The (Foodie)Force is Strong with Us...a Feb/Mar 2016 trip! THE END - NEW 9/13 Disneyland TR link!

[Dugette]

Did they have a photopass package similar to memory maker? You know that is the first thing my sisters asks for on every trip.

So, I lucked out and got in on the very last of the length-of-stay Photopass packages before they changed what they offer. So, we got all Photopass, ride photos, and dining photos for our whole trip for $69. Now, they offer only 1-day Photopass, so you have to buy each day you want individually for like $39, if I remember right? It's not a very good deal vs. what they had before. Though, I saw you mentioned considering DLR Annual Passes - I believe those include all Photopass pictures, so you may want to factor that in.

Oh, and the cruise plans sound great! I would love to have a cruise port I could drive to - I wouldn't even care where the ship sailed!

Good luck planning that giant family trip in August!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Another cruise on the Magic in the Med, Aug 26, from Barcelona. We'll add a few Barcelona days beginning and end.

Sounds awesome! I hope the experience on the Magic is better than on your last Mediterranean cruise! Is the itinerary the same or will there be any new ports? It looks like an amazing cruise and I am hoping to do that one one year.

Wow! your Victoria and Albert's dinner looked great!

Some of the things on the menu are a little out of my comfort zone but it would be great to try it someday. My SIL and her Ex went for their Honeymoon and on our trip in 2011 for their anniversary.

Wow they went twice! They must have liked it a lot! Hehe. I'd like to return in a few years especially when they update their menus so that it's really different than the one we had. They were pretty accommodating for any dietry likes or dislikes so they may be able to whip up something for you

Love that you are going to DLR! I really want to go there someday. We had tentative plans to go there in November last year but it never happened because my hubby lost his job. He has a great one now so we might revisit those plans sometime soon.

Congrats to your hubby on getting a new job. Sometimes it works out for the better. I lost my job in 2008 right before I got married. It honestly was not a job that thrilled me anyways. The time off allowed me to focus on my wedding and then jump back into the job search after. Although it was the recession back then, and no one was hiring...I didn't find a job until a year later, but I've been at this job for almost 7 years now and counting!

Your 2017 Cruise plans sound really great! I have always been interested on a NE/Canada Itinerary, I am a big Anne of Green Gables fan too. My friend and her mom did a NE/Canada cruise a few years ago and they really loved it.

It's amazing how everyone loves that series! Whenever I mention PEI to anyone, they go, OMG Anne of Green Gables, I loved the books!

This cruise sounds like so much fun! And getting to leave from your "home port" will be pretty neat as well. It will also cut the temptation be hoping over to WDW after...but that could also be the hard part! LOL!

Haha, yeah I will miss being able to go to the parks, but at least I can go straight home after the cruise and not have to wait around in an airport!

You could look into renting DVC points, checking to see how many points/the cost of that many points for a Grand Villa. They have large ones at AKL that sleep up to 13 or 14. Will just have to look into the floor plans to see if the layout and available sleeping areas are suitable. Or maybe renting points for a few 2 bedroom villas. those sleep 6 maybe 7. The Old Key West rooms are very spacious and are less points and they are 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms.

I think DH and I will be renting DVC points for ourselves. I think we'll keep it simple and just do a regular wdw booking for them, mainly because of the flexible cancellation policy. With a group this large (and growing bigger by the day, apparently EVERYONE wants to come!) I'm going to be dealing with a lot of scheduling craziness. Those Grand Villas sound amazing! Definitely may be too expensive even with that many people but it can be a dream for someday. I am actually waiting for them to release next year's labor day discounts. From what I remember, it was a very good deal. My sister and I stayed at the Poly for the price we paid to stay at POFQ a few years back!

That ride looks like SO much fun!!! Sorta like TT at Epcot maybe?

Yeah! That's what I thought!

While the Alaska cruise WAS fantastic...I can totally get your rationale for switching to the Canada one. Being Canadian...I have been to some, but not all of those places. PEI is somewhere I'd love to visit - and how cool to do it on a cruise ship!! The weather could go either way at that time of year...so you'll have to be prepared for anything...but...it should be warmer than Alaska lol. I have no idea if the rules are different for fireworks in Canada or not lol...we do have them on holidays here too though but no clue about on cruises lol.

