Sept 2010! Update: Home! Working my way through 2,783 pictures!

[omghidanielle]

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 - Do you see what he does to me (more like, Do you see what I do to myself?)
Chapter 2 - Cleaning during a Heatwave and my crush on Neutrogena
Chapter 3 - The Great Pepsi Incident of 2010 and OCD Notebooks
Chapter 4 - Man Vs Food Cameos and that's all
Chapter 5 - Wildwood, NJ and a giant pile of LGMH!

Thanks to the existence of livejournal when I was in high school, I used to be super-into writing out every detail of my everyday life. After 6 years of making a mountain out of a molehill, I slowly fell into this 'too-busy-to-even-say-hello' attitude that has since become normal. I've really wanted to make PTRs for some of my past trips, but always became disinterested or burnt out before completing them. I am not even joking when I tell you this is the 7th PTR I have started for this particular trip, and then said 'nevermind' and tossed it. I feel like this should be a pretty exciting way to ease me back into writing, as well as to create more excitement for our upcoming trip, so since I have 4 loads of laundry to do today, here goes another try!

So, Who am I?

​

My name is Danielle, and I am out of my mind. Ever since my husband and I made our first WDW trip in May of 2007, we have been perfecting the art of planning trips to 'Did-nee'. I am the enabler/financial/planning/making dining reservations/looking out for deals/shopping for supplies/basically everything needed to plan a vacation side of our team. We have been saving to move for the larger part of the past 2 years. As much as I enjoy a WDW vacation, my motto is 'Whatever gets me the furthest away from the City of Philadelphia for the least amount of money, I'm for'. My husband and I last year even had a contest against each other to see who could come up with the cheapest trip. He won.

(He always wins.) ​

I've always been very keen on photography, but only recently made an investment into the world of DSLR. Expect a lot of pictures.

You can see our past trips here! May 2007, September 2008 (honeymoon! WDW/DCL), December 2008, September 2009!



Who is my husband?

​

I blame him for everything. Joe is a terrible influence. That is his main job on our team. He likes to climb on things that he shouldn't be climbing on, pick the noses of statues and other inanimate objects and explain to people that we currently aren't planning children because 'What will we do with them when we go to Disney?'. I can rely on him to e-mail me at work with 'I'm in the mood for mountains.', 'Do you know how many Gorillas it takes to destroy a typical base camp?', 'Caution: Doors open automagically toward you' or 'Can we go see an Okapi?'. Aside from this, while I spent over an hour trapped in an elevator between the 3rd and 4th floors at my work a few weeks ago, I received a text from him that read 'I hope you are not a passenger on a most uncommon elevator. Please leave the 5th dimension soon.'

Joe is a vegetarian who doesn't eat vegetables. Back in the day, (a whopping 2 years ago) when he used to make all of our plans/reservations, this meant that we always ate at Tony's (pasta), Sci-Fi (veggie burgers), Alfredo's/Tutto Italia (Pasta), the Plaza (veggie burgers) and the 50's PTC (veggie burgers). I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoy food, and enjoy trying new things. He eventually handed over (was forced to surrender) the planning duties to me, as I dreaded the idea of going back to 50's PTC. (Joe is a tattle tale, and as a result, those women give me anxiety!) We will now rarely eat somewhere we have already dined at. I review the menus at each dining location before even making reservations, and VOILA! Adventurous eating!

(For the record, Joe's new favorite restaurant is Le Cellier! Who would have thought that?! That's right...I am just that good!)​

Here are our Dining Reservations!

Sunday, 9/19 - Mama Melrose 3:30P Fant! Pkg

Monday, 9/20 - 1900 Park Faire - 8:15A
Monday, 9/20 - Cinderella's Round Table - 8:35P

Tuesday, 9/21 - Akershus - 8:35A
Tuesday, 9/21 - Les Chefs de France - 8:00P

Wednesday, 9/22 - Boma - 8:15A
Wednesday, 9/22 - Whispering Canyon Cafe - 8:30P

Thursday, 9/23 - Cape May - 8:30A
Thursday, 9/23 - Le Cellier - 8:30P

Friday, 9/24 - The Plaza - 11:50A


For this trip, I have 2 goals. The first is to save at least 50% of the actual cost of vacation (not including airfare) and the second is to actually utilize my mass collection of bathing suits.

