Disney but not Disney. A holiday PTR

[ljcrochet]

Almost every disney trip, we talk about spend a resort day or two. Decided this time we should go and stay at Disney without doing any parks.
I guess I should introduce the cast of characters.
019ed684d88a5d2ca5969f413ac0f2bab759dd6363 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
DH: who goes to disney mostly for the food. He loves planning trips

DD1 who is 10- a Disney adult
2008 12 09 231 by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Wait that is an old picture when she would wear princess dresses.
Here is yesterday
Grey skin purple hair by LJcrochet, on Flickr
DD2 who is DD1's twin sister so she is also 10 and a disney adult
100_5735 by LJcrochet
Here she is over the weekend
Sporty girl by LJcrochet, on Flickr


Me :

I'm having trouble with the pictures so I'll be back later with more info about our trip plans.

 

[ljcrochet]

I think I need an undo button.
Instead of fixing the pictures, I made it worse. I'm having tech issues today.
In fact I'm using my phone to write this as I try and restart the computer.

We were tossing idea of driving again. DH didn't want to since drive home is long and boring. He priced out flights.

Then BIL and SIL along with FIL and T, decided we should all go to vero beach. We check and switch our week at AKV to a week at vero. FIL books a 2 bedroom for BIL, Sil & nephew. We book a studio. I know we can all stay in the same one bedroom, but we want to leave the trip on speaking turns.

We originally booked a one bedroom for the first 2 nights the switching to a studio for the rest of the week.

DH started looking at flights again. He started looking at flying vs Orlando. But mco is slightly closer to Disney's vero resort. And the flights were cheaper. Flying JetBlue. First time since they started to charge for bags. Have to decide is we should check one bag for the 4 of us, or try and just do carryons

 

[ljcrochet]

After thinking about it we decided to spend the first night at AKV- kidani savanna view. Jetblue keeps on changing our flight. I think they pushed us up a half hour, so instead of leaving at the crack of dawn, we are now leaving 1/2 before the crack of dawn. Being that we are DVC, i'm not holding out much hope that our room will be ready when we arrive. I know I will want to go to Jambo to take pictures in front of the christmas tree again.
019c04820b6d0b601eac14c2ad85c060fa3f3f565e by LJcrochet, on Flickr
01267c89eab88875a4b6f8cde0b27f107929df7686 by LJcrochet, on Flickr

We are going to go to Downtown Disney Disney Springs and eat dinner at Morimoto Asia. DD2 is going to go out of her mind with the sushi. I wonder if they have sparkling Sake? It is my favorite type of Sake.

In the morning, we hit the road for Disney's vero beach. Originally we had Boma for breakfast. Then though about spending over $100 on breakfast, DD2 asked for cracker barrel. I might map it and see if there is a cracker barrell between ADV and Vero beach. I also have to make sure we have toll money.

 

[ljcrochet]

I realized I hadn't thought about tolls from MCO to AKV and from AKV to vero. The more I read the more confused I get. I'm kicking myself for getting the cheaper sunpass when we drove to florida. We did the one we attached to the car, not thinking about if we did the other one we would have it for a rental car. I would not want to buy a sunpass and have them mail it to us now since our trip is close. I'm kicking myself for not thinking about this earlier when FIL and T could have gotten one for us. They were just in NY for my new nephew who is now 2 weeks old.

I was reading that some of the tolls are unmanned, so if you have a rental car, you are screwed. I think our rental car company either charges $9 a day for tolls, or $15 fee plus the toll if you turn down their toll by plate option.

 

[ljcrochet]

I think doing a disney but not disney trip might be hard for me to plan. I just check our flights. A lot of times when we fly we get a window and and aisle seat, taking a risk that no one will buy the middle seat. As of now the middle seats are still open on our flight down. But it looks like our flight home is packed.

Still haven't decided about paying for and checking a bag, or just doing carryons?

Yesterday was such a crazy day. I had to go to costco for work, but by the time I left work, I had less than a 1/2 hour to get through costco to get what I need. I was fine on the work stuff, but forgot that we are almost out of coconut oil and avocado oil for the house.
I stopped home to put the cold stuff in the gridge ( garage fridge), let the dogs out and get the girls soccer stuff.
I got up to school to see the kids leaving school to get on the activity bus. I parked went in, had to check the yearbook mailbox since I knew one parent was sending in a baby picture. I'm amazed at the parents who just sent in a picture without letting us know. We are trying to be all digital, parents can upload the pictures directly to the yearbook. Prior years, it was mostly send in a baby picture but if you have to you can email it to the yearbook chair. Not really sure why. Then the yearbook chair had to mail it to the company for them to scan in. I was trying to avoid doing that, figured it enough parents said they don't have a digital only a real print, we would figure it out. Last week I was up at school and decided I should check the yearbook mailbox, and sure enough I found 3 pictures. Yesterday I was getting one that I had know about, mom emailed, and found a 2nd one that I didn't know about.
I don't mind scanning them in since I can label the file the way I want to, but i have to know to look for them.

Right from school we drove to soccer practice. Girls had 10 minutes to change in the car. DD1 discovered, I did not pack them any soccer shorts. Of course she was in jeans yesterday. Not sure why but the bin with soccer shirts and socks no longer had shorts. I must have cleaned them up and put them back in the bin that I don't take with us. Luckily we found a pair of black dance shorts in the car. Don't ask me why they were in the car?
Practice is supposed to be an hour but he went over about 25 minutes. Not sure why.

