6 Boys, 2 Princesses, and 2 Mini-vans! A New Petty PTR!-*Updated 3/8

[mommytothreeboys]

I always say I’m not going to write one of these…. And then I get to about 60 days out and can’t stand it anymore! As a person who loves the planning almost as much as the trip, it’s hard not to shout it from the rooftops. But, it’s cold here in Western New York so I’ll stay inside and shout it to all of you!

This is our 4th Family trip to WDW. Our first was in 2007, then 2009 and 2013. My DH and I went for one day in 2010 and I just got to go on a fabulous Girls’ Weekend in November of 2014.

I will do introductions in my next post, but for now let’s talk trip details. We are headed to our Happy Place from March 21-March 30. The mini-van will depart Western New York early on Saturday morning and arrive at WDW on Sunday afternoon. Yep, we are driving. This will be our second road trip to the World and, honestly, I really enjoy the drive. I would not have done it with younger kids, but mine are now old enough to plug in their earbuds and let us travel in peace!

We will be arriving at Walt Disney World and checking into an ALL-NEW-TO-US resort. As a family of 5, our options have always been limited to POR (which we LOVE) or a family suite. This time, we are short a family member (a matter I will address in the next post) so we are staying at POP. I always said if we ever stayed in a Value, I’d like to try Pop Century…so that is where we will be. I am SO excited to try a new resort!
This trip will also include extended family, a celebration or two, and an all new experience for this Disney veteran! I hope you come along for the ride!

LINKS TO UPDATES:
Introductions are in Order
A Moms' Only Trip!
Let the PLANNING Begin!
A LIST and a SONG
YES, NO, MAYBE--Hollywood Studios Edition
YES, NO, MAYBE--Magic Kingdom Edition
A List REvisit and T-shirt plans
YES, NO, MAYBE-Animal Kingdom Edition
Disney Nails!
Join Me in a DANCE
YES, NO, MAYBE--Epcot Edition
PLANS, PLANS, and more PLANS

 

[mickeystoontown]

Woo hoo!!! I am excited to hear all about your plans

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Whoa...look out! I remembered my login !!
I'm going to try to keep up....Looking forward to the fun

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Woo hoo!!! I am excited to hear all about your plans

Whoa...look out! I remembered my login !!
I'm going to try to keep up....Looking forward to the fun

Hi Ladies!! Glad to be back!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

So now that we have established trip details and dates, I want to introduce the crazy cast of characters who will be going on this trip!

My name is Missy and I am 44 years old. I am a lover of all things Disney, as anyone who knows me at all would tell you. I am a planner by nature. Half the fun of a Disney trip for me is all the detailed planning that happens before we even put on a Magic Band. Full disclosure…I have a binder, a Disney box and a countdown on my phone!




My better half is my DH Jeff and he loves me, therefore he loves Disney! I blame him for my Disney addiction as he took me to WDW for our honeymoon in 1992. He enjoys our trips as much as I do, but I am pretty sure he doesn’t enjoy the planning like I do. He does humor me though. He’s a good one…I’ll keep him!

Jeff and I have three awesome boys, but only two of them will be coming with us on this trip. Dan, our oldest, is in his second year of college and won’t be able to join us. He is very sad about that, as am I, but he will be going to Florida with his baseball team earlier in March so that eases the sting a bit. Our first trip was in 2007—this is a THEN and NOW of Dan.

Isaiah is our middle son and he is 17 years old. He is graduating from High School this year so this trip is a GRADUATION CELEBRATION for him. The fact that the boy will even graduate from HS should be a celebration for ME! Isaiah is a genius…smart beyond imagination. Whether he chooses to use his powers for good or evil has yet to be determined. Honestly, he has a huge heart, a fabulous sense of humor and I believe he can change the world someday.

Our youngest is Jonah and he is 14. Jonah is in 8th grade. He was 6 years old on our first trip. It is crazy how time flies.

Here are a few more pics of my awesome boys and also a couple of the “girlfriends”. I’m sure they will come into play at some point during this PTR so now you can put names to faces.


The weekend we took Dan back to college.

Isaiah and Angel.

Dan and Samantha



Me, Jonah, and Isaiah

We will actually have extended family on this trip. Our nephew Nicholas and his wife Shawna as well as their two year old Christian will be along for all the fun! They actually joined us on our 2013 trip for a couple of days and had so much fun they decided to do the whole trip this time! I am so excited to have Shawna along. I am usually the only girl on our trips, but with her, there will be more opportunity to do “girly” PRINCESS stuff!! And having Christian with us will be a blast! I am so looking forward to watching him experience Disney!

