The cha cha trip or Could there be LESS magic, the trip is not ruined yet...!

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

I was just reading a couple of PTRs and thinking... dammit, why can't I just come up with good titles for my posts?
I think I'll try to find good, funny, witty and most importantly, wonderfully fitting ones for my TR starting now!
If I have ideas now, I could just make them better on the trip, as adventures happen and anecdotes inspire me even more... But I know if I wait until writing time, I'll freeze under the pressure (and I don't mean the stress, really, but I just have so much trouble with concentration, word retrieving and such...).

...Because I can be really good at writing, it's one of the thing I was the best at before getting ill, and it kind of gets me mad, reading those very good titles for TR and posts, and those witty comments, and having my blah, dull stuff!

You know the silliest thing? I should just read a book by a funny, witty author... because I tend to be a writing chameleon! I realize after reading a certain style, I reproduce it...

Anyways... I've been tired lately, and written so much recently, so much happened, that I almost don't know what to write about.
Not that I've got nothing to say (come on! ), it's just I kind of lost my wind.
Don't know where to start.

I guess once I'll get going, there'll be no stopping me, as usual!

Well... I've almost finished my shirt DISigns! There are only 2-3 left (designs, not shirts). I'll still have to print and iron them afterwards... And I've never, ever, done that... Wish me luck!

Saldy though, I guess I now need to return all tank tops I bought to Walmart... I got one answer on the creative board, saying I should be allright with my fabric (by the way, I found the right translation... what I was looking for is "ribbed", not "ridged"...). I also found another post of someone who had made a transfer on that kind of fabric and it worked... But then I found 10 times more posts saying it would not work!!! So I'm not taking any chances, I paid too much for those tank tops and that transfer paper! (and I don't have that much time on my hands either!)
I'll just return all ribbed fabric tank tops and go to another store trying to find plain fabric ones...
When I was at the hairdresser yesterday I asked around, and I learned of 2 stores where I could find cheap tank tops... I'll go next week and hope they have some that fit.
Mama is going to buy hers on her own... I told her what to look for and she said she didn't care if she needed to pay more (she'll likely pay up to 20$ each), she prefered having a tank top that fitted her better... Sad thing is, I had to tell her how many tops she'd need to buy, and thus had to tell her I intended to make her one as a surprise (a mother's day top).

I also decided to get the number of DISigned tops down a little... If it all works really well and I have extra tank tops, maybe I'll do as much as originally intended (I have extra designs), but I realized I was going to have designed tops for almost every trip day... which would mean I wouldn't have any coordinated ensembles and/or couldn't wear tops I really like, most of the time... Not counting price!
I like designing, I like being creative... I also like the idea of having my own personalized tops and maybe make people talk because of them... But I still would like to look good (always the thought of "you'll look at those pix for a long time!"...

I also finished both my wheelchair signs.

I know have to do IDs and name tags (plus, now I have to do luggage tags and IDs to put in the luggage in case their lost and the luggage tags are removed! Oh, of course I could just print out the Air Canada ones that are downloadable... but where would the fun be?! )
And then, there'll be the CM thank you cards, the mousekeeping enveloppes, and the "business" cards.

Man, what am I doing? I should get going!

Yeah, I was at the hairdresser yesterday : Since I had all my hair shaved last June to raise money for juvenile cancer, I can't wait to get my hair to a respectable lenght and color... I hated my hair short.
Now it's getting somewhere... I was hoping for it to be a little longer for the trip, but it'll be OK. I'm going to the hairdresser once a month since August. At first, it was only to thin it out, because it was awful... like fake grass! It was months 'til I could do something with it. At first, I couldn't even put gel in it, I could've put the whole bottle, it wouldn't have shown.
And my natural hair color is really dull, no shine at all. But it was then too short to put color in it.
When it got long enough, I finally could color it, and I wanted to try as many colors as possible. It was then I learned no red hair color really fits me. It makes all the red in my face come out and I look like I have a fever or something. Not healthy red-cheeks, just ugly. So no red colors. No reddish-blond, no plum, no red. (I wanted to try all 3). I also had wanted to try blue for a long time, but I let it go too (there was just no time if I wanted to turn a good brown for the trip).
I tried many shades of blond, but always going darker, since I didn't like me being blond (it's not only me : others also said I'm better brown).
My hair may be dull, and red may not suit me, but I do have a lot of red in my original color. Whatever color the hairdresser gives me, there's always that red that comes out! That copper catchlight (is that the word?)...
I think yesterday was the 5th "darker" coloring. It was the 3rd time she was trying to get me brown. But the first time we almost got there. I'm not exactly at the color I want yet, but almost. Maybe next time (just a week before we leave!).
I'm going for a dark brown/auburn color.

After being "just a bunch of hair", I'm starting to get what looks like a haircut. Finally!!!
(Think Dorothy Hamil...)
At first I didn't want to cut anything because I wanted it to get longer... But I realized it was starting to look awful! So we're now cutting the back a little to make it more even with the rest and have it float over my shoulders : now it shows that I have hair back there! And the rest is slowly making it's way longer...
I often had long hair (down my back), but I also had short square cuts once in awhile... You couldn't imagine the joy and relief when I realized I could have something great looking between too-short hair and "being-able-to-make-a-ponytail" hair! Because in my mind, the relief would come when I would be able to attach my hair again... Not realizing the short square cut was something I had had before and liked!
But I'm not quite there yet and I don't think I will before we leave...
Still, the hair isn't looking bad either, the color will be waaaayyy better, I'm finally able to put hairclips and headbands in my hair, I can even work out some OK hairdo with gel... (and if I don't go out and nobody comes home, I can even put my hair up in pigtails!!! But I look like Shrek... But I don't care, it feels great to feel free from small hair in your face!)


I had bad news today... From all the new ADRs we wanted for our new days... only one was possible!
I wasn't suprised about Le Cellier being booked to capacity...
I didn't know what to expect from Coral reef either, although I didn't expect that as much.
But I was surprised about Garden grill! I had read many places that this restaurant could be a last minute choice (meaning : in park, same-day!), a walk-in! And I couldn't get it a month in advance?!
We could only get Spoodles! (well, at least we could get that one...)

Rhonda will continue calling for Le Cellier, Coral reef & Garden grill in the hopes of a cancellation around our preferred times... (but what are the odds?)
My job is to email her regularly so she doesn't forget to call...

As for Rainforest café, there is no ADR in DTD, so this is a good news. It was the one we wanted to go the most (well, the one that fitted our itinerary the best), and learning we won't need ADR for this one is really a relief!

I was also relieved to learn we shouldn've have any trouble getting into Boatwright for breakfast, as we wanted to go at least once (we learned they had something similar to tonga toasts! mmmm). And we wouldn't want an ADR for that!

I don't know if there would be availability, but I'm really wondering about 1900 Park Fare. As I told you, Mama had been disappointed when we didn't schedule this meal 5 months ago. The thing was, she had made me choose a limited number of character meals and I had learned there were Winnie the Pooh characters there too, and we were also doing Crystal Palace (and I prefered the whole Winnie gang at CP than a "half-and-half").

But when I talked to her about it yesterday, she didn't quite remember being sad about not going. She was quite overwhelmed about the idea of yet another ADR : "what? Another one??? Does it never end?!" (we didn't know at the time we didn't get any of the new ones except one), but yet, she didn't care about doing it or not.
She said she liked Mary Poppins, liked Alice even more. Didn't like the Mad hatter much though. She's not into Winnie and the others at all (CP is really just for me!). But if we'd be sure Bert & at least one penguin we'd be there... We'd try to book it in a heartbeat! First because she does like Bert and the penguins...
But mostly because I'm crazy for the penguins!!!
I love them in the movie, but I also seen some pix and they're so cute!!!

I've been spending hours on the boards this morning to look for clues as to where I could be sure to find the penguins... and it seems they show up wherever Mary Poppins is, never on their own... but altough she is always "there" (wherever that is), they aren't. There can be one, there can be 2, but it's a rarity and you can never be sure...
I read one place that Bert and the penguins are at 1900 Park Fare only on weekend breakfasts... But is that a sure thing? Is that only a rumor?
I wouldn't want to book that for nothing, and only to meet the penguins in UK in Epcot...
I mean, I'm not that crazy about an ADR for breakfast, and Mama's not looking crazy about that particular meal either, so unless there was a good reason for it...

Speaking about character breakfasts and ADRs... I'm so sad we didn't book any in MK before park opening! In fact, we decided against it! We didn't want any character meal breakfast, as they are the most noisy (we did Chef Mickey only because it was a "end with a bang" thing, last thing before leaving. And now we have it we keep it, because it looks fun to see all the characters and eat a good buffet breakfast). But no early breakfast ADR because we didn't want to get up super early and start the day tired...
But now it seems I'm reading about the advantages of doing that everywhere! Of having Main Street all to yourself, great photo ops, etc.
And now it's too late!
Plus, where would we go? We already go to CRT and CP! Is there really another place with early morning ADR in MK?


As a last word... What a bummer... my countdown calendar doesn't work anymore!!!
I made it so our last day was April 27th! I had super stickers for the drive down, with a special mickey sticker for the day we were leaving, a different sticker for the day we were still driving, and another super mickey sticker for the day we were finally arriving in Disney! Plus, I had made a special glittery decoration on the 28th for the last "1" countdown day... now, when we'll get to that day... it'll really be down to "3"... And at the "leave" mickey sticker day... we won't be leaving yet!
It's all messed up now! Argh!
Ok, no biggie, try to think of the 2 1/2 days added in Disney!!!

