There’s No Turning Back Now! 7/23 - Link to my new PTR!

[Tink-erin-belle]

True had a wonderful birthday party!! What a lucky girl she is. The photos you took are wonderful. It seems that you are really close to your family. I think that's awesome!

Thank you, Kelli! She really did have a great time and I had a blast playing photographer My bothers, sisters and I are very close, so I was happy they were all able to come together to spend time with True on her birthday And we just LOVE the boyfriend and the fiancee and hope they are part of our family soon too! We all had a fantastic day for True's birthday!

 

[Mrs. Bradbury]

Hi Erin! I'm caught up!

Looks like True had a wonderful ! I loved all the pictures. You have beautiful children! Looks like it was a great day and great company.

Dang, my family is hungry. It seems to happen around 6 PM everyday . . . don't they know I'm DISing???

Glad you're using real names. I understand the reasoning behind using code names, but if anybody really wants to know something about you, it's not too hard to find out. Boy, I learned that in technicolor during a brief stint as an office manager for a private investigation firm. Nothing is private, for the right price.

I love your plans so far, and I'm so jealous of your June plans AND let's face it, the APs. We had them one year and it was wonderful. Those things burnt a hole in my pocket, let me tell ya!

I loved friendship bracelets too.

Can't wait to hear about Coy's birthday! Gracie and Robert's birthdays are a week apart. I mean, 5 years and a 51 weeks apart but you know what I mean. As my pregnancy progressed I had a come-to-Jesus talk with the doctor and told him it WOULD NOT DO for this baby to be born on Grace's birthday or close enough that I was incapacitated. No, sir. Grace has always been the Queen of all she surveys and she would not be sharing the spotlight. No, sir. So he induced me a week before Grace's birthday.

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Hi Erin! I'm caught up!

Looks like True had a wonderful ! I loved all the pictures. You have beautiful children! Looks like it was a great day and great company.

Thank you! We all had a great time, and True had the best time of us all, bossing us all around

Dang, my family is hungry. It seems to happen around 6 PM everyday . . . don't they know I'm DISing???

Glad you're using real names. I understand the reasoning behind using code names, but if anybody really wants to know something about you, it's not too hard to find out. Boy, I learned that in technicolor during a brief stint as an office manager for a private investigation firm. Nothing is private, for the right price.

That is a scary thought!

I love your plans so far, and I'm so jealous of your June plans AND let's face it, the APs. We had them one year and it was wonderful. Those things burnt a hole in my pocket, let me tell ya!

LOL I’m worried that once I have the APs in hand, I will find a way to get down to Orlando every few weeks! That would be amazing! But as long as I get 2 trips out of them, I’ll be happy

I loved friendship bracelets too.

Friendship bracelets are the absolute best!

Can't wait to hear about Coy's birthday! Gracie and Robert's birthdays are a week apart. I mean, 5 years and a 51 weeks apart but you know what I mean. As my pregnancy progressed I had a come-to-Jesus talk with the doctor and told him it WOULD NOT DO for this baby to be born on Grace's birthday or close enough that I was incapacitated. No, sir. Grace has always been the Queen of all she surveys and she would not be sharing the spotlight. No, sir. So he induced me a week before Grace's birthday.

It’s funny, because my kids really can’t stand having birthdays so close together! I was so worried that True was going to be born on Coy’s birthday that I was trying every trick in the book to induce my own labor (like spicy food!) but then my doctor wanted to schedule a c-section and I was off the hook! I’m trying to think of a last minute activity for Coy’s birthday tomorrow since rain is in the forecast, but we’ll figure something out

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

because there is a wealth of information on here and also very helpful DISers! Because of your comments, as well as some additional research (I research), I’ve decided to add an extra day to our trip! It makes more sense for so many reasons.

#1 It allows me to dedicate one park to each day rather than being forced to hop from one park to another. As I commented earlier, squeezing four parks and MNSSHP into 3.5 days wasn’t ideal. 4.5 days is totally doable and we can hop when and if we want to hop.

#2 Leaving Wednesday night instead of Thursday night will potentially lower our airfare. I’m not planning on buying tickets yet, but so far Wednesday flights are cheaper than Thursday.

