And Then There Were 2 + 1 Wicked Queen

[annmarieda]

So if you have followed over from the previous thread or are just joining, this trip has taken many twists and turns. It has, after all, been in the planning for 2 years!

Our group started out large with many hopeful ideas. How many we started with was 9. NINE! We were a large group and we would have needed a villa to have us all in one room.

Slowly for one reason or another people were unable to go and our numbers dwindled. Of our original group, there are just two of us. (plus her mom)

Our dates are slightly different and we do have separate plans for part of the trip. However we will be staying together and the two of us are bound and determined to make this trip, that has been dreamed about for so long, a reality!

Next Up: The Who

 

[annmarieda]

As I mentioned we have three of us. Our dates are not exactly the same, but we will be sharing a room.

First to arrive will be me. I am Ann. I perhaps take this planning too seriously. I like to have things figured out ahead of time so that I can relax on trips. I am 43 years old - mom to 4 - mother in law to 1 ( soon to be 2). I have been married nearly 24 years to my wonderful husband Steve. I work as a merchandising rep. which up until recently was full time. I was quite shocked at the thought of losing hours, but turns out that 10 hours less a week affords me more time to do all the things that I was neglecting. (including dis )

Here is my youngest daughter and I getting our bibs at the phm expo this past february.



I will let the next traveler make her own introductions and then we can get on to the Whens and Wheres!!!

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

So I am Ashley. I also have a few OCD tendencies apparently.... Ann doesn't seem to mind too much though! I am 24 years old, mother to a soon to be 5 year old little diva princess, and fiance to the high school sweetheart Buddy. We have been together for right at 10 years now! I'm a massage therapist who works a little too much, but any of you who have jobs where you have built clientele, you understand what that means! My favorite toon is Tinkerbell!

This will be I think trip like 29 back Home for me! First ever adults trip anywhere! Food and Wine festival as an over 21 adult!



And the Wicked Queen... She's been talking about making a disboards account... so we shall see. I will do a small write up for her though.
This is the only time I will say this because she doesn't want to be called mom on the trip, but... she is my mother..

So Ginger is I think around my age? She started counting backwards a few years ago! I could tell you when, but that would give it away! She's momma to a 24 year old daughter and a 19 year old son, GiGi to a 4 year old little diva, and now single and loving it! by the time she retires from Exxon in a few years she will have 38 years at the company! She's in the Inspections group. Not sure exactly what she does, but I know they keep the plant from going boom! She loves Dopey and the Wicked Queen from Snow White!

 

[lovethattink]

I'm here. Glad there are two so your not alone. So sorry it didn't work out for everyone else too. Is Zoe going on the trip? Ann I hope we can meet up again at some point, but JJ's condition has changed drasticslly in the last two days.

 

[eandesmom]

I am here it's hard to coordinate so many folks. Important thing is you are all going and it will be great!!!

 

[annmarieda]

I'm here. Glad there are two so your not alone. So sorry it didn't work out for everyone else too. Is Zoe going on the trip? Ann I hope we can meet up again at some point, but JJ's condition has changed drasticslly in the last two days.

I am so glad you made it here. Zoe will not be with us. (it is still a grownups only) She will go again in January though, so I don't feel too terribly guilty. (but maybe just a tad. ) As for meeting up, I hope to as well. I certainly understand if we can't though. Poor JJ. I will say some extra prayers for him.

I am here it's hard to coordinate so many folks. Important thing is you are all going and it will be great!!!

Yeah, you wouldn't know anything about that now would you?! I am not sure if attempting with family makes it easier or harder. I suppose depending on how you look at it... probably easier in some ways... harder in others. You are correct though, it will be great. I do wish that everyone who originally planned to go would be, cause.... it would have been quite the group!!! Have you ever seen on the DLR side of dis there is a girls group that (I think) meets annually? When I was doing my DLR TR, I came across it. Funny thing was a gal I went to high school is a part of that group. I actually reconnected with her on dis before finding her on fb. Anyway, their group is HUGE. Way more than 9... and they are able to pull it off. Maybe that is why. I suppose in a large group losing one here or there for one reason or another doesn't make such a drastic impact.

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

Edited my who post

 

[swwake]

I am here to read and follow along, and to wish I could go to WDW again this year, run the race, etc. Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

I am here to read and follow along, and to wish I could go to WDW again this year, run the race, etc. Can't wait to read all about it!

Yay Susan! Glad your here! Wish you were too!

