After 7 Trips We're Finally Staying At the BC! May 2012 PTR: New TR Started!

[cinderella crazy]

I’ve fought and fought about whether to start a pre-trip report and now I’m finally giving in. I have all this excitement that’s been building up inside of me and I have to have somewhere to release it! Thank goodness for the DisBoards!

My last PTR was a little over 2 years ago so I hope I remember how to do this. And unlike last time I pledge that I will do a TR after we get back. Really. I promise. You can count on me.

Let’s start with introductions, shall we?

First there’s me:

My name is Alicia and I’m a stay at home mommy to two crazy, fun, silly, sweet, wonderful children (and I try to remind myself of that whenever they are running around the house like crazy people or pestering the dog with their tinker toys). I volunteer at our church as one of several children’s choir directors and I sing in our church’s choir. It’s a great deal for me since I used to be a music teacher. I get to use my music knowledge without having to “go to work.” Although I do spend a lot of my time preparing for children’s choir. Here’s a picture from several years ago of our choir and orchestra:

I’ll go ahead and warn you, I am a photo crazy poster. I will post a picture if I have one. I’ll even post one even if it has nothing to do with what I’m talking about.

How’d that get here?!!

Back to me, this will be my eleventh trip to Disney. My parents weren’t as Disney crazy as I am so I don’t have as many trips under my belt as some of you more seasoned travelers. In my spare time (does any one else think this is funny? I mean how many of us really have a TON of spare time?), okay maybe I should say “when I have a spare couple of seconds,” I like to crosstitch, read, sing (actually I do this all the time; even in grocery stores while I’m shopping), scrapbook, cook, and plan Disney trips. And I might have a slight obsession with coffee and the British Royal Family.

I just think she looks like a sweet grandmother in the pictures where she’s smiling.


Enough about me….Next is my husband, Mike who had a birthday yesterday:

He’s an electrical engineer which means he’s very, very smart. He’s good at math and spelling which works out wonderfully since I am terrible at both. He acts all serious but underneath is a silly, funny guy. I really do feel sorry for him. I don’t think he had any idea what he was getting into when he married me. He is the most patient husband in the world. I mean you’d have to be to put up with this stuff:

Mike is our reservation and list maker. He’s good at figuring out ways to make lists for things. On our May 2010 trip he made a spreadsheet to determine which resort would be better. He had a point system and everything. On that particular trip the Poly won over the Yacht Club. This will be Mike’s thirteenth trip to WDW. Here’s a pic from our last family trip:

Thirdly there’s our son, Alex:

Alex is 8 years old and this will be his sixth trip to WDW. Alex is your typical 8 year old. He’s energetic, hyper, funny, creative and a hoot to be around. Of our two children he is the careful one. He’s tall enough to ride everything in WDW but won’t. It’s one of the traits that make him who he is and I think it’s sweet. We’ve just now convinced him to give ToT a chance this trip. As he’s getting older and tries more rides he’s becoming more adventurous. Maybe one day he’ll ride RnR. Maybe… Here’s a pic of Alex from our last trip:

Next is our daughter, Lauren:

Lauren is 5 years old and this will be her fourth trip to WDW. Don’t you feel sorry for her? She missed a year of not going to Disney. Poor thing. Lauren is the daredevil princess of the family. This cutie rode ToT when she was 3 years old. She begged and begged on our May 2010 trip. Mike and I took her on it and she LOVED it! She’s so excited to ride it again. Hopefully we’ll get a picture this time of all of us riding it. Lauren is like me. She’s always singing and doing crazy things. If you read my previous PTR you might remember that she used to talk to toilet paper and tell it how pretty its dress was:

Here’s a pic of Lauren from our last trip:

Here’s one of my favorites of both kids:

And lastly there’s my mom, Lynda:

Mom has been with us on most of our Disney trips. Whenever we announce to the kids we’re going on a trip they just assume Mom is coming with us. She is really excited this month. After working for the same company almost 40 years she only has 12 more days of work till she retires. She’s thrilled! Her whole face lights up when she tells someone about her retirement. So this will be her first trip as a retiree. I love my Momma! She’s one of my best friends and I love that she gets to go on Disney trips with us!

