4 days until we get to He-ea-ven! 4 days until we get to Dis-ney World! Sept'12 PTR

[nadira36]

Originally Posted by jennyjinx3

Whew, sound like a stressful time for you all. Glad you have WDW to take your mind off things. I too have been contemplating downgrading to save some $$$. DH just won't agree to it, but lately I can't sleep!! We want to take 2 trips down next year, and then extra savings from not staying at the Poly would really help. I have lost my solid financial mind after experiencing Disney.

Don't do it! You won't be as happy anywhere else! :good vibes

Hahaha we've talked about it, but there are so many reasons why the Poly is the best place for us - at least this trip. We still use a buggy - a DOUBLE buggy. And lugging that plus 2-3 sleeping kids on and off busses just isn't appealing to me. So this trip will be the Poly and likely next trip as well. After that we'll have to wait and see.

Besides We priced it out and for any rooms that fit us we wouldn't really save that much money - not enough to make it that big of a deal anyhow.

[jennyjinx3]

Yes...DH explained to me again this morning why we are not moving from the Poly. And us still using the Double Stroller too is a big reason. To be able to move it on and off the monorail without folding is HUGE!! Especially with any sleeping children in it. You are right there!

[nadira36]

OKay - huge HUGE HUGE weight off my shoulders - the allergist says we likely don't have actual 'allergies' - because the reaction isn't instantaneous. THough he says there's no way to tell what her reactions will turn into - but the more we avoid a food, the more likely an allergy will develop. We've been told to continue testing to see what happens when she's exposed.

Soooooooooo little Tink gets to try a Dole whip, and Mickey Bar while we're down there!!

Oh course we have been advised to carry a good strong antihistamine and an epipen, just in case.

[nadira36]

In other news: we're anxiously watching flight prices. Our one desire is they drop in price - enough for me to purchase something else, say a frog from Hoy Poloi.

I can't help it. I LOVE me some frogs! And I dislike spending a fortune on flights when I know there was a sale a few weeks ago, a few months ago, and didn't purchase tickets.

Our deadline to pay for the rest of our Disney package is fast approaching. I want our flight details prior to paying the rest, that way I know ME is all set up and ready to go well in advance.

If you had an extra $400 (the difference between last weeks sale and now) to spend at Disney, what would you spend it on?

How about an extra $700 (the difference between flight prices now, and previous trips) what would you buy?

[jennyjinx3]

I wld probably put that money towards MNSSHP tickets! We are going again this year...we loved it!

[nadira36]

We LOVED MNSSHP as well - and are definitely going again this year - so extra money won't go toward that.

We did find decent flights for $300 less - the times aren't as nice, but still reasonable - so we're debating taking those or continuing to wait - though we can only wait until Friday so DH wants to wait, I want the MONEY!

The expensive flights leave at 6:10 and arrive at 1530 - then when we Leave MCO we leave at 5:30 and arrive home at 1245 the next day.

The less expensive flight leaves home at 8AM and arrives at 5:30 - same travel time, but we get there a few hours later. We have dinner ADRs for 7:45 at Kona.

When we leave MCO we'd leave at 4:30 and get to our home airport at 11:40PM

so it's a difference of 3 hours at Disney for a difference of $300 - is Disney worth $100/hour?

[nadira36]

Waiting paid off! We saved $500+ on our flights. We're still paying more than we've ever paid in the past, but it's so much closer that we're okay with it.

The flight times aren't as great as we'd hoped for, and we have 2 - count 'em 2 stop overs on the way home but the total travel time is less than the single stop over - - plus we get home early enough to be in our beds by midnight

Over all not too bad. Now we have a little bit extra to spend while we're there - souvenirs? experiences? Food? Wine? Oh the possibilities are endless!!

Monday is our 45 day marker. This weekend I have to contact Disney to give them our flight information so we can ride ME :good vibes so excited!!!

Now things really pick up around here. So many things left to do - and now that our nonrefundable flights have been purchased, there's no turning back!. We have to get Aurora's passport updated, figure out suitcases, clothing (at least it isn't Christmas - and cold - this year).


Wheeeeeeee This is my favourite part of planning - when things start to actually HAPPEN - it's almost time to go!

[jennyjinx3]

yay!!

[nadira36]

Wow today's been busy!

We finished paying for our Poly portion of the trip (we don't have to actually pay the rest of the room-only AoA portion until we arrive on the 15th).

