Fireworks, DVC, and a whole lot less of me!!!-our 6th trip to disney!-update 7/6 pg14

jeremysdisneymom

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 3, 2008
Hello and :welcome: to my family's 6th trip to our most happiest place on Earth---Walt Disney World!!!

We have a love (some would say an addiction!) to Walt Disney World. It is the one true place where we can go, enjoy ourselves, leave everything behind, and be truly happy with no worries.

Let me introduce you to my family.

DH (Tom) - I call Tom the workaholic in the family. He works full time for the local sheriff's office and then spends most of his spare time working for our local life squad. He is our son's den leader for Cub Scouts and is also the Cubmaster for our Pack. His love for Disney has grown over the years! :rolleyes1 I can remember the first few trips when he threw fits that I wanted to go back but he kindly obliged and he is actually the brain child of this adventure and the many more to come. Tom is a lot like Goofy--never takes things seriously, rolls with the punches, and is always a ton of fun to be around. His favorite resort is Wilderness Lodge and favorite restaurant is O'hanas. His favorite ride is Expedition Everest. I think his favorite park is Epcot.

DS9 (Jeremy) - Jeremy is our one and only child and is the only grandchild on both sides of our family. To say he is spoiled rotten would be an understatement! He loves cub scouts, 4-H and plays piano. :sad1: Sadly, he decided he did not want to play baseball anymore this year so I didn't force the issue. He does enough! He is an honor roll student and got accepted to our school's gifted program this year. He is a lot like his Dad and looks a lot like him as well. As you will see further down, he is very tall for his age and often gets mistaken for being much older, plus he is very outgoing and tends to be tooo social at school sometimes. He :love::love::love: Disney---everything about it! His favorite resort is Wilderness Lodge although he loves the slide at Coronado Springs. His favorite ride is and will always be the train at Magic Kindgom. The boy loves trains! I can't wait until he is old enough to take the Magic Behind the Steam Trains tour. His close to second favorite ride would be Teamboat Springs at Blizzard Beach. His favorite restaurant is Garden Grill for dinner and Chef Mickey's for Breakfast. He is also the reigning Disney Scene It champion in our house! :worship: No matter what Tom and I do, the child always beats us at this game.

Me (Erika) - I am the accounting and finance manager for a utility company. I have been in this field my entire career and absolutely love it. Where Tom is the workaholic, I am the volunteeraholic. I volunteer on our local hospital board, PTO and help with the administrative side of our cub scout pack. I am the serious one in the family so Tom and I balance each other out very nicely. I am the one with the serious Disney addiction. I am the planner and typically obssess over every little detal. My favorite charater is Daisy Duck. I love the Wilderness Lodge and my favorite restaurant is LeCellier and O'hana's.

This is a family photo from the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage we took on last year's Disney trip. You will find that I don't do many pictures or at least I have not lately. I think I look pregnant in this picture!!! :sad2:

IMG_3738.jpg


This will be our 6th trip to Walt Disney World in 6 years! Yes, we have been once every year since our first magical trip. You can read about the other trips in my Pre-Trip from last year. However, last years trip never got turned into a full trip report so I will do a trip report in this years Pre-trip report to keep it interesting. A lot happened right before and after that trip that kept me off the DIS.

So, I hope you will join me on this fabulous planning adventure. I will need help along the way as I still have a few dining ressies to make and some adventures I would like to plan this time!

Up Next:
When are we going?
What big plunge did we take?
Why will there be less of me?
 
Hi Erika! I just found your PTR through Michelle's PTR (SoonerGirl). :thumbsup2

I'm going to subscribe now so I don't lose your report!

Can't wait to hear all about your plans!!!!


Ooooh and by the way, you just made my day!!! I've NEVER EVER been 1st to anyone's PTR before!!! So thank you!!! :-)
 
Jumping in early, can't wait to hear more :banana:
 


Great start Erika!

Jeremy sounds a bit like my oldest was in grade school, the part about sometimes being a little too social. Every teacher that Justin had from kindergarten through probably 7th grade told me the same thing, "Justin is a great kid, but he just talks too darn much!" :laughing:

Looking forward to hearing about your plans!
 
Ooooh and by the way, you just made my day!!! I've NEVER EVER been 1st to anyone's PTR before!!! So thank you!!! :-)

:welcome:

I am so glad you are joining in for the fun. So glad I could make your day! I have never been first to anyone's thread so I am jealous! I see you have a pre-trip started so I will head over there next to join.
 
Since you joined my PTR I am here to read all the fun on yours.

I am the Disney addict in the family also but DH loves it he just wont admit how much.;) We also have been every year since 2006 & also went in 1999 & 2004.

