Our family's 6th trip to WDW but so many firsts. UPDATE 7/2 MY HUBBY IS HOME!!!!!!!!

[gray2402]

Ok so after more obsessing about everything, and also changing our plans from going to Sea World to just going straight to Pop, I decided to change a few other things ...

We had July 5th booked as a room only night, with our DxDDP starting on July 6th... well I called and changed that! We now will arrive on July 5th still but be straight on the DxDDP!

That also means a new ADR! Where to? Well it is somewhere new to us for THIS meal, but not new to us in general ... and it is a restaurant in a monorail resort ... and there are characters ... any guesses?
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ok ok ... it is:

for dinner with Cinderella and Prince Charming!!!! I was able to get 4:55pm ADRs late last night!

A few reasons I did this ...
#1, I wanted to

#2, my DD is turning 7 this year and has not done this meal yet ... I am not sure how many more years I will have of her loving the princesses and fairytales and dressing up ... I hope a bunch more, but just in case ....

#3, my daughter gave up a big birthday party to be able to have our family trip to Disney, so I had promised her a new princess dress to make up for it ... so she now owns two princess dresses (the new Snow White which she will wear to CRT) and Aurora she has had for a couple years now ... so of course two princess dresses MUST mean two princess meals

So we will get to Pop, check in, probably head to DTD for some food (and a make your own snack at Goofy's) and then back to the resort to swim for a bit ... and then start getting ready for dinner with a prince and princess!!

 

[churchpilot]

Saw your report and jumped on board because you are from Augusta too! I think your plan to check into Pop is smart. Your stuff won't be burning and melting in Minnie the Van now and you will feel more settled. Pop is our favorite value and is so easy to check into. They will let you borrow a luggage carrier (you have to leave your license) and it will be a quick trip to unload and then it is a straight shot up the road to Downtown Disney. Pop's buses are the best, eventhough the pick up at the parks is usually the longest walk! You don't share buses with any other resort and they are frequent. Love your shirts and hope you have a magical wonderful time. My husband served in the Air Force and I know what a sacrifice it is to be a military wife. Thank you to you and your husband for your service.

 

[gray2402]

Saw your report and jumped on board because you are from Augusta too! I think your plan to check into Pop is smart. Your stuff won't be burning and melting in Minnie the Van now and you will feel more settled. Pop is our favorite value and is so easy to check into. They will let you borrow a luggage carrier (you have to leave your license) and it will be a quick trip to unload and then it is a straight shot up the road to Downtown Disney. Pop's buses are the best, eventhough the pick up at the parks is usually the longest walk! You don't share buses with any other resort and they are frequent. Love your shirts and hope you have a magical wonderful time. My husband served in the Air Force and I know what a sacrifice it is to be a military wife. Thank you to you and your husband for your service.

Hey thanks for reading My first 'local' reader haha! I love that you called our van by name (do other people name their cars?? haha we always have!)

Good to hear so many great things about Pop! I am so excited! Today we hit 60 sleeps until we leave! My kids are really excited for Disney and for their dad to come home...

I'm not sure what I will do when all my planning is done ... it is keeping me busy! I guess just keep reading the disboards and dreaming! Time has been moving pretty fast for us so far this deployment ... with summer vacation coming, I am not sure if it will be good or bad to make time go by faster... we will see!

Anyway thanks for reading

 

[tinkerbell60]

We did Park Fare for breakfast last summer and loved it! Especially the Mad Hatter - he is great. We are also doing Hoop de Doo for the first time this year. I feel so lucky to have free dining to try new places.

 

[gray2402]

We did Park Fare for breakfast last summer and loved it! Especially the Mad Hatter - he is great. We are also doing Hoop de Doo for the first time this year. I feel so lucky to have free dining to try new places.

Yes the Mad Hatter was awesome! Loved him!

Did you try the strawberry soup and lobsters eggs benedict? Mmm those were awesome!!!

 

[tinkerbell60]

Yes the Mad Hatter was awesome! Loved him!

Did you try the strawberry soup and lobsters eggs benedict? Mmm those were awesome!!!

I loved the strawberry soup! I had an omelette and missed the lobster eggs benedict.....

 

[gray2402]

Just had to come WOO HOO
that we are under 60 sleeps now wooooohooooooo!!!!!!! ​

 

[gray2402]

I loved the strawberry soup! I had an omelette and missed the lobster eggs benedict.....

I had read about it here on the dis, so I went looking for it .... three times hehe

My daughter loved the strawberry soup too! I wonder if she remembers it? I will have to ask her!