Thanks for the info! I'm so excited! Any tips for any of the other ports? I'm surely going to do Alaska another year though!

Oh man...I can not imagine the logistics of planning that lol. I am planning a trip for this summer with my kids and parents and MIL and...it is Not...easy...and throw the whole planning spreadsheet requiring detail needed for WDW...well hat's off to you if you can pull that off and stay sane lol

I have agreed with everyone that I will present them with options, and I will book the lodging and schedule one TS meal a day with the big group. Their flights, all other meals, and their FP+ will be handled by each family, because I'm sure with the different age groups they would want to do different things. I am also not getting park hoppers for them to keep it simple DH, CS and I though will probably be all over the place. We'll spend some time with them then split up and do all the thrill rides. Hehehe.[/quote]

Me too!! I re-read that whole series a few years ago, and I enjoyed it just as much as I did when I was a teenager. I still swoon for Gilbert!
That cruise sounds awesome!​

I also love Gilbert in the books. Sounds like every girls childhood crush!

Aloha! Our time in Maui is drawing to a close (we fly out in 47 hours....waaahhhhh!!!) but I'm catching up with the Disboards before bed.quote

I hope you had a wonderful time on Maui!!!

You cancelled Alaska?! Well, yes the airfare would be pretty expensive to Van-city (I'm finding just horrible prices from Van-Houston for January and they aren't much better from Seattle....grrrrr!!!) but excited about your new cruise to the CDN east-coast! Colour me jealous, I have yet to see anything east of Montreal And why? Because flying from Vancouver to Nova Scotia/PEI etc is more expensive than flying from Vancouver to Europe!!!!!

That's crazy how much airfare has gotten and for odd reasons too. Anyways, we did cancel Alaska because I didn't want to end up paying all the additional expenses it can take...flight, hotels, plus we'd want to hang around vancouver too so that' extra nights of food and lodging.

Good luck with the planning of the family trip, I look forward to reading about what you've decided!

Pretty much nothing has been planned so far. Most people say they would like to come but of course being it more than a year away nothing is set in stone. Also, prices for Aug 2017 have not been released so I can't give them an idea of what it's going to cost. I just told them to be prepared to spend a lot of money. HEHE.

BTW we drove the road to Hana today.....god it has more twists and turns than California Screamin'!

I totally believe that!

I forgot to mention I'm on instagram (I follow you) and have been posting photos of our trip each day, in case you were interested

I am really interested I just can't figure out your username on instagram! I think I'm looking for "bcwife" but can't find you!

 

[bcwife76]

I'll msg you my instagram name right now!

 

[chunkymonkey]

That depends a lot on the kids, how old they are and what they like. If they are near Little Miss's age then I'd say Tink and Cinderella are musts

I figure those character meets would be key. My oldest niece will celebrate her 5th bday next august, and my younger niece will be almost 4 years old. My nephew will be almost 2, and my niece on DH's side will be 6. I figure they may all like characters at that point in time! Although not sure what the little boy will be into! I insist on him meeting Woody and Buzz though!

I forgot to post that I used to watch Anne of Green Gables. I think my mom has the VHS tapes of the show!

I loved the mini-series! I thought it was really well made and made me really love the characters...oh and the scenery, I can't wait to see it all for myself!

Wow, who awesome to be able to go on a disney cruise right from your home port. We have some close ones in Baltimore, but sadly its 90% carnival and no Disney.

It's awesome! Disney hadn't sailed from NYC since 2012, but they are starting back up this year. Yay!

The Canadian itinerary sounds really interesting too. Like you I was huge Anne of Green Gables fan too, so how cool to see it for yourself.

It's amazing how many people have commented on how much they love AoGG. I guess that's why it's a classic!

