Healing at our Happy Place: making GOOD 2017 memories: Mar, May, Aug, Oct, Dec TRs (3/24 UPDATE)

[kittylady1972]

DECEMBER TRIP UPDATE

So it's been a while since I've checked out the Candlelight Processional thread since our travel dates did not have any narrators listed for them when I booked a few CP Dinner packages. I checked it out today...and as of now we have TWO choices. We can see Jodi Benson or Kurt Russell. Now I am not that familiar with Jodi Benson, though I know plenty of people love her for her Little Mermaid role I guess. My boys would definitely be familiar with Kurt Russell thanks to the Guardians of the Galaxy 2 movie. I also think it would be cool to see him. Here is the problem.

I booked an early dinner Saturday for the CP package, a 4:30pm time actually. The problem is we also have Tusker House booked that same day...at 1:50pm. I cannot imagine we will even be remotely hungry after the TH buffet that early. Yet CP is a pre-paid package so we'd have to eat some kind of meal there.

This means keeping Kurt would require me to give up TH for lunch, which I think I can do considering we'll most likely eat there next weekend anyway. I can manage that. We are planning to be at AK on that same day as we have FP+ reservations for FOP that afternoon. Yet we can leave after our AK time and head to EPCOT for the evening for dinner.

There are no earlier times that day for TH so moving it isn't an option. I think I'll just have to drop it...and that's okay with me.
We still have Jodi booked also and some time to decide. I'm really looking forward to this beautiful show again.

Disney problems right?

 

[ariane37]

Hi! I am slowly but surely catching up here, made it half way through page 16! Love hearing about August and also reading your plans for Oct. and Dec and all the chnages lol.

Then when I mentioned what I had planned to book (CBR) she mentioned she had access to "other" reservations that the website did not...really? Ok so I let her give it a shot for my dates, and even the one date (my arrival) that is currently not available anywhere unless I want to pay over $500 a night...no thank you.

I remember you mentioning this I think on my TR but not all the details I know it was awhile ago now, but do you happen to remember if the agent you spoke to had two name, like Patty Jo or Johnny Lee? If so, you probably got an Arise agent. Arise is a third party company Disney contracts with to save $$, rather than hiring more CM's. Arise agents are notorious for being..........................well, in most cases horrible. Not ALL of them are but what you were told sounds exactly like something an Arise agent would say.......Disney CM's know very well they don't have access to any reservations you can't see online unless the system is glitching, so no CM would tell you that!

Plus we received some potentially difficult news about HIS health yesterday as well. It hasn't been confirmed yet, but there's a good chance he may be dealing with the same nasty "c" word that has hit us all so hard this year. If that ends up being the case, then my husband is already thinking about the fact that he'll need to step up once again and help him depending on the treatment options, but for right now we are trying NOT to think about that.

You really are having a terrible year, I hope this isn't the case for your FIL. I'm glad you're doing well, but I really hope the rest of 2017 and ALL of 2018 are as stress-free as possible for you

 

[kittylady1972]

OCTOBER AND DECEMBER UPDATES!

OCTOBER
Ok so I now get to do my countdown in HOURS...and that means 58 hours to go until we depart, TWO more sleeps until Walt Disney World. Saying that we are excited is an understatement. We were talking about it over the weekend with some of the other adults joining us on the trip and making some of our final plans. I've sent tentative schedules out to the groups to let them know what we plan to do, but of course we all know plans can change. And of course last night I even packed...but I may have to repack again just to see if I can lighten the load. I mean, how much clothing do I really need for 5 nights? I'm going to need some space in my luggage to carry my new popcorn bucket home after all!

So no changes for now, everything is frozen including ADRs, but we will need to cancel one more. I'm 95% sure we'll cancel Boma on Friday in favor of Tusker House and now we may have 2 other people joining us for that meal. That means my party of 15 that I booked...may need to be 16 people. Since that's an even number, and most tables work in even numbers, I'm hoping that if all 16 of us show up, TH can work with our one extra person. I was thinking I really need to make sure we take a photo of all of us at that table!

I still need to get my carry-on bag ready for this week and decide on Magicbands that I'm bringing. DH had me deactivate SEVERAL of his last night as he plans to return them to Disney for recycling. We were told by a CM at AKL last time that we could do that, as we were also told we should never have more than 7 bands active at one time. As a computer programmer myself, this just astonishes me that anybody would ever code a limit like that because I can see no reason for that kind of restriction in any system. In any case, I may return a few of mine also.

