The WDW Girly Tour -3 SLEEPS TO GO!!(update 8/20,#97)

[fizz13]

Hi everybody,
I was so excited to see the addition of a pre-trip forum since my last trip, as I really love to start my reports early, and its nice to have all my planning written down in front of me, partly keepsake, partly to unscramble my brain and put it out there. Now technically I have already started my pre-trip report on my website. Just a bit of background on me before we start.

I'm Claire, 28 and live in hertfordshire, England. I had my first taste of the mouse at the age of 12 when my grandparents took us to Orlando for the week between Xmas and New Year, I'll never forget the magic I felt when i first saw the castle and all the xmas decorations, it was the music, the smells, the atmosphere and the first thing I saw was the horse drawn tram coming down Main St to me, so I'd been in Main St for 5 minutes and there I was riding up to the castle in what could have been Cinderella's carriage to me, i just got it straight away. I found my photo album the other day from that trip and had forgotten about my World Showcase pictures too, theres the mayan pyramid, and the Chinese temple which left me awestruck. I remember walking in that temple and twirling while looking up, i couldn't stop looking at the ceiling lol, ......anyway, back to the present.

So the bug set in early, and since then I started my own family. The next time I visited a park was April 1998 to paris and i was pregnant with my daughter. You know what? It was perfect because I couldn't rush from one ride to another, i just soaked up every detail, its such a beautiful park. This was followed by 7 further trips to disney parks around the world, some with kids, some without but all special. i have 3 babies now, Cara is 7, Dean is 5 and Charlie is 3, and I love seeing the magic through their eyes, they just get it (or they get mommy so they go with it ) The next time we are going together is December for a split stay at Pop then Wilderness Lodge, going 12th to 22nd, but ssshhh its a suprise, and the first time I will have taken them all on my own. You see, me and my husband separated last August (he never really like the land of mouse anyway so no great loss) so if I want to go I have to do it on my own, but i think we're gonna be just fine. however thats a story for another report. This one is about the forthcoming Girly Tour

 

[fizz13]

So for your viewing pleasure i thought i would embarrass me and my friends by sharing our portraits with you. First off here's moi:

Your tour guide for this jaunt, this was taken at my birthday last summer, I'm the one in the middle in the strapless dress
Next there's Carly

Shes my best mate and my housemate. Since me and my ex-H separated, she has been living in a spare bedroom in my house, we met when she was dating ex-H brother and we bonded over their crazy (and not in a good way) behaviour. She adores my kids, is incredibly good at sharing housework and will always babysit as needed. Shes only 21 so the baby of the group, but shes had a rough life so far and grew up fast(which i won't go into here) and no one would ever know she was only 21 to talk to her. i love her to bits

Finally we have Michelle, who probably wouldn't like me posting her pic, so i will save her, but she also goes by the name Angel659 on these boards, so say hi sometime, shes lovely. i met Michelle at a DIS meet last year and we just clicked. We have chatted online and then met up again at another meet a few weeks ago where I invited here to come with me, her DH was kind enough to agree but we are struggling to get her airfare at the right price as me and carly had already booked ours. keeping all our fingers crossed that the airfare comes back down in price for her.

Anyway, so thats our cast and if I have confused you then all will become clear in the actual pre-trippie which is on its way......

 

[fizz13]

When i got back from my last trip in October the disney depression set in. Money was very tight and i just didn't know when i would get back. It was at that time i also started going through my separation with ex-H. Things had been bad for a while and after 7 years of marriage i couldn't take any more. It was a slow process and ex-h refused to move out of the house for a long time, so i basically slept on my sofa till January, think major neck-ache But I kept going and finally in late january, ex-H moved out, i remortgaged my house to consolidate my debts, and i suddenly had spare cash every month to enjoy life again. Part of our separation agreement was that we could give the other 4 months notice to take the kids on vacation, or to plan one for ourselves. he agreed to have the kids for my birthday week, and my tentative plan started to take shape. At first it was gonna be a solo trip, but this soon changed. I'm gonna copy and paste from my website for the next bit:

Jan 26th
Well the time has come to start thinking about my next trip (must update the last one while I'm here LOL) and its going to be August 2007 to go with my birthday. right now its in the very early stages of planning, which is a suprise to me as much as anyone else, as normally by this time i already have flights, hotel, restaurants etc. locked down...well not this time. you see, with 2 trips last year i can afford to be more relaxed about this one. i think I have seen nearly every attraction Disney World has to offer and am very comfortable this time to just wander around at leisure and take it all in.

