Making Time for a 1st time - October 2015/MNSSHP PTR COMPLETE 10/21/15

[HizMinnie2015]

This will be not only my very 1st PTR but also my firsts of many within this report...

- new grandbaby due July 2015
- a marriage (finally) to my best friend and long term S/O, Martyne.
- a get away/honeymoon/just the 2 of us vacation to WDW.

Bare with me, as I'm new to the boards, new to WDW and have the need to share, since I've been forbidden to talk about Disney until April 2015 LOL.

Ok, here we go-

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Ok, so-

My name is Alicia and I will be 44 in May, 2015. I am a Accounts Mgr. for a manufacturing company. There is only 1 other gal in my office and we share the duties of customer service, administrative assistants and any other things that are thrown our way.

I have 4 grown (ages 25,24,21 and 19) children and currently have 7 (ages 8,5,5,4,3,3,3) grandbabies. Our next one is due in July, 2015. I was not married as a young parent and have raised all my children by myself. I have only been to WDW one time before and that was with my HS marching band in 1986. I only remember a few things from that trip. I was a very shy, insecure girl then as a freshman in hs. I've grown into myself now.

Martyne, will be 40 2 days before we leave for WDW. He has been married once before, has no children and is the biggest kid at heart. He has a collection of Transformers that is quietly taking over all my saved space for Disney lol.

(I haven't figured out how to include pictures, so I will post them when I do.)

 

[HizMinnie2015]

We are booked and in the making payments part of our trip.

When: Sunday, October 25th to Sunday, November 1st, 2015

Where: Disney's Pop Century Resort - have noted our Honeymoon and requested a king size bed.

Our ADR date is April 28th. Our Fast Passes and online check-in is August 26th. Our last payment date is September 10th and our Magicband date is September 24th.

So, here I sit trying to get through all the end of the year things so I can focus on Disney lol.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Let's step back into my family...

Daughter Morgan has 2 boys - Emmett 5 and Emrick 3.

Son, Daniel has 2 boys, Trevor 8 and Ryker 3; AND 2 girls, Angelina 5 and Khloe 4.

Kelsey is my 3rd child and is due in July. This will be her first child.

Caitlyn is my last child. She is part of a set of twins, however her brother was stillborn at 5 mths. She is mom to Nyla Mae, 3.


Martyne and I will celebrate 8 yrs together on August 7th, 2015. We have decided its time to make it official. So on August 8th we will become Mr. and Mrs. Means there is a lot more planning in my future before WDW!!!

We are not planning on a big wedding, or something formal. While I would love to have the "fairytale" wedding, its just not feasible at this point in life. We have been together for so long, it is kind of funny to me to say that our trip to WDW is a honeymoon. Its more like a get away for the 2 of us with a small visit from a very close friend who can't make the wedding.

Looking forward to sharing my weeks of planning and things with each of you, hoping that someone else will share in my joy and excitement.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Here are Martyne & I dressed up for a Glow party we went to.

 

[ashw100]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding and honeymoon. Looking forward to hearing you plans.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Yea...you started your pre-trip. I'm kinda at a stand still with mine (it's so far away!) so I've been looking around for other things to take up my time!

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Congrats on your upcoming wedding and honeymoon. Looking forward to hearing you plans.

Thanks; Glad to share and to have someone to listen lol

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Yea...you started your pre-trip. I'm kinda at a stand still with mine (it's so far away!) so I've been looking around for other things to take up my time!

Hey! I know you lol... kind of. This is all new to me... I've gotten so many things on paper, I guess its time to share with the veterans and see what they think. Our trip is 11 1/2 mths yet. EVERYBODY is sick of me talking about it I want to be excited and share that excitement. DFi has so much going on at work and then his mom is sick; and we are trying to make it through another holiday season without losing our shirt tails in buying presents. Things are stressful right now. Planning and looking ahead keeps me sane if that makes any sense.

I'll be posting more later, my plan for the 8 days coming up!!!

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Ah, its only 348 days away!

We are looking at flights from O'hare Chicago going down on United and coming home either with United or American.

Right now, United is a non-stop at 6am arriving at 9:42am in Orlando. RT is running right around $335 per person.

We are using DME to get from airport to Disney; so I'm guessing, after reading the boards here, that we should be to Pop Century by 11:30 am at the latest.

