If you can't put your money in the stock market, might as well give it all to Disney

[999ghostslover]

Hello, my name is Erin. I am a SAHM/nurse who loves all things Disney and loves sharing in the joy with my beautiful family. There is my wonderful DH, Tom, who loves that I obsess over all f the details so he can have the best Disney experience in the world. He is a real rocket scientist and loves the engineering behind imagineering. If he didn't work for NASA, I am sure he would work for Disney. Then, there is my DD, Abby, who is 4 and is going on her third Disney trip. She swears that she is going to ride ToT. We'll see. And my 10 month old son, Brady, has no idea what is in store for him. So, come and join in the fun of our Disney magic.

]Jealousy begets a fun family vacation
How can some people only go here once or twice in their lives?
Where do you want to go this summer?
Where are we going to eat? And what are we going to celebrate?
My little daredevil is a chicken
Disney Fever
New Camera and more!
Disney package
Day 1 plans
Day 2 (First Real Day)
A Change in the ADRs says I
My sister
It's heeeeerrrrreeee.
Day three (Second Real Day)
just catching up

 

[999ghostslover]

So a few months ago we found out that we are expecting our third child. We are beyond thrilled but the news came as quite a shock. We always wanted two kids only. One of the big reasons is because all of our family lives up north but we live in Alabama for my husband's work. The idea of traveling with three kids always seemed unmanageable. Not to mention, it limits the places you can stay at Disney. No joke, that was a factor in our family planning. But like I said we are thrilled to become parents again. We love kids and can't wait for this baby to come.
This news also meant that we would not be able to go to Disney in October as planned. We have always wanted to do MNSSHP and this was the year baby. But as my OB probably will not let me travel a week postpartum we thought Disney was out for the year.
Then, my BFF decided to take her family on the 4/3 deal. The more they talked about their trip the more jealous I found myself. And I am really not a jealous person. I was really happy for them but kinda mad that our trip was off.
So I went to the one place on the internet that makes a girl like me happy...the trip planning tab on the Disney website. Ahhhh.....

 

[999ghostslover]

So, after looking at how cheap the 4/3 packages were I did another thing that ensured a trip would be planned. I looked at old pictures from Disney World. When I look at these while pregnant I want to walk there right now. I can't post video but I have one of my daughter on the teacups that makes my heart ache. Where did my two year old baby go?

Abby is ready to swim at POFQ

Abby and Tom at Nemo in Epcot.

Abby trying to courtsy like a princess.

Abby and me at Downtown Disney

 

[mrsscooter]

You are not alone for the urge to go to Disney. Everytime I hear that a friend or relative of ours is going, I too get jealous. We usally go every other year, so this is our year to go. Not until October, but we are going. I would fly down for weekend trips if I could afford it! Depending on when you are due in October, can you wait for your two week check up and go? I hope you guys will be able to get there this fall!!!!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Joining in on your fun, your kids are adorable, and congrats on the new baby! Glad you get to sneak Disney in one more time as a family of 4!!

 

[999ghostslover]

It would have to wait awhile until after the baby is born. I breastfeed and I couldn't imagine having to breastfeed every hour or so at 2 weeks in the parks. No fun for Mama! As you can probably tell from my ticker we have decided to go during my pregnancy. I will be 22 weeks or so. I have great pregnancies and so far this one is going really well. My OB is on board. And we got trip insurance for the first time.

 

[999ghostslover]

Joining in on your fun, your kids are adorable, and congrats on the new baby! Glad you get to sneak Disney in one more time as a family of 4!!

Thanks! I feel like my son is getting the shaft a little. Abby got to be my baby for 4 years and Brady lives in her very large 4 year old shadow. And now that we are having the new one it just seems like we need some family of 4 time. We actually call him the "old baby". As in, "the new baby will share a room for a little while with the old baby" So sad!

