Thanksgiving with Mickey again...a November 2016 TRIP REPORT! (DONE)

[kittylady1972]

Reminiscing....

I love to reminisce about old trips. Each of them of course holds some special memories. So in thinking about minigolf and the suggestion about Winter Summerland I thought I'd try to find the trip where we last visited Winter Summerland. I had somehow thought it was a November or December trip...but nope turns out it was May 2009

Oh wow...but they were small. At the time, the youngest was four, my oldest son was 9 and my girl was 6 years old. Not the clearest photo but you can probably make out that my youngest son's face looks a bit torn up. Here it is closer:

I refer to this as parenting fail. My husband and I were standing outside the Mexico pavillion at EPCOT, sipping on some adult beverages and watching the kids play...on the steps. I think we had just made a comment to some young adults walking by about how the kids were fine...when my youngest son took a header off the steps. Blood...everywhere. Yep wasn't pretty...so needless to say any photos beyond this day for that trip didn't look too great for him.

Thankfully this one was taken earlier in the trip:

This was our one and only time doing 1900 Park Fare for dinner. We enjoyed it...the character interaction was PRICELESS. My youngest son had no interest in taking photos during dinner, but when the evil stepmother tells you you will take a photo with her...you just do it as shown here. The stepsisters were also great. It was a fun meal.

This was also I think our only time visiting during the Flower and Garden festival, and the photos of all the topiaries around there are just so nice. We had really nice weather and it was our first stay at Animal Kingdom Kidani Village via DVC as it had just opened up that month. We LOVED the Kidani pool and spent a lot of time there. In fact, I think it was actually unseasonably hot for early May...and I don't think we had ANY rain that entire trip. Yep...not even the afternoon Florida t-storms came through. It was a bit crazy.

We had SO many character photos that trip...it was pretty nice.

So I guess we took a break one evening and decided to try mini golf...which we LOVE...and headed to Winter Summerland at night.

I got very few photos...since it was evening...but the one posted above and this one:

I recall we had fun on the course...and I'm not sure which one we played. However it definitely is one I would love to revisit and this Thanksgiving seems like a good time. My family is all into REAL golf...meaning mom, dad, brother, SIL all golf regularly and in fact my SIL and brother met on a golf course where she was working. My little family of five just loves minigolf and we are very competitive about it. So yes it would be a nice place to kill some time if necessary.

This was also a trip where my daughter at the time had been taking one of many drugs we were trying with a pediatric neurologist to help with migraines she had been suffering from for a while. The drugs had terrible effects on her...I have a photo where she clearly looks miserable and I can recall many meltdowns beyond just normal kid stuff. She didn't do well and not long after we would get her off that medication and she'd be a happy kid again.

There were fun times mostly...she dance in the street during the Move It, Shake It parade with the characters which I got on video.

https://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=6000a377004daff4&sid=8QbuG7hq0cMzO

(I don't know if the link will work or not...let me know)

Anyway I would end up returning alone for a solo trip another time in May. It is a great time to go, crowds tend to be a bit lower than the busy times and weather can be nice...but sticky of course.

Oh and if you want to read more, in my siggy here the May '09 (5/09 BCV & AKV) is a link you can click to read about the whole May 2009 trip!

Hard to imagine that the trip will be here in just 17 days for us!

 

[kittylady1972]

Trip excitement is mounting here for sure. Spoke to my mom last night who asked, once again, how far away from our resort we would be from theirs. They are at Bay Lake Tower and we are at Saratoga Springs, not a horrible driving distance at all but I do wish we were closer. I told her she'd be fine meeting us at the parks. We all have cell phones and she'll simply have to hop on the monorail for MK (I would suggest the walk but she doesn't have the strength or energy for that these days...stupid CANCER and stupid CHEMO!) and for the rest of the parks she'll just head to the Contemporary and catch a bus. Worst case we could also swing by and pick them up at the front of Bay Lake Tower and take them with us to make it easier. Still don't know if it's worth the hassle to have a wheelchair rented off-site for her because then she'd have to worry about hauling it on the bus and the monorail, but even the walks from the bus stops to the parks can be quite long. I'm very conflicted on this right now.

I keep checking to see if I can move us somewhere closer but no luck so far. Most I could get so far has been a random day or two at various resorts. I think she and dad will be fine where they are, but worst case I can always put them up at the room at Saratoga with us and move my brother and family to Bay Lake Tower. I'm starting to wonder if that might be a better option. I wanted mom and dad at Bay Lake because it would be a short walk for them to go across to the Contemporary for food and other things when they needed them.

