Trip Report A Whole Hand Old, Almost the Big 60, & an I don't care what we do but Biergarten PTR

So as many of you know, we are officially 70 days to arriving in WDW! Woo Hoo! This will be our 3rd trip as a married couple, second with our daughter, first for the grandparents with our daughter, and their upteenth trip (actually I think it is somewhere around 6 or 7. Here we are on our last trip which was our daughter's first trip
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And here are my faboulous parents, aka Grammy and Papa

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My Mom and Dad are headed down via airplane on September 11th, 2013. They will be staying at the Contemporary main building for the entire length of their trip. They are extraordinarily lucky and get to stay 8 days. We will be arriving in Florida sometime on the 14th and will check in to the Contemporary (if I have anything to say about it) as early as possible on the 15th and head straight to Animal Kingdom. We plan on doing the usual suspects at AK. Start with the safari, wonder around a bit and hopefully eat at Flame Tree for lunch, ride EE for the first time for me. My mom and Cadence, my DD, will sit this one out for sure as my Dad may as he has some health issues to contend with. Festival of the Lion King and the Nemo shows and whatever else we can fit in before heading back to the Contemporary to unpack and freshen up for the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Cruise! Woo Hoo! So excited about this one.
 
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Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Finished with church, breakfast and a little Targeting so now I can get back to my PTR... Forgot to mention that we too will be staying at the Contemporary, but have chosen to stay in a deluxe garden wing room. Putting in my request for a water view, ground floor close to the beach room this week. Probably will not get it, but worth a shot. I think there are only two of those type rooms and one is near the beach and one isn't, so the odds are against it.

Monday September 16th, 2013- My daughter will be five! Lord, help me. The thought of it brings me to tears. As she puts it, she will be a whole hand old! She is so funny. She believes she will now be grown and will be able to do almost everything she hasn't been able to do because she is five years old. We are starting off the birthday celebration with breakfast with the princesses at Akershus. So excited to try this and really hope the princess interaction is better than at CRT. It isn't bad there, but it had declined some from our first trip in 2007. I just hope the place won't be as busy and therefore they will have more time to spend with each child. My daughter plans on wearing a princess dress (she has all of them but Tiana's), but has not decided which. She has eluded that she is going to bring them all and decide who she decides to wear that morning. Her Daddy will see to it that she brings one. After all, we only have a 4 door sedan and with Grammy and Papa going we know we will have a ton of stuff to bring home. They did after all buy her a hard suitcase and fill it with stuffed animals and dresses and tshirts and other souvenirs on their last trip in the fall of 2012. So we know we have to pack light.

From Akershus, we will head to MK. Hoping to get in line for Storytime with Belle first. My daughter is a ham to say the least. She performs where ever she goes and always tries to make people laugh so this a must do for us. Then on to Little Mermaid and the Ariel meet and greet. Really hoping that the Princess Fairytale Hall is open, but am not counting on it. Will make life easier. We will head to BOG and get in line for lunch. Hoping the wait has been what I have been reading of late, only 30 minutes or so. Then we will probably head over to Pete's Silly Sideshow for some fun in the water area and then head over to Tomorrowland and try Laugh Floor (a first) and Buzz and the speedway. Imagine we will be pooped and will probably try to head to the hotel or crash and watch the parade. Hopefully after some rest we can head back out and hit up POTC, Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise and Liberty Boat. Want to try to meet Merida and Tiana here since there isn't any other places to meet them.
 
TheMouseFan

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Have a great trip!! We were celebrating my son's 5th birthday when we went in December, and the characters (Mickey, Donald, etc) had a good time with him trying to count to 5 since they only have 4 fingers on each hand! It made for some good interactions! Can't wait to read your TR when you get back!
 
Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
TheMouseFan said:
Have a great trip!! We were celebrating my son's 5th birthday when we went in December, and the characters (Mickey, Donald, etc) had a good time with him trying to count to 5 since they only have 4 fingers on each hand! It made for some good interactions! Can't wait to read your TR when you get back!
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I will have to remember that! Try to get them to count with her! :)
 
Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

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Original Poster
Tuesday September 17th, 2013- My husband's birthday celebration (his actual birthday is 2 days after we leave). His only request was that we eat at Biergarten. He is a little disappointed because his older brother and family were supposed to come and they had to back out. He had never been on a vacation with his brother so he had gotten his hopes way up and was truly excited. Feel bad for him, but am at the same time glad it will be only us because he would have done everything to make sure they had a good time including ignoring us. So, he is kind of just putting up with my excitement. And using it for a good laugh at times.

This day will be spent at Epcot! We love Epcot. EMH hours are that day so we will be there at rope drop and enjoy TT and Soarin and everything else we can before heading to WS at 11. Then it will be browsing, eating, visiting with princesses and more eating. Reservation at noon at Le Chefs to meet Remy. Reservation at 6 for Biergarten. I will probably eat light here and get me an order of nachos and a margarita to enjoy Illuminations. :) Still not sure if I am going to have anything like a cake or surprise for my hubby. Really wish I could surprise him with his brother. :(
 
Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

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Original Poster
September 18th, 2013- My parents last full day at the parks. :( We will spend our day at HS. My parents are not big fans of this park. Doesn't always bode well, but we will try to make it a super fun day! We missed out on the Beauty and the Beast Live show last time so we are praying we can go to that first. Then we will try to hit some rides maybe for my hubby and I and talk the grandparents into doing them. I think that we will try to do ToT, RnR, and Star Tours. I definitely want to take my parents to the Toy Story meet and greet. My Mom loves Woody and I know it will be magical for her. And my DD will love it as she did the last time. We want to try and meet Sofia the First since she will now be doing meet and greets. I haven't done a lot in the park so will try to do all we can. Imagine we will head out about mid afternoon and head to the hotel for some pool time before our dining reservations at Raglan Road. Really excited about this as my DD has become obsessed with dance and has never seen Irish Step Dancers. She will be in awe and my Mom and I love this type of stuff so should be a lot of fun with good food and music. Get a little shopping done at Downtown Disney and then head back to the hotel for my parents to get ready to leave the next morning. We will also have to pack up and get the car loaded for departure but not before a full day at the parks!
 
Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

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Original Poster
I forgot that we will have breakfast at Chef Mickey's on our HS day! Get good and full before heading to that park and then snack around a bit there (cupcakes and carrot cake cookie here I come!).

Thursday September 19th, 2013- Our last day. :( Always makes me sad. We will start the morning with telling my Mom and Dad goodbye before they head out to the airport. Hope that we can then go head to the Poly to try some tonga toast. Want to check out this place. :) Then head to MK to finish up our vacay with the most magical of parks. We may wind up visiting some of the others as well to mark some things of our must dos list. Not sure what time my husband plans to head out but I have made it clear that I would like to get a full park day out of this day. If we don't plan on doing so we might as well cancel that ticket and just head to Downtown and the outlets before leaving Orlando. I am hoping this will sway him. We can leave the park around evening and head home. It is about a 10 hour drive for us so if we stop a couple of hours into it for the night we can make it to pick up the animals at the vet before they close on Friday.
 
Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

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Original Poster
So that is the basic outline of our plans. Now to the fun stuff. The extras. :)

Trying to think of what to do for my Mom and Dad-they are both turning 59 this year and I would like to do something for them both. My Mom is celebrating on her actual birthday, the 12th, at CRT and trying to do the Wishes Dessert Party. She doesn't want our time there to be about her, but I still think it should be somewhat about them too. They both (my husband and mom) have to share their birthdays with my DD because they are so close. It should be mostly about my DD because she is young and birthdays are more exciting, but they should still be special at 38 and 59!

