If it’s Crazy, I Don’t Wanna Be Sane: Just Me and My 2 to Disney-June 2012 PTR

[luvmy2babies]

Originally Posted by lovesdumbo

Just read your PTR. Sorry you had to downgrade but I'm sure you'll still have a magical trip. I was just at ASMo with just DD(9). The rooms have been refurbished since your last visit and now they all have fridges. Bus service was great as was the food court. I'm sure you will all be very happy there.

Glad you found a solution to your Dd's growth spurt. I once took just my oldest DD on a trip in January and waited to the last minute to pack only to discover that she only had like 1 pair of shorts that fit. Turned out we had a cold trip and that was enough. Still I had learned my lesson and made sure I gave myself plenty of time with this trip with my youngest. Only problem was I gave myself too much time. In the 6 or so weeks between trying clothes on and packing she grew. we ended up with enough that did fit but not all I thought we had to choose from.

Do you think you'll try the new Sorcerer game at the MK? My DD loved that.

Thanks for reading. Thankfully I don't know what I'm missing at Wilderness Lodge. I'll admit though I was looking forward to that ferry to and from MK and the Contemporary, the beauty of the place and some other things. Pretty quick though the thought of everything being taken care of and only having to do my Garden Grocer order and have spending money, I just felt much better. I'm just really excited to be going and about all of the ADRs, rides, shows, all of it, even the rain.

We really did love it the last time or we were just glad to be there. Only thing was with the size of the beds, I was really afraid my son would roll off so I didn't sleep well. But he's much better about that now.

That is interesting you say the rooms all have fridges. I requested one during the call and it was added to my reservation. They are $10 a night, so I'll be sure to ask about that when I get there.

[lovesdumbo]

They should not charge you for the fridge. I found these photos of the fridge. This looks like Pop but the fridge I had at ASMo was the same.
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...postcount=2856

You know you can get bed rails from housekeeping right?

I've never stayed at WL but have stayed at other deluxe resorts and moderates and while the boat to MK would have been nice the bus service to other parks is much better from the values. Taking the boat to CR then monorail to TTC then switch to Epcot monorail would be a lot longer than a direct bus from ASMo.

I'm sure your DS will really love ASMo this time. Does your DD know how close your trip is? She must be getting pretty excited.

[luvmy2babies]

Day 6, June 26th is set to be our day away from the parks.

We'll wake up when we wake up and have breakfast in the room. I don't have an order for things to do on this day, but I want to have pool time, time on the playground and time to rest. Somewhere in there we'll have lunch and ds will hopefully take his nap.

Around 2, we'll get cleaned up and I'll put this out.



Attire for the afternoon is sundresses and sweaters (in case of A/C) for dd and me and a polo and shorts for ds.

The transportation plan is to be out at the bus stop by 3:15, take the bus to MK then the monorail to the Polynesian hotel. Then we'll do the reverse on the return trip.

Once we get back, we'll probably just walk around the resort some, then get settled back in our room to rest up for a wild time the next day.

[luvmy2babies]

This was our original plan for the afternoon of day 3, June 23rd.

Originally Posted by luvmy2babies

The plan is to get ds to sleep, then let dd play in the wading pool and participate in the activities while he naps depending on what they are that day, but we may just rest in the AC.

That afternoon though, dd has a reservation at Cub's Den, the Kid's Club at Wilderness Lodge. It's at 4:30 when they open. It's a 2 hour minimum at $11.50 per hour and it includes dinner. There was a coupon in my travel booklet for 15% off. I'm going to use this time to take ds back to Magic Kingdom to ride a couple of rides dd doesn't want to ride. So, we'll drop her off and catch the 5:00 boat back to MK. She's excited about going to the Kid's Club and fine with us going back to MK as long as we don't do anything she likes to do.

I've jokingly called it our date night.

The plan is to grab a fast pass for Peter Pan's Flight, then grab dinner at Columbia Harbor House. Since dd won't be with us and will have dinner where she is, she'll have a CS credit left over. I'll probably use it to get ds dinner that night.

Once we've ridden Peter Pan or the fast pass time open up, we'll grab one for Winnie the Pooh. Hopefully we can go ahead and ride Peter Pan then wait out our Winnie the Pooh time in the Play area there. Once we have ridden both rides, we'll head back to the resort. Hoping to be heading out by 8:30 so we don't get caught up in MSEP.

