the turtles take over the world- my 1st pre-trip report

[tipsytrtle]

Ok so my first report of anykind on the DIS....

We will be embarking on our first on-site vacation and our 1st trip to WDW in 9years
The dates? October 18th-November 4th
Staying at POP
Deluxe Dining Plan
10day park tickets

The Cast

Me: Amy AKA The Tipsy Turtle
I am 33yrs old, I am also a henna artist and owner of The Tipsy Turtle Henna (www.turtletipsy.com) I love doing henna, and its also where I got the title for the report. Our little band of happy travelers often refer to ourselves as the "turtle family" or simply the "turtles"
I also just finished up my BA in history and will be starting Grad school next year (i'd like to eventually teach college). I also have a mon-fri job as a claims adjuster for a major health insurance carrier
not a great or fullfilling job, but it provides my minimal insurance benefits and they give me lots of overtime which helps pay for disney....
I am pooh sized, love WDW, am a obssesive planner and the grand conductor for this trip. I am a pretty silly gal and love to have fun, be silly and i also love to indulge in adult beverages when i am not working or studying (which isnt often)
food wise i am pretty much a meat and potatoes kinda girl but i will try new things

DH: Nick AKA Nick the Pirate
39 and not going gracefully. My husband actually hates every birthday. he has been to WDW many many times as a child and teen with his parents (his mom owns a condo in the area) Nick is a big child at heart and is also a huge ball of silly, and i mean a big child
as he is almost 6 and a half feet tall
he LOVES buffets, breakfast foods and will eat anything, he also loves martini's and will try any rides

DD: Amanda AKA The Wackness
Amanda is 14, and as we all know a teen's brain doesnt work like a adult brain. however we believe amanda's brain fires off even more oddly than most. one minute happy, one minute mad.... she is the classic teenage girl.
she is a good student however and is "never" sick, we were lucky enough to get permission from the school district to go on this once in a long while vacation and miss amanda will be doing some assignments while we are gone and sending them to her teachers via the good ole internet...
not the most brave of eaters, sometimes she can be cajoled into trying new things... she is looking forward to WDW and especially visitng TOT which was her favorite ride back in 1999 ... now i feel old

DBFF: Maria Aka Happy
Maria is my henna partner and one of my best friends ever, aged 27 she is usually a very happy gal. she loves sushi and has cavier tastes on a hot dog budget. she went to WDW every year as a child until her father passed away when she was 19 .. she is likely to be a little emotional on this trip and is very excited... maria is a brave eater and loves wines and martini's

DBFF: Jesse Aka the kid
jesse is maria's boyfriend and also our firend. he is 21..... now i feel really old
this will be his first trip to WDW and intially he was not sure he would enjoy it, he thought he would get "bored" and miss home
once we showed him enough video and such he is finally excited but doesnt know what quite to expect
willing to try anything, laid back , kind and getting his drinking legs....

Maria and Jesse will not be with us the whole trip but will be with us from saturday 10/25-sunday 11/1

 

[tipsytrtle]

ok well even though nobody has commented on my pre-trip report
i will continue on LOL

today is our 30day mark and i can not believe it.... only 30days to go

i remember when we booked at the begining of the year and we had 9months to go.... time went by so fast

we are very very excited about this trip, a trip of firsts and much looked forward to after a few year of some trying down times

i am very excited about the length of our vacation, other than camping for 2weeks in the heat of pennsylvannia in august, i have never been on a "vacation" for longer than 7days....
so the idea of being on vacation for 17 glorious days and 18 fantastic nights

we booked a package deal for the bulk of our trip october 19th-november 2nd with park tickets and deluxe dining at POP century
orginally i had recieved a pin in the mail in january
then about a week ago i called and had the CM apply the general public code saving us another 165.00 ontop of what i already thouht was a good deal

so orginally we had the package booked, then i relaized i had "extra" vacation days to use and after playing around with airfare, we realized it was actually cheaper to extend our vacation versus flying back on the 2nd of november

we added one extra night prior to our package and 2extra nights after our package also to POP with a AAA discount

yesterday we recieved our package from disney with our vouchers (for golf, searacers etc) and our luggage tags....
its becoming more and more real everyday

 

[tipsytrtle]

Thats ok i dont mind.....

So here's rough outline of our plans
since we have so many days in the world there are lots of down times... any suggestions for these periods would be appreciated...
i know the ideas of minigolf or searacers and such has been kicked aorund and will most likely be done on some of the down days

10/18/08 Saturday Arrival day
flight comes in at 1141am

stay around resort

10/19/08 sunday

resort day

10/20/08 Monday

Magic Kingdom Day

10/21/08 Tuesday

Animal Kingdom Day

10/22/08 Wed

Epcot

10/23/08 Thursday

Hollywood Studios

10/24/08 Friday

resort day

MNSSHP in PM

10/25/08 Saturday

maria and jesse arrive

resort day

10/26/08 Sunday

magic kingdom

10/27/08 monday

Epcot

10/28/08 Tuesday

Animal Kingdom

10/29/08 Wed

Hollywood studios

10/30/08 thursday

Magic Kingdom day

AND Maria's birthday

10/31/08 Friday

Epcot

11/01/08 Saturday

Down Day

11/02/08 Sunday

Maria and Jesse leave for home

11/03/08 Monday

Resort day

11/04/08 Tuesday

we head home