I hated my title, so like a bad hotel~I had to change it!! UPDATED 5/5/09!

[lovemyguys]

Hello everyone! I can say that I really can not believe that I am actually going to write a pre-trip report! Maybe at least one of you will follow along.

 

[lovemyguys]

Hello fellow Dis friends. I am going to take a crack at this whole trip (well pre-trip) report thing. Let me say right off the bat that I am not the greatest writer in the world. There WILL be commas in the wrong place, words spelled wrong and many run on sentences. I know this so if you see a mistake feel free to just fix it in your own mind. I have read MANY trip reports and could NEVER compete with the "heavy hitters." There are some GREAT writers on these boards.
But anyway how about we begin. Let me begin by introducing you to my crew.

Me (Lisa): I am the one that started my family on the "Disney drugs." You know the ones. Pictures with oversized animals, Chef Mickey, peach tea in China, Churro's in Mexico, Big Thunder Mountain, Micky shaped ice cream and waffles, pin trading and trying to fill an entire book with autographs. Am I ashamed that I took my Disney drug addiction and got my husband and children hooked? NO!! Not at all!! What fun is it to have an addiction to Disney if you do not have anyone in your family that wants to talk, read and dream about it as much as you? Does not sound fun to me at all! So I am a SAHM to 3 beautiful boys. They are 8,6 and 14 months. From here on out they will be referred to as The Oldest (8), The Boy (6) and The Baby. I have been married to my DH for 10 years. So this trip is a 10 year anniversary gift to us from us. I have been staying home since the oldest was 5 months old. One of the perks of being a SAHM is that during this recession I do not have to worry about getting fired. Even though there are those days every now and again when I feel like giving my notice. I LOVE to scrapbook. I started scrapbooking 4 years ago and have completed 5 pages. I know, I know.....slow down! I guess what I am in LOVE with is the IDEA of scrapbooking and BUYING all sorts of materials. I really do like buying new stuff to scrapbook with. I enjoy walking up and down the aisles trying to decide what I need, reading through the CM booklet and picking things I have not bought yet, printing out some pictures, figuring out how I want the page to look and then putting everything neatly away.

DH: He had been to Disney once in his life before he met me. That was a day trip to Magic Kingdom with his college basketball team. They were in Orlando for a basketball tournament. He had ZERO Disney thoughts floating around in his head until I brought up the fact that the kids would love to go and we should look into booking a trip. He came along for the "planning of the trip ride" but mostly sat in the back seat looking out the window. BUT once we got there he was hooked. All of a sudden he wanted to sit up in the front seat and try to give directions. Go left, turn right, slow down I want to take a look at that, speed up so we can beat this large grand gathering group to the ride......... He now actually gets excited to go to disney.

The Oldest: He is 8 years old but will be turning 9 shortly after we return from our trip. He is in 3rd grade and at the point where he notices that the Easter bunny at the mall is just a person in a costume and told me the other day that the characters in Disney are fake. OH NO NOT ALREADY!! I was hoping to get through one more trip with him still believing. He said that he could feel the zipper on their back last time. I told him that it was not a zipper it was their spine. His mouth said "oh ok" but his eyes said "yeah right." He is VERY bright and LOVES to read and learn. He is a very caring with a huge heart! He is a social butterfly. He was recently diagnosed with ADD. We are trying to learn all we can about it and find the right ways to help him.

The Boy: He is 6 years old and in Kindergarden. He has a Nov. birthday so he missed the cut off. I must say that he needed the extra year at home. He was very shy at that point but has since come out of his shell. If you met him you would have NO idea that he was EVER shy. He has a smile that lights up his face and the cutest dimple! He has a strong personality and a quick wit. Some of the "one liners" that come out of his mouth are so damn funny that it is sooo hard to disapline him b/c I can not keep from laughing. He was diagnosed last year with Vitiligo. For those that do not know that is the skin condition Micheal Jackson has. The quick explanation is that it causes white patches to form on his skin. Pretty much your body attacks the pigment leaving the area milky white. The darker skinned the person is the more it stands out. His is noticable b/c he has brown skin. The color that everyone wants during the summer. His skin color is like the best tan you could get. So of course white spots on sun tanned skin stand out. He has/had spots on his face, head, back, hand, both knees, both shins and the top of both feet. Some pretty big some small. We have been applying an ointment to the spots 2 times a day for a year now and the spots on his face, head, back, hand and shins are gone!! Actually the ones on his head re-pigmented on their own. His knees and feet are also filling in with color. I must say I HATE this condition!! Since it is an auto-immune condition no one can tell you what how bad it will get. Some people get some spots and then get no more and some people get so many spots that they actually have to use a special cream to take away any of their natural pigment so that they are all one color again. The spots do not hurt or itch. And it is NOT contagious! Hopefully one day they will find a cure.

