Nine weeks later...we just need a REDO! A January 2013 PTR

[kittylady1972]

SINGLE DIGIT DANCING

Yes we are now at 8 more days until we leave!

The update is that I have booked a scooter for my MIL to use for our trip. I am still worried about the walking she'll have to do with that but hopefully she will be okay.

However what that also means is that I'm really RE-THINKING our stay at Old Key West. Why? Well our last stay was back in November of 2007 and what I recall from that stay...was we had a scooter for my MIL! Our room was on the second floor of OKW and there were NO ELEVATORS which meant we had to haul that scooter up the steps each day and down each day. That was not too fun.

So perhaps we'd be better off booking a stay at a resort that has an elevator. I'm actually thinking maybe Saratoga Springs even though it's a bit higher on the points. However I'm going to wait a few more days just in case one of my waitlists does come through...which means a stay at Boardwalk or Animal Kingdom right now. I honestly don't see that happening. However I am totally not even against checking every day next week for last minute cancellations. Maybe I'll get some pixie dust!

I am having serious concerns about the weather. It's supposed to be COLD here in Maryland next week...which is fine with me. However if any moisture comes into the area it will affect our plans. My thoughts are we hit the road ahead of any storms if they are rolling through...but that means pulling the kids out of school earlier. Also if any of the weather hits overnight and messes up the morning, and the kids get a delay in the school opening...then they will NOT get out early from school which also messes up my plans.

Anyway don't know of the chances of this. I've already slowly starting putting away some of the kids' clothes in my closet without them knowing. I'm hoping to have the clothes ready to be packed already set aside this weekend. That means when they head off to school next Thursday morning, I'll go to work but come home early and pack their stuff. My SIL has agreed to take our dog for us while we are gone which I know the dog will love but so will my SIL since she just put her dog down earlier this month. So it's a win-win situation for her and my nephew to borrow our furry family member for a few days...and it saves us some money!

That's it from here! Tune in next week as I begin stalking the DVC website regularly!

[kittylady1972]

8 MORE DAYS (a 2nd BONUS post)
A really quick update since...SURPRISE...I made a minor change today.

I just could not stop thinking about dealing with that scooter at Old Key West and how it would not be as convenient and so I checked the DVC website and found a 2BR available for Saratoga Springs...and decided to take it. I really do like Saratoga Springs. The pools are nice, the eating options there are better than at OKW, and even though it is very spread out with many bus stops, I know we'll mostly be driving and so that's fine. So I called DVC Member Services and made the change!

A quick recap now of how I envision our trip:

THURSDAY: Kids are out of school around 1pm. We'll have the car packed and ready to go so that when they get home we'll just hit the road for the long drive. This should put us through the terrible DC Area/Northern VA area well ahead of traffic. Our hope is to keep trucking along for a good 8-10 hours plus. Goal is to make it at least to Georgia and then find a hotel overnight. According to my DH, he really wants to drive for a MINIMUM of 12 hours so we just might find ourselves stopping in Florida!

FRIDAY:With any luck, we'll be within a 3-4 hour drive of Walt Disney World from our hotel, but it might be more like 2 if my husband has his way. I think he's already planning on a breakfast at Cracker Barrel so I guess we have to make sure we stop near one of those. We will get up and packed and cleaned up and head somewhere for a nice sit-down breakfast. Then it's back in the car for the drive! Hoping to arrive in Walt Disney World close to noon...or earlier. We will head to our resort (now SSR) and see about checkin. If the room is ready, we may unpack but if not...then we have some decisions to make. Originally I was thinking we wouldn't have to do a park this day, but now I am thinking we have those annual passes....so why not? I think we might try to head to Magic Kingdom and head straight for BOG for a lunch there. I keep reading so many good things about their lunch and I'm willing to wait a little bit for a good meal! Then maybe we'll let the kids to the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom adventure there between rides.


