We're Disney Bound

Good evening! WE HAVE TWO DAYS LEFT in the countdown! Insanity! If you go back to when this journal was opened the countdown was triple digits and almost a year back... wow.

January 21st not only marks our last full day at Disney, it's also my 24th birthday. Erin was going to surprise me with a bday cake, but needed the confirm number to order it, so ha ha I got to find out early.

Day Ten: Magic Kingdom Day 3
07:30a - Wake Up
08:15a - Catch Bus for the Magic Kingdom
09:00a - Watch Park Opening
09:30a - Breakfast @ Sleepy Hollow
10:00a - tour park, BTMRR & SPLASH!
11:30a - Lunch @ The Crystal Palace w/ Pooh & Friends and BDAY CAKE!
12:30p - Tour some more...
05:30p - Dinner @ Cosmic Ray's ?
08:00p - Wishes from the Train Station on Main Street
08:20p - Catch the Bus to the Boardwalk
09:00p - Illuminations from the International Gateway
10:00p - Final packing, bed. cry ourselves to sleep.

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.

Five days and counting! And, no. I'm not excited. Now I just wish it were over with...

HA!

This is the final day of the scheduled Splash Mountain rehab. I don't know if that means it will be open on the 17th or not. Either way, if it doesn't end on the 17th Erin is going to declare war on the Disney Imagineers! So, consider this the final warning! LOL

Anyway we're planning to go to the Magic Kingdom on Saturday... whether or not Splash is open. We'll do a lot of character stalking this day. we have an early dinner ADR, so it's gonna be a good day all around.


Day Six: Magic Kingdom Day 2
07:30a - Wake up & Get Ready
08:30a - Catch Bus for the Magic Kingdom
09:00a - Watch Park Opening Ceremony
09:10a - Breakfast @ the Main Street Bakery
10:00a - Toontown Fair for Character Stalking
12:00p - Lunch @ Cosmic Ray's
12:30p - Tour Fantasyland & The Hub
02:30p - Shopping on Main Street
04:50p - Dinner @ The Plaza
05:45p - Head for Adventure & Frontierlands
06:00p - Jungle Cruise in THE DARK
07:00p - Spectromagic
08:00p - Time the ride of Big Thunder Mountain to go while the fireworks go off at 9:00p
09:00p - WISHES!
10:30p - Bed

:)

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.

On my way to where the AIR IS SWEET!

Man, I miss the old Sesame Street!

Anyway - for reference later this week I'm sharing the link to weather.com to see what we'll be expecting for our trip. I pray that it's all sun and warmth while we're there. No rain!

http://www.weather.com/weather/monthly/USFL0372?month=1

so far nothing for when we get there, but I like the looks of those temps!

my Disney World obsession has taken a whole new level of pathetic. I'm watching TV last night and one of those DTV ads came on reminding us we have only so much time before TV goes digital and analog tvs will be obsolete (except for Alaska where the transmitters still broadcast in analog so we're exempt) and the guy that's doing these "interviews" with people is none other than lazy/recreation man Dave from the Happiest Celebration on Earth Travel DVD and CD Rom freebie that WDW sent out when you inquired about a vacation.

It also happens to be my FAVORITE planning DVD. So I got all fan girly! haha.

so, yes, I recognize I have a massive problem lol

...so, Erin had planned to get a pedicure a few days before our trip to Disney so her feet could look fab on our trip. That fell through due to her work schedule and she was bummed.

I told Judy earlier this month about it and Judy got a fantastic idea to book a pedicure there at the Coronado Springs Health Spa for Erin. She ordered a Disney Gift Card so that we could pay for it and not worry about the cost.

So, after playing phone tag with them for three days I finally booked an appointment for Monday January 12th @ 9am. So I guess we'll sleep in that morning after all. It was funny because the lady I was talking to had called me on Sunday morning at 4:30 (!!!) because she didn't realize that I was in Alaska, so she apologised and then said I probably didn't want to book the very first appointment of the day (which is at 9am) and I said that it wouldn't be a problem and the earlier the better. So now Erin is her very first apt. on Monday before we head over to eat with Chef Mickey. I have NO idea what I will do while she's getting her pedicure. Maybe just walk around and take photos... that way Erin's not stuck going around the place with me...

soooooooooooooooooooo now........ yet another revision...

