Sarilas' O-fficial Pre-Trip Report (a.k.a. Vacation, Take TWO!) - Jan. 30-Feb. 8, '09

[Charleston Princess]

Your Day 49 trivia works for me!

 

[Sarilas]

You gotta do what you gotta do to keep the trivia rolling!

 

[Sarilas]

Actress June Foray provided the voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan 48 years after providing the voice Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella

Alright come on, that was an original one!

I hope everyone's having a nice Saturday! My DH is out tutoring a friend in Photoshop so I'm all by my lonesome this morning. Or as by your lonesome as one can be with four kids!

I've got an ADR update I'm working on (you KNOW how I like my visuals) and I want to show you the daily cards I'm sending to my phone rather than carrying physical cards with me each day- it's good to have one of these new fangangled phones I tell ya!

 

[Charleston Princess]

That's great! I can't imagine how much time and effort it must have taken you to come up with this trivia!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Actress June Foray provided the voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan 48 years after providing the voice Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella

Alright come on, that was an original one!

I hope everyone's having a nice Saturday! My DH is out tutoring a friend in Photoshop so I'm all by my lonesome this morning. Or as by your lonesome as one can be with four kids!

I've got an ADR update I'm working on (you KNOW how I like my visuals) and I want to show you the daily cards I'm sending to my phone rather than carrying physical cards with me each day- it's good to have one of these new fangangled phones I tell ya!

That is a great piece of trivia!! I'm so impressed with all of this. I need 50 Christmas Trivia questions by next Saturday you know....

 

[JenAusty]

I'm subbing! I'm excited to read it all.. I'll catch up soon! hehe

 

[JenAusty]

O. M. G

I'm giddy as a schoolgirl right now, and I know it's the silliest and possibly the lamest thing to be giddy over (and if not, I know I have truly found my people, LOL) but I just got my FIRST EVER PIN CODE IN THE MAIL!

To see our family's name emblazoned across the opening of the folding postcard like that, and better yet to see a deal that I WISH we could take advantage of (sadly we cannot... THIS TIME) has me doing the happy dance!

The much coveted PIN code has become MINE!

Whats a pin code? I need to be a part of it?!!

 

[JenAusty]

I do believe I've completed my first trip project!

Behold... calendar pages ready to be printed and colored by little fingers. Days just waiting to be crossed off in hopeful anticipation of things to come!

I give you...

Our WDW countdown calendars!

The opaque numbers in the center of each date are our own little countdown to WDW Day!

These are amazing and soo creative.. I made something for a countdown before.. but nothing is wonderful!

 

[JenAusty]

That is soo cute. .you are giving me soo many great ideas! My DH and I are having out disney world vacation be part of our xmas present since we have to book by Dec. 20th to get the buy 4get 3 deal and we purchased flight.. so thats a lot of money aroung Christmas.. soo I have decided to buy a book for us.. even though I already have like 10 books.. whats another one going to hurt?!! hehe I love the books. Plus, we have a change container for spending money- and whenever we get change from something we say "more disney money". I am going to decorate that to! hehe

 

[TarzansKat]

Phew. I just caught up!

Love the gingerbread houses.

Slowly but surely, your trip draws near, my dear. I can't wait!

 

[Sarilas]

That's great! I can't imagine how much time and effort it must have taken you to come up with this trivia!

Yeah, A LOT. Obviously that's what I was doing rather than updating here!

That is a great piece of trivia!! I'm so impressed with all of this. I need 50 Christmas Trivia questions by next Saturday you know....

Do NOT look at me! Like I need another project!

I'm subbing! I'm excited to read it all.. I'll catch up soon! hehe

Welcome! I'm so glad to have you here!

Whats a pin code? I need to be a part of it?!!

A pin code is this magical Disney treat- nobody knows why any of us get them, but Disney sends some people this 'code' that's only good for the person it's sent to- it's usually for a great discount on rooms between certain dates. Sometimes it comes via email and sometimes in a postcard in the regular mail. I got my first one right when I really started planning and I had signed up for everything Disney offers online- somewhere I signed up for something that got me a pin code!

These are amazing and soo creative.. I made something for a countdown before.. but nothing is wonderful!

I'm glad you like them! We had a great time coloring everything!

That is soo cute. .you are giving me soo many great ideas! My DH and I are having out disney world vacation be part of our xmas present since we have to book by Dec. 20th to get the buy 4get 3 deal and we purchased flight.. so thats a lot of money aroung Christmas.. soo I have decided to buy a book for us.. even though I already have like 10 books.. whats another one going to hurt?!! hehe I love the books. Plus, we have a change container for spending money- and whenever we get change from something we say "more disney money". I am going to decorate that to! hehe

It is a ton of money right before Christmas for sure, but we saved about $700 with that deal! SO worth buying an extra book for!

Phew. I just caught up!