 

[999ghostslover]

"Where do you want to go this summer?," I asked Abby a little while back. "The mountains or the beach?"
"Disney World" she replied.
So we formulated our plan of attack to coerce Daddy into agreement. Like always, he was easily swayed. As long as he thought I was up for it then he was game. So far, this pregnancy has been easy like all of others. I have a little bit of ligament pain but I think that is because I have never been pregnant and had to carry The World's Largest 10 Month Old around all day. Seriously, that kid cannot learn to walk fast enough. He also had one other requirement...it couldn't cost a lot. Well, with this year's specials that part was easy. In fact, it was going to run us about the same as going to a nice place at Destin, FL, or Gulf Shores, AL. So we called the travel agent and she reserved us a package at Caribbean Beach for the week we wanted with the 4/3 deal. But when we tried to call with questions she never would call or email back. For days. And we needed info stat. We definitely needed to change days and we weren't totally sold on CBR. By the time she called us almost everything in the 4/3 catagory had gone away. So we panicked and called Disney. It was down to Saratoga Springs in a 1 bedroom (too much money) and Wilderness Lodge Woods View. We have always always wanted to stay at WL but my DH was really mad it was going to be more than the original CB resort cost. DH is notoriously cheap. We had our one little yelling match for the year and decided to go ahead and book it. (Read: I won.)

 

[lizet313]

I'm in just started to read.

 

[999ghostslover]

So by the time all of that was settled I realized it was exactly 90 days away. 90 DAYS. AHHH!! I had not even thought about dining. Or park times or anything else. All I knew was I was going to Disney World pregnant with a one-year-old and a 4-year-old and that means one thing. Daily naps. We decided to get rid of the waterparks and more and park hopper to justify the splurge on a Deluxe hotel but keep the dining plan (oh look, Tom won too). So, that limited being able to hop off to any old place for dinner each night. We knew that we wanted to try to get CRT for Abby but with only 90 days how could that be possible? We also wanted to do WCC since we are staying at WL. But most importantly, we wanted Chef Mickey's for my little man's first birthday. That's right. He gets to eat his first bite of cake ever at Disney World. What a lucky guy!
So I called Dining and I waited and waited and waited. I put the hold music on speakerphone so we could all get in the spirit. "In the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki room..."
Basically, we did not get many of our first choices. We got Chef Mickey's. We got WCC. We did not get Yak and Yeti or Le Cellier. We got Coral Reef but we have since changed it to San Angel Inn.
Here is our official list.
Day 1-Dinner-San Angel
Day 2-Dinner =-T-Rex (DH super excited, we'll pay OOP)
Day 3-Late breakfast-Chef Mickey's-Brady's Birthday
Day 4-early lunch-Tusker house
Day 5-Breakfast at Kona, Dinner at Whispering Canyon
Day-Cinderella's Royal Table

I would love love love feedback on these choices. We are fairly pleased.

 

[999ghostslover]

I'm in just started to read.

Thanks for reading!

 

[999ghostslover]

So, my DD4 has decided that she is going to ride ToT, Everest, Splash Mountain and all of that. I don't think it is at all realistic. When she was 2 she was great about riding everything from Pirates to Haunted Mansion to the Great Movie Ride. Nothing scared her. THis time I am scared she is going to be a little chicken. She kinda freaked on Saturday when Cirque du Soleil came to town. We had nosebleed seats and she did not like being very high or the dark. I quickly found us lower seats and she did much much better. but i really hope she does not hit full on panic during pirates. I think when she sees Everest and ToT she won't even want to ride and we'll be good. But I want her to enjoy the wild but mild stuff. We have been doing you tube videos of all of the rides so she knows what to expect. Hopefully, that will be enough.

 

[cjackearl]

I'm in! What a nice family you have. Those third children have a way of sneaking in when you least expect it (ours did) but add immeasurable joy and fun. Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[999ghostslover]

Welcome CJackEarl!
Everyone keeps saying, "you do know how that happens, right?" when they hear I'm pregnant and see the baby on my hip. It is kinda funny. And yes, I know how it happens.
Thanks for joining!

