A Safari Christmas Goes Pop! (w/pics)

[njdisneyfreak]

We've been thinking, yes once again, whether or not we would stay with the AKL or shift down to either POR or POP. You may be thinking, "Are you kidding me?!" But, since this is the most we've ever paid for a resort, of course, we keep second guessing the decision. Then, we think about how we liked POP the one time we went and how we wanted to go to POR on our last trip, before switching that a million times.

So, what's the final verdict? For now, we think we'll stick with the plan. I truly think having all this extra time allows for way too much second guessing. Know what I mean?

Stay tuned. . .you never know what might happen. If you read my last PTR, you know we changed quite a bit. We'll see. . .

 

[wdwgirl03]

Your insight is helpful. We wondered if staying on a monorail resort is difficult with getting back at the end of a day, with getting on the monorail. Was that a problem at all? Was it ever super crowded trying to get back to the resort on the monorail?

No, we never had a problem getting back on the monorail but then again we usually don't tend to stay out too late at night. It always seemed though that the Express monorail was much more crowded than the resort monorail. But that's just our personal experience.


As for you guys second-guessing which resort to stay at, I think you should stick with AKL. But I'm sure wherever you stay you'll have an amazing time!

 

[katiebug86]

You are never going to believe what I did.. I forgot to subscribe to your PTR. I just found it again and subscribed to it.

I know what you mean about the mind changing thing. I am thinking about adding a couple more days to ours. Five just doesn't sound as good as 7 or 8. Wish me luck on convincing Ryan.

We need to get together and figure out how to invent a time machine to take us to December. I have been itching to go since we booked.

 

[joelp]

We've been thinking, yes once again, whether or not we would stay with the AKL or shift down to either POR or POP. You may be thinking, "Are you kidding me?!" But, since this is the most we've ever paid for a resort, of course, we keep second guessing the decision. Then, we think about how we liked POP the one time we went and how we wanted to go to POR on our last trip, before switching that a million times.

So, what's the final verdict? For now, we think we'll stick with the plan. I truly think having all this extra time allows for way too much second guessing. Know what I mean?

Stay tuned. . .you never know what might happen. If you read my last PTR, you know we changed quite a bit. We'll see. . .

What is it with you Jersey Girls!! ??!

It's bad enough I have to deal with my DW and DD - Jersey Girls born and bred - when we go shopping and THEY keep changing their minds ... but now I have to deal with YOU, too!!

If you don't go to AKL, you'll just get depressed looking at all the pictures I'm gonna take and put in our TR ... sooooo ...

 

[njdisneyfreak]

No, we never had a problem getting back on the monorail but then again we usually don't tend to stay out too late at night. It always seemed though that the Express monorail was much more crowded than the resort monorail. But that's just our personal experience.


As for you guys second-guessing which resort to stay at, I think you should stick with AKL. But I'm sure wherever you stay you'll have an amazing time!

That makes sense, about the monorail. After your recent trip to the AKL, I figured you'd say that.

You are never going to believe what I did.. I forgot to subscribe to your PTR. I just found it again and subscribed to it.

I know what you mean about the mind changing thing. I am thinking about adding a couple more days to ours. Five just doesn't sound as good as 7 or 8. Wish me luck on convincing Ryan.

We need to get together and figure out how to invent a time machine to take us to December. I have been itching to go since we booked.

Good to see you here! I've been enjoying your PTR. Thanks for joining me. The more, the merrier!

That would be great if you could convince Ryan. Maybe the best way to convince him is to create an itinerary for a longer trip and work out all the necessary details on paper for him. Then, you can show him how easy it would be and why it's a great idea. Maybe if he sees it all in front of him, it will help convince him. Let us know what happens.

Hey, if you figure out that whole time machine thing, let us in on it. I'm sure that many of us would love to hitch a ride with you.

What is it with you Jersey Girls!! ??!

It's bad enough I have to deal with my DW and DD - Jersey Girls born and bred - when we go shopping and THEY keep changing their minds ... but now I have to deal with YOU, too!!

If you don't go to AKL, you'll just get depressed looking at all the pictures I'm gonna take and put in our TR ... sooooo ...

Hey, NJ or not, all women reserve the right to change their minds any time we want. Didn't your DW and DD ever show you the handbook? Oops! I don't think I was supposed to share that information. Privileged information and all.

