Two Castles in 24 Hours...Bring it On! A Sept 2013 PTR **NEW 10/14 w/ TR Link**

[SuperNEMOfan]

Im looking forward to all the surprises!!!

I love the nemo musical

Ive never been to the tusker house or teppan edo but they both look so good.

I havent seen Lion king either and ive said the same things as you "we'll do it this time" and it never happens
So i hope it happens for the both of us this trip

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Life Update and a Disney Date Night Bonus

Well, after officially accepting an offer on our condo last Friday, the buyers got cold feel and officially cancelled the sale on Wednesday morning. We've had 4 showings since officially putting it back on the MLS and are doing Open Houses again this weekend - so we're hopeful to have another offer soon. Starting to get a little close to vacation for comfort but we'll make it work!

Last night we got to do something we haven't done in quite some time....a Disney Date night and it was so much fun!! Between getting the condo ready, all of the traveling I have been doing for work and just work in general, getting out on a work night hadn't been in our cards.

We hit up Earl of Sandwich for dinner (we realized its been a couple months since we had eaten there). So good as always..the Full Montague for me and the Original for B.

We then headed over to DCA through the Grand Californian entrance. Before the relaunch of DCA, we almost never went to it before Disneyland and now we usually hit it up first. I was hoping for a somewhat decent singlerider line for my favorite ride in the all of the parks.

Unfortunately, the line was longer than we wanted to wait in so we cut through a Bugs Land to hit up the next best thing.

Stand-by was 30 mins but the Fastpass return time was only 40 mins away, so we grabbed fastpasses and headed over to the Animation Building to relax in air conditioning. I am a total noob when it comes to try to take a picture of the Fastpasses with my phone, B ended up taking the pic after I almost lost the grip on my phone!

I love the Animation Building - although why they feel it necessary to show the part of the Lion King where Mufasa dies or Baby Mine from Dumbo - it's just plain cruel. Gets me every...single...time. We were lucky to walk in to Once Upon a Dream, no tears this time!!

Our destination was:

We had such a great Crush. Someone asked him if he knew Flounder and it went in to this whole spiel about Sebastian and getting taken to a cave with thingamabobs a plenty - it was awesome. He also got asked to name his 65 kids and he started rattling off names without missing a beat. Most of them were lost on the kiddos (like Zach, Kelly, AC, Screech, Lisa....all the Jacksons, the Beatles and of course his oldest Keanu who loves to surf at point break!)

By the time we were done with Crush it was time to take an elevator ride. We had the BEST CM manning our elevator. He was beyond creepy and so in character the entire time. We left a compliment card for him at Guest Services on our way out - he deserved it!!

With Tower behind us - we were on a mission for dessert. Tasty treats from

I got a hot fudge sundae and B got himself his old favorite standby

Dessert in hand, we made our way over to Route 66 to hit up single rider on Radiator Springs Racers.

Someone decided to Nic Cage the singlerider line...would have been slightly more epic if they had used his crazy face you always see on meme's...

We were lucky and placed in to the same car with a family of four. I sat next to the kids and they were so cute. We were in a red car and they were so excited they didn't get Sally again. Love this view....

We lost by a hair but still so much fun!! With Racer's behind us we made our way to the front of the park over to our next destination.

We had no plans for Disneyland and made our way up Main Street.

We stopped in to the pin store and our wallets made it out unscathed...there were some super cute pins though! We had one final ride before calling it a night...

New Orleans Square was packed with people staked out to watch Fantasmic that was set to start about an hour later but Pirates was walk on. We had quite the unique experience boarding. The boat pulled up, everyone got out and we all got in but before we could be launched another CM came over and had all of us get out. Apparently the boat was taking on water and needed to be decommissioned for the night. Never had that one happen before. We got on the next boat and made our way out seeking adventure with some salty old pirates....

Back on solid ground it was officially time to head out - being responsible adults and not staying out too late on a work night!

B's work schedule should allow us to hit up another Date Night next Friday - woohoo for no work the next day!!!

Continued Next Post​

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Before I jump in to our 3rd day at WDW - I had to share what came in the mail today...

