Newbie's first attemp for PTR for Dec. 11th -18th 2010

[Canefamily]

Hello!!! This is my first attempt in trying to get a "plan" for our first Disney World trip. Please read and tell me if I'm trying to do too much, if the travel time in between events are not realistic or any other flaws that you see.

I have been doing a lot of studying on these boards and I want to say thank you for all you great people that tell all those details. This newbie would never even have a clue or a plan to tackle the big mouse. I am among the huge masses that lurk among all your threads and try to gleam as much info as possible.

Here is a little background. I'm the planner DW40, DH39 and DD will be 8. We will be staying in a 1bedroom villa at Old Key West for the dates of Dec 11 to Dec 18. We will not have a vehicle. We have 7 day passes with no hopper option. Since it is December, we will not be visiting any water parks. I think we will be happy just using the Resort pool. Also, we will not be visiting Disney Quest. We are planning to look at all the decorations in the Resorts that we have ADR's.

Dec 10th, Friday
Taking the red eye to Florida.

Dec 11th, Sat
7:16am land in MCO taking ME to OKW
8:45am ADR's at Olives
Not expecting room to be ready. Leaving luggage at bell services.
Take bus to Epcot to explore World Showcase.
Would like to get free photo at Innoventions West.
2:20pm ADR's Les Chef de France.
Back to OKW.
Groceries delievered.
Early to bed.


Dec 12th, Sun
Rope drop Magic Kingdom????
6:15pm take the boat to Fort Wilderness
7:00pm Be at Hoop dee doo
9:00pm walk the 100/700 loop to see the Christmas displays.

Dec. 13th, Mon
Rope drop at Epcot????
Future World
Free Visa Shoot
2pm go back to OKW for a break
6:30pm World Showcase
7:50pm ADR's Garden Grill
9:30pm illumiNations

Dec. 14th, Tue
Rope drop at Hollywood????
12:55pm ADR's Sci-fi
6:30pm Osborne Lights

Dec. 15th, Wed
Rope drop at Animal Kingdom????
1:15pm Tusker's House Nemo lunch
2:45pm be at Nemo
3:15pm Nemo
3:45pm Parade
5:30pm leave via bus to Contemporary
6:30pm be at Contemporary Pirate and Pals cruise

Dec 16th, Thur
Pick a Park which everyone wants to do again.
5:10pm ADR's Park Fare

6:30pm-?? enjoy Boardwalk entertainment??

Dec 17th, Fri
Pick a Park which everyone wants to do again.
Downtown Disney
8:30pm ADR's Raglan

Dec 18th, Sat.
No Park day.
10:45am Check out
11:30am ADR's T-rex
5:05 flight leaves MCO


Well, that is what I have so far. I know this is our first trip but not our last. We plan on visiting every two or three years. Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[Piscesqueen]

I am also writing my first PTR and am trying to show support for those who are just starting their PTRs. I'm going Dec. 3-20, so maybe I'll see you around, lol.

I don't have any advice, I just wanted to show some love!

Have fun planning!

 

[Canefamily]

I've read your ptr also. Anything that says Christmas time I'm all over it!!!

 

[Canefamily]

I can't believe how many times I've change our Disney trip. I've change the dates( Dec. 4th-11th to Dec. 11th-18th), resorts(French Quarter to Old Key West) and now I keep on changing our ADR's. I'm so glad I've been doing this online otherwise it would be embarrassing for a CM saying is it really necessary to change a 5:45pm Park Fare to a 5:10pm Park Fare?????

Well, yesterday I was looking to see what was available online for adr's. Don't ask me why because I thought I had all the restaurants and times exactly perfect. I just can't help my self. There it was..... Dec. 14th 6pm.....Le Celier. Now, I have a problem. I have the Garden Grill at 7:50pm. That was really hard to get too. What one do I keep????? I don't know!!!! Please give me some advice. I'm so stuck. I want to make a decision soon so I can cancel one or the other, so someone else to have it.

 

[Canefamily]

OK. I still haven't made a decision on my Dec 14th ADR's, Garden Grill or Le Ceiler.

And now I have another important decision to make. Do I try and get a CP dinner or do I wait in line for 45min and hope to get seats or do we just hang out at the American Pavilion and just listen to the show. If I get the dinner package it would mean I would have to get up pretty early in the morning, I live in Oregon, three hour time difference.

That's the problem of being a newbie who has never been to the World. I have no clue how much "planned" activities I should have or just let the magic happen or don't happen. I know you can't do everything in one trip but I know with a little planning you can do so much more. That's my problem. I just don't have a clue if I should or shouldn't. I have until 3am to make a decision.

 

[pooksma]

I Love reading Christmas PTRs. We have a secret stop planned for Dec 25-28 before our family NYE cruise.

My vote (being Canadian and all) is for LC but have never been to GG. Good luck on your decision. Maybe check out the menus again?

