*~Trading Snow & Slush For Pixie Dust~* Jan PTR - 1/17 - Photo Challenge Complete!

[jenseib]

I guess all I can say is at least you know you are going sometime in the next year. With my DH he won't commit ever!!

 

[Cin]

Subscribed... So excited for you. I want to try staying in the cabins some day too and am really interested in hearing how your stay turns out there. My DH is not into Disney like I am and he went for the first time ever with me 7 mos ago, He was completely clueless about WDW thinking it was a fancy Six Flags. He isn't into theme parks, he loves sports and outdoor things. He was visited all 4 parks with me, but I bribed him margaritas, lol. Anyway, he has only reluctantly agreed to going back to WDW with me if he can mostly skip the parks and go golfing and he is definitely into Nascar. He wants to stay at least a night at the AKL and him being the outdoorsy sportsman type he is, I think he'd love the Fort Wilderness Cabins so I could have my Disney vacation still immersed in the magic, but he would feel like he was miles away because it doesn't blatantly scream "I'm at Disneyworld!" like the oversized icons do at All Star Resorts. He can sleep in, golf, do his Nascar experience, and even barbecue burgers and steaks on the grill at our cabin. Right now our budget is a value resort and 1 night at AKL and golf for our upcoming fall 2011 trip, but my next one (son's college graduation 2012 - 12 short mos. away!) is going to be budgeted for the cabins and Nascar. I'm excited to hear about your trip and planning.

 

[Colleen27]

I guess all I can say is at least you know you are going sometime in the next year. With my DH he won't commit ever!!

Yeah, Ken is pretty good about that. At least I always know he wants to go, even if he sometimes makes the logistics like when and where difficult. He just doesn't like leaving if there's work to do because he's so limited by the weather, and since the housing/construction meltdown I can't say as I blame him. Last year he didn't book his first major job until July; this year he's got several scheduled back-to-back already.

I know we'll go sometime this year, again in Oct '12 for a short kid-free trip for our anniversary, and we're still discussing when to do DCL - maybe tacked onto our anniversary trip if my mom decides to cruise with us, otherwise land & sea in 2013 when the new Fantasyland is open. With all of that in the works it is easy to go with the flow of changing dates a few times. I've almost come to expect it by now; we never seem to go on the dates we start out planning for!

 

[Colleen27]

Well, I've learned a valuable lesson - answers from the district secretary are like answers from Disney CRO agents... You'll get a response, but it may or may not be correct!

Our school calendar was published Friday, and thankfully a friend who I'd vented to about the delay in getting it e-mailed me the link yesterday.

We have a short week in early Nov, during the last week of Food & Wine Festival. If we go that week, the kids will miss 3.5 days of school. But they shortened our Thanksgiving break by a day. If we go that week, they'll miss 4 days. So it is pretty much a wash.

The cost is a toss up too, about $100 difference at rack rates. The odds of a discount are probably better in early Nov, because our late Nov option would have us checking in Friday of T-giving weekend so we'd most likely have to hassle with splitting the reservation to qualify for any code.

Weather and crowds both fall in favor of the earlier dates. That overlaps Jersey Week a bit but that isn't as big a crowd magnet as T-giving break, and the odds of nice, warm weather are better earlier in the month.

The downside to going for the earlier dates is that we'd be there for Food & Wine instead of Christmas. MVMCP starts that week so I know the castle lights will be up, but the speculation right now is that the Osbourne lights will open on our last night at WDW and of course none of the Epcot Christmas stuff will start until after F&W is over.

And one other downside - the 180 day window for the earlier dates starts TODAY! Not much time to pull together a plan, and no +10 since we don't have our resort plans ironed out yet and probably won't book until summer when the discounts start coming out.

But overall the earlier dates seem to be a better fit, so I'm going to spend my nice, quiet afternoon throwing together a rough itinerary.

 

[Cin]

Hope you have a fun afternoon of planning and your pages load super fast! Don't stress over the time frame and getting ADR's I mean you'll still be at WDW whether or not you get a meal at your favorite place. Maybe you'll find a new favorite along the way, sometimes life is funny like that. I like trying new places and it is hard for me to plan, I keep changing my mind, wanting to return to old familiar loved places but also wanting to try new experiences and see it all.

 

[Colleen27]

Hope you have a fun afternoon of planning and your pages load super fast! Don't stress over the time frame and getting ADR's I mean you'll still be at WDW whether or not you get a meal at your favorite place. Maybe you'll find a new favorite along the way, sometimes life is funny like that. I like trying new places and it is hard for me to plan, I keep changing my mind, wanting to return to old familiar loved places but also wanting to try new experiences and see it all.

