Living Large....The (4th) Family Trip of a Lifetime has begun! 8/22!!!

[Jake & Crew]

We are finally off and running on our next Disney Trip of a Lifetime!

Who are we you might be asking? Well we are the Living Large Family. We had our first family trip to Disney four years ago and told the kids this was our trip of a lifetime. Once we started our Disney Experience as a family we realized we loved Living Large and our Trip of a Lifetime quickly turned into our First Trip of a Lifetime. For those of you who missed out on the first Living Large Trip you can experience the ups and downs of our 7 day Land/Sea adventure in May of 2006 by clicking on the link in my signature if you so wish.

Unfortunately Living Large Trips number Two and Three never made it to the Disboards.....maybe if I get real ambitious I will do a Readers Digest TR on each of them at some point. Since that probably will not happen any time soon here they are in a nutshell:

Trip Two was February of 2007 and the cast of characters included the four of us as well as my parents each of my 3 siblings and their better halves and two nieces for a grand total of 14. (Make that 14.5 as my very pregnant at the time SIL trooped along with my 3rd niece in tow so to speak). That is 14 very opinionated family members spending one week in the Wilderness Lodge. As I am writing this I am realizing why that TR was a little overwhelming to tackle. That truly was a Trip of a Lifetime as much as we love each other we could probably never get our better halves to agree to such a week again and as of today another niece and nephew have joined the family and two more are on the way so we all know as zany as 14 was 18 would be even zanier.

In fact things got so crazy that week we visited the DVC showcase just to get away from the family for a few hours ( no one else wanted to go) and as a result we bought our most expensive souvenir ever......a DVC membership.

Well that lead to Trip Three in April of 2008. This one was all my idea. Jim, my DH, is an only child and his parents had never been to Disney. They had no interest really which is probably why it was my idea. I love to drive them crazy. Also I knew Jim would really enjoy experiencing a Disney trip at least once with his parents, my girls would have great memories doing trips with each set of grandparents, and in all fairness
after a week with 10 of my relatives what was a week with 2 of his. So we did our first DVC trip with 4 nights at the Boardwalk and 4 nights at Old Key West with my in-laws.

While we realize how blessed we are to be able to do Trips Three and Four with our families we were determined that trip number Four would just be the four of us. And here we are our lucky Trip Four of fours: 4 of us, 4 days at the Boardwalk, 4 days at Animal Kingdom Lodge, 4 months to go and we arrive at 4pm in the afternoon. I am seeming a theme here.....if it works with the number 4 it is for Trip Four.

So here is the cast for Trip Four:

Jim (40 something) is a great dad and husband who never experienced Disney until we were dating. He had no desire to go to the house of Mouse but once we spent a week at the Wilderness Lodge he was hooked. Oh and he enjoyed Disney World also. Jim is quiet and keeps his emotions in check for the most part. Though his nickname and coffee mug is Grumpy and he is proud of these things. He is happy to have me plan and connive our way into things like reasoning why the direct flight is cheaper than the lay over ($ we would spend in the airport) and buying the DVC ( too many reasoning discussions to post here). He also lets me do the Fast Pass Dash as he calls it and looks forward to our Disney trip as a chance to Live Large ( we do not dine out 8 days in a row at home nor does he get many days off at home without at least a short Honey Do list).

Belle (9) is our first born, anxiety ridden, serious student daughter. She loves to read and takes Disney planning as seriously as her mom does. She tends to hold back and stay on the shy side which is one of the reasons we pulled her from public school and put her in private this year. She is starting to really blossom and blew us away this winter by participating in her school wide spelling bee. We were not surprised that she qualified as much as were that she participated and we were thrilled to watch our 4th grader come in 3rd place behind a 6th grader and an 8th grader. We are hoping this confidence will continue and we can get her on the Haunted Mansion....but one thing at a time. Her favorite character is Tinkerbell though her love of reading and school inspired me to call her Belle, might shorten it to Bell for this TR and you can read it anyway you want.

