Donald, Mickey, Goofy, and Hubby **New 4-22-2007 Lots of pictures**

[jodistar]

Cast of Characters:
Jodi –(Me) On the average day I work as an administrative assistant…..my really passion is, of course, Disney. Currently, I am planning a five day stay at Disney for next January to participate in the Goofy Challenge.

Mickey – Pal Mickey of course, he last accompanied my husband and me during our last trip (honeymoon trip).

Bob- My DH

Supporting Cast:
Heather – My friend, who also happened to be my Matron of Honor at my wedding, she will be running the Goofy Challenge right there along with me. She lives in Florida, so I will meet up with her upon my arrival.

On with the pre-trip report:
Now, you may be asking why so soon for a pre-trip report , after all the trip isn’t until January, but the fact is my DH has no idea that he is even going and I am going through all this planning myself .

Our first anniversary is in October (we’ve been a couple much longer though) and I plan on doing something really special by putting together a Disney basket to announce that DH is going with me in January.

A picture from our wedding, last October (at Villa Bianca in Seymour, CT)

The basket will contain:
A three day park hopper pass from the Disney store

Airfare

Passporter Deluxe edition

Pocket puzzles

Pirates of the Caribbean mug (on clearance at the Disney store)

Travel sized stuff

Bob and I will be going away for our anniversary, so I will have to present the basket a little early (just a few days). I already have plans for that too! I will be surprising Bob the morning that we leave for our anniversary trip to Salem, MA.

I am practically bouncing off the walls waiting to give him this surprise, how much more time until October? Oh – never mind don’t let me know I don’t think I can handle it .

As soon as I am able (180 days out right?) I will be making dining reservations for my trip in January. Here is what I was thinking (suggestions are also welcome):

January 4th None
January 5th Meeting in the food court at POFQ with the WISH team (dinner)
January 6th Liberty Tree Tavern dinner if available, if not maybe
the Rainforest Café (Animal Kingdom location)….does anyone know if ADR’s are taken for the Rainforest?
January 7th Hollywood and Vine dinner (Fantasmic package – If available)
January 8th Lilo and Stitch character breakfast…..any opinions? Has anyone gone there? Or should I stick with Mickey’s or Crystal Palace?

So what does everyone think – am I off to a good start ?

 

[pumba]

thanks for your pretrip report.......I do have to say.......remember to make your ressies for restaurants ahead of time. WE went in April and May for eleven days and only place we could get into was Biergarten. So plan and make ressies

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

Sounds good to me! You've only got 6 months - better get to planning! Oh wait - you are!

Blessings!
MarkyMark

 

[jodistar]

thanks for your pretrip report.......I do have to say.......remember to make your ressies for restaurants ahead of time. WE went in April and May for eleven days and only place we could get into was Biergarten. So plan and make ressies

Oh I plan on it, especially with the more popular restaurants. I remember last trip, it had become a little bit more difficult.

 

[jodistar]

FSUMARCHIEF - I love the picture in your signature, how did you get the whole gang together?

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

FSUMARCHIEF - I love the picture in your signature, how did you get the whole gang together?

We were VERY lucky and were able to have a meet and great right after one of the shows. It was waaaaaay cool! One of, if not the, most amazing piece of magic we've ever received at Disney!

Blessings!
MarkyMark

 

[KathyRN137]

I couldn't wait to start my TR, either! (Began last month for our trip in Nov!!)

DH and I will be there in Jan, too,.....not up to the Goofy Challenge, but we will run the 5K on Fri and DH will then run the 1/2 on Sat. It's our first WDW Marathon Weekend and I'm really excited.

Good Luck with keeping your surprise a secret!

Kathy

 

[jodistar]

I couldn't wait to start my TR, either! (Began last month for our trip in Nov!!)

DH and I will be there in Jan, too,.....not up to the Goofy Challenge, but we will run the 5K on Fri and DH will then run the 1/2 on Sat. It's our first WDW Marathon Weekend and I'm really excited.

Good Luck with keeping your surprise a secret!

Kathy

Oh - I will have to check out your TR I love reading other's reports too!

To be honest, I'm a little bit scared of the Goofy Challenge but I'm thinking I will take it easy on the 1/2 and then give all I got for the Full Marathon.

Can't wait to read your report!

 

[jodistar]

My plans have already changed a little bit, originally I was going to set the date that I would tell my husband is the day as the date that we leave for our anniversary trip (October 26th) but there is already so much to do that morning, that I decided it might not be a good idea.

