My Very First PTR/TR!!! A Magical Weekend Escape Mar 4-6, 2011

[cloudconnected1039]

Hello!!!

I'm Erin and I've decided that a PTR was in order for my upcoming DL weekend with the BF

As this is my first PTR/TR, please please please please PLEASE be nice and understanding!! I'm not sure what I'm doing or what I'll ever be talking about so bear with me Now, this is nowhere near my first time to DL or anything of the sort. But here's a little breakdown of my life and me...

I'm Erin (as stated before!) and I'm 20 living on my own in SoCal. I go to school full time heading for a bachelors degree in biology where I can then pursue a career at the space program as an astrobiologist . This my favorite picture at DL ever!! I love that Goofy's giving me a mustache

My DBF is also 20, living in NorCal heading for his bachelors degree in game design engineering. Yes, he had to make his love for video games somewhat productive!! We're each others best friends, and have been since before we even started dating. I can't imagine my life without him in it and we make each other such better people He truly is my prince charming!!

My boyfriend of 3.5 years and I live 400 miles apart so frequent trips are a must. He lives about 45 minutes east of Sacramento, where we both grew up, and I live in southern Orange County, about 15 minutes from DL!! So, whenever he comes to visit me, there is no question that DL is where we're headed!! A picture of us together a couple years ago:

So, he's flying into SNA Thursday afternoon (which is the 3rd), as he doesn't have class on Fridays I'm jealous!! I've yet to decide whether I'll play hookey and not go to my ONLY lecture on Friday and head over to DL early I'm not sure, it's an important class. But nonetheless, by 10 am at the latest, we're headed to the happiest place on earth!! This is going to be our first time actually staying on property, as we usually stay at my place or his brothers. I told him that GCH was completely booked for our weekend, so I got the DLH. He was a little disappointed because he's never been to the GCH let alone stayed there, but he's still excited. But what I didn't tell him, is that I actually got a reservation not for the DLH but the GCH!!! I'm not going to tell him until Friday morning and this how I'm thinking about doing it...

I've got this sport bottle that I found at Target for around $5, and he would DIE. He's in love with anything and everything Disney, but especially Mickey. He's even got an entire scene of Steamboat Willie tattooed on his back . He's also been needing/wanting a sports bottle, so I thought this was a valid excuse

I've also got him a pin from the WOD store that I'll put in his sports bottle. Again, old school black and white Mickeys that he'll surely love.

And I was also going to print out our hotel reservation and roll it into the sports bottle. I'll then give it to him Thursday night/Friday morning and then he'll find out I've been lying to him all this time!!

Now I think this post has been long enough and I really am in desperate need of a shower!! Advice/comments/ideas are more than welcome and please be kind!!

 

[DizNee Luver]

We'll be there at the same time as you!! I had to go back & re-read what you put about the GCH being booked.......I was thinking it would be a bit slower time & thought.....OH NO! the Grand is booked solid.....Yikes!!! But as I re-read it, I realized what you were doing........whew!

I'm going with the DIS Divas Girls only trip & then staying for some extra days with my hubby to celebrate our anniversary. We'll stay at the Paradise Pier Hotel......I'm pretty excited to be able to stay on property again. We have a large family & we can't afford to do that.....hubby & I got to stay 2 nights at the Disneyland Hotel a couple years ago & we loved it!!

Are you gonna do anything special??? (meals, WoC, Fantasmic, etc)

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[MommyWithDreams]

A few of our days overlap as well. We'll be there 2/27-3/5. Looking forward to reading more

 

[cloudconnected1039]

We'll be there at the same time as you!! I had to go back & re-read what you put about the GCH being booked.......I was thinking it would be a bit slower time & thought.....OH NO! the Grand is booked solid.....Yikes!!! But as I re-read it, I realized what you were doing........whew!

I'm going with the DIS Divas Girls only trip & then staying for some extra days with my hubby to celebrate our anniversary. We'll stay at the Paradise Pier Hotel......I'm pretty excited to be able to stay on property again. We have a large family & we can't afford to do that.....hubby & I got to stay 2 nights at the Disneyland Hotel a couple years ago & we loved it!!

