There will be fireworks! BLT Dec 2013 PTR

[murmkc]

Count downs have begun. Room reservations are made.
Time for the PTR!

Where: Bay Lake Tower 1BR standard view
When: Second week of December, 2013
Who: Brian (35 - me), my girlfriend Adriane (34), and my awesome big sister Shelly (like 46 or something).

He is a pic of Adriane and I from October 2011 in the Morocco pavilion.

And here I am with my sister Shelly at the BLT top of the world lounge from December 2010.

At this point I know that I want to do the Very Merry Christmas Party and perhaps a tour. We will return to a couple favorite dining places but would like to focus on restaurants that are completely new to us.

I also want to take in the magic of the holidays at Disney and have a couple surprise ideas to make the trip even more special. For now, I am open to suggestions and ideas from everyone here on the disboards!

My last trip report can be found here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2822788
It was the first time I had brought Adriane to the world with me, and the first time either of us had done the Food and Wine Festival.

 

[murmkc]

My first thoughts on dinner dining for this trip are as follows...

Day 1 - Dinner at the Wave - It is right there at the Contemporary and will allow for extra resort exploration time.

Day 2 - La Hacienda - We ate here on our final evening on our last trip and Adriane LOVES Mexican food so we will hit it up again.

Day 3 - Be our Guest - Here's hoping we get reservations! I want to eat here on the night that we do the Christmas Party.

Day 4 - Boma - I always put Boma on my list of places to eat but never end up going there. To quote Darth Vader, "There will be no one to stop us this time."

Day 5 -Ohana - Another old favorite. I have to eat here every trip!

Day 6 - Narcossee's - I am hoping to make this a romantic dinner by the water to end another awesome trip.


On another note, we will try out photpass+ and see how that goes. I have had mixed results with the Disney photopass photographers. My last trip they did great but the trip before that was not so great.

I CAN'T FREAKING WAIT FOR THIS TRIP!

 

[murmkc]

Potential big shake up in the plans... SERIOUS job offer might move be from KC to Nashville! Closer to WDW! The trip dates and plans themselves will not change significantly but the flights, or drive there may be WAY different!

Wish me luck!

 

[murmkc]

A little more about our crazy cast of characters.

Brian (me) - I am a huge Walt Disney fan and DVC member. My first trip to WDW was when I was 19 and I have managed to get back to the world a number of times since then. During normal life I am a director of operations for a local law firm. Drinking around the world at Epcot is probably my favorite thing to do in the parks. My favorite "classic" Disney character is Scrooge McDuck (probably a byproduct of my MBA) but my favorite overall has to be Tony Stark!

Adriane (my girlfiend) - Adriane is an aerobics instructor, administrative assistant, and super sweet Disney nut. This will be her second DVC trip with me to WDW. Her favorite Disney ride (so far) is Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and her favorite characters are the seagulls from Finding Nemo.

Shelly (my older sister) - Shelly is a creative writer, art maniac, and stay at home mom. I will let her chime in a little bit about her favorites as she also frequents the disboards! Look out for her trip report from December 2012! She should be posting day 1 any time now.

We are all from the Kansas City area and will be flying in for this trip.
The job offer mentioned in a previous post is no longer a concern as my current employer matched it!

For now we have tentative dining plans and I am thinking of a loose itinerary based on that... any comments, tips, suggestions, or warnings are welcome!

 

[dawnmichele]

Hello!

I'm Brian's sister and am excited to be sharing this pre trip report with him!

As he mentioned, I just got back from an amazing 8 days at Disney and have started my trip report. It's so fun to relive the trip by sharing it with other Disney fanatics! It's called Everyone! Come see how handsome I am!
Part of what made that trip so fun was knowing I'd be coming back so soon! I'm super grateful that my brother is letting me tag along with him and his girlfriend on this trip. How awesome is that? And I've promised to mind my own business and stay out of their way most of the time. We've travelled to Disney together before and did a great job of spending enough time together to share the experience, but doing our own thing enough to not run into the problems lots of Disney fans do when traveling with family.

After our recent trip, I am HUGE fan of Photopass+ and will be strongly advocating using it this time. When it comes to dining plans, I'm hoping to barge in with Brian and Adrienne for La Hacienda and Be Our Guest - but I'm not so sure about the others. He recently mentioned doing something crazy like Deluxe Dining to celebrate his promotion, which gives me all kinds of ideas about where I'd like to eat, but we'll have to wait and see how that goes.