Came home DD1 had to do HW, DD2 didn't have any HW. SHe had a packet on Monday about Pearl harbour that was due today that she finished early. We ate dinner, then it was time for DD1 to go to basketball practice. The coach is a friends dad, who lives around the corner so they usually drive DD1 to and from practice. DD1 loves to go shoot hoops on the neighbors basketball hoop when she is waiting to be picked up. Friend texted me from her mom's phone for pages in the book they are reading. And then said getting in the car.
I was sitting in our living room on a chair and Russell my mutt dog decided he need to sit on my lap as we watched DD1 though the window.
Untitled by LJcrochet, on Flickr
Of course DD1 came home around 9:30 hyper as anything. Had to let her watch a tv show to calm down before bed. Which meant that DD2 watched tv. This morning DD2 was a grump. It almost seemed like she was PMSing. I'm so not ready for that.

Today should be a mellow day. We are going to BIL and SIL's tomorrow and have to bring dessert. DD1 wants to make sugar cookies. So I think after school I'm helping her make cookies. I might have to go to the store to get milk for the icing, unless I don't ice them.
They have a soccer game on saturday morning at 8, so need to leave the house by 7:30 or earlier if we are going to stop at starbucks for coffee. After soccer, come home, probably won't get home till 9:30, just enough time to shower, and go.

 

[ljcrochet]

I had mentioned in comment to someone's PTR about the flannel shirts
Here is the one I made my nephew
2t flannel superhero shirt by LJcrochet, on Flickr

This is the 2nd one I made DD1
batman shirt by LJcrochet, on Flickr

DD2 wants no part in it. I'm thinking of going to costco and checking out the flannels and making myself one. I think i have some fun t-shirts I cut over 11 years ago to make a t-shirt quilt. But since I suck at cutting. I can not cut a straight line, even using a cutter and a quilter square thing. I also cut out the design instead of making all the shirts the same size. I was thinking i have a good one and I can put it on the back of a flannel, and if i still have some of the small front logo's, I could put it on the front as well.

 

[ljcrochet]

One thing is decided about our trip, we are only doing carry on bags. I'm a nervous travel till I'm through airport security. Not sure why. I know if we check a bag, I will want to get to the airport before 5, which means leaving our house by 4. If we are not checking a bag, we don't have to leave as early. So plan is to do 4 rolling carry on sized suit cases. DD1 have an ipad case pocketbook, so i'm going to get her to carry it on for the plane. They can hopefully put their ipads and headphones in the one bag. I say hopefully since they have pretty big headphones. DH will have a backpack with his noise cancelling headphones.
Since we are doing carryons, I might see where there is a walgreens near the airport to get the sunpass and the toiletries. I'm figuring when we get to the resort our room won't be ready, so not sure what we are going to do yet. Normally it would be off to a park, but this time, it could be off to Disney springs to see the new star wars movie. Or we can go see it Monday before we go to Vero. Or it could just be pool time, or sitting in rocking chairs taking in the animals.

We might get giorionni pizza to bring to vero. This way I can get a shake for the car ride, and we can use the oven in FIL's 2 bedroom to heat it up. Just need to figure out how much pizza to get for 6 adults , 2 tweens and one toddler.

 

[ljcrochet]

Yesterday DH asked if I think we will be in our room before the Giants game starts. Now that throws a few wrinkles in the plans.

If our room is ready, he might want to stay in the room and watch the game while the girls and I explore AKL- or go swimming?
Or maybe we can go to either ESPN zone or big river to watch the game. I really want to try big river.
We are going to Morimoto for dinner at night. I know DD2 will want yellowtail scallion rolls. No clue what the rest of us will eat.

The next day i think before we head to Vero we are going to see the new star wars movie

 

[Jasperann]

We really love AKV. We almost bought there instead of GFV. When do you go on your non Disney trip? Must be soon if you get to watch Star Wars!!

 

[ljcrochet]

We really love AKV. We almost bought there instead of GFV. When do you go on your non Disney trip? Must be soon if you get to watch Star Wars!!

Very soon!

We own at akv. After this trip we will have stayed at all the WDW DVCs.
Will have 2 more DVC to cross off out list hopefully in 2016 so we can say we have stayed everywhere.

 

[ljcrochet]

Just when we have our first and 2nd day planned out, BIL who is joining us at vero texted us last night. He wants us to wait to go to star wars with him in vero since his wife doesn't want to go.
Now we have 2 options: see it twice ( either all of us or just dh, or dh and I while girls stay with FIL ) or wait even longer.

Plans as of now
Day one: arrive: check out animal kingdom lodge
big river grill for lunch and giants game
AKL swimming
disney springs - dinner at morimoto asia
Day 2: no alarm clock you have no idea how happy this makes me
depending on what we decide about start wars: disney springs to see the movie or off to vero
Day 2-5 Vero with FIL, T, BIL, SIL and nephew Z
Day 5 not sure when they are leaving Vero, but we will have the rest of the day to ourselves.
Day 6: vero/ poly
Day 7: Our anniversary Breakfast at OHANA dinner at Shula
Day 8: have to return rental car at 6

We decided since the girls are disney adults, can't bring ourselves to pay for them at some of the restaurants we usually hit up. We will be checking out the resorts, and just relaxing.

 

[ljcrochet]

Vacation is over. I did start a trip report- i put in the DVC trip report section if anyone is interested in reading. Link is in my sig