PTR; Joshua and Samantha's 1st Trip (Sep 17-26 '09) [Train Tour Pics!]

[longing2Batdisney]

I understand what you mean about the older movies...
they are hit or miss with Ashton, also... he liked Pinocchio ??, did not like Snow White (the little girl I watch was afraid of the evil Queen), liked Alice in Wonderland, and believe it or not he does not care for 101 Dalmations (but loves just about every dog movie he has ever seen, cartoon or real characters). we had tried all the older movies for nap time before he left for WDW this past May.

 

[crocko]

I understand what you mean about the older movies...
they are hit or miss with Ashton, also... he liked Pinocchio ??, did not like Snow White (the little girl I watch was afraid of the evil Queen), liked Alice in Wonderland, and believe it or not he does not care for 101 Dalmations (but loves just about every dog movie he has ever seen, cartoon or real characters). we had tried all the older movies for nap time before he left for WDW this past May.

very funny what kids will like/not like.

I know with Joshua, anything live-action will bore him pretty quickly (which is why we put in POTC last night at bedtime, during a Slumber Party night). He watched for a little, but zonked out pretty quickly.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

very funny what kids will like/not like.

I know with Joshua, anything live-action will bore him pretty quickly (which is why we put in POTC last night at bedtime, during a Slumber Party night). He watched for a little, but zonked out pretty quickly.

how funny...Ashton is into live action flicks at the moment
his three favorite: Babe
Nim's Island ??
Journey to the Center of the Earth ???
I can see Babe, but the other two--???
he does like POTC --when I let him watch; he also seems to like Harry Potter go figure

 

[crocko]

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom!!)

Hopefully, we will all get some good sleep that first night at Kidani Village. My wife, kids, and I will be in one room in a king bed. We tried this on our St. Louis trip and it worked out well. (If they're just going to wind up in our bed eventually, might as well have a king-size) On this first, full day we will start out with an 8:20 ADR at the Crystal Palace for a yummy and fun character breakfast to see Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.

I'm very excited about this. I've never had a reservation for a restaurant before park opening time. Ready for the opportunity to walk down Main Street with hardly anyone around as we take in the splendor of Cinderella's Castle. Not sure when they'll let us enter for an 8:20 ressie, but hopefully a few minutes early

This will be our first of 4 character breakfasts on the trip, so hoping that the kids really enjoy it (even if they don't eat much food.....I know I will!). Afterward, it will be time to head into the rest of the park. Park should be opened to all by the time we get out and our goal is to hit Peter Pan's Flight. Bridgette and I love this ride and want it to be Joshua and Samantha's first Disney ride.

Next...my thinking is that I'll rush over to Pooh's ride and grab FP's and we'll all get in line at Dumbo (unless it is already super-crazy at that point). If it is not too long, then with Pooh FP's in hand, we'll be in good shape to get 3 very popular Fantasyland rides knocked out with relative ease. Staying in Fantasyland, we'll then hit IASW and Philharmagic (hope the kids keep their glasses on and enjoy this -- I love this show!). That will still leave the Tea Cups, the Carousel and Snow White's ride. Hopefully by this time, we'll have a feel on whether the kids can handle Snow White or not.
Depending on how the day goes, we may hit Pooh's Playful Spot at some point, too (and depending on temperatures).

With Fantasyland in the bag, I expect will head eastward. North or south, though? Just depends. If Toontown isn't crazy, I'm sure the kids would love to ride the Barnstormer and see some friends (whether they be fairies, princesses, or mice). If too crazy, then we can head south to Tomorrowland.
Now, after Pooh's FP's, I'll probably try and pick a good time to hustle down to Buzz's ride and grab some FP's there, too.....so, hopefully we'd be able to ride it atleast once pretty easily. Other big goals in Tomorrowland include Laugh Floor and Astro Orbiter.

At this point, no idea how long these goals would take to accomplish and until we get there, no idea what kind of stops/rests we'll need to take for the kids. Besides simply having a ton of fun, my other main goal this day is to go ahead and stick around MK long enough to catch the 3 o'clock parade. Come 2:30-2:45, we'll probably stop whatever we're doing and go find our favorite parade spot (maybe I could sneak over to Jungle Cruise to grab some FP's)

Regardless, I want to make sure we hit this parade....that way on our first full day, we'll get a feel for how the kids like parades. When the parade is over, we'll be basically done with MK for the day. I'm sure the kids will be tired, plus this day (Sep. 18th) is a MNSSHP night and I'd like to get headed out before the Party rush builds up too much.

