Pre-Trip Planning: Danielle's 2008 WDW Christmas Adventure

[Becx N Gav]

Hey there, I've just finished reading your pre trippie - great job Thanks for stopping by on mine, thought I'd return the favour

I'm loving your plans and agree you don't want MK all done within the first few days - we've done this in the past and I always want to go back

So pleased you got AKL We really want to try the DVC villas there someday, LOVED Boma I'm sure your daughter (not to mention your wife ) will have such a great time - it'll be like a safari

Also I love My Name Is Earl - they just finished showing the season where he gets hit by a car and goes into a coma. Hope the next season is on soon, I've noticed the British TV companies are showing the new seasons (of Ugly Betty, Prison Break, Lost, Heroes etc) a couple of days after they air on your shores - finally We used to have to wait weeks/months In fact when Friends was first shown someone I knew went to the states and said they'd seen the current (in the UK) season the year before

Can't wait to hear more, and will be looking out for you guys in Dec (I'm not a weirdo BTW, just love to meet new people esp. those who love Disney as much as I do )

 

[Becx N Gav]

4 MONTHS TO GO!!!

ONLY - 4 MONTHS TO GO!!

And do ya know what that means???

Only 3 months until Danielle's 5th birthday!!

... and less than 2 months until Vicki's birthday !!

... so it's a little over 1 month until MY birthday!!

... and only about 1 month until Danielle starts kindergarten!!





[So I'd better get to work on my touring plans ... ]

almost 3 MONTHS TO GO!!!

almost ONLY - 3 MONTHS TO GO!!

And do ya know what that means???

almost Only 2 months until Danielle's 5th birthday!!

... and less than 1 month until Vicki's birthday !!

... so it's a little over 0 months until MY birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY

... and only about 0 months until Danielle starts kindergarten!! HOPE SHE HAS A WONDERFUL TIME - AND THAT YOU AREN'T TOO SAD

 

[joelp]

3 Months less Two Days to go!! = 90 days to Go!!

Booked my seats for our flights this morning - did you know Spirit now charges a "seat fee"?!? And I paid for our luggage - one bag each round-trip - plus a fourth bag for the flight back to NJ (for all those Christmas presents!!) Total came to an additional $165 ...

... for a grand total of $792 to fly to MCO and back ... not too bad, considering the current state of our economy ... (don't you just love those "fiscal conservatives" we have ruinin' - not a typo!! - the country ... )

[Now - I just have to figure out how I'm gonna get 4 bags and a DD-5 through the airport in one piece ... ... can't do ME with the bags back to MCO with Spirit ...)

Some other news - my Mom is thinking of joining us for the first Sat-Sun of the trip!! She'd fly into Tampa and stay at Jed & Mindi's for a couple of days, travel to and stay with them wherever they're staying in Orlando (cuz it looks like the AKL is aaaaaaalllll booked up ...[you can't say I didn't warn them ...]), and then head back to their place for another day-or-so before flying home ...

BTW - Jed, Mindi, and Nina were on a Disney cruise this past weekend - I haven't gotten a "weather report" yet ... They got a GREAT deal - it only cost them like $1,500 ... (don't know if that included hurricane insurance, though ...)

So I may have to try and "add" Mom to the ADRs - Chef Mickey's on Saturday night (Dec 6) shouldn't be a problem - likewise for Boma on Sunday night (if they stay for dinner ...)

The BIG problem might be CRT for lunch on Sunday ... ... I already have ressies for 9 - so they SHOULD be able to squeeze one more in without too much trouble ... (you would think!) ... But if I can't add Mom to the CRT ressie (... so she can be with her two grandkids who she hardly EVER sees ... ... ) - what do I do with her???

I just started a Dec 9 MVMCP DIS Meet thread ...

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1944667

... and it seems to be attracting a bunch of people ...

As I (think I did ...) mentioned in an earlier post: we went camping last weekend. And on the first night there - Saturday - as the sun started to set and I began to cook dinner - out came the green-head flies!!!

