Last minute trip report-we leave tomorrow

[amyy]

We leave tomorrow and I don’t know what to do with myself today so I have decided to do a pre-trip report. It is cold and rainy here in Maine. I hope that starting this will get me to come back with reviews after the trip. The cast is myself (38) and my darling boyfriend (DB-37). This will be my 4th trip and his 8th+. It will be my 4th time staying at POR. I just can’t bring myself to stay anywhere else. Well, if I could afford a Magic Kingdom view from the Poly …

The other day I was reading the boards and debating if we should upgrade our dining plan. Someone posted that your land Disney trip can end up costing as much as a cruise. I always thought a cruise was out of our budget but since I had time on my hands decided to explore this option. After pricing out multiple months, I realized it was in our budget and proceeded to book our first cruise for Dec 09!! Of course, I do need to get the time off from work but I am optimistic. I have checked in on the cruise thread and already “met” two of our fellow cruisers. One from New Hampshire and one from Canada. Prior to our 7-day cruise with stops in St. Croix, St. Thomas/St. John and Castaway Cay I hope to meet up with Hadley from New Hampshire for a little pre-cruise shopping trip. I am so excited that my first cruise is Disney, in December to take in the Christmas decorations and with a Verandah.

I don’t remember when exactly we booked our trip but we almost cancelled a few weeks ago. My mom was suddenly ill. I cancelled all our ADR (including the CG). My mom wants us to still go so I redid our ADR and of course couldn’t get back into the ones we first had picked. From reading on the boards it sounds like we’ll be fine. Up next will be the plans (including tours and meet with a fellow DIS board member).

 

[amyy]

We arrive tomorrow at 2:11. Taking ME to POR. Garden Grocers called yesterday to confirm our order so I am hoping that goes as planned. It will be our first time using them. I drink so much water and decided it made more cents (pun intended) to go this route. We are also getting a small bit of fruit, bag of goldfish crackers, few protein bars etc. I am thinking we will take the boat to DTD and eat at the Earl of Sandwich and Ghirardelli. I also want to head to Basins and pick up some body butter and soap. A trip to DTD would not be complete without a quick peek into the Disney store. We’ll take the boat back but get off at POFQ as we want to check out the music at Scat Cats.

 

[amyy]

We will probably do breakfast in our room or get up earlier and hit the food court. One of the big plans for today is the Backstage Safari Tour at 8:30. The CM said we will have to take a taxi so I need to arrange that when we check in. We had the tour scheduled and then cancelled but were able to rebooked. We have never been so and comments are appreciated. Not sure what we will do for lunch. We will head back to the resort for some time at the pool and to rest.

For supper we have ADR at Narcoossee’s. Since we couldn’t get back into the CG this is our backup. I posted on the dining board and received a lot of positive feedback so I am excited. One time when DB called and spoke with one of the CM to cancel our split stay at the AK (that is another story) the CM really raved about Narcoosee’s. Being from Maine I am not crazy about being on vacation and going to a seafood place. I will be getting the one chicken dish and the almond crusted cheesecake. The cheesecake I will probably bring back to the room because as a special treat to myself I have ordered the mini castle cake! I had forgotten about this but luckily on my dining thread someone reminded me.

After supper we will probably hit the MK. Depends on how my feet/shoes are holding up. I bought a new skirt but have had trouble finding comfortable shoes. First I bought a new pair of Dr Scholl’s sandals. I guess they are back in style and they look fine with the skirt. The weekend before last I tried them out when we went to supper in Bar Harbor (ocean view table but no seafood for us) and had blister within minutes. Yesterday I bought a pair of brown Teva’s with cork foot bed. They held up well yesterday. Hope you don’t mind these minor details. My poor boyfriend can’t take anymore and all I can do today is think Disney and details. I do apologize for the grammar errors. I am writing as fast as I think and that’s pretty fast

 

[ChelleinNC]

Have a great trip! (and next time, don't cancel your ADR's until you know absolutely positively, that you won't be going )

 

[amyy]

ChelleinNC-thanks for joing me and good point.

Today is the big one-Backstage Magic Tour. This was not on the original plans but after the “scare” with my mom I decided lets go all out. I wanted it to be a surprise for DB as he has wanted to do this but it is pricy. There is a 20% discount if you use your Disney Visa. I kept the surprise until I hung up the phone with the CM. The smile on his face reaffirmed I did the right thing by booking the tour. Reading on the DIS boards I noticed a thread asking about the tour. I posted we had booked for the 15th. The DIS member who started the thread and his wife will be on the same tour! This will be our first planned meeting with a DIS board member. (We did run into someone on the FW Segway tour last year. I recognized the lime green Mickey head) I believe the tour is 7 hours. It visits 3 parks with lunch at the WL. We are really excited. Tonight we will probably hang out at the resort. Maybe a trip to DTD after a little time in the pool. We have never been to the Boardwalk at night so they may be an option too. Any thoughts on what we should do?

 

[amyy]

Today we will be sleeping in! One of my favorite parts about a vacation. Sleeping in probably means about 8:00. After a quick shower we’ll head over to the food court for breakfast. Another favorite about a Disney trip is eating our breakfast out on the porch at the food court overlooking the marina. We will be doing CS for this as we are on the DP.

At some point we will head over to MK. It just depends on when we get up. We may come back for an afternoon break but again this depends on when we get up. We are doing the 5:00 seating at Hoop de Doo (another first). We are planning to take the boat over to FW around 4:00. After the show we will probably go back to the MK. I do love the parks but never have any real plans about how we are going to do them. I keep saying I will someday have a touring plan. We do want to hit the Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Another must for MK is to have an ice cream cookie sandwich and a bucket of Carmel Popcorn from Sleepy Hollow in Liberty Square

 

[amyy]

Today we have ADR at Boma’s for brunch at 10:45. We may wonder around a bit after. Originally we had a split stay between AK and POR scheduled. After we will probably head over to AK and catch what we couldn’t do on Thurs. A must is Festival of the Lion King. Hoping to get in the Finding Nemo show this year. I love the atmosphere of AK. In the afternoon we will head back to our hotel for some R&R and to “prepare” for our 6:00 photo shoot at the GF. After seeing all the great pictures here on the boards I decided to sign us up (also doing one at the BC). At 8:00 we are eating at Kona Café. We did eat that last year and this is our one repeat of the trip. I love the dessert here. It worked out with the location after the photo shoot and we couldn’t get in anywhere else  We will probably try to take in wishes and the water parade from the beach at the Poly

 

[amyy]

Mon I have EPCOT down with breakfast CS at the resort. Lunch and supper will be out of pocket since we have done some 2 TS meals already. I would like to catch Illuminations tonight.

Tues I also have EPCOT scheduled in. Between these two days we may hit MGM. We have hopper passes this year so we might as well hop at bit. 6:00 we have a photo shoot scheduled for the BC. If we haven’t already we will also browse and drool in the art gallery on the BW. At 7:30 we have ADR for Tutta Italia. Maybe catch Illumination tonight if we didn’t last night.

Wed we will hang out at the resort in the morning. Today we head home but I will have post trip report to work on and planning for our Disney cruise

If you made it this far-thanks! (but I don't think anyone has) We'll work out the details for the next report.