"Love is Blind-But Marriage is a Real Eye Opener!" or "I Don't Do Matching Shirts&quo

[eeyoresnr]

ok so after much thought and debate I have decided to do a pre-trip-report... It took me 3 days to decide on the title
anyways, we have been planning this trip since about March and most all plans are complete and set in stone, unless....

but for right now this is all I'm going to start with... it's Saturday morning and we live in the NW Panhandle of Florida, and even though Gustav is projected (at this time) to go more towards Louisiana, until it gets in the Gulf waters we won't know for sure, so I have a few things I need to get done, (just in case ) so I will be back later with our cast of characters, and a few details...
hope to see you all here

 

[Da Mick]

subscribing

 

[eeyoresnr]

subscribing

ok we will start here I guess....this is my husband "Da Mick" also known at Dan or (Danny to some)... Danny is 38 years old and is a full time firefighter/EMT... he's been putting out fires for over 20 years now, but started at a new department in March of 2007
here are a ccouple pictures of him fighting fire....

and here he is being himself at Disney

 

[eeyoresnr]

then there is me I'm 47 and I wait tables for a living, been doing it for almost 20 years now and I enjoy it more now than I ever have..(possibly because I'm making better money at it than I ever have)
I work in a small cafe in the city in which we live...only have 16 tables but Monday thru Friday 6am til 3pm I am the only server, so I work hard but it's worth it in the end... I'll post a picture of me in a bit...Oh yeah, My name is Vickie, just in case anybody cares

now this trip it's just myself and Danny...
we have 2 kids between us... Daniel is 7 and is from Danny's first marriage..Daniel lives with his mother in Alabama about an hour and a half north of us

here's Daniel with Stitch at 'Ohanas last Dec

and with 'daddy' at EPCOT

 

[eeyoresnr]

then there is Stephanie also known as Stephy Cole...she is my daughter from my first marriage long, long ago...aand even though she isn't going this trip she plays a big part in it...Stephanie is 23 and works in a Veteranary Hospital, which comes in handy since we have 4 dogs and 4 cats
yep thats what I said: 4 dogs Cookie Dixie Katrina (adopted from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina) & Frankie the newest member of the family and more energy than the other 3 combined!
and 4 cats Pebbles Anastasia (also called Annie) Buttercup and Lucky...so named because he is "Lucky" to be here as he is a black cat we found in the woods in a thunderstorm and my husband is very supersticious about black cats
anyways Stephanie also does pet sitting as a second job, and I've already told her she is booked for us Dec 4-15...by the way she still lives here at home

Stephanie is the reason behind my screen name... she is a super big Eeyore fan (has over 500) and SNR are her initials

 

[eeyoresnr]

I was looking for something new to print on a shirt for Disney and I came across these 2...

and this one fits Danny to a "T"

need I say more?

 

[eeyoresnr]

there aren't a lot of pics of me 'cuz I'm usually behind the camera

ok, so now you know who we are...tomorrow I'll start talking about our upcoming Dec trip....96 days

 

[eeyoresnr]

knock, knock...anybody out there? am I talking to myself here?

come on folks, you can jump in here anytime now

 

[disneydreamin247]

Enjoying your PTR so far! Here's hoping Gustav misses you.

 

[eeyoresnr]

cool, there is life out there! glad you are here and thanks for your well wishes about Gustav...we took a drive to the beach to see the waves...they are still minimal right now...we are on tropical storm warning, expected to get some winds and heavy rain, but hopefully that's it

ok, onto the PTR... we knew last Dec we would be going back this Dec, we just didn't know for how long... last year we stayed one night @ ASMusic and 6 nights at WL Villas... we went the 14th through the 21st... our seasonal passes started Dec 15th so we knew we had to go before that date this year...

we went back in Feb for 4 days, and stayed at POP for the first time; then Danny took Daniel in April for spring break and they stayed 4 nights at ASMovies; we had one more trip booked in May for the Flower & Garden Festival but because of one of the girls who was suppose to cover for me at work....well to make a long story short we had to cancel

 

[eeyoresnr]

so back in March I started thinking about when we wanted to go and where we wanted to stay

last year when we stayed at WL Villas we rented the points from a guy on ebay... I had looked on the Disboards but for what we wanted he worked out best for us...and he had previous feedback that was good..his home resort is OKW and Danny had been wanting to try it so we contacted him and on April 2 we rented 5 nights from him for a studio Dec 7-12

so now that was set, we just had to decide whether or not we wanted to add the dining plan again (it worked out great for us last year)
and if so, where did we want to eat this year
a few days went by and I found a thread here on the boards the same week that Samantha Browns newest shows aired...it was about the Wanyama Safari (Sunset Safari) and you have to stay at AKL to book it: so here I'm thinking hmmmmm I wonder if I book it and just surprise Danny when we get there I wanted to do this for our 6th Anniversary

I can't keep a secret so I called him at work and asked him what he thought about it??? originaly I was just going to book it for one night just so we could do the Safari; but Danny said that was silly to stay there one night so I thought about it a couple more days, and while he was at WDW with Daniel I went online and booked AKL concierge level
now this was a big jump for me and I kept hoping I was making (ok, had already made) the right descision

so now we are there from Dec 7-14th... and now I contacted the IPO at AKL to find out about the Safari, and when they told me they would book it for me I decided to go ahead and get the DDP for the days we are going to be at OKW...We eat at Jikos as part of the Safari and that will be the night we celebrate our Anniversary

 

[clajgray]

First, praying that the storm dissipates and misses you all.....

