30 day countdown - Aug. 2010 PTR - now with 40 year old WDW photos!

[wlake]

Hello! I’ve never written a PTR before (in fact, I hadn’t heard of them until last week!), but I thought it might be a fun thing to do. We’re doing a great deal of planning ahead for this trip, knowing it will be our last WDW trip for a few years.

We are a family of 4 in the Northeast. I’m a teacher, my DH is an engineer (mechanical, so of course he spends a lot of time trying to figure out how the more complicated rides work while the rest of us wait), and we have two boys -- DS 8 and DS 5. DS 8 has a sensory processing disorder so we are very careful about how we plan our days, whether at home or at WDW.

We went to the World about a year before our oldest was born and took the boys last year. We stayed at POR both times and love it. It’s got a calm, very green atmosphere that feels like the opposite of the parks to us. It was a great place to come back to for my DS 8, as it’s a visually soothing environment.

On to this trip!

We weren’t planning on going. My mother’s family had a big reunion planned for July and that was going to be our trip for the year, despite it meaning that my DH would be spending a week living with roughly 20 in-laws. Then spring came and was incredibly difficult for my family. My FIL passed away suddenly, we were forced to make an unwelcome change in childcare arrangements (and so my DS 5 lost a huge support network), a flood changed our small rural town forever, and my DS 5 developed an ongoing medical problem. There were a few comparatively small illnesses and issues, as well as the continuing saga of settling my FIL’s estate and making sure my MIL, who lives a couple of hours away, is ok.

As an escape every few nights during those tough three months, I started pricing Disney trips. The free dining offer popped up (I wish I was one of those lucky people getting PIN codes!) and beat out the cost of the kids stay and play free offer for us that I had already found. I decided to share the idea with my DH. He spent a few days thinking about it and then a few days finding decent airfare. He’s the resident airfare expert! One night in mid-May, it all came together and we booked! 7 days, 6 nights at POR with free DDP and park hopper tickets starting 8/15.

More another night!

 

[irishsharon]

It sounds like your family needs a little So sorry to hear about your FIL I have 2 boys also 8&4,look forward to hearing more about your trip

 

[wlake]

More on planning our surprise:

We decided not to tell the boys until after our family reunion. We didn’t want that experience overshadowed by a Disney trip. However, that meant not telling anyone! Keeping it a secret over the next two months was hard. I told a few of my coworkers who don’t know my extended family and who rarely see my boys. My DH did the same, and we had a little Disney dance we did together at least once a day when the boys weren’t looking. It was very strange at the reunion, knowing that none of them had any clue we were going!

Having booked our trip about 90 days out, I had some serious work to do on the ADRs. I love the online booking process, and was able to get good meals at good times for us. The night we arrive, we’ll be having dinner at the Plaza at MK. We ate there last year and enjoyed it. We’re having a late breakfast at Chef Mickey’s, which we couldn’t get into last year. Crystal Palace and Donald’s Safari Breakfast are our other two breakfast stops. We’re having lunch at the Rose and Crown one day and an early dinner at the Garden Grill on the last night. At one point, dinner with the princesses at Akershus popped up as an option for us. I considered booking it just because I could, but I knew my DS 5 would have hated every second of it. So, I passed it up in favor of the lunch at the Rose and Crown.

After I arranged those, trip planning came to a lull, which I hated. I much prefer having something Disney related to do when we’re going to go. It’s too bad I hadn’t discovered these boards at that point -- then I would have always had something to do!

The next month went by, and we had a wonderful time at our family reunion. It seemed like the boys somehow knew about our secret trip, because Disney came up at least once a day during that month. They never caught on to the glances between myself and DH, though!

Later: How we actually told the boys!

 

[wlake]

We had planned to tell them about the trip exactly one month before our departure date, but my sister asked me to babysit for my nephews and niece that evening, so we had to put it off by one day. That turned out to be a fine thing, because I found the DISboards just a couple of days before while I was looking for ideas to make our announcement special. After reading far too many posts, we decided to make a puzzle using some blank ones that I had. I found some Mickey clip art and downloaded the Waltograph font so our puzzle could say “We’re going to Disney!” I printed it on sticker paper and put it on the puzzle so my DH could cut along the lines of the pieces with an X-acto knife. We put a couple of pieces in different envelopes and we were ready.

