MagicBands + Margaritas + Muggles + Minions = TRP. New TR link is up! 10/31

[ejud]

I wondered which little birdie was doing the cross-pollination. Guess I found out.

That's okay PIO: you'll always be my first.



Jud

 

[eandesmom]

I am late dining. I need to start planning! I've barely done anything!

I am considering flying in on Wednesday since it basically takes all day to get to PR from Denver. SW hasn't released the Sept schedule yet. I would like to spend a little time in PR exploring plus abiding by my rule to never fly in the same day!

Jill in CO

I have done exactly nothing other than booking a SJ hotel way back when.

I'd originally been thinking of flying in Thursday (booked Th/Fr at the Sheraton ) but some of the fares are better on the Wednesday. I still think that may work out better as the better fares back are on Sunday so we we may end up with a Thursday arrival (late) and then either a Saturday flight to Miami and spend a day at S. Beach or head back on Sunday so have one more night in SJ. There are some decent red eye options though so that may be a route as well. Technically we could do a Thursday red eye and get there Friday am. If we go through Miami there is a later flight if we somehow missed the connection so it's a valid option, especially if we need to fly home sunday or monday instead. Ultimately it will come down to $$ and total travel time. I won't do more than 1 stop and Jeff really doesn't want to go through JFK so that limits it a little.

No excursion info up yet but that doesn't really surprise me. I admit, seeing our fare was up $1100 was kind of WOW and then when we re-looked at the itinerary it was like..how could I have forgotten how awesome it is?

Now to find out if my parents are available then And research what conflicts I'll have at work. I think I already double checked the big shows but am not positive.

 

[eandesmom]

In your DH's two seater plane???

Nope, my DH's isn't built yet. Well it's partially built but not done and won't be for some time. Richard has the same kind of plane and there is a whole little community of people who own them, have built them, or are building them. The company that makes the kit is based out of the Orlando area. He flew with a group to Richard Bach's house, all in the same kind of plane (I forget how many) and had lunch there with him and the others. Richard was flying Puff.

Not that long after that, Richard had a very nasty crash in Puff. He is ok but it was a bit scary for while.

If you ever read the book you'll understand why Jeff and I think Puff now has PTSD.

That's okay PIO: you'll always be my first.



Jud

 

[PrincessInOz]

That's okay PIO: you'll always be my first.



Jud

Um.......Er........






(You DO remember that we are on a public chat room forum? )

 

[jedijill]

I have done exactly nothing other than booking a SJ hotel way back when.

I'd originally been thinking of flying in Thursday (booked Th/Fr at the Sheraton ) but some of the fares are better on the Wednesday. I still think that may work out better as the better fares back are on Sunday so we we may end up with a Thursday arrival (late) and then either a Saturday flight to Miami and spend a day at S. Beach or head back on Sunday so have one more night in SJ. There are some decent red eye options though so that may be a route as well. Technically we could do a Thursday red eye and get there Friday am. If we go through Miami there is a later flight if we somehow missed the connection so it's a valid option, especially if we need to fly home sunday or monday instead. Ultimately it will come down to $$ and total travel time. I won't do more than 1 stop and Jeff really doesn't want to go through JFK so that limits it a little.

No excursion info up yet but that doesn't really surprise me. I admit, seeing our fare was up $1100 was kind of WOW and then when we re-looked at the itinerary it was like..how could I have forgotten how awesome it is?

Now to find out if my parents are available then And research what conflicts I'll have at work. I think I already double checked the big shows but am not positive.

I think SW connects through Orlando so maybe I'll do a night there... Not sure yet. I haven't booked a hotel yet...I can just sleep on the beach!

I told mt co-worker that he was going to have to reschedule his wedding if it overlapped my trip! Luckily the Broncos schedule worked in my favor?

Jill in CO

 

[englishrose47]

Just keeping up here too !!!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Thanks for the PM Cynthia! I'm late to the party because I've only been getting DIS time about once or twice a week!

Great intros - your parents sound AWESOME!!
I'm really excited to hear about this big trip!
I was thinking as you ran down the numbers at the beginning - "and a partridge in a pear tree!"

Well put about the couple's time and dates. You guys do a great job of that. We struggle with it, but try to squeeze some time in - it can be easier when the kids are older and you can leave them, but they also have so much going on…
Dave and I are planning to go out tomorrow night - no work for us on Monday!!

