YoHo, YoHo, A Mother's Day Trip to the Mouse!

[3princesses+aprince]

Ok, so this is not technically a Mother's Day trip, it's a 2 days after Mother's Day trip. But I consider it my Mother's day gift, because I have wanted to go to Disney World for So long.
I am very excited to be starting my pre trip report!! I just started reading a few others and had to start mine right away! First of all, let me tell you that we have been waiting to go to Disney for years! But... it's always something else.... So you have no idea how EXCITED we are to be going in just 110 Days!!!

I just booked 2 rooms at All Star Movies (preferred view) for May 12-19!
We are going with the 4/3 deal and are so Thrilled to be staying for 7 nights with 7 day tickets!! Now i'm just waiting for park hours to come out so I can plan our park days.

So now on to who we are.

Me: Obviously obsessed with planning this trip! I am a Road Service Supervisor for AAA. I work nights, dh works days, so one of us is always home with the kiddos. Oh, and I cannot wait to have my picture taken with BUZZ LIGHTYEAR!! He's my absolute favorite. I am quite fond of Woody too though. I have not been getting enough sleep over these past few days since we booked the trip, I have been waking up at 5:30 when dh leaves for work and cannot go back to sleep because I am consumed with how amazed my kids are going to be when we get to Disney World!

Dh: He started out not so Happy at all that we were spending a fortune on going to Disney World.......Now, to my delight ,he usually brings it up before I do. He cannot wait to go. He HAS to ride in a Limo to the airport, he already found the one we are going with. I'm not going to complain there.

Anthony: 12, My Stepson. I have been with dh since he was 22 months old, so he knows no different than me being in his life, which turned out good. We have a very good relationship and I love him dearly, and he loves his stepmom. Anthony loves any family vacation, he gets so excited, so he is thrilled to be going to Disney! His favorite character is Donald Duck! I'm not sure if he is going to ride all of the thrill rides..... We have been watching videos on youtube, and he is not very sure.

Emily: 9, My oldest baby girl! She loves Tinkerbell because she loves pretty things. She cannot wait to get to Epcot and pick a pearl. We started looking into all of the countries there because she is also very interested in walking the world showcase, which I think is awesome. She cannot Wait to visit France, she's too funny!

Lizzie: 7, Oh, Lizzie, she has the best personality in the whole world, if we had more Lizzie's in the world, it would be a very Happy Place. Out of all of the kids she is the most excited. She cannot wait to ride Dumbo with me. And she Loves Cinderella. I think she will be the one that is most amazed with everything! I can picture her little face watching Wishes!

Sam: 4, My Baby . Well, she is growing up, but I think we babied her a wee bit too much, and she might have turned into a monster. Maybe just a little. She is a little princess, she loves to wear dresses and look pretty all of the time. But she has another side also. Which is so funny, because she is nothing like my other 2 girls. She Loves Jack Sparrow and Lightening Mcqueen and Tow Mater. Her newest thing is Wall-e. Oh my god, does she love wall-e. It's actually playing as I write this. She cannot wait to meet all of the characters!

My Mom: Yay, I got my Mom to come with us. I didn't have to do much persuading. She LOVES her grandkids and will be in awe watching them enjoy Disney World! We are enjoying talking about all of the planning together and where we are going to eat. She LOVES sunbathing and cannot wait to lay by the pool.

Well an introduction is not complete without pictures, so here they are:
Me and dh on vacation at Seaside Heights in New Jersey.

Anthony

Emily

Lizzie

Sam

My Mom, with her Bday cake the other day. Happy Bday Mama

All of the kids together

The girls being silly together

Well that is who we are! Hope you'll join me!