Once we pick up dd, I hope to get the children down quickly. Hoping to make rope drop the next morning.

Not long after I posted this, dd changed her mind about going to the Cub's Den. Not long after that I had to change our reservation. I do know I can still take her over there if she changes her mind, so I'll keep the reservation until we leave. I won't keep it past that because I may forget about it once we are there unless she is going that is, and it's $23 if it is not cancelled 24 hours prior.

So the new plan for that day is to hang out in MK a bit longer if it isn't too hot. We'll do Tomorrow Land, perhaps repeat rides more , try to see Dream Along With Mickey, have lunch, and check the line for Merida.

Then head back into Fantasy Land to repeat some favorites until 2. At 2 we'll get some drinks and a snack and line up for the afternoon parade near the front of the park. Once the parade is over, we'll head back to the resort.

Once back, we'll clean up a bit. LIkely Ds will have napped in his stroller by now, but, we'll rest for a while, then head to the arcade to use the points that came with the travel documents. We'll have dinner in the food court then relax in the room until it is time for bed.

[luvmy2babies]

Originally Posted by lovesdumbo

They should not charge you for the fridge. I found these photos of the fridge. This looks like Pop but the fridge I had at ASMo was the same.
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...postcount=2856

You know you can get bed rails from housekeeping right?

I've never stayed at WL but have stayed at other deluxe resorts and moderates and while the boat to MK would have been nice the bus service to other parks is much better from the values. Taking the boat to CR then monorail to TTC then switch to Epcot monorail would be a lot longer than a direct bus from ASMo.

I'm sure your DS will really love ASMo this time. Does your DD know how close your trip is? She must be getting pretty excited.

Thanks for that information.

On that first trip, ds was 10 months and sleeping in a pack-n-play at home. So I had one put in our room there in between the two beds. He surprised me by wanting nothing to do with it despite having a sheet and his blankets from home. I couldn't get him to sleep in it until the 3rd night and that same night dd got sick and let's just say ds wanted nothing more to do with it after that. I never thought to ask for a bed rail.

I'll ask about that since we're not doing the pack-n-play this time.

Dd and I are counting down together. But I can admit, it is usually me asking how many more days, partially to sneak some math in on her. She's mainly now thinking about what dolls she wants to take and checking with me to see if I've purchased this or that of what we normally have to travel. She has promised me though that on the day we leave, if I just come in and say, "It's time to go to Disney World," that she'll get right up.

[luvmy2babies]

10 days to go!!! Online check in done!!!

[luvmy2babies]

This day will start early. It will be 1 of two trips to



We adore this park and I want to give us a better chance to see the animals moving, so I planned two mornings for touring and exploring there. We closed the place the first time and probably could have stayed a couple more hours and didn’t do everything. We’ll start the day with what was probably my favorite character breakfast of our first trip.



AK has AM EMH on this day, so they probably won’t let us in early, but hopefully we can grab Safari fast passes before breakfast if we move quickly. Funny thing on our first trip, I thought I was making our reservation for 8:30 but it was actually 9:40, which I discovered 3 days after making it, but there was no ability to change it. We snacked a bit early that morning and I found I wasn’t nearly hungry enough. I loved the food and atmosphere there.

We had time to ride Kilamangaro Safari before breakfast and still ended up waiting a while.


Dd took this while we were waiting to be called after checking in.


While planning for this trip I’ve had a lot more chances to look at the pictures from our first one. It’s amazing how my children, especially ds, have grown. I wanted to shrink, but haven’t. Oh well.

We did get our picture taken with Donald, but I only have a paper copy. Here are the other shots. First Daisy came. She came so fast I didn’t even have ds’ high chair yet. You can probably see the CM with it behind Daisy and dd.


Then Mickey came. I’m hoping that in the three character meals we have with Mickey on this trip, I can get ds to look at me once. He could not take his eyes off Mickey at either meal and he’s been obsessed ever since.


Last came Goofy. Even though his nose is almost covering his eyes, at least ds looked at the camera.


They had a really cute conga parade through the restaurant, but none of the pictures I took was very good.

After this hopefully we can redeem our fast passes for the Safari ride if we were abe to obtain them. If not, we’ll probably grab some and do some exploring in the Africa area. That’s the main plan for day one there. We also plan on exploring the Oasis area and Discovery Island. I still have dd’s Safari journal from our first trip unopened. I bought it when we entered the park, but knew once we got out of Tusker House we wouldn’t be able to do all of the activities so I didn’t open it.

