UPDATED!! Last Year's TR added!! Celebrating weight loss with DDP!!

[stayhomemom77]

Okay, okay...this is probably the stupidest thing I have EVER done (not counting gaining the weight in the first place) but I figured a trip to Disney would be just the thing to celebrate losing fifty plus pounds and the dining plan just added itself...honest.

Alright, first off cast of characters...

Me DW34 Have been to MK and MGM (when it WAS MGM) when I was a kid. I LOVE DISNEY and would go several times a year, if only my husband was willing. Last year was our first family trip with our two kiddies and I somehow managed to convince him to go back again this year.

DH35 Was taken to MK as a baby and then never again. Has no magical kid memories to call up and thinks my Disney addiction makes me a "harmless nut." Is crazy about our kids (and moi ) so is willing to make the 18 hour drive to Disney two years in a row. Has resigned himself to at least one more trip in 2013 when the Fantasyland expansion is all finished so his loved ones can check it out.

DD6 CAN NOT WAIT to have breakfast "with" Cinderella at her castle and is really looking forward to staying on Disney property for the first time. Santa brought her a Cinderella dress especially for this meal and she has assured me that we will have to go swimming every day this time.

DS5 Well, he will be five by the trip...his birthday is in a little bit and the biggest draw for him for this trip is Test Track. His sister went on with Daddy last year and had the bejeebles scared out of her, so he is determined to take a turn so he can insist to her that there is nothing to it. Also, because we missed it last year the Dumbo ride is at the top of his priority list (which seems incongruent when compared to Test Track but what can ya do??)

I actually have my son to thank/blame for this trip. DH and I have always given our change to the kiddies to put into their piggy banks. They get monthly spending money of their own, so their piggy money has some sort of vague "I'm saving it for something special" significance. One day in late October 2009 DS came out of his room and declared that he was saving his change for another trip to Disney. Of course his sister jumped onto the bandwagon and I hit the gas and....well, here we are.

We went for a week in April 2009 but stayed off site and did the cheap counter service/eat off site thing to keep the costs low. We did this because we tacked a 3 day Bahamas cruise on to the end of the trip. Hey, if you're going to go to all the trouble of driving down to Florida...

So this time we wanted to be sure to stay on site. The budget is always the key feature in our trip plans (at least initially) so in the beginning with our being Canadian and having to take things like exchange rates and all into account it looked as if we were certain to stay at a value resort.

My husband as I mentioned hasn't yet been bitten by the Disney bug, but he does enjoy how much the rest of us enjoy it. He does love to experiment in terms of cuisine so getting him to agree to the dining plan was easier than I thought. We had eaten so much fast food last year that I wasn't anxious to do it again but if we were to get the dining plan we would HAVE to save money by staying at Pop.

Our dates were chosen and at the 180 day window I began making dining reservations. I snagged us the CRT reservation as well as Le Cellier and several others. These have changed multiple times in the last three months but I think we have finally cemented our itinerary.

Although I was chomping at the bit to book our vacation, I knew that if I waited until the new year there was a chance that Disney would have some specials running that would save us some cash because, of course in the mean time I hadn't been able to resist a thorough examination of ALL the resort hotels and got my husband interested in CBR and POFQ. An unexpected windfall allowed us to seriously entertain a moderate resort and POFQ was chosen. I still hesitated on the booking...after all we may as well wait and see what the specials (if any) would be available in January.

THEN I found the DIS!! And learned about the DVC and about renting points and by that point I KNEW I couldn't enjoy my vacation if we couldn't say at a Deluxe villa. Again, getting my husband to agree was easier than I anticipated and we found some great DVC members willing to rent points to us and book our eight night stay.

So, we are staying 2 nights at SSR and 6 nights at AKL and getting the dining plan for the entire time!!

