HELP!!!!!! More Disney Dreams to fulfill! 09/04 Exciting news!

[MamaPotts]

Oh, I hope that Tom feels better soon!

Thanks for sharing the pics from your DLR trip (and sorry I haven't been around lately). Love, love, love your plans for the February trip!

 

[Stefy]

I can't wait to get EoS in DLRP, we missed out on it this year in WDW

Your plans for Feb sound great and yay for DCL system back up and running. You should defo give Remy a try as it is a real dining experience

Sorry Tom's not feeling well, hope he gets better soon Too cute that Pixie is looking after him too

 

[annmarieda]

I hope Tom feels better soon, but I am sure he will start to with Pixie (who is too darn cute) to help.

Glad to hear that the problems with reservations have got worked out.

 

[kmrein]

I hope Tom is on the mend by now. Your Pixie looks so much like one of our kitties!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

Trying to catch up again. Starting read this page...hoping Tom is feeling better...Pxie is adorable as always!!!

LOVE Tom's Advent wreath - we cannot find such things around here, but sure wish I could. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent and I don't even have an Advent wreath ready. Also, did not get to the religious book store as planned to pick up an imported German Advent Calendar for Sophia, but fingers crossed will get there today. Do not have it together this year at all.

Wow, a family stateroom!! Does this mean room for some DIS friends??? That was a great way to take care of wonderful guests - looking forward to seeing lots of photos.

Okay...going back to catch up some more.

p.s. Rosie Grace is curled up next to me on the over-stuffed rocking chair and for reasons unknown to me I am ALLERGIC to her! One of the reasons we have Maltese is because I have severe allergies and they do not have dander or fur, but have hair. All I can figure out is that being in the PuppyMill for 4 or 5 years, she had no baths, no Vet care and horrible nutrition, so has terribly dry skin. It must cause something that triggers my allergies and asthma - have been practically living on Benadryl since last Saturday. Rosie Grace has been here a week tonight - she LOVES Sophia and the rest of the family - likes to be where the action is happening. Very sweet, happy furbaby and we all love her already ....now, if I can just stop sneezing!

 

[Minnie&Nana]

All caught up!! I cannot wait to see pics of the Family Stateroom!!

I'm so excited you and Tom will be back on the Dream so soon - and not expected which makes it all the more special.

Gee, breakfast at WGP's? You two are really branching out this time!

How many days now until you board that plane?? (and have all those yummy snacks!)

I am really trying to find a way to be there for maybe 3 ngts this summer so we can finally meet Going to ask a friend about renting DVC points.

Hope Tom is feeling much better.

 

[jenseib]

I am so glad that Pixie is on gurad of everything and everyone....she look ferocious! I woudn't want to mess with her.
That pinapple dish look so good.
I think we are going to bake our Christmas cookies this week. I am more lazy as I get older. I don't make many, and the cut out kind are now really easy for me....I buy a box of 72 from Gordons (a food store) and they are precut into 2 shapes...and I just have to bake and frost.....and they taste just as good or even better than the ones I used to make from scratch.

 

[dizneeat]

for getting the Palo reserverations I know you really wanted. Sorry Tom's sick...hope he feels better soon. And Pixie is so cute!

You know me well! I really wanted Palo for the night of the Pirate Party - I am not a huge fan of the Pirate menu, so Palo will be nice on that evening. It's not the most preferred time, but it will do!

Tom's still sick, the doctor has ordered another week of sickleave.

Pixie is our princess! And as you can see, she is acting like one.

Oooh 50 ft more room is certainly a nice upgrade!
Hmm I have a feeling the door decorations might include a little blue alien?

That Pineapple Chicken looks great. I love the presentation! I had some of the best Chinese Food in Europe (France and Holland)!

I'm glad you FINALLY got your reservations for the extra activities on the cruise. I hope you keep the Remy reservation....I really want to see what it's like!

Pixie is so cute. Tell Tom I hope he gets better soon. I'm sure Nurse Pixie will make him feel better in no time!

