The Multipurpose Trip, or, How many people did you bring on your honeymoon? 2/12-2/19

[Jinxy]

Hi I'm Jinxy, Eeyore fan, long-time lurker and first time TR poster.
I've been on the boards since 2002 and loved reading everyone's TR's just haven't been able to go to the World since.

My DH and I eloped on 12/31/08

This was taken after we went to the courthouse at a friend's NYE party.
We're a very laid back couple and after living together for 2 years and my moving 1,100 miles after knowing him for 4 months. We decided that laid back and easy was the way to go for us. Although I did have an idea in the back of my head for a Disney Dream wedding.

So pre-elopment, when we started talking about taking a honeymoon or going away for my birthday, Disney was at the top of my list. Thankfully Mac (DH) is a Flordia boy and grew up going and thought that it was a great idea.

The very day we were talking about going to Disney, what did I see on TV but the buy 4 get 3 comercial. It was fate and I got on the phone,... with my best friend.
See, I had an idea, my BFF and I had been talking about a joint vacation for about 6 months. Her two girls are getting to the age where "family" vacations aren't going to be possible much longer.
So after burning up the phone lines, and triple checking that neither my new hubby or her SO wouldn't have any issues we jumped on the internet and started to figure out where we were going to stay.

Well we ended up at an All-Stars without her bf, but near the smoking area. Which was a very good thing, since Ramona and I can't function in the morning without our bad habit.

Let me get the introductions out of the way.

Cast

Jinxy-Me 36 Huge Eeyore fan, designer of goth goodies, transplanted Yankee to Georgia where I try not to melt

Mac- Darling Hubby, tech geek and photo hound.

Maxie- my Lhasa Apso, hates having his feet touched and is sure he's people

Ramona- Best Friend, Mom to 2 teenage girls, loves Stitch, dates a Stormtrooper, loves The Ramones

Tree- Ramona's oldest daughter (18) loves Buzz Lightyear more then anything

Peanut- Ramona's youngest daughter (15) loves Lightening from Cars, boys, and Zebra print (maybe not in that order)

So there we were, trip booked, friends on board when it hit me. We were celebrating our honeymoon, my birthday, and valentine's day all in one trip with 3 extra people, and a dog. What could happen?

 

[lifeafterkids]

I am glad to hear that we are not the only family to go on a honeymoon with extra people...

I am getting married on July 4th... We are leaving on July 8th for our honeymoon and we are going with 11 extra people... So we are a party of 13.... Everyone looks at me weird, but we have a lot to celebrate in a short span...

1 honeymoon
1 anniversary
3 birthdays
and 1 First time Disney Tripper

So I am excited to share this with everyone....

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more! I often say that trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until our next WDW vacation. Thanks for your contribution to my sanity.

 

[maxie]

Signing in!

 

[Jinxy]

Springing it on the girls and planning way to many things in a short amount of time.

Ramona and I love messing with her girls and springing the Disney trip on them opened up a wonderful oportunity to do so.
Christmas was just the right date.

So hunting through the $1 section at Target and hitting the Disney.com shopping site we gathered some things and set about trying to make them wonder.

Both girls got a camera for Christmas with a hint on the memory card,...that neither saw in their excitement of getting a camera. They also missed the Disney Dollars in their stockings. So it was up to me as Christmas dinner was at my place this year.
Both girls got a t-shirt with their favorite charcter on them, a watch and a map of the resort we'd be staying at.
Both girls were just dumbstruck and couldn't get over all the hints and how it took them to the very end to figure it out.

After dinner we all sat down and busted out the planing dvd's and the books and listed what our favorite things in Disney were and what we HAD to see. We figured on driving as we're only 6 hours or so away and well,...I was taking the dog. I was planning on boarding him at the Disney Kennels anyway so I only had to board him for 7 days and not 9. The cat does not get boarded, my poor girl has been through enough and I have a vet tech friend keep her for me when I have to go away.

