Surprise Christmas trip~ Time to pull out the bucket list ~ Dec 2018 PTR: 12/5 - Changes-13 Sleeps

[Jasperann]

Welcome to my PTR!!

I've decided to write another PTR for our surprise trip because I learned last time that I NEED to have some where to release all of my pent up excitement for the trip without tipping off the children.

On to the basics:

Who: My family of six (I'll have to upload some pictures).

Myself: 40 As of October of this year!! Wow! Time fly's.
Favorite ride: Pirates and Buzz
Favorite character: Cheshire, although my favorite meet is Chip and Dale
Favorite food: Garden Grill breakfast - nutella syrup is amazing
Favorite Disney movie: Growing up it was Cinderella I wore out that VHS tape, recently Coco became my favorite.
Favorite park: Epcot
Favorite resort: Boardwalk

DH: 42
Favorite ride: all the thrill rides
Favorite character: Jack Skellington
Favorite food: Anything from Japan
Favorite Disney movie: Nightmare before Christmas
Favorite park: Animal Kingdom tied with Epcot
Favorite resort: Boardwalk for the ease of walking to two parks

DD: 22
Favorite ride: Tower of Terror and TSMM so she can beat the snot out of all of us - guess it's from running the spotlight for theater shows...
Favorite character: Chip and Dale
Favorite food: ... totally not a foodie - Mickey pretzel - and she lives on chicken nuggets the whole trip
Favorite Disney movie: Beauty and the Beast
Favorite park: Hollywood studios
Favorite resort: Boardwalk

DD: 15
Favorite ride: All of them!!! But to name one from each park MK: Jungle cruise, Epcot: Space ship earth, HS: TSMM, AK: Everest
Favorite character: Rapunzel and Stitch/Chip/Joy/Sadness/Goofy -- Obviously my dd can't pick
Favorite food: Epcot food booths/Dole whip/Ohana pot stickers
Favorite Disney movie: Up!
Favorite park: Epcot
Favorite resort: Poly (-minus the walk to our room)

DD: 14
Favorite ride: Thrill rides, if it isn't a thrill ride she doesn't care about it. I'm excited for her to ride the couple new rides they have built since we've gone. FOP will be a favorite I'm sure
Favorite character: She smiled pretty big meeting Joy and Sadness but usually she is too cool for characters.
Favorite food: Ohana wings - Seriously they brought her a HUGE plate/bowl of them and she ate them all.
Favorite Disney movie: Coco
Favorite resort: Poly - It is where Ohana is... if we ate there every day she would be so happy

DS: 11
Favorite ride: Test Track/Rockin Roller coaster/Figment
Favorite character: Stitch
Favorite food: Mickey ice cream
Favorite Disney movie: Pete's Dragon
Favorite park: Epcot
Favorite resort: AoA


We have been to Disney a ton as a family. And we have surprised the kids once in the past (all of them that time). This time we are surprising all but our oldest (DD 21), she needs to know for work purposes. The first time we surprised them we had Nana and Pawpaw meet us at a local restaurant with balloons and magic bands the night before we left. It was fantastic and my kids were completely shocked! Now any time we go out to eat and family is meeting us they think it's going to be another surprise. This time it will be different.

When: December 19th-27th -- We are going to wake up on CHRISTMAS MORNING in DISNEY!!!!

Why: ... This is a long explanation. I'll get into it as I tell the story of how the trip became what it is.

Where: Old Key West 2 bedroom -- I am a resort hopper so this might change

How: I guess I'll try to explain the how...

Last year in September (2017) on the first day of school for the kids my husband and I do breakfast and celebrate the return of school. I know we are not the only parents. Summer is long. Summer is longer with kids who like to annoy each other. But back on track. I brought up Disney, because it's what I do. And I said I want to go at Christmas time! My dear husband said we can't afford Disney at Christmas time this year. I said yeah I know... what about next year?!? And he said we could try it. It would give us both enough time to get the time off of work (my work does requests for time off in November/December of the prior year).

Well, December comes along and we had been talking about going still. The kids knew about the trip. We were all excited. I put in my vacation request for the first 'wave' of requests and was approved!!! Now we had to wait until Feb 2018 to see if hubby got the time... between December and February I had to book our resort because we are DVC and we needed to book 11 months in advance. My husband works with only a few people and was assured he would get the time off. I booked us at GFV. It was going to be a magical trip! I was excited. The kids were excited. We were counting down.

Then a snowy day in February my husband came home from work with the very sad news that he was not approved because the person in line ahead of him took the time.

What?!?!

I was crushed. We had this planned. The guy said he would let him have it and then took it anyways. I asked my hubby a few times if it was something that could be fixed. Could he talk to his boss? Could he talk to that evil co-worker? It didn't look like it. So I sadly, I was literally in tears on the phone, canceled the reservation.



Fast forward a couple months... my hubby and I started to chat about going in April of 2019. And I hopped online and booked my home resort for the first week of April when it opened for the 11 month window. So no Disney for Christmas and all our dreams were crushed by his work. The kids were sad. But the April trip gave us all hope. No it wouldn't be Disney but we love the Flower and Garden festival. We would be fine.

About a month ago, his evil co-worker's wife won a cruise for the time frame my husband took off in the summer and wanted to 'switch' vacation time with him. We have plans for the summer already. So we declined... karma and all that. But that brought Disney at Christmas back to the front of my thoughts. I really really wanted to go at that time.

Bringing us to just about current to today (two weeks ago) I started looking at the Free dinning promo to see if they had anything for me and the kids to do that would get us home before Christmas... they did... but I couldn't bring myself to go with out my husband we just are not that kind of family. Although he wouldn't mind me taking the kids and going, it just isn't the same. I brought it up as a joke and he said sure, have fun. Still I said no...

But I kept looking at dates. Dreaming the dream. Then this past week I looked up my hubby's work schedule for that week, because one of his new co-workers had made a comment that we could go and he could come on his off days. Well he is swing shift (12 hour days) and works a strange rotating schedule. He will work M-T-F-S-S one week and W-Th the next week. So I focused on the fact that the week before Christmas is his W-Th work days and he would come off of Midnights at 7am on Friday. It still wasn't working... Then I realized that Monday and Tuesday were the holiday (Christmas Eve and Christmas) which were his next two work days. The plant is closed on those two days so he doesn't work. Which means he doesn't have to be back to work until Friday at 7pm after Christmas!!

What?!?! How could that be?! So I started looking at flying out on Friday after he got off work and flying home on the latest Thursday flight they had. Over 600.00 per person round trip Uh wow. Yeah that isn't happening. So I was back to dreaming.