Joe's goal is to high-five the Yeti.

(This has been his goal for the past 3 years...he has yet to be successful.)​

We will be staying at Coronado Springs from September 19 to the 24th. Immediately, we saved by booking as a BounceBack. The base cost of our trip (taxes and insurance included) is $2,435.88. After booking the bounceback, adding an extra day, and upgrading to the Deluxe Dining Plan, our cost came to $1,905.20. Right off the bat, a savings of $530.68. According to a reservations CM, the cost of our DxDP is somewhere around $70 a night per person. So, once we arrive, any cost over $140 food/snack wise each day will be added to our savings balance. To cut down on the actual amount we would need to pay to go on vacation, I began doing online surveys, wearing the strip off of our Disney Rewards Credit Card and other little things here and there, where I am compensated in Disney Gift Cards/Rewards Dollars, which I would then put onto our balance. I discovered this a little late in the game, and could have probably made a bigger dent with more time. It was NOT AT ALL EASY, it was incredibly time-consuming and at times, very annoying, but I am happy with the end result. Since February, I have made a $336 dent into our trip balance. Total savings so far = $866.68! Decent! Only $351.26 left to go, and we haven't even left yet!

(I would ask that any of you math people out there correct me if I am ever wrong! I tend to be terrible at math, and I tend to rush, and with that combination, a lot of mistakes are sure to be made. And, yes, I am aware that this is simple subtraction. You would be amazed at my inferior math skills!)
​

Do you see this terrible camera phone photo?

This is only a portion of my collection of bathing suits that I have accumulated over the years and, yes, they are all polka dotted in some way, shape or form. I have this serious, serious problem where as soon as I see polka dotted bathing suits on sale, I buy as many as I can. We do not have a pool here in Philadelphia, and I really am not a fan of NJ beaches, so I don't understand why I have this insane need for bathing suits. Two of them were worn in WDW, one of them was actually used, and the rest still have their tags.

On our May 2007 trip, we found ourselves freezing our rear ends off at Blizzard Beach, and had to return to AS Sports.

During our September 2008 Honeymoon trip, we suited up and trekked all the way back to Blizzard Beach, only to find out that I had neglected to add Water Park to our tickets. (This obviously did not take precedence over the insane amount of important wedding-related things I needed to take care of, so it kind of fell out of my brain and was forgotten about.) Rather than add it, since I hadn't budgeted for it, we went right back to POR, took a nap, showered, and dressed for dinner.

(This actually proved to be a better idea. Naps are awesome.) ​

On our September trip the following year (2009), I was more excited about the possibility of swimming in a pool shaped like a bowling pin than I was about anything else. And, as soon as I stepped foot into the pool, (I am not joking even in the slightest bit) the sky turned green and the loudest thunderclap I have ever heard in my entire life, rocked immediate the Orange County area. I wound up jumping in, getting immediately out, and headed back to the room. It then rained for the remainder of the evening. This was the only time it rained during our entire trip.

I am obviously jinxed! But I will not admit defeat!

I WILL BOTH SUMMIT AND PLUMMIT IN SEPTEMBER OF 2010.

​

Well, there goes my dryer! I hope you enjoyed what I hope will be a successful Pre as well as Post Trip Report! I hope to be checking in soon to fill you in on my overwhelming compulsions when it comes to packing a suitcase!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Hello! Your trip looks like a good time I'm in!

 

[omghidanielle]

Hello! Your trip looks like a good time I'm in!

Yay! Thanks so much! The countdown has begun!

61 days!

