Just Call Us the Griswold's - Our Magical Family Christmas PTR - December 2010!

[mom-n-michaela]

Just a quick post to do a little dance because it's officially

​

3 MONTHS UNTIL WE LEAVE FOR DISNEY!!!

 

[exwdwcm]

Just a quick post to do a little dance because it's officially
3 MONTHS UNTIL WE LEAVE FOR DISNEY!!!

yeah for double digits- can you even imagine how excited we will be when we reach single digits!????

 

[mom-n-michaela]

It will go so fast now....at least I hope so cause I am only a little ahead of you. I am anxious to see all your shirts!

It IS getting really close! I am so excited to see so many DISers that will be there some of the same time as us - I am trying to commit all of your faces to memory so that if I see you I can say "HI!"

 

[mom-n-michaela]

wow, what a gorgeous themed party! love it!! did she have a good time? the cupcakes and all the details are just fabulous!!!!!! you must have put a LOT of hard work into it!

yeah for double digits- can you even imagine how excited we will be when we reach single digits!????

Thank you so much - she really had a great time! She said it was her favorite of all her birthday parties, so that makes it a huge success in my opinion!

OMG I can't even *think* about single digits right now! My family will probably not even want to be AROUND me at that point...LOL! I am 99% sure I'm more excited than even the kids are (until we get there at least!)!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

Hi Mariah!!

We are going to be in WDW Dec. 1st - 13th, it is truly a magical time to go. What a great way to spend a vacation with your extended family.

My Bill laughs at me about planning too. They won't be laughing when we have a good trip though now well they?

Your families are so beautiful. The kids are going to love WDW, but you are so right WDW isn't just for kids, it is an amazing place for everyone.

Wow, how amazing that you get to use the timeshare for free, that is just wonderful. It is great about the 2 kitchens etc.

We are going to be in MK on the 5th, it is our MVMCP night. We are going to be in Epcot on the 7th, we are seeing the 6:45pm Candlelight Processional show.

You get to see MVMCP on my birthday!! Have a great time, it is truly magical, at least we think it is. We have done the Christmas party for the last 3 years.

Awesome t shirts and pressed penny designs, they are adorable!

The birthday party was so imaginative, really great.

Great PTR!!

Thank you for all the compliments!! How cool that we'll be at MK and Epcot the same days - Maybe we'll see each other and can say "HI"! I really want to see the Candlelight Processional too, but still not sure, because I don't know if everyone in my group will want to. Maybe I'll just let them go on their way and I'll go see it myself, or me and SIL, and meet back up with them after...now that I think about it, that sounds like a good plan!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

Hi Mariah!!

We are going to be in WDW Dec. 1st - 13th, it is truly a magical time to go. What a great way to spend a vacation with your extended family.

My Bill laughs at me about planning too. They won't be laughing when we have a good trip though now well they?

Your families are so beautiful. The kids are going to love WDW, but you are so right WDW isn't just for kids, it is an amazing place for everyone.

Wow, how amazing that you get to use the timeshare for free, that is just wonderful. It is great about the 2 kitchens etc.

We are going to be in MK on the 5th, it is our MVMCP night. We are going to be in Epcot on the 7th, we are seeing the 6:45pm Candlelight Processional show.

You get to see MVMCP on my birthday!! Have a great time, it is truly magical, at least we think it is. We have done the Christmas party for the last 3 years.

Awesome t shirts and pressed penny designs, they are adorable!

The birthday party was so imaginative, really great.

Great PTR!!

Oh! And I forgot to you to my PTR!! Subscribing to yours, 13 pages! Maybe I'll be able to catch up over the long weekend! I just love reading other December PTRs!

 

[GreatDaneMom]

This Twilight convention will be going on across the street from Down Town Disney while you're there. Just thought your DD might be interested.

http://www.twilightconvention.com/cal/twilight_orlando.htm

 

[exwdwcm]

Thank you so much - she really had a great time! She said it was her favorite of all her birthday parties, so that makes it a huge success in my opinion!

