My Hubby's Dream Comes True! May 2011 (Warning ~ will be Picture Heavy!)

[Suellen]

Okay onto day three which will be Saturday

Again nothing much planned here. Maybe head over to Epcot to ride some rides that DH doesn't like... TT in particular. Perhaps some Fish and Chips for lunch and a nice ice cream in France. We will also begin our hunt for all 75 Topiary Characters. I plan to come home with a picture of the girls with each one and an a picture of the topiary alone.

More swimming in the afternoon and back to DTD for dinner.

Remember our REAL trip doesn't start until Day 4 when hubby is there and we are checked into BLT with Deluxe dining! With that said.... on to:

Day 4! Sunday

Sunday Morning we will head over to BLT to get checked in. We have ADR's for 8:50 at CM's that I am considering canceling... just because of how early we will need to be ready and over there to Check in.

Sunday will be our Magic Kingdom day! We will head over and usually we head right (but sometimes right too... depending what the girls want to do first!) our right plan goes this way (and again...we are NOT commando people so no rope drop and we change plans at the drop of a hat):

Grab FP's for SM for DD and I, Grab FP's for Buzz Lightyear with the other three tickets.

See Monsters Inc., Ride People Mover wait in line for Buzz if less than 20 minutes.
Snack time. Ride Tea Cups, Pooh, Snow White, Carosuel, Mickey's Philharmagic.
Get FP's for Peter Pan.

Lunch at Liberty Tree.

Walk over to grab FP for Splash Mountain or Big Thunder.

Ride Haunted Mansion, Small World, Peter Pan.



Head back to hotel for break. Pool or Nap.

Back to MK for dinner at Tony's.

Head into Adventureland. Grab FP for Jungle Cruise. Ride Aladdin. See Tiki room (I know it will be closed this time). Ride Pirates. Grab FP for Splash or BTRRM (depending which we have) ride the opposite.

Head back through the tunnel to ride Jungle Cruise.

Use FP for SM and Buzz (mom won't ride SM and Z is still too small so we split up)

Check out Wishes.

This is where mom and the girls head back to the room and DH and I go back and revisit what we've missed.

Of course this is a typical day for us... BUT we don't wait in lines longer than 15 minutes ~ so any one of these rides can be skipped if we have no FP and the line is too long. We do also like the "race" cars and will ride that with the girls if we can.

Whatever we don't get to do gets saved for our next day in MK.

We are very much stop and smell the roses people.... so we often get distracted by things the girls get caught up in and get off track. DD3 LOVES to look in the shops ~ so that is a lot of eaten up time.

We will be back to the room most likely very late!

 

[DL55]

I like your plans. They remind me of mine. The plan is not set in stone, if something comes up you can change the plan. Also a good excuse to come back again.

 

[Dizney73]

Welcome to my PTR!

TIW = Tables in Wonderland. You have to be an annual pass holder OR a Florida resident.

It gives you 20% off everything at table service. It cost $75 and is good for one year and up to 10 people.

There will be five of us on this trip and we talked about being able to just order appetizers and desserts and actually be hungry enough to eat the dessert!

Also with our little foodie... she is quite insulted by the kids menu! She also isn't worth 78$/day to upgrade her dining plan to an adult. Especially where she may order a bowl of soup or a salad if it is interesting enough to her. She loves chowders! So it isn't really a matter of the amount of food to her but the type of food.

Plus she can sometimes share with my mom... which they frown on when there is deluxe dining in play.

Hi! Subbing in here! We are going to the World on April 17 nd are also planning on using TIW for our meals! My 5 year old daughter sounds much like yours... she always orders the fish of the day!

 

[Dizney73]

As for quick service... well we would also get our mugs and we can make the meals last for an extra day since we usually share two adult meals between the four of us. The girls are only 9.99/day so it is really pretty cheap.

I'm thinking Quick Service because we will probably spend all day by the pool and it will be easy to grab something right there.... if it happens to be a pool with a little cafe thing there.... i.e. NOT SSR.

If we get SSR we may skip it because the food options there are so limited that pretty much my kids won't eat the food there.... and my oldest is NOT picky by any stretch of the imagination.

So I guess I really can't make that decision until we know where we will be!

Ok... so I should have kept reading first! We did the Quick Service Meal Plan last July and we loved it! It was a lot of food and we even ended up getting 2 popcorn chicken meals that we ate at the airport... (we guzzled down one drink on the way to the airport and gave the leftover sealed drink to the ME bus driver)

 

[Suellen]

Ok... so I should have kept reading first! We did the Quick Service Meal Plan last July and we loved it! It was a lot of food and we even ended up getting 2 popcorn chicken meals that we ate at the airport... (we guzzled down one drink on the way to the airport and gave the leftover sealed drink to the ME bus driver)

Keep reading!

I change my mind a LOT! Well DH changes my mind a lot!

