We got food, yes we do, we got food, how 'bout you? - PICTRUES! UPDATED 11-25-08

[tyandskyesmom]

So...I've been lurking around reading all of your trip reports and food porn and i have to say I am intrigued - in awe of all of your collective nack for telling a story and providing information in a fun and interesting way. I aspire to be like you guys. I hope I can entertain and inform half as well and that you will keep coming back for more and to see how my tale pans out!

This is my first pre-trip/trip report on the Dis and I must admit I am a bit intimidated. And while I know my way around the internet and my digital camera I don't put the two together too well yet so bear with me while I explore and hopefully get it right...after all, my favorite reports are the ones with a lot of pictures! I am hopeful that you will like me, I mean really like me!

Let me begin my giving a bit of background...

When I was a child a "vacation" consisted of a tent and a fire...there just was not enough money for real vacations.

My first trip to The World was my freshman year of high school with our marching band--yep, I was a band geek -- but I thought I was cool so that's all that mattered though, right??? Anyway, on the second day there I got pink eye - yep full blown, go to the doctor stay in a dark room, pink eye! Fun hu? NOPE!

There was another trip in there with an ex-boyfriend when I was around 19years old. We slept in the back of a mini-van at a Kissimmee camp ground for four or five nights after staying at a friend of his family in Sarasota for a few days.

So after about a seven year gap, the real memories start. Lou and I met and then married in July of 1996. Our honeymoon was in December of that year. It was a four day carnival cruise (before the mouse had his own) and then four or five nights at All-Star Movies. It was great-what more is there to say? We spent the next two years creating life - yes, it took that long! And then it happened. How it happened I am not really sure. The trip wasn't the best, in fact we had some really bad spots! It was when Tyler had just turned two years old. We took our first familty trip in February. Now remember, this is before I knew anything about planning boards and travel agents, or amout any of the tricks & treats of Disney planning. Before I fell in love with it all! Oh and my mom came along too for her first (and only at the time) grandchild's first flight to meet the mouse. Our first mistake was booking a Days Inn in Orlando. We arrived early and could not get into our room until later so we juust went on to a park. Wen we returned to our room it was late and we were scared! No, I mean this place looked like the local party motel! We were booked into a "suite"...ya right! It was disgusting! That night we called the front desk and told them we would not be staying another night (Ty was asleep and we had already brought our luggage all out of the car). We called the Holiday Inn Express across the street and stayed there the rest of our trip. So that covers problem #1. Now on to #2...we did Sea World (which was nice) and those other parks too. And it was HOT! I mean very HOT! So on to problem #3...my mom had come along. We discovered on this trip that we (me and her that is) have different vacation expectations. In fact, I distinctly remember standing in a shop in Disney-MGM Studios telling her that this was the worst vacation ever and it was all becase of her. It wasn't, of course but it felt like it at the time. I think it all came down to control and whose vacation it was...was she along on our vacation or were we along on hers? Of course, I am sure you can guess what side each of us was on.

So after all that, without getting into specifics because frankly, I don't remember them all, I was determined to have the greatest family Disney vacation ever so I booked our first Thanksgiving trip (which is now our favorite time to go). Ty and I picked Lou up from work at 3am and we were off...yes, driving! We arrived earlier than expected and tried to get a room on Disney property for Thanksgiving night but as you probably know, that was not happening. So we checked the Motel 6 next to the big Mc Donalds. It was advertising $39.99 rooms available so we checked. Nope, none available but their sister hotel down the street had room. We thought for sure we were heading for a dump...it was the Rosen Center...beauty! And what...it will only be $39.99...beauty---er! So we spent the night there then checked into All-Star Movies for what would be a great family trip!

We had such a great time that the following year Ty and I went to Port Orleans French Qarter with my parents...fun but not family...oh and we drove!

On February 2003 we had booked a trip to All-Star Music but Lou got accepted into the Carpenter Apprentice program and could not go. So Tyler and I went alone. It was scary at first but as soon as we were on Disney property we were good...easy sailing.

After that we were eager to bring Lou back so we booked the real bait....Animal Kingdom Lodge and then Caribbean Beach. I ended up being about four months pregnant at the time - surprise! We went in October for Halloween. We did go to the party and I was a fairy princess, Lou was a wizard (think Merlin), and Ty was a knight (everyone kept saying Prince Phillip but he was really just a non-descript knight). We had a blast but I had a taste of deluxe....oh no! We absolutely loved Animal Kingdom Lodge...in fact, I think that would be the only thing that could (and it has not yet) convince me to buy into DVC.

