Makin' Memories... A PTR for a 2022 Thanksgiving Trip. (hopefully)

70 Days!!!!

Happy Saturday Everyone! 70 Days!!! I am getting close to reservation day again!... Which we should have been in Disney today. ;( I admit, yesterday was rough. And what do you logically do when you are depressed that you cancelled a trip? Look at options for another trip!

So, i looked to see if American Airlines had there flights out for Thanksgiving. This trip the goal will be too use our miles. And they did!!! So, I found us flights that will allow us to only use miles and text'd it to Andy.

We talked about it this morning and I double checked the high school schedule and I realized that the high school doesn't have parent teacher conferences!!!!! Which means the week after Thanksgiving is a regular week of school for Morgan.

UGH!!! So, now I need to rethink when we are going. I literally just convinced Andy that being in Disney on Thanksgiving would be nice. He was really kind of against it. But I swayed him.... I said we would do a full Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before. Have the leftovers and all leading up to leaving. And that seemed to appease him.

The other option is to go the first week in November when the girls have off Thursday and Friday for New Jersey Teacher Conference. So, we could do a whole week and only miss 3 days. Which I think school wise, sounds better. BUT not all the Christmas stuff will be up yet!

Talking with Andy, I "think" we are going to stick with the original plan. Morgan is a good student. (she has been straight As pretty much since she could) and is always the student the teachers wished they had in all there classes. I am mostly worried it will be alot of make up work but we will see! i think....

I REALLY want to book the airfare. I know it still far off but with it being around a holiday and wanting to ONLY use miles, I feel like I need to book soon. I am going to let Andy mull it over a bit. But after talking this morning, I "think" that is what we are sticking with!

OK! Back to the Spring Break Trip!

Disney is starting to release park hours, although, I find the initial hours are pretty generic. I only have 2 official day of park hours. So, that really doesn't help.

They did release some of the Extended Extra hours for the trip. It's back to the usual cadence, which is actually better. I feel better about keeping everything the way it is. And hopefully the rouge HS night means Fantasmic will be back!

I really reviewed our schedule and I think I am pretty set on what dinning I want to get. I made just a few tweaks and I feel better about the rythmn of the days. So, I think I am ready for dinning day.
 
Which means the week after Thanksgiving is a regular week of school for Morgan.

Oh dear! Conference week is how we agreed to pull the kids for xmas stuff, too!

The other option is to go the first week in November when the girls have off Thursday and Friday for New Jersey Teacher Conference.

You don't get election day? Ours always used to be Tues, Thurs, Fri off. Recently, they made it the whole week, which we're definitely taking advantage of!
 
You don't get election day? Ours always used to be Tues, Thurs, Fri off. Recently, they made it the whole week, which we're definitely taking advantage of!
We used to get election day off, and then our town moved all of the voting locations out of the schools. So, now I vote at the Echlon Mall. Once the town did that, we only get the Thursday and Friday now. And I swear some teachers load up on school work that week just to make families not skip out. But we did go one year that week when they did have that off and it was great.
 


Happy Saturday Everyone! 70 Days!!! I am getting close to reservation day again!... Which we should have been in Disney today. ;( I admit, yesterday was rough. And what do you logically do when you are depressed that you cancelled a trip? Look at options for another trip!
Everything feels better with a Disney trip to plan and look forward to!
 
And the other night they added some more. Still not for our dates, but.... they did something intresting.... They put a Hollywood Studios night in! The Wednesday before we get there!
That would be awesome if they expand the extra hours to more parks. We only did the MK one in december but it was fantastic. Barely anyone there and we walked on everything but Mine Train. If we are staying deluxe again will definitely plan on staying again.

Happy Saturday Everyone! 70 Days!!! I am getting close to reservation day again!... Which we should have been in Disney today. ;( I admit, yesterday was rough. And what do you logically do when you are depressed that you cancelled a trip? Look at options for another trip!
:hug: I'm sure that was hard. But you will be there again soon enough.

