"Hurry & fly away to Neverland before it's too late!" Trip wrap up page 30

[wigdoutdismom]

Hi Vanessa!
Just getting caught up! Love your tree, so pretty. I put up an artificial one too.
Your nutcrackers are way cool. Is your house the white one? If so, you have one awesome house!
Danielle made one very sweet though with the mask creepy mouse. Would love to see some of her performance. Do you have it taped?
Here's a suggestion for your next trip.
Book Rose & Crown late.
Sit on the patio.
You have a terrific seat for Illuminations!
and maybe leave Tena at home.

Oh not sure if you know but the party has started, come and join us!

 

[vamassey1]

I'm here! Still need to finish catching up. But just wanted to say that I feel your frustration with doing all the planning and then it getting messed up in the end. Don't like when that happens.

Thanks so much for joining in! I knew people on the Dis would understand the frustration of plans being messed with. And of course all the work we put into planning.

I love the pick a pearl thing!! I got mine mounted on a ring since DH had already bought me a pearl necklace and earrings on a previous anniversary.

A ring would be great for Michelle now that's she's pretty much finished growing, but not for Danielle.


ok, going to finish catching up...........

Post more once you're caught up. At lest now you now I'm not some crazy person...right?

Hi Vanessa!
Just getting caught up! Love your tree, so pretty. I put up an artificial one too.
Your nutcrackers are way cool. Is your house the white one? If so, you have one awesome house!
Not my house, but the one across the street. My house faces the morning snow so it was pretty much already melted.
Danielle made one very sweet though with the mask creepy mouse. Would love to see some of her performance. Do you have it taped?

Due to the guest dancers we're not allowed to photograph of tape performances. I even got fussed at for taking those pictures of Danielle during the intermission. They threatened to take my camera.
Here's a suggestion for your next trip.
Book Rose & Crown late.
Sit on the patio.
You have a terrific seat for Illuminations!
and maybe leave Tena at home.

Sounds like a great idea, but this trip I have to bend for Dennis. Tena will not be coming but my sister Jada will be.

Oh not sure if you know but the party has started, come and join us!

I'm all joined up and even made the first page, just waiting for you to post an update and pictures!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Caught up! Looks like you had a pretty fun trip except for the cigarette parts. A long time ago before we decided to have kids, DH and I both smoked. I am so glad to not be chained to those things anymore.

I love your Christmas tree!! We finally finished the remodel of our home so next year we will get a normal sized tree. It is going to cost me a small fortune to fill up with ornaments! I'd love to get a collection of Disney ornaments.

 

[vamassey1]

Caught up! Looks like you had a pretty fun trip except for the cigarette parts. A long time ago before we decided to have kids, DH and I both smoked. I am so glad to not be chained to those things anymore.

I'm sure your lungs and son are very thankful.

I love your Christmas tree!! We finally finished the remodel of our home so next year we will get a normal sized tree. It is going to cost me a small fortune to fill up with ornaments! I'd love to get a collection of Disney ornaments.

Thanks! It took me years to fill our tree. I remember the year I had enough ornaments to decorate the front and the back (no one ever sees the back anyway) It was 1990. You can start on the collection of Disney ornaments in Feb!

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Thanks! It took me years to fill our tree. I remember the year I had enough ornaments to decorate the front and the back (no one ever sees the back anyway) It was 1990. You can start on the collection of Disney ornaments in Feb!

That's what I was thinking......hmmm, how many would I need to just cover the front and partial sides to start offf with?? Ours will be in a corner.

You are right!! I plan on getting our first ornament or set or ornaments on our trip this year.

 

[jordanyosh]

Where are the grapes or where is the smoking section.....

 

[vamassey1]

That's what I was thinking......hmmm, how many would I need to just cover the front partial sides to start offf with?? Ours will be in a corner.

I always say you can never have too many ornaments. Of course my family says I do.

You are right!! I plan on getting our first ornament or set or ornaments on our trip this year.

I love shopping for ornaments at the Christmas store in DTD and the one in Liberty Square. I would check the Disney Shopping web site for after Christmas sales. Last year we had a Disney Store in our mall. Sadly it closed and now I have to travel to New Orleans if I want to shop. I haven't been since the day we went to see the Christmas Carol train.

