1 Aunt, 1 Mom, 2 kids - will we be sane?

[swwake]

That's great that you found a bargain backpack! I have never been much of a fan of fanny packs anyway. I think I will probably carry my little backpack. I have a small one that I took on a cruise with me last year. It is not nearly as big as a normal backpack - about 1/4 the size. I just love it. I think the main thing I will try to remember this time will be to include ziplock bags inside the backpack in case I need to carry something that got wet, or if I want to keep my camera inside a ziplock to keep it from getting wet if the backpack gets wet.

I can carry all that I need in this little gem - sunscreen, brush, lip gloss, sunglasses, money/credit card, room key, ID, etc. Sounds like yours is similar in size.

I'm sure you'll get your money back on the other one via ebay.

 

[Donald is #1]

One of the last major things that we need to do is to book our airfare. However, we have been waiting for Jet Blue to open up our travel dates since that is our preferred airline. Well I checked the Jet Blue website tonight and they are closer but still not to November yet. In the past week, they have opened up the dates for September and October but they stop about 2 weeks early for us. I guess that we will have to wait another month or two.

Oh well, at least the trip is getting closer.


Actually, I am focusing on my closest trip currently. I will be going down to WDW in May with a friend of mine from high school and college. We will be staying in a AKV conceirge studio and we have booked the sunrise safari so I am very excited! It can't come quick enough!

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi everyone!

I was talking to DSis tonight and she told me that she had told the kids about my upgrading of our room from a 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom. She explained the layout to the kids and told them that I would be in one bedroom and that she would be in the other. Well, the kids were really curious as to where they were going to sleep. They decided that they both wanted to sleep in the living room. Belle decided right away that she wanted the pull-out chair and Pluto was happy to take the pull-out sofa. Apparently, they are really excited to be sleeping in the living room! I figured the DSis & I would be excited about the bigger room but that the kids wouldn't really care. Well, I was definitely wrong!

Also, DSis told them that there would be 3 TV's and can you guess the kids response? Since they will be in the living room, they wanted to know if they could stay up all night and watch TV!

 

[If U Had Wings]

Just wanted to let you know that I was enjoying your pre-trip report. I'm planning my own trip with my nieces this year, and can't wait. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Donald is #1]

Just wanted to let you know that I was enjoying your pre-trip report. I'm planning my own trip with my nieces this year, and can't wait. Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you! I am really looking forward to taking Pluto and Belle. They were just so excited when we told them that they were going to go with me this year!

Have you taken your nieces on vacation before?

 

[If U Had Wings]

The entire family went to Disney back in 2006 - drive down and all. It was absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to go again with them.

They are all hyped up about it already. It's going to be a long 5 months till August.

 

[Donald is #1]

The entire family went to Disney back in 2006 - drive down and all. It was absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to go again with them.

They are all hyped up about it already. It's going to be a long 5 months till August.

Awesome! Hopefully August will come quickly for you. Are you taking the kids for an entire week? Also, have you traveled to WDW in August before? I have never been there during the summer and I am curious to hear how it is then.

 

[If U Had Wings]

I went in July when I was just a kid, and all I remember was that it was hot! At least back then there was only the Magic Kingdom so we'd leave in the afternoon to go swimming and then go back at night.

My trips since then have been usually in May, or in September/October which to me felt just as hot. I think it's just my luck. I went to visit my grandmother who lives an hour south of Orlando for a week in January once and the temps were in the upper 90's the entire time I was there.

We are going for the entire week. We haven't even had a spring day yet, and I can't wait for August!

 

[Donald is #1]

I went in July when I was just a kid, and all I remember was that it was hot! At least back then there was only the Magic Kingdom so we'd leave in the afternoon to go swimming and then go back at night.

My trips since then have been usually in May, or in September/October which to me felt just as hot. I think it's just my luck. I went to visit my grandmother who lives an hour south of Orlando for a week in January once and the temps were in the upper 90's the entire time I was there.

We are going for the entire week. We haven't even had a spring day yet, and I can't wait for August!

Let me know how it goes in August. I have never been to WDW during the summer, but if I did go during the summer then I could take Belle and Pluto for a longer period of time without them missing school.

 

[Donald is #1]

Hi! Well I haven't done too much in the planning arena except to add a request for the Arusha savanna to our reservation. In reality, I don't think that I care too much between the savannas except that I would prefer not to get Sunrise savannah due to the contruction of Kidani.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I started collecting pins during my 1999 trip. At that time, all I did was collect them. Well after multiple trips of buying pins to collect, I decided to try pin trading during my Oct. 06 trip. Well, I did some trading but was kind of ambivilent about it. So, I debated prior to my next trip (May '07) about whether I would trade or not and I decided to give it another try. Well, this time I was hooked! So, now I love pin trading and I started thinking about this trip. I am thinking about 3 different options:

1) Trade pins during the trip like I usually do
2) When we get to the resort, buy a pin trading kit for each of the kids plus supplement it with some of the pins from my supply of trading pins
3) Leave my pin trading things at home

I don't think that I can do #1 without the kids also trading. i.e. they will see me doing it and want to also. So that leaves me with options 2 & 3. My concern with 2 is twofold: we only have 3 park days so I don't want the kids to spend too much time trading and I also don't want the kids to get too addicted to trading.

