4 days to plan a Disney vacation...oh...and have a Magical Day!

[LittleMissDisney]

Let me start my short saga out by letting you know that I had 5 months to plan for our vacation (I probably haven't even changed my ticker yet-so you can see how much time is left there).

5 glorious long months to make sure everything was perfect and each day would be the most magical day spent in the happiest place on earth. Originally our first Disney day was going to be December 27th. Now it is August 2. We leave for Disney in 4 days!!!

Who’s we: well, there’s my dh, Michael. The happiest place on earth for him would be in a man cave somewhere with all channels getting ESPN. But, he loves me and his boys so he’s willing to put on Mickey ears and go along with all of our craziness.

Then there’s me, I am the planner of the family. I have CDO, it’s like OCD except the letters are in order the way they should be. I am the list maker, the planner, organizer and driving force of our vacations. I also like it when people comment, so please don’t read and run!

Michael and I have both been to Disney previously once each as children and together in 2001 for our honeymoon. Awwww

Zack-age 7. Excited about everything in the Disney trip except for the rides He’s going to be brave though and do most of them, so he says. He’s my peacemaker, my people watcher, my lover of animals and my thinker.

Zane-age 4. Zane is excited about everything in Disney except for the princesses He’s afraid they’re going to all kiss him and according to him kisses have cooties. Zane is excited for all of the rides and bummed that he’s too little to get on some of them. Zane is my force to be reckoned with; he’s all boy all the time. He’s all of Tigger’s energy stuffed into a Piglet sized body

This will be the first time Zack and Zane will be at Disney.

Why only 4 days?...read on

 

[LittleMissDisney]

As I mentioned above, originally we had 5 months before this trip. It started out being a grand gathering with my family, my two brother's and their families and my parents going. Slowly, everyone has had to drop out-my parents dropping out on Sunday.

Out of curiosity dh looked at doing a package in August before the kids and I have to go back to school (I teach 4th grade). With the Kids Stay and Play Free discount we ended up being able to save $1000. He told me about the change and said, "have a magical day with that!"

So this morning, after he got final approval to take the time off work I canceled our ressies for December (good bye Le Cellier )and modified the trip to fit our new dates.

We are leaving Friday, July 30th and driving from Missouri to Florida. Our park days are August 2-6th at Pop Century. In an effort to save money we downgraded from DDP to QSDP which I think will actually work out better for us.

I worked out a park schedule for us last night and have plopped in a variety of things we'd like to do. For as OCD and I can get I'm not a commando style vacationer. I know my limitations and if I get too planned then I can become unreasonable (or so I've been told by those that love me) if things don't go according to plan.

up next: To Do lists, T-shirts and pixie magic before we go

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Wow, that's pretty exciting!!! Do your sons know that you switched dates! Or is it a surprise. If they do know, they must be SUPER excited!! Are you running around and packing like mad?

Can't wait to hear any more planning and then to hear about the trip when you guys get back!

We went for the first time last May and we did the QSDP. We LOVED it. We are going to go with the regular DDP next May because we do want to try it, but there was plenty of food on the QSDP. I think some people may think it's not enough, it was SO MUCH. Put it this way, we are a family of 6 and on the last day we left with a total of 7 meals left and 36 snack credits. We'd use the snack credits for breakfast stuff and we still had all that left over. Plus the mugs a the best thing ever. I couldn't imagine going without them. We are buying them next May for sure. And there are plenty of CS restaurants that serve different things. You will not be eating burgers and chicken fingers all week. Although the kids might because well.... that's what kids like to eat.

 

[lillylynnb]

WOW wish i was going in 4 days.
This is our 3 trip and we have always done the DDP this year we are doing QSD so we have more availability to come and go not having to worry about being in one place at a certain time !!!!!!

 

[LittleMissDisney]

Wow, that's pretty exciting!!! Do your sons know that you switched dates! Or is it a surprise. If they do know, they must be SUPER excited!!We did tell them and yes, they are super excited. Are you running around and packing like mad? I've printed out our packing list and I've started gathering items.

Can't wait to hear any more planning and then to hear about the trip when you guys get back!This is my first trip report, I didn't plan at all for my honeymoon and realized that we missed so much (although we didn't know it at the time).

We went for the first time last May and we did the QSDP. We LOVED it. We are going to go with the regular DDP next May because we do want to try it, but there was plenty of food on the QSDP. I think some people may think it's not enough, it was SO MUCH. Put it this way, we are a family of 6 and on the last day we left with a total of 7 meals left and 36 snack credits. We'd use the snack credits for breakfast stuff and we still had all that left over. Plus the mugs a the best thing ever. I couldn't imagine going without them. We are buying them next May for sure. And there are plenty of CS restaurants that serve different things. You will not be eating burgers and chicken fingers all week. Although the kids might because well.... that's what kids like to eat.

In typical OCD fashion for me I do have our meals planned out even if they are CounterService

 

[heathers4um]

I am so sorry your plans were changed at the last minute but how exciting!!

Along for the ride for sure...

 

[LittleMissDisney]

I still can not believe we are leaving in 3 days. My to do list for today is to clean and pack. So far all I've accomplished is piling what I think we will need in the corner of our upstairs living room. I really need to make a list and go through what we actually need.

I woke up early and got the cleaning done (but with two boys in the house you can't tell except for the smell of pine sol!)

I have class tonight so I need to get everything I want done by 5:00. Tomorrow my mom is coming over and we're going to have a day of sewing and baking.

On the list~

Sewing:
Mickey head shirts for the boys for each of the park days.
So far I have found fabric and shirts I like for only one day.

I also want to do pajama bottoms for the boys (and for dh and I). I plan on having the pj's wrapped and on the beds that first day so they will magically appear when we come back from our first day at the parks.

Baking:
Brownies
Oatmeal Scotchies
Peanut Butter Cookies (I'd love to do peanut butter kiss cookies but I'm the only one that would eat them then and I don't need to be eating a whole batch of cookies.

To Do:
*]finish cleaning
*pack clothes
*pack day packs
*pack car
*pack hotel suitcases
*pack snacks
*tan (spray tan-ds (7) has had 2 cancerous moles removed in his short life already so we're conscious of sun exposure but no one needs to be blinded by my legs!)
*meet with the new babysitter-for when we come back. I have a week where I have to be at school (teacher) before the boys come back.

Oh...I almost forgot-zack's autograph cards came in the mail today so I was able to finish both books. These are $5 4x6 albums from Walmart. I got the photocards from some of our creative DISers. I printed up 50 photos at snapfish (free) and 50 at shutterfly (also free). A pic of the boys with the character will go in the space above the autograph card.

 

[francis6306]

Wow! How exciting. I can't believe that you are doing so much in such a short time period. That would stress me out a little! But I can't wait to hear about your trip!!