Christmas Road Trip that's not a road trip any more! Update with TR link 1/1/14

[Suziannie]

Hi! This is my first post here since I started lurking back in the early spring...but I think I get how this is supposed to work.

Who we are...I'm Suzanne and my husband daughter and I live in Texas.

As a couple my husband and I have been to Disney once before, an all too-short but still fabulous trip.

Here we are on the Magical Express the night we arrived. I look extra exhausted because it's nearly midnight and our wedding was early that morning.

Our daughter Vivien is 2 so she hasn't been yet.

Well except that time on our Honeymoon when I was 15 weeks pregnant but that's another story!

I've been a few times, but the majority of my trips are still fairly recent since I discovered the magic of staying on-property in 2008 at the Caribbean Beach Resort.

We got to thinking about a Disney trip last Christmas. I had the extreme joy to visit in 2007 for the week after Christmas and into the New Year and while the memory of the crowds will likely keep me away from that particular time frame I think EVERY Disney fan needs to see the park at Christmas. We choose the first week of Dec for this trip based on the reports of lower crowd levels.

The cheaper prices didn't hurt either.

We settled on Art of Animation fairly easy. I've staying in only the moderate level and the All Star hotels and frankly would prefer to stay where the Disney themes are strong. Failing that...a week at the Poly would do just fine if the prices weren't so scary.

We also went back and forth on trip length and finally decided (kind of a sad spot) that money being what it is it would be better for us to drive than fly and therefore we couldn't take quite as long of a trip we wanted originally. It's OK though...we've got some great things in store!

As far as dates go...we'll check into our first resort on Dec 5th!

I think that's it. So I'll leave it at that for now...but I'd love to hear from anyone who's been at Christmas before and what your MUST DO item is!

Mine...is simple. It's just sitting down, with a snack or beverage and people watching for a bit, with the castle in the background of course. I just love being at Disney and need to soak it up a bit each trip. But more on that later I think.

I've removed links to some of my original planning posts. I think they may be confusing since my plans have changed a bit.

Shortcuts to make it a little easier on you dear readers...
Pre-Trip Plans and Purchases! Updated 11/23 with new pre-trip purchases!
Planning and motivation
A little shopping to distract me from watching the calendar!
New and improved and even better than before!
Magic Bands are here finally!
The one where I buy even more stuff.

Final Itinerary! Updated 11/29

Arrival Day
A Magical First Day!
Gingerbread, Princesses and Minnie Mouse too!
Because one Christmas Party isn't enough!
Pop! A birthday surprise!
Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Because I can't leave well enough alone

Some things we'll try our very best to do/buy while we're there are...
While we're at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Come see how it all turned out. Our trip report is is progress now!
​

 

[LB1122]

Driving can be fun and where you end up....AMAZING!!

We will be there for Christmas this year for the first time. Here is what others have told me are awesome to dos -

Anything decoration wise at MK
Candlelight Processional at Epcot
Usbourne Lights at HS

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip. Your DD will love it.

 

[Suziannie]

How we're getting there.

Day 1:
After waking up super early we'll hit the road and head out. Our only planned stop is in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Husband is a bit of a Civil War nut so we'll do a little exploring as a break.

Then...we'll proceed directly to a nice night in Pensacola Beach. Florida.

Day 2:
We're planning on sleeping in a bit, as much as a 2 year old will allow I mean. And then a nice breakfast in the room, which has a kitchenette if I recall correctly. Then...it's off to Disney World and our first hotel...

Shades of Green!

I've heard lots of mixed reviews on this place so I'm a little on the fence about it. DH and I are rather big believers in the dining plans so that's part of the problem. And on the other hand...I'm beyond excited at being so close to the Magic Kingdom.

Hopefully we'll get there around lunch time, have something quick and easy there. Then maybe spend a few hours at the pool or just exploring the hotel grounds.

Right now our dinner plans include me calling Kona cafe to see if they have an early spot open but we're not exactly counting on that. So we'll more than likely head over to Downtown Disney and hang out there for the night. We'd like to try out Wolfgang Puck's. Not sure which one yet though.

I'd really like to try to make it back towards our resort in enough time to catch fireworks on the beach at the Poly but you know what they say about best laid plans so I'm not going to bet too hard on that one either!

Next up...First day of pure Magic!

 

[Suziannie]

Driving can be fun and where you end up....AMAZING!!

The closer we get to the trip...the more excited I am about the drive!! I can't wait!

