It's Family-moon time!

[DMGeurts]

Everything looks really awesome!

Congrats on the surprise! I hope you are able to pull it off!

D~

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Your plans look great and congrats on booking the other fantastic trip too. I am jealous...a bit.

Everything looks really awesome!

Congrats on the surprise! I hope you are able to pull it off!

D~

Thank you both! But I just realized that I completely left out BOG!! I like the looks of the lunch menu better than dinner, but I've read a few posts lately that have said the lunch line is a very long wait. Maybe I'll replace the Columbia Harbor House with a dinner ressie for BOG and we could do the CHH on our last day, or if I can't get the ressie for dinner, we could try on the last day. Fortunately I have older boys so I don't think anyone will be devastated, but it would be a shame to miss it.

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

OMG that is going to be a great surpise. I was confused when you said that you were doing that in my PTR. I cant wait to hear about it!!!

 

[Wanna be Ariel]

Ok, time to get back to planning this family-moon!

Just to recap, we are booked through ***, and I opted not to do CL at the BC for a number of reasons. The first being that in my reading up on the reviews of CL, it seemed like the BC one was among the less desirable...I'm sure everyone has their favorites, but "smaller" and "less" seemed to be the comparisons among the BC and the others, esp Poly, which seemed like a much better one. So, given that it will be the first few days of our trip and we will want to be on the go a bit more and we want to experience a number of Disney restaurants, I don't see us using it for more than breakfast and we could do five mornings of character meals for less than what it would cost us to go CL. Plus, after making the decision in my previous post I need to save that $$. And I plan to do that with a GG order to the BC. We did that last time and it saved time and money in the mornings and snack money (and time) during the days. If the kids want a Disney snack, it comes out of their own money.

Ok, so we are booked, air is bought, I can FINALLY see all of my reservations on My Disney Experience (ok, well the majority of the time it works) and we still have a few weeks to go until ADR time. Here is my thinking for our ADRs:

Day 1 (we arrive at MCO at 9:45 am):

Lunch: We will grab something wherever we are, probably try B&C and if no, HH, unless we head to a park first thing.
Dinner: Le Cellier or Via Naopli

Day 2:

Breakfast: in the room or we may grab something at the new bakery in France (is it still the Patisserie?)
Lunch: QS in Epcot - probably Sunshine Seasons since that is our fave. FW QS
Dinner: Flying Fish (DWI - not 100% we are going to do this yet) or dine around the world in WS

Day 3:

Breakfast: quick in the hotel
Lunch: Flame Tree
Dinner: Sci-Fi Dine in

Day 4:

Breakfast/Lunch - ? I am going to try to book the Wild Animal Trek this morning. It includes something to eat, so we wil probably eat in the room then head to AK.
Dinner: Chef Mickey's

Day 5:

Breakfast: Cape May
Lunch: QS at TL or BB
Dinner: Raglan Road

Day 6:

Breakfast - quick in the room
Lunch - 50's Prime Time
Dinner: ADR for BOG or QS in MK - probably CHH

Day 7:

Breakfast - Kona
Lunch - Capt. Cook's
Dinner- Ohana

Day 8:

Breakfast - in room or Capt. Cooks (I don't mind doing b'fast here...the BC MP is just so eh on breakfast)
Lunch - ? (Clara and I will be getting massages this morning at the GF, boys can go to whichever park they want and we will meet up with them, so QS somewhere)
Dinner - HDDR

Day 9:

Breakfast: in room or CC
Lunch: maybe Coral Reef - not set on this one yet
Dinner: ? again, not sure - maybe we will hop over to AK for dinner. I like spending one day until close over there...doesn't seem to be working this trip so far.


Day 10:

Breakfast - 1900 Park Fare
Lunch - QS in whichever park we are in - probably MK (may try for BOG if not too long of a wait)
Dinner - at MCO before boarding to go home - so

So, what do you think?