The rest of the day? Probably head from MK back to the resort and then at some point during the evening, head on over to Downtown Disney. We love DTD and definitely want to get our first of several stops to it accomplished early on -- get an idea of what's available and possibly pick up some fun toys for the kids to have the rest of the trip. VERY GOOD chance that this night we will be eating at Earl of Sandwich. Yum!
Lunch? I skipped it didn't I. Based on our main focus of FantasyLand, my guess is we'll wind up at the Village Haus for lunch on this day.
Breakfast buffet - pizza - turkey & swiss sandwich..........Call me silly, but THAT is my kind of food day


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- The crowds. I've never been in September and I've never been with kids before. Things could take longer than I expect, but that's cool....we'll get done what we can. BUT, the big puncture would be the line at Peter Pan's Flight when we get to it after breakfast. We want it to be Disney Ride #1, but if the line is already crazy, then I think we'll have to adjust....grab a FP for it.....and move on. I can handle it (will have to mention this to Bridgette to make sure she's emotionally prepared, though)

Most moveable mission:
-- Parade? I've already mentioned that if need be, we can get flexible with Peter Pan. Otherwise, there is not too much set-in-stone...basically do as much FL, TT, and TL that we can. The evening....see no reason while DTD should get ruined. So, the thing that could get "moved" this day could be the parade. Ideally, we'll do just fine hanging around the park until 3pm. Again, first time with kids, so if crankiness gets too crazy, we'll we may have to leave earlier and try the parade later on.....although, I've done lots of stuff & had lots of busy days with my kids and don't see this being an issue.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- A flight? What time wil get to DTD? How nice will the evening be? Don't know....but if we have plenty of time and energy, this night could definitely work out to be a good night to try and get on Characters in Flight. I would love to get the chance to do this and want Bridgette to get an opportunity to try out some 18x zoom pics on the WDW scenery.

 

[crocko]

how funny...Ashton is into live action flicks at the moment
his three favorite: Babe
Nim's Island ??
Journey to the Center of the Earth ???
I can see Babe, but the other two--???
he does like POTC --when I let him watch; he also seems to like Harry Potter go figure

Have yet to see any of those first 3 you mentioned.

As an adult, how would you rate them for enjoyability?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Babe- good family movie; esp w/kids... all the farm animals talk

Nim's Island - this film I liked--although I do not know why Ashton likes it --they have animals who are her friends but it is a real life setting (little's girls dad is a biologist and lost at sea, she is left to defend the island they live on from the pirates--haha, Jodi Foster comes to rescue her she plays the part of an agraphobic (spelling)writer--this is a family movie

Journey to the Center of the Earth-- this one surprised me and Danny we both enjoyed--again I don't know why Ashton's like it. He loves dinosaurs and there are two maybe three scenes w/dinos (scary t-rex)but he will watch from beginning to end

I guess all three are family movies only JCE is kinda of intense w/the dinos and boring at the other parts for kids --I would think--but, than look at Ashton

 

[crocko]

Babe- good family movie; esp w/kids... all the farm animals talk

Nim's Island - this film I liked--although I do not know why Ashton likes it --they have animals who are her friends but it is a real life setting (little's girls dad is a biologist and lost at sea, she is left to defend the island they live on from the pirates--haha, Jodi Foster comes to rescue her she plays the part of an agraphobic (spelling)writer--this is a family movie

Journey to the Center of the Earth-- this one surprised me and Danny we both enjoyed--again I don't know why Ashton's like it. He loves dinosaurs and there are two maybe three scenes w/dinos (scary t-rex)but he will watch from beginning to end

I guess all three are family movies only JCE is kinda of intense w/the dinos and boring at the other parts for kids --I would think--but, than look at Ashton

Wouldn't mind getting a chance to watch JCE.


Yesterday was Joshua's 5th birthday (party this weekend) so we took him to see Ice Age 3 (he's been very interested ever since I showed him the Scrat preview).
He was very into it and seemed to enjoy it. Samantha (who can't stand bad guys) was overwhelmed by all of the dinosaurs....she spent most of the movie in a very nervous state (poor girl)

 

[crocko]

Day 3 (Hollywood Studios)

With Day 2's evening being fairly leisure, hopefully we will be able to get to bed in good time again that 2nd night. Because...we'll need to get up nice and early again to start Day 3. This will be a Hollywood Studios day and they will be having an early 8am rope drop, which we plan on being making (I love being at rope drops).