Then it occurred to me that if we (minus DH) flew out on Tuesday or Wednesday prior to that Friday before Christmas that it might be cheaper. So I started checking flights again ... Ehh... 344.00 round trip? Better. Still expensive. So how badly do we want to go at Christmas? Really bad. Would we leave DH at home? Not likely. So if he couldn't get the time off that meant that he couldn't fly out with us. But what if we just arrived the two-three days early and DH followed on Friday? He would still have 7 days in Disney. And we would avoid the high cost of everyone flying on Friday. It would work!



Back to the drawing board!!

I hopped on the DVC site and checked availability. Not too much left... AKL - We loved it when we went, SSR - It is pretty but really reminds us of condos around here and we are not NY, OKW - I like the look of the keys so maybe but it was so spread out. So torn... At this point I was looking at 2 studios. Then I mentioned yesterday that I wasn't sure how Christmas morning would work. And my DH said, yeah we can't have my pancakes at Disney (tradition for Christmas morning). BUT we COULD!! If we stay in a two bedroom that is. So back to looking. OKW fit in our points for that time frame so it looks like it will be OKW for the time frame that my hubby is there and I think I'm leaning towards POR for the two nights before he arrives. Both new to us resorts.

So that is the start of it all. I'm sure there will be changes along the way and I hope you all post along!! I would love tips from people that have done that time frame in the past. There are not many trip reports about it so I think I might have to do one.

 

[Jasperann]

For Links:

Bucket list (below this post)
Flights and Resorts

 

[Jasperann]

The bucket lists:

We have a few bucket lists... and since I can't really share this with my kids (they still think we are going in April) I can't get their input on things they want to do at Christmas. But I have an idea of some things we would like to do.

• Ride Flights of Passage
• Ride Navi river
• Ride Slinky dog
• Ride Aliens -- Maybe I know my kids will want to but if there is a huge wait then it will probably be a no until next trip.
• Do a dessert party - If they have the one in HS that they had this past Christmas we may do that one but we might do the MK one.
• Do taste testing at the Epcot Festival booths - My DD 15 and 14 actually record their reactions and post them sometimes. It is a lot of fun and I'm positive they will want to do the Festival booths since they have done the Flower and Garden ones in the past.
• See the resort decorations
• Watch HEA fireworks
• Maybe do a Christmas party if they have one
• See the Christmas parade
• Open up MK on an EMH 6am day - This will probably just be myself, DD22, and DD15 the rest will stay asleep - we enjoy our early morning time
• Experience ALL of the Christmas park things
• The VR experience in DS - It is Star Wars themed and my family loves Star Wars and would love it I'm sure
• Do Candle light procession - It is going to make me cry
• Do all the many story tellers around the World showcase - We are into history/storytelling in general and all of my kids (minus maybe my unimpressed DD 14) will love it.
• Eat at a few ADRs that we haven't done yet, we like the main ones like Teppan Edo, Ohana, 50s Prime time, Yak and Yeti and Garden Grill that we seem to do every single time and would like to change it up a bit. So we will be doing Via Napoli for one of the lunch/dinners. Thinking about Liberty tree but it isn't food that ALL of my family would typically eat so maybe not. I've budgeted for about 5 or 6 ADRs so I'll have to figure some more out soon.
• The Epcot hunt for the Jingle bells? I think that is what it is.
• And of course I may add more during the research part of the PTR.

 

[cyndiloveswalt]

We are going for the first time between the holidays. We were booked to go during thanksgiving but my DS19 is switching colleges and the new one doesn’t have off that week so in a mad panic I realized Xmas week was about the only time we could do it as DS14 is starting high school and can’t miss more than a couple of days. So we are booked 12/26-1/2. My DH would not miss Xmas at home so we decided to head down after. A little panicked over what crowds will be but super excited! NYE should be exciting.

 

[reyasmommy]

You're bucket list looks great!

I'll be turning 40 this year too!! You're right, time does fly!

I spent my 21st birthday at Disney and now I'm celebrating my 40th! CRAZY!!!!!

 

[Jasperann]

We are going for the first time between the holidays. We were booked to go during thanksgiving but my DS19 is switching colleges and the new one doesn’t have off that week so in a mad panic I realized Xmas week was about the only time we could do it as DS14 is starting high school and can’t miss more than a couple of days. So we are booked 12/26-1/2. My DH would not miss Xmas at home so we decided to head down after. A little panicked over what crowds will be but super excited! NYE should be exciting.

I would love to be there for NYE even with the craziness of it!! I am super excited about being in MK on Christmas for a little bit to see it at it's busiest. I'm thankful that my husband is perfectly fine with being away from home for Christmas as long as we are together. We will do the family parties the weekend before we leave so we will have extended family time too. I'm actually a little nervous it won't feel like Christmas, but everyone says it is the most Christmas ever. lol We are in Michigan and it isn't unusual for us to have snow to wake up too on Christmas.

You're bucket list looks great!

I'll be turning 40 this year too!! You're right, time does fly!

I spent my 21st birthday at Disney and now I'm celebrating my 40th! CRAZY!!!!!

It is going to be so magical for you!! I am counting our trip as part of my birthday celebration. A family birthday tradition is picking out a place to eat our birthday dinner and I might just hold my choice for Disney.

 

[Jasperann]

Flight and Resort update + a little early planning -

So I had left off on the first update that we were going to stay at OKW in a two bedroom. Well I went on youtube and watched a few resort videos and decided that if we couldn't get Hospitality house that OKW wasn't a resort we wanted to deal with. We don't typically mind bigger resorts we actually liked the lay out of Coronado when we stayed there. And the 'long' walks that are reported for some of the other resorts don't bother us at all. Guess we just don't fit that mold. So when the 11 month window opened up on the 21st I was at work. I had canceled our April trip to release our points so that I could go on break when the window opened and book on my phone.

Well I arrive to work at 5am and by the time the window opened I forgot one of my co-workers actually reminded me just after 9am. I don't know how I forgot.. it was on my mind and it was important. Although it was a busy day and pulling myself away from the floor is hard (I'm a Team Lead and am constantly on the floor answering questions and moving work around). Anyway I ran from the floor and to the locker room where our phones have to be kept and then preceded to watch my phone not find a signal. I work in a Data center so it interferes with the signal a lot and the steel in the building. That led me to make the 5 min hike out of the building. I was on a mission.

I tried calling and I got the opening message but then no selection message... I tried a couple times before I pulled up my web browser and typed in the DVC website and logged in. Searched for what we wanted -- and it was still open. I wasn't too worried. But I only had enough points to book the first 5 nights and had to talk to someone to buy the couple extra points to book the last night. So I booked what I could and had a mini party outside my building.

