MaDiLYn'S FiRst TrIp TO DiSNeY in DeCEmbeR!

[saralexander97]

Hi,
Okay so I have attempted once to write a Pre-TR, but with having a baby who required constant attention, amusement, and love, I failed. So now thats filed away in the completed reports I would classify myself as a lurker who inspires to be a DIS Veteran. I am the writer of this TR, I love of course like everybody else aLL ThINgs DIsNeY I am a very visual person and I consider myself a novice photographer. What I mean by that is I have a really cool camera and do not know how to use it. I am a nurse, student, and mom of three awesome kiddoz DS11, DS8, and DD2. So that makes for a busy hectic life for our family and DH having to pick up all my slack around the house. But we survive with yearly vacations and camping trips to escape reality for a week or two. I have been to DW three times and DL once. I have been in love with Minnie Mouse since I was 6 years old when my father took me to DW, I have no idea where we stayed, neither does he (but it was probably a dump). It was the most memorable experience of my life eating and the castle and Cinderella sitting down with us, I remember my father had the duck. I do not remember what I ate, which surprises me because I am total foodie. I also inspire to be a gourmet chef, I love to cook and experiment with preparing ethnic cuisines. Favorite characters Snow White, Cinderella, Eeyore, and Stitch

Well let me tell you about each one of us
Our Family

DH I woud say he is a mix of goofy and grumpy, but he has every right to be grumpy at times. He works hard and does a lot around the house luckily for me he loves Disney just as much as me he as been to DW three times.

DS 11 who will be 12 when we go OMG a TwEEn, he is an energetic fun boy, loves all the Disney movie's, camping, kicking balls, eating, and playing Mario-Kart. He is shy and prefers not to take pictures with characters. But boy is he adventurous! Favorite character is Buzz Lightyear and Phineas 'n' Ferb.

Okay funny story behind this ball, we asked him what souvenir he wanted from DW in 09, alls he wanted was a volleyball. Could not find one so he wanted to go to Wal-Mart and get a ball from Florida.

DS 8 who will be 9 when we go is the biggest sweetheart you will ever meet. He is so fun at DW wanting to ride and experience everything that comes our way, and boy does he have an imagination. He talks to everybody and makes a friend in each line, at each restaurant, and in every pool. Favorite characters he classifies them as hard side characters Abmonination (Marvel character) and Red Hulk (Marvel character) or his soft side characters Pluto and Stitch.

DD2 she will be turning 3 two weeks after we get back. Thats why I planned it that way I figured that she could get in for free but she will begin to have the mentality of a three year old (ingenious I hope). She is a maniac but what else would you expect from a two year old. I have been brainwashing her with Disney movies since birth. One of her first sentences "Mommy I wanna watpch a Disney mobie" I definitely shed a tear, posted it on FB, and texted all my peeps! This will be her very, very , very first time at DW

So DISers there is the cast.
You may be wondering what are our dates, well here they are......
We leave on December 14th and come home on December 23rd.

UP NEXT, where are the Alexanders going to stay? Oh what will it be? The suspense

 

[saralexander97]

Hopefully after this post I will get some subscribers to my pre-trip report writing extravaganza. Okay well were I left off is in suspense about where we are going to stay. The first time we took the kiddoz to disney we stayed at POFQ.

The last time we did a split stay 5 nights at BWV and 5 nights at HRH at US.

I have to say that I loved all three hotels, why you ask, okay I will tell you.
POFQ was our very first on-site hotel, we were immersed in the experience of the world. It was so quite and the smell of the Magnolia Trees just made me feel like I was walking on the streets of New Orleans. BWV, OMG was that amazing, loved the atmosphere. We had a room that was right smack dab in the middle of the boardwalk and overlooked all the excitement and entertainment at night. I would sit up on the balcony and watch the boys play games and that glimpse of Illuminations at night did not hurt either. HRH was pretty cool, my DH loves music so he was on with all the memorabilia.

