PTR JULY 2012: I talked my way into another Disney Day! 6-30

[mgsmom]

Great job on your number crunching! The math teacher approves!

I always do that kind of thing when thinking about the dining plan, and it just really doesn't work out. We are more CS people - don't like having to keep a reservation - and one TS over several days does not warrant the dining plan. This trip, I looked at the QSDP, but even that would have been too much. You are right, it really is how you eat and where you eat.

I didn't realize AoA was so pricey! Strange, that it's a "value" but is more expensive than a cabin at FW which is "moderate". And, I would think they are comparable spaces. Although the cabin might actually sleep more because of the bunk beds in the bedroom.


Anyway, I ramble... so are you planning on doing some signature restaurants??

 

[Charleston Princess]

We are the same way about the dining plan. It was so nice when both kids were under ten, but as they have gotten older, it is less than a bargain. Wish Disney had a "teen" category for the dining plans.

 

[newtexan]

we are going dining plan this time and hoping to max out its benefits too.
but there are just some picky eaters among us who cant agree on TS in E/WS

glad to see you did the math and it works for you!

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

Great job on your number crunching! The math teacher approves!

I always do that kind of thing when thinking about the dining plan, and it just really doesn't work out. We are more CS people - don't like having to keep a reservation - and one TS over several days does not warrant the dining plan. This trip, I looked at the QSDP, but even that would have been too much. You are right, it really is how you eat and where you eat.

I didn't realize AoA was so pricey! Strange, that it's a "value" but is more expensive than a cabin at FW which is "moderate". And, I would think they are comparable spaces. Although the cabin might actually sleep more because of the bunk beds in the bedroom.


Anyway, I ramble... so are you planning on doing some signature restaurants??

I was very talented in math in high school. My English teachers were probably shocked that I became an English teacher. (Nevermind that I became a teacher...)

I can't imagine that the dining plan would work out well for the three of you at all. It is shocking how costly AOA is! The cabin probably does sleep more.

I think we will do Jiko, CA Grill and Brown Derby...is signature synonymous with 2 table credits. haha I have to investigate that. We are doing two table service credit places...

We are the same way about the dining plan. It was so nice when both kids were under ten, but as they have gotten older, it is less than a bargain. Wish Disney had a "teen" category for the dining plans.

It is crazy to consider paying that much for them when they eat like birds! Maybe when Conor is older, he will eat and eat, but I imagine Chelsea barely eats enough for the child rate!

we are going dining plan this time and hoping to max out its benefits too.
but there are just some picky eaters among us who cant agree on TS in E/WS

glad to see you did the math and it works for you!

It troubles me that the cost of the dining plan is rising and the cost of the restaurants are rising to make the dining plan more desirable!

I ate in Biergarten for lunch one day in Dec. I have to tell you that I LOVED it. (I am a VERY picky eater, but I committed to try different foods. I was there for the CP package. The food was delicious!)

Also, Garden Grill is one of the top meals for my family. They LOVE the food there. The cost of that meal is outrageous, so it would certainly be a bargain for the dining credit!

 

[RooRach0906]

http://wdwnewstoday.com/archives/8900
Here is a first look at Be Our Guest Resturant but that is all I have found.

We are thinking about maybe doing the dinning plan in Dec, but we are not really sure it will be worth it.

 

[annmarieda]

It is funny how each family has to crunch the numbers themselves regarding the dp. For us, I know that we save. I have big eaters who often like the most expensive item on the menu. We don't order drinks not covered on the dp often. I learned on our last trip that sharing meals made our credits stretch much further. I guess dd and I have recently become not as big of eaters We basically were able to spit our breakfast (we have never been big breakfast eaters ) and then split our cs lunch. So for us it still works well.

 

[MeMom]

Changes in WDW for July:

Returning:
Spectro Magic!

New!!!
Disney parks blog via another site

Storybrook Circus will be open! Great Goofini, Dumbo, and Train Station!!
My girls really won't be interested in this at all, but we will have to spend a little time here doing research!!

Peter Pan interactive queue

Disney Art of Animation Nemo Wing open - we might need to check this out!

If you can think of anything else to add, please share!!

All of this is exciting to us! Fifteen weeks from today, we will be there to check it all out! We are so ready to see Spectro back, so I hope it will be ready in July. If not, we'll look forward to it in October.

Actually, as far as AoA is concerned, I am a lot more excited about seeing the outside of it and taking pictures than I am about the way it is set up (no balconies) or the price. I think this is a resort we will try once or twice just to say we have, but mostly visit for photos. I do look forward to staying in the Little Mermaid section, since it is set up like Pop with doors to the outside. Kind of helpful to a claustrophobe like me.

I am sorry our dates are not overlapping. I hate that you are missing Jackie and her crew, too. Maybe you guys can manage a quick hello in DTD before they have to leave.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

http://wdwnewstoday.com/archives/8900
Here is a first look at Be Our Guest Resturant but that is all I have found.

