First trip....Feb 2012....Polynesian....Yay!

[solana131]

Just got my ME packet today!! Yay! So very excited My parents are heading to their house in Cape Coral, FL this week and it was great to say goodbye to Dad and be able to say "See you at Disney in about a month"!

My mom and I spent the day yesterday making tshirts. We got a bunch of different fabrics and cut out a mouse ears design in the fabrics then used Stich Witchery to iron them on the shirts. I will take pics soon. My favorite is a black one with leopard print mickey. That one will be Animal Kingdom (obviously). Mom and I have 2 shirts that match and a few different ones.

And on a side note....so proud of myself today. This past year I was thrown into the position of payroll manager along with all my other titles at work. I have zero training in this area and was very very nervous about tax time this year. I convinced my boss to sign us up for Intuit Online Payroll instead of the very pricey payroll company we had been with. I not only saved us a ton of money, but am learning so much about the position by doing it all myself (with Intuit's help of course). So anyway what I'm proud about....well as most of you know, employers don't have to get W2s out until the end of Jan. Well...miss smartie pants here already has them done and mailed! So depending on when hubby gets his W2, we could have our taxes in time for Disney! My boss was very pleased with me today I told him that since I saved him so much money I should get a raise. Seriously...we used to pay $75 a week and Intuit is about $40 a month! Thats a big savings *pats herself on back*

 

[solana131]

Suzi, I am back and ALL caught up.

You will love the Poly. As much as I am not a "monorail" fan, I think with your husband and his not liking the heat, etc., that you made a great choice.

We used to stay at the Poly and love everything about it (except not having a hot tub). The rooms are spacious; we've done four adults and had plenty of room.

Your daily plans sound great.

I'm here now and will stay caught up.

Hey Kathy! Yeah, I can't believe that much money doesn't get you a hottub! But thats okay. DS doesn't like hottubs anyway, and I don't anticipate having much time to ourselves

 

[Lidian]

Just got my ME packet today!! Yay! So very excited My parents are heading to their house in Cape Coral, FL this week and it was great to say goodbye to Dad and be able to say "See you at Disney in about a month"!

My mom and I spent the day yesterday making tshirts. We got a bunch of different fabrics and cut out a mouse ears design in the fabrics then used Stich Witchery to iron them on the shirts. I will take pics soon. My favorite is a black one with leopard print mickey. That one will be Animal Kingdom (obviously). Mom and I have 2 shirts that match and a few different ones.

And on a side note....so proud of myself today. This past year I was thrown into the position of payroll manager along with all my other titles at work. I have zero training in this area and was very very nervous about tax time this year. I convinced my boss to sign us up for Intuit Online Payroll instead of the very pricey payroll company we had been with. I not only saved us a ton of money, but am learning so much about the position by doing it all myself (with Intuit's help of course). So anyway what I'm proud about....well as most of you know, employers don't have to get W2s out until the end of Jan. Well...miss smartie pants here already has them done and mailed! So depending on when hubby gets his W2, we could have our taxes in time for Disney! My boss was very pleased with me today I told him that since I saved him so much money I should get a raise. Seriously...we used to pay $75 a week and Intuit is about $40 a month! Thats a big savings *pats herself on back*

That's very awesome about how well you're adjusting! I'm not real familiar with all the software (yet) ... but glad you saved your company some money! Perhaps you'll get a bonus or something! DH got his W2 Friday, so we're waiting for the middle of January to roll around so we can file for our return! Fingers are crossed you'll get yours back in time!!!

 

[DMGeurts]

That is awesome... That reminds me - I need to start taxes - yuck. I'd like to have some of that $$ for souveniers.

I can't wait to see the shirts you did! I'll bet they're awesome!

D~

 

[Chicago Mo]

EXCITING news all around!!! sounds like a great start to a new year!!!
keeping fingers crossed for the raise!!!

 

[solana131]

That's very awesome about how well you're adjusting! I'm not real familiar with all the software (yet) ... but glad you saved your company some money! Perhaps you'll get a bonus or something! DH got his W2 Friday, so we're waiting for the middle of January to roll around so we can file for our return! Fingers are crossed you'll get yours back in time!!!

