A Newlywed's Very Merry PTR! December 2013 Complete!

[MarlaSingersLaundry]

I think I'm going to know every single person going at this point the time we are there! Lol! I've run into so many people through this PTR and I love it! I'm actually going to have to look at our schedule again because of the surprise I'm revealing on my next update I'm hoping to get to tonight. So, maybe after that our days might overlap some! Maybe I'll see you on the bus rides somewhere!

I'm so glad to hear a first hand experience of KTTK. I agree, when I looked at the tour and then the price, I was shocked! I expected something like this to be a lot more expensive. Plus, with our Disney Visa discount, we saved 20%! Even better!! I'm so excited to do it! I actually thought the Holiday D-Lights Tour looked really interesting, but DH said one tour this trip so I chose KTTK. We did the Wild Africa Trek on our honeymoon last July and LOVED it. I had so much fun. We went early on a July morning and the weather actually wasn't terrible, which I think made it a lot more enjoyable! It looks like we are both going to end up there with family. What a fun trip for the both of us!

I don't think we got a Kona ADR. Are you talking about 'Ohana? I was surprised by how busy it was to get one. I called at 7 A.M. on our 180 day mark and they said the earliest they had available was 8:20 P.M. It kind of messed up what DH and I were going to do that night, but oh well. I might be able to see if I can get the rest of my family added to it, but I'm starting to doubt that.

I'm thinking, with regards to BOG, that we are going to definitely have to try it at lunch, but I'm also going to keep trying to see what we can get. I do have to mess around with my ADRs a little bit with the change that was just made that I'll reveal in my update, but I'm sure everything will work out fine. If not, it wasn't meant to be!

We've only received a PIN once and it was great timing. It was our first trip together to the World and it was actually Devan's very first trip EVER! We were like... 19 or 20 I think and this made it much easier for a group of four college students to go. We stayed at a value resort but still, money is money. The more I can save, the happier I am!

Thank you about the weight loss! I wish I'd never gained it in the first place but it did. I still have about 20-25 pounds I'd like to lose and I'll get there at some point.

Yay! More time at Disney for you!! Glad you get a few more days! We'll stay a week, but I could stay longer. However, adult responsibilities won't allow us to stay longer than a week. Boo!

Yep, it's 'Ohana I was thinking of. Looking at the menu, I didn't think it would be a high priority ADR. Next time i will have to get in. I could get an ADR for the 7 of us at 9:40 pm! That is way too late for us. You had mentioned in another post about the Derby treating you very nice. (Love the Derby) We've found the signature restaurants will more often than not go out of their way to make your celebration magical. Not to say the other dining experience won't, but we've had good karma at the signatures. We went for a quick trip a few weeks ago to celebrate our 9th anniversary and had dinner at Artists Point. We had treated ourselves to a club level room at WL and filled up on apps before dinner. Not wanting to cancel our ADR, we planned on splitting an entree for dinner. Our waiter had other plans and brought us two appetizers and dessert for our anniversary. It was a very nice surprise! We also were given dessert at bluezoo and Tony's that trip. Very nice touch! Im all for Disney magic.

I hear you on the weight! I've lost 75, still have 10 to go, but Im not very motivated right now. I am going to "try" to wake up early to work out, but no likely to follow through on it. I am NOT a morning person! I have a hard enough time getting to work in the morning!

Your friends' wedding was beautiful! Looks like it was a good time. Your poor leg! Im glad your puppy is okay. We have cats and occasionally suffer minor scratches and love bites. Nothing like your leg, though.

-April

 

[CtinaDitty]

Yay! More time at Disney for you!! Glad you get a few more days! We'll stay a week, but I could stay longer. However, adult responsibilities won't allow us to stay longer than a week. Boo!

Yep, it's 'Ohana I was thinking of. Looking at the menu, I didn't think it would be a high priority ADR. Next time i will have to get in. I could get an ADR for the 7 of us at 9:40 pm! That is way too late for us. You had mentioned in another post about the Derby treating you very nice. (Love the Derby) We've found the signature restaurants will more often than not go out of their way to make your celebration magical. Not to say the other dining experience won't, but we've had good karma at the signatures. We went for a quick trip a few weeks ago to celebrate our 9th anniversary and had dinner at Artists Point. We had treated ourselves to a club level room at WL and filled up on apps before dinner. Not wanting to cancel our ADR, we planned on splitting an entree for dinner. Our waiter had other plans and brought us two appetizers and dessert for our anniversary. It was a very nice surprise! We also were given dessert at bluezoo and Tony's that trip. Very nice touch! Im all for Disney magic.

