It was more than I could have ever hoped for!! A Pre-trippy w/pics!

[Disneysnel]

Okay, I am going to give this a try as I have enjoyed this board for years. *Official Lurker* here.
First let me tell you, I am very long winded ( I have SO much to tell you!) and sometimes I will make sense to no one but myself, I am a meticulous planner, love to research and while I am GREAT at making lists when it comes to following them, not so much!

I will start with the who, when, where, why and how:

1. WHO:

A. Me, Kelley, 48, The Mom, - actually grew up at Disneyland, well Orange County anyways. Disney was always a really big deal in my family. Dysfunctional does not even begin to describe my family -* - but when we went under that tunnel onto Main Street - we were the Brady Bunch,
matching T-shirts and all! Everyone in my family calls me snel (short for snail) because I love to walk slow and take things in. Hence my DIS name - Disneysnel. Seriously - I am Aunt Snel!
Our family was way into Disney - my Mom who feels the magic in just about everything, was there on opening day because her Mom was a manager with Bank of America. B of A helped Walt and Roy with a lot of the financing for Disneyland. We went all the time, and to every movie. My Dad used to fly us away to Neverland at night when it was bedtime, our presents were usually Disney related. You get the idea.
Anyway, once in awhile my Dad's company would "rent" Disneyland and we thought we were SO cool because all we needed was this piece of cardboard tied to our wrists to get on ANY ride we wanted, NO E ticket required!
I remember flying saucers in Tomorrowland and mermaids who would sit on the rocks in the lagoon and just brush their hair all day (I wanted to be one of those mermaids so bad!).
I have movies of me at 3 years old marching around on a map of Disneyland in my living room with a Majorette hat on and a baton (yes they used to sell those) I could go on and on but in short: I LOVE DISNEY
Disney World opened on my 12th birthday and it only took me 23 years before I got to see it and boy was it worth the wait!
This will be DH and I's fourth trip.

B. My DH of 13 years - Dave, 41, The Step-Dad, Loves NASCAR and the outdoors and now Disney! When I first started dating him 17 years ago - he told me he hated Disneyland and I sadly thought the relationship was over but decided to give him one last chance. I told him that is because you haven't experienced the magic of it - I showed him how and now he loves it! I compromised by falling in love with NASCAR for him. Our first trip to WDW was our 10 day honeymoon and he loved every minute of it! Besides he really is a great husband and loves to make me happy!

C. My DD of 30 years, Chrysty, or Little Miss Bossy, or Little Miss Technicality (you will see why) - the sweetest smartest angel of a girl you would ever want to meet only don't make her mad! This will be our first trip to the world together!! We are so excited we cry just thinking about it!! She lives in California and I live in Colorado so we don't see each other very much. So this will not only be a Disney dream come true but a Mother-Daughter dream come true because you see, she loves Disney every bit as much as I do and I made sure she grew up at Disneyland just like me She has been to WDW once before, when she was little, with my Mom and she doesn't remember a thing, soooo PERFECT! Her and her Fiance are Disneyland passholders and go about once a week - I am so jealous but happy for them .

D. My SIL to be, My DD's Fiance, Daniel - 33, knows we are all crazy but still wants to marry my DD anyway! He, like my DH, is a Disney convert and can feel the magic right along with the rest of us!
He is so good to my daughter and is a very wise, smart, talented and handsome man and I will be thrilled to have him for my son. (Even though technically I am not old enough to be his Mom ) I am sure he is a little apprehensive at spending all this time with me but he doesn't need to worry, I won't embarrass him .... too much ! His first trip.

E. Not going is my son, THE Jason AKA Bam-Bam - yes that's what we call him, he is a one of a kind, he is a body builder Marine who just turned 21 and we are leaving him in charge of the house, our little dachshund Woody and our cat Boo - are we crazy? Well, if you haven't figured it out by now - yes, we are! He doesn't like Disney - because he thinks it is too commercial! I think he is still being a rebellious teen - I have not lost all hope for him. I bet when he has kids of his own he comes around... at least he better! I am sure he will come into this report at some time or another.


2.When:
DH and I will be at the world for 17 days from the 5th thru the 21st of September because I ALWAYS bite off more than I can chew, take more than I can eat, and plan bigger than I can afford! Because, ummm..... I'm crazy?
DD and SIL well be there from the 5th thru the 10th because while she is a little bit crazy she is just not AS crazy .....yet!:

3, Where:
In Kelley fashion - I could not just stay at 1 or 2 hotels, oh no that would never do. It would be too easy to come back to the same place every night and not have to pack all your stuff and move all the time! We are staying at 4 hotels.
Well, you see, I am VERY good at Disney fuzzy math and since I rented points from a DVC member for 2 of the hotels and saved so much $$$- I decided that in between we would stay at the Wilderness Lodge.
When we get to WDW, we can't go straight to our hotel that would be a waste of money because we would be too tired to enjoy it right? Soooooooo after changing my mind 507 times here is the plan:
9/5-7 - POP - 2 days here to recover from our extremely long 5 hour flight
9/7 - 9/12 - Animal Kingdom Lodge studio Savannah room
9/12- 9/16 - Wilderness Lodge Courtyard BUNK BED room - (that's all they had, I figure I can use the bunks for outfit planning or something.)
9/16 - 9/21 - Beach Club Studio

Chrysty and Daniel will be at Coronado Springs while we are at Pop/ AKL. Originally, we were going to get a 2 bedroom at AKV but then she couldn't go because of work and then a couple of months ago she was able to figure out a way.

4. Why:
Well the dreams coming true thing for one, that it's our favorite place on earth for two.
We will also be celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary - DH's birthday - My birthday - My DD and SIL's engagement AND my DD's 30th birthday. Hope we don't get poked to death with all those buttons.