 

[Suziannie]

Here's our ADR's:

Breakfast:
Ohana (Lilo & Stitch seems to be my DD's favorite movie right now!)
Cape May Cafe
Crystal Palace

Lunch:
Akershus (this is starting to be a tradition for me)
Grand Floridian Cafe (has more do to with having an excuse to recreate a moment from our Honeymoon where we just sat on a bench on the dock at the GF for a few mintues and held hands as we watched the monorail go by a few times)
Hollywood Brown Derby (this will be our final WDW meal)

Dinner:
Be Our Guest (which is like my own sort of Holy Grail as I worked for that one!)

EXTRA:
Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Fireworks Party
"Snack Crawl" around the World Showcase instead of dinner one night. Since we've got a toddler I'm not comfortable with the drinking around the world that we'd normally do. This once should be fun though!

Planned Quick Service Meals:
Columbia Harbour House
Be Our Guest

We've also got tickets to the Christmas Party. We're planning on trying to make the Candlelight Processional but it will depend on the wait since I couldn't arrange a package that worked with our other plans-the day before was and is still WIDE open, and so is the day after but Be Our Guest and the Christmas Party are way more important to us!

Ok to me.

And the last thing...my husband and I opted to save a bit of money by not celebrating our birthdays when they happened and doing something special in WDW. For him, a lover of trains I've booked the Behind The Steam Trains Tour. I'm planning on setting that up as a sort of scavenger hunt with the clues leading him to MK! Fun!!!

I've given him some ideas for me so we'll see what he can come up with!

 

[Suziannie]

Hopefully two things will happen...we'll get to Shades of Green by 1 or 2 at the latest and our room will be ready.

Once checked in I'm looking forward to a light lunch and then heading right to the room for a little relaxation. Our two year old will likely be well rested. We take quite a few mini road trips to the Gulf Coast to see my parents so she's used to being in the car for 4+ hours, but usually sleeps most of the time.

Fine with me, more fun when we arrive I say!

But again our plan is to take it slow this day. I hope the weather cooperates and we'll be able to enjoy our poolside room and maybe spend sometime at the pool before heading out to find dinner.

When we're fairly certain we have a good idea when we'll arrive I'll be calling Disney Dining to see if there's an opening around 5 for an early dinner at Kona. If so...we'll take it. If not...Plan B is to head to Downtown Disney.

Once there we'll do a bit of shopping. Both for us, and for our families. Dinner will likely be Wolfgang Puck Express with a shared dessert at Ghiradelli's.

Ideally we'll head back in time to stop at the Poly for drinks and fireworks on the beach. Then it's off to bed for us all because the next day is our first Magic Kingdom day!

 

[Cubicleprisoner]

For me, the Candlelight Processional ranks #1 on my WDW holiday must-do list. It is my all-time favorite show in WDW because it is beautiful and moving. The orchestra along with the Voices of Liberty are outstanding. The CP is worth standing in line for if you don't wish to book a lunch or dinner package. You should go on YouTube and check out one of the performances.

 

[Suziannie]

Day one has us getting up fairly early for breakfast. We'll probably go ahead and check out early and pack up the car, then drive to the Poly to greet my DD's favorite characters right now, Lilo & Stitch for breakfast at Ohana.

After breakfast we're planning on hopping on the monorail (or a boat, we'll see!) and heading over to the Magic Kingdom. We've got a few Fastpass+ reservations made already thanks to the Christmas Party tickets. We don't have our "Real" tickets yet since we're taking advantage of the Armed Forces Salute and buying the tickets on base in the next few weeks. Hopefully there will still be some Fastpass+ times left when we get them! But having three set up already has taken a lot of the stress away.

So... we should be done with breakfast and in the park by 10:00 which is handy because we can go straight to Space Mountain where we'll be trying out the rider switch or Parent Swap or whatever you call it. I'm not thrilled at riding a lot of rides alone since this is a family trip, and neither is my husband so there's a good chance this may be the only thrill ride we experience.

After that we'll do a little exploring but will probably head out for a lunch sooner than later as we've got an ADR at Grand Floridian Cafe. Hopefully by this time we'll get the text that our room is ready because I've already completed our check in at Art of Animation.

We're staying in a Cars suite since our daughter likes nap time and alone time just as much as we do. It wasn't our first choice but the only affordable on property suite...and Cars is the only one eligible for military discounts. Hopefully it's fun!

