For the First Time in Forever...we finally get to go back!! a pre trip report

[AprilRenee]

The show we did together was Night at the Wax Museum. Ben was Butch Cassidy and I was Madame Ching, a really bloodthirsty pirate. I got to threaten many cast members, including my son, with swords and knives. Dream role! Our theatre group has done some big name shows (Bye Bye Birdie, Aristocats, Peter Pan) and Ben just did Music Man at his middle school. Next up for our group is Spamalot and I think the next middle school show is going to be Fiddler on the Roof. We have a really talented group of boys at the school who are interested in theatre which is refreshing. Can't wait to see the reveal on the new décor for Caden's room!

Sounds fun! Lol

I'm actually considering fiddler on the roof jr for my 6-12 yr old musical this coming year! And Peter Pan is one of my very favorites! I'm waiting for the perfect group of kids and then I'm doing it!!!
Awesome that you have a good group of boys! We really struggle with having enough boys! My high school group had 2 boys this past year. Makes it REALLY hard to choose a musical (FYI thoroughly modern Millie only has 3 "must be male" roles in it. So we were able to pull in one more boy and I pulled up a younger student to play a few minor roles and we pulled it off. But MAN we need more men )

 

[AprilRenee]

Way to grow, Caden!!! Keep it up! That is awesome that he'll be able to ride the Mine Train (and maybe more!)

Fingers crossed!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Yay Caden! Way to grow!
I bet he can grow 2 more inches in 7 months! Keep it up!

 

[AprilRenee]

Well so it's been over a month and I've had a lot of Disney planning happen!
First real life update:
July was a crazy month. I directed a show/theater camp. We had 3 days a week, 3 weeks (so 9 days) and put together a full musical with sets and costumes and everything. It was insane but mostly fun. But I spent every single spare moment of those 3 weeks either at work (9-2:30 on MWF) or blocking/choreographing songs for the next day. I'd work on it as soon as caden went down for a nap and at night as soon as he went to bed. It was a LOT!
Also add in there that my brother got married the week of the performance and I was the photographer!!!
So the last week of July I had camp on Mon, small unrelated performance with my student's musical theater troupe Tuesday morning, rehearsal/rehearsal dinner on Tuesday night, camp on Wednesday, wedding all day on Thursday, dress rehearsal Friday day, and performance Friday night. I'm wiped out! lol
Here are a few pics from dress rehearsal. Our show was Willy Wonka the musical. It really was fun!






Also, Caden came to see the show and except for 1 minor meltdown right after intermission, he sat thru the 2 hour show very well and enjoyed it. Looks like we'll be golden at Disney watching shows So happy!!!


Also in the last month Caden has become OBSESSED with Cars (the movie). I went out late one night and bought him some Cars toys (Apparently working a lot makes me buy my child toys...and shirts...and shoes...I rarely buy him things "just because") But anyway they instantly became his favorite toys! McQueen sleeps with him almost every night. It made me so happy!


On Monday of our crazy week, we took Caden to see Planes Fire and Rescue after I got out of camp that day. He LOVED it! He didn't want to leave the theater when it was over so I told him we could go see a real Mater!! A local body shop made a life size Mater so we took him over to see it! He thought that was REALLY cool too! It was a great day!





So that's whats been going on with us....I'll do a second post with my Disney info!

 

[AprilRenee]

So my ADR date came before the Jan packages were released...SO I had to do my reservations day by day. I could have fudged it and booked a room only but honestly it was kinda fun to wake up each morning and book a reservation. Little bit of Disney every day

So we got everything we wanted with the exception of a time on our H&V breakfast...but I got close...so it'll be fine!

Sunday Jan 4th - arrival day
we'll arrive around 2pm, take a nap at the hotel (unless Caden sleeps on the plane...which he may now cause his sleep is all screwed up...but I'm holding out hope that it will be back on track by Jan ) Anyway, so we'll let him nap at the hotel and then head over to Chef Mickeys for dinner at 5:35!!!! He has done well with every character/mascot we've seen recently so I'm thinking this will be a good experience. Then we'll head to MK for a few rides and a Wishes FP+ Since it'll be a late arrival I thought it would be a perfect reason to grab a Wishes FP+

Monday Jan 5th - Epcot day
We got a reservation at 6pm for Tepan Edo. DH really wants to try this one but I'm wavering between this and Via Napoli. But we'll probably stick to Tepan Edo.