The next time ws after my sister-in-law drove to Georgia for my cousin's wedding with four kids under six. We were so close so why not! We stayed at All-Star Music and my parents and aunt and uncle were in the connecting room. My other cousin was doing the college program there so he was around too. Oh my goodness...the only one that drived me nuttier than my mom is my sister-in-law. Skyler was two months at this time...she was the easy one! We had some good moments but I think there was more tension than fun happening there.

So then to make up for that disaster my family went back to Animal Kingdom Lodge in December 2005 and found out how Disney crazy a 20 month old can be! It was this trip that I discovered disney boards and travel agents and the thrill of planning and it was all made so easy...and interesting...and fun!

We hit again in May 2006 for Star Wars Weekends. We stayed at All-Star Movies and we had a blast for 3 nights.

November 2006 (Thanksgiving) we headed back with my parents. We spent a few nights at Pop Century and then we went to Port Orleans Riverside. This vacation was actually pretty good. My parents stayed the bulk of their trip at my aunt's time share off site. We had two vacations that just happened to coinside. That worked for us.

At this point our annual passes had expired but we kept having SouthWest Airlines credits to use so we spend July 1 through July 4, 2007 at Animal Kingdom Lodge...with only one day at the Magic Kingdom thanx to my dad who just could not see going all the way to Orlando and not going to at least one park - yes, we intended to just relax. We had a really really great time on this trip but I don't really think summer at Disney is for us! But the 19 people on our late flight home on the 4th of July and the fireworks that we would watch as we landed in Chicago were wonderful!

And that brings us to the next trip. Yes, we still had airline credits and the have to be used by the end of January and that's with a six month extension!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Well, I hope I did not bore you with all that carrying on but I felt an introduction to my Disney obsession would be in order.

Now on the introductions...

Sherry...me...mom...36...planner and obsessed with family Disney vacations. I don;t think I could bear Disney without my kids, at least for now. I have an idea of my fantasy family with our faces on them but the only place we even come colse is Disney World...I am actually quite slow at meeting people, I want to but I get shy...I am coming out of my box here...I love all things Disney do it is difficult to pick a favorite character...

Lou...dad...37...rolls his eyes when I start talking about Disney...keeps asking me why I don't have anything better to do than read about other people's vacations that I don't even know (why does he do that???)...I think he really does believe that old saying "He who dies with the most toys wins"...thinks eating is the main point of a vacation...hates swimming...just tell him where to be and when...he likes villans the best...

Tyler...son...8...will have had his 9th birthday three days before our trip...3rd grade...he was the baby that was happy to sit in a stroller and let everything come to him, that is until he turned four and and the BOY came out of him!...plays baseball, football, is a Deputy IV in Tae-kwan-do, and is in Cub Scouts...he is my original Disney freak...loves reading and anything trivia, especially Disney (Lou does not even like to play Disney Trivia with us because between Tyler and me, he cannot win!)...he's a bit picky about eating but really eats the thing he likes and is getting better...he has been on Rockin' Rollercoaster but says he won't go back...loves pirates but is afraid of the tiny hill on the ride and also claims to hate the Figment ride and Test Track because of the smells and heat and cold rooms respectively...ya, he drives us crazy! SO if you see a big kid walking onto Figment crying that's probably us...

Skyler...daughter...3 1/2...playschool...she has started gymnastics and ballet classes this year and I never really noticed how uncoordinated she is until watching her first ballet class, that recital is going to be fun!...she has always been more adventurous than her brother in activity and eating but is very influenced by her beloved big brother...she is tiny and was super disappointed to find she was about five inches to short for Big Thunder Mountain in July (even though we told her she was not big enough she had to be measured) but was thrilled to be able to just make height for the Barnstormer!...she may not be able to ride everything until she is 12 at this rate...Ariel is her favorite character...

As a family we could not place an order on our love of the parks...we love them all! We do have our favorites everywhere but overall we hate to miss any of it! We generally don't eat a lot of table service meals but we are working on that. Lou wants a relaxing vacation and we want fun with a lottle bit of relaxing...we usually win. We usually go, go, go...I hesitate to say comando because while I plan my little head off befre the trip, we don't usually stick to my plans exactly unless is just happens to be the best way, which it usually is. We love parades and fireworks. We enjoy Disney transportation, we consider it part of the park. We do not generally take afternoon breaks and don't usually hit water parks or Disney Quest (anthough we did go to Disney Quest once).

