It's been 6 years, but we're finally going back: a PTR! UPDATED 2/9 change to August dates?

[tabrizia]

The other POP! room was cancelled, it was super easy. I extended our CBR reservation to cover the first 4 nights, though depending on the room discounts hopefully coming out soon we'll likely be switching resorts. At the moment I am debating between AoA, which the kids would adore, and The Contemporary, which while not being my first choice, is reasonably priced, fits 5, and is on the monorail. We will not have a car till Friday, so the whole monorail thing would be kind of nice. I really wish Animal Kingdom regular rooms fit 5, because I would totally go for them when discounts come out if they did. Anyways we're waiting to see what kind of discounts appear. Hoping they arrive tomorrow, but I know it could still be a few weeks till they appear. We won't be doing play, stay and dine, since we're only doing 4 nights on property before moving off property.

On that note I still need to rent a car from Friday through the following Saturday. I am figuring attriel will have to go back to the airport to rent it, but I thought I remembered their was a rental option somewhere on property, I need to check and see since that might be easier, though it also might be significantly more expensive, so...

I am also looking at Magic Band skins because those look like fun. I figure minion 2 wants something princessy, preferably frozen. Not sure what minion 1 wants, probably super hero, big hero 6, star wars or indiana jones based. Minion 3 would probably like monster inc with sully and olaf from Frozen. Attriel most likely Star Wars and I am really not sure what I want to do for mine at all. So still thinking about what I want them I'll try to find it.


Anyways here is a mini trip report from our trip to Atlanta in August. My Mom took minion 1 and 2 a week before minion 3 and 1 followed. Once we got there we hung out at their lake house. Most days we did school work in the morning, yay homeschool, and then went swimming in the afternoon since my Mom was back at their house in Atlanta and it was just me and my Dad with the minions. Minion 3 did learn to swim and got over his fear of waterslides, he loves them now. Here are lots of pictures.

Minion 3 on the plane heading down. My kids fortunately are great fliers, probably has to do with having flown 2 to 4 times a year since birth.

Here is minion 1, with my sister's MIL on their jet ski, he loved the jet ski.

Minion 1 coming down the waterslide at one of the pools at the lake house.

Minion 2 on the practice wakeboard, they are all quite good at this, we really need to get waterskis for next year.

This is my 3 minons and my nephew who will be at Disney with us from Saturday on in January. In order, minion 2, minion 3, nephew, and minion 1

minion 2 and 3 coming down the waterslide

Minion 3 swimming.


I have a bunch more pictures from our trip but that is probably more then enough for this post so I'll post some more in the next post most likely.

 

[tabrizia]

No real updates, I am waiting to see what kind of room discounts are offered. I am hoping that they are posted soon. We are still not sure what we're going to do room wise once they are posted. I kind of like the monorail option. DH likes the cheap option and the minions like the AoA option. Which likely means we'll end up with the AoA option depending on what the discounts are. I still haven't booked CRT, I am still waiting, hopefully I will be able to book that soon, since I am afraid it will be gone if I wait too much longer.

I did talk to my Mom on the phone, about the rental car, I think we're going to wait another month or so before I rent it. We are likely going to rent from the rental place at Disney and return the car at the airport. It costs a bit more, but when you factor in the cost of the taxi to the airport to pick it up, it isn't anymore expensive.

No update on tickets. I know she will get them, I just don't know when, and I really want them in that 60 day window so I can do fastpass+ for us at least. Mainly for A&E, but also for 7DM and maybe even for Toy Story Mania. I will deal with evil lines if I have to, but I really don't want to.

Basically this is my not an update, update.

Here are some more pictures from our Atlanta trip.

Here is Minion 2 and her cousin. This is her little cousin who will be at Disney with us.

Minion 3 wakeboarding

Minions 2, 3 and their cousin watching Minion 1

Minion 2 eating a smores

Their cousin with his smores

 

[tabrizia]

This is just a post with the mini trip we took while in Atlanta. We went to Dahlonega GA and visited the Cabbage Patch Nursery (actually in Helen GA) and a gold mine. It was also the first day of school for our county, so even though we had already started schooling I took first day of school pictures of minion 1 and 2. We went to the Cabbage Patch Nursery, got ice cream at a roadside shop and then went on a gold mine tour that was actually super informative and then the kids panned for gold and gems. We went with my Mom and nephew, and all 4 kids had fun.

3rd grade kid, minion 1

1st grade kid, minion 2

Here are a couple of pictures from the Cabbage Patch Kid Nursery:

Here they all under by the cow at the ice cream place:

And here they are at the mine:

Minion 1 helping out and showing a job he could have had in the 1800s when the mine was a working mine

The kids hiding like miners would have done after setting off dynamite (The light is from the flash, there was no real light in the mine like that)

Minion 3 in front of an area they had gotten gold out of.

Gold panning

more panning for gold

gem mining

More gem mining

 

[tabrizia]

So no real updates. The discounts have come out, I have a Disney Visa card, I am still waiting until Monday to do it because we aren't putting the hotel on the card at the moment. Looking at the discounts, we may just end up staying with CBR if I can get a discount on it. AoA doesn't discount for the weekend, and we have a Friday night, and it looks like the Contemporary discount is only going to be 15%. I may also look at splitting the stay and doing AoA Tuesday and Wednesday night with the discount and then moving to CBR, but it seems a bit annoying to move after 2 nights, especially when we are just staying 4 nights total on property. I did debate changing out airline tickets to Monday to give us another day, but I don't think attriel will agree to that plan and it still doesn't help in the where to stay options. I will probably just try to get the discount at AoA and then talk to attriel and decide if we try to switch that to AoA and spend the insane amount for Friday night, or if we AoA 2 nights and switch. It is doable, just seems a bit silly, it would thrill the kids though, sigh decisions are hard.