Are you gonna do anything special??? (meals, WoC, Fantasmic, etc)

Can't wait to read more!!

My apologies!!! I should've thought saying that through more, huh??

As long as I've been going to DLR, I'm not sure the hotels have filled up. I'm not sure of course, I could very well be wrong, but myself and my family have never had any problems getting a room on or offsite

 

[Bungle]

Love the goofy mustache

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Love the goofy mustache

I'm glad you find it as amusing as I do!!!


So the best way for me to organize this organization is to break it down by days. And following common practice, day one should come first.

Day 1 (3/4/11) - On day 0, DBF will fly in and we'll probably just get some take out and watch a movie back at my place. I've decided that I'll go to my class on day 1 since it's at 8 am and DBF would probably prefer to sleep in a little longer I'll then be back by 930 and I'll give him his sports bottle surprise and then we'll pack up and be on our way!! We should then go check in at the GCH and have our luggage stored until the room is ready. Then it's off to the parks!! Yay!!! We should spend the day riding rides, possibly going to lunch or dinner at Rainforest (DBF's favorite) and basically just enjoying each others company and being in the land of the Mouse My guess is that we'll probably go see the fireworks that night since we probably won't be at the parks in time to get a FP for WOC. Either way, it'll be nice to have a hotel room to go back to and take a nap It's amazing how much easier we get tired now as compared to when we were 16 or 17 Yes, we're still young, but I can still tell a difference!!

Sorry for a short post, I'm just using this PTR as a way to organize my thoughts so I know what I need to do

 

[DizNee Luver]

We love going to RFC.....unfortunately, every year we've gone it's continually gone downhill......the service has always been good for us....but the food quality has really gotten bad. Last July, out of 9 meals....only 2 people enjoyed their meal. Meat was overcooked & dried, pasta was sticky, stuff lukewarm, etc. Hopefully you'll have a better experience!! I think they need Gordon Ramsey to go in there & whip their kitchen staff into shape!!!

 

[cloudconnected1039]

I know what you mean!! I think the reason he loves it so much is for the ambience and the atmosphere, which I completely understand. The food is pretty subpar, but I have never had in inedible meal there before I'm also pretty easy to please when it comes to food, if I'm hungry I'll eat

 

[skiingfast]

Day 1 looks pretty good. If you want to see WoC it might be worth checking if FPs are still around they don't always run out really fast.

If you see that or Remember don't get to caught up at dinner and miss the show.

 

[Bungle]

What time will you be getting to disney? I would see if WOC fastpasses are available for your first night. Would be a wonderful thing to go see after dinner.

 

[cloudconnected1039]

I get done with lecture at around 915, and I'm very doubtful that DBF will be awake and fully ready by then So he will take some coaxing and some nagging to get up and ready to go. Then I'll give him his surprise, we'll pack up the car and we should be off to DLR!! My estimate is that we will be leaving at around 10. That's considering that he isn't ready by the time I get back to my apartment. If he IS ready, I imagine we could leave by 930 or 940, but that's a little specific isn't it Traffic should be dying down by then so I imagine would should be at GCH around 1030 or 11 (good vs bad respectively). Then we have to check in and give them our luggage and park and do all that administrative stuff So I don't think WOC is destined for the first night, but DEFINITELY on Saturday night

So now I have a topic where I would like some advice!! We want to do 2 character breakfasts: Surf's Up and Goofy's Kitchen.

1. Is Goofy's Kitchen done with it's refurb??? Will it be back in it's original location?? If not, we would probably choose something else to do, like Storytellers or Minnie and Friends.

But what I'm having trouble deciding is WHEN I want to do them. We've always done breakfast ones, so maybe we should do Goofy's Kitchen on our first day, before we head to the parks. That takes me to my next question:

2. Is Goofy's Kitchen brunch at lunch time?? DBF loves breakfast and I'm not a fan, so it would be great if we could have both at the same time and make both of us happy!!