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So we had the airlines credits to use up by the end of January. I always like to get in as much vacation as I can...meaning we leave as early as possible and come home at the last possible minute. Including a school vacation always makes that easier. Tyler has been asking when we were going to stay longer, like two weeks...where did the kid get that??? We usually squeeze out at least 9 nights and have been as high as 11! Geeze! Ok, ok, I don't blame him...in fact, maybe he got it from me...just maybe! And Skye has been going to bed every night since July asking if she has to go to Grammy's house in the morning. To which I am forced to say yes because I have to go to work and then she puts on this big, pouty lip and whiny voice and said "I wanna go back to Mickey's house". And then there's Lou..."How are we going to afford this and don't you have anything better to do than read about other people's vacations?".

So I got to thinking...Ty will have a birthday so why not the untimate birthday present...THE WORLD! But since his birthday is three days before New Years Day going for his birthday was out of the question...we can't afford that! So I did my research and found that value season begins on New Years Day...there you go! But then, how long to stay? Well, obviously, Tyler is out of school until the following Monday so that was a given but then I got to thinking that those first four or five days still could still be a bit crowded. See for me being able to "afford" the trip also takes into consideration what we will get out of it and after being there at various times I thing the less lines and the lower temperatures are more what we are looking for. So, since we generally take Tyler out of school the week after Thannksgiving for the whole week I figured he could miss the first week back to school after winter break...thus creating out returning day...January 13th...yes, that's 13 days...it's as close as I could get to the two weeks the boy has been asking for. But wait, Lou cannot be off of work that long...then we cannot afford it. Oh, I know, I'll give him a mini-vacation. We will leave on the first and he won't join us until the fifth...that way he gets a day away from us (he is like that...for him that will be heaven, for me...well not so much!) and then he can meet us in The World. So now, I had it all planned out how to do it, I just had to execute my plan. So I e-mailed my online travel agent and she hooked us up with Pop Century for all 12 nights. I asked her ot put on the reservation that this was a trip for Tyler's birthday and to request the 50s building in te back facing Hourglass Lake on the top floor. We like the values...in fact, for the most part I say if you cannot go deluxe then go value...I don't see the moderates being different enough from a value to justify the jump in price. I mean, don't get me wrong, I would not pass up a moderate if it fit into the trip but we are just fine with the values. And we are trying to make this trip more value orientated. So we hav eour AAA rate at Pop Century and I am thinking of getting annual passes again for me and the kids since we will be there for 13 days so our agent is watching for the annual pass discounts. I an still tossing around the annual pass for Lou since we are not actually planning another vacation (Lou says that is just something I say to him and he knows I am secretly already planning the next one the whole time...geeze!) or if he should just get a 9 day pass.

Oh, and let me inform you that the next thing I am going to share with you was completely a wrapped-around-the-little-finger-of-an-adorable-little-3-year-old-girl daddy's doing. While we were in The World in July at the Magic Kingdom on our one park day Skye kept watching all the little girls walkng around pretty as princesses. She said she wanted to be made into a princess too...Ariel with feet to be exact! So Dear Daddy turns to me and says "next time we come you should book her an appointlemt at that place" to which I respond "do you know how much that place costs?" to which he says " no, but she wants it...the dress and all" to which I reply "you said it!". So Skye is booked into the Bibbidi Bobbity Bouique in the castle at 8am on January 7th. Tyler is too...he has been wanting to go to the barber shoppe for years and we are just never in the right place at the right time. All he really wants is the color and glitter and stuff (he does not have your typical boy haircut so that is not an issue) so he will be getting the Cool Dude while his sister is made into a princess. I told the lady that I thought we would be doing the expensive package but I was not sure and she said that was fine. So when The Disney Store put their Halloween costumes out we looked for an Ariel dress just to compare value. Well, know what? They are not doing Ariel with feet this year...just fins! She already has that costume and I don't think it would be fun waling around in it all day...she did that for her third birthday party. So I think I almost have her convinced to bring her Jasmine costume and to wear that on her Bibbidy Bobbity Boutique day. We'll see.

So then I moved on to dining. I tend to book a lot of table service meals lately but then we end up cancelling a lot of them at the last minute. I called at exactly 180 days preparred for the first ten days of vacation. Here is what I booked...