The next day, I told the boys we were going to play a special game when Daddy got home from work. They guessed things like Uno or Sorry, but I didn’t give them any clues. Once DH got home, I hid the envelopes in the living room and the dining room. I tried to make it challenging but not too hard for them. The boys were excited to go on a hunt, but not over-the-top thrilled. It took a few minutes for them to find all eight envelopes and we even had to play the hot-cold game with DS 5 so he could find the last one. We trooped over to the kitchen table, emptied the pieces out of the envelopes, and the boys set to work on solving the puzzle.

As luck would have it, they missed one piece when they were taking them out of the envelopes -- the one that had “isney!” on it. I pulled it out and kept it in my hand until they finished the puzzle. It didn’t take them too long. They figured out that it was Mickey immediately, but I was surprised that DS 8 didn’t read the “We’re going to D” part and guess the mystery right away. I gave them the last piece and we asked DS 8 to read it. He did, but instead of the jumping and giggling and general excitement we were expecting, they just looked at us. We had to actually tell them that we were going to WDW again this summer. They got a little excited then, and DS 8 said, “I thought you meant we were going to go again someday.”

So, our big surprise fell fairly flat. DH and I didn’t let it really bother us, because we had 29 days to build excitement and we had a plan. (It never occurred to me that our next plan might not work any better than the surprise did, which is just as well.)

Here’s a photo of them when we actually told them. You can see the puzzle in the picture, too. Yes, that is a Mickey balloon above them! It’s a couple of months old, left over from the younger one’s Mickey-themed birthday.

 

[wlake]

It sounds like your family needs a little So sorry to hear about your FIL I have 2 boys also 8&4,look forward to hearing more about your trip

Thanks. It's been really nice to be able to have something purely fun to look forward to!

 

[wlake]

Our plan started off the next morning. Once the boys were dressed, fed, and had cleaned up, we had them come back downstairs. There I had a long strip of 29 Disney stickers, one for each day before our trip. We hung it up on the inside of the pantry door, and each morning, one of them gets to take a sticker. I was a little depressed hanging the stickers up -- they go from the top of the door almost to the floor! That seems like a very long time to me.

On day 2, the boys were given little paper gift boxes, which were favor boxes left over from one of their birthday parties long ago. I had put a couple of our Mickey stickers on them to make them more exciting, and now they’re adding some of the stickers from our countdown strip. We told them that each day, we’d be giving them something for their trip and they were to keep the things in these boxes so everything would be ready when it was time to go. Now they were beginning to get excited!

DS 8 pulled out his Disney guidebook and was committing it to memory again. He really wants the 2010 version, and although we had already decided to stick with the 2009 version, we’re ordering it for him. I have a $10 gift card to Amazon, which is about the price of the guide, and the teacher in me hates to deny a child a book he really wants and will read.

Day 3 brought the first gift for the boxes -- pins for them to trade. We got the lanyards out and put the pins on them right away! DS 8 loved the pin trading last year, so we bought a batch from eBay to trade again this year. They use the pins as thumb tacks on the bulletin boards they have in their rooms, so I don’t feel like we’ve wasted money on souvenirs that end up collecting dust in a drawer. These are something they look at every day. Mine, on the other hand, end up in drawer, as I got out of the habit of wearing pins when DS 8 was small and would try to eat them off my shirts.

Days 4 and 5 weren’t quite as exciting. I had picked up a box of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse fruit snacks, which we don’t typically eat in our house, so they’re a big treat for the boys. Also, the chewy texture is calming for DS 8 when he’s heading toward sensory overload, so they’re handy to have in the parks when I can see things beginning to go downhill for him. We can retreat to a quiet spot (which you can find in Disney in August!) and he can eat these. So, the snacks went into the boxes. On day 5, I dug out the “Wild about Safety” cards they had gotten at Epcot last summer as a prize for stopping at all of the Kidcot stops in the World Showcase. They had forgotten all about them, so I picked a message they often need to remember and gave them that card.

Here’s where things start to get less exciting, even for me. There are only so many treats to give children to take on a trip, so there’s a lot of repetition on my Disney box list and I had to think of some Disney things that we weren’t necessarily going to use there. Day 6 was another pin, although I thought it was funny to give DS 5 a princess pin just to see the look on his face! He won’t have any trouble trading that one away! Day 7 was great -- we gave them the color maps you can order online for free. Even though they hadn’t eaten breakfast yet (ordinarily you shouldn’t get between them and breakfast), they spent almost 10 minutes right there on the floor pouring over the maps. They found most of their favorites from last time and a couple of places we skipped then but they want to hit in August.

Day 8 was a fruit snack and day 9 was another pin, and that brings us up until today. Tomorrow is day 10, and I think I have a good one planned!