Ariel ( 7) is our baby girl and yet she is a wise, old soul as the saying goes. To quote Billy Joel she has a way about her, don’t know what it is but I can’t live without her. She adds the spunk and sass ( sometimes a little too much) into our house that her ultra conservative parents, well dad anyway, and sister hold back on. She is who she is and we love her for it. She is the one who will climb up in your lap and cuddle one minute yet she is also the kind of kid who will make three new friends in 10 minutes at the hotel pool. She was sad to see her sister switch schools this year and I think her sister has no clue how much she looks up to her, yet in many ways she can be the older sister as she has almost no fears. On our last trip at 5 she insisted on doing Tower of Terror and on this trip she is already working on getting her sister to join her. Her favorite princess is/was Ariel so her name sticks after all these years.

Kate ( me) 40 something, though a younger 40 something than Jim. I grew up in a Disney family. My first trip was with my grandmother and great aunt when I was 5 and then took two more trips with my family in my teenage years. Still have not quite forgiven my parents for taking my brother and sisters to the opening of the Grand Floridian without me (I was in college at the time). I love Disney. I love Living Large in a
world where I can just focus on my family and having fun and creating memories. I love the dreaming, the planning and the experiencing all things Disney has to offer and my goal is to take the family many times before the girls are off on their own. I want them to have the same kind of great memories I do. Just this week my parents sold their house which was the family home for 33 years and now more than ever I feel Disney is the place I can connect with past while living in the present and dreaming of the future with my family. My coffee mug and my gal is Tinkerbell.

So here we are. Profile updated. Plane and lodging booked. Dining reservations in process. Pre-Trip report started.

Let the Living Large....(Fourth)Trip of a Lifetime begin!

 

[KathyRN137]

I'm so glad to see you back on the DIS and planning this trip!


Kathy

 

[Jake & Crew]

Kathy

So glad to be back! When we knew last year that a trip was not in the cards ( which is a story I will put in my PTR) I kind of dropped off for a while and next thing I knew it had been a year.....kind of the same way those pounds sneak back on when I am not looking

Have been busy making ADRs, dealing with kids on vacation, working on taxes and gearing up for an intensive 8 week job that starts this week. Promise to keep up with my PTR so as soon as I get those taxes off my desk ~ which should be in the next few days~ I will get you up to date in the PTR, that is my incentive for getting that tax stuff outta here

Thanks so much for answering my ? last night....you rock

Kate

 

[Jake & Crew]

The following is the beginning of a TR I started for Living Large Trip 2, never did finish....actually never got much past this post but since I am working on my taxes and that new job this week thought this might be fun and insightful to post in case you never read LL TR 1, which is completer This was written in Febrauary 2007, where does the time go

We were that family, you know the one.

The only one on the street that had never been to Disney World (and the others had been more than once!) Our kids were okay with it, we told them when they were a little older (read bank account worthy of the paper/postage the bank sent out every month) and since they really had never been, they really did not know what they were missing.

We trekked up to New Hampshire every summer for a 2 day trip to Storyland and convinced ourselves this was Disney “enough” like for right now. Jim (DH) and I knew the real Disney World ( he went for his first time in 1996 while we were dating ~ I had started my love affair with the mouse in 1974) but we would never tell!

DD had been told by my mother that when she was 5 she would be old enough and the grandparents would take them. Well it just didn’t happen.

Life was busy, we also had a 3 year old, how could one go without the other….and then the younger cousins were popping up in rapid succession in Chicago, so as DD turned 5 Grandma stopped mentioning such a trip. DD is smart. She knew she had a whole year of being 5 so she just thought she would go later in the year. We did not tell her otherwise, just drove her back up to New Hampshire.

Summer of 2005 was our third trip there and as the girls were that much older, the trip a much anticipated family event with its own traditions Jim and I actually had even convinced ourselves it was our own Disney!

Then it happened. October 13, 2005 we were given my diagnosis, cancer. Two weeks later I had major surgery and while the cancer was thought to be cleared so were my dreams of our third baby.

The recovery was tough. After 5 days in the hospital I returned home. I spent four weeks gaining strength, the first week I only made it out of my room for meals. Put all I had into making sure I was sitting at that table with the kids and Jim. Slowly as the weeks moved on I came out of my room more, would “visit” with my kids and the caretaker of the day and would go back to bed as the kids were taken off to swim, dance, speech, or school.

Started watching television in those strange, quiet hours in my house. Now, I do not ordinarily watch television, yes I have the theme song to Franklin stuck in my head as my then three year old would watch it while I buzzed around the house in the BC (before cancer) days and I can recite the kids programming schedule as I work from home, so I would know when to plan an important call, exactly what 20 minute time frame would work best. But I personally could count on one hand the programs I watched in any given month.

