Royal Treatment for a 70th Birthday Celebration

[veggiemama]

And here we go again.....

Another trip is in the works - I can hardly believe it. If you had told me a few years ago that I would be planning trips again and again I would have laughed long and loud! Our trip in 2008 was suppose to be a 'once in a lifetime' trip. We did as much as we could figuring we would never go back.... ever hear that before?? Then after we had gone, I was hooked. I always loved Disney but never really thought much about holiday's and WDW. I decided I just HAD to go to Disney at my favourite time of year - Christmas and so our Christmas at WDW 2011 was planned for. This past summer I starting longing for Disney again but could not convoke my family that we needed to go back. We compromised by going on our very first cruise - Disney Magic and I am currently planning that one - we are set to sail in February 2014. Once I started talking Disney my full blown obsession started and thus this PTR has been born.....

My mom, Clara, is as much as a disney nut as I am. She has been to WDW many time and has done DCL a few times also. I have a special needs sister and she has traveled with her and has helped other friends with special needs adults as they vacation in WDW.

So mom and I were talking a few weeks ago, just before her birthday. And she tells me she is itching to go back to WDW as it has been almost 2 years for her. Then I realized that in 2014 she turns 70 and I figured what better way to celebrate than to go to our favourite place on earth! Of course, mom was completely on board with that idea. We bantered a bit about who to take and then decided that we wanted to do this is our own special, just the 2 of us, holiday.

I am leaving behind the kids and hubby, she is leaving behind her hubby (who is very happy to never go to WDW again ) We are also leaving behind both my sisters (and my oldest sister will not be too happy about that once she finds out - more about that later!)

This is us.....

This is me


I am 38. Now a full-time disney nut! I am a piano teacher during the year, which keeps me busy - I have about 55 students this year. I volunteer at the symphony and do some coordinating for special events. And it seems I have started becoming a disney planner for others! LOL Funny story for how that came about....


This is my mom Clara.


She just turned 69, has been retired for a few years but still works some part time work in group homes. She has been to Disney many times and was my co planner for our first trip in 2008. We went together for that trip

Now onto the plans....

 

[veggiemama]

Well, here I had great intentions last night of continuing and it just didn't happen

The Where and the When

My mom and I have been close for many years. We had a rocky few years when I was a young adult but became close after I had kids. Now we are very close and do a lot together. We have very similar interests and though not identical personalities we are both pretty mellow (though she sure wasn't when I was young! lol)



Every year for my Birthday my mom takes me to a Shakespearean play. It is called 'Shakespeare in the Ruins" and every year they do a different play. We have been doing this for 13 years! So much fun and we look forward to this day all year long.

So what better way to celebrate a major life moment for my mom - of course it has to be special. My mom loves Birthday's and loves celebrating but it has always been done for others. Very rarely do we do something 'just for mom'. On top of that mom has gone to Disney many times but always with others and for others. Either she is working or she is with grandkids. Don't get me wrong, she loves it BUT this time I want to do this just for her. Her day, her way!
The last time she went to WDW was with my sister and her family, my mom got sick on the way down (flying) and ended up in the hospital for the entire trip. Ended up that she needed surgery on her thyroid once she got home. She is completely fine now but I always have felt bad for her for missing that trip. It was the first trip for my sister and her kids so it was hard for them to enjoy the trip and hard on my mom for missing it.


Anyways....

Mom's birthday day is at the end of October. So we have decided to go over Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. That way I don't have to miss a lot of work or try to do too many make up lessons with students - which is always a pain!

So that means we are going to leave October 9 and come back October 14. Not a lot of time but I end up not missing any work.

So far the plan is to stay at Pop.

She really wants to go to Universal - Harry Potter world. I have been once and loved it and again - she is a big HP fan. Read all the books, seen all the movies.
So that mean we only have a couple days to enjoy the worlds. I'm thinking that maybe we need to do a park hopper, though we have never done something like that, otherwise we only get to do 2 worlds.

With talking it over we figured that we could skip Hollywood studios - though we like that one we can pass it up also. Epcot is a must - especially the pavilions (maybe food and wine??) and of course MK We also both love AK so that is why I think we need the park hopper.

So there you have it. our first initial plans.... let's see how many times this will change as the year goes on!