Where are the grapes or where is the smoking section.....

As you approach the big fountain that the girls are in look to the right. There is a sitting area with vines above it. GB has a great panoramic photo he posted on his latest update that shows the are. Hope that helps. I could point it out to you if we meet up on 2/17.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Great update! I didn't even notice notice the grape vines as I was blowing through the place. Sorry you lost your Illuminations digs. That stinketh! The plate on the wrong table cracked me up though. You gotta wonder what those people were thinking when they returned! I'm glad you enjoyed your time with Sis and Niece. Sounds like a great day at Epcot.

 

[vamassey1]

Great update! I didn't even notice notice the grape vines as I was blowing through the place. Sorry you lost your Illuminations digs. That stinketh! The plate on the wrong table cracked me up though. You gotta wonder what those people were thinking when they returned! I'm glad you enjoyed your time with Sis and Niece. Sounds like a great day at Epcot.

I don't think I would ever have noticed the grapes if Tena hadn't pointed them out. Just another one of those detail I need to slow down and see. I'm curious to see what they'll look like in February. Maybe they aren't there all the time? Tena and Bailey are coming for a visit tomorrow so I'm sure we'll do some laughing about the table and bus incident.

 

[vamassey1]

Okay it official I've paid off the trip and I'm past the 45 day mark, We're going to Disney!

I'm still having my doubts but as of now we're going. It's still a surprise trip for both Danielle and my niece Lauren. Lauren has only been to the World once and that was with us at Mardi Gras in 2004. We're not telling the girls for 2 reasons. First Danielle wants to be surprised. We watched Funniest Home Videos one night when they showed the videos of kids being surprised by trips and she loved it. The second reason is due to school. Right now Danielle has perfect attendance and wants to keep it that way, so does the school. If I don't tell her then their won't be any fight and she won't be able to let it leak ahead of time why she's missing 2 1/2 days of school. They will have the Monday and Tuesday off for Mardi Gras. She would only have a 1/2 day of school on the Wednesday. Yes I do fell guilty she will be missing school but not bad enough not to go. The child had perfect attendance last year, her 3rd grade year and for Kindergarten. And yes I will be writting an excuse explaining she missed due to illness. For our New Years trip in 2006 the kids missed 3 days of school. When I planned the trip they weren't going to miss any. Christmas break was cut short due to missing 2 weeks of school because of Hurricane Katrina. I told Danielle's 1st grade teacher and she was okay with it. Michelle's science teacher and gym teacher both told me not to say anything and just write an excuse saying she had been ill.

We haven't figured out how we're going to surprise the girls yet. We plan to start driving on Friday Feb 12th and get as far as Tallahassee. Right now Jada is planning to drive too, but may switch to flying on the Saturday. She plans on leaving before us and I really don't like the idea of her driving back alone. We're booked under the stay for 4 get 3 free at Port Orleans French Quarter! I'm beside myself with excitement. We're finally not staying at a Value. It was so hard to convince Dennis to not stay Value. His reasoning is we're not in the room enough to enjoy it. But for this trip the difference between Value and Moderate was only about $200. More than worth it to upgrade. I have since priced to see if it would be much cheaper to switch to the new deal but the saving is even smaller than it was before to switch to Value with the new deal. Jada is staying Value so she actually will be saving to switch. She was booked at Pop but had to switch to Sports for the savings. Right now if we both drive we'll either check the girls out of get them together after school and tell them we're leaving right now. If Jada flies then we won't tell Danielle they're going and surprise her when we meet up at Epcot on Sunday. Jada wouldn't tell Lauren until she woke her up to get ready for the airport and still not tell her we're there until Sunday. Right now I've been able to keep the secret but Dennis and Michelle think I'll spill the beans because I like to talk about Disney too much.

Itinerary.

