"Here I go again! On my own??" Solo in May 2017 PTR **updated 4/29

[ariane37]

I know what everyone wants to know first.

Did I switch my dates or not??

The answer is no. No, I was not able to make the date switch work

I'm still trying to figure out a way to get down there for the Pandora preview, though!!

the 19th and 22nd, please!

I'm coming mainly for Flower and Garden festival, so I'm going to kick things off with Epcot! I am looking forward to stuffing my face!

OK, I'll talk now! I did the face stuffing a few days ago lol and you will have a blast! In fact I can't wait to do it again in May..............

Fleur de Lys (France)
- tarte a l'onion alsacienne
- macaron chocolate framboise

Since I plan on doing a dining report I won't go into detail on your PTR, but,
OMG BOTH OF THESE ARE AMAZING
Can I add something else to your Epcot to do list? The Egg-stravaganza! Except you may have to do it twice so you get a "prize" for both X and L lol. Have you heard of it? It's basically an Easter egg hunt all over WS, lots of fun for kids and grown-up kids! I may have just done it and I may plan on doing it again in May so I can get another "prize"

 

[xlsm]

the 19th and 22nd, please!

OK, I'll talk now! I did the face stuffing a few days ago lol and you will have a blast! In fact I can't wait to do it again in May..............


Since I plan on doing a dining report I won't go into detail on your PTR, but,
OMG BOTH OF THESE ARE AMAZING
Can I add something else to your Epcot to do list? The Egg-stravaganza! Except you may have to do it twice so you get a "prize" for both X and L lol. Have you heard of it? It's basically an Easter egg hunt all over WS, lots of fun for kids and grown-up kids! I may have just done it and I may plan on doing it again in May so I can get another "prize"

I was literally having this conversation with myself during the will I/won't I phase, because I had said I'd tell you first if I was able to switch...

- I'm going to facebook message Ariane as soon as I swich.
- Wait, should I? She's on her trip.
-Oh, she won't care! She won't check the messages if she's busy, so I won't be interrupting. If she checks it, it'll be b/c she has some downtime.
-But what if I AM interrupting something??
- No, it'll be fine.

Etc, etc...

I really, really want to make the 19-22 work!

I'm glad to hear those two things are good!! They jumped out at me almost immediately when going over menus.

And the egg hunt is definitely on my to do list...but I won't be getting the egg for my kids, it'll be for ME

 

[ariane37]

I'm going to facebook message Ariane as soon as I swich.
- Wait, should I? She's on her trip.

LOL! I did check your PTR while I was away to see if you'd made a switch, but at that time you hadn't decided yet

 

[xlsm]

Mini update...

Pandora looks like it's officially off the table for me permanently because...

My Odyssey of the Mind team is headed to World Competition!!

We performed at state competition yesterday (terrible day to have that, right? April fool's day? Who planned THAT?). Our long term problem scores were ok, lower than at regionals, and we performed early in the day (8:30am...we rode the bus down that morning, we got there with only 5 minutes to spare ), so I figured scores would get higher as the day went on, because the judges would adjust their scoring as they saw more problems being performed.
We went on to the spontaneous part of the competition, and when that was finished, we watched some other teams perform while we waited.

Our middle school had three teams qualify for state, so we all rode together. After the third team had finished, we decided to go ahead and make our way home. We had others from the school district there to collect anything we might have won.

The whole bus ride, the coaches from the other teams and I were talking...we've all been doing this for several years. We of course want the kids to move on, but we're all so tired! Imagining a bus ride from where we live all the way up to Michigan doesn't sound like the best time ever, you know?

We arrived back at school, and texts were coming in from friends about awards...kids are getting their stuff and getting off the bus, and I hear, "You're going to Worlds!!" X comes running over to the bus and says, "MOM!!" My co-coach, who drove down herself with our props, is texting me with exclamation marks to call her...

My team placed second at state. I could not believe it.

So, no Pandora for me. I will definitely not have time...because I will be heading to Michigan at the end of May.

We're all kind of in shock and overwhelmed! Our scores for the spontaneous part of competition must have been really high...they haven't been posted yet. Now we're all regretting not staying for the award ceremony to get the score sheet!

Crazy.

Today I'm recovering from the past two days (Friday was Fun Night...I worked the cotton candy machine non-stop for three hours, I was a mess!), but I will have a trip related update coming next week!

