Our First Disney Vacation! A journal on the journey to September 7, 2011!

Thanks!!!:thumbsup2 Course...I did figure sometime in June. Seeing an actual date....not sure if it makes it easier or harder. I have to wait till 06/18/2011 and that is for my earliest possible ADR.

Your time will fly by! :goodvibes
 
I popped into chat the other night to say hi but you were away and I jumped off after 1 minute. Wanted to say I forwarded your etsy link to a friend, so maybe you will get a client! :)
Hope we can catch up soon. Take care!

Looking forward to more of this report too! I've been a flake on the boards lately and not being religious following.
 

I popped into chat the other night to say hi but you were away and I jumped off after 1 minute. Wanted to say I forwarded your etsy link to a friend, so maybe you will get a client! :)
Hope we can catch up soon. Take care!

Looking forward to more of this report too! I've been a flake on the boards lately and not being religious following.

Hey there! Thank you so much for the referral! :goodvibes That was so sweet of you. I had posted my itinerary here, but of course I'm changing it all up now. :scared1: I will be posting it within a few days though. :yay:
 

I have updated our itinerary! I changed all of our days around again.... :rotfl: Hopefully these days are final. :goodvibes I've checked touringplans.com and also tourguidemike.com and these are the best parks on these days. Even though we're going in a down time, I want to deal with the least crowds as possible. :laughing: Now, I get to figure out about what times we want to make our ADR's though.

Itinerary

Day 1 - Arrival Day
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom
Day 5 - Epcot (Right Side)
Day 6 - Epcot (Left Side)
Day 7 - Hollywood Studios & The Boardwalk
Day 8 - Switching to AKL -Favorite Park Day
Day 9 - Rest Day & Downtown Disney
Day 10 - Departure Day

What do you all think of my choices?!
 
Today is our last day in the 200's!!! :cool1:

:dance3: 200 days until Walt Disney World!!!!!! :yay: :cheer2:
 
Today is our last day in the 200's!!! :cool1:

:dance3: 200 days until Walt Disney World!!!!!! :yay: :cheer2:

Your itinerary looks great! :thumbsup2
AKL is such a fun hotel, great move to switch. I think I am literally jealous you are going. LITERALLY!! lol

200 days until Walt Disney World????!!!! You lucky girl!! :banana:
 
Your itinerary looks great! :thumbsup2
AKL is such a fun hotel, great move to switch. I think I am literally jealous you are going. LITERALLY!! lol

200 days until Walt Disney World????!!!! You lucky girl!! :banana:

Well, I'm not going to hide my excitement at all.... :lmao: .... even though I've heard quite a few people that are jealous that its our first trip. :cloud9: Where as I'm jealous that these people have been to WDW so many times! :rolleyes: It is SO fun to plan, but it has also been stressful. :scared1: Now the next step is to get some touring plans for our days so I can figure out when to make our ADR's. popcorn::
 
:yay:Your Pre-Trip Report is so sweet...You are so smart to pre plan your
adventure..Not to say that you will stick to it "Exactly"!!!! But going in with a plan in mind is half the battle!! There is nothing worse than someone going to WDW with NO knowledge of what goes on there because it is so very extreme! Knowing what lies around each corner,,is very helpful,,,especially when travelling with children.
I took my boys there when each turned 18 months old,,,and continued to do so for 15 summers after that! I still go with friends each year,,,with this March being my 30th trip!! It never gets old,,it never gets boring and the dis boards still help after all these years. I have stayed at Every resort EXCEPT AKL!!!!
You made a Beautiful Countdown board....I have done many different ones over the years...usually taking up the door to the garage!!:laughing:
Just a tip,,I kinda hope you decided against the Chef de France....With the kids I did find it stuffy...A better choice...Biergarten....The entertainment is what the kids all love ....A german band,,,and they get to dance on the dance floor. The menu sounds very Ethnic,,,but it's just Good food!!! Delicious Chicken,Bratwurst, Veggies, pretzel bread and apple strudel....If you are on the food plan,,it's a good choice...but pricey if you are not...
I read a post that suggested Columbia Harbor House,,,YES it really is one of the best counter services...I also Think that if you have the time,,take a bus over to the Wilderness Lodge (from any park) and Eat at the Whispering Canyon Cafe....The kids also love it here because they get to play games with the staff...and the servers will "harass" them if they ask for more water or more ketchup....fun for them!!!
So much of the fun is in the planning,,You are doing an amazing job of pulling this all together....someday you will look back,,,like I have today,,and remember the First trip with love. Have a wonderful time...I will update you when I get back March 18th ....:love:
 
checking in on you!! 1 week and 3 days till you start those ADRs! :goodvibes

I know what you mean about the jealousy factor. It seems like everyone that on these boards are die-hard disneyophiles that go either every year or multiple times a year. Which is great because they are useful researching tools! :rotfl:


OT
Last night we were researching hotels again.. and so far the contestants are the AKL! (w00t!), Coronado Springs and a hotel off property, the Buena Vista Palace or something. The cruise is still being discussed, which makes me nervous with the girls. :scared1: I did mention to my DH that you are doing split in hotels and he thought that was a great idea. :)



Missed you in chat last night! Well I was on there for a short time, but our 'friend' was on there. Hope to catch you soon!
 
How the heck did I miss your pre-trip report?????

Great start so far! I'm sad that we will be missing you at AKL. We should be arriving around 6pm on 9/16. I'm sure you'll be gone by then.

Can't wait to read more!
 
Hi there! Just found your TR... Looks like we are missing you by a day we leave to come home on sept 6th!

You are going to absolutely LOVE :love: AKL!! We were lucky enough to stay there for 10 days in December thanks to a 40% off pin!!! We had a savannah view room on the 4th floor of Kudo trail and it was amazing, not just the view but the location was so vonvenient to everything.

I wish we were staying there again in Sept but we have a few family members coming with us this trip and they wanted to go on a budget so we are staying at Pop!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Only 2 more days till I can make my ADR's. SO excited! :woohoo:
 
Caught up again!
I just LOVE that you already started to change things around! It's half the fun!

Congrats on getting to do your ADRs soon - my ADR day for September is on Saturday and I still have NO idea where we will be and where we will want to eat! :rotfl2:
 
checking in on you!! 1 week and 3 days till you start those ADRs! :goodvibes

I know what you mean about the jealousy factor. It seems like everyone that on these boards are die-hard disneyophiles that go either every year or multiple times a year. Which is great because they are useful researching tools! :rotfl:


OT
Last night we were researching hotels again.. and so far the contestants are the AKL! (w00t!), Coronado Springs and a hotel off property, the Buena Vista Palace or something. The cruise is still being discussed, which makes me nervous with the girls. :scared1: I did mention to my DH that you are doing split in hotels and he thought that was a great idea. :)



Missed you in chat last night! Well I was on there for a short time, but our 'friend' was on there. Hope to catch you soon!

Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm bummed I missed you in the chat last night. I am really getting close to my ADR day. I had someone helping me with my itinerary and now I think I'm getting a better set plan! It's funny that AKL and Coronado Springs are the 2 Disney resorts that you are deciding between. Our next trip, CSR is definitely our #1 choice if we stay in a mod. I tried switching from Pop to CSR before I booked AKL and couldn't unless I wanted to lose my free dining, which I didn't.

How old are your girls? I can't remember, sorry. A cruise sounds awesome with older kids.

I hope to see you in chat some time soon! When will you be in there again?


How the heck did I miss your pre-trip report?????

Great start so far! I'm sad that we will be missing you at AKL. We should be arriving around 6pm on 9/16. I'm sure you'll be gone by then.

Can't wait to read more!

Hey! I'm glad you found me! Thank you for stopping by! Maybe you should just add a day to the beginning of your trip and we could have dinner together on the 15th or breakfast on the 16th! :lmao: Yes, we will definitely be gone by 6pm on the 16th. :sad2:



Hi there! Just found your TR... Looks like we are missing you by a day we leave to come home on sept 6th!

You are going to absolutely LOVE :love: AKL!! We were lucky enough to stay there for 10 days in December thanks to a 40% off pin!!! We had a savannah view room on the 4th floor of Kudo trail and it was amazing, not just the view but the location was so vonvenient to everything.

I wish we were staying there again in Sept but we have a few family members coming with us this trip and they wanted to go on a budget so we are staying at Pop!

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Only 2 more days till I can make my ADR's. SO excited! :woohoo:

:welcome: Welcome to my pre-trip report! Thank you for stopping by! That is the same reason we get to stay at AKL for those 2 nights is because of a 40% off PIN. I seriously cannot explain how excited I was when I talked my husband into adding 2 nights to our trip and that we were actually going to get to stay at AKL!!!!!!! I had been dreaming about staying at AKL since I even started looking at Disney. I just figured that it was way too expensive for us and couldn't justify the cost for our family. The 40% off and only staying 2 nights really helped. :cloud9: We are staying at Pop because we just couldn't beat the price. :yay:

I've been reading your PTR, too! Only 2 more days for you!!! :dance3: :woohoo: :cool1:



Caught up again!
I just LOVE that you already started to change things around! It's half the fun!

