So This is Love...Celebrating 1-Year Disney-Style! **BYE! 7/31 p.3**

[Wonders10]

Well, I wanted everyone to know I officially booked the June trip this afternoon! Just a quickie, but it means two trips in two months!

June 13-15
Pop Century
Myself, mom, 12 y/o niece, (probably) 10 y/o nephew
Magic Your Way Package with 1-Day Base Tickets

More details to come...

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone! Giving my pre-TR a little bump! Not much has happened as far as planning goes (for either trip), but I'm going to try to get an update of some sort in this week. Thanks for sticking with me! I know someone is reading because the views count is increasing lol. Have a great week everyone!

 

[Eventer98]

Yeah for the 2nd trip!! I am going to miss you by about 2 weeks...we are going 5/29-6/3 and staying at Pop as well! First time for us! Happy planning

 

[Wonders10]

Okay, in August news, I came thisclose to convincing Jeff to switch to a Disney resort with a Magic Your Way package. But Jeff decided that he really would like the extra room so were staying put. Then, he gave me a heart attack the other day when he mentioned cancelling Disney altogether. He had been exposed to a Disney-hater! Who shared that it would be hot and crowded with too many kids, etc. All of the things he knew would definitely be a possibility. But doesnt he realize he is dating a Disney expert? One who knows how to get to the parks early to maximize ride time with minimal waits and take afternoon breaks for naps and swims in the pool? So for a day or so, I researched other options but it sounds like he is back onboard with the Disney trip. If we cancelled this August trip, I would be bummed, but not as bummed as Id be if I didnt already have a June trip booked!

Im planning on getting the Tables in Wonderland (TIW) card for June and August. Unbeknownst to me, it cant be used at Yak and Yeti, so I will be cancelling that restaurant ADR for sure. It can be used at a few of the counter service places at AK so well eat at one of those restaurants instead. So as far as planning goes, cancelling that ADR is it!

Id like to have an idea of our Saturday evening plans, but I think its best if I just leave it up in the air for now.

 

[Wonders10]

Okay, so with our June trip officially booked I thought Id introduce you to the cast and give a tentative plan for this quickie trip.

You all know me!

Then there is my mom, who recently retired from 35 years in Law Enforcement (a civilian) back in February:

Then there is my 12 year old niece, Claire and 10 year old nephew, Owen:

I know its so ghetto to take a picture of a picture, but I realized I dont have any recent ones on my phone! This was their Christmas card. And remember, Claire is definitely going and Owen probably will but just waiting on baseball schedules to know for sure.

Dates and Plans
June 13-15, 2013
Pop Century, standard room
Magic Your Way Package with 1-day tickets

Thursday June 13, 2013
The plan at this point is to leave relatively early in the morning. Fingers crossed its no later than 9am. Once everyone has been picked up and the car has been loaded, well make the almost 3-hour drive to Disney! First order of business is to hit DTD to get my TIW card (unless I order it beforehand), then check in at Pop. After lunch at Pop, I thought wed take advantage of the free mini golf tickets that come with the package and then hit DTD for some shopping and an early dinner at Planet Hollywood (to use the $15 voucher that comes with the package going to get every penny out of it lol).

Friday June 14, 2013
The kiddos dont know it yet, but we are going to Epcot (as opposed to MK) because I really want an Epcot fix and we were all at MK in December. I already have a lunch ADR at Via Napoli and evening plans are in the air&

Saturday June 15, 2013
Its already time to go home! Well eat a nice breakfast at the resort and then head to the outlet mall off 535 so the girls can visit the Vera Bradley outlet (and maybe some other outlet stores&*cough* Dooney & Bourke, Coach). Then drive back home, content with a quick visit at our happy place!

Sorry the updates are a little boring! Thanks for reading!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

If you can order the card in advance, I think they give yo u a plastic one (or at least they used to!) The paper one is okay but the one I had before from the mail was plastic and I loved it!!!!

 

[Wonders10]

Yeah for the 2nd trip!! I am going to miss you by about 2 weeks...we are going 5/29-6/3 and staying at Pop as well! First time for us! Happy planning

I'm so excited to have 2 trips planned! I think you'll like Pop. We've stayed there a few times and never really had any complaints.

If you can order the card in advance, I think they give yo u a plastic one (or at least they used to!) The paper one is okay but the one I had before from the mail was plastic and I loved it!!!!