She's a sweetie who was hit by a car at 14 weeks or so. She came into the vet clinic I worked at and she didn't have the best chance but she pulled through. She's not quite right, but she's ours and we love her.

Alright back on topic,...
There were some heated debates on who was better Buzz, Eeyore or Stitch and some amusing ones with Peanut, explaining to her, that while at 15 it might seem to be all about her but my birthday was going to be all about me.

Fianlly we hased out a rough plan and then everyone agreed to let the palnning junkie (Ie: Me) take over.

Just a side note at this point in the plan Ramona's BF, the Stormtrooper was going to be going with our merry group of pranksters. However he had to cancel due to wanting to have a job when he returned.

The Plan

Thursday 2/12 Leave at an ungodly hour and drive to Orlando, hopefully missing rush hour Atlanta, taking my PT and Ramona's truck. Arrive at the All-Star Music prior to 3pm, check in, unpack, swim, then head to Downtown Disney and have dinner.

Friday 2/13 (anyone guess howcome Jinxy is my nickname yet?) My Birthday!
Magic Kingdom, ride Haunted Mansion first thing, noon-thirty lunch PS at Crystal Garden to see Eeyore and then Mac wanted to have the rest of the day to plan something for me.

Saturday 2/14 Valentine's Day This was going to be Ramona's and the Stormtroopers day, as it was their 1st one together.
So Epcot and the Beirgarten for lunch (due to the Troopers love of Germany)
Drag Mac onto Mission Space even if I have to ride the orange side.

Sunday 2/15 Hollywood Studios Sci-Fi drive in for lunch. See Indy at all costs to quench Ramona and my craving for all things Indy.

Monday 2/16 Animal Kingdom Ride Everest

Tuesday 2/17 Epcot try anything we didn't get to do the 1st time we were there

Wednesday 2/18 Hollywood Studios try anything we didn't get to do the 1st time we were there


Thursday 2/19 Check out, head to Magic Kingdom and leave no later then 2pm for home. (remember this as it comes into play later.)

Everyone agrees to the basic plan, Ramona askes me if I'm ready to be married in less then a week and I look at her blankly,...less then a week? OMG!

 

[Jinxy]

I am glad to hear that we are not the only family to go on a honeymoon with extra people...

I am getting married on July 4th... We are leaving on July 8th for our honeymoon and we are going with 11 extra people... So we are a party of 13.... Everyone looks at me weird, but we have a lot to celebrate in a short span...

1 honeymoon
1 anniversary
3 birthdays
and 1 First time Disney Tripper

So I am excited to share this with everyone....

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one as well! It was rather fun to celebrate with people I care about. Who made sure to make themselves scarce at the right times.
Congrats on your upcoming marriage!

 

[Jinxy]

Sorry double posted

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hey! An update! Just kiddin'. Glad that you got enough work done that you could come back over to the boards and post. I've started a trip report too. If you have the time, come over for a read. The link is in my signature.

 

[Jinxy]

Sorry to have been absent from my own tr for so long. I work from home and had to focus on my work table before the darn thing colasped under the weight of the projects on it.

The drive down was really nice, living 7-ish hours away is outstanding. We packed up the car and the truck and took off about 6am from the north side of Atlanta and we were on property right around 1:30 or so. The long lunch we took barely made an impact on our travel time.

Our first stop was the kennel so the we could get Maxie settled in. I have to say that I'm wicked picky about vets and kennels. I work in a vet clinic and I have heard and seen things that make me very uncomfortable at times. They were great, I actually can't say enough good things about the staff at the kennel. We got Maxie set in his room, got his likes and food settled, phone numbers in their system and every member in our party signed up to be able to walk him.
I had tried to find as much info about the kennel that I could find on the internet and it had been sadly lacking. So I have to give this place my full hearted recomendation. Maxie would go for a walk with someone and then trot back to his hotel and frankly my dog is a jerk when he doesn't like something so this is saying a lot.

