This Disney trip is going to be the bomb diggity! Dec 2010

[Tinker_Tam]

Oh no! Don't give up. I am first timer and I love seeing how others, who are doing in Dec, play with their trips. I have gotten so many ideas form PTRs that I am so thankful people make them. Really has helped me!

 

[disneyaddicted]

I subbed and I check in everyday. I just have so long till my next dis trip I get a little depressed and need to hear about everyone elses trips. This trip we are making is gonna be our first one as DVCers and we are doing Animal kingdom Lodge. I've never stayed there so I'm super excited and it just seems so far away. May 10-18 forever from now. Its too far away to even start planning dinners or emhs. Your trip sounds fun with Lo I absolutely love Disney at Christmas.

Oh my gosh, the Animal Kingdom lodge is such a cool place, I never stayed there, I probably never will, but I have read so many TR's about it. It's going to be amazing.
I know how yo feel about your trip being too far off to even plan anything. I've been there too. It's a countdown to the countdown know what I mean? But hopefully time will fly for you.

Ty, don't leave! Sometimes I get on, read, and get off - but I am along for the ride...

I am glad that everything is falling into place with Jim and you can now move forward with airfare!

Any word on when you and Lo can sit down and plan, plan, plan?

Well thanks for being here, I appreciate it. It just seems like since I have no plans at the moment I am posting about non Disney things, isn't that getting a little boring for ya'll? I really do want to post disney plans, I just need to make some.
I have plans to go to Lo's this Sunday for a Big Brother marathon, so maybe we can get some planning done then. It's hard to do with her kids around, they start to get sad when they think they are being left out of trip, they do have next October to look forward to, but to a kid it's a millenium away. I feel so guilty when her youngest gets that sad face when Lo says, "This is a mommys trip, yours is coming soon."

Oh no! Don't give up. I am first timer and I love seeing how others, who are doing in Dec, play with their trips. I have gotten so many ideas form PTRs that I am so thankful people make them. Really has helped me!

This is your first trip ever to Disney? Really? Aww, I remember my first time, it's the best feeling in the world, cherish those moments, you can't ever get your first time back.
I really wish I had the Disboars before my first trip, I was clueless, I didn't kno wabout fastpasses until almost my last day. I didn't watch a single show or parade, I really didn't explore enough and I left without using the majority of my snack credits. Once I discovered the Disboards and learned about all I had missed I had to plan a do over trip.
But seriously I have been to Disney world 3 times since 2006 and I have yet to see and do it all. There's just so much, so give yourself a must do list, but don't expect to do everything Disney has to offer, you'll go nuts and wear yourself out.
Will you be writing a trip report? I love to read a first timers trip report, it brings back great memories.

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

Oh no! Don't give up. I am first timer and I love seeing how others, who are doing in Dec, play with their trips. I have gotten so many ideas form PTRs that I am so thankful people make them. Really has helped me!

You are going to LOVE December!!! I went last year (Dec 6-11), stayed at CBR with my fiance and our then 2 year old. We had a blast! We did the Christmas Party, which was great; the Wishes Dessert party, which was 'eh'; the Santa at Epcot, near the America Experience (or whatever it's called) in world showcase is AMAZING!!! Miracle on 34th Street AMAZING!!! I did a PTR, but never followed through with a TR - but Ty has one, did you read that?

See Ty, now you gotta keep it going!

 

[Tinker_Tam]

I did a PTR, but never followed through with a TR - but Ty has one, did you read that?

See Ty, now you gotta keep it going!

I did read it! I got tons of info form there!!!!

 

[disneyaddicted]

You are going to LOVE December!!! I went last year (Dec 6-11), stayed at CBR with my fiance and our then 2 year old. We had a blast! We did the Christmas Party, which was great; the Wishes Dessert party, which was 'eh'; the Santa at Epcot, near the America Experience (or whatever it's called) in world showcase is AMAZING!!! Miracle on 34th Street AMAZING!!! I did a PTR, but never followed through with a TR - but Ty has one, did you read that?

See Ty, now you gotta keep it going!

Aww thanks for the props.
I really wish you would have done a TR. It's not too late ya know...just sayin.

I did read it! I got tons of info form there!!!!

Would you be at all interested in reading my TR from my very first trip back in 2006, you might get an idea of how overwhelming it can be for a first timer. But then again I didn't have the disboards either. Let me know and I'll post the link.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

I would LOVE the link! I am learning so much here...especially from all the trip reports. Its a view of how things really are!

 

[disneyaddicted]

Here you go Tinker Tam

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1355613

HOpe this works, alot of the pictures have since been deleted from photobucket.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Can't wait to check this out tonight once I get the kiddos to bed! Thanks!

 

[disneyaddicted]

no problem. I am feeling a little nostalgic and have started reading it myself. Gosh I wish I could experience Disney for the first time again.

 

[praisehisname]

You better *not* shut this thing down! I would miss you so much!