Where the sleeves hit is a little longer than I hoped but I love it! I got it from Cakeworthystore.com. They are based out of Canada and every couple weeks it seems they have a new Disney inspired shirt. I am so tempted to get the Were All Mad Here shirt that went on sale last night...

Day 3  Hey, When Did it Snow?

Wednesday, September 3rd is one big new to us experience. We will be hitting Blizzard Beach for the very first time. We did the chair rentals so we didnt have to worry about not getting a shady spot (since B and I both turn in to lobsters), plus it will be nice not have to worry about renting towels. I have done almost no research about Blizzard Beach. The water parks are the only place I dont really create any sort of plan. Were just gonna go and have fun. B pinky promised he would do Summit Plummet...we'll see if he holds up to his promise. There is no way I could do Summit Plummet. Body slides scare the crap out of me&its an inner tube or nothing! The plan is to do lunch at Blizzard Beach and stay there through the afternoon and hopefully close down the park. I really hope they still have Photopass photographers. I know they have them during the summer months but it sounds like once Labor Day hits they skedaddle out of the water parks. Have no fear though; we have a trusty (well, hopefully trusty) waterproof camera we will be bringing with us!

Today is also a day of musical restaurants. I had initially booked Cape May as a surprise for B since they had crab legs but then taking a look at all of our reservations I realized we were going to be doing a lot of buffet/family style type restaurants. So then I switched to Fultons and decided we would just do one of the lesser expensive meals out of pockets since Fultons was a 2 TS restaurant (this was when we still were going to do the dining plan). Well eventually, my urge to spill the beans got the best of me, I told B my plans. After doing dinner at a local buffet with my dad that had crab legs and B only being so-so about it we decided to just go someplace we knew we would probably enjoy. So we booked Chefs de France (another new to us restaurant).

Well fast forward a couple months and we decide we are going to be staying at the Polynesian. We had Ohanas booked for Thursday night (the day we were checking out and moving over to WL). It seemed silly to not eat at Ohanas while we were staying at the Poly and by a stroke of good luck (I think more because Disney had yet to release any details about free dining) we were able to snag an 8:10 dinner reservation at Ohanas and move Chefs de France to the following night.

The plan had originally been to do dinner at Ohanas and watch Wishes from the beach but with the later ADR I am hoping we will at least be seated close to a window to be able to watch from the restaurant. We dont typically eat that late so it will be nice to be able to just head back to our own room after dinner instead of figuring out transportation back to WL!

Since we will only need to stumble back to our rooms now, I can pretty much guarantee this bad boy will be in my future...

It burns so good...the bartenders always seem to be overly generous with the "splash" of 151 on the top!! Seriously though, you can't go wrong with a drink that not only comes in a pineapple but sports the little miniature umbrella too!

Continued Next Post​

 

[klacey1]

That stinks that those buyers dropped out last minute!! I hope you have another solid offer soon!

How lovely it must be just to hop over to Disneyland for a date night! I HAVE to get back there to see Cars Land-- it looks amazing!

I don't think a ton of planning is necessary at the water parks, either. And I'm right there with you on no body slides-- too scary!

And I LOOOOVE that shirt. So creative!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

That stinks that those buyers dropped out last minute!! I hope you have another solid offer soon!

How lovely it must be just to hop over to Disneyland for a date night! I HAVE to get back there to see Cars Land-- it looks amazing!

I don't think a ton of planning is necessary at the water parks, either. And I'm right there with you on no body slides-- too scary!

And I LOOOOVE that shirt. So creative!

It was so disappointing when we got the call from the realtor but I am trying to keep the mind set that everything happens for a reason. So we're keeping our fingers crossed for a good turn out this weekend.

I adore Radiator Springs. The look and feel changes so much throughout the day and its even more gorgeous at night all lit up with the neon. John Lasseter and Pixar are the best things to happen to Disney/DCA!!

Thanks - I can't wait to wear it to MK. I am going to try to make it in to a tank top since the shoulder/sleeves are just a little too big. I can't use a sewing machine to save my life so will be recruiting my mom to help. I have found some great ideas on Pinterest but want to add a hem so that the fabric doesn't roll.