​

Where did we end up booking for the 21st-26th you ask? Saratoga Springs. Yeah I know. I said it reminded me of home... but really how often will we be in our room? And being reminded of home is a good thing at Christmas time, right? We have a 2-bedroom booked. I'm excited we decided to book a 2-bedroom. I'm excited to be within walking distance to Disney Springs. I was thinking of wait listing OKW Hospitality house but at the same time... I already 'checked-in' for our resort and selected Paddock section near pool. I think that is the perfect location for us. If we end up with mugs we can refill them a short walk away. For now I think we are just going to ride out SSR.

Our starting few days were put on hold. I wasn't sure what our flights would look like. I wanted to find the best deal. And that would be on Spirit or Southwest. They didn't open the flights for December until May 31st. So I've been waiting ... and waiting... and trying not to talk about Disney... Every time my kids are not around I feel like that is all I'm talking about with Eric (my husband). He is such a good sport listening to my rambling. I mean I even followed him outside where he was replacing the shocks and struts on my car to talk to him. He couldn't leave me cause he was working on the car so he carried on a full conversation with me and we talked about the surprise. We threw around having a scavenger hunt the morning we are leaving, but if we book the flights we want to book to fly out then that isn't possible. I think we might be back to the magic band in the stocking OR surprising them the day before. If it is a super easy scavenger hunt we could do it though...

Okay, back on track.

Our first few days are still kind of on hold. I am leaning towards arriving the 18th. The price for a direct flight with Spirit is 71.00 per person for the five of us on the 18th and the 19th. So last night under the guise of our April trip that isn't happening... I asked Emma(my 15 year old) if we were to leave our earlier for our April trip would it be better school wise to miss 3 days before the break or 4 days before the break. Her and my 14 year old Kelsey will both be in High School and this year she had mentioned that before breaks they watch movies for 3 days... So I knew 3 days would be fine. I wasn't sure about the 4 days. I just don't want to stress them out. Well she said the 4 days would be fine and that they would only really miss 1 day of work and could make it up easily. So I am thinking that when I book our room today it will be for the 18th-21st. Not sure which resort. I want POR still BUT CBR is cheaper (probably because of the construction). The marching band is going to New Orleans for their Spring trip next year so I think that POR would be a great little peak at what it will look like. Then Emma can report back if they are similar.

Yesterday flights for SW and Spirit were released!!! I was SO excited!! I was going to take a break at 7am to book our flights right when they opened!!

​

It was only when driving home from work at 1:30pm that I realized that I never even thought about checking the flights...

I'm on quite the roll of forgetting important things. Oh well, no use worrying about things I couldn't change. So when I got home at 2:00pm I got on my laptop to search up flights.. I looked a little more excited than that smiley though.

I found flights home on the 27th that fly out of MCO on SW at 820pm!! It is a lay over flight in ATL and we arrive home at around 12:40am, which really will work for Eric to switch his schedule for Midnights on Friday. He will sleep no problem on the flights and then he will be able to stay up late and sleep during the day. It was only 219.00 per person and includes the 2 free checked bags. It was a great price compared to everything else and the fact that during the busy Christmas travel season that we are able to check our bags at the hotel and not worry about them again is a price I was willing to pay for. So our way home was booked!!!

Now we just had to worry about booking our way there. That's a small detail though. lol I looked up flights on all the airlines for the Friday Eric would be flying out. The cheapest turned out to be Delta. So we booked that for him. His flight leaves home at 12:35 and should arrive around 3:15. He is coming off midnight that morning and will drop the dogs off at the boarding doggie hotel on the way to the airport. He will sleep on the plane and get a quick nap (hope they wake him up when they land..lol). We may be surprising the kids with him arriving but not sure how it would work out. He would get to the resort probably around 4:30 or 5:00 and 'could' be to a park by 5:30... So it depends.

Then after having him all set with a way to and from I moved on to the rest of us. Spirit had that really great price of 71.00 for flight/bag and I tried to book it. I even paid to upgrade to the big front seats as a little splurge. And put in my credit information and tried to pay and it turned out I hadn't activated my new card yet. I was using my new Credit Card with zero apr for the first 14 months to pay for them. I thought I activated it. Maybe it was just another thing I forgot. Well when I submitted payment it put the order on hold... so I watched it for a few hours before they canceled it. Bummer. At that point I was freaking out about our 55 min layover for our flight home. We've never done a layover before and 55 min seemed short. But the 2 hours and 45 mins of the other option seemed way too long. So I was a little stressed... I decided to take care of the other flights today. I'll be doing that shortly. Hope the price doesn't go up.

Speaking of prices going up while I was stressing last night I had thought maybe it would be a good idea to switch to the earlier flight. I just wanted the extra Disney time and maybe I was being greedy. So I logged into SW and checked the price of the other flight and it was 40.00 more than what i paid for our original flight. And our original flight was 80.00 more than what I paid as well. Wow! I hadn't realized the price would jump that much in 3 hours. So I sucked it up and said it is what it is... we will be fine even if we miss our connecting flight. Right? They wouldn't make the connection that low if they didn't think it was possible.

Flights and Resort almost planned. Feeling accomplished. The rest should be done today. Just waiting for kids to leave for school and Disney to open the phone lines.

On to a little ADR planning. With 200 days to go, really 199 and 23 hours but who is counting, I really need to figure this out. I figure the reservations during Christmas time fill up fast so it is even more important to book them when you can at 180 days out. We are going Dining plan free (pretty sure we are sticking to that decision this time). A little excited to eat how we eat. Weird I know.

Our starting list with no days planned yet, and some might end up cut -

Ohana (Kelsey will revolt if she doesn't get to eat her chicken wings - she writes songs about them) They brought her out a huge bowl of them last time. Wish I took a picture.

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Trails End (Looked pretty good in the pictures I looked at)

Sci-fi dine in (Eric and Emma both missed this the one time we had it booked because Emma was sick in the room) Anyone sit in a table car like the one in the picture? I kind of like them... Although the cars are fun.

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Coral Reef or Italy

Garden Grill (Two words: Nutella waffles)

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Yak and Yeti (We have the card that allows you not to make reservations - so I am not sure if I will book one)

The Plaza

Tusker house or Crystal Palace late breakfast

We also will eat at a few QS places -

Casey's corner (Tradition)
Flame Tree BBQ
The place in Pandora... what is that name?
My son Xander wants to eat in Toy Story land so possibly Woody's lunch box, although my son wanted to know why it wasn't Andy's lunch box. He is a thinker.
Blaze Pizza
D-Lux

We will also snack around the world. My girls like to make videos of taste testing and I'm sure with the new stuff at the Festival booths they will do it again. If we can edit them after the trip I can share them. It is a lot of fun and they love looking back at them. We have a tradition of getting new treats from different countries (usually end up in Japan or Germany) and sharing them. We have found some favorites that way.

Now that I've talked about food a little bit... I have actually joined WW a week ago.