Lucky I could cange my siggie countdown...

 

[MRYPPNS]

I just wanted to say Hi and wish you a wonderful trip. I too like to plan the Perfect Itinerary...it may not always work out that way...but remember that just being in Disney World is Perfect!

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

First off,
Hi MRYPPNS! Glad you got out of lurkdom! And thanks for the reassuring comment!

This morning, as every morning, I changed the date in our wood block calendar...
In case you don't see what I mean :

And I realized we were the 29th... Which means we're exactly a month away!!!
Dad was at the dinner table, having breakfast, Mama was in the bathroom... I shrieked, and yelled the info. Dad looked at me like I was crazy (we had to explain it to him), Mama shrieked in excitement too, got out and we did a happy dance... and she got back in the bathroom. It was so funny!

Well, I think I spent about 6 hours working on Disney today... I could also say I spent almost all my time on that and it would be also true...
Woke up, ate beakfast, watched a DISNEY MOVIE WITH MAMA!!! (I know, it deserves caps! More on that later), then worked on the computer.

OT : that's something that bugs me... when I had a PC, I could write : worked on the PC, short for computer... Now that I've got a Mac, I can't do that anymore... I need to write computer! Because "worked on the Mac" doesn't seem to do it as "worked on the PC" did it... Why is that?. End of OT.

So, worked on Mac (we'll try that) on Disney matter for a while, until I ate lunch... Then went back to the studio to work on Disney stuff... on the Mac, until dinner. I was looking forward to dinner as much because I was hungry as because I was getting a headache and because my concentration level was seriously thinning...
After dinner... I went back to the studio and tried doing a little more... Couldn't do it for more than 1hr.
And now, what am I doing instead? Well... Disney stuff... on the laptop, of course!

Oh, but you see, there's a difference!
On the Mac, I'm working on either Photoshop, for DISigns; on Excel, for spreadsheets or on Word for whatever lists I have, and thus for planning... Or on PassPorter .pdf e-worksheets (more planning)... Or reading a Passporter .pdf e-book... usually taking info from there and entering it into one of the aforementioned document... On researching on the web.
Or I'm jumping from one to the other...
There's also online shopping... for something you need for the trip...
Which means, when I work on the computer in the studio, it's always mentally very tiring, because it's very active stuff, productive too, stuff important for the trip, that lets me check items off my to-do list...

As for when I'm doing Disney stuff on my laptop, not only am I sitting more comfortably in my bed (well... comfortably is relative... but at least my blood doesn't pool in my feet and I'm not freezing -the studio gets freezing cold... so my feet and hands... and nose... are always very, very cold! Don't forget my blood doesn't circulate very well, which doesn't help).
But on top of it, I'm only doing light research on the laptop. Mostly, I'm just reading PTRs or looking at the foodporn thread! I take notes if needed and that's about it. (oh, and writing my own PTR, of course! Which is the harder thing I do, but one of the most fun too!).

But still, these last days, and I gues it'll be like that until I leave... I've been doing Disney stuff, one way or the other, for almost all my waking moments!

So yes, today Mama and me watched a Disney movie! For the first time since before the holidays! We watched Sleeping Beauty. I think it had been more than 10 years since we had last watched it. I even wonder if we had watched it more than once after I got the VHS... We didn't remember much about it...

The most amazing thing happened... Mama said she wanted to watch more Disney movies before the trip, because she wanted to get her Disney knowledge up-to-date, like the princess names and such...
Hum... It's exactly what I'd told her we should do 6 months ago and she told me it was stupid. She'd even told me something like "there wasn't anything Disney-related in Disney" or something like that. Mostly meaning someone knowing nothing about Disney would have fun there. And of course, I'm sure she was right about that, or there wouldn't be that much people going there (I'm sure all Disney clients aren't all Disney nuts like us!). But I'm also sure you can have way more fun if you know the "insides", have more fun with a character if you know who he is and have a better interaction with him if you call him by his name, etc.
I know I'd be feeling awkward having a character coming up to me and not knowing who he was, not being able to call him by his name, etc.
I learned a character will give you a super reaction if you have his sticker/picture in your autograph book, just imagine the difference between being called by his name or not (or having the obvious "who is that one?" look!).

So, today, Mama had totally changed her mind on the movies/Disney knowledge side, like she has for many things about the trip, as we are getting closer...
I couldn't help but reminding her what she had said all those months ago... Of course she didn't remember (she rarely does when she contradicts herself... well who does?!)... but she said she must have been confused and must have thought the 3 non-MK parks had nothing to do with characters...
I must say, I'm pretty happy she's finally coming through and we're starting to get on the same line... She's not making me feel like I'm so silly anymore wanting to make shirt designs or thank you cards for CMs, to want to plan the trip as much, etc. She's getting more and more excited and the more she learns about Disney the more she realizes that what I did or want to do isn't that weird.

The thing that tells me the most Mama's truly excited about the trip is she's talking about it to complete strangers! (you know, dropping the line "we're going to Disney" when it fits in a conversation, instead of just talking about the weather).
She's really not one to talk about her life or plans to a store clerk or dental hygenist, but she's talking about the trip to them! And it gets her even more excited, because all she's hearing is that we'll have the time of our life, that we chose well (our resort, the time of year, whatever... no bad comments whatsoever). I'm real happy to see her excited and happy about this.
I don't think I've seen her that way, ever. Happy, yes. Excited, hum, maybe a little, before short trips. But never that happy and that excited that much.


...Next post... next stuff! (too long, I can't believe how long it is!)

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

I checked all my DISigns this afternoon...
On the shirt side, they're all done... except the mother's day ones. I have 2 designs to choose from. I'll need to choose and then look if I need to adapt it. I think I'll need to make one from scratch for Mama's though...
There's another one I have, to wear on the plane... I have the front but nothing for the back. I found something that could fit on the web, but it didn't click much with me... I don't know if I'll use it, create a new one or just leave the back blank.

On the mousekeeping enveloppes, I have all I need. It's all DISigns I found and will use like they are. Most of them I don't like very much, but I don't feel like starting from scratch or adapting all of them. I don't think I would have the time either... Maybe I'll change some if need though, but I don't think so.
I'll need to take some enveloppes and try to print them next, see if it fits (I think I'll have lots of fun with that...)

On the CM thank you cards (you know, general "thank you" business-style cards to hand out to any CM that's been particularly helpful), I have 3 single ones, that I'm not sure to use since I found 2 sheets of 10 different ones that I like pretty much and can adapt easily, adding our names and "May 2008". I can even add "Merci" to most of them. They're in Word format though, and not as easy to work with for printing. I'll check if I could modify the format...
I adapted one set already.

On the restaurants tip cards (We'll bill to the room -on the KTTW cards- or with a credit card, so we won't be leaving the tip in cash... so an "tip enveloppe" is no use... so we'll leave a card with the "thank you" on it and put it with the signed receipt), I found about 2/3 of what I need, and modified one or two of those I found... For the rest, I'll have to create them from scratch, and it won't be easy...
To find the images is really hard. To find the images and be able to use them in Photoshop is even harder! There may be a trick, but when I started trying, I was losing my concentration and my patience so I stopped.

I'd also like to make a thank you card for the Backstage magic tour... I'm not sure if I should make an enveloppe... do you tip your guide in such a tour? (I mean... we did pay 200$ each for this, do we tip on top??? ). Anyways, if we should tip, it'll be an enveloppe, not a card...

Oh, and I found tip enveloppes for DME... do we tip there? Or is it supposed to be thank you cards? I never tipped a shuttle driver?! Well, maybe I did... now I think about it, I don't really remember...

Speaking of DME... I've been looking around and the information I get is really contradictory...
Coming in from Canada, what are we supposed to do with our luggage, and will we get luggage tags or not?
One place I read we would get luggage tags (shipped to our home) and we should put those on our checked luggage before leaving.
One other place I read we wouldn't get luggage tags, and even if we wouldn't we must not put DME luggage tags on our luggage before leaving. Because if we did, DME would take our luggage from the carrousel at MCO... but without our luggage, we couldn't clear customs and leave MCO... so until DME would return us our luggage (meaning, retracing it all first...), we'd be stuck there!

Then : at MCO, we get our luggage at the carrousel, need to go through customs, and then either
-put on DME luggage tags, then meet with a Disney representative waiting for us (where? I don't know) to whom we give our luggage (I guess it's more probably : who tell us where to go leave our luggage)
or
-go ot the DME desk, retrieve DME luggage tags, put them on the luggage and give it to ??? / or go put it ??? (I don't quite remember that part of that version).

Once there, both versions agree :
We get on the DME bus to go to our resorts and our luggage do pretty much the same, but they arrive about 3hrs later than we do...

Now, is it just me, or if it's really the scenario, we'd be better of taking our luggage on the bus ourselves?!
I mean, if I'm right, we can bring all our luggage on board with us... And that's what we'll have to do on the trip back to the airport, so it mustn't be so bad...
Instead of messing around that much : taking our luggage to give it back again, why not taking it and carry it until we're at Disney?
Unless of course, if our room isn't ready (remember we should get there around 1pm), Disney cannot accomodate us, and unless putting our luggage "on hold" (don't know the translation) cost a fortune... Did anyone arrive early with their luggage before their room was ready? What did they do? What did it cost?
Because I really think I'd prefer that option...
The DME luggage thing really looks like too much fuss for international travellers... I mean, the fun of DME for the luggage is supposed to be not caring about your luggage, but we'll have to do it anyways, if I got it right! So to have to take care of our luggage, put tags on them, just to give the luggage back to DME, make sure there's a delay to get them and add a delay (because if we just take the luggage and clear customs, without adding the DME/luggage step, it saves us that time)... well unless it's a problem at the other end (the resort) it looks way better!