We do not have anything planned for this day park wise. We are looking to get an ADR at California Grill late enough to watch the fireworks.

This could change at any moment closer to April... so let's see what happens

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Day Two - Magic Kingdom

We are planning 2 full days at MK, plus a night of MNSSHP and maybe the Villians Soiree. On this day we are thinking about doing Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.

My DFi has always been fond of Pooh and Tigger. So I'm planning for an early ADR at Crystal Palace so he can meet these creatures and get started into loving Disney as much as I do.

Fast Passes:
This is where I'm torn... He wants to use the FP's to make sure we can get onto rides. But if we are in the park early enough I'm thinking we should be able to get a few done and then I can use FP's for meet & greets. I know meeting a character is not the most appealing thing DFi has ever thought of, I'm hoping Pooh and Tigger will help bring him over to my side.

Fast Passes could start with Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Peter Pan's Flight.

I would love to end with a Dinner ADR at Be Our Guest, however I know those are hard to come by.

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Look, I made my way back here... The Holidays have taken over at our house and Disney has been put on the back burner. Not that I don't think of it often, but grandchildren and baking cookies and spending those rare few extra moments are my priority until after the 1st of the year... gads I know I shouldn't say this but come on January!!! LOL

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Man, It feels like its been forever since I was here... LOL

Not a lot has been happening other than making payments on our trip.
We are at 231 days and counting; we booked the flights to Orlando - one way instead of roundtrips because my lovely DFiance knows so much better than me and is now suffering my wrath for not listening I'm hoping to book the return flight in a couple of weeks.

I have reserved a scooter for the trip and I will be having knee surgery just before we go and will have a brace on my knee. Walking some is ok; walking 5-10 miles not so much.

My best friend and her 21 yo DD has decided to join us for a small portion of our trip. They arrive before us on Thursday and are leaving the following Wednesday. We will arrive on Saturday 10/24 and are leaving on 11/1.

Our ADR's open on April 28th... we have a good idea of what we want and where we hoping to get into...

Looking for a cake kind of like this to celebrate the DFiance's birthday that is the day before we leave. He has said he is ok with not celebrating, but my BF and I have plans to decorate our hotel room and leave presents abound while he is not there... I would love to be able to do a cake at dinner as well; we will see how that goes.

I have started shopping for the trip; will post pictures of my madness when I can.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

So... I guess its time for an update... Our dates have moved around since the release of free dining. Originally we had decided on 10/24 to 11/1. But then decided to move back to 10/25 so that I wouldn't have to take an extra vacation day at work to get ready. Then we decided to add 10/24 back on as a Room Only res. because I wanted all the time I can get with my BFF Tracy. I was so LUCKYYYYY when free dining came out. I woke up extra early that morning to check on my ADR release since I could not for the life of me remember what day i could make ressies. After all the rumors I've heard I decided to check the special offers and there it was - Free dining open to the public. I quickly went to modify my reservation. Apparently at 6am this worked well because I got my reservation changed online all by myself to include Free Dining with an upgrade to the Deluxe meal plan!!! Thank goodness I was not one of those who had to sit on the phones forever and a day!!!

In the mean time, my future DH decided he would pay for our airline tickets... Being he has never bought tickets online, I warned him to make sure to get RT tickets. So in January he hands me a confirmation from United for tickets... I look and its one way (UGH) I asked why only one way; his response - "well, it was cheaper..." I looked at him and said you have to buy another flight to get home silly and its going to cost more now.... So fast forward to March, and he bought tickets home... needless to say he is kicking himself in the tush because tickets cost us almost $300 more this way than the RT would have.... Lesson learned to listen to your future wife

So as of right now we are flying United -
10/24 leaving Chicago ORD @ 10:40am and arriving at MCO approx. 2:18pm
We have no big plans this day so I'm ok with the later flight.
10/31 leaving Orlando @ 4pm and arriving Chicago ORD approx. 6pm

Let's see how many times United bumps our flights around before October!!

 

[HizMinnie2015]

A picture of my BFF Tracy and her daughter Bailee in 2010 when Bailee did the College Program

 

[HizMinnie2015]

BABY UPDATE... Daughter Kelsey is having a baby girl!!! Kathryn Ann... she is due 6/28 however she is already dialated to 2cm and having very regular contractions. Doctor says if the contractions continue they are going to put her on bed rest for a couple of weeks. They have started steroid shots just in case this baby is impatient and won't stay put a little longer.

