EPIC isn't ONCE in a lifetime~ Final entry before GO time (4/17)!!! April 2013 PTR

[Mousemommy1]

Welcome One and All to my very first attempt at a PTR!!

My Dis name is Mousemommy1 ~ But you can call me Candace. And for the record, it is Candace... NOT CANDY and one of my biggest pet peeves is when people take liberties with my name in that way. I've learned that ignoring people who address me as such, usually results in the proper use of my name.

Wow...already getting off topic, huh? I tend to do that alot...

I am 34 years old and have been married to my wonderful husband for 10 years. We were high school sweethearts and have been together for 18 years!!! He is absolutely the love of my life, and my best friend and I can't imagine life without him. I don't even remember life before him really, LOL, since I was 15 when he swept me off my feet!

Here is a picture of me and my love earlier this summer at one of our best friends weddings.



You may have noticed the fancy duds my hubby was wearing...well, it's probably obvious that he's a military man.

He is a member of the Air National Guard and also works full time for the Department of Defense. He is an amazingly hard worker and I couldn't be prouder of him. This summer, he was honored at our beloved Fenway Park for his military service.

Here he is on the big HD screen...it was quite a moment



Next in our lineup are our precious babies! Our oldest is 8 and she prefers to go by the name KK ~ it is a play off of her actual name so I'll use it for the PTR. Our youngest will be 6 in November. She is a firecracker!!! Definitely suffers from second child syndrome and can be prone to meltdowns if things aren't going her way...kids!

Here are the babies from our Disney trip last month!!



So, now that all the introductions are out of the way. Let's get this PTR going!!!!

Up next.....Where are we staying...what are the plans???

[jennyjinx3]

Am I first? I am in Candace!

[pas130]

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Found it! Thanks for the link Candace

[babyberger]

I am here too! This should be fun

[Mousemommy1]

Originally Posted by jennyjinx3

Am I first? I am in Candace!

You are first!!!!! Congrats!!!! I'll always remember my first PTR reader....

Originally Posted by pas130

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Found it! Thanks for the link Candace

I'm a technological wizard, didn't ya know??? Glad to have you on board. I'm hoping there's no ch-ch-changing on this PTR. I'm feeling pretty strong right now!

Originally Posted by babyberger

I am here too! This should be fun

Welcome Melissa!!! I knew all of my RC ladies would have my back on this PTR!!!

I'm such a naughty girl!!! Of course, I am at work right now...as always Monday thru Friday...and darn it, I just don't feel like doing work....so it was a perfect time to start this PTR

[pas130]

Originally Posted by Mousemommy1

I'm a technological wizard, didn't ya know??? Glad to have you on board. I'm hoping there's no ch-ch-changing on this PTR. I'm feeling pretty strong right now!

I'm such a naughty girl!!! Of course, I am at work right now...as always Monday thru Friday...and darn it, I just don't feel like doing work....so it was a perfect time to start this PTR

I saw the late nite brillance on the RC thread

I get my best Dis work done at work....when work doesn't get in the way of course

[Missoutandabout]

Oooh ooooh OOOOH! I heard there was a party going on in here? With LINKS and beer too?! I'm here, I'm here.

I love all those pics. So happy to see all of you gorgeous lot again!

[Mousemommy1]

Well, you can see from my signature that this is not our first Disney rodeo, so to speak. For the record, this April trip will be trip # 9 for DH and I (7 of those trips with each other), and this will be trip #4 for our darling little Disney divas!!!

We are Disney lovers through and through. My first trip was when I was 7 and I went with my mom, dad and sister. We stayed offsite back in those days, out in Kissimmee. Back then, the only onsite resorts were the Poly, GF and CR. We once visited the Poly when I was 7 and I remember seeing all of those happy people who got to stay there and was soooooo jealous!!!! But, Kissimmee, it was for my dad....but I vowed that someday, I would stay at the Poly, darn it!!!

A little more background...DH and I had our first trip to Disney together back in 2000 for our senior year of college's spring break!!!It had been several years since both of us had been to Disney and we had an absolute BLAST!!!! So much that we returned that very year for another trip.

We also had our honeymoon at Disney in 2002. We stayed at All Star Sports. We were definitely on an All Star Sports budget back then...actually, even that was a splurge for two young kids starting out in the world, but I wouldn't have had our honeymoon anywhere else!!!

Soon after our honeymoon, we knew we wanted to start a family, but we knew that we would have to take a break from Disney to do so. That break lasted 7 years!!! But at that 7 year mark, we had our family and were ready to go!!! Our girls were 3 and 5 on their first trip and they loved every minute of it...what kid wouldn't??? And that is when our annual trips began. We were very much a value resort kind of family...really just using the hotel to sleep and shower. We upped the ante in 2011 and "upgraded" to CBR because of the free dining deal at the time....well, CBR was not our favorite resort and we were kind of turned off of moderates all together. When we started to plan our 2012 trip, we decided to step it up to a deluxe!

