The post rip, pre-trip, post trip trip report!

[teacher2525]

I am not really sure where this report is going to take me but I’ll give it a shot, because as I tell my basketball playing 13 year old son 100% of shots not taken don’t go in. So have a little faith in yourself and lay one up there, you just might be surprised!
Obviously (or maybe not so obviously, I don’t want take anything for granted) since I am the one taking the time to write this I am the Disney fanatic. I am not sure how the addiction occurred but it has developed into a full-blown problem that has a huge impact on my wallet and most of my friends and family questioning my sanity.

Dis board protocol indicates we must begin with introductions so here we go!

I'm the disney mom accompanied by my husband who likes disney but humors my obsession. Then we have the 3 men in training. On the left is DS#1 Junior, he is 11 in the photo but 13 now. In the middle, my baby, Jaccob. He is 5 in the photo but now is 7. On the right is the middle child who lives up to the title, Domenic. He is currently 11 but was 9 in the photo.

We are very excited because at this time next week we will all be packing and getting ready for an early morning flight.

We will also be accompanied by my mother, mostly referred to as Nonnie.

Maybe it is because of the crazy and somewhat dysfunctional family that I grew up in, you know I’ve yet to meet the functional family! I am on the eternal search for the functional family; maybe they are in Disney World living right in the middle of Main Street USA.
Maybe it is because I teach in the very poor heart of an urban school district and witness intense family dysfunction on a severe and sometimes traumatic regular basis. My work situation makes me realize that the craziness I grew up in was minor in comparison and I really don’t have too much to complain about.
Maybe it’s because of the very sad experience that I went through with my family and quite honestly didn’t think that I would ever live through. Two weeks after I returned from my honeymoon and two days after I told my 18 year old (she was 10 years younger than me) sister that she was going to be an aunt for the 1st time, she suffered a pulmonary embolism, slipped into a comma and died 10 days later.
You know that little thing they say really fast after they advertise the birth control pill on TV? Something about serious side effects like blood clots that could result in death. Well, THAT IS REAL,! Unfortunately, all too real. She was not someone who was in the high-risk category for this to happen to. She was average weight, a non-smoker and ran track and played Softball. No one expected it, how does the commercial put it? A rare but serious side effect, side effect seems such a trivial way to put it, the side effect was death.


It changed me forever, I told my husband I wouldn’t blame him if he left because I wasn’t going to be the person he married, I told him to just leave. He stuck around (despite my urging him to go elsewhere), God bless him, because it wasn’t easy and he is still here today 14 years later.

I don’t want to wallow in my sorrow for too long, where was I going with this sad story? Oh, why I am I a Disney nut? Those are some significant events in my life that may have compelled me to love a place where dreams and magic are the norm.

A dream is a wish your heart makes when you're fast asleep. In dreams you will lose your heartaches. Whatever you wish for, you keep. Have faith in your dreams, and someday, your rainbow will come smiling through. No matter how your heart is grieving, if you keep on believing, the dreams that you wish will come true.

-Cinderella


I really needed a place to lose my heartache because my heart was grieving and Disney World fit the bill!

 

[teacher2525]

Fast forward to the present, now we have 3 rambunctious boys and not a minute to spare in our schedule, especially during basketball and hockey season.

When: We will be traveling in August, as I am a teacher and like to take long vacations so I must travel in the stifling summer.

Where: "Second to the right, and straight on till morning."
That, Peter had told Wendy, was the way to the Neverland
Peter Pan

I think Neverland would be a great idea for a Disney resort. Alas (I think this is the very 1st time that I have ever used the word alas while writing), we cannot vacation in Neverland. Therefore, we will take up temporary residence in various other well themed lands of sort. You see, I am on a quest. What quest you ask? The quest for the Holy Grail?

“The quest for the grail is not archeology, it’s a race against evil. If it is captured by the Nazis the armies of darkness will march all over the face of the earth. Do you understand me?”