Big on my list is special dinner for my mom - I'm thinking BOG or CRT depending on which we can get into. Because we are planning together it is going to be very difficult to keep anything from her but you know I'm going to try!

Any thought on special things to do to celebrate?

 

[veggiemama]

The first change of plans.....

I say the first because I'm sure that we will have many more as the year goes on.

Original plan was to go over a long weekend. Once I started looking at that and looking at holiday time booked for 2014-2015 teaching year I realized that this was going to be the only time I book 'off' any work. I schedule 1 week of holidays for myself every teaching year. I already take off the same holidays as the school kids so I get 2 weeks at Christmas and 1 week for spring break. I then book 1 extra week as I prefer to travel during school times so that crowds are hopefully less.
Well in 2015 both my kids are travelling with school to Greece and Italy (lucky kids!!) so we won't be taking a family Holiday. John and I will be traveling to the East Coast during the summer of 2015 and spending about 3 weeks as I have a conference in Halifax and since neither of us have been to the East coast before we thought we would take extra time and explore. So that means that I do not need to book any other time off during my teaching year - soooooo.....

I have decided to take that Thanksgiving weekend trip and turn it into a full week away!! Yay! Sh....don't tell mom. She has no idea yet - though she will once we book our hotel.

So that means we will go from Friday October 9 and come back on the 17th. So excited to have a full week instead of just a few days! This means we can easily do Harry Potter and not miss any of the the worlds and still have time to relax a little and not feel too rushed - I hope!

 

[veggiemama]

Doing the first of hopefully many happy dances I have officially booked our resort for our stay.

So the where and when are now confirmed.

When: October 10-17
Where: Pop Century standard room

For now we have only booked a room. No package. We will wait and see what kind of deals come up in the next little while but we are also debating about using some of our points programs to get free tickets.

 

[podsnel]

Hi Girlfriend! I am so happy you are going to be a whole week!!

And I am SO SAD that I will be arriving just 2 days after you depart!!

Sooooo close!

I LOVE that you are taking the trip with your Mom- she looks like a VERY fun gal, and sounds like a deserving-of-a-great-vacay kind of girl.

Anyway......I am looking forward to following along!

Ellen

 

[veggiemama]

Hi Girlfriend! I am so happy you are going to be a whole week!!

And I am SO SAD that I will be arriving just 2 days after you depart!!

Sooooo close!

I LOVE that you are taking the trip with your Mom- she looks like a VERY fun gal, and sounds like a deserving-of-a-great-vacay kind of girl.

Anyway......I am looking forward to following along!

Ellen

Hi Ellen Haven't done too much on here yet. I'm trying to get my TR done from the cruise first.

My mom has been in Florida for 2 weeks - comes home later today - but never got to Disney as there was NO WAY my dad was going to go there again, so I'm sure she will be feeling the pull to start planning.

I've had a few ideas kicking around and by reading other TR and PTR I keep getting ideas for what to do - the list will once again be much longer than we will have time for.

I'll have to get back to here again soon.....

 

[veggiemama]

It's been awhile since I have been on here but in the midst of what feels like the never ending winter - a little disney dreaming is just what the Doctor ordered!

I just realized last week that our Canadian Thanksgiving falls on a long weekend for US as well. That has me thinking about what worlds to do when. Now, we are not too concerned about ride line ups right now, though I have a feeling there are more that we want to do than we are thinking right now.

My initial thoughts are this:

Friday - travel day - probably will take all day to get to our resort so no plans. Maybe dinner at Boma if we are able to get in early enough.

Saturday - Hollywood studios. We would want to do, GMR and shoot - can't think of the name at the moment! We'll want to watch Fantasmic - maybe a dinner package?

Sunday - AK - We love this park. It is one of our favourites so I know we will spend the day. My mom actually likes Everest so we will try to do that ride. And of course Safari. Don't think we will do Kali river rapids as we are not too much on being wet for the day I have never done Dinosaur so I may ride that on my own. Mom doesn't like that one.

Monday - Rest day and downtown Disney. Not sure if this will remain our rest day or not. Just depends how busy our first couple days are. But I am thinking that since this is the holiday day that it will probably be really busy everywhere?

