Our 2nd trip this year! PTR

[mom31]

I'm new to the boards and pretty new to Disney. We went for the first time in March of this year. Here's the family:

The Husband (32) - Mr. Army Man. This trip is celebrating the end of his 5th deployment to Afghanistan. We are counting down the days! Our first trip was during his r&r and we loved it so much we are returning already.

The Wife (31) - That's me! Stay at home, homeschooling mom, domestic goddess

The Daughter (10) - Ms. Thrill Seeker. Loves school and annoying her brother

The Son (9) - The polar opposite of his sister

The Pug and The Shih-Tzu - who must stay at home. They will have a fun time driving the dog sitter nuts.

Here's where we're at:

In the next 50 days I must get our house ready to be put up for rent, move halfway across the country, welcome The Husband home and plan the vacation. The Offspring are spending the next 11 days with The Grandparents so I can do some of this in peace.

We decided a few days ago to do this trip. I am still waiting to hear from the military travel agency about prices for the date we chose. I guess Monday I will go down there and bother them about it if I don't hear from them before. As of right now we will do Universal for Oct. 13 - 14 and Disney the 15 - 18 and return home the 19th.

Now I am off to figure out how to add one of those signature thingys.

 

[mom31]

I decided to go bug the travel people in person. Turns out they had the wrong phone number for me. So I paid for our reservations!

Now that I have the Disney reservations, I can mae the Universal Studios ones. I do admit that I almost sprung for a moderate place when I found out that we had gotten All Star Sports. I'm not much of a sports fan (unless it is the Saints or Auburn) so I'm not too happy with it. But I can live with it.

Here's our itinerary so far:

Oct. 12 - drive in, have dinner with an old friend that lives in the area. We'll ditch the husbands and children and go see some sights or whatever. spend night in cheap hotel

Oct. 13 - Universal, Island of Adventures. Spend night in universal hotel. lunch in Universal, dinner wherever

Oct. 14 - Universal, Other side, Spend night in cheap hotel. lunch in universal, dinner wherever

Oct. 15 - Check into All-Star Sports, Hollywood Studios, lunch at sci-fi dine-in. dinner quick service in hotel

Oct. 16 - Animal kingdom, lunch at Rainforest pretty late. figure we can have a snack when we get hungry and quick service in hotel

Oct. 17 - Hollywood Studios, lunch at Planet Hollywood. Figured we can see Downtown Disney since I doubt we'll want to spend 2 full days in HS

Oct. 18 - Animal kingdom, Rainforest Cafe

Oct. 19 - check out, drive home


Still need to get The Husband to agree to going back to either Epcot or Magic kingdom but he didn't care for either of those places and doesn't want to. I'm happy either way. Getting excited!

 

[mom31]

Here's some pictures from our March trip!

The Daughter and The Son. It rained our only day at Universal.

Meeting Minnie! We stood in line for almost 2 hours. The longest line of the trip.

Me and The Daughter on the Great Movie Ride

One of only a handful of photos in existence of me and The Husband together

He tried. Guess it wasn't meant to be

 

[mom31]

I'll update just in case anybody's reading.

I went down to the ticketing place and upgraded our hotel. We are now staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort. I feel much better about it than All Star Sports. And it was under $200 to switch.

Also our itinerary changed slightly. The 3rd Disney day will be spent as an off day playing around in the pool and hanging out at the hotel and everything else bumped down a day. That means we'll have to drive 9 hours after a day of Disney but The Husband can handle it. I might even drive for an hour or so.

Haven't heard from The Husband in days so I'm not sure if he approves of these changes or not. He always lets me have my way though so I doubt it will even ping his radar.

In other news, moving preparations are going very very slowly. Friday starts a 3 day girl's weekend in Atlanta!

 

[deedee2177]

Just checking in with a fellow NC Family! I bet you all are getting so excited!! We are just happy to now be able to say we are going next month.. LOL!!

Really wish we could do the drive from NC in one day like you are planning, but I don't think it would work out so well with 9 1/2 month old!!

Well, I hope you and your family have a great time!!

 

[mom31]

Yay! Next month sounds so close! Things have been crazy here. I will update later.

I'm not looing forward to doing it in one day either but we have trips of 7 hours and up about once a month so we now what we're getting into. lol At my children's ages they fight in the car. Luckily the husband convinced me to bring his SUV instead of my tiny Prius. They can have their own rows with this one and spread out. Although I'll miss the good gas mileage.

 

[mom31]

Things have been nuts here. The Husband made it home from Afghanistan safe and sound. Aside from that, the past 2 wees have been really bad. We've had a bad move, I have a broken finger as a result of the move, we aren't sure we have enough money for the rest of the things we need for the trip thanks to a screw up and a very good friend of mine committed suicide a few days ago. Needless to say, Disney has been the last thing on my mind.

I am hoping I can put all this behind me and start focusing on the trip. I desperately need some fun in my life right now but I'm worried all I'll be thinking is how we can't afford it right now.

Depressing entry. How do I get in the Disney spirit and not ruin such a costly trip for the rest of my family?

