Winter Wonderland in Sunny Orlando Dec 2009 PTR~NEW 12/18 We're Back! TR Link Posted!

[skier_pete]

Good for you! I just got done with my Dining Reservations...and nailed it - 8 for 8! We even got Le Cellier for dinner, and I wasn't even planning on it, I just typed in for it, and when I got it, I said "oh well, I guess we're eating there!" Check my PTR shortly for details!

SkierPete

 

[MyMuse]

Whoo-hoooo on your ADRs!

I did Chef Mickey's for a late dinner last May and ...wellll....I really don't have to do it again.

I hear fantantic things about Tusker House, but since I really wanted Yak & Yeti, I let it go for this trip. Plus, since I think I will be solo, I really don't want a character meal unless I have someone with me. It's just too weird. Does that make sense?

Thank god for finishing ADRs! It's rough when you are off-site. I finally finished mine on Friday morning.

Hope the poison ivy is gone for DH!

 

[stacikristine]

Yay! Congrats on all of your awesome ADRs! That's awesome that you were able to book it early for CM! You're going to have an incredible trip

 

[khertz]

Good for you! I just got done with my Dining Reservations...and nailed it - 8 for 8! We even got Le Cellier for dinner, and I wasn't even planning on it, I just typed in for it, and when I got it, I said "oh well, I guess we're eating there!" Check my PTR shortly for details!

SkierPete

Thanks! I'm mostly just relieved we were able to get a good time for CM...I was SO worried it wasn't going to work out, and everyone was really looking forward to it since I have been hyping it up!

Whoo-hoooo on your ADRs!

I did Chef Mickey's for a late dinner last May and ...wellll....I really don't have to do it again.

I hear fantantic things about Tusker House, but since I really wanted Yak & Yeti, I let it go for this trip. Plus, since I think I will be solo, I really don't want a character meal unless I have someone with me. It's just too weird. Does that make sense?

Thank god for finishing ADRs! It's rough when you are off-site. I finally finished mine on Friday morning.

Hope the poison ivy is gone for DH!

I feel ya on the character meals. I was worried about doing them as 6 adults! But I eventually got over it. I can understand feeling really weirded out by characters coming by for pictures if I was solo! I'd rather a nice quiet meal somewhere else if I was alone.

His poison ivy is finally starting to clear up. He had to go to a class all this week and the first day is today. I told him it looks more like road rash now, so he should just tell anyone that asks that he wiped out on a motorcycle or something cool like that but I don't think he went for my idea.

Yay! Congrats on all of your awesome ADRs! That's awesome that you were able to book it early for CM! You're going to have an incredible trip

Thank you!! I'm soooo excited!! Have you started packing yet?!?!

 

[khertz]

So I had a major brain fart today, and even after doing Disney trip related things ALL day and listening to Christmas music and looking at the calendar about 20 times, I still forgot until just a few minutes ago that I could book KTTK today! As soon as I realized this I hurried to call, and I just got off the phone. We are booked for the 8:30 tour on Sunday December 13th! I'm so so excited about this tour!

Also, our park bag came in the mail today. I spent all day making Touring Plan cards for each day, complete with ridiculously cute fonts and clip art, and I don't know if they will even fit in the bag! They are based on the size of 8x5 index cards, so I may have to downsize or hope I can stick them in someone else's bag. They are so cute though, I don't care how they get to the park, they are coming with us no matter what!

I just went through the "calendar" of things to do/book before we leave, and most of it is finished!! We just need to pre-order our Photopass CD, reserve our Mears shuttle to and from the airport, and check with the resort when the trip gets closer for a fireworks view room, and maybe an upgrade to a 4 bedroom if my sister and her boyfriend decide to join us late.

I'm SO excited!!

 

[stacikristine]

Aaah!! So exciting! I hear we'll both love the KTTK tour I'll tell you all about it so you can get excited for it. I can't wait to see pictures of your notecards!! I'm sure they're adorable. What bag is it that you got? You might have said earlier, but I don't remember. Oh--and yes, I've packed quite a bit already!

