The Griswold's Have Nothing On Us! An AKL Sept/Oct 2015 PTR! Update 7/13

[stitchfan75]

I'M DOING THE THING!!!

I had started a previous PTR but after finding it, it was broken a little during the board migration of 2015...sad face. So I decided to start a new one!

When: September 26th-October 3rd
Where: Animal...Kingdom..Lodge!!!!

I will update more later when I'm not in a hurry to leave work but....so excited!!!!

 

[stitchfan75]

So Let's Begin Shall We...

Welcome to my NEW first pre-trip resort! Pull up some tea, or a venti iced coffee, whatever you need because we are in for the long haul!

This trip will be just our family which includes dh, dd13, dd11, and me! So let's do some introductions and then we will get into the vacation plans

Cast member #1 is dh:


This was taken a couple weeks ago when our refrigerator broke so we traveled to Nebraska Furniture Mart for a new one. That place was seriously massive and we spent almost 4 hours there just looking at all the things!
Anyway...dh is not as Disney addicted as I am, he is pretty much tolerating this trip with the promise of breakfast with Stitch. He's an infrastructure analyst with a large soda company here in TX.

Favorites
Characters: Stitch and Kronk
Ride: Star Tours
Princess: Emma from OUAT (Does she count? He thinks so because she's part of the Disney-verse.)

Next is...Cast Member #2 Miss BeBe (dd13):


This is Christmas 2014, being a typical teenager she wanted her photo to be approved and filtered BeBe loves all things Disney, from OUAT to Marvel to Princesses. In fact, I originally had not planned any princess M&G's because I figured the girl's had outgrown all that. While making ADR's it was the oldest that asked if we were having breakfast with the princesses and suggested Norway (I can never spell the name right, it's the one with the "A" name!) She will be turning 14 a few weeks before we leave!
Her dream is be part of the DCP and play Snow White in the parks. She does show choir, plays in the orchestra, and wants to be a pediatric psych nurse one day!

Favorites
Characters: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
Ride: Anything BUT the Ferris Wheel at DCA
Princess: Snow White

Cast member #3...Miss P (dd11):


This picture was taken just this week when she graduated from 6th grade. Seems like yesterday we had just moved to TX and she was in kindergarten! P is the world's biggest Marvel fan. Her favorite characters are Agent Coulson and Tony Stark. She was slightly disappointed to find out there were no Marvel characters at WDW like there is at DL.
P is a JO diver and is coming off 9 months of rest after getting a little burned out last season. She had moved up from novice to JO, attended a big camp at UT Austin, had a bad dive off the 10M and hit a wall. So we stepped back, did a tumbling class and last week she started back to prepare for tryouts in August. She also plays in the orchestra (cello) and is going into middle school next year.

Favorites
Characters: Robin Hood and Little John, Stitch, and Kuzco
Ride: Winnie the Pooh
Princess: Belle

And finally...Cast Member #4...ME!


I am a nurse informaticist at a pediatric hospital. What's an informaticist you ask? Basically, we are the interface between the providers on the floor and the IT department. We build assessments, interventions, sit on committees, work with quality, and develop work flows for new nursing processes. Right now work is crazy because we are getting ready to do a big upgrade to our EHR. I am looking forward to having this vacation right after an incredibly busy summer!
If I'm not working I can be found dressing funny on the weekends. Our family is part of a group called Society for Creative Anachronism (aka the SCA). I have been a member since 1996 but took almost 6 years off after moving to TX, biggest mistake ever. Since going back we have met so many amazing, creative people!
Here is a pic of P talking to our Queen before fighting rapier in the Queen's Hope Tourney!

https://flic.kr/p/tWMtJg
Favorites:
Character: Alice and Marie
Ride: Space Mountain
Princess: Snow White

Next up...Let's talk AKL, ADR's, our journey into FD madness and more!

 

[stitchfan75]

Our journey to the World began last year. It's taken many forms from camping at Fort Wilderness, to staying at POP, then it changed to POR, then CBR...finally after the FD craziness we ended up at this magnificent place:






I can hardly believe it! We are not a fancy family so the idea of staying deluxe never entered our minds. So how did a family of campers end up there? Funny you should ask.....
We initially booked our vacation in September of 2014 to stay at CBR Nov. 12th-21st 2015, then we shortened it to the 14th-21st so the girls would miss minimal school time (yes we are taking them out of school...judge away). THEN we changed the dates to September 26th-October 3rd so dh could have his precious F&W. I watched the boards like a hawk waiting for free dining to drop, as the rumors came in I got more anxious. The day it released our TA could not get through!! We work together so it was a day of Lync messages "Did you get in?" "No" "Did you get in now?" "No".

