There's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it..updated 11/11 About This Page:

[Lemap760]

There's a 104 days of Summer Vacation,
And school comes along just to end it.

Disney World Trip – August 24 – 30, 2009

The title of this trip report comes from the title song of Phineas and Ferb, Andrew’s favorite show. It is also appropriate because school starts the day we come back. So the line “school comes along just to end it” hits close to home. When I planned this trip I had no idea when school was starting (he’s starting 1st grade in a new school and they didn’t have their calendar out yet). It’s a good thing the kids don’t do much the first week of school because Andrew will be one tired puppy.

When I thought of the title for this trip report I actually sat down to see how long 104 days was. Well, Phineas and Ferb have one long summer vacation. Andrew’s was only 88 days and he was done on June 4.

Last summer I tried to plan out our day too much. What park we would go to in the morning, what park in the afternoon, ADRs planned every day. Basically this all blew up in my face. Planning is for some people, but apparently not for us. The only plans in place are which park to go to on what day (following the advice of Touring Plans) and the table service ADRs that I made for free dining. The rest of the time is completely up in the air. I also learned that park hopping is not for us, so we’ll be spending the day at one park only.

That being said, there is no itinerary for you all to read. Aren’t you lucky? For those of you that like that sort of thing, feel free to make an itinerary for us in your head. I waive the right to follow any itinerary plans sent to me.

I will say that I do plan on doing the few things we didn’t get to do last summer which caused a couple of meltdowns. I must make time to play with the interactive games in Spaceship Earth. Last year we hit this right at closing time and they kicked us out. I have to take Andrew to get his haircut at the Barbershop in the MK. Last year I didn’t see the point of getting his hair done with it pouring outside (thanks to a lady named Faye). I won the bad mommy of year award from DS on that one. The last thing I have to find the time for is to go to Tom Sawyer Island. DS has the Disney Bear book and noticed that we didn’t go to “that place” (meaning TSI).

After last summer when we came back I had sworn I wasn’t taking this child to Disney ever again. This had a lot to do with the meltdown in the Orlando airport. Throughout the next several months things would come along to change my mind. After a couple of months I took Andrew to a local amusement park for their Halloween festivities. My well behaved boy was back and we had no problems.

Another couple of months went by and I started thinking that I should take him back to Disney while I still could and he still wanted to hang out with me. Then the decision was finally made when I received one of those wonderful pin codes giving me 40% off. How could I refuse? Then free dining came out and I switched from my room only discount to the free dining trip.

I decided I wanted to keep this a secret from Andrew since I blew the secret last year. This kid must have some kind of Disney sixth sense. I hadn’t even made my mind up about going again and he started asking to go back. Andrew got out of bed one night and started shouting at the top of the stairs.
DS: “MoooooM” Then he said something I couldn’t understand because I wasn’t really listening and watching TV. I finally went to the stairs to see what he wanted.
Me: “What”
DS: “When are we going back to Disney?”
Me: “I don’t know” (and I didn’t really know at this point)
DS: “Well, can we make a Mickey calendar?”
Me: “A What?”
DS: “You know. A Mickey calendar that shows when we’re going back to Disney World.”
Me: “It’s kind of hard to make a calendar when you don’t know when you’re going to be doing something. Now get back to bed. We’re not going anywhere until you learn to go to sleep good.”

With that last statement Andrew went right to sleep that night.
The next night at dinner I decided to have a little fun with him.
Me: “What was with all the questions about Disney last night?”
DS: “I don’t know. I just want to go back.”
Me: “What would we eat while we’re there?”
DS: “Remember last time we ordered a pizza? We could order another one.”
Me: “What would we eat once that was gone?”
DS: “Well, we could get a really, really, really, really big ice cream sundae with lots and lots of cherries.” (This is even funnier because we have never ordered ice cream anywhere on Disney property. Just ice cream from a cart)
Me: “What would we do there?”
DS: “We can swim in the pool.”
Me: “We can do that at home.”
DS: “We can go on all the rides.”
Me: “How would we get there?”
DS: “IN A AIRPLANE” (said loudly and in a very sarcastic “duh” kind of voice)
Me: “Who’s paying?”
DS: “You are.”

With that last statement I dropped the conversation.

I also decided to get creative and make Andrew a T-shirt for our departure day. I was trying to come up with something creative and unique when the idea for Phineas and Ferb hit me. It’s Andrew’s favorite show (and I admit to liking it too). For those who aren’t familiar with P&F, at the beginning of every episode Phineas gets a brain storm idea and says to his brother “Ferb, I know what were going to do today.” This was the front of the shirt and the back says “We’re going to Disney World”. The hardest part about this was finding clip art that I was happy with.

Front of shirt



Back of shirt



I’ve managed to keep this trip a secret for 8 months. The plan was to tell Andrew at the Passporter meet at Chevey’s in August. Thanks to my passporter pal Jeff “disney” here on the boards we have planned a great way to tell Andrew about the trip while playing a game at the meet. We’ll see how it goes. I plan on getting Andrew to the meet on the 15th by telling him we’re going to a “party”. And what a party it will be.

[Annheim]

Great Start. My DSs love P&F and so do I.

Annheim

[elisa1006]

Here's to hoping this trip is much smoother for you! Great shirt idea!

[KMB733]

Great Start! I love the back of the Tshirt but can't see the front of it.

[ArielsMomto2]

Love the back of the shirt. So glad you changed your mind about going back. I remember saying the same thing when we came back last year. I was not gonna take brats back to Disney. It's amazing how much better their behavior has become in the last year. We'll be there part of the time you are. We are there the 20th-28th. Maybe we'll run into each other. Looking forward to more. Hurry back.

[Cam22]

Great start! The shirt is adorable! I can't wait to hear how Andrew takes the surprise.

[Colexis Mom]

Great start! Love the shirt! The kids love P&F as well!!

[lyonmommy]

Our whole family P & F!!! What a clever idea for a shirt! We are planning a surprise trip for DS7 and DD4 Aug 27th - Sept 3. We haven't 100% decided how to tell them yet. Everything we come up with involves reading and DD4 can't read yet! We are thinking balloons...

Anyway - great start!

As DH and I are both teachers; we WISH there were 104 days of summer vacation......

[PamelaK]

We Phineas and Ferb also. That is such a cool idea for the tshirt. I love the title of your trip report.

[Nimros]

Great start - and great shirt. I'm excited to see how your surprise announcement works out.

[mcc0313]

Great start Pam...what a surprise this will be, love the shirt and I can't wait to hear about the big reveal. Can't wait to hear more...we will be there the same week so I will look out for you to say

[chezp]

Great start. Love the conversation! I can also only see the back of the T-shirt.

[Lemap760]

This is the front of the shirt for those who could only see the back of it.

[Colexis Mom]

Great shirt!!

[pparm]

Cool shirt! I can't wait to hear about the "reveal".

Paula