Little Mermaid Rooms, Passover and The Bathroom Scale

[Mindy5767]

Hi, my name is Mindy and welcome to my 2nd ever trip report.

Let me introduce our cast of characters. There is Me, Mindy, Travel Planner, DVC member and veteran of many Disney trips. I am starting to lose track of how many exact times I have been to Walt Disney World since 1972..which is the year I believe it was when my family first visited WDW. I was a child. I still have my plush Minnie from that trip too.

Henry my husband is "being dragged to Disney World" in his words as he slightly winks saying it. Henry works for Northrop Grumman as a computer engineer

Heidi, my 10 year old daughter will be the star of the trip. I have lost track of how many times Heidi has been to WDW. Her first trip was in 2005 when she 2 years and 8 months old. We took her twice in 2007, twice in 2008, just once in 2009 but then 2010, 2011 I am not sure how many times I went each year. I will have to consult my photo albums. In 2012 however, we went a record 5 times. More on that later.

Supporting characters are my 21 year old son Max and his girlfriend Casey Max and Casey attend college in Florida and live about 80 minutes away. They will be joining us on Monday, bringing Passover Seder with them.

I didn't book this trip until late February. After 5 trips in 2012 we didn't think we'd be coming back so soon...but it was just too tempting. I am saving my points for a trip later in the year (which isn't booked yet).

 

[jenseib]

 

[sjs314]

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[madonniac]

After 5 trips in 2012 we didn't think we'd be coming back so soon...but it was just too tempting. I am saving my points for a trip later in the year (which isn't booked yet).

whoa....We'll be there 3 days!!

 

[SigalTchelet]

Hi Mindy-celebrating Passover at WDW-How fun! Envious! Oh well-I'm celebrating Hanukkah this year on the Fantasy! Happy Passover!

 

[Timon]

Here!

 

[Mindy5767]

good to see you here Jen!

Looking forward to reading more!

Hi there Sheila good to have you here too!

whoa....We'll be there 3 days!!

You'll be there in 3 day?! where are you staying?

Hi Mindy-celebrating Passover at WDW-How fun! Envious! Oh well-I'm celebrating Hanukkah this year on the Fantasy! Happy Passover!

This is not our first Passover at Disney...I think it might be our 3rd or 4th..if I'd done a trip report on the first one..it would have to have been titled "A Pocket Full of Matzo"

Here!

 

[Mindy5767]

Ok.... so where was I?

I am leaving this Sunday for the World, by minivan...and we're staying at Little Mermaid standard rooms at Art of Animation.

Since I am beginning a few days before my trip, I will add my DD24 and her DH25 (SIL25) as background characters. Isn't there a word for those background people in a TV show or movie? Blame it on peri-menopaus brain...can't remember anything. Oh yeah...EXTRA....I was an extra in a movie myself once...St. Elmo's Fire. I wore a costume, and with 2 of my friends, had to sit at a table in The Tombs (an underground pub) in Georgetown for hours while that did take after take. This was after they scrapped the original location because it was pouring raining so hard and the area they had picked flooded out. But..I digress. back to our saga...

So... I spent the entire week shopping. My little Heidi, was kind enough to outgrow most of her clothes from last summer...but truth be told..most of last year's clothes were from the year before..and some even from before that. So that day inevitably comes. When we went to Disney in November and December, she did bring the best fitting of her selections, but she ended up not needing many of them because it was so darned cold..but anyway.. they're all just not BEST anymore.

So...on Monday, which is laundry day. I had agreed to go to Tyson's Corner Center (In McLean VA) with both girls. I tried to get out of it as I had only done 2 of the 5 loads of laundry and I was really tired because it was raining all day...but Lily insisted as she was off work that day anyway. Tyson's Corner is 20 miles east. Lily works at Fair Oaks Mall at the Build A Bear store. Her husband Ronald works at Tyson's Corner Center at the Lego Store. When we arrived at the mall, his jeep was not in its normal spot..and shortly after, he texted from home "where did everybody go?".

We began at the most important location the Disney 'crack' store. Looking at the shirts, the size L 10/12 looked on the small side..so we decided we'd better get the XL (14). Heidi's outgrown shirts were size 7/8. There really wasn't that much selection in the T shirts in a 14. But we found a few. She got a Minnie shirt, a Minnie and Mickey shirt and a Land of Oz shirt with that blonde actress on it. For myself, I ended up getting 4 new T's. I went with the Large..normally I get a medium, because I wanted enough room for shrinkage without it being snug. I bought a Snow White and the 7 dwarves, Monsters Inc, Pinocchio and I am drawing a blank on the other one right now. We can get back to it. I also got Heidi a nightgown..with Merida. She already has a Merida nightgown and a Merida pj's set..but only Merida will do. I let Lily get a T shirt too..she got Rapunzel.