Do you think we could pack a little more into this trip?????

5. How:
I have absolutely NO idea!


So these are the plans and ADR's: (better go get a cup of coffee for this one!)

9/5 - Arrive about 4:30 - Our planes will be landing in Orlando at the same time! (more on this later as it is some of our first Disney magic)
Rent the car - groceries - check-in - WL - bed.

ADR: Dinner @ Whispering Canyon Cafe

9/6 - AM: Kids:MK - Us:Fort Wilderness - GOTTA go kayaking! /PM: GF & Poly

ADR: 1900 Park Faire - Cinderella's Gala Feast Celebration

9/7 - AMHS/PMTD

ADR: Planet Hollywood - dinner

9/8 - AM Us:TL/Kids: EPCOT PM Us: PORS/SSR/Kids: EPCOT

ADR US: Turf Club dinner and a carriage ride
ADR KIDS: San Angel Inn and Illuminations

9/9- AM: Animal Kingdom PM: MNSSHP night

ADR: Donald's Breakfastosaurus

9/10 - Kids leave today AM: AKL PM: DHS

ADR: BOMA breakfast

9/11 - AM: Animal Kingdom PM: AKL

ADR: BOMA dinner

9/12 - Move to Wilderness Lodge AM: MK PM:Fort Wilderness

ADR: Crystal Palace- breakfast/Trails End- dinner

9/13 - AM: Seven Seas Lagoon PM: DTD

ADR: House of Blues dinner

9/14 - AM: WL PM: MK EEE

ADR: Whispering Canyon- breakfast/ The Plaza dinner

9/15 - AM: BB PM: WL

ADR: O'hana- dinner

9/16 - Move to Beach Club/ AM: YC/ BC & BDWLK PM: Pleasure Island

ADR: Cape May Cafe- breakfast/Raglan Road- dinner

9/17 - AM & PM: EPCOT

ADR: Beirgarten- dinner

9/18 - AM & PM: DHS

ADR: 50's Prime Time- dinner

9/19 - AM: EPCOT PM: BC

ADR: Beaches N' Cream (not really an ADR but a PLAN)

9/20 - AM & PM: EPCOT

ADR: Princess Storybook Breakfast/Le Cellier- dinner

9/21 - DTD/ HOME - IF we still have one!

More planning details, magic details and pics later - you can see Chrysty and Daniel in my siggie and "Bam-Bam" is my avatar.

I know you can hardly wait!

 

[PryncessChrysty]

Soooooooo after changing my mind 507 times here is the plan:
9/5-7 - POP - 2 days here to recover from our extremely long 5 hour flight
9/7 - 9/12 - Animal Kingdom Lodge studio Savannah room
9/12- 9/16 - Wilderness Lodge Courtyard BUNK BED room - (that's all they had, I figure I can use the bunks for outfit planning or something.)
9/16 - 9/21 - Beach Club Studio

It was actually 705 times, not that I kept count!

Who you callin' Little Miss Technicality???

xoxoxo

 

[Disneysnel]

Well I guess it is just me and you kiddo.


I would just like to say that I learn more about planning my trip from this trip report board than any other, so I will explain how and why I did a few things so hopefully it will help someone else!

About our flights: We were originally booked to come in at 10:30PM and the kids flight came in @ 5:30 the next morning. Well, as magic would have it, both our flights were changed to come in about the same time around 4:30 pm!

About planning: The first time we went to WDW I had it planned ALL wrong. You see, being a Disneyland veteran and before I had a computer I VERY mistakenly thought all the parks and hotels were together - not miles apart.

For an example: I had breakfast planned at DTD, with boat rentals at the GF, followed by Epcot with dinner at Cinderella's Castle! We were actually falling asleep on the buses! Drooling, snoring and all!

So the next time we went in 11/2001 I decided not to plan anything and we would just do it by ear. Well, Animal Kingdom was new at that time and it turns out we didn't see a lot of what we would have liked to and spent most of the time deciding what to do next. We were really looking forward to the water parks but it was too cold to go.

We went again for Christmas in 2002 and we spent most of this time enjoying the seasonal things. Like the Candlelight Processional and MVMCP. Again too cold for water parks.

So THIS time we decided we would plan an itinerary but we would eat in the parks we were at and we would have SOME down time everyday if not half a day. We needed to spend time enjoying our hotels but we also are very adventurous and love to rent boats, bikes and enjoy ALL that WDW has to offer. We also decided to go when it is hot so we could do the water parks and lots of swimming, which we love.



So we made a prioritized list of everything we wanted to see and do, everywhere we wanted to eat and then I proceeded to fill in all our days on a spreadsheet.

I pride myself on my money saving capabilities so that is what I set out to do. I had no idea we would be going during free dining which we could not get because we were staying DVC for 10 nights and 2 nights at POP - nope - you need 3 and Wilderness Lodge is a room only cast member discount (through my uncle who drives an ME bus).

With a LOT of work we are going to stay at 3 deluxe hotels and the POP (including tickets and dining) and even without free dining our 17 day trip (including meals and tickets) is going to cost the same amount if we had stayed at a moderate with free dining for 10!

So YEAH ME!!!

I am sewing some of my clothes so I better get busy but here are a few pics until I can get back:

I will try to get some up of DH and I up but they are on another computer that I can't get to right now. We are renovating

This is Bam-Bam

21st birthday - I wonder if he was getting ready to party?

Chrysty and I in Golden, Colorado

Daniel and Chrysty at Disneyland - Halloween last year

Chrysty's Dad (my ex) and Daniel at Disneyland

She's just piratey like that!

Is she adorable or what?

See ya soon!
Kelley