The "Aren't you glad I booked the room?" TR - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Wow, your plans look great! I'm with Cam on breakfast, I need to wake up my internal workings slowly and I'm not usually ready for food until around 10 a.m.!
I will be really interested to see what you make of Garden Grill breakfast, though. It is one of our favourite restaurants at Epcot but we have only ever had dinner there, so I will be watching the breakfast reports with interest.
Keep up the good work Darlene, I am delighted you guys are going back so soon!
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Wow, your plans look great! I'm with Cam on breakfast, I need to wake up my internal workings slowly and I'm not usually ready for food until around 10 a.m.!
I will be really interested to see what you make of Garden Grill breakfast, though. It is one of our favourite restaurants at Epcot but we have only ever had dinner there, so I will be watching the breakfast reports with interest.
Keep up the good work Darlene, I am delighted you guys are going back so soon!
Thank you. We're happy to be going back. I'm not typically a breakfast eater here at home (and don't often eat lunch anymore either) but working in a kitchen may have something to do with it. On vacation though, I find it very easy to eat breakfast that early. Probably due to a combination of excitement, being up early (I'll probably be up at 5:30 every day), and knowing I'll need to eat to keep going the rest of the day.
Garden Grill is one of our favorites too and we've been having dinner because that's all they served. We were very excited when we heard about breakfast being served again and wanted to try it out.
We had decided last year after going on the Pirates and Pals cruise that we'd enjoyed it enough that we wanted to do it again on our next trip. So after the airfare and the scooter, I decided to try and call Disney for that. I had a lot of trouble getting through to book it however as I was constantly told there was a long wait. I forget now how long it took me but I kept trying for a couple of weeks to get through and once I finally did, I was able to book the date I had been hoping for. The cost, like everything else at Disney, went up from last year but only $10 a person so it wasn't unreasonable.
Excellent! It was because of reading about the wonderful time you had last August (as well as some info I got from cattailmarsh) that we booked it for our trip this past May. It really was a lot of fun, well worth it.
As it turns out, we're going again in August ourselves during some of your time (we'll be there the 15th to the 22nd) so may run into you! (We have a wedding to go to in the Orlando area anyway, so figured, why not tack on Disney time?).
Sounds like this trip was just meant to be since everything seemed to just fall into place. You were able to snag some great choices! We love, love, love Cape May Cafe breakfast.
Thanks - I've thought the same thing too - we're "suppose" to go this year because things have been working out for us. We like CMC too not necessarily because of the food - yes, it is good - but more because it's a relaxing way to start the day. It's not as busy and noisy as the other character meals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by xwewhisper
Looks like some great dining choices and glad you were able to make the switches you wanted!
Thanks. We know there are a lot of choices out there but we tend to stick to the same ones time and time again. I too was happy to be able to switch.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Victoria L.
Excellent! It was because of reading about the wonderful time you had last August (as well as some info I got from cattailmarsh) that we booked it for our trip this past May. It really was a lot of fun, well worth it.
As it turns out, we're going again in August ourselves during some of your time (we'll be there the 15th to the 22nd) so may run into you! (We have a wedding to go to in the Orlando area anyway, so figured, why not tack on Disney time?).
Glad to be joining in. Can't wait to hear more.
I'm so glad you had such a good time with the Pirates and Pals cruise. It really is fun and I can't recommend it enough. Tacking Disney time on top of a wedding in Orlando? Sounds very logical to me and since you're there at roughly the same time, you'll have to stay tuned to see if our plans match at all.
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During the rest of February and most of March I didn't really do anything else except come to the boards and read my websites. I "saw" all the new things mentioned - the new stage show, Rivers of Light, the new stuff in Norway, the new M&G's - but without actual dates for opening (Norway, Soarin) and no schedules (RoL, the MK stage show, the M&G) there was actually nothing to do. I keep reusing the same itinerary and with no "concrete" information, there was no use for me to make changes to it. It didn't help either that my boss at the gas station made a comment one day about my ipad. He didn't point me out specifically but he did make a comment how with all the new pumps and technology, etc, that if one of the IT guys came by, it would look really bad if someone had a "personal electronic device" near the register. I could be using it to hack into the computer and steal information. Yeah, right. I don't have the know how to begin with and I certainly don't have the inclination to do it. I worked in a bank for years with thousands of dollars in my drawer at any given time and if I didn't steal from that, I'm certainly not going to steal something like credit information. Especially when you consider I'm lucky I know enough about my iPad to just play the apps I have. I know just a little bit more about my computer (just a little bit though) - but I've had one of those for close to 30 years. The iPad I'm only going on 2 years . So with his comments, there went the ability to use my iPad on slow Sundays to do Disney planning. I could do whatever I wanted regarding Disney with good old pen and paper, which I really don't mind, but the iPad the last two trips was just so helpful when I wanted to look something up or if I thought of a question, I could ask it then and there. Then when I got the info I was looking for I could make my notes and do my tweaking. It didn't take too long before I hit a stone wall with only the pen and paper at work.
