This trip'll be wicked pissah! And the adventures of soon to be 5...

[enigmaticorange]

Hello and welcome to our pre-trip report! You can call us the Tarzan clan; a family of 4 and soon to be 5! We love our mini adventures to all kinds of East coast destinations, but we save our "real" family vacation for Disney every year.

I will tell you that we are not from Boston; and until October of 2009, we had no idea what "wicked pissah" meant. In fact, we sat in a cafe in Plymouth, MA debating what it meant, exactly. Because we drove (9 hours) home in the middle of a nor'easter, my husband decided we were driving home in a "wicked pissah"

Here is DS6 enjoying his first experience with real maple syrup....

Soon after returning home we found:

wicked pisser (noun) note used in New England pronounced "wicked pissah" Descibing something very good or very bad. Usage: when used without an article as in "This food is wicked pisser" it is taken to mean very good. when used with an article as in "Your job is a wicked pisser" its taken to mean something very bad.

We have visited about every city on the East Coast and the entire Boston area was love at first sight. It was supposed to be a small trip to Salem during the Halloween time, and we ended up driving all over the place. After two more years around our area, we plan on relocating.

So let me introduce the cast:
Me, tink. Am I Tink like in real life? not so much, more of Jane from Tarzan or Belle. I am wife, RN, and mother of 2 with one on the way in March. Here I am in California in front of the Hollywood sign:

Next we have DH or Tarzan; daddy and genius of all things computer. He is a bit shy, so I will refrain from to many pictures of him close up...

Next we have DS11, or Bean. When I was pregnant with him, DH and I nick-named him Bean. Poor kid is now 11 and we still call him that. The little genius loves books almost as much as me and running through the woods as much as his dad. Here he is pulling the sword from the stone a couple years ago.....

And then we have the little entertainer, DS6; Booper. Booper has exact comedic timing. He is very intuitive and picks up every emotion that people make. He has one liners that could beat an SNL skit and won the dance contest at school two years in a row. Booper got his name after the stuffed turtle he named "Boopie" as a baby. Here is Booper at 5:30am as we travel through Jacksonville on the way to Disney...

DH and I had a romantic weekend together last spring that ended in a pact: No more visits to Disney staying offsite. So, this trip is chock-full of delux resort goodness.

After Thanksgiving, we will pick up our rental car/van/suv (whatever we pick out that day) and head down to the World. We will be joined this year by family, but I will get to them later. The trip will consist of 8 nights and will be split between our first night at a still unknown resort...then two nights at Boardwalk Villas, followed by 5 nights at Saratoga. Our trip was originally to be seven nights.....but I found a way to squeeze an extra in!

OK, before Photobucket crashes my post again, I will sign off for now.

 

[enigmaticorange]

I haven't updated my pre-trip report for a while. Ive finally made some needed twists and additions to the itinerary, and now I am ready to plot it all out. I was going to write it all out and leave it on my desktop on a word file, but I have so many "Disney" titled word files on my desktop....well, lets says I would never find the itinerary again. My attitude this morning went something like, "We are 25 days out, people! Lets get this party started!!" with Halloween officially over, I am ready for some Disney. You see, Thanksgiving would normally be the next "thing", but my job has murdered my Thanksgiving dinner this year. Why?

Because I have to work. Not only am I working; I get to work because it ISN'T my year to work on Thanksgiving. What??? Let me explain:

I am an acute care nurse in a hospital working nights. We have 7p-7a shifts. There is a rotating holiday schedule, and I have no problem with that. Someone this year decided that people working night shift "holidays" were only getting 3 hours of "holiday pay", therefore if you are scheduled to work a certain holiday, you now work the night before to maximize holiday pay hours. (Except X-Mas holidays)

You see, I don't care about the pay. I care about spending holidays with my family. Another rule says you must work the night before or night after the holiday you are not working. Lucky me is now working Thanksgiving because it is NOT my year to work Thanksgiving, savvy? Bye bye, Thanksgiving dinner. I am the cook as well. I usually make massive feasts and have 15 people over.

The great big silver lining? We leave for Disney the day after Thanksgiving!!! Our trip was originally set to begin the following Sunday. We are now leaving Friday afternoon/eve for a Saturday morning arrival in Florida. I first was planning to add a day to our BWV reservation or even tack on a day at BLT. Then I thought about how much the extra $200 would buy us if we just spent the first night in a Comfort Suites. When we drive, the hubby and I are up all night and the first day is always a bit of a wash, since we sleep then head out to the park at night. We would not enjoy our resort to the fullest and $260 is a bit much for just a bed. We got a discount through a family member to Comfort Suites and booked our Saturday night that includes a great free hot breakfast on Sunday morning. (If there was a Comfort Suites on Disney property you would never catch me in a Villa)

My biggest concern this trip is dining. Last time we bought the DDP and while it was nice, we didn't like having to make reservations all of the time. I also liked having most of the food costs out of the way before the trip. We don't have the option this time due to our zany reservation schedule. I tend to be cheap. I will usually go counter service first. My husband hates counter service and would do DXDP if I even dropped a hint we could do it. I am hoping we can find a happy medium of him getting table service and also finding counter service that isn't gross. (He has never liked any counter service in the parks, though DTD has possibilities) Actually, i think we are the only people that like Disney Pizza. It tastes like Digiorno; i.e. clean, previously frozen and not touched by hands all over it or the sauce and cheese. (We both worked in pizza places in our younger years...)

Ok. I will work on my itinerary then post. More to follow.....