tkd lisa's Spring Break 07 trip - Complete and lots of pictures added 4/10 About This Page:

[tkd lisa]

Pre-Trip Plans

It’s time for another pre-trip report for us. In case you haven’t read any of my other reports, here’s the background.

Cast: Me, Lisa, 42 year old single mom. Experienced WDW traveler
DD, will turn 15 the week after the trip. Loves Stitch and thrill rides!
DS, 13 ½. Is evolving into a thrill ride lover. Loves Innoventions and Animation Studios.
DM, late 60s, joining us on Tuesday, enjoys the little things at Disney.

When: 18-23 March
Where: Boardwalk Villas 1 bedroom
Why: Spring Break and DD’s birthday

Background planning: I joined DVC this last fall, and I’m enjoying the deluxe accommodations and more space that brings to the experience. I’ve also found that we are spending more time at our resort now that we visit WDW on a regular basis. EPCOT and MGM are our favorite parks, so I was thrilled to be able to get a one-bedroom standard view at BWV at the 7 month window. We stayed there one night this December, and really appreciated the easy walk to/from our favorite parks. I’ve only made one room request – to be at the end of the hallway. When we were there in December, we were right by the elevator and we heard a lot of hallway noise. DD is VERY noise and light sensitive, and that made a long night. With a one-bedroom, it won’t be as critical, but I don’t expect to use the elevators much, and end of the hallway should put us fairly close to the MGM path.

After our Christmas trip, I started planning out the details for this trip. My mom has company at her house who are leaving Monday the 18th, so she won’t be joining us until Tuesday. I rearranged our dining ADRs a couple of times to accommodate this, but here are the final plans. This trip, I wanted to try new restaurants, plus I wanted to use our full kitchen for most of our other meals. We always eat breakfast in our rooms, but this trip, I plan on more than that. I made lunch ADRs to save some money, plus it fits our touring style. We usually have a mid-morning snack, a late lunch, an evening snack, and a light dinner. I ended up with ADRs at LeCellier Tuesday at 2:00, Mama Melrose Wednesday at 2:00, and Rose and Crown Thursday at 2:00. I know Mama Melrose doesn’t get good reviews, but we’ve eaten at Sci Fi and 50s Prime Time several times before. Buffets aren’t worth the money for my family (light eaters), and Brown Derby really doesn’t interest me. That left Mama Melrose. I actually had Cape May Buffet booked one night, but once I made out my budget, I realized that it wouldn’t be worth $100 for us, when I expect to spend $60 or less on the rest of our meals. I switched that to Rose & Crown based on DD’s request.

Loose plans for the trip are:

Sunday, 18 March:

Go to church in the morning. The kids and I work in the pre-school and nursery so we try not to miss since they depend on us. We’ll likely be on the road by 12:45 or 1:00 and pick up lunch on our way. I plan to check in at BWV and leave our stuff with bell services (and it will be a BUNCH of stuff, since I’m bringing groceries too!)

We’ll walk over to EPCOT, stopping to renew our Seasonal APs at the back gateway. I have one day passes to “upgrade”. These are left from our free dining trip on Labor Day. A few dollars (okay, more than a few, but we get a LOT of use out of our APs) lighter, I plan to be in the park by 3:00. DS will probably head over to Innoventions before it closes, and we’ll try to get FPs for TT or Soarin to use later. We’ll have dinner in the room, and then may head back to EPCOT to watch Illuminations. An early night, since we’ll be up early tomorrow.

Monday, 19 March:

Animal Kingdom for morning EMH. I love visiting this park early in the morning! You get so much more done, and it’s just more comfortable. Cooler weather, and fewer people! I plan on spending time exploring the trails and the Planet Watch area. Those are things we really haven’t done much, since this is usually the last park we visit each trip. I know the kids will want to ride EE and Dinosaur while we’re there too.

We’ll take a long mid-day break and have a light lunch in our room. I’d like to explore the activities at Community Hall, and we’ll probably swim a little bit.

I plan to head over to MGM by about 4:30 or 5:00. MGM has late night EMH, and two showings of Fantasmic. We’ll probably see the 2nd show, and just do the normal things while we’re there. Dinner will probably be a turkey leg and some other snacks.

Tuesday, 20 March:

EPCOT has morning EMH, and depending on how tired we all are from last night, we may try to get there to ride Soarin and Test Track early. I want to see Turtle Talk this morning (everyone else in my family has done this but me!) Mom will be arriving some time this morning, so I’ll take a break to go over and meet up with her. We have a 2:00 ADR at LeCellier. We’ll take a break either before or after that, depending on how early we made it to the park, and what time my mom arrives.

In the evening, we’ll head over to MK. No set plans, except to watch Spectro and Wishes at 8 and 9pm. We’ll have some sort of CS dinner (probably Cosmic Rays). Fairly early evening tonight.

Wednesday, 21 March:

Open morning. I’ve planned for a couple of big in-room breakfasts, and this may be one day for it. We also have water park passes, and this might be a morning to hit Blizzard Beach. My mom doesn’t have that pass, and will probably do something else. I plan to head over to MGM by noon. We have 2:00 ADRs at Mama Melrose. After lunch, we’ll probably take a room break (unless we didn’t do anything that morning).