 

[tinkerbell60]

Just had to come WOO HOO
that we are under 60 sleeps now wooooohooooooo!!!!!!! ​

It is always great to break into a new set of numbers! I am in the 60s and it seems like yesterday I just broke 100. Time is dwindling!!!

I had read about it here on the dis, so I went looking for it .... three times hehe

My daughter loved the strawberry soup too! I wonder if she remembers it? I will have to ask her!

I loved the food there. We are doing Chef Mickey's this year at my son's request. I did not like the food there as well, I prefer Park Fare or Crystal Palace, but I have promised we would go back. The breakfast at Cape May Cafe is another good one. Someday I hope to try Tusker House, I have heard good things about that one too.

 

[gray2402]

It is always great to break into a new set of numbers! I am in the 60s and it seems like yesterday I just broke 100. Time is dwindling!!!




I loved the food there. We are doing Chef Mickey's this year at my son's request. I did not like the food there as well, I prefer Park Fare or Crystal Palace, but I have promised we would go back. The breakfast at Cape May Cafe is another good one. Someday I hope to try Tusker House, I have heard good things about that one too.

We did have ADRs at Chef Mickeys and then I decided to go to Crystal Palace instead ... someday we will have to try Chef Mickeys though There are several places I will want to try next trip! Mostly Epcot places as we have not gone there in a long time... next trip we will def. be going to Epcot

 

[gray2402]

Where oh where would we have to do a mad dash?! Why HERE of course!!

Same deal as the other park days ... up early, get ready, get some beverages from the food court and be at the busses by 7:10am ... EMH at DHS!!!

Today we will have cereal in our room before heading out ... but my plan is to hit up Starring Rolls for some yummy pastries (err, cupcakes!!) to tide us over also ... we will share I am sure as they look HUGE!

Once in the park we will head of course to TSM ... I am debating whether to FP it then ride it or just FP is or ride it and then FP it ...

We will of course ride RnRC and ToT ... though both kids are tall enough for ToT, neither want to ride it ... I am bummed! I was hoping to go on as a family! Sammie rode it last year though and did not like it ... and Alex saw the YouTube video of it and he was like NO WAY! So I guess we won't be torturing the children this trip...

We will have to do Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, as well as check out the new Disney Jr show ...

I'd like to do Lights, Motors, Action this time as we missed it last year (though we have seen it a few times before).

Great Movie Ride is a must! My daughter loves it!

Hope to make it to Muppets 3d ... never done it with the kids!

Our ADRs are as follows:

H&V lunch at 12:05pm ... looking forward to this for my son He still loves Handy Manny and Little Einsteins! Plus both kids like Agent Oso!

Dinner will be at 7:00pm at a favorite from the past ... 50's Primetime Diner! I can't wait! I made the ressie for right as the park closes so we can maximize the rest of the day for shows and rides!

If we get hungry between lunch and dinner, we will use some snack credits

Up next ... last day in the parks

 

[tinkerbell60]

We did have ADRs at Chef Mickeys and then I decided to go to Crystal Palace instead ... someday we will have to try Chef Mickeys though There are several places I will want to try next trip! Mostly Epcot places as we have not gone there in a long time... next trip we will def. be going to Epcot

Chef Mickeys has not been getting great reviews lately. I LOVE Crystal Palace - and the Pooh characters are wonderful.

It takes a long time to hit all the restaurants. We are finally doing Norway this trip, and Via Napoli. I think that just leaves us the 2 restaurants in Mexico and we will be done with Epcot. We are working on the resort restaurants now. I have also never been to Tusker House.

 

[gray2402]

Chef Mickeys has not been getting great reviews lately. I LOVE Crystal Palace - and the Pooh characters are wonderful.

Yep the reviews I read are a big reason I cancelled it ... plus with my kids so little, I decided going in the park would be easier We have been to CP for dinner but not breakfast ... I am excited!

It takes a long time to hit all the restaurants. We are finally doing Norway this trip, and Via Napoli. I think that just leaves us the 2 restaurants in Mexico and we will be done with Epcot. We are working on the resort restaurants now. I have also never been to Tusker House.

That is the best part! So much choice It'd be boring with so few restaurants LOL

 

[gray2402]

So sad today will be the last park day Always so bittersweet! We will be heading back to ...

No real plans this day aside from ADRs ... we will use today to get to anything we were not able to on our other day, and also just do repeats of the kiddo's favorites!

ADRs are:

8:10am breakfast at Crystal Palace! Our first time for breakfast... so excited!