We like to make lots of stops. Vacation is about stopping to smell the roses for us. Here’s one stop.


And of course we stayed to color.


Times to be fascinated.




Time to admire animals in "the most beautiful color ever"


Time to admire animals that do what they want when they want.


And there’s always got to be time for interactions like this.


We’ll try to do a light late lunch. I haven’t decided where. We probably won’t be very hungry. We are not big lunch eaters, especially after a breakfast like Tusker House serves. Our plan is to be in Dinoland around midday to be near the front of the park. We didn't do much in here the first time, but now that ds is bigger, they may explore the boneyard. May play a game or 2, look around and have a light lunch at that food stand in there.

Main point of being there will be for.


And to be near the show we plan on seeing to end our day.


We’ll head back to the resort after that. Thanks for putting up with all of these pictures in a PTR. I abandoned my TR after this trip and never finished it. So, it's been nice to post them to show what we'll be repeating on this trip.

[luvmy2babies]

SINGLE DIGIT DANCE!!!!








After we left home this morning and got to the first stop light on the way to my daughter’s summer camp, I said, “Guess what.” She immediately said, “Nine days.”

I started dancing at the stop light singing “Single digit dance…yeah, single digit dance!” She joined in and danced a little. Ds started doing a little dance in his seat and laughing.

Yeah, we’re crazy. We need a vacation.

[Zuzu03]

Just got all caught up! Wow, you are absolutely amazing and your children are so precious!!! You are truly an inspiring person and your children are very lucky to have such a loving, caring mother. I'm so sorry about the loss of your husband. I lost my mother in December after she developed a rapidly growing brain tumor. It was the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life but I feel blessed too to have had my family through it. It's definately been a tough adjustment.

Can't believe your trip is almost here!!! Your plans look great and I LOVE your t-shirt creations! All of the goodies you have for your children are adorable - isn't it fun making all of the preparations?

OH and I almost forgot - we're going to be at CP Saturday morning the 23rd for breakfast too! We'll look for you and be sure to say hello! If you see a tall young lady (DD) and a slightly shorter and thicker older woman (me!) probably giggling like crazy - that will be us!!! We plan to have our lime green mickey heads attached to us too somewhere, so if you spot us first, be sure to say hi!

Anyway, I'm glad I found your PTR! Good luck with your packing! I'm not quite there yet, but it won't take me too long. With DD at 19, I just have to worry about myself - enjoy these last few days of excitement before your trip!!!

[luvmy2babies]

Originally Posted by Zuzu03

Just got all caught up! Wow, you are absolutely amazing and your children are so precious!!! You are truly an inspiring person and your children are very lucky to have such a loving, caring mother. I'm so sorry about the loss of your husband. I lost my mother in December after she developed a rapidly growing brain tumor. It was the hardest thing I've ever been through in my life but I feel blessed too to have had my family through it. It's definately been a tough adjustment.

Can't believe your trip is almost here!!! Your plans look great and I LOVE your t-shirt creations! All of the goodies you have for your children are adorable - isn't it fun making all of the preparations?

OH and I almost forgot - we're going to be at CP Saturday morning the 23rd for breakfast too! We'll look for you and be sure to say hello! If you see a tall young lady (DD) and a slightly shorter and thicker older woman (me!) probably giggling like crazy - that will be us!!! We plan to have our lime green mickey heads attached to us too somewhere, so if you spot us first, be sure to say hi!

Anyway, I'm glad I found your PTR! Good luck with your packing! I'm not quite there yet, but it won't take me too long. With DD at 19, I just have to worry about myself - enjoy these last few days of excitement before your trip!!!

Glad you made it over. Thank you for your kind words. I am sorry about your mother and in December too. Having support during loss is essential. I don't know where I'd be without it and my babies are awesome.

I think it is really cool you and your daughter are going together. I've been meaning to finish reading your PTR. I'll definitely have to make it over so I can remember your faces. It's a big restaurant, but I'd hate to see you and not say hello. We'll be wearing our Pooh shirts of course.

It's almost unbelievable how close it is. I was reminding dd last night that we actually started planning this last summer. I booked it in September. I look at the ticker and remember when the Cinderella was way back at 30 weeks. Now she's passed the castle.

