My wine induced charity auction purchase got me a no kids trip to Disney!-update 3/27

[Nancy for Disney]

Just some background info first. DH went on his first trip to WDW last Aug. I had been when I was a child. I had often talked about going to disney some day. DH didn't get what was so great but was supportive in my dream. We had been to Disneyland twice. I kept telling him it wasn't the same. Needless to say he had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Go to my signature to read the entire TR.

We knew that we would be back but thought that it wouldn't be for at least two years. We had other places to go. My DD16 wanted to see Washington DC. That was our plan for the next vacation and we spoke of it often on our WDW trip. Flash forward six months later and we are at our annual Heart Ball for the American Heart Association. We see they are auctioning off a WDW trip. It reads: Airline tickets, 4 passes to WDW and $500 towards lodging at WDW. After a couple of glasses of wine I say "Hey honey, did you see they are auctioning off a trip to WDW?" or maybe it was DH who said it. I can't remember any more. I do some caculations in my head. We think, well we spent $1000 on airline tickets the last trip pluse with the $500 credit for lodging I think that if we bid $1500 we are getting a really good deal. We can always do DC the next year. Guess who wins the bidding.

Yep, that is us just after we win the bidding.

Sorry I didn't get pictures of the kids faces when we told them but they were excited.

This is me though after read the fine print:

Turns out it only included 2 airline tickets. A phone call to disney revealed that they were comp tickets that can't be upgraded to add days. The $500 gift certificate was good although I had hoped that I could use it towards a special like free dining. Much later I read the really really fine print and see that it is good for retail amount only.

Well the trip was purchased. There was nothing we could do but make the best of the situation. Lets face it the money went to a fantastic cause. So I sit down and write the cutest poem to DH. So sorry I don't know where it is otherwise I would post it. In the poem I suggest a trip for two but we still go to DC this summer. DH agrees that this is the best plan of action. Believe it or not the kids were ok with it when we told them that they weren't going to Disney again. We were going to still do DC and we also promised a trip after they open Harry Potter at Universal. We are huge fans of Harry. So I am going to Disney and Washington DC.

Here are a few pictures from our trip to DC:

We waited in line there too.

We also spent a day at the beach at Ocean City, MD

So now I am getting ready to head out to Disney with just me and my husband. So exciting.

Going to head to bed for now. Will update more about what our plans are soon.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Oh my gosh, 56 people have viewed this and not one has said "Great start, hope to hear more soon!" or anything else.

Just taking a moment to check things on DIS then off to finish dinner. I just checked the food porn thread so now my tummy is really growling. It was a busy cleaning day. I have to get the house ready for when grandma gets here to watch the kids.

I promise to write about our final plans soon. I hope to do mini live report from my cell phone while we are there.

 

[Stitch_Dude]

Am I first then?! The words "Wine induced" caught my eye We wound up on a "lack-of-sleep induced" trip last summer when I won one of the World for a $1 trips to Florida. Boy, was DH suprised when I came bounding into the bedroom at 4:45 am screaming. I'm lucky I didn't give him a heart attack.
Cute pictures of your family! Looking forward to the details of your trip! Have fun getting ready for it

 

[Mojodisney]

Can't wait to hear more. If our school had Disney trip at the auction, I would bid no matter how high it got and you got airfare included!!

 

[CS3SONS]

Want to hear more. We are going on our first trip without the kids in February.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Am I first then?! The words "Wine induced" caught my eye We wound up on a "lack-of-sleep induced" trip last summer when I won one of the World for a $1 trips to Florida. Boy, was DH suprised when I came bounding into the bedroom at 4:45 am screaming. I'm lucky I didn't give him a heart attack.
Cute pictures of your family! Looking forward to the details of your trip! Have fun getting ready for it

Wow, how did you win for a $1. That sounds awesome. What did it include? I would like to hear more about that. Thanks for reading.

Can't wait to hear more. If our school had Disney trip at the auction, I would bid no matter how high it got and you got airfare included!!

