A Northern Family's Southern Getaway -Take 2 Jan 2010 PTR Updated 1/15 SNACKS

Northern Disney Girl

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Joined
Feb 26, 2008
A Northern Family's Southern Getaway – Take 2
~A January 2010 PTR~



Hello! Welcome to this, the Pre Trip Report for our second Disney Vacation! :woohoo: I appreciate you stopping by to say hello. :goodvibes I hope that you will enjoy reading along as we plan for our not too distant trip to Walt Disney World.

Before we get much furthur, please allow me to introduce myself and the rest of my family!

THE WHO

Me (Kim) - SAHM, daycare provider and obsessed planner and lover of all things Disney.

DH (Ken) – Computer geek, drama nerd and holds the “official” title of “Best Dad EVER”

DD8 (Emily) – Big sister, reader extrordinaire, plays piano amd loves to create and craft, also a very excellent draw-er!

DD6 (Natalie) – Little sister, loves reading, dressing up, baking with mom and is the best whistler I know!

Here is a picture of us from our last trip this past January 2009.

DSC02281.jpg


Well, now that you know who we are, I'll just bet you are curious to find out the details of our next trip! popcorn:: Well, they will be posted soon, along with a fun surprise! ;)

Up next.......The When, The Where and The How!

 
Hey Kim!!! Good start!! I love it!!! that picture is so cute!!!!! Can't wait for you to get started!!!!
 
Hey, I finally made it on a first page of someone's PTR!!

Looking good, and I'll be subbing to read along!
 


Such a great looking family!! I can't wait to hear about your planning adventure.
 
THE WHEN THE HOW AND THE WHERE

Thanks for sticking around/ coming back! :thumbsup2

Before I get to The When, The Where and The How, I have a little surprise for all of you!

I have a co-author! :) My Dh, Ken and I decided that it would be fun to share this PTR!:yay: He will be chiming in with his take on things posting under his DIS name of FIRESTARTER!

To keep you from getting confused, Ken will be posting in BLUE!

Now, let's get to the details! :cool1: Cause that's why you're all here right? :surfweb:

THE WHEN


Our vacation will officially begin at 11am in the morning on January 25th, 2010.

That morning one of us will take the girls to school for the first period of the day. When said child deliverer returns home by approximately 8:50am, we will commense furious finishing of packing and loading of the van!

We will do all the necessary things a family must do to keep the house tight and sfe while on vacation. Oh yes and feed the cat too! The house and cat will be regularly checked upon by various members of family and trusted friends!

At exactly 10:50am, we will depart our driveway for the .6mile drive to the girls school where, upon arrival, we will collect the children, buckle them into their seatbelts/ booster seats and begin our vacation! :car:

THE HOW

We discovered in the planning of our previous trip that flying out of Canada into the U.S. is extremely expensive!

So, the fact that we live just 6.5 hrs from a Major American Flight hub, we decided to investigate what it would cost to fly from Minneapolis! I knew from our adventure last year that flight prices can fluctuate quite frequently!

So I began watching, and watching, and watching! Finally about the middle of August, those airfares began to drop! :cheer2:

I watched for a day or so :surfweb: and saw something very amazing! We could fly R/T to Orlando from MSP for just over $600 CANADIAN!!! Needless to say, we snapped that deal up in a hurry! :woohoo:

So we will fly from Minneapolis to Orlando on Sun Country airlines at 8am on Tuesday January 26th. We will arrive in sunny Orlando at 12noon!

Once we arrive in Orlando, we will catch Disney's Magical Express to our Resort!

THE WHERE

By now, the anticipation of knowing where we will be spending our Winter Wonderlude must have you quaking in your computer chair! :lmao: Well, I won't keep you in suspense much longer! ;)

Our trip last year, we had originally booked to stay at POFQ. Well, when the 4/7 deal came out we were able to upgrade to WL! That was so sweet! We absolutely loved the Wilderness Lodge! If you have never stayed there I would highly recommend trying it out!

