It's not too early for a Pre-Trip report

[artemis908]

Aw, lucky! UK site lets you book packages before US? We were only able to book a room, no packages. We are going Feb 2-10 so right before you.

 

[Terkina]

Yes the EU countries are lucky and I'm lucky to have a friend living in Sweden so we can get this EU offer

One week after the snow came, summer came with 59ºF (15ºC) We also got to see the midnightsun and the whole venus passages.

 

[Terkina]

I have tried to make a plan of which park on which day by using the schedule for this year. So far it looks like we will not be able to see both the 3.00pm parade at Magic Kingdom AND the Electrial Parade. I think we will be too tired if we can't have a one hour nap at the resort during the day The Electrical Parade is scheduled for 7.00pm
From what I have red about the disney transportation it takes an hour to the park (in worst case). That means that we have to calculate a 3 hour break so we are sure to get back to the park in time for the parade.

One option is to park hopp and see the 3.00pm parade at Magic Kingdom the day we are doing ropedrop at Epcot. And take a break after the 3.00pm parade and come back to Epcot in time for the 9.00pm Illuminations. That will give us more time to take the break than if we tried to do both the Electrical Parade AND the 3.00pm parade at Magic Kingdom.

I know I can plan everything as much as I want before we go. But when we get there we will do what we feel like at the time. I still think it's good to have a plan so we have a chance to see what we want at each park. But if it turns out that we can't see all the things we want to it's not the end of the world even if I will feel sad

 

[Terkina]

My friend who I'm traveling with just said that we can stop by Disneyland in Anaheim we are driving by anyway. Now I have to try and find out which hotel we want to stay in while we are there. I would like us to stay so near that we can walk to Disneyland and back to our hotel.

 

[KatMark]

Hi, there. I'm joining in. I've got to go out tonight, but will be back tomorrow to catch up.

All caught up. My best friend stays at POFQ and she loves it.

We are big park hoppers, but it is not for everyone. We missed the Electrical Parade last month and I was very upset.

 

[Terkina]

Still talking to myself
I had to fix who is going to take care of the cats while I'm away. I talked to my parents about it some weeks ago, but I didn't get a straight answer then. So today I had to call and ask if I was going to get them all into a cattery that is located a little out of town or if one of the cats is going to stay at my parents and my 16 old brothers house.

I called and asked. My mother said it didn't matter to them. I could decide. I then asked her to ask my brother what he wanted. He wanted all 3 cats to stay at their house. So that's how it's going to be I save a lot of money by not having to pay for 3 cats at the cattery So now that is settled and I don't have to call the catery to ask if they have room for the cats.

 

[KatMark]

Still talking to myself
I had to fix who is going to take care of the cats while I'm away. I talked to my parents about it some weeks ago, but I didn't get a straight answer then. So today I had to call and ask if I was going to get them all into a cattery that is located a little out of town or if one of the cats is going to stay at my parents and my 16 old brothers house.

I called and asked. My mother said it didn't matter to them. I could decide. I then asked her to ask my brother what he wanted. He wanted all 3 cats to stay at their house. So that's how it's going to be I save a lot of money by not having to pay for 3 cats at the cattery So now that is settled and I don't have to call the catery to ask if they have room for the cats.

So happy to hear the cats will be staying with family...they will be happier that way I am sure. This was my main concern for our trip next week...what to do with our dog as she had never been in a kennel before and she'll be 15 years old. Luckily, my brother and mother are going to stay at my house and take care of the dog.

 

[artemis908]

Still talking to myself
I had to fix who is going to take care of the cats while I'm away. I talked to my parents about it some weeks ago, but I didn't get a straight answer then. So today I had to call and ask if I was going to get them all into a cattery that is located a little out of town or if one of the cats is going to stay at my parents and my 16 old brothers house.

I called and asked. My mother said it didn't matter to them. I could decide. I then asked her to ask my brother what he wanted. He wanted all 3 cats to stay at their house. So that's how it's going to be I save a lot of money by not having to pay for 3 cats at the cattery So now that is settled and I don't have to call the catery to ask if they have room for the cats.

