Mentally Preparing: A Focker, A Croc & Waldo hit POFQ! Trip Report Link is UP!

[princessjv]

Well, we got final confirmation on DNeph's deployment to Iraq. He'll be sent out on July 4th.

I will kep him in my prayers!

That is so sweet...I can't wait for lil'l diz to have favorite teachers

Love it! You and V are da queens!

I have to look into these for my next trip! cept...I'm not a wally girl...bit unwilling considering my retirement is rolled into the red bullseye.

But...Maybe I could try...

I also read on someone elses TR about kids meals and how they had a hard time finding what their kids liked, so I also made a CS food spreadsheet for each park and put them with the touring plans.

OMG...You are DA QUEEN! What a great idea!

I am so excited for you! Just a hop skip and a jump and you will be in WDW...sweating, but enjoying the magic!

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

You know you will be lining up at Ritmo Latino to score you some tickets!

And you know this!

Your so lucky!! Enjoy it, I know I would be

I'm really trying to enjoy it.... I think this is my last summer home. Thinking of going back to work, at least part-time.

Great idea, love the cards, now for TGM, I just have not been able to get into, maybe once the January/February hours are out I'll be all but right now I am not feeling mr.mike

Give Mike a chance. Jan/Feb hours aren't out yet. I promise, Mike will deliver!

How do you like the Athens, I really am thinking about getting some, I cant get caymans with my big old feet, besides I would be setting myself up for some serious family clowning

I love the Athens. See but I'm a flip flop kinda girl. Unless it's raining or I'm going somewhere where flips are not appropriate, then that's all I'll wear.

Thats why I like the red eye overnight flight, we all knock out and doesn't even seem like a long flight. If only they had an overnight return flight

I'm thinking of doing the redeye in May. Which airlines do you fly? And what about when you get to WDW? Aren't you tired? Do you usually get into a room at that hour?

DLM: I love what you did with the itenerary. If you don't mind, I might steal this idea. Janet

Steal away my friend! As Maddie would say, Sharing is caring!

Hey you got a problem with the Spice Girls? I plan on sitting front row center... NOT! Can we say last decade's trash?

The Spice Girls are like a bad car accident, you can't help but look.

I love the kids scutes, but I am not crazy about the adult ones. I posted this in V's report but, I just got me some Patras and so far I love them. Hoping to test drive them in October.

I'm thinking of getting the Patras as well. I need something in a chocolate/khaki color.

That's great that everyone is starting to get psyched about the trip. I am really looking forward to the post trip report. Can't wait to hear about Waldo

OMG, Mo! Waldo is driving me nutso with his Disney Rewards card! I've explained it 1/2 million times and he just doesn't get it.

I'm envious of how organized you are. I tried to be organized but I didn't go so far as writing up a list of everything and the order we would do it or anything like that.

I'm orgainzed by nature. The Enabler is even MORE organized than I am, believe it or not. Must be hereditary.

When we got to the Magic Kingdom I told DH the things we should do first and we needed to get a fast pass right away for something, anything. At first I was thinking POTC then I noticed on the map that it wasn't a fast pass ride. I pointed that out and DH got all snippy and said, "What do you do all day on that message board?" Me thinks I'm found out!

That's funny!!!

Just bring them up to the oven known as Bakersfield for a day.... then they'll be glad!
Honestly, though... right now, Florida's worse with that humidity.... It sucks the life right out of you!

OMG, you are so right! As soon as the air hit my lungs.... poooooosh!!! I was hyperventilating!!

It is taking every fiber of my being not to watch the Nemo subs video.... I'm waiting until I get to go back to DL in Sept... I was soooooo tempted to stop over today while driving home from San Diego - it took a LOT to resist the temptation!

I knew there was no way I could wait until Sept, that why I bit the bullet and went before the summer crowds. Let's just say.... IT ROCKS!!!

I have to look into these for my next trip! cept...I'm not a wally girl...bit unwilling considering my retirement is rolled into the red bullseye.

ITA! I'm a Target girl, 100%, but Wallymart is the only place that had this stuff!

 

[DisneyJo]

Does Jo know about the Spice Girls Reunion???? They are her favorite group, you know!

Jo, your a TGMer, your planning should be "practically perfect in everyway", no?

I need to do a bit more work obviously

I don't know... but I'm think of buying tickets.

I'm definately going to try and get tickets my sister and I were talking about it yesterday, last year we saw Take That (do you have them over there?) and they were excellent

I heard Jo's a backup dancer. She did win the "So you think you can Dance?" British version.

OMG

 

[twob4him]

First and foremost: Have you all heard???


