Oh no, you are not going to steal my joy! Our WDW 12/05 to 12/12 2009 experience.

[mickeysaver]

Howdy to one and all who take their time to read this thread.

The guests to be are me, Maggie, and my partner of the last 10 years, Gabby. For our 10th Anniversary, she gave us the gift of pixie dust. (I will spare you the resort change and deal search saga. ) We booked at the Yacht Club in a CL room. We have never booked CL before. We were blessed/pixie dusted into a CL room 2 years ago over at the Poly, but this time the deal was there and we took it.

Our intinerary can be read below. I don't see us making too many, if any changes, to it at this point. We might cancel some sitdown meal(s), but we are not adding anything else.

(NOTE: Yes, the plan changed several times along the way. This post has been updated to reflect the most recent and hopefully truly final plan.)

12/05/09 Saturday
Drive to see Gabby's Mom
then onto WDW
Check into Yacht Club
Get some sleep

12/06/09 Sunday
Breakfast at the Captain's Grille
Shop at Downtown Disney
Lunch at Earl of Sandwich
MVMCP
Meet jackskellingtonsgirl
Dinner at Pecos Bill's
Ride BTMRR during Holiday Wishes

12/07/09 Monday
Breakfast at Concierge Lounge
Disney Hollywood Studios for rope drop
Lunch at Backlot Express
Dinner at Mama Melrose
Osborne Lights

12/08/09 Tuesday
Sleep Late
Breakfast at Kona Cafe
Bum around the YC/BC/BW area
Lunch at Beaches & Cream
MVMCP
Dinner at Pecos Bill's
Wishes Dessert Party
Holiday Wishes

12/09/09 Wednesday
Sleep Late
Breakfast at Concierge Lounge
Epcot
Lunch at Chefs de France to meet Remy
Meet Randy Noble @ Art of Disney 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
Get "Very Merry Gingerbread" signed
Dinner at San Angel Inn
Drinks at La Cava de Tequila
IllumiNations!

12/10/09 Thursday
Breakfast at Concierge Lounge
Animal Kingdom for rope drop
Wildlife Discovery Excursion
CS Lunch
Dinner at Big River Grille
Check out the Boardwalk area

12/11/09 Friday
Breakfast at Concierge Lounge
Magic Kingdom
Lunch CS somewhere
Hop to Epcot
Meet Jim Shore (appearing 11:30 am to 3:30 pm)
Hop back to Magic Kingdom
MVMCP
Dinner at Pecos Bill's

12/12/09 Saturday
Breakfast at Concierge Lounge
Drive home
(Depending on the drive and the day, we might stop in my hometown to take my Dad & his wife to dinner.)

We usually bring a small stuffed animal/trip buddy along for our trips. We have some critters in mind for our upcoming trip, but haven't come to any final decisions. I know it's a little weird, but we have no kids and some of the photos that we have made at WDW with our trip buddies in the past are priceless to us. I will post pictures when we know more.

This trip just has to be a good one. There is no way that it's allowed to be anything other than perfect. I love my partner and for a variety of reasons that I won't bore you with, unless you ask, let's just say that this trip just has to be awesome, even if it kills us.

 

[mickeysaver]

I have to use an ECV in the parks. While I can usually manage my everyday life without one, at WDW, it's a necessity. Rental ECV's are pretty boring looking and they all look frighteningly alike. What's the fun in that? So, this trip I am going to be riding on "The Snowmobile".

There is only so much that you can do to a rental ECV to change it's appearance and not damage the vehicle. Everything that I have ever done to a rental scooter has been of the non-damaging nature. The back of the scooter will have a license plate. I am not sure yet about the final design, but I do have a concept in mind and have been tweaking the final product. The license plate will attach with pipe cleaners.

The basket of the ECV is a wire basket with lots of open space and usually a non-removable sign on the front that advertises the name of the scooter rental company. The basket will have battery operated lights that I found at Target! I have white snowflake strand lights.

These will go around the top of the basket. And on the front of the basket, I found these really cool acrylic snowflakes.

These change colors slowly fading from one color to the next. I am not sure about the final design on the front of the basket just yet. I have several snowflakes and they all have suction cup backs. The current plan is to mount these big flakes into a craft foam sheet and mount the sheet onto the front of the basket. We might be losing the suction cups entirely, but we haven't had time to tinker with it much.

I can't believe that it's almost November. This trip will be here in no time.

 

[mickeysaver]

Ok, after quite literally, screaming into pillows on my bed after reading this post, I began the task of reworking our itinerary today. I don't like curveballs.