FINALLY at lunch time I get the messaged "come to my cube...like now!" So I run across the IT floor skidding into his cube like the building was on fire. Pulled up was a standard room at AKL for our dates, with free dining! In my excitement I yelled "BOOK IT!" (Which reminded me of the scene from Van Wilder where his assistant asks if he wants to drop off or mail in his tuition extension and he yells "MAIL IT IN!") This of course increased our package and I didn't know if dh would go for it. I went home that afternoon and started playing on the website seeing if I could get a cheaper room. That was when my lapse in judgement caused me to book a package at POP. Alas, that turned into a mess...the TA couldn't find the same room to modify the reservation, then we decided to keep the AKL so I had to cancel the POP and wait for a refund...all while the Disney IT department "enhanced" their system (I told one CM I talked to that the "enhancement" was a week to late!)
Oh and did I mention that changing our dates put us inside our 180 days? Believe it or not we still ended up with the ADR's we wanted. Some were a little more difficult, like the BOG dinner didn't come through until a few weeks ago.

Next up...ADR-palooza!

 

[Team Agent P]

Great start We are going Sept. 25 - Oct. 1 guess I have to start our PTR

 

[stitchfan75]

Great start We are going Sept. 25 - Oct. 1 guess I have to start our PTR

Thanks! It took me a better part of the morning to figure out pictures! I was trying to do the uploading straight to the site but couldn't get it to work, so I went old school with Flikr.

 

[stitchfan75]

Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
~ Alice

As you can see I'm still playing with font colors. If anything gets to hard on the eyes, PLEASE let me know. Dh walked by and was like "ummm lot's of purple!" So I am trying out this nice teal for our basic trip outline so far including ADR's!

Day 1

We are leaving on Friday the 25th and driving to Mobile, AL, staying the night and arriving at AKL to check-in around 3pm. During the FD madness, when I had to call the reservation center I got into a conversation with the CM about our trip and how it was our 1st trip to WDW plus we were celebrating 2 birthdays. She put a note on our reservation and said it may get it us "pixie dust" and upgraded to savanna view. I'm not holding my breath but it would be magical!
After check in we are headed to MK for our first FP+ experience and a 7:30pm dinner ADR for...

This was requested by both dd's since they love Pooh and Tigger! I am hoping we don't miss Wishes. This is also a scheduled evening EMH for MK so we are shutting the park down!
BTW...if I say anything and your like "I'm not sure it's going to work the way you want..." again PLEASE say something. This is our first trip and I could use all the help I can find!

Day 2

This is our first AK day and it's EMH. We have a 9:30 Tusker House ADR that I am look sooo forward to. I have heard amazing things about their breakfast, and who doesn't like Donald in safari gear? We are going to rope drop, high tail it to Kilamanjaro safari (maybe FP..don't know yet), then head over for our ADR.
Our family LOVES animals, and the youngest wants to be a livestock vet so we will spend all day while she does the wilderness explorer activity.
Lunch will be CS, more than likely at Flame Tree BBQ. Our next ADR is a late one and currently we are trying to get an earlier time but we are headed to the Poly for our 9:40pm...


Day 3

Epcot day! We will grab CS at the resort and then head over to the park. Since it's F&W we plan on snacking around the world and have an evening ADR for Garden Grill! This was my request since I love me some C&D, dress them like little farmers and I'm sold! We may head over to MK after dinner or DTD depending on how we feel.

Day 4

MK all day!! We originally had a breakfast ADR for Park Fair because I love Alice and Mary Poppins. After looking at the overall schedule we realized if we went with PF we would never see the Morning Show. So we dropped it and opted for tasty baked treats instead. We have a 6:15pm ADR for the pace I'm most looking forward to...BOG!



There is no Halloween Party so we will spend the evening at MK and then head back to the resort!

Day 5

Hollywood Studios Day! We have a breakfast ADR at Ohana so dh can have his breakfast with Stitch and then we will head over to HS for most of the day. I don't know how long we will be there but if we get bored we will head to MK or back to the resort to swim.

Day 6

Epcot Day 2! We have a breakfast ADR at Norway with the princesses and then we will F&W some more! We will probably head back to the resort in the afternoon and rest up for our evening ADR at Raglan Road (another one I'm super excited about).


Day 7

Animal Kingdom Day 2! The only ADR we have this day is a Jiko dinner for our last night...sad. Dh would like to ride the monorail around to see the different resorts, or we may go to MK for a final Wishes and Kiss Goodnight.

