PTR; Joshua and Samantha's 1st Trip (Sep 17-26 '09) [Train Tour Pics!]

[crocko]

I've been a DISer for about 2 weeks now (something like that) and am ready to put together my first ever Pre-Trip Report. Since September hours finally came out, I feel ready to start discussing the pre-trip plans.

First, some introductions.

The Guests: (the entire Crocker family)
7 total in the group [will update soon with pics]

John (me) à I am 28 years old and have always been a huge Disney fan. Growing up, my favorites were actually the Disney comics. I love to read the old stories by Carl Barks, and even more I love the stories and artwork by Don Rosa. I believe the #1 contributor to my current vocabulary skills is those comics. I need to check old family pictures, but I believe I have been to Disney World 8 times – 5 while growing up with my family, then two long vacations with my wife (including our honeymoon) and once this last December with my wife and my sister (first non-Spring/Summer trip to Disney).

Bridgette (my wife) à She is 27. We met in high school and have been happily married now for 8 years (come June 9th…which yes, is also Donald Duck’s birthday). She’s a big Disney fan, too, just doesn’t get quite as pre-trip planning crazy as I do.

Joshua (our son) à He is currently 4, but will have turned 5 before our trip. He is a big Disney fan. Loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Phineas & Ferb. We went and saw UP on Monday and he is ready to go back and watch it again. Thanks to Lego Star Wars on the Wii, Joshua has also become an avid Star Wars fan…so watch out Jedi Training Academy and Star Tours. (First-timer to Disney World)

Samantha (our daughter) à She just turned 3 and despite my initial efforts, she loves to be a princess and loves the color pink. Oh well, she’s cute about it. Samantha loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and My Friends Tigger & Pooh (she’s completely unaware of a Pooh world that doesn’t have Darby in it). Her favorite princess is Ariel and she really likes Marie from the Aristocats. Her 3-year old birthday party is this Saturday and it will be Alice in Wonderland-themed. (First-timer to Disney World)

Mary (my sister) à Mary is my only sibling and is a few years older than me (I’ll just leave it at that). Last year, Mary called me one evening and sprang the news that she was calling from Orlando (not Plano, TX where she lives). She had taken an impromptu weekend trip to WDW and while there caught the DVC bug and joined up. Turns out to be great news for our vacation, though. Originally, my immediate 4-person family was planning on staying at All-Star Movies. Now, because of her DVC membership and points, we will get to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Woohoo!! :cool1:

Linda (my mom) à A big Disney fan. Besides several trips to WDW, she has been to DisneyLand a couple times and she and Mary even recently took a trip to Paris and visited DisneyLand there as well. She loves her grandkids and is very excited to join us on their first trip.

Jim (my dad) à Not necessarily a big Disney fan, but he has fun on these trips and will enjoy vacationing with Joshua and Samantha. He refuses to wear shorts, so despite September heat, will be wearing pants throughout the trip. :confused3


The Calendar and Travel:
Our trip will start on Thursday, September 17th. My family will be leaving from Oklahoma City early Thursday morning, with a layover in Houston and a 1:30ish landing time in Orlando. My sister and parents will be leaving from Dallas (my parents live in OKC, but are driving down to Texas on Wednesday) and have a direct flight which should get to Orlando around 12:45ish.
Our flights back will be on Saturday, September 26th. Both flights will leave Orlando sometime around 6:00pm.


The WDW Home:
As mentioned, due to my sister’s DVC membership, we will get to spend 9 nights/10 days at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. She has just enough points to get us in a 2-bedroom, savannah-view for the entire stay in the newly opened Kidani Villas. I have seen Jack Spence’s pictures from allears.net and am very excited about this location.


The Purpose:
Purpose? Who needs a purpose to go to Disney World? Basically, Bridgette and I have tried to plan two big Disney trips in the past several years….each time, within about 2-3 weeks of deciding to start planning, we found out that she was pregnant and thus put Disney on hiatus. Well, we’ve been planning this trip for quite some time now and no baby news. The kids are both at an age where we feel they are ready for this kind of trip and are more than itching to go. We spent 3 nights in WDW this past December…the excuse then was to get in one more no-kids trip and do some scoping out (since that was our first trip in over 6 years…quite a few new things had popped up).
In general, though, the big purpose is that this is Joshua and Samantha’s first trips to Walt Disney World and they are super-excited.

I’ll let these introductions be all for now and will add more later today or tomorrow.


Cast (Pics) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32126578&postcount=2)
Introduction to Disney Alphabet Countdown Project (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32142722&postcount=5)
Samantha's 3rd Birthday Party (Alice In Wonderland theme) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32185198&postcount=20)
Itinerary & ADR list as of 98-day mark (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32234533&postcount=33)
First Disney shirt of the trip is made (Joshua, I am your shirt.) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32310915&postcount=59)
The Pin is mightier.....first post regarding my current Pin collection. (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32315135&postcount=63)
ADR Day -- Disaster or Relief? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32340926&postcount=74)
June, St. Louis TR starts (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32499435&postcount=99)
Day 1 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32723509&postcount=156)
Day 2 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32791630&postcount=164)
Day 3 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32823042&postcount=168)
Day 4 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32858310&postcount=183)
Day 5 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32927274&postcount=197)
Day 6 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33002882&postcount=206)
Day 7 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33033443&postcount=212)
Day 8 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33065091&postcount=223)
Day 9 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33118100&postcount=243)
Day 10 Gameplan (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33148565&postcount=247)
August, Plano TX Trip Report (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33196754&postcount=260)
Booked the Dining Plan! (Revised ADR List) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33285728&postcount=288)
A Christmas Carol Train Tour (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=33351321&postcount=307)

[crocko]

Okay, time to add some pics.

Above I have mentioned who the cast is but now to put a friendly (or something like that) face to the name and info.

First, me (John)...your author and my wife (Bridgette)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24545.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24382.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24401.jpg

These pics come from the 3-day trip my wife, my sister, and I went on back in December last year. I'm excited because I've currently lost about 21 pounds since that trip. You can also see my wife and I posing for shots in Agrabah and in Japan.


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24266.jpg

And there's one of my beautiful wife with Pocahontas (was really cute how excited my wife was to get a picture with her)



Next, my sister (Mary)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24088.jpg

We did MVMCP our first night and it rained off-and-on that night. Mary is very camera-phobic so this is one of the few I have of her, but I really like this one of Bridgette and her. You can tell that despite being wet we are having a good time.



Then, my parents (Jim and Linda)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-09-06285.jpg

Picture of my dad during his birthday last year


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/6-8011.jpg

Not sure of the event, but picture of my mom sometime last year as well.



And now, for the kiddos....Joshua and Samantha

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2009-03-22011.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2009-03-22113.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2009-03-22098.jpg

Joshua with his new Cars bike
Samantha looking very mysterious and pretty at the zoo
and the two together laughing about something silly Bridgette said to try and get them to smile (I love that pic)

[cheap traveler]

Just wanted to hop on over andcheck out your Pre-trip, since you were kind enough to respond to mine. Now all I have to do is figure out how to put the link in my signature:confused3

Beautiful family, love the picture of the kids cracking up. Those are always the best - really seem to capture the essence of childhood.
Looking forward to reading more!!

[crocko]

Gracias!

Glad to have my first reader. If nothing else, we can keep each other entertained. :teacher:

[crocko]

Okay, before I get into the daily planning, I want to take a post to talk about some things we've been doing with the kids to get them excited and prepared for the big trip.

We are homeschool parents (more-so my wife since she's the stay-at-home parent) and even though Joshua and Samantha are currently only 4 and 3, we still try to come up with appropriate work/projects to start their learning process. Our trip starts on September 17th, so back on March 17th, I remember being excited about hitting the 6-months to go mark. In "working the math" I also realized that in two days (March 19th) we would be exactly 26 weeks away. 26? :teacher: Wait a second! That's how many letters are in the alphabet! :yay:

So, I came up with idea that each week (Thursday - Wednesday) the kids would start a new letter as a "countdown to Disney" So, on March 19th, we would be starting the letter A.
Part of the goal for each week would be to introduce Disney World and Disney friends to the kids based on the letter of the week. The other goal would be to have a few "school" tasks to be done as well that somewhat followed the letter of the week.

So, March 19th...Week "A" -- let me give some examples:

The Disney portion --> the goal here is to talk about a WDW ride, a WDW non-ride, Disney friends, and try to find some A character coloring pages/worksheets.

So, Disney ride = Astro Orbiter!
5 pics were printed and then we told Joshua and Samantha about the ride, where it's at, and how cool it will be.
http://allears.net/tp/mk/astro5.jpg

They've been loving this. Joshua loves rockets and both kids are excited about this ride.

Non-ride --> Animal Kingdom Lodge!
This is where we will be staying, so it is a perfect choice for the letter "A"

We printed a few pictures showing what AKL looks like inside and outside and a picture of some of the people that may be welcoming us.

http://allears.net/acc/akl613.jpg

Now, when I ask where we'll be staying, even little Samantha can remember and spit it out...of course, the joke now is that they love to be silly and say Animal....Kingdom.....Ice Cream! :laughing:


Disney friends --> Then we also printed out pictures of several famous "A" Disney friends:
Alice, Aladdin, Abu, Arthur, Aurora, Archimedes, Andy, and of course...Ariel.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_o8vPUCtn5Xs/SKXVHI6m_CI/AAAAAAAAAJw/aEq5WQ4uevs/s200/archimedes.jpg http://l.yimg.com/img.movies.yahoo.com/ymv/us/img/hv/photo/movie_pix/walt_disney/aladdin/frank_welker/aladdin2.jpg


And then, through some various websites, I was able to find worksheets, bookmarks, and coloring pages featuring these "A" characters.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/3338/tnkttoystorydecorateand.jpg (http://img29.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tnkttoystorydecorateand.jpg)


Next....some examples of our weekly "school work".....

[cheap traveler]

That is such a great idea!! Now I wish we had 26 weeks left!! So creative! We are working on theme-dinners for Sunday nights.

[crocko]

Theme dinners is very cool. If someday our kids start eating actual foods, that would be something really fun to do.

[chicagoshannon]

I LOVE your countdown! Too bad we have less then 26 weeks left. Maybe I can do it but skip a few letters. LOL X would be hard I'm sure I want to see what you did for the other letters. :)

You guys are such an adorable family. I can't wait to read how your kids liked their trip.

[crocko]

Thanks for joining in.

If you have less than 26 weeks, you could always try to break each letter down into smaller portions and just do a little less. Since we're trying to throw in math and other school topics, we need a full week.....but even with 4 months to go, you could do a letter every 4 days....OR just come up with your own fun idea :-)


As I finish telling about our projects, I'll make sure to give a list of WDW items for each letter we've covered so far.

:3dglasses

[crocko]

As promised, I'm going to continue sharing our weekly Disney projects. My last full post mentioned the Disney items, now I'll give some snip-its of the school work.

My son LOVES math and looks forward to his weekly math problems. My goal is to give him 4 math problems each week (with a different focus) and try to incorporate Disney characters into the problem. A couple letter "A" examples:

[The Astro Orbiter has 12 rockets on it. Each rocket can hold 2 people. How many people could fit on the ride at one time?]

[Arthur and Archimedes came to Disney World and stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. While watching the animals, Arthur counted 4 zebras and 3 giraffes. Archimedes counted 2 ostriches and 7 deer. How many animals did Arthur count? How many animals did Archimedes count? How many animals did they find together?]

For Social Studies, we have a big U.S. map and a big World map that we got from Sam's Club. They take up a full wall in our kids' hallway. So, for each letter I'll pick a state and country or two for them to locate (with Mom's help) as applicable. So....Alaska or Afghanistan....
Sometimes, I'll think up a topic as well....for example for the letter "C" they saw pictures of Cinderella's castles, so it was a perfect week to read about castles and do some projects with building their own castles.
Another favorite of Joshua's is the Disney maps that I create using Excel.

http://img512.imageshack.us/img512/8814/disneymap.jpg (http://img512.imageshack.us/my.php?image=disneymap.jpg)


He loves these! One of us will give him a coin (or pawn from a game) and tell him that his character wants to go to "this" ride and then to "this other" ride. We started using this to teach N,E,S,W directions and have worked up to teaching NE,NW,SE,SW directions as well. He's done a great job picking up directions while having fun along the way.


For English, we'll try to pick out some books with a topic that goes with the letter -- "Bear About Town" (a book about jobs) for the letter J.

Then, for science I'll pick one project each week for the kids to do...sometimes it fits in with the letter, sometimes it doesn't. :confused3

For the letter D, the kids were to talk about Day and Night...and using a Venn diagram, figure out things that could be seen at Night...during the Day...and at both times.

http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/images/upload/Magic-Kingdom-Night-web.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/2174328710_1e090c6ae8.jpg


So...as a memento, Bridgette has been keeping a BIG folder of all their work (26 weeks times a lot of pages = BIG folder). Plus, she's preparing for each child a small scrapbook (one page front/back for each letter) that highlights pics of the ride, non-ride, and Disney friends for that letter. The goal is to be able to take these on the plane with us to look at and talk about on the way.


Next up, I'll share with WDW things and Disney characters Joshua and Samantha have learned about so far.....

[3princesses+aprince]

Hi, joining in on your pre trip report fun. I followed your link from the Homeschool thread!!!! We're planning on going back September 2010, so I can't wait to see what kind of weather and crowds you have. We just came back from our first trip to Disney, we stayed at All star movies from May 12-19 and we cannot wait to go back. We Loved it of course!!!!!!!!

[crocko]

Thanks for joining! I've been having fun following along with your current Disney Trip Report. Anthony and those 3 girls seem like a lot of fun :cool2:

[my2disneyboys]

Hi!
Chicago Shannon directed me this way... I LOVE your idea with the letters. We do Disney Nights each week- we have posted lots of pictures of them on our previous pre-trip report but I would love to do this idea with the kids as well!! Right now, my 5 year old's favorite thing to do lately is print out pics from the computer and color them!

[crocko]

Hi!
Right now, my 5 year old's favorite thing to do lately is print out pics from the computer and color them!
LOL, Joshua loves to do that, too. We usually give him a limit of how many printouts per day, but then he gets over to Grandma's house (where there are no limits) and he goes printout crazy. He always brings home "books" from her house.


Glad to have you on board!

[my2disneyboys]

LOL, Joshua loves to do that, too. We usually give him a limit of how many printouts per day, but then he gets over to Grandma's house (where there are no limits) and he goes printout crazy. He always brings home "books" from her house.


Glad to have you on board!

That is hysterical... same thing here! My son goes to Nannies on Tuesday's and every Tuesday he comes home with a whole bag of print outs... he makes her cut them all out after he colors them and then plays with them for hours... kind of like paper dolls when I was a kid!

[crocko]

Okay, I've told you about our "26 Weeks of Disney" project. So, let me catch you up on what all we've discussed during this project so far:

Letter A
Ride - Astro Orbiter (we love rockets)
Non-Ride - Animal Kingdom Lodge (yay, we're staying here)
Characters: Alice, Aladdin, Ariel, Arthur, Archimedes, Abu, Aurora, Andy, and Annie (Little Einsteins)

http://www.disney-vacation-time.com/img/ariel/ariel-4.jpg


Letter B
Ride - Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (we love Buzz)
Non-Ride - Backlot Express (I love burgers and I love this place. Bridgette went over the menu with Joshua and he picked out what he is going to eat and then drew a picture of his meal, lol)
Characters: Bambi, Beast, Belle, Brer Bear, Brer Fox, Brer Rabbit, Baloo, Bagheera, Buzz, Bernard, Bianca, Bashful, Boo, Bolt, Bullseye, Buster, Basil (Great Mouse Detective)

http://www.sftv.org/market/batbpic.jpg


Letter C
Ride - Cinderella's Carousel
Non-Ride - Cinderella's Castle (we went and saw UP on Monday and at the beginning of every Disney movie, of course, is the castle...Samantha says, "Disney World!")
Characters: Candace, Carl (Phineas & Ferb), Chip (Chip & Dale), Chip (Beauty and the Beast), Crush, Clarabelle, Cogsworth, Cinderella, Chicken Little, Cheshire Cat, Cruella de Vil, Chad (High School Musical -- because Samantha LOVES the HSM movies)

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/disneychannel/images/thumb/5/55/Candacequ8.jpg/400px-Candacequ8.jpg


Letter D
Ride - Dumbo the Flying Elephant (Samantha is excited about this)
Non-ride - Dinoland USA (if not too hot, I could see us definitely spending some good time here)
Characters: Dusty (Handy Manny), Dewey, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Dale, Dory, Doc Hudson, Doofenschmirtz, Darby, Dumbo, Doc (Snow White), Dodger, Dopey, Dalmatians, Duchess, Dot, Dash, Dug

http://duckman.pettho.com/characters/donald.jpg





Okay.....gonna have to cliffhang you at the letter D.

(For the record, we are currently on week "L" -- which means less than 15 weeks to go!!)

Tomorrow is Samantha's 3-year old birthday party. Hope to have some pics to post come Monday.

[cheap traveler]

Great job with the letters!! There are a lot of characters I would never think of. Do you conjure these out of your memory or is google helping?:lmao:

One note on Dinoland, it is great even if it is hot. The playground area has water and fans to keep you cool. And the CMs are great! Last year my DD2 at the time went down a slide and I didn't know where she came out. I was up on top looking down trying to find her, and I saw her walk out the gate:scared1:! A CM was standing right there and walked her back in. Scary but the CMs in that area are wonderful:worship:

Needless to say I won't be letting her out of my sight this year

[crocko]

Thanks for the advice. Since the kids won't be able to ride Primeval Whirl (and I definitely plan on riding it) I'm hoping they can spend some time having fun in the rest of DinoLand.

As for characters for each letter, quite a bit of research has gone into it.
First, I found ScrapSayings (http://scrapsayings.com/say-alpha-dis.htm). It has been helpful, but is only so-so up-to-date.
Then, I found this person's flickr photos (http://www.flickr.com/groups/disneycharltd/discuss/72157603063329699/) in which "they" post pics (by alphabet) of any character they've been photo'ed with. Very cool to see the variety of characters that have been at the parks the past decade.
Later, I found this HooZoo List (http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/hzlist.html). It has a lot of characters, but most are from the comic books...so have only used a few from that list since my kids aren't into the comics yet.
Recently I found this site (http://homepage.usask.ca/~jjs142/) and am thankful. Not completely up-to-date for new movies, but has a great list of characters by alphabet.

I've used these lists and then for newer movies and shows, I've just mentally gone through the main characters that I know my kids would be interested in. From UP, I'm specifically making sure to add Carl, Dug, Kevin, and Russell.

[chicagoshannon]

I totally forgot to subscribe the other day. I was wondering why I didn't have any updates. LOL I'm subsribed now! I'm getting some wonderful teaching ideas from you for my 2year old. :)

[crocko]

Okay, I mentioned at the end of the day Friday that Saturday would be Samantha's 3-year old birthday party. So, my next update is going to be about her party.

Theme: Alice in Wonderland

Below are a few pics of the cake and cookie decorations.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday008.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday028.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday029.jpg


We also did our best to appropriately decorate the area with other Wonderland items (teapots, red roses...including some white ones being painted red, cards, flamingos, and the lamps that hang above the Mad Hatter's table)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday012.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday015.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday030.jpg


For the computer wallpaper, I found this "famous" pic that I thought was appropriate:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday047.jpg


Now for the birthday girl!
Before getting dressed, I caught a silly pic of her wearing the Mad Hatter's hat (well, our closest rendition of the hat)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday003.jpg


and for party time, Alice!

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday019.jpg


During the party, Samantha and her friends had time to color some Alice in Wonderland coloring pages, decorate their own cookies, and of course...there was the blowing out of the candles

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday035.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday037.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday060.jpg


The boys -- as the party was winding down, Joshua got into his own "fun gear". Meanwhile, yours truly (the Mad Hatter) is relaxing and watching the good times.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday118.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday122.jpg


Last pic...the kids got a few minutes to go play outside on our playground. Here is a cute pic of Samantha and her friend (also dressed up as Alice)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/Samanthas3rdBirthday081.jpg


It was a good party. Our friend made the cake and we were very excited at how good a job she did....plus, it tasted really good. Many presents were opened, including probably her favorite...the karaoke High School Musical microphone. It includes 10 of the top HSM songs that she can sing along with into her microphone. In reality, she dances along to them more than she sings...that's okay -- Mom and Dad don't mind doing the singing. :rotfl2:

Fun weekend....of course, just keeps me wishing the Countdown to Disney would move more quickly.

[crocko]

Going to try and get caught up on some more of the letters we have already covered. I left off with the letter "D" last.

Letter E
Ride - Spaceship Earth (hey...Earth starts with E)
Non-ride - Epcot (later in the PTR, I'll let you know our gameplan for how to tackle this big park)
Characters: Eve, Eeyore, Eric, Esmeralda, Ed (Lion King), Edgar (Aristocats), Eilonwy, Emile, Edna

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FP6hnj2vLkg/R_tjXsxQ8XI/AAAAAAAAAHY/PK2tCbB0i7E/s400/eve.png


Letter F
Ride - Gran Fiesta Tour (Fiesta! Some people don't like the new changes to this Mexico ride, but I like it. I love Donald and have no problem with putting some new life into a ride that had gotten somewhat boring)
Non-ride - FASTPASS (problem now, is making my son understand that not on every ride can we take the shortcut line)
Characters: Ferb, Fillmore, Flo, Flounder, Friar Tuck, Flower, Figment, Flicker, Felipe, Frollo, Figaro, Flik, Ferdinand

http://www.register123.com/event/accounts/register123/disney/waltdisneyworld/events/aom2009/Figment(1).jpg


Letter G
Ride - Goofy's Barnstormer (hoping kids will like this "rollercoaster")
Non-ride - Gates (showed pics of all the entrances to the parks. We'll be doing rope drops, so we'll have to get used to seeing these gates)
Characters: Gabriella, Guido, Goofy, Gaston, Gus Gus, Gepetto, Grumpy, Gopher, Gyro Gearloose, Genie, Goliath (JoJo), Giselle (Enchanted)

http://www.fevj.org/images/movie-cars-portrait-Guido.jpg


Letter H
Ride - Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Set (not exactly a ride, but a play attraction atleast...should be interesting since my kids are anti-bugs)
Non-ride - Hollywood Studios (depending on popularity of DHS shows, we could stay really busy trying to get everything done at this fun park)
Characters: Huey, Capt. Hook, Hercules, Hades, Happy, Hamm, Hopper, Heimlich, Horace Horsecollar

http://img.webring.com/r/a/andromeda100/logo



Well, there's 4 more letters. I will try to get I through J done tomorrow...which will at least get me caught up to where we're currently at.

:wizard:

[mom2mek]

Oh my goodness! What a fabulous pre-trip! Your ideas are great! My sister homeschools, as does one of my best friends - kudos to you for doing that! I think it's fabulous!! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2

That birthday looks amazing - how creative you guys are! The cake looks so cute and I love all of the "eat me" cookies and "drink me" drinks!

You have a beautiful family and I'm sure you are going to have a wonderful trip! I'm so glad I popped over and started reading! :goodvibes

Sara

[crocko]

Trip planning udpate:

Yesterday (thanks to an ebay seller tip from "cheap traveler") I ordered 20 Disney pins for us to trade when we go on our trip. I'll try to update with a picture once the pins arrive.


Last night's discussions. Bridgette and I discussed T-shirt designs. Thanks to our own creativity and wonderful designs by DISigners...we're working on what kind of T-shirts we might want to make for our trip. Also trying to decide on the best method of making them.

Should we try to do it ourselves? Use an Internet custom T-shirt website? Still trying to figure it out.

[crocko]

Oh my goodness! What a fabulous pre-trip! Your ideas are great! My sister homeschools, as does one of my best friends - kudos to you for doing that! I think it's fabulous!! :thumbsup2:thumbsup2

That birthday looks amazing - how creative you guys are! The cake looks so cute and I love all of the "eat me" cookies and "drink me" drinks!

You have a beautiful family and I'm sure you are going to have a wonderful trip! I'm so glad I popped over and started reading! :goodvibes

Sara
Thanks, Sara.

Glad to have you on board.....I know that your current pics from your report are keeping my Disney-itis alive and flaring.

[cheap traveler]

Hey thanks for the mention!! I have been trying to get a picture of my pins, but I have to do it when the kids are asleep. So Sunday I can't find the camera, Monday the battery is dead, wonder what tonight will bring:rotfl:.