Here’s Mom on the tea cups:

She started off smiling and then as the ride progressed, her expression changed to the above expression.

So now you’ve been introduced to the fam. We’re a fun and crazy bunch and we love to laugh (especially at ourselves). I’ll be back a little later with another post. First, I need to grab something to eat because a hungry momma is not a happy momma. Be back soon!

Chapters:
Intro
Why it took us so long to stay at the BC - Part 1
Why it took us so long to stay at the BC - Part 2
Countdown Calendar
The When and Where
Day 1: Off to Ocala
Day 2: Let's go see Mickey
Day 3: AK and Epcot and a slight ADR problem...Part 1
Day 3: Ak and Epcot and a slight ADR problem...Part 2
Fixed ADRs!!
Spring Break: Part 1 - Gatlinburg
Spring Break: Part 2 - The Zoo
I'm Back! - 3 Weeks of Craziness
Day 4: A Castle and Some Seafood
45 DAYS!!
Dollywood
"I Don't Want to Alarm You..."
Just Call Me The List Lady
Day 5: Jambo, Ni Hao and Hola!
Who Is That Crazy Lady Laughing Hysterically on Spaceship Earth?!
A Musical and Some Mickey Mail
List of Lists Update
Day 5 Revisted
Day 6: Shunshine Sheasons and Winnie the Pooh
Day 7:McSteamy and Zebra Domes
Day 8: Can I Please Have Some Sauerkraut?
Day 9: Can We Move to Disney?
Day 10: Home To Start Planning Our Next Trip
Let's Do the Must Do's
New TR Started!


Disney Nights
Let's Go to Disney/Chef Mickey's
Princess Night
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tower of Terror
Star Wars/Star Tours
Test Track
Haunted Mansion
Toy Story Pizza Planet/Toy Story Midway Mania
Animal Kingdom Night
Splash Mountain
Expedition Everest
Mexico
Liberty Tree Tavern
Tangled
T-rex/Lego
Princess Jasmine
Phineas and Ferb
Beach Club

 

[cinderella crazy]

So after 7 trips together we have finally decided to stay at the Beach Club! I am soooooo excited! You might be asking “Why did it take you 7 trips?” Well, I’m glad you asked…

Flashback to 2000. Mike was planning our honeymoon trip. He had a hard time deciding between the Beach Club and the Wilderness Lodge. He had actually booked the BC but eventually he switched it to the Wilderness Lodge. We were so close to staying at the BC. But we had an amazing time at WL during our 2001 honeymoon.

Our next trip was in November, 2004. This is the longest we’ve ever gone between Disney trips. I’m surprised we survived that long! We took Alex to celebrate his first birthday. We thought about staying at the Y&BC but the WL won out again.

We were so traumatized from waiting three years between our first and second trip that we had to go back in October, 2005. You’d think after 2 trips of thinking about staying at the Y&BC we would have finally given in on this trip. That’s a big negatory. Oh we thought about it but the AKL ended up being our resort for this trip.

We then waited till September, 2007 to return to WDW. You see, a certain little girl was born in 2006 so we waited until Lauren was 1 before returning. This was the first time we stayed at the Poly. I LOVE THIS RESORT!!! It’s by far my most favorite! We were going to stay at the YC until we learned that we could get a great price for the Poly. So once again, the Y&BC lost.

To be continued…

 

[cinderella crazy]

Our next WDW trip was in May, 2009. You’d think by now we would have given into staying at the Y&BC. Nope. We of course thought about it but instead opted for the Caribbean Beach Resort. We thought the kids would like the pool and even though we were tempted by the Y&BC we decided to save money.

Next was our May 2010 trip. We went back and forth between the CBR, Y&BC, and the Poly. Back and forth we went. I remember Mike calling me multiple times saying “I’ve been looking at resorts and I think we might want to switch to….” I think our travel agent wanted to beat us as many times as we switched. I wanted to pull my hair out with all the switching. What eventually tipped the scales was Mom had never stayed at the Poly, we got a good deal, and have I mentioned I LOVE THE POLY!!!??? So the poor Y&BC was skipped over again for the Poly.