 

[Moira222]

Okay Day 1 ~ Arrival Day

We are flying out of Boston (about 90 minutes away) at 7:45 on a direct flight. We arrive at MCO about 10:45 and *think* we will be renting a car as ME tends to take a long time late at night. I think they try to fill it as much as possible and the last thing I need is for my kiddos to sit on a bus waiting to go to Disney for an hour after a three hour flight. Trust me ~ it is unpleasant.

UMMMM how unpleasant? We are catching a 5:40 direct flight from PA that lands at MCO about 8ish...we plan on using ME. should be not plan on it? I was going to post on my PTR asking if we should just wait for our own baggage this time since its late.

thanks!!

Okay onto day three which will be Saturday

Again nothing much planned here. Maybe head over to Epcot to ride some rides that DH doesn't like... TT in particular. Perhaps some Fish and Chips for lunch and a nice ice cream in France. We will also begin our hunt for all 75 Topiary Characters. I plan to come home with a picture of the girls with each one and an a picture of the topiary alone.

More swimming in the afternoon and back to DTD for dinner.

Remember our REAL trip doesn't start until Day 4 when hubby is there and we are checked into BLT with Deluxe dining! With that said.... on to:

Will you really be able to just hang out at the pool? I don't think I could stand having AP's and NOT be at a park every day. I"ll be waiting to see if it really works out this way!~

 

[Suellen]

Well it really depends on your kids. I'm also guessing that 8PM isn't as bad as 11:00 or later. It seems there are less flights coming in that late and they try to fill the bus. We've waited on ME for up to an hour waiting to leave for the hotel.... then 30 minutes travel time. It just isn't fun. Plus that late at night we would have to get our bags anyway... which has always worked better on a late flight anyhow because you don't get your stuff until the next day when they did pick it up for you.

3 hour flight + 90 minutes on ME = unhappy kiddos!!

 

[Suellen]

ACK! I just realized we are under 30 days to go!!! SO excited!!

 

[Moira222]

ACK! I just realized we are under 30 days to go!!! SO excited!!

I am jealous...we have 42 days

 

[Suellen]

Okay in 4 weeks me and the girls will be at WDW with my mom!! Woot! Woot!

Still not sure on DH's arrival day yet AND I haven't booked tickets home yet. Just waiting to see if the Sunday plane ticket prices come down or if we fly home Monday night.

Should we fly home on Monday night ~ that means 1 more day at Disney!!

Yeah!

 

[Suellen]

I like your plans. They remind me of mine. The plan is not set in stone, if something comes up you can change the plan. Also a good excuse to come back again.

We do go back often!

Which is why I think pool afternoons DO work for us!

On to Day 4! Sunday! I'm hoping hubby will be there with us on Sunday. The girls will be staying with my mom over to Pop while DH and I have BLT all to ourselves!!!

I'm in with this idea since it will be a EMH night and DH and I can spend the whole EMH at MK!

Our Dinner reservations are at Liberty Tree Tavern for Lunch and Tony's Town Square! Yum! So we will spend the day at MK. Again we will scoot back to the hotel for afternoon pool time. We may even try to watch Wishes from the BLT lounge. But we will definitely have time later in the week to do this.

In any case at some point we will split from the girls and mom and have our "May Date" and this time it will be at Disney World!!!!

So we will likely ride: BTMRR, POTC, Splash, Haunted Mansion, CoP, WEDWAY, Monsters Inc, Space Mountain (if I can convince hubby) and Buzz.

I think that should keep us busy for EMH ~ though they are open until 2:00AM.

 

[DL55]

EMH at MK, what a great date night. You plan to stay until 2 am? I don't think I could last that long anymore.

 

[Suellen]

EMH at MK, what a great date night. You plan to stay until 2 am? I don't think I could last that long anymore.

Well.... we will try! Usually by 1AM we are done. Depends really on the rest of the day and how much down time we get between lunch and dinner.

I remember the days when 11PM was a little "too early" to go out!!

Now most nights I've been in my PJ's for 5 hours by 11PM!!

 

[Suellen]

Okay so we are under three weeks away and I STILL don't know when DH will be able to join us. Due to a blizzard on April 1st.... all the jobs he had set to go live were postponed to May 1st....

So now we have two rooms booked on Sunday night for probably just me and my mom and the two girls. Unless DH gets a Sunday flight....

So do I cancel the one night at BLT and save the points for our July visit?

Do I keep it and hope he can get there?

The other complication is dining. If we do that we lose three meals. And we already lost three because I am canceling Saturday night to go to my brothers house for a party and then my DD first communion the following morning. So here is another dilemma we are now not flying home until Monday May 9th (much cheaper than flying on Mothers day) and our flight doesn't leave until 5:30 PM. Do I book a value (read: POP) or try to get a studio (pretty much anywhere I can at this point) for that night using points?

Wonder if I should add dining? If I do Deluxe or Quick Service we end up with four more mugs to add to our already 7 from this trip!! LOL! And the mug cycle starts again!

On top of all this is that I still don't even know WHEN DH will be able to join us.... so it makes the figuring out hard!

I'll update when I make some decisions!

 

[DL55]

No advice..I have a headache trying to figure out possible solutions. Hope you figure it out without having a breakdown.

