Scavenger hunt to WDW!!

[dmbdisneymom]

I found our pics from our 2005 trip. I didn't realize it had been so long! Time sure flies with these kiddos!

None of these have Bennett in them since he wasn't able to go with us last minute, but here are a few.

The only character Lilly had any interest in and wasn't terrified of was Ariel. At the time, Ariel was her absolute favorite princess ever. Of course, she was 2 and if she couldn't see a face it didn't work out well for her.

 

[dmbdisneymom]

 

[dmbdisneymom]

Here are some parade shots. We weren't at the best angle, but I got some decent ones of the characters.

 

[dmbdisneymom]

Gotta love the teacups!

Wow...I had forgotten how terrible my 2005 camera was! In case you can't tell, these are Lilly and her shoe obsession. At the tender age of 2, anwhere she saw shoes she had to try them on! I swear she was born wearing them!

 

[dmbdisneymom]

waiting patiently...

The calm before the storm...

And last but not least...the FUNNY BIRDS!! These are the girls' favorite birds. Why? Because they're pink, they stand on one leg, and they are FUNNY!!

 

[dmbdisneymom]

Man...I'm terrible at updating this thing!

Plans I've made since my last post:

We have changed our plan of spending $1000 on food and went with the DDP! I'm actually very excited about this because it means I can pay for the room, tickets and food and not be so stressed about it! I love to have things paid for so I know how much I have to play with!

So here it is:
August 4th: Arrive at ASMovies and hope our room is ready! (Probably not at 9am, though. ) Head to MGM/HS and have fun. Relax by the pool around lunchish. At 3:40 we have a Fantasmic Dinner package ressie. After that, explore some more. Fantasmic is at 9pm, so we'll head over there around 8pm. Is this enough time with reserved seating??

August 5th: Get to EPCOT at 8am latest. Explore a little, then go to our brunch at 9:50 at Akershus! I've never had a character meal, so this is very exciting for me and I'm sure will be for the kids (mostly the girls ) when I make their invites from the princesses. I don't care about the food...just the celebs!! Explore some more, then watch Illuminations at 9pm. Explore a little more and then crash at the hotel. We'll take a pool/nap break somewhere, I'm sure.

August 6th: On to AK! Get there at 7am (I hope!). Hopefully we can hit the KS first thing and grab FPs for later in case we miss some animals. No ressies today, just gonna wing it. Catch the Jammin Jungle Parade at 4pm.

August 7th: Our first MK day of this trip! Get to the park before 8am. Gotta love EMH! We are going to take our time here today, rest up in the afternoon and try to stay till close. We have to catch the parade: Dreams Come True at 3pm, then Wishes at 10pm. The calendar on the DIS says Spectromagic at 9 and 11pm. Not sure if we'll watch that or try to catch some rides or shopping. Everyone all lit up kinda looks wierd to me, but maybe it's just me? Then get some shut eye!

August 8th: Our final day We'll get there at least by 9am if not sooner. Maybe see the Dreams Come True parade again, maybe do some rides instead. Since this is our last day we won't be napping at the hotel since we will have checked out before coming to the park. We have a ressie at the Crystal Palace for brunch at 10:30am, then off to hit the rides we either missed or fell madly in love with the day before.

I don't want to have a jam packed schedule, but I also don't want to miss out on things. Hmmm...how do I find the happy medium? Anyone used the ride guide in the Unofficial Guide to Disney? I'm sure it works since they sell a lot of books, but I just don't know. Decisions, decisions. Any thoughts on my plans so far? This is my first finely tuned, detailed plan for a vacation so any help is much appreciated!

So my birthday is on Wednesday, and I'm more excited about our upcoming concerts in July and, of course, DISNEY WORLD!! There's a bday every year, right? We don't always have a super fun summer planned!!

Two months from this very second (God willing) we will be chilling at my inlaws by the pool in sunny Florida!! But who's counting? ::Sigh:: I can't wait!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Even if you had a whole month at Disney you would probably still miss out on stuff. Your days seem pretty full. It is hard to do the evening parades and fireworks and still make park opening the next day. So my advice is to enjoy the time you all have together, pick out a few things you really need/want to and not to worry about what you might be missing somewhere else in the park. It's about the memories you make together as a family and if you are rushing to and fro you will miss those magical warm fuzzy moments.

Yes, I have the unofficial guide and I belong to TGM and follow their plans. They both have their good points. TGM gives you a discount for being part of the disboards. They have other creative designers over there too. I figure the $20 I spent on TGM saved me many hours wandering around the park as well as many entertaining hours surfing on his site so it's one of the best disney bargains out there.

