Only 615 Days and Counting!!! ***UPDATE 6-21*** complete! New PTR added

[Jackiemarie21]

Stupid snow! Ruins everyone's fun! But I'm glad you get to go at a different fun time! I'm starting to plan our jan 2015 trip but DH just applied for a job at a school so now I have to wait and see if he gets the job and if it will mess up my jan plans. I hate things being up in the air!

I know right? I think I like the new time better anyway, something totally different for us. I know what you mean about things being up in the air, I like plans! I want to know what to look forward to. I hope you find out soon so you can start planning!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

you scared me there for a minute! i'm so glad your Christmas gift trip is still on!

I know this is probably the least of your concerns, but I just wanted to give you a heads up on the Vera Bradley bags. I only saw them at world of Disney and only the blue and green ones. if you really want them, i'd watch disneystore.com and see if you can find them available on there. I think finding them in the park will be super hard....of course, something new and awesome might be out by then too!

I know when they called off school on Thursday, I was in tears. But then we worked it out and now we are all good!

Hmmm.. I just assumed the bags would be readily available. I am going to have to keep a watch out for them on disneystore.com. Hopefully, by the time the fall comes around some of the hype will have died down and they have more, wishful thinking right?

 

[anniebabymu]

I know that is such a bummer, we were just about settled on the Pop too! Oh well, I guess mother nature has other plans for us! I totally did not expect so many snow days and we are not even 1/2 way through Jan. It looks like its going to be an active winter! I hope we don't keep adding days, this could get crazy! I am sure your DD will be fine. She will probably miss more fun stuff than anything with it being the last few days of school. I would be willing to bet she won't be the only one out then either! And, yes the extra time to plan makes me very happy My DH said "I was thinking of just waking you up one day and saying lets go to Disney. But I thought you love making all those plans and spreadsheets so much, it would be better to give you a budget and let you make the plans yourself" He knows me so well, its the gift that keeps on giving for sure!

Sounds like you guys really enjoyed MNSSHP. At first I thought Christmas for sure, but the more I read about Halloween, it sounds so fun. I like the idea of costumes and meeting all the unique characters. I saw some YouTube clips of the parade and it looks awesome! We do so many special things at Christmas time, it might be fun to do the Disney Halloween. My DH thinks the late Sept time frame will work better for him, so that is kind of what we are leaning towards, although nothing is set in stone.

That's what scares me... not even being 1/2 way through January! Good thing is that our school will only have to go until May 30th at the very latest thanks to the new statute or whatever it is. But that's her missing 6 days of school! I wish they would take at least 2 days from our Spring Break...

Your DH sounds like a smart man! Booking you a trip without letting you plan sounds like no fun! This way you gets months to enjoy it! Glad to see you're a spreadsheet planner too . I pulled mine up the other day, showed Addie and said, "Do you see that? Isn't it beautiful?!?" Ha ha! My DH about died...

 

[Jackiemarie21]

That's what scares me... not even being 1/2 way through January! Good thing is that our school will only have to go until May 30th at the very latest thanks to the new statute or whatever it is. But that's her missing 6 days of school! I wish they would take at least 2 days from our Spring Break...

Your DH sounds like a smart man! Booking you a trip without letting you plan sounds like no fun! This way you gets months to enjoy it! Glad to see you're a spreadsheet planner too . I pulled mine up the other day, showed Addie and said, "Do you see that? Isn't it beautiful?!?" Ha ha! My DH about died...

I know this winter is crazy so far, 50 today low 20's this weekend, we might have snow in June if this keeps up!
My DH said if we keep having so many snow days there is things they will do at the state level to keep the number of make-up days manageable, but, it ruined our WDW dismeet for sure! We will have to make the STL one work!

I hid my spreadsheeting from DH until our last trip. I showed it to him when we were discussing upgrades and all, he was very impressed. I was afraid he thought I was crazy, but he thought it was great. It was what convinced him to go deluxe. My OCD planning has worked its magic again as you will soon read ...

 

[anniebabymu]

I know this winter is crazy so far, 50 today low 20's this weekend, we might have snow in June if this keeps up!
My DH said if we keep having so many snow days there is things they will do at the state level to keep the number of make-up days manageable, but, it ruined our WDW dismeet for sure! We will have to make the STL one work!

I hid my spreadsheeting from DH until our last trip. I showed it to him when we were discussing upgrades and all, he was very impressed. I was afraid he thought I was crazy, but he thought it was great. It was what convinced him to go deluxe. My OCD planning has worked its magic again as you will soon read ...

We will definitely have to make a STL one work!

