UnOfficial March 2012 Trip Planners Tread-DIS Meet 3/8 Info Pg 1

[oopsiDAISY]

Just found out yesterday another family from church will be at WDW the same time we are. Our week is now filled with meets... of which the kids have no clue about!

This Thursday-dismeet at Yeeha Bob's
Saturday night- dinner at O'hanas with Florida cousins
Sunday- Florida cousins will spend the day with us at MK and we will meet up with friends from church to do one ride together
Wednesday- meet for lunch and a ride at Epcot with my BFF and her family (who will also be there)

Gonna be a GREAT week...3 more sleeps!!!!!

 

[sjs314]

Arrived yesterday checked into BWI and was upgraded to a water view king room right over flying fish huge balcony with view of crescent lake
And boardwalk. Had lunch @ Via Napoli today yummy dinner tonight Rose & Crown

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Arrived yesterday checked into BWI and was upgraded to a water view king room right over flying fish huge balcony with view of crescent lake
And boardwalk. Had lunch @ Via Napoli today yummy dinner tonight Rose & Crown

That is great news, Sheila....your "angels" gifted you from heaven! I hope this time at Disney is a healing time for you and your DH!

 

[DMGeurts]

Arrived yesterday checked into BWI and was upgraded to a water view king room right over flying fish huge balcony with view of crescent lake
And boardwalk. Had lunch @ Via Napoli today yummy dinner tonight Rose & Crown

Oh Sheila - that is such wonderful news! I agree, your angels are determined for this to be a healing trip for you. I hope you are finding the peace you so deserve right now.

D~

 

[mom2_3girls]

Why yes, yes I do... at 11am, to be exact. You still have my ## right? I have yours in my phone... I really need to do a spreadsheet of the Disers I need to try to meet on which days. LOl


I got a new cell phone and some contacts did not roll over...will you please PM me your # again. Then I can let you know how our plans look Thursday for the Dis meet. I think we will be cutting it close, but we should be there!!


I am hoping your flight goes well and is on time... please txt me when you arrive and I'll let you know if we are still at Yeehaw's.

 

[goopysolelady]

That's so funny, we arrive on Monday the 12th as well and we are staying at AKV Jambo house! We don't arrive until monday evening. Our flight gets in at 7:15 so I'm hoping to be at the resort by 9ish and maybe even try to head over to MK or DHS since they are both open until 1pm. We will probalby be tired but I love being in the parks at night so we'll see. If not maybe we will go over and have a late dinner and ice cream at beaches and cream. Or maybe just go to bed. What time do you guys get in?

Tuesday the 13th is DD's birthday and we will be heading to MK for the day.

This was a relatively last minute decision for all of us and airfare had already climbed to almost "out of sight level" for 6 of us! We're actually leaving Texas this weekend; youngest DD and I will drive to Tallahassee Saturday and into Orlando Sunday morning, staying at the DTD Best Western Sunday night. (This is a short trip by our standards and I wanted an extra day for Downtown Disney shopping and hopefully riding Characters in Flight!) Oldest DD and her family will be leaving Texas early Sunday morning, also driving to Tallahassee. Their plans are to arrive at DW around Noon on Monday and we'll meet them at a park. She's already done online check-in so we probably will go the Villas later in the afternoon to unpack and explore before leaving for dinner reservations at Epcot's San Angel Inn at 7. Who knows where we'll end up after that! I usually have our trips planned "to the minute" but we'll be "winging it" a lot on this one! I thought I'd have a chance to do a little planning this week but if the rest of the week is as bad as today was that "ain't gonna happen"! Maybe we'll "meet up" on the bus sometime! We'll be a "party" of 6, my poor son-in-law is stuck with 5 women on this trip...myself, 2 DD's and 9 & 5 year old DGD's! Bless his heart! (DH is stuck at home working. ) Hope YOUR DD has the happiest birthday ever at the happiest place to vacation!

 

[kt_mom]

This was a relatively last minute decision for all of us and airfare had already climbed to almost "out of sight level" for 6 of us! We're actually leaving Texas this weekend; youngest DD and I will drive to Tallahassee Saturday and into Orlando Sunday morning, staying at the DTD Best Western Sunday night. (This is a short trip by our standards and I wanted an extra day for Downtown Disney shopping and hopefully riding Characters in Flight!) Oldest DD and her family will be leaving Texas early Sunday morning, also driving to Tallahassee. Their plans are to arrive at DW around Noon on Monday and we'll meet them at a park. She's already done online check-in so we probably will go the Villas later in the afternoon to unpack and explore before leaving for dinner reservations at Epcot's San Angel Inn at 7. Who knows where we'll end up after that! I usually have our trips planned "to the minute" but we'll be "winging it" a lot on this one! I thought I'd have a chance to do a little planning this week but if the rest of the week is as bad as today was that "ain't gonna happen"! Maybe we'll "meet up" on the bus sometime! We'll be a "party" of 6, my poor son-in-law is stuck with 5 women on this trip...myself, 2 DD's and 9 & 5 year old DGD's! Bless his heart! (DH is stuck at home working. ) Hope YOUR DD has the happiest birthday ever at the happiest place to vacation!

