Who are we going to get to watch the horse? A Spring Break 2014 Pre-Trip Report

[lovedonaldduck]

Sorry I have been MIA from my own report! I typically don't DIS on the weekend, but yesterday it just slipped my mind and then when I remembered I was too busy at work.

We saw my parents this weekend and decided on dining reservations. I also got everyone's input on their 2 must-dos at each park. I'm going to plug those into Touring Plans and go from there.

Our schedule looks like this -

Sunday- arrive mid-day, drop Cooper off, check in, Rainforest Cafe for dinner
Monday - EMH at AK, lunch at Flame Tree BBQ, leave park shortly after lunch, dinner at Ohana
Tuesday - late arrival at DHS, early dinner at Mama Melrose
Wednesday - rope drop at MK, counter service lunch (probably Columbia Harbour House), leave for mid-day break/nap, dinner at Raglan Road
Thursday - late arrival at Epcot, World Showcase snacks for lunch and dinner
Friday - check out, pick Cooper up by noon, head home

While we were at my parents' house on Sunday, my dad pulled me aside and suggested that we do something special for my mom's birthday (it is the week after our trip) so yesterday I made a bunch of calls about ordering a custom cake. I am waiting to hear back. I also added a 1900 Park Faire reservation for our departure day - Mary Poppins is one of my mom's favorites. Once I hear back on the cakes, I'll give my dad the options and let him choose what we'll do.

I am trying to get everything done at work that I possibly can to make next week go as smoothly as possible. So, I probably won't be able to spend all the time I want to on the DIS and Touring Plans

 

[disneychic2]

I can't believe how close your trip is!!!! Are you so excited?? I think your itinerary look great. So do your ADRs. You're going to have an awesome time. Sorry you're so busy at work. Glad Charlotte is sleeping better. I think your plan to get her in her own bed alone after Disney is a good one. Hope it works out for you.

If I don't get back on before you leave, HAVE AN AWESOME TRIP!!!!!

 

[lovedonaldduck]

I can't believe how close your trip is!!!! Are you so excited?? I think your itinerary look great. So do your ADRs. You're going to have an awesome time. Sorry you're so busy at work. Glad Charlotte is sleeping better. I think your plan to get her in her own bed alone after Disney is a good one. Hope it works out for you.

If I don't get back on before you leave, HAVE AN AWESOME TRIP!!!!!

Thanks, Lois! I am super excited, trying to cram as much getting ready into every free minute I have. Last night I made the girls try on their bathing suits and did some laundry, as well as finding the swim diapers and life jacket.




Trip related news - in one week we will be at Magic Kingdom! Charlotte's only Disney requests have been to ride Dumbo and the "molar coaster" (Goofy's Barnstormer - the roller coaster!). She is also very particular about who will be riding these with her and who everyone else will be riding with. Peyton has come up with a long list of rides that she will not ride - including Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (I am hoping for a preview when we are there).

I ordered my mom's birthday cake yesterday. An Ursula themed cake with under the sea elements that will be delivered to the food court at POFQ on our arrival day. I'm spending $85 which is kinda ridiculous but I blame the cake thread - and the fact that the CM called me back after talking to the bakery and said they could do Ursula for $50 (which is what I requested) or they could do Ursula with the under the sea theme for $85. I'm super excited to see what they'll come up with.

I still need to do a little tweaking to our FP+ reservations, but for the most part they are set. I also need to put together a touring plan for Epcot - the other parks are done. To be honest, I'm a little torn on Epcot - our typical early arrival with a break and a return to the park (we rarely end up returning) or a later arrival which will be different for us (thus will require some actually planning on my part, instead of just doing what we always do). The main draw at Epcot for our family is World Showcase for the adults and Soarin for Peyton - her very favorite ride at Disney. Right now I'm leaning towards a late arrival and heading straight to World Showcase and then finishing up the day (and trip) with some Future World rides on our way out (Soarin, Test Track, Figment, Nemo, and Living with the Land). Still mulling this one over.

Tomorrow I will run to Target at lunch to get a new bathing suit for Peyton, then I have a hair cut and color after work. Friday at lunch I am going to run to Buy Buy Baby in my search for a better Disney stroller after work we'll all head to Publix for snacks for the trip. Saturday I'm going for a pedicure, wrapping up any laundry, cleaning the house, and packing. I don't know what time we'll be leaving on Sunday - sometime between 8am and 11am. The plan is that Cooper and Charlotte will ride in the truck with DH and I and Peyton will ride with my parents. This should make both of the cars more peaceful as Peyton is super talkative but Charlotte would prefer to sleep in the car so I spend most of the trip asking Peyton to be quiet so Charlotte can rest. It will also give Cooper more room to stretch out. My parents are also taking all of our luggage, since their truck bed has a cover and ours does not - although I think the rain is supposed to hold off until our actual park days! Once we get to Orlando, we will meet at Best Friends Pet Care - Charlotte and I will transfer to my parents' truck. While Bennie and Peyton get Cooper checked in, the rest of us will get checked into POFQ.

Off to work for me! I am ready for this week to be over!

 

[lovedonaldduck]

So, here we are, last day of work before vacation I have so much to accomplish work and planning wise, 4:00 is going to come way to soon.

My work to-do list is long and scary, but I will do what I can do and take my laptop home with me. I have tomorrow and the whole weekend when we get back that I can work from home if needed.