If we did Goofy's the first day, we would probably wait until the third day to do Surf's Up.

The other scenario would be for us to do Surf's Up on Saturday (second day) and then Goofy's Sunday. But now I'm thinking I don't like that option as much I think typing out my options on here is getting me to think more clearly and to help me decide what I'd like to do. But I still would love some opinions or past experiences!! We've only ever done one character breakfast in a trip, so squeezing in two takes a little more planning

 

[kaoden39]

I am so excited for your trip. How cool for you to surprise your DBF.


I found this on this on another website. I hope it helps you as far as Goofy's Kitchen.

 

[TheColtonsMom]

I get done with lecture at around 915, and I'm very doubtful that DBF will be awake and fully ready by then So he will take some coaxing and some nagging to get up and ready to go. Then I'll give him his surprise, we'll pack up the car and we should be off to DLR!! My estimate is that we will be leaving at around 10. That's considering that he isn't ready by the time I get back to my apartment. If he IS ready, I imagine we could leave by 930 or 940, but that's a little specific isn't it Traffic should be dying down by then so I imagine would should be at GCH around 1030 or 11 (good vs bad respectively). Then we have to check in and give them our luggage and park and do all that administrative stuff So I don't think WOC is destined for the first night, but DEFINITELY on Saturday night

So now I have a topic where I would like some advice!! We want to do 2 character breakfasts: Surf's Up and Goofy's Kitchen.

1. Is Goofy's Kitchen done with it's refurb??? Will it be back in it's original location?? If not, we would probably choose something else to do, like Storytellers or Minnie and Friends.

But what I'm having trouble deciding is WHEN I want to do them. We've always done breakfast ones, so maybe we should do Goofy's Kitchen on our first day, before we head to the parks. That takes me to my next question:

2. Is Goofy's Kitchen brunch at lunch time?? DBF loves breakfast and I'm not a fan, so it would be great if we could have both at the same time and make both of us happy!!

If we did Goofy's the first day, we would probably wait until the third day to do Surf's Up.

The other scenario would be for us to do Surf's Up on Saturday (second day) and then Goofy's Sunday. But now I'm thinking I don't like that option as much I think typing out my options on here is getting me to think more clearly and to help me decide what I'd like to do. But I still would love some opinions or past experiences!! We've only ever done one character breakfast in a trip, so squeezing in two takes a little more planning

Goofy is back in his kitchen and although I have not done it personally I have heard that the buffet has both breakfast & lunch items at brunch.

Have you done surf's up before? We went to 4 character meals on our Christmas trip and Surf's up was our favorite. Too fun to surf with pluto & stitch LOL

 

[cloudconnected1039]

I am so excited for your trip. How cool for you to surprise your DBF.


I found this on this on another website. I hope it helps you as far as Goofy's Kitchen.

Thank you soooo much!!! I'm excited as well

Goofy is back in his kitchen and although I have not done it personally I have heard that the buffet has both breakfast & lunch items at brunch.

Have you done surf's up before? We went to 4 character meals on our Christmas trip and Surf's up was our favorite. Too fun to surf with pluto & stitch LOL

We've never done Surf's Up before!! I've heard alot of good things about it, so I'm really excited. We've done every character meal except Surf's Up and Storytellers, and the little forest creatures don't really excite us And DBF is obsessed with Mickey, so Surf's Up was the obvious choice

4 character meals?!?! WOW that's alot This will be the first time we're ever doing more than one, so I thought we were taking a big step!!

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Sooo it's been about a week since my last update?? Yeah I think it's time for a little more information, huh??

Well a couple of days ago, I made our dining reservations!! Although the list is small, I still was very excited and proud of these reservations And a quick note as well: Every time I've called the Disney Dining service, I've ended up with rude, non-enthusiastic CMs that really don't care if I book a reservation or not. One time, I even booked a WOC package at Ariel's Grotto through one CM and thankfully I called the service again about a week before our vacation, just to confirm my reservation, mostly because the CM seemed annoyed and disheveled and I was worried the reservation didn't go through. Well, turned out that the reservation wasn't even made by the first CM and thankfully I could get a reservation then, but not a particularly good seating time So now I ALWAYS check and confirm dining and room reservations!!


