Confessions of an obsessive planner... Let the countdown begin!!

[-Hope-]

What is UP with the DIS? I couldn't highlight my text to change the color of that last post and earlier I couldn't type in a reply box- very wierd.

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Wooooot!!! I got our taxes done today and it will more than cover the cost of our trip!!!

I have been VERY worried about where this money is going to come from because my husband's paychecks have been a bit sporadic lately. He works construction and we've been okay but haven't been able to make saving for WDW a priority. No more worries now- thank GOODNESS!

oh Hope I am so happy for you!!! I hate worrying about money and fortunately for me I had my tax refund and my mom gave me some shares that I cashed in. I am now almost debt free. As for the paychecks, I have to save $222 bi-weekly to make Disney happen. It's doable as long as there are no extra needs from now until then. So, I'll do the happy money dance with you!!!!!

 

[-Hope-]

Well folks- she did it again! Karen, my own personal Disney pusher, has once again talked me into more Disney fun...

Originally we weren't going to go to MNSSHP because I didn't want to spend the extra money but we are getting a pretty generous tax refund this year soooo... TRICK-OR-TREAT!

I have to do a little bit of schedule rearranging and think about costumes for the kids so I have some things to think about for the next few days- and I love to have something to plan.

One of the things I think I'm most excited about is that we will now be in MK two nights- one night for the party and another for Spectro since we really want to see it. That means that we'll be there for regular Wishes as well as Hallowishes so we'll get to do one of the things I really wanted and didn't think I was going to get- riding Dumbo during Wishes!! I really wanted to do this but I also wanted pics of fireworks over the castle so it just wasn't going to work out but now it will.

As I said, lots of rearringing (which Karen and I started this afternoon while she was twisting my arm to convince me) and planning to think about so I'll keep you all posted~ I also have pics from movie day today but am too tired to go through them right now so that will have to wait until tomorrow as well.

 

[-Hope-]

Enchanted

Yesterday we had an Enchanted movie day! This is SUCH a cute movie and I love that Disney put so many elements of other princess movies into it just to make it more fun.

Since there are poisoned caramel apples and appletinis in the movie that's what we decided to do too! I got some plastic champagne glasses from the dollar store and we made our 'appletinis' with apple juice and club soda- so fun! I didn't get any pics of the appletinis but you can see the glasses in the pic with our other goodies.

For the caramel apples we decided to get REALLY Disney and bring Goofy's Candy Co. right to Karen's kitchen. Of course to be really and truly Disney we used Karen's Mickey trivet for the pot of caramel...

and had crushed oreos and bits of reeses to roll the apples in...

and drizzled the whole thing in chocolate! (FYI that 'magic shell' chocolate doesn't get hard unless its on something cold like ice cream- oops!)

The kids had so much fun making thes and they had even more fun eating them! I had to BEG for ONE BITE, the little stinkers!


We tried to get some pics of the girls giving a toast with their appletinis but they were more interested in being the evil stepsisters and making goofy faces. At one point I think Savannah declared, "Go fetch me a towel!"

We settled in for the movie and the kids took their activity packs with them. Karen found a quiz online about the movie and our kids LOVED this! They were reading the questions ahead of time and waiting for the answer to be shown. Now, before I homeschooled I taught public school for a long time and this is a strategy that we taught kids all the time. So you see, our Disney movie days are really an educational endeavor.

A great movie and a great day!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

A TOWEL! THAT's what she said to fetch! I had forgotten, I think I just blocked everything out she said as soon as she started making demands!

Park Fare is going to be a BLAST when these girls get to see those step-sisters!

 

[-Hope-]

I know- I can't wait!!

 

[-Hope-]

Okay, so here it is my revised (AGAIN!!) schedule to include MNSSHP. I know I've said it before but I swear its true- every time I make a change to my schedule it gets a little bit better!

Saturday September 25:
-Travel Day
-CS lunch @ ASMu
-DTD & Disney Quest*
-Wolfgang CS (2) dinner
-Ghiardeli or Goofy’s Candy Co. for dessert (oop)

Sunday September 26:
-Get to DHS by 9:15, S (1) breakfast at Starring Rolls, Jedi Training, HSM Concert
-After HSM take boat to World Showcase
-CS (3) lunch (take menus, decide where while there)
-back to resort to swim/relax
-Back to WS for more touring, CS (4) dinner (again decide while there), and Illuminations

Monday September 27:
-DHS* rope drop, S (2) breakfast @ ASMu
-CS (5) lunch Studio Catering Company
-back to resort to swim/relax
-back to MK at about 5:00 for Frontierland/Liberty Square
-Pecos Bills in Frontierland for CS (6) dinner
- Spectro- walk over to Dumbo to ride during Wishes