Any thoughts or suggestions? I haven't discussed this with DSis yet and of course this is a decision that we can make the night I pack. But with a good portion of the planning done and still 7+ months to the trip, I need to think about something!

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, I noticed on a thread last night that someone had found a file for their Garmin on Mousesavers that contains lots of disney related entries. So tonight, I got out my Garmin and found the file on the mousesavers website. I had it downloaded in a few minutes and now I have folders on my Garmin with lots of WDW related locations!

So cool! Now I won't need to search through all of the orlando area hotels, restaurants, etc and won't have to enter addresses when I give up searching in the lists!

If you have a GPS unit, they have files for most if not all Garmins and also for TomTom.

 

[swwake]

OK that is the coolest! Can you put in a WDW point of interest and see how long it will take you to get there from where you are now? Oh, I guess that could be depressing, couldn't it? But it would be faster than 55 days, I'd imagine!

Very exciting!

 

[Donald is #1]

Can you put in a WDW point of interest and see how long it will take you to get there from where you are now?

Yep, I am inside right now and the GPS can't get a satellite, but I may have to play a bit this weekend and select something at WDW when I am in the car so that I can see how long it says to get there.

 

[OhMari]

Excellent points! How were the buses at BWI to AK & MK? I have stayed at the Yacht Club once and if I remember correctly it shared buses with the other Epcot resorts.

Sorry I didn't answer you sooner.

We did a split stay. When we stayed at BWI, we just went to Epcot and MGM. I did take the mono-rail from Epcot to the MK. That took about 20 minutes.

I think I heard people say, you share a bus with Yacht club, beach club and BWI.

Hey, I'll be there at the AK Monday nite, the 10th. We are doing a tri-split stay. BC-Nov. 8&9
AK-Nov. 10 & 11
POR 12-15

 

[Donald is #1]

OK that is the coolest! Can you put in a WDW point of interest and see how long it will take you to get there from where you are now? Oh, I guess that could be depressing, couldn't it? But it would be faster than 55 days, I'd imagine!

Very exciting!

Yep, I am inside right now and the GPS can't get a satellite, but I may have to play a bit this weekend and select something at WDW when I am in the car so that I can see how long it says to get there.

OK, nerd that I am, I now know that it is 1149 miles from my house to AKL! As for arrival time, it said about 10:30 AM (it was about 2 PM when I did it). Of course 10:30 AM which day? Actually, that would be without any stops whatsoever, so we know that will never happen.

 

[swwake]

OK, nerd that I am, I now know that it is 1149 miles from my house to AKL! As for arrival time, it said about 10:30 AM (it was about 2 PM when I did it). Of course 10:30 AM which day? Actually, that would be without any stops whatsoever, so we know that will never happen.

I think it is 10:30am tomorrow. So I say leave in 30 minutes and you'll be at AKL by noon tomorrow!! That's way faster than 54 days!

Of course, we all know that is highly unlikely, but it's fun to dream, isn't it?

 

[Donald is #1]

Sorry I didn't answer you sooner.

We did a split stay. When we stayed at BWI, we just went to Epcot and MGM. I did take the mono-rail from Epcot to the MK. That took about 20 minutes.

I think I heard people say, you share a bus with Yacht club, beach club and BWI.

Hey, I'll be there at the AK Monday nite, the 10th. We are doing a tri-split stay. BC-Nov. 8&9
AK-Nov. 10 & 11
POR 12-15

Wow, 3 resorts in 6 nights! Well if you happen to see 2 forty-something women dead tired with 2 kids, please stop us and say hello!

 

[Donald is #1]

I think it is 10:30am tomorrow. So I say leave in 30 minutes and you'll be at AKL by noon tomorrow!! That's way faster than 54 days!

Of course, we all know that is highly unlikely, but it's fun to dream, isn't it?

Hmmm, very tempting, but DSis would kill me if I wasn't with her when we have dinner with our mother on Sunday.

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, with almost 8 months to go and the major planning done at least until Jet Blue opens up their November booking or the 180 day mark for our ADRs, I am of course coming up with other things for the trip.

So my latest brainstorm or is money drain (?) that I have come up with is: "wouldn't it be great to book an Illuminations cruise for Saturday night? So of course, the first thing that I did was try to figure out when the they can be booked. Well, you can't book them until 90 days. So, I guess I have to wait a bit. Of course, I am also not sure if the costs on AllEarsNet is up to date. I guess I have some research that I can do. Yeah!

I did one last year with a person from these boards and had a great time! Even if I don't book one, I may try to see if someone has space for 4 more people. Well, we'll see.