VWL Groupies...yes, we love the Lodge!!

[sechem32]

Originally Posted by jimmytammy

Bailey is slowly getting back to her old self. She ate 2 small treats, 1st food since Wed night. She drank more water today than yesterday. She is sitting on moms lap, which she hasnt done much of since Thurs. SO she is slowly getting there.

Thanks for all your prayers, as God says, if he cares for the birds of the sky, why wouldnt he care for our needs, and in this case, for a tiny kitty.

JT - so happy Bailey is getting better! I hope she's back to normal soon!

[twokats]

Jimmy,
I tried to pm you some additional dates for us and it told me you have exceeded your limit!!!

Glad the kitty is getting better, I know that is a weight off y'alls mind.

[jimmytammy]

Originally Posted by sechem32

JT - so happy Bailey is getting better! I hope she's back to normal soon!

Thanks Liz!
BTW, Tues night is the big night
sechem32, wfc4life and the jimmytammy family are headed to see Mary Poppins show in Durham!! Cant wait!!

[jimmytammy]

Originally Posted by twokats

Jimmy,
I tried to pm you some additional dates for us and it told me you have exceeded your limit!!!

Glad the kitty is getting better, I know that is a weight off y'alls mind.

Thanks Kathy!!

And sorry about the PM, got it cleaned up a bit, so if you dont mind, try again. I got an email from the DIS this AM about it

[bagsmom]

Originally Posted by jimmytammy

bailey is slowly getting back to her old self. She ate 2 small treats, 1st food since wed night. She drank more water today than yesterday. She is sitting on moms lap, which she hasnt done much of since thurs. So she is slowly getting there.

Thanks for all your prayers, as god says, if he cares for the birds of the sky, why wouldnt he care for our needs, and in this case, for a tiny kitty.

hooray!

[bagsmom]

This is as it stands now. We are going mid June! I'd love your thoughts!

Friday -- arrive at Contemporary about 2:00! It's a surprise! Rest a little and eat something, probably. Around 5, walk over to MK for a couple of rides and spend a couple hours people watching as we stake out our spot for parade and fireworks.

Saturday -- sleep in. Low crowd day at MK! Enjoy park from 11:00 till 2:00. Head over to the LODGE! YAY! Spend time enjoying VWL. Swim.

Sunday -- Do Epcot with a break around lunchtime at VWL. Return to Epcot 4 to 7:30. Come back to have a restful evening and decent bedtime.

Monday -- Early arrival at Blizzard Beach -- bring a lunch. Return to lodge around 1:30. Evening - go over to Animal Kingdom Lodge and be nosy. Early bed.

Tuesday -- Magic Kingdom till about 2:00. Back to Lodge for a very long break -- about 5 hours. Swim. Chill. Around 7:00, go to FW for Chip and Dale singalong and movie. Late night.

Wed -- Sleep in. Dad's day off. Bike ride, swim, explore FW, hidden Mickey hunt at lodge... etc.

Thursday -- EMH day at MK -- very early! Last day for MK -- stay till around 3:00. It's our anniversary. Do something low key, cheap, and romantic at VWL in evening. Picnic on beach?

Friday -- DHS most of the day. Return for Fantasmic if they have it.

Saturday -- sleep in and go home.

I know we are using tickets sort of wastefully on Friday and Saturday, but the cost of 6 days of tickets isn't much more than 4, so I won't mind. I've tried to make it so that we aren't completely exhausting ourselves by staying in the parks from morning till night -- trying to balance late nights with restful mornings and vice versa. I want to go nooooooowwwwww!

[sleepydog25]

Originally Posted by bagsmom

This is as it stands now. We are going mid June! I'd love your thoughts!

Friday -- arrive at Contemporary about 2:00! It's a surprise! Rest a little and eat something, probably. Around 5, walk over to MK for a couple of rides and spend a couple hours people watching as we stake out our spot for parade and fireworks.

Saturday -- sleep in. Low crowd day at MK! Enjoy park from 11:00 till 2:00. Head over to the LODGE! YAY! Spend time enjoying VWL. Swim.

Sunday -- Do Epcot with a break around lunchtime at VWL. Return to Epcot 4 to 7:30. Come back to have a restful evening and decent bedtime.

Monday -- Early arrival at Blizzard Beach -- bring a lunch. Return to lodge around 1:30. Evening - go over to Animal Kingdom Lodge and be nosy. Early bed.

Tuesday -- Magic Kingdom till about 2:00. Back to Lodge for a very long break -- about 5 hours. Swim. Chill. Around 7:00, go to FW for Chip and Dale singalong and movie. Late night.

