Is it the end of the summer yet??? (First ever PTR)

[Jaaaacki]

We are in the dead of winter, with 6 ft of snow fall in just the month of January. You cannot get to anything that has not been snow blown or plowed. The swings on the swing set are hidden beneath 3-4 feet of snow. But my almost 4 y/o Dd keeps asking "is it the end of summer yet?" Maybe I should have kept the trip a secret but I was just too excited not to share.

Who: Dh-Doug, Me-Jacki, Ds-Aidan and Dd-Hailey (need to find a pic of Dh, he's always behind the camera)

Me

Aidan and Hailey


When: August 18-25

Where and Why: It's been 10 years since my last visit to WDW and will be the first trip for my kids. I've also never stayed on-site. So a lot of firsts for this trip.

I have been trying to convince Dh to go to WDW for the past few years and finally with the offer of free dining he agreed that now was a good time to go. So in October I booked us a free dining stay at All Star Movies. I started obsessively reading the posts here about ADR's, resorts and everything about the parks. I thought it would be nice to upgrade to a moderate resort with the dxdp and the price difference wasn't much more so I made the switch. Then with the January offer of a room only discount I was convinced to just go all out with a room at Beach Club Resort. And I kept the DXDP

So, is it the end of summer yet? I can't wait!!!

In less than 30 days I can book my ADR's which I will share with you soon. And I almost forgot, I've set a weight loss goal for myself to reach before our trip. So more on that in the next post.

Table of Contents
My Pre-Trip Goal
The BIG Plan - ADR's
A Quick Update
First Vacation Purchase
It's Final - ADR's

 

[heathsf]

I'm definitely in for this. I'm arriving at Pop Century on the 20th for my BF's first trip. It's almost time to make my ADRs as well and I was planning to prepare for that after my January trip when the Aug park hours will be posted but now that it's been moved to Feb I actually have a problem because my reservation window opens up while I'm in Disney! I guess I'll be on the phone that morning! And I guess I can think of worse problems

How exciting that you're staying at the Beach Club and have a deluxe dining plan! Any idea what restaurants you want to eat at? Our options for the Feb trip were so limited (I made ADRs yesterday) because it's so last minute. I'm hoping to get some good stuff in for the summer trip!

Can't wait to hear what you have planned!

 

[Jaaaacki]

I'm definitely in for this. I'm arriving at Pop Century on the 20th for my BF's first trip. It's almost time to make my ADRs as well and I was planning to prepare for that after my January trip when the Aug park hours will be posted but now that it's been moved to Feb I actually have a problem because my reservation window opens up while I'm in Disney! I guess I'll be on the phone that morning! And I guess I can think of worse problems

How exciting that you're staying at the Beach Club and have a deluxe dining plan! Any idea what restaurants you want to eat at? Our options for the Feb trip were so limited (I made ADRs yesterday) because it's so last minute. I'm hoping to get some good stuff in for the summer trip!

Can't wait to hear what you have planned!

Park hours are listed at http://www.disneytravelagents.com/S.../pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_aug.pdf Some of the times aren't complete yet but it will give you an idea.

I've got a whole spreadsheet in the works but need to make a few changes and then cross my fingers I get everything we want. I'll post that soon.

How long will you be at pop?

 

[heathsf]

Park hours are listed at http://www.disneytravelagents.com/S.../pdf/ParkHours/WDW_Operating_Calendar_aug.pdf Some of the times aren't complete yet but it will give you an idea.

I've got a whole spreadsheet in the works but need to make a few changes and then cross my fingers I get everything we want. I'll post that soon.

How long will you be at pop?

I'm a spreadsheet person too! I started mine also and used the times from Touring Plans but I'm not sure that they're accurate. I saw a different calendar earlier today at http://allthingsmouse.com/august-2011-walt-disney-world-park-hours-available/ but it's pretty different than what touring plans has posted and EasyWDW says there are too many different versions of calendars floating around to post anything reliable yet... I would hope it would be out by Monday though since people traveling on Aug 1 will want to make their ADRs!

We'll be at Pop for 6 nights. I sort of wish we had made it longer but I couldn't get my BF to agree to it. Hopefully he'll fall in love with Disney and we'll plan a longer trip another time. I would LOVE to take a 10 day trip with the DxDP at the very end of Aug/beginning of Sept if my school calendar allowed it. But that wouldn't be for a few years and that's counting on my BF being willing to do it.

 

[Jaaaacki]

So first things first… As I mentioned in my intro post, I want to lose some of those extra pounds from having the kids. It’s more than just a few actually so I’m not aiming on losing them all before my trip. The goal will be do-able, I’m hoping to lose 30 lbs before the trip, any more than that is a bonus.

The plan is to go to the gym 3-4 times per week. I have wanted to get back into running for a while now and every time I get started something stands in my way but not this time. The goal is to run a 5k on Mother’s Day and more throughout the summer. I also want to increase my strength; I’m a such a weakling. So strength training at least 2 times per week.

Next, is a major re-evaluation of my diet. It has been awful for the past few years but a bit better lately. My major hurdle is the weekend when I totally fall off the healthy eating wagon. By the time Monday comes and I weigh in my weight stays the same. I think that attending Weight Watcher meetings will be a real help. I need the support so I intend to actually go to the meetings on Tuesdays. I’m tracking my calories rather than points but may switch. I have an awesome app on my Iphone and I just don’t want to switch it.

Hopefully, by telling everyone on the Disboards, I will keep myself accountable and reach my goal. I plan to report back weekly with my progress. Maybe I’ll even get a few cheerleaders to root me on!!

I'll post my weight change tracker in this post and in the updates since it seems my signature is too large.




Up next: The big PLAN - ADR's.

 

[Jaaaacki]

I’ve got about 18 days until I can book my ADR’s, so a tentative list follows. Keep in mind that we are dining with the deluxe plan and will be pushing it to the max. I know I just posted about how I want to lose weight but for 1 week I’m letting loose and having my dessert too.

Day 1
D- 1900 Park Fare with a specialty welcome cake for the kiddies

Day 2
B-Cape May
L-Tony’s Town Square
D-50’s Prime Time

Day 3
B-Chef Mickey’s
L- LeCellier
D-O’Hana

Day 4
B- Boma
L-Yak and Yeti
D-Jiko

Day 5
B-Whispering Canyon Café
L-Coral Reef
D-Yachtsman for 2 (kids are going to the Castle Club)

Day 6
B-Hollywood and Vine
L-Sci Fi
D-Skipping and hopefully scheduling Wishes Dessert Party

Day 7
B-CRT
L-Pizza Planet (OOP for us adults)
D-Hoop De Du and Chip N Dales Camp fire

Day 8
L-T-Rex

I also need to book Bippity Boppity Boutique for my little Rapunzel and the Pirates make-over for my son.

 

[heathsf]

I have a weight loss goal too and while I was doing great for the first two weeks, I've already stopped going to the gym. My problem is that once I miss a day of going to the gym, I stop completely. This happens to me every time. I need to make sure I get there on Saturday morning so I can start my routine again.

Anyway, I'll be here rooting for you! It definitely helps when you know other people will be holding you accountable so it's great that you're going to meetings. Good luck!!!

Your ADRs look great! Like I said, I would love to do Deluxe but that will have to wait for another trip.

We have most of our August ADRs tentatively picked out. We're just having trouble deciding between Whispering Canyon Cafe and Ohana for dinner one night. First I was thinking Ohana, then Whispering Canyon, and now I'm back to Ohana again but I can't commit! At least I have 18 days. I noticed you're doing WCC but for breakfast. I'm thinking we may end up with Ohana but ahh I don't know! Any help for me?

 

[Jaaaacki]

We have most of our August ADRs tentatively picked out. We're just having trouble deciding between Whispering Canyon Cafe and Ohana for dinner one night. First I was thinking Ohana, then Whispering Canyon, and now I'm back to Ohana again but I can't commit! At least I have 18 days. I noticed you're doing WCC but for breakfast. I'm thinking we may end up with Ohana but ahh I don't know! Any help for me?

I am no help on that one. I chose a lot of my ADR's by dining reports here. The WCC breakfasts looked really good and so did O'hana's. I read that Ohana changed their menu a little so that might make a difference for you.

I'm still working on my list. There are so many restaurants I want to try but I think a few days need to be cut down to 2 meals (Breakfast and a signature dinner) I need to realize I can't try them all.

I'll have a weekly health report on Monday. Things didn't go as planned this week. 4 snow days!! I'm ready to pull my hair out, the kids are so bored. And I missed WW on Tuesday due to the storm. I really wish this snow would stop. I want spring!!!

 

[taymacsmom]

Hey Jacki!! Just found your PTR and am looking forward to hearing all about your planning! We are in CT also and up to our eyeballs in snow! As you can see in my siggie, we will be at ASMu from Aug. 17 -26th. Are you flying? I just bought our tickets on Southwest this morning and got them for $79 each way. Not a bad price! Keep the updates coming!

Kelly

 

[Jaaaacki]

Hey Jacki!! Just found your PTR and am looking forward to hearing all about your planning! We are in CT also and up to our eyeballs in snow! As you can see in my siggie, we will be at ASMu from Aug. 17 -26th. Are you flying? I just bought our tickets on Southwest this morning and got them for $79 each way. Not a bad price! Keep the updates coming!

