A Brother & Sister Return! Updated 3/17- February TR Up!

[Nicole786]

Chapter List

Introductions!- Page 1
Dining Plans - Page 1
February TR: Arrival, 1 - Page 2
February TR: Arrival, 2 - Page 2


Hello! Welcome to a TR about a Brother and a Sister! We're very excited about this upcoming trip. We consider ourselves seasoned Disney vets! We love the time we spend together, and will cherish it while we are old. Each time we are there we talk about bringing our respective families, and we always say we would continue our August tradition!

The Who:

Sister: Nicole, 23, works in the computer industry! Cherishes those trips to Disney, and time spent with family. 2010 is my last "planned" year living at home (the question is will things go as planned, right?) and since a November mother/daughter trip is in the works to New York, this might be the final trip to Disney in 2010.

Brother: David, 18. Guitar guy, Music buff, disney channel buff (look out for random Phineaus and Ferb quotes) A few of you have watched David grow up on the Dis, and now he's graduating High School! He is an aspiring chef and is known to whip up some random disney treats (I came home to find tie-dye cheesecake one day) So look out for sporadic bakings! He'll be contributing to the report in his own shade of blue He's joined us out in the working force, which is what makes this over-the-top trip possible!


And here are the details!

August 20th-22nd
Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando

This is a stop we are really looking forward to! The Hard Rock is such an awesome, awesome hotel, and a lot of people don't like Universal but we love it. It's a great segway into Disney, and a great way to start the vacation!! Plus, by then the wizarding world of Harry Potter will be open, and we just can't wait! For Potter fans this is going to be INSANE We've been keeping a close eye on the awesome Dis thread, which has all these cool construction photos We also can't wait for the delicious Hard Rock mozzarella sticks by the pool, mama dellas at the portofino bay hotel, and just a relaxing time with our front of the line passes.

August 20th-22nd
The Polynesian Resort with Basic Dining!

Ahhhhh, cloud 9! Like I said before, with David in the working force and this being the last trip for a while, we decided to go all out, and that meant finally staying at a dream resort for us: The Poly. We've already talked about relaxing on the beach, wishes in our pajamas, utilizing the monorail, heading over to the contemporary arcade during afternoon breaks. We couldn't be more excited! I've been attached to TikiMan's Polynesian Site
learning all I can about the different longhouses and figuring out if we want to request one. As for now, I just want to request "balcony" because after getting accustomed to balconies in AKL and WL i'd be upset with just a window. We are in a Garden View, but depending on Passholder rates, who knows, maybe an upgrade?

We hope you continue to read and plan along with us. We've already made plans and ADRs that I can't wait to share!! Plus, look out for a mini-tr from David's birthday weekend trip we took February 17-20th!

 

[scottny]

can't wait to hear more about the planning

 

[MeMom]

I knew there was a reason I woke up extra early this morning; your pre-trip report was calling me. I'm so glad my favorite brother-sister DIS team is embarking on another awesome adventure! You know I will be along for the planning and the fun pictures and stories that come throughout the report. I love your phone pictures! It makes my day to be at school and get one of your random 'Here we are in Disney World!' pictures.

Yet again, our summer trips do not overlap. One of these days, we have got to get this right! Trent is moving to Orlando in two weeks for a new job, so I am hoping that we will be able to make 4-5 trips a year now to see him and Disney World. He'll make a few here and we'll meet in the middle a couple of times. If we can see him every month or so, I think we'll make it okay. With 4-5 trips in a year, surely we'll be there at the same time as you somewhere down the road. We'd love to meet you and any of your family who might be with you at the time.

Staying at the Poly? That's cool. You know we rang in 2010 there with DIS friends, but we weren't staying there. Just borrowed the yard of DIS friends who were staying in a perfect castle view room.

Anyway, let the planning begin! Can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[Nicole786]

can't wait to hear more about the planning

Hey Scott! Glad you are here!

