"How many days until pizza?!" A May 2012 PTR: update 5/24 and we're off!

DoomBuggy0922

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 23, 2010
On January 6, 2012, my husband and I tied the knot on the Boardwalk.

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We had an absolutely beautiful wedding day, and an almost-perfect 12 day Disneymoon. However, since then life has been... well, more than a little rocky (I don't want to go into my sob story here: I'm saving that for my NEXT PTR for our December trip!), so what are we doing? We're going back to WDW!

I'm Jackie. I'm 24, and right now I'm finishing up my M.A. in English Lit (What do you do with a M.A. in English?!?!) and I'll be doing Teach for America in Milwaukee in the fall. My favorite princesses are Cinderella and Belle, and I am more than a little obsessed with the Haunted Mansion. I also have a Disney Dooney addiction, and I will certainly be picking up at least one while I'm down there.

My husband is Chris, and he'll be turning 25 the day before we leave, so I'm also calling this a birthday trip for him. (We also leave on our 7 year dating anniversary, but we can't celebrate that anymore.) Chris is a graphic designer, and his favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean--- I think I could call the Jungle Cruise a close second though. He has an obsession with Disney art books, and he came home with four of them in January.

And this is Smokey. He's not coming, but doesn't he look ready to go?!

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(Or maybe he's really just saying "Get me out of this shirt!" I guess we'll never know.)

Originally we were booked at CBR for May 25-28 in a Pirate Room. However, my amazing DVC member grandparents offered us use of their points once again, and so we're now staying May 25-28 at Kidani Village in a Savannah View room. Chris and I have stayed in Jambo for one night but never Kidani, so we're definitely excited for a new experience. We received our APs for "free" for booking our wedding through Disney, so this trip is actually pretty friendly on our wallets. We should be in Orlando by noon on the 25th, and we're leaving on the 29th at 6:30pm.

When we're home Chris and I don't eat out much, so one of my favorite things about WDW is the food. Here are our dining plans so far:

Friday, May 25: Via Napoli at 6:20pm. We went to Via Napoli twice on our honeymoon, and we fell head over heels in love with it. Chris is doing a countdown not to Disney, but to Via Napoli.

Saturday, May 26: Jiko at 8:45pm. We've never been to Jiko before, and we figured we might as well try it while we're staying at AKL.

Sunday, May 27: California Grill at 7:20. This was another place we tried on our honeymoon for the first time, and it was just heavenly. Chris is in a romantic relationship with their bison.

Monday, May 28 (departure day): Le Cellier at 11:50am. I managed to snag this reservation about a month ago, and I was so excited I squealed. We go here on every single trip, and it just didn't feel right to be in WDW and not go there. We served the Beer Cheese soup at our wedding, and I even made it for Chris for Valentine's Day.

I haven't finalized our day-to-day plans yet, but I will update when I do. Thanks for following along! :goodvibes
 
Jackie,
Looking good so far I love that you love via napoli so much. I will see if we can get in to eat there once on our honeymoon. I hope you guys have a wonderful trip and please let us know how kidani savannah is as we will be doing the same room on our honeymoon.

Love ya girl

Teresa
 
I'm here, and can't wait to hear all about your plans and your trip! Can't wait for more Via Napoli pics ;) It's a definite for our next trip: I was deciding between Via Napoli and Tutto Italia, but Tutto just changed their menu and I'm not too impressed with it so Via Napoli it is!

Also, staying at AKL with a Savannah view is my dream resort! Hopefully someday I'll get to do it!
 
I'm Jackie. I'm 24, and right now I'm finishing up my M.A. in English Lit (What do you do with a M.A. in English?!?!)

(We also leave on our 7 year dating anniversary, but we can't celebrate that anymore.)

"What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree."

Oh how I love Avenue Q!!!

And why can't you celebrate your 7 year dating anniversary?? I say the more reasons/times to celebrate, the better!
 
Jackie
I had to follow along with this TR... I followed every minute of your PJ and wedding/honeymoon TR. Your writing absolutely cracks me up :).

I'm kind of local to Disney... Well 2 hours away and would love to have a meeting with fellow Disbrides... So let me know if your ever wanting to meet another Disney fanatic lol

Oh and you will be in Disney in December?!?!?!!?! What dates? Our wedding is the 8th and we will be there till the 14!!!
 
Jackie,
Looking good so far I love that you love via napoli so much. I will see if we can get in to eat there once on our honeymoon. I hope you guys have a wonderful trip and please let us know how kidani savannah is as we will be doing the same room on our honeymoon.

Love ya girl

Teresa

Yesss just make a ressie NOW! :rotfl2: And of course I will write alll about kidani. I can tell you that Jambo is beautiful and we loved it there!

I'm here, and can't wait to hear all about your plans and your trip! Can't wait for more Via Napoli pics ;) It's a definite for our next trip: I was deciding between Via Napoli and Tutto Italia, but Tutto just changed their menu and I'm not too impressed with it so Via Napoli it is!

Also, staying at AKL with a Savannah view is my dream resort! Hopefully someday I'll get to do it!