Onward and upward.....
Well, we got final confirmation on DNeph's deployment to Iraq. He'll be sent out on July 4th. Interesting choice of dates, I thought. But, we pray for his safety and are a little comforted by the fact that he is not on the front lines. He's a helicopter mechanic, so he's behind the scenes really, but still scary. I can't imagine how families of soldiers on the front lines feel. It must be agony awaiting their safe return. R will be there for 15 months. That's a long time away from your family.

OMGoodness...what a date to be sent out but like you said it's good he is behind the scenes...how old is he? I will keep him and your family in my prayers

With school out, I thought I'd have more time to DIS, but apparently, my kids have other plans for me. I have to keep them entertained 24/7 now and it's not been easy. We spend our mornings doing the normal household things... running errands, cleaning, etc. and our afternoons out in the pool. We're done with Disneyland and any other local theme parks for the summer, so were just preparing for our trip........

Don't you just love the summer? !


Here's Maddie on the last day of school with one of her favorite teachers.

Awwwww how cute


Ok... so what have I been doing in preparations of our incredible Disney World trip in ... let's see.... t-minus 54 days.. not including weekends or holidays...is 39, not including travel day or today... make it.... t-minus 37 days, using FDM, of course!

Gotta love FDM!!

So I've been getting our touring plan together with the help of lover boy, TGM and UOG. I prefer TGM day plans and UOG's night time plans. I went on a hunt for the awesome color coded Rolodex covers V used, but came up empty handed. So I had to improvise. I got all our touring plans set up on a spreadsheet and printed it out on colored paper. I found some nifty little clear ID pouches and rings from Wallymart and created this:

Oh that looks great!!! Very professional and organized as all Dissers should be


I also read on someone elses TR about kids meals and how they had a hard time finding what their kids liked, so I also made a CS food spreadsheet for each park and put them with the touring plans. This way, when it's meal time, I'll know exactly where we could go for what we wanted, KWIM?

Very good idea...what does KWIM mean?

I'm also finishing up our travel notebooks with our itinerary and stuff. I'm just waiting for our travel documents from my TA and then I should be done with them. Here's a sneak peek, for now.

I've got Evan packed, and Maddie whined about wanting to pack herself. So I let her, knowing full well that I'll have to re-pack her when I get some more ziploc bags from Dollar Tree.

OK I tried the ziplock bag thing...and I will never travel any other way. The clothes stayed all neat and airtight in their bags so if you dug thru the suitcase...it didnt mess everything up!

All the CROCS have arrived, here are Maddie's lavendar scutes... cute, huh?

Awwww these are precious...how cute!

I totally forgot to tell you about the coolest hat I found for Evan when I picked up his new stroller. It's awesome and he loves it as much as I do!! That's my boy! Of course we're saving it for WDW.

Cool hat...that will stand out in a crowd! Very Dis-like too!

It's an insulated tote bag to stash waters and stuff. It fits perfectly in the basket of the stroller! Thanks to Cathy (twob4him) as she is the one who gave me the idea from her PTR.

Hey thanks for the shout-out....we used ours every day and now I use it for the beach etc. Worked great!

I still have to get the kids their stuff for the plane. I buy little nick nack toys, games, new crayons, etc. Oh and we have to buy a new portable DVD player since ours broke recently. 5 hours is a long time to keep little ones occupied, so we carry alot of provisions!

5 hours I was restless after 1 hour....I don't envy you that plane ride

I'm happy to report there's been no drama from the Ducks or the Waldos. They did each paid their trips off this week! Everyone is getting excited and it seems all our conversations lately have been about the trip. My Dnephs, Huey and Dewey keep asking me questions about all the different ride and which park has what and who's riding with who on what. It's all very amusing to watch the magic start to unfold. Everyone is freaking out about the heat and humidity. On hot days, the boys will call and say "Aunt Tracy, is it as hot as today in Florida?" Boy are they in for a surprise......

All I can say is

That's all for now, guys!

Great update...its getting ever so close...all the sudden you will be going!

 

[Sabrina90744]

Give Mike a chance. Jan/Feb hours aren't out yet. I promise, Mike will deliver!

I hope so, January hours should be out so I will be spending lots of time with your lover today

I love the Athens. See but I'm a flip flop kinda girl. Unless it's raining or I'm going somewhere where flips are not appropriate, then that's all I'll wear.

Me to, I am always in flip flops, did you order yours in your standard size or smaller/bigger?

I'm thinking of doing the redeye in May. Which airlines do you fly? And what about when you get to WDW? Aren't you tired? Do you usually get into a room at that hour?

I love the redeye, I was thinking about taking the Delta day flight for the next trip, but after talking to my kids they hate to waste a whole Disney day. So we will be leaving on a Wednesday night.

Our first trip on United, was the regular 5 hour flight so we slept, by the time we arrived at MCO we were wide awake and headed straight to Epcot and made our only rope drop. We stayed at Epcot until around 3 then went back to POP and swam and went to bed early.