Looking forward to more! I better pop on here more often now that you've got this thing rolling!

 

[eandesmom]

Um.......Er........

(You DO remember that we are on a public chat room forum? )

Since you are both new to the thread....lets just say you are fitting right in

I think SW connects through Orlando so maybe I'll do a night there... Not sure yet. I haven't booked a hotel yet...I can just sleep on the beach!

I told mt co-worker that he was going to have to reschedule his wedding if it overlapped my trip! Luckily the Broncos schedule worked in my favor?

Jill in CO

LOL! I take it he scheduled his wedding around the game, which happened to not conflict with the cruise? I did see SW went through there. We are not SW fans but if the price is better we will consider it. I'm torn between maybe making the layover an actual stop somewhere versus just getting there asap. We do have lots of time though.

Just keeping up here too !!!

Hope to work on my update later today.

Thanks for the PM Cynthia! I'm late to the party because I've only been getting DIS time about once or twice a week!

Sheree!!!! You aren't late, I haven't even started day one!

Great intros - your parents sound AWESOME!!
I'm really excited to hear about this big trip!
I was thinking as you ran down the numbers at the beginning - "and a partridge in a pear tree!"

My parents rock if I do say so myself.

on the pear tree. True dat!

Well put about the couple's time and dates. You guys do a great job of that. We struggle with it, but try to squeeze some time in - it can be easier when the kids are older and you can leave them, but they also have so much going on…
Dave and I are planning to go out tomorrow night - no work for us on Monday!!

Looking forward to more! I better pop on here more often now that you've got this thing rolling!

No work Monday, very jealous of that one! Yes, the kids schedules are nuts. Today for just Evan it's swim team practice, trombone lessons, geometry tutor and then his HS winter formal.

And he needs to study for semester finals which are all next week

 

[TinkyCheeks]

I think we've all had those moments! You want to talk about anything but the kids...but then find that's all you can think of to talk about! Your comment about the scuba lessons remind me of the time we tried dance lessons poor Jeff has white man's disease quite badly (no rhythm for dancing at all) it was simultaneously hysterical and super frustrating for him. We still plan to try again..of course he blames it all on the fact that they wanted us to learn all styles and all he really wanted to learn were latin dances.

If you can do a regularly scheduled date night, at least once a month, it does get easier! Skip the movie, no real togetherness there and go for a walk before or after instead. A date dinner can be at a burger joint, it doesn't need to be fancy, sometimes the best things are simple, like a picnic.

A few things we used to do when the kids were younger helped a lot. We'd have a date night...in the house. All the kids would have gone to bed and we'd have a special dinner, in the dining room, music, candles, wine etc. Putting it into the more formal setting does kind of force you to talk but it doesn't have quite the pressure of the date night out. We still do this on Valentines Day every year and at other random times. It also saved a lot of $$, sitters aren't cheap! We would also take vacation days on Fridays while the kids were in school and go for long hikes or bike rides. I really miss those hikes, I don't have the number of vacation days I used to but oh we had so much fun! Nothing made us laugh harder than racing down a mountain to get to the car in time to make sure we made it back in time to pick up the kids from daycare. For a while we would also have a rule that on Sunday nights, no TV. We'd hang out in the living room together and read on the couch, together (versus in seperate chairs etc). Glass of wine and a fireplace and it made for really nice quiet time, just together that often ended up with a lot of good talks. We re-institute this every so often . This summer instead we'd do power walks on Sunday afternoons...to this neat outdoor brewpub, sit outside, chat with a beer and then power walk back. So fun!

We also, to this day, often eat dinner in shifts. The kids eat early and we eat late. Only on school night (M-Th) and then we eat as a family for the rest of it with Friday and Saturday being our bigger family dinner nights and then Sunday breakfast.

For us it's the only way we can get our workouts in, I'll get the kids settled with homework, evening activities and food (or let them fend for themselves on the food side as sometimes they prefer that), we go work out or run and then come home and make our meal. That gives us usually 3 nights of a more casual dinner together, watching "our" shows.

