Healing at our Happy Place: making GOOD 2017 memories: Mar, May, Aug, Oct, Dec TRs (3/24 UPDATE)

[piglet1979]

I would be the type that would pull the trigger just to get to Disney sooner and then panic the whole day and make the rest of the family crazy. Just going to my daughters dance recital after she was in the city pageant just about did me in. Pageant was at 11 and we need to be at the recital by 1:30. It is at least a 30 minute drive maybe 45 depending on traffic. I was flipping out and hubby was "it will be fine." He even wanted to stop to get money out of an ATM. It was not my finest moment. I think there might have been some yelling involved.

I hope it all works out that you can get on the earlier flight. Being in Disney earlier would be awesome.

 

[kittylady1972]

I would be the type that would pull the trigger just to get to Disney sooner and then panic the whole day and make the rest of the family crazy. Just going to my daughters dance recital after she was in the city pageant just about did me in. Pageant was at 11 and we need to be at the recital by 1:30. It is at least a 30 minute drive maybe 45 depending on traffic. I was flipping out and hubby was "it will be fine." He even wanted to stop to get money out of an ATM. It was not my finest moment. I think there might have been some yelling involved.

I hope it all works out that you can get on the earlier flight. Being in Disney earlier would be awesome.

Yeah I'd be the calm one for sure and DH not so much. I'm not making the change quite yet.

 

[kittylady1972]

UPDATES UPDATES!

AUGUST UPDATE: Ok so the first update is for our AUGUST trip. We have a flight change, though it's not quite the one I wanted to do. DH says he's willing to try my plan but I'm not so sure. However I did find on Friday that there was a DIRECT flight leaving about 30 minutes later than our original flight...but put us into the airport 30 minutes earlier or so since there was no connection. So while our connecting flight was one we didn't have to change planes for at all, there was still the landing and takeoff which could have caused delays. Now we are flying direct and hopefuly there won't be any issues, but it still only gives us about an extra 30 minutes. It means we just *MIGHT* make our latest FP+ reservation that evening. It also saved me about $10 overall (SWA refund on 3 tickets) but cost me about 3000 extra SWA Rewards miles.

OCTOBER UPDATE: So there was a minor change to this one in that we FINALLY have flights booked back home! We have had our flight to Florida booked for a while on JetBlue, but have been stalking the return flight like crazy looking for it to drop. We have 2 friends flying the same flight down with us and also have been tracking the return flights. Well this weekend my friend let me know the flight back had dropped to about $112 (and we were targeting less than $120 for the return flight) and so we made the decision to just book it and so did they! We could probably have waited as I read somewhere that JB has some Sept deals on flights, but now we are done and I was able to use JB airline miles to book one ticket and pay cash for the other 4 tickets. I also worked with my friend this weekend on getting her My Disney Experience account and her family members added there and linked to me so I can make reservations for rides for them and she can see what I've done so far, like some of the dining. I hate that I can't go back and modify the dining "friends" unless I add a NAME to every single one of them, and since I can't do that yet it remains just my family and several unknown guests. That's something Disney should change, because there may be times that one or more members of the party don't have MDE accounts!

So those are my updates for now, but it's good to have them done and a little bit closer to planning out the trip AFTER our August trip. I still have one more family of 4 to get up and running completely on MDE (the mom has an account but I need her to make profiles for her husband and kids) and then we'll talk about our days and rides and all kids of fun stuff!

We've been doing 21 nights of Disney movies in honor of our upcoming trip so last week we watched The Incredibles (WED), The Jungle Book (the classic one) (THUR), Cars 3 (in a theater Friday night), Moana (Sat) and last night we stayed up late and didn't get to watch so we'll have to do a double-feature tonight I guess!

Kids can't wait for our trip and I'm still so thankful that even at this age they are excited about returning.

 

[KathyM2]

Way to go on getting a direct flight. That is a lot less stress and just a little earlier!

 

[xlsm]

experiencing Vero Beach for the first time

My maternal grandparents, who never went ANYWHERE, visited Vero Beach with friends when I was in high school. My grandma loved it so much, that even though I've never been there, it seems so special to me. Now, that's VB in general, not the DVC property, but I hope you have a wonderful visit there!!

then going home to pick up the kids and then back to attend a ceremony for my DH who is graduating from a 3-year program at work.