Now, to the weight loss part. I needed to do something to assuage my guilty conscious about how very "ME" this trip was turning out to be. And that is not to say that everyone else isn't thrilled about our plans and thoroughly happy, but if I were to be completely honest...I'm planning all the things I want to do and it just HAPPENS to coincide with the things that interest the rest of them. I have been "trying to lose weight" on and off (mostly off) for the last two years. I have had some success in the last six weeks and plan to have a whole lot more over the next three months. I am hoping to be able to lose 70 pounds by our trip (I'm just about half way there) and THAT is what we are going to be celebrating on our trip!!

Next up!! The itinerary that changes daily!!


TR Report from last year:

Setting Out for the "World" April 2009

Day Two at the World--Hollywood Studios

 

[stayhomemom77]

First, let me say that losing 35 pounds in 96 days is going to be a REALLY big stretch, so although I'd like to lose that much by the trip, it isn't likely to happen. I think I can safely say that I can lose another fifteen pounds by April 21st and that's a big enough achievement to celebrate even if it isn't my goal weight. This explains the fifty plus pounds comment that's at the top of the OP.

Now, on to the title. When I first "rough drafted" our itinerary in October, the park EMH weren't available. Since we were only getting base tickets (that darn bottom line issue raises it's ugly head) making ADR's proved difficult. So, I did my best, consulted my hubby, studied the menus at AllEars until I had them memorized and drew up a plan. But hardly a day goes by that I don't "check in" at the Dis and AllEars and the new info (dining reviews, trip reports, new "discoveries", etc) led to at least one minor change each and every day.

At first I was alone in the planning but after begging DH to look at some of the restaurants so he could pick a fav he had a few "suggestions" to make. Oh, and one day last month he sprung the "I think we should take a day off to go to the beach" on me (SACRILEGE!! ) so I had to rearrange practically the whole thing. One thing I couldn't do was tamper with CRT and Le Cellier...those were set in stone but everything else was malleable.

I couldn't begin to tell you how the itinerary started but now it looks like this:

April Itinerary
Wed 21 Drive to Lake Park, GA (15 hrs)
Thurs 22 Drive to Daytona Beach (4 hrs) Drive to/check in SSR (1.5 hrs)
Fri 23 DTD/Resort Day
Sat 24 check in AKV/Epcot
Sun 25 MGM
Mon 26 MK
Tues 27 Resort Day
Wed 28 AK (EMH 8 PM)
Thurs 29 MK (EMH 8 AM)
Fri 30 Epcot/drive 3.5 hrs to Lake Park, GA
Sat 1 Drive home (15 hrs)

Flame me if you like but I still insist on calling it MGM...I like my acronyms and HS just doesn't do if for me. My son has spent the last nine months correcting me if that helps anyone feel better.

And the ADR's look like this:

April
22 Whispering Canyon-dinner
23 quick service both lunch and dinner
24 Teppan Edo-lunch, Le Cellier-dinner
25 Sci Fi-lunch
26 CRT-brunch
27 Boma-dinner
28 Yak and Yeti-dinner
29 Ohana-dinner
30 Coral Reef-dinner

Of course with a studio villa, all breakfasts will be in our room by way of cereal, pastries, oatmeal, fruit and yogurt deals.

Originally, we were only going to be at Disney for a week but when I was confirming our information with the DVC folks we rented points from I made a boo boo and only had him book six nights at AKL instead of seven. I didn't realize my mistake until it was all booked. I supposed I could have asked him to call and adjust our reservation but in the end I decided to just add two nights onto the front of our stay so the kids could experience Pop after all. I even went so far as to book the accommodations online.

But naughty, greedy, selfish Mommy was now too snobby to stay at a value resort especially since for just a little bit more (gotta love that fuzzy Disney math) we could have another villa so I emailed our good friends again and inquired whether or not we could rent a few more points and try a different resort out.

CONFESSION TIME:

When I put this suggestion to my hubby he thought that Pop would be good enough and said to just leave it as it is, but....















I ignored him.

