Welcome, foolish mortals, to our pre-trippie!

[Sorsha]

Is this insanely early pre-trip report actually stretching?? Or is it your imagination, hmmm?

Welcome to our pre-trip report!
First let me introduce you to our cast of characters. We are all identified in my siggie line, but I shall go over it again.

Me: Tanya. 34 years old (but will turn 35 while in WDW - YAY! A bday in The World! ). I am a SAHM, and work (very) part time at JoAnn fabrics. I am absolutely passionate about Disney, anything Disney, all things Disney. My house is decorated with Disney, my key ring is Disney, I have Disney songs on my MP3 player, most of my wardrobe is Disney. When I am not fixated on Disney; I enjoy reading (sometimes books about Disney), quilting (with Disney fabrics), eBay-ing (for Disney stuff), and the study of archaeology (OK, I simply cannot tie that one to Disney...LOL). Born and raised in Montana, I am a liberal, environmentalist, feminist, athiest, pacifist somewhat-socialist Democrat - rather an anomoly in this 'ere neck of the woods. Don't let that scare you off though, I will not let my beliefs intrude into my pre-trippie if I can help it. My biggest challenges on this trip will be making sure I am in good enough shape to tackle The World (I am Pooh-sized, and this is a worry for me) and learning to let go and relax once I am there, cause I am somewhat of a compulsive planner.

DH: James. 39 years old, USMC veteran, now a professional cabinetmaker. Loving husband of 14 years, wonderful father, my best friend. Not nearly so Disney-obsessed as I am, but very much enjoys his time in The World. Happy to sit back and let me handle the planning end of things, as long as I don't over-do it. His biggest challenge this trip will be relaxing over the financial end of things, as he tends to be obsessivly money-conscious.

DD#1: Ariana. Also known as Ari, or Air-bug. 12 years old right now, will turn 13 at the beginning of September. Lovely child, has not yet reached the unpleasantness sometimes associated with the early teen years. Still enjoys spending time with the family. Very laid-back, and cooperative. Biggest challenge this trip will be being away from her Constant Sources of Electrical Entertainment. I can just see the eye-rolling when I tell her that the MP3 player will NOT be going into the parks with us.

DD#2: Alyssa. Sometimes called Lyssa or Lyssie. Will be 7 at the end of June. Very sweet child, always desperate to please, and to be praised. Somewhat of a drama queen, even the slightest disappointment or perceived injury will cause meltdowns and broken hearts. Extremely picky eater. Her biggest challenges on this trip will be staying friendly with her sisters, and finding something to eat.

DD#3: Caitlyn. AKA Caitie, or CaitieBeth. Will be 4 the 2nd of July. Has recently mastered toilet-training. Somewhat spoiled, as is typical of the baby of the family. Has a bit of an I Am The Queen attitude and expects all to do her bidding NOW. Good at foot stomping. Really a very sweet baby, just trying to still work through the fun of toddler-hood. Her biggest challenges this trip (or rather our challenges regarding her) will be keeping her fed and rested and having fun so we are not dealing with cranky-baby-meltdowns.

OK, going to post this and log off for now, since I have to report to Alyssa's school in 20 minutes for the end-of-school family picnic.
Next up: Our disney experiences of the past, and what I have accomplished so far. Stay tuned!

 

[Sorsha]