This year for Madilyn's very first Disney vacation, drum roll please.........
BLT MK view thanks to an awesome DVC member! OMG I am sooooooooo excited I can hardly even contain my self I cannot wait to sit on the balcony at night and watch the fireworks at MK. If anybody has any suggestions what I should request it would be greatly appreciated.

So here is how it is going to go down:
Pick up rental car on Tuesday December 13th, this will be interesting and take some planning. We live about an hour from most car rental's establishments besides Enterprise (which they do not have unlimited mileage so that marks them off the list). So I will have to get back to you on the plan for that. After we pick up the car of course we will pack it up to the max, because I am a crazy obsessed over-packer. The past two trips we have flown down but DH wants to drive this time. Last summer we packed up the SUV and took a two week camping excursion through Colorado so I know the kids can handle driving to Florida. I want to wait till DD gets a little older to fly, plus I would have to get a 2nd job just to pay for the flight.
After a restless nights sleep due to extreme excitement I will sound the blow horn at 4AM and we put on comfy car cloths (my plan is yoga pants) and we are off for 15 hours of family bonding time. I hope to get some good ideas for my DIS peeps of car games to play with the kiddoz to keep them occupied. Lake City Florida will be our destination, I thought about stopping in Valdosta, Georgia but I really want to make it across the Florida state line the first day.
Here are a few pics of Colorado so we can all feel one with nature. ~Nameste

Up next, what are our plans for breakfast, where will be stay our first night we make it to the world before BLT??????

 

[saralexander97]

Happy Friday hope everybody had a good week. So I left you in Colorado being one with nature wondering and contemplating where we would stay. Would we stay on property/off-property?

We live just outside of St. Louis and the handy dandy iphone states we are about 1000 miles away from DW (way to far in my opinion) which is about 18 hours drive time. We must make it past Florida state line the first day, with lots of coffee and taking turns driving Im sure we will make it to Lake City. The longest Maddie has been in the car is 13 hours, she did get restless but she was also only one. Plan is to keep her occupied with coloring, games, and movies!

We will get a cheap hotel by an IHOP, get a goods night rest and have a leisurely morning and breakfast. PaNCakeS YuMMy! Jump in the rental van and drive a few hours to DW.......

and ........

Stay @
The Dolphin, I am going to request a room on the upper level. My eldest DS loves staying up high, he loves looking out the window at the view. He will be able to see for miles and miles. Since we are only staying one night I want to play in the pool most of the day and relax. I sure hope it will be warm enough to swim!

Go to...
Downtown Disney during the evening to see the christmas decorations, hopefully we will hear some "Deck the Halls" and "Silent Night" to put us in the christmas spirit.
DHMEDSDSDD
We will take the kids to DQ, we went in 09 and we had a blast. My favorite game was the Virtual Pirate Ship (no idea what the name is), I was the captain of the ship but totally sucked. I am going to show the family this year I can be an awesome captain!!

Eat @
T-Rex and Ghirardelli for some ice cream we love this place, this is the only restaurant that Zack requested. It is a must, we had an awesome meal here the last time. Such a fun atmosphere! We did have a little scare while dinning. There was a family of four at the table next to us a dad and two daughters, mom was in the restroom. The restaurant was going crazy and then all of the sudden "BAM" the little girl fell off her chair, scared me half to death! I immediately jumped up, ran over and assessed her from head to toe. Luckily she did not hit her head, after the excitement I cried because I cannot handle seeing kids hurt (#1 reason why I am not a pediatric nurse)
W finished our fabulous meal, DH had fish tacos and I had chicken tacos both were amazing. Here are some pics

There is the first day what do you guys think?
So DH just threw out an idea, he wants to do a split stay, he wants to spend three nights at another DVC resort. Where do you think it is??? Up next day two and possible split stay............

