The Disney Grump & Family Take on the World-Our '09 Christmas w/ the Mouse, COMPLETE

[ladybugmom]

Hi Michelle!! I'm joining in on your Christmas TR!! I can't wait to hear about Disney at Christmastime as we are going next year!! GREAT first updates--love the countdown chain and calendar!! And I know what you mean about Dallas traffic--we were down in Dallas visiting my sister-in-law over the summer. We got stuck in traffic and it took us almost 2 hours to get back to her house! Ugggh!! Can't wait to read more!!

 

[marsa1969]

The last time we went to Disney we drove to Dallas. All was going well with the drive until it was time to turn to go the airport. They were redoing the interstate so we went on the BUSY highway through town after town. We thought we would be late for our flight. So happy now Alleigant flies out of XNA for dirt cheap fairs!

 

[JenAusty]

I'm joining! =D I love the mickey cookies!

And I love rainforest cafe.. even though I agree with the average food. The best food I ever had at a rainforest was in disney world-AK. hmm. Looking forward to more about your trip during Christmas time!

 

[RachelNinja]

I love the 100-day party! Those popcorn buckets are really cute. I always look at popcorn buckets, but since I don't live on my own yet or have a family, I don't see the need to get them at this point. I do really want them when I have my own family though!

The chain is a great idea too! I love that you used Mickey colors to do it. What kind of trivia did you include? Sounds like a fun family I can't wait to do all these things with my own!

 

[MaryAz]

Love the 100 day party idea! Looks like a busy travel day. My friend lives outside of Dallas-yucky traffic!!

 

[miprender]

I'm in, I followed you over from Kristen's (Traded my stroller for a wheelchair report).

I love the 100 day party as my 100 day is coming up soon. I may have to borrow that idea.

Can't wait to read more. I have been reading all this trip reports now that Christmas is over I am in Disney mode.

 

[KatMark]

I love reading what people think of Christmas trips so I'm joining in. Like you we have two boys...very similar to yours...one very serious, one a total goof (but ours are now 24 and 21!). I love the Grumpy shirt; my DH loves Disney and Grumpy. I may have to get that shirt for him when I take him to a chick flick. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I am chiming in. A little late but here. I have chatted with you before. I live in SW MO. The big suburb nw of Branson. I love Jay. I think she is so full of wonderful ideas and a great mom to be able to give what she does with her boys. My oldest son in law is from Texas (we try to not hold that against him) and my younger son in law is from Arkansas. It's not pretty when they are together. They are all together this weekend in Tennessee celebrating the New Year. We stayed home to enjoy the quiet.

I love your chain and countdown calendar. Your boys look so cute. I have 2 grandson's that live a few blocks from me. They are 18 and 15. Another grandson in Nashville is 11.

I would love,love,love to see Disney at Christmas. I don't think it will happen for some time yet. So I will live it thru you.

Happy New Year

Ginny

 

[SoonerGirl]

Hi Michelle!! I'm joining in on your Christmas TR!! I can't wait to hear about Disney at Christmastime as we are going next year!! GREAT first updates--love the countdown chain and calendar!! And I know what you mean about Dallas traffic--we were down in Dallas visiting my sister-in-law over the summer. We got stuck in traffic and it took us almost 2 hours to get back to her house! Ugggh!! Can't wait to read more!!

Hey there! Glad you're here. You are going to love Disney at Christmastime - so magical.

Stuck in traffic for 2 hours? - Ugggg! I've been stuck in it a couple of times and it's just awful. Don travels to Dallas alot for work and has a pretty good grasp of the roads down there and he is more used to being in that mess than I am - doesn't bother him nearly as much. But it makes me crazy!

The last time we went to Disney we drove to Dallas. All was going well with the drive until it was time to turn to go the airport. They were redoing the interstate so we went on the BUSY highway through town after town. We thought we would be late for our flight. So happy now Alleigant flies out of XNA for dirt cheap fairs!

