9 Months, 3 Trips, 1 Grand Gathering?!?! ~ A PTR

[dtr_angel]

Good luck with everything for your new home! We JUST went through it all so I know exactly how you feel. We had just the opposite reaction with our home owners insurance - I couldn't believe how cheap it was! Plus State Farm gave us a better rate on our car insurance too for insuring them together so we got a really good deal and a reliable local agent. Good luck! If you ever need to rant about house related stuff, my inbox is always open!

 

[michellem1118]

The job fair went really well yesterday, we should hear back from them within 2-3 weeks. We went by the house we have a contract on to take a few pictures of the outside, and DH noticed that a house down the block that he'd completely fallen in love with was now on the market... we're 2 weeks from closing though, so I'm not sure what we're going to... We don't even know how much the other house is, and it's probably too much, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that its out of our price range so we don't need to worry about it.

We're going to start packing today - I just realized from dtr_angel's pre-trippie that we're there over St. Patty's day, so I think it's time to design cute green t-shirts for the day... but I'm not sure what to put on them? Any ideas???

Our planning binder is now ready to go... I just printed out our ADR confirmations, even though we're probably only going to keep one of the meals... since we're doing the QSDDP to save money, any TS meals will be OOP, so we're not going to do all of them. We'll decide each day whether or not to keep that day's ressie, and I'll just be making a lot of calls to Disney Dining to cancel.

Updated plans in the next post...

 

[michellem1118]

New plans:

Saturday, March 14: leave Dallas around 9:00AM - we need to make it just east of Mobile, AL, because we have a room booked for the night.

Sunday, March 15: Arrive mid-afternoon @ All-Star Movies & check in. Possibly DTD for dinner, and then probably to MK, which has evening EMH this day. This might be mostly a photo trip to MK, since we're still planning a full day there.

Monday, March 16: Start day at DHS, so we can get FPs for TSM. In the original plans this was our WDW arrival day, so DHS was only going to be a half day, and we'd resigned ourselves to missing TSM on this trip. After lunch, we'll head over to Saratoga Springs to check in to our villa and unpack, then probably go back to DHS for evening EMH with the camera... now that I have a camera that can handle low-light situations well, I really want to try for some good night-time pictures.

Tuesday, March 17 (St. Patty's Day!): This was originally planned as our EPCOT day b/c of morning EMH, but I'm not sure we'll be up in time for EMH if we stay at DHS the night before until close. It does still seem like a good day for drinking around the world, though, so maybe we'll keep this day EPCOT. We have two ADRs this day, including our only character meal @ Garden Grill which we'll most likely keep, so we'll be in EPCOT at least part of the day. BUT - Flower & Garden Festival starts on the 18th, so we'll also need to get back to EPCOT later in the week as well.

Wednesday, March 18: We'll definitely do AK in the afternoon/evening. I'm really excited about being in the park after dark! We'll probably go to AK in the morning, before it gets too hot/humid, and make sure to do the two exploration trails & the safari, which aren't open during EMH, and ride/FP EE & Kali (which we'll do again during EMH). Then after lunch, we'll probably go spend a little while at DTD or relaxing at the resort, and then definitely head back to AK for dinner & EMH. The other ADR we're tempted to keep is Tusker House for dinner this evening, so we'll see.

Thursday, March 19: This is our planned all day MK day, because of morning EMH. We're hoping to make RD, or at least be close, to get in all the Fantasyland rides before it gets flooded with little kids. We'll stay in MK this day long enough to ride everything we want to ride, and see Toontown. If we missed Wishes on Sunday night, then we'll stay for (or come back for) Wishes this night with the camera - I'm hoping for good fireworks photos.

Friday, March 20: This is check out day. We haven't made a hotel reservation for this night on the drive home, so the day is up in the air. We want to be on the road by early afternoon, so this will either be a quick trip back to one of the parks, or a final trip through DTD for some souvenir shopping. If we haven't made it to F&GF @ EPCOT yet, we'll do that this morning before we head out.

Saturday, March 21: We *should* be back home by late Saturday night, armed with a week's worth of pictures for a trip report and lots of ideas for things to do in July on our anniversary trip.

 

[michellem1118]

So, with only 2 full days left before we leave on trip #1, I thought I'd post some of our must-do's for this trip.