I was going to do this trip on my own but after pondering on it some more, thought is would be much more fun to share it with some of my best pals, and so far 2 have signed up. I say so far not because the friends I have coming aren't enough, but that usually someone new gets added to the plans at a later date.

TENTATIVE PLANS SO FAR
I'm thinking August 23rd to 29th, mostly because i can get the cheapest air fare using these dates, although i had a nasty shock with Virgin Atlantic this week. i have been tentavely checking their site every few days for fluctuations in price (which happens a lot with Virgin) and the price for these dates was originally £419.00, yesterday this shot up to £799.00!!! I refuse to make my friends pay this price. After a bit of shopping around I have found return fares for £423 going via Washington, which while not ideal is a saving of £376 each, worth it I feel.

The next decision to be made is hotel. At the moment i have a booking with Pop Century, a value resort but colourful, fun and new. With 3 of us going now, I think we are going to need a bigger room so we are looking at a moderate or deluxe . I love most of the properties on site for their character and themes so this is posing a real problem for me to pin down one. i don't want to resort hop mid-trip as we are only there for 6 nights.

My choices are: Wilderness Lodge

Near the Magic Kingdom. Gorgeous rustic lodge, not as expensive as the other deluxe resorts but a bit longer travel time to the other parks. Compact as its all in one building, really pretty decor

The next one that tempts me is Beach Club Resort

This is walking distance to Epcot, a boat ride from MGM, and close to 3 other hotels with great dining and nightlife. the problem is the price, and the shared buses with those 3 other hotels, which makes for a really long bus journey to any other parks and Downtown Disney, very pretty though:

My final option is Port Orleans French Quarter
This is a moderate resort, which means you don't get all the luxury of a deluxe and a cheaper price tag. Not to say this isn't a nice resort, its very pretty, doesn't share its buses with any other hotels, and is a boat ride away from Downtown Disney. Its also compact, so its not far to walk anywhere from your room.

My brain tells me to go for Port Orleans but my heart wants a deluxe, the rooms are so big, the restaurants so great and the great pools, which in August will be important.

So thats where I'm at right now. i have to wait for money before i can book the air fare but that should be next month, and I can change my room reservation at any time but I just can't decide. next month the park hours for August will come out so then I'll be able to decide which meals and parks we might like to visit on which day, now thats when the real planning will begin I think.

 

[fizz13]

22nd Feb 2007
So tomorrow is ADR day, this is disney speak for Advanced Dining Reservations day, it will be a magical 180 days till my next trip home Since my last entry, I have upgraded my resort to Port orleans French Quarter and i am really happy with my decision, its about £1000 for 6 nights, but this is inclusive of the disney dining plan and park tickets so its just about an all inclusive price, and this is the price for 3 people!!Not bad at all. August park hours have come out and I have come up with my itinerary after consulting my fav websites for best park days etc. So the plan is:

8/23: arrive afternoon, head to Magic Kingdom, Spectromagic parade and Wishes fireworks.

Liberty Tree Tavern dinner at 7pm with Goofy, Minnie, Chip, Dale and Meeko if we feel like it.

8/24: Animal Kingdom day, parade at 4pm. Evening at Downtown Disney and Pleasure island.

Boatwrights breakfast at hotel, Raglan Road Irish pub for dinner.

8/25 : Epcot day, tour Future World, back to hotel for a swim and rest. Late afternoon and evening at MGM Studios, Fantasmic show at 8:30pm.

Mama Melrose for dinner to get seating for show later.

8/26 : Magic Kingdom day, collect lots of fast passes for tonight, parade at 3pm, then back to magic kingdom for extra magic hours till midnight!!

Crystal palace breakfast with Winnie the Pooh and friends, Ohana dinner.

8/27 : MORNING OFF!! Head to water park/shopping/cinema/mini-golf/disneyquest, head to Epcot in afternoon, see Illuminations and World Showcase.

Dinner at Biergarten in germany.

8/28 : MGM Studios day, tour the park, parade at 3pm, get boat to beach Club and explore Epcot hotels and nightspots.

50's Prime Time Cafe for lunch, Cape May cafe dinner.

8/29 :Check out day. Check out, store luggage, then free time to see what we want. Pick up at 3:30pm.

Coral Reef lunch in case.

So as you can see I've started to give this trip a lot of thought, the only thing left now is flights (quite a big thing actually!) and the only thing holding me back is money, not just mine, my friends' too, its been a tough start to the year for all, but I'm confident that we'll get these booked by the end of next month.