My starting weight was 276.6
I weighed in at 273.6
Loss -3.0 for the week!!

I was actually down 5 pounds mid week but I think my dinner last night was a bit salty. I like the plan and look forward to losing some weight before Disney. I ate the majority of my fitness points back and all of my weekly. So it really works!! I will share my progress each week with you guys too. If anyone is on a similar journey feel free to join in. I will be sticking to my plan until my trip, but while on my trip I will not be worried about it and will get right back on plan when we come home. I had lost a lot of weight a few years ago through intense exercise and not changing my diet too much. I had gotten down to 219 before my mom passed away and I lost focus. I plan on adding in some more exercise (besides all the walking I get at work, I get around 14000 steps a day while working). I have an elliptical and of course it is summer time here so the option of bike riding/jogging are also options. I I wanted to lose a bit more before jogging, but I do love it.

I'll check back in later with a quick update about my flight there and our hotel.

 

[Jasperann]

Final dates/flights/resorts -

The following is our current plan:

December 18th -

Fly out Spirit 9am our airport, land 11:40. This is for five of us so minus my hubby.
The five of us will be staying at ... CBR!!!

I couldn't pass up this room!! Wow!!

I am in love. It is perfect.

My kids will probably really like the main pool if it is nice and open. I had read the construction for the most part should be done by then. So that will be fun. If it is warm enough. And three nights means my kids will not fight over that pull down bed... they can each have a night.

On December 21st we will check out of CBR and move to Saratoga.

Pretty.

Eric will be back in Michigan. He is getting off work at 7am and going home to grab the puppies to take them to their Doggie hotel which opens at 8am. His flight leaves our airport at 12:30. He has to park in the long term parking for the terminal we are coming home into and take a shuttle to his terminal. They are close just not walking distance. He should have more than enough time to make it there and get on the plane. I just hope he doesn't sit down when at the airport with no one there to keep him awake. He is flying Delta (it was the cheapest). He will land shortly after 3pm and make his way to what ever park we are in. The nap on the plane will give him a second wind but it will probably be an early night for him and us.

Our check out day is December 27th. And our SW flight doesn't leave until 8:20pm. I think they picked up really early last Christmas and I expect they will do something similar, regardless we will probably try to get on a magical express back to the airport around 3:30 or 4:00. Traffic at rush hour can add so much time. Don't want to risk it. Although not needing to check our bags at the airport is going to be a special treat.

That is the 'outline' of it all. I need to sit down and figure out parks/ADRs/Possible FP's. It is going to be a little tricky without Eric there the first few days. Do we want to do the new rides without him or do things we've done before and do the new stuff with him... We will want to do some of them more than once so it's up in the air at the moment.

​

 

[Suejacken]

Great pre trip report. Great surprise for your kids. Congratulations on the weight loss. I think it would be great to go at Christmas time

 

[Jasperann]

Great pre trip report. Great surprise for your kids. Congratulations on the weight loss. I think it would be great to go at Christmas time

Those of us that 'know' we are going are super excited. If Emma knew that we were going she would be beyond excited... she is counting down for our non existent April trip already. Xander would also be over the moon. Kelsey could go either way to be honest. She is always the wild card. She claimed after two trips ago that she 'hated' Disney and the crowds and didn't want to go back. I assume her nana got in her ear about it because they are really close and nana didn't enjoy her time there. Then after this last trip she claimed that she loved Disney and didn't really mind the crowds, only the rude people that cut you off and stop right in front of where you are walking. But then on our last trip we devised a plan where those that didn't want to wake up super early and not go to the parks could stay in the room and sleep and join us later. Three of us are early birds at Disney and three of us are not, so it made for better moods all around. And that time with a smaller group really was magical in it's own way too.

 

[Jasperann]

Onederland already!?!?!

Time for the planning to really, really, really start!

19 days till ADRs need to be made and decisions to be made about park days.

I made a loose list of ADRs we would like, now I need to see how they can fit. We were debating on getting Tables in Wonderland for our trip. With the two black out days it may not be worth it though. Lets see how we can plan these meals out. We already pay a 20% tip because we are a party of 6 so them adding it on when using the card is no big deal.

Arrival day, Tuesday, December 18th - Do we go to MK for a while even with a Christmas Party that evening? It would be a nice start to our trip. I think we can buy the TIW if we decided to at guest relations in the park. I would be afraid of making an ADR this day though because if we are delayed it might make us miss it. If I make one it would be The Plaza for around 5:30pm.

Wednesday, December 19th - Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom - Magic Kingdom may have EMH in the evening and with all the parties I expect it will be a mad house so we will stay away from there most likely, unless we hop in for the fireworks. We will probably not have our FP's premade for this day because I have to add on 2 days to our park tickets with us arriving so early. If we do Hollywood we will make an ADR at 50s Prime Time (Lunch) or Hollywood and Vine (breakfast).

Thursday, December 20th - Magic Kingdom - Eric doesn't enjoy this park so we will probably do this day and our first day for a few hours to limit his time here to one and a half days when he arrives. If we don't do The Plaza on Tuesday we will do it for lunch on this day. If we have done The Plaza we may try Jungle Cruise but I think that Eric would like that so maybe not. Or we will do a late breakfast at Crystal Palace. It will fill us up for the majority of the day. Then no need for another ADR.

Friday, December 21st - My hubby's arrival day!!! We will check out of our resort and go to Epcot. Yes it is a Friday... But it is a Favorite park for a few of us and waiting this long is going to be hard. (We do hop a lot though so we may have been there already) We will spend the morning in Future land with the rides. We like to snack around the world showcase so I am thinking that is what we will do this day. I might make our ADR for this evening for OHANA. But I would be afraid that Eric would be way too tired to enjoy it. So maybe not till Saturday.

Saturday, December 22nd - Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios to experience the new stuff. Still debating if we are going to 'wait' for Eric to do the new stuff together. I think it is likely since we will not have Fast Passes made for the 19th or the 20th. ADR would be Sci-Fi Dine in or Yak n Yeti. If Animal Kingdom we will make an ADR for Tusker House Breakfast, possibly pre park or late breakfast, but we never have too much success getting out of there on time and would like to ride one of the rides in Pandora we won't FP. Again we do not need to really make the Yak n Yeti time because of our card.

Sunday, December 23rd - Magic Kingdom or one of the previous day's parks that we didn't do. If Magic Kingdom, we may hop out and do OHANA for Dinner, but if we do the dessert party then we will just snack. (Although it could be one of the last days for the Christmas Party... not sure, I should probably look) If Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios it would be the ADR we didn't do the previous day.

Monday, December 24th - Pretty sure it will be Epcot again with the Candle light processional dinner package (One of the Italy places or Coral Reef). I do not want to miss this and I think it would be a perfect evening to do the package. It's not covered with TIW either way, and I've heard people say it is like going to Christmas Eve Service. It would be a great day around the world show case to round out Christmas Eve.