I canceled Pop and added SSR WITH dining. I have referred to our SSR stay several times, in a very off hand and casual way, so if he ever clues in to the change and demands to know what the heck is going on I can honestly say that he knew about it all along. Hence the guilt and the desperate need to turn this trip into a celebration of something personal, so I can justify my SSR reservation!!

Up next: How to eat adventerously with a one picky eater and one on a diet!

 

[disneylovin24]

Can't wait for more!!!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Hey, I'm going to let you in on a little secret...

Diets don't exist on vacation.

So, how in the heck am I going to keep from gaining my fifty plus pounds back with the food frenzy that is the Disney dining plan? Well, I have a system.

First though, I have to say that my son will eat peanut butter sandwiches, pizza and chicken nuggets and fries...and that's about it. So, finding places to eat at proved to be a little tricky. In the end I just booked places the rest of us would like and decided not to worry about it. After all, the little guy's not going to starve as long as grapes and applesauce are available on the kid's menus (thank goodness for that!!) And if he eats nothing but bread and dessert at Ohana...well, oh well.

As for me, I've laid down a few ground rules for myself that I hope I'm going to be able to follow.

First, I have decided to let my kids eat my dessert at each restaurant. Oh yes, you heard me correctly...excepting for a bite two, the kids can share my sorbet or creme brulee (or whatever) and they can have my Canadian Moose entirely...I've never been a fan of mousse.

Second, when we get pizza...think pizza planet...I am going order my meal and only one kid's meal for the kids to share. Then we are going to trade pizzas. So I get the kid sized one and my salad and they get to share the adult pizza and the sides that come with their meal. This works out great because we'll save a CS credit to use at breakfast. My kids love waffles and the idea of eating mickey's head gives them no end of delight.

Third, I've already chosen what "treats" I'm going to indulge in (dole whip float, ice cream cookie sandwich, etc) and I'm going to stick to them!! Plus, I'm never going to be eating any one of these tasty bits alone. If my husband can't take one for the team and share with me, then I can always share with my son...he won't be eating anything at the restaurants anyway.

Fourth, I'm going to drink TONS of water...I always do anyway...so there is less room for food and NEVER CLEAN MY PLATE. There will always be a couple of bites (or more) of my meal left on my plate or in my container when we are ready to leave the eating establishment.

Last but not least, I AM going to take advantage of the offer of fruit, veggies or salad as a substitute for french fries as ALL CS restaurants. I am going to have fries with my burger at Sci Fi and THAT IS IT!!

These rules combined with a brisk walk or jog each morning before the parks should help to keep the cellulite jiggle to a minimum at the resort pool, which is something we can ALL enjoy.

Up next, How are we going to pay for all of this?

 

[michellem1118]

Joining in for the fun! I'd love to lose ~30 pounds (ok, really more like 40) before our March trip, but it's not gonna happen. If I can lose 10-15 by then, I'll be pretty happy.

On the plus side for you... in all of our trips, including ones with deluxe dining, neither me nor DH has ever GAINED any weight at Disney. You just do too much walking around the parks, to the bus stops, around the resorts, etc. So I think you'll be fine, even with the dining plan.

 

[martinolichfamily]

I'm in....waiting to read more!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Disneylovin24, michellem1118 and martinolichfamily welcome to my first Pre TR. I’m so excited about this trip and there will definitely be a trip report coming in May!!

 

[gellybean]

I'm in!! I'm in !! Your title is so me!! We returned our elliptical machine back to Costco to pay for our DDP! LOL

I am actually in a room at AKL letting the rest of the fam get a rest in before our Boma ressie at 8pm! . I'll let you know how it is. The lodge is awesome !! Y'all are gonna love it. Is your villa at Kidani or Jambo house?

