My 1st Pre-Trip Report! Going in August!! LOTS of Pics included!! Updated 07-28-08!!

[Disney8704]

Part 1

Who's Going:
DH (Steve - 26) & Me (Teresa - 26)

When & Where:
August 4th - 5th - Hyatt Regency IN Orlando International Airport
August 5th - 17th @ AKL - Savannah View

Celebrating our 4th anniversary!

I just would like to start off by saying thank you for stoping by and reading my pre-trip report! This is my very 1st one, so if it doesnt seem to interesting, sorry. Just please bear with me, as I hope while Im in Disney, I can give my trip report daily as my trip goes on. And we all know that the actual trip reports, are the BEST ones!

Anyways, it will be DH and I going on this trip. No kids yet, otherwise if we had some, they would be going to of course! We do have 3 furbabies though - Brody - 3 yrs old (Pomimo - part American Eskimo & Pom), and 2 cats - Phoenix - 6 yrs old and Zelda - 9 months old. Yes, Zelda is named after Zelda the video game!

Zelda

Phoenix

Brody

To start things off, let me tell you a little about us. Well for starters DH and I met in 2002. How we met was actually kinda interesting, and is one of those stories where its like a fairytale in itself.

DH and I lived in the same apartment building. He was 1 floor below me. At the time, I lived with my sister and brother-in-law. We had been living there for already a year and to my surprise so did Steve. However, we had never met before. You would think we would have being we were only 1 floor apart. But I guess with our work schedules, we never ran into each other. At the time I was working at a store called Value City and worked different shifts. DH worked midshift at the time, so there for he slept during the day. Just wanna squeeze this in real quick, that DH at the time we met and now is in the Air Force. He's currently a Staff Sergent (SSgt).

Anyways, one day I was at home, on my computer. It was my day off and it was also Steve's day off as well. He was outside working on his car and he happened to see my brother-in-law, Andy. Well Steve knew Andy, and he had asked Andy if he had a certain tool. Andy said yes, and to come on up to get the tool from our apartement. Well, I was on my computer, and they walked in. And that was when Steve & I first met. He told me that when he saw me for the very 1st time, he thought I was really cute. So we talked for a couple minutes and then he left to go work on his car. Well the next day, he came back up and we started talking. Saying what we wanted for the future. We both realized and said that we were tired of dating and just wanted to settle down already and get married and have kids. Well, after a month of hanging out and being friends, one night, Steve finally asked me out and of course I said yes. So we started dating. After a couple months, Steve moved into our apartment. We just knew we were made for each other and were gonna get married.

Me & Steve after 3 months of dating

Well to make long story short, we went to Disney in Sept 2003 for his brithday. This was our last time we had been there. I had been to Disney a few times before (as you can see from my signature) and this was Steve's first time. He couldnt even begin to imagine was Disney World was like. When we got to Disney, for him and of course for me, it felt like steping into a whole new world, where all your worries and problems just seemed to float away. We were staying at the GF and had a PERFECT view of Cinderella's Castle from our balcony. I had stayed at the GF once before the 2003 trip and my sister and I didnt have a really good view of the castle. But the moment I saw we had a perfect view of the castle, I knew this trip was gonna be very magical.

When we got off the shuttle from the airport, I ran ahead and went through the door to the GF and grabbed my video camera and recorded Steve walking through the doors. And the moment he walked through, it was priceless! His face lit up like a child meeting Mickey for the 1st time. His jaw dropped and he was like WOW! Well, the following day we started going to the parks. For each park we went to for the 1st time, his face just lit up all over again. When he saw Fantasmic for the 1st time, he was so shocked seeing images displayed on water. When he saw IllumiNations for the 1st time, he cried like a HUGE baby. And just when I thought things couldnt get better, a couple days before our 1st anniversary of being together, we were sitting outside down by the water inbetween Italy & Germany (if you look on the map you will see a circle part down by the water). This was our favorite spot to watch IllumiNations. We were waiting for IllumiNations to begin. We had about 30 minutes before it started. Well, we were talking and then all of a sudden Steve grabbed his backpack he had, and pulled out a ring box, got down on one knee and said, "Teresa, marry me". I laughed and was like yes of course. It was so funny how he just said Teresa marry me. There was no will you marry me, just marry me. Well as soon as he put the ring on my finger, this woman we didnt no, just came right up and she was all excited and she was like OMG, your engaged!! And she was like let me take a picture. Pretend to propose again. It was funny, so DH got back down on his knee and pretended to propose again and the lady took a picture with our digital camera.