Tuesday, December 25th - Waking up in Disney for Christmas!!! A moment I've dreamed of for YEARS! We have a 2 bedroom studio so we will wake up and open the gifts each of us has (small things that fit in the suitcase). Eric will make his pancakes for breakfast and we will head to a park for the day. I really want to go to Magic Kingdom but if it is too late in the morning then we will pass on MK and go to Hollywood Studios for the day. Or even Animal Kingdom. We will have done Epcot the day before so it will not be Epcot. It is going to be a more laid back day for us. I'm thinking of having Trails end Dinner this evening. It will be a nice little break from the parks and it is affordable even without a discount.

Wednesday, December 26th - Park Hopping... hitting things we missed. Start in Epcot, prepark ADR for Garden Grill. A prepark ADR for so late in our trip... eeek... we will see. We tend to hit all four parks on our last full day... sometimes we stop at 3. But if we start in Epcot we will most likely go to Hollywood studios after a little morning time in Future world and then after a little time in Hollywood studios we will head to Animal Kingdom. We may stay there for the rest of the evening or we may go to Magic Kingdom. If we plan a full day that means packing most of our stuff on Christmas. But with the 2 bedroom we have the laundry in our room so most stuff will already be clean and packed.

Thursday, December 27th - Our leaving day. So sad. We do not leave for the airport until 3:30 or 4:00 if they do the 4 hour pick up time for Magical Express. That's the latest we would like any way. Not sure we will do an ADR this day. It is typical that we hop to each park and ride one ride we will miss, with the crowds I'm not sure how that will work. If they are too busy we will be basically done with parks by noon and do some shopping in Disney Springs. It's a short walk back to SSR so there is no fear in not making it for the bus.

Of course we are the family that will plan and plan and plan for months leading up the our trip and then get to the bus stop in the morning and realize LOTS of people are heading to our park of choice and scrap our plans that morning and hop on a different bus. Or we will not feel like going to a park and decided on a different one the night before and grab different ADRs and Fast Passes. With the busy Christmas season I am curious how this would work out.

I'm not going to be able to contain my excitement!!!

Now for the more technical stuff... I enjoy breaking it down like this, if it's not for you just skim.

12/18 - MK
The Plaza - $133.00 before discount w/ tip - w/ DVC discount/tip $122.00 - w/ TIW discount/tip $110.00
Savings with DVC - $11.00
Savings with TIW - $23.00

12/19 - Hollywood Studios
Hollywood and Vine breakfast - $229.00 before discount w/ tip - w/ DVC discount/tip $210.00 - w/ TIW discount/tip $190.00
Savings with DVC - $19.00
Savings with TIW - $39.00
OR
50s Prime Time - $136.00 before discount w/ tip - w/ DVC discount/tip $125.00 - w/ TIW discount/tip $113.00
Savings with DVC - $11.00
Savings with TIW - $23.00

12/20 - MK
Crystal Palace breakfast - $200.00 before discount w/tip - w/ DVC discount/tip $183.00 - w/ TIW discount/tip $166.00
Savings with DVC - $17.00
Savings with TIW - $34.00

12/21 - Epcot
Possible Coral Reef - $272.00 before discount w/tip - w/ DVC discount/tip - $249.00 - w/ TIW discount/tip $226.00
Savings with DVC - $23.00
Savings with TIW - $46.00

12/22 - Animal Kingdom (just picking one and calculating)
Tusker house breakfast - $241.00 before discount w/tip - No DVC discount offered - w/ TIW discount/tip $200.00
Savings with DVC - $0
Savings with TIW - $41.00
AND
Yak and Yeti (only four of us) - $177.00 before discount w/tip - w/ DVC discount/tip $162.00 - No TIW discount offered
Savings with DVC - $15.00
Savings with TIW - $0

12/23 - Magic Kingdom
Ohana Dinner - $344.00 before discount w/tip - w/ DVC discount/tip $315.00 - w/ TIW discount/tip $286.00
Savings with DVC - $29.00
Savings with TIW - $58.00

12/24 - Epcot
Candle light processional - $424.00 (not sure on the restaurant just picked the 60.00 price tag) w/tip no discounts -- Maybe do Garden Grill Breakfast... it would be 43.00 per person

12/25 - Magic Kingdom/Hollywood/AK
Trails end dinner - $233.00 w/tip - no discounts

12/26 - All four parks
Sci-Fi Dine in - $178.00 w/tip - No DVC discount - w/ TIW discount/tip - $148.00
Savings with DVC - $0
Savings with TIW - $30.00

Total DVC savings - $125.00
Total TIW savings - $294.00 (minus the cost of the TIW - $119.00)

Looks like we will save more with DVC. Interesting. BUT if we add another ADR in there we save more with TIW. Eeek! What to do?

Total price with DVC - 2442.00
Total price with TIW - 2433.00

Well look at that... we do save more with TIW ONLY because on the meals that TIW isn't offered we would use DVC. That total price is with the 175.00 cost for it as well.

I have priced it out with the dining plan and we never make money on it due to the snacks and QS meals... so we are going OOP this time.

Disney math. My favorite.

Guess that is enough planning for today.





​

 

[Jasperann]

So I was slightly off about the cost of TIW. I read the wrong amount. I'm not a FL resident so it wouldn't be 175.00 for us. I am DVC so it would be 150.00. Which would make it the better deal. So we will be getting the TIW at the start of our trip.

I've thought of a few changes for our park days.

Arrival day - If we go to a park it will be an added on park day. As of right now I think we will hang out at the resorts, depending on how all my kids feel. Which to be honest they all may want to go to a park.

Day 2 - Probably HS/AK -- I am leaning towards HS only because I kind of want to do AK and see it for the first time with Eric.

Day 3 - MK for the Christmas party which will mean no Crystal Palace for breakfast. I will most likely make a late ADR breakfast for Boma/1900/Chef Mickey or any of those. Arrive at the park by 4pm. I think this would be a good day to see the resorts. So I am leaning towards having Chef Mickey so we can start there and tour them after breakfast.

Day 4 - Epcot - no changes, late start due to Christmas party -- We are going to try to surprise the kids with Eric arriving.

Day 5 - AK for sure

Day 6 - MK for sure

Day 7 - Christmas eve - Epcot all day. I've been looking at the Dinner packages and I might be leaning towards Garden Grill late breakfast this day or prepark ADR. I had previously thought that we would need to have a FP for Illuminations but it actually comes with the Candle light processional dinner package. Which is a bonus. If we do that. It is between the package and a Dessert party another night for MK or HS. Which would you pick?

