Longest Vacation Ever! VGC, Aulani, & More!--Complete!!!

[sammo]

Day 7 sounds so nice and relaxing!! *Great that you built in relaxation time on your trip, but I guess with a 19 day vacation that is a must!

I bet that was precious having a sweet sleeping baby on your chest while watching the ocean!

That was so nice of the spa to give Ella her own little bag of spa treatments. *She was probably so excited! *I bet it just made her day.

Off to read day 8.

Sheri

 

[sammo]

Don't know where the "*"s came from in my last post. They just popped up.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Yay! Glad you guys are still around!

I'll add more tomorrow. We spent last weekend in a cabin in Wisconsin with no internet, so couldn't do much. On the drive up there though we called and made an offer on some DVC resale points. We negotiated a great deal and will soon be owners of 180 points at Animal Kingdom. For DVC followers, we got them for $56pp which I think is amazing. As soon as Zoe is 2yrs old we'll need 2 bedrooms everywhere we go, so it was time for more points.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

We're in DC now.

Cool! Have a great time! I love DC!

Hope the rain stops soon. According to the news last week was a disaster for Hawaii vacationers as it stormed the whole week.

That sure would stink.

I am back to work soon from maternity leave so making the most of my last few days off.

Awww. It's always hard to go back. Enjoy your remaining time!

Just read both parts of day 8 - is it right that they are mostly just written by your husband? They didn't seem to have much on either added by you.

Yeah, I didn't have much to add. Just the pictures. Maui wasn't jam packed full of activities.

Don't know where the "*"s came from in my last post. They just popped up.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Yay! For DVC. I would love to convince my DH to do DVC, but there is little hope. We usually rent points when needed and have never paid more than $10 a point, s o he doesn't see the point.

Did you pass Right of 1st refusal yet?

 

[sammo]

Just read day 8.

How nice that Jacob has taken up photography after you. That'll be fun to have a hobby you can share together. Maybe we'll start seeing pictures with you in them! When my daughters were younger, they were looking through pictures of one of our trips and asked me, "Mommy, where were you when we went on vacation?" Behind the camera.

How scary of a ride for the banana bread! We took the road to Hana when in Maui, and it too was very narrow, sometimes down to one lane for both directions to share.

Thanks for the update! Keep them coming.

Sheri

 

[sammo]

Congrats on the new DVC points! That is an amazing price. It will be nice to be able to have a 2 bedroom (when you're not getting a grand villa). We just have 2 daughters, but get the 2 bedrooms - they seem to like having a regular bed rather than the sofa bed. Go figure!

Sheri

 

[sammo]

All caught up now. That was nice having the play area for the kids at lunch. It looks like they had the place to themselves too. Just curious, what is the sea creature to the right of Ella. I can't tell if Jacob or Max is sitting on it.

It is nice having the condo to come back to. Sometimes you just want a quick dinner in the room and time to hang out with the family. My oldest daughter really enjoys this and requests time back in the room.

Ready for more! (Not trying to be greedy).

Sheri

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Yay! For DVC. I would love to convince my DH to do DVC, but there is little hope. We usually rent points when needed and have never paid more than $10 a point, s o he doesn't see the point.

Did you pass Right of 1st refusal yet?

Renting works too. We like having the home resort advantage for GVs. We have taken a trip with Marc's family each 2-3 years and we love staying together with so much space. Just signed the contract. Keeping fingers crossed for ROFR. We're optimistic though because Disney hasn't been exercising it lately for AKV and I've even heard a couple reports of lower $50 range passing for AKV!

Congrats on the new DVC points! That is an amazing price. It will be nice to be able to have a 2 bedroom (when you're not getting a grand villa). We just have 2 daughters, but get the 2 bedrooms - they seem to like having a regular bed rather than the sofa bed. Go figure!

Sheri

Thanks! With our kids so little we have fit well in the one bedrooms--nice having them close when they wake at night--and they don't complain about the sofa bed yet. But the 2 bedroom will be nicer now as they get older.

All caught up now. That was nice having the play area for the kids at lunch. It looks like they had the place to themselves too. Just curious, what is the sea creature to the right of Ella. I can't tell if Jacob or Max is sitting on it.

It is nice having the condo to come back to. Sometimes you just want a quick dinner in the room and time to hang out with the family. My oldest daughter really enjoys this and requests time back in the room.

Ready for more! (Not trying to be greedy).

Sheri

Jacob is sitting on the head of an emerging whale and Max just fell off of it's tail.

We are so spoiled by timeshares. It's really hard to stay in regular hotel rooms now. We never trade our Disney timeshare points but always trade our "less-than-optimal" timeshare. It's in Austria--we'll probably never see it. We just bought it to trade, and have gotten some great exchanges through the years. It was cheap as heck and the maintenace isn't bad at all.

 

[Cinderpamela]

Yay! Glad you guys are still around!

On the drive up there though we called and made an offer on some DVC resale points. We negotiated a great deal and will soon be owners of 180 points at Animal Kingdom. For DVC followers, we got them for $56pp which I think is amazing. As soon as Zoe is 2yrs old we'll need 2 bedrooms everywhere we go, so it was time for more points.

Congrats on getting some more DVC Points!! A 2 bedroom will be perfect!

