Turning 40 at Mickey's House! My first PTR!

Another week down, another week off the countdown! :cool1:

I've been pretty busy this weekend and haven't had much time for DIS planning. I have been checking the Disney website for an ADR at 50's Prime Time for NYE and right now, just the 4:15 one is left. I'm arguing with myself about whether I should snag it.

If we stick with our original plan of not leaving home until the morning of the 31st, we probably won't arrive on property until 4:00. I'm kind of planning to leave a day early, however Dale doesn't know that yet. :rotfl: My niece is actually starting college in Gainesville in January. Her parents, my brother and SIL, will be getting her set up in an apt over there sometime between Christmas and New Year's. My plan is to leave home on the 30th and drive as far as G'ville to spend the night - see my niece's apt, have dinner. Then, get up and drive the rest of the way to Disney on the 31st and be there by lunchtime. I am a little concerned that traffic might be pretty heavy on the 31st, so I'd like to get through it early. I don't think it'll be a hard sell. :rolleyes1

I had thought we might try to get away next month for Columbus Day, but Dale came home yesterday and said that he needs to do some Army duty the first of October, so he'll be gone all that week. I know him well enough to know that he won't want to take any extra personal days off, so I doubt we'll go anywhere. On the bright side, though, I texted with my BFF yesterday and we may all meet up for our alma mater's homecoming in November, so I can look forward to that. :dance3:

Hope everyone has a great weekend! :cheer2:
 
It's my Double-Digit Day! :cheer2::cheer2:

99 days from today, we'll be checking into OKW and hopefully watching some NYE fireworks! pixiedust:

That also means it is only 92 days until Christmas, so I need to get busy with my shopping! :hourglass
 
With October right on the doorstep, I'm feeling that familiar excitement start to build. :dance3: I always feel like once I get to October, the year just unravels. We have a long weekend for Columbus Day, Halloween is right around the corner, then it's November, Thanksgiving and whammo! it's December! :santa: Tomorrow I will start my Christmas shopping list.

Anyway, I've been checking online off-and-on for an ADR for 50's Prime Time Café for NYE. Not obsessively, but every few days. I just happened to think about checking it before I came onto the DIS, and plugged in the date and time and got the error message across the top of the screen, but it had pulled up some times before it quit, and one of them was for 50's PTC around 5:30 - great time for us! So I snagged it. :banana: That seals the deal for me and I'm going to plan for us to go to DHS on NYE. I saw a post last week on the Theme Parks board saying that the Osborne Lights usually turn on about 5:30-5:45, but on our other DHS day, we'll be headed to Pioneer Hall for the Hoop Dee Doo by then. If we don't see the OL on our arrival day, we won't get to. And that would make me sad, and since it's my birthday trip, I'm not allowed to be sad! :rotfl:

So, our latest iteration of dining reservations:

Tues, 12/31: 50's Prime Time Café dinner
Wed, 1/1: Liberty Tree Tavern lunch
Thurs, 1/2: Via Napoli dinner
Fri, 1/3: Sci-Fi lunch, Hoop Dee Doo dinner
Sat, 1/4: Be Our Guest dinner

I think I'm satisfied now. Maybe. :rotfl2: I keep thinking about changing my birthday dinner to Garden Grill instead of Via Napoli. It's a lot more money, though. I just think it would be fun to celebrate my birthday with Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale.

I need to run the numbers on getting the Tables in Wonderland card again!

We check in 13 weeks from tomorrow! :love:
 
I've been a slacker on my PTR and I know it. :rolleyes1 As predicted, once we hit October, the days start to fly by. Yesterday was 12 weeks till check-in! :cheer2:

Brad's good friend from church just got back from a Disney trip, staying at the Beach Club and got the Magic Bands. He told Brad all about how cool they are, so now Brad is asking me every few days if we're going to be able to get them too. I keep telling him I haven't heard yet if OKW is going to have them by then. I feel pretty sure we will get them, I think they'll try to have all the resorts using MB before the crazy holiday season, but I don't want to get his hopes up. :upsidedow

His friend's mom did give resounding praise to using the MB on their trip. They lucked into getting a FP+ for Be Our Guest for lunch. She said it was awesome - she was ordering their food while on the bus to MK, they arrived at the park, walked directly to the restaurant past a ton of people waiting in line and were let in right away, directed to a CM who checked them in and told them to find a seat. She said they were done and out of there while the same people were still in line. I'm sure those people probably weren't happy about that, but our friends thought it was terrific, of course!