November/December 2005 was a whole new ball game.

I was tv mania women ( which is why I think I usually avoid it!). I was glued for hours/ hours. I was addicted to the Apprentice, ( even the Martha Stewart one), reruns of comedies like Everybody Loves Raymond, King of Queens, Little House on the Prairie, all the major networks prime time programming ~ all 23 weekly episodes of every variation of Law/Order, the short lived comedy with Henry Winkler…you get the idea.

Well, needless to say I had the entire commercial season also memorized and there was this one commercial played over and over which got me to sit up (literally) every time. It had a big toy cruise ship being gift wrapped and was promoting the perfect family gift, memories of a lifetime on this special vacation. Give them a Christmas gift worthy of the season and worthy of your family was the message. And I heard it loud and clear.

This is what I wanted to give our girls this Christmas. Then I started thinking what about that cruise line Disney had. That would be great for the little ones and my goodness if any two kids deserved such a vacation it was these girls. I watched them age so much with the concern and worry they had. They were struggling between being the little girls who wanted their old mommy back, and trying to take care of their mommy like this was their responsibility. My heart ached for them but I could not even take them on my lap at that point.

So I told Jim about my great idea. His response:
“No”
“What do you mean no?!!”
“We can not take them all that way and not go to Disney, let’s just take them to Disney”
“ I want this cruise too ( wow did that commercial do a number on me, and it was for a different cruise line!)”

So we decided to do both. Way over the top! But this was our big trip of a lifetime, would not go to Disney again for years probably. And hence my emotional therapy began. My long days were filled with planning our trip. I became quite the “expert”, found these boards, TGM, the Passporter. You name it ! I had a mission and when it was dark, I turned on the Disney light. Little did I know how my expertise would be tested.

In May of 2006 we took that Land/Sea trip and it was wonderful!!!! We lived it up because this was it for a long time. We watched our children de-age back into a five year old and a three year old. And we saw them (and ourselves smile again.)

On our flight home Jim took the bump so my dad picked the girls and I up at the airport and we had dinner with my parents waiting for Jim’s flight to come in. Here, I believe was born the trip of all trips!

My parents, who had had quite the year with my illness and my sister’s wedding, watched their grandchildren dance and sing and come back to childhood right before their very eyes that afternoon. The kids had so much to share about their trip.

Just two months earlier we celebrated a big birthday for my dad. We put on a fabulous surprise party, made a beautiful scrapbook with input from family and friends from his whole life. Mom kept saying she did not need all that when she turned that age in March 2007. No, she would just like to go to Disney with her children, in-law children, and grandchildren…..all 14 of us. Well, watching her grandkids excitement that day got those wheels spinning again. Mom is not a planner though.

Finally one night in August while all of us were vacationing at my parents beach house together she brought it up again. Disney expert that I am, I told mom if we were going to do it we had to stop talking and start doing. SIL had just announced she was due (my third niece!) in April so that left February and that meant the 180 day windows had all ready started. My siblings and my SIL thought I was joking. Dad was on board with my worrying about the time frame (guess I know where I got it from.) Jim and my BIL moved quietly into the background, literally into the kitchen, if it was not for the clinking of their ice you would have forgotten they were there. Smart boys. Think they thought as we drank our wine (except for SIL of course) we would drown this scary plan right into oblivion. No such luck for them

By the end of that weekend I had all the Disney info, we had a “family meeting” and our One Big Trip to the World with 2 grandparents, 4 “kids”, 3 spouses, 1 (hopefully) future spouse ( brave boy!) and 4 granddaughters was launched with a 5 room, 7 night stay at the Wilderness Lodge for February Vacation 2007!

Buckle your seatbelts please we may hit some turbulence.

 

[KathyRN137]

Hey, Kate!

I think you should just wrap a little '07 TR right into this here PTR... lots of folks do "reminescence" posts in their PTRs... it helps the reader gain some perspective.

Don't you just want to laugh out loud when you hear someone refer to Disney as a "once in a lifetime" vacation??


