It's been 6 years, but we're finally going back: a PTR! UPDATED 2/9 change to August dates?

[bcwife76]

*waves hi* Just read your entire PTR, I love all the planning and especially the fact you have more than one trip planned! If I'm not on a vacation I'm not happy unless I'm planning the next one! lol

I briefly considered homeschooling our two girls because the state of education where we live...well, overcrowded/underfunded schools, I'm being hit up constantly for money. I'm just wondering how much learning they are actually doing. For now they are staying put but in the future....who knows (they are currently Kindergarten and grade 2). Anyway, can't wait to keep following along!

 

[tabrizia]

*waves hi* Just read your entire PTR, I love all the planning and especially the fact you have more than one trip planned! If I'm not on a vacation I'm not happy unless I'm planning the next one! lol

I briefly considered homeschooling our two girls because the state of education where we live...well, overcrowded/underfunded schools, I'm being hit up constantly for money. I'm just wondering how much learning they are actually doing. For now they are staying put but in the future....who knows (they are currently Kindergarten and grade 2). Anyway, can't wait to keep following along!

Welcome .


I'm really enjoying homeschooling. The nice thing I found starting from the beginning was that I just had to adapt at lower grades as things happen. Next year will be weird though with a K, 2nd and 4th grader.

I will admit one of my favorite parts of homeschooling is the vacations we can take off season without worrying about school schedules.

And I'm not saying that I have, but I totally already planning our 2018 trip too.

 

[tabrizia]

I got my FP+ done for January 13, 14 and 15. Okay I admit I did them for the 16th too even though it is a down day because I could, I figure when I do the rest I'll drop them so I have my last day.

I did start on the 14th because I wanted Anna and Elsa, which I got no problem, I had lots of time slots available, unfortunately all afternoon time slots. I think I have it scheduled at the best time for the moment, it is from 4:10 to 5:10. We have CRT at 2:20, I figure that gives us 2 hours to get done with CRT and be ready, I don't really want to make it earlier in case there is a wait at CRT, but I don't really want to make it much later either, so hopefully that timing works. I was really hoping to get it before CRT, but there didn't appear to be anything open for 5 in that time period. Also ignore the am/pm symbols in my chart, I know I got them wrong, but it is late, I'm still semi-sick and I'm tired.


Anyways on our first park day we have Spaceship Earth at 9:45am to 10:45am. I figure that gives us time to do the morning rush to TT with everyone else in existence. We then have Nemo from 10:50 to 11:50. I am hoping to do TT, SE, then the character spot before Nemo. After Nemo hopefully we'll be able to do Crush, then maybe Figment or the Innoventions area. After that I figure we'll get lunch probably from England, but could be from Sunshine Seasons. Hopefully I'll be able to fit Living With the Land in there somewhere. After lunch we can either explore the World Showcase or do the Behind the Seeds Tour, not sure which way we'll go yet. I think the Behind the Seeds Tour will be cool, but I also feel the day might get busy. Either way when we are heading out of EPCOT we have a TT Fastpass at 4:05 - 5:05. I figure we'll do it towards the end of the window and then head out to dinner. We have dinner at 7:10 at Chef Mickey's. So I figure 2 hours should be enough time to take the monorail to TTC and then monorail or walk to the Contemporary Resort. Look it is a rough day 2 post, well I guess I've already done day two at least. Maybe I'll be less wordy for my other FP+ options.

On the 14th we have Mine Train at 11:35, Belle's Enchanted Tales at 12:40 and Anna and Elsa at 4:10. I was hoping to get Anna and Elsa earlier so we could try for a few more FP+ options, but we should have most of the morning to get stuff done so it shouldn't be a huge deal.

On the 15th I got Safari at 10:05 - 11:05, Disney Pals from 11:10 to 12:10, I figure we'll do them right before we head out of the park for our lunch at Sanaa. I am thinking 1 hour should be enough time to get to AKL, since it is a short bus ride. After lunch we have Lion King at 3:30 to 3:50. I don't know if we will do this one, since we don't know if we are coming back to the park after lunch, it depends on the kids. I figure if they do they will enjoy the show, though it might cut into the last hour and doing ride, so we still might skip it. We'll have to see. It was hard coming up with 3 FP for this park, honestly it was hard coming up with more then 1 for this day.

I can't get FP for the rest of my days since we are off property then. I have heard that if you get the 60 days though for being on property you can do all of yours at 60 days, so I'll have to see when we hit 60 days from the 17th which is 5 days from now.