 

[SuperNEMOfan]

Life Update and a Disney Date Night Bonus

Well, after officially accepting an offer on our condo last Friday, the buyers got cold feel and officially cancelled the sale on Wednesday morning. We've had 4 showings since officially putting it back on the MLS and are doing Open Houses again this weekend - so we're hopeful to have another offer soon. Starting to get a little close to vacation for comfort but we'll make it work!

Sorry to hear they pulled there offer . My parents are going through the same thing right now

Last night we got to do something we haven't done in quite some time....a Disney Date night and it was so much fun!! Between getting the condo ready, all of the traveling I have been doing for work and just work in general, getting out on a work night hadn't been in our cards.

I have to say I'm jealous of your Disney date nights. My DBF and Is Disney date nights consist of lobster rolls and a Disney movie. Every Thursday til out trip.

 

[Disneyluvr81]

I have to say I'm jealous of your Disney date nights. My DBF and Is Disney date nights consist of lobster rolls and a Disney movie. Every Thursday til out trip.

Definitely jealous of your Disney Dates too!! Lobster rolls are few and far between around here and usually quite pricey when you do find one. I think if given the choice, B would pick your kinda Date Night in a heartbeat!!

 

[blabbermouth]

Sorry about the condo

Glad you had a fun date night! I haven't been back to DL since Carsland, unfortunately. It looks so amazing though!

We liked Blizzard Beach, but I think ultimately we prefer just hanging out at the pool. Too much walking (stairs!!!) and waiting we thought, but it was still fun!

Yay, Lapu Lapu!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Sorry about the condo

Glad you had a fun date night! I haven't been back to DL since Carsland, unfortunately. It looks so amazing though!

We liked Blizzard Beach, but I think ultimately we prefer just hanging out at the pool. Too much walking (stairs!!!) and waiting we thought, but it was still fun!

Yay, Lapu Lapu!

We're not big pool people. Well, I say we but its more me. I get fidgety and bored too quickly so for me at least, there's always something else for me to head off to at the water parks.

Seriously looking forward to Lapu Lapus and Grand Marnier Slushies from France!!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Day 4  Time to Move

Today is our moving day. We say goodbye to Poly and move over to our home away from home, Wilderness Lodge!!

I love how easy Disney makes changing resorts. We will just have bell services take our bags in the morning to transfer over to WL. Our bags we'll be waiting for us when we eventually check in later in the day. So nice!!

Suitcases all taken care of it means its park time!! Today is finally Epcot day! Our very first trip back in January 2007, Epcot was the first park we went to after basically being awake all night and we both ended up not really liking the park at all. We came in on a Saturday and it was warmer and more crowded than we thought it would be so our first impressions of Epcot were not good impressions. 2007 was such a short trip that we barely spent any time in Epcot after that first day. Well, our honeymoon rolls around and we gained a whole new appreciation for Epcot and it slowly turned in to one of our favorite parks (see what happens when you become a cranky panda after a red eye flight  you dont give an amazing park a chance).

Living so close to Disneyland, we have the advantage that we dont feel that obligation to do the Soarin rush at Epcot. With the ride being identical to our DCA version there really isnt a draw for us to ride it in Florida. I am sure we will get Fastpasses at some point during the morning because hey, its air conditioned and well need a break from the September heat/humidity. I can say with pretty good certainty that our first ride of the day at Epcot will be Test Track. I dont know what it is about Test Track but it is up there as one of my favorite rides (both before the rehab and after). By getting there first thing the hope is that we get to go through the normal line to fully experience building your own car, etc that gets shortened when you do single rider or Fastpass.

Our Epcot day is pretty open and I am sure we will spend most of the morning in Future World.

Lunch will be at Sunshine Seasons. It took us 5 trips to finally eat there in January and we were kicking ourselves for not trying it sooner. Seriously, I am craving the strawberry shortcake. Today is also a day that I am really looking forward to because we will be doing the Behind the Seeds tour!!! I love getting behind the scenes at Disney. I know some people feel it ruins the magic for them but for me it gives a greater appreciation for all that they do to keep things running smoothly. Plus I think it is one of the least expensive tours offered.

With the restaurant switch-a-roo, our dinner tonight is Chefs de France, another new to us restaurant.

