OK, I've got the ticker....Poly in August!!!

[PrincessInOz]

Nope. He doesn't like Disney. The only reason he kinda sorta wanted to go at first was because he wanted to hang out with his friend who may be going with us. But he is just so uptight about money. Yes, Disney costs alot of money...I get that. But the way I look at it is....our little guy is only little once. We will get a bunch back in Feb from taxes...I like to use some of that for a good vacation every year. Hubby thinks we should take it to pay off some debt. We will always have debt. We will not always have our little guy. Have you ever heard someone laying on their death bed wishing they had more money?? No. You hear them wishing they had done more things, spent more time with family, etc, etc, etc. So, I am taking my little guy and if DH decides to grace us with his presence, so be it. We book room-only instead of a package deal, so it doesn't matter who ends up going. We can buy his park tickets last minute if we have to. The only thing I need to know for sure about is the flights and we can't book those yet anyway. Phew....breathe in...breathe out. I'm a little worked up about this because I just get so annoyed with him when he doesn't want to go on vacations with us. It is kind of an ongoing thing in this household. His family never took vacations growing up and mine did....so this is a constant problem with us. But we will make it through. I just probably won't bring it up again until I have the money saved

I don't think so, but I could be wrong. I thought I had seen that they didn't have the dessert party on party nights. But that was for Christmas party, so it might be different for MNSSHP. But I wouldn't want to do the dessert party those nights because you are there for an hour before the show eating, you would miss the parade and miss lots of party time.

My plan is to do the dessert party to watch Wishes and be out of the crowd. Then on our MNSSHP night, we will stay for the parade then head over to the Poly to watch Hallowishes from the beach. I haven't looked into this yet....not sure how much time is between the parade and fireworks, so it might not be doable, but we will see.



So, this afternoon I was talking with my friend Val. She is the one that might be going with us. I told her that Bill and I had been fighting over money and that he didn't want to go. She said her hubby was doing the same thing! This made me feel soooo much better for some reason. So she is still fully planning on going. We decided that we would just not talk to our DHs about this until we have all our money saved up.

So it looks like the planning is back on and now I can get this thing booked. With a room-only reservation, you only have to put one night down and then you can pay off the rest at checkin if you want. I usually pay a little every couple months, but just knowing that I don't have to have it paid off until we get there helps with the saving.

Val and I were throwing around kids costume ideas and she is definitely on board with a theme for all of us. I know the guys won't dress up, but at least we can with the kids. We have my Bradey (will be 7 then), her Hannah (6) and her Ethan (4). I thought maybe Hannah and Bradey could be Jasmine and Aladdin, and Ethan could be Aboo. Wouldn't that be cute?? Or even better would be Bell and the Beast with Ethan being Chip. That way there are more characters for Val and I. Or if we could possibly get the guys to cooperate....we would have 7 of us....the Dwarfs???? Fun fun fun!

Okay, going to book the room now

I'm so sorry that your DH feel this way and that it causes disharmony in your household. It makes me sad to think that there might be some part of this fun planning process that causes you grief.

And you are right about your DS being young once and for a brief period of time. My DS is 12 and we have always been a fairly close-knit family. A lot of it is that we've always wanted to spend time with him when he's on school holidays and both DH and I understand that we will never get this time back if we don't make the time for him now. I hope that you've booked your room-only. At worst, you and DS will have lifelong memories together; at best, and I hope this is the case, your DH will be joining you both on this trip.

Love your thoughts of costumes. Sounds like a great deal of fun planning for it.

 

[solana131]

I keep going round and round about resort choices... I think that in the end, we will end up at FQ no matter what... It just boils down to how much we love it there, and I just can't imagine spending twice as much (after a code) at the other place, when we are perfectly happy and in love with FQ.