Thanks for the heads up...I'll have to add it to my to-do list!

 

[Wonders10]

Good Morning! TGIF!

So glad it's Friday...18 days of school left . I cannot wait for summer!

A few small changes coming your way...

Jeff's dad is a generous guy and has very generously offered to help "fund" part of this vacation! I think it's sweet and I love that my own personal money will be able to go a lot further.

Jeff really enjoys his job and really hates having to take time off so he rarely does it. He has a trip planned to visit his family in NJ in June, then this trip in August and then Thanksgiving, where I will finally be joining him and flying to NJ! Anyway, he really only likes to take a day off at a time, if at all. So he wasn't loving the idea that he'd be missing 2 days of work in August. I think its ridiculous because its not like its a week of work and he is giving plenty of notice, but thats how it is and I guess I should be glad its not the other way where he misses work all the time, right? Anyway, I digress.

If you recall, our original plan had us arriving Friday morning and leaving Monday morning. Well, after some back and forth we are now leaving Friday after Jeff gets off work. Then, still leave on Monday but in the afternoon. So the new itinerary looks like this:

Friday - Leave after work, dinner who knows where and check in at resort

Saturday - Animal Kingdom and ?? at night

Sunday - Disney Studios and our anniversary dinner at Shula's

Monday - DisneyQuest and DTD and driving home

It all works for me because I'm going to my happy place with my sweetie. But if you can't tell already, someone in this group (J) likes to change things a lot and someone (me) in this group has a lot of patience for dealing with said changes

That's it for now! Enjoy your weekend...thanks for reading!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates. One, its the end of the school year and I've got lots of annoying work things to do so less time to DIS. Two, there hasn't really been any huge planning updates other than I'm making a budget of how much money we need and thinking of little ways to make money (like collecting all our change, etc.) to cut down on our actual out of pocket cost. Third, I may not be going to Disney in June afterall so I don't want to overplan for a trip that may not be happening. Its sort of up in the air and it once again comes back to my nephew's baseball schedule. Except, I'll still get a trip out of it.

See, I guess they are waiting to hear if he makes the all star team or something like that. If he does he'll have a tournament the weekend we are going to Disney. Normally, they'd say to still go with Claire and Owen can go next time. But this tournament is in KEY WEST! And the hotel is paid for through the team so its practically free So, if thats the case, my mom and I will go with them to the tournament and transfer our Disney trip to another date since we can't cancel it without losing money. We're thinking November because we're contemplating a 5K

More updates coming soon, I hope!

 

[Eventer98]

Bummer if you can't go on your trip but it would be great to do a 5K!! I have my first one of the summer next month. Would it be a Disney one??

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone!

So sorry for the lack of updates lately. As those of you that work in a school know, the end of the year is a crazy time, boxing up files, last minute meetings, etc. Its nuts but I can happily say that after today there are only 6 more days of school/work!!! I cannot wait for summer. Although I will be working some for a friend who owns her own therapy business. But just 7 hours a week 3x/week. Something to keep my mind thinking and take up some of my free time.

I also had a busy 4-day weekend celebrating my birthday! I had a wonderful day and all I can say is what a difference a year makes. Last year my mom and I had a nice dinner at a restaurant and I was looking forward to moving and leaving my job lol, essentially starting over. This year, I’m SO happy and had a wonderful brunch with all my family and Jeff at a restaurant on the ocean, then a very yummy dinner with Jeff at a famous steakhouse here. Got some nice gifts too lol. Top of the list are my new pearl earrings from Jeff, a new Vera Bradley Bag and a Lilly Pulitzer iPhone cover. I’m a lucky girl.

As for the August Disney-versary, no such updates are available. With the June trip coming first, I’m sort of focusing on that, plus our ADRs were made so that is the one biggie I worried about. So as we take a breather from that one, let’s talk June…!

