In Loving Memory... We’re Going Deluxe! - A Jan 2013 PTR (TR Link 01/28)

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks to your handy-dandy chapter links I'm all caught up. There's simply too much to comment on so I'll simply say that it's wonderful that you're going on this trip in memory of your mother. You can never ever spent too much time together as a family and there's no better place in the world to do so than Walt Disney World.

 

[AvasMommy526]

Ok first! I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas Mel!!!
Second, 5 DAYS!!!!

I love all your MK must dos! Basically the whole park is a must do and more than once!! Its such a plus that our little ones can go on almost everything with us at MK! It's my favorite

Oh and as for Flights of Wonder.........I am afraid of the flying close birds too!!!! Everyone thinks I'm crazy lol!!

 

[ronnmel]

Peanut is waking up from a nap so I can't write more, but I just wanted to say

4 DAYS!!!!

On a less positive note, I've been sick. Ron had a cold last weekend and I kinda made fun of him for acting like a big baby, but I caught it a few days later and let me tell you, it's a big one! At least I got lucky and started feeling bad late afternoon on Christmas Day. The get together at Ron's family had started at noon (and we had seen my family the night before), so we didn't miss out on anything. I was in bed by 8pm that evening! (and again last night) At least the way I see it, better be sick now than in Disney!! Just hoping that Peanut and Otaku don't get it from me... It's easy to stay away from a teenager, but not so much from a tiny baby who can't do anything on her own!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Hope you feel better soon!

for 4 days!!!

 

[Nermel9]

Merry Christmas! I know I'm a few days late, but I've had such limited DIS time lately! Hope you feel better before Disney and that no one else gets sick!! Your trip is so close!!

 

[photographymom517]

Your trip is soooo close now!!!!!

​

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

HOPING EVERYONE IS IN RECOVERY MODE AND ALL READY FOR YOUR ADVENTURE...​

 

[lovethattink]

Wow, it's almost time!

I hope you feel better and that the children don't get sick. It's going around my family too. I started, then my oldest who spent Christmas Eve day and Christmas day in bed, now my youngest and my husband is trying his hardest to fight it off.

 

[ronnmel]

Hi Mel

Loved the Santa pic with Claudia - the first one is always a treasured memory.

Just wanted to stop by and say Happy Xmas and have a great time in the world for New Year.

I cant wait to read how it goes.

its late Xmas eve here and I am off to share the next few days with my family at my parents place so wont get on before you head off.

Have a wonderful trip.

Take care

Merry Christmas Mel, Ron, Otaku and Claudia!

MERRY CHRISTMAS MEL, AND FAMILY!!!

Thanks guys! Claudia's first Christmas was great!


​

Thanks guys!!

How the heck did I miss that you had this pre-trip report going? Going back to read all the details.

You're here, it's all that matters.

Thanks to your handy-dandy chapter links I'm all caught up. There's simply too much to comment on so I'll simply say that it's wonderful that you're going on this trip in memory of your mother. You can never ever spent too much time together as a family and there's no better place in the world to do so than Walt Disney World.

Glad I could help! I love when TR and PTRs have links, makes catching up so much easier. Thank you, and I agree.

Ok first! I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas Mel!!!
Second, 5 DAYS!!!!

I love all your MK must dos! Basically the whole park is a must do and more than once!! Its such a plus that our little ones can go on almost everything with us at MK! It's my favorite

Oh and as for Flights of Wonder.........I am afraid of the flying close birds too!!!! Everyone thinks I'm crazy lol!!

Thanks! We had a wonderufl Christmas. I started being sick right after, so that was perfect timing at least. LOL

2 and a half days now!!!!!

Magic Kingdom is such a fun park! I can't wait!

Yay! Another person afraid of birds like me. LOL

Hope you feel better soon!

for 4 days!!!

I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, yay!

2 and a half days now!!!!!

Merry Christmas! I know I'm a few days late, but I've had such limited DIS time lately! Hope you feel better before Disney and that no one else gets sick!! Your trip is so close!!