Kelly

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for posting on my trip report this morning!! I just booked airfare on Southwest because of you!!! At that price it is either cheaper or the same price we would have paid to drive because we had planned to take the autotrain down. That alone would have upped our travel $$ to at least $450.

I did however have to change our dates slightly. After I saw your post I got on SW and they had our dates at the $79 price but I wasn't home at the time and when I did get home the price had gone up to $104. So I called Disney and we will now be there August 18th-25th. Not a big difference really.

We are leaving at the crack of dawn on a nonstop. I'm sure the kids will be happier flying and it will be less stress. Just pack the bags and go. I won't have to plan extensive activities to keep them busy.

I'm so happy we are flying now

 

[teachermommy78]

Joining in! I am exactly the same with the healthy eating! I blow it on the weekend. However, I did lose 35 lbs from March of last year by doing WW. What worked for me is to do the meetings on Saturday mornings. That way I'm in control on Friday night. I dont track at all on Sat-Sun and some weeks I have more control than others. Anyway, even if I don't do well on the weekend, i have the entire week to make up for it. When I am following that plan, I lose about 1-2 lbs a week. Some weeks things go awry and I have no loss. I gained over the holidays but I didn't follow the program AT ALL. And I didn't exercise at all. I am fantastic with working out. It's my eating that usually does me in! I've already told dh that Disney is a non WW week! When we went in 2008 I wore my pedometer everywhere and came home the same. Hopefully I can keep that trend going! I would like to lose 50 more pounds total, but am aiming for 20 by mid June.

Feel free to join in my PTR as well! The link is in my signature. Now I'm going back to finish yours!

 

[Jaaaacki]

Joining in! I am exactly the same with the healthy eating! I blow it on the weekend. However, I did lose 35 lbs from March of last year by doing WW. What worked for me is to do the meetings on Saturday mornings. That way I'm in control on Friday night. I dont track at all on Sat-Sun and some weeks I have more control than others. Anyway, even if I don't do well on the weekend, i have the entire week to make up for it. When I am following that plan, I lose about 1-2 lbs a week. Some weeks things go awry and I have no loss. I gained over the holidays but I didn't follow the program AT ALL. And I didn't exercise at all. I am fantastic with working out. It's my eating that usually does me in! I've already told dh that Disney is a non WW week! When we went in 2008 I wore my pedometer everywhere and came home the same. Hopefully I can keep that trend going! I would like to lose 50 more pounds total, but am aiming for 20 by mid June.

Feel free to join in my PTR as well! The link is in my signature. Now I'm going back to finish yours!

Hi Stacey! I haven't been to WW in about 3 weeks, well since I joined actually. I have been trying to switch to Tuesday meetings so I don't have any kids in tow but for the past 3 weeks we've had either a delayed opening or a snow day. Maybe I should try the Saturday meetings as well. My center has a 9:45 meeting that would work. I'm going to head over to your PTR in just a few. Maybe we can cheer each other on. We sound similar in our weight loss goals, I would be happy with a 50lb total loss.

 

[taymacsmom]

Happy I could help! We are on that same "crack-of-dawn" non-stop flight on the morning of the 17th. The great thing is that we will be in Disney by 9:35 am. Practically another full day of fun.

Where in Ct are you guys? We are in Wethersfield and I have a 6 year old DS too. Maybe we will see each other in our travels around the parks.

Kelly

 

[Jaaaacki]

Happy I could help! We are on that same "crack-of-dawn" non-stop flight on the morning of the 17th. The great thing is that we will be in Disney by 9:35 am. Practically another full day of fun.

Where in Ct are you guys? We are in Wethersfield and I have a 6 year old DS too. Maybe we will see each other in our travels around the parks.

Kelly

It's a good flight time. I already booked an 8 day ticket, so more park fun. We are flying back on the 5:30p nonstop.

We are in Ellington. Have you planned any ADRs? I need to revise mine a little. But we might cross paths.

 

[taymacsmom]

Good morning, Jacki!
No, we have not planned any ADRs. We are staying, for the first time, at ASMu in a family suite. So, we are on the QSDP. We though about upgrading but decided to give the QSDP a try because we are thinking that we will enjoy the freedom that it provides. We used the DDP on our last trip and felt like it was alot of food. My DD is still talking about all the food I "made" them eat! We are thinking about making one ADR for our first night since our QSDP doesn't start until the 19th and paying for it OOP. Now that we have booked our flights and are arriving so early, I am thinking about adding another day to our passes. We currently have 8 day park hoppers with water parks and more.

How about you? Any ADR thoughts?

Kelly

 

[Jaaaacki]

Kelly,

Yes we have a bunch of ADR's planned, we are doing the deluxe plan I listed them in post 6 and they are subject to change. I've already started modifying my spreadsheet After reading the dining boards there are so many places I want to try.

We are going to upgrade to park hoppers but are skipping the water parks since we have storm along bay. I'm not a big water parks person, I am too afraid of water slides. It's funny how things that used to be thrilling are actually scary when you get older. My kids don't swim on there own yet so they can't do any slides. I'm hoping that swimming lessons throughout the winter and spring will fix that. It will be nice once they don't have to cling to us anymore.

 

[melser13]

I'm interested in following your planning AND your weight loss! I too am doing weight watchers. I bought the WW APP for my iphone and everything as I am hoping to lose the last of those 10 pounds of baby weight before our trip. My problem...I quit counting when I have a bad day and start over the next week...except sometimes that is on the 1st day! Not good...I know! It's hard battle, but I am hoping my excitement for vacations will get me moving.

Can't wait to hear how everything unfolds!

 

[Jaaaacki]

I'm interested in following your planning AND your weight loss! I too am doing weight watchers. I bought the WW APP for my iphone and everything as I am hoping to lose the last of those 10 pounds of baby weight before our trip. My problem...I quit counting when I have a bad day and start over the next week...except sometimes that is on the 1st day! Not good...I know! It's hard battle, but I am hoping my excitement for vacations will get me moving.

Can't wait to hear how everything unfolds!

It was very hard for me to break out of that mentality of I screwed up today so the rest of my week will be a mess too. I struggled with that for the past 5 or more years. I've gotten it down to just the weekends though and a restart on Monday's. I think that I should be able to get past that soon though too, I mean everything I lose during the week comes back on the weekends so Monday mornings are a let down. If I hadn't done that for the past 7 weeks, I would probably be down 14lbs instead of only 7. I don't know why it has to be so hard.

When is your vacation? Hopefully those last 10lbs will be a breeze, you're so close already.

 

[Jaaaacki]

Just a quick update.

If you read above, you will see I changed my dates by one day to accommodate the cheap flight on South West. Now the whole dynamic has changed so I’m rethinking my game plan. We won’t have our car so we really can’t tack on extra days in Clearwater or any other beach and I’m now wondering about getting some cases of water in our room. I’m sure it will all work itself out; I think I’m just wondering how to survive without wheels and without a stop at Checker’s (I haven’t had a Champ Burger and their awesome fries in about 6 years ). I think the ease of just getting on a plane and then having ME take care of our luggage will be enough to set my mind at ease. And I can always take a cab to Checker’s if need be.

I’ve made it to the gym twice so far this week. I missed my WW meeting on Tuesday due to the weather and a late opening for my ds and no preschool for dd. I picked Tuesday so I could go all by myself and for the past 3 Tuesday’s that has not worked out! I’m going to go to the Saturday morning meeting as suggested by Teachermommy and see if that keeps me more on track. I haven’t been tracking what I’ve been eating because my caloriecount app is not working right but I’m pretty sure I’ve been a little below my daily calories. I haven’t been getting that late night craving I usually get so this should be a good week. As of today, I’m down a total of 7lbs.


In other news, I’m swamped with school. I don’t think I mentioned it but I’m going back to school. Initially I got a degree in Psychology but I was already in a good job while in college so I just stayed with it. I’m going on 10 years this August in my current job and I need a change. In 2006, I started taking pre-requisite science classes so I could apply to nursing school. Right after I registered I became pregnant with dd. I stuck out the fall and spring semesters, through morning sickness the whole pregnancy and took only 2 weeks off when I had her, then right back to class. But when summer came and I was accepted into a program I backed out because of dd being a baby. I also didn’t like the structure of the program, they had a bunch of required non-credit stuff to attend during the summer. So fast forward to Fall 2010, I’m back at it. I’m taking a few more science courses so that I’ll only have the nursing classes to take when I’m in a program. I’m applying to UConn as my first choice but it’s a full time 1 year master’s entry into nursing program so it’s intense and I need to continue working at least part time. I’ve also already applied to a 2 year program. Ultimately you finish with the same license.

Anyways, what I was trying to say when I got caught up in that background story was that I’ve got 2 exams next week. Genetics and Microbiology and there is just so much to know. It seems as I’ve gotten older I stress more about tests. I always end up doing good but I really feel the pressure unlike in my younger college days. So I will be trying to learn it all in the next week and hopefully by next Thursday I can think about planning my Disney trip.

That ended up not being such a quick note. Oh well. Thanks for reading.

 

[taymacsmom]

Good luck with your exams! My oldest DD is a freshman up at UCONN this year. She wants to be an elementary school teacher. Looking forward to hearing about more of your plans.

Kelly