Relly, Rora, and Brelle! Mar 2012 PTR *NEW* FREAKING OUT! 4 DAYS? TOO MUCH TO DO!

[mom2maggie]

We're coming back, WDW - are you ready for us?


We swore up, down, and sideways that we would NOT return to WDW until A. the Fantasyland Expansion was completed (or at least the Princess portion!) and B. that our 2 year old wasn't a crazy baby anymore. Well, then she had to go and choose Tinkerbelle for her Halloween costume, and walked around the neighborhood with such pride - showing her wings off, spinning around and saying 'I Tinkerbelle! I Tinkerbelle!' It was so adorable that I could see my husband, who was the lone holdout on a pre-March 2013 WDW trip, melting away into a big pile of Daddy mush. Then, when she said 'I love princess! I love Brelle, I love Relly, I love Rora' (Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora) - that was it. Daddy was done - and the trip planning was on!


The cast of characters

Me - Kristi, and I'm 33 years old, a former photographer and now just a stay at home mom (is anyone JUST a stay at home mom?) to my 2 wonderful kids.

My first trip to WDW was in 1996, when I wore my white polyester marching overalls and a big plastic cowboy hat, marching down Main Street USA with my high school band. I remember the night before our big parade, my band director made us practice for HOURS in the parking lot of All Star Movies - man, those other guests must have been SO irritated! I didn't go back until Sept 2007, and from there I was hooked! We then went back in March 2009 when I was 6 months pregnant with my 2nd daughter, and again in March 2010 when she was a infant and my older daughter was 4. That was when we swore we wouldn't be back until March 2013 - oh well! I love photography, being a mom, ALL things Disney, and planning our trips. It's a lot of the fun for me - kind of sick, isn't it? This is me on our last trip:

Since our last trip to Disney, I've lost about 100lbs - the HARD way. Eating right, exercising, drinking water......zzzzzz..... I've recently gained a little back (I was down 120lbs, but now gained 20 back) so my goal is to get back down to my low weight by our trip date - think I can do it? I bet I can!

My DH - Keith - 33 years, but he's 5 weeks older than me, and I totally count that. We have been together since April 2003, when we went on our first date - the day after April Fool's Day. He spent a lot of our first date telling me about all the mean jokes he played on his coworkers. I guess I didn't mind! We fast tracked and were living together by August of the same year, and then were engaged in October! We were married on his birthday (March 13), and I always tell everyone that it just makes it easier for him to never forget our anniversary. He loves roller coasters and loves being a dad - he would do anything for his family, and loves to spoil his girls. He's a HUGE baseball fan, and his team is the St. Louis Cardinals - which means that he's THRILLED that his team won the World Series! I totally give them some of the credit for this trip to WDW - their amazing comeback win from being 10.5 games back from the wild card - well, it just put him in a GREAT mood and I seized the moment!

Oh, and he LOVES to eat - particularly meat. If there is a steak at Disney World, he will sniff it out like a wolf. He is the one that insisted that we do the DxDP again - we did it on our last trip, and now I think he's hooked! Planning out what restaurants to eat at, looking at menus, scouring the Disboards with me for food pictures - he loves it all!

DD6 - Miss Maggie. When Maggie came into our lives, we were forever changed. Never in the world had such a sweet, FUNNY kid ever been born! She fell in love with the princesses before I ever introduced them to her - that is when we decided that some kids must just be born with Disney princesses in their genes! Her favorite movies have always been Disney movies, even though some of them are too intense for her. She is sensitive, and doesn't like to try new things without some prodding from mom I let her be timid sometimes, but I do like to push her beyond her comfort level just so she can explore new things - and most of the time she LIKES them. She's a super picky eater, to the point where she only eats certain macaroni & cheese dishes. We've had long talks about how she needs to try new foods on the trip and she's agreed - reluctantly.