#3 Having cheaper airfare will cancel out adding a day to our stay at POR. We’ll probably stay offsite on Wednesday night since we’ll probably be getting into Orlando very late, but we’ll check into POR on Thursday. If the AP discount on POR is good enough, though ,we’ll just check in on Wednesday.

#4 It’s only one extra day that the kids will be missing from school. Missing 3 days is better than missing 6 days, so we are still coming out ahead On top of that, I’ve already seen some improvement in Coy’s School work He still has a long way to go, but I am proud of my little man

So after some tweaking, these are the revised park and ADR plans:


Thursday, 10/06 – Relaxing Day and MNSSHP Night
Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s
Lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern

After breakfast at CM, we’ll head back to the resort to relax until it’s time to head to MK. I’m hoping to get a late lunch at LTT – maybe about 3pm – so we’ll get to enter slightly before the 4pm entry for MNSSHP, and the beauty is that we’ll have APs so we won’t really be burning a ticket just to get in early


Friday, 10/07 – EPCOT Day

It is the park to avoid, per touringplans.com, but the anticipated crowd level is 6 as opposed to the 7.6 crowd level expected on Saturday. It’s a park to avoid mainly because of morning EMH, but I’m not too worried about that since my objective here is to do a lap around WS and eat at as many F&W booths as possible! There is a possibility that I can motivate the kids (and myself) to wake up for EMH so that way, we can get a lot done on the Future World side before going to the World Showcase side. F&W booths are the priority, but I’m toying with the idea of a dinner at Coral Reef for two reasons. First is that I like the break that a TS meal provides, especially since we’ll be eating on the run all afternoon. The second thing is that we’ll be eating a lot of red meat and pork on this vacation, so I think it will be good for us to have a seafood meal I’ll probably make it a later dinner than usual – maybe around 7 – so that we can leave shortly after with full tummies and get a good night’s rest.


Saturday, 10/08 – Hollywood Studios Day
Sci-Fi Lunch

Switching my HS day was what got this ball rolling in the first place (thanks again, Karen!) After leaving EP early the night before, hopefully we can get to morning EMH at HS with no problem and get a lot done. We’ll have breakfast at Starring Rolls and hopefully I can get a late lunch ADR at Sci-Fi. Typically, when we go to HS, we’re ready to call it by 3 or 4pm. I’m thinking we’ll watch the parade at 3 and then hop over to MK so we can ride a few attractions before MSEP and Wishes.


Sunday, 10/09 – Animal Kingdom Day
Tusker House Breakfast

The morning plans are the same, as I’m still going to try to get a before-park-opening ADR for Tusker House. If I can’t get one that early, at the very least, the kids and I will be at RD. We should get a lot done on this day too, which is why I’m considering an early dinner at T-Rex. I don’t have any DTD time scheduled for this trip (except for maybe on our departure day) so this would be a good time to do it. If not, we might head back to EP to do some attractions and watch Illuminations.


Monday, 10/10 – Magic Kingdom Day
Cinderella’s Royal Table Breakfast or Crystal Palace Breakfast

Again, no change here, but I have decided just to do breakfast as our TS meal of the day. It will either be CRT or CP, depending on which one I can get for before-park-opening. Since we will have spent a significant amount of time in each park, we’ll be free to hop to any other park when we’re done touring MK. I’m thinking it might be HS, considering there will be evening EMH that night, but I don’t have to decide now because these new park plans allow for so much more flexibility than they did before

So I called and added 10/06 to my POR reservation and I also requested a Mansion building with a river view. When I first made this reservation, I forgot to mention that I would prefer a Mansion (once again especially the pics you posted, Ann, of the Magnolia area where you stayed ) So now that I added a day to the beginning of our stay, I get to make ADRs this Saturday instead of Sunday!

 

[inkedupmomma]

new plans look great, and i'm so happy for you! You totally deserve to splurge after having to cancel!

I'm doing CRT breakfast for the first time this upcoming trip! I'll let you know what I think!

