The "Just the Five of Us" PTR - June 2011

[aprilfoolwed]

Okay - I've been working on this quite a bit, and here's our schedule to the best of my knowledge. We don't have Hoppers, so I really needed to plan it all out.

Saturday 6/11 - leave PA - head South! Hopefully get into GA by dinnertime.

Sunday 6/12 - Arrive in Orlando in the afternoon. Check in house, grocery shopping, dinner & shopping at Downtown Disney.

Monday 6/13 - Hoolywood Studios! We were not able to see several things at DHS on our last trip, so we're going to hit that first this year. Rockin' Rollarcoaster, here we come!

Tuesday 6/14 - This is our YES class day! The kids and DH will attend Synergy in Science in the morning. J and I will tour Epcot together. We'll all meet up for lunch and then spend the rest of the day at Epcot as a family.

Wednesday 6/15 - DH has his convention this day, so he'll be working from 8-5 (we'll meet up with him once he changed clothes and gets to WDW). We have a 7:30 breakfast reservation at Whispering Canyon Cafe that morning, and we'll head to MAGIC KINGDOM after our all-you-can-eat skillet breakfasts! Since I am alone with the kids, I am still debating finding a lunch reservation in MK too - I don't want to think about counter service with only 2 hands! (I also have a reservation for breakfast at Chef Mickey's - I am 90% certain I am going to cancel and go with Wilderness Lodge, but I kept the ressie just in case).

Thursday 6/16 - another convention day. We'll start our day with breakfast at Cape May Cafe, and then head to DHS for the day. The goal is to see Fantasmic! at night! We also have a late lunch ressie at Sci-Fi that afternoon.

Friday 6/17 - DH has his convention in the morning this day. We're going to head back to Epcot.

Saturday 6/18 - Animal Kingdom has not been forgotten! We wanted to be sure all 5 of us could go to AK, so we saved it for Saturday. It's not our favorite park, but Expedition Everest is too good to miss, and I love some of the shows. We currently have a Tusker House breakfast ressie, but I am not sure if we'll be keeping it (this is supposed to be a budget trip, and not sure that another Character Meal is in the budget! LOL)

Sunday 6/19 - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY - in Magic Kingdom! We'll end with our favorite park and with some of our favorite attractions. We plan to stay until they kick us out at night!

Monday 6/20 & Tuesday 6/21 - 20 hours on the road from FL to PA.

 

[cadek]

Very nice plans! I like to book an extra ADR or two, that way you have them, and can always cancel later! It's so hard to plan what and where you are going to be in WDW months in advance, let alone figure out when and what you might be hungry for!

 

[beebeeryan]

Great plans! I agree, with the kids you might really want to consider TS meals, it would be tough balancing all that food on a tray on your own.

 

[Disneychix]

Your trip is so close!
Your plans look great. I can't wait to hear how RnRC goes! Is your youngest tall enough to ride?

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Your trip is so close!
Your plans look great. I can't wait to hear how RnRC goes! Is your youngest tall enough to ride?

My little guy is tall enough for most things. Last year he was able to go on Splash Mountain for the first time! He talks about BTMR this year, but I still think he'll sit out the bigger rides.

R (the 8yo) doesn't like thrill rides, so when it's just the 4 of us, we'll have to stick with rides for everyone and shows. DH, M (10yo) and I will have to use Rider Swap on the days we are all in the parks to get on the bigger rides.

I can't wait to report what we were able to try as a family this time!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

We have a BUSY week ahead of us! M's 10th birthday is on Friday, and we're having two birthday parties this weekend for her. Her "friend" party is on Saturday - lunch and cupcake decorating with 4 of her friends. The "family" party is on Sunday.

The school's open house is on Thursday night, so we have to plan to attend that PLUS I am working a 30 minute shift at a bake sale while we are there. And, of course, I have to bake something for the sale too.

So lots of baking, planning, shopping, wrapping and cleaning to do - and none of it is for our trip. But it's M's special day, so it's well worth it.


I do have a trip to-do list though

• Get trip approval forms from the school
• Buy new socks for J
• Schedule haircut appointment for me
• Set up haircuts for the boys
• Go through coupons to find good park snacks on sale
• Get extra set of luggage from mom & dad
• Make up "must do" lists for each park

We started packing this weekend. I pulled a few outfits for each of the kids and stashed them in a laundry basket in my closet. In two weeks I'll get out the suitcases.