Next up : Photo matters...

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

The last thing I did today was pre-order the photopass CD. I'm guessing you all know that, but I'll say it anyways, just in case : with pre-ordering, I'm getting a 20% discount, so it's "only" 100$ . I intend on taking plenty of pictures myself, and Mama's going to get a crash course in picture taking and practice some before we leave, because of course she'll be the one taking the pictures of me with the characters...
But I'm taking the CD for 2 reasons 1)in case there are moments I don't have a camera ready (I'm sure I'll never forget it) 2)to be able to have picture with the both of us. (I know we could also ask CMs, and maybe we'll do that also).
Oh, and I'm not sure I'll buy a disposable water camera for the water park, but there is photopass there, so it's another reason. (yeah... I'll probably buy that too... But I'm realizing it's not on the list! )
It's basically a garantee. So much so that when we get back, I'll check the pix very carefully and if we don't have "enough" taken or if there are not good enough quality, I won't order it and will ask for a full refund (I would've never bought the pre-order if there wasn't that statisfaction garantee!). So now I feel like I'm really covered on the picture side.
Well, almost.
I've got a pro camera, but I'll also bring a smaller camera, non-pro digital one... My dads. It's not a wonderful camera, it's pretty slow (not good at all with movement or in dark situations), but very useful when you don't want to bring a big camera and are space limited! The problem is I'm lacking memory cards... I only have a 1G and a 256M (the one I bought for my dad with the camera). The 1G I bought a little later when I realized the other wasn't enough (I always was the one using it the most)... But those 2 cards together don't give me much more than 500pix at the highest resolution...
Alex (my best friend) says he could lend me a 2G for the trip, which could be enough, I guess. It's the thing : I don't know if it'll be enough! I know I can take a lot, and I do mean A LOT of pix in a couple hours, so imagine in a day. And then, imagine I don't have the time to download it all in the laptop at the end of the day and need to use the camera the next day... Would I be in trouble? Would it be worth it to invest 60$ and buy 2 more 2G?

Of course I won't be there to take pictures, but to live a dream. I will be busy looking around me and taking it all in, not taking pix. But at the same time, I know how I am, and I know I like taking those pix and looking through the objective, and I like knowing I'll be able to look at those things for the rest of my life... and scrapbook them... and show them to all my loved ones, etc.
And I also take a lot of pix because I rarely take only one of each thing, place, situation : I take between 2-5 because that's how a pro photograph works : you take a lot and choose the best one!
Of course, deleting the worst ones is something you can do while waiting in line... But hey, it does take space on a memory card until you can do it and you never can delete all you need from just looking at the small screen...

I've also got my pro camera. My regular lens just got cleaned, which is perfect. I've got enough memory (I just calculated I've got memory cards for about 5000 pix at the best resolution... but of course I'm sure I'll need to put some on the laptop, and then some from the laptop on the web or on CDs!). But I can do at least a day, maybe 2 (maybe even more! It'll depend on what we do and where we go. I'm sure a day in the Epcot gardens, the AK paths or the Spectromagic parade will take much more space than any other place!)
I'm still wondering what I'll do about the other lenses... See, if you remember, I bought a special camera bag a couple months ago... It's just perfect for all my 3 lenses, the camera body, my dad's digital camera, all the memory cards and the second battery. I'd even have a little space for some documents, a little wallet, my iPod, etc. It looks like a backpack. But I don't think I'll be able to bring it on the plane. First of all, I'm not even sure it would fit the size requirement for a carry-on (and there's no way I'd check that! Even if we wouldn't need the space for other luggage). But also, we'll need the space in our carry-ons for other things! We just can't sacrifice one carry-on for that.
So I guess I won't be able to bring my whole kit... We bought this bag mostly for the trip, and won't be able to bring it! (luckily, we didn't buy it just for the trip!!!). I guess it'll be the small camera bag (just for the camera body and regular lens attached to it, plus 2nd battery and memory cards), which Mama will have the right to carry. In fact, we're lucky, because we have the right, on the plane, to each have one carry-on bag, our purse, a coat (won't take space in our bags!) and either a laptop or camera bag... So unless my camera backpack fits the size and weight requirement (wich would surprise me...), Mama will carry my small camera bag and I'll carry the laptop. At least we won't have to put it in one of our carry-ons, where it would've taken so much space! Only thing, I think I'll bring my macro lens in my carry-on, because it really makes a difference for flower pictures, and I can't go to the Flower & Garden festival without doing the best flower pix I can!
...And that's why I wanted to bring all my lenses... I wanted to also bring my zoom, so I would catch the best pix possible of the animals in AK... But unless I can bring the special bag, there's no way. Well, maybe there is, I could fit the lens separatly in a checked luggage, but it could get it overweight... But mainly, getting the lens in the park without the special bag wouldn't be easy, since it's really heavy and I would be worried about having it stolen or broken.
...Maybe it'll be better not bringing it after all. It would've been for just one day, 2 max, and I would've had a hard time carrying it around (it's really, really big).

So that's the dilemma today. Memory cards for the small digital and lens for the pro.
I must say I'm pretty disappointed, as Alex had told me he could lend me "some" memory cards when I asked him a couple months ago (like, more than 2), and now he's talking about only one...

I hate to borrow things, and on top of that memory card, we may need to borrow suitcases. See, since we are allowed only 2 checked luggage, and the maximum capacity is 2 big suitcases, we will play the system : even if we don't need that big suitcases for the trip down, we will use that, so 4 big suitcases total. We'll pack them evenly, of course, maybe putting our pharmacy bag in one of them instead of packing it separatly like we would've done driving... (that way, our shampoo bottle won't be rolling from one way to the other, etc. And it'll be easier to have our stuff in something we can move around in the room). But on the way back, we'll have plenty of space for gifts and souvenirs and shouldn't need to pay for an extra luggage.
Only trouble is, it has been so long since anybody exept me travelled in this family, we don't have any big suitcases! I have 1 suitcases set, thus including a big one. My grandma gave us a big suitcase a couple of months ago, so it makes 2. And that's it.
I asked Sophie (my other best friend), but even if she and her family travel by plane about once a year, they only have one suitcase (they, too, borrow what they need when they fly!). She'd be happy to lend it to me if I want it... But right now, we don't want to borrow from 2 people, so we're putting that one on hold until we see...
I asked Alex, and he doesn't have any suitcases either... his last trips were all backpacks or sportbags type, so no luck there either.
Mama wants to ask her ex co-worker/friend (not ex-friend!), who travels a whole lot (both for work and for leisure), but I personally would prefer buying a kit. I saw one for 100$ at Walmart, it was blue (my favorite color!), which is easier to spot on the caroussel than the traditionnal black, didn't look/feel too cheap, and most importantly, in the 6 pieces, 2 were almost the same size, which was the "big suitcase" size we're looking for. And they had rollerblades wheels!
I mean, borrowing is OK, and it would be a 100$ economy... But we're looking for other trips together in our future (NY, Québec City again, maybe Toronto, hoping to cross the country... all by train... those all require proper luggage... Plus we'll need suitcases again when we return to Disney in 4 years!) And my other luggage kit isn't getting any younger! Mama said she'd prefer buying the kit we saw at Costco (your Sams Club), because it would probably be better quality... It's true... But the Costo one didn't have 2 big suitcases... Didn't have 6 pieces and cost a little more...

So.. that's where we're at for today!

But... we're getting somewhere!

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

OK, I had to make a post just for that :

Look at my ticker!!!

LOOK!

Did you look?

It changed!

It's not months anymore!
It's days!!!

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

3 seconds ago I was doing the happy dance...


Now I'm panicking big time!!!

Will I still have hair to grow in 30 days?

 

[swwake]

Hi Annie-Danielle - looks like you've been very busy! Lots of fun.

Glad that Mom is starting to get excited. I think it happens when you get close.

Congrats on the 30-day mark!

I had a couple of ideas - not to throw much more at you. And these are just my opinions, so, as always, you can take them or leave them.

Tips and TY cards - I am not sure about Canadian custom, but American custom on tips is: You tip when you receive exceptional service. That's the general policy. However, with restaurants, you should always tip if the server did his/her job, because they aren't paid minimum wage, so tips are a large percentage of their compensation. If you feel a server went above and beyond, you tip 20% or more. Just standard is about 15%. Our family typically tips 20% for standard service and 25 or more if they are exceptional.

Mousekeeping - I travel alot and I have noticed that if I tip a little on the 2nd day (after the first night's sleep), the housekeeping seems to be better. But nobody ever said that tipping housekeeping is mandatory. Again, if they go above and beyond.... These people get paid at least minimum wage, so it's not like dining servers.

Drivers, etc - I tend to tip cab drivers and shuttles 10-20% of the cost of the fare. If the fare is free, (e.g. DME), you might tip if you feel his/her service was above-and-beyond, but it is not mandatory whatsoever.

Bellmen, valets, etc. - Tip $1 per bag or suitcase. That is the general rule, and I don't see many people deviate from that. Regardless of whether they are paid minimum wage, I always tip these folks. They will remember you and will be ready at your whim the next time.

