5 days on $1300!?! Did we do it? - a July 2011 TR - update 2/15: Link to new PTR!

[ksl5f123]

Phooey on that orange family!! .....

We always make it for rope drop at Epcot but we never see the characters... Maybe we lag too far behind getting PP pictures taken. It is always a mad rush to Soarin' for us!! I love Soarin!!!!!

Thank you for sharing my uncalled for disappointment.

You have to be AT the rope to see the characters. If you are more than 3-4 rows back you would probably never notice them.

 

[ksl5f123]

Oh I hope your daughter's foot is okay and that you still made it to Soarin' early enough for good Fastpasses! Love your designed outfits I wish I were that innovative but then I have four boys and only one daughter and am sure none of them would wear matching outfits. Too bad you didn't get chosen as family of the day

Thanks! I loved making all of our outfits for the trip. I really loved the girls skirts on this day. They were just really full and twirlly. This was the fabric that DD5 picked out. It was princesses and stars with lots of glitter imbedded in the fabric. It fit her personality perfectly.

 

[ksl5f123]

Yikes! Hope that ankle heals up fast!

It was one of those moments where the first though through my head was "Is this really happening? Did my child really just get hurt walking in the gate?"

She was able to shake it off - just not in time for rope drop...

 

[ksl5f123]

When we last left off, we were at rope drop at Epcot. DD7 had twisted her ankle on the way to the rope and I had to make a quick decision about doing the planned Soarin' Stampede or making a new plan.

The park commando in me knew what she wanted to do – she wanted to be on the first run of the day of Soarin'. But the mommy in me won over the park commando.

Instead of the Soarin' stampede, we made the very short walk directly over to the Character Connection. You can see how close we already were to that – it is visible over Goofy's shoulder in my picture in my last chapter. So, when the rope drops, I take both girls by the hands and we weave through the crowd and into visit the Fab 5. We were the third group there that day – the first people were a couple of young Japanese women, then one father and daughter, and then us.

DD7 did a little complaining on our way in about meeting Mickey “again”. Yeah. The child looks tortured, doesn't she:

Minnie:

Notice DD7 still standing on only one foot:

Pluto:

Donald:

Goofy:

Just a couple of comments on this experience. If you look back through all of these pictures you will notice that in every one DD5 is wrapped around a character with an ear-to-ear smile. This is why we took this trip. That is the look that I wanted to capture forever. It is a sad but true fact that kids grow up. We never know how long that look of joy will last. Will she do it when she is 6 or 7 or 9 or 12 or 17? Who knows - but I want to take advantage of as many moments of it as I can while it lasts.

Second, you may notice that DD5's hair is no longer in a bun. Actually, you might have noticed it over the past several updates. During our break on Wednesday afternoon, the pins came out of the bun. I offered to put it back up for her, but she decided that this long ponytail with all of the rubberbands looked like Jasmine's hair. So, she declared that she was done with Cinderella hair and now had Jasmine hair.

 

[pinkxray]

Good decision. It's funny that kids say that they dont want to meet characters but it is a whole different story once they are with them.

You got some great photos and soarin will still be there later.

 

[MagicShell]

I just found your report and read all your updates. I was curious to see if you made your budget. It sounds like you are doing pretty well. I was wondering if your girls went shopping down main street and not ask for anything. I can't imagine my kids doing that. Also, was your condo cheaper than a value resort, or do you just like that type of accommodation better? Yes, I am a little nosy. I really like your report, you seem to have had a great plan to do a lot each day. I will be waiting to find out whether or not you made your budget.

 

[lbuzz52]

Doing better with the budget now!
I love the Jasmine hair!
I can't believe the water bottle exploded on PP. i would have yelled for sure. I'm glad you saw Philharmagic. That is usually one of our after lunch spots- its a lot of fun and cools you off for a bit in the early afternoon heat.

 

[ksl5f123]

Good decision. It's funny that kids say that they dont want to meet characters but it is a whole different story once they are with them.

You got some great photos and soarin will still be there later.