Once done with lunch, and checking out our rooms, and hopefully a quick nap...we'll head back to MK because I've got Fastpasses set for both Buzz Lightyear and Big Thunder Mountain. However I may cancel and change those up if we don't like the single rider experience.

But much more importantly...we've got dinner at Be Our Guest!

After dinner we'll hit some rides and then...head over to the Tomorrowland Terrace for the desserts and fireworks! Yum!

At least I hope. This is a new one for us! Has anyone here done it? Thoughts on it good and bad are appreciated!

After that it will depend on our moods and energy level. But I have a feeling we'll be heading back to tuck DD into bed so we can enjoy some together time.

 

[Suziannie]

The CP is worth standing in line for if you don't wish to book a lunch or dinner package. You should go on YouTube and check out one of the performances.

It's actually the You Tube videos that put us over the top for it. We're going to give it a shot for sure. Multiple shows a night will help us I think, we just couldn't find a dinner package (Or lunch) that would work with our other plans since we are only on property for 4 days and the other plans are things that are more important to us.

 

[Aunt Bee]

Don't be apprehensive about Shades of Green. We've stayed there many times, including before, during, and after Christmas and, except for the absence of the meal plan, we've been more than satisfied with everything.

The rooms are huge compared to other resorts and the transportation to the parks is on time and reliable. Covered parking is convenient, too. Plus, you can walk to the Polynesian and take the monorail from there or eat at one of their restaurants. We always schedule Ohana for dinner the first night. If you can't make it for dinner, try and have a drink at the Ohana bar around 5:00 when they "open" and blow the conch shells. I love that part... They are super kid friendly. Last time we were there the server brought my granddaughter a whole cup of cherries and pineapple to go with her 7-up.

If you don't have a chance to get your Armed Forced reduced price tickets before you leave home, you can buy them for the same price at Shades of Green. It's fast and the people are super nice.

For us, as mentioned, the Processional is a MUST. Sure puts you in the mood for the Holidays. If you can't work it out, at least try to be in the area while the performance is happening. You can still hear some of the singing and catch a glimpse of the processional.

While you're at the Grand Floridian, be sure to check out their giant gingerbread house. Very fun. The resorts are decorated so beautifully; I like to spend one day touring those.

Enjoy your trip.

 

[Suziannie]

We're crazy in that we like late nights AND early mornings thanks to the two year old...so we're sure we won't have an issue getting up in time to head to Cape May Cafe for a nice breakfast.

We're looking forward to the boats to EPCOT from there afterwards. Once in EPCOT we'll spend some time in the Seas, the Land and at Club Cool for sure. I'm making my husband do Mission Space (orange too boot) and I haven't decided if I'm going to or not yet. We haven't heard too many good things about the Test Track reboot so I think we're skipping that and will spend a little time being a little more casual until lunch.

Our lunch ADR that day is Akershus and it's actually a fairly late one so we might be able to get a fair bit of the World Showcase in before but with all the Christmas extras (Decorations, the "Story tellers" etc) I'm not so certain I want to rush it. But after lunch we're certainly heading back to the hotel for a break.

We don't have an ADR for dinner that night as we're trying to avoid that stuffing ourselves so much we don't want to do anything but sit around all night long problem we normally run into at EPCOT so we've done a little research and are planning on a selection of snacks from a lot of the countries. We'll split everything so I think we'll be able to same quite a few things.

Afterwards, or maybe before and during depending on timing we'll try out the Candlelight Processional...and that will be the last thing we do in EPCOT that day. I'd like to stay for Illuminations of course but we want the next day to be a rather late night so we're going to head back right after the CP.

I think between the decorations we'll have some great Photopass opportunities...has anyone else had experience with World Showcase at Christmas? The last time I was there for Christmas we didn't do much exploring at EPCOT.

 

[Suziannie]

Don't be apprehensive about Shades of Green. We've stayed there many times, including before, during, and after Christmas and, except for the absence of the meal plan, we've been more than satisfied with everything.

Thanks! We're almost 100% on board with it and are really hoping that we'll be regretting our stay at Art of Animation once we're done. We're not too far away (Texas) from WDW so the idea of having rooms for about $100 without scrounging for discounts (and praying for the next Armed Forces Salute each year) really makes me think that we can go on 2 or 3 trips a year instead of one monster trip where we spend our time going Commando instead of having a fun relaxing time.