Tuesday - Universal - Harry Potter world. This is a must see for us. Mom has never been and loves HP. I went in 2011 and loved it and I know they are doing a lot of changes this summer. So we will need to figure out what we can do in one day, especially with new stuff being there. The big ride - the one in the castle (darn - can't remember that name either!! LOL) will be on the NO list. there is no way I am taking Mom on that one. I had problems on this ride in 2011, nauseous and dizzy so there is no way the mom should do this one.

Wednesday - MK - I think this will be our MK day. That means this will also be the day that we celebrate mom's birthday. Technically her birthday is not till the end of October but we can't get away at that time. There will be a lot of planning that I will want to do for this day and my goal is to keep some or all of it a secret!

Thursday - Epcot. We will finish our week with another favourite world. The debate will be wether we want to do the food and wine. I admit I do not know a whole lot about how this event works so I will need to do some researching and figure out if it is a good idea for us to do.

Friday - Travel day. This is our day to head home. No flights are booked yet so we have no idea what kind of timeline we will have this day. Chances are we will just relax at the resort, walk around and that kind of stuff.

There we go - our first tentative day to day plans.
Mom and i are getting together this Friday to talk and plan so we'll sees what changes I make to this!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[veggiemama]

Following along!

Hi and Welcome

 

[veggiemama]

Revised Plans

Not that this should come as a big shocker but our plans have changed slightly....


Mom and I had a Disney planning day today. She drove out to me (1 hour drive approx) and we started off by sharing our recent Florida pictures. She and my dad went down to Hilton Head and then went to Florida for a week - she even managed to convince my dad to spend a day at downtown Disney So she came back with some current brochures and was ready to really start planning.
Her pictures from her holidays took about 10 minutes - my pictures from our cruise took about an hour! But it was great to share our experiences.

Then we got down to business and started planning...
Started with me sharing my initial ideas which surprise, surprise - did not take long before we were chaining our minds! hehe

So with much discussion about sleep time, travel time and how late we will stay in the parks we have decided - almost officially - on our itinerary...

HERE it is...

Friday - Travel day - hope to arrive in the afternoon so that we can go to AK and Boma for dinner.

Saturday - HS - we like this park but it is not one that we ever feel the need to do a lot so I think it will be a nice start to our week.

Sunday - IOA - this was our first change. We decided to go to Harry Potter on Sunday. Not sure if this will be the best decision, I'm thinking it may be really busy but knowing that we are not really planning on doing rides we are hoping that we will be able to walk around, check out the stores and do at least the ride of the hippogriff. Mom is trying to convince me to do Forbidden Journey I have done this ride and I was very nauseous by the end of it. I'm having a hard time thinking that my 70 year old mother will be able to handle this ride? But she does surprise me with the amount of stuff she does and the rides that she likes to do. IOA closes fairly early so we should be back in our room at Pop not too late.

Monday - Rest day - this is still the same as the original plan. Mom thought it would be odd to do this on Monday but once we looked at how the schedule would go and the crowd indicator it seems to make the most sense to do this as our day off. BUT we will go to DTD and do resort touring, so we will still be out and about for the day - which leads me to a question...
What resorts would be on your go to list in October?

Tuesday - MK - After a day of 'rest' we figure MK is good for this day. We are hoping to get to RD - I have never managed a RD yet! And then hit Starbucks for coffee and breakfast. That means this is also Mom's Birthday Day, so I will be doing some planning for this!

Wednesday - AK - We figure that though it will be later at MK (though we do not plan to stay for wishes) we can manage AK the next day - especially since it closes early and so we can head back to the room early if we are tired.

Thursday - Epcot - We don't think this will be a really early day as we want to go to Epcot for the Showcase mostly so that means we really don't need to be at the park till 10am or later, but it will be a late night again as we both want to stay for Illuminations. Which we figure works well because Friday...

Friday - Travel day- 'sigh' still the day that we will have to head home. We hope to have a flight that leaves later in the afternoon so hopefully we can go to DTD still or do some resort touring. We'll see - depends on just how tired we feel by this day!

Phew - Feels good to have that more settled.

Our next step is decide on Rides and dining. We are not planning to use DDP mostly because we are not big eaters and we don't do a lot of desserts or drinks so it is a lot cheaper for us to pay OOP.