Ok, here we go.
My brother and I were raised by a single mom who put herself through nursing school and then worked 40-50 hours a week to provide for us and raise us up well. We first visited The World in February of 1987. when all there was was MK and Epcot. I was 14, my brother was 8. We loved it so much that we scrimped and saved and planned and made a return trip in October of 1989. By then MGM was open.
This final trip infected my mom and I with the "wanna move to Florida bug"! We spent the next 10 years plotting and planning and saving. In the meantime, my brother graduated high school and went off to college, I got married and first DD was born (in 1994). DH and I took DD to WDW when she was 3, in 1997, and my mom tagged along to see her first granddaughter on her first trip to Disney. It was also DH's first trip to WDW, although he had been to DL many times while he was in the USMC and stationed in California. Soon he was almost as hooked with the WDW bug as we were and joined in on the "how to move" planning.
In the fall of 1999, we took the plunge. Everyone quit their jobs and we packed up and moved to Florida. We had family on the east coast, near Melbourne, and they offered to find us an apartment so we would have somewhere to come to. It was a disaster. We were Montanans - used to open spaces and fairly quiet lives. My mom and I had never lived in an apartment a day in our lives, and the apartements we found ouselves in were cheap, nasty, ugly, and tiny. It took a while for everyone to find jobs, and in the meantime we burned through most of our reserved money. After we found jobs, mom and DH were miserable in them. Plus two hurricanes/tropical storms roared through that fall, and everything was constantly closed, wet, and flooded. Finally, mom said $crew it and decided she was leaving and moving back to Montana. She offered to take us along, if we didn't want to stay. DH and I discussed it, and though we would have liked to make more of a try at it, we didn't want to be stranded in FL with no way of getting back to MT and our way home was leaving as soon as she could get the truck loaded. Also, we were worried about DD, who was showing signs of depression - she hated the apartment, couldn't play out in her yard like she was accustomed to doing - cause she HAD NO yard, and she missed all her friends and family in MT. She wasn't eating or sleeping well, and was crying all the time. Finally, just then, I found out I was PG with DD#2. That was the final straw. We packed it up and headed back home. Mom wouldn't leave till after the New Year, because it was Y2K, and she was more than half convinced that the whole world would shut down on New Years and she didn't want to be caught out in it. However, as soon as it because apparent that everything was going to be fine, off we went. WE drove all the way across the country, in convoy , with a HUGE UHaul, in the snow and storms of mid-January. It sucked. LOL
Anyhow, we got back to MT and settled right back into our old lives - everyone even got their old jobs back - and here we have been ever since. DH and I still talk about FL, and we have not given up the idea of living there someday - but this time we will be MUCH smarter about it. We will have a HOUSE lined up to move to, NOT an apartment, and DH will have a job to go to; a well-though out, well-considered place of employment. We will probably wait till the kids are through school, so as to not uproot them, but we shall see what happens.
BUT... I haven't been to WDW since we left FL in January of 2000! I have been to DL once, in 2005 for the 50th anniversary, but we were in CA for my brother's graduation from medical school and we only took 2 days to do DL - ON Memorial Day week! It barely whetted the appetite. I have been looking forward to this trip for so long , it almost HURTS! But now it is done, booked and paid for, and I am in high planning mode.
This is getting long, so in my next post, I will bring you all up to speed on what we already have booked/planned.

 

[Sorsha]

So when we began planning this trip, my much-anticipated return to The World after 7 long years, we knew that we wanted 2 things; we wanted enough time to do everytihng we wanted to do without feeling rushed, and we wanted to stay on property. We have never stayed On Property before.
However, our biggest obstacle was money. We knew we would be putting our entire tax refund towards this trip, but we also knew we wouldn't be able to spend much more than that. Enter Free Dining! YAY!
So yes, I was one of those people sitting on the phone for an hour with CRO at o'dark-thirty the morning the Free Dining packages were released. It was worth it though, we got the dates we wanted, in the resort we wanted.
I let the Walt Disney Company book our airfare too, so I could pay for the whole trip in one fell swoop. Airfare is absolutely horrible out of MT, so we chose to fly out of Spokane, WA, our nearest "gateway" city. We will buy Amtrak fares to get from here to Spokane, only about $130. The train leaves here at 9 PM the night before we leave and gets into Spokane at 1 in the morning. Our flight out of Spokane is at 6 AM, so that's actually just about right. We will get off the train, collect our luggage, and take a taxi to the airport, get our luggage checked in, maybe grab a bite to eat, and get ourselves all ready to go on that 6 AM flight.
I made my ADRs already too, got most of what I wanted, although I had to fudge with the times a bit - things were already filling up.
Here's our tentative schedule:
Sept 19 - Get on the train at 9 PM
September 20 - Fly, arrive in Orlando at about 4:30 PM. ME to POR. We have an ADR for a late dinner that night at Epcot. Although everyone will be tired, we will be too excited to just crash. So we decided to go over to Epcot and eat at the Coral Reef, maybe catch Illuminations, then head back to the hotel for bed.
September 21 - Animal Kingdom. Breakfast ADR for Breakfastosaurus. We may go over to Downtown Disney later in the afternoon, since James and Ariana are chomping at the bit to get to DisneyQuest.
September 22 - MK. Breakfast ADR for Crystal Palace.
September 23 - MGM. Dinner ADR for Hollywood and Vine.
September 24 - MY BIRTHDAY! We are spending it at Epcot (my favorite park) and have dinner ADR for Garden Grill, my favorite restaurant.
September 25 - We are taking a "relax" day. We will rent a car from Alamo at the CCC, drive over to the coast, relax on the beach, visit our family in Melbourne, then drive back that evening and return the car. We will also take this day to do any off-property shopping we want to do; some citrus, some munchies, maybe the outlet malls for some cheap souvies.
September 26 - Spending the morning at MK after a late breakfast ADR at Whispering Canyon. In the early evening, we will head over to the AKL, where we will explore the resort and see the savannahs before our late dinner ADR at Boma.
September 27 - Free morning. We have a breakfast ADR at the Rainforest at AK (DD's request, Ari loves this place) so we may spend some time at AK. We will probably spend the afternoon at one of the waterparks, if the weather cooperates. After that, we will go back to the resort and change so we can head over to the Polynesian, where we have dinner ADR at Ohana. After dinner we will relax on the beach and catch the Electrical Water Pageant.
September 28 - As this is the first day of Food and Wine fest, we will be spending it at Epcot. We have breakfast ADR at Chef Mickey's, then we will monorail to Epcot. We will spend a leasurely day in Epcot, re-doing our favorite attractions, and eating ourselves silly at the F&W booths. We also have a late-afternoon ADR at Le Cellier. This was my most frustrating ADR, this was the ONLY time we could get, it is totally booked up otherwise. Oh well, we shall survive.
September 29 - All good things must come to an end, and on this morning, we leave FL at 7 AM, heading back to Montana, and Real Life. SIgh. A depressing thought.

