Is There A Prize For Most Indecisive DISer? Updated 1/9

[shordiebecka]

I know it sucks when your vacation is SO close and you have to move it SO far away--- but look at all the good stuff about moving your vacation! Less crowds, you get to go to MNSSHP, you get extra days at the world, the weather might be a bit better...so many amazing things! Now with your trip being so far away, you can take extra time, plan it really well and maybe throw in a few extra things...if I were you, I would cry and be upset at first, but then regroup and focus on planning the most amazing vacation ever! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Colleen27]

Okay, I'm done pouting. Now on to the planning!

Sure, it is a long wait but once spring finally arrives I'll be too busy with my gardens to think much about Disney so now is the time for obsessing. And being away in Sept will be easier than being away in May from that perspective - no leaving itty bitty seedlings and freshly planted saplings to their own devices. Our growing season will nearly be over by the time we're leaving for the World.

On our last trip, DS & I did the Magic Behind Our Steam Trains tour, which he really loved. Not just for the tour itself, but for having something of his own on a trip that does tend to have more for DD7 and her princess loving habits. So I'm thinking we're going to make this a tradition, doing something just DS & I or DS & DH that is more of a "big kid" activity.

I'm still in the brainstorming phase right now, but two ideas have caught my eye.

First is the Expedition Everest 5K at Animal Kingdom. It is an after hours race, so no waking up early (his only complaint about the trains tour!), and the after party is a late evening in AK with a handful of DS's favorite rides up and running. DS plays football and likes the idea of training for the 5K as a way to get/stay in shape in the off-season. The kids' race in the parking lot would offer something for DD to do while DS & I run, and we can get extra tickets to the after party for the rest of our group. My main doubt about this is the heat. Running a 5K in FL in Sept is a mildly frightening prospect!

The other option is the Seas Aqua Tour. This one sounds REALLY cool to me. I mean, what could be better than snorkling in that fabulous aquarium? I'm a little hesitant, though, because DS didn't like the Typhoon Lagoon snokling tank. I think that was because of the cold water, but I'm not sure. He loves animals, so if he's good to go with the snorkling, I'm sure he'd enjoy the tour.

Of course there is a third option... DD is old enough for the Seas tour, so I could book that for the 4 of us to do while the baby hangs with my mom (who doesn't swim and is scared of the water, so probably wouldn't mind missing it) AND do the run with DS.

It is funny how the longer I have to plan, the more money I end up spending! But hey, the tour for 4 people and the registration for the run still doesn't take us back up to our original package total if we'd gone in May.

 

[jwhtewolfd]

I have to tell you, I got all excited when I saw you're new dates. We'll be there Sept 24 - Oct 3 for our 6 yr anniversary. We'll be doing MNSSHP on Tuesday. CAN'T WAIT!

Random comments: that house will be SO nice once you fix it up. Very charming. / I'm not a gardener by any means, but I am trying my hand at some rose bushes this year (9 of them, to be exact); check out my ptr for pics of the "official rose bush of disneyland" / It's a shame your DS isn't old enough for the backstage safari tour yet...oh well, just another reason to go back / I am jealous of all your snack credits for F&W! / I can't wait to find out if you get AKV DVC...more jealousness!

 

[KathyRN137]

...... but a couple extra nights isn't a bad consolation prize if it turns out that we do have to postpone.

Absolutely! Think of all that extra "breathing room" that extra time will give you... more time to relax and swim at the Fort... greater ability to take it slower when it comes to running around the parks... less pressure to hurry up and finish eating at all those great restaurants...

There are lots of consolations!!

We usually go to Disney every Fall, but last summer we did major renovations on our house, so we had to skip our vacation. It was hard, but as you say, there are times when you just have to be the grown-up version of yourself and do what needs to be done.

I told myself that we only "live" at Disney one week out of the year; we live in our house the other fifty-one!! It sort of helps to put things in perspective.

Looking forward to reading along with the others...

Kathy

P.S. I'm forty-five. Would you consider changing your title to Growing Older is Mandatory.... ? (J/K)

 

[Colleen27]

I have to tell you, I got all excited when I saw you're new dates. We'll be there Sept 24 - Oct 3 for our 6 yr anniversary. We'll be doing MNSSHP on Tuesday. CAN'T WAIT!

Keep an eye out for us! I've got lime green Mickey heads on my super-cool WDW 25th anniversary backpack and on my dSLR camera bag, strap, & lens cap.

Random comments: that house will be SO nice once you fix it up. Very charming. /

I can't wait to really dig in on fixing up the house. I've always wanted to restore an old Victorian! Fixing up our cottage-style house has been fun, but not nearly as exciting as restoring such a historic house. Fortunately, I'm married to my contractor so we don't have the expense that others would have in taking on such a big project.

