What are we celebrating - everything - again - Trip report link added

[Ruthie5671]

Good morning everyone. It is a rainy and dreary day here in Kentucky. A good day to stay in bed, under the covers, reading a good book. I am doing none of those things.

But what did I do first thing this morning?? I paid off the balance of the trip!!



Tony had really been pestering me about the fact that we still had a balance due. For some reason, I just couldn't pull the trigger and pay it off. I'm so very much looking forward to vacation, but in the back of my mind I worry something will happen and the trip will get cancelled. But then again, I worry about everything. So much so that nobody else in my family needs to worry because I have it covered. Anyway, as of about 20 minutes ago, the balance due on My Disney Experience was "0". The rest of the trip money is just happily sitting in our savings account.

In other news, this is birthday week for my sweet husband. He turns 50 on Sunday. So this past weekend we did a family dinner which was a lot of fun. I have two great nephews and one great niece who are just so precious. This Friday Tony wants to go to his favorite sushi restaurant for dinner. I like sushi, but not as much as he does. But it is one of those places that makes it fresh right in front of you, so that is cool to watch. My compromise for eating there is that we go to the Cheesecake Factory on the way home for dessert. There is just nothing better than their desserts. Yum.

My next big step is fast passes! I'm still debating on which park for the last day.

70 more days!

 

[Ruthie5671]

If you would prefer not to wake early, I suggest avoiding the EMH parks on those days. They tend to get very busy from folks who do not have park hoppers.

I am most definitely not a morning person. There is no way I would wake up at the butt crack of dawn for an extra hour in a crowded park. I was hoping for evening EMH. My fingers are crossed that the park hours will change as it gets closer.

Okay, so I'm waaayyyy behind after being away for a week. Now that my trip is over, I'll be eagerly counting down the days until YOU travel!

I am back to work this morning (cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth LOL) but will be back later to read up on what I've missed.

Welcome home dear friend! I cannot wait until you begin your trip report. Sorry you had to go back to work so quickly after returning home. I hope it is just a relaxing day of reading e-mails and drinking coffee. Nothing stressful to come your way!

 

[kclark9830]

We're also going in January! I'm enjoying your PTR.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Well I like the idea of the Cheesecake Factory, delicious. We always say we will just have coffee and cheesecake but then get tempted with the delicious food! No willpower.

Happy birthday to Tony and I'm sure you feel better having paid off the balance. One less thing to do.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

Congrats on paying off the balance of your trip! That deserves a VERY happy dance!

I think your plans looks fantastic so far.....especially the added stay at the Vistana . I really, REALLY hope you love it there as much as we do. Be sure to put a reminder on your calendar to submit your room request 2 weeks in advance via Diamond Lane.....then, you will hopefully have a better chance at getting the larger one bedroom premium versus the smaller standard 1 bed villa. The jacuzzi tub and screened in balcony would be pretty fab additions, don't you think? (PS...I can help you with the Diamond Lane system when the time comes, if you'd like )

I know you're not a fan of heights (I am equally as terrified of high places, so I totally get your fear) but you might want to consider Characters in Flight at Disney Springs if you have a free morning. DS is super close to SVR (literally just a mile or two up the road), so that is a great place for a non park day. Characters in Flight is only $10 per person (half price) before 10 am, and the views are incredible!! The best part.....I felt NO uneasiness with the height whatsoever.....and I was SHOCKED. The cage makes you feel very secure, and even though we went on a breezy day, we didn't feel any swaying of the balloon. It was an unexpected highlight of our trip.

Also, if you're considering the Orlando Eye (which is also very much worth doing), you can get a combo ticket which gets you all 3 attractions (the Eye, Sea Life Aquarium, and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum) for $40 (versus the $25+ pp for each attraction individually). Jake and his GF bought the discounted 3-attraction tickets for their September trip and saved a ton of money. Let me know if you want the link to the discounted tix and I'm happy to share it with ya.

As for the purse.....you deserve a splurge, my friend. Buy the purse. Life is short .

Oh, and for @pattyw ..... if you like Italian/pasta, I hope you have tried the pasta cucina at the Trattoria del Porto at Universal's Portofino Bay. It's one of our must-do restaurants now on each trip!! The food is amazing and strolling around the piazza at night is one fantastic way to end the day.

 

[Ruthie5671]

I have no updates today. I just wanted to take a minute to shout happy birthday to Tony. He doesn't read the DISboards, so this paragraph of lovey dovey gushing will just be for my dear readers. When I met Tony, I had resolved myself to the fact that I would be living the single life forever. I'd be an awesome aunt, good social worker and all-around fabulous gal. Who knew that my Prince Charming lived only 15 minutes away? Our first date started out horrible because he was over an hour late. His car wouldn't start - blah, blah, blah. So I was hesitant. But after a few dates, he had won me over. Three months later we were engaged and one year later we were married. Tony has been with me in my darkest times, laughed with me and cried with me. I could not have gotten thru this past year without him. So today, on the 50th anniversary of his birth, I want all of my Disney loving friends to know how much I love my husband and I'm so glad that I found him.

