MrJT's Wild Ride

[MrJT]

I just discovered this part of the forum, and it looks like a fun way to post my plans. A lot has already been planned, but I will post a little here, a little there, based on how long it takes me to type everything, and if I have to track down any info (I don't have it all with me at this moment).

The Cast:
MrJT: That's me I have been serving the US Air Force for over 18 years now. I currently live outside of Boston. I originally from California, and I managed to visit Disneyland in Anaheim about 10 times or so (all before DCA ever opened), the last time was in 1996. In the early 90s I visited Tokyo DIsneyland twice (before the Sea park opened). In 2003 I spent 5 days at Walt Disney World. Shades of Green was closed for rennovations, so they put us in the Contemporary. And in 2004 I spent one day at Disneyland Paris (but not the Studios). Favorite character: Mickey Mouse (it's an obsession now)

MrsJT: My lovely wife of 13 years. We met and married in San Antonio. Her first Disney vacation was when we went to Disneyland in 96. She also went to WDW in 03, and Disneyland Paris in 04. Favorite character: Eeyore

LittleAT: Our 11 year old son. First Disney vacation was WDW is 03, and he also went to Paris in 04. Favorite character: Donald Duck

NotSoLittleMT: My 17 year old daughter. She now lives in Nevada (with the former MrsMe). I think that her first Disney vacation was in 94. I am not sure. I wasnt there. She's been to Disneyland a few times. She was also there in 96 with MrsJT & I, and I believe that she has been to DCA. Making her the only one of our crew who has been there. I didn't get to take her on her first Disney vacation, but I did take her on her only WDW vactation. Favorite character: May be the Beast But then again, she wants to see Belle.

 

[ChevyNat]

Welcome, So far, it's a great start, can't wait to read more!
I love your ticket, beautiful.

 

[MrJT]

They say that getting there is half the fun, and that paritally how I named my adventure:

Travel Plans
Thursday, 14 Aug 2008: LittleAT, MrsJT, and myself will hop in the car, first thing in the morning. Take 95 south for about 10 miles, and hop on the Mass pike. We should hit a little traffic until the Pike, then we will be going opposite traffic. Then we'll go south into CT, eventually get back on 95, but only for a short time, then, instead of going direct into NY and over the George Washington bridge, we'll veer off over the Tappan Zee into NJ, and eventually into PA.
About the same time that the 3 of us are taking off, NotSoLittleMT will head to the Reno airport, and fly east.
In the evening, if we plan it perfectly, all four of us should arrive at Washington Dulles at the same time. Then we all drive to Alexandria VA, and visit friends, have dinner, and sleep.

Friday, 15 Aug 2008: MrsJT plans to spend the day in VA, but the kids and I plan to get to Bolling AFB in DC at 0900 to get MT her new ID card (it will have expired earlier in the month). From there, the three of us will go deeper into the city, and do a little sight seeing. Most likely just the mall. LittleAT wants to drive past 1600 Pennsylvania Ave while we're there, so that may happen. Then we meet back in Alexandria, and spend one more night there.

Saturday, 16 Aug 2008: The four of us hop in the car, and drive to Savannah GA. We'll sleep at a Comfort Suites.

Sunday, 17 Aug 2008: We will leave GA first thing in the morning, and should get to Walt Disney World around lunch time.
Then we will check in at Shades Of Green. After that, we will immediately head to the ticket office, and purchase our Stars & Stripes passes. Then we may possibly grab lunch at the hotel...but that hasn't been planned yet.

After that, the fun begins...

 

[MrJT]

Fun & Food
Sunday, 17 Aug 2008: After we get settled, tickets purchased, and lunch figured out. We plan to hit Typhoon Lagoon, and spend the rest of the afternoon in the water. Continuing with the beach theme of the day, we will head to dinner at the Beach Club, at Beaches & Cream (unfortunately they don't do ADRs though). After dinner we may spend a little time at the Magic Kingdom (you gotta hit the MK on day one...right?), or head back to the hotel for the night. It really depends on how everyone feels.

Monday, 18 Aug 2008: First thing in the morning, we're going to get on the monorail (get on at the Poly), and ride to the Contemporary for an 8:10 breakfast at Chef Mickey's. What can be better than your first breakfast of the vacation with Mickey?
After we eat, we hill take the monorail to the TTC, and then to EPCOT. It's the one park we didn't really get to explore in 03. I think that we only saw about 1/4 of what Future World had to offer, and saw none of the World Showcase. Then we'll probably close the night with Illuminations.

Tuesday, 19 Aug 2008: Our day has to start a little later, our breakfast ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table is at 9:05. We haven't seen Mickey's Philharmagic, so that's a must do. So are the refrubed Pirates, and Haunted Mansion. We may watch a parade or two, and fireworks (unless we manage to catch some of the night-time entertainment on Sunday.)

