Shh! Don't tell them we're going back! May 2012 (updated 4/25)

[ColtGurl]

Joining in here. Looks like we will be there at the same time. Our trip is April 28 to May 5. We stayed at POP last time the kids loved it. Your pictures of all that food are making me wish I was at the World right now.

BTW Love your daughters hair.

 

[cinderella crazy]

We are so excited to go to the Florida Welcome Center! We love the free OJ! That picture of Bojangles makes me want to stop for Chick-fil-A on our way out of town! YUM!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

I am adding this picture of the poem on last years countdown calendar.

 

[Jonesloonybin]

[/SIZE]

Joining in here. Looks like we will be there at the same time. Our trip is April 28 to May 5. We stayed at POP last time the kids loved it. Your pictures of all that food are making me wish I was at the World right now.

BTW Love your daughters hair.

Thank you! I cannot wait to get to WDW!!

We are so excited to go to the Florida Welcome Center! We love the free OJ! That picture of Bojangles makes me want to stop for Chick-fil-A on our way out of town! YUM!

Oh, how I wish Chick-fil-A would be open for our trip down. Both last year and this year, we are driving down on Sunday! Chick-fil-a is about the only fast food we have eaten. I love their sweet tea and milkshakes!

 

[wakica]

I love the countdown!!! It puts mine to shame. LOL and all that food was SSOOOO yummmy looking!!!! GAH!!!! Must go find a snack now

Our trip will be Apr 26 - May19 and it looks like we have a few same park days I'll have to watch for you!!!!

 

[racefanof88]

Hey joining in here . We will be there during the same time! We will be driving in from Alabama for our 21st visit . We will be arriving May 4th and staying off site that night. On May 5th we will be checking in to All Star Sports staying until May 12th.

We have a lot in common too. I also homeschool my youngest DS, and we have a fur baby that is a big part of our planning. Niko is a doxie and is almost 6 years old. Do you bring your fur baby with you? I have a room at the pet kennel booked for Niko.


BTW I think your daughter's hair looks very good!!! When I was younger I was the one who always tried the new trendy hairstyles. Individuality is what we are lacking in today's society, so I say YAY for her .

 

[Colleen27]

Joining in from the May FB group.

I love your daughter's hair cut! I agree that it is just hair. My 10yo is super excited to be attending a "virtual" school in the fall because she'll be able to experiment with her hair without worrying about the school's "no unnatural colors" rule.

Your countdown poster is fabulous. Our May trip is a surprise so my 'countdown' this time is just on my phone and I kind of miss having a colorful/fun countdown on the fridge.

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Hey joining in here . We will be there during the same time! We will be driving in from Alabama for our 21st visit . We will be arriving May 4th and staying off site that night. On May 5th we will be checking in to All Star Sports staying until May 12th.

We have a lot in common too. I also homeschool my youngest DS, and we have a fur baby that is a big part of our planning. Niko is a doxie and is almost 6 years old. Do you bring your fur baby with you? I have a room at the pet kennel booked for Niko.


BTW I think your daughter's hair looks very good!!! When I was younger I was the one who always tried the new trendy hairstyles. Individuality is what we are lacking in today's society, so I say YAY for her .

Isn't homeschooling great! I LOVE it. My oldest is actually enrolled with American School, so she has to send her work in and gets graded by someone else. For her and I, it was the best choice. My youngest may not need that...but we shall see. She told me that someone at the airport (she flew to Oregon to visit family) mistook her for a boy!

We have a really great place here that we take Buddha to. He is older and traveling is getting harder for him. If we could not leave him with the people we do, I don't think we would travel.

Joining in from the May FB group.

I love your daughter's hair cut! I agree that it is just hair. My 10yo is super excited to be attending a "virtual" school in the fall because she'll be able to experiment with her hair without worrying about the school's "no unnatural colors" rule.

Your countdown poster is fabulous. Our May trip is a surprise so my 'countdown' this time is just on my phone and I kind of miss having a colorful/fun countdown on the fridge.

Thank you!! And....
I wish I could do a surprise for the kids, but I am horrible at that. Birthday and Christmas is hard enough for me. I have issues with not giving things right away. (my mother died two weeks before Christmas and there were so many things she had under the tree that she could have used and enjoyed that it makes things like that hard for me.) UGH, sorry for the sad stuff.

Anyways...I am posting my Day 1 plans right now and then I will post some pictures of things I have gotten for the trip! FUN!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Day 1 Plans - Epcot

We plan to get a nice early start to make "rope drop" at Epcot. I understand that they are not really doing a rope drop anymore and just letting people through the turnstiles at opening (or hopefully a few minutes early)


The Plan (which is a loose plan and we adapt depending on the crowd, how people are feeling, etc.) is to head to Soarin. I am not sure if we will try to ride first and then get fastpasses or just get the passes. A lot depends on how the crowd is with the new opening routine.