1-1-08 Sci-Fi @3pm

1-3-05 The Plaza @5pm

1-4-08 Restaurant Marrakesh @12pm

1-5-08 Brown Derby @5pm

1-6-07 Ohana @8am

1-7-08 Akershus @2:20pm
1900 Park Fare @8pm

1-8-07 Hollywood & Vine @11:05am

1-10-08 Kona Cafe @8:15pm

A few days later I called back and finished...

1-11-08 LeCellier @11:30am

1-12-08 Coral Reef @11:30am

1-13-08 Chef Mickey's @11am

Ok so I am good, right? Except that I am waiting on the availability of ADRs for Tusker House to be available. When they are I call and get one for 1-2-08 for lunch.

And then the release the new 2008 Dining Plans....and the deluxe one is sounding very appealling...I mean, we could eat signature every night still have another meal, two snacks, and we would each get a refillable mug...wow that sounds great. So I got down to figuring and looking at menus and calculating what I thought we'd spend at those restaruants if we were to eat there without any discounts (oh, did I mention the plan is to get the Disney Dining Experience with our Annual Passes?). The DDP came ou a little more expensive but all senarios were similar. But then I realized that while we always love the idea of all these sit down places, we usually find we are just too lazy or wrapped up in something else to get there. So being tied to an ADR, and if we bought into the dining plan-even the regular one-I would be in it for maximizing our return and therefore would feel pressue to make all of our dining count, may be a problem for us. If we left and did not come out at least even, I would feel bad...and who needs another reason to be feeling bad at the end of a vacation??? So then my mind started moving again. I was thinking if we have the dining experience then we could still eat at all those wonderful places and not feel like we had to go to get our money's worth out of the DDP and probably be spending only minimally more than originally calculated so I hit it again...I just love this stuff! And called Disney Dining again and added...

1-6-08 Grand Floridian Cafe @5pm

1-8-08 Flying Fish @8.30pm

1-9-08 Narcoossee @8:30pm

1-12-08 Yachtsman Steakhouse @7pm

Ya, that's a lot of eating but that's what Lou likes and trying new places is fun. Our kids are pretty well behaved at restaurants and like going new places so it may be doable. We'll see!

So now we have a place to sleep, a boutique appointment, and dining but I still had not been able to get those darned airline tickets to come down to an acceptable rate. Finally on August 1, the Southwest flights for me and the kids leaving on New Years Day were down to a rate that I wondered if they would lower from... I am not a gambling woman by nature and do not consider myself very lucky...knowledgabel yes but lucky, no! So I bought at $85.58. So at least we were going...we may not be able to get back though. Soon after that the rates went up and have not been back down... job well done! On September 25 finally the fares for Lou on the fifth and our return flights were dropped to $78.14...so I bought...and they have been raised since...another good job on te airline lottery...so far! I am not good at waiting so I am surpised I waited as long as I did. Anyway, the kids and I leave out of Midway at 6:35am and land in Orlando at 10:05am. Lou leaves Midway at 6:15am on the fifth and arrives in Orlando at 9:45am. We leave onthe 13th from Orlando at 9:20pm and arrive back in the cold Midway airort at 11:05pm. And yes, we will go to work and school the next day! I told you we don't like to waste possible vacation time!

I'll fill you in on the rest of the plan in my next installment...hope you're enjoying yourselves!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

how to add a picture to my posts? HELP!!!!

 

[Avivasmom]

13 DAYS that is awesome....we will be there from the 2nd to the 5th (after just being there at the end of NOV) we are at AKL for my DD 7th bday on the 2nd.

You got some great places to eat.

 

[tyandskyesmom]

13 DAYS that is awesome....we will be there from the 2nd to the 5th (after just being there at the end of NOV) we are at AKL for my DD 7th bday on the 2nd.

You got some great places to eat.

Oh, AKL is my favorite! I am so jealous! But any Disney is tons better than no Disney! Maybe we'll cross paths!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So the kids and I collected the mickey heads from home depot (which we used to do before I even became involved here but now I know what to do with them!) over the weekend and created our countdown calendar. I stole someone else's (sorry, I don't remember whose TR I saw it in) idea and made the calendar our of the heads...we usually just do a chain and remove links...the kids like the calendar better! They are covering a head a day with a villian sticker (at least for October). We are on 70 more days today!

