Oct 2011 - Happy Bday and Happy Un-bday!

[nicole3202]

This is my pre-trip-plan for my first ever DW vacation, and first ever family vacation that didn't involve camping! (We love camping, but I'm excited to do something else)

October - Friday - Friday

The Family
Me - Nicole, DH - Doug, DD - (9), DS -(7)

My ds will turn 8 while we are on the trip and even though dd's birthday isn't until Feb, we are going to celebrate her birthday as well.

After much anxiety, obsessing, researching and just plain craziness on my part we are staying at an OKW 1 bedroom villa! I'm very happy with this choice. I was able to rent from a DVC member and get all the extras for less than the rack rate of a moderate. It's not the resort that was first on my list, but since we've never been we're going to love it no matter what!

Still to be decided - dining plan level, to hop or not to hop and should I keep adr for Jiko, Ohanas, and Liberty Tree Tavern on MNSSHP night (I for sure will cancel if we don't go to that I don't want to torture the kids with what we aren't doing!) ...... Prob. more that I just don't know about.

My General Plan

Day 1 - Friday
Plane gets in at 3:30
Epcot (It's open later and I like the Restaurants there )
Adr - 7:10 Coral Reef - I think my kids are totally going to dig the fish!
Illumination - Maybe we'll see how tired we are and how crowded it is.

Day 2 - Sat
Animal Kingdom (am) possibly Quest in the pm or another Park if we Hop
Adr - Jiko - I'm not positive about this because we may have to change clothes. I'm not sure I want to spend the time going from AK - OKW - AKR to change. I'll have to think more about this.

Day 3 - Sun
Hollywood Studios
ADR - 8am Hollywood and Vine - I was going to cancel this when I realized that my kids are a little old for the characters that they have there. (Agent Oso and Little Einsteins) They loved them at one time, but not so much now. Right now I'm keeping it because it gets me into the park early!
Adr - Mama Melrose 1:45 -
Fantasmic (reserved seating with dining plan)

Day 4 - Monday
Epcot
Adr - 12:10 Tappan Edo
Adr - 7:00 Chef De France
Maybe Illuminations if we didn't see it on Friday night

Day 5 - Tuesday - DS's Birthday
Water Parks, Rest at Hotel?, Quest?, Whatever ds wants to do?
Adr 8:30 Chef Mickey
Adr 6:40 Ohanas - Had this booked when we were staying at the Poly, now were not so I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. If I don't I don't know what to replace it with. The ts restaurant at OKW doesn't look all that exciting to me and we may eat breakfast there a lot if we go with the deluxe dinning plan.

Day 6 - Wed
Magic Kingdom - We saved this for the last 2 days, otherwise we might not have gotten our kids all that interested in the other parks.
Adr - Tony's 12:30 - I'm not excited about this one but figured it would be a good break in the day in case we stay all day instead of going back to the hotel/pool for a break

Day 7 - Thursday - Our last full day, Day to Celebrate DD 10th Unbday
Magic Kingdom!
adr - Cindy's Castle 8:10 - Hopefully we'll get in early for some empty street photos. Not sure how early they'll let us in. It is an EMH day at MK.
adr - 6pm Liberty Tree Tavern
Possible MNSSHP

Day 8 - Friday
Breakfast and then leave for the plane

 

[Minnie_Mom]

Finally having the opportunity to post... it's been quite the day! Glad to finally sit down and relax (while watching the weather to make sure we don't get blown away by a tornado ).

I was able to rent from a DVC member and get all the extras for less than the rack rate of a moderate. It's not the resort that was first on my list, but since we've never been we're going to love it no matter what!

I do not know much about this option and would love to hear more, especially how it relates to the Disney packages and options like ME and DDP.

Still to be decided - dining plan level, to hop or not to hop and should I keep adr for Jiko, Ohanas, and Liberty Tree Tavern on MNSSHP night (I for sure will cancel if we don't go to that I don't want to torture the kids with what we aren't doing!) ...... Prob. more that I just don't know about.

For your dining plan level, I think this is such an individual choice. We always go the the middle plan. Obviously, this works well for us as we keep choosing it! But, we always comment that the "next trip" we will just get the QSDP, but once the planning begins, there are so many places we want to go that we end up with the middle dining plan. If we were going without the babies, then hands down we would go with the DxDP..yum!! As far as hopping, if you can work out your plan to not have to hop, then I say don't waste your money! I can never do it, so we ALWAYS end up with hoppers. I love the flexibility, especially with a 3 year old!

Day 2 - Sat
Animal Kingdom (am) possibly Quest in the pm or another Park if we Hop
Adr - Jiko - I'm not positive about this because we may have to change clothes. I'm not sure I want to spend the time going from AK - OKW - AKR to change. I'll have to think more about this.

We will be at AK this day, too! I think we are either going to try the Sing-a-Long/Movie with Chip and Dale at FW or one of the putt-putt courses this night! We have never done these and wanted to try something newYou could probably get by without changing clothes if you did not want to go back to the room!

Day 3 - Sun
Hollywood Studios
ADR - 8am Hollywood and Vine - I was going to cancel this when I realized that my kids are a little old for the characters that they have there. (Agent Oso and Little Einsteins) They loved them at one time, but not so much now. Right now I'm keeping it because it gets me into the park early!
Adr - Mama Melrose 1:45 -
Fantasmic (reserved seating with dining plan)

Won't be at DHS this morning, but will be there for our Mama Melrose ressie later that evening. We are doing the Fantasmic dinner package, too!

Day 4 - Monday
Epcot
Adr - 12:10 Tappan Edo
Adr - 7:00 Chef De France
Maybe Illuminations if we didn't see it on Friday night

Also, going to be at Epcot on this day until about lunch time... we must be using the same crowd level/planning websites

Day 6 - Wed
Magic Kingdom - We saved this for the last 2 days, otherwise we might not have gotten our kids all that interested in the other parks.
Adr - Tony's 12:30 - I'm not excited about this one but figured it would be a good break in the day in case we stay all day instead of going back to the hotel/pool for a break

Can't remember what we are doing on this day, but we have eaten at Tony's once before and I really enjoyed it! We were going to go back this trip, but could not fit it in!

Day 7 - Thursday - Our last full day, Day to Celebrate DD 10th Unbday
Magic Kingdom!
adr - Cindy's Castle 8:10 - Hopefully we'll get in early for some empty street photos. Not sure how early they'll let us in. It is an EMH day at MK.
adr - 6pm Liberty Tree Tavern
Possible MNSSHP

We will be at MNSSHP this evening!

Looks like our paths will be crossing a lot! I wonder what the chances are that we will actually end up seeing each other

 

[Shannon84]

I'm here Good plan so far, too bad our paths will not cross, but we will be there soon after!!

 

[nicole3202]

I'm here Good plan so far, too bad our paths will not cross, but we will be there soon after!!

Whoo Hooo! Welcome! It will be fun getting excited about our trip together!