Lets try this again....a Sept 10 PTR - UPDATED 11/18 - NEW Trip Review POSTED

[Leeanne]

Hello DISers!!! Welcome to my PTR. I have played around on other sections of the site and started reading another trip review and decided that this would be the perfect way to spend time until my trip in Sept 2010!

I will probably break down everything that has happened so far to keep everybody from wanting to pull out their hair! After all....we don't want sunburned heads when we go to Disney now do we!!

Up next.....the characters and explanation of the title!

So grab a cup of coffee, tea, soda, or anything else you want, sit back, relax, and get ready for some Southern hospitality! Welcome.....and ya'll come back soon!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I'm here! And definitely subscribing! I can't wait to hear all about your plans

 

[deslynnpatterson]

im joining in can't wait to hear all of your plans!!

 

[LWatson]

I hope you have fun!!!!

 

[Leeanne]

First off lets figure out who everybody is.....for now! My name is Leeanne and I am a first time pre-trip reviewer, who loves Disney, and traveling. I first went to Disney 20 years ago, when I was 7 years old for one day to the Magic Kindgom and I never forgot it! Then 3 years ago, a family friend called me up and said "Hey how would you like to go to Disney?". Well, I am ashamed to say that I laughed at her and said "Sure! When?" Then she started talking details and I realized that she was serious! So of course, I went and had an fantastic time….it is at this point that I told myself I would go back and would bring somebody with me! Fast forward to last year when my DBf, Brian and I started talking about taking our first vacation together. He had never been to Disney and had always wanted to go. So we start looking into it, got the buy 5, get 3 free deal and decided “sure, lets go!”

This is the two of us last year

Don’t we look so cute….yeah it was the first day about 5 minutes after rope drop! But we were so excited to be there! However (cue music) it was not all perfect. We used a really bad travel agent, who threatened to cancel our vacation so I was so stressed out that when we got there we would not have a room, ADRs, nothing! So, when I finally got there and had a room and called to reconfirm (for the 50th time that week!) all our ADRs, I figured we were set.

Meanwhile, poor Brian ended up with planter warts on the bottom of his feet.....have you tried walking all over Disney with those? I felt so bad for him. He wanted this so bad and wanted to make it so good for me, so he suffered through it. (Trust me, you need this back story for our current trip!) We were celebrating his birthday there and had saved Wishes for his birthday. So we are in Magic Kingdom right before Wishes, just playing around and suddenly he decides he wants pictures in front of the castle. Well my so romantic DBf decided that he was going to give me a promise ring, in front of the castle, right before Wishes . Plus he told the Photopass Photographer what he was doing, so I got a ton of pictures.

And what does the ring look like you ask?

Why what else would it be but a Mickey ring!! Now before you ask, he didn't get it in the parks but had purchased it prior to our trip and brought it with him and apparently the only place you can now get it at is on ebay. But I love mine so I think its worth it!

So naturally we have to go again this year because:
A) I have to have a trip where I don't freak out over a travel agent canceling everything, and
B) Where he doesn't have to limp around the parks and be in pain every step.

Henceforth the title
LETS TRY THIS AGAIN!!!!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

What a sweet story! And what a romantic DBF you have! Your ring is just gorgeous Mine and Miguel's first vacation together was at Disney too! It's sort of become "our place", since it holds such great memories for us - its kind of hard to imagine vacationing somewhere else now.

I sure hope this trip goes a little more smoothly than your first! Yikes, what a terrible-sounding TA Why was she threatening to cancel your reservation?

 

[Leeanne]

I'm here! And definitely subscribing! I can't wait to hear all about your plans

Yah my first post!!! Thank you for joining in.....and for talking me into it!

im joining in can't wait to hear all of your plans!!

Welcome....hope I don't disappoint!

I hope you have fun!!!!

Darlin' I know I am going to have fun! Welcome aboard!


Yah! My first comment on my PTR. I feel the love!!

 

[Leeanne]

What a sweet story! And what a romantic DBF you have! Your ring is just gorgeous Mine and Miguel's first vacation together was at Disney too! It's sort of become "our place", since it holds such great memories for us - its kind of hard to imagine vacationing somewhere else now.

