of angry parents behind us. They thought the adults in my party were blocking their kids and kept trying to push their kids into the mix. I did bring up my issue to the staff and they reduced the touch tank rate off by 50%. I kind of thought they should have taken the whole fee off since it caused me more stress than it was fun.

Here is Riley getting into the Birthday Spirit last night when we went out to eat.



Last week I took Gabrian to his first car race. He loved it! I don't think he took his eyes off the track while were there. I can see this will be in our future quite a bit this summer. It is a pretty good deal so that is ok. Gabrian is free to get in and they allow you to bring food and drink into the arena. Riley isn't as into it (or any interest at all). That will save me a little money too .



We also discovered a new pizza place in our area that we are super excited about. They are supposed to be like North End Pizza (Boston). They had some pretty fancy pants pizza there that was so delicious. I had a fig jam, prosciutto, and gorgonzola cheese. It was so good. The best part is they had an etch a sketch to play with for the kids (and the bigger kids too!).



My last bit of news is that we are down to 109 days!!!!!

 

[1000HappyWishes]

Glad your little one enjoyed the races. I can't sit through them at all, though my younger brother seems to like them quite a bit. Anyway, besides the issue with the tank at the party, I hope it was fun nonetheless! And only 109 days to go. CELEBRATION.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Glad your little one enjoyed the races. I can't sit through them at all, though my younger brother seems to like them quite a bit. Anyway, besides the issue with the tank at the party, I hope it was fun nonetheless! And only 109 days to go. CELEBRATION.

Thank you!! We are definitely getting excited as it is getting closer. The party was awesome...the tank was just one little blip.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!!!!!.........................










We are down to 100 Days!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I am down to $287 left owed on the trip. I am getting there. I have until August 11th to pay off the balance. I am hoping to get it paid off before than because I need to save spending money. I just put up a bunch of things on EBay and I am hoping to put a dent in that remaining balance. My dream would be to make enough to pay off the balance but I don't want to be disappointed.

I know I had mentioned Gabrian's birthday already but since it is my trip report...I am going to talk about it again . I uploaded some pictures and I wanted to share.

We had his Birthday party on Saturday which was the day before his actual birthday. We had it at the Children's Museum in Portland. It was really nice because we had our own private room. As you will be able to see in the pictures we had no theme going on at all. It was a mixture of left over party supplies and whatever I could get at the Dollar store (I was on a budget...I have to pay for Disney you know!!).



Gabrian had a great time picking out his birthday cake this year. What kind of cake do you think he would pick for this Thomas, Pirate, Balloon theme party???



That's right a John Deere cake! It totally fits right in. We had the coolest candles for the cake. They spelled Happy Birthday. Which by the way takes forever to light. That is a lot of letters when you are trying to light them all before they drip wax. We also had the darndest time keeping the kids figures out of the cake (actually it was 24 cupcakes). I got it at Walmart for only $20. Not a bad deal at all!!



Gabrian's Dad came up from MA to celebrate the party. He brought Gabrian his dream present.



On Sunday it was actually Gabrian's birthday. We were fortunate that it was a beautiful day and the Old Port Festival was going on in Downtown Portland. We got there pretty early because we wanted to stake out a spot for the parade.



This parade was really neat. Lots of costumes that looked like they were made out of paper mache. It was really neat to see. I tried to narrow it down to just my favorite pictures. Hope you enjoy!!















Gabrian really loved it...don't you think???? Look at that smile!!



After the parade we walked around to check out the Festival. Gabrian decided to try out some of his dance moves.



We met up with our friend's Myranda and Owen. Owen is Gabrian's best friend. They go to school together and love to get together on the weekends that Owen is with his Mom. The boys discovered a blow-up Southwest Airplane. They thought it was awesome.

Here they are trying to figure out what is inside the plane.



Than they thought the plane was falling over so they were our heroes and helped push it back up!



The nice Southwest people gave the boys an awesome hat souvenir. Gabrian really loves his! He still wears it around the house.



We found a great grassy place for the adults to rest. I think this was the boys favorite place of the festival. It is always funny to see what the kids find entertaining. They would have stayed their hours if we had let them.



Later we went home to have our family birthday cake. My Mom made this beauty!!



Gabrian was pretty excited to dive into that frosting!!!



Finally...I feel like Riley should not be left out. Here he is very excited to try Gabrian's cake.



I am very excited that we are down to 100 days. I feel like that the time is just going to fly by now!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

We are down to 99 Days!!! I am doing the double digit dance!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[leshunlenese]

YAH! for double digits

 

[indimom]

Wow! A ton of birthday fun AND double digits! Now, that's something to about!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Last week I paid for my Photoshare. I am really excited to do this. Since there are just 2 of us and one is a 4 year old, there weren't going to be many group shots and very unlikely any pictures of me (that might have not been a bad thing ). I also really like it for the Character shots. I never seem to get a good one. The total cost including shipping of the CD was only $15.50!

Speaking of Character visits...how do you get a good character interaction. The last time we were there, it was the first time we stood in line to see characters. I felt like we got a super quick picture and then were hustled off. Do you guys do anything special to get an interaction? Is there anything you do to indicate that you would like an interaction?

I have started purchasing a few things each week at the Market to bring with us for Disney. Things like individual cereal bowls, fruit snacks, and anything portable. That way I don't have a big grocery list at the end. I will barely feel the pinch as I buy things. I plan on eating most of our breakfasts in the room and then want to have a few evening snacks and some items to have in the park for Gabrian.

I am still struggling with my reservations. There are so many good choices out there. I think what I am having the hardest part with is trying to find a balance of trying out all these great restaurants and at the same time not spending all my time traveling to get to the reservation. I keep adding places that I will end up paying out of pocket for and then I cancel them. Here is what I have so far:

Wednesday: Arrival Day
Dinner: Raglan Road

Thursday: Animal Kingdom
Lunch: Sanaa (OOP)
Dinner: Boma

Friday: Magic Kingdom
Breakfast: 'Ohana (OOP)
Dinner: 1900 Fare Park

Saturday: DTD/Disney Quest
Dinner: 'Ohana

Sunday: Hollywood Studios
Lunch: Hollywood & Vine

Monday: Epcot
Lunch: Food & Wine Festival (OOP)
Dinner: Rose & Crown

Tuesday: Magic Kingdom/Departure Day ()
No Reservations

I am tempted to add a reservation to Kona Café and The Crystal Palace. Both would be for breakfast and they both would be OOP. I will probably wrestle with this until the day we leave. On the plus side wherever we go I am sure will be great and delicious.

So to end this entry I will leave you with some pictures. Gabrian had a Carnival Day at School yesterday. Here are a couple of pictures.





Hope you guys have a wonderful Saturday!!

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

Huge news for me! I just paid off our balance. I can't tell you how much I love seeing the balance at $0!! I was even able to pay it off 40 days early. I still have to save for our spending money while there but I have a lot of flexibility with how much to bring. I now have the airline tickets paid and the package which includes most of our food. This is such a weight off my shoulders.

On related news. We are down to 85 days until our trip!!! Time is just flying by now.

Happy 4th of July everyone!!!!!