The PTR 5 years in the making...princesses, pirates, pics, and surprises!

[ColoradoLime]

Hi everyone - I'm 29 days out from our first ever family trip to Disney and am just SUPER excited. So I wanted to put together a PTR to share our plans!

Here we go...

My Family
I'm Emily, the mom.

Doug is the dad.

And Olivia is the lucky little girl who gets to meet Princess Aurora for her 7th birthday.

Our Story
Olivia was 2 when she first learned about Mickey and the princesses.

(This is Olivia at 2 dressed as Cinderella for Halloween)

She very smartly asked me where all the princesses lived. When I told her they lived in Disney World she said, "Let's go!" At the time I figured 2 was a bit young for WDW so I told her we would go when she turned 7. To my surprise, Olivia never forgot my promise and truly has talked about our trip to Disney nearly every month for the last 5 years!!

Olivia's birthday is April 15 and I wanted to be there on her birthday, but couldn't get away from work, so we're going in May but are planning on making the entire week one big birthday celebration for her!

Previous Trips
I've been to WDW once when I was 12. My parents didn't have a lot of funds back then and the only reason we got to go is because they signed up for a timeshare tour and got the park tickets for free. We drove from Illinois all the way to Orlando in a tiny little Mazda hatchback. We stayed in this WAAAAY off-site motel that was called the Sea Dip Motel. My brother and I were quickly renamed it the "Flea Dip" Motel because it was such a dive. I don't remember a lot about that trip other than the fact that I never got to see Mickey! So, this trip I'm on a mission to see the mouse.

Doug was 7 on his last and only trip to WDW. He's very excited that Olivia will be the same age he was during her first trip.

More to come...

 

[ColoradoLime]

Our Story

Here's a bit of background on our family.

Doug and I met in an online chat room. I was living in Denver and he was in Kansas City. At the time I was dating and he was living with someone. Eventually his relationship ended and none of mine were going anywhere. Doug started pursing me until one night I was sitting in class and realized I was watching the clock because I couldn't wait to get home and talk to him. I was smitten!

Four months after we first met, Doug came out to Colorado to meet me. This is our first picture together:

The second day of his visit we went to a Rockies game and afterwards Doug said something to me that I didn't quite catch. But you know how sometimes someone says something that at first you don't hear, but by the time you say, "what?" your brain finally processes what they said? Yeah - the thing that Doug said that my brain finally processed was "I love you." It totally caught me off guard and I think it caught him off guard as well and so he pretended he didn't say anything to avoid embarrassment.

Later though he brought it up again and I told him I love him as well. By the end of that week we had decided that Doug would move out to Colorado and move in with me. And 2 weeks later he did!

Our family started earlier than planned when just three months later I found out I was pregnant! I was so nervous to tell Doug. I knew he wanted kids, but I wasn't sure how he would feel about it happening so soon. When I told him we were going to have a baby, without skipping a beat he hugged me and said, "That's awesome!"

Then he asked if I wanted to get married. Uh - NO!! I had only known him for 6 months at this point. lol I told him I was ready to have a baby, but not ready to think about marriage. I just wanted to focus on the baby first, and then we could talk about that later.

Here's an ultrasound pic of baby Olivia:

So Olivia was born in April 2002 and just a week prior to that Doug proposed to me again and this time I said yes! (I'll tell the story if anyone wants to hear, but I'll save it for another time as I feel like this post is starting to drag on and on.)

I don't have any of our professional wedding pics electronically, but here's one of me that my mom took:

And one of baby Olivia at the wedding:

Ok back to Disney...

 

[ColoradoLime]

Our Plans
Because this trip is Olivia's birthday celebration, I have TONS of surprises in store for her. The first surprise is when we are going. I couldn't bear to keep the entire trip a secret (actually it would have freakin' killed me!), so she knows we are going in May, but doesn't know when in May we are going. I plan on packing her bag in secret and waking her up on the morning of our departure and saying something along the lines of, "Get up, today's the day we're going to Disney!" (Or something a bit more creative, but you get the point.)

I booked our trip back in December to take advantage of the 4/3 deal. Originally I booked ASMovies, but then I heard about the new pirate rooms at Caribbean Beach Resort - how could we not stay in one of those?! However, I quickly discovered that these rooms are not available with the 4/3 special pricing (sneaky Disney!). So I asked the the CM if I could just add a day to the end of our trip, still get the 4/3 deal, and the pirate room? And he said yes! Woo Hoo so now we HAVE to stay an extra day (darnit!)

The pirate room is the second surprise I have planned for Olivia. She has no idea we have the special room booked, all she knows is we're staying at a hotel with beaches!



Here is a picture of the room for anyone that hasn't seen it yet:

Up next: Our ADRs, Countdown Party, and the 6 words no Disney lover should ever have to hear!!

 

[pjzkent]

Our Plans
I plan on packing her bag in secret and waking her up on the morning of our departure and saying something along the lines of, "Get up, today's the day we're going to Disney!" (Or something a bit more creative, but you get the point.)

how about a wake up call from a princess that morning?

https://secure.uvoxnetworks.com/disney/affhome.html?affno=66

 

[shordiebecka]

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[ColoradoLime]

Yeah, my first posters!!!

how about a wake up call from a princess that morning?

https://secure.uvoxnetworks.com/disney/affhome.html?affno=66

I actually do have this scheduled. Sleeping Beauty called on her actual birthday so I set up Mickey to call and talk about the trip!

