A single mom takes on the "world" yikes! UPDATES 12/04

[fizz13]

Hi everybody and welcome to my December 2007 pre-trippie It is 9 days till we are airborne so thought I would give my 2nd family, yes thats you DISers the inside scoop on how a single mom of 3 kids is planning to take on the world First of all let me tell you a little about myself:

So first of all here's me I'm Claire, I'm 29 (though I'm in denial because most days I think my kids are more mature than me ) and I happen to be a single mom to 3 angels who you will meet below. I am from the other side of the pond, about a half hour outside of London, and am generally a very happy bubbly sociable kind of person. theres nothing i enjoy more than meeting new people and have been lucky enough to meet quite a few US dissers on my travels, as well as fellow brit dissers. Aren't we just the lovliest people?
When I'm not planning my next disney trip (which lets face it is hardly never) I am a big fan of karaoke. Yep I love to sing my heart out every week and have a great group of friends that i meet up with every tuesday, sometimes thursday too. And while I am no Mariah, my Kelly Clarkson and Pink is passable I am a stay at home mom for now but when my youngest starts full time school next September then I am more than ready to embrace a working life, I just have to figure out what to be when i grow up first see I told you i was in denial!
The single mom part happened last summer after a trip to wdw no less. We had a wonderful stay at the Poly (which btw is paradise on earth and I refuse to hear a negative word spoken, someday I will return ) but without the children...with just us left...there were gaping holes in our relationship too big to fix, and no Poly magic could sort it. And there were times when i toured alone that week and was blissfully happy doing so. So after a very lengthy negotiation on a separation agreement (August to January ) I finally had the house in my name alone, ex-DH was gone and i was free at last.
I'll get into how this trip came about after I introduce you to my angels

Meet Cara-Jade! She is 8 and feels she is getting a little too old for WDW The girl is all about High School Musical, Hannah Montana, Doctor Who and Harry Potter (she is now on her third reading of the series) She is most like Belle in that she always has her nose in a book and is very happy being different, the girl says her favourite colour is black! I sense a goth phase coming later on However she is extremely well behaved, wise beyond her years, a natural born mother to her younger brothers, I have a good girl and i am incredibly proud of her. She also has a burning desire for knowledge of the world and would be much happier exploring a historical city than a theme park, and loves the theatre and galleries.
WDW faves: Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Mission Space, Fantasmic, World Showcase.

Meet Dean, a 6 year old with a wicked sense of humour, who constantly makes me smile and is my giggle fit partner, Its got so bad that i can't put him to bed at night without us both holding our sides laughing but I love it! He bowls me over with his constant affection, endless kisses and cuddles for his mom and tells me numerous times a day how much he loves me. he is a natural singer and performer and tells me he is gonna be on tv or a rock star. I have every confidence he will if he wants to, he has the most infectious personality and just changed schools this year. of course he made a million friends in record time especially the girls. Oh yes Dean has already discovered girls This boy is all about action but is a little too addicted to my computer (the boy loves sufing the web to find new games) and Power Rangers, Ying Yang Yo, Zack and Cody.
happily this boy is a fully paid up member of the pixiedusted club. His favourite place on earth is Disney World, he loves all the rides from Dinosaur to its a Small World, he loves meeting the characters, he just gets it, you can see it in his eyes when he is there.
WDW faves: Mission Space, Its A Small World, Splash Mtn, Fantasmic, Myuki the candy lady in Japan.

Finally please meet Charlie, my youngest, my precious. He is 3 but turning 4 in january and I am having a hard time letting him grow up thats for sure. i still want to cradle him in my lap but luckily for him he is so energetic that i wouldn't stand a chance of holding him down. Lets see hhmmmm....hes loud, he seems to be able to provoke enough emotion in people that little presents come out of the woodwork (you know what i mean, here would you like a candy sweetie?, oohh have a balloon etc) he is always smiling even when he is trying to have his grumpy face on, he is a tough cookie and doesn't cry easily and is generally fearless. His favourite things to do would be building a mega train track then cosying up for a good story. Charlie has been to WDW once before on his 1st birthday but obviously doesn't remember. he is about ready to burst to get to WDW He has watched the planning dvd compulsively, looked at all the photos online and plans on riding everything. At least he is 40" Hard to list his WDW faves yet but I think its gonna be characters, Splash Mtn and dole whips
So there you have it. Our cast. get ready for the story of how this trip came to be

 

[carissanboys]

Hi Claire! First off, your children are beautiful!