As much as we liked WL, this time around we are in the mood to try something a little bit different. So......we will be spending 7 nights at Port Orleans French Quarter!

We are very excited and can not wait to be there! I have looked at lots of pictures and I think it is going to be amazing!

Up next......park plans and ADRs
 


How fun that Ken is coming along too!! I love his humor!!!! I like to try new places too---we can't do the WL, because they only allow 4 in a room...we dont want to pay more for a suite! But I would like to eat over there!!!
 
I'm here ! I am excited you're staying at POFQ - that's been on our list every year, but the 4/3 always allows us something new ;)We were at WL last Jan as well and loved it!
Flying out of the US is much cheaper. We live very close to the Buffalo boarder, however we have never flown out of Buffalo- yet... last Jan the pricing wasn't there for us, we'd need to go down the night before, hotel and park n fly trumped that idea. This trip our because our flight was so good last year I am rebooking the same flight out of Toronto.

Thank you for sharing your plans with us! :goodvibes

I made page 1
 
How fun that Ken is coming along too!! I love his humor!!!! I like to try new places too---we can't do the WL, because they only allow 4 in a room...we dont want to pay more for a suite! But I would like to eat over there!!!

I am waiting for my hubby to post his views! He told me not to post the third chapter until he had a chance to comment on this posting. Yeah, I guess being a family of 5 you are kind of limited on where you can stay. My sister is currently planning their first trip for MArch 2010 and they just booked the cabins with the 4/7 deal. :) They have 2 boys and a girl too! pirate: pirate: princess:


I'm here ! I am excited you're staying at POFQ - that's been on our list every year, but the 4/3 always allows us something new ;)We were at WL last Jan as well and loved it!
Flying out of the US is much cheaper. We live very close to the Buffalo boarder, however we have never flown out of Buffalo- yet... last Jan the pricing wasn't there for us, we'd need to go down the night before, hotel and park n fly trumped that idea. This trip our because our flight was so good last year I am rebooking the same flight out of Toronto.

Thank you for sharing your plans with us! :goodvibes

I made page 1

YAY for making it to Page 1!!!! :yay: It IS a VERY special place to be! ;) Glad you are able to fly right from TO! The prices from there can be very good and with direct flights as well! :thumbsup2 We are really excited about POFQ!! Thanks for joining in! Glad you are here! :hug:
 
I think with a username like Firestarter Ken should use RED!!

:welcome: Ken!!

I can't wait to read your comments!
 
Ok, I'm in for this report!! I can't believe those airfares - we paid $700 each out of Winnipeg! There are much cheaper flights out of Fargo, which is a 4 hour drive south from here, but we're terrified of a snow storm that would mess up our plans.

Is the trip a surprise for the kids?
 
I think with a username like Firestarter Ken should use RED!!

:welcome: Ken!!

I can't wait to read your comments!

I think you may be right Sheree! ;) I'll let him decide what colour he wants to use! He probably won't have time to post until tomorrow! He is a very busy guy right now! Believe me though, He is well worth the wait! Funny guy, he is! :love:

Ok, I'm in for this report!! I can't believe those airfares - we paid $700 each out of Winnipeg! There are much cheaper flights out of Fargo, which is a 4 hour drive south from here, but we're terrified of a snow storm that would mess up our plans.

Is the trip a surprise for the kids?

:goodvibes Glad you could make it over! :) We are in Thunder Bay and airfare from here would have cost about that too! :eek: Just couldn't do it! Basically, getting this airfare at such a low cost cinched the trip for us! :woohoo:

We were very lucky last year...it was clear when we left our house at 7am for the drive to MSP. It started to snow about 15 mins after we crossed the border. I will tell more about that in a future episode!

We will play it by ear this time. If the weather looks like it will cooperate we will stick to the aforementioned plan. If the weather looks iffy we can leave sooner. If we have to we can even leave the day before and spend an extra night on the road! We will see what happens! :)

No. this trip is NOT a surprise for the girls. We surprised them with the trip last year. They said if we ever went again that they would like to help plan so we told them this time! They are so good about it though! We told them Thanksgiving weekend and they have only asked maybe 2x how many days until we go to WDW!

