Pre-Trip The 5 Years is a Really Long Time Pre-trip Report!

Wow, first and foremost, I want to say that when we left Walt Disney World on November 15th 2009 that I had no idea that I would not be able to make it back for almost 5 years. We went every year and even twice a year for awhile. I always cry when we leave because of the fun that we had and because I don't take for granted how lucky we have been to be able to go and spend as many days as we have been able to at "Our Happy Place" I didn't post or visit for a long, long time. It broke my heart too much. But it is a new day and we are almost Back!!! 35 days to go!

The players (before)

DS (before he hit 6'5) DD (she was kinda shorter than me then ) Me - DisneyShe and DH

We also have been blessed enough, I should say, to have spent our 15th, 16th & 17th wedding anniversaries at Walt Disney World. This will be our 22nd anniversary! We get there the morning after.

Our actual plans, will seem crazy to most, but we like to drive.. We are leaving at night on the 28th, with the plans of arriving close to park opening. (or as early as we can) Do not want to waste a single minute. DH is going to sleep all day while the kids and I pack the car. it has been almost 5 years ya'll!

We are staying at Coronado Springs for 9 nights/10 days with Free Dining, beginning 8/29 - 9/7 I love free dining as it frees up more spending money for our family to pour more money back into Disney for more things= which equals more fun for us.

Dining ressies are:

O'hana
Le Cellier
O'hana (BF)
Crystal Palace (BF, before park opening of course)
Cape May Café
Coral Reef
Chefs de France
Tusker House
Mama Melrose (Fantasmic)
O'hana

Notes- yes, we do love O'hana! Heard a few negative things but that is okay, we will try it ourselves again before deciding.
We have eaten at sooo many places at WDW and always narrow it down, the only new places on our list are Chefs de France & Tusker House. Specifically gave up BOMA for Tusker House because BOMA so went downhill since 2007 and would rather see the characters than be disappointed once again.

 

[DisSplash]

You all must be so excited! You are going back to your happy place! And 3 Ohana's!! Wow! You must really love those skewers and banana bread pudding, and I can't say as I blame you! I have never tried Ohana for breakfast tho. You'll have to share some details on that, as it seems on these boards that Kona is the favored breakfast option at the Poly. (Unless you are going for the characters?)

So happy for you!

 

[DisneyGigi]

You all must be so excited! You are going back to your happy place! And 3 Ohana's!! Wow! You must really love those skewers and banana bread pudding, and I can't say as I blame you! I have never tried Ohana for breakfast tho. You'll have to share some details on that, as it seems on these boards that Kona is the favored breakfast option at the Poly. (Unless you are going for the characters?)

So happy for you!

Thank You!! We are so excited! We did O'hana breakfast last trip and loved it! Mostly for the character experience. We used to do Chef Mickey's a lot for breakfast and it was so busy that we just don't do it anymore. Love the laid back character experience at O'hana so much more. Love the skewers for dinner and my son is nuts over the pork dumplings! Not tried Kona but hope to one day soon.

 

[stevehousse]

Sounds great! Kona is a must if u ask me for breakfast! I hope you an your family have an awesome time!

 

[DisneyGigi]

Day 1-
Arrive and knowing we won't be able to go to our room most likely that early, we are going straight to MK after at least checking in at Coronado. It is always our tradition that we go straight in take a picture or two on Main Street then making a bee line for Splash. We will be doing that again this time of course. Lunch is always Peco's Bills then we work our way around the park. We did fastpass 7DMT and meeting Mickey (not something we would normally fastpass, but hey it has been a long time and he talks now???!!!) We have a fp for BTMRR as well then for the rest of the day we will just wing it which is how we like to do it. 8:15 ressies at O'hana then we plan to watch Wishes from the beach at the Poly go back to the hotel and rest a short bit. Did I mention we are complete and total park people?

 

[me_stitch]

looks good so far, we always eat at Tusker House, I love their breakfast buffet.

