Mother Daughter, Matching T Shirts, POR Princess Trip!!

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Hi Everyone!

Let me introduce ourselves! I am princess, planner, daughter, teacher, expat living in Turkey! Mom, also princess, turned 70 in December of 2008 and I REALLY wanted to take her to Disney World to celebrate! Economic crisis and what not and we weren't able to go in December.

Mom has always wanted to go to Disney World and never allowed herself the luxury. Mostly, when I was growing up we went tent camping in the Rocky Mountains for our vacations. Now I am all for the Rockies - hey a Colorado girl at heart here - but I want to take my mom on a real PRINCESS trip! You know - real, comfy beds, tea at the Grand Floridian etc. So after months and months of planning, saving, budgeting and more budgeting - we are going Sept. 27- Oct. 2 - staying at Port Orleans Riverside - hopefully in the Mansions section! And honestly - what better place to take a princess trip than Disney right?

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Ok - it has taken me awhile to figure out how to post photos, so here goes. This is me, Princess Planner

And this is Mom, Princess Disney Newbie:

We will be staying at POR Sept. 27- Oct. 2, 2009!

I have been working like a mad woman on our itinerary and dining reservations and now that the dining reservations are done it is time to relax and soak in the Disney Prep Magic!

So in a small nutshell:

Sept. 27 Arrive, boat to DTD for lunch and a little shopping
Nap
A Little Bit of the Magic Kingdom
Hoop De Doo Review (cancelled)
Artist Point
A Little More Magic Kingdom

Sept. 28 Magic Kingdom
Tea at the Grand Floridian
Dinner at Grand Floridian Cafe

Sept. 29 Animal Kingdom
Breakfast at Tusker House
Evening Fantasmic at DHS

Sept. 30 Epcot
Food and Wine

Oct. 1 Epcot
Food and Wine
Dinner Cape May Cafe

Oct. 2 Breakfast 1900 Park Fare
Evening flight home

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Last week when I booked my dining reservations, I was not able to get Hoop Dee Doo at 5:00pm like I wanted on our arrival day, so I went ahead and booked the 9:30pm. Since we have an early morning flight, I am thinking we really need an early dinner, bedtime. So yesterday as I was searching for alternatives, I found Artist Point at 5:45pm. Does anyone have any experience with this restaurant? Would this really be a better option for us anyway? I hate to miss Hoop Dee Doo if it is a really great thing to do for a first timer (I have never seen it either). So do I wait and try to get Hoop at 5:00pm if someone cancels or go ahead and book Artist Point? Any opinions? Thanks!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Well, I went ahead and booked Artist Point at 5:50pm! Seems like a relaxing way to start the week, and a very "princessy" option! Plus we will be free to enjoy Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom if we want and still go to bed at a decent hour!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I have a question about ear hats. I have seen the Princess ears on the Disney Shopping website - the pink ones with the tiara around the bottom and white veil. I have also seen pink princess ears with a little tiara perched on top. Are both of these available at the parks for a similar price? If you make your own Mickey ears at World of Disney, can you add a tiara as well? I've seen the photos of the patches, but no little tiaras. Is it better to buy/make ear hats at the parks or buy them ahead of time?

 

[Nuwanda9]

That is so great that you are taking your mom to WDW!! You are going to have a great time and make some wonderful memories!!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Thanks Nuwanda9 - you're my first response. It's encouraging to know someone's reading!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Here we are in the final stretch before our trip! Whoo Hoo! Needless to say I am very excited! I leave in two days for the States then off to Disney on Sunday. Now if I can just get over jet lag enough so I will be able to enjoy it! No seriously - I don't think anything could keep me from enjoying this vacation. The only changes I have made are in dining. I canceled our Grand Floridian dinner on Monday - too much food with the tea in the afternoon and we want to be free to watch spectromagic and wishes of course!

So I'll be writing my trip report in no time!

Have a Happy Disney Day!

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Hello,

You are such a wonderful daughter. I hope you both have a great trip. I can't answer your question about the ears, but I can speak about Artist Point, somewhat. I have never eaten there, but the reviews are always good. I have 2 daughters, and it is just not a place they would like. We are more WCC kind of people. I would absolutely go there is it was just DH and myself. I have stayed at WL and it looks great. Here is the part that I like best. I love the boat ride to WL from MK. It is so relaxing. I love coming up to the Lodge from the water.

I can't wait to hear what you have to say about Tea at GF. This is something I have always wanted to do.

Have a safe and happy trip.

 

[DONTMINDME]

This is an awesome trip you are planning for your mom. My Dh and I are gonna be in WL 11/28-12/06 and Artist pointe is incredible, enjoy it. This is our 6th trip to Disney 2nd to WL and first just the 2 of us since honeymoon many moons ago. We are celebrating 25 years together. I know you are getting excited, I can't wait to hear how it goes. waiting for the TR.

 

[cascarlet]

How fun!! I'm taking my mom on her first trip too (see PTR below!). She's 72. I really want to make it special for her as well. Looking forward to reading your ideas as you head down the home stretch!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Thanks Everyone!

We had a GREAT time and I am sooo glad we went! So now I am working on my trip report - hope to have it out soon!! Artist Point was definitely a highlight!! Probably the most memorable meal I have had in a loooong while - so glad I didn't change my ressie!

Have great fun planning and super trips everyone!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Ok - here it goes everyone - the trip report begins! It only took a whole day to upload photos to shutterfly! Why does my computer seem so slow!

Anywhooo-

Mom and I had an early flight out of Houston - so we left for the airport at 4 or some crazy hour! Dad graciously drove us to the airport - every princess needs a hero and Dad was ours that morning! We went with one bag because we were flying Continental and were charged for each checked bag - needless to say - it was packed!