Magic Kingdom
Space Mountain, if it's still open
Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory
Mickey's Toontown Fair
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse (for the photo ops)
Jungle Cruise
Wishes

EPCOT
Test Track
Soarin'
Spaceship Earth
Living with the Land (maybe the Behind the Seeds tour)
The Seas (aquarium only, we skip the Nemo ride part)
Mission:Space - we hate the orange side, but might try the green
Club Cool
World Showcase
Flower & Garden Festival

DHS
Tower of Terror
Rockin' Rollercoaster
Toy Story Mania
maybe Fantasia - we've never seen it
maybe Animation Studio
maybe Indiana Jones stunt show - we've never seen it

Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest
Kilimanjaro Safari
Kali River Rapids
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Pangani Forest Trail
Flights of Wonder
evening EMH


I've got all of our clothes pulled out of the closet and folded, now I just need to get them into the two suitcases - a big suitcase for the bulk of the clothes, and a carry-on size one for essentials for the drive down & back. I also need to make one more grocery store run - we have snacks for the drive already, but I want to get instant oatmeal for breakfast while we're there, and also a bottle or two of wine so we don't have to pay Disney prices for it. Other than that, I think we're all set. We're heading out around 9:30 or 10 on Saturday morning! We will have one of the laptops with us, and since we're DVC members, we get free internet access once we get to Saratoga Springs on Monday, so I may do some live updating if I have time... or if DH will let me!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Sorry I've been MIA, making dinner so no time to really post now, but will soon! If for some reason I miss you, have a WONDERFUL trip and I can't wait to hear all about it!!!!! Yay, two more days!!!!!! SO JEALOUS!!

 

[michellem1118]

Sorry I've been MIA, making dinner so no time to really post now, but will soon! If for some reason I miss you, have a WONDERFUL trip and I can't wait to hear all about it!!!!! Yay, two more days!!!!!! SO JEALOUS!!

Dinner??? Dang, I knew there was something I was supposed to be doing right now!!!

 

[dtr_angel]

getting excited?!

 

[dtr_angel]

so we're trying to decide what to do in august... i have 2 sets of dates - one possibility for 4/3 deal still going on, but its before hubby's bday... or one after free dining is supposed to start. anyway, have no clue what to do (and still have time to ponder) but if we got earlier during the 4/3 we wanted to stay at the wilderness lodge but they only have a more expensive room available (we just need standard) but AKL is available... have you stayed there before? it doesn't appeal to me as much as the wilderness lodge, just wondering if its worth it or if we should go during his birthday week and stay at a value - but since it will be our 3rd trip in a year, I don't want to stay at pop everytime, and I'm iffy about the moderates. So confusing!

 

[michellem1118]

so we're trying to decide what to do in august... i have 2 sets of dates - one possibility for 4/3 deal still going on, but its before hubby's bday... or one after free dining is supposed to start. anyway, have no clue what to do (and still have time to ponder) but if we got earlier during the 4/3 we wanted to stay at the wilderness lodge but they only have a more expensive room available (we just need standard) but AKL is available... have you stayed there before? it doesn't appeal to me as much as the wilderness lodge, just wondering if its worth it or if we should go during his birthday week and stay at a value - but since it will be our 3rd trip in a year, I don't want to stay at pop everytime, and I'm iffy about the moderates. So confusing!

We haven't stayed at AKL yet, but are staying there in July & probably in December. Coronado Springs is really nice, as long as there's not a convention going on, and both sides of Port Orleans always get good reviews on here. DH also really likes Caribbean Beach Resort, as moderates go.

We're dying to stay at Wilderness Lodge - we're going to try to switch our room for Dec from AKL to WL @ the 7-month mark (DVC reservation time for non-home resorts)...

 

[dtr_angel]

We haven't stayed at AKL yet, but are staying there in July & probably in December. Coronado Springs is really nice, as long as there's not a convention going on, and both sides of Port Orleans always get good reviews on here. DH also really likes Caribbean Beach Resort, as moderates go.

We're dying to stay at Wilderness Lodge - we're going to try to switch our room for Dec from AKL to WL @ the 7-month mark (DVC reservation time for non-home resorts)...