I hear ya. That is a big factor for us too. It is almost exactly twice as much....and we are hardly ever in our room. It all comes down to transportation for me. And I think on this trip we will be eating TS alot less, so having a good QS location is huge to me. I liked POFQ's food court, but I think POR has the advantage there. But then again...the walk to the buses is much better at FQ. And we can always walk up to Riverside Mill for that make-your-own pasta anytime. Hmmmm....glad I didn't book it last night. Now I am thinking FQ instead. I know POR gets better % off offers because they know they will fill FQ anyway. So maybe that will be the deciding factor. As long as I get a "preferred room" at POR, we will be close enough to the buses.

The new dates sound great...and you'll get to spend time with some DISer's.

Yep, I think we still would've caught both D and oopsi, but oopsi was leaving on our arrival day. So this will give us more time to meet! And apparently we will get to meet Pixiedust530 too!

I think your dates are spectacular....I might be a little partial since I will most likely be there Sun-Friday the 13th-18th. YAY...I am so excited!!!

Yay! Another DISmeet! Fun fun fun!

I'm so sorry that your DH feel this way and that it causes disharmony in your household. It makes me sad to think that there might be some part of this fun planning process that causes you grief.

Doesn't get in the way of my planning fun though....I love it!

And you are right about your DS being young once and for a brief period of time. My DS is 12 and we have always been a fairly close-knit family. A lot of it is that we've always wanted to spend time with him when he's on school holidays and both DH and I understand that we will never get this time back if we don't make the time for him now. I hope that you've booked your room-only. At worst, you and DS will have lifelong memories together; at best, and I hope this is the case, your DH will be joining you both on this trip.

I think he will. He just doesn't like to be part of the planning. But I think both hubbys will have fun once we get there.

Love your thoughts of costumes. Sounds like a great deal of fun planning for it.

Thanks. We had fun just talking about it for 15 mins yesterday....we will have a blast actually deciding. Her little girl is just the cutest thing in the world. So happy my little guy picked her for a friend. So many kids these days are mean rotten awful kids and he picked a good one! Can't wait to make her a princess

 

[DMGeurts]

I hear ya. That is a big factor for us too. It is almost exactly twice as much....and we are hardly ever in our room. It all comes down to transportation for me. And I think on this trip we will be eating TS alot less, so having a good QS location is huge to me. I liked POFQ's food court, but I think POR has the advantage there. But then again...the walk to the buses is much better at FQ. And we can always walk up to Riverside Mill for that make-your-own pasta anytime. Hmmmm....glad I didn't book it last night. Now I am thinking FQ instead. I know POR gets better % off offers because they know they will fill FQ anyway. So maybe that will be the deciding factor. As long as I get a "preferred room" at POR, we will be close enough to the buses.

I actually have POR qs planned as one of our meals - I had never heard of the pasta bar thingy until Oopsi's TR.

I am pretty sure the beignets will keep me at FQ no matter what. And on our day off - I am pretty sure we will end up at POR to swim too...

I love that the pool and location at FQ is small, yet you can still use the facilities at POR - it's the best of both worlds, IMO.

I am sure you will be happy staying at either place!

[Yep, I think we still would've caught both D and oopsi, but oopsi was leaving on our arrival day. So this will give us more time to meet! And apparently we will get to meet Pixiedust530 too!

Awesome!

[Thanks. We had fun just talking about it for 15 mins yesterday....we will have a blast actually deciding. Her little girl is just the cutest thing in the world. So happy my little guy picked her for a friend. So many kids these days are mean rotten awful kids and he picked a good one! Can't wait to make her a princess

I am so happy you have a friend to plan with! And that Bradey is good at picking them.

D~ <--- Seriously needs to get off of The Dis and up to work...

 

[oopsiDAISY]

We will get a bunch back in Feb from taxes...I like to use some of that for a good vacation every year. Hubby thinks we should take it to pay off some debt. We will always have debt. We will not always have our little guy. Have you ever heard someone laying on their death bed wishing they had more money?? No. You hear them wishing they had done more things, spent more time with family, etc, etc, etc. His family never took vacations growing up and mine did....so this is a constant problem with us.

