You're Going WHERE? For HOW Long??..PTR w/Pics..Updated 10/24

[Tink_with_Attitude]

Hello fellow DISers! I have been reading these boards for quite some time, but I have seldom posted. In fact, I've only recently registered so I could post. So, I guess I can best be described as a lurker , even though I don't really like that word. I've been impressed with MANY trip reports on here and have been inspired to take a crack at writing one. Seeing as this is my first attempt at writing a TR, please, no pointing and laughing. I apologize in advance if I bore any of you to sleep.


You would think that the statements that make up my title would have come from a family memeber or even possibly a friend.

Nope.

They came from my BOSS! As soon as I decided to plan a Disney vacation and told him teh dates I would be gone, he freaked out, but more about that later. Right now, please allow me to introduce the cast and give you a little bit of background that led up to the planning of this trip.

The Cast:

Me: April, 32 yr old single mom. I work as and office manager/HR manager/bookkeeper for a retailer of collegiate merchandise. I hae always enjoyed Disney movies, but was never really all that interested in going to WDW (I know someone out there just fell off their chair) until a march 2007 business trip to Orlando. That is when the obsession began.

DD: Kricket, 16 years old. This girl is the BEST thing that has ever happened to me. I had her when I was 15 so we kind of grew up together. We are more like sisters than mother and daughter. She loves ALL things Disney.

Here we are in April 2007 on our way to a wedding:

I'm sure you're probably wondering how a business trip could make someone want to go to Disney. You'll just have to wait until my next installment. Thanks for reading!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Hi...I just posted my first pre-trip report also...and I have been reading (or lurking, I agree it sounds like a bad thing!) for a while and have finally gotten up the nerve to chime in and bring my own info to the table!

I'm looking forward to reading on...

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

I have a reader!!

What is the name of your trip report? I'll have to check it out.

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

Let me start this installment with the words.................I've NEVER been on a vacation.




Ever.




In my whole life.



So, when my boss came to me in November of 2006 and asked me if I wanted to attend CAMEX (Campus Market Expo) with him in Orlando, I was beyond excited. It was a working trip, but I didn't care, I was going to Orlando! I knew that we would be spending Sunday and Monday at the show all day, but on Tuesday we would be done by noon. I have some friends that live in Orlando so I emailed them and asked them what was something fun we could do with only a half of a day. They directed me to Downtown Disney. Now I just had to convince my boss that we should go. It didn't take much as he had been to DTD a few years before.

**SIDE NOTE**

Seeing as how I've never been on vacation, I've also never been on an airplane. I was TERRIFIED to fly. Which is why my boss booked the ONLY flight from Lubbock to Orlando that made 3 stops in between. That's right, we took off and landed 4 freaking times on the way to Orlando. FOUR!!! He did the same thing coming home. He thought my terror was hilarious

**********************************************

By the time March rolled around I was so ready to take our trip. We had a fabulous time at CAMEX (the vendors foot the bill for everything and we ended up going to some great clubs and some amazing places to eat) but I was ready for DTD! I had been doing a little research online and found out that there were some awesome shops to explore. Finally, Tuesday afternoon arrived and we were headed to DISNEY! I was getting so excited and when I saw this, I fell in love

I know the picture is a little jacked up, but you get the idea.

Up next..........my first experience with Disney.

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

I'm a little sad that no one is reading my pre-trip report.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Sounds like a great job...where do I sign up?

I changed mine recently to The "Please Keep Your Fingers Crossed For Me" Pre-Trip Report or something to that effect...I cannot remember...I just started too!

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[magicaldisney11]

I'm here and reading (fellow lurker for almost a year before I started my own pre trip and started posting.) Can't wait to hear your first reactions to DTD. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!

 

[Avivasmom]

That is going to be some adventure to get there...you will have a blast..cannot wait to hear about your plans.

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

Sounds like a great job...where do I sign up?

I changed mine recently to The "Please Keep Your Fingers Crossed For Me" Pre-Trip Report or something to that effect...I cannot remember...I just started too!

Looking forward to reading more!

Trust me, during football season, the job SUCKS! We have a game on Saturday and since the kick-off is at 11 am I have to be at the stadium at the butt crack of dawn. All in all though, it is a pretty good place to work. Thanks again for reading.

I'm here and reading (fellow lurker for almost a year before I started my own pre trip and started posting.) Can't wait to hear your first reactions to DTD. I LOVED IT!!!!!!!