I was able to start packing last night. I have two large uprights out and put a lot of stuff in. Of course I still have shopping to do. I have no shorts except a couple of denim pair from last year. So the bag with the children's stuff if almost done and mine is still practically empty except for the stuff for the children that won't fit in theirs (my son's life jacket and swim diapers, dd's accessories, etc.) Dd was like, "packing already?" But I know how these things go. I'm really hoping to go to bed early Wednesday night.

[luvmy2babies]

Five Days!!!

I still have quite a bit of shopping to do, but I'm taking the van to Wal-Mart today for an oil change and will do it all while we wait. I've ordered ds' raincoat and got free 2-day shipping. I got some clear bottles with a water filter on the straw for dd and me. And I had a nice visit to the salon on Thursday. I put in my Garden Grocer order and set up my CARES Harness rental on ebay.

It's been an adventure deciding on the CARES Harness. It took me a while to decide on renting or buying. I had thought we'd fly enough over the next year and a half to justify it, but I'm not sure we will. I'm considering driving us down for our cruise next summer.

Then, I actually found one on ebay where the seller started the bidding at $1. It's a $70 plus item so that was a real shock. There was of course a $60 buy it now option. Shipping said June 19 or 20th, so I bid $10 and hoped no one would see the listing. As soon as I clicked confirm bid, the estimated arrival date changed to June 22.

I was going to retract my bid, using the "item will not arrive in time" option, but decided to ask the seller first if there was a chance of getting it on time if I won the bidding. The seller responded use the "buy it now" option and I surely would. It didn't matter. It was about 5 minutes before I was outbid. It's up to $24.50 now with 1.5 days left. That's still a huge bargain to own one. If I had more time, I'd get in on it. I'd be surprised if the seller gets $60 for it. I've kept it on my watch list to see how much it ends up going for in the end.

But I'm happy with my decision. It'll be nice to be able to try it. I'm certainly looking forward to traveling without the car seat.

Later tonight, I'll post about our plans for day 8. For now, I've served breakfast and it's time to get ready to drop dd at choir rehearsal, take ds for his haircut and get some shopping and errands done.

[Zuzu03]

Originally Posted by luvmy2babies

Five Days!!!

I still have quite a bit of shopping to do, but I'm taking the van to Wal-Mart today for an oil change and will do it all while we wait. I've ordered ds' raincoat and got free 2-day shipping. I got some clear bottles with a water filter on the straw for dd and me. And I had a nice visit to the salon on Thursday. I put in my Garden Grocer order and set up my CARES Harness rental on ebay.

It's been an adventure deciding on the CARES Harness. It took me a while to decide on renting or buying. I had thought we'd fly enough over the next year and a half to justify it, but I'm not sure we will. I'm considering driving us down for our cruise next summer.

Then, I actually found one on ebay where the seller started the bidding at $1. It's a $70 plus item so that was a real shock. There was of course a $60 buy it now option. Shipping said June 19 or 20th, so I bid $10 and hoped no one would see the listing. As soon as I clicked confirm bid, the estimated arrival date changed to June 22.

I was going to retract my bid, using the "item will not arrive in time" option, but decided to ask the seller first if there was a chance of getting it on time if I won the bidding. The seller responded use the "buy it now" option and I surely would. It didn't matter. It was about 5 minutes before I was outbid. It's up to $24.50 now with 1.5 days left. That's still a huge bargain to own one. If I had more time, I'd get in on it. I'd be surprised if the seller gets $60 for it. I've kept it on my watch list to see how much it ends up going for in the end.

But I'm happy with my decision. It'll be nice to be able to try it. I'm certainly looking forward to traveling without the car seat.

Later tonight, I'll post about our plans for day 8. For now, I've served breakfast and it's time to get ready to drop dd at choir rehearsal, take ds for his haircut and get some shopping and errands done.

Happy Saturday and HAPPY FIVE DAYS OUT!!!! Sooooo exciting! Oh my goodness Ebay makes me crazy sometimes! DD just started using it and has gotten hooked like me. She got some really nice pins for trading (not scrappers, thank goodness) because she's going to try that this time. Fun!!! I always look for bargains - love it! It sounds like a productive and busy day for you all ahead! I hope the weather's good where you are - it's absolutely stunning up here in the northeast today! Gets me REALLY in the summer vacation mode! Have a great day!!!

