We're Disney Bound

Good morning people who have nothing better to do than read our journal! You must be as bored - if not more so - than I am! For that I am sorry!

Today marks THREE DAYS till we're on a plane headed for Orlando. As of this moment our plane in Seattle would be ready to taxi out to the runway... we'd still have six plus hours before landing and getting that first bit of Disney Magic by meeting up with the Magical Express. lol.

Day Nine: EPCOT Day 3
07:00a - Wake Up
08:15a - Head to EPCOT
09:00a - Watch Opening of Park
09:15a - Breakfast @ Sunshine Seasons
09:30a - Tour Future World
12:30p - Head for Germany
01:00a - Lunch @ The Biergarten
02:00p - Tour World Showcase
08:00p - Dinner @ Yakitori Counter Service
09:00p - Illuminations
10:00p - Pack. :'(

Saturday night cannot get here fast enough!

In order to have all the plans out by the time I have to have this laptop packed up and ready to go I have to double up on a day. No problem there, right? I may pull out my laptop if I get bored waiting to board my plane at Ted Stevens International (and I pray that it always stays Ted Stevens' International... I'm sure Begich has his eye on changing it and with Uncle Ted's conviction...) Sorry lost my head there for a minute.

Anywho, the 19th is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day and as such the parks will probably be packed all weekend, but I've decided that monday would be a good day to see stuff outside the parks. So it's our downtown disney mini golf do whatever else we want day. DHS has Extra Magic Evening Hours so we might pop over there for a bit, who knows. This is also the day we go from Disney's Coronado Springs Resort over to the value of The Pop Century Resort. It's only for the last three nights of our trip so I am not going to complain.

Day Eight: Take A Break Day!
08:00a - Check Out have luggage sent to Pop, say good bye to CSR *sniff*
08:30a - Catch bus for The Magic Kingdom
09:00a - Take Ferry to The Wilderness Lodge
10:00a - Breakfast @ The Whispering Canyon Cafe
11:15a - Head to Downtown Disney
11:45a - SHOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
02:30p - Catch Bus to the Beach Club
03:30p - Lunch @ Beaches N Cream
04:30p - Head over to Pop Century to Check In
05:30p - Hit Up Mini Golf @ either Fantasia Gardens or Winter/Summerland
07:30p - Debate going to other mini golf course, going to a park, or back to Pop.
09:00p - Lights out.

This is a very rough idea of what we'll do. Who knows what we'll end up really doing...

Now, onto the Resort Info...

Home Sweet Home: Pop Century
Resort: Disney's Pop Century
Phone #: 1-407-939-4000
Check In: January 19, 2009 around 4:30p
Departing: January 22, 2009 around 5:00a
Room Type: Standard
Location: We have requested the 1950s Buildings

Four days! Four days! Four days! Four days!

Wow, almost a week of plans gone already. Whatever little thing helps to move the hours along. The 18th marks the second Sunday I will be gone from my duties at ABT, and I have a feeling I'll be missing my girls something terrible, but I plan on sending several postcards to Mary to share with the girls... and hopefully I can find a little something for all of them...

Sunday also means our second EPCOT day... Considering the Magic Kingdom has the Extra Magic Evening Hours I figure we'll head over to that park for a bit - especially if Splash Mt. is open... Because riding Splash Mt. at night is a frigid experience in and of itself ;)


Day Seven: EPCOT Day 2
08:00a - Wake Up
09:00a - Breakfast @ Pepper Market
09:30a - Catch Bus
10:00a - Fastpass Soarin / Tour Future World / Character stalk
01:00p - Lunch @ The Electric Umbrella
01:30p - Continue touring.
06:30p - Head to Fort Wilderness (take ferry?)
08:00p - Dinner @ Trail's End
09:30p - Electrical Water Pagent
10:00p - Extra Magic Hours @ The Magic Kingdom
12:00p - Head for Coronado Springs

This will be the final night at the Coronado... and I will be sad.

Good morning, we are at day six in the countdown, and thankfully the day is not going by painfully slow... it's just slow. I have a job interview later this morning and then I'm going to be a cooking machine...

Anyway to continue our travel plans day five puts us back at Disney's Animal Kingdom. This is a clean up day of sorts and there are no ADRs to keep so it's a wide open day. We can always park hop if we desire considering the park closes early and depending on how the crowds are the first day as well as this day we might get it all done and be bored. Who knows! Anything is possible!

