lillygator
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2003
~ “No Way Who Say!” ~ The Carlin Darlin’s Brave Spring Break ~ 2015! ~
We’re baaaack! Ok, so we never really left Disney, or the boards, just trip report writing (and er, finishing). I went to fix my signature today (out of whack since the upgrades) and I was reading through some of my OLD reports. Wow - our girls were so little, it reminded me of so many things….it was back when you could do things like:
Wake up Tinker bell
Ride in the front of the monorail
Ride the double decker bus around Epcot
Sit on the benches at Casey’s Corner and watch some cheesy cartoons
Play in the penny arcade and hit the magic shop
Give away a Fast Pass
Hang with some jocks at ESPN the Weekend
I could go on and on and on, but to keep moving forward, there are new things to experience and new Disney memories to be made starting this SATURDAY! That’s right folks; the Carlin Darlin’s are heading back our happy place! Let’s get down to business – here’s our motley crew:
lillygator – best known as “Vee” – 40 (gasp, when did that happen?) – been going to Disney since I was born, living so close made it very easy and an AP was our Christmas gift for many years. I loved those plastic AP’s that had my picture so neatly in that round circle. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Disney as an adult through my children’s eyes – it’s something different every time we go.
Charming – 50 – yes, he’s a cradle robber….! Why Charming, you ask? Well, he used to be….lol! No, in all seriousness – he is my prince and I knew the day I met him I was going to marry him. What I did not know that day was this poor man had only been to Disney like once, maybe twice!! I started him out going to Pleasure Island and Downtown Disney (was it that back then? Maybe Lake Buena Vista?) he.never.knew.what.hit.him!
Pumpkin Samantha – 12 – going on 20, a middle schooler, complete with the ‘tude, but is still pretty naïve and loves, loves, loves Disney. She was 18 months on her first trip and thought the Castle was our apartment, she still maintains Disney is our other home.
Haley Bug – 10 – OMG.now.a.disney.adult! her first trip was at 4 weeks old!! she’s our 4th grader and so competitive…if there is a prize or ribbon – she will do whatever it takes to win. Got that Tebow heart I tell ya!
For this trip report we need to roll out the red carpet……
Sound the trumpets…..
There’s a new addition to the Carlin Darlin’s…………….(can you believe it??)
King James! – Grady-James that is! – 3 – he’s our surprise little miracle and loves his “Disney home” and “Disney busses” and all things Polar Express and cars, trucks, fire trucks, dump trucks, garbage trucks – you get the idea. His favorite books are the Pete the Cat series and his phrase of late is “no way who say”, and yes, he says it just like that, not Jose! Don’t know where he picked that up from??!!
A little more about us, we have PAP’s and try to visit often. I like to plan, plan, plan our trip and then usually upon arrival, it gets tossed out the window and we end up going with the flow. Since we do try and go often it isn’t life ending if there is something we don’t see or aren’t able to do. I personally, can’t stand waiting in line but Charming doesn’t seem to mind…on Haley’s birthday, he braved a 110 minute line at Test Track for her….I said no way, birthday be damned!
2 days to GO!!
You may be asking yourself why on earth we are going during Spring Break when crowds are INSANE….well, Haley is in ALL Star Cheerleading and on 3/7 they have a competition in Orlando. Where in Orlando? Well, the Swan and Dolphin to be exact. We were supposed to stay there and had to book through some housing authority for the gym to get some kind of credit. By the time I logged in to book –BAM, it was already filled. So, I had a couple other choices and ended up booking the Clarion Inn or some other god forsaken place that isn’t Disney.
Later on I found out we didn’t actually have to stay the night since it was close to home and her team isn’t doing the two day competition….which in turn got me thinking.
And thinking….
Hmmm…
The kids last day of school is Friday March 6th….
We have tickets….
We are going to be in Orlando ANYWAY….
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
NEMO, errr, B-I-N-G-O!!
Let’s take the week off and go to DISNEY!
