Loosen your belt buckle-We're doing Deluxe Dining!Our 12/10 PTR!Update 12/18 TR Start

[DevonsDisneyMom]

Looks like Ms. Olivia had a great birthday!!! The cake turned out AMAZING!!!

We will be at Epcot on the 7th too!!!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

LOVE THE UPDATES!! The cake was amazing! That's better than some of the ones I've seen on the CAKE THREAD on here!!

If we have a car or can afford to have a rental car, we always drive. When I saw the character meal time..drive there was written all over that. The boat to BC can take up to 30min or so and that's after you get on it so factor that in with the wait/drive time to DHS and that seems like a ton of travel time.
IMO..

I would drive to Beach Club for your ADR. Park the car and leave it there. They won't do anything with the car bc they will give you a parking pass (we've done this many times). Walk over to Epcot and do all that you need to do there. Since you're ending in the countries anyways, why walk to the front of the park?? Walk back to BC, get in the car and drive it over to the Poly. If you want to ride the monorail around, you'll have time to do it before or after your meal...just my personal thoughts on how I'd do it if I were lucky enough to have a car and then you won't have to fight the MK crowds at the bus station with a potentially tired princess

PS...I love your days plans because it will be 1 day until I arrive!!!!!!!

..as far as the FB thing goes, if you're profile is public, let me know pm me Mine is private bc I'm a teacher so if you'res isn't that'd be great!!

 

[Tinkermom76]

That cake is amazing!

As for the early breakfast I would find out if there is an early breakfast bus from Pop first then if not I would drive ( I know you don't want to but that is a long way on the bus)

 

[eecteacher82]

Looks like Ms. Olivia had a great birthday!!! The cake turned out AMAZING!!!

We will be at Epcot on the 7th too!!!

She had a wonderful birthday! The great thing about my mom's cakes is that they taste as amazing as they look! We still have tons of leftovers....that cake could have fed an army!

LOVE THE UPDATES!! The cake was amazing! That's better than some of the ones I've seen on the CAKE THREAD on here!!

If we have a car or can afford to have a rental car, we always drive. When I saw the character meal time..drive there was written all over that. The boat to BC can take up to 30min or so and that's after you get on it so factor that in with the wait/drive time to DHS and that seems like a ton of travel time.
IMO..

I would drive to Beach Club for your ADR. Park the car and leave it there. They won't do anything with the car bc they will give you a parking pass (we've done this many times). Walk over to Epcot and do all that you need to do there. Since you're ending in the countries anyways, why walk to the front of the park?? Walk back to BC, get in the car and drive it over to the Poly. If you want to ride the monorail around, you'll have time to do it before or after your meal...just my personal thoughts on how I'd do it if I were lucky enough to have a car and then you won't have to fight the MK crowds at the bus station with a potentially tired princess

PS...I love your days plans because it will be 1 day until I arrive!!!!!!!

..as far as the FB thing goes, if you're profile is public, let me know pm me Mine is private bc I'm a teacher so if you'res isn't that'd be great!!

Thanks for the cake compliment, I will pass it on to my mom!

I was thinking driving would be the quickest, but I was trying to avoid it! My other concern is, how easy/hard is it to get around WDW? I am totally horrible at driving new places (or being the navigator while DH is driving new places). When I think about driving somewhere new, this is me:

Yeah for your arrival day!!!! I'm so jealous you get to stay at WL!!!! I would love to stay there! I am secretly hoping for an upgrade on this trip as a nice surprise for my DH since he has been working SO hard this year! He favorite hotel we have stayed at is CSR b/c it is the first vacation we went on together, so he just LOVES it! I would take anywhere though!!

I sent you a PM with my FB info!

That cake is amazing!

As for the early breakfast I would find out if there is an early breakfast bus from Pop first then if not I would drive ( I know you don't want to but that is a long way on the bus)

The cake was totally awesome! Everyone loved it, especially Olivia!

I am crossing my fingers that there might be a character bus, but if not, I guess we will drive.

 

[therussells08]

Olivia's birthday celebration looks like it was a ton of fun! That cake is AWESOME!

