Pink Pajamas, Penguins on the Bottom PTR, August 2010 with pics!

[flamestarrdust]

This is my very first trip report/pre-trip report so please excuse any bumps in the road.

When: Aug 21-28, 2010 with Free Dining (Upgraded from QS to Regular)

Where: Pop Century Resort (never stayed here before but very excited )


Who:

The Whole Family:

Me (32) – Love Disney, Always have. Parents took me to WDW when I was a kid about 3 separate times and each time we stayed offsite. Love planning WDW trips. Planned both of the ones I went on in 2006 with my friend and had a ball both times. Can’t believe it’s been so long since I’ve been. Also, stayed onsite for the first time for my June/July 2006 trip.

Fiancé (32) – Not a big Disney fan and never been to WDW. However, is willing to go to enjoy a nice family vacation plus seems enthused whenever I mention Disney info.

Twins (Fraternal, Not Identical):

Then:

Now:

Daughter (12) AJ – Loves anything regarding The Little Mermaid. Was her dream as a child to grow up and be just like Ariel. Loves ballet, Harry Potter, and Twilight especially Robert Pattinson. Also never been to WDW before.

Then:

Now:

Daughter (12) Haylee – Likes Sleeping Beauty, Toy Story, Bambi, Snow White and most other Disney Movies especially “Nightmare Before Christmas”, Also a big fan of My Chemical Romance and their lead singer, Gerard Way. Also never been to WDW before.

Then:

Now:

Sorry for posting all the baby pics of my girls but they are my little miracles (will explain more about this later) and I love showing their progression.


Next up: an explanation about the origin of the PTR name and the reason this PTR took so long to start…

 

[flamestarrdust]

Ok, so a little back story on the title and why it took so long to get this PTR started. Being the Disney planner that I am, I wanted to start this PTR months ago. Not two and a half months before we leave. However, life got in the way. I planned to start around February or March. So, I guess I should give a bit of background info. In April 2009, my mom came to visit me and my girls for our bdays. This was a huge deal because me and my mom had a falling out a few years earlier and she hadn’t celebrated my bday with me or at all. This coming from a mom who called our home answering machine, even when I still lived at home, to sing Happy Birthday to me. She did however send cards and money for the girls on their bdays. So for her to visit us for both mine and my girls’ bdays was a huge thing for me and my kids. It was a happy occasion. We had dinner and visited the local mall to see AJ’s art on display. She only was able to visit for the weekend due to her work schedule. But it was one of the best of my life. Then a few months pass and I don’t hear from her. I begin to believe she is angry at me once again. However, a few days before Christmas, I receive a phone call that I never wanted to receive. It was my mom explaining the reason she hadn’t been in touch sooner. A few days before her visit in April, she had fallen and hurt her leg. After a few weeks it wasn’t healing, so she went to the doctor. She was diagnosed with bone cancer. It turns out the cancer had caused her fall due to the bones in her legs being so weak. A few weeks later, she was also diagnosed with breast cancer. Later that summer, she had fallen and spent 9 days in the hospital with a very short life expectancy. My stepfather and I do not speak at all so I was not contacted during that time. However, by the time she was calling me, her life expectancy was a few years. We became close over the next few months and I got to tell her how much she means to me and how much I love her. Her hopes for the future remained high but sadly, on March 14th, her battle ended and she went home to be with God. I was devastated but remember that life must go on. I have two beautiful daughters and a wonderful fiancé who I love very much and who love me very much. I thought of cancelling our WDW trip but realized after what we’ve been through, we needed the trip. Plus my mom is the one who introduced me to WDW in the first place and made me love it there. Our favorite ride/show is Carousel of Progress. She also loved It’s a Small World ride and took many, many, many pictures on our first ride. So it made sense to dedicate this PTR and trip to her.