I am going to ask my Mom about tickets somewhere around the end of October since we can do 60 day out ADRs starting on November 13th, but only if I have tickets. Oh and I still haven't booked CRT, there are still numerous reservations open at the day and time I want to do it, so hopefully they will still be there when I actually book.

Basically this is a non-update update again.

Here is a picture of minion 3 on his first day of his last year of preschool. I can't believe he'll be a Kindergartner next fall!

 

[tabrizia]

Ok so current plan is we are going to switch to the play, stay and dine package. I worked out the numbers and as long as we get 50%ish off the dining plan we'll save money even getting park hoppers on the tickets. It will mean I'll have to get my Mom to just pay me back for the tickets but that is okay. We're going to do 8 day park hoppers and we'll up the days if we need to once we're there. I'm actually thinking I might go ahead and do 9 days since I think that is probably how many days we'll really do.

There are also rumors/postings about them having Star Wars fest while we're there. If they do I may have to move around our park days a bit. I will also be keeping an eye out to see if they do a character meal with Star Wars characters because we will totally be doing that. We may park hop to do it, but it is a definite must do. Attriel does not want to cancel Chef Mickey's breakfast for it, which was my first plan, so I'll have to figure out where else to put it instead. I really need more info to come out so I can rearrange things to make sure we get lots of Star Wars fun in.

 

[tabrizia]

So I forgot to mention we got a BoG reservation for breakfast before park opening on our 3rd day (second park day there). I will try to update with our plans soon since they have changed a bit. I am still waiting to reserve when the deal goes public, I think I'm going to have attriel call tomorrow morning and put a hold on the PSD package for us so that we have it. I really want to make sure we have it. The nicest part will be I will be able to make my 60 day FP+ reservations for the first 5 days (well 4 since we aren't going to a park on the first day) of our trip. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday I will be updating with info about our new reservation.

I've also been looking at shirts, I think I'm going to get some designs from people on ETSY and print them onto transfer sheets to make a few shirts, I am also going to try to make Mickey tie-dye shirts and I will probably buy a couple of shirts from the Disney store. I want to go with mainly complementary shirts rather then matching shirts most days, though we'll do matching shirts a few days, I am sure attriel will love that .

I still want to do the mini trip report for GWL, but for now here is a picture of minion 2 doing her Math while minion 1 was at OT.

 

[tabrizia]

Here is our updated schedule, I highlighted changed days in purple.

Tuesday January 12th: Fly in mid-afternoon, check into CBR, the plan is to explore the resort and just relax. Our flight lands around 3:30, so I figure we'll hopefully be at the resort by 5 or so.

Wednesday January 13th: I am thinking we visit EPCOT. I may change this to Disney Studios depending on the Star Wars stuff going on. That being said we will have park hoppers so we might do Disney Studios at the start of the day and swap to EPCOT in the afternoon before we leave for dinner as well. We'll finish at EPCOT around 5, take the monorail to Contemporary for our 7pm Chef Mickey dinner!

Thursday January 14th: We are going to do Magic Kingdom. I got a before park opening reservation for BOG after we're done eating we'll probably try to ride the 7DM. I am also going to try to get a CRT reservation for lunch time, I am not sure I will get it, but last I checked there were still reservations left open, I will do this once we get the SPD deal so hopefully by the end of the week. If it doesn't work out we'll deal, but it would be nice. The crowd calendars I have checked have Magic Kingdom as Green today, and super low crowds. we will probably stay all day.

Friday January 15th: The current plan is to visit Animal Kingdom in the morning, it is a green park crowdwise, though the crowds will probably get worse as the day goes on since it is the start of MLK weekend. We have reservations for a late lunch at Sanaa around 3. I figure we'll get to see the animals that way. We will also pick up our rental car this evening. We may visit Disney Springs (Downtown Disney) in the evening, we might visit Disney Studios especially if they have the Star Wars fireworks, or we might just go back to the hotel and relax.

Saturday January 16th: This is the start of our trip with the family. We will check out of CBR, we have a Chef Mickey's breakfast scheduled at 10. While I have EPCOT planned in our schedule for today, I think it is far more likely that we will take a down day. We we likely visit Disney Springs for awhile and attempt to check into our condo/timeshare early. This way the kids will be well rested for the rest of the trip with their cousins. We may EPCOT if the kids seem up for it, but I am leaning towards this being unlikely at this point and then check in where we are staying, whether on or off site, later that afternoon. We'll meet up with our family at some point.

Sunday January 17th: We'll be going to Magic Kingdom and we'll be having breakfast at Crystal Palace around 9:30. I wanted a later breakfast time, but with making a reservation for 11 I took the time I could get, I was able to get a later time, but my sister wanted the earlier time, so 9:30 it is. We may try to make rope drop to ride a ride before breakfast.

Monday January 18th: Disney Hollywood Studios, we will be doing the Hollywood and Vine lunch because all the kids love the characters that will be there, I don't expect much from the food. I figure we will be finished with the park by 3 at the latest. We are going to try to get the kids into Jedi Academy, so we'll be there at Rope Drop.

