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

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I know Hope, I've done the same thing with a couple of things. I wish I had just kept quiet so I could change things if needed without the kids being disappointed, BUT, I LOVE to share the planning with them and Savannah would be more upset if I just kept everything to myself than a few blips in the plans. She is learning to roll with the punches and she also knows that aside from a few of her MUST do's, being at WDW is great no matter what. I'm not sure how she would react to me canceling MNSSHP. It's the whole reason she likes to go in the fall. She says she doesn't even want to go to WDW if it's not Halloweentime!

 

[LilMommyBug]

Oh how I love your themed days! We are a homeschool family too

 

[MagicMomentsMom]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that they do have Free dining--wishing you lots of pixie dust! The books sound great and that's a great deal!

 

[-Hope-]

Oh how I love your themed days! We are a homeschool family too

Thanks! We're going all out for Pirates of the Caribbean today so be sure to check back for pics! Don't you just love homeschooling- a treasure hunt on a beautiful Monday afternoon is a great way to start the week!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you that they do have Free dining--wishing you lots of pixie dust! The books sound great and that's a great deal!

Thanks for the pixie dust- I may need it! And yep, I'm pretty excited about the books!

 

[-Hope-]

Well, Karen really thought I should go ahead and make my 'just in case' reservations- and being the obedient student I am I did.

I got breakfast at Tusker House, Cape May and Crystal Palace- I went heavy on breakfast because it was the easiest way not to disrupt touring plans. I also did lunch at Biergarten. One of our dinners will be at Big River Grille which doesn't need a ressie and then I have two more dinners- the one I posted earlier at Park Fare and the other at... Le Cellier! I'm so tickled with that one that I may have to keep it.

I think I'm okay with these if regular dining is offered. It will completely disrupt my plans for WS but that's okay, we'll just have to make sure the dining is an experience in itself.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Le Cellier! WOOT! Maybe you SHOULD hope for DDP instead of QSDP!

It's easy to cancel them if/when a QSDP offer comes out, but not so easy to MAKE them if you wait and a DDP offer comes out. That's my motto!

 

[-Hope-]

Pirates of the Caribbean was a HUGE hit! Today was definately one of our best days so far! The decorations were great, the food was cute AND tasty, and the activity was F.U.N.

Karen and I walked first and then got some pics of the table. We had all of this stuff already and it turned out sooooo cute. We just kept adding stuff that we thought was remotely pirate or sea related.

Next we had a treasure hunt! I made a treasure chest and clues in pirate speak, put them on brown paper and burned the edges. The kids had so much fun doing this! They were running around outside and just having a blast.

The last clue was a treasure map- and X marked the spot!

The ran inside to divide up their booty- chocolate coins and Disney dollars!

While Karen and I got lunch ready the kids played POTC Life. I didn't get any pics of the game but some of the money is on the table. Then we were ready to eat. We had pirate ship pizza, skull and crossbone sugar cookies and root beer!

Then Karen and I sat in the sunshine and sent the kids off to watch the movie- which they didn't do! They had so much fun that they were begging us to hide more stuff- we were TIRED at this point so when we wouldn't do it they took turns hiding stuff and making up clues. I was okay with this- it was a BEAUTIFUL day and I'm glad they'd rather be outside instead of cooped up inside watching a movie.

 

[DrMomof3]

I can't believe you got dinner at Le Cellier! That's awesome!!! Love the cute Pirates pics.

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

Thanks! The fact that I got LC is giving me hope that FD is still going to be announced- if they haven't filled that place yet then they don't have the bookings they need/want. That's the logic I'm going with anyway.

And the pirate day was SOOO fun!

 

[BabyEeyore]

Your movie day looks awesome, as usual!

 

[lexmas]

Pirate day looks like so much fun! We're thinking about having a treasure hunt for easter, although, I guess if we're going to do that we should get started soon! Looks like you have beautiful weather there...glad the kids played outside instead of watching the movie!

 

[-Hope-]

Pirate day looks like so much fun! We're thinking about having a treasure hunt for easter, although, I guess if we're going to do that we should get started soon! Looks like you have beautiful weather there...glad the kids played outside instead of watching the movie!

It was a lot of fun- and we've had gorgeous weather lately! I know not everyone has so I'm definitely taking the time to be thankful and appreciate it!

