DisneyDreamerK
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2008
- Messages
- 225
Hello! I am kinda new here, so let me introduce myself.
My name is Kristina, I am 23 years old and I am a Mac Genius at an Apple Store.....I am also huge Disney Nut!
I've been going since I was in the womb and every year since. I have a boyfriend who doesn't really understand my obsession and laughs at me every time I shed a tear when the commercials come on TV.
I just have to tell him that he's not allowed to laugh at my childhood! He is a great boyfriend though because he puts up with it without a complaint. We've been going out for 4 years and I dragged him to Disney World 3 years out of the 4. He goes because he enjoys the food...I just have to feed him and he'll be ok.
We just came back from a trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge November 30th - December 5th. It was a Grand Gathering so the whole family was there! (I can now cross this off my Bucket List)
There was me, my boyfriend Joe, my parents, my brother, my sister, her husband, and her 3 kids (8yrs, 7yrs and 4yrs old).
My sister has the vacation club so she started her trip November 28th with my brother and my boyfriend and I along with my parents came down Sunday, Nov 30th.
Here is the itinerary I made for all of us since I was the Grand Gathering Coordinator.
This was the schedule I made for my parents:
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
This was all of our Dining Reservations:
(I also printed out mini versions, laminated and bound them and handed them out to my family)
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
(I also highly recommend Tripit.com)
Since my parents never stayed anywhere other than the Grand Floridian (that was back when we had money to spare like that), it was their first time in Port Orleans Riverside and the first time on the Dining Plan! Therefore, I printed out maps and the .pdf of all the info on the dining plan for them. It was weird. All my life, my parents booked everything and had everything ready for our Disney trips and now I am the one booking everything. My parents hadn't been to the world since 2001 so I had to map everything out for them.
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
With so much planning (since April) nothing could possibly go wrong...right? Wrong!
The day before we leave, I somehow managed to get a huge piece of wood in my foot and I had to go to the hospital to get it cut out! The whole trip my foot was in so much pain, but that's not going to stop me from doing everything I had planned!
Sunday November 30th:
Our flight left at 6am so we were up at 3:30 in the morning to get to JFK airport. Flight was fine except there was so much turbulence I had to go throw up in the bathroom.
We landed fine and got on our Magical Express bus!
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
Animal Kingdom Lodge was gorgeous! I never stayed there before, but I visited to eat at Boma. In April I requested a King bed because I trid to make the trip a little romantic for my boyfriend, but they didnt have any available. I cant complain though because the room was super close to the lobby and I like that especially since I had a bum foot and all.
It was a savannah view and it just seemed like we had a view of this one giraffes butt the whole time. Was still nice and relaxing.
We didnt actually get the room until 4pm so while we waited, we had a ressie at Boma with my brother and sister and company.
My sister and bother-in-laws last name is The Cataneos and me, my bother and parents are the Samaritanos. I made shirts that said The Samarataneos Grand Gathering. Each shirt had everyones favorite Disney Character and they all looked different.
This is what mine looked like:
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
My sister had Tinkerbell, my niece had the princesses, my brother had some goat and so on
After Boma, my sister had a ressie at Bibbity Boppity Boutique with my niece and Joe and I had Downtown Disney planned. We were all meeting up later for Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party.
We got to Downtown and it started to POUR. Apparently there was a tornado coming through. My parents called me and said that while they were flying down, they had to stop in Jacksonville because they shut down Orlando airport! They were stuck there for 3 hours! Meanwhile in downtown, we tried avoiding the rain by running from store to store and eventually stopping at the counter service next to Raglan road for some Fish & Chips!
After we ate, we tried making our way to Disney Quest. We had a cast member pull us off the street and put us on lockdown in the bathroom because it was SO windy. Finally it died down a little and I got a phone call from my sister saying that its just been drizzling in Magic Kingdom! We ended up just grabbing a cab and heading over there and meeting my family for Dole Whips.
The rain stopped for Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party so we were happy. My parents finally made it into the park just in time for our Liberty Tree Tavern ressie. The food was great and it was a very enjoyable dinner!
After dinner, we found a spot on the Noodle Station Terrace to watch the fireworks.
It was crowded, but the rides didnt have long wait times. It was weird. You could barely walk around without bumping into people. Im not used to that in December.