Thanks so much. I am so glad the money went to a good cause. I was really wanting a bargin trip but I am just thrilled to be going. I turns out that we are paying just a little bit more than retail. Oh, well what can you do? What is done is done.

Want to hear more. We are going on our first trip without the kids in February.

Oh, I bet you are excited. Will this be your first time away from the kids? How old are they? This will be our longest time away from the kids. I am a little nervous but I will discuss that more in my next update.

Thanks everyone for reading.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

I think I left off with the promise of our plans.

Back to the poem I wrote to DH which I really regret not keeping better track of. I wrote it on a slow day at work so wasn’t even able to save on my PC. In it I talked about going during free food (at the time I didn’t see the clause about retail prices only on the certificate), going during food and wine, going for our birthdays (aug and sept), or going for the Christmas decorations. Well obviously Christmas time won out. DH always has a lot of conferences in Sept. and Oct. so that wouldn’t work. Plus my mom visits every December so she would be able to stay with the kids (more on this later). I was also thinking low crowds. Hopefully not too many kids are getting to take off school in December. I was really excited to think there would be no annoying dance groups or chanting Brazilian girls. After all it is close to the end of the term for most schools, right? There is so much going on in December who would take a large group of kids out of school during this time year????? (yes I am going some where with this, but we will come back to it).

We originally picked the first week of Dec but my mom couldn’t make it that week as she has a friend from her old job coming to visit for rodeo week in Las Vegas (where she currently lives). So I say fine no big deal, we can go the second week in December although I knew the closer we got to Christmas the more crowded it would be.

After we set the dates Disney makes a huge announcement. Free Dining has been extended until mid December. While everyone on DIS else is doing this I am doing this . After all I can’t use a promotion code. I even try and figure out if it is worth doing a split stay. Maybe use free dining for three days and then used our certificate. No wait that won’t work because the way Disney promotes it you have to have a 5 night trip ( I find out later this isn’t true but probably wouldn’t have changed it any way.) That won’t work because I don’t want to leave the kids longer than 5 nights. I then think that I can use the room only discount mixed with a full price stay but then decide not to do it because it was just going to be too much of a hassle. Boy did I have a lot of spread sheets going at this point. Trying to figure out which food plan would work best, which rates would work best. I am of course enjoying every minute of the planning. In the end we decided to just pay the regular rate, adding 1 day of park tickets and QSDP. As you may recall we were provided with 4 tickets to Disney as part of the auction. These were park hopper tickets. So this gives us one day with a basic ticket and 2 days where we can park hop. It will also leave us with one day where we can hang out at the resort and do whatever married people do when they are away from the kids for the first time in a very long time.

Since we are already spending money on a trip we hadn’t planned on we of course will be going with a value resort. I really wanted ASMu as I liked their theme the best. It was also smaller. We stayed at POR before and boy that was a lot of walking. I also figure that the next time we go we will spend the extra $ and get a family suite so it would be nice to check it out. Then my gigantic bubble got busted when looking on the DIS boards. I see a thread that reads something like “Pop Warner kids staying at ASMu the second week in Dec.”. First of all I think “Who the h@#$ are Pop Warner kids?” I quickly find the answer on DIS. I then think “There are supposed to low crowds in Dec. and no kids. First the free dining and now this!” I take a deep breath and decide that we are just going to have to go with the flow. While I read many posts from DISer’s that say they will never go during Pop Warner ever again, I also read many that say they hardly notice them when they have been. It is what it is and I make the decision to stay at POP rather than ASmu. It will all be ok.