So, our itinerary now has a few changes that I never expected to make. I had to drop Tutto Italia on our Epcot day. It was not available at all. This really isn't a big loss. We looked over the menu for Tutto over on AllEars.net and there have been changes which will make it a place that Gabby won't want to dine at anyway, so it's almost a godsend that our plans got messed up now. So, now instead of that we did decide to make an extended stop at La Cava de Tequila over at Mexico and dinner plans at Nine Dragons instead.

The most amazing part of making the plan changes was the availability of dinner at Mama Melrose. Original plans for our trip had us going to DHS on Monday, but there was no ADR availability at Mama Melrose for dinner at all that night, so we had swapped out plans for another day. I was thrilled to find a normal dinner dining times available for us there.

I will post the new detailed plan in a few.

 

[mickeysaver]

Well that plan didn't come to pass, might as well erase erase erase.

 

[mickeysaver]

Ok, so after a more or less good night's sleep, I was hit with the idea of making a couple of more switches to the plans to avoid the PM EMH night at Epcot. I loathe the Pop Warner unsupervised nightmare children. So, plans have morphed a bit more yet again.

Yeah, about the plan that was posted here, it didn't end up working either.

The down side to making these changes is that in doing so, we lose Wishes. But, I like the idea of not feeling like we need to stay out late on our last day and I like the idea of ending our trip at the MK park instead of at Epcot. We also get to do dinner at San Angel Inn, which originally, was our second choice behind Tutto Italia.

Good Lord, for someone that had it all nailed down for months, this sure is a lot of last minute scrambling.

 

[mickeysaver]

For someone who didn't believe that there was a need for much in the way of plan changes, there sure were a lot more of them than I ever thought would be necessary.

The plans here have been erased.

 

[mickeysaver]

The final plan, I swear!

(snipped it all out again.....)

Good Lord, will the updates and tweaking ever end?

(Um, no. LOL)

 

[mickeysaver]

What would the holidays at Disney be like if there were no silly hats?

B O R I N G !!!​

Yes, we are silly hat wearing tourists. I finally got around to purchasing the two hats that will get a workout during our stay. We don't necessarily wear them everyday, but we do wear them to the MVMCP's and sometimes to the parks, just to add a little silliness to our photos.

The two winners for this year are......

I am tempted to buy the standard issue Disney Santa Hat with Mickey Ears, but we also like being different, so the hats above will help us to achieve that too.

So many plans and so little time.

 

[mickeysaver]

I am so bummed that it is looking like the Lights of Winter light display at Epcot will not be erected this year. It is what makes Epcot feel like it's the holidays at night. Yeah, I know that there is the Peace on Earth ending to IllumiNations, but since they quit doing the tree lighting ceremony last year and now this, it's just going to leave a HUGE void in the way the park feels.

 

[mickeysaver]

To balance out the news of the day, I do have to point out that we have some good news too. Gabby was able to trade out Hilton Honors points for a FREE fully loaded 4 day ticket. She was also able to trade out AMEX points for about $600 off of our SUV rental and $250 in gas cards!

Say it with me.......

FREE is GOOD!​

 

[mickeysaver]

I have got to start sorting out the pins. We have a ton of traders, most of which will end up on the lanyard of some kid going on a Bert's Big Adventure charity trip to WDW in 2010. I gave up on asking for donations of pins a couple of years ago due to the amount of scrapper junk that was being donated. I can't put that junk on a charity kid's lanyard or on the CM lanyards at WDW to perpetuate the problem. I have found that, while it can be a budget buster, that it's just easier to purchase small pin lots off of eBay. I know that there are lots of sellers that deal in scrappers too, but I can usually find reputable sources with a little work.

I have a bunch of pins that I need to get traded out for stuff that the kids will like. Right now, I am sorely lacking in pins to put on the lanyards of the boys. Why is it so hard to find the pins that the boys like? I can always find some stinkin' princess pin, but try finding legit Toy Story pins or pirate pins, it's darn near impossible, but it's the thrill of the hunt that makes it fun. Knowing that it's all for a good cause also helps.

Maybe I will start on that tonight. I am starting to enter the "OMG, we are three weeks away from our trip and nothing is packed!" panic mode. I feel it slowly creeping up on me.

 

[mickeysaver]

Our intinerary can be read below. I don't see us making too many, if any changes, to it at this point. We might cancel some sitdown meal(s), but we are not adding anything else.

Famous last words, right!?!?!

 

[mickeysaver]

I changed our plans out yet again. I can't believe that the tweaking hasn't come to an end yet, but if Disney would quit trying to steal my joy by doing stupid things like NOT putting up the Lights of Winter display at Epcot, much of this stuff would not be necessary.

