5 Girls, 2 Guys, a wheelchair, a stroller, and a Grandma... OH MY!

[JoyMouse]

Look out Disney! We're on our way!

What a vacation we are planning! It will be short, it will be sweet and above all...it will be an adventure! First of all, let me introduce us all...we are a family...kind of extended I guess! A Grandma, one family of four and the other family of three. We will go into specifics a little later!

We all like to travel together but it will be the first trip to WDW for our youngest cast member. The only hitch is that when ever we travel, trouble follows. Don't worry, even if you are there when we are, you will be safe...trouble only wants us!

Our last major trip as a group was last summer, we went to the beach. It was a fiasco...the dog started us off with a seizure (her first). It went downhill from there; a broken down car, stomach issues, a new found allergy, a visit to the ER for a cracked open head, and a viciously bleeding varicose vein are just a few of the challenges we confronted head on. The jury is still out...not sure if we won or the challenges did!

We are getting a jump on this trip, we are sure we will need it! We don't go until January of 2011, but our group requires quite a bit of advanced planning...lots of different requests and wants to schedule in! We have already booked our rooms and are excited to be staying at Pop this trip, it is the family favorite!

My name is Joy and I will be writing this with my daughter Ruthie. We hope to convince some of the other cast members to put in their two cents worth occasionally as well. We hope that you decide to join us for the planning stages of this adventure, we would love to hear your comments, advice and any other words of wisdom that you might offer!

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

Hey! I'm Ruthie, JoyMouse's favorite daughter.
Orrr... one of them!
I'll be popping in from time to time to help write the PTR!

 

[JoyMouse]

I would like to introduce you to our cast of characters...character being the key word! I will take this by family grouping...

First of all, the Grandma in the bunch, she is fighting us all the way. We all call her Annie (75), and you can too! The last time she joined us on a trip to the World, we finagled her into riding ToT, she swore then that it would be her last trip ever! We are trying to "guilt" her into going since it will be the Payton's first visit...and how could she possibly miss that???

Then there is Chuck (51), he is my wonderful hubby. He says that he just goes to Disney to make "his girls" happy. We all know that he loves it just as much as we do! He always has an agenda...we have to eeek out as much bang for the buck as possible...never relax....if you do, you are wasting time and you all know that while you are at Disney, time is money!!

I guess that I am next, my name is Joy (49) and I love, love, love Disney! My sister fusses at me all of the time because I have so much attire with Mickey on it. Love me some Mickey Crocs too!! I will admit to being the one that always pushes us to go to Disney, but my family loves it, I know they do!

Then we have Ruthie (22), she is co-writing this with me! She is also responsible for adding pictures and pizzazz! Ruthie has been to Disney so many times, I think she should write her own guide book. She is good at coming up with new places to eat and things to try. I am trying to get her to do the Segway tour with me...I did it and know she would love it! Ruthie??? Yes???

The last member of our family of four is Becky. She is 17 and is the one that keeps us all on our toes. Her main Disney goal is collecting autographs from every character she can track down. We stand in lots of lines! Becky has a disability and uses a wheelchair on long days, and every day at WDW is a long one!

I think that is enough for now...right? I will fill you in on the final three a little later. Can't wait for you to meet the little red headed firecracker!

 

[JoyMouse]

Okay, I am gonna finish up with our traveling characters. There are only 3 left, so there is light at the end of this tunnel!

Robbie (31), is my nephew. He is a lot like his Uncle Chuck...says that he is only doing this trip because it is Payton's first. Yeah, right Robbie! One of my favorite Robbie memories is when he was really young and just had to get the Indiana Jones hat after watching the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular! Remember that Robbie??? Blast from your past??

Mandy (29), has only been with us to Disney twice. Once was last September when she, Ruthie and I joined some other friends for the Expedition Everest Challenge. Okay, I will admit it...Mandy is in way better shape than me...but I can run circles around her at Disney!! She and I are the masterminds behind this trip, we are just letting the boys think that it is all their idea!

