Just recently Disney started offering a new Fireworks Dessert Party at the Magic Kingdom. You show up aout an hour before the "Wishes" Fireworks at the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle station and you get to watch the fireworks from the terrace while you eat from an amazing dessert buffet. The Spectromagic parade is an hour before wishes and can also be seen from the terrace so if you time it right you get two shows!

So here is my plan for August 31st

The MK opens at 9. I want to be there when they open. We can do rides until our 10:30 reservations at the Crystal Palace.



Then a few more rides and a rest at the resort. For my kids a quick dip in the pool followed by a nap. Then back to the Magic Kingdom when the sun starts to come down, maybe about 5:30/6:00, grab some fast food for dinner, do some attractions.

We get to the dessert party and watch the spectromagic parade at 9:00

and we'll indulge!!




and the fireworks at 10:00.



Then after that we'll try to stay as long as we can for extra magic hours (they end at 1am). I think just being able to watch the parade and the fireworks without being crammed next to 1000s of other people would be worth the price on it's own.

After much hemming and hawing I have finally decided to drop a night from our meal only stay at POP. It only saved me about $90 but I really didn't need that extra sit down dinner. I talked to Shelli and they are definately doing Sat evening with her sister so they wouldn't be able to join us for that dinner anyway. It makes it easy for me to make that a counter service night instead of a sit down dinner. That was supposed to be the night we did the Wave and I know Tony wanted to try it. I made new reservations for the Wave on Thursday night but the best time I could get was 7:50. I'll keep trying for an earlier time. I love Kona but we've done it 3 or 4 times before.

I've been doing a little shopping in preperation for the trip. My favorite purchase is my 2009 Passporter refill for my deluxe binder. Actually Tony got that for me for Mother's Day. I thought that was a very smart gift! At Walmart I found these ice cube things that will fit into the little freezer at CSR, someone on the DIS recommended them.


I'm thinking this will be much better than having the ice melt and drip out of the ziplock bags like it usually does! Oh and I bought a soft sided cooler, or 3 I keep finding great prices on different ones. The one I am favoring for Disney is more of a tote bag style. I think it will be easier to stuff under the umbrella stroller!

Our Dining reservations are made!

Things are looking pretty concrete now that our dining reservations are made. Making dining reservations also means another thing. We have less than 90 days until our trip! Actually I think we're at 81 days today. So we are dining at

Tues 8/18 dinner Whispering Canyon 7:45 pm (I had wanted more like 6:00 this could be rough with Lily)
Wed 8/19 breakfast Princess Storybook Epcot 10:45am (just what I wanted)
Thurs 8/20 dinner Kona Cafe 6:20 pm (perfect)
Fri 8/21 breakfast Crystal Palace 10:15 am (perfect)
Sat 8/22 dinner WAVE at Contemporary 7:05 (great)
Sun 8/23 dinner 50s Prime Time 5:30 (would have preferred 6 but can't complain)
Mon 8/24 dinner Chef Mickey's 5:25 (again would have preferred 6-7 but can't complain)
Tues 8/25 dinner Yak & Yeti 6:45 (wanted 7, pretty close)

Coming up next a day by day itinerary, like I tried to do before I had concrete park hours and dining times!

Well those first two days of plans were fun. Now throw them out the window!!! The hours came out for August and they are not totally as I expected so I have to rearrange the itinerary. There are no evening Extra Magic Hours (EMH) at AK during our whole trip. This is such a bummer! And Fantasmic does not show on EMH nights. So I'm working out a new itinerary and it looks like the only EMHs we'll be doing will be at the Magic Kingdom. I think I'm also going to rearrange our Epcot dining and drop the sit down dinner. Since we won't be there for EMH I don't think there's time for a sit down breakfast and dinner especially with taking a break back at the resort in the mid day (which for me in Aug is a must) Oh well back to the drawing board...

8/19 Wednesday- I'd like to do Animal Kingdom today. They should open at 9 so I'd like to get there before they open. We'll have a quick breakfast in the room and try to be out the door by 7:45




I'd like to get the Safari out of the way and get some fast passes for things to do later in the day. I think an early CS lunch would be nice. Probably at Flame Tree BBQ



or maybe Pizzafari if Tony has his way



I think after lunch we could do a show, maybe Nemo



or Festival of the Lion King



or It's Tough to be a Bug



then we'll head back to the resort for some down time, maybe at the pool!



with a nice cool drink



After our rest we'll head back to the AK to ride an attraction or see a show before we have dinner (hopefully) at the Yak and Yeti



Then AK will have Extra Magic hours so we can tour the resort a bit after dark.



Even with EMH's we should be out of the Animal Kingdom by 9 or so and then we'll head back to the resort for a good nights sleep!

I am a big planner when it comes to Disney and i never head down without some idea of what we're going to do when. The park hours for August won't be released for a few more days and I can't make dining reservations yet so this is just a rough plan but heres what I have in mind.

8/18 Tuesday -flight arrives 11AM, pick up rental car, drive to Coronado and check in. Then drive to POP
and check in, have lunch at the POP food court and show Rick/Shelli/Tori the resort since they've never seen it. Go back to Coronado for some swim time and get settled in our rooms. I hope to have dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe
then maybe swim at Corondo again or go mini golfing.

Wow that 1st day took a lot out of me... The rest of the itinerary to come...

We're taking an August trip, all the details!

Well my blog has been uneventful lately but Carrie becoming a subscriber has remotivated me! I'm going to post my travel plans here and after our trip hopefully a trip and dining report. So here are the details about this August trip.

We are traveling with friends this time! Shelli, Rick and Tori will be with us. We have booked August 18th-26th at Coronado Springs resort. We were able to get the "free dining" promotion for our reservation. It's such a pretty resort!




We just purchased our airfare last week. We’re on Southwest out of Hartford, CT direct to Orlando. We paid $250pp r/t. Not great, but I can live with it. I’m actually hoping the prices go down and I can get some credit to use on our Febuary trip, yup that’s already in the works, in my head anyway!