After the trip was over, we were both depressed and didnt wanna leave. So we decided and agreed to go back to Disney for our honeymoon.

We got married on August 7, 2004. We had a military / Cinderella themed wedding. It was perfect. Since it was August I was expecting HOT weather. Instead that day it was in the low 80's and sunny with a light breeze. Perfect weather. We got married at Chesapeake Bay Beach Club in Stevensville, MD. We got married outside right by the water (not on the beach, but next to the beach) and had the reception inside a very nice room where they opened the doors, and had an open room to let the breeze in. The view of the water was fantastic! However, as much as I had hoped and dreamed and planned for a Disneymoon, that didnt happen. Steve's job wouldnt allow him to take off that much time, so instead we decided to push it forward by 1 year and go in August 2005 for our 1st anniversary. Instead we went to Hershey Park for our honeymoon during the weekend after the weekened of our wedding.

As much as we looked forward to and planned our Disney trip for 2005, DH couldnt go again because of work. Then we pushed back to August 2006 - still didnt go because Steve got deployed for the 1st time to Iraq. Then we pushed it back again to December 2007. And I think you can guess where this is going - once again, couldnt go because Steve got deployed for the 2nd time to Qatar. And so this brings us to current times. Our trip has been booked for August 5 - 17th and staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge. This will be our 1st time staying at the AKL and we are looking forward to it very much! ADRs, Air fare and limo have been booked as well! This time our trip IS gonna happen and we cant wait for August 5th to get here. 144 days to go!

Part 2 is coming up next! Will be looking forward to comments!

INSTALLMENTS

PART 2 - Our plans & Coral Reef Surprise

PART 3 - TGM

PART 4 - Mixture of topics

PART 5 - Cape May Cafe

PART 6 - Backstage Safari & AirTran

PART 7 - Photopass Share & DISmeet

PART 8 - DISmeet - Is it really gonna happen as planned?

PART 9 - The letter Im giving to Steve on our anniversary / Backstage Safari

PART 10 - DISmeet is back on full force!

PART 11 - Confirmed ADRs, Water Park Plans & Pics of my new stuff for Disney!

PART 12 - Made 2 more ADRs

PART 13 - DISmeet is off

PART 14 - Updated ADRs and Itinerary

PART 15 - Updated ADRs and Intinerary 2

PART 16 - Updated ADRs and Intinerary 3

PART 17 - Finally got my Chef Mickey's ADR!!

PART 18 - BIG news! Flying out the day before and staying at...

PART 19 - My Disney Shirts

PART 20 - My B-day Presents!

PART 21 - They Arrived! The Disney Documents!

PART 22 - Updated ADRs and Intinerary 4

PART 23 - My Customized Disney Shirts!

PART 24 - Single Digits Dance & Updated ADRs and Intinerary 5

PART 25 - Anniversary Cake Ordered!

 

[BrittBritt]

I'm in!
Great pics...I love how the total stranger at Epcot had you recreate the engagement so she could take your picture! Only in Disney!
What a sacrifice you and your husband are making. Thank you so much.
You are going to love AKL!
Looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

 

[DWGal210]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more...what you have so far is great!

Keep us posted!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Sounds good so far. How great that you found a wonderful man who loves Disney too! That's my wish also.

You are going to love AKL. I think my fav. part of staying there was waking up early and eating a quick breakfast (usually cereal) on the balcony while watching the animals waking up and eating theirs. It's so quiet you can actually hear them munching their food.

for more

PS-love your kitties!

 

[Disney8704]

Part 2
I hope everyone has enjoyed reading my pre-trip report so far. And now here comes all the good stuff! The planning details!

I booked our trip through AAA. Since we originally had our trip booked for a few years now, we just have had to change the dates. Our AAA TA - Amanda has been amazing, sticking it out with us for the past few years. Im sure she's getting tired of me calling every year with new dates

Anyways, we booked 12 nights / 13 days - AKL - Savannah View - AAA rate with 10 day park hopper tickets for $4,025. Just a couple days ago I booked our limo with FL Tours. Im very excited about the limo, as I have NEVER been in a limo before. The limo, roundtrip, will be $240.

