Someone pinch me,this trip must have been a dream UPDATE on 1/7/10HS on 8/19 VIP TOUR

[mirandag819]

For those of you who don’t know my family, or haven’t heard me discuss the details I had planned for the trip, let me give you a brief overview.
My husband, my daughter Taylor, my mom, my sister, and I all went to Disney World together in Sept. 2008. It was our first time all vacationing together, and it really didn’t go great. Everyone had a different idea of what we wanted to do, we got tired and grumpy at different times, and my mom and sister didn’t bring good shoes so they were uncomfortable most of the trip. We did have a lot of fun, but DH and I vowed never to take them on vacation to Disney World with us again. There was just too much bickering and too many moody women for my husband to keep his sanity.
Fast forward 2 months after our trip last year and my husband was deployed to Iraq, shortly after he deployed, Disney announced the military promotion for 2009. It was a tough deal to pass up, I tried to convince my husband that he wanted to go back to WDW on his 2 week leave. He didn’t want to; he wanted to go somewhere more relaxing on his leave. After discussing it with him I decided it would be a nice way to spend mine and Taylor’s birthdays if I could get my mom and or my sister to go back with us (since I wasn’t brave enough to attempt WDW alone with a 3 to 4 year old). The trip would cheer us up since we were missing him, and since our birthday’s are the same week as each other we would both get a birthday fun card. My husband really liked the idea of us still going, he knew it would be good for me and Taylor. He didn’t have to go, and could go on a different trip with us whenever he came home for a couple weeks. Both my mom and my sister said they wanted to go, so I called and booked us a room at the Poly for 8 days with the 40% military discount.
I am a very obsessive Disney Planner…. So I started working on all my spreadsheets and binder right away. We had stayed at Shades of Green last year, and were looking forward to the Poly. I had all my ADR’s picked out and got what I wanted on my 90 day mark.
About 5 weeks before our trip DH started saying he was trying to get his 2 week leave for the time period we would be in Disney World, and that he really wanted to go. It bounced back and forth between he could go and no way would he be able to come home for the next couple weeks. Finally 2 weeks before the trip he said it was a definite and he should be home about 4 days before our scheduled departure. We were all so excited he could go with us, everything felt perfect. I was sad he wasn’t going to be with us, and now he was, and to top it all off it was mine and Taylor’s birthdays.
Now at this point all the plans had been made, ADRs booked, flights booked, ect. I was able to call right away and book him on our flight (of course since it was a last min fare his cost about twice what ours did), when I called to get a 2nd room at the Poly, there were no more military discounted rooms available. After a lot of debating, I finally decided to get 2 rooms at Shades of Green. I was able to get 2 rooms at shades of green for less than 1 at the Poly with the 40% discount. I didn’t have any luck adding him to any of our ADRs, but was hopeful they could still fit us in if we showed up at the podium. I adjusted everything that could be adjusted and we were just anxiously awaiting him getting home. I was very nervous about going with my husband and my mom and sister combined. We said we would never take them again, but it was too late to uninvited them just because my husband was coming home.

I guess I should go ahead and introduce the cast for our trip report.
There is me, Miranda. I am the biggest Disney lover of the group. I am the one that plans everything . I am also the photographer of the group. I am not great at it, but I love pictures so I keep a camera attached to my face all the time, and drive everyone a little photo crazy.

There is my husband, Dee (His real name is Sonny in case I ever use that, but he is a 3rd so we usually use his nickname, Dee). I call him the Disney hater, but he really isn’t. He likes Disney, but he burns out quickly at Disney World and hates having everything planned out in advance. He use to be active duty army, but has been a reservist for the past 5 years. He is currently deployed for the 3rd time, the 2nd as a reservist. He is an amazing father, I love nothing more than just watching him play with my daughter for hours on end.

There is my mom, who my daughter calls Mimi. Her and my dad divorced last year after a 2 year separation. She has really clung to my daughter since then, which is great 90% of the time because they have a great relationship, but this gets in the way when my husband is around because she lets her get away with murder and it drives Dee crazy. My mom really is great, she has been a huge help while my husband has been away. She comes a few days every month when I have to work real crazy hours. She lives 5 hours away, but I really do get to see her a lot.