Now that the kids are older and can watch themselves when we go out, we've gotten away from some of those things but have replaced them with others. It used to be we ate in shifts on school nights simply because the kids needed to eat at 6 for a decent bedtime and neither of us were ready to eat that early having just gotten home maybe 20 minutes earlier, fitting in the workouts on top of it was almost impossible. Now that it is, and we are running together, those have taken the place of the hikes and no TV night although we probably still do that once a month. It does get easier when they get older, Jeff and I plan to see a movie tomorrow. Evan will be at a school dance (and no, I will not chaperone lol though I'll see him off for sure) and Eric will be home alone for a bit.

Some will disagree with this but I believe this is good for the kids on multiple levels. It teaches them that while we are there for them and enjoy being with them, it isn't all about them 100% of the time. It teaches them to be self sufficient. Some are better than others (Evan is amazing in the kitchen, the others not so much) but they all know some basics. It provides healthy relationship models as well as healthy living models (exercise) and hopefully most of the time shows them that having a balance of all if it, while not remotely easy, is possible. Occasionally they complain, for example when I go on my girls disney trips, they whine a little. And then I remind them that they get their own week at this camp or that camp that is somethign that's special to them, and that the girls trip is my "camp" and they are ok

Thank you so much for taking the time to share all this. You've given me so much to think about. You make very good points! As a matter of fact, DH has been requesting that we go on a cruise, and last night we talked about it and decided that instead of heading to AKL next year, we'll be boarding the DCL instead. This way, we get some alone time. I'm leaving my ticker because a wrong ticker is better than none. The more I think about it, the more excited I'm getting.

I'd never really thought about how good it would be for the kids, but you're absolutely right. They need the example set that marriage does take effort and is important, and also that while they are so very important, they can't be the center of the universe. And independence is never a bad thing. It reminds me of a time we went on vacation with my parents' friends. Their son, who was 21 at the time, was calling his mom probably five times a day (no exaggeration), asking questions like how do I start the washer and dryer, where do we keep the jelly, etc.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I'm here!!! First time on the DIS in forever, but I didn't want to miss out!!

 

[eandesmom]

My general rule of thumb has always been NO travel during the holidays. Christmas is stressful enough without adding travel to the mix. We've done it once before, back in 2006. Maybe because the kids were younger, maybe because it was the day after Christmas, maybe because it was a ski trip and we lugged so much gear, or all of the above but for whatever reason it was incredibly stressful, hard and exhausting. We had a good time but I swore afterwards I'd never do it again.

The kids were cute then though



When I think of winter and holiday travel, that's what comes to mind. We had talked about this trip, really since the last big group one ended in 2004.





Look how little those guys are!

For years we had tossed around dates. One year part of the group went, maybe in 06 or 07 but we didn't make that one. Because some had, they were then happy to wait a little longer to go back. So we went on our own instead and the roots of DVC were sown. Things happen for a reason! At any rate, for the past 3 years, as my dad's heart issues have gotten a little more serious and especially with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter opening (Dad is a HUGE fan)...talk got more serious. In a carpe diem /capture the moment while we can kind of way. Still, dates were hard with differing school schedules and kids getting too old to really miss much school if any. Finances were also an issue. As was weather. Dad really didn't want the summer heat of FL. Spring break was out, too close to state testing and the dates didn't line up right. Same thing with Presidents week. That left us with the holidays and we all loved the idea of being there for that, Osborne Lights, CP, all of it. We didn't love the cost of the flights at that time of year, the anticipated crowds or the high points and room rates. But you've gotta do what you have to do, right? Life is too short and waiting well, waiting was starting to scare some of us. For the kids it was all about a trip with the cousins, for the adults, about a trip with my Dad. Which is not to say we didn't want a trip with my mom, Disney and HP are as much or more her thing as they are my dad's but it was his health that scared us. Dates were analyzed to death, numbers crunch, flight routes and rates plotted and a plan was formed.

