My family joins me in Disney for the first time in 15 years!- time to go!

[taaren]

Cool about your sister joining! Always good to have more family along!

Love your must-do and would-like-to-do lists. I underestimated how much time it would take to do everything, and the TouringPlans were helpful, but we still missed a few on our would-like-to-do list.

 

[shalom]

How great if your sister gets to come along! And changing ressies from five to six shouldn't be much of a problem, either. Hope it all works out!

 

[librarygeek]

Cool about your sister joining! Always good to have more family along!

Love your must-do and would-like-to-do lists. I underestimated how much time it would take to do everything, and the TouringPlans were helpful, but we still missed a few on our would-like-to-do list.

I was mostly inspired by the short trip we took with DH's family, when there were 12 people and we spent way too much time standing around going, "where do we want to go next?" Then trying to get them all to one place, especially since we had some older people that didn't move as fast as the young ones, and we didn't get to all of the things we wanted. So I thought it was a good idea to try and figure some of it out ahead of time!

How great if your sister gets to come along! And changing ressies from five to six shouldn't be much of a problem, either. Hope it all works out!

Thanks! That's what I'm hoping... I imagine that most groups of 5 would be seated at a 6 person table anyway so it should be an easy adjustment. The only one I'm really worried about is Be Our Guest, but I know my brother won't eat anything there anyway, so if we have to I'm sure he'll be okay with doing something else while we eat there. So at least we have a backup plan!

 

[librarygeek]

Planning Folders

For Christmas this year I gave everyone in my family that is coming on the trip a "Disney bag" to get them excited and informed! I'll try to post pictures of their gift bags later, but one thing that everyone received was a planning folder. This was basically information they might need and place to store anything else we get. I just personalized a folder for each family member with some Disney stickers:

Some of the things included in the folder were our vacation schedule (which day we would be visiting which park, and what hours that park is open), a list of our dining reservations, the list we made of must-do attractions, guide maps, info on the flower and garden festival, and an FAQ sort of thing to answer their questions about fastpass, photopass, driving directions, and whatever else.

I think my parents really appreciated it, but my brother took one look and said, "This better not be homework!" I thought I was done with this but since my sister is coming I'll be making up a bag for her for her birthday, which is in March!

 

[shalom]

I think my parents really appreciated it, but my brother took one look and said, "This better not be homework!"

Sounds like my eldest son. He's maybe starting to get that the stuff I print out for trips is meant to be fun (or to increase fun), but his instinct is still "work!" whenever he sees printouts or folders or anything. I print out the diary pages from enchanted learning's Vacation Memory Book and the license plate and landmarks pages from the Car Travel one and anything else they request; sometimes we fill them out faithfully, sometimes not.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/books/vacation/

 

[Disney9.9.10]

You must be so excited that your sister is (probably) coming!! And what a great idea for Christmas. It takes time to put that kind of stuff together so I'm sure they appreciated it.

 

[librarygeek]

Sounds like my eldest son. He's maybe starting to get that the stuff I print out for trips is meant to be fun (or to increase fun), but his instinct is still "work!" whenever he sees printouts or folders or anything. I print out the diary pages from enchanted learning's Vacation Memory Book and the license plate and landmarks pages from the Car Travel one and anything else they request; sometimes we fill them out faithfully, sometimes not.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/books/vacation/

Thanks for that link! It's really cute stuff there. I especially like the license plate checklist, that's something we used to do all the time when we were kids! Even though we're older now it would still be something fun to do.

You must be so excited that your sister is (probably) coming!! And what a great idea for Christmas. It takes time to put that kind of stuff together so I'm sure they appreciated it.

Thank you!

 

[librarygeek]

Soooo remember that time when I posted that my sister was (probably) coming? And the probably was in parentheses? Yeah, it turned out to be a no-go It initially looked like she could get the week off because she had enough vacation days, but now it turns out that they have some important meeting that week that she really can't miss. So she won't be coming. It's a bit disappointing!

 

[rebeccaariel]

It's too bad your sister can't join you but I know you'll still have an awesome time! Maybe bring back a special souvenir for her

 

[librarygeek]

It's too bad your sister can't join you but I know you'll still have an awesome time! Maybe bring back a special souvenir for her

I think that's a great idea! I'll have to pick out an awesome souvenir for her.

