The trip of 2 Birthdays, 3 Resorts, and 79 Pins ~ Update 8/14

[LuvLuvLuv]

Hello!

I’m Deena, traveling with my DH, David. This will be my first completed TR that isn’t specifically dining or engagement/wedding planning/wedding/honeymoon related. We’re still celebrating… It’s our Birthdays! My birthday is May 1, and his is May 13. We take a span of time between the two and celebrate in WDW! We’ve done this several years in a row, but this year’s planning was a little different.

This is us:

IMG_1659 by Dei_22_01, on Flickr

We love our trips. We both work 2 jobs and enjoy getting away a few times per year, as well as having new gadgets and gizmos. We don’t use credit anymore, and are very close to becoming debt free! Although working a lot takes a lot out of us, once we get on Disney property, it has made it all worth it! Last November when we were in WDW to get married, we got the Premier Passport and decided to make the most of it before we make a decision on children or not.

I am a resort changer, a date changer, and ADR changer. I can’t keep my mind focused for anything.

Here is what this trip looked like in the planning stages:
May 5-9: BWV Studio Solo for Wedding Planning Session
May 5-9: BWV Studio with stepmom for Planning Session
--Same deal, but scratch the planning session because we moved the wedding to last November and went alone. Stepmom still going and planning on 2 park days, 2 water park days.
Add in 4 days over Easter because DH said he wanted a Spring Trip and plans on driving, ugh.
Stepmom says she can’t go because of blah blah blah blah blah.
Thank the lord I have an amazing person that I rent points from and he understood.
Since she’s not going, we moved Easter down to the end of April at Poly.
Then switched to WL, ASMovies, CSR, YC, back to WL, and I even think I had Sugarloaf and Atrium Club in there somewhere.
Then I had to take a break from changing because we were going on our honeymoon.

We took our honeymoon to DL the end of January, beginning of February. If you haven’t been there—get there!! It was amazing!! Upon our return, first thing that Monday morning, we had an impromptu meeting at my full time job where I am the receptionist. We were closing, with the target date of May 1. Lots of emotion, upset and confusion—but selfishly my thoughts wrapped around the trip I had planned at the end of April, and about the other 2 trips I wanted to take before the Premier Passport expired.

My trip was planned right before the projected close, and I knew it wouldn’t be right to skip out then. I talked with my manager and we agreed it would be better since I wouldn’t have to count more vacation time against me that way. So I moved the trip back to May 3-9. I booked All Star Movies, then moved to Coronado, then Wilderness Lodge, OKW, then felt guilty about staying deluxe when I’m losing a job, and somehow I felt sanity in booking a POR Royal Guest Room. I kept this for a long time—well a long time for me at least. DH actually suggested it. He has a thing for Aurora, and really wanted to try it while it was new. Our moderate of choice is normally Coronado Springs, but good things have been said about POR. We weren't fans of POFQ--so I was terribly nervous, but willing to compromise because I he kept telling me how much he wanted to check out the new rooms.

At the end of March, beginning of April, I started to have Carpal Tunnel issues. The pain would just make me cry and stay up at night, and the prescriptions they had me on made me really sick. When I’m sick, and home, and bored with my thoughts—things happen. For some reason, when I’m sick, I feel like I deserve a treat, like a dog, lol. My treat to myself was a split stay with the Yacht Club - Club Level. We stayed there for our birthdays in 2010 and loved it—so we were both happy to be going back. DH made me promise that there were no more changes. I promised. ADRs were set, itinerary was kind of set, I kind of knew what I was packing, money was good.

2010 - YC CL Room 5171

So it was on to my next project—ordering wedding pictures. We were married on the beach at Luau Cove at the Polynesian. The views were amazing, and it got both of us wanting to stay there. I put a random weekend night in doing research about the resort. We never really thought about it since they don’t have King beds, no Jacuzzi, and mostly crowded with families and small children. (As it should be—the transportation options are great!) I got it in my head that I must try this resort that so many rave about. This could be my last chance to stay deluxe for a long time—we didn’t know what the future would hold. So with about 2 weeks to go, I called and added in the Polynesian Club Level. Our final trip looked like this: I named it… The Tour of the Garden Views.

May 3-5: POR Royal Guest Room – Garden View
May 5-7: Poly Club Level – Garden View
May 7-9: YC Club Level – Garden View

Yes that’s a lot of changing, but we like our splits. We would have 2 days with a boat to Downtown Disney, 2 days with a monorail and boat to MK, and 2 days with a boat to DHS/Epcot and walking distance to Epcot. It seemed like the perfect plan to sample 2 new resorts, and return to one that we loved.