In planning this trip I tried to make it as far away from Christmas itself as to give myself a chance to recover and minimize our point costs. I did, unfortunately, have to keep the kids school schedule in mind too. When we purchased DVC, our initial contract was at SSR. Specifically for the Treehouse Villas and the 11m booking advantage there. The E's have been obsessed for years with the idea of staying in a treehouse, with their cousins. Of course since we bought, they changed the point structure a bit and it's no longer the killer point value it once was. We still wanted to stay there though. When we bought, we started with a smaller contract, wanting to see how us west coasters would do with it before adding on. We knew it wasn't enough points but wanted to really get a feel for what that right number might be. I also knew that long term, if we ever did want to sell, a smaller contract was a better option..as well as for handing down to kids someday if that was something we wanted to consider dividing up at some point. In that first year of ownership, 2012, we got our moneys worth, visiting OKW, Vero and AKV. Not too long after that trip, the plans for this one became much more fully formed. We had planned to add on and knew we would need to in time to book for this trip. We were in the process of a SSR add on when I took a fall trip with Mary Ellen (MEK) for food and wine and were lucky enough to snag BWV for half of our stay.

I fell in love.

And our add on at SSR quickly turned into an add on at BWV instead (and that add on left us with some extra points we just "had" to use for our couples get away to Aulani...which then led us to another small add on at Aulani...but I digress).

Points at the ready I booked what I could at 11 months. What I could book was:

6 nights in a 2b Boardwalk view villa 12/28-1/4
3 nights in a Treehouse 1/4 to 1/7

While I loved the idea of the Treehouse, I did not love the idea of being that far away from things on NYE itself. With the crowds I wanted that BWV access! I also figured that the Treehouse would be a great place to decompress after 6 nights at BWV and said crowds.

However, that wouldn't sleep all of us. We had gone back and forth about options and had considered trying to get a grand villa. I didn't have enough points for as many nights as we wanted, but even if I had we came to a few conclusions.

1. The sleeping layout at the GV's just wasn't conducive to the kind of sleeping space our group really needed (too many shared rooms for adults)
2. My sister and BIL (that didn't have kids) as well as my folks, really wanted their own bedrooms.
3. My BIL really wasn't comfortable being in a villa with others at all, he wanted their own room.

I don't even remember at this point all the options that were discussed. All kinds of things from us trying to change resorts at 7m to get more villa for the points, to my folks and sister/bil staying offsite, to them looking at everything from values, mods, deluxes onsite. I really really really encouraged them to stay onsite. For the obvious benefits but also for the crowds. I wanted it to be easy for them. My folks can tire easily and I wanted it to be simple to go back and rest.

My dad is cheap. He did NOT like the prices he was seeing. He really wanted offsite. REALLY wanted it. Ultimately we convinced him that the loss of the benefits and trying to deal with getting into the parks at all, with a car and offsite, was pretty high risk and a potential huge loss of hours spent in doing so. My little sister was pretty influential here, though she too wanted to minimize costs, she was very on board with onsite. Ultimately it was a compromise. They both ended up booking rooms at the Swan. Next door to us and seemingly with all the same onsite benefits but without it being too Disney in a way that wouldn't scare first timer BIL. When all was said and done, and flights finally booked (some as late as October!) the BFP looked like this:

12/28. Red Eye Flights for the 4 of us, my folks, Melissa and her boys. 6 of us were on the same direct red eye and Mel and her kids on a different one that had a layover. Amazingly our 2 flights would land at MCO within 4 minutes of each other just after 6am!
12-29-1/4 The 4 of us, Mel and her boys at BWV
12/29-1/6 My folks at the Swan
12/30 Kerri and Eric fly in on a red eye, landing around noon
12/30-1/5 Kerri and her Eric at the Swan
1/4 to 1/7 The 4 of us, Mel and her boys at THV (Mel and the boys only for the night of the 4th)
1/5 Mel and the boys, Kerri and Eric fly home
1/6 My folks check out to go visit local friends for the rest of the week
1/7 The four of us fly home. This meant the E’s would miss 2 days of school but it got my flight costs WAY down and gave me a trip as long as I wanted, plus a little "alone" time with just my family. It also gave Jeff the week day non holiday flying day he needed.
1/10 My folks fly home

Now that we had a plan, we started to see more and more info come out about MagicBands. I'd been pretty resistant to the whole thing but as time went on, and I read more, I realized that during our travel dates they might be invaluable. I was also a bit concerned about my folks after the red eye. I didn't want them to have to deal with their luggage and paying for a transfer, town car or cab. So, I decided to "work the system" and add them to our BWV ressie. They wouldn't be staying there but by doing so I could get them on DME with the rest of us, and get them MagicBands. As the trip got closer folks slowly purchased tickets. My sisters waited, and waited. One set arrived just before Christmas and the other just after. Luckily I had made many FP+ bookings early, before the tiering went in place and it was relatively easy to copy our reservations over to my sister and her boys. Relatively lol! At Christmas I handed out everyone's bands, DME vouchers so in case anything happened and we were split up, people had their own. Given the fact I was taking a fair amount of vacation days for the trip, I worked the 24th , 26th and 27th . I usually take those days off and while I can’t say they were maybe as productive at the office as they should have been, it really wasn't that bad. And then, we were here!