This past trip was on Delta, it was only a 3 1/2 hour flight, so we were at POP in our room by 6:00 a.m. We slept until around 11, ate, swam and headed to DD.

I preferred Delta and will only be taking Delta from now on. United seems more uncomfortable and we were delayed by several hours on both return flights. So we wont be flying United again.

I just prefer the red eye because it doesnt seem as long and we still have a whole day in Disney

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

We're coming down to the wire, right? We've got 50 days, less weekends and holidays...gives us roughly 34 days. You know you really gotta hand it to V and her Fuzzy Disney System. Which I seriously think she should patent, TFI.

Where was I? Oh yes, so my loverly friend, S'late PM's me and lets me know of the new menu changes at Rose & Crown and kindly offers me dibs on her "back-up" ADR's. I immediately head to allears and check out the "new" menu. UH-OH!! Gone are the 3 things we were going for... bye-bye Chicken pasty, Guinesse beef stew and steak dinner. This is not looking good. R&C now has 3 new menu items that look YUCKY! What am I going to do this late in the game? It's our last night in Disneyworld and I wanted a lovely dinner followed by cruising WS.

So, I start doing some research on the other WS restaurants. I break it down to 3 choices: Biergarten, Chefs de France, and Marrakesh. Biergarten was a finalist because as I recall V mentioned she really enjoyed it and what about the giant beer steins, weiners galore and an oompa band?? Gotta love it. Then I chose Chefs because they have a new menu that looks good and in all honesty, who can turn down profiterolles??? Certainly not I! And finally we have Marrakesh....which I chose really for Waldo, Andy and Donald. I knew they'd enjoy the belly dancer and I read the Moroccan beer was super tasty. Basically the winner came down to where ever I could get a table for 10. I called Dining Reservations this morning and booked us for Marrakesh. Chefs de France doesn't have tables for 10 and we would have to sit at 3 different tables at 3 different times. Forget it. We ate there last year and while it wasn't great, I was willing to give it another shot. Cest la vie! Andy vetoed Biergarten, knowing my distaste for weiners, sausage and any mystery meat incased in animal intestine. What a sweet guy! I finally cancelled our extra ADR for Teppanyaki and also cancelled Rose and Crown.

I took a look at our itinerary and start thinking maybe hitting Animal Kingdom 2 mornings in a row isn't too wise. Perhaps I should change one to an MGM morning. I pull out Lovers best days spreadsheet and see that I can switch the 23rd from AK to MGM and switch the 28th from MGM to AK. The only thing is I was hoping to stalk Jo at AK on the 23rd, but I'm afraid that won't happen. S'late has an Mama Melrose ADR that I'm hoping to take from her on 8/28 so we can switch our Boma night to the 23rd and our Mama Melrose night to the 28th. KWIM? Everyone with me?? I called Dining AGAIN and got Boma for 8/23 at 7:10. Now I just need to confirm with S'late on that MM ressie.

So here's our new itinerary:

8/21 Arrive 5ish - Dinner @ Boatwrights/ Hit DTD
8/22 Epcot AM - MK Pm Dinner CP
8/23 MGM Am- Boma Dinner
8/24 AK Am - Spoodles Dinner, IROE Cruise
8/25 Pool @ SSR - Dinner Kona
8/26 MK AM - Epcot PM Dinner LeCellier
8/27 DTD AM - MK Dinner CRT
8/28 AK Am - MGM PM Mama Melrose Dinner
8/29 Epcot AM&PM - Coral Reef Lunch(12pm) & Marrakesh Dinner (7pm)

Hopefully that's all for now - I'm not reprinting anything until a week before we leave!

 

[DisneyJo]

R&C now has 3 new menu items that look YUCKY!

Have they put Pork Pies on the menu? So what yucky English food is it?

who can turn down profiterolles???

Oooh yummy

I knew they'd enjoy the belly dancer

What a good wife

The only thing is I was hoping to stalk Jo at AK on the 23rd, but I'm afraid that won't happen.

J/K

Hopefully that's all for now - I'm not reprinting anything until a week before we leave!

Yeah right we'll believe that when we see it LY/MI

 

[boysmom5150]

Hi
somehow I am with ya and your changes
I hate when all ADRs made and you find out menus have changed and you hate the new menu . Starting from scratch late in the game is stinky , but it looks like you have it all worked out . A true Disser you are.
What do you do for breakfast??
Why are you swimming at SSR?Can you do that even though your staying at POR or have you changed resorts to SSR and I lost ya somewhere??
I know if your staying at at DVC prop you can poolhop but didnt know about this....please fill me in
Oh do you really think you are not reprinting your itin?????