As many of you know I have put together a special gift bag through a great personal shopper for my DD birthday present. It includes a beautiful porcelain princess carousel box, a Sofia the First Singing Doll, and a really cool Autograph book that we will probably use more as her personal photo album of her meet & greets. I still am deciding on whether to do a cake through Chef Brian at the Contemporary and have it delivered in our room or on the beach of the Contemporary, or on a cake that I have contrived using a specialty cake from Publix and an edible cake image. I am big on making my DD's cakes for her birthday and it kills me not to do something special for it. My husband, mom and dad all think a cupcake on the day of her birthday is enough, but I just see her being disappointed.

Below is the cake I want to use from Publix, just as a one or two tier, say the top two tiers.
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Then it will have the following edible cake image on top:
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This cake will probably cost around $60-70. I can have it delivered using my personal shopper for a fee so that will add to the cost a bit. Her favorite princess is Mulan so this would work well.

My cake idea for her from Chef Brian at the Contemporary was for a one tier cake with "portraits" of several of her favorite princesses all the way around the side of the cake. The cake would have been quilted with jewels at the quilting points. I couldn't decide what I wanted on top, wish that I could get a "portrait" of her on the top as if she was now one of the princesses. But it would probably be in the $150-$180 price range for this cake and I just can't justify it. As much as I would love to do it.

We were going to have her do Bippity Boppity Boutique but canceled because the schedule just wasn't conducive and she isn't real big on having her hair messed with and doesn't like make up or her nails done so it just didn't make sense to do it. :( I would if I could.

I am working on a quilt for her and part of the quilt is that it is an autograph quilt. The quilt will be the traditional mickey colors of red, black, white and yellow. Squares will have Mickey heads that we are taking with us to have all of her favorites autograph this trip. Found a great fabric pen that is silver and will look awesome with the colors and is shimmery and pretty so it suits her perfectly. My inspiration for this quilt is this:

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I am also making us all tshirts with mickey heads and our names (i.e. "Grammy", "Papa", "Daddy", "Momma", and "Cadence") all of which will be different colors because no one could agree on colors. :) I would like to buy some super cute outfits off of etsy, but since we only get to go to Disney every few years, just can't justify it because she isn't likely to wear it more than once or twice when we get home before outgrowing.

Not really sure what I can do to make it anymore special. Really hoping it is a fantastic trip (why wouldn't it be, it is after all WDW!).
 
HouCuseChickie

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Yeah- with our change in flight schedule and lodging as well as timing for you guys hitting the road, it's not looking too good for meeting up on the 19th. :( I still keep looking for another SWA fare sale b/c there are 2 (more expensive) flights that would get us in much earlier. Ya never know, but I'm not feeling optimistic.

LOVE that autograph book you're getting! Quilt is very pretty too. And you know I'll probably be one of the biggest cheerleaders for a cake. :D Cupcakes are a sweet gesture, but cake is special. I hear ya on all the cute etsy outfits...super cute, but just can't justify it. All in all- sounds like a super special trip with lots of birthday fun :)
 
Jessica Meier

Jessica Meier

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I know. :( I so wish we could meet up but think it probably won't happen. We will see how early we wind up leaving too. My husband and I are both taking that Friday off and with a whole weekend to get rested up to head back to work, I don't see him necessarily wanting to rush home. Last time we were so exahausted we left at like noon though.
 
HouCuseChickie

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Jessica Meier said:
I know. :( I so wish we could meet up but think it probably won't happen. We will see how early we wind up leaving too. My husband and I are both taking that Friday off and with a whole weekend to get rested up to head back to work, I don't see him necessarily wanting to rush home. Last time we were so exahausted we left at like noon though.
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The reality- even if we were staying at the Contemporary and on the earlier flight...it still looks like the timing would still be a bit off. I only have one experience with DME, but it took close to 1.5 hrs from landing before we were at our resort. Assuming our flights are on time (fingers crossed!) - and factoring the time with this prev. experience - I see us getting to AKL around 4:30p. At least your DH probably won't want to rush home. :)
 

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