I absolutely love the birthday cake, and you daughter looks so cute in her Alice dress. My DD would love a Cinderella party, but she is with her father on her birthday and a big party isn't in the budget this year. There is always next year.

I will love to see if we both got the same pins. Mine are mostly pirate theme. There is only one we might keep - it's dumbo and just too cute.

Can't wait to hear more of your letters :teacher:

[crocko]

Okay, time to get caught up on our weekly letter projects.


Letter I
Ride - it's a small world (figuring that Samantha will like this one)
Non-ride - Innoventions (though we skipped this on our quick December trip, I've always enjoyed Innoventions and think Joshua will have a lot of fun in here)
Characters: Mr. Incredible, Mrs. Incredible, Iago, Ichabod, Isabella (Phineas & Ferb)

http://www.knowmoremedia.com/uploads/Elastigirl.jpg


Letter J
Ride - Jungle Cruise (Samantha loves elephants! [Note: our Oklahoma City elephants are currently in Tulsa so they can have babies...we miss them)
Non-ride - Jedi Training Academy (Joshua will love this. From what I've read, I'm going to prepare him in case he doesn't get picked...if not...try, try again!)
Characters: Jeremy (Phineas & Ferb), Jessie, Jacques, Jiminy Cricket, Jane (Tarzan), JoJo, Prince John, Jafar, Jasmine, Jose Carioca, June (Einsteins)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_0sxrMFj_Yl8/R9OEZwUY2WI/AAAAAAAAAGw/CmFlDdS3bv8/s320/prince_john.jpg


Letter K
Ride - Kilimanjaro Safari (I think kids will really love seeing animals while riding)
Non-ride - Kidcot (Both kids, especially Joshua, love crafts...so think Kidcot will help them enjoy our time spent in the World Showcase)
Characters: Kelsi (HSM), Kelly (Handy Manny), The King, Kanga, Kaa, Kuzco, Kronk, Kit Cloudkicker, Kim Possible, Kermit the Frog, Koda, Kevin (UP)

http://www.disgalaxy.addr.com/Stories/Emperor/left.jpg


Letter L
Ride - Living with the Land (I love this ride! Also think kids will have fun seeing the different things that Disney has growing)
Non-ride - LEGO Imagination Center (Joshua loves LEGOs and will no doubt have a good time playing and planning purchases in this area)
Characters: Lopart (Handy Manny), Lightning McQueen, Luigi (Cars), Ludgwin Von Drake, Louie (nephew), Lilo, Lumierre, Lady, Little John, Leo (Einsteins), Linguini, Launchpad McQuack, Lewis (Meet the Robinsons)

http://www.filmfodder.com/reviews/archives/meet_the_robinsons.jpg



Well, that gets us caught up. The kids are currently working on the letter L until we start M on Thursday. From this point on, each week, I'll update with info about whatever letter we are starting (and yes, some letters down the homestretch get tricky).


Still to come....initial gameplan for our 10 days in Disney......

[crocko]

Oh and today is an important day

1) My wife and I are celebrating our 8th Wedding Anniversary today!!!


2) We have now reached the 100 Days until Disney mark!!

[cheap traveler]

Sorry I missed it yesterday, Happy Anniversary:yay

Isn't it great to be out of 3 digit numbers?! I am down to 70 and loving it.:woohoo:

Can't wait to hear your plans

[shordiebecka]

hey! i just found your trip report. I just have to compliment you on all the academics that you do with your children at a young age! I have a bachelors degree in early childhood education and have worked with all ages of children for over 5 years and it's very rare to find someone who is so invested in their child's education at such a young age. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

[crocko]

This morning has been productive as far as getting some important "details" lined up for the trip.

First, my sister booked our Magical Express today. The tags will be coming to her address about 6 weeks before our trip. Luckily, that 6 weeks will be plenty of time to get our tags from her (in Plano, TX) to the rest of us (in Moore, OK).
-- EXCITED ABOUT GETTING ON THAT BUS!! --

Also, we finally got around to getting park tickets for the kids. Since Bridgette and I went on the short December trip last year, we went ahead and got annual passes for that trip so that we wouldn't have to purchase tickets two separate times (good savings!). So, we have our passes for the September trip, but the kids don't have tickets yet. So, Bridgette got online this morning and ordered two 10-day park-hopper tickets.
-- YAY, THE KIDS WILL ACTUALLY BE ALLOWED INTO THE PARKS NOW!! --


Also confirmed that the strollers we will be bringing can go on the plane with us for no extra charge. Good. :thumbsup2

[crocko]

hey! i just found your trip report. I just have to compliment you on all the academics that you do with your children at a young age! I have a bachelors degree in early childhood education and have worked with all ages of children for over 5 years and it's very rare to find someone who is so invested in their child's education at such a young age. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

Thanks! Joshua seems to enjoy learning for the most part...especially Math and anything project-related.
Samantha....she's such a "pretty girl." She'll give learning a try but gets bored quickly. I think we just have to get used to hear learning style. A) she's still young...just turned 3 and B) she's a good listener. When we read books outloud, she'll be "messing around" but she does a good job of answering the "are-you-paying-attention questions." That's weird to me, because I'm a visual learner, but she may end up being an auditory learner.

[crocko]

Another Thursday is upon us, which means we are 1 week closer to the trip and a new letter gets started.

Today, the kids will be starting a week's worth of "M"


The Letter M
Ride - Mad Hatter's Tea Party (Samantha will probably want to spin slowly)
Non-ride - Monorail (hopefully we'll get a couple chances to ride the Monorail)
Characters: Mittens, Manny, Mater, Mac, Marlin, Mike Wazowski (on the Disney day-by-day calendar today), MO (Wall-E), Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Meghara, Mowgli, Mufasa, Mulan, Mushu, Maid Marian, Merlin, Mad Hatter, Maleficient, Mary Poppins, Marie, Milo Thatch

http://lordwhatsmymotivation.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/maleficent_02.jpg



Later today....plan on revealing our gameplan.

[crocko]

Well, today ended up being busier than I was hoping, but I've been promising an itinerary and I'm GOING TO DELIVER!! :surfweb:



Alright, here we go --

Sep 17, Thu) Leave OKC at 6:30am...stop in Houston...then finish in Orlando. (Originally, we were to arrive at about 12:30pm, but flight changed and now it is almost 2:00pm) :sad2: less Disney time. This will be the kids' first time in a plane. Hopefully we get smooth flights and not too much time taxi'ing around. Rest of the day = check-in at AKV, dinner at 'Ohana, check out the resort.

Sep 18, Fri) 8am at Crystal Palace and MK day. We wanted to make sure the first park for the kids is Magic Kingdom. And Crystal Palace before the park opens sounds like a great way to start that day. Try to stick around for 3 o'clock parade, then head out. Probably also try to hit Downtown Disney during the evening.

Sep 19, Sat) 8am rope drop at Hollywood Studios! Probably go until kids get tired, take a break and then finish the day at MK for Spectro/Wishes.

Sep 20, Sun) Epcot day. This will probably be the only day we aren't at a park at/before opening time. We will get some good rest, but still get around in good enough time to make what will hopefully be a 10am slot for Akershus breakfast. Afterward, the rest of the day will be spent focusing on the World Showcase.

Sep 21, Mon) 8am rope drop at Animal Kingdom! We will have a late breakfast at Tusker House. Will try to do all we can at AK this day and stay toward closing. Then, Bridgette, my dad, and my sister will have dinner at Boma, while my mom, the kids, and I find a fun CS place to eat. :laughing: Probably spend rest of the night playing at the resort.

TRIP = HALFWAY OVER :grouphug: ALRIGHT TEAM, FINISH STRONG!!

Sep 22, Tue) 8am rope drop at Epcot! Focus of the day will be Future World. Try to get through all we can and then take a break. Come back during the evening to do a few more things and get ready for Illuminations.

Sep 23, Wed) 9am rope drop at HS. Do whatever we really liked or didn't get to...try to stick around for the 3 o'clock parade. Evening = ?

Sep 24, Thu) 8am rope drop at Magic Kingdom! That's all I got....just have a great day!!

Sep 25, Fri) [last full day] This will be the separate day. My wife and the kids doing are own thing. My sister and parents doing their own thing. :cheer2: We will start the morning with an 8am Play 'n' Dine breakfast. Then, the rest of the day is letting the kids tell us what they really want to do. As for my family...they will start the day at Kona Cafe and probably get over to Epcot at some point to take in a little bit of the first day of Food & Wine Festival.

Sep 26, Sat) [leaving day] Plane leaves at 6pm...so, probably plan on being ready for the bus by 3pm. That gives us a lot of time to play! Probably another morning/afternoon of park-hopping/shopping before the Magical ride back to MCO.


Gonna be a great trip! 14 weeks to go!! :woohoo:

[chicagoshannon]

That looks like a great plan! When can you make your ADR's?

[crocko]

Friday, June 19th.....so one more week to go.

Since we're going DVC, we're not doing the Free Dining deal. We looked at just simply buying the CS-dining plan, but b/c of our eating style and the fact that we've got 6 TS meals we want to do, mathematically it just didn't make sense to me -- maybe on another trip.

One's I'm most worried about are 'Ohana that first night and Crystal Palace the morning of the 18th. Not only are both popular, but they are also right at the beginning of the trip, so earlier trip-goers can be booking those slots due to the 90+10 rule.

[jenny105]

Your kids are adorable!! And wow, you guys went all out for her birthday party. That is some cake!! :) I love that you're doing a letter of the week countdown to Disney. What a great idea!

How excited are you about staying at AKV? We're staying for two nights at the end of our trip and I absolutely cannot wait! It looks gorgeous and I've never stayed deluxe before!

[crocko]

VERY Excited about staying at AKV :banana: (that's right...banana dance-excited)

Last summer, when plans were very preliminary, I wasn't sure where my parents and sis would be staying, but my family of 4 was planning on staying at All-Star Movies (where my wife and I stayed in 2002).
Then, my sister joins DVC and says she will be able to get us a 2-bedroom suite at Animal Kingdom which is getting new villas. Awesome!!!!

So, with the savings from not having to pay at Movies....we bought my sister's airline ticket and are figuring out something else cool to do for her.

But yes...very excited about staying there. I've visited AKL before and it is beautiful, plus pictures of the new rooms look great!

[jenny105]

That's so funny because originally we were going to spend our last two nights at ASMo! :rotfl: I upgraded as a surprise for my DBf.

[crocko]

Samantha update!

The kids decided they wanted haircuts, so Bridgette took them both today. For Samantha, who just turned 3, this is actually her first ever haircut. Her Aunt comes over occassionally to clip her bangs, but she's never had a full haircut before.

Here's the pic she sent after they got home (earlier this afternoon):

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/FirstHaircut.jpg

[proud daddy moment] oh, she's so cute!


I miss them. Won't see them at all today.
Why?
Well, our anniversary was Tuesday, but due to Vacation Bible School this week we didn't get to celebrate that night. So, in a couple hours, Bridgette is shipping the kids off to my parents for the night. Then later, we'll have a nice dinner and go see a late-night showing of Star Trek.

[jenny105]

Aw, cute!

Happy Anniversary! Have a great night. Star Trek was amazing.

[cheap traveler]

Love the new haircut! My older DD was almost 3 1/2 before she got her first real haircut. My DD3 just recently got hers cut, and it seems that all hairdressers cut little girls bangs too short:confused3. Luckily my DDs hair grows really fast, and now a few weeks later she needs it cut again.

The itinerary looks great. I haven't done park-hoppers in a few years, mostly because I end up pusing us way too hard when I can go everywhere.:rotfl:

Have a great week waiting for ADR-day:wizard:

[cheap traveler]

Aw, cute!

Happy Anniversary! Have a great night. Star Trek was amazing.

Hey I love your ticker!! I didn't know it was so close. That just made my day:wizard:

[jenny105]

Hey I love your ticker!! I didn't know it was so close. That just made my day:wizard:

Thanks! I think it's even closer because I made it when it was slated to open July 17. I believe it's now opening July 15.

[disneylovinfamily]

followed you over from my ptr :) you kids are so cute! Roseanna had an Alice party last year too and wore the same dress. Love all the homeschool activities you are doing, so fun!

[crocko]

Okay, I have an addition to our projects to add.

Along with the "school" projects for each letter, the kids have also been getting to watch a movie each week as well when they finish their projects.

A thru L, here's what they've watched so far:


A - Aladdin
B - Bolt (timing of its release worked out perfectly)

http://www.dan-dare.org/FreeFun/Images/CartoonsMoviesTV/BoltPoster.jpg

C - Cinderella
D - Dumbo
E - Enchanted (to my surprise, Samantha LOVES Giselle...particularly, animated Giselle)
F - Fox and the Hound
G - Extremely Goofy Movie (they'd already seen the first one)
H - Hunchback of Notre Dame
I - Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
J - Jungle Book 2 (whenever we watched Jungle Book, kids were fairly bored...but Joshua LOVES this one....has asked to rewatch it several times)
K - Emperor's New Groove (Kuzco and Kronk's first movie!)

http://images.bcdb.com/add_im/disney/kingdom_sun2.jpg

L - Lilo & Stitch







Up to this point, Samantha has mainly just been doing coloring and trying to learn her letters, but last night she decided she wanted to do Math Problems. :teacher:
So, while Bridgette did math problems with Joshua, Samantha and I worked on the Disney/Pixar Cars counting workbook. She's so funny...educationally, she's a very smart girl with no memory. :hyper:
But....she's getting there.

Actually, the thing I'm learning with her is how to handle mistakes. Man, she gets VERY emotional when she does something wrong. I was working on our pre-K Bible studies this weekend and we made an extra copy so Samantha could follow along. I told her to color a picture and then looked over to Joshua...when I looked back, she had colored not only the picture but half of the page...so, without thinking I said, "Samantha, no. Not all over." Well, out came the bottom lip and she climbed up on to the couch to pout....5 minutes later she had calmed down and came back. Then, when we were done she asked if I was mad at her (ugh....what a heartbreaker)

SO.........when working with her counting last night, whenever she counted too far or made "a very interesting version of a circle" I made sure that any correction came with a big smile. She can handle it as long as it looks like we're all having fun still. :bride:




Thanks for listening to my story.
Only 4 days until ADR's can be made!!!!

[crocko]

Update on Disney planning from today:

1) I mentioned previously that I ordered 20 Disney pins from ebay.....They have arrived! I'll try to take pictures tonight when I get home....(there's a couple that my wife says she may want to keep) :cool2:

2) Last week, we went ahead and ordered the kids' tickets (which was well-timed considering rumors of prices going up soon). They arrived today as well! :yay: Joshua's has Mickey on it and Samantha's has Minnie. Very cool.

3) My sister and I have gone over some ADR back-up plans in case she gets on the phone and doesn't get exactly what we want.


Here's our current meal planning (summarized):

Sep 17 (THU) - 'Ohana @ 7pm (anywhere from 6:30-8:00 ressie will be fine)
Sep 18 (FRI) - Crystal Palace @ 8am (latest we want to start is 8:45)
Sep 20 (SUN) - Akershus @ 10am (anywhere 9:30-whenever is fine)
Sep 21 (MON) - Tusker House @ 10:30am (basically as late as we can get)
Sep 21 (MON) - Boma @ 6pm (anytime 6 or after is fine)
Sep 25 (FRI) - Play 'N' Dine @ 8am (as early as possible, basically)


So....not too many reservations, but the worrisome one's (Ohana and Crystal Palace) happen to be our earliest ones....which means that people with earlier trips are already starting to book those places & times.

So, we've discussed backup plans. If we can't get 'Ohana during a reasonable time period that first night in.....our backup is either Friday the 18th or any night from the 23rd thru 25th. Would be fun to start the trip with that meal, but won't be a big deal if it gets moved.

The one I MOST have my heart set on is that Friday the 18th breakfast at Crystal Palace...and specifically trying to get a right after 8:00 slot. I don't want to get too close to 9am, because then we start losing park time after it first opens. IF, it just won't workout to eat there that morning, we may end up shooting for Thursday the 24th. MK has early hour that day, so we would hit the 8am rope drop and then could plan for a late breakfast.
In less than 90 hours, I should know the results!! :scared:

[jenny105]

I hope you get all of your ADRs! Good luck! Maybe I'll see you when we're leaving the Tusker House. :) I'm going to try to reserve Ohana's on the 21st, which is a Monday night. I'm hoping we get that and Le Cellier on the 23rd. Keep your fingers crossed!

[stacikristine]

I just caught up on your PTR. GREAT JOB!! :thumbsup2 I love how you and your wife are teaching the kids and having a Disney countdown at the same time. All of the activities are just adorable. And Samantha's Alice in Wonderland birthday party was SOOO cute!!! :cutie: I love all of the decorations. Do you and your wife do most of the planning for parties and the teaching together? Oh--and we're staying at AKL too! But we'll be in Jambo House. It's coming SOON!!

[crocko]

As for party planning, my wife does most of it...I throw in a few creative suggestions here and there and let her know what we can "afford." :rolleyes1

One thing we've discussed is trying not to have "packaged parties". In other words, we could go to Wal-Mart, Target, Party Galaxy, etc. and throw a party based on whatever the current popular things are (which works good sometimes) but we like having slightly more unique themes. Joshua's first birthday was a monkey party.
Samantha's first birthday was Neverland themed (which reminds me...I've got to get a picture of the cake for that party. It was amazing!)
For her 2nd birthday, we had a Farm theme.
This year, Joshua is going to have a robot theme.....since his birthday is only 6 weeks away, we need to get brainstorming.


As for teaching ideas....some of the stuff is our work. This Disney project is almost 100% my creation.....of course, I'm using the Internet to get pictures and find good science/social studies projects and math worksheets, but I'm the compiler....Bridgette does 90% of the teaching (I do a little bit on weekends/nights).

Sometime next year, when we get into a "fuller curriculum" we will be using KONOS to help direct our teaching. It can be a lot of work sometimes, but very rewarding.



By the way, anyone have any good tricks for speeding up 8am to 4pm each day??????

[PookieB]

Joining in! Beautiful kids! :goodvibes I love Samantha's Alice in Wonderland birthday. What a great cake! :cutie: Great plans & ADRs. Looking forward to reading more. :goodvibes

[stacikristine]

I didn't see your ADR plan earlier. It looks great! :thumbsup2 I always had theme birthday parties too. SO FUN!! My mom did a great job with them. One time I had a flower party and we did all kinds of flower type things including decorating flower pots and planting flowers. One time I had a surprising party where everything was exciting (like icing changing colors, and simple magic tricks) and all kinds of things. We would start planning the new party almost as soon as the other one was over! :goodvibes Your kids will love those memories! YES--post pictures of the Neverland party. It sounds great. That's awesome that your wife is able to stay home and teach your kids! I know yall are going to have a WONDERFUL trip!

[crocko]

Well, thanks to the news about online ADR's now available....did some "researching" to get an idea about the possibilities of getting our 1st choice reservations for Ohana and Crystal Palace.

For today, the last possible booking date is the 14th. At 11am CST this morning, I checked on both places. Ohana had a 6:30 and 8:20 availability. So, not too bad.
Crystal Palace still had 8:25am availability. So, 5 hours after the time slot opened.....pretty good openings still out there.

Hoping this bodes well.....will probably continue this research the next two days as well. :cool2:
Why?

Well, I say....WHY NOT!?!

[chicagoshannon]

Can't wait to see how your ADR's come out!


I just asked you on my thread what curriculum you guys use. LOL Now I know. We're thinking of doing Alpha Omega Horizons.

[crocko]

Awesome....hope you find it to be a good one for you.








3 MONTHS TO GO!!!!


:cool1: :woohoo: party:

[stacikristine]

Well, thanks to the news about online ADR's now available....did some "researching" to get an idea about the possibilities of getting our 1st choice reservations for Ohana and Crystal Palace.

For today, the last possible booking date is the 14th. At 11am CST this morning, I checked on both places. Ohana had a 6:30 and 8:20 availability. So, not too bad.
Crystal Palace still had 8:25am availability. So, 5 hours after the time slot opened.....pretty good openings still out there.

Hoping this bodes well.....will probably continue this research the next two days as well. :cool2:
Why?

Well, I say....WHY NOT!?!


I was looking into this new ADR booking plan this morning. I have some questions you probably know the answer to: When can I make these ADRs? Is it still at 7am? And this is really a silly question, but what is the time change difference between us and them--if there is one? Is it just the start of a new day (aka 12:01 am)--or do we have to wait to book online as well? Are you going to use this, or just call? Sorry for the random questions...thanks for the help! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Actually, I don't have the answers.

a) not sure when the new day comes online
b) not sure if you can do the 90+10 online.

My sister will still be calling at 6am(CST) on Friday to get everything booked the old-fashioned way.

[stacikristine]

I might call and try to get those answers...if it's still the same time (aka not being able to book until 7) then I'll do it the old fashioned way. But if we can book earlier, then I might try the new way. :upsidedow So they're one hour earlier than us? :rotfl:

[crocko]

Cool. Definitely let me know what info you find out.

[crocko]

We've never done this in the past, but part of our plans this year is to have some matching/themed shirts.

And last night we made our first one! :cool1:

(Thanks to Dom13 and his Star Wars designs)

So far, Dom13 has made one for me and Joshua. For our first attempt, we tried making Joshua's shirt and I'm pleased with how it looks:


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3078.jpg


So, now we need to get a shirt for me and the girls....plus, waiting to see if Dom13 will be able to make names for the girls as well.

[jenny105]

I like that! Very nice! Good work :thumbsup2

[disneylovinfamily]

Love teh shirt! Love the DISigners! We have had family shirts on some trips and always get alot of compliments.

[crocko]

Update on ADR research.

Again, thanks to the new online system, in the morning I'm testing availability of Crystal Palace and Ohana to get a feeling of whether we should get our goal slots.

This morning, I checked about 3 hours after phone lines opened up.

At that point, both restaurants were available for reservations within 15 minutes of my preferred time slot. Very good!
With my sister calling first thing on Friday morning, I'm feeling pretty confident. I'll still research again tomorrow. Have to feed my Disney planning addiction somehow.

[crocko]

Okay....gonna spend a few posts discussing something I look forward to on this trip.


PIN TRADING!

I've taken pictures of all my Disney pins and will be presenting them with my thoughts. What do I like best? What do I want to keep? What gets put in the bag to be traded!?


First, I mentioned that I recently acquired 20 Disney pins from ebay. They made it here on Monday, so I will start with showing the 20 pins I most recently purchased (for only $22 total!!) :cool1:



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3083.jpg


Okay....7 of the 20 were from this really cute Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Chip, Dale, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto. These are very cute and my wife likes them as well. We'll probably actually end up keeping these 7. [From what I can tell...this is the complete 7-pin set...originally sold for $29.99]



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3089.jpg


Next....7 pins -- Muppets characters wearing Mickey ears -- Animal, Bunson, Beaker, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie, and Gonzo. [Another 7-pin set that originally sold for $29.99] They are cute and it is fun that I have the whole set...but am willing to trade these. Probably wouldn't be first to trade...but, I'll probably end up taking them with me.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3088.jpg


Then....the other 6 pins. Tinker Bell wearing a Goofy hat. Mickey as Sorcerer's Apprentice. Pluto pin. Dumbo pin. Blue fairy pin. Weird circle-shaped Mickey pin. Except that I might end up giving the Tink pin to my sister-in-law, all of these are definitely open for trading. (Good! That's why I bought these in the first place).



So, from that batch....probably 12 pins ready to take with me to trade.


Up next....the pins I already owned -->

[disneylovinfamily]

Love the pirate pins! I want them! Was this a grab bag type of thing where you didn't knwo what you were getting? Could you pm me the seller info?

[crocko]

Just sent you a pm.

[crocko]

13 WEEKS TO GO!!!


:banana: :cool1: :banana:



Which means that on the Disney Alphabet countdown we are now halfway through.

Last night, Joshua and Samantha watched their "M" movie as they finished off that letter.
They watched Mulan. (I don't think this is one of Joshua's favorites)

Now on to the letter N

The Letter N
Ride - Seas with Nemo & Friends (Expecting both the kids to really enjoy this ride....plus the Bruce afterward)
Non-ride - Norway (As a specific country, Norway represents going to the Wolrd Showcase, but I picked it specifically because we will be going there to have a character breakfast...Akershus)
Characters: Nemo, Nala, Neera (Dinosaur), Nana (Peter Pan), Noni (Lilo & Stitch), Nanny (Dalmatians)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qZmf9l-HC1A/SJxzJhL8NuI/AAAAAAAABMw/AxlfU6GZ8Go/s400/PeterPan+0098b+5_620.jpg




Now....off to do my research for the day on ADR's.