Some other friends from church are going to the last MNSSHP on Nov 1 and I'm so jealous! I've been playing my CD of the party music in my car this week. pixiedust:

Starting to get excited! :dance3:
 
Under 80 days now! :yay: I try not to hit the countdown app on my phone EVERY day... when I do that, it almost seems like the time goes by TOO quickly, if that's possible! :rotfl2: I hate to feel like I'm wishing my life away, especially when there's so much good stuff going on between now and then. :laughing: Anyway, it's showing 80 as of yesterday, I think, so I'll hold out as long as I can before I update it.

I'm doing yet another iteration of "is the TIW card worth it?" The big sticking point is that it won't be valid for 2 days of our trip, NYE and NY. Based on my estimations of what we're likely to order at the TS restaurants on our other days, I think savings would be something like:

Via Napoli: $12
Sci-Fi: $12
BOG: $20
CS lunch at AK: $8

If we get the FL resident card for $125, we've recouped less than half the cost. We rarely drink alcohol -- Dale may have one glass of wine one night during a trip -- so savings on booze doesn't make it worth it. What makes me think about getting it is that if we're going to get APs, then it would be valid the whole year, and if we go at Spring Break with my sister and her family, we would definitely get our money out of it. I guess that's one of those details I'm going to have to leave till the last minute, or at least until we make more definite plans. We could wait till the last day of the trip when we get the APs to get the TIW card and save $25 that way, but then we'd miss out on about $25 of savings on the other days, so that makes it a wash.

Tomorrow is a school holiday for Brad & Drew and a work holiday for Dale. I told my office that I had plans and wasn't coming in (I work part-time and generally set my own schedule). My sister and I are doing our annual Christmas shopping kick-off. :santa: We're driving an hour to an outlet mall -- bonus, they have a Disney Store outlet :woohoo: -- and we'll just enjoy a girls' day out. :cool2:

Only about 11 weeks to go! :banana::banana:
 
I forgot that we did something sort of DISNEY-ish this weekend. My sister talked me into having a yard sale yesterday. We've been cleaning out out-grown toys and I told my boys that whatever we sold I would split the proceeds between them for their Disney spending money. We didn't really sell that much (but only decided to do this on Friday, so I only spent maybe 3 hours getting stuff together), but each of the boys has $40 as of now. We don't generally buy too much in the way of souvenirs, so that'll be the bulk of it. My mom sometimes gives them each $10 or $20 to spend on vacation, and maybe Santa will leave a little giftcard in their stockings. ;)
 
The boys are starting to get excited and ask me every few days "how many days, Mom?" We looked a couple of days ago and it was 75, which seems both close and far. So much to do between now and then! :hourglass

I got a little start on my Christmas shopping this week. Since Monday was a holiday for Dale and the boys, my sister and I decided to do a "girls' day." We drove about an hour to another city with some different stores than we have around here, plus they have a big outlet mall. The outlet mall has a Disney Store outlet in it :cheer2: so I got a little Disney fix.:cool2: My sister found a sleepshirt she liked, so I bought it to put away for Christmas. I also decided to stuff the boys' stockings with Disney stuff. I got Brad a pair of flip-flops on clearance, an Agent P beach towel for Drew on clearance, plus a Monsters Univ bean-bag toy for each, plus a 2014 calendar for me. Through the day, I also got t-shirts for 2 of my nephews for the boys to give them, a shirt for my father-in-law, a shirt for Dale, a new pair of Nikes for me, some new shorts for Drew (clearance, less than $5/pr at Osh Kosh), a baby gift for a friend and a birthday gift for another friend. I definitely scored!

Christmas is a pretty big deal in our family. I wouldn't say we go overboard, but we celebrate in a pretty big way. I love to spoil my family. And so I am happy to have a few things bought.

