May 2014- 25 days left! Taking a 4 & 3yr old to the World!

[amberdc1987]

Hi!! My name is Amber and from here on out I will be known as Me!! I've not done this before so this should be interesting. But I feel that this trip should be documented for my girls sake. You see this my girls 1st trip to the World!! And we will be celebrating my oldests 5th birthday and my Dads 50th birthday; so this is kind of a big deal for me. I have been waiting on this trip since I got pregnant 5 years ago! So let's get down to the introductions!!



I'm Amber aka Me!-- I'm 26 yes old. I have been to the world 5 times; last time was our honeymoon in 2008! So needless to say I'm ready to get back! I am a Medical Assistant in a doctors office and I love it! I am a super geek! I love Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Sherlock, etc. I also love football!! I am a huge Alabama Crimson Tide fan and Seattle Seahawks!! ROLL TIDE!!

My DH aka DH- He is 27 years old. He has been to the world 3 times. He doesn't love it as much as the rest of my family, but he loves me and loves his girls!! He is also a super geek! Loves all the same things I do! He also loves video games, I just watch.



These are our girls!

DD4 (right)- This trip mainly started out for her. She will be 5 in June and she wanted to go to Disney World for her birthday. Sounds like a good excuse to me! She loves Cinderella, Ariel, pretty much anything Princess. She absolutely loves Frozen! She is very excited about this trip. She is tall enough to ride most of the rides and she can't wait! Right now she says she will ride TOT, we will shall see. (Shoot I don't even know if I'll ride it)

DD3 (left)-- She is my little terror, don't let her adorableness fool you. She does what she wants, when she wants to and there is no changing her mind lol. (That should be fun this trip) She loves Mickey/Minnie Mouse, Woody and Buzz, Belle, and Aurora. She also absolutely loves Frozen! She is super excited about this trip and can't wait to meet all the characters.



Also traveling with us are my parents. They are avid Disney goers, so much in fact that within the past year they moved from Alabama to Disney World! (The picture above was taken in Disney World, shocker!) Well 45 mins from there, but a lot closer than my 8 hours! They are there practically every weekend!

Meme-- She has been to Disney more times than I can count. She loves Lady from Lady and the Tramp. She loves thrill rides. She is normally the crazy person in the rides laughing loudly and throwing her hands up in the air, but she has fun and that's all that matters. (Love ya Ma) I love my mom very much, not just a mom but a friend. She loves our girls very much and has been wanting to take them to Disney since before they were born. Ya see me and my mom use to work together. That meant never taking a family trip because we couldnt be off at the same time. And she really wants to take her babies (as she puts them) to Disney World. So when the chance came for them to move to FL a year ago they took it! So she has been waiting on this trip as long as I have!

Pops-- He has also been to the World more times than I can count. His favorite Disney character is Goofy. He loves the Haunted Mansion! Funny story, the first time I went to Disney I was 13, on a band trip. On the day we went to MK my dad made me go on HM. I am terrified of ghosts! Well I spent the entire ride with my head buried in his side. Its funny now, not so much then. We will be celebrating is 50th birthday on this trip. He is also a huge football fan!! Loves the Alabam Crimson Tide and Seattle Seahawks (hmm wonder where I get it from)

That's all for now!! Next will be the Where, When and our plans!!

 

[amberdc1987]

55 Days!!! Not that I'm counting or anything .
Well, now that we have the introductions out of the way, let's get down to the details. After all, the details are what makes the trip.

The main reason of this trip is to celebrate DD4's 5th birthday and Pops 50th birthday. This is also DD4 and DD3 first trip. And to say their excited is an understatement. We normally go to Disney World around September, but that wasn't an option this time as DD4 will be in kindergarten in September, so we decided to go in May.

