2 or 3 TRIPS in 2012! Celebrating my bday DISNEY STYLE - 3/12 & 11/12 and ?? PTRs!

[kittylady1972]

Disney takes a backseat for a while...will we change our plans yet again?

Ok, so I was so busy last week with various appointments and issues that I never get back here to update. However it means there was nothing to update really...at least right now. Here's the long and short of it though.

I had many appointments last week for medical checkups for myself. Yes part of this is due to my mom's recent new diagnosis with cancer for the 2nd time...it certainly makes you more aware of your own health. I was having some issues I needed addressed and so far, that's gone well. I did have two tests done on Friday for which I'm awaiting results though...so we'll see what happens.

In the meantime, the update on my mom so far is pretty good. They have staged her lung cancer as 2A, which is not the BEST news as we were hoping for stage 1, but at least it's still pretty good. They have not seen any evidence that it has spread elsewhere so far, which is all good as well. She is still awaiting a few more test results though so keeping fingers crossed. They have scheduled her surgery to remove the mass in her lung as well as the entire lobe that it is affecting...and that surgery is scheduled for February 27th.

This is the Monday before we leave for our trip. While my brother plans to be there for her and she has told me not to worry about going...well I'm not a very good listener. I want to be there for her and for my dad so as of right now my plan is to drive down Sunday night, stay for surgery Monday, check in with her on Tuesday and then drive home probably Tuesday night.

They expect her to be in the hospital for a few days, so she SHOULD be out by the end of the week. I will probably be okay with heading back home the day after surgery if she is doing well...but there's a chance I could stay a bit longer. I'm keeping my options open.

So then there's the matter of the trip. If I am already pretty much HALFWAY to Disney...I am wondering if it might make sense to just drive from there. However it's just not that simple really.

My husband is supposed to leave for a business trip...Feb. 28th and return on Friday March 2nd. He's going back and forth on cancelling the trip to be with me. I think it's kind of important for him to be on the trip due to some office politics...but he also feels family should come first. I'm really okay with whatever decision he makes...but of course it's not just about him either.

There is also the matter of three kids...who I have yet to tell about their grandmother, who they adore. I don't know to what extent I will tell them about her health. If I go down on Sunday and just stay through the week it would mean leaving them behind for almost TWO WEEKS!

And another thing is that our oldest son is participating in the state science fair on Saturday March 3rd. DH is supposed to attend that with him. So that means DH should at least be home for that...and no driving to Florida for him. He would have to be home Saturday morning for that.

So while driving seems to make more sense to me, it also means me taking more time off from work, leaving the kids behind for so much longer and I'd have to be packed already the previous Sunday for our Disney trip. I may pack anyway...just in case I do stay a bit longer.

Realistically right now I think I'll probably end up going down alone on Sunday, staying through Tuesday or Wednesday, and then returning home Wednesday night or Thursday. MAYBE DH will be with me too...just don't know yet. We'll most likely still fly down on Saturday.

Oh and did I mention one other thing...that I might end up driving down in our new vehicle that we purchased on Friday? Yes my DH has never been known for keeping vehicles for very long and so about a week ago I mentioned that I really liked the changes they made to the 2012 Honda Pilot. I own a 2008 Honda Pilot and told him when I was ready to get rid of mine, I'd probably look at the 2012 Pilot or beyond. Since I don't have a car payment currently, I was not willing or even thinking about doing this NOW but DH was trying to convince me to get rid of mine. We do put a lot of miles on our cars now that we drive to NC a few times a year so he thought it would make sense. I just don't want two car payments.

Well with the improved gas mileage and other changes, DH made the decision to try to get rid of his 2009 (or was it 2010...I don't even know) Mazda CX-9 and get a new 2012 Honda Pilot instead. I was fine with that as long as the car payment stayed as close to the current one as possible. So that's what he did on Friday...and I just went Friday evening to the dealership to sign my name on the paperwork.

Anyway if he goes away in February, he doesn't want to park the NEW Pilot at the airport for a few days...so he wants me to drive it down to NC instead. I'm okay with that...but I really do love driving my own Pilot just as much. Whatever though...we'll see what happens.

