May 2011 PTR - Who says you have to pay the post office for a passport? 3/26

[lbuzz52]

yeah for an extra day!
it didn't even click to me before that we are going almos the same time- we arrive on the 11th and leave the 18th. no overlapping park days though.

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

I was just going to ask what resort you are staying at, and then I noticed it's a secret! Is it a secret just on DIS, or is it a secret as in you are being surprised?

For the 14-21 we are staying at All Star Sports and then the 21-23 we are staying at a hotel that is being kept a secret since I am surprising my mother and she is frequently on the Dis.

 

[merbobear]

Just a quick update...I have been shopping to my heart's content, gathering up supplies, clothing, etc for our trip! I also ordered Adison's autograph book...I snagged some pages from another DISer and then made up a few of my own to supplement, then had it printed as a hardcover photobook! I can't wait to see how it comes out, and I know Adison will be thrilled with her special book. Our TA sent us an official WDW autograph book too, which we will use as a backup when we encounter the same character twice (as we will surely do, given all of our character meal ADRs!).

As part of my shopping, I have been on the lookout for items that will allow us to help spread the magic during our stay - I am happy to announce that I am now the proud owner of approx. 100 glow bracelets/necklaces/sticks
My plan is to give Adison a bunch of them each time we are out in the evenings and let her share with other children around her. I'm also bringing lots of Disney related stickers along with us, both to entertain her while waiting in lines, and so she can share with other kids. I really hope we can make at least a few kids smile a little bit wider while we are there!

In other shopping news (did I mention that I like to shop?), I just received a box full of new bows to match some of Adison's outfits, including 2 adorable Minnie pigtail bows...of course I am saying this without having taken a picture of them yet I also picked up 9 assorted boxes of cookies and breakfast bars to stash away as our emergency snacks for the plane rides, hotel room, etc...small stuff, but with everything I've been tucking away for our trip, it is just make it all the more real to me!

Quick question - how many outfits do you think is appropriate to bring for a 3 year old in May per day? I was thinking 2 per day with maybe a couple extra spares...is it crazy to bring that much clothing??

 

[lbuzz52]

Just a quick update...I have been shopping to my heart's content, gathering up supplies, clothing, etc for our trip! I also ordered Adison's autograph book...I snagged some pages from another DISer and then made up a few of my own to supplement, then had it printed as a hardcover photobook! I can't wait to see how it comes out, and I know Adison will be thrilled with her special book. Our TA sent us an official WDW autograph book too, which we will use as a backup when we encounter the same character twice (as we will surely do, given all of our character meal ADRs!).


can't wait to see the autograph pages!

As part of my shopping, I have been on the lookout for items that will allow us to help spread the magic during our stay - I am happy to announce that I am now the proud owner of approx. 100 glow bracelets/necklaces/sticks
My plan is to give Adison a bunch of them each time we are out in the evenings and let her share with other children around her. I'm also bringing lots of Disney related stickers along with us, both to entertain her while waiting in lines, and so she can share with other kids. I really hope we can make at least a few kids smile a little bit wider while we are there!


such a sweet idea!

In other shopping news (did I mention that I like to shop?), I just received a box full of new bows to match some of Adison's outfits, including 2 adorable Minnie pigtail bows...of course I am saying this without having taken a picture of them yet I also picked up 9 assorted boxes of cookies and breakfast bars to stash away as our emergency snacks for the plane rides, hotel room, etc...small stuff, but with everything I've been tucking away for our trip, it is just make it all the more real to me!

Quick question - how many outfits do you think is appropriate to bring for a 3 year old in May per day? I was thinking 2 per day with maybe a couple extra spares...is it crazy to bring that much clothing??

i plan on doing one load of laundry in the middle of the week or so. Not my idea of vacation fun, but i know there will be some stains that need it with my kids so i might as well save the space in the suitcase. last trip, i ended up taking one outfit per day, plus some extra tops that matched with the bottoms i had in the outfits. i think we ended up using pretty much everything. I just did a load in the middle and washed the bottoms and stained items. what i didn't think about was taking extra underwear. there was no way i was putting the same thing on for the afternoon or evening after i had been sweating all day! i'll probably do similar this trip.

