I'm not sure I can wait! Dec 2010!

[stephielela]

I can't believe you guys are paying it off already! You're almost there!

I get how you feel about the "full family trip" thing. My entire family has never been to WDW. I've been (obviously), and my parents have been with me, but my brother and sister and niece haven't. I'm really looking forward to the family reunion

Yeah, typically I don't feel the need to spend extra time with my family but it's nice experiencing Disney with them

 

[2gr8DisneyKids]

Just started reading... We were booked the 18th-22nd before we switched to March. I cannot WAIT to hear about the trip!!!

And I love the Disney theme-nights. I might have to try it with the kids as we have Movie night each Saturday and it is usually a Disney movie.

And thanks for the advice on my split stay. Good luck with the TA option as well. I would totally consider it, but you have to speak French up here to be one and I am from the US and speak very little so I know I would fail the test.

 

[stephielela]

Just started reading... We were booked the 18th-22nd before we switched to March. I cannot WAIT to hear about the trip!!!

And I love the Disney theme-nights. I might have to try it with the kids as we have Movie night each Saturday and it is usually a Disney movie.

And thanks for the advice on my split stay. Good luck with the TA option as well. I would totally consider it, but you have to speak French up here to be one and I am from the US and speak very little so I know I would fail the test.

Welcome!

 

[stephielela]

Tonight I called and booked Magical Express for me, Jack, and my sister! We only booked one way because we are renting a car. The plan is for those of us riding the ME to have all the bags checked under our names (I requested extra tags from the very kind ME lady). My mom and dad will go rent the car and drive to the Contemporary while the three of us ride the ME. On the way back, we will check all our luggage at CBR and we will all drive back in the rental, in order to maximize our park time. This way we can leave directly from Magic Kingdom, and we won't have to leave until 3 hours before our flight, instead of having to leave the park, go back to CBR and catch the bus 3 hours before! It's the best of both worlds!

I also called to activate our Disney Rewards card that has been loaded with all our points from our Disney Visa. Of course tomorrow when we use it to pay off our trip, we will earna bunch more, so we will have to reload it, but at least we can do that online!

Work is super duper slow so I am working on touring plans!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Yay! That sounds like a good plan

 

[exwdwcm]

Tonight I called and booked Magical Express for me, Jack, and my sister! We only booked one way because we are renting a car. The plan is for those of us riding the ME to have all the bags checked under our names (I requested extra tags from the very kind ME lady). My mom and dad will go rent the car and drive to the Contemporary while the three of us ride the ME. On the way back, we will check all our luggage at CBR and we will all drive back in the rental, in order to maximize our park time. This way we can leave directly from Magic Kingdom, and we won't have to leave until 3 hours before our flight, instead of having to leave the park, go back to CBR and catch the bus 3 hours before! It's the best of both worlds!

I also called to activate our Disney Rewards card that has been loaded with all our points from our Disney Visa. Of course tomorrow when we use it to pay off our trip, we will earna bunch more, so we will have to reload it, but at least we can do that online!

Work is super duper slow so I am working on touring plans!

Great plan! we always like to rent a car too. we also considered some of us using ME to help with the luggage too. but in the end, we all just used the car. however, we do love the hotel luggage service and airport check in. we did use that and they even let us check more than one bag per person!, which in the notes it says only one per person. it was so easy to do, even with paying the bags fees by phone. we will be using this again for sure. especially because we are renting a smaller car! i got us an impala sized car- so the biggest car you can get basically- but still, with 3 adults and 2 kids, it will be a tight squeeze with luggage. for day to day to the parks, it will be fine. but add in stroller, luggage for 5, ouch! my MIL is going to ship her luggage to save room and then of course the hotel will deliver to the airport for the return. makes it easy!

love your 'big' day with all the events. just get a good night's rest the night before!

you will love the incredibles! i need to watch ratatouille. haven't seen it, but i have lunch booked at Chefs de France when he comes around.......so better watch it and have my son watch it too!

 

[stephielela]

Well, I made the call today and paid off the vacation!! It was bit painful, but I even managed to pay my portion, so I feel better about it! Now we are all official!! Tomorrow will be our Incredibles day, and I am looking forward to seeing it for the first time! We are trying to do a mildly healthy dinner... we will see how that works!