 

[Sorsha]

Daughters in queue for Haunted Mansion, June 2005, Disneyland.
Caitlyn (almost 2 at the time), Ariana (10 1/2 at the time), and Alyssa (almost 5 at the time).

 

[Sorsha]

Myself (in the pink shirt) and my best friend (she and her family met us at Disneyland for the day) in Adventureland.

 

[Sorsha]

James and Caitlyn at my baby brother's Med School graduation, Memorial Day weekend of 2005.

 

[Sorsha]

*Made my reservations and ADRs
*Planned out the basics for our days
*Reserved the car from Alamo for 9/25
*Started a 3-ring binder for me with plans, ADR #'s, and assorted print-outs
*Started entering info into my Passporter
*Made a 3-ring binder for each of the girls to have on the plane, including coloring pages, mazes, puzzles, journal pages, and other age-appropriate activities
*Decided on a rough list of what clothes the girls and I are taking (yes, i am THAT obsessed - at least I haven't started packing yet!)
*Done a very small amount of shopping - mostly just picking up things I see on sale like sunblock and handi-wipes
*Found a pet- and house-sitter

Still need to:
*Buy our train tickets
*Save lots of money

 

[mlill]

It's nice to meet you, Tanya! It sounds like you have been planning for this trip for a long time. I'm sorry it didn't work out living in FL. I think about moving down there all the time, but I know it would not be easy at all. Besides, I think I would miss the seasons. It's really great that you get to celebrate your 35th birthday in WDW! Your trip will be here before you know it!

Take care,
-Michelle

 

[Sorsha]

It's nice to meet you, Tanya! It sounds like you have been planning for this trip for a long time. I'm sorry it didn't work out living in FL. I think about moving down there all the time, but I know it would not be easy at all. Besides, I think I would miss the seasons. It's really great that you get to celebrate your 35th birthday in WDW! Your trip will be here before you know it!

Take care,
-Michelle

Hi Michelle!
Thanks for reading and for posting!
I am very sorry it didn't work out to live in Florida either. While the situation was not good while we were there, there were still so many thing we enjoyed. Even now, 7 years later, sometimes when it is cold and nasty outside we look at eachother and say "Remember the beach?" . We also wax nostalgic about the wonderful fruits and veggies you could get so cheaply at the flea markets (fruits in Montana are almost all trucked in from somewhere else - our climate is too cold for most fruits). But I did miss the seasons, as well. Not so much winter, cause I HATE winter , but we missed fall - the cool, crisp mornings, the smell of woodsmoke in the fresh, mountain air.
Anyhow, thanks for jumping in!

 

[Sorsha]

Well, I did it... I caved in and bought a pair of crocs. Actually, DH bought them for me, but who's counting...
Anyhow... I had always said no way to crocs... resisted the croc collective... but today I finally realized that resistance is futile. I am a Birkenstock wearer.. always have been... I start wearing them as soon as the snow melts in the spring and wear them all summer until the snow flies again in the late fall... sometimes I just KEEP wearing them, but it gets a little chilly.
Well, I am going to give crocs a try. I plan to wear them quite a bit over the summer - not enough to trash them, but enough to find out if my feet like them. I will wear them shopping and on walks, and see if they are really the all that that everyone says they are.
Here's a pic of the ones I got - MIckey ones, of course!

