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

[caitlinnf]

Congratulations! Baby girls are awesome.

 

[khaleesi]

Thank you ... also yeah for planning another trip - that's half the fun! which probably says more about me than Disney

I'm right there with ya. I'm seriously considering planning a trip a year and a half from now that I have no guarantees of ever taking!

Congratulations!!!! I love it when I can tell that the sonogram picture is of a baby. A coworker handed me hers once and I flipped it every which way and couldn't for the life of me figure out where the baby was.

 

[Leshaface]

Glad you made it! Haven't missed too much yet.

Yeah, I am hearing just ridiculous stories and there are some amazing ones available of Esty going for like $2,000. Happy with the one we got, we also got a super cute Olaf shirt for Peter for the Frozen party as well

You have got to be kidding me Those little girls better get married in those dresses later on

I'll need to check out the Official Ticket Center and Undercover Tourist to compare prices soon..

Yay for girly baby news! I bet Olivia is super happy that a baby sister is coming soo

 

[middlesista]

A baby girl - so much fun! Now all those princess dresses can be recycled!

 

[Nakkira]

I am onboard and looking forward to the rest of your plans! Congrats on the your Pending Princess

 

[annie170]

Congrats on the new baby girl! Glad to hear all is well! Are you sharing the name or will she be known as "TBD" for the time being?

Smart move getting those tickets before the price increase.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Awesome that you were able to save some $$ and that you are receiving your AP magic band!

Congrats on adding another princess to the family!! Very exciting!!

Thank you - happy to just have pulled the trigger on the tickets rather than 2nd guessing myself and waiting. And thank you as well for the congrats!

Congratulations! Baby girls are awesome.

Thank you! And having a baby boy showed us how different they can be - definitely ready for another baby girl

I'm right there with ya. I'm seriously considering planning a trip a year and a half from now that I have no guarantees of ever taking!

I know! One of the reasons I found writing the TR from our last trip so positive was it kept that trip alive rather than needing to plan the next one ... once I finished the TR though, all bets were off!

Congratulations!!!! I love it when I can tell that the sonogram picture is of a baby. A coworker handed me hers once and I flipped it every which way and couldn't for the life of me figure out where the baby was.

Thank you! Yeah, we were happy that we got a number of good sonogram pictures and just so need to see them as they point out the arms and little feet and stuff ... less so when they pointed out my wife's bladder

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Congrats on the new baby girl! Glad to hear all is well! Are you sharing the name or will she be known as "TBD" for the time being?

Smart move getting those tickets before the price increase.

Thank you! You'll have to read the next post to see the name of the new baby *cheap plug*

Yeah, I was pretty happy with how things worked out with the tickets, and also glad to have that decision made

I am onboard and looking forward to the rest of your plans! Congrats on the your Pending Princess

Welcome! and Thank You!

A baby girl - so much fun! Now all those princess dresses can be recycled!

haha - yes we will get some re-use out of those dresses! Thought I also can't wait until I get get them dressed up as the same princess

You have got to be kidding me Those little girls better get married in those dresses later on

I'll need to check out the Official Ticket Center and Undercover Tourist to compare prices soon..

I know, at least these dresses looked pretty darn impressive and in some ways easier to see the cost for those vs the people that want like $300 for the regular Disney costumes that retail for like $40.

Yay for girly baby news! I bet Olivia is super happy that a baby sister is coming soo

Thank you! Olivia is super, super excited. I was not relishing the thought of having to tell her it was another boy

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Pre Trip Report: Part 5 - Re-booking our resort ... and baby name!​

Welp, a couple more smallish things, but did want to keep things moving along.

Some summer discounts came out and Disney Visa holders got early access, so with that, for now we have re-booked into the Royal Room at PO Riverside. So no change yet, just that now the cost for our stay is ~$200 cheaper, so I will take that.

Contemplating moving to the Contemporary (would do Poly but just scared of the construction) but still exploring pricing options.

The other news is that I have updated MDE with the new baby's name, so without further ado .....

So far everyone we have mentioned the name to is happy with it and we don't know many other "Emma" babies yet (we thought we were being kind of original with "Olivia" but there were like 4 in her pre-school class and one of her good friends is also named Olivia ... they refer to each other as the "Other Olivia")

We have Olivia's friend Tara's Frozen themed birthday party on Saturday so i will probably do an update from that - at least with Olivia and Peter in their Frozen outfits.

TTFN

 

[annie170]

Lovely name! I love how she'll have her own magic band, too!

 

[guinness408]

Beautiful name! Congrats on your new princess to be!

 

[poison ivy]

Checking in to say hello. I'm just wrapping up your trip report. Love that cars land race set you bought you son for Christmas and have finally figured out how/where to get this for my grandson.

So thank you for that video!

Congratulations on your new baby girl. I wish you all the best.

Glad to hear you are planning another trip. Believe it or not, I'm psuedo at the world that same week w/ 2 nts midweek at the Marriott world center for a convention. Can't decide which side of that week to tack on a Disney stay.

Love your dining plans so far. In all my years of Disney, I have yet to do a MK breakfast pre-opening and really appreciated your review of the crystal palace. (I was bummed when we had to cancel an 8am at the CP last oct. Just couldn't rouse the group out of the treehouse that early!)

Regarding the royal guest rooms vs contemporary. That's a tough call.
We've done both. We had the garden wing at the Contemporary and I never cared for it. I personally loved the royal rooms. Also the BLT pool can be unforgiving in the hot sun. Not sure about the main pool at the Contemporary.

Of course so much depends on your touring plans and transportation needs.
Especially with 3 young children in tow. Convenience is key!!

can't wait to hear more.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Lovely name! I love how she'll have her own magic band, too!