Now a little background on the title: One of our favorite movies growing up (my mom’s, mine and my little brother’s) was “The Lion King”. So one time when I went to visit my family after moving out, we all sat down to watch “The Lion King”. So in the very beginning when the music is playing and there is chanting, my mom and brother start singing something along with the chanting. I asked them if they knew the words and they said no, but they had their own “Pink Pajamas, Penguins on the Bottom” and sure enough it fit with the chanting, so every time I see that movie I sing those words and even passed it along to my girls. It seemed the perfect title for a PTR dedicated to my mom and all the wonderful memories (WDW and non-WDW) that I had with her and have of her. I can’t wait to share WDW with my girls for the first time to them and my fiancé (also their dad) like my mom shared with me. I love you always and forever, Mom!

Mom:

Mom and Me:

Mom, me, my cousins and Santa:

Up Next: My miracle babies (My girls) and why they are such miracles…

I edited the above post because I found out the lyrics may not have been my brother and mom's originals but it is still a silly and fun memory with my mom and brother so I am leaving the name of the PTR the same. I apologize again for the confusion.

 

[flamestarrdust]

Now for my miracle babies: You may notice in some of the "then" pics that the girls are rather small. That is because they are premature. They were born at 28 1/2 weeks. Tried to come sooner, but I had a really great doctor who knew exactly what to do and tried her best to make sure my girls made it. 2 months after they were born, they came home small but healthy. We feel very blessed and that's why they are our little miracle babies. Of course, not so little anymore...lol.

Next up: ADRs...

 

[flamestarrdust]

My ADRs


Saturday, August 21st – Cape May Café (8:30pm)

Sunday, August 22nd – Chef Mickey’s (10:35am)

Monday, August 23rd – Boma (8:20pm)

Tuesday, August 24th – Le Cellier (1:20pm)

Wednesday, August 25th – 50s Primetime Café (8:55pm)

Thursday, August 26th – Kona Café (8:45pm)

Friday, August 27th - Crystal Palace (12:40pm)

Saturday, August 28th - Kona Café (10:00am)



Up Next: Which restaurants on my ADRs I've tried before and the ones I haven't...

 

[flamestarrdust]

So I've tried all the restaurants I have ADRs for except for Boma and Cape May Cafe. I am very excited about trying both. Plus I am a really big fan of eating at restaurants in resorts that I've never been to or seen before. Animal Kingdom Lodge and Beach Club are ones that really interest me. When I was a little girl, the Contemporary was my dream resort but that mostly had to do with the fact that the monorail goes through it and that is just so cool. However, during my last trip, I went to the Luau at Poly and then Poly became my new dream resort. Then of course my dream resort for the whole family is definitely AKL because my kids love animals so much and I think it would be so cool to stay in a hotel so close to them. However, budgetwise none of my dream hotels worked out. So we are staying at POP which is in our price range and still just as exciting or seems so.

(Hopefully, I'm not boring anyone with this PTR. Doesn't seem like I have any subscribers so far)

Next up: Some of our purchases for the trip...

 

[annmarieda]

I am subin! I can't wait to read more!

I am so sorry for your loss. It is never easy to lose a parent.

 

[flamestarrdust]

I am subin! I can't wait to read more!

I am so sorry for your loss. It is never easy to lose a parent.

Thanks for reading along and thanks for your caring comment about my mom. It's been hard but I know she's better off now. I will definitely be posting a new update soon.

 

[flamestarrdust]

I guess I'll start off by showing you my first major purchase for the trip. Back in February when we got our taxes back, my fiance and I decided I needed a new camera for the trip. I wanted one of the cute ones in a pretty color and he wanted me to get something nicer that would take better pics. He also reminded me of the camera I had last time I was at WDW and what happened to it. Before my previous WDW trip, my bestfriend who was going with me, decided I needed a camera since I didn't have a digital one. I was one of those people who waited til the very last minute to get one. I grew up on film cameras and letting go & moving on to one that didn't require film took some time for me to adjust to. So when I did purchase my first digital camera, it was the most basic digital camera that Kodak had. I was pleased with it since it was my first digital camera. However, at some point during my trip, it got slightly damaged. Not enough to ruin it. The knob switch would always jam making it difficult to turn on and off which also occasionally caused a drainage in power. So I would go to use it and nope, dead battery. Needless to say, I had that one 4 years and decided a new one would be better for this trip. I did a lot of research per my fiance's convincing to not just base my decision on pretty colors.

