Mickey'sGirl
09-27-2007, 11:43 AM
Dates: October 6 to 14, 2007
Cast:
Me – Jennifer – instigator, planner and holiday director
DH – Brian (CanadianWDWFan) – ever willing accomplice and finder of cheap airfare
DS9 – Harry – seasoned WDW veteran and rider of thrill rides
DS3 – Euan – 5th trip and he knows what he likes and expects you to as well
After much haranguing by my DH, I am finally filing this pre-trip report!
I will preface this to say that we never thought we would be making another October trip due to school and my “busy” time at work, but I have learned to never say never! We (read as “Brian”) were able to find fabulous airfares for us from Buffalo direct to MCO leaving on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and returning during the day the following Sunday, thereby limiting the number of school days DS9 would miss to 4. This was further aided by the fact that I had to relinquish some vacation time earlier this year to accommodate my boss and he felt guilty enough about it to approve my October time off. The fact that the Intercot 10th Anniversary Meet would be occurring at the same time was the icing on the cake! We contacted Terrisue at Magical Journey’s and had her reserve a package for us at the All Star Sports (our AP’s have expired :pout: ) with the request to be moved to one of the Moderates should discounts be announced. Sure enough they were, and we are now looking forward to a stay at Port Orleans Riverside for the first time.
We have an early afternoon flight out of Buffalo on Saturday. Since that weekend is the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada, we expect traffic to be heavier than normal at the border, so we have booked a night at the Best Western in Buffalo for the Friday night. We will be able to leave our car with them, and get a shuttle to the airport for about the same money as it would cost to just park at the airport. This way, we can leave whenever on Friday night and not worry about how long it takes to get across the border, check into our hotel and keep the kids up a bit later (so they will sleep later on Saturday morning) and head over to the airport for our flight early Saturday afternoon.
We expect to land at MCO at about 5:30, pick up our rental car and head over to Riverside. We have no specific plans for Saturday night, but are prepared for whatever the kids want to do – a park, DTD or just flub about at the pool if the weather is good.
Sunday is Thankgsiving Day :turkey:, and originally we (read as “I”) had planned dinner for the Liberty Tree Tavern – but for the 3rd time I chickened out (I can’t get Stouffers out of my head) and changed the reservation to an early dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table at Euan’s request. He had watched Sleeping Beauty and told me that “We eat lunch in the Castle”. I told him we weren’t planning on it, and he told me “We eat lunch in the Castle”. So now “We eat lunch in the Castle” …. or in this case, dinner.
For Monday, we have recently made lunch reservations at the Brown Derby. I have wanted to eat here for many years, but we haven’t for one reason or another. I am really looking forward to it! We have a dinner reservation at Spoodles over at the Boardwalk, and then we will go to Epcot to enjoy our VIP viewing of Illuminations (thanks to Teppenyaki’s late re-opening). Harry is quite impressed that we will be “VIP’s” and tells everyone about it. I am just happy to be seeing Illuminations, as it is my favourite! :fworks:
On Tuesday we have breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s isn’t my favourite, but it is a great way to see the characters up close – and seeing Mickey up close is very very very important to Euan. We also have an early dinner reservation at the Crystal Palace that day. We have concentrated on the early breakfast = early entry to the park deal in recent visits, so we are looking forward to giving dinner at CP another try!
On Wednesday we will have an early lunch at the boys’ favourite – the Sci-Fi Drive In. I know that the food is much maligned, but we have always enjoyed our meals and the experience. We opted for an early lunch, as we have dinner reservations at the Kona Café (my favourite!). We had to cancel our reservation at Kona when we were down in April, as my poor DH had a horrible flu for the last two days of our trip. I plan on making up for that missed meal!!
We are having dinner at ‘Ohana on Thursday. ‘Ohana is another of Harry’s favourites, and we had to leave our dinner in April, because DS3 chose the exact moment we were seated to have a massive melt-down. Needless to say, big brother was both embarrassed and disappointed, so we are really looking forward to this one! After dinner, we have arranged for Kid’s Nite Out to come and look after the boys, whilst Brian and I head to Pleasure Island for an adult night out.:marg:
The plan for Friday is to lie in a bit, and then head over to the Grand Floridian for a very late breakfast at 1900 Park Fare with Mary Poppins (the lady love :heart: of Euan’s life). We will have a leisurely day before getting prepped for Mickey’s Not So Scary Hallowe’en Party and the Friday Night Intercot Meet! We are all extremely excited about this – DS9 can’t wait to see the Headless Horseman ride down Main Street and DS3 can’t wait to wear his Sorcerer Mickey costume!:mpumpkin:
We have purposely left Saturday vague – I will be attending the Tea at the Grand Floridian and the boys plan to go fishing. We will make sure to be at the Illuminations Viewing in plenty of time to meet the “Special Guest” – If it is who we think it is, DS3 will absolutely lose his mind!:smickey:
On Sunday we have to dash out to the airport, as we have a late morning flight home, so we will miss some of the events.
On a very basic level, we are looking forward to meeting several friends in person, and finishing up some things that were left unfinished from our April trip. We really missed out on quality time at Epcot, and can’t wait to slow down and spend some time there. Unfortunately one of our favourites, Spaceship Earth, will not be up and running, but that’s the way it works sometimes.
