Taking the princess to see her castle!! Trip Report finally started!!!

[dizney chick]

After lurking for the past four years and reading hundreds of trip reports, I have decided to take a stab at writing a pre-trip and trip report.

I am also hoping that by writing this it will help pass the painful days till our next trip. We leave August 31st and are staying till September 11th. I realized the other day that we will be flying on the 10th anniversary of September 11th. Creepy I know, but fitting since we were at Disney on the 1st anniversary of that awful day.

So I guess I should introduce you to the cast:

DH: A 34 year old Disney fanatic. He dreams of retiring to Disney and driving a resort bus. He didn’t even realize how much he loved Disney till our first trip together in 2001. He cracks me up. This will be his 8th trip "home".

DS10: A lover of anything Pokémon but Disney is a close second. I guess I can deal with that. What’s a mom to do? He also has ADHD and Asperger’s, so routine is very important to him. That means he’ll be up by 5:30am whether or not we’re on vacation. Who needs sleep? This trip will be his 5th trip.

DS6: He is the polar opposite of DS10. He is as outgoing as a kid could be. He also is my ride buddy. There isn’t a ride he won’t ride. Right now he is at 47 inches with his shoes off. Hopefully he’ll grow an inch in the next month. I will be very sad for him if he can’t ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. This will be his 4th trip, not counting his trip in utero.

Next up DD: She is our trouble maker. I thought we had parenting down till we had her. You know how some girls are “light pink”. By “light pink” I mean sweet, ballerina, calm, prim and proper. Well that’s not her. I refer to her as a “hot pink” kind of girl. As in she’s wild, crazy, outgoing, hate to say it diva (eww!) sort of girl. But she is ALL girl and is in love with all things princess. DH is very thankful that she is not a tomboy. He has always dreamed of a Daddy’s little girl and he got one big time.

I almost forgot to mention this is her 1st trip. We have cancelled the last two trips because we knew she wouldn’t do well. I am in no means against taking a baby. We took DS6 at 5mo and 23mo. But she is no go-with-the-flow kind of chick. She likes her naps and she likes them OFTEN. I couldn’t stand to think of my Disney trip being spent in the room.

Next we have DFIL: He’s a great go with the flow guy. DD2 has him tightly wrapped around her pinky. This is his second time at Disney with us.

Next we have DSMIL: A great gal who was so excited to hear we were headed back to visit the mouse that she wanted to join in. This is our second trip with her as well. She is a perfect fit to our crew. And because she has MS she will also be DD’s nap bubby. The great thing about DFIL and DSMIL is that they are happy to let DH and I do all the planning, no questions asked!!! Although that makes me pressure myself even more to plan the perfect trip.

Last but not least ME! It was hard to find a picture of me since I am always the one taking the pictures. I am a 33 year old stay at home mom who never gets a chance to stay home (mostly because I have yet to learn to say 'no' to anything or anyone). Oh well I can sleep when the kids are grown, right? I love Disney, but I think I enjoy planning the trip just as much as the trip itself. Trip planning means list writing and I love writing and rewriting lists. I also enjoy filling my time taking pictures. This will be my 8th trip.

Well that’s the crew. Now on to the fun stuff, we are staying a Kidani Village with rented DVC points.

This is our first time at a deluxe resort. It is also our first time renting points. The point renting seems pretty scary to me, but so far so good. My biggest concern now is that we are going to get spoiled and crave staying at deluxe resorts. When we first started staying at Disney we stayed at ASMU and ASMOVIES. Then we stayed at Riverside and Coronado resorts. After our two stays in moderates I decided to save us some money and stay at POP. I had heard such great things about POP on the boards so it sounded like a good idea. I was wrong. We all missed the mod’s and we had awful luck with the buses for the first time ever.

I am very curious to see if staying in a deluxe once ruins us. Only time will tell. The remote location is the only thing worrying me about Kidani. I have already decided that if the busses are taking forever we will get a car. I always like to have a plan B.
Sorry, but that’s all for now. I have to get up early and walk. Gotta get in shape for Disney!!! Exercise doesn’t seem so bad if it’s for the mouse.

NEXT - The Where and When

 

[dizney chick]

Links to updates:

The Where and When
You Know We Gotta Eat
What!! We can't go now!!
Luggage, luggage, and more luggage!!!
Day 2 - Part 1
Day 2 - Part 2
A Little Disney Shopping (OK....alot)
It's all about the right park bag
Day 3 - Part 1
Day 3 - Part 2
Day 4
Our Disney Binders
These shoes were made for walkin
Day 5
Day 6
Why make one planner when you can make two
Day 7 (Sad News)

 

[dizney chick]

I forgot to mention in my last post why I named my pre trip report ‘Taking the princess to see HER castle’. Well DD thinks she’s a princess. When strangers ask her name, her age, or anything else she answers them by saying “I’m a princess”. No one is sure where she got the idea from, but it’s priceless. When I read any princess book and say the name of the princess she says me! And she calls everything hers. I am pretty sure everything is not hers, but she begs to differ.