When: May 3 - May 9, 2014
Where:Pop Century
2 Standard Rooms (requested adjoining to my parents room, maybe the girls will go over and see their Meme and Pops. A girl can hope )

When we initially started planning this trip, the birthday girl wanted to stay at Art of Animation in a Little Mermaid room. However by time I got around to booking there were no rooms left. So naturally we went back to the place that we have used multiple times before, Pop Century. Now I know what people say about Value resorts. Blah, blah, blah....I love them!! They are the right price for a new family and they enable us to stay onsite. The only thing cheaper is Fort Wilderness campground and that is not an option in the heat of Summer. I have stayed at other resorts and there is a reason why we keep coming back to Pop. It makes you feel like a kid!! And afterall isnt that the whole reason behind Disney! Anyway, I've been showing both of the girls pictures and video of the resort, and each time I show them the pictures, the birthday girl points out that she thought we were going to stay in an Ariel room. Oh well, I digress. I will keep showing them and I'm hoping maybe she'll forget about the Ariel room. (Yeah right )

Right now our schedule is as follows:

May 3rd- Arrival Day!!!
We will leave Alabama around 12AM CST and drive through the night to Disney World. We prefer to drive at night because there's less traffic and the girls should sleep. **fingers crossed** We should arrive in Disney World around 9 a.m. EST. I'm hoping when we get there that our rooms will be ready we can leave our stuff in our rooms. If not then we'll just head to the park!
Park: Epcot
Dining plans: Counter service Liberty Inn or possibly La Cantina de San Angel?
Goals: Hopefully to see Anna and Elsa. (I don't want to wait long but I'm fully prepared to stand in line for my girls, while they go have fun.
Pick a pearl in Japan
Get my first Grey Goose Slush (hey, this isn’t a trip just for the kids )
Subject my innocent family to the wonderful taste of Beverly at Club Cool. **insert evil laugh**
Fast Pass Rides: Spaceship Earth, Test Track, The Seas with Nemo
Our personalized map of Epcot!


May 4
Park- Magic Kingdom (Extra Magic Hours Nite)
Dining- Lunch - Casey's Corner or Pecos Bill
Dinner - Whispering Canyon Cafe
Goals- Hopefully see some Princess'. And get a Dole Whip!!
Fast Pass Rides- Buzz Lightyear, Peter Pan, Splash Mountain
We will take a break right after lunch. I'm hoping this will help the girls be able to make it thru the night. As with EMH, MK is open until 1am . We will skip the new FOF parade today and see it on one of our other days. Hoping to catch one of the showings of the Electrical Parade and Wishes!
Our personalized map of Magic Kingdom!


May 5
This day is our BBB morning. We have reservations for both girls at DTD. I can’t wait for this day! I know DD4 will be ecstatic about this. I still have some reservations about DD3. But she loves her hair being done and loves doing hair, so I’m hoping this will be good. After BBB we will start our park day!

Park- Hollywood Studios
Dining- No ADR’s this day. Will just wing it. Probably lunch/dinner at Pizza Planet and Rosie’s All American
Goals- DD4 wants to do Jedi Training Academy. We are going to try to go to HS first thing in the morning before their BBB appt and get her registered and then run down to DTD. I’m hoping this will work but i’m still unsure.
DD4 first ride on TOT!! To be honest I HATE this ride. I don’t like the uncertainty I guess, but I will never instill fear in my girls because of someting that I don’t like. (Except snakes, they know exactly how I feel about snakes!) I’ve ridden before and I always said the next time I would ride would be with my children on their first ride(s). And to be honest I really want the picture of her all dressed up in her Cinderella dress on TOT. (don’t judge me lol)
Fast Pass Rides- Star Tours, TSM, TOT



May 6
Park- Magic Kingdom (try to see all the Princess’ because DD4 will be dressed up as Cinderella and DD3 will be Belle.
Dining- Lunch - I’m hoping to do Be Our Guest. The girls will be dressed up in their princess dresses. And I would love to get a pic of DD4 and DD3 in their dresses in BOG.
Dinner - The Plaza Restaurant
Goals- Hit some of the rides we didn’t hit the first time in MK. See alot of the princess’.
Fast Pass Rides- Buzz Lightyear, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

May 7
Park- Today is our “rest day”. We have plans for Typhoon Lagoon and then shopping in DTD later in the evening.
Dining Plans- For lunch I’m not sure. For dinner we will have Earl of Sandwich in DTD.
Goals- I really want to get the girls a Sand Pail Ice Cream in TL. I’m also really excited about TL. DD4 loves water! We took her to a small waterpark close to our house and she loved it! There was alot there that she couldn’t do yet and was devastated. So being that TL doesn’t have alot of height requirements, except on a few things. I’m excited to see what she’ll actually do.