I decided against Coral Reef this trip..which is funny, because at first it was on my must do.. then I realized there were so many other places I haven't tried in Epcot! Plus Bob actually had an opinion on where we should go, so I honored all of it!

Glad you are getting a lot done.. truth be told, i know ZIP about POFQ!! ANy tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

OMG! OMG! OMG, guys!


I can’t believe this! I decided to stalk Southwest Airlines again to check on the fares and they dropped! I mean, they dropped A LOT!!! I grabbed my credit card and I booked our flights! I saved over $400!!! I can hardly believe it and I am beside myself with delight! I think you can already tell that, can’t you? Here are the deets: We will fly out late on Wednesday night and we’ll arrive at MCO very late at night We’ll definitely have to check in to a hotel offsite because it will probably be unlikely to get that Mansion Building I requested that late. The next morning, we’ll check out of that hotel and have our breakfast at Chef Mickey’s as planned, then check in to POR. We leave Orlando on Tuesday afternoon and will get home at a decent time. I’m ecstatic! Yet another thing is crossed off of my list and there is yet another reason that there’s no turning back now on this trip!

 

[britt_ji]

Congratulations on booking your flights and getting a good deal! It's great that you've added another day to your vacation, and will be able to dedicate more time to each park Your plans sound wonderful...you seem to be going to some pretty fun restaurants! Good luck with making your ADRs Saturday Loved all of the pictures of True's birthday, as well...so sweet!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

It’s funny, because my kids really can’t stand having birthdays so close together! I was so worried that True was going to be born on Coy’s birthday that I was trying every trick in the book to induce my own labor (like spicy food!) but then my doctor wanted to schedule a c-section and I was off the hook! I’m trying to think of a last minute activity for Coy’s birthday tomorrow since rain is in the forecast, but we’ll figure something out

I hear ya on the close birthdays! We have three of our four kiddos' birthdays in July! Michael the 19th, Kenah the 27th and Dimitri the 28th. July is not kind to me financially. I was due with Dimitri right on Kenah's birthday. He was kind enough to wait one extra day to make his appearance. lol!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I love your ADRs and hurray for lower flights!!!! I think that's a sign this trip was meant to be.

 

[inkedupmomma]

YAY! Such great news! That def makes it more real! so happy for you!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Hi, all! I'll be back to reply to your kind comments and tell you about the ADRs I'll be able to make and catch up on a bunch of PTRs tomorrow, but I had to jump on the boards for a quick second to change Coy's age in my sig to 12! (I have a sickness about accuracy, I tell ya! ) I can't believe my little man is 12! Well, True is ready to go to the party store with me, so I've gotta run and get part two of this birthday celebration going!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Thank you, thank you...I'll take credit for that extra day, it was my idea after all!

So excited that you got not only an extra day, but great airfare!!! I think I might just run off and check those extremely expensive flights myself! Maybe ours have gone down too???

 

[-Hope-]

Whew, I miss a few days on the DIS and you are 5 pages into your PTR!

I'm finished sulking about cancelling my trip and back on the dis so I can start planning our girls only trip for Karens birthday- in 2 years. That is in part thanks to your encouragement.

I'm so excited for your sibling trip! It sounds like a blast! My brother and I went to London, just the two of us, when he graduated from high school and it was so much fun. We still have "catchphrases" from that trip that no one else gets, it was just really special.

So sweet of your friend to loan you her DSLR. I will say, don't expect to master it in a few weeks and don't be discouraged if you really want to take the time to learn it.

And I can't beleive you let the Godmother of the Mouse Mafia (aka Karen) talk you into another day! I thought this was just a Disney sickness of hers but her eyes lit up when I told her I was thinking of adding a day to my Chicago trip- and she also promptly told me that she was trying to talk you into another day since she knew I wasn't on the dis at that point. I do have to admit that your plans look much more laid back and easier to maneuver with the extra day- but don't tell Karen I said so!

I have a link to the new PTR in my sig, be sure to check it out!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

new plans look great, and i'm so happy for you! You totally deserve to splurge after having to cancel!

Thank you so much, Jenn!

I'm doing CRT breakfast for the first time this upcoming trip! I'll let you know what I think!