I knew there was a reason I woke up extra early this morning; your pre-trip report was calling me. I'm so glad my favorite brother-sister DIS team is embarking on another awesome adventure! You know I will be along for the planning and the fun pictures and stories that come throughout the report. I love your phone pictures! It makes my day to be at school and get one of your random 'Here we are in Disney World!' pictures.

Yet again, our summer trips do not overlap. One of these days, we have got to get this right! Trent is moving to Orlando in two weeks for a new job, so I am hoping that we will be able to make 4-5 trips a year now to see him and Disney World. He'll make a few here and we'll meet in the middle a couple of times. If we can see him every month or so, I think we'll make it okay. With 4-5 trips in a year, surely we'll be there at the same time as you somewhere down the road. We'd love to meet you and any of your family who might be with you at the time.

Staying at the Poly? That's cool. You know we rang in 2010 there with DIS friends, but we weren't staying there. Just borrowed the yard of DIS friends who were staying in a perfect castle view room.

Anyway, let the planning begin! Can't wait to hear all about it.

I'm sure with your frequent visits, somewhere our trips will overlap! Hopefully we can get more friends in here to join us for the party!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Subbing! The Poly is on my dream list of resorts (along with the Yacht & Beach club). Can't wait to hear more plans!

 

[wdwgirl03]

So jealous you are staying at the Polynesian. That is one of our favorite resorts EVER.

 

[Nicole786]

Subbing! The Poly is on my dream list of resorts (along with the Yacht & Beach club). Can't wait to hear more plans!

We kept struggling between an Epcot resort and the Polynesian, I hope we made the right choice!

So jealous you are staying at the Polynesian. That is one of our favorite resorts EVER.

I can't wait to check it out! Any tips on room location?

 

[Nicole786]

Look what came in the mail yesterday! You gotta love Disney mail!

It reminded me that the trip will be here before we know it, so I need to share more stuff with you guys! I can't wait to get feedback on our dining choices and touring plan

Something else to add is I applied for tickets to The Ellen Degeneres show! She's going to be at Universal Studios at the end of the month, I haven't been guaranteed seats yet, but if I do, I'll be at the taping!

 

[scottny]

an Ellen taping would be fun...Hope you get them.

 

[Nicole786]

an Ellen taping would be fun...Hope you get them.

Thanks Scott! I hope so too!


Okay so i'm really excited to share our touring plans with you guys, but in the interest of stretching this out another 162 days I thought I would start by sharing our dining choices. We spent a lot of time on these, looking over menus, trying to work in some new choices with some old faves! Let us know what you think.

Boma
Whispering Canyon - eager to try this one again after having such a bad experience last May
T-Rex (or a Downtown Disney restaurant, any suggestions??)
50s Primetime Cafe - haven't eaten here in a few years, we'll be eating before HS extra magic hours
1900 Park Fare - we are eating here for pocket for a late breakfast and i'm very excited to just hop on that monorail and hop right off! Never ate here before, anyone out there give this a try?
Yak & Yeti - Definitely a fave we're excited to try again
Liberty Tree Tavern - an out of pocket lunch i've always wanted to try. I heard their pot roast is amazing!
Le Cellier - of course a favorite of ours! We just can't get enough of that mushroom filet!
Kona Cafe - for dinner one day, for breakfast another. Love it for dinner, never ate here for breakfast. Any thoughts?
Mama Melrose - never did this or the fantasmic dinner package but looking forward to bypassing that F! line!

Can't wait to share our itinerary and do a mini trip report on davids birthday weekend! I'll try and solicit the TR more so we can get a party going in here

 

[MouseloverJD]

subbing. Everything sounds great.

 

[Nicole786]

subbing. Everything sounds great.

Thanks for joining in!

 

[MeMom]

Thanks Scott! I hope so too!


Okay so i'm really excited to share our touring plans with you guys, but in the interest of stretching this out another 162 days I thought I would start by sharing our dining choices. We spent a lot of time on these, looking over menus, trying to work in some new choices with some old faves! Let us know what you think.

