So, I am now missing TWO WTM families by a couple of days?????? Urgh. Maybe we should extend our Disney stay?! :001_smile:

Very cool! Have you ever had it not work out? And, do you have any scary/weird/funny stories to tell? I am seriously obsessed with traveling, so I may stalk you now, if you don't mind! :lol:

DANG. You have to switch your time of year. It just doesn't work with my schedule! :001_smile:

Agree!!! Chicken! Jeannie - Tell your dh that my then-4yo went on Soarin!!! :) I'm a chicken. I admit it. I went on Soarin'. I'm way too scared to do ToT!!! I sent my then-4 yo on it with my then 14 yo ds!!!! I was biting my nails the entire time. Dd is a little daredevil and LOVED it! They did close the balloon ride. Apparently there was an incident on it at one of the other Disney properties. Shhhhhhh. Don't tell your chicken dh!!! And, my dh took my 16 yo for his birthday on a hot air balloon ride!!!! A real one - it wasn't teathered! They LOVED it! Absolutely loved it! I say do it! ETA: Here is one video my dh took while they were up: There are a number of videos. Check them out!

I want to stay in cat lady's house!!!! Gorgeous! But, I'm allergic to cats. Bummer. What about out west? Do you camp? There is so much there - Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, Arches National Park, etc, etc, etc If you camp, it could be an inexpensive trip!

How did you get 40% off AND free deluxe dining? And, you have annual passes. Don't you have to buy park days to get free dining? Spill it! Now! How do you get these deals!? AND!!!! I just wrote to a friend of mine who goes to Disney more often than I do and told her about our January trip and how I was hoping to get into the new restaurant. Well, turns out her soon-to-be DIL works at Le Cellier and MAY be able to get me reservations there before it opens up to the general public!!!! Woohoo!!! I'll find out soon and let you know! It sounds so silly, but food is REALLY important to me on our trips. I agonize over our ADRs. I LOVE eating out and we just don't do it on a regular basis, unless we're at Disney. So, this makes it a real vacation and getting reservations at this place will just make this a wonderful trip!!!!

Really? You fly free? That is awesome and certainly makes the trip cheap! We have relatives who live in Chattanooga - halfway for us. And, we have relatives in FL. So whenever we see either of them, we do Disney!

I think you should come 1/13 - 1/19!!!! This is last minute for me!

I'll be there 9/3 - 9/7 and again 1/13 - 1/19. Anyone there at the same time?

I've always wanted to try AKL too! But, we're a family of 6 and it is cost-prohibitive at this point. Maybe sometime when they offer a 40% off rate we'll get in there! Any chance you'll be back at Disney in January? I think we'll be there 1/13 - 1/19. This one is a huge maybe. Again, we'll be back in FL, so we thought we'd go ahead and book Disney too!

We are! We'll be there 9/3 - 9/7. A quickie! We will be in FL anyway so we might as well add a few more days at Disney - right? ETA: We'll be at Port Orleans Riverside. You??

We just booked another few nights in January. (Maybe this is the year to consider annual passes?) I'm holding off making my ADRs until this announcement! Of course, I'm also hoping that they'll announce free dining for that time too!

Last year when my kids had it, a couple of adults on my ds' baseball team had a "cough." They insisted it was allergies. A couple went on steroids and antibiotics. Lo and behold, a couple of their kids got it. And, then my ds got it and the rest of my kids got it. (None of them were tested for whooping cough!) If you get tested now, you may test positive and you may be able to tell many, many others with whom you've had contact to get an antibiotic. Their cases may lessen. If you get antibiotics, you won't test positive and it may not help you, but you won't be contagious after a couple days. It is SUCH a horrible disease. I would definitely get tested so you know for sure - BEFORE you go on antibiotics. After antibiotics, you won't test positive, even if you are. And, then get your kids on antibiotics in the hopes that you can lessen their cases. Really. It is horrible, if this is what you have. PM me and I can send you a video of my ds and his whooping cough. He woke up every morning and would cough and whoop and vomit and turn purple for two months. it was horrible. Dd's case wasn't as bad. Still SCARY and horrible. And, honestly, my 16 yo's case was the mildest. But, he was still up coughing multiple times at night. Look it up. Here is a link I found helpful: http://whoopingcough.net/ Listen to the sounds of whooping cough. See if it's what you have. :grouphug:

I think that the "nasty cough virus" they have going around is whooping cough. Probably. That's what I had a LONG time ago. It was horrible! No whoop. Just a horrible awful cough that made me feel like it was going to throw up, but I didn't (much). I felt fine during the day, except during these episodes. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I hope that's not what it is and that you'll be fine in a day or two!!!

I am SOOOOOOO happy for you!!!! you guys deserve this!

