We’ll find something to Celebrate!

[aspry]

Well, this will be my first attempt at any sort of report & for the most part my first time off Lurker Street.

This will probably be more than just a PTR, I intended to do a trip report after our September 2008 trip, but we came home to 14 days without electricity courtesy of Hurricane Ike, so that never happened. So, now I'll do an abbridged version with mostly photos & any details I can come up with. I may have a few surprises leading up to the trip as well.

I guess I'll start with a little background information & introductions...

Me, 26

This will be my 5th trip to WDW. For work, I produce videos for an engineering consulting firm, it's mostly defense work for the automotive industry, but we've done a few things for Disney. For play, I spend most of my time with the family, but seem to find myself playing in plenty of sports leagues & in the gym.

DW, 27

Her first trip to WDW was this past September. She didn't get "it" at first, but quickly realized what all the hubub was about. I think I’ve sold her on the Disney culture & she can’t wait to go back. She's a personal trainer & avid "picture taker"/ scrapbooker.

DD, 3

She's a ham. If she doesn't already have your attention, just give her a second & let her try something else. She can be a bit moody from time to time, but usually she's pretty laid back & happy. Her memory is exquisite when it comes to learning or just remembering people, places & experiences. She's also a darling big sister, that always wants to help out with her "baby" brother.

DS, 2

He is, for the most part, the exact opposite of big sister. He's all boy & if there is dirt to play in, a ball to throw or a truck to drive, he's probably doing it & tearing things up all along the way. Although he still likes plenty of attention, he's also content playing by himself, which can be pretty nice sometimes.



That should do it for intros, if there is anything else that's customary to tell, just ask. Like I said, I've never done anything like this before, so I'll try to emulate some of the other reports I've read. I'm a little hesistant to include names, I don't know why, but I'll stick with the general DD, DS, DW. If I'm doing anything against DIS standards, y'all just holler at me & I'll straighten up.

Up next, trip plans...

 

[jewels1916]

Glad you have de-lurked yourself!! You have a precious family! Are you enjoying the lovely TX weather? Sadly, we are slated for snow this weekend, and I am missing TX in a big way! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip plans!

 

[DWGal210]

Great start so far - and what a beautiful family!

Looking forward to more!

 

[aspry]

Glad you have de-lurked yourself!! You have a precious family! Are you enjoying the lovely TX weather? Sadly, we are slated for snow this weekend, and I am missing TX in a big way! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip plans!

Thanks! The weather's been pretty nice lately. I think we got up to 85 yesterday, but we're supposed to get into the 30s tonight. Sorry you're missing it so much.

Great start so far - and what a beautiful family!

Looking forward to more!

Thanks, we'll see how the rest goes!

 

[HeatherBelle614]

Hello!!

Adorable family!

I hope you guys have gotten everything back together after Ike! Horrible storm! (We're in Texas, so some of our friends in the southern regions got hit really hard.)

 

[aspry]

Hello!!

Adorable family!

I hope you guys have gotten everything back together after Ike! Horrible storm! (We're in Texas, so some of our friends in the southern regions got hit really hard.)

Thanks! We didn't have much damage to our home, but we were the only one on the block without a tree on our roof. I guess cutting all those trees down earlier in the year worked out for me.

 

[aspry]

I guess I'll go ahead with our plans for this year:

A little background info first. Like I said, we went in September 2008 & the kids had a blast. We figured we'd go back in about 2 years, that way they could experience it at a different viewpoint, ride more rides, etc. Well, when they announced the 4/3 deal, I called & immediately booked a trip that afternoon for February. It was such a good deal, I figured we could go this year & again in 2 years. The next day I realized we'd probably be better off going in September again, if we were going to go. So, I called & canceled. Low & behold I got one of the 40% of discount codes a few weeks later, so we set up a September trip at the Beach Club. I had originally booked Club Level, but after some consideration, I thought we wouldn't really utilize the club level much at all, so we'd be better off in a standard room. Last week, we realized there will be a scheduling conflict in September & we wouldn't be able to go. Which brings us to our current plans...

I called to see what we could get on the 4/3 deal at the end of April/early May. Our subscription to Touring Plans was still active from last year & there Crowd Calendar showed fairly low crowds during this time. We were able to get a room at the Caribbean Beach Resort. I was initially a little hesitant to drop down to a moderate after doing the Wilderness Lodge in September, but after looking at pics & info on the DIS; it looks like a very nice & kid friendly resort. The new kids pool looks awesome! I wasn't initially going to do the dining plan, because we're not big dessert eaters & I think that's kind of the deciding point on whether it is a good value or not, but on the 4/3, it can't be beat.

So we're set for the Caribbean Beach Resort April 27-May 4, with Park Hoppers & the Dining Plan & it only took changing our plans 4 times before we ever got started.

If anyone has any encouraging words about CBR, feel free to chime in, we're very much looking forward to it.

Up next, "Setting ADRs 60 days out"

 

[aspry]

I know I said, I'd post our ADRs for this upcoming trip next & you're probably waiting at the edge of your seats to see what we're going to be eating this year , but I realize that a report with no pictures isn't very fun & since I'm not much of one to take photos of myself talking to a CM at 407WDWDINE, I'll go ahead & start posting photos from our last trip with whatever details I can recollect.