Anyways I am super happy I got the FP+ options I wanted even if the times are a bit off from what I wanted. The only FP I am still worried about is TSM on Monday the 18th, but I don't think it is as hard to get as A&E.

Anyways here is a copy of my spreadsheet. Remember I know I messed up am/pm I'm tired. Mine Train is 11:40am to 12:40pm, Belle is 12:40pm to 1:40pm, and Disney Pals is 11:10am to 12:10pm.

 

[bcwife76]

I just can't believe how much extra planning has to go into a trip to WDW vs Disneyland! Besides making some ADR's at the 60 day mark, we just show up to the parks lol

 

[tabrizia]

I just can't believe how much extra planning has to go into a trip to WDW vs Disneyland! Besides making some ADR's at the 60 day mark, we just show up to the parks lol

The minimal amount of planning for DL is actually freaking me out a bit. I'm like do I need to prepare? What do I need to do? I am so confused, it looks to easy to be real! Other then the hotel thing, the neighbor hotels and not having to be on property to get benefits and some of the off property hotels being closer than the on property hotels is also messing with my head. I still need to figure out a good option for 5 people. It never becomes clearer that the US expects 4 people in families then when you try to figure out a hotel for 5.

 

[tabrizia]

So I know I updated at 1am, but here is my second update of the day. First I have no changed out FP+, go me. It is really tempting to go in and play with them, but I like what I got, and other then not being sure about the time for Lion King at AK, I think the times work. Yes I would have preferred an earlier A&E, but the current time works and we have 2 1/2 more MK days so it isn't a huge deal if we end up with only our 3 FP for the day.

I got a response from both my Mom and sister and bother agreed that changing the time of our breakfast to lunch makes sense on the 17th. So although I am sad to see my Crystal Palace breakfast go, we are now doing the Crystal Palace lunch at 11:50, which should be a good time for a break after getting there at rope drop anyways. My sister's only requests for fastpasses is Anna and Elsa for my nephew, I should be able to do that I hope at least on one of our days, and that he likes Jake, so I'll get them the Disney Jr show at Hollywood Studios. I need to decide if I go for that one for us as well, or Indiana Jones, my guess is Indy will be empty enough that we can just do it, so we might do it too, since at least the 2 younger minions would enjoy it and probably the elder one too.

Those are really all the updates for the moment, since I've already shared my current FP+ and we have 5 days until I can get the next one if I remember right.



So time for more mini-trip report.

Great Wolf Lodge Part 3: Day 2

So after we finished lunch the boys looked at the map.

We headed out through the waterpark to get to the ropes course. Unfortunately the ropes course was not something we were planning to let the little boys do. My Mom did get them a mini-golf pass, but my nephew was very upset that the older kids got to go on the ropes course and he didn't. We did get them to agree that my 10 year old niece could be minion 2s helper, rather then having to get an adult up there. So while my nephew was melting down and melt down he did for like 30 minutes, the older 3 went up and minion 3 hung out and eventually DH took him over to play mini golf.

Minion 2 was apparently in her element, she loved it and needed no help at all, except for the zip line, where she had to be rescued her first time across because she was just hanging there and not heavy enough to get it to go. That led to the people working there pushing her off when she did the zip line the next few times and her eventually figuring out how to run fast enough to keep going. She loved it.

My niece also enjoyed it.

And the boy had fun like always. He likes to pretend he works there. He went to the top and jumped off the 3 or 4 story jump to the ground. This jump always makes attriel and me a bit nervous since when he was 5 he fell 3 stories out a window onto his head, so watching him willing jump, or scoot off, even while safely secured brings back a few bad memories. He loves it though.

After his first or second jump he went to climb the rock wall which he really enjoys:

Minion 3 was having fun with mini golf, though not actually playing, whatever makes him happy though.

My nephew was still having a tough time. He did eventually calm down and play some mini golf though.
Minion 1 also played some mini golf.

Minion 2 was still having a blast on the ropes course

We got her the length of stay pass after a bit too, since she was enjoying it, we had started her on the 1 trip, just in case. Around 2:30 my Mom took my nephew in for some quiet time and shortly before 3 we decided to all go in and then let the kids back out at 4. That is when we learned that the course closed at 4 and the last time up was at 3:30. Which meant I just took minion 3 with me and DH and my Dad stayed out with minions 1, 2 and my niece. I got minion 3 ice cream since really he had to deal with his siblings doing something he wasn't and then went to get my nephew from my Mom since she had a conference call at 3. I got both boys, put on the tv for them and relaxed in the room for awhile.