She's a smart kid - the youngest in her class (the cutoff was Aug 1, and her birthday was Aug 3, so we petitioned to get her in school early) but she's the best reader in the class, reading at almost a 3rd grade level. Her teacher says that in her 21 years of teaching, she's never met a more charismatic reader - and that doesn't surprise me at all. She goes through her whole life with a lot of emotion! My drama diva!

DD2 - Crazy Josie. Oy, this kid. We tried for so long to have her - after my first daughter was born, we waited about a year to try to have another baby, and then found it took WAY too long to actually get pregnant. Finally, after lots of doctors appointments, drugs, and treatments, we were blessed with Josie. Maggie was always a calm kid, so obedient, and would sit and quietly look at books for hours. Josie - well, lets just say that she's not like her sister For the first 7-9 months of her life, she didn't say much at all - she would sign, but it was beginning to concern me - a lot. Then the ear infections started - one after another after another. They continued for months until finally when she was about 17 months old, I finally decided that I would make a move on my own and have her see a ENT. Wouldn't you know it - she needed tubes. She had lots of fluid buildup, and her hearing was very poor. No wonder she wasn't even saying mama - she couldn't hear me! After her surgery, her language exploded, and now we have a hard time keeping her quiet! She is a climber, and jumper, a 'Ibetyoucan'tcatchme' kind of kid. That is why we were so freaked out at the thought of taking this child to Disney - would they ban us? Would she terrify the entire resort? Would she turn into Josie-zilla and bring the entire Walt Disney World parks and resorts system to a screeching halt, everyone pointing their fingers at us saying 'You! Take thee back to Indiana!'.

But in the last couple of months she has started to mature, she is following directions, she is learning consequences -she really isn't unruly, just super ENTHUSIASTIC about life! Now, with her love for all things pink and princess and Tinkerbelle and Mickey and Minnie and EVERYTHING , I just can't wait to see her little face light up.

So that is us! We're a crazy bunch!

Next up, our plans!

 

[mom2maggie]

When planning this trip, I wanted to try somewhere we haven't stayed before. In the past, we've stayed at Value resorts, and on our last trip we splurged a little and went with a moderate. At least for us its splurging On our last trip in 2010, we stayed at Coronado Springs Resort. The queen size beds called to us! My husband is 6'2", and since I was significantly overweight, those two combined made the double beds feel like a cot. But CSR had queen size beds, so my husband was sold. We loved the resort. My daughter Maggie, not knowing the geography of Florida, begged that she could go to the beach one day to search for seashells. On our honeymoon to Gulf Shores, AL, we collected seashells on the beach and have them in a basket - she played with them all the time. She wanted desperately to collect some of her own - but we hadn't planned a ocean detour on our trip. So, as a sneaky seashell ninja, I bought a package of shells at the store and brought them with us. I snuck away to the beachy, sandy shore part of CSR and scattered and hid them on the beach. My husband brought the girls and they had a blast searching for seashells on the "beach".

So we had a fun time there, but I really wanted to try something new. After checking our budget and realizing it needed to be another moderate , I researched here on the Disboards for HOURS, trying to decide which one felt right - and POFQ just felt like the right place. I started looking at pictures, reports, and the excitement grew! That is, until I actually went to book it, and realized that POFQ was sold out for free dining. Boo. So I checked to see what was available, and it came down to CBR or CSR - we had stayed for 1 night at CBR on our first trip, and the resort seemed SO huge. So back to CSR it is!

We're driving the (exactly!) 1,000 miles from our home in central Indiana to WDW - because we're clearly nuts (I've already alluded to that, haven't I?) We flew the first time to Disney, and then for our 2nd, we drove. It wasn't AS bad as we thought it would be. Then, when we drove on our 3rd trip, with a 7 month old baby who was still bottlefeeding - well, after that we felt invincible. I priced out tickets just to be sure that there wasn't some awesome deal out there - and there wasn't. So we'll be driving again! We normally drive to my sister's house in Elizabethtown, KY, right off of I-65, and stay the night, then wake early the next morning and drive the whole day. It cuts about 3.5 hours off the trip from the start.