I'm checking into menus at a few places but I'm curious if you have a "must do' dining place?

So far we/I have done:
MK - Liberty Tavern, Pinocchio, Sunshine Terrace, Pecos Bills, Tony's townsquare, Cosmic Ray.

AK - Rainforest, Pizza safari

HS - 50's prime, Sci-fi, ABC, Pizza Planet

Epcot - Coral reef, Sunshine seasons, Akershus (character breakfast) Gelati, 9 dragons,

DTD - babycakes, Earl of Sandwich, Planet hollywood, rainforest

And I have dined at a few resort - but my mom has not.
I have been to Boma, The Wave, Chef Mickey, Kona Cafe,

I know it's a bit of a list but what places are your favorites - help me decide where to go!

 

[veggiemama]

Flight Debate

I know I shouldn't really worry yet but flights have me concerned!

So far the cheapest we have been able to find flight is $630 - ouch! Usually we find flight for under $500. And on top of that there are no direct flights showing yet. So right now that means that we have a 1 or even 2 stop flight. Yuck! our already long travel day will get even longer if we have to do that! and we will end up being so much more tired by the time we get there.

So the debate is....
how long do we wait to book flights. I don't want the price to go up even more but maybe it will come down yet?

OR

Do we look at booking flight in the US and driving. We are about 2 hours away from North Dakota airport so we could drive there. Since it is October we shouldn't have to worry about weather - I say that but there have been years of snow and bad weather already by early October! When we checked to flight out of ND they were about $400, still not direct though. My mom did find one flight that was direct and was for $330 but it flew to the other airport in Florida (can't remember the name) and I'm pretty sure that WDW does not have shuttle service from there? Correct me if I'm wrong though

Someday's the flights really get to me :roll eyes:

So just for fun, I looked at flight from Minneapolis - do you know we could do that flight for under $200! It almost makes me consider driving the 7 hours to Minneapolis!

 

[annmarieda]

Hi Laura! Just had to say I am following along. Looks like we will barely miss each other in October. We fly home on 10/11...but we will be leaving the world on 10/9.

Gotta go back and read!

 

[annmarieda]

All caught up...

Flights...

I have our October flights and I did book flying into Tampa rather than MCO. It was much cheaper over all. Since we will have a car anyway it seemed to be a good choice. It will be hard to not use DME, but I think we will still arrive the resort around the same time.

As for driving to a different place and then flying. I think for me, I would be fine on the way there. I would be so excited that the trip to the departure city would be part of the fun. On the way back though... I would just want to be home.

Restaurants....

MK - Liberty Tavern, Pinocchio, Sunshine Terrace, Pecos Bills, Tony's townsquare, Cosmic Ray.

Have you considered BOG? Definitely a new and unique experience. I am not sure how hard it still is to get an ADR for dinner.... and I think the CS for lunch still has long lines.

AK - Rainforest, Pizza safari

Tusker remains my favorite place in AK. I love pre rope drop there!!!

HS - 50's prime, Sci-fi, ABC, Pizza Planet

I kist tried 50's for the first time on my last trip. OMG! super yummy!!!

Epcot - Coral reef, Sunshine seasons, Akershus (character breakfast) Gelati, 9 dragons,

All of those are great choices! Not sure what Gelati is though... What about Food and Wine? I have plans to just eat at the kiosks...

DTD - babycakes, Earl of Sandwich, Planet hollywood, rainforest

Earl of Sandwich is super good! I also love Cookes for their battered burger... but... I now that would not be something you would go for, right?

And I have dined at a few resort - but my mom has not.
I have been to Boma, The Wave, Chef Mickey, Kona Cafe,

The Wave is so good! Boma too!!!

 

[veggiemama]

Hi Laura! Just had to say I am following along. Looks like we will barely miss each other in October. We fly home on 10/11...but we will be leaving the world on 10/9.

Hi Ann! Glad you're here. You will probably be able to answer most of my questions! LOL
Too bad we will miss each other. Would have been great to meet. Another time maybe - or who knows, plans do change??
Gotta go back and read!

All caught up...

Flights...

