Celebrating my Un-Birthday Disney Style-April 2010-New 5/3 - The TR has started!

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a Merry Christmas! We had a nice day - starting at 4:15 am! That's right, I said 4:15 am. We were very specific with Alex about what time he could come out of his room (except to visit the bathroom) but it was Zach who woke up way too early. I told him it was still the middle of the night and he needed to go back to sleep. Well obviously that didn't work... he was crying because he was so excited to see what Santa had brought.

It's not even 8pm yet and I'm beat! We started our day with stockings, Santa gifts & our family gifts then had a bit of a break. Our mothers came over around 9:30 and we had breakfast sandwiches followed by more gifts. We hung out for a bit while the turkey dinner cooked then ate around 2:00. DMIL is a nurse and she works the overnight shift so she hadn't slept all night, plus she had only slept about 4 hours yesterday due to gift wrapping and church. Needless to say she was tired - she fell asleep on our couch about an hour after lunch.

We also had a little family gathering at my mother's house last night with my brother, his girlfriend and my brother's two kids, our niece, R (13) and our nephew, M (11). It was a nice little visit and we also got to see my aunt, uncle, two cousins & their spouses, plus one of their kids, Tyler (4). (My mother lives in an apartment attached to my aunt & uncle's house.)

So what did I get for Christmas? The camera, which I already told you about, which is awesome! I also got two travel toiletry bags from Vera Bradley! Funny story about the gift DMIL gave us... When Tim was getting ready to order the camera with his Marriott points, we couldn't decide between the camera or a small digital video camera. We already have a camera but it's huge and hard to take on vacation. We also have a camcorder, but again, it's huge and we never take it anywhere except school concerts. I was leaning toward the camera, Tim was leaning toward the video camera. I won since it was my Christmas present. Without knowing anything about our desire for a new video camera, DMIL bought one for us! It was so funny!

I also got a bunch of other non-trip related things, like a Wii Fit Plus! Tim got it for me, but he felt weird about it. I told him it was OK to buy me something like that if I ask for it - he still felt weird about it.

In other trip news, we told the boys about the trip! They were happy but not jumping up and down for joy. I guess that shouldn't surprise me since they had the same reaction last time. I'm sure they will get more excited as the time gets closer. Now I get to talk about it more!

I'll share some pictures from my new camera soon. (And my new Vera bags too!)

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

PS- Do any of your kids play on Club Penguin? Zach just learned about it and has been playing it all week - he loves it! (And I have to admit I love some of the games too!)

 

[Charleston Princess]

Merry Christmas, Amy! Our day started not long after yours -- Chelsea was awake and ready to go at 5:00! I am beat, too! It will definitely be an early bedtime for all of us since none of us had naps today!

Sounds like you had a lovely day! I bet the boys get more excited as the trip gets a little bit closer.

 

[mousescrapper]

Hi Amy,

Merry Christmas to you too

so are you getting the ice and rain now that passed through us, today it's been fluffy snowing and Matt will probably need to shovel/plow again soon...it's pretty to look at but a mess too

we didn't start as early as you but Michael was first to go at 7 am...we are doing our Christmas in shifts due to Margaret and I being sick, but we are feeling better (even went to Target today for some after C-mas buys....even got 2 things for Disney next yr )

We've had a good but eventful few days...Matt's car sliding down our driveway during the middle of the night yes it was parked, the garage door breaking, a power outage... but we had fun together and just being by ourselves. Bfast yesterday w/ my bro and his fiance, today Matt's parents are coming for take-out and presents, and tomorrow is off to my folks for Christmas w/ them and my siblings.

can't wait to see your VB bags...I'll email you some pic's from us after Sunday.

PS- Do any of your kids play on Club Penguin? Zach just learned about it and has been playing it all week - he loves it! (And I have to admit I love some of the games too!)

Yes Michael has and he really enjoys it too...he got a DSI from us and the grandparents so he wants to get that game too...

J~

 

[DisMomAmy]

Merry Christmas, Amy! Our day started not long after yours -- Chelsea was awake and ready to go at 5:00! I am beat, too! It will definitely be an early bedtime for all of us since none of us had naps today!

Sounds like you had a lovely day! I bet the boys get more excited as the trip gets a little bit closer.

