TR:A Wonderful Disney "DREAM"!DH has been converted!

[Toria]

Holding this spot! More to come on how we got here(even with a Disney Resistor in the midst).

 

[Toria]

Let the introductions begin!

Cast of characters, I truly mean this! With the Ring Leader being DH.

My name is Latoria, aka Toria on the DIS boards. With my lil nugget Kyla by my side. More to come on her later.

I am a DW first and foremost to Jerome, a mother of 2 lil people, DS Jayden(10) and DD Nakyla(7) and walker,feeder and groomer of a lil silly yorkie named KINGSLEY. For a living I make people GLOW in the DARK! At least that is what I tell them and they get a kick out of it. I am a X-Ray Tech for a wonderful hospital in Northwest Florida. I am a laid back person(hubby would beg to differ) that loves to travel and meticulous planner.

Next character up is wait for it, Jerome the Disney Resistor after a round with Animal Kingdom 2 years ago.

He is the head comedian of the household. Loves all things PS3, football, basketball, baseball, track and field, golf (ewwww),nascar, Ultimate fighting, Boxing, Cooking shows....... Do ya get my drift? I am surprised our Flat Screen has not exploded yet However, he is in the Air Force and has 5 years until retirement. More on how I convinced him to cruise later.

Next Character up is DS Jayden, first trip to Disney was with mommy at the age of 5 and he had me all to himself for 5 days.

Jayden is a quiet, kind and sweet child outside of the womb! I say this because he had me on bedrest for 5 months straight He just did not like his living situation at the time. Anyway, he made his way into the world without the help of my doctor. You heard me right, just slid right on out onto the bed. He didn't even cry, just laid there looking around, probably thinking "I finally made it out and they didn't stop me". He loves any gaming system that he can get his hands on. He comes out of his shell every now and again to be silly. He is super excited about the Edge on the Dream.

Final Character up is DD Nakyla aka Kyla, first trip to Disney was at the age of three. That was a bribe to get her potty trained She kept asking to go to Disney, so hey I made it work in my favor. Potty trained in less than a week.

This lil person unlike my son was a handful. She was trouble too in the womb! Bedrest for 4 months with this one( I just think my living quarters were horrible for them ). Anyway, she had the cord wrapped around her neck when she emerged(really don't hang yourself, it couldn't have been that bad in there ). The doctor turned to get the scissors to cut the cord from around neck, SHE YELLED GERONIMO and came flying out! He caught her by one leg before she hit the floor. I knew at that moment that I had a DIVA on my hands. She is a DIVA and holding strong. With all that said they are really great kids. We can take them to fancy restaurants and they know how to behave. We often get compliments about how well behaved they are. I tell people it is because they know that their MOMMY is CRAZY!

Well that is it for now! It is time for me to go and make people Glow in the Dark. Next post will be planning our first cruise. Hope I didn't bore anyone!

 

[Toria]

It all started back in December of 2010, when I wanted to take another vacation to Disney. Well in 2009 we spent 5 days at the parks. This was DH first time back since the age of 12. At that time he liked to sleep in, so getting up early every morning, then walking your shoes clear off your feet, made for an unhappy DH. The last straw for him was at AK, when people started to cut in line. My husband does not like confrontations, so I knew that it really upset him when he spoke up. After that he had no desire to go back to Disney. We thought several times about taking a cruise since neither one of us had been on one. He mentioned going on a cruise to Mexico, but I told him there was no way that I was going down to Mexico. We lived in Tucson, AZ for 5 years close to Mexico and was well aware of the crime there. I know that not all of Mexico is bad, but I have no desire to go there. Then we wanted to try a weekend cruise out of Jacksonville, but I wanted our first cruise to impress us. If it turned out bad I knew that I would never get him on another ship. So in December I brought up going on a Disney cruise with the kids. I wanted us to experience this first cruise together. He was hesistant about it, but he didn't totally shoot it down. So I took that as YES HONEY, GO FOR IT! I started researching and told him that going in June would be great after the kids got out for Spring Break. I told him the price and you would have thought that the world was ending. So that plan went down like a bomb over Bagdad! Since I knew that the summer was out, I got the wonderful idea of cruising in our birthday month. Another check for me. I say this because my hubby b'day is the 22nd, my son is the 24th and mine is the 28th of Sept. I told him that this would be a good birthday gift for the three of us. On top of that the price was great! So I got 1 and a half thumbs up. It was not that simple, my nagging him went on for 2 months before he gave in (yeh me) I am a persistant one! Two days after he said yes, we were off to the post office to get Passports. Had to work quick before he changed his mind(check #2 for me). Four weeks later we received our passports and four weeks after that we took the kids to get their passports. I wanted to surprise the kids but they would catch me watching videos about the cruise, and I would tell them that we are just thinking about going. Well in our town our kids had to be there with us to apply for their passport So we got cold busted right in the passport office,lil lady behind the counter, "so kids are you happy to be going to the Bahamas". Well there went that, I had no choice but to enjoy the look on their faces at that moment.

