90 Days!

Today is the 90 day countdown mark for our trip!

YAY! That means that when I woke up to go potty at 6:15 this morning, I also came into the living room, got on the computer and starting trying to get all those dining reservations I wanted! Disney now does online dining reservations which open at 6am before the phone line opens at 7am.

I couldn't get exactly what I wanted for Le Cellier, but everything else was perfect! I emailed our travel agent that we had everything we wanted except for dinner at Le Cellier (the only availability had been for lunch which is a different menu...).

Then, when I got up this morning around 9:30, I had an email back from our travel agent saying that she had also booked us at Le Cellier for a 7:10 dinner!

I then got online and switched things around to accomodate and also threw in a reservation for a lunch at the Sci Fi Dine in Theater at Hollywood Studios. It looks so neat and we wanted to check it out, so we may go there just for an appetizer or dessert or something.

Without further delay, here is our final dining schedule! FREE dining I might add! (we just pay tip). Click on the name of the restaurant for the Disney site and photos!

Thursday: arrive, head to Universal Studios for a little while, then Boma for dinner at 7:50pm.

Friday: Disney parks day, Le Cellier for dinner at 7:15pm.

Saturday: All day at Universal Studios, Maya Grill for dinner at 8:00pm.

Sunday: Disney parks day, Sci-Fi Dine-In at 2:20pm, Tokyo Dining for dinner at 8:20pm.

Now the sit-down meals are decided. We probably won't do much planning for our quick meals. The free dining plan we are getting includes 1 counter service (fast food) meal per day, 1 sit-down meal per day, and 1 snack per day.

ADRs and Single Digit Countdown!

We have begun the double digit countdown!!!!!

AND, next Friday is our ADR day. That is the day we can call and make our Advanced Dining Reservations. I have actually emailed our dining choices to our travel agent along with requested times and she is going to do the reservations for us. We are on the dining plan which means we get 1 Table Service (sit-down) meal, 1 Counter Service (fast-food type) meal, and 1 snack per day (items like popcorn, ice cream, side items from fast food places, etc) per person. The best part about it is that since we moved our trip to October we are getting all that for FREE with our package!!!!! We just have to pay for the tips at the at table service restaurants!!!!

Here is what we have chosen. Click on the photo for a link to the menu for each place.


Our number one choice is Le Cellier. This is in the Canada section at Epcot. It is supposed to be an incredible steak house. It is a very difficult to get reservation and we are going to plan our park days around which day we can get this place!

Our other choice for our "in park" day is Tokyo Dining. This is in...guess where? ha.. the Japan section of Epcot. We love good Japanese food, so this should be a great choice for us!

The interior of Tokyo Dining at Epcot

Our other two choices have to be outside of the parks because we only have two day park hoppers. We have chosen Maya Grill for one of those. It is located at the Coronado Springs Resort (our original resort choice for the trip). It has a nice variety on the menu...ribs, steak, seafood, etc.

Interior view of Maya Grill

Our other "out of park" experience is Boma. We ate there on our last trip and I really really enjoyed all the variety of exotic foods. It was so good and I am excited to eat there again and try some things I didn't try last time.

So, there ya go. I will probably update after I hear back from our agent with our actual dining times. We have planned our trip to alternate days of Disney and Universal Studios. Universal Studios closes around 5-6pm the weekend we will be there, so we will have time to spend those days at that park then clean up and head out for a late dinner.

Can't wait!

Update!

Breaking News! We just cut 70 days off our countdown by moving our trip to the first weekend of October!!!
YAY! I am so excited!
There are several reasons we did this, but the main one being that it just about cut the cost of the trip in half (which has to do with other exciting thing and plans that are not Disney related).
This means we only have about $200 left to save to have our trip paid in full, which is a great feeling!

We are now going to stay at Pop Century Resort..you can click the link in the right sidebar to read and see pictures. I am excited about the resort...it looks like a lot of fun....doesn't it look like a "Corey" hotel? Ha!

We are also timing the trip to be during the FREE dining period! That saved about $400! YAY! FREE FOOD!

So, as you can probably tell, I am very very very excited that we will be going on our trip now in 139 days! Only 49 days until I get to make our dining reservations for all those delicious meals!

Celebrating 10 Years!

Read more below!
(sorry had to do this to correct a posting problem I had earlier!)

Celebrating 10 Years!

Corey and I will celebrate 10 years of being together this December! This isn't our "wedding" anniversary, but it was when it all started and the day we prefer to celebrate anyway because of the time of year! ha ha!

So...how better to celebrate 10 years together than with a long weekend at...where else?!

CHRISTMAS AT DISNEY WORLD! It should be a tradition for us!

