Wine and Scary Spirits for All - Oct -2012

[tifaas]

Hi everyone and welcome to our first ever pre-trip report. We have quite a bit of time between now and our trip so I figured this would be a good time to actually create one. I guess I should start with the who.

Who:

My name is Tammy and I'm married to my best friend Ian. We have been officially married for ten years now this last Jan. We actually just returned from the magic a few weeks ago and thought what better way to cure post vacation blues than to book our next trip.

Where and When:

We are planning on going from October 28th - November 4th and will be staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. It's our first time staying there. While I would love to go back to any of the previous two we stayed at we decided we would like to try something different each time. Our dates might change slightly but it would only be by a few days.

Why:

We are excited to attend our first MNSSHP and Food and Wine Festival. We have heard great things about both. My birthday is October 20th so we are also planning to celebrate my birthday while we are there. Ian's birthday is in September so I guess we could celebrate his birthday as well.

I have been mostly a lurker on these boards but have recently gotten the bug to post more. Hopefully I can do a good job with keeping this up to date especially as the plans finalize a bit more.

 

[OrangeJuice]

Hi Tammy,
Sounds like a great time of year to visit. I'm looking forward to hearing more of your plans.

 

[tifaas]

Hi there! Thanks for the reply! I would have been back sooner with more updates but it seems like I caught a nasty bug and have been resting and trying to get better. I have to go in to work in an hour so hopefully if I feel ok after work today I will be back with more updates and possibly start a trip report from the last trip as well.

I see you have a Disneymoon coming up! Congrats on that!

Be back later.

 

[tifaas]

I survived work today.Thank goodness because after being gone for three days due to being sick usually takes a bit of time to get back into the groove of things. I work for a game company and work in the customer service part of the industry. So I have a bit of an odd schedule. I work Fridays through Monday from 1pm to midnight CST time. I love my job and really do like having a 4x10 work week instead of the normal.

Back to our plans that we have so far. We are thinking on the day we fly in we will likely just hang out at the hotel as our flight will get in to Orlando around 7pm so might just hit the pool/hot tub and eat a quick bite.

We don't know what days we are doing at the parks yet. I do know that we plan on having one day be spent at Typhoon Lagoon and Disney Quest at night. We want to attend the party one night and we plan on spending an afternoon during the food and wine fest going from country to country to try new things.

Some of the ADR's we are thinking about are:

O'Hana for dinner
Kona for breakfast
Auskerhaus - spelling is probably wrong..lol - lunch reservation
Cinderellas Royal table for breakfast if my sister and her family get to join us for the last part of our reservation
Le Cellier - dinner - birthday dinner here
Crystal Palace for breakfast - loved it on our last trip I want to go back

We are still debating on others to add. We know we will likely change our minds on these as we did on the past trip. We at least still have some time to debate and figure it all out.

That is all for now. Going to try and think of a clever name for our trip report from this last Jan so I can finally give an update on our wonderful trip.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Hey there....I followed you over and am looking forward to planning along with you!

 

[jenny105]

Hi! I followed you over from another PTR You're going to love F&WF and MNSSHP. In my opinion, the parade at the party is worth the admission alone. It's fabulous! I'm planning on making ADRs at Ohana & Crystal Palace too. Ohana is one of my favorite restaurants. Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[tifaas]

ash-n-brensmom Hey there....I followed you over and am looking forward to planning along with you!

I am so glad you followed me over. It's so nice to have visitors and not feel like you are talking to yourself all the time.

Hi! I followed you over from another PTR You're going to love F&WF and MNSSHP. In my opinion, the parade at the party is worth the admission alone. It's fabulous! I'm planning on making ADRs at Ohana & Crystal Palace too. Ohana is one of my favorite restaurants. Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

as well to you! I will have to take a look at your PTR as well. It sounds like you have all sorts of fun coming in up the future.

I am so glad to hear more praise for Ohana because I really have been wanting to try them and it just didn't work out for us on the last trip. So it's a must do for this one.

