WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts?!

[mom3sonstt]

This is my very first Pre-Trip Report - in fact, while I have lurked over here off and on over the years and have enjoyed reading others Trip Reports I just registered a week or so ago.

Introductions:

Me - Tanya - Mom - 41 - This will be about my 15th trip to WDW.
DH - Danny - Dad - 54 - Same for him more or less.
DS19 - Sean - 19 (well, he'll be 19 by the time we get there)
DS17 - Ryne - 17
DS15 - Mark - 15 (actually he'll turn 15 during the trip)
DSF14 - Adam - 14 - His first trip.

We are 10-year DVC members and try to go down at least 2 times every three years, but since we bought more points last fall we may be able to make it an annual thing now. Our last trip was last September, but DS19 did not go because he had started his first year of college and we didn't want him missing. So this year's trip was planned around summer little league (DS15), summer softball (DH coaches), summer college classes (DS19), the County Fair (DS19 won their Teen Idol contest last year so was invited back this year to help and to perform at the finale), and the first day of school (all DS's) That gave us about a two week span to work with. And it's in August. When it is hot Our ideal trip time is late Sept early October, so this will be a sacrifice for me I do not like heat....at all.

So dates are picked and calendars checked and what do we find? A bus trip to Chicago to watch the Cubs (we are big Cubs fans ) play the Cardinals.....on DS15's birthday. He was not happy. Granted we belong to a group that hosts about 10 - 12 bus trips to Chicago throughout the summer and DS15 will probably go on quite a few of those - but Cubs vs Cardinals - and it was an overnight trip - on his birthday?? The stars will never align like that for him again so he was all set to boycott this trip Well, mother wants a family vacation darn it and we are all going and we are going to have fun whether you want to or not This is where DSF14 comes in! We decide since DS19 & 17 usually hang out together on trips and both of them are pretty much annoyed by DS15, and since it's his birthday, and since he will be missing a Cubs-Cards trip, and since he practically lives at their house anyway, we asked DSF14's parents if he could go with us on our trip. Surprisingly they said yes. I say "surprisingly" because in June '06 the guys all went on vacation without me (I had just started a new job and couldn't get away ) we asked if he could go then and they wouldn't let him. So now we have 4 teen-age boys going. Now we live in Illinois, and it is about 1200 miles more or less to drive to WDW, and we typically drive (because we aren't very smart!!). Granted we have a full size van, but when you start filling it with teen-age boys.... well, it gets pretty small pretty quick!

We are now a party of 6, we have our dates, now let's find a place to stay. Our home resort is Old Key West, which we love dearly, but when we added on points last fall (at Saratoga Springs) we were given 100 extra points to be used within the next 12 months, we also had the 2007 alotment of points on our new purchase, plus now that we have purchased more we will have more available of our 2008 points, so we thought we would try a different resort that maybe uses more points than OKW since we had extras. I took a poll (non-binding) of all the family members to see where they wanted to stay - there choices were OKW, Saratoga, Animal Kingdom with a Savannah view and Animal Kingdom - no view. Well, my goofy kids chose OKW, but DH and I chose AKL with a Savannah view and since this was a non-binding poll with a vote of 3 for OKW and 2 for AKL - AKL won Now our reasoning behind AKL has a back story.....and here it is

Back in the fall DH and I and a couple we go out with went to the Chicago area for a shopping - eating week-end. While there we visited Woodfield Mall in Schaumberg. While at Woodfield Mall we came across Disney's Doorway to Dreams. Basically it is a DVC "store". They have a model of the rooms at AKL there and have DVC sales people. Our friends were interested in a time share, not necessarily Disney, but since it was there, and we were there, and they were there, we set up an appointment for them and did the DVC spiel. They wound up purchasing points at Saratoga (so did we), but during the tour of the model room we noticed that there was a 3rd bathroom - 1 off the master room, 1 in the 2nd bedroom and 1 off the kitchen/living room area. We will have 6 people and 3 bathrooms sounded a lot better than 2 bathrooms, plus they have a sleeper sofa and a sleeper chair in the living room - that means 4 sleeping places for each of the 4 boys - nobody has to share a bed So when we rigged the poll this is what we had in mind. Granted, animals outside your window are pretty cool, but we are so rarely in the rooms, and when we are I am soaking up the air conditioning not sitting outside, so bathroom #3 was a key selling point to us!

January rolls around and it is 7 months from our trip and I book as at AKL in a Savannah view 2bed room unit. All is well.......or is it??


more to follow.....

 

[mom3sonstt]

WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts ?! Part 2

So...did the suspense kill you?? Probably not, huh? Ok - We are booked and everyone is happy. Well, not everyone DS15 is still making us aware that we are preventing him from being at Beautiful Wrigley Field on his birthday Oh well, mean parents that we are, we are forcing him to go to Disney World

February comes and goes, March comes and goes, we are all (well most of us) still happy, then April comes..... I start getting really involved in finding out every detail of what Animal Kingdom Lodge is going to be like. I get some more protests (from guess who??) when I discover there is no basketball court or tennis court at AKL. Too bad if you want to shoot hoops bad enough hop a bus to OKW. Then I read something about a 3rd bathroom being in the Kidani Village DVC rooms that are under construction Under Construction and not available until 2009......hmmm...so what does that mean for us?? Does that mean we won't have the 3rd bathroom that was so key to our decision - or does it just mean that ALL of the rooms in the Kidani Village will have them, when now only the converted DVC rooms have them at the "old" location???? I start posting questions to the AOL boards and actually found an active thread here from someone who was at that very moment in a DVC AKL room, so I joined DIS, posted my question and what do I discover???? No 3rd bathroom We moan and groan a little, then decide that none of the other resorts would have a 3rd bathroom either so we're staying put....... or are we???