What I find interesting about how your DH feels is that my DH was raised the SAME WAY. If they did take a vacation it was dragging a pop up camper somewhere and camping for the week, and that only happened twice in his life. They never made a big ado about birthdays, and they only got one gift each at Christmas. One year he and his brother got a set of jumper cables each for Christmas to go in their cars!

What I find interesting is that he has gone the OPPOSITE way than your DH in how he views vacations and doing things with and for the kids. He is the one telling me "we can pay our debt off when the kids leave home." He wants to do and get as much for them as we can now. He loves taking them to Disney, he gets into the movie nights as much as they do, he enjoys our backyard campouts and all the other "little things" we do for our kids. I realize just how blessed I am.

 

[solana131]

I actually have POR qs planned as one of our meals - I had never heard of the pasta bar thingy until Oopsi's TR.

I am pretty sure the beignets will keep me at FQ no matter what. And on our day off - I am pretty sure we will end up at POR to swim too...

I love that the pool and location at FQ is small, yet you can still use the facilities at POR - it's the best of both worlds, IMO.

I am sure you will be happy staying at either place!

Oh the MYO Pasta is AWESOME! And a money saver because you can easily share them! With our family of 3, we could split it between all 3 of us....that is, if we can agree on what to put in it

Yeah, you won't have to fight me for the beignets...bleh...too sweet for me.

That is my favorite thing about the Port Orleans "sisters" I love it that you actually have 3 different themed resorts all in one. I was telling Val last night that we might end up at FQ, but that they were really the same resort, so we would be close enough. She liked the looks of the FQ pool better, so they were thinking of just getting a cot if the kids couldn't sleep together. But I think they would be fine. Kids are so tired after a day at the parks....they will sleep anywhere!

What I find interesting about how your DH feels is that my DH was raised the SAME WAY. If they did take a vacation it was dragging a pop up camper somewhere and camping for the week, and that only happened twice in his life. They never made a big ado about birthdays, and they only got one gift each at Christmas. One year he and his brother got a set of jumper cables each for Christmas to go in their cars!

What I find interesting is that he has gone the OPPOSITE way than your DH in how he views vacations and doing things with and for the kids. He is the one telling me "we can pay our debt off when the kids leave home." He wants to do and get as much for them as we can now. He loves taking them to Disney, he gets into the movie nights as much as they do, he enjoys our backyard campouts and all the other "little things" we do for our kids. I realize just how blessed I am.

Jumper cables?? That would suck!

Yeah, that's another thing they have in common...they never did much for birthdays because hubby is a twin and they were born on Christmas Day! So, not only does he have to share the day with his brother, he also has to share it with Santa! Talk about some competition! But needless to say...they never got true birthday parties growing up.

I like that.. "we can pay off our debt when the kids leave home"...mind if I use it??





Okay, so I am starting to get a little annoyed about having to wait (until when??) to find out the dates of MNSSHP. I thought there would be some kind of method to their madness....but there isn't. This year in October they have:
Thursday
Friday
Monday
Thursday
Friday
Sunday
Tuesday
Thursday
Sunday
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Sunday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Friday!

So I can only rule out Saturday and those will be our travel days. So how am I supposed to plan! There is only 1 Monday and 1 Wednesday, so I can probably rule those out....Anybody have any insider info on this? How do you deal with planning without planning??

 

[KatMark]

We've done it both times on a Tuesday night. First, I would avoid the Friday ones...they are always packed. And I believe the closer it gets to Halloween, the more crowded they are.

 

[solana131]

We've done it both times on a Tuesday night. First, I would avoid the Friday ones...they are always packed. And I believe the closer it gets to Halloween, the more crowded they are.

Okay. I think that makes sense for sure. We will head to Epcot on the busy days But I'm just annoyed that I can't really plan out my days until they release the party dates. I know I'll live and everything will be fine in the end....but you know me...I need my spreadsheets to plan and right now my spreadsheets have lots of blank holes in them.

 

[Chicago Mo]

My spreadsheet are all Confusing right now too...
I NEED DATES! I love the costumes and love your ahem so far plans..
We stayed in building 14 at POR and was close to the main building and busses were only a few minutes away!!!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

We stayed in building 14 at POR and was close to the main building and busses were only a few minutes away!!!

