The "purely out of jealousy trip" Pre-trip Mousfest report UPDATE 3 more sleeps About This Page:

[disneyknut]

Okay, I will admit it.. I planned this trip purely out of jealousy.. Jealous of everyone going to Mousefest, jealous of all of the people getting to meet, and most of all jealous because I have never seen Osborne lights.. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

I was really green with envy when I kept seeing the list of Passporters going to Mousefest.. I have only met a handful of Passporters & have always wanted to meet more.. so what better place than Mousefest ( not to mention getting to meet Alexander Marx .. oh yeah & his parents too!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img])

Fortunately I am married to a bigger WDW-aholic than I am ( yet he rarely frequents the boards [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]) it takes little to no convincing Jim that we need a trip to WDW..

A quick check of the calendar & Dec 3rd was his weekend off from work ( he works every other weekend) so it was possible.. we tentatively set the dates for Dec 1 to Dec 6. but there were several obstacles..
1. Checking USAir the airfare was over $200 per person.. there was no way we could afford that.
2. Then his boss dropped a bombshell.. no one was allowed to take any vacation time in the month of December.. AARGH!!!! Okay.. still workable.. the hospital where he works makes you use your holiday time off within 30 days of the holiday.. it is not allowed to accumulate.. so he would have Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years (3 days) to use on vacation. He would use Thursday, Friday & Monday as his holiday days & then work night shift Tuesday.. or he would call in sick on Tuesday..
3. In the beginning of August Jim was hospitalized & had to have his gall bladder removed which took most of his sick days.. still do-able.. we just had to come back early Tuesday & he'd go into work nightshift...

Then our luck began to change.. When Jim took his 'go back to work' form to his boss she remarked at how he would need a vacation after being sick & he casually mentioned that he would love to be able to go to WDW in December & she immediately brought out her scheduling book & worked it out the same way we did above ( using holiday days) & 1 vacation day on Tuesday...

Airfare was still high on USAir so I figured we'd just wait until Southwest released their rates.. But as fate would have it ( & me being anal about getting a good deal) I was checking the USair web site for prices one morning in late August & decided to change the date from Dec 1st to Nov 30.. Well, imagine my surprise when the airfare dropped to $116.90 (with tax.. base price was $91.16) how could you beat that??? I immediately booked it & then told Jim he had to re-arrage his work schedule.. FYI when I checked the web site later that afternoon the airfare price was up to $196 again.. so boy did we luck out!!

Jim got the green light from his boss to use 2 vacation days..

We now had to decide where to stay.. we loved POR so much our last trip in May that there was really no question that we were going back.. I booked with the AP best rate program & our room was set...

Okay.. I then checked into all of the Passporter meets & knew I wanted to attend as many as possible so I also bought our MVMCP tickets for 12/1 as well.. It was a blast RSVP'ing in all of the meets threads.

Jim hates making ADR's & prefers to wing it but I knew this was going to be a busy time at WDW & I wanted a couple set meal plans...

We asked each kid where they would love to eat ( & Jim & I chose as well) Jamie chose Teppanyaki (his all time favorite WDW restaurant), Brendan choose CP for breakfast, Shelby choose WCC & Jim chose Chef Mickey for breakfast.. I wanted to go to 1900 park fare but got outvoted.. so my fave wasn't accomodated.. no biggie!! I like everyone elses choices..We had a hard time getting an ADR for WCC& had to settle for 8:00pm

Here is our very tentative itinerary.. we are more 'fly by the seat of your pants' type people & never follow an itinerary.. Ones marked with an * are definites on our itinerary..

Wed 11/30
Flight out of Pittsburgh at 7:30AM.. (which means getting up at 3:30am)
arrive MCO 9:45am
get our rental car ( love Emerald Aisle at National) & either go to MGM for the afternoon ( want to get a head start on the trasure hunt) or check in at POR
have some lunch..
MGM afternoon
back to resort, relax
*Osborne lights meet, evening
*after lights go to MK for EMH..
have a late counter service dinner at MK??

Thursday, 12/1
*7am Chef Mickey breakfast
* morning & afternoon at MK
back to resort, swim & rest for BIG evening
*grab a ride buddy meet
*MVMCP PP meet

Fri 12/2
*EMH at MK
*Parade taping (hopefully i'll get my confirmation e-mail soon, if not I'll use my AP)
*late breakfast at CP 10:25am
outlet shopping in afternoon
dinner at POR food court
Epcot evening for Candelight processional
*PI passporter meet
Sat 12/3
Breakfast at resort
*EMH at AK
*Mega Mousefest meet I'll be there!!!
our evening plans are up in the air depending on how tired everyone is we might go to Epcot or MK

Sun 12/4
this is our no set plans day.. we will probably wing it & o to any park we feel we have'nt been to enough
*eve EMH at MGM
Mon 12/5
Very light breakfast @ resort
*EMH at Epcot
*Teppanyaki for lunch
back to resort
*dinner at WCC at 8pm
Tues 12/6
SAD DAY... last day
EMH @ MGM
park hop
plane leaves Orlando at 5:30pm...
touchdown PIA


A few weeks ago I found out that several other families from our school (& casual friends) of ours will be at WDW at the same time ( one family at the same resort) & we might hook up together while down there... I do think they are going to try to go to the parade taping AND Mousfest.

coming up: "WE ONLY NEED 2 SUITCASES!!" aka the great packing debate in the Smith household [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[iamgrumpy]

Ohhh can't wait to read more! I am so jealous too of all y'all going down next week, if i could have afforded it I would have gone but next year!

