Have 527 Days Until Our Vacation, But I Need Some Disney Magic Now!*22 DAYS TO GO!!!!

[Lidian]

Glad everything is looking up for you and you made a great choice! I'm anxious to see what discounts are released. Is it November yet?

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Oh that's great Corri! You have worked so hard to save for this trip, it is wonderful to have your load lightened some!

 

[Corrine 1973]

That is excellent news Corri! I hope you're able to make it work out!

D~

You know me, I pulled a trip out with a little more than a month to go this year, I know I will be able to do this even if he ends up pulling out. I am just worried about that will effect Liam.

I hope everything works out. I am sure you will love POFQ

I stayed at POFQ in March and loved it. Can't wait to go again and see it through my kids eyes.

That's great news. I hope it all works out for you

Thanks, I am still continueing to save as if I will have to get the full amount. Don't want to take any changes. But just think of what I can do with the money I save.

yay! more money saved for fun stuff

We are on the same wave length.

Glad everything is looking up for you and you made a great choice! I'm anxious to see what discounts are released. Is it November yet?

I know. First I couldn't wait unil the packages come out. Now I am anxiously awaiting until Liam's father confirms (and sends some money), discounts are released, and airfaire at Southwest are released for May. This waiting is horrible. Now I know why my last two trips were alot closer to the actual trip.

Oh that's great Corri! You have worked so hard to save for this trip, it is wonderful to have your load lightened some!

All the hard work will be worth it when I see the huge smiling face on my DD's face. 312 days to go!!!

 

[gijules123]

just found this thread and i am already hooked!! so glad things are looking up for you!!! saving money is always a great thing!! we are going in feb for my first trip and my dd first trip and 2nd birthday!! i will be staying tuned to see what is going on with you! we are staying in por!

 

[Corrine 1973]

just found this thread and i am already hooked!! so glad things are looking up for you!!! saving money is always a great thing!! we are going in feb for my first trip and my dd first trip and 2nd birthday!! i will be staying tuned to see what is going on with you! we are staying in por!

Welcome to my PTR gijules. How exciting to be going on your first trip with your little girl. One of the great things about Disney ithat she will be able to go on most of the rides there, unlike other parks where she can only go on a handful of "kiddie" rides.

Are you going to do a PTR? If you do I promise to read. I am far from an expert, but I have learned quite a lot here and will happily help in anyway I can.

 

[PrincessMom13]

Hey Corrine, I am new here and followed you over from the the May 2013 thread.

I haven't read everything yet, but I plan to tuck myself into bed soon and read all about your upcoming trip. I can't wait.

 

[Corrine 1973]

Hey Corrine, I am new here and followed you over from the the May 2013 thread.

I haven't read everything yet, but I plan to tuck myself into bed soon and read all about your upcoming trip. I can't wait.

Sorry I took so long to reply, been quite busy around here. Welcome to my thread PrincessMom13, hope you are enjoying my PTR.


So a couple of days ago I decided that I was going to do my own spreadsheet for my next trip. I have seen so many great spreadsheets and I really wanted to make one of my own. I asked for help on FB but admite I couldn't just wait around and wait for help. I went over to Excel and started having some fun. I started playing and experimenting and came up with a trip planning spread sheet that I was happy with. I had to tweak it a little to make it fit on one page but in the end I am happy with it. It might change a little if I find more things to add to it.

This is not the final version, but it hasn't changed that much.

I enjoyed it so much that I made a sheet for Trasportion info (flight and car), a sheet for my resort information, and a sheet for ADR's. I also started making day by day sheets but somehow didn't save them and lost day1 and 2. Oh well I guess I will just have to make the next versions even better.

Anyone know how to post them on here with out having to take an picture of it?

 

[DMGeurts]

I had issues with getting my excel docs on here.... Basically, I had to Google how to turn a Doc. into a Jpg. - which is what you'll need to do - then upload the jpg to photobucket to post.

