Hello all fellow Disney freaks and lovers! :wave:
This is my first pre-trip report so bear with me.....
The players are myself, female, 37 and the trip planner and Disney obsessive. My DH, who does love Disney but mainly goes to make me happy (ahhhh.....).
So the planning for this trip began in January when I saw a "what will you celebrate" commercial. I looked at DH and said, "hey, we celebrate stuff, right? Why not Disney - pick something to celebrate". So, we are going for our anniversary. We decided on 09/25 through 09/30. We arrive at 9:50 am on the 25th.
Initially we were planning on staying at the Dolphin due to a really great deal they were running. We have stayed at the Swan before and loved it, so thought, "hey, the Dolphin will be fun". But then Disney released the free dining dates and we suddenly found ourselves thinking much bigger. DH has always wanted to stay at the Contemporary. Contemporary you say, well count me in buddy. It took me all of 15 minutes to get on line and book the whole package. Once everything was locked down, I started planning in earnest. First piece of business was to pick up my typical Disney books.
Then, I ran out an bought a membership to this website. I was a long time lurker and decided I wanted, no needed, to bond with other Disney lovers.
I had over three months to wait before I could make my ADRs. It........ was......torture. Finally, June 27th rolled around and I could make my ADRs. Now, I wasn't sure exactly what time I could start making my dining reservations. Some people said 3:00 am EST (midnight on the west coast), others said 5:00 AM EST and so on. So..... I literally stayed up all night long trying to get into the on line dining reservation system. 3:00 am, nothing. 4:00 am, nothing. 5:00 am, still nothing. FINALLY at 6:00 am I got on and made all my reservations:
09/25 - 6:50 pm at Le Cellier (more on that one.....later)
09/26 - 2:30 pm at Le Chef's De France
09/27 - 4:30 pm at Sci-Fi (DH's only must do)
09/28 - 8:35 am for breakfast at Boma and 4:15 pm at Yak and Yeti
09/29 - 9:30 am for breakfast at Kona Cafe (hello Tonga Toast) and 4:30 pm at Crystal Palace
I was thrilled (and exhausted). We got everything we wanted. We then ordered tickets for MNSSHP for 09/29.
So, now we were back to waiting for the trip to actually get here. Now, this is when things went off the rails for us. About the first of August we started needing a "Disney bump" to help us get through the waiting period. One night, we start looking at pins on Ebay. Big, huge mistake. We have never collected pins before, but after about 3 bids we were hooked. Below is a picture of my messenger bag and just some of the pins I have purchased over the past 30 days and a picture of DH's messenger bag with his pins (in case it isn't obvious, DH is a huge Jack Skellington fan)
So, with our 401K now tied up in our Disney pin collection (just kidding) we had to reign ourselves in and get back to the business of waiting. When all of the sudden my mailman made me a very happy person. Hello ME tags and Disney travel pack!!!
So, last Friday, DH and I built a fire outside in our patio fireplace and were sitting, dreaming about our upcoming trip when he throws the following monkey wrench at me: "you know what, I am really excited about? MNSSHP. I am just afraid we won't have time to do and see everything. Wouldn't it be fun if we could go twice"? What? Are ya freakin' kidding me? This trip is planned, booked, scheduled and finalized within an inch of it's little baby life. And besides, the only other night on our trip that MNSSHP is running is the day we arrive, 09/25 and we have those ultra exclusive, very hard to come by Le Cellier reservations on that night. After much discussion, cut to me on the phone booking a SECOND MNSSHP for our trip and then giving up my (sniff, sniff) Le Cellier reservations.
As DH said, it's just food. We will enjoy Cosmic Ray's just as much that night. (all those Le Cellier fanatics please direct your complaints at my DH):ROFLOL:
So, there you have it. We are now ready to roll and couldn't be more excited. Sorry for the long pre-trip report. Lord help us all when I get home and do my post trip report.
Thanks for reading. Pixie dust and Disney magic for all.
This is my first pre-trip report so bear with me.....