I sure hope this trip goes a little more smoothly than your first! Yikes, what a terrible-sounding TA Why was she threatening to cancel your reservation?

I know....he is great and such a romantic person! Disney just holds a special place for me now, I am constantly telling people they need to go!
My trip is already much smoother....we had a horrible time getting in touch with her and getting information. We ended up trying to switch to another travel agent and she told us that the company policy was to cancel everything they had booked....and she had rebooked what I had booked! And that would also include all the ADRs we had worked to get. So of course I was worried that she would retaliate against us because we had called her on her unprofessionalism and behavior, as well as called her supervisor. We both work in a customer service type job (him in a retail store and I with people with disabilities trying to help them gain employment) and we both know we couldn't have gotten away with the way that we were treated as well as the case management.

Up next.....a small question could change everything!

 

[deslynnpatterson]

you and your BF make a adorable couple that is such a sweet story on how he gave you the promise ring in front of the castle! That is also sweet hoe he told the photpass guy its awesome that you have pictures of your wonderful memory! Oh and by the way-- i LOVE the ring

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Stories like yours are what makes me very leery of using a TA. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have someone else take care of everything (especially waking up early to make those ADRs!) but I would be so afraid of something going wrong!

 

[Leeanne]

you and your BF make a adorable couple that is such a sweet story on how he gave you the promise ring in front of the castle! That is also sweet hoe he told the photpass guy its awesome that you have pictures of your wonderful memory! Oh and by the way-- i LOVE the ring

Thank you! I think we are adorable as well. I love how he got the PP guy to take picture for me, he knows how I am about my camera! The running joke is that it is usually not too far away from me. And I agree....I love the ring as well!

Stories like yours are what makes me very leery of using a TA. Sometimes I think it would be nice to have someone else take care of everything (especially waking up early to make those ADRs!) but I would be so afraid of something going wrong!

Every TA is different. I just happened to get a dud for one but that doesn't meant that you would. It was my first trip that I planned entirely by myself and really wanted a TA to make sure it happened okay and that I didn't forget anything (this was pre-disboards days). If I use one again I will use a local one. Its a lot easier for me to go to the office and say "helloooo!! Remember me?". I live in West Tennessee and she was in Pittsburg, PA. Too far away for me to go knock on the door!!!

 

[Leeanne]

Okay so now we know we want to go, but we don’t want to just go by ourselves……so we decided that we need to take some family with us! So we decided to ask my mom and sister to come with us!! My DSis now lives in St. Augustine, FL so she is right at 2 hours away and my DM is in Tennessee as well…..I love spending time with her and she would love to go back to Disney. DSis went 6 years ago on for a day trip, but DM has never been back since I was 7 (20 years ago!). The problem is that my DM had decided to run for an elected office and if she gets the nomination then there is no way she could go…….hmmmmm which way to hope for? Do we hope she gets the nomination & gets to run for office or do we hope she doesn’t get the nomination & gets to go? Hard choice, right?

So Brian and I have decided that we are going to stay for 10 days again this year. We really felt that we got to cover all 4 parks, and both water parks last time….however we didn’t get to do everything (see the previous post about foot). Also, we decided that we don’t want to do the water parks this time. We flipped out of a tube last year and bummed up my shoulder, so we decided this year that we wanted to stay out of Convenient Care! (However, if you have to use it CentraCare was great!!!) Problem is my DSis has just started a new job and really can’t get that much time off work….uh oh, this family thing doesn’t look like it is going to come together….as of right now we are 2 going, 1 not going, and 1 not sure if she is going. This isn’t working out right!!!! What do we do about ADRs? And rooms? And flights? But we decided to solider on!!! Cause we at least are going back to WDW!!!!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Oh I hate when things are up in the air like that! If your mom gets nominated, could she maybe just do a couple of days? Maybe a weekend? And if you sister is only 2 hours away could she just do the weekend too? That way you could still have some family time and then the rest of the time you and Brian could have a nice, romantic vacation just the two of you

As for ADR's, I would go ahead and make them for 4 people. I'm not sure what the "proper" way to handle that would be, but I assume you could drop 1 or 2 people from the ressie easier than you could add 1 or 2, be it before hand or at the restaurant.