Our last trip was September 2008. It was our first trip as a family & everyone was a first-timer but me. DS was about to turn 2, DD was 3; it was also there first time flying. It was originally planned to be an adults only trip, but we couldn't stand to leave the little ones at home, so we added them last minute. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge & I remember dodging quite a few hurricanes while in Florida. I think we were there in between Faye, Gustav & Hanna, but we didn't get any inclement weather except for one rain shower.

Anyway, we at the hotel by 3pm & had intended to go to DTD for the evening, but everyone was exhausted, so we just spent a little time exploring the resort...

After looking around a bit, we decided to see if we could get into Whispering Canyon. Luckily, we got in without a problem & the kids had a blast with all of the games they do.

I think we called it an early night because we had a 7:30 ADR at Cape May Cafe the next morning, but not before the kids got some new PJs from Tinkerbell. They really liked our room. Every night on the way back, they'd ask if we were going to our new home or our old home.

One of there favorite things to do is make faces in the mirror...

They loved that there was a light switch on the bed, they still talk about this today.

Up next, Cape May Cafe & DHS...

 

[aspry]

So, we woke up bright & early the next morning for our ADR at Cape May Cafe. There was only one other couple on the bus with us & they were headed to Cape May as well, so the bus driver drove us directly to the Beach Club rather than Hollywood Studios(?).

This would be the kids first real character interaction. They're scared to death of Chuck E Cheese, so we didn't really know how they'd react. The restaurant was pretty empty so we got lots of attention from Minnie, Goofy & Chip. Definitely the best character interaction of the whole trip!

A little hesitant at first...

They warmed up pretty quick.

DD's first of many Mickey Waffles!

This was definitely the perfect way to get the kids prepared to meet characters. The kids didn't eat too much with all of the excitement, but I thought it was pretty good standard breakfast fare. We'll definitely be going back to Cape May again.

 

[shordiebecka]

love your trip report so far!! Your family is so beautiful, love the little one with the spiked hair! Can't wait to hear about your plans..where are you staying?

 

[aspry]

love your trip report so far!! Your family is so beautiful, love the little one with the spiked hair! Can't wait to hear about your plans..where are you staying?

Thanks! We're staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. The only resorts I've been to are the Wilderness Lodge, Port Orleans Riverside & the Allstar Sports. We're looking forward to seeing the renovations!

 

[aspry]

Alright continuing on with our first full day. We caught the boat over to DHS from the Beach Club.

They were a little cranky about having to sit in a stroller...

I hadn't been to WDW since 2000, but I knew enough to get in line for Toy Story Mania first thing. We waited about 20 minutes to ride & it was well worth it, we really enjoyed this ride & grabbed Fastpasses on the way out.

After that we headed over to the Playhouse Disney character spot, first we saw the Little Einsteins. Sister wasn't interested in meeting them, but DS ran right in for a hug...

Next was JoJo & Goliath, everyone wanted to see them.

And last, everyone's favorite, Handy Manny.

We saw a few of the shows (Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney Live) & seemed to be knocking things out pretty quick, so we spent some time in the HISTK Play Area...

This is one of those things that I had never done before, I always knew it was there, but never took the time to check it out. Our kids loved it & were happy to be out of the stroller.

We went & checked out the Muppetvision 3D show next. Growing up, the Muppets were one of my favorites & the show is exactly the same as the last time I was here 8 years ago, but DW & I loved it; the kids had no idea who the Muppets were, kinda sad.

Obligatory 3D glasses shot...

We had originally planned to take the boat over to Beaches & Cream for lunch, but realized we were about done for the first half of our day & wanted to see a few more things before we headed back to the hotel for our nap. So we grabbed burgers at the Backlot Express? It was easily the worst meal of our trip, but it served it's purpose.

Some of us couldn't wait to get back for a nap, while watching Beauty & the Beast.

When B&B let out, we loaded the kids up in the stroller & headed out to meet Mike & Sulley. DS was a little skeptical & DD was just waking up...

On the way out we did manage to use our fastpasses at TSM & watch the Pixar Block Party Bash. DD caught one of the foam balls they throw out at the end, which made her day.

We had intended to go back to DHS that evening & finish up what we hadn't already seen, but there weren't that many attractions left that the kids would have been interested in. The big one was Fantasmic! & some of the characters. We'll catch everything we missed this time around.

For as much flack as DHS gets, I think it's actually got quite a bit to do. When we were originally planning this trip as an adults only, I had only planned for half a day here, but we really didn't cover that much ground considering we didn't ride TT, RnR, Backlot Tour, Great Movie Ride or Star Tours & didn't see Indiana Jones or the Stunt show. And we didn't spend any time waiting in lines to see anything, so we were moving at as fast a pace as we could. We'll definitely spend more time this year at DHS, it may be my favorite park besides MK.

We headed back to the Wilderness Lodge & grabbed a 3 hour nap. Up next, the castle!