The boys are settled on Halloween costumes, I think. We have a "fall fest" at church next Saturday, and then we'll t-o-t in our neighborhood on the 31st. It'll be the first time they've been able to do that. Our church's event has always been on the 31st in prior years, so we've done that rather than the door-to-door bit. This year, they're excited about going door-to-door. I think some friends from church are going to come with us - they live on a busy street that's not conducive to going door-to-door so I told them to come here and go with us. Likely, Dale and that dad will take the 4 kids and my friend and I will dole it out from my door.

It's exciting to see my countdown getting ever smaller!
 
The boys are starting to get excited and ask me every few days "how many days, Mom?" We looked a couple of days ago and it was 75, which seems both close and far. So much to do between now and then! :hourglass


I.TOTALLY.KNOW.WHAT.YOU.MEAN.

its, 73 days for me, and it's like...getting so close, but at the same time i'm like, what am i suppose to do in 2 months?!?!
 
I.TOTALLY.KNOW.WHAT.YOU.MEAN.

its, 73 days for me, and it's like...getting so close, but at the same time i'm like, what am i suppose to do in 2 months?!?!

Thanks for reading! I checked out your PTR and looks like we'll be there at the same time. I know it's going to be crazy-busy, but I'm starting to get really excited!

Believe me, I have plenty to do to keep myself busy for the next 70-ish days. Between now and then we have Halloween next week (the kids are super excited), my in-laws are coming for a long weekend in November, then Dale has a long weekend of Army duty right after that. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we're going to our college's first Homecoming football game (this is their first football season in like 70 years) and meeting up with my college BFF and her family, then we'll dash home so I can bake a half-dozen Thanksgiving pies. And oh yeah, I have a ton of Christmas shopping to do! :santa: If I don't do my Disney planning now, start my packing list and shopping list, it's not going to get done in time!

Speaking of my BFF, she messaged me yesterday that she has a work conference at WDW the week after we're there, and she and her husband (who have been to Disney quite a few times with their kids - they own DVC) are thinking of going the weekend before to celebrate their anniversary with their first no-kids Disney trip. We've been several times without our kids, so I definitely encouraged her to do it! :love: And if they arrive that weekend, we might get to at least have breakfast together before we leave for home - and that would be a nice treat, to see my BFF on my birthday trip. :cool1: (We live like 1000 miles apart, so we rarely see each other more than once a year, if that. This year will be unusual, since she did the Princess Half also when I was there to do it with my sister and sister-in-law for my sister's 50th birthday this year. Then, we'll meet up at our alma mater in Nov.)

Ooo, just realized it's Tuesday and since we check in to OKW on a Tuesday, that means we should be 10 weeks away, so 70 days! :dance3:
 
As I predicted, things are getting busier and busier around here! I can't believe tomorrow is Halloween! :hmghost: The boys are so excited. We had a big Fall Fest at our church this past Saturday, so they've already had quite a bit of candy. We have friends coming over for dinner and to go trick-or-treating in our neighborhood.

I'm trying to buy a couple of Christmas presents every week and I've done pretty well. I ordered the newest Hidden Mickeys book to put in Dale's Christmas stocking. I also ordered a new one by the same publisher, something like "what to do in line at WDW" to put in my stocking. I got Tervis tumblers at Bed Bath & Beyond for the boys - they were on clearance for 30% off, then I had 20% coupons on top of that. I picked up a cute Monsters Univ puzzle at the Dollar Tree for Drew, also.

Right now, I'm trying REALLY hard to stay off the DIS as much as possible! My in-laws are coming next week and I'm trying to get some stuff put away and re-organized. Clearing some clutter. We had new carpet installed last month and I've been taking my time in putting some stuff back, so I can purge items we no longer need, use or want. I've given away some out-grown clothes of my boys', have thrown away games with missing pieces, broken crayons and more. The more I do, the more I want to do!