Second, I am in awe that you are taking your three children to WDW alone. You are a brave soul Your pre-trip report is going to be fun, I can tell.

We "visited" the Poly on our first trip in March, meaning we went to 'Ohana and used their transportation. But, I fell in love with it! Maybe someday we can afford to stay there. Someday.

Anyway, just dropping in to say "hey" and I can't wait to read more. Cheers Mate!

 

[fizz13]

Hi Carissa, thanks so much for your comments. i wouldn't be in awe of me yet though, how about we save it for when i get back if I pull it off? If you ever get the chance to stay at the Poly then grab it fast, it is like a vacation within a vacation ok on with the show:

DECISION TIME

So the general picture was this. I had come back from an October 2006 trip, me, Cara, Dean, my grandfather, Cara's best friend and her mom! And the one person missing was Charlie. Everything that I came across had me wishing he could be there to see it. At character meals I kept thinking "Charlie would love this", i actually cried several times missing my baby and wanting him to be there to see the magic around us. And the only reason I had left him behind was so that i could give cara and dean the chance to run around, ride big rides and be with "fun mom" (something which had been lacking in 2006) without stopping for diaper changes, toddler tantrums, and height restrictions. see my intentions were good enough, but emotionally it just dented me. And the hardest bit was we had only just pulled out of the drive to go to the airport, when cara and Dean said "I miss Charlie already" So i knew before I got on the plane that day that Charlie would be going to the "world" while he was still little enough to feel the awe and scale of this bright colourful playground full of his favourite film and tv heroes, he would get to experience fun mom, eat chocolate muffins for breakfast, see all the mickey magic.And I had no idea how I would pay for it, pull it off but it was happening NO MATTER WHAT!!

So the start of 2007 was good to me, i got a very nice tax rebate, i remortgaged my house (which had to be done anyway to get the deeds into my sole name) and it was enough to start putting plans into motion. In March I started clicking online in ernest and found some very nice airline fares with Virgin Atlantic using my accumulated miles plus money. My finger was shaking as I pushed that button to run payment. i don't know about you but i love playing the virtual vacation planner game. And you all know what I'm talking about don't ya? You're just looking really, casually browsing, then you start getting quotes.....hypothetically of course.......and you might even fill in those passenger details cos its the closest you can get in your head to being there .......Ok maybe i'm the only crazy that does that....maybe

Ahem, anyway where was I? (Apart from the Atlantis resort, bahamas, in my head of course ) Right yes, Virgin air fares. 1 adult, 3 kids for £1000.65 which translates to about $2000. The way we are being stung for fuel taxes, surcharges in the uk right now, well consider this a bargain! She pressed the button, she let out a mini-squeal and did the happy dance in her chair. Thats it, be brave girl. you have just booked yourself 10 nights in Orlando with 3 children and its non-refundable, non-exchangable

So the dates are set (in stone!!) as December 12th to 22nd 2007.
Now where to stay? btw my siggie might clue you in if you can't wait

 

[fizz13]

PLAYING THE RATES GAME

so where to stay, where to stay? Well i figured this trip was going to be on a fairly tight budget. I also realised that this trip was for my children and not about adult luxury! So i started reading reviews, I poured over the resorts board, I found the picture threads that had started springing up (brilliant idea to the OPs of these btw) and tried to picture where was gonna make our dreams come true. And to be honest i think I would be happy just about anywhere as long as it was on property, theres nothing like those welcoming CMs, having a key to the world with a pretty castle on it, seeing a shop full of mickey merchandise, suprise mickey stickers at every turn for the kids, of course you all understand otherwise you wouldn't be on these boards would you? And the best bit of all:

You go through it and you know you're gonna be in a bubble for your whole vacation.