Thank you so much, I'm getting so excited! This time next week she and I will be celebrating her birthday in our favorite place!

I'll try to keep an eye out for you guys on the bus. We should be easy to spot because its just the two of us and I'm sure DD will have on her birthday button all week.

I usually make a lot of plans for our trips and I've planned quite a bit for this one, but I keep changing things. Part of me wants to do several character meals and try a few new places for dinner that we might not try with DH along. But the other part of me wants to leave our schedule open so we can change parks or plans for the day depending on how we feel or how the crowds are. So I keep going back and forth on what I want to do. That's the only negative part of the surprise is that I wish I could just ask DD what she wants to do and plan around that. Instead I'm trying to guess.

I need to decide about Tuesday though because I really want to order DD a mini cake or a chocolate slipper or something but that means I need to decide whether we are going to do the Tea at GF or dinner at the castle and call the cake hotline.

 

[Dionnemay]

Trying to be as FRUGAL as possible on this trip to have more $ left for actual park food/fun/souveniers.


Got two questions for you experts...

We're coming from Texas (Me, DD15, DS12),Was going to drive but I did the math and with the money I would spend on gas, road trip, food and hotel (I'm the only adult so its just ME driving and I doubt I could drive for 24 hours straight), it made more sense to fly. Did the "Price-line vs Southwest" thing and, surprisingly, Southwest came out to be about $600 more than United.

So, I took the cheaper United Flight- we all can't sit together but it's worth saving a few hundred $ and I'm sure someone will trade seats to let Mom sit with her kids. But NOW there are bag fees- ugh! (I usually fly SW because they don't have any).

So I'm trying to pack as FEW suitcases as possible. Maybe 2 for the 3 of us. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this? (we're staying March 12-19 btw).


Also...

I hate throwing a ton of money down our throats, on food, you know. I think that money is better spent on stuff they can take home for memories vs what they will just p**p out. So I don't want to make every meal a "Disney meal".

I've seen a lot of people talk about going OS or ordering from a grocery store for delivery but I have two problems there; We wont have a car so I'll still be spending extra $ on a cab or for the delivery (no idea what a cab from POP to whatever store is close costs); Also, we don't have a fridge in our room (opted out of paying extra for that) so the idea of having cereal for breakfast in our room wouldn't work as we have no place to store milk.

Does anyone have any non-perishable ideas that we can maybe pack in our suitcase? AND, is it even ok with the Airlines to pack food in your suitcase?


Sorry, first time I'm doing this on a budget ..my friends tease me all the time that I waste a lot of money which is true and I'm trying to change that this time...I always spend WAY too much on trips, compared to other, more frugal people and I don't know all the "tricks" yet.

 

[kt_mom]

Trying to be as FRUGAL as possible on this trip to have more $ left for actual park food/fun/souveniers.


Got two questions for you experts...

We're coming from Texas (Me, DD15, DS12),Was going to drive but I did the math and with the money I would spend on gas, road trip, food and hotel (I'm the only adult so its just ME driving and I doubt I could drive for 24 hours straight), it made more sense to fly. Did the "Price-line vs Southwest" thing and, surprisingly, Southwest came out to be about $600 more than United.

So, I took the United Flight- we all can't sit together but that's worth the money we save and I'm sure someone will trade seats with us. ad this is bag fees-I usually like SW because they don't have any. So I'm trying to pack as FEW suitcases as possible. Maybe 2 for the 3 of us. Anyone have any ideas on how to do this? (we're staying March 12-19 btw).


Also...

I hate throwing a ton of money down our thoughts, on food, you know. I think that money is better spend on stuff they can take home for memories vs what they will just p**p out. So I don't want to make every meal a "Disney meal".

I've seen a lot of people talk about going OS or ordering from a grocery store for delivery but I have two problems there; We wont have a car so I'll still be spending extra $ on a cab or for the delivery (no idea what a cab from POP to whatever store is close costs); Also, we don't have a fridge in our room (opted out of paying extra for that) so the idea of having cereal for breakfast in our room wouldn't work as we have o place to store milk.