 

[disneyaddicted]

I'm happy for you that you get to go back to WDW. Tood bad living in Fl. didn't work out for you all. I sometimes say I wanna reire there but deep down I know I will never leave my house, I love the hollow I live in and the creeks, I even like the snow for the first few days. lol

Got the crocs huh? I am still up in the air on that, I am a flip flop person but they don't hold up too well in the world. Are you going to give weekly reports on comfort of the crocs? lol, I would love the comfort, but why do they have to be so god awful ugly?

 

[Sorsha]

Got the crocs huh? I am still up in the air on that, I am a flip flop person but they don't hold up too well in the world. Are you going to give weekly reports on comfort of the crocs? lol, I would love the comfort, but why do they have to be so god awful ugly?

I just may have to do that!
After all I started my pre-trip report so early, I may run out of things to talk about! I can jsut see it now... "wore the crocs to the park, very comfortable to walk in, stepped in some duck poo though - DARN!"
I have been wearing them around all day since I got them, and I have to admit that so far they ARE very confortable.
I agree with you on the ugly part - ISH! - but mine have MIckey's on them, so that helps out quite a bit - ANYTHING with Mickey's on it can't be all bad, right?
Thanks for stopping by and reading!

 

[rentayenta]

I just may have to do that!
After all I started my pre-trip report so early, I may run out of things to talk about! I can jsut see it now... "wore the crocs to the park, very comfortable to walk in, stepped in some duck poo though - DARN!"
I have been wearing them around all day since I got them, and I have to admit that so far they ARE very confortable.
I agree with you on the ugly part - ISH! - but mine have MIckey's on them, so that helps out quite a bit - ANYTHING with Mickey's on it can't be all bad, right?
Thanks for stopping by and reading!

Trust me, you will never run out of things to talk about! Fun report, I like reading the histories of fellow Disney addicts! Your daughters are just as cute as can be!

Keep in coming!

 

[Sorsha]

Trust me, you will never run out of things to talk about! Fun report, I like reading the histories of fellow Disney addicts! Your daughters are just as cute as can be!

Keep in coming!

Thanks both for reading (and posting! ) and for the compliment on my wee ones. I think they are pretty darn cute too.

 

[Sorsha]

YAY! We made it! In 99 days, 22 hours, and a few minutes we will be getting onto the train to begin our journey to The World!
We celebrated tonight with dinner out. We hardly ever go out - too $$$ - but we felt we needed and deserved a celebration for making it to under 100 days! A new restaurant just opened - in our little town a new restaurant is always a BIG deal - The HuHot Mongolian Grill. We really enjoyed ourselves - what a fun concept! You go up and down long buffet lines, filling a bowl with all manner of raw ingredients - meats, every kind of veggie imaginable, noodles, and there are 16 different sauces and oils to choose from and/or combine! Then you take your bowl over to the grill and hand it to a chef, who throws it on this HUGE circular grill. He then chops and dices and mixes and stir-fries everything all together with a good amount of showmanship, using his spatulas to whack the grill, then throwing the spatulas up in the air, and just generally showing off. Meanwhile, all around the grill, other chefs are giving the same performance with other people's dinners. When your food is done, he scoops it all off the grill onto a plate and hands it off to you. The kids just thought watching the chefs was soooo much fun! And the food was o yummy too! Its great being able to choose just what you want in your dinner. And you can go back again and again - I enjoyed making little bowls of different combinations. By far my favorite was chicken and noodles, stirfried with carrots, broccoli, tiny ears of corn, asparagus and shredded cabbage, with a creamy lime-coconut milk-peanut sauce, with extra lime juice and roasted garlic oil added in. TO DIE FOR. I don't even want to know how many calories I consumed tonight - but it was a darn good celebration! The picky 3 year old even liked it - she had tofu and a wee bit of chicken, stirfried with noodles, carrots, broccoli and edamame with house sauce (an oriental/soy/garlic sauce).
AND - the croc report - DH and I went for a walk after we got home tonight... we needed to walk off some of the HuHot. I walked a mile in the crocs, and they were very comfy! ONly complaint I had was that we were walking on a road with gravel, and I kept getting bits of rock inside the shoes (through the air vent holes) and couldn't get them out. Then I would have to stop and take the shoe off (can't just kick them off like the birkenstocks cause of the heel strap), remove the offending bit of rock, and put the shoe back on... only to have more rock appear a few minutes later. Luckily there is not a lot of pea gravel in WDW, so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[disneyaddicted]

YAY! We made it! In 99 days, 22 hours, and a few minutes we will be getting onto the train to begin our journey to The World!