This time, though, we're going to just drive as long as we can and then stop somewhere for the night. Maybe we'll get to TN - maybe we'll get to Georgia! Heck, if we have enough caffeine, and the kids aren't completely worn out, maybe we'll make it the whole way! We plan to have reservations for Saturday at a hotel near Downtown Disney - we did that the last time and had a hotel that was within walking distance of DTD. Then we got our DTD stuff out of the way at the beginning of the trip and never had to do that awful wait for the busses at the end of the night to go back to the resort.

Even though we drive, we usually use the Disney transportation as much as we can. I actually don't know why! Convenience, I guess? I think part of it is intimidation for me, though - with the Disney busses, I don't have to worry about where to go, how to get there, where the parking lots are, or any of that. You just sit down, let someone else figure it out, and then you're there! We do like having our van, though, especially since we like to plan to eat at restaurants at other resorts. Having your own vehicle makes that process infinitely easier than negotiating which bus/monorail/boat to take when and to where.

After staying at our DTD hotel on Saturday (any recommendations? I can't remember the name of the hotel we stayed at last time!), we'll depart early morning to get to CSR to check in. I want to request a room in Casitas 4, hopefully as close to the room we were in last time as possible. It was perfect - SO near the bus stop, we could look out our door and see it. We're staying until we check out on Sunday - we'll be leaving extremely early (think 3-4am!) to make the long drive back home. We're taking my daughter out of school for the week we're at Disney, so she'll have school the following week.

Now I'm in the process of booking our ADR's as quickly as possible - I don't want to miss out on any of the places we really want, and since we're SO close to the trip (ADR-wise), I need to get them completed! With DxDP, there are SO many ADR's to make, it becomes overwhelming - so I might need some help making decisions!

 

[Lidian]

I'm totally in! Your girls are precious!!!

I may have missed it, but what were your dates?

Can't wait for more!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

I'm here too!!! Can't wait to follow your trip planning progress...

 

[mom2maggie]

My trip dates are March 3-11. March 3 will be at a DTD hotel, and then we check into CSR on March 4, and checkout March 11!

 

[mom2maggie]

ADRs booked so far:

3/4
B: Crystal Palace - 825am
L:
D: Whispering Canyon Cafe - 630pm

We've never eaten at WCC, but it looked fun and it was something new to try. I hope we like it! The antics of the servers seemed to be something that would be right up Maggie's alley, and Josie too.

3/5
B: Hollywood & Vine - 830am
L: Fantasmic package - Mama Melrose 1215pm
D:

We love H&V breakfast! Josie is super into Little Einsteins right now, and I'm curious to see how the H&V characters have changed since JoJo and Goliath got the boot. As for Mama Melrose.....blah. We aren't the hugest fans, but we wanted the Fantasmic package, and hated Brown Derby. A H&V lunch Fantasmic package would have been ideal, but there weren't any available. So back to Mama Melrose it is. Oh well!

3/6
B: Tusker House - 920am
L:
D: Narcoosee's - 6pm

Narcoosee's is a new one for us too. We wanted to go last time, but Josie was just too much of a handful, and our reservation was at 730pm - she wasn't handling the late dinner ADRs very well, so we cancelled. My husband was looking forward to it then, so he said it was a must this time! And Tusker House - its our favorite breakfast buffet!

3/7
B:
L:
D:

3/8
B: Akershus Princess Breakfast - 915am
L:
D:

3/9
B:
L:
D:

3/10
B:
L:
D:

As you can see, we have a LOT of holes to fill in! I'm trying to get all our ducks sorted out and hope to have all our ADRs done by the end of the week. We don't want CRT - we weren't impressed with it last time...it just wasn't worth 2 credits to us! But we have some other dining show/events we want to try and book, so I need to get on it!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

My trip dates are March 3-11. March 3 will be at a DTD hotel, and then we check into CSR on March 4, and checkout March 11!