We have only been DVC members since last May, and already I am looking at resale contracts to add more points! DH just rolls his eyes. Would love to find something at VGC since we are west coasters, but those are rare to get through ROFR from what I can tell.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I would love VGC points too, but for now I'm just glad we've been able to get in at 7 months. (Knock on wood--we're hoping to reserve a one bedroom in for October tomorrow.)

I finally finished days 9 and 10. It took me all day because Zoe is running a fever and needed to be held ALL the time! Poor girl. he other kids were having a blast today. It was 80 degrees near Chicago in mid March! Crazy! The kids got out the blow-up pool and spent a lot of time on their bikes today.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Love the picture of the kids with the fins! Can't wait to see how your brave hubby does with the kids nd all that water!

 

[Lisa29]

Yay for more dvc points. My mum and dad have dvc and me and my sister have stayed using dvc and are complete converts - we would love to be able to afford it. My brother couldn't understand why my parents had done it but after using some of their points for a night at aulani, he totally gets it now!

Only problem is that the rooms are such high standard that the thought of staying anywhere else seems such a let down!

Going to catch up on day 9 and 10 now.

 

[Lisa29]

Days 9 and 10 sound lovely spending time in the pools and on the beach.

The pools look brilliant - I love swimming pools that are unusual shapes, not boring squares or rectangles!

Love the picture of Zoe eating ice cream (?), she looks so happy and just like your three older kids.

 

[sammo]

In all of the pictures from days 9 and 10 your kids look so, so happy!!

Thanks for the update!

Sheri

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Love the picture of the kids with the fins! Can't wait to see how your brave hubby does with the kids nd all that water!

Brave is the right word for him. He is amazing with the kids!

Yay for more dvc points. My mum and dad have dvc and me and my sister have stayed using dvc and are complete converts - we would love to be able to afford it. My brother couldn't understand why my parents had done it but after using some of their points for a night at aulani, he totally gets it now!

Only problem is that the rooms are such high standard that the thought of staying anywhere else seems such a let down!

Going to catch up on day 9 and 10 now.

We love to share our DVC points with our family, especially when we share a grand villa with them. Good times!

Days 9 and 10 sound lovely spending time in the pools and on the beach.

The pools look brilliant - I love swimming pools that are unusual shapes, not boring squares or rectangles!

Love the picture of Zoe eating ice cream (?), she looks so happy and just like your three older kids.

Zoe wishes that was ice cream! It was actually rice. No sugar for that girl yet!

In all of the pictures from days 9 and 10 your kids look so, so happy!!
Thanks for the update!

Sheri

They are. We are too. They're great kids and good little travelers!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I'm working on Day 11 today. This is the day that DH watched the kids on his own while I was at my conference. You won't believe all he did with them. It takes a ton of time to add pictures, so I hope to get through it all today.
We're also distracting ourselves with calculating the DVC points we'll need for a big family gathering next May and what we'll have leftover to use for our return to Disneyland this October. We'd like to stay 8 nights, but currently only have points for 5. We'll need some pixie dust to add the rest of the nights after we get those AKV points. A couple of the nights are already sold out.
Secondly, after attending a homeschool conference the last few days, we're inspired to do some "road schooling" this summer. We want a small RV that we can use this summer for a coulpe of weeks, but starting next year, use for 6 weeks or more at a time exploring the USA.

 

[Sherry E]

I just happened to pop in here today, expecting to read at least part of a trip report - I didn't realize that everything about your trip is in a separate blog on a separate site! I have enough trouble keeping up with the TR's in this section, on this website!

Is there anything, photo-wise or trip report-wise, that you can actually post here in this Trip Report thread (since it's in the DISboards Disneyland Trip Report section)? Maybe some photos from the Disneyland trip, perhaps?

 

[dr&momto2boys]

I just happened to pop in here today, expecting to read at least part of a trip report - I didn't realize that everything about your trip is in a separate blog on a separate site! I have enough trouble keeping up with the TR's in this section, on this website!

Is there anything, photo-wise or trip report-wise, that you can actually post here in this Trip Report thread (since it's in the DISboards Disneyland Trip Report section)? Maybe some photos from the Disneyland trip, perhaps?

Hi Sherry,
I usually post directly on the Disboards, but my DH kept a short blog while we were on this trip that he wanted me to add pictures to it, so I ended up just adding my commentary and tons of pictures there. After writing the 2010 TR in my signature, I know how time consuming and frustrating it can be to upload everything to photobucket and formatting the pictures to add to the posts...not to mention writing a lengthy post with pictures only to have it freeze up and lose it all.

The way I've structured the second post here just requires you to click the link and it opens a separate window with just that day's post. It should be very easy...easier actually than scrolling down pages to find posts that way.

Let me know if you have any trouble with it. I posted a lot of Disneyland pictures there and I'd love for you to see them. While it's still very time consuming, and I'm having trouble with the site letting me add pictures today, at least I haven't lost any of my work.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

FINALLY! I had a very hard time getting my bog site to post pictures today. DH showed me how to do it in a different format and it's finally done. See post 2 for the link to Day 11! Maui is almost over , but Aulani is coming right up!

BTW, less than four weeks until I leave on my next seminar/vacation! I better get a move on!