I'm terrible for that - every plan I make changes a half-dozen times! We're still waffling between the DxDDP and TiW so my dining plans are tentative at best, but we have one must-do that is hard to get - California Grill - so I do like to be on the ball with booking my ADRs.

I would like to try every Disney TS location eventually so I don't mind a bit of flexibility on our other dinners. There are a lot of places we still haven't tried that look very good.

 

[Colleen27]

The plan, version 1:

November 4 through 13.

We still haven't settled on accommodations, so I can't say for sure where we'll be staying. My girls want to try ASMu (family suite) or two rooms at Pop. Of those two options I'd prefer the suite for the fridge & microwave. The cabin is my top choice, though I think we'll have to see a pretty good discount come along to get DH to agree to that. DH would like to go back to POR, but I have no desire to book one standard room for the bunch of us even if it does have a trundle bed. And we're still considering the merits of renting points at OKW, though that's a long shot because I hate non-refundable plans.

Where ever we end up staying, we'll be checking in later in the evening on Friday the 4th, because the plan is an evening flight after the kids get out of school. Depending on which one we choose we'll be landing in Orlando between 7 and 9, and just hitting the resort food court or pizza delivery for dinner.

11/5 - Magic Kingdom with evening EMH. A planning don't according to the experts but we love the late nights! The Plaza for lunch and Citricos for dinner.

11/6 - Epcot. Le Cellier for an early lunch, La Hacienda for a late dinner, with some Food & Wine snacking in-between. Hopefully we'll have a view of Illuminations from dinner, though it isn't make-or-break since we've seen the show so many times already.

11/7 - Studios for evening EMH. My girls wanted to do this last trip for the Disney Junior dance party but that would have meant missing the ESPN weekend event so we didn't. 50s Prime Time for lunch, Flying Fish for dinner.

11/8 - Animal Kingdom. Yak & Yeti lunch, Artist Point dinner followed by a stroll over to Ft Wilderness for the campfire.

11/9 - Magic Kingdom. Tony's Town Square for lunch, California Grill for a later dinner and a view of the MVMCP fireworks since we don't plan to attend the party. (If we do decide to do the party it'll take the place of exploring Ft Wilderness on the 8th).

11/10 - Rest day and last full day at WDW. DTD in the morning for the new Lego store and lunch at Raglan Road. Afternoon swimming at the resort. Dinner at Ohana and if we feel like sticking around, Wishes from the Poly beach. Pick up some goodies from Earl of Sandwich, Kona Island, and Goofy's to take with us in the morning when we move.

11/11 - Check out WDW and into Hard Rock. Universal afternoon/evening. Leftovers for lunch, Margaritaville for dinner. Since the Universal parks close so early (6 or 7 in early Nov) I figure dinner right after the park closes will leave us some time to enjoy the pool in the evenings.

11/12 - Islands of Adventure. No concrete plans for dining so far, maybe Bubba Gump for dinner.

11/13 - US/IoA morning to hit anything we feel like we missed. Lunch at Citywalk, late afternoon flight home, dinner from a drive thru on the way home from the airport.

 

[jenseib]

I have a strong desire to do Universal next time too. I guess we'll have to wait and see when that is and what our plans become. I am really hoping to do another cruise next time we go down. If so, then that may only leave 1 or 2 park days, if any.

 

[Colleen27]

I have a strong desire to do Universal next time too. I guess we'll have to wait and see when that is and what our plans become. I am really hoping to do another cruise next time we go down. If so, then that may only leave 1 or 2 park days, if any.

We keep doing it the other way around - we say we're going to think about a cruise, but the desire for more parks just doesn't leave room for it. We spent several years saying we'd try DCL "next year" before Boo was born, then decided we didn't want to cruise until she's potty trained and old enough for the kids' club. Now that she's almost there we've got so many other fun park things we want to do - Universal, Islands of Adventure, Sea World, Discovery Cove - that who knows when we'll make time for DCL.

I'm just not a mellow vacation type, I guess, and the craziness of the parks lures me away from the peace of cruising every time.

 

[jenseib]

We keep doing it the other way around - we say we're going to think about a cruise, but the desire for more parks just doesn't leave room for it. We spent several years saying we'd try DCL "next year" before Boo was born, then decided we didn't want to cruise until she's potty trained and old enough for the kids' club. Now that she's almost there we've got so many other fun park things we want to do - Universal, Islands of Adventure, Sea World, Discovery Cove - that who knows when we'll make time for DCL.

