The Girls are going to Disney! A Nov. 2011 pretrip report. (Upd. 11/22 - we're home)

[joy13]

I want to take time today to thank those in the Military for keeping us free. I also want to thank Firefighters, First Responders and Police officers for keeping us safe!




We interrupt this regurlarly scheduled pre-trip report to discuss.....

The Packers!!!​

As you could tell from my intro pictures - we are huge Packer fans in this house. We are also season ticket holders (very lucky to be - there are 80,000 on the waiting list ) so my husband and I got to go to the NFL kickoff game last Thursday, Sept. 8th - which was held at Lambeau Field. This was a big deal for Green Bay because it's the closest thing to a Superbowl the city will ever host. The NFL put on a concert featuring Maroon 5, Lady Antebellem and Kid Rock. It was pretty cool. I'll post a couple of pictures I took and then a link to the whole album.

View of the crowd from the top of the stadium:

Aaron Rodgers

Stadium crowd during the National Anthem

The rest of the album: http://s795.photobucket.com/albums/yy240/MDisney2009/Packer Saints game 9 8 11/

My video of the opening kickoff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldy9DF52x30&feature=channel_video_title

 

[jenseib]

very cool. I think Carey was at that game too

 

[Caretames1]

Hello fellow Wisconsinite! I just found and read your PTR. Awesome plans, and it sounds like Jen did a an awesome job for you. (psst, my next trip may just go through her)

I see you went to the season opener! We had planned on going to the concert, but with the crowds we decided to stay home and watch on TV. I did go to the Sept 1st Packer Game! My uncle has season tickets, and he was nice enough to offer them to us. His seats are on the 30 yard line, section 115 , row 12! Yes, I said 12! It was AWESOME!!!


Anyways, thought I's say Hi, and looking forward to your other plans and trip summary!

Carey

 

[joy13]

Hello fellow Wisconsinite! I just found and read your PTR. Awesome plans, and it sounds like Jen did a an awesome job for you. (psst, my next trip may just go through her)

I see you went to the season opener! We had planned on going to the concert, but with the crowds we decided to stay home and watch on TV. I did go to the Sept 1st Packer Game! My uncle has season tickets, and he was nice enough to offer them to us. His seats are on the 30 yard line, section 115 , row 12! Yes, I said 12! It was AWESOME!!!


Anyways, thought I's say Hi, and looking forward to your other plans and trip summary!

Carey

Very cool! Glad you got to go on 9/1 - my DH and daughter were at that game as well!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Ooh so jealous you were at the Packer game. If you ever can't go and need someone to use your tickets, you can give them to us. LOL. I am dying to go to another Packer game.

Great DHS plans! The Osborne Lights are awesome. If you can, get there right before they turn them on. It's pretty neat when they are all turned on.

 

[joy13]

Ooh so jealous you were at the Packer game. If you ever can't go and need someone to use your tickets, you can give them to us. LOL. I am dying to go to another Packer game.

Great DHS plans! The Osborne Lights are awesome. If you can, get there right before they turn them on. It's pretty neat when they are all turned on.

I'll keep you in mind I'm hoping we can see the lights turning on before our ADR, but I think they might be at the same time.

 

[joy13]

A couple of updates before I do my next update.....

Our plane ride back - the back story - in April my Mom and I went to Las Vegas on Frontier airlines and our flight home was delayed for 6 hrs and we ended up flying overnight instead of during the evening. It was due to mechanical problems, so they gave us each a $200 credit towards a flight to be used within a year. It's part of the reason we decided to take this trip. So our return flight is booked through Frontier. Well, last week I got an email from Frontier and it had a schedule change where we got into the Milwaukee airport at 1:48 and had our connecting flight to Green Bay leaving at 11 am something. That obviously doesn't work - so I called. Turns out they are cancelling our connecting flight that was originally booked and there is not another connecting flight to Green Bay until 9:45pm. That's 8hrs in the airport and Green Bay is only 2hrs from Milwaukee by car. And the lady I talked to at Frontier couldn't promise that the 9:45 flight wouldn't get cancelled. I asked about them getting us a free rental car to drive home - she said she didn't think they did that, but went to talk to her supervisor. She came back and said she was able to get us on a United Flight that left at about the same time. So it worked out in the end and took a couple of phonecalls and a long time on hold Thankfully, they aren't charging us any change fees, since it was their issue. I do need to call United though and get seat assignments.

