Chapter 2 - Our Plans (And a few concerns…)
Wow - only 5 days to go!
I have been so busy these past few days (and will be for the rest of this week) that I just know time is going to fly by. A few of my aforementioned concerns have been eliminated - the foremost of which was a garage sale I was having. I had not hosted a garage sale by myself before, so I was kind of stressed and worried about it. Well, the sale has come and gone and was quite a success. The clean-up from the sale is even done, and having made a trip to Goodwill this morning to drop off the remnants I had left, I can officially say the garage sale is a wrap. I can also officially say I will not be having another one for at least several years. Whew - glad that’s over!
Another concern I had (and still have, to an extent) was the recent string of hurricanes that have hit Florida. I was getting more and more alarmed by Ivan, but as of now, it seems that it will miss Orlando. I am still keeping a close eye on it, and am still worried for those who are in its path, but my worries of it canceling/severely affecting part of my vacation have diminished to a soft whisper.
Remaining concerns? Our dog. We have an 8 month old puppy that we will not be taking with us on this trip. I am going to miss him very, very much. My sister is going to try to take care of him at her house, for convenience sake. He very easily adapts to change, though he can be a handful at times. He does seem to love my sister, and is very familiar with her. She is a very dog-friendly person herself, and in lieu of children she has 3 very large dogs. Considering my dog is a 14 lb terrier/chihuahua mix, I do worry about him getting along with the other dogs. He’s met 2 of them before and didn’t seem to have any problems. My sister and I will do a test run within the next few days, where I take him to her house and have him mingle with all 3 dogs in their territory. I have my fingers crossed that it will go well, as I know it will be much less of an inconvenience for her to take care of him at her home instead of mine. I will be calling home often to check on him, and I trust my sister to take good care of him. I just hope the test run goes well, it will ease all of our minds.
To add to the mix, our washing machine broke down last week. It was old to begin with, having come with the house when we bought it, and was standing on its last leg anyway. Then one day I was doing a load of towels and the water just started pouring out the bottom of the machine.
The drum will not hold any water at all. We’ve decided just to buy a new washer and dryer as it was pretty much time for that anyway. However, we’ve decided to wait until we get back from vacation to make that purchase. We’ll need to clean out the basement before I can have a store deliver the new machines, and there’s no time for that before we leave. So to the Laundromat I go. It’s especially hard when you are planning on packing for a two week trip. I want to wash everything last minute so that we have the most amount of clean clothes to pack as possible. But, when that involves packing up the car and driving to the Laundromat, it’s a little more difficult. Chris and I spent the morning there today as we had both run out of clothes since the washer broke. I have a final visit planned for Friday when I will wash any last minute stuff for our trip. I told Chris that between now and the day we leave, he needs to pick out clothes he is not packing for the trip and only wear those. Needless to say, we’re both looking like bums lately, but at least that means we’ll have our good clothes clean for our trip!
Here’s a wrap-up of day to day to-do lists from now until we leave. I haven’t included everything, but you get the idea:
Today (Monday)
Drop off donations at Goodwill (rummage sale leftovers)
Laundromat
Get dog’s nails clipped
Work on organization (a huge project I started that eventually led to the garage sale. I’m going through and sorting every single thing we own and organizing it all before I put it back. I’ve named the project “a place for everything and everything in its place,” as that was the goal. So far, it has been turning out beautifully. I just have a bit more to do which I’d like to finish before we leave).
Tuesday
Calling this day my WDW planning day
Confirm all priority seatings
Confirm all hotel ressies
Create our trip binder, to include the following:
Print up all Mapquest directions needed for the trip
Print our priority seating schedule with all confirmation #s
Print up our complete itinerary, including all park hours, fireworks and parade times
Create budget sheets so we stay on track with our spending
Create activity list (list of extra things to try when the time presents itself, for example renting water mice, horseback riding, resort hop, etc. Just to make sure we don’t forget anything)
Print up care sheets for my sister for the dog (includes feeding schedule, vet numbers, etc)
Print contact sheets to give to family (all hotel/cell numbers we can be reached at should anything happen)
Wednesday
Help out a friend with something in the a.m.
Create packing list
Check bills that may come due while we’re gone and pay them
Work on organization project
Thursday
Shop for all items needed for trip/travel (the fun part!) including:
Toiletries
Camcorder tapes, camera batteries
Travel size items
Purchase extra dog food, treats and toys to give to my sister for while we’re gone
Friday
Final trip to Laundromat
Thoroughly clean house
Begin packing
Saturday
Help out a friend in the a.m.
Pack everything but the necessities we’ll be using before we leave
Shower in the afternoon or evening (as I will not feel up to it when Chris wakes me up at 3:00 a.m. to leave on Sunday morning!
)
Water my plants
Empty anything perishable from refrigerator
Take out the garbage at night
Check thermostat on house
Choose which CD’s to bring and put them in the car
Return library books that will become overdue while we’re gone
Sunday
Leave for WDW!!!
Those are the main things I had on my mind. As this week is progressing, I am getting more and more accomplished and feel more like I’m ready for vacation.
I’ll have at least one more chapter in this pre-trip report, and that will include our plans for while at WDW. I hope to have that up sometime in the next few days. Thanks for reading!
About This Page: This is a discussion on The Adventures of Princess and Toad: WDW 9/20 - 10/1 Pre-Trip Report Completed on 9/17/04 within the Sharing the Adventure: Disney World Trip Reports, part of the PassPorter Community - Boards & Forums on Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel; The Adventures of Princess and Toad - Saratoga Springs Resort (Sept 20th to Oct 1st)
Characters:
DH (Chris) 29 years ...
In any case, he came up with the names for an old email address we had and they’ve kind of stuck with us. 
I hate waiting for luggage, being restricted in how much I can bring, lines at the airport, and the fact that we can’t leave on our last day whenever we want. Plus, Chris and I actually enjoy road trips. We pack the car with as much stuff as we want, load up on our best CD’s and make up silly road trip games to pass the time. We normally get to Macon, GA on our first day, then arrive in WDW around lunchtime on the second day. The drive actually goes by pretty fast. And since this is our 3rd time journeying together to WDW by car, we pretty much have it down to a science. And we get excited about the journey, too.
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for the tip!! 
Have a great vacation 
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