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Nephew Birthday Party times two

Posted on March 15, 2009 9:16 pm by TheAngelForever

It is so good to be home. It was an adventure of a weekend for many reasons. Saturday morning we packed the kids into the new car for our first trip with it. We had been invited to a double birthday party for our nephews today. Since my sister-in-law and her family live about 3 hours from us, we thought we would splurge and stay at a hotel over night for some fun.

We decided to stay at the same hotel as last year since it was a good deal and nice location. The only problem we had last time was uninvited ladybugs in our room. The hotel has a pool and serves a nice free breakfast. If you follow me on Twitter, last night you saw that things were not going too well there. I barely slept three hours thanks to some issues. The troubles required me to call the front desk three times and I was tempted to call again later on, but gave up.

More about the adventures and fun swimming later. I am off to decompress after the lack of sleep and stress from last night and today.

Categories:
birthday photos road trip travel vent yummy

Disney dining plans

Posted on February 8, 2009 10:15 am by TheAngelForever

Bright and early this morning, I sat with my paper plan for meals while we are at Disney World. I actually felt butterflies since I was nervous about not getting things. Seriously, it was just like the way I felt before an exam when in school.

At 7:00 I dialed the number and immediately talked to a person at Disney dining. There were a few little glitches, but I expected one of them. Here is the plan right now

Chef Mickey – Great character meal for the night of our arrival.
50’s Prime Time Cafe – Fun meal for the entire family. Hubby and the boys have never been here before, but I remember my father being scolded for not eating his veggies when I was little.
Boma – We have heard amazing things about this and are looking forward to it.
The Wave – A quick switch landed us here. We had wanted to go to Spoodles, but for some reason nothing was available that week. We suspect it may be closed or being refurbished.
Coral Reef – Should be fun for the boys to watch the fish in the tank while eating. Have fond memories of this place from my childhood.
Crystal Palace – Character meal with Pooh and friends for JSL’s 2nd birthday.
Le Cellier – Took the one and ONLY time they had a table for six available for dinner during our entire stay. Loved this place and ate there twice on our honeymoon. Back then it was easy to get a reservation there, my how times have changed!

Now we are debating if we should make breakfast reservations. Contenders are Ohana’s (Lilo & Stitch), Cape May Cafe, Tusker House (Donald Duck) or something else. Since the boys will be staying up later, it probably is not the best plan. We also have to weigh in the cost and whether we want to have a buffet before going into the heat for a day at the parks.

Categories:
decisions Disney travel vacation

Suitcase solutions

Posted on January 30, 2009 9:01 am by TheAngelForever

When we were married we had a lot of items on our registry. Thanks to keeping a kosher kitchen, we needed two of most cooking items (meat and dairy). With this in mind, we did not register for luggage. JL had a few small pieces and we were given a large one from my grandmother to use for our honeymoon. When we went to Las Vegas Aunt S and Uncle M gave us another piece to use for taking dress clothing.

It has been over six years since our last big trip. When we travel to Disney World we will have to pack for four people for an entire week. Clearly, the few small bags we own will not cut it. So we need to research luggage brands, acceptable sizes for airlines and all of the rest that goes along with serious suitcase studies.

Back in December, on my birthday, I received an e-mail that I had won a Lands’ End rolling duffel bag from Did You See That? I was so excited because it was something we needed very badly. Last night, I packed it for the first time. There is so much room in it thanks to well defined compartments. I was able to put winter clothing for an entire weekend for the two boys and myself. Here are photos of it all packed and ready to go.

Now I wonder if we should take this with us and maybe get more of the larger ones for Disney and beyond. So my question this week:

Do you have any suggestions on what type of luggage to look for? What have you had success with that is durable and good for family travel?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the Mr. Linky there if you are participating. Th

Aloha #33

Categories:
Aloha Friday decisions photos travel Web business web fun

100 days to go

Posted on January 29, 2009 9:31 am by TheAngelForever

Starting tomorrow, there will no longer be a three digit number standing between us and Disney World. The magic number is 100 today and it seems quite surreal. Of course, part of that could be the snow and ice that was left on our lawn yesterday turning our front porch into a hockey rink.

Since I last wrote about our family Disney trip some things have changed. My parents, otherwise known as Nana and Papa on my blog, will be joining us. They were not sure about it at first, but eventually were excited to jump at the opportunity. JL and I think it will be fabulous to have them there to see the boys on their first trip to see the magic of Disney. My parents are the ones that started this "illness" with me so many years ago. We will be going down on the same flight, staying at the same hotel and making some dinner reservations together.

We have a little over a week to go until we can make our advanced dining reservations (ADRs) with Disney. This means that we are in the final preparations of making our list for dinner sit down restaurants. Some of this is complicated right now thanks to the calendars for May still not being available at the parks. We would like to know which nights certain events will be at locations so we can be there. It obviously makes sense to have dinner at those parks, or nearby so we can get to them.

One other little item, we need restaurants that are vegetarian friendly. JL and I have a kosher kitchen at home. When dining out JL prefers to eat vegetarian or fish (like salmon, mahi mahi, tuna…. not seafood) to make things easier for him. This has certainly nixed going to some restaurants that barely had any food options for him.

