Two Weeks of Mickey, Land & Sea - August 2011 - A PTR that WILL Become a TR! - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Two Weeks of Mickey, Land & Sea - August 2011 - A PTR that WILL Become a TR!
Cast of Characters
Christine (me) - 43yo - Lover of all things Disney (Mario would say obsessed). I'm a wife, mom, graphic artist (in pharmaceutical research), volunteer Child Passenger Safety Technician (my "other" obsession), and general overplanner! (12 previous trips) Mario (dh) - 43yo - The wonderful man that "puts up" with my love of all things Disney! He's an amazing husband and dad, a network administrator, and really enjoys biking (sometimes as much as 100 miles a week!). (10 previous trips) Bethany (dd) - 10yo (in mid-July!) - Big sister extraordinaire and loves Disney almost as much as mom (dh thinks it is genetic)! Beth loves to read, do crafts and has her own healthy obsession with her Nintendo DS (sorry DSi XL, she corrects me all the time!)! (5 previous trips) Benjamin (ds) - 5yo - The "baby" of the family who will be starting kindergarten just days after returning from our trip. Ben loves any kind of vehicle that can move...cars, trains, buses, planes. The family has possibly seen Cars as much as most of the Pixar employees have! Ben also enjoys playing the Wii and his DS, and it scares me how well he plays them! (2 previous trips)
Backstory
In September of 2000, Mario and I were married in Ocho Rios, Jamaica while on a Celebrity Cruise with 20 of our friends and family! At the time, we looked into getting married at WDW as well as at DCL, but neither fit what we needed (although Mario did manage to give me my engagement ring at Cindy's Wishing Well...I'll post the story in a separate post).
At some point after we had Beth & Ben, we decided that it would be fitting to celebrate our 10th anniversary by taking the kids on DCL since we were originally married on a cruise and we (I) love Disney so much. We've always told the kids that our wedding anniversary was our family's birthday so we didn't think for a second to not include them!
As we started looking at cruises and trying to plan a trip for 2010, one by one family members and friends sent save the date cards for their weddings...all scheduled during the summer of 2010. Mario and I made the decision to attend the weddings and postpone our celebration trip to the summer of 2011 instead. So...our 10th anniversary trip is actually taking place just a few short weeks from our 11th anniversary!
We (I) looked long and hard at schedules, sailings, and deliberated how long we wanted to sail as well as how long we wanted to spend at WDW. After much discussion, we decided that we wanted to do a 5 day cruise on the Dream, and 5 nights at WDW. Our favorite time to visit WDW is early December, but I quickly nixed a trip at that time because although I'm okay w/ pulling the kids out of school for trips... 2 wks out of school is too much for me so we opted for the summertime.
Even though I have always sworn that I would always fly to WDW... we decided that with the length of our trip (more luggage), and the lack of free transportation to/from the ship that we would drive. I wasn't thrilled with driving, but it was the smartest option in our situation so I resigned myself to it, and started the planning for amusements for the kids! This decision would later change, sort of!
I worked with our wonderful TA Sara and managed to snag Free Dining for our late August stay, as well as book our cruise on the Dream! YAY!
__________________
Christine
Last edited by Minniemouse27; 07-29-2011 at 03:38 PM..
The problem with booking over a year out.... you have waaaay too long to wait! I had a lot to research for DCL since we've never cruised with Disney before. The planner in me is very comfortable with WDW but I possess non of that innate knowledge about DCL, which made me a bit nervous. Having a TA that knows the DCL lingo, rules, and deadlines has been essential to my piece of mind. Sara has been wonderful to work with and I am confident that all our Ts are crossed and Is are dotted!
I joined the cruise group over on the Dis and started chatting with others that will be on the same sailing, and signed up for the Fish Extender exchange. I have both the 2010 (printed) and 2011 (electronic) PassPorter DCL Guides...they both helped immensely.
Some of the wait was alleviated by all the coverage of the Dream's Inaugural sailing. I was glued to the live webcasts, podcasts, and read all the trip reports about the new ship
There was a lot of research on my part about the drive. I asked questions, read trip reports and pulled maps. One trip report I came across early this year, talked about Amtrak's AutoTrain. Hmmm. I looked into it, crunched numbers and it came up that driving (with a hotel stop either way because I am NOT a good nighttime driver) was only marginally less than the cost of the AutoTrain.
Mario was THRILLED. Apparently he's always wanted to take the AutoTrain ...see you can still learn new things about your spouse, even after 10 years! Ben was beside himself in excitement. His first question... will our van ride on TOP of the train?
Our AutoTrain trip will be in coach (a family bedroom would have doubled the cost of the tickets) and it includes dinner, snacks, and a continental breakfast.
One of the upsides of taking the train is that it will get us to Florida FASTER than if we drove (including that overnight stop)...this allows us to spend our arrival and departure days with my ILs who live locally to WDW. I was having a difficult time trying to figure out when we would spend time with them during our vacation (because we couldn't be 20min away and NOT visit) so we will spend our arrival day (and night) at their house and start our "vacation" the next day! We will also spend our last night in Florida with them. My DIL duties will be fulfilled (although I will probably hear some commentary about how they wish were there longer).
Cruise or Park First?
I totally bought into the do the parks first, rest on the cruise theory ....and then I looked at the schedules for the Dream and nothing worked. We needed 2 days for travel at the beginning and end, then wanted the 5 days on the cruise and 5 nights at WDW. Oh and dh said that since we will be right at Port Canaveral, he would REALLY like to see the Kennedy Space Center this visit.
So if I put the cruise first, I could fit it all in and make the trip Saturday to Sunday, which made it so we only had to take 10 vacation days off from work for both Mario and I!