There are actual changes for this trip! First, there is definitely NO Key West trip so that is not an option anymore. Second, we found out Claire had a golf tournament on the Saturday we were returning and she flipped when she thought she might be missing it. So, I called Disney and was able to bump up our vacation to Wednesday! And the CM was so great, she realized there was now a Florida resident discount I didn’t know about so we saved $40 on top of it! So our new dates are Wednesday June 12-Friday June 14. Still a short trip, but now Claire can definitely go and I’m getting really excited! It sounds like Owen won’t be able to make it because he is on 2 baseball teams and they play all the time it seems. And not to be a mean aunt, but I’m sort of hoping it’s just us girls because Claire is at that fun age where she likes to shop and look at all the same things as me lol. But if Owen is able to come, we will still have a blast. I was able to bump up our dining arrangements as well for the new dates and the plans are pretty much the same. We’ll play that arrival day by ear, but Thursday will definitely be Epcot day!

So I think that is it as far as updates go. I’m sort of making a mental list of must do’s for June (I’m noticing a lot of them revolve around food!), so maybe I’ll share that in my next update! Thanks for reading!!!

 

[Wonders10]

Bummer if you can't go on your trip but it would be great to do a 5K!! I have my first one of the summer next month. Would it be a Disney one??

Disney is still on! But we are still thinking of doing a 5K. Its part of the Disney Wine and Dine 1/2 marathon weekend in November. The 5K goes through Animal Kingdom!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone!

I’m officially on summer vacation! I will be working 2 days a week in the morning, but that is nothing compared to a full time gig. I’m so excited to have this time off. I have some pretty exciting updates for both of my Disney weekends. So here we go…

August
As I mentioned, I booked Bonnet Creek through Vacation Upgrades based on great reviews from the We Looooove Bonnet Creek thread. They have not disappointed. One of the perks of booking with them is that at the 60-day mark, they will attempt to rebook your reservation at a lower price if it is available. Well, they called last week to confirm that I wanted them to look for a cheaper price (of course, who would say no?). And I received an email last night that they were successful! So our new 2-bedroom price saved us $120 overall! Jeff and I love a good deal! That’s the only update for August.

June
I will be in Epcot this time next week! Ok, the huge news is that we are not staying at Pop anymore. I know I was so happy that we got a lower price when we changed the days of the trip, but I, for whatever reason, decided to look online and noticed a certain deluxe resort wasn’t that much more (at least what my mom and I would each end up paying) considering it’s a deluxe resort. So after talking with my mom about it, I upgraded us to……






The Polynesian!!!!!



I cannot even tell you how excited I am. I love the Poly and have been lucky to stay there a couple times. I love that we will be able to walk to the monorail/TTC, and I have always felt the Poly is just pure, classic Disney. Changing resorts doesn't really change our plans for either day but I do have a feeling our arrival day will be played "by ear" and I'm okay with that. I really want to take advantage of our location since we are only there 2 nts. Maybe a monorail resort crawl for some shopping, exploring, and treats?

So those are my two updates for now! Thanks for reading!

 

[Eventer98]

That's awesome that you will be at the Poly now!! I have always wanted to stay there but since it's not DVC I doubt we will. Have a great time!!!

 

[Wonders10]

Hello and Happy Tuesday!

I just returned home from the gym and about to have some lunch and then pack because…I’m leaving for Disney tomorrow! I’ve decided to sleep over at my mom’s tonight so that we have less driving here and there picking everyone up. And…Owen will be able to come with us! Baseball is over so he’s available! We are now a four-some. Again, it doesn’t change plans at all except we will have to buy his ticket once we are there. No biggie.

We always bring a couple snacks for the car and the room, nothing huge with all that Disney goodness around. So I finally made something I had seen on Pinterest…Mickey Trail Mix. I believe they called it Mouska Munch (like Moose Munch?). But its more of a trail/snack mix.

Ingredients:
Pretzels (whatever you like…I got the square shaped “snaps”)
Nuts (whatever you like…I got honey roasted peanuts)
Yogurt covered raisins (for the white color)
M&Ms…only the red, yellow and brown ones

This is what separating M&Ms looks like:

Then you dump everything in a container and it looks like this:

You can’t see the red and yellow part so well but I’m sure it will be a tasty salty-sweet snack! You could also do it with different color M&Ms, like the blue, green and orange for Goofy!

I’m hoping to get an early start tomorrow. My DSIL is also bunking at her mom’s house which is near my mom’s so she will be dropping the kiddos off around 8:30 and then we will hit the road for the approximately 3-hour drive!