Day One -- Magic Kingdom

08:30a - Wake Up
09:00a - Erin gets her pedicure
10:00a - Head to Magic Kingdom
10:30a - Grab fast pass for Big Thunder Mt. Railroad
10:45a - Head over to Contemporary (aka walk over there)
11:10a - Brunch @ Chef Mickey's
11:45a - Catch Monorail back to the Magic Kingdom
12:10p - Ride Big Thunder Mt Railroad if Fast Pass window has arrived / continue touring Adventureland & Frontierland
02:00p - explore Liberty Square
03:00p - Dreams Come True Parade (what time is the 3 o'clock parade?)
03:30p - Fast pass Mickey's Philharmagic / Haunted Mansion / ride the Liberty Belle / visit Tom Sawyer's Island
05:30p - Dinner @ Columbia Harbour House
06:00p - Head back towards main street
06:30p - stake out spot in hub/mainstreet for parade and fireworks!
07:00p - Spectromagic
08:00p - Wishes Nighttime Spectacular
09:30p - In room set wake up call for 7:00am



I've also planned a Passporter Meet Up with another PP member for the 15th (our Disney-Hollywood Studios day) but I will be posting our revised travel plans next week when we pretty much know our plans are set in stone! ha ha!

13 days till WDW, baby!!!

It's getting so close we can taste it. It's insane how fast time has seemed to fly by. Not gonna complain, but at the same time... if life is going by THIS fast when we're sitting here waiting for Disney, how fast is it gonna go once we're there??

I tink we both got a lot of great things this Christmas for our trip. I know I did anyway! Erin was fantastic and got me an Ipod, even though we promised we wouldn't get each other anything (the bum) oh well, just means she gets something good at the parks.


Erin got a gift from Judy for a pedicure when we get down there to WDW. I tried to book it yesterday and all I could do was leave a message. Then, this morning at 4:30 (that's right A.M.!!!!!) they called me back. We were not amused. They haven't tried to call again, so I will call down in a bit or wait until tomorrow...

*sigh*

New dream to share. This one I believe was totally brought on by Erin and my conversation from last night. The sooner this trip gets underway the sooner my nighttime sanity will return! lol

Anyway it started off in the Magic Kingdom (where else, right?) and we'd just come back from breakfast (I assume Chef Mickey's if my dream was following the itinerary. Anyway we're in line about to get on our favorite of rides - Big Thunder Mt. Railroad. We get on and away we go, screaming our heads off... but then I look to the front and it's no longer a train we're on but Goofy's BarnStormer - which would explain why the ride is different too (mind you I've never been on Goofy's ride).

Anyway we're flying around the track and just like that it's over. But before I can get off the dang thing it starts moving back up the que. I was able to get off as others got on there (nevermind in Disney that'd never happen, but whatever) and I walked down to some area that I don't know where we were but it looked more liked EPCOT than the Magic Kingdom. Anyway Erin had made it off the train and was waiting for me and while she was waiting she got soaked to the bone in a sleet storm going on outside, but it was okay because she went and bought a ton of crap (all Pirates merchandise lol including steak knives in the shape of pirate swords) and she was surrounded by bags! LOL

We took pictures of ourselves together there in the area whereever we were and debating what we would do next.

and then I woke up.


25 days cannot go by fast enough!

It came early! We have our luggage tags and vouchers for Disney's Magical Express! I got all giddy! They're for the Coronado and everything! *boogies*

Just a revision of our first day's agenda!