Next I will post some pictures of the year we went to Orlando, It was March 2005, My youngest was only 11 months old! We did some things around Orlando, and went to the Mk with a 1 day pass. Only....Sam got really sick the night before, we had to take her to the hospital, she had an ear and throat infection. So we got a late Mk start and.... the worst part is that we did not know it closed at 7pm that night. So do you understand why I have been so desperately wanting to take my kids to Disney World. How could you go into the MK for a few hours and be Ok... Well I never was and the only thing that can cure it is this upcoming trip!!!!!!!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Is anyone else going to be in Disney around these dates. I would love to meet up with another Diser, That would be Fun

Also, how do I put a link to my pretrip report in my sig. Thanks. I'm not too good with these things. It took me a few days to get the picture posting under control!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Ok, I'm going to post some pictures of when we stayed in Orlando for 3 nights! We were there the first few days in March of 2005. Anthony was 8, Emily was 5, Lizzie was 3, and Sam was 11 months old.
We stayed at the Quality Inn on International Drive. This Hotel was clean, and we had no complaints, except that the cleaning lady would take a piece of gum out of the pack we left out on the nightstand! I thought this was funny though. We intentionally left it there to see, and sure enough, the temptation was too much

Ok, one night my dh and my brother(who came with us also) thought it would be funny to put a wooden snake in the bushes right outside our door. It was a snake that Emily had bought herself in one of the gift shops. They put in the bush first, to tell people at home it was real. Then they put it right outside our door and waited for someone to walk by. Well soon enough we heard some women screaming, My Mom opened the door to tell them it was fake and they started yelling for her to close the door before the snake gets in. When they realized it was fake they were laughing, i'm glad they didn't get mad. Well, we heard them laughing even after they turned the corner. This is something we still bring up and will never forget this snake as long as we live. It has since lost all of its wooden parts and is gone, but Emily insists she is going to buy another one when we go. She don't want to look for one here though she wants it to come from Florida(How Cute) So here he is!

So what else did we do in Orlando.... We went to Fun Spot, which is just like a little carnival with go carts.

We went right across the street from our Hotel to Pointe Orlando for some shopping and we went to the Pacman Cafe.

Here are some pictures from the plane ride down with southwest!

Sammie who sat on the trays the whole ride.

And this is who my poor brother got stuck sitting with. (No they were not with us, but they were fast asleep and snoring!)

And then of couse we went to the MK for a few hours(so dissapointing!) It was short but very sweet. Unfortunately though I do have to get ready for work. I will post our MK pictures tommorow!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I think we are really considering going with the DDP. We are definately doing the QDP, but now i'm thinking it will be really nice to be able to do all of those character meals. And, my dh and stepson are quite the fans of eating, and some of the restaurants look so nice. I think it will be worth the extra money! I was just looking through the TS meals and getting excited.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I just booked our airfare this morning!!!!! I am so excited, it seems so much more final that we are going. We booked through southwest, I got $177 round trip per person. I feel like I got a great deal, i'm very excited.
Our flight arrives in Orlando at 9:05am, so we'll have a pretty full day that first day. Now i'm just waiting for park hours to come out so we can plan that first day!

 

[Corjack]

I hope you do not mind if I sub! Reading other people plans always helps me to remember things i would normally forget!!! We are going about a month before you!

My Dh's mom might be going with us for part of our trip! She will get a big kick out of how excited they get!

Jackie

 

[Corjack]

Oh and GREAT deal on airfare!!! We decide to drive... but it will be an adventure!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Thanks for subscribing. I was hoping somebody would

We were actually thinking about driving too, but when my Mom decided she was coming we said we'd fly, she gets really car sick. So don't I, I would have to take dramamine the whole way! But I would definately try it. Mapquest quoted about a 19 hour drive for us. Well maybe that is something we will try in the future.

 

[Corjack]

I get car sick too. So I am NOT looking forward to it. Unfortuneately our van is requiring some repairs(upkeep mostly) and since we are spending money on that it takes away from our vacation savings!

We went to Dinsey last year and ate all quick service(sit down dining with a 4yo and 8mo is not my idea of fun) and from what I can figure(we used our KTTW card for all food) the quick service dinging plan is kinda over priced. Unless your a HUGE eater. We would only spend like $20-25 per meal for 3 of us(2 adults and 1 kid). Occasionally it was more but not often. The plan for a day is $30 and $9 for kids. So it would be $69 per day for us and we averaged about $55 with snacks. Now the Regular dining plan is a good deal!

Jackie

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I wanted to post some pictures from our MK day in March 2005! This was a short but very sweet day. We arrived late because Sam(11 months old at the time) was very sick the night before, and we didn't realize the park closed at 7pm....Bummer!!

