Ooops,I booked again,by accident,truthfully..

[stitchaholic]

Welcome to my first PTR on the DIS

Let me tell you a little about us and how this accidental trip came to be...

First, introductions...

this is me,single mom ,39 years old, work in sales and operations in the transport industry, I am also a soccer coach for my daughter's u-11F competative soccer team, I don't have too much time to myself to socialize,so i really look forward to my trips, even if this one was not supposed to happen, this was supposed to be my year to catch up, but i like to live a little, i think i deserve it, there, justified

 

[stitchaholic]

this is DD,she is 10 years old,and is looking quite angelic in this photo,don't judge a book by it's cover, she loves our trips to disney,but feels like her mother is a little disney obsessed ,she loves soccer,horseback riding and baby animals

this is DS, he is 8 years old,also looking angelic, he has ADHD/ODD and can be difficult,but he is also quite a character and can be alot of fun to be with most of the time,sometimes,not so much

 

[stitchaholic]

this trip is the trip that was not supposed to be, it all started when I was starting to miss disney,and decided to convince my sister,her family and my parents to do a trip to disney in dec 2010 at our dream resort, AKL.
everyone was up for it,however I am the only disney obsessed family member,so of course I started planning right away,getting prices,and scouring the boards, again. This is how the trouble started...I was going through some stressful changes where my job was concerned,I was leaving my buisiness partner to go back to the family buisiness to help out,I was happy ,unhappy and stressed about it all at once,so I emersed myself into the planning of the trip in order to not think about anything else, and then it happened, I discovered DIS ,I was posting elsewhere for a few years,but i wanted to check into pricing DVC points for the trip,and low and behold, the DIS had a thread especially for this.
I started lurking, enjoying the almost auction like process to getting points at a great price, until a feeling so strong came over me that i felt like I couldn't breathe,a longing like a first forbidden crush, I needed the Magic,I needed it NOW !
I could not find the self control to not click on the reply to post,before I knew it,I was pulled in to the bidding war, but it would be ok,because there were so may replies I was sure that the points were long gone,but still,I secretly wished for that not to be true.

 

[stitchaholic]

I was completely unable to pull myself from the rental boards, I finally did, but i felt like a junkie,A MOUSEJUNKIE,LOL, desire overtaking reason, I don't think that i need to go into further desciption here,I know you all know exactly how I felt
The next morning, I woke with dark circles under my eyes,made a coffee and switched on the laptop before the little angels woke.
Logged on to DIS ,what a PM for me , points are available for my dates ,the renter would call DVC for me today to see what was available ,WLV was available OH YEAH, that will do just fine
Before I knew it, the contract was signed and the first paypal payment was made, let the planning begin

 

[kaffinito]

Great PTR!

I love to meet other people who "accidentally" book trips like me....

 

[stitchaholic]

welcome to my report Kaff ,I knew I couldn't be the only one who accidentally books trips on these boards

 

[brittanyherndon]

Great job but what dates are you going, and have you told your kids yet

 

[stitchaholic]

Great job but what dates are you going, and have you told your kids yet

we are going jan 2-9th,and I told my kids,I cannot keep these kind of secrets , plus I like to get them involved in the planning.

 

[brittanyherndon]

we are going jan 2-9th,and I told my kids,I cannot keep these kind of secrets , plus I like to get them involved in the planning.

r they geting excited yet

 

[stitchaholic]

So the first decision would be travel, how could I make this accidental trip a wee bit cheaper, I will drive ,what a fantastic idea,I take a 26 hour drive alone with 2 children, what an adventure that will be .
I did eventually come to my senses and started the 5 day airline marathon, checking for the cheapest flights, no southwest out of montreal, so i check Airtran out of Burlington VT, no flights, no great prices either.
I had a brilliant suggestion from one of my dis friends to check flights out of Manchester NH, I got a great deal on a direct flight with southwest, we arrive at MCO at 10:30AM, and leave MCO at 8:30PM, perfect!
Our vacation will officially start on Jan 1st, when we leave for NH, we will stay at the holiday inn at the airport, Happy New Year
next installement ADR's...

 

[stitchaholic]

r they geting excited yet

They are totally excited,I just got them advent calendars, not to countdown Christmas and New Year, but to count down our trip , seriously

 

[brittanyherndon]

They are totally excited,I just got them advent calendars, not to countdown Christmas and New Year, but to count down our trip , seriously

Wow that is Great

 

[tinkerbellmichelle]

We're there Jan. 3 - 8 and are so excited. We did the same week last year (Jan. 3 - 9) and it was SO nice. The weather was gorgeous and the lines were short.

