A Birthday with The Mouse! My secret pre-trippie

[Colleen27]

Let me start this by saying that I'm not a planner in real life. I'm a last minute, wing it, fly by the seat of my pants type of girl. But when it comes to travelling, all the planning and organizational skills I generally lack burst forth to ensure each trip is more perfect than the last. Well, that's what I try for anyway, and if you ask my kids I do an okay job of it. But last minute is *so* not my style when it comes to Disney planning! So when my mom got a PIN postcard in July and spent a couple weeks waffling before making the final decision to head off to The World so DD can celebrate her birthday with her favorite rodent, she put me in the position of learning an entirely new brand of Disney planning. No waiting eagerly for park hours to be released. No calling at the crack of dawn for the perfect ADRs. No spending hours analyzing and rearranging the plans. Who has time for that, when we're leaving for the World in 4 short weeks?!?

Some background: DH & I are trying to plan a December trip to Disney, just us and our kids. Right now, it is looking good, but things have a way of changing when you least expect. We know my FIL is planning a Disney land & sea vacation for the entire extended family, but we don't know for when. We know my best friend is getting married, but she hasn't set a date. Either of these two things could push back our Disney Dream Vacation unexpectedly, but as of now it is on and that is the reason DH vetoed the idea of a short Disney trip for DD's birthday in August. See, I don't want to do our big trip - 11 nights, 2 days at each park, and lots of great food & fun - in the heat of summer, and he doesn't want to do Disney twice in one year. So my rather brilliant suggestion to take DD to Mickey's House for her 6th birthday was shot down and buried before it even took off.

Then came the PIN. Not in my name, but in my mother's name at my address (we took her to Disney in '05, and ever since, Disney seems to think she lives here). So I told my mother about it, and she said "Well, I could use a vacation. Maybe we could go for Shanna's birthday". Hey, fine by me!

I called about the PIN and didn't like what I heard - no dining plan! no availability at Coronado Springs! Hmmm... What to do? We've never stayed at the values and don't plan to start - we like having the fridge and the hot tub and the pool slide. And in August, the pool is more important than ever!

Then, a general code to the rescue! Only $10 more than the PIN code, and we can add the dining plan! This is more like it! I price all sorts of options, from the unlikely values to the even more unlikely deluxes, and I wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Until last Sunday, when my mom called and out of the blue told me to go ahead and book the Beach Club! Seems she's been doing some research of her own (I linked her to Allears & WDWInfo), and has decided that Stormalong Bay is worth the deluxe price tag! The BC with a one day ticket isn't that much more than a mod or value with a two day ticket, and in August, pool time will probably be just as good as park time.

So now we have our cast and setting.

The cast:

- Me, master of the plans and arranger of all things travel. I'm not really as big a Disney nut as I might seem. My tastes tend to run in streaks, and with a Princess obsessed princess of my own, Disney is the order of the day (year? decade?).

- DM, a far bigger Disney nut than I. She couldn't afford to take my brother & I to Disney when we were young, and we weren't all that interested when we were older but we did take one family Disney trip the summer after I graduated from high school. She travels with us quite a bit because if not for me arranging her vacations, she'd never take them - she cares for my grandmother, who has Alzheimers, and tends to put herself last. It is win-win - she gets free vacations she wouldn't otherwise take, the kids get Grandma along for the fun, and we have an extra adult along for those times when we want to hit the thrill rides DD can't handle yet. And I have someone to travel with when DH can't get away from his business, so I'm not outnumbered by munchkins on the road.

- DS9, not a huge Disney fan, but he loves rides, good food, and above all, water slides. He'll be in heaven at the Beach Club! He's also the World's Greatest Big Brother, and DD made a certificate to prove it. He's wonderful about humoring her princess obsession and about coaxing her to expand her very cautious comfort zone when it comes to rides, food, and new things in general.

- DS5, the girliest girl you'll ever meet, obsessed with all things Disney but especially the Princesses. She'll be turning 6 in the middle of our trip, and her birthday is the inspiration for the temporary insanity that is taking us to Florida in August. She has no idea that we're planning this trip , but when DH asked her what she wants for her birthday she said "Money, so we can go back to Mickey's House soon".

The setting:

We're booked for a standard room at the Beach Club , Aug 20 to 23. The only room request I've made is to be in a room with 2 beds plus a daybed, so that DS has his own sleeping space. This will be the first deluxe stay for all of us, and I cannot wait!

 

[Colleen27]

Like any good Disney nut, my first thought when booking a short notice trip was of making ADRs. Normally, I'd have them planned and ready for the early morning call 180 days before our trip. And of course, knowing how hard it is to get the best ADRs, I started making ours when we first started talking about this trip.