28 more days til Disney World!

Happy Sunday!! Enjoy the last little bit of your weekend, Friends!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Congrtas!

 

[coloredimage]

Congrats! That's great for the kids! (even though I 100% understand about the exhaustion!)

 

[kittylady1972]

My Odyssey of the Mind team is headed to World Competition!!


CONGRATS! Very exciting and best of luck!!!

 

[missangelalexis]

WOW!! Congrats!!

 

[OregonMomToWDW]

Congratulations! Sorry no Pandora, but it will still be there.

 

[Raeven]

Mini update...

Pandora looks like it's officially off the table for me permanently because...

My Odyssey of the Mind team is headed to World Competition!!

Sorry about Pandora but congrats!

28 more days til Disney World!

 

[xlsm]

Congrtas!

Congrats! That's great for the kids! (even though I 100% understand about the exhaustion!)

My Odyssey of the Mind team is headed to World Competition!!


CONGRATS! Very exciting and best of luck!!!

WOW!! Congrats!!

Congratulations! Sorry no Pandora, but it will still be there.

Sorry about Pandora but congrats!

Thank you so much everyone!!!
My co-coach and I met with our district representative today, went over our World packet, found out how much money we have to raise (it's a LOT ), etc...Then we took the kids their big trophy and medals and took pictures at school. My eyes are half-closed in the picture and I look so weird!!

If you're curious at all, OM scores are divided into three sections:
- long term, which is the big problem they have to solve. It includes props, costumes, and a skit usually. It has a very long score sheet with about 15 different areas being scored.

- style, which is the "flair" and creativity the kids put into their sets/script/costumes/props...just the stuff that makes their solution extra special. Our problem had two required style elements: Our team sign had to be an extension of our set somehow (our theme was food related, each kid was a different breakfast food item, so our team sign was a menu), the appearance of one of our cars (our problem included building three cars that moved independently...that's the simplest explanation!), and two team decided elements. We picked the humor in our script and our costumes.

- spontaneous, which can be three things: verbal, hands on, or a combo. This is completely independent of their long term performance, and takes place in a separate area. Coaches are not allowed in, just the kids, and they are not allowed to talk about the problem, so no other teams can hear and have an advantage. Sometimes they are asked to build something that performs a task out of random materials, or to complete a series of tasks using only body language or non-verbal communication, or to create a story one sentence at a time, things like that.

We ended up scoring second in long term, second in style, and first in spontaneous, which led to our second place finish overall.

Tomorrow I will come back and post my next Disney trip update!! Thank you all again for the congratulations - the team is very excited!!

 

[xlsm]

Gooood Morning!!


​

Finally a Disney update! I feel like I've been pretty light on Disney things in this PTR, which is kind of a bummer since this is a DISNEY PRE-TRIP REPORT, right??

I've been up to my eyes in THIS:



and feeling a little overwhelmed, so I need a dose of Disney magic this morning!

Chapter Seven: Storming the Castle
​

Before I lay out my "plans" for this second full park day (if you were with me in real life right now, "plans" would be in air-quotes...you'll see why in a minute!), I have some fun trip things happening!

This morning I did my pre-order for BOG breakfast...and now I'm starving. I picked the open faced bacon and egg sandwich and the Master's Cupcake (I may end up taking that off, it was a spontaneous addition!).
My magic band shipped on Friday...I can't even remember if I customized it I literally have no idea what color band is going to show up in the box. I've decided not to go look on MDE and just be surprised, lol!!

I have a Stitch Fix shipment on the way, too, and I'm hoping there's going to be something good in there I can use for my trip, because I realized last night that I really need to go shopping because I don't think I have anything summer appropriate to wear! Everything has been so busy lately, that trip related things that I would normally be more on top of are being forgotten instead. This weekend might be a shopping weekend.

The shirt I ordered from Happily Ever Tees also shipped. Lots of happy mail on the horizon! I'm really, really excited about it!



This picture is from their instagram account, but this is the exact shirt I ordered. There were a couple different color options, but I liked this dark teal one because the print is supposed to be silver metallic! It's going to be my first day at Epcot shirt

I have another shirt from them that I bought last year, a 3/4 sleeve raglan with hot pink sleeves that says, "Make a Wish, and do as dreamers do, and all our Wishes will come true" (you may have seen it if you read my December report, I think I wore it on our last MK day)
I plan to wear that one on the day I'm getting ready to talk to you about!!