 

[merbobear]

i plan on doing one load of laundry in the middle of the week or so. Not my idea of vacation fun, but i know there will be some stains that need it with my kids so i might as well save the space in the suitcase. last trip, i ended up taking one outfit per day, plus some extra tops that matched with the bottoms i had in the outfits. i think we ended up using pretty much everything. I just did a load in the middle and washed the bottoms and stained items. what i didn't think about was taking extra underwear. there was no way i was putting the same thing on for the afternoon or evening after i had been sweating all day! i'll probably do similar this trip.

Laundry is an idea..hmmmm...I think I will keep that tip under my hat for my own clothing, as well as dealing w/ stains and whatnot. As I'm sure is the case with a lot of moms, the child has a fabulous wardrobe and mine is utterly lackluster, so a mid-trip laundry break might be in order! Thanks for the idea!

 

[merbobear]

OK so...picture time!
As I mentioned earlier, I have been working my photo shop magic to make some fun extra goodies for Adison to have on our trip...and they are coming out really nice, if I do say so myself!

First, the cover of her autograph book (Which I ordered from Picaboo.com using a super awesome, but now expired, free 8x11.5 hardcover book coupon code!!). I cannot take credit for any part of this other than adding Adison to the design - the rest was snagged from another DIS thread!

Isn't it pretty? I love the design and I especially love that Adison is going to have a special autograph book so she will always have it to look back on!

Moving forward, here are a few pages that I made for character autographs. The rest of my pages were again designed by another DISer (If anyone needs beautiful pages, let me know and I will dig up the link!), but these few are the pages that I created myself:

I made a couple other generic pages, but I'll share those when I get the actual book!

My current project is an Epcot passport. I have completed the front & back covers:
Front

Back (the one on the left w/ the Mickey head will be the back cover- I had put this side by side of 2 versions up on facebook so my friends could vote on which version made the cut!)

And finally a very rough draft of one passport page

Imagine that with a space for a stamp and a coordinating page with the nation's flag (Mickey head style, of course) with a space for the CM's to write a message. I have to say, I am pretty impressed with myself! If anyone else is in need of passport pages & wants these files as I complete them, I would love to share!

Some other projects I have swirling around in my mind:
Invitations - Adison will receive invitations each morning to whatever meal or special thing will happen that day - definitely a must for all of her character dining, and I'm thinking that Shamu will extend an invite to her on our Sea World day as well!

Tickets - I am going to make some mock tickets with dates, names, etc for each park..mostly just something to put in a memory box or scrapbook, but I think Adison will get a kick out of an invitation to CRT with special admission "tickets" along with it.

Envelopes - Just something cute to have for mousekeeping as well as dining tips.

T shirt(s) - I keep going back and forth in my mind over this. Do I want to do a day of matching shirts? Should I fabric paint them (I have a pretty simple looking stencil tutorial to follow)? How about iron ons? Or should I just do a cute tee for Adison? Do I dare attempt a Mickey tie dye ?! If I just do an iron on for Adison, it is definitely going to be for day 1 and it will say "My Mommy & Daddy Just Surprised Me With A Trip To Disney World!"

Window decor - I guess this is a big thing to do at POP, and that's where we are staying, so I might as well join in the fun! Plus, again, it's something Adison would get a kick out of - coming home to our room and seeing the window all decked out sounds more fun than coming home to our room to a plain window! Hey, when you are dealing with a 3 year old, it's the small stuff!

Well, this little "I'll throw in a few pictures of my projects" post turned into a full blown update! I have a knack for making a short story long, what can I say!

 

[merbobear]

Now that I carried on for eons about things I'm making, I figured I owed this thread an actual planning update.