Tuesday September 28:
-S (3) breakfast @ ASMu
-MK rope drop
-CS (7) lunch Cosmic Rays, back to resort
-Go back to MK for MNSSHP!!!!
- CS (8) dinner @ Columbia Harbour House

Wednesday September 29:
-sleep in, CS (9) breakfast at ASMu
-Blizzard Beach*, S (4) lunch at BB
-TS (oop) dinner at 1900 Park Fare 6:15
-try to catch ferry back to MK to view Wishes from water and catch
bus before Wishes ends
Thursday September 30:
-Epcot: Future World* rope drop, S (5) breakfast at ASMu
-Sunshine Seasons* CS (10) lunch with Karen
-Kim Possible Mission with Karen, break
-S (6/7/8) @ Epcot F&W soft opening (if can’t find any snacks then use their CS and just have a snack for breakfast on Saturday)

Friday October 1:
-TS (oop) breakfast @ Tusker House
-AK rope drop
-CS (11) lunch @ Flametree BBQ
- CS (12) dinner @ Mara- AKL

Saturday October 2:
-CS (13) breakfast at ASMu
-finish packing/check out by 11 am
-Go to DTD for CS (14) Earl of Sandwich (may want oop dessert)
-use any left over snack credits- can take these with us for trip home!
-travel home

Six extra snack credits each.

If you notice I now have 3 visits to both MK and WS planned (one day and two evenings each). I am soooo excited about this and can't wait for the party!!! I give Karen a hard time but honestly I never even thought of adding the party in with some of our tax refund until she suggested it. She's just spreading the Disney magic.

And of course since we're going to the party we'll also need costumes! Savannah has already passed her red and white polka-dot Minnie dress on to Kya so she decided that she'll be Minnie. We just have to get her some ears and shoes.

She wore the dress when we delivered flowers to a local residential care facility on Valentine's day and I got a pic. She has her coat on and since it was soooo cold she also wore leggings and a shirt underneath but you get the idea.

I'm not sure what Jace will do yet. It will probably be something simple since his real Halloween costume probably won't be Disney themed. He already has some pirate stuff around the house so that's a possibility. Somewhere on the dis I saw a little boy with an apron and chef's hat with a stuffed Remy in the pocket of the apron. Simple AND cute! I'll get his input and I'm sure we'll figure out something.

Mom and I (the guys aren't going- unless Mom doesn't want to go for some reason in which case Robbie agreed to go with us) will probably just make shirts- so I'm off to search the DISign boards!

 

[BabyEeyore]

Great ideas for the Enchanted night! I still haven't seen that movie, but I'm going to have to soon. We had our first movie night (well, it was in the morning) but it wasn't anything elaborate. I can't wait to do more and more during our movie nights as my daughter gets older. I'm definitely going to be making note of the caramel apples and non-alcoholic appletinis you made for future reference. Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

The costume idea is perfect! I DO have some minnie ears (headband) but I would only part with them for that night. If she doesn't want to borrow them and wants her own, I got them on ebay for pretty cheap (direct from China! LOL)

I'm so glad you are getting to take her to WDW when she's still in that "girly" stage. Savannah wants to be a gothic mummy for Halloween/the party. BUT, since it's white, it kind of looks similar to the ballroom dresses in HM, so I guess it's not too bad!

 

[-Hope-]

Great ideas for the Enchanted night! I still haven't seen that movie, but I'm going to have to soon. We had our first movie night (well, it was in the morning) but it wasn't anything elaborate. I can't wait to do more and more during our movie nights as my daughter gets older. I'm definitely going to be making note of the caramel apples and non-alcoholic appletinis you made for future reference. Thanks for sharing!!

How fun that you did a movie morning with your little girl! What movie did you do? As for elaborate- the kids have fun no matter what you do. They had way more fun making those caramel apples than any of the other crafts we've planned so far!

The costume idea is perfect! I DO have some minnie ears (headband) but I would only part with them for that night. If she doesn't want to borrow them and wants her own, I got them on ebay for pretty cheap (direct from China! LOL)

I'm so glad you are getting to take her to WDW when she's still in that "girly" stage. Savannah wants to be a gothic mummy for Halloween/the party. BUT, since it's white, it kind of looks similar to the ballroom dresses in HM, so I guess it's not too bad!

She has been wanting some ears so I'm sure we'll just get her some but thanks for the offer.

I don't know if Kya will EVER outgrow her 'girly' stage, lol. I'm glad she has friends like Savannah so that she keeps a good balance between girly and girl power!

 

[DrMomof3]

I hope you don't mind another visitor along for the ride. We're planning another trip to Disney in August! I love your ideas. So creative!!!

Amanda

 

[BabyEeyore]

How fun that you did a movie morning with your little girl! What movie did you do? As for elaborate- the kids have fun no matter what you do. They had way more fun making those caramel apples than any of the other crafts we've planned so far!