Boma
Whispering Canyon - eager to try this one again after having such a bad experience last May
T-Rex (or a Downtown Disney restaurant, any suggestions??)
50s Primetime Cafe - haven't eaten here in a few years, we'll be eating before HS extra magic hours
1900 Park Fare - we are eating here for pocket for a late breakfast and i'm very excited to just hop on that monorail and hop right off! Never ate here before, anyone out there give this a try?
Yak & Yeti - Definitely a fave we're excited to try again
Liberty Tree Tavern - an out of pocket lunch i've always wanted to try. I heard their pot roast is amazing!
Le Cellier - of course a favorite of ours! We just can't get enough of that mushroom filet!
Kona Cafe - for dinner one day, for breakfast another. Love it for dinner, never ate here for breakfast. Any thoughts?
Mama Melrose - never did this or the fantasmic dinner package but looking forward to bypassing that F! line!

Can't wait to share our itinerary and do a mini trip report on davids birthday weekend! I'll try and solicit the TR more so we can get a party going in here

Go for T-Rex. It's new, and you've gotta try everything once. We'll be doing it when the girls are just a bit older. It's kind of loud, but we'll enjoy it anyway.

Jill, Brooklynn, and I are doing 1900 Park Fare this summer for the first time.

We enjoyed our LTT meal the day before Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. A lot of people say the food is bland, but I guess we're not foodies, because we liked it and will go back again.

Mama Melrose has been on our ADR list and scratched a few times, but eventually it will get on there and stay.

Whispering Canyon - we enjoy
Boma - first time for us this summer

Isn't it fun to talk about Disney food?!?!?

 

[Nicole786]

Go for T-Rex. It's new, and you've gotta try everything once. We'll be doing it when the girls are just a bit older. It's kind of loud, but we'll enjoy it anyway.

Jill, Brooklynn, and I are doing 1900 Park Fare this summer for the first time.

We enjoyed our LTT meal the day before Thanksgiving a couple of years ago. A lot of people say the food is bland, but I guess we're not foodies, because we liked it and will go back again.

Mama Melrose has been on our ADR list and scratched a few times, but eventually it will get on there and stay.

Whispering Canyon - we enjoy
Boma - first time for us this summer

Isn't it fun to talk about Disney food?!?!?

Yeah I think we're gonna try T-Rex this time. Mama melrose always manages to get scratched from our list--this time i'm pretty sure it will stay!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Definitely keep Mama Melrose's! I might be biased since I love Italian food but it was really good there.

 

[Nicole786]

Definitely keep Mama Melrose's! I might be biased since I love Italian food but it was really good there.

Ok awesome!! I can't wait to try it then! The Penne Vodka looks really good!!


Hey guys i'm working on the first chapter of the Birthday TR! Should be up by tomorrow night

 

[Nicole786]

David had a lot of surprises coming to him, and it was so hard to keep them all a secret, but I did a good job and it was worth it! We were staying at the Wilderness Lodge from February 17-20, with David's birthday being on the 18th!

We arrived at the Wilderness Lodge and were next to check in! The moment we walked in the lobby, we had these giddy smiles on our faces! It's no surprise that WL is my favorite Disney hotel and I just couldn't wait to be here!

We were checked in by a nice CM although he wasn't pouring out the smiles and Disney magic, he wasn't mean. He didn't wish David a Happy Birthday or remember to give him a birthday button (I kindly asked when we were done) Our room wasn't ready, so we grabbed our things and headed to the bus stop for the DHS opening!

We ran to TSM with the rest and waited about 15 minutes before getting on the ride. You could tell this was president's week for sure! Next time, we'll FP it instead of riding it! We had a blast, David JUST beat me! I'll get him next time!!

David's Thoughts: Take that!

We high tailed it over to RnR to score some FP and ride ToT. It was only around 9:40 when we got over there and there was a HUGE line for FP! We waited about 5-10 minutes to get some and than went over to ToT to walk in the line. Usually this is our DHS strategy and in May and August works fine, we walk on practically everything! Little did we know about Presidents week! The wait for ToT was 45 minutes! Since we didn't have a lot to see here at DHS we got in line and waited with everyone else.