Also planned were our ADRs:

May 3: Lunch at Via Napoli – Dinner at Fulton’s
May 4: Lunch at Chefs de France – Dinner at Boatwright’s
May 5: Dinner at California Grill
May 6: Dinner at Ohana
May 7: Dinner at Yachtsman
May 8: Lunch at Chefs de France again - Dinner at California Grill again
May 9: Lunch at Paradiso 37

We love our food as much as we love our resorts. We've been to most restaurants on property, with only a handful left to try if they ever peak our interest. We've tried almost everything that we have wanted to. Our favorite places include California Grill, Yachtsman, Ohana, Via Napoli, and on this trip.... we add a new favorite to the list!! You'll have to wait and see what it'll be!

My final bulletpoint in the intro will be that we are shop-a-holics. We are both guilty of this. We are impulsive, obsessive, and we try to justify the silliest of purchases. I said a long time ago that we would NEVER get into pins or vinylmations because it would be dangerous for us. When we were married in November, I really wanted to get the Mr./Mrs. pin set just because I thought it would be a cute momento. Somehow this opened up the gateway to a massive addiction.

Nov 2011

We recieve 20% off with our Premier Passports, so somehow we think everything is a "good deal". By the end of our November trip, we had quite a few pins. Fast forward to our Disneyland trip, and we had to buy one of those books with all the pages in it because the situation got worse and addictive, lol. I also, purchased my first Vinylmation in Disneyland.

Since then, I have ordered 2 TRON vinylmations online bringing my total to 3. I thought I said that I wouldn't get into this? We also before this May trip had 3 pages full of pins in our book. What would this trip bring?? Well if you saw the title--you kind of see how it mayyyyyyy have gotten out of hand We love it and had a blast. At least I didn't give away any secrets about Vinylmations! My one request to DH this time was to NOT let me buy any plush. I buy all kinds of cute plushes, then think it's cuter when the doggy is carrying them around playing with them. No more plush that will eventually turn into a dog toy!! That was the only ground rule and the rest was fair game!

Now we’re back and ready to report! I’m still in the process of organizing photos and my notes, but I wanted to get this party started! I hope you join along as this trip had lots of twists, changes, and pixie dust!!

Enjoy!
~Deena

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

Table of Contents

Getting There
Magical Express and POR Check In
The Room
Lunch and a Park

 

[Grumpy Grandma]

Yay! I'm here!

 

[disneydreamin247]

I'm not late to the party this time!

 

[pas130]

I made it YAY!!! LOVE your TRs Deena

Now to read....

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

Yay! I'm here!

I'm not late to the party this time!

I made it YAY!!! LOVE your TRs Deena

Now to read....

Thanks for joining ladies!! Linda wins the prize

 

[Grumpy Grandma]

Thanks for joining ladies!! Linda wins the prize

YAY!

 

[mommytominnie]

I am excited you started your TR. I enjoyed reading your past TRs and want to continue the journey with you all Also, I love your make up. I am a make up aholic and I love how your make up always looks put together correctly. Yes, I know this sounds weird, but I do love my makeup, especially eyeshadow. Well, enough about me... can't wait to read more about your trip

 

[jennyjinx3]

May I join in???

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

Getting There

When you live about 7 minutes from the Cincinnati Airport (which is actually in Kentucky)--you wouldn't assume there's much of a story on traveling.

That isn't the case with us. We've had problems with our dog-sitter in November and made the decision not to use her anymore. When we made this decision, there were only a few weeks before our honeymoon to find a replacement, so my aunt offered to watch him. Sounds great, right? My aunt lives in Pennsylvania. I suggested kenneling him at our vet, but DH and my aunt said absolutely not. So we drove to PA, dropped him off and flew out of Pittsburgh. It was actually a few hundred dollars cheaper to fly from there, than right in my back yard! Plus, a free doggy sitter? It was a win.

This is our precious Baxter:

Fast forward to this trip. I booked a kennel without saying anything, hoping DH would warm up to it. Nope--had to call and cancel it. We were back to plan B.

Wednesday I got up bright and early at 6:30 to check into our flight--this is our first time flying Southwest and I was very nervous about not picking a seat in advance. I ended up in A toward the end. I went for a 90 minute massage, went tanning, came home to finish packing, colored my hair, and we were on the road about 3:30pm. We are sitting in traffic and DH said that he forgot his headphones. We had already had a pre-trip battle earlier in the day and instead of being mad, I tried to keep the peace and convinced him to just turn around if he really wanted them. These are the Beats by Dre that he only uses when we fly--but he haddddd to have them, lol. So we turned around. We get in the house, search for the headphones--and he realizes he did pack them. Oh my. While we were there, I decided to grab more candy out of my birthday bag for the road. Inside my birthday bag were $100 of Disney gift cards that I got from work that I didn't pack So there WAS an underlying reason we turned around! Yeesh!

So we were on our way........ 4 1/2 hours, 280 miles of non-eventful travel and we were there. A quick swing by my stepmom's work to drop off her Mother's Day present, then we got to my aunt's house where I grew up. We sat and talked to my her for a bit and had Wendy's for dinner, DH put her new weed trimmer together, I helped her with her with a few other household things, gave her all the instructions on the dog--and we went to sleep around 12:30am. Our flight leaves at 6:35am and we needed to be up at 2:45. I fell asleep about 1:30. Even though I was in my childhood bed, it is a double and I had DH and a dog in it with me, with my night brace on my wrist and forearm that I couldn't get comfy with so little room.

