The fastest PTR in the west!

[DisneyKim68]

Why is this the fastest PTR in the west you might be wondering? Because we leave for WDW three weeks from today! Yes, it just NOW occurred to me to write a PTR This trip promises to be interesting, I am sure! So, without further ado I will introduce you to our cast of characters.

Me (Kim) 43
DH Curt 45
DH's Best Friend Brad 45
DD Ashley 26
DD Kaitlyn 13

So there you go, nice to meet you all, I will be back this afternoon to get this party, er PTR, started!

 

[DisneyKim68]

Ok, let's get this thing started! I'll start out by giving you a little info about us and our plans. I'm Kim, and like most of you I'm a certified Disney nut. My daughters Ashley and Kaitlyn share my love of Disney, but they might not be QUITE as obsessed as I am. My hubby likes Disney, but mostly I think he just humors me. We all live in Phoenix, AZ so Disneyland is "our" park and we are annual passholders there. I've been to WDW once, when I was around 14, so yeah, it's been a while. At that time MK was the only park. I think it was just before Epcot opened. The rest of my crew has never been, so we are all very excited. Ok, I may be A LITTLE little more excited than everyone else. We have been talking about going to WDW for probably about five years, but really decided to start planning a trip about a year ago. When Curt's friend Brad found out we were thinking about a trip, he wanted to come too, which is great because he is splitting the cost of the house and the gas with us. Due to the cost of airline tickets, (and the fact that my daughters and I don't love flying!) we have decided to drive. That's right, we are going to drive 2100 miles from Phoenix to Orlando! We've also decided to rent a house rather than stay on property. While I would love to stay at ANY of the Disney resorts, this was more cost effective for us, and we have our own pool at the house which will be nice to come home to in the afternoons. We will be leaving here veeerrrryy early on June 2nd, and hope to arrive late on the 3rd. (We will be losing 3 hours heading east) I was hoping to go a little later in the summer (we will be leaving just 3 days after Kaitlyn gets out of school) but there is a reason for the timing. My daughter Ashley's 8 year old son Jason has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and we are doing this trip while he is at MDA camp. Now before you start thinking we are mean for going without him, let me explain. His DMD also causes developmental delays and sensory issues, and he just hates anything different. He hates Disneyland. Hates the rides, everything. When he gets upset and frustrated, Ashley gets upset and frustrated, and nobody has a good time. He does however LOVE MDA camp So when given the choice of camp or WDW, he chose camp. So that's a little about us for now, and I'll be back with more soon. I have a lot to cram into this super short PTR! Welcome aboard, I hope you enjoy my report
Here's a pic of me, Curt, Ashley & Kaitlyn from Disneyland last year:

 

[DisneyKim68]

I hope all the moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day, I know I did! I have the sweetest daughter in the world. I collect the Mickey ear hats, and had been mentioning how I was going to want to buy one from each country at Epcot, and would have a hard time narrowing down my choices. So my darling daughter Kaitlyn gave me this as one of my Mother's Day gifts:

That's right, she made me a gift certificate stating that she would buy me a set of ears at Epcot. Seriously, how sweet is that?? As another gift, she and my hubby bought me an AZ Diamondbacks jersey (I'm a huge fan!) and took me to the game on Mother's Day. While at the ballpark I saw this guy:

I LOVE this! Two of my favorite things, Disney and the Diamondbacks all rolled into one! I wish I could find a miniature of this statue. Oh who am I kidding, I wish I could take this one home!

My oldest daughter Ashley had given me my Mother's Day gift a couple of months ago: An entry into the Disneyland Half Marathon in September! I completed the Tinkerbell Half Marathon in January and decided I wanted to do another. Yes, I am crazy, thank you for asking.