So after Ramona and Mac dragged me away from the kennel we headed over to the All-Star Music.

Mac dropped me at the door so I could go stand in line and check in, only to find no line and the wonderful cast member who got us checked in quickly and overloaded me with pins and balloons and roses. I cannot for the life of me remember her name but she was great. We got the building we wanted, a king sized bed and after Peanut came over to me to tell me her Mom was having check in problems, our cast member went over and fixed it for us.

We didn't need bell services since we had child labor so we headed over to find the rooms. Jazz building room 2518 with Ramona and the girls 4 doors down. Got everything up to the rooms, unpacked and went to hit the pool.
Max was looking a bit worried and said he had to go make a work phone call but I really didn't pay a lot of attention it happens often.

After texting almost everyone I knew that I was poolside for my birthday, I settled in to just relax and enjoy our trip. Drink in my hand, steps away from a smoking area, with my husband and my best friend life was sweet.

Everyone's stomach started growling about the same time, so we headed over to the food court to get some dinner and our refillable mugs. Not one of us can remember what we ordered, it had been a long day and we weren't very picky. I do remember that it was decent and the flask of rum we brought went very well in our refillable mugs of Coke.

The kids were getting antsy and kept looking at Mac and talking about heading back to the room. Ramona and I were sorta stunned at this, but let them talk us into heading up to the room instead of seeing the movie by the pool.

Once we got to the room, I knew something was up, Peanut and Tree were almost skipping and then started to bounce outside of our room. Teenagers have no sense of subtle I think.

As we opened the door to the room,...well this was inside.

Mac had gotten me a candy bar cake from the Disney Florist as an early birthday present. 14 Mickey Mouse candy bars and it was stuffed full of candy.
It was supposed to have been in the room when we checked in and Mac had spent some time trying to get away and track it down. At one point the manager on duty at the hotel took Mac into the gift shop to pick out soemthing else cause no one could find it. So I ended up with 2 new Eeyores, a great t-shirt, Pez dispenser and a bunch of little things. On top of the candy bar cake, ballons and an Eeyore on top.
Someone had finally found it and made sure it got to us. Mac is still really confused as to the balloons on it, they had asked him about what colors and styles he wanted for them and he is pretty sure that he asked for reds and blues and and Eeyore or Mickey mylar. But I can honestly say I was so surprissed that I didn't even notice.

I was feeling a little spoiled and shared my candy,...well to a point,...I don't share chocolate.

Everyone had started to yawn and we all decided an early night was a good idea and headed to bed.

Next installment will be the good stuff, Magic Kingdom, Eeyore and the Haunted Mansion, the lost PS, the neverending boat ride and the "cool Mom"

 

[OhMari]

Bump to the front.

 

[Jinxy]

Thanks OhMari!
I am slack in general, but never this bad, we've had a very bumpy ride medically this last 6 months and I fell so far behind.

However I'm back now, with someone riding me (which I need) to get this done.

 

[Jinxy]

2/13/09 Friday the 13th

When I left off all those months ago I was just getting to the good part, the first day.

We had all hit the sack pretty early, so when the phone rang Mac and I both jumped for it, thank goodness for the speaker phone button or we would have come to blows.

Stitch and Mickey got us pumped up and getting ready. When I got out of the bathroom there was a pile of cards on the bed, I got birthday cards, yes, that was cards plural, from Mac, Maxie, and Tiby. I get cards from the animals, Mac swears they just show up with his handwriting on them, I have my doubts. Next to the pile of cards was my refillable mug filled with hot chocolate.
Just as I was finishing up reading my cards and getting dressed at the same time, Ramona and the girls showed up so we could head out to the park.
The only present I wanted was to have everyone wear their Disney shirts that they had gotten for Christmas, and everyone came through.

The the photopass guy said he had something special and had me,...well just take a look.