Love the gingerbread houses.

Slowly but surely, your trip draws near, my dear. I can't wait!

How on earth did you catch up so quickly after your return from WDW?! You're like magical speed reader woman!

 

[TarzansKat]

How on earth did you catch up so quickly after your return from WDW?! You're like magical speed reader woman!

It's called naptime.

 

[Sarilas]

Walt Disney purchased over 47 square miles of land to build Disney World in after being frustrated at the inability to keep cheap motels, neon signs, and tourist-trap gift shops out of view of his guests at Disneyland.

Yeah, that IS a problem with Disneyland.

And I'm still working on that update for you all- I've got Cherry Pecan Bread in the oven and banana bread ready to go in- I'm working on my updates in between holiday baking!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Walt Disney purchased over 47 square miles of land to build Disney World in after being frustrated at the inability to keep cheap motels, neon signs, and tourist-trap gift shops out of view of his guests at Disneyland.

Yeah, that IS a problem with Disneyland.

And I'm still working on that update for you all- I've got Cherry Pecan Bread in the oven and banana bread ready to go in- I'm working on my updates in between holiday baking!

Wow! Cherry Pecan Bread so delish!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Good ol' Walt certainly succeeded in keeping WDW a space totally separated from the rest of the world! I can't wait until you see it, Lara!

 

[Sarilas]

Wow! Cherry Pecan Bread so delish!!

I am SO baked out from yesterday.

Good ol' Walt certainly succeeded in keeping WDW a space totally separated from the rest of the world! I can't wait until you see it, Lara!

Me too! You can always see hotel signs or freeways from Disneyland- it'll be weird to be totally immersed in it all!

 

[Sarilas]

Approximately 46 million tourists visit the Disney World theme parks annually.

 

[JenAusty]

So, I'm kind of stressing over our ADR's. (There's a shocker, eh?) I'm in a quandry about how to organize them. The schedule of hours for next year isn't out for a while, so I can't use it to choose parks by Magic Hours or anything. How on earth do you schedule your ADR's to something reasonably attainable? I mean, I know I'll call and try to get Cinderella's Table and Le Cellier first thing, but let's ASSUME (work with me here) that they have openings on different days; do I try to keep all the MK restaurants in one day, and the Epcot restaurants on another? Or do I get bold and crazy and just schedule as it comes, hopping on buses all around the World? Decisions, decisions...

Which leads me to today's lessons, girls and girls. (I don't think I have any boys reading, but if you're out there let yourself be known!) I stumbled across a blog today as I was searching for other people's experiences at DW recently. Only this was NOT what I'd expected. Now, I want to preface this by chicken-heartedly saying I hope this young woman isn't on the DIS, and in fact I'd wager she isn't based on the mistakes she made that even I as a first time visitor would know better than just by reading here...

That being said, I give you this poor woman's Disney World saga. Prepare to do the following, often: and and and and and

It's pretty much my idea of how NOT to visit WDW. She could have SO benefited from the DIS.

I totally feel you on the ADR ressiees.. It's one of the most stressful times for me because dining is such an important part to me and its not like we get to go to disney world every month- so choosing the places to eat is soo hard. There are just too many to choose from!

 

[JenAusty]

A newlywed friend of ours got a surprise weekend trip to Disney World as a gift from his new FIL. They found out last week, went this past weekend and so have returned this week. They went to Epcot, then one of the water parks, then MK on their last day. My husband got the low-down from the guy who went (who has never been there before), and he said that while they had a good time, they couldn't see themselves spending more than three days there.

Well I'm not surprised! My DH was CRACKING UP as I got all in a huff and defended WDW - How COULD they enjoy it properly when they did no research? Had no travel guide? NO ADR'S! For heaven's sake it's BARBARIC!

It's ok to get defensive.. I always am! It makes me mad how people judge it whether they've been there before or not.. if you don't do the full planning or know the experience.. then shut up!

 

[JenAusty]

Let me pose this question to you all... If you were going to choose ONE restaurant to have your FINAL dinner in at Disney World, where would you choose?

I'm having a heck of a time deciding this. I want to choose something memorable for everyone since it'll be our last full day (we'll be up early to drive home the next morning)...

Well since this is an older posting.. idk if you decided this or not.. assuming you have because its the middle of December... but having gone there before.. my DH and I's fav. place is Coral Reef.. so if I was having a hard time.. then I would choose a favorite place.. or one of the nicest placest or one of the placest you are most looking forward to.. so it still leaves some excitement for the final day. It's always a little sad when leaving.. and this will leave something exciting. Last time I went- we left for the airport around 3pm.. soo we decided to relax by the pool and explore the hotel.. I kind of wished now that we left something exciting on that day- even if it was just breakfast somewhere.. we had nothing planned.. and the final day was soo depressing.. it was like we waited for it to end! hehe