Making my mom's dream come true! Nov 28-Dec 3 PTR

[PamelaKay]

I read your report tonight so I am going to comment as I read through it.

I am loving how sweet you are to take your parents to WDW, how wonderful !!

It's great that you are getting an ECV for your Mom, it will really help her with getting around WDW. Aww a surprise, a WDW is an amazing surprise! YAY club level at the Poly .

Great first day plans, we loved seeing the fireworks from Narcoosee's.

Sorry your sister doesn't "get Disney". Just stick with us we will stay excited with you .
Thanks! I love having folks to share Disney excitement with!

For your AK day sometimes it can be hard to get all 3 shows in, I would make sure to keep up with the times thru Steve Soares site, he keeps the show times updated.

I have his site book marked!
I am so sorry your Mom took a fall, I hope she is better. Fantastic about the upgrade to the room!!

We change ADR's around a lot, that is just part of Disney trip planning . I am Disney trip planning obsessed, I don't think I could handle someone else making our ADR's, I would be a wreck .
I have another change already, but haven't sent it to the IPO yet. I decided to extend our package one more night so if we miss something, we now have a couple of days to go back and catch those attractions. I also have more dining ressies to make now.


Great pre trip report, I look forward to reading more.

Thanks!

 

[PamelaKay]

PamelaKay - sounds like a great trip ....must be why I am doing a very similar trip to surprise my mother Almost the same dates, I fly out of Charlotte on 11/29, split stay at POFQ/Poly, still deciding my final ADR requests but I have until 6/2/10 to make up my mind and let the TA know, ADR day is 6/3 for me! I am choosing alot of character meals ..... kill two birds with one stone you know, eat and greet! Have a great time!

I really like character meals too, but with my mom's disability and her stubborness, buffets can be very challenging because she wants to do it herself, but walking with her walker around a busy buffet is challenging.

I am not sure my ADR's will ever be final. I keep having thoughts that make me want to change them here and there

 

[PamelaKay]

Congrats to you for doing that for your Mom.

Thank you. I cannot decide when to tell her. My folks anniversary is in August, Mom's birthday is September, Dad's is October and then we go in November and Deceber.

Mom is going to physical therapy 2 times a week now. I thought if I told her in August, that would give her a little time to work on her mobility prior to going.

 

[scdak]

Pamelakay - I can understand about planning when to tell her, I am going through the same thing, its killing me. We took her 3 years ago and didn't even tell her until we were on the road to florida, we gave her a mini scrapbook about the trip, what park we would do each day etc, and tissue to wipe up the tears. I am sure you will know when and how to tell, just like I will, right now she thinks we are going christmas shopping and to see some christmas shows, not a lie really
I can understand about buffets, we use a w/c for mom to keep her from having to walk too much but she is able to walk without a walker around the hotels, and for meals. You ADR day comes a day or two before mine next week, can't wait to the hear the final plans, I have a general idea but I still keep thinking about other places.

 

[PamelaKay]

So I have 2 great reasons to be excited this week. I spoke to the IPO at the Poly and made our ADR's on Monday and then while shopping for airfare for a summer trip to Northern California, I found a non-stop roundtrip flight to Orlando from Charlotte on sale for $184.

I am flying into Orlando on Nov 27 and staying one night at the POFQ. Mom and dad are driving down and will arrive on Sunday morning at the Poly. I decided to have a solo night before they get there to enjoy a little shopping at DTD.

Here are the ressies that have been made

Sunday, Nov 28
1:45 Crystal Palace
7:45 Narcoossee's (I am hoping we can watch the fireworks from dinner)

Monday, Nov 29
12:00 Coral Reef
Candelight Processional Dinner (requested Le Cellier with Tepan Edo as alt)

Tuesday, Nov 30
12:30 Mama Melroses
7:00 Artist Point

Wednesday, Dec 1
7:05 pm Ohana

Thursday, Dec 2
1:30 Biergarten
7:30 Flying Fish

Friday, Dec 3
7:40 Chef Mickey's
12:55 Le Cellier (we will cancel this if we get it for processional)
7:00 Tepan Edo (canceling if we get for processional)

Sat, Dec 4 - Mom and Dad have breakfast in club and hit the road. Being a good disneyaholic, I don't fly out until 5 that night. I am having breakfast at Boma and then hitting the parks for a few rides mom won't be able to do.

I was also able to book the Wildlife Excursion for us on Wednesday and the Behind the seeds tour on Thursday.

I have eaten at many Disney restaruants and eventually, I want to try them all. New for me on this trip will be O'hana for dinner, Biergarten, Artist Point and Boma. I am so excited.