Congrats on getting to do your ADRs soon - my ADR day for September is on Saturday and I still have NO idea where we will be and where we will want to eat! :rotfl2:

Why hello there! Oh yes, I have changed my entire itinerary all around no less than 6 times. :rolleyes: I would get it all set and realize that I had not thought of X, Y, or Z and then change it all up just to realize I didn't think of something else. I'm very thankful for the DIS because I wouldn't have knows about X, Y, and Z. Not that I would have had a bad trip otherwise, but I'm just thankful that I know about so many things.

You still don't know where you'll be eating?! Crazy! You could just eat at WPE the whole time! :lmao: Question for you, have you eaten at Raglan Road? I just recently discovered this gem and changed our plans for DTD to include this place for dinner. I'm SO excited! :woohoo: If you have eaten there, what are your thoughts?
 
Why hello there! Oh yes, I have changed my entire itinerary all around no less than 6 times. :rolleyes: I would get it all set and realize that I had not thought of X, Y, or Z and then change it all up just to realize I didn't think of something else. I'm very thankful for the DIS because I wouldn't have knows about X, Y, and Z. Not that I would have had a bad trip otherwise, but I'm just thankful that I know about so many things.

You still don't know where you'll be eating?! Crazy! You could just eat at WPE the whole time! :lmao: Question for you, have you eaten at Raglan Road? I just recently discovered this gem and changed our plans for DTD to include this place for dinner. I'm SO excited! :woohoo: If you have eaten there, what are your thoughts?

Hm, eating at WPE is a really neat idea! We only ate there 4 times last week - that was NOT enough! :rotfl2:
No, we just returned home and I needed to get back into school mode and get some prep work done. I still have 3 more days to decide and we won't be on the DDP this time, so changing things around will be easy.

As for Raglan Road - yes, we did eat there, but only once and did not like it very much.
We were seated very close to the band and it was so loud we had to scream at each other. The Calamari for two was real greasy, our mains, the ham and shepards pie were pretty good but we were not impressed with desserts. Tom had the Dunbrody Kiss and the plate looked like it had been thrown around somewhere and I had the breadpudding which would have gone through as a desert! ....... and no that is not a spelling mistake - I mean desert! It was dry and cold, the sauces lukewarm - and guess what ........ we were "served" our cheque before the desserts were even served.
It might have been the odd day out, but we have never returned since, even though we thought about giving it a second chance.
But PLEASE, don't let our bad experience ruin your plans. There are a lot of good reviews about it ...... our experience was just not very good.

Oh, and if you want to read about our newest dining and WDW adventures ..... I have started my trip report! You can find a link to the trip report in my signature .... it's the Not Ready Yet??!! Trip Report
 
Hm, eating at WPE is a really neat idea! We only ate there 4 times last week - that was NOT enough! :rotfl2:
No, we just returned home and I needed to get back into school mode and get some prep work done. I still have 3 more days to decide and we won't be on the DDP this time, so changing things around will be easy.

As for Raglan Road - yes, we did eat there, but only once and did not like it very much.
We were seated very close to the band and it was so loud we had to scream at each other. The Calamari for two was real greasy, our mains, the ham and shepards pie were pretty good but we were not impressed with desserts. Tom had the Dunbrody Kiss and the plate looked like it had been thrown around somewhere and I had the breadpudding which would have gone through as a desert! ....... and no that is not a spelling mistake - I mean desert! It was dry and cold, the sauces lukewarm - and guess what ........ we were "served" our cheque before the desserts were even served.
It might have been the odd day out, but we have never returned since, even though we thought about giving it a second chance.
But PLEASE, don't let our bad experience ruin your plans. There are a lot of good reviews about it ...... our experience was just not very good.

Oh, and if you want to read about our newest dining and WDW adventures ..... I have started my trip report! You can find a link to the trip report in my signature .... it's the Not Ready Yet??!! Trip Report

Oh, don't worry about your review spoiling our plans. We still plan on going to Raglan Road. I just like to see how everyone's experiences have been. I'm sad that your bread pudding wasn't better. Everyone raves about it. I'm going to be getting that for my dessert. For my entree I already know what I want too, It's Not Bleedin' Chowder. :rotfl: It looks amazing and I'm a huge seafood fan. Maybe you'll once again give Raglan Road a try. :)
 














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