We are currently at 1 month and 2 weeks until liftoff..err..Disney!

Day 1 will start off early - our flight leaves Albany International Airport at 7:10 am

To put this in perspective, I am usually not even awake at that hour. Do you generally still have to go to the airport 2 hours in advance? If so, that puts us in the airport at 5:10. Luckily we live just a short distance from the airport, so we don't have a ton of travel time prior to getting there at least!

Now in case I haven't made this very clear, this is a surprise trip - Adison does not know we are going. We watch videos of people at WDW on youtube frequently, so she gets what it is all about, but she doesn't know we are going. We plan on telling her that "Surprise - you get to ride an airplane!" I think this will be a big enough surprise for her, and then she will be surprised again when we land in Orlando.

The thing is, I am not quite sure how we will surprise her w/ Disney..so maybe it will be better to do the surprise all at once when we wake her up?

Anyway, so back to the plan. Airport at the butt-crack of dawn, probably breakfast while we are there. Our options are McDonalds, McDonalds or McDonalds.

Fast forward to 10:05 am and we will be landing in (fingers crossed) sunny Orlando, Florida!

I just love the random pictures I find on google images!

From MCO we will be traveling via Magical Express. Oh look, this fine gentleman is waiting with all of my vintage luggage!

One welcome video and few resorts later, and we will be arriving at our home-for-8-nights!

Of course, I don't really know how long it all takes from landing to arriving at our resort, so we are planning this day pretty loosely - we plan to arrive at Pop, check in and grab lunch at Everything POP before heading to MK

We had originally planned to hit DHS on our first day, but so many people say "It's just not Disney until we see the castle," that we juggled some ADR's and switched our itinerary around. Since we will be arriving in the afternoon, I am not sure what to expect as far as line times, but hopefully we will be able to fit in a few rides and soak up some atmosphere!

We will likely take a break after a few hours to rest up for our first ADR that evening (8:25pm) at Crystal Palace!

I know that 8:25 probably seems like a super late dinner for a toddler, but we are very late eaters generally, so I think it will work out well this way..and I am crossing my fingers that the restaurant might be on the quiet side since we will be dining later than the average family!

After dinner, we will play it by ear - at that point we might very well all be beat from our early day, and want to call it a night. If we are up to staying out later, we have that option, as MK has EMH that evening until 2 am - we won't be out THAT late, but it's nice that we won't be rushed to leave immediately after dinner! We do have to get in bed at a somewhat reasonable hour, so we can get ready for Day 2...

 

[britt_ji]

I adore all of the personalized items you have made so far. The passport is such a great idea! I would love to see the other pages you have created. I'm sure the tickets and window decor will make for a wonderful extra special treat for Adison

 

[Eliza32]

merbobear I'm really enjoying your PTR (I don't normally read them, maybe I should!!). You mentioned in your earlier posts that you were looking at window decoration. Here's what we did

I also made a 'glow mickey' to hang in the window. Take 4 bracelet length glowsticks and 4 connectors. Make up 2 as normal for the ears, then connect the other 2 together to make the head part. Take some clear stick tape and attache the ears to the head (put the connectors on the ears close to the head part - it makes the ear shape better)
The I used fishing line and a suction cup to hang it in the window. Really sorry, but I can't find a picture of it!!

 

[merbobear]

I adore all of the personalized items you have made so far. The passport is such a great idea! I would love to see the other pages you have created. I'm sure the tickets and window decor will make for a wonderful extra special treat for Adison

Thank you! I will definitely post them all as I complete them!

merbobear I'm really enjoying your PTR (I don't normally read them, maybe I should!!). You mentioned in your earlier posts that you were looking at window decoration. Here's what we did

I also made a 'glow mickey' to hang in the window. Take 4 bracelet length glowsticks and 4 connectors. Make up 2 as normal for the ears, then connect the other 2 together to make the head part. Take some clear stick tape and attache the ears to the head (put the connectors on the ears close to the head part - it makes the ear shape better)
The I used fishing line and a suction cup to hang it in the window. Really sorry, but I can't find a picture of it!!