Time for another vist to Schaumberg with our friends (we try to go up there a couple times a year just to get away) So while there we visit the Doorway to Dreams again. We don't sit through the whole spiel, just ask to view the model room. We get to the 2nd bedroom and realize it is a bed and a pull-out sofa, hmmm - we don't remember that - gee DS17 isn't gonna be happy with that. We comment to our guide that we found out that we won't have the 3rd bathroom (see, this was very important to us!) and she says, that the Jambo House rooms are smaller than the Kidani Village rooms because they are converted hotel rooms, they weren't built initially as DVC rooms, in fact she says they wont have the sleeper chair. What no sleeper chair? You mean two of those boys are actually going to have to sleep on the same bed??? We keep going through and get to the master bedroom and bathroom and see this beautiful walk in shower - just love it! We are all shower people in our family and this is just gorgeous! We wrap up our tour and go grab a bite to eat. DH is asking what I think about the sofa bed - and did I think maybe some rooms might have a two bed option. Ahhh - more research - another excuse to troll Disney sites

Get home and start looking and checking. It appears the only option for the 2 BRs in Jambo House is the bed, sofa bed combo - bummer. Then I look a little more and it talks about the Master bath have a whirlpool tub - no mention of gorgeous walk in shower. Surely there is a walk in shower - all the other resorts (DVC) have walk in showers. I contact DVC customer service by email - they direct me to the room layout. Ok I look at the room layout and there is my beautiful walk in shower......and my coveted 3rd bathroom Ok - they have already told me there is no 3rd bathroom so why is it on the room layout and what does that mean for my shower??? So another message to Customer Service. This time I am told that there is no walk in shower - only a rectangular whirlpool tub with a shower head. and then he says "like are in most homes". Well, I'm not going on vacation to get something that is like it is in most homes - and in my home I have a shower stall - not a gorgeous walk in shower, but its not a shower head in a tub either. Now we are all disappointed. I know, I know, its Animal Kingdom Lodge the draw there is the animals - they are right outside our window - I know. But nobody cares. DS15 has already been making his displeasure known, DS17 could care less one way or the other, DS19 would rather be at Saratoga now that he realizes he could walk to Downtown Disney and is old enough to get in to the Comedy Warehouse on his own. DH doesn't like the lack of shower, doesn't like the rectangular jetted tub - (OKW has a big whirlpool tub), doesn't like the bed/sofa combination. At this point the only plus is that we actually will have the sleeper chair. But everyone is so bummed over everything else they don't want to stay there anymore

Now the hunt is on again We discover Beach Club it looks cool, has all the sports stuff DS15 was missing, has the cool pool area, is within walking distance of Epcot and MGM.....uh Hollywood Studios..... wait - it's within walking distance? No - not just within walking distance - you HAVE to walk...or take a boat. <pause for additional background information>

Here is my medical history. I was born with congenital hip displaysia. I have no left hip socket. I walk with a severe limp. The ball that is supposed to go into the socket has slipped on up past where the socket should be and has no significant support. Well, it does, sorta - I mean it's not going anywhere, but it isn't supported by the rest of my skeletal structure like it is supposed to be. So limping has been part of my dialy life since walking began. It's not a daily issue - its all I've ever known. But a lot of walking on paved surfaces for a long time leaves me aching in my hip knees, back , and everywhere else that tries to compensate for the hip problem. I've done Disney trips over a dozen times, even this is something I can live with - it slows me down, but it's doable. But when you add that I am also doing peritoneal dialysis for kidney failure it adds more problems. See with peritoneal dialysis you have a tube surgically inserted in your abdomen and you have dialysis solution pumped into you abdomen where it pulls the impurities and excess fluid from your bloodstream and collects it....in your abdominal area. So for me I have an extra 1.5 liters (or more) of fluid in my abdomen at all times, plus any excess fluid that it has pulled off of me. Think about it - picture a 2 liter bottle of soda and imagine having that pumped in your belly - yep - I look like I'm pregnant. Having that extra weight sitting there throws my center of balance off, add that to the bad hip, and that along with the need for dialysis the kidney failure has left me anemic, and the medicines make me sensitive to the sun and you will soon draw the conclusion that the last place I really need to be is trudging around in the Florida heat in August!! But it's Disney - I have to go!