No? Well let me clarify and ease your minds, it is nothing that serious. My quest is to vacation at all of the DVC resorts. Thus far I have been fortunate enough to be a guest at the Boardwalk Villas (our home resort), Beach club villas, Animal Kingdom Lodge Villas, Saratoga Springs, Old Key West and The villas at Wilderness Lodge. Just a couple more to go!

Our August Itinerary for 2011
1st the boys and I are flying out alone to stay in a studio in the BLT (not the sandwich)

2nd the husband and the Nonnie will fly out and we will spend 2 nights some where off property (don’t tell it will be our dirty little secret) we will visit non-Disney parks during this trip, several non-Disney parks, OMG!! :

3rd We will all stay in Kidani Village with a Savanna view for 2 nights because my mother (Nonnie) is a big fan of Zebras and Giraffes and such. We stayed here for a week in 2009 and loved it but Nonnie didn’t make it that trip so I want to give here a chance to experience sitting on the balcony and watching the animals. It was amazing!

4th and finally we will move to the Boardwalk Villas (our home resort) for 10 nights.

 

[BsAngel]

Im in cant wait to rad more

 

[teacher2525]

Im in cant wait to rad more

Thanks for joining in It's nice to hear from someone

 

[teacher2525]

Departure day dawned bright and early; dawn was actually not for quite a while. I actually slept most of the night. The night before our trip in August of 2007 and I didn’t sleep a wink, not a wink! I couldn’t believe that I never actually fell asleep, not for a minute. The link to that almost finished trip report is in my signature but I have learned so much since then. My goals for this report are as follows:
1. Finish
2. Make my pictures the appropriate size
3. Provide links for chapters
4. Figure out how to get the ticker back up in my signature


I know what your thinking, they very lofty goals but I must have high expectations for myself just like I do for all my students.

We were heading to Nonnies and Papa’s to secure transportation to Logan airport. We arrived nice and early and were greeted by a pajama clad Nonnie sticking her out of the front door waving money. She came running out in her pajamas to give the boys money. You know she is forever giving out money to these grandchildren! $5.00 for report cards and for each lost tooth, a tough act for the tooth fairy to follow and I refuse to give out money for grades. Oh, your trying to save money for a play station 3 let me contribute $50.00! Mom. Are you kidding me, really? This behavior from the same woman who was exasperated when I needed $3.00 for student government dues in elementary school, I just don’t get it.

We managed to stuff 6 people, 5 large suitcases and 5 carryons into my Kia Sedona. As we pulled down the street waving to my mother Junior said, “I feel sad leaving Nonnie behind.’ His sadness passed rather quickly as we were on our way to Walt Disney World!

We were flying our favorite airline, Jet Blue. My boys love them some Jet Blue! In 2007 I surprised them with a 10 day August trip to the world’s happiest place and do you want to know what they were psyched about most? Maybe…. going to Disney world instead of the 10 day camping trip that they thought we were headed on, NO! Maybe 10 days and nights at the Beach Club Villas with storm a long bay, NO! They were most excited about flying Jet Blue. Yep, flying Jet Blue. I couldn’t believe it. Well, they have TV’s mom!

Anyway, we were flying Jet Blue at an un-Godly hour of the morning. I had originally booked a flight with a departing time of about 8ish (I forget the actually time, nobody really cares anyway) but they replaced it with a 6:00 a:m flight. I called to complain and they offered to switch us but the open flights were much too late. So a 6:00 a:m departure it was! We arrived in Orlando early! Super, super early! I think we took the back roads or a short cut or caught a tail wind or something.