 

[Toria]

Ok, I can tell you that there are 1960 youtube videos posted about the dream (on my tv). I have watched just about every one of them. I have learned alot about the dream from the videos. They only videos I have not watched are the ones relating to the shows and pirate night. I would like to experience something on the ship without having seen it. It is a great tool to use for the kids as well. Some of the videos show alot about the kids clubs. That is really helpful for my daughter, since she can be shy at times. She has watched it so much she will probably know every area in the kids clubs by cruise time. DH has watched a couple, he only wants to see the videos relating to food. There are a couple of videos that has food montages. We watch some type of video relating to the Dream at least three times a week. I am trying to prepare us (maybe over prepare), so that we will have somewhat understanding of where everything is. That is just the planner in me. So when you get a chance Youtube the Dream.

 

[Toria]

I have 83 days until we cruise. I have brought and returned so things for the FE Exchange. I was just going to buy the gifts, but I hear that homemade FE'S are treasured more than the brought items. I can be pretty crafty when I want to be. I have begun to make some of the gifts, but I think I will still purchase some trinkets as well. The people at Michaels Craft store are probably tired of seeing me. I even may have to pull out the sewing machine( we will see how that goes). Could be down right disastrous!

 

[mousetravel]

Hey, I'm here!!!

Can't wait to read more! I love all TR's, but especially the ones about Disney "resistors". Since I'm a single parent to DD, I already have her hooked on Disney, so my job is done!!!

I agree with you about watching the videos. We watched so much of them, we thought we knew everything!!

I also participated in the FE. It was so much fun!! I am not crafty at all, so I went to Party City and bought those party loot bags (the Disney ones, of course), and lots of Disney themed stuff from there.

I know you and the kids excited for the cruise, and I am SURE you're resistor hubby will LOVE it.

 

[iloverags2]

Enjoying this already...and you haven't even stepped foot on the ship yet! Looking forward to reading about your plans and then the cruise itself! (And I will jump in and say you made a wise decision not to sail out of Jacksonville for your first cruise. Enough said.)

 

[Toria]

Hey, I'm here!!!

Can't wait to read more! I love all TR's, but especially the ones about Disney "resistors". Since I'm a single parent to DD, I already have her hooked on Disney, so my job is done!!!

I agree with you about watching the videos. We watched so much of them, we thought we knew everything!!

I also participated in the FE. It was so much fun!! I am not crafty at all, so I went to Party City and bought those party loot bags (the Disney ones, of course), and lots of Disney themed stuff from there.

I know you and the kids excited for the cruise, and I am SURE you're resistor hubby will LOVE it.

I plan on going to Party City as well to pick up some pirate and princess items. I am trying not to go overboard with it.

 

[Toria]

Enjoying this already...and you haven't even stepped foot on the ship yet! Looking forward to reading about your plans and then the cruise itself! (And I will jump in and say you made a wise decision not to sail out of Jacksonville for your first cruise. Enough said.)

Thanks for joining in! I promise to make my TR worth the wait !