This is what I got:

http://www.amazon.com/Sony-Cyber-sh...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275742422&sr=8-3
(I would post a pic but I can't seem to get it to save one Probably a copyright issue)

So here are some pics of Disney with my old camera (There are also some more pics in my July 4th, 2006 Cali Grill report link at the bottom of my signature. You can definitely see how basic the camera is in some of the fireworks shots.):

Some of these below are very foggy and I have no idea why. Must be the camera.

These two are from when the POTC ride reopened and they were giving a preview for the new ride. I decided it would be proper to dress up for the event. It also helped that lots of stores had pirate themed clothing that year.

Now for the new camera's pics. I'm only posting one since it is just so amazing to me. As for another example, AJ's silly face pic above was taken with my new camera. So the pic below was taken from the upstairs window at around 2am right after it had snowed. It almost looks daylight in the pic:

So as you can tell I am very happy that my fiance convinced me not to go for the pretty colors and actually do some research on getting a good camera. I am betting that I will definitely get some better pics this time around at WDW. And a bonus is that it actually fits into the cute camera bag I bought at WDW in 2006. It's black with a white Mickey outline in the bottom corner. Later when I post pics of my baggalini and other random stuff, I'll post a pic of the camera bag, too.

 

[annmarieda]

Congrats on the new camera! That looks like it will be a great camera for the trip. I can't wait to see the other stuff you get.

 

[HeatherBelle614]

Hi! I'm all caught up!

We stayed at POP last December and LOVED it!!! I think you will have a fantastic time there. Try to eat dinner in the food court if you have any dinner openings; we loved the dinner there! They have a great chicken parm and they do TV dinners where the food comes in an old, TV dinner style tray. We went the night they had fried chicken and it was FANTASTIC! DH also swears by the tye-dye cheesecake. He got that as often as possible!

I can't wait to hear how you like Boma! We'll be staying there for the first time in October and have a breakfast ADR there.

Cape May is gorgeous! We've only been there for breakfast, but the resort is fantastic and the restaurant is a blast with great food!

I'm sorry to hear about your mom. That's my worst nightmare. My mom has had breast cancer twice and skin cancer once, so I can completely understand how you felt finding out the news about your mom. Big, big hugs to you. I'm glad you mended things with her, though. DH has issues with his mom, and I try to tell him all the time that he needs to get over it so he won't regret anything later on.

I think you made the right choice by keeping your trip. Your momma will be smiling down at your and your miracle babies! I'm sure she'll send some extra pixie dust for a wonderful trip!!

 

[vikkil70]

Hi! Subbin also, great PTR so far. We are staying at Pop the week before you from the 15-22. Our first time at Pop also as well as my boys 1st trip to WDW can't wait.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Hi! Joining in! We will be staying at POP for almost the sames dates as you! We'll be there from the 20th to 29th though! Great start to your PTR.

So sorry to hear about you mom - I can't imagine how difficult that must have been and still be for you. Your girls are precious! I too had a preemie, althought not nearly as early as your little ones were. Glad they have grown up healthy and strong!

Contrats on the new camera! They can be a bit costly but a good camera is SO worth it in my opinion! I always carry my "good" camera and a backup camera just incase something goes wrong - like a dead battery. Looking forward to reading more of your plans!

 

[annmarieda]

I just realized that you will at Pop, just days before I am. I guess I am a bit oblivious at times...

Do you plan to make a room request? I look forward to hearing how your stay goes!

 

[flamestarrdust]

I just realized that you will at Pop, just days before I am. I guess I am a bit oblivious at times...

Do you plan to make a room request? I look forward to hearing how your stay goes!

I haven't made a room request yet. That's funny that you asked that though, cause tonight at work I was thinking about posting that as my next update. I'm kinda leaning towards the 90s section but only because I saw a pic of one of the rooms and on the wall, it had a picture of different things from that decade including "The Little Mermaid" in one corner. Since AJ is such a big fan, I thought that would be pretty cool if that was in the room. But with the refurb that picture may not be in there anymore. The only other request is that I wanted a lakeview room since my fiance is a smoker and most of DSAs at POP seem to be on the lakeview side. Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions for room requests other than the preferred rooms? I also figure that by the time we go, most of the rooms will be refurbed so I probably won't have to make a request for that either.