 

[Mindy5767]

Next up the American Girl store. Heidi had---HHa Ha...as I typed that..there is an American Girl ad on my screen above the thread header!! So Heidi had a gift card to use, plus allowance was burning a hole in her Holly Hobby wallet. We wandered around both floors several times before she decided on the roller skating set which included skates and an outfit. She also needed to get a pair of purple glasses for her doll, as she got glasses for the first time last week, and now every doll and stuffed animal needs glasses too.

Next up, as we were all hungry, we headed into LLBean. I wanted to check there for swimwear as I like the quality. We ended up finding Heidi a 1 piece suit for $29.99 very quickly, and it took several tries for me to find a swimsuit top I liked. I needed just a top because I had an LLBean swim skirt that I'd worn a Walmart tankini top with..but the top wore out. The bottom being good, I just needed to get a new top. I found a green and white polka dot top. LLBean sizes are so odd though. Heidi took a size 10, which is now actually her size..so that was good...but normally for tops, I wear a medium, which is an 8/10 depending on brand. Well, their tops were so weird. I ended up with the 12. Now normally, anything on top in a size 12 and I can stuff an entire pair of socks in the bra... But it fit..so I got it. We ended up having 2 LLBean $10 coupons on file (because we have the LLBean Visa card and get points toward $10 coupons). So basically Heidi and I each got $10 off our swimwear.

Next... I spotted Williams Sonoma. We headed into there because my son-in-law had managed to melt my Pampered Chef spatula and now I needed a new one...one that doesn't melt at high temps. I had a metal spatula with a melmac handle that was my mom's since the 60's but needed one that can be used in teflon pans. They had one...it was red..that was silcone and is safe up to 600 degrees! We have a winner! Got that.... then we were now STARVING! so off to the lower level to Panera.. I will have to pause my shopping spree here..as I need to go get a shower and wash my hair. I am meeting someone for lunch at Panera (different location)... a girl who is new in town, that I met on the Disney Vacation Club Facebook group.

 

[jenseib]

I love getting deals!!!!

 

[Mindy5767]

So we last left off at Monday's shopping spree. So..after eating at Panera, we drove to Fair Oaks Mall. Fair Oaks is the mall where my DD24 works. She drove it as she knows the way. It took about 15 or so minutes. We parked in the lower level parking garage outside of Lord & Taylor. Big mistake. We'll get to that later... so we go inside and our first stop is Hot Topic. Heidi HAD to have My Little Pony socks like Lily got for herself. Following Hot Topic, we went on the hunt for sandals. We went into Stride Rite. Heidi's first pick was a Jessica Simpson pair of blue and green sparkly strappy sandals. Pictures will come later. I also found a pair of pink sandals that were made of a material that could get wet more easily. We couldn't have been in there more than 10 minutes and we were checking out. Surprise...the shoes were all buy 1 get 1 half price..so yeah!! Happy with that...we moved along to look for shorts. There is a Children's Place there..so as we were running out of time, we headed up there. We easily found some cute plaid shorts and some matching tops. Went to try them on. Good idea..because although Heidi needed a size 14 in the Disney T's, that was huge at children's place. She needed the 10/12. Later when I compared, the Disney T's size 14 were about 2 inches shorter than the 10/12's at CP but wider. While I was checking out... Lily asked to take Heidi over to Claire's to look for her purse. She needs some place to keep her money, lip gloss. Lily told me that when she was in 5th grade, she had a purse of her own. She told me a story about the going outside near the end of the day for a fire alarm, and the teacher not letting them back in, and Lily had all her money in it...and I took her back to the school to get it and yelled at Mrs. Rose her teacher..and I said..Oy yeah! I remember that! So that's how Lily knew that Heidi needed a purse. So she picked out a bright neon pink purse. got it... the mall is now closing...out we go. So we walked across the mall to Lord & Taylor and not only was the doors locked...the lights were off It was not even 5 minutes past mall closing which is 9:30 pm. So we had to walk outside...in the pouring rain...IN the main road..where there is no sidewalk, with cars honking at us.. to get to the lower level of the parking garage.. and THEN... a guy in a car peeled across the the parking lot aiming RIGHT for Heidi!!! I"M LIKE ***!!! It was a nearly empty garage so he did that on purpose. I grabbed Heidi by the sleeve and pulled her toward me and leaped to the right! I was already LIVID at this point. I told Lily we should have just asked security to open the door or any door so we could get to our car! This was the end of Monday's shopping spree. More shopping to come.