Day 8 - Christmas - This is the day I am struggling with. I REALLY want to see MK on Christmas but I know with our probably late start due to breakfast in the room/present opening that it would probably be a bad idea. So I may just focus our FP for HS so that Eric can see Toy story land and do the ride. Plus that park looks Christmas enough for me and they have a few night time Christmas shows that we can watch.

Day 9 - Originally I was thinking start in Epcot for the Garden Grill. But if we do Garden Grill on Christmas Eve then we could do a different ADR this day. I think we could start in AK and do FP there and then hop to HS/Epcot, probably HS and then hop to Epcot after and monorail to MK from there. lol But if we spend more time in any park no big deal because we will be hopping on Day 10 our leaving day anyway.

Oh and just a side note when I'm planning our days I am really just planning the park we start in. I feel like we never stay in the same park all day. When we take a mid day break we seem to always head back out to what ever park we feel like going too. If it is cooler than we are used to then a break might not be needed and we would just hop mid day instead.

Which restaurant do you like best in Epcot? I feel like we always want to try something new but then if we eat at a TS then we eat less of the snacks around the world and that is sad. At least we can probably skip one of the 'booths' since we will have tasted all of the cookies at the party. I was thinking of taking some Ziplock baggies to grab one of each for Eric to try when he arrives the next day. I'm not a huge cookie person so I would just get the two they offer and put one away for him. I am however a big pretzel person so... yeah... I may be in that line all night.

I will be Gus Gus with the pretzels...lol

Now on to a different topic, kind of.

---A little surprise keeping update---

So Eric, my husband, keeps saying that if any one of us is going to blow the surprise it will be me. And that is probably true because I can't shut up about Disney. But since that is a normal for me they shouldn't suspect a thing. However, my guilt or whatever it is, is starting to show..

I obviously am doing searches and research. Our ADR day is so soon. Well I'm in a few Disney groups on Facebook. One is the Nov/Dec Christmas 'real' Disney group. I had posted a question about the Candle light processional on it before my kids got home. I 'forgot' I had done that and one of Emily's groups for Marching band had shared some pictures, so I was showing her the pictures when a reply popped up to my question. I promptly closed my laptop and jumped up proclaiming I had to pee.

I had just gotten done with the bathroom not even 5 minutes before that.

My daughter looked at me like I had lost my mind. And on top of that I'm sure she caught at least 'part' of the post. She is my Disney obsessed child and will put clues together like she is on Blues Clues.

So I'm just waiting for her to reveal that she knows the surprise. Her Birthday is on the 16th of this month and I'm pretty sure that she thinks she is going to Disney for her Birthday because it is a surprise present that we 'bought' before she told us what she wanted. It's drivers training... because that's a privilege in our house not a requirement and she has been responsible enough up to this point to go through the class. lol So she is going to love her gift but at this moment I would guess that she is hopeful for Disney.

Yesterday she came in the door and I was on the Disboards and I automatically went to close my laptop even though I wasn't on anything that would ruin the surprise. I did stop myself before closing it. She noticed. She didn't say anything.

This morning, it has taken me 2+ hours to write this because I had to keep closing the laptop. She had a sleep over last night for her friend birthday party and her and a few of her friends decided to come hang out in the kitchen where I was...

With Kelsey my 14 year old, last week we were at her dentist appointment. And after we needed to make a new one. Well she just made the sideline JV cheer team at her high school and she made mention that we needed to make the appointment for while she was off on Christmas break. Because she will be practicing everyday for competitive cheer.


Internally this was me:

Outside this was me:

Me: "Okay, well -- What do you have for a Friday during the day around the beginning of December?"

Kelsey:

Me: "It will be fine, we don't know what time your practice would be during break."

I'm not too sure how she is going to react to the surprise... I'm a little scared. She is the one that in the past has claimed that she hates Disney. However this last trip she said she loved it... and she did say if I was planning a trip for Christmas she would want to go and not be left home. (This was BEFORE the surprise trip was thought of.) But sometimes she gets ideas in her head about missing stuff and will focus on that and not enjoy her time. Hoping that she doesn't have that issue. We plan on telling her coaches about the surprise when she gets on to the Competitive cheer team. The first competition is usually the first week of January. And they start practice in early November. So really it shouldn't be too horrible. She will have the routine down by then and so will the other girls. She is usually a base or a back spotter.

And Xander, he will be fine. No worries about surprising him. Although if he even gets a hint of it the whole thing is blown. Because he is not a secret keeper. For his Dad's birthday a few weeks ago I was surprising him with his mom and brother/kids showing up to dinner with us and made the reservation in the car right after picking him up from school. The first thing he did when we got in the house is to ask his dad who the extra people were for dinner. When Eric was confused and looking at him Xander looked at me and I shook my head at him and did the shush sign only for him to grin at me and press the issue. Surprise busted. So yeah, he can't know AT all. LOL

We've done the secret thing once before.. it worked out and I stressed the whole time that they knew, and they didn't. Now we just need to figure out 'how' to do it. With our flights now scheduled it is looking like the idea of putting the magic bands in their stockings the morning we are leaving is the best idea. But I kind of want to do a mini scavenger hunt. Where they find a few things they will need on the plane. Like these really nice blankets I bought for 5.00 each at Toys R Us. They were normally way more than that. I need to add in some books/games for the plane too. And of course snacks. I'm thinking of going to Target for those. They have the Disney snacks. Like gold fish only Mickey heads. Time is moving so quickly.

It is going to fly by after our Camping trip in July. My kids are BUSY when it comes to fall sports. My son is in Football, Kelsey is in Cheer as I mentioned, and Emily is in Marching band. With them being busy I also will be busy. Starting in mid June, Emily has practice twice a week until right before Band Camp in August. Emily also has drivers training for three weeks. Kelsey has practice three times a week. Then in August Emily has practice all day every day for a couple weeks and then goes to band camp. Xander starts football practice which is four days a week in the beginning of August and runs through the end of October with Games on Saturday. The games for Emily are on Friday nights and competition on Saturday's. The games for Kelsey are on Thursday nights. Wish I could clone myself.

Whew. That just wears me out just thinking of it.

A mini update on my WW progress.

Starting weight: 276.6
Weight in on Friday: 272.0
Down: -4.6 in two weeks

That is a win!! It doesn't feel like I'm doing anything different but I guess I am. Hoping for good results this week as well. ​

​

 

[MiracleCream]

Following along! It looks like you got everything planned out! I’ve only been once as an adult but going back last week of November!

 

[Suejacken]

So I was slightly off about the cost of TIW. I read the wrong amount. I'm not a FL resident so it wouldn't be 175.00 for us. I am DVC so it would be 150.00. Which would make it the better deal. So we will be getting the TIW at the start of our trip.

I've thought of a few changes for our park days.