We made our final payment on our house rental, and all dining reservations are now made. I added an ADR at The Plaza Restaurant for our full day in MK. I think it will be helpful to have a table service lunch planned for that day, since I will be alone with the kids.

It seems like June is still far away, but it's coming quickly! And with so many things going on, I hope I have time to get it all done!

 

[PixieMama]

Joining in!

June will be here before you know it! I'm going to WDW in Aug/Sept... I'm trying really hard to not wish my summer away, but the end of August can't get here fast enough!

 

[cadek]

Yes, June is going to sneak up on you! It's great you have a TS meal now in MK, so you can relax and enjoy it!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Joining in!

June will be here before you know it! I'm going to WDW in Aug/Sept... I'm trying really hard to not wish my summer away, but the end of August can't get here fast enough!

It will be here soon! I can't wait until we get to WDW< but I am kind of bummed our vacation will be over before school even gets out here! It will be a long summer after we get home. But I'll take Disney whenever I can get it!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Yes, June is going to sneak up on you! It's great you have a TS meal now in MK, so you can relax and enjoy it!

Yes, it's making me feel a lot more capable for that day! THe kids were so cute when they were voting for the restaurant. They were very serious about it, and weighed all the options carefully. The ice cream won them over!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Magic Kingdom

• Hall of Presidents (never done!)
• Riverboat (never done!)
• The NEW Pooh attraction (M can't wait!)
• Our favorites - Jungle Cruise, Pirates, the 3 mountains, Haunted Mansion & small World
• Railroad - I'd like to take one complete loop this year

Epcot

• Misson Space (never done)
• Test Track (J was too small last trip)
• Soarin (again, J was too small)
• Innovations (C wasn't with us last time and never saw any of this)
• The entire World Showcase (C missed that on the last trip)
• Club Cool (the kids' favorite!)

DHS

• Sounds Dangerous w/ Drew Carrey (never done)
• Star Tours (3/5 of us missed this last time)
• Muppets 3d (never done)
• Lights, Motors, Action stunt show (never done)
• Playhouse Disney (J wants to do this one - other kids never did)
• Rockin Roller Coaster (never done)
• TOT (too fun to miss!)
• Fantasmic (never done!)
• Indiana Jones (a favorite)

Animal Kingdom

• Festival of the Lion King (J slept through the ENTIRE show last time!)
• EE (a favorite!)
• Dinosaur (J was too small last trip)

Guess this list will keep us pretty busy!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Picked up our Trip Approval form at school this morning! I will fill it out and turn it in tomorrow!

This may be a busy week, but I am getting things done for the trip!

Oh - and something else that has surfaced - we may have guests joining us for part of the trip. We did WDW with my parents for the past two years. We asked C's parents to join us this year, and they turned us down.

When finding a rental home, we ended up getting a 4 bedroom home, even though we don't need all 4 bedrooms. Since we have the extra space, we asked C's parents one more time. They are considering coming down for a few days!

The kids would LOVE to have their grandparents there, and I would certainly welcome a few extra hands, but I am such a planner and hate not knowing what is going on only 3 weeks out from the trip! I have made all our ADRs that we need, and there is no way we can include them in character dining at this point (and I am NOT giving my ADRs up for those!). So we're playing by ear as much as possible, not knowing when they will make a decision.

 

[cadek]

MK - We've never done the Riverboat either! The new Pooh interactive stand-by line is fun!

Epcot - How cool that he will be big enough to go on Test Track and Soarin for the first time! We enjoyed that on our last trip, that our youngest could finally go on with us, and less time to go on rides as we don't have to take turns!

DHS - Love Lights, Motors, Action! We will have to do Playhouse Disney / Disney Junior again now that they've changed it to include Jake and the Neverland Pirates. I love ToT and Rock N Roller Coaster. Unfortunately no one else does! DS7 won't go on either. Last year I took him on ToT, he hated it, and won't forget that! This year I took him on Rock N Rollercoaster, and he hated it. He loves Space Mountain, I figured he would like this.

AK - I love the tumble monkeys in Festival of the Lion King. I admire their skills! EE - again, wish someone would like to do it with me. Maybe when my youngest is big enough. I don't make it a priority if I'm the only one interested in doing it. I could justify it more if one of them wanted to. Our kids love the Boneyard in AK, all they want to do is go there!