The players are myself, female, 37 and the trip planner and Disney obsessive. My DH, who does love Disney but mainly goes to make me happy (ahhhh.....).
So the planning for this trip began in January when I saw a "what will you celebrate" commercial. I looked at DH and said, "hey, we celebrate stuff, right? Why not Disney - pick something to celebrate". So, we are going for our anniversary. We decided on 09/25 through 09/30. We arrive at 9:50 am on the 25th.
Initially we were planning on staying at the Dolphin due to a really great deal they were running. We have stayed at the Swan before and loved it, so thought, "hey, the Dolphin will be fun". But then Disney released the free dining dates and we suddenly found ourselves thinking much bigger. DH has always wanted to stay at the Contemporary. Contemporary you say, well count me in buddy. It took me all of 15 minutes to get on line and book the whole package. Once everything was locked down, I started planning in earnest. First piece of business was to pick up my typical Disney books.
Then, I ran out an bought a membership to this website. I was a long time lurker and decided I wanted, no needed, to bond with other Disney lovers.
I had over three months to wait before I could make my ADRs. It........ was......torture. Finally, June 27th rolled around and I could make my ADRs. Now, I wasn't sure exactly what time I could start making my dining reservations. Some people said 3:00 am EST (midnight on the west coast), others said 5:00 AM EST and so on. So..... I literally stayed up all night long trying to get into the on line dining reservation system. 3:00 am, nothing. 4:00 am, nothing. 5:00 am, still nothing. FINALLY at 6:00 am I got on and made all my reservations:
09/25 - 6:50 pm at Le Cellier (more on that one.....later)
09/26 - 2:30 pm at Le Chef's De France
09/27 - 4:30 pm at Sci-Fi (DH's only must do)
09/28 - 8:35 am for breakfast at Boma and 4:15 pm at Yak and Yeti
09/29 - 9:30 am for breakfast at Kona Cafe (hello Tonga Toast) and 4:30 pm at Crystal Palace
I was thrilled (and exhausted). We got everything we wanted. We then ordered tickets for MNSSHP for 09/29.
So, now we were back to waiting for the trip to actually get here. Now, this is when things went off the rails for us. About the first of August we started needing a "Disney bump" to help us get through the waiting period. One night, we start looking at pins on Ebay. Big, huge mistake. We have never collected pins before, but after about 3 bids we were hooked. Below is a picture of my messenger bag and just some of the pins I have purchased over the past 30 days and a picture of DH's messenger bag with his pins (in case it isn't obvious, DH is a huge Jack Skellington fan)
So, with our 401K now tied up in our Disney pin collection (just kidding) we had to reign ourselves in and get back to the business of waiting. When all of the sudden my mailman made me a very happy person. Hello ME tags and Disney travel pack!!!
So, last Friday, DH and I built a fire outside in our patio fireplace and were sitting, dreaming about our upcoming trip when he throws the following monkey wrench at me: "you know what, I am really excited about? MNSSHP. I am just afraid we won't have time to do and see everything. Wouldn't it be fun if we could go twice"? What? Are ya freakin' kidding me? This trip is planned, booked, scheduled and finalized within an inch of it's little baby life. And besides, the only other night on our trip that MNSSHP is running is the day we arrive, 09/25 and we have those ultra exclusive, very hard to come by Le Cellier reservations on that night. After much discussion, cut to me on the phone booking a SECOND MNSSHP for our trip and then giving up my (sniff, sniff) Le Cellier reservations.
As DH said, it's just food. We will enjoy Cosmic Ray's just as much that night. (all those Le Cellier fanatics please direct your complaints at my DH):ROFLOL:
So, there you have it. We are now ready to roll and couldn't be more excited. Sorry for the long pre-trip report. Lord help us all when I get home and do my post trip report.
Thanks for reading. Pixie dust and Disney magic for all.
I have to be honest with you, we have spent a lot of time discussing whether or not we are actually going to trade our pins. Now, if a 6 year old asks me to trade, there is no way I could possibly say no, but for the most part, I am already too attached to these silly little things. :ROFLOL:
