Introducing Amy to "Walt's World" *Updated twice 1/21 Last installments*

[mrsksomeday]

AKA "We wanted to be an Ip-Dip too"

PTR LINKS:

Introductions - This post scroll down!
# 2 The real planning begins
# 3 Pictures and crafts etc
# 4 Wouldn’t you wanna be an Ip-Dip too?
# 5 Tracy got crafty?
# 6 Off the Disney Track then back on
Time out for some travel news
# 7 Back to the Kingdom, Animal Kingdom
# 8 Toy Story Mania here we come
# 9 The last of the itinerary
*# 1 Smokey Mountain Memories Part 1
*# 2A Mountain views and a scenic hike Part 1
*# 2B Mountain views and a scenic hike Part 2
*# 3 Note to self NEVER go shopping with Marianne
*# 4 Chik-fil-a, scrapbooking, and more scenery
*# 4 Continued
#* 5 It’s not a cabin it’s a “log home”
#10 Getting back to talkin Disney
#11 No more ADR changes and October itinerary
#12 Super Soap Weekend say it isn’t so
#13 I can’t say how upset Bill and I are
#14 Why are we getting up early again?

TR LINKS

# 1 TR STARTS HERE!!
# 2 Oh we’re half way there, living on a prayer
# 3 Pop, Pop, Pop Century!! Talk about, Pop Century
# 4 Oh oh it’s magic when I’m with you
# 5 Walking on sunshine
# 6 Don’t need nothing but a good time
# 7 In the jungle, the mighty jungle
# 7 continued - In the jungle, the mighty jungle
# 8 Sweet dreams (are made of this)
# 9 Everybody have fun tonight, Everybody have fun
#10 Everybody wants to rule the World
#11 I can’t drive 55
#12 I want my MGM!! (DHS)
#13 Give me all your (Character) Lovin
#13 Give me all your (Character) Lovin (Continued)
#14 Let it Be, Let it Be
#15 Karma Chameleon
#16 I drink alone
#17 Acey, Acey we’re coming home
#18 My obsession- Actually Bill’s



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Since it is only 46 days until we leave on our trip I better get my booty into gear here. I will introduce the cast then explain why the heck I named the pre trip what I did.

Here is a glimpse into our madness.

Me – Tracy – 38 - OTP: I’m pooh-sized, but really working on changing my life. I am a computer obsessed, soap watching, country & pop listening, Disney World A D D I C T. I totally admit it. I need a 12 step program for it, I really do. I can work the words Disney World into any conversation. I talk way too much about past trips, upcoming trips, and trips we haven’t even scheduled yet.


Here is me split screened from the last two trips:

Him – Bill – 38 - knight in shining wheelchair: My darling boyfriend, spousal equivalent, or what ever else you could call us. Gene Simmons (Bill’s idol) would say we have been “happily unmarried” for 4 years now. Bill has Cerebral Palsy, a speech impediment, can’t use his right hand, and uses a power wheelchair. He has the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen, a fantastic sense of humor, and a smile that can melt your heart in a second. He has 3 college degrees and is currently working on his Masters in Rehabilitation Administration with a 3.8 GPA. He just got done building his second website for the company he works for.

Here is Bill on the train at MK:

Dog – Ace – 3 - neurotic: Sweet, loving, loyal, skittish, obsessive, and cuddly. He is half Jack Russell, half Rat Terrier and all lazy. We swear he knows the word “Disney” and can’t stand it. I get this look when we talk about Disney or when the suitcases come out:

Yes I know, the same old boring cast, but wait don’t leave us, there are NEW things this time, I promise. We have added two more people to the cast!!

Her – Amy – 22 – fantastic person/friend: We met her in 2005 when Bill went to work for a summer camp for people with disabilities. They were camp counselors that summer and she is very familiar with Bill and his disability. She was in the same cabin with Bill for the first two weeks of camp. She has been a real friend to him, a true gem. Not many people give Bill a chance, they don’t get to know him, or they say they are his “friend” but usually don’t come around unless they need something. Not our Amy, she has been a fantastic friend since that summer and I don’t think she has any idea how much we adore her. She is wonderful with people with all types of disabilities, autistic children love her. I don’t know why she wants to hang out with people 16 years older than her, but thank goodness she does. I lifted this picture off her myspace, I am sure you will see many pictures of her on the trip report. Here is Amy:

Another dog – Charley – 6 months? – hyperactive: Amy's baby, she is insane, has no fear whatsoever, and is cute as a button. She is a King Charles Spaniel and is totally adorable. She is a “love me, love me, you know you wanna love me” kind of dog and it freaks Ace out. It is totally hilarious to watch her with him. She does everything she can to get him to play and he jumps on the couch and looks at her like she is an alien, only now she can jump up right behind him and still get in his face

.

This is the only decent picture I could get of her, she is too wiggly:

Now that you know the cast I can answer the question “why did she name her PTR that??” Well, I will tell you why. First off I have to let you know the official definition as told by Buzz in the absolutely fabulous TR “The Man Report”:

Ip-Dip – Whenever someone does something dumb, they’re an “Ip-Dip”. When I lost the car last year at Downtown Disney, Loud Girl called me an “Ip-Dip”.

Why would we want to be an Ip-Dip?? I had followed Buzz’s “Man Reports” for awhile. He has a great knack for writing and cracks me up. Linnie (Buzz’s better half) is a very wonderful woman. They have a child with a disability that is very close to Bill and my heart. Bill and I loved reading about their family and how wonderful they were with their little boy and sweet little girl.

Last year we had a fantastic meet with another family and I thought it would be fun to do it again. Buzz kept saying they wanted people to join in and come at the same time they were in Disney so I started thinking. Then other great people decided to crash Buzz and Linnie’s vacation and I kept reading about it. I really wanted to go, but I knew Bill wanted to go to Super Soap Weekend again. I mean I understand it, when he gets beautiful women like this to take pictures with, why wouldn’t he want to go:

I kept talking about Ip-Dip a lot. Bill then brought up Star Wars Weekend. There was a discussion and we decided to go to SWW and Ip-Dip, it made us both happy

!! While we were there we had a bounce back offer from Disney and went insane by not only booking our October trip, but a weekend in November as well.

Then some divine intervention happened. Bill and I had wanted a friend of ours (Amy) to go on the last two trips with us. She has never been to Disney, never been on a plane (sounds just like me before my first Disney trip in Feb. 2006), and wanted to go, but it just didn’t happen.

She came over, we were discussing our June WDW trip. We also told her about our upcoming October trip. I casually mentioned that it would cost next to nothing for someone (wink wink) to room with us. Her eyes lit up, those sweet beautiful eyes had that “I want to go” look. Bill and I both saw it.

I threw out the bait and hooked her with one sentence

. She asked how much it would cost; I told her I would call the next day. I did, and got a price. Bill and I decided, she was going this time, no matter what. I called her with the price, she said it sounded “doable” and would let me know in a couple of days.

Then the other day, Southwest had a “Ding” for us, I purchased our tickets and Bill and I had a little chat. I called Southwest and asked them some questions about buying a ticket for someone else and if they didn’t go could we apply the funds for us, they said no problem at all, so I went back to the Southwest website and bought Amy’s plane ticket. Bill and I had already decided to exchange the November trip for ESPN Weekend in March so this was no problem.

We did this for several of reasons:

• We would be helping our friend
  

• She would get to go to the Happiest Place on Earth
  

• Bill and I would get to play tour guide
  

• We would get to talk about Disney incessantly to someone that actually wanted to hear it besides the people that are reading this report right now
  

• She would be helping me transfer Bill into rides I could not transfer him by myself. Pirates of the Caribbean and Spaceship Earth come to mind
  

It would be wonderful for us to see Disney through her eyes. I called her, told her what I did, I think she was a little shocked and she said it was “totally doable now” giggling and saying “YES I am going”

!! I said are you sure, I have ADR’s to change and I have to know, she told me it was a definite.

Well just like any other OTP would do, I immediately printed out my spreadsheet trying to decide what restaurants I knew we wanted to keep and what we might change to show her the most of the World

. I got out my steno pad, wrote down what I wanted on what days with substitutions if what we wanted was not available, I also wrote down time frames. I am happy to say I actually got all the restaurants I wanted, there is only one I will keep calling about to try to get an earlier time, 8:55pm is a little late when the restaurant supposedly closes at 9:30pm

.

Next installment…I try to rein in my OTPness so I won’t totally exhaust her on this trip, do you think I can do it?

 

[Hedy]

Looking forward to more.
That's great that you guys will be able to show Amy around, and I'm happy for Bill that he'll get to do more.

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

I'm in!

 

[TinkAsh2001]

YAY! I am here! I always love your trip reports!! Also, you look fab!!! Great job on the weight loss! You are doing awesome girl!!!

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Glad I found you once again my friend! You look FANTASTIC! You should be very proud of yourself! Awesome job!

I totally understand the "working Disney in to every conversation" thing. I really have to stop myself sometimes.

