The "We have one whole year to wait" Now a Trip Report

[Laura.bora]

Haha - you're not the first one to start my pre trip in the middle! At least you got here after the baby was born! The rest of us were waiting here in suspense wondering when he'd show up! It was particularly suspensful for me when I went into labor Tuesday morning, and Wednesday, I was still in labor, but no baby - by Thursday I was convinced I would just remain in labor forever and never give birth!!

 

[Laura.bora]

Almost got it. I guess I needed to delete all the rest of the link after that? Oh please help me. (not that I have a trip report, but I could since I am going in September too. hahahhaa)

yup - that's what you forgot to do! The part that's highlighted in blue, you erase and replace with whatever you want to put there.

 

[MomsOf2boys]

Haha - you're not the first one to start my pre trip in the middle! At least you got here after the baby was born! The rest of us were waiting here in suspense wondering when he'd show up! It was particularly suspensful for me when I went into labor Tuesday morning, and Wednesday, I was still in labor, but no baby - by Thursday I was convinced I would just remain in labor forever and never give birth!!

He is adorable by the way. Your whole family is. I don't think I could have handled that long of labor but then again, you dont get a choice do you? I am caught up now. Feel free to continue on anytime. Hahaha

 

[MomsOf2boys]

yup - that's what you forgot to do! The part that's highlighted in blue, you erase and replace with whatever you want to put there.

Ok I think i got it. I also have to say that I love the fact you are going debt free. We usually plan our trips out 2 years ahead because we pay them off prior to and make sure that we only spend what we have cash to pay off. It makes enjoying your vacation so much nicer.

 

[Laura.bora]

He is adorable by the way. Your whole family is. I don't think I could have handled that long of labor but then again, you dont get a choice do you? I am caught up now. Feel free to continue on anytime. Hahaha

The labor wasn't too bad honestly. And since I didn't share my labor story - I will now!! My contractions stayed at a steady 10 minutes apart from Tuesday - Friday, and never really intensified. The first night I barely slept because of the anticipation. Normally I go so quickly that I thought I must be going any minute. The second and third night I slept quite soundly, because at that point I decided I would never give birth, just forever be in labor. Friday night into Saturday morning the contractions intensified, and then quite suddenly Saturday morning, I went from about 7 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart . My sisters boyfriend had come over to ride with us to the hospital and watch the kids. He's never had any type of experience with this before. He did quite well, even through Ken and Josh basically had to carry me to the car because the contractions suddenly kicked in. He said the only point he got nervous with was when I turned to Ken and said "Make sure you have the cell phone in case I need to deliver in the car." Wish I could have seen his face for that one!! My water broke in the car, but thankfully God is in control of all things, so it broke on the top, so I didn't give birth in the car! I waited patiently for my water bag to fully break naturally (the doctors really wanted me to just let them break it, I wouldn't let them). At 1:10 the doctor stepped out of the room, convinced we were going nowhere fast. The door closed, a contraction came on, my water broke everywhere and suddenly there was a head. The poor nurse was like Keep your legs together DO NOT PUSH and for heavens sake get up in the bed!!!! ( I had been standing the whole time). It was kind of a panic with her, I kind of remember her reassuring me that if she needed to deliver the baby she could, and throwing on gloves and gown and throwing open the door and screaming for the doctor. I wasn't worried. I figured worst case senario, Ken would catch. Doctor casually walks in, sees me on the bed and the nurse ready to catch, and she said something like "she's ready already???" and then quickly jumped into action and caught Mr Ephraim at 1:14. Later on I got a strong lecture from the dr. that next time I had better make sure to camp out at a near-by hotel when my due date gets close. Sure I will.......

Ok I think i got it. I also have to say that I love the fact you are going debt free. We usually plan our trips out 2 years ahead because we pay them off prior to and make sure that we only spend what we have cash to pay off. It makes enjoying your vacation so much nicer.

Goodness gracious, I love the fact that we're going debt free too! It's such a nice feeling. Even when we would go with my FIL, he would pay for everything, but it was still a bit of a financial burden, because then, while we still got our normal paycheck, we would miss out on milage reimbersment which is a huge chunk of our income. This time around, even though we will still not have milage, IT DOESN"T IMPACT US! It's such a freeing feeling. To be able to go down there, know everything is paid for, and to know we won't need to go home and pick up the pieces will be so nice.

I've tried everyday to get Le Cellier for dinner. No luck yet....sigh. Oh well.

 

[Laura.bora]

Hey everyone! We decided to add a dinner on to our already growing list of places we are eating! We're going to have dinner at Grand Floridian Cafe on the night of Ainsley's birthday. I asked for 7pm, and we got 7pm. I figure we can always cancel later if we change our minds, but if I decided I want to go out for dinner, and there are no ressies left, I'm out of luck! Also, I happened to catch a thread about "do you need to order off the kids menu" - I knew the answer was yes, what I didn't know was what a limited selection of choices the kids had!! Hot dogs, burgers, chicken nuggets, mac and cheese and PB&J seem to be the most common choices. Some of the restaurants have a good choice - so after talking, Ken and I decided that if the restaurant offers a choice other than the normal burgers/hot dog fare, then they need to choose that. Because knowing my kids, they WOULD eat nothing but Hot Dogs and Macaroni and cheese the entire trip. Ummm....no, I don't think so! There will be VEGETABLES eaten on this trip!!!

 

[Shmu]

Good job on the links.

I have never eaten at the Grand Floridian. That would be exciting.

 

[Laura.bora]

Sigh......are they EVER going to announce free dining?????? Or is it possible that there ISN'T free dining this year for the general public??

 

[Laura.bora]

FREE DINING IS ANNOUNCED!!!!!