In August news, nothing to report except I think we officially decided to do Epcot and Animal Kingdom as our 2 parks. And we made a lunch ADR at Via Napoli. When I realized we’d be going to Epcot, I gave Jeff a run down of the lunch options and he said he’d think about it which means he thinks about it next time I bring it up . But he did think about it and the other day out of nowhere shared that he thinks Italy is where we should eat. It just makes me so happy when he says things that make me know he was thinking of it on his own, not because I was blabbing about and he had no choice but to listen!

Sort of off topic, but when I made the reservation online for Via Napoli, Le Cellier had a lot of lunch tables available which blew my mind. I know I should have grabbed one but we will be going to a steakhouse Sunday night for dinner (Shula’s) and I don’t want to be steak-ed out since we rarely eat any red meat at home.

So that’s it for now. I may or may not be back on before I leave so stay tuned here for my mini trip report!

"See" you in a few days!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone! We are back from our quick (and fun) trip to the world! I’m not doing a full blown trip report but I will do a run-down of each day with some pictures!

Wednesday morning, Claire and Owen were dropped off at my mom's house around 8:30, but we chatted way too long with DSIL and didn’t hit the road until 9:15! Oh well…even though it was a only a 3 hour drive, I had drank way too much that morning and had to make a pit stop about half way and then around 12 we were driving through those wonderful WDW arches! We made it to the Polynesian in no time, parked ourselves and walked into the beautiful lobby.

There was no line for check in and we soon figured out why. Apparently with all the switching over the system to the new one (with all the scanning and bracelets and stuff), it crashed their current computer system so they weren’t able to officially check us in. So because of the inconvenience and because we had a package booked, they gave us FREE passes to the parks! And…they are good forever! That was fine with us because we really had no plans to visit a park on arrival day and we only needed the one ticket for Owen because we had not added him to our reservation. So…my mom very graciously said that Jeff and I could use the other two free ones when we go in August!

Knowing that our room would not be ready for awhile, we headed to Capt. Cook’s for lunch. I have not quite gotten into the whole food picture thing yet so no pics of food, but everything we had was yummy. We browsed the shops in the Poly and decided to take a spin on the monorail and get off at GF to browse for a bit.

Loved this display:

We loved going through Basin and trying all the scrub samples. Owen especially was fascinated with how soft his hands were after using it. It was pretty funny. As we were walking around, we of course were thinking about dinner since we had a feeling our room still wasn’t going to be ready and we didn’t have ADRs anywhere. We opted to finish our monorail tour and then drive to DTD for dinner and some shopping.

At DTD, we hit Basin again and I bought some bar soap for Jeff and we just had to wash our hands again…Owen insisted . Then we went to World of Disney and I bought a journal/notebook with Steamboat Willie on the cover. I have a sick obsession with notebooks and making lists and jotting down notes, not so much journaling so this fed right into it.

I really want to get these shirts for Jeff and I. I don't think he'll go for it though...

We browsed some more through the Lego store.

Mom and I had a margarita, browsed some more, and then we decided we needed to get some dinner. We really lucked out and were able to get into T-Rex Café with only a 15 minute wait. We were seated right outside the Ice Age room if you are familiar with the restaurant.

Our server was really friendly and nice, and the food was yummy! Everyone left happy and full.

I had gotten a text during dinner that our room was ready so we headed back to the Poly only to find out that our room was ready, but the system was still down. They gave us a generic room key plus our tickets and told us we should come back in the morning to make sure our tickets were on the cards (which annoyed me because I didn’t want to have to trek all the way to the lobby when we were going to the TTC, but oh well, no biggie). Our room was on the 3rd floor in Tahiti, which some of you may know is very far from the Great Ceremonial House, but very close to the TTC walkway. We made it to the room, changed into swimsuits and headed to the pool, hearing thunder the whole way. Yep, pool closed. So into the arcade we went to use our package points. Pool is starting to open so outside we go and 10 minutes later, they decided they aren’t going to open. Okay…no pool. We went to Capt. Cook’s for dessert…3 Dole Whips and a cookie. Yum, love Dole Whips!

After dessert, we decided to call it a night since the pool was not going to happen. We all fell fast asleep looking forward to a fun day in Epcot.

Thanks everyone for reading! Stay tuned for our full day at Epcot! And will we finally make it to the pool?