 

[annmarieda]

I am here to read and follow along, and to wish I could go to WDW again this year, run the race, etc. Can't wait to read all about it!

I agree with Ashley! Wish you were going along too... I wish EVERYONE was going along too.

 

[annmarieda]

Not a lot has changed over all in regards to dates and resorts from our original plan.

My dates are from 9/28 to 10/7.

Ashley and Ginger will be arriving on 9/29 and departing 10/6.

This is a bit of a conundrum for me since on both sides of our overlapping dates, I have a single nights stay. In some ways, I would like to not hop around. However, maybe this would be a good opportunity to try three different resorts?

Currently I have nothing booked for those nights. My thought though is to stay at

on the first night.

Then the three of us check in on 9/29 to

Then that will leave my last night. Since staying at CBR will mean I have stayed at each of the moderates. I either need to stay at a value (which would mean one of the all starts) or a deluxe. . Right now though, i just can't decide which one. I could borrow enough points to stay in a DVC resort. Problem is that currently the only one available is SSR. Not my favorite. Last week, AKV was available. Borrowing this late in my use year though could be a tad dangerous and I am so new to this that it makes me a tad nervous. (not to mention, getting into the borrowing game is something I was hoping to avoid for just little bit of time) So suffice it to say, I am not sure where I want to stay. I have only stayed at 2 deluxe resorts and 2 values... so lots of options. Do I save money or points?

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

I have to work half a day on Saturday, so Ging and I will probably head out around 5pm or so on the 28th. The plan is to either drive all the way to Disney if we can, or stop in Tallahassee.

My fiance works for a Wyndham hotel, so we will be staying here with his discount if we do stop for the night.

Tallahassee Stop

http://www.wingatehotels.com/hotels...am.com&srcBrand=WY&srcDestination=tallahassee

or

Lake City Stop

http://www.daysinn.com/hotels/flori...tels.com&srcBrand=WG&srcDestination=lake-city


Ging has the 6th and 7th Harry Potter books on audio on reserve at the library to get like a week before we leave. So we shall listen to the adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione while we much on pretzel sticks!

If we do end up in Tallahassee, we are hoping to be roll the rest of the way into WDW and Ann around 12pm if all goes well!

Then all in the room at

until we leave around noon on the 6th to head home.

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

Okay. So we are going to play a "fun fact" type game.

I will post our trivia question for the day. Anyone who wants to play along can put your answers in your replies. At the end of the day, I'll post at least mine and Ann's answers along with the trivia question for the next day. (The Wicked Queen has a "family picnic" she's helping plan for Exxon, so shes a little to swamped. Hopefully, she'll play along soon.)

We are on day 47. Since I have 50 questions, we will do 3 today to catch up

1. What is your favorite Disney movie? Animated and Live Action?
2. What is your least favorite Disney movie?
3. Who is your favorite Disney hero/prince?

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

50. What is your favorite Disney movie? Animated and Live Action?

Ann: Princess and the Frog/Mary Poppins
Ashley: Tangled/101 Dalmations

49. What is your least favorite Disney movie?

Ann: Wall e
Ashley: Emperor's New Groove. (Only because it was dad favorite movie, and he had to watch it like once a night. Now it's Alexa's favorite.)

48. Who is your favorite Disney hero/prince?

Ann: Flin rider
Ashley: Peter Pan


And I was not thinking when posting this earlier, I should have posted day 47's since today was 47 days from officially being in Disney for all of us on Sunday the 29th.


Sooo
47. Who is your favorite Disney heroine/princess?
46. Who is your favorite Disney villain?

 

[annmarieda]

Just thought I would share that I still need to book those rooms for my stay on both ends of when we are all there. Having thought the Hyatt was a good choice for me, I am now reconsidering since my flight comes in early enough that I could still enjoy MK for a couple hours.

Decisions decisions....

 

[annmarieda]

Hotel stays decided upon!

So I may have driven everyone close to me (including my children) absolutely nuts when it comes to deciding where to stay for this trip. In the two years of planning, it has probably been me who has waffled the most. So I suppose it is not surprising that when things changed, I went through another period of "what if"

However this is now almost entirely set in stone.