My birthday and anniversary are on the same day in Aug. (If you read my other TR you would know this.) My one request for that day was to call Disney and schedule the trip. There is an 800 number on the back of the certificate. I had questioned the certificate when we first got the trip package back in Feb. I of course called Disney immediately and made sure it was valid. It does state in very bold letters that it is only valid for one year after this date. Well “This Date” was left blank. After being put on hold for quite a while the cm came back and said yes it was valid. So when I call Disney to make the reservation I have a horrible connection but had been on hold for about 20 minutes so don’t want to hang up. The lady is Chatty Cathy, you all know her right? I start out by explaining the gift certificate. She says fine. After about ten minutes of her trying to tell me stuff about Disney and trying to sell me stuff I don’t want (I had done multiple spread sheets so I knew what I wanted) we finally get to the payment part. I say “Remember I have a gift certificate?”. She says, it is used like a credit card and is plastic like one right? I say no it is paper. She says “Oh, that is no longer valid. We haven't used paper certificates in years”. I of course calmly explain that I had called when I first got the certificate and was told that it was valid. She goes to speak to a supervisor. All the while I am like this . I text my husband in a panic “They aren’t letting me use the certificate!”. I know that it stated it was only good for one year and I am hold I look at the certificate even closer than I have already looked at and see in the corner an itsy bitsy tiny “2005” in the corner. So I of course panic even more. Will all of this planning be wasted???? For dramatic purposes and the fact that the kids are waking up I will end here. Tune in to find out what happened.

Also since I like pictures in TR and so far this update has none here is a picture of DD9 on Halloween. AKA “The Scariest Kid Ever”.

 

[ltlmaint]

Okay I am hooked, keep it coming!

 

[rpbear]

Great TR. I am ready to read more!

Lucy

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Okay I am hooked, keep it coming!

Great TR. I am ready to read more!

Lucy

Thanks for reading. Sorry I have been mia this week. Hopefully I can do an update before the kids wake up.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Ok, when I left you I was on hold with a cm who was telling my gift certificate was no longer valid. I had given her the number on the certificate prior to being put on hold. After a very long ten minutes of scarcely audible Disney music the cm comes back on says that I can use the gift card but it must be there in a week and I need to overnight it. I say that I can do that.

So on to the next part of my planning…… What to eat!

I had signed up for QSDP with the plan of having 1 TS meal oop. After reading various reviews I determine that I can’t pick just one so I pick two. But wait two meals cost the same to upgrade to DDP so I pick 5. I also figure that when will DH and I have a chance to eat at the places our kids wouldn’t step foot in. Here is what I have after having tons of fun playing around on the new internet dinning reservation system.

Arrival Night: Raglan Road
Day 1 (HS day) Kouzzina
Day 2 (MK/ Epcot) Lunch at The Plaza/ Dinner at Chefs De France
Day 3 (free day) The Wave
Day 4 CS only

To be perfectly honest. I still haven’t called to upgrade. I need to do that don’t I? I know I have up until three days prior to our trip to do this and there had been things up in the air until recently. Things like, who is going to be there and just a minor little issue of who is going to watch my kids.

Yes, that is right I still don’t have it quite figured out. As you read earlier one of the reasons we picked Dec was so my mom could watch the kids. Well unfortunately my mom has had quite a few health issues. I won’t go into any details but she has been waffling about coming for the last couple of weeks. Yesterday we came to the mutual decision that it would be in everyone’s best interests that she not stay with the kids. My MIL had already agreed to be the back up but at this point we haven’t been able to reach her to let her know that we have decided that she will watch the kids. I am also hoping that other friends and family members will pitch in to help. So I will have to keep you posted on that. Also any positive vibes and prayers to my mom would greatly be appreciated.

I also had a friend from high school that was going to drive down to meet us there as she lives just 5 hours a way. I hadn’t seen her in 20 years. As much as I would love to see her I just started thinking that this may be the last trip DH and I will take alone for a while. She was also having a lot of struggles in making arrangements for her family while she was away so we also came to a mutual decision that this wasn’t the best time for a reunion. We are now making other plans to get together which may mean another trip for me.


So that is what my plans are as of now. Will keep you posted if there are any changes. If not I will be live in 2.5 weeks. These will be of course mini updates from my cell phone.