Anyway mom also mentioned their "bracelets" had arrived so I told her to make sure she didn't forget to bring them with them on the trip! Our still haven't shipped yet so hopefully soon!

I'm already thinking ahead about our NEXT trip and right now I'm considering a trip in March (possibly trying to attend the DVC event that will be at MK on 3/4) or May for Memorial Day weekend. Both are long weekends for the kids for school and might work out well. Nothing is set in stone yet though.

 

[ariane37]

I love all your throwback pictures!
I'm getting all excited too, and I'm finding it hard to do anything not Disney/planning/trip-related lol. As for MB's something weird is going on because ours did finally ship on Sat. but we haven't gotten them yet, and we've NEVER not had them this close to our trip. I'm not worried, it's just weird.
I like the idea of moving your parents to SSR and your brother to BLT, but ultimately you have to do what you feel is best

 

[kittylady1972]

I love all your throwback pictures!
I'm getting all excited too, and I'm finding it hard to do anything not Disney/planning/trip-related lol. As for MB's something weird is going on because ours did finally ship on Sat. but we haven't gotten them yet, and we've NEVER not had them this close to our trip. I'm not worried, it's just weird.
I like the idea of moving your parents to SSR and your brother to BLT, but ultimately you have to do what you feel is best

THANKS! They are so fun to look back on and remember so many moments.

It's hard not to get excited when we are closing in on TWO WEEKS now!

Yeah I find it a bit odd about the MBs also. Mine keep showing they will ship soon...but man that seems late to me also. Just glad mom and dad got theirs.

There are definite pros and cons to moving mom and dad. Part of me thinks they would enjoy their space. Plus if my brother and SIL want to go out and we are all staying together they can leave the boys with us in the room we share and head out easily. I really hate that we aren't staying together as I was so hoping we'd all end up at BLT at some point, but even checking online last night for regular room reservations...there is nothing! I am sure having the D23 convention happening the SAME weekend we are arriving didn't help matters any.

I'll still hope for something very last minute and if we do think it will be easier to change I'll deal with that closer to the trip.

 

[ariane37]

Hey! I just updated my PTR today and changed around our T-day plans, so now we'll be in MK early on Thanksgiving, too! Thinking we'll only be there a few hours because, like you, I believe the crowds will get a bit much. But if it doesn't work out any day prior to that, maybe amidst the masses we'll be able to say hi

 

[kittylady1972]

Hey! I just updated my PTR today and changed around our T-day plans, so now we'll be in MK early on Thanksgiving, too! Thinking we'll only be there a few hours because, like you, I believe the crowds will get a bit much. But if it doesn't work out any day prior to that, maybe amidst the masses we'll be able to say hi

Sounds good. Yeah I know DH will fight to about being in MK for Thanksgiving, but it will be everybody's last day together, and I just love walking through MK on Thanksgiving morning. I know the crowds will get bad though as we've done it a few times now.

 

[kittylady1972]

TWO MORE WEEKS!!!

Really is there anything else to say beyond that. In two more weeks we'll be heading to Florida. I can't say WDW because our first night is still the SURPRISE stay for our kids at Royal Pacific Resort. They still think we are leaving after school on Friday. They don't know we are pulling them out early. We still need to do some snooping to determine what they will miss on Friday. I can't imagine they will miss much on Monday and Tuesday the following week.

So for those that may have missed it, this is the first year that they have NOT had the entire week of Thanksgiving off from school. The calendar was changed this year and it will continue next year as well. We probably should verify with the teachers as the school actually has a form you can send with the kids to give to the teachers when they plan to miss school. The teachers don't have to agree to let them make up the work, so it's always a chance we take. However all three kids this year have done pretty well in school so far and are kids that are willing to do whatever to make up the lost work if necessary. Plus the 1st marking period JUST ended so they should have plenty of time to make up any work or work extra hard on the other stuff to balance out what they may miss.

The problem is since we are pulling the kids out Friday, we don't want them carrying around a form indicating that they will miss that day also. That will ruin the surprise we plan to spring on them Thursday!

Last night I had to do a quick search at home when I realized I wasn't sure where my Universal AP was located. Thankfully I did find it. Now I need to verify with my friend that she will have other passes waiting for us for the rest of the family. I'm hoping I also get to see her but it's always tough.

This morning my oldest proclaimed that the one thing we HAD to do was head to Captain Cook's for breakfast....because...well...Tonga Toast. Maybe we can do that Sunday morning with the whole family before they are off for golfing. Since we will already be at Shades of Green it should be pretty easy to head over there.