Busy, busy day! But congratulations to your DH!!

Dinner is at our resort at Citricos - a first for us but seemed like a good place to celebrate my husband's accomplishments.

I think that sounds perfect!

Check out of Vero Beach and head to the Kennedy Space Center for the day.

My DH wants to go to the space center so badly!! We will have to make the trip sooner rather than later.

So no big surprise, we already have some changes to the plan.

Oh no, that's what I get for getting behind!

I like the change to AKL!! I enjoyed it there so much. Their CL gets so many good reviews, I can't wait to hear how you like it.

Oh how I love the Muppets

The Muppets are my faaavorite. I'm a Fozzie Bear girl, personally.

Ok so my youngest son cracks me up with that face! This is a pretty good indication of each of the kids' personalities though.

I love that their personalities are shining through!!

Oh my gosh, this is so cute!! I love your daughter using her pigtails to match Pluto!

I purchase this brick in 1999 for our 1 year wedding anniversary as we spent it at Walt Disney World that year. It is looking a bit worn now and hard to read but it's still there and intact.

Aww!! We always wish we had our own brick. What a special memory for you all to have.

I'll tell you who didn't have fun...the kid sitting in front of us on the ride as you can see here:

Our next upcoming trip in October will be VERY different. There we'll be a party of 14-15 with some newbies with us where we'll be maximizing park time and ride time to try to fit in everything in a short timeframe. Sadly the fact that we are all staying at SOG is going to hamper my abilities to plan out FP+ reservations as well as I'd like to do so, but I'll do my best.

You are so brave going with such a large group. I don't think I could do it
My October dates are 10/14 - 21, do we overlap at all?

So many things to try that we haven't yet...and people can't understand why we keep going back?

Right?!? There is always something new!! I want to go back again before I even leave home for a trip, lol!


Your August trip sounds like it's shaping up to be so much fun!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Way to go on getting a direct flight. That is a lot less stress and just a little earlier!

Yes it will be nice...and I still haven't ruled out the earlier the direct flight which could be pushing it...but I'm up for it.

My maternal grandparents, who never went ANYWHERE, visited Vero Beach with friends when I was in high school. My grandma loved it so much, that even though I've never been there, it seems so special to me. Now, that's VB in general, not the DVC property, but I hope you have a wonderful visit there!!

I read nothing but wonderful things about it. My other fear is the NO SEEUM bugs biting us at night, and I have family members who are prone to bug bites so I'm still trying to figure that out.

My DH wants to go to the space center so badly!! We will have to make the trip sooner rather than later.

My youngest son has been wanting to go for a while so we are going to do our best to sqeeze it in this time.

I like the change to AKL!! I enjoyed it there so much. Their CL gets so many good reviews, I can't wait to hear how you like it.

I sure hope so. It should be a fun experience.

The Muppets are my faaavorite. I'm a Fozzie Bear girl, personally.

I love Kermit...and beaker!

Oh my gosh, this is so cute!! I love your daughter using her pigtails to match Pluto!

I LOVE that picture so much!

You are so brave going with such a large group. I don't think I could do it
My October dates are 10/14 - 21, do we overlap at all?

We are looking forward to this trip. We've done 10 people before so 15 will be a little bit of a challenge...and now it might be 17! Actually we will overlap...Oct. 18-23rd for us!

Right?!? There is always something new!! I want to go back again before I even leave home for a trip, lol!

Yes I love finding new-to-us things to do.

Your August trip sounds like it's shaping up to be so much fun!!!

I sure hope so as we really could use the fun.

 

[kittylady1972]

13 days, 10 hours, 20 minutes to go until wheels up!

Today is what is known as my "worst" day as far as chemotherapy cycles go. Unfortunately with trying to save leave at work and minimize time off, I still come in and in all honesty I'm used to "these" days now so I know what to expect. Basically I get aches that begin at my jaw and eventually encompass the rest of me, similar to the flu where I just don't want to be touched. It usually goes away within 2 days so I have learned to just deal with it. I'll most likely have a few other side effects for the next week (my taste buds get wonky, my lips get dry) but they will eventually subside as well. The good news is that by the time we take this trip I'll most likley be on an upswing.