Yeah! I think they gripe just to see how much they can annoy mom before we explode. I was a little irritated with her because I was trying to come up with a plan with HER needs in mind. Oh well. At least she changed her tune and we don't have any pictures of the grumpy face.

 

[ksl5f123]

I just found your report and read all your updates. I was curious to see if you made your budget. It sounds like you are doing pretty well. I was wondering if your girls went shopping down main street and not ask for anything. I can't imagine my kids doing that. Also, was your condo cheaper than a value resort, or do you just like that type of accommodation better? Yes, I am a little nosy. I really like your report, you seem to have had a great plan to do a lot each day. I will be waiting to find out whether or not you made your budget.

The girls knew pretty much up front not to ask for anything. This is just the regular way things are. I shop to a list everywhere - not on the list, not going to buy it. They quit asking long ago.

This was our first time ever staying in a condo. We usually stay onsite. However, there were no discounts offered for July and it is peak season. So, the value resorts were $124/night. For our four nights, that would be $496. We got the condo for $350. Even with 5 days of parking ($14/day = $70) we still came out $76 ahead. Staying in the condo also allowed us to cook some of our suppers whereas we would have been pretty limited in a room at Pop (maybe some pb&js). I also wasn't sure how I would do with that much togetherness. The condo let me have my own bedroom where I could escape at bedtime or during our breaks.

If money weren't an issue, we would have been at POR, but since it was Windsor Hills worked out great.

 

[ksl5f123]

Doing better with the budget now!
I love the Jasmine hair!
I can't believe the water bottle exploded on PP. i would have yelled for sure. I'm glad you saw Philharmagic. That is usually one of our after lunch spots- its a lot of fun and cools you off for a bit in the early afternoon heat.

After I realized that the table service meals were really messing up the budget, we started doing much better.

I love how she is so adaptable about stuff like the Jasmine hair. She sees it with a creative eye.

The exploding water bottle was a complete shock. I never would have guessed that was going to happen.

Philharmagic was great and I love that now the girls want to do it again.

 

[ksl5f123]

After having a great meet and greet and avoiding the mass of people heading to Soarin', I asked the girls where they wanted to go next and they chose Imagination. We headed into the pavilion and noticed there was no line – in fact, there were no other people at all. We made our way all they way back to where you load the ride vehicles and we saw 3 CMs and a ride that was not moving! One CM was sitting in a ride vehicle, another was standing outside the vehicle leaning on it, and the third was standing by the ride controls. My first thought was, “Oh no. It isn't working. Where should we go now?” But, I was wrong. It was working – there just weren't any people that were riding it yet that morning – We were FIRST!

As we loaded our ride vehicle, one of the CM's asked us what took us so long. We replied that we had stopped to see Mickey first. He said, “Oh. So you like Mickey?” and then proceeded to cover the girls in Mickey stickers! Pixie dust!! That moment removed any stress that came with changing our plan this morning.

We finished our journey with Figment and made our way into the play area at the end. In March, we had rushed through here because DH was missing. This time the girls got to play as long as they wanted.

Usually, it is so loud in here that it is hard to detect the effect – you hear the sound of whatever instrument or object you step on – but this morning since it was just the two of them the sounds were very clear and it was much more fun.

I love these little areas

We also created this cute little thing

Hmmm. I just noticed they stuck a copyright on there. I wonder if it is legal to post him.

Finally we had one more stop in the Imagination pavilion – the gift shop. I owed DD5 a plush Figment. On our June 2010 trip, it had been the only souvenir that she wanted. I had told her to wait while we walked around the World Showcase, but then we never made it back to get her Figment. As I mentioned earlier, we had rushed through Imagination in March 2011 searching for a missing DH. So, DD5 had been waiting on this one item for over a year – and she was NOT going to let me forget it again!

Here she is with him later in the afternoon:

Yeah, it is that little 3” tall Figment on the table that she waited a year to get! Doesn't ask for much, does she? $7.41 spent on a little Figment. Of course, DD7 immediately launched into the “I want something too” speech. I told her that I would by her a set of trading pins right then (she had REALLY gotten into pin trading on this trip and had already traded away all the ones she didn't want) or she could wait and have $7 to spend on whatever she wanted later. She chose to wait.

