kmartin555
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
- 127
Hi! Welcome to my PTR for our FIRST Disney trip. I am so excited and have done so much planning, that I had to share it all with people who share my Disney obsession! 
Let's start at the beginning: I'm Kristen. I'm 31 and I am a Social Worker. I also went back to school about 3 years ago, and I'm about a year and a half away from my B.S. in Psychology. Going to Disney World has been the biggest goal of mine since I was in 7th grade and read The Babysitter's Club Vacation (in which the BSC vacations in - you guessed it - Disney World!).
I'm a bit...um...OCD. I like lists and planning, and I like to have a schedule and a plan. Sometimes this works for my family. Sometimes, not so much! 
DH is Jimmy. He turns 31 October 1st. DH and I were high school sweethearts!
He worked in the oil field for years, but his shop closed and he was laid off a couple of months ago. He is wanting something more stable than the oil industry, so he is starting a year-long HVAC training program in August. He has a job waiting for him at the University of Oklahoma as soon as it's completed. (GO SOONERS! 
) Jimmy had a hard life growing up, and before he met me he had never been out of Oklahoma! Since we have been married we have of course visited our surrounding states, and we went on a family trip with my parents to Washington, D.C. for 10 days (although for my mom and I it was a working trip!). But this will be our first big family vacation. I am BURSTING with enthusiam, but Jim is a laid back kind of guy, so his excitement level is hard to read sometimes! 
Sadly, I only have a couple of pics of us together. I HATE having my photo taken! So here's the one I have handy, which is sad since it is also my profile pic!
Okay, onto the girls. Oldest DD is Menley. She is 10 going on 16. She loves sports and is mostly excited about visiting Epcot and Disney Quest. She is really looking forward to the trip, but thinks my crazy planning is a little over the top (esp. when we were 140 days out!)
DD7 is Maci. She loves princesses and anything girly. She is excited about every part of the trip, especially autographs and pin trading. She LOVES planning for Disney. She made her own version of a planning binder, and the Disney book for kids that I bought her has almost every page flagged with little post its!
Our little family struggled for a while when we started out, but we managed to pay off a mountain of debt last year and bought our first house!
We absolutely love it, but the icing on the cake is the first time home buyer credit! We closed on New Years Eve, which qualified us to get the credit THIS year instead of next. Yay!! We did the responsible thing with most of the money, but the second I saw the amount listed on the tax return, I knew we were finally going to Disney! 
So here's the basic plan. I'll post details later! Our trip dates are September 18-27. Another thing my poor family (other than me) hasn't ever experienced is SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN!
I just couldn't stand that, so we are flying into Daytona on the 18th. We will spend the night, all day of the 19th, and the night of the 19th in Daytona, then on the 20th we will get up early and check into Disney! We will stay at Disney for 6 nights, then head back to Daytona on the night of the 26th. We'll spend the night there so we can get up and be at the Daytona airport to fly home for our 11:00 am flight. Whew! There you have it, our basic agenda. 
Next up: the nitty gritty details.
Let's start at the beginning: I'm Kristen. I'm 31 and I am a Social Worker. I also went back to school about 3 years ago, and I'm about a year and a half away from my B.S. in Psychology. Going to Disney World has been the biggest goal of mine since I was in 7th grade and read The Babysitter's Club Vacation (in which the BSC vacations in - you guessed it - Disney World!).
I'm a bit...um...OCD. I like lists and planning, and I like to have a schedule and a plan. Sometimes this works for my family. Sometimes, not so much! DH is Jimmy. He turns 31 October 1st. DH and I were high school sweethearts!
He worked in the oil field for years, but his shop closed and he was laid off a couple of months ago. He is wanting something more stable than the oil industry, so he is starting a year-long HVAC training program in August. He has a job waiting for him at the University of Oklahoma as soon as it's completed. (GO SOONERS! ) Jimmy had a hard life growing up, and before he met me he had never been out of Oklahoma! Since we have been married we have of course visited our surrounding states, and we went on a family trip with my parents to Washington, D.C. for 10 days (although for my mom and I it was a working trip!). But this will be our first big family vacation. I am BURSTING with enthusiam, but Jim is a laid back kind of guy, so his excitement level is hard to read sometimes! Sadly, I only have a couple of pics of us together. I HATE having my photo taken! So here's the one I have handy, which is sad since it is also my profile pic!