This all looks good. I really like day 8. A massage sounds so nice right now. I would love a hot stone massage.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

OMG that is going to be a great surpise. I was confused when you said that you were doing that in my PTR. I cant wait to hear about it!!!

Yes, I am hoping I can pull it off! There are a few issues at the moment already!

Issue #1 - The biggest obstacle is making sure Clara takes off from work I casually asked her the other day if she had made the May schedule yet (not a totally unusual request, but when asking that far out, I usually have a good reason). She had not, so I told her to take the 9th and 10th off. I reminded her the boys had off and it would be a good weekend to take a short trip or maybe take DS16 to see some schools, etc. I'm going to have to come up with something better than that though pretty soon Then I realized I need her to take Monday as well because even though we will be back late Sunday night, she always takes a day off after vacation. Ok, so I just told her since it was the day after Mother's Day I planned for us to go for massages. She'll use any excuse to go for a massage so that was easy. I also am going to call her partner to make sure she remains off for those days even if she doesn't see me planning anything and decides to put herself back on. The harder part is keeping her schedule clear at the hospital (she is a pediatrician and has her own office (that's the easy one) and she's also chief of pediatrics at a hospital near us (that's the hard one)). Her secretary at the hospital is not that good at keeping secrets, so I'm afraid to tell her I also have the slight issue of the 8th, which is when we are leaving, but she only works half days on Wednesdays, so theoretically that should not be an issue unless she schedules a meeting, but at that point I have a feeling I am going to have to spill something. Maybe not where but that we are actually leaving the house at 4:30 that afternoon (which also means I will need to pick up the boys and have them cancel whatever they have...they don't question stuff though so that should work).

Issue #2 - DS16's passport expired. It actually expired last year, but I decided to wait until he was 16 to re-new because we weren't going out of the country and when you renew at 15 it's only good for 5 years, but at 16 it's good for ten. So the other day he happened to have a random day off from school and I thought this is the perfect opportunity to get it done and we still have enough time. I dragged him out of bed and announced we were getting his passport renewed. He was not happy, but hey, he'll live. So I filled out the application online, printed it, made copies of what we needed, grabbed his old passport and dragged him off to CVS for pictures. They look like mug shot photos I was like you are going to totally regret that by the time you are 26. But he reminded me he won't still have his braces then and doesn't want to be a metal mouth for the next ten years (let's note that he has clear acrylic braces...whatever). So we got that done, headed off to the post office, and UGH, they were doing passports by appointment only. Grrrr....but the nice man there said that the post office at the mall does walk-ins. Ok, that's easy because I was going to drop him at the mall later that day to meet his friends anyway. Mind you he had not yet questioned why we must get this done that day. Easy peasy, he doesn't complain because we are going to the mall anyway, no biggie. Until Clara calls and says her partner is seeing the last few patients and she could come home early...and to wait for her to go to the mall. Ugh. Now I have to explain why I have all his passport info filled out and ready to go and I had not mentioned this to her at all. Fortunately I came up with a good excuse. Connor is starting to look at colleges (he's a junior). He has toyed with the idea of a Canadian school, esp. University of Toronto. So I said that since we may be visiting some schools upstate NY soon, it would be silly not to just continue on the hour into Canada and see some there. But we can't do that unless his passport was up to day and he happened to be off and yada yada yada. Ok, she bought that so we first headed to the post office when we got to the mall so he could go off and meet his friends. UGH! There was a huge line. I knew the first words out of her mouth were going to be, let's just make an appointment in town for when he's off on February break. And I was like, no, we have all the stuff, let's just wait and see how long this line is. After a 30 minute wait and an antsy wife and child, we finally got it. Phew!

Issue #3 - Packing in secret for them all...but I'm going to deal with that closer to May because there's no use in stressing if I spill the beans before then

I think that's all for now

As for the actual trip, the plan is to fly into MCO Wednesday night, and check into the Hyatt in the airport. I don't remember much about it from the last time we stayed there, but I do remember it being easy.