Will subscribe when I get home. Kinda limited on my phone. Hehe. I'm so addicted to the Dis I'm on the boards from Disney. :rofl:

 

[stayhomemom77]

Oh my gosh, gellybean that's awesome!! I LOL'd when I read about the elliptical (sp?) machine and my son came running over to check out what I was laughing at. We are staying at the Jambo house, it was less points but now I'm wishing that I'd opted for Kidani after seeing pool pics. Oh well, we are going to have a great time.

 

[stayhomemom77]

As a true Disneymaniac, all other concerns fall by the wayside when confronted by the news that the possibility of returning to the most magical place on earth has come sooner than one has expected. If you want something bad enough, you can make it happen…at least that’s what I told myself back in October.

There was a real concern though and that was…money!! As a family, we had set a goal of getting out of debt by August 2010 and coming up with a couple thousand dollars for a spring trip to Florida was going to put a serious crimp in our plans. However, thanks to kijiji and a bunch of junk laying around the basement and garage, we were able to come up with $300 in just over a week. Giddy with our success, we attacked our monthly budget and hacked and slashed until it was nothing but bare bones. We got Santa and relatives in on the plan and various necessities for the trip (spending money among them) were received at Christmas.

The children agreed to part with half of their monthly spending money and put it into the Disney account and Mommy (yes, ME) donated her ENTIRE monthly allowance of spending money from November to May to the cause. I am, I confess going through Aldo withdrawals but I will be able to buy new shoes again in June and in the winter I’m stuck wearing my boots most of the time anyway (yah Canada!!)so... It did hurt when I hit the mall this past week and saw my favourite clothing stores with their 70% off signs up taunting and tempting me.

Still, with all of our pinching and scraping, we had to cut corners so we agreed that it would have to be a car trip once again. This isn’t a big deal for us. DH does all the driving cheerfully…at least he did last year… and I have offered to take turns whenever he feels he needs a break. Also, the spending money budget is pretty close to non existent. We are allotting only $50 a person for sundry expenses and plan to use some of our dining plan snack credits to buy lollipops or some such at Goofy’s Candy Co. for the folks at home.

That part of it seemed like a no brainer but the agony over whether to do value and dining or moderate and no dining had me writhing for days. In the end, as is well known I got to do the dining plan as well as a DELUXE resort. Bless you DVC members for renting out your points!!

So now, with the trip only 93 days away and the income tax return fated to pay for the remaining Disney expenses all that’s left to do is organize and collect the trip items, oh…and lose the rest of the weight!!

Up next: What’s up with the friggin’ exchange rate, anyway?

 

[stayhomemom77]

Okay, just made some dining changes this morning so I thought I'd update.

Whispering Canyon Cafe is canceled and we are going to do lunch at Coral Reef on April 30th and dinner at Chefs de France instead.

I THINK this will be the last adjustment.

 

[stayhomemom77]

When we were planning our April trip in January of 2009, the Canadian dollar was just above par with the American dollar. Fool that I was I figured it wouldn’t go up too much over the next three months and I didn’t begin stockpiling American cash until just two weeks before departure. By then, the exchange rate had fallen and we had to pay $0.27 on the dollar. Ouch!!
So this time, when the exchange rate was at ten cents, I started buying American money. Now, we don’t need a lot…just a few hundred bucks for gas and tips and spending but I’ve been getting a hundred here and there for the last eight weeks. Of course, now that I have nearly every cent we need the exchange rate is at five cents on the dollar! Grrrr!

Anyway, unlike gellybean we don’t have an elliptical machine to return so I’m back to hoping that the rate doesn’t rise to 27 cents on the dollar (or more…ugh) by the time we arrive in Disney. We’ll only have to buy park tickets and pay for the dining plan but still that’ll be quite a bit of change, and the lower the exchange rate, the better it will be for us. Well, I guess only time will tell…

On a side note, should I avoid the advance check in? I’m worried that there will be some difficulty getting the park tickets added to our KTTW cards if we check in online before we leave. Any thoughts?

Up next: Are you sure we can’t go tomorrow?