The other option is to go the first week in November when the girls have off Thursday and Friday for New Jersey Teacher Conference. So, we could do a whole week and only miss 3 days. Which I think school wise, sounds better. BUT not all the Christmas stuff will be up yet!
We went the first week in November a few years ago and the Christmas stuff is definitely sparse, so you would certainly get more of that during Thanksgiving. Though we are contemplating our next trip for the week of the 6th. Casey has election day and veterans day off so I figured missing 3 days is better than 5 :confused3 Its either that or the week of labor day where she randomly has 2 days off too. It will definitely be hot then but thinking crowds may be lower. Decisions, Decisions :rotfl2:
 


I understand the "Should be in Disney right now Blues." I said to my husband, I am glad our trip got cancelled because of the flights and we didn't cancel specifically for Covid, as we all got Covid anyway two weeks later! Canceling FOR Covid was on the plate, but I really wanted to get away. Oh well. Not meant to be.

I am loving all your April plans! I am hoping to book a Harmonious Fireworks Cruise when we are there in May. We are celebrating my belated 40th (my bday is Wednesday, but with baby coming three weeks later, not the best time to travel) in May. That may be something fun to look into. We did it for my bachelorette party back in 2018 and it was a highlight for all the girls! We got a cake from the Yacht Club bakery and had a couple bottles of Champagne as well. Sodas and snacks like chips, come with the price, and in terms of Disney pricing it was not unreasonable!
 
Speaking of school work... I am tempted to make us all schelp our laptops and school ipads with us. All of the news about flights being cancelled and delayed has me paranoid about getting back. If we all have our devices, worst case scenerio, we can work/learn remotely... But I REALLY don't want to be lugging THAT many devices with us. The girls would end up with 2 ipads and a phone each. And Andy and I would be a laptop/ipad and phone each! That will have to be a last minute decision, probably.

Not sure if I'm in the minority but I bring laptops and ipads and everything all the time lol...it's a pain but also we can't live without them!

And the other night they added some more. Still not for our dates, but.... they did something intresting.... They put a Hollywood Studios night in! The Wednesday before we get there!

Ugh. I really don't like that the planning for a Disney trip is getting so complicated again! I had hoped when they put in the park reservation system that it could maybe simplify things and make it possible to be a bit more spontaneous once you decided what park you were going to...but it seems...notsomuch lol...

Your plans look amazing as usual...picking out the dining is so much fun!
 
Everything feels better with a Disney trip to plan and look forward to!
Right!!!

Such a bummer you would’ve been in Disney right now but awesome you’ve got trips to look forward to. Sounds like your spring break trip is all coming together!!
I am trying not to dwell on it. Just looking forward!

We went the first week in November a few years ago and the Christmas stuff is definitely sparse, so you would certainly get more of that during Thanksgiving. Though we are contemplating our next trip for the week of the 6th. Casey has election day and veterans day off so I figured missing 3 days is better than 5 :confused3 Its either that or the week of labor day where she randomly has 2 days off too. It will definitely be hot then but thinking crowds may be lower. Decisions, Decisions :rotfl2:
It is so hard!! We def can't do Labor Day... Morgan will have Marching Band practice and start high school! I really don't know how this is happening! Andy really pushed to stay with the plan as is, but I am still kind of wishy washy on pulling Morgan out a full 5 days. We will see.

That would be awesome if they expand the extra hours to more parks. We only did the MK one in december but it was fantastic. Barely anyone there and we walked on everything but Mine Train. If we are staying deluxe again will definitely plan on staying again.
LaLA La.... I don't hear what you are saying!!! We are sadly not going to be able to do the MK one. We will still be at Coronado, It's hard since we switch the next day... oh well. And we will probably stay Caribean Beach in Nov. So, i am not sure if we will ever get to really use it. We will to EPCOT, at least we can use it for Remy.

I understand the "Should be in Disney right now Blues." I said to my husband, I am glad our trip got cancelled because of the flights and we didn't cancel specifically for Covid, as we all got Covid anyway two weeks later! Canceling FOR Covid was on the plate, but I really wanted to get away. Oh well. Not meant to be.
Oh NO!!!! I am sorry! Cancelling a trip is never fun, no matter why.

