wendiloveswalt
WendiLovesWalt
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2011
I'm joining in. It looks like quite the adventure!
I'm Going Away... FOREVER! Oh, Great! Could You Get Me a Sandwich?? - updated 6/23!
- Thread starter baseballmickey
- Start date
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
Not if it were one of my TRs
But then its historical digressions of that caliber which keep all but a hand full of loons from reading them
Thanks!!
Hey James!Somehow I missed your shameless plug. But now I found you, so there's no avoiding me.
Quite the large cast of characters you have there! And your daughter's first day of school picture is too cute.
Darn it! You found me!
Welcome!! Hmmm... A trip for your parents' anniversary and you stepped up to organize a lot of the plans. Somehow that sounds vaguely familiar to me.
Well, someone had to do it. And I guess now they all had someone to blame for anything that went wrong!
Oh I SO feel your pain! We are trying to plan something similar, though no cruise component. But it involves one villa on points and another villa probably in cash. Possibly 2 treehouses over new years...not an easy feat. We've been chatting about it for oh, I dunno, 2 years? I sent info out a couple of weeks ago to my family with the not so quiet comment that I figured if we start talking about it now we might have a decision by Thanksgiving. Like you, 2 siblings not included on the initial info. We figure once things are nailed down, if ever, then we will inform them and if they want to come cool...if not...cool too.
The last time I did this, with Jeff's mom and her DH we used a travel agent so I wasn't the middle man and...I was still the middle man. Very similar deposit issues and that was with only 1 other room! It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.
But you are BOOKED! Always a very good start and deposits made...always a stressor.
Yes, even with the TA involved, I still felt like the middle man and I felt like I had to harass everyone about their deposits, paperwork, passports, and all that.
I wish you luck with getting your trip organized!!
Misery loves company
Welcome Aboard!!
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
Once we settled on the cruise and got everyone booked, it was just a matter of paying it off and taking care of the little details. This is a very tedious part of the report, but I feel it's important enough to include and I'll hope you'll bear with me while I sum up how it all came together in the year between booking and sailing.
I might have done a PTR for this, but my belated TR from the previous trip was taking up my time.
TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS:
This seemed so simple at first. Our preference was to fly down on either Southwest or Jetblue. Southwest is usually our first choice because they have cheap fares and fly direct out of a smaller airport only about 20 minutes from home. Fares haven't been released that far in advance, so I set one of my home page "tabs" to the southwest website so I'll check it every day. (Later I will learn that they tell you when fares will be released, if you know where to look for it) Turns out the fares would not be released until November.
HOTEL:
We know that we'd like to do the parks in addition to the cruise, since we feel it's not worth it to use our DVC points on the cruise. But should we do it before or after? We don't want to fly in the day of the cruise, so we'll need somewhere to say at least for the night before. That means we could do the parks before the cruise. But we also didn't want to head right home after getting off the ship, so that argued for doing WDW after. So I consult the points chart and figure out that because we have a few extra points that were refunded to us as a result of the fiasco of the previous trip, that means we have enough to stay a full week at the Boardwalk Villas after the cruise, AND enough to stay 2 or even 3 nights at Bay Lake Tower before!! I throw this idea out to Lisa, and after thinking about it, we decide to go for it!! Neither are our home resort (SSR) so we have about 6 months to wait before we can book.
Getting Around:
With the two little ones, neither Lisa nor myself wanted to rely on the buses to get around. They can be enough of a nightmare with one child and a stroller. But with two children?? and possibly a second stroller?? (which we were debating). It would just be more comfortable to rent a car. But do we rent it for the whole trip, or just the post-cruise portion. Or do we rent two cars? one before, and one after? Do we turn them in at WDW and use a car service or disney bus to get us back and forth from Port Canaveral?? so many things to figure out. After looking at prices of rentals and researching car service options, we decided that we'd probably rent the car the morning of the cruise, use it to get to the Port and turn it in there. Then, rent a car for the entire week after at the Port, and turning it in at WDW before leaving.
We'd do the first few days without a car since in theory we'd be at BLT and wouldn't need to use the bus. The car rental would wait on making sure we got our hotels booked.
