August 2010 Pre-trip Report. Finally got the pictures working!!

[FormerLumberjill]

Hi there!

This is not only my first try at a pre-trip report, but also my first post on this website! I read soo many trip reports here leading up to a Disney vacation, I figured I would try my hand at one of my own!

The trip in question is only 3 weeks away this Sunday! We'll be going to Disney World from August 23-31. We're going to be staying at the Beach Club, an old family favourite!

So, now a moment to go over who'll be going on this trip!
This is me, Kyla, on my first trip to Disneyland this past May.

(Really hoping the pictures work!)
Anyways, I'm 24 and a big Disney nerd. I've been going to Disney World for the past 20 years, including a year on the Cultural Representative Program working in the Canada pavillion in Epcot (June 08-June09)!

Also going on this trip is my brother (17). He doesn't really enjoy sitting around and talking about/planning Disney trips, but he loves it there as much as the rest of us. He's also hilarious and a great sport... here he is dancing in the High School Musical 3 pep rally last August.

The youngest member of the family is my sister (12). She is the pin and vinylmation collector of the group. Each year she has a certain type of pin in mind that we search for throughout the vacation. Last year, as seen in the photo, was the alphabet pins (we left with all of them! She had more than half going into the trip though). This year it's any Vinylmation pin.. which will be more of a challenge to find on cast lanyards, I'm sure. I'm also sure we'll spend a pretty penny on some in the pin stores too.

Finally our parents, the ones who essentially created some Disney-obsessed siblings. Here they are on Splash Mountain last year.. and also my brother.

So, that's everyone!
We're DVC members, but we save our points and go for ten days every other year. The idea being we spend the summers in between trips doing other things. This year the big plan was to go to New York City. I went with a friend of mine a few years ago, but no one else in the family has been.

Then the Disney commercials started for the $750 gift card with room stay... that's when our minds started changing. We knew that wasn't an offer for August, but it got us thinking about a Disney trip. We also knew that August was usually when free dining was offered. So it slowly became a case of "if free dining is offered, we'll go to Disney World instead". Sure enough, some days after the rumoured starting date, it was announced! So here we are, almost three weeks out from another trip. Crazy!

I'll post about our plans for the trip in a little while.. possibly tomorrow!

 

[FormerLumberjill]

So we don't typically plan out what we're going to be doing tooo much. We mostly just make the dining reservations and then let the rest play out as it will. My mom and I had our meals booked for this trip before we even knew if it would be happening!

We're from Ontario, Canada. We always drive down because my dad and brother don't fly. My mom, sister, and I are pretty indifferent to how we get there. We do a pretty good job of making that 22 hour drive as fun as possible.

Last year we made it to the Animal Kingdom Lodge on day 2 of driving at about 11am! A family record! We were pretty proud! SO, now we are assuming we're going to be able to do it again... at least, we have our fingers crossed we will.

The arrival day is the only one we've really planned out. Our big Disney tradition, for some reason, is to eat at ESPN Club on the day we arrive. We've done this for the last 7 or so trips. This year we plan on having lunch there.

After lunch we hope to go to Hollywood Studios until it closes, which is at 7pm that day. After that we're going to go over to get dinner in Downtown Disney. Wolfgang Puck Express is my mom's favourite restaurant, so we'll probably end up eating there three times.

Those plans are REALLY hopeful. We usually arrive in Disney World at around 3pm. If that's the case, we'll just skip the studios and change ESPN to dinner. ESPN will happen though, it's tradition!!

 

[FormerLumberjill]

The rest of the days aren't really planned out like that first one. We'll be at the parks where the restaurants are, obviously, but no plans on if it'll be all day.

Here's the rest of the reservations though!
Day 2-Rose and Crown for dinner
Day 3-Kona Cafe (going to finally try that Tonga Toast!)
-12 hours later is our Ohana dinner
Day 4-Tusker House. It's a favourite. We all really like Yak and Yeti too, but Tusker House always wins out!
Day 5-My parents go for their 27th wedding anniversary dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse (could change, they're big Flying Fish fans)
-Same day I take my siblings to Chef Mickey's for dinner
Day 6-Primetime Cafe
Day 7- Originally Whispering Canyon Cafe... but it's very recently been changed to Citricos. We'll see what happens there!
Day 8- Chefs des France

Well, there they are! We're so indecisive with meals though... they're one of the best parts of the Disney vacation!! It's entirely possible that list will change.

 

[FormerLumberjill]

Another thing we're thinking about is making shirts for a day this trip. I went to Disneyland in May with some friends, and each of us made shirts for everyone for one day of the trip.
For mine, I had each person select a Disneyland attraction and painted something from/the exterior of that attraction!
My parents ended up big fans and suggested I do some for our family for this trip. I'm happy to do them... but if I'm going to, I'll need shirts quite soon.

Here's some photos of the Disneyland ones!
I chose the Jungle Cruise. It's my favourite ride after the Tower of Terror.

Another friend chose Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.

Another chose Small World. That one was tough because there was SO much to choose from... but she really likes Alice in Wonderland, so I chose those dolls. I know that the exterior is white and gold now... but I used the old colours instead.

Haunted Mansion was chosen as well (this shirt is my fave)

Finally, another friend chose Space Mountain... I told him it would just be the outside of the building and if he wanted to change his mind he could. Then he chose the monorail, so I decided to put them both on the shirt.

So far, the attractions chosen by family would be:
-Another Space Mountain
-Tower of Terror (mine)
-Jungle Cruise (I would just wear my jungle cruise shirt from Disneyland, but it's my dad's all time favourite ride... so I'd be making a new one for him)
-Toy Story Mania
-Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

If I do get shirts and start knocking these out, I'll post pictures of them along the way!

 

[FormerLumberjill]

Just booked Cirque du Soleil for a night of our trip!!

I LOVE La Nouba! I think it's absolutely phenomenal. I took my mom and sister when they came to visit me while I was working down there, but my dad and brother have never seen it!

We had heard that DVC members sometimes get discounts on Cirque. We phoned today and sure enough the discount was offered for when we're there!! The tickets are for a 9pm show. They're category 2 seats almost in the center of the theatre (My favourite section to watch the show from!).


Also, we pushed up our Les Chefs de France reservation because Hollywood Studios had some hours changed. Now it's closing at 10 on a few days that were being posted as 7 or 8:30. It's one of the only days of our trips that Toy Story Mania is supposed to be open, so we're going to go for a night and ride... even if it is an hour+ line.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Plans look good! I love the designs too! I'm reading along and can't wait to see how the trip goes. We are planning on May right now, but if my stepson doesn't want to take days out of school we will go in August. I'm afraid because of the heat, so i'm just looking for a good plan.

 

[FormerLumberjill]

It does get pretty hot, I'm not going to lie!

However, the crowds are usually pretty manageable! It's also really nice to vacation in summer as well, no schooling or anything to worry about!

May would be great too, of course! Thanks so much for reading a long!

 

[FormerLumberjill]

One week today and we'll be heading down to Disney World!! I can't even believe it! This week will feel reallllllly long though, I'm sure!

It doesn't look like I'll be creating shirts for the trips though, we're a week out and I don't have any blank tees yet. Oh well, there's always October 2011!