After about 5 minutes of getting eaten alive (they were not fazed in the least by whatever bug sprays - yes, I was using multiple sprays!!! - I was covered with ...) - I had a simple thought:

"I am SO ready for WDW!!! - and not the Fort Wilderness Campground!!"

I survived - but I don't think we'll (at least I don't plan to ...) be going back there again.

And - I finished my Epcot-FutureWorld Summary/Guide - so if you want a copy, send me a personal e-mail and I'll ship it off to you ...

the last thing I did was look over the stuff on the WDW web site ...

... and I am SOOOO ready for WDW!!

Next up: Epcot-WS ...

Danielle started Kindergarten last week - so this was the first "Daddy-and-no-Danielle Day" ... so I'm gonna grab a 1/2 hour horizontal/eyes kinda closed rest before I head over there to pick her up - and thence to Castle Park playground ...

... or maybe I'll watch some of the WDW Planning Video ...

Later ...

 

[joelp]

Hey there, I've just finished reading your pre trippie - great job Thanks for stopping by on mine, thought I'd return the favour

Been meaning to ask you - where are the "Midlands"?

The DW and I honeymooned in London and vicinity - including a stop in Burford (had to pull out the photo album to check ...) on the way to Stratford-upon-Avon ...

... are the "Midlands" anywhere around there??

 

[Becx N Gav]

Been meaning to ask you - where are the "Midlands"?

The DW and I honeymooned in London and vicinity - including a stop in Burford (had to pull out the photo album to check ...) on the way to Stratford-upon-Avon ...

... are the "Midlands" anywhere around there??

Right well, (depending on who you ask) the Midlands are a few counties between Wales and Norfolk (the bit on the eastern side that looks like a bump). Our county Northamptonshire is about halfway between London and Birmingham, its claims to fame are Dr Marten boots and the Spencer family home (Princess Diana's family). Although sometimes we are grouped with East Anglia - which is the 'bump'.
Just found where Burford is, Stratford-uopn-Avon is west of us, the Cotwolds (that general area) are beautiful - typical Olde World cottages So yeah that is prob west Midalnds (as I said it's a bit vague )

Where else did you go? Were you here for long? What did you think?

 

[joelp]

Where else did you go? Were you here for long? What did you think?

[Hey - I just discovered a different way to do a "quote" - just cut and paste!!]

Only 12 weeks and five days to go!!

OK - back to the honeymoon ... (sorry for the delay in responding: it's been one of those weeks ... and I think another one is just starting ... )

We spent 8 days in the UK, with London as our "base". It was a tour - but with only about half the time "scheduled" - the rest, we were on our own ...

We did two full day "tours" - one to Stratford-upon-Avon, with the aforementioned stop in Burford ... and the other to Bath and Stonehenge ...

SuA ( ) was a very nice town, and - surprisingly - I really liked the visit to Anne Hathaway's Cottage (I thought it would be booooring - but it wasn't at all ...). [I'll have to compare it to Minnie's Cottage in Toontown in my TR ... ]

Unfortunately, none of the Bard's plays (assuming, in fact, he did write them ... ) were "in local production" when we were there ...

The second tour was "detoured" by someone deciding to set off a bomb on one of London's bridges ... ... So we went to Bath first, and then Stonehenge (instead of the planned reverse order ...). We really liked Bath but saw very little of the town and had to jump back on the tour bus after 3-or-so hours ... which made the DW very unhappy ... ... Especially considering that - if we hadn't been detoured - we could have stayed in Bath longer and done some exploring on our own and taken a train back to London later that night ...

Stonhenge was very cool - not exactly what I expected: I thought it would be more "isolated" ... And unfortunately, you can't get very close to the stones ... (and the DW was still fuming about having to get back on the tour bus in Bath so soon ... ...)

The rest of the time were in London ...

We had a morning bus tour of the city, ending up at Buckingham Palace ...

and the rest of the time we were on our own ...