 

[DisneyGigi]

looks good so far, we always eat at Tusker House, I love their breakfast buffet.

Thanks, can't wait to try it!

 

[DisneyGigi]

Okay, so I am a bit slower than I used to be writing these things..lol

Moving on to day 2. We originally planned to have an early Crystal Palace BF on this day but to make a long story short the days with the free dining were not what we thought and had planned for them to be so it got shuffled into later on in the trip. Really didn't have to be since we were lucky enough to get the pin code offer with more dates available for the free dining. On this day we do not have any table service booked so we plan on hitting MK for the opening ceremony, which I love so much and spending half the day at MK. Lunch at either Columbia Harbor House or Cosmic Ray's then hop on the monorail to EPCOT. To be honest the first thing on my mind when we get there is heading straight to France to get a Grand Marnier Slush!! I have made them at home but it is kinda like a Dole Whip it just is not the same. Other than that we are pretty much winging everything this day and deciding what we want to eat for Dinner somewhere quick service. Who knows we may even end up at DHS. Our last trip we ended it with hitting all parks in one day (all e-tickets) and even hitting MK twice. you never know with our crazy crowd!

Day 3 (August 31)

This is always DHS day for us. We will arrive at park opening and even though we did the FP+ for TSMM, I still plan on making a dash for the ride, it just won't be to get fastpasses this time which will be weird... This is also where next will be me yet again, facing my fears and riding ToT. I rode it once years ago and I am not even kidding about how scared I was of it.. swore I would never, ever get back on it. Finally in 2008 about midway through the trip I got tired of everybody giving me such a hard time about it so I worked up my nerve and rode it twice in a row. I knew that if I didn't there was absolutely no way I would get back on it. I ended up loving it and probably in our last two trips rode it 50 or more times. That was a long time ago though and I am in full bore panic mode over it again already. To the point that my hands are jerky just typing about it! I am sure my ride photos the first few times will be very entertaining.

Lunch here will be, as always Pizza Planet. I know that the food isn't great here but it is something we have done every single trip and ironically even though I was so worried about my kids being older now, it is one of the things they are looking forward to most which makes Mom a happy camper!

We have dining ressies that night for Le Cellier so we will head on over to EPCOT and probably call it a night since we have MNSSHP and an early O'hana BF the next morning.

Day 4 (Sep 1) 7:30 am O'hana then off to AK for the day until time to run back to resort to get ready for MNSSHP. I can't even begin to describe how excited our whole family was when we found out that there would be an early party this year that we could go to. We went in 2008 and had a ball but did not dress up. This year we are and we have had so much fun making and getting our costumes together. Hubby and I are going as Carl & Ellie (kids) My daughter as Jessie and my son is Cap'n Jack.

Photos coming up shortly.

 

[Metilinos]

Chefs de France was one of my favorite places to eat; I found it slightly overlooked because it is just so in your face and easy to get to. Duck Confit was amazing.

 

[DisneyGigi]

The Jessie costume we made out of a plain white shirt and added the decorations, the hat was originally pink and we painted it, added laces and the ribbon. Added cow print fabric to the shorts and made the wig out of red yarn. I still feel it needed to be a burnt orange but she wanted red.



I still have to get my aviator hat finished. We decided to go with mason jar lids for the goggles because they just looked more like what was in the movie to me than what we could buy. I am going to end up using the Adventure Book as a scrapbook when we get home.



My son's costume we ordered. He aready had a great hat and wig that we got in 2008.

Here they are on their first trips, and with their costumes on for this one! Man, I love memories like these! They have grown a little...

 

[DisneyGigi]

Chefs de France was one of my favorite places to eat; I found it slightly overlooked because it is just so in your face and easy to get to. Duck Confit was amazing.

That is what I plan on having! Always wanted to try it but ended up somewhere else.

 

[Metilinos]

That is what I plan on having! Always wanted to try it but ended up somewhere else.

Worth getting. I like to branch out to new things. Cherries were cooked in an alcohol and made them very strong alone so it was interesting at first.