It looks like another great day of plans, too! Your ADRs that day are awesome! I'm not sure about the transportation issue...DH and I always either drive to WDW or rent a car after we fly. Driving can be a hassle, but we prefer it. I'm not really knowledgable about the buses.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Hmm... some of this days plans look so familiar??? Wonder where I have seen them before??? Hoping we can meet up maybe at some point!!!

 

[exwdwcm]

so i would drive to BC, park at BC (just tell them you have an ADR at Cape May), then you can simply walk over to Epcot for a while. I don't know if BC tracks how long your car is parked there like they do at the MK resorts (specifically Poly/CR). But you should be good for 3-4 hours at least. then head back to BC, get the car and head back to the room or wherever. I don't think i would take the whole bus/boat thing- it will just take so long!

we are going to do pick a pearl too- my first time- and i got the cages too! i can't wait. this is something new and a must do for this trip. trying to bring in some new stuff instead of all the oldies we do everytime!

 

[eecteacher82]

Just wanted to get on and post a quick update about my shopping!!! Over the past 2 days I have been searching high and low for a couple of things: Disney Christmas window clings and the 4 disc combo pack of A Christmas Carol. You would think these would be pretty darn easy to find right? WRONG!!!! I finally was successful today!!! I found the movie at Target (they have been out since Tuesday night). I'm glad it took until today though! It was on sale for $29.99 last week (since they had been out I got a rain check). So I found it today and since I had my rain check it was $29.99, then had a $10 off coupon from the Disney Movie Rewards, THEN, there was a Target coupon for $5 off in today's ad! So I got the 4 disc, DVD, Bluray, Digital and 3D set for $15.99!!!

As for the window clings, I had looked at Target, Wal-Mart, Dollar Tree, CVS, KMart and Walgreens and had NO luck! Well, today I happened to be at another Walgreen and checked it out, and sure enough they had them! They actually had TONS of them-14 different designs! I had a tough time narrowing it down to 6, but with Olivia's help, this is what we picked:

Since I didn't know if I would find the Disney clings, I had bought some others the other day. Here they are:

Between various trips to Target and Wal-Mart, I picked up a Princess dry erase board for our door and some Princess ring pops at Target, and the Tink hoodie for myself at Wal-Mart. The dry erase boards were in the dollar spot and the hoodie was $15.

I also realized that we are not all that well equipped in the luggage department. Our longest family vacation has only been a week, but we had use of a washer and dryer so we didn't need to pack a ton. I decided to just buy Olivia a suitcase of her own. I knew we didn't need anything huge for her things, so I just got a slightly larger than carry on size. It is super cute, has lots of pockets, and is nice and sturdy. I got it at Target for $24.99.

I seemed to have done lots of shopping this weekend! In addition to all of my Disney stuff, I bought Olivia's Christmas dress, everything to make my Thanksgiving dessert (I am trying something new this year: Cherpumple.....Google it, you know you want to!), and then today I finished shopping for Olivia's Christmas gifts. Target has the V-Motion on sale for $19.99, and select games for $7.49. Well, my Target was all sold out, so I took the Target ad to Wal-Mart and price matched it, so I got the game system and they Toy Story 3 game for a total of $27.50!!!!!

**Opinions needed** I am thinking of taking Olivia's Christmas dress with us on our trip and then when we go to DTD, having her pic taken with Santa in the dress. I figure that since they have photopass photographers there, and we are buying the PP, why should I spend $30+ on Santa's pics at the mall here? I would only have her dress on for pics. What do you think?

 

[Tinkermom76]

So jealous that you found Tink clings!!!!

I would bring the dress. We always bring at least one dressy outfit just in case and a pic with Santa is a good reason!!!

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Sounds like someone has been having fun shopping!!! Looks like you found some great goodies! I see the pink tink fleece. I was debating between that and the black Mickey one. I ended up with the Mickey.

I love the luggage you found. I know Brenda would flip for it! Its so girly!

I had been thinking of taking Brenda's Christmas dress with us. But then I thought about it and I don't have Gavin's clothes bought yet. I may just dress them in matching clothes this year for the picture. I so agree about not going to the mall for pictures this year. We bought photopass too and what to take advantage of it as much as we can!

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Love those Disney clings!! They are so cute.


Definately bring the dress. What could be better than Santa pictures in WDW?