 

[omghidanielle]

I typically work Tuesdays - Saturdays. This has it's pros and it's cons. The pros are that I have a day off when most people are working. I can get lots of shopping or cleaning done because I don't have anyone inviting me to do anything. The cons being that, if I'm not in work clothes, I'm probably wearing pajamas, and I don't have anyone inviting me to do anything. I've been MAJORLY slacking on my cleaning, though, thanks to this awful heatwave that has been around since Day 1 of the summer season, and the fact that we do not have Central A/C in our house. We have two window units. One is in our bedroom, and one is in our living room. So those have, for the most part, been the cleanest, most organized rooms in the house.

(#1 quality in new house...Central Air. #2: A pool. #3: Doors)​

This is not one of those rooms.

This WAS our bedroom when we first moved in. Pretty soon after, we realized our next door neighbor (with whom we hadn't yet met) more than likely never, ever slept. After about 3 months of waking up at 4AM to the Electric Slide, the Cotton Eyed Joe, Enrique Iglesias and 1 unfortunate night when we heard that Miley Cyrus song that goes 'st-st-st-stutterin' over 30 times (I'm assuming she wanted to learn the words without looking them up. The first 10 or so times she played it, she stopped in the middle and went to the beginning), we moved into the Guest Room, and have since been very well rested. (Don't ask about the day that we met her...it wasn't pretty) Rather than move ALL of our furniture, and due to the fact that the Guest Room does not have any closets, we opted to refer to the Master Bedroom now as 'The Walk-Around Closet'. This room has the tendency to be a LITTLE sloppy, but nothing like it's been the past couple of weeks. Even trying to get dressed for work in this room in this heat results in a damp brow and the need for a shower. It is just that hot. So, on laundry day, I wind up folding all of the clothes, putting them in baskets, and leaving the baskets in the room. This is how the room ends up looking like this.


I woke up at 7AM today to pack my shoes, and, in the process, make an attempt at straightening up.


My suitcase is almost never empty. When we get back from a trip, the clothes go in the washer, are folded, and put right back into the suitcase. All I really need to add are shoes. We don't have enough furniture to hold all of our clothes, so this helps a lot! Cleaning the room took me 40 minutes total from beginning to end, and look how many flipflops I uncovered! Too bad almost none of these bad boys are coming with us!

(Sorry, Old Navy! I will never make that mistake again!)​

Thanks to the very positive feedback I read about here, I invested in 2 pairs of Teva Mush Flipflops.

I spent just enough time in them to break them in, and am very happy with how they feel. They are lighter, yet much more substantial than the Old Navy $2.50 (or 2 for $5) guys. I hope these hold up as well on our 17 hour days while in WDW. I have confidence in them! And apparently, so does Lorraine, our cat!

I also purchased these more sneaker-like shoes, also from Teva, when I purchased the Mush flops. They seemed much more dull and grey in the picture. They are actually very sparkly and shiny. I'm not at all a fan of the shiny-ness, but they are very comfortable. I prefer comfort! But, I feel like Diana Ross in the Wiz when I wear them. Joe is worried that this may result in several impromptu bouts of 'Ease on Down the Road' while walking down Main Street.

(His worries are very rational.)​

This was about all I could handle before calling it quits. But I did a bang-up job! You can see the carpet!!

I left Lorraine in charge of packing Joe's bag.

(Yes. His bag is pink.)​

That's all for now. I am in much need of a shower, and then after the shower, I am in need of a large bowl of Butterfinger ice cream. I will then eat this ice cream in front of my Air Conditioner and dream of a time where, in 60 days, I will be spraying all the exposed parts of my body with this...

What's next for me? Writing obsessive compuslive lists and packing toiletries. Then wrapping them with duct tape ...........................................?????

 

[DisneyFirefly]

You have a lot of flip flops and bathing suits I actually only own one pair of flip flops and one swimsuit Your cat's adorable, though, and I love that your husband's suitcase is pink

 

[omghidanielle]

d I love that your husband's suitcase is pink

I do this on purpose, because it's smaller, and he generally packs much less than I do. If he doesn't want to carry the pink bag, then he has to carry mine!

