Happy Birthday, Dear Dude - A Sept 2010 PTR - 9/22 Trip Report Started p34

[swwake]

Here we go again! It looks like we will be headed to Disney World in October of this year. We are in the VERY preliminary stages of planning (i.e., NOTHING has been planned!). But I am a planner, and just can't wait to start my Pre-Trip Report, so here we are.

Our last trip was in August of 2008. My exhaustive (and fun!) PTR is now included with the partial Trip Report via the link in my signature. I did my best to write the trip report, but time - and life - got away from me and I accidentally abandoned it. I still have good notes and TONS of pics, so maybe one day I'll get the energy to finish it out. If not, maybe I can add stories and pics to this PTR along the way.

We took our daughter, Katie, who was 16 at the time, and her friend Caitlin (15). My mother also joined us, and we had a FANTASTIC time. Now, since that time, something horrible has happened to my mother (details to come in a later post - but suffice it to say that she is still with us and working her way back to some sort of normalcy).

My husband, Chris, and I didn't quite get our Disney fix on that trip. Well, we did, but we left wanting more! We talk often about heading back to Disney World, but haven't been able to make it happen just yet. As of right now, it looks like it will be October. And it will be just the two of us. Katie isn't very interested in Disney at the moment, but we think in a few years she will want to return, and we'll take her then.

So there is where we are today. I have so much to share about our August 2008 trip, the time between then and now, and how we picked October. I am looking forward to reconnecting with some of my "old" DIS friends and meeting new ones.

Come along and join me for the ride - if you dare!

 

[Soopafly]

I'm in looking forward to hearing your plans as we are also going in Sept/October.

 

[Marshay]

yeah! You started a PTR!! I'm in.

So sorry to hear about your mother. My heart goes out to you.

What? Someone in your family is NOT interested in Disney? Your daughter?? Oh, where oh where did you go wrong??!!JUST KIDDING!!

You and Chris will have a great time!!

 

[swwake]

Here is a picture of Chris and me from the August 2008 trip.

And here's a picture of the whole group at Animal Kingdom.

That's Bonnie (my mom), Susan, Caitlin, Katie and Chris (aka "Dude").

 

[swwake]

I'm in looking forward to hearing your plans as we are also going in Sept/October.

Hi and welcome! I hope I can meet your expectations!

yeah! You started a PTR!! I'm in.

So sorry to hear about your mother. My heart goes out to you.

What? Someone in your family is NOT interested in Disney? Your daughter?? Oh, where oh where did you go wrong??!!JUST KIDDING!!

You and Chris will have a great time!!

Marsha! I am so glad you're joining me for this adventure in planning. I just read your November 2009 TR today and I think I'm caught up on your new PTR for July. Yeah, I'm not sure I raised Katie right! haha Actually, she's all wrapped up in college selections, Senioritis, scholarship applications, and spending as much time with her friends as possible before running off to college somewhere.

Thanks for the condolences (if that's what we call them) for Mom. She is doing better every day. I promise to tell the story here shortly.

 

[Native NYer]

Susan! Glad you started

 

[swwake]

As I mentioned before, Chris and I have been pining to return to WDW since we got back in August 2008. We really haven't been able to find or make the time to do it. Between then and now, we have been to Las Vegas five times, I took Katie on a weekend to Santa Monica/Hollywood/L.A., I've been to DC twice, Miami twice, San Francisco/Napa, and we took a snowboarding trip to Breckenridge right before Christmas 2009. So our travel schedule has been quite busy.

Mom got sick on July 6, 2009, and that put a damper on any plans and/or travel from then until now (although, we have squeezed a couple of trips in).

