The Wright's Weekend with the Wookie (and various other adventures)Update 10/12!

[jngwright]

Welcome to my Trip Report!!

Hey there, hi there, ho there So glad you are joining me! We recently returned from a great trip to WDW, where we stayed at POR from June 4-9th in Alligator Bayou. I have been to WDW umpteen times, and this was my boys 4th time. After our May 2009 trip, we planned on returning in the fall of 2010. Usually in January, I get the "I miss Disney blues" and start wanting to go AGAIN. This year, I used Star Wars Weekends as an excuse to plan an earlier trip, and we took my dad (Papa Jerry) with us.

So-here we are!

Me-Jill, the mom. I am the Disney fanatic and planner in our family. I work PT and spend the rest of my time with my twin sons.

Don't you just love frosty Disney drinks? It is the only time I don't mind paying big $$$ for drinks!

Alex (7) Lego maniac, car lover, and Disney fanatic #2. He is 30 seconds older than his brother, so he is always telling everyone that HE is the big brother.

Evan (7) Artist, sweet soul, and Disney fanatic #3. I am pretty sure he is going to follow in my Disney freak footsteps! Yay!

I do have a DH (Greg) He is not a major Disney spaz, like me, so he is happy to go "every 3 years or so" So, we go on our trips, take other people.. or go alone..and take him "every 3 years or so". Everyone is happy and it works out great! Greg claims that he works to be able to support our Disney habit What a great guy!

This year, we took Papa Jerry with us. He is my dad, loves Disney, loves Star Wars, and LOVES his grandsons He is the best!

(This was from our 2009 trip)

Thanks for joining us! I will put hyper links in this post with updates.
Coming up next:
Family Fun Nights
Here We Go!
Magic Kingdom
Fireworks Dessert Party
HELLO Hollywood!
The Force is with us!
I LOVE Epcot

 

[my2disneyboys]

I am in!!! I am FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[dismagiclover]

Sounds like a great trip! I'm in! I just got back from a trip where I spend several days with just my 2 boys in Disney World and I loved it! Can't wait to hear about your adventures!

 

[wlwilliams9]

Woo Hooty Shake your Booty!!!!
​

Hi Jill!! I'm so excited to hear all about your trip! Great start!​

 

[jngwright]

I am in!!! I am FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well-hello Nickie!! And I have to give props to you for my title!!!!

Sounds like a great trip! I'm in! I just got back from a trip where I spend several days with just my 2 boys in Disney World and I loved it! Can't wait to hear about your adventures!

Hi Mrs. Darling! My boys and I did a 10 day trip last year and it was just the best! I am so glad you are here! I started reading your TR too!

Woo Hooty Shake your Booty!!!!
​

Hi Jill!! I'm so excited to hear all about your trip! Great start!​

Hi Wendy-I need to shake my booty into gear and get my next update together!

 

[jngwright]

Last year, we started doing Disney Family Fun Nights as a way to get ready for our trip. I slacked a little this year, but we still did some. There is an awesome thread herewith tons of ideas for family fun nights!

Beauty and the Beast

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Toy Story

Mulan

We did Home on the Range, too, but I can't find the pictures right now.

A little about our trip. We left on the boy's last day of 1st Grade (I pulled them out of school early-bad mom!! I know!) We have stayed at all the moderates except POR with the boys, so we thought we would give it a try. We stayed in the Mansions back in the early 90's when it was Dixie Landings, and I remembered it being a beautiful resort! We had 2 complimentary nights at the resort due to some poop in the room issues from our last stay (yes you read that right!), so we had 3 different resort reservations. That made the dining plan and ticket planning interesting!

The boys, my dad, and I also did the Give a Day Promo. This was a great opportunity! We collected books and sent them to the USO to distribute to soldiers overseas. They were videotaped reading the book, and then the book and and video were sent to their children back home. We collected about 25 books-it was so meaningful to us! In return, we got the Give A Day Dream FastPass for each day of our trip. This was a lifesaver during Star Wars Weekends and June crowds

We also decided to do the Deluxe Dining Plan this time. HOLY FOOD, BATMAN! I will share all the dining details as we go along. The DDxP was ideal; our main reservation that the tickets and dining plan was based on was only 3 nights(because of the 3 reservations)-so we only had 3 nights worth of dining credits, but were able to spread 9 TS credits out over 4 days. That is really confusing, as I re read it...sorry! We were there for 5 nights, but only paid for 3, so we could only have the dining plan for 3 nights. Is that better??