And last, but not least…..our nephew Joshua will also be joining us. Josh is a relative newbie to Disney. He has grown up alongside my boys and he is almost like my 4th son.

So there you have the whole crew! It’s going to be quite a trip with 8 of us!

Next up….who gets to go to Disney twice in a 4 month period?? This girl!!

 

[GrammyJudy]

You have a very nice family. And I love the crochet mickey hat. Did you make it? Have a great trip. We stayed at POP a couple of times and really liked it. I hate to pay to stay as I would rather spend my money on food and trinkets

 

[mommytothreeboys]

You have a very nice family. And I love the crochet mickey hat. Did you make it? Have a great trip. We stayed at POP a couple of times and really liked it. I hate to pay to stay as I would rather spend my money on food and trinkets

Hi Grammy! I did not make the hat, but a good friend of mine made it for me. She made one for her grandson and I was admiring it and teasing her that I wanted one in my size. A few weeks later, she handed it to me with a big smile!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I will start by saying that I am very blessed! Not only have we enjoyed several family vacations to Walt Disney World, but I was able to go on a Moms’ Only trip this past November. The opportunity came out of the blue when a good friend texted me with this message. “If we plan a Moms’ trip to Disney for the fall are you in?” Is that a trick question? OF COURSE I’m in! At first, I thought it was another one of those things that we would talk about and it would never happen. But timing worked out, we got FREE DINING which helped cut the expense, and four very excited moms boarded a plane on November 12th headed to Disney!


Who went on this trip you ask? Well, it was a bit of a strange group as I didn’t even know one of the other moms. My good friend Lucinda and her friend April cooked up the trip and then each of them invited a friend. I knew April from my scrapbooking days, but had not met her friend Kathy before we started to plan this trip. We all got together for coffee one evening in May to get acquainted and to set up our My Disney Experience accounts. Having no clue how we would all get along, I was a bit nervous, but we clicked instantly. We planned dining, talked about FP+ choices and got very excited about our upcoming adventure!


As the departure day got closer, we got together a couple more times to firm up plans and just get to know each other better. Finally, on November 12th, my sweet husband (who was so supportive of this trip) dropped us off at the Rochester International Airport!

I won’t do a whole report, but wanted to share a few pics of the trip. I was so glad to have been able to go because this little “trial run” gave me the opportunity to get familiar with the Magic Bands and the FP+ system for our family trip in March.


Off We GO!



We had a Royal Room at POR! So beautiful!



On the bus to the MK!



Lots of selfies!

Hidden Mickey fun!



My Henna tattoo!



Tower of Terror!



Sharing a drink!



Cape May breakfast



It was a great little get-away and I made some great new friends. I am so blessed to have a husband who supports me and my Disney habit, a family who could live without mom for a few days , and good friends with whom to enjoy my Happy Place!

Next up….plans, projects, and PRINCESSES!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Missy, your boys have grown up before my Disboard eyes. I know that feeling of "oh no" when your oldest isn't able to go on a Disney trip with you. It's tough. But, like you said, Dan has a trip of his own coming up.

Oh my goodness, I'm so happy to hear that Nicholas, Shawna and Christian are going to be there for the entirety of the trip. I remember seeing pictures of sweet little Christian on the last trip and he was adorable.

I'm with you on the driving. It may be a long drive but it's really not that bad. You had some really neat driving games for your last trip so I'm sure that you'll come up with more for this trip.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Missy, your boys have grown up before my Disboard eyes. I know that feeling of "oh no" when your oldest isn't able to go on a Disney trip with you. It's tough. But, like you said, Dan has a trip of his own coming up.

Oh my goodness, I'm so happy to hear that Nicholas, Shawna and Christian are going to be there for the entirety of the trip. I remember seeing pictures of sweet little Christian on the last trip and he was adorable.

I'm with you on the driving. It may be a long drive but it's really not that bad. You had some really neat driving games for your last trip so I'm sure that you'll come up with more for this trip.

I know Lisa...can you believe how much they've grown? I can't believe I'm celebrating graduation #2! Yikes!

It is really sad to plan a trip that does not include Dan. I'm not handling it really well, but I'm trying to remember that he is a grown up now!

I am so excited that Nick, Shawna, Christian and Josh are joining us this trip. There's nothing quite like Disney with a 2 year old!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

We have known that this particular trip would be happening since our last trip in 2013. Isaiah had made it pretty clear that he wanted to do a Disney trip for his graduation. So…I have been dreaming of this trip and pre-planning (AKA fake vacation planning) for 2 years! We even knew that Nick and Shawna would join us since they enjoyed the last trip with us so much. I could not wait to begin planning this trip for REAL!

