4 kids, 3 adults, 2 Grand Villas, and 1 Split Stay!!!!

[Irishlisa]

I spent some time on the phone and internet this morning for my MIL. I have booked her flights (same as ours) and was able to add her to all of our ADRs without losing the original times . I was a little concerned about Ohana, BOG, and Chef Mickey's but had no problem at all . And since I was on the phone regarding ADRs I added Boma for breakfast on Sunday. I also added her to our Pirates and Pals cruise, but I'm holding off on getting her a ticket for MVMCP. She has expressed that she has no desire to go to any of the parks while we are there, she would rather hang out at the hotels .

 

[Irishlisa]

97 days

A few planning items this upcoming week that I will post about later. I haven't had much time since earlier this week because I work 3rd shift in the ER and it's my weekend on .

Before I head back to bed for a few hours I checked my mail and....more Mickey mail

MVMCP tickets came today:

 

[Irishlisa]

92 days, 14 hours, 23 minutes, 37 seconds....

 

[teekathepony]

Hi! I found your ptr over on the November thread and thought I'd pop by to say hi subbing for the rest!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[Irishlisa]

Hi! I found your ptr over on the November thread and thought I'd pop by to say hi subbing for the rest!

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Hi!!!! Thanks for checking in

 

[Irishlisa]

80 days ​

The kids started school today so I can sit down finally and update my pre trip report. I have a few jumbled thoughts in my head so excuse me if I'm all over the place

We took the kids to NYC last week so I got a dry run with the camera bag. I didn't bring the camcorder, just my camera and the bag worked fine. I was able to fit more in it than I thought and it was not annoying to carry around. But now I realize I will probably not bring my camera to the parks, I'll just use my phone and Photopass.

Lady Liberty


Top of the Empire State Building


View of the almost complete new Freedom Tower from the Empire State Building.


By the way, these were taken with my phone

So yesterday I scored a res for California Grill. Yes, I jumped on the hype bandwagon and called early in the morning. This means that I have to eliminate one of my other ADRs, either Bongos or Shula's, and it will probably be Shula's since my cousin really wants to go to Bongos.

And the most exciting new planning tool is....My Pirates of the Caribbean travel binder!!!! I love it. I did some research and found an Etsy shop that makes custom Disney travel binders and autograph books ('cause you know I'm not the least bit crafty and can't make one myself) and ordered one. It has everything I need in one perfect sized binder that fits in my camera bag. It has all of our resort info, maps, ADRs, etc.

Here's a look at some of the pages:




















Did I mention that I LOVE it????

 

[taaren]

The binder looks great!

Love the NY pix ... that's one of the last places in domestic travel that I feel like we need to do. If nothing else, just for the shows ... but then I'd feel compelled to get tickets every night to something and it would end up costing wayyyyy more than Disney. So by going to Disney, I'm saving $$, right?

 

[Luvchefmic]

At first I didn't know why I clicked on your PTR having a rare "blue" day and just kicking around taking my mind off silly things bothering me SO glad I did I am long past the little kiddos in the house so what led me to you ? ( they are stunning BTW )

I guess what I was feeling was a little homesick ( moved here in 2008 ) and my DDs and the rest of the family is still " north" I'm a native New Yorker

Loving your plans, and your writing style but when I saw the pictures from NYC especially the Freedom Tower I knew what led me here I always start to get blue around the upcoming anniversary and didn't even make that connection until I saw your stunning pictures ...not trying to be a downer here Just to tell you it helped me tremendously to see for myself Thank you for sharing those

Now to move on to HAPPY things, your plans sound wonderful good for you for scoring Cali Grill ( you must have been up at the crack of ridiculous to score that ! ) That binder is fantastic Looking forward to hearing more

 

[Irishlisa]

The binder looks great!

Love the NY pix ... that's one of the last places in domestic travel that I feel like we need to do. If nothing else, just for the shows ... but then I'd feel compelled to get tickets every night to something and it would end up costing wayyyyy more than Disney. So by going to Disney, I'm saving $$, right?

Yes, you probably are saving money by going to Disney!!!!
But seriously, you have to do NYC at some point.

 

[Irishlisa]

At first I didn't know why I clicked on your PTR having a rare "blue" day and just kicking around taking my mind off silly things bothering me SO glad I did I am long past the little kiddos in the house so what led me to you ? ( they are stunning BTW )

I guess what I was feeling was a little homesick ( moved here in 2008 ) and my DDs and the rest of the family is still " north" I'm a native New Yorker

Loving your plans, and your writing style but when I saw the pictures from NYC especially the Freedom Tower I knew what led me here I always start to get blue around the upcoming anniversary and didn't even make that connection until I saw your stunning pictures ...not trying to be a downer here Just to tell you it helped me tremendously to see for myself Thank you for sharing those

Now to move on to HAPPY things, your plans sound wonderful good for you for scoring Cali Grill ( you must have been up at the crack of ridiculous to score that ! ) That binder is fantastic Looking forward to hearing more

I'm happy you stumbled upon my PTR, I know how a little distraction can help on a day like today for you.
And thank you for the compliment on my kids.

I love my native New Yorkers!!!! My sister and brother in law lived in Queens for 25 years before they moved to SC so I grew up going to NY every other weekend from Connecticut. My first trip to WDW was a looooong car ride when I was 12 from Queens (7 of us in a Jeep Cherokee made for a crazy vacation). I vowed that was the one and only time I would ever take a car ride to Disney. It was just awful.