Minion 2 did the jump, loved it and did it again. She also got permission not to need an adult the next day when they were planning to come out to play again. This was important because my parents were leaving before us and so her "adult" wasn't going to be there. It ended up not being important since it was raining and icky out, but we didn't know that at the time. Eventually everyone came in around 4 and my Mom and I decided to needed to go to Walmart again to get new costumes for the night. Minion 2 asked to come along and my Dad and attriel took the other 4 to play some MagiQuest.

 

[tabrizia]

I've now changed a FP+. I decided that crush was a better choice then Nemo. So I got Crush and dropped Nemo. We can still do Nemo it just won't be FP+.

Oh and attriel rolled his eyes at me when I put the non-FP+ rides we're doing in the spreadsheet and then said, but I'm not planning everything. E just asked if I put bathroom breaks in. Sadly FP+ is bringing out even more if my planner side then FP ever did.

On the otherhand minion 2 has requested we stop at the Rapunzel bathroom, because it's Rapunzel.

 

[tabrizia]

So no real updates, I am waiting till the 18th to see if I can get FP+ for the 17th or if I have to wait till 30 days out. So 3 days to go on that. I'm hoping I can get them on the 18th if nothing else for another Anna and Elsa for my sister and her kids.

Nothing else really new as far as Disney since yesterday morning when I couldn't sleep. I'm currently sitting at home with minion 3 while the other two are at Hebrew school and then doing a youth group event at the trampoline place, oh I should make sure attriel takes pictures. I figured I'd get on and continue the mini trip report anyways, since it would be nice to be finished before our trip to my parents' lake house in another week and 1 day. Oh if I hadn't mentioned it, my sister, the one with my nephew and niece (the little niece not the one in the mini trip report), were not suppose to be there for Thanksgiving this year since it was my brother in law's Mom's turn to do Thanksgiving. Apparently plans changed so they will be there. As attriel has commented more then once, why do they even do every other year it isn't like my brother in law's family doesn't come to my parents house on the off years anyways. This year's Thanksgiving means that everyone's in-laws except my brother's will be at Thanksgiving at my parents. This year will actually be smaller then normal though since my aunt and her kids and their significant others won't be there. This means that even with 2 new people this year (my FIL and new nephew) we are still down 3 people, which means Thanksgiving should be around 23 people this year, on the plus side we'll have more room this year because we can send at least 1 kid in with my FIL which makes sleeping situations for us less crowded (we normally get the super big room with a queen bed, twin bed and blow up kid bed). Anways to relate this back to Disney I need to pick up gifts for my nephew and niece, I'm getting them a Disney gift card and pin trading starter set, and I need to get the babies gifts too, I think I'm getting them both Tsum tsums and an outfit or book (Disney related).

And with that, back to my mini trip report.
Great Wolf Lodge Part 4: Day 2, the rest of the day

After my Mom and I got back we discussed what we wanted to do with everyone. We decided going back to the waterpark would make sense. Minion 2 wasn't feeling perfect and wanted to rest as did my nephew so my Mom took them to her room and I gave her coloring books in case she needed them to keep them entertained. DH also decided not to come and just take a break. Which was fine. The rest of us got changed and headed to the pool. The waterpark was empty, if there were 15 other people there I would be shocked. Minion 1 didn't really feel like doing the family slide still, so my Dad took the other two and minion 1 played in the wave pool a bit.

My Dad and niece then went to do some slides, and minion 3 came and joined in the wave pool

My niece came and played to for a few.

Then minion 1 and my niece went and did the wipeout ride

I think we hit the hot tub, because we always end up at the hot tub. Then on our way out they decided to have the bucket dump on them. Apparently even after the bucket starts ringing that it is getting ready to dump it still takes 5+ minutes to dump. So after getting ready to get wet.

They took a short break to do other thing

Then came back and waited another minute or two before the bucket dumped over and drenched them (I have pictures, but none came out great). We then headed back to the rooms to get dressed and do trick or treating and dinner.

We had gotten them different shirts today so they were all batman or batgirls

They then went trick or treating, and bubble gun playing.

