punkin413
feel the magic, dang it!
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2007
- Messages
- 9,581
(this space is reserved for an index in order to make finding future installments a bit easier!)
DAWN'S TR INDEX
Pre-TR #1 - intro - page 1, post 1 (you're reading it)
Pre-TR #1, part 2 - tara's intro - page 1, post 5
Pre-TR #2 - itinerary & shopping update - page 2, post 21
Pre-TR #3 - shopping update - page 4, post 59
Pre-TR #4 - annual pass arrives! - page 6, post 81
Pre-TR #5 - more shopping! - page 8, post 107
Pre-TR # 6 - shopping update - i got my crocs! - page 10, post 147
Pre-TR #7 - transportation issues - page 11, post 159
Pre-TR #8 - small update and MINI SAVANNAH TR - page 13, posts 190 & 191
Pre-TR #9 - last shopping update - page 15, post 214
Day 1 - the drive and check-in - page 20, post 292
im ba----ack!!! yes, im going to disney again ..even if its just for a short time! a little background for anyone who doesnt know me .
DH and i went to WDW in may of 07. we both hadnt been in over 15 years and it was long overdue. we had the BEST time!!!! if youre interested in that TR, its linked below in my siggie (the one about 4 days of disney fun or something like that). well be back again in april 08. were staying at SSR and we cant wait!!!
nope, not DVC members
..we wish! i rented points from eventer98, who is the best DISer friend a girl could have!
speaking of eventer98 (a/k/a tara), she is welcome to join this TR at any time since shes going to be with us for this september trip .i will share my TR!!! ill explain more about those details later.
so, how did this trip come to be? well, before i get to that, let me just digress for a minute. after we got back from disney in may, we started playing with dates to go back. we considered september because of the free dining, but decided we had too much going on during that time (DHs school, my brothers 21st birthday, my best friends wedding), so we nixed the idea. in june we went ahead and set the trip for april 08 since i could rent DVC points from tara 11 months ahead of time. so now .i just had to wait 10 months!!!!!! not fun!
a few weeks later i was playing with ideas for my friend erins 30th birthday. she, DH and a couple of other friends threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday last year and i had to pay her back some way. so guess what the first thing that popped into my head was??? you guessed it a trip to disney!!!
so i know what youre saying
dawn, youre just finding an excuse to go back. youre darn right i am! 
i asked DH if he was interested in going on this quickie trip, to which he responded, no way in h*ll. i can wait til april. he loves disney, but he doesnt love disney apparently as much as i do.
i called erin and ran the idea by her. of course she was thrilled. who wouldnt be??? i told her id get together some figures and get back with her.
first of all, let me just say that erins birthday is november 11th. um well, we decided to go in september because of the free dining option. so its an early birthday celebration.
to make a VERY long and boring story short, i couldnt get the free dining because i couldnt afford anything but value and those were all booked. we decided to stay off-site at a cheap hotel and pay for dining (no, i didnt cancel the trip i couldnt disappoint my friend!
), until tara offered us a room for FREE (yes, i said FREE
..does she rock or what?) at OKW. did you say DVC resort for free??? 
i was thrilled! the only catch is that wed have to be on the same dining plan as her and sparkie (her roommate for the trip) and that would be for four days. at first i said no, then i did some disney math 
and figured out it would only be like $25 per person more than wed be taking for food anyway, so when you figure in the hotel price wed be paying if not staying at OKW with tara, were actually saving money. plus were buying 4 days of the DDP to be used in 2.5 days. were not going to have to pay for ANY FOOD and well be stuffed! 
count me in!
so we made our plans to stay with tara and started coming up with our itinerary (to be spelled out later on). the other big reason i wanted to go during this time is there was a peep meet at ohanas. whats a peep, you may ask? well, a peep is a member of the awesome weight loss forum im part of here on the DIS. because of my peeps, ive lost 24 pounds (and im still counting!). they are hilarious, supportive, wonderful people and im soooooooo glad i get to meet some of them!
a couple weeks later tara PMed me and said that shed lost both of her travelmates for this trip due to some unforeseen circumstances (sparkie - we love you! dance - we're still keeping our fingers crossed for you!!!) and was wondering if she could tag along with us? of course!!! the more the merrier! so she may be joining this TR at some point. i think she and erin will get along great since theyre both harry potter freaks!