Our most recent trip was in October, 2010. Mike and I went without the kids (I felt so guilty and so giddy at the same time that the kids weren’t with us) to celebrate our 10 year anniversary (which was actually in January, 2011 but this was the only time we could get away by ourselves). This was a quick trip and since we had already been to WDW earlier in the year we were trying to keep costs down so we stayed at the POP.

So the Y&BC wasn’t even discussed as an option for this trip. However…

One afternoon we were leaving DHS and we decided to take the boat to the Boardwalk area. Once we saw the Y&BC we knew we had to get off and walk from there to Epcot.

Let me back up a little bit. Once we had finally decided on the Poly for our previous trip, I had Mike promise that within the next 2 trips we would finally stay at the Y&BC. So here we are, strolling past the Y&BC and I mention to Mike “You know this is going to be our next resort, don’t you?” His reply “You said in the next 2 trips. This one doesn’t count since the kids aren’t with us.” Ummm… That argument really didn’t work with me. On our video of this trip, I filmed us walking past the resort saying “Mark my words. On our next trip we will stay at the Y&BC. I will win and we will be staying here.”


So there you have it. Finally! After going to WDW 7 times we are FINALLY staying at the BC!

 

[MHTeacher]

YAY! I'm first?!? I can understand your excitement completely! Would you believe that we haven't been to Disney since that May 2010 trip?

Alex and Lauren have grown up since your trip in May 2010. So sweet!

Looking forward to counting down the days with you!

 

[cinderella crazy]

YAY! I'm first?!? I can understand your excitement completely! Would you believe that we haven't been to Disney since that May 2010 trip?

Alex and Lauren have grown up since your trip in May 2010. So sweet!

Looking forward to counting down the days with you!

Hi Michelle! So glad you stopped by! I can't believe how much your children have grown! I keep telling Alex and Lauren that they need to stop growing. How fun that we're going to be there at the same time!

 

[Spaceship Tigger]

Looks like our countdown calendar begins tomorrow! 70 days til we're at the BC!

And yes, I'm part of that crazy family.

 

[cinderella crazy]

Looks like our countdown calendar begins tomorrow! 70 days til we're at the BC!

And yes, I'm part of that crazy family.

Thanks for the reminder Honey! I need to hang it up so y'all can start it tomorrow! Yes, you are part of this crazy family but you're the least crazy of all of us.

 

[cinderella crazy]

One of my favorite things before our Disney trip: The Countdown Calendar!!! I love making these! I’m a crafty person so any excuse I have to use my Cricut machine and glue stuff on paper makes me giddy! Sometimes I call it paper therapy. There’s something about the adhesive, pretty paper, markers and the sound of paper being cut that calms me. Strange? Yes. But then again, I’m a little strange (just a little…).

I had never thought about making one of these until our last trip. I was on the Disboards one day and came across the countdown calendar thread. I thought I had found gold! What a wonderful idea! I immediately started planning. I went online, found some Disney pictures, bought a poster board and started gluing and drawing. Here’s the result:

It’s one of the funnest (did I just make up a word? I do that a lot) things that we did before our last Disney trip. The kids had a blast putting up the Mickey heads everyday and whenever the kids asked “How many days till we go to Disney World?” all Mike and I had to do was point to the calendar.

We had so much fun with the previous countdown calendar that I decided for our current one we should countdown more days! So off I went to Hobby Lobby. Do y’all have Hobby Lobby? Love, love, love that store! I could spend so much time (and money) in that store! For some reason, whenever I tell Mike I’m going there he gets a scared look on his face…

Anyway, I went to Hobby Lobby and I got a poster board. A nice, pretty, blue poster board to go with our beachy theme. After I came home I started looking online for Disney pictures. Lauren wanted “Tangled” (she still thinks that’s her name even though I’ve told her I don’t know how many times that it’s Rapunzel) and Jasmine. Alex loves Phineas and Ferb so I found some pics of them. I also found a picture of the castle. Then came the time consuming part…

For the last calendar I cut out 30 Mickey heads, by hand. That was pretty time consuming. This time I had the Cricut to help me. Do y’all know what I’m talking about? It’s this thing:

This machine has saved me so much time! I can scrapbook in record time with this thing! It’s awesome for helping with school projects (making posters, cutting out shapes, etc). You buy cartridges that you insert into the machine and each cartridge has certain fonts/letters/sayings/shapes that it will cut out. Since I was sure we’d be going to the BC this trip I bought a cartridge that was beach/travel themed. And that’s what I used for our countdown days. I think they turned out okay but 70 of them required a lot of time (and adhesive). I’m pretty sure if I had tried to do something like this, and had to cut them out by hand, I’d be sitting here till we left for our Disney trip still cutting them out.