Oh, I need a picture. This is me and DH at my university’s football game a couple of weeks ago. The first one I had been to in 20 years. We were still in the lead at the time we took the picture unfortunatley things didn't stay that way.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

I am back. Unfortunately I was not able to do any live updates as my cell phone was not cooperating with DIS. I think it is for the best as this way I can give more details regarding all the wonderful pixie dust we had on our trip. It truely was a wonderful time and am very thankful we were able to have a chance to enjoy Disney without kids. I will be starting the tr soon. We took tons of pics including food. Can't wait to share.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Yay! The holidays are over and I finally have time to do . I had hoped to get this TR started much sooner. Heck, I had hoped to do it while I was on my trip. We had such an amazing time and everything went so smoothly. This will be a short update as I have a goal of getting the tree down today.

We will start with our first moment of . If you would like some background info here is a link to a question I posted on the transportation forum: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2325296. For those that don’t have time to read the link the short version is that we had originally had a direct flight to Orlando. AirTran changed it so that we changed planes in Atlanta with a 3.5 hour layover. I thought that was a bit extreme. I saw that there was another flight to Orlando that left an hour earlier. Worried about the weather in December we decided to keep the 3.5 hour layover. Well our plane landed in Atlanta quite on time. Just as we get off the plane we see an AirTran customer service desk. We walk up and say that we know there is an earlier flight to Orlando can we take that one? The rep says “No problem.” She is even able to get our luggage on the next flight despite the fact that I told her that it really didn’t matter to us since Disney was picking it up. Well we still have a two hour wait so what are we to do? Of course we decide to have the first beer of the trip at the Samuel Adam’s bar and grill at the Atlanta airport. We also share some nachos that were quite large and tasty. Sorry no food porn yet but here is a pic of DH and his Sam Adams.

Our flight to Orlando goes smoothly as well. We arrive at the airport and practically walk right on to Magic Express and guess what, it was ready to leave. Before we knew it we were headed to POP. So we had even more .

We are finally in Disney when we are on The Magical Express.

We arrive at POP to find the cm doing The Hustle. How much fun is that? I wish I got to do The Hustle at work.

We had really hoped that since this was going to be a second honeymoon that we could get one of the rooms with a king sized bed despite it would be a room for someone with a disability. I knew it was a long shot as they only have about 80 rooms with a king sized bed but I thought I would ask any way. Once again we had . The cm called someone and was able to get a room with a king sized bed.

I must say the room was really odd. First the bed was on the floor so it was very low. I had expected the shower to be different since it was accommodating someone disabled but there was nothing to keep the water in the shower other than the curtain. The drain was in the middle of the shower floor but there was nothing to keep the water in that area. It made for a very wet bathroom floor. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of the bathroom. All in all it was still acceptable and I am glad we got to enjoy the comfort of a kings sized bed. It also came with a very small refrigerator.

We were in the 80’s section so here is a pic of the computer pool. I know it is not very good quality.

Coming next: Raglan Road/Downtown Disney and of course

 

[Nancy for Disney]

After we check out our room we decided to head to our ADR which was at 8:00 pm since we hadn’t planned on landing in Orlando until 6:12 pm. I knew that we were pushing our luck in getting to DTD at that time. Since we actually arrived in Orlando at around 5 pm we had no problems making our ADR, as a matter of fact we were quite early but thought we would try to get in to eat early. We had great bus mojo 95% of our trip so of course when we got to the bus stop at POP there was a DTD bus waiting to depart. I can’t remember what time we got at Raglan Road by it was way ahead of our ADR. I think it was around 7 pm. We ask the hostess if we could be seated early. They say it will be about a 30 min. wait. We say that is no problem. We wander the gift shop for a while until I discover there is seating near the bar. So we head there. The couple next to us wants us to take their picture so I have them take ours.

We listen to the Irish music for a bit. I thought they were great.

After about a 20 min wait the call us. Waiting less that what they told us happened throughout the trip .