Come day of departure I was in pretty good shape personally. I was 95% packed (having done mine the weekend before xmas) with just a couple of small things to do. The rest of the family, amazingly, was the same, well at least the boys were. I'd given the boys pack lists on the morning of the 27th with instructions to get it done so I could do a bag check that night. They had passed muster. They were motivated. I'd dangled a carrot in front of them. On Saturday we did our normal morning routine, which is hit the gym, take Evan to trombone lessons and do grocery shopping while he is at trombone. All of my last minute items for pick up were at the grocery store so that worked well. The deal with the boys had been that IF they were packed, and rooms clean, I’d take them shopping. Both had gift cards they'd received for Christmas from my folks burning holes in their pockets. So the plan was, after trombone, we'd head home, eat and shower and then take the cats to the vet where they’d be staying while we were gone. From there we would hit the mall.

Everything went exactly according to plan and at 1:45 pm we were on the road to the clinic. I'd never been to this clinic before, when looking for a cat sitter my neighbor had recommended them. As they were a bit cheaper than the place we usually use, over 9 days the difference was enough to book them there. As I drove I realized that the clinic was much closer to one mall then then one we'd planned to go to. Cats dropped off, we headed to the mall. We had 2 destinations. Macy's and Foot Locker. Both boys wanted shoes. And they wanted them for the trip. Of course!

One small problem.

The mall I planned to go to originally had a Footlocker. This one? Nope. Arrgh. At Macy's we found what Evan wanted. Or more accurately what he decided he wanted once we got there which was totally different from what he'd had on his Christmas list in the shoe category. He's tough to find shoes for, as is Eric. Clothes in general as well. They are just at that too big for kids stuff but too skinny and small for a lot of adult stuff. Shoes are no exception. Most stores don't carry much in their sizes in mens shoes and kids stop just short of it. He was happy and insisted on wearing them out of the store. Mission One accomplished we headed up to the other mall. Bear in mind that this was the weekend after Christmas. Traffic and parking were NOT fun. Still, we had the time and I’d promised. At Foot Locker we were a bit dismayed at the selections (or really at the prices) and spent a lot of time discussing what he wanted to do. We also had a hard time getting someone to help us, the employees were far more interested in chatting with each other and were very distracted. He, as Evan had done, elected to supplement their gift card with some of their own money to be able to get what he wanted, versus what he could get with just the card. He too insisted on wearing them out of the store.



Can you guess which shoes belong to which E?

Mission two done it was time to head home. If memory serves we got there around 5. Our flight wasn't until 9:45 so that allowed for plenty of time for me to clear out the fridge, get dishes done and fix us all a totally random mess of dinner eats made up of leftovers. Jeff and I also spent some time weighing and re-allocating things to various suitcases so that we'd be under the weight limit on the 2 larger bags. Thanks to having mileage status I'd be able to check 2 for free and we planned to take full advantage of it. Problem is, things like coffee, rum, laundry supplies, deli ham and peanut butter can add up in weight pretty darn fast! For food, we packed:

• Peanut butter
• Mayo
• Mustard
• Coffee
• Coconut Rum
• Gold Rum (wanted dark but couldn't find it in plastic to save our soul, we hit 4 stores on the 27th looking!)
• ¾ pound of deli ham (frozen, thanks to Allison’s great advice!)
• Bagels (also frozen)
• Bread (frozen)
• Cocoa packets
• Cider packets
• Oatmeal packets
• Sugar
• Apples
• Bananas
• Oranges
• Fresh Spinach
• Can of Tuna
• Coffee Filters
• Coffee dosage scoop
• Taco seasoning
• Vanilla
• French Toast pre-mixed spices
• Wine to go tumblers (kind of like a Tervis with a wine glass inside, they are a riot)
• Shot glass
• Wine/Beer opener
• Shatterproof wine glasses
• Beer cozys

