Going Down the Bayou for Baby's First Trip Aug 26th to Sept 3rd PTR

[nadira36]

Hi there Was going to respond to you over on the August 2014 page since we both arrive the 26th, but then I noticed you had a PTR! Love it so far by the way

First, congrats on finding your dream home and best of luck selling your current house! We moved almost 18 months ago and it's been great. Lots of work but worth it. Second, I hope you and baby Brom are healthy or well on your way there (FWIW, I did know where you got his name as soon as you mentioned it! One of DS8's favorite Disney movies).

Reading your PTR is reminding me I need to finish making our ADR's! Usually I'm more on top of these things, but we're trying to do a more laid-back trip this time so not planning as many TS meals. As far as your ADR's at new-to-you restaurants, we ate at Boatwright's a couple trips ago (May 2013 I believe) and loved it. We've also eaten dinner at BOG 4x and enjoyed every meal. It's been DS8's #1 request ever since the first time we ate there lol. I hope your adorable princesses enjoy it, too!

96 days to go, right??

Thanks so much for stopping by! Wishing you extra pixie dust: on your trip b/c you knew where his name's from.

We recently saw the census report of all baby names in our area for 2013 - and there was another Brom this year. I feel the need to meet that family.

We are so excited about this move, but also majorly stressed out trying to keep the house clean But hopefully it's all over soon. Our realtor called last evening and said someone's inquiring about what types of offers we'll accept. Hopefully that means we'll actually get a decent offer soon. I'm so ready to be moved and living life vs in limbo here.

And good news! Brom's lump is just lymph drainage! Not cancer so we can breath easy now! Best news ever!

We tried the laid back approach last trip, thinking QS would make things easier/faster/more flexible. But because of our dietary issues, most QS restaurants take just as long as TS. So we opt for TS most of the time. Besides, I love Disney Dining and don't think I could plan a trip without hours spent rearranging my ADRs. It's half the fun.

 

[ariane37]

Excellent about Baby Brom!! And I hope you've been resting as much as possible, as per Dr.'s orders

Have you had any offers on the house? Ugh, keeping it clean for showings is the worst! Making beds and straightening the bathrooms/kitchen/bedrooms EVERY DAY before I went out got to be too much. I jumped for joy when it was finally over!

I agree making ADR's is a large part of the fun in planning Disney trips, and I'm really missing it this time. However, Aug. will be both DS's 9th trip to WDW and our 4th in less than 2 years, and all they ever ask for is to slow down the pace (and more pool time lol). I tried REALLY hard to slow down last Feb., but failed. So I want to try to keep this trip kind of do-what-we-feel-like fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants and not have so much of a plan......maybe just a rough outline Also, DH wants to do Kennedy Space Center this trip, and I've recently become aware of an NBA restaurant/store at Universal CityWalk that I think we're going to go to, as both boys are very into basketball. This will be our first time venturing off Disney property since 2007, another concession I'm making to keep all the boys happy! Therefore I have to give up a bit of the planning this time

 

[nadira36]

Excellent about Baby Brom!! And I hope you've been resting as much as possible, as per Dr.'s orders

Have you had any offers on the house? Ugh, keeping it clean for showings is the worst! Making beds and straightening the bathrooms/kitchen/bedrooms EVERY DAY before I went out got to be too much. I jumped for joy when it was finally over!

I agree making ADR's is a large part of the fun in planning Disney trips, and I'm really missing it this time. However, Aug. will be both DS's 9th trip to WDW and our 4th in less than 2 years, and all they ever ask for is to slow down the pace (and more pool time lol). I tried REALLY hard to slow down last Feb., but failed. So I want to try to keep this trip kind of do-what-we-feel-like fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants and not have so much of a plan......maybe just a rough outline Also, DH wants to do Kennedy Space Center this trip, and I've recently become aware of an NBA restaurant/store at Universal CityWalk that I think we're going to go to, as both boys are very into basketball. This will be our first time venturing off Disney property since 2007, another concession I'm making to keep all the boys happy! Therefore I have to give up a bit of the planning this time

Well, resting's easier said than done. But I was for a while, now we're busy packing, and cleaning, and entertaining children without toys.