 

[Canefamily]

That is exactly what I've been doing Pooksma. I have been looking at all the menus and all the food reviews to try to come up with a decision. It doesn't help when they are two completely different restaurants.

Even though my daughter is 8 years old, I'm leaning towards LC. She has very grown up tastes and I think she would enjoy the kid's steak dinner. We are going to the Park Fare dinner with the princess and prince; so, I don't think she well miss the character dinner at GG.

Very tough decision.

I did not get up at 3am Thursday morning to get a CP dinner. I read all of you that had. It sounded like you were on the phone for quite the long time. Some people said up to two hours My bed was just too comfy. So now I am left with two options: 1) wait in line for over hour. If I did this what would be the most likely show I would be able to get in??? 5pm, 6pm or 8pm show???? Just a reminder that this would be Monday Dec. 13th, a slower day of the week??? 2) Grab a snack and listen from the American Pavilion.

I'm also trying to debate with myself if I should get tickets for the Micky's Christmas Party or not. I'm leaning on the wait and see approach because I not sure how the time difference is going to effect myself and my daughter. My husband travels to the East Coast several times a year and deals with just fine. My daughter and I are a little more high maintenance.

 

[Canefamily]

All right, like a lot of trip reports I read is that one thing everyone wants to do before their trip is to loose weigh and get in shape. Why wouldn't I feel the same???

I scrounged around on the internet and find a program called "Couch Potato to 5K." This got me interested because I more than qualify as a Couch Potato and 22 years ago I use to run. Oh my gosh, that is over two decades ago So, I thought I might me able to do this. The program is 10 weeks long. I thought that mighty be gradual enough not to put my body in shock.

It starts out with a lot of walking for 90 seconds, running 60 seconds and so on. I thought, "I'm not going to constantly watch my clock, that's stupid!" Then I found that a person had made a free download program with vocal commands that tells you when to walk and run, set to music for the whole 10 week program. Sweet.

I've tried it for a week so far and it is not too bad. It takes about 35-40 minutes. I can do it on the local running track or on the side streets. I'm not too sore. It is not too hard, not too easy. I hope I can keep it up. They say a lot of people give up during the 6th and 7th weeks.

My goal is 1.) be able to walk and have a lot of energy on our DW vacation and 2) I want to run in a 5K Jan 1st, 2011. The 5k run is called the Hung Over Race. It sounds like a lot of fun. And having a cougar hot mama body would be just a bonus.

 

[Canefamily]

Here is my daughter in Disneyland Nov. 2009.

Here is my dh and dd with my dh's favorite character.

Here is me and my dd stuck in Toon Town Jail. I swear we are innocent, we were framed!!!!

 

[Canefamily]

It is time to start brain storming on stuff I need to do. Lets start with our departure date,Friday, Dec. 10th. This is a full day of school for my dd. I tried to coordinate our dates of our vacation so she would miss as little school as possible and on a week that was not as vital, school work wise. This is the week before their Christmas vacation. She will be missing the school's Christmas program, I think. I asked her if that would be a problem and it wasn't. Her quote, "Disney is much more fun!"

For all of you that hate for children to miss school for Disney, I ask for forgiveness. If it makes you feel any better this is probably the last time I will pull her out of school for vacation.

Okay, DD at school, DH working a half day. I need to: Reserve our Park,Fly and Stay hotel. I think I found a hotel that we can park our car longer than 7days, get a full breakfast in the morning and it is a suite. On this Friday we will drop off the car at the hotel and they will shuttle us to airport.

For the flight I still need to purchase ear planes for both DD and myself. It really hard to find child sizes in my area. I have a abnormally small head. I'm sure it fits my body. Small children don't run from me screaming. But, I have to buy my hats and stuff for my head in the kids' section. The adult ear planes were too big and hurt my ear canal. Also, they really help my DD. If I can't find them in our Wal-greens or Wal-mart, I will order them off the internet. My DH is too macho to need anything. What's a little pain and discomfort to a manly man. A man should embrace pain. Sorry.

I still haven't decided if it would be more convenient to stop at a fast food joint on the way up to the airport or to pack stuff we can eat in the airport while we are waiting for our flight. I'm leaning towards the packing a dinner; because, we get so bored in the airport and it so much healthier. We will see how well my planning goes to see if I have time to pack a picnic dinner. I also hate paying airport prices for airport food.

Here is a picture of Disneyland Nov. 2009.

 

[Canefamily]

Some thoughts on our arrival date, Dec. 11th.

I have no clue what kind of shape my dd and I will be in from the red eye flight. I'm going to try to make it as comfy as possible and hope and pray that she will get some sleep. This is by far the longest flight she has ever been on.

I'm assuming that ME will not be crowded at 7am. Does anyone out there, who knows what they are doing, think it is reasonable for use to get to Old Key West's Olive's for our 8:45am ADR's?? Or do I need to make it later? I think we will be starving and would love to have a relaxing breakfast before we do anything. I will need gallons of coffee.

