Princess Becca's Birthday Bash (11/6-11/15)- Update (11/26)- Day 1, Part 2 About This Page:

[Mariposa]

Princess Becca’s Birthday Bash- Pre-Trip Report

People going on the trip:
Me- 27 year old Mom, been to Disney many times
Karl- 29 year old Dad, my DFiance, been to WDW once and was properly Disneyfied before we even arrived there
DD- 7 years old, has NO clue we’re going, thinks we’re leaving tomorrow morning for a 9 day trip to Savannah, GA (our second favorite place to visit), never been to Disney

Our Journey:
Leaving November 6th on foot, planning to arrive at beginning of December.
Actually, we’re leaving Nov. 6th, driving down and arriving in Orlando by 3:00 pm.

Our Lodging:
Pop Century- requested non-smoking, high floor, 70’s or 50’s—we’ll see how that goes.

Special Plans:
Well, taking Becca will be special, since she’s never been.. and it’s for her birthday (which isn’t until the 29th, so we’re going a couple weeks early)—but the only ‘special’ stuff we have planned is breakfast at CRT on our last day and PSB a few days before that.

Okay, so here’s what’s what…

We’ve been planning this trip for about 3 years now, but it kept getting put off.. DFiance switched jobs, I decided to go back to college full time..etc. We’ve been planning this particular incarnation of the trip since February of this year. At first, keeping it a secret from Becca wasn’t about making it a surprise, we were just doing it because we didn’t want her to get her hopes up and then find out we had to cancel again. Well, as the dates kept creeping closer and closer and it looked like this trip would stick, we made the decision to just not tell her. Hee! It’s been so much fun! I’ve been able to ask her all about what she wants to do there, though, because I told her that she and I were going to take Dad on a surprise trip for HIS birthday in April. Yep, we’re way sneaky over here in the Princess Becca household. I’ve gone way overboard preparing for this trip. No really. I changed ADRs about 2 million times, I changed from a room-only reservation to a BRP reservation to a package w/dining plan reservation, I made Becca t-shirts—1 for EACH DAY (each with a different design), I made CM appreciation cards, I decorated bottles of bubbles for Becca to hand out to bored kids in lines, I designed Mousekeeping envelopes.. I’m like a one woman travel agency/craft fair. I think I’ve scarred DFiance for life by making him help with the crafts, but he pretends to take it all in stride at least. So, that’s the general prep stuff..

I’ll end this ridiculously long post now (I can hear you all thanking me) and will continue on with the pre-trip in another post on this thread. I hope ya’ll will keep reading. I promise that what I lack in writing ability I’ll make up for with an impressively large word count. (translated to mean: bad writer, long winded)

[KandJluvdisney]

great start alicia - keep it coming

[lauren-roxy]

I can't wait to hear all about your trip Alicia!!

[lonereb]

Sounds like a great time. I like all the craft ideas. Now I have to get busy. Have a wonderful time. Congrats on keeping it a secret from Becca.

[Joy J]

Your plans sound wonderful to me. Have a wonderful trip!

Joy

[Tink and co.]

Can't wait to hear all about it! Don't forget the pictures too! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[DrDolphin]

I can not wait to read more about this trip!!! HUrry back!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Alicia [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] Have a great time [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/bye.gif[/img]

[PrincessSharon]

[img]/ubb/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] I can't wait to hear about it!

[Mariposa]

Adventurers:
Me- Alicia- 27 year old Disneyfanatic, loving Mom and fiancé, full-time student, lazy housekeeper, and pet owner
DFiance- Karl- 29 year old Disney lover, involved and loving Dad, sweetheart of a guy, capable of napping standing up, babies our kitties as much as he does our daughter
DD- Becca- 7, loud, funny, cute, hyper, vaguely whiny, Princess crazed.. my baby girl. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/love.gif[/img]

This was DD’s first trip to Disney World and it was for her birthday AND a surprise. Very cool. And this is the trip report telling about all (or most at least) of our (mis-)adventures. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

11/05- The day before..
So, Saturday finally arrives and I can start really getting ready for the trip. Karl and I get up at 6:00 a.m. so that he can get ready for work and I can wake up Becca. Before we really get started we realize that in 24 hours we’ll be getting up to leave for Disney World. Hee! This starts a round of giggling and jumping up and down. We manage to calm ourselves sufficiently and Karl hops in the shower while I go to rouse the child. She sleeps like the dead, so this takes a bit. I finally coax her out of the bed with the reminder that we need to go pick up the rental car for our ‘trip to Savannah’ tomorrow. She gets herself moving at the sound of that—this kid LOVES rental cars.. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] She’s always almost as excited about getting the rental car as she is about the trip. (Hey, she doesn’t know we’re going to Disney yet.)

