Leavin' on a Jet Plane (PICS ADDED) - PTR 10/10 - 10/17 - Food and Wine Festival

[IheartDDuck]

So I've been a long time lurker on the DIS site, but I have now officially signed up! Yeah me! I love, love, love reading peoples trip reports and figured, "why not? I'll give it a try!". So, I'll give you a little information about myself.

My name is Danielle. I live in the greater Chicagoland area and I am officially obsessed with Disney and have been since I first set foot through those gates at the tender age of four. I am 28 years old and single, and I'm currently working on getting my Master's Degree in Accountancy so I can take and pass the CPA exam (okay, before any accountant jokes are slung in my general direction, please note, I am not a typical accountant....unless that's what all typical accountants say???)

My parents are also huge Disney fans and so are my two olders brothers. My parents are DVC members and have had ownership since 2001. This helps to feed our Disney fix, as we truly are addicts. Really...I've formed DAA.

This particular trip was sprung from an idea that my mom and I had when we were on our mother/daughter trip to WDW and Vero Beach in May of this year. My dad was pouting (sadly, yes, the man pouts), because he was not joining us on our trip. *sigh* What to do?? I guess the only explanation was to plan another trip. So, my mom and I put our heads together and figured what better time to go than the food and wine festival. The only thing I love more than food is Disney and to get the two in one place, I mean come on...do I really need more convincing.

We decided to try to stay at the Grand Floridian. Now this is a big accomplishment, because in the 24 years that I've been going we have NEVER stayed there. I was shocked that el cheapo (with his points) dad decided to go for it. He has this thing about the GF, something about having to look nice all the time, ironing things, blah blah, I tune him out when he gets there.

So we made our reservation for the GF for our entire stay from Oct. 10 to Oct. 17. I will give more details later, but here's a rundown of the players.

ME (Danielle) - Loves all things Disney, loves music, loves to read...sound like a big enough dork yet? LOL

Mom - My best friend in the world. I don't know what I'd do without her. She loves Disney just as much as I do. She is from Belgium, moved here when she was 15, so I always like to give her a hard time that she came over on a boat. But then I tell her "no really, you came over on a boat!"

Dad - Loves Disney just slightly less than my mom and I. He is our rock. When I post pictures later, you'll see that he is just a great big teddy bear. He loves golf and Disney, and said when you golf in Disney it's like heaven, because it's his two favorite things.

Jason (brother) - Jason is my older brother by 4 years. He was my best friend growing up and we still get along swimmingly. He is one of my favorite vacation buddies. We have many a stories that go something like Rose & Crown Pub, yards of beer, can't find our bus???

Joaquin (Nephew, Jason's son) - Oh my nephew. Officially the cutest little boy on the planet. I kid you not. I will have pictures. He is a little angel of a child with a personality the size of the universe. He is currently 20 months old. This will be his first trip to Disney, so we're uber-excited. Currently, his favorite thing to do is "pound it" (bump fists). It's pretty darn funny.

Well, stay tuned for things to come. I hope this will be a good first PTR.[/COLOR]

 

[ILuvJimny]

Oh, you're trip is coming soon! We'll be there part of the time you will be there and are hoping for great weather! How fun it will be to see Disney through the eyes of a 20 month old!!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Oh, you're trip is coming soon! We'll be there part of the time you will be there and are hoping for great weather! How fun it will be to see Disney through the eyes of a 20 month old!!

That's the part that I'm most excited about! I've never traveled to WDW with anyone younger than four, so I'm very excited. We are also hoping for great weather. Let's hope it comes for us all!

 

[IheartDDuck]

So I figured now would be a good time to go over our ADR's and our plans for the days. My mom, dad and myself arrive on Saturday 10/10. We leave from Milwaukee, WI via AirTran at 7am, landing around 10:40am Florida time. Oh, early flights. I am not a morning person at all, but I suck it up because I like to get to Disney early when possible. The only rule of thumb I have is for people not to talk to me for the first 15 minutes or so. LOL. My brother Jason and my nephew Joaquin's flight will arrive on Monday 10/12 at about 11am. He unfortunately is not able to make it for the entire trip, so he will have two less days then we will.

Our ADR's are as follows:

Saturday 10/10 - Grand Floridian Cafe @ 8pm
I am looking forward to this restaurant, only because we've never eaten there before and I love trying new places. If anyone has eaten there before, please let me know how your experience was.

Sunday 10/11 - Marrakesh @ 2pm
I know that this restaurant is not everyone's favorite, but I always love it here.

Monday 10/12 - Kona Cafe @ 7:55am and Chefs de France @ 5:10pm
Mmmm, Kona. My favorite breakfast by far. And good coffee. That's almost impossible to find in the World.