And I can't wait to hear about your magic! Love having ammunition and powers of persuasion! Ha ha!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Well, I finally have some plans to discuss and they are exciting!
If you are an observant diser you may have noticed changes in my ticker. I updated with our new dates (I'll get to that soon) and deleted the July 2015 ticker. You may remember we originally planned on skipping a trip this year and taking a much longer deluxe style trip in 2015. The stars alined (or my DH took on tons of extra duties, however you prefer to look at it) and DH saved up money to take me on a smaller less expensive trip as a Christmas gift. It was a great plan! Then, DH and I sat down on Sunday and discuss our goals and things coming up in the future and we are just going to need another year or two for the big trip. We will be postponing our big 2015 trip to 2016 or maybe even 2017 But, I am okay with that! There are reasons that I am not comfortable discussing on the internet, yet, but they are important and exciting in there own way. We decided since this trip was going to be a lower crowd time we would be able to get more done then we are used to and we are going to make this an amazing short trip and hold off on the big one.

So with that out of the way, on to 2014!
First off we have dates Sept 20-24!
I was really torn on dates. I had a hard time choosing between MNSSHP and MVMCP, and deciding on which month. DH thought that it would be easiest for him to sneak away from work in Sept. (things are in full swing but no big tests or events, etc) So, that was a large factor for us. Plus I looked at the crowd calendar for last Sept. 2's,3's and 4's WOW! When we went in July our lowest crowd was and 8 and I thought we we have EPCOT all to our self today (well, not really, but you know what I mean). So that will be awesome for us. Then, we looked at pricing, wow Sept is "cheap" compared to what we are used to. When DH originally gave me this trip he thought we would have to do value or stay off site. When he said that I suggested Pop as the value and Bonnet Creek for off site. We just about settled on Pop (mostly because we LOVE being onsite and by we I mean me) and then we had to change dates. I started researching Sept. and plugging things into my spreadsheets. I always price out every level so that we make an informed choice. We realized by going in Sept. it would be no problem to swing a mod. So, off I went in planning mode. We settled on POFQ. We stayed there on our honeymoon and loved it. But, something inside of me has been saying AKL lately. I never really wanted to try that resort before but all of sudden I have been obsessed with it. I started showing DH pics of it he said it looks like it had a similar vibe to the Poly which in our opinion is the greatest resort ever. DH said maybe lets see what happens. I could tell he wanted to stay there too. I was on the Dis today and saw that several people had called and found PIN codes for our time frame. While Charlotte napped I thought what the heck I'll just call and see if I have one. I figured the CM would say no and tell me to keep calling like they usually do, but something magical happened . The CM said yes, you have one, I was not expecting that at all so I said "are you sure?", yes that is what I said when I found out I had a pin. I don't think she expected that reaction from me, she said "yes I am looking right at it" It was for 25% off moderates or 35% off deluxe. I asked if AKL would get the 35% off too since it usually gets a smaller % off and sure enough it was 35% off. I told the CM I would have to call back. I called DH and asked him what he thought. The discount would make the AKL about the same cost as POFQ pre-discount. DH said, "go for it!" So we are booked! At AKL in a standard room! I am so glad to have some solid plans! We only got 2 day tickets because we are going to MNSSHP and we want some time to really enjoy the resort. Oh, and for those of you who have been around since my first PTR, my DH gave me one condition... I can not change my mind. This is where we are staying! He is pretty excited about this resort and Charlotte who loves animals will love it as well.

 

[anniebabymu]

How awesome you had a PIN code!! I've yet to be so lucky That worked out perfectly for you! Staying at AKL sounds like a lot of fun... and I think I'd want some extra resort time to explore! Charlotte is going to love all the animals And it is always such a great feeling *knowing* that you're officially booked!

And great choice on MNSSHP! You guys will have a blast!!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

This update is so exciting!! First- on getting a pin and for it being for the place you wanted to stay!! That is awesome! I'm so excited for you that you have a place and date already! That's fantastic!

Of course Im curious about the reasons you were postponing a big trip. I have some ideas floating around my head, but I'll wait til you're ready to say.

I had to lol when your DH said you could not change your mind on where you're staying! That was funny!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

How awesome you had a PIN code!! I've yet to be so lucky That worked out perfectly for you! Staying at AKL sounds like a lot of fun... and I think I'd want some extra resort time to explore! Charlotte is going to love all the animals And it is always such a great feeling *knowing* that you're officially booked!

And great choice on MNSSHP! You guys will have a blast!!

I could hardly believe it myself! I really wasn't expecting that! It worked out great for us! I think Charlotte is going to be amazed. Last time she was impressed with the ducks walking around, I can not wait to see her face when she sees zebras just walking around!

