1,3,almost 6, just over 10, and not quite 35! 11.29-12.6.08 PTR! About This Page:

[Polkadotmama]

To keep myself from going crazy with waiting, I decided to start a PTR!!! Mostly because I need a place to collect my brain each time it explodes with all the excitement, but also because I’m terrible about journaling, but this trip will, hopefully, be fantastic, and I want proof that it happened!!

First I’ll tell you about the title. I could have started this PTR AGES ago, but had no title. I hope I’m not the only one who gets the best ideas while in the shower, but last night, after dd was in bed, and I was washing the 90+ degree day off myself, it came to me… so here is the explanation…

1—This trip is FULL of firsts. My mother’s first time to WDW since I was 8, also her first time staying on property, and doing more than 1 day, she’s never seen AK, or DHS… Also, it’ll be dd’s first time to ride Space Mountain—which she was juuuuust not quite tall enough last time… It’s also our first time to go during the holidays… I can’t wait to see WDW in all it’s lit-up-decorated glory!!!

3—It’s our 3rd time traveling to WDW with DD, who is

almost 6!!! She turns six at the end of January.

Just Over 10—Dh and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last Friday. We had our honeymoon at WDW, and so when we were talking about something special to do for our 10th, it just made sense!!

Not Quite 35—that would be me I turn 35 exactly one month after we get home from WDW.


When we come back... Meet the Players!!!

[RobDVC]

Great start, Lauren. Love the title and it's meaning!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Lauren

[Polkadotmama]

Introductions!!

Well, since I started with my mom, I’ll start with her intro. My mom is one of my most favorite people in the world. She thinks I’m a psycho Disney freak. Her favorite things are warm beaches, antique stores, and my daughter. She is an unmentionable age—we’ll just say, she’s old enough to be my mom, but not old enough to actually be “old”. She and my dad used to take us to visit friends and family every summer when I was a kid, and we’d do a day at MK every time. I remember my red stroller, and red shoes.. and my mickey balloons She is excited to come with us (and is underwriting a good portion of the trip) but has no idea what she is getting into, and has entrusted all the planning to me!

Next up is DH… Another one of my most favorite people in the world (good thing, since I married the geek!!) He thinks I’m a psycho Disney Freak. His favorite things are fixing things (like, when we are on vacation, and a doorknob is loose—he’ll fix it himself) making computers talk to each other (or something--- he’s a total geek and can probably make a computer do the Hokey Pokey!!) and our DD (oh—and me too!!) He is 2 years older than me. We met first in high school (when guys—no offense—are not worth dating), and then met again in college where we started dating—blah blah blah—romance, wedding!! He and I had a deal leading up to the wedding that if I wouldn’t let him see the wedding dress, he wasn’t going to tell me where the Honeymoon was going to be… I found out during our rehearsal dinner he had booked WDW for 8 days!! We stayed at The Disney Institute (so sad that it’s gone ) and took some classes, played in the parks… ate anywhere (this was before DDP) and had the best time. We’d been before, so we knew how things worked right away, and didn’t need to spend time figuring things out!! He works more than full time and has trusted all the planning of this trip to me!!

Next is our DD… who is currently 5.5, almost exactly. Yet another one of my most favorite people in the world. She is learning from me how to be a psycho Disney freak. Her favorite things are Princesses (used to be Sleeping Beauty, but now is Mulan!!) Horses, Legos, Music… and Priates—big time pirates… like, she has memorized an audio book of Treasure Island, and her favorite movie is Muppet Treasure Island!! She will start Kindergarten this fall… which has me in a bit of a panic… we have been homeschooling her, with the intent to continue for a few more years, but then the private Quaker school DH and I both went to entered our options… and she is going to LOVE it!!! Her previous trips are when I was 5 mos preggo with her… she LOVED Kilamanjaro Safari!! When she was 2yo we went for 4 days… not long enough,… she loved most of it—but not the characters… and last August, when we did a last minute trip with some family who’d never been. We did MNSSHP and had a blast!! She has told me her requests, but has trusted the planning to me!!!

Now it’s my turn!! My name is Lauren, and I’m a psycho Disney freak! Proud of it too!! My favorite things are all things Disney, specifically Piglet, Snow White, and The Mouse himself… Working with children, helping parents on their parenting journey, Music, my choir, my friends, and the color purple (not the movie--- the real color!!) This will be my zillionth trip to WDW, something like 8th in the last 12 years… not enough for me I used to teach preschool, and worked as a nanny for 3 years before I had my DD. I’ve been a SAHM since then and have loved every minute of it (give or take about 10 mins or so) Our last Disney trip, this past October, I planned with the only happy thought being that I could do a week this coming Christmas. This last time, we did a full day at MK, then a full day at EPCOT, never again will I do that—it was rushed and exhausting. I knew it would be that way going into it, but it didn’t make it much easier. Arriving early in the day on the first day and getting ticket to the MNSSHP was a good idea, and we were able to hit rides the cousin’s didn’t want to… but trying to do all of EPCOT in one day was torture… never ever again… The planning has been trusted to me this trip… I am SOOO excited!!!