Your house looks amazing, by the way. I love that tray ceiling! And the color in your dining room is the same color I have picked out for mine.

I'm not a gardener by any means, but I am trying my hand at some rose bushes this year (9 of them, to be exact); check out my ptr for pics of the "official rose bush of disneyland" /

Despite great success in growing all sorts of things, I've had absolutely no luck with roses. They're pretty high maintanence and fussy in our climate and our area. We live in a waterfront community where the ground can be soggy much of the year, and I've lost several bushes to swampy soil, unseasonable cold, and otherwise foul weather. At the new house, I'll have two climbers in containers for that Victorian/cottage garden feel, but that's as close as I'm going to get to a rose garden. As I understand it roses are much easier to grow down south, and that Disneyland rose is absolutely beautiful!

It's a shame your DS isn't old enough for the backstage safari tour yet...oh well, just another reason to go back / I am jealous of all your snack credits for F&W! / I can't wait to find out if you get AKV DVC...more jealousness!

Lots of reasons to keep going back - more animal tours with DS, and eventually, the Disney history/operations tour with my DD7, who is MUCH more into the Mouse.

I'm so excited about the snack credits for F&W. We didn't do much of the festival on our first trip that time of year, back when I was a clueless first timer, and the more I've read about it the more I've wanted to go back and get a re-do.

I can't wait to find out about DVC myself! We've been watching the resale market and we know we'll be in a position to buy around the end of the year, and we've talked about it as a "Christmas present" to the family, but DH has waffled a bit about whether or not we'll really be doing Disney for so many years into the future. I think the announcement of the DVC Hawaii property really tipped the scales for him, because our non-Disney vacations are usually to golf or island/tropical destinations. Hilton Head & Hawaii cover those pretty neatly. Still, I couldn't convince him to do the tour on our last trip, so I'm taking it as a really good sign that he wants to see the AKV DVC property now.

 

[Colleen27]

I told myself that we only "live" at Disney one week out of the year; we live in our house the other fifty-one!! It sort of helps to put things in perspective.

That's it exactly. Disney will be there, in May, in Sept, in 2010, and beyond. The opportunity to buy a house like this without taking on debt that would cut into our travel spending, on the other hand, isn't likely to stick around for long and I feel truly blessed that we're in a position to jump on it.

And to bring a touch of our Disney "home" to our everyday home, the first room I'm tackling at the new house is the main floor bath - my inspiration for the room was my own WDW photographs, several of which which will be framed as the artwork for the room.

 

[Colleen27]

Well, it turns out it is a good thing we did postpone our trip... We close on the 14th! Closing on the 14th, starting the painting and the move on the 15th, and going on vacation on the 19th would have been a little too crazy even for me!

 

[Colleen27]

More changes in the works?

DH isn't especially thrilled with the idea of the cabins. When did he start getting opinions about our Disney trips?!? He's thinking that our up north trip this summer is cabins enough, especially since its less than a month before our Disney trip. So he asked me to price two moderate rooms, which is what we did on our first free dining trip.

I'd already ruled out CBR because of the sheer size of the resort. It looks HUGE and my mom really doesn't need more walking added on to what we'll be doing in the parks. However, the pirate rooms and the new splash zone at the pool look really cool.

POR was beautiful, but I don't plan on repeating resorts until I've tried them all (well, except the values - we don't do resorts without pool slides!).

POFQ would be nice for the small size, but I wasn't really thrilled with the busing on our stay at POR, and those resorts feel so far from the parks...

CSR is one that I've always wanted to try, but it never seems to be available when we're going. It was actually my first choice for the last trip, but we ended up at WL because CSR had a ton of rooms blocked out for a big convention.

So I'm playing around on the site and found availability at all of the mods for our dates.

The cost is pretty much a wash - two rooms at a moderate are $300 more than the cabin, but the golf cart rental to get around the campground will be about $300 for the length of our stay.

I'm worried I'll miss having the boat to MK, but I'm encouraged by what I've read about the transportation at CSR since it doesn't share buses and hosts so many convention guests who aren't necessarily in the parks every day.

With less to explore at the resort, we'd probably change our resort day to a half day at MK, which means more park time in the same length trip.

So now I'm looking over my plans with an eye towards not being in the MK area after all... I'm still not sure if I'm going to make the change, but it is worth at least thinking about.

 

[Colleen27]

Saving money and Disney just don't go together, do they?

I think we've pretty much settled on a change to CSR.

We've also pretty much settled on adding an extra night at the end of the trip as DS's surprise. Rather than the run, which he decided sounds like a bad idea in the FL heat now that we're running in warmer weather here at home, I'm thinking we'll rent points for a night at his favorite resort - AKL.