 

[disneyaddicted]

You better *not* shut this thing down! I would miss you so much!

Aww, you're making me blush. YOu are too sweet. Thank you.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Well my plans to meet with Lo fell through. Story of our lives. We tried to make another date to get together and plan but we are both booked up for the next 2 weeks. I picked up extra shifts at work this week I don't regret doing that, I need the money but now we can't make plans...again. We tried talking it out on the phone, but we both need our itinerary and what not layed out before us, and I was in my car when I called her, so there we go, story of our lives. We did however make a promise that we will, no matter what, buy our airline tickets this month, we can't put that off.

I have looked over what we have so far, and we pretty much made plans to visit each park twice, except for AK, so that might be the park we go to with our extra day, we just want to have some sort of touring plan and decide if we need two days at AK or 3 days somewhere else.

Here are a few options.
WE could go to MK our first night (the extra day) they close early for MVMCP, we could leave by 6:00pm and go to the Poly, get a nice fruity drink and sit on the beach and watch the eletric water pageant, I'm pretty sure it runs by there, I have to double check. Maybe I'm thinking you can see the castle firweorks from there, or maybe it's both.

WE could go to MK and then leave by 6:00pm and possibley go to a resort with an awesome pool and hot tubs? I guess that would depend on the weather though.

WE could go to AK, they close at 5:00pm, from there we could find our way to DTD, the only problem with that is it's a little early in the trip to be heading to shops, I might spend all my money in one night. But we could also use the time to visit Earl of Sandwich.

We could go to Epcot and watch Illuminations, the only problem there is we will have been up since major early morning, plus we are going to Epcot the very next day and it's EMH night.

Or we could go to AK and be back at our resort at a decent hour, get a good nights sleep and be ready to tackle the next day with gusto.

This all needs to be run by Lo and she might have a few scenarios of her own.

What sounds good to you all?


I am also thinking on adding Crystal Palace to our ADR's it would be OOP since we only have the QS plan, but breakfast there is pretty reasonable. I wonder if I can even get breakfast there this late in the game?

Lo mentioned wanting more character meals. We have 2 so far. So if we did the castle with the princesses and Chef Mickeys with Mickey and the gang, then Crystal palace would round it out with Pooh, (no pun intended there)

I think I'll call Disney Dining right now and see if it's doable.

 

[DONTMINDME]

Mk the first day and the drinks at the poly would be my pick, they have a great view of the fireworks for mvmcp too. The water parade is at around 9:10 if I'm not mistaken and the first set of fireworks for mvmcp is at 9:30. so you get a double . I also love the Crystal palace idea we did that one for my bday breakfast in may and it was really good and of course there was EEYORE!!!!!!! tooo cool,ok so I'm a goober i love EEYORE, who doesn't?????? I am soo jealous that you get to go at Christmas, Because of my job I probably will never get to go at Christmas again the mngr was a real....... about it. Maybe we will get a new mngr, wishful thinking, the one I have now has no people skills and he blatently shows favoritism. Not fun. Can't wait for you and Lo to finally get together and share note, then we will have some hard plans. I am looking forward to making mine, only 281 days to go!!!!!

 

[disneyaddicted]

Well I went and added Crystal Palace to our ADr's on Dec 7th. 9:20am.
I also tried to get a breakfast at Tusker house, but they were all booked up for breakfast. The CM said to try again closer to my travel time, they usually have alot of cancellations around December. who knew?

If we don't get Tusker house this trip, then maybe our trip next October we can do it.

Question? You can still book ADR's if you are staying off property right? I mean really the table service meals can't be for resort guests only, can it?

I know Lo mentioned that she would like to do a few character meals on our huge family trip too.

Now on a non disney note: Kent has been in our garden all day, he has all of our potatoes dug up now, washed and in our basement, enough to last us until almost this time next year.

Tomatos are coming in now hot and heavy, we picked 3 huge buckets of them today, some peppers too.

But tonight we are having smashed taters with tomato gravy, yummo! It's one of my favorites.

It's funny how Kent was saying he loves the summer because we eat like kings then, all fresh stuff from our garden, and then it got me thinking about how I can't wait to eat like a King at disney. My mind always no matter what finds a way to link everything to Disney. I am still super excited about getting the QS dining plan for FREE!

 

[disneyaddicted]

Mk the first day and the drinks at the poly would be my pick, they have a great view of the fireworks for mvmcp too. The water parade is at around 9:10 if I'm not mistaken and the first set of fireworks for mvmcp is at 9:30. so you get a double . I also love the Crystal palace idea we did that one for my bday breakfast in may and it was really good and of course there was EEYORE!!!!!!! tooo cool,ok so I'm a goober i love EEYORE, who doesn't?????? I am soo jealous that you get to go at Christmas, Because of my job I probably will never get to go at Christmas again the mngr was a real....... about it. Maybe we will get a new mngr, wishful thinking, the one I have now has no people skills and he blatently shows favoritism. Not fun. Can't wait for you and Lo to finally get together and share note, then we will have some hard plans. I am looking forward to making mine, only 281 days to go!!!!!