So yep...plenty of stuff going on here and to think about to keep my mind off of making any more Disney changes. I can't believe I've only got less than 3 weeks until my trip!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

NEW DAY and NEW THOUGHTS

This morning I was back on my saving-money kick with the upcoming trip. I decided to do some more pricing on my rental car because I really hate paying over $200 for my 5 nights in a mid-size car.

So I ended up checking my rates and they had dropped a bit...so I rebooked my rental car through Dollar...and I was down to about $218 for the week. I had started out at $288 or so so that was good.

Then I thought about it more and thought perhaps we could get away with just getting the rental for the end of the trip. We could take Magical Express from the airport, and then perhaps Tuesday we could just walk over to the Dolphin to Alamo and rent a vehicle for the next two days...a nice savings. Plus we could use it to drive to EPCOT early the next morning for our tour and then to the airport on Thursday. I really didn't want to take ME back to the airport because I figured I'd have to board a bus much earlier than I wanted to do so. So I booked a rental at Alamo...$136 for two days. Not bad.

Right after that I got a notification from AutoSlash...this is a GREAT service BTW...and they had a rate for a Full-Size vehicle of $175.80 for the week. All I had to do was book it...and DONE! So now I'm back to having a car for the whole trip AND it's less than $200 now. It's a little more expensive than the Alamo rental, but then I don't have to worry about taking time out of our vacation there to pick it up because as it was I was picking it up at 4pm...on the same day or our LeCellier lunch scheduled for 2:45pm...so that may have been tight or impossible anyway!

So now we are back to the original plan...bigger vehicle, picked up at the airport from the same place we always use. I think we'll probably stick to that plan. Good stuff!

And in even more good news, my mom met with her oncologist today and so far it's all looking very good for her, they have her back to Stage 1 Lung Cancer, are showing now signs of it having spread anywhere else, and they feel with surgery they will remove it and NO CHEMO! That's great news for her! DH cancelled his trip out of town that week so now he and I will drive down together the day before Mom's surgery, stay there that night, go to the hospital the next day, and if all goes well we'll be back on the road on Tuesday and back home. Of course, we'll take his new car which he's really looking forward to as well just so he can see if he finally gets the gas mileage he wants out of a vehicle! I don't understand men and the gas mileage but he's really stuck on that one!

Oh and I also rebooked my Cape May Clambake meals. Now I'm still going on Sunday and I have a second ressie on Tuesday if I don't make the Sunday one or if I change my mind again. I did push the Tuesday ressie back by about a half-hour in case we are too full from the LeCellier lunch to eat that early but of course my plan is still to arrive earlier to LeCellier and hope to eat earlier than our 2:45pm ressie. I have no idea if that will be possible...but one can hope!!

 

[Lidian]

Glad you got the car rental sorted out! That's a great deal for under $200!

Also glad to hear good news about your mom! That's sweet of your DH to take off so he can join you! Keep us posted on how well she does!

 

[kittylady1972]

Anybody notice my NEW title??
There is now a VERY VERY small possibility of a THIRD Walt Disney World trip in 2012. Yes, I am completely crazy. My DH is also an enabler. So let me 'splain now!

THIS MORNING we were talking about our crazy weather here in Maryland this year. The kids have not missed ANY school so far due to weather, not even a delay...which is really, really rare. What is that so important to this discussion?

Well because it means we actually MIGHT be able to make it for the last Star Wars Weekend this year and if that's the case...being as it is SO rare...wouldn't it be wrong NOT to take advantage of it?

Yep the convo this morning was just between the two of us and I actually said "so let's just DRIVE down to Disney for Star Wars Weekends at the end of school this year" and DH said "OK". Little did we knew...little ears were listening!

I was MOSTLY kidding...but then again....maybe not? After all, we have that new 2012 Honda Pilot and DH would love to take it on a long road trip to see what kind of gas mileage he can get and if I can help him....why shouldn't I do that? Right?

I remembered some good rates coming out regarding discounts through June...and I checked them out as well as my AP rates...and they were....well OK. But not GREAT. After all, it's still June.