so, to sum it up, were staying at OKW with tara in a studio, were arriving late friday night, september 21st and leaving monday afternoon, september 24th and were on the DDP for 4 days (which will be used up in 2.5 days!).
on to the cast .
thats me on the right. im dawn. nice to "meet" ya (if i already havent!). im 31 years old, a cancer and i enjoy long walks on the beach in the moonlight.
just kidding. you may already know me if youre reading this. if not, go to my TR from may 07 to get the gist (linked in my siggie).
thats erin on the left...the birthday girl. she actually wont be 30 until november, but hey, whos really paying attention to the dates, right? erin is one of my favorite people. shes hilarious. we have this weird relationship where i can yell at her and her at me and we dont feel bad about it later .sorta like sisters ..but not.
erin is outspoken .
erin is a fashionista ..
erin likes beer ..
but apparently does not care for moonshine .
erin and i like to be silly ..
a little background on us ..
i met erin about 7 years ago when i was working at chilis. i worked full time at a law firm as a legal assistant and id pick up shifts on the weekends since my DH (then boyfriend) was the kitchen supervisor there. erin was a server there and knew of me, but didnt know me. anyway, one day were both working a saturday lunch shift and it was right around christmas. this crazy psycho lady
was also working at chilis and she brought in a sheet pan with i kid you not- york peppermint patties on it. i walked by it and said, what the heck is this? erin said, oh, joyce brought those in for us for christmas. she made them. i of course responded, she did not
those are freakin york peppermint patties. however, i did not know that crazy psycho lady was standing behind me as i said this. erin did the whole shut up or youre gonna get your throat slashed move so i shut up real fast. needless to say, crazy psycho lady did not hunt me down and kill me in my sleep for making fun of her york peppermint patties, but erin and i got a good laugh out of it and became friends forever!
obviously, we have a third person in our cast who i've never actually met in person, but have come to know as a very generous and fun person who i have an unbelievable amount of things in common with! her name is tara and she's a DISer (eventer98). i can't wait to meet her! it's very eery.....our husbands' names are ray, our anniversaries are on april 13th, we're the same age, we're the same build...and the list goes on. very strange......but in a cool sorta way! anyway, i hope she joins this TR and can post some pics of herself and you guys can get to know her better, too!
funny story i have to include about erin .erin was in my wedding. thats her right next to me on the right. if youre wondering (which youre probably not), my other ladies were (from left to right) my best friend from high school, my sister and DHs sister. oh, and the cutie flower girls ..the bigger one is a friends little girl and the little one is my best friend from high schools little girls whos now 6 years old!!! time flies when you're having fun, i guess.
anyway, back to the funny story about erin and my wedding. erin sang at my wedding .see?
she has a beautiful voice. she sang a song as my stepbrothers were lighting the candles right before the actual ceremony started. well, after she sang, she walked back to the lobby because thats where we were all gathered, getting ready to start the wedding. as theyre lining everyone up, she looks at me with panic in her eyes and says, i dont have my flowers. i dont know where my flowers are. maybe i had them before i sang and left them up on the front pew. GREAT!
so my stepdad, whos getting ready to walk my mom down the aisle, says, ill see if theyre up there when i get up there and if they are, ill send them back with an usher. okay
..good plan. only my stepdad gets up to the front of the church and looks back at us and shrugs. no flowers. at this point, i couldnt really care less if she had her flowers or not. i had been so stressed out over the past few days that i just flat out didnt care. i just told her, when i get up there and hand my flowers to brooke (my sister), then you just take brookes flowers so youll be holding something.
erin looks relieved. okay.
then she snatches brookes flowers away!!!
um .no. i said when i get up there and give my flowers to brooke, not right now!
but that means i wont have any flowers to carry!
exactly! youre not taking brookes. SHE didnt lose HER flowers!!!!
the result was erin walking down the aisle with her hands folded at her chest ..SO FUNNY!!!! the video is priceless. its one of those things i wouldnt change because it made our day special ..in an odd sort of way.
i could only dig up one picture .check her out!
by the way, we found her flowers in the dressing room after the ceremony.
okay so thats all for now. i will be back soon with our itinerary and other exciting details. WELCOME TO MY TR!!!!!!!! and thanks for reading!
54 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!!!!!