When we come back... Making plans, and a super helpful MinnieMouse!!

[oldmom]

I can soooo relate to the need to let the excitment out somewhere. We'll be there at the same time! Love your report

[Colexis Mom]

Great intros

[Hugmonster]

Great Start looking forward to hearing more...

[ArielsMomto2]

Great start Lauren. Love the intros. Can't wait to read more. Hurry back.

[DyanKJ130]

Great start!! Can't wait to hear more

[Polkadotmama]

I need to send many thanks to my dear friend Christine (aka MinnieMousesomething). She got me my passporter book, pointed me to this group (and others, but this is my fave ), and has suffered through all my stupid questions, mostly regarding dining plans and adrs. She shared all her plans with me, and really, I copied most of it, and then made some alterations... THANKS SWEETIE!!!


Christine also pointed me to Marla at Dreams Unlimited, who has been uber helpful! She got me most of the ADRs I wanted, but we were just past the 180 day mark, so we didn't get the CRT or the Akershus breakfast I wanted (got an akershus dinner instead...) I called Southwest a few weeks ago when their schedule only went till October, and found out when the new schedule would be posted, and then stalked the site all day that day (I think it was June 26th?) and finally at 1:35 there was a new schedule!!! so I booked our Flights!!

Here is the Itinerary, complete with the ADRs, and a few explanations.

Keep in mind that we are leaving the saturday after Thanksgiving. For most people, Thanksgiving is a time to travel to be with family, or to have family come to you. We live outside Philadelphia, and EVERY thanksgiving we go to Charlottesville, VA to eat the yummy food my aunt (who majored in Home Ec-- seriously!! ) prepares for us.. it is SOOOOOO much food, we never want to eat again, so we're going to DisneyWorld!!

Friday night we will leave my wonderful Aunt's home, and drive to a yet-to-be-determined hotel near BWI (got any suggestions?), and then the next morning, at like, 8:30 we will board a non-stop flight to MCO!!! we land at 11am and will head straight for Magical Express and take the bus to AKL. More on that later, as I promised and Intineray and dangit, I'm going to keep my promises!!


When we come back... the promise kept... more than you ever wanted!!!

[DyanKJ130]

Aren't PassPorters the best?!?!

Great start on your itinerary, but it's somehow missing the ADRs.

[MaryEL8775]

Passporters are the best. Especially when you get to spend so much time with them that they become extended family and you people know who you are that Im speaking about lmao... I can't wait to hear more about the trip.

[Polkadotmama]

Man, my fingers hurt from typing so much!!! I hope this all fit's in one post...

Saturday, Nov. 29
Eat breakfast in hotel, get tired tushies to airport (hopefully there will be a shuttle from the hotel and we can just leave our car there...) and hop on an 8:30 flight... take a nap on the plane, and wake up giddier than a horse on a carrot farm... land at MCO 11am, take DME to AKL, hopefully arrive around noon, check in, grab a snack from Mara, swim in the pool a bit... get ready for dinner
dinner ADR at Boma 4pm why so early you ask?? because at
6pm CIRQUE!!!!!!! We love cirque, just saw a traveling show here in Philly a few weeks ago... dh and I have seen this show 3 times, dd has seen it once, but my poor mama has never seen it... and we can't let her be deprived!!

after Cirque-- back to AKL and hit the sack!!!

Sunday, Nov, 30

8:am Boma for Breakfast (8 am is sleeping in for us...we all usually get up at 6:30!!)
head to DHS, I haven't been able to ride TOT in more than 5 years, and am seriously looking forward to my “tickle hill” ride, as is my swing loving dd!! Dh is planning on bringing a soft ball (a ball that is soft, not used for playing softball) to demonstrate some physics law to DD... gotta make everything educational-- she's going to be missing 4 days of Kindergarten for this trip!!!
Lunch will be a snack or a shared CS pizza or something.. depends on what part of the park we are in
Stay in DHS play and play
4:30 ADR at 50's Prime Time Cafe! Never been here before..but hear it's fun, so we're excited!!
We'll play some more and then catch the Osborne lights and also Fantasmic!! We'll see if we can get in on the early show.. but no sweat if we can't
Then it's back to the hotel to totally crash--

