Can I Really Keep My Mouth Shut For The Next 6 Months? Update 6/4 Link to TR

[Becc1]

Hi, My name is Lisa and this is my first pre trip report. I have been a long time lurker on many trip reports and really enjoy reading them so I hope that someone will enjoy mine as well

I'll start off with our cast of characters. We are a family of 6 from Maryland and we are bringing along my mil and niece who hail from Pennsylvania.

I'll start with Christian, he is my 15 yr old sophmore who lives and breathes baseball. Although he is getting older he still very much enjoys Disney. In his own words he loves seeing how happy it makes his brothers and sister. Favorite park is Epcot, favorite ride is Everest, says his favorite character is Cinderella but I think that was said just to make his sister happy. This will be his 4th trip to WDW.

First day of school

On our trip in 2009

Next up is Ben, my 8 yr old miracle. He has developemental delays and mild Cerebral Palsy, we were told that he may never walk on his own or be on grade level for his age. While he is a immature for his age, he is absolutely on grade level and has been walking independently for about 2 years now. He still requires a stroller for places like Disney and when we go to museums and the zoo but otherwise is doing great! He loves WDW but is not crazy about the "big rides", his favorite park is Magic Kingdom, loves The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and his favorite characters are Lightening McQueen and Pooh. This will be Ben's 3rd trip to Disney.

On our last trip

Next up is Sam, my wild and crazy 7 yr old. Sam is a WDW expert, he can tell you about every ride at every park. He is the entertainer of the family, everyone tells me that he should be a comedien when he grows up. He loves to make people laugh, and he does even when he's not trying. His favorite park is Hollywood Studios, favorite rides Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Toy StoryMania (said he couldn't pick just one) and he says his favortie in park character is the Green Army Men. This is also his 3rd trip.

In Aug 2009

Then there's Emily, our little princess. Like most 4 yr olds she is princess obssessed. She truely believes that one day she will live in Cinderella's castle with her Prince Charming. She also collects Minnie Mouses, on her first trip we bought her one from each park and from there it has grown, she has a few dozen now. Her favorite park is Magic Kingdom, rides are Dumbo and Pooh and favorite character is Cinderella. This will be her 3rd trip.

And on our last trip

Next up is Chris, my dear husband who works very hard so we are able to vacation to WDW as often as we have. I am slowly converting him to a Disney fan, I think it wasn't until our 2008 trip that he fully understood the Disney magic. His favorite park is Animal Kingdom and favorite ride is Everest.

Then there is my mother in law Camille. We invited her and my father in law to WDW back in 2002 and they declined which she fully regretted after seeing what a great time we all had (my dh's brother, sister in law and niece also came with us). She has come with us on our last 2 trips and we've invited her along for the ride again. She likes that I do all of the planning and just goes with the flow. Her favorite park is Epcot and favorite ride is Spaceship Earth. This will be her 4th trip.

Camille with Sam

Next up is Cassandra, our 19 yr old niece. We decided to invite her along because her only other trip to WDW was with us and her parents back in 2002. She and Christian get along great and Ben just loves her to death. She will be turning 20 right before we leave so we'll be celebrating her birthday on our trip.

And then theres me Lisa. I am a 35 yr old stay at home mom. You will not see me in many pictures because I am behind the camera 99% of the time. I love all things Disney, my grandparents took me often to WDW as a child but my first trip as an adult wasn't until 2002. I love to help people plan their trips, I think it's funny when friends from high school send me messages on Facebook asking for tips about Disney, lol. My favorite park is Magic Kingdom, rides are Dumbo (makes me feel like a kid again) and Haunted Mansion and my favorite characters are Ariel and Belle.

That's us on our last trip, and no that's not cousin It in the front, that's Emily who up until this year wouldn't let me do her hair, lol.

So there's the long introductions, I look forward to sharing the rest of our plans. I must now get off of the computer as there are pumpkins to be carved. Happy Halloween!



