PTR – 11/29/2012 – 12/8/2012 – Pre-Christmas at Disney! About This Page:

[Yelloweaver]

In January of 2011 we, (myself – Michele, husband – Tommy and daughter – Lizzy) went to Disney for an entire week and LOVED it. Before we were leaving to come home I stated that we needed to do it again so Disney 2012 was born.
We booked Port Orleans French Quarter back in July of 2011 (as soon as we were able to book – we did!) We had originally planned to go from 12/1-12/8 but when the free dining came out last week, we were missing it by TWO days either direction! Argh.

So we spoke to my Mother in Law (Candy – this will be her 1st REAL trip) and she was able to take off the extra time so we ADDED 11/29 and 11/30! I quickly called my travel agent and she gave me the bad news that POFQ did not have any availability for the dining offer, but Riverside did, so did we want to stay there? Yep! We decided that we wanted to try the Deluxe Dining this time since we will not be going again for a few years. This actually ended up SAVING us almost $300 after ADDING 2 days of hotel, dining and park tickets. Score!

Next decision up was – driving or flying? Its about an 11 hour drive from Raleigh, NC to Orlando, FL OR a 1hr and 40 minute direct flight on Southwest. Hmmm. Decisions. I watched the rates for a few weeks and when they finally dropped to $944 for the 4 of us to fly, it was a no brainer. Car rental at the Dolphin – check! We like having the option to have our own vehicle when we are on property since we like to park hop and with our deluxe reservations all over the place, a car is needed.

Cast of Characters:
Me – Michele (40), 3rd trip to Disney. My first was when I was 37, goodness knows what made me wait so long to go. I’m a huge Disney fanatic. I spend TONS of times on Passporter and other boards just reading up on tips, tricks, gathering information such as “best use of a snack credit” so I am prepared to get the most out of this trip. I love Disney so much our two new kittens are named Ariel and Flynn Rider.

Husband – Tommy (42) – this will be his 4th trip to Disney. He is not as much of a fan as I am, but he enjoys his time there as well. He puts up with listening to me go on and on about the planning. He pretty much leaves the planning up to me!

Daughter – Lizzy (5) – this is her 3rd trip to Disney as well. She is a lover of all things Disney Princess. Ariel is her favorite. She was named “Most Likely to be a Disney Princess” when she grows up by her Preschool teacher since she has so many princess dressed. I believe she has enough to wear one every day for the 9 days we are there.

Mother in Law – Candy (58) – I don’t know the # of her Disney trips, however, I do know that the last time she went many years ago with her daughter and my nephew, they didn’t like it! (HORRORS)! We hope to turn this around for her this time.

Sister – Dre (37) – She lives in Florida and will be joining us at the end of the trip (Thursday – Saturday). Since she lives in Florida I cannot say how many times she has been there, but she loves it as much as I do.

Brother in Law – Max (32) – Also lives in Florida and has been too many times for me to count. He is my partner in crime for riding the ToT – no one else will go with us!!

Nephew – Aidan (6) – my favorite little buddy – I cannot count his trips either, but he will make a good travelling companion for Lizzy at the end of the week.


Next Up – ADR’s – there are LOTS of em – 27 each to be exact!

[buzzspal2]

Great start.

[Yelloweaver]

I should have mentioned that my DH and I will be celebrating our 6 year wedding anniversary WHILE we are there! Thank goodness for my MIL who will keep Lizzy while we go on our date night to Le Cellier and Illuminations. That could be romantic - I hope!

[dwonderz]

Great Start!

[belle0517]

Great start!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start!

[mojjo]

Great start!!!

[nght10gale]

Hi Michele, we also drive from Raleigh area, Willow Springs, actually. Heavier foot here as it takes us 9 hours, no sit doen eats on the way. We will be arriving on the 5th, our first adults only trip leaving kids home to celebrate my , really can't take kids out of school as already missing days in sept and April to see Mickey...maybe we will cross paths...Looking forward to following along with your TR

[bsblady01]

great start

[Yelloweaver]

Originally Posted by nght10gale

Hi Michele, we also drive from Raleigh area, Willow Springs, actually. Heavier foot here as it takes us 9 hours, no sit doen eats on the way. We will be arriving on the 5th, our first adults only trip leaving kids home to celebrate my , really can't take kids out of school as already missing days in sept and April to see Mickey...maybe we will cross paths...Looking forward to following along with your TR

Hi!! Glad to know there are others from NC here! Since Lizzy is only in K, I'm not worried about taking her out for 7 school days as we have no plans to take her out for any extended time for the rest of the year. She doesn't get sick often, so hopefully we'll be ok. I asked some other parents at her school if its ok to take the kids out and with an excuse, it appears to be just fine!

I'm so jealous you are getting your own adults only trip! I'd love to do that one day.
If you are going to be there when we are, maybe we could say hello!

[disneydreamer33]

Great start and introductions. Glad you were able to add on the two extra days and get free dining plus adding on DDP.
I was 32 the first time I visited WDW. I had spent the first 8 years of my life going to DL and I have always loved anything Disney, especially Mickey Mouse, but I wasn't an addict until visiting WDW. Now I am a grown woman with a massive addiction/problem. My DH hates it. He went our first two trips and now refuses to go back even with another family. So it is just my girls and I, but that's okay. I have made a lot of memories with them so far and plan on many more. It sucks a little that he is not included in them.
Can't wait to hear all the ADR's.