More to come in a bit!
My name is Kristina, I am 23 years old and I am a Mac Genius at an Apple Store.....I am also huge Disney Nut!
I've been going since I was in the womb and every year since. I have a boyfriend who doesn't really understand my obsession and laughs at me every time I shed a tear when the commercials come on TV.
I just have to tell him that he's not allowed to laugh at my childhood! He is a great boyfriend though because he puts up with it without a complaint. We've been going out for 4 years and I dragged him to Disney World 3 years out of the 4. He goes because he enjoys the food...I just have to feed him and he'll be ok.We just came back from a trip at Animal Kingdom Lodge November 30th - December 5th. It was a Grand Gathering so the whole family was there! (I can now cross this off my Bucket List)
There was me, my boyfriend Joe, my parents, my brother, my sister, her husband, and her 3 kids (8yrs, 7yrs and 4yrs old).
My sister has the vacation club so she started her trip November 28th with my brother and my boyfriend and I along with my parents came down Sunday, Nov 30th.
Here is the itinerary I made for all of us since I was the Grand Gathering Coordinator.
This was the schedule I made for my parents:
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
This was all of our Dining Reservations:
(I also printed out mini versions, laminated and bound them and handed them out to my family)
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
(I also highly recommend Tripit.com)
Since my parents never stayed anywhere other than the Grand Floridian (that was back when we had money to spare like that), it was their first time in Port Orleans Riverside and the first time on the Dining Plan! Therefore, I printed out maps and the .pdf of all the info on the dining plan for them. It was weird. All my life, my parents booked everything and had everything ready for our Disney trips and now I am the one booking everything. My parents hadn't been to the world since 2001 so I had to map everything out for them.
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
With so much planning (since April) nothing could possibly go wrong...right? Wrong!
The day before we leave, I somehow managed to get a huge piece of wood in my foot and I had to go to the hospital to get it cut out! The whole trip my foot was in so much pain, but that's not going to stop me from doing everything I had planned!
Sunday November 30th:
Our flight left at 6am so we were up at 3:30 in the morning to get to JFK airport. Flight was fine except there was so much turbulence I had to go throw up in the bathroom.
We landed fine and got on our Magical Express bus!
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
Animal Kingdom Lodge was gorgeous! I never stayed there before, but I visited to eat at Boma. In April I requested a King bed because I trid to make the trip a little romantic for my boyfriend, but they didnt have any available. I cant complain though because the room was super close to the lobby and I like that especially since I had a bum foot and all.
It was a savannah view and it just seemed like we had a view of this one giraffes butt the whole time. Was still nice and relaxing.
We didnt actually get the room until 4pm so while we waited, we had a ressie at Boma with my brother and sister and company.
My sister and bother-in-laws last name is The Cataneos and me, my bother and parents are the Samaritanos. I made shirts that said The Samarataneos Grand Gathering. Each shirt had everyones favorite Disney Character and they all looked different.
This is what mine looked like:
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
My sister had Tinkerbell, my niece had the princesses, my brother had some goat and so on
After Boma, my sister had a ressie at Bibbity Boppity Boutique with my niece and Joe and I had Downtown Disney planned. We were all meeting up later for Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party.
We got to Downtown and it started to POUR. Apparently there was a tornado coming through. My parents called me and said that while they were flying down, they had to stop in Jacksonville because they shut down Orlando airport! They were stuck there for 3 hours! Meanwhile in downtown, we tried avoiding the rain by running from store to store and eventually stopping at the counter service next to Raglan road for some Fish & Chips!
After we ate, we tried making our way to Disney Quest. We had a cast member pull us off the street and put us on lockdown in the bathroom because it was SO windy. Finally it died down a little and I got a phone call from my sister saying that its just been drizzling in Magic Kingdom! We ended up just grabbing a cab and heading over there and meeting my family for Dole Whips.
The rain stopped for Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party so we were happy. My parents finally made it into the park just in time for our Liberty Tree Tavern ressie. The food was great and it was a very enjoyable dinner!
After dinner, we found a spot on the Noodle Station Terrace to watch the fireworks.
It was crowded, but the rides didnt have long wait times. It was weird. You could barely walk around without bumping into people. Im not used to that in December.
More to come in a bit!