Wednesday, 20 Aug 2008: No breakfast plans this day, so we will either eat at Shades of Green, or get some groceries when we arrive, and eat in the room. Then we'll hit the Hollywood Studios. On the last trip, we did most of the rides (okay LittleAT was afraid to do the Tower of Terror, and he may have been too small for the Rock N Rollercoaster...but he was 6, so it's forgiven), but I don't think that we saw any shows (except the Muppets). So the shows are on my to do list. Mermaid, Beauty & The Beast, and of course Indy (just watched Raiders last night!) but not the Playhouse Disney show (do they still have one?).
We have an early lunch ADR at 11:00 for the Sci-Fi Dine-In. We opted for an early lunch, because we ended up with a 5:20 seating at Hollywood & Vine on the Fantasmic Package. We didn't see Fantasmic last time, and I am really looking forward to it this time around.

Thursday, 21 Aug 2008: No ADRs at all on this day. We had one for Donalds Safari at Tusker House, but when we sat down with the budget, we decided to cut this one (and at least one other). So we will head to Animal Kingdom first thing. Last time around, we didn't even enter Asia. So that's big on the list. Especially to ride Everest!
After we finish the Animal Kingdom, we have no plans yet. We may go back to the hotel...we may return to a park like EPCOT or the Studios, depending on what we haven't seen yet. Probably won't hit the Magic Kingdom again...yet, because...

Friday, 22 Aug 2008: We have a breakfast ADR at 8:15 at the Crystal Palace. After we eat, we will hit the Magic Kingdom once again and do what we need to do. We will probably not stay out too late though.

Saturday, 23 Aug 2008: I have to take NotSoLittleMT to the airport early. She has to start school that following Monday. It will begin her senior year. After that, our day is up in the air. MrsJT may hit one of the spas. It depends on the budget. If she does, LittleAT & I will hit one of the parks by ourselves. If she doesn't, the 3 of us will go somewhere. Maybe we'll hit Blizzard Beach. From this point on, we have no ADRs (at this time) and nothing concrete to do.

Sunday, 24 Aug 2008: Another free day. Nothing definitive. At some point, Sea World may become an option. Being active duty, we get in free.

Monday, 25 Aug 2008: Another non-definitive day. Also our last. This could be a Sea World day. Or it could be Four Parks in less than a Day. Probably not though.

Tuesday, 26 Aug 2008: We will sleep in. Eat breakfast, and eventually hop in the car and head north.

Wednesday, 27 Aug 2008: We should arrive in Southern Maryland and spend a couple of days with some old friends.

Saturday, 30 Aug 2008: We go home

 

[MrJT]

Did some pre-trip shopping yesterday.
When we went in 2003, we picked up 4 Mickey t-shirts that sort of matched. They all had Mickey Mouse on the them, and said "All American 2003" on them. But we each had a different colored shirt.
Yesterday, we found a bunch of shirts on sale for $5. We were immediately drawn to these ones with Mickey on them. He's holding a guitar, and the top says "Summer Tour". The bottom says "Colony Theater" or something to that effect. The Summer Tour said it all. So we bought them. But we also found more Mickey shirts that were black, and he had a psycadeclic paint scheme going on. So we also got 4 of those.

 

[MrJT]

Fun & Food
Thursday, 21 Aug 2008: No ADRs at all on this day. We had one for Donalds Safari at Tusker House, but when we sat down with the budget, we decided to cut this one (and at least one other). So we will head to Animal Kingdom first thing. Last time around, we didn't even enter Asia. So that's big on the list. Especially to ride Everest!

UPDATE
Last night, we decided to do Donald's Safari for breakfast. So we now have an 8:10 ADR. We haven't told the kids yet. LittleAT shoud be happy, so we'll probably not tell him until we have to. It was actually his suggestion to cancel our first ADR, for the sake of the budget.

We also deeply looked at the budget last night, after I made the ADR. We toyed with the idea of staying at a value, and it looks like we might save some money. But then we'd be crammed into two full sized beds. With Shades of Green we get two queens, and small single bed too. So, it looks like we are going to keep things the same.

 

[Jaelynnandmom]

So far so good! Everything sounds great & I can't wait to read more

 

[MrJT]

Sunday, 24 Aug 2008: Another free day. Nothing definitive. At some point, Sea World may become an option. Being active duty, we get in free.

Monday, 25 Aug 2008: Another non-definitive day. Also our last. This could be a Sea World day. Or it could be Four Parks in less than a Day. Probably not though.

