The Peterson Family WDW Invasion 2009 PTR

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Yay for HDDR!!! What else??????????????/

 

[mariezp]

Alrighty, over the weekend I had a bit more success with my ADRs. Yesterday, I was able to book Coral Reef 1:10 for Dec. 12 and just this morning I got Tony's 12:45 for Dec. 13. Just a few more to go! LOVEMY3KIDDOS, really all that is left is a possible second shot at a better time for Sci-Fi and my other biggie.... the Pirate & Pals Fireworks Voyage. Gotta call for that one tomorrow morning!

So today after my 5:30 reservation session I went back to sleep. Although I have been spending plenty of my days daydreaming about WDW apparently it is time for Disney to take over my nighttime dreams as well. I dreamed I had gone to see the Beauty and the Beast show. For some unknown reason I was alone. I had just gotten settled into my front row seat and began to take pictures. After a few shots I hit the wrong button and my camera rewound leaving me with no more film. Then I woke up.
The dream really makes no sense because I no longer use a 35 mm camera but it did set me to thinking that I absolutely do not want to run out of room on my memory cards! I seem to recall reading somewhere that you can have Disney put your photos on a disc. Anyone have any info on this? I may have to go out into the wide Disworld to go look for more information elsewhere! I am a picture taking fool and considering I took just about 1200 photos in DL alone I better get myself prepared! I am going to have so much new stuff to see in so many more parks that I am going to have to come up with a plan so as not to run out of storage space. I really do not want to spend every evening uploading pics... as if being able to get the computer away from my son would be an option.

So... I have been doing some digging in my DD's closet. I found a stockpile of Disney shirts that I ordered when they were having one of their wonderful sales. I found almost enough tees for her for the trip. I only had to order her 2 more shirts and 4 pants so her wardrobe is set! One down.... 3 to go!
I have also ordered both menfolk new shoes. DH is still a growing boy and has outgrown his and DS somehow managed to ruin his last pair in mud the last time they went hunting.

Time is going pretty fast! I am down to only 78 more days. I can't wait!

 

[Pikester]

Congrats on the HDDR ADR! Now that I've finally learned how to post pics on the DIS I'm turning into a picture posting fiend. Here are some of our 2006 HDDR pics.

Here are a couple from near the Lego Store at DTD.

It's hard to believe that those are all made with Legos!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Congrats on the latest ADR's! You are right...you will need a ton of room on memory cards! I actually suggest getting one or two more cards. When I was going to put my pix on cd...they told me each cd was like $12 and it only held around 150 photos. Or, since you are staying offsite, think about doing it at Wal-mart or Walgreen's. There it is cheaper and you can get all of them on and get an index print of your photos. Hope that helps!

 

[MadilynnsMomma]

I agree with LOVEMY3KIDDOS - I plan to bring 4-5 1G memory cards. Not just for the ease of having room - but imagine - GOD FORBID!!! - You lose your camera, 2, 3, 6 days of pictures GONE!!! I can not take that risk

:: plink :: :: plink :: there's my two cents!

 

[mariezp]

Pikester, thanks for the pictures! My report is sorely lacking in the picture area since I haven't even been to WDW yet so thanks for sprucing the place up a bit!
My guys are going to love the HDDR menu. My DD will love if she could participate and I will be the one to enjoy it all.
They can do some amazing stuff with those Legos! We have been to Legoland in California. It was pretty neat, most especially for little kids.

Well ladies, I did go ahead and buy a couple more memory cards since I got a sale notice for a 2 pk @ 12.95 w/free shipping. So now I have (1)2 G & (8)512 mb cards and these 2 new 2GB cards. Surely that will be enough! If worse comes to worse I will buy more or go with the idea of stopping by Walmart.


Yesterday I was able to call in and got the Pirate & Pals Fireworks Voyage! I bet I wasn't on the phone an entire 5 minutes. So much easier than making dining ressies. I gotta say that I did not know what to do with myself this morning! No more ADRs. I was actually able to sleep past 6:00!

Next on my agenda is to start sorting out the details of what we want to see in each park to make sure we don't miss anything important. I have also got to go back over all the things I have bookmarked on my computer and try to organize all the info that I thought might be useful. That alone should probably keep me busy right up until the day we leave!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Glad to hear you were able to get the P & P fireworks voyage booked...and easily at that! Good luck organizing all of your info and making the arrangements! It's all so overwhelming! We have been there several times and it is still crazy for me to plan!