Day Five: Animal Kingdom Day 2
07:45a - Wake Up
08:30a - catch bus to DAK
09:00a - Park Opens / Watch the Opening Show
09:30a - Breakfast @ Kusafari Coffee Shop
10:00a - Character Stalking / Head for Camp Minnie-Mickey
01:00p - Yak & Yeti Counter Service
01:30p - Continue touring / hitting favorite rides / Character stalking
03:00p - Parade (if we want to watch again)
05:00p - Park Closes (Head to EPCOT? MK? DHS?... Mini Golf?)

Dinner will most likely be the Pepper Market, and I have no problems with that! :) I also like that this day is flexible... gives us more options, eh!

Good evening! We have ONE WEEK till Disney! And I almost missed posting about it! *GASP* I know! How awful! How could you stand it?!

Anyway our fourth day will be spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios. This is my least favorite park because I find it horribly disorganized, which makes it feel VERY CROWDED... It just doesn't seem to move people through things the same way. This could possibly be because most of DHS is shows... so you're waiting for shows to start or end or whatever. But anyways. This is where FANTASMIC lives, which is all that really matters. Well, that, and the fact that we're having our "Birthday Lunch" at the Brown Derby. Yum! I can't wait.

Day Four: Disney's Hollywood Studios
08:30a - Wake Up
09:00a - Breakfast @ The Pepper Market
09:20a - Catch Bus for DHS
10:00a - Grab fastpass for Toy Story Mania / Tour Park based on show times (ie - plan this day the night before)
01:00p - Lunch @ The Hollywood Brown Derby
02:00p - Continue touring.
03:00p - Pixar Block Party Bash (Parade)
03:30p - Continue touring
05:00p - Passporter MeetUp @ Animation Courtyard
05:45p - Dinner to Go from Pizza Planet!
06:00p - Make way over to Fantasmic!
07:00p - FANTASMIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
08:20p - Back at resort for POOL/Hot Tub time!


WAGON! We're so excited it isn't even funny!

Good Morning, we're at day 8 on our countdown. We've decided that the hours go by too slowly and if they don't speed up soon we're going to go insane. And not our regular kind of insane. So you've been warned. Hopefully when we get out and about and do things this coming week it won't go as slow. We'll see.

Jan. 14 marks our first day at EPCOT. To me this park is incredibly spread out and feels to be the largest of the parks even though Disney's Animal Kingdom has the most square footage. Disney must agree with me some what because the park is broken up into two sections "Future World" which surrounds Spaceship Earth (aka The Giant Golf Ball) and "World Showcase" which hosts 10 countries around the man made lagoon. World Showcase opens an hour to two hours after Future World. I enjoy the World Showcase far more than Future World. For one, it's more spread out so it doesn't feel as crowded, and two World Showcase is so much fun to photograph.

There are many character meets in both sections and so we'll get in some quality character stalking. Erin wants to meet Mushu so we'll be hanging around China quite a bit, I'm sure.

Alright, here's the plan for Wednesday.

Day Three: EPCOT Day 1
08:00a - Wake up & Shower
09:00a - Breakfast @ the Pepper Market
10:00a - Catch Bus for EPCOT
11:00a - World Showcase Opens, tour right to left.
01:05p - Lunch @ Le Cellier
02:00p - continue touring World Showcase
Since there aren't as many rides/attractions we'll just take it easy.
07:45p - Dinner @ Cantina De San Angel stake out spot by lake for pyro
09:00p - Illuminations!
09:20p - Take long way around the lake let crowds thin out at buses.
10:00p - Bed, make sure to plan out DHS showtimes.

Alright, I gotta get off this bad boy and continue packing... I have a check list now so I can be better prepared... and I still have to figure out how to organize my carryon. *sigh*

Good morning and happy single digits to the Dork Twins! We are now at nine days and the hours are SLOWLY ticking by. Which is a very cruel form of torture that Father Time has put upon us. But, if this is how all of January will be I won't complain because that means our trip won't just blow by.

Anyway, our second day has been pretty set from day one. We'll be at the Animal Kingdom, we're going to eat with Donald, we're gonna just have fun. This park is always warmer, to me, than the other three so I'm planning on shorts and a tank, at least after the sun pops up... Actually I'm planning that for the whole trip, but yeah...