We're less than 9 weeks from check-in, almost to our 60-day online check-in and ready to make the final payment to the DVC member who rented us her points. It's getting closer!!! :cool1:
 
OK, I'm officially excited!!!!!! :jumping1:

Today is my 60 days out and I looked this morning and I can do online check-in now! :cool1:

Also, the screen came up to personalize our Magic Bands, so I'm excited about that! :banana:

And, I just made my final payment on the DVC points rental! :yay:

So it's a good day all around. Now that November is upon us, things start to get REALLY crazy around here. After this weekend, there is something planned every weekend until Christmas, except for the weekend after Thanksgiving, which we always spend putting up our Christmas decorations. So that means I'll be running around like a :hyper: crazy person trying to get it all done.

The time is going to FLY by!
 
And my box from Amazon just arrived - got the newest Hidden Mickeys book to put in Dale's stocking, plus one for my stocking called "Lots To Do In Line at WDW." Plus, a Disney-quote decal I've been wanting for the wall of the dining area of my kitchen. I wonder if I have time to put that up before my kids are home from school?!?
 
I wanted to share the result of adding my decal to the dining area of my eat-in kitchen. The walls are white beadboard from the chair-rail down, and bright Mickey red above it. I love love love it. I have Disney sunset photos on either side of the French doors that lead out to the back porch, a white buffet/hutch with Disney kitchen items, and there's even a not-so-hidden-Mickey in the corner. This wall was pretty blank except for the clock (Mickey, of course), and I kept thinking it needed a little "something." Here is it. I love it!

 
And, I had my guys choose their colors of Magic Bands yesterday so hopefully those will arrive soon! I picked pink (since I figured no one else in my family would), Dale picked green, Brad picked yellow and Drew picked blue.
 
I'm resisting looking at my countdown app on my phone -- I know Monday will be 50 days and I'm looking forward to seeing that number! That will make it feel oh-so-close. Just over 7 weeks! :banana:

Dale and I talked this week about timing for heading down to Orlando. I think I mentioned before that I was hoping to leave mid-day on the 30th and go as far as Gainesville to see my niece, then the rest of the way the next morning. Timing is still up in the air right now. He doesn't want to take off all 5 days that week. It's not that he doesn't have the vacation time -- he has something like 200 hours -- but he is always conscious of how much time he spends away from his M-F job because of the Army. He does not like to get behind - it stresses him out. He has a lot of time off planned in the next 7 weeks; he put in 5 leave requests yesterday. Some of it is Army duty (next week), one day is when we go for our alma mater's homecoming game, then Christmas, then our Disney trip. Anyway, he said we still can probably leave by late afternoon or maybe earlier if he's all caught up. I told him I'd have the van loaded and ready to go when he got home. :thumbsup2 To try to ease the burden, I told him we can push it and come home early from the trip to the football game so he doesn't have to miss that day of work, but we'll see.

In other good Disney news, my BFF and her husband have their plane tickets to go on their adults-only Disney trip that will overlap our trip by a couple of days. They'll arrive sometime Friday. I'm sure we'll figure out some time to meet up somewhere!

Dale's parents are coming tomorrow for a couple of days. I will probably retreat to the DIS periodically! :rotfl: I really need to get some Christmas shopping done, I feel like I'm falling behind.

Have a great weekend! :cheer2:
 
50 DAYS!

:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:

We've been busy with company in town, so I haven't even had a chance to do anything Disney related.

Oh, except I did make a Disney Store order for the friends & family 25% off sale. :thumbsup2

In 7 weeks I'll be packing up the van and getting ready to :drive: !
 
:hourglass

The countdown is tick-tocking right along! I'm trying to get some Christmas presents bought and just have had no luck finding things I like. :confused3 I spent all morning shopping today and bought 2 Christmas ornaments to give to the ladies who help me with kids' choir at church on Wednesday nights.

On the up side, I came home to find Mr. UPS had delivered my latest box from the Disney Store. :cool1: I ordered a long-sleeve t-shirt for Drew, a Monsters U sweatshirt for Dale, a short-sleeved t-shirt for me and a Disney Vera Bradley money/id pouch for the trip.