Oh cool! Will you try to join us for our Dismeet? March 8th from 9-10 pm at the River Roost Lounge at POR! We would love for you and your family to come. The more the merrier!

 

[sjs314]

I am here!!! Your DD's are adorable and I loved the story about the Tinkerbell costume

 

[mom2maggie]

3/4
B: Crystal Palace - 825am (Magic Kingdom)
L: Columbia Harbor House (Magic Kingdom)
D: Whispering Canyon Cafe - 630pm (Wilderness Lodge Resort)

We've never eaten at WCC, but it looked fun and it was something new to try. I hope we like it! The antics of the servers seemed to be something that would be right up Maggie's alley, and Josie too. Crystal Palace is a great place to start our trip, in my opinion - go in, eat before the park opens, then finish up just in time to come out and see rope drop? Fantastic! And then Columbia Harbor House - it was a must have for me. Yes, its just a counter service, but its one of the only places in the world that I'll eat fish, and we all know how good for your heart fish is.

3/5
B: Hollywood & Vine - 830am (Hollywood Studios)
L: Fantasmic package - Mama Melrose 1215pm (Hollywood Studios)
D: Maya Grill 5pm (Coronado Springs Resort - our hotel)

We love H&V breakfast! Josie is super into Little Einsteins right now, and I'm curious to see how the H&V characters have changed since JoJo and Goliath got the boot. As for Mama Melrose.....blah. We aren't the hugest fans, but we wanted the Fantasmic package, and hated Brown Derby. A H&V lunch Fantasmic package would have been ideal, but there weren't any available. So back to Mama Melrose it is. Oh well!
We have never tried Maya Grill - we were going to last time but didn't end up keeping the reservation. I'm excited to try it this time and glad that it is convenient. We plan to let the girls have a chill out afternoon, nap and relax at the resort before heading back to Hollywood Studios for Fantasmic at 7pm. Then Extra Magic Hours will keep us out until we're tired and we'll go home to sleep!

3/6
B: Tusker House - 920am
L: Yak & Yeti 130pm
D: Narcoosee's - 6pm

Narcoosee's is a new one for us too. We wanted to go last time, but Josie was just too much of a handful, and our reservation was at 730pm - she wasn't handling the late dinner ADRs very well, so we cancelled. Keith was looking forward to it then, so he said it was a must this time! And Tusker House - its our favorite breakfast buffet! Yak & Yeti is new for us - Keith swore up and down that he wouldn't eat there...and then I showed him the menu and now he thinks it is going to be great!

3/7
B: Crystal Palace (Magic Kingdom)
L: Casey's (Magic Kingdom)
D:Le Cellier 550pm (EPCOT - Canada)

This might be our most ridiculous day of dining for our whole vacation. First off, Crystal Palace AGAIN. Keith wanted a breakfast at the parks, and our choices were Crystal Palace or Cinderella's Royal Table (yes, reservations were still available!). He chose CP again, so whatever. Then Casey's for lunch. Its another of my must-haves. Its just a hot dog stand, with fries...but they are soooooo good. And then finish up with Le Cellier, at Canada in the World Showcase at Epcot. We ate there a couple of years ago and were unimpressed, and now its a Signature dining (so takes 2 table service credits), so you'd think we would steer clear...but Keith wants to give it another try. We needed a table service in the World Showcase and none of the other restaurants really sounded like something we'd like. So we're trying again!

3/8
B: Akershus Princess Breakfast - 915am (EPCOT)
L: EPCOT Counter Service in World Showcase or Sunshine Seasons
D: Jiko - 530pm (Animal Kingdom Lodge)

We love Akershus! Where else can you meet 5 princesses in ONE place, in about a hour! No waiting in line! And the potato casserole.... The girls will probably dress in a princess costume of their choice, and I'll bring a change of clothes for them to change into. We don't know where in the World we'll eat lunch, but just one of the counter service places in EPCOT - We need to try something new there too! Then Jiko for dinner - we've never eaten there, and it sounds really awesome. We're so NOT adventurous, so I'm a little nervous, but we'll see!