I also wrote the letter to Tyler's teacher and to the attendance office notifying them of the five days he will miss. I will send a reminder to his teacher about a week before. She has said she will try to gather his work before we leave. None of his teachers have done that before so that will be a new experience for us. Shouldn't be a problem for him though. He is above the level of the rest of his third grade class so he'll whip right through it all and we won't have so much to do when we return...it will also help that the first week of our vacation is the last week of his winter vacation from school so he should be able to have whatever she gives him done before we even leave! No worries.

Oh and beginning last week, Lou got laid off. Now that is really going to put a damper on my plans! We're heading into the cold months and the carpentry business naturally slows down at that time of the year but he has only been laid off once before so this was a complete suprise to us! So now, I am looking at probably having to change/cancel a lot of my nice meals in lue of cancelling the whole trip...cause I don't think I can do that! Maybe we'll just make Lou stay home...no that won't work either, we'd all miss him too much. I was offered 12 hours of OT this weekend so I grabbed that and I just found out I won about $140.00 so that'll help too. Lou does not understand though why I said all that extra money is VACATION MONEY! What's wrong with him??? The one time he wants to act like a grown-up...hhmmmppphhh! Hopefully he gets called back or finds a new job (preferrable called back because it is a really good company and he has been with them for years) soon so I can carry on with my plans with only some minor alterations! Wish us luck!!!

Oh and I changed the name of my pre-trip report to reflect the changes occurring...

 

[Tink_with_Attitude]

Great PTR so far!

I agree, you did get some great places to eat..........at least from what I've heard. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[klj27]

Hope he gets called back soon!

I also married my husband, Lou, is 1996. We have also discovered (after three trips with her) that we can not travel to the world with my Mom.

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

At the top of this page there is a light blue bar and right in the middle of it is a link that says "Photos".

Click on the link it will take you to a page called "Photos and Videos".

Click on the second link down "DIS Community Gallery"

You will have to log in and that may take another step (it has been so long I can't remember).

Click on Upload (after your logged in or registered) and follow the instructions. You will need to resize your photos BEFORE you upload them. Somewhere in the 600 x 500 range should do well (you can use a program like "Microsoft Office Pictures" to resize).

Once they are uploaded click on the picture you want to add to your link. Once it comes up in a full window, right click on it and bring up "Properties".

Copy the address (copy/paste) (It is easier to work on the pictures if you have two web pages open at the same time - 1) Your post and 2) Photo section.)

Go back to your post and add this HTML equation:

Paste your picture address immediately after that

Close the picture by adding at the very end.

(the whole thing should look like this:

)

See if that doesn't help. If I haven't been clear PM me and I will try to send clearer hints.

Your doing a great job with your Pre-Trip. I can't believe how much you have planned out (of course this is from someone who lets his DW do all of that)!

Good luck!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

At the top of this page there is a light blue bar and right in the middle of it is a link that says "Photos".

Click on the link it will take you to a page called "Photos and Videos".

Click on the second link down "DIS Community Gallery"

You will have to log in and that may take another step (it has been so long I can't remember).

Click on Upload (after your logged in or registered) and follow the instructions. You will need to resize your photos BEFORE you upload them. Somewhere in the 600 x 500 range should do well (you can use a program like "Microsoft Office Pictures" to resize).

Once they are uploaded click on the picture you want to add to your link. Once it comes up in a full window, right click on it and bring up "Properties".

Copy the address (copy/paste) (It is easier to work on the pictures if you have two web pages open at the same time - 1) Your post and 2) Photo section.)

Go back to your post and add this HTML equation:

Paste your picture address immediately after that

Close the picture by adding at the very end.

(the whole thing should look like this:

)

See if that doesn't help. If I haven't been clear PM me and I will try to send clearer hints.

Your doing a great job with your Pre-Trip. I can't believe how much you have planned out (of course this is from someone who lets his DW do all of that)!

Good luck!

Thanx! I thought I had it down but I guess I am more message board impared than I thought! I'm still playing with it though!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So, originally I had us purchasing Annual Passes again. Completely based upon the amount of time that most of us were going to be in the world. I was not thinking at all about another trip...honest! But since the kids and I have thirteen days in the world and we have never gone without hopping privledges I figured that would be the cheapest way...plus, there would most likely (although I know, not guaranteed) be a room discount too.