For the hotel room, would you all be staying in one room or would you need separate ones? If its just one room, I would think you could just add on 1 or 2 people if need be - I think you just can't have any more than 5 right? Or if you need more than one room, go ahead and book it and cancel if you need to - I'm pretty sure there's no penalty for canceling as long as you do it well enough in advance.

Not sure you wanted all of that advice or not!

 

[deslynnpatterson]

I usually take my mom along with my on my disney trip too I am going this sept for our 2nd mother daughter trip-- my hubby got a new job too-- so he gets no vacation time I agree that going 10 days is a god amount of time! We went last year for 10 days--- this year we are going for 9 and coming home on the 10th day-- i will miss my 6th year anniversary with my hubby opps! LOL i come home the night of sept 18th our anniversary so i might get to spend a few hours with him and then the next day we wil celebrate its all worth it to get to disney everything is stressful about planning but once you in disney its a whole different world

 

[Leeanne]

Oh I hate when things are up in the air like that! If your mom gets nominated, could she maybe just do a couple of days? Maybe a weekend? And if you sister is only 2 hours away could she just do the weekend too? That way you could still have some family time and then the rest of the time you and Brian could have a nice, romantic vacation just the two of you

As for ADR's, I would go ahead and make them for 4 people. I'm not sure what the "proper" way to handle that would be, but I assume you could drop 1 or 2 people from the ressie easier than you could add 1 or 2, be it before hand or at the restaurant.

For the hotel room, would you all be staying in one room or would you need separate ones? If its just one room, I would think you could just add on 1 or 2 people if need be - I think you just can't have any more than 5 right? Or if you need more than one room, go ahead and book it and cancel if you need to - I'm pretty sure there's no penalty for canceling as long as you do it well enough in advance.

Not sure you wanted all of that advice or not!

Hmmmmm wonder what happened? And remember my mom lives in West TN as well....could be hard to get there for a weekend......or would it?

I usually take my mom along with my on my disney trip too I am going this sept for our 2nd mother daughter trip-- my hubby got a new job too-- so he gets no vacation time I agree that going 10 days is a god amount of time! We went last year for 10 days--- this year we are going for 9 and coming home on the 10th day-- i will miss my 6th year anniversary with my hubby opps! LOL i come home the night of sept 18th our anniversary so i might get to spend a few hours with him and then the next day we wil celebrate its all worth it to get to disney everything is stressful about planning but once you in disney its a whole different world

I love my mom and can't wait for her to come. And you are right....Disney is my crack! I am an addict!

 

[Leeanne]

Okay so now we know we are going back to WDW! We also know that we are going to go for 10 days. So we start working out prices and just by chance I go back to the Give a Day site. We had previously checked and there was nothing within 50 miles of where we live. So, this time we look…..and the local library in town has signed up! So we look at the requirements and immediately see the problem…….our hours of available. They want people from 9 to 5, and we both work those hours. Well you don’t keep a determined Disney addict down!!! I am like a pit bull on crack! I called up the person over volunteers, explained our situation and got approval!!!! So this means our 10 day trip, just turned into 11 days!!!!! Eleven whole days in the most magical place on earth!! I am so there!

We ended up helping in the library “save” bounded magazines. Our library just got bought out by a new company and this company wanted them to get rid of all the ‘old’ items, including beautiful bound magazines. We were able to work for 4+ hours going though all the bound magazines and putting them on shelves. We are avid readers and the librarian let us flip though some of the books and I had forgotten just how beautiful magazines from the 20s and 30s were. I got some what depressed thinking about how all the magazines were going to be sold, simply because they were old. However, the librarian thanked us over and over again for helping him save some of the magazines that had ‘historical significance’. Plus we got the free Disney ticket!

So we know how many days we are going, the next question is where are we going to stay? Last year we stayed at All Star Movie and loved it! However, we are always up to trying something new. So this year we decided to try out Pop. We are going to fly this year, as opposed to driving (14 hours in the car with me was not fun, on the way home by Atlanta, GA I was trying to get Brian to sing “Row, Row, Row your boat” in rounds. Yeah, he wouldn’t). And Pop just flat looks fun! We are both big kids at heart and love All Star Movies but we decided this whole trip we would try everything new and different. Different hotel, ADRs, everything!