That is so great that your son was accepted into the gifted program!! You must be so proud.:goodvibes He sounds like a wonderful kid that deserves those Disney trips every year right???
 


:wave2: Hi-de-ho from cool, rainy Tennessee.
I have been working on this house or shopping for this house off and on all day.
Now it is time to call it a night and relax.
And DIS.
So glad to be along for your wait. :)
 
Great start Erika!

Jeremy sounds a bit like my oldest was in grade school, the part about sometimes being a little too social. Every teacher that Justin had from kindergarten through probably 7th grade told me the same thing, "Justin is a great kid, but he just talks too darn much!" :laughing:

Looking forward to hearing about your plans!

:welcome: Michelle! I am glad you are here.

Jeremy is sort of a funny kid. At the first of the school year, he is real quiet until he gets comfortable with the teacher and his classmates. And then, boy, he lets loose. Not only will he talk but he likes to make the others laugh! He is definitely his father's son!

Erika
 
Since you joined my PTR I am here to read all the fun on yours.

I am the Disney addict in the family also but DH loves it he just wont admit how much.;) We also have been every year since 2006 & also went in 1999 & 2004.

That is so great that your son was accepted into the gifted program!! You must be so proud.:goodvibes He sounds like a wonderful kid that deserves those Disney trips every year right???

:welcome: I am so glad you are here!

I am very proud of Jreemy. Yesterday, we were sitting watching a Disney show and he informed me that he no longer wants to be a train conductor. He had decided he wants to be a Disney Imagineer! Boy, that made be proud!

I hope to get another update later on today.

Erika
 
:wave2: Hi-de-ho from cool, rainy Tennessee.
I have been working on this house or shopping for this house off and on all day.
Now it is time to call it a night and relax.
And DIS.
So glad to be along for your wait. :)

:yay:Yay, MeMom is here! I am so glad you are joining in for the fun!

We didn't get rain yesterday, but the dreaded S word instead!!! Yes, there was a light dusting of snow in Ohio yesterday morning! :eek: Really put me a gloomy mood! I am so sick of the stuff!

So glad your house is coming along! I am sure that makes you feel so good.

We definitely have to meet up this trip again. I promise to be more talkative. Even as an adult, I tend be shy when I first meet someone. We will have to plan something fun for our Dismeet.

Erika
 
Hi Everyone!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Mine was very busy and I spent a lot of it yelling in front of the TV. I am a huge UK fan so it was a super exciting weekend for me!!! Can't wait for the final four next weekend!

I promise that there will be an update before the day is over! Plus, I have the fist few days of our summer 2010 trip loaded and I am going to start on that. Here are the spoilers I posted last year when we returned but never got the trip started?

How many times will I throw up?

Who falls in the bathroom and where did it happen?

Why didn't that man shave his back?

Will there be another Disney trip for my family in the future? (I guess this is not much a spoiler since you know there will be however, how many and why did this almost not happen!).

Will I drink the Beverly?

Erika

Oh, one more thing--can anyone tell me how I can respond to everyone's comment in one post rather than individually? Thanks!
 
Hi Erika! I don't have alot of time but wanted to answer your question real quick!

If you want to respond to multiple quotes at once:
* go to the person's quote & click on the button that says "multi-quote" (well it doesn't say "multi quote" until your mouse is over the button)

The multi-quote button is on the bottom of the person's post...in the right-hand corner, in the middle & looks like a notepad with a plus sign and " on it.

Then, after you've hit the "multi quote" on all of the posts that you want to respond to, go to the bottom of the page & hit "Post Reply" as you normally would do.

Sometimes I'm horrible at explaining things so I hope that makes sense!
 
Hi Erika! I don't have alot of time but wanted to answer your question real quick!

If you want to respond to multiple quotes at once:
* go to the person's quote & click on the button that says "multi-quote" (well it doesn't say "multi quote" until your mouse is over the button)

The multi-quote button is on the bottom of the person's post...in the right-hand corner, in the middle & looks like a notepad with a plus sign and " on it.

Then, after you've hit the "multi quote" on all of the posts that you want to respond to, go to the bottom of the page & hit "Post Reply" as you normally would do.

Sometimes I'm horrible at explaining things so I hope that makes sense!

:banana::yay::cool1:Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! It worked.

subbingpopcorn::

Everything looks great so far, can't wait to read more.:thumbsup2

:welcome: Glad you are here to join the fun! I see you are going to Disney a few weeks before us. Do you have a trip started? I will check you siggie.

Erika
 
How did this trip come to be and Where will we be staying!