Last month I grabbed some pretty cheap tickets through AirTran for our airfare. $79 tickets to MCO and $99 tickets back home per person, making a total cost of $328. I had bought plane tickets for our December trip before we found out DH was to be deployed for the 2nd time. So when I cancelled, AirTran gave me credit to my account and I used that. Infact I still have little over $1 left for the credit. The main tickets came to about $300 and I was able to book our seats online for an additional $5 per person, per ticket. So we have our seats booked. I made sure I got the seats closest to the exit for our trip to MCO. The sooner we get off the plane, the sooner we get to Disney

Here's our ADRs & Internary (Updated July 25, 2008)
Tuesday, 5th - Arrival & DTD
Lunch - Rainforest Cafe (DTD) 11:30am
Dinner - Boma 5pm

Wednesday, 6th - MK 9am - 11pm - No EMH
Breakfast - Crystal Palace 8:10am
Lunch - Cosmic Rays
Dinner - Cinderellas Royal Table 6:55pm

Thurday, 7th - EPCOT 9am - 10pm - Evening EMH
Breakfast - In-Room Dining
Lunch - San Angel Inn 11:30am
Dinner - Coral Reef 5pm

Friday, 8th - DHS 8am - 9pm - Morning EMH
Breakfast - Mara
Lunch - Pizzafari
Dinner - 50's Prime Time 5pm
Backstage Safari Tour 8:30am

Saturday, 9th - MK 9am - 12am - No EMH
Breakfast - 'Ohana 9:30am
Lunch - El Pirata Y el Perico or Pinocchio Village Haus
Dinner - Tony's Town Square 6pm

Sunday, 10th - DTD
Breakfast - Boma 7:35am
Lunch - Wolfgang Puck Express
Dinner - Jiko 7:30pm

Monday, 11th - AK 9am - 11pm - Evening EMH
Breakfast - Donalds Safari Breakfast (AK) 8:05am
Lunch - Flame Tree BBQ
Dinner - Boma 8:40pm

Tuesday, 12th - MK 8am - 12am - Morning EMH
Breakfast - Grand Floridian Cafe 9am
Lunch - El Pirata Y el Perico or Lunching Pad
Dinner - Hoop-Dee-Doo 5pm

Wednesday, 13th - AK 8am - 8pm - Morning EMH & Epcot 9am - 9pm - No EMH
Breakfast - Rainforest Cafe 8:30am
Lunch - Snack
Dinner - Teppan Edo 4:45pm

Thursday, 14th - EPCOT 9am - 10pm - Evening EMH
Breakfast - Mara
Lunch - Beaches and Cream
Dinner - Restraunt Marrakesh 6pm

Friday, 15th - DHS 8am - 8pm - Morning EMH
Breakfast - Mara
Lunch - Backlot Express
Dinner - Sci-Fi 5pm

Saturday, 16th - EPCOT 9am - 9pm - No EMH
Breakfast - Boma 7:35am
Lunch - Liberty Inn
Dinner - Chefs de France 5pm

Sunday, 17th - Leave
Breakfast - Mara

Im hoping that Disney will have MP&PP sometime during our stay. Disneyworld.com shows that theres supposed to be MP&PP during August. I just hope its sometime during our stay.

I have also already called Debbi at Coral Reef to set up the diver and menu. The sign for the diver will say: Thank you for 4 magical years. The menu will have some of the lyrics to the song we danced to at our wedding along with some pics. I am including the pics from Post #1 - the one where he's proposing to me, the one with just the 2 of us standing on the beach and these 2:

The lyrics is actually from Promise from IllumiNations. The song they play after IllumiNations. DH has NO idea about any of this. He doesnt even know that this is even possible. But thanks to the DIS - I do!

We'll go on
Growing closer through the years
Moving on
Through the good times and the tears
Ever on
Another thousand circles 'round the sun
A new life has begun
The two of us as one
We'll go on

Moving on
Through the good times and the tears
Ever on
Another thousand circles 'round the sun
A new life has begun
When two of us are one
And we live to keep the promise
We'll go on, ever on, we'll go on

I am also gonna include this message on the menu as well, right after the lyrics - Thank you for 4 magical years. Here's to many more magical years! I love you!

Thats all for now. Stay tuned for Part 3!

 

[Shir Kahn]

Good start, can't wait to read more! AKL is the one place that DW and I are thinking about that might drag us away from our favorite resort, Pop Century!

 

[Dizneydaz]

What a wonderful surprise for your DH!

 

[Nicole786]

I actually know the illuminations song! *starts singing* LOL!

 

[swwake]

Hi Teresa. Not sure how I found you, but you posted somewhere I'm subscribed and I linked through your siggy when I figured out we'll be there at the same time!! I love your beginning.