[Yelloweaver]

Originally Posted by disneydreamer33

Great start and introductions. Glad you were able to add on the two extra days and get free dining plus adding on DDP.
I was 32 the first time I visited WDW. I had spent the first 8 years of my life going to DL and I have always loved anything Disney, especially Mickey Mouse, but I wasn't an addict until visiting WDW. Now I am a grown woman with a massive addiction/problem. My DH hates it. He went our first two trips and now refuses to go back even with another family. So it is just my girls and I, but that's okay. I have made a lot of memories with them so far and plan on many more. It sucks a little that he is not included in them.
Can't wait to hear all the ADR's.

hi Liz - I'm sorry your DH doesn't want to make memories with you at Disney, mine is not quite that bad, just happy to leave the planning to me.
Maybe he will change his mind??

Glad that you can make the memories with your kids though, I can't imagine life without Disney now that I have been!

[Yelloweaver]

Advanced Dining Reservations

Now when we first decided to take this trip, we were only going to do the regular dining plan and I had 7 restaurants picked out. When we decided to upgrade to Deluxe I had my work cut out for me. Tommy only had one request – he wanted to eat at the Sci-Fi Drive In. Ok – I think we can make that happen.

Here is what we picked for our dining:

Thursday – arrival day – we get in at 12:05 so we figure we’ll just get a quick snack and save the big meal for dinner.
Dinner – Raglan Rd – we are going to do DTD today, mainly because we don’t usually do a park on arrival day, plus we are renting a car to pick up at the Dolphin and we should be able to get a bus from DTD to the Dolphin and then drive back to DTD for dinner.

Friday
Breakfast – 1900 Park Fare – we loved this last time and wanted to do it again
Lunch – Quick Service somewhere at Magic Kingdom – probably Columbia Harbor House
Dinner – Boatwrights – my DH ate here back in June when he was in Orlando for an IBM conference and said the food was great – figured we’d fit it in on an early evening (since MK closes at 7 for MVMCP).

Saturday
Breakfast – Tusker House at AK – We LOVE this meal, so much in fact we are doing it twice. If you’d asked me last trip if I would visit AK again, I probably would have said no, but after reading many many trip reports, Im giving it a chance – TWICE this trip.
Lunch – I didn’t realize Yak and Yeti wasn’t counter service so I JUST added this meal after reading great things in folks trip reports
Dinner – ‘Ohana – we had this originally booked for the 1st night. We were planning to watch Wishes from the beach, however, 12/1 MK has EMH, so we’ll head over to the park to watch Wishes from there and see how long we can stay up.

Sunday
Breakfast – Grabbing a quick service meat at the hotel before heading to MK again
Lunch – Cinderella’s Royal Table – if I did not have a miniature princess who loves Disney Princesses so much we probably wouldn’t be eating here, however, we loved the Major Domo’s Pie last time and to my dismay its NOT on the menu anymore! Hopefully something else will catch my eye.
Dinner – LeCellier for Tommy and I (its our 6 year anniversary) and Boatwrights again for Lizzy and Candy. They will have an early evening, get Lizzy in bed on time for a chance while we celebrate at Epcot, just the two of us. That is going to feel weird.

Monday
Breakfast – Quick service at the hotel again before heading to Epcot
Lunch – Akershus – now, a lot of people will say they do not like the Norway food, WE on the other hand, LOVE it. I love the mushroom ravioli and the cold bar. Plus princess interaction is really great here, usually
Dinner – Les Chefs de France – early dinner and an 8:15 showing of the Candlelight Processional. I’m excited to see this after hearing GreyGables talk so highly of it in her reports.

Tuesday
Breakfast - ‘Ohana – Ive head good things about the character breakfast and we like this restaurant so we’re giving it a shot.
Lunch – Sci Fi Dine in Theatre - I hope its yummy.
Dinner – Hopping back to Epcot for Dinner – Via Napoli – HS is not my favorite place, but there are a few things Lizzy likes to do there, so we’ll go for most of one day.

Wednesday
Breakfast – Tusker House again – love that juice! Plus I love getting in the park before it opens and walking to the restaurant, its so quiet.
Lunch – quick service at AK – not sure what we will pick yet, we’ll see! Open to suggestions.
Dinner – Boma – we picked this because it looks amazing and Ive read so many good things about it. We are hoping to get tickets for the Wishes Dessert party this night, I keep checking but they are not on sale yet!

Thursday – Dre, Max and Aidan join us! Yay!
Breakfast – Akershus – we wanted to go to Epcot before it opens and this is the way to do it. Excited for another princess meal.
Lunch – San Angel Inn – nothing really to say about this but the menu looks good
Dinner – Kona Café at the Poly – we are going to MVMCP tonight and figured early dinner at the Poly and then monorail to MK for the party.

Friday
Breakfast – Crystal Palace – 8am! Hoping for castle photos without crowds in front
Lunch – Liberty Tree Tavern – read lots of good things about this place too, giving it a try
Dinner – 199 Park Fare – we booked this because the park closes at 7 for MVMCP again and because Be Our Guest is not taking reservations yet. You bet we’ll be trying to get one when they open up, that is, if the restaurant is OPEN we we go “home”.

Saturday – check out day
Breakfast – Chef Mickey’s – not sure of the quality of this meal, but thought it would be fun to have breakfast in the Contemporary and head to MK a little bit before catching our evening flight back home.
Lunch – we’ll probably be using leftover snack credits to piece together lunch since I made so many ADRs that our Quick Services meals will be paid for OOP. (no big deal though!)

Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on this list.

Thanks for reading!

[lazanya]

Great plans!

[disneydreamer33]

All the restaurants look wonderful. You guys are going to be so stuffed you won't eat for 2 weeks after you get back.