 

[Toria]

On Saturday I woke up bright and early to clean my house, which was in much need of some dusting. Out of some of those hidden places I could have made a whole colony of lil bunnies. Just making me itch thinking about all that dust. Well anyway, once I finished cleaning I began working on the countdown calendar. It started with 80 days. I will post a picture later. I also worked on my FE gifts until I ran out of supplies. So I will have to head back to Walmart sometime before next weekend to get more letters and scrapbooking supplies(hint,hint). Later in the day I turned on Netflix through my DH's PS3 and I found a program about Disney Cruise Line. Feeling happy at this point, anything on the cruise line makes me happy. When I started watching the program I was the only one in the living room, however the radars(ears)on the sides of my kids head picked up the sweet sound of Disney. I heard lil feet storming towards the living room. They firmly planted their booties on the couch for the 49 mins it took to watch the program. Then something caught me completely off guard, I could not believe my eyes or my ears. My Disney resistor(DH)came in the living room to watch as well. I bout choked on the water I was drinking. So we watched on and then some other person invaded my resistor DH (I could have jumped up and ran around the house like my shorts were on fire or caught the Holy Ghost) He said....wait for it... "Baby 3 days is not going to be enough time, so we are going to have to book another Disney cruise after this one". WHATTTTT? I asked, who are you and what have you done with my husband? After the shock wore off, I just looked at him and told him that I was waaaaaaay ahead of him He just laughed at me, because he knew that I wouldn't let one cruise be enough. He was acting excited with the kids and asking if they are ready to go and what do they want to do on the ship. I was happier than the mosquitos attacking the disney cruisers getting off of the ship in Alaska. Really! they call the mosquitos the Alasken state bird. Those things are huge,I had the misfortune of meeting one in person. It about picked me up and carried me off Well that is it for now, HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

 

[CrystalS]

Great pre-trip report so far! I'm looking forward to reading your next installments and the trip report itself!
We went on a 3-day Disney Cruise almost 2 years ago and LOVED it! But as you've already mentioned, it won't be long enough. We didn't want to get off the boat on the 3rd day
But now we are going on our 2md cruise, also this September. It's a 5-nighter down the Pacific coast. I keep telling DH that we are working our way up to the longer cruises, lol, first a 3 night, now a 5 night, next up has to be a 7 nighter

 

[brandip22]

LOVE THIS! I am just starting to research so I can talk DH into our first Disney cruise! Thank the Lord, he is a Disney person as well- although not quite as obsessed as I am! Anyway, I can't wait to read more!

 

[Toria]

Thanks for joining in!

 

[Toria]

LOVE THIS! I am just starting to research so I can talk DH into our first Disney cruise! Thank the Lord, he is a Disney person as well- although not quite as obsessed as I am! Anyway, I can't wait to read more!

All I can say is don't give up. I also ordered the free cruise dvd from the cruise website. That
helped with convincing DH as well. It breaks down everything on the ship. Good luck!

 

[Toria]

Great pre-trip report so far! I'm looking forward to reading your next installments and the trip report itself!
We went on a 3-day Disney Cruise almost 2 years ago and LOVED it! But as you've already mentioned, it won't be long enough. We didn't want to get off the boat on the 3rd day
But now we are going on our 2md cruise, also this September. It's a 5-nighter down the Pacific coast. I keep telling DH that we are working our way up to the longer cruises, lol, first a 3 night, now a 5 night, next up has to be a 7 nighter

I would love to go on a 7 nighter on the Fantasy, but those prices are a bit much. We will have to work our way up to that as well. Thanks for joining in on my journey towards the Dream!

 

[Toria]

Last thread I said that I was going to post our countdown calendar,well here it is

Nothing elaborate, but it gets the kids involved. Being that we are on summer break and I let them stay up late, they X out the next box at midnight every night. Last week while I was at work, one of co-workers walked through the door with this brand new Mickey Mouse cookie jar. It was instant excitement for me just seeing that jar ,. I asked him what was going on with the cookie jar. He said that his wife had some friends that went to Disney and brought the jar for them. However, his wife did not want it! Then he said the most wonderful words" Whoever wants it can have it"! I bout exploded on the spot, of course I gave no one else a chance to lay claim to it. It was mine, all mine. When I got it home the kids were equally excited. My son said that we should take it on the cruise and use it for decoration in the room(he is a silly lil fellow). Here is a picture of the cookie jar