LINKS


Introductions

When and Where

May hours are out!

ADR Wishlist

Beauty and the Beast Theme Night

Cars and Haunted Mansion Theme Nights

Toy Story 3 Theme Night

Should I keep it a secret?

The Princess and the Frog Theme Night

ADR's are made!

Aladdin Theme Night

Mulan Theme Night

Trip Shopping

Travel Day Plans

Finding Nemo/The Little Mermaid Theme Night

Star Wars Weekend and Reveal Plans

Disney Store Princess Party

Monsters Inc Theme Night

Up Theme Night

Super Bowl Party

Cinderella Theme Night

Mickey Valentines Dinner

Day 1 Plans DHS Star Wars Weekend

A Bug's Life Theme Night

Bambi and Dr Seuss days

Day 2 Plans Magic Kingdom

Day 3 Plans Epcot

The Lion King Theme Night

Day 4 Plans Animal Kingdom

Day 5 Plans Disney Hollywood Studios

The Incredibles Theme Night

State Line Bags

My Sammy is One Smart Cookie

Day 6 Plans Magic Kingdom

Tangled Theme Night

Day 7 Plans Epcot and Departure Day

Minnie's Masquerade Party

My Secret Countdown Calendar

My Addictions

Lady and the Tramp Theme Night

The Jungle Book Theme Night

30 Days and Counting

Peter Pan Theme Night

The Three Caballeros Theme Night

We're in the teens and more shopping

Alice in Wonderland Theme Night

Single Digits

Yes I am an Overpacker

A Kink in my Plans

 

[Becc1]

Now that the introductions are over I'll tell you the when and where. Originally we were going to be renting DVC points from a co worker of my mil. We told them the dates we wanted which were in August (our regular vacation time) but once we told them the dates the price went way up from what they had told us it would be. I messed with the numbers and it was just more than we were wanting to spend, so when the free dining dates came out for 2011 I jumped on it and booked us 2 rooms at Pop for May 27th-June 3rd. We stayed at Pop last year and the kids really enjoyed it, I am crossing my fingers that we get the same area we were in last year. It was the back side of the 70's, ground floor, directly across from the playground. It was the perfect location for us because it's not far from the food court and the main pool and the parking lot is really close. We like to drive to the parks rather than deal with the strollers on the buses. Now that my niece is coming we've added another room, Cassandra and Christian will share a room, my MIL will take Emily and DH and I will have Ben and Sam. We've also upgraded from the free quick service plan to the regular dining plan. Last year was our first time on the dining plan and now my DH says he will never go without it. We eat at a TS restaurant every night anyway so for us it's a great deal!

Here's a few pics of on our last trip at Pop Century

 

[Becc1]

I've been waiting for May's calendar to come and finally it's here Not that it matters too much because I can't make my ADR's for another 20 days but I'm still happy to see them. We don't do park hoppers, staying in one park all day isn't a problem for us, I am getting them for my niece and Christian. We figure that when the rest of us are done for the night, the big kids will be able to go do whatever park is having PM EMH's. My niece will be 20 and Christian is a pretty responsible 15 yr old so I don't see anything wrong with letting them stay late and take the buses home.

Here's a list of what parks I have in mind for each day of our trip.

Friday 27th - DHS
Saturday 28th - Magic Kingdom
Sunday 29th - Epcot
Monday 30th - Animal Kingdom
Tuesday 31st - DHS
Wednesday 1st- Magic Kingdom
Thursday 2nd - Epcot

I have DHS for our first day because it's hopefully going to be a Star Wars weekend and I'm thinking that a Friday may be less busy than a weekend day. Sam really loves Star Wars as do Christian and DH. I have been scared by a few comments I've read regarding how crazy it gets but I think I'd still like to give it a try.



Next up I'll share with you may ADR wish list

 

[Becc1]

Ok, I'm going to try this again, I had this all typed up, pictures added and when I went to post it, the boards were down for maintenance.

