Pixie Dusted Honeymoon August 3rd - August 10th, 2009 PTR - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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There are other changes as well.
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PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, your plans look great. Just wanted to mention becuase I know you are trying to cut costs but you wanted to try the Tonga Toast, you can get Tonga Toast at Captian Cook's which is the food court at the Poly, this way you could either use a CS credit or pay OOP.
Thanks for all the feedback guys! I've never planned a vacation like this before so all your help has been invaluable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcc0313
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding, your plans look great. Just wanted to mention becuase I know you are trying to cut costs but you wanted to try the Tonga Toast, you can get Tonga Toast at Captian Cook's which is the food court at the Poly, this way you could either use a CS credit or pay OOP.
Thanks so much for the tip. I made my ADRs today and am booked at Kona, but maybe I'll switch to save a little $. We're already planning on paying OOP for this one so we don't use a TS credit, but I never thought about using a CS instead.
I was able to make my ADRs on Tuesday morning, but haven't had a chance to post as its super busy at work. I didn't have any park hours at the time so I went by what the hours were last year. Luckily, after the park hours were released (around 5-6 hours AFTER I made my ADRs) I didn't feel like I needed to change anything. We'll see if I have a different opinion once TouringPlans gets around to updating their crowd calendar.
So here's how the ADR process went down. Monday night I was talking to my DH2B and said we needed to go over the dinner plans for our honeymoon as I needed to make the ADRs in the morning. So I got out the spreadsheet I had made and he laughed! He couldn't believe that I actually had a spreadsheet. He's not as into planning as I am, but once we started talking he found the spreadsheets very helpful. He had no idea how much planning I had done for the honeymoon. He basically said "Whatever you want dear" as he'll eat whatever. His two requests were that he still wanted to do the Luau and eat in the Castle. I told him about the so-so reviews for the food at CRT and he said he didn't care. It was a special occasion and we can't eat in a castle at home. So nothing really changed with my plans after talking to him, but I figured it was polite to at least let him think that he had some input.
So with the plans finalized (well except for those darn hours) I went to bed. Since Disney opens their phone lines at 7 AM it would be 6 AM here in MN. I get to work by 7 AM so I'm up by 5:30 AM getting ready. I had set an alarm on my phone for 5:55 AM to start calling. I was in the middle of putting on make-up when the alarm went off, but I dropped that and called. "Our office is closed". So I continued applying foundation and waited a minute. "Our office is closed". More make-up waited another minute. "Our office is closed". Waited again. Finally! I got through and answered the prompts and then braced myself for a long wait as I had read about people on the boards having to wait on hold for up to a half an hour. I put my phone on speaker and continued getting ready. Since it is a busy time at work I really had to try and get there by 7 AM, but if reservations made me late so be it! Once I put the phone on speaker I heard the first few bars of a song and then someone answered. I was shocked! I was maybe on hold for 20 seconds.
The first thing I did was say we wanted CRT for dinner on August 4th. I was fine with anytime between 5 and 8 PM. The woman helping me looked it up and said "Oh my. You should be fine you called right at 7 AM. CRT can't be booked yet!" Then she realized that she hadn't maximized her screen and there was, in fact, a 7 PM opening at CRT on the 4th. She said it was one of the last openings for that day. Thank goodness I listened to all of you here on the boards. I would have never called that early in the morning without the advice from you all!
All of the other reservations went fine and I got everything I wanted. I wasn't picky about time except for the one breakfast we wanted. I asked for dinner anytime between 5 and 8 PM and was able to get right around 7 PM every night. I figured that was fine. We're adults and can go to the later reservations. Leave the earlier ones open for people with kids.
So here's what I ended up snagging:
Aug 4th - CRT @ 7 PM
Aug 5th - Teppan Edo @ 7 PM
Aug 6th - Kona @ 8:55 AM
Aug 7th - Luau @ 8 PM
Aug 8th - Crystal Palace @ 7 PM
Aug 9th - Coral Reef @ 7 PM
The CM I talked to was very helpful and a pleasure to work with. I'll admit I had read a lot of complaints about making ADRs recently and I wasn't hoping for the best experience, but maybe I just ended up lucky as it was a great experience! I was off the phone in 17 min and that included the time it took me to take the short survey.
Now I've got all this waiting to do before the trip. How on earth am I going to pass the time?
Not really an update, but yesterday I got the first item that we bought specifically for the trip: rain poncho's. We bought a bunch of them in the dollar spot at Target. Not that this is a big purchase, but it was the first purchase for the trip! My DH2B thinks its strange how excited I got about buying those. Especially since he knows I'm hoping we won't have to use them.