ADR's

I finally was able to make our ADR's for our trip. If you aren't familiar with ADR's it means Advanced Dining Reservations. 

On my last trip I said that you absolutely had to reserve your dining experiences 180 days out and that has not changed. Things sell out so fast. 

Plus, now there is a new restaurant. Be our Guest. It is almost impossible to get. 

I have been so anxious while I was waiting for my ADR day. So worried I wouldn't be able to get everything we wanted. 

Well, I woke up on ADR day at 3 am ready to try doing it online for the first time so I would have a better chance of getting the reservations that I wanted.

Doug came down at 3:30 to help out if I needed it. 

I got online. We were refreshing the page over and over. 4 am hit and suddenly there were the times for Be our Guest. Super excitement. 

I pushed the time we wanted and the page refreshed itself. 

What the?

Tried again. It did it again. 

We tried over and over again. Then we switched restaurants to see if we had any luck with any others. It turned out that the only day I could actually make ADR's for was our very first day rather than being able to do the +10 that you are supposed to be able to do if you are staying onsite. 

I was so frustrated. 

I figured everyone must be having the same problem and so maybe I would still be able to get the ones I wanted. But then I read some people talking about having got their ADR's that morning. Yikes!

We knew we just needed to call in but we had to wait until the phone lines opened at 5am. 

We both began dialing over and over a few minutes to 5. I finally got through right at 5 and was only on hold a few seconds before a Cast Member answered the phone. Yippee!! 

She quickly got my info and we started making the ADR's.

Her name was Linda and she was fantastic. 

I was able to get everything I wanted except the Be Our Guest was for after my parents left and Bibbid Bobbidi Boutique is later than I had hoped for. But I just wanted to be grateful for what we got.

Then a little while ago Doug called me and told me to call again about Be Our Guest because he could see times online that were on the day we wanted. 

I called in and sure enough, I got the night we wanted! Woo hoo! I cancelled the other one. 

I am SO excited!

Once ADR's are made I can really start planning my days because then I know for sure that we will be in the park I want to be in that day. 

So, what reservations did we get?

We are sticking with some of our favorites from last time and trying a few new ones as well. 

1) For Abigail's 5th birthday we did breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table (in the castle with princesses) and dinner at 1900 Park Fare as well as an appointment at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We decided we wanted to do the exact same thing for Maddy's. 

I was able to get CRT for a late breakfast/brunch and the BBB appointment a couple hours afterward. I wish the BBB was early morning so I didn't have to worry about carrying around their dresses half the day in the park but I am just glad we were able to get one. 

2) I also got the 1900 Park Fare dinner with Cinderella, the prince, the Stepmother, and stepsisters  that night. 

3) We are doing Crystal Palace again. That is the character breakfast with Winne the Pooh and friends.

4) We are going to Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner again as it was one of our favorites last time. 

5)We are going to the princess breakfast at Akurshus banquet hall in Norway (Epcot) again.

6) We are trying 'Ohana at the Polynesian resort for the first time. I am so excited about this one. 

7)We are trying Garden Grill- a rotating restaurant for dinner with Chip and Dale for the first time. 

8)We are doing dinner at Chef Mickey's with Mickey and friends again.

and last

9) We are going to the Beast's castle to dine in Be Our Guest restaurant for dinner. 

YAY!! I can't wait!!

Big News!

We are going back!

I am going to try to keep this blog updated on our pre trip activities rather than doing that on my other blog. I will post links on The Gingham Owl to bring them together.

We have been talking about going back to Disney World basically since we got home from our first trip! 

But we just couldn't swing it. I didn't think we would be able to this year either with my doctor bills but we have had some great things happen including being able to stay with my parents for a few months and finding a great basement apartment to rent that will be much cheaper than we were paying for rent at our old place. 

So, a few weeks ago, Doug finally gave me the go ahead to start planning (as if I wasn't already doing that in my head just in case!) and to call and book our room.

My parents are going to go with us again but this time they will be arriving on the same day as us but leaving a few days earlier. 

We are going for ten nights/eleven days again.

This time we will be flying. We bought our plane tickets last week and got a smoking deal with Delta. Just yesterday Doug looked at the same flight out of curiosity and they were twice as much.

We will be staying at Pop Century again and doing the regular Dining plan again.

And this morning I got up super early and started dialing the reservation number over and over starting at 4:55am until I finally got through and on hold. I was on hold for a little over an hour but was able to add the free dining that opened up today to our account taking a little over a thousand dollars off our total and almost 600 off my parent's bill.

SO EXCITED!

We will be going in November. Last time we were there for Abigail's 5th birthday and this time we will be there for Madeline's 5th birthday!

It will be a surprise again if we can get to then without them finding out. I am planning on having a special reveal breakfast the day of our flight before we leave. 

I have already begun to gather ideas and items for the trip so over the next few weeks I will begin to post about all of that. Also, we will be starting up our Disney movie nights again the second weekend of June after we are settled into our new place.