Here’s what it will look like when it’s completely full:

So the kids were super excited this morning when they saw that the 70 day countdown calendar is up and ready to go:

70 days to go!!

 

[MHTeacher]

Love your Beach Club countdown calendar! It's so cute, and I know your kids will have so much fun counting down the days. That cricut sure comes in handy doesn't it? Cutting out those little paint samples can take forever---personally, that's why my countdown only has 40 days!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Love your Beach Club countdown calendar! It's so cute, and I know your kids will have so much fun counting down the days. That cricut sure comes in handy doesn't it? Cutting out those little paint samples can take forever---personally, that's why my countdown only has 40 days!

Thanks Michelle! Until about a year ago I had never heard of a circut. Now I use it for so many things. I was going to do a 30 day countdown but the kids kept asking when we were going to start counting down. So I gave in and made one.

 

[PixieMama]

Joining in!

I'm jealous of all your resort stays! I've only stayed at ASMovies and Pop... but I'll be staying at POR on my October trip (DH and I are going to celebrate our anniversary! Without the kids, woohoo!) I'm hoping we'll have another family trip next year and I've got my fingers crossed we'll stay at the Poly!

 

[cinderella crazy]

Joining in!

I'm jealous of all your resort stays! I've only stayed at ASMovies and Pop... but I'll be staying at POR on my October trip (DH and I are going to celebrate our anniversary! Without the kids, woohoo!) I'm hoping we'll have another family trip next year and I've got my fingers crossed we'll stay at the Poly!

Hi Shannon!

Mike and I seem to be on a mission to stay at all the resorts we're interested in staying at. There aren't many left on our list.

We've liked both the ASMovies and Pop (we had a one night stay at ASMovies on Alex's first trip that I somehow forgot about till you mentioned it).

How wonderful that you get to go on an anniversary trip! Mike and I had a blast on our anniversary trip! It was so nice to leisurely walk around the parks and not have to keep up with the children (although we did mention several times how much we missed them)

I hope you get to stay at the Poly! It's gorgeous!

 

[cinderella crazy]

So I just realized that I haven't said when in May we're going to Disney. Kind of important for a PTR, don't ya think?

When:

For us it’s kind of a no brainer when to go. Our last two trips have been during May and it works well for us. Whenever I think about a Disney May trip I think back to our 2009 trip. It rained, and rained, and rained, and rained… It was a fun trip but I’ll go more into past trips later. We like May because the kids are fresh out of school, it’s before our summer gets crazy and the crowds aren’t as bad as they are in the summer. For this particular trip we’ll be in Disney from May 25th-June 1st.

Where:

May 24th – East/Southern Tennessee, Georgia and Florida

We’ll take 1-40 through the state of Georgia

(or as I like to call it: The Neverending State which makes me think of the Neverending Story. Remember that movie? Now I have the song going through my head. And whenever we go through Georgia that song gets stuck in my head… Sorry. I sometimes go of topic)

to Ocala, Florida (which I am forever mispronouncing)

May 25th-May 31st – Finally staying at the BC! Can’t wait!

June 1st – Morning and afternoon at Disney, evening stay at Ocala

June 2nd – I-40 through Florida, Georgia (It’s really a lovely state it’s just that it’s in between me and Disney so it seems like it goes on forever and it’s also the state where I’ve gotten my only speeding ticket. I just seem to wander when I think about Georgia…) and then through the southern/east part of Tennessee

(which now has me wondering how much of Tennessee is considered “southern Tennessee?” I mean we’re one big, long state.

