Leaving the hubbies and kids behind - A May 2010 PTR, TR has begun!

[MEK]

Katie -

Nice memories! 2 1/2 hrs for TSM.......OMG! I remember that June! I was there about the same time and I refused to wait for TSM, so I never got on the ride until the following December.

Can you stand it.....We are five weeks away!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great photos Katie. Now I'm getting scared about 2 1/2 hour waits....hopefully we won't have that in May.

 

[manntra]

How fun that you will be able to meet up with your parents when you are there!!!!
Grrrrr about the flight changes
Thankfully I haven't seen anything yet....this is my first time on JetBlue and they better make a good impression
Bought a few more travel sized items today so I have started mentally packing

Tracy

 

[2xcited2sleep]

34 days! Holy cow! That's practically nothing!!!

 

[cdotla]

Hi Katie! Finally caught up!

First of all - complete bummer on the change in flight time. However, at least it doesn't cut into park touring or other plans. You are only missing an extra 2 hours of zzzz's and can catch up at home. Seriously, though, as annoying as it is, thank goodness you were able to still get home in time to enjoy Mother's Day with your family!

What great news that your parents will be coming! I am sure it will be fun hanging out in WDW with your parents, and a nice change from the trips with the whole family when everyone is always focussed on the kids. It will be nice to do some leisurely adult touring with your mom and dad.

Great to hear that you booked the desert party! I completely agree...$26 is a lot easier to justify than over $100. Enjoy! We might have booked it, especially since May 8th is also our last nite, but my plan is to leave after Spectro to get back to the Poly to watch Wishes from the beach. But maybe we might see you in the Park before we head out.

Loving the retrospectives...keep them coming! Great excitement builder!

 

[SoonerGirl]

I love One Man's Dream - it's a must do for me

Your boys look like they were having a blast doing the wave @ Fantasmic!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Great pictures, Katie!!! One Man's Dream is a must-do for us on our next trip!

 

[jenniferkeala808]

Great pics Katie! Thanks for sharing! Did you end up getting to ride TSM later on?? I hope so! I haven't tried it yet but I'm looking forward to it to see what the buzz is all about . One Man's Dream wasn't on my to-do's but now that we've extended our trip, I'm sure we'll have enough time to check it out! Thanks for the advice!! Can't wait to see more pics!!

 

[kschafer]

Katie -

Nice memories! 2 1/2 hrs for TSM.......OMG! I remember that June! I was there about the same time and I refused to wait for TSM, so I never got on the ride until the following December.

Can you stand it.....We are five weeks away!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm glad I missed the running with the bulls at RD for that one! I sure hope it's gotten better!

Great photos Katie. Now I'm getting scared about 2 1/2 hour waits....hopefully we won't have that in May.

It had only been open about 2 weeks on that trip, the new novelty with the June crowds were insane! I'm sure it won't be THAT bad in May!

How fun that you will be able to meet up with your parents when you are there!!!!
Grrrrr about the flight changes
Thankfully I haven't seen anything yet....this is my first time on JetBlue and they better make a good impression
Bought a few more travel sized items today so I have started mentally packing

Tracy

oooh, travel items

34 days! Holy cow! That's practically nothing!!!

Before you know it, we will be able to say next month we're going to Disney

 

[kschafer]

Hi Katie! Finally caught up!

First of all - complete bummer on the change in flight time. However, at least it doesn't cut into park touring or other plans. You are only missing an extra 2 hours of zzzz's and can catch up at home. Seriously, though, as annoying as it is, thank goodness you were able to still get home in time to enjoy Mother's Day with your family!

What great news that your parents will be coming! I am sure it will be fun hanging out in WDW with your parents, and a nice change from the trips with the whole family when everyone is always focussed on the kids. It will be nice to do some leisurely adult touring with your mom and dad.

Great to hear that you booked the desert party! I completely agree...$26 is a lot easier to justify than over $100. Enjoy! We might have booked it, especially since May 8th is also our last nite, but my plan is to leave after Spectro to get back to the Poly to watch Wishes from the beach. But maybe we might see you in the Park before we head out.

Loving the retrospectives...keep them coming! Great excitement builder!

I figure I can take a nap on at least 1 of the 3 legs of my journey home

I'm excited to hear which park they will be joining us in!

That's why we are doing the deluxe dining plan too, the cost is so much easier to swallow for just me vs. all 4 of us!