There is my sister, Morgan. My daughter started calling her MoMo as a baby, and now we all seem to call her that. She is 2 years younger than me, and we have always been incredibly close. I really love getting to hang out with her, and her and my husband get along great (except when my mom is around….which we still haven’t quite figured out why). A little over a year ago my sister met her husband and got married a week later. He is active duty in the army and is currently deployed to Iraq as well. She is bipolar, but hasn’t taken medication for it in years, she does have frequent mood swings, which can add some tension to our trips at times. She is my model though so I love her for that, I don’t even have to tell her what I want, I just point and she goes there and smiles for me, she is the only one who never complains about pictures being taken, and you will see lots of pictures of her.

Finally there is my little girl Taylor. She turned 4 during our trip this year. She loves everything Disney too. She will watch any movie as long as it starts with Cinderella’s castle and she knows almost every line to every Disney film ever made. She is a very girly girl…. She hates winter because she can’t wear many dresses. She is a character freak, she wants to meet them all, and thinks they are all her best friends.




My husband got in safely from Iraq 2 days before our departing flight, he was delayed numerous times in Ireland and Germany coming home, but at least he made it with some time to spare. My mom and sister arrived the night before our flight.
I stayed up way too late the night before our flight finishing up last minute packing, but we did wake up and get out of the house around 5:30 am. Our flight was at 8 o’clock and we had about a 45 min drive to the airport.
We had an amazing trip (for the most part), and I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but first I have to get some sleep, so coming up tomorrow I will fill you in on our departing flight and hopefully get to tell you all about our amazing first night at Disney World!

[terri910]

I am anxious to read about your Disney dream trip!

[reyasmommy]

I'm excited to hear about your trip!

Your daughter is absolutely adorable! I love that picture of her!

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to go to WDW with someone that is Bipolar and not on meds!! I myself am Bipolar and 24 weeks pregnant. I haven't been on my medication since I found out I was pregnant and am not the most pleasant person to be around some days! My poor daughter and husband... The combination of pregnancy hormones and not being on my meds is NOT pretty! Luckily when we go on our trip in March I'll be back on it! My husband is very thankful for that.

I look forward to hearing more about your trip.

[mirandag819]

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. We did have to drive two separate cars, because we couldn’t all fit into 1 with the massive amount of luggage we had. We pulled up to Southwest’s terminal and unloaded all of our bags and then Morgan and I drove our cars to the parking garage. We wanted to park in the parking lot instead of the garage since I hate paying $180 for parking, but we couldn’t seem to find the parking lot. We met everyone else by the ticketing counters and headed for security. There was no line at all, so we got to our gate very quickly.
Once we got to our gate we found out our flight was delayed an hour and a half. So we now had a 3 hour wait. We decided to get some breakfast while we waited and I was able to get plenty of airport pictures.


While waiting at the airport, Taylor spent the down time teaching Aunt MoMo and Mimi how to pose for pictures, she is a big fan of the hands on your hip pose.






The obsessive planner in me was trying not to get upset about the brief delay, but I couldn’t help but think of how it was going to cut into our plans for the day.
We got delayed another 25 mins as our flight time approached, I was really not loving that. I love having the first flight of the day, and getting to Orlando nice and early. Once we finally boarded we were able to get 5 seats together at least, so that was good (we fly Southwest and there is no assigned seats).
Here is Aunt Momo being silly while waiting for the plane:

As we are getting settled on the plane, Taylor announces very loudly, “DADDY, WE ARE GOING TO CRASH (in an excited voice)” People started turning and looking at us worried that we had some weird psychic child. Apparently Taylor remembered her last plane ride and the little safety booklet where she saw the inflatable slide exits. She thinks they look fun and she really wants a crash landing so she can ride them. However no one else on the plane thought that was a good idea.


The plane got in the air pretty quickly. Shortly after we took off Dee decides he has to go to the bathroom, I had to make fun of him a little bit, what grown man can’t go to the bathroom on hold it for an hour long flight. The problem with him going to the bathroom is now Taylor knows there is a bathroom on board the plane (it never occurred to her before). So of course she had to go potty now too and it was an “emergency”. In case you hadn’t noticed yet, her dress is huge! The pettiskirts take up so much room in the suitcase, and since she needed 3, I packed 2 and had her wear one on the plane. BAD IDEA! Do you know how hard it is to fit a little girl, a mommy, and a pettiskirt into the tiny tiny bathroom on the plane? So not fun!
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, and we landed in Orlando around 10:45 am.
Next up….. Finding our rental vehicle on the Emerald Isle….. Can we find one to hold all of us 9 bags and 5 people???

[emcreative]

I'm here and can't wait to read more!