Hi Jackie - I hope you have had a chance to catch up on your sleep - I think I'm almost caught up.

I'm sure the excitement will build as we get closer to our trip.

Hi Amy,

Merry Christmas to you too

so are you getting the ice and rain now that passed through us, today it's been fluffy snowing and Matt will probably need to shovel/plow again soon...it's pretty to look at but a mess too

we didn't start as early as you but Michael was first to go at 7 am...we are doing our Christmas in shifts due to Margaret and I being sick, but we are feeling better (even went to Target today for some after C-mas buys....even got 2 things for Disney next yr )

We've had a good but eventful few days...Matt's car sliding down our driveway during the middle of the night yes it was parked, the garage door breaking, a power outage... but we had fun together and just being by ourselves. Bfast yesterday w/ my bro and his fiance, today Matt's parents are coming for take-out and presents, and tomorrow is off to my folks for Christmas w/ them and my siblings.

can't wait to see your VB bags...I'll email you some pic's from us after Sunday.


Yes Michael has and he really enjoys it too...he got a DSI from us and the grandparents so he wants to get that game too...

J~

Hi Julie! We had light snow Friday night & yesterday, which then turned to rain last night. Fortunately we've avoided the ice. It was just over a year ago that we had that huge ice storm that knocked out power for a week!

You must tell more about Matt's car sliding down the driveway! Sounds like a crazy stretch of events at your house!

I hope you are enjoying the extended Christmas weekend!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Good morning everyone! To get this PTR back on track I thought I'd do a little recap of the plans that have been made so far:

Back in October I booked 4 round trip tickets from Manchester, NH to Tampa, FL on Southwest Airlines (my favorite!) for about $1300. Then I realized my mistake and rebooked the whole trip as two separate one-way tickets… just in case fares changes I could rebook one leg without effecting the other. Then wouldn’t you know, a couple weeks later the rates went down for the flight to TPA. It was only about $10 each but I rebooked and have a $40 credit with Southwest.

My next mission was to find a decent rental car for the 10 days of our trip. I was not having a lot of luck at first. We need a minivan and all of the rates were around $1200 - $1500! The rates usually go down as we get closer to the trip, but those rates were outrageous. I had hoped to spend about $800. Then I discovered the Orlando Magic Card and carrentalsavers.com and found a minivan for only $500!

And here is where I have to admit I was a bad DISer... at this point we had already decided that we would forgo staying on-property and use our timeshare to stay at a larger condo off-property. Then I received my very first PIN code! I priced out a couple options with WDW, but in the end we decided to stick with our original plan and use the condo - both for more space for our family, but also to have space for Jeff & his family to stay with us. I shared a couple emails back & forth with Julie (mousescrapper) but I'm sorry I never shared any of that news with you... Bad, bad DISer!!

Right around the time we were approaching our 180 day mark WDW changed the ADR window back to 180 days. I was disappointed that our 180 day window opened up the day AFTER everyone else. Plus we had to make our ADRs each day (rather than all at once) since we will be staying off-property. I thought for sure that would work against us. Fortunately I was able to get all the ADRs I wanted, and then some, over the course of the week. As a bonus, I didn’t have to deal with the chaos on October 27th.

These are the ADRs we have planned for now (I’m a little embarrassed to list all of these):

Monday, April 26th:
• Hollywood & Vine (Play & Dine) - 11am breakfast
• Teppan Edo – 5pm
• Le Cellier – 5pm
Tuesday, April 27th:
• Chef Mickey’s – 5pm
Wednesday, April 28th:
• Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue – 5pm (Level 1)
Thursday, April 29th:
• Teppan Edo for 8 at 12:00pm
• Le Cellier for 4 at 11:30am
• Sci Fi Dine for 8 at 5:35pm
Friday, April 30th:
• Le Cellier for 2 at 7:10pm
Saturday, May 1st:
• Crystal Palace at 8:05am
• CRT at 8:05am
• Teppan Edo for 8 at 5:30pm

Obviously I have way too many ADRs made and need to go back very soon and cancel some of them. We are not planning to eat at any restaurant more than once, but with Jeff’s portion of the trip up in the air (not sure the dates he & family will join us at Disney) I wanted to have back up plans. We also have another factor to consider… I may have to cancel more of them than I want to because DMIL may be joining us for all or a portion of our trip. She has 9 weeks of vacation (or something ridiculous like that) available and needs to use them up. She is planning a two week trip to Florida in May for J’s high school graduation but by May she’ll probably accrue another two weeks and she’ll be right back where she started so she might be joining us in April. If she joins us I’ll have to add another person to each of the ADRs. I told her she needed to decide right away so I can adjust thing accordingly. I would like to have the ADRs finalized by the end of January, by the 90 day mark.

