Our "Dream" Surf & Turf vacation...10 days of bliss!! I hope!!

[Tangelders Ahoy]

Hello everyone!!

This is my first PTR and I don't know how this is going to go. I was debating on if I should do it or not but I have been following so many and love it so I thought why not?? So if I mess anything up , please forgive me!! Where to start???? How do you start these?? I DON'T KNOW!! So here we go.....

This trip was planned almost a year ago for us. It will include my DS Cole (4yrs old)

My DH Mike (I couldn't find a pic of just him so I used 1 of him and Cole)

My mom and dad (sorry no pics of them on this computer) and my crazy nephew TJ (5yrs old)....he is the 1 who is turned while my DSis holds him and tries to get him to smile at the camera....didn't work!!:

Oh yeah!! and myself....if you haven't figuared it out here I am with Mike and Cole...

I LOVE everything Disney! I can't even explain how much I love Disney. My grandmother started this obsession with me when I was a young girl. Coles 1st trip to Mickeys house was back in December of 2010 when he was 2 1/2. He remembers it which makes me so happy!! He is so excited about going back but to be honest....I can't sleep at night I'm so excited and I still have 40 days to go!! My DH Mike deals with my obsession. He enjoys it for Cole and I but he is definetley not a die hard like Cole and I!!! I would love every vacation to be at WDW where he would be ok going once every 5 years or so!! That is no fun though so I do drop hints and somehow make it work out to Cole and my benefit!!

So now that the introductions are done....here is the plan...leaving Wednesday 11/28 at 7am out of Buffalo NY. Arrive in Orlando at 10:00am. I have booked us a night at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport so we can hopefully check in early, drop our bags and then we rented a Camaro to drive to DTD so we can walk around a bit, grab some lunch (not sure yet where....later in the PTR) shop and then go back to the hotel to swim, eat dinner, meet up with my parents and TJ then get ready for the big next morning!!

The next morning we will be getting up and ready to take the DCL express to the DISNEY DREAM for our 3 night getaway!! Once we are done with the "Surf" part of our trip, we then begin our "Turf" part which is 6 nights staying at All Stars Movies with a lot of stuff going on (more in the PTR later). I have planned this to the "T" and after the yucky year Mike and I have endured....we are SO ready for this!!! So jump on board here and join me!! Hopefully I have some followers so I'm not talking to myself and hopefully you will enjoy my plans!!!

 

[Chicago Mo]

Im in!
come back to read in a bit just wanted to be the first....

 

[SAT887]

Dropping in!

Your son is adorable!!

 

[M&MGirl1]

I'm in!

(and insanely jealous you're getting to go on a DISNEY CRUISE!!!)

 

[Chicago Mo]

LOVE your pictures!! don't worry my PTR is a train wreck... people here do help a lot and is tons of fun there are some great people on here.

a CRUISE??? that is awesome!!! how long is the cruise? Spill!

what are your favorite restaurants? rides?

 

[Tangelders Ahoy]

I'm so glad I have some ppl following me....maybe more will jump onboard later!! Here we go.....:

WED 11/28 DAY 1

We are getting up super early and taking a taxi to the beautiful (sarcastic) Buffalo International airport. Our flight leaves Buff at 7 and we get into Orlando at 10:00. We maybe checking into the Hyatt in the airport at that time but if we can't, we will drop our bags, go over to rental car place and pick up the Camaro for the day!

We are then going to drive to DTD. I currently have a ressy for Rainforest Cafe but I don't know if I want to do that or eat at EOS. We have never eaten there and I have heard great reviews of it. Plus, I don't know if Cole is going to be keen on sitting in a sit down restaurant after the plane etc....

We are going to shop around, stop at a store to pick up some Beer and Booze for the ship the next day and enjoy the day. Later we are planning on going back to the airport/hotel, swim for awhile on the top floor with the planes flying over us, get some dinner, meet up with my parents and nephew after their flight gets in and sleep well!! (Yeah right on the sleeping well, I'm going to be way too excited for the next day!)