Sorry for the deja-vu, we only have 1 picture of Chefs from all of our previous trips! I am bummed we wont get to see Ratatouille coming around but can understand why they dont want to do it at dinner time (or after dark). Camera flashes going off all the time can certainly ruin the ambiance of the restaurant. I am very much looking forward to trying the Mac & Cheese and French Onion soup.

No real plans for the rest of the evening but I love Epcot after dark - such a beautiful park!

PS....today we hit 44 days until WDW!!!!

Continued Next Post​

 

[klacey1]

Woo hoo Wilderness Lodge!! Maybe we'll run into each other!

I just love Epcot, and I'm glad you were able to give it a second chance! Your frame of mind can really impact how you view things. We also make Test Track our first ride, but only because we're just not huge Soarin fans. I rode it first in California and thought it was fine, but not as special as most people think it is.

Chefs de France is definitely a good choice-- it's so pretty on the inside!

 

[blabbermouth]

I really like WL and would love to stay there! It always seems so cozy. Which umm, seems dumb in 90 degree weather, but whatever

I agree about Soarin', I like it, but don't love it and have been on it quite a few times in DCA. I find the line is way too long, boring and unmoving! After the last time we rode it at DCA with FPs, I said I wouldn't be bothered to never ride it again

Test Track though, I love!

Neat that you're doing the Behind the Seeds tour, Living with the Land really surprised me by how much I loved it.

We will likely eat at Sunshine Seasons once too

 

[Disneyluvr81]

I really like WL and would love to stay there! It always seems so cozy. Which umm, seems dumb in 90 degree weather, but whatever

I agree about Soarin', I like it, but don't love it and have been on it quite a few times in DCA. I find the line is way too long, boring and unmoving! After the last time we rode it at DCA with FPs, I said I wouldn't be bothered to never ride it again

Test Track though, I love!

Neat that you're doing the Behind the Seeds tour, Living with the Land really surprised me by how much I loved it.

We will likely eat at Sunshine Seasons once too

When spent a warm day at Disneyland a couple Sundays ago and ended up chillin by the fireplace in the Grand Californian lobby for a while. I don't care how hot it is outside, there is just something so relaxing sitting by a fire (probably cause we never really get cold enough here to have one )

The lines for both Soarin' are so boring and part of the reason we don't really have a draw to ride them. At least here in DCA the FP doesn't really get you past much of the boringness and we always seem to wait at least 15-20 mins just to get lined up.

I am so excited for the Behind the Seeds - it is one of the top things I am looking forward to this trip!!!

 

[Disneyluvr81]

I realized today that we are down to 37 days until WDW and I had better get crackalackin on this PTR if I actually want to finish it before we leave.

Day 5  Catching a Wave

Today we officially hit the ½ way point in our trip and it will be our 2nd water park day&Typhoon Lagoon.

Like Blizzard Beach, we did the chair rental here too. We did Typhoon Lagoon for the first time back in 2011 and love, love, LOVED Crush & Gusher, OMGosh those slides are so much fun and I cant wait to get to do them again on this trip. I seriously love the lushness and greenery and we decided to do Typhoon Lagoon after Blizzard Beach, just because we know how much fun we had last time and wanted to give BB a chance to wow us too. The wave pool is a hoot to watch, although it is so intimidating. The last time we were there we hadnt really paid much attention to the wave pool at all, prior to going in because hey, its a wave pool, their all pretty much the same, right...right!?! I mean, we had seen it on one of Stacys shows but it honestly didnt look that bad. Boy oh boy were we wrong. Honestly, if we had seen the waves in person before going in we never would have put ourselves in the heart of the action. I got knocked around by the 1st wave and that was it for me&I quickly made my way to the shallow end and I was done. We had a great time watching everyone else for the rest of the time we were there though, haha! We will do lunch and part of the afternoon at Typhoon Lagoon but I dont think we will stay until closing.

Dinner for the evening once again takes us back to Epcot (too many tasty restaurants at this park I tell you). Tonights dinner will be at Biergarten.

My dads side of the family is German so I grew up on Spaetzle, Rouladen, etc and to be able to get that at Disney World is fantastic. Of course, it can never compare to my Omas home cooking but we thought the food was very good the first time we ate there. Along the Germany lines, I can also say that a German Pretzel will be on our list of snacks at some point during the trip.

