One for the Money, Two for the Show... A Nov.2015 PTR - Updated 11/1

[deannaf87]

I love Touring Plans and swore by it on my last trip. I've noticed they are still pretty good for all parks except MK. I feel like their MK touring plans are delusional.

"Don't have a fastpass for Seven Dwarves? Better hit that around 10AM. Head straight to Magic Carpets at rope drop!" - Touring Plans

 

[deannaf87]

11/20 Schedule

Park: Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Hours: 9AM to 7PM

6:45 - get to AKL bus stop

8:05 - Be Our Guest breakfast
Seven Dwarves Mine Train (couldn't get a fastpass )
Splash Mountain (if Ezra hits 40".. if not, we'll skip it)
BTMRR (possible child swap)
Jungle Cruise
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Haunted Mansion
Tom Sawyer Island
Lunch - Columbia Harbor House 12:25ish
Tiki Room
Pirates of the Caribbean - Fastpass+ 1:25 to 2:25
Philharmagic
Prince Charming's Regal Carousel
Peter Pan's Flight - Fastpass+ 2:25 to 3:25
Festival of Fantasy Parade
Enchanted Tales with Belle - Fastpass+ 3:40 to 4:40
Shopping on Main Street

Head out around 5:15ish

Dinner - 1900 Park Fare at 6:00pm

Head back to AKL

Cry about having to leave the next day

 

[deedee2177]

Your plans look great...looks like we have a couple places we overlap (11/17 at Epcot and 11/18 at MK)!

I agree with TP suggestions for MK. This is the first time I am using it and I LOVE IT, but we didn't get a FP for 7DMT for our first full day at MK (11/16, we were able to get on for 11/19) and I'm trying to figure out when to make our way over to ride it. According to TP, we shouldn't head over there 12:12pm and the wait would be around 45 minutes. I don't mind waiting that long since it's just me and Keith. Maybe they are right about that being an ok time since it's at lunch time and a lot of folks will be stopping for lunch.

Our trips are getting closer! I think I will officially start to freak out when we hit the 30's!

 

[MataHari22]

Love your Bambi shirt, and you are so pretty! Looks like you have all your plans filling out well. As far as the spread sheet, I tried to do one on an app on my iPad. I wasn't having an easy time of it. Never used it before. Besides, my brain finds them harder to process. Much easier looking at a list for me, t's cleaner and clearer in my mind, most spread sheets make my brain hurt. Lol.

 

[deannaf87]

Love your Bambi shirt, and you are so pretty! Looks like you have all your plans filling out well. As far as the spread sheet, I tried to do one on an app on my iPad. I wasn't having an easy time of it. Never used it before. Besides, my brain finds them harder to process. Much easier looking at a list for me, t's cleaner and clearer in my mind, most spread sheets make my brain hurt. Lol.

I'm an accountant, so my brain is well acclimated to spreadsheets, haha. The hard part was getting it in a format to share here.

 

[MataHari22]

I'm an accountant, so my brain is well acclimated to spreadsheets, haha.

I only used a few while I was working to figure out Food Cost, Labor Cost, and labor budget when I was a GM at a restaurant.

 

[Trixie15]

Love the spreadsheet - what a great idea!

 

[deannaf87]

You guys, have you seen these???

http://www.kicksonfire.com/a-good-a...oung-at-heart-collaboration-for-holiday-2015/

I love the Jungle Book ones.






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P.S. I'm joining @MataHari22 on the opinion that it's taking forever for November to come. I wanna be at Disney!

 

[MataHari22]

Haha! Yes, it's torture, and taking foooooorevvvvvver.

 

[deannaf87]

Update 9/30

I ordered my MVMCP tickets from Shades of Green. I didn't even know that was an option until they e-mailed me the order form. Ended up spending $207 on 2 adult and 2 kids tickets with the military discount.....not too shabby. They will be waiting at the front desk when we check into SoG on 11/13. When ordering, the representative told me they'd e-mail me all the information so I can make fastpasses. I still haven't received that e-mail yet and my order was placed last Thursday. I called on Monday and they said I should have it by the end of the day.... nope. I e-mailed this morning and they said whoever told me EOD Monday was wrong, it takes up to 72 hours (not including the day the order was placed). Well I ordered on Thursday... so Friday, Monday, Tuesday.... that's 72 hours. So basically that explanation is invalid, haha. I'll give them another day then call them again. I would ideally like to make a few fastpasses for our party day from 4-7 before the 30 day window opens up. Shades of Green needs to get on the ball!

I ended up changing my Epcot fastpass choices today. Ezra is measuring at 39.5 inches, so I'm hoping he might hit the magical 40 inch mark. Instead of splitting up our fastpasses between Soarin and Test Track, I moved all of us to Test Track. I just didn't want to be in the situation that he was tall enough and only half of us had fastpasses to each of those rides. This way we'll rope drop Soarin' (should be easy to do since was have an 8AM at Garden Grill). We'll either all ride together based on Ezra's height or we'll rider swap it. Then *hopefully* we'll all use our Test Track fastpass to ride that together. I know it might be wishful thinking that he'll be tall enough, but it was smarter to plan that he would be just in case. All of our other park fastpass choices should work either way.

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In real life news, it looks like Hurricane Joaquin is headed our way. We're so far inland it shouldn't affect us more than some rain and wind. I love a good thunderstorm so I'm kind of hoping it hits us. Is that crazy? haha.