I'm not holding my breath for a bonus. We can barely make payroll each week as it is. But it feels good to know I saved alot of $$

I can't wait to see the shirts you did! I'll bet they're awesome!

Will try to get some pics tonight and upload them

EXCITING news all around!!! sounds like a great start to a new year!!!
keeping fingers crossed for the raise!!!

Thanks! I was pretty happy too

 

[solana131]

So Tikiman just posted on FB that the "Rockwork clear coat will be applied at Nanea Volcano Pool from January 9 to February 21". Anyone know what this means? Will they be closing the pool? I will seriously consider moving to another resort if that is the case. I know it will be cool, but DS is very excited about the volcano pool. I can't take that away from him along with Dumbo, Thunder, Kali, Elec Parade, and F!

Oh wait....and now I can add the closure of the Shrunk the Kids playground for that time too Guess we can totally skip HS then and have a day to go to LegoLand. Anyone been to LegoLand?

 

[Lidian]

So Tikiman just posted on FB that the "Rockwork clear coat will be applied at Nanea Volcano Pool from January 9 to February 21". Anyone know what this means? Will they be closing the pool? I will seriously consider moving to another resort if that is the case. I know it will be cool, but DS is very excited about the volcano pool. I can't take that away from him along with Dumbo, Thunder, Kali, Elec Parade, and F!

Oh wait....and now I can add the closure of the Shrunk the Kids playground for that time too Guess we can totally skip HS then and have a day to go to LegoLand. Anyone been to LegoLand?

That sounds like a pool refurb ... however ... I can't find ANY information on Poly pool refurbs or closures. If you are concerned, visit the Poly FAQ thread and see what's going on. The folks over there might have an inkling on what that means and if it will affect your stay.

 

[solana131]

I "talked" to a CM on their live chat at the WDW site and she didn't have any record of it at all. I posted a new thread on here and someone who is staying club level at the Poly in a couple weeks emailed the IPO department there and she said the return email said they were closing the slide, but not the pool. So thats fine. I don't think Bradey will go down the slide anyway. So we will stick with Poly.

I thought I saw that the Shrunk the kids playground was going to be closed too, but now I see that is after we leave. But in my freakout this morning I decided we weren't going to HS and we would go to LegoLand instead. Now I really want to go to Lego Land! Oy....I need to stay another week

 

[JulsB20]

I've been having fun reading your plans. We will be down there during similar time from Feb. 2-10 staying at Beach Club.

 

[JulsB20]

I've been having fun reading your plans. We will be down there during similar time from Feb. 2-10 staying at Beach Club.

Forgot to add that I have a DS5 too!

 

[JulsB20]

So very not happy this morning. I read my weekly AllEars newsletter and it said the Electric Parade will not be showing while I am there either! Add that to Thunder Mtn, Dumbo, Fantasmic, and Kali River Rapids.

My son was in tears yesterday when I told him about Kali River Rapids. He loves to ride that with Grandma. I wasl really looking forward to him riding Big Thunder and now we'll have to wait until next time whenever that might be.

The only plus to not having Fantasmic and the Electrical Parade is that our evenings will be a lot less scheduled allowing us to just go with the flow a little more.

 

[solana131]

I've been having fun reading your plans. We will be down there during similar time from Feb. 2-10 staying at Beach Club.

Forgot to add that I have a DS5 too!

WELCOME! Thats cool that we will be there at the same time. I haven't seen many people going that week. Maybe it will be real slow with no lines! Hey...we can hope, right?

My son was in tears yesterday when I told him about Kali River Rapids. He loves to ride that with Grandma. I wasl really looking forward to him riding Big Thunder and now we'll have to wait until next time whenever that might be.

The only plus to not having Fantasmic and the Electrical Parade is that our evenings will be a lot less scheduled allowing us to just go with the flow a little more.