Speaking of the last trip, I'm going to make a TR thread today for that one. It's my day off and the DH has to work until later so no plans for Valentines day until when he gets off. Then we are going to dinner at this yummy steakhouse called Salt Grass Steakhouse. It's kind of a tradition for us to go every Valentines Day so can't miss it this year.

Not much to report on the Pre trip report...just waiting to book until next month as we get our profit sharing check and it should be a good one.

 

[tifaas]

So funny story...remember how I said our dates my change by a few...well they ended up changing to the week before now. We have officially booked for Oct 22nd - Oct 29th at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

The DH called me on lunch today and told me that we should just go ahead and book it. The only thing he wanted to change was the week so it would be closer to my actual birthday which is October 20th. So me being the loving wife agreed and we put $500 on it and will pay the remainder next month when we get our profit sharing check. We don't like having anything to pay on for the most part so we figured once we get it paid off we can start socking back like $100 from every paycheck for spending money while there.

We did opt to get the dining plan because I like knowing that our food is pretty much paid for and we will make reservations for table service meals for dinner and probably breakfast. On our last trip we would do a good size breakfast, snack for lunch and then another table service for dinner.

So now with our dates set and our trip booked I can really start to plan out our trip. I think the anticipation is one of those things that I love the most about the trip and the planning is fun for me as well.

Back to working on my TR for the Jan trip.

 

[vikkii19]

Joining in, we'll be there the same week.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

So funny story...remember how I said our dates my change by a few...well they ended up changing to the week before now. We have officially booked for Oct 22nd - Oct 29th at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

The DH called me on lunch today and told me that we should just go ahead and book it. The only thing he wanted to change was the week so it would be closer to my actual birthday which is October 20th. So me being the loving wife agreed and we put $500 on it and will pay the remainder next month when we get our profit sharing check. We don't like having anything to pay on for the most part so we figured once we get it paid off we can start socking back like $100 from every paycheck for spending money while there.

We did opt to get the dining plan because I like knowing that our food is pretty much paid for and we will make reservations for table service meals for dinner and probably breakfast. On our last trip we would do a good size breakfast, snack for lunch and then another table service for dinner.

So now with our dates set and our trip booked I can really start to plan out our trip. I think the anticipation is one of those things that I love the most about the trip and the planning is fun for me as well.

Back to working on my TR for the Jan trip.

Now our dates will be almost the same!!

 

[tifaas]

Joining in, we'll be there the same week.

to my PTR. How awesome that we will be there around the same time. I bet you are so excited for your little one's first visit. If my sister, BIL and two daughters join us it will be their first visit so we are hoping that they can manage to make it down and join us. It would be just for the last part but I think they would love it. They are big into the various princess's and we managed to snag some autographs for them and surprised them for Valentines day with that. It made them super excited to possibly get to meet them.

Now our dates will be almost the same!!

How awesome is that! I was a little bummed at first to not be there over Halloween but at the same time I bet that week would have been more packed so it's probably better.

So we have decided that for this trip we will get the photo pass again because we really love how our pictures turned out. They do such a great job and plus it gets the both of us in a picture instead of just the hubby or myself. We decided that over dinner. I think I might have created a monster out of my hubby. He loves it as much as I do now.

I guess I could explain how that happened. This last May I had opened up our email and had received a beautiful pin code that was for 40% off deluxe hotels but it was for travel through July only. We hadn't even been thinking of going to Disney but we did have a 4 day weekend planned in July already so we decided to price it. We were originally going to just go south to San Antonio and stay on the river walk and have some rest and relaxation. Well after getting that pin code and pricing it, I spoke with the DH and told him the total cost including airfare, and the package with dining at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. He was like lets do it.

Little did we know just how hooked it would make us. We got checked in to our room and had just booked a standard as we were trying to keep the cost down. Well we mentioned we were there for DH's first visit and they were making a bunch of small talk while getting our package together. Well needless to say after finding our way to our room we realized we had been hit with a dose of pixie dust and had a savannah view room. Here's what we saw every day.

