Going Down the Bayou, We Got the Whole Family...a January 2015 PTR! (UPDATED 5/27!)

[sunnysideup3]

HELLO DISBoards Friends!!!!!

We are back with another fun filled adventurous year leading up to our January 2015 Disney vacation!!! I have vowed to make this PTR turn into a real TR this time --one of my very few New Year’s resolutions! I’ve enjoyed reading other TRs in our year off from Disney and I can’t wait for us to make some new memories of our own.

Our last trip in December 2012 was wonderful, but we had some (relatively) unexpected plans come up. You can plan your Disney vacation down to the last morsel of every meal, but you can’t really plan on being 7 weeks pregnant during the vacation. SURPRISE!!! (He was supposed to be an “after the vacation” baby!) Because of that, two things happened:

1. I couldn’t ride the rides I was SOOO looking forward to: Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, Expedition Everest, etc.

2. I started to get really sick about 3 days into the vacation and didn’t get to eat most of the meals I’d been craving since our December 2011 trip! Surprisingly, Disney pizza was a saintly being and there was a lot of time spent relaxing at night, eating Disney pizza in our room, which wasn’t a bad thing!

So, as soon as we got home, I asked DH for a “do-over” trip...but this time, we’d be a family of 4!! I am so excited to introduce the newest edition of our brood to Disney and start making memories as a full family!


Who are we? It’s really been that long, huh…….


http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773468@N02/12660933855/
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Our family shortly after Sam was born!

General:

A family of 4 from Wisconsin, husband originally from Illinois, so a “mixed marriage” of a Packers and Bears fan. It’s insane, let me tell you. We love to travel and try to go on 1-2 family vacations a year, one with each set of grandparents. We’re lucky to have great parents who we like to vacation with yet their vacation styles are vastly different, so we get both ends of the spectrum. We’ll find out more about both families in a later update! Now, on to the specifics!​

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Me (Jillian):
I’m a 32 year old event planner for a University. I love Disney. I became obsessed after taking a trip with my in-laws in December 2009. I’m what you’d call a “late bloomer”. I’d been before in November 2001, but I don’t remember much except there were a lot of strollers, and it was really really busy because it was Thanksgiving week--my brother and I waited in a horrendous line for Space Mountain and it ended up breaking down before we even got on. EPIC FAIL. After our 2009 trip, we had the obligatory “we’d like to go to Disney with the grandkids, too” statement from my parents. We started planning feverishly (something we hadn’t done in 2009--we literally just showed up! AHH!!!) and had a magical trip with my parents. We (cough...cough…..I) decided we needed to go back again and planned a December 2012 trip. The rest is history!​

http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773468@N02/12661413043/


Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite MK Ride: TTA Peoplemover/Space Mountain
Favorite DHS Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite AK Ride: Expedition Everest
Favorite EPCOT Ride: Spaceship Earth
Favorite Character: Snow White, Mickey, Swedish Chef
Favorite Disney Movie: The Little Mermaid
Favorite Cartoon: Phineas and Ferb
Favorite Disney Food: Pooh’s Puffed French Toast
Favorite Disney Song: “Part of Your World” or “Strangers Like Me”


Nate:
39 year old owner of a gaming store in Chicago, is slowly (very slowly) but secretly becoming a Disney lover. I think I wear him down more than anything with my constant Disney talk, but he’s been a great sport about returning again. He likes to play board games, work on computers and go on drives around the state.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773468@N02/12661756424/

Favorite Park: DHS
Favorite MK Ride:Space Mountain
Favorite DHS Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite AK Ride: Expedition Everest
Favorite EPCOT Ride: Test Track
Favorite Character: Mr. Incredible
Favorite Cartoon: Steamboat Willie
Favorite Disney Movie: TRON
Favorite Disney Food: Raglan Road Bread Pudding
Favorite Disney Song: “Heigh Ho Heigh Ho”

