Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

[momoflizandains]

I'm enjoying reading about your upcoming adventure. Planning is half the fun!

 

[medic318]

Kristen, maybe its a medic thing, but I plan just like you. Drives my wife crazy. I am already planning 2013's vacation, and our 2011 trip isn't for another 170 days. Hopefully we will have a Disney cruise in between.

Hope you have a good trip and your wl work out.

 

[kristenrice]

Ran into a minor snag today....

I was hoping to pay for my DxDDP with money from my rewards programs, but I won't have enough until the end of July. I didn't think it was a big deal since I can wait until then to add the DxDDP. Then, I remembered that we wanted to book the luau which requires full pre-payment OR it must be linked to a reservation that has a DP. So, I had to delve into my cash stash and pay for the DxDDP.

I made my ADR's online and got everything I wanted. Today, I noticed a $100+ charge to my Visa. I realized that they had charged my card for the luau. Ugghh!! Now I have the $150+ for the DxDDP AND the charge for the luau (2 people) on it. I called the dining line and the CM was able to take care of it. I am a little concerned though. I booked my reservation at 7am sharp on the day my 180+10 opened up. Since I know the luau seating is based on when you book (the earlier the better!) I was hoping to get some pretty decent category 2 seats. But, in order to reverse the charge to my card, the CM said that he had to cancel my original reservation and re-book it. The reservation had the DxDDP attached to it and I did log in with it when I made the ADR's so I hope that I am not "penalized" with a later booking time. My guess is that there is nothing that anyone could do about it anyways. I did mention it to the CM when he said he would cancel and rebook it but he didn't have an answer. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

 

[kristenrice]

I keep checking my reservations online....every day...with mixed emotions. On one hand, I'd like to try out BLT and experience the TOTWL....

....but on the other hand, a savanna-view at Kidani is awesome and it would make dining at Boma, Jiko and Sanaa much more convenient. I want to eat at those three restaurants, regardless of where we stay, so I am really conflicted about my waitlist.

I'm not at all worried about the concierge waitlist. If that one comes through (HIGHLY unlikely) then I will be ecstatic. I'm fairly confident that the BLT LV waitlist will come through, but now I am wondering if I really want it or not. I am sure that I could hype myself up about it, but if I do, and then it doesn't come through, I will feel very let down, ya' know?

So, I've decided to let Tinker Bell and her pixie dust decide where I am to stay.... AKV or BLT...

....stay tuned to find out...

 

[kristenrice]

The BLT waitlist came through today! I've decided to be excited about it now!

Of course, this required that I re-tool my dining plans. It was hard for me to cancel my reservations at Jiko, Boma and Sanaa, but it would be quite inconvenient to eat at all of those while staying at BLT.

Here is the new plan for Thursday, Friday and Saturday....

Thursday: We'll head over to DHS after check-in and grab a snack. After Fantasmic, we'll use a meal credit at the Contempo Cafe. I can't find an updated dinner menu but it looks like there are some decent pasta options. I want to make sure that there is something besides "burgers and chicken fingers" for DSiL.

Friday: I cancelled breakfast at Boma and replaced it with a 7:30am ADR at Chef Mickey's. Hmmmm....now that I think about it, should I try The Wave instead? Being that this will be DSiL's first trip, I thought a breakfast with the "Fab 5" would be in order, but I don't want the characters to be too intrusive, KWIM?

I have AK on the agenda for Friday. I'm hoping to get there as close to the 9am opening as possible. We'll want to do EE, Kilamanjaro Safaris, the Finding Nemo musical and Festival of the Lion King. Those are on the "must do" list. We'll also try the two walking treks, Dinosaur, Flights of Wonder and "It's Tough to be a Bug". Depending on the show times, we should be able to have most of the park done by 4pm.

I cancelled the Sanaa dinner for Friday and booked Boma instead. It is my favorite restaurant and I just cannot seem to go to WDW without eating there at least once. We have a 5:15pm ADR for Friday night so I am planning on leaving the AK park by 4pm. After dinner, we'll hop the bus to the MK and walk back to BLT.