Tuesday January 19th: Disney's Pirate Adventure at the Grand Floridian for my 3 minions and my sister's 5 year old. This is our down day we will not be going to a park this day, if it is warm enough the kids can swim and we'll probably go shopping at Downtown Disney and maybe the outlets. That evening attriel and I have a dinner reservation for just us at Narcoossee's.

Wednesday January 20th: EPCOT, we'll be doing a late breakfast at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall around 10:30. We are doing this purely for the princesses, minion number 2 chose this over 1900 Park Fare.

Thursday January 21st: Magic Kingdom day two. We will be doing lunch at Be Our Guest. I actually added 2 more people to this reservation in case my younger sister and the baby or my brother and his wife want to come. I figure it was easier to show up with 2 fewer then try to get 2 extra people in.

Friday January 22nd: Animal Kingdom. We will be going to Tusker House for lunch around 11:45, again for the characters.

Saturday January 23rd: check out, Magic Kingdom for the last park day. We are not sure if we will visit Magic Kingdom or not. We have a 6pm flight home, I changed our flight to an earlier time because 9 was just a little late. It means we need to leave by 3pm at the latest since we have to check in at the airport and return the rental car. It still gives us awhile at the park though. If the kids are done, we'll probably visit Disney Springs for any last minute purchases and just get to the airport early. This day is really up in the air, since what we do really depends on how everyone feels and what time everyone else decides to leave.


All of the major changes we have are happening before everyone else gets there, which makes sense, since I don't really want to overly change the plans we have with everyone. I am hoping to have all the ADRs finalized by the end of the week for us and then I can start obsessing over FP+, only 107 days until we are there!

 

[tabrizia]

Play, Stay and Dine for January 12th - 16th with 9 day tickets (no park hoppers) has been reserved. We'll be staying to CBR still, we looked at AoA but it was $650 more and that was just a bit too much. We are saving about $365 vs getting the 4 nights as a package which is a reasonable deal. I would have saved about $20 a night with the room only discount, but we figured out how much we're spending on the meals we're doing our first nights there and the discounted regular dining plan will save us a bunch.

That is the big update for the day. Since I did a bunch of updates this weekend there really isn't much else to report. I am happy with with the PSD deal we have our tickets so I can get our FP+ at 60 days now for the first few days as well which will be nice as well.

I will try to do our mini trip report to Great Wolf Lodge and Williamsburg later today.

Until then here's a cute picture of minion 1 at the playground

 

[tabrizia]

I got our CRT lunch, I have been stalking the site for the past few days and there was a 12:10 one and a 2:15ish one for 5. When I went to get a reservation tonight the 12:10 was gone, but we got the 2:15 one. The girl will be thrilled! The boys should enjoy it too. I think that means all my ADRs are done finally and I have to wait the 47 days for fastpass+ for the first 5 days of our trip (and the 73 days for the second half of our trip).

Okay I am not quite done ADR stalking, if there is a meal with the Star Wars stuff I will be stalking that for us, but the chances of that are low as far as I can tell. Otherwise I might be done with ADRs at least. I may still be rearranging a few park days and such though.

 

[tabrizia]

Hello my crickets. Sigh, someday I'll get another response, maybe. Oh well back to talking to myself. I'm good with that the voices in my head are my friends.

Anyways no changes. Attriel sorted out the reservation at CRT thing, our time changed by like 5 minutes but is still around 2:15. The kids still don't know about it, unless they read my brand new planning google spreadsheet, which they didn't and even if they did they probably didn't know what it was. My brand new planning google spreadsheet however is gorgeous, color coded and my friend. I quite like it, it is a different look then my google document. Yeah, attriel rolled his eyes at it. I did find out that Disney has changed the hours since I last looked, MLK weekend Magic Kingdom is open super late. I'm thinking about getting park hoppers just because they are open to midnight on Friday, Saturday and Monday, they are only open until 11 on Sunday the one day during that time period I had us scheduled to be there. I could totally park it out till midnight, so could minion 2, in fact she is still awake now, upstairs, at midnight.

Minions 1 and 3 and attriel might throw a bit of a fit though, but meh, it's Disney they should Disney binge too, or sleep, definitely one of the two. Too bad we move off property on Saturday, otherwise I could send attriel and minions 1 and 3 back to the room and park binge with the girl child. It's harder when we need the car to get back to our resort though. I probably can't talk my Dad and Mom into a park binge either. Silly people who like to sleep, or in minion 1's case like to wake up way to early for normal humans.

I'm thinking about making a 100 day till Disney World chain, but that might take work, but the minions would love it, until they started arguing about who got to tear off the chain today, I could make 3, no wait, my house is already a disaster, thanks minions. I think I'll just procrastinate on that idea until maybe 30 days before, and then if the minions clean their mess we'll do it.


RAMBLING MINI TRIP REPORT to Great Wolf Lodge and Williamsburg VA

Anyways I'm been talking about our trip to Great Wolf Lodge so I might as well do my mini trip report, for the voices in my head, plus we're going back in 24 days to do it again, so I should finish this one so I can trip report again. The trip in 24 days to GWL will have more people though since my Mom, Dad, nephew and sort of niece are coming. Speaking of nephews (I'm rambling) the new one still isn't here, I bet my sister is ready for him to come, he was due the 25th, it is the 1st. I'm still betting on him coming on her birthday on the 7th. Realistically he'll probably arrive sometime this weekend, or not. New babies are fun, when they aren't mine! I am so done. So now back to my mini trip report.