DAWN'S TR INDEX
Pre-TR #1 - intro - page 1, post 1 (you're reading it)
Pre-TR #1, part 2 - tara's intro - page 1, post 5
Pre-TR #2 - itinerary & shopping update - page 2, post 21
Pre-TR #3 - shopping update - page 4, post 59
Pre-TR #4 - annual pass arrives! - page 6, post 81
Pre-TR #5 - more shopping! - page 8, post 107
Pre-TR # 6 - shopping update - i got my crocs! - page 10, post 147
Pre-TR #7 - transportation issues - page 11, post 159
Pre-TR #8 - small update and MINI SAVANNAH TR - page 13, posts 190 & 191
Pre-TR #9 - last shopping update - page 15, post 214
Day 1 - the drive and check-in - page 20, post 292
im ba----ack!!! yes, im going to disney again ..even if its just for a short time! a little background for anyone who doesnt know me .
DH and i went to WDW in may of 07. we both hadnt been in over 15 years and it was long overdue. we had the BEST time!!!! if youre interested in that TR, its linked below in my siggie (the one about 4 days of disney fun or something like that). well be back again in april 08. were staying at SSR and we cant wait!!!
nope, not DVC members
..we wish! i rented points from eventer98, who is the best DISer friend a girl could have!speaking of eventer98 (a/k/a tara), she is welcome to join this TR at any time since shes going to be with us for this september trip .i will share my TR!!! ill explain more about those details later.
so, how did this trip come to be? well, before i get to that, let me just digress for a minute. after we got back from disney in may, we started playing with dates to go back. we considered september because of the free dining, but decided we had too much going on during that time (DHs school, my brothers 21st birthday, my best friends wedding), so we nixed the idea. in june we went ahead and set the trip for april 08 since i could rent DVC points from tara 11 months ahead of time. so now .i just had to wait 10 months!!!!!! not fun!
a few weeks later i was playing with ideas for my friend erins 30th birthday. she, DH and a couple of other friends threw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday last year and i had to pay her back some way. so guess what the first thing that popped into my head was??? you guessed it a trip to disney!!!
so i know what youre saying
dawn, youre just finding an excuse to go back. youre darn right i am! i asked DH if he was interested in going on this quickie trip, to which he responded, no way in h*ll. i can wait til april. he loves disney, but he doesnt love disney apparently as much as i do. i called erin and ran the idea by her. of course she was thrilled. who wouldnt be??? i told her id get together some figures and get back with her.
first of all, let me just say that erins birthday is november 11th. um well, we decided to go in september because of the free dining option. so its an early birthday celebration.
to make a VERY long and boring story short, i couldnt get the free dining because i couldnt afford anything but value and those were all booked. we decided to stay off-site at a cheap hotel and pay for dining (no, i didnt cancel the trip i couldnt disappoint my friend!
), until tara offered us a room for FREE (yes, i said FREE
..does she rock or what?) at OKW. did you say DVC resort for free??? i was thrilled! the only catch is that wed have to be on the same dining plan as her and sparkie (her roommate for the trip) and that would be for four days. at first i said no, then i did some disney math and figured out it would only be like $25 per person more than wed be taking for food anyway, so when you figure in the hotel price wed be paying if not staying at OKW with tara, were actually saving money. plus were buying 4 days of the DDP to be used in 2.5 days. were not going to have to pay for ANY FOOD and well be stuffed! count me in!so we made our plans to stay with tara and started coming up with our itinerary (to be spelled out later on). the other big reason i wanted to go during this time is there was a peep meet at ohanas. whats a peep, you may ask? well, a peep is a member of the awesome weight loss forum im part of here on the DIS. because of my peeps, ive lost 24 pounds (and im still counting!). they are hilarious, supportive, wonderful people and im soooooooo glad i get to meet some of them!
a couple weeks later tara PMed me and said that shed lost both of her travelmates for this trip due to some unforeseen circumstances (sparkie - we love you! dance - we're still keeping our fingers crossed for you!!!) and was wondering if she could tag along with us? of course!!! the more the merrier! so she may be joining this TR at some point. i think she and erin will get along great since theyre both harry potter freaks!
so, to sum it up, were staying at OKW with tara in a studio, were arriving late friday night, september 21st and leaving monday afternoon, september 24th and were on the DDP for 4 days (which will be used up in 2.5 days!).
on to the cast .