[crocko]

ADR research update:

It is over 3 hours after phone lines opened up this morning.
Crystal Palace still had 8:20am availability (so not bad)
Ohana had availability only 5 minutes off of what I asked for. Excellent!

Tomorrow's the big day....Less than 21 hours until my sister gets on the phone.

[crocko]

Okay....with those posts out of the way, back to presenting my pins:


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3049.jpg

8 pins on this pic:
Mickey behind a star depicting the state flag of Oklahoma. As someone who has lived in Oklahoma all my life, this is a cool one and a keeper.
Buzz Lightyear pin. Cool character...will probably depend on the kids. If they want it, we'll keep...otherwise, I'm willing to trade.
Belle portrait. I like Belle and this is a nice pin, but I'd be willing to trade....have to get by the girls first. Bridgette loves Belle and Samantha told me last night she wants to collect princesses. So, we'll see.
Tinkerbell pin. I'm definitely up for trading this one....again, what will Samantha say?
Fantasia 1940 poster. I love Disney movie posters and because of that will probably hold on to this one.
Talespin pin. Hmm....this is a tough one. I loved those old Disney shows when I was growing up. Probably have to keep this one.
The Parent Trap! pin. It's a cool pin...and I like the original movie, but doesn't fit into any collection I foresee having. Probably a trader.
Lumierre and Cogsworth, Be Our Guest. Hmm....very nice pin from a movie that both Bridgette and I really like. In the end, probably leave this decision up to Bridgette.



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3050.jpg

7 pins on this pic:
Phoebus and Esmeralda heart pin. Nice pin, but no sentimental value. Let's take it to WDW!
Merlin 1963 pin. I love this movie! Executive decision -- this pin stays.
Donald Duck drum pin. I love Donald Duck....will be on the lookout for Donald pins....so this one is a keeper.
Scrooge McDuck checking out a coin. If there were a character to rival my love of Donald it would be Scrooge. Anything with Scrooge I find on the trip will be snatched up by me. This one is a keeper.
Buzz and Woody, "You've Got a Friend in Me". Very nice pin. Hmm....I'm up in the air...probably rely on family's thoughts.
Monster's Inc pin. Same as previous....(maybe I should start a Pixar collection) :cool2:
Toy Story 2, "When Somebody Loves You". Another Pixar! Bridgette likes this song a lot....probably a keeper.





http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3051.jpg

6 pins on this pic:
Pumbaa and Timon. Cool pin...but unless kids want it, I'd be willing to trade.
Tarzan and Jane, Two Worlds pin. Good movie and great song (by the way, today is Tarzan's 10th anniversary) Not sure about this one....probable trade, but I'm going to have to ruminate about it.
Figaro 1940 pin. If it were up to me, this pin would be traded...but Bridgette loves Figaro...so probably going into her keeper pile.
Emperor's New Groove 2000 pin. I love this movie. Another executive decision. This one stays.
Touchdown Mickey 1932 pin. Cool pin.....probably will be decided by rather I want to have a "sports" collection or not.
Peter Pan, Return to Neverland pin. Nice pin....not sure on this one...family??




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3052.jpg

5 new pins on this pic (already looked at Figaro and Peter Pan):
Donald Duck golfing. Donald = keeper.
Grumpy breaking golf club. This is a keeper. We got this one either after or because of playing miniature golf (either 2001 or 2002). Bridgette isn't the best and she used to be on a big Grumpy kick. So this is a good "memory pin".
Mickey and Donald, 1983 pin. (looked up info on this one) This is one of the 100 Years of Dreams pins. Once again...Donald = keeper. (plus Donald + Mickey...cool!)
Babes in Toyland pin. Another childhood favorite movie of mine. Maybe that's a good name for a mini-collection. Keeper.
Beauty and the Beast in mirror. I'd be willing to trade, but maybe Bridgette wants a B&B collection.






Wow...this is really fun, haven't looked at these in a long time...but it's getting me really excited.

More pins to come!

[cheap traveler]

Ok, where have I been:confused3? I never saw anything past page 3!! Now that I have woken up, I love your pins. We did the same thing with our old ones. All 3 of us sat down and went throught them to see what was for trading, what was for keeping. There was very little argument overall.
There were 2 princess ones that I wanted in the the trade pile but the girls didn't. I reminded them that our objective is to collect a full-body pin of each princess. These are head only shots, so they are out.
We did get all the same pins from e-bay. Glad you liked them and got some traders.

Loving the letter updates! Good luck tomorrow morning with your ADRs:wizard:

[crocko]

We did the same thing with our old ones. All 3 of us sat down and went throught them to see what was for trading, what was for keeping. There was very little argument overall.
There were 2 princess ones that I wanted in the the trade pile but the girls didn't. I reminded them that our objective is to collect a full-body pin of each princess. These are head only shots, so they are out.

Very cool. I'm looking forward to all 4 of us gathering together and going through all these. If the kids start deciding every pin is a keeper, I'll probably have to work on helping them figure out what specifically they want to "collect." Not sure about Joshua, but as of right now, I think Samantha will be leaning towards Princesses (Ariel, specifically) and anything High School Musical. LOL -- man, I've got a girly girl.

[stacikristine]

All of your pins look great! :thumbsup2 How fun. I'm thankful for your ADR research too. It looks like I won't be doing online booking anyway, because I rented from a DVC member, and they can't book 90+10...So I'll have to call. So you're pretty confident in the old fashioned phone system? I'm nervous about some of my popular ones! Maybe it'll free the phone lines up since people can book online... Tell your sister good luck!!! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Pin Fever is setting in.......on to the next batch!

:wizard:



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3053.jpg

8 pins in this pic:
Disney, Alameda Street entrance. This is a neat one, but not something I plan on getting more of. So, probably going to put in the trade pile.
Disney's All-Star Resorts. In 2002, Bridgette and I stayed at the All-Star Movies resort. So, unless I can find specifically a Movies pin...I'll keep this one as a trip souvenir.
Fox & the Hound, Best of friends, spinny pin. Cute movie...but not necessarily a keeper for me. Not certain, but probably going to put in trade pile.
Trashin the Camp. I absolutely love this song. Cute pin as well. Going to keep this one.
Cince de Mayo, May 5 2002. Got this one on our 2002 trip...I don't think we were there on May 5th, but shortly after. So....at this point, I'm leaning towards keeper.
Daisy Power. LOL -- very funny that I have this one. I'm MORE than willing to trade it....(as long as I can get it past those pesky girls).
Animal Kingdom, Backstage Safari. Can't read it all, but I believe this is the pin we got for doing the Backstage Safari tour at AK. It was a fun tour and definitely want to keep this souvenir.
Uncle Scrooge, face. Remember the rule? Scrooge = keeper.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3054.jpg

6 pins in this pic:
Ariel & Eric, "Kiss the Girl". I'm not afraid to admit that this is one of my favorite Disney songs. Plus, I know Samantha wants Ariel pins...so, I'll let her add this one to her collection.
Pluto's Christmas Tree, 1952. I believe this is another one of those 100 Years of Memories pins. Unless Bridgette likes it because it is Christmas-themed, I say Trade It!
April Fool's 2002, Goofy dressed like Mickey. Another one we managed to pick up in May 2002. It is a silly pin, but I like holiday pins...and it is from a year we were there. Probably a keeper.
Mickey Mouse 1940, Comics & Stories. KEEPER!! I LOVE Disney comics!! Any pin comic book related will definitely be a keeper/want to acquire.
Mickey Mouse, First Comic Strip 1940. Neat pin. Doesn't really fit into a collection, but a cool historical pin. Probably a keeper.
House of Mouse pin. Sorry this one is hard to see. Fun pin, but probably going in the trade pile.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3055.jpg

5 pins in this pic:
Dumbo & Mrs. Jumbo pin. It's a very sweet pin, but I'm up for trading if I don't get vetoed.
Mickey Thru the Mirror 1936. I do like this short, but am willing to trade.
McDonald's Bug's Life pin. I used to love McDonald's but don't eat there near as much these days...I'm willing to trade this one.
100 Years, Mickey pin. One of the 100 Years of Memories pins. In some ways it is ugly, but also cool. We were at WDW in 2001, so this one is a nice souvenir pin to keep.
Walt Disney, locket pin. Another cool Disney pin to commemorate his 100th birthday in 2001. Keeper.





http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3056.jpg

6 pins in this pic:
Darkwing Duck, 1991. This is a tough one. I like Darkwing....but.... Well, probably depends on what I decide to do with Talespin. Probably will either keep or trade both....leaning towards keep.
Chip & Dale Rescue Rangers, 1989. Same boat for this pin. Plus, I really like Chip & Dale. Also, as a kid, I have memories of being in Old Port Royale at Caribbean Beach for breakfast and watching Rescue Rangers on one of the TV's in there. Good times!
The Black Cauldron. Part of me wants to keep this just because this is an under-appreciated Disney movie. Hmm.....I'll think about it.
Team Disney Building. I love this building at WDW. But, do I need it? I'll discuss with the family and go from there.
100 Years of Magic pin. Another fun souvenir pin from our 2001 Disneymoon. Plus, I see Donald on it. Keeper!
Buzz Lightyear. Cool Buzz pin. I'll leave this one up to Joshua. Of the two Buzz pins so far, I definitely like this one better.




LOL....while at lunch today, all I could think about was pins. Somebody slap me!

By the way, just over 16 hours until ADR's.


More pins to come later today/tomorrow....

[cheap traveler]

Hey, watching for your ADRs. Keeping my fingers crossed for you!!:wizard:

[crocko]

90 DAYS TO GO!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

Now the planning can REALLY get serious. :rotfl2:

As listed previously, my hopes for ADR's:



Here's our current meal planning (summarized):

Sep 17 (THU) - 'Ohana @ 7pm (anywhere from 6:30-8:00 ressie will be fine)
Sep 18 (FRI) - Crystal Palace @ 8am (latest we want to start is 8:45)
Sep 20 (SUN) - Akershus @ 10am (anywhere 9:30-whenever is fine)
Sep 21 (MON) - Tusker House @ 10:30am (basically as late as we can get)
Sep 21 (MON) - Boma @ 6pm (anytime 6 or after is fine)
Sep 25 (FRI) - Play 'N' Dine @ 8am (as early as possible, basically)




What did we get?

Sep 17 (THU) - 'Ohana @ 7:10pm (Excellent!)
Sep 18 (FRI) - Crystal Palace @ 8:20am (Not very first thing, but still early and before the park opens up. Should finish right at or shortly after park opens. Whew!) :yay:
Sep 20 (SUN) - Akershus @ 9:35am (A little earlier than we were going for, but no big deal...glad to get this place for this day)
Sep 21 (MON) - Tusker House @ 10:00am (Perfect! We'll have @ 1 1/2 hours to do park stuff before we have to worry about heading toward Africa for breakfast.)
Sep 21 (MON) - Boma @ 7:00pm (Very good. Plan is to spend all day at AK...then head back to the Lodge, relax, and not be rushed for the 3 attendees of this meal to get to their ressie)
Sep 25 (FRI) - Play 'N' Dine @ 8:05am (Haha! We managed to get a first thing reservation. This will be just me, wife, and kids. We'll have a nice early, relaxed breakfast and then we can let the kids direct the rest of the day)
Sep 25 (FRI) - Kona Cafe @ 8:20am (Meanwhile, my sis and parents will be heading over to Poly for their breakfast...afterward, I think they plan on taking in Day 1 of the Food & Wine Festival at some point)

Yay!!!! Got everything we wanted within 25 minutes of our desired times.
:rolleyes1
As I said above...now we can get really serious about planning.



Note: as many times as I've been to Disney World, I have actually never been to the Crystal Palace

http://www.arondaparks.com/images/CrystalPalaceAug2004a.jpg


Very excited about this being our first experience on our first full day.

[stacikristine]

:woohoo::dance3::yay: Congrats on getting such great ADRs!!!! :thumbsup2 That's awesome! I must say, it's reassuring to know that your sister did the old-fashioned calling and got such great results! I'm not so nervous about mine now! :laughing: Oh--and your pins are so great! You have a ton!

[crocko]

:woohoo::dance3::yay: Congrats on getting such great ADRs!!!! :thumbsup2 That's awesome! I must say, it's reassuring to know that your sister did the old-fashioned calling and got such great results! I'm not so nervous about mine now! :laughing: Oh--and your pins are so great! You have a ton!Yeah...went well. I bet you if you call in early on your first available day that you'll get good reservations as well.


:wizard: Good luck to ya!

[cheap traveler]

I'm so happy for you, you got such great times and no dissapointments!!:cool1:

[crocko]

I'm so happy for you, you got such great times and no dissapointments!!:cool1:
Disappoint-free is the way to be!

[cheap traveler]

Disappoint-free is the way to be!

Hmm, I always thought it was drug-free :confused3

:lmao:
:rotfl:

[crocko]

With ADR's out of the way, I am going to try and get my last pins posted today.

Here we go again.......


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3057.jpg

3 pins in this pic:
Animal Kingdom, Step Into the Wild. Cool pin...not sure what to think about this one....I could go either way. Will let the family decide.
Mickey Christmas, Jingle Bells. I like this pin alot. Plus, Mickey playing the Harmonica reminds me of the "Gift of the Magi" short with him and Minnie. Bridgette and I love that one. Keeper.
Mickey playing baseball. I love baseball. Leaning towards keeping any of my sports pins.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3058.jpg

6 pins in this pic.
Mickey & Minnie, Hawaiian Holiday. Cute pin, but not really a special one to me. Probably going to be traded.
Uncle Scrooge grabbing his money bags. Scrooge = keeper!!
Team Disney building. Haven't we seen this one before? Yep! I happen to have 2 of them. Even if I decide to keep this pin, at least one will get traded.
Disney on Ice, Mowgli & Baloo.
Disney on Ice, Tarzan & Jane.
Disney on Ice, Simba & Nala. These 3 are souvenirs from a Disney on Ice that Bridgette and I went to several years ago. So...I'm thinking souvenir keepers.





http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3059.jpg

6 pins on this pic:
Donald Duck, Wise Little Hen. You know this verse....Donald = Keeper!
Mickey looking at Walt Disney picture. Eh...Walt is great, but to me not that spectacular of a pin. I say trade it.
Mickey, Goofy, Donald, 4th of July 2002. Love Americana stuff, plus this is a cool pin and has Donald. Keeper.
Caribbean Beach Resort pin. Yay! I was hoping I had a pin from here. My family stayed here a few times when I was growing up and Bridgette and I stayed here on our Disneymoon. Keeper!
Pepper Ann pin. I remember at the time, we were really excited about seeing this pin. At this point, I'm willing to trade...but will be Bridgette's decision.
Mickey, President's Day 2002. We racked up a lot of 2002 holiday pins it seems. I like this one and will probably keep.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3060.jpg

6 pins on this pic:
Huey, Dewey, and Louie. A very basic pin, but I love these 3 nephews. Keeper.
Donald, Fantasia 2000 pin. Cool pin. Not only do I like Donald's part in the movie, but the movie as a whole was very good. Bridgette, my sister, and I went and saw it at an IMAX. Keeper.
Eeyore 1966 pin. Bridgette used to be a big Eeyore fan. Unless Bridgette or Samantha want to keep this one, though, I say let's trade it.
Ariel pin. Another pin with Ariel. Samantha will be excited.
Jessie pin. Very cute! I'm sure someone will grab this one up...so I expect it to be a keeper.
Mickey, Oklahoma pin. Yay! I have both Mickey Oklahoma pins. Just need to get the Cruella pin and the Chip & Dale pin and I'll have all 4 Oklahoma pins that have been made.



Quite a few keepers in those pics.

I believe I have 9 more total pics to go....will try to finish this afternoon....

[jenny105]

Congrats on getting your ADRs! I can't wait to make mine. :woohoo:

[longing2Batdisney]

signing in! followed you over from chicagoshannon and my2disneyboys
your family is adorable
your ADR's look well planned and well timed/we are not into the pin trading, yet but I really like the pins you have collected (really like the pirate characters). The alice party was truly adorable, I like the ideas you and wife have for parties and for homeschooling. I have an almost 3 yr old and watch two other almost 3 yr olds. I had purchased some Seasme street wkbk that we are currently using but I really like you 26 week system (thinking of working a system of our own on the same idea).

we just returned from our last WDW trip and now so excited to say we are going back next year.

Oh! btw :yay: on the AKL that is my dream stay; but, that will have to wait until the next trip after this one (I hope).

Great job!:thumbsup2

[crocko]

Congrats on getting your ADRs! I can't wait to make mine. :woohoo:
Thanks! Look forward to hearing how yours come out!


signing in! followed you over from chicagoshannon and my2disneyboys
your family is adorable
your ADR's look well planned and well timed/we are not into the pin trading, yet but I really like the pins you have collected (really like the pirate characters). The alice party was truly adorable, I like the ideas you and wife have for parties and for homeschooling. I have an almost 3 yr old and watch two other almost 3 yr olds. I had purchased some Seasme street wkbk that we are currently using but I really like you 26 week system (thinking of working a system of our own on the same idea).

we just returned from our last WDW trip and now so excited to say we are going back next year.

Oh! btw :yay: on the AKL that is my dream stay; but, that will have to wait until the next trip after this one (I hope).

Great job!:thumbsup2
Glad to have another reader!

Congrats that you are getting to go back next year....very cool.
After the trip, I'll let you know how AKL was from our perspective. (with lots of pics) :3dglasses

[PookieB]

Great pins! DH & I have just started collecting a few off Ebay. Addicted already. :goodvibes

[crocko]

My goal is to finish my pin posts this afternoon....so I tread on.....


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3061.jpg

6 pins on this pic:
Tinker Bell 1953 pin. Unless a Tink fan pops up in my household, I'm trading this one...sorry, Tink's cool...but I don't need a lot of her pins.
Valentine's Day 2002, Mickey & Minnie. Haha, apparently I need to have a 2002 Holiday collection...I wonder if there are any I'm missing. Keeper.
Rachel, "Rhapsody in Blue" portion of Fantasia 2000. Cute...another Fantasia 2000 pin. Do I want more F2000 pins? Probably not...so, probably trading Rachel away....unless Samantha thinks she's cute.
Baloo pin. Cool character, plain pin....probably will trade....this time unless Joshua grabs him.
Maid Marian pin. Ah ha! Another Executive Decision pin. I love Robin Hood and watched this movie MANY!!-a-time when I was young. Sentimental keeper.
Quasimodo, Topsy Turvy. Great music in this movie. But don't really need it as a keeper. Tradeable.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3062.jpg

6 pins in this pic:
Atlantis 2001, Milo Thatch. Souvenir keeper. This movie came out while Bridgette and I were on our Disneymoon. First movie we saw together as a married couple (and we saw it at the AMC in DownTown Disney).
Arthur & Merlin, Higitus Figitus. Fun song, childhood favorite movie. Keeper.
Goofy & Max, "Right Back Where We Started From". Fun pin, but not a keeper. Off to Disney World with you.
Elliott, Candle on the Water. Ugh...this is a tough one. In theory, not going to fit into any "collection", but I love this song. Plus...a fun, underappreciated Disney movie. Hmm...we'll see.
Berlioz, Marie, Toulouse pin. Surprised that I actually have this pin, but probably going into Samantha's pile. She loves Marie.
As Long As There's Christmas pin. Unless a surprise objection comes through, this one will be traded.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3063.jpg

5 pins in this pic:
Robin Hood & Little John, "Oo-de-lally". As discussed before, I love this movie and love this song. Keeper.
Donald, "You Belong To My Heart". Donald = keeper.
Australia, Mickey, Donald, Goofy (Opera House). Fun pin! I love pins of "places" Plus, even though it isn't a stamp pin, it has that look to it. And I see Donald. Keeper.
Easter Pooh, 2002. LOL :rotfl:another holiday 2002 pin. Add it to the ol' collection.
Heffalumps & Woozles. Not looking to have a Pooh collection....Trade it, please.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3064.jpg

5 pins in this pic:
Johnny Appleseed, "The Lord is Good to Me". Hmm...fun pic and fun song. ::back and forth:: Not sure yet.
Dodger & Oliver, "Perfect Isn't Easy". I have no problem trading this one, but Joshua LOVES this movie. Probably going in his keeper pile.
Phantom Manor. Very interesting that I have this pin. A Disneyland Resort Paris pin for their version of the Haunted Mansion. I'm more than willing to trade it, but probably not in a CM trade. Probably with another pin trader at the parks or simply via pinpics.com
Jiminy Cricket, "When You Wish Upon a Star". Nice pin, but I'm willing to trade it.
Disney Animation Building. Cool pin, but would rather have other pins. Tradeable!





Well...we're almost through my collection (thanks for bearing with me)
You've "pin" very patient with me. :rotfl2:



One more pin update left.....

[disneylovinfamily]

congrats on the ADRs :banana: My day is toimorrow and I am nervous.

I am loving the pins! Thanks for the info BTW, I did order some :)

[crocko]

congrats on the ADRs :banana: My day is toimorrow and I am nervous.

I am loving the pins! Thanks for the info BTW, I did order some :)
Good luck tomorrow! :wizard: All will go well!!

[crocko]

Alrighty!! Now for my last 16 pins.



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3065.jpg

4 pins on this pic:
Pooh stuck in Rabbit's hole, locket. Neat, but not a keeper.
Donald 1984, 50th Anniversary. Cool! Keeper.
Walt Disney Studios, Burbank CA. Another CA location pin. Okay to trade this one.
Great Mouse Detective, 1986. Another under-appreciated movie. Not sure yet on this one.....will discuss with the kiddos.





http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3066.jpg

6 pins on this pic:
Remember the Titans, 2000. Good movie, but not necessary to keep. Tradeable!
Minnie Mouse. Cute pin....will this one be traded? We'll have to see what Samantha says.
Tigger, St. Patrick's Day 2002. Another '02 holiday pin. This one's pretty neat. Keeper.
Day 1, 2003 Visa pin. Fun "souvenir" pin. We've had our Disney Visa cards since Day 1 back in 2003, so we received this pin. Yay!
Lion King, Broadway Musical. We went down to Dallas and saw this musical. Very good!! Definite keeper pin.
Beauty & the Beast, Broadway Musical. I've actually seen this twice. Once in 1997 with my family and then sometime with Bridgette (both times in Dallas). Great musical. Definite keeper pin.




http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3071.jpg

3 pins in this pic:
Mickey flying plane. Pin to celebrate the 100 Years Celebration. Going to trade it.
MVMCP 2008, Donald & Daisy.
MVMCP 2008, Chip & Dale. We went to the MVMCP last year in 2008 and collected these 2 pins...they were our faves of the ones available. So, definite keepers!





http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3072.jpg

2 pins in this pic:
Dumbo, Soarin'. Got this out of a mystery pack for ride pins. Fun ride. I'm considering this Bridgette's pin, so I'll let her decide it's outcome.
Haunted Mansion, Mickey & Minnie. Same story on this one. Bridgette's choice....she likes the characters, but she's not a huge Haunted Mansion fan.




Last pin:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/DSCN3077.jpg

1 pin in this pic:
High School Musical, Donald, Daisy, Mickey, Minnie. Walking down Sunset Boulevard, I saw this pin at a pin stand. With Bridgette up ahead of me, I quickly bought this one and then showed it to her later. She LOVES the HSM movies and I thought this one with the Mickey & Friends characters was super cute. She needs to be careful, though, because I showed this one to Samantha (my little 3-year old HSM addict) and she absolutely loves this pin....walked all over the house with it. So....keeper!





And there you have it. My current pin collection -- currently totaling up to 131 pins, I believe (132...if you count the duplicate Team Disney Building pin).


Later down the road, the family will sit down and go through all these. I'll give you a list afterward of who's claiming what.

Up next: plans for this weekend/next week.....

[crocko]

Okay...unless I can get some wireless, I will be "quiet" for the next 6 days.

Early tomorrow morning, we're headed out to St. Charles, MO (near St. Louis). Saturday, Sunday, Monday is fun family time: plan on hitting the City Museum, Magic House Children's Museum, and St. Louis Zoo. Tuesday and Wednesday, Bridgette will have a booth setup at a Homeschool Convention (she sells Usborne books). So, it'll just be me and the kids roaming around for most of those 2 days....Then, get some rest Wednesday night and head back on Thursday.

Because she has to take all of her books, we're actually having to take both of our cars up there. Ugh! (oh well).