I need to interject here because my DH is just amazed by the photopass setup and I swear someday in the future once he ertires is thinking about trying to work for Disney and be a photopass photographer.

So after we got pictures of the castle and something to nibble on we headed off to the Haunted mansion, my favorite ride pretty much ever.
Apparently the 15 year old is so jumpy that her sister spent the entire time making her scream, glad they were in another doombuggy.

We headed for Pirates next then set about trying to do a trifecta of mountians, starting with Splash. I was so busy trying to explain to Mac what a Hidden Micky was that I missed the only one I knew about. Mac then for the rest of the trip found them everywhere. Go figure.

It was time for our ADR's at Crystal Palace by the time we'd finished with Splash and we headed that way. Mac and the girls ahead to check in while Ramona and I stopped for a smoke.

I have to say that on this trip I did not notice anyone smoking outside of a designated spot, which was much nicer then last time I'd visited and I saw people smoking everywhere.

We were finishing up when my phone buzzed in my pocket, there was a glitch apparently in the ADR system and our reservation was coming up for the 12th, but when Mac called Disney Dine they had it for the 13th.
I told him I'd be right there and told Ramona "This is why my nickname is Jinxy"



I'm in the middle of cleaning my workroom and posting is my reward for an area, so I'll be back once I can see the top of my cutting table.

Jinxy

 

[Jinxy]

It has been a long, strange month. It's all worked out thankfully and I'm back and posting.

When I left off there was a slight problem with our lunch ressies and while it all worked out it was annoying.
They sat us about a hour later then we'd wanted and took about seven people to do so.
I will say that this was the only glitch in our trip, and it all did work out, so it wasn't a bad deal what-so-ever.

My favorite pic, I think I regressed back to grade school this afternoon.


The food was decent for a buffet. I actually enjoyed the salmon enough to get a little more, which is rare. It was my 3rd time there and I love the brightness and openess of it.

After our meal we set out for Tommorrowland, mostly in hopes of riding Buzz and having our two major Stitch fans ride Great Escape.

We actually did a little bit better then that not only did we get Tree's best moment of the trip.

I swear this kid did not stop smiling and bouncing for hours.

We also managed to see where Tree gets her bouncing and grinning from when her Mom saw Stitch.

I liked Buzz's Space Ranger Spin, had to try pretty hard not to get the hubby ill by moving it too quickly, but I was really interested in seeing how ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter had been turned into Stitch's Great Escape. I really enjoyed ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, the couple of times I'd been to the World before this trip, however I understood why people thought it was frightening.
It was a change but not for the worse, it was just differant and a lot less frightening.

At this point I totally messed up my husbands surprise, I feel very badly about it and I honestly had no idea that I was messing it up.
He asked me if I was getting hungry and I honestly still didn't feel like I could eat another buite without having to waddle back to our room or ending up like that guy at the end of Monty Python's Meaning of LIfe. "Just one waffer thin,...." So I told him no, I couldn't imagine eating anything else til way later. So he snuck off and cancelled his surprise ADR to see Wishes from The California Grill. In all honestly I wasn't dressed for it, I would have gone anyway, but our riding the ferry back and forth to see Wishes was lovely and was had the best time.

At this point I have a small shout out to the band kids from a school in Washington State. They never told us the name of thier school but they were just about the nicest kids that I've encountered, polite, smart and funny. One of the young ladies was talking about how her mother had been knocked down by someone and broken her ankle the day prior in the parks. If this sounds familar, please either pass it on or know that these kids were just great.

After Wishes was over and we headed to walk Maxie for the evening, then back to the hotel for some drinks and snacks by the pool for awhile.

Next up "Our slow day at Epcot"

Jinxy

 

[OhMari]

Bump to the front.

 

[Jinxy]

There actually will be an update coming soon, to be very blunt about things there have been a few very serious illness in my household over the last 6 months and things while not being dire aren't the best.
It's hard to keep up with everything as much as I want to.