YAY! I should be able to get another update done today. I can only post at work because my computer is down at home. Thank goodness the boss is out of town today. Thanks for reading!

That is going to be some adventure to get there...you will have a blast..cannot wait to hear about your plans.

Is that your daughter you are using as an avatar? She is beautiful. I never dreamed planning a Disney vacation could be so time consuming.


Thanks everyone for reading, and I'll get an update done soon.

 

[Avivasmom]

Is that your daughter you are using as an avatar? She is beautiful. I never dreamed planning a Disney vacation could be so time consuming.

That is she...thanks.

Planning is fun...remember that you make plans but do may not always go right...but you are in Disney so who cares...wait till you get there it will all pay off in the long run.

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

That is she...thanks.

Planning is fun...remember that you make plans but do may not always go right...but you are in Disney so who cares...wait till you get there it will all pay off in the long run.

Yeah, I'm an obsessive planner and DD is more of a fly by the seat of her pants kind of girl. I'll get into how we've merged our planning personalities later in the report.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Count me in on this pre trippie, I can't wait to read about your plans.

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

So, we had just passed under the arches, and let me tell you, I had a very strange feeling come over me. I had butterflies the size of cats dancing around in my stomach. Either I was VERY excited or the Mickey D's I had for lunch was giving me gas. I'm going with excited.

After driving around for what seemed like FOREVER, my boss (his name is Alan) finally found us a place to park. The whole time we were walking up I was just in awe. I had never seen anything like it in my entire life! We entered DTD right by Planet Hollywood. I wanted to get pics of everything, but my camera was dying a very slow and noisy death so I was only able to snap a few pictures.

Here is one I got of Jenny............

We started exploring DTD, and being the woman of the group, I had to go in every shop. My boss rolled his eyes at me, but I think he secretly LOVED it. One of my favorite shops was Starabillia. OMG that place is amazing. They have some of the most awesome stuff in there. My dad is a huge NASCAR fan and his favorite driver was Dale Earnhardt. One of these days when I win the lottery, or marry well, I'm going to get him the huge signed print of Dale and his #3 Chevy they have. Anywho, back on track, after we walked around Starabillias, we meandered over to the magic shop. I wasn't too interested in going in here so I made my way to the Candy Cauldron while my boss bought something for his son. I bought two white chocolate dipped pretzel rods and gobbled them up in seconds. Alan was a little bit miffed that I didn't even offer him a taste, but he's the one with the big bucks, he can get his own!

By this time everyone was getting pretty hungry (we had another guy with us that I work with, but I'm not going to mention him much. He's a troll) so we decided to stroll over to the Marketplace and see what our options would be for dinner. We knew we would have at least two more people joining us for dinner and Alan wanted to take them somewhere nice. On the way we passed the Lego shop. I had such a blast building stuff (if you can't tell already, I may be 32, but I'm still a HUGE kid at heart). I love all of the things they had on display, but two of my favorites where the lego village

and the water monster

Alan got tired of me playing around and so while we waited for the rest of our dinner party to arrive we stopped at a little margarita stand to get something cool to drink. Let me tell you, that was one of the BEST strawberry margaritas I've ever had. As we sat gulping, I mean drinking our margaritas we discussed our options for dinner. I wanted Rainforest Cafe. Alan wanted something nicer and since he was paying, this is as close as I ever got the Rainforest

We decided on Portobello Yacht Club for dinner. Alan went over and put our name in for a 7:00 pm return. They told him they may or may not be able to accomodate us at that time (this was before I knew anything about ADR's so I was a bit ticked off ) We were still waiting on the other people in our party to arrive (slowpokes) so we headed over to World of Disney.

HOLY SQUARE FOOTAGE BATMAN! This place was very itimidating, I think I may have even gotten lost once. It is such a beautiful store though. So many great things to browse through. I ended up getting DD a t-shirt and a Tink coin purse. She loved both.

Up next.................Dinner and Dessert!

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

As we left World of Disney I snapped what would turn out to be my last pic of the day. I had been trying to figure out all afternoon why there was a group of kids on the sidewalk outside WOD who spontaneously burst into giggles. I FINALLY figured out it was this guy

Stitch has a water gun and was spraying the kids. Hey, I'm a natural blonde, what can I say?

Anywho, we were still waiting on the other two people who would be joining us for dinner, so we headed over to Portobello and waited in the bar. After a few drinks, I mean minutes , the rest of our party arrived and we were able to be seated. Seeing as I've never been anywhere............


Ever.