So there you go, I'll be back when i have more to tell.

 

[fizz13]

March 27th 2007

Ok I'm back and things have changed around somewhat Revised plans look a bit like this:

Aug 23rd: flying out with United from heathrow via Washington to Orlando, flying back on 29th via Chicago, fare was approx. £420 each, which was a pretty good deal for this time of year so I'm happy

Accomodation: so I started with a Pop booking, then upgraded to POFQ, which was very cute and peaceful, but I couldn't hold out and have upgraded again to Boardwalk. basically i reasoned with myself that with the upgrade i would take off the dining plan, and with the money I saved I would use towards an upgrade You know it makes sense...hhhmmmm.....anyway so Boardwalk it is, in all its glory, fantastic location 5 minutes walk from Epcot and a 10 minute boat ride from MGM, standard view, and the ADRs I made are now optional, Carly my friend would never have managed 3 courses anyway, she eats like a bird (the lucky moo) but instead of being tied to restaurants all the time I can snack round World Showcase instead, yum yum! I'm sure we'll still go to some of them, the list is:

Liberty Tree Tavern-dinner

Raglan Road- dinner

Mama Melrose - dinner

Crystal Palace - breakfast

Cape May Cafe - dinner

Beirgarten - dinner

50s Prime Time Cafe - lunch

Ohana - dinner

CRT - lunch

Very good eating in that list!

Cast list: this has changed a little too, carly is still on board but my other friend is just not going to make it financially, i went ahead and booked the girl flights and said for him to book whenever ready but he just can't manage it. have no fear though because i think we have a replacement and its another girl too ( I won't reveal who until she is ready to tell!) So I am now dubbing this trip the "Girly Tour", which involves drinks, shopping, more drinks, and no one looking over our shoulder at the price or telling us to move on, girls just want to have fun after all.

Will be back when I have more to tell xxxx

 

[fizz13]

So thats as far as i got on my website and obviously i have more info to add since then. As you know Michelle is now part of my plans so we are still a party of 3, but with a different 3rd player. The other bit of news is the Pirate and Princess Party and i want to attend on 28th August, it will be the night before we come home and a great way to spend it. Of course this meant jiggling a couple of ADRs so we are going to eat at Ohana before the party and i swapped cape may cafe to the 26th, worked out fine.

My latest news is yesterday i rang WDW and bought my first ever annual pass So I will be using this to book discount tickets to the party, buying myself a Disney Dining Experience card, and keeping my fingers crossed for a room discount if the rates are released. it will come in handy for December too, except it will be for MVMCP then. We are now at 112 days till takeoff!!

 

[wilma-bride]

Boo....found you Claire, I have just read all (well most) of this on your website. I'm glad to see you are consistent with your ever-changing pre-trip plans So looking forward to hopefully meeting up with the 3 of you in August and comparing trip reports on our return.

Now I've finally got round to finishing my trip reports from February, it must be time to think about starting my pre-trippy as well

A great start, congrats on the Annual Pass (we may be joining you in the AP holder stakes soon) and looking forward to hearing more

 

[fizz13]

How do you always find me? Couldn't believe it when i saw your name, I'm sure we'll see you at some point

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

An ALL GIRL TRIP??!!?? Is that legal? You gotta have some men folk around to gum up the works and make easy things difficult!

Sounds like you are a master planner! Good luck with the planning and the trip! I will be reading along!

Thanks!

 

[fizz13]

So i was browsing the net this morning for a costume for Princess and Pirate party this August. i am definately more the pirate wench type than princess, and I need to convince Jack Sparrow (captain if you please )that taking me for part of his crew is a good idea. i need to look tough but feminine, cute but sharp, yes i think i have found the material to persuade Jack to my way of thinking, that i would be perfect future Mrs Sparrow, what do you think:

Now I know its a little short, but it is August after all, i wouldn't want to overheat See ya soon xx

 

[fizz13]

An ALL GIRL TRIP??!!?? Is that legal? You gotta have some men folk around to gum up the works and make easy things difficult!