ADRs:
With the rough outline of the plan in place, the next thing we thought about was our ADRs. A couple of things that were very important to us were getting the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for Bella, and doing the Princess and Me Tea at the Grand Floridian for Lisa and Bella. We also figured we'd do a Princess meal on the BBB day, and probably do a couple of character breakfasts (Ohana and Tusker House were our top choices), and we'd try to arrange at least one family meal that everyone would be at. We had no illusions that we'd get everyone to stay together the entire trip. It was probably best for everyone to go their own ways. But at this point, we don't know for sure who is able to also do the WDW portion, and if they can do it before or after. My parents have an off-property timeshare and they need to do a swap of weeks to get whatever they want. That takes a little time and money. My brother Tom needs to coordinate with his daughter's mom as to which weeks he will get them that summer, and that will determine if he can do more than the cruise, and if it will be before or after. As for the rest, it's a matter of vacation days from work and money.
The good thing is, that we have time. Can't book a flight for months, can't book our rooms for months, can't book our ADRs for months... so we daydream about ADRs and room views for a while, and turn or energy towards paying down the balance of the cruise and taking care of other things.
I'll pause here because it's late and I need sleep. In the next update, hopefully I can take you through the obstacles and hurdles and the modifications we needed to make to this initial plan, and then we'll get into the good stuff.
perhaps for the next vacation I should take pictures of the planning process???
I might have done a PTR for this, but my belated TR from the previous trip was taking up my time.
TRAVEL ARRANGEMENTS:
This seemed so simple at first. Our preference was to fly down on either Southwest or Jetblue. Southwest is usually our first choice because they have cheap fares and fly direct out of a smaller airport only about 20 minutes from home. Fares haven't been released that far in advance, so I set one of my home page "tabs" to the southwest website so I'll check it every day. (Later I will learn that they tell you when fares will be released, if you know where to look for it) Turns out the fares would not be released until November.
HOTEL:
We know that we'd like to do the parks in addition to the cruise, since we feel it's not worth it to use our DVC points on the cruise. But should we do it before or after? We don't want to fly in the day of the cruise, so we'll need somewhere to say at least for the night before. That means we could do the parks before the cruise. But we also didn't want to head right home after getting off the ship, so that argued for doing WDW after. So I consult the points chart and figure out that because we have a few extra points that were refunded to us as a result of the fiasco of the previous trip, that means we have enough to stay a full week at the Boardwalk Villas after the cruise, AND enough to stay 2 or even 3 nights at Bay Lake Tower before!! I throw this idea out to Lisa, and after thinking about it, we decide to go for it!! Neither are our home resort (SSR) so we have about 6 months to wait before we can book.
Getting Around:
With the two little ones, neither Lisa nor myself wanted to rely on the buses to get around. They can be enough of a nightmare with one child and a stroller. But with two children?? and possibly a second stroller?? (which we were debating). It would just be more comfortable to rent a car. But do we rent it for the whole trip, or just the post-cruise portion. Or do we rent two cars? one before, and one after? Do we turn them in at WDW and use a car service or disney bus to get us back and forth from Port Canaveral?? so many things to figure out. After looking at prices of rentals and researching car service options, we decided that we'd probably rent the car the morning of the cruise, use it to get to the Port and turn it in there. Then, rent a car for the entire week after at the Port, and turning it in at WDW before leaving.
We'd do the first few days without a car since in theory we'd be at BLT and wouldn't need to use the bus. The car rental would wait on making sure we got our hotels booked.
ADRs:
With the rough outline of the plan in place, the next thing we thought about was our ADRs. A couple of things that were very important to us were getting the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique for Bella, and doing the Princess and Me Tea at the Grand Floridian for Lisa and Bella. We also figured we'd do a Princess meal on the BBB day, and probably do a couple of character breakfasts (Ohana and Tusker House were our top choices), and we'd try to arrange at least one family meal that everyone would be at. We had no illusions that we'd get everyone to stay together the entire trip. It was probably best for everyone to go their own ways. But at this point, we don't know for sure who is able to also do the WDW portion, and if they can do it before or after. My parents have an off-property timeshare and they need to do a swap of weeks to get whatever they want. That takes a little time and money. My brother Tom needs to coordinate with his daughter's mom as to which weeks he will get them that summer, and that will determine if he can do more than the cruise, and if it will be before or after. As for the rest, it's a matter of vacation days from work and money.
The good thing is, that we have time. Can't book a flight for months, can't book our rooms for months, can't book our ADRs for months... so we daydream about ADRs and room views for a while, and turn or energy towards paying down the balance of the cruise and taking care of other things.