We booked our trip just last week because December fills up pretty quickly and I wanted to have it done for sure so we would make ourselves start saving! ha ha! I decided to go through a travel agency (The Magic for Less) from one of my yahoo groups. It is a big agency with tons of good references and it doesn't cost me anything to use them. They get their $ from Disney I think. Anyway, they will take care of everything for me, even our dining reservations...THEY can be the ones sitting on hold making the reservations!!!!
This will be a trip just for us, no kids this time. I actually won a pass to Universal Studios in a contest so we will be doing that one day as well. I am excited to be counting down to another trip! We decided to stay at Coronado Springs Resort. It was a tough choice, but we wanted to say in one of the moderate resorts to have a bit bigger and "nicer" room. We originally were going to stay at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort, but I found out in the process of researching dates that it is the week of the Pop Warner Football and Cheerleading Championships, so that means there will be big school groups there and where do they stay? Value Resorts OR Port Orleans Riverside!!! Thank goodness we found that out. Apparently they like to get up really early and practice their routines outside very loudly! UGH!!!!! Do NOT want to be in a hotel with a bunch of highschoolers running around at all hours!

So...this made us look at Coronado Springs, which I am excited about. They are actually in the process of remodeling the rooms and will be done by December. You can see photos of the room makeovers HERE. (left side of page has photos listed) Also, HERE is a link to the Disney website about the resort.

I am excited to finally do the "on-site" experience. We are also planning to do the dining plan. If you know us, you know we love to eat out, so this will be really fun for us to get to try all kinds of the great restaurants around the parks and resorts.

The date is set for two weekends before Christmas. We also plan to do the Candlelight Processional at Epcot and to see the Osborne Dancing Lights at Hollywood Studios. If time and $ permit, I would also love to do the Christmas party, but I did that last year so it's not a huge priority.

I honestly do not feel the least bit sorry about going to Disney without my kids. That's usually the first thing that people say when I tell them about us planning a trip....that the kids will be sad or upset. I can assure you, they will be getting PLENTY of spoiling while we are gone, and they have gone the past two years...so...they will be fine. They won't care a bit, and we have promised them the beach for next year and they are just as excited about that as they were about Disney.

So, between now and then I will be updating occasionally about our plans. I also get to help Bethany talk and be excited about going with her family in September! How fun!

Photopass Pictures!

Our Photopass CD came in the mail today! YAY! That was FAST!!!! Here are *some* of the 400 photos from our trip! I am making this slideshow big so you can see the photos well...sorry it will make the blog look bad, oh well. I have about 3 different versions of each photo, so I mixed it up with putting in ones with borders, black and white, etc. Oh, one more thing...yes there are more photos of Katie than Noah in this, but all the time she was getting these photos taken he was riding rides with Corey...so you make your choices! ha ha!



For those of you who do not know what in the world I am talking about:
When you visit any Walt Disney World Park, there are photographers walking around offering to take your photo. They are all over the parks, especially in front of the big icons like the castle, Mickey hat, etc. They are even in different locations "around" those things for getting different points of view. They will also be with many of the characters you can meet and get autographs from, etc. Mainly just the "big" ones like Mickey, princesses, and people like that. They had a photographer at the Jedi training as well as in the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
Well, these photos are for sale, of course, for a ridiculously overpriced amount, like $12.95 for a 4x6 or something. They can add borders, you know, do the "tourist" photo thing.
OR you can purchase ALL the photos from your entire trip on a CD for $99 (pre-order price, non-preorder is $125). This may seem like a steep price, but it is WAY cheaper than buying them individually. You can get as many photos as you want on the CD for the same price. The photopass studio people told us of a family from the UK that came for two weeks and ended up with about 7000 photos on 9 CDs....same price...$99. So it can be as good of a deal as you want it to be. You do still have to pay to get the prints at your own convenience, but then you own the photos and can do what you want with them, you have the copyright release for them.
We knew before our trip we were going to get the CD...it made things much easier. Their photographers start taking photos (most of the time) as soon as you enter a character greeting area so get some candids as well as posed shots. They can also do "trick" photos where they add in a character to the photo. Many times because of lighting and the lines moving it is difficult to get a really "GREAT" shot with your own personal camera. The photographers just give you a little "photopass card" that you carry around with you or you can get new ones every time, you can add as many as you want to your account before you order. You just have 30 days from the day they were taken to order your CD or prints or other various photo gifts.
When we got home I was able to add borders from their website to many of our photos and ended up with 400. Not as many as I had hoped, but they are still great. I did not include ALL of those on the slideshow, but I think it is a great thing to include as part of your vacation budget!