Here’s a photo of DS 5 with the strip of stickers before we took any of them off. It’s a little shorter now, but it’s still below his shoulder.

 

[wlake]

While I have a list of all of the dates and items to give the boys, I’ve left some flexibility in there in case we need a last minute change. For today, day 10, the forecast was for some beautiful weather. The heat and humidity here have been awful for about two weeks, so we decided we’d enjoy the good weather by going to the beach this afternoon and have my DH join us for a picnic dinner there. DS 5 had a Mickey Mouse birthday party this year, and we had some left over plates and napkins, so today’s gift was a family set of plates and napkins to use on our picnic. It might not be for our trip, but hopefully it will work on getting us into the right frame of mind. The forecast was surprisingly correct, so we had a lovely family picnic in the park overlooking the beach and the ocean. We even got the boys treats from the ice cream truck that was there, but they sure weren’t Mickey head ice creams!

 

[tankgirl427]

Your boys are so cute and I can't wait to hear about the rest of your surprises for them!

 

[wlake]

Your boys are so cute and I can't wait to hear about the rest of your surprises for them!

Thanks! We think they're cute too but we're biased!

 

[wlake]

Backing up to yesterday, day 11: on our visit last year, we tried to get the boys to bed at a decent hour each night so we missed most of the nighttime things. We did stay for Illuminations one night at Epcot (and I ended up running into a store with DS then 4 because he HATED the noise and we had forgotten the earplugs!) and we tried to stay for the nighttime MK parade on our last night, but it got canceled due to lightning just before its start time. This year, we (mostly) give up on reasonable bedtimes, so I’ve got tubes of glow bracelets for the boys to take to the parks. I had four tubes in my hand but finally came to my senses -- we don’t need 60 glow sticks, even if they’re only $1 a tube!

I’ve also decided to start our plans for the days. Because of our ADRs, I have a rough idea of which parks we’re going to when. I have a little chart with the dates, ADRs, EMHs for each park, and where we’re going to be. The only problem is that the little chart has vanished into thin air. I got in the habit of putting it away before we had told the boys about the trip, and now it’s just gone. Luckily, I can look up all of the ADRs online.

In the hunt for my chart, I looked in my box of Disney things from last year -- receipts for each meal, anyone? Seriously, I save way too much. However, I did find some activity books that came with the safety cards. Perfect for the airplane! I also found the detailed maps for each park, which makes remembering which rides need fastpasses and what order to go in easier. DS 5 and I looked at them yesterday afternoon while DS 8 napped. (Yes, I got the ages right! My 8 year old naps on a regular basis when he’s not at school. His sensory issues mean he’s not a good sleeper, so he needs this extra rest.) I asked my little one what his “must do” ride was and was so happy when he said “Dumbo with Mama!”

The new guidebook for DS 8 arrived yesterday in a big box from Amazon -- perhaps the hidden Mickey book I want for my birthday in a couple of weeks was in there too! DS 8’s guidebook is mostly identical to last year’s, which is what I was afraid of, but he’s happy and has already found most of the different pieces to read.

Day 12 has been pretty humdrum, surprise-wise. The boys got a pin to trade, and I must admit to choosing another princess one for DS5. His response today? “I’m totally trading THIS one!” I’m really glad about that, because he didn’t really want to trade any of them away last year.

While all of these little presents have been given out, we’ve been taking stickers off the door. I think it’s beginning to get shorter! We’ve taken off all of the DVC stickers the boys were given last year, so starting tomorrow we take down the Mickey ones. I’ve also been on a quest to find nice Mickey t-shirts for the boys at a reasonable price. The Disney Store online has added a few new ones since I last checked, now on a discount with free shipping, yippee! Two t-shirts are on the way.

The boys and I spent some time this afternoon figuring out which parks on which days once I looked up the ADR info. Right now, it looks like this:
Sunday -- arrive around 3:00, check-in, head to MK for a 6:30 ADR at the Plaza. The boys are really looking forward to the Mickeylodeon ice cream sundaes!
Monday -- MK in the morning, lunch at Chef Mickey’s, afternoon at AK
Tuesday -- breakfast at Tusker House and AK all day
Wednesday -- I think I’m going to cancel our lunch ADR at the Rose and Crown for today. We’ll still spend the day at EP, but this way we can snack our way around the world without being full!
Thursday -- I’ve added a lunch ADR at the Liberty Tree. We were spending the day at MK anyway, so a sit-down break might be good and we haven’t eaten there before.
Friday -- morning at AK, afternoon at EP with an early dinner at Garden Grill.
Saturday -- breakfast at Crystal Palace, rest of the morning at MK. I figure the ME will be picking us up around 2:00.