This update is so exciting!! First- on getting a pin and for it being for the place you wanted to stay!! That is awesome! I'm so excited for you that you have a place and date already! That's fantastic!

I know, it could not have been more perfect! The pin code was awesome. It saved us just about the same amount as free dining (which is probably what the discount would be in Sept.) But all the room views were included instead of the select ones they usually put on sale with the regular discounts. We really wanted to try to stay there but the Savannah view would put it out of budget for us. I was afraid I would get all excited about staying there and then when the discounts came out it would only be a view we could not afford. So this worked out perfectly! And I don't have to get up at 5:00 am to have the discount applied when it comes out.

Of course Im curious about the reasons you were postponing a big trip. I have some ideas floating around my head, but I'll wait til you're ready to say.

Eventually I will share, I promise!

I had to lol when your DH said you could not change your mind on where you're staying! That was funny!

I am pretty sure he thinks I am crazy most of the time but he seems to like that about me, so its okay! But he is pretty excited this time, so I don't want to disappoint him.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Hello everyone! I am checking in with an update with some of our plans but first I wanted to talk about this weekend.

Christmas this year I got DH two passes to the Cardinals Winter Warm Up. It is an event the STL Cardinals put on to meet the players, get autographs and other fun stuff. To be honest I had no idea what it was when I purchased the tickets, I just thought since DH loves the team so much he would like to go. I was correct he was super excited. To be totally honest (but don't tell my DH!) I was hoping he would bring a friend or his Dad with him. But, he wanted to go as a family, so we went. I tried to be a good sport because he always is with me, but the place was crazy like WDW on a crowd level 10 day. The reason why I am bringing this up here is because Stitch came with us (which he usually does):

The lady who was working the entrance with her daughter stopped Charlotte and said "I met Stitch in Disney world and he licked my ear!" Charlotte of course clammed up but I told her we met Stitch too! We then started talking about Disney World and we were standing there for 20 minutes! It was super crowded but I was so excited to find someone who loves the Cardinals and Disney as much as we do! I don't know why but every time I meet a big Disney fan they are always such nice people! The event lasted all weekend but because it was so busy DH went alone this morning and his dad is going with him tomorrow! It was just too much to bring Charlotte there for three days in a row.

Here is a couple of pics from yesterday since my updates have had so much text lately:

Okay so on to Disney Plans!

Getting There....

So our last trip we had a less then stellar flight home and we decided from now on we will be driving to Disney World. This is pretty normal for us. Both DH and I grew in families were driving was the way you got to vacation. My dad who is a government airplane inspector loves airplanes, but flew so much for work he preferred driving to flying. For me it was always a part of the trip. I loved the anticipation and excitement. We usually went to Disney the first week of May so my parents took us out of school. My dad created a "curriculum" which consisted of trip journaling (a great start to my DISing days), calculating gas mileage and map reading. My mom always came up with fun games and songs. We always stopped at roadside attractions. To me this is part of the vacation. I really missed doing these things when we flew last year. DH is a nervous flyer and agrees with me the journey is part of the fun.
Here is Bob driving on our 2010 trip:

and in 2007 we drove on our honeymoon and stopped at Turner Field in Atlanta:

So, we are planning to drive right now. The plan is to leave as soon as DH gets home from work on Friday and drive straight through till Saturday. This will be our first time driving straight through on our way there. Since we have such a short trip this time we just do not have the time to stop overnight. I am a little nervous about how much Charlotte will sleep in the car. So we will see how that goes. I am going to nap when Charlotte does that afternoon so I am very well rested. DH will start driving and I will take over when he gets tried. I normally stay up very late ( it is not unusual for me to go to bed between 2 and 3 am). Hopefully DH can get a good amount of rest and be ready to drive again in the early morning hours. We should arrive at AKL around 10 am if my calculations are correct. I am praying our room is ready when we arrive. If it is we will all take a rest. If not we will hang out around the resort until it is. We plan on staying around the resort the entire day. That is our plan for now. If a great airfare sale is released we may change our plans and fly. This is such a short trip and the convenience of getting there quickly maybe worth missing out on the road trip fun. We will have to see.

 

[AprilRenee]

So the one time we drove to fl it was when I was 14ish and me and my 3 siblings went with my mom, her friend and the friends 2 kids. So 6 kids between 3 and 14 and 2 moms (8 people) in a 7 passenger van!!
When we got there, I started crying, not cause I was happy, but because I realized that the only way to get home was to get back in that van for another 18 hr trip. Omg. It turned me off driving to Florida forever. (Besides, I love flying. Security line is an adrenaline rush for me and I think flying is super fun. Lol)

Oh and PS, I started a pre-trip report!! see the link in my signature!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Aawwww--looks like you all had fun at the warm up! Charlotte looks so cute hitting the ball!