Your reviews of AKL will be too late for our August trip... I don't know when we're going to book, I figure I'll wait and see if free dining is starting on 8/16 first. Decisions, decisions! The only thing we have found that we don't like about the moderates is it costs extra to get a room with a king bed. The values don't charge extra. We're looking into everything, this afternoon I stumbled on pictures/info on the Yacht Club. Everyone should live like a queen at least once, right? We'll probably end up at Pop - but we love it and in the end, it's Disney and it probably doesn't matter.

 

[michellem1118]

We love what we've seen of AKL - we spent a bit of time around the resort on our honeymoon before our dinner ressie at Jiko. We're big animal lovers, and we love the theming at AKL. I'd go for it if you can get the 4/3 deal... like you said, everyone should be treated like a queen once!

 

[dtr_angel]

We love what we've seen of AKL - we spent a bit of time around the resort on our honeymoon before our dinner ressie at Jiko. We're big animal lovers, and we love the theming at AKL. I'd go for it if you can get the 4/3 deal... like you said, everyone should be treated like a queen once!

we had decided to splurge on WL but the standard room isn't available so it's sent me off researching and thinking about other options... since we're going soon if we can narrow it down we can at least go to these resorts and see how we feel being there. I just ranted about this in my pre trip report thread for March.

Thanks for your input!

 

[michellem1118]

We're leaving TOMORROW!!!

We're several steps ahead of where we were at this point the night before our last trip... we're completely packed, except for the things we need to use in the morning, like toothbrushes and such. In fact, the big suitcase will be on its way out to the car momentarily so we don't have to deal with it in the morning. Both cell phones are charging, and the car charger is out of my car & ready to go into DH's, which is the one we're driving down in. Hotel reservation for tomorrow night is made & confirmed (printout of confirmation is in the trip planning binder!), as is our ressie at All-Star Movies for Sunday night.

We've had some house-related drama the past two days, but we've finally gotten it all straightened out, and our closing date is officially set... for the Wednesday after our trip! We'll own a house in just under two weeks.... so this pre-trip report will probably get a bit when we get back, for about a month until its time to make dining plans for the July trip.

Oh, for the December trip, it looks like DH's aunt, uncle, & cousins won't be joining us, even though the room is already reserved... good thing I can change the name on the reservation at any point... we'll probably invite some good friends of ours to join us (and act as a buffer between us & the families )...

OK, gotta run... time to finish gathering up the snacks for the car trip & pull the cooler out of the closet, and make sure all the camera equipment, etc, is organized & ready to load into the car... we'll have internet access at SSR since we're DVC members, so I'll try to pop in and say hello next week....

Off to Disney on trip #1!!!!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Sorry I missed you before you went on your trip, but hope you're there safe and sound now and having a great time!! Update us when you can and have a FABULOUS time, say hi to Mickey for me!!!!

And woohoo on the house closing...soooo exciting!!!

 

[michellem1118]

We're home!

We got back home around 6:30 yesterday evening. I have tons of photos to sort through, and I hope to have some updates about the trip ready to go sometime this week! We had a great time, but 4 1/2 days is just not long enough! I'm already looking to add a few days for the July trip! Updates coming soon, I promise.

 

[princess&her4princes]

We're home!

We got back home around 6:30 yesterday evening. I have tons of photos to sort through, and I hope to have some updates about the trip ready to go sometime this week! We had a great time, but 4 1/2 days is just not long enough! I'm already looking to add a few days for the July trip! Updates coming soon, I promise.

Welcome home! Cant wait to hear all about it!!!

Is this week the big week on your house closing? If so, good luck!!!

 

[michellem1118]

Welcome home! Cant wait to hear all about it!!!

Is this week the big week on your house closing? If so, good luck!!!

Yep, we close on Wednesday! I have a bunch of new pictures of the house on my camera that I'll upload tomorrow afternoon... then I'll start my trip report!

 

[michellem1118]

Here's a couple of pictures of the house... I haven't had time to download the photos from Disney, but I'm hoping to get around to it this weekend sometime... but we have some friends coming into town this weekend, so it might be early next week before I have time to start the trip report.

 

[princess&her4princes]

Wow, what a nice looking house!! Congratulations!!!!!!!! Hope everything went smoothly yesterday at your closing....looking forward to hearing about Disney when you have the time!!

 

[dtr_angel]

the house is gorgeous!!!

I haven't uploaded our pictures yet either. Still feel like I'm recovering from the vacation, lol.