I will arrive on 9/28. I will check into a room at

I have yet to book the room. I was hoping for an AP discount so I wouldn't have to pay rack rate. I also am hoping to link this reservation with the one that will run from 9/29 to 10/6. For all these reasons, I plan to call tomorrow. If no AP rate, I can at least see about linking the reservations. There is of course always speculation that rates will come out soon. Tomorrow, maybe even. Cross your fingers. If not, I am willing to pay just a tad more than just staying at a value since it will have me already at the resort I plan to be at for the next 7 nights. Also... I can afford to pay a bit more on the mod price since I won't be paying anything for the night of the 6th. Well, that isn't entirely true. My funny disney math tells me it is free. But it did have a cost and does have a cost.

You see, I went ahead and borrowed points from our 2013 points. (yes, I know... we are in 2013, but since my UY is December it might as well be a 2014 use year) This is a tricky thing to do. I mean... should there be any reason to cancel... I would lose those points because I have taken them into my 2012 year and am now beyond where I would need to bank them. I feel confident that I won't need to cancel. Although I did have a brief panic attack. I attempted to request DME for the departure. I received an email back from MS stating my information that I requested didn't match up with the reservation. I briefly thought I may have booked the wrong dates. Luckily, I had just had the wrong month on the DME request. The date is actually correct. Checking in on 10/6 and out on 10/7. It will be kinda a pain to move... but I will (in theory, hopefully) only have to move this one time. Plus, the room I booked should be worth it to move to.

Now, I have kept you all in suspense long enough. Where did I book for that last night?

and my view

As of right now, I think I will be the only one moving there. As with anything though, things are always subject to change.

 

[annmarieda]

So while Ashley is working, I will get up early. This is not new for me when it comes to a disney trip. In order to get to the airport on time I need to be on the road an hour before we need to be there and thus 3 hours before a flight. However, this flight for whatever reason is actually a couple hours later than what I normally get. I may actually get to sleep until 4am that morning. On the road by about 5, we should arrive at the airport around 6am. Once I say my good byes, I will be on my way to check my bag and then grab a bite to eat.

I think at this time of the morning it will likely involve some

My flight is at 8:15am and will fly into Atlanta at 3:55pm. I am a little worried about this. (only a little) This is my first time flying into Atlanta and it will be on my own. I can't imagine I would get too lost though. I just have heard horror stories of gates being on opposite ends of the airport. Luckily, I have about a 1 1/2 hour layover. This will give me enough time to grab lunch and find my way to the gate that will get me on that plane to MCO.

So looks like I will be flying overhead while Ashley is getting off work and on her way.

I will arrive MCO at 7:10pm. I will use DME to get me to the resort. I then will head to MK where EMH is until midnight. I have a paper AP. I wonder will I have to do anything special with it? This whole magic band thing has me so confused. .

First thing I will want to do is grab some dinner. Yes, a very late dinner since it will likely be after 9pm. I am counting on something being open. It really doesn't matter all that much to me where. It just has to be something quick. Because at 10pm I will want to be in a spot to see

After the parade, I will probably attempt to ride my favorite ride.

After that I am sure that I will be ready to call it a night.

 

[eandesmom]

You see, I went ahead and borrowed points from our 2013 points. (yes, I know... we are in 2013, but since my UY is December it might as well be a 2014 use year) This is a tricky thing to do. I mean... should there be any reason to cancel... I would lose those points because I have taken them into my 2012 year and am now beyond where I would need to bank them. I feel confident that I won't need to cancel. Although I did have a brief panic attack. I attempted to request DME for the departure. I received an email back from MS stating my information that I requested didn't match up with the reservation. I briefly thought I may have booked the wrong dates. Luckily, I had just had the wrong month on the DME request. The date is actually correct. Checking in on 10/6 and out on 10/7. It will be kinda a pain to move... but I will (in theory, hopefully) only have to move this one time. Plus, the room I booked should be worth it to move to.

Now, I have kept you all in suspense long enough. Where did I book for that last night?

and my view

As of right now, I think I will be the only one moving there. As with anything though, things are always subject to change.

For some reason, I did not see that resort coming! How fun will that be for you for a night. YAY for Savanna view. You will love it. LOVE it.

So while Ashley is working, I will get up early. This is not new for me when it comes to a disney trip. In order to get to the airport on time I need to be on the road an hour before we need to be there and thus 3 hours before a flight. However, this flight for whatever reason is actually a couple hours later than what I normally get. I may actually get to sleep until 4am that morning. On the road by about 5, we should arrive at the airport around 6am. Once I say my good byes, I will be on my way to check my bag and then grab a bite to eat.