But surprise! While we were in line, BEANA was there! She saw David and recognized him, and knew me from a NYC DIS Meet we had in 2008! I wish we had more time to talk, that line moved fast! If i wasn't afraid of a crowd brawl I would have asked her to come join us (We were about 10 minutes ahead of her in line) Great to see you again, even though it was short!

Here are some queue photos:

My favorite:

ToT were great, I made a few short attempts at photos that didn't come out.

We had time to spare for our RnR FPs so we walked around and caught a Streetmosphere actor! We had recognized him from our Christmas 2007 trip and he is HILARIOUS! He said goodbye to us shortly after playing because he was off to an audition!

About 12:45 we hopped on over to RnR and walked right on within 10 minutes (now thats more like it, but of course we had FP) I have SUPER anxiety about bringing my stuff onto rides. At Universal, there are complimentary lockers outside of major attractions to store your stuff while you ride so you don't lose anything. And if you think about it, I'm carrying my Canon DSLR, a Lens that usually isn't mine (borrowed) my iPhone which is very expensive to replace, our lanyards which has our hotel key and my ID, and today, because our room wasn't ready, my wallet. So we spent a lot of the morning trying to find paid lockers but it wasn't to be. David says i'm ridiculous, and that he would hold the bag and make sure it was safe, but I told him that would be much worse because i'd keep looking over to make sure it was still there (which I've done when I put items in the basket) we shoved everything into my nike drawstring bag, which I placed around my arms and on my chest, the lap bar was comfortable and I could feel it the whole time!

It was a great ride!! So much better knowing my bag was with me at all times!!

Okay time for some lunch!! We passed by another streetmosphere performance we watched for a few minutes and than it was time to catch the boat launch to the Beach Club for some Beaches and Cream!

I love this boat launch, and its one of the reasons we're debating Poly or Boardwalk right now??

When we got there, the wait was 45 minutes, and we decided to hang out for it. There was a really angry guy that came storming out screaming at the Host CM because he was waiting a while for the wait staff to come!

David's Thoughts: The guy wasn't listening to the CM when she explained and tried to apologize, we felt really bad

We decided to walk around the Beach Club to explore since the CM said the pager would reach. We even took the elevator up to the rooms just to see what the interior hallways looked like! We walked over to the DVC lobby and than back to the regular lobby to people watch.

Continued in next post...

 

[Nicole786]

When we got back to Beaches and Cream, the Host said she paged us but seated us right away because she knew we had been waiting

When we sat down a neighboring table got a Kitchen Sink, I asked if i could take a photo! They were awesome, they were like "sure!"

We started off by sharing this awesome drink:

…and finished off with some burgers and fries/onion rings. We declined birthday ice cream, not realizing the server wanted to sing! Because before we knew it, here she came with a balloon and had the whole restaurant singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

She tied it around his wrist and we were laughing the whole time!

Here's the birthday boy with his balloon!

At the international gateway we gave it a way to a little girl

I love this shot of the Beach Club beach, it was a beautiful day!

We leisurely walked around the World Showcase just excited to be here and taking it all in. We ended up over at Norway and decided to ride one of our favorites, Maelstrom. The wait was around 20 minutes. While in line, I called WL and turns out our room was ready, they just hadn't texted us, so we decided to leave Epcot and return to the room.

David's Thoughts: It's awesome to have an iPhone with us in line, I used it to find Hidden Mickeys during our many wait times.

When we got there all excited to see our new room, there was a PROBLEM....

 

[Nicole786]

I think maybe the trip is to far away which is why we don't have a lot of followers. I'll bump it once to see, and than maybe just do a regular TR on the birthday trip until we get closer to August?

 

[Dancegrl624]

I'm here! I've started a PTR for Sept, so it's definately not too far away. I try to update with just random things sometimes. Maybe that will help!