"There must be more than this provincial life..."

[mom2shayleeandlogan]

Found your TR,great start! Can't wait to read more

 

[hucifer]

Anyway, I am now trying, for the first time, to add a picture to my TR. Not a big deal to most of you, but I've been working on it all day. Unless my boss is reading this, in which case I've been working on it during lunch and Company sanctioned break times only.

Your girls are adorable, BTW.

 

[Normangirls]

Found your TR,great start! Can't wait to read more

Glad to have you here!

Your girls are adorable, BTW.

Thanks!

 

[Pixie Princess]

I'm in! I was completely hooked just looking at the title. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie!!!! And I have to echo your sentiments about the DIS. I was known as the Disney expert at work, and thought I knew a good deal about it until I found the DIS. I remember the first time seeing people writing about PIN.. what's a PIN, why does everyone want one so desperately? Then I found out, and now I have one too and join in the excitement!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[Becky521]

I'm here for the ride.....don't sell yourself short - you are already quite entertaining.

 

[Normangirls]

I'm in! I was completely hooked just looking at the title. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie!!!! And I have to echo your sentiments about the DIS. I was known as the Disney expert at work, and thought I knew a good deal about it until I found the DIS. I remember the first time seeing people writing about PIN.. what's a PIN, why does everyone want one so desperately? Then I found out, and now I have one too and join in the excitement!

Can't wait to read more.

You have a PIN? What? When? How much? For Where? I'm dying for one here.

I'm here for the ride.....don't sell yourself short - you are already quite entertaining.

Thanks! But don't get used to it.

 

[Normangirls]

Here are some pics of my parents and Aunt T.

This is our last trip (2008):

And here's one of my favorites of my dad with DD4 (when she was about 15 months old):

You'll notice no pictures of me. I'm one of those who won't post pictures until I lose some weight, so you'll pretty much never see me!

Anyway, thanks everyone for reading. I'm working on an "update."

 

[Diamondintheruff]

You'll notice no pictures of me. I'm one of those who won't post pictures until I lose some weight, so you'll pretty much never see me!

So do what ZZUB did. Post the odd ankle or hand. It'll drive everyone crazy with the suspense.

 

[Normangirls]

So do what ZZUB did. Post the odd ankle or hand. It'll drive everyone crazy with the suspense.

I do have a great picture of my left ear I've been wondering what to do with...

 

[dismagiclover]

This looks like fun! I'm in!

 

[Normangirls]

After discovering the DIS, and very quickly becoming well-versed in discounts, I was like Scarlett O’Hara – I’ll never pay full price again!

We had gotten unbelievable rates for our 2008 trip (using a code available to the public), and it was the first time my parents stayed in the hotel. They usually stayed at Fort Wilderness, but the times they were a changin'.

First, my dad’s health has not been the best – he’s like a walking medical study. Diabetes, high blood pressure, back problems (back surgery caused us to re-schedule one trip already), open heart surgery, stroke. And a partridge in a pear tree. He’s also having mobility issues, and has quickly taken to using his scooter.

There’ve been times, you know what I mean, heading to the bus stop after Wishes, after opening and closing the MK, when I’ve been tempted to trick/bribe/push him off of the scooter and take it for myself.
“How much further?”
“I’m tired.”
“Will you carry me?”
“Why do we have to walk so far?”
“This isn’t fair.”
And that’s just me. The kids were tired, too.

So Papa wasn’t especially pumped up about driving the ol’ motorhome 20 hours to Orlando (of course, DH and I make it in 18 hours), setting up camp, walking to the washrooms, etc.

Then Mom and Dad lost their beloved dog Sadie, who had always traveled with them. They were both quite heartbroken, but it did free them up a little bit when it came to travel, and they started staying in hotels instead of camping. They found they enjoyed having housekeeping and clean towels. Then they discovered free continental breakfasts, and they were sold.

What is it with Seniors and the free food thing? A good discount buffet will make them positively giddy. And don’t even get me started on the whole share-a-lunch-and-order-an-extra-salad thing. Look, I love food as much as anyone (again, why you won’t see pics of me here – I don’t want buns of steel, I want buns of cinnamon), but my parents seem to take it to a whole new level.

So, back in February DD9 got an e-mail – it was remarkable in that she does not use the computer and does not have an e-mail address.

It actually came to my e-mail at work, addressed to her, and I almost shot out of my chair.

A “free” dining PIN! Holy Toledo it’s a PIN! Sweet home Alabama, a PIN! Come to mama, baby, a PIN!