Tuesday Jan 6th - Hollywood Studios day (I think this is the day I'm most looking forward to)
I really wanted a 10:45 at Hollywood and Vine so we could do breakfast and lunch in 1 meal but when I got online the site was down that morning. So I called in and was only able to get a 12:30p. :-( I checked again a few days later and managed to get a 10:15 which at least got us breakfast but it also was going to mess with our morning low crowd time (which at HS is kinda important). Today I checked and snagged a 10:25. Not MUCH better but a little better. I'll keep checking and maybe I'll get closer to 11 eventually. but if not, I'm happy with the 10:25.

Wednesday Jan 7th - Magic Kingdom full day
Dinner at whispering canyon cafe at 5:25pm. Really looking forward to this one. This was the restaurant on our "babymoon" that we really thought "we can't wait to bring Caden here!" and now we get to!!!

Thursday Jan 8th - DTD/AK day
Dinner at Boma at 5:45. This is another one we did on our "Babymoon" and immediately planned to bring Caden back. I looked at our babymoon plans and got the same ADR time cause after our meal last time we went out to see the animals and got to see a feeding. So I'm trying to hit that same feeding time again. *Fingers crossed*

Friday Jan 9th - Open day/Andrew's Birthday
Dinner at 'Ohana. So much hype...hoping it's as good as they say!

Saturday we go home so no ADR


Tomorrow Southwest flights open up. Fingers crossed that we get good prices and flight times. Our arrival day is already out and available...but as of right now it's a reasonable price in points, not cheap but reasonable. I'm hoping that the going home day will be really low if I grab flights right away tomorrow morning.

I'm aiming for the non stop flight on Jan 4th leaving STL at 10ish and arriving at 1:40 in orlando
and then hoping for a late non-stop on Saturday night

I'm still wavering on possibly adding a day and doing universal. Leaning toward no....it's gonna be $300 for us to go for 1 day. But I haven't TOTALLY vetoed that plan. Guess maybe we should discuss it tonight before I buy flights tomorrow. LOL

 

[AprilRenee]

Oh! One more thing, I'm in a Jan 2015 Disney fb group and someone on there is organizing a memory maker share. So for $17 I'm jumping in on that and we'll get to use photopass!!! I'm so excited! We've never ordered any pics or anything from photopass. I figure even if something happens, I'm only out $17 so it's very low risk

 

[STLMickeyMom]

yay!!! i'm so excited by all your updates! it all sounds awesome! especially that memory maker share! woohoo!!

 

[AprilRenee]

yay!!! i'm so excited by all your updates! it all sounds awesome! especially that memory maker share! woohoo!!

Me too!!! And memory maker is all digital downloads now so I don't have to wait for a CD or anything. I do have to wait til Feb 1st before I can do any edits or downloads cause everyone else in the share is going the last week of Jan. But it was worth it to me. I'm not big on the borders anyway so I'd probably just add some signatures and then download. I'll still be able to make my photobook in Jan. I'll just do screen shots of the photopass photos I want to use and then when I can download I'll replace them in my book before ordering it. (I got it ALLLLL planned out LOL)

 

[Dugette]

Good to see you back!

You sure have been busy, especially the last week! Wow!

Plans are looking good! How fun to be able to take Caden to a place you'd dreamed of taking him before he was born! Keep trying on the H&V - it seems that about anything will come open if you keep checking back at random for it, in my experience.

Hope you get the flights you want!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I am so excited for you guys:yay. Your trip will be here before you know it

Your ADRs look great! I think you will love 'Ohana! It's our favorite restaurant ever! It's hard to believe your trip is almost here, three years in the making and now less than 180! so exciting!

 

[AprilRenee]

Ok! Got our flights....well most of them.
They were much more expensive than I expected. I was thinking getting them on release day i'd be able to get "sale price" and that was not the case. Part of it is that miraculously Caden let me sleep til 8 for the first time in weeks so I got tickets 2 hrs after release and apparently that makes a difference

So we got all 3 of our tickets for the way TO Disney. Flying out at 10:30 and arriving at 1:40 so if Caden continues this napping early thing, we're gonna end up having extra park time! Yay! Otherwise, we'll get a nap in at the hotel before dinner.

On the way home, I only got 2 of the tickets cause that used the end of our points and I didn't want to pay cash for the last flight at that price. I'm holding out hope for a sale to come out (and I'm thinking it's likely with a flight in mid Jan) and if that comes I will get the points refunded and use those to buy our last ticket OR I will just buy it at the lower price if it doesn't make sense to use the points.

Makes me slightly nervous but worst case scenario i'll have to change flight times and leave disney an hour earlier. Not the end of the world. But if all works out the way I want, we'll be leaving Disney around 6:30pm giving us lots of morning park time!

So yay but it put a slight damper on the excitement of getting flights.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I'm glad you got your tickets. I still haven't done ours. I was waiting because I read somewhere that the best time to get tickets was 52 days before your flight. Trust me, that info is wrong! Live and learn, right?

