If we go any cheaper, Disney will have to start paying us to come!!! LAH LAH's PTR

[LAH LAH]

WHAT ABOUT TICKETS?​

I have always been intrigued by Disney's YES program. I started looking into it a few years ago as a way to save money on our trip, but we did packages instead. This year I really took a good look at the program and decided this will be the year we do it!!! Michael is going to take a photography class at Epcot while I accompany Elsa to Making Waves with a Marine Career, also at Epcot.

The kids are pretty excited about this opportunity! It makes me a little nervous to miss out on 3 hours of a park day, but I have no doubt that Disney rocks these classes, just like they do everything else. Elsa will be a couple weeks shy of her 13th birthday when we take this trip, so I am required to be a chaperone. I'm ok with it, but I am sure she would love to be independent on this one.

The most fun part of this is the price!!! We chose the 5 day premium package through YES. This includes 5 park days, park hoppers, and the Water Park Fun & More option. Through the YES program our total ticket price for all 3 of us is $595.14. The exact package purchased directly through Disney would have cost us $1153.40.

"Disney Math" tells us we are saving $558.26 This is why we call it "Disney Math": I would have never have bought the full premium package if it hadn't been the price it was. I would have purchased 5 basic park day tickets for a total of $801.95, but "Disney Math" makes it feel so good! As long as we are talking about "DM" it also applies to our airline tickets. Had we not had the Southwest credits we would have gone a cheaper route, most likely Airtran. I don't think I have ever paid more than $600 for our airfare in the past, but without the airline credits we would have paid close to a $1000 with Southwest.

But I like "DM" better! So let's add to our total, shall we? We are adding $558.26 to our $1,045.70 savings from airfare and lodging creating a wonderful new savings total of (drum roll please):

$1,603.96 (savings so far)​

Chase and Baby N in the tub. N's first time in the seat. He loved it!

Michael lettered in Volleyball! We're so excited for him!

Elsa and her best friend, Tess at All-County for band

Easton with his Valentines gift from Elsa

 

[LAH LAH]

Tut tut .

I had no idea how expensive it was to fly within the US when you pay full price. For $320 I could almost fly to Orlando from the UK during the off season!!

The Southwest deal really was amazing. Great spot.

I love how you talk! Great spot...I think I might start saying that!!

 

[LAH LAH]

WAIT, WHAT?!!​

So, Disney is seriously adding free fridges to every value resort room?




This is going to seriously amp up our breakfast options!​

 

[LAH LAH]

WONDERFUL NEWS!!!

We just found out that our little Noah Edward was freed for adoption today!

This was totally unexpected, and we were sure it would be a fight, but now all we have to do is wait for the adoption court date to make it official!



Here is my blog post about it ​

 

[Jennifer48]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

Congratulations! That is just awesome!!!

 

[LAH LAH]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Thank you!!!!

Congratulations! That is just awesome!!!

We are so shocked and terribly excited!!

 

[partyof2]

That is the best news!

So happy for you all and excited to finally see Noah and find out his name.

Congratulations to you all, praying your court date comes through ASAP.

P.S. I read Kelle Hampton too!

 

[littlezar]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Awesome news!! I knew I'd miss some posts since we had gone to Jersey for my brother's wedding (the 16th!) for a few days, but WOW that was fantastic to read!

 

[andapanda]

Subscribing because I love your "Disney Math"!

And also, I wanted to say congratulations with Noah. : What a cutie!

 

[LAH LAH]

That is the best news!

So happy for you all and excited to finally see Noah and find out his name.

Congratulations to you all, praying your court date comes through ASAP.

P.S. I read Kelle Hampton too!

Thank you!!! We are still trying to come down from the shock of it all. We thought it would be at least 6 months down the road. We are hoping for a May adoption date.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Awesome news!! I knew I'd miss some posts since we had gone to Jersey for my brother's wedding (the 16th!) for a few days, but WOW that was fantastic to read!

I hope you had fun at the wedding! I love celebrations!!