It looked so happy!

Having to sit at a table with other families is always a crapshoot but we have had good luck in all our previous meals at Teppan Edo and Biergarten and are keeping our fingers crossed for tonight too. Hopefully I didnt just jinx us but if I did, it will make for a good(bad) story!

Tonight is an EMH night at Epcot with Future World staying open until 11pm. Assuming we arent ready to crash after dinner, the plan is to take full advantage of the later hours tonight!

Continued Next Post​

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Day 6  Downtown Disney Day

We decided to do a take it easy kind of day this trip since we would be there for so long and didnt want to burn ourselves out. Today will also be the first day of getting to sleep in without having to worry about making it to a rope drop. My goal for today, ride Characters in Flight and eat at Wolfgang Puck Express for lunch. Seems more than doable, but Characters in Flight is going to be a toughy. I have heard that it is closed quite often due to winds, so I will be keeping my fingers crossed. B kind of has a fear of heights so I may be doing this one on my own.

We are going to try to check out DisneyQuest too. If it happens it will be another new to us experience. Cant go wrong with video games and air conditioning!!

When we stayed at POR in January we really enjoyed taking the boat back from DTD but it was during the night, so the plan is to take the boat back to POR from DTD so we can really see the Treehouse Villas, the French Quarter, etc and depending on the time either grab a bus to MK so we can take the boat back over to WL or head to our park destination for dinner. Bet ya cant guess which park (Ill give you a hint, this will be our 3rd night in a row haha!)
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Woohoo for guessing Epcot!!! Yup, we will once again be spending our evening in Epcot&so much for it being our least favorite park, right?

Instead of heading to the World Showcase tonight, we will be doing dinner in Future World. Tonight was another musical restaurants night. Our original dinner plans had us at Garden Grill. But again, after looking at all of our ADRs and realizing we had so many buffets/family style meals planned we decided to drop this ADR. Instead we will be dining at Coral Reef, which holds fond memories for us.

Back in 2008, when we were there for our honeymoon, Disney was still doing a wonderful treat at Coral Reef. You could schedule to have one of the tank divers hold up a sign while you were dining and it guaranteed tankside seating. They would also make a custom menu for you with pictures you sent over to them. The most surprising part of all of this was that Disney didnt charge for it. I was able to line up a diver for our lunch there and it was such an awesome experience and something B totally wasnt expecting it!

The sign read "Every princess searches for her Prince Charming and I found mine"

Well, like all good things, Disney discontinued doing this several years ago and it was quite a bummer. I would have loved to have set this up again as a surprise. So I will be keeping my fingers crossed for a tankside seat for dinner but have my expectations set low since we will be there later in the evening&I know we would have had a much better chance if we did dinner right when it opened up but this trip we have all of our reservations on the later side (at or close to 7pm) so we dont feel like we are always having to stop what we are doing to head to a dinner ADR.

Continued Next Post​

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Woo hoo Wilderness Lodge!! Maybe we'll run into each other!

I just love Epcot, and I'm glad you were able to give it a second chance! Your frame of mind can really impact how you view things. We also make Test Track our first ride, but only because we're just not huge Soarin fans. I rode it first in California and thought it was fine, but not as special as most people think it is.

Chefs de France is definitely a good choice-- it's so pretty on the inside!

That would be awesome to cross paths. I have never met another Diser before!! I hope you guys have an awesome time there!

I am looking forward to Chef's. The pictures I have seen are gorgeous and the food looks so yummy!

 

[blabbermouth]

When spent a warm day at Disneyland a couple Sundays ago and ended up chillin by the fireplace in the Grand Californian lobby for a while. I don't care how hot it is outside, there is just something so relaxing sitting by a fire (probably cause we never really get cold enough here to have one )

The lines for both Soarin' are so boring and part of the reason we don't really have a draw to ride them. At least here in DCA the FP doesn't really get you past much of the boringness and we always seem to wait at least 15-20 mins just to get lined up.

I am so excited for the Behind the Seeds - it is one of the top things I am looking forward to this trip!!!