How did you guess the influence of that little blue alien? Tom has had some fun ideas and he even is in our cruise logo!
We had the choice of booking a stateroom in our first choice category on a lower deck OR taking the family stateroom - there was not much price difference so we went for the extra space one!

Still torn about Remy. As it is right now I am holding on to the reservation. I have looked at the menu a few times and it isn't really pulling me in ...... we'll see!

Karin, Please tell Tom Mick and I hope he gets to feeling better soon. Looks like Pixie has everything under control taking care of him! Mick was home this week for the Thanksgiving holiday, while I had to go to work (due to my new employment I have no vacation time made up) and our Claire woke him up every morning so far bringing him her tweeting bird toy!

I am glad you finally got your Palo reservations, I know you would have missed getting to eat there. What excursion did you book for CC day?

Sorry you had to work while Mick was home for Thanksgiving. But I am sure he took good care of you once you got home.
It's fun to see how cats all over the world are the same, demanding to be entertained and waking you up!

There is a seasonal "cruise" around Castaway Cay that looked interesting and which I booked. Not sure if we will go through with it though as it is about 2 hours long and midday. Due to the "fun" site malfunction we lost the chance to book the more convenient morning time cruise.

Oh, I hope that Tom feels better soon!

Thanks for sharing the pics from your DLR trip (and sorry I haven't been around lately). Love, love, love your plans for the February trip!

Thanks for thinking of Tom!
I am glad you liked the pics from DLRP. I wish I had taken more, but it was raining on and off the second day and I didn't want to get my camera too wet.
We are pretty happy with our February plans so far, even though we realized there is not much WDW time left, but at least we can fit in about 3 days in which we can go to the parks.

 

[dizneeat]

I can't wait to get EoS in DLRP, we missed out on it this year in WDW

Your plans for Feb sound great and yay for DCL system back up and running. You should defo give Remy a try as it is a real dining experience

Sorry Tom's not feeling well, hope he gets better soon Too cute that Pixie is looking after him too

The new EoS at the Disney Village is really nice. The sandwiches are pretty good too!

Did you go to Remy during your honeymoon? Did you like it? Can't wait to read all about it.
I am holding on to the ressie for now, but still not convinced. Maybe you can convince me!

Pixie is taking good care of him, sleeping on the bed next to him. She actually gets more sleep than he does!

I hope Tom feels better soon, but I am sure he will start to with Pixie (who is too darn cute) to help.

Glad to hear that the problems with reservations have got worked out.

He's on his second round of Antibiotics and we hope he gets better pretty soon.
Nurse Pixie is giving herself a lot of naptimes next to him.

I hope Tom is on the mend by now. Your Pixie looks so much like one of our kitties!

We really hope that he is back to his old self pretty soon too! How fun to hear that our Pixie has a "twin". What is your kitty cat's name?

Trying to catch up again. Starting read this page...hoping Tom is feeling better...Pxie is adorable as always!!!

LOVE Tom's Advent wreath - we cannot find such things around here, but sure wish I could. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent and I don't even have an Advent wreath ready. Also, did not get to the religious book store as planned to pick up an imported German Advent Calendar for Sophia, but fingers crossed will get there today. Do not have it together this year at all.

Wow, a family stateroom!! Does this mean room for some DIS friends??? That was a great way to take care of wonderful guests - looking forward to seeing lots of photos.

Okay...going back to catch up some more.

p.s. Rosie Grace is curled up next to me on the over-stuffed rocking chair and for reasons unknown to me I am ALLERGIC to her! One of the reasons we have Maltese is because I have severe allergies and they do not have dander or fur, but have hair. All I can figure out is that being in the PuppyMill for 4 or 5 years, she had no baths, no Vet care and horrible nutrition, so has terribly dry skin. It must cause something that triggers my allergies and asthma - have been practically living on Benadryl since last Saturday. Rosie Grace has been here a week tonight - she LOVES Sophia and the rest of the family - likes to be where the action is happening. Very sweet, happy furbaby and we all love her already ....now, if I can just stop sneezing!

