Maps are memorized, mommy's nuts! Disney here we come!

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Welcome to my first PTR! Thanks in advance for any comments or feedback!
(First a question: How do I put pictures on here?)

Where?

Disney World, specifically POP Century resort. I'm very excited to stay here! I've heard so many great things. I think the kids will love the themes and pools! I've heard it's the best Value resort. Value is the way to go for us this year!

My ultimate dream would be to stay at the Poly some day (simply based on pictures and other TRs). We're having dinner at Kona our first night so we'll see if I love that resort as much as I think I will!

When?

August 24th - 31st. Oh my goodness, it's getting so much closer by the minute! I'm not sure how I'm going to contain myself for 7 more weeks!

Who?

Me (Tara): In my normal life I'm a perfectly sane mother, wife, teacher. Then when the kids are in bed (or not) I become a crazy Disney-obsessed nutter addicted to planning our trip, dreaming about Disney and reading the DISboards!

DH: Starting to get a bit excited about Disney but has never been so can't possibly fully know what to expect. He never thought he'd want to go to Disney but I convinced him years ago that we had to go when our children were young (but not too young). I picked 2011 when DS was born in 2006. So this trip has kinda been 5 years in the making!

DD: Wonderful, adorable, brilliant, saucy and intensely emotional but spirited 7 1/2 year old. She's the second most excited (after me) and knows the second most about Disney (from watching videos, pics and studying maps with me) even though she's never been.

DS: Our ham-boned, soft-hearted, generous child who thinks Disney is his birthday present since he'll be 5 in August and we're leaving a couple weeks later. We keep trying to tell him it's not his birthday trip because DD is certainly not going to Disney for her 8th birthday. It's just our family trip, we tell him. However, DD has already decided that for her 10th birthday, we're going back to Disney (December 2013) and so we'll have to go for DS's 10th birthday too (August 2016). I'M GOOD WITH THAT!! Woohoo, two more trips to plan...is it too early to start?!

Those are the ones actually going on the trip but I've subjected a much larger cast of characters to my Disney obsession. Parents, siblings, in-laws...they've all had to listen to every detail of our plans. They are going to be so excited to have this trip over with so that I can start having normal conversations about regular life again!

What?

Eight jam-packed days of fun, fun, fun! I'll write more details about our itinerary in my next post. I've got to head to bed now! Time goes by too quickly on the Internet!!

Thanks for reading along!
-Tara

 

[spartankid34]

Yeah!! I'll be here following along Great start. For pictures, you should cread a photobucket account, make sure you get the free one. You can change your privacy settings in there to make it that only you have access to the pictures. Once you upload photos to photobucket, you have to select the IMG code for that picture, and then paste it into your post. Hope that helps, if not here's a niftly little video I watched to catch up on how to do it

Try this for your PTR in your signature, I think this is the link you'll want to post to go directly to your PTR - http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=41746227#post41746227

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Thanks for the tips spartankid! I've got a couple of pics on photobucket now so I'll try to get them to show up in this thread! Thanks again!
-Tara

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Here is a pic of DS and I, and another of my DD:

 

[chrisw127]

Cute! How can you not read a PTR that says "Mommy's nuts"?

Sign me up.

 

[PixieMama]

Joining in!

I don't know how I can contain myself for the next 7 weeks, either! I'm actually leaving for my WDW trip on 8/31... it can't get here soon enough!

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Hi Tara! I subscribed. Can't wait to hear more plans.

 

[*tinker*bell*]

Count me in, hope to hear more soon! and your kids are adorable!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Thanks for joining everyone!! It's so nice to have readers!

I feel as though I should further explain the "mommy's nuts" part of my title. My kids have gotten to the point where they don't even ask me what I'm doing anymore. They sigh and say, "More Disney stuff. She's nuts about Disney." My mom has likened my new obsession to being an alcoholic. It's like I can't wait to get back to either the DISboards or my maps/plans folder every night. I practically shake like someone desperate for a drink or a hit. (I'm neither an alcoholic nor a drug addict so this "Disney addiction" is my only vice!) Last night, my DH invited me to watch a DVD and I accepted. He nearly fell over! (He fully expected me to say I was too busy reading about Disney like every other night.)

So am I nuts? To the rest of the world, I think so. But I feel like I've found like-minded people here on the DISboards so I don't feel so out of place. I'm not sure what's going to happen once August comes and goes. Depression? Relief? Further excitement to plan future trips?