 

[lifesastitch]

you have a lovely family i cant wait to here about the split stay. What a wonderful idea your husband is brilliant

 

[saralexander97]

Trying to get some readers, will update 2night. Now I have to study and go to the store, we are going to make BBQ chicken with a chipotle cherry BBQ sauce, Im deciding on whether I just want to grill up some veggies or make baked sweet potatoes and a salad, oh the decisions. To give you some spring fever here are some disney flower pics. I love taking pictures of flowers

 

[saralexander97]

Just bought new luggage from ideeli.com, I sure love that site! WHOOT WHOOT We desperately needed luggage because ours has been on several trips, and boy did it take a beaten camping through Colorado. I bought a 3-piece set and a 6-piece set, surely 9 pieces of luggage is sufficient for a family of 5, right? I will get to try it out next month when I go to a conference in Chicago in May (my first one).

Okay people I left you pining and pondering if we would be doing a split stay. So what do you think about that, should we?? It seems like a lot of people do a split stay and I would have never even considered it until this summer, when we camped through Colorado. We set up and packed the car every 2-3 days for two weeks, and that’s camping gear. If I can manage that I can definitely manage a split stay. We will just have clothes and toiletries and of course souvenirs

So after we leave the lovely Dolphin we are going engulf ourselves in Africa at AKV SV for three nights before going to BLT. I have never stayed at AKV so I am super excited; I have been to Boma for dinner and looked around the lodge. Its amazingly beautiful, what character and ambience which I cannot wait to experience. I remember having the feelings of adventure & excitement but yet a sense mystery and remoteness, does that make sense or am I getting to philosophical on you. So before I post some pics lets recap....

Leave STL on December 14th early, early, early and drive to Lake City, FL, sleep, PaNCakEs @ IHOP, then BAM! We are at Disney, stay at The Dolphin and visit DD for some Christmas Cheer, wake up and go to AKL. So that is our plans so far but wait just yesterday I had a wrench thrown directly into my plan, but before I tell you I am going to show you some pics of ALK and some food porn from Boma

Look at what Florida weather does to this poor girls hair, flat and icky!

So after planning this vacation for the past 2 years I found out three months after I already paid for the room that my vacation did not get approved by "vacation granter lady" she emailed me so that we could discuss my options, WHICH SHE DID NOT! I check my email daily, I wear a lot of hats at work and I am also in school (work and school email connected)so I get a lot of important emails and I know she didn't email me. I had already made my reservations and paid urgh! I’m sure you are wondering what the issue was right? Okay I am a nurse and we have a policy that states you cannot take more than 16 hours of ETO during Dec 21st through Jan 1st, which I was not aware that it started on Dec 21st, I just assumed that it would have started on 24th/25th, oh no it started on the 21st. (Rambling sorry) I do not have to work holidays anymore since I am a lead charge nurse, its one of the perks, but I work weekend option and Christmas is on a weekend this year so I have to take mandatory ETO. So basically I have to work on December 23rd in order not to break the rule. Know I can find someone to work for me but that makes me nervous because what if they quit in between now and December. So I would rather just change my dates and look at the positives.
#1 We get to go two days earlier
#2 Maybe it we will have less crowds
#3 We can have a day or two of rest before Christmas
I mean in all honesty, I don't care what dates we go down, as long as I'm with my family I'm happy =)

Okay, here is the new itinerary...

Leave STL on December 12th early, early, early and drive to Lake City, FL yada, yada, yada you know the rest.

Up next what are our plans, where are we going to eat, that will all come I promise. So please join me in my life it is quite interesting. I will tell you a tragedy that just happened in a few days; right now I’m just trying to focus on the happy things in my life.

 

[saralexander97]

80 days till I get to make dinning reservations. I think in my next post I will tell you my ever interesting life drama. Every month it is something new, I think that I should be done with bad luck for a while. Hopefully

I also am going to daily tell you all our dinning desires, I do have some pics of food from previous trips, so you will get a little food porn (enticing I know).

Happy Monday DIS =)