I'll pause here because it's late and I need sleep. In the next update, hopefully I can take you through the obstacles and hurdles and the modifications we needed to make to this initial plan, and then we'll get into the good stuff.
perhaps for the next vacation I should take pictures of the planning process???
declansdad
DIS Dad #639 New Brunswick, Canada
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2004
eandesmom
I'm with Beast
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
Not tedious at all actually! We go through a lot of the same with just our little family and the initial stages of our next large trip is eerily similar to a lot of what you've just outlined. I can't wait to see where you ended up at for resorts and how the car thing worked out. We definitely had some car sagas on our trip...and a very similar rental plan.
Paying it off. No fun whatsoever. Until it is!
Paying it off. No fun whatsoever. Until it is!
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
unfortunately, you have to actually take the vacation. If it was only the planning part, the vacation would be perfect.
I not a big fan of that little detail either.
who is?
It's definitely a process. Hopefully the more you go through to make it happen, the more you enjoy it??
Sounds like y'all had a good starting point for the plans!
Especially after the last trip didn't go exactly as planned, we were excited to make a plan for this one and having the chance to see it through!
goopysolelady
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 16, 2008
Next up in age order would have been my brother Michael, but he did not come. So we move past him to the last of my three sisters: Patty.
Of all my siblings, Patty is the one I have the least in common with. We just seem to have completely different tastes in just about everything. As a result, I struggle with having a connection with her. As a family, we're definitely not as close as other families are, as evidenced by the fact that we can go days, weeks, or even months without talking to one another. So this gap between the two of us is in addition to that. Strangely, it wasn't like that when we were kids. In fact, a lot of my memories of WDW are of her and I going on rides and doing things because the older siblings were doing their own thing. Now, she's a big country music fan and loves the Pittsburgh Steelers. She'd be down with thrill rides normally, but she's a few months pregnant and that means she'll be taking it easy on this trip.
You must make a surprise phone call to Patty and tell her one of your crazy WITW friends has a slight connection with her.
While it pains me tremendously, this die hard-bleeds blue-Dallas Cowboys fan does find herself pulling for the Pittsburgh Steelers on NFL game days. #88, Emmanuel (Manny to us) Sanders hails from our small town of Bellville, TX. During his high school years, Manny shared the spotlight with my quarterback Godson on the Pasture of Pain, home of the Bellville Brahmas. My son-in-law taught Manny how to play pool at the young age of 9. He was back in our area in August as a sponsor of the local Boys & Girls Club fundraiser and visited with son-in-law, reminiscing those days he'd make the walk to the pool lessons! AND...I'm also a country music fan but it has to be "classic country"; none of that new stuff! 
Chicago Mo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
i'm here i'm here!!!!!
You should write a book... seriously!!! your last TR was awesome!!! dare i say riveting!
Your daughter look just like your wife, and now you have a mini James!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
can't WAIT to read the report!!!!
Love the beach photo!!!
You should write a book... seriously!!! your last TR was awesome!!! dare i say riveting!
Your daughter look just like your wife, and now you have a mini James!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
can't WAIT to read the report!!!!
Love the beach photo!!!
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
You must make a surprise phone call to Patty and tell her one of your crazy WITW friends has a slight connection with her.
You have my sympathy for both the cowboys AND steelers.
Seriously, it must be very cool to have a connection to someone in the NFL.
I'm not a big fan of country music. But to each his own...
Welcome aboard the TR!!
Perhaps I will add some WITW pictures to make you feel at home.
i'm here i'm here!!!!!
You should write a book... seriously!!! your last TR was awesome!!! dare i say riveting!
Your daughter look just like your wife, and now you have a mini James!!!
CONGRATS!!!!
can't WAIT to read the report!!!!
Love the beach photo!!!
Hey there!! Glad to see you are coming along for another ride!! Yes, Bella does look a lot like Lisa. I use "Picasa" to organize our pictures on the computer, and it has a facial recognition feature... but it keeps identifying them as one another!!
dhorner233
Disneyophile
- Joined
- Jun 26, 2011
How about some more pictures James?
BTW I love the blue eyes that run in your family!
BTW I love the blue eyes that run in your family!
Chicago Mo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
Can you post from Picasa to the board??? looking for something rather then photobucket...
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
My apologies everyone... been a little overwhelmed with other things. An update is WAY overdue.
Welcome Aboard!! Thanks for taking the time to read my TR!!
Thank you. Lisa was disappointed that neither of our kids got them.
