Wait, weren't you just at Disney World? An August '14 Pre-Trip Report *updated 8/24*

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 25 - a couple of small things​

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I everyone ... not too much to report, but as we do have a baby scheduled to be delivered in 9 days I wasn't sure how often I will be able to post updates in the future.

Oh, and this update will be light on pictures, so I thought I would just post this for fun:

So one piece of planning that was still to be done was to book the rental car. As we need a minivan this isn't a minimal expense so trying to get a good deal is key. In the past we have always gone with USAA as they had good discounts and additional benefits like not having to pay for extra drivers, etc. Last time the best deal was with Budget, but this time it seemed like Enterprise was coming in about $100 cheaper. Ok, so that's good. Only issue was their return only opens at 6am and our flight home leaves at 7am so that seemed like it was cutting it close

On a whim I decided to check the BJ's rates and they had an offered rate through Dollar that was $150 cheaper than the USAA Enterprise one and Dollar is open 24/7 ... so, um, score!


In non-TR news, since we don't really have anything else going on rotfl2 we have been having some work done to our house. The main project was that our front porch had to be rebuilt as it was not done properly the first time and was falling down. This has taken close to a year as we needed to get architectural drawings done and get permits and a variance from the town, etc. but that is just about done - I think the final coat of paint went on today.

While the painters were here we are having them redo our bedroom as well as the room that will be the "girls" room. We have been in our house over 8 years and still had the same pealing wall paper in our room that was there when we moved in so it was time.

Hopefully later this week it will all be done and put back together and I will post more pics, but as a tease I thought I would post the wall color. We decided if we are redoing it let's go kinda bold and in a complete opposite direction from the tans, reds, and golds we had before .... so, yeah

We are loving it so far - so hopefully we continue to.

TTFN

 

[Dugette]

Wow, 9 days...I was thinking of you guys earlier and figuring it was soon, but wow! Pretty exciting!

Ha ha, love the Pooh GIF!

Yay for finding a good rental minivan rate! You may have already checked this, but I remember seeing that mousesavers had a list of discount codes for all the companies, in case you need to check any further. I don't usually rent cars in Florida, so I'm not much more help than that. Hmm, I wonder if your TA can come up with anything better? Isn't that the sort of thing they should be doing?

I LOVE the wall color!!! Very nice!

 

[KatMark]

9 days? How did that come so fast?

I love the Pooh picture.

And the paint color is fabulous...very nice!

Good job on the car. I originally had a midsize car with Budget booked four our September trip and it was $467.00 for almost 16 days; I was able to get one from Alamo for $337.00 for the same time frame. I used Costco.

 

[horse11]

WOW 9 days!!!! don't worry about this update being lite on pictures because I willing to bet you will have some great pictures to post real soon! Can't wait to see the new addition and future Diser!!!!

 

[DisMom1981]

9 days!!! I can imagine the excitement in your house- baby, house projects, and Disney prep- LOL!

We recently had a bathroom gutted and redone- first indoor project in 7 years. Looking to do a huge Reno/addition project since we've tried to sell our "starter" but will lose out so much since we bought before the market crashed. Ugh. It feels so great though after a project is done.

Cannot wait to see some baby pictures. We are on the fence about maybe having a third an I am loving playing with friends new babies and seeing all I our friends' baby pics online. I can't believe our youngest is three and starting pre-k......it happened so fast!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

 

[khaleesi]

I know! They really need to get on that whole teleporter thing! Would be cool to be able to live anywhere you want and yet get to anywhere you want whenever you want instantaneously!

Exactly!!!!!

The desserts were really good!

oh, and I can post this too - someone made this strawberry chocolate trifle thing for our party on the 4th - it was sooooo good!

YUM YUM YUM!!!!!


Glad you got all FP+ stuff figured out!! Reminds me of really bad game of Tetris! And LOL @ the travel agent.

I love the Sully-slash-Obi Wan lightsaber colored paint

And yay for it almost being baby time!!!

 

[annie170]

Wow! Getting close! Is Judi having a scheduled c-section or induction? You know, the 17th is a nice birthdate. Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955 and several years later, I was born on the 17th. I love having a little Disney history associated with my birthdate.

Nice paint color. Did Olivia choose the room color for herself and new sister?

It's amazing how car rentals can vary so much in price. One thing I love about using the Magical Express is not having to rent a car. Of course, you can't venture out and about, keeping all your dollars in Disney.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Wow, 9 days...I was thinking of you guys earlier and figuring it was soon, but wow! Pretty exciting!