 

[khertz]

Aaah!! So exciting! I hear we'll both love the KTTK tour I'll tell you all about it so you can get excited for it. I can't wait to see pictures of your notecards!! I'm sure they're adorable. What bag is it that you got? You might have said earlier, but I don't remember. Oh--and yes, I've packed quite a bit already!

I think I'm the most excited about the KTTK tour, just because it is something SO different than anything we have ever done before! Plus it'll be just DH & I which will be nice. From everything I have read about it, I think you are right, we'll love it!

I'm about to post pics of the bag.

 

[khertz]

Tuesday after his class, DH went out and bought the new Dan Brown book (we <3 Robert Langdon!), annnnnnnnnnd...THIS:

I'm so excited!! I came home from work last night and DH was already playing and complaining that his arms hurt. I think I might go play some after I close this post so I can start practicing. I'll definitely need it!!

Also, I posted that our bag came in the mail also, but I took some pictures of it today. We bought a Lowepro Sling Shot 100 Bag. It looks like it will be perfect! It has one strap that you wear across the chest, and the zipper for the camera part is on the side of the bag, so you can just slide it down in front of your chest and open it up for easy access to the camera. Here is a picture of the tag to show you what I mean because I know that was a terrible description!

The whole bag...the camera zipper is on the left when you are looking at it like this.

This is a close-up of the top pocket where we can store the junk we'll be bringing to the parks each day like hotel keys, car keys, cell phone, etc.

This is the bag with the top pocket open.

The camera pocket opened. It's hard to tell but the two gray parts on the right and left are raised and the middle sinks in to accommodate the camera lens. The right and left parts are velcroed to the sides, so you can store the extra lens under the right part and extra batteries and cords under the left part.

And this is it with the camera inside!

Some itinerary changes have occurred over the last few days. My mom was distraught about not being able to do Fantasmic since it was scheduled only two days that our parents will be with us. Tuesday, which is our MVMCP night, and Thursday, which was supposed to be our second Universal day. So we have decided to swap the plans for Sunday and Thursday...Sunday instead of Animal Kingdom, we'll go to Universal. Then Sunday, we'll go to Animal Kingdom for most of the day, then go the DHS that afternoon for Fantasmic at 6:30 and possibly Osbourne Lights that night also. It stressed me out greatly until I realized it wasn't messing with much that I had already planned on doing. DH and I might skip Fantasmic, but not sure yet. Either way, DMom is happy now.

The only other change is I think DH and I are going back to the rental car idea. I was able to find a pretty cheap rate for 3 days from Alamo, which we can pick up and drop off from the Disney Car Care Center, which would be so convenient. Even with the rental and parking at the parks and the airport shuttle, it'll probably come out cheaper and easier not having to take any cabs, which it was looking like we'd have to take a few since we want to get to the MK early for our KTTK tour, and we'd have to get to church at some point Saturday or Sunday, so that's 3 cab rides right there, plus the Universal shuttle through Bonnet Creek. I think the rental car will be less headache.

And to close, here's Callie saying, "Stop Disney planning & pay attention to me, Mom! I'm way cuter than Mickey!!"

 

[khertz]

THURSDAY OCTOBER 4TH - Magic Kingdom & Downtown Disney - Last Disney Day

On our last day in Disney World, we spent the whole day at Magic Kingdom re-riding rides that we loved. Plus, how can you end a stay in Disney World in any other park BESIDES Magic Kingdom??

The very first thing we did was head to Mickey’s Toontown Fair to see if we could meet Mickey before the line got too long. But it was like 9:15 and Toontown didn’t open until 10, so we thought about giving up. As we were walking through Tomorrowland and past the Indy Speedway, the guy working the line stopped us and asked if we had been on the ride yet, which we said we hadn’t. He told us he had a special Honeymoon car, and that he could jump us to the front of the line if we wanted to. We hadn’t planned to ride it, but we figured why not. The girl putting us in our car ended up announcing our names and that we had just gotten married, got the crowd to applaud us, and then slapped a “Just Married” sign on the back of the car!