For those of you that have seen my posts over the years, you will know that moving to a deluxe resort was quite the source of anxiety for me. I was concerned that it would not be worth it, I was concerned it was a waste of money. It was not that we could not afford it, it was just that we had a history of great trips at value resorts and we knew that our trip could be much cheaper if we just stuck with one of those...

But no, we decided to go big...EPIC even! After a multitude of resort changing and bouncing around between the Poly, BC and WL, we ultimately decided on WL CL for 11 whole days. You can see where for a value-loving family, this was EPIC and I was crossing all fingers and toes that it would be worth it for us.

Well, not only was it worth it, but we were hooked. I swear that Disney has WL and AKL well-positioned in their pricing tier to their "gateway resorts"...you know...equivalent to how marijuana is considered to be a gateway drug. The WL and AKL are priced much more reasonably for deluxes, so if you are on the fence about staying deluxe, you might be more apt to try one of these resorts. Well, of course, Disney knows what they are doing and they make these resorts so fabulous that you can't consider ever going back. I guess we have suckers written on our foreheads but it's definitely deluxe resorts for us for the foreseeable future. Darn Disney!

So, that leads us to this current trip planning adventure...and we are staying at....wait for it...

[Mousemommy1]

Originally Posted by Missoutandabout

Oooh ooooh OOOOH! I heard there was a party going on in here? With LINKS and beer too?! I'm here, I'm here.

I love all those pics. So happy to see all of you gorgeous lot again!

Welcome, welcome to my technical support!!!

Yes, lots of linkin' going on around here - glad to have you here!

[Mousemommy1]

Where did I leave off?? Oh right. Where are we staying for our April trip?

Well, because we want another taste of CL and we got our 40% off....I'm sure you've seen the ticker...

We're staying at the Polynesian - Club Level!!!!

Now, I'll say it now...I am a resort changer....I have commitment issues when it comes to Disney resorts...and there's nothing different about this trip. We booked 3 weeks ago and we have been booked at BC GV -- YC GV -- Poly CL -- WL BB -- POLY CL!!! In just 3 weeks!!! But, I am sticking with Poly CL...no really, it's now or never...so for our 8 nights we will enjoy Poly CL heaven!!!

[NemoLeo]

Subscribing. Great to see a picture of you to put a face with a name! Your daughters are adorable.

[Mousemommy1]

Originally Posted by NemoLeo

Subscribing. Great to see a picture of you to put a face with a name! Your daughters are adorable.

Well HELLO NemoLeo!!!

Thank you about the girls!

And refresh my memory, where did you end up booking??? I know we have overlapping dates and had both started out at BC/YC area...

[NemoLeo]

Originally Posted by Mousemommy1

Well HELLO NemoLeo!!!

Thank you about the girls!

And refresh my memory, where did you end up booking??? I know we have overlapping dates and had both started out at BC/YC area...

As of right now we're at WL, BUT my DH is on board with moving to the Poly. . I haven't changed the reservation yet, still concerned about how fast they will get the renovations done. I was not aware but apparently he had contacted Disney and tried to change reservations to the Poly on a previous trip but all they had available was a crazy expensive suite that was out of our price range. Very sweet! I only mention it because I wasn't aware that he was that interested in staying there.


I've been lurking on the RC page, just hadn't gotten around to posting yet!

[Mousemommy1]

Originally Posted by NemoLeo

As of right now we're at WL, BUT my DH is on board with moving to the Poly. . I haven't changed the reservation yet, still concerned about how fast they will get the renovations done. I was not aware but apparently he had contacted Disney and tried to change reservations to the Poly on a previous trip but all they had available was a crazy expense suite that was out of our price range. Very sweet! I only mention it because I wasn't aware that he was that interested in staying there.


I've been lurking on the RC page, just hadn't gotten around to posting yet!

How much fun would that be....us arriving at the Poly on the same day????

As you know, I think the WL is amazing!!! I hope we love the Poly just as much. I'm not really worried about the renovations because the Hawaii building should be done Jan/Feb, so we should be good there. Plus, the renovations will be out of site in whatever longhouse they are working on at the time. I can't imagine they will have people staying in the longhouse they are working on.

When we were at WL last month, there was tons of construction going on, but you wouldn't know about unless you were looking. Disney is really good about hiding that stuff!

[Mousemommy1]

So, for next years trip, we have decided not to do the DDP. We have used it on the past 3 trips and it has become more and more apparent that the amount and types of food you get on the DDP don't fit in with out eating habits. We waste soooooo much food!!

Plus, we are turning less commando in our touring nature so having to be at a certain time at a certain place is becoming less appealing too. We have decided that we will do no more than 4 ADRs this trip, and those ADR's are:

1) Be Our Guest Dinner
2) Ohana Dinner
3) Kona Dinner
4) Tusker House Breakfast - maybe??? (the girls really only wanted a character meal this time if Daisy Duck was one of the characters...)

It should be interesting to see how we do without the DDP.