Ah, the old pictures trick. I see how you're going to be. Read my next post, and just keep in mind, that what I'm going to post had absolutely nothing to do with your threat to post pics of AKL on your TR!

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Alright, alright! We figured out a way for us to keep our AKL package. One of our main reasons for second guessing came down to money. We had that unexpected family emergency happen earlier in the summer, some of you may recall, that required us to take two unexpected trips by airplane. So, our resources got depleted somewhat.

At any rate, my dear, sweet, smart DH figured out a way for us to swing it. He had me call WDW and find out the cost of taking our dining package off (now, don't panic just yet people ) and seeing if we could add it on later. I was told that we can add it back on up to 3-4 days prior to our trip arrival! Yahoo!!! Answer to our prayers. That gives us enough wiggle room that we can pay for our trip by deadline and not feel overly pinched. We know having all the money wouldn't be an issue. It was just timing.

In the summer, as a teacher, I don't get paid. So, it can make life interesting. Speaking of teaching, I'm going to go a bit OT for a moment. Yesterday, I went in to work and did my main bulletin board. It looks so, so, so good. I'm really proud of it.

Here it is:

This shows you the leaves up close, that are around the tree:

Tomorrow, I plan to go in to begin making photocopying and do some more classroom decorating. At the moment, my desk and all the student's desks, as well as file cabinets, etc. are out in the hallway. They do that, as they work on the rebuffing the floors. However, that means I have to wait on fully putting my room back to normal. Not a big deal, unless they don't get that done by sometime early next week.

Next week, I am in charge of the arts and crafts portion of our church's VBS week, so I'll be busy during the morning. But, as soon as they get done with my classroom, I have to get over there to finish setting up, since the week after VBS, I am conducting workshops for our district's new teachers are their orientation. Busy! Busy! On top of it all, we are still waiting on the state to release standardized test scores to the schools. Only then can I get to work on creating the language arts basic skills individualized plans for each student who qualifies for it. In the past, this would have all been done by early August at the latest. This year, the state is so behind on this. My vice principal actually said that it might be another week or two! I go back to work September 2nd, with students arriving on the 5th, and schedules needing to be finalized. . .so stressed may be how the school year begins.

Ah, well! I'll just look at each week, no matter what happens, as a week closer to WDW!!! Now that put a smile back on my face.

 

[wdwgirl03]

The bulletin board looks great!! That is one of the things I am most looking forward to when I get my own classroom.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

The bulletin board looks great!! That is one of the things I am most looking forward to when I get my own classroom.

I'm glad you like the bulletin board. Typically, I make boards to correspond with units. This year, I'm doing a different approach. I am doing seasonal boards, with inspirational messages. I already have acronyms for the other three seasons, like I did for fall, and ideas of what to get for each board's decorations. I love being creative like that, and the kids appreciate a nice looking room that has obviously had a lot of thought involved in it.

It's never too early to start gathering ideas. During the year before I got hired, I began making files of teacher websites, subscribing to teacher e-newsletters, gathering bulletin board ideas, since I knew I'd be teaching language arts, I was also collecting resources that might come in handy. You're time will come.

If you want some websites and e-newsletters, PM me anytime. You can never have too much information.

 

[bellasmommy0]

You are back to work and getting busier, so that means time is going to start flying by!!!!!

 

[Raecheal]

Your board looks looks. : ) Keep up with the posts, i love reading your pre-tr.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

You are back to work and getting busier, so that means time is going to start flying by!!!!!

Not back, officially till September 2nd, but the ball is rolling already! Tick! Tick! Tick!

Your board looks looks. : ) Keep up with the posts, i love reading your pre-tr.

Aw! Thanks. I really appreciate that.

I can't wait till you get to enjoy your trip and share all about it. I've been loving your PTR, too. I'm glad we came across each other's threads.

 

[Raecheal]

Aw! Thanks. I really appreciate that.

I can't wait till you get to enjoy your trip and share all about it. I've been loving your PTR, too. I'm glad we came across each other's threads.

Me too, i really do appreciate you taking the time to post on my ptr.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Today I went back to the school where I work, and got my room all set up. It's crazy how much I enjoy doing that. All my Disney stuff is up, of course, except I forgot the Mickey puzzle poster. I also got quite a bit of copying done. Yippee!!! I should only have to make two or three more trips to be ready for the first day officially back. I just can't wait to begin working and start counting down the days even faster to WDW!!!