 

[AprilRenee]

I'm glad you got your tickets. I still haven't done ours. I was waiting because I read somewhere that the best time to get tickets was 52 days before your flight. Trust me, that info is wrong! Live and learn, right?

Oh no! I've heard 3 months before and buy on a tuesday LOL

Southwest has a sale going right now for flights until Dec 14th or something. Just got an email about it. But no sales on Fri or Sun flights. Looked like Orlando started around $150. Not fabulous but better than the $173 they wanted for my flight

 

[AprilRenee]

So I've gone a little planning crazy. I think its just cause all the crazy business is over and I have a month before things get busy again and then it'll only be a few months til DISNEY WORLD!!!!

Today I ordered Caden's autograph book. I'm just ordered this book

Each page looks like this:


And the characters can sign their page!! All the reviews I've read said that it was great for character interactions cause they all love seeing the page about themselves. AND it's something we'd use and enjoy after the trip too.
I'm thinking we'll likely take it to staples and have them remove the binding and spiral bind it. We'll also add a few characters (like the disney jr H&V breakfast characters) cause they aren't in there. A DIS member made some additional pages for the missing characters and I've saved the ones I need to my computer.
I'm really excited for the book to come in cause I think we're gonna love it!

Anyway, so today's project is a book for Caden to prepare him for our trip. I saw someone made a visual schedule for their toddler and so I took that WAY beyond and made my kid a whole book! Overboard? Yes.... Fun for mommy? YEP!

Check it out!







I only put in the must-do rides and character meets so that there's no disappointment but I'm pretty stinking excited about this too!! I'm crazy! lol

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Love the idea of having them sign the book! That will such a good memory!! And LOVE the book for Caden! Overboard? At Disney? I'm sure that's not possible!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I love the book! I got Charlotte that same book for her birthday! I thought about making it her autograph book, I think it looks like a fun idea and not just get tossed aside when you get home.

I think your visual schedule for Caden is a great idea! I am totally filing that away for us some day.

Flight prices seem crazy high to me! Especially for the off season! I have heard that the "tricks" to get better prices don't really apply to southwest. They are considered a "budget" airline and their prices tend to be a little more steady.

 

[jc040404]

Caden has gotten so big!

Love the autograph book! I remember being behind someone with that book while in line to meet Genie. Weird to remember so much but I really thought it was such a cute idea.

Your schedule book is a super cute idea, too. I love all this planning stuff. Well, the flight stuff sounds stressful though. I hope you can catch a great deal.

Adding -
Are you planning to decorate your bands?? After all the awesome stuff you've made, I'd love to see what you come up with for them!

 

[Dugette]

Good luck with your flights!

Really cool books! Love the trip plan for Caden!

 

[AprilRenee]

Love the idea of having them sign the book! That will such a good memory!! And LOVE the book for Caden! Overboard? At Disney? I'm sure that's not possible!

LOL Ok good!!

I love the book! I got Charlotte that same book for her birthday! I thought about making it her autograph book, I think it looks like a fun idea and not just get tossed aside when you get home.

I think your visual schedule for Caden is a great idea! I am totally filing that away for us some day.

Flight prices seem crazy high to me! Especially for the off season! I have heard that the "tricks" to get better prices don't really apply to southwest. They are considered a "budget" airline and their prices tend to be a little more steady.

Yeah, they were higher than I was expecting. I was hoping for more like $107/$115 each way. $173 was much more than I expected. Hoping one of their sales will cover my dates as it gets closer.

Caden has gotten so big!

Love the autograph book! I remember being behind someone with that book while in line to meet Genie. Weird to remember so much but I really thought it was such a cute idea.

Your schedule book is a super cute idea, too. I love all this planning stuff. Well, the flight stuff sounds stressful though. I hope you can catch a great deal.

Adding -
Are you planning to decorate your bands?? After all the awesome stuff you've made, I'd love to see what you come up with for them!

Yes I totally am!! I'm thinking a Peter Pan or Rapunzel band for me...possibly copying the beauty and the beast stained glass band.
Caden will get a McQueen band (what else?? lol)
Andrew is getting a star wars band. Haven't decided for sure what character. Saw a really cool R2D2 one, but I've been saving pics of ones I like to get some inspiration. I'm really excited to do them!

Good luck with your flights!

Really cool books! Love the trip plan for Caden!

Thanks!