As others have said, YES! Get your sit down reservations! It sounds like you know the dates you'll be at each park. So, plan meals around that. At this point be willing to accept weird times. Here are some of our favorite places to eat at each park: Magic Kingdom - we leave the park and eat at O'Hanna (Polynesian), California Grill (Contemporary), Whispering Canyon (Wilderness Lodge). Any of the restaurants at any of those resorts would be easy to get to on monorail or boat. We ate AT the park a couple times, but we aren't fond of the restaurants here for sit down. Epcot - SOOOOOO many to choose from. We love Coral Reef (wait for a table by the aquarium). Le Cellier is great, but it's TWO meal credits for dinner. See if you can get in at lunch time. I think it's only one credit still for lunch. We've also eaten at Marakesh. We are split on that one. My boys were TOTALLY embarassed by the belly dancer. My meal was really really bland. The others loved it! I liked Mexico's sit down place. Dh was mixed. Animal Kingdom. I love going here because when we go, it closes early and we can do a dinner at resorts. So, we do Boma that night. Or O'Hana's if we can't do that on our MK day. (As a side - do Flame Tree barbecue for TS that day!!! Our family split four meals for the SIX of us. And, my two older boys eat a LOT!!!!) Hollywood Studios - Another one we usually leave the park for dinner. On our next trip, however, we are booked at Mama Melrose and then for priority seating for Fantasmic. I know MM isn't the best, but in all our years of going to Disney, we've NEVER been to Fantasmic!!! On our next trip, we're trying a few different restaurants. I'll let you know when we get back. We're trying Tappan Edo in Epcot. Portobellos in Downtown Disney. And Kouzzina on the Boardwalk. I read good things about all of them! Another thought - if you decide to do a sit down meal that costs you two credits find the places where you can split your Table Service meals and eat those for lunch and dinner one day. We've done that before too. There are a LOT of places where you can split meals. Just ask us!!! We'll help! I hope this helps! I usually plan my meals first based on availability. THEN, I plan which days we'll be at which parks.

Count me in on this thread!!! We're branching out this year a little and doing Sea World's Discovery Cove and a bunch of other theme parks. We're saving Universal for next February and need help! Have you checked out the Dis Boards' board on Universal? I haven't yet, but will soon!!!

When I have a bunch of reservations to make, I call the Disney Dining number. They can do it faster than I can. I would love it if they had a way to do what you are saying! I'll keep an eye on this thread to see if anyone has figured it out!

You could see how you feel when you get there. Maybe keep the reservation at 7. IF you get there by then, use it. If it's obvious you won't make it, simply cancel and see how you feel. If you don't mind a bus ride to DD, check out Wolfgang Puck. If you just want to vege at your hotel, do the counter service there!

I just checked out their menu at Allears.net. Here it is! Looks like it would definitely work! Lunch/Dinner 11:00 a.m. - 11 p.m. Grill closes at 11 p.m. Sandwiches, Salads, and Stir-Fry All sandwiches served with Asian Slaw, Chips, Steamed Vegetables, or Fries Fish of the Day - available after 5 p.m. $10.69 Chicken Sandwich $8.99 Aloha Pork Sandwich $8.99 1/3 lb Angus Bacon Cheeseburger $8.79 Pork Nachos $7.59 Multigrain Turkey Club $9.99 Grilled Cheese Sandwich $7.99 Caesar Salad with Chicken $7.79 Polynesian Tossed Salad $8.79 Stir-Fried Noodles with Chicken $8.49 Flatbreads $6.99 - $8.79 Flatbreads served from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Cheese and Pepperoni Hawaiian Flatbread of the Day Kid's Picks All meals include a choice of two side items: carrots, applesauce, grapes Comes with choice of 1% Mickey Milk, apple juice, or small bottled water Cheeseburger $5.49 Grilled Cheese or Chicken Nuggets $5.49 Turkey and Cheese Sandwich $5.49 French fries, cookie or soft drink available upon request.

Yes. At many of the restaurants. Wolfgang Puck has two restaurants - one is a counter service and one is sit down. We always eat at WP CS at least once. It's that good! It's worth one CS credit. And, you don't get tickets. All your Key To The World Cards will be your tickets to the parks, your key to the room, and they will have all your meal credits on them. As you check out of a particular restaurant, they will just take the credits off. You'll get a receipt that says how many credits they took off as well as how many you have left. It really is an efficient system!!! You'll get those cards when you check into the hotel.

You are staying at the Poly? I'd go with 7:30 or 8. That way you'll have time to relax and unpack a little.

Okay. I jsut watched it with my husband and a couple of my kids and their friends. We all liked it!!! They are hilarious. And, real. I think the way they've edited it makes them look so much worse than they actually are. But, they certainly seem to love each other.

We got to board early last fall with a 5 yo. Then, on our way home one of ours was in a wheelchair. We got to pre-board with that too!

We always travel light. One carry-on bag and a small backpack each when we fly. I find it easier. And, there is always room for our carry-ons because we board first because we have a small child. Works for us!