10 years, My favorite holiday and the mouse.. What more can you ask for (A PTR)

[MomToAp1699]

So, as the titles says we are heading to visit Mickey. We leave October 30th, 2010 and will be coming home November 8th. Our dates are pretty set in our minds but who knows what could come up and change things. We are eagerly waiting for some deals to be released that might make our trip a bit more affordable and allow for even more fun.
So now the important details..
I am Valerie. I am a 31 year old Stay at Home Mom with Fibromyalgia.
Along for the trip is my husband Jason. He is 29 years old.
The final member of our traveling party is our son Alex who is 11 years old and has Asperger's Syndrome which is an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
This trip is something we have been planning since we got home from our first family visit in April of 2007. It differs in one very big way from our first trip. That difference is that Alex knows this time. THe last trip we took was a surprise trip planned 2 months before we left and that we only told Alex about ( with a very big planned reveal) a few days before we left.
So far we are working on where we want to eat and what we want to do. We have some interest in taking two of the offered tours but will leave that decision up to time and money. We will most certainly be hitting MNSSHP which of course is the main reason we planned the trip for when we did.
So on to my title of course.. This trip will celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary which is November 18th, 2010.. If hasn't been an easy 10 years. Things have been hard over time and there have been good and bad days. Its difficult being the parent of a child with something like Autism and add in that I have more bad days as of late with my Fibro than good days. Things can be tough.. But we have made it through 9+ years of marriage and will be looking forward to spending our 13 year anniversary as a couple and 10 year anniversary as husband and wife at Disney World. Only made even better by the fact that Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and I can't think of a better place to spend it than in the place where every can be a child at heart.

 

[MomToAp1699]

Woohoo.. Tomorrows the big day.. I put a hold on our reservations last week with our travel agent and sent her the pin we have.. Tomorrow is pay the deposit day! So excited.

Then I have to suffer and struggle and about die waiting for months for the park hours and 180 day mark and MNSSHP tickets to go on sale.. I hate waiting..

 

[KathyRN137]

Waiting is soooo hard!

How lovely to have both your wedding anniversary AND Halloween to celebrate!!

Do you know where you will be staying?


Kathy

 

[MomToAp1699]

Waiting is soooo hard!

How lovely to have both your wedding anniversary AND Halloween to celebrate!!

Do you know where you will be staying?


Kathy

It is hard.. Its been 3 years since we where there last and the wait is torture. We will be staying at Pop Century. We weighed the options of longer stay or nicer accomodations and decided we would rather stay longer.

 

[MomToAp1699]

So yesterday we made another payment towards our Disney Debt! Yay! We now owe about half of the total balance. We will be flying Airtran and dates for our trip where released for sale on March 1st but we can only pay a certain amount a month towards Disney so our purchase of Airfare will have to wait til April 1st. Which isn't too big of a deal for us. The flights we are choosing are daily non stop flights from Pittsburgh to MCO and back again.. One early in the morning down and one late in the evening back. These same flight numbers run daily with only about 15 minutes varying on the times of the fight.. So as long as the prices stay the same and it really looks like they should based on the current Airtran offerings and what their prices have been for the last two months. Than we should be able to buy them for about 100$ less than our budgeted amount which is a perfect amount of savings to cover either the luggage fee's or the parking fee's leaving us with only needing to pay for one or the other from the vacation spending cash.
So, lets get on to some plans.. Here is what we are looking at for the time of our stay. Hours aren't posted yet and the gauranteed dates for MNSSHP have not been released yet. So to give you something to read I will tell you what we would like to do IF the dates follow what I WANT them too.. lol

Day 1:10/30/10
Arrive @ MCO at 1:33pm
Check In and then Head to Magic Kingdom
Late dinner at Kona Cafe

Day 2: 10/31/10
Animal Kingdom Day QS Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ
Late Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe

Day 3:11/1/10
Early Breakfast @ Crystal Palace
Spend the day at Magic Kingdom Quick Service Dinner Around 5
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Day 4:11/2/10
Animal Kingdom QS Lunch
Chef Mickeys Dinnner

Day 5:11/3/10
Hollywood Studios
QS Lunch @ Pizza Planet
Dinner ( Fantasmic Package?) @ Mama Melrose
Fantasmic

Day 6:11/4/10
Epcot
QS Lunch ( We each want something diffrent for this lunch)
Coral Reef Dinner
We also would like to try to do the Behind the Seeds tour this day if
we can swing the cost.