So...everyone have a good weekend.....great Father's Day....and good week next week.

Later! :thumbsup2

[jenny105]

Have a good trip! Happy Father's Day!

[longing2Batdisney]

Have a safe road trip! and happy Father's Day!

[chicagoshannon]

Glad you got all of your ADR's! I think 8:20 is the prefect time for CP. We had an 8:10 but it was almost to early. We werent' able to get any photo's from a photopass person before our time. You'll be able too. :) Plus the way the characters go around you will probably still be done about the same time we were- just after 9am. :)

[crocko]

Made it safely to St. Louis!

All unpacked.....gonna probably go to a mall and then hit the pool later.

popcorn::

[disneylovinfamily]

Have fun!

[crocko]

Whew! We made it back last night at around 9:45 PM.

It was a fun trip and the kids got to do a lot of cool things. Next week, after getting pictures uploaded, I'll give a mini-report on the trip.

Later today, going to try and get caught up on PTR stuff.


[by the way, yay for 1-day work weeks] :cool1:

[crocko]

As of yesterday, 12 weeks to go!!! :yay:


Which also means that it is time to move on to the letter "O" now.

Letter O
Ride - Outpost [in World Showcase] (yes, I realize this is not actually a ride, but the best I could come up with)
Non-ride - 'Ohana (our first place to eat at in Disney on this trip....while there, plan on taking the monorail around to see the other MK resorts as well)
Characters: Owl, Oliver, Orville (Rescuers), Olivia Flaversham, Oswald, Olie, Otto (Robin Hood)

http://disney.munkyisland.com/images/det/Olivia_Flaversham.jpg






by the way, anyone seen the new posters for Alice in Wonderland. Very interesting.

[jenny105]

Yes! I've seen the Alice pictures. They look creepy but I'm sure it is going to be AMAZING. Tim Burton is genius...except for that whole Planet of the Apes remake. That is better left forgotten.

[crocko]

Hey all....sorry for not having much to update. This weekend we really didn't get much done as far as preparing for the trip.

Well, one thing....we did find some cute little Disney fans at Target for each of the kids. These ones had quite a bit of windpower, so we went ahead and snatched them up.


Tonight will try and make an effort to get some St. Louis pics on my flash drive so I can make a little report tomorrow.

[crocko]

Alright, I'm ready to give some updates on our St. Louis trip last week.

We ended up taking about 310 pics on the trip....of which, I narrowed it down to around 70 or so (haha) that I'd like to show on this mini-non-Disney-TR.



Day 1 (Saturday, June 20th)

Bridgette and I woke up at 4am to get my car all packed up (we had packed Bridgette's books, tables, and racks in her van the night before). Then, a little before 5am we were out the door. Had to stop at 7-11 to get Bridgette some coffee, then go back to the house to get Joshua's LEAPSTER which we forgot to pack, and then back on the road.

3 minutes later (right before we get on the highway), I pull over to re-tie my shoe....so that it would stop bothering me. I pull off the frontage road and into the parking lot of a Mattress store. My cute little Samantha asked if we were at the hotel. :rotfl: If she only knew how long we still had to go.

So.....long-story short, come right about 3pm later that day, we've made it through the western part of St. Louis and up to St. Charles to our hotel.

We unpacked and relaxed a little at this point. We had planned on going to the City Museum that night, but at $40 total we changed our mind...especially since we finally decided it is probably better for late elementary-aged kids. Instead, we decided to go over to the St. Louis Mills Mall and walk around for a bit.

My kids love mall rides to play on and they found this

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/001.jpg


My kids have crocs that they like to wear and this mall had a Crocs store....so, we went in and bought them each their first ever jibbett. Joshua chose one that had C-3PO and R2D2, while Samantha chose when with Ariel's head.
Then, we walked past a NASCAR play area....so took a few pics

not sure she fits this thing

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/014.jpg

but she was having a blast

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/017.jpg


Joshua quickly started honking his horn

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/018.jpg



We had dinner at the food court there (in which the Burger King's drinks were ALL nasty that night) and then went over to a cool-looking playground

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/021.jpg




We finished up there and then headed back. I unfortunately got on the highway going the opposite direction of what I intended, but using my manly intuitive map, managed to safely get us back to the hotel using backroads. (Note: I printed a few maps for the trip, but during the trip from OKC to our hotel, never looked at a map once).


Day 2 to come....off to the Magic House, Children's Museum...including a Beast and some tears.

[jenny105]

310 pictures! :scared1: I can only imagine how many you're going to take at Disney World! ;)

[crocko]

310 pictures! :scared1: I can only imagine how many you're going to take at Disney World! ;)


LOL :rotfl2:


Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. My wife has a new 10MP Nikon DSLR and I am planning on getting a new P&S camera myself. 10 days.....first time with 2 little ones. Man.....this could get crazy.

Plus, out of those 310, 25% of them is as few as I could whittle down for this report......who knows what a) I'll come back with and b) what I'll want to post in my TR from Disney.

OH!! :yay: and we already know we'll be getting the PhotoPass.....so throw on a few extra hundred probably on top of what we take.


:scared1:

[jenny105]

LOL :rotfl2:


Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. My wife has a new 10MP Nikon DSLR and I am planning on getting a new P&S camera myself. 10 days.....first time with 2 little ones. Man.....this could get crazy.

Plus, out of those 310, 25% of them is as few as I could whittle down for this report......who knows what a) I'll come back with and b) what I'll want to post in my TR from Disney.

OH!! :yay: and we already know we'll be getting the PhotoPass.....so throw on a few extra hundred probably on top of what we take.


:scared1:


Wow. You are going to document every waking moment of your trip. Better get a few memory cards! :) I'm planning on buying a memory card just for the Disney trip.

We pre-ordered the Photopass cd. Usually I don't take many but now I'm going to be stopping at every possible Photopass spot I see!

[tink76]

I wanted to stop by and check out your report. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the alphabet countdown! My daughter is a little young but I think I may start a smaller version of this for her. It sounds like you are going to have a great trip!

[crocko]

Wow. You are going to document every waking moment of your trip. Better get a few memory cards! :) I'm planning on buying a memory card just for the Disney trip.

We pre-ordered the Photopass cd. Usually I don't take many but now I'm going to be stopping at every possible Photopass spot I see!

Yeah, we currently plan on buying an extra memory card or two. Plus, I'm going to bring my laptop so we can upload pictures each night.

I wanted to stop by and check out your report. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the alphabet countdown! My daughter is a little young but I think I may start a smaller version of this for her. It sounds like you are going to have a great trip!

Thanks for popping in! It has been really fun....and it does seem like something that could be tailored to just about any age. Have fun with it!

[longing2Batdisney]

I love that playground; I wish our mall had one like that... I have to agree w/the pp you do an excellant job recording the memories...

I have started a my own little alphabet weekly project...
I have a soon to be three yr old; we started with "A" this week
so we have color sheets for each day Abu, Abigal & A? (just drew a blank--the geese from Aristocrats), Alice & the Mad Hatter, and Ants (Bug's Life). We only do four days a week. Thanks for the ideas...we are watching the movies at nap time to go w/the color sheets...

[crocko]

I have started a my own little alphabet weekly project...
I have a soon to be three yr old; we started with "A" this week
so we have color sheets for each day Abu, Abigal & A? (just drew a blank--the geese from Aristocrats), Alice & the Mad Hatter, and Ants (Bug's Life). We only do four days a week. Thanks for the ideas...we are watching the movies at nap time to go w/the color sheets...
Sounds awesome! Hope your kids get a blast out of it.

I know mine have been loving it.

[crocko]

Day 2 of our St. Louis Trip (Sunday, June 21st)

Being very tired, we all went to bed and were asleep by 10pm or shortly after. Sunday morning, Bridgette and I woke up on our own shortly after 6am. CRAZY!!! We went to bed easily, got 8 hours of sleep, and woke up feeling refreshed at an early time. Cool!

That allowed us to casually get ready for the day and we started the morning by going to a local church within 10 minutes of the hotel.

Afterward, we came back to the hotel...changed...and then headed out to south St. Louis to get to the Magic House.

We chose to do this venue on Sunday, because they were letting dads in for free (Father's Day). At $8.50/ticket, that was a fun savings. The downside was that the place was TOTALLY packed. On a school day, with less crowds, this is a great learning environment....on a packed day, less learning and just more about the fun.....we're on vacation, so that's okay. :3dglasses

First area was some fun musical contraptions

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/033.jpg


Then on to the "Once Upon a Time" room.

Beauty & the Beast's table

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/038.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/042.jpg

and the Beast himself

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/040.jpg


Next, Samantha found a beanstalk to climb (she climbed this multiple times)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/046.jpg

and of course, a slide to come back down

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/051.jpg


The two also found time to perform a melodious duet on the piano

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/060.jpg


Next up.....the BIG beanstalk. The first building we were in was 3 stories tall and between one of the winding staircases, they had built a big "beanstalk" stairway that kids could climb that went all the way from the 1st floor to 3rd floor.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/061.jpg

Joshua moving tentatively

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/062.jpg

For some reason, despite the fact that he loves to jump off of things, he found this thing very scary....halfway down, he started crying pretty much the entire time.....you can tell he's been through an ordeal once he's finished :lmao:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/063.jpg


Then we found a cool contraption. You took a ball or colored handkerchief and stuck it into a hole near the bottom. The ball/cloth would then quickly shoot through the pipes thanks to the power of wind and then come shooting out one of the open holes.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/065.jpg

The Magic House also has a VERY cool 3-room Washington, D.C. setup.

Outside of the rooms, we took time to raise the flag

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/067.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/068.jpg

Then, the boys took a moment to give a Presidential speech

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/070.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/071.jpg

President Samantha preferred relaxing behind the Resolute desk

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/083.jpg


In the "Congress" room, Samantha gave a heart-rending version of "Jesus Loves Me" to all the politicians in session:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/074.jpg

There was also a court room (Judicial Branch) that was very cool...but Bridgette didn't take any pictures there, because she was annoyed with the teenagers that were in there :rotfl:

After D.C., the obvious thing to do next is to start building a house

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/088.jpg

Samantha looks like she's enjoying the power of controlling a Caterpillar

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/094.jpg



Part of the Magic House's theme apparently is to remind you of the good ol' days.....

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/112.jpg


We found a big ruler on the wall to measure the kids with. I love this pic of Joshua. I call it "4 feet tall: Tiptoes & a Twizzler"

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/113.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/114.jpg

(Sorry Samantha, no scary rides for you at WDW)


Okay.....think I might be running out of room for this post.
Will continue day 2 later.....

in which we have a Hair-Raising Encounter and we eat some delicious desserts.....

[jenny105]

The picture of your daughter behind the presidential desk is so cute!! She looks so tiny. :) That place looks pretty cool!

[Lynn5700]

Hey!! I'm here!! Can't wait for your TR! Only a couple months! YAY!

The kids are adorable! That place looks like so much fun!! I love it lol. Looks like they had a blast.

[crocko]

The picture of your daughter behind the presidential desk is so cute!! She looks so tiny. :) That place looks pretty cool!Thanks! and yeah it was pretty cool.

Hey!! I'm here!! Can't wait for your TR! Only a couple months! YAY!

The kids are adorable! That place looks like so much fun!! I love it lol. Looks like they had a blast.

Lynn's here! Thanks for checking in....I'm ready for the T-part of the TR to start.

[crocko]

Day 2 of St. Louis trip continued...


After measuring ourselves, we found some giant LEGOs to play with.
As you can see, Joshua was "happy" to find these :lmao:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/122.jpg


I'm showing this next picture to highlight one of the really cool aspects of this children's museum. In pretty much every area, you could find books that had been picked out regarding the room's theme, that a parent could stop and read to their child.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/135.jpg


Here's my family making some mini-people with fabric and laundry clips

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/140.jpg


Later, Samantha decided to get to work and help fix a car.....she's taking care of this one, better than I do of my own :confused3

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/141.jpg


In the 2nd buildings musical section, we found this cool 4-seater. Each seat represented a part of an orchestra (brass, percussion, etc) When you sat on a seat, that part of the orchestra played loudly.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/143.jpg


Remember those cool toys we played with as kids (and our own kids still love) where you stick your hand in and leave an impression on the other side. Well, they had a giant one of those.....
Here, Joshua and Samantha are pushing the pins back and forth

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/109.jpg

later, when it wasn't as busy, I helped Joshua get his whole body into the act

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/165.jpg


Toward the end of our visit, though, things started to get a little hairy.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/156.jpg
http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/157.jpg

:rotfl2:

Good thing we recently cut Samantha's hair.....it might have touched the ceiling otherwise, :rotfl:

After being there for a good 3-4 hours, it was time to say a tired goodbye

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/168.jpg





Next update: we have an "ADR" (j/k) to get to.......and yes, even some food pics.

[stacikristine]

What a fun trip!!! I love all of the pictures. Your kids are adorable. Oh--and I finally made it up to see my parents in Moore...they live near Emmaus (spelling?) Baptist Church... I'm sure you know where that is. And I forgot...will your family be in Jambo House? Our trips are coming up soon!!

[jenny105]

Wow, look at Samantha's hair! :rotfl:

[3princesses+aprince]

Looks like a wonderful time!!!!! Great pictures, I love the one with the hair.

[crocko]

Another Thursday...

11 Weeks to Go!!!!
:cool1::banana::yay::woohoo::yay::banana::cool1:
:thumbsup2


Also means....time for a new letter. We start the letter P today.

Letter P
Ride - Peter Pan's Flight (our plan is that this ride will be the FIRST Disney ride for the kids)
Non-ride - Parades (hoping kids will enjoy these...pretty confident Samantha will at least)
Characters: Phineas, Perry, Penny (Bolt), Pat (Handy Manny), Pearl, Pluto, Pete, Piglet, Pongo, Perdita, Mrs. Potts, Phil (Hercules), Pegasus, Pumbaa, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Pocahontas

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CRs-NtSUpK0/SauuA51xl7I/AAAAAAAAAAk/8npxmn5R03c/S692/pearl.jpg


Also as part of letter P stuff, tomorrow we are planning on having our family sit-down to go through all of our pins together. Joshua is very excited about this. Might also try to find some time to look at our Pressed Pennies as well.

[crocko]

Popping in to give a quick update on how our pin divvying went.

As Bridgette and I feared, it started off where every pin I put out was snatched up by either Joshua or Samantha. LOL -- those cuties.

After 15-20 pins, we were able to help them figure out what collections they wanted and that helped us start getting some pins into the "trade" pile.

So......our collection goals:

Samantha) Princesses (including Tinker Bell) and Cats (she already has a Marie pin and Oliver pin to start...)
Joshua) Mickey Mouse (lol....I didn't see this one coming....several pins I expected to trade went into his pile...that's okay) and Pixar film pins (that'll be a cool collection).
Bridgette) WDW rides and High School Musical/JONAS
John) Ducks (except Daisy.....mainly talking about Donald, Scrooge, and the nephews) plus my "emotional faves" LOL, whatever I want those to be.

So.....after we got all the way through, we managed to have 63 pins in our trade pile. Bridgette thinks that is a good number. (Meanwhile....I'm stilling considering ways to get some more pins to take with us) :rotfl:




Hope everyone had a great Independence Weekend! I'll have more updates soon....

[3princesses+aprince]

Sounds like fun going through all of the pins. I'm going to collect lots of them before our next trip too. We started out with just 2 each and of course that just wasn't enough.

I love your letter of the week thing. I think we're going to use that one when we get to 26 weeks out. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[stacikristine]

With 63 pins to trade, you'll for sure get some great ones!! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Time to get going again on my mini-TR from St. Louis.

Last post, I had shown all the fun we had at the Magic House, Children's Museum. From there, Bridgette had scoped at a fun place to have dinner called Fitz's. It is a restaurant/root beer bottling company. Sounded fun so we thought we'd give it a try.

Very tired Samantha quickly fell asleep in the van and slept like this through the first half of dinner

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/172.jpg


She eventually woke up and had some crackers. Here's a picture of the kids. [We were up on the 2nd floor....in the background is the 1st floor of the restaurant....directly below us was the bottling factory]

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/173.jpg


For dinner, I had a barbecue sandwich and it was D-Licious. To drink, Joshua had an orange soda, but he didn't really like it. I took a sip and it tasted funny. I ordered a strawberry soda and it was SO good (brought that bottle home with us). I shared a little bit of it with the kids.

Then....it was time for dessert --> where things REALLY got yummy.

Bridgette, Joshua, and Samantha split a Neapolitan Brownie dessert
-- scoop of vanilla, scoop of chocolate, scoop of strawberry, whipped cream, and 3 big browines --

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/177.jpg

You can tell they are busy enjoying themselves

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/179.jpg


Meanwhile, I was doing just fine with my very tasy vanilla milkshake

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/178.jpg



Afterward, we walked around the side of the building to get a couple cool pics of the place

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/182.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/184.jpg


Bridgette snapped this one while trying to head to the van.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/188.jpg

Yep -- we had a very fun day.





Still to come......the insides of animals and a bad bird.

[crocko]

Sounds like fun going through all of the pins. I'm going to collect lots of them before our next trip too. We started out with just 2 each and of course that just wasn't enough.

I love your letter of the week thing. I think we're going to use that one when we get to 26 weeks out. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Hoping pin trading will be fun.....just have to see if the kids remember to look at cast members for what they are wearing.
and yes, the letter project has been very fun. Definitely consider giving it a try.


With 63 pins to trade, you'll for sure get some great ones!! :thumbsup2
Yes! Very excited about seeing what's out there..... :woohoo:

[crocko]

What a fun trip!!! I love all of the pictures. Your kids are adorable. Oh--and I finally made it up to see my parents in Moore...they live near Emmaus (spelling?) Baptist Church... I'm sure you know where that is. And I forgot...will your family be in Jambo House? Our trips are coming up soon!!

We will be over in the new Kidani Village. From pics it looks very nice...so, excited about giving it a try.

Wow, look at Samantha's hair! :rotfl:No kidding. At the time, I don't think she realized what was happening, but she laughed a lot when she saw her picture later.

Looks like a wonderful time!!!!! Great pictures, I love the one with the hair.
yep -- we almost missed that part...glad we eventually found it.

[stacikristine]

Yes--Kidani Village looks gorgeous! My aunt is staying there early in September. I can't wait to hear how she likes it!

[crocko]

continuing St. Louis trip...

Monday -- last full day together before Bridgette had to go do work stuff.

Morning was planned as a good time to go hit the St. Louis zoo. We got there right about 8:00am so we could get into the Children's Zoo during the hour in which it was still free. One of the buildings had some cute stuff.


Joshua the vet

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/195.jpg


We also found a cool jeep -- we referred to it as the Diego truck.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/196.jpg


Joshua discovered this, where you could actually get right up underneath some frogs....he was a little intimidated, though

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/210.jpg


A little farther on, we came across some alpacas. As you look at this picture you make think what a cute little animal this is....it even appears to be smiling. But take a closer look at that smile....I think this animal has tricks up its sleeve. Don't trust the smile, people....don't trust the smile.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/215.jpg


Caught off guard by the alpacas' "cuteness", we didn't realize that a whale was sneaking up behind us.......uh oh. Looks like we've been swallowed.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/216.jpg


We got out of that fiasco, though, but then Joshua goes and gets swallowed by a hippo. :scared1: Sheesh!

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/219.jpg


Samantha does not look excited about crossing a super-scary rope bridge

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/222.jpg


Toward the end of the Children's Zoo....they had a cool growth chart that let's you see how tall you are compared to zoo animals.
Joshua's bigger than an otter.
Samantha's bigger than a koala.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/223.jpg


Weirdly enough, we had some friends from home that were traveling through St. Louis at the same time (they were headed on to Kentucky afterward) so, they met us at the zoo this day.

Posing with the elephants

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/230.jpg




Samantha loves penguins....so glad we could find this little cutie

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/235.jpg


With the penguins, though, was a pelican....according to Samantha, this was a bad bird (bad rap for the bird....he didn't do anything....)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/236.jpg


"Chillin'" wih the penguins

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/240.jpg


My friend Amanda and Samantha....girl talk...

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/241.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/242.jpg


One of the neat things about this zoo is the quantity of animals they have in each exhibit.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/251.jpg


We love giraffes...

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/252.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/259.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/260.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/261.jpg



Scott and Amanda....our farewell picture

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/270.jpg


Last 3 zoo pics.....
Joshua's tired.....
Joshua's putting his waning energy into a smile
...loving his sister

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/271.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/272.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/274.jpg



Time to head back to the car......this is a free zoo and if you park on the street, you get free parking.

And what? Well, look at that! On this mighty hot day, I managed to grab the One-and-Only shady spot! Woohoo!!
(it really made a difference....car felt 20 degrees cooler inside)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/275.jpg



One more update-to-come...........with some hotel fun and a unplanned fun stop on the way home!

[3princesses+aprince]

Great update, looks like those kids are now ready for some Disney FUN!!!! I love the pic of Samantha scared to cross the rope bridge, that was too cute. Can't wait to hear about the rest.

I have a Samantha too, I absolutely love that name!!!!

[PookieB]

Wow! Great a great zoo! The Magic house looks neat too. Looks like the kids had a blast. :goodvibes

[crocko]

Great update, looks like those kids are now ready for some Disney FUN!!!! I love the pic of Samantha scared to cross the rope bridge, that was too cute. Can't wait to hear about the rest.

I have a Samantha too, I absolutely love that name!!!!It's a great name! her middle name is Grace, so sometimes we call her Sammie G.

Wow! Great a great zoo! The Magic house looks neat too. Looks like the kids had a blast. :goodvibesIt's a nice zoo (too bad the polar bears weren't out this time.....and yes, lots of fun....glad we went in the morning before the heat really set in.

[crocko]

Finishing up the St. Louis mini-TR

A couple pics of fun at the hotel

"Push-up bars turn you into a clown!"

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/277.jpg


The result of a busy and fun day

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/278.jpg




Finally, on Thursday it was time to head back home. Halfway home, Bridgette said she wanted to try and do "something" fun....instead of just being boring and going all the way home without doing anything. So...as we neared Carthage/Joplin area, we decided to take a short side-route and go to the Precious Moments Museum and Chapel.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/319.jpg


Things started out poorly on the kid-front.

Samantha was very scared of this large statue

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/281.jpg


Then, we saw this....which got Bridgette teary-eyed:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/283.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/284.jpg


After that, though, things took an upward swing.

Starting with this very cute elephant that Samantha loved

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/287.jpg


Then, she found a bear that she let us know was very cute

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/297.jpg


plus a goose

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/300.jpg


a pony

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/301.jpg


and some other fun animal statues.


Throughout our entire time at the Precious Moments museum, Joshua was busy doing this


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/296.jpg



Before heading into the stores, we walked outside toward the chapel

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/306.jpg


There were some very pretty stain-glassed windows

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/307.jpg


Inside, you quickly saw a big mural painted by the guy who created Precious Moments -- called Hallelujah Square. In fact, even though he is in his (70's I believe)...just a few weeks before, he had come to town and finished this. I believe he started it 20 years before....this past trip, he added his mom (dark black hair) and said that it is now complete.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/308.jpg


There were also some very nice paintings of Bible stories and parables

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/309.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/310.jpg


Outside of the chapel, was an angel that Samantha had a little chat with

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/311.jpg



The last picture highlights probably the sweetest thing that happened on the whole trip. As we walked through the chapel, museum, and stores we were excited at how much Samantha loved all the figurines and statues. She was having a blast. Then, we come around a corner in the store and see a wedding statue.....and we both hear Samantha say, "Awww.....that's the cutest thing I've ever scene-ed."

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/318.jpg


LOL :lmao: The things kids'll say.




So, shortly after we concluded our little side trip and headed back toward home. We stopped in Tulsa at dinner time.....stopping at the Woodland Hills Mall so we could visit the Disney Store real quick :thumbsup2

Finally, managed to get back home somewhere around 9:30pm. Whew!

It was a fun trip. Overall, the kids enjoyed staying in a hotel (they love hotels) and had a blast at the pool. This was their first ever time to get to go to a hotel pool....(man, they're gonna love Animal Kingdom Lodge!!)


Thanks for sticking around through this mini-trip report.

[3princesses+aprince]

Great little mini report, I enjoyed it! The pic of Samantha with the little Angel is cute. That place looks great. My Mom loves precious moments!

[crocko]

Great little mini report, I enjoyed it! The pic of Samantha with the little Angel is cute. That place looks great. My Mom loves precious moments!

