ª"˜ª¤.¸Official Team May 2014 Thread!¸.¤ª˜"ª

[lemonears6]

Leaving today!

 

[jessibelle]

Got back home to the UK this morning! Had an absolutely amazing time! Hope everyone who's leaving soon does too!

 

[luvmy2babies]

I’m half-way through my last shift at work before the trip . Of course I got caught in a traffic jam and got here 30 minutes late which means I’ll be working 30 minutes longer.

I did get more shopping done yesterday. The children were with their Godfather so I had more time instead of the usual rush to pick them up at school. All we’ll need to pick up tomorrow is some snacks for the plane, a little tube of sunscreen safe for faces and a plastic case for our bar of soap. I also need to exchange the pack of socks I got for my son. The size chart said shoe sizes 9-2.5. He wears a size 11 shoe and even though the socks looked big, I got them anyway. Tried a pair Wednesday morning and they engulfed his foot; so I’m going to take them back and get a pack in the smaller size.

The checked luggage is almost packed. My son’s bag will be done once I get his socks, night-time pull-ups and swim trunks in there. My daughter’s bag is done except for swimwear, but I’m going to let her go through it to see if she wants to switch out any of her non-Disney items (as long as she sticks with her list as far as quantity of each item). I left the swimwear in the drawer in her room to avoid suspicion. She loves her swimsuits this year (a major accomplishment) and peeks at them often. My bag needs the most work. I have to pack my shorts, crocs, larger liquids we are taking like shampoo and the large tubes of sunscreen and my daughter’s flip flops (she’s been wearing them this week. Her pettiskirts also have to be packed. I haven’t decided if I’m going to put them in her suitcase or mine. They can go in hers if I fold them and put them into gallon-sized zip lock bags and take out the air.

The carry-on bags still need to be packed. I’ve started on mine, but not the children’s. Pretty much everything going in their carry-ons is in one box though.

Thankful to have my trusty lists. I’ve gotten teased about them, but the only time I forgot anything important on a trip was when I didn’t use them.

If tomorrow around 9am EST, anyone hears squeals from wherever they are, don't worry. My children have just found out they are headed back to Disney World.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Winding down our last day at home. I told the kids this morning. They are very excited. It took my daughter the entire time we were out doing last minute errands after her initial excitement to really buy in. She's not easy to surprise. I call her the 58 inch high private eye. She can't believe I kept the secret from her this long. Our other 2 surprise trips, I just held it for 3 months. This one I kept secret for 9 months. Had to really space out those payments with plane tickets and all.

Baths are done. Bags are packed. Luggage tags and Magical Express tags are on.

Carry-ons are packed except for the stuff we need in the morning. Electronics are charging and alarm clocks are set. I'm setting 2 alarms. Checked in for our flight this morning and we got A20-22, so we are pretty much ready to go. Thanks everyone for accompanying me on the countdown. When you're single and planning a surprise trip it can get a bit lonely. Safe and magical trip to everyone leaving this week.

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Winding down our last day at home. I told the kids this morning. They are very excited. It took my daughter the entire time we were out doing last minute errands after her initial excitement to really buy in. She's not easy to surprise. I call her the 58 inch high private eye. She can't believe I kept the secret from her this long. Our other 2 surprise trips, I just held it for 3 months. This one I kept secret for 9 months. Had to really space out those payments with plane tickets and all.

Baths are done. Bags are packed. Luggage tags and Magical Express tags are on.

Carry-ons are packed except for the stuff we need in the morning. Electronics are charging and alarm clocks are set. I'm setting 2 alarms. Checked in for our flight this morning and we got A20-22, so we are pretty much ready to go. Thanks everyone for accompanying me on the countdown. When you're single and planning a surprise trip it can get a bit lonely. Safe and magical trip to everyone leaving this week.

Have a great trip! Let us know how it went when you get back!!

 

[WDW Fan since 1975]

I leave tomorrow morning! WOO HOO!!!!!