We bought our MNSSHP tickets

Added Tinkerbell to our flights (when purchasing through travelocity we either have to pay full price, or add the infant over the phone - after paying for everyone else's flights).

Unfortunately I also realized I made a mistake with one of our ADRs - so now I'm scrambling to fix the ressie. Online I can only make ADRs for Jiko for 8 or fewer, but with Tink that meal has 9 ppl. The ADR can only be made by contacting Jiko directly, but they don't have office hours - so now I"m wanting and hoping they understood my e-mail addy when I spoke it over the phone (with 3 kids screaming in the background).

I really hope we manage to get it figured out - I'd be really to miss out on this particular ADR.

We've also talked about some of our other plans. We're tentatively thinking of hiring a Disney Photographer to do our family pictures this year - the price we've seen quoted is similar to what we already pay our regular photographer - but the pictures would be at our favourite place. The problem is our Little LIlo doesn't like her picture being taken, unless she knows the photographer - so we're still talking about it and will hopefully have an opportunity to see if we could, even briefly, meet the photographer a day or two before doing the photos. Id hate to hire the photographer, only to have our big girl refuse to be in our family pics.

[jennyjinx3]

Ok, how did I miss you were staying at AOA too? Or did I know and my sad brain just didn't process this info? I would love to hear what you are going to think of it, it's on our list for next year....maybe...

Good luck with the Jiko reservation

Which halloween party are you going to?

[glj104]

hard to believe we will finally be at the Poly on Friday. I started my count down at 386 days.

[nadira36]

Originally Posted by glj104

hard to believe we will finally be at the Poly on Friday. I started my count down at 386 days.

Welcome - and hope you have so much fun on your vacation!

So exciting 4 days! Have to say I'm a little Jealous! :good vibes I can hardly what to go back.

[nadira36]

Originally Posted by jennyjinx3

Ok, how did I miss you were staying at AOA too? Or did I know and my sad brain just didn't process this info? I would love to hear what you are going to think of it, it's on our list for next year....maybe...

Good luck with the Jiko reservation

Which halloween party are you going to?

Hahaha My sister is due to have a baby at the start of our trip, but we don't like taking time away from Disney to visit family (outside the parks). Soooo we decided to add a couple days onto our trip to stay at AoA - room-only. We'll take the time to explore the resort and just relax - plus my sister will be able to visit us, without spending really any money (they rarely go to the parks to meet us, so planned resort time will be perfect to accommodate a newborn).

We're going to the first party on the 11th - we considered the 14th, but originally our plan was to leave FL on the 15th and we didn't want to have a late night before a travel day - but then our plans changed - we considered the 14th, but we'll stillm be checking out on the 15th, and changing my ADRs didn't appeal to me so the 11th it is. PLus we're hoping, being a weeknight, that it'll be less crowded


Anxiously awaiting hearing back from Jiko - and the friends we're meeting up with for dinner - we tend to only ever see people while we're at Disney, but I'm loath to actually take time away from the parks.

[nadira36]

I've got Jiko!! We'll have an earlier ADR than we planned, so we aren't likely to do everything at HS we planned on, but we do have 2 extra days without parks planned, so we could hop over there to watch a show or ride a ride if need be.

This also changes when we're likely to do a DVC tour, since our plan had been before dinner. I'll have to see how everyone's feeling that day.

I also received an e-mail from special diets. It's the longest message we've ever received front hem, and the only personalized message, however we never really came away with any real info. Basically, use talk to the chef when we arrive, and read labels. I feel a tad disappointed because even if it wasn't Disney, I'd expect to do that. In the past we've received a list of all the prepackaged foods used and where to find the safe ones. This time we didn't get the same information.

The girls are getting very excited! We made our first ever Disney countdown calendar and they LOVE putting up their sticker each day. Aurora can now count to 40 with almost no help, and Lilo can coutn to 40 faster than I can! Tink likes to eat stickers so is rather upset that she doesn't get to add her own each day. Poor girl.

So we're debating taking Tink for her first haircut at the Main street barber shop - she's badly in need of clips and/or a haircut, but we're not sure which we want to do. Aurora still hasn't had her first real haircut (she did cut a curl off herself last year), and Ella was 3 before her first haircut, so being faced with a currently 16 mos old baby with hair going everywhere leaves me a little unsure. A haircut means baby's growing up

[jennyjinx3]

Yay! So glad you got Jiko! A DVC tour??? Interesting! Is this something your family is contemplating???