3/9
B: Pepper Market or Cafe Rix (Coronado Springs)
L:50's Prime Time 1135am (Hollywood Studios)
D: Liberty Tree Tavern 620pm (Magic Kingdom)

Chilling out at the resort in early morning, then heading to Hollywood Studios for another go at Toy Story Mania! 50's Prime Time is another of my favorites - I can't wait to share a milkshake with Maggie again. Then after naps we'll head to Magic Kingdom and have Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner - its another of our new choices.

3/10
B: Breakfast in our room, with stuff from the Main Street Bakery in Magic Kingdom
L: Plaza Restaurant - 1135am (Magic Kingdom)
D: Tony's Town Square - 545pm (Magic Kingdom)

End of our trip! We're going to get some cinnamon rolls and other pastries at Magic Kingdom the night before and take them home for our breakfast on Saturday. Then we'll head to Magic Kingdom for our last day! We love the Plaza - it seems to be a hidden gem, not many people talk about it! And Keith really wanted Tony's Town Square - its his fave in all of WDW, so there wasn't a better place to end our vacation.

So that's it! I'm so glad to be (mostly) done with the advanced dining reservations. With the Deluxe Dining Plan, we each get 3 table service credits and 2 snack credits a day - so that means we had 21 table service credits each and 14 snack credits each - so now we just have to figure out how we're going to spend our 42 (!!!) snack credits.
_________________

 

[camandjacksmom]

Im here too! This is so great! This may sound dumb but what does PTR mean and how did you start one! I can wait to read more

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Im here too! This is so great! This may sound dumb but what does PTR mean and how did you start one! I can wait to read more

PTR is a pre-trip report...this is her PTR that we are reading and following. It will (hopefully) be followed by a TR, trip report, after she returns from Disney... I have a hard time sorting all the abbreviations on here myself sometimes!

 

[vickalamode]

OMG my gut is busting just reading all those ADRs you have planned for each day...and I love to eat and have a huge appetite I don't think I could handle DXDP...maybe a signature every day?

 

[mom2maggie]

OMG. Hold your horses. We're flying.

Wait. What?

No 2,000 mile drive from Indiana? Seriously? No 'drive the entire 17 hours back straight through because Maggie has to be at school on Monday'?

Keith applied for the Southwest card, where you get the 50,000 points, and I calculated that it will cover at least 1 way of our trip for our 4 tickets. I applied too, but I wasn't instantly approved, so we don't know yet if I'll get one. If I do, that will be another 50,000 points, and our entire flights will be paid for.

It wasn't until it was a possibility of flying that I realized how much I wanted to. I've never flown when I didn't have that self conscious worry about my weight or my size - the worry about 'will they make me buy another seat?' or 'will my seatbelt fit around me?' or even 'Will I tick off the person sitting next to me by encroaching on their space?' And now that I'm 100lbs lighter, I look much more average in size - and I'll fit into a seat without issues. And to be able to do that is like the reward for all my hard work - for exercising 5-6 times a week, eating right, drinking water. I talked to Keith about it - explained how happy I was about it, and he said we're flying no matter what - even if my card doesn't get approved. We'll make it work because he saw how much it meant to me. Isn't he awesome?

So now we're flying! We still have a hotel at Downtown Disney on March 3 - unfortunately I booked it and didn't realize that it was NONrefundable. So we're stuck there, and we'll have to rent a car at Orlando-MCO to get there, but it will all work out. And we'll be able to fly home and not worry that Maggie won't get any rest before school the next day.

So big changes!! We can't book our flights until we get the points, so I'm just crossing my fingers that the good rates are still there in a month or so. But eeek!

 

[skyecaitlin88]

OMG!!
Im going March 3-12th!!
Your plans make me so nervous because I havent picked any dining places yet and we are also doing the DDP!!!