I'll have to admit the Dining Plan is a large part of why we're not too sure. We love character meals, and when we're not with children, signature meals too but know that they'd be rather extravagant without the plan. However the cost has jumped up so much (we paid about $80 a person in 2011 and will be paying over $100. The cost of living has gone up in the past two years, but that's a pretty big jump to me. Regular reports of bad service and average food have me thinking these days are coming to an end for us anyways. And if we "save" so much on the room at Shades, well then fancy meals won't seem so pricey.

If you don't have a chance to get your Armed Forced reduced price tickets before you leave home, you can buy them for the same price at Shades of Green. It's fast and the people are super nice.

The people being super nice is actually something we're looking forward too. One of my favorite things about even grocery shopping on base is how nice people seem to be. Maybe it's just me but everyone always is smiling or says hi when I've been on base. I like that community feel.

But I think we'll be able to get the tickets this coming weekend. I think the Fastpass+ options are making me feel like the 45+ min drive is worth it.

If you can't work it out, at least try to be in the area while the performance is happening. You can still hear some of the singing and catch a glimpse of the processional.

Good tip! Thanks! The only thing that will hold us back is the length of the line. We're not too concerned with having ideal seats, or which showtime we just don't want to wait more than 45 min in line. I guess I read too many reviews about the nights Neil Patrick Harris is there where people are lining up as soon as the park opens and I'm a little hesitant now.

He's NOT the narrator the night we're planning on being there so we should be ok I think.

 

[Suziannie]

I wanted to get a chance to take some Photopass pictures as a family, with the castle behind us and obviously my favourite time to do this is just after rope drop so we made an ADR at Crystal Palace. Sadly it's not the earliest one we've had before but...I'm going to try to get us in at 8am to take some photos and not have to rush as much. Park opens at 9 so it won't be deserted but it's ok I think.

So that's how day 3 starts, breakfast at Crystal Palace. I've done lunch and dinner and haven't been let down there before.

Afterwards...well who knows. I don't have a lunch ADR but we do want to make it a rather late night so it may just be a few rides and then back to the hotel to relax.

We'll probably try out the food at Art of Animation this day. I've heard that it's good, there's a lot of choices but the menu options don't change too much from day to day so I'm not too worried about not taking advantage of it more.

Right now I'm planning on us returning around 5pm. Have dinner in the park, I'm going to try to get us into Liberty Tree but failing that Pecos Bill and Gaston's for that lovely pork shank will be my suggestions.

And from there, parades, Holiday Wishes, the dance parties, whatever else is there plus rides with hopefully shorter wait times....some character greetings. Cookies and cocoa of course.

Most of all though I'm going to try to stay in the park for the Kiss Goodnight. As much as I love my family and want them with me, I'm not sure it's fair to ask them to stay with me (especially the two year old) so I may let my husband go back to the room with my daughter. I'm kind of ok with the idea of being in the park all alone (well just me) for a few hours.

Has anyone stayed for this before? I know it's a short thing, but I've heard great things about it. And the YouTube videos have been great! Kinda choke me up a bit.

 

[Suziannie]

Our last day in the Kingdom is going to be a bit different.

I've gotten my husband a seat on the Behind The Steam Trains tour so he gets to get up super early and head over to the Magic Kingdom. So far all he has/knows is that he's to leave our hotel by a certain time and get to the Contemporary by a certain time where he'll get more instructions.

At the pre-arranged time I'm going to send him a text message that states "Open the glove box" where there will be a letter with some decorations (train themed I think) and the rest of the details. I think he'll be thrilled. His great grandfather was a Conductor so his family has a deep love of old fashioned trains.

Meanwhile...I haven't decided yet if we're going to pack up the car the night before or not...but it will just be my daughter and I so I think we might. That way she and I can take care of check out and if memory serves me correctly they'll let us stash a bag somewhere while we make one last visit to a park.

Personally I'm thinking she and I will meander to the Magic Kingdom and hopefully have one more ride on whatever was her favorite.

My husband will have instructions to meet us at Starbucks afterwards, and I've confirmed with Disney what time that will be.

From there...we'll be off to DHS. Hopefully we can snag either a real Fastpass or a Fastpass+ for Toy Story but if not that's ok too. The Disney Junior show is a big item on our to-do list. My daughter has really fallen in love with Princess Sophia:

I let her pick out her Halloween costume this year and as soon as she spied the Princess Sophia section at the Disney outlet that's all she wanted!

We'd also like to try to meet Mike and Sully, I heard there's a meeting place at DHS.

Obviously if we can squeeze it in, and are still ok with the parent swap thing a ride on the Rock n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror will be done.

