You Can Take the Boy Outta Wales... Updated 5/2!!

[CoolDisneyKitten]

but you can't take the Wales outta the boy!! Huh?? I guess you can probably tell from my handle (and location) that I'm not the Welsh boy of the title, so what the heck am I talking about?? That'd be DBF25... being dragged out of Wales for his first trip to WDW! Brave boy.

That's us. Isn't he cute? I look like a dork. *sigh*

The cast for this trip includes the following players:

Aforementioned DBF: Mike, 25, Welsh. His first time to WDW. Strong aversion to all things "dodgy."

Me: Meg, 26, finally graduating college, this trip is to celebrate that. The planner this time 'round.

My mom: ageless, joining us a few days into the trip, loves WDW!!

The Mom, aka CoolDisneyCat

Mike and I are flying down on May 4, and we're staying in a 1bd at SSR. Mom's joining us on May 8, and we're transferring to a 2bd at OKW. We've never stayed at either of those places, so we're excited!

The ADRs are made, the plane tickets are bought... now only if the next 25 days would go *faster*!!!

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Sooo after a long period of convincing (and a LOT of POTD viewing on the Dis), I convinced Mike to bring his big camera. Now he wants a new lens. *sigh* The boy is gadget crazy.

The first, pre-Mom part of the trip is sort of a lazy, get-Mike-acclimated-to-WDW sort of thing. We're going to MGM, and maybe one other park, but other than that we're gonna be pretty lazy and (mostly) eat CS.

I made our ADRs last month, but now I've got a jones for CA Grill, so it looks like I'll try to change some stuff around - again. Here's what we have thus far:

May 4: arrival day, ME to SSR; dinner Raglan Road, 7:15

May 5: MGM (bleck on the new name), going to see Fantasmic!

May 6: Kona Cafe, 12:55, a monorail tour of MK and Epcot, maybe some resorts; lazy sorta day

May 7: maybe AK; dinner at Yachtsman, 7:10

May 8: Mom arrives! transfer to OKW and dinner at Artist Point, 7:50 (note: DxDDP begins today; time to eat like it's 1999)

May 9: Epcot day 1! Chefs de France, 1:30; Spoodles, 9:40 post-Illuminations

May 10: AK day! Yak & Yeti, 1:30; Jiko, 7:30

May 11: Mother's Day! No park, maybe DTD for Goofy candy goodness. Flying Fish, 6:25

May 12: MK day! LTT, 2pm; Narcoossee's, 8pm

May 13: Epcot day 2 (gotta see Davy Jones!). Cape May Cafe, 10:45. Right now we have Boma at 8:25, but we're gonna try to change it to CA Grill

May 14: Home day b'fast at Olivia's

 

[Msslaydbug]

I can't wait to hear more about your trip !! I hope Mike has a great time on his first trip to the World !

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Yay, thanks for replying! I hope he does, too. He's kind of nervous about it, because he's never actually been on a ride in his life! He told me, "I rode past Disneyland Paris once. I wasn't impressed." That... made me giggle... a little...

Anyway... commencing...

So Mom and I were discussing our "how to get from point A to point B" plans (she just had knee surgery last week, so getting from A to B is kind of important to her), and we realized we might want to rearrange another day of our ADRs. *sigh*

In addition to trying to change our Boma night to California Grill, I'm going to try to change our Chefs de France to Coral Reef. I hope I can get them. We've never done Coral Reef before, and we love the fishes!

In other, nonfood news (there's world outside of Disney dining?), I showed Mike pics of SSR and OKW, and he's kinda floored. He didn't realize we'd have a kitchen and a giant bathtub, etc. He even said, "There's a tv??" Yes, sweetie, two tvs. Three in the 2bedroom. I really think he has no clue what he's gettin himself into!

I had to bribe him with Beaches and Cream *and* Ghirradelli's to get him to wear a "My First Trip" button. Good thing he loves ice cream...

