We've got to be there.. but where we can't recall!!! PTR

[Soaptopia]

Finally found the perfectly insane title for the imperfectly sane trip report. This trip has certainly required a lot of thought. Right now my fiance and I are going through lots of transitions and so many things are up in the air! But what we do know for sure, is that come September 10th, 2011, we are

bound!!! It will be our last trip together as an unmarried couple. After that, it is crunch time for our unofficial wedding date in April 2012. We have had a heck of a time this year and last so this trip is MUCH needed, and the planning is taking away so much stress already!!! *Disclaimer: Don't let this PTR reflect my personality. It's just lately.... hahaha

Stay tuned for more! If there is anything that you think I should include in my Disneyland itinerary (I'm usually a RIDES ONLY type of person, but this time I want to include shows and such) let me know! Coming up next, the PLANNNN.

 

[Soaptopia]

Keeeeeep readingggggg. hahaha

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Nevermind, going to WDW!

I am VERY jealous now

I'm sure you'll have a great time!!

 

[Soaptopia]

Introooooo: My name is Sophie, and I live in a place I can't wait to move away from... Peoria, AZ. I am engaged to my high school sweetie and we are DLR regulars. I love that he loves going just as much as I do, and we always have a great time. We have a 6 month old Pitbull puppy, and she is the perfect addition to our small family. We saved her from the pound and she couldn't be any more grateful and loving to us and others!


Our hotel: So far I have planned that we stay at the Clarion hotel (3rd night free deal hard to pass up) and stay one night at GCH. Possibly adding on a theme park view.

Can you imagine?

On Sunday we are going to be going to Seaworld. I am going to do the beluga OR dolphin interaction. Not sure which one yet!

More plans soon!

 

[skiingfast]

Swim with the dolphins huh? Doesn't sound like a bad Sunday afternoon followed by a nice dinner.

90 minute drivetime for a weekend sounds like the fast estimate. Hopefully no accidents slowing traffic down.

 

[bwvBound]

Waaaaaah! I miss the Orange Stinger!

Yes, DLR to Sea World San Diego is about 90 minutes but .... could be much longer depending on the whims of traffic. Pretty much a straight shot along Interstate 5.

 

[Soaptopia]

Swim with the dolphins huh? Doesn't sound like a bad Sunday afternoon followed by a nice dinner.

90 minute drivetime for a weekend sounds like the fast estimate. Hopefully no accidents slowing traffic down.

Waaaaaah! I miss the Orange Stinger!
Yes, DLR to Sea World San Diego is about 90 minutes but .... could be much longer depending on the whims of traffic. Pretty much a straight shot along Interstate 5.

Haha I know me too! *pout lip*

Yeah, maybe we will just leave earlier than planned. I really want to have all the weekdays at DLR because I am bad with crowds, haha! I really can't wait. This trip is going to be amazing. We've had good and bad trips throughout the years but I won't let this one go south. I just can't wait!!!

 

[Soaptopia]

Here's the plan for what we'll do on what days.

Saturday: Leave super early in the morning. I want to get there to use our MM! We will be attempting to check in early at the Grand, where we will be for either that one night or two nights. We hope to use our MM that morning, since we get a free one for staying onsite! Our first ride will be Peter Pan, and then whatever Fantasyland one we want to ride after that! Then we will get FP's for Space, ride it, Nemo, Autopia, and then head over to the other side of the park and get lost in a temple of doom or something of the sort. Probably sometime after lunch (not sure where), we'll head back to the Grand and just enjoy the rest of that night there, since it may be the only night we're there. Swimming in the pool, walking around, spa(?), work out, whatever! I just know we'll have a good time enjoying the resort.

Sunday: Today is really up in the air until my fiance and I know for sure what we really want to do more. It's either we stay at the Grand for the extra night, or we check out early and go to Seaworld for the day, and check in at the Clarion when we get back (or maybe before we leave). I really don't know which I'd rather do more... but I think since we already stayed at the Grand one night we'll be fine heading over to Seaworld. The costs are the same. I just don't want to do both because if that's our last night at the Grand, I don't want to pay the money for the extra night if we're only going to be sleeping there. So here's plan 1 or 2.

*Plan 1*: If we stay the extra night, we'll use our MM at DL but only stay for about half of it. Ride what we missed yesterday in Fantasyland then head back. The times should match up right, so we're going to wait in line at the secret GCH entrance to go to Little Mermaid first, assuming they have one like they do TSMM. Then we will ride Screamin, TSMM, and whatever else. Then maybe head back over to DL and ride our favorites, see some shows like Tiki Room, and have a late lunch at BTR BBQ. I've always wanted to eat there but never have. Maybe head back to the hotel and relax until night. We will see either F! or Fireworks because this will be our last chance.

*Plan 2*: If we don't stay the extra night, we will still use our free MM, and maybe even still use our GCH entrance line to go to LM, but we may be just fine waiting in line for it sometime during the week since it's not a top priority. We will check out and maybe check in our bags at the Clarion. Then head over to Seaworld. This will be a relaxing time, I don't really remember what is there so we'll just do whatever shows we see and follow park maps and such! Ride some rides, and feed the dolphins. I am going to keep an eye out for the Swimming w/ Dolphins dealio as well since we're not paying an arm and both our legs to stay at the GCH for 5 nights like originally planned! Hopefully I see some openings, because it has always been a dream of mine to do this. If we do it, we'll pay for the 80 bucks or whatever for the cd of the pics they took of us, so there will be pics of that! Lunch and dinner most likely at Seaworld unless we head back a little earlier and have dinner at DTD. After writing this out, I think I'm leaning more towards going to Seaworld.