Spent most of a day at the Tower of London - and still didn't see everything ... (no Mickeys dressed as "Beefeaters" ...
)

And about 5 hours in Westminster Abbey ... where we did see everything ... ...

Rode a lot of buses ... strolled and jogged in a bunch of parks ... took in a play ... rode in a cab ... and ate in a bunch of pubs ...

We had a GREAT time with wonderful weather - and I want to go back ... (with a short side trip to Paris Disney, of course ... )

The only thing that wasn't "great" was the food ... although some of the pubs were pretty good ...

 

[joelp]

11 weeks to go!!

This time 77 days from now, we will be somewhere along the monorail line, taking in the sites and sounds of WDW!!

Claire and Grace flew into NJ this afternoon for a little "family reunion" of sorts ... (not with the "Fab Four" ...)

They're staying with us tonight - one of them will get Danielle's bed (with the Tinkerbell quilt ) and I'm pumping up the air mattress for the other ... they can fight it out among themselves ...

Tomorrow we head up to NYC to hook up with Claire's brother - with a visit to the Central Park Zoo, FAO Schwartz ... and maybe to the Disney Store!! This will be the DD's first visit to the "Big Apple" - we'll see how she likes it ...

With 11 weeks to go, I'm still slogging along on my park summaries ... but for now, I'm going to start putting together a checklist of things to do:

(1) Flight - paid for, seats booked, and luggage purchased (3 bags going down - 4 coming back ... Christmas presents!! )

To Do: get boarding passes; check on parking arrangements at AC airport (we haven't flown out of there in a while ...)

(2) Final WDW Payment - due October 22; da money is sittin' in da bank waiting for the Disney VISA bill to arrive in early November ... (more Reward points!! )

To Do: make sure a pay a visit to AAA before Oct 22!!!

(3) MVMCP Tix - paid for and sitting in my WDW folder.

To (Not) Do: forget to bring them with us!!


Park Summaries:

- Magic Kingdom: finished (unless some rehabs get posted ...)
- Epcot-FW: finished (ibid ...)
- Epcot-WS: in progress (need to check restaurant reviews, All Ears site, and WDW site ... )
- Animal Kingdom: started reading UG (remember him??) -
- Hollywood Studios: will get to that ...
- Downtown Disney: maybe not ... (being realistic here ... cuz, I also have to finish:

Park Touring Plans (for each day ...):

- Dec 6 (wing it ...)
- Dec 7 (MK): finished (more or less ... )
- Dec 8 (Epcot): almost done (and maybe I'll post it for your comments later this week ...)
- Dec 9 (MVMCP): hold off until party details are available ...
- Dec 10 (HS): will get to that (see above ...)
- Dec 11 (Epcot): draft started - but I've realized that - looking at it realistically - we STILL won't see all of Epcot after two trips and four days!!
... so, it needs some work (and you may be seeing the draft next week, too ...)

- Dec 12 (AK): nothing yet ...
- Dec 13 (?): open for now - not sure what we're gonna do ... and I wish Spirit would stop changing the time our flight leaves MCO!! ... unless they want to change it back to the original time of 7:30 pm (it's 9:30 now ... that will make for a long day!! )

Have I missed anything ...?

Also - I'm trying to arrange a DIS meet at the Dec 9 MVMCP - need to play
for that effort in the coming weeks ...

I'll hold off on a packing list ... I need to go through the "Disney Rubbermaid Container" to see what I've bought in the way of t-shirts, etc. so far ...

My birthday was yesterday ... and since I was planning on being at WDW for next year's big ?0 birthday (fill in the number - but be kind ... ) I was VERY happy to see the "present" I'll be getting from Disney ... ...

and if I can get the DW to load a picture or two, I'll show you the present the DW and DD got me this year!!

Later ...

 

[wdwgirl03]

Hey there...I know I've checked out your PTR a couple times but am finally getting around to posting. My dad, sister and I are also going in December, though we'll be there after you. December is such an awesome time to go! An that is so cool you are staying at AKL...we were there in May and absolutely loved it. Can't wait to hear more of your plans!