Day 8

Going Home Day! We will get CS at the resort, check out, and then head back. We plan on stopping a couple places and being tourists. We will get a hotel and get home Sunday afternoon.

So there is all is! In a couple weeks we do our FP+ and we are less than 2 weeks away from being in the double digits! I will update over the summer as we make t-shirts, countdown rings, watch our favorite Disney movies (P and I are headed to Tomorrowland tonight!)

 

[kbainbridge]

I'm here and following along!!

 

[stitchfan75]

YAY for Countdown Chains!

Sunday night the youngest and I decided to make a countdown chain we found here: http://www.getawaytoday.com/blogs/2013-11-19/disneyland-vacation-countdown-chain

I'm not the most talented crafter. I create more "pinterest fails" then wins. I can sew a full viking outfit but can't cut paper in a straight line...smh. I have to say this went together really well! It helped that the blogger provided patterns for everything (yay patterns) and my printer had both paper AND color ink AT THE SAME TIME! This is a rarity in my home. I posted pictures to the September Facebook group but for those following that didn't see...drum roll please...



There are 41 links in the chain, the 1st 11 will be cut off every Sunday. The last 30 will be done daily counting down to the day we leave! There is also the option of putting little activities on the white links but P was not to interested in that. I was surprised to find out she still can sing the whole "Hot Dog" song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!


Still waiting to see if I get an earlier Ohana ressie. My TA keeps telling me it won't be that big of a deal because of the time change but we would still like to eat before 10pm at night!

 

[Team Agent P]

OK we love the count down chain!!!!!! We will have to think of something better than our X's on a calendar LOL

 

[stitchfan75]

Mike...Mike..Mike...Guess what day it is????

It's DOUBLE DIGIT DAY!!!!



A couple days ago my phone died in a spectacular fashion when my SVP scared me during a meeting and I dropped my phone on the concrete floor of the auditorium at work. It was a 5C and the back/screen literally became two pieces. There was no saving it.
But it all worked out...the next morning during the height of Tropical Storm Bill I headed to my nearby Sprint store and picked up my precioussssss...a new Iphone 6!! Being in IT I really should have the newest and greatest right? I decided against the 6 Plus due to my dh having one and it is a monstrosity. I feel like I'm holding an Ipad mini up to my head when I use it.
So the first thing I did was reload my countdown and discovered that it was day 100, making today the best day ever!

I also got to make my lunch appointment with my TA to do my Fast passes next week! We both work at the same place and we are ramping up for a HUGE project so everyone is super busy, the only way we could guarantee it got done was by booking time in Outlook on our calendars! I'm so excited and it's so real now. Only one more payment and we will be paid off....

Other good news?
We got a 6:40pm reservation for Ohana!!! The only ADR we were worried about was the late dinner that we had booked. Regardless of time change, 9:40pm is really late to eat for anyone (especially an "all you care to eat" meat buffet). At this point I think we are done messing with ADRs. I almost canceled Jiko and booked Sanaa this week but decided against it, then I was going to book a lunch when we got there but didn't want to have a time constraint of getting to the resort. Plus we can take our CS over to where you can see the savannah so there's that.

99 days...I still can't believe it after starting this planning at almost 400....

 

[stitchfan75]

Why didn't anyone tell me Fast passes were at 60 days...LOL
Needless to say I canceled the lunch. I don't know why I thought it was 90 days.

 

[stitchfan75]

Time for an update!!! (Real life and Disney)

Not much going on since we are in that lull between double digit dance and waiting to do FP/check in! I'm also waiting on a reimbursement so I can start buying some cute t-shirts for the trip! We have also decided to shorten our full day at DHS to just half a day. With all the closings there is very little we want to ride but would like to catch some of the shows. So we are headed to the Space Coast, Cape Canaveral for the day! Dh is super excited because this will knock another shuttle visit off his list. A few years ago we went to the Smithsonian, seeing the Atlantis at NASA? That made this whole trip worth it to him.

Real life...
I was made a lead on our EHR upgrade project so I've been major busy with that and trying to tie up some outstanding projects that customers either need to sign off on or postpone their requests. The girls just got back from camp and I feel like this whole season has just flown by, especially when I go to the store and summer stuff is 50% off, and back to school items are being stocked!
Dh continues to say he can't wait until this whole thing is over. He hates spending money and every payment he makes is followed by a week of kvetching about it.

That's it for now! I have an appointment to do my Fast Passes next week and will do an update after!