I had bought matching bags for our trip from Disney Shopping - Belle for Mom and Cinderella for me! They were great!

Breakfast at the airport!

On the plane - a friend had given us Princess pink hair ties that we used as bracelets - we loved them!

Next up - We arrive!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I left off we were on the plane - ready to land!

Here is a photo of my mickey hair clip a friend found for me.

We thought Magical Express was truly magical! This was the first time for us to do this - I have never stayed on property before and this was Mom's first Disney trip so everything was new! There were tons of people - but the lines moved so quickly - we were impressed. We were on the Cruise Line bus but I took a photo of the bus beside us.

Off to Port Orleans! This is a really bad picture of the entrance!

First impressions of our resort - beautiful, relaxing - very picturesque! Exactly what we want for a Mother/Daughter Princess Trip!!

Our building - Parterre Place!!! Great location - a five minute walk to the main buildings and bus stop! Gorgeous! Of course we are "Southern Belles" at heart!

Up next - Our Room!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Our room was great - we got both of our requests - upper floor and Magnolia Bend. The room was much bigger than I thought it would be - the beds were soooo comfortable. We also had really great Mousekeepers! At one point in our trip the flushing mechanism on the toilet broke and it was repaired right away. All in all - for the price - we were really pleased with our choice!

We were welcomed by this!

Our window decoration - princess theme!

We changed into our matching Princess shirts - more on that later - and off to the boat to Downtown Disney for a little shop before our dinner ressie at Artist Point! A great way to begin our vacation!

View of Port Orleans French Quarter from the ferry.

Up next - Dinner at Artist Point!

 

[Planning fanatic mom]

Outstanding beginning!
I've stayed at POR and really liked it.
I love all the matching clothing and accessories.

You are off to a great start. Can't wait to read more.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Outstanding beginning!
I've stayed at POR and really liked it.
I love all the matching clothing and accessories.

You are off to a great start. Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for the encouragement! Next installment coming up!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

If you read my pre trip report you know I was torn about what to do our first day. I had first made reservations for Hoop de Doo Review but the only available time was at 9:00pm - so I was worried that we would be wiped out from traveling. So I changed our reservation to Artist Point and this turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip! This was a FANTASTIC meal!! Let me say that again FANTASTIC!! I still have happy thoughts reminiscing about that meal!

We were tired but really enjoying hanging out in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge before our dining ressie.

Great photo ops here!

We also saw lots of families having their photos taken by photopass photographers at this location. Great idea for a family pic!

I had the tenderloin - Oh My! - the food was fantastic!! And we were on the free dining plan which made life really wonderful! We truly did feel like princesses! Sorry I had already dug into this before I remembered to take a photo! My mom had the salmon which was also fantastic! I have never had salmon like that before - the cedar plank roasting makes it soooo yummy!

For dessert we had the berry cobbler and rosemary creme brulee - both were fantastic! Something to really savor!

This was by far the BEST meal of the trip! I had a lot of reservations about spending two of our free dining credits on one meal but I am soooo glad we did! It really made our first day special! I can say it was totally worth two credits. Since we were on free dining - we paid about $30 for this meal with tip and one glass of wine. Fabulously Princessy!

We finished the day with a boat trip to the Magic Kingdom, Wishes, Mom's first ride at Disney - "It's a Small World", and Philharmagic. We returned to our lovely resort happily exhausted!

Good Night!

Up Next Day 2 - Magic Kingdom! Mother Daughter Tea at the Grand Floridian!

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

I realized I needed to upload some more photos to shutterfly before continuing! So I will take this moment to talk about the matching princess shirts I made for our trip. I just wanted to make things a little extra special and found so many creative designs here on the Disboards. I couldn't help but try some of them. They turned out really great! I used Amy's transfers and it was so easy I was amazed - I am a total newbie at iron on transfers. The Creative DISign thread had lots of ideas! I was so pleased and my Mom graciously wore them! We got lots of comments from CMs and others all through the trip.

 

[ExpatDisneyLover]

Ok - continuing on with the report. I think all of my photos are uploaded now!

Our first day was at the Magic Kingdom since it was Mom's first Disney trip and we were going with the Princess theme - I thought this was very appropriate! We arrived not quite at rope drop but a little after park opening and the crowds on Main Street were thick. Taking some advice from others on this board, we boarded the train and headed for Frontierland. This proved to be a great idea and our first ride was Splash Mountain with a 5 minute wait!

This is a "how did you get me on this thing face!" - there was a gentleman who appeared to be in his 90s ahead of us with a cane - no way my Mom thought she could say no. Really she had a great time.

Seriously though, I tried not to talk my Mom into riding anything and let her go at her own pace. Sometimes I did ok with this and other times I was probably too pushy!

After that - Adventureland, the Enchanted Tikki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean, and a Dole Whip Float from Aloha Isle. Ahhhh I have been waiting to try one of these. And it did not disappoint! It was also hot as blazes and a perfect thing for a cool down.

Now for the Grand Afternoon!

One of the things I really wanted to do was go to tea at the Grand Floridian during the hot afternoon for a nice break and cool down. Really it was perfect! The atmosphere was exactly what we needed - calm cool elegance in the middle of crowded, hot Park chaos. The food was great too. Tea sandwiches were cucumber and watercress, shrimp salad, egg salad, grilled pear and gorgonzola and maybe a chicken salad with almonds. I have eaten scones all over the UK and I must say that these were "spot on" perfect.

After tea we went back to the Magic Kingdom to see Tomorrowland and end with Spectromagic and Wishes!

Next - Day 3 Animal Kingdom Mom's First Character Breakfast and Fantasmic!