So, I lucked out and got in on the very last of the length-of-stay Photopass packages before they changed what they offer. So, we got all Photopass, ride photos, and dining photos for our whole trip for $69. Now, they offer only 1-day Photopass, so you have to buy each day you want individually for like $39, if I remember right? It's not a very good deal vs. what they had before. Though, I saw you mentioned considering DLR Annual Passes - I believe those include all Photopass pictures, so you may want to factor that in.

Ah, I see, yeah the per-day price doesn't sound that great, especially for longer stays. They should discount it the more days you buy. You are lucky to have gotten the package! We were thinking of annual passes to WDW, not DL. It would be great to do both of them, but the likelihood of that may not be feasible.

Oh, and the cruise plans sound great! I would love to have a cruise port I could drive to - I wouldn't even care where the ship sailed!

I know right? I'm so excited for it!

Good luck planning that giant family trip in August!

Thanks! I'm gonna get a ton of help from you guys as I plan this massive trip!

 

[Dugette]

Ah, I see, yeah the per-day price doesn't sound that great, especially for longer stays. They should discount it the more days you buy. You are lucky to have gotten the package! We were thinking of annual passes to WDW, not DL. It would be great to do both of them, but the likelihood of that may not be feasible.

Oh, okay, I just was skimming through comments and saw the AP mentioned. Not sure if it's helpful, but this thread just popped up again in my "watched threads" - the Photopass program changed, as I mentioned, so some of this is outdated, but maybe some is still useful:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/photopass-superthread.3147673/

 

[chunkymonkey]

Oh, okay, I just was skimming through comments and saw the AP mentioned. Not sure if it's helpful, but this thread just popped up again in my "watched threads" - the Photopass program changed, as I mentioned, so some of this is outdated, but maybe some is still useful:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/photopass-superthread.3147673/

Thanks for the info! Yeah looks like it's a per day price instead of a package price as of right now. Maybe we won't buy each day's pictures, but I guess we won't know what they look like until after!

 

[chunkymonkey]

5/30/2016 A little real-life update:

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! It's been super hot in the tri-state area! So just trying to keep cool. Good thing the town pool opened this weekend which was a nice way to beat the heat. I did a lot of shopping with the great sales going on right now, and attended our first pre-summer BBQ! Earlier this past week DH and I attended a concert at Lincoln Center, The John Williams Celebration! It was a lot of fun, and of course they played some Star Wars too. I thought it was the perfect occasion to use my new Dooney and Bourke bag!

The concert was held at the David Geffen Hall which had great acoustics and is just a beautiful hall.

Here's DH and I at Lincoln Center. We used to live 4 blocks away from this NYC institution. We lived on the Upper West Side for about 11 years until we moved a few years ago to New Jersey. So coming here really brings back memories and we love it!

And here's the first time using my new Star Wars Dooney bag that I purchased on this trip! It's really cute and a lot more functional than I thought it would be. I wish it was a little bigger though. I'm the sort of person who carries her life around in a large tote bag all the time so paring down to a smaller bag was hard.

Thanks for reading! OK, now back to the TR!

Day 5 Part 1: The first day of Epcot F&G Festival

Today was the first day of Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival so Epcot was where we headed for the day. We didn't have any ADRs planned since I wanted to eat around at the food kiosks, but I did managed to make a same-day ADR at Skipper Canteen for dinner back at MK. I really wanted to try this restaurant! The exotic menu sounded really up our alley! We also had 3 FP+ for Character Spot, Mission Space, and Test Track.

We got ready and walked to the TTC to take the monorail. The TTC walk isn't that far at all. I'm really happy about the location of our longhouse as it was nice midway point for a lot of areas. We got on a monorail and arrived at Epcot right after rope drop.

Apparently we were not early enough because everyone was headed to TT and there was a 30 minute wait already. Hmph. No other attractions had any waits, since Soarin was down, and Frozen Ever After was under construction.

We decided since we walked over to TT we might as well wait on line. DH wanted to ride this twice and we had a FP+ for later in the afternoon. It wasn't so bad though, more like 20 minutes. Here's our ride picure! I always forget where they moved the ride camera to.