 

[Pikester]

You are welcome with the pictures! It wasn't until after I posted them that I thought you might not want them in your trip report so if you really don't like them you will not hurt my feelings by asking me to get rid of them. I just wanted you to see (as much as you can see from the pics anyways) what the Hoop looks like.

 

[mariezp]

Glad to hear you were able to get the P & P fireworks voyage booked...and easily at that! Good luck organizing all of your info and making the arrangements! It's all so overwhelming! We have been there several times and it is still crazy for me to plan!

Me too! That one did have me pretty worried since I hear so much about how hard everything is to get.
I think the only way I am going to have enough time to get all my stuff together is to go cold turkey... at least for a few days... and not do anything on the forums and devote my time to just organizing. When I get to reading I tend to get distracted and even end up making even more notes for myself! I've said it before but will say it again.... Disneyland is so much easier to plan for!

You are welcome with the pictures! It wasn't until after I posted them that I thought you might not want them in your trip report so if you really don't like them you will not hurt my feelings by asking me to get rid of them. I just wanted you to see (as much as you can see from the pics anyways) what the Hoop looks like.

Don't you worry! I want to keep them! I appreciate getting a glimpse to see the show.


So now I am sort of at a standstill with all the ADRs out of the way. I have been pondering the last few days as to whether a private portrait session would be worth the effort. It is pretty sad when the only family portraits we have are the ones from our Disneyland trips. Still those are better than none and I do love them but still I am thinking it might be nice to have some that did not have a castle in the background. (even though I will be sure to get those too!) Anyway, I can't seem to get the family to a portrait studio but I might be able to sneak it in when they are not expecting it while on vacation!

Another thing I have been thinking about is when we go to Hoop-De-Doo if we might be able to work in a wagon ride. Still need to gather some more info on that one.

Oh Yeah! I almost forgot to mention that DH received MY $100 gift card today from when I signed him up and made his first purchase with his new Disney Visa. That was really fast and is gonna really come in handy!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

You may also want to look into the horse-drawn sleigh ride at the Fort when you go to HDDR.

 

[mariezp]

Okay, LOVEMY3KIDDOS, so now you have had me thinking about carriage rides...

Here's my dilemma at the moment. I have ADRs for the 7:15 HDDR. From what I have found so far carriage rides begin at 6:00 for a 25 minute trip. Would I have enough time to do this and make it to the show on time?

The other option would be to change to the 5:00 show and see if it would work out to take a wagon ride afterwards. However, info I have found on the wagon rides say they begin at 7:00 so I don't think this option would work plus I don't think my bunch would really want to do anything else but go back to our house.

Another part of me is also saying "Good grief girl! Get a grip! You don't have to do any sort of ride. Just be happy doing the show!" So, just considering that alone.... 5:00 seems too early to have supper for my bunch but the 7:15 show will make for a pretty long day. For those of you who have done the HDDR.... do they serve your food at the beginning, all during or towards the end of the show? Trying to decide if I should keep the 7:15 show or if I should try to move it up to 5:00 so we are not out quite as late. Decisions, decisions...

 

[Pikester]

Hi Marie!

The food is served throughout the show. My DH just said it best, the food comes out in waves. We are early eaters so the 5:00PM show works best for us.

Do not try to fit everything in so that you run yourself ragged! Enjoy what you can do and use the leftover stuff to plan another trip to WDW.

 

[mariezp]

Thanks Pikester! You have helped me make up my mind!


Today I called and canceled my 7:15 HDDR and made another ADR for the 5:00 show. I am not going to try to cramp pack all I can into the day but rather stick with my original plan of only one big event per day. This should be my last big change... unless I can luck out and move my CP ressie to the late show. I have continued to call periodically for that but so far to no avail. I did manage to change our ADR for Sci Fi to a better time but I would still prefer an hour earlier so I will continue to check on that every time I am online. For now I am pretty satisfied with everything.

I have been working on a page to keep track of all our plans per day. I bumbled around on Excel and finally managed to come up with a pretty good color coded itinerary which highlights our days out of the park and our late nights. It also has a place for dates, which park, hours and ADR #s. Now I can sit and stare at all our details in color!

So now the basic plan is all laid. Next up I guess is all the little fine details. I suppose I will start going down my list day by day and decide what rides, how long it takes to get from point A to point B, etc.... I did order the free set of personalized park maps from the Disney website so I will have those to study and it looks like it is time to start reading through the Passporter and UG all over again. Anything to pass the next 66 days!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Glad you got everything worked out with your HDDR res! Isn't it a great feeling knowing that our weeks are in single digits!!??