Friday 12th start driving to Disney. Spend the night in Tallahassee.
Saturday 13th arrive at POFQ around noon. Check in take boat to DTD. We have a dinner ADR for TRex. After dinner head to MK
Sunday 14th Epcot at rope drop with lunch at Princess Storybook Dining. Hopefully catch Illuminations
Monday 15th Mk at rope drop 2 p.m. BBB appt for the girls and dinner at 1900 Park Fare
Tuesday 16 AK at rope drop, lunch at Yak & Yeti and afternoon at DHS. We're hoping to catch Fantasmic this night.
Wednesday 17 this day we'll split up. Jada and Lauren are going to spend the day at DHS and have dinner at Mama Melrosa. We'll all have breakfast at Chef Mickey's first. We'll head to Epcot and dinner at Teppan Edo.
Thursday 18 AK all day with dinner at 'Ohana's
Friday 19 Jada and Lauren will head back this day and we'll spend the day at DHS with dinner at Cape May's.
Saturday 20 last day in the parks. Today is MK all day with dinner at Tony's. If we haven't caught Spectro or Wishes they will be a must.
Sunday 21st is our sad day, the drive back home.

Michelle is in the know and ever so excited. She usually complains that we stay too long but since she missed out on the last trip she's not complaining this time. She my co-planner right now. Her main goal is to take a picture with Belle in her yellow dress. Belle is her favorite character. She would love to be Belle at Disney World. I told this to Belle (in the blue dress) at CRT in 2006. Her response was "But there's only one me". Gotta love it when they stay in character. Right now the planning binder is hiding in her room, which she actually cleaned today! Normally we refer to it as "the black hole".

That's it for now, it's time to go pick up Danielle at Jada's.

 

[cjackearl]

Looks like a great itinerary! You've got a good mix of togetherness and splitting up. It should help with family harmony.

I'm looking forward to hearing how you're going to surprise the girls.

Hurray for having the trip paid off!!

 

[vamassey1]

Looks like a great itinerary! You've got a good mix of togetherness and splitting up. It should help with family harmony.

That's the plan. The girls play together well, but do like doing different things. Jada and Lauren don't like thrill rides. Danielle loves trill rides. Having our own room to go back to will be great!

I'm looking forward to hearing how you're going to surprise the girls.

Any ideas?

Hurray for having the trip paid off!!

Paid for is always good!

 

[vamassey1]

Before I get started on this day I just want to put another disclaimer out there. Sometime during the day Tena found out about the Guest with Disabilities Pass. I don't know if it was at Epcot or at the Resort during one of her smoke breaks. Well of course she carries her note from her doctor with her everywhere she goes. She was going to get her pass as soon as we got to the Magic Kingdom. Although this pass would help with all the rides she go do it wouldn't help with the really big trill rides. Tena did not want to be zigging and zagging anymore. Her idea touring plan would be to go to one area and do everything in that area and then move onto the next. So with that in mind we headed to the Magic Kingdom for park day 6.

We did our usual routine of breakfast in the food court, visit to the store and into the bus line. We hit the park before the opening show, bus since we had already seen it we lined up all the way to the right in the shade by the stroller rental area. Tena hit Guest Services and got her pass. One the park opened we headed down Main Street to Fantasyland. Today's goal was to hit the things we missed on the first day. Since we were let in early we were held up again inside the castle. This gave us a chance to see some of the mosaics. Once that rope dropped we headed into Fantasyland. Of course we were distracted from hitting the rides by this lady.





Then we were distracted by Tinker Bell's Treasures. We got in there a little too late to be part of waking Tink. I didn't realize they were doing this again and I'm real sorry we missed it. While waiting for Tena and Bailey to finish shopping I took this of Danielle.




And this.






We once more started towards the rides but were distracted again. The girls had to give the Sword in the Stone a shot.



With pass in hand Tena felt she was in control of what we did, so her first choice was . . . Cinderella's Carrousel. Of course I don't do round and round so I gathered the girl's cards and headed to BTM to get us some FPs for later. I don't remember the exact order of the rides but we hit them one after another with a stop in Sir Mickey's for some more shopping. We did Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh using Tena's pass. We didn't need to use the pass for Snow White or Philaharmagic. Even though Tena didn't want to do anymore shows since they put her to sleep she did really like Philarmagic.