Subscribing because I love your "Disney Math"!

And also, I wanted to say congratulations with Noah. : What a cutie!

Disney Math = Happy to have you here!!

 

[LAH LAH]

Day 1​

So we had booked our flights so we would be flying non-stop to Orlando and arriving at the airport at 8:10pm. I started thinking about the dilemma of our tickets. I am going to have to pick up our tickets at Will Call, as we are getting our tickets through the YES program, and I started panicking about the time frame.

Elsa's class starts at 8:30am at EPCOT the day after we arrive and if we miss it every bit of savings is charged to our credit card. We don't plan to miss it, but we are relying on Disney's transportation to get to EPCOT. The buses start running to the parks 1 hour before the park opens. EPCOT opens at 9 on this particular day so we only have a half hour to make it to our class. It was cutting it a bit close for my liking, so I changed our flight. Thankfully, there was no extra fee incurred!

Maegan and the boys plan to drop us off at the airport so we can make our 12:50pm flight. This will not be a direct flight, but total travel time is only 5 hours so we will have an arrival time of 5:50pm. I expect it will take us an hour to get to the resort and check into our room.

Once we get settled we plan to hop a bus to one of the parks and grab our weeks worth of tickets from Will Call. This way, we will be ready to go the next morning without any extra stress!

Then back to POP for swimming and resort fun until it's time to go to sleep.

A short first day, but being prepared is always good!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, Monday I was here alone after the little boys went to sleep, as Michael and Elsa are having late practices for the High School play next weekend. I had watched all my DVR'd shows and came across Justin Bieber's Never Say Never movie on Netflix. I figured I would let it be background noise while I fiddled on the DIS boards.

Well, I enjoyed it...immensely.

Elsa has been going, going, going lately. She has been having 7-8am play practices for the Middle School play (The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe), then classes start at 8:20, ending at 3:15. She then has track practice from 3:25 until 5:30. Then she finishes her day with play practice for the High School play (West Side Story) from 5:30-9:30pm. I will be soooo happy when the High School play is over!

Wednesday the HS play practice was cancelled!!!!! After the boys went to sleep at 7pm we both kind of collapsed on the couch. I asked her if she wanted to watch the Bieber movie with me. She laughed at me and looked at me like I was ridiculous. I told her it was really good and she rolled her eyes at me. She's 12 and I am 37...she should be trying to convince ME to watch it, not the other way around. Hahahahaha

Well, long story short we watched it and she LOVED it! So when the dance part of play practice was cancelled again last night (the play director is pregnant with her first baby and due this week) she asked if we could PLEASE watch it again. We did, snuggled under the same blanket. That is until the final Madison Square Garden concert played. Then we got up and grooved and moved, and generally did our thang!

Michael peeked his head in once and looked at us like this: but we didn't care we danced and danced till we were out of breath.

Never say Never!

She's got the Bieber fever!

I had a lot of fun with her, but as much as I liked it I am not sure I can watch it a fourth time!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

I think you made the right choice changing the flights. Now you won't be nearly as stressed in the morning!

 

[Jennifer48]

What an insane schedule Elsa has!

I think you made a great decision changing your flights. Less stress = more relaxing vacation!

 

[LAH LAH]

I think you made the right choice changing the flights. Now you won't be nearly as stressed in the morning!

It took a while to "convince" the kids. I am so afraid we are going to somehow miss that 8:30 class, and then all my savings will be for naught!!! Hopefully this will fix the anxiety I am having over it!

What an insane schedule Elsa has!

I think you made a great decision changing your flights. Less stress = more relaxing vacation!

I didn't include her clarinet obligations in there. She is currently practicing for Solo Fest in between the acts during play practice. She fingers through the music there so as not to bother anyone, and then actually plays through it a few times every week. Her schedule really is right now.