Sometime in early December Tour Guide Mike published his Least Crowded Park charts for late April which solidified the itinerary I had created before our ADR date in October. Things were looking good! Plus I had started a photopass share group through the Tour Guide Mike website.

That leaves us with airfares to get to Florida, a minivan when we get there, dining reservations for the Disney portion of our trip and a photopass CD. We’ll be staying with Jeff & family for the first three nights, but where would we stay after that? Well our reservation window for a timeshare in Orlando opens up around February 25th, 60 days prior to our arrival in Orlando. We'll most likely end up at a Marriott resort or Sheraton Vistana.

I also have to purchase park tickets. The new Give a Day, Get a Day promotion starts January 1st and I’ll be anxious to see what volunteer opportunities are available in my area. I consider myself a professional volunteer with the amount of time I spend at the boys’ school, between running the PTO, acting as a room parent & just helping out in the classroom. Unfortunately I doubt out little elementary school will be on the list. I believe some of the volunteer opportunities will be family friendly too. Ideally we could each get a free ticket through the promotion and upgrade them to 6 day hoppers (maybe with the waterpark option?) when we get to Disney. The other option is to purchase tickets through undercover tourist before our trip.

That’s where we left off in the trip planning! Now that we are under the 4 month mark I want to spend a few weeks taking a closer look at each park – looking back & looking forward. I’ll spend the first three weeks of January talking about Magic Kingdom! I need to weed through my photobucket account and pull out some of our favorite pictures from MK and I promise I’ll finally scan the pictures my mother found for me.

But first – I’m going to share some pictures of how Disney influences our Christmas decorating.

 

[mousescrapper]

You must tell more about Matt's car sliding down the driveway! Sounds like a crazy stretch of events at your house!

We should have taken pictures... I know this is hard to believe but it really did happen...

last Wed night we had a preety good freezing rain ice storm which desposited about a 1/2 of an inch if not more of solid ICE on everything outside, including our driveway. Wind also picked up quite a bit during the middle of the night.

Now Matt parks his car outside our garage during the yr and is suppose to clean out the bikes and tools into the basement, etc to squeeze his car in for the Winter (hasn't yet). He had parked his car all the way up the driveway right at the garage when he arrived home from work.

Well Thursday morning he went out to start chipping the ice off the drive when he discovered his car had slid a WHOLE car length down our drive. Our drive has a bit of an incline, nothing huge, but I guess enough w/ the combination of an iced over drive, wheels and wind...

crazy huh

. I shared a couple emails back & forth with Julie (mousescrapper) but I'm sorry I never shared any of that news with you... Bad, bad DISer!!


no worries...I figured if you did book onsite I (we) would have known

These are the ADRs we have planned for now (I’m a little embarrassed to list all of these):

Monday, April 26th:
• Hollywood & Vine (Play & Dine) - 11am breakfast
• Teppan Edo – 5pm
• Le Cellier – 5pm
Tuesday, April 27th:
• Chef Mickey’s – 5pm
Wednesday, April 28th:
• Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue – 5pm (Level 1)
Thursday, April 29th:
• Teppan Edo for 8 at 12:00pm
• Le Cellier for 4 at 11:30am
• Sci Fi Dine for 8 at 5:35pm
Friday, April 30th:
• Le Cellier for 2 at 7:10pm
Saturday, May 1st:
• Crystal Palace at 8:05am
• CRT at 8:05am
• Teppan Edo for 8 at 5:30pm


you and your ADR's girl... I contiplate my ADR's so much I can't even fathom adding in additional back-up plans...

Please don't cancel CRT...I know it's pricey, but you deserve a day as a Princess, Mom
I hope you do HDDR too....we plan to do that too, I know Michael will love the food but I do worry how loud is it? I personally don't like fried chicken or ribs...but the show should make up for it.