We're also going in January! I'm enjoying your PTR.

Thanks for reading! I'm glad to know that others are enjoying my babbling.

Well I like the idea of the Cheesecake Factory, delicious. We always say we will just have coffee and cheesecake but then get tempted with the delicious food! No willpower.

Happy birthday to Tony and I'm sure you feel better having paid off the balance. One less thing to do.

The Cheesecake Factory was so yummy. I got Key Lime cheesecake. With extra whip cream.

Congrats on paying off the balance of your trip! That deserves a VERY happy dance!

I think your plans looks fantastic so far.....especially the added stay at the Vistana . I really, REALLY hope you love it there as much as we do. Be sure to put a reminder on your calendar to submit your room request 2 weeks in advance via Diamond Lane.....then, you will hopefully have a better chance at getting the larger one bedroom premium versus the smaller standard 1 bed villa. The jacuzzi tub and screened in balcony would be pretty fab additions, don't you think? (PS...I can help you with the Diamond Lane system when the time comes, if you'd like )

I know you're not a fan of heights (I am equally as terrified of high places, so I totally get your fear) but you might want to consider Characters in Flight at Disney Springs if you have a free morning. DS is super close to SVR (literally just a mile or two up the road), so that is a great place for a non park day. Characters in Flight is only $10 per person (half price) before 10 am, and the views are incredible!! The best part.....I felt NO uneasiness with the height whatsoever.....and I was SHOCKED. The cage makes you feel very secure, and even though we went on a breezy day, we didn't feel any swaying of the balloon. It was an unexpected highlight of our trip.

Also, if you're considering the Orlando Eye (which is also very much worth doing), you can get a combo ticket which gets you all 3 attractions (the Eye, Sea Life Aquarium, and Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum) for $40 (versus the $25+ pp for each attraction individually). Jake and his GF bought the discounted 3-attraction tickets for their September trip and saved a ton of money. Let me know if you want the link to the discounted tix and I'm happy to share it with ya.

As for the purse.....you deserve a splurge, my friend. Buy the purse. Life is short .

Oh, and for @pattyw ..... if you like Italian/pasta, I hope you have tried the pasta cucina at the Trattoria del Porto at Universal's Portofino Bay. It's one of our must-do restaurants now on each trip!! The food is amazing and strolling around the piazza at night is one fantastic way to end the day.

Yes, I would love your help with the Diamond Lane system.

No purse yet. I'm still debating. It's a bit pricey.

I still don't know what we'll be doing for the Orlando days. I'm waiting to see what the Sea World Black Friday deals look like before making final plans. I'm trying to be patient.

 

[Ruthie5671]

Saturday is Fast Pass scheduling day!!!!! This is my first trip with using FP+. I remember the "good ole days" of running from place to place and getting paper fast passes. Okay, I didn't run - other people did. I'm more of a bench warmer kind of gal. Tony and I began talking last night of what we really wanted to do in each park, and now I have a list.

Magic Kingdom: Big Thunder Railroad, County Bear Jamboree, Haunted Mansion, Small World, PhilharMagic, Monsters Laugh Floor, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, People Mover, Little Mermaid and Talking Mickey

Epcot: Frozen Ever After, Gran Fiesta, Living with the Land, Nemo and Friends, Soarin', Spaceship Earth, Test Track

Hollywood Studios: Muppet Vision 3D, Rock n Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror

Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safari, Festival of the Lion King, Navi River Journey and Wildlife Express Train

Making the list actually helped me decide that we need two Magic Kingdom days if we want to be able to see everything there. I can see us in Epcot spending a few hours in Future World and the afternoon and evening touring the countries. We can do that in one day. It is a bit sad that there are only four attractions in HS that I really want to do. That might be a good sleep in day and not have our first FP until noon.

One other thing that I did was order Tony and I ECV's to get around. Tony has significant medical issues that affects his mobility (a stroke 10 years ago, multiple sclerosis, bad knees) and well, as for me, my "fluffiness" makes my knees and back pretty painful after any significant amount of walking. And even though I have spent some time on our treadmill (her name is SOB - you can guess what that stands for), there is no way that I will be able to do all that walking for five straight days. So we have rented ECV's from Buena Vista Scooters that will be meeting us at the resort on arrival day for us to use until departure time. There shouldn't be a need for it while we are doing our condo days. I know that in looking at us, we don't "look disabled". But it is our trip, and I will do absolutely anything to make it as manageable as possible for us. So look out Orlando - the Kellogg's are on wheels for this trip!!!

63 more days!