Last night Ella had a friend over for her first ever sleep over - this friend stayed here until 2PM today - relaxing wasn't quite the word I'd have for it

We had one offer - but it was 65k less than our original asking price. We're already priced under value - though a property a blok from us, almost identical homes sold for a lot less than we're asking - the difference? Their home needed to be gutted b/c the previous family destroyed the inside and yard. So we're still sitting. Just had someone come in to do a massive clean for me, and we're rearranging furniture, moved a lot of our stuff out of the house. Now I'm just trying to keep my children occupied with almost no stuff.

For our trip, we plan to leave the parks by about 3 each day, go for a swim, relax, enjoy the slower pace. We did this last time and it was great! But we really enjoy our TS meals so won't give those up. Though we are off-setting with a few QS meals that are easy for our diet.

I suspect our first off-property trip won't be until 2018 for my next HS reunion - head to Tampa as well as a few other touristy type place for my family to see where I grew up. But until we're down a few carseats, I don't want to worry about hauling them all over the place.

 

[ariane37]

Yes, it gets so much easier with no carseats or diapers lol! But sometimes I do miss it......................and funny you mention sleepovers! I hope Ella enjoyed hers DS8 has slept over 2 good friends houses a # of times the last 2 years with no problems, but he knew the parents very well beforehand. He was just invited to a sleepover bday party next week for a boy he's known in school for 2 years. He knows the mom, and we've had playdates here and there. But, party is at the dads house where he's never been, so he's going but won't sleep over. It's a rite of passage, isn't it?

Just realized you're going to MNNSHP on your birthday, that's awesome We're going on the 1st also, it will be our 3rd time. It's definitely my favorite thing about WDW

And also........has Agatha grown that 1.5 inches for RnRc??

 

[nadira36]

I'm so excited about my birthday this year! And we finally decided on costumes! (I think lol)

Ryan's going as Peter Pan, I'll be Wendy, and Brom will be Michael. All fairly easy to accomplish with so many other things going on - and they shouldn't take up too much suitcase space! The girls will be and - I'd love to do a whole family theme, but they have their own ideas.

This'll be our 3rd MNSSHP also - we've been to MVMCP once as well, have you? But we really love halloween so much more. We're so excited to share it with our friends this year. They're going to the PL as a family. I'm getting so excited planning it all and helping our friends plan!

Good news, Cordelia passed 40 in and is super excited about it! Agatha is devastated that as of this morning, she STILL isn't tall enough! Poor girl. And she's my coaster loving' sweetheart. Ella might ride it with me, but I'm not sure she'd enjoy it. Agatha will love it - if she ever grows!

Our house stuff's been consuming all my time and energy for the past two weeks, it's been so tough to even think of anything else. But I think we're at a point where we'll have a bit of a respite while there's very little else to do until we actually sell. So now, I can start planning again! pixie dust:

 

[ariane37]

I'm so excited about my birthday this year! And we finally decided on costumes! (I think lol)

Ryan's going as Peter Pan, I'll be Wendy, and Brom will be Michael. All fairly easy to accomplish with so many other things going on - and they shouldn't take up too much suitcase space! The girls will be and - I'd love to do a whole family theme, but they have their own ideas.

This'll be our 3rd MNSSHP also - we've been to MVMCP once as well, have you? But we really love halloween so much more. We're so excited to share it with our friends this year. They're going to the PL as a family. I'm getting so excited planning it all and helping our friends plan!

Good news, Cordelia passed 40 in and is super excited about it! Agatha is devastated that as of this morning, she STILL isn't tall enough! Poor girl. And she's my coaster loving' sweetheart. Ella might ride it with me, but I'm not sure she'd enjoy it. Agatha will love it - if she ever grows!

Our house stuff's been consuming all my time and energy for the past two weeks, it's been so tough to even think of anything else. But I think we're at a point where we'll have a bit of a respite while there's very little else to do until we actually sell. So now, I can start planning again! pixie dust:

Hello! Hope you all enjoyed the weekend We had a super nice one here in NY: no rain, high 80's yesterday and actually hit 90 today! We got some work done outside and the boys are currently enjoying the pool before settling in for the night.