Then we have Payton. She just turned two and is a nonstop whirlwind with red hair. She will keep us all young! This will be her first trip and she is the excuse we are using to bring all of the family together for this adventure. I can't wait to see her face when she sees the castle, her first princess (Ariel of course), rides Dumbo...I just can't wait to see it all through her eyes!

Okay, now you have met us all. We are excited (yes, to varying degrees...) and can't wait for the trip. But, we have to wait...it is about nine months away! We will use this PTR as our sounding board. We still have to decide (hash out) our ADRs, which parks (Uh, duh...MK is tops for Payton's first), and iron out all of the other kinks! Stay tuned for more!!

 

[cmp1111]

Sounds great, and you do seem to have some interesting travel happenings.

Can't wait to hear more.

 

[JoyMouse]

Thanks for stopping by cmp1111! We do have some adventures...but normally we are still on good terms when they are all over!
We are just so excited about this trip and about doing our first PTR too. We always have good intentions, but never seem to get around to it. Well, we are off to a good start this time... Maybe we will be able to tag team and get some fun stuff up often between now and next January!

 

[tlenzendorf]

Looks like you have a fun bunch! The part about getting grandma on ToT makes me laugh! Looking forward to more!

 

[JoyMouse]

Looks like you have a fun bunch! The part about getting grandma on ToT makes me laugh! Looking forward to more!

Thanks Tlenzendorf! Our whole family still laughs about that trip. Both of my parents joined us on that trip. My Mama and Daddy both rode ToT, and Daddy's famous line was, " I thought those people on the outside of the ride were just dummys, but I guess I was the dummy!" He thought the riders that you could see were fake and was horrified to realize that during the ride, he became one of the "dummys!" He later had to have heart by-pass surgery and blamed it all on the ToT... We sure miss him, he died in November. He was most awesome, and an inspiration to us all...however, he did NOT share my love of all things Disney, especially not the ToT! I will say that my parents instilled the love of Disney in me though, our first trip was in October of opening year. We stayed at the CR and it has been a hard trip to top...but hey, I've tried...on the average of twice a year! Never give up...keep aiming for the best ever!

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

Ahhh, thanks everyone for dropping in! Can't wait until trip time!

And me on a segway = people all over the ground.

Would be fun though!

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

SOOO.. Today we are going into town.. Town for us is kind of thirty miles away.

Anyway, I think I might get a new Disney Guidebook! I mean.. you can never have enough, right? I'm also going to look into either getting a laptop or a kindle!

My mom, Mandy, and some other family and I were recently in a program kind of like The Biggest Loser to lose weight. It's called Team Lean, and overall, our family came in 27th place and won $140 dollars each! Total we lost like... almost 100 pounds? I'm not exactly sure. So I decided to buy something fun with my winnings and other money I had stashed away for a rainy day

Anyway, all for now, I guess! Sometime soon I'm going to try to scan some pictures from a longgg time ago we took at Disney!

 

[MPossible]

Okay...so I have no idea what I am doing. I am not the Disney fanatic that the rest of my family is, but I have a feeling I might be wearing a Mickey before it is all said and done I am very excited about taking Payton for her first trip to WDW. She has really gotten into Princess these days and hopefully won't panic too much when she sees the characters in real life. I personally can't wait to see Uncle Chuck in the Dumbo ride!!

 

[JoyMouse]

Yay Mandy!!! Your first post and it is on the Dis!! You will be wearing character shirts and Crocs before you know it. I will warn you, this is all very addictive...hang in there, it's gonna be a wild ride!

Back to the trip info...our first info from the Disney Travel company is here! It is real, the trip is gonna happen! How in the world are we going to manage to wait until next January???

Oh and Mandy...keep that camera handy, the picture of Payton and Uncle Chuck on Dumbo is just one of the many we have to capture!

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

YAY!! Mandy joined! Ahh can't wait can't wait!

Sooo today Mama, Becky and I went to town. Very eventful. First we met my dad and went out to eat at this Mexican place. IT WAS SO GOOD! Except, Becky kept double (... triple, quadrouple...) dipping in the cheese dip!