The only thing left to do is figure out when, where and how I want to tell my mom about the surprise.

 

[PamelaKay]

I am so very excited. Thanks to fellow DISer Nettaboo I have finally figured out the best way to share the surprise trip with my mom! I am making my very first scrapbook. The first page will be a SURPRISE we are going to Disney page and then after that I am working on personalized invtations to each of our ADR's and our tours. I plan to include as much as possible and to leave a a few places for mom and dad just to insert photos after the trip.

My sister has made scrapbooks before so she is coming to visit me for 2 days to help me get it together. I will try and post photos after we get a few pages done.

I could not have done this without help. I was so very inspired by the pictures posted in Nettaboo's PTR. I hope you all will go check it out. I am putting the link below.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2398006

 

[Nettaboo]

I am so very excited. Thanks to fellow DISer Nettaboo I have finally figured out the best way to share the surprise trip with my mom! I am making my very first scrapbook. The first page will be a SURPRISE we are going to Disney page and then after that I am working on personalized invtations to each of our ADR's and our tours. I plan to include as much as possible and to leave a a few places for mom and dad just to insert photos after the trip.

My sister has made scrapbooks before so she is coming to visit me for 2 days to help me get it together. I will try and post photos after we get a few pages done.

I could not have done this without help. I was so very inspired by the pictures posted in Nettaboo's PTR. I hope you all will go check it out. I am putting the link below.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2398006

ohhh no!! you are not going to blame me for your new found obbsession!!LOL But seriously I am excited to see what you create, it sounds so nice! Your parents are going to love it!!

 

[Nettaboo]

Just dropping by to check on you.. Post some of the things you made for your trip. I would love to see them!

 

[scdak]

So PamelaKay, how is the scrapbook coming for your parents trip? Were you lucky enough to get all the ADR's you wanted?
I am working on a picture book for my surprise trip to give to my mother that will give her all her info about the who, what, when, wheres etc.I have gotten some great designs from the Dis creative folk!
ADR's - well, all but LeCellier but it wasn't really high on my list. Just waiting for the candelight processional package at this point and my planning will be done, now I just have to keep from changing anything, not going to change resorts, and don't plan on changing anymore ADR's although I will admit, I have changed a few I hope you are having as much fun planning your trip as I am planning mine.

 

[Chelley00]

What a great daughter you are!

We are taking my mom for her first trip in October. I'm excited to read your plans and your mom's reaction!

 

[PamelaKay]

Just dropping by to check on you.. Post some of the things you made for your trip. I would love to see them!

Thanks! The scrapbook was absolutely beautiful. I sent it to my folks and told them not to open until we were on the phone together. I took pictures of each page and then walked through it with them. I think it is the first time my mother was ever speechless. I am going to try and post a few pics soon.

 

[PamelaKay]

So PamelaKay, how is the scrapbook coming for your parents trip? Were you lucky enough to get all the ADR's you wanted?
I am working on a picture book for my surprise trip to give to my mother that will give her all her info about the who, what, when, wheres etc.I have gotten some great designs from the Dis creative folk!
ADR's - well, all but LeCellier but it wasn't really high on my list. Just waiting for the candelight processional package at this point and my planning will be done, now I just have to keep from changing anything, not going to change resorts, and don't plan on changing anymore ADR's although I will admit, I have changed a few I hope you are having as much fun planning your trip as I am planning mine.

Thanks for the note. The scrapbook was beautiful. I actually had 2 days where I made 2 pages because I am not sure which dinner we will get for candelight. I requested Le Cellier as primary and Tepan Edo as alternate and that is on a Monday night. That same week on Friday we have lunch ressies at both places and I plan on canceling the one we get for dinner on Monday. I hope to post pictures soon of some of the scrapbook pages.

When do you plan on telling your mom?

 

[PamelaKay]

So I truly became a disigns addict. My sister came to visit me from GA and we did a scrapbook marathon for 4 days and created a beautiful book for my mom that would tell her about the trip. I used many of the disigns and personalized them for my folks. I am very thankful for the talented designers that shared their files.

I mailed the book to my parents and had them call me when it arrived. I basiclly created pages for each day of our trip with personalized invitations to the resort, all our ADR's and Tours. I also included park maps, and slots for pictures. All the folks have to do after the trip is insert their favorite photos and the book is complete.

When they open the book, this was the first page

http://www.4shared.com/photo/0qn2ythX/Image3.html

Then there were 2 pages all about the Polynesian and a description of staying club level. I picked up a resort map when I was there in May and had a yellow arrow pointing to the building.

http://www.4shared.com/photo/t7XGz8rb/Image5.html

I am not going to link to every page, but here were a few of my favorites.