Well needless to say we had a lot of pixie dust over the course of our 3 days at Disney that we were hooked and cancelled our cruise for Jan and booked with Disney for a full week. It's amazing how even as an adult you can still feel the magic that is Disney.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Great pics!! Love me some Pixie Dust!!
I understand, because DH and I love Disney more than the kids, I think!! People tease us all the time about who is looking more forward to the vacation...and I always have to agree that it's probably us!

 

[jenny105]

Ahhhh! I can't wait to stay at AKL. More pictures please (if you don't mind!)

 

[tifaas]

Ahhhh! I can't wait to stay at AKL. More pictures please (if you don't mind!)

I can definitely share the ones we took of the room, lobby, and view.

Bathroom

Wallpaper in the bathroom area that we loved

First towel animal in the vanity area

Double sink in our vanity area

mini fridge/coffee maker

Loved the details of the little things like mirrors

more pics in next post

 

[tifaas]

our welcome packet and you can see the room area we were in that is circled on the map

Little watering hole that attracted a lot of birds

Our camera lens fogged up immediately due to the high humidity in the summer time

the gorgeous lobby

another good lobby shot

 

[tifaas]

looking down to the fence area on the savannah we caught this one resting

 

[tifaas]

Great pics!! Love me some Pixie Dust!!
I understand, because DH and I love Disney more than the kids, I think!! People tease us all the time about who is looking more forward to the vacation...and I always have to agree that it's probably us!

I am so glad that I'm not alone in that! Pixie dust is the best! I have some good stories coming up in my TR where we got hit with some lovely pixie dust on this most recent trip.

I talked with my sister today regarding the dates we booked for the trip and she is going to talk with her DH to see if it's something they can do. They are currently stationed in GA and they are only like an hour from the FL border so they would likely drive down on Thursday and then stay until Sunday. So that would give us Fri/Sat with them in the parks. We will see.

So I'm thinking of booking surf school at Typhoon Lagoon for the day we go to this water park on our trip. Has anyone ever done it and was it worth the price? It would be a surprise for the DH for a belated birthday present for him. He wanted to go on our last trip but Typhoon was closed when we went.

Would love any feedback regarding it.

 

[jenny105]

Thanks for sharing your pictures AKL is so beautiful. Pictures probably don't even do it justice. I can't wait to stay there!

Did you use the Disney buses while you were there? I've heard horror stories that they take a long time to get anywhere with the except of AK of course. Did you find that was true?

 

[tifaas]

Thanks for sharing your pictures AKL is so beautiful. Pictures probably don't even do it justice. I can't wait to stay there!

Did you use the Disney buses while you were there? I've heard horror stories that they take a long time to get anywhere with the except of AK of course. Did you find that was true?

It was a wonderful resort. The cast members were so friendly and helpful. We did use the buses for everything because we flew in and did not rent a car. We didn't have a bad experience with the bus system. It could have just been luck but it seemed like the longest we had to wait was at then end of our afternoon at Epcot and that was maybe 10 mins if that long. When we be out for a bus in the morning, I don't think we waited more than a few mins.

I can't wait for them to release the dates for the party so I can start making our touring strategy. Then I can plan meals around that. I am hoping that the new "Be Our Guest" will be opened by then because I would love to try it out. Belle is my favorite princess and my youngest niece is in love with the Beast. My sister sent me a video of her dancing with the beast in the Kinnect game and it was too cute. We have started to think about possibly dressing up for the party, but I'm not sure if I really want to. I was thinking of just creating a fun t-shirt to wear as I know it can still be warm and humid in October. However if we are going to make costumes now is the time to start working on them.

So I guess that is a question for the readers I have. Are you going to dress up for the party. If so what are ya'll going to dress up as?

 

[jenny105]

I'm hoping the BOG restaurant will be open as well. Belle is my favorite princess too and I'm dying to go there! I don't want to have to wait until 2014!

I'm not dressing up but I did purchase a shirt from the Disney store to wear to the even. It's a Mickey head filled with spiderwebs and a spider dangling from the bottom so it's pretty Halloween friendly I need to find a shirt for Kris to wear too.