Accord99cutie's pre-trip report!! a Sept/Oct 2011 adventure in the making!

Welcome to my pre-trip report! My name is Sarah, I am a mom to two amazing children, DD-Lexi, 5 yrs old, and DS-Dylan, 6 months. I am with their father, I refer to him as DH just because we've been together for almost 8 yrs, been engaged, almost married, then just BF/GF and not engaged .... :( it's a relatively long story, but all that realy matters here is that he is my number one, and we have 2 awesome kiddos together, and since we are truely a family, he is, in my eyes, my DH minus the expensive papers!! :D)
Pic of me and DD last trip:
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Pic of DH and DD last trip:
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And here is the new one!!! My DS:
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This trip all came about back in September, right after I had our son. I just had the itch. It had been 6 months since our last trip (I was 3 months prego at the time) and I wanted to be in the planning stages ASAP!! I was out of work on maternity leave, and really, aside from enjoying this amazing new child of mine, truthfully, the only other thing I thought about was Disney!! haha! (that constitutes an adict, right???) On a whim in early October, I booked an 11 night trip starting with the last day that free dining was offered for in Sept 2011 which guarenteed us free dining for the length of the trip. I told DH two nights after I booked it, I was just sooo excited! I knew he would be upset that I did it without consulting him first, but truth is, if I had consulted him, he woudl have said "are you crazy? We just had a new baby! NO!"... SO I went with plan B, tell him after I booked it, and let him know all would be well, and he would get over it! Then atleast I didnt go against his word... right??? Well turns out, he was pretty excited that I had booked it. The thought of free dining was great to him, he would be able to try all of the weird, odd, unique things he has always wanted to, that I have always talked him out of so we could save a few bucks. After I originally booked it, I was so excited, that I decided to add another night on to the beginning of our trip, thus making our official dates Sept 28th- October 10th. The 10th is Columbus day so both DH and DD have it off from work, so in total they will both be missing 8 days, for a 13 day trip, not too shabby!!! DD will have just started 1st grade and I was a little worried about taking her out so soon, but I figure, better I take her out early in the year when she has plenty of time to catch up, than to take her out near the end of the year after they have got in the groove so to speak. So there you have it, how this trip came to be!!! I will add that we be staying at Coronado Springs, our favorite resort thus far (we did not care for Riverside on our last trip) and we figured lets stick with what we know we love! Our son will be just over 1 onb the trip, and DD will be a few months over 6. We will be bringing a stroller with us for the first tiem ever, normally we just rented one at the parks, but DD was 3 1/2 on her first trip adn coudl walk most of the time. We will also be doing the DDP for the first time, so I have been scouring menus, and making our day by day itinerary for a few weeks to be prepared for making our ADR's this coming Friday, April 1st!!! We do have the park hopper so it will make being able to do all the dining we want a little easier. I am aiming to do mostly kid friendly Character dining experiences, but will also throw just a few non-character meals in. I pretty much have our entire itinerary set, and want to share it with you all to hear what you think! But first up... Our dining plans! Let me know if you have any suggestions before I make the ressies Friday!!!
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
Tomorrow morning I get to make my ADR's!!! I have moved everything around for the millionth time and now I think I have figured out my best plan of action! :lol: Here are my new tentative plans for dining and the order I will be making them to hopefully get the times I want on the days I want:


Chef Mickey's dinner 6pm 10/3 (or later)
Crystal palace breakfast 8am 10/1 (or 10/4 if no early ones)
Tusker house breakfast 8am 10/06
Ohana breakfast 9:30am 10/07 (or later)
Whispering Canyon Lunch 2:30pm 10/02
50's prime time dinner 6:30pm 9/30 (latest possible)
Teppan Edo 5pm 10/04 (or 10/1 depending on C.P.)
Garden Grill dinner 5pm 9/29
Boma dinner 5:30pm 10/07
1900 park fare dinner 4:30pm 10/05
Maya Grill dinner 6pm 9/28

Akershus dinner 6pm 10/08 (this will be made Sat AM)


So there you have it! I can't guarentee that I wont change them yet again before morning, or between now and Sept, but I have spent so many nights studying menus, trying to figure out which park we will want to be at which days, deciding whether it's more important to hit a park with a low crowd estimate, or just hit the park with the earliest or latest hours etc. Hopefully it will all be worth it! (it is all a part of the fun anyway!!) I now just have to hope that my 6 month old sleeps in a bit so I have time to make the ressies before he gets up!!
 