Ugh. I really don't like that the planning for a Disney trip is getting so complicated again! I had hoped when they put in the park reservation system that it could maybe simplify things and make it possible to be a bit more spontaneous once you decided what park you were going to...but it seems...notsomuch lol...
I know! You would think it would have made things simplier, but it really hasn't. fast passes really wasn't that bad. Making a park reservation is doing the same thing, more or less. I just don't think Disney could ever make things easy, I mean look at Genie+!
 
I’ve been following along, sorry you had to cancel. The weather hasn’t been great so there is that to make you feel better!
When is your spring break trip now. We are going the end of April, maybe we will cross paths!
 
UGH!!! So, now I need to rethink when we are going. I literally just convinced Andy that being in Disney on Thanksgiving would be nice. He was really kind of against it. But I swayed him.... I said we would do a full Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before. Have the leftovers and all leading up to leaving. And that seemed to appease him.

This is Dennis too. He does not like to miss his Thanksgiving meal and leftovers. When we had to push our trip back a week his tummy benefited from it.
 
70 Days!!!!

Happy Saturday Everyone! 70 Days!!! I am getting close to reservation day again!... Which we should have been in Disney today. ;( I admit, yesterday was rough. And what do you logically do when you are depressed that you cancelled a trip? Look at options for another trip!

So, i looked to see if American Airlines had there flights out for Thanksgiving. This trip the goal will be too use our miles. And they did!!! So, I found us flights that will allow us to only use miles and text'd it to Andy.

We talked about it this morning and I double checked the high school schedule and I realized that the high school doesn't have parent teacher conferences!!!!! Which means the week after Thanksgiving is a regular week of school for Morgan.

UGH!!! So, now I need to rethink when we are going. I literally just convinced Andy that being in Disney on Thanksgiving would be nice. He was really kind of against it. But I swayed him.... I said we would do a full Thanksgiving dinner the Saturday before. Have the leftovers and all leading up to leaving. And that seemed to appease him.

The other option is to go the first week in November when the girls have off Thursday and Friday for New Jersey Teacher Conference. So, we could do a whole week and only miss 3 days. Which I think school wise, sounds better. BUT not all the Christmas stuff will be up yet!

Talking with Andy, I "think" we are going to stick with the original plan. Morgan is a good student. (she has been straight As pretty much since she could) and is always the student the teachers wished they had in all there classes. I am mostly worried it will be alot of make up work but we will see! i think....

I REALLY want to book the airfare. I know it still far off but with it being around a holiday and wanting to ONLY use miles, I feel like I need to book soon. I am going to let Andy mull it over a bit. But after talking this morning, I "think" that is what we are sticking with!

OK! Back to the Spring Break Trip!

Disney is starting to release park hours, although, I find the initial hours are pretty generic. I only have 2 official day of park hours. So, that really doesn't help.

They did release some of the Extended Extra hours for the trip. It's back to the usual cadence, which is actually better. I feel better about keeping everything the way it is. And hopefully the rouge HS night means Fantasmic will be back!

I really reviewed our schedule and I think I am pretty set on what dinning I want to get. I made just a few tweaks and I feel better about the rythmn of the days. So, I think I am ready for dinning day.
I hope your reservation day goes smoothly!! I’m so excited for your family…trip is getting closer.
Have you decided when you’re telling the girls? I think you mentioned an Easter inspired reveal.
I also am trying to decide when to go in November. It will be a mommy/daughter trip again. As much as I’d like to do early November, I think I’m going to stick to right before Thanksgiving because it works well for only missing 1-2 days of school. We can leave the Friday before Thanksgiving and return the Wednesday before and only miss one day of school. Plus we have off til the following Tuesday. First day of rifle hunting helps us out in PA.
DH and I are also trying to decide what to do for our summer vacation. We usually do OC MD beach or mountains in Deep Creek MD but we want to do something different. We are toying with a FL vacation. Only thing holding me back is how hot it is in July there! He is a SW fan and I keep telling him how much he would love the new stuff at HS. He isn’t a huge Disney fan but he seems interested! So I’m thinking maybe 2 nights on Disney property and hit HS and Epcot and then transfer to an offsite hotel/condo and maybe do Discovery Cove and Kennedy Space Center. We’ll see!
 
Happy Sunday Everyone!!!

It's been a long year... I mean week...