I finally fell asleep--and before you know it--my phone alarm was going off. It felt unreal since I technically only got a nap. I got showered and dressed, DH did the same, and I decided not to dry my hair since it would probably wake my aunt up, and that at 3am I didn't need makeup. We normally get dropped off at the airport, but this time we were parking there. I don't know my way around that part too well, so we decided to just get on the road so we wouldn't be short on time.

So we leave the house, and it's raining--yuck. I'm glad I didn't do my hair or makeup because I was a mess just running to the car. My aunt lives south of Pittsburgh and it normally is about a 20-30 minute drive to the airport. We jump on 79N and when we get off the exit, the rain turns into a MONSOON! The kind where you can't see in front of you, what lane you're in, or if the road curves. Nerves set in. DH was driving, he was edgy, but there was nothing either one of us could do. There were only 2 other cars on the road, and we tried to follow their lead. It wasn't letting up. It seemed to be getting worse. We finally got to where we could see signs and had to make a decision extended parking, long term, or short term/garage. I so badly wanted to park in the garage because of the weather. I calculated how much it would be in my head--and tried to justify it--but we could eat 2 signature dinners for that. I told him to go to extended and we would make the best of it. There was no great solution--and the rain was still heavy as ever.

We found a parking spot right across from the bus stop shelter--thank goodness. Just getting the luggage across the road to the shelter, we were soaked head to toe, and our luggage was drenched. I have to admit that we were both immediately cranky about the situation. Combined with the lack of sleep--I wasn't sure how this would end up.

The bus came, he loaded our soaked luggage, and we got to the main building. If my memory serves me correctly it was 3:57 and Southwest's bag check didn't open until 4:30. The rain was still beating on the roof. We decided to just wait in line--we were first. The line filled up with families with Magical Express tags on their luggage. We like to look and see where everyone is going. We chatted a bit, and although we felt like we just rode Kali River Rapids, our bad moods started to go away and we accepted that we, and everything we had with us was soaked.

We checked our bags, breezed through security, and I got a chocolate covered pretzels and a cherry coke for breakfast. He got a water. We were super early, but that scored us really comfy seats that Southwest had. Delta doesn't have comfy seats like that, lol. A couple next to us was bragging about how much they love Disney and how they go all the time. I was excited to chat with them because I thought we could share stuff--but low and behold--they pretty much knew nothing about Disney and went every 5ish years. So I became an educator/travel agent for the remaining time in our seats.

Next was the boarding process. I still find it odd, but whatever. We got seats toward the middle. I was on the aisle, DH was in the middle. It was about a 2 hour flight, boring, nothing fancy. I had a coffee and vanilla wafers as my treat. I noticed that the SW staff isn't as friendly as Delta. They are also more laid back, where Delta is more strict and straight forward. Oh well--my bags flew free, and that's what mattered most, lol.

We were off the plane in no time and heading toward Magical Express!

Next Up: Magical Express and POR Check In!

 

[LuvLuvLuv]

I am excited you started your TR. I enjoyed reading your past TRs and want to continue the journey with you all Also, I love your make up. I am a make up aholic and I love how your make up always looks put together correctly. Yes, I know this sounds weird, but I do love my makeup, especially eyeshadow. Well, enough about me... can't wait to read more about your trip

Thanks for the compliments!! I'm glad you here! I'm definately a makeup-a-holic... if I wasn't... I'd be in the wrong business Thanks for joining!

May I join in???

Absolutely!!

 

[basketlacey]

Love your trip reports and followed along your whole wedding journal too! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[Jungle Cruiser]

HI! Enjoying the TR so far...

 

[pixarmom]

Hi Luv!!! I'm joining in, and very excited to hear all the details! Your report will help us decide whether to book CL at Poly and YC next year during our crazy split stay!

 

[MAGIC...itis!]

Hi LuvLuvLuv! I am here and I can't wait to get started.

 

[Mousemommy1]

I'm here!!! Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[sjs314]

I am here... Going back to read now

 

[WDWKOOK]

Fashionably late

Can't wait for the next installment

 

[sjs314]

Great start to your TR! Your lucky you have someone to watch your doggie. I always feel so guilty when We drop Bella off at the kennel, not to mention it is expensive too. Best Friends bought out our local kennel and it cost us $45 a night in March.

I hate that blinding rain.

Can not wait to read more

 

[Janet B]

Hi Deena!

I'm here!! BTW, we love pin collecting and trading too! And last year got initiated into collecting a few vinylmations. LOVE Mr. orange bird!! When we are there in August, I'm definitely getting our RC mascot!!

Can't wait to read your TR :

And Baxter is a cutie!!