After that we went up for dinner. Apparently the resort was so empty that the dinner buffet was not. Instead it was an order your dinner casual restaurant type set up, apparently how they set it up for lunch when it is open for lunch (hint it wasn't open the next day when we went for lunch). They had a decent set of choices for kid meals and the kids were all happy. The adult entries weren't horrible, they weren't great or even good, but it was food. My sweet potato fries on the other hand couldn't really be called food, they were just bad, sigh. After the kids finished eating they all headed out to the lobby to watch the storytime stuff. They all had fun and everyone including my niece met the character that was out tonight.

Oh and you can see minion 3's awesome Mickey Mouse shoes in this one. He loves those shoes.

Rather then doing MagiQuest my parents told the kids they could do the arcade. So to the arcade the minions all went.

My Dad had gotten 1 card to share amongst the 5 kids, 5 kids, big arcade, 1 card, did not work, so my Mom got a second card. In the end the most obvious kids got the most games, which meant minion 2 ended up not playing as much as everyone else. They all had fun though. After we were done with the arcade, my niece bought everyone ice cream, which they all enjoyed and then everyone settled down and headed to bed. I thought about packing, decided I wasn't in the mood to do so and read a bit and went to bed. I figured I'd be up in the morning and could pack then.

 

[NJlauren]

Trying to catch up on all my TRs! I am still here and reading along! Great wolf lodge looks so fun!

FP look good! I have always wanted to go the behind the seeds tour but I'm thinking it will need to wait a while as I doubt my DD would behave through it! !

I think A&E after CRT is actually a good idea! Then you are all in princess mode!

 

[tabrizia]

Trying to catch up on all my TRs! I am still here and reading along! Great wolf lodge looks so fun!

FP look good! I have always wanted to go the behind the seeds tour but I'm thinking it will need to wait a while as I doubt my DD would behave through it! !

I think A&E after CRT is actually a good idea! Then you are all in princess mode!

I really want to do Behind the Seeds, but since we only have 2 EPCOT days I don't think it is going to actually happen. Especially since I have no idea what we will get done when everyone arrives. I think Perry is going to win out over Behind the Seeds this trip. I really want to do it though so our 2018 trip for my birthday I am going to put it as a must do. Plus by then minion 3 will be 6, so it might be easier anyways.

I like the all princess mode. It is hard to figure out timing after our meal though, I am hoping that I did the timing right, I think even with a wait there is no way we won't be done by 5:10, my bigger worry is what if we are done at 3:30, though we can always do the carousel, my kids all love them.

 

[tabrizia]

Small update, yes you can get fastpasses at 60 days exactly if you are staying on property the first half of your trip. I got Rapunzel, Peter Pan and Elsa and Anna for Sunday the 17th. I will probably actually drop Elsa and Anna since it is from 6:50 to 7:50 and I am sure my 2 year old niece and my nephew will be done by then. Since I was getting this set of Anna and Elsa for them, I will hold on to them until I see what time I can get them for on Thursday the 21st, but I figure I'll be changing it probably to Big Thunder Mountain, but maybe to Haunted Mansion, I'm debating between the two, but I am hoping I can get Haunted Mansion as our 4th FP+ that day.

I am trying to figure out what FP+ to get my sister, not that I have her ticket info yet, I was trying to match everyone's FP+, but as attriel says, don't worry too much about it. My sister gave me 2 things he likes, that helps well really not much. I don't know if he likes roller coasters, based on Great Wolf Lodge I'm going with no, or dark rides, again guessing no, but I have no clue. I think I am going to skip 7 dwarf and he can do Barnstormer instead. It is just hard trying to put everything together with only our tickets and no clue what he will ride.

 

[tabrizia]

Okay so I didn't have to get fastpass last night, so I actually went to bed early. I didn't have to get them since it was for our off day. I did get the Fastpasses for our HS day. We got Disney Jr., TSM and Star Tours. I am planning on getting my sister similar ones. I really want the Frozen Sing a long too, but I am not sure if it is worth switching the Disney Jr ones for that one, I might just not mention it is an option to my kids. We also hope to see the Indiana Jones show since minion 1 is a huge fan, hopefully it won't be too busy and we won't need a fastpass for it. Our last fastpass is for Disney Jr from 2 - 2:15, so I am hoping to either get the Frozen Sing-a-long or Indiana Jones one for after that.