I'm just not a mellow vacation type, I guess, and the craziness of the parks lures me away from the peace of cruising every time.

I don't know if you are reading my TR, but I can assure you, the cruise can be full of crazy days too. LOL! I have to say I LOVE the parks sooo much, and now that I did the cruise, if given a choice of one or the other, I would pick the cruise, though it would be close. If you do a short one you can always do a few park days too.
I'm gonna push for the cruise again for next year, since we will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary, but if not, then I might go for a couple nights at Universal, onsite, then over to WDW. OR it could be Disneyland..

 

[Colleen27]

I don't know if you are reading my TR, but I can assure you, the cruise can be full of crazy days too. LOL! I have to say I LOVE the parks sooo much, and now that I did the cruise, if given a choice of one or the other, I would pick the cruise, though it would be close. If you do a short one you can always do a few park days too.
I'm gonna push for the cruise again for next year, since we will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary, but if not, then I might go for a couple nights at Universal, onsite, then over to WDW. OR it could be Disneyland..

I'm reading but I think I'm about 20 pages behind right now! Cruising really appeals to Ken more than me; he'd happily take a cruise over most other vacation options but other than DCL the kids and I aren't terribly interested in cruising. I do like the fact that the cruise offers so much more for night owls, though! Rope drop and early to bed in the parks just isn't my style. And the cruise food looks heavenly!

We're (well, I'm ) still considering a cruise for our 10th anniversary next year but right now Ken wants that to be a trip without the kids. I'm not sure if that'll still look so good when we're actually booking, though. We ended up honeymooning in Toronto because neither of us were comfortable flying off somewhere tropical while Stitch stayed with DM. I don't think it'd be any different now. We haven't done anything more than close-to-home weekend trips without the kids and when it comes down to it I expect we'll end up doing the same thing we did with our honeymoon - deciding we either have to find a closer to home destination or take the kids with us. And a cruise would be perfect for taking the kids with us because the kids clubs would give us plenty of "couple time" without actually leaving the kids at home.

 

[Colleen27]

Well, the possibilities have narrowed by one... I was not among the lucky few to score Blizzcon tix and I'm not willing to pay eBay prices for them, so DLR will have to wait for some other time. The tickets sold out within minutes, and within an hour there were over a thousand listed on eBay for twice or more face value.

Oh well. Back to WDW we go.

Early Nov is looking like the most likely option right now, and I think we may have decided on a resort too! And we have an addition to the cast - the family drama with my brother is sufficiently resolved (well, more like on hold, but for the remainder of the year at least and maybe for good - is there a fingers crossed smiley?) that DM has decided she'd like to join us after all. That's what led to finally settling the resort debate.

Although we'd still fit in a cabin or a family suite with her along, it would be tighter quarters than we'd prefer and the sofabeds in the suite wouldn't do. But having a 3rd adult along makes me much, much more willing to go with two rooms somewhere. DM doesn't mind taking a kid or two if we don't get our connecting request filled.

Pop was the initial front runner, until Boo discovered the wonders of waterslides on a Girl Scout outing and we started thinking about a moderate instead. But we like the compact size of Pop, which led to an obvious conclusion - POFQ. Queen beds, refrigerators, and the tamest of the moderate resort waterslides, all in a compact little resort that is beautiful to boot. Perfect.

We really enjoyed our stay at POR except for the long walk from the room to the main pool & food court, and our only complaint with the buses was that they were sometimes standing room only from picking up at POFQ first. So POFQ has all the "pros" without the "cons" of POR, and Pocahontas liked the sea serpent slide at 4yo so I'm pretty sure Boo will love it at 3. She's a much more daring child than her big sister!

 

[jenseib]

Sounds like it will be a great trip...but they all are , aren't they

 

[Colleen27]

And here we go again...

I've officially given up on August. Work is just too busy! We're supposed to be in DC in two weeks and that one isn't looking good either; I think the kids are going to have to settle for Cedar Point or an up-north weekend as a consolation prize. I'm determined that Nashville for Labor Day WILL happen one way or another, even if it means going without Ken. Stitch's friend from Tennessee was up this past week and at our house pretty much every minute Stitch wasn't in school, and the boys really want to be able to get together more often. But taking the extra time for WDW just isn't looking at all possible.

And as usual when DM decides to join us, there are more changes on the horizon.

