Birthday Trip to Disney - September TR - UPDATED

[verleniahall]

Hello and welcome to my first Pre-Trip report.

This will be our 3rd trip to Disney.

Our first trip was in the fall of 2014 over my birthday and we got to do the Halloween Party ON my birthday

Our second trip was last year over Halloween and we got to see the transformation to Christmas. We had tried to plan for being there for the first Christmas Party, but we ended up leaving the DAY OF!!

Our current plans are November 24th - December 10th

 

[verleniahall]

Introductions​

Let me introduce myself. My name is Lena and my DH is Sam. We don't have children, but we love our Kitty Peaches to Pieces!!!

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*Photo Credit - Memory Maker 2016 - MNSSHP -

ME:
My Favorite Ride: Haunted Mansion
Ride I WISH I could Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Restaruant (to date) Toss up between 1900 Park Fare and Crystal Palace
Favorite Character: CAN"T DECIDE!!

DH:
Favorite Ride: Splash Mountain
Second Fave: Big Thunder
Favorite Restaraunt (to date): Can't Decide
Favorite Character: All the characters from Song of the South (hence why Splash is #1)

We have had Peaches for about two years - she is a rescue so even now some things still make her nervous or scared but we hope that she will continue to come out of her shell.

Well, thats us in a nutshell!! Stay Tuned for more updates in our planning saga!!

 

[verleniahall]

RESERVED for Post #'s

*Introduction - #2*
* The (Seemingly) Never Ending Resort Debate - #5*

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Hello! Hope you don't mind me joining in. My wife and I just did our first Christmas 2015. We enjoyed every moment and want to plan another!

I will enjoy following you and your DH adventures. Plus hearing about cute Peaches. Can we have a photo of the kitty?

 

[verleniahall]

The (Seemingly) Never Ending Resort Debate
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Hello!!

So, now that you know us a little bit, here we go.

We had ORIGINALLY planned to be back at our Home this year (2016), but last July DH had a stroke, and we have been doing 1-2 dr appointments a month since then. (THANKFULLY, we have May and June and 1/2 of THIS July free of DR appts - its the little things!) and the DH gets PTO (Paid Time Off) not "sick days" and "vacation days" so we had to make the HARD decision to cancel this years trip about Mid February, when we realized that he would not have enough time off to do a trip.

SO, during our "Disney Discussion" about the beginning of March, I mentioned that I would like to go to the Christmas Party next year because we missed it due to leaving DAY OF! (we had booked our flights in December of '14 through the military so they couldn't be changed). Sam suggested that if he saved a majority of his time off, we could go for TWO weeks in 2017. OF COURSE I SAID YES TO THAT!!

SO - Since March this is how it has gone: POP - Shades of Green w/military tickets - POP - Fort Wilderness - Shades - Boardwalk - POP

My head has been spinning running current numbers to see what the military discount would be for the rooms, adding in the Disney tickets to purchase form base and food OOP - looking at split stays, etc... my ticker in my signature has changed SO MANY TIMES that I can't keep count. I told DH that we are now at POP - we are NOT changing again!

Our original dates were the first two weeks of December: December 2nd - the 16th. I went playing with dates, and found that (according to THIS year) that if we were to get there the day after Black Friday, we could save about $300.00 - that is almost what we need for 2 sets of MVMCP tickets! (we are going twice - this has already been decided)

SO - we are now going November 25th - December 9th - Exactly the max amount of days that we can get a package with dining.
Plus, leaving on a Saturday means that we don't have to take off of work that day, and getting BACK on a Saturday means that we have a little while for recovery before back to the real world (and I can spend two days going through all of the photos that we will have between Memory Maker and Cameras, and Phones)

So - That is the Great Resort Debate, and, Personally, I'm SO glad that it is Over!!!

Until Later!!

 

[verleniahall]

Hello! Hope you don't mind me joining in. My wife and I just did our first Christmas 2015. We enjoyed every moment and want to plan another!

I will enjoy following you and your DH adventures. Plus hearing about cute Peaches. Can we have a photo of the kitty?

- We LOVED the decorations for Christmas - I think more than we loved the Fall ones! *GASP!*

*Photo Credit - Lena* - I took this last October the evening that we left for my parents (who were driving us to the airport)

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

- We LOVED the decorations for Christmas - I think more than we loved the Fall ones! *GASP!*

*Photo Credit - Lena* - I took this last October the evening that we left for my parents (who were driving us to the airport)

Yeah hello cute Peaches thank you for photo. I know right those decorations something else! We stayed at VWL. Oh my that tree!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

It's nice to have a resort sorted nice choice at Pop! Sorry DH had a stroke. Glad to hear he is recovering enough for you glorious 2 weeks Disney fest.