I guess I should be asking my father in law if he can take care of our dog soon. My mother in law is perfectly happy coming to feed the cats, they don't need much, but the dog really needs attention so he needs to stay with someone. Kennels can be expensive, so it's always good when you can find someone to take care of your pets while away!

 

[Terkina]

I'm glad you are hanging a long artemis908 KatMark

KatMark: yes it is a relief to have the cats sorted. Two of my cats stayed at the cattery last february for 2 weeks. It went very well and everyone was happy. My oldest cat stayed at my parents house so he could go in and out as he pleased like he is used to

artemis908: Cats can be just fine at home when they have someone that comes to the house from time to time to give them som affection and refresh the water and food. I normally let my cats be at home and then my mother comes and gives them affection and fresh water and food. Since I'm going to be away for over a month I think it's best that the cats is somewhere where they can be with people more often than they would be if my mother just came by to look after them from time to time.

Yesterday we decided to take 3 nights in Longyearbyen at Spitsbergen in May 2013. I'm so excited The expensive part is the hotell.

When it comes to our Disney and USA road trip I now have some details
As I've said before we will spend the first 5 nights at WDW.
Since we don't have many days to spend at the parks ( 4 1\2 days to be exact) I plan to use EMH every day I can.

My plan looks something like this:
Our arrival time to MCO has changed. We will get there one hour later than first planned. We now land at 6.01pm. I'm guessing that we will be tired from the long journey. So no park planned for our arrival day. Maybe we will go to DTD if we feel like it. Otherwise we will just relax at the resort.

Epcot will be our first parkday. I hope that this park will show my friend ( who has only been to Disneyland Resort Paris and didn't like it ) that Disney can be relaxing and interesting.

Animal Kingdom will be on our second day. I'm thinking that we maybe should take the Backstage Safari tour. But I'm not sure if it's worth it when we only have one day at this park.

Magic Kingdom is our next park that will be on our third day. I think we can get much done here since none of us likes thrill rides.

Hollywood Studios will be our last park that I plan on doing because on our last half day I want to go to the park that my friend liked the most or the park that we feel we didn't get done everything we wanted in.

Our last day we can parkhop if we want to. We have parkhoppers so we can visit more than one park each day if we want to. The only reason I would park hop on our other days is to see a parade in another park than we're in.


This is my loose plan. I will get a touring plan for each park at touringplans.com

 

[KatMark]

I think your plans sound wonderful. Glad to see it all coming together for you.

 

[Terkina]

Yes it a relief that things are coming together. Soon I will have to start a packinglist. I don't want to take with me too much. But then again I have to have some things with me. We are going to be away for 4 weeks.

 

[Terkina]

"only" 73 days before our trip and we still have things to fix before we can leave.
We have to get our ESTA's our international drivers license and we have to book a rental car for after WDW.

We haven't booked a rental car yet because I'm hoping for a discount deal to come out. At the moment it will cost us $1000 for the car we want with insurance and one extra driver. We want to get a good car since we are going to spend so much time in the car on our trip.

To get the international drivers license we only have to do some paperwork to get one. So it's no big deal, but it still has to be done.

The ESTA should be fast and easy to get. It's some paperwork that has to be done and we have to allow some weeks to get it. Even if most people normally gets it right away after sending the application online.

With Christmas comming there is a lot of days that are hollidays so we have to allow things to take a little longer time than normal if we decide to do these things before Christmas.

I have to have some medication with me to the USA. I have to have a written note from the medical goverment. I have talked to them about it and I was told that I will get it before February. If I haven't got the letter before mid January I have to make another call so I get the letter before I leave.

 

[Terkina]

Today I applied for our ESTA's. Hopefully we will get them soon and everything is ok. I was hoping for a discount on our rental car, but no discount has come out yet. I'm not sure how long we are willing to wait for a discount before we have to book our rental car.