At about 8pm, we'll head up to the TOTWL for drinks and fireworks! Unfortunately, the only night Hallowishes coincides with our BLT stay is on our arrival night. We'd have to miss Fantasmic, which I am not willing to do.

On Saturday, it will be our Epcot day. I chose a 9:50am breakfast at Akershus. Since our dinner is going to be the 8pm Luau, I figure a late breakfast would be a better idea. Again, I'm not real keen on the character aspect (don't hate it, but it just isn't necessary with two adults) but there really isn't a great selection of breakfasts at Epcot.

The rest of the plan is thus far unchanged. There is still over 150 days until we leave so there is plenty of time to make adjustments.

On another note, are there any requests I should make for our room at BLT? I am thinking "high floor", but I'd like to be conveniently located as well. Is there a long wait for elevators? Are they conveniently located? Where is the laundry room? We'll have refillable mugs and a morning Diet Coke is essential. How easy is it to get to the mug stations? How's the pullout bed? I've slept on the ones at AKV and they were great. When I thought we were staying there, I told DSiL that I would take the pullout for our studio stay. I get the master bedroom when we move to the BWV 1BR though. Now that we are staying at BLT instead, should I rethink this offer?

I'm sure that I will have a lot of BLT questions to come. It is a resort that has never particularly appealed to me, but I thought this might be a good chance to give it a try.

That's all for now...thanks for reading!

 

[tarheel]

Why don't you save some money and eat breakfast in the villa on your Epcot day. Then you can snack around the world showcase when you get hungry, and not ruin your big dinner. We hardly ever eat breakfast in the parks when we have a kitchen to make easy things in. It saves lots of time and money.

 

[5forDiz]

I like poster Tarheel's suggestion to snack around the world at Epcot instead of breakfast at Akershus ( jmho not really a fan of Akershus, we've done it & find nothing stands out about it ) or maybe try Kouzzina's at Boardwalk, heard good things about that breakfast.

Sounds like a great trip !

 

[dgaston]

I really like the breakfast at Cape May, too, even though it does have a few characters in beach garb.

 

[DCLbrideSept2009]

Personally, especially an adults-only trip, going during F&W, I would plan on more "snacking around the world" as opposed to TS meals.

 

[kristenrice]

It is so hard to "plan" a "spontaneous" trip...

I've been thinking again (go figure)...

I looked at the in-room dining menu for the Contemporary/BLT and I am thinking that might be the way to go for dinner on our arrival night. I could cancel our breakfast at Akershus which would free up a dining credit that we could use towards room-service. This has the advantage of allowing us to eat a "nice" meal in the room. Since I will be running on very little sleep, I could eat steak in my jammies. If we decide that we are awake enough and want to try for a walk-up TS meal, we could always go that route too.

I e-mailed my room request to MS today. I requested a "high-floor, even-numbered, north-facing" room at BLT. I casually threw in the fact that the trip was for my birthday and that it was DSiL's first visit. I also mentioned that DSiL will be bringing her family of 5 for their first trip in 2012. I figured that throwing a potential new DVC'r at them might give them incentive to give us a great room.

 

[kristenrice]

Yikes! I'm slacking in my pre-trip reporting. I guess I hit that lull where everything that can be done has been done...now it's just the waiting.

A few updates,...

I've been looking at our flight....and starting to wonder....
It only takes 15 minutes to get from my driveway to the airport terminal so I don't need a lot of travel time. Our flight leaves at 12:30pm so I think I will plan on leaving the house at 10:30am. That puts me at the airport just under 2 hours before departure. Here's the rub..

