There’s No Turning Back Now! 7/23 - Link to my new PTR!

[Victoriasmom98]

I am soooooo excited that you are finally booked and are staying at POP!!! This is so cool!!! Now the planning will begin in earnest, huh? Did you make ADR's??

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

WOOT!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you!

YES, 50s section is GREAT and they almost always honor adjoining rooms, that's what we had. I also requested a lake view and we were on the 4th floor in building 3. The lake view was great b/c it's quiet and relaxing but I'm sure pool view would be FUN, so it depends what you want. I would add those requests as well!

I cannot wait to read more! Sorry your brother won't make it!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Congratulations on booking a trip Erin!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Oh man, Big Brother's got nothing on Mickey, eh? That is pretty cool that they found your sister's address but I agree a little stalkerish.

Yeah, it was a little on the creepy side

Your first evening sounds great! We love 1900 PF, the food is okay but the character interaction is the BEST.

You know how I feel about the Step-Sisters!!!

My little brother is always opting to go to spring break with his friends instead of going places with us too.

Can't wait to see the rest of your plans!

I know! What is with little brothers deciding to go on Spring Break with their friends, huh? He came over yesterday and he told me that they are staying in a nice condo and that they are going SKY DIVING tomorrow! I am so jealous! I know he is going to have a great time, though Stay tuned! I’m trying to get the first day of touring plans up tonight!

I am soooooo excited that you are finally booked and are staying at POP!!! This is so cool!!! Now the planning will begin in earnest, huh? Did you make ADR's??

Yes, I’m so glad I can REALLY plan. My planning so far was nothing compared to the planning I have ahead of me I’m having so much fun! I think the ADRs are done. I’m pretty sure I tweaked them enough, but you never know. As I do our touring plans, things may change. You know how that goes

WOOT!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for you!

YES, 50s section is GREAT and they almost always honor adjoining rooms, that's what we had. I also requested a lake view and we were on the 4th floor in building 3. The lake view was great b/c it's quiet and relaxing but I'm sure pool view would be FUN, so it depends what you want. I would add those requests as well!

I cannot wait to read more! Sorry your brother won't make it!

I’m excited too! I thought you had the 50’s section! Whew! Well, I’m going to have to call and make those other requests too. I think we would prefer the lake view because I think the pool might get a little noisy. Thanks for the tips! I really wish my brother was still coming too, but as I mentioned before, this just gives me an excuse to plan a Grand Gathering in the future!

Congratulations on booking a trip Erin!

Thanks! I’m so happy that it is finally official! Especially after all of the false starts over the past year or so! This trip is going to be great!


As I said before, I’m going to try to post every day. I might not post over the weekend, but I will try to post at least once because I don’t want to go too long without posting. You know how I can get So, if you are my friend on FB, you know why I am going to be busy this weekend. If not, well, you’ll just have to wait for the Mini-TR! Also, if you are my friend on FB, you are probably wondering why I am still “Single”…Well, that is because I am single! Yeah, things didn’t work out with me and the Old Man. Turns out that people don’t change that much. Unfortunately, the same issues that broke us up 20 years ago broke us up a month or so ago. Well, it was really a combination of things. One thing was that he was set in his decision not to have any more kids. He has two and I have two, but I always imagined having more because I am from a big family. If I didn’t get divorced, I probably would have had four kids. At least. Seriously! Since kids were totally off of the table for him, it became an issue with me because I’m 39 now and my window is getting smaller every day! I knew that if I couldn’t have more kids then I would probably adopt. So, being that he didn’t want to have any more at all, I knew it was going to become a problem if we got really serious. That wasn’t the only thing that broke us up, though. That was just one of the straws on the camel’s back. The Old Man seemed to think I was the same girl that broke his heart 20 years ago and he had a lot of trust issues. I didn’t realize that until he started acting strange a couple of months ago. Just as we were starting to get closer, he suddenly became distant. My theory is that he was scared of how close we were becoming but who knows? The point is that bad attitude that he had 20 years ago reared its ugly head again and he was pretty disrespectful to me the last two times that we went out. I won’t put all of his business out there (or, at least, not any more of his business ) but I don’t stand for disrespect and I ended it with him. It was too bad but I wasn’t going to waste my time with a man who decided he wasn’t going to treat me nicely any more. I’m not sad or bitter about it, but I am disappointed that I may have lost him as a friend. When he was just a friend, things were simpler. But you never know. He could have pulled that disrespectful nonsense at any time, even if we were only friends. So oh well. You win some, you lose some I have been out a few times and met some really nice people since then. I have even gone out on a really nice date with someone new! So we’ll see what the future holds. I think it is better to start fresh than to go digging in the graveyard of past relationships!