Now for the food review portion of the TR. I will rate items on a system with up to 4 .

First they brought the Irish Soda bread. I have heard it is dry and hard and this part is true. But they also what I think the waiter said was a reduced Guinness. OMG, it was so good with the bread. It is like honey. Sorry no picture.


DH ordered the Serious Sirloin Steak, medium. I only put the way he asked it prepared because if he would have ordered medium rare the steak would have mooed. He didn’t care for it much but since I like a good mooing steak I thought it was delicious. I give it just because it wasn’t prepared as he requested.

I ordered it’s Not Bleedin' Chowder. Also very good. I would order again if were to ever eat at a Raglan Road again although this was not my favorite of the trip.

Here is a copy of the dessert menu. I took a picture as it is not the same as someone else had posted nor is the same as AllEars.

DH had the Trifle Sinful. The little bit I had was very good.

I had the Bailey’s Crème BruLee Tart. I hadn’t read the tart portion of the menu. As a matter of fact until I typed this I didn’t realize it said the word “tart” in the naming of the dessert. Needless to say it was not what I was expecting and I was highly disappointed. This doesn’t even get a thumbs up. Too bad as cream brulee is one of my favorite desserts.

DH enjoyed our view of Mona Lisa with a Guinness mustache.

We also enjoyed the Irish dancer.

After dinner we spent some time walking around DTD. There were some guys entertaining people in stilts.

Some apples in one of the shops in DTD that I can’t remember the name. I know it has something to do with a cauldron. Is there someone out there that can help me out with the name????

We then headed back to the room. Of course our bus mojo continued and there was a bus waiting to take us back to POP.

Coming Next: Going to HS on the day of the Pop Warner party. Was this a good idea????

 

[Nancy for Disney]

bumping and begging for feedback. i have no pride.

 

[disneybarbie]

Subscribing!

Let's see if our path's crossed during our vacations!

Emma x

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Subscribing!

Let's see if our path's crossed during our vacations!

Emma x

So glad you joined. I just posted on your tr that we came mighty close. Soon I will have my MK day up and you can see if you can spot yourself in any of the pictures. I also took a short video of the opening that we both watched that I am going to try and post. I have never posted videos so wish me luck.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Wed. Dec 9

I kept going back and forth on if we should go to HS on this day or not. I knew I wanted low crowds. I didn’t care if we missed Fantasmic so I knew we had to go on a non-Fantasmic night. That left us with no choice but to go on the day that they were closing early for Pop Warner. All the posts I read were that if you wanted to avoid Pop Warner crowds you shouldn’t go to HS the day they were having their evening party. I went by the philosophy that since they close early and there is no Fantasmic this will be our best day for low crowds. Besides, the Pop Warner kids won’t start to arrive until later in the evening. Will I be right??????


I knew that we wouldn’t need a whole day for HS and we would be tired from our trip so we slept in. Since we are at Disney that means we woke around 8 am. We had to do our fridge swap which was delivered to us by luggage services. Once we got going we headed to the food court for a little breakfast. We shared a western omelet. It wasn’t the best in the world but it worked for us. I also got my resort mug. I love these mugs. I use them every day to take coffee into work.

Since we were not rushing too much we took some time for pics of the resort.

The people in the back with green hair were life gaurds doing a special opening for the pool. I had no idea they did that. This is just one of the many little extras that Disney does that makes me love it so. Oh, and for those concerned about people using resort mugs that are not current the mug DH is using was brought for the coffee we made in our room. I in no way stole and soda or other beverage from Disney.

By the time we were ready to head to HS it was about 10:15. There was of course a HS bus waiting for us so we arrive at HS just before 11.



Here a a pic of the tree outside the park.

We had the photopass guy take our picture using both his and our camera.

DD9 thinks this is the most disgusting picture ever and can’t imagine anyone ever wanting to see us smooch.

Our next stop is to see if there are in TSM fp left As luck would have there are. We get ours for a return time of 4 pm.