<back to the story>

Ok we have determined I really shouldn't be there anyway - but that I am stubborn and love me some Disney World and AM going. But I am also aware that I have a limited amount of comfortable walking in me. So do I really want to use some of that walking time walking to the parks or walking in the parks. well, for me walking in the parks will win everytime. So no Beach Club. It also eliminates Boardwalk for the same reason. Not really interested in Wilderness Lodge - which leaves OKW and Saratoga. Now we have given up on trying something new and cool and have just decided on space. OKW rooms are bigger than Saratoga rooms so OKW it is. Remember that poll we took where AKL won even though OKW had more votes? Well, forget it - we are at OKW. But since OKW rooms take fewer points than AKL rooms we added Thursday night to our reservations So now we are back to where the boys wanted to go all along, we have more floor space to pack all those long-legged teen-agers in, plus we have an additional night - all is well with the world! Sorta

 

[mom3sonstt]

I intended to post a like from the new post onto the original post. I'm not sure if I was doing it right or not, but I got a message saying I hadn't posted enough messages to be allowed to post a link. Maybe by the time I have enough posts I will figure out how to do it!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts ?! Part 3

Now the fun begins - we have our reservations switched, everybody is content with the change. In fact most of them are relieved by it - they will be back where things are familiar. We start talking to our friends that we went to Schaumberg with and tell them that they ought to come down while we are there. They also received bonus points that needed to be used within the year, and he hasn't been to Disney since Epcot was being built and she has never been. So we thought we would offer our "expertise" on all things Disney and show them around. At first they didn't want to intrude on our family vacation. But we told them that more than likely the boys would all be off doing their own things most of the time anyway, so they decided to come. Since they have never been down before and since they purchased at Saratoga that is where they made their reservations. They didn't angst over if for months like some people So they will be flying in on sunday the 10th and flying out on Sat the 16th. That gave us Thursday evening, all day Fri & Sat and most of sunday to do things with the kids before they arrived. Now I might want to mention that all along I have been checking the price of flights because being cooped up in an enclosed vehicle with a bunch of boys wasn't my idea of fun. Add to that the fact that I swell terribly when sitting for long periods of time due to my kidney issues flying was looking real good to me. The problem was that the prices and times didn't look so great. I had been checking flights out of Bloomington because that is where we flew out of last year and the best prices had us coming in at night and we really didn't want to do that - we could get there earlier in the day by driving, and flying out at 10:20 on Saturday which would mean getting up super early to get our luggage checked and get out to the airport. So it didn't look like flying was in the cards. DH suggested maybe I could fly down the day before and get us checked in to the room so when they got there everthing would already be done. And that sounded like a good idea to me, except I would either have to haul my dialysis machine with me (it weighs a ton) or try to figure out a way to rig up some manual bags to get me by until they got there.

Then I started adding things up. Driving down was going to cost us about $1100 for gas, hotels, and food. If I flew that would be another $200. If all 6 of us flew it would be $1300........gee - $1100 plus 200 is 1300. It would be just as cheap for all of us to fly as it would be for just one of us to fly and the rest drive. But the times were still crummy. DS19 is flying to Atlanta for a teachers conference in June (he is studying to become an Elementary school teacher) and i have been checking flights for him. He will be flying out of Moline because the other guy that is going with him lives more in that direction - Moline is just as close for us as Bloomington hey check flights out of Moline to Orlando! They had a flight leaving on Wednesday that would get in around 3 and flew out on Saturday around 11:40. That would get us there about the same time of day as driving would, and would give us a little more time to get around on Saturday morning. I show DH, we check with DSF14's parents to see if it is ok to take Adam in a plane - no problem. So that night DH books us flights. Did you notice I said it flies in on Wednesday?? That's right, we get to add yet another day! But he booked the flights at night so I had to wait until the next day to add our other nights stay.
The next morning I get up and call Member Services to add on Wednesday night......there are no available 2BR rooms at OKW for Wednesday night Flights are paid for and we have no room. Tried Beach Club just so we could check out the walking path for future reference - it's full.....but they have room at Saratoga. So Saratoga on WEdnesday night it is. We are on the waitlist in case a room comes open at OKW and it is still 90 days before we go so I am hopeful.

Today I ordered a Premium Annual Pass for DS19 - the other 4 of us got them last year and they are still good for this year's trip and we are thinking maybe he can come down next summer for a few days with his uncle (my brother) or a friend and would be able to use the pass then. Also ordered a 10 day MYW+water & fun+park hopping pass for DSF14. So rooms are booked, flights are paid for, and all tickets are purchased, now its just getting all the "stuff" ready and hopefully getting our first night switched......and waiting for something else to go wrong.....because you know it will

 

[wendy3]

I'm feeling your pain! We're going down in August, too, and I'm taking 4 teenagers, too. Difference is that I'm taking 3 boys and 1 girl (DS-18, DD-16, DD's boyfriend-18, DS-13). AND I'm a single mom, so that's 4 against 1! We're staying in the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, and we're flying in from SD.

Actually, my kids are great and we are really looking forward to it (as I look outside at 8 inches of snow, still. It is May, right?)

Looking forward to more updates on your planning process!

 

[mom3sonstt]

I'm feeling your pain! We're going down in August, too, and I'm taking 4 teenagers, too. Difference is that I'm taking 3 boys and 1 girl (DS-18, DD-16, DD's boyfriend-18, DS-13). AND I'm a single mom, so that's 4 against 1! We're staying in the Villas at Wilderness Lodge, and we're flying in from SD.

Actually, my kids are great and we are really looking forward to it (as I look outside at 8 inches of snow, still. It is May, right?)

Looking forward to more updates on your planning process!

Good luck with your four!! If nothing else at least you have a girl with you - I've got the 4 boys plus hubby......I think I will be very irritated on this trip - they are all good kids, but man that's a lot of testosterone floatin around the room!

