There’ll Be a Smile Where a Frown Used to Be - PTR About This Page:

[Asuka]

Brilliant reservations! I wish I had the courage to book the deluxe dining plan but thinking about it makes me feel bloated. XDD

I'm going to Chefs de France on my trip just to see Remy! I think around the same time of day too. We'll have to compare experiences when we get back.

[kingfamily1129]

I can't believe I just stumbled up your PTR!
First of all, I am so sorry about your brother/Eric's dad. I think your brother would be over the moon to know that you are helping his youngest cope with this loss by taking him to the happiest place on Earth! You two are an awesome Aunt and Uncle!

Secondly, all your ADR's sound terrific! We are going to try to get HDDR for our trip in March. I can't wait to hear what Eric thinks of it!

really enjoying your PTR. Can't wait to read more!

[athenagwis]

I am going to be doing the same as you if we are lucky enough to get free dining for our trip. The deluxe plan just makes more sense for our family. We have allergies so eating QS is hard, plus we really enjoy sitting down and enjoying a good meal. I like all your reservations!! Sounds like you have a good plan going now.

Cheers!
Rachel

[bsblady01]

more please

[chezp]

Great plans!

[sheldoal]

My condolences on the loss of your brother. I lost my sister a few years ago (she lived in FL), and I miss her at unexpected times and wish she were still here.
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Eric's text messages were adorable! "Are you coming?" Haha. Sounds to me like this trip is going to be the beginning of something wonderful for him. Once he's been taken to WDW, he WILL want to go back. I know I did.

Your trip dates are almost the same as ours. We fly in September 20th (early), but we leave the 25th (late in day). We'll be staying at WL. No free dining for us, since we had a room discount available to us--we will be in club level, so we'll get plenty of food while at the resort.

Sounds like your nephew will have a blast during his trip. Getting out of school is probably pretty awesome too! I was a middle school teacher, but I never begrudged kids their vacation time. Life is too short to not have fun when you can!

[Cam22]

I love all your choices! Happy eating!

[Miss Alaska]

Sounds wonderful... You are less than a month away! I am so envious!

[Wolfy6688]

Ok, all caught up!

First, I'm so sorry about your brother. That's such a tragedy You're a wonderful aunt for taking Eric with you. If more families were that caring, I think people would be much better in general. Eric seems like a great kid - I loved his texts to you about Disney! How sweet!

I totally sympathize with finding a good place for your dogs. It's very hard!

I like your ADRs and can't wait to read more of your plans.

[GinnyMouse]

Originally Posted by lauriep

It's so easy to obsess and over-plan, and change and then change again! I like the final plans, though. Like you, some of those places are not my favorites, but they're all ok and two (Brown Derby and Flying Fish) rank in my all time favorites list. Those two are musts on every trip for me!

It's silly I know, but I do obsess. In a way I'm glad I do because I love when things are organized. As long as I can sort of control meal times, I can be more relaxed about almost everything else.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great plans!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Asuka

Brilliant reservations! I wish I had the courage to book the deluxe dining plan but thinking about it makes me feel bloated. XDD

I'm going to Chefs de France on my trip just to see Remy! I think around the same time of day too. We'll have to compare experiences when we get back.

I know what you mean about the DxDP! I love walking around and going on the really fast rides so overeating is not an option. We do tend to eat a little more when we're on vacation, but we just can't enjoy WDW if we're full. We've learned to walk by all the snack carts and to use our snack credits for water.

I rearranged our whole ADR schedule just to make sure I see Remy! He's sooooo adorable!

Originally Posted by kingfamily1129

I can't believe I just stumbled up your PTR!
First of all, I am so sorry about your brother/Eric's dad. I think your brother would be over the moon to know that you are helping his youngest cope with this loss by taking him to the happiest place on Earth! You two are an awesome Aunt and Uncle!

Secondly, all your ADR's sound terrific! We are going to try to get HDDR for our trip in March. I can't wait to hear what Eric thinks of it!

really enjoying your PTR. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for your kind words! We hope Eric loves HDDR - my husband is usually very quiet but even he got into the whole washboard thing when we went in January! Hope you get to go in March!

Originally Posted by athenagwis

I am going to be doing the same as you if we are lucky enough to get free dining for our trip. The deluxe plan just makes more sense for our family. We have allergies so eating QS is hard, plus we really enjoy sitting down and enjoying a good meal. I like all your reservations!! Sounds like you have a good plan going now.