I am glad you like Tom's advent's wreath. He picked it out himself . I did take a photo of mine too, but still have to download it and put it up on photobucket - hopefully by the weekend .......

Sorry about the allergies! But it looks like Rosie Grace is making it up to you by being super sweet. You are such a wonderful person for rescueing her.
How fun to read that she loves Sophia, who came up with that sweet name for her.

 

[dizneeat]

All caught up!! I cannot wait to see pics of the Family Stateroom!!

I'm so excited you and Tom will be back on the Dream so soon - and not expected which makes it all the more special.

Gee, breakfast at WGP's? You two are really branching out this time!

How many days now until you board that plane?? (and have all those yummy snacks!)

I am really trying to find a way to be there for maybe 3 ngts this summer so we can finally meet Going to ask a friend about renting DVC points.

Hope Tom is feeling much better.

being all caught up!

I cannot wait to get on board the DREAM again and to see the Family staterooms.
Here's a link to the Disney site, so you can have a peek. http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/s...uxe-family-oceanview-stateroom-with-verandah/

Oh, yes, we wanted to try something really WILD for breakfast the day we get back on the DREAM, so WPE is as "wild" as we can do!

And we are exactly 81 days out!! A little over 11 weeks to go - time just flys by!

I am so glad that Pixie is on gurad of everything and everyone....she look ferocious! I woudn't want to mess with her.
That pinapple dish look so good.
I think we are going to bake our Christmas cookies this week. I am more lazy as I get older. I don't make many, and the cut out kind are now really easy for me....I buy a box of 72 from Gordons (a food store) and they are precut into 2 shapes...and I just have to bake and frost.....and they taste just as good or even better than the ones I used to make from scratch.

No, you better not mess with our attack cat!

You know what ...... Tom and I used to make a lot of Christmas cookies, but for the last few years we have always gone with buying them.
The confectioner we usually buy our cakes from has a wonderful array of Christmas cookies and Stollen and we just buy from him. No kitchen to clean up, no burnt cookies ....
Good girl for doing your own - but then you have a HUGE help, sweet little Claire!

 

[dizneeat]

Just a little update!

First off, let me say thank you for all your well wishes for Tom. He is still on sickleave (second week now) after visiting the doctor again on Monday. He still coughs a lot and gets tired VERY easily and climbing the two sets of stairs in our house still gets him out of breath, but we are hopeful that he will be back to health pretty soon. He had some tests done and they came back with fine results, so it really is a VERY bad cold.

Now, as I mentioned in some earlier post, Nurse Pixie is taking good care of him and here she is all tired from a long day's work.

And needless to say that she checks the shopping too!

and yes, that IS a Publix bag! But I use my Disney ones too!


Okay, on to trip planning.

We booked our car this weekend. We thought long and hard about where to book. There is AutoEurope, which has very reasonable prices, but you do not know which rental car company your car will be from. Now we usually end up with Dollar and while their cars are perfectly fine, when we arrive later in the evening they are usually out of the category we have booked and we had to downgrade twice because we didn't like the "upgrade" minibus.
So this time we compared prices and since Hertz was only 20€ more, we stuck with it.
I filled in the online form and we prepaid and I get the confirmation and it is around 25€ more expensive than what we had originally agreed on. Turns out there is a mistake on their website, which put our pick up time so far back we had to pay for another few hours.
Cancelled right away and tried again the next day and voila it worked like a charm. We now have our car booked and all I still need to do is arrange for our Owners Locker to be delivered to POR when we arrive.
Otherwise we are pretty much set for our February trip!

80 days and a few hours from now we will be boarding that plane to Orlando! A little over 11 more weeks and we will be on our way!

 

[annmarieda]

Pixie is so cute. Reminds me of my kitty. They have similar markings.

 

[dizneeat]

Tom has made another advent's calendar for you all to enjoy!

Now, since we had a few misunderstandings last year, here is a little instruction.
There are 25 "doors" which represent the 25 days in December. Every day you may open the door with the number that corresponds with the day given.
All doors before that ...... you are very welcome to open again and again. Doors for days still in the future - no, no, you do not open them!