OMG I can't even *think* about single digits right now! My family will probably not even want to be AROUND me at that point...LOL! I am 99% sure I'm more excited than even the kids are (until we get there at least!)!

i know, my head will explode by the time we get to single digits. but it really isn't that far off. my october is so busy at work and home (bday parties, baby showers, bunco, halloween parties, 2 work trips etc.). So October will fly!

i think i want to do a countdown calendar for my son too. we are at the 73 mark now i think! woo hoo!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

i know, my head will explode by the time we get to single digits. but it really isn't that far off. my october is so busy at work and home (bday parties, baby showers, bunco, halloween parties, 2 work trips etc.). So October will fly!

i think i want to do a countdown calendar for my son too. we are at the 73 mark now i think! woo hoo!

Nope it's really not far at all - only 64 days!

I know what you mean about things getting busy...I think between all of October and November we have a few 'free' weekends - I need to get busy finalizing all of our plans. Gah!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

Wow - the last couple of weeks have FLOWN by...sorry for the lack of updates. We've been dealing with a lot of drama with our youngest son...I believe I said earlier that we are getting ready to adopt our 3 youngest from the foster care system. They are all 3 siblings, and all had relatively the same experiences however the oldest (Chicken Little) is high-functioning autistic and I believe actually that has saved him from internalizing what happened to him - and the youngest girl (Tink) was really young when the worst of what happened to them occurred. However, our youngest son (Abu), who is the middle child of the 3, has not come out as unscathed as the other two. I believe this is due to the fact that mentally he was probably the most understanding of what was happening, the most 'present' for what the kids went through. He has a lot of emotional and behavioral issues because of it...we have been dealing with the roller coaster that is 'Abu' over the last year - he has a few good weeks but then one bad behavior turns into a hurricane of several weeks of bad behavior. I won't go into any details but basically the last few weeks we have been in the "bad-behavior hurricane". At any rate - this all goes to explain that I have gotten basically NOTHING Disney-related done for the last few weeks. No more plans made or tweaked, no projects completed - nothing.

However, the last few nights after the kiddies have gone to bed, I have been working pretty furiously to get our T-shirts done. I did not accomplish that goal - however - at the very least I got the T-shirst for SIL's family done (and about 1/2 of ours). Getting hers done was the even bigger goal because we are going down to their house this weekend for 'Ariel' and 'Sleeping Beauty's' birthday party, and I wanted to be able to take theirs with us, since we MAY only see them one more time (for Abu & Tink's birthday party) before we leave for Disney (and that is still an unknown due to BIL's work schedule). So I got all of their shirts done, folded and they are packed and ready to deliver! After I folded them for packing, I went ahead and took pictures, since these are the same designs we'll be wearing as well.

I'm glad I have most of them done because this is by far the biggest project I have on my 'Disney To-Do List', and the next 2 months are going to be entirely crazy so who knows how much time I'll have to work on any projects?? The first 2 weeks in October will be fairly normal, but then our schedule goes into over-drive until vacation - we are going camping the 3rd weekend in October (without the kids! Woohoo! It is our annual fall trip
with our besties, and I am SO looking forward to it this year!!), then the next weekend we are having a combo birthday party for Abu (his 9th!) and Tink (her 7th!), then of course the next weekend is Halloween. We do have a lull the first weekend of November, but the weekend after that I'm going on a shopping trip with my mom, my BFF and her mom. The next weekend we have blocked off completely for finishing up all of our packing and decorating
for Christmas. Then we have Thanksgiving - we are going to my Grandpa's in northern Michigan (a 6 hour drive), and the Sunday we come home, DH is going to Indianapolis (a 2 hour drive) to watch the Colts play at 8 pm (!!). Then we work for 4 days that week and head out for Disney on Friday! So my goal is to try to be as ready as possible several WEEKS ahead of time
as far as packing, Christmas shopping, and having the house in order & decorated for Christmas!