We POR, but we stayed in building 28... far, far away from everything. There was just one building between us and a parking lot. I told DH that next time we WILL pay for a preferred room!!!

 

[Chicago Mo]

We POR, but we stayed in building 28... far, far away from everything. There was just one building between us and a parking lot. I told DH that next time we WILL pay for a preferred room!!!

I read that in your report too and laughed my... off!!!

 

[solana131]

We stayed in building 14 at POR and was close to the main building and busses were only a few minutes away!!!

We POR, but we stayed in building 28... far, far away from everything. There was just one building between us and a parking lot. I told DH that next time we WILL pay for a preferred room!!!

14 good....28 bad....got it Yeah, I would definitely pay for a preferred room. Expecially with a cranky husband

 

[Chicago Mo]

14 good....28 bad....got it Yeah, I would definitely pay for a preferred room. Expecially with a cranky husband

have you seen the map of it? Yes 14 VERY GOOD..
Hubby is going now???

 

[oopsiDAISY]

14 good....28 bad....got it Yeah, I would definitely pay for a preferred room. Expecially with a cranky husband

Well, our room had a bus stop pretty close, but we were far from the gift shop and restaurants. We didn't get to take advantage of our resort cups like we wanted to because the restaurant was just too far away. It was just easier to head to the bus stop close as opposed to walking the long way to another one close to the restaurant to get drink refills before heading to the parks. The kids usually ended up drinking water with our in-room breakfast since we weren't close...

All that to say, yes~ 14 good, 28 bad!

 

[DMGeurts]

I can totally see where it would be a pain to walk that far for refills... We seriously had issues with it and we were only 30 steps from SFC... But at the end of the day - those 30 steps were like death.

D~

 

[solana131]

have you seen the map of it? Yes 14 VERY GOOD..
Hubby is going now???

Yes I have seen the map. On portorleans.org Andrew has a great map showing which ones are the "preferred" rooms. We want Alligator Bayou for the extra bed...and it looks like if we pay for preferred, we will get AB.

And yes...Bill doesnt want to go, but he will be fine once he gets there. So Im making him go ;-)

 

[solana131]

Well, our room had a bus stop pretty close, but we were far from the gift shop and restaurants. We didn't get to take advantage of our resort cups like we wanted to because the restaurant was just too far away. It was just easier to head to the bus stop close as opposed to walking the long way to another one close to the restaurant to get drink refills before heading to the parks. The kids usually ended up drinking water with our in-room breakfast since we weren't close...

All that to say, yes~ 14 good, 28 bad!

This is how we felt in July at FQ and we were in building 2! It was a small resort compared to most of the others...but the Poly is still smaller!

 

[solana131]

I can totally see where it would be a pain to walk that far for refills... We seriously had issues with it and we were only 30 steps from SFC... But at the end of the day - those 30 steps were like death.

D~

I know! I felt so lazy and it was SUCH a burden to go all the way back to the room after breakfast to drop our mugs off. We never felt that way at the Poly and I think we were about the same distance. I actually was thinking it might be better to just get seperate drinks for breakfast this time so we didnt have to do that. Guess it will just depend on what room location we get.

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hey Suzi,

I think your planning is sounding good...

I am sorry about DH... my in laws are a little bit like that... they were really really conservative with money and didn't really buy things or go on many vacations when they were younger and the upsetting thing is that now that they're older they aren't really up to doing a lot of those things...


I think it's all a happy balance and you can be responsible and still have fun and make good memories...you'll never be sorry for something you did but you may regret something you didn't do...

I hope that you miss most of hurricane Sandy... It's predicted to go right through here...... Sound like a bit more than a traditional NorEaster...

 

[PrincessInOz]

Stay safe and I hope that Sandy is kind to everyone.

 

[DMGeurts]

Just wanted to let you know I am thinking of you... I hope that you are not in the path of Sandy. Stay safe! (((Hugs)))

D~