I was able to book a week at POP Century with either a FL resident rate or an AP rate, can’t recall, arriving on 3/7/15 departing (BOOO!) 3/14/15. Let the agonizing – um, the planning begin!
~vee note~ on Disney resorts – over the years, we have stayed in almost every single one of the resorts, but – a few years ago I discovered the GEM of Bonnet Creek. This resort is on property, has a lazy river (and four pools), is HUGE and a bargain for a two bedroom, two bath , full kitchen, Jacuzzi tub, washer and dryer, and a balcony - which I can normally book for $100-$120 a NIGHT! Oh, and did I mention it’s on DISNEY PROPERTY FOLKS! Since we drive over and have our car, transportation is not an issue. This resort is nestled next to the Caribbean Beach Club so no different for us if we were driving from there. So why are we staying in a 260 square foot room where we will be falling all over ourselves for a week? Two reasons…and not really good ones now that I put pen to paper….
MAGIC BANDS
KIDS
Ugh! The kids love to stay on property and use their bands to open the door….we must be some pretty boring people if that is what gives these girls a thrill! Being the finance person in the family, it PAINS me to know that I could be sitting on a balcony sipping a wine, playing cards with Charming, while the girls (and GJ) are watching a movie in their own bedroom after a long day in the parks for the same price as a pimped out up Motel 6. Literally, PAINS me.
I.mean.like.every.time.I.open.the.door.or.see.a.larger.than.life.icon.
I did do a family poll and it was 3-2 – I begged, I pleaded, I even bribed! Gasp! c’mon girls, Bonnet Creek has slides in their pools, there is a lazy river, I will give you $100 each for spending money. Did they care?
As Pete the Cat would say “goodness, no”!
So Pop it is. I love the location much better than the All Star Resorts, you are right there in the middle of where you need to be. I do not like the price for what you get.
On to the planning!
The whole FP+ and booking dining 180 days out is just nuts to me. NUTS! I did find out a couple things, passholders can only book 7 days at a time – so for example, I had all 7 of our days booked at 60 days in advance (with resort reservation)….we made a quick trip over to Epcot a couple weeks ago – to meet up with some DIS friends!! – and I was trying to make a FP+ reservation on the app on the way over, which is when I learned that I would have to cancel one of my seven to get one for that day. Epcot was insanely busy that day too, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten any of the big ticket rides. It all worked out ok, but I think there is still some tweaking to do….I did read over on the theme park attractions forum that with multiple bands you can finagle some extra FP’s….too much work for me. If we ride it, great, if not – there is always NEXT time baby!
So I got a few FP’s in….which will probably all change:
Saturday March 7th
MK – Buzz, Mine Train, Dumbo
Sunday March 8th
MGM (and yes, it will always be MGM to me!) – Toy Story, LMA and Frozen
Monday March 9th
MK – Mine Train, Pooh and Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet
Tuesday March 10th
MK – Mine Train, Peter Pan and Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet
Wednesday March 11th
MK – All three mountains!
Thursday March 12th
Epcot (really not MK???) – Soarin, Nemo and Turtle Talk
Friday March 13th (omg….Friday the 13th!!)
MGM – Star Tours, Toy Story and Tower of Tower (will Haley actually ride??)
Hmm, what is wrong with this picture? Was I drinking when I booked these? My least favorite park to get to – four times in seven days? This WILL be changing. When I was booking, I was so excited to see that the mine train and Anna and Elsa were available, that I took whatever I could get.
Being the “awesome mom” that I am, I ask everyone to give me a wish list for Disney – rides they want to go on, restaurants, other activities, etc…which I do try and meet the requests….I was so pumped and told Charming that I got the mine train three (yes three) times… his response:
“I didn’t like it that much.”
He was too far away to smack.
of course they all picked insanely (over) priced restaurants which all seemed to be “booked”, so Vee booked where she wanted. Take that, Pop Century lovers!