Cheers!
Rachel

I've heard that they are making many of the QS places more allergy friendly, but I still think it's such a help to have a chef come out and really work with you when you have a special diet. When we ate at Cali Grill in January they actually prepared my food in a special area to keep it completely oil and tree nut free!

Originally Posted by bsblady01

more please

Coming right up!

Originally Posted by chezp

Great plans!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by sheldoal

My condolences on the loss of your brother. I lost my sister a few years ago (she lived in FL), and I miss her at unexpected times and wish she were still here.
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Eric's text messages were adorable! "Are you coming?" Haha. Sounds to me like this trip is going to be the beginning of something wonderful for him. Once he's been taken to WDW, he WILL want to go back. I know I did.

Your trip dates are almost the same as ours. We fly in September 20th (early), but we leave the 25th (late in day). We'll be staying at WL. No free dining for us, since we had a room discount available to us--we will be in club level, so we'll get plenty of food while at the resort.

Sounds like your nephew will have a blast during his trip. Getting out of school is probably pretty awesome too! I was a middle school teacher, but I never begrudged kids their vacation time. Life is too short to not have fun when you can!

Aw - my condolences on the loss of your sister. I never realized what a void losing a sibling creates in our lives. It's a bitter lesson to learn.

What a kind teacher you are! Eric's school was initially not pleased about him going on 'vacation' a month after classes start. Especially since he is the 7th grade President and 'should be setting an example.' However, they now understand that this is not really vacation but part of his therapy. He's been planning and focusing on this trip and that has been helping him as he tries to navigate through his emotions. Everyone is onboard with his absence now.

Originally Posted by Cam22

I love all your choices! Happy eating!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Miss Alaska

Sounds wonderful... You are less than a month away! I am so envious!

I know - it seemed like it was so far away when we first booked it and now it's right around the corner! Crazy!

Originally Posted by Wolfy6688

Ok, all caught up!

First, I'm so sorry about your brother. That's such a tragedy You're a wonderful aunt for taking Eric with you. If more families were that caring, I think people would be much better in general. Eric seems like a great kid - I loved his texts to you about Disney! How sweet!

I totally sympathize with finding a good place for your dogs. It's very hard!

I like your ADRs and can't wait to read more of your plans.

Thank you for your condolences. I don't know about being a wonderful aunt - it's so easy to do things with my nieces and nephews, they are all just the darlingest kids - even the adults.

I'm still stressing about my pups. The sleepover place didn't work out - apparently two large dogs is a scary proposition for most people. It looks like they'll have to go to the Pet Resort, which is OK, but I wanted them to have a yard and a house.

[MikeL]

Sorry that things didn't work out for your girls. But it sounds like they have been to camp before so I am sure they'll do fine. Mine don't know they are going next week as we have a wedding in NY next week

[GinnyMouse]

Thank goodness you get a different CM every time you call!

You know that wonderful feeling you get when you’ve nailed down all the important things for your WDW vacation? How nice for you if you’ve had that experience because I never have and this trip is not going to be any different.

I’m going to have to divert from my PTR a little to give you some background. We have an adult son who lives back East. Matthew and I speak to each other almost every single day. We talk about his work, who he’s dating (he’s a serial dater – I will never be a mother-in-law ), movies and plays and everything else under the sun. You might (wrongly) think that there is very little going on his life that would surprise me.

Before I share his little bombshells, let me tell you a bit about Matthew. He graduated from West Point , served his 5-year obligation (in Hawaii), and left the Army as a Captain when he was almost 26. He immediately went to graduate school (Harvard Business School & Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government) and earned a MBA & MPA. He’s worked in London, Paris, Madrid, Dubai, Saudi Arabia (did I mention he speaks Arabic, French and Spanish?), and New York.

He finally settled in New York – a fabulous flat in Manhattan, a place out in Connecticut, and a great job as a managing partner in a private equity firm. I thought he was happy with where his adventures had led him.

First surprise - last fall, shortly before he died, my brother asked me what I thought about Matthew going back into the Army. What??!!! I had to tell my brother that I knew nothing about this plan (embarrassing!), so he filled me in. Apparently Matthew was going to ‘cash out’ and try to get back into the Army – in some kind of specialized unit. (Yeah – a geriatric unit – he’s no spring chicken!!!)