Last Day: Magic Kingdom

We spent the entire day at Magic Kingdom. We arrived before the park opened and saw the opening ceremony which we had never seen before. Mickey, Daisy, Chip n Dale, and Stitch came in on the steam train waving at everyone. It was cute, but I really do not enjoy the masses of people trying to get through the doors! Ugh! Worth having a reservation before the park opens I think!

We made a beeline for Dumbo, because Katie did not do it the last day, and Corey and Noah went to the Speedway. Katie saw Ariel while Mama waited in line for Dumbo...the wait for Ariel was...3 minutes! yay! Then off to Toon Town to try and see those fairies!!! You wouldn't believe the huge crowd of people and almost every single one got in the fairy line as the area opened. Mickey was just standing there waving...no one headed to his house :( If Corey had been there I bet Noah would have had some fun one on done time with Mickey!

Pixie Hollow is beautiful! SO well done! The waiting hallway is decorated to look like a forest with sparkling little "fairies" as lights shooting down the branches occassionally. Then, inside the meeting area, it is made to look like you have been shrunk down to the size of a fairy, with giant flowers, leaves, and other various fairy knick knacks. Katie loved meeting Irridessa, Tinkerbell, and Fawn. We then were off to tour Minnie and Mickey's houses and then over to Fantasyland to hit up some things we missed before. We did the Winnie the Pooh, Mickey's Philharmagic again, It's a Small World, then took the train around to the front gate to head "home" for lunch and rest.

The crowds were really heavy today compared to the rest of the week. There was a 50 minute wait for Ariel before we left, 45 minute waits for Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh....it just seemed so much heavier than when we were here this time last year...I know this was heading into President's Day weekend and I heard several people say they had taken advantage of the buy 4/get 3 offer. The weather has been pretty warm as well. Into the low 80s during the day...not a drop of rain *which is nice* BUT we had paid for pool heat for our private pool in our rental and it has gotten too hot to even get in!!! ARGH! Last year when we came it was in the low 70s for highs. I guess I should have asked about cancelling the pool heat.

Anyway, we got back to the park around 5:30-6pm and started staking our place to watch the parade and fireworks. I wanted the tree spot in Liberty Square, but the renovations on the Hall of Presidents was really blocking the view of the castle, you couldn't really see it at all. So, we basically walked the route of the parade trying out different spots and evaluating the pros/cons. Corey LOVED this process..HA HA!!!! We ended up in a spot I had heard of before but didn't think of since we were trying to see the parade as well. We were on the Terrace of the Tomorrowland noodle restaurant. We weren't super close to the parade, but the view of the fireworks was just simply breathtaking. It could not have been more perfect so I will continue to stalk this location for every trip from now on!

About Spectromagic: This parade really didn't live up to the hype for me. Maybe it was completely because we weren't on the "sidelines" and didn't have a close-up view, but I thought it would be just totally amazing. Don't get me wrong, it was a "good" parade. The lights are cool, but maybe it is just something you have to experience up close. We could see pretty well from the terrace, esp where they crossed over the bridge, but...I don't know....I guess I could live without this one. I thought the part at the end was very good..the switching back and forth of colors. I have since heard from people in the online group, that you definitely had to experience it "up close" but I guess we don't know what we're missing..ha ha.

We did not get to see the day parade this time, but I saw the Christmas one and I loved being able to see SO MANY characters in the parade. That will definitely be a priority the next time we come...

SO...after the fireworks we hit up Buzz Lightyear (Noah's fav) and Magic Carpets (Katie's fav). Bought a balloon on the way out and rode in the monorail back to the parking lot. We requested to sit in the front of the monorail and were able to...we were with a guy who was training which kind of made me nervous, but it was interesting to hear the "trainer" ask the guy all sorts of questions...there is definitely more to that job than you would think.

We still have a day left on our tickets because we got the good deal from Undercover tourist but now we are out of days of being here....so sad and wish I could stay one more day but not sure I would hold up. We had planned to do the parade and fireworks our first night here but we were just totally wiped out and didn't feel like it. Really regretting that now!

Late night, great day! Corey can't wait to go back next year, so that makes it a huge success! I have actually since our trip, talked Corey into agreeing that he and I should take a trip for just the two of us. So, it looks like if everything gets planned out and works out, that he and I will be heading down to stay ON SITE in December for an extended weekend. We will be celebrating 10 YEARS of being together (not married, just together) WOW! Since we are planning on doing that we figured the "family" vacation next year would be a truly relaxing "beach" trip. I am very much looking foward to doing a "couple" trip though. December is a great time to be at the resort and we will also use the Universal ticket I won. Fun fun!!!!

I hope you enjoyed my trip reports. Please feel free to comment!!! I will have one more slideshow to post when I get our photopass CD in the mail. Those shots are SO GOOD! Can't wait to share them!