We’re skipping Illuminations this year and trying to get in whatever fireworks MK will be doing that week, along with whatever night parade is happening. We’re going to try that Tuesday night, and if that doesn’t work, keep trying until it happens! Otherwise, we’ll spend our evenings at POR with a trip to DTD one night. Traveling on the buses isn’t terrible for DS 8, but it’s not relaxing, so we try to travel to the parks once a day. We’ll see how having park hoppers go. We didn’t have them last time and felt it was limiting.

That’s a lot for two days!

 

[tankgirl427]

I read yours yesterday to see what new surprises you had for the boys.... Did you get your bracelets at Target? That's where I got mine. Two tubes... now I have to return the three packs I got at the dollar store. The dollar store only had 5 in each pack!! So sweet that they 5 yr old wants to go on Dumbo with you.

I booked the Wishes Dessert Party to see the fireworks, is this something your boys might like? I mean desserts is like a no brainer with me.

 

[wlake]

I read yours yesterday to see what new surprises you had for the boys.... Did you get your bracelets at Target? That's where I got mine. Two tubes... now I have to return the three packs I got at the dollar store. The dollar store only had 5 in each pack!! So sweet that they 5 yr old wants to go on Dumbo with you.

I booked the Wishes Dessert Party to see the fireworks, is this something your boys might like? I mean desserts is like a no brainer with me.

I did get the first tubes at Target -- love their dollar section! However, do you have a JoAnn Fabrics nearby? We don't, but made the trip to the nearest one today. In the clearance section, I found a tube of 100 glow stick bracelets for $3.97!! Needless to say, I grabbed that! I think I'm set for a couple of years!

I'd love to go to the dessert party (I agree about the no brainer part!!), but my little one doesn't really like fireworks. I found myself running while pushing the stroller at top speed through EP last year in order to find a store to hide out in during Illuminations because he was so upset. I'd hate to pay that much and have to leave! We're going to remember to take earplugs this year to see if that helps, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm jealous that you get to go!

 

[tankgirl427]

There's a Jo-Ann's about a mile from my house! I'll have to look this weekend! I understand the noise thing. I bought a 10 pk. of earplugs last night. Last time I went the Lights! Motor! Action! show gave me such a headache from the noise. I figured they woudl also be helpful if we have a loud room!

 

[tankgirl427]

Got 'em! My mom is so shocked about this forum and how everyone shares information and plans and hints and tips and things. I'm going to have to show her later. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your surprises!

Thanks for the tip! Oh there was three packages but one was opened and all over the floor so I *ahem* tested a few out to make sure they work. They do!

 

[wlake]

Got 'em! My mom is so shocked about this forum and how everyone shares information and plans and hints and tips and things. I'm going to have to show her later. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your surprises!

Thanks for the tip! Oh there was three packages but one was opened and all over the floor so I *ahem* tested a few out to make sure they work. They do!

Glad to know they work! Sometimes the cheap ones aren't as good, but I figure you get so many that it more than evens itself out.

I mentioned a few of the things from here to my mom and got the polite "wow-that's-over-the-top" voice from her. Even my best friend thinks I've gone a little nuts (and I haven't told her the half of it!). I'll keep the rest to myself!

 

[wlake]

Day 13 turned out to be a favorite of the boys -- they each got a candy I had stashed away from last year’s trip. We didn’t do much otherwise to prepare for our trip, although I ordered new lenses for my sunglasses from the optician. I need darker lenses for the Florida sun! I had been planning on ordering the Photopass CD, but we finished painting the walls in DS 5’s room instead. The color? “Silly Old Bluebirds” from the Disney paint line! It looks much better on his walls than on my skin.

About the only thing I got done for Disney on day 14 was ordering the PhotoPass CD, as we took an all-day trip with friends. We did plenty of hiking to “practice” for Disney! I’m excited about the PhotoPass this year. While we got great photos last year, they were all pretty much the same pose with a couple of magic ones thrown in there. I’ve gotten some good pose ideas from people here, so this should be more fun! For a treat for the boys, I found the monorail cards they had gotten last year. (Again, they got put in a box and forgotten about. They must have been overwhelmed by the amount of stuff they got and the experience as a whole to forget about so much!) They loved riding the monorail, so they were pleased with these.