Tuesday 10/13 - Tony's Town Square @ 11:40am and Le Cellier @ 7:20pm
This is where our trip may get a little confusing. I made the reservation for Le Cellier at exactly 90 days out from our trip, otherwise I KNEW there was a slim chance of getting it. However, Jason and Joaquin were added on to the trip at the last minute, and we had to accommodate our reservations to fit them. It worked for everything.....except Le Cellier. So we made a backup plan. We're going to go to the restaurant directly the day before the reservation and plead with them to see if we can just add Jason and Joaquin. My theory is that three people have to sit at a four top anyway, so maybe they'll have mercy. If this is not the case, Jason, Joaquin and myself will eat at Le Cellier and my mom and dad have a backup reservation for just the two of them at Jiko. Whew! That was long winded.

Wednesday 10/14 - Ohana @ 9:30am and Liberty Tree Tavern @ 4:30pm
Liberty Tree is my brother's favorite restaurant. He loves the whole thanksgiving dinner/all you can eat concept.

Thursday 10/15 - Prime Time Cafe @ 2:55pm
Love the servers. Enough said.

Friday 10/16 - Yak and Yeti @ 3pm
Only my dad and I have eaten here before, and we enjoyed it, so we think the rest will like it to.

Let me know what you guys think. We don't really make itineraries regarding which parks we go to on what days. We let the wind take us where it may.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Well, I promised pictures so here's my first attempt. Some of them are kind of small, but I don't really have any others right now. But no worries, I will post plenty from the trip.

Joaquin

He was growling here I suppose. Here's a closer shot of him:

Me

I'm on the right. My hair is a little lighter now though.

That's a run down of all of the players in the trip. I can't believe it's less than two weeks away already! I'm so excited, I can't even begin to describe it! Everything is set and ready to go, now it's just getting ourselves packed and to the airport on time. I don't think that's going to be a problem at all though.



Jason and Joaquin

Mom and Dad

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

I can't wait to see your trip report. It sounds like you will have lots of fun

 

[IheartDDuck]

I can't wait to see your trip report. It sounds like you will have lots of fun

Hi Mom! I promise I'll be kind to you in my trip report.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Hi Mom! I promise I'll be kind to you in my trip report.

Sure hope so. I know we will have lots of fun with Joaquin.

 

[Brave teacher]

Everything sounds fantastic! I will be sure to llok for your TR when you return as well.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Two more days until we fly out to Orlando! I am so exited about everything, but I'm a little more stressed out then I normally am. Maybe it's because this time I just didn't have the time to pack my suitcase a month before the trip. I have to finish packing tonight.

In other news my mom and I have decided to treat ourselves to a mani/pedi at the Spa at the Grand Floridian. A little extravagant, but I think it's worth it. If anyone has ever been inclined to go there, I think it's worth the trip. Hands down it's the best pedicure I've ever had and the cast members there are so nice. We have this scheduled for Monday the 12th at 9:30am. We figured it would be perfect timing because my dad has to go to the airport to pick up Jason and Joaquin by 10:30 anyway.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I'm joining. I like your ADR selections. We just returned from a 9 night stay a couple of weeks ago. Loved, loved, loved GF Cafe. It was our first time (went for our anniversary) and we plan to go again next year since we booked bounce back.

Have fun!

 

[IheartDDuck]

So I checked in for our flight this morning with AirTran. And I upgraded us to business class! I love that with AirTran. I always set aside some extra money in case we can get an upgrade, and because I always check in exactly 24 hours in advance, I've been able to get it every time. WOO HOO!

On a side note, I'm such an airhead sometimes. So last night, an exchange between myself and my dad went as follows:

Dad: You need to make sure you go to bed early on Friday. We have to head out to the airport at 4:30am.
Me: Are you crazy?! Why do we need to leave at 4:30am? Our flight doesn't leave until 7:40am? Isn't that a little excessive?
Dad: Well it takes 45 minutes to get to Milwaukee.
Me: No Dad, it takes 30 minutes to get to Milwaukee. It only takes 45 minutes when you drive.
Dad: .......
Me: No really, we shouldn't have to leave until around 5:15am. That gives us 30 minutes to get there, we'll be at the airport at 5:45, flight leaves around 7:40am and we're fine. Stop stressing out. We'll make it on the plane and we'll see Mickey!
Dad (to mom): Dear, I can tell vacation is starting, she's giving me a hard time already.....
Mom: Will you two stop already.
Me: How is this different then our exchanges every other day (winking at Dad).

So here's where this gets to the part where I'm an airhead. So I'm checking us in for the flight this morning online and what do I see??? The flight leaves at 7am! Not 7:40am like I thought! OK, now we're talking about something totally different.

I would like to take this moment to apologize to my Dad for making fun of him last night....within reason.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Do I really want to go on vacation with these two????? I love them both more than anything but is this what I am in for???

 

[IheartDDuck]

Do I really want to go on vacation with these two????? I love them both more than anything but is this what I am in for???

Hey now, it just makes things more fun. Plus it's actually all a conspiracy to keep you on your toes.

 

[DVCWDWMEMBER]

Hey now, it just makes things more fun. Plus it's actually all a conspiracy to keep you on your toes.

We'll see who keeps who on their toes

 

[IheartDDuck]

We'll see who keeps who on their toes

Oh yeah, it's on!

 

[Brave teacher]

HAVE FUN!!!!