Day 7:11/5/10
Ak/Epcot
QS Lunch ( Might Eat at DTD before Heading to Epcot after a morning
at Animal Kingdom)
Chef De France Dinner

Day 8:11/6/10
Magic Kingdom 7am- We want to do the Steam Train Tour if they are
taking reservations for it again.
QS Lunch
Ohana Dinner

Day 9:11/7/10
Epcot
QS Lunch
Le Cellier Dinner ( one of the reasons for doing this so late in our trip is the 180+10 policy.. When we make our dining reservations on our 180 mark the only people who will be able to reserve for this date yet are ones checking in the day before us and staying 10 days or ones checking in the day we are and staying 9-10 days which leaves us with a lot less competion for ADR's than if we had it earlier in our stay )

Day 10:11/8/10
QS Lunch
Finish Snack Credits
Most Likely Cash Dinner unless we have a LOT of snack credits left.. '
the flight I am looking at doesn't depart til 8pm in the evening.

Our son won't be returning to school til the 10th since we won't get back to our house til nearly 3am on the 9th.. and then he will be off school the 11th and 12th for the holiday and inservice.. lol.. So he is really scoring a long vacation.. it actually works really well with the school schedule overall.. Friday October 29th is the last day of the marking period so he will finish the entire marking period and then only miss the first 6 days of the next marking period.. So he won't miss the chance to make anything up before grades are submitted and will have plenty of time to submit any missed work well before the end of of the next marking period.

 

[momto2inKC]

Hey I finally found your pre-trippie! Your plans sound awesome! I can't wait to hear what you think of the train tour if you end up doing it. I really think T would enjoy it. The behind the seeds tour looks good too! Great dining choices, lots of the same ones we're planning. Can't wait to hear more of your plans, you just might inspire me to write one.

 

[MomToAp1699]

Hey I finally found your pre-trippie! Your plans sound awesome! I can't wait to hear what you think of the train tour if you end up doing it. I really think T would enjoy it. The behind the seeds tour looks good too! Great dining choices, lots of the same ones we're planning. Can't wait to hear more of your plans, you just might inspire me to write one.

Yay Jamie! So glad to see you. I am really hoping all the plans work out the way we want. Can't wait to hear the hours for October and November as well as the MNSSHP dates so we can really get ourself set in stone.

Right now what I have heard is they aren't taking ressies for Behind the Steam Trains Tour before or after a certain time. So I am really hoping that things change. We also really have our fingers crossed for the Wishes Dessert party to come back once they finish the remodeling in the area where its held.

 

[MomToAp1699]

I am so excited to see that the Wishes Dessert party is making its return. This is something we really want to do and where sad to see it had no immediate return listed. Fingers crossed that it will stay through our dates at the end of the year.

 

[KathyRN137]

Okay... where is the rest of this PTR??

Only ONE page?!!

Come on, let's get on the ball here!!


Kathy

 

[MomToAp1699]

I know.. I am terrible aren't I.. In my defense I have had family in for 3 of the weekends this month and one of the weeks.. So life has been suffering from a decided lack of calmness.
I am working hard on arranging the schedule for the 10 days now that the November hours are out for 3 of the parks.. its not helpful without the last park but its a pretty easy guess since Animal Kingdom Hours are pretty straight forward.
I will bring my planning notebook over to the desk soon and update what our daily plans are so far
Good News in life..
Airline Tickets are bought
Dining Reservations will be made May 3rd

 

[MomToAp1699]

Made a Disney Purchase yesterday! Got Jason and Alex matching Perry the Platypus shirts ( from Phineas and Ferb) Things are moving right along. Got the hours for the time we will be there.. Decided on our ADR's and other schedule plans. Waiting for the sale of MNSSHP tickets to begin in the next week or so. ADR's on the 3rd and hoping for a better discount than the 20% we have now!

 

[MomToAp1699]

So some changes and some firming up of plans!



10/30 Arrive in Orlando @ 3:00
Check in @ Pop ( probably about 4:00)
Dinner @ Kona @ 6:55
Wishes Dessert Party @ 9 ( Need to check on the time of wishes and book this if I can.. if not may move it to another night.)

10/31
Breakfast at Resort
Hollywood Studios for the day
Dinner @ Pizza Planet
Fantasmic

11/1
Crystal Palace Breakfast ( 8:05)
Magic Kingdom til about 2
Back to Hotel to Change and get Halloween stuff
Magic Kingdom again
dinner @ Cosmic Rays
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.. YAY~

11/2
Animal Kingdom Day
QS Lunch
Dinner @ Yachstman Steakhouse 8:30 ( this is a Signature.. so two credits but it was easier than our other options and made us all happier.. lol)

11/3
Animal Kingdom Day
QS Lunch
Dinner @ Whispering Canyon Cafe 6:45

11/4
Epcot Day
Behind the Seeds Tour ( we may skip this.. I think we are going to wait til the day of and see if they have any openings for walk up .. I have heard its very possible.. (
Quick Service Lunch ( either @ lotus blossom (jason) and sommerfest( alex and I) or at food and wine booths)
Dinner @ Coral Reef 8:00