The ducks were probably Sam's Favorite

And that was the extent of what we saw of Disney! So I cannot wait to be there for 7 days with 7 day tickets!!!!!!!!!!
The day that we went we also rode Peter Pan, The Haunted Mansion and Alladin's Magic Carpets. We walked through Minnie Mouse's house and watched Wishes! Heck, we didn't even know about Fastpass

 

[3princesses+aprince]

THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED, AFTER I CHANGED MY FLIGHTS AND PARK DAYS AROUND A LITTLE TO ATTEND A DISMEET!


YAY, park hours are out for MAY. I just sat down and planned my week: This is what I have so far. As long as park hours do not change this schedule shouldn't change either, I think it looks pretty good.

TUESDAY 5-12: Our plane lands in Orlando at 9:05am. We are taking the Magical Express to Disney, so hopefully we'll be there by 11am. We'll check in, even though I know our rooms will not be ready. We'll be doing the Quick service dining plan, so we'll go over to All Star Movies' foodcourt and have lunch, then check out the resort and take a swim, which I know my kids will be waiting to do.
We are going to go to the MK later in the day and stay until it closes at 9pm.

WEDNESDAY 5-13: Animal Kingdom Day, and our Dismeet at 12pm, we're going on a Safari together.

THURSDAY 5-14: Hollywood Studios Day

FRIDAY 5-15: Day off Day. Yay. We'll hang out by the pool, we're going to play Mini golf, and go to DTD

SATURDAY 5-16: Epcot World Showcase night. We'll probably go over around 3pm. So, we'll have plenty of pool time this day too. We're definately doing the Kimpossible adventure.

SUNDAY 5-17: Another Magic Kingdom day. there is Extra magic hours at night. Can't wait.

MONDAY 5-18: Epcot future world day

TUESDAY 5-19: We'll check out, and head over to the MK until 5pm. Flight leaves at 8:45 pm.

 

[Corjack]

I was VERY excited to see Mays hours too!! I am going to plan ours out this week!! I love Night time EMHs!

Jackie

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Yea, I was debating about morning emh days, but we are more stay up late, sleep in a little people. It will be enough of a battle to get up for rope drop for 9am

 

[Corjack]

Yea, I was debating about morning emh days, but we are more stay up late, sleep in a little people. It will be enough of a battle to get up for rope drop for 9am

That is how we are too. I LOVED EMH nights. For the first hour or two people are there but the last hour they really thin out. We rode IASW, Peter Pan, the tea cups and Speedway 3x in about 35 minuets! It was our best night!!

Did you decide about the Dining plan?

jackie

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Yes, I did decide about the DP. We are going to go with the QDP, and we are doing 2 character meals. Ohana's and Akershus. I just figured the mugs with the QDP are nice. And since we have 7 park days I figured it would be so hard to plan and keep an ADR everyday. I was thinking what if we leave a park early... or if we decide to stray from the plan alittle.... I'm thinking the QDP will be good for us for this trip

 

[Corjack]

I am sure the QDP will be fine. With so many kids things can turn unpredictable pretty easily! Sounds like a good plan. You can still look through all the menus and pick places that suit your family and give you a variety! If you have the hopper, you can always hop over to Epcot and get some food from the World Showcase!

Jackie

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Oh boy Corjack, i'm sure glad I have you as my friend, I would be pretty lonely without you

Can you tell me how to put a link to my pre trip report in my signature, I just noticed yours and am coming over to read right now. thanks

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I wanted to post some pictures of our Countdown calendar, I went to Home Depot and got the Mickey paint samples We had fun making this countdown calendar.

and this is a close up of our "Mickey family" compliments of a DISigner!

And I made Autograph books for the kids last week. That was SUPER fun

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I'm so glad I figured out how to make the pictures a little bigger. Go Me!
So while i'm at it, I'll post the pins and lanyards I have picked up so far. I still need 2 more lanyards and about 8 more pins.

The kids don't know about the pins, lanyards or autograph books yet.
We are leaving for Disney on Tuesday May 12, so on Mother's day which is sunday May 10, I'm going to have surprises for them. Being the books, pins and lanyards. Tshirts I will be making and small backpacks for the parks.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

I just bought a new digital camera for Disney I've been needing a new one for years! Mine was acting up all of the time, and sometimes I couldn't even get it to take a picture. And we cannot have that going on at Disney World.

I bought a fujifilm Finepix. Oh my god the pictures are so nice and clear, and it takes video also. I LOVE IT