DECEMBER
We have some BREAKING NEWS on our December trip. Over the weekend, as my father-in-law was watching the RAVENS football (oh RAVENS why must you do that to me ) game with us, he made the decision to JOIN us for December! So yesterday we helped him book the same flights as us and I think I mentioned that I had already booked ALL of our ADRs (including the Candlelight Processional packages) as parties of 6 people JUST IN CASE. I don't know what has gotten into him that he's suddenly changed his mind on his "no travel in 2017" but we're very excited that he'll be joining us. Our Disney trips have always been family trips and he and my MIL joined us for so many of them. I know in some ways this will be tough for him, as the last trip with her was in July of 2015 and that one wasn't really totally with us. We hope this return will be good for him and we are excited he gets to see so much new stuff there. We are already offering to give up our Avatar FOP FPs so he can ride it. I'm happy to take in a show at AK and let him use mine and my daughter has said the same.

Now for the somewhat bad news there...finding a place for him to stay while down there. Our room at POR only holds 5 people and I cannot get ANYTHING at that resort for that timeframe. In fact, like many people here I cannot get ANYTHING at all for all 4 nights in the same resort for the times that we are going. We have discussed the possibility of switching to the WDW Dolphin or Swan instead, but because those rooms only hold 4 people it would mean he would have to put a kid in the room with him, which I'm sure he would be okay doing as he said as much. We would HATE for us to not stay at the same place but I really want to stay at POR right now. I even cancelled one of my DVC holdlists and made a new one for a 2BR at SSR just in case but I don't expect much will happen there.

So I'll continue to stalk daily, sometimes a few times a day, the WDW Reservations site to see what I can get for him. Oh yeah, and I need to change my rental car now also since ours only holds 5 people. This means I'm going to be very busy until I finally find a place for him, or somewhere that ALL of us can stay together that will NOT break the bank. He has even offered to pay the difference if I find a place together that might be slightly more expensive. We'll see what happens.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I hope everything works out with your FIL!!!!
My daughter, Ali is a HUGE Ravens fan, and she was pretty upset they lost to the Bears yesterday!!!! Go Flacco!!!!

 

[Elizabeth Smith]

I think it's great that your FIL decided to come after all! I think that would be really good for him.

 

[kittylady1972]

I hope everything works out with your FIL!!!!
My daughter, Ali is a HUGE Ravens fan, and she was pretty upset they lost to the Bears yesterday!!!! Go Flacco!!!!

Yeah...it was another frustrating game to watch.

I think it's great that your FIL decided to come after all! I think that would be really good for him.

Agreed! He's finally coming around to getting out a little more and December will mark 5 months since my MILs passing. I know it will be tough, this first trip WITHOUT her around though.

 

[MummyButterfly]

So I found your 2017 thread, and read the entire thing today. (Which leads to the odd feeling of like I should know you, but don't.) We have been planning our December trip for almost a year, and now we are frantic (or *I* am) that my doctor's appointment next week will lead to the "c" word (that's actually what we expect, the odds are not in my favor). I know every treatment for every type is different, but I find such hope in this thread that even if my medical stuff is bad, we will find joy at Disney. Thank you for sharing!

 

[kittylady1972]

So I found your 2017 thread, and read the entire thing today. (Which leads to the odd feeling of like I should know you, but don't.) We have been planning our December trip for almost a year, and now we are frantic (or *I* am) that my doctor's appointment next week will lead to the "c" word (that's actually what we expect, the odds are not in my favor). I know every treatment for every type is different, but I find such hope in this thread that even if my medical stuff is bad, we will find joy at Disney. Thank you for sharing!

First of all, thanks for reading and commenting. Hello!

I will be thinking of you regarding your doctor's appointment, though you didn't say what type of "c" word. Sadly I was already pretty certain of my diagnosis well before it was confirmed as well. I have such a family history of cancer on both sides, I've always thought it would get me at some point...just expected I'd be older when it happened. If you have questions or just want to "talk" via private message about anything, feel free as I'm happy to lend an ear (or two) and support.

I'm definitely looking forward to returning to my happy place.

 

[kittylady1972]

So TOMORROW is our big day! My daughter is probably the most excited of all of us, constantly giving me the countdown in HOURS now, sad that SHE has to attend school tomorrow when some of our group are flying out earlier and not attending school. Oh well.

I changed my radiation appointment for tomorrow to early afternoon so I'll be good to go on getting that done before we leave. It will be nice to get a 5-day break from radiation, but I'll be back at it on Tuesday. Honestly it's not that bad, pretty quick and easy overall.

Last night I also added my FIL to all of our December FP+ reservations...well all except ONE because of course FOP wasn't available. We have all said we'll give him one of our bands to use to ride that one, since we've been on it plenty now. We'll also attempt to ride it standby. We are testing out our ride-it-standby theory this week with our other friends, some of which also don't have FP+ reservations for it. Oh and I had to move one of our rides, the Safari, to a later time but if we just arrive at AK that morning, we can probably do that one earlier without FP anyway. This is also the same day we have the CP Dining package and will be seeing Kurt Russel for CP that evening. Since that is the LAST night of our December trip, it should be a wonderful way to end our trip. I am envisioning the December trip will be a LOT like our trip this week, with a late flight arrival on Wednesday, park visits and we just leave Sunday night instead of Monday afternoon for that trip.