My other update is a fun one, I ordered our MVMCP tickets for 11/18 I chose to print our tickets at home since it was free, so I hope I don't forget where I put them

Maddie just found out her good friend may be at DW some of the same days we are - so I suppose she will want to change our plans all around, but that is not going to happen

Hopefully I'll update our next park day soon - especially since I ordered the Christmas party tickets.

 

[FosterA]

Yay for getting your Christmas party tix
I also can't wait for the party and Osborne lights!!

p.s. I just looked back in your report some and saw that yummy looking chocolate chunk of goodness and now I want chocolate!!!

 

[jenseib]

Man that airline is being a pain...at least they got you all set now.

Yay for MVMCP tickets!

 

[Caretames1]

our flight home was delayed for 6 hrs and we ended up flying overnight instead of during the evening. It was due to mechanical problems, so they gave us each a $200 credit towards a flight to be used within a year. It's part of the reason we decided to take this trip. .

That how our trip came about! We were delayed in Jan for 6-7 hours because the engine blew out at the gate. They had said something to us about fixing it, but I was like NO, I want a plane thats already working!
It all turned out and we got $400 total for the four of us from AirTran ( out of Milwaukee) , which we were able to use for next week.

 

[poisonapple_PRINCESS]

My other update is a fun one, I ordered our MVMCP tickets for 11/18 I chose to print our tickets at home since it was free, so I hope I don't forget where I put them

we're going 12/16 to MVMCP! I was just looking at your second number at first and thought you were going to the one a few days after ours! I'm very excited to go to this!

 

[joy13]

Yay for getting your Christmas party tix
I also can't wait for the party and Osborne lights!!

p.s. I just looked back in your report some and saw that yummy looking chocolate chunk of goodness and now I want chocolate!!!

That came from Starring Rolls at HS - I highly recommend the bakery there

Man that airline is being a pain...at least they got you all set now.

Yay for MVMCP tickets!

I know - the nice thing - I never had to call United, I could pick our seats online - yay!

That how our trip came about! We were delayed in Jan for 6-7 hours because the engine blew out at the gate. They had said something to us about fixing it, but I was like NO, I want a plane thats already working!
It all turned out and we got $400 total for the four of us from AirTran ( out of Milwaukee) , which we were able to use for next week.

Bummer about the delay (I don't blame you for wanting a new plane ) But about the trip! You are there now I think - hope you are having fun!

we're going 12/16 to MVMCP! I was just looking at your second number at first and thought you were going to the one a few days after ours! I'm very excited to go to this!

When I get back I'll be sure to review the party before you leave



I hope to get an update done today

 

[joy13]

Happy 40th Birthday to the Magic Kingdom!!!​

I'm going to celebrate this occasion by doing a trip update for our.......

Magic Kingdom day!!!

Our second full park day will be at the Magic Kingdom. Hopefully we will have been there on our arrival day and gotten a few things done. This is going to be a long day for us because we will be attending MVMCP that night Thankfully the night before should be an early night - so we should be well rested.

I plan for us to arrive before park opening to be there for rope drop (the park opens at 9:00am). We will do the obligitory photopass pics with the castle:

Then head through tomorrowland for me to get a fastpass for Space Mountain. Then head up to Fantasyland and hopefully knock that out in short order. From there I don't have much of a plan. We want to see:

Haunted Mansion
Pirates of the Caribbean
Big ThunderMountain Railroad (I think - daughter has been weird about rollercoasters)
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
Maybe Hall of Presidents.