Yep -- she had turned the cute-o-meter up high during that little stop.
My mom and sister collected some Precious Moments when I was growing up....seeing them a couple weeks ago reminded me how neat they are.

[jenny105]

I wanna chill with a penguin! lol I love penguins! Great pictures! I didn't even know that had a Precious Moments museum. That's really neat.

[longing2Batdisney]

I love this trip!!! :thumbsup2The mall (wish we had one like that), the children's mus. awesome!, and I just love the precious moments mus. and the zoo looked hot but lots of fun as well!!! Great mini trip!!:cheer2:

[crocko]

I wanna chill with a penguin! lol I love penguins! Great pictures! I didn't even know that had a Precious Moments museum. That's really neat.
Yeah -- I'm assuming most people don't. But it was cool.

Quite a few billboards for it along I-44. Of course, there is a Six Flags in Eureka, MO....which is not that far from St. Louis. There was not a SINGLE billboard for Six Flags all along I-44. How dumb is that!?
I know that highway from Tallahassee to Orlando is loaded with Disney, SeaWorld, Universal billboards every quarter of a mile!


I love this trip!!! :thumbsup2The mall (wish we had one like that), the children's mus. awesome!, and I just love the precious moments mus. and the zoo looked hot but lots of fun as well!!! Great mini trip!!:cheer2:Yeah -- we ended up having a lot of fun and spent very little money. Most of the money went to good ol' gasoline.

[crocko]

Interrupting this September 2009 PTR for some CRAZY NEWS!!


As I've mentioned before, Bridgette and I took a 3-night trip to WDW early last December with my sister. Since we knew we had the big September trip coming up, we got annual passes. Our first usage day was December 1st, I believe.

Recently, Bridgette has joked about trying to fit in one more trip before the annual passes expire. Well....I got inspired this morning when I saw really good airline deals going on right now. So, quickly broke out several spreadsheets and started running some numbers...and....

I HAVE JUST BOOKED AIRLINE TICKETS FOR NOV.14TH-17TH TO ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!

WOO!!!!!! :cool1: :banana: :cool1: :banana: :cool1:

So....amazingly, Bridgette and I will have gone to WDW 3 times in one 12-month period. So exciting!!

We finish the September trip on the 26th. So...7 weeks later!! we'll be headed right back. Yeehaw!!


(Oh, and I haven't told Bridgette yet, but I've been running some more numbers, and am starting to heavily consider joining DVC.......that's just a rumor for now, though) ;-)

[jenny105]

Wow! Awesome! Lucky you, 3 trips in one year. Don't tell your wife, keep it a surprise!!

[crocko]

Well....she knows we're going back. Too big of a decision for me to just surprise her with (okay, not really......she'd have no problem with that.....but she knows)

Where I hope to surprise her, though, is with where we stay. Right now, she looked up value resorts and saw that we can get into All-Star Music. We've stayed at an All-Star resort before and enjoyed it...plus looks like Music has added some really neat Broadway stuff.

BUT....I'm working on trying to get some DVC rent points and possibly stay somewhere we've never been before......so, hoping that can be my surprise for her. I'll keep you updated on that.

:cool1: :banana:

[jenny105]

That'd be a great surprise! Which DVC were you thinking about?

[longing2Batdisney]

Great news!! Lucky you! the investment of the AP's has reallypaid off for ya'll! I hope you are able to swing the DVC points and the DVC it self! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

That'd be a great surprise! Which DVC were you thinking about?
Well, in December we stayed at Saratoga Springs.
In September, we'll be staying at Kidani Village.

So...would like to stay somewhere different this time.

Working on a limited budget, so unless I get a really good deal, looking most likely at:
Boardwalk
Animal Kingdom Lodge (Value room)
Old Key West

Of those....I'm definitely focused on trying to get in Boardwalk Villas. Would be fantastic if I could grab a stay there.


Great news!! Lucky you! the investment of the AP's has reallypaid off for ya'll! I hope you are able to swing the DVC points and the DVC it self! :thumbsup2Thanks! It's nice to get use out of those AP's...and yeah, becoming more and more drawn in by the DVC lure....

[disneylovinfamily]

I have been away and just got caught up! I LOVE the mini triipes to St. Louis! The pics are so cute and that children's muesem looks great.

Interrupting this September 2009 PTR for some CRAZY NEWS!!


As I've mentioned before, Bridgette and I took a 3-night trip to WDW early last December with my sister. Since we knew we had the big September trip coming up, we got annual passes. Our first usage day was December 1st, I believe.

Recently, Bridgette has joked about trying to fit in one more trip before the annual passes expire. Well....I got inspired this morning when I saw really good airline deals going on right now. So, quickly broke out several spreadsheets and started running some numbers...and....

I HAVE JUST BOOKED AIRLINE TICKETS FOR NOV.14TH-17TH TO ORLANDO!!!!!!!!!

WOO!!!!!! :cool1: :banana: :cool1: :banana: :cool1:

So....amazingly, Bridgette and I will have gone to WDW 3 times in one 12-month period. So exciting!!

We finish the September trip on the 26th. So...7 weeks later!! we'll be headed right back. Yeehaw!!


(Oh, and I haven't told Bridgette yet, but I've been running some more numbers, and am starting to heavily consider joining DVC.......that's just a rumor for now, though) ;-)

congrats on the new trip!!!!!!

[crocko]

congrats on the new trip!!!!!!
Thanks! I'm very excited.








And..............another Thursday is here, so

10 WEEKS TO GO!!!! ONLY 70 MORE DAYS!!!!

Letter Q
Ride: Test Track (I had to get tricky for Q....I went with Test Track because it is the Quickest Ride in all of Disney World)
Non-ride: Queues (I'm sure we'll be in a lot of these, so decided to get the kids visually prepared)
Characters: Queen of Hearts, Quasimodo, Quincy

http://images.easyart.com/i/prints/rw/lg/5/9/Disney-Quasimodo-5929.jpg




I'm so excited to be at the 10-week mark.

This weekend, we're having a garage sale....then the following weekend, Bridgette will be out of town.

After that, though, it's time to start completing some "preparation" projects -- specifically, making T-shirts!

[stacikristine]

It looks like your trip was a BLAST! I really like the zoo pics--too cute. And I can remember going to the Precious Moments Chapel when I was little bitty--seeing the pictures of Samantha brought back so many memories :goodvibes Congrats on your new trip!!! Good luck renting points. My aunt just got a great deal renting a few weeks ago--and she's going on really short notice (beginning of Sept). :thumbsup2

[crocko]

It looks like your trip was a BLAST! I really like the zoo pics--too cute. And I can remember going to the Precious Moments Chapel when I was little bitty--seeing the pictures of Samantha brought back so many memories :goodvibes Congrats on your new trip!!! Good luck renting points. My aunt just got a great deal renting a few weeks ago--and she's going on really short notice (beginning of Sept). :thumbsup2
Thanks!



and it appears, Good Luck has been had! :wizard:


Unfortunately, the Boardwalk Villas studios were booked up, BUT there was availability at Old Key West which is a place I've never stayed at before....which was part of my goal.

Ironically, I happened to get in touch with a DVC owner who lives in Oklahoma City. We worked out a deal and she just confirmed that I have a reservation at Old Key West for those nights.

yay!! :cool1: :banana: :cool1:


[Now -- how long can I keep this secret?
The goal = until we get to the Magical Express pickup
The reality = ? :confused3]

[longing2Batdisney]

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! we were part of a stroller swap and picked up the stroller at Old Key West.. it was beautiful (from what I could see--it was 8:00 at night)

YOU HAVE TO KEEP IT A SECRET!!! SHE WILL BE SO EXCITED!!!

you need to school me--how does this renting of the points work
would this be something a budget minded mom be interested in for next year...
OH! but you can't be part of the "free dining" if its offered can you...
anyway how does it work if we go in DEC.

[crocko]

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! we were part of a stroller swap and picked up the stroller at Old Key West.. it was beautiful (from what I could see--it was 8:00 at night)

YOU HAVE TO KEEP IT A SECRET!!! SHE WILL BE SO EXCITED!!!

you need to school me--how does this renting of the points work
would this be something a budget minded mom be interested in for next year...
OH! but you can't be part of the "free dining" if its offered can you...
anyway how does it work if we go in DEC.

Well, this is my first time to rent points and I'm still IN PROGRESS, but I'll let you know how it has gone so far....

When talking to Bridgette, she saw that we could get a room at All-Star Music for just over $350 for 3 nights, I believe (that includes taxes/fees/whatnot).

Well, on the DVC Rental forums, I could tell that the "average" price per point is around $10. I looked up some DVC points charts (http://www.wdwinfo.com/disney-vacation-club/DVCpoints.shtml) and figured out based on the date we were going, how many points I would need for each resort (only looked at the smallest rooms this time). After e-mailing/pm'ing a couple DVC renters, I found out that pretty much only OKW, SSR, and AKL still had availability for my timeframe. After Sept., I will have stayed at SSR and AKL, so that left OKW as a new place to try.

For a Sat night, Sun night, and Mon night.....standard studio at OKW, it would take 37 points. So, 37 x $10 = $370. Add 3% paypal charge and I will be paying a total of $381.10.

SO....for about $30 more, I will get to stay in a DVC deluxe resort. :thumbsup2
(Had I booked OKW on my own, it would have cost just over $1,000)

In about 10 days, my DVC person will get the confirmation letter and then mail to me. I also gave her my flight info so that she could set up Magical Express for us. The ME stuff should arrive at my address a month before the trip.

[How can I save so much money this way? Well, right now, annual maintenance fees are approx. $5/point. So, aside from the initial cost of DVC, this owner spent $185 on these 37 points this year. She rented them to me for $370....making a $185 profit on her maintenance fees. She wins....I win. Yay for all Disney fans]

[longing2Batdisney]

sounds like a winner!! can't wait to hear how it turns out...:thumbsup2

[jenny105]

OKW looks like a beautiful resort. I've never stayed there, you'll have to let me know how you like it! I eventually want to stay in every resort on property. So far I've only stayed in Pop but I'll cross two off my list with the Sept trip!

[crocko]

sounds like a winner!! can't wait to hear how it turns out...:thumbsup2Me 2!

I've made it about 24 hours so far since getting it booked......going to be an uphill battle to keep from talking about it.

OKW looks like a beautiful resort. I've never stayed there, you'll have to let me know how you like it! I eventually want to stay in every resort on property. So far I've only stayed in Pop but I'll cross two off my list with the Sept trip!
That's my goal, too!! OKW is one of the resorts at Disney I know the LEAST about....so, that will make it pretty neat.

[crocko]

Okay, back to talking about the real reason for this PTR......our September trip.

Last year, we bought a new camera for my wife.....a Nikon DSLR -- 10.2MP and 18x optical zoom (this thing zooms like crazy!) :love:


This year, though, I decided that I'd like to have my own camera to take pictures with as well. That way, I can try to catch different angles and Bridgette can hopefully be in some pictures. Since she's got the nice DSLR, I figured I would just get a nice Point-and-Shoot. So, on July 3rd I went off to Best Buy with my $50 Best Buy gift card and $20 in Rewards Zone bucks......

and came away with....

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/nikon.jpg


10MP and 3x optical zoom. So, not much zoom, but I'll leave those pics up to my beautiful wife. My goal will be to catch some candid shots and try to get some close-up creative shots......my plan is that whenever we're just kinda standing around not doing much (or in a line) to keep my eyes open for unique things to take pictures of.

OH! and part of the coolness of buying over July 4th weekend, for only $40 extra.....I got not only the camera, but an extra rechargeable battery ($40 value), a camera bag (perfect size), and a 4GB memory card.

Now......to make sure I know how to use this thing. :laughing:

[jenny105]

I have that camera! Mine is blue. :) It's pretty good for a point and shoot. Takes video too.

[crocko]

I have that camera! Mine is blue. :) It's pretty good for a point and shoot. Takes video too.
Jealous! :headache:

I really wanted the blue one, but they were out of stock.

:thumbsup2 OH well, great minds...........

[longing2Batdisney]

Great idea on the camera!! :thubsup2
I'm the one who is always taking the pics; Danny never even attempts to pick up the camera--so I'm hardly ever in the pics (which most of the time is OK--but sometimes it would be nice to have a few candid shots). :cutie:

[crocko]

Great idea on the camera!! :thubsup2
I'm the one who is always taking the pics; Danny never even attempts to pick up the camera--so I'm hardly ever in the pics (which most of the time is OK--but sometimes it would be nice to have a few candid shots). :cutie:yeah -- going to try and get some candid shots....hoping to get some great reactions from the kids.

[crocko]

This weekend we had a garage sale.

Ugh!! It was around 105 degrees for the high this weekend. Luckily, we were at my parents house and they have good shade thanks to big trees. Nevertheless, this was our worst garage sale ever. Hardly anyone came by. Last time that we do a mid-summer sale like this. We still have quite a bit left, so we boxed it up and will give it another go in October we're thinking.

Luckily, we made enough for Bridgette to finish "paying off" her trip she took with her sister to Forks back in April.
The kids did a good job selling their toys.....made a combined $44, so $22 a piece which they have said they want to save for their Disney trip. :)

[stacikristine]

Yay for the camera! Sorry about the garage sale. Yeah, I'm kinda with everyone that didn't show up--I don't think I could brave the weather for some garage sales. Did you all get the rain these past few weeks?

[crocko]

Yay for the camera! Sorry about the garage sale. Yeah, I'm kinda with everyone that didn't show up--I don't think I could brave the weather for some garage sales. Did you all get the rain these past few weeks?
We haven't had much rain in the last.....well, the last while.



Last night we went clothes shopping (some of it specifically for Disney trip).

I added 2 pairs of shorts to my collection.
Joshua and Samantha each added a pair of comfy shoes.
Bridgette has added a plethora of cute, clearance clothes.
-- shopped at Kohl's....had a 30% off entire purchase sticker --

[crocko]

Time to get back to PTR discussion.


Going to start working on my "gameplan" for each day of the trip. The fact that we have booked a bounceback trip for just me and Bridgette is really going to help us put energy into making sure we do all the things the kids will really enjoy on this September trip.


So....

Day 1 (Arrival Day)

My parents and sister will be getting into MCO at about 1pm, I believe. Our plane is currently scheduled to arrive at 1:55pm. So, they will just wait around for us to get there and we will all get on the Magical Express together.

We will then enjoy the fun Disney video as we take our 30-minute trip to Kidani Village.

Hopefully, we'll make it to the resort by about 3:30. Get checked in, check out the rooms and do a little sight-seeing around.

For arrival night, we have a 7:10 ADR at 'Ohana. So, my thinking is that by 5:00-5:30ish we'll get on a bus to Magic Kingdom. The kids will be able to get a sneak preview glimpse of the park and the castle. :3dglasses
Depending on how much time we have. The plan is to take the monorail to check out the Grand Floridian and Contemporary before dinner. Then, probably around 6:45pm, we'll finish whatever we're doing and head over to the Polynesian.

Have a great dinner, check out the Poly a little bit....take the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and then catch a bus back to AKL. In hopes of getting some good rest to start the trip, we'll try to get to bed in good time this first night.


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- The plane. On our last trip, the connecting flight in Houston was delayed almost 2 hours. If something like that happens again, we'll be pressed to pretty much check-in and quickly get over to dinner.

Most moveable mission:
-- Checking out the MK hotels. If need be, checking out the GF and Contemporary can most easily be scratched....as we'll be on the monorail at other times on the trip and could add this to the itinerary later.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Magic Kingdom entrance. Theoretically, the idea is to not enter a park until the following morning. BUT....my sister, my mom, Bridgette, and I have annual passes. The kids and my dad have 10-day park hopper passes. We're only staying 9 nights, which means we could go to a park every full day of the trip, plus the arrival and departure dates. Will we be tempted to take a sneaky trip into MK while we're so close? pirate: I don't know!!

[stacikristine]

Sounds great so far! I'm anxious to hear how you like 'Ohana! We weren't able to get in at a decent tmie there, so we're trying Kona instead. I think your kids would LOVE to go to MK for a little bit on the first day!! :goodvibes

[crocko]

Sounds great so far! I'm anxious to hear how you like 'Ohana! We weren't able to get in at a decent tmie there, so we're trying Kona instead. I think your kids would LOVE to go to MK for a little bit on the first day!! :goodvibes
Well, I've been to 'Ohana before and we absolutely loved it. Now, the menu has probably changed since then, but still expecting it to be good.

From what I've heard of Kona, though, it sounds very good to.

And yes....MK on that first night is VERY tempting. pirate:

[crocko]

Yesterday was Thursday, which means one week closer....

9 WEEKS TO GO!!!

:cool1::cool1::banana::cool1::woohoo::banana:


AND...it means another letter to start.


The Letter R

Ride: Walt Disney World Railroad (the kids are excited about riding the train over to Toontown)
Non-ride: Rafiki's Planet Watch (This is a pretty fun area and both Bridgette and I think the kids can have some fun back here)
Characters: Rhino, Ryan (HSM), Rusty, Russell, Ramone, Randall, Remy, Roo, Rabbit, Robin Hood, Rex, Rocket (Einsteins)

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/3845/russell.png (http://img197.imageshack.us/i/russell.png/)




PLUS, TODAY IS JULY 17TH....WHICH MEANS

2 MONTHS UNTIL DISNEY WORLD!!
:banana::cool1::thumbsup2:eek::thumbsup2:cool1::ba nana::woohoo::3dglasses

[crocko]

Last night we watched Snow White as our finish-off for the letter Q

(Would have watched Hunchback of Notre Dame [for Quasimodo] but they've watched it recently and I could tell Joshua didn't really enjoy it much).
So, Snow White since it has the evil Queen in it.

In general, the kids don't always do as well with the older movies, so wasn't sure what to think about this one for them. Samantha fell asleep before it started and missed the whole thing. So, as a "princess" movie, was expecting Joshua to get bored. He stayed attentive throughout, though, and laughed ALOT at the dwarves. His favorites were Dopey and Sneezy. It was so exciting to see him enjoying those characters, despite their 72 years of existence.

Joshua usually gets "closed-down" and sad about "death-scenes" (did not handle Charlotte's Web very well....poor guy) so wasn't sure what he'd think at the end of Snow White, when it looks like she was dead. :confused3
The scene where the dwarfs have put her in a glass coffin and are mourning her, I look over at Joshua....he looks over at me and says "Is it over? Now what can we do?"
Haha.....so much for Snow White! Apparently no emotional attachment, there. LOL :happytv:

[longing2Batdisney]

I understand what you mean about the older movies...
they are hit or miss with Ashton, also... he liked Pinocchio ??, did not like Snow White (the little girl I watch was afraid of the evil Queen), liked Alice in Wonderland, and believe it or not he does not care for 101 Dalmations (but loves just about every dog movie he has ever seen, cartoon or real characters). we had tried all the older movies for nap time before he left for WDW this past May.

[crocko]

I understand what you mean about the older movies...
they are hit or miss with Ashton, also... he liked Pinocchio ??, did not like Snow White (the little girl I watch was afraid of the evil Queen), liked Alice in Wonderland, and believe it or not he does not care for 101 Dalmations (but loves just about every dog movie he has ever seen, cartoon or real characters). we had tried all the older movies for nap time before he left for WDW this past May.very funny what kids will like/not like.

I know with Joshua, anything live-action will bore him pretty quickly (which is why we put in POTC last night at bedtime, during a Slumber Party night). He watched for a little, but zonked out pretty quickly. :laughing:

[longing2Batdisney]

very funny what kids will like/not like.

I know with Joshua, anything live-action will bore him pretty quickly (which is why we put in POTC last night at bedtime, during a Slumber Party night). He watched for a little, but zonked out pretty quickly. :laughing:
how funny:rotfl:...Ashton is into live action flicks at the moment
his three favorite: Babe
Nim's Island ??
Journey to the Center of the Earth ??? :confused3
I can see Babe, but the other two--???
he does like POTC --when I let him watch; he also seems to like Harry Potter go figure

[crocko]

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom!!)

Hopefully, we will all get some good sleep that first night at Kidani Village. My wife, kids, and I will be in one room in a king bed. We tried this on our St. Louis trip and it worked out well. (If they're just going to wind up in our bed eventually, might as well have a king-size) On this first, full day we will start out with an 8:20 ADR at the Crystal Palace for a yummy and fun character breakfast to see Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore.

I'm very excited about this. I've never had a reservation for a restaurant before park opening time. Ready for the opportunity to walk down Main Street with hardly anyone around as we take in the splendor of Cinderella's Castle. Not sure when they'll let us enter for an 8:20 ressie, but hopefully a few minutes early :rolleyes1

This will be our first of 4 character breakfasts on the trip, so hoping that the kids really enjoy it (even if they don't eat much food.....I know I will!). Afterward, it will be time to head into the rest of the park. Park should be opened to all by the time we get out and our goal is to hit Peter Pan's Flight. Bridgette and I love this ride and want it to be Joshua and Samantha's first Disney ride.

Next...my thinking is that I'll rush over to Pooh's ride and grab FP's and we'll all get in line at Dumbo (unless it is already super-crazy at that point). If it is not too long, then with Pooh FP's in hand, we'll be in good shape to get 3 very popular Fantasyland rides knocked out with relative ease. Staying in Fantasyland, we'll then hit IASW and Philharmagic (hope the kids keep their glasses on and enjoy this -- I love this show!). That will still leave the Tea Cups, the Carousel and Snow White's ride. Hopefully by this time, we'll have a feel on whether the kids can handle Snow White or not.
Depending on how the day goes, we may hit Pooh's Playful Spot at some point, too (and depending on temperatures).

With Fantasyland in the bag, I expect will head eastward. North or south, though? Just depends. If Toontown isn't crazy, I'm sure the kids would love to ride the Barnstormer and see some friends (whether they be fairies, princesses, or mice). If too crazy, then we can head south to Tomorrowland.
Now, after Pooh's FP's, I'll probably try and pick a good time to hustle down to Buzz's ride and grab some FP's there, too.....so, hopefully we'd be able to ride it atleast once pretty easily. Other big goals in Tomorrowland include Laugh Floor and Astro Orbiter.

At this point, no idea how long these goals would take to accomplish and until we get there, no idea what kind of stops/rests we'll need to take for the kids. Besides simply having a ton of fun, my other main goal this day is to go ahead and stick around MK long enough to catch the 3 o'clock parade. Come 2:30-2:45, we'll probably stop whatever we're doing and go find our favorite parade spot (maybe I could sneak over to Jungle Cruise to grab some FP's) :rolleyes1

Regardless, I want to make sure we hit this parade....that way on our first full day, we'll get a feel for how the kids like parades. When the parade is over, we'll be basically done with MK for the day. I'm sure the kids will be tired, plus this day (Sep. 18th) is a MNSSHP night and I'd like to get headed out before the Party rush builds up too much.

The rest of the day? Probably head from MK back to the resort and then at some point during the evening, head on over to Downtown Disney. We love DTD and definitely want to get our first of several stops to it accomplished early on -- get an idea of what's available and possibly pick up some fun toys for the kids to have the rest of the trip. VERY GOOD chance that this night we will be eating at Earl of Sandwich. Yum! :yay:
Lunch? I skipped it didn't I. Based on our main focus of FantasyLand, my guess is we'll wind up at the Village Haus for lunch on this day.
Breakfast buffet - pizza - turkey & swiss sandwich..........Call me silly, but THAT is my kind of food day :cloud9:


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- The crowds. I've never been in September and I've never been with kids before. Things could take longer than I expect, but that's cool....we'll get done what we can. BUT, the big puncture would be the line at Peter Pan's Flight when we get to it after breakfast. We want it to be Disney Ride #1, but if the line is already crazy, then I think we'll have to adjust....grab a FP for it.....and move on. I can handle it (will have to mention this to Bridgette to make sure she's emotionally prepared, though) :lmao:

Most moveable mission:
-- Parade? I've already mentioned that if need be, we can get flexible with Peter Pan. Otherwise, there is not too much set-in-stone...basically do as much FL, TT, and TL that we can. The evening....see no reason while DTD should get ruined. So, the thing that could get "moved" this day could be the parade. Ideally, we'll do just fine hanging around the park until 3pm. Again, first time with kids, so if crankiness gets too crazy, we'll we may have to leave earlier and try the parade later on.....although, I've done lots of stuff & had lots of busy days with my kids and don't see this being an issue.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- A flight? What time wil get to DTD? How nice will the evening be? Don't know....but if we have plenty of time and energy, this night could definitely work out to be a good night to try and get on Characters in Flight. I would love to get the chance to do this and want Bridgette to get an opportunity to try out some 18x zoom pics on the WDW scenery.