Thanks! Don't feel bad, everyone's time is limited during the Holidays!

I'm starting to feel better, but I'm terrified that one of the girls will get sick.

Your trip is soooo close now!!!!!

​

I would be more excited if I wasn't so tired, but I'm still excited anyway.

HOPING EVERYONE IS IN RECOVERY MODE AND ALL READY FOR YOUR ADVENTURE...​

I'm trying to get as much rest as I can to be up and ready on Monday.

Wow, it's almost time!

I hope you feel better and that the children don't get sick. It's going around my family too. I started, then my oldest who spent Christmas Eve day and Christmas day in bed, now my youngest and my husband is trying his hardest to fight it off.

It's crazy how fast the time has gone!

I really do hope the children don't get sick. It's really impossible to avoid touching Claudia, her bottles, coughing around her, etc. I'm terrified she'll get sick, but keeping my fingers crossed. I'm sorry to hear your family is going through the sickness as well.

 

[KatMark]

We are going away for the weekend to see our youngest son and his fiance. I did not want to miss your send off so I'm stopping by to wish you a most magical vacation. I can't wait to hear all about it when you get home.

 

[ronnmel]

I need some pixie dust right now. It's that time of the month and it's making me a little, err how should I say this, neurotic. Today I had a full blown panic moment that Claudia would catch the flu (it wasn't a cold after all) that I'm just now getting over and would have so high a fever that we'd have to stay home. I'm feeling better now, but please send me all the positive vibes that you can. I need to keep telling myself "All you need is faith, trust, and pixie dust!"

DAY 4-10 PLANS​

January 4th and onward

No, I'm not being lazy here by putting all our days together. The reason for this is, after the first evening and 3 fulls days, we have no plans! That's right, we're taking a full on "go with the flow" attitude. We have our ADRs, but other than that nothing planned. We'll see what we feel like doing based on how late/early we get up in the morning, crowd calendars and recommended parks (we're not *that* crazy as to go in completely blind ), weather, and possibly some bus lottery. The reason for this is I was going crazy trying to try to figure out how a 6 months baby would be on vacation, and how our stamina would hold up because of said baby. There is just too much unknown to try and come up with the "perfect" schedule. I find staying at a deluxe helps with the ability of coming up with last minute plans. Plus, crowds will go down considerably for our last few days, so that should help too.

As I mentioned above, we do have some ADRs to work around, but only 4 more.

Saturday January 5th - Late breakfast at Kouzzina
There are some morning EMH at Hollywood Studios that morning, so IF we feel like it we'll go there early, hit a few rides, then go have breakfast. Otherwise we'll just (try to) sleep in (as much as a baby will let you sleep in) and laze around until breakfast.
Monday January 7th - Early dinner at Cape May Cafe
We have the earliest time slot, so hopefully that means fresher food that hasn't been sitting under the heat lamp for a while. Also, it's at our resort, so we really can go anywhere we want that day.
Tuesday January 8th - Lunch at Via Napoli
Well that does guarantee that we'll go to Epcot that morning/afternoon.
Wednesday January 9th - Early lunch at California Grill
We will most probably be spending the day at Magic Kingdom. It's the best park to end our trip since there is so much we can all do together, plus it's a recommended park. We'll just walk over to Contemporary when it's time to eat.

The Friday and weekend (4th, 5th & 6th) are the most open of our days. As for our last day, we'll have to catch Magical Express mid-morning so we really won't have time to do anything else but pack and check-out. Plus, not Epcot nor DHS have EMH that morning.

A few things that I know we'll want to do, or at least try to do:
- Visit Beaches & Cream multiple times
- See the Osborne lights at least once more
- Go shopping at Downtown Disney
- Play mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens
- Hit rope drop at DHS
- Go back to AK if we missed out on some attractions
- Do laundry
- Watch Illuminations any time we can
- Movie on the beach?
- Swim in the pool if weather permits
- Visit Boardwalk

So there you have it, our plans. I only have two real updates left to write. I'll work on those tonight as much as possible, so check again later to see if I've posted them.