Arrival day - If we go to a park it will be an added on park day. As of right now I think we will hang out at the resorts, depending on how all my kids feel. Which to be honest they all may want to go to a park.

Day 2 - Probably HS/AK -- I am leaning towards HS only because I kind of want to do AK and see it for the first time with Eric.

Day 3 - MK for the Christmas party which will mean no Crystal Palace for breakfast. I will most likely make a late ADR breakfast for Boma/1900/Chef Mickey or any of those. Arrive at the park by 4pm. I think this would be a good day to see the resorts. So I am leaning towards having Chef Mickey so we can start there and tour them after breakfast.

Day 4 - Epcot - no changes, late start due to Christmas party -- We are going to try to surprise the kids with Eric arriving.

Day 5 - AK for sure

Day 6 - MK for sure

Day 7 - Christmas eve - Epcot all day. I've been looking at the Dinner packages and I might be leaning towards Garden Grill late breakfast this day or prepark ADR. I had previously thought that we would need to have a FP for Illuminations but it actually comes with the Candle light processional dinner package. Which is a bonus. If we do that. It is between the package and a Dessert party another night for MK or HS. Which would you pick?

Day 8 - Christmas - This is the day I am struggling with. I REALLY want to see MK on Christmas but I know with our probably late start due to breakfast in the room/present opening that it would probably be a bad idea. So I may just focus our FP for HS so that Eric can see Toy story land and do the ride. Plus that park looks Christmas enough for me and they have a few night time Christmas shows that we can watch.

Day 9 - Originally I was thinking start in Epcot for the Garden Grill. But if we do Garden Grill on Christmas Eve then we could do a different ADR this day. I think we could start in AK and do FP there and then hop to HS/Epcot, probably HS and then hop to Epcot after and monorail to MK from there. lol But if we spend more time in any park no big deal because we will be hopping on Day 10 our leaving day anyway.

Oh and just a side note when I'm planning our days I am really just planning the park we start in. I feel like we never stay in the same park all day. When we take a mid day break we seem to always head back out to what ever park we feel like going too. If it is cooler than we are used to then a break might not be needed and we would just hop mid day instead.

Which restaurant do you like best in Epcot? I feel like we always want to try something new but then if we eat at a TS then we eat less of the snacks around the world and that is sad. At least we can probably skip one of the 'booths' since we will have tasted all of the cookies at the party. I was thinking of taking some Ziplock baggies to grab one of each for Eric to try when he arrives the next day. I'm not a huge cookie person so I would just get the two they offer and put one away for him. I am however a big pretzel person so... yeah... I may be in that line all night.

I will be Gus Gus with the pretzels...lol

Now on to a different topic, kind of.

---A little surprise keeping update---

So Eric, my husband, keeps saying that if any one of us is going to blow the surprise it will be me. And that is probably true because I can't shut up about Disney. But since that is a normal for me they shouldn't suspect a thing. However, my guilt or whatever it is, is starting to show..

I obviously am doing searches and research. Our ADR day is so soon. Well I'm in a few Disney groups on Facebook. One is the Nov/Dec Christmas 'real' Disney group. I had posted a question about the Candle light processional on it before my kids got home. I 'forgot' I had done that and one of Emily's groups for Marching band had shared some pictures, so I was showing her the pictures when a reply popped up to my question. I promptly closed my laptop and jumped up proclaiming I had to pee.

I had just gotten done with the bathroom not even 5 minutes before that.

My daughter looked at me like I had lost my mind. And on top of that I'm sure she caught at least 'part' of the post. She is my Disney obsessed child and will put clues together like she is on Blues Clues.

So I'm just waiting for her to reveal that she knows the surprise. Her Birthday is on the 16th of this month and I'm pretty sure that she thinks she is going to Disney for her Birthday because it is a surprise present that we 'bought' before she told us what she wanted. It's drivers training... because that's a privilege in our house not a requirement and she has been responsible enough up to this point to go through the class. lol So she is going to love her gift but at this moment I would guess that she is hopeful for Disney.

Yesterday she came in the door and I was on the Disboards and I automatically went to close my laptop even though I wasn't on anything that would ruin the surprise. I did stop myself before closing it. She noticed. She didn't say anything.

This morning, it has taken me 2+ hours to write this because I had to keep closing the laptop. She had a sleep over last night for her friend birthday party and her and a few of her friends decided to come hang out in the kitchen where I was...

With Kelsey my 14 year old, last week we were at her dentist appointment. And after we needed to make a new one. Well she just made the sideline JV cheer team at her high school and she made mention that we needed to make the appointment for while she was off on Christmas break. Because she will be practicing everyday for competitive cheer.


Internally this was me:

Outside this was me:

Me: "Okay, well -- What do you have for a Friday during the day around the beginning of December?"

Kelsey:

Me: "It will be fine, we don't know what time your practice would be during break."

I'm not too sure how she is going to react to the surprise... I'm a little scared. She is the one that in the past has claimed that she hates Disney. However this last trip she said she loved it... and she did say if I was planning a trip for Christmas she would want to go and not be left home. (This was BEFORE the surprise trip was thought of.) But sometimes she gets ideas in her head about missing stuff and will focus on that and not enjoy her time. Hoping that she doesn't have that issue. We plan on telling her coaches about the surprise when she gets on to the Competitive cheer team. The first competition is usually the first week of January. And they start practice in early November. So really it shouldn't be too horrible. She will have the routine down by then and so will the other girls. She is usually a base or a back spotter.

And Xander, he will be fine. No worries about surprising him. Although if he even gets a hint of it the whole thing is blown. Because he is not a secret keeper. For his Dad's birthday a few weeks ago I was surprising him with his mom and brother/kids showing up to dinner with us and made the reservation in the car right after picking him up from school. The first thing he did when we got in the house is to ask his dad who the extra people were for dinner. When Eric was confused and looking at him Xander looked at me and I shook my head at him and did the shush sign only for him to grin at me and press the issue. Surprise busted. So yeah, he can't know AT all. LOL

We've done the secret thing once before.. it worked out and I stressed the whole time that they knew, and they didn't. Now we just need to figure out 'how' to do it. With our flights now scheduled it is looking like the idea of putting the magic bands in their stockings the morning we are leaving is the best idea. But I kind of want to do a mini scavenger hunt. Where they find a few things they will need on the plane. Like these really nice blankets I bought for 5.00 each at Toys R Us. They were normally way more than that. I need to add in some books/games for the plane too. And of course snacks. I'm thinking of going to Target for those. They have the Disney snacks. Like gold fish only Mickey heads. Time is moving so quickly.