The other option is to purchase tickets through undercover tourist before our trip.

do you consider that the best deal outside of Disney?...now that we are DVC I can purchase everything seperate and not in a package (ie sep DDP and sep park passes) so I've been researching all the different deals...but it seems a bit overwhelming


That’s where we left off in the trip planning! Now that we are under the 4 month mark I want to spend a few weeks taking a closer look at each park – looking back & looking forward. I’ll spend the first three weeks of January talking about Magic Kingdom! I need to weed through my photobucket account and pull out some of our favorite pictures from MK and I promise I’ll finally scan the pictures my mother found for me.

But first – I’m going to share some pictures of how Disney influences our Christmas decorating.

Can't wait for the more detailed plans and all the pictures to come....

J~

 

[DisMomAmy]

We should have taken pictures... I know this is hard to believe but it really did happen...

last Wed night we had a preety good freezing rain ice storm which desposited about a 1/2 of an inch if not more of solid ICE on everything outside, including our driveway. Wind also picked up quite a bit during the middle of the night.

Now Matt parks his car outside our garage during the yr and is suppose to clean out the bikes and tools into the basement, etc to squeeze his car in for the Winter (hasn't yet). He had parked his car all the way up the driveway right at the garage when he arrived home from work.

Well Thursday morning he went out to start chipping the ice off the drive when he discovered his car had slid a WHOLE car length down our drive. Our drive has a bit of an incline, nothing huge, but I guess enough w/ the combination of an iced over drive, wheels and wind...

crazy huh


Can't wait for the more detailed plans and all the pictures to come....

J~

That is such a funny story about Matt's car!! I can believe it after the ice storm we had here last year. There were trees down everywhere including our yard - I think I posted pictures way back when... Ice can do quite a bit of damage. So I assume his car wasn't harmed?

As far as ADRs - I assume we'll keep CRT - I made CP as a backup - yes because of the cost, but we'll have CRT & HDDR paid before our trip since they are pre-pay so using fuzzy Disney math those meals will actually be free when we get there!

I haven't used undercover tourist before but they are the only reputable company I am aware of that offers any type of discount. AAA might offer something but I'm not sure & we aren't members. Do you get a DVC discount on tickets?

 

[pipersmom]

Hi Amy So glad your family had a nice Christmas! I had actually read about halfway thru your PTR before, but must have lost it because I didn't comment or subscribe. Your boys are so cute! Looking forward to seeing more of your planning

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Amy So glad your family had a nice Christmas! I had actually read about halfway thru your PTR before, but must have lost it because I didn't comment or subscribe. Your boys are so cute! Looking forward to seeing more of your planning

Hi Amanda! Thanks for coming over to join my PTR!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Just bought the new e-ticket/disboards app for my iPhone and I'm testing it out to see how much easier it is to post! So far so good. Don't think I can update my font/color or add smilies but posting away from home seems much easier than trying to do it over the web on my phone!! Can anyone say Live Updates in April!!

 

[disneyfan61]

Hi Amy. I just had to chime in & say I am also from NH!! I noticed your post on Jackie's TR & then found your PTR. I have not gone through the whole thread yet but wanted to say hi My DH & I are leaving for Disney on April 30th so we will be there at the same time (for a few days). Your plans look good. I have made all my ADR's (may make 1 more). When I saw your plans early on I saw that you were thinking of going to AK on Sat. 5/1 which is where we will be on that morning but then your plans changed. This trip is our 25th anniversary trip so it is the first trip without our 2 DS's.
Looking forward to reading more about your trip

 

[eandesmom]

Hi Everyone! I hope you are all having a Merry Christmas! We had a nice day - starting at 4:15 am! That's right, I said 4:15 am. We were very specific with Alex about what time he could come out of his room (except to visit the bathroom) but it was Zach who woke up way too early. I told him it was still the middle of the night and he needed to go back to sleep. Well obviously that didn't work... he was crying because he was so excited to see what Santa had brought.


PS- Do any of your kids play on Club Penguin? Zach just learned about it and has been playing it all week - he loves it! (And I have to admit I love some of the games too!)

UGH on the 4:15, Evan was up at 6 which was WAY earlier than he was supposed to be.

My kids used to be really into CP, it's pretty darn cute I agree!