Then DH and DD16 are going to head over to Test track.

DD8 and I will most likely ride Nemo and then do Turtle Talk with Crush.

After that we will make our way over towards Mousegears. After meeting back up with Dh and dd, (I don't know if they are planning on trying to ride Test Track and Mission Space or wait and get fastpasses for one or both?) We will wander around innovations, check out the line at the Character Spot, shop, etc.

When it opens we will head over to the World Showcase. We have a lunch ADR at Chefs de France.

We are not going to push it too much today. We have a few more Epcot days scheduled during our trip, so there is no need to cram too much in.

Some things that we want to do at Epcot (but not necessarily on this day) during our trip:
All the rides in Future World and World Showcase (DD8 and I will be skipping Mission Space and Test Track, since she does not want to ride them)
Character Spot
Find Characters in World Showcase
Pressed pennies (missed some last trip)
Kim Possible Mission
Really explore the pavilions
Strawberry shortcake at Sunshine seasons
Journey into the imagination with Figment

Most of these things are new to us. We did the big rides, etc, last time but missed some of the other things.

Here are some pictures from our last trip!

Look how empty! (We had an early breakfast at Akershus)

My daughter gave Tinkerbell the big leaf you see on her stomach.

My oldest got this henna tattoo in Morocco! ($25)

There is always time for music!

Time is ticking down! One month from today we will be on our way to DISNEYWORLD!!

 

[amazingact21]

Sounds like a relaxing Epcot day! It's nice when you have several oppurtunities to visit Epcot in one trip, because its best to take this park slow, in my opinion. There's just so many sights to take in!

 

[wakica]

Sounds like a really nice Epcot day We are hoping to take it slower there too this year since Test Track will be closed and I don't care to do Soarin b/c it made me nauseous last time. So We will be enjoying alot of the things we don't normally enjoy also I'm actually looking forward to the slower pace there.

I love that logo too. Was that last years? I wonder what this years looks like?

 

[racefanof88]

Yes!! Homeschooling is great!! The schools in our area seem to be getting worse by the day.

Your Epcot day looks great . Your touring plans are a lot like ours; we are casual with our plans too.

 

[Elleshoodat]

Sounds like a relaxing Epcot day! It's nice when you have several oppurtunities to visit Epcot in one trip, because its best to take this park slow, in my opinion. There's just so many sights to take in!

Sounds like a really nice Epcot day We are hoping to take it slower there too this year since Test Track will be closed and I don't care to do Soarin b/c it made me nauseous last time. So We will be enjoying alot of the things we don't normally enjoy also I'm actually looking forward to the slower pace there.

I love that logo too. Was that last years? I wonder what this years looks like?

I agree -- Epcot is best when you go at a leisurely pace and can really take it all in. Your first-day plans look great!

 

[MHTeacher]

Day one plans sound good! It's nice to be able to take a leisurely approach to the parks, especially Epcot, since it's so large.

One month to go!! How exciting!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

***Big News!! We added another day to our trip. We are now driving home on the 10th!!! *****​

I thought I would show everyone some of the things we have bought for our trip.

The girls have some Disney shirts from last year that still fit, but I just HAD to get them some new ones for this trip!


These two are DD16's shirts.

These four are DD8's shirts.

These have parts that change colors in the sun!

The one that says POP is not really Disney, but since we are staying at Pop Century, she insisted on getting it.
(I am not sure why the picture is still sideways. )

DH broke down and got one too. (He and I did not have any Disney shirts last year.)

And here is mine.

My wonderful hubby stood in line the other day for the 25th anniversary Mickey Ears that the Disney stores were giving out.

He texted me when he got to the mall and said they had a roped off queue, so it felt like he was at WDW already.


This year the girls want to do pin trading, so we got them some pins. (They will be waiting for them in the room at Pop. I go in to check for bed bugs while DH and the girls drive the car around and find a parking space.)

Here are some things for them to do on the drive down. (We do up little bags for them)

These are for dd8

(We got extra play packs for the girls to hand out if they want.)
and DD16

This is a really cool book we found and ordered.

And while this is sort of boring, I was very happy to find these.

This is the type of detergent we use at home but in little packs. You just put one pack in the washer and you are good to go. They were only $1.50!!


This is our big purchase.

It is a Kodak Playsport. (I was happy to see it was already DIS approved. See, it says DIS right on it, next to the lens.) I am excited to take this to Disney. We have a mini DVD camcorder, but we did not even use it once on our last trip. We didn't feel like carrying it around. This will fit in my fanny pack, so I think we will use it a lot.