Hi DisneyDadFanatic, thanks so much for dropping by with a comment. Legal? I think just about, but there must be some limit on how much fun is allowed I'm sure, we may cross over the edge on that one, we'll have to see how it turns out. MEN?! Definately not allowed on this trip, i just came out of a very difficylt 10 years and know all too well that men gum up the works having read your pre-trippie though, you don't seem like that type of guy

 

[DisneyJo]

he never really like the land of mouse anyway so no great loss

OMG that comment is hilarious

I thought I'd started my PTR early but you're even further away, well a week The P&PP is meant to be great I bought my tickets Wednesday online Can't wait to read more

 

[KayleeUK]

Love your pre-trippie Claire Would love to be there with you!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi Claire,

I found your Pre-trippie! Only read the first few posts but it sounds like it will be a lot of fun!

 

[fizz13]

Hi everybody, i guess someone is reading this because I have 88 views, but please don't be afraid to say hi, I'd really like to hear from you

Ok, remember I said I dug out my old pics from my first WDw trip? Wll I managed to scan them in, would you like to see some memories? here goes:

so i apolgise for the white around but apparently I haven't learnt to crop yet, this was my first ever view of the Magic Kingdom, December 1990 Looks like the xmas decorations haven't changed that much since then....

So here we have some shots of Epcot, I really loved that China pavillion.

Finally we have my first ride at Magic Kindom, the trolley, followed by my brother with some old friends The Gummy Bears, and then The Jungle Cruise. Even now that elephant makes me happy!

 

[fizz13]

So the first of my brood to arrive was Cara-Jade in 1999. Of course she was having no choice in her wardrobe with a mom like me, although sadly my enthusiasm didn't spread to her when it came to characters.

This was our first trip as a family in Jan 2002, and not only did we have Cara-Jade but Dean too, who arrived in 2001.

See for Cara, parades =fun, characters leave me alone please, ahhh I tried.

Then in April 2002, I had the disney depression and booked a short break to Paris for me and Cara, yep mommy and her 2 year old princess went it alone, and lo and behold, cara suddenly liked disneyland a little more

 

[fizz13]

So now we're into the digital age of photography, thank goodness, and our next child too. Charlie joined our family in January 2004, and where better to celebrate his first birthday than Disneyworld? So our band of travellers was me, DH, Cara 5, Dean 3, Charlie, nearly 1, and my BIL and girlfriend. We had 2 weeks to explore Florida and by this time I had discovered the DIS, The Unofficial Guide, Brits Guide to Orlando, yep I was a card carrying disney nut, but very happy about it. I had this trip down!! PS reservations done, car hire and park tickets at brilliant internet rates done, park maps and touring plans done, yeah I was feeling smug. If you would like to have a read of how things went, then follow the link to my website in my signature and have a good read.....of the first 10 days anyway.....umm I never quite finished it But to save you the trouble of surfing here is an abbreviated trip report:

Dean and Charlie both made it to the barber shop, Dean got glitter hair and Charlie got first haircut ears, was very cute.

Takes a while to come out, you have been warned

We had good eats at Ohana, and when i walked into the Poly that first time I knew I was meant to stay there one day Here's cara with here hula-hooping efforts

The boys bonded in their stroller and were just cute really!
The parks were kind of desserted

Charlie had a birthday lunch at Crystal Palace:

Peter Pan came to talk to my kids at Spectromagic, which was very special as we had missed him every time at the character meet in Adventureland and he was their favourite at the time

Everest was under construction but was already starting to look impressive

And this patch of land .....well it ended up as Poohs Playground (taken from Dumbo)

Mommy knew how to find all the good parade spots, see no people

and she knew where to find character royalty

More on its way, have to go cook dinner

 

[DisneyJo]

Claire your kiddies are just so cute, I love your DD in her Tigger outfit! Can't wait for more! Hope you enjoy your Dinner my Roast Lamb is in the oven Oh and you must tell me where the great parade spot was, please!

 

[carolfoy]

lovin' it Claire - so wish i was coming too!

 

[fizz13]

Claire your kiddies are just so cute, I love your DD in her Tigger outfit! Can't wait for more! Hope you enjoy your Dinner my Roast Lamb is in the oven Oh and you must tell me where the great parade spot was, please!

Hi Jo, yep my kids are edible cute ......sometimes Mmm would much rather have roast lamb, we had creamy prawn pasta tonight. the parade spot is for the AK parade, and its on the bridge to Africa from Discovery Island, nobody seems to stand there really, they all congregate in Harambe, better for me. Hope you enjoyed your dinner

lovin' it Claire - so wish i was coming too!

Hi Carol, thanks for stopping by, I think we'd have a lot of fun if you did come, its not too late, ther's one more space in the room.....Boardwalk.....Boardwalk..... just saw your ticker, think you might be a bit busy, ah well sure there'll be a next time!