I love your spreadsheet so far, I found mine quite useful on our trip. My only recommendation is that when you print them, you take them to your local photolab and print them on photo paper in a 4x6 format - then get the $1.99 clear photo books to put them in. Honestly - that was super slick for our trip - the perfect size and waterproof (to an extent) with the covers. I am definately doing that for every single trip in the future.

The only other thing I would add... Remember how I did my daily park pages? If you forgot - the link to my PTR shows all my pages. At the bottom corner, on each day, I made note of what our DDP allowance was for the day... For instance, on the bottom right corner I put: Sn + Cs + Ts... So, I knew that day we were alloted a snack for breakfast, counter service for lunch and table service for dinner - If we wanted anything above and beyond that - it was oop. This really came into play at the end of our trip, so all of our meals were budgeted and we didn't run out early. It was super helpful for us. I never used my check list that I made at all - it was just too much hassle, it was easier just to glance at our daily budget and follow that.

Oh and I just wanted to say... Thanks for your phone reviews! If you didn't read in my TR - I am now the proud owner of a white s2.



D~

 

[lovethattink]

I told you on fb, but will mention it here too. I am very impressed with your spread sheet! Love how you set it up, the font, etc.

 

[Corrine 1973]

I had issues with getting my excel docs on here.... Basically, I had to Google how to turn a Doc. into a Jpg. - which is what you'll need to do - then upload the jpg to photobucket to post.

I love your spreadsheet so far, I found mine quite useful on our trip. My only recommendation is that when you print them, you take them to your local photolab and print them on photo paper in a 4x6 format - then get the $1.99 clear photo books to put them in. Honestly - that was super slick for our trip - the perfect size and waterproof (to an extent) with the covers. I am definately doing that for every single trip in the future.

The only other thing I would add... Remember how I did my daily park pages? If you forgot - the link to my PTR shows all my pages. At the bottom corner, on each day, I made note of what our DDP allowance was for the day... For instance, on the bottom right corner I put: Sn + Cs + Ts... So, I knew that day we were alloted a snack for breakfast, counter service for lunch and table service for dinner - If we wanted anything above and beyond that - it was oop. This really came into play at the end of our trip, so all of our meals were budgeted and we didn't run out early. It was super helpful for us. I never used my check list that I made at all - it was just too much hassle, it was easier just to glance at our daily budget and follow that.

Oh and I just wanted to say... Thanks for your phone reviews! If you didn't read in my TR - I am now the proud owner of a white s2.



D~

Thanks D, I love your idea of a mini planning book aand how to budget those Dinning Credits. I will have to do the same thing for Liam's dad if he comes with us. I don't want him dipping into our credits because he isn't paying attention to what he is using.

Congrats on your new phone. I hope you love your white s2 as much as I enjoy my white s2. Did you get a case?

I told you on fb, but will mention it here too. I am very impressed with your spread sheet! Love how you set it up, the font, etc.

Thank you tink. I have done a spreedsheet for my old job to keep track of inventory (we filled the orders of those fundraising sheets your kids bring home.) but hadn't done anything in a while. This my first time add pictures so I am glad how it turned out. And I liked it.

_________________________________________________________________

So yesterday wasn't a good day for me. I meet a couple off friends and we walked around there neighborhood. On the way home my car stopped moving. I had to have it towed and it looks like its my transmition. I am really it is just something small and inexpensive because I can't afford a whole new transmition or a new car. I am really hoping it will not cost alot of money, other wise I might have to pull out money from the trip and I might have to cancel the trip I have been saving for since Jan.

 

[DMGeurts]

Oh no Corri!!! That would be awful!!!

We had to have the transmission redone in our Taurus a few years ago - they are famous for that - it cost us $1200 at the dealership. Unfortunately, it broke down out of town, so we couldn't take it to our regular mechanic.

Praying it's something simple and cheap!