 

[flamestarrdust]

Hi! I'm all caught up!

We stayed at POP last December and LOVED it!!! I think you will have a fantastic time there. Try to eat dinner in the food court if you have any dinner openings; we loved the dinner there! They have a great chicken parm and they do TV dinners where the food comes in an old, TV dinner style tray. We went the night they had fried chicken and it was FANTASTIC! DH also swears by the tye-dye cheesecake. He got that as often as possible!

I can't wait to hear how you like Boma! We'll be staying there for the first time in October and have a breakfast ADR there.

Cape May is gorgeous! We've only been there for breakfast, but the resort is fantastic and the restaurant is a blast with great food!

I'm sorry to hear about your mom. That's my worst nightmare. My mom has had breast cancer twice and skin cancer once, so I can completely understand how you felt finding out the news about your mom. Big, big hugs to you. I'm glad you mended things with her, though. DH has issues with his mom, and I try to tell him all the time that he needs to get over it so he won't regret anything later on.

I think you made the right choice by keeping your trip. Your momma will be smiling down at your and your miracle babies! I'm sure she'll send some extra pixie dust for a wonderful trip!!

Thanks for joining in! I am excited and nervous about Boma but I think it will be a good experience. As for Cape May, I am still weighing that one back and forth in my head. I'll explain it more in a later update. I will definitely try those tv dinners. They sound yummy and I have been planning on trying that cheesecake. It looks so interesting and yummy plus my fiance is a huge fan of cheesecake so it is a must. I am sorry about your mom being sick. I will keep her in my prayers. I hope your hubby is able to reconcile with his mom. I am so blessed and grateful that I was able to with my mom. It has helped a lot to know that we were in a good place when she passed. It's like no matter what anyone tries to say, she and I both know how things were with us and that's all that matters.

Hi! Subbin also, great PTR so far. We are staying at Pop the week before you from the 15-22. Our first time at Pop also as well as my boys 1st trip to WDW can't wait.

Looking forward to reading more!

Thanks for reading along! POP seems like it will be a lot of fun. How old are your boys? I bet they are just as excited as the girls. They ask me every other day, how many days til we leave for Disney? lol

Hi! Joining in! We will be staying at POP for almost the sames dates as you! We'll be there from the 20th to 29th though! Great start to your PTR.

So sorry to hear about you mom - I can't imagine how difficult that must have been and still be for you. Your girls are precious! I too had a preemie, althought not nearly as early as your little ones were. Glad they have grown up healthy and strong!

Contrats on the new camera! They can be a bit costly but a good camera is SO worth it in my opinion! I always carry my "good" camera and a backup camera just incase something goes wrong - like a dead battery. Looking forward to reading more of your plans!

Thanks for subbing! That's cool that you will be there the same time as us. Thanks for your caring comments about my mom. It has been hard but it is getting bet. Plus starting the PTR has helped to keep my mind off of it and cheer me up a bit. Thanks for the comments about the girls. It is amazing to see how big they are now compared to how small they were. I forgot to post their birth weights when I did they update about them. Haylee was 2 lbs exactly and AJ was 1 lb 14.2 oz. It's one of the reasons, I'd love showing their progression to others. We are so blessed to have them. How old is your preemie now? And how early? I always love hearing about other preemies and their stories. I have this idea that I would love to put together a book of preemie stories. I just think it would be so interesting and great to have a book like that especially for parents going through having a preemie or knowing they will be having one, something to give them hope. As for the camera, with the old one, I was in Epcot, half way through the day when my battery died. I had to look from one store to another in World Showcase trying to find batteries. The new camera has a rechargeable battery and my fiance suggested I get a 2nd one as a backup. I am thinking I will probably do that just in case.