Day One -- Magic Kingdom

08:00a - Wake Up
08:45a - Catch Bus for Park
09:00a - Watch Park opening show (if we get there in time - which I doubt)
09:05a - Check out Main Street and Adventureland
10:30a - Grab fast pass for Big Thunder Mt. Railroad
10:45a - Head over to Contemporary (aka walk over there)
11:10a - Brunch @ Chef Mickey's
11:45a - Catch Monorail back to the Magic Kingdom
12:10p - Ride Big Thunder Mt Railroad if Fast Pass window has arrived / continue touring Adventureland & Frontierland
02:00p - explore Liberty Square
03:00p - Dreams Come True Parade (what time is the 3 o'clock parade?)
03:30p - Fast pass Mickey's Philharmagic / Haunted Mansion / ride the Liberty Belle / visit Tom Sawyer's Island
05:30p - Dinner @ Columbia Harbour House
06:00p - Head back towards main street
06:30p - stake out spot in hub/mainstreet for parade and fireworks!
07:00p - Spectromagic
08:00p - Wishes Nighttime Spectacular
09:30p - In room set wake up call for 7:00am

now I gotta revise the plan in our passporter so I don't forget AND look and see what needs revising for the other two days we have for the MK!

So Erin and I chatted for two hours on the phone last night. Surprisingly our topics of conversation did not result in hours of Disney talk OR slinging insults at each other. Sometimes we can be a bit mature.

However towards the end Erin did mention that she wanted to meet Chef Mickey if it was possible. Considering she's a chef and I've always gotten her a Chef Mickey something when I go down to Disney she just assumed there was a shop that had the big cheese for photos. No such luck - there's just the resteraunt Chef Mickey's.

I've never wanted to eat at the Contemporary (well except for Cali Grill but until I become a billionare...) but since I get to eat with Donald Duck at the Animal Kingdom it's only fair she gets to eat with Chef Mickey.

Problem was that we are down to a month and six days and Chef Mickey's is incredibly popular. I was worried we wouldn't be able to get the day that we had open. It just happens to be our first day and we are planning a day at the Magic Kingdom. Thankfully, the Cont. is not only close to the kingdom (I believe it's in walking distance) it's also on the monorail system so transportation is not as tricky as it would be to some of the other resorts.

Sooooooooooo I called down today with our first choice of breakfast on Jan. 12 with a back up plan of Dinner on the 15th.

Surprisingly they had two openings for bfast on the 12... 7:30a and 11:10a - neither one of them is a prime choice, but I took the 11:10. I don't want to get up at the buttcrack of dawn two mornings in a row, especially since it'll be our first day and we'll have no doubt been doing the "we're too excited to sleep" reenactment that night.

So we'll sleep in a bit, and then head over to the Magic Kingdom for a bit, then walk over to the Contemporary and eat with the gang, then take the monorail back to the Kingdom and ride us some rides.

Erin's paying for that breakfast lol she owes me! ;)




x-posted on my LJ.

Today is not just Thanksgiving, it's also the 45 day mark for our Walt Disney World Trip. This is the last day to make payments - which we don't have to worry about, paid in full weeks ago - and anything change wise after this could ultimately mean a fee be placed on the ressie because of change. This applies only to our park tickets and room resservations as our dining reservations don't require $$ up front.

It's so close and yet still far enough away that I am a basket case! haha! 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 day till we touch down at MCO, hitch a ride on Disney's Magical Express, and visit the Coronado Springs! Disney's almost here!

Yes, that's right! New Disney dreams ran through my head. The first one was pretty tame. We were in one of the parks (I think it was the Magic Kingdom, I don't remember) and Jen was with us. She was apparently working there, but she forgot part of her costume... she had 'puppy's body on but the head was missing. And we were wandering around trying to decide what we were going to do.

Then the second dream was another one that was panic ridden. I was getting ready to head to the airport to go to WDW and Judy comes in and tells me I have to repack because I used the wrong suitcase. So I try to get everything packed and miss my flight. I'm still packing when Erin calls and asks where I am and I start ranting, and she's not even listening because she's already in the parks. She's in Epcot watching the Fountains. UGH! It was awful! I woke up ready to cry! LOL


46 days till WDW! If the wait doesn't kill me, these dreams will!