62 DAYS!!!!!

The girls and I are up bright and early today, we are going tubing in the poconos, which will be fun and then hopefully I won't be so tired that I can watch the super bowl and make pizza and wings when we get home.

I have a number of updates that I wanted to make during the week, but just didn't have time to do.

First: Tinkerbell Gifts...

I ordered a TON of shirts from Tee Public. I am basically working off the fact that Morgan, myself and Gwen need a new shirt for each day. All of my Disney tees have been worn to death during covid and trips. And Morgan and Gwen have been living in pjs the last 2 summers! Once I get them here, I will post some pics!

I also got this in the mail this week. And it made me sooo happy

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I ordered these off of Etsy and they are really nice. I got them for our eat around the world day. I got one for each girl and one for me and Andy to share. They came with the clear lanyard and a mini pen. I was going to make one, but there was no way mine would have been this nice.


Big Reveal Easter Basket:

I am also making headway on the Easter Baskets for the big reveal.
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I got disney themed scented hand santizer from Magic Candle, reuseabel straws that each have there own case, a park bound button, magic bands. And then a Chip and a Dale in there 50th outfits. I had gotten the girl Christmas ones when we told them about the Christmas trip awhile back. So, when I saw those on shop Disney. I thought that would be perfect!

What else do I need? I am thinking water bottles that they can use for the trip. Maybe a disney themed mask for each basket?

What else... OH!!! So, I had dinner with my girlfriend who's kids are older than mine. And she pointed out some timing issues with my Thanksgiving trip!!! Sigh... Here in Jersey, typically there is a high school football game ON Thanksgiving. And Morgan is planning on doing Marching Band, so, she will need to be there. SO, there goes my dreams of being at Disney on Thanksgiving for awhile. Sigh...

On top of that, my girlfriend said that she wouldn't take her kids out for a full 5 days. And I trust her. She said it's just really hard to make it all up. AND she mentioned that most of the Marching Bands do competitions on the weekends as well. So, going "Jersey Week" might be out as well. SO, I think my Christmas trip has been shortened to Tuesday Evening after Thanksgiving to Sunday. This way the Morgan will only miss 3 days of school. And Gwen will miss a half day and a full day. So, in the tradition of making lemonade out of lemons I think I am going to try and book Wilderness Lodge for the trip. I can book Standard View still, now that we aren't trying to span Thanksgiving.

And lastly, all this talk of high school schedules and whatnot, had me thinking about trips past this, and I am seriously thinking Disneyland for the NEXT spring break.

I still have to figure out our summer vacation. I was tempted to try and plan a staycation in Disney when I found out that the Thanksgiving trip would be shortened. But I really don't think Andy is up for that.

I think that is everything for now. I have to go and get ready to go tubing!!!
 
I ordered these off of Etsy and they are really nice. I got them for our eat around the world day. I got one for each girl and one for me and Andy to share. They came with the clear lanyard and a mini pen. I was going to make one, but there was no way mine would have been this nice.
Love those!
I am also making headway on the Easter Baskets for the big reveal.
You have so many cute things for the girls!
On top of that, my girlfriend said that she wouldn't take her kids out for a full 5 days. And I trust her. She said it's just really hard to make it all up. AND she mentioned that most of the Marching Bands do competitions on the weekends as well. So, going "Jersey Week" might be out as well. SO, I think my Christmas trip has been shortened to Tuesday Evening after Thanksgiving to Sunday. This way the Morgan will only miss 3 days of school. And Gwen will miss a half day and a full day. So, in the tradition of making lemonade out of lemons I think I am going to try and book Wilderness Lodge for the trip. I can book Standard View still, now that we aren't trying to span Thanksgiving.
That sounds like fun! It definitely gets more complicated when the kids are in high school. Those 4 years go by so fast though and before you know it she will be planning on university!
I think that is everything for now. I have to go and get ready to go tubing!!!
Have an awesome day!
 
Love all your tinkerbell gifts and the planned reveal through the Easter baskets. Booking trips definitely gets more complicated as the kids get into their senior years at school though actually becomes easier again when they are at university as the holidays are longer by a week or two or at least that’s the case for here.
Hope you had fun tubing 😀
 
I ordered these off of Etsy and they are really nice. I got them for our eat around the world day.