My Mom agrees that the 7 to 8pm Anna and Elsa fastpass is not going to work for my sister for Sunday night. I am thinking about changing it to Buzz Lightyear since the ride goes down the next day, so it is our last day to ride it that trip, and both attriel and I like the ride and all the kids have seen it and said they want to ride it. I am hoping to get a fastpass for it for before our lunch so that once we ride Peter Pan I can get a 4th fastpass if I am lucky that day for something.

I think I am generally going to wait until next week when I am at my parents lakehouse to figure out my sister's fastpass options, since she will be there and can give me an idea of what she really wants. I am just not sure what my nephew will ride and my niece is so little it is hard to know what she will want to do. My Mom is suppose to buy their tickets this weekend I believe and if not I'll get her to do it once I get down Monday night. I will also talk to my other sister and see if she has any plans about what she wants to do, since getting her a few fastpasses would make sense, even if she is planning to mostly go with the flow based on the baby.

I will be up late tonight to make sure I get the fastpasses for us for EPCOT. Though we are really going with more or less the same set of fastpasses we got for our first EPCOT day. I am debating between crush, which we will have done the first day and the character spot, but that is really the only fastpass that might change.


Now since I have a few minutes since only the eldest is up, and we don't normally start school until 9 or 9:30 I'll finish off our mini trip report.


Great Wolf Lodge Part 5: Day 3

I woke up around 8 I want to say and everyone else woke shortly there after. The kids headed to my parents room and attriel and I started packing. The clean clothes were easy to pack, I always end up overpacking a bit and my Mom had brought 4 or 5 outfits for the girl with her (plus we bought a couple more during our Walmart trip), since they were in drawers and I just needed to dump them in the suitcase. The bathing suit bag, and day bag were easy to pack too. My biggest mistake was the bag I chose for all our dirty clothes happened to be the smallest of the suitcases we brought, oops. Anyways by 9:30 or so all the kids were in bathing suits and we were packed and ready to go. Shortly after that, maybe at 9:45 or so, my Dad took them all to the pool. I went to my parent's room, got all the extra food there, since they were taking it on the plane and then I followed my Dad to the pool to help with the 5 kids while attriel finished putting everything in the car and checking out. My Mom packed while my Dad took the kids to the pool since it made her life easier to have everyone out of the room.

My nephew finally warmed up to the whole waterpark thing a bit more today, you know about 30 minutes before they had to leave for the airport. He still didn't do any of the slides though.

The girl child, minion 2, decided to do one of the bigger waterslides by herself. My Dad followed her up once or twice to make sure she didn't need an adult to go up with her, or on the ride, she was just as the height limit to go herself. She had no problem though and quite enjoyed going down the slide about 10 times.

Oddly enough this trip minion 1 wasn't that interested in the slides. He did try the tornado, the big slide the day before with my Dad and niece. He decided he hated it and it was way too scary to ever do again. He also wasn't willing to go on the family slide at all. He had fun going around the lazy river with my nephew though.

Around 10:45/11 or so, my Dad and nephew and niece left to get dressed, my niece wanted to do the ropes course one last time. Of course it was raining out so they didn't end up doing that. I am not actually sure what they did. Minion 2 went down the slide a bunch more. Minion 3, did the slide with attriel once or twice.

Minion 1 did the lazy river a lot.

Eventually we talked minion 1 into trying the family ride with everyone else. We got to the top, and he decided that no he wasn't going to do it. So attriel took him back down and just minion 2 and 3 did the family slide with me. Not a huge deal.

Shortly after that I think we all did the hot tub and then decided to get dressed so the kids could do the ropes course. Minion 2 and I headed in to get dressed first this time. By the time we got out my parents were heading out. After a quick, goodbye, since they were running late, they almost always are, attriel took the boys to get changed and dressed. Once everyone was dressed we went outside where it was raining and the ropes course looked more or less closed. Disappointed, we told the kids we'd keep an eye on the weather and if it cleared up we could try later, since we didn't plan to leave until 4 or so since that way we could avoid rush hour on our way home.

We headed upstairs at that point to get lunch. Of course the big restaurant was not open for lunch. Since we didn't want to leave and come back we ended up with attriel and the boys having pizza again. Attriel really didn't want pizza again, but it was really his only choice, we didn't notice any safe options at the small stand inside the waterpark. The girl and I split a hamburger, sweet potato fries (which were way better then the ones the night before) and a small salad. After lunch attriel had promised minion 1 we could do the arcade again, since the previous night they didn't get to do everything they wanted. We took the two cards, put some cash on them and they played a bunch of games. At the end attriel let minion 1 do one of those random big wheel spin games. The kid landed on the 1000 ticket win, though he did not get the bonus spin to get 5000 tickets. On the other hand 1000 tickets was awesome. The other two also tried, they got 10 tickets each.