Poor Agatha! I do hope she hits a growth spurt between now and August.........RnRC is truly such a fantastic ride and one of my faves, too! My DS12 (Ricky) absolutely loves it but I have yet to convince DS8 (Chris) to try it out. I'm patiently waiting for the day all 4 of us can ride together

We have done MVMCP twice. Fun, but we definitely prefer MNSSHP. Christmas is my favorite holiday but the Halloween party blows away the Xmas party in our opinion. I believe the Boo To You parade is the best and you can't beat the whole park vibe-my kind of thing I wish the boys would dress up this time. Ricky says he's too old and Chris tends to follow him. I know they'll both dress up in some form for Halloween. I'm considering Cruella De Ville minus the fur coat due to the heat (and it would have to be faux for me to wear it anyway) but I may save it for next year as we're planning on doing an Oct. party in 2015. Your costumes sound great - PP is also one of my favorites! At the very least I'll be getting us some type of semi-matching shirts for the party which my boys will wear whether they like it or not, because they love me

 

[nadira36]

I really am having a tough time deciding on costumes! Mostly b/c I'd love to make them, but my sewing stuffs all packed and buying what I want, costs more than I want to spend! (Who knew a 'Wendy' Nightgown would cost $600!!!?). But I still have a couple weeks left to decide and still have time for shipping if need be.

I'm so happy that everyone in our family, possibly the whole party, will be dressing up! I love the costumes at the party and love to participate too.

Moving sucks. This entire process is so stressful to me. So I decided to treat us all to something at Disney. I'm thinking I'll buy a dress for the girls at the BBB/PL - originally we'd told the big girls,w e'd pay for the T-shirt and tote package, but if they wanted to upgrade from there, they'd have to pay that themselves. But I think we'll pay for them to get a dress as a reward for their patience wight eh whole moving thing. It's been a month with almost no toys and no craft supplies. It's wearing thin.

Ryan and I are now considering upgrading to a split stay but we can't decide between AKV in a 1bdrm savannah view or GF club level. Either one would be lovely - I just can't decide!

At AKV we prefer Jambo, but if we want a savannah view, then we need to stay at Kidani. We've never stayed at the GF before - and club level would be nice.

I'm crunching numbers tonight to see if one of them makes more sense than the other. Otherwise, I don't know what I'll do!

decisions, decisions, decisions!

In other news - we purchased our MNSSHP tickets! It makes everything just a little bit more real!

 

[nadira36]

Times, they are a changing!


Wahooooo!!!! Just changed my reservation - split stay POR and AKV Jambo House 1bdrm Savannah view!!

I get to wake up to giraffes on my birthday!




I'm so excited!


Last night I couldn't get the room we wanted for the price I wanted, but when I checked this AM, it was there! It made the decision so much easier!

I've now added a Boma breakfast ADR as well, b/c we love that place. A CM named Albert, who calls himself "Prince Albert" for our girls has been there every time we've dined at Boma - I wonder if he'll be there again? He's always so friendly and has our girls on top of the world for the rest of the day.

I'm so excited!!! (In case you couldn't tell!!)

 

[ariane37]

Hi there! Only 65 days to go Are you all set to make your Fastpasses? I didn't see anything in your other posts about them-is this your first trip since legacy FP is gone?

Have you had any more movie nights? I love the pictures you posted of your first one

 

[nadira36]

I've been trying to find time to make my FP+ plans. But that's something completely lacking in my life right now. You know what I need, more cowbell! I mean Disney.

AK - we have 2 days so will be able to get everything done we'd like to do. The first day, in an effort to not terrify our children, we'll wait to go on Dinosaur. Instead we'll stick to shows and water.

27th: We'll hit KS first thing at the EMH RD so won' get a FP+ for that. Instead we'll get one for Kali, FotLK, and Nemo - we LOVE Nemo! We've had the soundtrack for 7 years and listen to it ALL the time. I seriously love those songs so much! We've been playing them for Brom so he'll also love the show. (Indoctrinate while young, I always say)

28th is MK (Morning EMH) - Buzz, BTMR, and 7DMT make the cut. We'll spend the first couple hours of the day in Fantasy/New Fantasy land before heading to Buzz. Then Brom should fall asleep about that time and the girls and I can ride BTMR while Ryan stays with Brom. From there we'll see what the day has to bring.

Maybe I should double check my ADR times before making my FP+ plans? Nah, that'd be silly!

29th: EP I think we're leaning toward TT, M:S and Nemo. Hoping we'll get a chance to still hit everything else we want. Worst case, we come back after dinner and finish up.