Those are really nice! I think that will add to the fun of eating around the WS.


And lastly, all this talk of high school schedules and whatnot, had me thinking about trips past this, and I am seriously thinking Disneyland for the NEXT spring break.

Disneyland sounds like a good plan.
Planning trips when the kids are in school is such a hassle. Over here, the school year actually goes a little longer (start earlier/finish later) because they work in a ton of teacher workdays to give the kids a lot of three and four day weekends. Which is what we typically use to travel around the U.K. with. I am going to be at such a loss when we move back to the states and have to limit ourselves again. And I hadn't even thought abut how much harder it is for high school grades! Yuck.
 
Hi Everyone!!!!

Man! Is today over yet?!?! It was a rough day! Just crazy busy and my head is spinning!


Why is dining reservation day so stressful?!?!

I thought I set my alarm for 5:45, so, I had just enough time to make some coffee and go set myself up at my desk. BUT my tired self last night set my alarm for 5:15! (this is the time I get up to walk in the morning if I am brave enough to go excersize) Blek! And I of course woke up immediatly! It was reservation day!

So, I got up and decided to make my coffee and get the girls lunches packed so I wouldn't have to worry about that. Which was fine... except Morgan came downstairs at 5:55 and requested eggs for breakfast! Ok, fine, I can whip those up SUPER quick! Did that, made myself a second cup of coffee and headed to my desk!

I logged on 2 minutes late, not a big deal...

But man alive! I probably complained about this last time, but Disney's website SUCKS!!!! I had to keep flipping between being logged into the website on Chrome browser and Safari. I got error messages more than you should. It was def not magical.

I TOTALLY forgot that since I had 2 reservations, I wouldn't be able to do ALL of my dinning reservations! And I panicked. I was planning Space 220 later in the trip to you know, have options. And of course there wasn't any options or the first part of our trip! Sigh...

So, I moved on and focused on what I could get for Easter Sunday. I was able to get Le Cellier But I had to settle for 3:00 PM. Which isn't the end of the world, but I would like a bit closer to dinner time. I will probably put a dinning alert in to see if I can get a little later.

I ALSO woke up to an email from Southwest.... They changed our flight down. We were flying out at 9:45 AM and now we are leaving at 1:40... So, now we don't arrive till 4-ish. So, I debated whether to book Morimoto still for our arrival day. But I decided to try just in case, but being a Saturday, there wasn't anything available. Really with the new time, we are probably better off with no hard reservation.

I grabbed a couple more reservations, and then it was 6:30. So, I had to head back downstairs, and wake Gwen up and get her breakfast. So, I did that and decided to go ahead and make a throw away reservation so I could make the second half of my trip's reservations.

So, I did that, and tackled trying to find a Space 220 reservation. And it was Rough!!! It kept telling me there was something and then it would disappear. And then it would give me a 503 Bad error message. Blek! But I kept at it, and finally got a lunch reservation. My computer at this point too, kept having the fan rev like there was a little hamster running inside of it!

I managed to get something for Andy's birthday day, as that was the other really important one. And then I gave up for awhile. I kept getting only a few reservation options, or none at all. So, I needed to walk away. (and you know get to work) I hoped to hop on at some point during the day, but that didn't happen, as I ALSO had to take Morgan to the Dentist. Fun Day!

I finally grabbed the last few around 5-ish. And I at least have something for all the days I wanted something! Woo! Are you still with me? No? I wouldn't blame you...

So, what did I get?

Saturday: 3 Bridges or Polite Pig

Sunday: Le Cellier @ 3:00
Monday: Sanaa @ 5:30
Tuesday: Morimoto Asia @ 4:30
Wednesday: Tiffins @ 5:00
Thursday: none - Eat around the World
Friday: 50's Prime Time @ 5:00
Saturday: Homecomin' @ 6:00
Sunday: Steakhouse 71 @ 1:00
Monday: Space 220 @ 1:55
Tuesday: Only day I couldn't make a reservation for. But I want to do Skipper Canteen. I should be able to get something that day.

I think overall I am happy with what I got. But I am still salty about our flight being changed! It looks like they completely eliminated our flight. Maybe they will add one back in at some point. I will have to keep an eye on that.
 
Hi Everyone!!!!