11/5
Hollywood Studios til about 3
Quick Service Lunch @ Studios( pizza planet.. yum)
Head to Epcot
Dinner @ Teppan Edo 8:00

11/6
Magic Kingdom
QS lunch
Ohana Dinner 6:15
Back to Magic Kingdom ( closes at 1am) If there is a late wishes this night we may try to do the dessert party this night instead.. seems like a better choice to me

11/7
Epcot
QS Lunch
Dinner @ Le Cellier 8:00

11/8
Breakfast @ Ohana 8:15 .. this is gonna be cash.. but it was one of our favorite meals last time and we really want to do it before we got home.. seems like a nice way to leave the magic!
QS Lunch @ Pop hopefully we will have used a good amount of the credits before this.. last time we had 5 quick service credits left last day.. used 3 but couldn't waste the food it would have been to get the last two..

Finish buying leftover snackS( we forgot about them last time.. I don't expect much diffrent this time.. lol)
Leave on Magic Express ( probably about 4 or 5pm)
flight leaves @ 8:59

 

[MomToAp1699]

I figured my next email from the Disney Travel Agent would be November Hours.. or the sale dates for MNSSHP or something equally lovely.. Nope.. got an email this morning that I do NOT like.. Its a fwd of a fax from Disney notifying her that Airtran has changed the time of our flights..Ewww
Ok, so I knew it was a possibility. In fact the Travel Agent made sure I knew it was a possibilty..We didn't have much choice though.. There are only a limited number of nonstops on the days we want and we didn't want/couldn't change our dates. The prices where going up not down and at the point we where buying it was already 100$ more than it had been even days before and has not gone down once since.. So, these flights are it no matter what the times may change too.. but please.. fingers crossed they change back.. Cause we where leaving at 11:40 and arriving at 1:40 and now its an hour later.. Return flights changed as well.. both the flight number and the time.. but thankfully only by about 8 minutes.. lol.. Either way we will deal.. Plans will need to be changed and rearranged again.. As an hour later arrival puts us an hour later for Kona on arrival day which puts us with only about 3o minutes between dinner end and beginning of Wishes Dessert Party ( I know.. not even sure if it will be there then but have to plan for the what ifs..) So.. I think i will make the kona ressie.. for a time in the middle of what was and what is now..

 

[MomToAp1699]

I am seriously just terrible beyond words at updating this thing.. In my defense .. its been a long year.. and it hasn't even been a whole 12 months since the long year started.
So where to start.. I think the last update was an ADR update.. Which of course have changed again.. So I am only going to do a quick rundown of the ADR's so you can see where we are going..
10.30 Kona
11.1 Breakfast @ Crystal Palace\
11.2 Yachtsman
11.3 Whispering Canyon Cafe
11.4 Coral Reef
11.5 Teppan Edo
11.6 Ohana
11.7 Le Cellier
11.8 Ohana Breakfast

It seems like lately this trip is the only bright spot on the horizon. Each time the family starts to feel like they are recovering from the last bit of crap something new happens.. Started back in September of Last year when my grandmother passed away.. She had been sick for a long time, but really I don't think that makes it any better. It hurts just as much and breaks your heart just as much.. She was the grandmother who had the time for me.. Who took me places and smiled when she saw me and was happy to have me in her life.. The loss is intense and still hurts.. Things start to level out and then in April my aunt is diagnosed with Colon Cancer.. which has since spread to other parts of her body.. She is fighting like hell and is doing a really good job at the fight.. but its scary to see her look like she does.. It frightened me when I saw her on the 4th of July.. Probably selfish of me to feel that way but it really did.. After that came a visit from my husbands Uncle and Wife and Daughter.. They make regular visits up each year as they used to live here and everyone looks forward to them because even though his Uncle is overwhelming we miss them when they are so far away and his daughter Nicole was a huge part of our lives for several years. We had a large part in raising her and when she moved it took a bit of us all with her.. It turned out that the visit was a blessing in disguise because Jason's uncle died VERY unexpectedly on Mothers Day and we all are glad to have the memory of a nice visit. Its been hard. His uncle was a huge part of his life growing up and while they had issues ( what family doesn't) his uncle loved him and he loved his uncle in their own way.. and Alex was very very attached to his Uncle Scot.. so thats made for a very rough few months.. Then once again we are into summer and trying to make the best of a nice summer break.. enjoy ourselves without spending money we need for Disney and the cat gets sick.. he has never been the healthiest of animals but I just knew that day that it was time to say goodbye.. didn't make it any less traumatic when he passed away while Jason was at work and I was here to deal with my poor lost friend.. two severely freaked out kitties and a child who was so distraught.. my poor son has had more loss in his short 11 years than some kids ever know.. Not fair..

Ok, so now that I have throughly depressed you.. I am so sorry.. I needed to explain both to myself and you why things are soo gloomy..