~vee note~ I used to love doing character buffets, because as I said, I don’t do lines, but the PRICES (and now we are four ADULTS), holy smokes. I have spreadsheets from every trip, and the prices have risen so dramatically while the food has been on the decline. Charming’s two favorites, Le Cellier and the Yachtsman….I loved Le Cellier, but you are practically sitting on the table next to you and $45 for a steak with the side extra?? Again, this stems from me being the finance person, but this pains.me.as.well. Obviously we don’t do the dining plan but we do have the Tables in Wonderland card, which is good for 20% off table service restaurants and we use it A LOT!
So far I have ADR’s for – Yak N Yeti, Trail’s End dinner, Garden Grill, 50’s Prime Time, Hollywood and Vine breakfast, and Crystal Palace breakfast x 2. Let’s see how many of these end up in the trip report. The story behind the Crystal Palace breakfast is that not so secret anymore get you into the park before it opens trick. I have two since I wasn’t sure which day we would be going to Magic Kingdom yet. Then….the unthinkable…
They darn well gone and done it…..
Disney changed the Magic Kingdom’s hours to open at 8 AM every day – YES, EVERYDAY next week. OMG. That blows my plans and strategy out of the water.
8 AM, what are they thinking….Sunday starts daylight savings….you know, the crappy one…
Spring forward…as in lose an hour of sleep.
So here I sit, two days to go, rethinking all our plans…here’s my plan for our arrival:
On the road no later than 7am (Haley has to be at the Swalphin by 8:45am)
Charming drops us off at the Swalphin and heads to MGM
Haley competes 10:33am and awards at 12:30 then dismissed
Vee and Haley Bug boat over to MGM to meet up with the rest of the Carlin Darlin’s
???? then what ????
And yes, Charming, Pumpkin Sam and GJ love Haley to death, but I kind of talked them out of attending the competition…have any of you ever been to one? There is a lot of standing/sitting around and waiting, and waiting and more waiting and TONS of people – for example, our gym has 9 teams with over 200 girls, factor in family members and tons of other gyms WOW….not so much fun for a 3 year old. Not to mention, this Return to Atlantis is charging $20 per person to get in and $20 to park!
So obviously my FP’s for Saturday are no good, along with my Yak n Yeti reservation (cancelled it)….I am going into MDE now, to see what I can change. This part scares me, in the app it looks like you have to cancel your current FP to make new ones, SO - here goes nothing. Tower of Terror, Frozen Sing A long and Toy Story are all gone for Saturday (is anyone shocked? Not this gal)….I play around a bit and suddenly Toy Story no longer has the dreaded distribution note, I am clicking and clicking just knowing it will be gone faster than a Miller Lite at a Nascar race, but lo-and-behold….I got Toy Story 2 days out!! YES! Snaps for Vee! So Indiana Jones, Toy Story and Disney Jr. Not the best times, but they all start at noon and end before three, so Haley and I will make them too!
I am not going to make any ADR’s for Saturday night, Haley’s team may want to get together and there was talk of hitting up ESPN Club…let’s just say we will be winging it for food on Saturday as a whole.
Onto more agonizing planning details….so , Magic Kingdom is open until 2 am Saturday night…(let me confirm) I just checked the calendars…MGM has early morning EMH from 8-9 am, maybe sending my peeps over there is not a good thing?? I’ll let them figure it out. I love the Magic Kingdom at night…2 am is tempting, but we have an 8 am Hollywood and Vine ADR and we will be losing an hour of sleep, so me thinks we will head to Pop to check in and hit the poolside movie – it’s the new Tinker Bell one!
Stay tuned…..
~vee note~ Charming plays softball and last week he got nailed in the shin, H-A-R-D, to the point where the bottom of his foot is now all bruised and his leg looks, well, gross. Of course he has to stand on it all day for work, but not sure how that will change any of our plans due to mobility issues, he suggested renting a scooter (WHAT?). Also, I have found that renting a stroller from one of the Orlando agencies has been wonderful…while my 8 seater SUV is roomy, the stroller takes up a ton of room, by renting we have the extra space for all our gear, the kids can still spread out and be comfy and its waiting for us once we get to the resort. Cuz, you know, fitting that cooler in, is top priority!