And then of course a pop up hamper, laundry supplies, full medicine kit.
Given that we were going in December, with forecasts that showed 40-80 we also packed a lot of clothes. Layers and those things take up more space than packing for a summer trip that's for sure! Somehow, despite a zipper threatening to break and a small tear on one of the bags, we got it all in and got it in right around the weight limit. We wouldd be checking 2 and carrying on 3. Taylor was scheduled to pick us up at 7:30 and he was right on time, a little early even. As we headed down our street Eric remarked

"Guess what mom! One of my shoes is a different size than the other!"

He is wearing the new tennis shoes

The only tennis shoes he is bringing (he also had a pair of crocs)

We do not, at this point, have time to go back and change into his old ones

As we'd narrowed down his choices at the store, the pair he wanted only had one pair in the box, the other was on display. Except there were TWO pairs on display. Eric had grabbed one of them. Neither Eric, myself, the employee who helped us, or the employee who rang it up, checked to make sure the sizes matched.

At least the "off" size was .5 too big...not to small.

Nothing like $65 shoes that are different sizes!

The drive was uneventful and check in went smoothly.

One of the bags was over by about a pound. We could have reallocated but thanks to the ability to check in at the mileage status/first class counter, they didn't care and sent it through.

Getting through security though...was a different story. The lines were INSANE. Which has been the case a lot lately at our airport. We'd originally headed to one checkpoint but the signs seemed to indicate that only folks with pre-check or 1st class could go through there. So we headed to another one. Which was ridiculous and then the 3rd one appeared closed. So back to the first one we went, only to learn the signs were misleading and it wasn't an issue to go through there at all. Whew! I had hoped to get to the airport early enough that both Jeff and I could get a 15 minute chair massage, they do an amazing job there. But with the delay at security we got to the gate just a little before boarding was due to start and met up with my folks who were already there. Of course, our flight was delayed (by maybe 10 minutes) so we could have done it after all but oh well.

The boys chilled in their new sweats Santa had brought them, perfect for a red eye!





Sorry they are so blurry! After 1-2 trips each to the restroom, soon enough we boarded.

What is there to say about a red-eye with kids. Or even without? They aren't terribly fun. They can be more, or less painful or degrees of unfun but they aren't fun no matter how you shake a stick at it. We've done them several times and have had horrendous ones, and not so bad ones. For this flight I'd made an executive decision. In the past I'd sat between the boys or one boy had been with Jeff, and one with me. This time I took the window. That's MY favorite seat and I decided that no matter where I sat, someone would be flopping on me so I might as well be as comfy as possible as let me tell you, 2 kids leaning on you from either side if you are in the middle…pretty much sucks. Eric took the aisle, Evan the middle and Jeff had the aisle in the same row, directly across from us. For about the first 2 hours Evan slept, leaning on me but not uncomfortably so. I dozed in and out but wasn't uncomfortable. He then decided to keep trying to spread his legs out on Eric…which didn't go over well. At a certain point I told him he'd lost my shoulder by being selfish...no one else was trying to spread out on 2 people and made him switch spots with Eric.

Eric is a wiggler. Horrible at night on a normal night, he will sleep like a rock but moves constantly. On a plane, car, bus or whatever...forget it. The kid doesn't sleep. He knows it, we all know it but he will still work himself into a frenzy over it which only makes it worse. This was the path he was on (and selfishly, having him in the aisle and him being a little older helped 2 things…one I could doze and not really get caught up in it and two...he was quietly freaking out and not disturbing anyone) and Evan's leg caper was putting him over the edge. Eric over the edge is not pretty in any situation. An hour in the middle seat, some cuddling and lots of wiggling later, he had calmed down enough and rested a little. At some point we all made a few trips to the bathroom. My folks, for whatever reason, had booked seats at the back of the plane. They were not seated together but both were out cold any time I walked by. Turns out they'd given up their middle seat so a parent and child could sit together and this meant both ended up on the aisle so they were happy about that. While I was gone, Evan turned on his phone. I had made both of them turn them off so no one obsessed about "are we there yet" or "how much longer". I wasn't looking at mine either, for the same reason. It really doesn't help plus batteries needed to be conserved. In looking at it, it appeared we had another 2 hours. Imagine our surprise when about 20 minutes later they announced our descent. Turns out somehow his phone had gotten on Central Time so it was off a full hour. That made the last part go very quickly!