Keep in mind that many other countries don't have the tipping etiquette that we do, so they may not tip in various situations like Americans would. Not because they are ungrateful or rude, but they just don't know. I would imagine that the CMs are used to this and think no worse of them than they would otherwise. So, I guess I'm saying, if you miss a tip here or there, it's not a horrible thing you should stress about.

I think you shouldn't get too stressed out over the TY cards and mousekeeping envelopes, etc. They are nice gestures and if you're having fun putting them together as part of planning your trip, then by all means do them, because it's part of the "vibe" for you. But the CMs will not miss them if you don't have/use them.

Your luggage and customs - I bet that there will be information with your travel documents that tells you exactly what to do. Can your agent at DU answer your questions? I would imagine Disney makes it as easy as possible for foreign travelers. They want you on property and in the parks as soon as they can get you there.

What airline are you flying? You should check, because you might be able to use early check in at your resort lobby on your last day. You then just send your luggage ahead and you don't see it until you get off the plane back at home.

Also, your question about storing your luggage at the resort if you get there and your room isn't ready. Every hotel has a bellman service who will store your luggage in a secure location. They give you claim checks for each piece. There is no fee for this storage, but you should tip $1 per bag on the way out. You can also tip on the way in (I do), and feel confident that they will take good care of your stuff.

One other idea - have you thought about having your luggage shipped and just taking your carryon bags? I have heard that alot of people are starting to do this. Not sure any of the details, and I'm sure it's not for everyone.

I'm glad to see you having so much fun planning this trip.

 

[michellem1118]

I'm not entirely sure about this, but if your large camera backpack is like the ones I've seen in camera shops around here, it probably does meet the carry-on requirements. What airline are you flying, and what bag is it? You should be able to check the airline website for carry-on dimensions, and then the bag manufacturer website to get the dimensions of the bag. But I'm nearly positive that even a large camera bag/backpack isn't bigger than the carry-on luggage I typically carry on to a plane with me (22" tall, 12" wide, 6" deep or so).

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

Hey ladies!
Here are some answers to... yours!

I'll try to be methodical... Your own answers in black (shortened some), I keep my blue... (easier for me in this situation than the block quotes)

Tips and TY cards - We tip exactly the same as you do. Now come on! Canada isn't that far! I mean, who except customs considers Canada/USA to be "foreign" countries?! Not the same country, true. But foreign???

Oh, and by the way... most of the time we'll use the DDE card, which will put a 18% gratuity on our bill... so we won't have a choice on the %.

Mousekeeping - I've read a lot on that matter on the boards. We know tipping housekeeping isn't mandatory and unlike "real foreign countries" , those people are paid correctly in Disney. But we still feel like we should tip. And decided to tip the average 1$/person/night.
We also decided it would be best to pay each day instead of all at the end, after learning the mousekeepers change often, so if we'd leave all the money the last day, then maybe all wouldn't be rewarded (well, maybe the one getting the enveloppe would split it with the others, but... I wouldn't count on it, especially since maybe they don't know who does what!).
I even intend to try and find some Québec itsy bitsy stuff (like stickers, pins, erasers, etc.), to put in the enveloppes... I've heard some DISers do that, and I felt it would be really fun. If I was a mousekeeper, I'd really like to get little souvenirs from all over the world! I won't invest in that, KWIM, but if I find some at the dollar store (maybe they'll get some out, since the Québec holiday is now about 2 months away), I'll buy a couple.
Also, as I've said before, I'd like to put in little info cards about CFS and EDS, even though I guess they don't care too much about those... But I always try to do my best to raise awareness and inform.

Drivers, etc - I tend to tip cab drivers and shuttles 10-20% of the cost of the fare. If the fare is free, (e.g. DME), you might tip if you feel his/her service was above-and-beyond, but it is not mandatory whatsoever.
Thanks for the info! I do the same as you for cabs, but as I never took the DME service, I was really wondering...

Bellmen, valets, etc. - I knew that one! But thanks anyways!

Keep in mind that many other countries don't have the tipping etiquette that we do (...) So, I guess I'm saying, if you miss a tip here or there, it's not a horrible thing you should stress about.
Yeah, you're right! Thanks! I'll be less stressed about not knowing if I should tip or feel bad if I didn't tip somewhere (either I didn't know I should've or forgot)... I'll hope the worker just thinks I was a stranger from a place where "we don't tip for that service"!

I think you shouldn't get too stressed out over the TY cards and mousekeeping envelopes, etc. They are nice gestures and if you're having fun putting them together as part of planning your trip, then by all means do them, because it's part of the "vibe" for you. But the CMs will not miss them if you don't have/use them.
Oh, it's really not a stress at all!
I never thought about those as something a CM would think like something he deserves and would be waiting for, but more as a bonus I'd be giving, a thoughtful gesture (you know, a way to... how to say it... "underline the "thank you" said verbally"...), especially when you don't give tip physically! But mostly, it's something fun to do!

Your luggage and customs - I bet that there will be information with your travel documents that tells you exactly what to do.
The thing is, I'm not sure we will receive any travel documents at all!!! For the time being, I've got no indication I should receive anything. My plane tickets are all virtual (will print them) and I read all the information I had available.

Can your agent at DU answer your questions?
I'm pretty sure she will... but we're on the weekend, so I didn't ask her yet. It was my next step. (But isn't a PTR the place where you write your thoughts and angst as it happens?).

What airline are you flying? You should check, because you might be able to use early check in at your resort lobby on your last day. You then just send your luggage ahead and you don't see it until you get off the plane back at home.
I'm flying with AirCanada. I would be really surprised about in-resort early check-in , because I've read many places (including DME/Disney information website) that international travellers couldn't do that... But I'll check again... It would really be the best!

Every hotel has a bellman service who will store your luggage in a secure location. They give you claim checks for each piece. There is no fee for this storage, but you should tip $1 per bag on the way out. You can also tip on the way in (I do), and feel confident that they will take good care of your stuff.
Good! I had done it in the Bahamas and in other places, but policies differ so much from place to place that I wanted to make sure! Thanks!

One other idea - have you thought about having your luggage shipped and just taking your carryon bags? I have heard that alot of people are starting to do this. Not sure any of the details, and I'm sure it's not for everyone.
Shipped? SHIPPED??? Oh, girl, you really have no idea of the shipping cost across the border do you? Lets just say... NO WAY JOSE!

I'm not entirely sure about this, but if your large camera backpack is like the ones I've seen in camera shops around here, it probably does meet the carry-on requirements.
Oh, I never said it wouldn't fit the carry-ons size requirements! I said maybe it wouldn't fit the "other on-board luggage" size requirement (they call it "personal article")...
See, we can bring, on-board, a "standard article" (which we usually call the carry-on), which is "regular size" carry-on (9"x15.5"x21.5").
But we can also bring a "personal article" : a laptop, a camera bag or a diaper bag. This 2nd "carry-on" bag size requirement is really much smaller. It's 6" x 13" x 17". (neither carry-ons can't weight more than 22lbs).
I also said we didn't want to sacrifice our "regular" carry-on allowance for my camera bag (meaning, we want to bring 2 regular carry-on bags excluding this camera bag)... we'll only bring it if it can count as Mama's "personal article", as the laptop will count as mine (or vice-versa). I didn't have time to measure the camera bag today, so I still don't know if it could do... (I can't rely on the manufacturer's online measurements, because it's not the same once there's equipment in it!)... but I would also need to weight it... It is indeed a heavy bag!

Thanks a lot for the answers, ideas and suggestions!

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

What can you do, I love the Beatles!

I woke up early, but had trouble getting up. I couldn't go back to sleep, but would've stayed in bed. I felt like a mess.

I was weak, white as a ghost. Hard time getting dressed, washing my teeth, hard time standing up without fainting... that kind of day.

I wondered if I wouldn't just have to go back to bed, if it'd be one of those bed days... But I was able to get through it.

I was able to get in the studio, and work on the computer.
Went through all my Passporter .pdf files, and all those I wanted completed or worked on before leaving are done, or almost. There is the one where you fill the credit card, passport, driver's license numbers in case you lose any, that I need to do.
I filled the "daily park" one (where you indicate park hours, what park you go to each day, ADRs you have, other meal ideas, special events, etc.).
Re-worked the park hours one too (I had filled it for April 30th to May 13th, so I had to add another copy -not enough days in only one- and do it all over).
I did my own version of "vacation at-a-glance" on Excel, inspiring myself from the Passporter's .pdf version. First, I want to give it to my dad, Sophie and Alex, and all are french, and even though all 3 speak english, I didn't like the idea of giving them an english document. But mainly, the document was made for a 7 days vacation, not 18 days... And it wasn't like I wanted it... So I made my own version.

The next step is printing all the Passporter's worksheets and other documents I'll need for the trip, putting all of them on my iPaq (PDA), creating my .MAC account (or should I say, paying to upgrade the free trial I now have) to put them on it and finally, skimming through the ebooks to retrieve all the bits of information and tips to put all this in my Word info files. (I tried using the "my favorite tips" Passporter .pdf e-worksheet, but I really don't like it.