Kathy

 

[Jake & Crew]

Just a quick check in. This Pre TR is legit, I promise! I have noticed there are
17 pages of Pre TRs and only 5 TR so many, many fall off the cliff....not this chick! Okay it is true LL TR 3 and 4 are long overdue but this one will be delivered in true style it is just that I took a freelance job if you will ( that makes concurrent job # 3 for me, but who is counting) and it is a little more time consuming than I thought. The good news is that it was supposed to run until the end of June but I am predicting 2 more weeks tops! I will be posting way before then and to get my priorities in order I purchased the 2010 PassPorter yesterday

So please support those terrific TR writers who are on target this week and check back in with me on the other side of the weekend .....I will be back

 

[Jake & Crew]

So time to get this party started!

I started this PTR thinking that we had plenty of time to go and alas we are 2 1/2 months out! Guess that is what happens when you book a trip
4 months before you go. Shocking as it is to most of us on these boards I truly believe it can be done. Let’s face it if someone told you today you won a trip that started in two weeks would you decline because you did not have ADR or touring plans in place?

Don’t get me wrong, I love this forum for when you are planning a trip that is pretty far out there...this is a great way to make it seem closer. How did we get to the point where we booked 4 months out? Well it went like this:

Upon our return from our first DVC trip in April of 2008 my DH returned to work to discover his position had been eliminated. Welcome Home!

May, June and July went by and no new job. Living in the state with the highest unemployment rate we knew we had to open our horizons and look elsewhere. He interviewed in Maryland, D.C and Connecticut. While two job offers came out of those ventures they were not positions to take a chance on as his industry was pretty uncertain in 2008.

August, September and October even the interview prospects had dried up. By this point the air in our home was tense, the children were in school all day and I was freelancing to pay the mortgage. Money was tight to say the least. This was the 3rd time in seven years we were in this position and reserves had run low. The DVC had been a big purchase for us which we ultimately did so we would be sure to take vacations in our future. In 2007 when we bought we thought the toughest times were behind us. We were sick and devastated that we were back in the trenches and our DVC purchase seemed like a foolish buy that made us angry and resentful when we thought of it. There were no trips on the horizon.

November brought a good prospect to the table and in December of 2008 Jim began working again in his field for a large, reputable company. The only catch was it was 2 states away ~ about 75 miles each way and weather and traffic patterns could make it vary from a an hour and a half commute to a three hour commute each way. We didn’t care. We were grateful it was a solid job in a solid company and even though the commute was long, it was commutable. We could stay in our home while we made sure this was the right career move.

While all of this was going on DD Belle was having a horrible school year in the third grade. By January it was obvious we needed to get her out of the school she was in so she could have the opportunity to be herself and the chance to bloom. This meant private school. It was nothing short of Providence that brought the solution to us. This was reinforced by scholarships she received but despite the great financial help we still had an unforeseen tuition bill to now factor into our very stretched budget that was in a recovery mode. So with a commute that cost about $5000 and a tuition to take on we knew 2009 was not a Disney year. I hoped that 2010 could be but feeling like we brought on the last storm by being too optimistic I decided not to push it and shut down my Disney.

No DISBoards, no PassPorter, no reading of Disney emails ( unless they said sweepstakes in the subject line). I banked the points, had a brief thought about wishing for 2010 and we moved on.

We kept our noses to the ground and knew it was the right thing to do. Still I felt as if a little piece of us was missing. Our family happy place was not happening and we missed it. It had been a very trying year on many levels.

In August I stumbled across a cruise sale. Jim and I had been talking about taking a few days to go to NH or Vermont when the kids were back in school. The cruise deal was better than what we thought a few days on a New England getaway would be. So we booked it, got our Passports (did you know there is another kind that is not a blue book?), changed some rewards points into airfare and we were off. We spent 5 nights in September celebrating our 10 year anniversary a year late and getting to really enjoy ourselves. The kids were mad but we loved every minute of it. It was the first time we had taken such a trip since we had kids. I came home feeling less empty about a family Disney trip but still kept my Disney in shut down mode as we just spent any vacation money we had.

By the end of October I knew we were getting back on track and those points I banked only had a year left. Jim can not take time off in the first quarter but we can sneak out around April 15th and the kids had a late vacation. So the plan was to a tentative April trip. As airfares were released my hopes were deflated. The prices were wild, it was a year when Massachusetts and Rhode Island had the same April vacation which meant
all of the airlines in our area were through the roof. For comparison I watched February rates and was pretty excited as I saw them come down just before that vacation.