Monday: We will for sure be at our Clarion or at least on our way there, lol. Today is a no-plan day. Just going to venture DL and DCA and see what becomes of this day!


Tuesday: Today is our ticket MM day, so we need to get up early and head to the park right away! I think I read somewhere that they open two lands for MM? If they do, we'll do rides in the other land, but if not we'll ride all the Fantasyland rides again. Then head over to Adventureland. Other than MM, no plans for today. We'll see where we eat and all that good stuff when it happens!


Wednesday: Last day, dun dun dunnnnnn. We will plan on leaving the parks around 4-5pm, so that gives us a pretty good day to do everything we wanted to do again and again. My fiance is considering taking Thursday off without pay, but we'll see how that goes down. Fingers crossed there will be a Thursday on this PTR!


Thanks for reading! Will keep updating as I think of more things to add into our plan.

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Sounds like an amazing time!! And you've got all your bases covered like a pro

 

[Soaptopia]

Sounds like an amazing time!! And you've got all your bases covered like a pro

Well I guess you can say we pretty much are pro's! In our 5 year relationship we've probably been over to DLR 35 different times. Not counting the times I've been there as a kid. We Disney!

 

[Soaptopia]

I have had 5 days off of work (boss shut down the office to go to Georgia ) And so I've been doing sooo much research about this trip! BUT that leads to our first bump.

I went onto the Seaworld website and it appears they do not have a spot open for anywhere near the time we'll we there to do the swimming with dolphins. OR Belugas. So I will keep looking for that and eventually end up calling but it is still pretty early on so we'll see what happens. I did read somewhere that you can feed the dolphins (buying the fish for $12) so we may just end up doing that. As long as I get to be up close with a dolphin I will be fine!

There are so many things about Seaworld that I don't remember. The skyride, all of the shows (I only think about Shamu) and everything. One day should be fine, because I don't want to give up my GC hotel and try to find anything in San Diego. I want to eat at Ship Wreck Rapids, so we may do that instead of driving around trying to find that Mexican restaraunt I was talking about going to.

I just can't wait! I hope it rains!

 

[cloudconnected1039]

Well I guess you can say we pretty much are pro's! In our 5 year relationship we've probably been over to DLR 35 different times. Not counting the times I've been there as a kid. We Disney!

Sounds like my relationship as well!!

 

[Soaptopia]

I was talking to a friend of mine who works at Paradise Pier Hotel with the college program, and she said that if I change my trip to August, she could probably get me a discount to GCH. So it looks like I'll be planning my trip for August instead! I wander what the discount would be...

 

[Soaptopia]

UPDATE! I have decided to keep our original dates (unsure if friend can get discount) and that way the crowds will be better and will have a little more time to save up money. I have two options for this trip. I have decided to save some money and have a split stay at the GCH and Clarion hotel.

Option 1: Two nights at the Grand, three at the Clarion (assuming fiance can take off an extra day) because Clarion has the third night free.

Option 2: 1 night at the Grand, three at the Clarion. Ends up being $300 cheaper.

Cross our fingers it's going to be option 1!

 

[tinksdreamwishes]

you must be my long lost twin! I have kinda been following your posts here and there.... and like you- I change my dates all the time, switch my hotel choices back and forth- search expedia, orbitz, hotels.com, costco travel and the Disney main page for hotel options. I do this all day long. I drive my family nuts. Its fun though! what makes it so hard is not knowing what kinda deal is going to come out for when I really want to go! Which also sends me back to the drawing board once they release those "special savings package". which we all know is not saving me money- in fact its too encourage us to stay longer... "pay more" Its all just too tempting! So anyways- I am here to read along - here's too happy planning!

 

[Soaptopia]

you must be my long lost twin! I have kinda been following your posts here and there.... and like you- I change my dates all the time, switch my hotel choices back and forth- search expedia, orbitz, hotels.com, costco travel and the Disney main page for hotel options. I do this all day long. I drive my family nuts. Its fun though! what makes it so hard is not knowing what kinda deal is going to come out for when I really want to go! Which also sends me back to the drawing board once they release those "special savings package". which we all know is not saving me money- in fact its too encourage us to stay longer... "pay more" Its all just too tempting! So anyways- I am here to read along - here's too happy planning!

Haha! Well thanks for joining! It is fun planning the trip, it becomes an obsession. I should be doing a million other things right now, but here I am looking up stuff again. I think I have my plan down though with the exception of what we do on Sunday. I edited the days post up above. ^^ Planning is certainly the 2nd best part of the trip. With all of this time for me to plan it makes it very easy and affordable, because I know not to buy anything frivolous! Good luck planning your trip!

 

[tinksdreamwishes]

Thanks! Maybe I will start a little pre- trip report too. Maybe. Hehe. It would be nutty. Cant wait to read more.

 

[Soaptopia]

Haven't updated in a while, crazy busy at work! I am thinking about expanding our trip to last for the rest of the week and the weekend. I know I'll be able to afford it and I know it will be worth it to us. We will just take a few extra days off without pay! That will be up in the air for a while. Our lease is up in October and in September we really have to figure out if we are staying another lease, moving out to Surprise, or moving to San Diego... ugh so much thinking to dooooo! I figured if we do move to San Diego in between now and then, we'll still do our trip, as planned! But things are still being discussed.

Anywho, plans are still basically the same. When I read more and more TR's I see other things I want to eat and do! I wish I had a month over there, I could look for jobs, an apartment, check out more beaches, go hiking, tour Hollywood... AHHH! I just want to live there. I love the beach scene and hate that there is nothing fun to do here in AZ. So... who knows? I figure if I want to so bad I think I owe it to myself to try it out.