May 8
Park- Animal Kingdom
Dining- Lunch: Flame Tree BBQ or Rainforest Cafe
Dinner: at Pop’s wonderful food court! (gonna get me some tie dye cheesecake)
Goals- Actually see Dinosaur! This is more of a personal goal. I’ve been on Dinosaur three times in my life and never seen anything past the que to get into your “time machine” lol. It terrifies me that much! Once again DD4 does not know this, so I will show her the ride video and let her be the judge if she wants to ride or not.lol
Fast Pass Rides- Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids



May 9- Departure Day (cue sad music)
We will use this day to get everything ready to leave.We will head to MK one last time and hit anything we missed or anything we want to do again.

Wow that was alot of words!! Next up….ummmm...what’s next?

 

[amberdc1987]

Thanks to some wonderful DISigners on this board, I was able to get BBB invites for each girl and a welcome letter to go with their "Welcome to Disney" bags that i'm creating for them.







My mom also made this wonderful license plate for their stoller. I did also order another one, so we will have 2!

 

[courtthib]

Great plans so far! Following along from YC/BC thread! I'd say we'd be great friends but I saw "Roll Tide" and I'm an LSU student sooo.... All in good fun! I bet you're girls are super excited!! I can't wait to read more!

 

[amberdc1987]

Great plans so far! Following along from YC/BC thread! I'd say we'd be great friends but I saw "Roll Tide" and I'm an LSU student sooo.... All in good fun! I bet you're girls are super excited!! I can't wait to read more!

Just when I thought you were cool, ya make the LSU comment. Won't hold it against you. lol Nah, I'm so glad I have a reader. I was starting to wonder if I was just posting for my Mom who reads it but doesn't post lol.wave2: Ma)
I can't wait to hear all about your Disneymoon. I know you'll have a great time. There is nothing like it!

 

[amberdc1987]

We are at 50 days and a wake up!! I've been busy making shirts and working on autograph books. I have a lot of spare time recently because I was put on medical leave for a while. I have to have surgery in a few weeks. Praying for a complete recovery from it because there is only 5 weeks in between my surgery and our leave for Disney. To say i'm worried about it would be an understatement. Oh well...nothing I can do about it. Mine as well make use of the time I have right now. Sounds like a good excuse to work on Disney things! And there is alot more than normal to do for this trip. I know any parent who has taken their child to Disney knows what i'm talking about. It's alot of work anyway to take a child on any other vacation, but Disney just takes so much more planning....reservations, dining, packing, shirt making, autograph book desiging, window decorations planning. I know most of it might be for me and, let's face it, my Ma, but they will remember some of it...right?
Anywho....sorry extremely off topic. Like I said i've been working hard on their shirts. Managed to get almost all of them printed, now just have to put them on shirts. I have a few more left to do for the girls, but here is what I have so far:

Abby's


Emma's


I had already done their shirts for Animal Kingdom. Those I did with fabric and head and bond. They turned out pretty well.


I'm going to try to have all of their shirts done by the beginning of April so I can go ahead and pack everything. Don't judge me. Normally by now I would have everything packed already, the girls slow me down.

Also, in order to get the girls ready for Disney, they watch a Disney movie every night before bed. DD4, has been picking Aladdin (or Laddin as DD3 calls him) but that's just because we don't have Little Mermaid on VHS (they don't have a DVD player in their room, so unfortunate I know.) Hey I had to deal with rewinding a tape, and now...i still have to deal with rewinding a tape, but now it includes a 4 and 3 yr old complaining because it's not instantaneous. And DD3 has been picked Toy Story, every night!! Even i'm a little tired of Toy Story at this point, but that's okay. It will be worth it when she finally meets Woody and Buzz.
We also were able to watch the new FOF parade the other day. Thank you DIS for streaming it!! It was awesome! I lost my seat about 5 mins into the parade. Oh well the thief was cute.