30th - HS (Morning EMH) - Agatha now has 1/4 in left to grow before she's tall enough for RnR - I think she can do it!! FP+ for TSMM, ST, and VotLM (does anyone else think Voldemort when looking at that abbreviation? No, hmm must just be me?) I think we should be able to ride TSMM and ST twice this way, and I can dash over to ride RnR after that while there's still low wait times Before meeting up to ride ST with everyone else. Then Muppets, shows, and leave the park by 3 at the latest - I doubt we'll watch B&tB. But we'll survive.

31st - back to AK - Dinosaur, EE, and Kali again. Actually I think my kiddos just want to ride Kali and play ing the bone yard. But I'll force them to enjoy some other attractions as well.

1st - Hoping for E&A today, HM - what better day than the MNSSHP day! And likely Winnie the Pooh. I'm finding FP+ really tough b/c our family is cautiously walking the high wire between little and big kid land. All 3 girls have hit the 40 in mark, but they still love the little kid rides deeply. How do you accommodate that?

2nd - another day at MK - It's such a toss up on how to spend our day - should we do FP+s for the family rides, or the mountains? We can always change them once we see what everyone feels like doing again. I really dislike splitting up though...it never ends well! Fights, yelling, tears. Splitting up is NOT recommended! Okay - family rides it is. So that leaves us with Buzz - our girls' favourite ride is a must on the last day.

I think we've narrowed it down to 7DMT, Buzz, and ETWB


Please tell me someone else finds making these selections ridiculously stressful! I have such a tough time narrowing it down - I want to ride them ALL! Why make me choose? lol Also I have no idea what our day will bring, but I'd have a really tough time giving up a FP for 7DMT just because someone needs to eat, or sleep, or pee...Oh gawd! FP+ has turned me into horrible mother!!!


What're your FP+ plans? Are there any tough decisions? a ride you hope to catch that you're not FP+ing?

 

[nadira36]

No more parties yet, but with 3 birthdays in the next 60 days I have plenty to plan. I just have to decide on a theme. I was thinking Ryan would love a Stitch birthday. Agatha, well, she wants pokemon. I love her, so I'll let her have a non-Disney party. I'm still undecided for Brom. A 1st birthday is HUGE, but I don't know what theme to go with. I'm thinking maybe planes, or the Fab 5. I just can't decide.

Speaking of not being able to decide. I switched a pile of ADRs. I'm shocked, but I was able to still get everything I wanted - with lots of options.

On the 1st we now have a late 'Ohana breakfast, the 2nd is a late Chef Mickey - both for just our family, and the 3rd is an early Boma with D.D. and her family as well. Then on the 28th I Added my Cousin and her family to our Boatwright ADR. But it looks like I could have had our pick for most places and times. Strange, but I like it!

And more good news - D.D. upgraded her vacation as well - and now we're both staying at AKV Savanah view for the second portion of our trip. She's gonna LVOE it!

I'm getting more and more excited every day. I told Ryan we're almost at 60 days, he didn't believe me, but then he got all excited; pulling out park maps, and helping with FP+ choices and trying to plan our days. Then we realized it was 2AM and we had to get up soon. Just one more way we train for our trip

 

[Heidi K]

Then we realized it was 2AM and we had to get up soon. Just one more way we train for our trip

This made me laugh! Maybe that's how I should have viewed my experience of staying up until 1:45 am completing FP selections!

 

[nadira36]

This made me laugh! Maybe that's how I should have viewed my experience of staying up until 1:45 am completing FP selections!

Any decision that results in too little sleep, too much sun, too little sunscreen, any sort of over doing it, it's ALL training, and absolutely necessary

 

[ariane37]

60 days How did your FP selection go? Did mine around 8:00 this morning, got everything I wanted although to be honest, I wasn't real picky about times (and I wasn't trying for the elusive A&E ). I scheduled them all for mid-morning and hope to schedule a 4th before we leave for an afternoon break, to be used when we return after dinner. We'll see how it goes................hope your FP process was flawless

Yay Pokémon! We've had 2 of those birthdays over the years. Between moving and planning 3 bdays, the next 60 days should fly by for you!

 

[nadira36]

60 days How did your FP selection go? Did mine around 8:00 this morning, got everything I wanted although to be honest, I wasn't real picky about times (and I wasn't trying for the elusive A&E ). I scheduled them all for mid-morning and hope to schedule a 4th before we leave for an afternoon break, to be used when we return after dinner. We'll see how it goes................hope your FP process was flawless

Yay Pokémon! We've had 2 of those birthdays over the years. Between moving and planning 3 bdays, the next 60 days should fly by for you!