Hopefully, over the next 2 weeks I will be able to finish up the Penny Money & Pressed Penny tubes and the kids' boredom buster packs. I will be sure and post pictures of all the projects as I get them done.

Anyway - I am going to really try hard to keep updating over the next few weeks, but for now - without further ado, our t-shirts!!

DAY 1 - MAGIC KINGDOM​

DAYS 2 & 4, DHS and EPCOT​

DAY 3 - ANIMAL KINGDOM​

I can't believe this! I was trying to resize all the pics to medium so they wouldn't look so huge and I clicked SMALL by mistake...I will have to wait until I'm home on my own computer to fix this one...haha...won't be messing with re-sizing anymore!

DAY 5 - MAGIC KINGDOM/MVMCP​

Alright - I have to get back to work now More to come!

 

[ccgirl]

I just have to say YOU ARE AMAZING!!! First the adoption....what a wonderful family you are for adopting those children. What an awesome gift you are giving them! The Twilight Party OMG!!!!! You are my idol. That looked incredible! The t- shirts; done already? I will actually be at Disney the same time and haven't even picked out my designs yet. I can never seem to figure out the shirt color that will coordinate with the design. How did you get the design on the t-shirt color to see what it would look like? That would certainly help me.

Lastly, did you know you could enter as early as 4PM the night of the MVMCP? That is actually the same night I am going too.

Your plans are amazing, your family is amazing and the fact you are so organized is....AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

I just have to say YOU ARE AMAZING!!! First the adoption....what a wonderful family you are for adopting those children. What an awesome gift you are giving them! The Twilight Party OMG!!!!! You are my idol. That looked incredible! The t- shirts; done already? I will actually be at Disney the same time and haven't even picked out my designs yet. I can never seem to figure out the shirt color that will coordinate with the design. How did you get the design on the t-shirt color to see what it would look like? That would certainly help me.

Lastly, did you know you could enter as early as 4PM the night of the MVMCP? That is actually the same night I am going too.

Your plans are amazing, your family is amazing and the fact you are so organized is....AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!

So glad to have you on my PTR! Thank you so much for all the compliments My husband and I always wanted 4 kids, so when we couldn't have another after our daughter adopting through the foster system just came as natural decision for us. It started out mostly selfishly, honestly, wanting to grow our family - but these kids had it pretty rough - their mother and grandmother both had grown up in the foster system, and had they not found a family I know it would have continued the cycle so it does bring me great joy that we might be giving them a chance at a normal, happy and loving life.

Organization - yeah sometimes that is unfortunate because I drive my family crazy for things like getting ready for Disney - but I keep SWEARING to them they will all thank me & my OCD tendencies when we aren't running around like chickens the last week getting ready, and when our vacation goes smoothly and is more fun than they could have imagined!!! Hopefully I am right!!

As far as the party - well - that is a HUGE obsession of mine! I just love parties and entertaining, so I do tend to go overboard! If I could do it as a business I would, unfortunately in our little area most people just don't seem to be that into entertaining/throwing parties

The shirts - how I did my 'mockups' was I went to jiffyshirts...on their site you can click on the shirt color of your choice and it opens larger in a new window. What I did was save a copy of the picture for all the shirt colors I liked, then in a photo editing program you just open the shirt picture and also the picture of the design you want to see on that color. Then superimpose the design by cutting and pasting onto the t-shirt image (once you do that you should be able to resize and move the design around on top of the shirt image). You have to play with the size of the design to make it look 'right' on the shirt, and then I just saved copies of the ones I liked so I could show my SIL.

