Friday, February 18, 2011

A Walk Around The World With Ridge--t minus 15 days 23 hours till take off

So as you can tell its not long till I take my trip to our happy place. I have equal amounts of plan and no plan that I think I should be able to have a direction to go in yet not have any clear destination. I take that little bit of information from my trusty Unofficial guide *ding*. For this trip will be a little different than all the others that I have taken in the fact it is my first solo trip. With this being solo I have been concerned with what will I do. Normally I have someone to pal around with. On the other side of that coin I have no one to ask what do you want to do? I get to do as I please. The amount of freedom this comes with is a tad overwhelming. But do I go without a plan? I say no. But Chris, you have been so many times do you need a plan...oh yes, Moderate plans are in order.

I am only heading down for four days (really only 3 full days of park or any other activity time) staying at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort. Photography and a mini vacation are my main goals. In preparation for the trip I have been compiling information from the usual places, www.allears.net, www.touringplans.com, Disney parks blog, www.disneydrivenlife.com, www.studioscentral.com...ok the list goes on and on. There are the endless podcasts too. Wow all that information and I still have things to research. Part of my plan is to take the Keys to the Kingdom Tour. I am super excited about this since the last tour I took was back in the day when Discovery Island was still a thing. I remember getting to walk into the utilidoors and coming out from a stairwell on the backside of the castle. then getting to go up in the castle to where Tinker Bell gets ready to take flight. Then a short boat ride over to Discovery Island where I saw Galapagos turtles and lots of birds. The Keys to the Kingdom tour promises to be an adventure lasting 4.5-5 hours and covering some (hopefully) unique Disney information. At 74.00 plus tax not at all a bad deal. With a DVC member discount of 15% it was only 66.99. I hope to have nothing but good things to say afterwards.

My other plans include only one ADR for this trip, Via Napoli. I am planning on just eating where ever I happen to be the rest of the time. I may even see if walk ups are welcome at Le Cellier. I don't hold high hopes but it would be awesome if there were, since it would be just a whim that I would stop by. I do want to find at least one of these new gourmet burgers I have read about. I haven't had a Casey's hotdog in years and a walk up for Tonga Toast my be in the cards. And let us never forget the mighty Dole Whip combined with people watching to make the time slip away.

So with 15 days to go, I have my touring plans crowd calendar, my lines app ready, the historical weather from NOAA.gov handy, an open excel sheet and plans to make but only just enough to keep me out of any trouble. With this one all but in the bag, I am slowly turning my attention to May and Star Wars weekends. I want to do this one off the DVC dime so my parents and I can still have time left for the International Food & Wine Festival that goes on right after my birthday. Things I am taking away from this planning session are, a little planning will go along way. Announcing when I will be at MK or any of the parks will be key to seeing some Disney friends... And to make sure and take a minute and just relax. I mean you're away from the office. Unwind.

3 comments:

  1. Have I mentioned how jealous I am of your solo trip?? ;) Have a wonderful time! Your plans sound fabulous. Can't wait to hear all about it and see some more of your great pics. Enjoy every minute!

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  2. sounds fabulous!

    and I think you should wear a fanny pack on your tour, like the above picture

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  3. Ashley, we all rocked the fanny packs in the early 90s trips. Those pictures are so awful now!

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