My "Disney work day" was cut in half because my uncle, my aunt and my grandma came to visit. It's something that never happen. Really!
My uncle and aunt come about twice a year and almost never stay : my uncle has a jeep and he stores his hard top here during the summer (we have a big storage shed here... we have many RVs and boats in there during the winter, well in one half... the other half is for ULMs -for those not knowing, ULMs are small planes...- before the RVs and boats, the other half was to store chips : Hostess/Frito-Lay was renting it! We had vans here every morning and trucks all day long... Planes and chips... Yep, I grew up in a weird place! All my stuff from when I lived in the city is stored in there too...)
So my uncle and aunt come twice a year, at the end of spring to remove the hard top and store it here, and at the end of summer to put the hard top back on the jeep... They rarely stay for more than an hour. We sometimes see each other at other times, but it's not usually here : we go over at their house, or see them at my godfather's house.
And never did they bring grandma!
I don't know what went through my uncle's head, maybe he wanted to try my aunt's new car, but he asked grandma if she wanted to go for a ride somewhere in particular, and of course she said no... and he offered her to call Mama and ask if they could come visit. And of course, why would we say no? I wasn't feeling well, the house wasn't cleaned, but hey...
*I must note we live about 1 hour drive away from them, they all live in the city.

We did some fast cleaning, my parents did the grocery earlier than what they wanted, I changed clothes and did my hair...

So they spent the afternoon here, grandma was super happy and that's the important part.

But now I'm totally pooped and I have a monstruous headache!!!

At one time, I was going crazy... Grandma, my aunt, Mama and my dad were all talking at the same time, all having one conversation, on one side of the table, and on the other side, me and my uncle we're talking about something else... (the worst thing is, he was talking to me about his new computer, something I'm glad to talk about usually, but the others were talking about our trip!!! It was making me mad not being able to talk about it with the others!!! ).
I was having such a hard time concentrating on what my uncle was saying!!! I already have problems with concentration, with all the others talking just beside me, and I could see their mouths moving and their hand gestures in the corner of my eyes, I was trying to read my uncle's lips and to concentrate as hard as I could... on top of it he was getting technical... I lost half of what he was saying... I was so tired!
The funniest part is, he's deaf! (really! He's got an hearing aid! And he's got the same problem, with often having trouble following a conversation when too many people talk at the same time)... so when I tried telling him I was sorry, but couldn't follow him... He didn't understand!!!

I like my uncle and aunt very much, but I must tell you it's pretty tiring when we see them and often a little frustrating, because they talk a lot (and loud!) but don't listen much... And it's not only because my uncle is deaf... My aunt is the worst. She can litterally cut you off and start with her own story!

Anyways... so I finished my Disney stuff after they left, we had dinner, and here I am... And you know what? Even though it's only 9pm, I think I'm going to bed... I just can't do it anymore...

Night night!

 

[swwake]

Hi Annie-Danielle. I hope you got a good night's rest last night.

I was going to comment about the photo dilemmas. I forgot to mention these yesterday.

Photopass - Have you seen the photopass sharing threads? Basically, you get in with a group and you all split the cost somehow. Not sure exactly how it works, but you could search the boards and find the threads on here somewhere. I won't be doing this because I feel like it's sort of cheating Disney, but everyone has a right to their own feelings, and if you're on a budget, it will be helpful to you.

Also, I read that you can ask the Photopass photographers to take pics with your personal camera. Apparently it's common and ok to do this.

Also, for the times you want pics with you and your mom, I have found in the past that people are generally friendly and almost anyone you ask would gladly stop for a couple of minutes to take a pic of you with your camera. So keep that in mind!

Have a great day!

 

[michellem1118]

Just a quick thought about your travel documents and such: make sure your TA has set up your transfers with DME - they're free, of course, but they have to know you're coming! Once that's all set up, you should get travel documents for DME once you arrive at MCO.

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

Hey gang...

Well, if I had a hard-day's night, I hadn't seen nothing yet!
I should have thought... Those kind of days never come alone...

So today was an awful day. I didn't have a good night's sleep, Swwake, nope...
Woke up often with that still huge headache, with a bonus : nausea.
Aaahhh, so it was a migraine on top of the rest?! (I guess so, no way to be sure, since I have headaches 24/7).
I couldn't get up early this morning, even though I continued to wake up often. Just rolled to the other side and tried to get back to sleep, to forget the pain and nausea.
Then all Disney planing, DISign and other stuff ideas tried to climb into my head, but I did my best to push them back because I really preferred going back to sleep! I knew I couldn't go to the computer anyways...

When I finally got up... not able to eat a thing. It was a "Boost" shake to swallow my pills and nothing else. And then back into bed... I tried going into the studio... Looked at my emails a little, but after, pff, maybe 5 minutes, the headache got worst along with the nausea and I started feeling light headed... Didn't want a pressure drop and to faint, so I got back up in my room.
Thank god for that laptop! (and the DIS).

I looked around the photography board for some tips on what lens to use and what settings I should use on the trip (I hope I'll get at least some Wishes pix at least half as good as some I've seen on these boards! I don't want to look at too many because I don't want to spoil the surprise, same thing as TRs with pix, but I had to look at a couple to learn what settings worked what way and to decide what I preferred, and I was amazed!).
It answered a couple of questions I had, and some dilemmas too. It also made me change my mind on some decisions I thought I had made!

For example, after some measuring, we now know we'll be able to bring the camera bag as a 2nd on-board bag (the "personal item"). So I'll bring all my lenses. The kit lens (18-70mm, for those who care), my zoom (up to 200mm- mostly for AK : I loooove animals! So I'm hoping for some good animal shots with that one) and my macro lens (for flowers. I'm not going to the Flower & Garden festival without my macro lens!).
We'll also bring my dad's digital point-and-shoot, that didn't change... But either it'll be the one Mama uses to take the pix of me with the characters if she's not able to be at ease with the pro Nikon and/or we'll use it for the food pix (so we won't bring as much attention to ourselves... because Mama feels a little shy about that!).
See, at first I thought about using the pro camera only on some special occasions (like one AK day, with the zoom lens, for the animal pix... one Epcot day with the macro lens, for the flowers... one MK night, for Wishes...), and use my dad's the rest of the time, so we wouldn't have to carry the bigger camera around.

Mostly, it was because I didn't know how to carry it around and how Disney handled that (different policies, etc.), but also because I didn't know how I would look/feel carrying that big thing around in the parks.
Then I read the photo board and I realized I didn't want bad pix!... My dad's PnS is not a bad camera, but if there's movement, but it's real fussy : if there's an object or someone (or someone's part) that comes in the shot, it gets blurry... and it's awful in low-light (don't even think of night shots).
You just can't compare.
Plus, I realized many people seemed to be carrying their big pro cameras in the parks, many even with their big zooms, or with tripods, so I wouldn't look weird at all!

The only problem will be the hassle of carrying it around. But I've got the "luck" of being in the w/c, so I'll be able to just lay it on my lap...

I learned we could always have a bag on the rides, and even have the camera in our hands or around our necks! And in the rides where we can't really do that (thrill/water rides), Mama won't ride with me, so she'll be able to take the camera for me!

I'm hoping she'll be able to use the pro camera though (and will do all I can for that), because the pix will be much better with that one... but I prefer she uses my dad's (as I've said, for example to take a pix of me and characters) than make people angry by taking too much time, than taking awful pix with the pro one (for ex. because she won't have been able to understand it) or worst, than having her stressed out and miserable because she's worried about messing up the camera or the picture and thus also taking too much time!

We may also decide to take the food pix with the pro camera and the macro lens... I guess it would be the best, it'll all depend on how we feel in the restaurants by using the big camera over the small digital (and how the small digital food pix turn out!).

The last thing the photo-board helped me decided (not directly but it still did) is : most of the time, I don't think we'll bring a camera bag in the park. I think I'll bring my small camera bag in a suitcase if I have the space, in case I need it, but I don't plan on using it... especially since it can only hold my camera body and the regular lens (or the macro). It can't hold a 2nd lens, nor the zoom. So I'll just wear the camera around my neck with the lens cover when I don't use it.

And if I plan on using a 2nd lens that particular day, I'll put it in our backpack with both end-lens covers, but not in it's padded case (too much space!). Of course, we'll try to put as much "padding" around it as possible.
I'm waiting for answers on the photo board about that, because I could also bring the padded case if needed (wish I won't need to!).
The big change was, we bought 2 baggalinis, a sling bag and a string bag, thinking we wouldn't carry a backpack into the parks. Especially thinking about security searches (less pockets!). But if I need to bring an extra lens, padded case or not, we definitly need a backpack. And I don't want to bring the whole camera bag just for one lens! It would mean bringing a second bag instead of a bigger one... Would mean having the stress of more stuff to have stolen... I think we'll bring the Baggalinis for days where we don't want to bring as much stuff and when I don't need the 2nd lens, and use the backpack (which will be my plane carry-on) for the other times.

It's clear to me : I won't be there to take pictures, I'll be there to live a dream! But of course, photography is a passion of mine, so I want to take pictures and I want them to be the best they can! One idea I got is not to focus on picture-taking the first time we go to a park or do something (as long as we plan on doing it again). Of course we'll always bring the camera, we won't take the chance of missing a super photo-op!
But let's say I know I can take the best animal shots in AK with my zoom (which is a huge and heavy lens). I won't bring that lens on our first AK day and won't try to get animal shots in that first day. Of course, if I get a super opportunity, I'll take the pic, but the idea is not to focus on that. I'll just use the regular lens. Then, on either the 2nd or 3rd day we're going to AK, I'll bring the zoom and focus a little more on picture-taking. Not entirely focus on that, but a little more.
Of course, if there is a thing we think on doing only once (like maybe some shows) I'll take more pix, but you KWIM.
We have the luck of being there long enough to go and see many things more than once, so I'll take the time to experience first and photograph on the 2nd time.
Another example : if we're lucky enough to do as planned, we should see Wishes about 4-5 times, including twice from a resort beach (Poly and GF)... I wouldn't want to spend my first Wishes experience photographing! Nor my last... But some of the between times will be perfect! I should be able to both perfectly experience my trip, enjoy my passion and bring back wonderful memories!