Day Two: Disney's Animal Kingdom
07:00a - Wake Up, get ready.
08:00a - Catch bus NO LATER than this, if possible catch an earlier bus.
08:30a - Donald's Safari Breakfast @ the Tusker House
09:00a - Park Opens / Hit Killamanjarro Safari first thing.
09:30a - Fast Pass Expedition Everest, tour Asia
11:00a - Tour Dinoland / Fastpass Dinosaur
01:00p - Lunch @ Flame Tree BBQ
01:30p - Tour Discovery Island
02:45p - Head over to Africa and find a spot for the Parade
03:00p - Mickey's Jungle Jammin Parade
03:30p - Finish touring Africa
04:15p - Head for Camp Minnie-Mickey, catch Festival of the Lion King
05:00p - Park Closes to non-resort guests / Extra Magic Evening Hours
07:30p - Head back to resort. Pool Time!
10:00p - Lights Out!

This is the day that has been worked and reworked five bazillion times. Originally we were scheduled to be getting into Orlando early the morning of the 12th. We planned to stay at the Pop Century and since check in there isn't until 4 we planned to get our keys to the kingdom and head over to the Magic Kingdom.

That changed when Alaska Air dropped its second flight from Seattle to ORlando way back in, what, September? So, we booked new tickets to leave a full day earlier. Not that we're complaining or anything.

Then we've changed what we'd do in the morning several times. And you can go back and read all about it in past entries. But this is set in stone. I refuse to call down one more time for any reason about this stupid day. ha ha. I will be calling Monday or Tuesday to confirm everything and make sure everything is to our liking. But I trust Disney to have it all squared away because I have all of my confirm numbers and if they screw that up it's their fault and they'll have to find a way to fix it or I will be incredibly upset. lol.

Anywho.

Day One: Magic Kingdom 1
Some times are approx. and technically the touring can change, but certain things have been booked, so we have to work around that.

08:00a - Wake up. Erin gets first shower if she so desires.
09:00a - Erin's Pedicure @ Casa De Belleza Salon / Toni will be a bum
10:00a - Head for Disney's Magic Kingdom.
10:30a - Make our way over to Frontierland.
10:40a - Grab Fast Pass for Big Thunder Mt. Railroad.
10:45a - Make our way over to the Contemporary Resort (aka take a 10 min walk).
11:10a - Brunch at Chef Mickey's (Jan 12 is Erin's Day apparently lol).
12:00p - Take Monorail back to Magic Kingdom & Re-enter park.
12:15p - Tour the Adventure and Frontierlands - If Fastpass is up go on Big Thunder.
02:00p - Tour Liberty Square & Possibly Tom Sawyer's Island.
03:00p - Dreams Come True Parade.
03:30p - Finish touring that section.
04:00p - Columbia Harbour House for late Lunch/Early Dinner.
04:30p - Fantasyland (Make sure to hit Mickey's Philharmagic).
06:00p - Head for Casey's Corner for a pick me up and then stake out a spot for Spectro Magic & Wishes.
07:00p - SpectroMagic!
08:00p - Wishes!
08:30p - Head for buses.
09:30p - Set wake-up call for 7am. Take quick showers?

Touring of certain sections make be a little off as far as how long it takes. But we have to go to Fantasyland to at least see Mickey's Philharmagic as it goes in for rehab (hee hee) after that. Splash Mountain and Dream Along with Mickey are both closed, so touring in those areas will be shorter than normal. I think anyway.

So with ten days to go I figured our plans are all pretty much set in stone, so this is our general reference. Hello to all of our 'new readers'. You are either very bored or... well... bored... if you're reading. ha ha. But we... or rather I... figured this would be the easiest way to keep everyone up to date on our travels once we are gone. We plan to log in at least once a day to let you know what we're doing, but as you can imagine, Disney internet is not so cheap, so we may not make it on as much as we want. We'll see.

Anyway... enough rambling.