Off we go…..stay tuned!
We’re baaaack! Ok, so we never really left Disney, or the boards, just trip report writing (and er, finishing). I went to fix my signature today (out of whack since the upgrades) and I was reading through some of my OLD reports. Wow - our girls were so little, it reminded me of so many things….it was back when you could do things like:
Wake up Tinker bell
Ride in the front of the monorail
Ride the double decker bus around Epcot
Sit on the benches at Casey’s Corner and watch some cheesy cartoons
Play in the penny arcade and hit the magic shop
Give away a Fast Pass
Hang with some jocks at ESPN the Weekend
I could go on and on and on, but to keep moving forward, there are new things to experience and new Disney memories to be made starting this SATURDAY! That’s right folks; the Carlin Darlin’s are heading back our happy place! Let’s get down to business – here’s our motley crew:
lillygator – best known as “Vee” – 40 (gasp, when did that happen?) – been going to Disney since I was born, living so close made it very easy and an AP was our Christmas gift for many years. I loved those plastic AP’s that had my picture so neatly in that round circle. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed experiencing Disney as an adult through my children’s eyes – it’s something different every time we go.
Charming – 50 – yes, he’s a cradle robber….! Why Charming, you ask? Well, he used to be….lol! No, in all seriousness – he is my prince and I knew the day I met him I was going to marry him. What I did not know that day was this poor man had only been to Disney like once, maybe twice!! I started him out going to Pleasure Island and Downtown Disney (was it that back then? Maybe Lake Buena Vista?) he.never.knew.what.hit.him!
Pumpkin Samantha – 12 – going on 20, a middle schooler, complete with the ‘tude, but is still pretty naïve and loves, loves, loves Disney. She was 18 months on her first trip and thought the Castle was our apartment, she still maintains Disney is our other home.
Haley Bug – 10 – OMG.now.a.disney.adult! her first trip was at 4 weeks old!! she’s our 4th grader and so competitive…if there is a prize or ribbon – she will do whatever it takes to win. Got that Tebow heart I tell ya!
For this trip report we need to roll out the red carpet……
Sound the trumpets…..
There’s a new addition to the Carlin Darlin’s…………….(can you believe it??)
King James! – Grady-James that is! – 3 – he’s our surprise little miracle and loves his “Disney home” and “Disney busses” and all things Polar Express and cars, trucks, fire trucks, dump trucks, garbage trucks – you get the idea. His favorite books are the Pete the Cat series and his phrase of late is “no way who say”, and yes, he says it just like that, not Jose! Don’t know where he picked that up from??!!
A little more about us, we have PAP’s and try to visit often. I like to plan, plan, plan our trip and then usually upon arrival, it gets tossed out the window and we end up going with the flow. Since we do try and go often it isn’t life ending if there is something we don’t see or aren’t able to do. I personally, can’t stand waiting in line but Charming doesn’t seem to mind…on Haley’s birthday, he braved a 110 minute line at Test Track for her….I said no way, birthday be damned!
2 days to GO!!
You may be asking yourself why on earth we are going during Spring Break when crowds are INSANE….well, Haley is in ALL Star Cheerleading and on 3/7 they have a competition in Orlando. Where in Orlando? Well, the Swan and Dolphin to be exact. We were supposed to stay there and had to book through some housing authority for the gym to get some kind of credit. By the time I logged in to book –BAM, it was already filled. So, I had a couple other choices and ended up booking the Clarion Inn or some other god forsaken place that isn’t Disney.
Later on I found out we didn’t actually have to stay the night since it was close to home and her team isn’t doing the two day competition….which in turn got me thinking.
And thinking….
Hmmm…
The kids last day of school is Friday March 6th….
We have tickets….
We are going to be in Orlando ANYWAY….
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
NEMO, errr, B-I-N-G-O!!
Let’s take the week off and go to DISNEY!
I was able to book a week at POP Century with either a FL resident rate or an AP rate, can’t recall, arriving on 3/7/15 departing (BOOO!) 3/14/15. Let the agonizing – um, the planning begin!