Tuesday at 7:30am, I'll kiss the kids goodbye and put them on the bus. I go to work at 2:30pm (they go to grandma's after school until DH gets out of work around 6) and then I work until 4:30am. Then, I go to bed...DH gets them up on Wednesday and they are off to school before I get up. I *must* sleep because I have to work Wednesday from 2:30pm-4:30am again. During the school year, this is normal for me...I don't see the kiddos awake from 7:30am on Tuesday until they get home at 3:30pm on Thursday. The problem is, this time, I will be en route to WDW at 3:30 on Thursday. It wouldn't feel right to tell them goodbye on Tuesday, when I don't leave until Thursday...but I also don't want to stay up (or get up) at 6:30am on Thursday after working until 4:30am. That settles it...when I go into work on Friday, I'm going to request that I get off at midnight on Wednesday.

On to the dining revisions...

I'm thinking that we'll use 2 credits on our arrival night and order 1 in-room dining meal. If it won't be enough food, we could always grab a little "supplement" from the Contempo Cafe on the way back to the room. This way, I can sit in the room in my jammies and eat a nice steak dinner.

For those who mentioned skipping breakfast on Saturday, I think I have a compromise... I booked a 7:30am breakfast at The Wave. This will allow us to use our last credits on a "light" breakfast, that is still a TS meal, and it will give us ample room in our tummies to graze around Epcot later on in the day. We're still doing the luau that night at 8pm and we will need to check in to our BWV room at some point during the day. Any ideas on when we should leave Epcot, check in at BWV and get ready for dinner? Also, I was thinking that we'd just take the monorail from Epcot to the TTC and walk to the Poly (Weather permitting). Is that the fastest way (besides a taxi) to get to the Poly?

That's it for now...I have a BIG PTR to start...just made our reservations for 15 people at OKW for June 2012! I'll try to keep myself entertained with this PTR. Thanks for reading....

 

[bobbiwoz]

You're doing good! Great pre trip report!!!

 

[BUDDYBEAR]

CONGRATES

 

[kristenrice]

Yup...I've been planning again...

First, we got our school schedule this past week. The girls started school on the 29th. When I looked at the schedule, I was mortified to see that the CEA Teacher's convention that is normally held the THIRD weekend in October has been moved to the SECOND weekend of October. The girls have a half-day of school on Wednesday and then they are off on Thursday and Friday. Ugh!! I told them that they couldn't come with mommy on this trip because they have school Now, it turns out that I could have taken them along and they would have only missed 2 days. Oh well...at least I will get to say goodbye to them properly, not before they get on the bus.

Speaking of that, I was able to take off the last 5 hours of my shift on Wednesday night which means I will get out at 11:30pm instead of 4:30am. If nobody comes in to cover for me, I might stay a few more hours. Since the kids won't have school, I won't have to be up by 7 to say goodbye to the girls. My mom is going to pick up my DSiL at her house and then come and get me around 10:15am. The airport is 15 minutes from my house and our flight is scheduled to leave at 12:36pm. I've been watching the non-stop flight (there's only 1 per day) and it has been consistently leaving 10-15 minutes early and arriving either early or on time so that is encouraging. We're planning on upgrading our flight to business class (I love AirTran...I'm going to miss them) on the way to Orlando so we can each check two bags for no charge.

Here's my packing plan...