 

[ronnmel]

We are going away for the weekend to see our youngest son and his fiance. I did not want to miss your send off so I'm stopping by to wish you a most magical vacation. I can't wait to hear all about it when you get home.

Thanks Kathy! Have fun with the kids!!

 

[ronnmel]

Hollywood Studios MUST DOs​

We don't have any full day planned at Hollywood Studios, but I'm sure we'll pop over at least 4 times. We'll try to spread this out over mornings and evenings.

Osborne Spectacle of Dancing Lights : Duh! How can you go during the Holidays and not see this? I've only seen pictures, I can't wait to be amazed by the real thing.
Toy Story Mania : This is the sole reason why we plan on trying to hit rope drop here twice. We LOVE this ride. The only downside, if we go all together we won't get to go through the super fast line for groups of 2. Plus, one of us won't really be able to shoot much while holding the baby.
Tower of Terror : Our absolute favorite ride of ALL Walt Disney World! This is the only ride that Otaku flat out refused to go on in 2009. Everything else we were able to convince her and she ended up loving all of it. But TOT she had gone when she was about 7 with her grandparents and she HATED it. We didn't force the issue back then as she was still young, but she's a teenager now and we believe she needs to give it another chance. Plus, she went on a similar ride at the local fair this summer. I made sure to wait until after the ride had started to say "Well if you're not too scared to go on this, you can go on TOT next time we're in Disney. " yes, we're mean parents/step-parents. But hey, if she still hates it, then she can take care of Peanut while Ron and I go on it together a couple of time. LOL
Rock'n'Roller Coaster : We all love it.
Animation drawing class : My fave! Ron even got me a book that shows you how to draw several Disney characters as part of my Christmas gift.
Star Tours : Claudia and I can enjoy some mommy-daughter time while big sister and daddy ride this.
Beauty & the Beast : I think I read that this will go down for a small refurb the last few days we'll be there, so we have to see it early.
MuppetVision 3D : Ron's favorite 3D movie. I can't believe I almost forgot to put it on the list!!!

A much shorter list than my MK one! Though we do want to hit those over and over and over and over...

There isn't much else that interests us.
Characters : Wreck-It Ralph would be cool to meet since he's new. Not sure who else... I don't think there will be any Characterpalooza while we're there, Fantasmic is always too early.
Fantasmic : I doubt we'll see this. It's really not our favorite, and I doubt Otaku will insist.
American Idol Experience : We've never had any interest in this (still don't), but Otaku loves singing so who knows. I did think about having her audition if she wanted to (she has a great voice, even sang a solo at her school's Christmas concert), but she'll be just a couple of months shy of the minimum age.
Any of the other shows : We've seen them all during our Disneymoon and are in no rush to see them again, so this will depend on what Otaku wants to do.

That's pretty much it. We hate the Great Movie Ride, so no chance of doing that. Maybe we'll watch the parade. mostly, I think we'll just enjoy hitting all our favorites multiple times. And eating a Turkey Leg, for Ron and Otaku.

 

[SAT887]

We did Fantasia mini golf late one night a few weeks ago- it was so much fun!! There was 4 of us and it took us forever I've never done the winter themed one (I try to escape winter so maybe that's why it doesn't appeal to me?)

Your plans look great - I like how you kept them open! Many if our greatest moments in WDW are during down times or when we are just relaxing in the park. I know both of my girls enjoy the "free"play where they can do some exploring and not be strapped in.

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

I've been following your PTR but can't remember if I've posted. I hope you all have a wonderful trip!! . Can't wait to read the trip report when you come home!!

 

[ronnmel]

RANDOM STUFF #2​

Well, this is my last official update before heading out. Tomorrow will be a busy day with some last minute errands, finishing packing and trying to head to bed at a reasonable hour. I don't have any more plans to talk about, so here are some random bits and pieces related to the trip.