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

YAY FOR POLY!!!! When DF and I stayed in March he liked it but he actually liked GF better and we were not club level there like we were in Poly!!! I wonder if we had a castle view his opinion would change lol.

 

[Wonders10]

YAY FOR POLY!!!! When DF and I stayed in March he liked it but he actually liked GF better and we were not club level there like we were in Poly!!! I wonder if we had a castle view his opinion would change lol.

The Poly really is my favorite, but I do still have GF on my list of "someday" resorts! Thanks for stopping by to read and comment!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone! Here's Part 2 of 3 of my mini-trip report. Enjoy!

P.S. Please comment...I know someone is reading it because the view counts are going up!

My mom was the first to awake, and then I showered and soon everyone was up getting ready for Epcot! We had decided to just nibble on the cookies and trail mix we had and then eat breakfast at the park, so we all made the trek to the GCH to double-check our tickets were working, and then allllll the way back towards the TTC to grab the monorail. The ride to Epcot is one of my favorite parts of traveling the world.

We had to wait a bit on the monorail for the one in front of us, but it didn’t really matter because the lines to get into the park were huge! We decided to hit Soarin’ first and then Test Track. Well, our plans were foiled. The stand-by for Soarin’ was already 45 minutes! And the FP return time was during our lunch ADR. So, we just skipped it altogether and booked it to Test Track where we grabbed a FP that we’d use right after lunch. At least we got one of them in, right? We were hungry so we grabbed iced coffees (for the grown-ups) and some pastries all around at the cart near Universe of Energy. Then, we decided since we were right there, let’s go on it!

I really do like UoE, but I just wish it wasn’t quite as long. The kids had not seen it in years so it was practically brand new to them. Then it was off to Imagination to visit Figment!

By this time, it was getting close to our ADR time and World Showcase had just opened. We skipped Mexico, but Maelstrom had a very short wait so we hopped on. Battling the trolls made us really hungry so we walked the rest of the way to Italy and checked in.

A short 10 minutes later, we were being seated. Now, last summer we all went on a Mediterranean cruise and went to the real Italy and had some of the best pizza of my life! We were curious how Via Napoli would compare. And you know what? It was right up there! So yummy. We shared the calamari appetizer and got a large pizza for the 4 of us, half eggplant. OMG, I wish I had a slice now!

We skipped dessert because we were all stuffed and had some other treats we wanted to try around World Showcase so we paid the bill, and headed back towards Test Track!

Thank goodness for FPs…the standby was 90 minutes and there were people getting in line. No, thank you. We breezed through to the area where you design your car. We were split into 2 parties of 2 for the design part. I had not ridden this in years and the update is so much fun! We all loved it! Then we hoofed it back to World Showcase to finally explore some of the countries. My goal was to try to take a picture in each country. So here is what we came up with…

We stopped in Germany for a treat from Karamel Kuche…chocolate and caramel dipped pineapple and grapes for my mom and I to share and a HUGE chocolate and caramel rice krispie treat for the kiddos. Yum!

We were starting to fade as we rounded Canada, but then we saw this:

Apparently it has been coming up onto the grass everyday and walking around and I just love turtles so I had to stop and watch him. He finally was able to jump back into the water and we were able to move on towards Future World. We didn’t even attempt to check Soarin’, but instead went to The Seas which was a walk on and then checked out all the fishes…and of course the Sea Turtles! Next was a quick browse through MouseGears but I was feeling cheap and didn’t get anything. Our last ride was Spaceship Earth, which the kids thought was really fun. Then we headed out towards the monorail with one destination in mind. The Poly and the Volcano Pool! And wouldn’t you know we heard thunder as we were waiting for the monorail…Would we finally make it to the pool? Stay tuned for part 3 to find out!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone! TGIF! We've made some minor changes to our August plans so wanted to post our most up to date itinerary for those following along!

Friday-
Leave in the morning and hopefully arrive by lunchtime...possibly at ESPN. Check into resort, grocery shopping, DisneyQuest and dinner at Raglan Road.

Saturday-
Epcot and lunch at Via Napoli. Since our "free" tickets are hoppers, DHS in the evening and dinner at Sci-Fi.

Sunday-
Animal Kingdom with a counter service lunch. Dinner at Shula's.

Monday-
Leave EARLY so Jeff can head into work around lunchtime.

There you have it! We are both getting very excited! Thanks for reading!