 

[MaryAz]

We are going at the same time and staying at the same place. You are a good writer-very descriptive. I only have one swimsuit and one pair of flip flops but they are Teva Mush. My girls and I will be eating mostly QS but maybe we will run into you at the pool-if I need to borrow a suit I will know who to ask

 

[omghidanielle]

We are going at the same time and staying at the same place. You are a good writer-very descriptive. I only have one swimsuit and one pair of flip flops but they are Teva Mush. My girls and I will be eating mostly QS but maybe we will run into you at the pool-if I need to borrow a suit I will know who to ask

Awesome! Be sure to say hi! We are really excited about the waterslide, especially because it has a cat!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I do this on purpose, because it's smaller, and he generally packs much less than I do. If he doesn't want to carry the pink bag, then he has to carry mine!

That's totally something I'd do

 

[omghidanielle]

It's been a little while, and I have a lot of nonsense to talk about, so sorry if this gets a little ridiculous!

With only a month left (well, a little less than!), the only appropriate thing to do is GET PSYCHED!

Work has been getting more and more difficult as more and more people take more and more vacations. Honestly, though, how many times can 1 person go to Mexico? So far it's been like 4 or 5!

I need little things here and there to keep me going, and while they are only little things, I feel like they've done wonders to keep me grounded and a little less-stressed.

Joe's birthday was August 10. He received a smorgasbord of Disney related gifts including a PERRY THE PLATYPUS T-SHIRT that he is not allowed to wear until we vacation. He also received a framed and embellished piece of Disney Stock! This is further solidifying my theory that he is spoiled.

(He made me write 'smorgasbord' and then corrected me when I wrote 'smorgasboard'. I think he should write his own PTR.)​

AND THEN, I did something completely out of character. I made an impulse purchase. If there is something that I want that is generally of equal or greater value of my leftover/spending money from 1 paycheck, I will mull on it for an average of 6 weeks, creating a list of pros and cons, polling my family and friends as to whether or not this would REALLY benefit me, or if I REALLY want it, and then come up with some completely insane payment plan. Most of the time, I never end up buying whatever it was.

(Last time it was a ukulele...probably a smart decision) ​

This was something that, in the back of my mind, I've wanted for quite some time, and figured it would be smart to get it immediately, instead of later, because I could make a little bit of money with it. So I grabbed my wallet and bought myself a................... button machine.


While this wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done, I'm pretty happy with it. I've made some neat buttons, and even made myself some LGMH pins!

I then made the mistake of redeeming 2,950 Swagbucks for what I thought would be a Disney Gift Card. It turns out that the Disney Gift Card you can receive from Swagbucks is for DisneySTORE.com only! UGH! So I ordered 3 discounted Park Series Vinylmation figurines. It seemed kind of silly at first, but after discovering the existence of the Jungle Cruise figurine, I was sold!

One bright and sunny Tuesday afternoon, my order came in! Hurrah! Once I got home from work, I kicked off my flops, changed into my PJ's, sat on the couch, and attempted to check my e-mail. The second I turned the computer on, I heard this horrendous BANG CRASH BANG coming from my kitchen. I jumped and ran into the room, only to see a long black tail and butt bolting for the basement. It was then that realized my toes were wet. It took a few seconds to kick in, but it was pretty apparent that Bill the Cat had made a very lousy attempt to get onto the top of my kitchen cabinets and fell off the top of the refrigerator. Apparently, after losing his balance, he latched his claws onto a plastic storage basket that held a 12 pack of Pepsi, and brought it all crashing down with him.

​

After 3 HOURS of repeatedly mopping and wiping down walls, tables, chairs, the ceiling AND light bulbs in not one, but TWO rooms (yes, apparently Pepsi has that trajectory) and forgetting any other work I had to do, I finally got to open my Vinylmation packages!

No Jungle Cruise figurine. Life is so hard!