The Baby: He is 14 months old and our very last child. I am certain about that b/c during my c-section with him I had the doctors close down the baby making factory. Sent all the workers home and locked all the doors. I will admit he is spoiled. We all, including his brothers, spoil him. This will be his 2nd trip to Disney. The first time was when he was 4 months old. He is so funny, happy and loves to dance but only around people he knows really well. When walking through the mall if someone stops to say how cute he is and say hi to him he will not smile at all! He just stares at the person. It actually makes for an uncomfortable situation b/c once he doesn't smile at the person their first reaction is to do more to try to make him smile. They will make silly faces, try to touch his belly (back up people! you can look but don't touch) make crazy noises. I feel bad b/c I know he will not respond to any of it and the poor person makes more and more of scene to try to get him to smile. I try to help them out and say "he is not a very friendly baby" but they never want to believe me. So there I stand with a baby with a poker face on and an older woman or man making crazy sounds. They always eventually stop their tricks and walk away but sometime it goes on FOREVER. Or so it feels like. Once they are gone he ALWAYS looks at me or his brothers and laughs. His molars are coming in so there is not much sleep happening here. We give him Motrin before bed but it just does not cut it by 2/3 in the morning. Hopefully we will be over this by the time we leave for the trip b/c after a day at the parks and in the pool you need sleep and I don't have a stroller that DH can push me in so I can take a nap like some little 14 month old that I know.

Well I will end here and let you digest who we are. Up next......why we decided to go again.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Me (Lisa): I am the one that started my family on the "Disney drugs." You know the ones.

Hi, My name is Ty, and I am a Disney addict

I am a scrapbooker too, although in the past 10 years I have completed more than 5 pages, but hey,you you shouldn't rush these things, creativity takes time.

Disney characters are fake? I always assumed I was feeling their spine, but really it's a zipper? who knew?

I wish I had kept my youngest home an extra year, she turned 5 two weeks before starting kindergarden, she did very well socially and academically, but now that she is in high school all her friends are so much older, they have later curfews, can date, and some are even driving, she thinks it's unfair that I am holding her to the age appropriate rule.

Your PTR is funny and cute, I am definately staying tuned

 

[lovemyguys]

Oh my goodness I got a reader!!!!!

Hi Ty! I am sooo glad that you are here. I really thought I was going to log on today and find my report on page 15. Glad to have you!

"The Oldest" turned 5 2 months before Kinder. started. I still always question my decision to send him to school then. Like I said in my report he is VERY bright and social so like your daughter, yes he did fine in those areas. But there were little things like in handwriting and coloring that he would say "all the other kids have neater writing." Ok a bit dramatic ( I am sure not all of them did My Dear Oldest) but the majority of his class was getting ready to turn 6 by the end of December and he had just turned 5. By the time he turned 6 his handwriting and coloring were in line with what the other kids were doing at the beginning of the year. So the way their birthdays worked out is
~ The Oldest will always be one of the youngest in his class. His birthday is in June.
~ The Boy will always be one of the oldest in his class. His birthday is in November.
~ The Baby will just be somewhere in the middle of his class. His birthday is January 26th.

Well again, thanks for reading. I will post my next update in a little while.

 

[shordiebecka]

You have another reader! Can't wait to hear/see more. You're doing well for your first PTR. Have any pictures? When are you going? Where are you staying? Sorry I sound like a stalker ..... I'm subbing!

 

[lovemyguys]

You have another reader! Can't wait to hear/see more. You're doing well for your first PTR. Have any pictures? When are you going? Where are you staying? Sorry I sound like a stalker ..... I'm subbing!