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Your plan is coming together. You've put 63 more days, which isn't that long, but then there is Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year to fit in! It will fly by.

I still think they should turn the country Bear Jamboree into the Christmas show they used to do. That was good fun

 

[pattyw]

Oh, and for @pattyw ..... if you like Italian/pasta, I hope you have tried the pasta cucina at the Trattoria del Porto at Universal's Portofino Bay. It's one of our must-do restaurants now on each trip!! The food is amazing and strolling around the piazza at night is one fantastic way to end the day.

I have no updates today. I just wanted to take a minute to shout happy birthday to Tony. He doesn't read the DISboards, so this paragraph of lovey dovey gushing will just be for my dear readers. When I met Tony, I had resolved myself to the fact that I would be living the single life forever. I'd be an awesome aunt, good social worker and all-around fabulous gal. Who knew that my Prince Charming lived only 15 minutes away? Our first date started out horrible because he was over an hour late. His car wouldn't start - blah, blah, blah. So I was hesitant. But after a few dates, he had won me over. Three months later we were engaged and one year later we were married. Tony has been with me in my darkest times, laughed with me and cried with me. I could not have gotten thru this past year without him. So today, on the 50th anniversary of his birth, I want all of my Disney loving friends to know how much I love my husband and I'm so glad that I found him.

Hi Gina! Welcome home! We've eaten at Mama Della's but not Trattoria (it's on the list now!)
We just returned from our 10 day Orlando/Disney/Universal trip! Very exciting as we celebrated our 30yr wedding anniversary with a vow renewal ceremony and reception at the Hard Rock hotel as it was a family reunion trip so the whole gang was there. I'm exhausted!

Happy Belated Birthday, Tony! Tony is a gem but Ruthie so are you! Just knowing you on the DIS I can tell what a warm, sweet lady you are! I'm excited for your trip! We're going to be in Orlando a lot next spring as my DS has been accepted to the Disney college program! He starts in January- I'm excited for the Orlando trips and the fact that I may be able to meet up with some Diser's !!

Fast pass day is exciting!!!

 

[caribbeandream]

Greetings from another 40-something Ruth who also happens to be going to DW in January! Looking forward to your trip report.

 

[DISNEYSQUIRRELS]

Reading along, thanks for sharing!

 

[Ruthie5671]

Just a quick update . . .

I have been secretly stalking the dining reservations for the oh so hard to get Be Our Guest meal. I have read good things about it, and I wanted to hang with Belle and Beast. Well guess what folks??? On our last Magic Kingdom day, we are having breakfast at BOG. It is not a pre-park opening breakfast, but I got it. I may be singing the entire time we are in there. I may have already started singing.

Happy Belated Birthday, Tony! Tony is a gem but Ruthie so are you! Just knowing you on the DIS I can tell what a warm, sweet lady you are! I'm excited for your trip! We're going to be in Orlando a lot next spring as my DS has been accepted to the Disney college program! He starts in January- I'm excited for the Orlando trips and the fact that I may be able to meet up with some Diser's !!

Fast pass day is exciting!!!

How very exciting for your son to be accepted into the college program. Does he know what he will be doing yet?

And thank you for the compliments - you are too kind.

Greetings from another 40-something Ruth who also happens to be going to DW in January! Looking forward to your trip report.

Hello and ! Glad to have you reading along. What days are you going?

Reading along, thanks for sharing!

to the party!

 

[caribbeandream]

JHello and ! Glad to have you reading along. What days are you going?

I will be there with my sister and DS13 from the 8th through the 12th, staying at the GF.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Ruthie, congrats on getting the BOG ADR. Just so you know ahead of time, though, Belle is never at BOG and the Beast is only there at dinner. Still, the castle is beautiful inside and it's fun to check out all the rooms. Even though you're going for breakfast, if you like cupcakes at all, I'd suggest asking if you can order the Master's. It has the grey stuff and is delicious! The all chocolate one is insanely good, as well, but even though I'm a major chocoholic, it's so rich I can only eat about half. The strawberry cupcake is also very good.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Have you seen the details of SW Black Friday sale? I seem to recall you were toying with the idea of going....

 

[Ruthie5671]

This entry for the pre-trip report will be entitled . . . WE GOT OUR FAST PASSES!!!

Our FP+ day was this past Saturday. We had made our lists (see previous posts) and although I knew that you could begin requesting FP+ at 7:00 AM, there was no way in the world I was getting up that early on a Saturday morning. And I didn't get up at 7:00 AM. I was up at 6:30 AM and could not go back to sleep. I was like a child on Christmas morning who wanted to open up presents. Of course Tony was snoring and sleeping like the dead. So I waited. I put laundry in the washing machine. Played on Facebook. Time ticked away. So I decided to turn on the television to see if that would wake up Sleeping Beauty. Of course not. By 9:00, I just could not stand it any longer and started making just enough noise in the bedroom that Tony would hear me. And that didn't work either. I just woke him up at 9:30. He thought I was crazy (which I am), but I didn't want to do the fast passes without him and he would not wake up. I did apologize later for waking him up. But I didn't mean it. Hehehe. So here we have . . . . our fast passes!