Flying by is good. If only it flew by while also giving me more time to do everything lol

It's great that you got your selections and without staying up late! D.D, Ryan, and I were up until late trying to get everything figured out. But I think we have a solid plan now. Even if it's not perfect, everyone will be happy with the way our days will look.

We have selections for most of the rides we want, the exception being RnR for me - with an EMH morning, I hope to get on it with minimal wait. And Splash Mountain for Agatha - We'll see if she gets on that one or not. With only so many FP+ selections available some rides are more important than others.

But we got E&A as well as the 7DMT so we'll get a couple chances each to ride that one. And the girls get to meet E&A on the party day so they'll be all dressed up also. I can hardly wait!

Now I just have to double check everything to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. For instance a birthday cake. Should I order a cake or not? I LOVE cake. A LOT. but I don't really NEED cake... But it would be nice... Disney vacations always bring out the most difficult decisions of all time! #DisneyWorldProblems

 

[nadira36]

I'm so excited about all the "Frozen" events and merchandise that've been announced for WDW this year! We've been checking out the Disney Parks Blog and all the pics for the past few days and aren't sure whether to be or that Disney has so effectively spent all our money before we've even arrived!


I've decided to go as Anna, in her coronation dress, for MNSSHP. I'm sure there'll be hundreds of others, but I love Anna and Frozen so really can't resist! Brom's going as a young Kristoff (he'll have a plush Sven with him), and Ryan's going as Prince Hans. Cordelia wants to be Elsa, and then we'll have a whole pile of Zarinas (The Pirate Fairy). Now all I have to do is make my dress, and figure out what to do about the other costumes, the girls are getting dresses while we're there. But, so far, Disney has been horrible for finding costumes for little ones, so we won't count on finding something for Brom there.

We considered booking the "Frozen Summer Fun" package, but decided it wasn't worth the cost considering we're GF so wouldn't be able to enjoy the dessert party to the fullest. Plus we don't think what amounts to 3 FPs are worth how much it'd come to for our family. Instead, we've decided for a much lower cost, we're going to order a cake from the cake hotline. Here are some of the ones we've had in the past:







These GF cakes were wonderful, but I couldn't think of a good enough reason to order one, until now.

Now the only thing left to do is switch our HS and EP days around. I have our meals switched already, but for some reason MDE says I'm outside my window and won't let me touch my FP+ options. So currently we're eating at HS and playing at EP and vice versa. Hopefully that little glitch will get out of there soon so I can fix everything.

 

[ariane37]

Gotta love those MDE glitches I do hope it gets sorted out asap. I've been reading some scary threads lately about FP's disappearing, people not being let into parks b/c they get a blue Mickey head while the rest of their party gets a green Mickey head, etc. Making me a bit nervous Hoping pixie dust follows us (and you!) on our trips and everything is "magical"!!!

On another note those cakes look fantastic! Did they taste as good as they look? Just curious, what's making you switch your EP and HS days?

I think the Frozen stuff sounds neat. We aren't as into it here since I'm the only "princess" in the house , but we're going to try and catch some of the events-definitely the fireworks.

Speaking of fireworks I was just going to say I hope you had a nice 4th, then remembered you're Canadian

 

[nadira36]

Disney's practically my second home, I'll take a happy 4th. Though happy Canada day works too.

Glitches seem to have worked themselves out. We were able to change the ones we wanted, and the rest look right too. I've heard some pretty miserable stories too, but I'm hoping that the summer rush will iron everything out before we get there. I wish nothing but magical vacations to everyone I know!

We switched park days b/c the 30th is the day we meet up with Mr & Mrs. T, so half day at most in the park. Originally HS was the best park to skip, but the new Frozen stuff makes us want a bit more time. EP happens to be the next lowest park for us right now. It means we won't even get to the WS this trip, but that's more for the grown-ups anyhow. I did manage to snag a pre-park open ADR at Akershus though!

The cakes were great! Though I will say I like my gluten-free chocolate cake better, but they can decorate so much better than I can so it balances out in their favour.

 

[nadira36]

I can tell this is gonna be a great trip because I'm already tearing up over the memories were going to make.

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

Following.
Our youngest will have his first trip to the parks in March.