 

[eecteacher82]

Day 5: Thursday December 9

~This is a little bit of a sleep in day!!

~Wake Up:
*Me: 7:45
*Toby & Olivia: 8:00

~The plan is to be up and ready to leave the room and be at the bus by 8:30. We will be hopping on a MK bus, since we have a 9:30 ADR at...

Sound familiar? It should! We will have had dinner there the night before!!! I have heard good things about breakfast here, and Olivia LOVES Lilo and Stitch, so we should have a wonderful time!

~After breakfast, the plan is to take either the boat or monorail over to MK and do whatever our little hearts desire! There really is NO plan for MK this day!

~At some point in the afternoon, we will hop on the monorail and head over to Epcot.

~Our goal at Epcot is to finish up the countries that we missed on our first Epcot day. We also have a 4:40 dinner ADR at....

This should be a fun meal! For this meal I had originally planned Whispering Canyon Cafe, but wasn't sure how we would deal with all the antics, so I happily switched to TE. I am thinking Olivia will really like the whole show that goes along with this meal!

~After dinner, we have few options:
*Stay at Epcot and do whatever and stay for Illuminations
*Boat over to DHS and see the Osbourne Lights again
*Head back to POP for some swimming/down time and packing
*Maybe even hit DTD
We will just play it by ear to see how we are feeling and what we want to do.

~That's it! Our 5th (and last full day )

Thoughts?

 

[eecteacher82]

*Sorry for the horrible grammar that is about to occur...*

I am SOOO upset right now....like tears upset...

Toby called me on his way home from work today and told me that he had just been in an accident!!! Yep, an accident...I immediately broke down in tears. He told me that he was only about 10 minutes from home and that he had hit someone and the car was a MESS and that he had slammed his head into the windshield! This of course freaks me out even more. Since he was driving our one and only car, this was even worse. I immediately called my sister-in-law to come and get me (she only lives about 5 minutes away), and take me to Toby. When we get there, he tells me that the other car (a big cargo van with a hitch in the back), left the scene! I made sure Toby was ok, he was. His head didn't hit the windshield directly, it hit the sun visor first, so in addition to the bump, it looked like rug burn on top of the bump. He was on the phone with the insurance guy when we arrived, since it was about 5:15 by now and we knew we needed a rental car and all the rental car places close at 6:00 and were closed tomorrow too, and we didn't want to wait until Friday to get one. I looked at the car and it didn't look too terrible, but the front bumper is all messed up and the hitch on the van went right through the front end and burst the radiator, so there was fluid leaking all over. Our insurance guy (GEICO) was AMAZING! He got all of the necessary info into the computer, told us where the nearest rental car place was and arranged the tow truck. We quickly drove the the rental office and got a car (the same as our car actually) and were out in less than 20 minutes. We drove back to where our car was parked and waited for the tow truck to come. He showed up just after 6:00 and let us know that the car would be towed to his lot until Friday morning, when he would tow it to the repair shop. I'm terribly glad that there is nothing wrong with Toby, but..


I don't know what I am going to to about Disney now. We have a $500 deductible that we will have to pay, which takes a considerable chunk out of our budget...we honestly were not even planning on bringing that much with us! I'm just SO upset, I really don't know what to do? There is no way I can take BBB away from Olivia, she has been looking forward to that for MONTHS, but it would save $60. If I gave up the castle playset, that would be giving up her gift from Santa this year. I can't not tip the waiters at our meals, so I really just don't know what to do???? I'm thinking about taking a couple of days off at the end of the trip to save that money, but I really don't know. I'm sitting here in tears just trying to figure it out....

Sorry, for the long, rambling, not making sense post...I knew you guys would understand my thoughts....Thanks for reading.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Oh geez Erin, I'm so sorry you're in this situation. Thank heavens Toby is OK. I can only imagine what you must have been going thru after you got his call.

I can't believe the other car left?

I'm afraid I'm no help with advice on what to do, other than to give yourself a chance to think things through as calmly as you possibly can. Trim whatever you can and see what you have left. Anything outside of the trip that you can do?

Sending pixie dust to you....

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Oh no Erin! I am so sorry! I am glad that Toby is ok, but so sorry this happened you him. I will pray that you are able to figure out something that works for your family and still makes for a memorable trip for you.