There is something about the Disney community on these boards that makes this trip more than just a trip. It's a new-found way of life! A new lifetime passtime! Oh, jeesh, it's a good thing I didn't just say that to a family member...they'd have me committed for sure!!!

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Hahaha! I totally get you about the Disney obsession and the DIS community and all of that fun stuff. Especially now more than ever with the trip coming sooner and sooner, Disney is on the brain 24/7.

I usually start thinking about the next trip as soon as we get back home. But last year, my mom and I actually started planning this trip while we were STILL there. Nope, not crazy at all.

 

[jamiesmom07]

A new lifetime passtime! Oh, jeesh, it's a good thing I didn't just say that to a family member...they'd have me committed for sure!!!

We can be committed together. Can't wait to hear more

 

[spartankid34]

Your kids are so cute!! Make me wanna take my nieces and nephews this trip just to have some youth there!! Planning this trip had gotten me so into Disney that I've strated looking into cruises as an option as well haha! I'm obsessed!!

 

[PixieMama]

My family thinks I'm "nuts about Disney", too! But they appreciate all the planning once our trip arrives, LOL!

 

[ZFamily5]

Joining in! Thing3 (my sister) is right in between your kids in age! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[t_daniels]

Reading along!

Actually, this is the first TR or PTR I've subscribed to. The title did it. I had to, really.

 

[teekathepony]

Joining!
I completely understand. I'm a little Disney nutty too.
YAYYY for Pop Century! I'll be there in September.
Also, yayyyy for Canadian members!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Thanks to the new joiners for joining in! I was away Sat & Sun so I have been neglecting this thread (but not my plans, haha!)

My back is out now (hopefully temporarily) so you might be sick of me soon!

On Friday night, after my last post here, DH and I did something that (finally) gave him the Disney bug big time! We printed off the menus for the TS restaurants we have ADRs for and highlighted which options we'd be interested in! Is that extreme? I also did it because I wanted to make sure the kids didn't end up eating hot dogs twice a day everyday, and luckily, they won't have to! The kids menus look pretty decent and while they CAN get hot dogs at nearly every meal, they don't HAVE TO! Yay!

In addition, I must admit that I have also written out options for our CS meals based on what's recommended on the DISboards, but obviously there will be lots of flexibility for those as I can't be sure where we'll be when we get hungry every day.

I was tempted just now to write out all of our ADRs in one long list but instead, I'm going to write detailed day itineraries and talk about our meal plans each day. If anyone wants a summary, I'd be happy to oblige!

 

[NewlyDisneyCrazed]

Day 0 is Tuesday August 23rd. This is the beginning of our trip but we won't be at Disney yet so I didn't feel right about calling it Day 1.

Throughout these detailed plans, I will throw in tips I've learned over the past three months from other DISers. That way, if anyone's out there reading this and hasn't heard the tip, it will get shared!

Here's how I imagine Day 0...

We wake up whenever we want and pray that the kids don't wake up too early. Disney will deprive us all of the sleep we're used to, I suspect, so we don't want to start with a sleep debt. The laundry will be done (or nearly so) and we can pack at a leisurely pace. We are aspiring to pack everything into 1 large family suitcase (checked) and take full advantage of max sized carry-ons. I think we can do it. We're going to put a few outfits and essentials for each person in the carry-ons and all the big stuff/extra stuff/big toiletries in the checked bag.

DisTip #1: Spread your belongings out (mix it up) throughout all the baggage so if one bag gets lost, it's not like all of one person's stuff will be missing.

Whenever we're ready and we've triple checked everything, we will head for the US border to get to Detroit. It's only a couple of hours drive if we don't get held up on the Ambassador bridge. We have a motel reserved for park, stay & fly. Our only timeline this day is to get checked in early enough to get the kids settled and hopefully asleep in good time. I'm hoping to be settled in Detroit sometime between 4 and 7pm and dinner will be whatever we see when we're hungry.

I imagine it won't seem like it's really happening and we'll all be too excited to sleep but I'll have to convince the kids that they'll need their rest to fully enjoy their first airplane trip and we'll be staying up late the next night to watch fireworks at MK. I think I'll be able to convince them to go to sleep...it's myself I'm worried about!

 

[ZFamily5]

The plans sound great so far! And we love looking at menus way ahead of time too!

 

[PixieMama]

I couldn't tell you how many times my youngest DD had mac & cheese while at WDW... "But there's other stuff on the menu that you like!" I said that to her just about every meal and she still chose mac & cheese, LOL!

I like your idea of sharing the tips you've learned! Great way to share info