That's all for now. Thanks to all who are reading! If ya want let me know you are there, if not then that's awesome to. Until next time.....

 

[courtthib]

Haha! I feel the same way with mine, my mom reads my PTR and "discretely" comments every once in a while just to bump it up....I don't ask her to, she's just nuts like that. I can't waittt for our Disneymoon. My DF is convinced that it needs to be a completely laid back, do what you want, no plans kind of trip...so I'm secretly keeping a notebook filed with all my over obsessive plans written down! What he doesn't know won't hurt him!

 

[courtthib]

We are at 50 days and a wake up!! I've been busy making shirts and working on autograph books. I have a lot of spare time recently because I was put on medical leave for a while. I have to have surgery in a few weeks. Praying for a complete recovery from it because there is only 5 weeks in between my surgery and our leave for Disney. To say i'm worried about it would be an understatement. Oh well...nothing I can do about it. Mine as well make use of the time I have right now. Sounds like a good excuse to work on Disney things! And there is alot more than normal to do for this trip. I know any parent who has taken their child to Disney knows what i'm talking about. It's alot of work anyway to take a child on any other vacation, but Disney just takes so much more planning....reservations, dining, packing, shirt making, autograph book desiging, window decorations planning. I know most of it might be for me and, let's face it, my Ma, but they will remember some of it...right?
Anywho....sorry extremely off topic. Like I said i've been working hard on their shirts. Managed to get almost all of them printed, now just have to put them on shirts. I have a few more left to do for the girls, but here is what I have so far:

Abby's


Emma's


I had already done their shirts for Animal Kingdom. Those I did with fabric and head and bond. They turned out pretty well.


I'm going to try to have all of their shirts done by the beginning of April so I can go ahead and pack everything. Don't judge me. Normally by now I would have everything packed already, the girls slow me down.

Also, in order to get the girls ready for Disney, they watch a Disney movie every night before bed. DD4, has been picking Aladdin (or Laddin as DD3 calls him) but that's just because we don't have Little Mermaid on VHS (they don't have a DVD player in their room, so unfortunate I know.) Hey I had to deal with rewinding a tape, and now...i still have to deal with rewinding a tape, but now it includes a 4 and 3 yr old complaining because it's not instantaneous. And DD3 has been picked Toy Story, every night!! Even i'm a little tired of Toy Story at this point, but that's okay. It will be worth it when she finally meets Woody and Buzz.
We also were able to watch the new FOF parade the other day. Thank you DIS for streaming it!! It was awesome! I lost my seat about 5 mins into the parade. Oh well the thief was cute.


That's all for now. Thanks to all who are reading! If ya want let me know you are there, if not then that's awesome to. Until next time.....

Didn't see this update before I posted! Love the shirts! Sorry to hear about your surgery, but I think you'll enjoy having so much time for Disney things! Praying all goes well and you have a speedy recovery!

 

[amberdc1987]

I hope everyone reading is enjoying it. Not much has happened that is new. I have been working on the girls shirts. I have all of the iron on's printed and matched with their color shirts. Just have to do iron them. We will have our tickets bought within the next week or so. I still have to reserve our double stroller from Kingdom Strollers. I will work on the girls autograph books next week...which I will be doing post surgery. What else am I suppose to do?
A great note! I received DD3 Belle dress today for their BBB appt. I was super excited about this and grateful to find a dress so tiny. She is very tiny for her age. Only 20th percentile. lol She is 3 and still wears 24 month clothes. Some of her shorts are 12-18 month. I ordered the dress a few weeks ago from Zulily (love that site!) I showed her the pic so she knew it was coming. She would ask me almost on a daily basis to "see her belle dress". So when her dress came in today and I showed it to her. I was expecting some sort of a reaction.... But all she did was smile at it Then I guess she realized what it was and started running around the house screaming "My Belle Dress!" There we go....that was the reaction I was looking for. Needless to say I tried the dress on her and then she didn't want to take it off...she wanted to sleep in it...lol.



That's all for now! Hopefully will get their shirts done by the end of this week!

