Mommy, Daddy, is it May yet?! A May 2010 CR PTR **UPDATE 5/1 Only 7 days to go!**

[JPFamilyMom]

I'll be anxious to see what ADR's you booked with Deluxe dining. Wow! Congrats on getting most of your ADR's. I got all the ones I wanted too, we decided to cut down our table service meals since my boys don't do so well with eating out and character meets have proved to be challenging with both of them-so we cut down to two character meals at Disney and one at IOA. I did it the old fashioned way though, I called Disney Dining, because I couldn't figure out the online system, and was surprised how easy it was by phone.

LOVE all the pictures you have practiced taking and the kids costumes were adorable. Will you try and take the costumes with you in May?

Can't wait to see what else you have planned.

 

[adamsup]

I'll be anxious to see what ADR's you booked with Deluxe dining. Wow! Congrats on getting most of your ADR's. I got all the ones I wanted too, we decided to cut down our table service meals since my boys don't do so well with eating out and character meets have proved to be challenging with both of them-so we cut down to two character meals at Disney and one at IOA. I did it the old fashioned way though, I called Disney Dining, because I couldn't figure out the online system, and was surprised how easy it was by phone.

LOVE all the pictures you have practiced taking and the kids costumes were adorable. Will you try and take the costumes with you in May?

Can't wait to see what else you have planned.

We totally know it's gonna be to much food, eating 3 meals a day at WDW plus the snacks etc. Feel a little guilty going ahead with it actually haha oh well I'll get over it!

You didn't miss anything by calling instead of using the online system!

We have a few costumes that we're gonna take - princess ones mainly, snow white too I think. They will wear them for the princess character meals. They keep changing their minds about who they're gonna be but they're gonna have to be Bella and Snow White because that's what we have bought!

Glad you got your ADRs without any problems. I'm gonna head over to your PTR to see what you have planned.

 

[tracisup]

LOVE all the pictures you have practiced taking and the kids costumes were adorable. Will you try and take the costumes with you in May?

Can't wait to see what else you have planned.

Thanks! We are planning to take the Minnie dresses with us. Right now, Brooklyn and Paris have a Bell dress and a Sleeping Beauty dress. For Christmas, they are getting a Cinderella one and a Snow White one from Santa. Also, Nana is geting the each a tink costume (one pink and one purple) for Christmas.

I am planning to get Maxwell a pirate costume to take but it has been a challange to find one thats cool & cozy for summer. Still looking tho!

We might need another suitcase just for dress up!

 

[adamsup]

Here are our dining reservations.

5/8/2010 - arrival day

1:05PM
lunch at Crystal Palace

5:30PM
dinner at The Wave

5/9/2010

7:30AM
breakfast at Chef Mickey's

1:45PM
lunch at Kona Café

7:35PM
dinner at The California Grill

5/10/2010

9:30AM
breakfast at Hollywood and Vine

1:30PM
lunch at The Wave

7:10PM
dinner a 'Ohana

5/11/2010

8:25AM
breakfast at Akershus

12:00PM
lunch at Coral Reef

5:10PM
dinner at Whispering Canyon (we picked this one because of Team Renfroe's feature in their most recent trip report!!! The BBQ skillet looks amazing!)

5/12/2010

8:00AM
breakfast at Donald's Safari Breakfast

12:30PM
lunch at Yak and Yeti

6:10PM
dinner at Boma

5/13/2010

8:10AM
breakfast at The Grand Floridian Café

1:00PM
lunch at The Wave

6:40PM
dinner at Kona Café

5/14/2010

8:00AM
breakfast at Main Street Bakery

12:00PM
lunch at Cinderella's Royal Table (Paris's 4th birthday - she is going to wear her Cinderella dress of course!)

5:15PM
dinner at the Spirit of Aloha Luau (Paris's birthday dinner)

5/15/2010

8:00AM
breakfast at 1900 Park Fare

11:30AM
lunch at Chef Mickey's

 

[tracisup]

99 days until Disney! YAY!!! (I just had to post that!) LOL

 

[adamsup]

yes! 99 days until we go!! officially out of the 3 digits finally!!

 

[adamsup]

We've been paying off our vacation religiously since around August 2009 or so. We didn't use a Disney Visa card or anything like that (don't need another credit card haha). Instead, we put ourselves on a payment plan, which has worked out really well.

Just pulled up our account today and realized it's only 32 days left until it's due in full. Amazed how time has flown by - especially since Thanksgiving to now.

Only 93 days until our vacation. Think we're planning to go through the mass of stuff we have accumulated through the year and "tucked away" for our trip. I'll be very surprised if we can fit half of it into our bags!