Well at 1200 midnight on 2 July I was able to finally check in online. There wasn't much to it. I chose the 1100 arrival time, read the cruise contract(which pretty much relieves them of anything that goes wrong), entered emergency POC, and registered the kids for the clubs. There is also one form that you have to print and sign to bring with you. I did not book any extra activities, since this is our first cruise I don't want to be stuck to a specific schedule. Maybe next cruise we will try that. After checking in online I went ahead and made reservations at Shades of Green. Shades of Green is a resort within Disney property that is for military. You have to make reservations sometimes 6 months to a year ahead to get a room. It is a beautiful resort and the rooms are twice the size of the standard resort rooms. Then I made reservations for dinner at a place called Texes De Brazil in Orlando. This restaurant has over 30 meats to choose from. More on this and a break down of my plans to come in another post. Here are some pictures of the resort.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...enUS430&biw=1280&bih=540&tbm=isch&um=1&itbs=1
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...enUS430&biw=1280&bih=540&tbm=isch&um=1&itbs=1
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...enUS430&biw=1280&bih=540&tbm=isch&um=1&itbs=1

 

[Toria]

PLANS FOR OUR DISNEY TRIP

Day 1

1. Wake up at 0430,get dressed, then wake up kids and feed
them. Car packed the night before.

2. Put last minute items in car by 0500.

3. Leave home at 0530.

4. Stop in Tallahassee for gas,breakfast and restroom, hopefully by
0730.

5. Next stop will be in Gainsville, Fl for gas and restroom break
around 0930.

6. Arrive in Orlando between 1130 and 1200.

7. Head to Disney Quest around 1230 and have lunch there.

8. Stay at Disney Quest until 1500, leave there and head to
Shades of Green.

9. Check in, Take in suit cases for that night only, let Jerome take
a nap if he needs to. If so the kids and I will go back to
Downtown Disney.

10. Leave Downtown Disney by 1730, head back to hotel to get
dressed for dinner at Texas De Brazil.

11. Leave for Texas De Brazil by 1830. Enjoy dinner and head back
to hotel.

12. Take shower and have a good nights rest!

Last post I said that I would give some information about Texas De Brazil. We last ate at this restaurant in Virginia 2 years ago. The food there is wonderful, they prepare the meat over 20 different ways. They have beef, pork, chicken, lamb and brazilian sausage. I especially loved the bacon wrapped chicken, filet mignon, and parmesan chicken. To fully understand all that they serve, you should visit the website www.texasdebrazil.com
I surprised my Disney resistor hubby and told him that I made a reservation there(he was sooooo happy). I know how to break him down and make him look forward to this vacation.

 

[Toria]

I see that it has been about 10 days since my last post. Life gets busy sometimes. I have had surgery since my last post, thank GOD that everything has turned out good thus far. I finally blew some of the dust off of my sewing machine My DH went to the storage unit and got it so that I can start working on my FE(gotta have somewhere to put the goodies). I went by Joanns Fabrics and picked up some red and black fabric. The background is going to be red and the pockets are black. I will post pictures of the different stages of my FE. Right now it just looks a mess, the pockets are being held on by safety pins. I plan on going back to Joanns and getting these cute iron on letters. The boys will have red letters and the girls will have gold letters to spell out our names. Then I will have to figure what color trim to put around the edges. So many decisions and we have 55 days until we will be leaving. I haven't even brought the clothes that we all need yet either. I am slacking so bad on that part. No worries it will all come together right on time. My next post will be of my FE in the works(maybe someone will give me some tips).

 

[iloverags2]

Ok, the FE will surely make time fly by...I know it did for me! It was like, "Oh, I have all the time in the world to do this. What? We leave in a week? What happened to those 17 other weeks in between?" Seriously, looking forward to your FE...total fun that you are making your own...can't wait to see it.

 

[Toria]

Ok, so here is a couple of pics of the progress of my FE! I still have alot to accomplish on it, but I think that is coming together nicely
Any and all suggestions or comments would be appreciated! Thanks!
Hopefully I will get it completed this weekend.