Soooo.. on to brighter things.. today is the 104 day mark til our vacation.. yes.. I know its typical to celebrate 100 days.. but we are big Phineas and Ferb fans here so we decided to make a 104 days to disney vacation countdown.. which we are happy to start marking days off on today.. Its a blessing to know we are so close.. ressies are made.. trip is paid for.. mnsshp tickets bought and recieved.. wishes extended ( gotta make ressies if I can fit them in.. lol) all we have to do is get some more shorts for the kid and worry about the little things.. Oh.. and maybe save some more spending money.. lol..
We are still "patiently" waiting for the elusive pin code to arrive.. ya know the one I mean.. the ones that DON'T have black out dates that include the whole week we are going.. nasty deal that is.. lol.. We are on a 20% room pin right now but would really love to have been able to use the 40% one I got.. or the free dining ones.. or the general public one.. but no.. lol..Oh well.. there are still 104 days left .. maybe we will get lucky in the mean time.. Fingers Crossed.. Doing the Happy 104 day dance.. and trying to keep our heads up..

 

[MomToAp1699]

WOOHOO.. WE ARE DANCING.. WE ARE AT 99 DAYS! Woohoo.. Double Digits.. Double Digits.. Here we come Disney.. ok.. well.. in 99 days.. lol!

Trip is paid.. ADR's are made.. ( keep changing.. lol.. but made) MNSSHP tickets are bought.. airfare is booked.. ( that keeps changing too.. lol) need to get misc stuff arranged and we are working on that..
Changed the ADR for our first day. We where doing a 6:55 @ Kona but since our flight was changed by nearly an hour later we didn't want to be rushing too much so we changed it to 7:45 instead..
Ok.. two updates in a week.. now I need someone to come read and talk to me!

 

[MomToAp1699]

So we are well past our 104 days and have actually dropped below 80 now.. So our countdown is really getting its workout.. We actually have two pages of countdown cause it I couldn't fit all the mickeys on one piece of cardboard and if I put them front and back it would have been too heavy.. Thankfully I took a picture right after hanging it up because our kitten has decided he takes great pleasure in attacking it and its covered with teeth and claw marks in mickeys that he caught a hold of as he jumped. I would move it someplace higher up but then the very small 11 year old wouldn't be able to reach it to mark off his days.. Soo.. teeth marks it is.. I will add some pictures soon when I get a chance

 

[MomToAp1699]

Woohoo... my ticker just time traveled! Two days cut off our wait.. Since the new discounts came out today and still didn't help us much we had to make some decisions. Stick with what we had.. 20% off.. Change to the new room only discount 25% off which was only about 50 more dollars.. Or an all new third option that I hadn't even considered before and I am not sure why.. Extend the trip on the front end, so we can hit free dining by arriving on the 28th of October. So now we will be in Disney world for 12 days. October 28th thru November 8th and we get free dining. We will be upgrading to regular dining from the quick service plan. Now we do have to change our flights.. but since the free dining saved us 325$ and changing our flights will cost 225$ we are still ahead of the curve as far as money goes. Got two extra days and saved 100$ more than we would have without the extra days..

 

[MomToAp1699]

lol.. okay.. so I finally am trying to remember to update this thing and I am talking to myself..
Last time we went to Disney I bought about 100 pins to trade from a lot online.. We had talked about it and where not going to do it this time.. Just take the pins we had that where not our keepers and not buy more. Well I found a couple lots for a really good price.. and now we have two more days which are non park days ( tickets are 10 day tickets and we are there 12 days) so we will have time to wander around downtown disney, check out the hotels and just explore in general. This also means more time to trade pins. So once the refund from Disney comes I think I will book Wishes Dessert party and then put the extra money towards some trading pins !

 

[MomToAp1699]

Why does my Dis Boards ticker hate me! No matter what I do only part of the it shows up! ANNOYING!

 

[MomToAp1699]

Ah.. got the ticker fixed.. 71 days! Can't wait.. I know 111 days ago when I made my dining reservations it seemed like forever til this point and now we are here..But I am such a worrier and until we are there I will constantly worry about something going wrong. Something getting messed up, or some such or the other thing. I am so excited about this trip but the extra two days makes mine OCD go a bit haywire. I had to redo all my trip pages so I could add the first two days we are going now. I have learned if I use white out tape I can make corrections without the unstoppable need to rewrite it all. I would say that works about 60% of the time. The other 40% of the time if I change even one small detail or the paper gets wrinkled or messed up in anyway I would have to rewrite every single thing.. I wish I could avoid it but its a obsession I can't resolve.. Oh well.. I know.. boring crap from Valerie today..
So, I have packing lists and daily schedules and note cards and times and itineraries etc etc etc all in a nice little book with pretty stickers on the front and inside and the MNSSHP tickets each have their own nice little pockets. Its very.. ORGANIZED!