So GWL. We go to the GWL in Williamsburg. We got a great deal on it in September because homeschooling. They offer homeschooling rates year round, they offer amazing homeschooling rates about 3 to 4 times a year, any room for around $140 a night, during the week nights, love those 3 weeks a year they are offered. Anyways we booked for 2 nights since we had already booked the October trip and my parents and nephew and niece were coming to that. It is about a 3 1/2 hour drive in no traffic, which almost never happens, yay DC traffic sucks, even on Sundays in the middle of the morning.


Travel morning: The kids always want to leave as soon as they get up, because Great Wolf Lodge. We had left the dog with my FIL at his house the night before, I had packed that evening as well, we just had a few things to throw in bags before heading out. We were packed and in the car at 9:30. I checked that every had gone bathroom and we headed out. Got out to the main road and turned right back around attriel had to go. All the kids got out to try to go as well. Okay back in the car and ready to go at 9:45, we're still rocking this early thing, especially since attriel was thinking about leaving at 11 or noon, yeah he must not remember our kids. Head out again. No traffic on 95! Wow, no traffic on 495, wait are we even in DC or am I still asleep, no traffic on 95 south of DC, this never ever ever happens. Minion 2 around 11 starts feeling a bit car sick. I forgot the car sick pills, that is okay she hates them anyways. We stop in Spotsylvania VA. There is a huge stop with tons of restaurants and such. We were looking for the Cracker Barrel. My kids love CB when we travel, it also tends not to have automatic flushing toilets which is nice because minion 2 hates auto toilets. The CB is hidden, we finally settle on Panera. Get out, everyone goes to the bathroom. Girl feels better and we order lunch. We're here we might as well. The kids all want it to go, attriel is okay driving and eating grilled cheese, so to go it is. We also get a dozen bagels, because their bagels are awesome calorie filled evil things, plus far cheaper then food at GWL. Back on the road around 11:30, keep driving make it to GWL with no other stops at 1. 1 is check in time, perfect timing, absolutely no traffic the entire way, it was kind of amazing, I am not sure that has ever happened to us before.

We get there and check in, the kids get their wolf ears.

Our room isn't ready yet, but we're on the first floor, great, I love the first floor, which is the same floor as the waterpark. We end up 3 doors down from where we were in May, yes I remember things like that. We have a kid's cabin which has a little area that looks like a fort with a bunkbed in it and a single bed next to it. We also have a queen bed in the main part of the room, and a sofa bed, but we don't use the sofa bed. Anyways our room isn't ready. Fortunately I brought a swim bag so we head to the waterpark and everyone gets changed. The kids start off on the fort slides. I take pictures.

This one is probably from a different time that trip, but kids, slides, you get the concept.

Attriel reappears, just as I get the text the room is ready. I leave him with the kids and head to the room to drop off the pool bag, which is really minion 3's carry on suitcase, and check for bed bugs. Because bed bugs are bad and evil and it is far easier to check before the kids get in. Room is fine, no bed bugs. I head back and the kids slide and play for another hour and a half or so before they are done. We head to the room, everyone changes and then attriel moves the car to the door by the room and we bring in our stuff.


I'll leave my mini trip report here since it is 12:30am and I should check and make sure minion 2 is asleep, she has homeschool co op tomorrow at 9am and is a pain to wake up when she is grumpy. She totally takes after me!

 

[tabrizia]

First no new updates today. I am not really planning on any changes at the moment, so there likely won't be a ton happening until Fastpass+ time in a month and a half. Still no new nephew, he'll come eventually. I do still need to rent our car, but I am going to wait another month or two for that.

It is really kind of a dead time for my Disney planning, which is why I am reading up on Disneyland for our trip next fall. No real updates there yet, we need to decide on a time for the trip, but not sure if it is will be October or December. My FIL may be going to India sometime in there. We told FIL if he wanted company on his trip to India he could take minion 1 or 2, most likely minion 2. If he does that though it will be at least 3 weeks in India for said minion, which is great and they will have a blast with the relatives over there, but we need to know when so we can plan our trip around it, since minion 2 (or 1 if he goes) would not be happy with us going to Disneyland without them. On the plus side it doesn't look like Disneyland needs as much planning so hopefully my FIL will know by spring when he is going and if he plans to take a minion or not. At that point in time I'll at least be able to get attriel to commit to a time period for Disneyland I hope. I am writing note of places to stay based on people's trip reports I'm reading though.

Anyways back to my mini trip report.


Great Wolf Lodge Part 2
So we had just gotten the room organized, which means it is time to go back to the waterpark again. On our way there, we run into one of minion 2's friends. It is homeschool week so we know at least 4 other families that were planning to be there, maybe more. Our close friends ended up not going, but a bunch of other friends were there. I ran into 3 of the families I knew would be there. We headed to the waterpark with minion's 2 friend, minion 1 headed off on his own to do the new slide board thing on the bigger slide. Minion 2, 3 and friend all played at the fort some. Then attriel took minions 2 and 3 to the family slide, minion 2's friend and her mom headed that way as well, while I hung at the lazy river for a bit with minion 1. Minion 2 and her friend basically split up to do different things, since they were in different family rafts. Minion 1 and I did a 2 person slide, down the same slide he had been doing the slide board on. We then met up with the other minions and attriel and played in the wave pool a bit and then sat in the not very hot tub for a few before heading back to the room. We were there another hour and a half to 2 hours.