This weekend we will be occupied with football watching...our Baltimore Ravens vs Pittsburgh Steelers...the ultimate rival game. We have plans to have friends over to watch the game which is always fun. I have yet to plan food...and yes I realize it's just a few days away. Everybody usually brings stuff anyway.

I'm still waiting for our magic bands. They haven't shipped yet according to the website but they are being prepared. Hopefully we'll see them this week!

 

[kittylady1972]

We are THIS [--] close to single digit dancing here...hard to even believe!

Yes we are excited...but it will only get worse. We'll be beginning the packing process this coming weekend.

Our MagicBands have not arrive yet...but this morning I checked and they arrived at our local post office less than an hour ago. So don't know if they will make it on today's delivery truck...or tomorrow's.

I emailed an update to my family on Friday, just summarizing some of the day one and two plans for them, giving suggestions on packing, things that I could think about in terms of planning for meals and such.

I spoke to my brother last night who had a chance to visit with my parents over the weekend as he played in a golf tournament with my dad. My mom's health is definitely declining again, as he had already suspected from talking with my mom's sister who also leaves near my parents. She was in really poor health about a year ago, barely able to walk around her own house or even down her driveway. They didn't visit us for Thanksgiving or Christmas last year, which was unusual, because mom just wasn't up for it.

She had bounced back a bit and they came for Easter last March and she was doing better. However now she is on another decline and it's frustrating to be so far away and not be able to help. When I talk to her on the phone, she just denies it and downplays it...but I know my brother is telling the truth. I only hope she will still be well enough to make this trip, which is something I have feared for a while. Anyway my hope in talking to him was to try to determine how I wanted to handle her mobility issues and as of NOW it sounds like she should be able to at least make the walk from the bus stops to the parks, at which point we'll get her a wheelchair for the rest of the day. Since we are well experienced in travel with family members in wheelchairs and scooters, we know what to expect which will help. There are some other health concerns for her as well, but for now we're just hoping to get her to this trip and hoping she can get through a 6 night vacation.

I also asked my brother if his kids (my 2 and 4 year old nephews) know anything about this trip...and yes he said they know they are going to Disney World and have for a while. Brave soul to tell them...and risk them asking about it every day. However he totally uses it as leverage when they aren't behaving of course. So proud of my little brother's parenting skills!

Anyway the backup plan if my parents can't make it is that the rest of us will still go..and we'd put my brother and family in the Bay Lake Tower room and we'd stay at Saratoga Springs in the 2BR there. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that.

Now I just need to get through this 4-day work week and then an upcoming 3-day weekend. I'm hosting a small party at my house on Saturday afternoon but other than that we have nothing going on this weekend so it will be all about getting ready for Disney. I have a neighbor lined up to do one or two sanity checks at my house on the cats while we are gone and that's about it.

 

[kittylady1972]

BONUS RESERVATION!!!

So I poked around on the DVC website this morning...note to all DVC members they have REVAMPED the Check Availability pages...I like the new design. It's kinda nice in terms of setting up the search and displaying the availability. It definitely helps for you to not get your hopes up about any of the other resorts when it displays NO availability for them on one big page. Anyway...yeah I think there are one or two single nights at Animal Kingdom for the week of Thanksgiving in a 1BR unit...that's it...and I checked Studio, 1BR and 2BR for the whole week. I can really give up on thinking we'll get move to Bay Lake Tower.

Anyway I consoled myself by checking on dining reservations just for fun. I did a search for the Saturday night when my whole family arrives...and suddenly a reservation for T-Rex popped up at 8pm that night for a party of 8. Now really it will be 9 of us, one being a 2yo so hopefully they can squeeze him in there. I don't think my parents will be up for a late dinner...but I was thinking the five of us and my brother and family with the two boys might love grabbing dessert at T-Rex that night, especially since we don't have an early day planned for Sunday. So I'm keeping that one now...and hoping it works out for us. Hopefully the kids won't be disappointed if we do NOT do a Disney park Saturday night. We have a few FP+ reservations just for fun, but the rest of the family do not have tickets so they can't join us Saturday night. MK is open until 1am if we are really up for it AFTER dinner, but considering we will have spent a long day at the Universal parks...I kinda think dessert and then crashing in our room will most likely be more appealing.

I'm kinda excited about this last minute snag. T-REX is one of our favorites, but I didn't have much luck getting it for this trip. We enjoy lunch and dinner there and thought the boys might get a kick out of it also. I'd rather have this on a day where we were already staying at Downtown Disney, but I'll take what I can get instead.

