Our anticipated return to WDW, with dining and Christmas day included! PTR 9/28 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Our anticipated return to WDW, with dining and Christmas day included! PTR 12/19-12/26
Hello everyone! It has been quite a while since I have been on the boards, but I am BACK! Much has happened since I have been away, some good, some not so good, but that is life and we must keep rolling! Now, we haven't been to WDW since last September, which is the longest we have gone in 4 years without visiting. IT'S KILLING US!! We had no choice though, I began Paramedic school last fall and there was no way to find the time or money to go....HOWEVER..... I have now graduated, and we are heading BACK! This is going to be the most in depth trip we have made to date, it will be the first time we utilize the DDP, and we will be there for Christmas Day! Now, on a side note, we never go during any busy time of the year because I personally can't stand the crowds, but keeping in mind that we haven't been for 15 months, and it will be Christmas, I think I can deal with it . Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, lol, on to the good stuff!
DW and I decided it would be a really nice way to celebrate Christmas with the kids this year if we could do it in Disney, however, the costs would be more than we were used to because of the peak time and the fact that we would have to purchase regular AP's to visit during the holiday. We spent some time thinking about how we would come up with the extra, and then one day it hit me. Now I am sure many of you know about Disney's Vinylmations. I have been collecting them since our trip last September, and collecting them, and collecting them, lol. I think they are so neat.....BUT......staring at them all in my living room would be nowhere near as good as thinning them out and creating some Christmas magic Disney style! Sooooo....I have been selling some of them to assist us in our endeavour, and it is working beautifully.
Initially we were going to stay in ASM and dine as we saw fit, which is our usual way. As I began selling the vinyls though, I started to figure out how much I could bank by selling the most desired ones, and realized we could do much more for our trip! It doesn't hurt that we can pay for our AP's monthly now either! So DW and I started looking at other options. The more we looked, the more we wanted to stay in a Moderate, initially CB, however DD is now 14 and DS is going to be 11, and those full size beds don't work for them anymore. That is when we discovered CS has 2 queen beds in each room! There it was, our mind was made up, lol.
Coming soon........."Let's do Christmas dinner in Biertgarten.....OH, that Luau looks fun......WAIT, what about a character meal?", and how that all turned into "Well, it won't be THAT much more just to try the DDP!"
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Jami (my beautiful wife), Kristen (my beautiful daughter), Jerry (my dashing son), and ME (the biggest kid of em all)
Last edited by shaunmyers; 09-28-2010 at 08:29 PM..
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Thank you Cam22, I think it will be great! We really hope so chezp, maybe the crowds won't be so bad? lol Thank you Colexismom
Ok....so we did some researching online, both through Disney's site, here, and on allears....and after reading reviews and viewing pics, we were really set on CS. Next was planning how much we needed to save and for that we had to figure out what we wanted to do. Now, we will be getting down there the morning of the 19th, which is the last day of MVMCP, so the first decision was whether we were going to attend or not. We have been to the party twice before, and absolutely love it! However, this trip we decided to look at things we haven't done yet, so our first decision was to look at something other than MVMCP. La Nouba was something we have yet to do, so that was where we started. We brought the kids in and talked to them about it, and they agreed they would love to see it, so our initial plans included getting tickets (please note I said "initial"....one thing about me when I plan something is the amazing metamorphisis that occurs from the "original" idea to the "finished" product.....lol, I am easily distracted or sidetracked when planning...."shiny penny, shiny penny". So, with that on the list, our next task was any dining we might want to do. Being down there for Christmas day, there was no doubt we had to plan a TS for that day, where was the only issue. DD is a very picky eater, so I needed to find something that would include traditional fare as well as a little bit of another culture. What is the quickest way to do that? Yes, I just called Disney and explained my situation, lol, and the CM was kind enough to list off several restaraunts that would fit the bill. She mentioned that Biertgarten would be offering traditional Christmas as well as some of the regular fare, and the menu sounded great! DW and I decided that was it, we would be eating in Germany for Christmas! That was one meal to schedule, were there any others? As we were looking through the PP, the dinner shows looked interesting, so we began to read about them, and the Luau sounded like it would be a lot of fun, sooooo....there was ressie #2! Then DW asked about a character meal, did we want to do one? Well, the kids are still into autographs, and I personally like the characters, so that was a grand idea, but where? Once again we flipped through the PP and looked at which ones we have not been to yet. Akershus stood out the most, the pictures of the dining hall were beautiful, the food sounded great, and while DD isn't really into Princesses, she does love Jasmine and Belle, so that was a bonus. Ok, so we figured that would take care of us on TS meals, now I needed to see what it would cost. I ran the prices, added everything up, and choked when I realized what difference it makes that both the kids are adult priced now!! Well....I go ahead and add the total price to the "save" list and go to bed for the night. Now, I usually wake up far earlier than the rest of the monkey troop in this house, so right away I was back to the computer tracking Disney, lol. While scrolling through the current special offerings, I start playing around with the AP specials, and decide to add on the DDP for the heck of it and see what it would run. Much to my surprise, it wasn't as much as I expected, so when DW got up and moving, I showed her. "What would be the benefit?" she asked. Well, I told her we could pick out a few more TS, plus get the CS on top of it, and since we were already planning the three, why not a few more? In fact, why not make that a new thing we try this trip? A new restaraunt each day for TS, and see if we could squeeze the value out of the DDP. Soooo, the plans changed again! lol
Next.....not only do we have to figure out what restaraunts to add, but we make some changes to what we already decided...SHINY PENNY!!