 

[joelp]

Welcome to the party!!

 

[mickeysgirl17]

I'm reading your PTR too!

 

[Becx N Gav]

Don't forget the pic of the B.day present I've only got 2 and a half til mine now Although WDW will be my present this year which is fine by me

 

[joelp]

10 WEEKS TO GO!!

... which means: about this time 70 days from now, we'll be cruisin' on the Monorail taking in some WDW Christmas decorations ... !!

Spoke to my brother Jed earlier today - they did a 3-day Disney cruise a couple weeks ago. Now - he and Mindi are by no means "Disney fanatics" - and their first day out they had to deal with Hurricane Hannah - but he told me it was the best vacation they've EVER been on ... ...

... and since he's planning on going again next year ... we may be joining them ... (depending on the cost ... ... he got a deal - only $1,500 for the 3 of them ...)


Still working on getting the DW to post a picture of my B-Day present (how annoying do you think I can get before she throws something at me ...? )

On a similar line of thinking: the DD's birthday is November 6 - smack dab in the middle of the week. So we decided (many months ago ...) to have her birthday party on November 1 ... which means it will also be a Halloween-type party!! ... (that was my original thought ...)

But I was in my favorite Disney Outlet yesterday, and the Halloween party stuff was on sale at 40% off - and if you've seen it - we're now going with a kind of "Spooky Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" theme ...

So if anyone has any good party ideas along that line ...

I also picked up a set of Fairy bookends marked down from $70 to $40 ... and I have to keep them hidden until the DD's birthday (or maybe Christmas - depends on what I buy in the next few weeks ... )

Still working (slowly ...) on the Epcot-WS summary ...

Have a great weekend!!

 

[Becx N Gav]

Thanks for the update, I think I was getting mixed about birthdays (there seems to be lots of people with birthdays around this time!) Mickey Mouse Clubhouse halloween theme sounds like a great idea
We don't really 'do' halloween very well here in the UK, but as a kid I remember a party where we had a race to 1. bob an apple 2. get a small (wrapped!) piece of candy from a tray of flour! 3. eat a doughnut (the type with a hole) suspended on a bit of string - messy, but so much fun! Not sure if DD would be old enough, but you could always have a late night party for the adults and try it out I'd love to see that

Woo Hoo for only 70 days

10 weeks of work (minus one day for my birthday and one I still have to use)

It feels like the excitement before Christmas, oh wait it will be Christmas

 

[mickeysgirl17]

Great update. I'm hoping to do a disney cruise in 2010!

 

[joelp]

Just a quick post before ...

Today's the DW's birthday ...

and ...

I noticed this morning that it is also the anniversary of the opening of WDW ...

Sooo - in the almost twenty years we've been together - including spending one of her birthdays at the MK ... the "coincidence" never really clicked until this morning ...


Later ...

 

[joelp]

Good morning!!

And welcome to our single digit week party!!

Only 9 weeks to go!!!

 

[BKMETV]

Hey Joel:

Can't believe we're almost there. Is it really on 9 weeks left? I better start organizing myself.

 

[joelp]

Friends, Romans (any Romans out there ...?), countrymen ( ... and women, too ... and you "fererners". also ...), lend me your ears (actually your eys ...):

Two Months To Go!!!!!


This poor attempt at a literay allusion has been brought to you by lack of sleep ...

I now return you to your irregularly scheduled, annoying, and intelligence-insulting "Election 2008" commercial ...

 

[Lcaemom]

Jumping on board...read your whole report the other day...you are too funny. Also, be the first to know that you have inspired me to start my own PRT...thank you...I'll be sure to send all of my followers here later to thank you, as well.
Great way to put things into perspective...the single digit week party...I think that's what you called it...yes, we're down to under 9 weeks!!!

 

[joelp]

Good morning!!

The DW finally downloaded a picture of my birthday present from her and Danielle ...

Nice seashells!!!

Later ...