You still have snow?? Yuk! I didn't think spring would ever get here - it would warm up for a day or two than drop right bak down again. I think it's finally here to stay though

 

[TCKK]

Hi Mom3sonstt

I'm here reading your report now. Sounds like you're well on your way. We are too. although we still have to buy our tickets. We'll probably do that in the next couple of weeks. Hope you have a great trip. Look forward to reading more of your report as you post.

 

[mom3sonstt]

WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts ?! Part 4

Wow that was quick. I have been obsessively checking my DVC account to see if my first night has been switched from Saratoga to OKW....checking maybe 6-10 times a day, so yesterday when I checked it again I really wasn't expecting anything - but there it was August 6 said Old Key West and not Saratoga Springs

Next stop - Magical Express. I was told that I could go ahead and book MagEx and that when/if my first night changed they would automatically notify MagEx or that I could get ahold of them myself and let them know of the change. But I don't like change. I would rather just do it right the first time and not have to worry about it. So now that all of my nights are going to be at OKW I finally feel comfortable enough to make my MagEx reservations. By the way did you like how I slipped that "finally" in there - Our flights were booked Saturday night, I called for Wed night on Sunday, and my wait list came through on Wednesday afternoon - it wasn't exactly a long waiting period.... but if you consider that I probably checked on it about 40 times from Sunday to Wednesday it might seem a little longer!

With rooms, flights, and transportation all lined up and the last of our tickets ordered there is nothing left to do but sit back and relax for the next 3 months yeah right!

A few weeks ago I was on the Disney shopping site and they had gobs of Tshirts for 4.99 each and a code for $5 shipping so I went through and bought a stack of size Large mens Tshirts - all 3 of my boys can wear a size Large so I didn't buy them with anybody in particular in mind I figured we could work it out when they got here. Plus I got DH a Grumpy polo shirt and me a Minnie T shirt. So I got the order in and laid it all out on the bed - of course the boys all wanted the same shirts Well, there were 3 different Grumpy shirts, a Jack Skellington, a Donald and 2 Mickeys so they were told they each had to pick a Grumpy shirt to which they replied "We are NOT going to wear these all on the same day!" Yes, I have done that to them in the past, we all had red, white, blue and gray Mickey shirts one year (the shirts were different colors but the picture was the same), and last year we all had T shirts that looked like colored pencil drawings - different characters, same idea. And they refuse to dress alike. That's ok I'm over it - I used to color code them in the past. Not so much so they would match in the pictures - although that was kinda nice too, but when they were little and it came time to do a head count if I could look at Ryne and see that he had a Cubs shirt on I would remember that the other two had Cubs shirts on too and I knew what I was looking for There are times I don't remember what I have on if I don't look down, so there was no way I could remember what all 3 of them had on if I didn't have visual clues. But they are all bigger than me now and I don't have to keep track of them anymore so they can dress themselves......as long as I approve of what they pick!

Back to the shirts - they each have a Grumpy picked out, and were brought in one at a time to pick their top 2 of what was left (if they were all there together certain ones would pick what another wants just to be ornery - yes, I have bad kids!!) Doing it this way we actually had no overlaps on the top one pick So DS17 got Jack Skellington, DS19 got one of the Mickeys, and DS15 said he would take Donald and that we should give the other Mickey to DSF14...because last year we bought him a Grumpy shirt as a souvenir so he would have a Grumpy and a Mickey shirt too. Question - are you allowed to dress your kid's friends when you take them on vacation??? Maybe so, maybe not, but his solution did solve the problem of what to do with the extra shirt!

Since we are OKW we have a washer and dryer in the room, and since we are flying we have limited space on how much we can take. My plan is that everyone will be wearing one outfit (good plan so far!) and taking either 3 or 4 more depending on room. That's one good thing about boys - a stack of Tshirts and a few pairs of denim and khaki shorts and they are good to go. All the Tshirts go with all the shorts - don't have to match outfits and add accessories - I knew there was a reason I always wanted sons! We also have swimming stuff including beach towels and water shoes, bathroom stuff, extra pair of shoes (usually tennis shoes and sandals), some of my medical stuff that the medical place won't deliver for me, and all the other "stuff". If there is room I like to shove some breakfast food, and snack food in the suitcases too. Last year 4 of us flew and we took 3 checked suitcases and they were packed, this year we have 6 flying so we are going to have to come up with one more suitcase to check. DH has a hanging scale so he can check the weight of the suitcases as we pack to make sure we are within the limits so last year we did a lot of shuffling to get the weights just right. Hopefully this year will go a little smoother now that we have one flight behind us.