That's so cool that we're going to MVMCP on the same night - maybe we'll see each other! I did hear that you could get in at 4, that is pretty cool! For us though, since we're using that as our 2nd Magic Kingdom day anyway, we are going to be there at park open and then take a break in the afternoon and go back to the room for supper and to let the kids rest a little, then go back maybe around 5 or so and stay for MVMCP. I am SO excited!! I've wanted to go back to Disney for 8 years, and to be going my favorite time of year and going to the Christmas party on top if it -

OK...enough about me - heading over to check out your PTR now!!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

Just a quick update to explain the, well, lack of updates. Things have been pretty stressful around here, in general and also in regards to our trip. I am in a total funk, what I once was looking so forward to I now am almost dreading and I hate that. I have been under a lot of stress anyway, as my dad is going through chemo treatments (not something I have mentioned before, as I was trying to keep this upbeat but now...doesn't really matter). He was diagnosed with a very rare form of lymphoma - Mantle Cell Lymphoma. At any rate of course I have been stressed and worried about that and planning/looking forward to this trip was one of the few things I could use to take my mind off of that.

Now the last two weeks, it has become apparent that suddenly there are huge problems brewing between the other 2 adults that are involved in this trip (SIL and BIL). We feel blindsided...as does one of them...and it seems inevitable that they are going to separate soon. The problem DH and I are having with all of this is...it is his sister and her husband, and quite frankly right now we are more...conflicted...at this point with his sister, and I really can't get excited about going on vacation with just her and the kids without BIL considering our feelings about the situation at this point. Not to mention how unfair I feel it is for him to miss out on it, when he hasn't done anything (that we are aware of ) to suddenly cause all of this to happen. It sucks that because of what's happening between them he may miss out on seeing his kids experiencing Disney when the 4 of us have been planning it all along.

I love both of them and I won't choose sides - especially when we feel so bad for BIL right now. We don't know all of what is going on to cause this, and it's besides the point really...but at any rate it has caused nothing but stress when thinking about how this is going to affect our vacation.

I truly wish at this point I would have heeded other peoples' wise advice and not gone on vacation with another family...but the reason I wanted them to go along was because I knew their kids had never gone on vacation and I really wanted to help them get to experience the most magical place on earth. I still feel that way, for their kids. But now that it's potentially going to affect MY kids' vacation...I realize it wasn't worth it.

Sorry to devote an entire post to my own personal pity-party...but I can't muster the enthusiasm right now to post any other kind of update.

 

[mrsksomeday]

Mariah, I am so sorry to hear about your Dad . With all that is going on in your family I completely understand why you are not in the mood to update. I am glad you vented to us.

As for the other members of your family (BIL/SIL), I know the stress has to be affecting how you are thinking about the upcoming trip, but please try to focus on how wonderful your planning will make the trip for your immediate family.

Disney at Christmas time is truly magical and I hope you feel better when you get there.

 

[exwdwcm]

Hi Mariah- first so sorry to hear about your dad. Sending lots of hugs, prayers and pixie dust for him and all of you. We watched my cousin ( like a second mom) go through the 'red' chemo and saw how hard it can be. i hope he is doing okay.

As for your kiddos- hope they are doing well too- you must have the patience of a saint! i think all of you are very blessed to be together- they are so lucky to have loving parents that are there to give them a wonderful life and lots of love. i am so sorry to hear of what they have endured in the past and i know you will be dealing with the repercussions for a long time, but i know you can do it and love can conquer all!! they sound like amazing kids!

As for the drama with the others on the trip- so sorry. we had the exact same thing happen to us........my MIL has been married 4x now. She is a wonderful lady and i love her to death and we get along really well, but she has bad choices in men. So this latest hubby, she's been married to for a few years (after having an affair with him for like 20 years off and on). They both divorced their then spouses and got married finally a few years back. he was nice enough, but an alcoholic. So they were both invited to come on our trip with us. We even booked their airfare (they paid for it though). This was back in March. Then come about June/July, they have a big fight and it gets bad and now there is a restraining order against him and a divorce. So needless to say, he isn't coming now. I still haven't changed his name on our DVC ressie yet. And just this month, my MIL finally decided she would bring along my niece (her granddaughter). So that is fun- it worked out in the end, now my 10yo niece gets to come instead of the 'soon to be ex-hubby' and the niece will love it- she hasn't been on a plane before or even left Oklahoma i don't think. anyways, i hope you get a happy ending too!!! wnated to let you know you were not alone in the trip planning sort of falling apart.

keep your chin up and no reason to be 'upbeat' all the time- we all have drama and problems- it doesn't hurt to vent here, even online to your 'online friends' or strangers.