Update
Sunday, 24 Aug 2008: We had discussed doing the Four Parks in less than a Day challenge put forth by Mike Scopa. And we were going to do it on our last day...but we were going to modify some of his "requirements" for our enjoyment. But, if we do it, it will now happen on this day.

Monday, 25 Aug 2008: At 7:15 PM we will be doing the Hoop Dee Doo Revue. We have not done this before. I tried to get reservations earlier in the trip, but this was the only one that really worked out.

One last note (so far, like I tell the WDW Dine people, "I keep calling and changing things regularly", but last night was the lingetst I sat on hold...summer must be upon us!) Sea World is not happening. Our vacation will remain exclusive to the mouse.

 

[MrJT]

We (MrsJT, LittleAT, my MIL, and myself) just came back from a mini-vacation. We drove about 5 hours to Philly (where LittleAT & I got to run the steps at the Museum of Art, a must do for any Rocky Balboa fan) to visit my wife's sister and her kids. Then we drove another 5 hours to Pittsburgh so my wife could see her dad (on Father's Day, no less) and other family members, and so my MIL could visit her own mother and some of her siblings. Then we drove about 10 hours back home. Then the next day, we drove to Martha's Vineyard, and stayed there a couple of days, and then came back home. After all that driving, we started thinking that we didn't want to drive to Florida. Too many days in the car! Then we had to look at the rising price of gas. When we started planning, gas was about $3/gallon. Now it's over 4, and it can always go higher. So we have replanned!

Thursday, 14 Aug 2008: Life will go on like any other day.

Friday, 15 Aug 2008: Just like the day before!

Saturday, 16 Aug 2008: LittleMT will board a plane in Reno. A couple of hours later, we will board a plane in Manchester NH. At about the same time that evening(within 15 minutes) we are all scheduled to land in MCO.
We will all get on the Disney Magical Express, and head to All Star Music for the night.

Sunday, 17 Aug 2008:We will check out, and take a cab to Shades of Green. After that, our day should remain as originally planned: We plan to hit Typhoon Lagoon, and spend the rest of the afternoon in the water. Continuing with the beach theme of the day, we will head to dinner at the Beach Club, at Beaches & Cream (unfortunately they don't do ADRs though). After dinner we may spend a little time at the Magic Kingdom (you gotta hit the MK on day one...right?), or head back to the hotel for the night. It really depends on how everyone feels. The only difference, is that we will not be driving, but relying on Disney and SOG transportation.

Monday - Wednesday: No real changes here

Thursday, 21 Aug 2008: We decided to drop the Tusker House Breakfast. For a number of reasons: Through SOG, we just rebooked our room, and got a reduced "Autumn Rate" as well as their breakfast plan. It starts on Thursday. We also still had two character meals before that (Chef Mickeys and CRT.

Friday, 22 Aug 2008: Like the day before, we are dropping this planned character meal

Saturday, 23 Aug 2008: Instead of driving MT to the airport, we will have to arrange for transportation for her. Luckily, Delta changed some of their schedules, and she no longer has to be there so early

Sunday, 24 Aug 2008: No real changes here. Just if we still go ahead and do 4 parks in one day, we will have to do it using only Disney & SOG transportation.

Monday, 25 Aug 2008 Park & Food wise, no changes. However, we will be checking out of SOG (the Autumn Rates require no more than 8 days), and checking into Pop Century. This will also get us Disney Magical Express back to the Airport the next day.

Tuesday, 26 Aug 2008: Fly home

 

[MrJT]

Well, we made a change or two over the past couple of weeks. We started crunching the numbers, and decided to change a few things.
First we dropped out ADRs at the Studio. I really wanted to try the SciFI. We canceled it on the last trip as well. We also went back and forth on the Fantasmic package. The food was so pricey, and so many people said that it wasn't necessary, so it got cut.
We also killed our Hoop Dee Doo Revue for the three of us on the last day.
That was earlier in the week. Yesterday, we made some new plans, and I plan to post them a little later.
Stay tuned!

 

[MrJT]

After canceling some stuff, we moved some money around and made some new reservations. So now, I give you our new agenda:

Saturday 16 Aug 08: We all fly into Orlando, around 8:30 PM.
Take Magic Express to All Star Music.
Have dinner at the food court.
Go to bed.

