happybratpack ~ Spring Fling Pre-Trip Report & Ramblings

[happybratpack]

happybratpack ~ Spring Fling Pre-Trip Report

Cast:
Me: 31, complete Disney addict, obsessive trip planner and worrier

SO Larry: 37, took his first trip to WDW two years ago and is now equally obsessed

My sister Sandi, 40-something will be joining us the 2nd half of the trip; longtime Disney fan and we frequently visit together…this is the first trip together for her & SO


Let me start by saying that I haven’t been to WDW anytime other than the low season in Fall and between Thanksgiving and Christmas in AGES. So needless to say I’m more than a bit concerned about the wait times, the heat and the crowds in general. Now that I have two step-kids I have resigned myself to an annual July trip so I’m “prepping” myself with this easy step into a busier season.

The real purpose of this trip is to feed the addiction and to see the Flower & Garden Festival for the first time. This is the primary reason Sandi is joining us on this trip and also her husband is being a butthead lately so it’s an excuse to get out for a few days. Of course, that’s just my opinion. We asked him to go as well but he wasn’t interested in “another trip to Disney, we’ve seen it all and I don’t want to stare at flowers”. Blah, blah, blah.

Sooooooooooo, here’s the plan. If you see something scary that I didn’t notice let me know so I can obsess and worry over it please.

The Dreaded Flight
I remember a long time ago that I loved to fly. In fact, I remember getting on a Valu-jet flight to Orlando with my then best friend who was petrified of flying. I vaguely recall doing obnoxious things on the plane like grabbing the armrests and going “OMG! What was THAT noise?” and laughing as she freaked out. I am here to tell anyone who doesn’t believe that what goes around comes around. I started to hate flying pre-9/11, it was about the time I started having panic/anxiety attacks IRL and it carried over into flight, all of a sudden I would panic at being trapped in the plane with all those people, I’d be visiting the bathroom sick 15 times during a 2 hour flight, etc. So I basically stopped flying…the last few years I drove to WDW w/ my now ex-husband instead of flying while using the lame excuse of having the time to bond and see the country. Oddly enough the divorce didn’t follow far behind these drives.

I have decided to step up and take control of my life again so after two months of putting it off I finally booked this flight and proceeded to immediately throw up. I started an anti-anxiety medication that is supposed to help with this and I will also be medicating myself with Xanax like I have since this started. I know it will help on the plane, but I will spend this week being crazy nervous and nauseous about it. I went to pick up my sister from a flight today and the smell of the airport made my stomach sick. To say the least, Larry is worried about the flights. If there are any others like me out there try the http://www.fearofflyinghelp.com site…it’s helped tremendously and I almost don’t want to yak watching the videos anymore. If you’re on either of my flights from DFW I apologize in advance.

Resorts
Here is the first indication of my “issues”. (please see flow chart below) I have confused Disney Accounting to no end with my resort changes, they actually called me last week to make sure the deposits and payments had transferred correctly to the changed reservations all the different times. I started at Riverside (as always) then changed to Caribbean Beach. I then started a thread saying how proud I was I was branching out of our little box of the same resorts this time and excited not to be transferring resorts at all, yada yada. Some time passes and Sandi decides to join us but I couldn’t get another room at the code rate at CBR so once San arrives on the 11th we’ve decided to stay at the WL. Following me here? CBR first ½, then WL the 2nd part, no biggie. Time passes…I decide I want to do something special for Larry so I start thinking and thinking, he’s always mentioned staying at the Contemporary so I thought it would be a good idea the night we get there to stay for one night and try to be somewhat romantic…however the Tower was WAY too expensive this trip so I booked a wing room for $194 which I thought was a good rate. Being the person that I am I can’t keep a secret worth a pile of beans so I start the “I’ve got a surprise for you” taunting a couple months ago, he’s guessing and guessing and by now I’m thinking that compared to his guesses this grand Contemporary stay is lame.

I’m still holding on to the hope that he’s going to be surprised and thrilled so I stick to it but I have a little nagging doubt in the back of my head. Subtly I start fishing around for more information from him, talking about different resorts, where he’s always wanted to stay, etc. I do this several different times just trying to get some sort of SIGN…then it came. We’re walking through Foley’s and I say to him “I really would love to stay at the Contemporary at least once before the rehab to see how it is, wouldn’t you?” and his response? “I would too, but only in the tower. The wings wouldn’t REALLY be the Contemporary, know what I mean? I definitely wouldn't stay in the wings” Sigh. I blow it off thinking he’s just talking and bring it up a couple other times – pretty much the same response. At this point I have the CR for 1 night, transferring to the CBR for 4 nights then WL for 4 nights.