Been to Coral Reef twice. Once I had some kind of orange sesame salmon over stir fried veggies? Coral Reef fanatics could tell you what it was exactly, and the second time I had a Gardein chicken curry something or other. Was doing the vegan thing back then. Got to sit right at the glass for the fish, was super cool!

Ohana I've done once and it wasn't bad. Didn't have a bad experience there. Restaurant itself was great and the atmosphere was fun. Loud but I enjoyed it for the most part, nothing I would jump at though if the opportunity arose.

Tucker House we did breakfast at once. Not a bad breakfast; same recycled breakfast buffet at Chef Mickeys minus some themed hash, bug juice and some other themed food. JUST beat a Brazilian tour group in.

Crystal Palace we did a dinner buffet as well once. Wasn't bad, and I thought the characters and follow the leader was cute for kids. Got pictures with Tigger. I think for buffet style cuisine, Boma is my favorite so far.

 

[mrdrift]

The plans sound fantastic so far. The two costumes look really good. So glad to hear that you can make it back for your anniversary, we will be going for our 25th anniversary next year. Have a wonderful time.

 

[DisneyGigi]

The plans sound fantastic so far. The two costumes look really good. So glad to hear that you can make it back for your anniversary, we will be going for our 25th anniversary next year. Have a wonderful time.

Thank you so much! I love the little added small touches that Disney does for you on special occasions like that it just makes it even sweeter. Happy Anniversary in advance, 25 is a special one. Hope that you guys have an amazing trip and Anniversary too.

 

[DisneyGigi]

We plan on staying til the park closes the night of the party. I do not want to miss a minute of it. We do have to get up super early for an 8:00 am Crystal Palace BF for day 5 though, looking back on it I really wished that would have fallen on a different day of the trip but I don't think we even knew the party was going to be held when we booked it. There are certain things that we have to do every trip and getting in early and getting to see a near empty Main Street is one of the best, most amazing things to me. We always stop and pose for a few pics on our way in and I love that so much. I am also a huge Winnie the Pooh character fan. Wait, who I am kidding.. I am pretty much a huge fan of any Disney character.(except.. please don't flame me but Frozen.. it just seems like there is too much of it and there is no way I would stand in line that long) Classic characters and characters that my kids grew up loving though count me in if we can see them without a crazy wait, I am nothing more than a 3 year old little girl when I meet them and I have no plans of ever outgrowing that.

We will hang out and hit whatever rides we feel like at MK then head ever to EPCOT and eat dinner that night at Cape May Café. This will probably be our Illuminations night. Then I would say that we will be needing to do some late night laundry. P.S. Did I mention that we sleep or relax very little while at the World?? lol

Oh gosh, I am already at day 6???

From here on out other than our dining reservations, and the night we do the Fantasmic dining package we really just wing it. The time that we go it is so easy to do that. This is where the whole FP+ thing, I do not like it. I think it is great if you know exactly where you are going to be, and maybe don't do anything like trek all the way from Splash back to Space just because that is what the kids want to do. Or because there is no standby line and you decide to ride a ride 5 times in row. We park-hop like mad people if we decide to. (we drive our own car, never use Disney transportation unless it is by monorail to EPCOT and back to MK, and have gotten really good at it over the years.)
Because of this, like I said, I am not sure how I feel about having to decide where I want to be for rides. I really am used to being able to only plan around our dining reservations so far in advance. I honestly will miss being able to go to what park we decide and having the option to get a paper fastpass for on demand, the ride we may need to do so with.
On this day we do have a late lunch ressie at Coral Reef so we will be at EPCOT at least midday I know.