How fun that you get to take Amy to WDW and show her all around - so exciting!

Looking forward to hearing more of your plans!

 

[MRYPPNS]

This all seems vaguely familiar

 

[luvfigment]

YAY yoou started your PTR!!! BTW you look AMAZING!!! I am very excited to read about your plans and I love the picture with Kelly Monaco and Bill. I am a GH fan and one day I will get downn there for Soap Weekend.

 

[team weasel]

 

[BETTYDISNEY]

I am so excited for you guys! Your friend is going to have a BLAST with you!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Looking forward to more.
That's great that you guys will be able to show Amy around, and I'm happy for Bill that he'll get to do more.

Hello and welcome!! We are so excited about Amy coming with us. Thanks for joining the PTR.

I'm in!

Welcome!! Thanks for joining!

YAY! I am here! I always love your trip reports!! Also, you look fab!!! Great job on the weight loss! You are doing awesome girl!!!

YAY! So glad you joined us. Thanks for the sweet words, I am really trying.

Glad I found you once again my friend! You look FANTASTIC! You should be very proud of yourself! Awesome job!

I totally understand the "working Disney in to every conversation" thing. I really have to stop myself sometimes.

How fun that you get to take Amy to WDW and show her all around - so exciting!

Looking forward to hearing more of your plans!

Hi Michelle!!! I am so happy you found me!! Thanks for the kind words. I am so glad there are others that understand the way Disney pops up when talking. Amy is so excited, I can't wait until she sees the castle.

What are your October dates again?

This all seems vaguely familiar

I wonder why ?

YAY yoou started your PTR!!! BTW you look AMAZING!!! I am very excited to read about your plans and I love the picture with Kelly Monaco and Bill. I am a GH fan and one day I will get downn there for Soap Weekend.

Thanks for posting!! Bill loves the pic with Kelly Monaco too . He is hoping for another one.

Hi thanks for joining us!

I am so excited for you guys! Your friend is going to have a BLAST with you!

Hi Betty. Thanks for posting. I hope Amy has a good time.

 

[mkluvsmickey]

What are your October dates again?

We weill be there October 15 - 19. Do you have your days planned out yet? I'd love to figure out a time to meet you two! We will be at POP so maybe we can meet up at the resort at some point.

 

[mrsksomeday]

We weill be there October 15 - 19. Do you have your days planned out yet? I'd love to figure out a time to meet you two! We will be at POP so maybe we can meet up at the resort at some point.

We are staying at Pop Oct. 18th - 27th!! First day we are there we will be going to Magic Kingdom for Spectro and Wishes. I really do hope we can meet.

 

[mrsksomeday]

**I have had this report on another message board and am copying it over here, so when I say she was over the other night, this actually happened toward the end of July**

Amy came over the night I told her we had purchased the ticket. She was so excited

. I had an extra PassPorter and gave it to her, I also gave her the DISboards, AllEars, and ENCHANTED web addresses to check out. I even went over menus with her that night. She said she didn’t want us changing anything she was just happy to come along. PLEASE, like we weren’t going to change some things around to maximize and enhance her time in WDW

.

She only had one request, one for a 10 day/9 night trip. She wanted to eat in Tony’s Restaurant at Magic Kingdom. She loves Lady and the Tramp

.

I kept asking what else she might like, but she said that is all she wanted, the rest of the time she was happy to just follow us around.

Seriously, how fantastic is that for an obsessive planner? I don’t have to worry about the planning the trip (but you know I will don’t you?) Can you believe she said she would even wear matching t-shirts with us one day? She had no problems with it whatsoever!! We are going to MNSSHP (Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party)

on October 21st. She seemed eager to go to that too. She was asking if people dressed up for it. My only worry here is I will want to make it so magical for her, that if something goes wrong I will be upset. If everything doesn’t go perfect I will be distressed, I am one of those “it is my fault/I am sorry” kind of people when it isn’t even my fault. I need to try to take ownership of things going wrong for some reason (thanks dad). I have to remind myself that anything can happen and to just go with the flow, after all we will still be in Disney if things don’t work the way I want them right?

So I have decided to have “goals” for the trip and try to not have everything be a “must do” in my brain. I thought I would start sharing a little of the itinerary with you.