So I have decided to unveil the surprise to my husband the weekend before; is it bad to tell your husband to beat it for a night? Oh well, I told him he has to get lost for the night of October 21st. This way I will have time to set up the full surprise.

I decided to make things extra special and design a little party just for the two of us. I contacted Feralpeg for a couple more items for my husband’s basket.

I wanted something special to really tie the basket together……what I decided to do is add souvenirs from our favorite Disney attractions that had gone through a refurbishment or were entirely new since our last visit : at first I thought, okay I will do Haunted Mansion, Pirate of the Caribbean, and Everest. Well, it was a bit too expensive to buy that much so I cut it down just a little bit and decided to just do POC and EE.

I ordered (through Feralpeg/Peggy) the Pirate Mickey Plush, Pirate Antenna Topper, Everest Mickey, and Everest Yeti keychain and of course a couple of other little odds and ends. Thanks Peg!

I also contacted the Disney people to see if I could get a couple of those balloons that they sell in the parks and they put me in contact with the company that supplies the balloons to the parks – I now have two Mickey/Minnie Mylar balloons on their way to me.

The day/night of the 21st I will be transforming our living room/dining area into party central for my husband and me.

I will have my husband return home on the morning of the 22nd – where I will have their waiting for him….(music from our wedding in the background) his basket filled stuff for the Disney get away. The room will be decorated in colors from our wedding; periwinkle and white balloons, plus a couple of bouquets of Disney balloons one with POC (found those at a local party store) the other with Tinkerbell (also found at the local party store).

The Mickey/Minnie balloon that I mentioned earlier with be displayed with the periwinkle and white balloons because not only did we have the wedding colors of periwinkle/white, we also had a Mickey/Minnie themed wedding.

I also wanted to have waiting for him a Mimosa (we never tried it before) but I was curious to what kind of breakfast goes well with a Mimosa – does anyone know? I tried do a search online but it wasn’t very helpful.

 

[Minniespal]

Excellent pre-trip report ~ I am so excited for your DH.

 

[jodistar]

Excellent pre-trip report ~ I am so excited for your DH.

Oh I hope he loves the surprise too! I can't tell you how many times I almost blurted out things about the January trip. So far I was able to save the comment by added "When we both go next October." So far it's worked

 

[Disney owl]

What a great surprise

 

[ely3857]

Good luck with your suprise! The gift basket sounds great



Jodie

 

[Mouse Skywalker]

Hi Jodi : Great pre-trip report! It sounds like you are having so much fun planning the trip. I'd love to see pictures of the basket whenever you get it together. Ooooh, I wish I would get POC and Haunted Mansion goodies...

 

[TLinden16]

Sounds like you have some great things plan! I can't believe you are going to keep it a surprise from your DH for so long. How can you stand it?

Thanks for posting.

 

[jodistar]

Hi Jodi : Great pre-trip report! It sounds like you are having so much fun planning the trip. I'd love to see pictures of the basket whenever you get it together. Ooooh, I wish I would get POC and Haunted Mansion goodies...

Oh I will definitely post pictures! He's going to be so surprised Only a few more months until he finds out

 

[jodistar]

How can you stand it?

Actually it is very hard but I have a lot of friends and family members in on what I am doing which makes it a lot easier to deal with --- I can just call them to talk about it.

 

[jodistar]

Just wanted to add - I'm very excited, I just received my Mickey/Minnie Mylar balloons today at work. So funny - I can actually picture everything.....well, except for the look on his face when he walks into the suprise.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

What a fun surprise! Your DH is very lucky! Have you called for ADRs yet? It must be almost time. I was shocked that I can call for March ADRs in September!

It is hard to keep a secret, isn't it? DS doesn't know about our December trip and it is very hard not to talk about it in front of him!

 

[jodistar]

What a fun surprise! Your DH is very lucky! Have you called for ADRs yet? It must be almost time. I was shocked that I can call for March ADRs in September!

It is hard to keep a secret, isn't it? DS doesn't know about our December trip and it is very hard not to talk about it in front of him!

I will probably be making ADR's at some point next week You're right you are able to do it pretty quickly now.

It is really hard to keep the secret.....and I even have moments where I think has figured out what I was doing -- I really hope not though.

I have his family in on it now though - so things should run a little bit easier.

Your DS will be very suprised They are lucky to have us, huh?