By the time we finished that ride, there was a crowd forming in front of Toontown, so we went back that way. Goofy and Pluto came out, and as soon as one of the cast members moved the rope that was blocking it off, people went RUNNING into Toontown, and Goofy took off running away from all the kids that were chasing him. It was hilarious! The first place we went was to Mickey’s House to walk through to the Judge’s Tent and meet Mickey before the line got too long. It was perfect timing!

And then we went to the Toontown Hall of Fame Tent to see who would be doing character greetings there. One line was the Princesses, which neither of us were interested in, but the other line was Goofy, Donald, and Pluto with only a 15 minute wait, so of course we did that one so DH could meet his favorite character...Donald!

We re-rode Space Mountain [several times], and Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland. Walking around, we saw my favorite character, Stitch!

DH failed to tell me he was doing the arm-cross like Stitch, so I ended up looking awkward. Oh well

Then it was off to Fantasyland to finally ride Peter Pan’s Flight for the first time. After one more round on Splash Mountain and an attempt to ride Pirates again, we hit the Emporium and I bought a pink Minnie hoodie, a Mickey Mouse canvas bag to use for work, and a little Stitch stuffed animal whose hands and feet are magnets so that I could wrap him around my stethoscope at work and entertain the kiddos. And then for spending $50, we got a Mickey blanket with the MGM Sorcerer’s Hat, the Tree of Life, Spaceship Earth, and Cinderella’s Castle for $15.

By early afternoon, we were wiped, so we decided to get lunch at the resort and nap before heading to Downtown Disney to pick up our framed Donald sketch, which came out awesome!

I was seriously so sad to go back to the hotel that night and pack everything up to go to Universal. Disney is my absolute favorite, which is why in every family vacation, we’ve saved it for last. It worked out opposite this time because we decided to add Universal at the last minute. But it was by far the best four days in Disney I’ve ever spent, because DH and I just had a blast together, and I was so sad for that part to be over. Universal was still a lot of fun (and pretty much NO crowds), but it just wasn't the same, and it felt weird to leave to go home from there instead of from Disney.

That's the end of the Mini-TR!

 

[khertz]

Friday, I realized we were at 77 days out...so naturally I decided to make our countdown calendar! I was inspired by the one created by stacikristine (who is in WDW right now...so jealous!), so it shares some similarities. Instead of going to Home Depot and collecting 75 Mickey head paint chips to use, however, I decided to do it the hard way! I have a few LGMH chips that I had gotten awhile back, so I took one and cut out the Mickey head from the background. I traced it on construction paper 75 times, and then cut them each out. Ouch! But I think it came out really cute!

I had a few made in white that I decorated with Christmas patterns/colors, and I had a pattern all set up, but then I decided I wanted the best two to be the last two before we left. So I kind of messed up the pattern, but I still love it. I got to cross of the first number last night! I'm so excited that it's getting closer after over a year of planning and anticipating!!

I updated our itinerary with all of the changes, so this is probably what we'll be taking with us to Florida. I can't imagine any more changes, but I guess you never know for certain! So for now, this is the final itinerary unless something crazy happens...

FRIDAY DECEMBER 4th
· Airport at 6 am
· Fly out from New Orleans at 8:00 am
· Arrive at Orlando International at 10:40 am
· Mears shuttle to Wyndham Bonnet Creek – check bags
· Resort hopping, Monorail loop (Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, Polynesian, Beach/Yacht Club, Boardwalk, Animal Kingdom Lodge)
· Lunch at CS at resort
· Downtown Disney – shopping, dinner, Characters in Flight
· Miniature Golf at Winter Summerland

SATURDAY DECEMBER 5th
· Epcot Future World for rope drop
· Lunch at Biergarten – 2:10 pm -CP Dining Package
· Candlelight Processional at 5 pm
· Illuminations 9:30 pm
· Hop to Magic Kingdom for late hours

SUNDAY DECEMBER 6TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Lunch at City Walk
· Church at 6 pm at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine
· Boardwalk/Downtown Disney?

