The most fantastic, magical things can happen, and it all starts with a wish. –Jiminy

[ALFranklin]

YAY!! Double Digits! Love that....
So happy you get to take a late disneymoon, they're the best! Have FUN!

That is what I have heard. I am so freaking excited, I can hardly stand it! I keep telling my DH, "Make time go faster!" If only he could.....

HOORAY!

Thank you, sweet lady!

 

[ericamcl]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm here to see how it all goes!
Can't wait to hear about your trip..MNSSHP is by far one of my favorite events

 

[ALFranklin]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm here to see how it all goes!
Can't wait to hear about your trip..MNSSHP is by far one of my favorite events

Yay! I am so glad to have new friends tuning in!

 

[ALFranklin]

OK...so this is TOTALLY off subject, but here goes.

A little background info first.

My sister and brother-in-law have a niece that is 21. She is, of course, on my BiL's side of the family, since it is just me, my sister and my step-brother. I feel very close to my sister's nieces and nephew on that side of the family (well, that entire side of the family really. They are the one's who suffered a loss that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago.) so I call those kids my nieces and nephew. My sister has kids that really ARE my nieces and nephew, and it goes without saying, I am SUPER blessed. That was a tangent...sorry. Anyhoodle!

My oldest "niece" was recently employed at...you guessed it! WDW She has an AMAZING job there and that's about all I can say. Here's why I am mentioning any of this.

She was working in the Animal Kingdom the other day and saw Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Let me just say that if I had been there for that, my family would have to call a paramedic. Johnny Depp is my ALL TIME favorite actor. I mean, I am not hopping on the POTC/Jack Sparrow bandwagon (although I adore him as Jack). I have loved JD since I was in middle school! I had a 21 Jumpstreet poster in my locker!!

The major question that brought me to the DIS to discuss this is, Why would Johnny Depp and Tim Burton be at the Animal Kingdom of all places? I have heard that JD has to sign off on any Jack Sparrow attractions and such, but why would there be a Jack Sparrow attraction at AK? I know the new attraction to open this fall will be at DHS, plus you usually see Nightmare Before Christmas and Alice in Wonderland things at DHS, too. I got SUPER curious and thought some of you might be able to shed some light. Heck! Maybe they just ran over there to ride Expedition Everest! Who knows?

 

[ALFranklin]

Well, I haven't posted in such a long time and I am so sorry! There has been so much going on in my life. We went on vacation in July and my husband's granfather died while we were visiting Panama City Beach. Then my sister's husband had another death in his family. That was a lot to deal with. The antique store that I was running had to close its doors, but luckily I had a part-time job to fall back on. We were beginning to panic and worry that our Disney vacation would be on a very strict budget. Luckily, the trip was already paid for, but it's not as much fun to go and not have any money to spend. Then, things began to look up. My husband got a new job and shortly after that, so did I! Then, shortly after my hubby began his job, he was promoted! I guess it's true when people say that you have to stand the rain in order to get the rainbows.

So the Disney trip is still on and is probably going to be much better than we thought. It turns out however, that our return flight had to be changed. When the Dsiney rep called, I nearly panicked, thinking that we'd have to pay to change the flight, but thankfully that was not the case. When we fly down we are flying Frontier Airlines, but they had to push up the date for their company's new policy that their return flights will only be on Saturdays, which I think is totally weird. It will be so great though, because now we are flying of MCO at noon instead of 8am. I want to get to WDW as soon as possible, but does anyone ever really want to leave? Now we'll have a few more hours in our "Happy Place".

I logged on to my vacation page on the Disney World website this morning and it's only 17 days away(not that I didn't know that already, but it's just so awesome to see in print on screen!) I can hardly believe it. I remember getting so excited when we hit double digits. Now I can actually say "I'm going to Disney this month!!!!" This morning my husband said, "Three weeks from today we'll be starting to pack." If I hadn't been half asleep I would have responded, "I've already been packed in my mind for a month!"

One last thing, I have been on the hunt for the perfect bag to carry around while on our trip. I had a really great one the last time I went, but I have NO idea where it is. I was looking at Vera Bradley bags and at Target to try to one that is small enough to carry what I need, but not too big to be uncomfortable. On Friday I went to TJMaxx and found a small black Bagalini for $16.99!! Those bags are normally $55, so I was SUPER excited. It will be perfect to hold our credit card, Key to the World, camera and cell phone! I'll try to share some photos of my clothing choices as the vacation draws nearer.

 

[ALFranklin]

I don't know that anyone is following this PTR any more since I have been such a slacker, but if you are still checking in...THANKS!