Thursday morning we will take Disney transportation to the port. It's a little more expensive than going a different way, but the porters will take our luggage from our rooms in the Hyatt and we won't have to deal with them again until we see them in our cabins. That was worth it for me. Then we will board the bus and head to PC! I am eligible for online check-in next week (90 day mark) so I am hoping to get an early boarding group.

I don't think we will do much in Nassau. We've done the dolphin swim and the straw market. Nassau isn't the greatest port - and we will have such limited time on the ship that I'd rather take advantage of that. Then Castaway Cay, which I can't wait for...praying for good weather! And then back home again. I am going to book a late flight out on Sunday so we can extend this very short trip a bit. I will rent a car at the port and go to DTD for the day and then head back to MCO to return it and fly home.

This all looks good. I really like day 8. A massage sounds so nice right now. I would love a hot stone massage.

LOL, I like day 8 too. And the really nice part is that this is the first trip I feel confident enough to let the boys go off on their own for a bit. We used to just take turns going to the spa, but this time we can enjoy it together and not rush so much.

 

[Alysa]

Your trip plans sound wonderful and your boys are adorable! Funny, I was going to suggest you take the boys across the boarder for the passport. I was going to say you could go to great wolf lodge or something. MY husband actually works and teaches at U of T - great school! What does your son want to take there?

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Your trip plans sound wonderful and your boys are adorable! Funny, I was going to suggest you take the boys across the boarder for the passport. I was going to say you could go to great wolf lodge or something. MY husband actually works and teaches at U of T - great school! What does your son want to take there?

Thank you! In what department does your husband teach? We've only been to Toronto once, and I'm trying to get my bearings straight on the three campuses, etc. DS wants to study pharmacy. I see from your signature you are planning an August trip too - I'm going to check out your PTR.

 

[Alysa]

Thank you! In what department does your husband teach? We've only been to Toronto once, and I'm trying to get my bearings straight on the three campuses, etc. DS wants to study pharmacy. I see from your signature you are planning an August trip too - I'm going to check out your PTR.

There are three campuses but I imagine your son would just be at the one in downtown Toronto by Queen's Park. My husband is a medical researcher so he just helps his boss out - I think he is doing Immunology this term.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

There are three campuses but I imagine your son would just be at the one in downtown Toronto by Queen's Park. My husband is a medical researcher so he just helps his boss out - I think he is doing Immunology this term.

Thanks for the info. That is what I was assuming, and it seemed to be the largest of the three and the only in in the actual city - is that correct? Who knows if he will even take the plunge and go out of the country. We had been in Canada for a few weeks last summer and while we were in Montreal, we just happened to hook up with a tour of McGill. He fell in love with the school, I fell in love with the price (much less expensive than the private schools here), but I really don't think he has the grades to pull that off. But it had put the idea of maybe going north into his head. And lately he's been talking about UofT, so who knows.

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Well, I am waiting for the plumber to come, and there's not much going on planning wise right now, so I was looking through some Disney pics and saw these two and it made me laugh...there's a story behind it!

So DS12, who was 7 at the time, spotted this balloon and wanted it. Mind you he's been going to Disney since he was a year old and never wanted a balloon before. In fact, none of my kids ever asked for one, so I thought it was an odd request. But he WANTED it. Ok, ok, I said I'd get him the balloon. Walked over the man selling it and it was exorbitantly expensive, IMO, for a piece of latex. But the kid wanted it, and the man assured me it could last for months (in earshot of DS - thanks, Mister, but we fly to WDW - and this was before I had ever read of people on DIS actually deflating these things). Ok, off we go, he's happy as a clam with his balloon, yadda yadda yadda.