I hope you like CRT, we really loved it when we had breakfast there in 2009. I can’t wait to hear what you think of it. They really make the girls AND the boys feel special there

I decided against Coral Reef this trip..which is funny, because at first it was on my must do.. then I realized there were so many other places I haven't tried in Epcot! Plus Bob actually had an opinion on where we should go, so I honored all of it!

Oh, I know! It is so hard to decide between the “must do”s and “haven’t done yet”s!

Glad you are getting a lot done.. truth be told, i know ZIP about POFQ!! ANy tips you can give me would be greatly appreciated

I really don’t know too much about POFQ myself – I just know it’s pretty! Honestly, I didn’t put too much research in that resort, but if I happen upon a good tidbit of info, I’ll be sure to pass it along

Congratulations on booking your flights and getting a good deal! It's great that you've added another day to your vacation, and will be able to dedicate more time to each park

It is such a great relief to have the flights booked and to have that extra day And I can’t believe that I saved $400 – that more than makes up for the extra day I added on!

Your plans sound wonderful...you seem to be going to some pretty fun restaurants! Good luck with making your ADRs Saturday Loved all of the pictures of True's birthday, as well...so sweet!

Thanks so much Brittany! She really had a great birthday!

I hear ya on the close birthdays! We have three of our four kiddos' birthdays in July! Michael the 19th, Kenah the 27th and Dimitri the 28th. July is not kind to me financially. I was due with Dimitri right on Kenah's birthday. He was kind enough to wait one extra day to make his appearance. lol!

So we both feel each other’s pain April is definitely my broke month with these birthdays so close together!

I love your ADRs and hurray for lower flights!!!! I think that's a sign this trip was meant to be.

Thanks! I feel that way too! Things are coming together nicely for this trip!

YAY! Such great news! That def makes it more real! so happy for you!

Thanks! It makes it feel really real!

Thank you, thank you...I'll take credit for that extra day, it was my idea after all!

No, Karen, thank YOU! Seriously! That extra day has made all the difference

So excited that you got not only an extra day, but great airfare!!! I think I might just run off and check those extremely expensive flights myself! Maybe ours have gone down too???

You know, I hate to say this, but I think that extreme price reduction was due partially to the bad press Southwest was getting earlier this week due to that scary incident with that plane! Did you get a chance to check your flights?

Whew, I miss a few days on the DIS and you are 5 pages into your PTR!

Oh, I’m sure your PTR will catch up in a day or two

I'm finished sulking about cancelling my trip and back on the dis so I can start planning our girls only trip for Karens birthday- in 2 years. That is in part thanks to your encouragement.

I'm so excited for your sibling trip! It sounds like a blast! My brother and I went to London, just the two of us, when he graduated from high school and it was so much fun. We still have "catchphrases" from that trip that no one else gets, it was just really special.

I am so glad you are back! You know, 2 years doesn’t seem that far away! Of course, I can say that because I am currently planning a trip 14 months away but I am glad I could be one of your planning enablers…I mean encouragers LOL But, yeah, I can’t wait for the sibling trip!

So sweet of your friend to loan you her DSLR. I will say, don't expect to master it in a few weeks and don't be discouraged if you really want to take the time to learn it.

Thank you for saying that. I had an unfortunate incident with it during Coy’s party yesterday and was ready to give up! But after I calmed down, I realized that it will just take practice and I learned something from it!

And I can't beleive you let the Godmother of the Mouse Mafia (aka Karen) talk you into another day! I thought this was just a Disney sickness of hers but her eyes lit up when I told her I was thinking of adding a day to my Chicago trip- and she also promptly told me that she was trying to talk you into another day since she knew I wasn't on the dis at that point. I do have to admit that your plans look much more laid back and easier to maneuver with the extra day- but don't tell Karen I said so!

Oh, that is too funny!

I have a link to the new PTR in my sig, be sure to check it out!