In my whole life.


my experience with Italian food has been limited to Olive Garden and Fazoli's. The chef at Portabello's was from Tuscany. I was very excited to eat here. We started off with bread and roasted garlic spread. I was expecting a butter type spread. Nope. They bring WHOLE ROASTED heads of garlic. The garlic itself is so soft it spreads on your bread like butter. It was divine. I even got the recipe and brought it home. Next we got our appetizers. Alan is a big eater so he ordered 3 of the Shrimp Oreganata. OMG. My mouth is watering just thinking about his appetizer. From the Portobello menu:

SHRIMP OREGANATA
Oven roasted Gulf shrimp with seasoned bread crumbs in a white wine sauce and wilted tomatoes

It was melt in your mouth delicious. I could have made a meal on this and the bread alone. I ended up getting the Shrimp Scampi.............very good. Couldn't hold a candle to the appetizer, but still very tasty. I don't really remember what everyone else had. We all enjoyed our meal though. We had been debating about whether to eat dessert here or walk off some of the dinner with a stroll to Ghirardelli. Alan's love of chocolate made the decision for us. He paid the bill and we were on the way to the best ice cream sundae I've EVER eaten. I had:

Warm Caramel Sundae - Two scoops of premium vanilla ice cream layered with warm Ghirardelli creamy caramel and topped with whipped cream, chopped almonds, a cherry and our famous chocolate with caramel square

SO FREAKING GOOD!

By the time we ate our ice cream and talked a bit it was time to go. We had a OMG:30 flight back to reality the next morning so we headed back to the hotel.

And that friends is how I came to be obsessed with Disney. We were only there for about 7 hours but that was all it took to get me hooked!

Up next................Let the Planning Begin!

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

Count me in on this pre trippie, I can't wait to read about your plans.

Welcome to the insanity! Thanks for reading.

 

[disneyaddicted]

I love DTD I can see how that would get you hooked. Candy Cauldron was one of my favorite places, I got the best candy apple of my life there. We stayed at Pop Century on our last trip, I really enjoyed it, I am a big fan of bright gawdy colors and Pop offers that. I am anxiously awaiting more of this pre trippie. LET ER RIP!!!!

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

I will try to get the first couple of installments of the planning phase up today. Computer is still down at home and I'm going to be out of the office most of the day.

Thanks again for reading everyone!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Just letting you know I am still here...

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

Just letting you know I am still here...

Thanks for being patient with me and hanging in. I've been swamped at work and at home. I finally got my home computer back up though, so I should be able to post more updates. I'm going to get one up today during lunch. Again, thanks for reading.

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

During the entire flight back to Lubbock I was thinking about how I was going to be able to pull off a WDW vacation for my DD and I. I knew I would have the vacation time.......5 days, so time wasn't a problem. Money was the problem. Being a single mom money is very tight. But, I knew I would have a decent tax refund coming and if I could save some between now and then it should be ok.

As soon as we landed in Lubbock I knew we were back to reality. Mother nature greeted us with one hell of a sandstorm. When I got back to the office I logged onto the WDW website and started browsing. Being as hot natured as I am, and being in the business I'm in, I knew that going on a trip anytime between July-December was out. I didn't want to go in April or May either because of the crowds and heat. I decided on late January or early February. Knowing that I would have to use my tax refund to make any of this possible, I decided that the first full week of February would be the best time to go. As it turns out, it will be value season too which is great! So............we have DATES!

February 3-9!!! WOO HOO!!!

Next, I was on to picking a resort. While browsing online I fell in LOVE with the Animal Kingdom Lodge. And then I saw the rate. YIKES! Even going during value season there was no way I could afford 6 nights at a Deluxe. *sigh* Maybe someday. Then I started browsing Moderates and I really loved the look of the Coronado Springs Resort. I knew that there would be an increase in price between 2007 rates and 2008 rates, but I was pretty sure I could pull off 6 nights at a moderate. So...............we have a RESORT!

Coronado Springs water view room!

Next up was tickets. How many days would we need in the parks? After briefly browsing the WDW website and getting a limited idea of what the parks were all about I decided on 1 day per park. That would leave us with 2 days for DTD and my favorite activity..............SHOPPING! I also wanted to make sure we could park hop. So..................we have TICKETS!

5 day MYW tickets with park hopper option!

At this point I wasn't going to have to worry about flights because my boss had graciously donated two Southwest Rapid Rewards tickets for our use. I just love my boss.

Next up................Where to EAT! (Another of my favorite activities. )