 

[librarygeek]

Unfortunately the bad luck continues! Took my car for inspection today and found out there's a part that needs to be replaced - for $2,000. The car is already over 10 years old, so I don't know if I want to invest that much into it. Now I have to think about buying a new (well, it would be used, but new to me!) car. How does that relate to this Disney trip? Well, it doesn't, a lot, but we do have to re-evaluate our budget in general. We've saved enough that it won't mean any cancelled trips, but perhaps cutting back in other ways! For instance, I'm thinking that driving down would definitely save us some money over flying, especially the way that flight prices are right now. It would also mean that I could save my Southwest gift card and reward points for our August trip.

I don't want to cut any of our dining reservations (especially since this isn't just my trip!), but I'm also going to think more about splitting meals. Maybe with DH, or even with my mom as she doesn't eat a lot either. Less souvenirs, definitely. Any other ideas on how to save a couple extra bucks? We are already fairly budget-oriented, and don't spend a lot extra on things in general.

 

[librarygeek]

Not too much to update on! My February trip is in one month so I'm really concentrating on that right now.

I also started a PTR for my August trip. I'm really all over the place with that one, not sure what we'll be doing for the majority of the trip! So if you're interested in helping me figure it out, or just want to follow along, you can find that one here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?p=47129696


I do have a little bit of good news, however. We were able to temporarily repair my car so it would pass inspection. It's not a permanent fix by any means, so we still have to look into buying a new car, but at least we have some time to figure all of that out.

 

[shalom]

I do have a little bit of good news, however. We were able to temporarily repair my car so it would pass inspection. It's not a permanent fix by any means, so we still have to look into buying a new car, but at least we have some time to figure all of that out.

Well, that's good. Buying a car in a rush is a pain, so I'm glad you managed to buy yourselves some time.

Bummer that your sister can't go. I like the idea of getting her something special. Maybe you could get her a little special treat, like Mickey-shaped pasta, or one of those snack mixes with crackers shaped like Mickey heads or whatever? I tend to think of those as "a little piece of Disney magic". If she's a pin collector, there are a couple of pins connected to New Fantasyland out, and a lot of cool stuff in the store in Belle's village -- a light-up cup and things.

OTOH, since she can't go, maybe you'd want something not so park-specific; there's a cart in downtown Disney that has some nice stencil art if your sister likes cats, and a lot of beautiful pieces in Mexico, China and Japan, both cats and dragons and (in Mexico) just about any other animal you might mention. My girls and I had fun perusing the big store in Japan; my sister had just gotten back from Japan when we all got together at Christmas, and we found a lot of the kind of things she gave for Christmas presents there!

 

[librarygeek]

Well, that's good. Buying a car in a rush is a pain, so I'm glad you managed to buy yourselves some time.

Bummer that your sister can't go. I like the idea of getting her something special. Maybe you could get her a little special treat, like Mickey-shaped pasta, or one of those snack mixes with crackers shaped like Mickey heads or whatever? I tend to think of those as "a little piece of Disney magic". If she's a pin collector, there are a couple of pins connected to New Fantasyland out, and a lot of cool stuff in the store in Belle's village -- a light-up cup and things.

OTOH, since she can't go, maybe you'd want something not so park-specific; there's a cart in downtown Disney that has some nice stencil art if your sister likes cats, and a lot of beautiful pieces in Mexico, China and Japan, both cats and dragons and (in Mexico) just about any other animal you might mention. My girls and I had fun perusing the big store in Japan; my sister had just gotten back from Japan when we all got together at Christmas, and we found a lot of the kind of things she gave for Christmas presents there!

Thanks for the suggestions! Some of those are great ideas... she's a Beauty and the Beast fan, so I'll definitely be on the lookout in the new Fantasyland section (and for Winnie the Pooh stuff, because she loves Pooh too!). And she does in fact love cats and has two of them, so that stencil art sounds really intriguing. I'll look for that. Thanks, you have so many good ideas!

 

[librarygeek]

Disney Gifts

I wanted to share the Disney "gift bags" I gave to my family for Christmas to get them excited and prepared for the trip. They each got a gift in one of the reusable bags (I forgot to take pictures of all the gifts before I gave them, so I'm using the one I gave to my husband as an example):

Inside each bag was a Disney t-shirt (DH got a Mickey shirt to match my favorite Minnie shirt), a water bottle for the parks, a vinylmation, a small stuffed animal, a pin (his is the genie, stuck onto Mr. Pricklepants), a button (I'm Celebrating for my mom, brother, and DH, and Happy Birthday for me and my dad), and the folder that I posted about earlier:

Everyone seemed pretty happy with their gifts! My brother really liked his Nightmare Before Christmas shirt that I got him, and my dad got a shirt with Goofy and "grill master" on it. Though my parents think vinylmations are creepy looking lol!