So we get thats its gonna be on site! The next quirk I have is that I am determined to try a new resort every time I come back till i get round them all. Then you can't compare the last vacation to this one, you get your mickey fix from a new angle, and more importanatly when a DISer askes your opinion about which resort is better you can give an informed answer. see its the sacrifices you have to make to be a good DISer

Now I was intrigued by everything i had heard about Pop Century, yes it was a value (which is something that doesn't instantly appeal to me) but the theming, colours, icons from the hundreds of piccies I saw had me a little smitten. I could envision my children walking around in wide-eyed wonder at their larger than life surroundings. I knew that children would be expected at a place like this, that they would be welcomed, and i had heard reports of noise outside, merry teenagers etc. Conclusion: my children would look really well behaved in a place like this And the more i read and saw the more i fell in love with the idea of it, yeah we would be happy here. I found a unbeatable rate on expedia uk of £44.20 ($88.40) per night with one night for free!! This I think is still equivalent to the passholder rate so you can't argue with that.
But something niggled within me....no i didn't have a tummy bug thankyou....no something deeper, this was a very close to Xmas middle of December kind of trip. And what pictures had i also seen that were the ultimate in Xmasssy? The Wilderness Lodge! I had always said that if I got the opportunity to go near to Xmas that i would absolutely have to stay here. It was beyond a want...it was touching on a need yeah yeah, in my world it was a need haahaahhhhaaa. So I started my investigations, how much would this need cost me? And for the first (and i doubt it will be the last) I made a costly booking error. I decided to do 6 nights at Pop with Expedia and 4 nights at Wilderness Lodge but book it with disney uk In retrospect i could have got a much much better rate than they offered me, I paid £150 per night, £600 for 4 nights =$1200!!!
And of course I found it cheaper elsewhere, but heres a little secret that they don't tell you here in the uk: the cancellation policy on disney uk is very different to disney US. If you try and cancel a disney uk booking they will take $100 per person regardless, if you cancel with disneyUS they give you the money back! Spot the difference. Never again will I book with them because after the button was pressed I had no wiggle room. Wanna rub more salt on it: I became a passholder in August ( I didn't know I would at the time) so could have gotten a very tasty rate if I had held out


Anyway: so here we are, December 12th to 22nd, 6 nights at Pop(standard), 4 nights at Wilderness Lodge (standard view).
Next: a spontaneous girly trip and budgeting from hell

 

[carissanboys]

I love the lobby of Wilderness Lodge (as that's all I've seen of it ! We ate at Whispering Canyon Cafe and were blown away when we walked in the door. How awesome that you get to stay there during the holiday decorations! I'm sure it'll be lovely

BTW, I just noticed all of the Disney movies behind your youngest DS in his picture

 

[mickiecake]

you are a brave soul.... I shiver at the thought... of course, my little angels are .... precoucious.. to put it mildly!!

 

[fizz13]

I love the lobby of Wilderness Lodge (as that's all I've seen of it ! We ate at Whispering Canyon Cafe and were blown away when we walked in the door. How awesome that you get to stay there during the holiday decorations! I'm sure it'll be lovely

BTW, I just noticed all of the Disney movies behind your youngest DS in his picture

I know exactly what you mean I felt the same way when i ate at WCC, i knew I just had to stay there sometime and when better but December? And yeah we have a big disney collection here, thats only some of it. i think the important thing is to brainwash them from birth Thanks for reading again.

you are a brave soul.... I shiver at the thought... of course, my little angels are .... precoucious.. to put it mildly!!

Ahhh see thats the trick, i am not actually thinking about the reality too deeply, its better to think of ourselves in a disney bubble where mickey magic will see us through Seriously the "at disney in the parks" bit will be a doddle compared to a 9 hour flight each way with them, immigration, table service restaurants, getting them all to sleep in the same room Holy cow, I'm shivering!!! And as you will no doubt see my angels are far from angels! Thanks so much for reading.

 

[fizz13]

MORE TRIPS THAN I CAN HANDLE?