Thursday (Magic Kingdom)
9:00 Meeting Mickey at Town Square
11:05 Peter Pan's Flight
12:25 Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Friday (Hollywood Studios)
11:30 Tower of Terror
12:40 Toy Story Mania
1:55 Muppet Vision 3D

Saturday (Animal Kingdom)
9:50 Kilimanjaro Safari
11:15 Na'vi River Journey
12:20 Meet Disney Pals at the Outpost

Sunday (Epcot)
9:35 Test Track
10:55 Spaceship Earth
11:55 Living with the Land

Monday (Magic Kingdom)
9:00 Little Mermaid (and I want to see the welcome show)
11:40 Haunted Mansion
12:50 Pirates of the Caribbean

The whole process was pretty simple and a lot of fun. I was a bit irritated about the tiered system in Epcot and that once I chose the fast pass for Test Track, the option to get Soarin' or Frozen Ever After went away. So my hope is that once we get there, we will either do single rider line or the wait times will not be ridiculous. Only time will tell.

I feel like that this was the last big step in the planning process. Which almost bummed me out a little because the planning has been so much fun. But then I get happy again when I check my countdown clock and it reads 56 more days!!!

 

[Ruthie5671]

I will be there with my sister and DS13 from the 8th through the 12th, staying at the GF.

Oh I cannot wait to see the Grand Floridian when we have dinner there on our last night. It just seems like such a regal place.

Ruthie, congrats on getting the BOG ADR. Just so you know ahead of time, though, Belle is never at BOG and the Beast is only there at dinner. Still, the castle is beautiful inside and it's fun to check out all the rooms. Even though you're going for breakfast, if you like cupcakes at all, I'd suggest asking if you can order the Master's. It has the grey stuff and is delicious! The all chocolate one is insanely good, as well, but even though I'm a major chocoholic, it's so rich I can only eat about half. The strawberry cupcake is also very good.

Thanks for the heads up about no Belle or Beast at breakfast time. I think I knew about Beast, but I just assumed Belle would be roaming around. And I do love cupcakes!!!

Have you seen the details of SW Black Friday sale? I seem to recall you were toying with the idea of going....

I did get my Sea World e-mail about the Black Friday deals. Unfortunately, I do not think we can fit it in our budget even with the sales. We have had two major (i.e. - expensive) car repairs over the past two months that cut into our savings. So our activities for the condo days have to be trimmed down a bit. And it is really okay. After five days of Disney, I am not sure that I would want to take on another big park. @Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina gave me a link for discounted tickets for Orlando Eye combo pack (thank you dear) and apparently I have been talked into taking a road trip for my dear husband. His brother told him about this "amazing" fishing store about an hour from Orlando called the "Fisherman's Candy Store" or something like that. He really wants to go and I guess that will be a little adventure for us. The things we do for the one's we love.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Congrats on your FP bookings. Definitely try for 4th, etc FP for Soarin' after using your first three. I've had great luck scoring those. Also, if you will be there during EMH at night, you can pretty much just walk on over and over and over (or at least we have but we travel end of January). Frozen will be the tough one unless you are okay with a long wait or willing to trade your sleep for rope drop or PPO breakfast at Akershus. The shortest wait I saw was about an hour when we were there in January last year. We were glad we had a FP. One way to ride Frozen without the lines or a FP would be to book the Frozen Ever After Dessert Party. You can sit, eat, drink, watch fireworks, and then ride FEA when everyone else is leaving the park. To be honest, though, while Frozen is cute and I LOVE that you get a ride photo if you have Memory Maker, all three of us prefer Soarin'.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

Glad you got your FP. To say you weren't making an warltvstart I see some 09.00 reservations, just make sure Tonys not snoring on them !

I hear you on the expenses, we just had the washer break, the microwave stop working and then the dishwasher broke. So hopefully that's our 3 for a while.

 

[pattyw]

How very exciting for your son to be accepted into the college program. Does he know what he will be doing yet?

This entry for the pre-trip report will be entitled . . . WE GOT OUR FAST PASSES!!!

Yes, we're excited about his college program acceptance - maybe more so in that we can visit VERY OFTEN!

Nice fast pass selections! I know you're not a morning person, but we did a PPO breakfast at Garden Grill and got on Soarin' before the rope droppers came. Then, we did the Land with no wait and went over to Test Track with no wait as well. I'm sure this would work too if you went to Frozen instead. And if that doesn't sound good for the early morning, Soarin' waits aren't that bad since they added a new theater. And try Frozen later in the evening when people are lining up for Illuminations.