Right now, in the brainstorming stage, I'm thinking my mom & I will pack up and check out of CSR while DH keeps the kids amused. We'll be at AK that last day with a dinner reservation at Jiko, so we'll go over to AKV to look around as we'd originally planned, but then surprise the kids by checking in for the night. We'll have from dinner time to about 3pm the next day to enjoy the resort and the pool. DS has been asking to go back to AKL since his trip with my inlaws in '05, so I know he'll love it if I can get everything arranged to spend that last night there, and DH likes the idea of actually staying at AKV to check out the whole DVC thing.

 

[Colleen27]

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

Called today and switched to CSR. I'm going to miss the convenience of being in the MK area, but the refurbished rooms look wonderful and I know we'll really appreciate those queen sized beds!

Now all that is left to do is rent the points for our last night and adjust the length of our package stay accordingly.

 

[Colleen27]

Park hours are out at last!

So now, time to tweak the park days and get my ADR wish list hammered out. I have 3 weeks to play around with it, but of course I'm not waiting!

This is what it looks like so far:

9/25 - arrival (though this could change if we get AKV for the one night)
Resort/swim/putt-putt
Kouzzina dinner around 6
Putt-putt at Fantasia Gardens

9/26 - AK
Early start, snacks for breakfast
Yak & Yeti lunch around 1
Jiko for dinner

9/27 - MK
Early start, Main Street Bakery snacks to start the day
Liberty Tree Tavern lunch around noon
Break if DS isn't sleeping well in the stroller
California Grill dinner around 6:30 (Wishes at 8)
Back to MK for evening EMH

9/28 - Epcot
Early start
Akershus breakfast around 8:30 (yay pre-opening WS photo ops!)
Snack around the Food & Wine Festival for lunch
Marrakesh dinner around 6:30
Evening EMH if the kids are up for it

9/29 - Waterpark/rest
Sleep in
Blizzard Beach because we've never made it there in all our trips
DM & I will play it by ear based on DB's schedule/mood while DH does the big kid/commando thing, we might not all go to both waterparks
Back to the resort by 4ish to get changed for the evening
Kona Cafe dinner around 5
MNSSHP

9/30 - DHS
Slow start, no hurry because this is our least favorite park and there are only a few things on our must-do list
Brown Derby lunch around noon
Flying Fish dinner around 6:30
Evening EMH if the kids are up for it and there's still stuff we want to do

10/1 - Epcot
Slow start, sleep in if the kids want
Teppan Edo lunch
Le Cellier dinner
Illuminations at 9

10/2 - Waterpark/rest
Grand Floridian Cafe breakfast around 9
DH & kids to Typhoon Lagoon, DM, DB & I play it by ear
Disney Quest/Downtown Disney afternoon
Maybe try the hot air balloon ride
Can't decide about this evening - either dinner at Raglan Road and back to the resort, or dinner at Artist Point and the haunted carriage ride at Fort Wilderness.

10/3 - MK
Early start
Chef Mickey lunch around 11:30 (as early as I can get lunch)
Narcoosee dinner around 5:30 (as early as I can get)
Hopefully back to MK for Spectro and a few last rides

10/4 - Departure
Maya Grill breakfast
Swim or hit whichever park sounds good
Play lunch by ear

If we add the night at AKV, we'll keep our arrival day plans the same but arrive one day later. Our AK day will move to 10/4, the day we change resorts, and 10/5 will just be swimming & exploring AKV until it is time to leave for the airport. I'm hoping to have the room reserved before our ADR date, for obvious reasons, so I worked out the plans both ways.

 

[jana616]

Hi Colleen, I'm here! Somehow I never noticed the link to your PTR in all of your responses on mine until now. Sounds like a great trip planned, and your new house looks like it will be really great once it's fixed up! I hope your closing date gets locked in and all goes well and is done soon for you!

 

[racefanof88]

Hi Colleen, I had to join in too. Your planning looks like mine, Ch, ch changes......... We are staying Sept. 26-Oct 3. We, well for now, are staying at ASSp. We stayed at FW Cabins last month and I really didn't care for them too much. The boat was horrible slow too . Looking forward to reading more about your plans.

 

[racefanof88]

Oh, btw, my middle name is Colleen .

 

[Colleen27]

Hi Colleen, I'm here! Somehow I never noticed the link to your PTR in all of your responses on mine until now. Sounds like a great trip planned, and your new house looks like it will be really great once it's fixed up! I hope your closing date gets locked in and all goes well and is done soon for you!

I've really gone nuts with the planning for this one, obsessing over every last thing. I blame it on knowing we're not going to be here much longer, because normally I'd be too busy out in the yard to spend this much time hanging out on the DIS!