After all that photo-board reading and note-taking, I had lunch... I was able to take a Cup-a-Soup... (I know!).

And back to bed again...

Finished skimming the photo board and went back to the foodporn thread... Which help me a lot for dinner! I was able to eat a normal meal. But I'm not feeling better.
So I'm back in bed, again. My back hurts a whole lot, but I can't tolerate any other position than sitting with my legs up...

Oh, about Photopass : I know about the sharing... Not a fan either. Not only because it's kind of cheating... But I don't feel much at ease about doing business with complete strangers. I mean, when you've spent some time sharing stories on the boards, you don't feel like strangers anymore, you even can develop friendships on the DIS. But on those photopass sharing boards, you don't really have the time for that, you share with who goes at the same time you are, not whom you like the personality...

I also knew about the possibility of handing out your camera to the photopass-CM. (or to complete and nice strangers). We shouldn't need to do it too often, since Mama hates being in pictures... I'll need to convince her it's be important to have memories together of our dream trip...
I must say, I was pretty happy when I learned the photopass-CMs are using the same camera I am! Not only did it mean I'd get good pix if I asked them to use it (they know how it works!), but it meant I'm using a good one too!

The plan for the photopass really is to look at what we have on the account once we get home and decide if it's worth 100$. Are there pix on there that we don't have? Are they good quality? (not too worried about that, but it's always possible there was a glitch). Did we take enough (only 10 vs. at least 75)? Are those pix we don't have elsewhere pix we'd be sad not keeping?
If the answers are yes, we'll order the CD. And I keep in mind that I can add some neat special effects to these pix. Of course I have photoshop and could do almost the same at home, but it's not really the same...

As for my travel agent, she does know we're flying now and that we intend on taking DME. In fact, we didn't book our flights until she told us there was still time for her to make the ressie for DME!
And after we booked our flights and I gave her the flight #, she told me she had added the DME info to our ressies. So it's done.

...But what I'm not sure I get from your post is this :"you should get travel documents for DME once you arrive at MCO." Do you mean you think we'd get those documents only once at MCO, once we go to the DME desk?
In that case, it wouldn't help us at all, since the question is about what happens between getting off the plane and going to that DME desk... And we're now pretty sure about that... We think we'll have to take our luggage (from the caroussel) and go through customs... and to get our luggage to our resort through DME, we should then hand our luggage to DME agents... Which would be like checking our luggage a 2nd time! Only to have a delay in getting them!
If we can get in the DME shuttle with our luggage (after clearing customs with them), we'd go that way of course! I mean, we'd already have our luggage in hand... why put them away?! Especially if it's only about 10$ tip to put them away at bell service if our room isn't ready yet!

If the DME documents are only given at the DME desk in MCO, then it would explain why I didn't hear about receiving those documents...

And of course, since I have been bedridden all day, I couldn't contact Rhonda about this question...
...I also needed to call the place where I bought my wheelchair, to order a special ergonomic mat so the chair will be more comfortable for long days... but I couldn't do that either...

Mama's been carrying a flu around for weeks and now dad's catching it too... Mama's being careful, but dad never is... He's not getting the fact that my immune system is weak and that he could help by being careful... So I just really hope I won't catch it too... I'm already not feeling good!

Such a non-productive day! I really don't need those kind of days!
I need to go back to Walmart this week (and go to those 2 stores where I could maybe find good iron-on tank tops)... I also need to go to the dollar store...
Plus, me and Mama need to go to Costco...
We need to soon go shopping for bathing suits... (we wanted to wait the latest possible until the trip so the sizes would be our real sizes at the time of the trip... in case we lost or gained weight!)
If I can't go out this week, when will we be able to get it all done? How will we manage?

Ugh. I hate being sick.

 

[swwake]

Annie-Danielle - are you feeling better today?

 

[michellem1118]

Hope you're feeling a bit better today!

And oops, I misspoke (or rather, mis-typed) in that other post. You should receive DME documents ~3 weeks before the trip, with instructions for what to do when you arrive at MCO. You might have to claim your luggage, clear customs, and then drop it off with DME CMs, for example. Your documents should give you all those details. Your TA can answer those questions for you, when you're feeling well enough to call her.

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

...Because It's April 1st... April fools day... But most importantly : We're leaving THIS VERY MONTH!!!

Well I'm indeed feeling better, thank you very much for caring, it does mean a lot!
...But not feeling quite well enough to jump off the bed to change the calendar page right this minute! Oh, I felt like it when I noticed it... but... I'll finish the post instead!

Yep, feeling better. Aaaahhh, relief. Could leave the bed today. Could even work some on the computer! More than I would've thought... (more than I should've in fact... when I come back from such a bad day, it's never a good idea to go back in "full mode" in just one step... It usually means I just go back to "bedridden" mode...).

-Did luggage IDs (to put inside the luggage) for both me and Mama... it would've been real quick, except I insisted on making them Disney, and by all means I chose the hard and long way : I put small icons of many characters in a line to separate the "at home" info from the "on vacation" info... Plus, I of course wanted the characters to be in a logical order... no 2 princess side by side, the mice beside Cinderella, Mickey on one end, etc. In photoshop it meant all icon had to be managed individually (because I didn't think about creating it first and saving it as a separate entity)... So if the line was too much on the left, I had to click on one icon, move it a little, click on the next icon, move it a little too, etc. I do love the final result! I'll try to remember to put it here someday... (always the same thing : when I'll have paid the .Mac account thing!)

-I decided to hand-make the luggage and wheelchair tags... if I'm able to find lgmh paint chips at Home Depot!...
I should really go this week!
I could write the info in the lgmh and attach it to the luggage (and put it in my w/c pocket), and attach a 2nd lgmh without any info on all luggage too (and the w/c), and the lgmh would be a very good way to help us recongize our luggage on the carousels! I mean, there is always a chance other DISers would have done the same thing and have luggage on the carousel at the same time, but it's slim... and the chance that their luggage would look the same are close to none.
If I can't find lgmh at Home Depot, I think I'll try to make my own... (I have lgmh clipart) but they won't be as resistent...

-I also began to put info together on one PassPorter .pdf worksheet (flight numbers, hotel ressie #, credit card #). We're also going to have photocopies of most info, but not all, so I'll also use this sheet.

-And I did my "business cards". They are pretty much alike. One is for DISers I could meet, with my username and email, and the other is in case I meet someone interesting but not DISer (ok girls, stop giggling, I don't necessarily mean a guy!) or to give a CM (I'm thinking for example in the event of a lost item, in the hopes of getting it mailed back), so it has both email and home address.
Is it a good idea to put the home address on there? I mean, of course I won't be going out handing these cards to everyone/anyone! I wouldn't even do that with just the email on it! But I guess some people prefer to write, or someone could want to send something... (No, I don't know what exactly except from a postcard). But I know last 2 times I went on a trip I gave my home address, once it did nothing, second time I received a postcard (very nice old lady!).
Or maybe I should just put the email and write the home address only if there's a need for it (like in that case of a CM and lost item I was thinking about when I put it there).
Whaddaya think?

I also contacted Rhonda from DU!!!
Of course, I also emailed her because I'm supposed to remind her regularly about the ADRs she's trying to get us at Le Cellier, Coral reef and Garden grill... And, sadly, still no luck.

I asked her about the penguins at 1900 Park Fare... She took the time to call Disney about that, and they can't tell when or if they'll be there... She does think, as I've read on the boards, that the penguins tend to be at the weekend breakfasts... Sadly, no weekend mornings (we have 2 saturdays and 2 sundays in WDW) would really fit for a character breakfast (assuming there would be availability!...).
On Saturday May 3rd, it's our first AK day (full day!). It opens at 9am and we already have an ADR at Tusker House for lunch (11h30). We also have an ADR at Spoodles for dinner... Not only would adding the 1900 PF breakfast would be way too much ADRs in one day, but it would cut short our AK day... The only way it wouldn't would be making it real early, and since we intend on staying late at Epcot the previous evening... Not good.
On Sunday May 4th, we intend on being at AK for rope drop... Now, we could manage early 1900PF breakfast or forget about rope drop... But the biggest problem is, the characters there include Winnie the Pooh characters and our dinner that night is at... Crystal Palace! So... forget it!
Saturday May 10th... This would be the only opportunity... We planned on going at MK in the morning-early afternoon, and on not hitting the parks early, since we'll be at the P&PP the previous evening... Maybe we'll even decide on no park at all that day! So it's sure there could be no early breakfast... So it could be OK... if we didn't already have 2 ADRs in the evening : La Nouba at 6pm and Portobello Yachtclub afterwards... I mean, do we really want to go so bad? I'm not sure...
And of course, Sunday May 11th is... shhhh, Mother's day brunch!

About that brunch... it's so hard! All my planning documents are cheats!
My "daily plans", my "vacation-at-a-glance", my overall plan, etc. Not counting of course my ADR list! In case Mama sees it, or in case I forget and show her, I didn't include it anywhere!!! I put the Mother's day brunch ADR confirmation # on a post-it 2 page further in the PassPorter, and I'll have to be careful about not forgetting to bring it with me...
What scares me the most is forgetting about it completely! Well of course, I'd be surprised to forget about something I planned for so long (and paid so much for!)... but you know how, once you're on vacation, you seem to forget what day of the week and what date you are???