Thanks!! I have found the best information for my own trip by reading others' PTR & TRs - it has really helped me to get an idea of what restaurants are popular (and why), the importance of a touring plan or at least a basic itinerary, and how much I can expect to do in each park! I am honestly so thankful for the DIS, I know our vacation is going to be a million times better than if I just booked it and went w/ the flow (our typical style!).

Thank you for sharing your window - it is adorable! Did you string all of the decorations on fishing line? That is actually the exact look I was thinking of for our window! And I LOVE the glow Mickey idea - I am definitely going to do that...especially since we have a huge stash of glow bracelets!

 

[JMat]

Hey! Great PTR Lovin' it. Fun pics, and Im psyched to see some shopping & craft ideas. I made some glitter tags, and luggage tags - there are a few pics on my PTR before I went in October.

Keep the fun updates coming, i'll sub.!

 

[TinkerbellinNY6]

Your plans for the first day look great! I think Adison will love everything you are doing!

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I love all of your projects! That passport is amazing!

I think your day 1 plans sound great! I love having MK be the first park of a trip. To me, nothing says Disney more!

 

[lbuzz52]

Great job with all your creative items! I'd love to see the link to the "borrowed pages" if you come back across it.

I think the general timeframe between landing and getting to the resort on ME is 1-2 hours.

The old airport "rule" was 1 hour before domestic, 2 hours before international. That was before all the new checks and security though. I'd probably give yourselves at least 1.5 hours. Especially on an early Monday morning flight- lots of business travelers.

 

[Eliza32]

Hi again merbobear, glad you liked my window, DH thought I was a bit loopy doing it all, but he loved it once finished. I got the head shapes off Milliepie, then printed them in colour and laminated them. I spent several evenings cutting them out before the trip, but it all added to the anticipation. I then bought 4 balloon weights from a local store and just stuck them on the length of very fine fishing line from 4 suction hooks.
Even though we were on the top floor, people still came up to take a look as you could see them from the pool. One morning I threw open the curtains to find 2 japanese girls looking at them. We both laughed!!!
I also made some extras that I added magnetic tape to the back of and stuck them on the room door. I gave some away to people who were in the next room to as their kids loved them....kinda like the fish extender thing!!!!

 

[merbobear]

In my last post I gave a little day 1 round up - travel, eat, play, eat, sleep! I do intend to make most of my days more detailed than that, but I really think the first day will be a lot of atmosphere soaking and we will be taking it easy after flying and being up early! One thing that we have to do is take Adison for her first haircut - yes she is 3 and has never had a single lock snipped, don't judge me

I have always known that her first haircut would be a monumental occasion involving lots of pictures and probably tears (on my part, at least!), and a trip to some generic budget salon has never really fit in with my pipe dream, so when I discovered that babies and young children can get a special first cut in MK, I was all over it!

I am thinking a trip to Harmony Barber Shop might be nice on our first day, if the wait is not too crazy in the afternoon. What better first haircut than one that involves a set of mouse ears? Now her cut won't be anything drastic, just a trim to clean up the ends, but I'm super excited about it!

Thank you, once again, to google images!

Now onto day 2 - crazy enough we will be in WDW for approximately 5 seconds before we will high tail it out of there on day 2, heading over to Sea World! Truth be told, I don't really care about going to SW and to be completely honest, my attempts to research and plan out our day there have been halfhearted, at best. Any advice out there? :echo echo echo:

Seems that not a lot of people do a SW day, but Mike insists on it, and I do have to admit that Adison will love it there - and I'm sure I'll have a great time too - it is just not what I might have chosen myself.