Obviously, with two little ones, the first goal of the day will involve Toy Story Mania. At this moment, the plan will be for everyone to quickly move straight to the ride line with the crazy rope-drop pack. Line shouldn't be any longer than 15-20 minutes first thing in the morning. After the ride, I'm planning on letting Bridgette take the kids to see the characters if they are still out near the Sorceror's hat (they tend to come out there right at rope drop...seemingly to lure some people away from the TSM craziness) while I get in the TSM FP line to get tickets for later in the day.

The rest of the day will be somewhat dependent on show times (specifically getting to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney). Around those shows, our early morning focus will be Star Tours and Muppet-Vision 3D, plus a visit to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure.

For lunch this day, the plan will be to eat at the Backlot Express. I'm a burger guy and eating here is always a special part of going to the Studios.
Ach! That reminds me....Jedi Training Academy. Along with the items I mentioned in the previous paragraph, we will make sure to catch a JTA...hopefully Joshua will get chosen. If not, well...we may have to hit JTA a few times on the trip if Joshua is really into it.

Those 7 attractions (if you will) are the core of what we'll try and get accomplished with the kids on this first Studios day. Should time and energy allow, we'll want to hit The Magic of Disney Animation as well. After watching the Mushu show, the kids will probably want to go see some Disney friends -- we're especially hopeful that Carl and Russell will still be around in mid-September.
Right now, I'm thinking that I might let some of the family take the kids over, while I sneak into the Animation class and try to draw a character -- never done this before.

Hopefully, with several sit-down shows in the mix, we'll have enough energy and time to get these items all done. Once we get to mid-afternoon, though, we'll head back to AKL for a little bit, I'm thinking, to get some rest.
Because...our nighttime goal on this day is to hit SpectroMagic and Wishes (8pm and 9pm, respectively). If we can get a little rest in, then I'm thinking that come evening, we'll head over to MK and have dinner there (probably El Pirata y el Perico/Pecos Bill....maybe Casey's Corner)
Depending on time, who knows...maybe we could even fit in a Jungle Cruise or Pirates ride before Spectro.
Watch the parade, get ready for fireworks...watch Wishes and then try to get back to a bus and our room.


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Shows. Studios is a park with a lot of shows to watch and we have several on our agenda (JTA, Muppets, Mermaid, Playhouse). With walking and wait-times in between, we could find that these shows eat up a lot more of our park time than we might expect. If so, then we may just have to plan on hitting one or two for sure on Studios Day 2.


Most moveable mission:
-- TSM Fast Pass: The original goal is to hit this ride first thing, so if nothing else we will have ridden it once this day. Depending on how much the kids like it and the FP return time once we get off...it may be best to skip worrying about getting an FP for a 2nd go-around. If we forego the TSM FP, that opens up the possibility of trying to quickly grab a VoLM FP instead.


Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Dip in the pool? I know that at times on the trip we'll make it over to the pool, but it's not something I specifically like to schedule. If we haven't already hit the pool and splash pad by Day 3, then our afternoon break this day could be a perfect time to put on some swimsuits and go play in the water for awhile.

 

[stacikristine]

Sounds like a good plan! And I'm sure your kiddos will LOVE the pool area at Kidani Village!

 

[jenny105]

All your plans for the days sound great!

 

[crocko]

Sounds like a good plan! And I'm sure your kiddos will LOVE the pool area at Kidani Village!

Yes! Very excited to get to those water guns!

All your plans for the days sound great!

Thanks! Can't wait to get there.

57 days from September trip.
Double that number and add 1 = 115 days until November trip.

 

[crocko]

By the way....Bridgette got an e-mail today about the new Passholder rates for October thru December.

She called and left a message saying that I should "re-book" our All-Star room so we can get the new cheaper rates.
LOL....hoping when I get home, I can smooth by this easily.

Even with the new rates, though, the price I'm paying for 3 nights at OKW is still fantastic.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

sounds like a great agenda!!
good luck w/the all star-OKW smooth over

 

[chicagoshannon]

Love your plans so far!

At DHS I'd guess your wait for TSM will be about 10 minutes (maybe less) We were at 9am rope drop and waited under 10 minutes and we were NOT in the front of the pack getting over there. Then I got FP's but the line was so long that the CM's were just handing them out instead of making us use the machine. That freed us up to get another FP right away. I hope you're able to do this. Later in the day when we went back to use our FP's the wait was longer (even with FP's) but still less then 20 minutes.