[crocko]

how funny:rotfl:...Ashton is into live action flicks at the moment
his three favorite: Babe
Nim's Island ??
Journey to the Center of the Earth ??? :confused3
I can see Babe, but the other two--???
he does like POTC --when I let him watch; he also seems to like Harry Potter go figure
Have yet to see any of those first 3 you mentioned.

As an adult, how would you rate them for enjoyability?

[longing2Batdisney]

Babe- good family movie; esp w/kids... all the farm animals talk

Nim's Island - this film I liked--although I do not know why Ashton likes it:confused3 --they have animals who are her friends but it is a real life setting (little's girls dad is a biologist and lost at sea, she is left to defend the island they live on from the pirates--haha, Jodi Foster comes to rescue her she plays the part of an agraphobic (spelling)writer--this is a family movie

Journey to the Center of the Earth-- this one surprised me and Danny we both enjoyed--again I don't know why Ashton's like it. He loves dinosaurs and there are two maybe three scenes w/dinos (scary t-rex)but he will watch from beginning to end

I guess all three are family movies only JCE is kinda of intense w/the dinos and boring at the other parts for kids --I would think--but, than look at Ashton

[crocko]

Babe- good family movie; esp w/kids... all the farm animals talk

Nim's Island - this film I liked--although I do not know why Ashton likes it:confused3 --they have animals who are her friends but it is a real life setting (little's girls dad is a biologist and lost at sea, she is left to defend the island they live on from the pirates--haha, Jodi Foster comes to rescue her she plays the part of an agraphobic (spelling)writer--this is a family movie

Journey to the Center of the Earth-- this one surprised me and Danny we both enjoyed--again I don't know why Ashton's like it. He loves dinosaurs and there are two maybe three scenes w/dinos (scary t-rex)but he will watch from beginning to end

I guess all three are family movies only JCE is kinda of intense w/the dinos and boring at the other parts for kids --I would think--but, than look at Ashton
Wouldn't mind getting a chance to watch JCE.


Yesterday was Joshua's 5th birthday (party this weekend) so we took him to see Ice Age 3 (he's been very interested ever since I showed him the Scrat preview).
He was very into it and seemed to enjoy it. Samantha (who can't stand bad guys) was overwhelmed by all of the dinosaurs....she spent most of the movie in a very nervous state :laughing: (poor girl)

[crocko]

Day 3 (Hollywood Studios)

With Day 2's evening being fairly leisure, hopefully we will be able to get to bed in good time again that 2nd night. Because...we'll need to get up nice and early again to start Day 3. This will be a Hollywood Studios day and they will be having an early 8am rope drop, which we plan on being making (I love being at rope drops).

Obviously, with two little ones, the first goal of the day will involve Toy Story Mania. At this moment, the plan will be for everyone to quickly move straight to the ride line with the crazy rope-drop pack. Line shouldn't be any longer than 15-20 minutes first thing in the morning. After the ride, I'm planning on letting Bridgette take the kids to see the characters if they are still out near the Sorceror's hat (they tend to come out there right at rope drop...seemingly to lure some people away from the TSM craziness) while I get in the TSM FP line to get tickets for later in the day.

The rest of the day will be somewhat dependent on show times (specifically getting to Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney). Around those shows, our early morning focus will be Star Tours and Muppet-Vision 3D, plus a visit to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure.

For lunch this day, the plan will be to eat at the Backlot Express. I'm a burger guy and eating here is always a special part of going to the Studios.
Ach! That reminds me....Jedi Training Academy. Along with the items I mentioned in the previous paragraph, we will make sure to catch a JTA...hopefully Joshua will get chosen. If not, well...we may have to hit JTA a few times on the trip if Joshua is really into it.

Those 7 attractions (if you will) are the core of what we'll try and get accomplished with the kids on this first Studios day. Should time and energy allow, we'll want to hit The Magic of Disney Animation as well. After watching the Mushu show, the kids will probably want to go see some Disney friends -- we're especially hopeful that Carl and Russell will still be around in mid-September.
Right now, I'm thinking that I might let some of the family take the kids over, while I sneak into the Animation class and try to draw a character -- never done this before.

Hopefully, with several sit-down shows in the mix, we'll have enough energy and time to get these items all done. Once we get to mid-afternoon, though, we'll head back to AKL for a little bit, I'm thinking, to get some rest.
Because...our nighttime goal on this day is to hit SpectroMagic and Wishes (8pm and 9pm, respectively). If we can get a little rest in, then I'm thinking that come evening, we'll head over to MK and have dinner there (probably El Pirata y el Perico/Pecos Bill....maybe Casey's Corner)
Depending on time, who knows...maybe we could even fit in a Jungle Cruise or Pirates ride before Spectro.
Watch the parade, get ready for fireworks...watch Wishes and then try to get back to a bus and our room.


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Shows. Studios is a park with a lot of shows to watch and we have several on our agenda (JTA, Muppets, Mermaid, Playhouse). With walking and wait-times in between, we could find that these shows eat up a lot more of our park time than we might expect. If so, then we may just have to plan on hitting one or two for sure on Studios Day 2.


Most moveable mission:
-- TSM Fast Pass: The original goal is to hit this ride first thing, so if nothing else we will have ridden it once this day. Depending on how much the kids like it and the FP return time once we get off...it may be best to skip worrying about getting an FP for a 2nd go-around. If we forego the TSM FP, that opens up the possibility of trying to quickly grab a VoLM FP instead.


Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Dip in the pool? I know that at times on the trip we'll make it over to the pool, but it's not something I specifically like to schedule. If we haven't already hit the pool and splash pad by Day 3, then our afternoon break this day could be a perfect time to put on some swimsuits and go play in the water for awhile.

[stacikristine]

Sounds like a good plan! And I'm sure your kiddos will LOVE the pool area at Kidani Village! :thumbsup2

[jenny105]

All your plans for the days sound great! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Sounds like a good plan! And I'm sure your kiddos will LOVE the pool area at Kidani Village! :thumbsup2Yes! Very excited to get to those water guns!

All your plans for the days sound great! :thumbsup2Thanks! Can't wait to get there.

57 days from September trip.
Double that number and add 1 = 115 days until November trip.

[crocko]

By the way....Bridgette got an e-mail today about the new Passholder rates for October thru December.

She called and left a message saying that I should "re-book" our All-Star room so we can get the new cheaper rates.
LOL....hoping when I get home, I can smooth by this easily. :scared:

Even with the new rates, though, the price I'm paying for 3 nights at OKW is still fantastic. :thumbsup2

[longing2Batdisney]

sounds like a great agenda!!
good luck w/the all star-OKW smooth over :laughing:

[chicagoshannon]

Love your plans so far!

At DHS I'd guess your wait for TSM will be about 10 minutes (maybe less) We were at 9am rope drop and waited under 10 minutes and we were NOT in the front of the pack getting over there. Then I got FP's but the line was so long that the CM's were just handing them out instead of making us use the machine. That freed us up to get another FP right away. I hope you're able to do this. Later in the day when we went back to use our FP's the wait was longer (even with FP's) but still less then 20 minutes.

[crocko]

sounds like a great agenda!!
good luck w/the all star-OKW smooth over :laughing:
We lost our AT&T service last night, so she was too angry about that to bring up the new rates deal. Whew, one more day down.

Love your plans so far!

At DHS I'd guess your wait for TSM will be about 10 minutes (maybe less) We were at 9am rope drop and waited under 10 minutes and we were NOT in the front of the pack getting over there. Then I got FP's but the line was so long that the CM's were just handing them out instead of making us use the machine. That freed us up to get another FP right away. I hope you're able to do this. Later in the day when we went back to use our FP's the wait was longer (even with FP's) but still less then 20 minutes.
Would be cool if they did that with us on the FP's. Kids may have a bit of a tough time using the shooters on TSM, but am betting that at least Joshua will absolutely love it. He loves Mario Party on the Wii and this ride should be ride up his alley.

[jenny105]

Would be cool if they did that with us on the FP's. Kids may have a bit of a tough time using the shooters on TSM, but am betting that at least Joshua will absolutely love it. He loves Mario Party on the Wii and this ride should be ride up his alley.

Sounds like my kinda kid lol. I'm addicted to Mario Party. All of them. Since it first came out on N64!

[crocko]

Yeah, Mario Party rocks. We've owned a couple of them that have come out...always fun.

News from yesterday:
1) My DVC confirmation letter came in the mail from the lady I'm renting from. Woohoo!! :cool1:
AND.....whenever I come home from work, I check the mailbox on my way in. 9 out of 10 times, it is empty because Bridgette has already checked the mail. Yesterday, though, the mail was still there. :banana: Great! Now, Bridgette doesn't even realize some mysterious piece of mail came in for me.
Hopefully, this means I'll be pretty good-to-go on the secret until the 1 month mark...when Magical Express stuff comes in the mail.

2) We ate at chick-fil-a last night and halfway through dinner, the cow mascot came into the store. Samantha totally freaked out. She whimpered and fretted the whole time it was in the restaurant and the cries got louder in correlation to the closeness of the cow. I tried to scoot over and block her view, but she was intent on keeping an eye on that cow. Finally, after scaring a couple other kids, he went outside to wave at cars.
So now, Bridgette is worried about how she'll do with characters at Disney.
She may need a little time to adjust, but I'm still optimistic. She's seen pictures from our past trips, so knows what to expect...she knows these characters and loves them...she just may not want anything to do with those pesky villains. :laughing:

[jenny105]

I'm thinking of booking a long weekend at the end of April for me and my DBf's anniversary (it will be 5 years) and I'm thinking about renting DVC points. It's really going to depend on if I can get a great travel agent rate again because then I can get a value or mod for practically nothing or if a DVC rate would be cheaper. How did you go about renting points?

[crocko]

I'm thinking of booking a long weekend at the end of April for me and my DBf's anniversary (it will be 5 years) and I'm thinking about renting DVC points. It's really going to depend on if I can get a great travel agent rate again because then I can get a value or mod for practically nothing or if a DVC rate would be cheaper. How did you go about renting points?If you can get a good rate....then you can do value and probably mod for cheaper.

BUT....with renting points, you can upgrade to deluxe for not much more $ than a mod resort.

To rent points, I just started watching the DVC-Rent/Trade (http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29) board and started responding to people looking to rent out points that had points for the time period I needed. In general, the closer you wait until your trip date, the lower price per point you can probably get. On the flip-side, the closer to your trip you wait, the less options you'll end up since places will start getting booked up. If you're going on April and wanted one of the popular locations, then come November most DVC people could start trying to book for you....if you find someone that has that resort as their home, they can start booking now. Just some things to consider :wizard:

[crocko]

Another Thursday has arrived :cool1:

We are now 8 weeks from our big trip!!

Letter S
Ride - Star Tours (Joshua gets a cute smile anytime he sees pictures from this ride)
Non-ride - Snacks! (Found some pictures of the fun snacks that we'll get to have there....mmmm....me want make Rice Krispy.
Characters: Sharpay, Stretch, Squeeze, Sally (Cars), Sarge, Sheriff, Squirt, Sully, Sebastian, Stitch, Simba, Scar, Scuttle, Smee, Sneezy, Sleepy, Snow White, Scrooge McDuck


http://www.wolfstad.com/dcw/images/news/donrosaposter-large.jpg



So close and yet still so far.... :scared:

[jenny105]

Thank you! I'm sure I'll have more questions as the time gets nearer for me to do that. I just got the idea today. :)

[crocko]

Thank you! I'm sure I'll have more questions as the time gets nearer for me to do that. I just got the idea today. :)Look forward to hearing about what you end up working out.

[crocko]

Day 4 (Epcot)

Of the first 3 days, Day 3 will probably be the latest evening we'll have had...with Spectro and Wishes-watching. Thus, Day 4 is being planned as our most leisurely start day. We have 2 days specifically set to focus on Epcot and have decided to give this first Epcot day a World Showcase focus.

We'll hopefully all get to sleep in an extra hour (maybe) :laughing: with the initial goal of getting to Epcot in time for our 9:35am reservation at Akershus for a Princess Breakfast princess:. Samantha is excited about seeing princesses and should really enjoy this meal. She asked me awhile back if the princesses would be able to tell that she is a princess :rotfl2: I told her that I'm pretty sure they would know.

We'll be able to take as much time as we want to at breakfast since we'll be focused on World Showcase, which generally opens at 11am. Hopefully well-rested and well-fed, I'm excited about starting right at 11am and being able to have as much time as we want to hit the countries. We have no other specific plans for this day, so if we need take rests here and there, we'll be in no rush. :thumbsup2

As for what we'll do at the Showcase? Well, since we'll be on the east side (Mexico-side) for breakfast, my assumption is that we'll start in Mexico. That's perfect, because right off the bat we can hit a ride...and go hunt down Donald Duck. Then, over to Viking land (and another ride...too bad both Showcase rides are right next to each other). Then, China...Germany (look at trains and Smurfs), Italy (take some pretty pictures) and over to American Adventure....probably be a perfect time to have some ice cream.

On to Japan (look through their huge store and fun toys), Morocco (anyone see Aladdin?), and France (my sister's favorite place to have dessert). After refreshing ourselves, let's muster up some energy to enjoy the last two countries: United Kingdom (will they still have Charlie & Lola products?) and Canada (pictures in the phone booth, please).

I'm looking forward to this day...I know all of the adults will enjoy it and hope the kids do to...our goal is to hit the Kidcots, which they'll both probably have fun at. (Idea I just had: would be cool to give the kids a "task" of finding something really cool at each country they want to get their picture next to/in front of)

Dinner this day? Not sure....may depend on when we actually finish the Showcase...could grab something at Electric Umbrella before leaving or just head to DTD or back to AKL for something.


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Boredom. Biggest thing I can see is if the kids just get overly bored and cranky. I hope that with all the unique stores and different things to look at that they will have fun and if tired, just sit quietly in their strollers.


Most moveable mission:
-- Starting point. If we decide we want to "save" the rides for a little bit into the day, we could start in China, hit Germany and Italy, and then backtrack to Germany and take a lagoon boat over to Mexico. This would be something I've never done before. OR possibly even start over in Canada and just save the rides for last.


Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Special dinner? After the World Showcase, plans are very open. Being at this part of Epcot, though, would make it perfect for trying to get over to the Boardwalk this evening. If so, I think everyone could enjoy having dinner at the ESPN Zone.

[jenny105]

We have two days planned for Epcot too. The majority of the first day will be spent in Future World and doing the major attractions. The second will be during the F&WF so we'll be in WS a lot more than we usually are. Are you going to try the new KimPossible attraction? It sounds fun!

[crocko]

We have two days planned for Epcot too. The majority of the first day will be spent in Future World and doing the major attractions. The second will be during the F&WF so we'll be in WS a lot more than we usually are. Are you going to try the new KimPossible attraction? It sounds fun!
Not sure if we'll hit any of F&WF, but know that my sis and parents plan on going there on opening Friday.

As for Kim Possible...maybe, need to ask around and see if people think 3 & 5 year olds would have fun with it or not.

[crocko]

Well, less than an hour before I can leave work and start my fun weekend. :cool1:


Tonight, we have a friend who will be babysitting the kids, so Bridgette and I will be going out on a fun date. We have 2 balcony (http://www.warrentheatres.com/moorebalcony.asp) seat tickets to see Harry Potter! :banana: (we've both seen once, but are ready to go see again)

Click the link above to see more of what comes with these seats, but we bought a special 2-ticket deal where we get 2 tickets to the movie with reserved balcony seating, 2 entrees, 2 soft drinks, and 1 dessert (all served to our seats, where we have a table as well).
Very excited about this. We haven't done this yet, but think it sounds neat...plus...Harry Potter!


Then, tomorrow we will be having Joshua's 5-year old birthday party. Pizza, cake, presents, and fun!

Hope you all have a great weekend as well!! :wizard:

[jenny105]

Wow! That theatre looks really nice. We don't have ANYTHING like that around here. Just the normal multiplex. Have a great weekend!

[crocko]

Wow! That theatre looks really nice. We don't have ANYTHING like that around here. Just the normal multiplex. Have a great weekend!Thanks!

And yes, it is a very nice theatre....draws huge crowds pretty much every weekend (on HP midnight premiere, all 14 theaters were completely sold out to show HP at midnight).





Date night was very enjoyable....sitting in the balcony being served food spoiled us....I don't want to have to back to being the lower level riff-raff again. :lmao:

Saturday was Joshua's party....it was fun and he had a good time (will post pics soon)

Saturday night and last night we managed to get Ratatouille watched....only Pixar movie the kids hadn't seen yet. It is good, but probably my least favorite of the 10 Pixar movies. On the DVD, there is a "My Friend the Rat" extra. If you have this DVD, you gotta watch this! Hilarious!!

[crocko]

This Saturday was Joshua's party for his 5th birthday (Very exciting).

We've mostly done parties at home, but wanted to get outside somewhere this year, so went to a nice, shady park this year. In attendance were me, Bridgette, Joshua, and Samantha; grandma and grandpa, grammy + an aunt and her boyfriend; her other aunt and uncle; plus 4 friends from church (and one of their parents).

We grabbed some pizzas for everyone to eat. For cake....well, in the past we've had some very neat cakes that have been made for birthdays. This year, we waited too long to get a hold of someone, so Bridgette was left with making cakes on her own (which she has now vowed she'll never let happen again) :laughing:

The Cakes (she made 5 robot head mini-cakes):

Here's a picture of 3 of the cakes, one of which did not stand up well in the heat :cool2:

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/113-1.jpg


This was my favorite of the 5

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/056.jpg


The game we planned out for the day had to do with picking up things like a robot. We had a "grabber hand" and like a robot, kids were to use it to pick up various objects and transport them into a basket.


Joshua doing well....

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/064.jpg


Samantha had trouble and so Joshua helped her the entire time...as long as she had her hand on the grabber, though, she was perfectly happy with her efforts.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/076.jpg


Then, gifts! Here's Joshua opening a Leapster game, this one is the new Jedi Reading game (he has and loves the Jedi Math game). He also got the new Up game for Leapster (and will be getting the Ni Hao Kailan game once my sister gets her gifts delivered)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/095.jpg


Later, some of the kids were playing a ladder golf game and apparently weren't letting Samantha play

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/097.jpg


That's okay, though, because in general she was having a great time!

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/124.jpg


Now...for my favorite picture of the event. Bridgette was getting some candid shots of Joshua hanging out near the corner of the pavilion and managed to get one that makes him look so handsome....his cute hair and those fun little freckles

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/127.jpg


Last pic....one of the thoughtful parents brought Samantha a gift, too....it was a Snow White dress. Samantha put it on when we got home and apparently took a bite of an apple shortly after.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/099.jpg

Prince Joshua tried to give her a kiss to waker her, but she kept on snoozing. :laughing:




Well, thanks for letting me share with you....it was a fun day!

[cheap traveler]

You really have to be careful with those apples. My kids think they are poison also. Oh wait, thats just because they are healthy :rotfl:

Love the birthday party. And especially the melted cake.

I'm going to try out the Kim Possible activity on our Epcot day. What's the worst that can happen? We bail after a few minutes or one activity? No biggie. My DDs don't know who Kim Possible is... but I do;)

[longing2Batdisney]

Epcot day sounds well planned!

the bday party looked like lots of fun...I think the cakes came out great:thumbsup2...

[jenny105]

Your kids are adorable. :) I think the cakes came out great! That's way better than if I made an attempt at it! :thumbsup2

I love that the kids were wearing Wall-E shirts for the occassion. ;)

[crocko]

You really have to be careful with those apples. My kids think they are poison also. Oh wait, thats just because they are healthy :rotfl:

Love the birthday party. And especially the melted cake.

I'm going to try out the Kim Possible activity on our Epcot day. What's the worst that can happen? We bail after a few minutes or one activity? No biggie. My DDs don't know who Kim Possible is... but I do;)Yeah...that's a good philosophy and is the way I'm starting to feel about it....wouldn't hurt giving a try, eh?

Epcot day sounds well planned!

the bday party looked like lots of fun...I think the cakes came out great:thumbsup2...Thanks....Bridgette wasn't thrilled with them, but hey...they tasted really good :cool2:

Your kids are adorable. :) I think the cakes came out great! That's way better than if I made an attempt at it! :thumbsup2

I love that the kids were wearing Wall-E shirts for the occassion. ;)Yeah, that was fun....and the pink one Samantha was wearing...I hadn't even seen that one until she put it on :laughing:

[lacrosse_lady72]

Just catching up:

Love the YOAMD picture :)

Your kids are so cute! I love that picture of Samantha and her friend, both as Alice.

In looking in on your plans, it looks like we're going to be at HS AM EMH at the same time on the 19th! :banana:

I love your Pepper Ann pin... I miss that show.

Congrats on your ADRs!!! Those are good ones... and 'Ohana on arrival night, yayyy!

:rotfl: I just saw the staticy hair.

I can't wait to read what you think about Kidani and hopefully see some pictures, I'm staying there in January.

WHAT??? 3 trips in one year??? I think getting the AP had that affect on people, I'm doing that too.

In reading further, it looks like we'll be in that mad dash to TSM together on Sept 19!


I can't wait to read more John!

[crocko]

Just catching up:

Love the YOAMD picture :)

Your kids are so cute! I love that picture of Samantha and her friend, both as Alice.

In looking in on your plans, it looks like we're going to be at HS AM EMH at the same time on the 19th! :banana:

I love your Pepper Ann pin... I miss that show.

Congrats on your ADRs!!! Those are good ones... and 'Ohana on arrival night, yayyy!

:rotfl: I just saw the staticy hair.

I can't wait to read what you think about Kidani and hopefully see some pictures, I'm staying there in January.

WHAT??? 3 trips in one year??? I think getting the AP had that affect on people, I'm doing that too.

In reading further, it looks like we'll be in that mad dash to TSM together on Sept 19!


I can't wait to read more John!Glad you came and checked this PTR out.

Very cool that we'll be at Studios the same time. As for that EMH dash to Toy Story Mania...let's make a deal...I won't push you if you don't push me. :3dglasses

[crocko]

I've made it to July 29th!


50 DAYS TO GO!!!!

:cool1: :banana: :cool1: :cheer2: :woohoo: :yay: :yay: :woohoo: :cool1: :banana:

[crocko]

Day 5 (Animal Kingdom)

Last day of the first half of the trip.....4th full day and thus, time to hit the only park we will not have been to yet...Animal Kingdom. The day before (World Showcase day) will hopefully have allowed for everyone to get to bed in decent time. Thus, we should be ready to go for another morning EMH at Animal Kingdom (I don't know if I've ever done this park NOT on an EMH day :laughing:)

Hopefully (as happened on our December trip), they will let everyone in to the Discovery Island portion a few minutes early and have a fun opening show.

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24215.jpg

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24216.jpg

Then, we'll get ourselves positioned to the left and ready to head to the Kilimanjaro Safaris. I love doing this ride first thing in the morning (it's become an AK tradition). After that ride, the next 1.5 hours is up in the air. We have a 10am breakfast reservation at Tusker House (yay for Donald!) :cool1: My thinking right now is that we head on over to Dinoland for a little bit. If they still have the "centralized FP thing" going on at AK, then I could try and pop by and get a FP for something later. We could spend an hour in Dinoland, either digging for dinos or maybe riding a couple rides. (I think it would be nice to do this area some before it gets hot later).

Then, come 9:40ish head on back over to Africa for breakfast. After breakfast (probably about 11am) we'll have another 6 hours to do whatever we want to in the park. To start, since we're already closeby, I expect will get on the Wildlife Express Train and head over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Kids will enjoy the train ride and I think there will be a few fun things for them to do over there (hopefully see a couple fun characters as well) :wizard:

Then, with the remaining time.....
Main goals:
-- Finish Dinoland
-- Camp Minnie/Mickey
-- Finding Nemo show
-- Take some time to look at Tree of Life (possibly It's Tough to be a Bug)
-- The late afternoon parade

Sideline goals:
-- Festival of the Lion King
-- Maharajah Jungle Trek
-- Kali River Rapids (??) [Joshua's tall enough and Samantha is very close]
-- Flights of Wonder

Man, there's a lot to try and do with a couple of first-time kiddos. This is the only planned day at Animal Kingdom, but the last 5 days, there should be opportunities to come back and do more should the need exist. (Our last full day in the park, AK has EMH late hours!)