We did 101 Dalmatians... chocolate chip pancakes and "dalmatian milk." Plus there was a little sticker activity we called "Put the Spots on the Dalmatian." (Pics in my PTR.) The caramel apples did look like a lot of fun to make... and SOOOO yummy! I have a feeling that I'm going to be making them for my husband and myself someday soon... even without a particular movie.

 

[-Hope-]

I hope you don't mind another visitor along for the ride. We're planning another trip to Disney in August! I love your ideas. So creative!!!

Amanda

WELCOME! The more the merrier! Be warned though, I can get a little ummmm nutty. I'm glad you enjoy the ideas- the chance to be creative is one of my favorite parts about planning for Disney!

We did 101 Dalmatians... chocolate chip pancakes and "dalmatian milk." Plus there was a little sticker activity we called "Put the Spots on the Dalmatian." (Pics in my PTR.) The caramel apples did look like a lot of fun to make... and SOOOO yummy! I have a feeling that I'm going to be making them for my husband and myself someday soon... even without a particular movie.

How fun! I'm heading over to check out your pics!

 

[DrMomof3]

WELCOME! The more the merrier! Be warned though, I can get a little ummmm nutty. I'm glad you enjoy the ideas- the chance to be creative is one of my favorite parts about planning for Disney!

I'm way nuts so we should get along just fine. And I hang out here because my family gets tired of hearing about my Disney planning!
The creative, arts and crafts gene totally passed me by! Come to think of it, I think it's missing from my entire family. And my in-laws. I like reading other people's ideas so I can steal, I mean borrow, them.

Amanda

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Hey Hope!!! I really enjoyed your description of your Enchanted movie night. We just got our 2010 Disney vacation DVD, so most of the afternoon was spent watching that. It just about made me cry!!! It's so exciting that you have more readers now!! I think they'll enjoy your report just as much as I do!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Saturday September 25:
-Travel Day
-CS lunch @ ASMu
-DTD & Disney Quest*
-Wolfgang CS (2) dinner
-Ghiardeli or Goofy’s Candy Co. for dessert (oop)

I see you cut out Sassalouga. (sp?) The more I thought about it, the more I thought there was no way for you to arrive at ASMU, eat lunch, go to DTD AND DISNEYQUEST and then there too. I think Disneyquest will take up a lot of your time, a couple hours probably, so I'm glad to see you aren't trying to squeeze it in!


I'm off to see BabyEeyore's PTR too!

 

[-Hope-]

I'm way nuts so we should get along just fine. And I hang out here because my family gets tired of hearing about my Disney planning!
The creative, arts and crafts gene totally passed me by! Come to think of it, I think it's missing from my entire family. And my in-laws. I like reading other people's ideas so I can steal, I mean borrow, them.

Amanda

My family gets tired of me too! That's why we DIS right!

Hey Hope!!! I really enjoyed your description of your Enchanted movie night. We just got our 2010 Disney vacation DVD, so most of the afternoon was spent watching that. It just about made me cry!!! It's so exciting that you have more readers now!! I think they'll enjoy your report just as much as I do!

I love that DVD! It just brings everything to life that I've been reading about for months!

I see you cut out Sassalouga. (sp?) The more I thought about it, the more I thought there was no way for you to arrive at ASMU, eat lunch, go to DTD AND DISNEYQUEST and then there too. I think Disneyquest will take up a lot of your time, a couple hours probably, so I'm glad to see you aren't trying to squeeze it in!


I'm off to see BabyEeyore's PTR too!

The more I thought about it the more it just seemed like we didn't need to try to squeeze it in. Yeah, there are great things on the menu but there are also great things on the Wolfgang Puck menu so I'd rather just enjoy the day and not be rushed! I think Jace will love Quest and I want him to have plenty of time.

 

[-Hope-]

Those of you following Karen's PTR probably already know that we hit a bit of a snag this week. Disney changed the dates of homeschool days and we were either going to have to pay full price for our tickets or change our dates. ACK!

Changing the dates would not have been that big of a deal EXCEPT that if we changed our dates and Karen didn't the girls were going to be disappointed. On the other had the price tag kept growing on this trip, I'd just decided the day before to add MNSSHP to our trip and now the tickets were going to be more than I thought. Well, this is where obsessive planning pays off.

Karen and I talked, my mom and I talked, Karen and I talked some more. I didn't really involve Robbie in it because he has pretty much told me that he trusts me to do the planning I just need to tell him when to show up. I also got online and starting comparing prices, looking to what I could do to keep my dates AND stay within our budget. On about our third call of the evening Karen and I decided that we could ditch our Blizzard Beach day. We're staying at ASMu which has two of the most fun pools at WDW with fun activities every day. Surely giving up the water park wouldn't be that big of a deal- and it wasn't the kids were mildly disappointed but got over it quickly. I didn't mention that we were also giving up Quest by not doing Waterparks and More because I honestly don't think that will even register. They'll get to play in the arcade at the resort and do lots of cool technological things at Innoventions so I don't think Quest will be a big deal at all. So, we were well on our way to whittling down the cost of the tickets.
Then Karen mentioned that if we weren't going to BB she might add another park day. Wait, did my cost just shoot back up?