Speaking of digging in a graveyard, I’ll give you a hint about what the kids and I are doing this weekend! Coy is going to find out how to survive a Zombie Apocalypse! OK, that is the only hint! If you get that, you win a prize! Seriously, though, I will try to update because I am writing my posts ahead of time so that all I have to do is post. Mostly, I’m going to be just spending time with my kids and enjoying a few days away in a new city. Oops! I’ve said too much!

 

[-Hope-]

Well, you seem to have a great outlook about the relationship ending but I'm sorry it didn't work out. I say good for you though for knowing what you want and how you expect to be treated.

I know where you're going but mums the word! I hope you all, but especially Coy, have a great time- what a great opportunity!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I also know what the secret is but my lips are zipped. Hope it's a fabulous time!!

Sorry you had to deal with disrespect. Not cool.

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Well, you seem to have a great outlook about the relationship ending but I'm sorry it didn't work out. I say good for you though for knowing what you want and how you expect to be treated.

I know where you're going but mums the word! I hope you all, but especially Coy, have a great time- what a great opportunity!

I also know what the secret is but my lips are zipped. Hope it's a fabulous time!!

Sorry you had to deal with disrespect. Not cool.

Thanks for the support, guys!

Coy, True and I had an awesome time on our little adventure! I’m trying to sort through the pictures now to get them posted soon.

Other than that… guess what today is!

100 DAYS UNTIL OUR VACATION!!!

Let the countdown begin!!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Hey buddy!!! I don't know how I missed your previous post. I must not be with it lately. I am very sorry to hear that you and the Old Man ended things. It's hard to find that special someone (well, unless you are Hope or Karen --- they've been married FOREVER!!). Trust seems to be the big issue for a lot of people. I think you have to be confident in who you are and what you have in order to be secure in a relationship. Don't get me wrong --- I love Peter with all my heart, but I am a strong enough person to be without him if that was ever necessary. Apparently he wasn't strong enough in his own self-worth to be able to trust you. Ok, there it is ---- my Dr. Phil moment. I would have loved to have more kids myself. My health is not great, so pregnancy is out of the question and I am 44 afterall. Peter grew up with foster brothers/sisters and his father adopted children with his second wife, so he's not really open to either fostering or adopting. I guess I will just have to stick with loving other's babies. I really want one, though, but I think we have a good life now and shouldn't rock the boat. Oh, I do keep telling him to go to the baby store and pick me up one, but that's just silly.

Since I am your FB friend I know what you did last weekend and yes, I am waiting on the mini-trip report! So cool! I love going to Boston! I usually hit the New England Flower Show, but I didn't plan on it this year as I'm going to the Scrapbook convention in NH in April. Priorities, people!

Well, if you need me I'm here for you. You know how to get a hold of me on FB if needed. *hugs*

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Thanks, Ann. I'm just glad I was able to make the decision to end it before one of us got really hurt. I take responsibility for any part I played in his trust issues but on the other hand, goodness gracious! It was 20 years ago, man! Your Dr. Phil moment was absolutely right. People have to be secure in themselves to be able to trust and love others fully. Now, about this baby store. Where exactly is that located? I want to pick up a kid! If only it could be that easy, right? Then maybe Coy and True would stop asking me for a little brother or sister!

I have to hurry up and post about our little trip last weekend. The kids and I had so much fun. I took about 200 pictures, so I need to go through those when I get home. It was really cool there and I hope to go back soon

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

We are deep into the double-digits until our trip! Well, not actually deep but we are 97 days out from our trip! We can’t wait! My sisters and I actually talked for a while last night about the plans for which parks we were going to and the restaurants where we’d eat. Coy and I have to get on the ball and create that Power Point presentation! Ashley actually read this whole PTR a few weeks ago, so if she reads now, she can see the plans I have in store for us! (Ashley, if you are reading this, create an account and comment! Join in with the fun! I need a planning buddy! Plus, we need to conspire on how to get Marissa to wear the matching shirts we want to wear! ) Yes, while we were talking last night, Marissa told us that she has no intention of wearing matching Disney shirts with us! (Marissa, if you are reading this, you need to create an account too and get Disney fever with the rest of us! ) I’m sure Disney fever will hit her eventually, so I’m not worried She’s just as excited as the rest of us for the trip – she’s just not too excited about the matching shirts! She’s too cool for matching shirts, but I’m too cool for them too and I’m going to wear them! This is good, though. This will challenge me to design a really cool set of shirts for us to wear I told my sisters that we were only going to have to wear matching shirts once for our before-park-opening picture in front of the Castle. I also gave them full disclosure by telling them that I absolutely positively WILL tag them in each matching shirt picture on Facebook! I said I didn’t care if they took the shirts off after the picture – I just must have my Castle picture!