As of right now, we are planning to stay all the way to 5 o'clock closing and then head back to AKL. Bridgette, my sister, and my dad have a 7pm reservation at Boma this evening. My mom, the kids, and I will fend for ourselves. So, probably just eating at the Mara quick-service location...possibly getting on a bus and heading to DTD or a park if we have a specific eating desire.

I say probably eat at Mara, though, because we'd like to take this evening and partake in some of the Kidani Village fun. Besides the splash pad/swimming areas, there are lots of fun activities going on each day, plus a fun game area as well.....not to mention the fun of just going outside and watching the animals. So, after a hard-fought day to try and get as much accomplished as possible at AK, we'll have a nice relaxing evening at the Lodge that night.

Food summary: late buffet breakfast :banana:, snacks as necessary during the afternoon, then Boma/Mara for dinner.

Hopefully this will be another night to get to bed in decent time.


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Rain. It'll be September and there could definitely be rain any and everyday during our trip...but speaking from experience, Animal Kingdom is probably the most difficult park to be in when it rains -- lot of outside attractions and lots of big open spaces between attractions. Should it rain hard at times during the day, we may find ourselves seeing precious time slip by while we wait it out at whatever our current location may be.


Most moveable mission:
-- Safari time. It'll be hard to convince the "gang" not to do this ride first, but there's apart of me that thinks heading to Dinoland U.S.A. first could be a more productive solution. If the kids want to ride (Samantha probably will not) then we can hit Dinosaur first, then Triceratop Spin (Bridgette and I may try to sneak over to Primeval Whirl). Plus, there's some things hear I haven't noticed before. Kid's Discovery Clubs, a Cretaceous Trail, plus the Boneyard! Doing this area before it gets hot, sounds good. In an hour and 30/40 minutes, we could probably knock this area of the park out. Grab a Kilimanjaro Safaris FP before heading into breakfast and then ride it either after breakfast or after Rafiki's Planet Watch.


Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Primal parade. If timing works out, the kids might get a chance to pick up an instrument and tramp across the lodge in their very own African parade.

[jenny105]

I'll be in AK that day, at Tusker House right before you! We'll probably be leaving as you're about to sit down. Maybe I'll see you! :)

[crocko]

I'll be in AK that day, at Tusker House right before you! We'll probably be leaving as you're about to sit down. Maybe I'll see you! :)

That would be neat. I'll have to make sure and have my DIS goggles on.

Oh, and make sure to leave us some good buffet food :laughing:

[crocko]

Thursday! I'm coming to love Thursdays.....


7 MORE WEEKS UNTIL DISNEY WORLD!!!

The Letter T
Ride - Turtle Talk with Crush (almost a ride...kids should definitely enjoy this)
Non-ride - Tree of Life (I love looking at this tree...so fun to take pictures of, too)
Characters: Troy, Taylor (HSM), Turner, Tigger, Thumper, Timothy Q. Mouse, Tramp, Timon, Tinker Bell, Tick-Tock, Tarzan, Terk, Tweedledee/Tweedledum, Lady Tremaine, Thomas O'Malley, Tiana (P&theFrog)


http://disneyportugal.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/tiana-the-princess-and-the-frog.jpg




So excited.....busy July is almost gone and now we have 7 weeks to focus on getting our final packing/preparations done. Some camera equipment to purchase, shirts that need made....packing run-throughs need to be completed.....

[jenny105]

That would be neat. I'll have to make sure and have my DIS goggles on.

Oh, and make sure to leave us some good buffet food :laughing:

I have a feeling I'm going to seeing people from afar and be playing the 'Where do i know that person from??' game. :rotfl:

No promises! ;)

[SoonerGirl]

Hi, I followed your PTR link in your siggy from a post you made on another thread. I just had to check it out when I noticed that you live in Moore - we're in Moore too!

I love what your doing with the alphabet/Disney countdown - so creative.

You have a beautiful family. Thanks for sharing!

[crocko]

I have a feeling I'm going to seeing people from afar and be playing the 'Where do i know that person from??' game. :rotfl:

No promises! ;)

Yeah....I'll just be happy if I can actually run into, spot, and recognize just one DIS person on this trip. Would be cool.

Hi, I followed your PTR link in your siggy from a post you made on another thread. I just had to check it out when I noticed that you live in Moore - we're in Moore too!

I love what your doing with the alphabet/Disney countdown - so creative.

You have a beautiful family. Thanks for sharing!Thanks!

And very cool to find someone else from Moore on the DIS. Woohoo!!!
(took a quick peak for now at your California TR...that first page is making me miss San Francisco...haven't been there since 2002)

[crocko]

45 DAYS TO GO!!!


We got some shopping done for trip items this weekend.

1) Bought a digital camera for the kids. "Officially" it is Joshua's camera...I had a talk with him that it would be his camera but that he was expected to be very good about sharing it with Samantha. He's always borrowing Bridgette's cell phone to snap pictures, so we think he'll really have fun having his own nice camera to take pictures with. I believe it is a 5MP, 4x digital zoom camera. Also...it came with a battery charger...so worked out to be a good deal. :wizard:
He got the UP adventure book for his birthday, so we told him that he'll be able to take his own pictures in Disney World and use his own pics to fill up his adventure book after we get back.

2) Bought extra memory cards. Going into the weekend, both Bridgette and I had a 4 GB card. After buying Joshua's camera, we were planning on buying three more 4 GB cards. At Sam's Club, they not only have such good prices on 4GB and 8GB cards, but they even have 16GB cards now :eek: . So...we changed course and ended up buying one 16GB card and one 8GB card ($43 total). So...the 16GB card will be for Bridgette's camera. The 8GB card will be for my camera. Then, my 4GB card I currently have will become Joshua's and the 4GB card that Bridgette currently has will become a family backup card.

3) Michael's had a 5 for $10 deal on plain t-shirts. :cool1: So, we bought 10 t-shirts that we will be able to use for making custom shirts for the trip. We only needed 7...but needed to buy a number divisible by 5. Bridgette found an extra color she wanted and then we each got one more shirt so we can make a shirt for our November trip as well.


Upcoming....we're going to be trying to make a list of pictures we definitely want to get on the trip. Bridgette is an avid scrapbooker, so I know she's probably got fun ideas of pictures she'd like to be able to come home with. So, might as well plan ahead! :thumbsup2

[jenny105]

Has he seen the camera yet? I'm sure he's going to love it!

I need to get a memory card. I'll probably end up going to Best Buy to get one but I have to get one for the trip alone. If I took over 100 pictures at a concert, I can only imagine how many I'm going to take on this trip!

[crocko]

Day 6 (Epcot)

The start of Day 6 means the start of the 2nd half of the trip. At this point, we've also managed to get to every park at least once. Day 5 ended with an evening at Kidani Village, so we should have been able to get to bed in good time. We'll need the rest, because Day 6 will be another 8am rope drop day. Back to Epcot!

This will be Day 2 at Epcot, but in reality, it is Day 1 of Future World, since the other Epcot day will have been focused on the World Showcase.
Okay, time to give how I would like to see this morning pan out: we all head to Test Track (Samanth and an adult check out the store) while the rest of us quickly get on the ride.

After Test Track, I say we get on over to Spaceship Earth and have fun in the big ball while the kids are still wide awake. When through with it, I'm thinking we'll be getting close to 9am when the Seas will open. So...head on over to the clam shells for a ride. Then, have a good Talk with Crush and check out Bruce and the aquarium. Next? I say we start walking north towards Imagination....now, at this point, I'd like someone (probably me) to hop in quickly to the Land and grab some Soarin' FP's.
Once I'm caught back up, time to head in to see Figment. :banana:
Then, play around in the kids area while Bridgette and I look at the various picture options there are. Not sure, but at this time, could be getting close to lunchtime, so perfect time to head over to the Land. If not quite lunchtime, then we can get on a boat and ride Living with the Land...afterward, I know Bridgette will be ready to eat at Sunshine Seasons.
Hopefully, after lunch, Soarin' FP's will be good-to-go.

Man....if that all pans out accordingly, we will have pretty much accomplished all the main tasks of the day by noon/1pm. I believe as Disney Visa cardholders, we get to do a cool character greet...2pm-ish? So, after lunch/Soarin' time to go hang out in Innoventions and see what all there is to do -- Joshua should have a blast in here. Once Innoventions and character greet are complete, we'll have some decision-making to do....

The only other specific plan for the day is that we want to catch Illuminations this evening. So, we won't really NEED to be back to Epcot until 8pm to get over to World Showcase and find a spot.
That's good! :thumbsup2 I'm hoping that on the 2nd half of the trip, we'll wind up with more free time to do whatever we want.

Whatever we do, as I said before, we'll make sure to get back to World Showcase by about 8pm probably (for a 9pm Illuminations showing). Not sure where we'll try to sit. Guess we'll see what's availalbe when we get there. If I had to guess, though, I'd bet we'll be somewhere between Germany and Canada (so, not between Mexico and China).



Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Test Track. All-in-all, don't foresee too many hiccups on this day since it should be a fairly relaxed day in which all our main goals should get accomplished fairly early. Test Track is the biggest "if" just because you never can be certain of its functionality on a given day. I'd love for Joshua to ride this, so if it is having problems, it could either mean we try and get back to Epcot at some other point on the trip OR that we have to re-arrange the day's schedule to try and get to it at a later point.


Most moveable mission:
-- Innoventions. Depending on wait times at various parts of Future World, I see Innoventions as being the part of Future World that we can most easily do whenever it makes most sense. If we need to wait on FP's or for lunchtime, though, being right in the middle, it will make for a perfect time-filler.


Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Beverly? LOL...haven't yet decided if a) I want to try and trick/enforce this drink on to others and b) if I dare even try it myself. Will someone in the group intake a bevy of Beverly? I'll know in 50 days. :wizard:

[crocko]

Has he seen the camera yet? I'm sure he's going to love it!

I need to get a memory card. I'll probably end up going to Best Buy to get one but I have to get one for the trip alone. If I took over 100 pictures at a concert, I can only imagine how many I'm going to take on this trip!Yes...he was there when we bought it. He was having trouble with the math, though. Joshua + Samantha = 2 kids. Mommy and Daddy buying 1 camera. :confused:

Thus, the talk I had to have with him.
Hopefully, we'll get it out and ready soon and he can start testing it out.

Yeah....no idea how many pictures I'll take. :scared1:

[SoonerGirl]

And very cool to find someone else from Moore on the DIS. Woohoo!!!(took a quick peak for now at your California TR...that first page is making me miss San Francisco...haven't been there since 2002)

That CA trip was probably the best family vacation we've ever taken (with our first trip to WDW a close 2nd :thumbsup2 ), we had a blast!

You got some great deals on your shopping excursion - I was just at Sam's today and never even thought to look for memory cards, I'll have to make a note for next time I'm in there.

I meant to mention this in my first post and forgot, I stayed at OKW last summer with a friend who is a DVC memeber - it was a quick trip so I didn't spend a lot of time at the resort, but I think you'll be happy with it. The rooms were very spacious, and the resort is so pretty. Hope you can keep it a surprise!

[crocko]

That CA trip was probably the best family vacation we've ever taken (with our first trip to WDW a close 2nd :thumbsup2 ), we had a blast!

You got some great deals on your shopping excursion - I was just at Sam's today and never even thought to look for memory cards, I'll have to make a note for next time I'm in there.

I meant to mention this in my first post and forgot, I stayed at OKW last summer with a friend who is a DVC memeber - it was a quick trip so I didn't spend a lot of time at the resort, but I think you'll be happy with it. The rooms were very spacious, and the resort is so pretty. Hope you can keep it a surprise!

Glad you enjoyed staying at OKW...so far, I've heard positive reviews from those who have visited.

So far so good on the secret....102 days until that trip (WOW -- can't believe the 2nd trip is almost to double-digits). I "think" I'll be safe for awhile...worried about keeping that Magical Express mail out of her hands, though.

[jenny105]

Yes...he was there when we bought it. He was having trouble with the math, though. Joshua + Samantha = 2 kids. Mommy and Daddy buying 1 camera. :confused:

Thus, the talk I had to have with him.
Hopefully, we'll get it out and ready soon and he can start testing it out.

Yeah....no idea how many pictures I'll take. :scared1:

Make sure to post his 'test' pictures! :)

By the way, have you heard when Universal is opening Harry Potter? I know it's sometime next year and I want to plan a weekend out there especially for that.

[crocko]

Make sure to post his 'test' pictures! :)

By the way, have you heard when Universal is opening Harry Potter? I know it's sometime next year and I want to plan a weekend out there especially for that.
Great idea! Hopefully he'll get to test it out this week some.


As for HPLand...I'm hearing early 2010 right now.


Next family trip to WDW would probably be in 2011, so we'll have to make sure and fit in a day or two for Universal.

[crocko]

Day 7 (Hollywood Studios)

Day 7 -- back to Hollywood Studios. With an Illuminations showing, we'll have a late night on Day 6...thus, it works out that on 9/23 there are no early Extra Magic Hours anywhere. So, with a little extra sleep we'll get up and ready to get to the Studios in time for the 9am rope drop.
And...just as we did on the first Studios day, I assume we will head straight on over to Toy Story Mania (at a quick walk's pace, of course).

The rest of the day will be focused on 3 goals:
1) Doing the key kiddo events that we missed the first day in this park (which could possibly include still trying to get picked at Jedi Training Academy)
2) Going back to and having more fun at the attractions we like the best.
3) Sticking around for the 3pm Pixar Parade. Both kids love the Pixar movies and their characters...thinking they'll love this parade.

Also, if Bridgette and I didn't get to the first Studios day, we will definitely be looking for an opportunity to get over to the Tower of Terror on this day...a favorite ride for both of us. All-in-all, hoping that this morning and afternoon can be slow-paced, relaxing, and very enjoyable. Would like it to be a fun day to take lots of pictures and hopefully meet some cool characters.

My guess is that after the parade, we'll pretty much be done at the Studios for the day....leaving the entire evening for whatever we want. Yay!!
That means we could try and hit another park...we could hit Downtown Disney...go play back at Kidani Village...or even go check out a resort or two (would love to pop over to Caribbean Beach sometime on the trip -- for me, it is the Disney resort that feels like home).

Overall, Day 7 is the first of 3 full days where the schedule has a lot of wide-open time. This is definitely part of the trip to focus on really doing the things the kids loved and want to do the most.
With an 8am rope drop coming up the next day, hopefully this will be another nice-and-easy to bed night for us.


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Parade. We didn't schedule the Pixar parade for the first Studios day, so we'll be relying on getting to see it on this day. Overly hot temperature, cranky moods, or bad rain at just the wrong time could put a damper on this event. If we miss it, could end up possibly meaning some scrambling to get back to it on either day 8 or 9.

Most moveable mission:
-- Starting attraction. Not much comes to mind, but I'll say our starting point for the day. If we decide we'd like to start the day without worrying about the crazy dash to TSM, then we can easily head over to some other area to enjoy at first. Even if we do, though, I can tell you that someone (even if it has to be me) will still head over to TSM to get FP's for the day.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Miniature golf? Bridgette is VERY against trying to do mini-golf this trip...both kids are still pretty young and up to this point, have only tried it once, maybe. Nevertheless, from the Studios, it would be pretty easy to get over to Fantasia Gardens. This might be the lowest % ad hoc add-on I've listed so far, but hey...let's keep it in the running! :wizard:

[SoonerGirl]

I love the go with flow attitude on Day 7 - at that point in the trip it's fun to slow down and absorb the surroundings a little more! :thumbsup2

On the mini golf - my boys enjoyed it even at your kids age, although Samatha may get a little bored. A suggestion though, I know it won't be nearly as convienent, but if you decided to do it, I'd suggest going to WinterSummerland instead. It's more kid friendly than Fantasia Gardens, especially if your kids have never played. Fantasia Gardens is more difficult and could lead to quite a bit of frustration......

[lacrosse_lady72]

Great idea! Hopefully he'll get to test it out this week some.


As for HPLand...I'm hearing early 2010 right now.


Next family trip to WDW would probably be in 2011, so we'll have to make sure and fit in a day or two for Universal.

EARLY 2010??? I'd LOVE to be able to go in April. Here's for dreaming... I would just have to add days on if they did, maybe an onsite stay at Universal for a night?

Best move on Universal's part, adding HP... we usually go every year but a lot of people who have never gone are now planning on going because of HP. I'm so excited :banana:

[crocko]

I love the go with flow attitude on Day 7 - at that point in the trip it's fun to slow down and absorb the surroundings a little more! :thumbsup2

On the mini golf - my boys enjoyed it even at your kids age, although Samatha may get a little bored. A suggestion though, I know it won't be nearly as convienent, but if you decided to do it, I'd suggest going to WinterSummerland instead. It's more kid friendly than Fantasia Gardens, especially if your kids have never played. Fantasia Gardens is more difficult and could lead to quite a bit of frustration......Thanks for the mini-golf suggestion.

I've been to both, but can't remember the ease of each course (although, at Fantasia Gardens I know we definitely do the "fun" golf and not the super-hard "miniature" golf course.

EARLY 2010??? I'd LOVE to be able to go in April. Here's for dreaming... I would just have to add days on if they did, maybe an onsite stay at Universal for a night?

Best move on Universal's part, adding HP... we usually go every year but a lot of people who have never gone are now planning on going because of HP. I'm so excited :banana:April? Hopefully it can be up and open by then :wizard:
Also, I've heard a rumor that the Voldemort audio-animatronic for the HP ride is being made by Disney and will be the most sophisticated audio-animatronic to be made to date.

[crocko]

:woohoo:Thursday, Thursday, Thursday!!! :cool1:


6 MORE WEEKS UNTIL DISNEY!@!@!@!@!@!

:cool1: :woohoo: :yay: :woohoo: :banana: :cool1: :banana: :thumbsup2 :yay::woohoo:

:rolleyes1



Letter U
Ride - United Kingdom (had to stretch on this one...hoping the kids will be able to see some characters...maybe Mary Poppins, Alice, or Pooh & Friends here...plus, hope they still have Charlie & Lola merchandise!)
Non-ride - Uwanja Camp (a special kids' play area at Kidani Village. From what I've seen, basically a super-cool splash pad area...kids should love this!)
Characters: Ursula, Url (Dinosaur), Mademoiselle Upanova, Undertow

http://queenkelley.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/ursula.jpg



Man, am I getting antsy....hope I can last :confused:


By the way, today also marks 100 Days until our November trip! :woohoo:

[jenny105]

Great idea! Hopefully he'll get to test it out this week some.


As for HPLand...I'm hearing early 2010 right now.


Next family trip to WDW would probably be in 2011, so we'll have to make sure and fit in a day or two for Universal.


I've been hearing early 2010 and also summer 2010. I'm not sure what the deal is. I guess I'll have to ask when I'm there. :confused3

Day 7 plans are lookin good! :thumbsup2 Fantasia Gardens is actually a lot of fun. There is a regular (boring lol) course and then there is a course with characters from the movie. That one is great!

[stacikristine]

All of your plans sound so great!! And that's awesome that you got such awesome deals on the memory cards! I think we've decided to take one of the laptops to upload pictures and videos to every night (or as needed). So we just have a 4G card. My little cousin who's not quite 4 loved playing mini golf the other day. So Samantha might like it. My cousin would pick it up and put it where she wanted it, but she still had fun :upsidedow

[Husurdady]

:thumbsup2 WOW , GREAT P.-T.-R. , WDW needs "MORE-OK" familys like the MOORE,OK. family. I just had to say that, LOL LOL. Guys we will be down with you guys from Sat. Sept. 19th till Sat. Sept. the 26th. DW & I will be over at our home at OKW for a little "R & R", renting a car this time, DW wants to do "some" [and I use that word loosely] shopping" at the malls.Bring an extra-mt. suit case. HEY! have a GREAT TIME. SO ROLL OVER MICKEY CAUSE THE HOOSIER DADDY IS COMING. :rotfl2:

[Lynn5700]

YAY for only 6 more weeks!!!! Getting excited for you!

[crocko]

I've been hearing early 2010 and also summer 2010. I'm not sure what the deal is. I guess I'll have to ask when I'm there. :confused3

Day 7 plans are lookin good! :thumbsup2 Fantasia Gardens is actually a lot of fun. There is a regular (boring lol) course and then there is a course with characters from the movie. That one is great!

Hopefully early 2010, right!

yeah...that "boring" course is really tough. Ugh.

All of your plans sound so great!! And that's awesome that you got such awesome deals on the memory cards! I think we've decided to take one of the laptops to upload pictures and videos to every night (or as needed). So we just have a 4G card. My little cousin who's not quite 4 loved playing mini golf the other day. So Samantha might like it. My cousin would pick it up and put it where she wanted it, but she still had fun :upsidedow

We're set to take lots of pictures (I think Bridgette's card should hold at least 5,000 pictures) :rotfl2:

I'd like to take Joshua & Samantha to Andy Alligator's (very close to us) to play mini-golf soon.....let them test it out.

:thumbsup2 WOW , GREAT P.-T.-R. , WDW needs "MORE-OK" familys like the MOORE,OK. family. I just had to say that, LOL LOL. Guys we will be down with you guys from Sat. Sept. 19th till Sat. Sept. the 26th. DW & I will be over at our home at OKW for a little "R & R", renting a car this time, DW wants to do "some" [and I use that word loosely] shopping" at the malls.Bring an extra-mt. suit case. HEY! have a GREAT TIME. SO ROLL OVER MICKEY CAUSE THE HOOSIER DADDY IS COMING. :rotfl2:Yay for OKW (since we're testing it out in November). Did you check my overall schedule....any chance a Hoosier Daddy and a Sooner Daddy will run into each other? :laughing:

YAY for only 6 more weeks!!!! Getting excited for you!Yay! I'm excited, too. I should be in Orlando in less than 3.63 million seconds.

[crocko]

I will be attempting to get Day 8's gameplan posted tomorrow.

Be expecting a fun addition to the schedule that has not yet been announced!

[crocko]

Day 8 (Magic Kingdom)

The 8th day of our trip and we're FINALLY making it back to Magic Kingdom for our 2nd MK day. That said, I am guessing there will be an MK visit or two somewhere between Day 2 and Day 8.

Day 7 ends pretty casually, so once again, we should get to bed in good time...which is important, because we have an 8am EMH rope drop to hit at the Magic Kingdom this day. The top priority of this day will be to hit any rides we definitely want the kids to try, but haven't made it to yet.

Now, depending on what kind of character time we've had so far and whether we've been over to ToonTown yet, we may try and get over to ToonTown for its rope drop on this day. But, that'll be more up the kids I'm thinking. There's SO MANY rides at MK and SO MANY of them are awesome, that we'll be plenty busy having fun at attractions. If we do ToonTown, I really wouldn't mind trying to catch it during a late afternoon/evening timeframe when things might die down a little.

We probably won't end up with much Adventureland/Frontierland time on Day 2, so will probably spend more time over there on this day.

NOW...for the exciting new piece of information. The more and more I've seen about the Whispering Canyon, the more I've gotten excited and I started to realize that at the end of our trip, we'd have a good opportunity of fittingn it in. Looking at the menu, it seemed to make sense to go for a lunch time (less expensive) than a dinner time. So, on Wednesday I contacted my sister -- she thought that sounded good and quickly snagged us an 11:45am reservation for 7 at WCC. :cool1: Yay for cornbread, chicken, and shakes!

So, with that new twist, we'll be keeping our eye on the time to make sure we leave the park early enough to get over to Wilderness Lodge (only visited here before, but love it...so beautiful!)...luckily, we'll get 2.5-3 hours of park time in before having to leave.

Either on the way to or on the way back (if not both), we'll get to take a boat between MK and WL. Fun! (something I've never done before) :banana:

After lunch, we'll let our bulging bellies settle by peaking at the Lodge grounds and taking in the cool store that's there.....oh, and plenty of pictures! I expect we'll for sure take the leisurely boat ride to get back to MK at this point.

Now...on Day 2, we have scheduled to watch the 3 o'clock parade. On Day 3, we have scheduled to watch SpectroMagic and Wishes. So, unless we missed one along the way or the kids just REALLY want to watch these again, we'll be able to spend the rest of the day without having to worry about these popular events. Which is great! Love the idea of spending this day hitting rides while most people are watching the parade.

