Tales Of Pixie Dust!! A NYE Week TR! UPD- 1/20-Winter Pics!! Non- TR!

[disney<333]

Welcome to Tales of Pixie Dust!! I warn you now to do a double tug on your seat belt because you are in for some wild adventures.
This will be a double TR-- for the NYE trip I got home from today and the quick trip at the WL I am embarking on in just 12 short days. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish the first trip before then.
We stayed at the Dolphin for 5 nights and I managed to take 1,200 pictures in that time frame.
Our dates were December 28th-January 2nd.
This was a very last minute trip. It was 100% booked at 3 AM the day we were leaving.
We were very heavily dosed with pixie dust this trip!!
We live in South Florida and Disney World is 3 hours away from us.

I hope that you all will comment. I love hearing and getting to know you all. I’ve met some great friends here on the DIS and I hope to meet some more. Please do not be shy.
Quick intro for those who don’t know us:
We have yours truly.
Hi, I’m Barbara and I’m the ultimate planner when it comes to vacation planning. I am a full time elementary school art teacher, as well as a full time Mommy. I love scrap booking, photography, my family, and everything and anything Disney related. (I’m sure you all can relate on the last one!) Hehe!
Favorite character: Donald Duck
Favorite ride: I couldn’t choose one so I’m doing one for each park.
MK: Haunted Mansion
Epcot: Soarin’
DHS: TSM
AK: The Safari

Next we have the kids.
Amy: 12 years old and is definitely my girly girl. She loves art, Disney, and dance. She also loves to play her clarinet and saxophone. During the school year she does dance and softball. This year she added marching band, Nation Junior Honor Society, Drama Club, and Wind Ensemble to her list of after school activities. Amy is my partner in crime for creating art projects for my job and Disney planning.
Favorite character: Tinkerbelle
Favorite ride:
MK: Space Mountain
Epcot: Sum of All Thrills
DHS: TSM
AK: Everest

Emily: 15 years old and my free spirited child. This girl does some crazy thing. She definitely has a mouth all right. Never stops to take a breath. Some things she says I fall out of my chair laughing and some get her in trouble.
She plays the piccolo and flute, softball, volleyball, and is in her high school Marching Band. She is in her freshman year of High School.
Favorite Character: Doesn’t have one
Favorite ride:
MK: HM
Epcot: Soarin’

DHS: TSM
AK: Dinosaur

The girls together

Mitchell: My amazing husband as well as an amazing Daddy! He is so good with the kids and will do anything for them. They LOVE him. He is also my third child sometimes. He is too funny! He is an manager for a publishing company.
Favorite Character: Figment
Favorite ride:
MK: Space Mountain or Buzz
Epcot: Soarin’
DHS: TSM and RNRC
AK: Everest and Dinosaur

Drama Queen:
One I did not have to give birth to. Drama queen (sometimes king) does not have his/her own very own body. He/she likes to occupy my family members' body. Drama Queen (We'll call her/him DQ from her on out) is never invited on our trips but always finds a way in.
Whose body will DQ occupy the most this trip?
Self portrait of DQ:

Here is a picture of the four of us:

 

[disney<333]

Reserved for links for posts after page 1!

 

[Disney_Jill]

Can't wait to hear about your trip. I am originally from South Florida (Hollywood) and lived there until I was 25 and then I moved to GA. I love last minute trips. Most of mine are pretty last minute as my son's sports schedule can be tricky.
Funny thing, we have a DQ in our family too! Its like that not me and ida know from Family Circus.
No trip to Disney is complete without at least one or two mini-meltdowns (or freak outs as we call them).

 

[disney<333]

Like I had said, this trip wasn't booked until 3 AM the DAY we were leaving.
On Christmas Day there was small talk about going away. 2 days later we decided that we would go away some where the next day so we packed appropriately. Secretly, I really wanted to go to Disney World. I knew better though than to expect DH to put up with NYE crowds. That afternoon Mitch said it might be nice to go to the Dolphin for 5 nights that he had points he could use so that our stay would be for free. Sounded nice but I knew better than to get my hopes up. We both decided to sleep on it. At 3 AM my husband, who claims to not be in LOVE with Disney, comes into bed and tells me he booked the Dolphin and that we'll leave in the afternoon. I, half asleep in Dream World, managed to muffle my excitement with a mumble of "O.k, honey that's great!"
3 hours later it kicks into me and I hop out of bed like a ninja. I shake DH and say "Did you book the Dolphin, honey?" "Yes!!"
*Does the happy dance* I was doing some of this, this , this, and my breakfast was probably doing some of this .
After breakfast it was about 7 AM and the fact that I was going to WDW really started to kick in. Crap! I have no ADRs, only clothes packed, and no plan what so ever. I started throwing the Disney necessities in bags and then I went to go check into some ADRs. For being NY week I did pretty good. I managed to snag an ADR for Boma, Chef Mickey's, and 1900 PF.
At 8 I woke the girls up. My teen and tween were not happy that I was waking them up this early. I asked them if they wanted to go Disney. Emily popped out of bed and yes. Amy was a little unsure, being only half asleep. She didn't understand that I meant today. Once she was on board she was very excited and we were all dancing around the house. We ended up leaving our house at at 1:10.
Coming up next: getting to Disney and how many hotel room switches will we make? Any guesses?