I am thinking the fruity drink at Poly sounds best, what a great way to start our first night out right? I have to run that by Lo, I am pretty sure she will like the idea of sitting on the beach and watching the water parade and the fireworks. I remember coming back from Whispering Canyon Cafe last year, we got to see the MVMCP fireworks from the boat, it was spectacular. I heard they pipe the music in att he beach, is this true do ya know?

I have eaten at Crystal Palace on every trip to Disney, I love that place too, Tigger is my favorite, Eeyore is Lo's favorite. Plus they have a great breakfast selection there. They matked down that both Lo and I are celebratin gour brithdays at that ADR.

Now for Cinderellas Royal table I only had them mark Lo's birthday, that is her special day, and for chef Mickey's that's my special day, but we will share our brithdays at CP.

Total shame about your new manager, rots my socks when higherups play favorites. I will keep my fingers crossed, maybe one day you will get a new manager and you'll get to do Disney at Christmas again.

 

[Tinkermom76]

Here are a few options.
WE could go to MK our first night (the extra day) they close early for MVMCP, we could leave by 6:00pm and go to the Poly, get a nice fruity drink and sit on the beach and watch the eletric water pageant, I'm pretty sure it runs by there, I have to double check. Maybe I'm thinking you can see the castle firweorks from there, or maybe it's both.

WE could go to MK and then leave by 6:00pm and possibley go to a resort with an awesome pool and hot tubs? I guess that would depend on the weather though.

you can see both the EWP and wishes from the poly beach and it's a great view!

The awesome pool at Pop? Aren't you staying at Pop? You can't use pools of resorts you aren't staying at at WDW

 

[disneyaddicted]

you can see both the EWP and wishes from the poly beach and it's a great view!

The awesome pool at Pop? Aren't you staying at Pop? You can't use pools of resorts you aren't staying at at WDW

Yup drinks at the Poly seems to be in first place right now.

Ummm, I know it's frowned upon to pool hop, I've done it before, I asked a CM about it first and she just shrugged and said "Who's gonna know?"

It's just an option, not a well thought out one considering we would have to lug our pool stuff with us to the park and keep it in a locker, plus changing in a public bathroom gives me the heebee jeebies.

When we pool hopped before it was on my first trip, (conveniently left out of my Tr for fear of being flamed) we had the van and was able to change at our own resort before heading over to New Orleans French Quarter, the sea serpant slide was calling to me.

 

[Tinkermom76]

I know it doesn't seem like a big deal and probably isn't in the slow season but I had to work hard to stay at the Poly and this is our dream trip but it seems all the time that you can't get a seat there because of pool hoppers. It will make me sad if we can't find space to swim in the pool because of that

 

[disneyaddicted]

TinkerMom76, I completely understand where you are coming from. And I am not saying it's cool to pool hop. I did it that one time, it was my first time at Disney and I honestly thought it would be my only time at Disney. If the CM had said "no, you can't." I wouldn't have, even the gatekeeper at French Quarter resort acted like it was fine to do.

I hate to tell you this but alot of pool hoping goes on, friends and family can be divided up and staying at different resorts and they will get together at one of the pools so everyone can hang out.

I won't mention names, but another family here (non posting on this PTR) pool hops because they don't want to use a park ticket at a water park, they just hit up some resorts that have pools with slides.

And again, I am not saying it's cool to do. People just do it. Kind of like the using your old refillable mug year after year. I buy a new one each time I go, but I have seen others using old faded mugs that they don't even sell anymore, it's not cool, and my fear is "What if Disney gets rid of the refillable mug because people take advantage of it?"

Back in the day each resort had their own refillable mug, I would see people filling up at PopCentury using a different resort mug, it's frowned upon, but it's not enforced and until Disney enforces their own rules, it's gonna keep happening.

I promise you, and I am not being sarcastic when i say this, I will not pool hop at your resort, (I will however use your beach to watch the fireworks. and honestly I probably won't pool hop at all. too much trouble, really.

I do hope you have the best vacation ever, I really do.

 

[DONTMINDME]

Yes, they pipe the music in at the beach at the Poly, and there is nothing wrong with copping a squat on the beach to watch the water parade or the fireworks, and in Dec their was noone in our pool at the Wilderness Lodge so pool hopping wouldnt' even have been noticed. We are gonna have to try breakfast at Ak but this trip in May we are club level and they have a breakfast sunrise safari for club levels we are doing on my bday so that will be my AK breakfast. Haven't decided on Dining plan or not yet since as dvcers no chance of free dining. It's all good tho, I can't wait to get up in the morning and step out on my balcony and spend the morning with the giraffe. I love me some animals.