I hear you on the weight! I've lost 75, still have 10 to go, but Im not very motivated right now. I am going to "try" to wake up early to work out, but no likely to follow through on it. I am NOT a morning person! I have a hard enough time getting to work in the morning!

Your friends' wedding was beautiful! Looks like it was a good time. Your poor leg! Im glad your puppy is okay. We have cats and occasionally suffer minor scratches and love bites. Nothing like your leg, though.

-April

April,

I'm so excited to have more time. My hubby and I are kind of looking at this as a second chance at our Disneymoon. Our first honeymoon at Disney was full of resort problems (some of which I touch on my TR at the bottom of my signature). So, we are really looking forward (well, I am really looking forward) to more time. My parents, sister, her other half, and their baby will be there the second half of our trip so it'll be nice having some alone time before my family joins us.

I was looking for more 'Ohana ADRs to see if there were any earlier ones and they all seem to be really late. Weird! Ours is at 8:20 and that's late for me! Oh well. We're at the Poly so it'll be better than being at another resort and having to get home.

Yes, we absolutely LOVED the Brown Derby. It was the most magical night of our honeymoon. They spoiled us rotten. It was our only time we had ever dined there and it became a must-do every trip. It will always be a special reminder of our honeymoon and I love that.

I hear you on the weight. I've lost 62 even though my ticker below says something like... 54 or so. I just can't seem to STAY motivated. I'll have a good week and then a bad week. It's so frustrating. I'm hoping now that my friend's wedding is out of the way I'll have less stress on losing the weight and more freedom to lose it at my own will, if that makes sense. That's amazing you've lost that much! Congratulations!

Ellie is such a sweetheart. I'm not sure I've ever been scratched like that before. Boy, did those marks look grizzly after a few days. They were fun to show off! LOL! She's just like her mama, which is so funny. Laila is just like DH and Ellie, just like me. She's such a lover and you could tell she felt so bad when she realized what she had done. My sweet Ellie Belle.

 

[Disneychix]

Woo Hoo for extra Disney time! I am having a hard time swallowing the airfare right now for the days of our trip. I don't remember it ever being this bad before! I am contemplating having my dad drive us down in his big van (22hour drive!) and stay a few days with him in his trailer. I would especially love if he would bring the trailer to FW! But I haven't even asked him if he wants to do this yet, plus DH isn't too thrilled about the camping thing...

You looked beautiful at the wedding!

 

[CtinaDitty]

Woo Hoo for extra Disney time! I am having a hard time swallowing the airfare right now for the days of our trip. I don't remember it ever being this bad before! I am contemplating having my dad drive us down in his big van (22hour drive!) and stay a few days with him in his trailer. I would especially love if he would bring the trailer to FW! But I haven't even asked him if he wants to do this yet, plus DH isn't too thrilled about the camping thing...

You looked beautiful at the wedding!

Wow, sorry it has taken me so long to respond! Life has been a little bit crazy. I cannot wait for our mini-vacation in 11 days!

The airfare is ridiculous. I actually ended up purchasing it long before I wanted to simply because of the price. I'm glad we did because it's saved us quite a bit so far. You know it's bad when you can book an extra day at Disney and still be saving money just by flying back a different day. I'm not sure I've ever seen airfare like this. It's so unfortunate! I spoke to my DH about driving and he just looked like me like I was crazy. His exact words were, "I don't think we'd be saving as much money as you think." As if I hadn't done the math already. lol.

Thank you! We had a blast at their wedding and I was honored to be a part of it. My MIL's wedding is in a month so we'll be doing it all over again then. Did I mention I'm ready for a vacation??

 

[CtinaDitty]

Well, Devan and I leave for our FIRST WEDDING ANNIVERSARY trip in 11 days!!! I cannot believe it has already been almost a year... It has flown by! In this first year we've gone through a lot of things we weren't anticipating. Devan had an emergency appendectomy, we brought Ellie home, my sister had a baby, our friends got married, and I switched jobs twice. It's been an insane year but I can't wait for many, many more! I'm so blessed that I was able to marry my best friend, one that I had known since I was 12 years old. This next year will no doubt bring many adventures and I'm so ready to take them on with him!

In honor of anniversary coming up, I hope you don't mind that I'm going to post some pictures from our wedding day!













My husband is so silly!







HIDDEN MICKEY!










This shot has become famous... LOL!







This photo is during his vows when he started incorporating DISNEY into them. "You are the Minnie to my Mickey, the Beauty to my Beast, and the Cinderella to my Prince Charming."



The last photo I'll leave you with (if you haven't thrown up by now, lol) is what I saw him in when we had our wedding rehearsal the night before.