My new mission is to buy a few more hats that I can wear because my hair is getting very, very thin. I've managed to keep probably about 50% of it, which is good, thanks to the cold cap treatments I'm doing but I can no longer get away with just pulling it back with a barette because the bald area on the top is pretty obvious. So bandanas it is for a while and in the Florida sun I"ll need some cute and lightweight caps, that hopefully I can also wear in the water at the beach and pool.

Despite all of this, overall I feel really good and that is what is most important. I'm so looking forward to this little trip! Really it's like 3 vacations coming up in just over a week. A week from Sunday, we will drive 7.5+ hours to NC to visit my dad. There is a possibility of having dinner with and formally meeting his girlfriend while there...but we'll see if that happens. I'll admit I'm not looking forward to that part, but it's something I know my dad would really like to happen. Sorry my mom has only been gone just over 6 months now and I'm not ready to share my dad with anyone else yet, but the girlfriend thing has been going on for a while and at some point my brother and I will have to get better about accepting it. We are working on that. Anyway while in NC, we plan to drive to SC to visit my mom's sister and spend some time with her and we are all planning on driving about an hour south to try to catch a good view of the eclipse that will happen on August 21st. Hopefully that wont' be nuts, as afterwards we'll be back in SC, then NC, and spend one more night with my dad. Tuesday we'll head back home around dinnertime.

Wednesday will be work in the morning, then the graduation ceremony/luncheon for my husband. When that's done, we'll head back home, grab our bags, change and head to the airport. I've kept our 5:55pm direct flight for now, and I guess I'm okay with that. Even arriving around 8:15pm will hopefully have us in the land o'mouse by 9:30pm or so because we won't be checking luggage and we can go directly to pick up our rental car and head out! Driving up the Grand Floridian at night won't have the same effect as during the day I would imagine, but that's okay.

I've continued to stalk the DVC website just in case another room opened up at GF for Friday night, but no such luck. I think we'll enjoy the club level at AK though, so that's okay. I also continue to stalk for December and so far that is also a no go on rooms. I know it's Pop Warner Football week before that but I'm hoping at some point I can book something at Disney that week. So far, the best I can find is booking TWO rooms at Pop Century or booking one room for 2 nights at Caribbean Beach, then another level room for a 3rd night at the same place. Crazy! Well I should say those are the best I can do at REASONABLY cheap rates.

Still plenty of time to get December worked out I suppose and at least October is booked and all we have to do next there is book the FP+ reservations...for about 15 people!!!

 

[MamaCoop]

I just caught up on your TR/PTR. Let me just say you are an amazing, brave woman. I am so sorry for all of the downs you have had in 2017. I am so happy that everything went well with your surgery and that you are doing much better!

We are from MD as well! We are about an hour east of Baltimore. Due to the crazy flight prices, we will be driving not flying (crazy I know!). If you are still going in December we will be there from the 1st to the 8th.

Sending you good thoughts and pixie dust today!

 

[xlsm]

I'm sorry the chemo is making you feel so icky today, and I hope it passes quickly. My mom had days like that, and I don't know how she kept up the energy to work. She has worked in the lab at the hospital for 30 years, and she's like the energizer bunny. Our October trip will celebrate about two and a half years post chemo and radiation. She amassed quite a collection of hats, headwraps, and scarves! She always tried to have some fun ones at work when she had young patients

We had to deal with the dating thing too. My grandpa ended up with a girlfriend within about the same timeframe as your dad, after my grandmother passed away. It was NOT easy for any of us, and it was so hard to be an adult about it, when we all wanted to rage and complain. But we knew that wasn't going to make anything better. I offer you lots of hugs as you navigate all of that as well!

I hope fast passes go smoothly for you for October!! I'm stressing about it a little, but only b/c my mom is a ride chicken. And even though I plan quite a bit, I also try to go with the flow as much as possible, and I don't think there's going to be much "go with the flow" about our Animal Kingdom day, because we will be slaves to Flight of Passage.
It would also be fun to say hi to you if we cross paths at all during our overlapping dates!

 

[kittylady1972]

I just caught up on your TR/PTR. Let me just say you are an amazing, brave woman. I am so sorry for all of the downs you have had in 2017. I am so happy that everything went well with your surgery and that you are doing much better!

We are from MD as well! We are about an hour east of Baltimore. Due to the crazy flight prices, we will be driving not flying (crazy I know!). If you are still going in December we will be there from the 1st to the 8th.

Sending you good thoughts and pixie dust today!