Now somewhere along the line I decided it would be a brilliant idea to celebrate my birthday in WDW too. At first it was going to be a solo trip, and it wasn't even going to be disney. Nope I was going to explore further afield. I had wanted to see Florence for the longest time, I wanted to visit Washington and New York, i priced things up and it kept coming back to the same thing: WDW costs about the same as any of these. I couldn't help it, i don't know why, i just can't shake the disney bug. Its frightening actually that wherever i go in the world, if I ever go anywhere else that it will never feel as special as WDW. And I have been other places trust me, Mexico was great, Portugal is pretty, Tenerife feels like my second home, but WDW draws me back every time. anyway.........
I was going away for my birthday. best prices came up for the day after so planned for August 23rd for 6 nights. And nope i didn't go alone, i took Carly my live-in best friend and along the way we picked up Michelle, most of you know the story already. yep it was the WDW Girly Tour. The thing was as it got closer to going, financially it was becoming more of a squeese at home. Our accomodations went from Boardwalk to POFQ, the dining plan went out the window, I did get a good saving with my newly acquired annual pass but i would have to be very careful. And I was. i only paid cash for everything on this trip, no cards, no debt.I was very proud of myself But I was having niggling £ issues.
And i am supposed to be still working on that trippie to be honest but time and life have got in my way. So in the tradition of my trippies, i give you a brief recap of my last trippie, the trippie you never got to read.

 

[fizz13]

Ok to get you started, here are the pre-trip and 4 parts i did write of that trippie:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1441648

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1597262

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1597270

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1597312

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1604252

As you can see I always have the best intentions when it comes to trippies but I always get sidetracked So my mission is to try and finish this one (in abbreviated form) so I can get on and give you the details of whats coming next week.....its next week

Lets just say that me and the girls had the absolute best time we could have had. Two lowpoints before i share some more piccies. The weather in August is beyond hot it is brutal in its humidity and intensity and makes mid-day touring near impossible, i know lots of people thrive on it but after doing August twice and giving it my best shot I just can't see me trying again. The other one was Michelle's knee injury On a early morning stampede to Soarin Michelle took a nasty tumble, and while i didn't realise how serious it was at the time, it cost her 7 weeks off work on our return. the bruising spread from the knee all the way down the front of her lower leg. She was such a trooper, she just carried on the whole week without letting on how bad it hurt!
So here we go, some piccies that follow on from the above threads:

Our night at Pleasure island. We had a fab dinner at Raglan Road, great service, great food and yummy drinks. Check out my chocolate martini:

And its amazing we look as good as we do to be honest because it absolutely tipped it down that night, by the time we had got from marketplace to Raglan Road, well we could have done a wet t-shirt comp This is the same night that a lot of people got rained out from Pirates and Princess Party. Of course we headed to the Adventurers Club after and Michelle tried her first Kungaloosh....its always better than i remember..every time....and we were guests for the annual Balderdash Cup. I'm not sure Michelle and Carly quite knew what to make of the club, they weren't overly impressed and neither was I this night but I'm sure I'll go back sometime.

We did two trips to Epcot, one for Future World, one for World Showcase. the first one is where the unfortunate knee incident occured but we got tons done that day inculding Soarin, Figment, The Seas with Nemo, Mission Space, I did single rider on Test Track while the girls raided Mouse Gear and we finished with a lovely boat ride across the lagoon and counter service in Morocco.

Doesn't it suit me?

Our other visit to World Showcase was a lovely relaxing stroll with strategic stops for alcohol along the way We spent a lot of time at the department store in japan, me and Michelle share the same annoyed view of the drummers outside btw, it seems to go on forever we found lots more characters and we had a not so great meal at San Angel which was so dissapointing to me and Michelle because we have both wanted to eat there for the longest time. Honestly i think the counter service outside is better. Anyway some more piccies for ya:

Champagne in france. Carly decided to save her one unit of alcohol she was allowing herself for this. Of course it went straight to her head bless her

the very overpriced british biscuits in the uk pavillion

The beautiful kimonos in the japan pavillion

Carly really likes hats

 

[fizz13]

heres some more for ya from epcot.

I call this one princesses with attitude! It was our last morning at the world and we went to Aksershaus for the princess lunch. I was blown away by how good this actually was food and service wise. i'm used to character meals being a bit sloppy in these areas but this was outstanding.