I'll spare you all the family drama backstory, but DM would like to plan a trip with the whole family (which is really just us plus my brother) for next year. My older kids were talking to DB about Halloween Horror Nights at Universal and he loved the sound of it, so DM asked if we'd mind waiting on Universal until next year when he can join us. I ran the idea past the kids, and Pocahontas especially was thrilled because she's stalled at 53" and was worried she wouldn't make the 54" she needs for Dragon Challenge (she still remembers being turned away from Splash on our first trip and from Cyberspace Mt on the trip in '09, both because she was just a hair too short ). And since they've both been begging to do HHN it didn't take much persuasion.

Besides, my mom came up with an alternative suggestion that she knew the kids wouldn't be able to resist. Instead of POFQ with a couple of nights at Hard Rock at Universal, she suggested a split stay at WDW - POFQ for our "park time" days and the kids' all time favorite resort (and DM's) the Beach Club for a couple of "just hang by the pool" days. We spent three fabulous nights there for Pocahontas 6th birthday, in the August heat and with only 2 park days to drag us out of that incredible pool, and they've been wanting to go back ever since.

Stitch enjoying the only beach at Disney fit for swimming:

We really can't comfortably afford the BC for the whole trip and I wouldn't spend it even if we could because Stormalong Bay hours are so short in the fall/winter that there's no chance to swim after the parks. But it isn't much more expensive than Hard Rock and we'll be saving the extra expense of US/IoA park tickets, so the split stay with nothing but pool time on those days works out to be significantly cheaper than the original plan and gives the big kids a return to their favorite Disney pool.

Plus if we end up going with the later set of dates - a decision that won't be made until fall discounts are released because I've realized that the early dates fall entirely within last year's blackouts and I do NOT pay rack rate! - putting the BC nights at the front of the trip would get around the T-giving weekend blackout.

Even though I really want to see the Harry Potter attractions, I'm kind of digging this plan because it makes the anniversary trip next year so much easier - instead of leaving the kids behind in Michigan while we fly to Disney we'll just be leaving them at the villa with DM & DB. So I can stop worrying about flying without them, being a thousand miles away, etc. They'll get a couple extra days at Universal or Sea World or one of the waterparks while Ken & I hop over to Disney for a couple of kid-free nights with the fancy dinners, Food & Wine events, and tours we can't do with the little ones.

So for now, the ticker is counting down to the later set of Nov dates on the logic that it is less painful to make the countdown shorter than to make it longer.

Will these be the dates we end up with? What other changes could possibly come along? Stay tuned for more of the rollercoaster that is trip planning with the Colleen27 family!

 

[Colleen27]

With the ADRs made and nothing left to plan for the time being, my attention has turned to some great non-Disney distractions.

Like my little tomboy, starting 3rd baseman for the Royals.

And hanging out at the many little events our town has one the riverfront over the summer, starting with the Memorial Day parade.

And of course no spring would be complete without Field Day at the elementary school.

And today I added something to the summer plans that will either make the whole summer drag at a snail's pace or might help distract me from wishing away the summer to get to Disney faster...

In case my avatar isn't a dead giveaway I'm a Detroiter born and raised. We live in the country now but I love the city, though I don't make the hour's drive down as often as I'd like. Detroit takes its lumps in the national media and it certainly has its problems, but no one ever talks about the good. The city has an edge and an energy all its own and I've never been anywhere that can compare, even when I was younger and hitting the bars in Chicago, Toronto, and DC, and one of the consolations of an empty nest will be moving back there at last.

With the way I feel about the city it probably doesn't come as much of a surprise that I'm a huge fan of one of Detroit's biggest cheerleaders, Kid Rock. I first saw him in a dive bar in a college town when he was nobody, and I still have the poster he signed for me at that show. That was 1996 and I've seen him perform a dozen times since. Over the years his music has become more of I liked about him at first - not the rap/hip-hop stuff that was his main act back then but the hour he played after his set ended that night, just sitting on the stage with an acoustic guitar and promising to keep playing as long as there was "a single mother-&*^% left to listen" - and his last two albums are my favorites.

So when he announced his summer show at Comerica Park (the Tigers home stadium), I knew I had to go! Ken wasn't interested so I planned to go solo, until my mom mentioned that she'd like to go too (yeah, I'm not too cool to go to concerts with my mom... anymore ).

But the fan club presale sold out in a few minutes and I wasn't lucky enough to score tickets, so I thought I was stuck waiting until tomorrow for the on sale date for the general public.