SATURDAY:One of the goals for the kids this trip I know is to ride Toy Story Mania since we missed it in November. I think this time we just might try to get that done. So we will wake up and have breakfast in our room. It is an early entry day for Hollywood Studios so I'm thinking we aim to be there close to the 8am opening and that means leaving our hotel NO LATER THAN 7:30am. We are pretty much right across the street from Hollywood Studios really. We'll ride Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Rock N' Roller Coaster and Star Tours and maybe also do a drawing at Animation as well. This should put us into the afternoon timeframe. I am holding a lunch reservation at 50s Prime Time Cafe. I love their pot roast and fried chicken and I know I said no table service...but I couldn't resist. The afternoon/evening is going to be for EPCOT. Hoping we can get a fastpass for Soarin' for an evening ride there sometime. We will just spend the rest of the day exploring EPCOT. I have yet another ADR here for the evening at Rose & Crown for the sole purpose of dessert for my husband...he loves their sticky toffee pudding!

SUNDAY:This is all about the Magic Kingdom day. Breakfast in our room and then hit Magic Kingdom for a full day. We *MIGHT* take a break in the afternoon for dinner outside of the park...not sure. I am holding an ADR at the Plaza for an early dinner here. I love the food there and it's not too expensive.

MONDAY:This is our full day at EPCOT. Breakfast in our room and then hit the park for a full day there. We might try to have a sitdown meal for dinner at one of the restaurants if we can find one that will seat us with NO ADR! I'd love to try Marrakesh again with the whold family. Maybe we'll finish up the park early and then hit the miniature golf course for the evening after we are packed up for the next day.

TUESDAY:Time to leave! We'll have a nice sit-down breakfast somewhere before hitting the road. Hoping to be on the road no later than 8am and we'll be driving all the way home with very few stops. Arrival back home should be between 10pm and 11pm. Next day the kids have school and we are back at work!

So that is our plan as it stands. It's really only subject to change at this point if I find different resort accomodations. Part of me is thinking of changing us to a 1BR (for our five) and Studio (for MIL and FIL) and only because I think they might enjoy having some privacy. Don't get me wrong...I know they will be fine with us and in their own bedroom but I also think they just might enjoy having their own private space too. We'll see if something opens up late next week.

[kittylady1972]

SIX 6 MORE DAYS!!!

We depart for our trip in six more days and as of now...by this time next week we will be in WALT DISNEY WORLD! I am hoping that a week from today I will be able to talk about the wonderful lunch I just ate at Be Our Guest. I'm going to do my best to keep Twitter updated while there. If you need my name there, let me know!

I'm pretty sure we'll end up at Saratoga Springs for our stay but honestly that's okay. It's actually a nice resort. My only issue is with the bus stops because I have had a history of not remembering which stop to get off the bus when returning from a park. We usually drive to the parks anyway, but sometimes one part of the group leaves (and that might be the case this time if my MIL starts having issues with her knee despite the scooter) and the rest of us hang at the parks. In December 2009 I took the kids alone to MK one night...and we took the bus back to the resort late. I missed our stop. I had sleeping kids I had to wake up and drag off the bus and walk back to our room. I woke up my husband to come get us...but then called him off once we nearly reached the building. Yeah...he wasn't too thrilled as you can imagine!

I get a lot of flack from him for my disregard of children and schedules. I am ALWAYS willing to run everybody down as much as possible. Late night at the parks? YES we can DO IT! Then you deal with tired children the next day when I insist we get up early for rope drop. Somehow he finds this to be a problem??

The kids are getting a little better as they get older. We tend to know when they have had enough. I always agree that I will be the one dealing with them the next day when I decide to run them ragged.

Our trip in November we didn't have too many late nights and honestly the ones that we did have...weren't too bad. The kids seemed to do okay for the most part the next day.

This trip will be SO short that I feel like we should take advantage of later park nights when possible. We just might try to to both MK and EPCOT that first night, since EPCOT has EMH that night. Of course, I won't mention that to my husband right now!

Speaking of my husband, for as much as he likes to complain about my frequent Disney trips, he's certainly not backing down from this one. The other night he was going crazy on Google Maps with driving directions and then looking for hotels for our stop. He is now VERY determined that we cross the Florida border before we stop for the night. He has even spoken of driving until 3:30am and just staying the night in Orlando or Kissimmee. Personally I think that's just too much.