Shawna and I began really talking details as far as dates, etc in the early fall. There was a promotion going and I wanted in on it if at all possible. We nailed down a couple of possible weeks taking into consideration that, with the 19 hour drive, we would need to use the boys’ break as travel time. We do take the boys out of school but don’t want to do that for more than 5 days. So if we can plan on one end or the other of a break, we get a week-long Disney vacation without having to sacrifice park time for traveling. I also did a lot of number crunching and Disney math trying to decide if we wanted to use the DDP on this trip. It turns out, that for this trip, we are not going to use the Dining Plan. The prices have gone up and I really think that I can do better by doing a little planning of my own and paying out of pocket. The dessert at every meal was a big game changer….we really just don’t need it. We also don’t need 4 refillable mugs and they really add very little value to the plan. So…no DDP for us this time. It will most definitely mean more planning on my part, but remember…I LOVE THAT STUFF!


With the dates nailed down, and the DDP decision made, I was able to book the trip using the fall Room Only promo for travel in the Spring. We booked our rooms at POP in October. We chose to travel the week BEFORE the boys’ spring break as prices jumped significantly the week after Easter.


We will arrive at Pop Century on Sunday afternoon March 22. We check out on Monday March 30. That gives us 7 full days and 2 half days. We planned to purchase 6 day base tickets through Undercover Tourist.


Remember I traveled to Disney in November? While there I was able to book a bounceback offer on top of my current RO discount so I saved another $130! Yay!


Dates picked—CHECK. Resort rooms booked—CHECK. LET THE REAL PLANNING BEGIN!!


I am going to list the preliminary plans we made by day. I will go over more specific plans, such as FP choices and touring plans for each park, in another post.



SATURDAY March 21—Leave Rochester, NY in our rear view by 6 am. I hope to travel into South Carolina this day so that our trip on Sunday is far shorter. We hope to spend about 13-14 hours on the road before stopping at a hotel for the night.


SUNDAY March 22—Arrive at Pop Century! We are hoping to arrive by early afternoon. Originally we were going to purchase 6 day tickets, but have since decided to add a 7th day so we can spend a few hours at the MK on this day. We plan to see the Main Street Electrical Parade and Wishes.


MONDAY March 23—Hollywood Studios Day. WE love EMH and the park is open late this day.



TUESDAY March 24—Magic Kingdom Day 1.


WEDNESDAY March 25—Animal Kingdom Day. There are morning EMH this day and the park is open until 8. We also have a dinner ADR at Whispering Canyon Café at 6:45pm. I am certain we will have no problem finishing everything we want to do at this park in time to be at the Wilderness Lodge by then.


THURSDAY March 26—REST DAY! We have absolutely no plans on this day. We will hang at the pool, maybe go to DTD, maybe visit the Art of Animation resort for some phot ops, and just relax and enjoy the day.


FRIDAY March 27—Epcot Day 1. This is also Shawna’s Birthday! We have chosen to celebrate by booking a breakfast ADR at Akershus! I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this one! As you can imagine, as the mom of all boys, I don’t get to do Princess meals. JUST the PRINCESSES (AKA Shawna and myself) will be having breakfast with Belle, Cinderella, and the other royalty at Akershus. Our ADR is at 8:05 and the boys will plan to meet us when the park opens.


SATURDAY March 28—Magic Kingdom Day 2. The Magic Kingdom has late night EMH this day and is open until 1 am. I love the Magic Kingdom late at night!


SUNDAY March 29—Epcot Day 2. After a late night on Saturday, we will probably not make Rope Drop this day, but it is our second Epcot day so it will be fine.


MONDAY March 30—Departure Day. We are in no hurry to get home so I hope to check out and then enjoy the pool or even DTD before hitting the road for home. The boys will be off school this week and Jeff will most likely have the week off as well, so we will take our sweet time leaving Florida.


So there you have the bare bones plan. Our park days are pretty set as we have already selected FP+ for each day. I still have a lot of meal planning to do as well as tweaking of touring plans, but we have a framework.


Lastly, Shawna and I made a new countdown calendar for this trip. Last trip, we made the standard rings, but this time we did something a bit different. Shawna is very crafty and I love that she wants to do Disney crafts with me. Below is our crafty countdown project!

UP NEXT—It’s time for a TO DO List!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

You are a woman after my own heart with your lists. I love love love lists especially Disney lists.

Way to go with booking the rooms with the bounceback. $130 savings is a nice savings. Every penny saved is a Disney penny to spend on vacation.

The plans look really good! Like you, I like the extra magic hours. We like to do a day of nothing too. We've found that it's best to work in a down day or else we'll crash and burn which you do not want to do while on vacation.