[MousekaMaddi]

what a lil cutie u have!! and 3 pettiskirts! OH MY! Cant wait for more pix!!

[Mirb1214]

I am SO excited that you are starting your trip report!! I can't wait to see all your beautiful customs "in action".

[woodkins]

Soo excited to hear all about your trip....and see all of the cute boutique fashions ;-)

[reyasmommy]

cute dress

[mirandag819]

So we land at MCO and head to baggage claim. Our bags were brought out very quickly and we headed straight to the Emerald Aisle. Now when I booked our trip DH wasn’t going, so I knew it was totally safe to book the Emerald Aisle. For those of you who aren’t familiar with National’s Emerald Club, you book and pay for a mid-size, but can choose any available vehicle on the aisle. We now had 5 people and 9 huge bags, so we defiantly needed a van, which I have had no problem getting in the past when I booked Emerald Aisle. However, our flight was now delayed so we got there later than usual. There were no vans, and no large SUVS available on the Emerald Aisle. So I went to the counter to see how much it would cost to upgrade to a van. Turns out National was totally out of them. I decided to check with Avis and Enterprise to see if they had any. They did, but it would be $1500 for the 8 days with a military discount, I did not like the idea of that. I decided we would get a cab for 1 person and some luggage and meet with a car at the resort. The 5 of us could fit in a car, just not with luggage.
By the time I get back to National’s section, DH has decided he can make a small SUV with a 3rd row of seats work. The SUV had noooo trunk at all, but he has folded down the 3rd row of seats and packed our luggage to the roof. The only problem was the 2nd row of seats only had 2 seats, but MoMo volunteered to sit on the cup holder. Shhhhh don’t tell anyone that my police officer husband broke the seatbelt law.
We crammed into the car like sardines and headed for Shades of Green. We get out of the garage and DH remembers he turned off the GPS function of his blackberry while he was in Iraq, and we needed it to get to SoG, so we pulled over briefly while he called Verizon to get it turned back on.
We finally made it to the Magic Kingdom gates! YAY!

Then we headed straight to Shades of Green to check in (although we were hours before check in), and get our military tickets.


While checking in, Taylor sat down to watch a movie in the children’s movie area, I thought it was odd to be on Disney property and them having a non-Disney movie playing.



After a min or two she ran over to me and asked me where the Mickey Statue was, I can’t believe at her age she remembers that from last year, but she did. I walked her over to the statue and she was hugging and kissing on it like it was the real Mickey Mouse.







I was bored, so I snapped a few pics around the lobby and since Taylor was already telling me no more pictures Mommy, I decided to step outside and snap a few pictures of the grounds.






Our rooms weren’t ready yet, so we moved our bags to SoG’s storage room….and headed over to the attraction ticket sales. In the past we could buy our tickets right away, but because of the military promo this year, there was a huge line that spilled out into the hallway to get tickets. We ended up waiting over an hour to get our tickets, once we were at the counter it only took about 30 seconds, but everyone in front of us was not prepared and still had a million questions. They all really needed to read the DIS before their trip, if they had they could have bought the tickets in 30 seconds too instead of 5 mins each.
Morgan was having a meltdown about the fact Dee had taken her bags to storage, she had gotten sweaty while waiting for the rental car and wanted to change clothes (did she not realize it would take all of 2 mins to get sweaty again when she went outside in FL in August?). She went and got her bags out and changed….and then we decided to head over to DTD and check out Disney Quest.

[WDWAtLast]

I in! Can't wait so see pics of all your beautiful customs!!!

[MouseTriper]

I am here too and loving it so far!!! I loved the airport pictures, she looked adorable in her pink Minnie outfit. Can't wait for the next part!!

[2cutekidz]

You forgot to mention that you learned to sew for this trip!!

Can't wait to see all of your pictures and hear about your trip!!

[mirandag819]

Originally Posted by 2cutekidz

You forgot to mention that you learned to sew for this trip!!

Can't wait to see all of your pictures and hear about your trip!!

HAHA yeah that is true, and the outfits were such a hit on the trip! I can't wait for you to hear all about the outfit you made though, it was a HUGE deal and I have such a great story about that night coming soon. Feel free to swipe any pictures when I get to that part, or I can email some to you. The outfit really made for the perfect night!

[ireland_nicole]

Hi Miranda! I made it; am can't wait to hear all about your fabulous trip! And, of course, to see all Taylor's awesome customs in their natural habitat!!