MONDAY DECEMBER 7TH
· Hollywood Studios Rope Drop
· Lunch at Pizza Planet
· Magic Kingdom for SpectroMagic/Wishes

TUESDAY DECEMBER 8TH
· Church at 9:30 am at Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine
· Lunch at hotel
· Park of choice before party (AK or DHS)
· Magic Kingdom at 4 pm
· Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party 7pm-12am

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Dinner at The Melting Pot

THURSDAY DECEMBER 10TH
· Animal Kingdom
· Lunch at Pizzafari/Flame Tree BBQ
· Camp Minnie-Mickey – character greeting trails, character trees
· Hop to DHS in afternoon
· Fantasmic 6:30
· Osbourne Lights
· Boardwalk?

FRIDAY DECEMBER 11TH (parents last day)
· Check out of 3 bedroom/check into 1 bedroom
· Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s – 8:15 am
· Monorail to Magic Kingdom
· Park of choice in afternoon
· Osbourne Lights at DHS in evening if not done Thursday

SATURDAY DECEMBER 12TH
· Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure
· Pirate’s Cove Adventure Golf

SUNDAY DECEMBER 13TH
· Keys to the Kingdom Tour – 8:30 am
· MK or other park in afternoon
· Church at 6 pm – Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine

MONDAY DECEMBER 14TH
· Park(s) of choice, favorite rides
· Depart Orlando at 7:10 pm
· Arrive in New Orleans at 8:00 pm


74 DAYS!!

 

[stacikristine]

Woo-Hoo! Your calendar is sooo cute! You definitely worked a lot harder than I did. Soooo adorable!

And I love the honeymoon car. Very cute. And that's awesome you were able to meet all of those awesome characters.

Your trip will be here before you know it!!!!

 

[cjackearl]

Our Dis times must be way different, because somehow I keep missing updates. So sorry!

Your camera bag is extra cool. I might have to look at one since our cameras are super similar.

Do you like the TSMM game? I may be buying it tonight, but I'd love to hear someone's review before I spend $50!

What a sweet daughter to rearrange plans to accomodate her momma's request.

Very cute countdown calendar. Ah, Christmas with the Mouse. I may be just the teeny tiniest bit jealous.

 

[khertz]

Woo-Hoo! Your calendar is sooo cute! You definitely worked a lot harder than I did. Soooo adorable!

And I love the honeymoon car. Very cute. And that's awesome you were able to meet all of those awesome characters.

Your trip will be here before you know it!!!!

Aww, thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

The honeymoon car was one of my favorite memories of our honeymoon! We had NO intention of riding those slow little cars, but having not 1 but 2 CM's go out of their way to make it special for us was amazing.

Our Dis times must be way different, because somehow I keep missing updates. So sorry!

Your camera bag is extra cool. I might have to look at one since our cameras are super similar.

Do you like the TSMM game? I may be buying it tonight, but I'd love to hear someone's review before I spend $50!

What a sweet daughter to rearrange plans to accomodate her momma's request.

Very cute countdown calendar. Ah, Christmas with the Mouse. I may be just the teeny tiniest bit jealous.

I'm WAY excited about our bag! I think since we don't plan to carry a ton of stuff in the parks it's going to be just what we need. I can't wait to try it out since we haven't even had much excuse to use the new camera yet.

We LOVE TSM on the Wii! It's a lot of fun to play, especially with at least 2 players because you can help each other out to meet the objectives while still competing against each other for points. I think it's going to help us out with the ride too because it basically has you doing all the "hidden" things from the ride that score you more points!

My momma is VERY happy that I budged & changed the schedule. She actually wanted to leave the MVMCP, go see Fantasmic, then come back! Instead of letting her waste all that money we spent on party tickets (because I am pretty sure she would have done it!), I decided just to switch & be done with it. Luckily it didn't disrupt things!