Now he's talked about taking the kids out of school all day on Thursday. I won't do that. They already missed on day in November for vacation...so I'm okay with them missing one more next week, especially a short day. I just *MIGHT* give in and pick them up a bit early on Thursday though, instead of letting them ride the bus home. My plan was they would arrive home at 1:30pm and we'd pack them out and head out. Now I just might pick them up from school around noon and that puts us well on the road closer to 12:30pm. If we drive 12 hours we should be in Florida. We will see what happens.

Then there is the weather. I swear I read online today of the possibility of snow again next week, but maybe I was reading a forecast from earlier this week instead? I can't find it now. If there is any chance of bad weather, I will have no problems trying to hit the road ahead of the weather.

Last night I tried my best to throw my kids off the idea of anything happening next weekend. I'm not sure they are quite aware of the 4-day weekend coming up for them. I told them that maybe NEXT weekend we could do a tour of DC for the day, see some museums, since we haven't done that in a while. They were...well MEH about the idea...but we'll see. I shall continue to try to deflect their attention from any hopes of a trip coming up as much as possible.

We can DO this surprise thing!!!

[DMGeurts]

I love hearing about all your plans, and how you are throwing the kids off of the scent! Great job. I admire anyone who can surprise their kids - I am too much of a big mouth for that. LOL

I agree - leaving before the weather hits is a good thing. And I would think that pulling the kids out for part of a day would be OK?

I can't believe your trip is only (now) 5 days away! I would love to follow along with you, but I don't twitter.

D~

[tallen429]

Originally Posted by kittylady1972

I know, it's funny how I can use the line "but just think it will cost us almost NOTHING" with my DH with regards to the AP tickets. Add in a DVC room and it's practically FREE!!!!

I can't wait to post about my resort plans...when I know them for sure!

Keep an eye out for us...and run far AWAY! We'll probably be the ones riding Space Mountain over and over and over again. My DS8 LOVES that ride!

Wow it's getting so close now!!
I'm really getting that "less than one week to go" excitement/adreneline!

That darn AP already has me planning two more trips...LOL!
The cherry on top is that my DH has an international job so we always have a crazy amount of FF miles. FREE FLIGHTS!

eta, my ticker is wrong, fyi. I made it before I added days and never went back and changed it. 6 days!!

[shalom]

I think Saratoga Springs sounds lovely. In the abstract I always tended toward Old Key West (because it looks beautiful in pictures and the units are bigger), but when we actually visited both of them, everyone disliked Old Key West and loved Saratoga Springs. For some reason, OKW felt more "frazzled" and Saratoga Springs took the serene prize. A short trip like yours, that sounds good, right?

[kittylady1972]

Originally Posted by DMGeurts

I love hearing about all your plans, and how you are throwing the kids off of the scent! Great job. I admire anyone who can surprise their kids - I am too much of a big mouth for that. LOL

I agree - leaving before the weather hits is a good thing. And I would think that pulling the kids out for part of a day would be OK?

I can't believe your trip is only (now) 5 days away! I would love to follow along with you, but I don't twitter.

D~

Yes it has not been easy keeping up with this surprise thing. I do think we can pull it off, even though I know when we do my daughter will be all "I KNEW it" and the boys will be like "WHAT? Really?" so it will be interesting. Maybe I will record the reactions but it all depends on when they finally realize what is happening. Do I record when they see the car packed up and ask? Do I record when we get in the car and are on the road and I tell them where? Decisions, decisions!

Yeah the schools are pretty good with me taking the kids out...well I should say at least elementary school. My younger two are good students and I am Vice President of the PTO and know the school principal quite well...so taking them out has never been an issue. The middle school...well they haven't complained but I'm sure they are not as happy. And my middle school kid is not a great student by any means. He's smart...but does not apply himself at all. He now has 2 As 2 Ds and the rest C's on his report card...that will come out this week!

Too bad you don't read Twitter, but I will probably do a few Facebook posts and updates as well. Feel free to friend me there and I'll make sure I change my settings so you can see stuff!

[kittylady1972]

Originally Posted by tallen429

Wow it's getting so close now!!
I'm really getting that "less than one week to go" excitement/adreneline!

That darn AP already has me planning two more trips...LOL!
The cherry on top is that my DH has an international job so we always have a crazy amount of FF miles. FREE FLIGHTS!

eta, my ticker is wrong, fyi. I made it before I added days and never went back and changed it. 6 days!!