 

[mom-n-michaela]

Mariah, I am so sorry to hear about your Dad . With all that is going on in your family I completely understand why you are not in the mood to update. I am glad you vented to us.

As for the other members of your family (BIL/SIL), I know the stress has to be affecting how you are thinking about the upcoming trip, but please try to focus on how wonderful your planning will make the trip for your immediate family.

Disney at Christmas time is truly magical and I hope you feel better when you get there.

Thank you so much - I appreciate the hugs I am starting to feel better about the situation...it's going to be strange, but I will hopefully have more time to update all about that this weekend.

Hi Mariah- first so sorry to hear about your dad. Sending lots of hugs, prayers and pixie dust for him and all of you. We watched my cousin ( like a second mom) go through the 'red' chemo and saw how hard it can be. i hope he is doing okay.

As for your kiddos- hope they are doing well too- you must have the patience of a saint! i think all of you are very blessed to be together- they are so lucky to have loving parents that are there to give them a wonderful life and lots of love. i am so sorry to hear of what they have endured in the past and i know you will be dealing with the repercussions for a long time, but i know you can do it and love can conquer all!! they sound like amazing kids!

As for the drama with the others on the trip- so sorry. we had the exact same thing happen to us........my MIL has been married 4x now. She is a wonderful lady and i love her to death and we get along really well, but she has bad choices in men. So this latest hubby, she's been married to for a few years (after having an affair with him for like 20 years off and on). They both divorced their then spouses and got married finally a few years back. he was nice enough, but an alcoholic. So they were both invited to come on our trip with us. We even booked their airfare (they paid for it though). This was back in March. Then come about June/July, they have a big fight and it gets bad and now there is a restraining order against him and a divorce. So needless to say, he isn't coming now. I still haven't changed his name on our DVC ressie yet. And just this month, my MIL finally decided she would bring along my niece (her granddaughter). So that is fun- it worked out in the end, now my 10yo niece gets to come instead of the 'soon to be ex-hubby' and the niece will love it- she hasn't been on a plane before or even left Oklahoma i don't think. anyways, i hope you get a happy ending too!!! wnated to let you know you were not alone in the trip planning sort of falling apart.

keep your chin up and no reason to be 'upbeat' all the time- we all have drama and problems- it doesn't hurt to vent here, even online to your 'online friends' or strangers.

Thank you so much, too! I really do appreciate the thoughts and hugs!! It's nice to be able to vent the things that are bothering me, it certainly did help to "talk" about it. And I am feeling better - but it's late and I've had a long day...so I'm really hoping to be able to post an update this weekend about everything that's been going on! I'm slowly starting to get some of that magical feeling back

 

[mom-n-michaela]

I just had to hop on quickly (while at work - oops!) to say that since I forgot to celebrate that it was my ONE MONTH MARK (!!!) when posting the other day - today I am going to have to celebrate that it is my 4 WEEK MARK! 28 days!!!!






Woooooo hoooooo!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

Wow…it’s been a looong time since I’ve updated. I have had so much going on between the drama with our co-vacationers, being sick for almost 2 weeks (still trying to get rid of this dumb cough!), all of the medical appointments and caseworker appointments we’ve had plus working every day and TRYING to find time every evening to get our house ready for Christmas and ourselves ready for Disney…I need a vacation!! Oh - WAIT! I AM going on vacation! In….drumroll…14 days!!!!! Wait, did I say 14 days?!?! I’m so not ready!! Thank goodness we’ve blocked this weekend completely off to pack and finalize everything, or I’d be panicking!