I got another reader!!! Stalk away! Thanks for joining me!!
I do have pictures but I have NO idea how to post them.

 

[lovemyguys]

~Well since I have 2 people following I am going to keep on going. Oh who am I kidding. I would have kept going and going until someone felt bad for me and stopped and left a message. Even if it was just a Mod. moving me to a different board. So lets continue shall we.

We were NOT supposed to be going to Disney this year. Last year we went and stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, club level, savanha view. When we were booking that trip we said that we would not go again until 2010. Dh and I agreed. I promised not to bring it up but I did have my fingers crossed behind my back as I made the promise. Soooo technically I didn't really promise. We have been together for 15 years, married 10, so I feel that it is not my fault at all that when my mouth said "I promise" but my eyes said "yeah right" he didn't catch on. I always tell him this and then he always reminds me that we were on the phone while he was at work when I made the promise so he couldn't see my eyes. Whatever. Excuses, excuses.

We did a grand gathering in 2007 and had a blast! The whole family ~23 of us~ agreed that we would all go back in 2010. So the fact that we were going back in 2008 "was supposed to be enough" to hold us over until 2010. So one day the kids were at school and The Baby was napping so I decided to get out my scrapbooking stuff so I could look at it and put it back away. After that 28 seconds I decided to come on the DIs board and check out what was happening. I was planning on reading a trip report, looking at some food porn or praying for the poor Newbie that dared to ask if it was ok to bring the re-usable mugs that their parents had gotten when they went to Disney earlier in the year and if so could they re-fill them at other resorts while they were pool hopping. Poor dear soul. Hope you made it out alive. But before I could really get started, out of the corner of my eyes what did appear? No not santa and his 8 tiny reinder! It was the BUY 4 GET 3 FREE!! I could not believe it. I felt like it must be a prank. I didn't realize Disney gave you things for free. I mean one time while we were walking in MK one of the CM's stopped us and gave my sons a free strawberry/vanilla swirl ice cream. At the time we could not believe it. They just wanted us to take the ice cream and not give them money for it?? I was sooo confused that I looked around to see if the cast from MTV's Punked were running towards us. Once I saw the coast was clear~no cameras, no microphones coming our way~ I said thank you. So if a $3.00 free ice cream threw me for a loop imagine my shock when I saw they were giving hotel and tickets for free. Once I started reading what people were saying that they were getting for deals I knew I had to find a way to convince DH that promises are for losers. And we are not losers! It was complicated. See I am the spender, Dh is the saver. I am the "screw the plan let's do what we want to" type and he is the "we already made a plan so why are trying to change it" type. This does not just pertain to disney. It is just part of our DNA make up. I guess it is a good thing b/c it means our kids will have college money and not just a closet full of mickey eyes and disney trading pins. So I knew that I needed to come up with the right approach or my idea would be shot down. It just happened that my sister called the same day to say that she would not be able to make the 2010 trip. She was on of the heavy hitters. You know, the ones that you would really be bummed out if they could not make it. Then another heavy hitter found out she was pregnant with twins and would not be joining us. So at that point I sent an email to everyone that was supposed to be going on the 2010 grand gathering to see who thought that they would still be going. Well, well, well. Found out that most said they could not go, a few said we are not sure but probably not and one,yes 1 group said they were still planning on going. At least it was one of the heavy hitters! So now I had to decide if I was going to get ALL the info (hotel, price,etc...) and approach Dh or if I should do it in bits and pieces. Well that night while he was on the porch grilling steaks I went outside to keep him company and just talk. Out of no-where I hear someone say "guess what I read today. Disney is having a great special going on where they will give you 3 days for free if you pay for 4." From the look on his face and the fact that he is staring at me and well.....the fact that their was nobody else around......I could tell that I just said it. I was really mad at myself b/c I had still not decided how I wanted to go about telling him. Well the cat was out of the bag but I just decided to lean back on the deck chair and play it cool. I just leaned back on the back of the chair, folded my arms, crossed one leg infront of the other, steadied my voice and said ~wouldn't it be great if they bring that special back out in 2010. He says..Hell yeah! That's a great deal. I had to keep acting calm and cool but I was sweating b/c I know that if DH thinks something is a GREAT deal he is all over it. So since I felt like I was going to pop from excitement at the thought that maybe, just maybe we will go again I had to say that I thought I heard the baby waking up and had to go check him.
So the next day I decided that I would look at the website, get some quotes and then drop the bomb on him. I checked the BC/YC, WL, AKL, Contem. and the Poly. He has been saying that he wants to stay at the Poly (sorry Poly lovers but I just ain't feeling that place) so I got a quote from them. Even though I have ZERO desire to stay at the Poly I am smart enough to know that if it comes down to staying at the Poly or staying home~after a second to think about it~ I would stay at the Poly. So after I got a quote from them I decided to get a quote for the Boardwalk and the other hotels listed. There are 2 places I want to stay. The Boardwalk and the Grand Floridian. I will stay at the GF but only on a trip when it is just me and DH. Well, well, well. What. Do. You. Know. The Boardwalk had our dates (Poly we had to play around with the dates) and the price was GREAT!!!! Others had our dates and good prices also. So that night I told him that I talked to everyone and only one other family is definatly coming in 2010. He says "oh really, that stinks." I say "yeah I know~with a sigh~" After about an hour I say. I was just thinking.......if no one else is really planning on going in 2010 why don't we see if the other family wants to go this year and we can take advantage of that B4G3 free promotion. He thinks about it and says "yeah but remember our plan" and I look at him and say "yeah but remember the great deal?" Now, a "great deal" usually always trumps a "plan" with him. So I then hear the words I was hoping to hear. Why don't you give our TA a call and see what kind of deals she can get. So I again act soooooo calm and tell him that I was wondering if the B4G3 promo was really a good deal or not so I had done some researching myself and called Disney to see what all the hype was about. I tell him that it really is a good deal and that I found out the last time they offered this deal was YEARS ago. Now a "great deal" trumps a "plan" but a "great deal that hardly EVER happens" trumps everything! So I go get my notebook and show him the dates, places, plan options and prices. We compare everything to each other and then compare it to the price of our last trip. That is when it happened. That is when I saw his eyes glaze over. I could tell that he was picturing the "Disney Drugs." And low and behold, he needed them. He wanted them. He realized just how far away 2010 really is. He realized he could not go that long "without get'en himself some of the stuff they were selling." So he stands up to walk out of the room and says the magical words...........Call the TA in the morning and book it!