I've been meaning to tell you that I love your new AKL ticker!

 

[anniebabymu]

Charlotte is sooooo stinking cute! And so big compared to all the pics from your previous TR! Why do they have to grow up so fast??

The Winter Warm-up looks like a lot of fun! I'm sure my DH would love to do that one of these days!

Driving through the night is DEFINITELY the way to go with little kids! You can drive so much farther when they aren't wanting to stop every hour to pee, eat or get out and run! And sleeping kiddos = silence. The car sound of heaven to parent's ears. We're flying this time because we were able to get 4 free tickets with our Southwest points, but I'm sure will be driving our next few trip down until we accumulate more points! So I'm curious to see how the drive/route is for you guys!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

So the one time we drove to fl it was when I was 14ish and me and my 3 siblings went with my mom, her friend and the friends 2 kids. So 6 kids between 3 and 14 and 2 moms (8 people) in a 7 passenger van!!
When we got there, I started crying, not cause I was happy, but because I realized that the only way to get home was to get back in that van for another 18 hr trip. Omg. It turned me off driving to Florida forever. (Besides, I love flying. Security line is an adrenaline rush for me and I think flying is super fun. Lol)

Oh and PS, I started a pre-trip report!! see the link in my signature!

Awe that is so sad! Although it sounds like it was a really over crowded van. We have not totally ruled out flying it just depends on the southwest fares. We will be driving to the beach in July so I guess we will see how that goes...

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Aawwww--looks like you all had fun at the warm up! Charlotte looks so cute hitting the ball!

Thanks we did have a good time!

I've been meaning to tell you that I love your new AKL ticker!

Thank you I am totally loving it too!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Charlotte is sooooo stinking cute! And so big compared to all the pics from your previous TR! Why do they have to grow up so fast??

Thank you! I know it is really unbelievable how fast she is getting big, I would love to keep a baby for just a little longer!

The Winter Warm-up looks like a lot of fun! I'm sure my DH would love to do that one of these days!

It was fun, but so crowded! I really hope next year they change the set up a little better for a more enjoyable experience. My DH was thrilled with the chance to go.

Driving through the night is DEFINITELY the way to go with little kids! You can drive so much farther when they aren't wanting to stop every hour to pee, eat or get out and run! And sleeping kiddos = silence. The car sound of heaven to parent's ears. We're flying this time because we were able to get 4 free tickets with our Southwest points, but I'm sure will be driving our next few trip down until we accumulate more points! So I'm curious to see how the drive/route is for you guys!

That is what I am thinking. We drove to Navarre Beach FL. (around 12 hours) when Charlotte was 1 and she did fine. I wish I just lived in Orlando so I was already there. To me there really isn't a great way to get there. I truly hate flying!

I have been meaning to ask you... When you guys went to MNSSHP did you dress up? Just the kids? OR the adults also? I kind of want to dress up, but it seems like its about 50/50 for adults. Still deciding on that.

 

[anniebabymu]

I have been meaning to ask you... When you guys went to MNSSHP did you dress up? Just the kids? OR the adults also? I kind of want to dress up, but it seems like its about 50/50 for adults. Still deciding on that.

We didn't dress up, just the kiddos! It was awesome. I have to share a few pics with you! If you go, you MUST see the princesses with their princes! It was the best meet and greet of all time! You'll see by the pics, but Harper was a little piggy and Addie was a leopard cat and Cinderella was infatuated with Harper!! She saw her and immediately went up to her and just started giggling... you could tell she was trying to stay in character, but she was losing it. She finally looked at Prince Charming and said, "Can we keep her?" Adorable! And how cute is Flynn hugging Addie?! Love!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

sorry to take over your PTR, but I just had to tell anniebabymu those pics of the girls at the Halloween party are ADORABLE!!!

 

[anniebabymu]

sorry to take over your PTR, but I just had to tell anniebabymu those pics of the girls at the Halloween party are ADORABLE!!!

Thanks!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

We didn't dress up, just the kiddos! It was awesome. I have to share a few pics with you! If you go, you MUST see the princesses with their princes! It was the best meet and greet of all time! You'll see by the pics, but Harper was a little piggy and Addie was a leopard cat and Cinderella was infatuated with Harper!! She saw her and immediately went up to her and just started giggling... you could tell she was trying to stay in character, but she was losing it. She finally looked at Prince Charming and said, "Can we keep her?" Adorable! And how cute is Flynn hugging Addie?! Love!

Oh my goodness they were so stinking cute! I love the idea of costumes in Disney! LOVE IT!