So then once this lay-off thing happened I started trying to think of the cheapest way for us to go. So I thought about just getting Lou a nine day hopper. Na, not enough money saved there to be worth the effort. What about if just I got the annual pass and Lou got a nine day hopper and the kids got ten day hoppers and a three day base ticket. But that seemed a little odd to me. Plus, I started figuring that we already have a AAA discount and the annual pass discount probably would only save us another $10 off of that, if that's so...was it worth it? Now I am at the point where I think we are getting a nine day bast ticket for Lou...the kids and I will get 10 day base tickets and a two day base ticket. We are going to attempt no hopping.

Let me tell you how I came to that decision. Well, in most of our trips we don't actually do much hopping, it is just nice to know you can. And there are only a few days were our dining has us actually hopping parks. Plus, Lou always wants a relaxing vacation. Well, we have never quite made it and I don't think we ever will. I mean there is just too much to do and see, even if you have been there as much as we have. Believe me, we have slowed down...it may not sound like it but we used to go morining to night without ever a sit down meal. Now, we take time to smell the roses and move at a bit of a slower pace in general. We try to stop for meals at table service places and we don't worry so much about doing or seeing it all...we've been ther ebefore and we know we will be there again. BUT, we have a difficult time relaxing Lou's way. See Lou's way consists of a beer and a TV with some sort of sports on. Oh, and far, very far, away from the pool! Or he would settle for a massage. All of that just doesn't fit into our schedule! But I figure if we do not have hopping privledges we will have a few days were we are at an early closing park and we will not be able to make it a late night because we will not be able to go to a late night park...there is built in relaxation! Is is, believe me!

So, I hope we will be able to handle not hopping and I suppose of worse comes to worse we can always add it to our tickets when we decide we cannot handle it anymore!

But this is going to cause some definate need for ADR rearranging in addition to the ones we will have to cancel due to the employment problem.

Oh, and I am also hoping that the night that they changed the schedule to have the Magic Kingdom closing at 7pm (the 9th I think) is a Pirate and Princess Party. I, I mean we, are dying to get to that. We have been to th Halloween party once and the Christmas Party many times but have not been to the Pirate and Princess Party yet. I know that is earlier than the dates were last year but I am again keeping my fingers crosses...we would sooo enjoy it! But that also adds to our ticket situation which wold allow me and the kids to cover all our days! Woo Hoo!

Dod any of that make sense or are you now all feeling like rolling your eyes back in your heads because i made you so dizzy? Don't worry about it...I'm used to that eye rolling, glassed over look whener I talk about Disney...

Oh and he just asked me again why I did not have anything bette rto do than read other people's vacations...what's wrong with him???

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So I expect we will be up at 3:45am on New Years Day (maybe we aught to just stay up, hu?) so Lou can take us to the airport for our 6:35am flight. I figure we can park in the garage (we usually just have someone drop us off curb side) since Lou is not leaving with us at the time. So he can hlp us in with al of our bags. We don't pack too heavily but I am thinking thirteen days and weather that could go either way...ya, we might have a bit more than usual.

So after we check in our luggage (I will pull A boarding passes 24 hours earlier) we will leave Lou and check in. The morning breakfast is generally Mc Donalds.

We should arrive in Orlando by 10:05am and head to the Magical Express counter. Hopefully by 11:30am we will be checked into Pop Century. I and goign to try to insure we get my room request and bed rails.

Now, this first day really depends a lot on the tickets we get and the party. Initially I had us grabbing a bus to MGM (sorry , I can't get the hang of that other name) and having lunch at Sci-Fi at 3pm. Then seeing the Osborne Family Specticle of Dancing Lights, grabbing a snack/light dinner at Rosie's All American Cafe and seeing Fantasmic. That was when were getting annual passes.

My most current and likely plan is to have lunch at Everything Pop and check out our room/hang out at the hotel. Then either head to Downtown Disney and/or over to the Grand Floridian to grab dinner at Gasparilla Grill & Games. We could tour the monorail hotels and look around, watch Wishes from the beach of one of them or from outside the Magic Kingdom and then catch the Electric Water Pageant before grabbing a bus back to Pop. Or we could hit Fort Wilderness and look around...we've never been there.

So, a lot depends on the level of tickets and how many days we end up with...believe me, I'd rather be enjoying MGM but the other plan isn't too shabby either!

More to come..

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

My wife sent me the official announcement and logo of the "Disney Hollywood Studios". I told her no matter what they did we would probably always call it "MGM"

Keep up the great work!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Hope he gets called back soon!

I also married my husband, Lou, is 1996. We have also discovered (after three trips with her) that we can not travel to the world with my Mom.