 

[2_Eagle_Mom]

I love your rationalization for your trip! I'm trying to lose another 30lbs before our trip in October so I'm totally on board with you. I think your ideas of how to stay on track while on the DDP sound good. We've never done the dining plan, but my best tip during our last trip (during Food & Wine) was to get the LAST bite of DHs dessert. That way I got to taste everything, but since it was the last bite I didn't have to worry about getting tempted to eat more.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[michellem1118]

Oh my gosh, gellybean that's awesome!! I LOL'd when I read about the elliptical (sp?) machine and my son came running over to check out what I was laughing at. We are staying at the Jambo house, it was less points but now I'm wishing that I'd opted for Kidani after seeing pool pics. Oh well, we are going to have a great time.

I think you'll be MUCH happier in Jambo. All of the restaurants (except Sanaa) are in Jambo, so it's MUCH more convenient. DH & I walked between the two quite a bit in July when we stayed at Kidani, trying to refill our mugs at Mara & such. Also, the pool at Jambo gets much better reviews on here, although we enjoyed the less-crowded feeling of the pool at Kidani quite a bit.

On a side note, should I avoid the advance check in? I’m worried that there will be some difficulty getting the park tickets added to our KTTW cards if we check in online before we leave. Any thoughts?

I don't think you'll have any problems adding your park tickets if you do online check-in... and if you check-in at a busy time of day, the online line was always much shorter during our past two trips.

 

[gellybean]

Online check in for me was AWESOME! And I just gave away some of my TR suspense.... but it was great. Super easy and fast. We were a package so there was no issue with the KTTW cards having our tickets. I *THINK* that even if they aren't on the ticket when you check in, it's super easy to ask them to add them and reprint the card or to go to the Concierge desk and have them do it for you.

That being said, if you are going to have to wait for the keys to be reprinted anyway... what else is there to save time for you at the check in process?


The lines were never long while we were there, for the online check in or regular check in/out line.


Hope this info helps!!

Crossing my fingers for you that the exchange rate swings y'all's way before you have to buy all your American cash necessary stuff!

I totally love how you came up with your money! SO ME! Now I just have to come up with more ways to find more money for our next trip!

My TR has started officially if you find time to make your way over there !

 

[stayhomemom77]

I LOVE the "last bite" idea!! I should totally do that! Thanks!!

Thanks for all the good ideas and responses regarding online check in. I am debating ordering our cards completely separately and having them sent to me ahead of time in the mail so that they are not connected to our KTTW cards at all. With the exchange rate beginning to climb, it may end up being a necessity in order to keep to the budget.

At first we were just going to get a six day pass but I've been thinking about getting a nine day pass instead. We've reserved a couple of days as "resort" days where we don't plan on going to the parks at all, but heck for an extra $12 per day, I'm thinking I should just do it and we can always go for a couple of hours if we feel like it. We're don't really "lounge" on vacation and we're not big shoppers either (I know, I know...sacrilege) so at the SSR I can totally see us going "what do we do now?"

Also, (can you tell I'm practicing this pitch to use it on my husband??) we promised Lori that we'd go swimming every day so if we shortening each park day we'll have less time in the parks so the extra days may come in handy if we find we aren't leaving enough time to do all that we want to in each park.

Weight loss news:

I **MAY** have pigged out a bit this weekend at East Side Mario's and with some chinese take out. (When I say I may have done something with caps and asterisks, it means I totally did!!) Man, that wagon is slippery!! But I'm back on and this time, I did up my seat belt so no more falling off the wagon for me!

However, I still exercised all week so the damage to my waistline should be minimal. Can I share a secret? I've never been one for physical exertion...too lazy, I guess. But this is my fifth week working out steadily and I have to say...I'm LOVING it!! I may get into trouble diet wise but I think it's safe to say that my exercise regime is here to stay.