An Easter treasure hunt sounds fun- we used to do "The Amazing Christmas Race' with dh's family until his nieces got older and didn't think it was cool anymore. :rolleyes

It's actually pretty simple to do, just think of some fun places to hide clues and word them like a riddle. For example the clue for looking in the shower was a place where grimy pirates never tread with water high and low. On one of them they were supposed to do a pirate jig to get the next clue and that was funny- if your kids like stuff like that I'd be sure to include a few 'challenges'. Once I had the wording I found a fun font and printed them out and put them on decorative paper. Easy peasy!

 

[-Hope-]

The free dining thread I've been following is about to drive me crazy!!

Everyone has their own idea of when and if FD will be announced but truly no one knows anything. Someone came on a few days ago and said we'd get an announcement today so now that no one's heard anything everyone is panicing. Again.

I'm throwing my opinion out here instead of over there because I don't want to hear it anymore! I guess I'm just as bad as they are since I've pieced together my own opinion with nothing to really go on.

We'll be going with or without FD so that's really not an issue for us. However I don't think it's going to be an issue. I know that Disney announced they want to scale back on discounts but they haven't really done that in their busy season so why would they completely drop a huge promotion during the slow season? It makes no sense. They may change that promotion which is why I think QS is going to be offered instead of DDP and I think they'll require a longer stay and more than a one day MYW ticket. But drop it altogether when the Harry Potter park just opened? I just can't see that.

That being said I think Harry Potter may be giving them a run for their money over the summer as well which is why the summer promotions are still happening. The current Disney Visa promotion just went up last week and people can book through April 24th. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't announce any new offers until then. I'd love to be wrong and see it come out Monday as everyone over in the FD thread is speculating but I'm not going to panic if it doesn't come Monday.

Now, if April 24th comes around I may have to check into some options like staying off site and renting a car, spending part of the week at other Orlando area theme parks, etc. But until then I'm just going with the flow.

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I was reading the same thread, Hope. OMG!!! Those people are going CRAZY!!! Yes, FD would be nice, but like you, it won't make or brake my trip....it's my Disneymoon after all!!! I'm trying to stay away from reading that thread.

 

[lexmas]

Yes, that thread is driving me crazy too! I've stopped actively waiting for the promotion, because I think it's very possible they won't come out with anything until the current disney visa promotion is up (what's up with that promotion though? Kids stay and eat free? I mean, eat, sure, but they always stay free!). There is always a discount to be had...some are just better than others.

 

[DrMomof3]

I hope you get your FD! For us the 40% off resort was far more important than FD so I'm all set. If we hadn't gotten a discount code, we might not have gone...

Amanda

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Pirates of the Caribbean was a HUGE hit! Today was definately one of our best days so far! The decorations were great, the food was cute AND tasty, and the activity was F.U.N.

Karen and I walked first and then got some pics of the table. We had all of this stuff already and it turned out sooooo cute. We just kept adding stuff that we thought was remotely pirate or sea related.

Thats sounds like soooo much fun! wish I could have been there

 

[-Hope-]

We were really stretching it to call today a Disney day- we did talk about when we think free dining will be announced...

The treasure hunt was such a huge hit last week and today is the day after Easter so an egg hunt seemed like a great idea. We did look for a movie that would go with the theme but didn't see anything that really thrilled us so we just decided to skip the movie. Karen did make sure we got a little Disney magic on our table.

Mickey was joined by bunny bubble wands, foam air pressure egg canons, baskets of eggs, decorative eggs, and of course deviled eggs!

Karen and I hid the eggs in her backyard and released the girls...

At first they were giving us a hard time because the hunt was too easy- but before you knew it they were giving us the evil eye because it was too hard...

Finally they were ready to sort their goodies...

Another fun day!

 

[lexmas]

Great pictures. Those "evil eye" ones had me !

Yeah, the easter movies are pretty lacking. I bet your kids wouldn't be as into "Mickey's Great Clubhouse Hunt" as my 3 year old. That's okay that your easter day was lacking in the disney department, I think this whole free dining fiasco has all of us kind of stalled in the disney planning department.

That pink shirt is very "Minnie Mouse" without being over the top. I love it. I think I need to find a similar fabric and make DD a dress.

And, I think I'm going to need to hear more about "The Amazing Christmas Race" because that sounds awesome.

 

[lledman]

I love all your theme parties - I think once we get a little closer I'm going to borrow some of your ideas. My 2 youngest love to watch movies and I love to plan things so this is a perfect idea for us.