At this point we know that we will make the following reservations:

Chef Mickey – the evening that we arrive. Perhaps this will become an arrival day tradition. This reservation is already made since it can be done 180 days out.
Crystal Palace – likely for JSL’s 2nd birthday. He knows Winnie the Pooh and friends and should have a blast there (assuming the characters do not freak him out).
Boma – at the Animal Kingdom Lodge this restaurant has a buffet that has African specialities that look amazing.
50’s Prime Time Cafe – fun restuarant that has really expanded more options to JL since our honeymoon. We did not go there 8 years ago, but I loved the antics there when I was a kid.

With the four choices above, it only leaves us with three sit down meals that need to be covered. Of course we also need to figure out if we want to do a more leisurely breakfast and make reservations for that.

Places that are on the likely list for dinner:

Le Cellier – JL and I ate here twice on our honeymoon. It is an amazing restaurant that is now quite difficult to get into. Who knew it would become so popular over the years?!
Coral Reef – although it has mixed reviews we think the boys will love watching the fish. My parents and I also have fond memories of eating there years ago. Nothing like watching a waiter teach your little brother how to eat a lobster!

Still debating:

Spoodles – JL and I also ate here twice on our honeymoon. It was on the Boardwalk right near our hotel and had amazing food. Not too sure how the boys and my father will do here thanks to the limited menu that is online.
Marrakesh – The restaurant at Morocco in EPCOT looks fabulous, but I have read that the quick service Tangierine Cafe is great, so that may just hit the mediterranean fix we need.
Sci Fi Drive In – A really neat restaurant with decent food. JL and I went there on our honeymoon and think that the seating with the boys may be hard to deal with. This is probably a place we will leave to do when they are older and will appreciate the fun movies more.

That is the short list of places that we came up with using the restaurant information here, in the DIS discussion forums, and in books. There are so many options and everything sounds so amazing. This week we hope to have more information on park hours and night events so we can make our plans. With any luck, we will be able to get our reservations with no issue on the 90 day mark. I know my alarm will be set on that morning.

If you have been to Disney lately any dining suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Categories:
decisions Disney family travel vacation

Family vacation planning

Posted on January 8, 2009 9:15 am by TheAngelForever

Planning a vacation for our family is new to us. Sure we have gone away before. All of those trips were to visit family and/or friends for a long weekend at the most. Nothing involved a car trip longer than 6 hours, and certainly not an airplane. Fact is, I have not been on an airplane since December 2002 and so much has changed in that time.

In just about four months, we will be heading to Walt Disney World with the boys. This is a huge adventure for all of us. A first time trip to the magical world of Disney for the boys and first time in an airplane. My mother has commented that I am more excited than she has heard in quite some time. This is very true. It is always wonderful to have something to look forward to.

Unfortunately, with the fun and excitement comes the inevitable planning and some stress. Here are a few things that have been on the plate so far.

Which hotel do we stay at? – If you have been to Disney World lately, then you know there are a lot of resorts on ground to pick from. There are value, moderate, and delux accomodations. We opted to try a value resort for the first time. After booking our trip we changed from All Star Movies to Pop Century because of a few items we learned about. JL and I also found out about activities at Pop Century that sound amazing. We do not need the extra frills when we can save money. The money saved now could be for a future trip back to Disney World after all.

Do we haul our stroller or rent there? – This was a question that I posed on a Disney forum that I recently joined. I knew that we would need to rent a stroller no matter what. Although NHL is five, Disney is a lot of walking for my adult legs. When I asked in the forums about this several people suggested not only to rent a double stroller, but to stray from Disney. Everyone mentioned Orlando Stroller Rentals. The people had links to reviews and the website with photos of the stroller that you can rent. The best part is the double jogger can accomodate up to 100 pounds of kids, they deliver and pick up from the hotel, it folds easy, is comfy for JSL to nap in, and saved us about $90 over Disney. Now I just need to figure out a rain cover to buy for it.

Which parks do we go to on what days? – Yes, vacationing with family means being flexible.Fact is that at Disney World reservations for dining book quickly. If we do not set up plans in the 90 days before our trip, we may not get our preferred times to dine (if we can get them at all). Thanks to this, we know our magic 90 day date and have to figure out where we would like to dine so we can attempt to make reservations. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Just note that JL eats vegetarian when out, but this includes fish like salmon (no seafood like shrimp/clams/scallops/lobster).

When will Disney release the park hours for May? – We only have one month before we can schedule our advanced dining reservations (ADR). That means we would like to know the hours of the parks to figure out where we should go. The only definite plan now is to go to the Magic Kingdom the first full day we are there. Beyond that it is hard to know without the hours. We certainly do not want to hop buses for reservations, we would rather just spend the time we want at the park that we will dine at later on.

Should we take our laptop with us? – The easy answer would be no, but TechyDad and I are not sure we want to be without it. Aside from taking the bag with us on the flight, the real issue is internet service. Believe it or not, Disney does not have Wifi at their resorts. We were pretty surprised with that. Disney also charges for use of internet while on grounds. The rate at this point is $10 for a 24 hour period. This is something we will definitely be debating.

What should we do on JSL’s 2nd birthday? – We will actually be at Disney World for the little guy’s birthday. Sure he will not really appreciate a lot of it, but we still have to do something special for him. We will likely do a character meal on that day, but not 100% sure what at this point. Of course we are hoping that he will not be terrified of the costumes like his big brother.

Should we take the travel insurance for the trip? – Right now we are waiting for the information sheets about this from the travel agent. I want to know what benefit it has over what the hotel and airline will cover anyway.

Thanks to these and a few other quetions, we have been doing a lot of research. Amazing people online in the Disney forums, on Twitter, along with other friends and family have been weighting in on some of them.