Meet The Garcia's....DL first timers!! **Update 7/22- 3 days updated and an ending!**

[KatGarcia]

I would go nuts too if I couldn't plan. Maybe you could secretly make some more ADRs and then you have them if you want them? What's that restaurant near Pirates??? I remember someone else talking about it. Bayou something?? What about Goofy's Kitchen? It would kill me to not plan. After my quick Sept Peep Meet I will have 16 months to wait until the next. Ugh!!!

Well secretly I am planning I'm just not informing DH of it as much. I mean I wanna make sure we catch all the aprades/shows and stuff so I need to know when they happen and when we will catch them. I ahve 4 pages of these things saved that he doesn't know about LOL. You can't stop a planner!

Blue Bayou is the spot and we got a lunch ADR there! I have to try it because of the pirates thing alone...plus I heard it was good. I'm just not as concerned with the food because we don't have a dining plan and there's a Denny's next door to the hotel so at least we can always find a cheap meal! God knows this trip is costing and arm and a leg!

 

[Eventer98]

DH and I were just talking today about using DVC points to go to DL in 2010 (that's a long way off! ) I can't wait to hear your take on it!!

 

[daisy_77]

Loving your pretrippie! I look forward to more!

 

[KatGarcia]

Man oh man is it hard not to plan for a vacation! SO I have given in and am planning as little as I can… but I’m still doin’ it! (Sorry DH but what you don’t know will only make the vacation better). We are almost at the 3 week mark so I’m getting hyped and starting to do a lot of list writing. I have my official “Before Trip To Do” list. Think I’m a little OCD yet? So far the list looks like this:

1) Put $ in housekeeping envelopes
2) Get more Mickey head paint chips
3) Laminate and decorate MHPC
4) find/print pressed pennies list for DL
5) Buy cat food
6) Write letter for Andy (hes taking care of the cat while we are gone)
7) Make packing list
8) Pay bills/ rent

I add more all the time. I’m a list maker. I leave it out and add stuff when I think of it. I’m also an over cleaner so the whole house will have to be cleaned before I leave so we can come back to a clean house and no work to be done. Thats a list in itself.

After swearing not to spend money on anything else I went to ebay. Darn me! I should know better, I can’t just look. But DH and I had been discussing what to bring into the parks with us, as far as a bag goes, because the bag we have brought everywhere for the last few trips has seen its last days. I usually make him carry the backpack and he puts my id in his wallet. I carry the camera bag and keep a compact and lip balm in it. It works out well that way. But since we are going to be so close to the hotel we need less stuff. So we decided one of those draw string type backpacks would do the trick. Then I get a bright idea- what if we buy a plain one and some Disney patches and I sew them on! Well I found nice patches and couldn’t decide on just a few characters. Then I realized buying one already Disney bag would only cost maybe 15 bucks and the other way it was 4 bucks a patch. So much for bright ideas!

Here's the bag I'm 90% sure I'm gonna get:

And did I mention I really hate to sew??? Last year for our WDW trip I couldn’t find a Tink baseball hat I liked so I bought a plain hat and a cool patch and sewed it on. It took me forever because I couldn’t just sit and do it because I hate sewing…and then I sewed it too high on the hat and have hated it ever since. LOL!
Here's me in my custom (LOL) Tink hat:

So I also bid on a nice new already printed Tink hat…it has 2 days left but hopefully I’ll get it for a decent price!
Cute huh?

I need a hat for those bad hair days on vacation ya know! I am trying so hard not to spend money!! This week I am headed to Home Depot in the city to get me some other colored Mickey head paint chips. I wanna make a few with green on one side and another color on the back, for variety. But of course the World of Disney store is a mere walk away from HD soooooo we all know I’m going there! Here’s hopin’ for some good sales!!!

 

[Eventer98]

Great update! I haven't started a list yet but it's coming!! 32 days left for me! Super cute bag. All we bring to the parks is my small digital camera and DH's wallet. He easilly fits the camera in his cargo shorts pockets. I hear you about your hat bugging you! I am a little anal and if it wasn't straight or low enough I would have flipped out. At least you wore it though!!!

 

[KimAshton]

Love this.

 

[Goofster57]

Kat,
I finally got to read all your post's, and my wife thinks I'm on over planner

If I don't have some type of plan in place I can be...shall we say hard to deal with.

Sounds like you have everything in order

find/print pressed pennies list for DL

You can get this at City Hall when you arrive

Also save some money (I think about 6-8 bucks) for the Press Penny Book they sell at the park.

Looking forward to your report when you get back to see how it went.