I love One Man's Dream - it's a must do for me

Your boys look like they were having a blast doing the wave @ Fantasmic!

I'm thinking we may kick off our trip with One Man's Dream and the Animator's studio between our Brown Derby dinner and Fantasmic. Kind of ease into the Disney thing!

Yes, the boys thought the wave was a blast...Mom and Dad could have done without but it was fun to watch the kids and a good way to kill time I guess.

Great pictures, Katie!!! One Man's Dream is a must-do for us on our next trip!

Have you done it before CP? It is really great! We missed the movie last time so I am looking forward to seeing it this time

Great pics Katie! Thanks for sharing! Did you end up getting to ride TSM later on?? I hope so! I haven't tried it yet but I'm looking forward to it to see what the buzz is all about . One Man's Dream wasn't on my to-do's but now that we've extended our trip, I'm sure we'll have enough time to check it out! Thanks for the advice!! Can't wait to see more pics!!

We had gotten to ride it a few days earlier but I am ready to hit it again! One Man's Dream is definitely a great tribute to a great man!

 

[MHTeacher]

Love all your "flash-back"pictures, Katie.

33 days!!!! That's like nothing! It'll be here before you know it!

 

[sunny_stace]

Oh Katie your boys are so cute! I love the flashbacks!

 

[MEK]

Oh katie - I just read about your flight changes and that pretty much STINKS.... but at least they didn't mess with your departure. The dessert party sounds like fun. I definately considered it. How great that you are going to see your mom!

 

[julezdisney]

Just pokin' through... what day did you book dessert party? I was thinkin' of doin it too.... r u talkin' MK right? Our day is for the 6th now though...

 

[kschafer]

Love all your "flash-back"pictures, Katie.

33 days!!!! That's like nothing! It'll be here before you know it!

Thanks, I had better pick up the pace a bit because before I know it, there will be more important things to deal with!!

Oh Katie your boys are so cute! I love the flashbacks!

Thanks Stace, sometimes I forget how much smaller they were only 2 years ago but when I think about things like, we were still potty training Daniel that summer...it seems like ages ago! patrick lost his first tooth right before our trip and Daniel just recently lost his first tooth. I don't know how times flies and crawls along at the same time when it comes to them

Oh katie - I just read about your flight changes and that pretty much STINKS.... but at least they didn't mess with your departure. The dessert party sounds like fun. I definately considered it. How great that you are going to see your mom!

hey Mary Ellen! Haven't seen you around in awhile. How is your trip coming along? Before you know it we will get to meet at last!

Just pokin' through... what day did you book dessert party? I was thinkin' of doin it too.... r u talkin' MK right? Our day is for the 6th now though...

Yes, we still have a date for the 6th, we are saving the dessert party for our last day, the 8th.

 

[MEK]

hey Mary Ellen! Haven't seen you around in awhile. How is your trip coming along? Before you know it we will get to meet at last!

.

We have had a little drama in the child care area. I don't know if I should call it child care because my kids are teens - rather supervising adult area. We are trying to have a "check-in" adult for every day we are away. We want the kids accountable to someone every evening, whether they sleep at that house or the adult comes to our house. It's still not finalized, but its coming together. That, and my oldest son is having some behavior issues. We almost pulled the plug on the trip a few times. At one point Denny was going to stay home and I was going to change to a smaller villa. But today was day 31 and I didn't make any changes, so its still a go. We both decided we really want to stay at the WL, so its VWL or bust!

We will be arriving Sunday at 3pm. That should give us time to check in, un pack, head to the Wave for dinner, and hit MK. Our departure flight is 7:40pm on Friday, so we essentially have all day. I only changed one ADR.....I decided to go to Sanaa instead of Yak n Yeti on the 5th, but I certainly hope our EE in the dark meet is still on. I am really looking forward to that!

So that's basically what's happening on my end. But I have decided that traveling and leaving teens at home is getting too stressful, so I don't think we will be doing it for awhile after this!

 

[kschafer]

We have had a little drama in the child care area. I don't know if I should call it child care because my kids are teens - rather supervising adult area. We are trying to have a "check-in" adult for every day we are away. We want the kids accountable to someone every evening, whether they sleep at that house or the adult comes to our house. It's still not finalized, but its coming together. That, and my oldest son is having some behavior issues. We almost pulled the plug on the trip a few times. At one point Denny was going to stay home and I was going to change to a smaller villa. But today was day 31 and I didn't make any changes, so its still a go. We both decided we really want to stay at the WL, so its VWL or bust!