It is probably good that I have stayed away, because I do not want to be a "Debbie Downer" on such a joyous website. However, it has been such a rough summer for my family. My husband and I lost a very good friend last week. He was only 29 years-old and it was confirmed to be heart failure. This is on top of losing my sister's in-laws, whom I adored and my husband losing his grandfather and great aunt AND another friend of ours lost his dad. I have had a lot of anxiety and worry about all of my loved ones and I am trying so hard to stay positive and not let those thoughts get the better of me. *sigh* My husband and I are definitely ready for our trip!

With that said....

We leave in 3 DAYS!!!!

I can hardly focus on anything else....

Anyhoodles...I went out to check the mail on Sunday morning and had a pretty great treat waiting. My "hubben" (as I have found myself referring to Alex lately) and I were chosen to participate in the test of the FastPass+!!!! It is only available for testing at The Magic Kingdom, but we have reservations for 4 attractions that day. They are:

12:05pm-1:05pm for Space Mountain (I haven't been on this ride in so long!!!)
1:05pm-2:05pm for Mickey's Philharmagic (Alex is gonna love this!)
2:55pm-3:55pm Splash Mountain (Alex has never done this. He's gonna LOVE it!)
4:35pm-5:35pm Haunted Mansion (One of my faves!)

Some of the attractions for which they offer the FastPast+ are a little bit of a surprise. I've never had to wait very long to ride Haunted Mansion or to see Mickey's Philharmagic, but I'm excited for this FastPass+ experience. Also, I have not seen the new queue for Haunted Mansion (Iknow, I know...sad), so I am sure we will do this attraction more than once. I am so excited to see how it all works and I'll be sure to pass it along in my TR. (If I do one. I'm not sure who all might be interested.)

Also, we have ended up keeping all of the original ADRs. I have tried many many times to get into Le Cellier because I think my husband would enjoy it so much. He loves steak! But I've had zero luck. Barring some amazing luck that allows us to snag an ADR there we are sticking to the plan.

Another bit of excitement is that we are possibly going to get to see some of my friends while they are at work at Disney! I have a friend who is "very good friends" with Eeyore at The Crystal Palace, so that will be fun and my "niece" is very good friends with Ariel and Aurora and we plan to find her at work too. I am so excited to see her!

I am in hard core planning mode, so if anyone has any suggestions of a must-do or must-try while we are there, please let me know.
On my list so far:
See Miyuki, the candy artist in Japan
Have Alex try Beverly at Club Cool (Is that mean?)Try School Bread at Kringla Bakerie og Kafe (Alex LOVES coconut!)
Have a Dole Whip
Take Alex to the Magic of Disney Animation (He will love this. He is a gifted artist and will out-draw me in a major way)
Try to stay for The Kiss Goodnight (Our day at Magic Kingdom is gonna be looong, so I'm not sure we'll be able to hang)

I will do my best to update a couple of times between now and Saturday, but I will definitely post before we leave. Here's hoping these next few days pass quickly and uneventfully. (Is that even a word? See? My mind is frazzled!!!)

 

[reyasmommy]

Sorry about your troubles...... Just think, in 3 days, you get to leave all those troubles behind.

Welcome back and have a fabulous trip!

 

[ALFranklin]

Sorry about your troubles...... Just think, in 3 days, you get to leave all those troubles behind.

Welcome back and have a fabulous trip!

Thank you so much for the welcome back and...YES! I am so ready to go away and have some time alone with my husband in the happiest place on earth. We soooooo deserve it.

 

[ALFranklin]

This time 24 hours from now, my husband and I will be in the air headed to Disney World to finally have a honeymoon and celebrate our first anniversary. This week at work has been so stinkin' slow. I just pray that this day is busy and that it goes by SUPER fast. That's the thing about going to Disney...you want it to get here as quickly as possible, but then you just want the trip to go by as slowly as possible, but...it doesn't. I am going to do my best to take it all in and slow down and just enjoy it. Since the resort, Magic Kingdom and Epcot all have free wi-fi now, I will do my best to post while we are there. See you real soon!!!

 

[marDgreen88]

I'm so sorry about the summer you've had. Yall really deserve this trip!

Awesome that you got chosen to test out FP+!!! I hope it works out well, I'd love to know what it's like! I think it'll be cool!

I hope yall are having an amazing trip!!!

 

[ALFranklin]

We made it back and it was an AMAZING trip! Before we left, I couldn't decide if I was gonna do a trip report or not, but my husband was very supportive and insisted on photographing our plates before every meal and telling me which app to use to take notes(which I still didn't do a very good job of). I have decided that I will do a trip report because too many fun, great and magical things happened for me not to share with you all. I can't wait to review the FastPass+ for you all as well as review the restaurants we were fortunate enough to eat in and to tell you all about our fantabulous last night there...What could possibly be so fantabulous, you ask? We went to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party and to say it was EPIC is an understatement. I can't wait to tell you guys all about it! So please be sure to stay tuned for my TR, which will be starting this weekend!