Today is day 15, and they got yet another pin. I’m out of princess ones, but I have some Tinkerbell ones now. Fairies might be almost as bad as princesses! The plan for today includes going to a birthday party at a waterslide and figuring out how many “must do” and “want to do” activities each person gets for each park! Then we can start figuring out how our days are going to go.

 

[tankgirl427]

I read my mom your entire PTR. She loved it. She didn't know people do countdown calendars. We're making returns today and I have to finish my disney packing list today and try to get the rest of the thigns on it.

I bought the PhotoPass CD yesterday too! My mom and dad want us to have it as a present for the trip. I just had to promise to take lots of photos with their photographers. And I decided Friday to rearrange my entire trip. I think I'm only keeping like 4 ADR's and had to find all new ones! I'm silly!

 

[wlake]

I read my mom your entire PTR. She loved it. She didn't know people do countdown calendars. We're making returns today and I have to finish my disney packing list today and try to get the rest of the thigns on it.

I bought the PhotoPass CD yesterday too! My mom and dad want us to have it as a present for the trip. I just had to promise to take lots of photos with their photographers. And I decided Friday to rearrange my entire trip. I think I'm only keeping like 4 ADR's and had to find all new ones! I'm silly!

Then we're both silly, because I rearranged a couple too! Did you know there's a thread somewhere on here where people announce when they're going to cancel a popular ADR? I can't remember where I saw it, but maybe it would help you!

I'm glad your mom liked my PTR! We're trying to have fun planning this trip! Good luck finishing the packing list! And the PhotoPass CD -- completely worth it!! We got it because we never seem to have pictures of all four of us and I wanted some. We got several excellent pictures and lots of good ones. Then I added the special borders! I think I ended up with about 350 photos, plus the 750 I took!

 

[wlake]

The other night, I looked over the park chart and figured out that for MK, 4 “must dos” and 4 “want to dos” for each person for the week is reasonable, knowing that there’s going to be some overlap. I know that if I’m left to my own devices I’ll turn into a park commando, which is not going to make anyone else in my family happy, so my mantra is that if we can get our “must dos” in, we’ve had a good vacation. I sat down with each boy separately and went through the guidebook because if we did it together the little one would only want to do what the big one wants. I also made the mistake of telling DH that the Buzz Lightyear ride was on everyone’s must dos, and he pouted and said he wanted it on his! From now on, lists are under lock and key until everyone has made their choices! Here are the lists that I now need to turn into touring plans:
DS 5’s must dos: Buzz, teacups, Dumbo with mama , Tiki Room
DS 8’s must dos: BTMR, TTA, Buzz, speedway
my must dos: teacups, Dumbo, BTMR, Buzz
DH’s must dos: BTMR, teacups, Buzz, train

DS 5’s want to dos: Liberty Belle, Tom Sawyer, Winnie, TTA
DS 8’s want to dos: Space Mt., Astro Orbiter, Barnstormer, teacups
my want to dos: TTA, Space Mt., Tiki Rm., Winnie, train
DH’s want to dos: Space Mt., Tiki Rm., TTA, Dumbo, speedway

DH and I each took 5 want to dos as we’re the ones footing the bill for the trip! When I looked at the list, I realized there are really only 14 different things on there (out of a possible 34!). That should be completely doable in the time we have and then everyone should go home feeling like they got to do everything they wanted to! The only thing I know for sure at this point is that we’ll be riding the Liberty Belle the night we arrive, hopefully before our 6:35 ADR at the Plaza. It’s going to be closed for the rest of our vacation, so even if it’s only a “want to do,” we need to get it in while we can!

Some of DS 8’s choices are going to be interesting. He wants very badly to do these exciting rides, but they take a toll on his nervous system. We’re going to have to plan plenty of calm time between things like BTMR and Buzz Lightyear. I’m not sure about the shows like the Tiki Room (which we skipped last year), because he has trouble visually processing things too and can get overwhelmed. We’re going to brave the Tiki Room because the boys were given an MP3 player with Disney music on it, and they love singing the song. DS 5 even has a dance to go with it!

For a present for day 16, the boys got shampoo. Exciting, isn’t it? However, they’re almost completely out, and I had two little Mickey shampoos stashed away from our last trip. (Perhaps I should think about addressing my compulsive need to save everything from Disney trips.) Happy boys!

 

[tankgirl427]

Under Disney Restaurants there is Disney Reservations, then under that there are thread posting cancellations. I spent a lot of time reading the Disney Restaurant posting and reviews in trying to make my decisions. Well guess that's out the window now! LOL. Shopping trip #4 coming up in an hour.