And about DME...
We are supposed to receive documents soon...
We must not put DME luggage tags on our luggage.
We will have to claim our luggage ourselves before we go through customs.
We will have to go to DME desk with our luggage whatever we decide, so they can check our names off the list for the shuttle... But we can decide to take our luggage with us instead of handing them our luggage!!!
In that case, the luggage will be put in the luggage space under the bus and given back to us at the resort. We are highly encouraged to tip the driver for the luggage handling... and we will either have to handle our luggage ourselves at the resort or use the bell services... and tip some more.
If we do use DME for the luggage, we'll put the DME luggage tags somewhere between luggage claim and DME desk...

Now I have all the info, I'll ask Mama what she prefers : Pay up to 20$ (if the room isn't ready... only 10$ if it is), take care of our luggage ourselves, and save hassle and time (well, in my mind it does... It's definitely not the same as for domestic travelers!). Or "check" our luggage a 2nd time by handing them to DME, not worrying about it, but not being able to settle into the room even if it's ready and losing a little more time at MCO.
The great thing is we don't have to decide until we get there! We can go as we feel and as we feel about our luggage!

On thing's sure... The time between our arrival and getting to the resort will definitely be more than the stated 45-70min! With luggage claim, customs, plus the DME luggage handling (whatever way you choose)!


...I'm really desperate : Mama went shopping with grandma today (in Montreal, where grandma lives)... I reminded her to look for tank tops I could use as iron-ons... She didn't find any!!! I don't know yet if it's : there weren't any 100% cotton or with a cotton/polyester mix, any white one... or anyone that she felt fit her...

So I'll definitly have to bring her with me when I'll go to Valleyfield... which is not what I usually call "the city", which is Montreal (that's what is an hour away), but which is indeed a city, about 20 min. away. It's one of 2 suburb city we can go to for some shopping... not fun shopping, with malls and lots of stuff... just basic getting what you need shopping... Like there's a Walmart, Staples, some electronic stores... and that's about it. If they don't have what you want or need in one store, well... you're doomed! Almost no specialty store either (no crafts store, for example). Not many big name boutiques or stores. We need to drive at least 45 min. for those!
It's really not shopping heaven, but we can find some things... (in fact, even the bigger name stores here don't carry as much stuff as the ones in Montreal... and usually, we don't have as much stuff here in Quebec- or Canada in general- as you do in the US! But we pay more for the same stuff! Talk about free trade...)
I prefer the other small city : Vaudreuil... But we're not used to going there, it just started developping... and it takes a little longer to get there... like 5 min. more... but hey, perception's important! Valleyfield is in direct line from our home, we litterally see our home from the bridge we take to get to the highway... well in the winter we can!

So I'm really worried I won't be able to make us mother-daughter shirts and won't be able to make her a mother's day shirt either...
Don't get me wrong : I wouldn't want her to look or feel bad just so I could make her those shirts!
But I think she feels "bigger" than she is and sees herself worst in everything when she looks in the mirror...
I know how she feels, I took on 40lbs in 2 months, 3 years ago because of the medication! She didn't put on as much weight, but she did put on some since she stopped smoking... (yay! so proud of her for that! )And since she always had self-image problems... it's really hard on her.
But she has to work it out! For her own good! She'd be so much happier! Luckily, she sometimes "sees the light"! Yesterday she tried on her summer clothes from last year and one item she showed me was just awful... Sooo big! You know, when you try to hide your body under a tent? It did nothing for her...
What not to wear trick #1 : don't hide your body, don't wear nothing too tight either... Just wear something that covers the right places and highlights your good points. (I would add : and you can be comfortable in! I love that show, but they don't seem to think about that!).
Oh, I'm no clothes diva and I have my WNTW moments (having one right now!), and I'm sure you'll have the proof in the TR pix (pretty sure most tank tops iron-ons won't fit my shorts...) But I'm not in the extreme... anymore!

OK, that's it for tonight!

Next post : Will I be feeling OK enough to go "shopping" or will I keep my energy for my beautician's appointment on Thursday (which should last at least 2hrs)?

 

[swwake]

Glad you're feeling better.

Glad you talked to Rhonda and cleared some things up. That's good!

on the Tank Tops, I know you don't like to do shipping, but have you checked this site?
http://store.americanapparel.ca/grid.aspx?cid=26
They have a Canada section. They might have the T's and Tanks you need.

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

... the countdown, that is!

Well, Swakke (can I call you Susan?), I didn't make myself clear I guess... I have no problem about shipping... In fact, you'd be surprised I much stuff I buy online and have shipped! Even from the US!
My problem is with US stores who don't use USPS, because all the other shipping cies like UPS, Fedex and such make us canadians pay outrageous "custom service fees"... I put that in brackets because it's not really custom fees, but a way to make money (real cashcow!)... For the exact same services and job, USPS and Canada Post (they each handle their part of the border and Canada Post does the customs service job) only charge us 5$ or... nothing! Of course we have to pay the applicable taxes, like we'd pay if we bought the same item in the country, but that's not a problem.
And of course, shipping can sometimes cost more... it all depends. (for example, if shipping's only 5-10$ and the store's in Montreal, the fuel and parking cost and trouble mean I'm making a good deal with shipping! If I have the store in Valleyfield or Vaudreuil, a short drive away without parking costs and I pay at least the same amount in shipping, than it's no good deal unless I'm not feeling good enough to leave the house).
But living, like I said in the previous post, in a place that cannot by all means be called shopping heaven, I more often than not have to rely on online shopping!

As for American Apparel (hate those models shots!... love the clothes!), I know about the canadian branch... but they don't have much clothes for 14+ (I'd be OK, not Mama...). But mostly, I wouldn't buy our shirts/tank tops online... Look at what happened when I bought Mama's tank tops without her trying them on! And I had tried them on for her!!! Now imagine neither of us tries any on! No-way.
I'm pretty sure we'd just have to pay for returns.
I'm not saying I won't buy anything there... just not iron-on material for Disney, and nothing for Mama!
But... thanks for reminding me I wanted to check that website again! (my wallet is not thanking you though!).

It reminds me I had a general shipping problem... Well, not really a problem, but I'd been meaning to talk to you about it.

When we were suposed to drive, we intended on buying some things groceries along the way.
1) Some groceries for WDW : water bottles (to put in our insulated bottles), Gatorade and maybe some snacks.
Now a little explanation first. I know there is free tap water available everywhere in Disney. But I heard the water didn't taste very good and we are very dificult when it comes to water taste. Mostly, I have a tendency to get stomach aches from tap water (no idea why. Maybe I'm very sensible to some usual water bacteria that's no trouble to anyone else?), even with something like Brita filters, after 2-3 days of drinking tap water, I get awful stomach aches. So I don't want to take any chances. (which makes me wonder : if I ask for water in Disney restaurants, what will they bring me? Tap or bottled water? )
I also know there sell, of course, bottled water in WDW... but it costs way less to have it delivered than to buy at least 2 bottles each day! (and I'm figuring more 2 bottles each, for each day... Our insulated bottles can hold 24oz and I'm guessin we could easily refill it in a day! It won't be August, but we'll need to stay hydrated still, especially me... more heat and exercise than we'll be used to!).
As for the Gatorade : with my low blood volume and pressure drops, Gatorade is like a medication... really! It's the doctor who told me to use that. It helps me feel a little better after fainting (or getting close to) and it buys me a little more time when I get a pressure drop...
The way it works is, with the liquid and minerals in there, it compensates a little for the lack of blood. So I always, always, carry a mini Gatorade bottle in my purse. It saved me many times. No, warm gatorade doesn't taste good. At all. But when it saves you from falling down on the ground while waitng in line at the store, it almost does!
I don't know if they sell Gatorade (or Powerade, which almost works as good) in WDW, but if they do, I bet it costs even more than water...
I'm also guessing, if there are days here I need a whole bottle, in the Florida heat, with the exercise I'll surely be doing at a level I'm not used to and with the excitement, I'll probably need at least a bottle every other day...
As for the snacks, I'm not sure we'll really need those... It's not like we'll be driving (we'd have bought the snacks before leaving and for the ride back, so we'd have something to snack on without the need to stop each time we're hungry... or at least, without needing to buy anything!). If we had went by car or train and made a grocery stop, we'd bought some fruit to have more healthy options in our room, but I don't see us having fruit delievered, especially when we can't choose 'em... And as for other kind of snacks, after reviewing many pages of the foodporn, I'm feeling as we won't have enough time to taste all there is to taste, so... why buy snacks???