Surely that would happen in April. Right? Well all through March it did not look good and by the end of March even I had to give up. The lowest I could get us all to Florida and back was about $2200. I had turned my Disney back on though ( my sign in said it had been a year!) and was getting inspired by other TRs. I worked on plans such as driving to an airport several states south even spent a crazy 24 hours mapping out a driving plan for us to go all the way to Orlando ( poor overcommuted husband shot that one down), then I looked into flying into different Florida airports and driving from there.

Finally, one night I realized vacation was way too close and Jim and I were not Doug Flutie or Gerard Phelan. We sat down and came up with a winning plan for the next game.....summer vacation!

UP NEXT: The When, The How, The Where......the Way Trip 4 Came to Life!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Great TR! I love reading about how a vacation came about and all the background and histroy. Looks like you've been through some tough times but have come out on top with a trip to the World in the works! I was unemployed for 1.5 years but was lucky enough to have gotten a great job at a company which I like more than my previous employers. Having cancer must have been so scary. Your family sounds amazing. Looking forward to more!

 

[Jake & Crew]

Great TR! I love reading about how a vacation came about and all the background and histroy. Looks like you've been through some tough times but have come out on top with a trip to the World in the works! I was unemployed for 1.5 years but was lucky enough to have gotten a great job at a company which I like more than my previous employers. Having cancer must have been so scary. Your family sounds amazing. Looking forward to more!

So glad you have landed in a great place, funny how things work out if we keep the faith

Yes, have to say my family is amazing......so proud of Belle tonight she earned 10 academic awards at her new school......what a difference a year makes! Welcome aboard....promise to get the new post up in the next few days, am walking the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life this Friday night into Saturday morning and have a bunch of things to get done for this great event but am hoping to post before I walk!

 

[Jake & Crew]

Hey, Kate!

I think you should just wrap a little '07 TR right into this here PTR... lots of folks do "reminescence" posts in their PTRs... it helps the reader gain some perspective.

Don't you just want to laugh out loud when you hear someone refer to Disney as a "once in a lifetime" vacation??


Kathy

Kathy you have me in circles keeping up with a PTR and TR of your own....so the bar is set for me to do a wrap of '07......great idea! You are such a smart lady, the plan is to update this PTR in another post or 2 should be there then I can wrap '07 and maybe even '08 in.....let's see how I do

 

[DrMomof3]

I'm not a reliable follower but I'm here!

Amanda

 

[Jake & Crew]

Where or where has my Disney gone?

May and June I was way under in the work arena but that has not been the case here in July. Yes, we are down the Cape (read Cape Cod for those of you without New England zip codes) in week 5 of our 8 week summer stretch, an annual tradition. The girls attend the same camp I did, the same one my mother did(!) five days a week from 9am-1pm so you would think I would have time to post. However the first two weeks of July all of my nieces and one nephew were in town, then it took a week to right the ship and now here we are 3 weeks and 3 days from our departure and my Disney is lost!

Could it be we booked in April and it is in the long waited anticipation that those Disney flames get stoked into the raging fire?

Could it be life has been so crazy and I keep thinking it will settle down but this time it won’t?

Could it be the non-Disney people have broken through....” Your last trip was 2 years ago? Why are you going now?”

Could it be the anticipation of August heat? We have never been in the summer so this is a stretch for us. Though I have to say after the record breaking heat and humidity of the last three weeks I am looking forward to a cool Florida summer.

Could it be the exhaustion from the said heat and humidity?

Could it be the reality that we need to prep for the school year which starts one day after our return?

Could it be learning TSMM is closed during our visit except for the last day so it might be a crazy packed ride on that day?

Could it be we still have to purchase our park tickets which is no small feat and adding insult to injury dd is now 10?

While it might be a bit of all above, I believe my Disney has been lost to the dining plan.

Right after booking our rooms in April I was all over the reservation system and booked to the best of my ability a number of ADRs that would fit the rough draft of our touring plan. We are now looking into whether we want to do the dining plan, a plan which did us well while we had 2 children under the age of 9. Now that Belle is 10 though our costs are up significantly and not in proportion to what she will consume as a 10 year 8 week old child. To further our ugh factor Disney is giving out free dining during our stay.