Yeah, I don't know if I would have been brave enough to drive down the same day that I was flying out. Glad you made it, and even more glad that you don't have to mess with that anymore!

I'm joining! =D I love the mickey cookies!

And I love rainforest cafe.. even though I agree with the average food. The best food I ever had at a rainforest was in disney world-AK. hmm. Looking forward to more about your trip during Christmas time!

Glad you're here!

I love the 100-day party! Those popcorn buckets are really cute. I always look at popcorn buckets, but since I don't live on my own yet or have a family, I don't see the need to get them at this point. I do really want them when I have my own family though!

I love the popcorn buckets! I had looked at them several times and never bought them, just thought they were something that I didn't need to waste money on. But when I decided to do the countdown party it was apparent that I needed them.

The chain is a great idea too! I love that you used Mickey colors to do it. What kind of trivia did you include? Sounds like a fun family I can't wait to do all these things with my own!

I got little bits of trivia from all over. I bought a book that was full of little details, like the meaning behind numbers or names on certain props in different attractions, some of it I got from just googling "Walt Disney World Trivia", and I also filled in with just some question & answer type stuff that I stole from our Disney Trival Pursuit game It took awhile to come up with the list and make the strips, but we had a really good time with it.

Love the 100 day party idea! Looks like a busy travel day. My friend lives outside of Dallas-yucky traffic!!

Busy indeed, but aren't they always? I never feel like I'm 100% ready.

I'm in, I followed you over from Kristen's (Traded my stroller for a wheelchair report).

I love the 100 day party as my 100 day is coming up soon. I may have to borrow that idea.

Can't wait to read more. I have been reading all this trip reports now that Christmas is over I am in Disney mode.

Hi! Glad you came over. Poor Kristen, she sure has been struggling lately, hasn't she.

I love reading what people think of Christmas trips so I'm joining in. Like you we have two boys...very similar to yours...one very serious, one a total goof (but ours are now 24 and 21!). I love the Grumpy shirt; my DH loves Disney and Grumpy. I may have to get that shirt for him when I take him to a chick flick. Looking forward to the next installment.

Hi & so glad to have you aboard!

Isn't it funny how siblings can be so different? I'm just hoping my youngest lives to be 21 like yours is I need to figure out a way to instill and little fear & caution into that child!

I am chiming in. A little late but here. I have chatted with you before. I live in SW MO. The big suburb nw of Branson. I love Jay. I think she is so full of wonderful ideas and a great mom to be able to give what she does with her boys. My oldest son in law is from Texas (we try to not hold that against him) and my younger son in law is from Arkansas. It's not pretty when they are together. They are all together this weekend in Tennessee celebrating the New Year. We stayed home to enjoy the quiet.

I love your chain and countdown calendar. Your boys look so cute. I have 2 grandson's that live a few blocks from me. They are 18 and 15. Another grandson in Nashville is 11.

I would love,love,love to see Disney at Christmas. I don't think it will happen for some time yet. So I will live it thru you.

Happy New Year

Ginny

Hi Ginny Glad you came over. I remember chatting with you on Jay's TR. I adore Jay too, the world would be a much better place if we could all be like her!

That's so nice that you have at least a couple of your grandkids that live close to you. I bet they are fun to have around.

Happy New Year to you as well!

 

[gellybean]

Glad that Dallas had better flights for you guys. I always check Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin when we fly out. One year we drove to Houston, paid for a hotel for one night that had free parking/shuttle to the Houston Hobby airport and saved 500$ off our airfare had we flown out of Austin!


Gotta love pre-Disney excitement! I've had to squash it a few times and hope to have to squash it many more times in the future!

Great update!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Having raised two girls it is really fun with the grandsons. They are so much easier than teenage girls. Not complaining. I had the best girls in the world. Truly. They are now 38 and 40 and are amazing young women.

I'm excited to read more.