One of the goals of the day was to meet Ariel. Of course Bailey wanted to meet her in her fins since this was something new for her. Danielle wanted to meet her just so she could wet while waiting in line. This line moves so slow. Of course I did the waiting, the girls played and Tena had a smoke break. Knowing Danielle would get wet I packed her a change of clothes in her backpack.

While waiting.










Continued . . .

 

[vamassey1]

Although I had brought clothes for Danielle, I didn't really want her to get too wet. Bailey on the other hand I wasn't really worried about. She really didn't want to get wet like Danielle. She would play in the jets but not in risky way Danielle would. Saying that I was some what surprised, as was Bailey by how wet she ended up getting. When I called them over to stand in line and inspect them poor Bailey was completely wet on her bottom half.





Of course while in that long line I had spoken with the lady in front of me. She was doing the same thing I was, waiting in line while her child played. Once I had realized how wet Bailey was I asked her how her underware felt, thinking I would offer her Danielle's. The lady in front of me and I got a huge laugh at her response. "Tight".

Finally it was time to meet Ariel.







When we finally exited the grotto Tena was enjoying a frozen drink. Of course that meant we all needed one. With drinks in hand we headed to the Tea Cups. Of course Danielle once again wouldn't ride. That ride is reserved for riding with her Dad.

Pictures taken while Bailey rode the Tea Cups.








Fantasyland Pictures












Next update. . . will we finally get Danielle on the Haunted Mansion?

 

[DisneyJo]

Your trip plans sound great and how wonderful you'll be staying in a mod

Sorry to be nosy but what is Tena's disability? It sounds as though the pass worked well and I love what Bailey said about her wet knickers, too funny

 

[vamassey1]

Your trip plans sound great and how wonderful you'll be staying in a mod

We're so excited!

Sorry to be nosy but what is Tena's disability? It sounds as though the pass worked well and I love what Bailey said about her wet knickers, too funny

In 2004 she was hit from behind by an 18 wheeler at a stop light. She ended up needed to 2 surgeries and had some bones fused in her neck. At first it was real bad. She still can't really turn her head from left to right and she's not suppose to lift anything heavy and nothing above her head. I'm of the opinion she's doing great now and not really disabled, but she disagrees. Basically from the Disney point of view she shouldn't wait in a long line, she should keep moving at a moderate pace. We disagree on what we consider disabled. I'm a "I can" kind of person not "I can't".

 

[serrotak]

We are leaving town on Friday as well. Last time we went we drove to Tallahassee also. This time we wont be able to leave until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so my wife doesn't want to drive all the way there. She wants to stop around Pensacola. I want to go to Tallahassee, so we will see how everything goes while we are driving. Since Saturday is one our park days, I want to get there as early as possible.

 

[vamassey1]

We are leaving town on Friday as well. Last time we went we drove to Tallahassee also. This time we wont be able to leave until 4 or 5 in the afternoon, so my wife doesn't want to drive all the way there. She wants to stop around Pensacola. I want to go to Tallahassee, so we will see how everything goes while we are driving. Since Saturday is one our park days, I want to get there as early as possible.

Tallahassee might not be doable for us either. Michelle has a class that doesn't get until 3:30, so we won't be on the road until 4 too. DH doesn't want to drive too long on the first night. Michelle says she do the driving. It will be nice to have 3 drivers.

 

[vamassey1]

I got Mickey Mail today!

Also the Belle costume I ordered for Danielle came today. It's hanging up here at work. It's the red and gold gown. She was sitting over my shoulder when I opened the email from the Disney Store announcing the sale and assured me she would wear "that dress" at Disney and only at Disney.

 

[mom2rtk]

I got Mickey Mail today!

Also the Belle costume I ordered for Danielle came today. It's hanging up here at work. It's the red and gold gown. She was sitting over my shoulder when I opened the email from the Disney Store announcing the sale and assured me she would wear "that dress" at Disney and only at Disney.

YEAH! Enjoy every moment of it! I think she's around Katie's age, so our princess costume wearing days are numbered. I'm glad you get one more shot at it!