My trip to-do list looks like this:

Fax Cooper's records to Best Friends
Call Rainforest Cafe about our reservation - we want to eat at the outside Lava Lounge portion and I don't know if our reservation will help with that or not
Finalize Epcot plans
Finalize daily plan sheet for the family
Print out gift tags for the girls' surprises
Assemble girls' surprises
Call regarding cake - I want to get it delivered to our room even if it means jumping through some hoops
Try to get some very last minute Welcome Letters and Invitations from Creative DISigns
Help Peyton try on her new bathing suits so she can pick one to take on the trip
Pedicure
Run to my hair salon to pick up a product
Grocery shop for trip snacks
Pack
Run to Buy Buy Baby to try and find a stroller
Decide on a time to leave on Sunday

It's going to be a busy couple of days!

Here are our plans:

Sunday
Drive down
Drop Cooper at Best Friends Pet Care
Check in at POFQ
Dinner at Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney

Monday
AK EMH
Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ or Yak and Yeti
Rest
Dinner at Ohana
We have the following FP+:
9-10am Expedition Everest
10:05-11:05am Kilimanjaro Safari
11:10am-12:10pm Meet Minnie and Mickey
I think we'll only actually use the Everest FP

Tuesday
Sleep in
Late start at DHS
Lunch at Mama Melrose
FP+:
4:35-5:35pm - Tower of Terror
6:15-7:15pm - Toy Story Midway Mania

Wednesday
Rope drop at MK
Lunch at Columbia Harbour House or Cosmic Ray's
Harmony Barber Shop for the girls
Break
Dinner at Raglan Road
FP+:
10:15-11:15am - Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
12:10-1:10pm - Jungle Cruise
1:10-2:10pm - Meet Rapunzel

Thursday
Late arrival at Epcot
Right now I'm deciding how late I want to arrive and whether we should do World Showcase and then Future World or vice versa

Friday
Check out
Pick up Cooper
Head home

I'll try to update with out Epcot plans before we go. I plan on including any last minute FP+ changes in our trip report just so others can see how it worked to tweak plans once we are there.

 

[disneychic2]

Boy you do have a lot you want to get accomplished before your trip. I can't believe it's practically here!! Sounds like a good plan splitting the girls up for the drive. It will give them both a nice break.

I sure do hope it doesn't rain for your entire trip and that you get good weather and crowd levels!!! I'll pray for safe travels for you Sunday. Enjoy!!!!

 

[lovedonaldduck]

Boy you do have a lot you want to get accomplished before your trip. I can't believe it's practically here!! Sounds like a good plan splitting the girls up for the drive. It will give them both a nice break.

I sure do hope it doesn't rain for your entire trip and that you get good weather and crowd levels!!! I'll pray for safe travels for you Sunday. Enjoy!!!!

Sorry Lois, I missed this before I left. I got almost everything accomplished before we left - I didn't end up getting welcome letters for the girls, I just reused the ones from our last trip and neither of them seemed to notice. I also didn't get an invitation made but I didn't end up needing it. I tried to print out our daily plans before we left Sunday morning, but my computer was convinced that my printer was out of paper and I couldn't get it to change it's mind!

The girls actually both ended up riding with my parents, Charlotte didn't like the idea of her big sister going with the grandparents while she was stuck with us. It worked out great! DH and I had some peace and quiet and my parents didn't have any complaints. Our travels were uneventful. We had a few hours of rain on Monday, but other than that the weather was perfect! Crowds were kind of hit or miss but they didn't keep us from doing what we wanted!



I hope to have time to get my pictures straightened out over the weekend and may have a trip update to post by Monday! Stay tuned.

 

[disneychic2]

I'm glad things worked out and that your traveling was good with a little quiet time for you and hubby. Can't wait to hear all about your fun times when you get a chance.

I read over on D~'s report that Charlotte slept in her crib two nights in a row! That's progress that I'm sure you are happy with! How are her ears doing? And acting up in restaurants is something 2 year olds are very good at! She'll out grow it, don't worry!

Hope you have a great day!

 

[lovedonaldduck]

I'm glad things worked out and that your traveling was good with a little quiet time for you and hubby. Can't wait to hear all about your fun times when you get a chance.

I read over on D~'s report that Charlotte slept in her crib two nights in a row! That's progress that I'm sure you are happy with! How are her ears doing? And acting up in restaurants is something 2 year olds are very good at! She'll out grow it, don't worry!

Hope you have a great day!

It looks like it will be next week before I get to start the trip report. I had to work this weekend and I'll have a few busy days at work this week. I've got to get our taxes done, but once those are off my plate I should have a little time for some fun.

Charlotte is doing better with her sleep - two nights in a row in her crib, then last night she went to sleep in her crib but woke up in the middle of the night calling for me. When I want in she asked for a snuggle and then wanted me to lay down with her - since it was a work night, I just took her to the spare bedroom. Once I got her settled, she said she needed to go potty and she did so I wonder if that is what woke her up? Hopefully we can get back to the crib tonight. Her ears were ok at her last check up - fluid behind her ear but it was moving so not a big concern. We are doing Nasonex for another month with a re-check at the end of April. If she gets an ear infection between now and then, we will be heading to the ENT, otherwise we should have a nice break over the Spring/Summer/Fall and hopefully she will outgrown them before next winter.

Heading over to your report to see how Jennifer is doing and when you are heading home.