 

[stitchaholic]

We're there Jan. 3 - 8 and are so excited. We did the same week last year (Jan. 3 - 9) and it was SO nice. The weather was gorgeous and the lines were short

This will be our 3rd january in a row,I love it at this time,although we were never able to catch the osbourne lights before,so i am excited to be able to do that this time

 

[stitchaholic]

Our first year there as a family,I wanted to please my little angels with alot of character dining, the second year I wanted to try some of the hyped restaurants and more character meals,but this time around I set some rules, we were going to try only places that we have not tried yet
We had already done the 2 dinner shows,so that was out of the question, that was ok as it just left open another TS.
I was 1 week to ADR day ,scouring menus on allears, constantly lurking on the dinning threads, I had finally come up with our ADR's ,they looked like this;
arrival day- no ADR,planning on going to HS for osborne lights
jan 3rd-whispering canyon breakfast- garden grill dinner
jan 4th-kona breakfast- boma dinner
jan 5th-Cape may breakfast
jan 6th-le cellier dinner
jan 7th-mama melrose fantasmic package
jan 8th-T-rex lunch

the night before ADR day,I tossed and turned, worried that I would not wake up in time to get all my ressies , finally 6am comes and I am on the phone,just to find out that they would not be open for another hour,I called back and got all my desired reservations I was ecstatic and had to get on the january snowbird thread to announce my luck!
after the initial high wore off ,I started checking out the dinning reports with photo's probably not a good idea at this point, being as I had gotten all that I wished for.
Ya see, I like to go on chat once in awhile, and sometimes I speak with some of the experts on there, wigdoutdismom had casually mentioned her TR, so I went and checked it out, great TR, but the best part was the picture of the 1900 parc fare sticky buns, those buns got me thinking about things ,oh the pondering I would do...

 

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

Great start on your PTR!! That's so excited that your staying at WLV...me and DFi are staying at WL for our honeymoon in Sept.

Curious about you renting DVC points...did you find it cheaper renting points from someone than making a ressie through disney.com?

If you've never done Wispering Canyon you will LOVE it ... I had lunch there last year and it was such a riot! It was a great time and awesome food (hopefully the breakfast fare is as good as lunch!)

 

[stitchaholic]

Curious about you renting DVC points...did you find it cheaper renting points from someone than making a ressie through disney.com?

if you can find cheap points,it is definitly worth it,I paid 8.50 per point, depending on the season,you can check through the points calculator on this site whether it would be worth it for you,the points calculator will tell you how many points you would need to stay at each resort on the days you need,also depending on the size of the villa

If you've never done Wispering Canyon you will LOVE it ... I had lunch there last year and it was such a riot! It was a great time and awesome food (hopefully the breakfast fare is as good as lunch!)

I have never done WCC before,and am looking forward to the antics, but we will no longer be having breakfast there, having access to online ADR's definitly has caused me to think and rethink my first ADR's ,so now it will be lunchon arrival day instead, as you know, we will be having dessert for dinner

 

[stitchaholic]

I really wanted to try the online dinning system, but it just would not work for me, not until after I booked my ADR's by telephone (not too sure if this was because my reservation was under my renters name) but after, it was happy to let me in to play , so I did,I was thinkin about those sticky buns from parc fare coupled with how I would love to see my son squirm under the attention of the stepsisters,mary poppins and the mad hatter
I also started thinking that WCC would be more fun dinner time, and tepan edo looked like a fun experience coupled with good food,and some forced adult company
so jan 3rd changed to supercalifrigilistic breakfast and tepan edo dinner, and WCC was changed to a dinner on jan 5th, there that should do it right ??

 

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

I really wanted to try the online dinning system, but it just would not work for me, not until after I booked my ADR's by telephone (not too sure if this was because my reservation was under my renters name) but after, it was happy to let me in to play , so I did,I was thinkin about those sticky buns from parc fare coupled with how I would love to see my son squirm under the attention of the stepsisters,mary poppins and the mad hatter
I also started thinking that WCC would be more fun dinner time, and tepan edo looked like a fun experience coupled with good food,and some forced adult company
so jan 3rd changed to supercalifrigilistic breakfast and tepan edo dinner, and WCC was changed to a dinner on jan 5th, there that should do it right ??

Ahhh yes but Stitchaholic you are now under the control of the online ressie system...your hooked from your first click onwards It's funny how far mine have come from the first round of ressie's made till now...not even close LOL and btw WCC for lunch and desserts for dinner? Sounds like heaven to me!

 

[stitchaholic]

here are some highlights from our past trips

this is when i forced my kids on TOT,I was not being mean, they are daredevil coaster lovers, just scared of this one, they love it know, but can't you just smell their fear ?

doesn't everybody have a picture with this guy ?

um, is this what the futurelooks like??