That lead me to look into off-site hotels. After all, we will have a car and it will just be the five of us. Plus we probably won't do any hard-core park touring really. Plus I want to make this as cheap as I can make it. And so...we are booked in some kind of Choice branded hotel...off-site but still close enough...and free breakfast will save us money. We can even pack some lunches for the parks. So the hotel is costing me less than $400 for 4 nights. My plan would be leave REALLY early Thursday morning June 7th, arriving to our hotel and just chilling there that evening. Friday June 8th we'd hit the Star Wars Weekend events at Hollywood Studios. Saturday...perhaps we'd do one of the Disney water parks. Sunday...not sure yet. Monday morning we'd head back home bright and early.

Am I totally crazy? Perhaps. I have to work on the finances of it again as I also started looking into other hotel options and we can also stay at Shades of Green...for $524 for those same nights. That's a little bit more...but it's also walking distance to the Polynesian in case we wanted to do any other parks.

So our expenses would be our hotel, plus tickets for the kids which might be one or two day tickets...NOT hoppers. We would have to pay for TWO entries to the water park...because we actually have two adults and one kid entry to the water parks already that we can use...for free. Plus food.

Will it really happen? There is a chance but ONLY if the kids are lucky (or unlucky) enough to not have ANY days cancelled this year for school. That leaves about one month or so to go. We'll see what happens!

And in other news...that AutoSlash service continues to be awesome. My rental car dropped AGAIN yesterday and was rebooked. I'm now paying about $132 for 5 nights...which is the same that I was going to pay for just TWO nights rental, and some extra hours, at Alamo. So I cancelled that and I guess we'll just have to try out the whole ME service another time!

 

[Lidian]

Grats on getting another AutoSlash deal! I love saving money! More money in my pocket is more money I can give to Uncle Walt, right?

I saw your new title ... and if you don't take me with you on one of your trips, I'm going to stop reading.

 

[kittylady1972]

Grats on getting another AutoSlash deal! I love saving money! More money in my pocket is more money I can give to Uncle Walt, right?

I saw your new title ... and if you don't take me with you on one of your trips, I'm going to stop reading.

Agree that AutoSlash service rocks! I would have figured I could do better myself, but they are much more on top of the rates than I am which is fine by me!

SURE I'll bring you along...you don't mind piling into our vehicle of five people already right?? I did bring up the THIRD trip last night again to DH and he is certainly not fighting me on it...as long as we can do it pretty cheaply. I think that will be easy enough! Now again, the ONLY way this trip will happen is if they do not have ANY snow days this year. Realistically I think we are only about 2-3 weeks away from even the POSSIBILITY of having cold enough weather and snow. Actually I think if they even had ONE snow day we could still do it...but I didn't tell him that!

 

[Lidian]

Agree that AutoSlash service rocks! I would have figured I could do better myself, but they are much more on top of the rates than I am which is fine by me!

SURE I'll bring you along...you don't mind piling into our vehicle of five people already right?? I did bring up the THIRD trip last night again to DH and he is certainly not fighting me on it...as long as we can do it pretty cheaply. I think that will be easy enough! Now again, the ONLY way this trip will happen is if they do not have ANY snow days this year. Realistically I think we are only about 2-3 weeks away from even the POSSIBILITY of having cold enough weather and snow. Actually I think if they even had ONE snow day we could still do it...but I didn't tell him that!

I'll ride on the hood if it will get me to WDW.

I'm kinda worried about the weather this year .... The weather patterns are so close to the ones in '93. I feel a blizzard in our future.

 

[kittylady1972]

THE THIRD POSSIBLE MYSTERY SURPRISE TRIP UPDATE

So I am sure it will come as no surprise that I started doing some additional calculations for the POSSIBLE June short Star Wars Weekend trip to Disney. I did many calculations on tickets to try to figure out the best options for us. Really the only ones who need the tickets are the kids...and the thing I determined is that it just MIGHT be cheaper and easier to just get them annual passes! Crazy? Yes I know it is but here is how I figured that out!

