Hallowishes do come true! PTR 10/30-11/8 adding wizards?!?

[ammag]

Hello! So this is my first trip report I am sure I will mess something uo so bear with me. I also have trouble typing and editing is hard in the new format here on my ipad so I apologize for typos! More on that later, here is my family.
My family is made uo of me, Amanda, my husband Rich and our kids Madeleine and Benjamin. We live in Queens, NY. This trip is our third as a family and our longest and most exciting! I am 38, my husband is 40 and our kids are 8 and almost 4.


That photo was for our last trip! So our very first trip was in 2012, we planned for almost a. Year and stayed off property at the marriot grande vista resort as a timeshare gift from my inlaws. We used points to buy the tickets and even flew first class on our way down! That was all that was available. I was overall entirely magical and wonderful. We were NOT in love with WDW at first. Actually when I got into planning I heard of the people that go every year, and that wow that sounds like too much for me! Then I heard about disney podcasts and thought that was a bit odd too, then we went. It was our last day and we walked out of the magic kingdom gates to go to the airport and I broke down crying. I was utterly heartbroken to leave and completely surprised myself!!! Needless to say I've spent many hours reading, researching, and listening to several podcasts weekly! Complete convert.

The next year my inlaws were flying us to Miami for a family party so we rented a cheap car and ended uo adding three days onto our trip to go up to disney! My mom flew down from maine and we had a lovely but too short stay. We surprised the kids which was super fun! We all cried, mostly because the surprise came after we spent the day with my husband's grandma and we knew she would pass away before we saw her again sadly that was correct. RIP Grandma Sophie.

My son kissed daisy and Snow White

So I am pretty much always planning a trip in my mind, you all know what I mean!!! We decided we would wait until fall 2016 and plan a big two week stay. But then we had the worst year of our lives....
So our landlord made us move a year before we were ready which was extremely stressful and expensive. We got through that and found an apartment we love (hated the last one) and the weekend of our move my husband had a breakdown. He told me he was suicidal and needed help.

So we embarked on months of hell trying to get him proper help near his job, that our insurance covered. Almost NO therapists in nYi take any insurance we struggled so badly. This explained how removed he had become and his mood swings....then one day I got a call form a bill collector. Long story short my husband had been racking up 40k in credit card debt he had hidden from me. Well let me tell you this nearly ended our marriage. However I knew he needed help and we spent our 9th wedding anniversary in a psych ER to keep him alive.

I ende duo going to his parents for help because I couldn't save him myself and that was the first priority. They started paying for his doctor and with medication and therapy the change was amazing. He was the man I fell in love with again! We worked through all of our financial issues and worked hard on our marriage too. Apparently they call this financial infidelity! And it feels awful.

Well we knew our vacation would be cancelled. Things were so improved that in January I booked a short trip in May for my daughters birthday! Five days. I made the reservation and just cried,,we needed this so badly.

Then he was fired from his job.



During his severe depression he made mistakes at work and they were discovered. However, he got another, better job in a month! HS old boss was abusive and the job was awful..he is now treated well and does much more interesting work! He is an attorney. And you know what's funny? He recently received an award for his work..On the old case he was fired for!!!

Everything ended up working out but we left the May trip cancelled and decided to move it to the fall so we could plan more and make sure everything and everyone was stable! He continues his recovery and our finances are now fixed. If you know someone who suffers form depression, treat them with understanding! It was Robin Williams suicide that made him go to me and tell me he needs help. It's a real illness and can often be chemical like my husband.

So our trip is set and paid for, we are happy and working together to help each other grow. I am actually disabled from an illness but I don't need to get into that now! My parents have also been in the middle of an awful divorce this year and that's wrapping up too, it was disney that helped me get through this awful year and I can't wait to celebrate it there!!!

OUR PLANS!!!
Here is my illustrious planning wall, finally complete!


We arrive at 10:15 pm, hopefully! On October 30th so that the kids won't miss school and my husband can work most of a day. We are staying at POP! I have into stayed at art of animation, which we loved but we wanted free dinging, and we were lucky enough to get it! So be will be trying lots of new ADRs.
10/31 resort time and rest, going to MNSSHP!!!!!
11/1. Daylight savings! Will this help us get to rope drop at AK?
Tusker house dinner ADR
11/2 EPCOT future world (mostly). Sunshine seasons lunch, cape May dinner (trying for garden grill)
11/3 MK celebrating my sons birthday! Pirates league, WCC dinner
11/4 break day! Kind of
Resting in the am, probably going to DTD then bringin the kids to the poly. Trader Sam's, drop kids off at lilo's clubhouse and go to Cali Grill to celebrate our 10th anniversary!!! I might order a special cake.
11/5 EPCOT world showcase (mostly) food and wine fest, Biergarten dinner
11/6 HS Jedi training, sci fi drive in, leave park around 3, go to AKL for animal watching, resort exploration and dinner at Sanaa. Need pixie dust for a window view! My daughter wants to be a vet in Africa
11/7 MK. Hopefully an early BOG breakfast, doing family magic tour (daughters birthday gift) and CRT dinner
11/8 DME leaves with us on it at 2:30 so be will spend the morning at whichever park strikes our fancy!


Things still to do:
Give our son his pirate day for his bday. I did a scavenger hint for my daughter last weekend! She is very excited.