I have our October flights and I did book flying into Tampa rather than MCO. It was much cheaper over all. Since we will have a car anyway it seemed to be a good choice. It will be hard to not use DME, but I think we will still arrive the resort around the same time.

As for driving to a different place and then flying. I think for me, I would be fine on the way there. I would be so excited that the trip to the departure city would be part of the fun. On the way back though... I would just want to be home.

That's how I feel about flights too. I would travel quite aways an not have an issue with it. Especially since it is Oct and there is not (usually!) a lot of snow yet. But my mom is not always as keen on driving. So asking her to go for a 7 hour drive is asking a lot. Maybe we can do the 2 hour drive but so far when I have checked out flights from ND they are no cheaper then from here and they time of flights, and arrival in Orlando is really not ideal.
And I agree about the way home. When we are done, we are done, time to be home, even the flights and layovers feel like they are forever so I can't imagine having to deal with driving yet on top of it.

Restaurants....



Have you considered BOG? Definitely a new and unique experience. I am not sure how hard it still is to get an ADR for dinner.... and I think the CS for lunch still has long lines.
Thanks for the reminder. I totally forgot about BOG. I have heard that it is almost impossible to get ADR's for this one though? Our 180 day mark is coming up soon. Do you know what time you need to be online or on the phone to make this type of ADR?




Tusker remains my favorite place in AK. I love pre rope drop there!!!
AK rope drop is the only RD I have ever made! We did not go to Tusker, but I will have to go and check the menu it might be a good option for us since we love AK and are planning to be there right at RD.




I kist tried 50's for the first time on my last trip. OMG! super yummy!!!
I have not been to 50's, mostly because the theme for this restaurant is not one my DH likes. Might have to put this on the list with my mom then



All of those are great choices! Not sure what Gelati is though (ice cream from Italy I think)... What about Food and Wine? I have plans to just eat at the kiosks...
We have been debating about food and wine. Part of this issue for me is finding food. Alcohol - no problem! but food might be a different issue. So part of the thought was to go for dinner or late lunch so that I would not have to be dependent on the kiosks.



Earl of Sandwich is super good! I also love Cookes for their battered burger... but... I now that would not be something you would go for, right?
EOS - love that one! They have a great veggie sandwich and they were great at finding my a bread I could eat and at the time, my egg allergy was quite severe and they made sure that everything was clean. Would definitely go there again!
Battered burger... probably not sound interesting though?




The Wave is so good! Boma too!!!
Wave and Boma have become favorites of mine. My mom's response to Boma was that it was expensive? And here I thought it was a good price for the food and variety.

Mom and I are getting together next week to get our menus together and figure out which we need ADR's for so that we can get organized for our 180 day.

 

[annmarieda]

You are right... you never know how plans can change!

I don't know if I will be able to give you good answers to questions, but I am happy to try.

Trying to get BOG for dinner isn't too hard IF you are on that phone at your 180 day mark. I believe that they open 7am EST. For me, that means a 4am call.

As far as food and wine...I think there are some vegetarian options at each kiosk. I know for sure one is entirely devoted. I my memory is correct though... your challenge is also food allergy, right?

Battered burger... probably not sound interesting though?

I didn't think so. I really shouldn't eat things like that... not just the fact it is a battered and then deep fried burger... but the burger part.

How exciting that you are you mom are planning! Good luck with it and I can't wait to read about what you come up with!

 

[veggiemama]

You are right... you never know how plans can change!

I don't know if I will be able to give you good answers to questions, but I am happy to try.

Trying to get BOG for dinner isn't too hard IF you are on that phone at your 180 day mark. I believe that they open 7am EST. For me, that means a 4am call.
Good to know. I kind of figured I would have to be on there first thing to get it. thankfully my 180 day is on a Sunday. And since I am in Central time zone I guess I will be sitting there for 9 am. Much better than 4am! Ouch!

As far as food and wine...I think there are some vegetarian options at each kiosk. I know for sure one is entirely devoted. I my memory is correct though... your challenge is also food allergy, right?
Vegetarian options are good now I have been going through bunch of testing and I can seem to tolerate small amounts of dairy and eggs now (though I have to be careful with eggs) so as long as I keep my diet clean 95% of the time I can handle some dairy which could make food and wine an option

I didn't think so. I really shouldn't eat things like that... not just the fact it is a battered and then deep fried burger... but the burger part.
We all have our tempting foods With the amount you run I'm sure the occasional burger is not the worst thing you could do

How exciting that you are you mom are planning! Good luck with it and I can't wait to read about what you come up with!