In addition, for our anniversary last year, I used AmEx points to get a practically FREE trip to the Florida Keys for us. We actually started at one of my conferences in New Orleans for a couple of days, then flew to Ft Lauderdale, rented a car and drove to Islamorada. Stayed there one night, then to Key West for 2 nights. It was an absolutely fabulous trip and anniversary! So great, that I really wanted to do it again this year.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been brainstorming ideas for our anniversary in May. Keys again? NYC? All-inclusive in Mexico/Caribbean? Disney World? San Francisco/Napa? I've gone around and around in my head over this, and we finally decided that mid-May is not going to be a good time to go anywhere. After all, Katie will be graduating in early June, so we will have all of those preparations (do we host a party? a tea? will family visit from out of town?). There is also Prom in May, and we don't want to miss that. Plus, we decided that we will have plenty of time to travel alone together (without Katie - since she's not interested in WDW right now), after she heads to college in the Fall.

So there you have it. That's how we got to Fall 2010.

Then, one day I was talking to one of my female partners in our Atlanta office, who I am very close to, and we were discussing our travel plans for this year. She mentioned that they will be going back to Disney World in October and I told her we had been talking about Fall. So it looks like we might make our trips coincide. That would be great, since they have three young boys and we could spend time with them, then be on our own after they take the kids to bed each evening.

We thought about Nov/Dec because we'd love to see the Christmas decorations, but we are also thinking we'd like to do another snowboard trip over the Christmas break this year, and throwing WDW in there would just be too close together. So then we settled on October because we love Halloween and would love to go during Halloween and to a MNSSHP! Then in my research I realized it is also the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, and I got REALLY excited about that!

So, October it is! We haven't decided on dates yet. We have a conflict October 8-10. That's the Austin City Limits Music Festival. We went last year for the first time and really had fun, and we already bought earlybird tickets for this year. We are really excited about it, so we will not go to WDW that weekend. I have a tentative conflict Oct 21-22 with a conference in DC, but I don't think it'd be the end of the world if I missed that one. But for now, I think I'll look at the weekend around October 15th.

I think that's enough for tonight.

Coming up:
Where to stay?
What's new in the World?
Surfing?
What happened to Mom?

Does anyone have a preference on the order for these?

 

[swwake]

Susan! Glad you started

Hey girl! Did you get my friend request? I don't see a photo over there, so I can't tell if it's you. Now, the bar's set. Where's your PTR?

 

[Native NYer]

Hey girl! Did you get my friend request? I don't see a photo over there, so I can't tell if it's you. Now, the bar's set. Where's your PTR?

No, I didn't. Everything is set to private since so many of my former students now have FB

I should start a PTR. But I can't commit just yet. That's a theme in all areas of my life

I hope your mom is ok. And I can't wait to hear your resort pick for this year.

 

[Marshay]

Coming up:
1) Where to stay?
2) What's new in the World?
3) Surfing?
4) What happened to Mom?

1) Cinderella Castle

2) TSM, American Idol, Princess Tiana, Kouzzina, The Wave, Tusker House (ok, they aren't all exactly new, but that's the best I can come up with)

3) yes!

4) hopefully nothing too serious and she is recovering

 

[swwake]

1) Cinderella Castle

2) TSM, American Idol, Princess Tiana, Kouzzina, The Wave, Tusker House (ok, they aren't all exactly new, but that's the best I can come up with)

3) yes!

4) hopefully nothing too serious and she is recovering

Ha funny Marshay!

Wow, I am gonna have to re-learn how to post pictures, smilies, etc. I have forgotten everything!

I have no idea what some of those things you mention in 2 are. We did TSM and I know about Tusker House, but the others are new to us.

I'm also trying to learn about new planning tools (online dining reservations - did I see that???), etc.

Update on Mom next post.

 

[swwake]

I have a few minutes, so I thought I'd start the "Mom" story.

Now, this will definitely go off topic, but some of you "knew" Mom, as she posted on our last PTR quite a bit, so you will be interested. Will someone let me know if I'm likely to be kicked off the boards for this? If so, I'll find another way of communicating.

Mom has a CaringBridge site. I won't share the link here, because I'm not sure if it's allowed, but if you're interested, PM me and I can share it with you.

Edit: I came back and edited out the details, b/c I decided it's off-topic and might be boring to new readers.

Today, Mom is doing so much better and we hope she'll get to go home within the next 2 months!