How could I not marry this guy, right??

Continued in next post due to me deciding you needed a million pictures of us from our wedding day! LOL!

 

[CtinaDitty]

Welcome back!

I promise no more wedding pictures today... I am very excited to be going on our anniversary trip for a few reasons. After all, we are only...

1. I just got stung in the eye from a bee and it HURT.
2. Life has been crazy lately and we just need a break from everything.
3. Colorado is BEAUTIFUL.
4. I want to be scared by a million ghosts.
5. I love vacationing with just him.
6. This is a completely different kind of trip for us (aka NOT Disney) and it'll be nice to branch out a bit.

I have done all of the planning for this trip (who's surprised, right?) and Devan makes the comment, "Disney is easier isn't it? I mean, they do everything for you and they really spoil you." Yes, honey. They do. Glad you've finally realized that.

I'll tell you a little about this trip because it really is going to be quite a different trip for us!

Where we are staying: The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO

Dates: July 19-July 22
What's so special about this trip: GHOSTS

Yes, you heard me right. GHOSTS. The Stanley Hotel has quite a history to it. What's made it famous is it's link to the infamous movie The Shining. Stephen King actually stayed at the Stanley Hotel in room 217. He had many paranormal experiences during his stay and used those as the inspiration to write his book The Shining. Pretty crazy, right?? So, Devan and I will be flying into Denver Friday night, staying at the airport hotel, and then Driving the hour and a half it takes to get to Estes Park in the morning. We'll be visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park as well as hopefully horseback riding in the mountains.

Two of the REALLY neat experiences we already have booked include the Stanley Hotel Tour, which is a 90 minute tour about the history of the Stanley. The second, which I'm really excited/nervous for is the actual ghost investigation we will be partaking. It's a 5 hour ghost investigation and it starts at 9 P.M. and goes throughout the night. We were very lucky this was going on while we were there because it is not an every day/every week thing. Should be interesting!

As far as Disney goes, I'm not going to lie. I'm overwhelmed. Ever since we added those two days I've been so lost as to what to do with my ADRs. I feel I really need to just sit down and hammer through them again but I just can't make myself sit down and do it. Another thing is we are there with my family half of the time. Are they going to be annoyed that we aren't eating with them very often? They don't have the dining plan so they don't want to eat at expensive places every night. Most of the time when my family goes, we'll eat QS almost the entire time (WHICH IS FINE) but when you have the dining plan that's not how it goes. So, I really just need to sit down and work it out. I need to remember that this was our trip first and that not having dinner with my family every night isn't going to affect anything. I am excited to know that once we leave for Colorado, Disney will only be 136 days away! That doesn't seem so bad! I'll be starting our Disney countdown as soon as we get back from Colorado.

As for life on the homestead, everyone's been great! We just went to a family reunion on my husband's side yesterday. Here's a few photos from that!



These are all my nieces and nephews on Devan's side. Love them to death!



Here's Devan and me on the 4th of July! We went to see Lone Ranger that morning and LOVED it! My DH said he thinks he might like it better than the original POTC! Can you believe it?



Devan and I celebrated the 4th of July on Saturday, June 29th. The small town we live in always has a "Freedom Celebration" the Saturday before the 4th. We're lucky that we can see the fireworks from our culdesac.



As always, I have to show you a few pics of the pups.

Here's Ellie being the best laundry helper ever!



She's getting so darn big!



This is the only picture I have of Laila and it's not a great one because Ellie's blocking her! LOL!



The last two are of my growing nephew! He is getting so big and is about 3.5 months old now!





I hope you all have a magical week! I hope to post again before I leave for Colorado! After this trip, it's all downhill to Disney!!!

 

[CtinaDitty]

Is anyone out there?

The DH and I leave for Colorado today! In about 2.5 hours actually we will be heading to the airport! My sister and her college roommate will be housesitting and watching our sweet Laila and Ellie. Boy, am I going to miss those girls... This will be the longest we've ever been away from Ellie. We've only ever been away from her for one day before and this time it will be three. She's a very emotional girl, which of course makes me worry.

Anyway, I'm sure Auntie Kate will take great care of them!

I started a new countdown today!



I figured, why wait until we get back?

Welp, DH has been asleep while I'm manning the sprinklers! Hoping for some MUCH needed rain while we're gone! I'm going to go make sure we have everything ready to go so we can head to my parents' house before we leave to say bye!

Have a great weekend you all!

I promise to come back with some great Disney info! I'm finally going to sit down on the plane and rack my brains through our ADRs and such.

