Forget the Land kids, we’re going to the World.

[Familycircus]

In my mind there doesn’t seem to be enough time there. Mom says “Let’s come back a day later.” I would miss another day of work and I don’t have much more vacation time. Kids would miss another day of school and I don’t want the kids missing more than the two days. My wife works 2hrs in the mornings for the before school program at the elementary school and she would miss another morning. What to do?
I suggest, “How about we drive straight thru?” Wife = no response. Mom = “There are three of us and we could take shifts driving.” Then it’s settled, 24 hrs of straight driving to get to the World. Well this gives us almost another whole Disney day. That would save us hotel costs on the way down and we’d spend 4 nights offsite. The cost of five days in the parks isn’t much more than four.
We would leave Thurs when my wife gets home from work at 9am, pick mom up and be on the road by 10am.

Couple of drawbacks to this alteration; driving thru Chicago at 5pm rush hour, I have driven in Chicago’s rush hour and rush hours in other cities like San Francisco, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, but to deliberately plan it this way is another thing. The things I’m starting to do for that mouse. The second would be, arriving late Fri morning and the adults having to prop their eyelids open for the whole rest of the day while the kids will be rested and ready to go go go.

Post-its on the posterboard are rearranged.
This will be the first of many more rearrangements.

 

[Familycircus]

We are 6 months out and at this point the eating area of our kitchen looks like a war room, two laptops on the table, phones, printer, and the posterboard hanging on the hutch.

“Hey mom, we are only parkhopping two days and its between the same two parks.” Then comes the “What if we…” “What if we switch those things to the same parks on those days?” With the money we save not having parkhoppers, we could stay at POP another night instead of offsite . Alright that’s final and we book our 3 nights at POP.

180 days is coming fast to book the ADRs. Then , what do you mean we have to wait? What do you mean new reservation system? Install it after we’re there. What do you mean you don’t know when we can call for ADRs? Thank you, but I’m not having a very magical day . Now do you realize that the first day they open that thing up, the world is going to be calling the World. It’s going to be me against the world. I’m prepared to get my ADRs. I have my kitchen war room with phones, computers and our posterboard.

 

[Familycircus]

You remember that somewhat of an extra day we worked in by driving straight thru and will arrive like zombies, well, mom wants to spend time at DTD. I’m not much into that. I want my kids into the parks and more ADRs. Maybe I am getting crazy for this mouse.

“What if we…”. This just keeps going on and on you will find.
Well, we need to maximize the magic.

“What if we leave late afternoon the day before?”
) I would only have to take a ½ day off work.
) We can wait until the kids get off the school bus so they wouldn’t miss any more school.
) My wife would miss Thur morning work.
) We would be driving thru Chicago at midnight instead of rush hour.
) We would get there early evening. Mom could do DTD.
) We wouldn’t have to stay awake for the day once we get there.

Works for me. Rearrange the Post-its.

Now we have; drive straight thru over night and all day, four nights offsite, still our same three nights at POP, 6 day tickets not much more than 5 day, and still 3 nights returning home. I’m not messing with the return trip, we’ll need a slower pace back. This is madness and that mouse keeps reaching into my wallet.

 

[Familycircus]

My daughter thinks she’s getting a little too old for Princesses, but she may change her mind once we are there. We will not be able to afford CRT, and if the fore mentioned is the case, then I would rather not spend the money. Akershus it is. “Boys, do you want to eat with the princesses?” “No way!” Since she gets a special meal what do the boys get? I think this is where Disney drops the ball. Well we keep thinking and finally find the pirate cruise for the boys. Great, I’ll drop the boys at the pirate cruise and take the monorail back and forth to Epcot. No problem.

Not sure how to book the pirate cruise, so we call the sponsoring hotel. “Sorry you need to call Disney dining”. Hey maybe they can still book the pirate cruise without the new ADR system?
No such luck . We did learn that Disney dining was confused on the days so we called the sponsoring hotel back. Well the days its offered wasn’t what we had on our posterboard.
The only day we can do it is Wed . That’s not our Epcot day when we want my daughter to be at Akershus, its our MK day. I know, “I’ll take the boys and grab a cs bite and ride rides in Epcot. It’ll be guy time.” (that was the original plan before we discovered the pirate cruise). “What if we do the pirate cruise Wed and I’ll drop the boys off and ride the monorail back and forth to MK like I had planned to do to Epcot.” This should work.
Rearrange the Post-its.