Now enjoy the calendar!

Click here for the Foodie ADVENT'S CALENDAR!

 

[kmrein]

Love the advent calendar!

We have two cats, named Roxie and Velma (after characters in the musical Chicago). Pixie looks so much like our Roxie, the same markings around the face and everything. And, Roxie also loves to check out our groceries.

Hope you are staying healthy and Tom is getting the rest he needs to be back to health soon.

 

[dvc4life]

Ah, that advent calendar is so cute!!!!!

We used to get an advent calendar every year from my grandma B when we were kids at Thanksgiving so we would have it to do come December 1st. That is one of the great memories of my Grandma that I have. And I miss her greatly.

So, thanks for putting up this calendar.

 

[mrp4352]

FWIW, If you haven't been to Remy before, it's worth going for the experience! That was the absolute highlight of my trip last January (the description is in the link below). The service is amazing, but I never felt uncomfortable. Before hand, I thought the menu was a little scary, but ended up loving just about everything (ok, I just liked the fish, but I normally don't like the fish at all - and I'd get it again just for the heavenly gnucchi that came with it!).

Oh, and the homemade marshmellows...

MMMmmmm, the cheese selection...

And don't forget the Colette!

 

[jenseib]

speaking of advent calendars, Claire is really enjoying her daily chocolate! And she is NOT sharing with her MOM!

 

[dvc4life]

Only day 2 and I am loving this advent calendar. Thank you so much Tom for doing it and Karin for posting it! Brings a smile to my face every day!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Karin (and Tom)! Your future cruise is off to a good start! Sorry the Palo and excursion ressies have been a pain.

Your advent wreath is nice - we do something like that on Sundays for the children in Sunday School during December. Do you light one candle each week?

Thank you Tom for the Advent Calendar! So Fun!

 

[dizneeat]

Pixie is so cute. Reminds me of my kitty. They have similar markings.

She really is a diva. The lady that runs the cat hotel where she stayed last summer called her "the Queen" as she was quite fussy about everything.

I tell you, she is one spoiled kitty!

Love the advent calendar!

We have two cats, named Roxie and Velma (after characters in the musical Chicago). Pixie looks so much like our Roxie, the same markings around the face and everything. And, Roxie also loves to check out our groceries.

Hope you are staying healthy and Tom is getting the rest he needs to be back to health soon.

I am glad you like the calendar! Tom takes great pride in making it every year!
How fun that Pixie looks like your Roxie and that she likes to check the groceries too! We nearly fell over laughing when she tried to "crawl" inside the bag.

Since you asked for Tom, he went to the doctors on Friday and is off for another week. He has now developed asthma. NO fun!

Ah, that advent calendar is so cute!!!!!

We used to get an advent calendar every year from my grandma B when we were kids at Thanksgiving so we would have it to do come December 1st. That is one of the great memories of my Grandma that I have. And I miss her greatly.

So, thanks for putting up this calendar.

I am so glad you like the calendar!
We always used to have at least one advent's calendar when we were kids. My mum made one for each of us and she would tie little sweet surprises to every date. I wish I still had that calendar.
And how fun to hear that your Grandma did that for you too!

FWIW, If you haven't been to Remy before, it's worth going for the experience! That was the absolute highlight of my trip last January (the description is in the link below). The service is amazing, but I never felt uncomfortable. Before hand, I thought the menu was a little scary, but ended up loving just about everything (ok, I just liked the fish, but I normally don't like the fish at all - and I'd get it again just for the heavenly gnucchi that came with it!).

Oh, and the homemade marshmellows...

MMMmmmm, the cheese selection...

And don't forget the Colette!

Thanks for the link - I read your report and showed your review of Remy to Tom. For the time being we will still keep the reservation, but are still discussing whether we should keep it or not.
My problem is that we go to France (the one in Europe ) too often and have had a few really nice upscale meals there and I do not want to be disappointed, so we need to get "familiar" with the "americanised" menu I guess.
We'll see, but having your report helped a lot, THANKS!!