This is the diaper bag/backpack that we will be taking into the parks.

Some fun stuff my TA sent me to help me get excited for my trip.

Claudia's autograph book.

The journal in which I'll be keeping notes of everything happening in order to write my TR after I come back.

Last summer I got a whole bunch of pins from Ebay (no scrappers, they all seem to be real pins). Out of the lot, here are the ones I will be trading.

This will be my lanyard.

Out of the lot I bought, these are the pins I like and would like to keep. Might end up trading a few of these if I run out of the ones I want to trade.

Finally, I told you I would tell you about my decision regarding a stroller. I had told Ron about the fact that a few of you had suggested getting ourselves a cheap umbrella stroller, but he wasn't interested. Then a couple of days later he comes back from work saying he talked it out with a coworker and we should look into buying a cheap umbrella stroller so we can have one in the airport. Men! We looked online, but couldn't find anything we liked. We decided to check out one store anyway, and lo and behold, we found one!

It was on sale for 50$! It reclines pretty far, which was one of my main criterias. It seems to maneuver easily. It also folds super easily with just one hand, which was my other criteria.

The sun shade is pretty small, so I bought a summer infant ray shade. Even with that it still came out cheaper than renting. Hope it works well!


Well that's it Disney wise. How about I leave you with a few baby pictures?


Waiting for big sister to arrive. They hadn't seen each other since summer.

Ripping (and eating) the wrapping paper on her Christmas gifts.

Hope I have time to come say goodbye tomorrow before going to bed.

 

[ronnmel]

We did Fantasia mini golf late one night a few weeks ago- it was so much fun!! There was 4 of us and it took us forever I've never done the winter themed one (I try to escape winter so maybe that's why it doesn't appeal to me?)

Your plans look great - I like how you kept them open! Many if our greatest moments in WDW are during down times or when we are just relaxing in the park. I know both of my girls enjoy the "free"play where they can do some exploring and not be strapped in.

Same here, I'm trying to escape winter, don't really have any interest in playing a winter mini-golf. We wanted to play during our Disneymoon, but never got around to it. Maybe this time we will.

Thanks! Peanut is too young to enjoy much free play, and Otaku is too old for that, but I'm sure we'll all enjoy relaxing.

I've been following your PTR but can't remember if I've posted. I hope you all have a wonderful trip!! . Can't wait to read the trip report when you come home!!

Thank you! I'll be sure to post a link to the TR after I come back from the trip and start writing it. Gotta get on that trip first though.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Love the flexible schedule for many of the days!

I'm so excited you get to see Osborne Lights! You will them.

Love the stuff your TA sent! My TA didn't even send me all the stuff I NEEDED, let alone anything extra. The pins are nice too.

And that picture of Claudia waiting for Otaku is ADORABLE!!!!!

Most importantly....

HAVE A GREAT TRIP!!!!

Can't wait to read all about it when you get back

 

[AvasMommy526]

Love the go with the flow plans!!! You're all going to have a wonderful trip! I really can't wait to hear about it!!

I love all the must dos for DHS (I still call it MGM sometimes ) I have never seen the Osbourne lights and I'm dying too, I just know they are amazing so please enjoy them for me too!
TSMM and RnR are also amazing and I think DD will enjoy ToT now, if she braves the other rides, I am sure she will do great. It's my favorite too! I have to admit I have a soft spot for GMR, I'm not sure why but we have always done it so it's kind of staple for us lol!

Love that stroller!! Can't wait to hear how it works our for you, like I said before we aren't thrilled with our smaller one so I'm always looking at reviews! We have the same diaper backpack!! Oh and I love all the fun stuff your TA sent and Claudia's autograph book!
Ok I think I commented on everything I hope you have a wonderful, magical, pixie dust filled trip of a lifetime!!

 

[shan23877]

Mel-I hope that you have an amazing trip! I can't wait to hear all about it.

I love that you kept the last few days open, that's so smart. The only rule of parenting that I've found to be 100 % true is that no baby will do what you expect.