D~

 

[DMGeurts]

Oh, and I forgot to add... I ordered a cheapo case off of Ebay - it's a zebra one... I plan to look for something a bit more durable this weekend. So far - I am really liking my S2... My only complaint is that I wish Disney made cases for them - they are one of the most popular phones out there, and still no cases from Disney... I even checked their blog for what they are releasing this summer and no luck.

D~

 

[m2zjj]

Sorry to hear about the car trouble. Our vacation budget took a big hit a little over a month ago when we had to make several repairs to DH's car. We're still able to go but don't have nearly as much "fun money" as we would have had. Hope you can get it fixed cheap.

 

[Corrine 1973]

Oh no Corri!!! That would be awful!!!

We had to have the transmission redone in our Taurus a few years ago - they are famous for that - it cost us $1200 at the dealership. Unfortunately, it broke down out of town, so we couldn't take it to our regular mechanic.

Praying it's something simple and cheap!

D~

Sorry to hear about the car trouble. Our vacation budget took a big hit a little over a month ago when we had to make several repairs to DH's car. We're still able to go but don't have nearly as much "fun money" as we would have had. Hope you can get it fixed cheap.

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement. Unfortunatly it does look as if the transmision needs to be replace on my windstar. Luckily I do have someone who knows about cars and is going to do the work for me at no cost but the part alone is going to cost about $700. I am going to do everything in my power to be able to pay for it without touching my Disney fund. I don't like to use my credit card, but this might just be the emergency that I got it for. I am glad I decided to pay for this trip without my credit card. I decided a long time ago not to use my card for things that I wanted but did not need. It took be years to get my credit card debt in control and don't want to see it go up again.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Corri, so sorry about you car troubles. I hate it when LIFE issues disrupt our well laid our plans!!! Hope you are able to get it fixed with minimum hassle.

 

[Corrine 1973]

Corri, so sorry about you car troubles. I hate it when LIFE issues disrupt our well laid our plans!!! Hope you are able to get it fixed with minimum hassle.

Thanks Connie, it really helps knowing that my friends are routing for me.

So yesterday was a super busy day. Yesterday was the last day to register the kids for school without paying a late fee.

So I started my day running to the court house (45 min away) because I couldn't find Aidan's birth cirtificate for Kindergarten. I am so fustrated that I could find it, but I need one so off I was.

Than I was off to the high school to resiter the kids for school. (All the schools were doing it at the High school.) Getting Mia and Liam registered was no problem. Just had to verify the paper work, show proof of address, and it was all done. Of course it wasn't done for Aidan. I ended up having to go home and getting him so he could get a screening. So finally everyone was registered and I could go home and relax. . .for an hour. That's right, soon I was on the road again for Liam's Doctor appointment. Luckily it didn't take long and we went to the local mall to hang out for awile. Liam wanted to eat at Stir Crazy's, but my bank account was tapped out after registering the kids.

It was a busy day, but I got alot done!!!

 

[Corrine 1973]

So I forgot to mention the other day in all my business that I am officially under the 300 day mark for my next trip.

​

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

 

[t_daniels]

So I forgot to mention the other day in all my business that I am officially under the 300 day mark for my next trip.

​

Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

hurrah!
And holy cow - HOW do you have so much planning done?!
I love the spreadsheet.
I can't wait until we book. I feel like my PTR is just a scratchpad for me now.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

YaaaaaYYYYY~~~~~~ !!!!!!!! I am so excited for you and Mia...and so sad for us...but so happy for you guys!!!!

 

[Corrine 1973]

hurrah!
And holy cow - HOW do you have so much planning done?!
I love the spreadsheet.
I can't wait until we book. I feel like my PTR is just a scratchpad for me now.

I am obsessed with planning. But dont worry things will change a couple or more times before the trip.

YaaaaaYYYYY~~~~~~ !!!!!!!! I am so excited for you and Mia...and so sad for us...but so happy for you guys!!!!

Just think of it this way oopsi, when I get back from our trip I will lamenting over the fact that I have a long time until my next trip while you will be excitedly planning your upcoming trip.