Cindy showed me how to pose Oh and the hair will become clear in a little while

MAGIC KINGDOM
This is the one where i have to say "TourGuide Mike I couldn't have done it without you!" the guy knows what he is talking about with his touring plans, we sped around and knocked out fantasyland, adventureland, toontown all before lunch. However the most important thing on this day was our Crystal Palace breakfast. Carly has been obsessed with Eyeore for the longest time so this breakfast was a must. She was looking forward to this more than anything the whole week and was like a little child, bursting with excitement. this is carly happy but fairly calm:

Now please observe carly with Eyeore:

yep she was crying. She just lost it!! And of course it made me cry so i took that piccie through tear stained eyes, i was so so happy for my friend, it was pure disney magic, and she told him how long she had been waiting to meet him. And he was so lovely with her, and drew here a heart and flower in her autograph book. it was a real love affair.

Michelle and carly

THE PIRATE AND PRINCESS PARTY

Now you will understand the hair We didn't want to spend a vast amount of money on costumes but wanted to do something special. We all agreed to wear our pretty clothes for tonight and found little tiaras from World of Disney for about $10 each. And to top it off we went to the barber Shop and got our hair pixiedusted:

getting ready in the chair

Finished from the back

Michelle's finished hair

carly's finished hair

We got so much attention with the hair and it made us feel really special, although we did seem to leave a trail of pixiedust wherever we went.

Now the party blew MNSSHP out of the water for me. The parade was split into the princess section and then a pirate section which was all fabulous, the fireworks were like nothing i had ever seen before, the way it went from princesses and back to pirates and back again, the colours, the effects on the castle, the all the way round shells going off, the best part was when Flora, Fauna and merryweather were changing the effects "pink...blue...pink...blue" oh it just blew my mind. we watched from the smoking area terrace in front of the Plaza which was the perfect spot. we collected much loot and candy, the lines for characters were a bit crazy but the only one i was interested in was a certain pirate....i know you know who....its Captain jack Sparrow to you We went just before 7pm to line up and it was already at 30 minutes wait but they have done the line reallyw ell with plenty of distractions on the way. We got ushered in groups and heres where we got lucky. We were the last ones in our group This meant that we were left alone with captain Jack for a good 10 minutes. I'm so sorry if you were behind us in that line. he was very cheeky, tried to steal our tiaras and he did make me a bit wibbly it has to be said. the best interaction i have ever had or will have I imagine, oh he knew what he was doing, he just looks at you with thse deep eyes into your soul .......ahem sorry back to reality!!! heres a piccie:

Heres another:

Soggy splash mountain princesses

We got to every treasure spot that night but had left Tomorrowland to last. I was very impressed with the carnival style stall they had set up here with games and activities and had I known earlier i would have spent more time. Now this is where we could have got a CM in serious trouble! It was about 11:00pm by now and we were walking through tomorrowland near to Buzz when out of nowhere this young CM creeps up behind carly and makes her jump out of her skin Which would normally be really funny but carly is pregnant! he was very apologetic bless him, he just saw 3 girls and thought he would play Then for our viewing pleasure, his fellow Cm comes over and challenges him to a pirate duel. Our CM doesn't have a weapon so takes Carly's shoe to battle with Omg it was hysterical and totally for the benefit of us females but who are we to complain? We closed the night down with the new Monsters Inc Laugh Floor Club which we give a double thumbs up to, great show!
If you get the chance you must go to P&P Party, it was a blast!

 

[fizz13]

Now technically it wasn't my birthday while i was there but the girls made sure I picked up a birthday badge anyway and i was amazed at how many CMs and guest alike took the time to stop and say "happy birthday Claire" while i was wearing it! At Mexico pavillion the CM told me I had a special phone call and got to listen to Goofy wishing me a Happy Birthday I got birthday treats given:

Crystal palace

mama melrose birthday dessert. The whole restaurant sang to me! But i did stop wearing it after a few days as i just felt like a fraud and it was a lot of attention