AND - the croc report - DH and I went for a walk after we got home tonight... we needed to walk off some of the HuHot. I walked a mile in the crocs, and they were very comfy! ONly complaint I had was that we were walking on a road with gravel, and I kept getting bits of rock inside the shoes (through the air vent holes) and couldn't get them out. Then I would have to stop and take the shoe off (can't just kick them off like the birkenstocks cause of the heel strap), remove the offending bit of rock, and put the shoe back on... only to have more rock appear a few minutes later. Luckily there is not a lot of pea gravel in WDW, so that shouldn't be an issue.

woohoo, less than 100 to go!

Thankyou for the croc report. Sorry to hear about your croc rocks. But yeah not too much to worry about for Disney. Do you own any jibbitz? there is a rumor sailing around the boards that certain rides may pop your jibbitz causing an unpleasant feeling a lot like croc rocks.

 

[Sorsha]

Hi all... sorry I have been gone (if anyone noticed, LOL), the last week was a LONG one, and i just haven't had much computer time.
First off, my computer tried to eat itself. Apparently some files in the start-up sequence got corrupted, and the computer got stuck in a loop as it was trying to start up. I couldn't get off the silly Windows XP screen... couldn't try to scan-disk, couldn't get into safe mode, couldn't even attempt a "go back to the last time your computer was operating properly". So I packed the whole darn thing up and gave it to my brother-in-law, who is my resident computer guru, and somehow he hooked my poor machine up to gadgets and wires and deeliebobs and whatchamacallits and got inside of it to figure out what the issue was. Then he made those files fix themselves and TADAAHHH! It works again. And I didn't even lose anything off my drive. But boy did I ever miss having my computer!! A big shout-out of thanks goes to my BIL, and I promised to bring him back an extra special treat from WDW in September.
Anyhow, during the whole computer episode I started feeling kinda yucky, and I woke up yesterday morning with a raging headcold. Sinuses, cough, headache, you name it. I am feeling a little better today, but the medicine cabinet is still my best friend. And I have to go to work tonight. Yuck.
Let's see, do I have ANYTHING wdw-related to yak about?
Oh, right before my computer crashed, I won two awesome auctions on eBay and received them yesterday. One is for me, a comfy dress made out of black tee-shirt knit, with a really cool palm tree/tropical-ish design embroidered/beaded on the chest. It is definitely going on vacation with me, I think I will wear it to Ohana. The other item is for middle DD, the CUTEST pair of capri pants from Gymboree's vintage "Little Hula Girl" line. I am a total Gymbo addict, especially the vintage lines. These pants are a peachy/pink color, lightweight cotton, with a tropical design of hibiscus flowers, palm trees, and tiny little hula dancers. I still have to get my hands on a top from that line to match them, but DD is definitely wearing them to Ohana. Youngest DD has a pair of khaki overalls from this line to wear as well, with a tiny little scenic palm tree/huts/dancers border embroidered around the bottom of each leg, and they are lined with the same cotton print as middle DD's new pants. I am excited that they have matching Gymbo outfits to wear ... its the little things that amuse me LOL.
Well, I guess that's about it for now. Pretty pitiful, when the most Disney-thing I can think of to journal about is my eBay wardrobe purchases. But oh well...
Off to find more medicine, maybe a cup of hot coffee, maybe a nap...

 

[Sorsha]

Alyssa's Gymboree pants, Caitlyn's matching overalls

My mom made this outfit for Caitlyn to take to WDW

My mom made this one for Alyssa to take to WDW

 

[disneyaddicted]

wow the clothes your mom made are beautiful. I bet you will get lots of comments on those during your trip.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling so good. I hope you get over it quickly.

I bought a pair of crocs!!! They sure are comfy.

 

[Sorsha]

wow the clothes your mom made are beautiful. I bet you will get lots of comments on those during your trip.

Sorry to hear you're not feeling so good. I hope you get over it quickly.

I bought a pair of crocs!!! They sure are comfy.

Thanks for the compliments on the clothes! I think she did an awesome job too. She and I looked on eBay and could not believe how MUCH ($$!) handmade funky little outfits like that sell for! She says she might have to quit her job and sell kids' clothes on eBay!
Congrats on the croc purchase! See? I told you... resistance is futile!