Second, we are at the World the same week you are!!! We will be at the ASMusic with some friends of ours.

Third, I'll be starting a PTR soon too, as I promised myself I'd start it at the 3 mo mark (if I started any sooner, that's all I woulda thought about....kwim?). And man, it's coming fast! This week in fact!!!! WooHoo!!!

 

[disneydreamin247]

It sounds like you have a great trip planned. Now I want to hear the important stuff....WHERE ARE YOU EATING??!!

 

[eeyoresnr]

First, praying that the storm dissipates and misses you all.....

Second, we are at the World the same week you are!!! We will be at the ASMusic with some friends of ours.

Third, I'll be starting a PTR soon too, as I promised myself I'd start it at the 3 mo mark (if I started any sooner, that's all I woulda thought about....kwim?). And man, it's coming fast! This week in fact!!!! WooHoo!!!

looks like a lot of folks will be there when we are all there
let me know when you start your PTR

 

[Whipperwhirl]

Subbing - Love it so far - Keep it up - Whip!

 

[eeyoresnr]

let me see where I left off....oh yeah, we had AKL; well then we added yet a 3rd night there so we can also do the Sunrise Safari..and then after seeing pictures on these boards of MK from the Contempory...yep you guessed it...we added 2 more nights to our stay...the first 2 nights will be at CR Tower Magic Kingdom view
funny because I had never cared about staying there. Danny has always said "that would be so cool to stay there" ; now I think I'm more excited about it than he is

up next...our ADR's

 

[eeyoresnr]

oops I almost forgot last week Danny and I were discussing the days he needed to make sure he was off for this trip, when he informed me he had taken the entire 24 hours of the 4th off (I had asked him to see if he could work 12 hours and come home at 8pm on the 4th so we could leave by 3 in the morning so we could be there in time for our 2:40 ADR at Biergarten)
so the next day at work after we closed and I was sweeping the floor I had yet another idea , so I come home and say 'what do you think about booking 1 night at ASMusic at the passholder rate ($61 with taxes) and we can leave Thursday the 4th after I get off work and then when we get up Friday we can check in to CR and go to EPCOT and not be in a rush and we'll be more rested
he thought I was joking
so that's how 5 days became 8 days, that became 10 days, which is now 11 days, which is positively the last night I'm adding I think

 

[disneydreamin247]

lol I like your style!

 

[eeyoresnr]

we will be on the Dining Plan for our stay at OKW which is the 7-12 of Dec...most places we are trying are new to us, only a couple are repeats. Our first day there we have the Biergarten booked at 2:40...this is a first for us and Danny is looking forward to it as he grew up on an Army Post in Germany back in the early 70's

later that night we are eating at the Big River Brewery & Grill (hopefully outside, weather permitting) so we can watch Illuminations ... I see a lot of beer for Danny on our first day (and a lot of BC Powders in the second)

Day 2 is Saturday the 6th and we have decided to eat dinner in the Castle so we have an ADR at 5:15, (another first) and then we plan to go back to our room and watch the fireworks from our balcony

Day 3 the 7th, we check into OKW and plan on spending the day at DHS and stay for EMH and see the Osborne Christmas Lights... we haven't decided if we are going to watch Fantasmic or not, but we have an ADR at 50's Prime Time at 5:40 (this is also a first for us)


more to come

 

[eeyoresnr]

so now it's day 4 Monday the 8th...most of our day will be at MK starting early with the Keys to the Kingdom Tour
we will have lunch at Columbia Harbor House
we have an ADR at Chef Mickeys for dinner at 5:20 (first time here for us too) and then we plan to do EMH at MK to end the night

Day 5 Tues the 9th lunch at 1:05 at Le Cellier (first time) we are very excited about this as many of Danny's buddies from work have recomended this to us (several of the firefighters he works with are Disney nuts too)
we are doing MVMCP this night so it will be another late night

Day 6 Wed the 10th Lunch at Coral Reef, we ate here last Dec and Danny had arranged for the personalized menus and a Diver with a Happy Birthday sign for me...it was awesome
the rest of the day we are spending at AK and will probably do a counter service there and stay for EMH