We changed, grabbed our magic quest wands and headed out for dinner and activating wands. We first activated the wands, they wanted to do ShadowQuest this time rather then MagicQuest, which was fine. We then went to the in house restaurant, The Loose Moose Bar and Grill. We had eaten there twice in May and it was decent, not amazing, but better then we expected and the cost wasn't outrageous, which surprised us. It is a buffet meal for dinner. I did not take food pictures, still not in the Disney mindset yet. Minion 1 got 2 corn dog, an egg roll and an ear of corn. Minion 2 got Caesar salad without dressing, a loaded baked potato, some salmon, an egg roll, and mashed potatoes. Minion 3 got salmon, a corn dog, a baked potato with butter, more salmon, a dinner roll, more salmon, and corn on the cob. attriel had salmon, salmon, a baked potato, corn on the cob and a mashed potato. I had the spinach salad, the soup (can't remember what), flank steak, broccoli, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, and the pasta Alfredo with spinach, steak and mushrooms. It was all decent. Minion 3 had the chocolate cake/brownie for desert as did attriel, I had the cheesecake and a bite of the lemon thing (it wasn't that good). The other two had headed over to the dancing, before the evening storytelling. We finished, attriel paid, we realized that the waitress had counted minion 2 and 3 as 3 and under (minion 2 is tiny, she can easily pass for 3 until she talks), we decided to not worry about it and tipped on what the full amount should have been anyways. We then headed out for their little show, storytime and meet the random great wolf character time.

They enjoyed it. We then headed up the stairs and did 2 ShadowQuest runes. If you don't know what ShadowQuest/MagicQuest is, it is a game at GWL and other places where you have a wand and gain runes to do quests to become a Master Magi and defeat the big bad guys. The kids love it. They run along the halls where the game is played, there are no guestrooms in these halls, and try to find what is needed to get the runes and do the quests. We decided to get them all wands when we went in May, the wands can be used whenever we go somewhere that has the game, and we just have to pay for the game not a new wand.

After the two runes were done we headed back to the room and to bed. Everyone but me fell asleep quickly, easily and early. I never fall asleep early, though I think I was out by 11:30 or so that night which is actually super early for me.

 

[tabrizia]

101 days till Disney! Tomorrow is 100 days and then double digits!

Other then that no real updates, I think we're pretty happy with what we have right now.

We did have to go to the mall today because Minion 1 broke the screen on Minion 3's iPad and we wanted to get it fixed. We are also getting Minion 2's iPad fixed. We decided the cost to fix Minion 1's iPad wasn't worth it so we'll just get him a new one, yes we have 3 iPads and all 3 were broken in different ways, sigh. Since we were at the mall we stopped at the Disney Store. I got an outfit for my still not born nephew, hopefully soon, to wear in December, hopefully I chose a good size for him. Each of the kids got toys too, minion 1 got a Perry the Platypus that was on sale for $3 and a Stitch tsum tsum, minion 2 got a Minnie tsum tsum, and minion 3 got an Olaf stuffy and another Olaf toy. They are all happy, I looked at the shirts to get ideas for which ones I might buy them for the holidays. Unfortunately our store doesn't have magic bands so I couldn't look for those, oh well I'll either order them online or when we get to Disney, I want to get the design ones rather then the plan ones that come with our package.

I need to start buying for Hanukkah and Christmas soon, the kids are going to get a bunch of going to Disney stuff I think. I'm getting them each a pin trading set, a tsum tsum or two, a gift card so they have money of there own to get what they want, some t-shirts, a magic band, and maybe a few other small things.

Anyways I'll continue with my mini trip report now.

Great Wolf Lodge Part 3

We woke up early, I blame minion 1 for that. Had breakfast and got changed into swimsuits. The waterpark opens at 9, we were there around 8:50 waiting with the crowd to get in. We got in and I went and grabbed a table. Then the younger 2 went down the fort slide while minion 1 and attriel went on the slideboard slide. They played for awhile, minion 1 eventually came over and did the fort slides, then I think attriel took them to the family slide. They did the lazy river a bit and then everyone was done about an hour and a half to 2 hours later. It is a trend we tend to only do an hour and half to 2 hours at the waterslides.

We went back to the room and got changed. We decided to check out the new ropes course. We had figured we probably weren't going to do it, but minion 1 fell in love with the idea and was just tall enough to go on by himself. Plus another friend was there and went up with minion 1, her elder 2 and another kid they had brought with them to GWL. So minion 1 and friend's kid who is about a year older then minion 1 and my friend worked their way around the ropes course. They did the zip line on the first level, well the boys did, my friend stood on a sturdy landing and watched them and went, I have to walk across what, I feel good here! Then they went up 2 levels to the top, where there is a huge jump to the ground. Now they are on rope and go down gently. I had already sent attriel to get us lunch since we have minion 1 and height issues. Remember that whole 3 story fall and 7 weeks in the hospital thing for minion 1, yeah ropes courses and jumping off the top of a tower 4 stories up do not bring up good memories for us. On the other hand minion 1 really wanted to do it. He tried once, and decided nope. He tried again and decided nope. He tried a 3rd time, after attriel had gotten back and finally did it, sorry attriel. Down he came. He loved it and quickly did it 4 more times. He also climbed the rock wall and made it pretty close to the top. At some point attriel took the other two to do some Shadow Quest because they were getting bored watching their brother and I can't blame them. GWL actually had an amazing deal for the ropes course for $25 for the length of your stay you got unlimited ropes course, climbing wall and mini golf. We didn't take advantage of the mini golf, but minion 1 totally got his money's worth from the ropes course and climbing wall. Eventually though he was done as was my friend and we split to head up to our respective rooms.

Down he comes!