We’re up and ready and out the door at about 7:10. I’m vaguely worried about Karl getting to work by 8:30 like he’s supposed to, but that turns out to be a non-issue. We get to the Budget office about 7:20 and there’s no one there but a couple of guys waiting to rent a van. Hmmm.. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] The place is supposed to be open at 7:30, so I get a little nervous at 7:28 when no one’s shown up yet. At exactly 7:30 the guy comes pulling in, radio blaring, hops out of his sports car with his shirt unbuttoned and untucked, looking as much like a walking hang-over as a person could possibly look. Seriously, this guy was an ad for Excedrin. So, I got more nervous. We waited while he rented the two guys their van.. and wandered around the computer store that shares the building with the car rental place..?? [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] They’re not even next door or anything—it’s one big room. Seemed odd, but at least it gave us something to do for a few minutes. We head over to the desk to rent the car and our new best friend (we shall call him Clubby McPartyPants) gives me a quick lesson on judging people by how hard they partied the night before. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] He very efficiently brings up our rental info, gives us an additional discount related to where Karl works, and gives us a free 2 level upgrade. Why, thanks, Clubby! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Really nice guy. We end up with a gold-ish color Ford Taurus that worked wonderfully for us the whole trip.

Becca and I take off, Karl goes to work, etc. Becca and I arrive home, pick up the dog, and take her to the vet’s to be boarded. My dog, Dita Dog (named after Perdita- not a Dalmation, but a black and white spotted rat terrier/something mix), HATES rides in the car. She’s also the world’s most submissive dog—so when I go to pick her up and put her in the car she just lays her whole 24 lbs on the ground, rolls on her back, and proceeds to shake and whine. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zcry.gif[/img] I always wind up half-crying when I take her to the vet because she’s just so pitiful. Anyway, we manage to get her in the car and Becca sits in the back with her to comfort her. We arrive at the vet without her throwing up (the dog, not Becca- although she didn’t throw up, either [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img] ), which is unusual—like I said, she REALLY hates car rides—and check her in. When it comes time to give her to the vet tech she just shakes a little and gives me a look like I’ve betrayed her. Our vet’s office is great and I know she’ll be fine with them, but it makes me feel bad. I make a mental note to bring her back a souvenir. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

After that, Becca and I do laundry. I’ll spare you the recount of all that. I was bored doing it, so I can’t imagine how bored you’d be reading about me doing it. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img]

Later in the day my DSis comes by to take DD to the movies.. We pre-planned this so I’d have time to do some stuff that I couldn’t work on with Becca around.. matching the shirts I made her to the shorts I bought, finishing her birthday button and the Mousekeeping envelopes, etc. They go to see Chicken Little and when they return Becca reports that it was the best movie ever. Of course, every new movie she sees is the best movie ever- for about a week. DSis reports that it was “cute.” While they were gone I got virtually nothing done, so everything will have to happen once DFiance gets home around 7:30.

Flash forward to about 10 p.m… We’ve finally gotten Becca asleep (she was excited about the ‘Savannah trip’ so she fought going to bed). We can hear her coughing a little in her sleep and comment to one another that we also heard her sniffling earlier. We hope she’s not getting sick (yeah, remember this for later [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/eek.gif[/img] ). I’ve been battling a sinus/allergy thing for a week or so and we begin to think she may have the same thing. We figure that normally this kind of thing only lasts a day or two with her, so we’ll just keep an eye on it. Anyway.. after all that we begin packing and getting ready in earnest. We had decided to put balloons (we bought a little helium tank with Princess birthday balloons and what-not), her invitation I made, a plush Princess Minnie Mouse, and the first shirt I made her (also with Minnie Mouse on it) in a box for her to open. Well, we had the box from a microwave we’d recently bought, so I wrapped that as best I could in brown paper and put all the surprise stuff in it. Then we pack everything else—including 10 days worth of clothes which we put in a giant Tupperware storage box. We load everything up into the car and try to go to sleep. Karl got to sleep about 1:00 or so.. I finally passed out about 2:30. Oh well, there’ll be time to sleep later, right? Heh. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/ukid.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[lauren-roxy]

Great update!!! I hope Becca doens't get sick on her trip, but it certainly is sounding that way. Can't wait to hear about her reaction to the surprise!!!

[simbarel]

Glad Mr. Hangoverpants got you into a good car! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] I'm also looking forward to the surprise! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zread.gif[/img]

[DrDolphin]

Sounds like you got a great car -- but the coughing thing has me worried... hurry back!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great update [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] More please [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[HueyDeweyandLouiesMom]

Oh No! Sniffles and a cough??? I hope all turns out ok...can't wait to read more!