1. Dinner at Narcoosees and Gingerbread at Grand Floridian

http://www.4shared.com/photo/9yc3EGNc/Image9.html
http://www.4shared.com/photo/YlD0i3gT/Image10.html

2. Epcot and lunch at Coral Reef
http://www.4shared.com/photo/ZMLAmzao/Image12.html

3. Day 3 Title page - We are going to HS
http://www.4shared.com/photo/6RmF7IXP/Image16.html

4. Animal Kingdom
http://www.4shared.com/photo/irWfXpB3/Image21.html

5. Dinner at Park Fare
http://www.4shared.com/photo/UeZDBmXb/Image31.html

and finally the last page of the book

http://www.4shared.com/photo/oQkFtIXF/Image33.html


I will try and load all the scrapbook pages and organize them in order. Will post that link when I get it done.

A big thank you again to Nettie for leading me to the disigns boards

 

[Nettaboo]

LOVVVVVVVVEEEEEE IT!!! You did an awesome job!!! that last page was so cute!!
I am going to be looking to you when we get back and I need to scrap my trip!!
That is so sweet that your mom was speechless...AWWWW!!

 

[PamelaKay]

I have updated the following link to have pictures of each scrapbook page.

http://www.4shared.com/dir/fBa-40Jn/sharing.html

This was the first scrapbook I ever created and am so happy with the way it tured out.

I wasn't planning on doing one for me, but I like this one so much, I may have to invest in one for myself.

 

[moparop]

The scrapbook looks amazing! I love how you combined DISigns and scrapbooking elements! What did your mom and dad say when they opened it?

 

[PamelaKay]

The scrapbook looks amazing! I love how you combined DISigns and scrapbooking elements! What did your mom and dad say when they opened it?

Thank you. My mom was almost speechless. I think it was too much to take in at first. As we walked through the pages, she finally started asking questions. She called me this evening to tell me she shared it with her bridge club and everyone thought it was awesome. That really made me feel good.

 

[scdak]

PamelaKay, the scrapbook came out great, I am so glad your mother is excited. I am planning a similar type of thing, a small 4x6 photo album with designs from the Dis creative whizs listing each days events and a larger one with invitations to the meals, HDDR, sleigh ride, candlelight processional.........if it ever gets released etc. Once we are home and have the 100's of pics printed then my best friend and I will do a scrapbook for her using the pics, things we collect on the trip and the original pages from the surprise books.
She actually thinks we are going to Myrtle Beach to shop and see Christmas shows so she knows the dates. I hope to keep from telling her until Nov. 1st, and then the only thing I will tell her is that we are going to Disney. We have been so many times and stayed in the same place each time, she will just assume that is where we are going!
On Nov. 29th we will pick up my friend at the Charlotte airport and plan on staying in Charlotte for the night, just to start the vacation! That night I will reveal the true plans and give her the scrapbooks, that way the tears are over with before we leave the next morning! The wait is killing me but it will all be worth it when she finds out the great Disney vacation that I have planned. I know that you and your parents will have just as great a time!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I love your scrapbook. What a great way to present the surprise!

 

[PamelaKay]

PamelaKay, the scrapbook came out great, I am so glad your mother is excited. I am planning a similar type of thing, a small 4x6 photo album with designs from the Dis creative whizs listing each days events and a larger one with invitations to the meals, HDDR, sleigh ride, candlelight processional.........if it ever gets released etc. Once we are home and have the 100's of pics printed then my best friend and I will do a scrapbook for her using the pics, things we collect on the trip and the original pages from the surprise books.
She actually thinks we are going to Myrtle Beach to shop and see Christmas shows so she knows the dates. I hope to keep from telling her until Nov. 1st, and then the only thing I will tell her is that we are going to Disney. We have been so many times and stayed in the same place each time, she will just assume that is where we are going!
On Nov. 29th we will pick up my friend at the Charlotte airport and plan on staying in Charlotte for the night, just to start the vacation! That night I will reveal the true plans and give her the scrapbooks, that way the tears are over with before we leave the next morning! The wait is killing me but it will all be worth it when she finds out the great Disney vacation that I have planned. I know that you and your parents will have just as great a time!

I couldn't wait to tell my mom. First, because I couldn't stand not telling her and secondly because she is doing physical therapy for her MS and I want her to put serious effort into it. I know if she has this trip to look forward to, she will work harder on her mobility excercises.

I think staying in Chalotte that night and giving your mom her books is awesome. What a great way to start the trip. Are you driving down to WDW or will you all fly out of Charlotte? US Airways has a great non-stop to Orlando.