 

[stephielela]

I must be banned from shopping at Target! I went in today to get 2 things... and walked out with like 20. In my defense, $15 worth was a dollar or less... and I got some great stuff for little presents for Jack... but still, it's ridiculous. I am off the next 2 days, and I plan on going through all the sutff I have bought for our trip and organizing it, and then I will post pics so you can see al the great things Jack is going to get! I really want to buy myself a new tshirt that I saw on another PTR, but I will have to see if I can justify that... and I want to get a few more decorations for the room/windows but other than that, I think we have everything we need... and more... oh except... TS3! I made the specific choice to not buy it until right before our trip, and it will be Jack's first present, so he can watch it on the plane ride!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Your plan sounds good for Magical Express. Yay for being paid in full! I laughed when I read your post about Target because it seems like the same thing happens to us every time we're there. We go in for a couple of things, remember a few more things we need while we're there, and then decide to buy a bunch of other stuff. Oh well. We kind of expect it now.

 

[stephielela]

Wendesday night we had our Incredibles night. I didn't take any pics of the food because we were running late getting dinner on the table, but we had Super Heros (sandwiches) Syndrome's specialty salad, and Frozone's frozen treats (mini Ben and Jerry's). I really liked the movie, and so did Jack. It will be a new family fave I can tell. I did minor decorating, and I printed out our touring plan cards, and we discussed the last few details we needed to decide on.

We used red and yellow paper plates. I didn't really go all out on the decor, since I hadn't seen the movie yet.

We discussed our plans and have decided to cancel our private photo session at GF. The day we had scheduled for it is already jam packed, and we are plannign on buying the photo pass cd so we will have plenty of family photos from that. Plus none of us has been doing as good of a job with our dieting as we would like, so it would be stressful. Luckily this way we have way more flexibility on the 19th, which is by far still our busiest day.

The other decision we made was to alter our Jiko reservation. We wanted an earlier dinner so we would have time to go back to DHS to see the lights after dark, and then head to MK for MSEP and Wishes.

Thursday I spent some time going through the Disney box of stuff I have been gathering ever since we decided to go to Disney for Christmas. I organized it into:

Jack's daily presents (new stuff) and no, the coffee isn't for him.

Disney stuff that Jack already owns but only gets to have on Disney trips

Snack supplies

Jack's luggage etc

My luggage etc

I know what you are thinking "she's taking that much luggage!?" The big Vera Bradly is my carryon and I will take my purse with it. The smaller Vera Bradley (hipster) is for park touring. The backpack will be inside the suitcase, if it goes at all, since my dad always takes one. So no, I am not that obnoxious traveler... usually

Glo stuff for our nights at the parks, and window clings to decorate our windows

And most important... all of our planning tools etc

Our Disney reward dollars card and our MVMCP tickets are the little cards. The index cards looking things are our park cards with our touring plans. I got the template from another wonderful poster here on DIS! They are awesome, just the right size.

I so wish I could actually start packing now... But I have decided to wait until the week after Thanksgiving. Then I will have 2 weeks to pack before our trip!! It's getting so close!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Yay for getting everything together! I've actually never seen The Incredibles, but the decor looks awesome!

 

[jenseib]

I lvoe all your stuff. But your luggage looks so small? I need HUGE suitcases and I still do laundry during the trip.

 

[stephielela]

Yeah Jack's stuff won't all fit in his suitcase I am sure. Especially with the iffy weather, I want to pack 2 outfits per day for him, one if it's warm and one if it's cold. Mine shouldn't be a problem, I like to layer clothes, and I will wear the same jeans more than one day so as long as I can keep my shoes to a minimum... it should work out! Those rolling duffles hold more than they appear to.

 

[stephielela]

Well, because my trip is still so far away (though I just niticed-1 month, 1 week and 1 day, that's kinda cool) and I have nothing better to do... I have made some adjustments!!

I added Kona Cafe! We had a dining credit unaccounted for and I thought it would be nice to have a third breakfast in our line up. I added it on the 21st. Pretty soon here I will be re-posting my itinerary with more details... hmmm maybe even tonight since work is SLOW.

We have decided against bringing my jogging stroller and we are bringing the Maclaren again. We are going to buy a stroller organizer to put on the back. THe Maclaren is just so much more travel friendly and compact. Plus the tired on my joggin stroller lose air often, and I don't want to deal with that at WDW.

I went to Target today! (shocker I know) I got a 2 more packs of window clings, a string of lights, and a 12 inch light up tree. I think our window displayis all set! I also got Jack another pair of Christmas socks with Mickey on them. Target obviously knows my weakness!

I also scored some overtime this week, which I am using as justification to buy a Toy Story shirt from the Disney store. I am also probably going to buy Jack some Christmas PJ's. And then I am done. Nothing else. Except some small token things for my mom and sister, but I already decided those will be candy. Other than that nothing else. Seriously. (was that convincing?)