Why is this an ugh factor.....because 3 years ago we bought the DVC. We have monthly fees on top of our initial investment and while in the long run we will have rooms for many years to come we feel that the masses are getting FREE meals while we are getting penalized for investing in our beloved Disney. We would have done much better financially if we did not have the DVC for this trip but then we would lose points and defeat the purpose of the DVC in the first place. All this might be digestable.....IF the ADRs were not being swallowed up by those lucky, smart people who are going on vacation with the free dining.


That is it! Out of my system.....I pledge here and now not whine another line in this PTR about the inequities of the free dining promotion vs. the DVC.

I feel better already and am ready to get back on track......I have many laps to catch up on as I have been reading PTRs of others taking trips in August who have their grocery orders in and sitters hired!

To prove all those negatives are out of my system I will let you know that since Sunday I have been getting in the mood by reading some great PTRs and TRs and as a result sent my DH out last night to get a new pair of Disney trekking shoes....which he purchased successfully as well as two other pairs free at the Bass Outlet!

I also pulled all my Disney ressies, PassPorters, notes and so forth into a fun WDW bag from our last trip and when Jim comes down to the Cape tomorrow night I will be announcing it is our Disney planning weekend and we can review our ADRs, agendas and so forth and make some real progress on this trip!

The girls are excited and remind me every day of how close our trip is so I am going to jump in like I do at Christmas those years I am feeling overwhelmed and just start getting pumped!

After all what could be more exciting than a trip in 3 weeks and 3 days!?!?!

Now I ask if any of you have some great ideas on help get me to that HIGH I need and want to be at......please chime right in and I will respond with a daily update of how I get my DIS back!!!

 

[DrMomof3]

Sorry you got a case of the blahs. I've had them for a few weeks but now my excitement has kicked in.
One of our hesitations on DVC has been the discounts. We got a 40% off room PIN for our trip. Now that we have APs, we'll probably be able to get room discounts in the future. And we have a TIW card which we like better than the dining plan.
Glad you're getting psyched up again!

Amanda

 

[Jake & Crew]

Thanks for the kind words Amanda! You are one of the ones I think has it all together in the excitement/planning department so hearing you had the blahs and kicked them to curb is very encouraging!

Have to ask what is a TIW card? I know I was off DIS way to long if I do not get all the acronyms!

Kate

 

[Jake & Crew]

Well made major steps this weekend in the planning department and now the trip is becoming a reality!

For trips 1,2, and 3 by this point we had everything planned out and were up to the part we were getting last minute items....this time I can tell we will be getting the last minute items truly in the last minutes! I am getting excited to see if doing a trip with four month lead time ends up being even more fun than the ones I plotted and planned over for months and months. Really though as I look back trip 1 was a 5 month planning frame, trip 2 was 6 months and trip 3 was the longest with a 10 month window though we did not let the kids in on that one until 3 months before.

So we have not had much more planning time than the other trips the difference is we actually planned during those months

Maybe because now we know what we want and don't want to do, our obsession level has dropped to a more "normal" point then when we were getting ready for past trips. Are we a true Disney family now? I would like to think that is what this calm approach is. Maybe we are calmer just because it is our vacation, just the four of us, and we do not have to "worry" about pleasing other family members traveling with us, we can do what we want when we want. What a novel idea for a vacation!

This weekend we rough drafted our touring days and bought our tickets, 8 days with park hoppers and water parks & fun!

It was a little daunting to buy tickets for 3 "adults" and 1 child with all the bells and whistles. ( I also still do not believe my 10 year old is truly an adult but promised in my last post no more whining so moving on over that point) I was able to do my good old Disney math and feel better that our plane and park tickets combined were only $200 or $300 more in total than just the plane would have been if we went in April as originally desired. See, this trip is a true bargain, I keep telling myself

Here are the plans we are a drafting sans the dining plans as I am still tweaking those. Feedback welcomed, even encouraged!

Arrive Sunday around 5pm. Main goal get to BWV and maybe a little pool time followed by a visit to DTD.

Monday morning Epcot, afternoon pool or MK, evening MK or Epcot.

Tuesday morning Typhoon Lagoon, afternoon & evening DS.

Wednesday morning MK until around 3pm, hotel break and then Epcot.

Thursday is open (though it is our hotel switch day). Blizzard beach or will revisit Epcot or DS. Afternoon move to our new home, AKL villa. Evening MK.

Friday AK for the am. Afternoon and evening open. Possibly BB if not already visited.

Saturday BB or AK unless we feel the pull to another park.