Anyway, I waited, day after day after day, for Matthew to tell me about his plans. He didn’t say a word to me until after he came home for my brother’s funeral. He was in ‘talks’ with the Army, but did not have a definite plan. Now, several months later, it looks like there is a plan and he will be back in uniform this fall.

I don’t know how I feel about this. He is giving up so much for something he never seemed to have much dedication to when he was younger. I want to be supportive, but I think this is a little crazy.

Second surprise – out of the blue, Matthew tells me that he’s thinking of joining us at WDW. I tell him it doesn’t quite work that way – you can’t just pop in. I explain the rules about all the people in the room needing the same dining plan and same tickets, etc. He needs to do more than just think – he needs to make a decision. He tells me he can’t because of the Army thing – they might want him to do something the weekend we’re in Florida. Or it might be the weekend before. He won’t know until mid-September. Really?????

Eric calls me to chat. He tells me he’s really excited because Matthew might come. I tell him not to get his hopes up because we won’t know for sure until the week before we leave. Eric idolizes Matthew and they talk at least once a week. So now I really hope my son can join us because it will make Eric’s trip really special (except for the fact that Matthew never lets Eric order soda to drink).

So back to planning. I have called Disney several times already for this trip so I’m cringing as I dial to see what can be done to add Matthew on our trip at the last possible minute. I am surprised that I’m not on a “Do Not Answer” list, and so grateful they can’t see me when I call.

Fortunately I get another fabulous CM who is helpful to the ‘nth’ degree. She tells me that I can add Matthew as late as 72 hours before our arrival. They can even get him on Magical Express with no problem, should his flights not coincide with ours.

So now I tell her the thing that’s worrying me most – our ADRs. They are all set for 3. To be on the safe side, I need to make them for 4. But since I won’t know if he’s coming until 4 days before, will we risk losing our table if I have to change the number back to 3?

No problem, CM Wednesday (I think it’s a fake name too), tells me. She’ll try to change them all to 4 guests. She says not to change them back to 3 (except for HDDR & SoA), if Matthew can’t make it. She says that except for Le Cellier, most places are going to seat us at a 4-top anyway. I ask her if the folks at the restaurant will be upset if we show up with only 3 people when the ADR is for 4. She says, well it honestly can’t be helped and I should not worry about it. (I still kind of do, though.)

So we go through all my reservations and she is able to change each and every one from 3 people to 4. How is that for Disney Magic???

When I finally get off the phone – an hour later, I’m feeling much better about how things are going.

But wait – remember that husband who doesn’t care where we eat? Well someone at his office told him that the food at Teppan Edo is really good and it’s very entertaining. So he has one more request. Could I please cancel one of our meals – but not one that he’s already requested – and see if we can get into Teppan Edo? He thinks Eric will really like it.

Oh my gosh! I had no idea how popular that restaurant is. It’s been a nightmare trying to find seats for 4 people at a decent hour. But the Magic continues…..we’ve got an ADR at 7:20 on 9/24. Of course that meant we had to cancel Brown Derby. No worries – I’ll get a Cobb salad next time.

Update: 2 days later, Mr.-I-don’t-care-where-we-eat says, “Are we eating at any of those restaurants where we need to dress up? Maybe we should skip those since the parks close so early and stick to the places where we can wear shorts.”

So, once again I’ve sacrificed my potato-wrapped snapper for reasons beyond my control. The Flying Fish is out and the Brown Derby is back on the itinerary.

Eric reminded me this morning we have 20 more days until our vacation. I hope there are no more changes and I can focus on my practice packing!!!

[athenagwis]

Whew, I am tired just thinking about all those changes!! It will be exciting if your son can join you, I hope he is able to work something out. I know it must be hard as a mother to see him go back in the military, but it sounds like he has thought about it for a while. I hope it works out the way he wants it to. Some of our military buddies got out with us and went back in a few years later and really loved it the second time around. Maybe you can't appreciate it as much until you are out for a while? Please tell him thank you for his service.

Here's a little pixie dust ..... .... hoping you don't have any more changes (or at least not too many more)!!

Rachel

[Asuka]

It all sounds so exciting! And you're so close to your trip!

[chezp]

I hope he is able to join you!