After we got back to the room, minion 1 had a slice of pizza and some juice since he had been out quite awhile. We then headed out to catch up with the ShadowQuesting others. Who hadn't actually gotten far because they had taken a break in the room and then went to the store to update minion 3s wand with a new topper and minion 2 got a wand belt. Minion 1 also got a few runes to add to his wand. They all had fun ShadowQuesting and finished 2 or 3 more of the runes for the quest they wanted to do. Then we went back to the waterpark. I took minion 1 outside to ropes course a bit more as well. We were then more or less done for the day as far as waterparking went and the ropes course had closed at 5, which it was around 5:30/6 when we were done. We went back to the rooms and got changed. Attriel then headed out to the Walmart. Attriel had accidentally left one of the medications he normally takes at home and the doctor had left him a message that they had called in a 4 day rescue dose to the Walmart, so he was going out to get it and to get dinner. He got us Chick Fil A and got his medication. We all ate, the minions wanted to do the evening show. I was sunburned and didn't want to move, so attriel took them up and then took them ShadowQuesting again.

They all came back around 9:30 or so and fell into bed and asleep. I stayed up and read a bit. It was a long day, but everyone had fun. Tomorrow is our last day and Williamsburg.

 

[tabrizia]

*Waves to any followers*

Remember that whole I don't think I'm going to be changing anything for now. Yep? That statement? So I've changed my Sanaa reservation. I had set it up around 3pm on Friday January 15th. I was thinking though that if we want to go back to Animal Kingdom the timing will not work out at all. Also I was remembering that everything I read said that the last 2 hours at Animal Kingdom are the quietest. So I moved the Sanaa reservation so we can go back after it if we decide we want to. The double bonus of moving it earlier means we won't need to feed all the minions a snack, since they won't be starving at lunch time and then not eat at the late lunch. So our Sanaa reservation just went from 3pmish to 1pmish.

We are going to go to Animal Kingdom early to be there at Rope Drop. Explore till 12/12:15 then catch the bus over to AKL Kidani for lunch. After lunch we'll decide if we want to go back or not. If we don't it isn't a huge deal since we'll be back the following Friday, and if we do, well we have time after lunch to explore before closing.

So there is my one change, made today after I said we weren't likely to be changing much. At least it wasn't a big change?

Oh and attriel rolled his eyes when I told him tomorrow was 100 days until Disney. He said it was far more important that it is 76 days until the new Star Wars releases. I'd agree that the new Star Wars is super important, but I remember the midnight showing of Star Wars 1: Jar Jar Binks and the Vault of Disappointment. I am loathe to get my expectations to high for Star Wars 7: The Real New Hope!

Anyways since I'm posting I might as well finish off the mini trip report.

Great Wolf Lodge Part 4

We all woke in the morning a bit later then we had the previous day. I finished packing. Everyone got into swim suits, I put clothes in the little suitcase for when we were done swimming. We then put all our stuff in the car and left our room for the last time that trip. Attriel and minion 3 headed up to tell the desk we were checking out and I headed to the pool with the other 2. I found us a table and put down our bag. The elders went to play on the fort slides. Attriel and minion 3 showed up, I think they did the fort a few more times. Then minion 1 decided to do the slide board. Minion 2 wanted to do the slide that the slide board was at, but in the 2 person tube with me and minion 3 decided to do the same with attriel. We all headed up the stairs, minions all had fun and we did it one more time, though minion 1 went for just the tube the second round. We then went for the family slide for all of us. I don't remember if I had mentioned it, but attriel had hurt his ankle so he declared that was enough stairs for him for now. We headed to the wave pool, then to the wipeout ride. Minion 1 had tried this the day before, but minion 2 hadn't, minion 3 was too short. So they got in line and tried it. They both did it twice. Attriel decided/got talked into it by the minions to try it too. He wiped out in about 1.3 seconds. His wipeout was so bad they had to turn off the water so he could get out. Yeah I didn't try it. We then headed to the slightly warm tub (family hot tub) and hung out there for a few. Attriel then left with the boys because minion 1 wanted to do the ropes course again before we left. Minion 2 and I relaxed a bit, and then my friend from the day before showed up so we talked, while her daughter who is just a little younger then minion 2 and minion 2 played. Eventually we got out, I told her I'd see her on Friday, since they were staying through Thursday so I won't see her then, and minion 2 and I headed out to get changed and go outside.

Wipeout!

After we got changed we headed out to the ropes course. Minion 1 had yet to get up the courage to do the drop again, which was fine. Attriel and minion 3 went inside to get lunch for the little pool side QS place in the waterpark area. Minion 1 never got up the courage to do the drop which wasn't a big deal. He did decide to do the rock wall again. The evening before he had made it to the top. This afternoon he did it again. He then stopped climbing for a few, ate a couple of bites of his lunch and did the ropes course one last round before we headed out of that area.

We then headed upstairs, they all did the ShadowQuest quest that they had gotten their runes for and then we got ready to leave GWL until the next time (5 weeks later, but who's counting (22 days now)). We checked out the gift shop, got nothing, but I grossed out minion 1 by showing him the keychains that had a Moose that you squeezed and it looked like it pooped. We headed out to the car. Once in the car we checked the time. Leaving then would have put us in DC right at rush hour. We've done DC rush hour, we live there after all, and we didn't want to deal with it, so we headed to Williamsburg. Now there are a couple of places to park in Williamsburg, if you are going to buy a ticket there is the big center area which buses you to historical Williamsburg. We were only going to stay for about an hour and a half to 2 hours, so we just went to historical Williamsburg and parked at the College or William and Mary bookstore (it has a public 2 hour parking lot there).