nothing says orlando like this guy



We were renting a car but the budget did not allow for a van so the husband and Junior grab the bags and the car while I took the middle child Domenic and the youngest Jaccob to the magical express and we were all going to meet up at the resort and check in. I didn’t think that we would all fit in the car with the luggage that’s why we took the magical express. The magical express was a fun experience, we had never been passengers on the magical express prior to this. Maybe we should have received pins for this, seems like there is a pin for everything. Why not a this is my 1st magical express ride pin? Just kidding we would not wear such a pin, we are not a pin wearing kind of a family, but there sure are a lot of pins out there, I’m just saying. The gentleman who was stationed at the head of the magical express line was a hoot. All of a sudden we hear this man making an alarm sound and shouting, “ We have a character violation, I repeat a character violation in line #3.” Well of course everyone looks over to see what the commotion is all about and the cast member is pointing to this poor 10 year old boy in the line wearing a spider-man t-shirt. The poor guy turned 3 shades of red and looked like he wanted to use his spider-man powers to spin a web and swing right out of there. My 2 boys thought it was hysterical and come to think of it I thought it was pretty funny also.


Destination and home for several days

 

[teacher2525]

I will call this section of the report slumming it

Now please, I don’t want anyone to be offended. Pop century was a really nice resort, I really thought it was a wonderful resort and really enjoyed the atmosphere and the theming, I have no complaints.

On the other hand, unbeknownst to me, my children have become Disney hotel snobs. They took one look around and said, “um….how long are we here for?” The room was small, the beds were small and omg no waterslide! Really, are you kidding me? We added on 3 extra nights to our vacation, you could be back in Massachusetts with that oversized bathtub we call a pool, fortunate for you we are here in Disney World. In their defense, they only know DVC resorts, I should have let them know that this would be different. Ultimately they had a great time and now appreciate our DVC resorts a lot more.

We had adjoining rooms in some random year but I’ll be damned if I remember.
I know we were very close to a bowling pin pool and only about a 5 minute walk to the bus stop and food court. The boys and I unpacked somewhat while the husband went to purchase the tables in wonderland dining discount card and pick up some beverages. We participated in a fridge swap and we had to pick it up from another room. The retrieval of the fridge was kind of comedy of errors. We drove over to said room and could not find convenient parking in relation to the room. The temperature was a mere 176 degrees and we were melting just trying to find the room. We located the room, which was a good walk from our vehicle, retrieved the fridge and then had to carry the fridge to the car. Remember it is 176 degrees out we were melting and had to trek back to the care with a fridge that was larger than I had expected in box that was ready to break at any moments. This is the point that the husband turned into a Disney hotel snob. We made it back to the room with the fridge in tact and got it up and running.
Now the question was, what do we do next? We were hot, sweaty and tired, my husband and I voted for naps. We were out voted 3 to 2, the boys wanted to go to a park, In the regular world I like to be the boss, I guess it is more of a dictatorship and we don’t vote. However we were in Disney world so we gave democracy a whirl. The Democratic whirl, that could be a ride like the triceratop spin and that could actually morph into a whole new land. They could add the Republican round up, phillibuster falls and they could have a petting zoo with donkeys and elephants. I wonder if donkeys and elephants would get along…… They could call it…… I’ll have to think about the name for a while or they could just add it in Liberty Square. The boys wanted to head to a park and we had ADRs for the Sci Fi so off we went to DHS. We drove in our little PT Cruiser look alike that we rented. I can’t believe how much the price of a rental car increased in two years. I’m always watching the rental car prices. I book early and can usually find a much better deal eventually. In 2007 I booked a SUV for $210.00. I paid triple that price for this little fake PT cruiser but she was ours and we loved her. We arrived at DHS and the heat hit us like a brick wall. I had forgotten how hot Orlando is mid August at 2:00 in the afternoon.

 

[CW4DW]

I'm loving your report so far ~ can't wait for more!!!

 

[teacher2525]

I'm her now. My middle son was in the performance Pinocchio and then I packed so I couldn't spend much time on the boards. The bad news is I was using my fast passes significantly later than the assigned time and the cast member at Peter Pan said, "Just to let you know, beginning in September late fast passes will no longer be accepted."