Okay, onto the girls. Oldest DD is Menley. She is 10 going on 16. She loves sports and is mostly excited about visiting Epcot and Disney Quest. She is really looking forward to the trip, but thinks my crazy planning is a little over the top (esp. when we were 140 days out!)
DD7 is Maci. She loves princesses and anything girly. She is excited about every part of the trip, especially autographs and pin trading. She LOVES planning for Disney. She made her own version of a planning binder, and the Disney book for kids that I bought her has almost every page flagged with little post its!
Our little family struggled for a while when we started out, but we managed to pay off a mountain of debt last year and bought our first house!
We absolutely love it, but the icing on the cake is the first time home buyer credit! We closed on New Years Eve, which qualified us to get the credit THIS year instead of next. Yay!! We did the responsible thing with most of the money, but the second I saw the amount listed on the tax return, I knew we were finally going to Disney! So here's the basic plan. I'll post details later! Our trip dates are September 18-27. Another thing my poor family (other than me) hasn't ever experienced is SWIMMING IN THE OCEAN!
I just couldn't stand that, so we are flying into Daytona on the 18th. We will spend the night, all day of the 19th, and the night of the 19th in Daytona, then on the 20th we will get up early and check into Disney! We will stay at Disney for 6 nights, then head back to Daytona on the night of the 26th. We'll spend the night there so we can get up and be at the Daytona airport to fly home for our 11:00 am flight. Whew! There you have it, our basic agenda. Next up: the nitty gritty details.
What an awesome trip of firsts you'll have!!!! 
Thanks so much. We are really looking forward to it! And thanks for the pixie dust! 
Halloween is my absolute FAVORITE holiday, so when I realized the party would be happening during our stay, I bought tickets immediately! First day they went on sale! I am sooo exited about this party, especially seeing the villians. 
ANYWAY, we hop on a flight at DFW, and after a 3 ½ HOUR layover in Atlanta, we arrive in Daytona. We will pick up our rental car at the airport and head to Inn on the Beach (It's right on the water!). I figure that first night we will be exhausted from travel, so we will just order pizza to the room. My girls love doing that! 
I am in a dilemma about whether it is worth the money just to go ahead and pay Disney for one, or just try to make an ice chest work. Thoughts, anyone? We do plan to eat breakfast in the room most mornings. I don't know if an ice chest will be too much trouble? 
Here is our plan for the first day. After writing it all down it seems a bit ambitious...let me know what you all think! 
Maci is sooo excited about this! We will spend the day at Epcot, taking a long afternoon break and returning for Illuminations. 
Maci will see 1,000 things that she just has to have, so this way she will choose her treasures more carefully. Then we will head to Hoop De Doo Revue! We have Cat 3 seating for the 7:15 show. Anyone have an idea how much time we should leave to get from DTD to Hoop? We plan to explore the resort a little after, then head back to the room to try to get to bed reasonably early. 
Maci is really looking forward to this one!
I just figure it's better to have an idea of what we're gonna be doing and when. 
And yes, I do have a life. As I mentioned before, Maci is also a little planner and loves art, so this is something we have worked on together over a few weekends. Also, I am the type who will totally put 100% into planning something, but once it's over, it's over! I intend to do a trip report, but I will never get around to actually scrapbooking or anything after the trip, so this will serve as a memory book also. I will just insert some photopass pics in here and there and call it an album! 
The girls are in a quandary about what to dress up as. I want them to dress in something comfy that won't be too hot (and won't take up too much luggage space!). Thanks also for the travel time advice. I'm so glad to hear that I won't have to allow an hour for park travel time. I want to do rope drops, and it is going to be hard enough to get my family up as it is!