 

[crocko]

sounds like a great agenda!!
good luck w/the all star-OKW smooth over

We lost our AT&T service last night, so she was too angry about that to bring up the new rates deal. Whew, one more day down.

Love your plans so far!

At DHS I'd guess your wait for TSM will be about 10 minutes (maybe less) We were at 9am rope drop and waited under 10 minutes and we were NOT in the front of the pack getting over there. Then I got FP's but the line was so long that the CM's were just handing them out instead of making us use the machine. That freed us up to get another FP right away. I hope you're able to do this. Later in the day when we went back to use our FP's the wait was longer (even with FP's) but still less then 20 minutes.

Would be cool if they did that with us on the FP's. Kids may have a bit of a tough time using the shooters on TSM, but am betting that at least Joshua will absolutely love it. He loves Mario Party on the Wii and this ride should be ride up his alley.

 

[jenny105]

Would be cool if they did that with us on the FP's. Kids may have a bit of a tough time using the shooters on TSM, but am betting that at least Joshua will absolutely love it. He loves Mario Party on the Wii and this ride should be ride up his alley.

Sounds like my kinda kid lol. I'm addicted to Mario Party. All of them. Since it first came out on N64!

 

[crocko]

Yeah, Mario Party rocks. We've owned a couple of them that have come out...always fun.

News from yesterday:
1) My DVC confirmation letter came in the mail from the lady I'm renting from. Woohoo!!
AND.....whenever I come home from work, I check the mailbox on my way in. 9 out of 10 times, it is empty because Bridgette has already checked the mail. Yesterday, though, the mail was still there. Great! Now, Bridgette doesn't even realize some mysterious piece of mail came in for me.
Hopefully, this means I'll be pretty good-to-go on the secret until the 1 month mark...when Magical Express stuff comes in the mail.

2) We ate at chick-fil-a last night and halfway through dinner, the cow mascot came into the store. Samantha totally freaked out. She whimpered and fretted the whole time it was in the restaurant and the cries got louder in correlation to the closeness of the cow. I tried to scoot over and block her view, but she was intent on keeping an eye on that cow. Finally, after scaring a couple other kids, he went outside to wave at cars.
So now, Bridgette is worried about how she'll do with characters at Disney.
She may need a little time to adjust, but I'm still optimistic. She's seen pictures from our past trips, so knows what to expect...she knows these characters and loves them...she just may not want anything to do with those pesky villains.

 

[jenny105]

I'm thinking of booking a long weekend at the end of April for me and my DBf's anniversary (it will be 5 years) and I'm thinking about renting DVC points. It's really going to depend on if I can get a great travel agent rate again because then I can get a value or mod for practically nothing or if a DVC rate would be cheaper. How did you go about renting points?

 

[crocko]

I'm thinking of booking a long weekend at the end of April for me and my DBf's anniversary (it will be 5 years) and I'm thinking about renting DVC points. It's really going to depend on if I can get a great travel agent rate again because then I can get a value or mod for practically nothing or if a DVC rate would be cheaper. How did you go about renting points?

If you can get a good rate....then you can do value and probably mod for cheaper.

BUT....with renting points, you can upgrade to deluxe for not much more $ than a mod resort.

To rent points, I just started watching the DVC-Rent/Trade board and started responding to people looking to rent out points that had points for the time period I needed. In general, the closer you wait until your trip date, the lower price per point you can probably get. On the flip-side, the closer to your trip you wait, the less options you'll end up since places will start getting booked up. If you're going on April and wanted one of the popular locations, then come November most DVC people could start trying to book for you....if you find someone that has that resort as their home, they can start booking now. Just some things to consider

 

[crocko]

Another Thursday has arrived

We are now 8 weeks from our big trip!!

Letter S
Ride - Star Tours (Joshua gets a cute smile anytime he sees pictures from this ride)
Non-ride - Snacks! (Found some pictures of the fun snacks that we'll get to have there....mmmm....me want make Rice Krispy.
Characters: Sharpay, Stretch, Squeeze, Sally (Cars), Sarge, Sheriff, Squirt, Sully, Sebastian, Stitch, Simba, Scar, Scuttle, Smee, Sneezy, Sleepy, Snow White, Scrooge McDuck

So close and yet still so far....