Well, I was online while talking to her so I looked it up- tickets to BB were going to cost $135 for me and the kids. An extra day on our tickets was going to cost $13 for all four of us. That seemed like a no brainer to me. Then I started thinking that with this extra day and our MNSSHP tickets getting us an extra evening in MK we might not need to pay for hoppers. So, I priced the tickets without the hopper option and we were getting really close to being at the same price we were before. I decided to take out our oop breakfast at Tusker House. It just seemed silly to pay $100 for eggs and waffles, even Mickey waffles. We'll be able to get most of the same things at CS breakfast at the resort and it would be included on our QS plan, so I dumped the extra meal which also dumped the tip for that meal. I started adding up my new numbers and...

$100 LESS than it had been before.

So, my new plan has one less character meal, no waterpark, no quest, no hoppers BUT it also has one more park day. It seems like a pretty fair trade honestly. I still get to go to MK several times- one full day (morning and evening with a break in the afternoon) and one evening for the party. I still have two full days (again with breaks in the afternoon) at Epcot. I still have my DHS days split into two mornings (extending into early afternoon). My new schedule is less rushed, has fewer days we have to be at rope drop and seems to allow for a little more time so I'm happy with it.

Of course there is a little more drama though...

 

[-Hope-]

Continued...

So, in the course of the conversation about the dates changing I realized that my mom thought her room reservation included the priced of her tickets. I KNOW I explained this to her but my mom has a tendancy not to really listen sometimes so she thought this was all news to her. My dad has been laid off for a while and I think they were scraping together the cost of these tickets to begin with. I offered to buy their tickets but neither of them would even discuss that. So, now I'm not sure if they are coming or not.

At first I was upset because I know the kids are going to be really disappointed if they don't go but I do understand. I wish they would let us help them pay for it but they have very old fashioned ideas about things like that. My mom works at the bank so she knows exactly how much money we have in savings and what our tax refund was so she knows we can afford it but still thinks parents are supposed to help kids, not the other way around. So, I've accepted they may not come but haven't told the kids yet. I figured there's no sense upsetting them until they've actually made a decision. So far they haven't cancelled their room so it's still a possibility they might come. I think I'll know for sure when its time to book the flight which is just about a month away. *sigh*

 

[-Hope-]

Continued...

So, with all the dust and drama settled I was able to reconfigure my park plans to accomodate no hoppers. Karen and I still wanted the girls to have at least one full afternoon to play at the pool since we weren't doing BB and we also still wanted them to be able to do a KP Mission together which was suprisingly easy to coordinate- it's amazing how much easier one extra park day makes everything.

So, my new park plans:

Saturday September 25:
-Travel Day
-CS (1) lunch @ ASMu
-DTD
-Wolfgang CS (2) dinner

Sunday September 26:
-AK, rope drop, S (1) breakfast @ ASMu
-CS (3) lunch @ Flametree BBQ
-break
-Back to AK
-AKL for CS (4) dinner @ Mara

Monday September 27:
-DHS*, S (2) breakfast @ ASMu
-CS (5) lunch Backlot Express
-back to resort girls swim party
-1900 Park Fare @ 6:30 (oop)

Tuesday September 28:
-FW, (arrive 9-9:30) S (3) breakfast @ ASMu
-CS (6) lunch with Karen @ Sunshine Seasons
-KP Mission (girls)
-break
-WS. CS (7) dinner, decide while there

Wednesday September 29:
-MK rope drop, S(4) breakfast at MS Bakery
-CS(8) lunch @ Cosmic Ray’s
-break
-back to MK, CS (9) dinner @ Pecos Bill’s

Thursday September 30:
-FW/WS, (arrive 9-9:30) S (5) breakfast at ASMu
-CS (10) lunch, decide while there
-break
-S (6/7) @ Epcot F&W soft opening (if can’t find any snacks then use CS and just have a snack for breakfast on Saturday)

Friday October 1:
-DHS, rope drop S(8) breakfast @ ASMu
-CS (11) lunch @ Studio Catering company
-break
- MNSSHP, CS (12) dinner @ Columbia Harbour House or Pinocchio Village Haus

Saturday October 2:
-CS (13) breakfast at ASMu
-finish packing/check out by 11 am
-Go to DTD for CS (14) Earl of Sandwich
-use any left over snack credits- can take these with us for trip home!
-travel home