It is going to fly by after our Camping trip in July. My kids are BUSY when it comes to fall sports. My son is in Football, Kelsey is in Cheer as I mentioned, and Emily is in Marching band. With them being busy I also will be busy. Starting in mid June, Emily has practice twice a week until right before Band Camp in August. Emily also has drivers training for three weeks. Kelsey has practice three times a week. Then in August Emily has practice all day every day for a couple weeks and then goes to band camp. Xander starts football practice which is four days a week in the beginning of August and runs through the end of October with Games on Saturday. The games for Emily are on Friday nights and competition on Saturday's. The games for Kelsey are on Thursday nights. Wish I could clone myself.

Whew. That just wears me out just thinking of it.

A mini update on my WW progress.

Starting weight: 276.6
Weight in on Friday: 272.0
Down: -4.6 in two weeks

That is a win!! It doesn't feel like I'm doing anything different but I guess I am. Hoping for good results this week as well. ​

​

Congratulations on the weight loss. We are going to Disney on 6/30. I bought the Disney goldfish for my great niece and great nephews. They don’t know they are going yet either. Not sure how their parents are going to tell them.

 

[Jasperann]

Following along! It looks like you got everything planned out! I’ve only been once as an adult but going back last week of November!

Welcome!! It's funny about the having everything planned out because I feel like I change it a lot leading up to our trips. Then once we are on our trips sometimes the plan is just a figment of our imagination because we don't follow it... LOL Last week of November sounds great too!!

Congratulations on the weight loss. We are going to Disney on 6/30. I bought the Disney goldfish for my great niece and great nephews. They don’t know they are going yet either. Not sure how their parents are going to tell them.

Thank you! Your trip is THIS month!! So exciting!! I love surprises. There are so many ways to go about doing them. I almost stopped at Target on the way home on Wednesday but stopped myself. I should stop in there though.

 

[Jasperann]

So no true update. Mainly a life one.

Tonight is Emily's birthday Dinner. We are going to a hibachi place that she loves. It is more expensive than Tepan Edo. My girl has expensive tastes. Tonight I'm taking the kids to a carnival for the evening. Then tomorrow is our BBQ to celebrate her birthday with family.

But the main reason I came on here is because I have 6 days until our ADR day and I actually work on that day. So I can't make ADRs until around 2pm. The app isn't working for making them and I can't us the work computer. So that will mean that I will have to book what I can get and then use *********** or touring plans for alerts for the rest. Sigh. It will all work out I'm sure. I'm just worried about Christmas ADRs. We might end up with something we didn't plan.

I am also debating letting my step father know that we will be in Orlando for Christmas. He lives near Ocala and drives over for a visit. However we are not that close (he wasn't the nicest to me when my mom wasn't around while I was a teen) and when he was up here for the summer last year we saw each other a total of 1 time. He never even came over to see the kids. SO I'm really debating it. I feel like I should because it is Christmas and we will be so close. If my mom was alive she would want me too. So I will probably tell him. I mean we are even in a two bedroom and he would have a place to crash for a night. Since it sleeps 9. So it wouldn't even be an extra cost for him to come visit. I think I will probably tell him about it and leave it up to him. But I'm going to need to know if he is coming for one of our park days so I can add him to the reservation. Which means I have to tell him this week. lol Look at that, I have basically talked myself into doing it.

He IS family. He would like to see us I'm sure. It is Christmas time. It is just hard sometimes. I know I sound awful. It is a complicated situation that is a bit deeper when you add in my husband. But I'm not going to get into that whole tale on here, it is not very Disney.

Anyways ---

186 days to go!!! The time after today flies by even when not busy!! I can't even imagine.

We are trying to decided between the Candlelight processional on Christmas Eve or a Dessert party another night (like the new after fireworks one they have at MK). I think as of right now we are leaning towards the processional because it does include viewing for the fireworks as well. Which is awesome and I didn't know until I was looking into it more. So it is a full meal, the Candlelight processional and a reserved spot for Illuminations. For about the same cost as the dessert party. Seems like such a better deal. And I would assume that some people won't make it till Illuminations. Or that could be wishful thinking. Which one would you do?

As for my Weight Watchers update -

Starting weight: 276.6
Weight in on Friday: 270.6
Down: -6 in three weeks

That is honestly some great results for not adding in any type of exercise. I think I will be adding in some exercise this week, only because I was testing the program before... I know that is strange. But I had to know that it worked if I was going to pay for it. And it had to work before exercise was added in or I would think it was all my hard work. And I did test it fully. I ate all my points each week including activity points. So I feel like it is a good plan. 26 weeks till Disney which means I will be down to at least 244 before our trip (most likely more). I'm excited. I would love to be down to 220 or lower by then. That would be at my lowest weight since having my now 15 year old...

My kids are waking up, so I'm going to get off of the laptop for now. Hope you all have a magical time planning!! I'll check in on my ADR day or the day after depending on my kids...

 

[dedesmith32]

Trip Sounds awesome! I just had my aDR Days yesterday and today and so glad it’s done. I’m waiting my candlelight reservation as well. But I just wanted to make a note that the dinner package does NOT include illuminations anymore unfortunately.

 

[Jasperann]

Trip Sounds awesome! I just had my aDR Days yesterday and today and so glad it’s done. I’m waiting my candlelight reservation as well. But I just wanted to make a note that the dinner package does NOT include illuminations anymore unfortunately.

Bummer!! But that is good to know. Thanks for sharing.

 

[amberdc1987]

This sounds awesome. I can't wait to hear what else you have planned.

I am a planner like you. It drives my family crazy. We are planning our Christmas trip for 2019. There are 13 of us, 5 of which are kids, none of them know.
When we went in 2017, it was surprise also for my 2 girls. We did a scavenger hunt around the house and it took them to a big box full of Disney items for the trip, including "My First Trip to Disney" shirts and that was how we told them; we left later that night. They still talk about that scavenger hunt and constantly tell me next time we surprise them with a trip to Disney to do it that way. Yeah that won't happen. I'll have to think of another way to tell them. I am loving the Magic bands in the stocking idea. That would be a great idea to tell them.
(BTW I've had to close my laptop twice while writing this postKids...)

Keep it coming.

 

[EdnaModesguest]

I'm getting excited just reading your plans! We did a Christmas trip surprise, oh my, 15 years ago! I wasn't thinking it was that long ago. We had the kids pack for a trip to see a relative. During the night, I repacked their luggage with Disney stuff such as matching shirts, rain ponchos, water shoes, and shorts. Then hubby put it all in the trunk except one suitcase for toiletries, and those last minute items.
The next morning, when we would be flying out...we had them open a present at the same time. It was tshirts that said, "I'm going to Disney!" "RIGHT NOW". I thought it was fantastic! And Christmas at WDW was everything I hoped for.

Go prepared for crowds, lines, lines, lines, and not-so-magical other people who didn't plan on half the planet squeezing in the park for the holiday and you will love it!

Great job on WW! Inspiring!