Yup very happy to have this to do over Spring break. Especially since once again we are under a blizzard warning to day!! Disney dreaming helps to not fall to far into winter doldrums

 

[annmarieda]

Good to know. I kind of figured I would have to be on there first thing to get it. thankfully my 180 day is on a Sunday. And since I am in Central time zone I guess I will be sitting there for 9 am. Much better than 4am! Ouch!

Just wanting to make sure you meant to type 6am..right? I bet it will still be open at 9am, but I would hate for you to plan for 9, when you really mean to call right when they open.

Yup very happy to have this to do over Spring break. Especially since once again we are under a blizzard warning to day!! Disney dreaming helps to not fall to far into winter doldrums

Winter has been odd everywhere this year! Blizzard? Stay warm!!!

 

[veggiemama]

Just wanting to make sure you meant to type 6am..right? I bet it will still be open at 9am, but I would hate for you to plan for 9, when you really mean to call right when they open.

Yes, I meant 6 am! Not sure where my brain was when I posted that!

 

[veggiemama]

Dining Plans

Yikes it has been awhile since I have been on here! Sorry for that! This is an extremely busy time of year for me. From beginning of April to end of May it is totally go go go for me! My teaching schedule is full , every weekend has an event, whether it is recitals, marketing, meetings etc. Plus I start taking registration for next year now and so I am constantly on the phone, answering emails and conducting interviews. Lots of reasons why I have not been on here but it makes me sad that I do not get to spend as much time doing what I love right now.

On to happier things.... dining reservation day!

This is my 180 mark -today! So I was up bright and early (which works well because I have a ton of work to do before working at the symphony today) and got ready to make my dining reservations.

Mom and I got together a couple weeks ago to figure out our dining and though we have run into a bit of an 'I don't know what to do' senario we have our dining figured out - hopefully!

So on Friday, our travel day. We now know we will land at 2pm so by the time we get to pop and get settled we figure that we can make a late dinner. So we have booked:
Maya Grill for 7pm

Saturday: HS. We decided to do something we have never done and we booked the Fantasmic dinner package. So we have a 4:50 ADR at Mama Melrose. Which leads me to a question. With this time for dinner - what time do we go to Fantasmic? I can't find anywhere that tells me if Fantasmic is at 1 or 2 times in October? I am hoping that we will get to go to the earlier show.
Anyone know where I can find this info?

Sunday: Going to IOA
We figure we will come back and go to AoA for dinner.

Monday: DTD and resort touring.
We have a breakfast ADR at Kona Cafe for 8:30am. Our plan is to go to lots of resorts to check them out. Mom as never seen other resorts other than Contemporary so we wanted to take time to do this. So from Kona we will probably go to GF and Contemporary. Then head to DTD. Shop and go to:
Lunch: EOS
We have a dinner ADR at WL for Whispering Canyon for 6:55 but I'm not sure I'm going to keep this one.
If I don't - is there another resort that would be good for dining?

Tuesday: MK
So excited! I got BOG for 6:25 that day!
We have no other dining plans as we will do CS for the rest of the day.
I had a moment of panic this morning as I realized that MNSSHP is happening during this time and I had no idea if it would be on this day! After a bunch of searching and looking at MK hours for the day and week I realized that no, there is no MNSSHP that day! phew!

Wednesday: AK
This is why I may cancel our WC on Monday. I also made an ADR for WC on this day for 6:50 pm. I realized that after AK, which closes at 5pm this day we have more than enough time to get to WC.
BUT we have also talked about switching our DTD and AK days - not sure how tired we will be after MK and if we will be able to get to AK early enough for our liking. But it seems odd to do DTD, relax day on Wednesday when we leave on Friday. Really not sure what to do yet.

Thursday: Epcot
No dining ADR's for this day. We have figured that we will be able to find more than enough food at the food and wine that we don't need any extra sit down meals!