As a side note... Kathyrn is my middle name, my mom's first name, my grandmothers middle name, my great-grandmothers first name and my 3rd great grandmothers first name... it has a lot of emotion behind it. The middle name Ann is the middle name of both my mom and Kelsey's paternal grandmother... Even more emotion LOL

Little miss Kathryn Ann at 30 weeks... awwwwww <3

 

[HizMinnie2015]

WEDDING UPDATE: Our 8th anniversary as a couple is on August 7th. We have decided to have a very informal ceremony at the house with our families and closest of friends... We aren't having a reception; however we are doing a "pay for your own" dinner afterwards with drinks and s'mores at our house following that.

We aren't really decorating or doing anything normal in regards to our wedding ceremony so I don't have a lot of pre-planning photos. However, I have done invitations because we have family all spread out... Here is a photo of what we have ordered.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

DISNEY UPDATE:

So now that we have our dates set -
10/24 room only
10/25 to 10/31 pkg with deluxe dining

Air travel is taken care of and the Magical Express is reserved;

My scooter is reserved (I am having minor knee surgery just before Disney and won't be up to walking that much);

We have ADR's and then Online check-in and Fastpasses left...

Between Tracy and I our ADR's were quick and easy to do. Tracy is arriving on 10/22 and doing one day of Universal on Friday and Epcot on Saturday before we arrive. We are meeting up later this day for dinner at the hotel and drinks by the pool. Since Tracy is arriving before me, she did the ressies we needed while we are together; then I only had to do the ones after she was gone. The only must do was Be Our Guest and preferably for dinner. I had thought this would be a tough find since MK closes early 3 nights while we are there for MNSHHP (Sun., Tues and Thurs.)

Our ADR's look like this -

Sunday - DHS
B - Hollywood & Vine
L - Mama Melrose with Fantasmic pkg.

Monday - MK
B - Crystal Palace
L - Be Our Guest

Tuesday -
I'll get back to this!!

Wednesday - AK/MK
This day is split for DFi and I; Tracy is flying home towards the end of the day and MK has late EMH hours.
B - Tusker House
L - Flame Tree BBQ - I figure we can share this meal between Mr. and I, since we have 3 meals planned for this day
D - Be our Guest!!!! So when I logged on to do my remaining ADR's I checked to see if BoG had openings. Lo and Behold, I found one at 8:35pm! I snagged that baby up! We will have already seen Wishes on Monday so I'm planning on eating and seeing if I can find low wait times on some rides!

Thursday - Epcot
B - Akherus - I want to see the Princesses but am not willing to give up 2 meal credits for the castle.
D - La Hacienda de San Angel - this is at 8pm so I'm hoping that we can sit and watch Illuminations from here

Friday - DTD
B - O'hana
D - Raglan Road

Saturday -
B - hotel before leaving for home.

 

[HizMinnie2015]

Ok, so back to our Tuesday ADR's...

Martyne & I decided (took some convincing, but not much! LOL) that we should definitely go to MNSSHP this night. Originally the 4 of us were going to do Epcot on this day and then we were going to split up later on. Tracy, being a bigger Disney nut than I am, was not going to let me go to the party without her since neither of us have ever been.

So, we both bought tickets and rearranged our touring schedule and got into MNSSHP!!!

We are using it as a Non-park day to sit at the pool, and catch up on life since its been um, 6 yrs since we've seen each other. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and it will be warm enough to swim, drink and be in all sorts of good moods before heading to MK.

We have a dinner ADR at The Plaza Restaurant at 4:25pm. We are looking at early party entrance at 4pm, eat and then Martyne is getting in the line to meet Jack & Sally while I want to meet the 7 dwarves. I believe Tracy and Bailee are dressing at Minions, I have a disney bounding outfit that will resemble Minnie and Martyne is a notorious procrastinator so who knows what he'll decide LOL

 

[KathyM2]

Hey I'm here to follow along!! Wow, you have a great big family!!! So awesome!! What an amazing honeymoon you have planned too!! I'm going to be there a couple weeks before you but doing a lot of the same stuff!! Really looking forward to the MNSSHP too!! I'm very jealous of your BOG ADR's!! Also Raglan Road I love too!!! Looking forward to following along!