Thanks so much. Yeah we are really over 2017 already but we keep moving forward and keeping a positive attitude.

Cool another MDer here! We are about 20 minutes south of Baltimore and 15 minutes from the airport, which makes flying convenient. I usually prefer to drive to save the money, but this is a shorter trip for us and we need to make the most of it. I did have SW points to use because I applied for their CC to get some bonus points, so that helped. We do have plans to go in December as well but we'll see if we get it all worked out, and again we'll have to fly for that one also. Thanks for all of the good thoughts!

I'm sorry the chemo is making you feel so icky today, and I hope it passes quickly. My mom had days like that, and I don't know how she kept up the energy to work. She has worked in the lab at the hospital for 30 years, and she's like the energizer bunny. Our October trip will celebrate about two and a half years post chemo and radiation. She amassed quite a collection of hats, headwraps, and scarves! She always tried to have some fun ones at work when she had young patients

We had to deal with the dating thing too. My grandpa ended up with a girlfriend within about the same timeframe as your dad, after my grandmother passed away. It was NOT easy for any of us, and it was so hard to be an adult about it, when we all wanted to rage and complain. But we knew that wasn't going to make anything better. I offer you lots of hugs as you navigate all of that as well!

I hope fast passes go smoothly for you for October!! I'm stressing about it a little, but only b/c my mom is a ride chicken. And even though I plan quite a bit, I also try to go with the flow as much as possible, and I don't think there's going to be much "go with the flow" about our Animal Kingdom day, because we will be slaves to Flight of Passage.
It would also be fun to say hi to you if we cross paths at all during our overlapping dates!

Thanks for your sympathy, and actually it's not the chemo that makes me feel so bad but the shot I get the day afterwards to boost my white blood cells to make sure I don't get sick or miss my next treatment. I have to say my head coverings aren't too exciting and the fact that I can't even wash my hair more than twice a week due to the cold capping treatments means I look pretty rough most days. Oh well...it is what it is and I do still have SOME hair so there is that.

We'll work through the dating thing for sure...thanks. And hopefully the FP stuff will work out too. It's going to be interesting with so many people to plan for but we'll see what happens!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

I'm so happy your trip is coming together and that the flights all worked out!!!!
I'm sorry to hear how the chemo is making you feel! I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers...

 

[disneyfan314]

I just read the entire thread! I hope that your treatments continue to go well and that the rest of 2017 is much better for you and your family. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your June trip and the soon approaching August trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm so happy your trip is coming together and that the flights all worked out!!!!
I'm sorry to hear how the chemo is making you feel! I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers...

Thanks so much!

I just read the entire thread! I hope that your treatments continue to go well and that the rest of 2017 is much better for you and your family. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of your June trip and the soon approaching August trip!

Ah...yeah I need to return to more of the May trip soon, just need to get the photos together. I can't believe how close we are to our August trip and so looking forward to it!

 

[kittylady1972]

MAY TRIP DAY 2: Magic and Mickey (CONTINUED)!

So having viewed the Pixar Live show, and not being overly impressed and feeling like it was way too long, DH and I met our kids right outside the show exit. I believe we had FPs for Star Tours, which isn't really a favorite of mine and with surgery recovery still I didn't feel a need to "risk" it really. So we walked towards the ride together, and I waited outside while the rest of the family rode this one...and enjoyed my "dinner":

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Disney popcorn?

When the family emerged from their ride, for some reason my kids decided they needed some "real" food after all. We walked around a bit before eventually ending up at the ABC Commisary. I think my daughter and I shared a salad, and the boys got some other food that wasn't terribly memorable but it was okay and it was a chance to sit and just relax and of course this:

You know, good old family bonding time! (Kids on phones!)

With bellies full, it was time to decide what to do next. I decided I really wanted to try to catch the Star Wars Fireworks show for the first time, but the kids were in need of more ride time...and we had FPs for Rock N'Roller Coaster. While I do like this one enough, it was one I also chose to skip due to my surgery recover, and DH was still having back issues, so we sent the kids off to ride and just told them to meet us once they were done. This worked quite well for them of course.

As you can see, they enjoyed their ride:

We found a great spot to camp out for the show and they met us afterwards to wait.

The pre-show with the various film clips was pretty cool, as was the actual Star Wars Fireworks show.