So we still have a couple of weeks left until I can make our ADRs but we've pretty much had our wishlist since the car ride home last year. We have a couple of first timers and some old standbys. I think Dh will be devastated if we don't get into Le Cellier this trip, last year while making my ADRs I made sure to book Le Cellier first and at the end when the CM was reviewing my ADR's he left it out. I reminded him that it was the first one we did and he said he must have accidentally deleted it. And of course when he went to rebook it there were no times for either day that we were going to be in Epcot. So needless to say that will be the first ADR I make, lol.

Here's our list, of course we have some backups but we really hope to get these.

Friday 27th - no ADR's planned, probably QS for lunch and dinner
Saturday 28th - breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at Chef Mickeys
Sunday 29th - dinner at Le Cellier
Monday 30th - dinner at Boma
Tuesday 31st - dinner at Ohana's
Wednesday 1st - dinner at 1900 Park Fare
Thursday 2nd - dinner at Teppan Edo

The first timers at Le Cellier and Ohanas for dinner. Chef Mickey's is a must for every trip, I know the food isn't the best but we do enjoy it and love that we get to see the Fab Five with no wait. We loved 1900 Park Fare last year, even though we waited over an hour past our ADR time we really had a great experience, food was good and best character interaction out of any meal we've had. Plus my princess got to dance with her prince, something that she still talks about daily. We haven't been back to Boma and Teppan Edo since 2002 so we are all looking forward to going there.

A few pictures from our last trip

Ohanas

Akershus

Our attempt at The Kitchen Sink

Sam dancing at the Biergarten

 

[Becc1]

I got the idea over on the family boards to do Disney theme nights leading up to our trip. My younger ones don't know about our next trip they just think that we are doing this for fun, we sat down with a calender and planned out 2 per month until the end of May, funny thing is they didn't wonder at all why we were stopping in May, lol.

We started off with celebrating Beauty and the Beast's release on dvd. Emily gathered up some of her Belle toys for decoration, we made special cupcakes, did a Lumiere craft and watched the dvd. Menu was kept pretty simple due to a couple of picky eaters that I have but we did do French food, as in french dips and french fries, lol. We also had hot turkey sandwiches and applesauce.

 

[Becc1]

Next up is Cars night. We did a Flo's V-8 Cafe theme with diner food. We had burgers, french fries, onion rings, Cars shaped mac and cheese and chocolate donut "tires" as dessert. Our crafts were stop light graham cracker snacks and a Cars candy necklace. Ben and Emily also did a Cars puzzle.

Next up is a Halloween/Haunted Mansion/Tower of Terror day. I decided to do this on a whim when I found the Tower of Terror dvd at Sam's Club a week before Halloween. My ds Sam had wanted it when we saw it in the gift shop at TOT but I was a mean mom and didn't buy it then so I was really excited when I found it at Sam's for $9. On the menu was mummy pizzas (english muffins with mozzerella string cheese and olives for eyes), mummy dogs (hot dogs wrapped in refridgerated breadstick dough), franken tots (tater tots) and for dessert we had Mickey mummy cupcakes, Haunted Mansion cupcakes and eyes balls (vanilla pudding with gummy lifesavers). As a craft we made Haunted Mansion bookmarks, we watched Tower of Terror before dinner and the Haunted Mansion afterwards. The kids had never seen either movie and liked them both!

 

[Becc1]

Last Tuesday we did Toy Story day! Yes a whole day devoted to Toy Story, lol. Since it was Election day my kids had off of school, we got up early and after I went and voted we headed out to pick up Toy Story 3. I think that we were the only family who had not seen it over the summer so there was much anticipation for this movie release! While I was making lunch which was Rex nuggets and Toy Story mac and cheese, the kids made their own Mr Potato Head creations to add to the decor. After lunch we watched the movie, won't give anything away in case there is anyone left that hasn't seen it but I will say I absolutely cried like a baby. After the movie we set up the Wii and played a few rounds of Toy Story Mania, then we did a couple of Toy Story puzzles I had picked up at the dollar store, not realizing they were 100 piece puzzles, I ended up doing the majority of them but the kids did help. Then it was time to go to Pizza Planet for dinner, the kids made their own pizzas and we had green alien cupcakes for dessert!