Hmm. In all the years I’ve lived here I’ve never thought about that. Maybe someone can educate me about that.

There’s the basics of our trip. Up next: Day 1 and our trek down to Ocala. (And hopefully I’ll stay more on topic. I can’t promise anything though…)

 

[PixieMama]

I just noticed you're in Knoxville, then read your post about driving through TN/GA... I'm in Chattanooga!

Small world, eh?

 

[cinderella crazy]

I just noticed you're in Knoxville, then read your post about driving through TN/GA... I'm in Chattanooga!

Small world, eh?

Your just down the road from us then! We'll be passing through on our way down to Disney. Mike and I keep talking about how it's been too many years since we've gone to Chattanooga and the kids haven't ever been. The kids need to "See Rock City."

 

[cinderella crazy]

Day 1: May 24th – Off to Ocala

My family keeps telling me the first “a” is pronounced like an “a” in the word cat and then the remainder of the word is lah. I pronounce it Oak-ah-lah. Which ever way it’s pronounced, it’s the first stop on our trip.

This is the day after the kids get out of school. We thought about leaving on the 23rd since the kids have a half-day and we did do that on the last May trip. But we try to avoid rush hour Atlanta traffic and that is much harder when we leave in the afternoon. So for this trip we decided to wait, and leave the day after the kids get out of school.

We’ll leave the house around 7:30 and hopefully avoid the dreaded Atlanta traffic. (Atlanta is a nice city but I can’t stand driving through it. Somehow Mike usually ends up behind the wheel when we’re driving through Atlanta)


Mike has a mini obsession with Zaxby’s right now so we’re going to try to stop at one for lunch (probably south of Atlanta). We’ll continue on until we reach the Florida Welcome Center where we’ll stop and enjoy some orange juice. We’re really excited about this since the last couple of trips the center has been closed since it’s been night time when we entered Florida.

We’ll continue on our way until we reach Ocala (or Oakahlah). We’re staying at the Comfort Suites. I’m not too picky about our hotels on the way down and back. Just give me a bed and a shower and I’m good to go. Don’t get me wrong, I might have a slight meltdown if it’s not clean (I have what I like to call “slight” OCD). Pretty much as long as the room looks like it’s taken care of we’ll be okay. Mike’s picked this hotel so I’m not too worried about it. Plus, they have a continental breakfast so that will be nice. Here’s some pics from their website:

After we check in we’ll head out for dinner. We’ve recently discovered that there’s a Chuck E. Cheese near our hotel. We thought it might be a great place to grab some pizza and give the kids an opportunity to run off some of their energy from being in the van for 8 or so hours. After dinner we’ll head back to the hotel, relax, and get to bed early so we’re more than ready for the next day; our first day at Disney.

 

[disney<333]

Joining in! Glad to hear you're returning to Disney. We took a two year break too and returned this past Christmas. Your kids are getting so big. You will fall in love with the Epcot resorts. It's the only place I stay now.
Cute countdown calendar!!

 

[PixieMama]

Oh, Lawsy... the dreaded ATL traffic. Ugh, can you imagine living there and dealing with that EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I have some friends who live in that area. One lives less than 10 miles from work but it takes her OVER AN HOUR EACH WAY to get there and back home. Oy!

On our first family trip back in '07, we drove straight through to WDW in one day. I think we made it there by 7 p.m. or so. The next time, in 2010, we left the day before and drove most of the way. Not sure where we stopped for the night... it may have been Ocala (Oak-ah-lah). Even though we had to spend extra money on a hotel for the night, it was definitely easier to drive most of the way and stop for the night. Especially with having the kids along. Your plans sound great... grab some dinner and get some sleep, then you're refreshed and ready for Disney!

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!! Can't wait to hear more. I love Disney but my second favorite vacation place in Tennesse (Pigeon Forge).

 

[MHTeacher]

I hear you about the drive through the entire state of Georgia! There was one trip where we decided to drive to Montgomery,then head east into Georgia---I remember going through Plains, GA...and I felt like we were in that state forever---and that was only half of the state! I can't imagine how long it must feel when you start at the top!

We will make our drive down in one day, and it gets easier to do that when your kids are older.