Day 7 (Sep. 4)

This day again is an open day. It is a day that we decided to leave free for counter services since we have so many table services booked. (more than dining credits lol but that is okay, we will pay for our breakfasts out of pocket)

Day 8- (Sep 5) AK to start with an early lunch at Tusker House, riding all our favorite rides then off to DHS to try Mama Melrose again for Fantasmic package. We have eaten at all 3 of the table services here. I loved The Hollywood Brown Derby but it seems I am the only one that did. We haven eaten there twice and the boys thought the steak was too sweet the way it was marinated. The menu has changed but no luck talking them into it over Le Cellier, our other two credit meal. We had Hollywood and Vine and it was not very good. Typical buffet like Crystal Palace or Chef Mickey's for dinner but it was either cold or completely baked out under the lamps. No in between. So, that left Mama Melrose. The steak I got (at the time, Butcher Steak, should have known better) was tough and well past the Rare that I like. (meaning, as rare as it can be cooked.) the menu, has changed and out of the three it seems the best pick. Wish DHS had better dining options! I am so looking forward to Fantasmic. It has been one of my favorite shows since the first time I saw it so many years ago and I am so glad that in our absence the whole cutting back on shows for American Idol has passed. I never got the AI thing and I for one, am glad it is going bye-bye.

This brings us to our last full day at WDW. Morning at EPCOT then whatever we feel like. We wanted to end like we started at O'hana. Yes, we do love it! We are going back on Sunday until about 2:00. I don't know what park we will do first but I know that the trip will end with one last ride on my beloved Splash Mountain and a very teary last walk down Main Street! On my ferry ride back to reality, I will watch my castle until the very last minute and pray that it isn't so long until I see it again!

I got my travel documents today so I am so more than ready! It is really real. Thanks for reading and sharing in my excitement and pixie dust!

 

[Metilinos]

I haven't used Fast Pass+ but if possible try to space out your passes throughout the day. That way you're not too pressed for time. They're fantastic if you're trying to kill wait times really.

We plan on park hopping a lot so I'm not 100% on how we are going to do the passes over the vacation; should be interesting

As for your steak dilemma, I've been to an upscale steakhouse in Portsmouth, NH (the bill far surpassed Disney's any and every time; literally spent almost $300 between us two on Valentines day..), where we had an amazing beef tartare. If you don't know, a finely chopped raw cut of beef with, at least in ours, capers, cilantro, garlic, a raw quail egg. How's that for rare?

I haven't been to any steak place in disney and haven't gotten any steak anytime I've gone. Going to Be Our Guest (lucky reservation at 6pm on a Saturday, literally like a prime dinner time) and I know they have a steak dish but I doubt I'll get it.

 

[DisneyGigi]

I haven't used Fast Pass+ but if possible try to space out your passes throughout the day. That way you're not too pressed for time. They're fantastic if you're trying to kill wait times really.

We plan on park hopping a lot so I'm not 100% on how we are going to do the passes over the vacation; should be interesting

As for your steak dilemma, I've been to an upscale steakhouse in Portsmouth, NH (the bill far surpassed Disney's any and every time; literally spent almost $300 between us two on Valentines day..), where we had an amazing beef tartare. If you don't know, a finely chopped raw cut of beef with, at least in ours, capers, cilantro, garlic, a raw quail egg. How's that for rare?

I haven't been to any steak place in disney and haven't gotten any steak anytime I've gone. Going to Be Our Guest (lucky reservation at 6pm on a Saturday, literally like a prime dinner time) and I know they have a steak dish but I doubt I'll get it.

I have never had it but am planning on making Emeril's recipe for it. I know I would love it. I love Raw Tuna just in big slices and Ceviche. Love Quail eggs but not raw lol.
It will definitely be interesting with the fp and park hopping. Hoping crowds are low again and that we don't that many anyway.

 

[Metilinos]

I have never had it but am planning on making Emeril's recipe for it. I know I would love it. I love Raw Tuna just in big slices and Ceviche. Love Quail eggs but not raw lol.
It will definitely be interesting with the fp and park hopping. Hoping crowds are low again and that we don't that many anyway.

A friend of mine went in Early August and battled some horrendous crowds. My guess is, late August/Early September would be good to go; back to school so crowds must be limited and you won't be waiting. The heats what will get ya.