I know...I can't believe I have only THREE MORE SLEEPS at home and then we'll be on the road. Hoping the week goes by quickly but the vacation time goes SLOOOOOWWWWLLY!

My DH also has been doing a lot of travel too. We are hoping to use some of his miles to plan our big summer trip...to DISNEYLAND!!!

[kittylady1972]

Originally Posted by shalom

I think Saratoga Springs sounds lovely. In the abstract I always tended toward Old Key West (because it looks beautiful in pictures and the units are bigger), but when we actually visited both of them, everyone disliked Old Key West and loved Saratoga Springs. For some reason, OKW felt more "frazzled" and Saratoga Springs took the serene prize. A short trip like yours, that sounds good, right?

Yes we've stayed at both before. I really did enjoy Saratoga Springs. Of course, the best stay we had was November 2007 when we stayed in a 3 bedroom villa....huge and lovely! Our last stay there was December of 2009 and it was nice too and we did get to use the pool. Honestly we spend so little time in the room but it is nice to have a few food options and Old Key West just didn't have as much to us. Plus Turf Club at SSR has become a favorite. We don't have a meal planned right now for there but that doesn't mean we may not try to go there anyway!

[kittylady1972]

THREE 3 MORE DAYS!!

There are 3 more sleeps at home until our trip begins. I hate for it to get here because I know it will end far too quickly!

Here's hoping we make the best of it.

I need to stop reading dining reviews. It just makes me want to eat at more restaurants and that cuts into PRECIOUS park time. I think we may need the breaks for meals though. Right now those breaks will come at lunch time.

I did online checkin at SSR today. I have to do some checking with the scooter rental place who I emailed last week with our resort change...but did not get a response. I need to make sure we are on track with that.

We have lots of hotel options picked out in GA and FLA for our overnight stay. Hoping we can make it to FLA though as that would make for more theme park time on Friday!

Haven't finished packing up the kids but need to sneakily get that done soon. Might have to make a point to get home early one day from work so I can raid their rooms for clothing.

Actually right now might be a good idea. They are all in the basement playing games and I can sneak up and get some short sleeve shirts out for them for next week.

Yeah....off to do that!

[kittylady1972]

TWO 2 DAYS to GO!

Actually I can do my countdown in hours now as well. So if things go as planned right now, we'll be on the road to Florida in about 53 hours! It might be closer to 51 or 52 hours. It's going to depend on the weather and how much I can get done this week.

As I put in my last post, I decided to head upstairs to the kids' rooms yesterday to start packing them while they were two floors down playing in the basement. My daughter is seriously lacking in pants...which baffles me because I could SWEAR she had more clothing! However I'm trying to mostly pack jeans for most of our park days, and some comfy clothing (like sweats) for the drive days. So I need about 4 pairs of jeans, plus have to leave them clothing for today and tomorrow AND make sure they have some comfy clothes for Thursday. Not exactly easy!

I finished most of my youngest son's clothing and have that set aside in my closet. As I was painfully going through my daughters stuff (ugh) and trying to find clothing for her I heard her coming up the stairs so I SPRINTED down the hall to my bedroom with a bunch of her clothing in my hands...and threw it in my closet! I still says she is suspicious. Even yesterday as I then had her come upstairs and put away her clean clothing and she kept muttering "I KNOW we are going to Disney MOM!" but I'm not sure if you knows when! She couldn't understand why I insisted she put away her clean clothes and bring down her basket of dirty clothes to be washed. HELLO? she had nearly NO pants for this week and the temps are in the 20s for the rest of the week here...for the HIGH!

Anyway I have probably 75% of the kids' clothing ready to be packed. I'll need to get the rest sometime this week. My daughter has basketball practice tonight so I may have to send my husband with her so I can finish packing. The boys will stay downstairs oblivious but with her...she would want to know what I was doing.