 

[Terkina]

We got our ESTA's so now we're ready to go to the USA. I got an e-mail with discounts on rental cars for several destination from now and until October 2013. But USA was not on the list We will wait until next week and then we have to book our rental car. We can't wait forever for a discount.

 

[DMGeurts]

Lillian!!!! Clearly, I can't read... I didn't know you had a PTR going! Sometimes, you just have to come right out and tell me... LOL

I knew your trip was getting close, but I wasn't sure exactly...

Are you getting excited? It looks like you have the cats all taken care of - what else do you have left to sort out?

So sorry that I wasn't here sooner.

D~

 

[Terkina]

Welcome D~ So nice to see you here

I'm getting very excited, but still I think the trip is comming too fast (Must be because I have had so many other trips the last few months to go on and plan)

We still have to book our rental car (for after WDW). I'm still hoping for a discount, but I have my doubts that we will have one for the trip. We will have to book the car soon. We have decided which car we want to rent. We want a FULL SIZE - Chevrolet Impala or similar.

I also have to send an e-mail to the medical goverment (or something like that) to remind them that they promised to send me the letter I need to get my medication in to the USA.

I have to buy some new T-shirts before our trip.

When all that is done I hope I have remembered everything.

 

[DMGeurts]

Yes, I can't believe how quickly your trip is sneaking up!

I agree that a full size car would be best - especially if you are driving across the country... It's sure to be a fun trip though. I would check over on the Transportation board, they always seem to have good codes over there for car rentals.

I hope you are able to get the letter you need to get all your medications into the US - that would be very bad with out it.

So, after all of this... I am still so excited for you - and I can't wait to see pictures.

D~

 

[Terkina]

Here are my cats

Tantor the oldest one who is going to be 13 years old on the 3.february

Terkina who is soon 10 years old

Esmeralda who is 6 1\2 years old


I have been in Sweeden for 5 days (came home yesterday) visiting some friends. While I was away all my cats was at my parents house. I went and picked them up today. So now we are all back home for a while. (Not long until my Disney trip and road trip)

I'm into something called geocaching. It is a sort of a modern treasure hunt. Where you go on the internet to find the coordinates for where the "treasure" (it's some sort of box with at least a logbook and sometimes swag you can swop with other swag) is hidden. You then go out in the field and use your GPS to find the location of the box. Then you have to search for the box (because it's well hidden so no one else that is not into geocaching can find it). When you find the box you open it and sign the logbook. The box can be hidden in urban places as well as in the woods. When you are done finding geocaches, whether you have found one or a hundred. You go back on the internet and write a log on the geocache website.

I have a project going that I want to find at least one geocache each day of the calendar. So it's not a coincidence that we chose to go to Disney and the US in February and March. I haven't found any geocaches on the days we are in the US yet. So then I will have found geocaches on the days I'm missing AND I will find geocaches in a new country and a lot of states.

My friend has spent a lot of time finding the route we want to drive on our road trip and I have spent a lot of time getting all geocaches in the area we are driving so we have them on the computer and on the GPS when we are driving.

 

[DMGeurts]

Aww... Your kitties are adorable!

I think your plans to geocache while you are here are fantastic! What a wonderful way to occupy your time, and keep you from being stuck in the car while going across country! I hope you will work that into your TR when you get back - I would love to hear all about it.

D~

 

[Terkina]

Sure I can tell about my geocaching in my TR.
There are one geocache in each Disney park. These geocaches are not normal geocaches where you find a container and sign a log. Disney don't allow things hidden on their grounds. So the geocaches hidden on Disney property are so called Virtuals. That means there are no container to be found, but you go to a spot and have to find answers to some questions and then take a picture of yourself at that spot.

We will find them I just have to find out in what order we will take them since we don't need to find geocaches on our 1st and 2nd park day.

I started to knit some socks for myself. And now when I'm finished with the first one a realize that it's a little small

Here are 2 pictures of the sock

The front

The back

So now I will knit the other sock and then I have to start on a new bigger pair