2 years ago she tried out for the High School musical Annie and got the lead role, this is AFTER she had gotten the role of Simba in the Middle School production of The Lion King. The HS and MS plays are a month apart, but the practices overlap for most of the time. When those plays were over we were both exhausted and we decided to NEVER doing two plays at the same time again. See how long that lasted? I forgot what it all entails. I am hoping I remember next year.

She wants to do it ALL!

 

[LAH LAH]

DAY 2​

This will be our earliest morning all week, as we are participating in the YES program!

Elsa has an 8:30 class at EPCOT called Making Waves with a Marine Career

Michael has an 8:45 class at EPCOT called Disney's Captivating Moments: Images with Impact

We plan to be on the first bus right at 8am to get over to EPCOT so we have a little bit of time to spare. After the class we plan to hit as much of EPCOT as we can!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[littlezar]

Elsa has been going, going, going lately. She has been having 7-8am play practices for the Middle School play (The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe), then classes start at 8:20, ending at 3:15. She then has track practice from 3:25 until 5:30. Then she finishes her day with play practice for the High School play (West Side Story) from 5:30-9:30pm. I will be soooo happy when the High School play is over!

Wednesday the HS play practice was cancelled!!!!! After the boys went to sleep at 7pm we both kind of collapsed on the couch. I asked her if she wanted to watch the Bieber movie with me. She laughed at me and looked at me like I was ridiculous. I told her it was really good and she rolled her eyes at me. She's 12 and I am 37...she should be trying to convince ME to watch it, not the other way around. Hahahahaha

Well, long story short we watched it and she LOVED it! So when the dance part of play practice was cancelled again last night (the play director is pregnant with her first baby and due this week) she asked if we could PLEASE watch it again. We did, snuggled under the same blanket. That is until the final Madison Square Garden concert played. Then we got up and grooved and moved, and generally did our thang!

Michael peeked his head in once and looked at us like this: but we didn't care we danced and danced till we were out of breath.

Never say Never!

She's got the Bieber fever!

I had a lot of fun with her, but as much as I liked it I am not sure I can watch it a fourth time!

I didn't include her clarinet obligations in there. She is currently practicing for Solo Fest in between the acts during play practice. She fingers through the music there so as not to bother anyone, and then actually plays through it a few times every week. Her schedule really is right now.

2 years ago she tried out for the High School musical Annie and got the lead role, this is AFTER she had gotten the role of Simba in the Middle School production of The Lion King. The HS and MS plays are a month apart, but the practices overlap for most of the time. When those plays were over we were both exhausted and we decided to NEVER doing two plays at the same time again. See how long that lasted? I forgot what it all entails. I am hoping I remember next year.

She wants to do it ALL!

That is a crazy, busy schedule! I thought my month was busy...it's quiet compared to Elsa! The past few days were hectic for my 10 year old because he was selected to play in the All City Orchestra Concert and that entailed me driving him to a middle school for group practices Thursday night and Friday morning and that had me all off kilter! From the above pics, it doesn't look like she ever runs out of energy!

DAY 2​

This will be our earliest morning all week, as we are participating in the YES program!

Elsa has an 8:30 class at EPCOT called Making Waves with a Marine Career

Michael has an 8:45 class at EPCOT called Disney's Captivating Moments: Images with Impact

We plan to be on the first bus right at 8am to get over to EPCOT so we have a little bit of time to spare. After the class we plan to hit as much of EPCOT as we can!

My 10 year old (he'll turn 11 right before the trip) is doing a YES class too. He's doing Ocean Discoveries at Epcot. I would have loved for my 5 year old (he'll be 6 by then) to do a class too but the only one he could participate in during our trip was filled already.

Love all the pics you've been posting!

 

[LAH LAH]

That is a crazy, busy schedule! I thought my month was busy...it's quiet compared to Elsa! The past few days were hectic for my 10 year old because he was selected to play in the All City Orchestra Concert and that entailed me driving him to a middle school for group practices Thursday night and Friday morning and that had me all off kilter! From the above pics, it doesn't look like she ever runs out of energy!