Here is the general itinerary:
13 - Leave PA/Amtrak
14 - Arrive FL/ILs
15 - Kennedy Space Center
16 - 21 Dream
21 - 26 WDW
26 - ILs
27 - Amtrak
28 - Arrive VA/Drive to PA
Our past WDW visits revolved around buffets. I have two kids that love veggies and have never eaten a hamburger (their choice), so buffets always have been the safest bets for us. I was determined that we wouldn't go to the same old restaurants and we WOULD try new places. I also figured that we didn't NEED to do character meals since we would get our fill on the ship, so we could skip our traditional trip to Chef Mickey's on the first night of our stay.
I was 80% successful! Bethany got all kinds of puppy dog eyes about missing 1900 Park Fare and her Strawberry Soup....so that is our only repeat!
Another wrench in the plans is that Bethany is now an "adult" since she turned 10yo just a few weeks ago. It made the restaurant search a bit more interesting since I was now making sure that there were "adult" options for her on each menu. Thankfully we were able to book during a Free Dining window so it takes away a little bit of the pain. Interestingly, since we are now 3 "adults", all the subsequent deals and PINs we received after booking never came close to beating the cost of our trip w/ Free Dining.
Dining Reservations
1900 Park Fare
Coral Reef
Boma
50's Prime Time Cafe*
Le Chefs de France
*Mario and I have eaten here, but before kids so it will be a "family first."
Lodging
During one of our prekid WDW trips, Mario and I went to a character breakfast at Artist Point (Pooh & Friends before they moved to Crystal Palace). While we were there we fell in LOVE with the Wilderness Lodge. Right then and there we said...someday we would stay there.
Speed forward to 2007. Our first "big" family trip where we stayed on property. Previously we stayed with our ILs that live locally. We looked at WL but it was so much more $$ than the moderates, POR specifically so we put off our WL stay (and fell in love w/ POR!).
I took Bethany to WDW, just the two of us, for her 7th birthday the following summer (2008). We opted to stay at Pop and rent a car (in mid-July) to save some money but a few months before the trip we received one of those precious PIN codes and it placed WL into the affordable range for our short trip!
Mario was a bit jealous that we would be there without him and Ben, but it was all good. Beth and I fell in love with the lodge and came back even more excited to stay there with everyone some day.
When we started planning this trip we looked at all the resorts but Mario kept coming back to WL. He said that it was our celebration trip and we should stick with were we wanted to stay (even if it might have been less $$ to stay at POR again).
Even though we are splurging for WL, we couldn't rationalize well over $300 more for the kids to get bunk beds in a Woods View room...so Standard will do for us.
We are all looking forward to our first family stay at Wilderness Lodge....can't wait to see the Mickey Totem Pole and the Geyser!
__________________
Christine
Last edited by Minniemouse27; 07-30-2011 at 11:12 AM..
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We were able to book the train earlier this year and since then have watched the price more than double! I'm glad I read that trip report earlier rather than later!
We are prepared for our journey. Not much different than a car ride, just can move around more! Hand held games, Kindle, travel games, cards...they are all in a box waiting to be packed up!
Both kids picked out Pillow Pets to use on the train. Ben's Penguin was easy to find but Bethany wanted a Dolphin that we had to look forever for. I tried valiantly to talk her into a Ladybug but she was adamant. Mario and the kids finally found the Dolphin last weekend, and the kids insisted on buying ME the Ladybug!
I suggested to Mario that he needs one now too...I got a glare and a firm NO! LOL
We will also have throw blankets for everyone to sleep with!
I'm hoping I thought of everything for the trip!
__________________
Christine
Last edited by Minniemouse27; 07-30-2011 at 11:12 AM..
The early disembarkation off the Dream will leave us practically a full day at a park to start off our WDW stay. I always have to start and end my trips with the Magic Kingdom so I was thrilled that once WDW released their hours, MK was listed as "best park" by Touring Plans for that day!
Our most recent very short trip (June of last year) we skipped Animal Kingdom due to lack of time (and no Park Hoppers!) so we are making sure we include it this year!
Bethany also would like to spend some time doing the Kim Possible Adventures in Epcot. We were able to do two last year (just the two of us) and she thinks that Mario and Ben would have a lot of fun with them as well.
I balanced out the TP recommendations, how much time we wanted to spend in each park, and where we wanted to eat to come up w/ a master plan....which of course could be thrown out the window at any time in case the kids or dh want to sleep in!
Here is the master plan for WDW:
Day 1
Disembark from Dream
Drive to WDW
Check in WL
Magic Kingdom
Dinner at 1900 Park Fare
Back to Magic Kingdom for parade & fireworks!
Day 2
Rope Drop at Epcot
Afternoon at Wilderness Lodge (swim/relax)
Evening at Epcot
Dinner at Coral Reef
Illuminations!
Day 3
Rope Drop at Animal Kingdom
Afternoon at Wilderness Lodge (swim/relax)
Early Evening at Animal Kingdom (maybe)
Dinner at Boma
Day 4
Rope Drop at Disney Hollywood Studios
Afternoon at Wilderness Lodge (swim/relax)
Evening at DHS
Dinner at 50's Prime Time Cafe
Day 5
Early Extra Magic Hours - Magic Kingdom
Afternoon at Wilderness Lodge (swim/relax)
Evening at Epcot
Dinner at Les Chef de France
Day 6
Beth & Ben - Pirate Adventure @ Yacht & Beach Club
Choose either a park or swimming @ Wilderness Lodge
Leave WDW & Drive to ILs
__________________
Christine
Last edited by Minniemouse27; 07-30-2011 at 11:12 AM..
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