Balloon is living happily at the Beach Club for the last few days of our trip, and the time comes to say goodbye. I thought we could just give it to another child and Evan would be over it in a minute. I mean, after all, he's SEVEN - not three. Nope. He wasn't having it. He told me he would bring it home. I said, if you can get it on the plane, you can bring it home - figuring for sure there was no way it was going home with us.

Now we had gotten a great deal on an early morning flight home, but I did not want to pay BC prices to just wake up and leave. So we checked out, left our bags at bell services and decided to do the parks until close and then stay at the MCO Hyatt. The CM at bell services said, I don't think you are going to be able to bring home that balloon. He looked like this: , but Evan was adamant he would. Off to MCO later in the evening, balloon enjoyed a night at the Hyatt, and early the next morning, after we had checked in, Evan proudly marched up to security with the balloon in his hand. The TSA guy looked like this: . But he finally decided he wasn't chancing it through the x-ray machine and carried it through himself. We waiting for our plane with throngs of other kids fresh from WDW. Surprisingly, none of them had giant Mickey balloons. So it comes time to board. He proudly marches down the aisle of the plane, getting a few looks here and there, and finds his seat and proceeds to try to stuff balloon under the seat. It pops up and hits the ceiling. He tries again. Same result. By now two flight attendants are looking like this: So one pulls me aside and says it's not going to fit under the seat and we can't have a balloon floating around the plane. Reasonable enough to me - maybe she could mention that to Evan. He looks at her with his big brown eyes and flashes his dimples and next thing you know, she and I are making room in the overhead bin and literally SHOVING this balloon in there. I was positive it would pop. It squeaked and screeched and bam, we slammed the overhead bin. I was hoping no one would need to try to get in there! Then she looks at me and whispers in my ear, it's going to explode at 10,000 feet. Ugh. I turned to the guy sitting next to me and said, If you hear a loud boom, don't panic.

So we take off. No loud booms, but I was trying to prepare Evan that there was a pretty good chance it was not going to still be in one piece when we got home. He assured me it would be.

We landed at JFK, I carefully opened the overhead bin, and out floated Mickey!!

Evan proudly grabbed his balloon and marched back up the aisle. The pilot came out of the cockpit looking like this: and said, how did that make it through the flight??

And the answer to that, must be, the magic of Disney

The balloon went on to live in his room for two more happy months until Evan turned 8 and announced he was too old for balloons and popped it!

And that's my Happy Place memory of the day

 

[Floridagram]

Ok, you've both convinced me having a non-park day is a good thing! And now I need to wrap my head around another change ugh!

With the current set up I have the Poly booked first and BC second with my 10 day PHs on the Poly ressie. If I switch over to Magical Vacations, the "package" is for the BC and therefore the tickets (8 day PH with bonus) are attached to that ressie. Which means I can not begin to use those tickets until I check into the BC (five days into my trip). So that is not feasible. So Angela, the TA, who has been very patient with me, asked if I would consider doing the BC first and the Poly second. Can you believe I am stuck on this? What is wrong with me?? We are talking about $2800 and all I need to do is get it out of my head that Poly comes before BC...I think I've lost my mind

So I casually mention this to my 16 year old DS, (the reason for the Poly leg of this trip) and he looked at me like this: and said um, that's a no brainer. Why did I think a teenage boy would care what order we did resorts in?

So now I am officially waiting on three quotes from Angela which I think will cover all configurations of hotel rooms and tix and discounts and I'm going with the cheapes

But in other exciting Disney news, my photopass+ voucher came today!! Woo Hoo!!! Ok, I am aware I have 220+ days to actually use it, but in the meantime I can look at all the awesome stock photos that came on a CD with the voucher Off to check them out and stalk my email for deals from Angela!

I think it would be easier to do Poly second. By then you will be a little more tired and the monorail right there will be great. It will be the icing on the cake for a great familymoon! Staying there may be the highlight of your trip.