 

[NYPDwife]

Hey, I just saved $357.72 by applying the new discount code to my existing reservation. Every dollar helps!!! You should try to see if it'll work for you!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Today I went back to the school where I work, and got my room all set up. It's crazy how much I enjoy doing that. All my Disney stuff is up, of course, except I forgot the Mickey puzzle poster. I also got quite a bit of copying done. Yippee!!! I should only have to make two or three more trips to be ready for the first day officially back. I just can't wait to begin working and start counting down the days even faster to WDW!!!

Ooooohh, I want to see your Disney stuff! hehe

 

[askelton]

If they do open it in time for us to go, we're considering giving up Narcoossee's

No, you'll love Narcoosee's.

Tues. 12/23 - Narcoossee's was changed to Planet Hollywood (Don't think we've lost our minds. We moved Narcoossee's.)

Oh, good.

I have these in brown and in melon. Love them!

We looked at the Brown Derby restaurant for our dinner choice that we had, and after looking at the menu, we couldn't remember why we chose it. The menu didn't look that great to us, though I'm sure it's a nice place.

You should definitely try BD some time. The food is very good but the atmosphere is lovely! It's one of our favorites for a date night.

- Late breakfast at Akershus I'm going there next month with my godchildren, b & G age 3. I'll let you know. We don't have kids so we don't do character meals.

- Breakfast at Cinderella's Royal Table I'm doing that in October, for some reason DH didn't want to go! I'll let you know about that too.

- Lunch at Marrakesh (We've never been, but I'm looking forward to this experience.) We ate here once, and again the atmosphere is very cool. It's not really my choice of food but DH loved it.

- Dinner at Narcoosee's (we'll also get to see and hear the MK fireworks) We were here for our anniversary and it was wonderful. They knew it was our anniversary so all the CM's were extra nice. One of our favorite places to eat along with BD.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Hey, I just saved $357.72 by applying the new discount code to my existing reservation. Every dollar helps!!! You should try to see if it'll work for you!

I didn't know if that would still apply to us, since it goes till the 23rd and that's when we arrive. How did it work for you? I'd love to see if we can get some sort of discount, too!

Ooooohh, I want to see your Disney stuff! hehe

I'll be at the school off and on over these next two weeks, so as I remember, I'll take more pics and post them. You'd probably get even more of a kick out of my office area at home. Talk about completely Disney! If you want, I can post some pics of that, too.

No, you'll love Narcoosee's.



Oh, good.



I have these in brown and in melon. Love them!



You should definitely try BD some time. The food is very good but the atmosphere is lovely! It's one of our favorites for a date night.

Thanks for joining me on my journey and for all the tips. I can't wait to hear about your trip when you get back. By that point, I'll be dying for our trip to start.

 

[katiebug86]

I didn't know if that would still apply to us, since it goes till the 23rd and that's when we arrive. How did it work for you? I'd love to see if we can get some sort of discount, too!

Oooh. I'm going to be there the 15-20 does the discount apply to me? How do I get it? Details details.. I might be able to talk Ryan into a couple more days if we will be saving money.

 

[joelp]

Oooh. I'm going to be there the 15-20 does the discount apply to me? How do I get it? Details details.. I might be able to talk Ryan into a couple more days if we will be saving money.

Check out my PTR - NYPDWife posted the link to the info there a day or so ago ...

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Well, as I mentioned earlier, this past week has been VERY busy! We've also made some major changes, as well. You may have noticed that I changed the name of the PTR. You guessed it. . .we're now going to POP!

What?! You may be thinking to yourselves. We've debated on making this change for some time now, and after much thought, we realized it was the best for us. We will get to enjoy all that we really want to experience, and save a ton of money, which is always nice. We just didn't feel comfortable spending that much money for a place we may not get to use enough to make it worthwhile. Besides, even though POP is a value resort, we really loved it when we were last there.

Also, this weekend, we experienced going under 4 months and we received the WDW planning DVD we requested and began watching it. I couldn't help, but start feeling all giddy, as we watched it.

So, stay tuned. . .dining changes are up next. We are still keeping our deluxe plan, and we're going to get to go to some places we didn't originally have before. This may sound weird, but I'm actually excited.