I'm gonna push the button!!!

[teacher2525]

Well I've have been lurking for ages and I finally decided to post a trip report. Hopefully, I am typing in the correct space and I can figure out how to post an entire trip report. I will do my best!

I returned august 23rd and was very sad to leave, despite the tremendous heat (a little like touring in a pizza oven). I guess I should give a little pre trip information/history. In 2002 we decided to take our 2 little boys ages 2 and 4 for one last big trip before we had a 3rd child. My mother and brother decided to come along.

Me and my two boys 2002 trip


We

Ds #2 2 years old

had 2 connecting hotel rooms at the swan for a week in September, what a great location! We had great weather and a great time, we forgot how much fun it could be and how much there was to see, so we had to go back, so much for one last big trip!

We decide to go back again in September (2003) for a long weekend, just us (no nonnie(My mom) or uncle).

2003 trip
I book a suite at one of the downtown disney resorts but I was contemplating purchasing a dvc membership on the recomendation of my friend who just purchased one at the beach club. Well, to make a long story short, Interest rates drop so low that we were able to refinance our house buy into DVC Boardwalk (resale) and lower our monthly payment without adding on any loan years It was like we were getting the DVC membership for free!
Now we are staying on property at the boardwalk in a 1 bedroom villa with a full kitchen, washer/dryer, king size master bedroom (not that privacy is necessary because at this point I'm 3 months pregnant with child number 3 but the space is great) Jacuzzi tub and seperate shower. I think that I've died and gone to heaven! Okay, I originally tried to book a standard view because who cares about the view, I'm at disney and it was less points. Well, there isn't any standard views available so I get a boardwalk view. Let me tell you, I am all about the view now

View off the balcony at boardwalh
I would get up early every morning and the sun would start to come up over EPCOT and it was beautiful until the system shock Promptly at 7:00 AM everday the circus music would start (doo doo doo) well you can probly come up with your own circus music in your head because I can't spell it out properly, who knew the circus started that early I would think after partying late night that they woul at least sleep in untill 9:00 AM but what are ya gonna do? Wake everyone up and get to the parks for opening We had an even better trip and we can't wait to go back again!
Well, baby number 3 turns out to be son number 3 On the last day of March 2004, If he waited 16 more hours to be born he would have been my 3rd child born in April which would have been an all diamond mother's ring but I couldn't stand being pregnant for another second and he was looking real big so they induced me. I would be lying if I said I wasn't hoping for a little princess which is why I chose not to find out what I was having beforehand. How could you be disappointed when they put a perfectly healthy, beautiful baby in your arms (a whopping 9lbs 8 oz born at 9:08) I guess God had a different plan so it is 3 sons for me and I wouldn't change it if I could. The Irony here is it took me forever to meet a guy and now my household is over run with men (men in training I should say)
This is turning out to be alot more background information than I anticipated. Fast forward to October 2006 for the trip that snow balled.

All party members who stayed at Saratoga, guess who Aunty Dory is!

I decide we have so many points banked to get a studio for my mother and a 2 bedroom at Saratoga Springs and invite my college friend and her family to join us. They end up coming with their family of 5, sister and her famil of 4 and 3 grand parents. they didn't stay with us they stayed at the Grand Floridian. My childhood friend who introduced to the DVC ended up changing her week to the same week as us because she ays that I am always lucky with the weather. My mother ends up bringing her sister, my aunt (who loves tinkerbelle but has a personality more like Dorey from finding Nemo). At the last minute, my cousin (the same aunt's daughter who came) decides to come with her husband and 2 year old son. Yep, lots of people on that trip! I'm going to pause here and see if I can post, get back on and write a little more.

 

[roberrl187]

Good start.

 

[teacher2525]

Can someone tell me how to add on to my trip report. Do I just post replies to my own thread with updates?

 

[roberrl187]

Can someone tell me how to add on to my trip report. Do I just post replies to my own thread with updates?

Yep.