Pirates:

Mary Poppins:

This completed our day and it was time to head back to our resort. Since it was park closing time, we walked by and saw the boat line was pretty long. So instead we opted to do the walk back to our resort instead, which actually wasn't too bad at all. Of course, this walk gets longer the MORE days you are at the parks and on your feet, but for the first FULL park day it was totally doable!

I don't know if these will work...let me know:

https://goo.gl/photos/UEZxVj8CN27hWBTs7

https://goo.gl/photos/zQ2BinrD5mc2MUpNA

When we approached our building we realized they were doing a movie out on the lawn. We decided to stop for a bit an watch, since we LOVE Moana. So we sat out for a little while and watched a bit of the movie:

Then it was time to head back to the room and prepare for bed!

Next up: DAY 3 and some pampering

 

[kittylady1972]

May Trip DAY 3: PLAN VS ACTUAL

So back to May, here is what we had planned originally for the day:

SUNDAY: I have this planned as an early HS morning but only if we are up for the EMH time (8am). If not, we can instead aim for Magic Kingdom. I've posted this as a possible 4 parks in one day if we can do HS in the early morning, MK after that, EPCOT evening and then AK late evening but we'll see. If we make EE at HS then I'd like to hit RnRC, TSM and ToT. If we decide that's enough and no MK, then we have the option of an afternoon at the pool and resort. Around 3pm or so, we'll head out to EPCOT probably via boat where I'll have my first DisBoards meetup and dinner with Angryduck71 and her son at Via Napoli! I've booked a few FPs there for all of us to do after dinner which should be fun. And if we are up for it, we can try to hit AK for the LATE LATE hours.

How well did we follow this one? Stay tuned!

 

[kittylady1972]

So believe it or now we are now in SINGLE DIGITS until our trip!

9 days and about 8 hours until we are in the air.

Of course we still talk about making that 9 days and 6 hours...but it hasn't happened yet. We feel we need to discuss this option with the kids as we really do think that it CAN be done. After all, being in Walt Disney World even EARLIER would be awesome. So far the flight prices are about the same and I don't expect they will drop. If they go up at all, it won't happen but for now...it would cost me only $18 more to change our flights...and get possibly two more hours of Disney time into this trip.

It's hard to believe but this is truly our FIRST and ONLY summer vacation. Technically summer began on June 21st and we haven't been anywhere at all since that time. On the first day of summer, I had an appointment with my dermatologist where she removed a suspicious mole from the back of my neck which thankfully came back as nothing bad. The very next day I had surgery to put a medical port into my chest and the following Tuesday I had my first chemotherapy session. Between June and now I've had mutliple doctor appointments, 3 chemotherapy sessions, attended 3 funerals and completed a kitchen renovation at home. I've also played tennis and kept up with some healty eating habits and exercise. Two of my kids attended summer camp, one was a camp counselor in training there, and one of my kids has been working a summer job as a bus boy. That's been our summer. In the past I would have taken a day off here and there and done fun things, like gone to amusement parks or just spent the day with the kids, but that hasn't been possible this year.

And so, as you can imagine, this trip will be to have some time to bond as a family in our happy place before school begins again for the kids. It's just about time.

The last few weeks we've tried to do some fun stuff by working to watch a Disney movie every night. We've only missed one night (it was a Baltimore Ravens pre-season football game and some of us are huge fans) and I admit that last night DH and I didn't make it through the entire move, which was the 3rd Pirates movie (we had seen the 1st and 2nd one Friday and Saturday night). I'm not sure which movies will be watched this week yet.

I'm considering leaving work a bit early this Thursday just to take the kids to a small somewhat local waterpark for the day. My oldest son works for the last time this Wednsday as he put in his two weeks notice to return to school. We haven't really even been swimming at all this summer. I haven't been in a pool since maybe May?

So our summer vacation begins "officially" this weekend. We depart on Sunday for NC, which is about a 7.5 hour drive for us. We hope to arrive by dinnertime and stay with my dad and spend time with him. Monday we plan to drive about 45 minutes south to Myrtle Beach to visit my aunt and hang out the beach for the day with her. Dad might go with us...we'll see if he sticks to that or opts out to spend the day with his girlfriend instead. We are planning to catch the eclipse from the beach, won't be the very best view but probably easier than our original plan of driving an hour south to be within the path of totality. That night we'll head back to spend the night with dad again. Tuesday we will hang with him for a while and depart in the late afternoon for our drive back to Maryland.