Coming up next...travel and our first night. Can we get our tickets early and go to EMH at MK??? Check back in and see!!

 

[KatMark]

Oh, I'm so glad I was scanning trip reports and found yours (I enjoyed yours from last year).

 

[dismagiclover]

Your Family Fun Nights look fabulous! And I think your description of how the DxDDP worked for you made complete sense. That must mean I spend way too much time on the DIS

 

[jaci-h]

Family Fun nights look so cute! Will have to incorporate those when we have kiddos!

 

[wlwilliams9]

I love doing Disney Nights! I think our next one is going to be Cinderella or Bolt!

Holy Resort Hopping Batman!!! I can't wait to read about all of that! Maybe your next post could be less confusing!! Hahahahaha

We love the DxDP! It's a lot of food, but we like to have breakfast in the mornings and do several signature dinners, so it works for us!

Bring on some more!!

 

[jngwright]

Oh, I'm so glad I was scanning trip reports and found yours (I enjoyed yours from last year).

Hi!! Thanks for reading.

Your Family Fun Nights look fabulous! And I think your description of how the DxDDP worked for you made complete sense. That must mean I spend way too much time on the DIS

I spend waaay too much time here too!

Family Fun nights look so cute! Will have to incorporate those when we have kiddos!

There are lots of people on the thread who do them without kids!!! I keep thinking it would be fun to do one for DH and myself with things my kids won't eat, but we would love!

I love doing Disney Nights! I think our next one is going to be Cinderella or Bolt!

Holy Resort Hopping Batman!!! I can't wait to read about all of that! Maybe your next post could be less confusing!! Hahahahaha

We love the DxDP! It's a lot of food, but we like to have breakfast in the mornings and do several signature dinners, so it works for us!

Bring on some more!!

Luckily, we stayed at the same resort. Just had to check in, and out, and in and out, and in and out....(that's alot of in and out)
I really liked the DxDP, but there was a meal at 50's Prime Time where I felt physically ill after supper because there was SO MUCH FOOD! Like it wasn't my choice to eat just ONE more onion ring. We even skipped dessert (sacrilege!)

 

[jngwright]

We took off from the Rochester, MN airport at 1pm and arrived at MCO at 6pm, with no issues (except for some tears from Nana when she left us at the Rochester airport).

I just love the "monorail" shuttle at MCO. It makes me feel like we are, finally, REALLY THERE! Everyone else on there always seems so bored, so I am wondering if my excitement is odd?? Anywhoooo-we got right on a bus at Magical Express, waited a while for our bus to fill, and then took off for WALT DISNEY WORLD!

I chatted with a nice couple on the bus. She asked what online community I belonged to, and I told her. She said the DIS was much too big for herbut other than that-they were very nice. I got them hooked up with Lines from Touringplans so I am going to contact the Unofficial Guide people to see about a commission

We arrived at POR (first stop, woot woot!!). I didn't remember alot about it from our trip in the early 90's, but it was very pretty. We loved the store, food court, the arcade, and the quiet pools.

I went to the desk to check in, and explained about our reservations. The CM was so rude and crabby, just the last person you want to encounter at the start of a WDW vacay. When we made our reservations, the agent told me we could talk to the manager at POR at check in about getting our park tickets early. Technically, our package with tickets started the next day, but since we had to have 3 separate ressies because of the complimentary nights, she said it would be "no problem". I took that with a grain of salt and told the boys not to get their hopes up. MK had EMH (until 2 am)the night we arrived and I really wanted it to happen, but wasn't counting on it. I asked this lovely lady about getting our tickets and she said "no". I told her I was instructed to talk to the manager about it, as they were the person who could do it. BIG SIGH and she picks up her phone and calls.

"I TOLD her that she couldn't do it, but she wants to talk to the manager" ROLLS EYES. "Oh, okay...I will tell her. I guess you can go to the Will Call window at the park and get them there."