I was bit excited.

I called DH, and spent 20 minutes explaining why he should be excited, too. He finally got it, and I moved on to my mom. She was thrilled (again with the “free” food!), of course, but a little peeved that, even though they had been going to WDW since 1977, they had never gotten a PIN.

I told her to get over it.

The PIN, my PIN, our PIN, our Precious (NOLordoftheRings) was good through October 3rd. Oh. Wow. That’s really, really interesting. First, we never go that time of year, and second, we’ve never been interested in a dining plan. But my precious little PIN had me thinking.

("A dangerous pasttime." "I know.")

We have a very tight window of opportunity when it comes to vacation. Spring and summer are pretty well out, because of farming and 4-H. Winter is DH’s busiest time at work. Then we have softball and basketball. Oh, yeah, and school.

So we’ve been going in late October. It’s a great time of year – perfect weather and not too crowded. And the girls’ teachers have been great about it.

But to take advantage of this PIN, we’d have to go a whole month earlier. School starts at the end of August, then our county fair is Labor Day week. Even if we went the very latest we could go to use the PIN, it would be late September/early October. Was that too soon after school started? Obviously we decided, heck no!

That’s about how much time I actually spent worry about that particular point. And moved on. Dot org.

Now, for the whole dining thing. We spend very, very carefully at WDW. We stay at value resorts, we drive instead of fly, we eat breakfast in our room, and we pack lunch/drinks/snacks every day to take to the parks. So our food costs are only a small part of our budget in the first place.

We also do not eat sit-down meals often. Why waste all that time in a restaurant when there are things to do? We are all commando, all the time. DDs have been taught John Wayne: “We’re burning daylight!”

But we do have a few favorites – Chef Mickey’s and CRT. And when I added up what we usually spent for just those two meals alone, I realized that just cost savings could justify the dining plan.

I started to get a little excited. No bologna sandwiches for lunch! No half-crushed bags of chips! No soggy PB&J! No heavy coolers for pop and juice! Not that any of the kids had ever complained, but still.

(Do you sing the Oscar Meyer song when you type “bologna” like me?)

I began to ruminate over all the sit-down eateries we had never tried, like Le Cellier, 1900 Park Fare, and Biergarten. Old favorites we hadn’t been to in years, like Trail’s End, Crystal Palace and Kona. If you could suddenly eat anywhere you wanted at WDW, and do it for “free”, how could you say no? I, obviously, could not.

We decided to go for it. Our trip dates would be September 27-October 9. “Free” food for all!

While I am willing to ignore the fact that nothing is, indeed, really “free” at WDW, I still can’t help putting it quotation marks. Just to acknowledge that Disney will, one way or another, find a way to get that money out of me. Robbing Minnie to pay Mickey, as it were.

We booked our rooms, made our deposit, and started planning.

I was happier than a pig in mud. Than a banker at bail-out time. Than Rush Limbaugh with a piece of cake. “Free” cake. At a cardiologists’ convention.

Then it happened.

In July (Was it July? I think it was July. “Free” dining had not hit the general public yet, so it may have been earlier. Don’t you hate it when people digress like this? Like it somehow matters?). DH came to me and began asking questions. Unpleasant, dreadful, shocking little questions.

DH: Um, what are our Disney dates again?
Me: We arrive September 27th. Why?
DH: Well, when does the “free” dining expire?
Me: We have to arrive before 10/2. Why?
DH: So we can’t move it back a week? Or two?
Me: No. Why. Do. You. Ask?
DH: Well, I have this meeting in October…

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH(deep breath)HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

It seems DH forgot about a meeting. One he absolutely, positively could not miss for any reason. His boss forgot about it, too, when she approved his vacation time. Her boss, however, was not sympathetic, and insisted DH had to attend.

I could have had a meltdown. Nobody here would blame me, right? For him to attend this meeting, we would have had to cut our trip short by three whole days.

Let me say that again: Three. Whole. Days.

(You have to picture me whining a little bit here.) This is Disney we’re talking about. It’s our “thing.” It’s what we look forward to all year long. We plan. We discuss. We dream. We obsess. Seriously, there are days when the anticipation is what keeps me going. A little sick, I know, but it’s important to me. Us. I mean us. You guys know what I’m talking about.

I admit, we’re spoiled. You know that feeling, when you’re checking out from your resort, and it’s so depressing you can’t hardly stand to look at the people who are checking in? I thought, if we stayed longer, long enough that when we finally left we would actually be ready to go home, well, problem solved!