I also agree that a down time day or two would be nice. I don't know how people do the parks for that many days in a row! It will be HOT!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

I think it would be easier to do Poly second. By then you will be a little more tired and the monorail right there will be great. It will be the icing on the cake for a great familymoon! Staying there may be the highlight of your trip.

I also agree that a down time day or two would be nice. I don't know how people do the parks for that many days in a row! It will be HOT!

You know, I think I agree with you. We always stay at the BC, so to me that's my home away from home, my place to get R&R, and when I just think about relaxing by the pool, it makes me so happy. So, initially I was thinking I wanted to end my vacation that way. But now that I was forced to switch, I am actually happier about it, because we will have a full resort day at Poly and we've already done all that at BC. And since we will have gotten the go go go out of our system, it will give us more time to explore and enjoy a new resort

 

[momto3gr8boys]

Ok, time to get back to some Family-moon planning!

I am getting so excited for my 180 days to come up, and I am also excited because I had been wondering if I was going to be able to make all my ADRs under my first 180+10 because I wasn't sure if it was a flat 10 days or if it was good for as long as your reservation. Technically the Poly is a second reservation. But it's +10 no matter when you check out. Phew...ok, so I should be able to make them all in one day.

But in addition to ADRs for dining, I have a list of special activities that I want to do on this trip, so some of those can also be booked at 180 days out.

Here was the initial list of fun extras to do:

HDDR (ok, so that's an ADR, but it's $$ so I'm including it in special activities)
DWI - ok, so this is too, but also very $$
Wild Animal Trek
Water Sprites
Wishes dessert party
Massages
Fireworks cruise

I quickly crossed off the Fireworks cruise. I had done the Illuminations one ten years ago, but never the wishes one. I thought it would be fun, except we are staying at the Poly and one of the perks is seeing it from the beach. So I thought it would be silly to spend the money on that when there are so many other things to do.

DWI - I have been wanting to do this for a while, and had always thought specifically that DS14 would love it the most. But I don't know so much right now...he's become that aloof 14 year old and it's too much money unless he's going to be really into it. He doesn't know it exists, and if I asked him he would say yes, but he may just say that to appease me. So, given that, I am crossing that one off the list for now.

Massages, HDDR (all the boys requested this) and the Wild Animal Trek are definites. The WAT is supposed to be amazing and I wanted something to tie this trip to our Africa trip. I had considered staying at AKL at one point, then found this, and thought it would be perfect.

So that leaves the Wishes dessert party and Water sprites. The water sprites we will probably just do on our resort day and don't really need to plan that now.

And as for the WDP, does anyone know when that can be booked? Like I said, I'm not totally sure I want to do it, but I also don't want to get closed out in case I change my mind!

Any input?

 

[Floridagram]

Ok, time to get back to some Family-moon planning!

I am getting so excited for my 180 days to come up, and I am also excited because I had been wondering if I was going to be able to make all my ADRs under my first 180+10 because I wasn't sure if it was a flat 10 days or if it was good for as long as your reservation. Technically the Poly is a second reservation. But it's +10 no matter when you check out. Phew...ok, so I should be able to make them all in one day.

But in addition to ADRs for dining, I have a list of special activities that I want to do on this trip, so some of those can also be booked at 180 days out.

Here was the initial list of fun extras to do:

HDDR (ok, so that's an ADR, but it's $$ so I'm including it in special activities)
DWI - ok, so this is too, but also very $$
Wild Animal Trek
Water Sprites
Wishes dessert party
Massages
Fireworks cruise

I quickly crossed off the Fireworks cruise. I had done the Illuminations one ten years ago, but never the wishes one. I thought it would be fun, except we are staying at the Poly and one of the perks is seeing it from the beach. So I thought it would be silly to spend the money on that when there are so many other things to do.

DWI - I have been wanting to do this for a while, and had always thought specifically that DS14 would love it the most. But I don't know so much right now...he's become that aloof 14 year old and it's too much money unless he's going to be really into it. He doesn't know it exists, and if I asked him he would say yes, but he may just say that to appease me. So, given that, I am crossing that one off the list for now.