My sisters also asked me if we were going to visit each park within Disney World! They don’t know me at all, do they? So, showing them our plans is a must! Hopefully, my kids and I can visit them this coming weekend and show them some interesting stuff. In the mean time, I have been working really hard on some touring plans! The first thing I did was compile all of the information I could from touringplans.com. I got the park hours, Extra Magic Hours, parade times, show times and crowd levels. That website determines the best parks, the neutral parks and the parks to avoid based on a 10 point crowd scale. Unfortunately, some of the parks we plan on visiting are on the days that have the worst crowds! but, I am pretty confident that using the touring plans will help us out a lot! Here is a picture of the calendar I created for the week:





This is just my rough-draft. I’m going to ask Coy to make it nice and impressive and Disney-fied so we can include it in our presentation The numbers in the lower left corners of the park days are the crowd levels on a scale from 1 – 10. The letter in the lower right corner symbolizes the park recommendation: B – Best, N – Neutral and A – Avoid. These are some scary numbers for me, guys! I’m used to 1 – 4 crowd levels! OK, OK, I’ll quit my bellyaching! June really is the best time for us this year because Coy and True really can’t miss any more school. It was bad enough that they missed half a day last Friday and all day Monday for our trip last weekend. Next year, hopefully the kids and I won’t be so hard pressed about taking days off from school and work. I did tell my sisters last night that once they fall in love with Disney all over again, they will want to book a trip for next year! When we book that trip, it has to be for November 2013! Hopefully they’ll go along with that! Anyway, back to THIS trip, I know I am making a big deal about the crowds. Park of me is truly freaking out and park of me is making a big deal of it simply so that I can trick myself into thinking the crowds will indeed be horrible. If I am convinced that the crowds will be horrible, then I will be prepared if they are really bad and I will also be happy once I see that really isn’t that big of a deal. Clearly, thousands of people have a good time in Disney World in the busy season – hence the crowds! So sad that I have to play mind games with myself Well, that is enough crazy for today. Let’s get to the touring plans!

Sunday, June 24th:

Breakfast at Crystal Palace at 8:10am
Magic Kingdom opening at 9am – start touring after breakfast
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Peter Pan’s Fight
Mickey’s PhilharMagic
The Haunted Mansion
* get FastPasses for Splash Mountain (Oh, man, I hate this ride but the kids love it!)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Pirates of the Caribbean
* eat a light lunch or a snack (Maybe my first turkey leg? Ooh, maybe a Dole Whip!)
Tom Sawyer Island (A first for us!)
Splash Mountain – using FastPass
Country Bear Jamboree (I don’t mind skipping this if we have something better to do)
Liberty Square Riverboat
Hall of Presidents
it’s a small world

* go to EPCOT
Dinner at Garden Grill at 6:50pm
* NO PLANS!

I figure that after our Commando-Style touring for the first park of the day, it’ll be nice to just see where the evening takes us after dinner. I’m hoping it takes us in the direction of mixed drinks! Considering that the crowd levels are anticipated to be 1.1 at EPCOT that day, we might be able to get a few attractions done that night. Whatever we do is good for me – I don’t want to scare my sisters off too much by planning EVERY aspect of our trip. So I think this is a good start. We’ll get a lot done in the Magic Kingdom and we can probably do the rest later in the week. I think we’ll do at least half a day at MK on two days following this. My sisters told me last night that they might want to do the evening EMH at MK once or twice. If they can, well more power to them! I don’t think that the kids and I will be able to keep touring until 1am! Actually, I know we won’t! We have an ADR at Tusker House to wake up for on Monday!

 

[micandminforever]

Your first day looks great.

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Looks great, Erin!!!

 

[-Hope-]

What a great first day! Early park entry, two character meals and plenty of time in MK.

I totally agree about letting the evening take you were it may. The great thing about Epcot is that it's just as much fun to meander around WS as it is to go commando in FW- the best of both worlds!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Your first day looks great.

Thanks! I hope the plans work out well!

Looks great, Erin!!!

Thanks! I’m having fun making these plans!

What a great first day! Early park entry, two character meals and plenty of time in MK.

I totally agree about letting the evening take you were it may. The great thing about Epcot is that it's just as much fun to meander around WS as it is to go commando in FW- the best of both worlds!