 

[amberdc1987]

We are at 39 days! (or 38 days and a wake up!) It's getting so close and I can't wait. Trying to get alot done within today and tomorrow. I have surgery on Wednesday and will be recovering for a few weeks. Right now praying that I am ready for Disney World....don't want to have to buy a jazzy scooter... but I will if I have to. I have managed to get the girls shirts finished and my shirts...still working on family shirts (might not happen, we will see).
The girls shirts:



My shirts (i am still working on 2 of them):



I am almost through with their autograph books. Trying to decide if I'm going to assign a page to each character...or just go with it. Then I have to take them to Office Depot to have them bound.




I also have finished DD4's poster for our window. She helped me decorate it.



I also signed up for Touringplans.com. I'm not sure on this yet. I am a planner, don't get me wrong. I always plan where we are going to be and when...but not the extent of what ride we are going to ride at what time...i draw the line there. But I feel like I may need to do this for this trip because of the girls. What do y'all think? Which way do y'all prefer to do it?

Hopefully to get some more done tomorrow. Until next time...

 

[familyabgar]

You're getting so close! Your trip sounds like a ton of fun. We'll be there later in May.

I used TouringPlans for our trip, and while I don't know that I'll stick to the actual times I do like having it. I had no idea what was reasonable to expect, so I hope it's accurate! I don't want to just wing it and miss stuff, you know?

 

[courtthib]

First off, good luck tomorrow!! I will be praying for you! And hey, I don't think it would be so bad to ride one of those scooters around WDW! I kid, I am confident that you will have a speedy recovery and fully enjoy every minute of your trip!!

Second, I LOVE the shirts and autograph books you made! I also think the sign for the window is such an awesome idea. I hope the CMs will make lots of magical moments for your sweet girls!

Also, we use touring plans for every trip! If you have paid for the subscription you can download the app on your smart phone and just check the wait times from there. My mom updates our subscription every year and we all use it!

I'm sure y'all are getting so excited, I'm at 61 days and I'm planning to stay up until midnight tonight to book my FP+, haha!

 

[amberdc1987]

You're getting so close! Your trip sounds like a ton of fun. We'll be there later in May.

I used TouringPlans for our trip, and while I don't know that I'll stick to the actual times I do like having it. I had no idea what was reasonable to expect, so I hope it's accurate! I don't want to just wing it and miss stuff, you know?

Awesome! I'm still trying to get use to the Touring plans website. I love it though! I understand about missing stuff. We have taken every other trip before easily...not really planned anything because we have been so many times. But this time I want to make sure they experience everything because I don't know when we're going back

First off, good luck tomorrow!! I will be praying for you! And hey, I don't think it would be so bad to ride one of those scooters around WDW! I kid, I am confident that you will have a speedy recovery and fully enjoy every minute of your trip!!

Second, I LOVE the shirts and autograph books you made! I also think the sign for the window is such an awesome idea. I hope the CMs will make lots of magical moments for your sweet girls!

Also, we use touring plans for every trip! If you have paid for the subscription you can download the app on your smart phone and just check the wait times from there. My mom updates our subscription every year and we all use it!

I'm sure y'all are getting so excited, I'm at 61 days and I'm planning to stay up until midnight tonight to book my FP+, haha!

Thank you so much for the prayers! Everything went well. I am recovering at home now. I feel good already so I'm hoping that means I wil be great for Disney World in 35 days and a wake up! (Gah...can't believe it's that close!)

Nice to know about touring plans. I am happy with it so far. It's taking some getting use to but I'm figuring it out. My mom and dad are taking it on a dry run the next time they head to the park....so that'll give us general idea if it's going to work or not. How close are they normally on the wait times? I have been checking each day to see how they did the day before but I would love some more input from y'all.

 

[amberdc1987]

We are at 35 days and a wake up!! I can't wait! It still feels like we just hit double digits...yesterday. My surgery went well. Thanks everyone for the prayers and wonderful comments. I am now in the recovery stage...so lots of time to be on the computer. I realized that my girls have never seen Finding Nemo! I know i'm a horrible mother. So we are going to watch that tonight...otherwise they won't know what's going on..matter of fact my youngest keeps calling "Nemo", "Elmo" lol.