 

[mom2maggie]

OMG!!
Im going March 3-12th!!
Your plans make me so nervous because I havent picked any dining places yet and we are also doing the DDP!!!

Awesome! Where are you staying? No worries on the ADRs - there were still lots of time slots for a lot of the restaurants I have booked. I'd get on it though! What is on your must do list?

 

[Lidian]

OMG. Hold your horses. We're flying.

Wait. What?

No 2,000 mile drive from Indiana? Seriously? No 'drive the entire 17 hours back straight through because Maggie has to be at school on Monday'?

Keith applied for the Southwest card, where you get the 50,000 points, and I calculated that it will cover at least 1 way of our trip for our 4 tickets. I applied too, but I wasn't instantly approved, so we don't know yet if I'll get one. If I do, that will be another 50,000 points, and our entire flights will be paid for.

It wasn't until it was a possibility of flying that I realized how much I wanted to. I've never flown when I didn't have that self conscious worry about my weight or my size - the worry about 'will they make me buy another seat?' or 'will my seatbelt fit around me?' or even 'Will I tick off the person sitting next to me by encroaching on their space?' And now that I'm 100lbs lighter, I look much more average in size - and I'll fit into a seat without issues. And to be able to do that is like the reward for all my hard work - for exercising 5-6 times a week, eating right, drinking water. I talked to Keith about it - explained how happy I was about it, and he said we're flying no matter what - even if my card doesn't get approved. We'll make it work because he saw how much it meant to me. Isn't he awesome?

So now we're flying! We still have a hotel at Downtown Disney on March 3 - unfortunately I booked it and didn't realize that it was NONrefundable. So we're stuck there, and we'll have to rent a car at Orlando-MCO to get there, but it will all work out. And we'll be able to fly home and not worry that Maggie won't get any rest before school the next day.

So big changes!! We can't book our flights until we get the points, so I'm just crossing my fingers that the good rates are still there in a month or so. But eeek!

for flying! That's awesome news!!!

OMG!!
Im going March 3-12th!!
Your plans make me so nervous because I havent picked any dining places yet and we are also doing the DDP!!!

Don't stress! I never get to book a package this far in advance, and I always have luck with finding places to eat -- it's not always my first choice, but I get to eat nonetheless.

If I were in your shoes, I'd decide a rough schedule for my vacation and then decide where to eat. If you have hoppers, then just start booking ADRs you want, you can figure out parks later. If you don't have hoppers, then just book where you'll tentatively be visiting for the day. You can always try to make changes later. My schedule never stays the same. I'm always finding something to change. So breathe with me and enjoy the planning process!

Awesome! Where are you staying? No worries on the ADRs - there were still lots of time slots for a lot of the restaurants I have booked. I'd get on it though! What is on your must do list?

I agree with mom2maggie. Even CRT popped up for me the other day.

I'd definitely start with your "must do" meal in getting it booked (anything that tends to have low availability). And if you need any help, lots of wonderful people here can give great advice!

Nice to see you again skyecaitlin88!

 

[mom2maggie]

I agree with mom2maggie. Even CRT popped up for me the other day.

It did for me too! We were looking for a breakfast at Chef Mickeys and there was nothing - but CRT had 4-5 time slots!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

That is so great that you get to fly...that will make this trip even more magical for you!!!

Where did you find a Southwest card to apply for??? We would LOVE to fly. Our kids have never flown before at all.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

OK~ DH has applied for the card....here's hoping!

 

[mom2maggie]

OK~ DH has applied for the card....here's hoping!

Awesome! I'm so excited to fly this time - a little giddy! That 1,000 mile drive isn't undoable - we've done it. But this time we would be leaving WDW at 2-3am, driving STRAIGHT through (all 1,000 miles) with two kids, and then my daughter would have school the next day. It just isn't responsible for us to do that to her, and we didn't want to cut a day off our trip.