thats me on the right. im dawn. nice to "meet" ya (if i already havent!). im 31 years old, a cancer and i enjoy long walks on the beach in the moonlight.
just kidding. you may already know me if youre reading this. if not, go to my TR from may 07 to get the gist (linked in my siggie).thats erin on the left...the birthday girl. she actually wont be 30 until november, but hey, whos really paying attention to the dates, right? erin is one of my favorite people. shes hilarious. we have this weird relationship where i can yell at her and her at me and we dont feel bad about it later .sorta like sisters ..but not.
erin is outspoken .
erin is a fashionista ..
erin likes beer ..
but apparently does not care for moonshine .
erin and i like to be silly ..
a little background on us ..
i met erin about 7 years ago when i was working at chilis. i worked full time at a law firm as a legal assistant and id pick up shifts on the weekends since my DH (then boyfriend) was the kitchen supervisor there. erin was a server there and knew of me, but didnt know me. anyway, one day were both working a saturday lunch shift and it was right around christmas. this crazy psycho lady
was also working at chilis and she brought in a sheet pan with i kid you not- york peppermint patties on it. i walked by it and said, what the heck is this? erin said, oh, joyce brought those in for us for christmas. she made them. i of course responded, she did not
those are freakin york peppermint patties. however, i did not know that crazy psycho lady was standing behind me as i said this. erin did the whole shut up or youre gonna get your throat slashed move so i shut up real fast. needless to say, crazy psycho lady did not hunt me down and kill me in my sleep for making fun of her york peppermint patties, but erin and i got a good laugh out of it and became friends forever! obviously, we have a third person in our cast who i've never actually met in person, but have come to know as a very generous and fun person who i have an unbelievable amount of things in common with! her name is tara and she's a DISer (eventer98). i can't wait to meet her! it's very eery.....our husbands' names are ray, our anniversaries are on april 13th, we're the same age, we're the same build...and the list goes on. very strange......but in a cool sorta way! anyway, i hope she joins this TR and can post some pics of herself and you guys can get to know her better, too!
funny story i have to include about erin .erin was in my wedding. thats her right next to me on the right. if youre wondering (which youre probably not), my other ladies were (from left to right) my best friend from high school, my sister and DHs sister. oh, and the cutie flower girls ..the bigger one is a friends little girl and the little one is my best friend from high schools little girls whos now 6 years old!!! time flies when you're having fun, i guess.
anyway, back to the funny story about erin and my wedding. erin sang at my wedding .see?
she has a beautiful voice. she sang a song as my stepbrothers were lighting the candles right before the actual ceremony started. well, after she sang, she walked back to the lobby because thats where we were all gathered, getting ready to start the wedding. as theyre lining everyone up, she looks at me with panic in her eyes and says, i dont have my flowers. i dont know where my flowers are. maybe i had them before i sang and left them up on the front pew. GREAT!
so my stepdad, whos getting ready to walk my mom down the aisle, says, ill see if theyre up there when i get up there and if they are, ill send them back with an usher. okay
..good plan. only my stepdad gets up to the front of the church and looks back at us and shrugs. no flowers. at this point, i couldnt really care less if she had her flowers or not. i had been so stressed out over the past few days that i just flat out didnt care. i just told her, when i get up there and hand my flowers to brooke (my sister), then you just take brookes flowers so youll be holding something. erin looks relieved. okay.
then she snatches brookes flowers away!!!
um .no. i said when i get up there and give my flowers to brooke, not right now!
but that means i wont have any flowers to carry!
exactly! youre not taking brookes. SHE didnt lose HER flowers!!!!
the result was erin walking down the aisle with her hands folded at her chest ..SO FUNNY!!!! the video is priceless. its one of those things i wouldnt change because it made our day special ..in an odd sort of way.
i could only dig up one picture .check her out!
by the way, we found her flowers in the dressing room after the ceremony.
okay so thats all for now. i will be back soon with our itinerary and other exciting details. WELCOME TO MY TR!!!!!!!! and thanks for reading!
54 DAYS AND COUNTING!!!!!!!
Oh well. I just got back from WDW on July 2nd where we spend 9 nights for our honeymoon. DH just started a new job so he can't join me in Sept...we are planning to go for a short trip with my friend's family next Aug. and a long Xmas trip next year. 
We teased her about that for a long time!
Great start! So glad your doing a pre tripie! 
welcome!