OK…on with the update, and what an update it is!! I will break it down into segments to make it easier to digest.

The biggest topic, what has been weighing on our mind the most lately, is of course the drama that’s been going on with our BIL & SIL. Well…it’s complicated, to say the least. They are splitting up, BUT they are still both going on the vacation. This has both made me happy and entirely stressed me out beyond belief. Happy, because their kids will still get a hopefully happy, fun vacation with both of their parents - stressed, because I want my kids (and myself and DH!) to have a happy, fun vacation too and that will be more difficult to do that if there is all this negativity in the air. All I could imagine was tension so bad it almost crackles in the air, you know?

It’s a sad situation that I don’t fully understand, and have been worrying about (both personally as they are my family, and vacation-wise as to how strained it is going to be). I feel very sorry for my BIL for how everything has played out…his heart is just broken. My SIL…I love her…I just don’t agree with the decisions she’s making lately, I feel like she’s not the same person I have been close to for the last few years, it’s almost as though she’s a stranger because all of the things that have happened are things that have pretty well shocked her entire family. Enough said about that…I could certainly go on and on (and on). Anyhoo, they are still living together at this point and have talked through enough to be civil (most of the time) towards each other. In front of the kids, they are even friendly to each other - which out of all of this, as hard as it must be for BIL, I feel is the smartest thing they have done, so that the kids don’t come away feeling like mommy and daddy hate each other. They have agreed that this trip is entirely about the kids and making it special for them, since it will most likely be the last time they spend together as a family unit. They have promised there will be no tension, no bickering - nothing, and that they are working out all of their issues ahead of time and will not be discussing anything to do with their breakup during the trip. SIL says she still cares very much for him and hopes they come out in the end as friends, and that is how they are approaching the trip - talking and getting along as friends. I am just praying that is how it all plays out, for the sake of their kids. If they can pull that off - it will be probably one of the best memories for their kids, and maybe even help the kids deal with the split if they can see that they get along and care about each other.

So that's it for the update on the family drama...the trip must go on!!! And it must go on in exactly 2 weeks!!! In fact, right about now we should be driving just about out of Indiana!

2 week dance!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

With the family drama (hopefully) settled (at least as far as it pertains to the Disney trip), and once I got over being sick, I realized that I had spent so much time either worrying/talking/dreaming about how this whole situation with SIL & BIL was playing out or being sick…that I had not finished several projects I had intended to do for our trip. Pressed penny containers, finishing up t-shirts, autograph books and boredom boxes for the road, all uncompleted, some not even started! So for about the last 2 weeks, I have been a tornado of activity trying to get things done in time for the trip. Actually, trying to get things done before this coming weekend, since getting packed and getting the house decorated for Christmas makes for a pretty full weekend already. So far, I have completed the pressed penny containers, autograph books (thanks to my mom who spiral bound them for me at work!), and the boredom boxes! The only thing left to check off of my list of projects is finishing up our t-shirts. I should be able to get those completed in a few hours one evening, since I only have about 10 shirts left to do.

The pressed penny containers! I like how they turned out…I might have done a few things differently, but overall they are cute, the kids will like them and they serve their purpose! The Pressed Penny Money containers are all filled up with enough quarters and pennies to press 20 pennies per kid (Egads! Did I really give $81.60 of my hard-earned Disney money to these kids so they could have some flat pennies?!?! LOL)!