Looks like I'm doing a "hmmm, pondering" sort of look, while DH is just smiling. Our car did ok I think. It was eco friendly, and had great responsiveness. However the rating you get at the end of the big fast loop...that is for power, and usually people think that is the overall rating of every car that you're competing against but it is only for power. So your car could have a higher overall rating, but the power test is the one that people remembers.

These were taken outside Test Track. Flower and Garden was in full swing!

Hey wanna know what a Cactus Road Rally really looks like?

It looks like this

After waiting for standby TT, our first FP+ was for Character Spot! I was a bit hungry so wanted to hit up Sunshine Seasons for some of their croissant bread pudding but since Character Spot was on the way we went there first.

We scanned our Magic Bands and were led down the FP+ line - just 1 family in front of us.

Hello there Mickey!

Goofy!

And we can't forget Minnie!

or a Minnie Selfie!

After Character Spot, we finally arrived at The Land. Unfortunately by this time, they had stopped with the breakfast offerings. Oh well. Nothing else really appealed to me so I thought I'd just start eating when we got the the World Showcase. In the meantime, we decided to go on Living With the Land instead which had no wait.

But before we went on, I spotted the desk for sign ups for the Behind the Seeds tour and I thought that would be great for DH and I to go! So we went over and checked out the available times for today. Turns out there is a 3pm tour that works out for us perfectly so we booked that one for the both of us. Yay! After riding LWTL (no pictures sorry, since I'm going to show lots of pics of Behind the Seeds later!) we headed towards the WS so that we could grab some food. It was about 11am now, and the F&G kioks were open and ready to serve!

Our walk to WS was really fun, with lots of exhibits and sculptures!

Amazingly, DH is building one of these in our backyard as a strawberry planter. He'll complete it in a few weeks. Let's see how his will look compared to this!

A beautiful view of Spaceship Earth!

And here's one with SE, Me, and the Monorail!

We got these PP pics on the bridge:

I think this one is cheesy but in a cute way.

And finally our destination: FRANCE!

I wanted to start our eating here! And it begins with BACON.

Stay tuned for lots of eating, drinking and making our way around the World!​

 

[kadrachb]

The food a V&A looks absolutely delicious and what a wonderful experience!

I think this one is cheesy but in a cute way.

We had a photographer pose us like this too, and it was kind of awkward
He just kept saying "Happy family! Happy family!"

 

[ArielSRL]

I can totally relate to carrying around your life in a big ole bag. I'm like a boyscout...always prepared! My mom always mentions how heavy my purse is!

Great start! Looking forward to more!

 

[mlegerto]

I LOVE your necklace. It is so adorable!!! I also think your shirt today is cute - can't really see it in this photo, but can in others. You have a great trip wardrobe LOL

Amazingly, DH is building one of these in our backyard as a strawberry planter. He'll complete it in a few weeks. Let's see how his will look compared to this!

This is so cool. I love it! I want one. Where did DH get the know how to build this?

 

[chunkymonkey]

The food a V&A looks absolutely delicious and what a wonderful experience!

Thank you! It was amazing and delicious!

We had a photographer pose us like this too, and it was kind of awkward
He just kept saying "Happy family! Happy family!"

I know, the things we do for PP Photographers sometimes...

I can totally relate to carrying around your life in a big ole bag. I'm like a boyscout...always prepared! My mom always mentions how heavy my purse is!

Great start! Looking forward to more!

I know...my bags are always so heavy and filled with everything. But like you I need to be prepared!!

I LOVE your necklace. It is so adorable!!! I also think your shirt today is cute - can't really see it in this photo, but can in others. You have a great trip wardrobe LOL

Thank you! My necklace was a gift from my niece Maddie for Christmas this past year (She was in my cruise TR from last year). It's from Arribas Brothers. I love it! My t-shirt is from Kohls from the Lauren Conrad Minnie Mouse collection. I loved the t-shirt that I ended up buying another one after the trip...I will probably wear it to Disneyland in Sept!

This is so cool. I love it! I want one. Where did DH get the know how to build this?

I think he is figuring it out himself using pictures from what he saw at Flower and Garden as a reference! Although I'm sure some youtube videos may come into play at some point. It looks complicated to me but he says he can do it. He bought all this lumber this weekend! I think some of our friends will help out one weekend. I'll post pics once it's done!