Yep, we still travel with her but not to important things like Disney World unless we are just having two seperate vacations that happen to be at the same place at the same time...there is too much pressure otherwise. THat is the only way we could do it the last time. I was very worried about the last trip with them going south fast but because my parents were staying somewhere else for the majority of the trip no one felt pressured to all be together all of the time and that way when we did all see eachother we were happy about it!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

On day #2 (January 2, 2008) I figured we would have an early wake-up call around 8am. Generally at home I am at work by 7am so waking up at 8am should not be a huge deal. We will grab breakfast at Everything Pop...breakfast is the one meal a day I am always guaranteed the kids will eat...sometimes even healthily but I don't make that so big a deal on vacation so usually it consists of a cinnamon roll, mini-Mickey head waffles with bacon and apple sauce, and oatmeal for the three of us.

Then we will head off to Animal Kingdom. It is an Extra Hour night so it is scheduled for 8am - 8pm. We love, love, love Animal Kingdom and never feel like we quite give it enough time. Oh, and the kids love autographs and pictures with the "guys" so Animal Kingdom provides a lot of different opportunities for that!

I have lunch scheduled for the new Tusker House at 11:30am. I am hoping, from the description that I read, that it will be similar to Boma. We shall see!

We'll catch the Mickey's Jingle Jungle Parade and then stay as long as we want to that evening.

I figured we will grab a pizza from Everything Pop and a couple of desserts and relax at the resort and have another early night.

That early to rise, early to bed thing is not really what we usually end up doing so it may take some getting used to. Normally, we arrive at the park around 10am and stay out until after a night time show or after a long trip to Downtown Disney. But due to my ticket delema, park hopping may not be in the cards this time around and we probably hit Downtown the day before so we won't need to go again so soon. Maybe it is just me though and having them both in the World by myself may make me a bit more willing to retire early! No, really, they are both generally very well behaved when there is only one of the parents around...so we should be good.

next up...the plan for day #3...

 

[tyandskyesmom]

So, I have been so busy with Halloween and then end of football season and gymnastics and ballet that I have not gotten around to giving more details but that does not mean my mind is not always on planning though. We are still minus one income so I am devising ways upon ways of going and spending as little as possible. That will be a change for us. Don't get me wrong, we usually have a budget but it is usually a bit more liberal than zero is going to be!

Last Sunday was Tyler's last "real" season football game. They lost making them 5 wins and 3 losses for the season but that does not really count because he is Super Pee Wee level and it is supposed to be instructional even though everyone knows scores and standings. This weekend starts the Fall Brawl. It is a tournament for the Supers because they don't get play-offs and a Super Bowl (because they are instructional, remember?). It is the next two Saturdays and it is a double elimination tournament. Can you guess who our first game is against? Yep, the first team we lost to. Boy, that was a difficult game to watch...our boys played horribly! But, I am hoping that will mean they have gotten their stuff together and will win this time around. But you know who they will probably meet if they do win??? Do ya??? Yep, the last team they lost to...and they were good. But lets assume they pull it out this time (they could, they are good enough if they all just keep their minds on the game-but they are 7 and 8 year old boys and you can guess how that goes!)...do you know who they probably get next??? I'm sure you see where I am going here...yep, the other team they lost to!!! How 'bout those odds for remaining in the winner's bracket? A little background...last year they went 7 and 1 for the regular season. In the first weekend of Fall Brawl they played three games in one day and finally lost to a team (the one they will hit third if they make it that far!) in the last 5 seconds of the game on a controversial call. So they dropped into the looser's bracket...meaning the best they could place was third place. The following weekend they played five games...winning them all...even the little guys (read : second string) played a whole game and won! The team that beat them the first weekend played two games that day (including the championship) and placed second and the team that placed first only played the championship game. So needless to say, our boys worked harder than any of the other teams and played more games than all of them (don't know exactly how that worked out???) and they could only place third!!!! Oh, and did I mention that it was beyond freezing that day? So now you see why this is such a big deal in the lives of the families of our Little League Football organization.

The kids were excited about Halloween and I was one of Tyler's room moms so had to help plan his big whopping 40 minute party. It went well and I think the kids had fun. Tyler was a mummy and Skye was THE Wicked Witch...green face, wart, and all! It seems every year there is less and less Halloween though...or maybe it was because Halloween was on a Wednesday this year???