We got off the plane and waited for my folks.

And waited

And waited

And waited.

Seriously. It had to be 10-15 minutes between when we got off and when they showed up! First order of business was a bio stop, second was Starbucks. This is our ritual but for the first time, the line was horrendous. There is always a line but this was beyond the pale. Beyond the aisle and into the main seating area in the center. After a minute of do we, don’t we, Jeff and I overrode everyone and said YES. WE DO. We knew, from experience that if we didn't get one now, it could be a good hour before we did and well, that would be painful for all involved. Especially Jeff and I. Texting back and forth with my sister, they'd arrived on time and were already down at DME waiting for us. She didn't want coffee yet, she wanted to nap on DME. LOL! Once we finally had our coffees we headed down to meet with them. Except I'd forgotten one thing. We tend to walk fast. Really fast. My folks? Not so much. Not that we didn't know this already but just hasn't really experienced it directly in that kind of setting. In a way it is a good thing this happened at the airport as it was a wakeup call to all 4 of us that we'd have to really slow down for Grandma and Grandpa. Arriving at DME there wasn't a single person in line and we headed straight to the bus. Except, there was no one checking anyone in right at the ropes, I had to go back to the counter. DOH! Despite there being no one else at the counter, that seemed to take longer than it should have but soon enough we were on the bus and it took off. There was one poor other person on it that wasn't part of our group, other than that we had it to ourselves. We then spent the next 30 minutes listening to our driver go off on prior passengers. I think he thought he was being funny but oh my word. He would not stop, it was constant and at times insulting. At times funny too but he was a bit harsh and judgmental for our tastes.

Coffee almost gone, we were all very happy to see this



I SWEAR the pictures get better!

We dropped off the solo traveler at POR and in short order were pulling up at the Boardwalk!

 

[englishrose47]

Great start to your trip!! Quite a lot of planning went into this !!! What happened with the different size shoes ???? By the way we will be in Disney May 8th thru 13th!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ejud]

Wow.

I am amazed, scared, impressed? When I go to Disney, I throw a couple of things in a bag and go catch some transpo- even when I lived in Boston.

Glad you all got there! No "Home Alone"!



Jud

 

[dizneeat]

That was some serious planning that went into your trip. I admire you for being able to pull it off.

about the different shoes. That's what I always tell Tom will happen to him one day as he NEVER tries on both shoes.

At least you got the bus to yourself (apart from the lone other passenger) and now I cannot wait for more of the fun.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Gosh. That is some start to the trip. What with the food packing and the shoes shopping and getting everything organised, it sounds like it was a lot of work in that last couple of days.

I've travelled with my folks. So I know what it means to have to slow down for them to keep up.

Here's to a fun time at Disney.

 

[teekathepony]

Great start! Love the recap of the BFP, that's quite the lot of info to remember! Glad you arrived with no problem!
Did you ever get the shoes sorted out?

 

[MEK]

I read. Some of this before church then realized I couldn't finish your novel. Lol. I'll stop back after church. The kids are SO cute and I love the new shoes!!!!!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Wow! You definitely win the planner of the decade award! I don't know how you could possibly plan for that many so well. We tried for a few years to plan a simple camping trip for a family reunion and there were so many complaints we just stopped trying.

I love the old pic of the kids when they were all tiny. It will be a good frame of reference when we meet them now.

Too funny about the shoe sizes - good thing it was just a 1/2 size.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I think you missed me right before your new update.

Sounds like your trip was starting off just as I'd expect... lots of last minute chaos (actually less then other trips). Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[addictedtothemouse]

I love flying and getting on DME. I've driven down on most of my trips but once I flew and it only took four hours instead of twenty-four i fell in love.
I planned a trip for my middle DD's graduation that included my youngest sister and her family, I was so stressed! It was their first trip and I had no clue what they might be interested in and wanted them to have a good time. Well I must have done a good job because she, her husband, and their girls say they want to go back as soon as they can. I couldn't imagine planning for that many people and schedules. I would definitely be a lot grayer than I am now.