So now that I've told my dining horror story (or just my thought of one ) here are the seatings I have for two weeks from now :

Goofy's Kitchen 3/4 @ 11:30 (strange that they only had reservations going from 7 am to 11:40 am we wouldn't normally eat that early)

Carnation Cafe 3/5 @ 12:30 - soooooooo soo soo soooooo excited to try this!!

Surf's Up 3/6 @ 7 am


I'm salivating just thinking about it!!!

We only like to do one sit down meal a day so we can have the other food in the parks we love for other meals. Oh, and disclaimer on my part that I will probably repeat once I begin the actual TR: on the average day, we do NOT eat junk food or anything of the sort. We eat fairly healthy and are active people. We didn't grow up on that stuff and we really never had a taste for it (with the exception of some PMS times...but thats a totally different story ). And I've never been stick skinny or anywhere near the sort, so I've gotta do alot just to keep myself where I'm at right now, which is very frustrating at my age . So, to treat ourselves, whenever we're at DL, we PIG OUT. And when I mean PIG OUT, I mean there are nearly 5 meals in a day So you'll see us eat a buffet breakfast, a corn dog for snack, a meal in the parks for lunch, a chimichanga snack, and then dinner, and probably grab some dessert to bring back to the hotel But to us, it's pure magic and TOTALLY worth it

I think this updates about as long as I wanna make it There's not alot going into this PTR because planning for DL has become alot easier over the past couple of years. But that doesn't mean I don't obsess over it every day!!...because I definitely do!!!

 

[TheColtonsMom]

Sooo it's been about a week since my last update?? Yeah I think it's time for a little more information, huh??

Well a couple of days ago, I made our dining reservations!! Although the list is small, I still was very excited and proud of these reservations And a quick note as well: Every time I've called the Disney Dining service, I've ended up with rude, non-enthusiastic CMs that really don't care if I book a reservation or not. One time, I even booked a WOC package at Ariel's Grotto through one CM and thankfully I called the service again about a week before our vacation, just to confirm my reservation, mostly because the CM seemed annoyed and disheveled and I was worried the reservation didn't go through. Well, turned out that the reservation wasn't even made by the first CM and thankfully I could get a reservation then, but not a particularly good seating time So now I ALWAYS check and confirm dining and room reservations!!

So now that I've told my dining horror story (or just my thought of one ) here are the seatings I have for two weeks from now :

Goofy's Kitchen 3/4 @ 11:30 (strange that they only had reservations going from 7 am to 11:40 am we wouldn't normally eat that early)

Carnation Cafe 3/5 @ 12:30 - soooooooo soo soo soooooo excited to try this!!

Surf's Up 3/6 @ 7 am


I'm salivating just thinking about it!!!

We only like to do one sit down meal a day so we can have the other food in the parks we love for other meals. Oh, and disclaimer on my part that I will probably repeat once I begin the actual TR: on the average day, we do NOT eat junk food or anything of the sort. We eat fairly healthy and are active people. We didn't grow up on that stuff and we really never had a taste for it (with the exception of some PMS times...but thats a totally different story ). And I've never been stick skinny or anywhere near the sort, so I've gotta do alot just to keep myself where I'm at right now, which is very frustrating at my age . So, to treat ourselves, whenever we're at DL, we PIG OUT. And when I mean PIG OUT, I mean there are nearly 5 meals in a day So you'll see us eat a buffet breakfast, a corn dog for snack, a meal in the parks for lunch, a chimichanga snack, and then dinner, and probably grab some dessert to bring back to the hotel But to us, it's pure magic and TOTALLY worth it

I think this updates about as long as I wanna make it There's not alot going into this PTR because planning for DL has become alot easier over the past couple of years. But that doesn't mean I don't obsess over it every day!!...because I definitely do!!!