Also, this weekend my son got his 1st terrible haircut. I took him in for a slight trim to get it out of his eyes and off his neck. I like his hair longer. Somehow that translated into this....







Excuse me but what on earth is that? I kept trying to get the lady to fix it and she just made it worse. I asked her to just use the clippers and cut it short and she told me "We'll do that next time". Ummm no we won't because I won't be coming back here. We left and took him somewhere else, who fixed it like this.....



Bye, bye long hair




I know I'm late on this but here is a first day of school picture! Audrey started 2nd grade and Ezra has moved up to the 4 year old class at daycare.

 

[deedee2177]

I'm jumping on the "November is taking forever to get here" bandwagon!

 

[MataHari22]

Hope you get that straightened out so you can make your FP+. :/

Poor kid! WTH, did she cut it with her eyes closed, or what?! At least it'll grow back.

Kids looked cute on their first day.

 

[deannaf87]

There was about 80,000 e-mails between myself and SoG arguing if you can make fastpasses with party tickets, which went about like this....

Howard Keel though ...

I gave up. They won't e-mail me the ticket details, but they'll be at the front desk when I check in. If I can make any decent fastpasses then, I will. If not, I'll survive.

I am at 36 days now. Looking forward to the 30 day mark and having my magic bands shipped!

I think we have our magic band colors finalized.

 

[deannaf87]

Look what came yesterday!!!



We are now 20 days out!!!!!

To celebrate the arrival of the magic bands, I did what any rational human would do and went shopping! But really I realized last night that I only have one pair of shorts that fits (yay weight gain! ). The small child woke me up at the crack of dawn this morning, so I left him with his father and hit Kohl's early. Here's the loot:

Incredible Hulk T-shirt for Universal day and some new shorts

Can I just say how hard it is to find shorts in October? Haha, I was scouring the clearance racks and finally lucked out on these.

I got this shirt for the Christmas party but once I tried it on at home I'm not feeling it. Maybe I'll try to pair it with different bottoms because with the shorts, it's not very flattering. I actually dropped this shirt while shopping and didn't notice until check out. After I checked out I went and found it (it was the only size small left) and checked out again. Now I think the universe was just trying to tell me "naw girl, you don't want that". Should have listened to the universe.


Also got a new pair of yoga pants because one can never have too many and a Stitch shirt that I thought went well with the yoga pants.


Now my husband will not participate in "Disney dress" unless it's Star Wars related. He refused to wear a matching Christmas Mickey shirt, haha. I texted him while I was out shopping and he agreed to wear a Jack Skellington shirt, so I got this.


I also got my husband a pair of shorts and sweatpants and myself a new cardigan for a grand total of $108. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

In other news my husband and I went to a costume party last weekend as Bellatrix Lestrange and Death Eater Lucius (he has a really hot blonde wig on under there, haha).



Tomorrow will be 19 days out and that blows my mind. It'll be here before I know it.

 

[MataHari22]

Love the new purchases. Looks like we did the same thing this week! I went to the TA to pick up the rest of my WDW stuff, I got my magic bands and then I went shopping, too! I finally found a pair of brown and a pair of grey boot cut-ish yoga-like pants. I'll wear one on the plane and pack the other.

We are in the home stretch!

 

[deedee2177]

Must be the thing to do when the magic bands come in! I think we are finally good on clothes for the trip. 3 weeks from today and we will be on Disney Property!!

Love the costumes!!!!!

 

[deannaf87]

12 days!!!

I have hit full blown anxiety mode. I can't stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong... car breaks down on way to airport, family comes down with the flu, terrorist attack (no joke). I need to be medicated.

I spent yesterday wandering around Target gathering the little things. Picked up some ponchos, antibacterial wipes, hair ties, new toothbrushes... you know all that fun stuff.

I also ordered these shirts for the kids to wear to MVMCP.





I think we have all the stuff now. I just have to put all the stuff in the bags now. I think that'll be my project for next weekend.


In ADR news I managed to pick up a 9:50AM reservation for breakfast at Ohana on our post MVMCP rest day. The kids have recently gotten into Stitch, so they are really excited. I am contemplating dropping our Garden Grill breakfast. We want to rope drop Soarin and aren't sure if we'll be done with GG breakfast before opening. Don't want to spend the $$ and just feel rushed. I think I'll wait until the reviews start coming out before dropping it, but I'm about 65% sure we'll drop it.

12 Days!!!

 

[MataHari22]

I'm not quite in full blown anxiety mode, but I'm getting there. By next week, I'll hit full blown, and then traveling to the airport will make me hit peak anxiety mode.... Lol.

Cute shirts for the kids. All I have left to do is pack everything. I have everything pulled and ready to go. Just holding off a bit until I can see the forecast.

 

[deannaf87]

I'm not quite in full blown anxiety mode, but I'm getting there. By next week, I'll hit full blown, and then traveling to the airport will make me hit peak anxiety mode.... Lol.

Cute shirts for the kids. All I have left to do is pack everything. I have everything pulled and ready to go. Just holding off a bit until I can see the forecast.

Anxiety is the worst. I envy those people that travel through life without a care.

 

[MataHari22]

Anxiety is the worst. I envy those people that travel through life without a care.

Tell me about it! Anxiety disorder is the worst. I am learning some coping skills, and will be putting them to the test with this trip, for sure.