One last thing, happy anniversary (tomorrow) to my sweet, funny hubby! I can't believe it's been a year and I can't believe how lucky I am to be loved by you. I look forward to many more years with you! I love you!!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I'm all caught up and hope to stay that way now that I have a new computer lol Congratulations on your one year anniversary!!! I hope that you have a wonderful trip to Colorado.

And more Disney days are always awesome!

 

[CtinaDitty]

Just posting to say that I'm super annoyed with Photobucket right now. Apparently, I've used up all of my free bandwith. I think I will be trying out flickr from now on because I'm not sure there's anyway to make all of the photos I've shared in any of my PTRs/TRs show up again... Really bummed...

 

[CtinaDitty]

I'm all caught up and hope to stay that way now that I have a new computer lol Congratulations on your one year anniversary!!! I hope that you have a wonderful trip to Colorado.

And more Disney days are always awesome!

Yay for a new computer!! Thanks! We had a great trip to Colorado, one I'm hoping to share a bit about if I can get a flickr account started up. Still frustrated about photobucket making all of my current pictures look unavailable. I'm always up for more Disney days!!! I was surprised by how much Disney I found in Estes Park!

 

[Disneychix]

Hope you had a wonderful Anny trip!
BTW-I can see your pics. Sometimes Photobucket just takes a few days to 'reset' itself.

When did you cut your hair? It looks short in the July pics you posted, CUTE!

Can't wait for you to get started again

 

[CtinaDitty]

Hope you had a wonderful Anny trip!
BTW-I can see your pics. Sometimes Photobucket just takes a few days to 'reset' itself.

When did you cut your hair? It looks short in the July pics you posted, CUTE!

Can't wait for you to get started again

Well, I've had my hair short since the day after our wedding last year. I think it looked shorter in the July pictures because I was wearing it curly and it looks super short when it's curly.

We had a fantastic anniversary trip! I'm getting ready to write an update about it! I can see my pictures now too. How strange! I started a flickr account anyway, lol.

 

[CtinaDitty]

Well, we are back from our first anniversary trip! It was an amazing time, though we missed our puppies dearly! It's tough being away from them... Especially when it seems like everyone in Estes Park had their dogs with them! Our hotel allowed you to bring ONE dog under 50 pounds. Well, we have two and both are over 50 pounds so that didn't help us much!

This was my husband and my's first trip together that wasn't Disney World unless you count going to the lake (which I don't really count). This was a new experience for both of us and we just had a fantastic time. Estes Park is a really neat little area. It has a lot of history and everything is within walking distance. I hope you don't mind if I write a little bit about my trip after I finish this update!

I did keep my promise and I did work a little bit on the scheduling since we added those two days. Our plane ride was only an hour and a half (can't all plane rides be that short??) so I had some time to work on it.

Monday, December 2-Arrival Day!!
Parks: DTD, MK (EMH until 11 PM)
ADRs: Currently Liberty Tree Tavern, but we don't have the dining plan that day so I'm not sure we are going to keep this. This is the only day we do not have the dining plan now.

Tuesday, December 3
We move from All Star Movies to the Poly! We'll be at the Poly for the rest of our stay!!
We have the KTTK Tour at 8:30 A.M.
Parks: Obviously MK for the KTTK Tour, then HS
ADRs: The Hollywood Brown Derby at 5:05 P.M.
We could always do Fantasmic this day at 6:45 P.M. but with dinner we would probably be cutting it pretty short and I'm sure my family would want to see Fantasmic as well.

Wednesday, December 4
My family will arrive this evening!
Start at AK (EMH, opens at 8:00 A.M.)
End at Epcot or DTD
ADRs: Rainforest Cafe AK at 12:15 P.M.
'Ohana at 8:20 P.M.

Thursday, December 5th
We can go wherever we want this morning. We have the MVMCP this night and admission starts at 4 P.M.
The other parks hours are as follows:
MK 8-7 (Doubt we'll start here as we'll be spending all evening here)
Epcot 9-9:30
HS 9-8
AK 9-5
ADRs: We have none currently.

Friday, December 6th
Parks: Start at HS, end at Epcot (EMH until 11:30 P.M.)
ADRs: Garden Grill at 6:15 P.M.

Saturday, December 7th
This is another free day.
The park hours are as follows:
MK 9-10
Epcot 9-9:30
HS 8-8
AK 9-5
ADRs: We have none currently.

Sunday, December 8th-Last Full Day
Parks: Start at MK, end at HS
ADRs: None Currently.
Fantasmic at 6:45 P.M.!!

Monday, December 9th-Departure Day
We have an early flight out that gets us home around noon. I figure since we have to work the next day we might as well get home and get settled back into our routines.