Wed -- Sleep in. Dad's day off. Bike ride, swim, explore FW, hidden Mickey hunt at lodge... etc.

Thursday -- EMH day at MK -- very early! Last day for MK -- stay till around 3:00. It's our anniversary. Do something low key, cheap, and romantic at VWL in evening. Picnic on beach?

Friday -- DHS most of the day. Return for Fantasmic if they have it.

Saturday -- sleep in and go home.

I know we are using tickets sort of wastefully on Friday and Saturday, but the cost of 6 days of tickets isn't much more than 4, so I won't mind. I've tried to make it so that we aren't completely exhausting ourselves by staying in the parks from morning till night -- trying to balance late nights with restful mornings and vice versa. I want to go nooooooowwwwww!

Not sure we could sleep in and hit MK "late" on the first full day we're at the World. Even a so-called low crowd day at MK is going to seem crowded by 11 a.m. As for your romantic evening at VWL on that Thursday, the beach picnic is a marvelous idea. You should be able to catch some of Wishes and the EWP from the beach to boot. Have fun!

[horselover]

Originally Posted by bagsmom

This is as it stands now. We are going mid June! I'd love your thoughts!

Friday -- arrive at Contemporary about 2:00! It's a surprise! Rest a little and eat something, probably. Around 5, walk over to MK for a couple of rides and spend a couple hours people watching as we stake out our spot for parade and fireworks.

Saturday -- sleep in. Low crowd day at MK! Enjoy park from 11:00 till 2:00. Head over to the LODGE! YAY! Spend time enjoying VWL. Swim.

Sunday -- Do Epcot with a break around lunchtime at VWL. Return to Epcot 4 to 7:30. Come back to have a restful evening and decent bedtime.

Monday -- Early arrival at Blizzard Beach -- bring a lunch. Return to lodge around 1:30. Evening - go over to Animal Kingdom Lodge and be nosy. Early bed.

Tuesday -- Magic Kingdom till about 2:00. Back to Lodge for a very long break -- about 5 hours. Swim. Chill. Around 7:00, go to FW for Chip and Dale singalong and movie. Late night.

Wed -- Sleep in. Dad's day off. Bike ride, swim, explore FW, hidden Mickey hunt at lodge... etc.

Thursday -- EMH day at MK -- very early! Last day for MK -- stay till around 3:00. It's our anniversary. Do something low key, cheap, and romantic at VWL in evening. Picnic on beach?

Friday -- DHS most of the day. Return for Fantasmic if they have it.

Saturday -- sleep in and go home.

I know we are using tickets sort of wastefully on Friday and Saturday, but the cost of 6 days of tickets isn't much more than 4, so I won't mind. I've tried to make it so that we aren't completely exhausting ourselves by staying in the parks from morning till night -- trying to balance late nights with restful mornings and vice versa. I want to go nooooooowwwwww!

I'm curious why you're only planning 1/2 a day at BB? When we do the water parks (love!) we can hardly tear ourselves away at 3:00 or 4:00 & we get there at park opening. Have you been to BB before?

[bagsmom]

Well -- one of my "assignments" for this trip is to ensure that we don't overdo any of our days. No one in my group could handle a morning to night day anywhere without needing a full day of recovery! We are wimpy. AND -- silly to be going to Florida, I know -- we are not good in the heat and sun. The water park day especially will be super tiring. By the time it gets really hot, we'll all be done! We're the early in, early out type. My 7th grader is ready for bed before 8:30! (Of course, his school starts at 7 a.m.) We're not go-go-goers.

My scheduling is my attempt to make the husband happy (he would rather just be at Fort Wilderness, lolling about, skipping parks entirely!) It's the compromise thing. Also, I think we'll also be much cheerier if we don't overdo it. The Magic will only take us so far before we hit the wall. We're all a bunch of houseplants who love the a/c, so Florida in the summer will sap us! (Again, WHY are we going to WDW, you might ask!)

Sleepy -- our initial plans didn't even include any park time on Friday (bonus night) or Saturday. When I priced out the tickets, I saw that there wasn't much difference between 4 day and 6 day tickets. So these are just icing on the cake. The Unofficial Guide says that first Saturday will be a crowd level of only FOUR! Cool! So I thought I'd just get the extra ticket and burn it up for about 3 hours between check out and check in. We'll be tired from the fireworks the night before, so we'll just sleep in and walk over. Since it's just "extra", I figured we'd use the lines app and see what things we could do between check out and check in. Being able to walk over from the hotel will be a treat! I thought, "why not?" I feel like we are being so frivolous, but it will let us do all we want to do in "small bites."