 

[stephielela]

Woo Hoo!!! After taking a closer look at Jacks Southwest credits, I realized he was missing a few. Southwest is the greatest airline inthe world, they gave Jack 4 credits for random reasons I dont' understand and they gave me 2, so as it stands, Jack has more credits than I do!! It doesn't make much difference though, because it means that as of May, we will both have free flights available to use for our *tentative* Disney trip next fall! I had said the only way I could justify another trip was if we went during free dining, and if our flights were free. Then I would only be paying for our hotel and tickets, and that's a pretty sweet deal! I am so excited right now! Now I just need to come up with $200 extra dollars so I can book before the offer expires!

 

[stephielela]

This is the morning we have been waiting for!!!! I'm really glad we decided on a later departure time instead of the first flight out. Especially sinc ethe first flight only got in 5 minutes before, even though it left like 2 hours earlier! I am off the day before we leave so we will be all packed and ready to roll as soon as we wake up. My mom has to go into work super early that morning to submit payroll (it can't be done the night before) so as of now I am thinking we will go to the airport in waves. First I will drop my dad, sister, and Jack at the airport around 8:30. They will take care of checking luggage. Then I will go home and retrieve my dog and take her to the kennel (another great reason to fly out later in the morning, I save $20 from not having to kennel her the night before!) and then when my mom rolls into the driveway we will turn around and go back to the airport (hopefuly by 9:30). Our airport is only 10 minutes or so from our house. We might even have a friend drive us to the airport, but they may still be out of town, so we will see. We will have checked in online 24 hours in advance, so we will def be in A group. We are planning to sit me, Jack and another in one row and then the other 2 in the row in front of us, that way the noise from Jack's DVD player shouldn't bother anyone. I will be letting Jack watch TS3 on the way there, but not before! He saw it in theaters, but I doubt he remembers it.

We arrive at 2:15 pm. Since Jack will actually be in his carseat on the flight, he might even nap, which would be ideal, but not likely. When we get to MCO, Katie, Jack and I will head to the ME area. We ordered extra ME tags, under our names, so my parents will not have to worry about their luggage. They wil head to the rental car desk. We will rendezvous hopefully around 3 at Caribbean Beach! I am hoping our rooms are ready by then, but if not we will go with plan A.

Plan A: Just head to DTD and grab some lunch and shop. I want to get another box of Mr. Potato Head pieces for Jack, and I want some Christmasy ones, so that will be one of our first stops. We will already be on our DxDP so I would LOVE to eat at Earl of Sandwich this day, but we will have to wait and see. My sister doesn't eat sandwiches (wierd right?) and neither does Jack, so I'm not sure. I want to be back at CBR by 5:00 or so, and hopefully get Jack a bit of rest time before our 7:45 pm ADR at California Grill!!!

Side note: I have purchased a "fun pack" in the dollar section of Target to keep him entertained during the wait for our food, since I know CG isn't the best idea for a 2 3/4 year old boy. (I actually purchased 3 for use during our more lengthy "grown up" meals)

Plan B: Our rooms are ready! We will probably eat lunch at the QS area, if it is warm enough to swim, I want to take advantage of that for a bit, and then have Jack take a nap. Ideally my dad will stay behind while Jack naps so us ladies can go to DTD. We would head back to the hotel by 6:30 to get ready for dinner.

Plan C: I am leaning more in this direction... I am hoping I can talk my parents into stopping at DTD on their way and grab sandwiches for those of us that eat them, and bring them to the hotel. My sister and JAck can get food at Old Port Royale. Then we can relax/swim/explore till it's time to get ready for CG.

I am hoping to be just finishing up when Wishes starts. It's a MVMCP night, so I believe the fireworks are at 9:30. After our magical dinner we will head right to bed. We need to be up early the next morning!

Day 1 meals:
Old Port Royale Lunch~ Chicken Caesar Salad
OR
Earl of Sandwich~ Holiday Special (if they still have it!)

California Grill Dinner~ BBQ Chicken Flatbread, Oak Grilled Filet, Valhrona Chocolate Cake
Day 1 souvenirs:
Mr. Potato Head parts

 

[stephielela]

Originally this day was going to be a half day in the parks, as we were going to spend the morning relaxing at our resort before checking out. Yeah right, not in this family! That plan was quickly vetoed, and a rope drop at Magic Kingdom was added!

Since we are going to be already checked into CBR, there will be no need to run around to get tickets early!! We willall get up in time to leave for MK by 8 am to be there in time for rope drop!