Thurs 11/29 Day 2

Today is the day!! Boarding the Dream!! We are going to get up, put on our shirts that I had made for the whole family

(yes, I'm a dork) eat some breakfast and get onto the DCL express!! The drive to the ship I'm hoping goes quickly! The boys are going to be so excited and by this point, I'm just going to want to be there!! Once we arrive and gawh over the beauty of this ship

we will board, take our pics, have our name announced when we get in and then probably head up to Cabanas for lunch!! Once we are done depending on time, we will either hit the Aquaduck or head to our room!! I also have to go over to Senses Spa and get our time changed for our couples choice tomorrow from 3pm to earlier!! We requested the 5:45 dinnertime and I know 3pm is way too late to go to the spa so hopefully they can change that for us.

I also will be dropping off the pillowcases at guest services that I had made for the boys to get all of the character signatures. This is a surprise for them that I hope they love. I've gotten all of these ideas from the DISboards which has been AWESOME!!

Once we get to our room (located on the 8th floor with a verandah!!) we will be greeted with a special gift basket for both of the boys from the big Mouse himself!! Another surprise for them thanks to the wonderful Shirley!!
We are planning on hitting the sail away party, dinner, and the nightly show. My guess is the boys are going to be exhausted by then so to bed for them while Mike and I go and deliver our FE gifts to our fellow DISboard members! This has me so excited also!!
I had our FE made a couple months ago and I think it turned out great!! What do you think??

I had these awesome gifts made (from a wonderful person who I couldn't thank enough) to hand out to the other people but I don't want to say what they are in case anyone from there is reading my PTR so I will show all pics and stuff in my TR after so stayed tuned for that!! I am SOOOOO not the crafty person so I found the best person for the job and I'm so happy with it!!

Fri 11/30 Day 3

Up hopefully at a decent hour, breakfast and then we may get off the boat to check out the marketplace for shopping. I know Mike will want to check out the Harley Davidson dealership there to get a shirt!!

Then back on the ship to ride the aqua duck more and enjoy the pool before we go over to our couples choice spa package and enjoy some peace and quiet together.

Not to get off subject but Mike and I have had a rough year so this trip has been in the back of our heads for a long time and we need this so we decided we are going to do things we normally NEVER do and enjoy it together rather than putting if off cause we can't afford it cause the house needs work or the cars need new tires etc....This was our special treat to each other!!

Once we are done with a taste of bliss, we will get ready for dinner and our nightly show. Oh yeah along with that, it is also pirate night so we will be wearing our new pirate gear I had made!!

We will watch the fireworks that night on the top level of the boat and probably just smile. Cole loves fireworks so much so I know this is going to blow his mind away....on a ship watching this with Mickey and friends etc....

Let me know what you think so far!!! Hard to believe this is just only 3 days in with so much going on!!

 

[SAT887]

Sounds like a great start to a family vacation!

 

[Chicago Mo]

That stuff is AMAZBALLS!!!

I'm so jealous!!!

 

[Pluto0809]

Joining in! I was excited because your dates cross with mine. But it looks like you will be on the Dream while we are at WDW. My Mom and I are there from 11/25 to 12/1.

Your plans sound really good so far!

 

[Tangelders Ahoy]

Day 4 Saturday 12/1

This is our Castaway Cay day!! I have never been here and I am so excited to be finally going here! It looks awesome and I want to enjoy it but there is so much we want to do.....we will start the day with breakfast (probably out on the verandah) then get off the ship and head over to claim our spots on the island. DS loves the beach so he is going to be in his absolute glory here!!

So after we claim our beach spot and swim with the boys for awhile, DH and I are off to our excursition there!! JETSKIS!!! A little back story here....Mike and I LOVE jetskis! We did a great jetski tour while we were on our honeymoon in Bermuda and ever since then, we do them as much as we can. We have to get our own though because we both LOVE to drive!! I rode behind him a lot in our earlier days and then said forget it!, I want my own!!

After the jetski fun, we will enjoy the island with DS until it is time to go back onto the ship. I'm hoping to catch BINGO this night then go to dinner, the show and enjoy the last night on the boat. We will hopefully get our signed pillowcases back tonight and get all of the tip envelopes ready for our "hopefully" awesome ship CM's.....pack and then sleep well because tomorrow starts the 2nd part of the trip......WDW!!!