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Great update, Kat!
Be prepared to not run into any DIS-ers. I'm bogged down in LGMHPC's on my bag, stroller, and lanyard and have yet to run into a DIS-er! And I'm there almost every week! The only DIS-er I've meet at Dland is the planned meets!
Your planning sound like fun! I can't wait to read all about your trip!

 

[KatGarcia]

Tuesday June 19th -Blue Bayou Lunch 130pm (MK)
Wednesday June 20th -Aloha Breakfast Paradise Pier Hotel 1030am
Jazz Kitchen 730pm (DTD)
Thursday June 21st -Carnation Café Lunch 230pm (MK)
Friday June 22nd -Ariel’s grotto Lunch 210pm

These are our PS! Ya know the ones DH didn't wanna make?!LOL. I just merely asked him to check out the menus online (thanks allears!) and make sure there wasn't somewhere he felt he couldn't miss and POOF we have a PS for every day we are there! TOO FUNNY! I have sucked him into the Disney planning! I am SO PROUD!

I'm actually really excited about the PS's! I'm glad he wanted to check some of these places out and doing mostly lunches makes me happy cause we can save a little money. Although having no dining plan to deal with makes me weird lol.

It's 15 days till we leave and I'm trying to get organized. DH made fun of my "Before Trip Schedule" calender but i need to make sure everything gets done! I cant hep it if I have the Disney OCD! And I really should be blocked from ebay somehow! I bought ANOTHER Tink shirt but its too cute to pass up! (i know I know!) I have no real justification except I'm addicted to Tink and Disney and it is a real disease that I must feed, you get it don't you?

I also bought some disposable ponchos and am waiting for my hat to come in the mail still. I figure we wont need the ponchos but they are small enough not to worry about packing them. I also took advantage of a sale on Disneyshopping.com and got 2 pairs of flip flops (mickey and tink) and a giant Mickey beach Towel. Funny how Disney flip flops are just more comphy than most others! Now i just have to figure out what to pack and in which suitcase! I always bring too much and i'm gonna try real hard not to do that this time, esp because my friend picking us up on the 23rd has a tiny car and the less suitcases the better! It's only 8 days I can do that right? shorts, tees, flip flops? Riiight...


**Completely off topic--> *** We are in the process of booking our WDW trip for Feb for our anniv and I actually found an old friend of mine (online even) after 7 years and she lives an hour from WDW and her and her fam are coming to stay with us!!! We are renting DVC points for the first time ever! YAY!! So excited!***

 

[KatGarcia]

Great update, Kat!
Be prepared to not run into any DIS-ers. I'm bogged down in LGMHPC's on my bag, stroller, and lanyard and have yet to run into a DIS-er! And I'm there almost every week! The only DIS-er I've meet at Dland is the planned meets!
Your planning sound like fun! I can't wait to read all about your trip!

I figured as much but if I don't do it i'll prob run into tons of people and not know it! That's just my luck! LOL.

Kat,
I finally got to read all your post's, and my wife thinks I'm on over planner

If I don't have some type of plan in place I can be...shall we say hard to deal with.

Sounds like you have everything in order



You can get this at City Hall when you arrive

Also save some money (I think about 6-8 bucks) for the Press Penny Book they sell at the park.

Looking forward to your report when you get back to see how it went.

Thansk for the tip about the pressed pennies I'm def gonna get them from city hall- that makes my life a lot easier! We will def get the book too- we have one from WDW and its the best cheap souviner ever! We had tons of fun finding them so we def plan to do it this trip as well! And as you can see we ended up planning over the not planning...lol...i'm just letting DH believe there isn't much planning and it's all good for me!

Love this.

Thanks for reading!!!!

Great update! I haven't started a list yet but it's coming!! 32 days left for me! Super cute bag. All we bring to the parks is my small digital camera and DH's wallet. He easilly fits the camera in his cargo shorts pockets. I hear you about your hat bugging you! I am a little anal and if it wasn't straight or low enough I would have flipped out. At least you wore it though!!!

Oh my lists are growing, I swear i need an entire notebook to contain them all! But at least we will be oranized! LOL!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Tuesday June 19th -Blue Bayou Lunch 130pm (MK)
Wednesday June 20th -Aloha Breakfast Paradise Pier Hotel 1030am
Jazz Kitchen 730pm (DTD)
Thursday June 21st -Carnation Café Lunch 230pm (MK)
Friday June 22nd -Ariel’s grotto Lunch 210pm

Oooh!!! Jazz Kitchen is my FAV DTD restaurant. Just FYI - the service is seriously slow, but the food is awesome! So worth the wait, IMO. I love sitting outside to eat and watching the world go by.

DH loves ESPN Zone - the prices rival any CS in Dland or DCA and it's nice to get away from the crowds and have a relaxing lunch.

15 days?? Sweet!!!