We also ordered the girls some new DS games for the drive. DD16 is getting Kingdom Hearts Re-coded and DD8 is getting Disney Friends. (we are waiting for them to get here)

I cannot believe my ticker says 3 weeks!!! (Well, 3 weeks and 5 days, but still!)

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Sounds like a relaxing Epcot day! It's nice when you have several oppurtunities to visit Epcot in one trip, because its best to take this park slow, in my opinion. There's just so many sights to take in!

I completely agree. Epcot (well, the World Showcase anyways) is so nice to stroll through. Makes it feel more realistic.

Sounds like a really nice Epcot day We are hoping to take it slower there too this year since Test Track will be closed and I don't care to do Soarin b/c it made me nauseous last time. So We will be enjoying alot of the things we don't normally enjoy also I'm actually looking forward to the slower pace there.

I love that logo too. Was that last years? I wonder what this years looks like?

I am still hoping they will put off the Test Track closure until later in May.

I have not seen a new logo for this year. I wonder if they are just keeping the same one?

Yes!! Homeschooling is great!! The schools in our area seem to be getting worse by the day.

Your Epcot day looks great . Your touring plans are a lot like ours; we are casual with our plans too.

Oh, we have plans but they are very flexible plans. More of a "This is what we want to do and this is the best order" plan. That way we can still change the order but we make sure that we get everyone's MUST DO's. I had a very bad trip to Disneyland as a child (we waited in a super long line for a ride that my dad pushed my brother into trying. Just before we got on, my brother refused to get on and was crying. My dad got so mad, he made us leave the park!) and I am determined that none of our trips would be like that.

I agree -- Epcot is best when you go at a leisurely pace and can really take it all in. Your first-day plans look great!

Thanks!!

Day one plans sound good! It's nice to be able to take a leisurely approach to the parks, especially Epcot, since it's so large.

One month to go!! How exciting!

I am so excited!! My ticker says 3 weeks and 5 days!!! We love strolling around the world showcase. It is so relaxing.

 

[Elleshoodat]

Your shirts and other purchases are awesome, but the one I'm most excited about is the PLAYSPORT. We have one and absolutely love it. It's super easy to put in your pocket or throw in a bag, not to mention the fact that it's waterproof and pretty durable (which is important when you have a toddler like I do ).

Granted, it doesn't exactly take HD video, but for our purposes it works great.

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Day 2
Magic Kingdom​

We will hopefully walk in and see this...

Our breakfast ADR is at

We did this last year and loved it!!

I had to post this picture of the girls.

Notice DD16's arm??? I don't know what happened, but I can assure you that she does indeed have a hand on that arm.


After breakfast, the youngest and I will most likely head to see Rapunzel and Flynn (since I hear he will be back for awhile) at their new home on the verandah in Adventureland. Dh and dd16 will head off to get some fastpasses to Splash Mountain.

On this day, we are going to focus mostly on Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square.

We are thinking of grabbing lunch at Columbia Harbor House. (We have never eaten here before)

It will be a light lunch since we have an ADR for Afternoon Tea at the Grand Floridian. We had to cancel this last year because DH and DD8 were not feeling well.


Our plan is to head back to Pop sometime after lunch so we can get ready for our Tea.


After Tea, we plan on heading back to MK for the evening.

I think that, if we feel up to it, we are going to try and watch the MSEP and Wishes on this night.

We watched Wishes from the Poly beach last time and it was not that great. (That was also have our stressed Kona dinner and they were also playing a movie on the beach at the same time and we did not hear any of the Wishes music)


Next is Day 3 - DHS!!

 

[Jonesloonybin]

Your shirts and other purchases are awesome, but the one I'm most excited about is the PLAYSPORT. We have one and absolutely love it. It's super easy to put in your pocket or throw in a bag, not to mention the fact that it's waterproof and pretty durable (which is important when you have a toddler like I do ).

Granted, it doesn't exactly take HD video, but for our purposes it works great.

That is what I am most excited about too!! I have been playing around with it and I am very happy. I agree that it is not exactly HD but I would rather have video of our trips and we will end up not using the other camcorder. So, bring our great camcorder that will not get used or a good camcorder that will.

We have a small cushioned bag for the playsport that has a clip that can clip on a bag, or since it is so small, it will still fit in my stylish fanny pack! Most people think it is a phone.

 

[MHTeacher]

I love your MK plans! Breakfast at Crystal Palace is always a good way to begin the day!

I didn't even notice your DD's arm in the picture until I read your post. That's crazy how that turned out that way!

The shirts are super cute. I love ordering new shirts to have to wear in the parks!