 

[999ghostslover]

So in the past few weeks I have discovered the Dis boards and, as many of you can relate, this house is suffering for it. Every free minute has been spent checking out rides, meal reviews and food pictures (probably my favorite). And all the while my little brain is trying to figure out how to incorporate all of this into our 7 day vacation. We want to take a carriage ride, do bibidi bobidi botique, a dinner show, boating, the new balloon ride, the campfire, the list gets longer each day. Eventually we just have to say "enough!" We have decided to do the campfire/movie at FW one night and Abby and Tom are going to rent bikes or a boat one day while Brady and I nap.
We are going to skip bibidi bobidi, even though my princess is of prime age. We have agreed that we just don't want to spend the money on a hot day in June when every day there is a major thunderstorm and it is going to take up valuable park time. We aren't even going to bring any of our numerous princess dresses-gasp, the horror! Those dresses are very itchy and clingy and in June I know they are going to make ms. Abby miserable. We brought her Cinderella dress last time which was January, and while she looked adorable, it was a record high temp week and she was miserable in the dress. We are going to let her pick out this year's Halloween dress at Downtown Disney and we'll get some pics in that. She has a Cinderella sundress from Disney Store that she can wear to CRT. And I ordered them matching Mickey Minnie outfits from someone on EBay. There have been some communication problems with this order so hopefully it will be resolved and we will have them soon. Off to fold laundry...Quick! somebody post something lengthy.

 

[lizet313]

Abby is so adorable I love her curls I looked for pictures of Brady but I bet he is cute too. Abby has a sense of adventure I would love to see how she handles her situation watching videos is a good idea she will know what is in store for her. I dont know hot weather in Florida I went in Feb. it was nice a cool so I have no idea on that. It looked like it was going to rain but it didn't so yey for me . Look foward to reading more. I haven't gone to any of the restaurants you have posted.

 

[cjackearl]

ITA not wanting to bring the big princess getups. We went in June and it was hotter than....well, hot. All my poor princesses got to wear to CRT were tiaras! And even those didn't last long on their hot little heads. I think a sundress will be perfect.

Due to the heat, I'd probably lean more toward a boat than a bike rental. I dislike sweating, so high heat+exercise= for me. The surrey bikes do look fun though.

 

[rodeo65]

Welcome CJackEarl!
Everyone keeps saying, "you do know how that happens, right?" when they hear I'm pregnant and see the baby on my hip. It is kinda funny. And yes, I know how it happens.
Thanks for joining!

Hi Erin (we share the name). I had to laugh at this. I got the same thing when I finally figured out I was expecting #2 while still nursing #1. Couldn't figure out why I felt so sick all the time for those first couple of months. He was 6 months and I had been told after his c section that I had to wait at least 6 months. Whew - made it. My mom laughed and said "you DO realize you can still get pregnant while nursing don't you?" Well, yeah, I knew, just didn't think it would happen to ME. All for the best though...I was older getting started so I still managed to squeak them in under 40.

Ok, as far as bibbidi bobbidi goes, you're scaring me. We're booked in June and are taking them for the princess and cool dude treatment. I wasn't thinking about the rain storms. I did book them for later in the afternoon so we can still get our swim in and before we head to 1900 Park Fare for dinner. I guess I'll have to bring umbrellas instead of ponchos that day.

Loving your report, and I agree...when we decided to take the kids and booked it at the end of January, I quickly found the dis and have seldom been seen since. The kids are upset that I am using my computer so much since it cuts into their Webkinz time.

 

[3princesses+aprince]

Ha, you're funny, but I have the same problem of being on the disboards and not getting anything done. Sometimes I have to say to myself " Just get the dishes done and then you'll have plenty of time to sit here" I know it's nuts, but it's fun. I've been at it since we booked the trip in January!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Count me in as a reader. I always say that pre-trip and trip reports are what get me through to my next Disney vacation!