I'd love to add some pics so you get an idea of what we look like but I don't know how to do it. I need to find out before the trip so that I can put a ton of them up on the TR I'm going to do once we get back.

Alright...I've got an update to do....

 

[stayhomemom77]

So, you may remember that we managed to raise about $300 in a week and agreed to donate our spending money to the trip. Well, after depositing the cash into the special DISNEY savings account, my daughter (who knew that the dining reservations had been taken care of) wanted to know if she needed to pack her bag.

It took me a minute or two to clue into the fact that she thought we’d be leaving the following day. I must have laughed a little hysterically because my husband gave me a quizzical and concerned look as I tried to explain to her that our trip was still some time away. For a few minutes she persisted in arguing that we were all ready to go now despite my assurances that $300 would not cover the costs of our trip. In the end, I had to explain to her that if we went tomorrow, or at any time other than the one we had booked, we wouldn’t be able to eat at Cinderella’s castle. She subsided cheerfully and has been patient ever since.

The fact that my six year old was having difficulty grasping the timeline for our trip made me nervous that my four year old would be equally confused and impatient but nothing could be further from the truth. He merely requested that we make up monthly calendars as we had done last time and stick them up on the living room wall over the couch. He has been crossing off the days since the middle of November and knows that there are several birthdays and holidays between now and the trip. He got quite excited when we reached the 100 day mark (I merely felt a sense of panic…I still have quite a bit of weight to lose ) but he seems to realize that 100 days is still a long time away.

The nice thing about going in April is that we aren’t usually wearing our summer things quite yet. This means that packing 10 days out is as easy as a wink. I don’t do last minute very well, I get stressed and grouchy and then everyone gives me a wide berth, so the night before/day of “to do” things need to be small in number. We are going to be packing our lunch and snacks for that first day so we can get to Valdosta with minimal stops. It’s going to be a loooooog drive. I’m going to be getting that ready the night before and I’m going to insist that the car is packed (excepting the cooler) then too. In the morning we’ll just have to throw the cooler and kiddie car bags into the vehicle, hop in and drive away. Well, that’s the plan, anyway.


Up next: Who’s behind in the camera?

 

[stayhomemom77]

Whew!! Been working out hard all week but then ruining it by snacking BIG time!!



I'll keep trying and eventually I'll make some progress. I HAVE to, for booking SSR over POP!!

More Monday.

 

[stayhomemom77]

Confession time: I made sure we didn’t pose at one single photopass spot during our last vacation.

I TOLD you I was selfish! I didn’t use to hate getting my picture taken (although I never loved it) but since I spent the last 10 years steadily putting on weight I’ve grown more and more camera shy until now I do ANYTHING to avoid having my cellulite on celluloid.

My loving husband, ever respectful of my aversion to being captured on film has kept me out of as many family vacation photographs as possible but there are still too many pics of the kids with my bum or gut as the backdrop to their poses. As it can’t be ALL about the kids, I did have to pose occasionally, and there are far too many chubby mummy pictures for my liking. I don’t have enough time to get slim, but I can, at the very least be less chubby.

And my dearest desire is to order the photopass CD this year so I can do all of those fun borders and things and make a kick butt album of our 2010 family vacation. Plus, you know we are eating at the castle and we are getting our pictures taken with Cinderella. How am I supposed to stand beside a size 0 and smile? You know, I can’t wear black in Florida and the kids only hide a portion of my girth!!

Up next: It’s gotta be better than last year!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Just joined the Disney Movie club so that the Easter Bunny can leave some new Disney movies for kiddies to be used on the drive down!!

Of course, it was tough trying to find movies that they don't already have!! I did manage though, and I hope they are going to be pleased with their selections. DH was ticked later that he didn't get a say in the choosing. Oops!!

I also scored new hats with the full brim for the trip. DD got a Disney princess one and DS got a non character one with multiple colours. Paid only $4 for the two of them. I love after Christmas sales!!

Will have time for a longer, official report next week!!