Why, you may be asking, does this have anything to do with my pre-trip report? Well, because football and Halloween were our first big milestones to get past in our count down. We love Halloween so we go all out and now that is is over and football is almost over, along with Lou's birthday the week before, we can move on to Thanksgiving and my birthday (which is usually when we leave for Disney World!)...we are at 61 days today.

I will get back soon with more planning...

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

My DS played soccer one year and they weren't supposed to keep score either. I couldn't help of keeping a running tally in my head of the score though. Must be those competitive juices!!!

Keep up the good work!

 

[tyandskyesmom]

On Day #3 (January 3, 2008 - Thursday) I have 6am wake-up call planned so we can be ready and on the bus to Magic Kingdom by 7am for an 8am opening.

We'll grab breakfast at the Main Street Bakery. I keep hearing about the french toast loaf and the kids love cinnamon rolls so sounds like a plan!

We'll catch the 3pm parade.

We have a lunch ADR at The Plaza at 5pm. I have wanted to try this place for a while but Louis not really a sandwich person so I figured we'd do it before he gets there. Plus, grilled cheese is some what elusive in the World so the kids can have something other than nuggets, pizza, or a hot dog.

We'll watch Spectro Magic from around the hub (hopefully) at 8pm and then head towards the bridge into Tomorrowland for Wishes. Skye has never been able to see Tink fly so she will love it! Tyler has seen her but only once and not from very close so he'll be happy too!

We'll probably grab a snack/dinner at Pinocchio's Village Haus and enjoy as much or as little of Magic Kingdom as we want to. It is open until midnight so we can play it by ear. Most likely Skye will fall asleep in the stroller but sometimes she has better stamina than Ty so we'll see.

I don't like to plan out rides and shows or even lands too much because we want to see/do it all. We also want to do it all with as little wait and crowds as possible so we tend to just start off one way and hit whatever we can along the way. If something has a line that we don't want to wait in, we'll come back later. And the kids love to have their pictures taken with the "guys" and get autographs so you never know when, where, or for how long you will be doing that!

Day #4 up next...

 

[tyandskyesmom]

Day #4 (January 4, 2007 - Friday) is set for Epcot. We always seem to be at Epcot on Fridays...not planned but it just seems to happen that way.

I don't have a wake-up call planned for this day. I figured if we come in early from Magic Kingdom the night before, I can make one but if we end up being out late (which is more likely) we will sleep in. By sleep-in, I mean wake up when ever I decide I cannot sleep anymore and cannot watch the kids sleep anymore either...probably by 8am!

If we wake up early and get out of the room quickly we will grab a light snack/breakfast at Everything Pop. If we are getting up late we will just get up, fill our mugs, and head to an Epcot bus.

We have a noon time ADR for Restaurant Marrakesh. This is another one of those places that Lou has no interest in eating. I tried the counter service place in Morocco a year or so ago and it was pretty good and I think the restaurant sounds beautiful and fun...something that the kids would love to see. I figured they will probably share a chicken tenders kids meal and I will try (notice I said "try") to get the kids to taste some of my food. It probably won't work but sometimes they get adventurous...especially Skye. But if they are still hungry after there is pizza and hot dogs not very far away.

Epcot is one of those places that we never seem to get to spend enough time...who am I kidding, we think we never get to spend enough time anywhere in the World! Maybe they better way to say that would have been that we never seem to be able to see even a little bit of everything we want to. Do you believe we have necer seen the show in the America pavillion?!?!?!?! And the kids love Innoventions. We usually see some of the Innovention pavillions but now all of them. The only movie we have seen in the World Showcase is the Canada one. We only seem to catch the shows at the pavillions (like the acrobats and such) in passing. And I don't think Skye has ever been able to just sit by the fence and watch Illuminations (the rest of us have). I think we are always on the move or back further with an obstructed view via the man with a child on his sholders...as if the fireworks could not be seen without that!

So we will be running around all over at Epcot. I think Skye will be too small for Soarin' (which I think she'd love), and Test Track, and Mission Space so there will be none of those until Lou arrives so that gives us more time to explore the other things Epcot has to offer. At 3 1/2 she now measures just about 36 inches, maybe closer to 37 now. I don't forsee a jump to 40 by January but you never know.

We can have dinner wherever but I am assuming (knowing us) that it will be at the Refreshment Port (for Mc Nuggets and fries for the kids) and the Cantina for me.

I plan to make sure we are sitting with a great view of Illuminations and a School Bread well before the start of Illuminations.

Than we'll head back to the room for bed!

Day #5 is next...