 

[teacher2525]

Well I just lost my last post while trying to preview it, I will never scheck for spelling again

Well, we decide to meet my college friend and her family of 5 at the AK. We watch the parade, eat dinner, get a special cake for being family of the hour from the dream team. Catch up with the dream team again and get to play carnival games and win prizes for free (minus the thousands we spent on the trip) . We have a great night and it is important to note that for a group of 10 we travel very well together. Things don't run as smoothly when you add Aunty Dory to the mix.
Aunty Dory arrives with my mother sunday night. We go to breakfast at O'hana's with Lilo and Stich.

Here is Aunty Dory with my three boys

We have a great time with Aunty Dory heading up the parade (claims she is living the childhood she never had). We head over to Blizzard beach, front row parking and realize that I (yep, me ) forgot the tickets (well I can't keep track of every,thing ) We go back to get the tickets enter the park and meet my childhood friend Judy and her 3 girls. We get lockers, towels and my mother and Aunty Dory go to change into suits. They come out and my mother is giggling uncontrollably She says to me don't tell but Dorey brought 2 bathing suits tops, one black and one white. I look over at Dorey and she looks like she is wearing both pieces to a black tankini suit. My mother says look closer, she is wearing my black underwear To the untrained eye it would be a bathing suit but upon closere examination it really was my mother's bloomers but don't tell Well the first thing that I did was tell my husband and friend judy, how could you not?
We finally manage to get into the water on the lazy river and we lose aunty Dorey. Don't worry we found her at the end because we coul hear her well down the river asking everyone in the River if they saw us a group with 3 little boys and 3 little girls. You know how rare it is to see groups of children at Blizzard beach
We exit the lazy river and Aunty Dory rides every possible ride with the kids (her great nephews). We decide to go back to the area we staked out in the morning which is significantly smaller at this point. Aunty Dory decides to do some sun bathing In the meantime, we split up an I remain back at camp while my 2 year old naps for 2 hours at blizzard beach. Judy stays with me to chat We chatted until we were rudely interupted by the bullhorn The lifeguard is bellowing through his bull horn, "ma'am, please get out of the path!" Judy and I look over and we see this woman in a sun visor and movie star sun glasses with a black bathing suit in the middle of what is clearly a large walking path trying to angle her giant lounge chair to catch the maximum tanning rays. how this woman could not know that this was a path is beyond me Why would everone else be squished together and leave this area wide open? Apparently so this woman could have plenty of room to angle her chair and maximize her tan The lifeguard continues, "ma'am, please get out of the path!" at least 3 times. Now everyone is looking and the woman begins to look for who this man may be bellowing to. She can't figure it out so she continues to assess the sun's rays and angle her chair. The life guard begins to walk towards her and it dawns on me that the woman is Aunty Dory in my mothers Big Black Bloomers For a moment I consider running over there but I was too embarassed and I commited the cardinal sin of the Italian family and turned my back on a family member in need At this point the lifeguard bellows, "Lady in the bloomers, please get out of the path!" Okay, he didn't really say lady in the bloomers but thats how the story went in my head and at dinner that night She finally did get out of the path. Stay tuned to see how Aunty Dory thoroughly frustrated an mgm cast member and an introduction to the cast members in my real trip report!

 

[princessjv]

Don't push the Button!

I'm in! You are off to a great start. Just a bit of help...not that you asked or anything Sometimes is is easier to type in another program like word or apple works and then copy it into your post. That way you can type your heart out, even if the power fails..or the boards go down...which happens.

 

[MousekaMaddi]

im laughing already!!

 

[disneydance]

OK i'm in this is funny

 

[teacher2525]