Does anyone have any non-perishable ideas that we can maybe pack in our suitcase? AND, is it even ok with the Airlines to pack food in your suitcase?


Sorry, first time I'm doing this on a budget ..my friends tease me all the time that I waste a lot of money which is true and I'm trying to change that this time...I always spend WAY too much on trips, compared to other, more frugal people and I don't know all the "tricks" yet.

We'll be there the 12-18 and I plan to try to pack me and DD in one suitcase. Since DH won't be with us we won't be doing and signature restaurants and will be mostly in the parks so my first cut is shoes. I plan to only pack a couple pair for each of us. Shoes take up a lot of space and are heavy. Packing a suitcase is kind of like working a puzzle. I had to repack DH last night for him to get all his stuff in for his trip tomorrow.

As far as food, we have ordered from Garden Grocer and it was really easy. I don't know about packing food in suitcases except that it will take up space. If you do pack something I would think pop tarts or granola bars would be easy for breakfast. You could also take them out of their boxes and try to fit them in around other stuff to take up less space. But they might get smooshed that way too. Other than that I don't have many ideas.

 

[Dionnemay]

We'll be there the 12-18 and I plan to try to pack me and DD in one suitcase. Since DH won't be with us we won't be doing and signature restaurants and will be mostly in the parks so my first cut is shoes. I plan to only pack a couple pair for each of us. Shoes take up a lot of space and are heavy. Packing a suitcase is kind of like working a puzzle. I had to repack DH last night for him to get all his stuff in for his trip tomorrow.

As far as food, we have ordered from Garden Grocer and it was really easy. I don't know about packing food in suitcases except that it will take up space. If you do pack something I would think pop tarts or granola bars would be easy for breakfast. You could also take them out of their boxes and try to fit them in around other stuff to take up less space. But they might get smooshed that way too. Other than that I don't have many ideas.

Oh thats a good I dea..ONE pair of shoes, lol! They DO take up space so we can just wear comfortable walking shoes on the plane and use those the whole week. Thanks!

May I ask what type of food you bought from GG and how much it cost total -with delivery (or cab?). Also, I'm assuming you had a fridge in your room...?

Does anyone know how difficult/easy it is to add a fridge or microwave at POP or how much it costs per day?

One big issue of mine (and a BIG reason -out of many reasons-I didn't get the DDP) was that our room at POP doesn't have a Microwave. We are light eaters and most of the time when we have eaten at a Disney TS or even CS, they don't finish- heck, I don't even finish my favorite "Turkey Leg" in one sitting, and have to bag it for later. But there's no way to reheat stuff so most leftovers end up getting thrown out anyway.

 

[kt_mom]

Oh thats a good I dea..ONE pair of shoes, lol! They DO take up space so we can just wear comfortable walking shoes on the plane and use those the whole week. Thanks!

May I ask what type of food you bought from GG and how much it cost total -with delivery (or cab?). Also, I'm assuming you had a fridge in your room...?

Does anyone know how difficult/easy it is to add a fridge or microwave at POP or how much it costs per day?

One big issue of mine (and a BIG reason -out of many reasons-I didn't get the DDP) was that our room at POP doesn't have a Microwave. We are light eaters and most of the time when we have eaten at a Disney TS or even CS, they don't finish- heck, I don't even finish my favorite "Turkey Leg" in one sitting, and have to bag it for later. But there's no way to reheat stuff so most leftovers end up getting thrown out anyway.

I've ordered from them the last two trips. I ordered water bottles so we wouldn't have to buy as many in the parks and we carried a few with us each morning. (DH drinks tons of water and it gets expensive in the parks) I also ordered formula and diapers for DS so I wouldn't have to pack them. Then I usually order a couple 2 liters of coke for the room. The water bottles alone made it worth the delivery fee because we drink so many while we are there. If we have any left at the end of th week we usually try to give them to an arriving family. I'm not ordering anything for DD and I for this trip though.

 

[kt_mom]

Well Disney decided my dining dilemma for me for DD's birthday. My CRT reservation that I was so happy to score a few weeks ago was canceled. A CM called me last night and said that the system had a glitch a few weeks ago and opened up ADR's tht weren't actually available and let people book them. My reservation at CRT was one of them and they would need to cancel it.

I posted on the dining board about it. The lady was very nice and tried for about 15 minutes to get us in at another time but had no luck. She did offer us a fast pass for the princesses on main street and a free photo package with them as well as a $25 gift card which I accepted.