We headed out. There was an old church that was open for visiting, only minion 2 wanted to go and see it so we skipped it and figured we could go in on our way back. It was closed then, oh well. We kept walking, and made it to the part my kids were looking forward to, the stocks. So we put them all in.

I was nice and didn't nail their ears to the stocks like they use to do to make sure the prisoners didn't escape. I did mention the stocks would be useful for making them stay still to do their schoolwork though .

We kept walking and found the print shop. Which meant books. I got 2 books and each of the minions got 1 book, we also got a book or was it 2 about board and other games they played then (we're gamers I proudly admit it). I think we might have gotten another book as well, but I can't remember. We looked at the cookbook for food from there too, but didn't get it, which reminds me I wanted to order it on Amazon. Okay now that, that is ordered I'll continue. We then headed down the street since they were doing some acting and recreating of scenes from the time period. We watched a short reenactment about the declaration of independence and then headed back, because they weren't interested in the next reenactment about a girl and her beau. We stopped and got some ice cream since it was hot. Then listened to 2 of the people there play a violin piece for us, which was nice. Then we went over to the big tent with the various and assorted goods that all the shops sell, but all gathered in one spot. The kids looked at the various toys. The boys love the hats. I don't love the cost of the hats, they were expensive and I know what my kids do to their toys, so no hats for them, but I did get cute pictures of them in the hats.

At this point they were done. We had explored for about an hour and a half or so. We headed back to the car. Everyone got settled and we headed out on our way home. We were lucky and hit no traffic on the way home. We stopped in Spotsylvania again and had dinner at Cracker Barrel, we finally found it, and then finished our journey home. We got home, the dog was glad to see us, my FIL had watched him for us. Everyone got settled in and headed to bed and our short trip was over. We'll be heading back in 22 days now, this time with my parents, niece and nephew. It should be fun.

 

[tabrizia]

100 days!


We are now at 100 days till our trip! I actually sort of made a change this morning. I am getting worried about all the negative reviews that Chef Mickey's has been getting, since we have it twice, once for breakfast and once for dinner, I didn't want to be stuck if we ended up hating the dinner. So on the Saturday that we have Chef Mickey's breakfast I have also booked a 1900 Park Fare breakfast. I have heard good things about Park Fare, and the characters are varied enough that the kids should like them. I am still debating about switching to Ohana's breakfast since minion 1 would love a Stitch breakfast. Hmm now I need to debate some more. Either way I figure we'll cancel whichever after the Chef Mickey's dinner. That way we have the meal we want and I don't have to worry too much about Chef Mickey's being bad.

So anyone who is lurking what do you think 'Ohana or 1900 Park Fare? We have 2 princess meals already with CRT and Akershus, we have Tusker House and Chef Mickey for Mickey and friends, and we have Crystal Palace for Winnie the Pooh. So 1900 Park Fare or 'Ohana? It is 3 kids 8, 6 and 4, they all love characters both face characters and non-face characters so that isn't a concern. We are not planning on going to a park on Saturday so I don't want a park meal. I am just not sure, I do like the menu at 1900 Park Fare better.


So now I've at least typed out my dilemma, I have lots of pictures. I found where my photopass photos from out 2007 trip were hiding and I also uploaded some more pictures from our 2009 trip. I still can't believe it has been 6 years since our last trip!

I can't believe that baby is now this kid who is now old enough to dissect a fish!

From the 2009 trip:

I can't believe that baby is now 6 1/2!

And the baby and toddler now look like this:

And this one wasn't even a thought yet:

 

[tabrizia]

So I asked my 'Ohana vs 1900 Park Fare question on the restaurant board. Based on most people's response of 'Ohana, I'm sticking with 1900 Park Fare.

No wait that's not why I'm sticking with it. Attriel looked at the menus and due to his allergy issues decided he'd prefer the buffet to the family style meal. I would still love to go to 'Ohana so I'm sticking it on the list for 2018 when we go back.

 

[tabrizia]

99 days! We are in double digits!

Okay so we are barely in double digits, but it is double digit day. Only 99 days to go!

 

[tabrizia]

96 days!

Not much going on right now, Disneywise. It's been a busy week. My new nephew arrived on the 6th. I was guessing the 7th, since that is my sister's (and brother's birthday), but he was nice to my sister and did not arrive on her birthday. He is adorable, in the 2 pictures I've seen, hoping for more soon. So we now have baby, I'm just going to call him Thor since I'm not sure my sister wants his name on a public site. He'll be almost 3 1/2 months for the trip. We still aren't sure how long my sister plans to stay, my guess is she'll decide right before we go.


I have not looked at ADRs since this weekend, I figure if I ignore them I won't try to change them. I did find an awesome shirt for minion 1 at tee fury. I also found this one I like for me. I also like this one for minion 2. Tee Fury is kind of evil, I think I've found a dozen shirts so far I like, maybe more.


Here is minion 1 and attriel on our last trip in 2009. I can't wait to go back, it has been way too long.

 

[tabrizia]

Wave to anyone reading. I promise I am not that scary and I only bite when asked, so feel free to post and say hi . Anyways I have been reading a bunch of trip reports and quite a few, including Elevationist, have their daily plans posted. I figured I do that anyways so I might as well post our daily plans, which are obviously open to major revisions since we're still 95 days out, oh and my mob of people tend to not listen to me all the times and go wild, so...

DAY 1, Travel Day!
January 12, 2016

I've already changed our flight to an earlier one. We leave at 1:05, which is much nicer then leaving at 5:45, which was our original flight.