Thank you! .... it is kinda funny that she will have a band, and even Peter, despite that they don't need tickets or anything. At the very least it is a "free" souvenir

Beautiful name! Congrats on your new princess to be!

Thank you on both counts!

Checking in to say hello. I'm just wrapping up your trip report. Love that cars land race set you bought you son for Christmas and have finally figured out how/where to get this for my grandson.

So thank you for that video!

Congratulations on your new baby girl. I wish you all the best.

Glad to hear you are planning another trip. Believe it or not, I'm psuedo at the world that same week w/ 2 nts midweek at the Marriott world center for a convention. Can't decide which side of that week to tack on a Disney stay.

Love your dining plans so far. In all my years of Disney, I have yet to do a MK breakfast pre-opening and really appreciated your review of the crystal palace. (I was bummed when we had to cancel an 8am at the CP last oct. Just couldn't rouse the group out of the treehouse that early!)

Regarding the royal guest rooms vs contemporary. That's a tough call.
We've done both. We had the garden wing at the Contemporary and I never cared for it. I personally loved the royal rooms. Also the BLT pool can be unforgiving in the hot sun. Not sure about the main pool at the Contemporary.

Of course so much depends on your touring plans and transportation needs.
Especially with 3 young children in tow. Convenience is key!!

can't wait to hear more.

Welcome and thank you! Keep me posted on your touring plans!

We love the pre-park opening ADRs and I think will help a lot in trying to do a bit in the morning and allowing for a sizable break in the middle of the day - plus we love the photo opportunities at that time in the morning with next to no one around (course, who knows what the Hub construction will make photo backgrounds look like come August)

I very much appreciate your thoughts on resorts. I think all things being equal we would stay with the POR Royal Room - but the thought of being that close to MK and being on a monorail line with the 3 kids and at least one stroller, etc. is very tempting. But I know at times the resort Monorail doesn't run so that removes that benefit and if we stayed at the Contemporary we probably would want to be in the main tower potentially with MK views (so we can relax but still be "there") but then even with the discounts it's still pretty pricey so just trying to determine if it would be worth it

 

[missangelalexis]

Beautiful name! And hooray for a discount!

 

[Imagineer5]

Just perused through the PTR! Yes, we are at MK the same day!! yay! We will def have to meet up. I also peeked at your October 2013 TR and can't believe the similarities - you stayed at Silver Lake? Which is where i stayed last August, then you got the AP for TiW and enjoyed a dinner at V&A (we are doing this in october 2014) and then you mention military salute tickets (I work for the navy). LOL! I'm sure there are more. But anyway, can't wait to read more and congrats again on the new little girl!

 

[Leshaface]

Such a darling name, Emma!

And looking forward to seeing Olivia and Peter in their Frozen costumes

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Beautiful name! And hooray for a discount!

Thank you! And discounts (especially where a Disney vacation is concerned) are always good!

Just perused through the PTR! Yes, we are at MK the same day!! yay! We will def have to meet up. I also peeked at your October 2013 TR and can't believe the similarities - you stayed at Silver Lake? Which is where i stayed last August, then you got the AP for TiW and enjoyed a dinner at V&A (we are doing this in october 2014) and then you mention military salute tickets (I work for the navy). LOL! I'm sure there are more. But anyway, can't wait to read more and congrats again on the new little girl!

Yes - definitely will have to figure out where to meet up - either at MK that day or some other time. That's funny that we have these similarities. We enjoyed Silver Lake especially the location.

I am sure you will love V&A - just a great escape from everything and lovely to spend 4 hours not thinking about anything other than eating and conversing.

Cool that you work for the Nave - that is the branch Judi's father worked for... he was a LT Commander and was on submarines

Thanks again!

Such a darling name, Emma!

And looking forward to seeing Olivia and Peter in their Frozen costumes

Thank you! It is definitely been super Frozen themed at our house. Recently got a Chromecast so the kids have been bugging me to stream youtube of bits from Frozen and Meet & Greets with Anna & Elsa and stuff. Plus the Blue Ray of the movie got delivered today and I managed to find a place with 2 Elsa dolls (Olivia got one and we are giving the other to Tara for her birthday). Will definitely post pictures!

 

[middlesista]

I hear you about the Polynesian. With our bounce back we were thinking of staying at the Polynesian this fall- have loved that resort but have not been back for a stay for a long, long time. The construction made us change our mind.

With a young family, I think it is about what works best, especially in the heat of the summer. Returning to the resort in the afternoon worked really well for us when our children were young and we were fortunate to have stayed at the Polynesian which was just a monorail ride away from the MK which is where we seemed to be the majority of time. Then again - way back when there was not as many theme parks

No doubt it will all work out - things usually do when at Disney!

 

[khaleesi]

I love the name Emma

And YAY for discounts!!!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

I hear you about the Polynesian. With our bounce back we were thinking of staying at the Polynesian this fall- have loved that resort but have not been back for a stay for a long, long time. The construction made us change our mind.

With a young family, I think it is about what works best, especially in the heat of the summer. Returning to the resort in the afternoon worked really well for us when our children were young and we were fortunate to have stayed at the Polynesian which was just a monorail ride away from the MK which is where we seemed to be the majority of time. Then again - way back when there was not as many theme parks

No doubt it will all work out - things usually do when at Disney!

Thank you for your input ... I think if the Poly was not under construction we would go that direction but if it is going to be a mess and there is no pool right there and the monorail might not be running like normal, just doesn't seem worth it. The idea of the Contemporary sounds great - especially if we can get an MK view - just trying to see if the cost is worth it since even with the discount it is a bit more.

I love the name Emma

And YAY for discounts!!!!

Thank you - we like it too

and definitely, Yeah for discounts!!!!