We know we are returning to Disney in November already. For that trip, I'll probably get 5-day hoppers for the kids because we'll be at the parks on Firday and Saturday, then the cruise Sun-Wed, then more park time Wed-Friday. Now right NOW I have 1 adult and 2 kids to buy for and for the 5-day hoppers for them (provided prices don't increase) it would cost $880.86. If I get 1-day tickets for this upcoming trip and we just do Hollywood Studios...that will cost me $258.80 for a total of $1139.66.

However we may want to try one other park...to upgrade to hoppers for the June trip would mean a total cost of $370.62 for 1-day hoppers and added to our 5-day hoppers for November we are now up to $1251.48.

Let's say we do 2-day non-hoppers instead for June...and we are now up to $509.70 (for 2 kids and 1 adult for 2-day non-hoppers) and then add that to our November totals...and now we are at $1390.56.

And yet, right now with our DVC discount I can buy 2 kids and 1 adult AP for a grand total of $1268.42.

So it seems to me it would make more sense to just buy AP passes for all of the kids IF we do go in June...and then we have no tickets to buy for November...and then I have a reason to squeeze in another Disney trip at ANY time!

Now the tough thing will be keeping track of all of these APs because right now mine expires in June...right after we RETURN from our POSSIBLE trip. DH will get one for the trip in March...so his will have a March expiration. The kids will at least be closer to my June expiration...so that will be easy enough.

Anyway I didn't discuss this with DH last night because thinking about shelling out that kind of money right NOW is a bit scary! It makes the June trip seem more expensive...when really it isn't. To offset that cost, I'm actually thinking we might end up changing the room reservation as well. I think that we will cancel part of our November 2012 reservation and use those points to try to book the June trip instead. Unfortunately it doesn't give me a lot of options...and I'd still have to pay OOP for some of the reservation at a DVC resort for June. We'll see what happens.

Then I would rebook the first two nights in November and pay CASH for those...and I already discussed booking those two nights at Shades of Green. DH couldn't understand why....and then I explained it to him. I figure our November trip for that first weekend we'll want to focus on Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. Why? Well because I know by the Wed before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day the parks will be packed but the most crowded ones will be MK and EPCOT...so we'll want to avoid those at the end of the trip and focus on them before the cruise. Since SOG is right near the Poly, and MK, it makes sense to stay there instead.

Oh how fun it is to be the Disney expert as DH was totally on board with this.

So it all comes down to ONE key factor right now...the weather!!! No snow or at least no snow that's heavy enough to cause school CANCELLATIONS will mean the kids getting out of school four days earlier than planned...which means the last day of school will be June 7th...and we'd leave for Disney THAT day!

Oh and the other thing...we are NOT going to mention this to the kids AT ALL! Yep going to be a surprise trip for them since so many factors are in play for this right now. As much as I'd love a good snow and day off from work...I am pulling for a year without it and a chance for another Disney trip.

We shall see what happens but it really means I'll most likely return from my March trip...and plan this next one if this all works out!

 

[Lidian]

I can't wait to hear what you decide on! I'm crossing my fingers that the weather will be okay, so no missed school. I'm anxiously waiting for you to take me with you.

 

[kittylady1972]

So this weekend they are actually callling for some REAL snow here in Maryland...maybe a snow/ice/slush mixture...Sunday night into Monday morning. I'm not holing my breath quite yet...but we'll see if it happens.

Will it cause schools to be cancelled Monday? DOESN'T EVEN MATTER...there is NO SCHOOL on Monday due to President's Day!

So DH is off from work and he'll be home with the kids. The question is...will I get to join them?? I work for a school...so of course *I* will be the only one checking the weather all weekend and hoping for a delay or cancellation of schools on Monday now! It means I'd get to stay home too!

So we have about two more weeks of February to get through and the possibility of school being cancelled due to snow are looking very, very slim.

I am really looking forward to planning our June Walt Disney World whirlwind SURPRISE weekend now!

 

[Lidian]

So this weekend they are actually callling for some REAL snow here in Maryland...maybe a snow/ice/slush mixture...Sunday night into Monday morning. I'm not holing my breath quite yet...but we'll see if it happens.