That is until... My mom called at 10:15 to tell me she got us two VIP seats, her treat! She got a presale code from the company that owns the stadium; she got on their mailing list to get tickets to Sesame Street Live, of all things, so now she gets the presale notification for all their shows. So we're going to be 5th row, down on the field in front of the stage, and the VIP tickets come with an exclusive Kid Rock Tigers jersey too.



I am ridiculously excited. Like "booked my very first trip to Disney World" excited. A whole day downtown, no kids, with my SLR, a companion who is used to me wandering off to take pictures, and unbelievable tickets to the show. It really doesn't get any better.

 

[jenseib]

Yay for your Mom!

 

[afwdwfan]

Hey! Just followed your link and checked out your PTR. Sorry you had to go all the way down the list to I think plan X or Z by now? Anyway, it looks like a fun trip, I absolutely love the split stay idea of doing a couple of days at BC at the beginning. I've considered that just to use the pool facilities for a day or 2 myself. I'm just sorry that your original plans didn't work out, but I think you're picking a pretty good week to go. That's too bad that you didn't end up working your trip to DLR in, but hopefully other opportunities will come along in the future.

Congrats on the Kid Rock tickets! That was really cool for your mom to do that for you!

 

[Colleen27]

Hey! Just followed your link and checked out your PTR. Sorry you had to go all the way down the list to I think plan X or Z by now? Anyway, it looks like a fun trip, I absolutely love the split stay idea of doing a couple of days at BC at the beginning. I've considered that just to use the pool facilities for a day or 2 myself. I'm just sorry that your original plans didn't work out, but I think you're picking a pretty good week to go. That's too bad that you didn't end up working your trip to DLR in, but hopefully other opportunities will come along in the future.

I think I'm going to finish off the English alphabet and start on the Greek at this rate! That's half the fun, though. I know my crazy-weird life will manage to get in the way of the best laid plans and my habitual indecision will prompt a million smaller changes, but that's okay... it just means more planning and I do love to plan!

I've been in a bit of a lull with the travel plans, with our ADRs made and waiting on discounts to finalize the room arrangements. We've got a new long-shot third resort option on the horizon - Wyndham Bonnet Creek. Ultimately it'll depend on what sort of discounts Disney offers but right now a two-bedroom villa at Bonnet Creek with a rented minivan comes in at half the price of two rooms at Port Orleans or a Ft Wilderness cabin!

I've never really considered staying offsite before, but the location of BC plus rave reviews from a friend who was an onsite girl and is now shopping for Bonnet Creek points instead of DVC convinced me to look into it. And it does look good...

How can I argue with this?

Or this?

The two-bedroom layout is really perfect for us; DH & I would get the master, DM would share the second bedroom with Pocahontas and Boo, and Stitch could take the sofabed so he doesn't have to be quiet or turn off the TV at the girls' bedtime.

Plus having a car would open up the possibility of doing something Stitch and Pocahontas have asked about but which never seemed practical on our other trips - finding a u-pick orange grove. We pick apples and blueberries and raspberries and pumpkins every year here at home, and somewhere along the line they decided we should make a point of picking oranges too. November is the right season, and as a first venture off of Disney property in all our trips it does sound like fun!

And now for something completely unrelated...

Both my girls had their ceremonial first haircut at the Harmony Barbershop at the Magic Kingdom.

Pocahontas in 2005:

However, in 9 years and 11 months of life Pocahontas never had more than a little trim to even out her bangs or tidy up any split ends. That is, until this week when she decided her waist-long hair was just too annoying when she's swimming. She came home from practice on Thursday with the idea of having it cut short before Friday's meet, so off we went... They took off 12" altogether, which she decided to donate to Locks of Love.

Before:

After:

And it must be working for her because she won 3 ribbons out of her 4 events on Friday - one first place, one second, and one third.

 

[afwdwfan]

I think the Bonnet Creek idea is a good one. I've done offsite stays before and they are still very enjoyable, I just really appreciate the whole atmosphere of being on-site at Disney. All things equal, I would always want to stay on site, but when it comes down to budgeting a trip I would never hesitate to stay off-site to make things work out better. As long as it gets you there and gives you a place to stay, that's the important part.

I've never done the orange picking thing, but I think that looks like a fun idea. Congratulations to Pocahontas on her ribbons and that was a great thing she did by donating to Locks of Love.

 

[jenseib]

I have heard fabulous things about Bonnet Creek as well. And it is so close to everything too.
Love the haircut.