That may not quite work out since I should probably give my husband a rest this evening. He had a really BAD day in terms of medical situations yesterday. He's at work today thankfully, but he got very lucky. Just as I was doing one of my trip reports yesterday, he came downstairs. He had been up in our bedroom folding laundry and watching tv when his eyes starting itching and then he felt like he was having an allergic reaction to something. Eventually it was getting worse so he came down for some benadryl (which I ALWAYS have on hand because we have kids with allergies...though most are mild and rare) and that's when I noticed his face was starting to swell on one side. He took two benadryl and then I made him sit downstairs so I could observe him. Unfortunately he started getting worse, his throat was closing more and he was having a hard time speaking. That's when I decided it was best to go wait this out at the local emergency room!

Thankfully we live very close to a hospital so I had the kids get ready and we rushed out the door. I called my husband's parents, who live within 5 miles of our house, and made plans to drop the kids off with them on the way but then decided I didn't even want to take the time to go out of my way for that 10 minutes! I flew to the E/R as my husband started complaining he was having a hard time seeing! We walked in and had to get him registered and despite the fact that I told them he was having a hard time breathing...we still waited a good 30 minutes in the waiting room to be triaged! I guess if he had passed out due to lack of air they would have helped. I just felt better having him THERE and not at home!

I called the in-laws who picked up the kids at the E/R waiting room and I told them all to make sure they washed their hands VERY GOOD! After all, we walked into a fairly busy waiting room full of people who mostly looked like they were death warmed over, so I suspect most were there for flu-like symptoms and I really don't need to have us all exposed to that a few days before VACATION! I didn't even BREATHE as we walked back out through that waiting room several hours later.

Anyway, as it turns out my husband had eaten a protein bar at home while he was upstairs. It was one he purchased a few months ago to eat on a cross-country flight...but he had never eaten it. How THANKFUL he was that he did not eat that while in flight now! He's never had one before and has never had a severe allergic reaction like this one, but it was classified by the docs at the hospital as anaphylactic so that means he is now the proud new owner of an epi-pen for the first time! It was quite scary for everybody and knowing that my husband does a lot of travel to foreign countries where he eats things that he has not had before....it's an obvious concern now. He will now carry benadryl and/or that pen with him as often as possible, especially if he knows he is going somewhere he might eat something different.

So that was the end of my nice 3-day weekend. What started out fun, with dinner out on Friday, a movie day on Saturday with my oldest, and a fun playoff party at our home on Sunday where we watched our local Ravens clinch a Superbowl berth...ended on Monday with 4+ hours at the hospital! In any case, I am now really ready for that vacation!

My in-laws are ready to go as well and just this morning I called the place where I rented our scooter to make sure they got my resort change information. They didn't seem to have it so I corrected it. Then they mentioned something to me that I had not noticed. I guess they no longer just drop the scooter off at the resort...they deliver it in person to you and show you how to use it! So I have an estimated arrival time that morning of 8:30am but I know we won't be there that early. I apparently have to call them 20 minutes before we arrive so they can bring it to us at the resort. I will have to keep that number handy!

So that's it from here!

[kittylady1972]

50 HOURS TO GO!
Just remembered one more last minute change. I made this reservation while sitting at the hospital with my husband last night. This is what happens when you are HUNGRY I guess!

Since it's pretty much a given we'll be staying at Saratoga Springs now, my husband could not help to mention the possibility of a meal at the Turf Club. So a little background on that one. When we took our NON-DISNEY trip back in June of 2012, we decided one afternoon while sitting at the pool of our NON-DISNEY resort that we wanted a nice meal. Why we decided on a Disney restaurant I can't recall. So I whipped out my phone and checked the Disney app for availability and found that the Turf Club had an opening. We had never eaten there but I had read good things about it and thus we decided we'd try it out.

We LOVED it! 3 of the 4 adults got the Prime Rib and it was simply FABULOUS! My FIL got the fish which he also loved...but probably not as much as we loved the prime rib. It was probably the best meal of our trip that time, so much that when it came time to plan dining for our Thanksgiving Week trip...we selected the Turf Club once again for our Thanksgiving Day dinner. We were okay with giving up turkey in favor of prime rib.

Well I must say that we were not as happy with our Thanksgiving Day dinner. They changed up the au jus with the prime rib, trying to Thanksgiving-it-up I guess...and it simply did not work well. The meal was good....but just not GREAT! That's twice we've had Thanksgiving Day meals at Disney properties and none of them have wowed us.

