The Never-Ending-Anything-Goes PTR

[stephielela]

I love all the modifications already! No worries, i'm like that too!

Uh-oh, you don't like Delta either? We've flown with Delta I think once or twice and it wasn't too bad. We're doing United to MCO then SW back to LAX.

I'm not a huge fan, but to be fair I haven't flown them often, only once that I can remember, so I will try to have an open mind this time around.

I change plans CONSTANTLY. It's funny because I like it when I'm the one changing, but for our Fall trip we are having issues getting everyone "aligned" for lack of a better word (more updates on that later) so we keep making changes and it's driving me nuts! Does this make me a control freak?

Did you find a reasonable Delta one way back? I always find their one way prices so high...at least here they are. So I never even look anymore for that option with them.
I think last time it was just slightly cheaper for a 1 way verses a full round trip price. No thanks.

It was the cheapest one way back we could get. I looked everywhere to compare. I'm one of those people who books really far in advance since I am fine with just getting credit if the fare goes down (it's like pre paying for my next trip ) and we didn't book until mid May, so I wasn't expecting to see anything cheaper. SW has gone down slightly, but I haven't even checked anyhting else since I can't change the Delta tix and I don't want to make myself mad

 

[stephielela]

We will be in Orlando!

Since this trip is right around the corner, I should probably go ahead and finalize our plans...

Thursday June 28th

My mom has to be at her meeting around 8, so she is going to drop my dad, sister, Jack and me at Universal probably around 7:30 am. We will get some breakfast and then get lined up in plenty of time to get in the park early!

My mom's meeting is an hour so we forsee having her meet back up with us around noon at the latest, so the morning will be spent doing the attractions she doesn't care as much about, or the ones we know we will want to do more than once. I will post a touring plan later, but the one monkey wrench is Minion Mayhem... it's in its soft opening stages, which means sometimes it's open, sometimes not, and if it opens up we WILL get in line for that.

We are planning on doing Margaritaville for dinner, so we will probably leave the park to do that early evening and then come back to finish up what we can.

Friday June 29th

Friday we are doing Island of Adventure! As a total Potter nerd, I am beside myself with excitement!!!

The park opens at 8 so we will aim to be there by 7ish. I really wish we ahd early entry, but oh well. A friend of ours may also be joining us this day, she lives in FL and has AP's so that will be fun.

Right now I am thinking we might be better off putting WWoHP off until later in the day. Everything I have read says that if you don't have early entry, don't try to go in the morning? If that is the case then I think we will do everything else until around 5 and then head over there at 5 and devote the evening to WWoHP! If anyone has advice on this, I would be THRILLED to hear it! I am feeling way out of my league not knowing much about these parks...

We are also thinking we will do the meal deal for this day. It's about $100 for all 5 of us, so if we eat 2 meals, we will more than pay for it since there is no way we would eat for less than $10 per person per meal... Plus you can go through as many times as you want so even if we went through just for drinks, we would easily get our $$'s worth.

Saturday June 30th

We went back and forth a LOT for this day but we have finally settled on what I feel is an excellent plan My mom's flight leaves at 4:30 so she needs to be at the airport by 3. We have to be out of the house by 10...

Originally we though about doing a third park morning. The problem is we can't get the 3 day tix through the military without ordering them in advance, and we've passed the time limit. Not to mention it's a Saturday morning so even though we could go and spend a few hours, I'm not sure how much we would get accomplished...

So instead...

We have an 8:30 am ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe!! I've heard great reviews of their breakfast skillet, so after looking at what was available last night, that's the one we chose!

After breakfast we may check out some resorts (I would really like to go see Art of Animation, since I want to stay there for our Fall adventure) and head to DTD (is Basin reopened? When I was there in February they were completely redoing it!) I'm really glad we are spending some time on Disney property, it really makes me happy even if we won't be doing parks. I just can't let go can I?!

Also, I broke down and told Jack about the trip

I just couldn't figure out why I wasn't more excited, and I think part of it was not being able to talk about it to (or around) him. He is having a little trouble understanding, but that's the other reason I told him, so I could explain that we weren't going to be going to Disney World this time, even though we'd be seeing some Disney things. Once I told him Spiderman lived at Universal, he seemed happier

So now the countdown is really on! One week! I haven't even started thinking about packing, and I'm working every single day up until we leave, with a few extracurricular work activities sprinkled in so I'm going to be busy! That;s probably for the best though, I work better under pressure!