 

[AprilRenee]

Ok! Update time! Lots of different things so I'm gonna give them headings. LOL


FLIGHTS
The other day I saw someone say their flights had gone down so I went to check my dates and sure enough, my arrival flight had gone down by $20ish (1000ish points) so I quickly adjusted my booking and got 3000 points credited back. Woohoo!! With that added 3000 points I'm a little over halfway to having enough points to book the last flight I need (Andrew's flight home). I'm feeling quite hopeful that we will get enough points back with a sale. Also, Andrew will be building a high school show this fall and we'll be buying all the lumber on our CC (and getting reimbursed) so that should get us a good 3000-4000 points which will put us close to what we need.

SHIRTS
Ok so I've been seeing some cool DIY shirt tutorials recently and have totally gotten inspired. I had talked to Andrew about one of the ideas and he was totally on board and then the other day I asked if he was cool with multiple DIY shirts or just wanted to stick to the 1. He said I should totally do a few different shirts (how did I find this guy????) We also talked and planned our shirt themes for each park (I mean, seriously, is he real??)

So here comes our plan... :-D

Arrival day (Chef Mickeys and MK): Red, black, or gray Mickey shirts. We all own these already. Might put Caden's red suspenders on him too for dinner. They're just so cute!!



Epcot (day 2): Nemo day! I searched all over for cute Nemo shirts. Hot Topic has a cute girls one but nothing good for men ANYWHERE! So then I started googling in desperation and found a cool shirt idea. I adjusted it a little for my aesthetic and voila! custom shirt design!
We always tell Caden "Noggin!" and he bumps heads and goes "Dude!" so this shirt is very US!
Andrew and I will have blue shirts with orange letters and Caden will have orange shirt with white letters.




I'm gonna do those with this freezer paper tutorial and use soft fabric paint.
http://makezine.com/projects/freezer-paper-stencil/

Hollywood Studios (day 3 and H&V breakfast):
This day we'll wear shirts we own or buy...not 100% sure on what ones right now. Caden will wear one of his McQueen shirts, Andrew will wear Star Wars or his green alien toy story shirt and I will come up with a plan LOL. I'd love to find a toy story shirt for myself but I'm not sure yet. I will do my best to have them color coordinate cause I really like how our pics looked when we took my brothers and I planned colors for each day. (you should never travel with me. hahaha. I'm controlling!)

Magic Kingdom (day 4 OR possibly our going home day): THESE shirts that I'm going to make. I'm either going to do the same freezer paper stencil with soft fabric paint OR i'm considering using the same stencil and but doing a bleach spray over it. Maybe I'll try each on a goodwill shirt and see which I like better.


Andrew is Genie, Caden is McQueen, I'm Peter Pan.

On this day I'll also be bringing along Caden's peter pan costume from last halloween for meeting Peter Pan. And his halloween costume from this year (more info on that to come ). We will just put him in those costumes before getting in line for those characters (ala mom2rtk) haha

Animal Kingdom (day 5): Lion king theme!!


We already have Caden's shirt...our shirts may change based on what we find. We do also like this one for Andrew


Then on our last 2 days (open day and MK before going home) we will wear shirts we already own or find between now and then. I'll probably try and make sure they all at least look good together but I don't know if we'll do a theme beyond coordinating colors.

HALLOWEEN
For Halloween I really wanted to make a costume that he could use at Disney 3 months later. So I thought about his favorite Disney movies...
Cars...
HECK no! I'm not making a whole car box thing that my 2.5 yr old toddler would refuse to wear. Cars is out.

Tangled...hmmmm....

So Caden is gonna be Flynn Rider for halloween so he can wear his costume when he meets Rapunzel. Honestly, I think that Rapunzel FP might be more of a must do for us than even Anna and Elsa! But I'm SUPER excited about THAT photo op!! Haha!
I'm gonna use this person's tutorial for the vest and sachel and then use purchased shirt, pants, and boots. I'm really excited about it.



DISNEY PREP
So we've been watching lots of youtube videos of meet and greets, parades, and WDW shows. So far meeting Rapunzel is a hit, Disney Jr. show is a favorite, and we've been listening to the Nemo soundtrack in the car and today I showed him the Nemo show and he really liked it!! Yay!! He now even asks for "memo" when we get in the car Winning!!

I'm working on showing him some other disney movies too so he knows some characters. Tonight we watched Monsters inc. I'm not sure we'll be meeting those characters bahahahaha. I'm also a little nervous that he may have bad dreams tonight. Oops! The scare sequences were kinda scary, totally didn't remember how scary they were.

I'm pretty sure there are more things to talk about but I can't remember any of them LOL

So here are a few pics of caden for ya!



^ New bus that I used to bribe him to stay awake at walmart lol It was naptime and he was about ready to fall over in the car. Bad mommy moment lol