 

[mom3sonstt]

WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts ?! Part 5

Last year was the first time the 2 younger boys had flown and we didn't take the oldest one with us - he still has never flown. So along with trying to make sure we had everything we needed and they didn't weigh too much we had one kid who was refusing to fly Now my youngest son, Mark, is quite the daredevil. He is ornery, rambunctious, has his own mind and is very stubborn about it......and is a chicken

When he was littler he would take off on his own to go bike riding or play at the park or whatever as long as he knew we were at home. But if I drove by the park he would come running and flag me down and want to know where I was going - usually it was just to the post office. When he was in grade school we would have Christmas and Spring concerts and when they were over it was a mass of humanity as kids would come from their bleachers looking for parents in the chairs and other bleachers. One year he just stood at the front of the gym and cried because he couldn't see us and just knew that we had left - of course the fact that he was only 3 feet tall and couldn't see through the crowds could have something to do with why he couldn't see us. When he was a little older and we would be at Disney if there was something he wanted to do that we didn't want to we would tell him he could go ahead and go and we would meet him in 30 - 45 minutes and he would refuse to do it, even though at the same age his older brothers had taken advantage of the same offer. He also doesn't totally trust me either. If we would split up and I would take him one place and DH would take the others somewhere else he would question me a thousand times whether I was sure I knew where to meet them, and did I have a map. Basically he wants to make sure he knows where we are at all times. I think the fact that since he was always such an ornery, downright rotten kid all the time and we used to threaten to leave him behind (honest we were kidding) may have something to do with that

So now we are making him get on an airplane. Ever since 9-11 he doesn't trust airplanes. I am not downplaying what happened on 9-11 but that was a few years ago now and it hasn't happened since, so I think he is relatively safe flying out of some airport in the midwest surrounded by corn fields But not my Mark. We get to the airport and there in the middle of the walkway before you go through security is a bench with a statue of Adlai Stevenson sitting on it kinda like the Roy and Minnie statue at MK. Mark decides that he will just sit there and wait with Adlai because obviously Adlai didn't go through security and get on a mean, evil, wicked plane because he is still sitting there. Finally convince Mark that if he stays there he will also be made out of bronze by the time we get back so he might as well just go with us. He moans and groans, asks a thousand questions most of which start with "what if..." and finally gets his little body in the seat. Once we are settled in and I have my bag at my feet (Mark tells me you HAVE to put it UNDER the seat! - ok I kick it back a little) he looks at me and says "should I take my hat off?" "uh - well, if you want to I guess, but you don't have to. Why?" "Well, won't it fly off when we take off??" Ahh now things are starting to make a little sense he thinks we are riding a roller coaster to Florida

Just for the record - his hat did not fly off, and he actually enjoyed the flight and refuses to admit he was ever afraid. But this year we are bringing his friend. When I called Adam's parents to see if they had a problem if we decided to fly his mom said no. Then I asked if Adam would have a problem with it. Well, they went to the local airport one day when they were giving rides in the airplanes just around the area and his little sister went up with their dad but Adam refused to. In the background I hear his dad say "If you don't ask him it won't be a problem" Well, i don't have to worry about Adam wanting to stay with Adlai this trip because we aren't flying out of that airport but I don't know what we will be in for. Hopefully he will just suck it up and go along with the crowd. He is a pretty quiet kid when he is at our place. Usually Mark is over at his place. They run around a lot, his mother works nights sometimes so his dad will take them out for pizza or McDonalds or something and usually calls to see if Mark wants to go along. His mom gets free tickets to the local minor league baseball team games and Mark goes with them more often than not, in the summer if I ever actually took the time to calculate it I would say mark is at their house more than he is at home. But Adam is not at our house near as much, so he is not as used to us. Here he is the youngest, over there, except for Mark he is the oldest. I am hoping that he will just be overwhelmed enough by what is going on, and realize that Mark survived his flight last year that he will just blindly follow us on the plane One good thing we have going for us is that our flights are non-stop so if he doesn't come around once we are in the air at least he will have a whole week and half to work himself up into doing it again to get home

 

[mom3sonstt]

Just realized in my signature the ages don't match up with what I am referring to them as. DS19 in the report is currently DS18 and will turn 19 in late July, so for the sake of the trip he will be 19. And DS15 is 14 - he will turn 15 our first Saturday of the trip. DS17 and DSF14 have both had their birthdays

 

[TCKK]

You ask if you're crazy to take 4 teenage boys to Disney. I say "no way", but I wonder if we're crazy for taking 2 teenage girls. And we're driving from Ohio for 2 days. Should be interesting. Fortunately we have a minivan and should have plenty of room for all their "stuff." Now that's okay for going, but where will everything fit on the way home after they buy all their "new stuff?" Heaven only knows. Actually we always travel really well together. They're good at entertaining themselves on the drive. And this year they have Ipods and as long as they have music, there's usually no trouble. Anyway, I've always heard boys are easier than girls, but who knows? I've only had girls. Anyway, sounds like you're going to have a lot of fun.

 

[mom3sonstt]

You ask if you're crazy to take 4 teenage boys to Disney. I say "no way", but I wonder if we're crazy for taking 2 teenage girls. And we're driving from Ohio for 2 days. Should be interesting. Fortunately we have a minivan and should have plenty of room for all their "stuff." Now that's okay for going, but where will everything fit on the way home after they buy all their "new stuff?" Heaven only knows. Actually we always travel really well together. They're good at entertaining themselves on the drive. And this year they have Ipods and as long as they have music, there's usually no trouble. Anyway, I've always heard boys are easier than girls, but who knows? I've only had girls. Anyway, sounds like you're going to have a lot of fun.

Have fun on your trip. We have done the drive many times with various degrees of success. When the boys were real little we drove and drove and drove and they slept and slept and slept and we thought that was a really good thing.......until we stopped at the hotel for the night and we were exhausted and they were well not so tired So then we learned that we stop often during the day to make them get out and play, and we stop early at night so they have time to go swimming and get tired again. Then they started getting older and could do their homework, or play video games or something while we were driving and we were able to push it a little farther again.