Day 5 Sunday 12/2

We will disembark in the morning and catch the DCL transport to our resort....

I think DS is going to LOVE IT here! He is a huge Toy Story and 101 Dalmations fan so this should be awesome for him! We will check in and maybe get into our room.....I did pay for the preferred room to hopefully get the Toy Story section but we will see what god has in plan for us come that day

After we are settled there we are off to our 1st park for the day/evening......where is it that we are going first you ask???!!!???? Well my favorite park (next to Magic Kingdom of course)....Hollywood studios!!! Depending on our arrival time will depend on the TSM fast passes that I HAVE to grab first! We have NEVER been on this ride and I know both of the boys will LOVE it but I can't imagine standing there for 60-90 minutes....in fact I know they would never stand in line that long so fast passes are the ONLY way we can do this! Once we have those in hand I will feel better....we will go around and do Disney Jr, RNRC, TOT, Star Tours and whatever we want. We do have our 1st ADR for lunch though this day....I wasn't too estatic about doing it here but it is for the kids so here we come Hollywood Vine!

After lunch we will continue with all of the other stuff we want to do in DHS, probably hit dinner up at the Pizza planet and then we will be off to Fantasmic for the night. I'm hoping they have a second one that day so we can plan on that one.

 

[Tangelders Ahoy]

Day 6 Monday 12/3

Here comes one of my favorite days of the whole trip!! It is our Magic Kingdom Day!! We will be waking up before the crows and heading over to Chef Mickeys for breakfast. I HATE breakfast but everyone else loves it so I thought well why not enjoy the morning with the Fab 5? The boys will love it and I just love all 5 of them to pieces!! So our day will start there...

Then over to the kingdom for all rides possible. I don't think there is much we don't like there. The best part though?? MK will be in soft opening for FLE so we will be over to Enchanted tales with Belle. That is for sure!! That new ride looks so amazing and magical. I'm so excited for it! Our ADR for the night for dinner is also in a new place for us. Not just new to us but for most of everyone....why??? BE OUR GUEST of course!! I can't even explain in words what this ADR means for me. I'm praying we eat in the West Wing. It looks AMAZING!! I hope the beast is there also!! I also have to get one of these for myself!! I want it so when we come home I can enjoy my "adult" drinks in them while I relax in our hot tub!!

We will be enjoying wishes of course and then my guess is the boys are going to be whipped so my mom has said she will take the kids back to sleep so DH and I can enjoy some magical MK time alone together....EMH tonight here so it will be a full day for us that is for sure!!!

Day 7 Tuesday 12/4

Today we will wake up, catch some breakfast from the food court at ASMovies and head over to my moms favorite place....

The must do rides for us are Dinosaur, Kilimanjaro, EE, FOTLK, IT2BAB and the train. Once those are completed we will probably head back to the resort and wait until our ADR for dinner time to come. We are heading to DTD for the night and our ADR is at non other than....

T-Rex!!! We have never eaten here and the boys love Dinosaurs so we will see how this goes! I think it is going to be a huge hit!! After dinner we will stroll around DTD, get some Ghiradellis for sure and shop. Shop shop is my motto for that night!! We are also planning on doing the characters in flight there....I don't know if DS is going to be down with riding it but we will see. He can get funny about some rides and I have a feeling this may be 1 of them.

Please let me know what you think of the plans so far. I just bought an organizer thing-a-ma-jiggy from Walmart that I actually saw from the DisBoards to help with space on the ship and resort. I did start packing and I have SSOOO much stuff it is getting me a little nervous. I have my new tinkerbell suitcase and DH has his new Harley Davidson suitcase but I just don't know if we are going to be able to get everything down with just us. Think I may have to use my mom to bring another bag for us!!! Do you think this is planning too much? What would you change??? The next cpl days (as you will see when I write them) are more down days but what do you think so far??? 22 days and counting!!! It's been a LLLOOONNNGGGG year and this is how I feel!!