Celebrating my 40th with the Mouse and lots of Food and Wine (PTR October, 2010)

[beachgirl2000]

Okay -- bear with me -- this is my first every Pre-Trip/Trip Report -- I love reading everyone's reports and though I would finally do one myself. I will be turning 40 (how did that happen?) in September. I told my family that I want to go to Disney for my birthday but I wanted to go during the Epcot Food/Wine Festival (since my 2 favorite things to do are to eat and drink) and to do MNSSHP -- So, we decided to go from October 15th until October 23rd! There is a bunch of us going (me, my husband, son, sister, brother in law, nephew, other sister, other nephew and mom and dad), so we are renting a 6 bedroom house and will not be staying on a Disney Property -- Oh well -- NEXT TIME! Let me get started (and let's see if I can load these pictures properly -- if not, I may need some help). This is my family: me (Marlene), Husband (Ryan) and son (Ryan, Jr.) during our trip in May 2008:

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

That is me and my son and then my husband and my son -- for whatever reason, I do not have one of the three of us together on my work computer!

 

[beachgirl2000]

So, we will be leaving early (and I do mean early) morning on October 15th. Since we will be driving (as we did last year and decided to do it again) from Philadelphia to Orlando, Florida -- NON STOP!!!!! -- We plan on leaving around 2:00 a.m. -- That should put us in the Orlando area at around 5:00 p.m. on Friday, incluing stops to use the rest area and get something to eat -- Oh, did I mention we are bringing the dog??? Yup -- She is coming too! And she is ready for the Halloween celebrations!

[/IMG]


That's Molly -- and, yeah, she hates costumes!

Also driving with us is my sister and her 3 year old son -- I will update later with pictures of them. We will be taking the Mickey (MINI) Van for this trip! We just hope to arrive in one piece not ready to kill each other!

 

[beachgirl2000]

We plan on arriving in Davenport at around 5:00. Hopefully the house is as nice and as spacious as the website makes it look:

After settling in and unpacking, I am hoping to do a quick run to the Publix

And then have a nice relaxing night in the hot tub!

Because the next morning will be spent at one of my favorite places!!!!!!!

With Lunch AND Dinner at My Absolutel Most Favorite Place!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I can't believe I'm the first!

 

[beachgirl2000]

Let me re-introduce you to the Cast of Characters:

Me - I didn't grow up going to Disney and never once cared about going to Disney! Our first family trip was in 2005 - we stayed offsight in a big beautiful house -- we did MK, MGM and AKL -- I wasn't impressed by any of them and found them to be too crowded and overrated -- I did, however, fall completely in love with Universal and Islands of Adventure -- as did my husband and son! We even came to Oralndo again in 2006 and spent a full day in Universal and didn't visit WDW AT ALL!!!! It wasn't until our trip in 2008 when just me, my husband and son stayed onsite at Pop Century did I fall completely in love with Disney! So much so, that in 2009, we celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary there at Animal Kindgom Lodge -- I will post a few pictures -- what a great time! Now we are going this year to celebrate the BIG 4-0! My actual birthday is in September but I wanted to go for the Food & Wine Festival and for MNSSHP -- And of course because you can't call yourself a real Parrothead unless you celebrate in Margaritaville -- So, sorry to disappoint anyone, but our first full day in Orlando will be spent in Universal/Islands of Adventure and with my main man, Jimmy Buffett (or at least at his restaurant anyway). You will be seeing lots of pictures that include us visiting there -- We also just went to his concert so I will post a few of those also!!!!


My Husband -- He also didn't grow up going to Disney as a kid -- Around here, you spend most summers at the Jersey Shore and nights on the Boardwalk. He tries to act like he isn't "Disney Crazy" but I know better. I see the twinkle in his eye when we talk about our trip plans and how he doesn't care that his crazy wife booked breakfast reservations at 7:15 a.m. at Ohana -- He looks forward to the craziness just like I do!

My son -- He will be 10 this year and it will be his 3rd time at WDW and 5th or 6th times to Universal/Islands of Adventure. He is a huge Epcot fan and loves the countries and Soarin'. He loves all the rides and really isn't scared of most of them (with the exception of Hulk and Rock and Roller Coaster). I am not sure if he is more excited about going to Disney again or about missing 6 days of school!!!!!!!

The other members are my sister and her husband and son (4 1/2 years old) and my other sister and her son (will be 4 in November) and my parents. I am really looking forward to this trip -- as always, I know we are going to have a great time. I will update you on our full schedule of events once we completely finalize them -- one thing is for sure -- Margaritaville the first day!

 

[beachgirl2000]

So, last May we stayed at AKL -- what an incredible hotel -- I hope we can stay there again one day -- although I would like to try Contemporary and Boardwalk and Polynesian also!!!!!

And I know I have more of our room -- we had a bunkbed room on the first floor which was incredible -- I wasn't sure how I would feel about being on the ground floor at first but we loved it -- and since we had a pool view and not a savannah view, it worked out perfectly!