Thanks! I think this will be a pretty good first day. Hopefully I won’t run everyone ragged!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

OK, I had to make up the following touring plan all by myself because I wanted my family to get to Animal Kingdom for Morning Extra Magic Hours. The website I use doesn’t really have plans that incorporate EMH, but they do offer suggestions on what people should and shouldn’t do at certain times of the day. This looks like a really ambitious plan now that I am looking over it, but I am cool with it because I know we can omit stuff as we go along. Also, if we are worn out from the day before, we can technically just show up in time for breakfast (The horror! The shame! ) and start from there. We’ll have a second AK day later in the week. I’m up for any suggestions because I know there is a little bit of crisscrossing in the plans and I couldn’t figure out how to avoid it! So here goes:

Monday, June 25th:

Arrive for Morning EMH starting at 8am
Expedition Everest
Kilimanjaro Safaris (Crisscrossing, I know)
Pangani Forest Exploration Trail
Breakfast at Tusker House at 10:15am
* get FastPasses for another ride on Expedition Everest
It’s Tough to be a Bug (I think we’ll need some inside time to cool off after so much crisscrossing)
Finding Nemo the Musical
*get FastPasses for Kali River Rapids
Expedition Everest – using FastPasses
Flights of Wonder
Maharaja Jungle Trek
Kali River Rapids – using FastPasses (I think we’ll want to get drenched by then!)
* take our time walking to the front of the park to enjoy anything along the way

* go to Hollywood Studios
* get FastPasses for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
* have a light lunch or snack (Maybe a cupcake at Starring Rolls? Yum!) and take it with us to wait for…
Beauty and the Beast (Belle is Ashley’s favorite character! We’ve never seen this show!)
Voyage of the Little Mermaid (I think we’ll need a break from the heat!)
The Magic of Disney Animation (I can’t draw, but I’ll try!)
*get FastPasses for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror – using FastPasses
Dinner at 50’s Prime Time at 6:50
The Great Movie Ride (We’ll have to let our food settle before Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster!)
Muppet Vision 3D (More food settling)
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster – using FastPasses

I think that will take us to the end of the night! There are Evening EMH that night; so if Marissa and Ashley want to stay, they certainly can. The kids and I can take the bus home that night. If we’re really tired, we’ll take a cab! Maybe we could stick it out until 10 or 10:30 – just so we could go on Toy Story Mania or hit up ToT and RnR one more time – but I’m not going to push it. We don’t have an early morning ADR the next day, and that will be our our second Hollywood Studios day, so we’ll play it by ear. I don’t think we’ll need to use Evening EMH on Monday if we’re going back the next day. You better believe that on Tuesday, we’ll be doing the TSM dash, though!

 

[-Hope-]

Another great day! I don't think there is any way to avoid crisscrossing at AK- I've tried and tried to figure it out and the layout of the park is just terrible.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

It's fun to pre-plan! I stay away from EMH to avoid crowds but in the summer, I bet those extra hours are nice!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Another great day! I don't think there is any way to avoid crisscrossing at AK- I've tried and tried to figure it out and the layout of the park is just terrible.

Thanks, Hope! You're right about the layout. Shortcuts are virtually nonexistent and there is no where to find shade! This is the day I'm looking forward to the least but it's one of my favorite parks I'm sure we'll make the best of it, though!

It's fun to pre-plan! I stay away from EMH to avoid crowds but in the summer, I bet those extra hours are nice!

Thanks, Kelli! I am having fun with this! I know what you mean about EMH crowds! I really hope morning EMH will be a little less crowded and at least a little cooler than the rest of the day. We'll see

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

Our second Hollywood Studios day! Let's get things started!

Tuesday, June 26th

Arrive for rope drop at Hollywood Studios (have plenty of snacks because there's no food break until lunch!)

* get FastPasses for Toy Story Mania

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster (weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!)

Tower of Terror

Star Tours

The Great Movie Ride (I hope that we get to see the Cowboy scene instead of the Gangster scene one day!)

Toy Story Mania - using FastPasses

Studio Backlot Tour

Lunch at Sci-if Dine-in Theater at 1:20pm

Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (a favorite of Coy's)

* walk down Streets of America on our way out to make a day of it OR continue with the following touring plan

Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular

American Idol

* any other attractions we want to visit again

Fantasmic!


Either way, I'd like to leave the park before it closes on this day because I think we might all need some rest after a few days of hard core touring! We have an early ADR at EPCOT the next day and we can't have bags under our eyes for our before-park-opening shots! Seriously though, we will have a long day of touring EPCOT the next day and I think we'll need a little break before that, so I think our best bet is to leave the park on Tuesday after Sci-Fi. Maybe we can go to the pool or do some shopping at DTD before we call it a day

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I don't want to burst your touring plans bubble, but remember, you must now return within the fast pass window timeframe.