We are thinking about maybe doing the dinning plan in Dec, but we are not really sure it will be worth it.

Thanks for the link. The restaurant looks like it is really coming along!! My trip planning is kind of slow, so if you want to ponder whether or not the dining plan is cost effective for you, please ponder away in writing!

It is funny how each family has to crunch the numbers themselves regarding the dp. For us, I know that we save. I have big eaters who often like the most expensive item on the menu. We don't order drinks not covered on the dp often. I learned on our last trip that sharing meals made our credits stretch much further. I guess dd and I have recently become not as big of eaters We basically were able to spit our breakfast (we have never been big breakfast eaters ) and then split our cs lunch. So for us it still works well.

I think the savings on the plan keeps going down. The new prices of almost $5 more a person just seem to put this plan on a fast track to not being worth it.

All of this is exciting to us! Fifteen weeks from today, we will be there to check it all out! We are so ready to see Spectro back, so I hope it will be ready in July. If not, we'll look forward to it in October.

Actually, as far as AoA is concerned, I am a lot more excited about seeing the outside of it and taking pictures than I am about the way it is set up (no balconies) or the price. I think this is a resort we will try once or twice just to say we have, but mostly visit for photos. I do look forward to staying in the Little Mermaid section, since it is set up like Pop with doors to the outside. Kind of helpful to a claustrophobe like me.

I am sorry our dates are not overlapping. I hate that you are missing Jackie and her crew, too. Maybe you guys can manage a quick hello in DTD before they have to leave.

I am sad that our dates don't match either. Hopefully, I can get a quick hug from Jackie before she leaves the world.

AOA does look awesome for photos. Also, I've been hearing a lot about their food court. The choices are supposed to be wonderful! I can't say I've heard too much about the pool. I'll need to investigate it. I'm not sure if there will be a water slide. I think WDW is touting it as a value, but it seems priced as a moderate. I did hear that the pool was enormous.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

I am soooo excited that March is just whipping by! I certainly have some planning for our trip to do: make dining reservations, map out our touring plan, figure out what we haven't done in the past that we need to do this time...

In the meantime, I am simply trying to get ten years worth of photographs under control.

I use smugmug to store my photos online, but this is a recent move. I do have all Disney photos there. The problem is I only have other photos from the last year or two. Sure, I have about the first two years of the girls backed up on CDs, but the in between six could go missing if my computer crashes. I do have all kinds of various albums on snapfish too. The problem is that these photos are small resolution. I don't know if they can be restored to fullsize...

So, I am going to spend the evenings this week trying to organzie and manage my photos.

I'd love any ideas on how all of you back up or organize your photos.

I will share a couple of pictures that I am in the process of backing up from last Sunday, though... We had a family dinner at my mom's house. I really only took pictures of the star, my nephew Gannon. He is just a year.

me and the cutie

Emma wanted no parts of him...

Hannah was willing to let him give her a high five (and that was about it for her too)

 

[annmarieda]

I don't have any words of wisdom for you regarding the organization of photos... I don't do mine well...and just recently dh was noting we really need them all backed up somewhere.

The pics of your nephew are super cute (even if the girls were not into him much)

 

[mgsmom]

Cute pics of a cute fella!!! The girls are funny - I was like that when I was there age, too. I never really babysat either.

I organize my pictures by year. I have an external harddrive that I have a folder for each year. When I download them, I try to make a subfolder like "Thanksgiving" or whatever. That's about the excitement of it! I keep my faves on my laptop so that I will have them for backgrounds and what-not, and I also have misc. pictures on Shutterfly and Photobucket. I wanted to do a photobook for DD each year of her life - and she's 4 - and I've only done 2.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Cute pics of your nephew! I can't believe how big he is getting!

I don't have any good ideas for organizing photos, either, so I will be paying close attention to how you decide to do it.

 

[Angies1274]

Joining in! We are also going in July!! Looking forward to reading about your plans.

 

[MeMom]

The girls aren't baby people, huh? My older two are completely at ease with babies and always have been. Drew will acknowledge their existence with a half smile and move on. That's about as good as it gets with him. I doubt he will ever have any of his own, but if he does, it will be interesting - and perhaps comical.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

I don't have any words of wisdom for you regarding the organization of photos... I don't do mine well...and just recently dh was noting we really need them all backed up somewhere.

The pics of your nephew are super cute (even if the girls were not into him much)

Thanks! I'll explain what I am doing with the photos in a post soon.

Cute pics of a cute fella!!! The girls are funny - I was like that when I was there age, too. I never really babysat either.

I organize my pictures by year. I have an external harddrive that I have a folder for each year. When I download them, I try to make a subfolder like "Thanksgiving" or whatever. That's about the excitement of it! I keep my faves on my laptop so that I will have them for backgrounds and what-not, and I also have misc. pictures on Shutterfly and Photobucket. I wanted to do a photobook for DD each year of her life - and she's 4 - and I've only done 2.

You're funny...she's four and you only have two? Mine are ten with incomplete baby books! I did make a scrapbook of the first year (maybe) of their life...

