We are finally going back, and no, we are NOT driving! A May/June 2013 PTR

[danicaca]

Well, we are 150 days out, so it seemed like a good time to start my PTR. Never done this before, but we shall see! Hopefully someone will follow along with me, and if so,


I guess I should start with explaining my title, and telling you all a little about myself and my family. Our last trip, in June of 2010 - I know it has been WAY too long - we DROVE from Omaha, Nebraska in our minivan, with my sister, her husband, and their son. Needless to say, it was a little, um, packed! My BIL drove the entire time - thank goodness - he wanted to, no one made him! If we would have driven straight through, it would have taken 24 hours. We did stop in TN for a quick overnight respite, then hit the road fresh in the morning. We did not get to WDW until after 4, and we were supposed to go to Epcot - we only got to spend about 3 hours there, so for this trip, I am super excited to go back! Anywho, we were only there for 3 1/2 days because this was a little add-on to our trip to Georgia. On our last day, in the pool, DH said "So, when are we coming back?" I was so excited, and we actually decided that very day that we would return the summer after our youngest was in Kindergarten, 3 whole years. Well, now we are only 150 days away, and very excited for our 11 DAY TRIP!
Okey dokey, time for some intros:
First is me, Danica, 37, Substitute teacher. I love Disney, and would go every year, several times a year if I could! I would probably have to go back to work full time if we wanted to do that, and it is just not worth it for me! I also do photography, scrapbooking, sewing, and other various crafty things! Keep a look-out for some of my projects in upcoming posts! This will be my fifth trip to the World, my first being at age five, in 1980. I got to see Epcot being built and that is about all I remember from the trip. That, and Space Mountain, and visiting an alligator farm and a wax museum - my grandparents sure got their moneys worth?? My favorite ride is Space Mountain - sadly last time I did not get to ride, because DDEllie would not go again...and my favorite character is Minnie Mouse!

The guy in the photo is none other than my DH, Matt, 40, turning 41 in a few days (Ha ha) Ok, I know, I will get there some day...Anyway, he is a software developer for a bank software company, loves all things gaming, both online and board games, and Star Wars. He does not have the obsession, um, love for Disney that I have, but still really enjoys going there. I love all of the planning, and he does not, so I guess we are a good pair! His favorite ride is Pirates of the Caribbean, and he does not really have a favorite character...

Next is DD8, Ellie. She is a super smart girl who loves to dance, read, and act, and still believes in the magic of Disney - I hope for a long time! Her favorite ride is Splash Mountain, and her favorite character is Ariel. She can't wait to dress up like Cinderella twice on our trip!

Finally, is DD5, Olivia. She is super spunky and ornery, and loves dance and gymnastics and kindergarten. She already has a boyfriend, and got into trouble last week for kissing him (UGH, where do they learn this stuff?) She is very excited for this trip, because she does not remember a whole lot from our last trip, as she had just turned 3 the week before we left - yay, we got to pay full price for her! Her favorite ride is the teacups, and her favorite character is also Ariel. She can't wait to dress up as Snow White!

Well, that is it for the introductions, next I will move on to "THE PLANS"

 

[danicaca]

Where/When
A Little Look at the Past
Some more pics from the past
Allrighty, just a few more pics from the past
Projects I have been working on so far...
The Plans - So Far...
My Disney bin - and is it ever full already!
The Crafty Goodness!
My Planning Binder
New Year, time to set some goals!
My newest purchase, and a dilemma of sorts...
Disney Prepping
Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom
Forgot to show you all this!
A little Disney magic arrived today...
More Mickey Mail!
My recent purchases, and a little venting...
A strange purchase...
Snow Day Craftiness
The Walgreens Saga
I WON!
100 DAYS!!!
The ADR's, they are a changin'...
Crafting Some More...
Yay for getting things done!
Our Crafty Trip!
49 Days!
We now interrupt this PTR for a special announcement...
30 DAYS and Mickey Mail!
20 DAYS!
Time for the single digit dance!
Wrapping Things Up

 

[danicaca]

Now that you know who is going, here is a little about when/where. On our last trip, we stayed at All Star Movies, and while it was fun staying on property, we knew we wanted to stay somewhere a little less loud, and nicer! My first choice would probably be Beach Club, but we did want to stay for 11 days, so we went with the next best choice, POR! I did a lot of research on the different moderate resorts, and settled on POR for a couple of reasons:
1. Royal Guest Rooms - my girls love Tiana, and when they saw the pics of these rooms and squealed, I knew this was where we would stay.
2. The theming - not so "in your face" Disney. The rooms look elegant, but still fun for the girls, and who doesn't love a queen sized bed?