 

[Leshaface]

Wow already one week away!

I'm so excited for you to be going to the WWoHP! I'm a huge HP nerd too, and this is on my list...someday..

 

[photographymom517]

LOVE your plans!!!

I can't believe you only have a week until the trip!!!

I love how you decided to throw in DTD and Whispering Canyon! I am totally using you as my guinea pig on that one! LOL! I have been considering Whispering Canyon, but haven't made the ADR yet because I can't decide between breakfast & dinner! (Big surprise right? I can't decide...I'm always changing things!) Anyway, can't wait to hear what you think about the breakfast! Even if we don't eat there in December, I really want to check out WL just for the Christmas decor!

I'm glad you told Jack about the trip! I understand how you felt -- it's hard to be excited about something when you can't even talk about it!

There's a pic I want to post on your report, going to find it now!

 

[photographymom517]

Thank you Steph!!!! Tyler loved his gift!!! And of course, so did I!!!

You were soooo sweet to think of us on your trip!!! I re-read your PTR last night & now I keep thinking about Basin White!!!

I can't wait to visit it on our December trip! I've only been to the Basin at DTD (and went last September for the first time ever!) I'll have to post a photo of the soap you got me! It smelled soooo good & was super cute (it was a stork with a blue hat on!)

Thanks again!!!

I'd also like to share your gift wrapping idea with all of your readers because I just thought it was genius!!!!

Stephanie put all of my gift items into a photo box & then wrapped it & shipped it!!! It was a super cute way to wrap it because it looked really nice AND I can use the photo box for Tyler's baby pictures!!! Great idea!!! I'm totally stealing your idea for future baby gifts!

And here's a picture of Tyler wearing the onesie you got him!

 

[photographymom517]

 

[stephielela]

Thank you Steph!!!! Tyler loved his gift!!! And of course, so did I!!!

You were soooo sweet to think of us on your trip!!! I re-read your PTR last night & now I keep thinking about Basin White!!!

I can't wait to visit it on our December trip! I've only been to the Basin at DTD (and went last September for the first time ever!) I'll have to post a photo of the soap you got me! It smelled soooo good & was super cute (it was a stork with a blue hat on!)

Thanks again!!!

I'd also like to share your gift wrapping idea with all of your readers because I just thought it was genius!!!!

Stephanie put all of my gift items into a photo box & then wrapped it & shipped it!!! It was a super cute way to wrap it because it looked really nice AND I can use the photo box for Tyler's baby pictures!!! Great idea!!! I'm totally stealing your idea for future baby gifts!

And here's a picture of Tyler wearing the onesie you got him!

Lol, I bought that photo box right after you told me you were pregnant! Since you didn't know if it was a boy or a girl, I figured that one would fit either! I'm so glad you like the onsie, I loved it as soon as I saw it! I aboslutely adore Basin. The first time I went there was after I interviewed for a job at casting during my senior year of college. I walked over to catch the bus and stopped in and ended up buying myself the body butter as a congrats on my first interview gift

P.S. I also have that seat Tyler is in. Actually I think I sold it at our last yard sale, but Jack had one!

 

[stephielela]

Wow already one week away!

I'm so excited for you to be going to the WWoHP! I'm a huge HP nerd too, and this is on my list...someday..

I know!! Time flies!!

That's how I was about WWoHP, I KNEW I wanted to go but not if it meant no Disney, so that's why this is perfect since we really wouldn't have had time to do much Disney anyways

 

[stephielela]

What an adorable, happy boy!

 

[stephielela]

So evidently I'm not the only person in my family who can't stick with trip plans... it must be genetic.

Last night after discussing several details of the trip I started suggesting a rough touring plan. Long story short, my mom asked how much more hoppers would be... so we got them! Our concern was WWoHP. I have read it's better to go later in the day if you don't have early entry. We are doing IoA the second day so my mom was worried that if we waited we might get shut out. So we rearranged a bit...