I did forget to mention that Tim the Razorback lives in Tennessee and they bought a house with 20 foot ceilings. Well, there is an OU vase up there and they have never taken it down. It's hilarious.

What is sad is that they have lived in this house 3 years now.

Just to get a look

 

[Happydog]

Hey! What a great start! Can't wait to hear how your arrival goes! SO fun -- your countdown party and chain! CUTE! looks like your guys are having fun with the countdown experience too.. great idea for the envelope and the activities!! I have not been able to do a proper count down because all our trips have been "surprises" in a way. I think this June we will tell them in advance!

 

[ratherbe@Disney]

I'm here and ready to hear how it was during Christmas. We were there Dec 14-20th at Port Orleans building 15. Crowds weren't bad at all, walked on to many rides with no/minimal wait. Restaurants looked full, we made ressies for Ohana's but took the rest as we went and were ok.

 

[stace208]

I love all your fun countdown activities. I may have to steal a few of those ideas!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Glad that Dallas had better flights for you guys. I always check Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin when we fly out. One year we drove to Houston, paid for a hotel for one night that had free parking/shuttle to the Houston Hobby airport and saved 500$ off our airfare had we flown out of Austin!


Gotta love pre-Disney excitement! I've had to squash it a few times and hope to have to squash it many more times in the future!

Great update!

Dallas usually has better flight times and fares. We used hotel points for our stay in Dallas, left our car parked for free at the hotel and took their shuttle to the airport. Even if we had had to pay for the room we would have saved enough to make it worth our while to drive down.

I felt bad squashing their excitement because I was excited myself - but we HAD to get some sleep!

 

[SoonerGirl]

I did forget to mention that Tim the Razorback lives in Tennessee and they bought a house with 20 foot ceilings. Well, there is an OU vase up there and they have never taken it down. It's hilarious.

Too funny about the vase! Is it painted on, it almost looks like it is in that picture.

Hey! What a great start! Can't wait to hear how your arrival goes! SO fun -- your countdown party and chain! CUTE! looks like your guys are having fun with the countdown experience too.. great idea for the envelope and the activities!! I have not been able to do a proper count down because all our trips have been "surprises" in a way. I think this June we will tell them in advance!

I'd love to surprise my kids, but I have a big mouth I did take Jared last summer for a short 3 night stay and kept it a surprise until the night before we left, but man that was hard!

I'm here and ready to hear how it was during Christmas. We were there Dec 14-20th at Port Orleans building 15. Crowds weren't bad at all, walked on to many rides with no/minimal wait. Restaurants looked full, we made ressies for Ohana's but took the rest as we went and were ok.

Wow, we overlapped by a couple of days then! We arrived the morning of the 19th. We found the crowds to be very manageable early in the trip, but it got busier as the trip went on.

I love all your fun countdown activities. I may have to steal a few of those ideas!

Steal away! That's how I get most of my ideas - gotta love the DIS!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Hi, I wandered over here to join in the fun, and I am so glad I did!

My oldest, Justin, is in the eighth grade and in true teenage style likes to test his mother’s patience. And when he has that teenaged mouth closed, he is very sweet.

I could so write this about Chelsea!!! It's so true!!! As a middle school teacher, I knew this would happen, but I guess I was in denial about it happening to "my" child.

I LOVE these cookies and all your ideas for counting down to the trip! How exciting!!!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Early the morning of our departure, while the rest of the world was still asleep, I hopped out of bed and hit the shower. Funny how much easier it is to get up when Walt Disney World is your day’s destination! The kids got up pretty easily too, and we were down waiting for the airport shuttle before 5am.

We got checked in at the airport and received our bill for our checked baggage, $60. I don’t know about the rest of you, but those stupid fees really irritate me. That being said, I was expecting to have to pay $80, so $60 actually sounded like a deal!