Now, going into super-psycho mode here, I bought this nifty notebook while shopping for storage containers in Target the other day. I intended to use this notebook to keep note of our ADR's and the reservation numbers, our basic day-to-day itinerary and to write about each day before falling asleep and forgetting about some of it, BUT

THEN I FOUND THE SNACK THREAD​

Since Joe eats basically nothing, I'm always looking for ways to 'spice up' our trips, instead of doing the same-ol same-ol that we had done for a while. Upon finding this almost biblical entity, my mind was pretty much blown. I tried, at first, jotting a couple things down, but quickly realized I was in way over my head.

THIS IS BIGGER THAN FRENCH FRIES AND ICE CREAM MICKEY HEADS.​

My good friend MS Word and the Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V buttons turned my book from a mostly-empty place for random thoughts to THIS:

Needless to say, french fries are suddenly so Sept 2008.​

And lastly, WE BOOKED ANOTHER TRIP.

(yes, we've lost our minds.)​

Some friends of ours had expressed interest in a January trip with the intentions of visiting Universal Studios to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and to run the Marathon. So we kind of took that idea and ran with it, and then with the FREE DINING offers from earlier this month, we've upgraded from Pop to Riverside! Yes! If I decide to track money like I have with this September trip with the January trip, I already have a $1,309 head start!

Without getting TOO ahead of myself, here are our January ADRS:


Wed 1/5 - Via Napoli @ 7:00PM
Thurs 1/5 - Beaches & Cream
Friday 1/7 - Crystal Palace @ 4:55PM
Saturday 1/8 - San Angel Inn @ 7:00PM
Sunday 1/9
Monday 1/10 - The Wave @ 7:30PM
Tuesday 1/11 - Le Cellier @ 8:15PM
Wednesday 1/12 - Akershus @ 9:20AM

That's all I have for now...

27 days to go, folks! Help me count down!​

Also, I bought 2 more bathing suits.

THEY WERE ON SALE! DON'T JUDGE ME!!!!!!!​

 

[onescgirl]

Hi Danielle! I just finished reading your PTR & I loved it!
We are going to be at WDW the same time! You can read my PTR, I have chp links that make it pretty easy to read.
We are staying at the CBR resort.

I love all your Bathing suits and I WANT a Lime Green Mickey button! Can you make me one? Jk! I need to buy me one, where do you find them at?

I do this on purpose, because it's smaller, and he generally packs much less than I do. If he doesn't want to carry the pink bag, then he has to carry mine!

You are so smart!!

 

[omghidanielle]

Hi Danielle! I just finished reading your PTR & I loved it!
We are going to be at WDW the same time! You can read my PTR, I have chp links that make it pretty easy to read.
We are staying at the CBR resort.

I love all your Bathing suits and I WANT a Lime Green Mickey button! Can you make me one? Jk! I need to buy me one, where do you find them at?


You are so smart!!

Yay! Thanks for reading!

I made the LGMH buttons! I'm planning on making a bunch and bringing them with me, so if you happen to run into me, you are welcome to have one!

 

[omghidanielle]

If anyone was watching the new episode of Man Vs Food last night, (Jersey Shore episode! Challenge: LUDACRIS WINGS!) Joe and I (as well as 2 of our friends) were on it!

Check out this screen shot of the 'Press Conference' portion of the show

​

Do you see the top left hand side of my head?! Can you believe Joe pushed me to the back!?

Also, the tall guy in the black t-shirt is our friend Chris, who will be traveling with us to WDW in January!

During the rest of the show, there are several close ups of Chris and Joe, and I'm kind of around randomly.

Watch it and laugh at us!

 

[omghidanielle]

11 days!

I have the day off tomorrow (my labor day!) getting my hair cut! I'm also going to CVS to stock up on travel toiletries and sunscreen! Excitement!

I also made another impulse purchase! I bought a new lens for my camera (50mm f/1.4G...if you're interested) I redeemed a good amount of Amazon gift cards I had stockpiled, and didn't pay too much, so I'm able to breathe, but just a little bit.

(this is getting dangerous!)​

I tested it out this past Saturday in Wildwood, NJ.