But there would've been other things I would've used the opportunity of driving to get... Like buying a US cellphone... I wanted a T-mobile because they have unlocked GSM prepaid cellphones... not only would my new cellphone be really cheap (they cost way much more over here! 30$ for a prepaid is impossible!), but we could've made calls for a decent price... And after returning home, I could've bought a canadian SIM card and replace my "old" cellphone (not that old, but it turns out it was real cheap, because the battery is always dead and I can't use music ringtones because it sounds like crap... and it cost me about 100$!). But I can't buy it from here... not only can't I have it delivered in Canada, I can't have it billed with a Canadian credit card... (I would have it delivered to the resort!). I emailed the company with my problem and their only solution is to have me go to a store once I'm in Florida... Well it's wonderful ... but I won't rent a car or take a cab on my first day just to buy a cellphone...
If there's a store in the airport that sells them, maybe I'll jump on the occasion, but that's it.
It really makes me mad though...
My cellphone carrier doesn't offer US roaming. Mama's does (I'll talk to her about that US package, it really is the best option... for 40$ you have 60min. of canadian or US calls with no extra fees. While without the plan, it's either 2$ per call, plus 1$/min., or 3$/min... it's not very clear... but either way, it's very, very costly! Just imagine : we'll call my dad at least twice, maybe more, and even if we don't talk more than 5 min. each time... And we'll call my grandma 2 times at least : her birthday on May 5th and Mother's day! Even if we don't make one extra call home, never talk more than 5 minutes and never call anywhere in Florida, it would already cost us the package!)
I really wanted to have my own cell on the trip. Just in case. Of course, with the wheelchair, there's not a lot of chances we'll be separated, but just imagine, what if the one time we're not together we'd need to contact each other??? Like that morning I'm going shopping by myself? Will Mama feel she needs to stay in the room in case I call her?
Well there's always that other option of me taking my dad's cellphone and leaving him with mine... But the problem with that is, I don't think we'd be taking the US plan on both phones and he's got clients calling sometimes, and if one would be calling while we're there, it would cost a bunch for nothing! Well, we could always take the plan on dad's phone, which would make it alright...
We'll have to talk about it... I'm pretty sure though that dad's not gonna like it... (he's not a good sharer, if that's even a word) especially since both my parents think it's not necessary to both have a cell and I'm stupid for wanting that...

Third thing I wanted to take advantage of, while driving in the US is : buy US iTunes gift cards! Because as a canadian, I can't buy in the US iTunes store... But there are things in there that we don't have in the canadian iTunes store... (including movies and TVshows... well we now, finally, have some TV shows, but not a lot and none from US channels... none in french either... Which means : none I watch! I almost never watch english canadian TV... almost no french TV either -depends what-, but a lot US... hum, I don't watch a lot of TV. So the lot of US TV is a lot of what I watch!).
Ah! But there is a way! If I had US iTunes store gift card, it would have the right coding and I could create a new account with my info (with a bogus Zip code of course) and buy what I wanted! So I had decided I'd find where in the US you could buy those cards and stop at one of those places to get some...
But now... I guess I'll just hope there will have some at the airport stores or at the mall where I'll go shopping!

Oh I'm soooo tired today.
All my room is spinning now...
Big headache again.
I had to take a nap this afternoon. And when I say "had to", it's not a figure of speach... I tried to just open the laptop and relax in bed instead... nope. Dodo.

So I guess the bad days weren't all behind me.
I must say, I didn't have a good night's sleep last night either... It was so windy, I was seriously wondering if what would wake me would be the roof breaking apart...
The house was shaking so badly that my bed was shivering at times.
There were gusts of winds at about 80m/hour.
I hate high winds. Did I already mention that?
We all hate it in the house.
There was a tornado about 20 years ago and it really marked us, especially me since I was a kid.
I almost have panick attacks sometimes when it gets really windy and if I let myself go. I didn't yesterday... but I didn't like it either...
That tornado 20years ago made a lot of damages, luckily not to us nor the house (well, nothing much anyways) :
The barn moved by 6 inches on it's foundations!
The shed lost 2 of it's doors (it has huge "accordion doors"), which fell down and damaged many ULAs (the airplanes, remember?)...
We had a couple of bigger ULAs outside, some pined to the ground and 2 under a small aluminum roof behind our garage... the aluminum roof was sent up in the air and fell on our pool... which broke of course...
The pool deck made 4-5 revolutions and finished it's course in the pit beside the road (I saw it happen, it was grey and blurry, but I understood what I was seeing, made me freak out!)
One of the pinned ULMs lift up and broke into the 2 that had been under the roof...
And finally, the thing that had TV and newspaper reporters come from all over : The biggest ULA of all, which was pinned to the ground, was lift up and curled around the nearest tree... up in the foliage!!! (both huge 1 foot long corkscrew pins broke clear cut!).
Yep, pretty traumatic experience for an 8 years old... The worst was that my dad had left for the barn and shed just before it started, to put wood bars that reinforced the doors against high winds... So he wasn't inside the house with us and we were scared about what could happen to him! And when it calmed a little, we left the house immediatly and went to check on him, and the first thing we saw was the fallen doors, and he didn't answer our calls!!! But he was OK, he's just like that, never answering when you call him... It just wasn't the time to not answer!!!
That was the scariest moment! We thought he was dead under those doors! I still have chills just thinking about it!
Next day was last day of school, and only a half-day... let me tell you : I didn't go!
I hadn't slept at all, too agitated, too scared, too nervous... plus we had trespassers, reporters and such on our grounds all night! Could you imagine, there were even stupid people trying to get in the tree to get a piece of the airplane as a souvenir?!
Anyways... To tell you I don't like high winds!

I was able to get to sleep only because I was really tired and by listening to my iPod a little louder than I would usually, trying to go to sleep... and with my cat purring, curled on my belly (we often go to sleep that way). She didn't like the wind either...

But now, I think I'll need to go catch up on some sleep that I missed yesterday!

 

[AnnieDan_Artlover]

Well today was a "pfff" day... I didn't feel good by any means, tired beyond belief, headache again, some nausea for a change (...) yadi yada yada.

I was still able to do some in the spreadsheet department, namely a new one I started : "Characters". I wanted to list the characters I want to see the most and the places I had the most chance to see them. As for most my other spreadsheets, I have the equivalent in some other document, this time in a PassPorter e-book, but it would be too big to carry around, too much paper/ink waste to print it all anyway and too hard to find the info on the spot (since it contains the info on all the characters you could think about).
So I'm making mine with just the characters I really care about (the ones I'll be sad if I can't see them) and only putting the info about they're whereabouts... not about how they dress, who they are, what they like, etc. like it's in the e-book.
I just finished "Minnie Mouse"...

Me and Mama completed our passports forms.
Since we're really late (we weren't supposed to need one, we were driving, remember?), so to save time, we completed the online forms. You still have to print it and present it at a passport office (or send it by mail), but since the online system checks for discrepencies before you print, when we'll go to the passport office, we shouldn't have to wait as much (well it's what we heard anyways...).
We were waiting for Mama to receive her birth certificate (we couldn't go unless she got it) and she got it today! (we couldn't fill the form without it either).

So tomorrow, unless I'm really not feeling well at all, we'll go to Valleyfield to return the tank tops at Walmart, take the opportunity to buy the luggage kit I saw the last time (Mama decided we'd buy it, yay!), take our passport pix there and then we'll go to her friend Diane who will authentify our pix (I don't know for US passports, but we need to have someone who has a valid canadian passport and who'd known us for at least 2 years authentify the pix and fill a short part of our passport forms).
After that, if I still feel well enough, we'll drive 1hr and go to the nearest Passport office and wait in line... hoping it won't be 3hours... (we'll bring the wheelchair, just in case... plus the office is in a mall, so Mama wants to practice pushing a little!)

The governement passport website says it's presently 2 weeks (plus weekends) to treat passports demands. Since we decided we wouldn't take any chances and will go back to the office instead of letting it go through the mail, we should be OK, especially since we'll let them know of our departure date (we have the proof of purchase for our plane tickets). Usually, with just that, they make sure you get it in time. If it's not enough, we'll pay a supplement to make sure... But I don't think it will be necessary.

And this afternoon, I went to my beautician's appointment for my "before I leave on vacation" treatment... Legs and armpit laser hair removal (I'm almost done now! Its almost been a year, and when it's done, it's forever!!!). Bikini area wax (ouch! hate that). And eyebrow "maintenance"...

And I finally decided to go back for a pedicure... In 2 weeks.
I had decided to do a toenail color, but now I'm realizing if they put color on my toenails, it'll likely be gone by the time we leave, and I'll either have to remove it all so it doesn't look weird, or have them use my own nail polish and apply some more while in Disney... Not as much fun! So maybe I'll stick with just some base transluscent color and save 5$...
It's just, I thought it could be fun to try a kinda Disney pink... it would only show while beside the pool, since most my shoes cover my toes, but...
Ah... Dilemmas, always...

And that's pretty much it! It's gonna be another early evening for me, trying to leave that virus or whatever it is out in the dirt!

Oh, wanted to tell you... tried to put some images in previous posts yesterday... you know, some of the DISigns I've been telling you about... but I can't!
They're all in .psd (photoshop), so I can't put them on photobucket! Maybe I'll try to convert some in jpeg soon... I'd really like to show you some of those.


P.S. I learned today that one of the ladies that works in the fibromyalgia and CFS association for which I used to work tried to commit suicide and is in the hospital... She's on the board, I had been before she came on, now I quit working for them completely... it was too much. But I keep in touch with the president.
Suicide is the main cause of death for people with FM and CFS... Lack of understanding, lack of help. No cure, no hope. Too much to handle, too much pain, etc.
I didn't know her, I met her only once, talked to her only twice on the phone... But it really came as a shock. You know, if someone with FM working in an association about FM, with all the info she needs, surrounded by people also suffering from the same thing, not isolated, etc. tries to die because of the illness... Can you imagine all the sufferers that have no answers and are isolated?

 

[swwake]

I'm reading, reading. But working, working. So busy. I will comment later (tomorrow?). Hope you continue to feel better. I forgot about passports - glad you have time to get them. So sorry to hear about the board member If you post new pics, will you let us know so we will go back to those posts? Or maybe just post them in new ones?