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

PTR Update for 2017...

Then yesterday when Disney released their Fall 2017 itineraries, I saw that they are continuing their cruises from NYC! Which means we wouldn't have to fly anywhere! I spotted a cruise that sounded very interesting, a 7-night Canadian Coast cruise, so I made the switch to this itinerary:

7-Night Canadian Cruise from New York Oct 21st 2017
New York • At Sea • At Sea • Charlottetown (Prince Edward Island) • Sydney, Nova Scotia • Halifax, Nova Scotia • At Sea
​

I think this is a great alternative!
We East-coasters need a lot of advance preparation before flying all the way to the Alaskan frozen tundra !
We did the 5 day NY-Canada trip in 2012 and we still talk about it. If you want to see our Halifax day pics check out the old TR which is still in my siggie. I totally recommend the amazing vintage candy store in Halifax
http://www.freaklunchbox.com/Main Pages/Halifax.html
and also a visit to the Citidel
http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/halifax/index.aspx
Those were our highlights. We did the port on our own, walking. We were there in June - also "shoulder season". It was sweatshirt weather with sunshine allowing some t-shirt hours. We did swim a bit - but more hot tub than pool! As usual, the getting in was easy. The getting out - not. But now the Magic has those indoor hot tubs in the Rainforest Room, right? That'd work great! I totally drooled over that 7 night Canada sailing! Would do it in a "snap" if I still lived in NJ/NY. Well, it won't be 2017 but maybe "next time" DCL does NY. It is totally amazing to drive from NJ to the port! We left our house in N. NJ at quarter to 11, and were eating lunch on deck at 12:00! So ... great decision.

 

[disneydaydreamer33]

That John Williams concert sounds so fun!! He really has composed such iconic movie music!

The F&G stuff looks beautiful! The weather looked great for an Epcot day!

 

[Fantasia79]

Caught up! Great report!

 

[soniam]

Unfortunately, I don't know how the rider swap works at DLR. We have only used it once at WDW and didn't really use the actual paper swap ticket. Hopefully, someone else will know.

Epcot day looks great.

 

[KathyM2]

We lived on the Upper West Side for about 11 years until we moved a few years ago to New Jersey. So coming here really brings back memories and we love it!

I LOVE NYC so much! I can't imagine how awesome it must have been to live there right at such a great location! I'm sure it's completely crazy expensive and at some point you want to get away from it but...I still always wonder what it would be like!

Turns out there is a 3pm tour that works out for us perfectly so we booked that one for the both of us.

That's so awesome that you got this same day! I don't think I ever even considered that could be a possibility!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I think this is a great alternative!
We East-coasters need a lot of advance preparation before flying all the way to the Alaskan frozen tundra !
We did the 5 day NY-Canada trip in 2012 and we still talk about it. If you want to see our Halifax day pics check out the old TR which is still in my siggie. I totally recommend the amazing vintage candy store in Halifax
http://www.freaklunchbox.com/Main Pages/Halifax.html
and also a visit to the Citidel
http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/halifax/index.aspx
Those were our highlights. We did the port on our own, walking. We were there in June - also "shoulder season". It was sweatshirt weather with sunshine allowing some t-shirt hours. We did swim a bit - but more hot tub than pool! As usual, the getting in was easy. The getting out - not. But now the Magic has those indoor hot tubs in the Rainforest Room, right? That'd work great! I totally drooled over that 7 night Canada sailing! Would do it in a "snap" if I still lived in NJ/NY. Well, it won't be 2017 but maybe "next time" DCL does NY. It is totally amazing to drive from NJ to the port! We left our house in N. NJ at quarter to 11, and were eating lunch on deck at 12:00! So ... great decision.

Wow thanks so much for the info! I am reading your TR right now and it's great!! I was dying to go on the Canada cruise this year, but we opted for the Fantasy with Star Wars Day at Sea. I'm glad we waited because now they are including Prince Edward Island! I'm so excited to be able to get dropped off right at the Magic. It must have been a great feeling indeed!