​

You can view the rest of the set here!!!

I did learn a very important lesson that I am more than happy I did not learn in WDW... my chucks (sneakers) may be super cute and comfortable (just a little noisy) at work, but DO NOT work on long walks. Halfway down the boardwalk, I had to stop in a store and buy a cheap pair of flipflops. They gave me blisters, too, but nothing like the sneaks did. I almost started to cry because I was so upset that we had driven so far for me to not be able to walk anywhere. Thank god for end-of-season clearances, I guess? 50% off a terrible pair of flops that were still too expensive.

I was very happy with our very, very short trip (we left around 5, after I came home from work, and came home around 3am - I was awake for almost 21 hours!) I got to eat Curley's Fries and had a Peanut Butter/Chocolate on a waffle cone from Kohr Bro's and had a ride on the ferris wheel. That's a success to me!

And, finally, today I made a whoooooooole lot of LGMH buttons! If you see me in your WDW-ventures, say hi and you can have one!

​

 

[omghidanielle]

just a bump to celebrate that we just passed the 70% mark for our 2010 New House Savings Goal

 

[Trinity524]

Hey there! Followed you over from my pretip report!

What kind of camera do you have? Beauitiful pics! Love all the bathing suits...now if they just had a body that went into it for purchase... lol!

 

[loritemp]

I can't stop laughing at...well everything! Love your PTR!!! Don't give up on this one, ok?!

Where are you looking to move? I live right over the bridge from Philly, love my town! Not to brag but I have AC and a pool and no neighbors with a Miley addiction! Congrats on hitting your 70% mark, hope the prefect house pops up for you soon!

Oh and if you don't mind I think I will steal your pink bag idea, pure genius I say!!

 

[eeyore7360nc]

Hi Danielle We seem to be going on parallel vacations. I get in on Sept.24,
and am also going to be there for Marathon Weekend. Looking forward to all your pictures. That is one of my favorite hobbies, second only to Disney.

 

[onescgirl]

LOVE all the LGMH buttons!
Maybe I'll see you to get one!

 

[omghidanielle]

Hey there! Followed you over from my pretip report!

What kind of camera do you have? Beauitiful pics! Love all the bathing suits...now if they just had a body that went into it for purchase... lol!

Hey!

I have a Nikon D40! I should have a lot after this trip! Last time I took some ridiculous amount of pictures, and wound up with a set of 181.

I can't stop laughing at...well everything! Love your PTR!!! Don't give up on this one, ok?!

Where are you looking to move? I live right over the bridge from Philly, love my town! Not to brag but I have AC and a pool and no neighbors with a Miley addiction! Congrats on hitting your 70% mark, hope the prefect house pops up for you soon!

Oh and if you don't mind I think I will steal your pink bag idea, pure genius I say!!

Thanks! I was beginning to think my humor was going over here like it does at work, like this hahaha

Not sure where we are looking to move yet. I keep saying we need the $$ first, and then we can seriously look. Most of my family lives in Camden County, NJ, and Joe's Mom lives in Burlington County, NJ. My work is moving to Bucks County PA, but Joe works in Burlington County. So.............not really sure yet. I keep going back and forth with Camden County, because I keep going back and forth over whether or not I can stand living so close to my family. There are a lot of them, and, as a result, can be pretty overbearing sometimes, but since I'm currently living less than 5 minutes from my Mother, I don't know if I'd like living too far away from 'the fam'.

Hi Danielle We seem to be going on parallel vacations. I get in on Sept.24,
and am also going to be there for Marathon Weekend. Looking forward to all your pictures. That is one of my favorite hobbies, second only to Disney.

Hi!

I'm getting pretty excited for January! Will you be running the Marathon? I'm not sure if I'm willing to wake up so early to be a spectator, but I think it would be interesting to see!

LOVE all the LGMH buttons!
Maybe I'll see you to get one!

Maybe! I made a bunch, so I hope I'm able to give some out! Otherwise, I don't know what I'll do with them all!