Up next: Where are we staying? When are we staying? Why we picked this one as our final choice.

 

[disneyaddicted]

Good job girlfriend. Way to work it, that is Disney manipulation at it's best.

 

[lovemyguys]

Thank you! Thank you! I must say I was pretty proud of myself. But see, only a fellow Dis member would see what happened to him and know it was a job well done. Poor DH still has NO IDEA what happened to him. Poor thing! Somtime he will actually act like it was his idea. LOL!!! Anything to help him sleep better at night and me on a non-stop flight to Orlando.

Again, thank you so much for reading! I will update once the kids go to bed.

 

[lovemyguys]

Hi everyone! I did not like my "What was that Walt? You want to give us 3 free days? Ok, we'll take it" title. Everytime I saw it I just didn't like it. So I changed it. Hope my 2 readers that have "shown themself" and any lurkers will continue to follow along!

 

[Vacation Lover]

I enjoy walking up and down the aisles trying to decide what I need, reading through the CM booklet and picking things I have not bought yet,

As a former Creative Memories consultant, I knew exactly what you were talking about, but here on the Dis, there are now 76 people trying to figure out what this "Cast Member booket" is and how you got ahold of it.

 

[lovemyguys]

As a former Creative Memories consultant, I knew exactly what you were talking about, but here on the Dis, there are now 76 people trying to figure out what this "Cast Member booket" is and how you got ahold of it.

Ok that is really funny!! But the part that makes me say ~wait a minute is~ I thought the 76 people were wondering what I had to say and now I see they just wanted to see if I had some inside, have to kill ya if I told ya, secret.

Well maybe I can pretend that it is a Cast Member booklet and if you stick around to the end I will tell you all the secrets!