Will it cause schools to be cancelled Monday? DOESN'T EVEN MATTER...there is NO SCHOOL on Monday due to President's Day!

So DH is off from work and he'll be home with the kids. The question is...will I get to join them?? I work for a school...so of course *I* will be the only one checking the weather all weekend and hoping for a delay or cancellation of schools on Monday now! It means I'd get to stay home too!

So we have about two more weeks of February to get through and the possibility of school being cancelled due to snow are looking very, very slim.

I am really looking forward to planning our June Walt Disney World whirlwind SURPRISE weekend now!

Oh, thanks for reminding me that kids have no school Monday! I'm going to have to find a sitter for them. I have two classes ... so ... someone will have to watch them.

Fingers are crossed you'll have the perfect weather you need!

 

[kittylady1972]

Well it looks like the snow is going to miss us...AGAIN! At one point they were talking like we could get several inches...and now nothing.

Guess I'm going to be going to work tomorrow after all!

So in just TWO WEEKS I'll be in Disney! WOW!

I really need to get some papework together for my in-laws regarding the kids. I want to make sure they are aware of the pediatrician that we use, plus the orthodontist in case DS11 has any issues with his braces, and that they know how to get to both schools. I'll be doing this for NEXT weekend since DH and I will be leaving them Sunday - Tuesday next week, so it should be ready to go for our trip the following weekend.

I keep stressing to DH that I *WILL* leave him behind...as terrible as that sounds! He's got some kind of issue with his foot that he's been battling and I've been telling him for a few weeks to see a doctor so that they can help him get healed before we leave...but has he done that? Guess?

So if he complains of his feet hurting...I will leave him behind. If he is too tired to walk any more...I will continue without him. I mentioned that to him this morning. I'm not about to spend my vacation in the room...this vacation will not be for just sitting in our room!

I was reading another TR here and I LOVED the idea of trying to do a 4-parks in ONE day! That would be pretty cool and I think pretty doable. I may add it to my list but squeezing it in around some of my ADRs might be tricky. I may have to cancel an ADR for that...maybe just do drinks and/or desserts in each park plus a few rides. We'll see!

Right now I'm just hoping my kids and both of us stay healthy for this trip. I don't want to be sick and I don't want my in-laws to have to deal with sick kids either. The only reason it's on my mind is because my DS7 got some mystery head-to-toe rash all over his body sometime Friday night and we still aren't sure what caused it. He even stumped the after-hours pediatrician! The thought is he had some kind of virus, even though he has had no other real symptoms of being sick, and it's just at the end of it's run right now. There was a concern of allergies, but since everybody in this family BESIDES this kid has allergies of some kind, I'm really doubtful this was an allergic reaction. We just don't know, but DS7 is taking it in stride and isn't suffering so we'll just see how he does. He seems to have shown improvement in just today alone which is good.

So in preparation for my trip, I've decided I'm going to try my best to do live TWITTER updates. I don't use my twitter account a lot, but I've used it more in the last two weeks. If anybody else uses twitter or wants to add me, I do have my account public...and I'm disneyholic there!

I figured my Facebook friends will probably hate to see constant photos and updates on my pages, but not too many people follow me on Twitter so any Disney people can keep up to date there!

 

[Lidian]

I never use my Twitter account. I've checked it like ... 5x in the past year. If you were doing FB updates, I'd switch info in a heartbeat. Sadly, I won't be following along, because I'll never remember to check Twitter.

I'll be boring all my FB friends with updates. Last year, I kept it to one or two a day ... this year, they can get over it and unfriend me if they don't like it. I'm going to update as much as I want.

 

[kittylady1972]

I never use my Twitter account. I've checked it like ... 5x in the past year. If you were doing FB updates, I'd switch info in a heartbeat. Sadly, I won't be following along, because I'll never remember to check Twitter.

I'll be boring all my FB friends with updates. Last year, I kept it to one or two a day ... this year, they can get over it and unfriend me if they don't like it. I'm going to update as much as I want.