[luvmy2babies]

Originally Posted by Zuzu03

Happy Saturday and HAPPY FIVE DAYS OUT!!!! Sooooo exciting! Oh my goodness Ebay makes me crazy sometimes! DD just started using it and has gotten hooked like me. She got some really nice pins for trading (not scrappers, thank goodness) because she's going to try that this time. Fun!!! I always look for bargains - love it! It sounds like a productive and busy day for you all ahead! I hope the weather's good where you are - it's absolutely stunning up here in the northeast today! Gets me REALLY in the summer vacation mode! Have a great day!!!

Thanks. It was a beautiful day. I told dd I hope for days like it while we are away. Odd thing. Our humidity was higher today than in Orlando.

We did get quite a bit done. I did some cleaning and ran the dishwasher before we left the house. Wasn't able to get ds' haircut. The barber shop was too busy and ds fell asleep while we were waiting. It was almost time for dd to get out of rehearsal and I told ds' barber I'd come back on Tuesday. He gave me his card to I could text ahead and not have to wait. He's been cutting ds' hair for over a year. Ds adores him.

Got home and laid ds in his crib. My mom who helps with the children's choir, brought dd home and we talked for a while. Once ds woke up, I let them play for a while but we did get out to Wal-Mart around 5:00. I dropped the van off and went and did our shopping. We got home around 7:40 and got settled in for the night. I did more packing. I finished packing the children's suitcase and the 3rd bag that is holding some incidentals I'm packing separately to avoid the other two going overweight.

It's amazing how much stuff you need for 10 days. Dd was saying this morning how we have never been on a vacation that long. Were it not for the weight limit, dd's princess dress, and the fact I decided to pack ds' pull-ups instead of ordering them, I would probably get it into two bags. It's a lot of stuff, but it is all lightweight. But I don't want to stuff the bags with the children's gifts in them.

Thank goodness for wheeled luggage.

[luvmy2babies]

Before I get into Day 8, I forgot to mention I went to Magical Express' website and put in our new information. I also called Magical Express' toll free number to get confirmation on the instructions the Disney CM gave me when I changed our resort as far as our luggage tags. The instructions were to mark out the resort name with a sharpie and write in the new one, just making sure not to get near the bar code. Told me to do the same with our vouchers.

The Magical Express phone operator was really nice and did confirm what the Disney CM told me. She put my mind at ease by explaining the process they go through and how they would know where to send the luggage. It wasn't the "Wilderness Lodge" I was concerned about, but also the Mickey Head with the MK on it, meaning a resort in the Magic Kingdom area. All-Star Movies is in the AK area.

I was satisfied with her explanation, but yesterday I got home to find a UPS envelope at home. I opened it up to find an envelope from Magical Express. They sent new luggage tags and vouchers showing All-Star Movies as our resort.

Overall the planning process has been really nice for this vacation.

[luvmy2babies]

June 28th is our Hollywood Studios Day. First thing on the agenda is our breakfast at Hollywood and Vine.



I had this scheduled on our first trip, but had to cancel it due to illness. We didn’t get to DHS that day until around 1:00.

Our goals for the day:
Buzz and Woody M&G,
Toy Story Mania
Phineas and Ferb
Lightening McQeen and Mator
Muppets 3D
Little Mermaid show
Disney Junior Live on Stage
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Sorcerer Mickey
Block Party Bash
Disney Channel Rocks

I haven’t decided where we will get our light lunch yet. Other than trying to get at least a fast pass for Toy Story right after breakfast then try to meet Buzz and Woody as soon as possible, I don’t have a plan for the order of these goals. I do know that Phineas and Ferb come out at 9:30, but we’ll probably try to meet them during one of the Muppet shows before we go and see it. I heard their line gets long right after the show lets out. I think Sorcerer Mickey comes out at 10am. I’ll have to consult that show schedule before I really decide on an order, but we will just take breaks to cool down and plan our next adventure.

Here are a few pictures from our last trip there.

Disney Junior Live on Stage


Ds enjoying the show


Meeting Handy Manny



A few shots from the Beauty and the Beast show.






I took quite a few pictures of the Block Party Parade, but didn’t load them into photobucket. I’m looking forward to getting more done in this park this time. Last time other than the Disney Junior Show, Little Mermaid, meeting Manny and Beauty and the Beast, we got to see the parade. Hopefully we can get all of our goals accomplished before the Block Party Parade. The plan is to head back to the resort for an afternoon at the pool after it is over.