So, um, back to the positive. In order to have the best possible last impression of Disney on our last day, we have added a 3rd, yes third, MVMCP to our plans. What can I say, we love the Magic Kingdom! We will end our trip with a chance to pin trade, see the parade, see the Castle all twinkly, and see those fireworks one last time. I can't wait!

(Note: Removed the plan that I thought was the final one. A new artist appearance got me to reconsider our plans yet again.)

 

[mickeysaver]

The hats have arrived! We are going to be festive for sure.

I am attempting to go through our pins to gather our traders, but I am really lacking focus today. It would help if Gabby wasn't a ball of nerves due to her back to back with no stop at home travel plans for business that begins tomorrow and doesn't end until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. I swear, I have no idea why every stinkin' year, her company has it's annual conference the weekend before Thanksgiving. It's horrible timing.

I am washing a ton of clothes so that she can pack for the week away in Seattle, and the long weekend at conference. I wish that the long range weather forcast could tell me what I needed to wash for our trip. I am hoping that it's going to be shorts and t-shirts weather, but I know that I probably am going to need to pack some jeans and a jacket too.

 

[mickeysaver]

I just bought the PhotoPass cd with the prepaid deal.

I still need to go through our traders. I swear this trip is going to be here way before I am ready. For the first time ever, I almost wish that I had an extra week before the trip gets here. I am feeling a bit stressed about what to pack and with Gabby gone until Tuesday.....

 

[bumbershoot]

I hope you don't mind replies?

"We usually bring a small stuffed animal/trip buddy along for our trips. We have some critters in mind for our upcoming trip, but haven't come to any final decisions. I know it's a little weird, but we have no kids and some of the photos that we have made at WDW with our trip buddies in the past are priceless to us."

Not weird. Fun! We used to do the same thing. Then DS showed up and took the stuffed bear-dressed-as-a-lion away and drooled all over it, and we had to stop.

Hope Gabby is having water-logged fun up here in Seattle!

 

[mickeysaver]

I have been doing mega laundry all week. I have made sure that everything from shorts, to jeans, to nice clothes have all been freshly washed and are ready to be packed. I hate packing clothes that haven't been washed in the past month because most of the good fresh smell has worn off by then and I love opening a suitcase with fresh smelling laundry. I know, I'm weird.

We have gone in December 3 times in the past and depending on the trip we have had everything from low 30's at night to upper 80's during the day. We leave on the 5th and both have the afternoon of the 4th off. Being that everything in the forecast is so variable, I hate to do it, but the suitcase won't be packed until then. We are gathering the rest of the stuff together next Saturday, but the clothes are waiting until the last minute.

I still need to go through our traders. We have had some news about a developing family situation which has thrown everything out of whack. This may well be our last big Disney vacation for several years. I hope it turns out to be super magical. We are potentially looking at lot of unpleasant stuff, but there is hopefully something quite wonderful at the end of it all. I can't say more at this time, but if everything works out, we are going to have quite different lives very soon....in a really good way.

 

[mickeysaver]

I hope you don't mind replies?

"We usually bring a small stuffed animal/trip buddy along for our trips. We have some critters in mind for our upcoming trip, but haven't come to any final decisions. I know it's a little weird, but we have no kids and some of the photos that we have made at WDW with our trip buddies in the past are priceless to us."

Not weird. Fun! We used to do the same thing. Then DS showed up and took the stuffed bear-dressed-as-a-lion away and drooled all over it, and we had to stop.

Hope Gabby is having water-logged fun up here in Seattle!

I don't mind replies at all. At this point I had kind of gotten the impression that no one other than me cared about my plans, which is totally fine. I use this to help me keep up with scrapbooking in the future.

Since we don't have kids, we don't have to worry about the drool factor, it's usually more of an issue of just not losing out little friend on a ride or attempting to keep him dry when it rains. I almost lost one of my solo trip buddies in a water feature at Epcot once due to the winds. So far, we have had no losses, but a lot of really cute pictures. lol

Gabby said she really liked Seattle. Even in the rain, she walked to work and to dinner each night. Her hotel was right by the hospital where her client's office was located. While she said that she wouldn't mind living there, she said the cost of living there is a bit too high compared to what we enjoy here in Atlanta.

 

[mickeysaver]

I ordered some new New Balance shoes online that should arrive in a couple of days. I need to go through the traders still and I have some scooter decor crafting to finish up too. I feel horribly unorganized this time. By now I usually have a laminated itinerary and stuff, but this year it all seems so rushed and with 10 days to go, I am feeling a bit defeated. I need some sort of last minute pixie dust boost or something to get this all lined up. Gabby is home so that will help. Now, if her family will just keep their drama to themselves, it will be all good.

 

[mickeysaver]

Only 9 days until we get to the Yacht Club! ​

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! ​