 

[Laura.bora]

Ok - now I'm so excited. I feel like I've got my planning groove back on. There was nothing left to plan for and wait for UNTIL Dinsey announced Free Dining! Ok - so the way I see it is this....golly - just had a mini heart attack! I thought I lost my planning journal! That would NOT have been good!!
Ok - so my original price was $4,602
Free dining would put it at - $3,319
Free dining delux plan - $4,075

So now I just need to figure out if it would be worth it to get deluxe or not.

 

[stagemomx3]

We liked being on the deluxe plan.

 

[MomsOf2boys]

The labor wasn't too bad honestly. And since I didn't share my labor story - I will now!! My contractions stayed at a steady 10 minutes apart from Tuesday - Friday, and never really intensified. The first night I barely slept because of the anticipation. Normally I go so quickly that I thought I must be going any minute. The second and third night I slept quite soundly, because at that point I decided I would never give birth, just forever be in labor. Friday night into Saturday morning the contractions intensified, and then quite suddenly Saturday morning, I went from about 7 minutes apart to 2 minutes apart . My sisters boyfriend had come over to ride with us to the hospital and watch the kids. He's never had any type of experience with this before. He did quite well, even through Ken and Josh basically had to carry me to the car because the contractions suddenly kicked in. He said the only point he got nervous with was when I turned to Ken and said "Make sure you have the cell phone in case I need to deliver in the car." Wish I could have seen his face for that one!! My water broke in the car, but thankfully God is in control of all things, so it broke on the top, so I didn't give birth in the car! I waited patiently for my water bag to fully break naturally (the doctors really wanted me to just let them break it, I wouldn't let them). At 1:10 the doctor stepped out of the room, convinced we were going nowhere fast. The door closed, a contraction came on, my water broke everywhere and suddenly there was a head. The poor nurse was like Keep your legs together DO NOT PUSH and for heavens sake get up in the bed!!!! ( I had been standing the whole time). It was kind of a panic with her, I kind of remember her reassuring me that if she needed to deliver the baby she could, and throwing on gloves and gown and throwing open the door and screaming for the doctor. I wasn't worried. I figured worst case senario, Ken would catch. Doctor casually walks in, sees me on the bed and the nurse ready to catch, and she said something like "she's ready already???" and then quickly jumped into action and caught Mr Ephraim at 1:14. Later on I got a strong lecture from the dr. that next time I had better make sure to camp out at a near-by hotel when my due date gets close. Sure I will.......


I've tried everyday to get Le Cellier for dinner. No luck yet....sigh. Oh well.

Oh my gosh...that is super quick. I was thinking it would be very hard to get in the bed with the head coming already. YIKES!!

 

[Laura.bora]

Oh my gosh...that is super quick. I was thinking it would be very hard to get in the bed with the head coming already. YIKES!!

It was!!! I wanted to remain standing, but they wouldn't let me. They lowered the bed to meet my butt, and then she(the nurse) and Ken helped manouver me around.

 

[Laura.bora]

We decided to book the Yachtsman Steakhouse for dinner the second night we're in Disney. We're going to cancel Le Cellier we think. I wasn't thrilled we had lunch - the lunch menu isn't great. Then I heard that they changed the menu! They got rid of the chocolate moose!! And the only other thing I really wanted to try - the maple BBQ fillet. Then I discovered that the Yachtsman is just a short walk away. I consulted my husband, we decided we'd try our luck and aim for a 5:30 dinner and we got 5:40! Perfect! MMmmmmm....I'll be dreaming of steak for months now!

 

[Laura.bora]

oh my - just discovered they have lobster bisque AND creamed spinach!!!!

 

[IkeandMike]

I just read your comments on LeCellier. I had to book lunch too, no dinner's available. Now I'm nervous. I'll have to check out the menu. That's great that you got the free dining. As of now with our dates, we are checking in on the 19th and arn't elligible. However some nice people over on tour guide mike's told me to check again on thurs. that as long as we check in by the 20th we should get the free dining.

 

[Laura.bora]

I just read your comments on LeCellier. I had to book lunch too, no dinner's available. Now I'm nervous. I'll have to check out the menu. That's great that you got the free dining. As of now with our dates, we are checking in on the 19th and arn't elligible. However some nice people over on tour guide mike's told me to check again on thurs. that as long as we check in by the 20th we should get the free dining.

I haven't scored free dining yet - I need to call Thusday, but I'm confident I will get it. I'll be up at 7am calling And the September Free Dining Watch thread had success with the extended free dining. As long as you checked in before the cutoff date, you had free dining your entire trip. So if they (disney visa card holders) were able to do it, I'm sure we will too! Which means free dining for you too!!

I can't remember if I said the things that were gone from the menu, but it's the maple BBQ fillet, chocolate moose and.........something else.....can't recall. If you can't get Yachtsman, there was also the Captain's Grill - or something to that effect. That was our 2nd choice. Also within walking distance, and looks like a really good selection of food, and it said it was a DIS favorite.

 

[Laura.bora]

oh - and Ike and Mike - since you also have a lunch ressie, you can book dinner at yachtsman or captains and still keep you le cellier lunch ressie and cancel one of them when you are SURE that is what you want to do! (or you can go steak ccrazy and eat at both )

 

[Laura.bora]

And finally, after having done the math, it is cheaper for us to pay OOP for our extra meals vs. doing the DxDDP. So basic DDP with a ton of OOP meals, here we come!!!

 

[Laura.bora]

Ok, after being on hold for 1 hour and 20 minutes and listening to such wonderful songs like "once upon a dream" - twice - someone picked up . How I love that part!! I was able to get free dining, for the lenghth of my stay BUT I did need to upgrade to a courtyard view, so my savings aren't as great as they would have been if I stayed with the woods view, but I still saved over $600 so I am a happy camper!!