Eli:
6 (7 at the time of our trip) year old wild and crazy kid. He LOVES Disney. He’s the one person I can have whole conversations relating to nothing but Disney about. He appreciates going on Disney trips and has made proposal booklets and speeches to both sets of grandparents, lobbying them to go. He’s a smart kid, he loves cartoons and has a stuffed Woody doll that is inseparable from him. He’s already stated he will be bringing him to college, just like Andy wanted to. He’s got a big, great heart and is so genuine and caring.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773468@N02/12661278395/

On the Disney Wonder!​

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
Favorite MK Ride: Splash Mountain and Carousel of Progress
Favorite DHS Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite AK Ride: Kilimanjaro Safari
Favorite EPCOT Ride: Spaceship Earth
Favorite Character: Woody, Mickey, Pluto
Favorite Cartoon: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Favorite Disney Movie: Toy Story
Favorite Disney Food: Mickey Ice Cream Bars
Favorite Disney Song: “It’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow”

Samuel (Sam):
Sam is our newest addition, the “Surprise! We’re pregnant at Disney World” baby. He was born in July 2013 and is a happy, giggly, squishy ball of love. He just went on his first vacation (which I’ll discuss in the next post) and was a dream baby on vacation. We are so excited to introduce him to the magic of Disney and have him be at that age where things start to seem really magical. He enjoyed meeting some Disney characters at an early age (FORESHADOWING!!!) and I think he will love this trip.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/78773468@N02/12661710934/

Favorite Disney Song: anything from Mary Poppins
Favorite Character: Cinderella (see picture above)



I’m excited to get to know everyone over the next year and hear any fun tips or tricks you’ve picked up recently. I can’t wait to tell you about our plans for this special vacation… a lot of first time things for us, and some special travel companions along for the ride again!

Thanks for tuning in and I can’t wait to share this with you!​

 

[sunnysideup3]

Chapter Links:

1. Family Intros
2.Steamboat Jilly

 

[momabaarjo]

Following along...we both have a long time before our trip and it always goes faster waiting with others!

 

[sunnysideup3]

Whew….nothing like an almost 4 MONTH hiatus. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller: ”Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” SO much has changed in that time away, mainly our entire trip structure!! This TR title might need some updating, because instead of our original plan of a 5 day trip and 3 night cruise, we’ll be in Disney for 9 days/8 nights. I’m so excited about this. While I wanted to return to DCL, there were a couple detractors.

1) Cost. Between the WDW portion and the cruise, I was worried about being able to pay for it all. Staying at WDW the whole time will save us a significant amount. Now, we’re just waiting on a discount…. c’mon FREE DINING!

2) Toddlers who toddle…..and toddle. Sam is EVERYWHERE. I know he would be safe on a boat, but MAN… I wouldn’t be able to enjoy myself with him wanting to be in everything, climb on everything and do whatever his brother does. I know he’d want to go in the pool with Eli and he would be in swim diapers and not be able to (a big no-no on cruise ships we found out). By 18 months he’ll be aware that he can’t do what his brother (who is his big buddy) can do.

So, that’s what happened while I was away, but back to the PTR at hand and what made us want to go back!!

In September 2013, Eli put together a proposal for his grandparents to go to Disney World again. They are just not Disney World people and it broke my heart to see him put all that work into a speech and presentation booklet and have them barely acknowledge it. But a couple weeks later my FIL emailed me with an idea, why not a Disney Cruise. We happily agreed and were booked on a 5 night Western Caribbean cruise out of Miami on the Disney Wonder.
Cut to January 2014…. we had a BLAST! We loved it! We’d met up some great people via the DISboards and made a FB group and we participated in a FE, which was a great experience with a small, but enthusiastic group!!

Here are some pictures of our great journey!!!

Ready for the journey!


Our first Meet and Greet with Goofy himself!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/khR2vH]

Relaxing on deck!


With the Golden Mickey:


Winning the heart of Rapunzel:


At port in Cozumel:


My favorite Pirates:


Chip and Dale Pirates!



We were so blessed with this trip and it made us miss the world even more!! So, we figured out what would work for us again and booked the cruise (which we have since cancelled) for my parents and us. We hope to go now in the future, maybe in a couple years!

Stay tuned for more details about our newly extended 2015 trip!!
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