Cast:
Me – Jennifer – instigator, planner and holiday director
DH – Brian (CanadianWDWFan) – ever willing accomplice and finder of cheap airfare
DS9 – Harry – seasoned WDW veteran and rider of thrill rides
DS3 – Euan – 5th trip and he knows what he likes and expects you to as well
After much haranguing by my DH, I am finally filing this pre-trip report!
I will preface this to say that we never thought we would be making another October trip due to school and my “busy” time at work, but I have learned to never say never! We (read as “Brian”) were able to find fabulous airfares for us from Buffalo direct to MCO leaving on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and returning during the day the following Sunday, thereby limiting the number of school days DS9 would miss to 4. This was further aided by the fact that I had to relinquish some vacation time earlier this year to accommodate my boss and he felt guilty enough about it to approve my October time off. The fact that the Intercot 10th Anniversary Meet would be occurring at the same time was the icing on the cake! We contacted Terrisue at Magical Journey’s and had her reserve a package for us at the All Star Sports (our AP’s have expired :pout: ) with the request to be moved to one of the Moderates should discounts be announced. Sure enough they were, and we are now looking forward to a stay at Port Orleans Riverside for the first time.
We have an early afternoon flight out of Buffalo on Saturday. Since that weekend is the Thanksgiving long weekend in Canada, we expect traffic to be heavier than normal at the border, so we have booked a night at the Best Western in Buffalo for the Friday night. We will be able to leave our car with them, and get a shuttle to the airport for about the same money as it would cost to just park at the airport. This way, we can leave whenever on Friday night and not worry about how long it takes to get across the border, check into our hotel and keep the kids up a bit later (so they will sleep later on Saturday morning) and head over to the airport for our flight early Saturday afternoon.
We expect to land at MCO at about 5:30, pick up our rental car and head over to Riverside. We have no specific plans for Saturday night, but are prepared for whatever the kids want to do – a park, DTD or just flub about at the pool if the weather is good.
Sunday is Thankgsiving Day :turkey:, and originally we (read as “I”) had planned dinner for the Liberty Tree Tavern – but for the 3rd time I chickened out (I can’t get Stouffers out of my head) and changed the reservation to an early dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table at Euan’s request. He had watched Sleeping Beauty and told me that “We eat lunch in the Castle”. I told him we weren’t planning on it, and he told me “We eat lunch in the Castle”. So now “We eat lunch in the Castle” …. or in this case, dinner.
For Monday, we have recently made lunch reservations at the Brown Derby. I have wanted to eat here for many years, but we haven’t for one reason or another. I am really looking forward to it! We have a dinner reservation at Spoodles over at the Boardwalk, and then we will go to Epcot to enjoy our VIP viewing of Illuminations (thanks to Teppenyaki’s late re-opening). Harry is quite impressed that we will be “VIP’s” and tells everyone about it. I am just happy to be seeing Illuminations, as it is my favourite! :fworks:
On Tuesday we have breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey’s. Chef Mickey’s isn’t my favourite, but it is a great way to see the characters up close – and seeing Mickey up close is very very very important to Euan. We also have an early dinner reservation at the Crystal Palace that day. We have concentrated on the early breakfast = early entry to the park deal in recent visits, so we are looking forward to giving dinner at CP another try!
On Wednesday we will have an early lunch at the boys’ favourite – the Sci-Fi Drive In. I know that the food is much maligned, but we have always enjoyed our meals and the experience. We opted for an early lunch, as we have dinner reservations at the Kona Café (my favourite!). We had to cancel our reservation at Kona when we were down in April, as my poor DH had a horrible flu for the last two days of our trip. I plan on making up for that missed meal!!
We are having dinner at ‘Ohana on Thursday. ‘Ohana is another of Harry’s favourites, and we had to leave our dinner in April, because DS3 chose the exact moment we were seated to have a massive melt-down. Needless to say, big brother was both embarrassed and disappointed, so we are really looking forward to this one! After dinner, we have arranged for Kid’s Nite Out to come and look after the boys, whilst Brian and I head to Pleasure Island for an adult night out.:marg:
The plan for Friday is to lie in a bit, and then head over to the Grand Floridian for a very late breakfast at 1900 Park Fare with Mary Poppins (the lady love :heart: of Euan’s life). We will have a leisurely day before getting prepped for Mickey’s Not So Scary Hallowe’en Party and the Friday Night Intercot Meet! We are all extremely excited about this – DS9 can’t wait to see the Headless Horseman ride down Main Street and DS3 can’t wait to wear his Sorcerer Mickey costume!:mpumpkin:
We have purposely left Saturday vague – I will be attending the Tea at the Grand Floridian and the boys plan to go fishing. We will make sure to be at the Illuminations Viewing in plenty of time to meet the “Special Guest” – If it is who we think it is, DS3 will absolutely lose his mind!:smickey:
On Sunday we have to dash out to the airport, as we have a late morning flight home, so we will miss some of the events.
On a very basic level, we are looking forward to meeting several friends in person, and finishing up some things that were left unfinished from our April trip. We really missed out on quality time at Epcot, and can’t wait to slow down and spend some time there. Unfortunately one of our favourites, Spaceship Earth, will not be up and running, but that’s the way it works sometimes.