I'm glad you liked my NYC pictures. I actually took a ton of much better pictures on my camera but I haven't uploaded them yet. It was beautiful to see the progress at Ground Zero but so emotional. Our children obviously don't understand the significance and kept asking me why I was taking so many pictures of the new Tower. We tried to explain as best as we could for their ages but of course the questions from our 9 year old got harder to answer as the day wore on. But seeing NYC from their perspective was so awesome. My husband and I go into the City at least 4-5 times a year but this was the first time we took the kids. It's funny how little things to us, like the ceiling of Grand Central, were such a huge amazement to them. I loved watching their reaction to everything.

And yes I got up early for Cali Grill, I'm glad I didn't oversleep!!!!

And another NYC picture for you:



Their first time at FAO Schwartz.

 

[Irishlisa]

First time on the train, the carousel at Chelsea Piers, views from the ESB, Statue of Liberty, and Zoltar at FAO Schwartz. I was cracking up when I saw the Zoltar machine and my kids couldn't figure out why. Big is one of my all time favorite movies and I realized they've never seen it. That's a must do for this weekend.

 

[teekathepony]

Love the pics from your NY trip, I'd love to see NY some day.
Ahhhh that binder is amazing!! I could totally see me making one of those... but which theme to choose! Hahaha

 

[Luvchefmic]

Thank you SO much for the NY pictures that whole 9/11 conversation can be difficult and hard for a child to comprehend It will be in their history lessons, time enough to explain ...so innocent they are hold on to that as much as possible

Looks like they had a GREAT time and Zoltar ! OMgoodness that was a ton of memories

Queens NY I grew up there Middle Village ( until 6th grade when the world had to move out to " the Island" but we often went into " the City" My Aunt is still in Howard Beach & one of my DDs is in Selden

So Lets talk Disney

Ruthie

 

[Irishlisa]

Well....I thought I would have more time to dedicate to my PTR since the kids are back in school, not less!!!! Anyway, I'll be back at it tomorrow.

 

[Irishlisa]

 

[Irishlisa]

: 51 days

Well, I'm a procrastinator, always have been. So as you can see I came out of the gate strong with dedicating my time to this PTR and now....:

So what have I done to get ready for this trip lately? Not much. My laptop is at the repair shop and I don't like writing this on my iPad so that's been an excuse for my laziness.

I have been active on the November fb page, and of course on the DIS, but haven't done much thinking about packing or anything else. I have binoculars ready to be packed, and I have to dig out our Disney ponchos so I don't forget them. I just started going through the kids' clothes this morning since autumn is here in New England and it's time to pack up the summer clothes, except what we may need for Disney.

One exciting development; my husband bought me a new zoom lens for my camera for my birthday on Sunday. So now my already bulky camera is heavier because of the new lens, but it takes better pictures.

Here's a shot of my son at his soccer game Sunday afternoon:



And I was pretty far away when I took this picture.


Next discussion: FP+, MB, and getting caught up in all the hype

 

[taaren]

: 51 days

Well, I'm a procrastinator, always have been. So as you can see I came out of the gate strong with dedicating my time to this PTR and now....:

So what have I done to get ready for this trip lately? Not much. My laptop is at the repair shop and I don't like writing this on my iPad so that's been an excuse for my laziness.

I have been active on the November fb page, and of course on the DIS, but haven't done much thinking about packing or anything else. I have binoculars ready to be packed, and I have to dig out our Disney ponchos so I don't forget them. I just started going through the kids' clothes this morning since autumn is here in New England and it's time to pack up the summer clothes, except what we may need for Disney.

One exciting development; my husband bought my a new zoom lens for my camera for my birthday on Sunday. So now my already bulky camera is heavier because of the new lens, but it takes better pictures.

Here's a shot of my son at his soccer game Sunday afternoon:

And I was pretty far away when I took this picture.


Next discussion: FP+, MB, and getting caught up in all the hype

Gorgeous picture. I've been having fun playing with the FP+'s, too .... love that split stays get 2 sets of MBs.

 

[Irishlisa]

Gorgeous picture. I've been having fun playing with the FP+'s, too .... love that split stays get 2 sets of MBs.

Yay Taaren, my split stay go to person is still with me I was afraid I lost my few readers and would be posting to myself.
After your great idea earlier about our 2 MB sets, I waited for the kids to get home from school and pick their colors. So our Magic Band colors are:

Me: RED / GREY
DH: BLUE / GREY
DS: BLUE / GREY
DD: RED / PINK
DD: PINK/ ORANGE
DD: PINK / BLUE
My sister: GREY / PINK

 

[taaren]

Yay Taaren, my split stay go to person is still with me I was afraid I lost my few readers and would be posting to myself.
After your great idea earlier about our 2 MB sets, I waited for the kids to get home from school and pick their colors. So our Magic Band colors are:

Me: RED / GREY
DH: BLUE / GREY
DS: BLUE / GREY
DD: RED / PINK
DD: PINK/ ORANGE
DD: PINK / BLUE
My sister: GREY / PINK

We did
Me: Blue/Gray
DH: Orange/Pink
DS: Red/Green
DF: Pink
DF: Blue

I was kind of sad no one picked yellow. But its kind of an ugly yellow ...

Btw, I'm doing a PTR just talking to myself, its in my signature. I'm okay with that though. I haven't asked anybody to follow, its just sort of like a journal atm.

 

[Irishlisa]

We did Me: Blue/Gray DH: Orange/Pink DS: Red/Green DF: Pink DF: Blue I was kind of sad no one picked yellow. But its kind of an ugly yellow ...

I debated on the yellow just because no one picked it but I couldn't do it because it is kind of ugly