 

[bumbershoot]

So you're writing your trip report already? I'll have to go find that!

In the meantime, this sounds like fun, and I absolutely LOVE the posterboard/post-it idea for planning!

 

[Familycircus]

So you're writing your trip report already? I'll have to go find that!

I'm working on the trip report, putting on the finishing touches. Coming Soon.

 

[Familycircus]

In the meantime, this sounds like fun, and I absolutely LOVE the posterboard/post-it idea for planning!

I'll take a picture of the posterboard and try and include it on here.

 

[Familycircus]

Mom says, “Why do you want to book CP for breakfast?” I reminded her what a good time we had when we ate there at Disneyland. Mom says, “But I don’t think the kids are interested in Pooh and friends.” But I want to eat bacon in front of Piglet. “Oh this is for you, lets find another character breakfast”. Mom says “GF has Mary Poppins and Alice”. Poor Mary Poppins, she doesn’t have a ride. She’s just sort of here and there. We ask my daughter if she likes Alice and she said “Yes”. We had been to the Disney Store at the Mall of America the other day and she really liked Alice’s dress. Maybe she is done with the princesses. I ask my younger son if he wants to eat with Alice in Wonderland. He says “Who”. OK kid, go downstairs and start watching those videos, you have a lot of boning up to do on the characters. Changing that breakfast should work. That’s our MK day and we can just take the monorail to the park.

Write up a new Post-it.

I mention, “The campfire at Ft Wilderness would be fun for the kids”. Mom, “Where would we fit that in?” After studying the posterboard for a time, I figured it out. Let’s move IllumiNations to the first day we are in Epcot since we would be there later and wanted to eat dinner somewhere in WS. Our second Epcot day, we’ll leave early and take the monorail,
a boat, and a bus to the campfire. We’ll make it our dinner also.

OK.

Rearrange the Post-its.

 

[Familycircus]

I'll get this Pre-trip report finished yet.


We hadn’t booked the offsite hotel yet and it’s a good thing since we keep adding nights. I keep checking to make sure the rooms are available for that same price. Upon checking one afternoon I read that the 15% discount promotion ends that day . This will be for the first three nights we are in Florida. The fourth offsite night will be our last night and booked separately. So 15% on 3 nights makes a difference for us. That would be a meal. I call mom and she says she’s coming over after dinner and we’ll book it. This is really setting it in stone for us because it has to be paid in full and no refund to get the internet rate + discount. Mom stops by with more books, pages she’s printed, and notebooks she’s been writing in. We spend at least an hour going over everything. OK, I think we have everything straight. Let’s book the hotel. I type in the website and

 

[Familycircus]

…… nothing. That’s right, nothing. No internet connection. Try the other laptop. Nothing. Oh no the internet light on the router isn’t lit. The dsl light was, but not the internet light. No fear, our kitchen war room is equipped with a second router. I’m telling you, I’m prepared. Hooked up second router and no internet light lit, dsl yes, but internet no.
I’m in a panic. Tried two laptops and two routers. It’s not me its got to be the phone line.

Your question would also be the wife’s first question. The answer: Yes I did pay the phone bill.

I have a dial tone so I call tech support, of course in India. He’s got me pulling phones off the wall, laying under my bed unplugging dsl filters, switching phones, switching cords, running up and down stairs. He finally said “Take the phone cord from the wall to the router and reverse it.” (plug the router end into the wall and the wall end into the router).

I thought to myself how would that make a difference and at this point he was on my last nerve and I was about 5 seconds away from hanging up and driving 40 miles roundtrip to use my mom’s computer.

By this time, I had so many cords tangled up on the kitchen floor, it was like putting up Christmas lights. I started tracing cords to eliminate and get them out of the way.

Guess what I found? The war room has been breached!