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Jami (my beautiful wife), Kristen (my beautiful daughter), Jerry (my dashing son), and ME (the biggest kid of em all)
I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world
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Ok, so, in my normal fashion, I have changed my reservations several more times! I have finally got them all narrowed down though I made several changes just because what I originally wanted was not available, so as they have become available I have grabbed them up! I also restructured the trip to avoid the busiest parts of the parks and made the changes to correspond with that. So, here they are!
Sunday we will be spending our time in Animal Kingdom so our ADR is at Boma
Monday is Epcot day #1 and we are looking to catch the first Candlelight Processional with Trace Adkins narrating, and then off to Via Napoli to feast on brick oven fired pizza!
Tuesday is a quick stop at Hollywood Studios (this is our least favorite park with only a few rides we do), and then to Dowtown Disney so that the kids can take advantage of our new passes and the unlimited DisneyQuest time! The DW and I will enjoy the peace and quiet as we stroll the stores and finish up the Christmas shopping, and then we depart for the 9:30 Hoop-dee-doo review, Category 1!!
Wednesday is our first day at Magic Kingdom, which is unusual because it is my requirement that we visit there immediately upon arrival so that I can look down Main Street and see the castle....and know that I am HOME!! With the crowds though, we are trying something new this time, and tonights dinner will be at the Kona Cafe.
Thursday is our return to Epcot (which all in all is my favorite park) and a dining date with the Princesses at Akershus!
Friday, Christmas Eve, is our return to Magic Kingdom....our dining will take us on the resort boat to Wilderness Lodge as we experience the Whispering Canyon Cafe...and then return to MK for a surprise we have in store for the kids. Now, our surprise was initially slated for Christmas night as our last hoorah since we are leaving early on the 26th, however, I have read much about the crowds at MK on Christmas and decided it would be best to make the change.....anyhow....we are going to view Holiday Wishes from the Tomorrowland Terrace with plates full of sugary goodies and cups full of cocoa...because we are doing the Dessert Party!!! I thought this would be a neat thing to do (although I really doubt we'll eat our money's worth in dessert, lol) because we are not doing the Christmas Party this trip....but I am excited and we think the kids will love it!
And finally, on Christmas day, we plan to unwind at the resort in the morning until our date with the Photopass photographer for 40 minutes of pictures at the Animal Kingdom Lodge....then we are going to sneak in the back gate of Epcot so that we can have Christmas dinner at Biergarten...then we will dash back out of the nightmare crowds I expect to be there for a return trip to the resort. After a little rest we will make our way to Fort Wilderness to spend our final evening with Chip and Dale...roasting marshmallows, singing songs, and watching Disney movies!
Only 72 more days!!!! wooooohooooo!
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Jami (my beautiful wife), Kristen (my beautiful daughter), Jerry (my dashing son), and ME (the biggest kid of em all)
Ahhhhhh....look at me, not even an explanation as to why we are not doing the Luau!! hahaha.....I made several restaraunt changes based upon the last six months reviews I have read over several forums. We decided against the Luau and Coral Reef based upon a predominance of lesser reviews in the past six months.....but we added Via Napoli based upon the exceptional reviews! I will actually be paying out of pocket for that one, but it sounded so good! We also are considering paying OOP for breakfast Christmas morning the the Maya Grill. I have read mixed reviews, but some family of ours says their breakfast is really good, so we might give that a go round too! The nice thing is, every one of these restaraunts is new to us as we have not eaten at any of them since we started going back a few years ago, so we are really excited to try them!
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Jami (my beautiful wife), Kristen (my beautiful daughter), Jerry (my dashing son), and ME (the biggest kid of em all)
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. Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, lol, on to the good stuff!
So DW and I started looking at other options. The more we looked, the more we wanted to stay in a Moderate, initially CB, however DD is now 14 and DS is going to be 11, and those full size beds don't work for them anymore. That is when we discovered CS has 2 queen beds in each room! There it was, our mind was made up, lol. 
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