Next it is off for RNRc. But wait the return time for TOT is only 10 min. Yes, going on Pop Warner party day was a good idea.

I take a pic of the return time. Just as I take the picture the return time changes to 30 min.

We go anyway. Guess what….. that return time was way off. It was pretty much walk on.

That is such a fun ride. I think we decide to get fp to come back later for another ride.

Next we head to our original destination, RNRc . I think it was a 20 min wait. I don’t think we waited quite that long.

Since we split our breakfast I am starting to get hungry. I had seen a lot of good dessert pics from Starring Rolls so that is where we head. I knew this would probably be my only opportunity for Tiramisu. I love tiramisu. It is right up there with cream brulee. Once again I was disappointed in my dessert. It is a trend I had through most of the trip. I found it bland and cool whippy but still edible. The sandwich was good and quite big as you can see. DH liked his fruit tart.

HS to be continued at a later time. Will we start to regret going on Pop Warner night?

 

[Nancy for Disney]

After lunch we headed to The Great Movie Ride. We didn’t get a chance to go on this on our trip in 08’ As a matter of fact, we really didn’t do much at HS on our 08’ trip. I won’t digress on all the various reasons why.

I don’t think there was much of a wait. Maybe five minutes. I did enjoy the ride. I had heard that there were two versions, gangster and cowboy. We got the gangster version. I didn’t realize that they were referring to actual actors who portrayed characters. That was a nice a surprise.

Here is a pic of Queen Elizebeth’s dress from Shakespeare in Love taken in the queue. Loved that movie.

Based on my photos we head to see Lights, Motor Action. DH went somewhere while I started to head that direction. Maybe to get a fp????? Maybe we didn’t get one for TOT earlier after all. Now it is coming back to me, we wouldn’t have been able to get one yet. Yep, that is where he must have gone…..TOT fp. While he was doing that I stopped to watch Mulch, Sweat and Shears along the way. They were performing just before you got to the entrance of the LMA stadium. They were much better than I expected.

I also enjoyed LMA way more than I expected. I think my kids would have like it too. It made me miss them a little.

View of HS from the stands.

After the show, what we did gets a little fuzzy. I think we did Muppets 3-D which was just ok and then Star Wars. I have no pictures to prove it so you will just have to take my word for it.

We then found ourselves back near the park entrance. DH was on a quest for sunglasses. While he shopped I sat outside and watched some of the HS performers. I am sure they have a name but I have no idea what it would be. If someone knows please fill me in.

DH must have been really into shopping because after their performance I found him and took this picture.

We are not big parade people but we really didn’t have anything better to do at this point so we watched some of Block Party Bash. If I had kids this would have been great. But since our kids were at home it really didn’t hold our attention. We watched just long enough to take these pictures.

Next up was another trip on TOT using our fp which wasn’t necessary as there was hardly a wait.

Boy this is a fun attraction. We get one more fp to come back at night. The cm at the fp machine looks at us like we are crazy as it has been almost walk on all day but I knew that by the time it was dark all the Pop Warner kids would be arriving and I didn’t want to risk a long line.

It was now time to use our 4 pm TSM fp. I think it was about 4:30. Unlike TOT this wasn’t a walk on. I think it was a 60 min wait which is probably a fairly short wait for TSM at 4:30 in the evening.

I actually started out winning because I saw a tip to focus on the targets worth the highest points but it wasn’t too long before DH caught on and totally kicked my butt.

After TSM we do One Man’s Dream even though I saw the movie 1 ½ times on our 08’ trip. DH didn’t get to see it at all. It is all a very long story.


After this we head over to get a spot for Osborne Lights. That will be in my next post. I have a video I am hoping to post. And oh yes, I am very glad we choose Pop Warner party night to do HS.

 

[Nancy for Disney]

I forgot that I had taken a very short (20 seconds) video of the musicians at Raglan Road. That guy sure can play an Irish fiddle.