Our flight arrived right on time, and I only had to tell the boys half a dozen times to stop arguing and keep their hands to themselves so our morning thus far could be considered a success. But as we got off the plane, Don stopped dead in his tracks and said ‘I left my sunglasses in the car’. Of course, he wasn’t about to purchase “Disney” sunglasses, so we had to stop at the Sunglass Hut in the airport, and of course, he couldn’t just get any pair of sunglasses, it had to be some almost identical to the Ray Ban’s he left in Dallas. Sooooooo, we left the gate area $130 poorer than we were just a few short minutes before. As I was waiting for Don to pick out his sunglasses, I had a call from Garden Grocer; the groceries we had ordered had been delivered already and could be picked up at bell services at our convenience.

Now, it’s off to the Magical Express counter and on to WDW!! Only problem was, I couldn’t find it. Yes, I’ve done this before, several times in fact, but for some reason I thought it was on the “A” side of the airport. After walking all the way up and down the ground level, I realized that I obviously was remembering wrong and we headed over to the “B” side. Once we were in the right place, we found the counter with no problem at all, and true to what the CM had told me the night before, there were no issues with me having left the transfers at home. The CM behind the counter printed us new tickets, got us set up for airport check in at the hotel for our return, and sent us on our way. There was no one in our line, and as soon as we got to the front, we were lead to a ready waiting bus. Here we are on the ME bus, looking a little tired, but excited none the less!

I got us checked into the hotel and our room was ready. I had the CM check on the box that we had shipped down and it was at Riverside, where apparently all of their deliveries go. He called over and said we would need to come back by later and sign for it. Then I got in line to have the concierge transfer Don & the boys park tickets to their room keys. The lady behind the counter there gave me a bit of a hard time because she wanted to know how I had a room with dining and didn’t have park tickets included in the package, because that wasn’t supposed to be allowed. I told her obviously it was, because we had no trouble booking it that way. She told me it had to be a mistake, but she would add the tickets to the room keys like I was requesting. I didn’t want to argue with her, so I didn’t mention that I’m booked for a room/dining only package in May as well……she apparently needs to be brought up to date on what is available to passholders......

After all of that was taken care of, we headed off to find our room. We were in building 1

Room

A few shots of the room (just ignore my family getting in the way of my empty room shots )

Hidden Mickey on the bedspread:

We were all pretty hungry at this point and decided to grab a bite to eat at the food court before heading over to Epcot for the rest of the day. I took a few photos of the resort as we walked back to the food court. I think our building was about as far away from the lobby/food court/bus stop as you could get, that being said, our walk was only about 5 minutes. POFQ really is a very pretty resort.

Continued in the next post.....

 

[SoonerGirl]

We made our way over to the food court. It is decorated like a float warehouse, so if large heads looming over you make you nervous – don’t eat here.

Here’s what we all ate for lunch (these will be the only food porn pics in this report – I just couldn’t get past feeling weird pulling out the camera to take pictures of food, sorry!)

Don & I each had the chicken ceaser salad.

It was okay, the chicken was rather bland, but the salad was good.

Justin had the meatball sub.

He said it was good, but way too messy.

Jared had the kids chicken nuggets with fries & grapes. I guess it was fine, he ate every bite.

He also got beignets for dessert – he was very excited about these.

Enjoying those beignets

And needing to be hosed off when he was finished!

After lunch we headed over to the bus stop. I took a few more pictures along the way.

Up next, we head to Epcot, hoping all the FPs for Soarin’ weren’t already gone for the day…..

 

[SoonerGirl]

Hi, I wandered over here to join in the fun, and I am so glad I did!

I'm glad you did too! Welcome!

I could so write this about Chelsea!!! It's so true!!! As a middle school teacher, I knew this would happen, but I guess I was in denial about it happening to "my" child.

Isn't it funny how they go from sweet little child to mouthy teenager seemingly overnight?!

I LOVE these cookies and all your ideas for counting down to the trip! How exciting!!!

Thanks, it really was alot of fun. And it helped make the trip seem not quite so far away.