~vee note~ on Disney resorts – over the years, we have stayed in almost every single one of the resorts, but – a few years ago I discovered the GEM of Bonnet Creek. This resort is on property, has a lazy river (and four pools), is HUGE and a bargain for a two bedroom, two bath , full kitchen, Jacuzzi tub, washer and dryer, and a balcony - which I can normally book for $100-$120 a NIGHT! Oh, and did I mention it’s on DISNEY PROPERTY FOLKS! Since we drive over and have our car, transportation is not an issue. This resort is nestled next to the Caribbean Beach Club so no different for us if we were driving from there. So why are we staying in a 260 square foot room where we will be falling all over ourselves for a week? Two reasons…and not really good ones now that I put pen to paper….
MAGIC BANDS
KIDS
Ugh! The kids love to stay on property and use their bands to open the door….we must be some pretty boring people if that is what gives these girls a thrill! Being the finance person in the family, it PAINS me to know that I could be sitting on a balcony sipping a wine, playing cards with Charming, while the girls (and GJ) are watching a movie in their own bedroom after a long day in the parks for the same price as a pimped out up Motel 6. Literally, PAINS me.
I.mean.like.every.time.I.open.the.door.or.see.a.larger.than.life.icon.
I did do a family poll and it was 3-2 – I begged, I pleaded, I even bribed! Gasp! c’mon girls, Bonnet Creek has slides in their pools, there is a lazy river, I will give you $100 each for spending money. Did they care?
As Pete the Cat would say “goodness, no”!
So Pop it is. I love the location much better than the All Star Resorts, you are right there in the middle of where you need to be. I do not like the price for what you get.
On to the planning!
The whole FP+ and booking dining 180 days out is just nuts to me. NUTS! I did find out a couple things, passholders can only book 7 days at a time – so for example, I had all 7 of our days booked at 60 days in advance (with resort reservation)….we made a quick trip over to Epcot a couple weeks ago – to meet up with some DIS friends!! – and I was trying to make a FP+ reservation on the app on the way over, which is when I learned that I would have to cancel one of my seven to get one for that day. Epcot was insanely busy that day too, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten any of the big ticket rides. It all worked out ok, but I think there is still some tweaking to do….I did read over on the theme park attractions forum that with multiple bands you can finagle some extra FP’s….too much work for me. If we ride it, great, if not – there is always NEXT time baby!
So I got a few FP’s in….which will probably all change:
Saturday March 7th
MK – Buzz, Mine Train, Dumbo
Sunday March 8th
MGM (and yes, it will always be MGM to me!) – Toy Story, LMA and Frozen
Monday March 9th
MK – Mine Train, Pooh and Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet
Tuesday March 10th
MK – Mine Train, Peter Pan and Anna and Elsa Meet and Greet
Wednesday March 11th
MK – All three mountains!
Thursday March 12th
Epcot (really not MK???) – Soarin, Nemo and Turtle Talk
Friday March 13th (omg….Friday the 13th!!)
MGM – Star Tours, Toy Story and Tower of Tower (will Haley actually ride??)
Hmm, what is wrong with this picture? Was I drinking when I booked these? My least favorite park to get to – four times in seven days? This WILL be changing. When I was booking, I was so excited to see that the mine train and Anna and Elsa were available, that I took whatever I could get.
Being the “awesome mom” that I am, I ask everyone to give me a wish list for Disney – rides they want to go on, restaurants, other activities, etc…which I do try and meet the requests….I was so pumped and told Charming that I got the mine train three (yes three) times… his response:
“I didn’t like it that much.”
He was too far away to smack.
of course they all picked insanely (over) priced restaurants which all seemed to be “booked”, so Vee booked where she wanted. Take that, Pop Century lovers!