It's nice that the parents might be able to join you, but yeah, makes it tough for planning, especially those ADR's. Our last trip, I made all of our ADR's as soon as it opened up, and then a week later my Mom decides to go with. We couldn't add her to some, like Le Cellier, and it was only a week later! We've just gone and told them when we got there, and luckily it worked out.

 

[aprilfoolwed]

My DD likes the thrill rides, and so does my DH. It's just the boys that don't like them. So we'll have to do rider swap for TOT, RNRC & EE - and probably even Space Mountain. It works out well for DD though, because she gets to ride with each parent!

It will be interesting to see how Mission Space works out for us - none of us have done it at all! We'll be doing the toned-down version!

 

[cadek]

DS7 and I did Mission Space for the first time this year. I don't think I need to do it again, but glad I did it at least once. We did the toned down version. My DH doesn't like motion rides, and he's not into thrill rides much either. I'm on my own for the coasters. I think it was last year that DS7 (6 at that time) did Star Tours, and I don't think he felt so hot afterwards. Must get it from his father! It was closed this year, maybe we'll try it again in July.

 

[aprilfoolwed]

• Get trip approval forms from the school
• Buy new socks for J
• Schedule haircut appointment for me
• Set up haircuts for the boys
• Go through coupons to find good park snacks on sale
• Get extra set of luggage from mom & dad
• Make up "must do" lists for each park

Okay - we're 24 days out, and I turned in our trip approval form today, bought J new socks, have a haircut for ME tomorrow, the boys will get haircuts next Wednesday, the "must do" lists are done, and I started buying some snacks.

Still need to get that luggage, but not bad to have most of the list done before Friday!

I am still baking cupcakes for birthday parties! The next 4 days will be all about birthday stuff - as much as I love celebrating M's bday, I can't wait until I can get back to Disney planning!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

My Mother-In-Law will be joining us!

Great news, but this MAJORLY messed up my ADRs.

Thankfully, I never cancelled that Chef Mickey for 5 - we'll be using it now!

Instead of cape May Cafe, we're going to do Hollywood & Vine.

I wasn't able to get a Sci-Fi ADR for an extra person, so we're going to try 50s Prime Time. The kids will be somewhat disappointed, but they'll survive. I am keeping my Sci-Fi ADR for now - you never know what will change....

Had no problem changing my Plaza Restaurant ADR.

I still have a Tusker House ADR too - for 5, but now I would need 6. Keeping it for now.

I am happy to have another grown-up joining us, but I feel like this set back my plans by a few months!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

New week - and 19 days until we leave (20 until we get there!).

M's birthday weekend was a success. She's a very happy girl, and has very generous family and friends. Maybe I'll get around to her pics soon...

Last week's list....

• Get trip approval forms from the school DONE & APPOVED
• Buy new socks for J DONE
• Schedule haircut appointment for me DONE - I went shorter than planned, but good for hot Florida sun
• Set up haircuts for the boys They are going Wednesday
• Go through coupons to find good park snacks on sale STILL NEED TO DO
• Get extra set of luggage from mom & dad STILL NEED TO DO
• Make up "must do" lists for each park DONE

This week's list

• Buy snacks
• Get extra luggage from mom & dad
• Buy Dramamine, rolaids, etc
• Renew AAA membership & pick up maps
• Pull kids clothes and set aside (already partially done)
• Buy any clothing items needed before trip
• Email itinerary to MIL

My big non-vacation project for the next two weeks is our Drama Club production. I volunteered to help with the first Drama Club at the kids' school. They are doing their little play in two weeks (just days before we leave) and things are still rough (that's being kind). We are rehearsing A LOT - and I really wish this was done so I could focus on our trip. But I'll be in Whoville (they're doing Horton Hears a Who) for the next two weeks.

 

[PixieMama]

Yay for your MIL going with you! I'm hoping for our next family trip my mom and MIL will both join us!

 

[aprilfoolwed]

Yay for your MIL going with you! I'm hoping for our next family trip my mom and MIL will both join us!

Wow - both sides of the family going! That would be fun! I don't think that would ever happen for us, so getting to go with each of them at different times is good for us.

MIL was up for M's bday this weekend, and she's very excited to go. It's her first trip to WDW - and to Florida!