I am actually really interested in trying Tutto Gusto too; I've looked at foodporn and it looks really tasty. I'm hoping we can fit it in, but I just can't see it happening.

Have you looked at renting DVC points?! If not, if you take a solo trip once you have a job, we can take a solo trip together and stay there. :)

"What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree."

Oh how I love Avenue Q!!!

And why can't you celebrate your 7 year dating anniversary?? I say the more reasons/times to celebrate, the better!

I've never actually seen Avenue Q (I know, right?) but I adore the soundtrack. I suppose we COULD celebrate, but we decided not to. Sighh.

Jackie
I had to follow along with this TR... I followed every minute of your PJ and wedding/honeymoon TR. Your writing absolutely cracks me up :).

I'm kind of local to Disney... Well 2 hours away and would love to have a meeting with fellow Disbrides... So let me know if your ever wanting to meet another Disney fanatic lol

Oh and you will be in Disney in December?!?!?!!?! What dates? Our wedding is the 8th and we will be there till the 14!!!

Aww thanks so much for joining in!!! Actually, we are doing an ice cream meet up Friday night. (More on that later.) GAH! I wish I could be there to stalk your wedding. We'll be there December 28th or 29th until the 1st--- just a quickie trip for NYE. (I know, it's busy and we're crazy.)
 
Yay! Another TR! And only a short time away from pizza! hahahaha

I am so so so so so jealous that you will be staying at Kidani Village. SO JEALOUS. Your grandparents ROCK by the way! ;)
 
Your dining plans sound amazing! DH and I are in love with Via Napoli as well and I look forward to your pics from Jiko (haven't been, but would like to go someday!). Love Smokey's shirt!
 
:cool1: I'm here too lady!! I can't wait for our ice cream meet-up!!! I'm not joking when I say we pull up the menu and drool over what we're going to order!!!

We stayed at Jambo for our HM, and we LOVED it there!!!! We walked over to Kidani, and it's really pretty there too!

We're going to Via Napoli's 5-26.
 
Have you looked at renting DVC points?! If not, if you take a solo trip once you have a job, we can take a solo trip together and stay there. :)

I've never seriously looked into renting DVC points. In fact, I only really found out about renting points after we had booked our honeymoon, and since that was done and our next trip is free for us at the timeshare outside of Disney, I haven't had any reason to yet. I've played around on one of the websites that does it just to see what prices would be like and it's definitely something I want to consider for the future.

And umm... definitely YES to the solo trip together! I would love that :yay: I have no idea what my Disney future is after April 2013 but I'm hoping that it will be more frequent... my part time job I just got seems really promising in terms of hours and $$ so I'm hoping to save up in the next year or so!
 
Yay! Another TR to look forward to! :goodvibes

We ate at VN last Sunday and loved it. In fact, Doug wanted them to deliver not only to the hotel room, but to New Bedford. We'll definitely be eating there again in February!
 
Yay! I'm here. :wave:

Via Napoli and Cali Grill.... 2 out of my 5 faves!! I just had VN last Wednesday... so I still have all the yummy memories. Our CG dinner on the 5th was amazing as always!

Kidani was great--just ask for a room "Close to Lobby!!" If not... refer back to March of 2011 when I took the trip with my stepmom :rotfl2: If I could give you one more tip... it would be... take a cab to California Grill for dinner--just easier.

You're so close to going!! I'm jealous and wish I could go back immediately, lol!! I hope you have a great time!! :wizard:
 
Yay! Another TR! And only a short time away from pizza! hahahaha

I am so so so so so jealous that you will be staying at Kidani Village. SO JEALOUS. Your grandparents ROCK by the way! ;)

Seriously, sometimes I ask Chris want he wants for dinner and he says "Can we get Via Napoli?" :lmao: Only 10 days! And thank you--- my grandparents are pretty kickbutt.

Your dining plans sound amazing! DH and I are in love with Via Napoli as well and I look forward to your pics from Jiko (haven't been, but would like to go someday!). Love Smokey's shirt!

Thanks! And Smokey did NOT love his shirt. He was so sad.

:cool1: I'm here too lady!! I can't wait for our ice cream meet-up!!! I'm not joking when I say we pull up the menu and drool over what we're going to order!!!

We stayed at Jambo for our HM, and we LOVED it there!!!! We walked over to Kidani, and it's really pretty there too!

We're going to Via Napoli's 5-26.

Yummm I cannot wait for Ghiradelli either! I have an emotional relationship with most ice cream sundaes. And I can't wait to see YOU!

I've never seriously looked into renting DVC points. In fact, I only really found out about renting points after we had booked our honeymoon, and since that was done and our next trip is free for us at the timeshare outside of Disney, I haven't had any reason to yet. I've played around on one of the websites that does it just to see what prices would be like and it's definitely something I want to consider for the future.

And umm... definitely YES to the solo trip together! I would love that :yay: I have no idea what my Disney future is after April 2013 but I'm hoping that it will be more frequent... my part time job I just got seems really promising in terms of hours and $$ so I'm hoping to save up in the next year or so!