The next update is more planning stuff prior to the trip, but I'll throw another one in as well with pics from this past month. Bella started playing soccer and we just went apple-picking today. So there's some good pics there that will hopefully keep you occupied until I get to the actual trip... and then it will be non-stop pictures!!!
Yes, they call it "Picasa Web Albums". You get 1GB of storage with a free account, with options to upgrade to more by paying a monthly fee. I have yet to upload pics from this past trip, but I'm already at 50% of my 1GB.
Welcome Aboard!! Thanks for taking the time to read my TR!!
How about some more pictures James?
BTW I love the blue eyes that run in your family!
Thank you. Lisa was disappointed that neither of our kids got them.
The next update is more planning stuff prior to the trip, but I'll throw another one in as well with pics from this past month. Bella started playing soccer and we just went apple-picking today. So there's some good pics there that will hopefully keep you occupied until I get to the actual trip... and then it will be non-stop pictures!!!
Yes, they call it "Picasa Web Albums". You get 1GB of storage with a free account, with options to upgrade to more by paying a monthly fee. I have yet to upload pics from this past trip, but I'm already at 50% of my 1GB.
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
Wow! That is a lot of people going on your trip! I'm in and am looking forward to hearing about the trip
Welcome Aboard!! Standby for the next update!!
Chicago Mo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2010
baseballmickey
DDC #644
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
As we all know, the further out you make your travel plans for any trip, means the more time you have for averting disasters and hurdling obstacles. The only way to take a perfectly planned vacation is not to plan it at all, wake up one day and just decided to pack and go to the airport...
So there we were, deposit paid and nothing but time on our hands until we could actually do something concrete. Well, it wasn't long before obstacle number 1 reared its ugly head.
Our first issue was money. Lisa went back to work in September and I took on the role of Stay-At-Home-Dad. We had discussed our options and this seemed to be a good way to work it out because I could still make money by working weekends, which I had been doing up until this point. I gave up a freelance weekday gig in order to be at home with the kids. I gave them a list of school holidays that I could still work for them if they had a need. Unfortunately, right out of the gate, my weekend job decides to make changes and by October, I am no longer being offered every Saturday and Sunday like I was. It's down to every other Saturday, and an occasional sunday shift.
So, my contributions to the budget were easily cut in half, and we were struggling to pay the bills, and our plan to make monthly payments on the cruise went on hold.
The holidays helped to give me some extra days of work, and I was keeping my eye out for other jobs I could possibly do. In November, Southwest posted new flights, but only including the day we wanted to fly down. We’d have to wait for the flight back to be available. I guess that is one of the downsides to taking a 2 week long vacation. Prices were higher than I'd hoped, and with no extra money to buy the tickets, I just continued to monitor the prices.
In the meantime, we tried to find out what everyone else was thinking in regard to doing WDW before or after the cruise. Our plan was do both, but we wanted to coordinate so, if possible, we'd all be at WDW together as well. The best response we could get was that they all "thought" they'd be staying the week after the cruise.
It was at the end of December/early January when we hit our 7-month window for booking our resorts. At this point we made the decision to plan what we wanted and just inform the feet-draggers of what our plans were. So I called DVC. We scored what we wanted for the first leg, 3 nights at BLT with a theme park view! Then when I tried to get Boardwalk Villas for the week after, we hit a snag. All days available EXCEPT WEDNESDAY! One day, right smack in the middle of the week.
So, a change of plans. Pulled out the charts and started looking at other options. Cast member told me that Beach Club was available for the dates I wanted. Only problem was that it was more points. I texted Lisa at work to get her opinion. She said she wanted to try BCV, so I booked it. That shortened our trip by a day 
, but we were psyched to stay at a new resort, and it was just across the water from where we were shooting to stay.
So, with the resorts booked, we could now start to plan out our parks/ADRs. 180 day mark was fast approaching and park schedules were coming out as well. And while we schemed and planned to do that, I created a facebook event page for the trip as a way of putting all our plans in writing somewhere so the feet-draggers could have a reference and not be able to use the excuse that they didn't know or forgot.
Two other things happened in January/Early February. First, one day when I showed up to work my weekend job, (only to find out that they had canceled my shift without telling me), a co-worker asked me if I was looking for work. A job opportunity fell into my lap and it fit my schedule as it was only 4-5 hours at night and I could still stay home during the day. A few phone calls and emails over the next couple of days, and I had a job that I started the next week!! That income allowed us to get back on track with the bills and to start putting money aside for the trip.