~vee note~ I used to love doing character buffets, because as I said, I don’t do lines, but the PRICES (and now we are four ADULTS), holy smokes. I have spreadsheets from every trip, and the prices have risen so dramatically while the food has been on the decline. Charming’s two favorites, Le Cellier and the Yachtsman….I loved Le Cellier, but you are practically sitting on the table next to you and $45 for a steak with the side extra?? Again, this stems from me being the finance person, but this pains.me.as.well. Obviously we don’t do the dining plan but we do have the Tables in Wonderland card, which is good for 20% off table service restaurants and we use it A LOT!
So far I have ADR’s for – Yak N Yeti, Trail’s End dinner, Garden Grill, 50’s Prime Time, Hollywood and Vine breakfast, and Crystal Palace breakfast x 2. Let’s see how many of these end up in the trip report. The story behind the Crystal Palace breakfast is that not so secret anymore get you into the park before it opens trick. I have two since I wasn’t sure which day we would be going to Magic Kingdom yet. Then….the unthinkable…
They darn well gone and done it…..
Disney changed the Magic Kingdom’s hours to open at 8 AM every day – YES, EVERYDAY next week. OMG. That blows my plans and strategy out of the water.
8 AM, what are they thinking….Sunday starts daylight savings….you know, the crappy one…
Spring forward…as in lose an hour of sleep.
So here I sit, two days to go, rethinking all our plans…here’s my plan for our arrival:
On the road no later than 7am (Haley has to be at the Swalphin by 8:45am)
Charming drops us off at the Swalphin and heads to MGM
Haley competes 10:33am and awards at 12:30 then dismissed
Vee and Haley Bug boat over to MGM to meet up with the rest of the Carlin Darlin’s
???? then what ????
And yes, Charming, Pumpkin Sam and GJ love Haley to death, but I kind of talked them out of attending the competition…have any of you ever been to one? There is a lot of standing/sitting around and waiting, and waiting and more waiting and TONS of people – for example, our gym has 9 teams with over 200 girls, factor in family members and tons of other gyms WOW….not so much fun for a 3 year old. Not to mention, this Return to Atlantis is charging $20 per person to get in and $20 to park!
So obviously my FP’s for Saturday are no good, along with my Yak n Yeti reservation (cancelled it)….I am going into MDE now, to see what I can change. This part scares me, in the app it looks like you have to cancel your current FP to make new ones, SO - here goes nothing. Tower of Terror, Frozen Sing A long and Toy Story are all gone for Saturday (is anyone shocked? Not this gal)….I play around a bit and suddenly Toy Story no longer has the dreaded distribution note, I am clicking and clicking just knowing it will be gone faster than a Miller Lite at a Nascar race, but lo-and-behold….I got Toy Story 2 days out!! YES! Snaps for Vee! So Indiana Jones, Toy Story and Disney Jr. Not the best times, but they all start at noon and end before three, so Haley and I will make them too!
I am not going to make any ADR’s for Saturday night, Haley’s team may want to get together and there was talk of hitting up ESPN Club…let’s just say we will be winging it for food on Saturday as a whole.
Onto more agonizing planning details….so , Magic Kingdom is open until 2 am Saturday night…(let me confirm) I just checked the calendars…MGM has early morning EMH from 8-9 am, maybe sending my peeps over there is not a good thing?? I’ll let them figure it out. I love the Magic Kingdom at night…2 am is tempting, but we have an 8 am Hollywood and Vine ADR and we will be losing an hour of sleep, so me thinks we will head to Pop to check in and hit the poolside movie – it’s the new Tinker Bell one!
Stay tuned…..
~vee note~ Charming plays softball and last week he got nailed in the shin, H-A-R-D, to the point where the bottom of his foot is now all bruised and his leg looks, well, gross. Of course he has to stand on it all day for work, but not sure how that will change any of our plans due to mobility issues, he suggested renting a scooter (WHAT?). Also, I have found that renting a stroller from one of the Orlando agencies has been wonderful…while my 8 seater SUV is roomy, the stroller takes up a ton of room, by renting we have the extra space for all our gear, the kids can still spread out and be comfy and its waiting for us once we get to the resort. Cuz, you know, fitting that cooler in, is top priority!
Off we go…..stay tuned!
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