Plus see characters - Princesses, Tinkerbelle, and Tiana:

Maddie wanted to dress up as Tiana in her blue dress, so I found a dress on Ebay that is close (the listing doesn't show a picture anymore) so I bought it. I may take her to the Barber Shop to get her hair done. I don't really want to spend the money on BBB since we've done it twice already. Maddie hasn't been begging for it either. So it will depend on weather and Maddie's mood whether she'll wear the dress all morning, change etc. I may have to rent a locker because I don't want to drag the dress around if she's not wearing it.

We have a 1:40 ADR for CRT:

so I hope she will wear her dress for that.

After our ADR I plan to leave the park and go back to Pop to rest for the party. What time we go back for the party will depend on what time we get back to Pop. I would like to be back to MK by 5:30 though just to get wristbands etc. before the big rush around 7:00. I have never been to MVMCP before, so I can't say much about what we will do. Hopefully we'll have ridden most of the rides we want to, so we can just do party stuff. I know people always say to see the second parade, but I always do the first one, so that if we love it we can see it twice For the Boo to You Parade, I have always watched in Liberty Square and that was great. But for this parade, I may try Main St. so we can experience the snow. Anyone have advice for where to watch the parade and Fireworks let me know. For MNSSHP we never really do anything in between the two. I would love to stay to the very end, but that will depend on how we are feeling. I don't think the new monorail issues will affect us since we are going back to POP and not a monorail resort or the TTC - so for that I am thankful.

Anyone who has any advice on the party - feel free to share! Especially for meeting characters. I hate to wait in long lines for characters, but I don't know if it can be prevented at the parties?

 

[petals]

Joining in. We miss you by like 3 days!

 

[Caretames1]

I can't speak for MVMCP but the lines for characters were long enough at MNSSHP.

I can't wait to see how your trip went, I'm very interested in MVMCP!

 

[skier_pete]

Looks like a fun day - I'm sure you'll love the party.

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!! Cant wait to hear more!!

 

[mom2rtk]

I think doing a November MVMCP will be a great experience. I doubt it will be anywhere near as busy as the December parties, and the odds of a cold snap are much lower.

My main advice is to stay glued to the DIS after the first party and find out all the details about where all the characters are. The biggest challenge will likely be the dwarves (assuming they are out this year) and the princess line (if Flynn is there with Rapunzel). Both will be longer waits.

I've really been shocked at the reports on how busy MNSSHP has been so far. 2 sell-outs in September is really amazing. You won't have to deal with a sell out. But the biggest problem with MVMCP is that there isn't as much to do as with MNSSHP.

They did add a lot more characters this year to MNSSHP. I sure hope they show the same kind of love to MVMCP!

 

[joy13]

Joining in. We miss you by like 3 days!

We'll have to compare notes when we all get back

I can't speak for MVMCP but the lines for characters were long enough at MNSSHP.

I can't wait to see how your trip went, I'm very interested in MVMCP!

I'll be sure to report in. We haven't done a lot of character lines at MNSSHP for that reason - but since we should be done with rides, maybe we will this time.

Looks like a fun day - I'm sure you'll love the party.

I hope so! I bet we will too

Count me in!!! Cant wait to hear more!!

I think doing a November MVMCP will be a great experience. I doubt it will be anywhere near as busy as the December parties, and the odds of a cold snap are much lower.

My main advice is to stay glued to the DIS after the first party and find out all the details about where all the characters are. The biggest challenge will likely be the dwarves (assuming they are out this year) and the princess line (if Flynn is there with Rapunzel). Both will be longer waits.

I've really been shocked at the reports on how busy MNSSHP has been so far. 2 sell-outs in September is really amazing. You won't have to deal with a sell out. But the biggest problem with MVMCP is that there isn't as much to do as with MNSSHP.

They did add a lot more characters this year to MNSSHP. I sure hope they show the same kind of love to MVMCP!

When I read about this years MNSSHP I thought the same thing, so I have high hopes for MVMCP. The crowds this fall are scary though! Hopefully November won't be that bad. I can't wait until the first reports start rolling in.

 

[FosterA]

Yep, sounds like a perfect day to me
It will be my first party too (well first for most things Disney really) and I'm just not sure what to expect and whether we'll try to watch first or second parade or what. Either way....how could it not be fun? MK is probably gorgeous at Christmas time!