 

[dmbdisneymom]

Well I really have no updates for this...ever...until today!!!

I have officially paid off our vacation and am now anxiously waiting til it is time to go!!!

Think I'm just a little excited??

DH and I were working on the scavenger hunt Monday night and I got all teary eyed just thinking about that part. He loves scavenger hunts and kept smiling at laughing while he was thinking...before he would even tell me what his next brilliant idea was, he was cracking himself up imagining the kids searching for all the clues! One month from tomorrow and the kids will know!!

Well that's all I've got for today. Nothing too exciting anywhere else, but the tickets, DDP, and hotel are paid for. Almost time to go!

 

[crazyjoy]

I love your passport idea......this would be of great benefit to my DD!

 

[dmbdisneymom]

We did our scavenger hunt today!! It was one day later than originally planned, but still fantastic!!! So here's how it went:11:30am- Kayleigh and Lilly find a package on the porch while playing hide and seek. Package is addressed to all the kids: Matthew, Bennett, Kayleigh & Lillian. Very excited at this point! A package straight from Mickey himself...WOW! In the box was a pair of Mickey Crocs for everyone and an "Adventure Family Super Team" tshirt. (Shirts were DH's idea )12:00pm- Everyone is dressed in their gear and ready to begin! We start by reading our invitation to a special party planned by Mickey and his friends, then we find Clue #1. Lillian found this one in POTC DVD case. She knows how to find her some Captain Jack!! Clue #1 took them to a treasure chest hidden in the house filled with pirate gear! They had to dress the part, after all.Clue #2 was from Captain Jack. He lead them on a treasure hunt to find the treasure he lost after he drank a bit too much rum...can you believe it?? This map takes them around a "big blue beastie" (a car), a "giant white whale" (a camper), and around the back yard to end underneath the trampoline where "X" marked the spot to dig up the next clue.Clue #3 from Lightning McQueen took them to find our rental van or "Adventuremobile" from Mickey to take us on our journey. This clue was right in front of them, but they waled right past it...several times! Once we finally found it in the neighbor's driveway, we found Clue #4!Clue #4 was from Lady and Tramp, they took us to Pizza Hut where the kids could find spaghetti, because that's what they ate on their first date. My brother runs this particular Pizza Hut, so it was night to be able to include him in our adventure! Clue #5 was then found, and we had to go to the place where Belle would go to get things for her favorite hobby...Clue #5 was the library! Now these librarians are the best! They got really into our adventure and were quite excited when we walked in. Our matching adventure shirts gave us away, but the kids had to ask if Belle had left anything for them...then the librarians wanted them to sing a song from Beauty and the Beast before they could get their clue! Everyone picked a different song and it was quite entertaining!

 

[dmbdisneymom]

We then had Clue #6, which took us to Harvest Market (our local corner grocery store) to pick up some extra hunny since Pooh ate all of his. Silly old bear! Those ladies got in on the action as well. It was great!

So Clue #7 was from Bambi and Thumper. We had to find a place where a lot of flowers were sold so we could get our next clue. This led us to our home improvement store, Lowes. We went in the gardening entrance calling for Flower, and after a while we decided he was either really shy or sleeping in his flowers. Couldn't find him anywhere So off we went to custome service to see if they had any info on this silly skunk! They just so happened to have...
Clue #8 from Nemo!!! Nemo wanted us to go to PetSmart to see some of his other fish friends, so off we went!Nemos friends at PetSmart gave us Clue #9 (and free candybars for the road! Thanks Nick!!)

We then had to follow Clue #9 from Cinderella to...Payless ShoeSource! Cindy left us one of her shoes, so we had to find the other one at the shoe store! Turns out, it was there with our friend Abu, and Clue #10! He wanted us to go to a carpet store so we could take him on a magic carpet ride.

Unfortunately, our carpet store was fresh out of magic carpets, but they did give us Tinkerbell and our last clue! Boy were we excited! We were finally going to get to our party from Mickey!! That mouse sure is clever!

We found our party at Nana's house (me and Matthews mom and dad's), and then we had a letter from Snow White! She had all 7 dwarves in a box. The kids had to put them in alphabetical order, then take the paper off the bottoms of each one of them in order and one at a time so the surprise wouldn't be spoiled. They got all the tags off and read as they went:

GREAT JOB TEAM! YOU'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!
Judging by their reactions, they didn't get it at first. But when they did, they were thrilled! Matthew was especially excited!

All in all, it was a great and exhausting day. We finished everything up around 3pm. It took a lot of planning, but was well worth it! I'm really glad we chose to tell them this way, and now I can FINALLY talk about it!!!

Man it feels good!!!

Pictures are next...