I bummed, I had decided that we would do the CRT dinner since it's what I know she would enjoy the most and I was going to order the cake yesterday to be delivered to CRT. Thankfully I got busy yesterday and didn't have a chance and I also didn't have a chance to cancel the 1900 PF dinner which I guess is what we will do now.

I think we will do the breakfast at CP at 10:20 and then maybe catch another ride before we head back to the resort to swim and relax before heading to 1900PF for a 5:40 reservation then on to MK for the wishes dessert party and a few more late night rides at MK. The park is open pretty late and I think DD will enjoy that.

I may still possibly cancel the 1900PF and stay a little longer after breakfast before heading back to the resort and then not go back to the MK until closer to 9:00 for the dessert party and plan to stay closer to closing time. The MK is open until 1am and we would never get to do that on a family trip.

 

[AlwaysEeyore]

Checking out of BWV in the morning. Had a great room but the crowds killed us. Been here since 3/2. We're exhausted, hubby took tons of pics for his dining review, kids wanted to swim instead of being in the parks. First Disney trip we ever had where we can't wait to go home. Hope everyone has a great time!

 

[goopysolelady]

ONE MORE DAY! So far, trip is still a secret from DGD's. They'll be SO surprised when they arrive at DW instead of Dallas! Not looking forward to the crowds but, "any day at DW is better than a day working"!

 

[sjs314]

Checking out of BWV in the morning. Had a great room but the crowds killed us. Been here since 3/2. We're exhausted, hubby took tons of pics for his dining review, kids wanted to swim instead of being in the parks. First Disney trip we ever had where we can't wait to go home. Hope everyone has a great time!

Heading home today too!! We stayed BWI were upgraded to water view. Love this resort. Having room service breakfast before ME pickup @ 8:50. Did RAC @ 5 am. Idid not think the crowds were bad this trip.

 

[kt_mom]

You guys are making me nervous about the crowds! I thought this week was supposed to be less crowded. I wonder if that means next week will be even more crowded! Oh well, its still Disney!

Tonight I'm going to start laundry for me and the kids and start packing up DS's stuff for his week with his aunt. I've made my lists and my lists of my lists so hopefully it will go smoothly.

DD still has no idea about Disney or at least she hasn't let on that she does, so I'm pretty excited about the surprise.

DH is having fun in Vegas so I'm glad about that. But I'm exhausted, I don't sleep well when he's not home and the dog doesn't either. He does this low growl all night at every noise he hears when DH isn't here. I guess he thinks he's protecting us, but I really just wish he would shut up. Hopefully it will be better tonight or at least maybe I can work in a nap on Saturday and Sunday. I hate to start our trip off exhausted!

Glad everyone is having good trips so far! I can't wait to be there!

 

[LittleMissMickey]

Only ten more working days left after I leave this afternoon!

I only have one ADR made, but we're just going to relax by the pool and stroll the resorts, so I think we'll be able to find something.

Hoping that everybody is enjoying themselves. Remember, Disney is always better than work, and crowds mean that more people are experiencing the magic. Wouldn't we wish that for everyone? (I know, sometimes it would be better if they came at a different time, but still...)

 

[kt_mom]

ONE MORE DAY! So far, trip is still a secret from DGD's. They'll be SO surprised when they arrive at DW instead of Dallas! Not looking forward to the crowds but, "any day at DW is better than a day working"!

I can't wait to hear how the surprise goes! Please post back and let us know. I'm so excited about ours I can't hardly stand it. I think a part of me still doesn't believe its real. I'm just so excited to be surprising dd with a mommy/daughter trip!

 

[bigjrfan88]

Heading home today too!! We stayed BWI were upgraded to water view. Love this resort. Having room service breakfast before ME pickup @ 8:50. Did RAC @ 5 am. Idid not think the crowds were bad this trip.

You must be hitting all of the worst parks. I've been here since Sunday and haven't really hit any crowds. HS was a little crowded yesterday but not bad. AK was also just a little crowded on Tuesday but still not bad. MK has been absolutely wonderful every time we've been.

 

[sjs314]

You must be hitting all of the worst parks. I've been here since Sunday and haven't really hit any crowds. HS was a little crowded yesterday but not bad. AK was also just a little crowded on Tuesday but still not bad. MK has been absolutely wonderful every time we've been.

You must have misread my post, I did not think the crowds were bad at all,we arrived on Sunday also........ not compared to when I went later in March in 2009 when it was wall to wall people everywhere. Many rides were walk ons and no long waits at restaurants, we even did a few CS places this trip which in 2009 was a total nightmare between the lines and trying to find a seat ..........we are hopeing to return in 2013 this same time again.

The weather was beautiful just like in 2009, I love the no humidity factor

I love March and the BWI!!!