The other thing that happened was that one day I logged onto the computer and since I had the southwest airlines page set as a homepage tab, I checked the prices and couldn't believe my eyes... it was showing a flight for the morning we wanted at only $100 per person. I checked the bank account and we didn't have a lot of extra money, but with some transferring of funds, it was enough and Lisa was able to book our flight down for under $300 total (Jackson was lap-seat).
In early February was when we hit the 180 day mark and were able to make our ADRs. The only thing we were booking with family was one group dinner. Everything else was whatever we wanted, and we'd let them know what we were doing.
So this was our rough plan:
Sunday: arrive at BLT, eat dinner at a counter service at the resort, watch fireworks from room or top of the world lounge.
Monday: Breakfast at Ohana, Magic Kingdom. (counter service for lunch and dinner)
Tuesday: Breakfast at Cotempo Cafe, EPCOT, dinner at Via Napoli.
Wednesday: breakast undecided, leave for cruise.
Thursday-Saturday on the cruise
Sunday: breakfast on the ship, check-in at BCV, dinner at Flying Fish Cafe.
Monday: Resort day. Cape May Cafe breakfast, Storm Along Bay, Beaches and Cream for lunch/dinner.
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom, breakfast at Main Street Bakery, Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, counter service lunch, and big family dinner at 1900 Park Fare.
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom, Tusker House breakfast, dinner undecided.
Thursday: breakfast at Starring Rolls, Hollywood Studios, dinner at Pizza Planet.
Friday: Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast, EPCOT, Bella and Lisa afternoon tea at GF, dinner in Mexico.
Saturday: Leave.
a couple of notes on this plan: the big family dinner was supposed to be at Akershus in Norway, as Bella would be all princessed from BBB. However, they cannot accommodate a large party of 17 people. So we were steered away and ended up at 1900 Park Fare, which I was told could accommodate our 17 people. Secondly, Lisa and Bella wanted to do the perfectly Princess tea at the GF, but it proved to be just too expensive. They settled for the regular afternoon tea which does have children's options for tea and sandwiches.
So... things were looking pretty good. We had resorts booked, ADRs made, and a flight down. We still needed to figure out the rental car situation, and the flight back home, and oh yeah, still hadn't paid anything more than just the deposit on the cruise.
I posted our plans onto the facebook page. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen. I suppose in my head I imagined that my family would see our plans and say, "ooh, that sounds good, can we join you for A, B, or C?" But the actual response was more like, "good for you." I can only imagine what might have been said privately on their end about how we were making all these plans without them, but we did all we could to include them in our planning. My conscience was clear.
So, we were entering the home stretch, and we still had to pay off the cruise, buy park tickets, decide on the dining plan, rent our car, and figure out that minor detail of getting home afterwards.
That's all in the next update. Hopefully in the next day or so.
So there we were, deposit paid and nothing but time on our hands until we could actually do something concrete. Well, it wasn't long before obstacle number 1 reared its ugly head.
Our first issue was money. Lisa went back to work in September and I took on the role of Stay-At-Home-Dad. We had discussed our options and this seemed to be a good way to work it out because I could still make money by working weekends, which I had been doing up until this point. I gave up a freelance weekday gig in order to be at home with the kids. I gave them a list of school holidays that I could still work for them if they had a need. Unfortunately, right out of the gate, my weekend job decides to make changes and by October, I am no longer being offered every Saturday and Sunday like I was. It's down to every other Saturday, and an occasional sunday shift.
So, my contributions to the budget were easily cut in half, and we were struggling to pay the bills, and our plan to make monthly payments on the cruise went on hold.
The holidays helped to give me some extra days of work, and I was keeping my eye out for other jobs I could possibly do. In November, Southwest posted new flights, but only including the day we wanted to fly down. We’d have to wait for the flight back to be available. I guess that is one of the downsides to taking a 2 week long vacation. Prices were higher than I'd hoped, and with no extra money to buy the tickets, I just continued to monitor the prices.
In the meantime, we tried to find out what everyone else was thinking in regard to doing WDW before or after the cruise. Our plan was do both, but we wanted to coordinate so, if possible, we'd all be at WDW together as well. The best response we could get was that they all "thought" they'd be staying the week after the cruise.