 

[disney<333]

Can't wait to hear about your trip. I am originally from South Florida (Hollywood) and lived there until I was 25 and then I moved to GA. I love last minute trips. Most of mine are pretty last minute as my son's sports schedule can be tricky.
Funny thing, we have a DQ in our family too! Its like that not me and ida know from Family Circus.
No trip to Disney is complete without at least one or two mini-meltdowns (or freak outs as we call them).

Welcome!!
I'm in Coral Springs. I was just in Hollywood visiting family last week.
DQ goes just about everywhere we go.
This is my second very last minute trip. In April, we booked a no kids trip 4 days in advance.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

here!

 

[KatMark]

I'm in...I followed a lot of your stuff on FB.

 

[grumpyfannypack]

I'm in too....since I'm 17 hours away this is the only way I'll ever experience a spur of the moment trip. Can't wait for the rest of it!

 

[wlwilliams9]

Woo hoo! Can't wait to hear all of the juicy details!! Mike and I used to make spur of the moment trips to Disney before we had the girls, never the day of, but a few days out. Being in Michigan makes same day trips a tad difficult!

 

[All7OfUs]

Signing in, Barbara!!! I haven't read too many NYE Week TR's so am excited for this one!!

Great start, already!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I'm here, too! How fun that you decided on a last-minute trip to Disney -- can't wait to see all the pictures -- I thoroughly enjoyed all your FB posts during the week.

I think we have a Drama Queen around here, too, that inhabits various family members.

 

[MeMom]

At 8 I woke the girls up. My teen and tween were not happy that I was waking them up this early. I asked them if they wanted to go Disney. Emily popped out of bed and yes. Amy was a little unsure, being only half asleep. She didn't understand that I meant today. Once she was on board she was very excited and we were all dancing around the house. We ended up leaving our house at at 1:10.

Someday I want someone to wake me up and tell me we're going to Disney World today!

Of course, since I get up at three something, there is a slim to none chance of that happening.

I can dream, though.

So glad you will be sharing your good time and the special Disney magic you received with us.

 

[mousescrapper]

I'm in too

how did I miss this on FB


now that is some crazy Disney planning can't wait to hear all about it!

J~

 

[jillyb]

I'm here and looking forward to hearing all about your spur of the moment trip!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

I'm here!!!
I would love to be able to plan a very last minute trip to Disney! how fun!!!
followed you along on FB and can't wait to get a more detailed report here!

 

[disney<333]

Disclaimer: My camera charger never made its way home; it was left in the room. I called the Dolphin and they said the room hadn't been cleaned yet but when it is cleaned they'll ship it to me. I can't upload my pictures until I get it so until then I'll use pictures from old trips. It's fine for this first day because um... the BW area hasn't changed much.
After a few hectic hours of running around and making sure everything was packed we pulled out of the driveway at 1:10. We had lunch first so we didn't have to stop for that but we did need to make a pit stop at Public as we got closer to property. The ride up was uneventful, thank goodness. Nothing to write a book about. We got off the exit before Disney and DH pulled into a Super Walmart. 3 days after Christmas? No, thank you. The parking lot was insane. I don't even want to think about what inside the store was like so we went to Publix across the street. Mitch elected to wait in the car with the bags and allowed me 20 minutes in the store. Thanks, honey. Emily, being a complete Daddy's girl stayed with him so it was just Amy and I. We ran in and got breakfast for the week, eating utensils, drinks, and snacks for the room. In and out in 21 minutes. Boy, what the motivation of Disney can do to the rate of your shopping. As we were pulling out of the shopping center I noticed a travel office with a sign for WDW tickets for $99. I had to go in and investigate. You had to be FL. residents and they expire at the end of this year. I bought 4 4 day tickets for $99 each. I decided that even if we don't use them this trip we'll be back a lot before they expire and we could use them towards an upgrade.
FINALLY, at 5:20 we saw this beauty.