In our family, we always have specific touring plans. So we have the rides in the general order we are going to ride them, but obviously there is room for rearranging based on waits, fastpass times etc. This trip we have 1 full day and 2 mornings at MK, so I broke it down into segments. Our first ride at MK is ALWAYS Dumbo. ALWAYS. So naturally this morning we are starting in Fantasyland. Here is our "touring plan" for this morning:

Dumbo
Peter Pan
Small World
Snow White
Philharmagic
Carousel
Winnie The Pooh
Tea Party
Goofy's Barnstormer
Mickey's House
Minnie's House
Train to Main St

This may not all get accomplished, since we need to leave the park by 12 pm. Better to have planned too much than too little and not know what's next!

At 12 we leave MK and head over Epcot. We have a 1:50 ADR at Les Chefs de France as part of our CPP. Here is our Epcot 1/2 day evening touring plan!

Lunch at Les Chefs 1:50 pm
France Pavilion
Morrocco Pavilion
Japan Pavilion
Candlelight Processional 5pm
American Adventure
UK Pavilion
Dinner at Le Cellier 7:45 pm
Illuminations 9:30 pm

Originally this park had late EMH's but they seem to have changed their minds, but that's fine, it's going to be a long enough day. I am also aware we may not be done with dinner in time fro Illuminations, but that's ok too, we have a whole day later on in the trip.

When we are done we will head back to CBR, unpack and head to bed! (AFTER decorating our window!)

Day 2 meals:
Les Chefs Lunch: Onion soup, baked Mac and Cheese, Creme Brulee
Le Cellier Dinner: Cheddar Cheese soup, Mushroom Filet, Chocolate Moose

 

[stephielela]

This is our Animal Kingdom day. As a disclaimer, no one in my famly is all that into this park. I mean we don't mind going, we love Everest, and we generally have a good time, but we don't feel the need to spend much time here. I'm sure as Jack gets older, he will like it, since he likes animals.

This is the first time we have ever scheduled a breakfast ADR before a park opens. We have an ADR for Tusker House at 8 am. I have heard VERY mixed reviews on this place, so I am not expecting much so maybe I will be pleasantly surprised! The most important part of this ADR to me is that we will be in great position for rope drop. I plan on requesting our check as soon as we are seated so we can make sure to be done in time to get out to Kilimanjaro Safaris when it opens. Because we have this ADR we will probably arrive at AK by 7:45 to give us time to walk in and take pics on our way.

After breakfast and the safari, this is our plan:

Expedition Everest
Triceratops Spin
Dinosaur
Lunch at Yak and Yeti 1 pm
Nemo Musical
Festival of the Lion King
It's Tough to Be a Bug

We will probably do the trails as well, but we will be skipping Rafiki's Planet Watch this time. I know, it sounds horrible but we just aren't that interested, and we are on limited time this trip.

Once we are done with AK we will head off to church. We are Catholic, and when my dad is concerned, there is NO reason good enough to skip mass during Advent. We have been to the Catholic church nearby, Mary Queen of the Universe, several times, and I like it. Mass is at 6 so we will leave by 5. If we get done before 4 at AK we will go back to the hotel to change etc.

After mass we will drive to the Polynesian for our 8 pm ADR at 'Ohana! WE should be there by 7:30, which will give us time to glance around the resort. If we get done with dinner in time, we will hang out on the beach to see Wishes. Then it's "home" to bed!

Day 3 Meals:
Tusker House Breakfast
Yak and Yeti Lunch~ Thai Chili Chicken Wings, Bourbon Chicken, Fried Wontons
"Ohana Dinner

 

[stephielela]

... is shopping. I'm pretty sure everyone knows this by now. The good news is that I recognize it's an issue Also I have some limits. For example, today I went to the Disney Store. I knew I was buying 2 tshirts, one for me and one for my sister and 2 pairs of pj's for Jack. I walked in and saw all the amazing Christmas stuff, but I did not give in. I bought what I planned to buy, and I did buy one extra little toy for Jack, because I knew he'd love it, and I knew that if you spend $50 on your Disney Visa, youget 10% off your purchase, so the toy was basically free. Then I went to Target. I bought the last little things I needed for my mom and sister and that was all. I am officially done shopping for the fun stuff for the trip. I do still need a pair of pants and a couple long sleeved tee's, and if I happen to find a light up christmas toy that Jack can carry around at night like he did his pumpkin one on our fall trip, then I will buy one but if not it's ok. I just know it will come in handy since Jack is a bit afraid of the dark, and I would prefer not to pay $20 for one in the parks. I am happy to be done, I will be steering clear of Target unless I need something specific. My goal is to have $400 to take on the trip, and that means NO MORE SHOPPING!

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Ok, I am not helping at all but... Did you see the cool lighted Christmas spinners at Target? They are back with the Christmas stuff!

Sorry, I know you are trying to save, but you are looking for a light spinner!