Ha ha, love the Pooh GIF!

Yay for finding a good rental minivan rate! You may have already checked this, but I remember seeing that mousesavers had a list of discount codes for all the companies, in case you need to check any further. I don't usually rent cars in Florida, so I'm not much more help than that. Hmm, I wonder if your TA can come up with anything better? Isn't that the sort of thing they should be doing?

I LOVE the wall color!!! Very nice!

Well, you have enough planning going on in your life to keep exact track of due dates in my life

It is crazy how much the price of minivans changes. All in, after taxes, we are paying $605 for 11 days (the 20th-30th) - but some of the quotes were close to $2,000

Since we will be down there visiting relatives from the 20th to the 25th we needed the car at least for that much. We thought about turning it in and then using ME but then we decided to fly out Sat morning instead of Friday so couldn't use ME then. Plus with the modified monorail schedule now I was worried about making per-park opening ADRs a few days so figured it was safer to have the car. Course, this also means we have to carry 3 car seats down with us on the flight

9 days? How did that come so fast?

I love the Pooh picture.

And the paint color is fabulous...very nice!

Good job on the car. I originally had a midsize car with Budget booked four our September trip and it was $467.00 for almost 16 days; I was able to get one from Alamo for $337.00 for the same time frame. I used Costco.

it's funny that in some ways it feels like the pregnancy has gone really fast and in other ways it feels like it has taken a long time ... I am sure at this point Judi is leaning towards the later

I had heard other people mention Costco as having good prices so that is what led me to BJs (we don't have a Costco near us). Wish we fit in a regular car but with the three kids really need a van which makes the prices much higher. But I think we did ok

 

[MidnightParade]

Ahhh! Baby so soon! Very exciting and nerve racking?! It will be nice to have the porch done and the bedroom painted. Less to worry about and now you can enjoy it for a few days before it all changes again!

Grats on the car rental! Feels so good when you find that awesome deal!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

WOW 9 days!!!! don't worry about this update being lite on pictures because I willing to bet you will have some great pictures to post real soon! Can't wait to see the new addition and future Diser!!!!

Oh, I am sure we will have a ton of pictures coming up! And looks like Emma will start off life as a DISer ... completely on her own Judi picked out Emma's "going home" outfit and it is, of course, Disney themed. Plus friends of ours gave us like the smallest Snow White outfit I have ever seen!

9 days!!! I can imagine the excitement in your house- baby, house projects, and Disney prep- LOL!

We recently had a bathroom gutted and redone- first indoor project in 7 years. Looking to do a huge Reno/addition project since we've tried to sell our "starter" but will lose out so much since we bought before the market crashed. Ugh. It feels so great though after a project is done.

One of our first projects was our "extra" bathroom - our house has 2.5 and when we first moved it in was just Judi and I so figured we couldn't take our time working over the 2nd one on the 2nd floor that we didn't really use - plus it was like 1950's pink tile, etc. - so needed to be done. We did it all ourselves (except for some of the plumbing rough in stuff) and it took us ... 5 years

Cannot wait to see some baby pictures. We are on the fence about maybe having a third an I am loving playing with friends new babies and seeing all I our friends' baby pics online. I can't believe our youngest is three and starting pre-k......it happened so fast!

I know! They grow so fast. The other date we cut Peter's hair and it made him look so old! I was like "where'd my baby boy go?!?!?!" We always thought we would have 3 or 4 kids (I am one of 2, Judi is one of 5 - so somewhere in the middle sounded good) - but after Peter I was thinking maybe 2 is enough! Put everyone we have talked to who have 3 said going from 2 to 3 isn't nearly the jump as 1 to 2, but we shall see .... that might just be what they tell themselves

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Glad you got all FP+ stuff figured out!! Reminds me of really bad game of Tetris! And LOL @ the travel agent.

Probably should mention I changed the FP+ ... again. I was reading on the boards that they are, at least sometimes, checking everyone's MB/FP+ before giving out rider switch cards - meaning the ability for Judi to have Soarin' and me to have Test Track and us to be able to ride both using Rider Switch may not work. So I changed mine back to Soarin' just to be safe, but did keep it at a 5 minute stagger so still separate so if we find it it will still work I can try to change it back. .... Feels like planning a land war in Asia sometimes!

I love the Sully-slash-Obi Wan lightsaber colored paint

And yay for it almost being baby time!!!

Thanks! Definitely getting there!