We will be arriving Sunday at 3pm. That should give us time to check in, un pack, head to the Wave for dinner, and hit MK. Our departure flight is 7:40pm on Friday, so we essentially have all day. I only changed one ADR.....I decided to go to Sanaa instead of Yak n Yeti on the 5th, but I certainly hope our EE in the dark meet is still on. I am really looking forward to that!

So that's basically what's happening on my end. But I have decided that traveling and leaving teens at home is getting too stressful, so I don't think we will be doing it for awhile after this!

UGH! I can imagine the stress of leaving teens behind! Glad to hear the trip is still a go! yes, we are definitely still on for our EE meet!!

I have had some changes to our dining also but I think I will wait until I start the "10 days from now" countdown to reveal them...since that won't be long now!!!!

 

[kschafer]

We leave 1 month from today!!!!!!!

Yes, only 30 short days.

We can now say "NEXT MONTH we will be in Disney!!"

And THAT is no April Fools​

I was hoping to have a really fun update for today complete with shirt pictures and Mickey mail but alas...no such luck. Still waiting on Mickey and haven't quite got to those shirts done yet. I promise they will appear!

I do have some interesting changes in the works but I am waiting to talk them over with Beth. We are getting together tomorrow to iron out our plans a bit. I'm also waiting to hear my parents final plans. I found them a great FL resident rate on a value room and an AMAZING deal on multi-day tickets but my parents are...well...cheap! They would describe themselves as frugal but they are hesitating on taking these deals because it would require them to purchase FL resident ID's (they bought their place there a year ago) because they are $40 or $50 each.

I am struggling a bit with some guilt over them joining us. I feel bad that we will not be dining with them (I am going to try to convince them to join us for one meal). But I also know they wouldn't be happy with the cost and they are both VERY light eaters so they wouldn't eat half their meals anyways! Mom also mentioned that Dad had asked how much it would be for them to stay at CSR but they would never pay the extra cost and there are only king rooms left which come with a higher price tag to start with. I'm trying to remind myself of the advice I just gave Michelle about her family deciding to tag along after she had their trip all planned...they have to respect our plans already made and enjoy the time together that we can.

Anyways...on with the flashbacks!

We woke up at a decent time from our first night onsite. I’m not certain what time we arrived to Magic Kingdom but I’m pretty sure we took the first ferry ride of the morning. In fact the CM’s were handing out sidewalk chalk for the kids to sign their names while waiting

We stopped in front of the castle to say good morning

Then headed into tomorrowland to grab FP’s for Buzz and go for a rocket ride!

We visited the laugh floor then defeated this guy

And went for a spin on the “race”track

I think we then grabbed lunch and headed back to OKW for a rest but stopped for some more pics on the way

Everyone fell asleep quickly and woke up ready for more! We headed to the Poly for our dinner at Kona where I finally got one of these bad boys (the lapu lapu, not Patrick )

Then went back into the park where we waited out a storm but Daniel had a great time anyways!

I don’t remember doing anything else at this point and I have no more pictures (I tried talking the boys into Pirates or Jungle Cruise with no luck) so we must have just headed to grab our parade seats after the rain stopped

Spectromagic and wishes were amazing but I decided to just soak in the moment and put my camera away. This really was my most special moment with my boys. I thought we would head back to the resort but Greg surprised me and suggested we go ride the carousel, something I had very much wanted to do at night

Then decided it would be a good idea to leave while the second showing of spectro was going

But I got sidelined by 2 childhood dreams. As a kid, my parents took us to Disney but spent as little money as possible beyond our tickets (see... cheap/frugal) and there were 2 things I was always jealous of seeing other kids with and I decided now that I had my own money, I was going to get them!

First we stopped at Le Chapeau and made our own Mickey ears! We left them for resort delivery since we wanted out names on them.

Second, I HAD to get myself a Mickey balloon

Looking at my pictures, it doesn’t look like we did a whole lot but this day stands out in my mind of the best one of our trip. It was awesome!

 

[MEK]

Here's to 30 Days!!!!!!!!

I would love to drag out the ol' suitcase this weekend and start ironing my summer clothes. I did take inventory of my croc jibitz!

 

[MHTeacher]

​

30 DAYS!!!​