None of our ADRs match up

The diver situation is amazing. If I were you I couldn't do it b/c I would bawl all the way through it.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Disney8704]

Part 3
Just wanna say thanks to all those who read have read and liked my pre-trip report so far. I do have a small update. I recently made an additional ADR for an additional Boma breakfast for Aug 8th at 7:35am. I was on the food porn thread and someone posted really good looking Boma breakfast pics, that I couldnt resist! Next thing I know, about 30 minutes later, I was on the phone with Disney dinning and making another ADR for Boma! Right now Im trying to decide if I want to keep Donalds and Princess Storybook (both for breakfast). Especially Princess Storybook. I really dont wanna pay $70 for this meal, but then again, I want to be able to see the princesses and get great WS pics. So who knows what Im gonna do at this point. But I will be sure to keep you all posted

I decided to give TGM 1 more chance. I had bought it last year and really didnt like it to much, so I cancelled it and got a refund. This time, I am taking my time to look through the website and getting fimiliar with it. I have already decided to take full advantage of the charts, where it shows what rides to ride when, like within the 1st hour of park opening, what rides to ride after the park has been open for an hr, etc. I also looked at section where he tells you what parks to visit each day. I actually managed to squeeze in a couple days that are good days, others, well not so good according to TGM. But oh well. Not gonna change things around. Im just gonna use the ride charts and take full advantage of EMH both morning and evening and fast pass. We will have 10 full days in the parks. So if we cant get everything we want to do in those 10 days, theres something seriously wrong, considering there will be some things we will miss cuz we dont care for it to much, like Its Tough to be a Bug, the carpet ride in MK, and a few others.

I also told DH that I will be skipping out on Mission Space this time. I have MVP (mitral valve prolapse) - bascially bad heart / valve and also get motion sickness. I did ride the original side before, came off OK, except for a little dizzy. I had taken a heart pill earlier that morning and motion sickeness meds about 30 mins prior to riding. But after sitting down for about 10 minutes and drank some water, I was fine. But im older now, my heart is getting worse along with my motion sickness, so I really dont wanna take any chances. I really dont wanna ride the other side either, cuz to me, if I cant ride the original side, I dont need to ride it at all. It wouldnt be the same. After riding the original side, the new side may seem like a let down with not having that same feeling you get from the original side. And not to mention DH doesnt seem to thrilled about riding the new side. So we will grab a fast pass for him as soon as we get into Epcot, and while he's riding, I'll go off and take a closer look at all the detail that Epcot has to offer and take some pics. And of course post those pics, here on the DISboards - Probably for the pic of the day thread.

Lets see what else is new...oh yes! I will be croc sitting for the 1st half of my trip. "Faolan" the croc will be mailed to me about a month prior to us leaving, and I will have the baby croc until Aug 13th, when I will hand Faolan over to the next DISer lonegungal17. We have plans to meet before her ADR at CP on Aug 13th. I just hope I dont become to attached and wont wanna give it up May have to run off and buy myself a croc somewhere to replace Faolan afterwards. It might just seem to weird to tour the parks without our baby croc.

Stay tuned for part 4!

 

[Disney8704]

bump

 

[DisneySouthernChick]

Your plans sound good to me. I'm subing. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[Disney8704]

Part 4

Well yesterday afternoon I made another ADR! San Angel Inn for Aug 14th at 4pm. I asked for the latest lunch seating they had, and the very nice CM I talked to told me that 4pm was the latest. Thats perfect! We have a ADR for Boma at 8am that morning, so we can eat a lot then, skip lunch (and save $) and just do a late lunch/early dinner at San Angel Inn. We've never have ate here before, but I've always have wanted to and DH LOVES mexican food - all types. Weither it be T-Mex, Authentic, etc. If its mexican, he will eat it! I will have to be sure to request to sit next to the water when we check in, so we can watch the riders go by while we eat. I know this place gets the love/hate reviews, but for some reason I just love atmosphere inside Mexico and dont know why. Being that late of lunch, hopefully we can get next to water with no problems

Anywho, last night we watch Disney Seasons with Samantha Brown on the travel channel. And during the show (for those who watched) you might have heard her say that going to Disney requires planning! After the show was over, DH told me that he now realizes that it does require some planning after hearing her say that and after seeing me on the phone with disney dining several times. I told him, once we get there, and we get to an ADR and we are waiting to be seated, just you wait, someone will try to do a walkup and then get turned away, and he will be thanking me for all the hard planning!