I have been following the POR thread since I joined, and have learned so much about the resort - it is just making me fall in love with it more, and I hope I am not disappointed!

Our dates are May 28th to June 7th. We decided on these dates because we want to be there for Star Wars Weekends, and we have heard from several Disney friends that this week after Memorial Day is one of the best weeks to go if you must go during the summer. Since the girls get out of school before Memorial Day now, this just seemed like the best time for us. Someday, I want to go in October for the Halloween stuff, and in December for the Christmas stuff. Someday...

 

[danicaca]

I thought I would share some pictures from our last trip, and some things I learned from that trip.
First, what I learned:
1. Don't drive!
2. Stay somewhere a little nicer, but still on property.
3. Get the dining plan - even though we probably did not save any money, it was all paid for before the trip, and we got to eat at some really good places. My DSister and BIL did not get the plan, and they were always complaining about the food prices, and most of the time did not eat with us!
4. Upgrade to the regular dining plan - we just are not fast food people. The only quick service we really enjoyed were Wolfgang Puck Express, and the Contempo Cafe. Otherwise, nothing was very memorable. Well, I guess we did like Sunshine Seasons somewhat, more for the shear amount of food we got! These were the only restaurants I took any pictures of our food!
5. Splurge on the Photopass prepay CD. I was only in a handful of our pictures, and once we got home, just found the pics to be too expensive, especially since I usually get my pics developed for free by my dad. This trip we will be doing the Photopass+! Then I can just give the CD to my dad, and he will print them! Well worth the money, since we are doing quite a few character meals, and love our ride pics, but never get them because of the price!
6. Do my research - I thought I had done a lot of research, but it was mostly about which parks we wanted to go to, where we could eat, where to rent a stroller, etc. I did not put any thought into which rides we wanted to do, or even think about a touring plan. Yes, we were those people who go to Main Street, took out the map, and said "Well, what should we do first?" Being that this was a very short trip, I know we really could have maximized our park time by just doing a little bit more research. We just sort of wandered around aimlessly, and focused on the things we had remembered doing x number of years ago. We really missed out on a lot of neat shows and rides that we did not even know about!
7. Fast pass and child swap are awesome! Nuff said.
8. Be more organized. I just had a folder with all of these lists of restaurants and things to do/see. Not organized in any such way, and really not very helpful...

Alrighty, so here are some pics from our 2010 trip, which was magical, and a great learning experience! As you will soon see, I am much more obsessive/organized about this trip!

We are here! Our first pic as we were waiting to go to Epcot:

Epcot!

Meeting the big cheese - DDOlivia was too scared

Dinner at Sunshine Seasons:

and that was about it for our first day. We did the Epcot Character Spot, The Seas with Nemo, Turtle Talk, and ate dinner. When we finished dinner, we caught the last little bit of Illuminations, then headed back to the resort. I am determined to spend 2 if not 3 days in Epcot this time!

 

[danicaca]

Day two was Hollywood Studios. We only spent about a half day here, then went to DTD. Here are a few pics...

They have their ears and are ready to go!

We were first in line for the Mermaid - Ellie got to welcome everyone!

Our favorite ride here, hands down! Of course we did not do Star Tours, or the Great Movie Ride, or Rock N Roller Coaster - ugh...next time!

She could not believe I said she could play in the water!

This is what Olivia did for most of our trip...

Dinner at Wolfgang Puck:

 

[MrsBearcat]

I'm here from the FB page!

 

[ravensterling3]

Me too and looks like we going be there about same time June 1-6.

 

[danicaca]

yay! Glad to see I won't just be talking to myself...

 

[dutchdisneyfamily]

Hello! It has also been since June of 2010 that we are going back. We will be arriving on June 6th and staying at POR in a Royal Room. We stayed at POR last time and loved it so much we just couldn't bring ourselves to stay anywhere else, though we really want to stay at Beach Club someday. Your plans look great so far!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Hey Danica,
Just stopping by from the fb page to say hello. Can't wait to see you at the world and read more about your trip. I admite I haven't read anything yet, but now that I have you on my list of sub. threads I will come back tomorrow and read all about it. Until than

 

[mommy2jack]

Joining you from the FB page! We are going the week before you. Also planning to stay at POR, not the royal rooms though, I am loving the rooms located in the Alligator Bayou section! I'm not much of a planner myself, but love to read about those who are! Looking forward to following you in your planning.