Amy

[DopeyGirl]

Looks like you have the same plan for the 4th as we do!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]

Looking forward to meeting all of you guys Ann!!!

[Annabel]

A great start, it sounds like it's all coming together nicely [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/thewave.gif[/img] Looking forward to reading more [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[jakenjess]

I'm glad everything worked out for you. Sounds like a wonderful trip!

[mestitch]

I'm glad that you were able to make things work out for your trip!!! Your plans look great! Can't wait to hear about "the great packing debate" [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/roflmao.gif[/img]

[debsta922]

I can relate to the jealousy factor 100%! congratulations on your trip!...

[DrDolphin]

Sounds like you were MEANT to be at Mousefest!! I can't wait to meet you!!

[whoSEZ]

Great deal on airfare, Ann!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/waytogo.gif[/img] More, please. [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[zacksmom_1993]

Can't wait to meet you and your family Ann! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img]

Karen

[Caldercup]

Wow - that was some finagling you had to do to get the vacation dates to work out. Terrific job. And good for you on getting the dip in prices for your airfare!

Can't wait to meet you in person!
Eileen

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Ann [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/zwavin.gif[/img] You guys are going to have a great time [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]

[disneyknut]

The Great packing debate

Jim & I disagree very strongly over our packing for a trip.. his theory is less is more & take only what you need. I want to be covered for any situation..

We started packing for this trip this past Saturday & after I filled up both suitcases and still needed to pack more clothes ( I was going on the layer, layer clothes theory for December)

I have quite a few odds & ends I'm taking for this trip that weren't packed yet, so I knew I would need more suitcase room thus started the great packing debate

Ann: Jim, I need you to get me a third suitcase from the attic.
Jim: You don't need another suitcase, take some of the clothes out of the other two
Ann: What do you want me to take out, underwear? ( yes sarcasm is always brought into our debates)
Jim: No, but you are going to buy T-shirts at WDW, why do you need to take more?
Ann: But I'll need T's for the cooler evenings, tanks wont do
Jim: Why are you taking 14 tanks then?
Ann: I might want to change in the middle of the day
Jim: We can only fit 2 suticases in the car.. if you want to use Emerald aisle, we have to take what car is available
Ann: But, but.... the kids can hold a suitcase near their legs in the backseat..
Jim: No they can't, hey we can change our car rental to a van & you can not use emerald aisle & wait in the car rental line
Ann: but but... ( can you see i'm losing here)
Jim: [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]
Ann: Okay, i'll consolidate, get out the space saver bags..

FYI I did get everything I wanted into 2 large suitcases & I still have some room to spare.. That's not too bad for 5 people..
I could not see paying more $$ for a van AND missing out on the emerald aisle...

[coming up: The hectic week before a daily report [/b]

[disneyknut]

We are now 7 days from our trip so I thought I would give you a daily update..

First off I forgot to mention that I colored my (very) gray hair on Sunday.. I colored it with Berrywood which is my favorite haircolor of all time.. it is a very pretty reddish purple.. BUT.. I didn't take into account that all of my gray's would color a lot different than the rest of my hair [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/foreheadslap.gif[/img] & I'm a hairdresser.. I did my usual 15 minutes on gray, 10 on the rest of the head & when I rinsed it out I got the shock of my life.. my gray area ( directly in the front) was PINK-PURPLE!!! [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img] The very next day at work several of the kids commented on my pink hair [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Oh well, a good thing I am a hairdresser as I know a couple of washings will tone it down & I can always add a non-peroxide color over top as well..
Here is an up close photo of the color..



you can see where the purple really picked up at the front...Oh well.. as I learned in Cosmetology school.. it's only hair!

it doesn't look too bad as a whole ( sorry for the UGLY photo.. I handed the camera to Shelby & said shoot!!)


This week has been hectic at work as our principal ( my boss) is having surgery today for a hernia.. But the good news is my co-worker Joan is back after being out the entire year so far from back surgery!! I love her yto death so it was great to have her back!!

Today I said goodbye & "see you soon" to a boy who is leaving for WDW on Monday.. i'm sure we'll run into them at some point down in the world..

Jamie didn't have basketball practice so we were able to relax all evening before turkey day.. Jim was scheduled to work11p to 7am tonight but the hospital census is low so they called him off tonight.. good thing as it has been snowing steadily ever since 4pm... we are expected to get 2-3 inches of the white stuff tonight..

tomorrow we are planning on staying home & relaxing with just the 5 of us.. I did promise my bro & SIL that we would stop by their house that evening for dessert...

Oh.. another thing I'm very anal about is checking the weather in Orlando EVERY day before our trip..not only on Accuweather but also weatherchannel.com. Even tho I must say we have been extremely fortunate in that we NEVER have bad weather when we go to WDW.. We've been there in mid Frbruary , January, March & it's always in the high 80's or even 90's.

According to weather channel (up to Fri) it is going to be 78-79 with scattered showers

Accuweather has showers on Wednesday only with temps of 78-79 ( I can live with that) & lows in the mid 50's at night.. I'll keep updating here if things change (& we know how unpredictable Orlando weather is )

coming up: T minus 6 & counting

[Annabel]

I love the color of your hair Ann, I frequently have purple hair as it's my favorite color [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] Only a week to go, it's coming up fast [img]/ubb/images/graemlins/woot.gif[/img]