So far our plans amount to : go to SW in the morning and stay all day. Really, that's as far as I've gotten! I have read bits here and there about taking a Mears bus to SW, anyone done that? We will not have a car so we definitely have to rely on some type of public transport, be it a shuttle, a regular city bus, a taxi, etc. The city bus is the most economical at $2 pp, however it seems like it might be a PITA to trek out to DTD just to catch a bus to SW. It will cost a good bit more for a taxi, but is probably the most convenient.

Then when we are there, SW has a "Dine all day" program, is it worth the cost? I can't seem to find much information regarding SW menus so it is hard to gauge how much we will be spending on meals while there.

As far as rides and shows go, I suppose I"ll have to figure out a plan so we can get the most bang for our buck - we are only spending one day there, and they close at 6pm so we don't have a ton of time!

Anyway, moving forward, SW closes and we head back to WDW...where we will be staying put for the rest of our trip! We have ADR at Chef Mickey's that evening at 8:10 pm, I'm excited that we will be squeezing in a little Disney fun even on our SW day - and that we will get a chance to check out the Contemporary as well!

After dinner, we will definitely be ready to head back to POP and go straight to bed, so we can get up bright and early for Day 3!

 

[lledman]

Now onto day 2 - crazy enough we will be in WDW for approximately 5 seconds before we will high tail it out of there on day 2, heading over to Sea World! Truth be told, I don't really care about going to SW and to be completely honest, my attempts to research and plan out our day there have been halfhearted, at best. Any advice out there? :echo echo echo:

We've done SW twice and loved it each time we went. If we weren't taking a budget trip in May I'd definitely include a stop there but alas it's just not in the finances. There is a lot to do at Sea World. They have a rides sections just for the little ones (outside the stadium where you can see the Shamu show) – and speaking of shows there are tons of great ones here. We found the park to be very clean and there were plenty of animals to stop and visit with as we walked from attraction to attraction.

 

[sahm2two]

a little late, but I'm subscribing! I'm planning our 1st trip to Disney (DH and I have both been, but 10-15 years ago!). We're bringing our almost 3 y/o and 1.5 year old. I love reading plans that include kids

 

[merbobear]

We've done SW twice and loved it each time we went. If we weren't taking a budget trip in May I'd definitely include a stop there but alas it's just not in the finances. There is a lot to do at Sea World. They have a rides sections just for the little ones (outside the stadium where you can see the Shamu show) – and speaking of shows there are tons of great ones here. We found the park to be very clean and there were plenty of animals to stop and visit with as we walked from attraction to attraction.

Sounds fun..and dd loves animals so I know she will enjoy it! When you have gone, did you experience crazy lines? Is it a park I should have a touring plan for, or will we be safe to wing it?

a little late, but I'm subscribing! I'm planning our 1st trip to Disney (DH and I have both been, but 10-15 years ago!). We're bringing our almost 3 y/o and 1.5 year old. I love reading plans that include kids

I have picked up so many tips by reading TR involving toddlers and young children. We are in the same boat, I have been to WDW but it was in 1997. Mike has been twice (as a child in the early 80s and once almost 10 years ago!). Basically our experience amounts to very little, so all of my research on the boards is essential!

 

[lledman]

Sounds fun..and dd loves animals so I know she will enjoy it! When you have gone, did you experience crazy lines? Is it a park I should have a touring plan for, or will we be safe to wing it?

My oldest DS is 7 years older than his brother and 9 years older than his sister, so we have to please varying crowds. I did go with a semi tour plan each time = hit up the big coaster (think it's called Kracken) first thing and then after that we just tried to make our way around the park and hit the show times so we didn't have to cross back and forth a thousand times. The coaster and water drop ride (similar to Splash MT) had lines - like crazy lines - everything else we encountered was a normal wait - like maybe wait 2 ride rotations or less. And we never encountered a full theater for any of the shows except Believe. We did grab a seat early for Believe and I think they were turning people away right before the show started (we went to the show right after lunch both trips so maybe timing had something to do with it). But the others we walked in maybe 5 minutes before show time and had decent seats.