Man! Is today over yet?!?! It was a rough day! Just crazy busy and my head is spinning!


Why is dining reservation day so stressful?!?!

I thought I set my alarm for 5:45, so, I had just enough time to make some coffee and go set myself up at my desk. BUT my tired self last night set my alarm for 5:15! (this is the time I get up to walk in the morning if I am brave enough to go excersize) Blek! And I of course woke up immediatly! It was reservation day!

So, I got up and decided to make my coffee and get the girls lunches packed so I wouldn't have to worry about that. Which was fine... except Morgan came downstairs at 5:55 and requested eggs for breakfast! Ok, fine, I can whip those up SUPER quick! Did that, made myself a second cup of coffee and headed to my desk!

I logged on 2 minutes late, not a big deal...

But man alive! I probably complained about this last time, but Disney's website SUCKS!!!! I had to keep flipping between being logged into the website on Chrome browser and Safari. I got error messages more than you should. It was def not magical.

I TOTALLY forgot that since I had 2 reservations, I wouldn't be able to do ALL of my dinning reservations! And I panicked. I was planning Space 220 later in the trip to you know, have options. And of course there wasn't any options or the first part of our trip! Sigh...

So, I moved on and focused on what I could get for Easter Sunday. I was able to get Le Cellier But I had to settle for 3:00 PM. Which isn't the end of the world, but I would like a bit closer to dinner time. I will probably put a dinning alert in to see if I can get a little later.

I ALSO woke up to an email from Southwest.... They changed our flight down. We were flying out at 9:45 AM and now we are leaving at 1:40... So, now we don't arrive till 4-ish. So, I debated whether to book Morimoto still for our arrival day. But I decided to try just in case, but being a Saturday, there wasn't anything available. Really with the new time, we are probably better off with no hard reservation.

I grabbed a couple more reservations, and then it was 6:30. So, I had to head back downstairs, and wake Gwen up and get her breakfast. So, I did that and decided to go ahead and make a throw away reservation so I could make the second half of my trip's reservations.

So, I did that, and tackled trying to find a Space 220 reservation. And it was Rough!!! It kept telling me there was something and then it would disappear. And then it would give me a 503 Bad error message. Blek! But I kept at it, and finally got a lunch reservation. My computer at this point too, kept having the fan rev like there was a little hamster running inside of it!

I managed to get something for Andy's birthday day, as that was the other really important one. And then I gave up for awhile. I kept getting only a few reservation options, or none at all. So, I needed to walk away. (and you know get to work) I hoped to hop on at some point during the day, but that didn't happen, as I ALSO had to take Morgan to the Dentist. Fun Day!

I finally grabbed the last few around 5-ish. And I at least have something for all the days I wanted something! Woo! Are you still with me? No? I wouldn't blame you...

So, what did I get?

Saturday: 3 Bridges or Polite Pig

Sunday: Le Cellier @ 3:00
Monday: Sanaa @ 5:30
Tuesday: Morimoto Asia @ 4:30
Wednesday: Tiffins @ 5:00
Thursday: none - Eat around the World
Friday: 50's Prime Time @ 5:00
Saturday: Homecomin' @ 6:00
Sunday: Steakhouse 71 @ 1:00
Monday: Space 220 @ 1:55
Tuesday: Only day I couldn't make a reservation for. But I want to do Skipper Canteen. I should be able to get something that day.

I think overall I am happy with what I got. But I am still salty about our flight being changed! It looks like they completely eliminated our flight. Maybe they will add one back in at some point. I will have to keep an eye on that.
Disney tech is a pain in the rear for sure! Glad you still found some dining reservations though. Maybe you can find a different, earlier flight?? Are you doing SW? They usually have a ton of options out of our airport of BWI. I think you said Philly's schedule is harder though. Good luck pal!! You could always do a Friday night flight??
 
Maybe you can find a different, earlier flight?? Are you doing SW? They usually have a ton of options out of our airport of BWI. I think you said Philly's schedule is harder though. Good luck pal!! You could always do a Friday night flight??
I am def going to see what options I can get. I don't think DH wants to fly to BWI. But I do want to see if we can get something better. The girls are off Friday, so we could do that. We will see....
 

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