So we started going for two weeks. Why not? If we were going to drive that far, why not make it worth our while?

We actually go for 13 nights – we drive down Saturday, check in on Sunday, and stay until the following Friday (our check out / drive home day). Another point to be made – this way we maximize our weekdays in the parks and minimize the weekend days. Less crowded, you know?

See how many arguments I can make for this?

I can justify it until the cows come home, but the bottom line is we want to go for as long as we possibly can – another duh, right? And the thought of losing those three days had me more discombobulated up than Captain Jack finding out all the rum is gone.

Isn’t it great spell check didn’t ding me for “discombobulated?”

So I did the obvious thing – I called Southwest Airlines and booked his airfare. I actually got a really good price ($189 round trip), and I didn’t even hesitate.

The meeting was October 8-9 in Columbus. I needed him back in Florida to help with the drive home, and on our checkout date (which was supposed to be the 9th) we leave early and drive straight through. I can’t do that by myself. I thought about getting DD13 driving lessons before we left, but my insurance apparently has a “problem” with that.

We decided he would fly to Columbus for the meeting the morning of the 8th, and fly back the evening of the 9th, and we’d head home the 10th. No one would miss any extra days of school, and the girls and I actually gained a day at WDW! Bonus!

Considering how DH hates to fly, he was a pretty good sport. And the girls and I didn’t let him see us doing the happy dance over getting that extra day.

We made him feel better by telling him we were going to spend the whole day shopping (which he hates), and we wouldn’t have any fun at all without him. BWAHAHA!

Love ya, babe. Mean it.

Crisis averted, we were finally, really this time, ready to go.

 

[Normangirls]

This looks like fun! I'm in!

I was going to put some self-effacing comment here about the "fun" part, but I'm too worn out from writing my last installment.

I may just start copying postings from other TR's. Change a few "DSs" to "DDs" and I'm done.

Anyway, glad to have you here!

 

[Normangirls]

Oh my goodness.

I just now realized that the PIN we got was the exact same bounceback offer they had when we went in 2008. Back then, I completely dismissed out of hand, because the dates were all wrong and we weren't interested in the dining plan.

D'oh!

So much for me being SUCH an expert.

Maybe receiving a PIN creates an altered state of mind, so an offer you wouldn't normally consider suddenly makes perfect sense.

 

[dismagiclover]

I was going to put some self-effacing comment here about the "fun" part, but I'm too worn out from writing my last installment.

I may just start copying postings from other TR's. Change a few "DSs" to "DDs" and I'm done.

Anyway, glad to have you here!

Hey that epistle you wrote would have tired me out as well. It all ended with such happy news though! An extra day at Disney I'm enjoying your report!

 

[Ellester]

That’s about how much time I actually spent worry about that particular point. And moved on. Dot org.

(Do you sing the Oscar Meyer song when you type “bologna” like me?)

Yup, I do. My kids sing it now too even though I don't think they've ever actually seen the commercial.

Just to acknowledge that Disney will, one way or another, find a way to get that money out of me. Robbing Minnie to pay Mickey, as it were.

So true!

Isn’t it great spell check didn’t ding me for “discombobulated?”

I am suitably impressed!

Great installment! Can't wait until you actually get there!

 

[Normangirls]

Since this thread will, undoubtedly, become an exercise in me spilling whatever ridiculous nonsense is going through my head, I thought I'd share this.

Yesterday, our pastor was talking about owning our imperfections and understanding we do not have to be perfect before we present ourselves to God -- he loves us just as we are right now.

He admitted to being a control freak, and said his wife would attest to this. He said she once asked him, "We're just going on vacation. Do you really need a binder with all of our plans mapped out? We're just going to Disney World!" And he told her yes, he really did.

That was the first time he got an "Amen!" from me!

 

[dismagiclover]

He would have gotten an Amen from me too!

 

[It'sWDW4me]

"We're just going on vacation. Do you really need a binder with all of our plans mapped out? We're just going to Disney World!" And he told her yes, he really did.

I can't understand why anyone can't understand the importance of the Disney trip binder (mine is a plastic envelope with the string closure thingy, actually).

I'm loving your TR (and the B&TB songs that are running through my head ). Keep it coming!

 

[Normangirls]

I can't understand why anyone can't understand the importance of the Disney trip binder (mine is a plastic envelope with the string closure thingy, actually).

I'm loving your TR (and the B&TB songs that are running through my head ). Keep it coming!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[disneylovin24]

Sounds like this is going to be a good trip report