switts

Member
sounds like a good time. the only thing is i would have tried to fly out of manchester not logan...i myself dread logan
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
sounds like a good time. the only thing is i would have tried to fly out of manchester not logan...i myself dread logan
Flights out of manchester were almost double, plus the cost of leaving our vehicle there was more than the bus tickets to logan... it would have been about 700 more to fly outta Manchester :( It's a shame too because the airport is only a 30ish minute drive from our house, and we will have to drive 30 minutes to the bus station and then a 2 hour ride to Boston... But the money we save just means more to play with while we are there!!
 

switts

Member
Flights out of manchester were almost double, plus the cost of leaving our vehicle there was more than the bus tickets to logan... it would have been about 700 more to fly outta Manchester :( It's a shame too because the airport is only a 30ish minute drive from our house, and we will have to drive 30 minutes to the bus station and then a 2 hour ride to Boston... But the money we save just means more to play with while we are there!!



I know the feeling from my house its roughly 30 minutes to either airport...the pleasure of living on the border of ma/nh. Every time im pricing out flights always seems to manchester is a little cheaper than logan. Who knows what it will look come late summer when I begin to book for december.
 

mickeysshoes

Well-Known Member
Flights out of manchester were almost double, plus the cost of leaving our vehicle there was more than the bus tickets to logan... it would have been about 700 more to fly outta Manchester :( It's a shame too because the airport is only a 30ish minute drive from our house, and we will have to drive 30 minutes to the bus station and then a 2 hour ride to Boston... But the money we save just means more to play with while we are there!!

Could you drive to Boston and stay one night in a hotel by the airport...I would think that would be cheaper and better than the bus. Most hotel at the airports will allow you park your car for FREE for up to 2 weeks and then use their shuttle to the airprot. Jsut an idea incase you did not think if it.
 

switts

Member
I know there is logan express which seems to work pretty well and i know they have on site parking...just not sure what they charge per day
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
Bus round trip with free parking at the bus station is only $86 for us, $43 round trip per adult and kids ride free. The hotels were more than that for a nights stay. So it really isn't too bad. We take the C&J bus from Portsmouth (or Dover) and it leaves once an hour so even our trip home we wont have to wait long for the bus after we land!
 

LisaG23

New Member
OMG..i cant get over how much alike our lives are......i too have done the engaged to almost married, then BF/GF again (while not engaged).....it truly is a long story for me as well...we have a daughter too and shortly after her did get married (of course by this point we had already been together 11 years!) We are approaching our 4th wedding anniversary this month..YAY!!! we are going to be back at WDW Oct 8th-16th so our trips will overlap just a bit.....AND we are keeping it a secret from our DD who is 4yrs old! Our lives just keep mirroring each other......lol! We already booked it but told her she has to "earn" good behavior stickers if she wanted to go back "one day" we arranged for her to have to earn 200 stickers to get to go since we started ot at the 200 days out mark....she will earn the last sticker the night before we leave...heehee. She too cries a bit when we tell her it may be a while, but i cant wait for the reaction when she is told, "let go to disney NOW!":sohappy:
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
OMG..i cant get over how much alike our lives are......i too have done the engaged to almost married, then BF/GF again (while not engaged).....it truly is a long story for me as well...we have a daughter too and shortly after her did get married (of course by this point we had already been together 11 years!) We are approaching our 4th wedding anniversary this month..YAY!!! we are going to be back at WDW Oct 8th-16th so our trips will overlap just a bit.....AND we are keeping it a secret from our DD who is 4yrs old! Our lives just keep mirroring each other......lol! We already booked it but told her she has to "earn" good behavior stickers if she wanted to go back "one day" we arranged for her to have to earn 200 stickers to get to go since we started ot at the 200 days out mark....she will earn the last sticker the night before we leave...heehee. She too cries a bit when we tell her it may be a while, but i cant wait for the reaction when she is told, "let go to disney NOW!":sohappy:
That is pretty cool! Glad to hear I'm not alone on the confusing relationship story! :lol:
The idea with the stickers is great, I could never do it though because I'm pretty sure my daughter would not earn one everyday :lookaroun. Where will you guys be staying?
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
Well....Did you get all your ADR's???????? I hope so!
Only 19 more days until I can make ours!
I did get them!!! We had that snow storm coming through while I was trying to make them and had our power go out about 10 times for a few seconds each time during the 45 minutes it took for me to make them! I was a little worried but all went well considering!! We just arrived back home after visiting at my mothers for the weekend. I am thrwing in some laundry, unpacking, and then I will be posting the newly booked ressies along with the slightly altered itinerary!
 

foreverbelle

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you have a great surprise for the kids, and you have a lot of things planned which is wonderful. I know what you mean. When I was on maternity leave I was doing the same thing! Glad to hear the DH went along with it and is excited.