Ok...



My second full park day will be spent at the Magic Kingdom!! This is no surprise given the chapter title I guess, LOL!!

Why did I say my "plans" for this day are air quoted??



Because I don't really have any.

Yes, you read that right. After those crazy packed to the brim arrival and Epcot days, I have basically nothing for this day. I mean, I have fast passes made...Seven Dwarfs in the morning and Big Thunder and Splash for the afternoon. But outside of that, and of course Haunted Mansion



I'm not sure what I'm going to do on this day! But, here is what I would like to cram in!
In no particular order...

- new opening show
- carousel of progress
- people mover
- Buzz
- Space Mountain *only if I rope drop Tomorrowland, otherwise I will skip it. I don't love it anymore, because I'm old and it beats me up!
- Dumbo
- Pete's Silly Sideshow
- 7DMT (fast pass)
- Little Mermaid
- Philharmagic
- Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire
- Haunted Mansion
- Country Bears
- Big Thunder (fast pass)
- Splash Mountain (fast pass)
- Festival of Fantasy
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Wishes
-Tangled lantern photo op

So, obviously I have things I want to do, but I don't really have a concrete plan of attack. I'm going to kind of wing it! Looking at the list, what I will *probably* do is:

- Watch the welcome show
- go ride pirates
- haunted mansion
- small world
- fast pass for 7DMT
- and then ???

I'll just fill in the holes as I go along! My fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain sandwich the Festival of Fantasy parade, so those three things kind of take care of themselves.

I will probably take a break after the parade and go back to hang out at the resort for awhile, and then come back in the evening for Wishes.

That's about it! I'm looking forward to this particular park day, because I don't think I've ever entered a park with such a loose plan. Even when we go as a family, on our less planned days I'm at least certain of what side of the park we're going to start on.

What I AM sure of is that I'm going to have such a magical time in the kingdom

​

 

[missangelalexis]

Love the shirt you bought!

I think it's nice to have such loose plans! You obviously know what you want to accomplish so thats all you need! Sounds like it will be a great day

 

[MeghanEmily]

I love the shirt you ordered!! <3 I'm super jealous - would be even more jealous if I were actually going to Flower and Garden because that shirt would be a must-have...though I guess I'm also jealous you're going to Flower and Garden and I'm not...

I think it's awesome to have that flexibility. That's kind of my goal for our Disneymoon, too. I'll have my ADRs and FP+ booked, but leave some room for spontaneity! You've got a pretty hefty goal list for that day, but I bet it'll be super easy to get through it when you only have to worry about keeping track of yourself and what you want to do!

And I don't think I said so earlier, but congrats to you and the team for your big win! (I'd consider 2nd place a serious win when it means you're going to worlds!) I'm sure it'll be stressful and you'll all be pretty drained, but what an AMAZING opportunity. You must be very proud

 

[coloredimage]

I love that shirt! HET shirts are just so adorable I shockingly think I don't own any yet.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Super cute tee!

 

[evre13]

I have recently fallen down the HET instagram rabbit hole; I want all of them.

 

[Raeven]

This morning I did my pre-order for BOG breakfast...and now I'm starving. I picked the open faced bacon and egg sandwich and the Master's Cupcake (I may end up taking that off, it was a spontaneous addition!).

We scheduled a "lunch" just for soup and a cupcake

The shirt I ordered from Happily Ever Tees also shipped. Lots of happy mail on the horizon! I'm really, really excited about it!

It's so cute!

 

[thumper*]

Just stumbled on to your PTR. Was surprised in your last TR when SIL asked for help w Scotland trip. Now MIL is scared to fly to Disney but not Scotland. What a peach. You'll enjoy your Disney trip more w/o her along to spoil things. looking forward to hearing your plans.

 

[kittylady1972]

Love your "plans" for Magic Kingdom. I have to say for my solo trip it was nice to just walk into that park without a plan. I don't even think I had ADRs when I went, but I think that was pre FP+ anyway. I'm totally with you on skipping Space Mt if necessary because it beats me up as well, but I usually ride it "for the children" every trip.