We did make the kid share his bounty with his siblings. They all got a prize. Minion 1 got some teenage mutant ninja turtle stuffed head toy, minion 3 got a cheap car set and minion 2 ended up with a butterfly or something similar. They also got candy with the reaming tickets, because they could. After that we went to Oliver's time challenge. I had promised minion 1 that he could do it if he tried the Tornado slide, since he wanted to try the slide but was scared. Since he tried it, even though he hated it, he got to do the time challenge. There was an error with the computer screen when we tried to start it, so after the manager was called down, they ended up getting both sides to play so all 3 and attriel played the game. They all had fun.

The boys side won vs attriel and minion 2. After that we checked outside, but it was still raining so they decided to do some MagiQuest. I didn't really feel like doing it so I sat in the lobby and read while they played.

Eventually minion 3 was done and came and hung out with me and played with his new cars. Once the other 2 finished we were basically ready to go. We did let them all get tubes of candy, we were going to get the pixie stick tubes, but those were all sour flavors, so instead we went to the other gift shop and got a different type of little pellet candies. We also picked up a bunch of cups, since minion 1 was suppose to bring a treat to his Lego class at co-op that Thursday for Halloween (we stuffed the cups with a couple of pieces of candy and a toy or two). Once we were done it had finally stopped raining, but it was almost 4pm, and the ropes course closed at 3:30 for the last time you could go up. So they didn't get to do it one last time. We got ready to head out and headed home. We stopped for dinner at one of my kid's favorite places to go when we travel, Cracker Barrel, or as they call it the candy store. We got home around 8/8:30 after the stop for dinner and our small trip was over.

Everyone had a good time and the girl wants to go back over her birthday in the Spring. We are debating between that are a trip to NYC so she can say "I am Eloise and I am 6." at the Plaza before she turns 7. We may end up going with NYC, but if not we'll probably do GWL again, they all have fun there. We did decide that we really prefer 3 nights to 2 nights though. 2 nights just doesn't feel like enough time and you have no real downtime to just relax.

 

[tabrizia]

*Waves to everyone reading*

I did FP+ for our second EPCOT day last night. They are fairly similar to our first day FP+. We are doing the Character Spot instead of Crush this time, but still doing Spaceship Earth and TT. Hopefully I can get my Mom to get tickets this week so I can link them and get their FP+ as well.


I did change one of our FP+ for our HS day, we switched from Disney Jr to the Frozen Sing-Along. Honestly I think they will all like it better. If they want to do the Disney Jr show, we'll just wait in line, honestly I think minion 1 is more or less to old for the Disney Jr show, and minion 2 is probably pretty close to too old as well. I am probably getting my sister's family FP+ for it instead of for Star Tours, since I really don't know how my nephew will do on Star Tours.


I get to pack for Thanksgiving tonight, but I will get on to get our FP+ for our 3rd Magic Kingdom day, and then change one of the FP+ for our 2nd Magic Kingdom day most likely. I also have to get up early tomorrow for 24 hour SouthWest check in since we're flying to Atlanta. If we don't get A it isn't a huge deal at least since minion 3 is still 4, so we can do family boarding. I need to pay for the early boarding for the Disney Flights too, because at least coming back I don't want to have to worry about getting on at exactly 24 hours, I'm still debating for our flight in, but considering it is the middle of the day on a random Tuesday in January, I am pretty sure we'll at least be able to get a 2 set of seats so minion 3 can sit with an adult.


And since we had swim team practice this morning, here are a few pictures of the girl child diving from 2 weeks ago.

 

[tabrizia]

So I am off in the morning, way to early to my parents' for Thanksgiving. I currently have all our FP+ except our last day, Saturday. I decided not to take my computer with me, so I will have to trust attriel to get them. It shouldn't be a problem. I want to try for A&E, but the likelihood is there will not be any A&E at the time we need since we have to leave by 3 to get to the airport. If not he'll be getting Ariel, Haunted Mansion and Winnie the Pooh. All of those could change based on the kids likes and dislikes, since even if we change them it won't be to hard to get ones.

Anyways since I won't have the laptop I probably won't be updating until sometime next week after we're home. I hope everyone who celebrates has a great Thanksgiving, and everyone who doesn't has a great week. I will try to update in December, though who knows I may update with my phone while at my parents.