Now on to our itinerary:

August 31st: Pick up kiddos from school and drive to a hotel by the airport

September 1st: fly out on the first flight out, check into our room early hopefully. We have always done this in the past but I have been reading that Kidiani Village doesn’t have rooms ready early very often. So I am hoping on some pixie dust. Then swim the afternoon away while DD naps. Then maybe some DTD that night since the boys love Disney Quest.

September 2nd: Magic Kingdom

September 3rd: Animal Kingdom

September 4th: Epcot

September 5th: Typhoon Lagoon

September 6th: Disney Hollywood Studios

September 7th: Blizzard Beach

September 8th: Disney Hollywood Studios

September 9th: Epcot

September 10th: Magic Kingdom

September 11th: Spend a little time at Magic Kingdom before our flight home

I am sure we will do some park hopping along the way. I have been so busy I haven’t started my detailed daily touring plans yet. The kids have been keeping me busy. But the boys go back on August 4th so I will have a little over a month of quiet trip planning, Disboard reading, and list making/planning time.

The boys insisted we count their Disney spending money again today. This will happen more and more often as the trip gets closer. They have to earn their own spending money. That’s how I get them to do extra chores (I am so not paying them to make their beds and clean up after themselves), do summer reading, worksheets, and anything else I can think of. It’s pretty much a win win for everyone.

Here is there stash so far:

Well that’s all for now. I need to run out and get the supplies to make our countdown calendar.

NEXT - You Know We Gotta Eat

 

[PixieMama]

Joining in! I also leave for WDW on the 31st!

Your PTR title reminds me of a story from my BIL's trip with his family. My BIL, SIL and their 2 kids were on their way to the MK on the monorail... he said once they made a turn and the castle came into view, DNiece started excitedly saying, "My castle! There's my castle, Daddy! My castle!"

 

[dizney chick]

Joining in! I also leave for WDW on the 31st!

Your PTR title reminds me of a story from my BIL's trip with his family. My BIL, SIL and their 2 kids were on their way to the MK on the monorail... he said once they made a turn and the castle came into view, DNiece started excitedly saying, "My castle! There's my castle, Daddy! My castle!"

Welcome and thanks for joining in It feels good to know I am not talking to myself, not that it would stop me

 

[cbcrockett]

Joining in as well!

 

[mrssmith06]

I need to learn more about renting points, I'm nervous about it too though, mostly because I have no idea how it really works

Sounds like it'll be a great trip, can't wait to hear more about your plans!!

 

[Dizney Granny]

DSMIL Joining in!

So excited to read all the pretrip news. Counting the days until we are there. So excited to visit with my wonderful family- and yes I plan on doing some serious grandbaby spoiling while there so be prepared LOL. Can't wait to read more. Thank you so much for doing this. DFIL is going to love this as well. Hugs

 

[dizney chick]

Joining in as well!

Welcome I hope you can find this pretrip report entertaining!

 

[dizney chick]

I need to learn more about renting points, I'm nervous about it too though, mostly because I have no idea how it really works

Sounds like it'll be a great trip, can't wait to hear more about your plans!!

We rented through www.dvcrequest.com. They worked with us to find something that would work for us. We paid (for me the scary part) and about a week later we got our reservation confirmation from disney in the mail. We can also see the reservation in our name on the Disney web site. So...so far...so good. I'll let you know how it turns out for us just stay tuned.

If you want to understand the points system, the website had a very useful calculator to break it down. For us, we are able to stay at a deluxe for a few bucks cheaper than a Moderate.

 

[dizney chick]

When I last left off, I was headed out to get the supplies for our count down calendar. Well, I did get the supplies; but finishing the calendar has proven harder than I thought. With three kids out for the summer, nothing is ever as easy as it seems. But I will share that story if and when I manage to finish that soooo needed calendar. Because, you know the countdown ticker on DH’s cell phone and desktop is in no way enough.

For now I am going to share our ADR’s. I always have a hard time deciding where to go. I always want to try new places, but there are so many places that we have enjoyed in the past and would like to return to.

Here’s what we have for this year:

Thursday, Sept. 1st
Lunch: Crystal Palace (an old favorite )
Dinner: Boma (a repeat for everyone except DSMIL, can’t wait for her to try it )

Friday, September 2nd
Breakfast: Chef Mickey (a first for us. We make an ADR for this one every trip then cancel it for one reason or another. Will we make it this year? We will see.)

Saturday, September 3rd
Dinner: Ohana’s (another every trip must)

Sunday, September 4th
Breakfast: Akershus (done it before but a must with DD )
Dinner: Tony Town Square (a first for DFIL and DSMIL)

Monday, September 5th
Breakfast: Ohana’s (a first for breakfast)
Dinner: Rainforest Café (a favorite of the Boys they picked this over T Rex Café)

Tuesday, September 6th
Lunch: 50’s Prime Time Café (another favorite, see my problem)

Wednesday, September7th
Dinner: Cape May Clam Bake (DD10 absolute favorite )

Thursday, September 8th
Dinner: Nine Dragons (a first for everyone!!)