Since we haven't flown domestically since 2001, we're planning to make a trip to the local airport (it's about a 5 minute drive), and find out exactly what we're allowed to carry on, how much each bag can weigh how many bags we're allowed etc. Like for example, is a stroller considered a carry on?

I'll be sure to post what we learn.

 

[adamsup]

We’re going to the airport today to learn what we’re allowed to take on the plane, how big our carry-ons can be, whether strollers count towards our allowance etc. I think I’ve read somewhere that you have to pay for each piece of baggage over your limit. So today’s research will hopefully avoid any “surprises” on vacation day!

 

[adamsup]

We went to the airport today since we had a bunch of questions about what we are and are not allowed to do. I'll do this in a Q&A format so maybe it will be helpful to anyone reading this that might be planning to fly.

Question: is there a weight limit?
Answer: 50lbs per piece.

Question: how much does it cost to check luggage in?
Answer: $25.00 for each person's first checked bag. Didn't find out how much for a second checked back. If you carry on instead, there is no charge.

Question: do our kids get a carry on too?
Answer: yes they do, even Max who will be on a lap.

Question: is a stroller considered carry-on?
Answer: no - baby items are free and don't count towards either checked luggage or carry-on no matter how many you have. Diaper bags, strollers etc are all free. Other personal items such as a laptop bags, purses etc are also free.

Question: can our older kids (5yrs and 3 yrs) have strollers too?
Answer: yes.

 

[adamsup]

We have several iPhone apps that we're planning on using for our trip in May. Here's the rundown - I'll write a review of each one later.

Itinerary apps to keep us on schedule

• e-Ticket WDW (Disboards App)
• TripIt
• WDW Wait Times
• WDW Park Hours
• Google App

Apps to keep everyone updated on what we're doing

• Facebook/Twitter (of course - won't bother reviewing these)
• Wordpress

 

[adamsup]

OK, here is my first iPhone app review: e-Ticket WDW official Disboard App.

It's $5.99 so might put people off who try not to get paid apps. Personally, I always try the free versions if possible, and rarely get paid apps unless the free versions fall way short.

Anyhow, back to the review

Maps - 9/10

It has a nice GPS-enabled mapping system for all WDW parks (pinch to zoom included) with thousands of POIs that you can just click to bring up details about that item, user reviews etc. You can filter the maps to only show you specific types of POI such as restaurants, restrooms etc, which is nice because having all POIs enabled can really clutter up the maps.

Another must-have is the search feature for times when you need to find a particular ride or POI, and this one works well. I can do a search for restroom and narrow it down to a specific location - pretty handy for emergency potty breaks! Only bad thing is if you search for something but don't know which park it is in, you have to jump from park to park looking for the little POI icon.

Points of Interest - 8/10

According to the app website, it has over 3000 POIs to choose from. I think they could have done more with the descriptions of each POI when you bring them up on the phone. For example, I pulled up the description of Expedition Everest and it gave me some basic information on it, but as a parent I was hoping for the height restriction info but this is not included on any description You can jump to disboards from within the description and read what others have said though, so chances are I could possibly find what I'm looking for but less convenient this way.

One great plus is that the food POIs have menu info included. Really useful if you pass somewhere and want to know what they have to offer. Or you wanna find the nearest place that sells dole whips. The search system easily lets you find that too.

In-App Itinerary - 2/10

The itinerary app needs A LOT of work unfortunately. What's nice is you can search for POIs and add them directly to your itinerary. However, the day-by-day itinerary is pretty useless. It separates things by day but nowhere does it easily show you the time of each scheduled event. A nice idea but really badly executed, at least in this version. Hopefully they will improve this functionality in later releases.

In-App Disboards - 6/10

It's nice to be able to have mobile-optimized access to disboards directly from the app. Overall it meets my needs, although I would like to have an easier way to find my subscribed threads. I have to go through the rigmorole of searching for threads created by my username. Would be much more convenient to have a link to all my subscribed threads and maybe a way to bookmark specific boards would be good too.

Park Hours - 5/10

The app has a listing of park hours but this is limited to the next 30 days only. I suppose this is all you need during your vacation so won't mark it down for that. What's missing is some schedule info on other events such as parades, Wishes, Illuminations etc. There's a separate app I have that gives me this info, and I will write a review of it later) but would have been nice to have this info within the disboards app.

Summary - 7/10

So, all in all a pretty decent version 1 app. It meets a lot of my needs for our trip with room for a few improvements. Worth the $5.99 in my opinion

 

[adamsup]

Here's a picture of Brooklyn browsing through our Passporter. She's planning what we need to see and do while we're in WDW!

 

[adamsup]

TripIt iPhone app review

I came across this one as I was reading how other people keep on schedule during their vacations, how they keep track of restaurant reservation numbers, cell phone numbers of the people in their party etc. Some people create Excel spreadsheets, others write it all out on index cards etc.