Kali and F! are the ones I don't really care about. We have a similar ride to Kali here locally and I don't really want to be soaked all day. And I'm not sure we will go to HS this time around, so not too sad about F! But I am really bummed about the Elec Parade. I don't remember much about WDW from when I was little, but I do remember that. It made such an impression on me and I thought it was so magical. Really sad DS won't be able to see that. But you are right. With no elec parade and being able to watch Wishes from our beach, I don't think we will have to fight the crowds at night at MK much See, there's always a silver lining

 

[Chicago Mo]

HS is one of my top favorite parks! there are still the best shows and great street performers.. including the star wars stuff!!! If you do go bee line it for the Toy story ride for fastpasses!!! I know a lot of people with smaller kids do not like HS but it's really fun to just walk around it and see it!

 

[solana131]

So here are my t-shirts I made. I am going to make a bunch more for both myself and Bradey. Bill told me he flat out will not wear one.

These are both short sleeve ts. I will make a few on long sleeves too so I have a variety. What do you think? Not bad for someone who doesn't sew and isn't very crafty...right?

 

[solana131]

HS is one of my top favorite parks! there are still the best shows and great street performers.. including the star wars stuff!!! If you do go bee line it for the Toy story ride for fastpasses!!! I know a lot of people with smaller kids do not like HS but it's really fun to just walk around it and see it!

Alright...fine. We will probably take a half day to walk around and see everything. I think we will just play it by ear. I don't have any ADRs planned the last 2 days other than breakfast, so we can see what the day brings.

I did re-book the ADR on Thursday morning to include 5 people because I am pretty sure I can talk Mom & Dad into staying another night. They are gonna want to go to Wilderness Lodge and eat at Whispering Canyon with us Wed night, so it will be too late for them to head home. And if we go to LegoLand on Thursday, they will want to do that too. We'll see....

Just ordered a few things on Amazon since I had a good coupon code. I got a suction cup toothbrush holder to stick on the mirror since we will only have one sink and need to fit 5 people's stuff on there. I thought that would be an easy way to get the toothbrushes off the counter.
I bought some travel space saver bags. I have never used these, but I am hoping to bring my own pillow. I think these will roll out all the air and I can take it. I am going to have a hard enough time sleeping with everyone in the same room, I figured it might help.
And another tip I got from somewhere was to get one of those sport towels. I heard they are used by athletes to wipe the sweat off (ewww) but that you just ring them out and they are instantly dry. People said they use them on the water rides to wipe the seats off or to wipe off any part of you not covered by a poncho. They don't take up much space so I figured I would give it a try.
And last but not least, I got those cool Purex 3 in 1 laundry strips. I figured they were much easier to pack than a whole bottle. Worth a try at $4 for 10 loads.
I still want to get a hanging sweater organizer to hang all of Bradey's stuff so his clothes don't take up precious hanger space. I can just put an outfit in each block and be ready to go in the mornings.

 

[KatMark]

LOVE LOVE the t-shirts...very cute.

 

[solana131]

LOVE LOVE the t-shirts...very cute.

Thanks! They were fun to make. I want to find a fun hawaiian print for one since we are staying Poly. We don't have any fabric stores around here, so I have to drive an hour to get to one. These prints were just scraps my mom had. Actually, the striped one was a shirt she had that she didn't wear but liked the pattern. So we tore it up and used it

 

[solana131]

And my new Tevas! I know some people don't think flip flops are good in the parks, but I live in these shoes. I literally have 7 pairs in all different colors. I usually get one new pair a year to feel the fun squishy feeling again, but decided on 2 pairs this year so I would have both black and brown to take to Disney.

Black with silver embroidery. Mush Mandalyn Wedge

Three shades of Brown. Mush Adapto Wedge.

And of course I will still have my sneaks in case its chilly. And I have my Keens if I feel I need to go bright green

 

[DMGeurts]

So here are my t-shirts I made. I am going to make a bunch more for both myself and Bradey. Bill told me he flat out will not wear one.

These are both short sleeve ts. I will make a few on long sleeves too so I have a variety. What do you think? Not bad for someone who doesn't sew and isn't very crafty...right?

Those are really awesome!! You did a great job!

And i love your flip flops - I wish I could wear them in the parks!

D~