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

After much pondering and discussing between Mom and I, we decided to change our Chefs de France ADR to Coral Reef and our Boma to CA Grill. I called at about 7:30 this morning, and a very friendly CM helped me out.

For some weird reason, our earlier ADRs (except Raglan Road, which I made at a different time), were under some bizarre phone number that in no way resembled mine. Because of that, she was able to make Coral Reef and CG before canceling Chefs and Boma, then she went in and changed them all to the right phone number. Disney Weirdness.

Anyway. I had Chefs at 1:30, and I got Coral Reef at 1:10. I had Boma at 8:25, and I got CG at 9:30. She at first said there was nothing at all for CG that night, or the night before, then she said, "Oh, no, I have 9:30." That was fine with us; we'll snack around Epcot until time for dinner, watch Wishes at the Contemporary, then enjoy CA Grill deliciousness!

I haven't run any of this past Mike yet, so let's hope he likes the Coral Reef menu... Well, there's a steak; he'll be happy!

 

[kindakrazy2]

Hey Meg! Great start to your report!

And how exciting that your trip isn't very far off!

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your plans!

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Thanks for your reply!! Yeah, we're getting really excited because it's so close. It always seems like the last few weeks/days really drrraaaaag past, tho.

Alright, update. Poor Mikey (he hates being called that...) has been sick for a while, and they think he might have tonsilitis. Or some sort of... I dunno... glandular thing. He's on antibiotics, so he should be right as rain in time for Mickey. We're hoping, anyway, b/c I really think his first roller coaster experience might be ruined by inner ear issues.

Mom's knee is healing up nicely, so she should be feeling much better in time, too! She's still considering renting an ECV for, say, Epcot, but she definitely thinks she won't need one every day, or an offsite one like she was considering before. Before the surgery she could barely walk *at all*. Now, just a week later, she's *far* more mobile than she was before.

Mike (who lives on the other side of the ocean from me, in case you haven't picked that bit up by now) is going shopping tomorrow to buy some things for the trip - including a suitcase. Good idea, honey.

Our first park, just Mike and I, is going to be MGM (yeah, yeah, DHS). He's never really been to a theme park before, and never ridden a ride in his life (even a ferris wheel - get thee to London, boy, and ride that Eye!!), so I'm going to throw him on ToT and tell him to pray - no!! I might call him "Mikey," or "Marmaduke" when I can't understand a word he says in his Welsh twang, but I'm not going to *torture* the boy.

Our first stop will be The Great Movie Ride. Everyone likes movies (mostly), and it's nice and slow, with a bit of a show. It's a good starter, I think. MGM is a good park for strolling, it has nice theming, and aside from rather abysmal food choices, I think it'll get him started off right. We're gonna do Muppet Vision, Star Tours, RnRC (if he wants), Voyage of the Little Mermaid (one of my faves), and maybe the Backlot thing, which I haven't done in probably 15 years. We're going to get there in the late morning, b/c we're staying to see the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic! It'll be a pretty full day, but I'm gonna take it slow for him so he doesn't get overhwhelmed. I don't want him burned out on his first day!!

<---Mike, after I throw him on ToT first thing in the morning...

 

[pooksma]

Hi Meg!

Sounds like you have an action planned trip for your Welshman. I'll look forward to reading more and hearing about your ADRs when you return. We are also trying CR for the first time. Hope its as great as everyone (Disers) say!

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

*sigh* A trip planner's job is never done. There was a thread on the Restaurant board the other day entitled, "When do you stop changing your ADRs?" I wanted to post, "The day I check out!" b/c boy is it sooo true.

Let's start at the beginning...

I am an ignorant American, and as such I didn't know that in Wales, mono is called glandular fever. So, yes, Mike could have mono. I really hope he doesn't since I haven't seen him since February, and I was really hoping to kiss him in May!!

