C'mon everybody, here we gooooo....

[TavieP]

I just love all these pre-trip reports and since my countdown is now TWO days and it's slow as molasses at work, I'm gonna try my hand at this!

On Thursday morning at 8:10 am, I take off from NYC for my 34th trip to Disney World. My twin sister and I turn 33 tomorrow. Everyone coming with us has been multiple times, but no one more than I. I'm the winner, the biggest Disney FREAK of them all!

The cast of characters:

Left, my twin sister, Kirsten. Right, myself:

Kirsten and I have been going to WDW together since we were 3, with our folks and sometimes without!

Our best friend since first grade and honorary "sister", Steph:

Steph started going with us to WDW when we were all 14 and often comes with us. My parents got DVC when we were 12 and she got DVC a few years ago too.

Our godbrother (son of our best friends, raised in the same 2-family house in Brooklyn), Andrew and his wife of 2 years, Joanna:

Andrew's been on several trips with us as adults in addition to many childhood joint-family vacations. Joanna's first trip was the honeymoon my family gave them for a wedding present (OKW and 5 days in WDW!) and we gave them another trip last October for their 1-year anniversary, so Joanna's really getting on board with this Disney stuff. We call her our "sister", too, since she's married our "brother".

All told, a great dynamic - everyone gets along and has known one another for years.

Tomorrow (our birthday), Kirsten and I will sleep over at Andrew and Joanna's apartment in Chinatown and then take a van to the airport early on Thursday for our 8 am flight. Steph will meet us there (she lives in Staten Island) and then we're off for some well-needed R&R!

There are some mixed emotions going into this trip: our mom died very suddenly last November and she was very much our Disney 'spiritual leader' - a true Viking who traveled the world but always came back to WDW. Kirsten, Steph and I went twice with her last year, in February and again in August. Everyone going on this adventure has traveled to WDW with Mom many times (except Joanna, but they were very fond of eachother as well) and so there will be a definite poignancy to this trip. But we're determined to go and honour her memory by doing ALL of her favorite things - order extra desserts, get fruity boozy "girl drinks", ride the her favorite ride (which she stubbornly referred to as "The WEDway Peoplemover") and have a blast. Mom wouldn't want it any other way.

This one's for you, Mom!

And we'll sure as he** touch the slipper for you!

So let the magic begin!

 

[midwesternbelle]

Sounds like fun! Count me in!
Having a twin sounds like a TON of fun!

Where are y'all staying?

So sorry about your mom! She sounds like an amazing lady!

 

[TavieP]

Aw, thanks! I guess I forgot to mention, we're doing a 2-bedroom at OKW (our home resort and family favorite)

Only 2 more sleeps to go!! I feel like a kid!

 

[minderella]

Sounds like it will be a great trip, and your mom will be with you guys in spirit. 2 days away! I don't know if I would be able to sleep . We book our Feb trip tomorrow and I'm too excited to sleep, lol.

 

[TavieP]

Sounds like it will be a great trip, and your mom will be with you guys in spirit. 2 days away! I don't know if I would be able to sleep . We book our Feb trip tomorrow and I'm too excited to sleep, lol.

Isn't it the best feeling?? (Well, NEXT to best - the best feeling is when you GET there and the castle first looms up... or for me, when Spaceship Earth first looms up 'cause it's my favorite...)

 

[TavieP]

So, I'm in charge of this trip (is that what they mean by "commando"? I haven't planned out every second but I HAVE sketched out an itinerary, taken requests for ADR's and synthesized them, and made all bookings/reservations, etc. Mom would be so proud of me!)

We're doing non-park-hoppers to save money, which I'm a little nervous about because I've always had either an AP or PH before, I like the flexibility, but I'll give it a shot this time and see how it goes. And at least we'll know for the next trip whether we want to forego the PH again!

We got the basic DP for the 4 nights we're there. We arrive Thursday, take ME to OKW, I'm already checked in online so we're just gonna drop our bags off and then probably grab lunch at Olivia's (OOP because all 4 TS meals are spoken for!) before heading over to DHS for the remainder of the day (or until we get too tired and cranky, hee.) No ADR's on Thursday so we'll probably grab some sort of counter service meal in the evening.

On Friday is MK day and I made us reservations at California Grill for 9:30 PM so we can catch Wishes at the same time - that's a tradition, I think I've done it every trip for at least the last dozen! There's also EMH at MK that day so if we're not completely exhausted we may go back into the park after dinner.

Saturday is Epcot day and we have 2:00 PM lunch at the Biergarten (Andrew & Jo's special request, they ate there on their honeymoon and loooooved it.) Kirsten was REALLY hot to do Coral Reef (it's been years) so I made dinner reservations for 8:50 (we always overeat at Biergarten so I tried to make these late as possible so we might actually be hungry again, heehee.)

Sunday we'll probably do AK. Andrew & Joanna aren't hot on AK so they may split off and redo MK or Epcot instead. We'll probably make this an early day and take a break for swimming.

Monday we have a 6:30 PM flight home so we'll probably get ME around 3ish. Traditionally, on the last day we leave our luggage at the hotel and go to Downtown Disney to hit up World of Disney, grab lunch somewhere in the Marketplace and then scoot back to OKW to get our bus to our plane back to reality, sigh.

It seems like a short trip but this is actually 1 day longer than any WDW vacation I've taken since I became a Full-Time Working Adult (going on 13 years now, sigh!) One of these days maybe I'll be able to afford to take a whole WEEK off like some of the lucky ducks on the Dis, but for now I will try to make every minute of my 4-night/5-day vacation count!

 

[glj104]

One day to go for you. I am jealous!! I have 17 days.

Have a great trip.