Well, I’m taking some advice and I’m going to try typing in Microsoft word 1st and then pasting it, thanks for the tip . I just got a new laptop so now I can type on my comfortable bed .
One more of the many Aunty Dory stories before I introduce the cast of my August trip. We went to MGM and Aunty Dory loves to ride all the thrill rides. She also loves to take lots and lots and lots and lots (you get the idea) of pictures on her many high quality disposable cameras . Well, as we all know they take your picture on these thrill rides and sell them in package form. Aunty Dory had to have a picture and she wanted a 5 by7. However, they do not sell a 5 by 7 individually. Now, I am a second hand reporter because my DH was lucky enough to actually experience the situation first hand. He didn’t know you could frustrate a CM to this extent. Aunty Dory says to the CM, I’ll take the 5 by 7. The CM goes through the speech, we don’t sell just a 5 by 7, we have package A for X amount of dollars, we have package B for X amount of dollars and we have package C for X amount of dollars. In return Aunty Dory says, okay, I’ll take the 5 by 7. The CM kindly explains again, we don’t sell just a 5 by 7, we have package A for X amount of dollars, we have package B for X amount of dollars and we have package C for X amount of dollars. I think that sometimes when people are speaking to her she doesn’t hear what they are saying but instead hears the same thing that Charlie Brown hears when his teacher or any adult speaks to him. Again Aunty Dory says I’ll just get the 5 by 7 and again the CM explains, we don’t sell just 5 by 7, we have package A for X amount of dollars, we have package B for X amount of dollars and we have package C for X amount of dollars. Well, can you guess what Aunty Dory says? Yep, she says, okay, um, um, um, I’ll take the 5 by 7. At this point steam begins to come out of the CM’s mouse ears and through gritted teeth says, we don’t sell just 5 by 7, we have package A for X amount of dollars, we have package B for X amount of dollars and we have package C for X amount of dollars. At this point my DH walked away so we can only speculate what may have happened but Aunty Dory returned 10 minutes later with package A.
Next the introduction of the cast of characters

 

[heaven2dc]

Omg - this is tooo funny!! I hope you have pics to post as well esp of Aunt Dory!

 

[tinawv]

Don't worry, I think we all have an Aunt Dory in the family. Looking forward to more.

 

[teacher2525]

can anyone tell me how to post pictures?

 

[OhMari]

Welcome to the DIS Boards, long time lurker.

You can go to the technical board, and it shows directions how to post pictures.

I love your Aunt Dory stories. way to funny.

 

[teacher2525]

Here is my cast of characters for the trip (I’m hearing a drum roll in my head)

Well first there is me, the Walt Disney World planner. I really am having a tough time coming up with a Disney character to represent myself but I’ll go with Lilo because she is the caretaker of Stitch and as a SPED teacher for children with emotional and behavioral disorders I sometimes feel like the caretaker of a classroom full of Stitches. Plus Lilo and Stitch is my favorite movie.

Next, there is my DH. Before we were married and had children I would equate him to Winnie the Pooh (kind of looks like him, nice easy going personality). After the whole married with children thing, I would say Donald Duck . I was DUPED!

DS#1 (9 years old), we’ll call him Buzz, which is his favorite ride and he has to buy those Toy Story Army men every time we go to Disney world. He is responsible, quite smart and not much of a thrill seeker even though he thinks he is.

DS#2 (7 years old), we’ll call him Stitch because he wreaks havoc in our lives but means well. He’s my thrill seeker, going on every ride as soon as he could make the height requirement.

DS#3 (3 years old), we’ll call him Happy because he was happy from the minute he was born. He rarely cried, you could take him anywhere and he was always smiling. I used to call him my little happy face.

Well this trip originated because we felt like we had a very confusing trip in October due to the large number of travelers (even though Aunty Dory kept us laughing ) and because no one wanted to go to the Disney resort in Vero Beach. Oh yeah and my DH hit a big football pool. However, I never told the kids we were going. Actually I told DS#3 but because he is 3 years old and has no reference of time the other two boys thought he was talking about the old trip, and I convinced them he didn’t know what he was talking about. I had to have someone to talk to about it! The secret was eating me alive! I actually told DS#2 when he was coming out of his anesthesia after having his tonsils removed because it was a horrible experience and I would have done anything to take the pain away. Luckily he really didn’t remember. Although one day he said to me, “For some reason, I think we are going to Disney World.” I just told him I sure wished we were going and he never mentioned it again. I can’t tell you how hard this was to do but it was worth it, plus I had DS#3 to chat with on our daily ride to daycare everyday.

 

[teacher2525]

Well I just added 2 pictures and it took me many days to figure it out but now I know how. I will be able to post more pictures in my report but for now I wanted to at least get Aunty Dory in there!