I love the ADR's you guys have. We always have our favorites but try to do at least one new one with each trip, I think you kids are going to enjoy the places just as much as you adults will....can't wait to read all about it. It will be here before you know it.
 

LisaG23

New Member
That is pretty cool! Glad to hear I'm not alone on the confusing relationship story! :lol:
The idea with the stickers is great, I could never do it though because I'm pretty sure my daughter would not earn one everyday :lookaroun. Where will you guys be staying?

Definately not alone on the confusing relationship.......as for the stickers she doesnt get one everyday either, but she can earn more than one in a day if she does super good otherwise she would never make it either...LOL we try to make it easy for her so will reach her "goal" if she knew it didnt matter (bc we are going anyway) she would NEVER behave! We will be staying at Shades Of Green ( my brother in law is active duty army) i cant wait to get there! we will be in MK on sunday the 9th...maybe we will see you there!!!
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
So update on my dining reservations!!! I was up at 5:50 Friday morning, logged on to the Disneyworld.com site and then just waited for 6 to hit when it acctepted my dates, and I started making my ADR's. I had a few minor hiccups when thanks to the snow storm that was moving through our power went out a few times while I was trying to make them. Each time I lost internet and it took a few minutes to get it back. It ended up taking me 45 minutes to make all the ADR's but I got everything I wanted (only exception was there was nothing earlier than 6:30 for Garden Grill the entire 12 days. I checked every date after the first two nights I wanted gave me only 6:30 or 7:05 for available times) I ended up changing a few things from what I had originally planned. Here is what I have ended up with for now!

9/28 (arrival night) Maya Grill 6pm

9/29 Tony's 5pm (this was a last minute decision)

9/30 50's Prime Time 6:35pm The park closes at 7 this night so we will eat
while the crowds clear out.

10/1 Crystal Palace 8:10am I just had to hit the MK for a few hours for the 40th anniversary!

10/2 Whispering Canyon 2:20 (this is our MNSSHP night, I may change this to a breakfast ressie and leave time for a longer afternoon nap at the resort)

10/3 Chef Mickey's 6:15pm I have to decide between this or the breakfast ADR for our last full day. We have not done breakfast before and I think I want to try it.

10/4 Garden Grill 6:45 Epcot has EMH this night so we will try to take a later nap this day so we can take advantage of them.

10/5 1900 Park Fare 4:30pm

10/6 Tusker House 8:00am

10/7 'Ohana 9:30am & Boma 5:40pm (our no park day)

10/8 Akershus 6:25pm

10/9 Chef Mickey's 8:05 (if we don't do dinner earlier in the week)

So there you have it!! Atleast for now!! :lol:
I can't believe we are about half way there from when I booked it!! Only 176 days to go!!!!
 

accord99cutie

Premium Member
Original Poster
168 days to go and still have my daughter convinced she has years to go until we get to visit WDW again!!! I just gotta keep up with the "I know hunny, I wanna go back too, maybe in another year or two..." act!!! Dining had changed a few times, but I am very happy with what we have so far! I also have to add in my DH's fishing excursion morning, and then get our MNSSHP tickets once they are announced!!! I am sooo darn excited and it seems like forever away!!!
 

PartOfYourWorld

Well-Known Member
168 days to go and still have my daughter convinced she has years to go until we get to visit WDW again!!! I just gotta keep up with the "I know hunny, I wanna go back too, maybe in another year or two..." act!!! Dining had changed a few times, but I am very happy with what we have so far! I also have to add in my DH's fishing excursion morning, and then get our MNSSHP tickets once they are announced!!! I am sooo darn excited and it seems like forever away!!!

I agree! September needs to come faster!..even thought I don't want to wish the summer away...but its WDW :)
 

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