 

[Elevationist]

I'm here, I'm here! (Late, but it still counts!)

And just in time for you to leave for Turkey Day, too! I hope you have an awesome Thanksgiving!

 

[tabrizia]

I'm here, I'm here! (Late, but it still counts!)

And just in time for you to leave for Turkey Day, too! I hope you have an awesome Thanksgiving!

Welcome and there is plenty more to come since I am probably just going to do my August anniversary trip to Universal here and the December Disbeyland trip here too. I'll make a new pre trip report for the 2018 birthday extravaganza though, in a year or so.


I'm still out of town and it is annoying to post on my phone. That being said I didn't get A and E our last day of FP+ but i wasn't expecting it soon huge loss. I did talk to my sister and we did figure out her FP+, now I just need my Mom to buy their tickets.

I'll post again when I'm home on Tuesday. B

 

[tabrizia]

I'm home! attriel made FP+ for our last Saturday. Unfortunately there was no A&E at a time that worked, they were all for after we would be on the airplane home, so we changed our flight, no wait, I mean so we didn't get them, oh well, we have the FP+ for them for our first Magic Kingdom day so we're covered. We did get Haunted Mansion, Ariel Meet and Greet and Winnie the Pooh ride for our last day. One of those would have been Buzz, if it wasn't closed, oh well.

My parents and sister and her family still don't have their tickets, my other sister and her husband still don't know what their plan is nor do they know what they want to do about tickets. My brother and his wife aren't coming. My niece and her Mom are coming, but her Mom can't do Disney, which means my sister will end up taking her with her (the one that sort of has plans). We have no clue how long my niece is going to come for though.

My Mom is suppose to buy at least the 5 tickets for her, my Dad, my first sister, my brother in law and my nephew, my little niece is too young to get a ticket. Hopefully she'll do that in the next few days so I can get FP+ for them.

Our first part of the trip is paid! I still need to get the photopass or magic maker or whatever it is called, but the package is paid!

I have been doing a bunch of shopping for the holidays and such. I have pins for the kids for pin trading (I bought real pins not the 25 cent illegal seconds from China), I have tsum tsums, I have a couple of shirts and other things that were on sale on Black Friday. I have fun magic bands for everyone but me, I'll make one at the customize your own in Magic Kingdom when we get there. I still need to get them gift cards and some small gifts to give them when we get there, oh and an Aurora dress for minion 2, but I have bought them a bunch of Disney stuff. I have a friend making me 3 shirts for each kid, and 1 for me and attriel. I have shirts coming from Teefury and Tee Turtle that are fun Disney shirts too. We are getting close to being ready!

We are at 42 days out now, the time is going to fly between Hanukkah, Christmas and the New Year, plus all our regularly scheduled activities.

I am going to start my day by day plans again in a few days, since I am still getting settled in today.

We had a great Thanksgiving and the kids had a blast. We went to the Georgia Aquarium last night and it was great, I might mini trip report it since I have tons of pictures.

I think that is about all for the moment. I'll try to update more tomorrow or this weekend.

 

[NJlauren]

Just want to jump in and say I'm still reading along! Been crazy here!

I don't think you need FP for the Disney Jr show, it's floor seating and general admission. I'm sure if it's really busy it's nice to have but for us we didn't get it and had no issues seeing the show.

42 days! The next month will fly it always does!

 

[Elevationist]

Paying things off always feels SO GOOD, doesn't it? Just makes the trip that much more really real!

I would enjoy a Georgia Aquarium mini TR!

 

[tabrizia]

Just want to jump in and say I'm still reading along! Been crazy here!

I don't think you need FP for the Disney Jr show, it's floor seating and general admission. I'm sure if it's really busy it's nice to have but for us we didn't get it and had no issues seeing the show.

42 days! The next month will fly it always does!

That is my hope for Disney Jr. We are actually more focused on doing the Indy show since minion 1 will love it and minions 2 and 3 have a bunch of stuff that they will like elsewhere anyways. I figure we'll either do it or not.

Paying things off always feels SO GOOD, doesn't it? Just makes the trip that much more really real!

I would enjoy a Georgia Aquarium mini TR!

As soon as I find my camera cord (I ordered a new one, because I have no clue where it went), I will be editing pictures and uploading them. I may have more pictures from the Aquarium, then from the entire 3 day Great Wolf Lodge trip, but not positive.