Anyway....since i'm kinda confined to a bed for the time being, I've started working on putting together their "Welcome to Disney" gift bags.
The picture in the middle is this wonderful reusable bag I found at the Dollar Tree!! Most reusable bags are huge...these are little. Perfect size for a 4 and 3 yr old. Included in the bags are: disney socks (spiderman is for DD4, she loves him), coloring book, crayons (appropriately named Pixie Dust
and I found them on clearance! how cool is that) We also have glow wands (bought each for $1, much cheaper than buying that stuff at Disney), glow bracelets and necklaces, Monsters Inc PJ's, disposable bibs for DD3 (she is messy and I got them on clearance for $2 for 10 of them!), Minnie Mouse tissues, and stickers that light up (bottom right) those are so cool!! The most expensive part of the bag was the PJ's at a whopping $5! lol
Total cost of the bags: just over $20 for both bags, including the pj's!
I also got them reusable water bottles..the ones that fold up flat...but i'm having their names put on them right now.



I have also rented our stroller from Kingdom Strollers, A double Citi Mini. I also have purchased our Memory Maker. We have never bought any photo pass pics before. I figured this trip was extremely important and we are going to utilize every photopass photographer we can find! That and with it being their first trip, DD4 5th bday, Pops 50th and them going to BBB (just the girls, not Pops ) I figure I will want a good portion of the pictures. So I figured it was in our best interest to get the Memory Maker. Hopefully it will be a good choice.

I also have started packing! With 4 people and a bunch of clothes and other stuff I figured I should start now lol.



I am using the bag system again. We used it when we went on our cruise in November and it worked very well! I have each day's clothes (for the girls ) put in a bag with the appropriate shorts and shirt. So all they have to do is pull the bag and get dressed. It saved so much time! And really saves a lot of space in the suitcase.

Once again, thanks to all my wonderful readers!

 

[amberdc1987]

We are 27 days! Actually less than that now. We have been so busy! DD4 started teeball this year and they have 2 practices a week and 2 games a week...i'm tired. I go back to work on Monday so . I'll be glad to have that money though.

I have managed to get all the girls shirts done. I thought I was starting to pack but then I realized I had to put bottoms with their shirts...geez...took forever! lol. This was my bed...trying to figure everything out...



We decided to do Pick a Pearl in Japan so I ordered these cages from Etsy! I love them and I think they are going to be great; something they can keep for awhile.



I don't know if y'all know this wonderful woman named Karen Hallion. She does mashups of Doctor Who **swoon** and Disney! I just love everything she does. She just recently did Frozen/Who shirts and I got them for me and the girls. I got the girls the Elsa one (they will get the Anna one later)...they freaked out when they got them!! OMG! They loved them!



I found these awesome fans at our local Liquidation outlet. (Let me tell you...I LOVE liquidation outlets..how did I not know about them before) They were only $1 and they spray water also! (I got a big one also..the ones like they sell at Disney for $10-$15!) I am going to put them on the bottom of the girls lanyards so they each have one. They work very well also.



I have been stocking up on Disney gift cards. I have been buying them at our local Winn Dixie. For every $50 you spend you get $.05 gas. So we will use the fuel perks for Disney Gas! Love buying Disney gift cards...and i'm spreading it out a little buying 1 or 2 each time I go to the store...kinda spreads the magic lol.

My next post will be OUR MAGICBANDS!! They are on their way and should be here the middle of next week. I can't wait! Until next time....

 

[amberdc1987]

THEY. ARE. FINALLY. HERE!!!! I'm so excited....got Mickey Mail today. Here are our bands!!




I showed my husband and he looked at me like I was nuts...then I showed my mother in law and she looked at me like I was nuts. What is with these people? It's Disney!! (I realize that not everyone gets excited about this...but come on..humor me lol) So I told them whatever...and went and called my parents and showed my girls. THEY were happy.

Here are the girls trying theirs on. I totally love how they get smaller. It's the perfect size for them!


On another note...I have been trying to find a "First Trip" shirt for my girls. I've been very picky about this shirt. I knew what I wanted but couldn't find it anywhere...so I did it myself...what do you think?


That's all for now.....i'm tired..first day back at work today.
24 days!!!