I did managed to get some things accomplished for the trip this past week. I got my new clothes shopping done, which is a huge relief. I hate clothes shopping! I also got my Expedition fixed. It had been making some strange, jerky movements the past few weeks, and there was no way I was heading to FL. not knowing what was wrong. Turns out it was nothing serious thank goodness, just a combination of dirty fuel filter and a bad spark plug, but it still set me back $700. Next week we plan to get new tires. This is going to be a veerryyy long trip and we want to make sure everything is in tip top shape.
Next up: Beaches, Space Center, and wildfires

 

[DisneyKim68]

Ok, back again! Hopefully someone is actually reading this! So my hubby's friend Brad has been really wanting to visit the Kennedy Space Center while we're in FL. My daughters and I can take or it or leave it, but what we REALLY want to do is go to the beach So i figured if Curt and Brad decide to do KSC they could drop the girls and I off at Cocoa beach for the day. That's pretty much been the plan for a while now. Well, I talked to Brad this weekend, and now that they have moved the space shuttles out of the Space Center, he's not sure he really wants to go there anymore. I asked him if he wanted to do a beach day and he said yes (hubby just pretty much goes along with whatever plans we make, lol!) so now I'm thinking of maybe driving down to Clearwater for a day. My brother and niece and an uncle live in the area, so I thought it might be nice to meet them for lunch or something.
In other news, there is a large wildfire south of where my grandson will be going to MDA camp, and while I don't think the camp is in danger, the smoke is becoming a problem in terms of visibility on the highway up to that area. There's been some talk on the news of possibly closing the highway if the visibility becomes too bad We've still got a couple of weeks, so I'm going to try not to worry about that and hope that the fire is under control by then.

Up next: I have to wear these??

 

[DisneyKim68]

Today I received some compression stockings I had ordered for the trip. I have a history of DVT (blood clots in the leg) and 2 solid days in the car could be a problem. About a month ago I had been planning on making an appointment with my Dr. to discuss what I needed to do to prevent another DVT on the trip. Before I even made the appointment I came down with a stomach bug, and was dehydrated. That night I started getting really bad charley horses in my leg so I thought it was just due to the dehydration. Well, long story short, it turned out to be my 3rd DVT So now I'm back on Coumadin, probably for life this time, and the Dr. told me to wear compression stockings for the trip. Anyway, I got them today and decided to try them on. WOW they are TIGHT! Yes, I know that's kind of the point, but I though I was going to have to call EMS to come with the Jaws of Life to get me out of them! Looks like I will have to get up extra early on our travel days to get them on, lol!
Up next: Park Plans and ADR's
BTW, if anyone is actually reading this, stop in and say hi so I know I'm not just talking to myself, lol!!

 

[DisneyKim68]

Doing the 2 week dance today!! Oh yeah!

 

[DisneyKim68]

As I mentioned in my first post, I haven't been to WDW since it was just MK, no other parks. So, in order to familiarize myself with the World, I have been studying all the guidebooks and restaurant menus like a high school student studying for the SAT's. I am also a compulsive over planner (yeah I know, that's really rare among us DISers, lol!) I'm really looking forward to MK, but I'm going to try to focus on the attractions that are different than those at Disneyland, no sense wasting precious time on things I've already seen! That being said, I do definitely to want to check out POTC and HM, becuase they are a little different than DL's versions. However, I am over the top excited about visiting Epcot! I CAN'T WAIT!!! I think I am looking forward to that more than anything on this whole trip!
Since basically the point of renting a house vs. staying on property was to be able to cook meals and save money, I've only made two ADR's, but that's fine, I'm really looking forward to cookouts by the pool at our rental house.
At this point, out plan looks something like this:

Leave Phx EARLY Sat. a.m. June 2
Arrive LATE Sunday

Day 1 Monday a.m. MK until afternoon, then grocery shopping and back to the house to cookout and swim, then maybe back to MK for Wishes.

Day 2 Tues. EPCOT and lunch ADR at Beirgarten, probably spend all day here and stay for Illuminations

Day 3 Wed. Breakfast ADR at Ohana, then probably DHS. I want to visit here before the craziness of Star Wars Weekends

Day 4 Thurs Probably going to be our non park day, possibly driving down to Clearwater

Day 5 Fri Probably back to DHS for Star Wars Weekends (Curt and Brad anyway, maybe the girls and I will do something different)

Day 6 Animal Kingdom

Those are just some really loose plans at this point. Never having been there, I'm not sure how much time to allow for each park, etc. So we'll use this as a guideline and wing it from there.