 

[mom23boyz]

Love all your theme nights...especially the Beauty and the Beast one! What a fun thing to do...we don't have a trip planned, but I'd love to do them anyway. Enjoy!

 

[Becc1]

Love all your theme nights...especially the Beauty and the Beast one! What a fun thing to do...we don't have a trip planned, but I'd love to do them anyway. Enjoy!

Thanks, I love doing them because since our trip is still so far away it gives us something to look forward to and for me something to plan rather than obssess over the trip which I usually do, lol. Next up is Princess and the Frog, my MIL is coming up next week and she hasn't seen the movie yet so she'll be joining the party!

 

[Becc1]

So originally I was going to keep the trip a secret until Easter, which is a little more than 30 days from when we leave. My MIL and I were planning on making Disney themed Easter baskets with everything they would need like autograph books, t-shirts, swimsuits and beach towels, new Crocs and gift cards to spend in the parks. I would love to surprise them the day we leave but I didn't think I could pull it off plus I do enjoy the countdown to Disney. Heck I've already had my DH get me at least 40 Mickey heads from Home Depot for the countdown calendar. But now after all of these darn commercials with parents surprising their kids I'm rethinking the idea of keeping the trip a secret until the day we leave. We got Disney mail today, the 2011 trip planning dvd and my kids are just wild, and this is just over a dvd, I can just imagine how they will react if we wake them up and tell them we're going to Disney. Decisions, decisions.... Oh well I still have 191 days to decide!

 

[Becc1]

Our next family theme night was The Princess and the Frog, my MIL was in town and had never seen it so she got to join in on the fun. We started off with a craft, the kids made Mardi Gras masks and they decorated the cupcakes. Next was dinner, the menu was Mama Odie's gumbo, Ray's crabcakes, Louis's rotisserie chicken, Tiana's beignets and Naveen cupcakes. If I may say so myself the gumbo turned out excellent, I used a recipe from Paula Deen that I got off of foodnetwork.com. Next, we all settled in to watch the movie, great as always. It was a fun night, next up is Aladdin!

Update on our trip, I've booked the plane tickets for my MIL, DS15 and my neice. They will be flying out of BWI at 3:10pm on the 26th. We did this to make traveling a little easier, they will not have to wake up at the crack of dawn and rush to the airport. I just booked a night only at Pop for them. Myself, my DH, DD and other 2 DSs will leave for Florida as soon as we put DS15 on the bus at 6:30 that morning. It's about a 14 hour drive including stops so we should make it there by 8:30 or so. But just incase we end up having to stop for the night earlier I am not booking an extra night at Pop, we will end up gettng a room somewhere outside property probably. And now only 6 more days until I can make those ADR's!

 

[moniqueelaine]

I'm in...such cute ideas..mine r all older as a matter of fact our next trip is summer of 2012 for my youngests' graduation.....can't wait 2 enjoy the ptr...

 

[lilmissbehaved]

I LOVE your theme nights!! What a fun way to pass the time!!!!

 

[Becc1]

I'm in...such cute ideas..mine r all older as a matter of fact our next trip is summer of 2012 for my youngests' graduation.....can't wait 2 enjoy the ptr...

Thanks so much for reading! My oldest ds graduates in 2013 and we are taking a trip for his graduation too!

 

[Becc1]

I LOVE your theme nights!! What a fun way to pass the time!!!!

Thanks so much! My family and friends think I'm a bit nuts but my kids really love them

 

[Becc1]

The day has finally arrived, I've hit the 180 mark! After only getting about 4 1/2 hours of sleep I got up early this morning to call at 7am to make my ADR's. And I must say that it was well worth getting up for, I got every ressie I wanted for pretty much every time I was aiming for! And I was doing the happy dance but unfortunately had noone to share my joy with because everyone was still asleep! So back to bed I went, my children were nice enough to let me sleep a little late today

So here's the results of much planning and debating over the past couple of months.