Friday, September 9th
Dinner: Mama Melrose’s (a first for DFIL and DSMIL)

Saturday, September 10th
Dinner: Big River Brew Works (another first, yea!!)

Sunday, September 11th
Breakfast: Crystal Palace (just one last time )

This trip will be the first trip in a long time that we will not be on the dining plan. We were going to purchase the plan, until I did the math. I realized it just wasn’t the deal it used to be. Darn it, why oh why did they have to go and make it not a good deal. Oh how I loved the freedom of not thinking about money while on vacation. OK, I’m done whining for now. So we will go back to our trusty envelope method that we used during the pre-dining plan days. With this method we put the correct amount of money in each envelope to cover each days expenses. This really helps me relax, if you can’t tell I’m a bit of a control freak.

NEXT - What!! We can't go now!!

 

[Dizney Granny]

ADR's are wonderful!!! Oh I can hardly wait!!!

 

[PixieMama]

I know what you mean about trying to decide where to eat... we like trying new places but it's hard to not want to go back to our favorites!

Boma and Crystal Palace are 2 of our faves. We've only done breakfast at CP, though. But I've heard lunch/dinner are great, too.

We've done dinner at Chef Mickey's... it was good. I remember they had A LOT of variety on the buffet.

I'll be trying 'Ohana and Cape May Clam Bake for the 1st time on my trip! Well, I think so, anyway... one of the friends I'm going with likes to make changes. So far I think our ADRs have changed 3 times! There's no telling what we'll end up with by the time our trip is here!

 

[ZFamily5]

Joining in! We just got back from a mini family reunion trip, so I'm looking forward to hearing all about yours!

 

[teekathepony]

Joining!
Love the ADR's. Sounds like a fantastic trip!

 

[dizney chick]

Joining in! We just got back from a mini family reunion trip, so I'm looking forward to hearing all about yours!

Thanks for joining in!! I just saw your trip report and I can't wait to read it

 

[dizney chick]

I know what you mean about trying to decide where to eat... we like trying new places but it's hard to not want to go back to our favorites!

Boma and Crystal Palace are 2 of our faves. We've only done breakfast at CP, though. But I've heard lunch/dinner are great, too.

We've done dinner at Chef Mickey's... it was good. I remember they had A LOT of variety on the buffet.

I'll be trying 'Ohana and Cape May Clam Bake for the 1st time on my trip! Well, I think so, anyway... one of the friends I'm going with likes to make changes. So far I think our ADRs have changed 3 times! There's no telling what we'll end up with by the time our trip is here!

So glad to hear you liked Chef Mickey's. I have heard mixed reviews

Joining!
Love the ADR's. Sounds like a fantastic trip!

Thanks for joining I love the name of your trip report I will check it out shortly.

 

[ZFamily5]

Thanks for joining in!! I just saw your trip report and I can't wait to read it

I'd love to have you join in if you have time!

 

[dizney chick]

Last weekend I headed out to get the supplies for our Disney countdown calendars. I thought it would be a normal uneventful trip, but boy was I wrong.

DH and I set off to Michael’s with all three screamers (what we loving call our kids) in tow. I decided to go to a few stores, so I thought it would be a good idea to put DD in her stroller. I thought there was no sense in fighting with her to hold my hand. She got in her stroller without TOO much of a hassle. The only hitch was she wanted the sun canopy over her head even though we were inside. I didn’t think much about it (gotta pick my battles you know). After we finished up our shopping trip, DH folded up the stroller and loaded it into the back of our van. We were thinking all was well. However, when we stopped at TJMaxx, I got out the stroller and my husband noticed something was weird with the seat.

Upon closer examination DH found no less 15 packs of stickers and things stuck behind the stroller seat. It seems as though DD had done some shopping of her own. I hadn’t been able to see what she was up to because of the sun canopy. Needless to say we had to drive the good ten minutes back to Michaels to return the stolen goods. I couldn’t really punish DD because we are pretty sure she didn’t realize what she was doing was wrong. She often puts stuff in the cart that she wants me to buy. Did I mention she’s just a little spoiled?

The next day when I was cutting out the Mickey heads for the calendar, DS10 wanted to help. I gave him black paper to cut out numbers. Then I made a BIG mistake. I walked away. What was I thinking?

I went to the store and when I came back DS10 showed me all the great work he had done. After he used one piece of black paper he decided to use the colored paper I was using for the Mickey heads.

And of course as fate would have it, he used the rest of the colored paper and I didn’t have any more that would match. So after cutting out over 30 Mickey heads I had to completely start over. I made sure that DS10 knew I no longer needed his services.

So after a week of work DSMIL came over and we finished up the calendars last night.

DSMIL’s and DFIL’s Calendar:

Our Calendar:

NEXT - Luggage, luggage, and more luggage

 

[ZFamily5]

I love the countdown calendar! We did a paper link chain for this trip, but next time I want to do the Mickey head calendar.