It was at the end of December/early January when we hit our 7-month window for booking our resorts. At this point we made the decision to plan what we wanted and just inform the feet-draggers of what our plans were. So I called DVC. We scored what we wanted for the first leg, 3 nights at BLT with a theme park view! Then when I tried to get Boardwalk Villas for the week after, we hit a snag. All days available EXCEPT WEDNESDAY! One day, right smack in the middle of the week.
So, a change of plans. Pulled out the charts and started looking at other options. Cast member told me that Beach Club was available for the dates I wanted. Only problem was that it was more points. I texted Lisa at work to get her opinion. She said she wanted to try BCV, so I booked it. That shortened our trip by a day , but we were psyched to stay at a new resort, and it was just across the water from where we were shooting to stay. So, with the resorts booked, we could now start to plan out our parks/ADRs. 180 day mark was fast approaching and park schedules were coming out as well. And while we schemed and planned to do that, I created a facebook event page for the trip as a way of putting all our plans in writing somewhere so the feet-draggers could have a reference and not be able to use the excuse that they didn't know or forgot.
Two other things happened in January/Early February. First, one day when I showed up to work my weekend job, (only to find out that they had canceled my shift without telling me), a co-worker asked me if I was looking for work. A job opportunity fell into my lap and it fit my schedule as it was only 4-5 hours at night and I could still stay home during the day. A few phone calls and emails over the next couple of days, and I had a job that I started the next week!! That income allowed us to get back on track with the bills and to start putting money aside for the trip.
The other thing that happened was that one day I logged onto the computer and since I had the southwest airlines page set as a homepage tab, I checked the prices and couldn't believe my eyes... it was showing a flight for the morning we wanted at only $100 per person. I checked the bank account and we didn't have a lot of extra money, but with some transferring of funds, it was enough and Lisa was able to book our flight down for under $300 total (Jackson was lap-seat).
In early February was when we hit the 180 day mark and were able to make our ADRs. The only thing we were booking with family was one group dinner. Everything else was whatever we wanted, and we'd let them know what we were doing.
So this was our rough plan:
Sunday: arrive at BLT, eat dinner at a counter service at the resort, watch fireworks from room or top of the world lounge.
Monday: Breakfast at Ohana, Magic Kingdom. (counter service for lunch and dinner)
Tuesday: Breakfast at Cotempo Cafe, EPCOT, dinner at Via Napoli.
Wednesday: breakast undecided, leave for cruise.
Thursday-Saturday on the cruise
Sunday: breakfast on the ship, check-in at BCV, dinner at Flying Fish Cafe.
Monday: Resort day. Cape May Cafe breakfast, Storm Along Bay, Beaches and Cream for lunch/dinner.
Tuesday: Magic Kingdom, breakfast at Main Street Bakery, Bibbity Bobbity Boutique, counter service lunch, and big family dinner at 1900 Park Fare.
Wednesday: Animal Kingdom, Tusker House breakfast, dinner undecided.
Thursday: breakfast at Starring Rolls, Hollywood Studios, dinner at Pizza Planet.
Friday: Boardwalk Bakery for breakfast, EPCOT, Bella and Lisa afternoon tea at GF, dinner in Mexico.
Saturday: Leave.
a couple of notes on this plan: the big family dinner was supposed to be at Akershus in Norway, as Bella would be all princessed from BBB. However, they cannot accommodate a large party of 17 people. So we were steered away and ended up at 1900 Park Fare, which I was told could accommodate our 17 people. Secondly, Lisa and Bella wanted to do the perfectly Princess tea at the GF, but it proved to be just too expensive. They settled for the regular afternoon tea which does have children's options for tea and sandwiches.
So... things were looking pretty good. We had resorts booked, ADRs made, and a flight down. We still needed to figure out the rental car situation, and the flight back home, and oh yeah, still hadn't paid anything more than just the deposit on the cruise.
I posted our plans onto the facebook page. I'm not sure what I was expecting to happen. I suppose in my head I imagined that my family would see our plans and say, "ooh, that sounds good, can we join you for A, B, or C?" But the actual response was more like, "good for you." I can only imagine what might have been said privately on their end about how we were making all these plans without them, but we did all we could to include them in our planning. My conscience was clear.
So, we were entering the home stretch, and we still had to pay off the cruise, buy park tickets, decide on the dining plan, rent our car, and figure out that minor detail of getting home afterwards.
That's all in the next update. Hopefully in the next day or so.
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