MEETING FELLOW DISSERS
There was a special DIS meet going on at the Poly while we were there which Disney Jo was a big part of and i got to meet so many lovely Dissers from the other side of the pond, although sadly we couldn't stay too long as the smell from Ohana was making carly feel decidely nausous, I get the feeling they had quite a few lapu lapus that night
I also bumped into Disneyland Mama a few times as she was staying at POFQ too and she was kind enough to give me a lime green mickey head. She has a lovely family and I had a great chat with her parents on the bus to MGM one morning
Finally we had a lunch date with Mark and Sue at 50s Prime Time and it was wonderful to catch up with them again. I still say Mark is going to think I am corrupting Sue as every time we meet its a little bit of a suprise for Mark Courtesy of Kirsty, Sue's daughter, is probably the best photo of us from the WDW Girly Tour:

Some very strong drinks were consumed and I got my fav wdw entree the pot roast, it is ssoooooo good!

FANTASMIC AND RAIN

We had glorious weather every day.....unitl about 6pm that is i don't know why the weather was suddenly controlled by a clock but thats exactly how it felt. We had booked for a fantasmic dinner package at Mama Melrose and we knew rain was forecasted but we had just spent a wonderful afternoon sunning ourselves by the pool, the weather was fantastic, pah they must have got it wrong. We go into mama melrose...still fantastic....we come out and bam! Thunder, lightening, rain We scurried across to the Muppets 3d shop and bought ponchos, carly was a poncho virgin till now sorry you had to be there! Anyway rain can come and go in orlando really fast can't it? So we thought we'd go wait by Oscars anyway, nope its just not going to happen. A half hour before scheduled fantasmic we hopped a bus to poly for the meet. Apparently they ended up cancelling fantasmic 3 nights in a row that week
And while we are on the bus i am figuring out how to rearrange the schedule to fit in fantasmic. you see its mine and Michelles favourite show by a mile, it captures all of disney for both of us. And we tried again! And it was raining but by god we were going to sit it out in the vain hope that the skies cleared.

Slowly but surely the space between drops increased, slowly but surely it started to clear, and me and Michelle started to dare to hope. We knew they would do a character less performance if conditions were not good enough but we so wanted the whole show. then the lights went down, i was crossing everything.....and Mickey appeared me and Michelle let out cheers!! Yes people looked at us a little crazy but they didn't understand what it meant, we were getting a whole show! And it was just as wonderful as always

 

[fizz13]

GIRLY TOUR GOODBYE

There is so much that i haven't written down that will be in my memory forever but here are a few little things that were kind of special:

seeing Lilo and Stitch doing the limbo with kids in the lobby of the Beach Club

the taxi driver from hell that got lost going to POFQ and actually took us off property

a morning spent alone at MGM while the other two relaxed. i knocked out Tower of terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, High School Musical Pep Rally, met Max, Marie, Susy and Perla, Stitch, and Daisy Duck She is so hard to find!

The lazy afternoon by the pool, cocktails, warm water and carly going down the slide She loved it!

that warm fuzzy feeling from World Showcase that can only be induced by drinking: champagne, a bellini, a pint of cider, a mango margherita, maybe thats why i didn't love the food at San Angel

watching carly line up with the kids to get her World Showcase passport filled out

Sitting by American Adventure with Michelle and putting the political world to rights

Meeting so many characters, who needs kids for this really?


It was a bittersweet goodbye when we left. We were ready to go for sure, we were so tired, fed up with the heat...but at the same time its disney world, you get to MCO and its all over. Needless to say there is another trip in the works for October 2009!! that will involve me and mine, carly and the baby (which will be 18 months by then but not yet here ) Michelle and family, and a couple of other friends have expressed an interest I have explained that they don't need to follow me around and stick to the group if they don't want to, but apparently my touring skills are becoming wide known because the response I got was "oh I know I don't have to but I will cos you know what you are doing" So prepare for an epic in 2009! And this one will be offsite, i am surveying villas already, I estimate we could end up with 16 people so watch out WDW

And now its time to reveal the plans for Dec 2007

 

[carissanboys]

That was fun reading about your "girly" trip So glad to hear you enjoyed the P & P Party! I can't wait for it And I completely agree with you about August in Florida. NO WAY I SAY! Man, March was hot enough for me

Can't wait to read about more plans...