 

[TinksThree]

I like the Imagination Pavilion and Figment. It gets a lot of bad rap comparing it to the days of old...but I do not remember those days so I think this ride is cute! And I love the games at the end! We made those figures too!!

Cute little Figment to wait almost a year for!!

 

[ksl5f123]

I like the Imagination Pavilion and Figment. It gets a lot of bad rap comparing it to the days of old...but I do not remember those days so I think this ride is cute! And I love the games at the end! We made those figures too!!

Cute little Figment to wait almost a year for!!

Imagination is just fun. I am one of those folks who prefer the old ride, but as long as Figment is there, I am happy!

DD5 is both a patient and a decisive child. She will pass by 100's of really cute things and then become completely attached to one small item.

 

[ksl5f123]

Hello! Sorry I have been MIA lately. We have had a parade of visitors at our house, so I have been extra busy. Hopefully now, things will get back on track.

After journeying through Imagination, we were off to visit with Nemo. There was only one other family in the queue with us here. I was beginning to wonder where all the people went. Soon, we boarded our clamshell and I do believe it may have been the first time ever that the ride didn't stop in the middle!

We were then determined to find the dolphins. I had read on the DIS that there were dolphins in the tanks, but somehow we had always missed them. We must have walked by their tank 2 or 3 times before we finally saw a dolphin in it. Once we knew where they were, we stayed and they swam right up to the glass several times. DD7 LOVES dolphins, so this was a highlight for her.

Then we were off to explore the rest of the Seas.

Can you believe we have never taken this picture before?

I love seahorses – I think they show God's sense of humor.

Not sure why we have this picture – kind of an interesting fish

It was now about 9:58 AM. I had heard that they do the dolphin feeding at 10 AM, but on this day it was delayed until 10:30. We didn't want to spend another ½ hour at Nemo, so we went over to the Land.

We pulled our Soarin' fastpasses at 10:10 AM with a 1:30 return time – not too bad. Then we went to ride Living with the Land. I LOVE this ride. I have crazy dreams about being able to grow veggies like they do in the greenhouses.

Coffee

Papaya

Dragonfruit

The water lilies are just pretty

Mango – I would have never thought these would produce fruit in a container!

Watch out! Alligators with glowing eyes

Love the Mickey out of lettuce

More lettuce – I want one of these!

Bell peppers – I also want to learn how to do this. This year I think my bell pepper plants each produced about 2 golfball size peppers. Ugh!

Love the basil too

We got off of the Land ride at 10:38 and we were hungry! My plan for this day had been to eat here

But, they don't start serving lunch until 11 AM. We really didn't want to stand around for 20 minutes, so we decided to just grab a snack and keep moving.

At 10:40 AM, we purchased one cup of applesauce, one blueberry muffin, and two kid's drinks for a total of $6.45.

By the way, do you ever take time to look up in the Land pavilion? I love the ceiling with the balloons each representing one of the four seasons!

 

[ksl5f123]

After finishing up our favorite attractions in Futureworld, we were off to the World Showcase. First, we grabbed a Kim Possible fastpass (determined to use it this time). We made our way to Canada arriving a minute or two after 11 AM. Our goal for the rest of the day was to do something we have never done before – make it all the way around the World Showcase. I think the best we have done in the past is 5 pavilions.

We enjoyed walking around the Canada pavilion. The gardens here are pretty (and the sun was REALLY bright!)

We then stopped to start our “Duffy on a stick”.

To my other mommy friends, I wanted to let you know that now in addition to the traditional Sharpies, they also had Crayola crayons available!!! I know this has been a big deal to some folks on the DIS, so I wanted to let you know about the change.

Then we walked to the back of the pavilion and enjoyed all of the scenery back there – it is so beautiful!

We also saw the first showing of the movie on that day. I haven't seen it in YEARS and I don't think the girls ever have, so we really thought it was fun – especially the beginning! We then wandered through all of the shops. One of them has a little game where you can looked for hidden stuffed animals and win a prize, but we were there too early and they hadn't hidden them yet.