Oh I'm sure I'll be doing some FB updates as well! Feel free to friend me there and follow along:

 

[kittylady1972]

So I spent yesterday reviewing my ADRs yet again...thinking about my park plans...scheming about how I want to spend my days.

What does that mean? More changes of course!

I need to call this morning and check into possibly changing one of the tours as well. As soon as I have a little better idea of my plans, I'll update here!!

 

[kittylady1972]

In the meantime...about that June trip....

Yep I am still going forward with the possible-quick-Star-Wars-Weekend June trip planning! What does that mean? Well for RIGHT NOW it just means that I have some preliminary hotels booked for the trip and am thinking about dining reservations too.

Scratch that last sentence...I just BOOKED our first ADR...for June. Yep a meal at 50s Prime Time Cafe is now booked for us. It might actually be our ONE and ONLY table service meal inside the park. Wow!

So the preliminary plan for June is this:

Thursday June 7th: Depart for our long drive to Walt Disney World. Departure time is still up in the air. If this is the kids last day, we MIGHT wait until they get out and leave around noonish. Or maybe they just won't attend the last day of school and we'll leave even earlier. We will see what happens. The plan is to drive all the way to Florida and check into our hotel by either dinnertime that evening or really, really late that night. If we leave in the afternoon, then we might just drive to SC or Georgia and stop there instead.

Friday June 8th: This is going to be a full day at Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekend events. I want to be there at park opening. So if we don't end up in Florida before 9pm the night before, there is no way we'll make park opening. If that's the case, then Friday will become a water park or other park day and Saturday will be Star Wars Weekend events.

Saturday June 9th: Hollywood Studios (only if we didn't make park opening on Friday and went somewhere else) or alternate park or water park day.

Sunday June 10th: Final park day possible or water park day and final park evening

Monday June 11th: Get up and packed and be on the road no later than 8am for the long drive back home!

So that is our possible plan for the whirlwind Disney weekend in June!

As for that March trip that is less than two weeks away now? Stay tuned...I'll get around to updating that in the next day or two...maybe. It's still a work in progress!

 

[Lidian]

Oh I'm sure I'll be doing some FB updates as well! Feel free to friend me there and follow along: Dina Caddeo

I'm apparently old, because I found you, but couldn't find an option to friend you.

So I spent yesterday reviewing my ADRs yet again...thinking about my park plans...scheming about how I want to spend my days.

What does that mean? More changes of course!

I need to call this morning and check into possibly changing one of the tours as well. As soon as I have a little better idea of my plans, I'll update here!!

Anxiously waiting to see what you did ... again.

 

[kittylady1972]

SLEEP is for the WEAK!
I have already warned my husband...I am going to be driving him HARD this vacation! I will not be sitting around in a room, tired. It just won't happen! I can sleep when I get home.

That being said, yesterday I informed him of my arrival day plans. Yes, the arrival day...when our flight lands at 9:25pm. We will then make the mad dash down to the rental car area and pick up our vehicle. Luggage will be carry-on so we should be on the road pretty quickly. I expect to arrive in the World before 10:30pm.

So you would think we should relax and prepare for the next day right? WRONG! I've changed my mind...and we are now going to try to hit MK that evening.

Yep I said it...the MK is open until 12am so why not cruise over there for a bit. After all, we will have spend the last few hours on a plane...we'll need to get out and stretch our legs!

And when the MK closes...we can then head back to our resort and maybe head over to Jellyrolls for a while and enjoy some music. Crazy? Perhaps. Yet I remember my college days when 11pm was still EARLY for me...why shouldn't I be able to hang?

Will it happen? I don't know but that's part of my plan.

Our plans for Sunday include spending the morning and afternoon at Hollywood Studios. Park doesn't open until 9am so I'm not even going to be in a big rush to get there at rope drop. Yes I know that seems crazy...but it's a chance I'm willing to take. As long as we are there well before our lunch...which is at 12:35pm at 50s Prime Time Cafe...we are good!

I have cancelled several dinner plans for Sunday...just decided we didn't need to have anything set in stone. I'm thinking that perhaps we'll just wander over to Marrakesh if we are up for it and walk-in for dinner there. If that doesn't work out...then we'll find something at EPCOT.