When I was a teenager and my mother and I used to go shopping she used to ooh and aah over all the frilly little dresses that I would refer to as "lampshades" and she was always trying to take a curling iron to my very stubbornly straight hair, so I declared early on that I was not going to have any girls when I had kids well, turns out I knew what I was talking about. I have 2 step-sons, 3 sons, 3 step-grandsons, and 1 step-granddaughter. I was never a girly girl and don't know what I would have done with a daughter. My luck she would have come out wanting make-up and a manicure and I would have been lost!! Although, I must admit, I do enjoy buying gifts for our granddaughter more than I do all the boys

Thanks for reading!

 

[mom3sonstt]

WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts ?! Part 6

It's seeming closer and closer every day even though it is still 85 days away. Today I got the mail and in it were my confirmations for my reservations - of course these are my "old" ones - they still show us at Saratoga Springs the first night so I still have more official Disney Mail to look forward to. I also had some packages to claim, one of them was a Lightning McQueen Tshirt my son wanted me to get him off ebay. It's pretty cool looking. The other package was Disney tickets!! Got Adams 10 day ticket, and a voucher for Sean to get his Annual Pass.

Next up is packing. I know....85 days still.... but I've got several bags to pack so I thought if I could get one set up somewhere out of the way I could stick our beach towels in it, the new shirts that the boys won't be allowed to wear until we are down there, and stuff like that. I just like to be "doing" something proactive and I can't get anyone to tell me where they want to eat in 3 months so I can't do ADRs yet. I don't like to do many anyway and this trip will be especially hard to plan because we may have some with just the family, some with just our friends, and some with our friends and the kids. I know I want Trails End and Garden Grill. I don't know who with or when

Our friends also want us to go on a cruise together next year. I keep dropping hints about looking at the dates and getting something picked so we can book them, because you can book the Disney cruises like almost 2 years in advance - or something like that - I've never cruised so I'm not sure. But I'd like to get it done so we can get it booked before we are not able to get the one we want or the cabins we want. Can you tell - I really like to just have things done. But then once they are done then I still want to do something No pleasing me I guess.

Not much of an update - but it's always exciting going to the Post Office and seeing a return address of Walt Disney!

 

[TCKK]

I know what you mean. I keep wanting to do something too but its still too early. So I just keep reading everyone's reports and try to stay excited that way. I want to write more in my PTR, but there's nothing to write, so yesterday I posted a few pictures from our 2006 trip. Oh well, it'll be here before we know it, I hope

 

[mom3sonstt]

WDW - August - 4 TeenAge Boys - Am I Nuts ?! Part 7

Still nothing to do to get ready - so I'm making stuff up Let's see, we did get our final room confirmation, so now I have the current resort information on hand. The only official Disney mail I am waiting for is our Magic Express packet and with 80 days left to go I imagine I will be waiting for that one for awhile.

Today I put together an itinerary of sorts to give to Adam's parents. After printing it off and reading it over I've decided I've talked waaaaayy too much and will probably need to pare it down before I give it to them! I had listed our flight information (important), our hotel (important), the layout of the room and all the activities that are available, what type of appliances we have (not so important); what kind of ticket we bought for Adam (somewhat important....kinda), way too much detail on clothes - I probably could have said, wear one out fit, bring 3-4 more, plus extra shoes and swimming stuff....but I went on to explain we have a washer and dryer and that he'd want some lightweight - quick drying shorts for some of the wet rides....... and all that was only on the 1st page (and part of the 2nd) it went on for another page and half.

We did get an invitation to Adam's 8th grade graduation party today. I told hubby that we should give him one of our Disney gift cards. We have 8 $25 Disney gift cards that we received as a referral gift for referring another member to join the Disney Vacation Club. We have been trying to decide just what we should do with them. Hubby suggested we make up games (find hidden Mickey's, camera scavenger hunt....) type of games for the boys to do each day and then we would give one to the winner each night. Problem - my boys cheat So that would start out as something fun then turn into an argument. Then we thought since there are 8 cards and 4 boys we would give each of them 2. But we would rather keep most of our charges going back to the room so we can keep track of what we have spent and where. So we still aren't sure what we are doing.

I also set up an excel sheet - kinda like a mini calendar, it only has the two weeks that we will be down there - 7 columns, each column has about 20 rows in it - well, about 40 rows but the top 20 are grouped together for the first week and teh bottom 20 are grouped together for the second week. I was going to list the park hours for each day on them, but that took up quite a bit of the space, so for now I only have listed which park has morning extra magic hours and which park has evening extra magi hours My master plan is that since we know what is open early and what stays open late that we can kind of decide where we plan to be so we can plan out some meals. The only one I think I have in place is on Tuesday the 12th going to Fort Wilderness to eat at Trails End. That is an Early Magic Hour and Magic Kingdom that morning, so I'm thinking if we go over and catch that - or if I sleep in and the boys go catch it - that when it's time for lunch we can catch the boat to Ft Wilderness. That night is EMH at Epcot, so if anyone wants to head there after lunch they can take a boat back to MK and hop on the monorail (it's always fun to ride the monorail from MK to Epcot) or catch a Ft Wilderness bus to Epcot. That will also be after our friends arrive and is a place I think all 8 of us would like. But I still have to get the rest of them to agree with me Another place we always eat is Garden Grill at Epcot. But I don't know if our friends will want to go there or not, so depending on whether they want to go, we may schedule it for one of the days before they arrive, or someday when we don't plan to meet up with them until later. And we usually hit Hollywood & Vine for the Fantasmic package, so we need to figure out what night we want to stay for that. By the way, did you notice that all 3 of those places are all-you-can-eat restaurants? Did I mention I have 4 teen-age boys with me?? I figure when I feed 'em it better last awhile!