I'm in! Can't wait to hear more!!

Thanks!!! I'll be posting more VERY shortly!

 

[mdsouth]

Hello,

I enjoy reading about people who seldom get to go (like me).

It will be fun reading about your DD's first trip.

I went as a kid once with my folks. We stayed in some dive in Kissimee. We only stayed a few days. I have been back twice since, once just my DH and I when we were younger (1993) and once in 2005 with our kids. It was their first trip. My DS was 8 at the time and my DD was 2 1/2. It was a great age for my DS. He loved it! My DD enjoyed it, but since she was a toddler, she wore out easily and became cranky at times.

We are planning a trip in late June/early July. I haven't told the kids yet. I started my own PRT today. It is called, "Insane? Week of July 4th or something like that. GAWSH, I can't remember the name of my own pre-trip report!

 

[mdsouth]

I just noticed your PTR link in your signature. How do you do that? I guess I will have to go research it.

 

[ColoradoLime]

ADRs
I cannot tell you how many times I changed our dining plans before actually calling to make the reservations. This was the single most stressful part of planning this trip. I mean - seriously I have to figure out what I'll be hungry for 90 days in advance?! lol So many revisions later, here are our ADRs set in stone and no turning back now, including some other fun things we're doing...

5/16/2009 Arrival/EPCOT
Dinner Le Cellier

5/17/2009 Magic Kingdom Day 1
Breakfast Cinderella's Royal Table
Dinner Chef Mickey

5/18/2009 Magic Kingdom Day 2
Perfectly Princess Tea Party

5/19/2009 Animal Kingdom Day
Breakfast Donald's Safari Breakfast - Tusker House
Dinner Chip n Dale Campfire Sing a long

5/20/2009 Hotel Pool / Downtown Disney Day
Breakfast Kona Café
Dinner T-Rex Restaurant

5/21/2009 MK/Epcot
Morning Pirate Cruise - Grand Floridian
Dinner Mama Melrose / Fantasmic!

5/22/2009 Beach Day
Dolphin Cruise to Egmont Key

5/23/2009 Disney Studios
Lunch Sci-Fi Drive In

5/24/2008 MK/Departure Day
Breakfast Crystal Palace

The Countdown Party
To mark the beginning of our countdown, we had a countdown party on the day that was 90 days from the start of our trip.

For breakfast we made Mickey pancakes...

For dinner, we made Mickey cheese pizza...

Here's a pic of Olivia with some of the items she received as presents for the countdown party...

Now on to the 6 words no Disney lover should ever have to hear!!

All of the planning and excited over Disney had been building in me for some time. I had been scouring the internet to find the best information, reading every travel book I could find at the library, and then stumbled upon the DISboards and tapped into a wealth of helpful information! So, needless to say I was brimming with Disney info and excitement.

I will admit that I was talking about Disney EVERY day. But to my defense there was a lot to talk about. We had to plan the parks we were going to visit and on what day so that I could set up the aforementioned ADRs. And in order to determine which restaurants to make ADRs at, I had to describe each one to DH so we could determine where we wanted to eat.

So, one night I had just gotten done saying something Disney related to DH (probably while reading some fab info I pulled from the DISboards) and he turns to me and says..."You talk about Disney too much!" WHAT?! By my records there is no such thing as "too much", it's an impossibility!

Not to worry though, it didn't take long to win DH over and hear him say the 14 best words in the English language. But I'm saving that for another post...

 

[ColoradoLime]

I just noticed your PTR link in your signature. How do you do that? I guess I will have to go research it.

Welcome! I just copied the link in the browser after I posted my first message, then pasted it in my signature using the little link icon (the one that looks like a globe with a chain link).

 

[shordiebecka]

what a fun party! She must be so excited to go to Disney. Your Adr plans look great!

 

[ColoradoLime]

what a fun party! She must be so excited to go to Disney.

Thanks! She is excited, but truthfully I think I'm more excited than her - I feel like I'm a kid again planning all this. lol

 

[megveg]

here I am!! you should probably check out my DISmeet thread!

Check it outt!

 

[Lesley Mahler]

Subscribing!! This is great!!!

 

[ColoradoLime]

here I am!! you should probably check out my DISmeet thread!

Check it outt!

Sorry Meg, we leave the day before.

 

[ColoradoLime]

Just wanted to let everyone know I've got two 7 page papers I have to complete this week before Disney so I'm cranking those out and then I'll be able to post some more here Wed or Thur before we go.

 

[ColoradoLime]

Ok, I lied - the papers took longer than I thought and now I'm 12 hours away from our trip!!!!!

Fortunately we already packed (actually we've been packed for 3 weeks!). Gotta finish up some last minute planning and then see if I'll be able to sleep at all tonight. I'll be working on a trip report when I return so stay tuned!!

 

[shordiebecka]

hope you have an amazing time!