 

[Native NYer]

Oh Susan, what a horrible experience for your mom and your family. It's so scary not knowing what's wrong. I hope your mom is doing better.

 

[Marshay]

OH, my! I was expecting you to say she fell and broke a leg or something bad like that -- but that story is truly scary!

I'm so sorry this happened to your mother! 17 specialists ... only 5 other cases ... wow.

My prayers go to you and your mother.

 

[AuroraRose]

Wow, that wasn't what I was expecting either, I'm so sorry you guys had to go through that! I'm glad your mom is making some progress, and I hope things get better ASAP.

As for your PTR, I'm subbing as I am interested to hear about your plans. I am hoping to do a split honeymoon at Disneyland and WDW in October, and I was really excited when I realized the potential to go to MNSSHP and the Food & Wine Festival as well!

 

[Soopafly]

Very sorry to hear about you mother, a truly horrible ordeal indeed but I hope she is doing much better now

Where are you planning on staying on this trip?

 

[swwake]

Oh Susan, what a horrible experience for your mom and your family. It's so scary not knowing what's wrong. I hope your mom is doing better.

Thanks Jen. She's getting better. I'll add more later when I have a little time.

OH, my! I was expecting you to say she fell and broke a leg or something bad like that -- but that story is truly scary!

I'm so sorry this happened to your mother! 17 specialists ... only 5 other cases ... wow.

My prayers go to you and your mother.

Thanks so much Marshay. All prayers help. We have definitely seen miracles through this ordeal.

Wow, that wasn't what I was expecting either, I'm so sorry you guys had to go through that! I'm glad your mom is making some progress, and I hope things get better ASAP.

As for your PTR, I'm subbing as I am interested to hear about your plans. I am hoping to do a split honeymoon at Disneyland and WDW in October, and I was really excited when I realized the potential to go to MNSSHP and the Food & Wine Festival as well!

That would be exciting to get to see Disney on both coasts for a honeymoon! Are you writing a PTR?

Very sorry to hear about you mother, a truly horrible ordeal indeed but I hope she is doing much better now

Where are you planning on staying on this trip?

Thanks for the thoughts. We aren't sure yet where we are staying, but we will definitely consider BLT, Poly and AKL. I will post more about that decision later.

 

[AuroraRose]

That would be exciting to get to see Disney on both coasts for a honeymoon! Are you writing a PTR?

I am hoping it works out, so far Bill's on board with the idea, we just need to figure out finances! I am writing my first PTR at the moment, but it's for our trip coming up in May. Once I get more details on the reception venue we're looking at I think we can figure out what we'll be doing in October as far as the honeymoon goes and I can start writing about that trip as well!

 

[dddisrunner]

Hi Susan! I stumbled upon your PTR and was HEARTBROKEN to read about your mom! I really enjoyed her input on your other PTR/TR, such a sweet, fun woman! She will be in my thoughts and prayers! What a horrible ordeal! Changing gears, I cannot believe your daughter is almost off to college...WOW! You will love food and wine, we went this past fall and LOVED it! I am here now and looking forward to more!!

 

[swwake]

I am hoping it works out, so far Bill's on board with the idea, we just need to figure out finances! I am writing my first PTR at the moment, but it's for our trip coming up in May. Once I get more details on the reception venue we're looking at I think we can figure out what we'll be doing in October as far as the honeymoon goes and I can start writing about that trip as well!

I am looking forward to BOTH of your PTRs!

Hi Susan! I stumbled upon your PTR and was HEARTBROKEN to read about your mom! I really enjoyed her input on your other PTR/TR, such a sweet, fun woman! She will be in my thoughts and prayers! What a horrible ordeal! Changing gears, I cannot believe your daughter is almost off to college...WOW! You will love food and wine, we went this past fall and LOVED it! I am here now and looking forward to more!!

Hey Diane! So glad you made it over here! I was hoping you would. I know, what we've been through with Mom has caused so many emotions. She is such a strong lady though. I only hope I could be as strong in a similar situation. Wait til you hear the rest of the story! I need to research F&W - I can't wait.