Finally we'll have to leave by 3 to make it to our hotel that night so the last thing I've got planned for us is a nice lunch at Brown Derby.

I think, even though it's a much shorter trip than I intended originally I figured out how to do most everything!

 

[Suziannie]

This trip has bee a labor of love to plan. Like most Disney trips I imagine.

Originally it started as an 8 day extravaganza that included my mother and an ADR for every meal.

But life got in the way a bit I needed to trim the budget. Then my mother decided that instead of retiring she wanted a new job which meant not as much vacation time so she dropped out. And we sliced 4 days off our trip when we realized that our two year old cost as much to fly as two people in their mid 30's. Making airfare a huge portion of our budget.

So we're driving. Which also gives my husband time to do something he loves (road trips) but allows us to arrive a day early and try out Shades of Green.

I'd honestly never thought seriously about it since staying there means no Dining Plan. But all my research since we booked last February makes me think this is our last Dining Plan trip. It depends on service.

I devoured food blogs, reviews, touring books and my own experience to come up with the ADRs we wanted well before our 180+10 mark. Basically I don't like "wasting" valuable park time in line for Characters when I know for a fact that if I pay a little more for lunch they'll come to ME. Plus we get a nice relaxing break where we're not fighting other people and dirty tables to have a nice meal.

This seemed a little much since I ended up with just a handful of ADRs and days in the parks, but it really helped us pick which days and what meant most to us.

Our motto this trip will certainly be "Have yourself a merry little Christmas" as we're (ME) going to work at not going nuts and demanding we arrive 40 min before rope drop so we can ride 60% of our favorites before noon.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but our intentions were originally to enjoy what Disney does at Christmas. Hopefully we can do just that!

But like I tell my husband when I'm talking for the 203526462nd time about Disney related things, "It takes time to get it just right". And I think finally I have. And all the planning I've done over the past few months will pay off handsomely I think. So now, all I have to is sit back and wait. At least I have nice happy music to keep me motivated!

 

[Suziannie]

I looked at the calendar and my budget spreadsheets this morning and realized that THIS is the payday that I'll finally be able to replace my camera.

I've missed having a separate camera so badly and after some troubles with it last year on our cruise I basically tossed it out as soon as we came back. I just never really got used to using only my phone. With everything else going on in our lives. Pesky things like the mortgage and keeping food on the table. I can only spare about $300 and with NO credit cards for us (by choice) with a two year old SOMETHING more important always comes up. Like paying for Disney!

Now that we're so close to Disney though...we'd better get a camera.

As much as I'd really like a DSLR I just can't make it work from what I've been able to tell. And frankly I'm not sure I'd figure it out well enough to travel with it before our trip so I've finally decided on this little Nikon:

It fits all of my requirements including the one where it takes regular AA batteries. You see on our last trip to WDW we were so exhausted after our day at EPCOT we forgot to charge the camera that night. The battery was really excellent on that camera so I never ever carried the cord with me, but by lunch I was kicking myself since just after our lunch...on our ONLY Magic Kingdom day of the trip my camera's battery died.
This is the last photo we took that day:

Which really...not a bad photo at all

We knew it wouldn't charge in enough time to go get back to our ADR that night if we went back to the room. We also thought about buying a disposable camera in a gift shop...but ultimately decided to just wing it and relied on PhotoPass the rest of the day. We still had lovely photos but running into a gift shop for a pack of batteries, even at inflated WDW prices would have been worth it.

So...with this in mind I set out to do a little comparison shopping and stumbled on a great deal on a DLSR. It was a little more than this camera but I decided to pull the trigger. And sadly waited too long. It was a limited time sale on the Exchange site (the store that's on all Military bases) and they were all gone! But...I did manage to find a bundle deal with this camera, a tripod, a rechargeable battery (size AA!) charger with 4 extra batteries and a nifty case for them, lens wipes, and even a bag and even a 32 gb SD card for just about $50 more than what I was prepared to spend. SOLD. It should arrive on Wednesday!



So now it's just clothes, and new shoes and maybe some hair bows for our little princess!

 

[Suziannie]

Since purchasing the camera I managed to stumble across an excellent deal on airfare. Our only hesitation? That we'd been planning on having a car there for so long that we weren't totally cool with relying on only Disney transport. Plus our first night there is at Shades of Green, which the Magical Express doesn't go to.

I played with a few scenarios, judging approximate costs for a taxi, shuttle buses even a town car (which I think may have been the better option).