We LOOOOOVE GC, and you're right, it's totally fine spending time in front of the fire there. They jack the AC up high enough, haha. It's one of the most relaxing places on Disneyland property I think.

Your Typhoon Lagoon day sounds fun, we haven't been there before. We'll be going to Biergarten too! But we're going to do a late lunch instead of dinner, since it'll be OOP.

So funny, Epcot three nights in a row! I hope you like it now

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Life Update...

We got our Mickey Mail today!!! Definitely got an excited "yay!!" out of me when going through the mail!!

Gotta call Magical Express tomorrow to fix our return flight home. They attached it to our check out date of the Poly on 9/5 instead of our actual date coming home of 9/11. Guessing it won't be a big deal since the vouchers to the Poly are correct.

Kinda bummed we don't get the cute luggage tags that come with the package (we're room only this time) but still excited to get the Magical Express docs...makes it feel so much closer.

Our big life update though is our condo! We got another buyer less than a week after it fell out of escrow (I've been keeping quiet about it because I was afraid to jinx it). We had our appraisal today and it sounds like it went well...should get the results tomorrow or Wednesday. Contingencies are to be lifted on the 5th and closing is set for the 19th!!! I am still being cautiously optimistic and will be much more excited after the 5th!!

Even more exciting than just our condo sale - we are in escrow on another condo about a mile or so from our current condo!!! Our current condo is 1 bed w/ a loft, 1 1/2 baths, 1000 sq ft with two single car detached garages and the condo we in escrow on is almost 1400 sq ft, 2 bed, 2 1/2 baths with a 2 car attached garage AND a 2 car driveway!! Cannot wait to be able to go through the garage into the kitchen...no more carrying groceries up the stairs for this girl!! Brian is excited because the 2nd bedroom is going to be his man cave! Our offer got accepted last week while I was traveling for work and it is set to close the 23rd with us taking possession after 5pm on the 25th. We have the inspection on Saturday and the appraisal should be this week...so these next few weeks are going to be CRAZY!!!

We will have 5 days after closing of the new condo to get completely moved out of our condo and at least moved over to the new one before the Disneyland portion of the vacation starts and if everything closes as its supposed to...August 30th will be spent mostly with the movers so we don't have to do any more rent back days then necessary! Its going to be CRAZINESS!!!!

So keep your fingers crossed for us...if everything goes as scheduled...we will definitely be needing the vacation haha!!!

Continued Next Post​

 

[blabbermouth]

Neat, we got our ME mail on the same day!

Awesome, good luck with everything with the sale/purchase. I know it's insane, even without a trip planned, but I'm sure it'll all be worth it in the end. Sounds like an awesome place you're looking at, is real estate expensive in your city? We don't have a garage at our house, it was one of DH's must-haves, but we just fell in love with this house and it has a big driveway and a big shed, so he deals.

 

[Disneyluvr81]

Neat, we got our ME mail on the same day!

Awesome, good luck with everything with the sale/purchase. I know it's insane, even without a trip planned, but I'm sure it'll all be worth it in the end. Sounds like an awesome place you're looking at, is real estate expensive in your city? We don't have a garage at our house, it was one of DH's must-haves, but we just fell in love with this house and it has a big driveway and a big shed, so he deals.

Hooray for Mickey Mail!!!

Southern California in general is overpriced for what you could get in other areas throughout the Country and unfortunately, where we are in Orange County is on the higher end of the scale. In another state or even other parts of California we would probably be in a single family home. It's funny the things you are willing to compromise on when you fall in love with a home. I was willing to give up having my car in a garage if we fell in love with a condo that only had 1 garage or a garage/carport situation. Having an attached garage was one of B's big must haves though (my list of wants was so much shorter than his) and the condo having a driveway basically sealed the deal. It helped take away the sting of losing out on the 1st condo we fell in love with/put on offer on by less than a day.

Its going to be so weird moving out of here though...this was our first home together - lots of memories. I can't wait to have the girls back home though! We all agreed they will stay with the "grandparents" through vacation so we aren't stressing them out by moving them home for 3 weeks only to pack them up and take them back to my parents for 2 weeks. Truth be told, I think my dad is going to be missing having them up in their bonus/game room with him. He was a big proponent in keeping them through our vacation!