 

[ariane37]

Hello Lena! Glad your DH is well enough now to travel to Disney and I assume since the Dr. appts aren't as often, he's doing well?

We've never stayed at POP but drove through there once when staying at AoA. We hopped a POP bus instead since it came to the park quicker than our bus. Such a cool-looking resort! It's a good feeling once you've nailed down where you're staying Looking forward to planning along with you.

 

[ariane37]

Wanted to add that Peaches is adorable! I have to cats, I've always had cats and always will

 

[verleniahall]

Hello Lena! Glad your DH is well enough now to travel to Disney and I assume since the Dr. appts aren't as often, he's doing well?

We've never stayed at POP but drove through there once when staying at AoA. We hopped a POP bus instead since it came to the park quicker than our bus. Such a cool-looking resort! It's a good feeling once you've nailed down where you're staying Looking forward to planning along with you.

He's doing MUCH better - the next appt will be his neurologist and those always take a few months ot get because its a specialist appointment

Wanted to add that Peaches is adorable! I have to cats, I've always had cats and always will

Thanks!! She can be a royal pain sometimes, but we love her to pieces.

 

[verleniahall]

Date Changes, Food and Wine, and a RunDisney event?
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Welcome Back!!

So, I have ALWAYS wanted to do a rundisney event. Our original plans LAST year were to go over Wine and Dine Marathon Weekend, and do the 5K. Then all of the Christmas Changes. Then moving up to right after Thanksgiving. NOW back to right before Halloween!!

SO. Now we are BACK to going over Halloween/Food and Wine Festival/RunDisney - which i am THRILLED about, but I REALLY need to get my behind into gear. Thankfully, I have the time to work on getting into shape and having a goal at the end.

DH is OK with the changes - we will still get to see the MK decorated - not sure about any resorts or anything, but we will just have to see what all is up while we are there. I think that he is slightly sad not to see the Holidays around the World at Epcot, but overall, Epcot isn't one of our Favorite Parks, but we plan to give it a full chance this trip.

We ARE planning to do the Halloween Party ON Halloween - we will have to be ready for Halloween Tickets, Christmas Tickets, and the RunDisney registration fee which all have seemed to open about the same time or within a few months of each other this year.

 

[verleniahall]

"I Want a REAL Medal - not Plastic or Rubber!"​

Research - makes the world go round

While doing some reading on the 5K's, I found that 5K's arent' "real" medals - I want a REAL ONE!
So, while the DH was on break, we made a deal - that if I ran the 1/2 marathon, he would run it with me.

OH MY LANDS - What have I gotten myself in to? I don't even run a mile let alone 13.1!

 

[verleniahall]

How about TWO Christmas Parties and a Rental Car?​

So apparently, my DH was KIDDING when he said he would run teh 1/2 with me if I did it. Party Pooper.

To make it up to me, he offered up going to two parties and getting a rental car - and we foudn a mustang for about $400 for two weeks which isn't bad!

So, I will continue to work on running, and do som e5k's and 10k's around home, hoepfully in 2018 I can convince him to do the 1/2 with me.

 

[ariane37]

Two Christmas parties is a nice idea! I've wanted to do that before but 2 MNSSHP's; sadly we never have. But that way for one party you could do something like focus on meeting the special characters and seeing the shows, and then for the 2nd party do rides with no wait and maybe the parade - some type of split like that

 

[verleniahall]

Two Christmas parties is a nice idea! I've wanted to do that before but 2 MNSSHP's; sadly we never have. But that way for one party you could do something like focus on meeting the special characters and seeing the shows, and then for the 2nd party do rides with no wait and maybe the parade - some type of split like that

I think that is the plan overall. I know that BOTH times we were at the Halloween Party we have missed Aladdin and Jasmine with Abu and the Geinie - so I know that is on my list for one of the parties!

 

[verleniahall]

You Cant' Book Till 499 From Checkout Date.....
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So June 21st was set in my head - the day that packages were released for 2017. FANTASTIC! After seeing some conflicting information on facebook, I decided to call and talk to a CM about this 499 Days booking thing. So I call, the CM isnt' sure so she puts me on hold. Comes back and says she talked to Guest Services and yes, ALL 2017 packages will be released for booking on the 21st. Awesome.

June 21st I am up early, excited, ready to book. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. 30 minutes into time! So I call and to make a long story short, I cannot book my November/December package until 499 days from our Checkout Date - Which will be July 28th.

SOOOO I now get to wait until July 28th to book our 10 "ear" anniversary trip

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