I'm seriously now considering attending MNSSHP on Thursday this week. Tickets are still available and it looks like, as of now, the weather will be better for that night than it might be on Sunday night.




I really LOVE the parade there and was so sad we missed it last trip. Shelling out $500 for those tickets though is a big OUCH! We'll see what happens.

Still can't believe our trip is so close...but thankfully even though I know this one will end too quickly, we'll still have one more to look forward to this year once we return!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Have a wonderful trip!!!!

 

[piglet1979]

Yay!!! I am so excited your FIL is going.

Have a great trip this week. I can't wait to hear about when you get back.

 

[kittylady1972]

Have a wonderful trip!!!!

THANK YOU!

Yay!!! I am so excited your FIL is going.

Have a great trip this week. I can't wait to hear about when you get back.

Yes....so are we! He is still a bit conflicted about travel, still has some survivor's guilt, but we keep telling him we know that my MIL would WANT him to go and enjoy time with his family.

 

[kittylady1972]

Guess what today is people?

That's right...it is Chocolate Cupcake Day!



This was by FAR one of the best cupcakes I've ever had...and adorable to boot! If I get time, I plan to seek one of these babies out TODAY.

Oh yeah...and it's also TRAVEL DAY....we're going to DISNEY WORLD!!

Flight leaves in about 11 hours. I've got to put in a few hours at work, then head off to my get in a radiation appointment, then home to do some final packing. We should be leaving for the airport in about 9 hours.

Wow.

Some of our travel party have earlier flights today, so hopefully they arrive safely and get settled and find their way around before we arrive.

I have the final schedule for everybody updated on Google Drive so hopefully everybody has managed to view it. My son asked about it last night, as I had added a few potential breakfast ideas for each day, but all tentative as they are all quick service locations that will feel will also cater well to the member of our party who has celiacs and can't have gluten. I've compiled a bunch of information for her and her mom about choices at various locations for gluten free options but I'm sure Disney is used to handling this and she'll have no problem finding things to eat.

Now to just get through the remainder of today!

 

[piglet1979]

you will have to let me know how Disney does with Gluten-Free foods. My mom has celiacs and I would love for her to go with us sometime.

 

[kittylady1972]

you will have to let me know how Disney does with Gluten-Free foods. My mom has celiacs and I would love for her to go with us sometime.

i can do that!

 

[kittylady1972]

So greetings from somewhere over the US East Coast. We've been in the air for about 30 minutes with probably a little less than 2 hours to go.

The day has started out crazy already...at least at the airport. So while we breezed through the line at TSA Pre-Check after printing off our boarding passes, getting THROUGH security was another story. DH and DS17 both got pulled aside for "random" checks, DS actually tried to walk through security without taking his wallet out of his pocket and during that craziness...and waiting for him...we arrived at our gate later and he realized he did NOT have his backpack. He and DH rush back to the security area...and it's gone.

WHAT? We weren't even away for 10 minutes!

His phone was in there but his wallet was with me because he had left it in his pocket and I had taken it and shoved it my stuff before going through security.

Well my son wasn't giving up that easily, so he headed back there himself. Thankfully this time he returned WITH the bag.

Now this is a first for us...losing something BEFORE we have even left the airport. We usually save that for after we are out of the airport at LEAST.

Anyway so far digging our first JetBlue flight experience. Seats are comfortable and FREE WIFI. The kids I'm sure are loving the free entertainment as we don't have CABLE tv at home, but I'm finding there really isn't anything to watch. So here I am on the internet instead.

With any luck I'll be in the park in another 3 hours or so. Our friends have already arrived and have posted their first family photo on Main Street!

 

[Raeven]

Have a fun trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

Hello again. Just a quick live update from here.

Things did not go smoothly after our arrival Wed night. I'll share our rental car nightmare later. However we did manage to hit the MK eventually Wednesday and had zero great time there, closing down the park at 1am.

Consequently that meant we had some dragging people yesterday at EPCOT running on 3 to 4 hours max of sleep. I'm proud to say they all soldiered on and we had a great pretty full day at EPCOT and enjoyed a lot of food and wine.

Today is HS and I'm not expecting a full day there. We plan to arrive close to park opening and knock out most of the rides in the first few hours, having FPS for 3 of them. Hoping to do standby repeats if possible on a few faves.

 

[kittylady1972]

So here is a quick shot of our entire clan at EPCOT yesterday. We really only all hung together for a ride or two but it was still fun.

 

[kittylady1972]

Another quick update. Another great day at the parks. Many of the adults managed to hit 3 parks today. We ended the night by riding FOP stand by in the evening with an hour wait. Everyone loved it.