 

[mariezp]

Oh yeah, LOVEMY3KIDDOS! Those days are going by faster and faster..... or so it seems.


I got a new offer in the mail today for my Disney Visa. I can earn 5X rewards on qualifying dining, groceries and gas in October-December. It was very nice of them to pass this on to me right before my trip. That should help rack up some more spending money!

Disney was busy today filling my inbox with interesting messages. One I got was about their Give a Day-Get a Day promotion that is coming up. Looks interesting and worthwhile to get involved in. If nothing else the website was very cute! Check it out! (Don't forget to enter the sweepstake too!)
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disneyparks/en_US/WhatWillYouCelebrate/index?name=WhatWillYouCelebratePage&int_cmp=DPHomeGADGAD

THEN.... they also sent me a reminder that the Princess and the Frog will be coming out while we are in WDW. We always love having a good movie to watch in the theater for a good mid day break! Hmmm..... must go back and see where to fit that into our schedule.

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

LOL I'm waiting for the e-mail that they are refunding me and I get to go for free!!!!

 

[mariezp]

That would be one fine offer! Guess we better not hold our breath.




I just realized today that there are only 85 days til Christmas! UGH! The very first time we went to Disneyland for a December trip I swore then that we would never do it again! When we came home I was so tired that I never did recoop enough to get into the spirit of Christmas at home. It was hurry hurry hurry (shopping, wrapping, decorating, etc.) and then suddenly Christmas had come and gone! In the park I absolutely did enjoy the weather, less crowds because of the off season, the lights, atmosphere and how beautiful all the decorations were but it just seemed to lessen the joy at home. So, here we are again counting down again to a trip in DECEMBER! I understand that if we were actually vacationing in the park on Christmas Day it would simplify everything but I am not quite adventurous enough to try that, especially since we prefer a traditional celebration at home. We come home this year with 9 days til Christmas. How do I get it all done and enjoy Christmas both places? Anyone ever felt this way? Can anyone fill me in on what you do so you don't come home feeling completely overwhelmed and under appreciative of the season?

 

[Canyon girl]

I haven't gone this close to Christmas before, not counting the year that I lived down there. As far as the Christmas shopping, I usually try to shop during the year (a little here and a little there). I already have some things for the kids hidden in the garage. I plan on buying presents for DH's nephews and nieces during the first 2 days there and shipping the presents from there. DH's family lives in Canada, so I can't wrap them before shipping anyway. Anything that I want to get for my kids for Christmas from WDW will be shipped home so that they can be wrapped shortly after we get home. This Christmas is going to be low on gifts anyway because we upgraded our vacation. (Hangs head in shame!!!) TA found an available tower theme park view room at the Contemporary! Anyway, another thing that I plan on doing is to buy as much of the food needed for Christmas before leaving for WDW. When I buy my Thanksgiving food, I will just get my Christmas stuff at the same time. Of course, I can't get the perishables but anything that will keep like the turkey and anything that is canned or prepackaged. I think that the only way to stay sane during this time is to do ahead. Just an idea! Besides celebrating DD's belated birthday (since it had to be rescheduled from DLR in Sept.), we are celebrating DH's citizenship. He had his interview/test a couple of weeks ago and was approved. He takes his oath next week!!! It's been a long time coming!

 

[Pikester]

Hey Marie,

Is there anyway you could decorate before you leave or will the pets get into it? I typically decorate over the Thanksgiving weekend but won't be able to this year since we are leaving the day after Thanksgiving. I'll have plenty of time when we get back but the last two times we went to Disney we got back with only a week (give or take) before Christmas. If you have a fake tree that can go up too but if you do real then decorate everything else and wait until you get back to do the tree.

to Canyon Girl for shopping all year long! I am so bad at doing that because I can't think ahead of what I want to get people.

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

I am planning on doing at least most of my shopping before leaving...along with the wrapping. If I get that done, I will be happy. But, the ultimate goal will be to decorate everything but the tree....we do a real tree and it would be needless by the time we got home!!! And, I also want to try to mix all of my cookies and store them in the freezer. That way, when we get back, I can just pull them out and bake! If I get all of that stuff done, I will be in really good shape and a happy camper. That will allow me 2 weekends to put the finishing touches on everything else before the big day! I also plan to have my cards done and ready to go out before leaving. Wow...list is growing! As far as at the parks...there is so much up that Disney does...you don't REALLY have to do your own decorating. But, if you wanted to...you could do a small artificial tree and decorate that.