Try to get garden grill ADR

Make some cute shirts and clothes for some of the park days! I like to disneybound at least for the kids! And we need to figure out and make or buy Halloween costumes that we can adapt for the cold 10/30 outdoor school parade and the hot Halloween night at magic kingdom! So far my daughter wants to be Hermione and my son a pikmin.

Plan and hopefully get all of our FPP

Lose weight! I've lost 10 of the pounds I put on this past year and want to lose 20-30 more. Eventually will lose more than that as my final goal is 75. I have a dress bought last summer that will be great for my anniversary night

Rent my scooter. Accept that this trip I can't go unless using a scooter. Then decorate said scooter in a nightmare before Christmas theme to make it awesome!

Thanks for reading this, I hope I did it correctly!!!!!.

 

[ammag]

Inspired by glittercat, who I met on the DISabilities! Board I will list some of my family's disney favorites!

First, my husband and I are BIG geeks. Doctor whom Star Wars, general sci if marvel, batman, in and on! We go to ny comic con yearly and both my husband and I write for he website Bleeding Cool recapping some tv shows and covering NYCC. You can spot a tiny tardis in my burnet profile picture. My hair is no longer blue

I am more into disney than my husband is. He doent enjoy the planning process very much but he loves the parks and is thrilled that I create great trips for us because of all of my research.

Some of our favs......
First me being a goober.
Favorite park: HOW does one choose?!? I suppose MK but it's close except for HS, that one is in last place.
Favorite rides: haunted mansion is my all time favorite! I also love jungle cruise, star tours, TSMM, safari, dinosaur and small world. And really, most of the rest. I don't do the thrills for the most part but I am considering EE
Favorite disney movies: nightmare before Christmas, beauty and the beast, brave, Robin Hood! Also the old school creepers like something wicked this way comes! Robin was the first movie I saw in a theater that I remember. Bambi was my first drive in movie but I was only one so I only know form a photo. I love Star Wars and all of the marvel movies too. Also Pixar..ok I like a lot of them!!!!! Why did I bother

Favorite disney food: so far I adore the elephant cuocake at Kusafari the most!

Nov my husband,...who I don't have a fun photo of.
Lol
Fav park: Epcot
Fav rides: TSMM, star tours, haunted mansion, pirates. Add pirate to my list too! )
Fav movies: his all time animated fav is beauty and the beast
Fav disney food : he is not sure yet. He likes the escargot dish we had years ago at food and wine.

Madeleine, 8

That was her at 6.5 on our last trip. I've never seen her happier! I have this photo in my kitchen it makes me smile

Fav park: AK followed closely by MK
Fav movies: brave, tangled, toy story, frozen (althgh she is sick of it). She likes many of them her fav princess is rapunzel followed by Merida and anna.
Fav rides: small world, small world, small world. She likes all the rides she remembers but. Sw is special to her! Followed by the safari. She tried the barnstormer and hated it. Not a thrill seeker! She is planning on trying soarin. Test track, 7DMT (she might be too scared I am hoping she tried it) and maaaaybe dinosaur
Fav disney food : cupcakes!

Benjamin, almost 4

Fav park: MK though he doesn't really remember it!
Fav rides: same!
Fav movies: most of ten so far! Toy story, frozen, Star Wars lego. He is a big Darth Vader fan
Fav disney food: ALL the food. He eats like he has a tapeworm. Should probably get that checked out lol

 

[ammag]

I have no idea how to get people to follow my posts. I could try to be more interesting

Probably won't happen so I will just write for myself. I worked for hours and I got one of the days we have to really have a schedule, for DHS, done. I still have to have an alternative if we don't get Jedi training academy before our sci Fi lunch, but I am pretty much set.

It is 100 days until we leave!!!!

I keep remembering that we get to go, and I get all kinds of excited and thankful. It is about one year since my husbands breakdown or whatever we are calling it, and although not perfect I am so proud of the work he does daily to overcome his depression. Financially still going strong and while real life still throws me off track, I am working on figuring out our fast pass list for our end of august FP date.

IF disney extends the BOG breakfast, we are ten days from being able to book that one.

BUT pkans might have changed. My daughter has gone form liking to being obsessed with harry potter. She is willing to give uo her family magic tour to go to US/IOA and I think I have worked it out so that she and I go on our last Saturday, we leave around 3 and get to magic kingdom by 5 for our 6 pm dinner at CRT where we will join Ben and Rich.

There are pros and cons to this and I am still working through some of the things we will miss. I was very sad about missing the morning show but then realized if we can get going Sunday our last day we can see it and have 5 park hours before going home.

I wish this had occurred before I had rock solid plans and got amazing ADrs!!!

I have also been sewing, I am almost done wiht two skirts for my daughter and will make matching shirts. One for Star Wars and one figment themed for our EPCOT future world day. Have to get these done fast as the fall will be extremely busy and my health has been awful.

I am pretty scared that I won't be able to handle the trip even on my scooter but I am trying to be positive and dream of pixie dust. Also seeing a new doctor tomorrow!


Almost time to reserve a rental stroller,r my scooter and to pay the trip in full so that I have time to receive my disney visa rewards. Coming uo on $100 which makes me very happy indeed!

Best wishes to everyone, I am going to read more reports as it's been awhile since I did. I love reading about all the plans!!!