By 7:30pm we'll wander over to Rose & Crown and be seated for drinks and dessert there, hopefully at a table where we can view Illuminations. Once that ends, we may even hop onto the monorail and go over to MK for a while. It's open until 2am...so we can do a few more things there.

Yes I won't see MK during DAYLIGHT hours until Monday but I may spend a few evenings there leading up to that!

Monday is still our Keys to the Kingdom Tour. I am CONSIDERING changing the time on this one but haven't done it yet. Right now we have the 8:15am tour. I might change to a later one..we'll see. We may hang at MK until after lunch and then either hit another park or head back to our room. Dinner is that night at Flying Fish. I may try to hit Hollywood Studios AFTER dinner...since it's open until 11pm.

Tuesday the plan is AK for the morning. We'll head to EPCOT by the afternoon where we have lunch planned at LeCellier. I had actually snagged a dinner ressie at LeCellier for Sunday...but then I saw the dinner prices and YIKES! We'll stick to lunch! I still have a Cape May Clambake dinner for that night...but I'm thinking I might cancel it.

Wednesday we have our EPCOT Segway tour that morning. We have no plans for the rest of the day but I'm thinking we'll head over to Beach Club and try to have lunch at Beaches and Cream around 12pm. At 2pm I'd like to try to attend our very FIRST DVC Welcome Wednesday's program at Atlantic Dance Hall. Free stuff = good! This should be an hour, and then we will have to quickly head over to MK after that. We have a 4:15pm dinner at The Plaza and then at 7pm we have our Tomorrowland Terrace Wishes Fireworks Dessert party.

Thursday I'd still like to see the castle on my birthday...in the early morning. So we'll spend a few hours at MK, doing last minute touring and shopping. By about 12:30pm or so we'll say goodbye to MK and head over the EPCOT. I have lunch plans at Chef de France at 1:30pm. We'll have a nice big lunch and then hang around a little while longer for more last minute shopping and such and then leave by 4:30pm for our drive back to the airport.

So really my changes have been to try to incorporate a lot of evening plans into our schedule. After all, we don't have kids and bedtimes to contend with now and I don't have to hear my husband tell me I'm driving the KIDS too hard and they need their sleep. It's just us...and I am going to spend the last few days of my 30s living like I'm in my 20s.

Stay tuned in a few weeks to see just how I do!

 

[kittylady1972]

Can you believe it? My husband doesn't even like to LOOK at the schedule until we are in Florida...because he knows it will change a zillion times? What?? Ok maybe half a zillion!

So I moved my plans up to Google Docs and I've shared it with him and am now making all of my changes there...so even *I* can keep track of them at any time!

Just wait until he sees today's changes...if he even looks at them! Want to take a peek?

MARCH 2012 SCHEDULE

What do you think? I've even managed to squeeze in a possible 4-park day! Wonder how we'll do with following it??

 

[kittylady1972]

So that schedule...it is still pretty close with just one teeny tiny change!

Since I thought it might be fun to do four parks in one day on on Tuesday, I did NOT think it would be fun to then try to make it to a 7:45am Segway tour the next morning.

It wouldn't be so bad if we could just walk from our resort over to there, but since the tour required us to be there at 7:30am we would not be able to use the International Gateway so we'd have to drive to EPCOT, park, then make our way to front gate. That requires more time and I wasn't up for that!

So I've moved the tour to 9am instead. We still have to be at the front gates by 8:45am but I'm also hoping perhaps we can use the International Gateway to get there. If not, at least driving over by 8am is better than 7am!

I know that despite my plan to try to burn the midnight oil as it were, my internal clock is going to have me up early anyway. Sure, I might get run down much faster in the afternoon...but that's when we can take some breaks. I'd still like to do a lot of park time in the evenings if we can manage!

Now the other question remains...should I also push out our Keys to the Kingdom tour scheduled for Monday, considering I want to try to hit MK late Sunday evening AFTER Illuminations?? I have not quite decided on this one yet but it's not outside of the realm of possibilities!