 

[4Still]

Woohoo - we are Disney Magical Express now in route to Saratoga Springs

 

[hsmamainva]

Have a safe & magical trip to all of you soon departing!!

 

[lovegrumpy]

Austin and I wish we were back in Disney right now. He talking about getting a job so he can help pay for us to go back next May. He is so my child.

 

[lemonears6]

On our way back home from a wonderful week at disney! Hope the rest of you had/have a great time too

 

[ffcheff]

Leaving Beach club today. We had a great trip. Thought magic bands were great. Fastpass + worked well but could use more kiosks. Not sure when we will be back.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Didn't have time to post while we were still in Florida. We got home about an hour ago and I just finished going through the mail.

We had a great trip. Probably our best one yet. We finally got a trip with normal Florida weather after having 2 named systems on our last two trips. The brief afternoon/early evening showers were welcomed except the ones that cancelled MSEP the first night. We had fast passes and were waiting to enter the area when they announced the cancellation. Not sure if Wishes went on or not. We left at that point.

I always put in a choice day and we ended up seeing MSEP, the castle projection show and Wishes on another night. All were amazing after not seeing them for 2 years.

We enjoyed the Magic Bands and fast pass plus was fine. I can't say yet if I like it better than the previous version although it was neat (when it worked) being able to switch the experience and the time on the phone, especially if we got held up and weren't going to make it to one ride and could switch it to something closer or a different time.

Our last park is always Magic Kingdom and it was sad to walk out last night. We left just as MSEP was starting as we had seen it on the previous night. But then we got off the bus at All-Star Movies and as I was unfolding the stroller, I heard people yelling. Looked up and from right there we had a fantastic view of some fireworks. People were split as to whether it was Fantasmic or Illuminations. I wasn't aware you could see any fireworks from an All-Star, but this was an incredible view of the last 5 minutes of one of them. Everyone on that bus felt like we'd gotten a serious bonus. Really lightened my little family's mood.

This was our last chance to go at this time of year as my daughter will no longer be in the same school and won't be done before Memorial Day any longer. We might though be able to explore going at some other time of the year as her Spring Break will no longer be attached to Easter.

I'm not sure if 2015 is in the cards. I started the 2012 trip saying it would be the last one for a while and we'd do something else the next year and we've been 2 more times since then. I actually had a Disney cruise booked for July 2013, but when I compared the price of it to the 10 day WDW trip we had taken in 2012, I just couldn't get past it. I really do want to look at the option of a cruise and even though my family and friends too mainly go on Carnival and my previous one (in 2007) was on Royal Caribbean, my daughter said she wanted to do a Disney one at least once. So do I but we'll definitely have to look at some time other than summer.

Hope the May people left and the June folks have fun. It was raining pretty hard when our plane took off.

 

[momof2halls]

We arrived home late friday night from a truly magical vacation. This was our boys (8, turned 4 during trip) 1st trip and they enjoyed every second. We stayed at art of animation in a cars suite. The resort was amazing! We had requested 4th floor (to reduce noise) and closes to animation hall. When we arrived at 815am last friday we were told that they had the perfect room for us and that it was ready for is to check in. She told us it was in building 1 (mater), 1st floor, room 1512. My husband looked at me and sighed. Lol. We didnt want to argue with cm due to being first-timers at AoA (we knew she knew what she was doing) so we gladly checked in and headed to our room. It was amazing!!! Walked in the side door of mater building, probably closer to animation hall than any of the nemo rooms which in know is hard to believe, but we had the 2nd room on the right. We were afraid there would be lots of noise, but we never knew we were surrounded by other families until thursday night when my husband say the do not disturb signs on the other doors. We loved the location of this room. This showed us to trust the cm's, they do know what is better. As mentioned above, my son turned 4 while were were at wdw. He was greeted at check in with a birthday button that he wore proudly everyday. He loved all of the extra attention from all the cm's all over wdw. We loved our magic bands, our cm at check in informed us the key to getting your magic bands to work is the very first time you go to your room put each member of your parties band to the door lock and let it click/flash before opening the door. We did this and they all worked the entire 8 days without any issues. Fastpass + worked great for us. We were able to change times on the fly via the app. We didnt have to wait over 5 min to use any of out fp+. When we didnt have a fp the longest we waited was 30min for an extra ride on peter pan thurs night. My family rode every ride that my boys were tall enough to ride without any issues including mine train, btmr and test track. We did both star wars meals and loved them. Lots of memories made. Already planning another trip for may 2016.