Well, since I am just rambling and not really reporting anything new I will sign off until I can come up with something worth mentioning. Until then.......

 

[mom3sonstt]

I still have no news but I thought I'd try to put some pics up - I have no idea what I am doing so this may not turn out real well.......we'll see.

This first pic is 4 of us from last Septembers vacation. Mark is in his Incredibles shirt and his Oakley shades (please notice the Oakleys - we had to endure days of whining before we let him get sunglasses as his souvenir! ) He had just turned 14 the month before and is the one who will be bringing a friend and celebrating his 15th birthday this trip. Next is DH, then me (must be early in the day - I don't have all my hair shoved up under my hat to keep somewhat cool!! ) and finally is Ryne. He would have been 4 months shy of 17 at that time. We didn't take our oldest on that trip because he had just started college.

This pic is of my 3 sons from the June 2006 trip that I didn't get to go on. Look what they did to my baby!!!! They shaved his head My oldest is in the middle

I must be doing something wrong when I do a preview all I see is little thumbnails of the pictures so I don't know if they will be any good or not. I have uploaded them to webshots then pasted the url into the box that pops up when I hit the Insert Image button. Don't know why they are so smal. There were 3 options on webshots, the first two both show up as thumbnails and the 3rd didn't even show the picture just the url address Well, I tried


Today was talking to DS15 about the trip and how much he has informed his friend of what's happening. He has told him we are flying and friend did nor freak out and say he wasn't going to go He also told him about some of the "scarier" rides. ::side story:: Adam's family took Mark to Adventureland on vacation last year and Mark wound up riding rides with Adam's little sister and her friend because Adam wouldn't ride anything I told Mark to make sure that if Adam went he was willing to ride things. So Mark's logic was that he wouldn't tell him what the rides did so he couldn't chicken out But he must have had a change of heart because he spent the night there last weekend and was trying to find the rides on YouTube and show them to him. So now I don't have to worry about a revolt at the airport, and Mark seems to think he will get Adam on rides.

Next question - what do you want to do on your birthday???? I am informed that we will go and eat lunch like it is any other day and nobody will know its his birthday. Uh.....no.....Dear, son - you will be wearing a big ol' button that says it is your birthday and if you don't then one of us will be wearing the button and referring well wishes his way and if I happen to let it slip to the servers at whatever restaurant(s) we happen to eat at that day then so be it! Then I was informed that I wouldn't be able to beat last year's birthday so I shouldn't even try Hmmmmm what happened last year???? Well, another friend's family had taken him to the local minor league ball game then to (get this!!) Hooters!!!! for supper. So my dear, sweet, little boy on the occaision of his 14th birthday had to stand (on a table????) and have Hooter girls dance around him and sing to him I offered to take him to Cinderella's or Norway for a Princess meal and he could be surrounded by Princesses but he wasn't too keen on that idea Guess Belle can't beat a Hooter girl - I told him Jasmine was pretty close but he wasn't buying it.

He also told me that he wasn't going to be carrying a camera around this year. Again - it's the "hot girls" thing......he doesn't want his studly little image to be ruined into looking like a "tourist nerd" by taking out a camera Poor, foolish child, if he only knew that telling me what will humiliate him the most only gives me ideas of how to enjoy my vacation This is the kid who in years past brought home lovely pictures of trash cans, benches, bathroom doors, peoples ears (yuk!) and all sorts of other foolishness - now he is too cool to take a picture

That's about all I can come up with for today. If anybody can tell me how to make my pictures look better I would appreciate it! And - big news!!!! - My counter says we have 2 months- 2 weeks - 2 days left YAY!!!!

 

[mom3sonstt]

I have figured out that PhotoBucket is the way to go - but now instead of having teeny, tiny pictures I have great big ones and I can't figure out how to make them smaller. I went to resize and resized, applied, saved, replaced original - anything that looked like it would do something and nothing - they still came out big


These pics are all from the June 2006 trip that DH and the 3 Boys went on without me. My oldest step-son, his wife and kids were also down there. I was so mad that I had to miss their first trip to WDW and now we hear that they have separated and are planning to get a divorce. He is Navy and they are stationed out in Virginia. We live in Illinois, so we don't get to see them very often.



Welcome to Florida!! Ryne, Sean, Mark. Notice Mark's beautiful, thick, dark hair!

All the kids

Big Al - love him!

I hate this!!!! Mark bald courtesy of the Disney Barber shop. This would never have happened if I had been on this trip - but he wanted it done

The Danny Thomases (yes hubby's name is Danny Thomas)

Old Key West - Home Sweet Home!

Nathan & Mandy - aren't they cute???

Mark, Sean & Ryne at Animal Kingdom

Nathan, Steve, Mandy & Shelly at Epcot

Pirates - and not a Jack Sparrow in the bunch

Looks like Dale dumped Chip for a new partner!!