As far as ADRs - I assume we'll keep CRT - I made CP as a backup - yes because of the cost, but we'll have CRT & HDDR paid before our trip since they are pre-pay so using fuzzy Disney math those meals will actually be free when we get there!

I love your math Amy!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Everyone! I'm sitting at the kids' social skills group playing with my phone again & I have another app that shows WDW wait times. It's fun to check them out from time to time- especially when it's 14 degrees outside & so windy the power has gone out! Let's just say I'm glad I'm not at WDW today... 120+ minute wait times for Space Mtn., Mission Space, Test Track, Soarin', Toy Story Mania, RnRC, ToT, Expedition Everest & Kili Safari!!!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hey Amy,

I saw that you had been making your PTR/TR reading rounds and wished me a Merry Christmas...I was going on my PTR to update and imagine my surprise when I found it closed...

I have no idea why?...

I'm glad to hear you had a nice Christmas and I can't believe you started at 4:15...I thought 6 was bad.......

I can't wait to see what ADRs you keep...

P

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Amy. I just had to chime in & say I am also from NH!! I noticed your post on Jackie's TR & then found your PTR. I have not gone through the whole thread yet but wanted to say hi My DH & I are leaving for Disney on April 30th so we will be there at the same time (for a few days). Your plans look good. I have made all my ADR's (may make 1 more). When I saw your plans early on I saw that you were thinking of going to AK on Sat. 5/1 which is where we will be on that morning but then your plans changed. This trip is our 25th anniversary trip so it is the first trip without our 2 DS's.
Looking forward to reading more about your trip

Hi disneyfan61! Glad to have another granite stater reading along. You can save yourself the trouble of going back through the whole thread and just read the recap above if you want... On my last TR I provided links at the beginning for anyone who wanted to catch up but it seemed harder with a PTR because there are big posts and little posts and whatnot... Congratulations on 25 years!!

UGH on the 4:15, Evan was up at 6 which was WAY earlier than he was supposed to be.

My kids used to be really into CP, it's pretty darn cute I agree!


I love your math Amy!

Gotta love fuzzy disney math!

Hey Amy,

I saw that you had been making your PTR/TR reading rounds and wished me a Merry Christmas...I was going on my PTR to update and imagine my surprise when I found it closed...

I have no idea why?...

I'm glad to hear you had a nice Christmas and I can't believe you started at 4:15...I thought 6 was bad.......

I can't wait to see what ADRs you keep...

P

What's up with that?? I can't believe they closed you... Happydog was saying that her PTR was already moved/closed and she just got back from her trip??? They must be cleaning house for the new year & are getting a bit carried away?

I'd PM the moderator and ask that it be re-opened.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I promised a peek at my Disney holiday decorations before we put everything away. We usually keep the tree up until after the new year, but this tree is dropping a TON of needles. We cut it fresh, cut an inch off the bottom when we got home and have kept it watered but it has been dropping needles since day one... so it may not make it through the week. Anyways, here are my decorations:

This may be the only one I actually purchased at Disney:

The train actually drives around on this one (and it plays music):

Sorry... not the best pictures.

I finally finished scanning pictures from 1982 & 2002 for my look back at each of the four parks. Here's a sneak peek at what's to come during the first 3 weeks of January as I explore Magic Kingdom - past & future:

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Hi Amy!

Loving all your plans and ADR's. Everything looks great!

How cool that you have an app on your phone and can see the wait times at WDW! Makes me glad to not be there right now too. 120 minutes

It seems that lots of people's PTR's have been getting moved into the completed TR's this week. Even before the trips have arrived. Strange. I think a PM to a moderator gets it taken care of though.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Amy!

Loving all your plans and ADR's. Everything looks great!

How cool that you have an app on your phone and can see the wait times at WDW! Makes me glad to not be there right now too. 120 minutes

It seems that lots of people's PTR's have been getting moved into the completed TR's this week. Even before the trips have arrived. Strange. I think a PM to a moderator gets it taken care of though.

Thanks Shelly! Yes - 120 minutes is crazy! It's fun to look at the wait time though. One of the options is "attractions near me" - it's funny to click on that too! I guess I'm nearest to The Barnstormer, Winnie the Pooh & Mad Tea Party!

 

[Hedy]

I love the pictures of the decorations.

 

[DisMomAmy]

I love the pictures of the decorations.

Hi Hedy!! Thanks for reading!