AK has evening EMH tonight, and this will be a new experience for us. I want to do a safari late in the afternoon, and then we’ll just see what’s open and sounds fun. Even if we stay until the park closes, we should be in bed by 11:00.

Thursday, 22 March:

I plan on morning EMH at MK today. We’ll knock out the big rides, and probably hit Tom Sawyer Island and the Pirates before heading back for a break.

After the break, the ladies will be heading over to Rose and Crown for a 2:00 ADR. DS insisted that he didn’t want to eat there (or anyplace else I offered to try), so he’ll probably end up with Chinese CS (assuming it’s open by then). We’ll wander world showcase the rest of the afternoon, then back to the room for dinner.

After dinner, we may head back to EPCOT or MGM for the fireworks if anyone is interested. I expect my Mom will want to do this, since she hasn’t seen Illuminations in quite a while.

Friday, 23 March:

Check out day 

Another leisurely morning with a big in-room breakfast. Plans are pretty open for this day. We may go back to MGM for the big rides. I’d like to see the afternoon parade at AK before hitting the road. There’s also the option to go to Typhoon Lagoon for late EMH hours after Mom heads back home.

Overall hopes/plans/ideas:

Our water park APs expire in April, and we really haven’t used them much, so I’m hoping to use them a couple times this trip. Disney has just announced an ‘after 2 pm water park AP’ for FL residents. It’s only $60, and that may be worthwhile for us. We’ve only used these passes 4 days, and one of those was only about 20 minutes (we got rained out). I thought we would use them more during the blackout dates, but we did other things most of the summer.

I plan a lot of in-room meals. I do a lot of crock pot cooking at home, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth bringing the crockpot this trip. I really only have one meal planned that would need it, so I may just throw the chicken into the oven on low heat instead. I also expect that the kids may stay back in the room after those meals instead of heading back out to a park.

I've really enjoyed my sidekick feature to the passporter! I've got all my ADRs listed there, and will take those along instead of my standard microsoft table plan sheets!

I haven’t set up a meeting with my friend who lives in Orlando, but she’ll probably bring her daughter over to swim at least one evening (they are on a different spring break from us). That will change plans somewhat.

And as always, I’m not hard over on any of these plans. They’re “more in the order of guidelines”!

[Colexis Mom]

Great plans Lisa I hope you have a great time

[Tiggerbelle]

Sounds like a wonderful trip! I hope you have a great time! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back.

[ilovedisney0_0]

Sounds wonderful, and very relaxing! Have a magical time!

[bsblady01]

your plans sound great I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world.

[luvnwdwgal]

Have a great time!

[lindawdw]

Sounds like a great plan Lisa! What lucky kids to be able to return to WDW so soon since your last trip. Have a great time.

[Suzie&Jay]

[Diz]

Originally Posted by tkd lisa

I’ve also found that we are spending more time at our resort now that we visit WDW on a regular basis.

This is a discussion we have all the time! The teens still remember our get up at the crack of dawn and don't you dare sit down until it's midnight back at the resort trips! There are times they miss that! I'm glad to see we're not the only ones who slow it up!

Your trip looks wonderful and relalxing!

Enjoy!

[Mickeysgal]

Your plans sound great! Enjoy your trip - can't wait to hear all about it!

[snoozin]

Great plans... and I love the idea of the crockpot dinner! Never thought of that, although we fly, and that would be an interesting one to explain to the security folks!

[Nova]

Wow you really do plan your trips out. And here I thought I was a planner ha ha. I think the only thing we ever planned out dinning wize was the dinner show at Poly. Otherwise we just wing eating where we can. Never know how the little one's will be if they are to tired then we sure dont want cranky kids at a sit down. Have a wonderful time we will be going in April to FW first trip there. Stayed a BC with Daughter's Family and enjoyed walking to Epcot.

[mattnkatsmum]

I'm so envious that you are DVC members and are so close to WDW. We have to fly across the Atlantic for our WDW vacations!

Can't wait to hear all about your trip.

[Mauimouse]

Your plans looks great. Have an excellent time.

[tkd lisa]

Thanks for all the nice comments. We are truly blessed to be able to visit as much as we do.

Tomorrow the kids have off school for the strawberry festival (it's kind of like a county fair day here). So we're going to head over to Disney for the day, taking DS's girlfriend along with us.

I also got a phone call from my college roommate tonight. She and her family are planning on camping at FW this July, so we're going to join them. Given that it will be during the blackout dates, I'm going to get regular annual passes. I'll renew these tomorrow, since ours actually expired about 2 weeks ago.

The only other possible change in our spring break plans involves DS's girlfriend. I'm going to invite her to come over with us after church on Sunday, if her parents will pick her up Monday or Tuesday. I've looked over the floor plan for BWVs and I'm pretty comfortable that there will be enough privacy. I'm just going to require that DS only use the shower/toilet portion of the bathroom while his GF is there and we'll keep the connecting door shut. I'm not sure if she'll take us up on it, but I'm going to offer anyway.

We'll see how everything works out in a few weeks.