Travel Info
Airline: Alaska Air
Toni - Anchorage to Seattle: Alaska Air Flight 96 Depart Jan. 11 @ 2:30a // Arrive @ 6:48a
Erin - Missoula to Seattle: Horizon Air Flight 2347 Depart Jan. 11 @ ???a // Arrive @ 7:35a
Both - Seattle to Orlando: Alaska Air Flight 18 Depart Jan.11 @ 8:45a // Arrive @ 5:00p

I get into Seattle before Erin, so I'll find her gate and prepare myself to kick her butt when she lands and exits the aircraft... because I can. :) We'll grab some food and eat on our way to our gate and off we'll go.

Once we arrive at MCO (Orlando International) we have to get to Disney's Magical Express. It's located on side B of the first level of the airport. I suspect we'll get to DME about 5:20p if all goes well and depart by 5:40p. I Suspect we'll be at the Coronado to get checked in by 6:40p. Then check in...

Home Sweet Home
We are planning a split stay, but seeing as how we don't go to our second hotel for 8 days I will leave that info for another post.
Resort: Disney's Coronado Springs
Phone #: 1-407-939-1000
Arrival: January 11, 2009 around 6:40p
Depart: January 19, 2009
Room Type: Standard Water View
Location: We've requested the Casitas

Plans for our first night is to get in, get checked in, get settled. And then feed ourselves at the Pepper Market. And just chill. We may or may not tour around the beautiful grounds... I wouldn't mind a dip in the hot tub because I know we'll be SORE from sitting on those uncomfy airplane seats for however long... plus my butt will be sore from sitting in the airport.

Erin also has to shoot footage and take pictures of me giving serious love to the resort. I plan to hug the dang thing when we get there. I am a dork. If you're just now realizing this you do not know me at all.

Next post will be our revised touring plans for the parks... again, broken up by day.

Day Three -- EPCOT
Again, most times are approx. // Goal is to see the World Showcase.

08:30a - Wake Up/Shower
09:15a - Breakfast/Coffee/whatever @ Pop Century Food Court
10:00a - Catch Bus for Park (if we go earlier, Erin, we could take the monorail.)
11:00a - World Showcase Opens -
11:15a - Maelstrom
12:00p - Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Cabelleros
01:05p - LITE Lunch @ Le Cellier
02:00p - Explore World Show Case going counter clockwise stop and meet characters whenever possible. Don't forget the American Adventure!
07:45p - Dinner @ Cantina De San Angel, get seat close to water to watch fireworks.
09:00p - Illuminations (ie Fireworks)
09:20p - Walk against the flow and around the lagoon. Enjoy the lights.
10:00p - Catch bus to Pop Century
10:45p - Formulize a plan of attack for tomorrow.


Disney Hollywood Studios will be the park we visit next, and it will be difficult to make any sort of plan before we actually get down there because show times change so often. So until we actually get down to Florida and get a times guide the plan will just be skin and bones.

With the EPCOT plan I knew Erin would want to sleep in a bit after going non stop for two days, and there's a lot of walking still to be done so I'd like to get off my feet a bit. We're going to basically skip the future world and concentrate on the different countries. We have two more full days later in the trip with Epcot and so we'll devote most of a day to a full day at Future World and then the third day can be whatever we feel like... sort of a clean up day. We can always park hop in the evening if we want to visit another park.

Le Cellier is a fairly expensive table service resteraunt, but if we eat a lighter lunch than we normally would we can still come out on top. Something like Soup and Salad/Sandwich. It's basically just a place I've always wanted to eat. And it's all about me anyway, right? ;)

Our Dining Ressies will be made tomorrow morning. I'm hoping we get everything we want.

It's gonna be hard considering the calendar hasn't come out yet for January, but oh well... we'll make changes if we have to later.

It truly feels real now, we are going to Walt Disney World in January of 2009 and I could not be more excited. Seriously I am crazy excited. I may be exhausted but my brain is on overdrive just thinking about the trip!

Anyway we will be meeting up in the Seattle Airport, I will be leaving from Anchorage at 3pm on January 11th, which is a Sunday. So I will still be able to hang with my girls at church before heading to see the Mouse. I get into Seattle at 7 something and Erin gets in about 45 minutes to an hour later. We have about three hours of downtime so we plan on eating before getting on the plane at 11 something and we will arrive in Orlando around 7:30 in the morning of January 12th!!!!!

I'm just bouncing up and down! hee hee!

Sunday, in between Church and possibly work, I will be calling Disney and booking our room only reservation. I will upgrade to a magic your way vacation as soon as the 2009 rates come out!