Crazy Mother of Two
Clever yet underrated
- Joined
- May 6, 2007
- Messages
- 422
Let me start off by telling you a little bit about myself.....
I am 41 and I am currently living in NorthEast PA. I (and my family) am from Long Island, NY but moved to PA 4 1/2 years ago so our kids could grow up in a calmer atmosphere.
My DH is 40 years old(41 in August - but he NEVER lets me forget that I am 4 months older!) and has his own skateboard company (not lucritive at all!).
My DD just turned 9 and loves Hannah Montana and Zac Efron. My DS is 7 and loves skateboarding and Vanessa Hudgens.
My love of all things Disney started in the late '70's. Through my childhood I have been to WDW about 6 times (on and off property). I have not been back to Disney since 1984.
Unfortunately for me, I married for love.
My DH is a great husband and wonderful father but even with the both of us working - we live (less then) paycheck to paycheck.
Our children are better then we could have ever hoped for and we do everything we can to keep them safe and happy. But Disney always seemed a million miles away. It certainly was not for their lack of asking!!
Back in December of '06 our local mall (The Mall at Steamtown) along with Boscov's dept store was giving away a trip to Disney - so of course we were there!! They picked names out of a hat. When they were calling out the names - they would call the first name and then pause......
So here we were waiting for a name ... "and the winner is Jason (my son's name!!!)........" LONG PAUSE......"BlahBlahBlah" AARGH - not us!!
That was the longest 25 minute ride home. All the kids could talk about is how close we were to winning!! And actually our odds were pretty good because we live in NE PA and no more then 70 kids were there!
So Disney went to the way side again.
This year my DH and I decided to try doing our own taxes to save some money - so we bought TurboTax. A very quick and easy program to use!! And it gave us a refund I was NOT going to refuse!! I'm still not sure if TurboTax was correct but who am I to argue with such a nice computer program!
Now we always do ok at tax time because we have them deduct more out of our weekly paychecks so we have money come taxtime to spend on whatever we need most at the time.
Since we filed at the end of January - our Disney loss was still fresh in my mind. What better way to enjoy our refund then seeing the looks on our kids faces when they step into the magic that is Disney!!
Now that we knew what we were spending our money on ... I had to do the investigating. I found The Unofficial Guide to DIsney, the DISboards, MouseSavers and AllEars. Now which hotel (on-site, off-site)? package? dining plan? how many days? what month? what airlines? and so on.
After about 3 weeks of constant calling and checking websites I decided that a package with the dining plan and the parkhopper option for 6 nights in September at the Coronado Springs Resort. And I narrowed it down to either booking with AAA or Boscov's. After another week of calling back and forth I chose Boscov's!! Mainly because they have the only non-stop flight out of Avoca(Scranton). So only 2 1/2 hours on the plane with 2 kids who have never flown sounds fantastic!!!
Begining of March I went to Boscov's and plunked down half! (before I paid in full I wanted to see if free dining became available - which it did) I now had to figure out which park I was going to be in on which day and what food I wanted to eat (pfff....I don't even know what I want to eat tomorrow!) The DISboards, The Unofficial Guide to Disney and AllEars were a wealth of dining info. And a tip from the book said that there was a 10 day grace period so that you could actually make your ADR's 6 months and 10 days in advance. So I did (by the way....the first person I called told me that I couldn't! So I called back and the next guy said I could)
I chose:
Cinderella's Royal Table
The Brown Derby
The Coral Reef
Tepanyaki
Crystal Palace
Rainforest Cafe
Chef Mickey's
Luckily I made my ADR's before free dining because boy did they become scarce!
I had a heck of a time when the free dining did become available because at first CSR wasn't included in the free plan. My travel agent called me and said she would hold a spot in CBR with free dining so I wouldn' miss out on the deal. It took so long to choose a hotel that I was really bummed not to be at CSR. But eventually I got over it-only to get a call a few weeks later saying that they had finally included CSR and she already had switched me back! WHEW! I love my travel agent!!
Almost immediately after booking the trip I started purchasing EVERYTHING! I needed: luggage (ebags and Macys) I bought 4 misty mates, and autograph books and pins off ebay and lanyards to go with them! I bought suntan lotions and aloe (I won't use for anywhere but Disney), and fanny packs for the kids and a backpack for the grownups, and new sunglasses and hats and lollipops and gum (for the plane) and a soft cooler, and bubbles and batteries and and ipod chargers and rain ponchos and lip blam and an assortment of medications and the list does go on and on!!
I needed information and lots of it...
I was gathering so much information that I decided to make a Disney book to organize everything.
I got 4x6 note cards and a zippered day planner and got busy! I printed out every menu from the restaurants that we would be eating at (along with some we weren't) and a whole bunch of counter service menus and filed them in my binder.
I have flight info and all my ADR's and info on the hotel and places in Downtown Disney we want to hit and so on and so on.
I am on the computer every day to check all the websites to get the latest info and by doing that I got into a PhotoPass group that allows me to get the PhotoPass cd for $25.00 and learned how to bypass the motion detector for the a/c at the hotel, and how much money I should give my kids, and I even became a BzzAgent!
I have dedicated the last 6 months of my life to learning all that I can that I am very nervous for the trip to be over because I won't know what to do with myself!