 

[Overexcited]

Following my fellow Roch-cha-cha girl!!

 

[kaoden39]

I'm in!! I'm learning all I can.


We're planning our first WDW trip and Disney Cruise after being on to Disneyland. West coast girl.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

You are a woman after my own heart with your lists. I love love love lists especially Disney lists.

Way to go with booking the rooms with the bounceback. $130 savings is a nice savings. Every penny saved is a Disney penny to spend on vacation.

The plans look really good! Like you, I like the extra magic hours. We like to do a day of nothing too. We've found that it's best to work in a down day or else we'll crash and burn which you do not want to do while on vacation.

We learned on our first trip that a down day is a necessity! We are "rope drop to closing" type people so a day to relax is definitely a good idea!

We actually ended up getting an even better RO deal through a castmember that Shawna knows...40% off! Saved another $175!

Following my fellow Roch-cha-cha girl!!

Hi and WELCOME!

I'm in!! I'm learning all I can.


We're planning our first WDW trip and Disney Cruise after being on to Disneyland. West coast girl.

A west coast girl! Love it!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

If you have been following this PTR at all, you know that I LOVE TO PLAN!! Any good planner will tell you that a TO-DO LIST is imperative to effective planning. And boy do I love a good to-do list! There are already a bunch of things that would normally go on my list that are done and out of the way. I will list those first . Then I will arrange my list by dates in which I want to have things finished. So…an item on the 45 day list would, ideally, be done by the 45 day mark. Here we go!

Already Crossed Off the Not Yet Created TO-DO LIST!

*Book two rooms at POP. Ask for connecting rooms if possible.

*Purchase tickets from Undercover Tourist

*Make FP+ selections at 60 day mark—I will do a whole post on this soon!

*Create an initial budget

*Make ADRs


45 Days till Disney! (February 4th)

*Firm up plans for t-shirts with Shawna (Yep…we are THAT family!)

*Begin purchasing glow sticks, etc for the parks.

*Work on touring plans for each park day

*Start working on a budget and a plan for eating in the parks. (this is the first major trip we have done without the DDP)


One Month till Disney! (February 19th)

*Inventory boys’ clothes and shop for shorts, shoes, etc if needed

*Make arrangements for Harvey (our sweet 10 month old Australian Cattle Dog)

*Print updated calendars with park hours, parades, etc and add to binder

*Make a packing list

*Start purchasing car snacks and food for breakfasts and snacking at parks

*Plan road trip meals and look into hotel at stopping point


2 Weeks till Disney! (March 7th)

*Pull suitcases and begin packing

*Finalize touring plans and make daily 3x5 cards

*Schedule haircuts and pedicure

*Take inventory of travel items and purchase as needed

*Plan 10 Day celebrations for each night leading up to vacation

*Finalize budget (spending money, etc)

*Finish shirts with Shawna


Also, I want to try to get a lunch FP for Be Our Guest on one of our MK days. This can be done at about 27 days out.


Lastly, I know this is silly, but I’m going to share. Be Our Guest has always been our Disney song. We know all the words and break into song as a family at random times on our trip. Don’t judge us. This year, I decided we needed a new song. In honor of this being Isaiah’s celebration trip and his love of Lilo and Stitch, we are trying to learn this one! (Click link for video.)

Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride

I know…wish us luck!!


UP NEXT: Yes, No, Maybe—Hollywood Studios Edition

 

[mickeystoontown]

Girl, we are kindred spirits with out "to do" lists. I remember how you would go through them and mark off what had been completed and what still needed to be done. I know that it makes you feel a great deal of satisfaction every time you mark something off.

Oh and I'm looking forward to seeing the shirts that ya'll make!

 

[kaoden39]

I love lists! I am one for making list after list. I set up the binder with the plastic sleeves to keep my lists better. I'm so glad to see I'm no alone.

 

[princessbelle2015]

I'm following along. I love your list. It's always wise to break up big to do lists so that you don't forget to do something.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Girl, we are kindred spirits with out "to do" lists. I remember how you would go through them and mark off what had been completed and what still needed to be done. I know that it makes you feel a great deal of satisfaction every time you mark something off.

Oh and I'm looking forward to seeing the shirts that ya'll make!

Not much makes me happier than a DISNEY to-do list!!

T-shirt plans are in the works...stay tuned!

I love lists! I am one for making list after list. I set up the binder with the plastic sleeves to keep my lists better. I'm so glad to see I'm no alone.

I have plastic sleeves too! Love my Disney Binder!

I'm following along. I love your list. It's always wise to break up big to do lists so that you don't forget to do something.

HI! Glad to have you along!