I think that we will make a countdown calendar when we get closer to 60 days! I need to use up all the Home Depot Disney paint chips I have in my drawer! :lmao:
 
A Northern Family's Southern Getaway – Take 2
~A January 2010 PTR~



Hello! Welcome to this, the Pre Trip Report for our second Disney Vacation! :woohoo: I appreciate you stopping by to say hello. :goodvibes I hope that you will enjoy reading along as we plan for our not too distant trip to Walt Disney World.

Before we get much furthur, please allow me to introduce myself and the rest of my family!



Before I go any further let me say that my wife does hold her spelling abilities as a token of esteem...



THE WHO

Me (Kim) - SAHM, daycare provider and obsessed planner and lover of all things Disney.


"Obsessed: to haunt or excessively preoccupy the mind of"
My wife omitted an adjective in the above sentence. It should have read "obsessed planner and obsessed lover of all things Disney."



DH (Ken) – Computer geek, drama nerd and holds the “official” title of “Best Dad EVER”

She failed to say hauntingly attractive.



DD8 (Emily) – Big sister, reader extrordinaire, plays piano amd loves to create and craft, also a very excellent draw-er!

She loves Star Wars too. And that is why she is cool.



DD6 (Natalie) – Little sister, loves reading, dressing up, baking with mom and is the best whistler I know!

The kid also has an affinity for violent video games. When not playing ones that involve punching she will introduce that feature in real life.


Here is a picture of us from our last trip this past January 2009.

DSC02281.jpg



I took that picture. No, I'm not capable of quantum shifting, I used the auto-timer. I'm so Canadian I'm too shy to ask strangers to take our picture.



Well, now that you know who we are, I'll just bet you are curious to find out the details of our next trip! popcorn:: Well, they will be posted soon, along with a fun surprise! ;)

Up next.......The When, The Where and The How!

=========================================================

THE WHEN THE HOW AND THE WHERE

Thanks for sticking around/ coming back! :thumbsup2

Before I get to The When, The Where and The How, I have a little surprise for all of you!

I have a co-author! :) My Dh, Ken and I decided that it would be fun to share this PTR!:yay: He will be chiming in with his take on things posting under his DIS name of FIRESTARTER!

To keep you from getting confused, Ken will be posting in BLUE!



And to prevent my wife from confusing you, I'm writing in red with the Palatino Linotype font.



Now, let's get to the details! :cool1: Cause that's why you're all here right? :surfweb:


Either that or living vicariously through your reporting style, wishing they had someone so witty as I to provide colour commentary.

Count yourself lucky you don't have to listen to this in real life...



THE WHEN


Our vacation will officially begin at 11am in the morning on January 25th, 2010.


Not for me, I'm booking out of work at 4:45 on the 22nd. If dreaming and mentally projecting is counted as part of the vacation, then Kim started on the bus ride to the airport on our last visit.



That morning one of us will take the girls to school for the first period of the day. When said child deliverer returns home by approximately 8:50am, we will commense furious finishing of packing and loading of the van!


And that my friends, is why she gets to plan the Disney part of the vacation. The van will be packed Sunday afternoon with leisure and ease.



We will do all the necessary things a family must do to keep the house tight and sfe while on vacation. Oh yes and feed the cat too! The house and cat will be regularly checked upon by various members of family and trusted friends!

At exactly 10:50am, we will depart our driveway for the .6mile drive to the girls school where, upon arrival, we will collect the children, buckle them into their seatbelts/ booster seats and begin our vacation! :car:

She gets out. I'll tune in Dream Theatre, or the Matrix soundtrack on the stereo.




THE HOW

We discovered in the planning of our previous trip that flying out of Canada into the U.S. is extremely expensive!