 

[jcc0621]

WOW, Based on FDM I only have 28 days (not counting holiday, weekends, today and the day you leave) I LIKE FDM

If there is one thing I have learned is never print up, laminate until the day before you leave. More changes are always around the bend

That's ok about stalking Jo. I can do so for you at MK on the 18th and Epcot on the 22nd J/K

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Have they put Pork Pies on the menu? So what yucky English food is it?

Pork Pies!!
The took out all the good stuff and put in crap like Vegatable pie and some Tea Time Chicken. What's up with that?? [/QUOTE]

Hi
somehow I am with ya and your changes

Somehow I knew you would be.

I hate when all ADRs made and you find out menus have changed and you hate the new menu . Starting from scratch late in the game is stinky , but it looks like you have it all worked out . A true Disser you are.

I think the fact that I like late dinners (after 7pm) really helped.

What do you do for breakfast??

Last year we just grabbed coffee from the Poly coffee stand. This year, we'll probably make runs to the food court for grab and go things. We're not really breakfast people.

Why are you swimming at SSR?Can you do that even though your staying at POR or have you changed resorts to SSR and I lost ya somewhere??
I know if your staying at at DVC prop you can poolhop but didnt know about this....please fill me in

Shhhh!!! Me, Maddie and Evan are meeting up with V, LL and Jo at the SSR pool. Hopefully they don't 86 Jo and I!

That's ok about stalking Jo. I can do so for you at MK on the 18th and Epcot on the 22nd J/K

Ooooh!!! Janet! I'll be at Epcot too on the 22nd! Stalkers unite!

 

[puggymom]

I just have one comment about your last post...

I cannot wait to hear about Waldo and the bellydancers

 

[boysmom5150]

Shhhh!!! Me, Maddie and Evan are meeting up with V, LL and Jo at the SSR pool. Hopefully they don't 86 Jo and I!

Oh thats right I forgot about ladies day at the pool, sorry
Mums the words and dont worry as long as your there with someone staying there or a dvc member you should have no probs at all
BTW--Im jealous I wont be there with you guys.
Everyone better take good pics and lots of notes

 

[cmp1111]

We really enjoyed Marrakesh - I hope you'll be happy. Way to go on getting the changes you wanted!

 

[WDWHeather]

I heard that the WS restaurants were all having some changes but I wasn't sure what or when or how. Sounds like R&C was one up for change. I haven't eaten there ever because, no offense Jo, but all the offerings sounded weird.

Glad you switched it around and worked it out. I was going to tell you that my bud, cmp1111 liked Marrakesh, but she already did!!

 

[sorul82?]

Of course you can have my MM ADR!

 

[jcc0621]

Ooooh!!! Janet! I'll be at Epcot too on the 22nd! Stalkers unite!

This is me and DH's me time. DS will be at home with grandmom Grandpop. I am thinking drinking around the world (or at least 1/2 way around) is in order

 

[twob4him]

Wow...I do like your schedule as long as you dont stay up tooo late at night you should have good mornings at the parks....it has a really nice flow. I love the ADR choices too! I really enjoyed Boma and I see it on your list!

Gosh.....looking at it makes me want to go back now!!!

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

Tracy, you are so funny! I love how you keep changing your ADRs. And if Waldo gets invitied to dance with the belly dancer at dinner, you MUST get video and share with us. When my oldest son was 3 he got up there and shook his money maker. I nearly spit out my couscous

 

[PrincessV]

You know you really gotta hand it to V and her Fuzzy Disney System. Which I seriously think she should patent, TFI.

Yeah, but then I'd have to charge you guys royalties each time you use it.... wait, that could be my DVC add-on fund!

Oh yes, so my loverly friend, S'late PM's me and lets me know of the new menu changes at Rose & Crown and kindly offers me dibs on her "back-up" ADR's. I immediately head to allears and check out the "new" menu. UH-OH!! Gone are the 3 things we were going for... bye-bye Chicken pasty, Guinesse beef stew and steak dinner.

I know it's too late, but when I was at R&C end of May, the menu did not match what allearsnet is showing for lunch. Dinner, I don't know about, though.

So, I start doing some research on the other WS restaurants. I break it down to 3 choices: Biergarten, Chefs de France, and Marrakesh. Biergarten was a finalist because as I recall V mentioned she really enjoyed it and what about the giant beer steins, weiners galore and an oompa band??

Yep, yep, I loved the Biergarten! BUT, I'm all about seeing pics of Waldo at Marrakesh!

Hopefully that's all for now - I'm not reprinting anything until a week before we leave!

Uh, okay...

 

[DisneyJo]

Everyone better take good pics and lots of notes

Errrr you do not want to see pool photos but we'll take loads at Kona that night

I haven't eaten there ever because, no offense Jo, but all the offerings sounded weird.

That's OK