 

[deedee2177]

I am so sorry to hear about all the hard things you are going through!! We have had our share of things as well...family issues and physical issues (I'm recovering from back surgery). We have thought about postponing our trip as well, but we decided we need the time away and make some special memories with our immediate family. The money is in the back of our head too, but we will make it...we always do!

I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers!

 

[mom31]

ThanKs Back surgeries are hard. I hope you feel better soon!

 

[mom31]

Things are looking up. I started reading on the boards more often and am starting to get excited about the trip. Dh bought the Disney tickets today. Yay! I ordered the Universal ones online a couple of days ago and they should be here Tuesday.

I've been playing with our dining reservations really out of boredom. As of right now they are:

Day 1 - Crystal Palace
Day 2 - Sci Fi
Day 3 - Rainforest Cafe (we all loved this one last time!)
Day 4 - T-Rex

I still need to talk to my friend in the area again and make some plans for our girls night. I think I'm looking forward to that the most right now.

It is supposed to rain every day of our trip so far but that's okay. It'll either change or we'll deal with it. I'm sure it'll keep the crowds down if it does rain so there's always a positive.

8 days until we leave!

 

[deedee2177]

Keep just checking back on the weather...Florida weather can change especially in 8 days!! Glad you are getting excited again and agree that a girl's night would be a great thing!!

 

[mom31]

38 hours and counting!!

We drop the dog off at the dog sitters at 7 a.m. Friday morning and then we drive for a very long 10 hours. We've got the list of things to pack. Kiddie bags are done, adult bag is started. Tonight I make the rest of the snacks.

Still needs to be done: finish packing, check the weather again (it seems to have cleared up), decide on where to go for girl's night, gas in the car, download movies on the ipad, charge all the electronics. And a million more things.

Found out today that a friend from here will be there at the same time as us. Lots and lots to do still.

 

[deedee2177]

38 hours and counting!!

We drop the dog off at the dog sitters at 7 a.m. Friday morning and then we drive for a very long 10 hours. We've got the list of things to pack. Kiddie bags are done, adult bag is started. Tonight I make the rest of the snacks.

Still needs to be done: finish packing, check the weather again (it seems to have cleared up), decide on where to go for girl's night, gas in the car, download movies on the ipad, charge all the electronics. And a million more things.

Found out today that a friend from here will be there at the same time as us. Lots and lots to do still.

I hope you have a great trip!! I'm glad to hear the weather seems to be clearing up for you...I'll keep my fingers crossed that it stays that way for you!!

Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back. Safe travels and hope you have a very magical time!!

 

[mom31]

Day 1. Alarms were set for 5:30. We were up and ready by the time they went off. So we stopped by McDonalds for a long breakfast. Dropped the dog off and headed out at 7. Got to Econo Lodge on Polynesian Isle Blvd at about 5. We had an hour or so detour because I hadnt double checked which hotel and we went to the wrong one. Oops.

Hotel was $30.00 including tax. It showed. It was dirty and loud. The pool looked nasty and we got a nice view of the sewage drainage area. But the staff was nice and the area safe. Better than we expected for the price. Went to Golden Corral for dinner and then back to the hotel and fell asleep right away.

 

[mom31]

Day 2, Saturday. We were excited so we were ready to go by 6. Went down to breakfast. You had a choice of cereal, muffin or danish. It was free. Went to wal-mart to get souvenirs and sunscreen. Got to Universal Studios Royal Pacific at 7. We were surprised our room was ready. We got 7th floor, tower 1. Put our stuff in our room and parked the car and went get our express pass. By that time it was 7:45. We had planned on going to the Universal side but since that didn't open until 9 we decided for Islands of Adventure.

Oh yeah, room was nice but super over priced. More later.

 

[mom31]

I was just expecting bigger and better for the room, considering I paid so much for it.

Had a really nice day at Islands of Adventure. We had been there once before so knew pretty much where everything was and I think that saved time. Plus the express pass. I will never again do Universal without it. So nice out of both days I think the longest we waited was about 10 minutes. I hope the good treatment doesn't spoil Disney for us. We went straght to the Harry Potter World. We had done it before so no surprised. We did hit up Ollivander's this time that we had missed last time so that was new and fun. Then we hit the water rides twice each. We were soaked from the Popeye one and it was no fun walking around in that.

We bought the meal deal which was a huge mistake. Dino-digs was nice but the other 2 places the food sucked. to be continued later.

 

[mom31]

I can't remember day by day stuff anymore so will just lump everything together.

Having a terrible vacation. We got bad news from our property manager about our house. And other various family/work problems. I wound up in the ER one day because I ate something that had shellfish contamination. And dh's grandpa passed away today. I found out on facebook. The funeral is before we can get there so either we miss the funeral or we leave here early. I'm not sure what we're going to do. That is up to the husband.

Friday is our last day here and I am ready to go home. The trip was too long. The kids are getting cranky because they are tired. I am tired and so is the husband.

Other than that things have been so-so. We've come across several rude employees which surprises me coming from Disney. We had a lot of fun several times so it hasn't been all bad. The food and hotel hasn't been as nice as I was expecting so that was a disappointment. Maybe I will feel better about it in a few weeks when I am home and properly rested.