Fri. Oct. 17th: This is travel to St. Louis day. We will check into a hotel - for those of you that have followed the first TR you probably know it is the Marriott. Why the Marriot you ask, because I love these beds:

Ah, the heavenly Marriott bed

. I thought about not going there, not spending the money for one night and spending that extra money in Disney, but then I decided I wanted us to have a great nights sleep before our trip

. (we have since decided to go a little cheaper, since we have so much planned for this fall)

I am not even looking for restaurants around the hotel. I am going to let Amy decide where we are eating this night

, because I have decided where we are eating for the next 10 days, except for Tony’s and one CS at Epcot that she gets to choose. See how nice I am by letting her pick .

Sat. Oct. 18th: We will be getting up at around 4:45am

to get ready. The flight will leave St. Louis at 7:35am and we are scheduled to land in Orlando at 10:55am. Amy will then have her first ride in Florida when we get off the airplane (shhh I haven’t told her about what it is and she has joined Enchanted (Disney Virgin) so we won’t spoil it now will we

? Then we will grab an elevator and make the long walk to the Magical Express counter. I told her we will get many looks as a cast member walks us past the lines and tells us to sit on the bench while they tell the other CM’s to call for an accessible bus. People always look at us funny when Bill and I go wait there. Maybe they look at us funny because they think we are funny looking

? Who knows?

She will get to see the video on the Magical Express (ME) bus

they play to pump us up before we get there. Yes, we better get a ME bus so she can see it, not a non ME bus or I will be an unhappy person

. Think magical thoughts, I want things to go just right for us. I want that for all of you too when you travel, but I guess I am selfish - I especially want this trip to be a fantastic experience for her.

We will check in to Pop, get something to eat, hopefully the room will be ready, go freshen up and explore the resort a little. I figured we would do that then because we are gong to be a little busy for the next 9 days. Then Amy will get her first ride on one of these babies:

Where would we take a newbie on her first night in WDW??

, of course. There were a couple of worries – she will see Spectro, Wishes, and eat at Tony’s the first night. What if everything else is a bit of a let down after that firework

and parade fun filled fantastic evening?? I have decided to set those fears aside and focus on the reasons why MK would be a good choice for the first night. She will get to see Spectro and Wishes; I suspect we will both be weepy. When people who have never been to Disney World think of it, Magic Kingdom is usually the first thing that comes to mind. We just wanted to take her to the most magical park on her first magical

day.

Next up…things I have either purchased or made for the trip so far

 

[Hedy]

 

[DisneyJo]

You are such a wonderful couple, what a fantastic thing to do for your friend and how great you can plan it all

Congratulations on your weight loss, you look gorgeous

 

[mrsksomeday]

You are such a wonderful couple, what a fantastic thing to do for your friend and how great you can plan it all

Congratulations on your weight loss, you look gorgeous

Hi Jo!! Thank you so much for the kind words. I am loving planning for a newbie!! I have a long way to go until gorgeous , but thanks .

 

[mkluvsmickey]

We are staying at Pop Oct. 18th - 27th!! First day we are there we will be going to Magic Kingdom for Spectro and Wishes. I really do hope we can meet.

We will be in DHS on 10/18 - supposed to see the 7 pm Fantasmic show. I'm thinking of heading to MK afterwards to see Wishes (I've never seen it!). Just not sure how the timing will work out. Not that I'd be able to find you in that crowd anyway! Maybe we can meet up when we get back to POP that evening. We'll have to exchange cell numbers when it gets closer!

Your first day plans sound great by the way! So exciting to be bringing a Disney virgin! I'm sure she will be blown away by everything!

 

[mrsksomeday]

We will be in DHS on 10/18 - supposed to see the 7 pm Fantasmic show. I'm thinking of heading to MK afterwards to see Wishes (I've never seen it!). Just not sure how the timing will work out. Not that I'd be able to find you in that crowd anyway! Maybe we can meet up when we get back to POP that evening. We'll have to exchange cell numbers when it gets closer!

Your first day plans sound great by the way! So exciting to be bringing a Disney virgin! I'm sure she will be blown away by everything!

I still can't believe you haven't seen Wishes. It gives me the chills every time I see it. I love it!! I am sure we can work something out. From what I know we are leaving to go back to Pop right after Wishes.

I was thinking about seeing what the Petals Bar had to offer . Disney virgin is Amy's name over on Enchanted . I said "hello, what do we call you when we get home?" She is so excited. We text each other with how many days left their are.

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Hi Tracy, I'm in!

I think you look great!


I LOVE the beds at the Marriot as well.

Shoot, I didnt know there were non-ME busses. Now I hope we get one too! I've never done it before.

Can't wait to see your purchases!

 

[TinkAsh2001]

I cant wait to see what all you have bought & made!!! Your stuff is always so cute! I have already started shopping and we have until June !!! We got new luggage YAY!