Somehow, in the middle of our lunch, we started talking about Halloween. Becky said she wanted to be a farmer, but I started trying to coax her into being Roger Rabbit. How fun would red overalls, a bowtie and bunny ears be?! And one of them suggested I dress up as Jessica. Alright now. I think I would get arrested if I showed up anywhere in a Jessica Rabbit dress. Hmmm.. with Payton's red hair, I'll have to suggest her be Jessica Rabbit when she goes to her first college Halloween party

Then I told Becky she should dress up as Miss Piggy! Just think, a fancy shamancy dress, a curly blonde wig and a pig nose! And then my mom started laughing when I had a mouth full of diet coke. Diet coke shooting up and out through your nose is NOT fun. Whew, my nose tingles just thinking about it.

I still think Becky would be cute dressed as Miss Piggy!

After eating Mexican, we drove into town, and we first headed to the movie theater to get "The Last Song" tickits. We had an hour or so to kill so we drove to best buy and I looked around and finally decided on getting a NETBOOK! I'm using it right now and I loveeee it! The guy that helped us was pretty cute. Gotta love Best Buy guys! We left my new toy there, so they could put the virus protection stuff on it, and we drove back to the movie theater. I sadly left my Books A Million giftcard home, so we couldn't go there. Gives me another excuse to go into town though!

We saw the Last Song, and wow. I loved it. Tissues were a must! After the movie we went back to best buy to pick my Netbook up, then we went to my most favorite store in the whole wide world that my mom isn't crazy about going to... GOODWILL! I love getting books and movies from there, and I had a great find! A Disney planning video from 1995! When the castle was a peto-y bismal-y pink! I can't wait to watch it. I was like.. 7 back then. We went to Disney that year with Mama, Daddy, Becky, my friend Heather and my cousin (Robbie's younger sister) Courtney!

After that we headed back home, and hmm, yep! Pretty much our day. Tomorrow I get to go to the dentist. Yikes!

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

yikes. Excuse all those typos I made!

 

[tlenzendorf]

Ewww, I hate the dentist! I went yesterday. I just hate having my face space invaded like that more than anything.

LOL about the soda out the nose. Its always funny when it happens to somebody else...

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

Ewww, I hate the dentist! I went yesterday. I just hate having my face space invaded like that more than anything.

LOL about the soda out the nose. Its always funny when it happens to somebody else...

Ahhh, I know! No fun at all! And I hate how they talk while plundering around in your mouth. It's hard to say anything back without sounding like a baby dinosaur.

Yesss, I love watching other people spew drinks out their nose, I hope it never happens to me again

 

[sPaRkLeSpAz]

Noooo idea where the rest of my family is! Well I know where they are.. but I'm not sure why they haven't been checking the thread and posting.

Today is our last "official" day of Spring Break. None of us are looking forward to going back to work Monday. We all work in the school system

 

[tlenzendorf]

I miss spring break! Since I work in a pediatric office holiday seasons are our busiest since everyone wants to bring the kids in.

 

[JoyMouse]

I am sorry that I have been AWOL for a while...it has been kinda fun to sit back and lurk on my on PTR! There is not much happening on the getting ready for Disney front...I am working with Mandy on deciding what ADRs to get...if it ever gets close enough to get them!
We are thinking of the Crystal Palace so that Princess Payton can have her first meet and greet. There is a bit of a worry that she might not be very comfortable with the characters...but having tons of food nearby might just be a good distraction! Princess Becky will set a good example. There is nothing that she likes better than getting "autodrafts". She has to do a double, she has her "autodraft" book (a new one for each and every park...) and a pillow with a white pillowcase and a good supply of colorful sharpies. I will apologise in advance in case you are in line behind us, we often take a little longer than we should! Sorry!

If you have a suggestion for nervous first timers getting up close and personal with the characters...please let us know. We want Payton to enjoy her first visit, not to be scarred for life! YIKES!

 

[MPossible]

Didn't realize we were going to do play by plays of our day!