Wednesday is a crazy busy day. I'll work for a few hours in the morning, then go home and pick up the kids to bring them back to work where we will attend a graduation lunch/ceremony for my husband from a technical work program he's been doing for 3 years. Once that ends, it's time to prepare for our flight and we will be in Walt Disney World sometime Wednesday evening. We have 3 nights in Disney at 2 different resorts, then we head to Vero Beach for two more nights before catching a late flight back home Monday night.

Back to work Tuesday, and my final chemotherapy session will be Wednesday after we return.

I know this will all go by so fast, so I just hope we take the time to enjoy every minute of our time together because it is so important.

Before long we'll be back at home just in time to start planning our much bigger October trip, and we've just had two more people join in for that one. It looks like I'll be booking Fastpasses for at least 16-18 people right now. Won't that be fun?

 

[kittylady1972]

TRIP #3: HALLOWEEN PARTY DO-OVER PLAN

Just a quick update on our NEXT next trip...the one that begins in about 65 DAYS!

Many months ago I sent out an email invite to many of our friends asking if they would like to join us on a WDW trip in October for Food and Wine Festival and the Halloween party. The response? Crickets. This was February of this year. The idea came to us during a funeral of all things, when talking with the father of one of my very good friends (it was my friend's MIL who has passed away) and her dad mentioned he had never been to Walt Disney World. Suddenly we were talking about a trip that would include my friend, her husband, her father, her sister and her sister's 17 year old son...all to mostly enjoy the Food and Wine Festival.

It would be a month or two later when another family of 4 decided to join us. They haven't been to WDW in probably 7+ years or more, though they've done Disneyland a few times. They surprised their girls at Easter by announcing the trip for October.

And now there were 14 of us.

We would then learn about another friend, who was planning a trip for Food and Wine with her mom and her sister. However they had been planning this as a girls-only trip for a while, but MIGHT be willing to meet up with us a little bit. However I won't be planning anything for them. My friend is also bringing her daughter though, also age 17. So that makes a party of 18 but won't be planning for those 4 officially.

About a week or two ago, the same friend mentioned above started talking to her husband and son about the trip. Originally they were going to do a boys-only weekend, but somehow she talked them into coming to Walt Disney World as well. Though they still aren't allowed to be part of the girls trip...but we will happily include them with our plans. They are actually even booked on the same flight as our family of five plus two of our friends.

That means planning FP+ for about 16 of us.

We were hoping to talk my FIL into joining us, but I think it's unlikely. So for now...definitely plans for 16.

So what have I booked to date you ask?

Shades of Green: Most of us are staying at Shades of Green...at least our party of 14. SOG was booked for October so the latest two couldn't join us there unfortunately. It does sadly mean no 60 day advantage to booking the FP+ reservations, so that might be tough.

Meals: The one family of 4 mentioned during their last WDW trip many years ago, they had a Chef Mickey meal that was ruined when the youngest daughter got sick before they were seated. Little did they know she would eventually be diagnosed with celiacs which may have been the cause of the tummy issues. Either way, even though the girls will be 15 and 12 at the time, she requested Chef Mickey's again. It's booked...for a party of 15 for brunch, and a party of 10 another day for brunch. I'm not sure which one we'll keep yet.

Also booked is Boma and Tusker House, all for parties of 15 people for dinner. Crystal Palace is also booked for a party of 15 for a later dinner. I have a brunch at California Grill booked for 8, probably the adults, but we'll see if keep it.

Plans: Tentatively this is our plan for the few days we have there:

• WEDNESDAY: Arrival day, some of us later than others but our flight is scheduled to land about 7:15pm. I have rented a 15 person van for the week in case we want to drive to/from the parks and airport so we can take people with us to the hotel, or at least the 9 of us who will land at the same time. We will check into our resort and maybe hit MK that night for a few EMH if we are up for it.
• THURSDAY: This is a planned EPCOT/Food and Wine day for us. We will hit that park early and do all we can do that day, probably focused on food and wine with rides in between. EMH is 8am so I plan on being there for that. We would like to be out of this park around 4pm at the latest, because we are also hoping to do Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween party that night.
• FRIDAY: Having done EPCOT and MK already, this is a day for another park. However we might do EPCOT again for a few hours that morning OR we'll do HS instead and hit the big rides there. We will then head over to AK for the afternoon where we have our dinner reservations for Tusker House or Boma.
• SATURDAY: This will probably be another MK day for us, since we won't have probably done everything before at MNSSHP and not during the day. However it's also early morning EMH for AK, so we may want to try to get over there first thing and do FOP because it's unlikely we will be able to book FPs for it. We do have to be at Chef Mickey's for brunch. We have Crystal Palace for a late dinner also. I think this will be a good MK day but some of the adults may choose to hit EPCOT again for F&W, which would be nuts on a weekend for sure.
• SUNDAY: Time for the California Grill brunch for adults or alternate Chef Mickey's brunch day. This would be a good day I think to revisit EPCOT for the remainder of the day.
• MONDAY: This is our day to fly home, so we'd need to leave for the aiport around 11am. Being close, we might just do MK for a few hours before the flight, as it's an easy ride there.
• 
  So that's the plan for now and hopefully this will help me plan out our FPs for the time. Obviously I have some time to work through what to book for everybody.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

OMG! That sounds like so much fun with that many friends!

 

[kittylady1972]

May Trip DAY 3: SPA time and a DIS Meet

So back to May, here is what we had planned originally for the day:

SUNDAY: I have this planned as an early HS morning but only if we are up for the EMH time (8am). If not, we can instead aim for Magic Kingdom. I've posted this as a possible 4 parks in one day if we can do HS in the early morning, MK after that, EPCOT evening and then AK late evening but we'll see. If we make EE at HS then I'd like to hit RnRC, TSM and ToT. If we decide that's enough and no MK, then we have the option of an afternoon at the pool and resort. Around 3pm or so, we'll head out to EPCOT probably via boat where I'll have my first DisBoards meetup and dinner with Angryduck71 and her son at Via Napoli! I've booked a few FPs there for all of us to do after dinner which should be fun. And if we are up for it, we can try to hit AK for the LATE LATE hours.

I don't know about anyone else, but our family in particular is really good about having SOMEBODY have some kind of health issue while on vacation, when normally at home we are usually pretty healthy. The last few trips it has been my DH, and this one was no exception. He began having severe back pain from day one and it was getting worse for him. Therefore, I had him schedule a MASSAGE at Shades of Green to see if that would help.

Yes, my DH was going to get pampered...and me and the kids were going to do other stuff while that happened.

He had an appointment for late Sunday morning. We decided we would drive him over to Shades of Green, then have lunch and pick him up afterwards. Plus I had another reason to return to Shades of Green. I am also notorious for LOSING things on vacation...and this one again was no exception. I realized sometime the previous day, then in my haste to leave Shades of Green the previous morning, I didn't do my usual check and recheck of every drawer...and closet...and I remembered that on arrival day I had hung two jackets up in the closet...and I never retrieved them. I had called the lost and found and had no luck getting in touch with anybody, so this was the chance to check on my stuff in person.

Since we had some time that morning, we decided to hit the pool for a little while. Well the kids did the swimming...while I parked on a chair in the shade and watched this guy:

Kids had a blast enjoying the pool though:

I love this pool also:

After some time at the pool, we headed back to change. I love this statue:

We headed over to Shades of Green and told the guard at the gate that we were there for my husband to visit the spa!

While he went off for that, I stopped by the front desk and asked about lost and found items. The front desk woman said I had to tell her the items and then she would call and ask if they were found. Not only did I rattle off my two jackets, but my youngest thought perhaps he left a green sweatshirt there and I also wasn't sure if I may have left a camera battery charger in a drawer. I listed my items, she called lost and found, and reported back that SOME of the items were found...and they would bring them up to us. YAY!

Not too long a bag arrived (with the wrong room number) that contained both of my jackets...but not the other items. We dropped the items off in the car in the garage and then headed off to lunch.

Kids lunch choice was the Contempo Cafe. We decided to go ahead and drive over there. When we told the guard at the gate our plans to eat at Contemp Cafe, she waved us through to park...yay!

One kid got the Italian Cheesesteak...he liked it and it did look delicious:

Another kid opted for pizza/flatbread and I got a caesar salad with salmon while my daughter got her salad with chicken:

Mine:

It was all delicious. We really enjoy this place.