Can you see where this is going? So I’m calling back and trapped this poor CM Angelica on the phone trying to get her to counsel me to a better decision. Although I know Disney in and out I felt like I needed someone telling me what the best thing to do would be. She agreed, the tower vs wing situation maybe a disappointment for him in the making so we start going down the list. I couldn’t add a day back on to the CBR reservation, it was full that night. She tells me that for the price I’ve paid w/ the code for CR and the CBR for 5 nights I could do a standard view at the AKL for only $100 more. I hem and haw, I mean, this was going to be a vacation of trying new things and he’s stayed there on one of the two trips we’ve taken already. It’s more than I wanted to spend, it’s not a new resort for us so of course I book it.

So we went from:
Riverside – 9 nts
CBR – 9 nts
CBR - 5 nts / WL – 4 nts
CR – 1nt / CBR – 4 nts / WL – 4 nts
AKL – 5 nts / WL – 4 nts

Larry believes we are still staying at the CBR for 5 nts and then the WL for the remainder. I am hoping to keep him in the dark for as long as possible. He was very distressed today when I told him on Saturday morning we needed to be up and get from CBR to AKL to eat breakfast at Boma at 7:30 am.

Transportation
At the risk of sounding like a flake I’m adding this as well to the pre-trip report. We were originally scheduled to use Magical Express then started to worry it would be a disaster so we cancelled. We then booked Tiffany’s to pick Larry & I up on the 6th, then San when she arrives on the 11th then take all three of us back on the 15th. Time passes and we decided to live on the edge, cancelled our pick up from Tiffany’s, pocketed the extra $55 for the Mouse and rebooked the Magical Express. I really, really hope I have good things to report on this. I’m guessing my resort surprise will be up once we get to our correct bus route and it doesn’t say CBR. We won’t be getting the tags since I rebooked so late, they told us to look for the CM waving a white Mickey outside the security gates at the airport and to give them our baggage info then proceed to the bus. Does this worry me? Yes.

Food

Before San arrives we are going to continue to live life on the edge and do mostly counter service meals. We typically share a lot of meals then snack throughout the day. This gives us a chance to try more food. The only PS we have pre-San is Boma for breakfast on Saturday. Once she arrives we become pigs and have the following plans:

CRT – Dinner
Crystal Palace – Bfast
Boma – Dinner
Cape May – Dinner
Spoodles – Bfast
Afternoon Tea @ GF

I’ll be sure to do a full dining report when back, hopefully with pictures.

Parks & Misc
I’m a sucker for the parks after dark so we’ll be using the evening EMH. I’ve read the horror stories on the boards but we’re adventure seekers, remember? Before San gets there we’ll be hitting both BB and TL, she refuses to have anything to do with a water park so she’s out for that. We’ve also decided to take a DVC tour the first weekend, we’ve been kicking around the idea of joining. I’m sure we’ll visit Downtown Disney several times during the week, we’re going to try to play mini-golf at least once and we’ll be watching Bob at POR the first Saturday we’re there. We also have the KTTK tour scheduled for Monday, I'm very excited!

The Unknown
Larry has been “taunting” me with two surprises once we get there…one for Monday night and one for Tuesday. I have NO idea what these would be, I control the bank account and I have carefully backtracked and audited to try to figure it out. Sad, I know. I am trying to figure out a good welcome surprise for him…I’m thinking about something from the Disney Florist but not sure yet. I might order something for San’s arrival too so she doesn’t feel left out without butthead BIL with us.

Anyway…there’s the trip in a nutshell. This will also be a “scouting” trip for my upcoming first ever Disney trip with kids in July. I’ll be shopping for their goodie bag and we’ll be hashing over their schedule I’m sure.

I hope everyone going before I return has a wonderful trip and I take the Disboards vow to keep proper journal notes & pics for the reports.

 

[Krispe]

Can't wait for the big reveal of all the surprises! Don't forget to post some photos too!

Have a great time! Wish we were going too!

Hope you get alot of magic during the trip!

 

[happybratpack]

Thanks, Krispe!

I hope things go well this trip, the upcoming flight has my stomach already.

 

[Cinerama]

Have a wonderful trip...with all that planning things are sure to go smoothly! Take that Xanax and relaaaxx. Looking forward to a trip report when you get back!