Go ahead -- say it. We are just weenie wimps. But I know what will happen if we over do it. It won't be pretty!

Everything I plan revolves around keeping everyone happy -- getting park time in without doing full days. All those tips you read in guide books -- for toddlers -- those apply to me planning for my husband. Take lots of breaks -- don't do full days without restful days in between -- pack snacks... He's not a theme park sort of guy anyway, so this is my solution. I think that partial days with low key evenings will let us be there the full week without burning out too soon. This way, we'll have time to do some of the relaxing stuff too. (Also, we are doing most of our eating out of the cooler and in our room, so full days aren't as conducive to that.)

I am getting really excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As a matter of fact, the anniversary night idea -- I know that after being at MK so long, we will be WAY too tired to go anywhere. I had a bunch of other ideas, but they all involved dressing up and going. I think just being able to chill out at the lodge will be really nice. We can swim -- later let the kids dig in the sand -- the next day is our really full day at DHS if we end up doing Fantasmic. We'll need to be rested.

My husband and I are ready for Senior Citizen-hood. So are my kids!!!!!!! I could give the older one Coca-Cola and keep him zooming on caffeine, I suppose. But the other two don't like it.

Where should we get our picnic food, I wonder? I am determined not to cook dinner on my anniversary!!!!!!!!

[wfc4life]

Originally Posted by jimmytammy

Thanks Liz!
BTW, Tues night is the big night
sechem32, wfc4life and the jimmytammy family are headed to see Mary Poppins show in Durham!! Cant wait!!

JT glad Bailey is getting better with each new day. Can't wait until tomorrow night. After spending today at the hospital with mom, I'll need a pick me up. Pray her procedure goes well. Luckily, it's a minor one.

[bagsmom]

Originally Posted by wfc4life

JT glad Bailey is getting better with each new day. Can't wait until tomorrow night. After spending today at the hospital with mom, I'll need a pick me up. Pray her procedure goes well. Luckily, it's a minor one.

I'll shoot up a prayer! It's great that you can be there with your Mom to support her! Mine is 12 hours away. I know she's glad you're there!

[Nicoal13]

Just back from a week at OKW with my DS and my parents. Weather was wonderful!! We had mid 70s most of the week, even 80 a couple days. Nice enough to swim and relax by the pool.

DS (7) tripped on the bus one day and hit his head and got a black eye. He screamed so much I was sure he would be covered in blood when he stood up. Poor guy, but it wasn't bleeding and didn't swell up too much. Some ice and swimming afterwards made him feel better.

Crowds were much higher than other times that I've been there the same week. Dancers the first weekend, then cheerleaders. Oh and the Brazilian tour groups. They are very rude. Seemed like a lot of South American families. One person goes into a line and later, 20 more join the line. We did try to block some from getting around us a few times. They also used a lot of flash photography on dark rides.

Despite those couple of hiccups, we had a great week. Drove to Indian Rocks Beach on the gulf one day as well. Water was chilly, but it was a nice day to relax there.

I really enjoyed OKW, hadn't stayed there before.

Now figuring out how I can squeeze in another trip in December since DS and I have the DVC PAPs....I'd like to come meet some of the groupies

[bagsmom]

Originally Posted by horselover

I'm curious why you're only planning 1/2 a day at BB? When we do the water parks (love!) we can hardly tear ourselves away at 3:00 or 4:00 & we get there at park opening. Have you been to BB before?

PS -- no, we've never been! As I said, we're not big sun or heat lovers, so we've never hung out at swimming pools or anything (although we love it!) But my guys aren't expert swimmers at this point. It looks like a LOT of fun! Do you have favorite things you like to do? Summit Plummet is out -- but I know there are some less crazy things to do there that are just as fun and exciting!

PPS -- re. your photos -- my oldest has a "shadow 'stache" too! Is yours extremely proud of his facial hair? Mine thinks he is VERY manly!

[Nicoal13]

Oh and I wanted to tell you that if you have your park tickets on your room key, you are allowed to go through the new RFID turnstiles.

DS and I have the PAP so we had to go through the regular lines. Which were longer because each park had at least half the turnstiles under construction behind walls for the switch to RFID.

Also our room at OKW used the RFID to open the door.

[wfc4life]

Originally Posted by bagsmom

I'll shoot up a prayer! It's great that you can be there with your Mom to support her! Mine is 12 hours away. I know she's glad you're there!

Thanks Bagsmom! Prayer is always appreciated. Mom made it through her procedure with flying colors. Hopefully, we will get to leave the hospital soon.