Ok, part 2. Mom decided (finally) to get into the planning (she d/led Safari for Windows and got all browse happy). She was on Deb's checking out all the menus, and randomly she goes (presented in dialogue format for your reading ease),

She: "So you guys are going to Yachtsman, right?"
I: "Uh huh."
She: "How about you guys go to Artist Point, and we all go to Yachtsman? You don't like the desserts at Artist Point anyway, and what appetizer is Mike going to eat there?"
I: "Um."
She: "You can order the soup at Artist Point, and not get dessert. And I can get the filet at Yachtsman. And the seafood salad. And the White chocolate macadamia pie."
I: *small sigh* "Give me your phone."

Of course I'd *just* finished, not 5 minutes before, writing up a new, clean schedule to replace my much marked-up and abused one. And naturally I'd cleared the whole "you're not going to Yachtsman" thing w/ her several times beforehand.

C'est la vie.

Regardless, I got 7:40 Artist Point (I asked for 7) and 8 Yachtsman (I asked for 8). So all is well. In a side note, I forgot to ask for 3 when I asked for Yachtsman, and she had 7:50 and 8:30. When I went, "Oh, that's for 3," then she had exactly 8:00. Ten minutes is, of course, no big deal, but next time there's an *hour* difference in the time you want and the time you can get, dear DIS'ers, maybe consider asking for a table for 3 instead of 2.

 

[pooksma]

Just checking in to find out how your man is doing.

Funny about that table for 3. Wonder where they'll put us with "tables for 2"?

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Mike's been taking his antibiotics like a good boy, and even though he doesn't get the results of his mono test until today (a week for a simple blood test?!), he's feeling a LOT better, so he thinks it was probably just tonsilitis. Needless to say, we're pretty happy about that!!

I haven't updated all week b/c I had a stomach bug earlier in the week which had me feeling pretty ugggh. I hate stomach flu. But I'm all better now!

I called member services today and put in my requests for SSR - Springs area and a high floor. I also added the DxDDP for the OKW portion of our stay. It was kinda funny, b/c the SSR res is in my name, and the OKW res is in my mom's name, but our first names are both Margaret. The CM was like, "Are there two Margarets??" Yup. There used to be three, but now my grandmother is in heaven attending all the Prada and Hermes sample sales (that's our theory, anyway).

Mike checked out the Coral Reef menu, and as predicted, he's happy because there's a steak. He also said the cod cake looked good, which surprised me a little.

He and I have decided that on the Wednesday before Mom joins us we're going to go to Animal Kingdom for the day. We might not even ride anything. He's been looking at a lot of pics on the POTD thread here, and he's really fascinated by the detailed theming there. His hobby is photography, so he really wants to try to get some good shots of all the interesting sights AK has to offer. I think we'll just wander from place to place, soaking in the atmosphere and snapping pics.

In non-Disney news, we went and voted today for the NC primary since I'm going to be at Disney on actual primary day. Hooray for civic duty! I also got my hair cut. Hooray for grooming! Hey, I gotta look good in my college graduation pics. Also I had ordered stationary so I could write thank-you notes for graduation gifts, and it came today. It's soooo pretty. *sigh* It makes me happy. Mike thinks I'm kinda crazy to get so worked up over paper, but I think that's one thing boys just *don't* understand!

Two weeks from today Mike'll be on his way here! Two weeks from tomorrow I graduate college (finally!). Two weeks from Sunday it's DISNEY DAY!! Hoooorayy!! (is it bad that I might be most excited about that one??)

 

[sunnyday123]

Reading your pre-trip report alleviates my stress, caused by the planning of my trip. ( I have way more time than you do!) Tell us more. How did you a Mike meet???

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Well. It turns out Mike *does* have mono, but the doctor said he's not contagious anymore, so he'll be fine for Disney. That's a relief.

We spent a while yesterday looking over menus after he read Hayley's review of Raglan Road and said, "We're going there, aren't we?!" Of course we are - do I look like an ADR amateur?! Anyway, we decided to mostly concentrate on appetizers and desserts, and to split an entree. The boy's a chocolate fiend, but I *love* bread pudding, so you aren't getting me out of there before I try the bread pudding everyone raves about there. Mike's never had bread pudding, so to him it's like "eh."