Let me start by saying that this trip was not in our plans for 2011. Last year, we went to Disney for 9 nights and stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. We had a fabulous time and did so many new things that we had not done in the past as a family. However, on the way home Tom and I discussed that maybe we needed a break next year. We wanted to go somewhere new. Plus, we were celebrating our 10 year anniversary in February 2011 and wanted to do something special for that.

Our original plans for 10 years was to go on a Disney cruise :sail:(of course, Jeremy would go with us). We have only been once on vacation by ourselves and was miserable the entire time without Jeremy so we knew that whatever we decided, he would be along for the celebration. After much debate, Tom caved and agreed to go to New York Thanksgiving week 2011 for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. This has been a dream of mine forever so what a better way to celebrate 10 years.

As the months passed and winter set in, I knew I needed a Disney fix. This winter has been so miserable here in Ohio and I needed some sunshine.:beach: So, we booked 5 nights in Florida at another vacation club where we own for Spring Break. It was going to be 2 nights in Daytona and 3 nights in Orlando--off Disney property! :sad2: Then we found out that we might not get the entire Spring Break (and still don't know even though it starts a week from today:scared1:). Jeremy has had perfect attendance all year and really wanted to keep his record so we agreed to not go to Florida on Spring Break.

It appeared about 4 weeks ago that there would be no Disney for me this year! However, Tom suggested maybe we could go for a few days in the summer. I looked at rates and there was no way we could swing both Disney and New York with the cost for each. New York is extremely expensive Thanksgiving week and I knew that if we went, we had to stay on the parade route. Tom hates crowds and will not drive in New York nor would he get up at 5:00 a.m. and ride the subway to watch a parade 4 hours later! :scared1:

Here is what transpired 4 weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon. Tom is at work and Jeremy and I are watching a Disney movie. Jeremy looks over and says, "Mom, I know you want to go to New York but maybe we should do that when I am older. I don't want to stand for hours to just get a spot for a parade. Could we please go to Disney World instead?" I gave it some thought (not very long) and said sure, but it will have to be over Thanksgiving. I want to see the Christmas decorations again. I then asked this amazingly intelligent child of mine, where do you want to stay? and this is his response, "How about you and Dad buy into the Disney Vacation Club? We could always go to Disney every year?" Ding, Ding, Ding, I have a plan and now I have an accomplice!!!!

I immediately got online and soon, a cast member was calling me and emailed the information. We had pondered the Disney Vacation Club every year we have went to Disney. Of course, the usual response from Tom has been, nope, this will be the last Disney trip. Jeremy and I were ready when Tom came home from work that evening. Surprisingly, he said and I quote, "Sure, I love Disney World and would love to go there every year!" :yay::yay::yay:I finally won him over to my addiction as he so nicely puts it!!!

So, we made the purchase on Monday, have a summer trip planned and we are now officialy DVC owners at Bay Lake Tower.

Sorry for the long story! I am super excited if you cannot tell. I know this was the best investment we have made for our family and will be able to continue these memories for years to come.

So, where are we staying?

We arrive on June 25th and are spending 5 nights at:
IMG_3661-1.jpg


We have a standard room studio booked in Jambo House. The standard rooms are a pool view in Jambo. I debated the savanna views but did not want to waste our points.

We are then checking out of AKL on June 30th and heading to Bay Lake Tower (sorry, no pictures from there yet) for 5 nights. We will be in a standard view studio here as well.

My 7 month window opens in April for our Thanksgiving trip---yes, we are going back in November!!! There will be many more trips to come.

Thanks for reading my long update! I promise more pictures in the updates to come.

 
I am so jealous. I would love to stay at Bay Lake Tower, theme park view of course. Ah well, someday when I win the lottery to buy into DVC or learn how to rent points.:cloud9:
 
I am so jealous. I would love to stay at Bay Lake Tower, theme park view of course. Ah well, someday when I win the lottery to buy into DVC or learn how to rent points.:cloud9:

I am looking forward to staying there. If it had not been for DVC, not sure that we ever would have. We did not get a MK view. I am not really sure what standard view is. They do have a Top of the World lounge that is for DVC members. I plan on being up there many nights to watch Wishes.
 
I am looking forward to staying there. If it had not been for DVC, not sure that we ever would have. We did not get a MK view. I am not really sure what standard view is. They do have a Top of the World lounge that is for DVC members. I plan on being up there many nights to watch Wishes.

I also heard from a CM at the Disney Store yesterday (who's dream is to also stay at BLT) that there is a pool up on the roof as well. What a wonderful place to see Wishes. :cloud9: I am now living vicariously through you. I want to see lots of pics of the fireworks.:lmao:
 

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