Our Leave a Legacy picture

The Boys Leave a Lagacy Pictures - Sean on top, Mark & Ryne on bottom

Jasmine and Danny

And now for some typical Mark-photos!!



an MGM trash can

Figment up close and personal

Mark's shadow

I'll try to load more later from the 2007 trip. There will be a cast change - Sean's out - I'm in and no Steve, Shelly & the kids.

 

[TCKK]

mom3sonstt Fun Pictures. I have a picture of my girls in front of the Florida Welcome Sign too.

I love taking pictures like that. I don't think I got one from our June 2006 trip. This one was from 2004. I'll have to get the girls to pose this time again to see how they've changed.

 

[mom3sonstt]

I have been reading various other trip reports and am amazed by the changes of flights and all the hoops people have to jump through to get to Disney. Well, as I mentioned before we usually drive to Florida even though it is about 1100 miles door to door. Last year we found decent prices and flew, this year we found ok prices, but with the price of gas, and cramming 6 people in a vehicle we decided to fly again. So today on a lark I decided to see how much "our" flights were. I find it amazing how the prices change so much up and down. So I logged in and punched in our dates and cities, and our flight wasn't there anymore We were flying nonstop from Moline to Orlando and there was no nonstop flight that day anymore - just *poof* gone. There are usually 5 or 6 different prices and some of the times didn't have any prices listed but they were still there. Ours was just gone.

So I went in to our account and looked at our booked flights - and gee - now we are booked on an earlier departure, one-stop in Atlanta, later arrival flight. On the same screen it says we will be emailed of any changes. Well, we weren't emailed about THIS change - an from what I can see it doesn't say when the change was made. I was in the hospital last week so if were made then it could be that hubby missed the email since he wasn't home as much, but there is no date to go back and look for.

What really sucks about all this is that the only reason hubby agreed to fly was if we could go non-stop on the way down - even though we have never had a problem he didn't want to take the chance of missing any luggage going down. Coming home - not so worried.


I called him at work and told him but he was in a meeting so couldn't really talk.

I don't know how people who fly on a regular basis deal with this. It is annoying the heck out of me. On the page with all this "new" flight information it lists all the fees that we would incur if "WE" wanted to make any changes. So we give them our money to go to a certain place at a certain time in a certain fashion, and if we change our minds we have to pay to make the change. Ok - that makes sense. But when we give them our money to go to a certain place at a certain time in a certain fashion, and "THEY" change their minds there is nothing. We can't charge them any fees for messing with our schedule. We didn't want to have to have any stops. We chose flying out of this airport on this date because there were no stops. If we wanted stops we could have booked a slightly cheaper fare or flown out of a different airport.

Ok I'm not totally naive - I know this happens all the time. I know with the price of fuel airlines are cutting back on flights and I should be happy that they are still taking us at all. But I am curious as to when this became acceptable? I mean at one point in time a confirmed flight time probably meant something and airlines didn't just change their schedules. At some time passengers would have been furious and held the airlines accountable. So somewhere along the line it became ok for them to change and we all just accept it. At some point it had to change from the consumer purchasing a ticket and showing up at the scheduled time, to a consumer purchasing a ticket then monitoring it to see when or if they were supposed to show up.

Ok - I will quit ranting now - it is pointless, the industry is what it is but I am disappointed and it has taken just a little of the shine off of my trip.

 

[mom3sonstt]

Talked to hubby finally. I had texted him later to tell him he may want to check with his buddy who will be coming down later during our trip as it looks like their flights may have been changed too. I had gone back out to the site and looked at the flights out of the airport we used last year (that our friends are fling out of this year) - same airline - and those flights were gone too.

So in between me calling hubby and hubby calling me back he called the airline. Told them he wasn't happy that we hadn't been notified and explained why we selected nonstop flights. In addition to not wanting to take any more chances on losing our luggage in a plane switch - part of our carry-on is my dialysis machine - it is one heavy son-of-a-gun and lugging it through an airport trying to catch a connecting flight is not my idea of a good time! The airline guy offer to move us to the night before which is non-stop but gets into Orlando late at night. We would have to get another hotel if we did that. If we could add on to our current reservation it would be ok - except for us not wanting to use that many more points - but if we couldn't then I would't have access to my dialysis supplies that are being delivered to the resort. That is not a good option! He did also assure hubby that they usually fly in and out of the same concourse so our distance between flights shouldn't amount to much and we shouldn't have to go through security again. I flew through Atlanta one time and it was a breeze - I got off the plane at one gate, walked out to the main walkway and turned right into the gate I was flying out of - they were neighboring waiting areas. So hopefully that will be the case this time too.

Hubby also called his buddy and he had not received any email notification about flight changes either. They were flying down on Sunday and back on Saturday (we're flying down on Wed and back on Sat) - different airports - same airline. Don't know what they have switched their times to.

One good thing was they were able to keep our seating the same. Hubby had pre-selected our seats and we were in the 2-seat rows - us in front, the younger boys in the middle, and the older boys in the back. They kept us in those seats for both legs of our new flights. Hopefully all legs of the flight are on the same size plane because we are in seats A & C (no B on that side of the plane) so hopefully we aren't moved to a mirror image where the rows have a B and we have an extra seat in between us. I kind of doubt that would happen - but giving the airline the benefit of the doubt today isn't very high on my list of priorities.