 

[pomcoach]

Hi teacher2525!
I'm a teacher too, Kindergarten. I'm loving your report and all the background knowledge, just like a teacher would do!! My hubby and I are taking off after school conferences on Friday Oct. 12 for an Anniversary trip for just 3 days to Disney World. I can't wait!
You have a natural writing ability! Makes me feel like I'm there with you.
Thanks so much for sharing your trip with all of us! I know you must be swamped with school things, so we all really appreciate it!
Take care of your 3 little ones and enjoy. They grow up so fast!
Pomcoach

 

[teacher2525]

Thanks Pomcoach,
I'm amazed at the amount of people that have read it already and I'm just getting started. Wish I had more time to write but as you
september is CRAZY! Have a great time on your October trip Hopefully I can post again this weekend.

 

[teacher2525]

Departure day eve is never ending . I’ve been packed forever and the kids think that we are going camping. No one even asked me why we were packing suitcases for camping, we never pack suitcases for camping, we always pack laundry baskets. The trusting innocence of youth! I remember when I was little my mother told me she could fly over the floor after she washed it, I don’t think that I realized the truth until high school!

Anyway, I get the kids to bed which was a feat in and of itself because they were bubbling over with excitement at the thought of going camping and spending the day at Santa’s Village. Good thing they don’t know that we are really going to Disney World or they would have never went to sleep. We have a 6:30 AM flight which means that we have to leave our house at 4:00 AM, drive to my parent’s house so we can get to Logan Airport by 5:00 AM. I am suffering from alarm anxiety. I set 3 alarm clocks plus my cell phone and still can’t sleep because I am afraid it won’t go off and that I will miss my flight.

No need for alarms because I think I dozed off for about 45 minutes, the excitement was just more than I could handle. Eventually I gave up on the idea of sleep, got up at about 3:00 AM , took a shower, checked my flight and the weather in Orlando . Everything looked great!

Finally it was time to wake the boys up. I head upstairs with my video camera and the older 2 jump out of bed and get dressed for what they think is a camping trip. I wake up the baby (mind you he is 3 years old but I think we will still refer to him as the baby even when he is 33 years old). I get him dressed and as everyone is putting on their shoes I turn on the video camera again so we can tell them where we are really going. Finally, I say to my littlest one, tell the boys our secret, tell them where we are really going today. He tells them we are going to Disney World on the airplane. At this point I expect to hear screams of delight and cheering. Nothing, not even the sound of crickets (well it was 4:00 AM). I say really, we are going to Disney and we wanted to surprise you. Again, nothing , well maybe crickets this time. My oldest kind of gives me a half smile as if to say yeah, right ma! I should mention that I have a very dry and sarcastic sense of humor and my children have grown accustomed to this through the years so they had every right not to believe me. I then tell them that the trailer is not hooked up and if they didn’t believe me they soon would because we were driving to Papa’s and he was taking us to the airport. They look dumbfounded and I notice a slight look of hopefulness on their faces, a look that says oh my God, she might be serious. I say, I swear to God, we are staying at the Beach Club Villas and we are flying Jet Blue. Finally we get a little cheering because Jet Blue has TVs for every one and we always wanted to try the Beach Club.

We pile into the van to head to my parents and the excitement is building. We make it to my parents my father hops into the van and my mother pops her head in to say goodbye to the kids. We usually take my mother with us and as we pull out of the driveway my oldest son says boy, it’s kinda sad leaving Nonnie behind.
We have a little trouble getting to the airport due to a Tunnel closure but make it in time to have a quick breakfast and jump on the plane. It must be my lucky day because I always get stuck sitting with the littlest child of our family and this time he wants to sit with his father. I wonder if my luck will hold up ?

 

[teacher2525]

I have a little question. I was wandering around the site reading trip reports and I encountered a warning that said to be nice or the thread would be shut down, following some replies that were missing but must have not been nice. Then there was an apology and some talk about the alert button. What is the alert button? What happens when you press it?

 

[teacher2525]

I am getting the hang of how it all works. Just putting up my new signature.