Time went by and I read a lot about different things but after reading about a rumored dining package for RoL, Lenny and I were talking about it and he wanted me to book the package and he wanted to try it for dinner. I went online and I was able to get just an ADR very easily for a time that we usually get dinner - 4 pm - at TH. It was just a dinner reservation, not a dining package, but I figured this was early enough so it wouldn't interfere with any RoL showing and if we kept our breakfast meal at TH, it would probably be about the time we'd be getting hungry anyway. The only question was would we want to eat at the same restaurant and see the same characters twice in one day. No one answered my question so I just kept both ADR's. If we couldn't make the trip work, both would have to be canceled. If we could make it happen, I would have until 24 hours before the meal to decide so I had more than enough time to figure it out. Along with RoL, I had also read about purple magic bands being released as a "free" choice so I immediately went to the WDW website and chose it for Abby.
Most everything was looking pretty good for this trip we weren't sure whether we were taking or not. The only thing I hadn't really done anything with was Garden Grocer. Last year, Lenny didn't want to use them until he was told he had to watch what he was eating due to his Diabetes. He was all "woe is me, I can't eat anything, what am I suppose to eat on vacation?" so I talked to him about GG and told him about all the things we could get at reasonable prices for him to eat while in the room. He liked what I told him and just like that, we placed an order and I have to say, I really liked it. It was so nice having someone else get all the stuff we wanted and have it brought right to the door. For this year, when I talked to Lenny about them, he asked if we were going to use them again to which I said yes and his one request was that I not get the hard boiled eggs again. He said they were tough and tasteless. That comment of course got me wondering what we could do for them.
Here at home, we always keep hard boiled eggs in the fridge and they're a quick snack for both Lenny and Abby and it helps keep them away from carb laden foods (chips, breads, etc which I really limit how much of them I buy anyway) so it's something we'd want to do at Disney too. GG ones were out and the Disney ones would get expensive (according to one of the Allears menus, $2.59 for a two pack). Lenny mentioned getting eggs at Walgreens and making them at Disney somehow but the more I looked into doing something like that, it wouldn't be easy (or cheap). After looking into if for at least 30 to 45 minutes I'm guessing, it finally came to me "I make sandwiches to take with us, why can't I just make the eggs here at home and take those with us too?" We can get through security with solid food items (we've done it so we know we can) and hard boiled eggs would definitely be solid. The only problem I have would be keeping them cold until we get to Disney. Then I thought of using ice packs but it's about 45 minutes from our house to the airport and in that time, they could start to melt and at the cost of them, I would not want to just throw them away. Then I started thinking "what if I fill a quart size ziploc with water, freeze it into an ice block and take that"? If it melts, I can pour off any water before security and if they still want me to throw it away, all I'm out is a plastic bag and tap water. Then after security, I could buy a cold drink or get some ice from Dunkin Donuts (basically the only thing open at the airport that early in the morning) and throw it in the bag with the eggs to help keep them cold longer. I wouldn't have a problem with the eggs being out for just a couple of hours but from something like 3 in the morning until 11 or so is just too many hours for my comfort. I told Lenny my idea and he called it "brilliant."
By the beginning of May, Lenny's hours had increased at Home Depot. It wasn't full time but it was good enough. With the higher rate of pay he was hired at combined with all the Sundays he was working and getting paid time and a half, he was bringing home pretty much what he had been before. I was (and still am) working the extra night at the station too so that meant I easily paid our bills and had money to put into savings, some of it being vacation. Looking at what we had plus looking ahead to what I was confident I could put away over the coming months, we were finally able to make a decision regarding the trip - we could go!!
Disney is still keeping us wondering about the RoL and its dining packages. I have us booked at Tusker House for an early dinner around 4:00, too, in hopes we can convert it to the dining package if those open up. Clever plan for the hard boiled eggs!
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I have a dining package booked for the Jungle book show but I am thinking of cancelling it and just doing stand by. It isn't getting the crowds that RoL would get.
Darlene your TR's have always entertained me and taught me new things. You had me cracking up over the hard boiled egg idea, because my DS had just asked about making him some for a n upcoming car trip. I will now be testing your idea to see how long a dozen eggs will remain cold!
I have made hard boiled eggs & taken them on short camping trips many times. I too, hate the rubbery taste of hard boiled eggs at hotels. I think your plan is a good one just make sure the eggs are not in extended contact with the water of you peel them prior to leaving home. Peeling them when they are first cooked is much easier than doing it as needed however they will tend to keep better in the shell. My favorite vessel for transporting & keeping peeled eggs freshest longest - a tall sturdy plastic container I have from a quart of soup. The lid is very air tight & the eggs stay very fresh.
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. So with his comments, there went the ability to use my iPad on slow Sundays to do Disney planning. I could do whatever I wanted regarding Disney with good old pen and paper, which I really don't mind, but the iPad the last two trips was just so helpful when I wanted to look something up or if I thought of a question, I could ask it then and there. Then when I got the info I was looking for I could make my notes and do my tweaking. It didn't take too long before I hit a stone wall with only the pen and paper at work. 
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