My DSiL is flabbergasted by how "light" I am packing. I have the Kalya bag from eBags (http://ebags-o.scene7.com/s7viewers/dhtml/images/spacer.gif) which will serve as my "personal item". I checked the AirTran site and cross-referenced it with the eBags site and this bag fits within the acceptable dimensions. Inside it, I will have a medium packing cube (also from eBags...gotta' love them!) which will contain three days worth of clothes. I have my convertible pants, 2 pairs of walking shorts, 2 t-shirts, 1 polo shirt, 1 set of jammies (tank and knit shorts), running shorts and tank, 3 pairs of underwear and a bra and my swimsuit. Yup...it all fits perfectly! Then, I will also have my netbook computer with cord, my iPod, Kindle and camera (Kodak Zi8) and my 3-1-1 bag. I also have a small cosmetics bag that will contain my toothbrush, hair brush and EarPlanes. I also have a small "fanny pack" that I will be wearing which I will probably use for my phone, wallet, iPod and camera, just so it's all handy. On the plane, I will wear my yoga pants, running tank and fleece jacket along with my Skechers ShapeUps. For my other "bag", I have a 19" rolling carry-on from Eddie Bauer. LOVE IT!! We got it for our wedding 9 years ago and it still looks brand new. It is also well-within the acceptable dimensions of a carry-on, but I will be checking it on the way down since I get 2 checked bags for free. In it, I will put the following: a few more articles of clothing including a heavier sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, sandals and socks; a small bottle of laundry detergent and fabric softener sheets; at least 2 bottles of liquor (probably Captain Morgan and Rasberi Stoli); various breakfast items (NutriGrain bars, instant oatmeal and a box of Vitalicious muffin mix) and my silicone muffin pan; and my cords for my Kindle and iPod; and any full-size toiletries that I won't be able to carry on. If there is any more room, I may also include a few bottles of cranberry juice and maybe a bottle or two of water. I also have a large pre-paid box (flattened) from the post office that is in the bottom of the rolling carry-on. I will use that to mail back anything that I won't be able to bring on the plane for our trip back. I won't use all of the laundry detergent and my bottle of facial cleanser is a 4.7oz foam that can't go in a carry-on. That's all I can think of right now. I'm sure I will want to bring more, but that's all that's coming to mind right now.

On the way home, we will not be doing the upgrade so I will use my rolling 19" suitcase as my carry-on and my Kalya bag as my "personal item". My fanny pack will be stuffed into my rolling bag on the return so that won't count against my luggage allowance.

My budget is coming along great. Everything is paid for so far. I have 2 days of DxDDP, my DVC AP and my airfare all paid for. I still need to buy my TIW card and the airfare upgrade. After that is paid, I will still have over $400 in spending money. That will need to cover the gratuities on the DxDDP, food/drinks for 3 days and any other activities we decide to do. We are doing the luau and ordering room service with some of our DxDDP credits so there's two meals that won't need a gratuity. If I have anything left over (which is highly probable), I may just do the BC upgrade on the way home too. DH is picking me up at the airport so I can enjoy the complimentary booze on the way back too.

Now that I am within 42 days, I am eagerly awaiting my DME packet. I think that is the final step before leaving. Normally, there's the 10-day mark for online check-in, but since we are doing a split-stay, I don't think we will be eligible. Next week, I will be able to transfer my Disney Visa rewards over to my card. I have 2 cards, one closes on the 5th and one on the 8th so I want to squeeze every last reward out of them.

Speaking of rewards, I did pretty good for this trip. If you aren't familiar with my previous trip, I took a "free" trip to HHI using nothing but rewards and freebies from various programs. That was in April of this year so I have not had a lot of time to build up my rewards, but I did a respectable job. Here's the breakdown...

1) AMEX BlueSky rewards: $200 which completely covered my airfare (which was $199!)
2) Ebates: $42 which is now in my PayPal account
3) Disney Visa Rewards: $175 (I already used $24 to cover 2 F&W seminars)
4) Sunshine Rewards: $405!!! (I used $125 to buy my DVC AP*)
*Since my dad is paying for everyone in June 2012, he gave me $300 to put towards an AP since that is what he paid for everyone's 6-day PH from UCT.*
So, I have over $800 in rewards to put towards this trip. I budgeted $1000 in expenses so I only had to take $200 or so out of my longevity bonus from work.

So now I am just playing the waiting game.... DH leaves on Friday for a week of bear hunting in the UP. I have three birthdays (Niece turning 10 on the 21st, daughter turns 6 on the 25th and other niece turns 7 on the 27th) and our anniversary (September 6...NINE years!) to plan for so that will keep me a little busy.

That's all for this installment. I'm hoping to do a full TR with daily updates and photos so stay tuned...