Up next which ADRs will we chose? Will we ever get an answer about who all is going with us? And how about a promotion? Will Disney ever put out a fall promo?

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

11 days?! That's so exciting! And Pop sounds like a fun hotel. I've never been to any of the values but if I do go at some point that's definitely the one I would choose!

As for your mom coming for just the weekend - could she fly out late Friday and then fly back home super late Sunday (so you could have the full Sunday in the parks) or even super early Monday? Just a thought.

 

[Leeanne]

11 days?! That's so exciting! And Pop sounds like a fun hotel. I've never been to any of the values but if I do go at some point that's definitely the one I would choose!

As for your mom coming for just the weekend - could she fly out late Friday and then fly back home super late Sunday (so you could have the full Sunday in the parks) or even super early Monday? Just a thought.

We stayed at ASMo last year and it was great. But this is a "try something new year" so no All Stars.

Guess we will have to see what would happen with mom!

 

[Leeanne]

This year is all about new……new hotel, new ADRs, new start! Last year, we loved the restaurants we visited (I didn’t know about review, and trip reports otherwise I probably would have done one!). So last year we ate at: Biergarten, 1900 Park Fare, Le Cellier, Sci-Fi Dine, Chef Mickey, Coral Reef, Ragland Road Irish Pub, Crystal Palace, Hollywood & Vine all for dinner. We also had ADRs for Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast (earlier I made the comment about how Brian was romantic and sweet….he called for days to try to get breakfast in the castle for me. Yeah I got the best!). So all these restaurants are out! The only exception was Chef Mickey. That is just a wonderful way to get to see the Fab 5! Well everybody raves about Le Cellier and we adored it! It was very hard for us (okay me!) to not try to get ADRs here again.

We know that we wanted to do the Fantasmic Dinner Package as that was one we love. We liked that we didn’t have to worry about getting to the stadium early and that we had seating. However, we still don’t know about my mom and if she is going to get the nomination. The way I figured it, it would probably be easier for me to go ahead and get ADRs for 3 and then change it to 2 later on! So our list this year was narrowed down to:

Chef Mickey – our one redo

Tusker House – a friend of ours had went in Feb and loved this one and I liked the thought of eating dinner in AK then having EMHs

Ohana – everybody raves about this place and we thought what the heck, why not!

Mama Melrose – I am Italian and love trying different Italian food. Plus this is part of the Fantasmic Dining Plan

Whispering Cannon Café –He picked this one and I thought sure….lets just go with it!

Cape May Café – He picked this one as well. We both love seafood plus SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE said that we had to try it (lol sorry couldn’t resist!)

Garden Grill – I love the thoughts of eating really fresh food that was grown on property. My way of thinking is that this has to taste better, right? Plus, where else do you get to see Mickey dressed like a farmer! We both grew up on a farm so I thought this would be very cute!

Boma – I always want to try new food but I am always worried that he or I one won’t like what we order. The way I figure it, we can try all different things and worse case scenario we can always eat chicken nuggets and mac & cheese!

Askershus – I love the princesses and Brian loves to make me happy so he agreed to try Askershus. Plus I think this is the only place you can see Arial in her ball gown. And every good princess must finish her collection!

This last one he picked because we are still hoping that my mum will be able to come. Plus we figured that Disney does great shows. From what we understand Hoop Dee Doo Revue is the longest running dinner show on property and is fun! It is 2 TS credits with the dining plan but we are staying an extra day! And as he put it “but baby, it’s the longest running show at Disney! It has to be good!” Hard to argue with that logic!

So restaurants are choosen and at the crack of dawn (ok before dawn) I get up to try to get these ADRs. Mind you I have no idea how to do this new online system and only know how to call in. But, calling in puts me an entire hour (thats 60 whole minutes!) behind! EEK! We can't have that. So I solider on...and totally screw it up! But I figure it out pretty quick and am able to get what I want! So we now have ADRs for 3. We know DSis isn't going to be able to go and if mom is able to go then we have her spot with us....if not we have to try to rebook!! (And hope that we get a really nice CM who can change it from 3 to 2 without screwing it up! )

 

[deslynnpatterson]

your adrs look amazing did you take advantage of the free dinning promotion? I did yesterday i am soo thrilled for the fall promo