And so it brings us to today. Today I figured out how much it would cost us OOP and how much it would cost to DDP (with tips included) and if we decide to go with the DDP, we will be saving $200. More then that if we get desert at every TS meal. I had originally planned for us to pay OOP and to skip desert and if we wanted something later, get something at a cart, bakery or CS place cuz it would be cheaper. We will just have to wait and see. Cuz yes we would be saving money once we got down there, but as for monthly saving from now till August, it would be cheaper to save up the money and pay OOP. But if I can add the DDP like 2 weeks before we leave to our package, then we just might go with the DDP. If not, and we cant add it on once the 45 days mark hits, then we will be paying OOP. Cuz theres NO way I can come up with the extra money for the DDP between now and the 2nd week of June. But I could come up with it, if we can add it on around the 2nd week of July, if that makes any sense

Also tonight I ordered DH and mine Crocs. We've never had crocs before nor even tried them on before. I did find something similar to crocs at walmart, and they were comfy, but not completely comfy like the crocs should be. I ordered the beach Mickey Mouse ones - white and DH got the beach ones in a kaiki (sp?) color. If we dont like them, we will send them back and I will just have to continue to look for something similar likes the ones I found at walmart. If all else fails, well I guess its regular sneakers for us. Also, as an added plus, I did some research online before ordering them and found a coupon code for free ground shipping with any order (no minimum requirements). So I tried out the coupon code, and it worked! So I got free ground shipping!

Today we also started our Disney movie marathon. We count the amount of Disney DVDs (animated, pixar, live action, disney channel movies) we have and start to watch them all so the day before we leave we will watch our last Disney movie, and then the next day, off to WDW! By the way we have 114 days to go and we have 119 Disney movies, so one of these days Im gonna have to knock out a couple DVDs in 1 day to catch up. So to kick off our marathon, what a better way then to see our fav. pirates , in the 1st Pirates of the Caribbean movie! Tomorrow we will watch the 2nd one, and then Monday, the 3rd one - oh and also ALL in blu-ray!! This is our first time watching them on blu-ray. And it is so awesome! I've had the movies for awhile now, just never got around to watching them till now. Also while watching, what a better way to watch the 1st Pirates movie, then to eat some Mickey Pepporni Pizza!

Well thats all for this part. Stay tuned to part 5!!

 

[scojos]

hey a compulsive planner like me1
your wedding piccies are lovely, we are over from the uk staying at por 11-26 aug so may see you.
when i get 5 mins i will compare our adrs to see if any match, we got free ddp when we booked, i am a little concerned my kids will find all the sitting in restaurants dull after 2 days...
tracy

 

[Hedy]

Can't wait for more!

 

[blueeyesrnc]

Great pre trippie. The two of you make such a cute couple. ADR's look great. I like your idea of viewing your Disney movies before you go. Have you thought about doing La Nouba at Circ?

 

[Disney8704]

At first no, but when we watched season of disney the other night, and they showed La Nouba it got us interested. Not sure if we are gonna do it this trip though cuz the day we have plans to go to DTD, its not playing. They only have shows during certain days of the week. And not to mention ticket costs. We might not have the money for it. But next time we go to Disney probably in 2010, we will prob try to make plans to go and see it.

Great pre trippie. The two of you make such a cute couple. ADR's look great. I like your idea of viewing your Disney movies before you go. Have you thought about doing La Nouba at Circ?

 

[Disney8704]

Part 5

Well today I called Disney Dining to make a change in our ADRs. I went and cancelled Princess Storybook Dining for breakfast for Aug 7th (our anniversary) and changed it to Cape May Cafe. We havent done CMC before so am looking forward to it. What made me change is DH didnt seem all that interested in PSD. And I dont wanna force him to eat somewhere that he doesnt want to. Especially on our anniversary. I also saw the pics for CMC and it looks all nice open and airy and reminded me of our wedding reception room. Another reason for booking CMC is because we have never seen the Epcot resorts before, so this is a perfect opportunity. We will be spending the day at Epcot, so after eating breakfast and touring the resorts, we will head back to Epcot on the boat for a nice romantic and relaxing boat ride. After all, thats what anniversaries are supposed to be anyway. Romantic and relaxing! With all that, it seems more fitting to do that then do PSD for our anniversary.

We will try PSD next time we go to Disney. Or if we get back more for our stimulus package money (supposed to be getting $600 according to irs calcultor, but hoping for the full $1200), I might call Disney dining back and see about doing PSD for another day this August.

 

[Princesskeyblade]

I am loving this so far!

 

[Nicole786]

Cape May Cafe is AWESOME!!! I ate there with my brother and we both loved it, great time!