He asked me what ride I was going to put him on first, and I told him TGMR. He said, "Is that fast or slow?" I told him, "It's a white knuckle thriller that'll make you pee your pants and wish you'd never left Wales!" I think I scared him. Then I explained what it's really like, but he only marginally relaxed. He really likes to worry.

Today's my sister's birthday, so I have to call her and say many happy returns. I also need to find out what my crazy family is planning for my graduation. I spent a long time today walking around in the shoes I'm planning to wear for graduation so I could get used to them. It's been an exciting day.

Almost Disney time!!

 

[pooksma]

How did you a Mike meet???

Yes I would like to know too!

I will look forward to reading your thoughts on Raglan Rd-we'll be trying it out in Aug. Only 10 days till graduation -lucky ducky! Mine isnt til May 28 and exams for the undergrads only finished yesterday so no marks yet...

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Reading your pre-trip report alleviates my stress, caused by the planning of my trip. ( I have way more time than you do!) Tell us more. How did you a Mike meet???

Oh, somehow I missed your reply. It's kind of a strange story...

Well, we met on the internet (that's not very strange, really), but we were just friends. He was sort of involved with this girl (don't ask me to pick adjectives to describe her, b/c the Dis would bleep them all!), and he would come cry on my shoulder about her (insert bleepable adjectives here). He and his best friend planned a trip to the States, partially to meet her, and one of their stops was NYC. I thought it would be fun if he and I met up in NYC, and in the mean time she (more bleepable adjectives ) stood him up w/o so much as a phone call of apology. He had already (according to him) decided she wasn't worth his time, so I guess it was fate.

Anyway. We met, and he was really cute and sweet, and I guess I'm funny or something, and the rest, as they say, is history. The pic in the first post is from NYC.

Also, I find it really fun to plan Disney trips! There's a little bit of stress, like... ok, what day is EMH at MK so I can avoid going there that day?? Other than that, it's exciting deciding where to eat, where to go, all of it!!

Yes I would like to know too!

I will look forward to reading your thoughts on Raglan Rd-we'll be trying it out in Aug. Only 10 days till graduation -lucky ducky! Mine isnt til May 28 and exams for the undergrads only finished yesterday so no marks yet...

I actually finished back in December, so I've been out of school since then. I go to a pretty small University, though, so they only hold one graduation ceremony a year. I actually have my degree, but I don't get my "piece of paper" until May 3.

My mom was looking at my planning notebook last night, and she said, "Wait, there's only one rest day when I'm there?" I said, "Mom, it's 2 park days, a rest day, 2 park days. What??" She was like, "I'm only there FIVE DAYS?!?!" *sigh* She usually plans, but this time I did *everything*, and I think it's finally catching up to her. "We're going to the MK on a Monday??" "Mom, we're going to see Davy Jones on Tuesday. How do you want me to redo it?" "No, no, I guess that works..."

Mike today looked at some pics from Ghirardelli's from slk537's review in which she said she likes Beaches and Cream better, so now he's insisting on a taste comparison. As if we weren't gonna go to both anyway! I know my guy's an ice cream fiend. Also, after reading Robert P's review of The Fountain at The Dolphin, we've decided we want to go there for a burger. I love a good burger, and in NC you can't get them cooked the way you want them. Hail Florida!!

One week from tomorrow Mike will be here! One week from Saturday I graduate!! One week from Sunday it's DISNEY!!

 

[sunnyday123]

awww....what a cute story!!!

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

One of our goals on every Disney trip is to try a new restaurant. So far this trip I'll be trying Raglan Road and Ghirardelli's (I know, right?! never had Ghirardelli's?!). With mom we'll be trying Coral Reef, Yak & Yeti, and Narcoossee's. We've only been to CA Grill once, and that was a while ago. Anyone else think the light fixtures there look like cockroaches? I gotta remember not to look up...