Wow! Getting close! Is Judi having a scheduled c-section or induction? You know, the 17th is a nice birthdate. Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955 and several years later, I was born on the 17th. I love having a little Disney history associated with my birthdate.

Yeah, it is a scheduled C-section. Olivia inherited my sense of direction and refused to turn around so she had to be cut out and the Peter turned out to be huge so he too had to be cut out ... after 2 they said the 3rd then had to be cut out as well .... though, fits much better into planning spreadsheets when it is a scheduled birth

Nice paint color. Did Olivia choose the room color for herself and new sister?

It's amazing how car rentals can vary so much in price. One thing I love about using the Magical Express is not having to rent a car. Of course, you can't venture out and about, keeping all your dollars in Disney.

Olivia did get to pick the color. We still had some left from when we painted her current room - which is like in-between pink and purple and we are then getting like a plum color to pain an accent wall with. I then ordered about 7 "fat head" type wall stickers of ... Disney Princesses of course! .... to decorate the walls with. So overall it will be a tad girly

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Ahhh! Baby so soon! Very exciting and nerve racking?! It will be nice to have the porch done and the bedroom painted. Less to worry about and now you can enjoy it for a few days before it all changes again!

Grats on the car rental! Feels so good when you find that awesome deal!

ah, Amber you snuck in there in between my responses

I think we are more excited than nervous ... though sometimes I get worried that I am not worried enough

Thanks! It was definitely a surprise when I saw what I was saving at BJs vs USAA.

 

[MarbleBob]

How exciting to know that baby Emma will be here so soon!!!!!!!

 

[Imagineer5]

I was just thinking that her due date must be approaching so I needed to come investigate!! Glad I didn't miss her arrival hehe. So glad the porch is finished up and you get fresh paint to boot!! Hope you are all doing well

 

[cstorm65]

Awesome on the rental car! It is always exciting to find a great rental car discount...it makes all of the time spent checking rates worth it.

Praying that all goes well for you all!

 

[missangelalexis]

Only a week to go, how exciting!

Love the Winnie the Pooh GIF

Nice getting the rental car and work on the house getting done!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

How exciting to know that baby Emma will be here so soon!!!!!!!

Thanks Matt - definitely getting excited, though I think "antsy" is the best thing I can think of to describe how I am feeling. Actually, I think I am more nervous about being off from work for 6 weeks than the actual baby

I was just thinking that her due date must be approaching so I needed to come investigate!! Glad I didn't miss her arrival hehe. So glad the porch is finished up and you get fresh paint to boot!! Hope you are all doing well

Thanks Lauren - we are all doing well. And trust me, when the baby is born I will definitely put pictures here, and Facebook, and everywhere!

Awesome on the rental car! It is always exciting to find a great rental car discount...it makes all of the time spent checking rates worth it.

Praying that all goes well for you all!

Thanks Jon! Yeah, definitely felt better about making the reservation and that I got a good rate. It's amazing what a little checking on line will get you. No idea what people did before the internet

Only a week to go, how exciting!

Love the Winnie the Pooh GIF

Nice getting the rental car and work on the house getting done!

Thanks Alexis! well, we aren't quite there yet with the house stuff - but getting there!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 26 - Memory Maker and construction updates​

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Ok, so squeezing in a few more updates.

The only real trip related news is that I got memory maker set up for our account so pretty excited about that. Figured first trip with 3 kids having someone else who can take some pictures of us would be good. Plus we gotta get some pictures of baby Emma in front of the castle!

Also some construction updates.

So I mentioned we had to get the porch redone and it is officially complete!

I don't have a "before" picture of the porch but here is a pictures showing how much had to be removed:

And here is the completed porch:

I was excited to, while we were getting it pained anyway, to get the underneath part of the roof painted traditional light blue, as you can see better in this picture:

And speaking of blue ....

We haven't totally finished reloading the room and I want to add another closet organizer at some point, but thought I would share before/after pictures of our bedroom:

Before (probably doesn't really convey how bad it was with pealing wallpaper and ugly ceiling tiles):

and after (was so nice to sleep in a completed room last night ):

We still need to get the new girls room done - hopefully that will get done this week. If so I will post pictures of that too

TTFN

 

[missangelalexis]

The porch and the bedroom both look great!!

 

[MarbleBob]

Cool! Your porch looks amazing. I can imagine it would be fun to relax in a rocking chair while sipping a nice drink And the bedroom looks tranquil too. Nice job Phil!