Sunday morning open, afternoon & evening MK.

Monday DS to ride TSMM as this will be the first day it is open after rehab and we have never ridden before, really hoping it opens on schedule.

Monday afternoon depart for home and the start of the 2010-2011 school year which the kids will doing this for and I will be doing this Really do believe as the Staples commercials used to say it is the most wonderful time of the year!

Back to our plans for a minute, the schedule was drawn up based on some avoidance of parks with EMH as I believe that draws the most people. Though a little EMH was thrown in for night times to extend our days.

Really looking for feedback on the waterparks......best or worse times to go?? Helpful hints?? Since this is a first for us would love some advice!

 

[Jake & Crew]

Also a quick ? regarding my ticker..... on my signature preview the days show up but not on my posts, any idea as to how I can fix it?

 

[Jake & Crew]

With 13 ( almost 12!) days to go I am feeling a little stressed so I thought I would start posting my progress everyday in trip prep. Accountability might be the key to keeping me focused and moving in the right direction.

The reason I am feeling the stress is that I am on week 7 of summer vacation at the Cape. This is a very good thing and I am grateful to have been here every summer of my life. It is ( now) my parents year round home and my siblings and their families are also present, though they vary in length and times of stay. Needless to say routine hits the wayside and big family meals as well as many trips to the grocery store and waits for the washing machine are the norm. The key is flexibility and the trade off for priceless summer memories is many days that much does not get accomplished.

The girls attend summer camp 9am to 1pm everyday then have tennis immediately after 3 days a week and one girl has golf lessons another day. Once they are done with their structure we try to put in as much beach time as possible so errands are not high on the list. I take care of business and bills while they are at camp and try to get tennis in 2 days a week. Some days I run home (an hour from here) to let the dog out and keep him company if DH is not working from home that day.

Camp ends 8/20, we go home 8/21, go to Disney 8/22-8/30 and the girls start school 9/1.

I was in a good pattern of doing at least 1 thing a day for back to school and 1 thing a day for Disney but on Friday I got off track ( was booking Thanksgiving trip to Chicago in "spare" time) and now I am getting back to the plan before the plane leaves.

Here is what I have accomplished since my last post as far as Disney:

Since last post I have our tickets ~ they came over the weekend!~ as well as have ordered our DME materials. Have made grocery list and items to get for trip list. Also have purchased park shoes for both DDs and myself though 2 of us might need another pair. Also changed a few ADRs.

So off to bed and back to work tomorrow!

 

[DrMomof3]

I understand the stress! It's hard to plan to go away when you aren't even home to collect the stuff you need. Glad you're having a nice summer.

Amanda

 

[Jake & Crew]

Well today was a banner day in that I scored a lunch ADR to Sci-Fi

Have been keeping tabs on awesome thread here on the DIS in which people post ADRs they are canceling so you can try and rebook. One DISSER was canceling Le Cellier and Sci -Fi at the same time we were going. I tried to book them but was unsuccessful ( realized afterward that they were a party of 3 and we were of 4 so the search was not matching).

While on the phone with WDW to try and book a Sci-Fi for 4 popped up so we grabbed it! I am feeling the magic!

My other progress today was a bit more research on our phone, have been considering a new one and thought this might be a good time if I can use a DIS app on our trip.

Goals for tomorrow photopass and crocs order!

(oh and for back to school progress today I arranged ~ and all approved ~ of the carpool schedule!)

 

[Jake & Crew]

My goodness....6 days since I posted..so much for holding myself accountable through my PTR

However I have been busy as there are only 6 DAYS until we leave!

So since the last post have received the DME, ordered shoes, bought luggage for the girls, signed up for the DDP, played reservation roullette.....still trying to score a few "big" ones like Le Cellier, Cape May and maybe 1900 Park Faire...!

In the category of Not that we need to but may as well have before we go we upgraded 2 cell phones so we can text and be online on our phones like everyone else has been in the past 2 years. I am really excited we got this done before the trip because (1) we can try some of the new apps about wait times etc in the parks and (2) we can text my sister to call the phones in the UK in Epcot and have an extra fun moment with the girls.

Also on the summer front we bought everything we need for costumes for the camp show on Friday.

On the school front we have all school supplies etc except one daughters school supply list has not come yet, one needs a pair of shoes and I pick up the books from our town on Thursday so we are cranking