I've never rented points either. I've thought about it, but I guess I'm just a little too nervous--- especially because if anything happened, reservations are non-refundable.

And you just got a new PT job?! Congratulations!

Yay! Another TR to look forward to! :goodvibes

We ate at VN last Sunday and loved it. In fact, Doug wanted them to deliver not only to the hotel room, but to New Bedford. We'll definitely be eating there again in February!

Haha! BUT you live semi-close to my other favorite pizza place in the world, Upper Crust. Mmmmmm pizza.

Yay! I'm here. :wave:

Via Napoli and Cali Grill.... 2 out of my 5 faves!! I just had VN last Wednesday... so I still have all the yummy memories. Our CG dinner on the 5th was amazing as always!

Kidani was great--just ask for a room "Close to Lobby!!" If not... refer back to March of 2011 when I took the trip with my stepmom :rotfl2: If I could give you one more tip... it would be... take a cab to California Grill for dinner--just easier.

You're so close to going!! I'm jealous and wish I could go back immediately, lol!! I hope you have a great time!! :wizard:

Oh, I was totally remembering your trip from heck with your stepmom. I will ask for close to lobby; thanks you soooo much for the tip! Was the CG menu updated at all? I know they change it fairly regularly...
 
So I finalized some more concrete plans for next week. (I can't believe it's next week!) Here is what I think our schedule is going to look like.

Friday, May 25: Arrive at Orlando around 11:30. Arrive at AKL, check in, hopefully put our bags down, and then have lunch at Mara. From there, we're going to head to Epcot and cross our fingers that there are some fastpasses for Soarin'. If not, then we'll do all of the other minor attractions (Nemo, Living with the Land, etc) before our Via Napoli ADR. After Via Napoli, we're heading to DTD to have sundaes with some of my girls from the DIS! I am so excited. :cool1:

Saturday, May 26: Get to the MK for rope drop and do all of our favorite stuff. If and when the MK gets too crowded we'll head over to Epcot where we want to attempt to Drink Around the World. We're not going to make it (DH and I are not big drinkers, we'll be ridiculous after our fourth drinks), but gosh darnit we're going to try! Then, of course, we have our Jiko reservation. Hopefully we can go play with the night vision goggles afterwards... or go to sleep. Probably the sleep.

Sunday, May 27: We'll head to DHS for rope drop and to people watch for SWW. I am not a SW fan, and Chris kinda sorta is, but one of our favorite Disney memories is people watching on a bench during SWW. We will, of course, fit in some rides here and there. Then we're going to head back to the hotel and rest up before our CA Grill ressie. The MK is open until 1am on the 27th, and we are going to try to stay until then. We're REALLY old though, so I hope we make it.

Monday, May 28: It makes me so sad to realize that this our last day already! Oh well--- at least we get to go, right? We're going to head back to Epcot to catch anything we missed and to go to Le Cellier. Then, head home and cry. DH said I could book our hotel for December on the 28th though soooo score!

Let's see. These beauties came in a few weeks ago

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Even though I have them hanging on the fridge, DH can't seem to remember where we're staying. "I can't wait to stay at AKL... NOT Kidani." (Chris then gets a stern look.) "I mean... Kidani? I mean... I don't know.)

I also bought this dress to wear to CA Grill. I love dressing up for Signature Restaurants.

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I bought it because it reminded me of the Mansion, of course.

Anddd we're 10 days away! I suppose I could check in online, but I never do that--- I just haven't figured out the benefit of doing so. Either way, I'm getting excited! :cool1:
 
Sounds like a good plan! I'm totally jealous... I want sundaes with DIS girls! That's going to be awesome :)

And I love that dress! I'm also a big fan of dressing up for signature restaurants, and really whenever I get the chance to dress up.
 
super cute dress!

Thanks, Andrea! I am so excited to wear it.

Sounds like a good plan! I'm totally jealous... I want sundaes with DIS girls! That's going to be awesome :)

And I love that dress! I'm also a big fan of dressing up for signature restaurants, and really whenever I get the chance to dress up.

Awww, I wish you could be there, Becky!!

*********************
Sooo, in case any of you were wondering, it's roughly 27 hours until pizza! :banana: I have been useless all day---I'm just a bundle of excitment. This morning, I got my hair highlighted and chopped off for the trip.

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I am definitely not used to it yet.

Awhile back, I picked up this bag on Ebay for the parks (and I only paid $8 for it).

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I also ended up changing our reservation time at the Cali Grill: we're having dinner at 5:30 now so we can have plenty of time to tour the MK afterwards. I also want to be sure to make Wishes in time to be in the park--- I watched it from the overlook on my honeymoon, but it just didn't feel as magical.

Also, today is my husband's 25th birthday! I feel a little bad that I am not as excited about it as usual, but I definitely have Disney on the brain. I'm sure he understands. We're both starting to feel a little sad though because we have to drop Smokey off at kennel tonight. We board him at a place that also does doggie daycare, so at least he'll have fun.

I still need to finish packing (just a few toiletries left, thankfully) and write down all of my ADR numbers. Our flight leaves at 5:55 in the morning (!), so I hope I can sleep tonight!
 

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