I subbed, but I have to go back over there to read. I can’t wait to see what you and Karen cook up!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Erin, SOME of the flights had dropped dramatically when I went to look ($79 each way instead of $150!!!) BUT, they were not possible for us AT ALL. They were spread out in a way that we would have to extend the trip 3 days on each side of the trip...and even this Disney pusher couldn't pull off adding SIX days!!!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

ADR day was today and it was really hard to wake up this morning after having an all-day party for Coy’s 12th birthday. That is another story, though, and I have to post about that later. One thing I can share now though, is that while Coy, True and I were having a birthday lunch, the subject came up about which restaurants we wanted to go to on this trip. I wonder who brought that subject up? So, because of that little conversation, there was a small change in my ADR plans so that I could incorporate something that the kids wanted to do. So here’s what I got:


Thursday, 10/06 –

Breakfast – Chef Mickey – 10:20am

Lunch – Liberty Tree Tavern – 2:15pm

I’m a little worried that our breakfast and lunch are a little close, but if I remember correctly, we ate a moderate amount at Chef Mickey’s when we were last there and we were hungry by lunch. I don’t want breakfast to be any earlier because I want us to rest enough from our trip the night before, and I couldn’t get an ADR for any later at LTT – which is OK. Actually, the ADR for LTT is even better than I thought because we’ll have time for a fairly leisurely meal and then have some time for touring until it’s time for MNSSHP.


Friday, 10/07 –

Dinner – Coral Reef – 7pm

I got the exact time I wanted! When I just gave a little bit of info about the restaurant to the kids yesterday, they were all over it! They were very excited about the idea of eating a meal “in” an aquarium. So I have a question for you guys: What is a good place to sit there for a good view of the fish? Should I request a table very close to the tank, or will I have people stumbling all over my family for a good view and pictures? I mean, I don’t want to see myself in someone else’s TR and I’m making a weird face! Seriously, though, any tips about a good view would be appreciated! I know I’m not guaranteed those seats, but it never hurts to ask, right?


Saturday, 10/08 –

Lunch – Sci-Fi – 1:55pm

Again, the perfect time! We’ll be able to have lunch, go see the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun! parade and then high-tail it out of there to go to MK for the rest of the night!


Sunday, 10/09 –

Breakfast – Tusker House – 8am

Dinner – T-REX – 5pm

I’m so excited by Tusker House because the kids and I have never been to AK before the park opened, so I think this will provide some great picture taking opportunities! Oh, and the food is delish, but we already know how my family loves the food, don’t we? As far as T-REX, I’m super excited since we’ve never been to that restaurant at all, but I wasn’t crazy about the time. After I slept on it (oh believe me, I fell back asleep RIGHT after making these ADRs ) I realized that it will be fine to be there at 5pm because we usually have done everything by park closing, so we can probably get out of there at about 4pm and still get everything done. Plus, we’ll beat the park-closing-bum-rush-to-the-parking-lot! I really don’t care for that We’l probably just leave after Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade since I realized the kids and I have never seen that parade either


Monday, 10/10 –

Breakfast – Crystal Palace – 8:05am

Before-park-opening ADR!!! You know, I didn’t even bother looking to see if CRT had an opening because I really just wasn’t looking forward to breakfast there again. I mean, breakfast is great and nothing beats eating in the castle, but I really REALLY want to go to dinner there and that just isn’t going to happen on this trip. I like CP and, to be honest, I think I need to go here again because I want to forget the negative experience I had there last time we ate there. I mean, it wasn’t super negative, I just really didn’t care for the attitude of the CM who was waiting on us that morning and it put a damper on things for me. I don’t think the kids even noticed, but I did. Everyone has their bad days and waiting tables is hard work, and I think that CM was just having a bad day. He didn’t ruin my day or anything, but I also don’t want that to be the last impression of CP because I like that restaurant and the kids do too. Wouldn’t it be funny if I just jinxed myself and the CM we get there this time is a real jerk and worse than the one we had before? No, I know that won’t happen. In the many many many times I have been to WDW, I have personally only had 2 bad experiences with CMs and the other one was way back when I was a kid. Not bad at all. TANGET! Moving on, you’re probably wondering what the change was that I was talking about in the beginning of this post. So when the kids and I were talking about these reservations, True wanted to know why we weren’t eating in “the place that spins around and around”. Uh oh, my baby wanted to go to Garden Grill! I explained to her that we just didn’t have time to do it this trip. She wasn’t having it! She started doing the little girl thing. You know the routine: “Please? Please? PLEASE, MOMMY!” I can’t blame her. I love the place too and it was hard for me to let it go on this trip. So I asked her and Coy if they’d be willing to give up trying T-REX. Coy said no and he was OK with not going to GG. True said no and she wanted to go to the spinning place Really, it wasn’t this big of an ordeal. I think I just wanted an excuse to add another TS meal to our plans – specifically GG! So I made a dinner ADR for Garden Grill at 6:30pm! So we won’t be hopping from MK to HS that day, we’ll have to go to EP, but that is still cool because we’ll probably still have a lot to do at WS since most of our time on other EP days will have probably been spent stuffing our faces at F&W! (I wonder if I posted that acronym heavy sentence anywhere else but the DIS, would people be able to decipher it? ) We’ll probably be worn out, but there are evening EMH at HS so there is still the possibility of hopping over there if we really wanted to do something else again. We’ll see…