Also, this week, I got the Zazzle shirt I'd ordered a week or two ago. I wanted it to wear on my birthday - it's Mickey and Minnie with balloons and party hats. So cute! Unfortunately, I had ordered an XL because it's a ladies' cut shirt and those are so often cut small, but it's HUGE. I was so disappointed when I pulled it out of the package. :sad1: I looked at the shipping invoice, though, and it said "satisfaction guaranteed" and gave the CS link. I checked it out and it said I could return it at my expense (which I was fine with) and they'd send me a new one. I sent in the request for the return authorization and this morning I had an email asking for more information on how I wanted to resolve the issue. I said that I wanted to re-order in a size large, same graphic, same shirt. I just got home and checked my email and had a message saying that they do normally ask for the item to be returned, but they're making an exception and are just going to send me a new one. I'm free to donate or discard the first one. :thumbsup2 Nice customer service from Zazzle!

Another happy thing - I happened to see a longtime friend and fellow Disney freak yesterday when I was picking up Drew at school. She asked me if we were planning a Disney trip anytime soon and I said yes, we were going for my birthday. Turns out they're going to be there too! And it was very nice of her to tell me that I don't look like I'm about to turn 40! :flower3:

Not that I'm trying to hurry along the holiday season, but I think I might ask Brad for his help when he gets home from school soon, and get some of the Christmas decorations out of the attic. We're stuck at home all weekend while he finishes his science project, so I might as well be productive!

Have a great weekend!
 
Is it time to go yet???

I try to tell myself not to "wish my life away" by always looking forward to the next event, the next thing coming along, but I'm sure having a hard time this week! I don't know if it's because it's such a busy time of year and I feel like I have to get it all done NOW, or what.

I got a few boxes of Christmas decorations out of the attic yesterday, despite 78-degree temps, and put up my Nativity sets and decorated the mantle last night while watching football.

I started my packing list for Disney last night, too. Maybe I should have done one for the trip coming up this Friday, instead! :lmao:

44 days!
 
Here we are, on the cusp of December! One month from today I will be packing! :thumbsup2

And as I thought, days are slipping away like logs over the Slippin' Falls. :rotfl: I started decorating a week or so ago, and we'll put up our Christmas tree tomorrow. I'm a little sad that I can't put up my "Mickey tree" yet. I have a small 4.5' tree that just has my Disney ornaments on it, but it is going to be a stage decoration for our church's children's musical next Sunday, so I won't get it up for another 10 days. But it's OK. I'll live.

I'm starting to get all my ducks in a row. I did online check-in tonight for our OKW reservation. I requested Old Turtle Pond area, and ground floor. I don't really mind climbing the stairs, but it *is* easier to transport luggage when you're on the first floor. I've double- and triple-checked my ADRs. The only thing I haven't done is buy tickets. I'm still debating which ones to buy and from where. I'm waiting for a kind DIS-er to email me the latest Mousesavers newsletter so I can see what the best price at Undercover Tourist is. I've been thinking all along that I would get the buy-3-days-get-5-days ticket from Orbitz through Ebates and get the 10% back, then upgrade that ticket to a Seasonal Annual Pass on our last day. Turns out that now only the park-hopper has the 2 "free" days attached to it and I don't want that ticket. It costs more than the SAP and their price on the 5-day base ticket is the same as Disney's. Yeah, I'd get back the 10%, but the caveat is that I can't redeem that voucher for a live ticket till we get there, so I can't use FP+. At that time of year, I'm thinking FP+ will be very important.

So, now I'm trying to find the next best price. UCT has a better price than Orbitz and saves me like $60 off Disney's price. If the Mousesavers deal gives me another few bucks, I'll likely go ahead and order them that way so I can get the actual tickets in my hot little hands ASAP.

However, I'm still debating just getting the 4-day Military Salute tickets. It's the cheapest option by far but then I will either miss the Osborne Lights or I'll have to park-hop when I hadn't planned to (not a big deal since the Military Salute tickets are PH). And I won't get to see the NYE fireworks. But I just have to decide exactly how much that is worth to me.

I hope everyone had a great day with family and friends yesterday, enjoyed a lot of turkey and if your football team is playing tomorrow, cheer heartily. In our house we have a big Auburn fan (Dale), a sentimental Alabama fan (me, because my brother went there), and we usually root for the Florida State Seminoles as our "local" team --- we're not far from Tallahassee. It'll be a loud day around here!

And don't look now, but it's only 25 shopping days till Christmas! :santa:
 

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