 

[MrsBearcat]

Today I received some compression stockings I had ordered for the trip. I have a history of DVT (blood clots in the leg) and 2 solid days in the car could be a problem. About a month ago I had been planning on making an appointment with my Dr. to discuss what I needed to do to prevent another DVT on the trip. Before I even made the appointment I came down with a stomach bug, and was dehydrated. That night I started getting really bad charley horses in my leg so I thought it was just due to the dehydration. Well, long story short, it turned out to be my 3rd DVT So now I'm back on Coumadin, probably for life this time, and the Dr. told me to wear compression stockings for the trip. Anyway, I got them today and decided to try them on. WOW they are TIGHT! Yes, I know that's kind of the point, but I though I was going to have to call EMS to come with the Jaws of Life to get me out of them! Looks like I will have to get up extra early on our travel days to get them on, lol!
Up next: Park Plans and ADR's
BTW, if anyone is actually reading this, stop in and say hi so I know I'm not just talking to myself, lol!!

Hi
Just a couple hints from a healthcare worker who puts those "toture device" stockings on people everyday:
1. make sure your legs are dry, if you use lotion let it soak in completely
2. hand wash them and DON'T put them in the dryer or you will have a not fun time getting them babies stretched back out
3. get some latex or vinyl gloves to wear when you put them on they actually help get more grip and seriously if the DH or daughter will help it is easier for someone to set on the floor and get them on you
Have a fun trip!

 

[DisneyKim68]

Hi
Just a couple hints from a healthcare worker who puts those "toture device" stockings on people everyday:
1. make sure your legs are dry, if you use lotion let it soak in completely
2. hand wash them and DON'T put them in the dryer or you will have a not fun time getting them babies stretched back out
3. get some latex or vinyl gloves to wear when you put them on they actually help get more grip and seriously if the DH or daughter will help it is easier for someone to set on the floor and get them on you
Have a fun trip!

Thanks so much for the advice! I did get some gloves, but I hadn't thought about the lotion. Kudos to you, I can't imagine trying to put these things on someone! It's bad enough trying to get them on myself! Thanks again for the tips and for stopping in to say hi.

 

[DisneyKim68]

ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!! WOOHOO! I'm getting so excited I can hardly stand it! It's been interesting around here this past week. Tuesday night I took Kaitlyn shopping fopr a few new outfits for the trip. While we were in the dressing room trying things on, my husband called and told me that someone had just broken out our front window! He was home at the time, but in another part of the house so he heard a crash but didn't see what happened. At first I thought maybe it just shattered from the heat, but it definitely looks like something hit it, it's not just cracked, there's a big gaping hole. I talked to all the neighbors and of course no one saw anything . So anyway, that's another expense we didn't need before the trip. We also had new tires put on the Expedition, but we knew that needed to be done. We weren't about to drive across the country with anything less than perfect tires Oh, and Thursday night Kaitlyn informs me that the boy next door that she had been babysitting the night before now has chickenpox! She has had the vaccine, but it still freaked me out a little. I dug out her immunization records and she has had her two doses, but I'm not taking any chances and told her not to go over there until after the trip. We had to mke a few slight changes to our intinerary this week. We had planned on leaving to come home very early Sunday morning and be home late Monday night, but hubby's friend Brad is starting a new position at work on Tues and has to be back a little sooner, so we are going to leave around dinner time Saturday night for a bit of a head start. Brad also decided he wanted to eat at Yak & Yeti, so I was able to get us lunch ressies there. Our ADR is not until 2:00 p.m., but it's the same day we have a breakfast ADR at O'hana, so I think that will tide us over. I also switched our first two days at the parks around. I was going to do MK first day, and Epcot the second, but according to all the crowd calendar sites, that is the exact opposit of what we should be doing. I was able to switch our Biergarten ADR to Monday, so not a problem. I'm all about lower crowds whenever possible!
Well, that's all for this update and thanks for reading along. Again, please stop by and let me know you're here! Until next time

 

[jecskc]

I thought I was going to have to call EMS to come with the Jaws of Life to get me out of them!

OK - that just made LOL !!! Thanks of the giggle. We will be there June 15-18. Looks like we will just miss you !! I think Obama and Romney will be at the Comtemporary while you are there. If so, I would try to plan around that.