 

[khertz]

Not much going on with planning, but I had to pop in for a little exciting tidbit for today (to me, anyway!).

Today is our two year anniversary!

Unfortunately, I had to work today. But I'm off tomorrow, so we are going to have a nice lunch together (we are more lunch people than dinner when it comes to eating out), and then maybe go shopping, and just enjoy each other for the day.

Hope everyone is having a great week!

 

[khertz]

Since it's probably going to be awhile before I get to print out my super cute touring plan cards, I decided to share them with y'all the poor way by taking a picture of them on my screen and posting!

I only made them for the first 7 days when our parents will be joining us because I figure those will be the days we'll need a plan to make sure we accomplish everything we want to do together. I figure the last 3 days we'll be there by ourselves, DH and I won't need as much of a plan. I'll probably just make one more card for all three days with the park hours and confirmation #s for KTTK and stuff like that.

These took extraordinarily longer than I had thought they would to make because of course I had to make them each with very cute fonts and graphics. I hope y'all think they are as cute as I think they are!

Epcot on Saturday December 5th

Islands of Adventure (and probably Universal Studios) on Sunday December 6th

Disney Hollywood Studios on Monday December 7th

MVMCP on Tuesday December 8th. Since this is our "take it easy" day in the morning, I didn't think we needed a touring plan for the earlier part of the day before the party. This is more just an "info" card for the party, and may be modified as more information becomes available.

Universal Studios on Wednesday December 9th

Animal Kingdom on Thursday December 10th

Magic Kingdom on Friday December 11th

Of course, none of this is set in stone. What we decide to skip, we'll skip. Some things we'll split up for depending on preference. And of course, we'll be hopping to other parks some days. So whatever we don't complete on the "main" day we are at each park will be completed on a day we hop there. Mostly this was just a starting point for each day and an excuse for me to search for and use cute fonts and graphics.

 

[mandy2012]

I just got done reading your honeymoon trip report. I must say your wedding pictures were beautiful! You made an amazing bride. I also enjoyed reading what a great time you had on your honeymoon! I am going to Disney in December too and I can't wait too see how your trip will be! have a nice day

 

[khertz]

I just got done reading your honeymoon trip report. I must say your wedding pictures were beautiful! You made an amazing bride. I also enjoyed reading what a great time you had on your honeymoon! I am going to Disney in December too and I can't wait too see how your trip will be! have a nice day

Thanks!! You are too sweet. DH and I had a BLAST on our honeymoon, which was some of the inspiration behind this December trip. I can't wait to take our own kids, but I wanted one more trip just us as adults doing all the "big" rides to get it out of our system before we are doing Dumbo and child swaps. When will you be there in December? Are our dates overlapping any??

 

[mandy2012]

Thanks!! You are too sweet. DH and I had a BLAST on our honeymoon, which was some of the inspiration behind this December trip. I can't wait to take our own kids, but I wanted one more trip just us as adults doing all the "big" rides to get it out of our system before we are doing Dumbo and child swaps. When will you be there in December? Are our dates overlapping any??

Me and my boyfriend are thinking the same way as you. We want to have as much fun as we can and do all the thrill rides before we settle down first. We will be there Nov. 30 til Dec.7. This will be our first the going to WDW so I am super excited! We live in CA and we go to Disneyland all the time, so i'm pretty sure we will have a feel for the Magic kingdom

 

[skier_pete]

You guys all have the right idea...get a couple of trips in before the kids come along.

Though, I have to tell you nothing beats bringing your kid(s) to WDW and seeing the place through their eyes. I also highly recommend packing an in-law so you can have some evenings out as well.

SkierPete

 

[stacikristine]

YAY!!! Your park plan notecards are SOOO cute! I love all of the graphics and cute fonts. I thought you hand wrote the first one, and then I saw it was a font! Good job! Even though we didn't fully follow our plans, we still loved having them!