We're doing DHS this way because A) that's how our ADRs worked out, and B) this is my least favorite park, but dd and my mom haven't seen it before, we'll take our time, and do our favorite things-- tot, Muppet 3d, and try for the Toy Story ride. Catch some shows... DD doesn't really watch tv, so most of the characters from playhouse disney are unknown to her... except for little Einsteins

Monday, Dec. 1

8:10 ADR at Donald's Safari Breakfast (tusker house)
We'll then spend the day at AK, till a little after lunch (which will be probably Flame Tree... we're planning to stick near Africa that day and do the other parts another day)
Then back to the hotel to rest up for dinners

I say “Dinners” plural, because this is the only night we are splitting up! I have told you that we are celebrating our 10th anniversary, so DH and I have ADRs at Narcoosee's, while DD and my mom will be dining at 1900 Park Fare-- our ADRs are at the same time, conveniently, and we will travel over together... I'm contemplating going early and doing a photo shoot, since we'll be dressed up, but we'll see

There is EMH at MK that night, and hopefully dh and I will make use of it... dd can come with my mom too, but I think she'll have a really hard time leaving... and that will be stressful for both of them... we have another late night at MK soon anyway

Tuesday Dec. 2
This day got totally changed today because of finding out that they don't do lunch at the Garden Grill anymore but I think we'll be happy...

EMH this morning at Epcot, so off we go... have breakfast in The Land... whatever that food court is called (unless I can snag an Akershus breakfast-- I'm stalking WDWdine!!)
Play in Future World all morning. Make sure to hit Soarin and Test Track.. but also spend time in Innoventions... that's where we got our dream Fast Passes in October
11:35 ADR at Coral Reef (since we couldn't do the land, we'll do the sea!! DD will LOVE seeing the fish!!)

Maybe some more Future world, then back to the hotel for resting and pool time
4:50 ADR Akershus-- then monorail to MK for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!! (If we can get an Akershus breakfast, we'll cancel this, and do a quicker dinner at MK, unless we can get into Tony's-- which we adore!!)

Play at the party till we drop, then back to AKL to drop!!


Wednesday, Dec. 3
DH and DD have ADR at Boma at 7:55, then they are going to GF to put my pirate princess on a cruise looking for treasure at 9:30!!

Mom and I are going to grab a bite to eat, and then zoom over to EPCOT for the Yuletide Fantasy tour at 8:45 (we are big on xmas decorations, and can't wait for this tour!!)

DD gets lunch on her cruise (crustables and something)
Dh will grab lunch somewhere
mom and I will grab lunch somewhere (I have this part really well planned, don't you think?)

We'll meet at AK for the afternoon
4:45 ADR Yak and Yeti
EMH at AK so we'll probably stay till closing. We LOVE AK!!!

Thursday, Dec.4
8:25 ADR Chef Mickey (stalking WDWDine for CRT though!!)
Monorail to MK... play and play
Lunch CS, probably Columbia Harbour house...
Back to AKL for resting and pool,
then ??? we were going to do Hoop Dee Doo, but dd wouldn't appreciate it as much as if we waited, so we canceled... now I'm stalking for a CRT, or we'll just do whatever we feel like (maybe mom and I will hit dtd for some shopping!!)
Friday Dec.5
Breakfast probably at Mara, stalking for CRT
then to MK!! or AK, depending on what we want to do...
CS lunch
hotel for resting and maybe pool (actually, we could do breakfast, and pool, and then go somewhere... nice unplanned morning!!)
4:45 ADR Tappan Edo (dd-the picky eater-- requested hibachi--- she will eat white rice and nothing else, but it was one of her few requests for meals... so off we go!!)
We'll stick around-- listen to a bit of the Candlelight thingy, and catch Illuminations. Walk around slowly back to the bus... enjoying our last night

Saturday, Dec.6 time to go home... but maybe a little playtime? Or shopping?
8:00ADR at Boma...
then who knows...
Flight leaves MCO at 5:15, so probably pick up DME at2pm...


Then we have a day to recover, and DH goes back to work, DD goes back to school, and I go back to the real world.... kicking and screaming.... and probably planning a mama dd trip at the end of the school year, or right before school starts NEXT year

[Polkadotmama]

So my big questions is about DDP... We keep crunching the numbers, and we could do the deluxe plan, and not worry about anything, but I can't tell if we have too many CS meals to make the Deluxe plan worth it.... I'd love to hear thoughts... so would dh... we have never done a dining plan... and it seems like SUCH a big cost up front... (of course, we used cloth diapers too... and that was a big up front cost-- and saved us a bundle in the end (hee hee) oooohh... with the $$ we saved 4 years ago, we can do the DDP!!!) but seriously... any thoughts and suggestions are welcomed!!! I have lots of time to make changes

[mcc0313]

What a great trip you have planned...