One other key item on this day is the Pirates Tutorial. I'm guessing we won't have time for it on Day 2, so would love to check the times and make sure we hit this at some point this day. I've seen pictures and this looks like a lot of fun. Yay for Capt. Jack!! pirate:

Come evening, we'll see what our bodies tell us. The rest of the day is once again up to us....so, we can feel free to stay at MK, go shop, go to another park....or just go back to Kidani Village and relax. We'll have an early breakfast the next day, so once again, we'll try to get to bed in good time this night. (Ach - only one more full day left!) :scared1:


Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Bellies. LOL - at this point, days are fairly unstructured so not much puncturing to worry about. But, after a good & fattening ol' lunch at WCC, the afternoon could turn slothful if some of us are Battling Bulging Bellies :sick:
So, hopefully we can trudge through the sloshing of shakes and continue having a magical time at the many lands surrounding Cinderella's domain.

Most moveable mission:
-- ToonTown. As mentioned, I'm not sure if we'll have had much time here yet, but I'd like to think we have several options on how to handle ToonTown. In fact, something the kids would like to do is ride the RailRoad and get off at the ToonTown station, so maybe after lunch that is something we could do, since we'll be close to a train station upon getting back to the park.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- A Jack Sparrow outfit? After having seen pictures of kids wearing this costume...and specifically wearing it to the Pirates Tutorial, this is something that could POSSIBLY happen on this day. In the end, would be up to Joshua, but could be really fun for him if this happens. We'll see!

[jenny105]

Day 8 sounds great! Hey, I rhymed! ;)

I have a breakfast ADR at WCC. I've heard wonderful things about it and since I'm staying at WL, I figured I just had to try it.

The Pirate Tutorial is AWESOME! I absolutely love Jack Sparrow (anything Johnny Depp related really...) and had a great time watching it. Your kids will love it!

[longing2Batdisney]

Sorry I've been MIA; I have been checking in...
everything up to now looks like great plans...
it's getting close :yay: on the WC/adr...

[SoonerGirl]

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- A Jack Sparrow outfit? After having seen pictures of kids wearing this costume...and specifically wearing it to the Pirates Tutorial, this is something that could POSSIBLY happen on this day. In the end, would be up to Joshua, but could be really fun for him if this happens. We'll see!

Hmmmm, I happen to have a size 5/6 Jack Sparrow outfit that DS8 has outgrown. I asked and he is willing to part with it, but he doesn't want to give up the hat with the hair attached. If you want the rest of the costume though, you are welcome to it! It's not like it would be hard for me to get it to you ;)

[hhockman]

Okay, I know I had every intention of getting over here before now (like when you posted on my PTR) but I haven't for some reason.

I'm here now, though, and all caught up. :thumbsup2

I'm excited to report that we will be in the same park as you guys on THREE different days! We'll be at EPCOT on the 20th (this is my brother's birthday and we will have a BIG group of about 15 on this day), AK on the 21st (morning EMH), and Magic Kingdom on the 24th (though the plan is just do be there for morning EMH and a couple of hours and then head to Hollywood Studios). We are also doing Tusker House on the 21st and have a 9:25 ADR. :goodvibes (We have Boma that night too, but at 5:00, and you won't actually be there anyway). So we really might see you.

My younger DS just turned 4, so I'm sure he and Joshua are interested in similar things. We last went to WDW as a family in September of 2007. The kids were 5 1/2 and 2 then, so close to your kids age. They had a BLAST. September is a great time to go.

Um, I can't think of what else I wanted to comment on, but I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your plans and counting down right along with you (LOVE the A,B,Cs by the way. Super creative!). Just 6 weeks to go now (a little less, actually). :banana:

[crocko]

Day 8 sounds great! Hey, I rhymed! ;)

I have a breakfast ADR at WCC. I've heard wonderful things about it and since I'm staying at WL, I figured I just had to try it.

The Pirate Tutorial is AWESOME! I absolutely love Jack Sparrow (anything Johnny Depp related really...) and had a great time watching it. Your kids will love it!
Fun! We can trade breakfast/lunch reports.

Sorry I've been MIA; I have been checking in...
everything up to now looks like great plans...
it's getting close :yay: on the WC/adr...No problem...and yes, getting close. I'm down to 38 days to go now. :cool1:

Hmmmm, I happen to have a size 5/6 Jack Sparrow outfit that DS8 has outgrown. I asked and he is willing to part with it, but he doesn't want to give up the hat with the hair attached. If you want the rest of the costume though, you are welcome to it! It's not like it would be hard for me to get it to you ;)
Wow, that would be cool. I'll get back with you on this.

Okay, I know I had every intention of getting over here before now (like when you posted on my PTR) but I haven't for some reason.

I'm here now, though, and all caught up. :thumbsup2

I'm excited to report that we will be in the same park as you guys on THREE different days! We'll be at EPCOT on the 20th (this is my brother's birthday and we will have a BIG group of about 15 on this day), AK on the 21st (morning EMH), and Magic Kingdom on the 24th (though the plan is just do be there for morning EMH and a couple of hours and then head to Hollywood Studios). We are also doing Tusker House on the 21st and have a 9:25 ADR. :goodvibes (We have Boma that night too, but at 5:00, and you won't actually be there anyway). So we really might see you.

My younger DS just turned 4, so I'm sure he and Joshua are interested in similar things. We last went to WDW as a family in September of 2007. The kids were 5 1/2 and 2 then, so close to your kids age. They had a BLAST. September is a great time to go.

Um, I can't think of what else I wanted to comment on, but I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your plans and counting down right along with you (LOVE the A,B,Cs by the way. Super creative!). Just 6 weeks to go now (a little less, actually). :banana:Very cool....maybe we'll pass paths at some point....sounds like we may be in Tusker House at the same time for a bit....(could be wrong) but I think jenny105 has like a 9:00am Tusker House or something like that for the same day.

[hhockman]

It would be funny if we all ended up in Tusker House at the same time. I should be fairly easy to spot. Unless someone stays at the hotel for some reason, I'll have a party of 13. :scared1:

Only 39 days to go for me! I'm glad. It's seems like the 40s lasted forever!

[jenny105]

Fun! We can trade breakfast/lunch reports.

No problem...and yes, getting close. I'm down to 38 days to go now. :cool1:


Wow, that would be cool. I'll get back with you on this.

Very cool....maybe we'll pass paths at some point....sounds like we may be in Tusker House at the same time for a bit....(could be wrong) but I think jenny105 has like a 9:00am Tusker House or something like that for the same day.

I have an 8:10 reservation! I'll be seeing you all on the way out! ;) I'll be the one looking not quite awake yet! :rotfl:

[stacikristine]

Day 8 sounds awesome!!! It's so good that you'll have 2 full days in MK! :thumbsup2 It's probably going to be the kids' favorite--so it's awesome that you have time to go back! And the boat ride to WL is so great. I stayed at Fort Wilderness with my family one year...loved the boat! And I'm hoping to do the same thing with the parades/Wishes--good luck on getting lots of rides in during those times!:woohoo:

[crocko]

It would be funny if we all ended up in Tusker House at the same time. I should be fairly easy to spot. Unless someone stays at the hotel for some reason, I'll have a party of 13. :scared1:

Only 39 days to go for me! I'm glad. It's seems like the 40s lasted forever!You'll have 13....I'll have 7.......20 seats in that place will be taken up between the 2 of us. :thumbsup2

I have an 8:10 reservation! I'll be seeing you all on the way out! ;) I'll be the one looking not quite awake yet! :rotfl: We'll get the safari animals warmed up for you. :3dglasses

Day 8 sounds awesome!!! It's so good that you'll have 2 full days in MK! :thumbsup2 It's probably going to be the kids' favorite--so it's awesome that you have time to go back! And the boat ride to WL is so great. I stayed at Fort Wilderness with my family one year...loved the boat! And I'm hoping to do the same thing with the parades/Wishes--good luck on getting lots of rides in during those times!:woohoo:Yeah....I'm hoping they'll enjoy all areas, but I'm expecting Magic Kingdom to be the absolute favorite. I don't blame them...the place rocks! :yay:

[crocko]

November trip update

On Saturday afternoon, Bridgette and I spent about an hour pouring over menus to decide what reservations we might want to make for our 3-night trip in November...after picking out our favorite and then consulting the scheduling plan for the trip and turning on my Strategy Mojo Machine...here's what we have initially come up with as the ADR goals:

Nov. 14th) Arrive at MCO @ 11:45 am, spend the evening at the World Showcase
ADR Goal = Le Cellier; I'll try to get a dinner time, but we're willing to settle for a late lunch if need be. Back-up, if we just can't get Le Cellier, then I will try for Coral Reef.

Nov. 15th) Magic Kingdom during the morning, Hollywood Studios in the afternoon and late EMH hours
ADR Goal = 1900 Park Fare; Our plan is to have breakfast here (sounds yummy, fun, and unique) and I will be trying to get a very early time slot

Nov. 16th) Animal Kingdom has early EMH...should finish there before 11am, DTD afternoon, Magic Kingdom for evening and late EMH hours
ADR Goal = Kona Cafe; Will be looking to hit the Kona Cafe for a between-the-parks lunch

Nov. 17th) Epcot for early EMH and hit Future World until we have to get back to the resort. Fly out of MCO @ 4:50pm


Very excited about seeing if I can get any of these ressies. This Sunday will be the 90-day mark, so I'll make sure to get up early before church to try and get these booked. I also need to run some numbers on these places and other eating that we'll do to see if I want to book the Dining Plan or just simply go out-of-pocket on all of our dining.


Does anyone know....do you have to have the Dining Plan booked before ressies, or can you make the ADR's and THEN book the Dining Plan?

[Lynn5700]

I'm sure you will be able to get them at your 90 day mark!! Good luck anyway!

[lacrosse_lady72]

So far it looks like our plans only mesh up on 9/19 so I'll definitely have to keep an eye out early at that 8AM RD, since we plan on being there too!

[SoonerGirl]

You can make your ADRs and add the Dining Plan later. :thumbsup2

Le Cellier and Kona are two of my favorites! Good luck on Sunday.

[hhockman]

Anyone staying at a Disney Resort can make ressies at 90 days, so I don't see why it would be a problem. I don't think you're eating anywhere that requires a credit card to be charged at the time of the reservation.

Your November trip sounds so exciting. My DH and I haven't been to Disney World without the kids since, well, there weren't any kids. :laughing:

I'm enjoying hearing about that one too.

If they put your group and ours in the same room at Tusker House we'd probably have the room to ourselves!

[NLD]

Hi John,

You have commented on my PTR so I wanted to come over and say hi on yours! Your plans look great... I am reading along trying to learn from a Disney vet! Love how you have "possible punctures" to your plans and know what things you're willing to ditch if needed.

You have a beautiful family--your kids are adorable!

Nicole

[crocko]

I'm sure you will be able to get them at your 90 day mark!! Good luck anyway!Thanks for the confidence! :thumbsup2

So far it looks like our plans only mesh up on 9/19 so I'll definitely have to keep an eye out early at that 8AM RD, since we plan on being there too!Just remember...I'll be the guy headed to Toy Story Mania :rotfl2:

You can make your ADRs and add the Dining Plan later. :thumbsup2

Le Cellier and Kona are two of my favorites! Good luck on Sunday.Awesome...I figured you could do that.

Anyone staying at a Disney Resort can make ressies at 90 days, so I don't see why it would be a problem. I don't think you're eating anywhere that requires a credit card to be charged at the time of the reservation.

Your November trip sounds so exciting. My DH and I haven't been to Disney World without the kids since, well, there weren't any kids. :laughing:

I'm enjoying hearing about that one too.

If they put your group and ours in the same room at Tusker House we'd probably have the room to ourselves!That will actually be our 2nd "no-kids" trip in a 365-day period. Of course, as the kids get a little older, I doubt they'll "allow" such shenanigans from their parents.

Hi John,

You have commented on my PTR so I wanted to come over and say hi on yours! Your plans look great... I am reading along trying to learn from a Disney vet! Love how you have "possible punctures" to your plans and know what things you're willing to ditch if needed.

You have a beautiful family--your kids are adorable!

NicoleThanks for stopping by!!

Yeah the "possible punctures" thing was not originally intended....but as I started "planning" out each individual day, I started to notice what things could go wrong and have the biggest impact...so, figured it would be best to plan ahead in case plans do in fact get punctured. I've really enjoyed laying out each day like I have...has really helped me get an idea for each day. Come the week before the trip, I'll definitely be printing that info out so I can review on the trip before each day.

[cheap traveler]

Ok, I think I'm all caught up.

How cool that you have some readers going to the world at the same time as you!!

I'm wondering - have you been able to keep the hotel for November a secret? I wish I could do a surprise trip - thinking about keeping Christmas 2011 a secret. That should be easy, since it isn't booked or even in the budget yet :rotfl:

Getting closer!! September will be here before you know it!

[crocko]

Ok, I think I'm all caught up.

How cool that you have some readers going to the world at the same time as you!!

I'm wondering - have you been able to keep the hotel for November a secret? I wish I could do a surprise trip - thinking about keeping Christmas 2011 a secret. That should be easy, since it isn't booked or even in the budget yet :rotfl:

Getting closer!! September will be here before you know it!The secret is mostly intact.

I was looking over my planning spreadsheet for the November trip with Bridgette and she noticed that on the notes for the last day it said something about needing to get back to OKW by a certain time (initials actually used).
So..she asks me where are we staying at again?
Uh...All-Star Music
Oh...then, what's OKW?
Huh...not sure, who knows what I was thinking...I'll change it to say get "ME for Magical Express"
Okay.

(ACH...I knew I had blown my cover at that point...and for the next day or two, I had planned on just going ahead and revealing the secret)
I've steadied my hand so far, though.

On Sunday, I believe...we were talking about the All-Stars and how I couldn't remember which one got first bus pickup...and she was talking about the location of the food court. So....she either doesn't know what the OKW was about and I'm good...she's curious, but is just trusting me...or she thinks I'm up to something and is just playing along.

So...as for now, the Old Key West part of the trip is still a secret as far as I'm concerned. [Stupid notes!]

[jenny105]

The secret is mostly intact.

I was looking over my planning spreadsheet for the November trip with Bridgette and she noticed that on the notes for the last day it said something about needing to get back to OKW by a certain time (initials actually used).
So..she asks me where are we staying at again?
Uh...All-Star Music
Oh...then, what's OKW?
Huh...not sure, who knows what I was thinking...I'll change it to say get "ME for Magical Express"
Okay.

(ACH...I knew I had blown my cover at that point...and for the next day or two, I had planned on just going ahead and revealing the secret)
I've steadied my hand so far, though.

On Sunday, I believe...we were talking about the All-Stars and how I couldn't remember which one got first bus pickup...and she was talking about the location of the food court. So....she either doesn't know what the OKW was about and I'm good...she's curious, but is just trusting me...or she thinks I'm up to something and is just playing along.

So...as for now, the Old Key West part of the trip is still a secret as far as I'm concerned. [Stupid notes!]

I'm guessing she doesn't use the DIS? Any of us would have guess what those letters meant in a heartbeat. ;) Don't leave those notes laying around!!!

[crocko]

Day 9 (Kids Day)

The 9th day of our trip (and final full day) will be a split-up day. Bridgette, Joshua, Samantha, and I will get up early so we can make it over to Hollywood Studios for an 8:05 reservation to Play 'N' Dine. Meanwhile, my sister, mom, and dad will head over to the Polynesian for an 8:20 reservation at Kona Cafe (good chance some Tonga Toast will get eaten).

On our side of things, we'll hopefully have a scrumptious, fun, and laid-back breakfast with JoJo, Goliath, and a couple Einsteins to start our day. Once we've finished Playing and Dining, time to have some REAL park fun. I'm very excited about this day for 2 reasons:
1) It's just the 4 of us. We will have survived 8 days of very close quarters with my parents and I have no doubts that my nerves will be strung tightly at times during the trip. I'm hoping that Disney :wizard: will help alleviate some of the normal tension that arises from spending excess time with the grandparents.
2) This day is all about what the kids want to do. The night before and this morning, we'll query the kids on what their favorite parts of the trip have been and what they would MOST like to do again before having to head home on Saturday. What THEY want to do is what we will do! Bridgette and I will just help out by categorizing the list to make the day more strategically successful.

So, since we'll already be at HS, anything the kids want to do there will get done first. Then, off to the rest of the Disney World to hit the other favorites. Will we hit all 4 parks on this day? I don't know...it could be possible. My predictive assumption is that of the other 3 parks, Animal Kingdom will be least likely to be visited...Epcot will have a pretty good shot...with Magic Kingdom being a 95% chance of visitation on this day.

Other than that, not much else to plan on this day...so, I'll use this post to get in the future brains of my children to predict what will be at the top of their favorites lists:

Dad's prediction for Joshua's Top 5 List
Toy Story Mania
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Star Tours
Tomorrowland Transit Authority
Dumbo

Dad's prediction for Samantha's Top 5 List
Winnie the Pooh ride
Dumbo
Finding Nemo ride
Star Tours
Peter Pan ride

Oh man...I can't wait to get there and find out how they will react to every ride. popcorn::

Meanwhile, what will my sister and parents be up to? I'm not completely sure, but I have a general idea. As mentioned above, they will start the morning with a very nice breakfast at Kona Cafe. Other than that, the 2 biggest scenarios involve them
a) doing some shopping at DownTown Disney and
b) visiting Epcot for Day 1 of the Food & Wine Festival



Potential punctures in the plan:
-- Gigabytes. Assuming the kids aren't completely dead from exhaustion and that they've enjoyed at least some of the trip...not many hiccups to worry about on this day. Except for maybe Gigabytes. I have absolutely no idea how many pictures we will take, but I expect Bridgette and I to do a lot of snapping away during the previous 8 days. Will we have enough GB's left on our cards to continue taking pictures on this Super Fun Kids Day!? (Hint: we should)

Most moveable mission:
-- Hollywood Studios attractions. If for some reason, we get out of Play 'N' Dine slowly and the Studios has already gotten extremely busy, it would be very easy for us to go ahead and move on to another park. Why? Well, on our final day (leaving day), HS has early EMH, so we could hit it up that morning to get some favorites in the bag.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- 4 parks? HS to Epcot to MK without a bus? Fun way that this day could go down...we start at HS and then get on a boat to enter Epcot via the International Gateway. Then, when done with Epcot, get on a Monorail, take the loop around the park and then head off toward the MK area. 4 parks? If we can get through our HS, Epcot, and MK goals by about 5pm, we could still try to scramble over to the Animal Kingdom which will be having late hours on this day (so open until 8pm). :wizard:

[jenny105]

Day 8 sounds very ambitious of you! :thumbsup2 It's great you're having a 'kids choice' day.

[crocko]

I'm guessing she doesn't use the DIS? Any of us would have guess what those letters meant in a heartbeat. ;) Don't leave those notes laying around!!!Luckily, she doesn't use the DIS....thus, hoping that means a "lesser" known place like OKW didn't quickly register with her.

Day 8 sounds very ambitious of you! :thumbsup2 It's great you're having a 'kids choice' day.
Yep, excited about having a day with just the 4 of us and all about what the kids want to do. :banana:

[crocko]

Another Thursday is here :yay:

Which means.



ONLY 5 MORE WEEKS UNTIL DISNEY WORLD!!!



Letter V
Ride - Voyage of the Little Mermaid (show...close enough. Samantha should really enjoy this one, I'm thinking)
Non-ride - Villains in Vogue (cool displays in here that the kids might think are neat...plus, a candy counter at the end of the store)
Characters: Violet Incredible, Vanessa (Phineas & Ferb), Victor (Hunchback), Vinny (Atlantis), Vitani (Lion King 2)

http://www.shinystakeout.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/vanessa.jpg





Woohoo....getting close. I'm so ready to be there!

[crocko]

Day 10 (Departure Day)

The 10th and final day. :eek: Plane leaves at 6pm, which means get ready for Magical Express by 2:30-3:00pm, which means....PLENTY of time left to party in Walt Disney World! :woohoo:

Not sure what we'll do this day, BUT...Hollywood Studios has early EMH, so starting the day off there is a definite possibility. Could try and get one more spin on the old Toy Story Mania. OR...maybe we'll hit Magic Kingdom for a couple hours to get in a few more great rides.
Will there be a last-minute excursion to Downtown Disney to make any last-second purchases that have been nagging at us all week?

This is one day where I pretty much have no idea what will happen, except that I hope we can EEAAKK!! out as much more Disney magic as we can. :3dglasses

As the clock gets close to 2:30pm, though, we'll have to make sure and get back to Kidani Village to await the Magical Express bus. The bus back to MCO just isn't as fun as the one we'll have been on 9 days earlier.

So, then....back to the Orlando airport. I'm thinking maybe grab a snack before getting on the plane, which should depart at about 6pm. We'll have a 1 hour 42 minute layover in Houston, so should be time to grab some dinner while we wait. Then, back on our last plane at just after 9pm and hopefully arrive back in Oklahoma City at about 10:30. From there...back to our wonderful home and beds.

As for my family, they leave Orlando around the same time on a direct flight to Dallas. My parents and sister will pick up their pets on Sunday, I believe and then head back Monday morning (if my memory serves me right).

Ah...the last day, but wow...should be a great trip!




Potential punctures in the plan:
-- The clock. We'll still be trying to get more fun accomplished this day, but the ever-ticking clock could make us halt to our tracks sooner than expected (especially since my parents will be staring at their watches to make sure we get back to the hotel with acres of safety time) :mad:

Most moveable mission:
-- The flight. Let's just move it back another week. :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: I wish. I would say that a last trip to do some shopping is most moveable. If it comes down to it, I'd rather the kids get more play time while they can, since Bridgette and I will be back only 7 weeks later.

Adventuresome ad hoc add-on:
-- Another character breakfast? It would be fun to possibly sneak in one more character breakfast this day. The problem will be finding any availability. But, if the family likes the idea and something should slip open....just maybe! :wizard:

[hhockman]

Day 9 is amazing. I love that you're going to let the kids just do whatever they want. A kids dream: to do whatever they like at Disney World.

I'm glad you'll be able to get in a little more "play time" before you have to leave. We're doing the same thing on our last day and the more I think about it, the more I wonder what time we will actually leave (we're driving). It's almost better to know you HAVE to go back at a certain time. Even if it is sad.

Only 5 more weeks! Then you can just worry about Day 1 and not think about Day 10 till it gets here. :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Day 9 is amazing. I love that you're going to let the kids just do whatever they want. A kids dream: to do whatever they like at Disney World.

I'm glad you'll be able to get in a little more "play time" before you have to leave. We're doing the same thing on our last day and the more I think about it, the more I wonder what time we will actually leave (we're driving). It's almost better to know you HAVE to go back at a certain time. Even if it is sad.

Only 5 more weeks! Then you can just worry about Day 1 and not think about Day 10 till it gets here. :thumbsup2
Definitely! Beforehand, I'm trying to wrap my head around a big 10-day schedule and perfectly plot things out.

Once we get there, though, it's all about being in the moment.

(Well...in theory...I'm an accountant, so my analytical mind will always be processing, i.e...well, that line's long, but we'll be back here at such-and-such time and I'll mentally pencil this ride in for x day, x time.) :laughing: :laughing:





-----------------------------------------

Our new worry is a kid camera.

Kid camera? "Didn't you guys just get a camera for the kids?"

Well....yes. BUT...it was a horrible piece of junk.
1) Don't buy Polaroid digital cameras
2) Don't buy "packaged" digital cameras. Buy a nice enough camera that you can atleast "try out" at the store first.

I expect pictures taken by Joshua to be blurry sometimes and crooked sometimes...that's fine. But when Bridgette or I mess with it, we should be able to get some quality pics. Not a single picture taken by this camera was quality. THANKFULLY!!! Target was very good about letting us return it (Whew!)

So, we're keeping our eyes open for good deals/ads on digital cameras. The horrible Polaroid camera cost $80. We saw a 10MP Canon (I believe?) that was $99...Bridgette took a few test pictures and they looked good. So....hopefully we can get something decent for $100 or less maybe. [If you see any good deals going on, let me know!!]

Also, put the 8GB card in my camera last night. At "High" quality pictures it should hold about 3,100 pictures. Nice! :thumbsup2

[stacikristine]

Days 9 and 10 sound SO great! I love that day 9 is dedicated fully to your kiddos. And that it's going to be just the 4 of you. I'm sure you'll just LOVE this day! :thumbsup2 And even though Day 10 will be sad, I'm sure you'll have tons of fun during the last little bit!

I read about your OKW note! :eek: It's a good thing she didn't put two and two together--or she's playing along. Hopefully it's the former.

And sorry the kids camera was junk. I have a little Cannon and I love it! But it was about $250. Have you checked Sam's? I've heard they have good deals on cameras...