 

[PopArtGal]

Here I am

 

[Mindy5767]

Here I am

HI I haven't had a chance to update my trip report in a while..but I'll get back here.. I've been trying to upload my pics to Facebook and that has been an arduous experience. It keeps duplicating some random pics, but then when I look at the whole of the album, there is a duplicate..when I click one by one through the pictures, it only appears once. So I don't know if they're there or not... also if I delete the apparent duplicate, they both go away. THEN on top of that, it sometimes is reordering my pics, and won't let me move them back. I drag and drop them where I want them, and they snap right back! Annoying. I also will have to figure out again, how to put the pictures here in the TR. I used to do them all from Facebook, but FB keeps changing and I don't know how I did it before.

 

[wiigirl]

In for this!

 

[Mindy5767]

I am back...I've got my photos up on Facebook now..so it'll be easier to write my trip report. I now have to test how to add pics here from Facebook. I used to right click on the image which would bring up the image properties, and then copy the one I needed. That does not work now. I need to test.

then we'll get back to my pre-trip shopping spree

ok....test worked..picture shows. now back to my originally scheduled packing and re-packing.

 

[Mindy5767]

ok, now last I left off, I was making trips to Costco buying new clothes for the trip. Every single time that I would settle on certain outfits, I'd check the weather report, and the daily temperature estimate would go down a little bit. This is getting me really frustrated because I was looking forward to enjoying the water parks on this trip.

Back in the fall, DVC offered a premium Annual Pass for $399 each. Annual passes used to be slightly less expensive for children 3 to 9...and now that my daughter is 10, I would have had to pay the adult price for her anyway. I'm glad that I got that last year in at the child price before they changed the rule. The price to renew our regular DVC annual pass was going to be $389. However, in order to renew, you have until 30 days after your AP expires to get the renewal price...then after that, you have to pay the higher "new Purchase" price. The DVC discounted price is lower than the regular AP price...about the same as the Florida Resident price. The renewal is even less...but..we really did well on this one because since we were getting the special offer PAP, I let the old AP expire in Oct, then my new PAP started on Nov 18th..so I'm one month ahead. Originally, our AP's expired in July, but one year, they gave us 3 months free..so if you renewed during the stated renewal period, you got an additional 3 months. That reset our expiration to Oct (letting us take advantage of an Oct trip). Now I'm reset to November. I am REALLY hoping that we get to renew this Premium AP for a low price. Regular non-DVC PAP price is something like $700!!


Eventually, I settle on clothes to bring. I stacked those in a clothes basket, and then did the same for my daughter. As usual, we were out at the last minute replacing outgrown shoes, shorts and tops and swimsuit until I was satisfied that we had what she needed. Loaded those items into a laundry basket. I started another laundry basket to fill with footwear. I laid out everything I needed on the bed, including my DISboards lime green Mickeyhead banner that I made.

 

[Mindy5767]

Now...every single time we pack for a trip to Walt Disney World, I emphasize to my husband, weeks in advance, the importance of getting our packing completed at least 1 to 2 weeks in advance. With the weather report changing daily, I would have been satisfied if we'd just had everything sorted and into the laundry baskets a week in advance. It never fails, that despite my pleas to do this all in advance, we're never done in advance, in fact, what ALWAYS ends up happening is that my husband doesn't get home from work the night before we leave until late, and then starts packing around 9pm. I have timed it, and it takes us 4 hours to pack. Even if I have most items in the baskets already. He insists on putting the items in the suitcases himself. He believes that if I pack, we will have to use a U-haul. I don't think so....this time, the day before we were leaving, was a Saturday. It was Henry's 51st birthday, so we planned that we'd go out to dinner...but we had the WHOLE day to pack. Ummm... did that happen..... He worked on the taxes...because of course the taxes were not done... he came up with a whole list of things to do around the house, including things to buy at the store.. so we ended up, after it was all said and done.. not getting into bed until I want to say it was 1:00amish..

 

[disneybarbie]

Joining in Mindy



Emma x

 

[jojosam]

Looking forward to more. I'm curious about how and where you held your Seder!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Joining in! I have that Epcot sweatshirt.