 

[disneyaddicted]

See, now I knew right away that you were talking about Creative Memories, I only use their albums, I just can't hang with those top load albums.

Finish a page lately? I was supposed to go to a crop tomorrow, but it was cancelled, so I will just crop at home. I need to finish my Disney album from my last trip.

Oh and I told DH about your Disney manipulation, DH said to me, "You never had to manipulate me." I just smiled and let him keep thinking that. But seriously you are a genius face!!!!!

 

[lovemyguys]

Finish a page lately?

You never had to manipulate me." I just smiled and let him keep thinking that.

Now if he is still walking around thinking that he has never been manipulated then guess what girlie, you must be really working that disney manip.!! Oh poor things.

I am actually going to try and start and finish a page today. You are making me want to do it! I want to be able to come on and say "I did it, I did it, I finished page number six in the last 4 years!!" My goal ~to explain my last scrapping shopping spree ~was to scrap a whole book of our trip last June. I got everthing I need. The only thing i seem to be missing is......ummmmm....TIME! Everytime I have a chance to do it I usually end up on here. Priorities right?!?! Maybe it's time to re-evaluate. LOL You know what. When The Baby goes down for nap I think I am going to do a page. This is my first time trying a top loading album. All my others are CM books but the Disney book I wanted for my last trip was not available so I decided to try a top loader and see what happens.

 

[lovemyguys]

Ok, ok, slow down on the chanting for more before the Mods. lock my thread. Well maybe you were not chanting it in writing but I know you all were thinking it. so since you all say that you need more I will keep on going.

So we left off with DH saying to call the TA and book the trip.

So of course at 9:00 in the morning I sent a message to my TA to tell her that we were ready to book a trip. She knew we were going in 2010 but of course was NOT surprised to learn that we were going in 2009. So I sent the email and sat back and waited (not very patiently) for the call or the email from her asking for all the details. Well withing 30 minutes I got an email from her. When I opened the email it said that "K would be out of the office for the day and if you needed assistance press 2 and another travel agent would help you." After I got over the feeling of "how dare she take a day off when I want to book my trip" I decided to press 2. When the travel agent answered the phone I could tell by the tone in her voice that her and I would not vibe with each other so I hung up. So now I am all confused. What the hell am I going to do. I can not wait until tomorrow b/c all my Dis friends are saying that rooms, hotels and catagories are going fast. What do I do, what do I do, WHAT DO I DO?!?!?! Then a light bulb went off in my head. I had this brilliant idea. It's a little secret I thought about and since you are all Dis members I will share it with you. I called Disney myself. Shhhh don't go spreading this piece of info to anyone not on the Dis boards. I know it was a brilliant idea but you have to stop clapping so you can keep on reading. So I get my pen and paper and sit down to call Walt Disney World ALL BY MYSELF! A really nice CM (cast member NOT creative memories consultant) answered my call. I told her that I had found a quote on the Disney Website and would like to book it. I told her that I wanted to arrive on May 30th to the Boardwalk Inn, Club level, Garden view suites with the dining plan. She does some typing and asks what we are celebrating. I tell her this trip is a gift to ourself for our 10 yr wedding anniversary. She types some more. Then she comes back and says that yes, what I want is available for the B4G3 promo. I tell her that I really wanted my TA to book the trip but she was out of the office so could I have her take over when she returned the next day. She says yes we can do that. Ok so I put down my $200 deposit and hang up. I was soooo excited. I did not know what the garden view suites were but they sounded nice. So then I came on the Dis to ask others that have stayed there what the suites were like. Everyone said how beautiful they are, we would love them, have a great trip, etc... Then one post was telling how great the suites are but then said some words that stopped me in my tracks. Those words were....your own private outside entry (not in the main building) and that it was an upstairs and downstairs. Ok I know that sounds great to probably most of you but not to me. So I search to find a picture of the inside/outside of one of these suites. Were they beautiful? YES!! Were they for us? NO!!! The reasons why those were NOT magical suites for us were:

1. I am an overprotective mother. I grew up with one of those mothers that made sure we knew all the worst possible things that could happen to us~ no matter how rare the chances were. She was the.....stop playing with that pencil before you poke your eye out, stop jumping on the beds before one of you falls and breaks your neck, stop talking while you eat before you choke on your food and die, no you can not walk to the mall (10 minutes away and I am junior in high school) at 5:00 in the summer. It will be getting dark in 3 hours and what happens if someone kidnaps you and your 12 frineds that your walking with. Get my point. So as much as I thought that she should be commited somewhere some how some of her "fears" got passed along. Yes I let my kids talk while we are at the dinner table, yes when they are a junior in high school I would let them play in the back yard by themself, no I do not let them jump on their beds but it is not b/c I think that one of them will end up in a wheel chair I just don't like having the bed that I made nice and neat look all wrinkled. Priorities. Again, maybe I have to rethink mine. So no I do not scare the joy of living out of my childen but I do secretly always look at a situation and wonder what the worst scenerio could be and if I am willing to even attempt to see if it could come true. So the fact that it was an upstairs and downstairs I realized that the kids would be on one floor and dh and I would be on a different floor and neither floor did I feel safe having the kids on alone. First floor~ had the door that led to outside. Not into a lobby but OUTSIDE. My kids KNOW they better not open a door to go outside but I also realize they are 8,6 and 1 and do not trust that their young minds will always make the right/safe desicions. So the first floor was not an option (it had a pull out couch). The second floor had a king size bed with a great big bathroom. It was loft style. So having the kids up stairs, with a bathroom and a huge drop if one of them thought they were funny and tried to lean over. So second floor not an option.

2. Upstairs/downstairs means stairs in the room. The room has stairs and I have a 1 year old. Now that 1+1 does not equal 2 in my mind. That 1+1 equals a magical trip to Celebrations Emergency room.

3. It was not in the main building. That meant that if we wanted something from the club lounge and it was raining we had to run in the rain. Nope. Not. An. Option.

So I call the Disney CM back and ask if the club level deluxe room is still available. She types and says I'm sorry but no there are none left. I tell her that I am looking on the website and it is offering it. I ask her if I should book it through the website then. She says yes but then tells me to let her check one more thing. She types,types,types and friggen types and then says oh yes, I do see it here. Should I book it for you? No einstein I just like making prank calls to Disney CM's. I smile, pray she has a little bit more common sense in the real world, and nicely say "yes please, that would be great."
So the change was made. Then to my HAPPY surprise I find out that the deluxe rooms all have boarwalk views and are 600+ square feet. Now I was more excited then I thought I could be.

Up next: Club Level AND The Dining Plan? Isn't that a lot of food???

 

[shordiebecka]

Hi! I followed you from your old PTR..I think. Glad you decided on the boardwalk- I loved it there, my parent's didn't because there is no food court, but to me..all the good food is right on the boardwalk

 

[jana616]

Just wanted you to know you have another reader! I'm enjoying it so far (you're very funny!), and as another mom of boys (two so far, but of course if we have another it'll be a boy too!), I had to read!

 

[katiebelle21]

You have another reader! I love how you just happened to mention the 4/3 deal to your husband! I do the same thing, but I think he knows that it's just a courtesy! Once I have Disney on the brain, well...

 

[lovemyguys]

Hi! I followed you from your old PTR..I think. Glad you decided on the boardwalk- I loved it there, my parent's didn't because there is no food court, but to me..all the good food is right on the boardwalk

It was actually my question of how to write a trip report. I am VERY HAPPY that you came!! Any tips you could give me on the Boardwalk (places to eat, things to do,etc) would be greatly appreciated!

 

[lovemyguys]

Just wanted you to know you have another reader! I'm enjoying it so far (you're very funny!), and as another mom of boys (two so far, but of course if we have another it'll be a boy too!), I had to read!

YAY I have another reader!!!!! I am glad that you are liking it so far. I hope you stick around! I LOVE having 3 boys. It was ALWAYS what I wanted. I always pictured my life with a DH, 3 boys and a dog. Well we are getting our puppy on May 16! Everyone (that doesn't know me) always asks if I am upset that I did not get a girl. I would have loved 100% whatever I got but if I got to pick I would have picked a boy for my 3rd child. I have 3 younger sisters so maybe that is why I wanted nothing to do with girls.