I didn't really check out the Rainforest on the Magic but it was certainly not like the Dream class ships that's for sure. I don't know if it will be worth paying for it, but then again this cruise will be very different from a Caribbean cruise and I am sure I'll be spending more time in the hot tubs and steam rooms than the pools!

I've been to the Citadel before! I was on a Royal Caribbean cruise in 2003, which was my only cruise before I sailed DCL last year. We only stopped in Halifax, and I remember it being very pretty. We ate seafood by the pier and went to the Citadel which was really cool although I don't remember much. DH was not on that cruise so it'll be fun for us to explore together.

Thanks again for the info and I'm going to finish your TR! Oh BTW, did they have a pirate night and were there fireworks?

That John Williams concert sounds so fun!! He really has composed such iconic movie music!

It was wonderful! We go to a lot of John William concerts...just because there are quite a few each year in the area. We also go to Tanglewood every summer for their film night which actually features John Williams as conductor. They are great!

The F&G stuff looks beautiful! The weather looked great for an Epcot day!

It was a beautiful day! One of the best weather days of the trip!! In fact every day was really nice. We didn't have to buy ponchos which was great! The last time I was there in March (2011 I think) it rained for half the trip, we were so wet but didn't let it dampen our spirits (pun intended!)

Caught up! Great report!

Thank you!!!

Unfortunately, I don't know how the rider swap works at DLR. We have only used it once at WDW and didn't really use the actual paper swap ticket. Hopefully, someone else will know.

Epcot day looks great.

Thanks! I was actually asking about WDW, since I don't think my nieces or nephews will be going to DLR with us, we will save the Disney trip for next year at WDW. So not sure how the whole ride swapping thing works.

I LOVE NYC so much! I can't imagine how awesome it must have been to live there right at such a great location! I'm sure it's completely crazy expensive and at some point you want to get away from it but...I still always wonder what it would be like!

It was really a wonderful place to grow up but we had a very different upbringing than what I had saw was a "typical" American childhood. First of all, we learn how to ride subways and buses at a very young age. I look back and can't believe how independent I had to be. I was and still am, a city girl at heart! I really miss the city life and being able to walk out of our apartment building and have the pick of hundreds of restaurants, bars, cafes, and parks all a few blocks away. Now that we live in the suburbs, we have to DRIVE every where which takes getting used to and all the restaurants are mostly chains and they seem all the same, I miss the diversity too. I don't even like driving! What I don't miss about the city is yes, the prices are too high for housing, and you get no space at all. I now have an entire room which I'm using for my own closet, make up area, and office! Oh and the pollution, crowds etc. So it's a trade-off but at least NYC is just over the bridge/tunnel for us so not too far away! In fact we go there almost every weekend when the weather is nice!

That's so awesome that you got this same day! I don't think I ever even considered that could be a possibility!

I totally forgot about this tour otherwise I would have booked ahead of time. I think because it wasn't that crowded that day, so we were lucky. They also have multiple tours a day which is nice. I'd definitely call and book ahead if this is a priority.

 

[bcwife76]

Wow, they do such a good job with the gardens!! Very detailed and meticulous - it's beautiful!!

Yay for using your pretty bag and what a fun opportunity to take it out ;-)

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

Thanks again for the info and I'm going to finish your TR! Oh BTW, did they have a pirate night and were there fireworks?

Yup pirate night AND fireworks!
I had this creative idea about making a "football team" logo for an imaginary team called Bay of Fundy Buccaneers with a Mickey Pirate picture - you'll see it on our t-shirts. I'm not sure anyone but my family understood it but I thought it was pretty clever! I used the same picture for magnets that I gave in the FE and even had a tote bag with it (it was a freebie at Vistaprint when I made the magnets, so what the hey!).
I am honored that you're reading my TR, which is, after all, 4 years old !

 

[Elevationist]

Minnie Selfie!

I LOVE THIS!

I think this one is cheesy but in a cute way.

How is this cheesey?! Ya'll are are ADORABLE!

I wanted to start our eating here! And it begins with BACON.