Here's one of my favorite PhotoPass shots from this last trip, taken just minutes before we had to head back to the Art of Animation to catch the Magical Express back to our regular life. (They should really call the trip back to the airport something other than the Magical Express I think.)

Here's my big scheme for this trip though - As often happens, when I was there with my little family last month, we all talked about wanting to visit the World every year. So we're planning to go ourselves in December, and in my wild dreams we'll time it right so I'll spend a week there with my daughter and her dad -- followed by a week there with my brother and his lady. Crazy, right? But crazy like a fox. Like everybody else, I've got a dream.

Oh, and, if you're at all curious about the last time we went together, I wrote a simple trip report about that time called I'll trip a baby if i have to. Even thought I wouldn't really trip a baby. Probably.

 

[wiigirl]

Potential big shake up in the plans... SERIOUS job offer might move be from KC to Nashville! Closer to WDW! The trip dates and plans themselves will not change significantly but the flights, or drive there may be WAY different!

Wish me luck!

Good luck! (fellow person from KC)

 

[happybelle]

Good Luck!

 

[murmkc]

Thanks for the well wishes!

 

[murmkc]

Previous dinner plans have already been re-planned!

We will still do Ohana and Be Our Guest, but everything else looks like it is up in the air! We have been reviewing menus and ratings and whatnot and are undecided on many dinner plans. Adriane and Shelly are not fond of seafood, so that leaves out a few options... More to come as we figure this out!

 

[happybelle]

Plans are made to be changed. Looking forward to the new plans.

 

[dawnmichele]

Ok, here's my long list of places I'd like to eat. Someday.

Places I've already tried:

San Angel Inn
50s Prime Time Cafe
Cinderella's Royal Table
Sanaa
Tusker House (breakfast)
Tutto Italia

Places I've yet to try:

1900 Park Fare (breakfast)
Be Our Guest
Liberty Tree Tavern (lunch)
Yak & Yeti
Hollywood Brown Derby
Artist Point
Whispering Canyon
La Hacienda
Kona Cafe (breakfast)
The new Moroccan tapas place

Not that I think we can or should try them all on this trip of course, but just an idea of what I think sounds good.

 

[dawnmichele]

Look, brother, look!
Less than 300 days!
That's a big milestone, right?

​

 

[murmkc]

Now we have less than 260 days to go! We are moving along!

My whole dining plan agenda has been scrapped along with any park touring ideas. FastPass+ has me completely confused on how to plot and scheme this next trip.

I have not been out of town for more than a couple days without my new puppy so that will be interesting as well.

So here is a photo of the puppy. As always any best practices with these new WDW policies is appreciated!

 

[dawnmichele]

Cute dog. What's her name? Was she named after anyone special, or Disney related?

 

[murmkc]

That puppy is Lily Belle! I am sure everyone here catches that reference.

 

[murmkc]

Make plans - change plans - remake new plans that are later also changed.

Good times! I love planning for the next trip so changes are fine by me.

So it looks like my big sister will be in WDW with her family and will not need to crash with Adriane and I. We will all be able to hang out but they are doing a split stay at a couple different places (Coronado Springs and Art of Animation I think).

So the options for dinner and touring plans just expanded like crazy! This will be the largest group I have been to WDW with since 1999 - I can't wait.

 

[murmkc]

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party tickets have been purchased!

CHEERS!

 

[murmkc]

Dining reservations finalized and secured!

It ended up way different than originally planned, but I think it is going to be awesome. We will be joining my sister's family for dinner on our first couple nights!

Day 1 - Ohana - One of my all time fav's
Day 2 - Whispering Canyon Cafe' - This will be new to the whole group and will give us a chance to check out the Wilderness Lodge.
Day 3 - Be Our Guest !!! - I am super glad we were able to get reservations!
Day 4 - Liberty Tree Tavern - We will be eating here the evening that we are also doing Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.
Day 5 - BOMA - Finally.
Day 6 - Coral Reef

The countdown continues. I need my Disney fix!

 

[murmkc]

It is July. My birthday month. It is also my big sister's birthday month!

Her PTR can be found -> http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3121801

She is going to start her own trip before me but then join us to sneak in a few extra days at the world.

 

[momminnie]

I am joining in on your adventure.