Finally, we took these pictures as we made our way to Jolly Old England.

In England, we enjoyed looking through all of the shops. Isn't this cute?

If we weren't on a budget, this might have gone home with us.

This was a neat little display.

We also added to Duffy.

The room next to the Duffy coloring area.

After England, we decided we were hungry again. After all, it had been almost an hour since we ate. We decided to share some fish from Yorkshire Fish shoppe and just as we were heading there, DD5 exclaims, “MY FIGMENT!!!” Yep, she had waited a YEAR to get Figment and he was lost in less than 2 HOURS.

We turned around and retraced our steps through the England pavilion shops. I remembered her having him in the first shop we visited in England. So, we knew he had to be in England somewhere. What we didn't realize at the time is that she had him when she sat down to color Duffy (if you look really close at the picture above, you can see his orange scales next to DD5's ponytail – Figment is on the table while she colors), but not when she stood up. After that picture was taken, quite a few other children joined us and he probably walked off with one of them. Anyway, we searched the England pavilion and then approached the CM working the cash register in the first shop (where I KNEW we had him). I told her that Figment had been lost and was about to ask her to hold him for us if he was found. My plan was for us to return at the end of the day and see if they had found him.

BUT, I didn't get to do that because she saw DD5's tears and pulled out a special pad of paper. She wrote DD5 a coupon to return to Imagination and get a new Figment at no cost!!! This was, by far, our best pixie dust of the trip. After waiting a year for a very small toy, then losing him 90 minutes later, we knew we would be going home with a little Figment – although we decided not to go pick him up until we went back to Futureworld to use our Soarin' fastpasses.

OK, crisis averted and back to lunch. We made our way back outside and off to get some fish and chips. We got one adult order of Fish and Chips and two cups of ice water for $8.73. We each got a pretty big piece of fish and about 5 large french fries. It was plenty and we were happy.

 

[ksl5f123]

Pssst....DISers.

Over here.


I have a secret.



Don't tell anyone.


But,


We MIGHT be going back to WDW.

We aren't sure yet, but I can't contain myself. Please let me tell you the whole twisted story.

When I am not planning a new trip to WDW, I live on the Budget Board. About a month ago, there were some posts about getting a discount to Legoland. For $75, you got one adult and one child ticket. This is a HUGE savings. Usually, those same tickets would cost $170. DH and I talked about it. We REALLY want to go to Legoland. The park is intended for families with children ages 3-10 and ours are 3, 5, and 8 years old. Perfect! Also, my DH LOVES Legos. He is a computer science professor and his class with the highest enrollment is a Robotics course for non-majors where they program LEGO robots. (Isn't that cool? If you were an English or history major, what would you rather do to fulfill your science general ed requirement: take chemistry or biology or physics 101 or play with LEGO robots?)

Anyway, we decide to buy the tickets which are good through the end of May 2012. We plan to drive to Florida for spring break, spend a few days at the in-law's condo in Vero Beach, stop at Legoland for a day, spend the night in a hotel and drive home. Pretty cheap trip. Probably about $500.

Only ONE SMALL problem. MIL and FIL had decided to spend March (the month of spring break) at their house in Denver and had RENTED out the condo for the month!!!!!!

OK, plan B. We will still go to Florida. We are in the process of learning to camp with kids. DH and I both love to camp, but we have never taken the kids. DS3 potty trained last February, so this has been our first summer without diapers in 8 years. We cloth diaper and I can't imagine how one would camp with a child in diapers. Anyway, camping is our new thing. We look at Ft. Wilderness and learn that we can stay there for only $75/night. We can afford that and what a better place to camp? I hear the comfort stations are really nice. We make a new plan that involves staying at Ft. Wilderness, going to Legoland one day, maybe Seaworld another, and the rest of the time enjoying the Fort. There is a lot to do there. With just those tickets and cooking all of our own food at the Fort we think we can do the trip for $1000. No longer cheap, but still affordable.