Autograph Books! I think these turned out cute…again, might be a few things I’d have done differently had I started working on these when I *should* have, but oh well! The kids will like them and that is all that really matters to me; that is why I made them!! Plus, even with the paper and the ink (which I got cheap from eBay…woohoo!), these ended up saving us money in the end over buying the autograph books they sell in the parks, and I think the kids will have a cute keepsake (smile)

Pizza?! Nope, just our boredom buster boxes! I found a place online that sold plain white pizza boxes, and thought that would be perfect! They’re flat, sturdy, and the kids could draw on them! The outsides are pretty plain-jane, just put a few Mickey-head decorations and their name in Disney-filled letters, but I didn’t want to over-do them because I wanted the kids to be able to kind of decorate them up themselves with the crayons and stickers and such. I may still add some things to them, depending on whether we find any other little items for them or not…but right now they consist of:

Tic-Tac-Toe game sheet, Tink for the girls and Mater for the boys

Christmas themed road-trip scavenger hunt game sheet (they check off things as they see them outside)

License plate checklist/game sheet

Extra sheets of paper for coloring, drawing, etc.

Letters inviting them to their character breakfasts - girls to Cinderella’s Castle for breakfast with the Princesses, and the boys to Chef Mickey’s with Mickey & the gang

Disney themed crayon box

Disney pencils

Disney-themed candies (sweet-tarts and gummies, but in the shapes of Disney characters)

A few little cheap Christmas trinket type toys and things (like a little ‘fly’s eye’ toy, a plastic maze game, etc.) that I found in the Christmas party aisle at Wal-mart

I’m still looking for some inexpensive things to add to them…maybe coloring books or for the older kids some type of puzzle books like crosswords or something.

OK...that's all for the new projects. Glad I am done with that - now this weekend we can concentrate on packing and decorating the house for Christmas (we'll be gone Wednesday through Sunday next week, going to my Grandpa's in Michigan for Thanksgiving , so this quite literally is our last weekend at home before Disney )!!

 

[mom-n-michaela]

OK…so we have all of 2 ADR’s for our upcoming trip, as we decided most of our meals will be counter-service, or eaten in the Condo. I never thought with only 2 ADR’s we would run into a snag like this - so much for thinking!! The ADR’s are one thing I am so excited for - the girls are going to breakfast in the castle, and the boys are going to Chef Mickey’s. Great! The kids will love it!! EXCEPT…I posted an innocent question in another board, that really didn’t pertain to the ADR’s themselves but rather a “how to get each group to their ressie on time” question, since I’m not all that familiar with the parks other than through maps.

Within the answers to that question - someone pointed out that if both ADRs are for the same time (they are) under the same name (they are), one will most likely be cancelled as a double booking. WHAT?! It’s a double booking on PURPOSE…does that never happen at Disney World?! Surely, it does right? Surely we’re not the first group ever to split up for a meal??

I don’t know what to do. I even made the reservations over the phone with a CM - I would have thought if there would be a problem they would have told me then and I could have booked them under separate names. Now, of course, I wasn’t even thinking I should have put it under DH’s name anyway, since I won’t be at both locations and they’re both under MY name…that is my own stupidity . But I explained the whole scenario to the CM, even about why I wanted the times the same if possible (she tried to talk me into an earlier Castle ressie, as we could get into the park early, which was nice but didn’t really work for us as a group), I explained everything. So I really would have thought if there was an issue I would have known about it then, and the ADR’s haven’t crossed my mind since then. Until now!

So yesterday, I called and spoke to a CM about changing the name on the Chef Mickey ADR…apparently, they can’t do that. And she advised against cancelling it and trying to re-book it with the newly opened ‘space’, because there is always the chance someone could snag it in that 2 seconds after it’s released. Agh! The CM I talked to yesterday said it’s not a guarantee that someone will see the double-booking and cancel it, but there is a chance it will happen. She said the only advice she could give me was to call a few days before the trip and see if they’re both still there. Really?? Is that really all that can be done!? Help!!! The Princess breakfast is already paid…so I’m sure the one they would cancel would be Chef Mickey’s and I will feel so HORRIBLE if that happened. Does anyone have any advice - something I can do to ensure that BOTH of my reservations are safe???