 

[DisneyKim68]

OK - that just made LOL !!! Thanks of the giggle. We will be there June 15-18. Looks like we will just miss you !! I think Obama and Romney will be at the Comtemporary while you are there. If so, I would try to plan around that.

I think they are going to be there on the 22nd, so we should both miss them. I'm glad about that, I have no desire to deal with any traffic delays and/or added security!

We made another small change to our travel plans yesterday....Brad decided he was going to try to get out of work early on Fri. so we could leave late afternoon/evening rather than at 3:00 a.m. Saturday like we had planned. Ashley has to work until either 3 or 6 p.m. and then drop her son off at the friend's house who will be driving him to MDA camp on Sunday. I'm hoping we can be out of here no later than 7:00 p.m. I would love it if we could at least make it to Lordsburg or Las Cruces NM (which are 4 and 5 1/2 hours away respectively) before stopping for the night. This means we will have an extra night of hotel costs, but I think it will be better so we don't have to push so hard driving on Saturday and Sunday. That being said, I'm going to try REALLY hard to just go with the flow and not get upset if things don't go according to plan. I might have had a problem with that on past trips and in life in general On our first trip to DL I had every moment planned and the trip was so regimented I was like a general leading his troops into battle! While we DID get to ride the rides with little waits, it just wasn;t that much fun, so I have stopped doing that at DL. On this trip I am going to look over the touring plans as a general guideline as to best times to ride various rides, and best days to visit each park, but I won't be actually printing out and using a touring plan.
Yesterday I was SO stressed out aabout Kaitlyn being exposed to chickenpox! Like I said before, she has had her immunizations, but I know it's still possible to get a milder case of them. My stress was not helped any by finding out that the boy next door who has them had also been vaccinated! I spent a crazy amount of time on the internet yesterday searching for info on how effective the vaccine is in completely preventing chickenpox (70-90%!) The worrywart side of me read that as a 10-30% chance that my child would develop chickenpox while on vacation, lol! I had visions of staying with her at the rental house while everyone else went to the parks.
Well, as it turns out, all that worrying was for nothing. The neighbor boy does not have the chickenpox after all. His mom called me over to look at him last night, and basically the bumps have just kind of run together in red patches on him, and he is feeling fine. It actually looks like hives to me, but I don't know for sure. I DO know that it's not chickenpox! I am still not letting Kaitlyn over there until he gets to the doctor and finds out exactly what it is. Our trip is too close now to take any chances! So, if we are able to leave Friday night rather than Saturday morning, that means that we are leaving in 5 days!!!

 

[DisneyKim68]

The big day is finally here! Brad and Ashley should both be here around 6:00 p.m. so I'm hoping to be out of here no later than 7:00 and get in about 5 hours worth of driving tonight. We're just going to order a pizza before we go and scarf it down before we hit the road, no time to stop for dinner!
We got new tires on the Expedition as well as an oil change, radiator flush, transmission fluid, etc. Our mechanic proclaimed it ready for the long drive to FL. I've still got quite a bit of packing to do today, since most things I can't really pack until the last minute. I've made a nice long to do list for my 24 year old son Brian who is staying behind, so I'm sure he'll be thrilled with that
It's going to be very hot here this weekend (112 today ) so I'm glad to be getting out of here. I'm sure it's going to be pretty hot in FL. too though, and we're not used to the humidity at all, (the humidity is about 7% here this week!) so that should be interesting
I think those compression stockings I have to wear are going to make me crazy before I even leave. I've been practicing trying to get them on and off, and it is SOOOO difficult! I bought this metal gizmo that's supposed to make it easier. You're supposed to just slip the stocking over the top (yeah right!) insert your foot and pull the stocking up. Only problem, my leg is too big to fit! I know I'm not skinny, but my legs aren't that big So anyway, in the process of trying to use that crazy contraption last night, I dropped it on the top of my foot and now have a big bruise there Oh well, I'll figure it out somehow, after all I'm going to DISNEY WORLD TODAY! I'm not going to let silly little things like that put a damper on things
Ok gang, thanks for following along, I'll be taking lots of notes for my TRIP REPORT!! Off to do laundry and get packing. Bye for now!