I really couldn't believe my luck in getting just what I wanted for DD's birthday dinner - dinner with Cinderella at the Grand Floridian Cafe. I had to have something at the Grand Floridian, because I'm planning to order a cake for DD and their cakes look simply amazing, and that was my first choice. Once I had that ADR, I kind of let them go to the back burner until we actually booked. I made an ADR for the Plaza for the P&PP night, but that wasn't my first choice and I knew I'd be trying to change it once I had my itinerary more set.

With only one park day and the Pirate & Princess party planned, the itinerary fell together pretty effortlessly. The party is the day before DD's birthday, and then we'll spend all day on her birthday at the Magic Kingdom. That accounts for our 2 full days at The World, and our arrival and departure days will be spent at SAB and enjoying the Boardwalk area.

Once I knew roughly where we'd be at dinner time each day and that we'd be on the dining plan, I set about finalizing my ADRs. I called Monday, 4 weeks before we arrive, and got an early dinner at Kona for before the Pirate & Princess Party. That had been my first choice before I booked the Plaza, but nothing early was available, and I'm really glad I checked again. Figuring out a TS meal near the resort for our first night was slightly more difficult. My mom doesn't like buffets, so I didn't want to do Cape May. I wasn't impressed with the menu at Spoodles or YC Galley. Finally I settled on the ESPN Club, even though they don't accept ADRs. That way, I can get my Tigers fix while we're gone.

So here's the plan so far:

Aug 20 - Our plane lands around 2. Swim, enjoy the resort. Dinner at ESPN Club. Movie on the beach.

Aug 21 - Sleep in, swim. Dinner at Kona at 5 and then off to the Pirate & Princess Party.

Aug 22 - Shanna's birthday. Magic Kingdom all day. Dinner at 7:30 at GFC, and watching Wishes and EWP from the dock at the GF before heading back to our resort.

Aug 23 - Swim, hang out around the resort. Take DD to pick a pearl on the Boardwalk as a birthday gift. Maybe play putt-putt. Our flight home leaves at 6:00.

 

[Colleen27]

That's where I'm stuck at the moment. I want to keep the trip secret until we leave, but I haven't a clue how to reveal the surprise. I'm not sure whether I want to bother with something clever, or just let them figure it out when we get to the airport. We won't be leaving terribly early, so the kids won't necessarily realize something is up when we head out, but we only fly for Disney and Mexico (I hate flying - most of our trips are road trips), so once we get to the airport they'll know we're going someplace major. And since it is such a short trip, I'll have no problem packing without them noticing. Heck, I've already started throwing things in the suitcase!

 

[Colleen27]

At CVS today, I found an old fashioned tin lunchbox with the Princesses on it, and decided that's what I'm going to use instead of a gift bag or basket for DD's birthday gift. This will be her first year of public school, so the lunchbox itself is something she'll love, and the little gifts I was planning for her (lanyard, autograph book & pen, sunglasses, Disney jibbitz) will fit inside.

 

[Colleen27]

I've been working on a welcome gift for DD's birthday trip, and today's project was a custom autograph book for the trip. I wanted something that I could use as a scrapbook when we're home, so I bought a kids' scrapbook kit that had a 40 page, 6 x 6 book that I decorated. I haven't done any pages yet, and I only plan to do a birthday-themed first page before we go. The rest will be left blank to use for autographs on one page and space for a picture of DD with the character on the facing page.

This is what I have so far:

The Cover

 

[Colleen27]

And the hurricane watch begins!

I, along with everyone else who is Disney bound in the next couple weeks, have started the hurricane watch as Dean decides on a path. I don't much care if it hits while we're there. A hurricane at Disney is probably better than a normal day at home, and I know Orlando is too far inland to get the worst of most storms. Rain won't slow us down, so unless it closes down the parks, we're fine with whatever the weather throws at us. I'm just hoping that it holds off long enough for us to get down there! The projected 5 day path puts it over the Dominican Republic on Sunday evening, too close for comfort but hopefully far enough off that it won't interfere with flights until after we land on Monday afternoon.

So here's hoping for enough pixie dust to get us to the Mouse. I'd hate to have to reschedule DD's birthday trip. The magic just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't ON her birthday!

Thank goodness I'm going to be busy the next few days with her birthday party, so I won't have too much time to watch the weather channel and dwell on the worst case scenarios.

 

[Colleen27]

Yay! Dean's headed south and it looks like our vacation is safe!

I have my plan cards finished and all my confirmations printed. And I had to stay up until midnight just to see that "2 days" on my ticker. Is it too soon for "too excited to sleep" to kick in?