Friday: Travel day
We will have an extra pass so we will probably go to MK for the morning. But we will see. If we are too tired we may skip it, I might go by myself - who knows.


So there you go. Dining in a nutshell!

I can't believe we are only 6 months away from this trip!
I am still working on what to do for my mom for her birthday. We will be celebrating it on Tuesday, our MK day.

Next on Mom and my planning schedule is to figure out rides and shows so that we can start putting together and tentative itinerary. I don't always care about a specific step by step plan but my mom really like to have them so we will do them. Of course sticking to them once we are there is another story!

 

[annmarieda]

On to happier things.... dining reservation day!

This is my 180 mark -today! So I was up bright and early (which works well because I have a ton of work to do before working at the symphony today) and got ready to make my dining reservations.

So on Friday, our travel day. We now know we will land at 2pm so by the time we get to pop and get settled we figure that we can make a late dinner. So we have booked:
Maya Grill for 7pm

Maya Grill is pretty yummy! I think I far prefer it to the other "mexican" style restaurants on property.

Saturday: HS. We decided to do something we have never done and we booked the Fantasmic dinner package. So we have a 4:50 ADR at Mama Melrose. Which leads me to a question. With this time for dinner - what time do we go to Fantasmic? I can't find anywhere that tells me if Fantasmic is at 1 or 2 times in October? I am hoping that we will get to go to the earlier show.
Anyone know where I can find this info?

I want to say it is for the first one. I could be wrong though. It does seem to me like when we did it last we got there too late to get into the first though and were allowed to the second.

Sunday: Going to IOA
We figure we will come back and go to AoA for dinner.

I have heard great things about landscapes of flavor. I have had one meal there... but honestly cant remember how I felt about it.

Monday: DTD and resort touring.
We have a breakfast ADR at Kona Cafe for 8:30am. Our plan is to go to lots of resorts to check them out. Mom as never seen other resorts other than Contemporary so we wanted to take time to do this. So from Kona we will probably go to GF and Contemporary. Then head to DTD. Shop and go to:
Lunch: EOS
We have a dinner ADR at WL for Whispering Canyon for 6:55 but I'm not sure I'm going to keep this one.
If I don't - is there another resort that would be good for dining?

What about the Wave at the contemporary? It is pretty yummy and I believe would have a lot of options for you.

Tuesday: MK
So excited! I got BOG for 6:25 that day!
We have no other dining plans as we will do CS for the rest of the day.
I had a moment of panic this morning as I realized that MNSSHP is happening during this time and I had no idea if it would be on this day! After a bunch of searching and looking at MK hours for the day and week I realized that no, there is no MNSSHP that day! phew!

That is so cool that you got BOG!!!

Wednesday: AK
This is why I may cancel our WC on Monday. I also made an ADR for WC on this day for 6:50 pm. I realized that after AK, which closes at 5pm this day we have more than enough time to get to WC.
BUT we have also talked about switching our DTD and AK days - not sure how tired we will be after MK and if we will be able to get to AK early enough for our liking. But it seems odd to do DTD, relax day on Wednesday when we leave on Friday. Really not sure what to do yet.

That is tapering down isn't it... a low key day, then another and then departure. It would leave you not needing a vacation from your vacation though.

Thursday: Epcot
No dining ADR's for this day. We have figured that we will be able to find more than enough food at the food and wine that we don't need any extra sit down meals!

I think that is wise! I was hoping to plan a day like that myself. Not sure it is going to work out for me though since dd insists on the dp... and we will have to use credits up.

Friday: Travel day
We will have an extra pass so we will probably go to MK for the morning. But we will see. If we are too tired we may skip it, I might go by myself - who knows.

Time to yourself in the park is a very cool thing. I really have found I enjoy it. At first I wasn't sure I would, but turned out to be pretty cool.

I can't believe we are only 6 months away from this trip!
I am still working on what to do for my mom for her birthday. We will be celebrating it on Tuesday, our MK day.

It will be here before you know it!!!

Next on Mom and my planning schedule is to figure out rides and shows so that we can start putting together and tentative itinerary. I don't always care about a specific step by step plan but my mom really like to have them so we will do them. Of course sticking to them once we are there is another story!

I cant wait to hear what you come up with!