I think at this time of the morning it will likely involve some

My flight is at 8:15am and will fly into Atlanta at 3:55pm. I am a little worried about this. (only a little) This is my first time flying into Atlanta and it will be on my own. I can't imagine I would get too lost though. I just have heard horror stories of gates being on opposite ends of the airport. Luckily, I have about a 1 1/2 hour layover. This will give me enough time to grab lunch and find my way to the gate that will get me on that plane to MCO.

So looks like I will be flying overhead while Ashley is getting off work and on her way.

UGH. This is why I take the red eye when I can, I can't stand getting up that early and losing a whole day!

4am. BLEH.

I will arrive MCO at 7:10pm. I will use DME to get me to the resort. I then will head to MK where EMH is until midnight. I have a paper AP. I wonder will I have to do anything special with it? This whole magic band thing has me so confused. .

You and me both! I also don't get whether you can get the bands...but not do FP+. I do like the idea of the bands for the kids...less likely for them to lose but I think we are going to have FP+ issues, at least for me as I've got a voucher number for a PAP so no matter what, it won't show I have "valid ticket media" for any pretrip bookings I don't think.

First thing I will want to do is grab some dinner. Yes, a very late dinner since it will likely be after 9pm. I am counting on something being open. It really doesn't matter all that much to me where. It just has to be something quick. Because at 10pm I will want to be in a spot to see

After the parade, I will probably attempt to ride my favorite ride.

After that I am sure that I will be ready to call it a night.

Good question, no idea how late CS stuff is open. We've had issues over the years with that. But it's not a late dinner to you...it will only be 6-6:30 as far as your tummy goes!

 

[annmarieda]

For some reason, I did not see that resort coming! How fun will that be for you for a night. YAY for Savanna view. You will love it. LOVE it.

I don't think I really considered it a whole lot until I just went for it. I think the fact I had to borrow had me a tad uneasy. However, it is just one night so I am not that much "in the hole" for 2013 points. In fact, this will still leave me with enough for Steve and I on our anniversary trip (assuming we stay 7 nights) If we stay longer we would have to borrow a bit from 2014. If we don't, I will have to bank a small amount into 2014.

I do feel bad though, because Zoe and Alex were crushed that I am staying there by myself. I honestly believe that the 1bdrm at OKW will be the best option for us. But the two of them really wanted to stay at AKL. Steve (who doesn't really go to the parks much anyway) feels that AKL would be too far from the parks. I still feel guilty though...

UGH. This is why I take the red eye when I can, I can't stand getting up that early and losing a whole day!

4am. BLEH.

If it were me... I would be fine with a red eye. I can sleep on the plane. Almost all my crazy family cant though. So Steve would end up being up all night and then sleeping all day. So no matter what I do, I lose a day. Honestly though, I think I would do better with a red eye. I mean... I can sleep on the plane. So the times we have taken one... we get to the airport late at night... get on the plane and then I get a full nights sleep. This way, I am too anxious to fall asleep..still packing..etc. I usually am in bed by midnight and then up by 3am. (this time I get an extra hour ) I get a few more hours on the plane... but it is interrupted by the 4 hours or so that I am definitely awake in getting out the door, going to the airport, waiting to board and then for the plane to be on its way enough. (I can't fall asleep until it has reached altitude)

You and me both! I also don't get whether you can get the bands...but not do FP+. I do like the idea of the bands for the kids...less likely for them to lose but I think we are going to have FP+ issues, at least for me as I've got a voucher number for a PAP so no matter what, it won't show I have "valid ticket media" for any pretrip bookings I don't think.

Well, I will have to pay close attention to how it works for you. I have a feeling January is going to be quite the challenge for us since we will have various kinds of tickets.

Good question, no idea how late CS stuff is open. We've had issues over the years with that. But it's not a late dinner to you...it will only be 6-6:30 as far as your tummy goes!

I know...eating at 9 will still feel early to me. I thought about doing a big dinner, but I think it will be a better idea to just pick up a burger or something. I just hope I can find something open at that time.

 

[swwake]

That's an eventful travel day! But it's fun to thrust yourself right into the magic when you get there. And your body will think 10pm parade time is really only 7pm.

As far as Atlanta-Hartsfield. It's not at all hard to get around. There are basically 5 terminals that are parallel to each other, and there's an underground train (we can call it a "monorail" for a Disney trip) that will take you from one terminal to the other, if you have to change terminals. If you don't have to change, it's not a long walk from one end to the other, IF you have to go that far. You'll be just fine!