So with one GREAT experience and one not-so-great experience, we have decided for this trip that the third time should be the deciding factor as to whether or not we keep it on our list of Disney restaurant faves. The list is constantly evolving of course as we continue to try new places. Besides, we have to check-in at some point at SSR anyway, we might as well time our check-in at the resort and then head there afterwards for a meal. So that has been added to our Friday itinerary for the trip. Again, we don't HAVE to keep it if we find ourselves in a park and we don't want to leave. However right now my plan is to do MK on Friday and then leave for check-in and then MAYBE head to EPCOT that evening for a few extra magic hours but we can still make that happen if we want to do so.

[tallen429]

Originally Posted by kittylady1972

50 HOURS TO GO!
Just remembered one more last minute change. I made this reservation while sitting at the hospital with my husband last night. This is what happens when you are HUNGRY I guess!

Since it's pretty much a given we'll be staying at Saratoga Springs now, my husband could not help to mention the possibility of a meal at the Turf Club. So a little background on that one. When we took our NON-DISNEY trip back in June of 2012, we decided one afternoon while sitting at the pool of our NON-DISNEY resort that we wanted a nice meal. Why we decided on a Disney restaurant I can't recall. So I whipped out my phone and checked the Disney app for availability and found that the Turf Club had an opening. We had never eaten there but I had read good things about it and thus we decided we'd try it out.

We LOVED it! 3 of the 4 adults got the Prime Rib and it was simply FABULOUS! My FIL got the fish which he also loved...but probably not as much as we loved the prime rib. It was probably the best meal of our trip that time, so much that when it came time to plan dining for our Thanksgiving Week trip...we selected the Turf Club once again for our Thanksgiving Day dinner. We were okay with giving up turkey in favor of prime rib.

Well I must say that we were not as happy with our Thanksgiving Day dinner. They changed up the au jus with the prime rib, trying to Thanksgiving-it-up I guess...and it simply did not work well. The meal was good....but just not GREAT! That's twice we've had Thanksgiving Day meals at Disney properties and none of them have wowed us.

So with one GREAT experience and one not-so-great experience, we have decided for this trip that the third time should be the deciding factor as to whether or not we keep it on our list of Disney restaurant faves. The list is constantly evolving of course as we continue to try new places. Besides, we have to check-in at some point at SSR anyway, we might as well time our check-in at the resort and then head there afterwards for a meal. So that has been added to our Friday itinerary for the trip. Again, we don't HAVE to keep it if we find ourselves in a park and we don't want to leave. However right now my plan is to do MK on Friday and then leave for check-in and then MAYBE head to EPCOT that evening for a few extra magic hours but we can still make that happen if we want to do so.

I'm soooo excited for you!!!
It's almost (our) time!!!
I will be VERY interested to hear the outcome of the "third time's the charm...or is it?" visit to Turf Club!
I haven't even started packing...LOL!

[shalom]

Wow, scary story about your husband. Glad it ended happily.

Certain of my kids never have clothes for vacations either -- even when I specifically sit them down a couple of weeks before and we figure out what they need and go out and get it, comes time to pack and we're short again. We have a bit of an advantage, though, because we stay in condos and so can easily wash stuff while we're there. Dunno what I'd do if I didn't have that option. Put up with kids in scruffy and/or dirty clothes, I guess!

[lovin'fl]

Hello again. So, you are packed? I haven't even begun packing...am getting all the laundry washed though. I just don't know what to pack...for warm weather or cold. I think we will bring a few outfits of each...thank goodness for the washer and dryer. I also would love to get into BOG for lunch. We made ADRs for dinner each night and we couldn't decide on one night and I actually had a spot for the 5 of us at 4:15(or so) at BOG for dinner pulled up on the online resie system and DH said 'nah, don't want to eat there'. So I let it go. Then, a couple weeks later DH was reading some stuff on the Dis and he says to me "I really want to try this new Beauty and the Beast place in the new section of MK"....OMG, I wanted to smack him silly. I really should be packing or cleaning or painting my toes. I need to make a Khols run too...I got DD a shirt there last week to wear at Disney and they didn't remove the sensor (why does a $20 shirt need a sensor anyway?). I'll be looking forward to your TR when I get back. We can compare notes. Oh, and glad your DH is ok. Allergic reactions are scary.