 

[Corrine 1973]

All caught up. Your family is so cute, especially those daughters of yours. I am sure your DD's and my DD will get along quite well. She will be just shy of her 8th birthday when we go. I also can't wait to see your crafty side. I also am a creative person. I am trying to think of the outfits to make for my DD for our trip. I even asked my DS if I could make him some shirts and he said YES Right now I am trying to think of a creative countdown calendar. Do you have any good ideas?

 

[Djjsperry]

I am thinking about doing a trip report too. I love reading yours and will keep reading about your adventures.

 

[magrudersmakes3]

Joining from the FB page! You have a beautiful family!! We will be there around the same time as well.

 

[danicaca]

Hello! It has also been since June of 2010 that we are going back. We will be arriving on June 6th and staying at POR in a Royal Room. We stayed at POR last time and loved it so much we just couldn't bring ourselves to stay anywhere else, though we really want to stay at Beach Club someday. Your plans look great so far!

Thanks for joining me - sounds like we are pretty similar, at least when it comes to our Disney trips!

 

[danicaca]

All caught up. Your family is so cute, especially those daughters of yours. I am sure your DD's and my DD will get along quite well. She will be just shy of her 8th birthday when we go. I also can't wait to see your crafty side. I also am a creative person. I am trying to think of the outfits to make for my DD for our trip. I even asked my DS if I could make him some shirts and he said YES Right now I am trying to think of a creative countdown calendar. Do you have any good ideas?

Glad you were able to read it! I will be posting some of my ideas pretty soon as far as outfits and countdowns!

 

[danicaca]

I am thinking about doing a trip report too. I love reading yours and will keep reading about your adventures.

glad to have someone else to join along with my crazy Disney planning!

 

[danicaca]

Joining from the FB page! You have a beautiful family!! We will be there around the same time as well.

Glad to see you here! Thanks so much for the compliment! Where are you staying?

 

[danicaca]

Our first full day at a park was Magic Kingdom! The girls were so excited to dress up as princesses, and eat breakfast at Cinderella's Castle! I spent over an hour curling Ellie's looooong hair, and five minutes after stepping outside into the Florida humidity, it was flat, flat, flat. This trip, she will be wearing a bun!

We are really here!

We stayed from rope drop, to the end of the parade - never doing that again!
My favorite pic of me and my sister, pre-parade!:

We did a lot more that day, but I will not bore you with 500 pictures! The next morning, we went back to MK, and rode some more of our favorites, and got some more autographs. I made some really cute books for the girls, but almost all of the pictures in Olivia's are of Ellie because she was too scared. She has promised me this time that she will be in all of her autograph book pictures this time! Here are some pics of the books I made last time. I also made one for my nephew, so that is why there are 3.

Ok, enough of that, I should head back to the present, um, future!

 

[danicaca]

So far, I have made my Disney binder:

a journal for the trip:

And that is it so far I have these projects planned:
1. Autograph books - using my friend's Bind-It-All this time, and some clear, acrylic covers, super excited to get started on these!
2. Mousekeeping tip envelopes - using my new Cricut machine for these! Woo Hoo!
3. M&M tubes with labels for pressed pennies - already bought the M&M's (and ate them all, by myself...) just need to print off the labels and adhere them. I also started filling them with quarters and pennies.
4. Countdown - like this one:

5. Outfits - I have planned outfits for most of our days already. The girls received Minnie Mouse t-shirts from Grandma, and they will wear these on the plane and hopefully keep them clean for our trip to Epcot! I am making two pillowcase dresses for them, one Minnie Mouse for our first MK day, and the other a lime green, zebra print one for AK. For our first full EP day, I am making initial t-shirts, and they will wear their princess dresses for lunch, maybe the rest of the day if they want. A friend of mine found some cute Star Wars fabric, and she is making the girls skirts out of it, and I will make matching t-shirts. EP day two, they will have red t-shirts with Minnie heads, AK day 2 will be white shirts with zebra print Minnie heads with matching tutus. Our last day will be purple t-shirts with a light purple fabric Minnie head, for our M&G with Rapunzel. So in all, 2 dresses, 5 t-shirts, and 1 tutu per girl - so 4 dresses, 10 t-shirts, and 2 tutus...YIKES!
4. Hair bows - I will be making matching hairbows for each of the outfits, except for the Rapunzel ones - my sister gave the girls some cute ones for Christmas! One less hairbow to make...

I think that is um, all for now...Of course, I will have to make a scrapbook when we return, and I may or may not be done with the one from our 2010 trip!