Ever the optimist, I'm choosing to believe that this closing date will be the one that holds, since pushing it back any further would be beyond the contractual time limit and would allow us to back out without penalty. Not that we would, but they don't know that and finding a buyer around here is hard enough that I don't think they'll want to risk it!

Hi Colleen, I had to join in too. Your planning looks like mine, Ch, ch changes......... We are staying Sept. 26-Oct 3. We, well for now, are staying at ASSp. We stayed at FW Cabins last month and I really didn't care for them too much. The boat was horrible slow too . Looking forward to reading more about your plans.

Oh, btw, my middle name is Colleen .

Don't meet many other Colleens around, not even as a middle name!

I kind of like the idea of the cabins as a resort, but I wasn't so sure about getting around the campground, especially since Disney's golf carts are only 4 seaters and a 6 seater from an off-site company would be crazy-expensive. So when DH decided it didn't look "Florida" enough (he had the same issue with WL even though we enjoyed our stay there - he likes the more Southern/tropical feeling resorts) and that the pool looked "eh", I didn't object to changing. I'd still like to try the campground some day, but it might be better left for when DB is old enough to enjoy biking, pony rides, canoeing, etc with the rest of us.

The slow boat to the MK was one of our favorite parts of our stay at WL, but that was January and the weather was nice. I don't know that we'd enjoy it quite so much in the Sept heat! 90+ degrees can make an air conditioned bus look awfully good...

 

[racefanof88]

Don't meet many other Colleens around, not even as a middle name!

I kind of like the idea of the cabins as a resort, but I wasn't so sure about getting around the campground, especially since Disney's golf carts are only 4 seaters and a 6 seater from an off-site company would be crazy-expensive. So when DH decided it didn't look "Florida" enough (he had the same issue with WL even though we enjoyed our stay there - he likes the more Southern/tropical feeling resorts) and that the pool looked "eh", I didn't object to changing. I'd still like to try the campground some day, but it might be better left for when DB is old enough to enjoy biking, pony rides, canoeing, etc with the rest of us.

The slow boat to the MK was one of our favorite parts of our stay at WL, but that was January and the weather was nice. I don't know that we'd enjoy it quite so much in the Sept heat! 90+ degrees can make an air conditioned bus look awfully good...

We have a very unique name.

If you read my May TR you will see some of the reasons we didn't care to stay in the cabins. It was really hard getting around the resort and we too were 6 on the trip and did not rent a golf cart, and at $54.00 a day was way too expensive.

Yeah, being from the South, we much prefer the a/c bus to the hot boats............

 

[jana616]

I've really gone nuts with the planning for this one, obsessing over every last thing. I blame it on knowing we're not going to be here much longer, because normally I'd be too busy out in the yard to spend this much time hanging out on the DIS!

Ever the optimist, I'm choosing to believe that this closing date will be the one that holds, since pushing it back any further would be beyond the contractual time limit and would allow us to back out without penalty. Not that we would, but they don't know that and finding a buyer around here is hard enough that I don't think they'll want to risk it!

You sound like my husband with the gardening! We built this house 2 and 1/2 years ago, and he has been working on landscaping ever since. We had a perfectly nice, though ordinary, backyard. I liked it. He built a 60 foot retaining wall around a brick paver patio (whic makes it super hard for two small kids to get to the lawn, but whatever!) and this summer has been putting in all the plants and perennials. So far we have zero flowers or color, and he keeps telling me it's a building year. I'm more of a mulch and some annuals kind of girl, but I greatly admire all of you with green thumbs! I think it's awesome that you'r so crafty and creative with the sewing, gardening, etc. Your house is bound to be gorgeous with all of the skills you have to devote to it! I'll be crossing my fingers for you on the closing date!

I hear you on going nuts on the planning! We just don't have anything else big going on here this year, and my DH works crazy long hours. I have lots of time eahc night once the kids are in bed and he's not home to spend playing around with it, and I'd much rather do that than housework Glad to hear I'm not alone!

 

[racefanof88]

How are the house plans coming?

 

[disneygirlinnj]

Subbing! We'll be there during your trip too (we're going the 26th-3rd)...sounds like you guys have an awesome itinerary so far and good luck with the house!

 

[Colleen27]

How are the house plans coming?

As far as I know, we're still go to close in 6 days (but who's counting? ) But since the last two delays came up less than 2 hours before our appointment with the closing agency, I won't really believe it until we're actually signing papers!

I've got the order in for my berry plants, more than 100 in all, from the wholesaler and I'm shopping around to find my tree starts. It is surprisingly difficult to find 1 year old, unbranched fruit trees without going directly to a grower. All my paint colors for the interior are chosen, I've got the ceiling fans for the kids' bedrooms, and all that's left to do is get to work. So hopefully, Friday will find me painting up a storm.