5:00pm dinner at O'hana!!! So excited as this is our first time I am a bit anxious at leaving the park for an ADR but hopefully it will go smoothly...

This is our last day here and I am sure we will all have had an AWESOME time and made tons of magical memories

(up next ... our travel day, but will we do more?)

 

[tinkerbell60]

So sad today will be the last park day Always so bittersweet! We will be heading back to ...

No real plans this day aside from ADRs ... we will use today to get to anything we were not able to on our other day, and also just do repeats of the kiddo's favorites!

ADRs are:

8:10am breakfast at Crystal Palace! Our first time for breakfast... so excited!

5:00pm dinner at O'hana!!! So excited as this is our first time I am a bit anxious at leaving the park for an ADR but hopefully it will go smoothly...

This is our last day here and I am sure we will all have had an AWESOME time and made tons of magical memories

(up next ... our travel day, but will we do more?)

First, your kids are adorable!!

Don't worry about leaving the park - it is easy to get over to the Poly. You can either take the resort monorail (although it will stop at both the CR and TTC before the Poly) OR take the boat that is near the ramp to the monorail. It will stop at the GF first, then the Poly. Just allow extra time. You can always walk around the resort if you get there early, or go ahead and check in, sometimes they can take you early too.

 

[gray2402]

So back in 2010 I decided to make autograph books for the kiddos ... I bought little books from Hobby Lobby and some scrapbooking stuff and stickers... they were a BIG hit with the characters and opened up a lot of interactions! So I decided to make some again this trip (my kids both enjoy it still and they look through their books!) I decided to digi scrap them this time and I am SO happy with the final results!!! It did not take me long at all (then again, I am used to digi scrapping anyway)... Here are all the pages and some (really bad ipod touch) shots of the final books! They are 7x7 sized ... I ordered them from blurb.com ... SUPER easy! GREAT quality! They are hard covered books. I will carry them around in a ziplock bag and we have colored sharpie clicky markers for the characters to sign with... I am SOOOO excited!!!!

front covers:

All the pages (some characters have more than one because we will see them more than once!)

(continued next post)

 

[gray2402]

Back cover of each book ... photo from last trip in 2010!

Sorry for the crappy quality ... took these on my ipod ...

Front/back cover

Spine

 

[gray2402]

So we are under 50 sleeps now
WOOT WOOT!!!!​

I also pre-ordered the photopass today ... never done that before. Hoping we can make great use of it!!

And I have been online shopping (I really need to stop!) I got some of the bodyglide stuff and also a new bag ... got the baggalini bag in tomato color.

It's smaller than I thought but my camera (SLR) will fit so that works Plus my hubby will carry a backpack too ... not too much to bring in the parks this time. Autograph books, extra clothes for DS (first time going since being PTed)... my camera, water bottles and various small stuff.

 

[disneywatcher]

So we are under 50 sleeps now
WOOT WOOT!!!!​

I also pre-ordered the photopass today ... never done that before. Hoping we can make great use of it!!

And I have been online shopping (I really need to stop!) I got some of the bodyglide stuff and also a new bag ... got the baggalini bag in tomato color.

It's smaller than I thought but my camera (SLR) will fit so that works Plus my hubby will carry a backpack too ... not too much to bring in the parks this time. Autograph books, extra clothes for DS (first time going since being PTed)... my camera, water bottles and various small stuff.

You just reminded me of something else I need to do before we leave I keep procrastinating on the photo pass! I also need to get some body glide too! LOVE LOVE LOVE your autograph books! You could probably sell those online too! I know I would buy one for every year we went!
Your Kiddo's are so cute too and your daughter's smile looks very catching!

 

[tinkerbell60]

So we are under 50 sleeps now
WOOT WOOT!!!!​

I also pre-ordered the photopass today ... never done that before. Hoping we can make great use of it!!

And I have been online shopping (I really need to stop!) I got some of the bodyglide stuff and also a new bag ... got the baggalini bag in tomato color.

It's smaller than I thought but my camera (SLR) will fit so that works Plus my hubby will carry a backpack too ... not too much to bring in the parks this time. Autograph books, extra clothes for DS (first time going since being PTed)... my camera, water bottles and various small stuff.

I LOVE the autograph books - they are great!!

I ordered a baggallini too - and almost got the tomato but ended up with a slate blue. Do you know which style yours is? Be careful if there are any magnetic closures, the one I had last year demagnatized our park tickets constantly. I will post a picture of mine when it gets here.

You reminded me of the Glide, I need to get more!