I can't believe that our room would even be close to being ready; so, we will just leave our luggage with bell services. I plan for us to then take the bus to Epcot. We will take it slow. I have no plans for going on rides; just looking at the World Showcase and watching the entertainment and seeing some of the Santas of the world.

I have a late lunch at Les Chef de France, at 2:20pm. I'm hoping to catch Remy who comes around the tables at 2:50pm, if he is not broke down. After lunch, I thought we would head back to the resort. I think 5-6 hours in the park will be plenty after our flight.

Does anyone know how late We Go Shopping delivers??? I would like our groceries delivered about 6pm ish.

That is our first full day at Disney World.

Here is another 2009 Christmas photo from Disneyland.

 

[Canefamily]

Yeah!!!!
Just paid off the last of what we owed on on trip.

Disney World in not cheap; but, so worth it. Our family is getting so excited about our trip. Just last night my dh commented that what time is left before our trip is going to fly by before we know. A whole lot of excitement and a little bit of anxiety went through my body. This being our first trip, I hope I can plan everything that needs to be done.

Talk about planning. I did a few things today for our trip one, paid off the last of what we owe for our trip!!!! and I ordered my Disney Visa redemption card. I'm hoping it will be enough to cover most of our park food. We will not be doing the dinning plans. We are not that big of eaters, we share food a lot. We also do not have more than one sweet a day. I might be a little more lenient on our trip, since it is vacation. I am the food police in our family.

leaving you with more 2009 Christmas pictures of Disneyland.

I also want to get my hotel near the airport taken care of today. We

 

[Canefamily]

Well, I decided to cancel the Garden grill dinner and try Le Ceilers. I also reserved our hotel at the airport. Not too bad of a day.

I also worked on our basic plan in the parks. I'm trying to schedule more resort time breaks. It is really hard when the parks aren't open for very late. I'm trying to focus on having a whole Disney experience than just focusing on just rides.

Here are some more Disneyland Christmas pictures.

 

[Canefamily]

Okay. Hopefully we will get a good night's rest and wake up bright eyed and bushy tail. I plan on eating breakfast in our room. I'm hope we can get to the bus stop by 8:15. I'm thinking about renting a car now. I have to ask DH if he wants to drive or not. I'm a big chicken when it comes to driving some where I have never been before.

This is our MK day. This is the park we are probably the least excited about. One, we go to Disneyland and I know that of all the parks this is the park that is most similar to Disneyland. Two, with all of the construction it is a lot less magical. We know this because we have experienced all of the walls and construction at California Adventure during the World of Color construction. It took forever for the pier to be filled back with water.

This is a Christmas party day, but the limited hours will not be a problem because I have ADRs at the Hoop Dee Doo at the 7:15pm show.

The one thing I don't know if we are going to do is take a mid-day break back to OKW or not. If we take it slow, maybe find a early seat for the 3pm parade with a Micky ice-cream bar? Maybe take a break mid-day with a ride on the Mono Rail??? I don't know if it will be worth the travel time to take a break at OKW this day???

I figure that if we stay and not take a break, we will have to be at the boat launch for Fort Wilderness by 6:15pm. If we take a break at OKW, we would have to leave OKW by 5:30pm if we are taking Disney transportation. If we are to take a taxi from OKW, what would be the best route??? A) MK then take the launch to Fort Wilderness B) Fort Wilderness then take the internal bus to Hoop Dee Doo or C) Wilderness Lodge and then take the launch to Fort Wilderness??? You experts out there, I need some advice!!!!

After the Hoop Dee Doo, if we still have the humph, I would like to walk the 100/700 loops to look at the Christmas displays of the campers. Is this the closest and the easiest to walk loop??? Has any one done this????

If we don't have the energy to walk to see the display, another possibility would be watch the Holiday Wishes from the beach. I think they start at 9:30pm that night.

Then back to OKW for a good night's rest.

Here in another picture of Christmas in Disneyland 2009.

 

[Canefamily]

This is my late night in Epcot. We will start the day with breakfast in our villa.

I hope we can be at the bus stop by 8:15am. I want to hit Future World real hard in the morning. Don't everyone gasp, but, we probably will not be riding Soaring. When we go to Disneyland the lines are not as bad in Disney World; so, we get to ride it 3-4 times a day. So, we will go directly to Test Track.

I think we will go back to OKW about noon and have a lunch break. Then about 4pm we will head back to Epcot World Showcase. Or, should we try and get a seat at Beaches and Cream????? I would love to try the burgers and order the Kitchen Sink. I'm trying to make this as relaxing as possible. I don't want to have to have a vacation after my vacation.

We need to be in Canada by 5:45pm for our 6pm Le Celier ADR!!! After eating all that yummy steak, I plan on slowly making our way to the American Pavilion to sit outside and listen to the 8:15pm CP.

Then I want to get some seats around the Germany Pavilion to watch IllumiNations. After the show, we will slowly make our way back to the front of the park or maybe take a cab from Beach Club if we are too tired.

Disneyland Nov. 2009.