 

[shalom]

And she does in fact love cats and has two of them, so that stencil art sounds really intriguing. I'll look for that.

Glad if I could help. The cart is near the Pin Trader's store, kind of between there and Goofy's Candy Store if I remember rightly. At least it was there in 2011 and I sure thought I saw it this month, although we went racing by and never got back to make sure. I wanted to get some more prints there myself!

I love the bags you set up, especially with the individualized pins and t-shirts and stuff. Although I must confess I share your family's opinion of vinylmations.

 

[librarygeek]

Things I Need to Do:

-pre-order Photopass CD
-Sign my dad and I up for the Landry's Club
-book hotel rooms for the drive down and back
I'm sure there's more, but my mind is a blank!

We've decided that we are going to drive down, and want to book a place to stay ahead of time. I'm thinking somewhere in South Carolina would be a good stopping point. DH's mom works for Marriott, so I was hoping there would be a place we could use her associate rate and get a low price on a room, but so far there's nothing too great off of I-95. Very few discounts for that area and the weekend we'll be travelling. So I'll just have to keep my eyes peeled for the next month or two. My dad also has a Hilton credit card with rewards points that he uses for Hampton Inn often, so I'll check with him and see if he has point he'd like to use.

 

[rebeccaariel]

I'm thinking of getting Photopass too, the plus one, but I can't decide if its worth it! I love ride photos so it seems like it would be but I don't want to make a mistake and buy something I'll regret, because it isn't cheap. Also we do have one character meal where photos aren't included in the price of the meal so I've got to factor that in too.

 

[Duzzygirl]

Love the Disney gift bags! That was a great idea.

I am another one looking to get the Photopass CD. Preordered it for our last trip and it was so worth it. So, I'm also considering the Plus option this time too.

 

[danceintherain]

Congrats on getting your Masters! I've been considering a Masters in Library Science for a while, but I can't decide if it's the best choice for me.
I was also a Disneymooner back in 2009! It's really the best place to go.

I was mostly inspired by the short trip we took with DH's family, when there were 12 people and we spent way too much time standing around going, "where do we want to go next?" Then trying to get them all to one place, especially since we had some older people that didn't move as fast as the young ones, and we didn't get to all of the things we wanted. So I thought it was a good idea to try and figure some of it out ahead of time!



Thanks! That's what I'm hoping... I imagine that most groups of 5 would be seated at a 6 person table anyway so it should be an easy adjustment. The only one I'm really worried about is Be Our Guest, but I know my brother won't eat anything there anyway, so if we have to I'm sure he'll be okay with doing something else while we eat there. So at least we have a backup plan!

During my last trip with my family, there was actually a moment when we were all standing next to the Wait Times board in DHS which had a posted wait of 70 minutes (or some such nonsense) for RnRC, and the rest of the family was like "we should go over there and check." Umm...yeah...I'm not doing that.
I should have taken more planning control for that trip, but I thought they'd all be opposed.

Unfortunately the bad luck continues! Took my car for inspection today and found out there's a part that needs to be replaced - for $2,000. The car is already over 10 years old, so I don't know if I want to invest that much into it. Now I have to think about buying a new (well, it would be used, but new to me!) car. How does that relate to this Disney trip? Well, it doesn't, a lot, but we do have to re-evaluate our budget in general. We've saved enough that it won't mean any cancelled trips, but perhaps cutting back in other ways! For instance, I'm thinking that driving down would definitely save us some money over flying, especially the way that flight prices are right now. It would also mean that I could save my Southwest gift card and reward points for our August trip.

I don't want to cut any of our dining reservations (especially since this isn't just my trip!), but I'm also going to think more about splitting meals. Maybe with DH, or even with my mom as she doesn't eat a lot either. Less souvenirs, definitely. Any other ideas on how to save a couple extra bucks? We are already fairly budget-oriented, and don't spend a lot extra on things in general.

Yuck. I hate car shopping. We're trying to get a second vehicle right now, and it's not going well. We also live kind of in the middle of nowhere, so our selection isn't very big, unless we want to travel for it.