Hello gorgeous, I missed you!
Getting to the BW area can be tricky. It's always a maze for us. Go-Go, the GPS, told us to turn left and take some back road. Well, I see the Dolphin to the right so sorry, Go-Go, I'm going to have to go to the right. DQ then spread out for attack and took over Go-Go and Mitch. I was right, by the way.
Hello, there.

We checked in to find out we were in the triangle on floor twenty-something. No balcony but I was already drooling over the view that awaits us. We got to the room and DID NOT unpack. Remember this for 12:30 AM when we had an 8 AM ADR.
The lobby:

We were starving at this point so we went to go find dinner. We decided on beaches and Creme where we all got burgers. Not the best in the world, but also better than the CS in the parks. Everybody was ordering Kitchen Sinks that night but we decided to save ours for another night.
After dinner we went to the Beach Club to explore. We were in the lobby and I told Amy something, saying her name. A CM host at Cape May Cafe comes running up to us once she hears Emily's name too being said. She hugged each girl and told them that they got so big. I was a little weirded out at this point.
Coming up: Why is a random CM hugging my children and why are we switching rooms in the middle of the night?

 

[disney<333]

here!

Welcome! Too bad I missed you by only a few hours. What time did you guys leave on check out day?

I'm in...I followed a lot of your stuff on FB.

Glad to see you're here for the full version.

I'm in too....since I'm 17 hours away this is the only way I'll ever experience a spur of the moment trip. Can't wait for the rest of it!

Welcome. I can't believe I was able to get on the road so quickly.

Woo hoo! Can't wait to hear all of the juicy details!! Mike and I used to make spur of the moment trips to Disney before we had the girls, never the day of, but a few days out. Being in Michigan makes same day trips a tad difficult!

It gets easier as the kids get older. I think packing for this trip was much easier than when the girls were babies and we would go to Disney for a day trip. (Back when we lived in Orlando.)
Did you see Amy's performance in Epcot?

Signing in, Barbara!!! I haven't read too many NYE Week TR's so am excited for this one!!

Great start, already!

Glad to have you here, Liesa.

I'm here, too! How fun that you decided on a last-minute trip to Disney -- can't wait to see all the pictures -- I thoroughly enjoyed all your FB posts during the week.

I think we have a Drama Queen around here, too, that inhabits various family members.

Hi Jackie. Did you start your new PTR?
Drama Q/Ks are everywhere! Are Chelsea and Charles normally the victims of DQ, by any chance?

Someday I want someone to wake me up and tell me we're going to Disney World today!

Of course, since I get up at three something, there is a slim to none chance of that happening.

I can dream, though.

So glad you will be sharing your good time and the special Disney magic you received with us.

You are too funny, MeMom! Maybe if you hibernate until February that will work.

I'm in too

how did I miss this on FB


now that is some crazy Disney planning can't wait to hear all about it!

J~

Welcome!
I did most of my planning the night before for the next day. It was a very relaxing trip.

I'm here and looking forward to hearing all about your spur of the moment trip!

Glad to have you here, Jill.

I'm here!!!
I would love to be able to plan a very last minute trip to Disney! how fun!!!
followed you along on FB and can't wait to get a more detailed report here!

Hi Connie!
Is that a new ticker I see?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

I can't wait to hear this story! I have a feeling it is going to be an awesome story...

and yes mam' we are planning a return in the fall, hoping to meet up with a crew of disser's who are running in the marathon that weekend

in fact today I have been studying and trying to figure out which resort we are going to give a try this go round

 

[disney<333]

I can't wait to hear this story! I have a feeling it is going to be an awesome story...

and yes mam' we are planning a return in the fall, hoping to meet up with a crew of disser's who are running in the marathon that weekend

in fact today I have been studying and trying to figure out which resort we are going to give a try this go round

One story is sweet, the other is scary.
How fun! I heard about that-- the 5K with Nikky, Leanne, Wendy, Stephenie, and I think I'm missing somebody.
What resort category are you going to stay at for this trip?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

One story is sweet, the other is scary.
How fun! I heard about that-- the 5K with Nikky, Leanne, Wendy, Stephenie, and I think I'm missing somebody.
What resort category are you going to stay at for this trip?

MaryAZ and Kathy (KatMark) decided today that her and Mark will be there at the same time. Not sure who else at this time, I'm thinking Jill maybe joining in as well (not sure about her disser name).

I am thinking a mod; most of the others are going deluxe but I cannot justify the cost. Not only that we are suppose to be going on a cruise in the spring and I know Danny will want to go to the beach during the summer. So, I don't think I will be splurging on this trip (we never do). Trying to decide on our dates, plan to book Friday so I need to really get this down.