There are no calories in DL didn't you know? They have been suffocated in pixie dust

 

[kaoden39]

Planning has gotten so much easier for sure. I get so excited that I get obsessed with the planning, and I have the tendency to want to over plan. I am glad I was able to help you with the Goofy's info.

 

[Bungle]

There are no calories in DL didn't you know? They have been suffocated in pixie dust

Can't help but agree here. Unfortunately my pants never seem to get that memo.

We only like to do one sit down meal a day so we can have the other food in the parks we love for other meals. Oh, and disclaimer on my part that I will probably repeat once I begin the actual TR: on the average day, we do NOT eat junk food or anything of the sort. We eat fairly healthy and are active people. We didn't grow up on that stuff and we really never had a taste for it (with the exception of some PMS times...but thats a totally different story ). And I've never been stick skinny or anywhere near the sort, so I've gotta do alot just to keep myself where I'm at right now, which is very frustrating at my age . So, to treat ourselves, whenever we're at DL, we PIG OUT. And when I mean PIG OUT, I mean there are nearly 5 meals in a day So you'll see us eat a buffet breakfast, a corn dog for snack, a meal in the parks for lunch, a chimichanga snack, and then dinner, and probably grab some dessert to bring back to the hotel But to us, it's pure magic and TOTALLY worth it

We do the same. The diet stays at home.

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Alas, another weekend is behind me!! That means only one more weekend and a midterm to drag on through before I can finally start freaking out about DL

I'm going crazy watching the trip countdown going down!! It seems like in the beginning of the week, it goes down quite fast (it's already down to 3 before I knew it!!). But as the week progresses, it gets slower and slower Time for that thing to speed up and get me on to the weekend after next!! (or...the next weekend. A little confusing since I had today off for President's Day...so I'm still considering it the weekend )

Anyways, tomorrow I shall be calling the GCH to confirm the room reservation because I'd rather not get there and find out that the reservation doesn't exist

Earlier today, after dropping my mom at the airport, I headed over to DTD to get some more goodies at World of Disney They're for DBFs little sports bottle surprise thing, and I love doing this kind of stuff so some how I've gotta manage to not overspend on the goodies I'm not entirely sure if I'm capable of that to be honest But here are some things I got him, and of course, none of them fit inside the bottle So his surprise is coming out in pieces?? Oh well!!

These are just Mickey pencils that have a more vintage look to them. They came in a pack of 8. I'm not sure if DBFs going to use them, as he will use the excuse of "I don't have a pencil sharpener" and then I'll proceed to lend him mine since I really don't like "real" pencils. I prefer my mechanical ones

Next is a small keychain of Mickey. Just simple and metal and light. Is it strange that this cost the same, or more than everything else I got?? Most disturbing, but that's the price of Disney!!

Now this I got mostly because I was fascinated by it. It's called a "Magic Towel" and when you put it in water, it apparently expands to what I would imagine to be the size of a hand towel Pretty cool, and I'll have loads of fun watching it expand And it's Sorcerer Mickey...too perfect

Last is a small shot glass that has an oldschool Mickey on it and it says "The Mouse is in the House" on the other side. DBFs got a couple of shot glasses in his collection, all of which I've given him from my university, Croatia and Germany. So why not add to the collection with the best shot glass of all??

That concludes my adventures and purchases for today!! With my AP discount, it came out to be a very reasonable price. OH!! And I got DBF a $20 Disney gift card for him to spend to his liking. Consider all of this a belated Valentines Day present maybe?? Well, we've never truly cared for Valentine's Day much, so I'm sure that excuse is quite valid But I love gifting to people and seeing their faces light up, especially his

Only 10 more days until I see my prince charming!!!!!

 

[Lorelai]

You absolutely must write a review of Surf's Up after your trip. We are considering that for July, and I would love to hear your opinion, or anyone else follwing this thread who has been to Surf's Up. Thanks.