With the schedule right now this puts us at having only 4 TS Credits used and we need to use 5 to get the benefit of our DP (even though it's free). So, I'll need to figure out which day I want to make another ADR. It'll probably be the day of the MVMCP since we know we'll be at MK, but I'm not sure yet...

Anyway, I did look at our plans again and this is what I came up with. It's probably better we have a more free schedule as we'll have Pippin and he'll be about 8-9 months old. So, who knows how fussy he'll be.

I'll probably write up our Anniversary trip tomorrow as I'm really engrossed in watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers EXTENDED EDITION right now. I'm such a nerd and I love it.

 

[Disneychix]

We took my DS when he was 7 months and he enjoyed breakfast at CP. I think you need to add a character breakfast for the little guy!

Where is your family staying?

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Welcome back! I'm glad that you had a good time. It is so hard to leave the pups, I miss mine if I leave for an hour Your plans look great and you must be getting excited, December is going to be here so soon!!

 

[CtinaDitty]

We took my DS when he was 7 months and he enjoyed breakfast at CP. I think you need to add a character breakfast for the little guy!

Where is your family staying?

My family is staying off property somewhere. The only reason they're going is they got a deal that if they took a tour they'd get a free trip to Orlando. So, not quite sure where they are staying! I actually spoke to my sister and my mom today if they'd be interested in a character breakfast. They said they'd love to do it but all of the places are pretty expensive so they'd rather wait until Pip gets older.

I do have to say this... Pippin for some reason, loves to stare and smile at me... He does it all the time and everyone notices. I just love that my nephew seems to like looking at me. Love that little guy so much!


Untitled by MyDisneyObsession, on Flickr

Welcome back! I'm glad that you had a good time. It is so hard to leave the pups, I miss mine if I leave for an hour Your plans look great and you must be getting excited, December is going to be here so soon!!

Thanks! I'm the same way with my girls... I feel so guilty every morning when I leave for work because I have to leave them. How am I going to be when I have kids? AH! The plans are definitely coming along! For some reason, this trip doesn't feel real yet! Not quite sure why... Maybe it's because I have so much going on right now that my brain's not really there. I feel like I'm planning an imaginary trip! LOL! Thankfully, it's not! I can't believe we're only 124 days away! So excited!!

 

[CtinaDitty]

Hey everyone!

Just posting a quick little update here! I've been sick for the last two weeks and haven't had the energy to really get on here until today. SO, I know I promised a little about my Colorado trip, not to mention... DISNEY IS ONLY 112 DAYS AWAY OR ABOUT 3.5 MONTHS?! How is it that it's so close?! I am so excited! I'm also excited to announce that we will be going to Disney next year as well!!!! Woot woot! I'm hoping that trip will be a little different for me since we will be wanting to start a family before then, but who can't be excited about a trip to Disney at any time of the year?! I'm not sure when we're going but it's really up to DH and me. I think it's going to be another family trip, which would be nice if I do end up being pregnant since I'll have a buddy for a lot of the rides that I can't ride. Oh, there I go again... Daydreaming about the future... Here's something not too far off in the future... We should be receiving our ME stuff in about 2.5 months! Woot woot!!

Anyway, I'll update later this week!

 

[CtinaDitty]

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!

So... I had this big, lost post typed up, didn't finish it, told DH NOT to close out of Chrome and what does he do? I mean, I know I should have saved it in Word and such but I didn't. Why couldn't it just have auto-saved? LOL. Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyway, DH and I are off to see "We're the Millers" tonight at the Cinema Suites! Date night! I should have time to redo my post tomorrow after we celebrate my little sister's 22nd scared1 birthday as we're hosting a family lunch BBQ for her.

Have a good night! I'll try and update tomorrow!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I hate when posts disappear after you have them all typed out!!

Your trip is getting so close, you must be getting excited! I will admit that I am quite jealous lol And how awesome that you get to go next year as well.

I look forward to reading your update when you can get it posted

 

[Lorelei528]

Hi! I'm here!
I posted on your post on the DISboards on FB...

I'm LOVING your PTR!! What bums me out, is our touring plans do not coincide at all! bummer. Also, we are doing MVMCP on the 3rd.....

We also have furbabies. 2 cats (McCormack and Marley) and our dog Shannon.

I am LOVING all of your pictures!!!

I'm not doing a PTR, but am planning on doing a TR.

This morning I was finally able to make an ADR for California Grill! I'm just about done with everything now...just waiting for the Disney Florist website to update their Christmas stuff and we have to continue to save and pay off some things for the trip. Oh! And order our Photopass+!