 

[Kez250]

you know the one thing i'd do different is not check the power cords for the kindle or the iPod - i know for sure if i checked them then my flight would be delayed or something so by taking them with me i therefore ensure that the plane is on time if not early and they stay in my carry on.

apart from that i'm just jealous i wanna go to F&W haven't been for a couple of years

 

[Disney Spaz]

This sounds awesome! I love how organized you are. I am the same way. On our last trip I fit DD 5 and my stuff in 1 roll on and 1 carryon. DD 22 had 4 medium to large bags alone and couldn't believe DD 5 and I would have enough.

 

[kristenrice]

It's official....my trip is getting close!!! I got my DME packet in the mail yesterday.

.....Now what?....


I called the other day to make sure that our DME information would be correct. We had a reservation for a savanna-view studio at Kidani but our waitlist for BLT came through. I wanted to make sure that DME knew that we are at BLT so our tags would be correct, which they are. I also asked about online checkin. I assumed that since we have 2 resorts booked under 1 number, we wouldn't be able to do the online check in. The CM told me that I *can* do online check in. She said that at 10 days, I can check in to our first resort (BLT) and then 2 days later, I can do the check in for the second resort (BWV). Time will tell if this will work. Since it is all one number, I would assume that once I check in for the first one, it will recognize that I've already checked in under that number and not allow it again 2 days later.

Only 33 more days....

 

[kristenrice]

Ok, still have our arrival night dinner on the brain....here's a new idea...

We have the DxDDP for 2 nights (12 meal credits total) so here's my new thoughts...

After 8pm Fantasmic, hop the bus (or take a cab) to the Poly and have dinner at Kona at 9:50pm. Hopefully, we can get there earlier, but that is the ADR I made. (I'm sure we could get a walk-up, but when I tried that at Artist Point on our honeymoon, they said they'd closed early due to no ADR's booked. This was back in 2001) But I digress...

At Kona, I'm thinking that we could easily share a meal since it includes app, entree and dessert. DSiL usually drinks water with her meals anyways and I'm sure there will be a few adult beverages ordered too. So this will use 1 credit.

Next day (Friday)....Breakfast at Chef Mickey's 2 credits...Dinner at Boma 2 credits. I'm thinking that between the 7:30am breakfast and the 5:15pm dinner, we may need a little pick-me-up. Since that will be our AK day, I was planning on using the TIW card for lunch at Flame Tree. Well, if we only use the one credit at Kona, we will have a credit still unaccounted for. I'm thinking we could share a CS meal since they seem pretty substantial...1 credit

Saturday...Breakfast at The Wave 2 credits...and dinner at the SoA 4 credits. We'll be at Epcot that day so lunch will consists of using our 8 snack credits throughout the WS at the F&W booths. We also have a 3pm culinary demo so we should be more than full!

How does that look? Is it possible to share the TS meal at Kona? I would think so, but I've never shared a TS meal on a dining plan before. Also, MNSSHP is going on until midnight. What is the best way to get back to BLT after dinner? Will the monorail be running or is that still closing early? How about the boats? I figured that we'd just get to the MK somehow and walk to BLT, assuming the monorail isn't running.

EEK!!! Less than three weeks!! (Ugh... but 10 more shifts at work)

 

[kristenrice]

WOW!!! Only 3 more days!!!

Today, I have a haircut and pedicure scheduled. Then, I have to finish packing. Everything has to be set and ready to go before I go to bed tonight. For the next two days, sleep will be at a premium so I need to catch my ZZZZ's when I can.

Tomorrow, DH works so I have to be up at 6am to get the DD's off to school. At 7:30am, I need to go back to bed. I have to work from 2:30 in the afternoon until 4:30 in the morning so that nap is critical. After work, off to bed! Then, on Wednesday, I'll need to be up by noon to check in for my flight. I am hoping to get the upgrade to business class, but 2 of the 12 seats have already been purchased. I have to work again on Wednesday, but I am only scheduled until 11:30pm. I'll probably end up staying until 2:30am though.

On Thursday, my mom is picking me up at 10am to leave for the airport. Our flight leaves at 12:30.

EEEK!! It seems so close!! I just have to make it through the next few days.