She proceeded to give us our room assignment, in the Mansions. We had requested Alligator Bayou for the trundle bed (my dad has a CPap machine and it makes sleeping easier for him in a double bed to have more room). Of course, I know that room requests are not guaranteed, and I dreaded even asking this dragon lady if there was anything in AB. Another big sigh and eye roll and she checked and moved us to building 27. It was a really nice location on the main walkway, not far from the main building. The room was nice and clean. No Poop! Yay!

We hopped on the bus to MK, got our tickets at will call, and enjoyed a few hours at the park. We ate a late supper at Columbia Harbor House. I don't recall ever eating there and had wanted to try it. It was very quiet, as the fireworks were going on, and it took a long time to get our food. I had the chicken breast nuggets and my dad had shrimp. The kids had the usual kids fare. It was an okay meal, but definitely not my 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice for CS at MK. I was really glad we were able to have an evening at MK for our first night, and was grateful to that nameless person on the phone who gave us the go ahead! We returned to POR exhausted, ready for a few hours sleep before our first full day at WDW and MK!

 

[dismagiclover]

You've arrived! Sorry about the crabby CM. I'm glad you figured out a way to get the tickets early. Often it pays to be persistent

 

[wlwilliams9]

Yay!! You made it to MK!! Sorry about the crabby CM, Beeotch!! I don't think we have ever eaten at CHH either. For CS we either eat at Cosmic Rays or grab a dog at Casey's!

Hope you had a great 4th!

 

[wlwilliams9]

And then..........

 

[jngwright]

And then..........

Sorry Sorry Sorry I job share the Children's Program at our church and we are coming off a crazy busy VBS week!!! Plus-my laptop is being a booger so everything takes foooooorrrrreeevvver....

Update coming up!!

 

[my2disneyboys]

WOW were you guys really in the MK until 2AM!? Dad too!? I was worried how my guys would do staying there until 11 last year and Owen ended up falling asleep and Myles had the time of his life.... riding Buzz 3 times in a row and Big Thunder.

cant wait to hear more!! I know you mentioned how busy you have been. I cant believe how busy I am during the summer. This is my first summer as a SAHM and these boys are keeping me very busy!! Football starts August 2nd and Myles will be having 3 practices a week!

 

[jngwright]

We were up and at 'em early today! We had to check out and back into our room and had an 8:05 ressie at CP. PLUS we had to get our GAD FP before our ressie, so I don't even want to remember how early we were up!! We have never done the pre opening breakfast before, but I was excited to have this planned so we could do the DIS famous "empty Main Street Walk". It was so cool to just breeze right in and see that castle!! I will NEVER get sick of that sight.

I have to say that it is getting harder and harder to get the boys to agree to character photos...I don't know what will happen next time. Breakfast was really great! We had a wonderful server and I ate waaaayyy too much of the puffed french toast.

We finished up and headed to RD at Tomorrowland. We were the first ones there. A lady with a name tag and walkie talkie came over to us and asked if we wanted to go to Buzz Lightyear first. Before I could say anything,the boys said "We are going to Space Mountain!!" I think she was going to take us to Buzz before RD, but-oh well! It was fun to see all the CM's come and form the human blockade. They dropped the rope and everyone fanned out to their favorites. Papa Jerry had too much puffed french toast too, so he skipped SpaceM, but we rode and grabbed FP for later. My boys are official thrill ride junkies!

We spent the rest of the morning riding everything that we wanted to. I will mention that this was the MK day for Gay Days, but other than seeing a ton of red shirts (and a few VERY inappropriate shirts) the crowds were pretty manageable. The GAD FP were a Godsend, though!

We had lunch at the Plaza. My dad and I shared a chicken sandwich, the kids had the same old same old Disney Fare. The Plaza was okay-but could sure stand for some refreshing and a deep clean! We headed back to POR for some swimming and "rest" (what is that??).

Coming up next (with not as much of a delay!!! I promise!) is the Fireworks Dessert Party.

 

[my2disneyboys]

oh I am contemplating adding the dessert party to our plans- I cant wait to hear what you think of it. Great empty park pics!!

 

[wlwilliams9]

Great update! I love getting to the parks early. Last year was the first time we had done that and we were able to get so much done! We will definitely be doing that again this year....well, that's the plan anyway!!

I can't wait to hear about the dessert party. I added it on for us this Dec. It's a surprise for my DH. He loves coffee and desserts plus, it's in the location where we used to always watch wishes!