Then, we find out that since DH mentioned the trip to MIL and FIL, they have decided they are joining us. OK, plan C. MIL must "dine" at least once a day. Vegetarian chili at the campsite certainly does not count. So, now we must budget at least $150/day for eating. Ugh. After the wonderful trip I have been writing about where the girls and I managed to eat on $300 for the week, this is a painful realization. I have started looking at making some ADR's but only have one for now. The cost of the trip is now just over $2000.

Finally, DH says, "I don't think the kids will let us be that close to the parks and not go." I asked the kids - they are fine with it. I think secretly DH wants to go to the parks. Anyway, on to plan D. DH and I both have tickets from 2001 with a day left on them. So, if we just buy one day tickets for us and two day tickets for the kids, and we drop Seaworld, but keep MIL's dining our cost goes to $2900. We can't afford that. $2500 is our ceiling. So, we are negotiating with MIL and FIL. Maybe we can drop 2 days of "dining". Maybe they can get the kids tickets (Florida residents are allowed to buy their grandchildren "Florida resident" tickets which are MUCH cheaper). Maybe they will split the cost of the campsite with us. We'll see.

Remember, it's still a secret. Shhh!

 

[TinksThree]

What great Pixie Dust in regards to Figment! That was super sweet of the CM!

I LWTL also! My black thumb dreams of growing things like in the greenhouse too!

What awesome news you may be returning!!!

 

[TinksThree]

What great Pixie Dust in regards to Figment! That was super sweet of the CM!

I LWTL also! My black thumb dreams of growing things like in the greenhouse too!

What awesome news you may be returning!!!

 

[ksl5f123]

What great Pixie Dust in regards to Figment! That was super sweet of the CM!

I LWTL also! My black thumb dreams of growing things like in the greenhouse too!

What awesome news you may be returning!!!

It was so nice of the CM to put an end to the hunt for Figment right then and there. I doubt that he would have been found, so she saved me a lot of trouble - and DD5 some tears.

My garden had a terrible year this year. We had lettuce in the spring, but pretty much nothing after that. I would love to have a good tomato season. Maybe next year...

 

[ksl5f123]

After our 2nd snack stop of the day, we were on to France. We walked around a little and looked at the gardens and then we got in line to meet Aurora. She came out at 12:20.

This picture was taken at 12:25, so we were pretty near the front of the line.

The girls had a great interaction with Aurora. First, Aurora notes her image on DD7's shirt:

Then DD5 points out Aurora on her lanyard:

Then Aurora asks the girls to do her a favor. She explains that she is playing a game with Jasmine and that she needs the girls to tell Jasmine, “TAG, you're it! - from Aurora”

Well, you would have thought that the president himself asked them to perform a secret mission. It may seem like the smallest little thing, but I actually can't imagine anything that would have made the girls enjoy the World Showcase any more than this one simple request. They spent the next 45 minutes practicing what they were going to say to Jasmine. Who was going to talk first? What would she say? Should they say “TAG” at the same time? They got completely caught up in the idea. Disney magic!

OK, back to the pictures:

Next, we were off to bright and sunny Morocco. OK, everywhere was bright and sunny, but using our Duffy-on-a-sticks as sunshades amused me:

This is what I got when I asked them to put the Duffys down:

We did some exploring while we waited for Jasmine and Aladdin's next time. We have never spent any time in Morocco before.

This is a beautiful mosaic:

We also did some more coloring on Duffy. The store in that area is very interesting. There are lots of beautiful scarves and some neat metalwork. They were playing some interesting music and some people were dancing also. The CM working the coloring area wrote the girls' names on their Duffys in Arabic. The girls loved that.

About 10 minutes before Jasmine and Aladdin were scheduled to come out, we got in there line and took a couple of pictures.

Strange how those trees jumped right into my shot.

Finally, it was time for Aladdin and Jasmine

DD5 was enjoying showing Jasmine her “princess-turned-Jasmine hair”

The girls delivered their message while the characters paid rapt attention.

Then Jasmine said, “Can you do me a favor too? Mulan and I are having a tea party tonight and I need you to remind her to bring the eggrolls.” The girls grinned from ear to ear – they had another special mission from a princess.