 

[Tinkermom76]

Oh my Erin, I am glad Toby is alright and I am sure the rest will work itself out

 

[therussells08]

Oh no! I am so sorry to hear about the accident! I'm so glad Toby is okay, but I know all of this puts a ton of stress on you now. I hope it all works out! You are in my thoughts and prayers. I am sending pixie dust your way!

 

[exwdwcm]

Oh my- big HUGS Erin- so glad he is okay, but i know how heartbreaking this is and horrible timing too. which do you think Olivia would want more the BBB or the castle set? You know they do sell the castle set online. so you could always get that later for her? Is there anything else you can cut back on- any other meals or stuff? I am so sorry to hear this and keep us posted on what you come up with. BIG hugs and sending lots of pixie dust your way.

 

[Nermel9]

OMG I'm so sorry this had to happen so close to your trip! I'm glad Toby is ok, though! I hope you can come up with a solution so you can still enjoy Disney! Sending pixie dust!

 

[eecteacher82]

Hi guys. Thank you for all the hugs and pixie dust! I have been avoiding the boards since Wednesday, since I am not sure we are even going to go on our trip now.

Here are where things stand as of right this second, followed by a few scenarios:

*The car is in the shop being worked on and should be done by Thursday. The estimate was right at $2500.00, but thankfully we only have to pay our $500 deductible. Here is a pic of what $2500.00 worth of damage looks like:

~The trailer hitch on the van in front of Toby went right through the bumper and annihilated the radiator, as well as messing up the bumper.

*Lucky for us we have rental car coverage included in our car insurance and it covers up to $20 a day for a rental. The car we got is only $18.95 a day, so there will be no out of pocket money for that!

*The real issue we have is the deductible. We had gotten paid last Wednesday and went out and did about 90% of our Christmas shopping, a HUGE grocery shopping and paid a couple of bills, so the nice amount we had in the bank went way down.

*The other issue with money is that Toby worked last Tuesday and Wednesday (his normal days off are Sunday and Monday), then was off on Thursday for Thanksgiving, but then didn't go back to work until today, so they won't give him his holiday pay for Thursday since he didn't work on Friday! So, his paycheck will not be at all close to what we are used to this week.

Here are the scenarios:
1. By some miracle, pay day will be better than what I think and we will be able to pay the deductible and have plenty left over for Disney!!!

2. We will have just enough to pay the deductible, and none left for Disney and will have to cut out things like pick-a-pearl and use the gift cards Olivia got for her birthday to pay for the BBB and tips and other things, but still be able to go.

3. I can talk my mom, brother and grandmother into just giving me my Christmas gift now, in the form of cash and still be able to go.

4. We have to cancel/rebook for a later date and not go at all. If it comes to this, I will still take Olivia up for the day on Monday so she can do the BBB and we can spend the day at MK. I just don't have the heart to tell her that not only did her big Disney trip get canceled, but the BBB did as well. She has been looking forward to this and talking about it since March!

I am REALLY hoping that we will be able to go, we all need this vacation SO badly right now. This has been a stressful year and a carefree week at Disney would help out a ton.

I have also been packing just in case. This week is SUPER busy around here. Last night was a rehearsal for the Christmas show at church that Olivia is in, there is another rehearsal tomorrow night, Friday is ballet and another rehearsal, followed by opening night of the show, Saturday is 3 shows at 12, 3, and 7. As you can see, I will not really have any time to pack unless I do it now. I would be devastated if I pack for the trip and we end up not being able to go, but there is NO way I can wait until Thursday (pay day).

On the positive side, over the weekend I managed to decorate our house inside and outside for Christmas! I also went Black Friday shopping with some friends. We left the house at 10pm and crawled back in at 9am! I was really good! I only bought Olivia's Christmas jammies ($4), and a new DVD player ($20) since the one in our bedroom bit the dust about 6 months ago and our portable DVD player that we were using in there recently died as well. It only ended up being about $6 out of my pocket though, I used my $20 Target gift card I had been holding on to for the DVD player!

Well, I think I have blabbed enough...I am off to finish up the laundry and pack for a trip I REALLY hope we get to take!