So there you have it! After the fun and success of the brief conversation I had with the kids about our table service meals, I want to talk to them about counter service meals next. I usually don’t plan these and we just eat wherever we are, but I think we are missing out on some places because they aren’t conveniently located wherever we just happen to find ourselves when we’re hungry. Also, we’re usually in WDW during a time of year that has a crowd level of anywhere from 1 to 4 (out of 10, per touringplans.com) but this time the predictions are for levels in the 6s, 7s and 8s so I think we will actually be going for an honest to goodness “Touring Plan” to make sure we can get the most out of these 4 days (MNSSHP doesn’t count because the parties are all about the activities and not the attractions for us). So I think we’ll be doing the Touring Plan thing most mornings and then by afternoon we’ll do our normal laid back approach to touring

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Erin, SOME of the flights had dropped dramatically when I went to look ($79 each way instead of $150!!!) BUT, they were not possible for us AT ALL. They were spread out in a way that we would have to extend the trip 3 days on each side of the trip...and even this Disney pusher couldn't pull off adding SIX days!!!

Don’t sell yourself short, Karen. I’m willing to bet that you could persuade your way into 6 extra days I wish the flights had worked out for you, though! Hopefully they’ll drop soon *fingers crossed*

 

[-Hope-]

Your ADRs look great! I'd have done the same thing and added that ADR if my daughter wanted it that badly.

I can't wait to read all about Coy's birthday.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Thursday, 10/06 –

Breakfast – Chef Mickey – 10:20am

Lunch – Liberty Tree Tavern – 2:15pm

I’m a little worried that our breakfast and lunch are a little close, but if I remember correctly, we ate a moderate amount at Chef Mickey’s when we were last there and we were hungry by lunch. I don’t want breakfast to be any earlier because I want us to rest enough from our trip the night before, and I couldn’t get an ADR for any later at LTT – which is OK. Actually, the ADR for LTT is even better than I thought because we’ll have time for a fairly leisurely meal and then have some time for touring until it’s time for MNSSHP.

Do you know what I just realized?!?!?! Talking you into adding a day means we'll be at WDW for one day...and get this...IF we end up having enough money for MNSSHP (in which I SHALL surprise the kids...ahem...I can do this Hope! LOL) it will be our last night! The 6th! We would be at MNSSHP at the same time! How cool is that?!?!?

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Your ADRs look great! I'd have done the same thing and added that ADR if my daughter wanted it that badly.

I can't wait to read all about Coy's birthday.

Thanks! Yeah, I couldn't ignore that she REALLY wanted to go to GG... and I just needed that excuse to book it

Do you know what I just realized?!?!?! Talking you into adding a day means we'll be at WDW for one day...and get this...IF we end up having enough money for MNSSHP (in which I SHALL surprise the kids...ahem...I can do this Hope! LOL) it will be our last night! The 6th! We would be at MNSSHP at the same time! How cool is that?!?!?

Oh my gosh, that's so exciting! I hope you'll be there! DISmeet!