Friday - Ohanas 7:20pm
Saturday - Crystal Palace 8:05am
Chef Mickeys 6:30pm
Sunday - Le Cellier 12:10pm
Monday - Boma 7pm
Tuesday - 50's Primetime 5:15pm
Wednesday - 1900 Park Fare 6pm
Thursday - Teppan Edo 6pm

And the big thing I've been waiting years for....... I got Emily in for BBB at 8:00am on Wednesday at the castle! She was just shy of her 3rd birthday when we went last year so I am very excited to be taking her here. I just love seeing all of the little princesses after their makeovers and I can't wait for Emily to go!

Here's a few more pics from past meals

Chef Mickeys

Emily and Belle at Akershus

My DH and MIL at 50's Prime Time

So now that those are done I need something new to obssess over for the next few months, lol. I know this is going to sound sick but I have already begun buying things for the trip, in fact I started buying things last summer, before I even knew when our next trip was! I'm one of those people who dress their kids in Disney tees everyday in the parks so when I see great sales at the Disney outlet near me I like to stock up. Last summer I picked up 5 or 6 tees for each of the younger ones and a couple of dresses for Emily. Yesterday I bought 2 more tees for the boys and a tee for my neice from the Disney Store online and today I picked up Star Wars tees for the boys for Star Wars Weekend. I also got Emily a Cinderella dress for our dinner at 1900 Park Fare. Yes I know I'm crazy, who shops for a trip when they don't even have one planned? In my defense, I knew we were going in 2011 I just didn't know when Luckily with Christmas coming I'll be busy with entertaining and events so I'll have other things to keep my compulsive planning down, lol.

On another Disney note, I took the kids to see Tangled on Wednesday, we all enjoyed it very much. I was shocked that Ben kept those 3D glasses on the whole time, they have never seen a 3D movie before so his only experience with the glasses has been in WDW. And in the shows there he never keeps them on, it a sensory thing for him. So I was happily surprised that he wore them for the movie I was bummed about missing the Tangled event that The Disney Store at our mall had last weekend but my MIL was down for the weekend and she wanted to go a craft show at my DS's high school that morning. How sad is it that when we went to the mall later that day a CM from the Disney Store told me that they had missed us? Does that mean I spend too much time shopping there? LOL

 

[bbak30]

I LOVE your themed nights, how neat! You are so creative. And yay for getting all the ADR's you wanted

 

[Becc1]

I LOVE your themed nights, how neat! You are so creative. And yay for getting all the ADR's you wanted

Thanks so much, I wish I could take credit but I got alot of my ideas from over on the Theme night thread on the family boards and on the Family Fun website! We did Aladdin tonight!

 

[Becc1]

Last night we had an Aladdin theme night. I didn't put as much thought into planning this one as I have previous theme nights since I've been busy helping with the planning for my kids school winter festival but we still had fun. I probably would have postponed but my kids have been looking forward to it and I didn't want to let them down The menu was kept simple, most everything was on a kabob, we had fruit and steak kabobs, even popcorn chicken kabobs! Also potataoes, corn and Abu cupcakes! I hadn't planned a craft for the kids so when they asked what our project was I had to think quick and found a coloring book that had an Aladdin section. After dinner we collected pillows from all over the house we settled in on the floor to watch the movie. It was a fun night and they kids loved the movie!

 

[I Believe n Fairies]

So FUN!!! I really think that I will have to do the theme nights too. My kids would LOVE it and it would be a great way to pass our time too. We're actually going to be at Pop the same time as you and your family and we are so excited!

Actually, my kids know that we want to go to WDW but they do not know that we booked the trip. So, I, like you, am debating on a surprise or a short countdown. Either way, the end result is WDW so it doesn't really matter.