 

[AthenaBolina]

We got home yesterday morning, but man I am having withdrawals...I am seriously down about leaving WDW!! Feels weird to be home still after being in Florida just yesterday! I just love it there.

We had a great trip though, loved the magic bands! Wish fast passes were a little bit easier to get, and that there were more Kiosks, but we rode things multiple times except 7DMT, which we only made it on once with our FP+ reservation.

The crowds were manageable too, and we definitely plan to go back in a few years, but we will stay at another hotel. Art of Animation was fantastic, but I think we will go for something more upscale next time. For us this time, it worked well. The food was OK at the food court, but didnt live up to the hype I heard about it.

After seeing Celebrate the Magic and Wishes, I have to say those are two of my favorites of the entire trip. It brought me to tears actually...so wonderfully done. LOVED it. and the new parade was fantastic too!! I have finally seen enough of MSEP. haha

 

[Aatif911]

Well just like everyone else, we got home yesterday and are starting to unpack things today. Are we going to withdrawals? YES! But about 2 hours before we left I booked another trip for Sept/Oct. using the bounce back discount! Countdown begins again. This trip however is a surprise!

Going back to the trip we just had. It was fun! We meet so many characters, ate at new places, and best off all make priceless memories! Cant wait to go back in Sept/Oct and then again in December.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Well just like everyone else, we got home yesterday and are starting to unpack things today. Are we going to withdrawals? YES! But about 2 hours before we left I booked another trip for Sept/Oct. using the bounce back discount! Countdown begins again. This trip however is a surprise!

Going back to the trip we just had. It was fun! We meet so many characters, ate at new places, and best off all make priceless memories! Cant wait to go back in Sept/Oct and then again in December.

Is there some trick to getting a bounceback discount? Is it that you book it before you leave?

 

[hsmamainva]

Is there some trick to getting a bounceback discount? Is it that you book it before you leave?

Yes -- they're inside the welcome packet that's in your room -- and it's like a folded over page. They don't make it easy to find!

We had one, too, but the only dates available were for this year -- and we're not returning until next year so we didn't book one.

Glad everyone had fun vacations!!

 

[ThereYouSeeHer]

Is there some trick to getting a bounceback discount? Is it that you book it before you leave?

Offers are generally in your room, either as a flyer or inside a booklet. However, you should also call extension x8844, tell them you are currently on-site and interested about any bounceback offers. Sometimes they have them, even when not advertised in your room, and sometimes they have additional ones than what is advertised.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Oh, thanks. I thought I looked that packet over pretty well. Maybe not. I can’t see us going back this year though. I did for a moment have the crazy idea of going down just for a weekend during the holidays to go to the Christmas party, but somewhere along the line, I decided against that. It would be a really expensive weekend. The first time we went it was Thanksgiving week and ever since I have wanted to see the decorations again.

But I’m just going to concentrate on giving the children a fun, productive summer with whatever we do between now and when school resumes for dd in August, and just looking towards 2015 as far as vacations go. Not sure if 2015 will feature a Disney vacation of some type or not yet.

I have really wanted to do a cruise ever since my son finished toilet training in October. I’ve been on one. My daughter was 4 so it’s been a long time. I have wanted to do another one ever since. Have been booked on 2 since that were both cancelled for different reasons. I think after 4 Disney World vacations I’m ready for something more relaxing and different like a cruise. Just not sure if it will be a Disney one.