Now after our Margaritaville dinnerwe are heading to IoA for WWoHP. If it's too packed we will do other stuff and then head straight there in the morning of our second day. If it's not crazy we will get as much done as we can and then do both parks again the second day. This makes things a little tricky because we are doing the meal deal for the second day, but only one park, so we will probably do Universal first thing snd then head over to IoA for the bulk of the day and then back to Universal for the Cinematic Spectacular at night. I do like having the flexibilty of hoppers so I'm happy!

Tonight we are watching Shrek and going over final details! I will probably start packing this weekend since all our laundry is clean and I shouldn't need any of the things I plan on bringing! I'm just so excited it's so close!

We also talked about park bags... for those that have been, how big does a bag have to be for them to assist on using the lockers? We are taking mini hipsters and I think that's it. I am hoping we can just keep those on us, but if we have to lock them up we will... I bought a mini aerosol sunscreen that fits and we have a couple mini fans I got from Target and both will fit in the mini hipster. We are planning on getting a couple of the refillable mugs, they are $7.99 each I think so we will just fill those up with water if need be. Everything seems to be coming together! I am going to start on a packing list today!!

I'm so glad this trip is starting get finalized, it stresses me out when things are still in the air, so now that tickets are bought etc, I feel so much better!

Firm dates are also starting to shape up for our Fall trip, so as soon as I get back from Universal I can start planning!

 

[jenseib]

It's pretty much ANY bag. Only certain rides, but they won't allow anything but basically a point and shoot or phone in your pocket.

 

[Leshaface]

Okay, WHERE did you get that onesie from?!? Seriously, as soon as you tell me i'm going to order it! It's ADORABLE!

As I was reading your last update, a WWoHP commercial came on So jealous!

 

[stephielela]

It's pretty much ANY bag. Only certain rides, but they won't allow anything but basically a point and shoot or phone in your pocket.

Booooooo! I figured that would be the case. On the plus side on most of those rides we will be doing baby swap anyways so it wont be a huge deal.

Okay, WHERE did you get that onesie from?!? Seriously, as soon as you tell me i'm going to order it! It's ADORABLE!

As I was reading your last update, a WWoHP commercial came on So jealous!

I got it at World of Disney in Orlando! I am going next week if you want me to see if they still have it! If you want me to pick one up for you PM me!

 

[stephielela]

OHMYGOSH!!! IT'S ALMOST TIME!!! Ok, now I feel better, I am finally excited!!! I got most of our stuff packed last night, just waiting on a pair of jeans and my laptop! The only kink right now is my brand spanking new iPhone I ordered... it's not here yet!!! I ordered it firs tthing Friday morning and its supposed to get delivered today but it's a signature required item and there will be chunks of the day where no one is home... I'm going to be so frustrated if I can't get it today!! But, there's nothing I can do really so I just have to relax!

I got us all checked in for our flight in the morning! We got A boarding so we are in good shape! Plus I only have to work until 2 today and then I'm going to our hotel spa to get my nails done After that I am picking up Jack from school (who by the way is so excited he has been absolutly nuts the last 2 days) and then we will go home, make dinner and chill out a bit. Then I have to go to a bowling event for work, which is ALWAYS tuns of fun actually. It means I'm going to be pretty tired tomorrow, but it will be vacation so who cares! Counting down the minutes ... 273 to be exact!
Also I may attempt to blog our trip as we go... It depends on how difficult it is on my phone... and which phone I have! But the link is in my signature!
The Many Adventures of Mommy and Jack

 

[stephielela]

... and counting!!! A little concerned about the Hurricane... but there isn't anything we can do about it now so I will hope for the best! AND my phone got delivered and signed for!! Off to get my nails done!

 

[jenseib]

Have fun! I'm glad the phone made it.

 

[stephielela]

Aaaand we're back! I definitely feel like I barely even was gone! Updates will start Wednesday, since I am off the next two days

 

[jenseib]

Welcome home

 

[stephielela]

Just testing my new Disboards app!!! This is pretty awesome! This will make live updates so much easier, except for pictures... But still! Now maybe I won't fall so far behind on my subs!

 

[Leshaface]

Geez! I didn't even get to tell you goodbye and now i'm saying welcome back! Sorry was MIA for a bit; been sooo busy, no time for the DIS

And what's this DIS app you speak of?!