Sunday 17 Aug 08: We get up & eat breakfast at the food court.
Take a cab to Shades of Green.
Get checked in.
Buy our Stars & Stripes tickets
Go to Magic Kingdom, have to start there
Around 8 PM we get on a boat
At 9:30, all 4 of us sit down at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue, in area 1

Monday 18 Aug 08: Chef Mickey's for an 8:10 breakfast
Monorail to EPCOT, where we will finish the day

Tuesday 19 Aug 08: Cinderella's Royal Table for a 9:05 breakfast
We will likely tour more of the Magic Kingdom for a while, and hit what we may have missed on day 1
Later in the day, we head to Downtown Disney.
Do some shopping, and take the kids to Disney Quest (they both want it)

Wednesday 20 Aug 08: From this day on, all breakfasts will be at Shades of Green, they are part of our package now
Then we head to Hollywood Studios. Ride Toy Story Mania
Scifi Dine-In for a 12:50 lunch
See Fantasmic

Thursday 21 08: We go to Typhoon Lagoon ealy
In the afternoon, we head back to the hotel, and get cleaned up
At 6 we are at the Grand Floridian for family photos
Then we go to Downtown Disney, and eat somewhere
Then it's on to Pleasure Island. We haven't been, and it won't be there again
Then we go to the Adventurers Club. It sounds like fun!

Friday 22 Aug 08: Head to Animal Kingdom
Mrs JT and MT have a 12 lunch at Yak & Yeti. AT & I likely walk to Pizzafari, eat, and meet up with the ladies after they eat

Well, that's most of the trip. I will probably post the rest of our plans later.

 

[MrJT]

To continue the last leg of my trip. I forgot to mention on:
Friday 22 Aug 08: After AK closes, we will likely head to EPCOT, since we only had one day there, and you know we can't see everything there in one day.

Saturday 23 Aug 08: Very early in the morning, we put MT in a town car (Mears I think) and she goes to the airpot, because she has to work on Sunday, and start school on Monday.
The remaining 3 don't have "plans" on this day. We are going to chill by the pool, and enjoy the resort. In the evening, we may go somewhere, but it's not on the schedule. Maybe we'll do some mini golf. We haven't discussed it, it just popped in my head.

Sunday 24 Aug 08: We're gonna call this our makeup day. What park did we really not get to enjoy so much? What do we really need to see or do before our vacation ends?

Monday 25 Aug 08: Our last full day on vacation
Plan to go out in style, gonna do the 4 Parks in Day Challenge, unlike Mike Scopa's version, we want to hit at least one major attraction per park
We will start at Animal Kingdom, because they have morning EMH! Probably do Everest
Then we'll likely go to EPCOT. It's not too far away. Would like to do Soarin', but it will probably be too crowded. So we'd have to wing it.
From there we'll take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We'd have to do one of the Mountains.
Finally we'd go to the Studios, because they have evening EMH. Hopefully we could do Toy Story, and maybe one last viewing of Fantasmic
I just realize that this day may be difficult to pull off this way. Because we have another challenge to pull off:
We have to check out of Shades of Green, get in a cab, and check in at Pop Century. This will kill valuable touring time! I will have to talk to Mrs JT, and we may have to plan our 4 parks in one day on Sunday instead of Monday. But that gives us only one day with extra magic hours, and that is evening at Magic Kingdom.

Tuesday 26 Aug 08: We have breakfast at the food court.
Check out, hop on Magical Express, and fly into Manchester NH.
Get in the car, and drive home

 

[MrJT]

Okay, our touring plans have been slightly altered, because of the change of hotels...

Sunday 24 Aug 08: We head to either the Studios of Animal Kingdom. This will all depend on whether we want to do Toy Story or Everest the most. We plan to be there for the rope drop.
From there we take a bus to whichever of those two parks we didn't do.
Then we go EPCOT.
After EPCOT, we take the monorail to the Magic Kingdom, which is open late. Because last night, I realized that we had not scheduled any MK time in the park after dark. Which meant no fireworks! Also, no Jungle Cruise at night. I have read in multiple places to do this at night. So now, we can.

Monday 25 Aug 08: This is our makeup day.
What did we miss?
What do we need to do again?

 

[MrJT]

Was doing some prepacking last night.
I gathered all the shorts that I plan to wear (had to find my old good jeans shorts, and put them with my new shorts).
I had to go through my t-shirts, and pick which Mickey shirts I needed to wear. I have at least one per day.
Throughout the past few months, we also picked up some family shirts. On day one, we will all be wearing a Mickey shirt that says "Summer Tour" on it. For our Grand Floridian pictures, we all will have black shirts with a psycadelic styled Mickey on them. And for the 4 Park day, we each have a shirt with our favorite character drawn in an outline.
I had to dig through our closet last night and find our water bottle lanyards. It took a while, and before I did, I found my Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Play It collection (a lanyard, a polo shirt, and pins all the way up to $32,000, I lost on the $250,000 question if I remember correctly). I finally found all 4 that I was looking for, one from MK, one from EPCOT, one from AK, and one from MGM.
Tonight, we clean the house, and if there is no rain, I mow my lawn either this evening or tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, I looked at weather.com's hour-by-hour forecast for me, and it shows rain the whole time!