I will absolutely be adding more but the kids need me to put the hamsters away!! Do you feel my pain?
I am 41 and I am currently living in NorthEast PA. I (and my family) am from Long Island, NY but moved to PA 4 1/2 years ago so our kids could grow up in a calmer atmosphere.
My DH is 40 years old(41 in August - but he NEVER lets me forget that I am 4 months older!) and has his own skateboard company (not lucritive at all!).
My DD just turned 9 and loves Hannah Montana and Zac Efron. My DS is 7 and loves skateboarding and Vanessa Hudgens.
My love of all things Disney started in the late '70's. Through my childhood I have been to WDW about 6 times (on and off property). I have not been back to Disney since 1984.
Unfortunately for me, I married for love.
My DH is a great husband and wonderful father but even with the both of us working - we live (less then) paycheck to paycheck. Our children are better then we could have ever hoped for and we do everything we can to keep them safe and happy. But Disney always seemed a million miles away. It certainly was not for their lack of asking!!
Back in December of '06 our local mall (The Mall at Steamtown) along with Boscov's dept store was giving away a trip to Disney - so of course we were there!! They picked names out of a hat. When they were calling out the names - they would call the first name and then pause......
So here we were waiting for a name ... "and the winner is Jason (my son's name!!!)........" LONG PAUSE......"BlahBlahBlah" AARGH - not us!!
That was the longest 25 minute ride home. All the kids could talk about is how close we were to winning!! And actually our odds were pretty good because we live in NE PA and no more then 70 kids were there!
So Disney went to the way side again.
This year my DH and I decided to try doing our own taxes to save some money - so we bought TurboTax. A very quick and easy program to use!! And it gave us a refund I was NOT going to refuse!! I'm still not sure if TurboTax was correct but who am I to argue with such a nice computer program!
Now we always do ok at tax time because we have them deduct more out of our weekly paychecks so we have money come taxtime to spend on whatever we need most at the time.
Since we filed at the end of January - our Disney loss was still fresh in my mind. What better way to enjoy our refund then seeing the looks on our kids faces when they step into the magic that is Disney!!
Now that we knew what we were spending our money on ... I had to do the investigating. I found The Unofficial Guide to DIsney, the DISboards, MouseSavers and AllEars. Now which hotel (on-site, off-site)? package? dining plan? how many days? what month? what airlines? and so on.
After about 3 weeks of constant calling and checking websites I decided that a package with the dining plan and the parkhopper option for 6 nights in September at the Coronado Springs Resort. And I narrowed it down to either booking with AAA or Boscov's. After another week of calling back and forth I chose Boscov's!! Mainly because they have the only non-stop flight out of Avoca(Scranton). So only 2 1/2 hours on the plane with 2 kids who have never flown sounds fantastic!!!
Begining of March I went to Boscov's and plunked down half! (before I paid in full I wanted to see if free dining became available - which it did) I now had to figure out which park I was going to be in on which day and what food I wanted to eat (pfff....I don't even know what I want to eat tomorrow!) The DISboards, The Unofficial Guide to Disney and AllEars were a wealth of dining info. And a tip from the book said that there was a 10 day grace period so that you could actually make your ADR's 6 months and 10 days in advance. So I did (by the way....the first person I called told me that I couldn't! So I called back and the next guy said I could)
I chose:
Cinderella's Royal Table
The Brown Derby
The Coral Reef
Tepanyaki
Crystal Palace
Rainforest Cafe
Chef Mickey's
Luckily I made my ADR's before free dining because boy did they become scarce!
I had a heck of a time when the free dining did become available because at first CSR wasn't included in the free plan. My travel agent called me and said she would hold a spot in CBR with free dining so I wouldn' miss out on the deal. It took so long to choose a hotel that I was really bummed not to be at CSR. But eventually I got over it-only to get a call a few weeks later saying that they had finally included CSR and she already had switched me back! WHEW! I love my travel agent!!
Almost immediately after booking the trip I started purchasing EVERYTHING! I needed: luggage (ebags and Macys) I bought 4 misty mates, and autograph books and pins off ebay and lanyards to go with them! I bought suntan lotions and aloe (I won't use for anywhere but Disney), and fanny packs for the kids and a backpack for the grownups, and new sunglasses and hats and lollipops and gum (for the plane) and a soft cooler, and bubbles and batteries and and ipod chargers and rain ponchos and lip blam and an assortment of medications and the list does go on and on!!
I needed information and lots of it...
I was gathering so much information that I decided to make a Disney book to organize everything.
I got 4x6 note cards and a zippered day planner and got busy! I printed out every menu from the restaurants that we would be eating at (along with some we weren't) and a whole bunch of counter service menus and filed them in my binder.
I have flight info and all my ADR's and info on the hotel and places in Downtown Disney we want to hit and so on and so on.
I am on the computer every day to check all the websites to get the latest info and by doing that I got into a PhotoPass group that allows me to get the PhotoPass cd for $25.00 and learned how to bypass the motion detector for the a/c at the hotel, and how much money I should give my kids, and I even became a BzzAgent!
I have dedicated the last 6 months of my life to learning all that I can that I am very nervous for the trip to be over because I won't know what to do with myself!
I will absolutely be adding more but the kids need me to put the hamsters away!! Do you feel my pain?
Thank goodness for tax returns! 