Afterwards we decided to head back over to pick up my husband, so we made our way there via monorail:

Waiting:

Riding:

And walking the path back:

And back at the lobby to wait:

DH was done and feeling better, so headed back to our resort to drop off the car...and then it was time to head to EPCOT.

We headed to the boat dock:

My youngest son decided he didn't want to wait and he would walk the short path over to EPCOT instead to meet us there. He kept texting us asking where we were...and I sent him this as we approached the bridge:

We got closer to the International Gateway and he was standing at the front waving at us. Can you spot him in red?:

I LOVE EPCOT this time of year for Flower and Garden, though truly we didn't take a lot of time to stop and appreciate it too much:

We had plan to meet my first ever DIS person (@angryduck71) for dinner at Via Napoli but we had some time to kill, so decided to catch a quick boat ride here:

This is still the talk of our post-vacation fun to this day. We LOVE this ride so much, and as we approached the end of the ride there was a family in the seat in front of us...a woman and her mom...who were discussing "what are the names of those birds?" and this was happening WHILE the song "The Three Caballeros" was playing right next to us. One of them said something like "I think they are the 3 Cabreros", response: "No maybe it's 3 Sombreros"...and other variations and we were just looking at each other and trying NOT to laugh. To this day, we talk about "The 3 Jalapenos" or "The 3 Sombreros" and laugh. It was too funny and I'm still not sure they ever figured it out.

We emerged and were making our way over to the restaurant but first...a stop for free drinks here:

I like this place...but the sticky floor...ugh! Kids had a few samples and at some point my youngest son went to get a drink...and had a mishap that perhaps you can see here:

Yes my husband is trying to put the cover back on the soda dispenser!

Eventually we made our way to Via Napoli where @angryduck71 was able to spot us as we wandered by and flagged us down so we all walked into the restaurant together. It was such fun to finally meet her and David in person and we had a GREAT meal. I ate way too much pizza for sure here, but it was so yummy! All of the food was pretty good, and after some cooling off and bellies full we toured the rest of EPCOT together as I had made a few FP+ reservations for all of us.

First off was Spaceship Earth, and it was fast approaching the end of our FP+ window, so we were moving to get there in time for that one. David had never been on this one, so he enjoyed it, and we enjoyed relaxing for a bit on it.

Off that ride, our next FP+ reservation was for Test Track and we headed there next. Another fun one there of course that we all enjoy. I rode with David and Alice and I think the rest of the family rode together. I had a certain side to sit on to avoid the seatbelt crossing my surgical site, and they were nice enough to work with me on that.

For some reason, our TT photo never showed up in my account. I remember viewing it though, and it was funny. Take my word for it.

We hung around afterwards and looked at the cars, kids played games and took some photos. I know @angryduck71 had a few on her report here.

Last ride of the night was Mission: Space and since I'm not a fan...and neither was @angryduck71...we decided to just sit this one out and sent my husband and the kids off together to ride. We did take a selfie (stealing from her report):

After that I think we did call it a night. We had plans to meet up again tomorrow at Animal Kingdom to experience Pandora together!!!

Another cool EPCOT at night photo:

I think DH and I decided to stop and watch the movie of the night...and I can't recall what was showing...but we could view the fireworks from where we were on our blanket/sheet:

Based on the photos I have, perhaps my kids also did a quick dip in the pool. I do recall that because I think they enjoyed having it mostly to themselves until it closed for the night:

So in our plan above, we skipped pretty much the first half of it:

SUNDAY: I have this planned as an early HS morning but only if we are up for the EMH time (8am). If not, we can instead aim for Magic Kingdom. I've posted this as a possible 4 parks in one day if we can do HS in the early morning, MK after that, EPCOT evening and then AK late evening but we'll see. If we make EE at HS then I'd like to hit RnRC, TSM and ToT. If we decide that's enough and no MK, then we have the option of an afternoon at the pool and resort.

We did manage to do EPCOT as planned, and dinner, but we skipped the idea of AK late at night and planned to do it the next day instead.

Around 3pm or so, we'll head out to EPCOT probably via boat where I'll have my first DisBoards meetup and dinner with Angryduck71 and her son at Via Napoli! I've booked a few FPs there for all of us to do after dinner which should be fun. And if we are up for it, we can try to hit AK for the LATE LATE hours.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Love all the family pics! You all look like you are having so much fun!