After this trip I will have stayed at every DVC resort at WDW... at least until the Kidani Village section of AKL and the new CR tower open. Mike will get to see all the deluxes, since we're eating at each of them. I've stayed at all of the deluxes except CR and GF, though that'll probably change once the DVC section opens at CR.

Final topic du jour: touring plans. Mom and I aren't big on touring plans. I like to have in mind what attractions I want to hit at any given park, but other than that... no set plan. I have never, in 15+ trips to the World, arrived at a park before-or-at rope drop. And judging by my mom's reaction when I said something about arriving at the parks a bit early this trip... that's not gonna change! One day I will make a breakfast ADR at CP for way early and get to the MK when hardly anyone's there... but in the meantime, it's 11ish.

Having said all that, I am a firm believer in ADRs. I, for one, don't think it's any fun to wander from restaurant to restaurant looking for a place to eat. I like to eat where I like to eat *when* I like to eat. We don't really like CS, so we consider ADRs a must for any trip. I don't think we've ever made them 180 days out, though.

Well, you know, everybody's style is different.

Oh, ok, I said touring plans were the final topic, but I sorta lied. I have this cat who has decided she's a pirate. Her name is Roxie, but we call her Pookie, and now we call her Pegleg Pookie (b/c she needed a pirate name). Now the problem w/ Pegleg Pookie is that she wants to go to Disney with us, but... well, I explained to her that she *could* go, but she would be forced to stay in the kennel. Ha. You shoulda heard the row that ensued from that!

Pegleg Pookie and her bare belly (b/c she licks all the hair off like the neurotic monkey she is)

 

[CoolDisneyKitten]

Today was Mom's only day off this week (until Friday, which is pretty booked), so we put it to good use. Our first errand du jour? AAA store for Disney tickets!! Woohoo! We got 2 6-day base tickets for Mike and I, and one 4-day base ticket for Mom. Mine has Minnie, Mom's has Mickey, and Mike's has... you guessed it, Goofy!

We also had to take Roxie, the kitty you met in the previous post, to the vet. You might notice in her picture that she has a red spot/sore on her paw. Yeah... she chews on her feet. We don't really know why, but our vet gave her a shot of steroids, and when she goes to board next week the vet'll check her out again. She said it's probably allergies, but at this point antehistamines aren't going to do much good, so if the steroids work, the next step is to figure out what she's allergic to (probably food). If the steroids *don't* work, then it's not allergies and Ceiling Cat only knows what she could have - funky cat foot fungus or something.

We're anxiously awaiting our Dubya money since we basically spent our whole tax return on Disney tickets.

It's supposed to rain on Saturday!! Why is that bad in this drought-ravaged part of the country? Because my graduation is supposed to be outdoors!! If it's inside, I only get 3 tickets, and everyone else has to sit in the lobby and watch it on tv. My grandparents are acting like they don't want to come if it rains, and if they *do* come, they "can't stay long" b/c they don't want to leave their *incredibly* spoiled terrier at home. *sigh* Needless to say I'm disappointed to be out-ranked by a 6lb spoiled dog.

Tonight I do laundry. Tomorrow I pack. Friday I rehearse. Saturday I graduate. Sunday I go to DISNEY!!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

4 days! Jealous much!! Hope you have an amazing time, congrats on your graduation, couldn't think of a better place to spend it... I'm trying to convince mum and dad that I want to spend my 21st in WDW (a few years yet.. yer I'm young!) but I think I may have uni exams then
Your cat is so cute, I love that stare she's giving, it's her 'whatttt?' stare!
Can't wait to read your TR when you get back!

 

[pooksma]

Oh wow I am so jealous

When does Mike arrive? (How many more minutes???? Cause girl I know you have it counted down!)

What are you planning to wear to grad? I am on the lookout for a nice black dress-the shoes are already broken in!