The way it works is.. you add an unlimited number of events via their website (tripit.com - free account required) and then install the iPhone app that lets you access the itinerary directly on your phone. Really handy!

Here's an iPhone screenshot of our upcoming vacation in May.

Each event is clickable and opens up to give you more details. You can't add/edit the event details via the iPhone app - to do that you need to go to the tripit website and make changes there.

You can add as much or as little as you like to your itinerary. As you might be able to tell, we like to plan so our itinerary is pretty much an hour by hour account of what we need to do, where we need to go etc.

To start with, each event first needs to be categorized as either a flight, restaurant, activity etc. Once that's done, the event details form opens where you can add a plethora of information from the basics (date, time, location etc) to the nitty gritty details (see below for a screen shot of the restaurant event form).

So basically you just add events and then you can access them via the iPhone app. In addition to the basic itinerary feature, TripIt also has a few other nice features.

For example, you can export the itinerary that you have built to Outlook (not Outlook 2003), iPhone or Blackberry calendars so you don't need to access the TripIt app at all. This could be handy if you have an iPod Touch for example that doesn't have a constant internet connection.

Another nice feature is the ability to share your itinerary with others without requiring them to sign up for a TripIt account. We have set it up where our parents can all access our itinerary via the TripIt website so they can be jealous of us during our vacation!

Summary

I would give this app a solid 8/10 because it's free and you get a lot of features for a great price. There are ads on the iPhone app but they are non-invasive. If I could add/edit details via the iPhone app and not have to go to the website then I would have to give it a 10/10 rating. Maybe TripIt will make that happen in future releases.

Nevertheless, this app is a keeper for my iPhone and definitely something I'll be using when we go to on vacation.

 

[MHTeacher]

The month of May in your PTR title caught my attention. My family will be at Disney near the end of May.

Sounds like you have some great plans made. Enjoy your family's first trip to Dsiney!

 

[adamsup]

The month of May in your PTR title caught my attention. My family will be at Disney near the end of May.

Sounds like you have some great plans made. Enjoy your family's first trip to Dsiney!

Hi Michelle. Thanks, we've spent countless hours trying to get a plan laid out (sure you know all about this!). We're not deluding ourselves that things will go completely as planned though - we're prepared for some hiccups!

Heading over to read about your May trip now.

 

[tracisup]

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the post. Adam and I keep joking that no one is reading our PTR and we are just talking to each other! LOL

Enjoy your trip in May!

Traci

 

[MHTeacher]

Hi Michelle. Thanks, we've spent countless hours trying to get a plan laid out (sure you know all about this!). We're not deluding ourselves that things will go completely as planned though - we're prepared for some hiccups!

Heading over to read about your May trip now.

I know all about the plan making! As long as you know there will be snares in the plan and are prepared for them, things will be fine. There will definitely be moments where you just have to "go with the flow". Enjoy those surprise moments!

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the post. Adam and I keep joking that no one is reading our PTR and we are just talking to each other! LOL

Enjoy your trip in May!

Traci

That's funny! Well you have a reader! I will keep checking in to see how things are going. You'll have to write a trip report afterwards to let me (and everyone else) know how your family enjoyed their first trip!

 

[adamsup]

WDW Wait Times

This app is user-driven, meaning that the wait times are submitted by other app users. It has a nice, simple interface. The first screen asks you to select a park.

Once you've done that, you're presented with a list of attractions, broken out by park section and the current user-submitted wait times in eye-catching black and white.

As I said earlier, the app relies on other iPhone app users to submit wait times. So, if you're walking by an attraction and see the current wait time, you could submit it via the app.

One nice feature this app has is it's GPS functionality. It can present you with the current wait times of any attractions within your vicinity, which is great for people who are winging it and don't have a specific plan in mind.

Summary - 7/10

This is a straightforward app with a really simple concept. I gave it a 7/10 mainly because it gives you exactly what it promises and it's nicely put together. The drawback however is that it totally relies on other app users to submit wait times, which means you will find attractions that have not been updated recently. This app relies on the legwork of other app users who may (or may not) want to spend their time updating wait times for the benefit of others.

 

[MHTeacher]

Just checking in.

The apps for the wait times for the iphone look fantastic. I have a blackberry, and a touringguides membership, so I can use their program called "Lines."

 

[adamsup]

Just checking in.

The apps for the wait times for the iphone look fantastic. I have a blackberry, and a touringguides membership, so I can use their program called "Lines."

Hello! Not long now, for either of us.

We're sitting down to hammer out some more details. So much unknown stuff, simple things even like how much time to allow for travel from one place to another. We have ADRs so we really need to know this kind of stuff!

How's your trip coming along? Got it all figured out?