So, the fact that we live just 6.5 hrs from a Major American Flight hub, we decided to investigate what it would cost to fly from Minneapolis! I knew from our adventure last year that flight prices can fluctuate quite frequently!

So I began watching, and watching, and watching! Finally about the middle of August, those airfares began to drop! :cheer2:


This is something Kim does really well. Me, I am used to going on business travel with a large corporation. My planning involves a vague direction of where I want to go.



I watched for a day or so :surfweb: and saw something very amazing! We could fly R/T to Orlando from MSP for just over $600 CANADIAN!!! Needless to say, we snapped that deal up in a hurry! :woohoo:

So we will fly from Minneapolis to Orlando on Sun Country airlines at 8am on Tuesday January 26th. We will arrive in sunny Orlando at 12noon!


Providing the pilot doesn't overshoot the airport by doing a computer lesson in the cockpit.



Once we arrive in Orlando, we will catch Disney's Magical Express to our Resort!


Kim already has her seat picked out. It's not beside me, and I'm not sure why...



THE WHERE

By now, the anticipation of knowing where we will be spending our Winter Wonderlude must have you quaking in your computer chair! :lmao: Well, I won't keep you in suspense much longer! ;)

Our trip last year, we had originally booked to stay at POFQ. Well, when the 4/7 deal came out we were able to upgrade to WL! That was so sweet! We absolutely loved the Wilderness Lodge! If you have never stayed there I would highly recommend trying it out!


BEST... RESORT... EVER!

Seriously. I would sell our house and live there. Ahhhh. After the first hour I had a change of address for my happy place, and it is the Wilderness Lodge.



As much as we liked WL, this time around we are in the mood to try something a little bit different.

Speak for yourself woman. Can I stay at the Wilderness Lodge again and just meet you in the parks?


So......we will be spending 7 nights at Port Orleans French Quarter!

We are very excited and can not wait to be there! I have looked at lots of pictures and I think it is going to be amazing!


Ok, truth be told I originally wanted to stay in Port Orleans. Then I stayed in the Wilderness Lodge. I'm a skeptic. How could anything else compare?



Up next......park plans and ADRs
 



She failed to say hauntingly attractive.

I believe it!!



The kid also has an affinity for violent video games. When not playing ones that involve punching she will introduce that feature in real life.

Sounds just like my DD6 - when she's getting wild, we hook her up to the Wii boxing game so she stops trying to punch her family members!


I took that picture. No, I'm not capable of quantum shifting, I used the auto-timer. I'm so Canadian I'm too shy to ask strangers to take our picture.

Minnesotans and Canadians are a lot alike, eh?


=========================================================


Providing the pilot doesn't overshoot the airport by doing a computer lesson in the cockpit.

:lmao::rotfl2:

Oh, I can tell I'm going to enjoy reading both "parts" of this PTR!!! Let me know when you're in Mpls - maybe we can have a DIS meet!
 
Oh Ken!!! I love every remark!!! I don't know if it's just a Canadian thing...I too don't like to ask people to take our picture. It kinda scares me...what's up with that.DH would do it...he has to... I won't! Except for the people on the Main Street of MK that take Photopass pics!
 
:lmao: Oh my dear, you are a funny funny man! :love:

I do believe this will get VERY interesting! ;)

I must apologize, my friends, I will not be able to post the next chapter as quickly as I would like to. I am going to be away for the next couple of days for a school related function down in Toronto, but I will post the next chapter as soon as I am able, most likely some time on Thursday! :)

Until then, soldier on, my faithful readers! :goodvibes
 
:lmao: Oh my dear, you are a funny funny man! :love:

I do believe this will get VERY interesting! ;)

I must apologize, my friends, I will not be able to post the next chapter as quickly as I would like to. I am going to be away for the next couple of days for a school related function down in Toronto, but I will post the next chapter as soon as I am able, most likely some time on Thursday! :)

Until then, soldier on, my faithful readers! :goodvibes

Have a safe and fun trip down to my neck of the Canadian Woods! It's been windy and cold ( for us "southeners")
 

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