And then thought I'd price one of the packages I noticed on the airlines website for a rental car and found that from the rental company without airfare attached to it was ever so slightly cheaper addedit all up and bingo! The number was $200 less than our biggest estimate of what we'd spend driving. SOLD!

So now we get to fly non-stop instead of drive. Much better plan with a two year old I think.

There are some changes:

The good:
We don't have to leave at 4:00am.
Our only options for the low-low price we found on the return flight was at 8pm. So....nearly two extra days at Disney!

The bad:
Two more days means that we have to add an extra night.
Late departure flight (heading out to Orlando) means that we arrive late. We'll get there at 7:00pm. By the time luggage, car rental etc...we likely won't be driving under the sign until at least 8:30. Which is fine. I didn't really NEED to see the torch lighting at the Poly or have a nice relaxing dinner and spend the evening shopping at Downtown Disney.

So our plans now look more like this for our arrival, and departure days:
Day Zero (Travel to Orlando): Arrive at DFW airport around 12:30. Board flight at 3:30. Traveling with a two year old I figure getting there early won't be a bad thing.

7:00: Wheels down at MCO. Luggage, rental car head out.
8:30ish: Not sure if this is possible but we're going to try to run by Downtown Disney to do two things "quickly"
1) Activate our military salute tickets
2) Pick up our PhotoPass+ card.
We have an early character meal and I'd really like to have the PhotoPass+ card then. Also...we have early FastPass+ reservations in MK and I'd rather not waste time at the gate with our tickets. So I'm hoping that my husband can drop me off and I can run around and get some stuff done so we don't have to haul my daughter around. I'll be calling ahead to confirm the places we need will still be open but if anyone has tips on how to do these two things better/quicker PLEASE let me know.
9:30-10:00ish pm: Check into Shades of Green. Snack, relax. Sleep. Breakfast is at Ohana in the morning.

Old departure day:
Check out of Art of Animation by 9:00am. Leaving bags with bell services to transfer to Pop. Husband has magical steam train tour (and the car) at MK VERY early that morning and my daughter and I will be sleeping in a bit then heading over to the Poly for some Tonga Toast I think! We'll meet my husband at the Main Street Bakery for a little coffee break. Right now we've agreed on one last MK attraction or ride. But after that we'll either head to Pop Century if our room is ready and take a look around OR head over to DHS for a few hours then to Pop for a late lunch and rest.

That evening we've got an ADR at Brown Derby (I had a "good-bye" lunch planned but pushed it back when I found out we were flying) and plans to see a few things in DHS.

New departure day:
Sleep in!!
Late breakfast at Pop Century and if we haven't yet a little stroll around to check it out. We're requesting a late check out so we can relax a little longer.
Then...off to DTD to do our shopping and some early dinner. We'll head to the airport and then home.

Overall I'm thrilled with the plans. Sad that we won't get to spend as much time at Shades of Green. And sad that I won't get a photo of us driving under the sign since we'll be getting there at night. But I think the trade off is worth it!

 

[Suziannie]

This has been one crazy week for us...but the plans are pretty much set.

Or so I thought. It occurred to me that my reservation for the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert Fireworks party was on a night that also hosted the Christmas Party. We have tickets for the party but not on that night. Which meant that I had no way to get to one of the parts of my trip that I was looking forward to the most. I made a few quick calls...and was able to move my Christmas party tickets to that night. So we're still doing everything we wanted to do!

AND...way back when we originally started planning the trip my mother was going to join us so I bought her a ticket to the Christmas party too. Which is non-refundable....so we've been trying to decide what to do with it. But now that we've got the night "free" we may just buy another one and go twice. Happy day!!!

And finally, our Magic Bands came this week.

Well the first batch. I think the second ones will be here either today or Monday. I've been sort of worried about it fitting our daughter, but the instructions were easy to follow on making the band smaller and they really would fit a tiny person. Our daughter is technically 27 months old and there were 4 holes left on her band. We could make it tighter but it didn't look like it would be comfortable for her. Either way it fits...and won't slip off.

She won't exactly let us take it off her either so I'm pretty sure she won't be losing it. I had to sneak into her room at night and take it off while she slept.

And finally I broke down and got an autograph book for my daughter. We've got a few character meals planned and I was going to skip it since she's so young but this one was cute, and priced low enough to make me think it was a good deal.

So I think we're pretty much ready for the trip now.

I'm sure my mind will come up with SOMETHING else for me to buy or do before we go though. Less than 30 days is still a long time!

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[Suziannie]

Following along!

Love your signature!