We will get up, I may send minion 3 to preschool to get him out of the house for awhile, though since we need to leave the house by 10:30 to be at the airport by 11, we always try to be there 2 hours early when traveling with all 3 minions, it is probably easier to just keep him home.

Everyone should have packed the night before. My plan is to have 3 or 4 checked bags, hoping to keep it to 3, though maybe a 4th empty one. We'll also have an umbrella stroller, I was just going to make them walk, but since minion 2 is tiny and minion 3 is still 4, we'll bring a stroller. I figure they can put any last minute things in their carry-ons, which will be backpacks. The suitcases should be already checked and have the magic express tags on them. We'll shove the backpacks and the carry-on roll on with swimsuits and a change of clothes, for just in case issues into the car and everyone will be ready to go by 10:15 hopefully. My FIL will hopefully be taking us to the airport.

We will have packed 2 bumble bum car seats and we'll put the high backed booster in the checked luggage when we get to the airport. It isn't my top choice of car seats for the younger two, but it should work. If my parents drive down they'll bring a harnessed seat for the youngest, so minion 2 can use the high back booster which will make me happier as well. We could change our plan and take a harnessed seat, but it is a pain to travel with them, which is why my parents have a full set at their house for my kids.

Yes I realize this is a ton of luggage, sigh, and this is with a plan to do laundry halfway through. Hopefully the rental car we get has a lot of trunk room.


Anyways after 3 1/2 paragraphs about packing, really me?, we'll be at the airport. The kids are awesome travelers. We'll go through security, we could get lucky and go through pre-check, if not we'll pull out the one laptop and attriel and my shoes. Once through security we'll stop at a newsstand and get each kid a drink. We'll probably get everyone lunch as well. I need to decide if we're doing the extra $12.50 per person for pre-check so we have a better chance of sitting together. Honestly the biggest issue is minion 3, he needs a grownup by him, the other two will be fine. Either way we'll board, hopefully find seats close together, if we can get seats together attriel will probably sit with minion 3, and I'll probably sit with minions 1 and 2 behind attriel, though it is tempting to put minions 1 and 2 behind attriel and go head to a seat nowhere near any of them .

We should land around 3:30 and catch the fake o rail to magic express. We're going to let them pick up our luggage, because we shouldn't need it right away anyways. We'll get on the bus, for our first time, we've driven our last two trips, and enjoy our ride to CBR!

Once we get to CBR our plans are more up in the air. If our room is ready, which I am hoping it will be, we'll put our carry-ons in our room. Then we'll either explore the resort, possibly swim if warm enough, and get dinner at the food court.

Our other option is to head to Disney Springs/Downtown Disney. If we go to Downtown Disney we'll either eat at T-Rex, Rainforest Cafe (I'm getting a Landry card), or try for Raglan Road using Open table. We'll also visit Goofy's and World of Disney. It really depends on how tired we are after travel.

We're at T-Rex here on our last trip in 2009

Apparently I have a picture of our appetizer from Raglan Road in 2007.
I have no clue what it is, at my best guess, so kind of cheese/crab dip.

Either way we should be in our room and in bed by 9 or 10 at the latest for the minions, since we have our first park day the next day!

 

[tabrizia]

Wave to anyone reading.

So being completely insane, I just saved a whole $1 per ticket on our flight down! Go me? Seriously though Southwest makes it super easy to adjust your flights, and $1 per person is $5 total, which is 2/5ths of the cost of 1 early check in, which I still haven't decided it we're doing or not. I am not too worried about seating on the plane, though we do want minion 3 with an adult and minions 1 and 2 would be happiest together and semi near one of their adults. Since I've heard Southwest doesn't normally do family boarding to Orlando, I am just not sure if we bite the bullet or not. Oh well I still have awhile to decide.

Otherwise not much else is up. I talked to my Mom this weekend and told her to get tickets for those we know are definitely going, since if prices go up having at least those 5 or 6 tickets will save her a decent amount. We still don't know about 5 to 7 other people, if they are coming, how long they will be there or any combination there of.


In non-Disney news, my Father in Law did agree to come with us to Atlanta for Thanksgiving with my parents. This is a great thing, because both attriel and I do not think him staying at home for his first Thankgiving after my MIL's death is a good plan. So he'll just get to spend the time with all of us crazy people in Atlanta instead. He was actually also invited along on the Disney trip, but he declined, which attriel and I figured, but my Mom did tell us to invite him, so we did.

In distant Disney news, I have decided that our 2018 trip will be my birthday trip. I turn 40 in 2018, I can't think of a better time for a birthday trip. It probably won't be for my actual birthday since my birthday is in the middle of Easter/Spring break season, but maybe we'll do it a couple of weeks early around minion 2s birthday or maybe we'll go in May instead. If we do it for my birthday we'll have to celebrate all the minions' birthdays too, since we have 22 days of 4 birthdays, so everyone's birthdays except attriel's are in that 22 day time span.

And with 90 days to go, here are me, attriel and minion 1 on his first trip!

 

[tabrizia]

Came home from an extremely long day at co-op and we had Disney mail! It was the Get Ready for a Vacation that is Simply Incredible, packet. It made me smile, even though it wasn't new info, it wasn't our ME tags or our magic bands. So there is that. Other then that I've just been super busy this week and likely will be for quite awhile, I don't quite understand why we call it homeschooling, when we are never home!

Anyways there is my short update, I'll try to post something a bit longer this weekend.