 

[Goofster57]

Thansk for the tip about the pressed pennies I'm def gonna get them from city hall

Kat,
Just to clairify...you can get the list of where the machines are located at City Hall.

 

[KatGarcia]

Kat,
Just to clairify...you can get the list of where the machines are located at City Hall.

I know what ya meant!

 

[PrincessNya'sMom]

Kat,

There is a Denny's right next door to your hotel. Its very clean and friendly. We were in Anaheim for 7 days in May of 04 and we stayed at the Desert Palms which is by the Anaheim convention center and walked everyday to the park. It was hot but so much fun. We did the Ariels Grotto for my neice who adores Ariel. The food was ok. A bit like cafeteria food. We did eat at a wonder place called Naples in Downtown Disney which is right outside the park. If you like Italian that is the place to go.

Enjoy your time. Im so jealous.

 

[PrincessNya'sMom]

Kat,

I almost forgot if you get a chance while your with friends ask them to take you to In and Out burgers. They are so good as are their shakes and fries. My mouth is watering as I type. LOL

 

[serendipity]

So excited for you!

 

[KatGarcia]

Kat,

There is a Denny's right next door to your hotel. Its very clean and friendly. We were in Anaheim for 7 days in May of 04 and we stayed at the Desert Palms which is by the Anaheim convention center and walked everyday to the park. It was hot but so much fun. We did the Ariels Grotto for my neice who adores Ariel. The food was ok. A bit like cafeteria food. We did eat at a wonder place called Naples in Downtown Disney which is right outside the park. If you like Italian that is the place to go.

Enjoy your time. Im so jealous.

DH picked Ariel's Grotto but i;'m up for anything, esp. character meals! I'm starting to get so excited now I can't believe we leave next week!

Kat,

I almost forgot if you get a chance while your with friends ask them to take you to In and Out burgers. They are so good as are their shakes and fries. My mouth is watering as I type. LOL

It's so funny that you mention that because friends here have told us we have to check out an In and Out Burger while we are there! I'm hoping there is one close to my friends house that we can get to because i searched the anaheim area and there arent any close by and we are without a car.

So excited for you!

Hey! Thanks for stoppin by!!!!! Your TR def made me excited to go! ONE WEEK LEFT!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Just found your report (I don't check the DL boards much)- can't believe you have just over a week to go! How exciting! I've never been to DL- someday! Can't wait to hear about it all!

 

[KatGarcia]

Just found your report (I don't check the DL boards much)- can't believe you have just over a week to go! How exciting! I've never been to DL- someday! Can't wait to hear about it all!

Hey Crystal! How ya doin? Thanks for stoppin by! BTW your advice about renting DVC points went to good use- we booked BWVs for Feb 08! Thanks so much for the help, but that'll be another TR for another board i suppose lol.

 

[KatGarcia]

SO thanks to Disneyland_Mama's report of Goffy's and some unforeseen changes to our trip (the friend who was supposed to be coming the last day isnt coming anymore) i decided for my birthday I want to see some characters! The review of the food made me realize that was the place to go! 4 words: French Toast Creme Brule! DH nearly flipped his wig when I said those 4 beautiful words...so we have a 910am PS on Sat the 32rd for my bday, and I had them mark down the day too! Pixie Dust here I come!

So now i'm gonna make sure to get a bday button along with the first trip buttons! Weee! I have a week left and I'm slowly getting everything together! I can't decide which size suitcase to bring LOL! Its a new luggage set and the biggest one seems too big! I'll have to see once everything is it it how I feel about it. I got my disney shopping package last week too.
A nice giant Mickey towel...

And my 2 new flip flops...I LOVE Disney flip flops they are more comphy than any others!

I dunno if they will both come with me because DH thinks 4 pairs of flip flops is a little much LOL (i have croc flip flops and some jack skelington ones too) but we shall see who can hide things in the suitcase!

So like i said we don't really know what we are doing on the last day..we have to check out thats about all i know and now breakfast at Goofy's. We were thinking of either upgrading the passes for another day or seeing if there is a cheap way to get to a beach for an afternoon at least and just keeping the 5 day tickets we have. I dunno!! Any suggestions would be nice! Now that we don't have a ride to the airport i want to save as much as i can because we have to pay a bus or cab to Long Beach Airport.

I;m also working on sprucing up my video camera bag and making it DIS'ed out! I'll post a pic as soon as its done so u can all see and maybe even look for us if we you in the parks!

All I have left to say is: ONE WEEK LEFT! I'm trying to fill my time up as much as possible. Tonight we go out with DHs work friends, that kills a night. I have to get a hair cut, get a mani/pedi, go to my physical therapy appointment wed, do a few last min shopping things and just finish packing and cleaning up here so i don't come home to a mess.
SOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!