 

[beebeeryan]

Subbing...we're doing out first stay at CR in late August, would love to stay at BLT but it's not in the budget this year. We loved having the space in the 1 bedroom villa at the VWL last summer. But since we splurged thinking we'd wait a few years to go back, the budget for this trip is smaller. But hello, CR is deluxe so I am not complaining, I'll miss the jacuzzi tub and washer dryer though, oh and the king bed in a separate bedroom.

WOW so many decisions and so few days left to go! I'd be going crazy with so many things up in the air so close to the trip. Good luck figuring it all out.

I would love to do a trip report, not sure I can be as entertaining as some people are though. I can post lots of pictures though. Love photos!

 

[Suellen]

Subbing...we're doing out first stay at CR in late August, would love to stay at BLT but it's not in the budget this year. We loved having the space in the 1 bedroom villa at the VWL last summer. But since we splurged thinking we'd wait a few years to go back, the budget for this trip is smaller. But hello, CR is deluxe so I am not complaining, I'll miss the jacuzzi tub and washer dryer though, oh and the king bed in a separate bedroom.

WOW so many decisions and so few days left to go! I'd be going crazy with so many things up in the air so close to the trip. Good luck figuring it all out.

I would love to do a trip report, not sure I can be as entertaining as some people are though. I can post lots of pictures though. Love photos!

Welcome!! We LOVE DVC ~ best decision we ever made. I must say it was all my husband though. He really, really wanted to buy at AKL ~ but.... I didn't think I liked the resort and NOW I love it there!! Should have let him win back then. We are just in a studio this trip not a 1-bedroom but that is just fine for the four of us still. I DO love having the in room washer/dryer though... and a door to close at night for bed.

 

[Suellen]

Okay we have hammered out MOST of the details. We are going to assume DH can't be there until Monday. That way he can just book a flight anytime Sunday or Monday.

We are going to stay POP Century with QSDP for the first three nights as planned.
We are going to stay POP Century with Deluxe Dining the fourth night (Sunday).
We are going to stay BLT Monday - Saturday with Deluxe dining.
We are going to my brothers house for Saturday night and my nieces first communion on Sunday.
We are going back to Disney for Sunday night.
We fly home Monday night at 5:30.

SO the last thing to decide is WHERE to stay Sunday night and what kind of dining if any.

I see a LOT of mugs in our future!!

Thursday-Sunday - me + girls + QSDP = 3 mugs
Sunday night ~ me + mom + girls + DxDDP = 4 mugs
Monday night ~ me + DH + girls + DxDDP = 4 mugs
Sunday night ~ me + DH + girls + (either QSDP or DxDDP) = 4 mugs

Really I should say "mubs". Has anyone else noticed this oddity on your receipt when you get your mugs from the dining plan? I noticed it in Sept I think and it was still there in Nov and December..... It is probably a little odd that I hope they DON'T fix it because it is a little joke for us now. We always call them our "Disney Mubs!"

 

[Suellen]

So I don't think I've talked a lot about our touring style. To be completely honest we travel to Disney a LOT so I think our style definitely may not work for people who go only once a year.

We don't wait in lines that our kids are not willing to wait in. They are fortunate enough to understand that they will see it later in the trip OR next trip. No big who-dee who if they don't see it this trip.

So say we are walking by Peter Pan (a love of my Mimi's) she'll say "Let's ride Peter Pan!" I'll say ~ there is a 90 minute wait. Do you wanna wait? She'll say "Can we get a FP?" I'll say either yes or no depending on the situation. She'll decide NOT to wait.

We usually don't use strollers anymore... so they are on foot. Which means that the three year old (soon to be four) wanders a LOT! She loves to go into every store and look at every doll and give them each a hug and put them back. I let her. I don't care ~ we are not in a hurry and in 15 years when they don't want to be seen with us... then we can do what we want.

We stop and smell ALL the flowers. Literally!

We let the girls color where ever they find crayons for as LONG as they want!

We let them run and play when they want to play:

The long and short of our touring style is the kids take the lead. We still see and do all we want except without the run.

We don't do rope drops ~ unless everyone just happens to be up and ready to go (this is rare)
We don't set alarms.
We don't have a FP runner.
We rarely use rider swap as we prefer to be together as a family.
We don't fret about missing something.
We TRY not to argue while we are there. Sometimes it is hard NOT to argue with Z. LOL!
We love table service meals as it is a break and what we would do at home... sit together to eat.
We do grab a FP if it is convenient. We don't run for them or separate so someone can get them.
We DO take afternoon swim/nap breaks.
We DO take advantage of evening EMH.

Hubby seems to think his last name is Rockefeller the second he steps foot on Disney property so HE does spoil the girls while there. I do not.

We laugh, we play, we relax, we have fun, we enjoy uninterrupted family time.

A little about how we tour!

 

[DL55]

Your DD is such a cutie.
Your touring plan is similar to mine. Only rope drop I try to make is for MK. Usually we are up for opening anyway. We don't do TS except for dinner. Sounds like lots of fun and little stress. The best way to tour.