 

[annmarieda]

I haven't made a room request yet. That's funny that you asked that though, cause tonight at work I was thinking about posting that as my next update. I'm kinda leaning towards the 90s section but only because I saw a pic of one of the rooms and on the wall, it had a picture of different things from that decade including "The Little Mermaid" in one corner. Since AJ is such a big fan, I thought that would be pretty cool if that was in the room. But with the refurb that picture may not be in there anymore. The only other request is that I wanted a lakeview room since my fiance is a smoker and most of DSAs at POP seem to be on the lakeview side. Other than that, does anyone have any suggestions for room requests other than the preferred rooms? I also figure that by the time we go, most of the rooms will be refurbed so I probably won't have to make a request for that either.

Did you book a preferred room? I did not. I worry though with my mom. I just don't want to be too far away from the main building and the buses. I am like you though, probably won't have to request for a refurbed room... seems like most are getting done pretty quickly. I think I will watch how it is going and closer to when we are checking in, I might request if it looks like that would be a good idea.

 

[vikkil70]

My boys are 4 and 5 and are very excited. The boys and I are starting to drive DH crazy with all the Disney talk. LOL. I made them countdown calenders so at night before bed they cross off another day. When they do that my oldest always has to tell me how many days left.

Your girls are beautiful! Truly little miracles!

Good luck with your new camera. We just got a new camera after Christmas and I think I'm finally getting used to it. Now I'm on the hunt for a little camcorder.

 

[flamestarrdust]

I apologize for not posting an update today. I had a very exhausting night at work last night and have been too exhausted to do much of anything. I work 3rd shift and always on the night before I am off, I end up working the hardest. I will definitely be posting an update tomorrow. I hope everyone is having a good week.

Quick question for the experienced Disers, I remember reading about a car service that included a grocery stop in its transportation to WDW. Does anyone know which one that is? We are coming in via amtrak so no ME for us. I am thinking about ordering our small amount of groceries from Garden Grocer but since we have to use a car service anyway, it might be nice to stop at an actual grocery store instead of ordering. Thanks in advance for the info.

 

[annmarieda]

I understand being exhausted from work. Get some rest so you can plan some more and then tell us all about it.

I did have to laugh though...I was looking at my ticker, yours and vikkil70.

2 months 1wk, then 2 months 2w then finally 2 months 3wks... and all at Pop. What sections are we all hoping to stay in?

 

[flamestarrdust]

So for the new update, I thought I'd elaborate about why I picked Cape May Cafe for our first night dinner. It wasn't my first choice and is actually a replacement for my first choice. On my past two visits to WDW, my first night dinner was at Fulton's Crab House. It kind of became a tradition to eat there and spend the first day/night hanging out at DTD. I love the crab, the watermelon martinis and the oysters that come with jalapeno ice slush. I have never had a bad dining experience there. It is one of my favorite restaurants. However, in the past, I wasn't footing the bill for most things that we did on those trips and the kids didn't join us. My friend, who I went with, paid for most of the trip. So now that I am paying for this trip and the kids are coming, Fulton's is a bit out of our price range. So I found Cape May Cafe's Clambake dinner buffet that now includes crab legs hoping it would be a nice alternative. Plus, Cape May is a part of the DDP, where Fulton's is not. I really wish it would be, even as a signature restaurant where you have to use 2 TS credits and not just one. Though, I am thinking since we will be at DTD for the first part of that arrival day (planning to eat lunch at Earl of Sandwich or WPE), I may go over to Fulton's and get dessert or appetizers and drinks. It just feels wrong to not go to Fulton's at all while we're there. Especially since it's been 4 yrs since I last went. The one upside to going to Cape May for dinner is I haven't even been to the BW area. I had planned on going there during my last trip. I even made a reservation at Big River Grille and Brewing Works for lunch on our arrival day. However, both our planes got delayed so instead we just split a sandwich from E of S. It worked out better since we were having a big dinner at Fulton's. So I have a question for anyone who might have tried both. If you have tried both Fulton's and Cape May Cafe Dinner, what is your opinion on both? I am really hoping to love Cape May but still feel a little unsure.

Next: A few more purchase pics...