Jinxy

 

[Jinxy]

2/14/09 Valentine's Day @Epcot

​

Or how I almost ruined our 1st married VDay

The next morning came a little too quickly, I think everyone was just as tired as I was. Apparently the 5 of us had been running on a huge rush at the MK the day before and hadn't taken any time to get any rest. This made tempers a little short as you'll see.

The morning started sluggish with getting up and getting ready. Ramona and the girls headed to Epcot and DH and I headed over to walk the puppy then take the monorail over to Epcot. This was the highlight of our day, we got to ride up front and the driver was a lovely man who spoke so sweetly of his wife that it made me smile for that lucky woman.

I had never taken the monorail into Epcot and thought that it was a lovely way to start the day and have done it since. We rode Spaceship Earth and then headed over to The Seas w/ Nemo and friends. The ride itself was a nice change from what I remembered previously and the entire place was very entertaining. After we'd had our fill of fish we headed over to ride Mission Space. Now Ramona's girls had ridden it twice, while we were taking care of Maxie the wonder puppy. There was no way Ramona was going on it, so it was up to me and Mac to represent for the "old folks"

I loved it, went back on it with both Peanut and Tree and then waiting at the local smoking area while they did it again.

I needed food right about this time, and started getting the lovely indications of having a low blood sugar attack. So I let everyone know I needed food and I was heading to get some. The hemming and hawing began,..so I just kept walking. I headed into Electric Umbrella and was just massively overwhelmed by the amount of people. My husband asked me what I wanted and I couldn't even answer other then food. All I know is that there were too many people and so basically I had second thoughts and turned around and walked out. Leaving everyone wondering when the pod people had taken me over.

I somehow ended up with a pretzel and a water and started to feel better, well until I realized that I had just yelled at my DH on VDay/our honeymoon, and embarrassed the living heck out of myself. So I said I was sorry til I was blue in the face and almost at the point of tears, and Mac and I talked a bit and figured that to save our day a nap was in order.
So back to the hotel we went and slept,....for 5 hours solid. through a wake up call, and the alarm on my phone. So apparently we really needed the sleep. After our nap and a quick dip in the pool, we went to the food court for some dinner and then hung out with drinks for the evening. Overall it wasn't the day I'd planned for but with the exception of my looking like a total witch for about 10 minutes it was a good day.

Next up,....It's Hollywood time

Jinxy

 

[Jinxy]

How Hollywood Studios saved my Marriage

The morning after my "snapped" day I woke up really quite embarrassed and feeling like I had to "make it up" to everyone for being so witchy. The plan for the day was to got to Hollywood Studios and ride things that make you scream.
Ramona and the girls headed over on the bus and Mac and I drove over to walk the dog. Spent about a half hour just messing around in the grass with the dog and felt much better about everything.

As we drove toward HS I actually got really excited upon seeing,..well I'll show you,...

This is my favorite ride in HS and I love it. Ramona is more of a Rockin' Rollercoast kinda gal and she and the girls had been riding it til we got there and we all went on ToT together for the first time.
Mac isn't a thrill ride kinda guy but he liked ToT enough to basically go on it with me whenever I wanted, but I couldn't get him on RR to save my life. He was willing to sit and watch bags and surf the net on his phone. So as long as he was happy we spent about a good hour going back and forth, using the standby lines and never really waiting more then about 10 minutes.

At one point in time, Tree pulled a Dug and spoted a squirrel and well sometimes the child just isn't right

After we'd gotten our "thrill" out of our system Ramona set the girls free to play on their own for about 2 hours and the 3 "grown-ups" went to see my other favorite in HS,....MUPPETS!!!!

Oops,..when I started this I thought I had enough time, but the timer is going off and dinner needs to be pulled out of the oven, I'll try and get back on after dinner to finish. I've got 28 days until our next trip and and TR to finish and then another one to start and finish.

Jinxy