I have them by year. Unfortunately, the subfolders throw me. For example, should I have all soccer in one folder and just do years for each of the soccer pics. Maybe do Christmas and have each year in that folder...

Cute pics of your nephew! I can't believe how big he is getting!

I don't have any good ideas for organizing photos, either, so I will be paying close attention to how you decide to do it.

Thanks! He is a sweet, happy baby. The year passed quickly!

I'll post photo info in future post.

Joining in! We are also going in July!! Looking forward to reading about your plans.

Yeah! I hopped over to your trip report, but I didn't post yet (it was too late for me to type a coherent thought!)

The girls aren't baby people, huh? My older two are completely at ease with babies and always have been. Drew will acknowledge their existence with a half smile and move on. That's about as good as it gets with him. I doubt he will ever have any of his own, but if he does, it will be interesting - and perhaps comical.

They are NOT baby friendly at all. However, their friend was over yesterday and she immediately went to the two year old playing outside. Before I knew it the three of them were playing kickball with the toddler!

I told Paige she would need to come over when Gannon was visiting so the girls would pay attention to him!

My dh wasn't fond of little ones (he was never around them). Then, he started to find them cute. I knew he was ready for his own then.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Jasmine was exactly the same way as your girls....she was 8 when my oldest niece was born and she acted like she had the plague...it was hilarious! She got a little better when the little one came along tho!

What a cutie pie ....!!!

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

I spoke too soon. March just came to a screeching halt...I hope it picks up momentum again tomorrow!

So, last night my friend confirmed that her son (who comes to my house every afternoon and my girls go to his house every morning) has whooping cough (pertussis). Her daughter was diagnosed a month ago (already did meds) and I took my girls to the doctor then (they were diagnosed with a cold).

So, I made dh take them to sick visit this am (I had to go to school to begin our first week of state tests). The doctor didn't test them. He gave them a course of antibiotic to solve any potential problems. Meanwhile, my friend's son is not allowed to attend school for five days (by order of the health department- who had to be notified.)

The whole thing is bizarre. My girls have a bit of a cough and once in a while a coughing fit (mild.) They have no other issues, and they are running around as usual.


Over the weekend, they played soccer...(First tied game of five--they won the other four...which if you followed us in the fall, they lost nearly all! They've come a long way!)

Here's Hannah (not sure why she is in the air...)

And Emma (in black foot almost on ball)

While, I'm here, I don't know if I posted pics from when they escorted the Ohio Crew (we wish they got to escort the Philadelphia Union) onto the field before a Union game...They said the players were very nice. This was back in September!

Emma

Hannah

I included this last one because you can see the back of Zac Pffefer. This kid (yes kid!) was 15 in the fall, and he played with the big boys! We had the chance to meet him and our beloved Sebastien Le Toux. Le Toux now plays for Vancouver--our loss- and I am still morning losing him and Carlos Ruiz!

I hope my non-soccer fans were not too bored! I went on a major tangent! Talk to everyone soon.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

Jasmine was exactly the same way as your girls....she was 8 when my oldest niece was born and she acted like she had the plague...it was hilarious! She got a little better when the little one came along tho!

What a cutie pie ....!!!

She's so good with them now for the camera!!!

thanks!

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

Another change for this summer...

"Greetings from Epcot!

All the would-be secret agents out there will find a great new interactive experience at Epcot this year.

Coming this summer, Disney Phineas & Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure is based on the wily secret-agent alter-ego of Perry the Platypus – faithful pet to the title characters from Disney’s animated series “Phineas & Ferb.” Although just a simple pet to Phineas and Ferb, Perry turns into Agent P in each episode to help stop the misguided plans of his nemesis, Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Epcot guests will transform into secret agents to help Agent P thwart some of Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s most daring plots. Agents will use a “high-tech secret agent device” to receive clues for each case. Solving the clues will take agents to different places throughout seven World Showcase countries at Epcot – Mexico Pavilion, France Pavilion, Germany Pavilion, Norway Pavilion, Japan Pavilion, China Pavilion and the United Kingdom Pavilion. Agents will scour each country for clues, evil “Inators,” and – with a little bit of luck – help Agent P defeat Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Everyone ready to don their fedoras and help Agent P? I can’t wait!

Disney Phineas & Ferb: Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure will arrive at Epcot and the current Disney Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure will close in summer."

I don't know if any changes to the actual missions will change. I have to say that we only did one and a half of the Kim Possible missions. I liked the idea, but with two eight year olds in heat, it didn't work for us!

 

[anjalee6]

A family friend's daughter was also diagnosed in the fall with whooping cough. When I took the kids to the doctor to make sure they were ok, the doctor put them on antibiotics also. Said it was just a precaution. I hate that they do that though. Anyway, the doctor said that a lot of kids are picking it up from adults whose vaccines are running out. He told me that I should get the vaccine since I work with and have children so I was revaccinated. Never would have thought to get another vaccine. Hope your girls are ok.