Massages, HDDR (all the boys requested this) and the Wild Animal Trek are definites. The WAT is supposed to be amazing and I wanted something to tie this trip to our Africa trip. I had considered staying at AKL at one point, then found this, and thought it would be perfect.

So that leaves the Wishes dessert party and Water sprites. The water sprites we will probably just do on our resort day and don't really need to plan that now.

And as for the WDP, does anyone know when that can be booked? Like I said, I'm not totally sure I want to do it, but I also don't want to get closed out in case I change my mind!

Any input?

What is WDI? I looked on the abbreviation list before I asked...

 

[momto3gr8boys]

What is WDI? I looked on the abbreviation list before I asked...

It's DWI and its dining with an imagineer. It is supposedly excellent. You can do lunch at HBD or dinner at FF. it's three hours long and limited to 10-12 people. But it's $90 a person (I believe that does include wine for over 21s). If I knew everyone would be blown away I'd do it but almost $500 to take a chance is too steep for me!

 

[DMGeurts]

OMG!!! That balloon story has me in stitches... Too funny!!! I LOVE IT!!!! And even more hilarious that it lasted for so long after you got home.

D~

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

The balloon story cracked me up!! Too funny!! I think your extras look like fun!! I really want to do WAT--I am hoping they still have something similar when DS is older!!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

OMG!!! That balloon story has me in stitches... Too funny!!! I LOVE IT!!!! And even more hilarious that it lasted for so long after you got home.

Thanks, D! And as someone said, I guess it really was worth $20 (or whatever it cost - which was a lot lol).

Yesterday I figured out I can use photobucket to add text to my pictures, and then order them from there as well. So that is how I will do my trip planner. I actually started playing around with it yesterday, and while not a planner per se, I think I am going to do something to reveal the cruise surprise. I'll share a few later!

D~

The balloon story cracked me up!! Too funny!! I think your extras look like fun!! I really want to do WAT--I am hoping they still have something similar when DS is older!!

Thank you! I just glanced at the first page of your PTR - you guys are adorable! And I see you are doing the Dream as well...I can't wait to follow along. I have a feeling the WAT will be around a while. It just began last year and seems to be a huge hit! They've already changed one or two things in it, but if it stays popular and is a big money maker, I'm sure it will be around for years to come.

***************************************

I ordered the vacation planning DVD last month in hopes of having my name pop up for a pin code, even though I don't really need it for planning. But it came in the mail yesterday and I'm excited to sit down and watch it today! And actually, it will probably be good to get a glimpse of the new FL, since this is the first time we are seeing it not under construction. We had taken to not spending as much time in FL and TT over the years - still always did some of it, but it wasn't a must or we didn't have to do PP 10 times like in the past. But when they began the construction, I made sure we did everything - down to Dumbo and the Carousel and all of TT because I told the boys it was going to be different and wanted them to have a solid memory of how it had been. They were all for it with the exception of Dumbo - now I can't wait to make them ride it again because it's "new"

Ok, off to do a few things and then I am going to work on and share some of the planning pics for our cruise.

 

[Alysa]

Great ballooon story! Of course he got it home!

 

[momto3gr8boys]

It's a Disney kind of day here! I haven't done much more than plan for our trips! I am currently working on two projects...one is to prioritize our ADRs so I have a list ready to go when I start making them in a few weeks, and the other is to create a mini-planner, ala Dorine, to use as a way to reveal the surprise of our cruise.

In my planning though, I always wind up taking little trips down memory lane and wanted to share a couple of pictures. These were from August, 2003.

This was taken at the Restaurantsaurus Breakfast, which was, IMO, one of the best character breakfasts. Too bad they took it away.

And there's balloon boy a few years earlier on the right and Aidan on the left. Aidan LOVED the characters at this age.

Ok, back to that planning. I will share that planner soon!