What an honor! Did the concert already happen? I hope things have settled down for all of you

My 10 year old (he'll turn 11 right before the trip) is doing a YES class too. He's doing Ocean Discoveries at Epcot. I would have loved for my 5 year old (he'll be 6 by then) to do a class too but the only one he could participate in during our trip was filled already.

Love all the pics you've been posting!

Have you done the YES program before? This will be their first time. We are excited! I've heard they can fill up quickly. Thankfully, we were able to secure our spots. I didn't want to have to pay full price for our tickets!

 

[LAH LAH]

MEEMA & PEEPA​

Meema and Peepa are my parents. We always invite them to join us when we go to Disney! Sometimes they are able to pull it off, and sometimes other responsibilities keep them from being a part of our fun. I contacted them as soon as we decided this trip was going to happen for us. Their responses were positive. My dad's latest email sounds like it will probably happen...so I am just going to be extremely optimistic and say THEY ARE JOINING US!!!

So who are the Meems and the Peeps? I'm glad you asked

Meema (AKA Donna)

Meema has has been on all but 1 of our trips! (I think. I will decide if this statement is true as I work through writing all of this) My mom really just goes with the flow while at Disney. She is happy to ride all the rides and loves to pin trade! She is having foot surgery this spring, so we are hoping this will correct the horrendous pain she had last trip. Her favorite character is Eeyore, favorite park is Magic Kingdom and favorite ride is Tower of Terror!

Peepa (AKA Garry)

Peepa has been on all but 2 of our trips! He is just about as go-go-go as we are! He loves all the rides, except for loopty loop ones, and loves to stop for all of the parades and side shows. I think he feels like a kid when he is at WDW. They have gone by themselves numerous times, much to our chagrin. Peepa's favorite character is Mickey Mouse, favorite park is MK, with his favorite ride being Space Mountain...with Tower of Terror being a close second!

My parents took us to Disney twice, while I was growing up. I remember only small snippets of those trips. I can vaguely remember an afternoon parade and my 1 year old brother waving at Mickey Mouse. Another brief memory of watching Captain EO. The only other memory I have is of being in Innoventions at EPCOT.

Wait. I have one more. I was 14 and we were at the nighttime parade and I desperately wanted a light-up visor. I wanted it bad. It looked so cool to me. They bought it for me, and I was sure I would wear it a ton and I was so excited to show my older cousin who we would be visiting on our way home. She wasn't nearly as excited about it as I was and I never wore it again .

Anywho, then I lived in Orlando for a year and visited WDW many times with no real connection to it all. Now that's sad! But in 2007 my parents gifted all their children and grandchildren to a 4 day Disney vacation. I.fell.in.love! My kids and I were only able to stay 3 days, due to a visitation issue, but it was so wonderful!!!!

They rented a huge house and we had plenty of space to spread out in. It was great. As soon as I got back from that trip I started trying to figure out how we could return to WDW! It took almost a year, but it was a great time...and Meema joined us for most of our 2008 trip.

Next trip was a January 2009 surprise trip for Michael and Elsa and the first time I had pulled them out of school for anything! Meema and Peepa joined us for this one too, and it was a lovely surprise for the kids! This was also our first time staying on-site!

We were slated to go back in December of 2009, but an emergency back surgery caused us to cancel that trip. AAA was very kind about it and refunded every penny of that trip after they found out why I had to cancel. We wouldn't make it back until December of 2010, making it the longest time between WDW trips. A full 23 months. It sure felt like a lot longer! Meema and Peepa weren't able to join us for this one. I think they had gone on their own the previous summer.

I loved being there for the Christmas decorations. It was very magical! 9 months later found us at WDW again for a September 2011 trip with Meema and Peepa!

This trip was plagued with sickness, foot pain and fatigue. It was still a great time, because let's face it...we would all rather be at Disney than anywhere else, but it wasn't quite as go-go-go as we like to do it.

Excited that they are going to get to join us again!!!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

So glad that Meema and Peepa are going to be joining you! I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is the healthiest trip yet!