 

[ariane37]

I'm so, so sorry your mom has taken a turn for the worse, and I truly hope her and your dad are able to join you guys next week. The kids will still enjoy themselves if their grandparents can't go and I'm sure you and your brother will too, to a degree, but that would be a cloud hanging over your trip and after all this time and all your hard planning I honestly hope it doesn't come to that. Hopefully over the next few days she'll stabilize and gain some strength, or at least not slide back at all

I can't believe your MB's haven't come yet lol, but I hope they come today! I think you read about mine in my update, so as long as yours don't decide to move FARTHER from your local PO, I would assume you'll have them today.

Glad you got T-Rex and that made your day a little better We tried going there once years ago when theboys were pretty small, and as we were walking to our table one of them started flipping out so we left. We've never tried it again but some of the desserts I've seen in reviews look amazing!

 

[kittylady1972]

I'm so, so sorry your mom has taken a turn for the worse, and I truly hope her and your dad are able to join you guys next week. The kids will still enjoy themselves if their grandparents can't go and I'm sure you and your brother will too, to a degree, but that would be a cloud hanging over your trip and after all this time and all your hard planning I honestly hope it doesn't come to that. Hopefully over the next few days she'll stabilize and gain some strength, or at least not slide back at all

I can't believe your MB's haven't come yet lol, but I hope they come today! I think you read about mine in my update, so as long as yours don't decide to move FARTHER from your local PO, I would assume you'll have them today.

Glad you got T-Rex and that made your day a little better We tried going there once years ago when theboys were pretty small, and as we were walking to our table one of them started flipping out so we left. We've never tried it again but some of the desserts I've seen in reviews look amazing!

Thanks for your kinds words. I'm hoping my mom does better also. It sucks that she has to go through this chemotherapy on basically a maintenance routine...so no hope of not taking it any longer. Her lung cancer mass is basically somewhat stable...not growing at all and showing minimal activity but since it isn't gone or completely dormant I think the oncologist thinks keeping her on a 3-week chemo therapy regiment with help make sure nothing gets worse. However the more I think about how much just staying on these chemicals have just deteriorated her physically I have to wonder if it's worth it sometimes.

Well the good news on my MBs is that they do show an anticipated delivery date of TODAY! So excited! Wish we had the cool Passholder slider like you got, but since we haven't upgrade our passes yet, and won't do so until we arrive, we can't expect those cool sliders. We do have the older ones from before with the year on them though!

My kids did okay with T-Rex the first time we went which was good...see my review here:
http://www.disboards.com/threads/10...ark-restaurant-reviews.2750520/#post-41672327

but they weren't terribly little at the time. We honestly just really enjoyed the food there. Sadly we have NEVER had room for any of the incredible looking desserts, so this seemed like a good excuse to go and that way if my nephews are freaked it...it wouldn't be a long meal at all.

 

[kittylady1972]

Magicbands arrived today....YEAH!

Made a bunch of ADR changes tonight due to a drastic menu change at Liberty Tree Tavern...boo!

Stay tuned and I'll update tomorrow with the full scoop!

 

[kittylady1972]

So as I mentioned in my last update...made some changes yesterday and I'm still not sure what that is going to mean for one day in our trip.

Here's what happened...I was just checking out another website yesterday that I like to view...he does a lot of Disney updates and the beginning of the website rhymes with PEASY...when I came across an update on several MK restaurants. His post alluded to a VERY recent menu change at one of my favorite MK restaurants - Liberty Tree Tavern.

It was a big change (to me) and after pondering it a bit I decided there was just no way I could manage eating there with the current menu...and so yesterday I DROPPED my lunch ADR for LTT.

Not an easy decision, but the truth is I had two reasons for going there for lunch. One was that I really loved their potroast...and we found that last time DH and I could split it since the portion was huge, saving us some money and (more importantly maybe) allowing us to also get dessert because the second thing I love there is the Oooey Gooey Toffee Cake. O. M. G. It is so good.

However they have changed the lunch, dropped the potroast (but apparently you can get it from the kids' menu) and added instead something similar to dinner where it is a huge plate of 3 meats, none of which have any appeal to me as none of them are potroast...AND you can't split that feast between two people.

Yeah...that's just not gonna work for me.

Anyway while I really thought Tuesday was a great day to return to MK, we do plan to spend pretty much ALL day Monday there so there's a good chance we'll get to most of what we want to do the first day. I have Tuesday late afternoon as a day at Hollywood Studios as I have ADRS for around dinnertime there. So perhaps we would be better off doing some time at EPCOT on Tuesday, then taking the boat over to HS in the afternoon/evening?

However here's the deal...I replaced LTT with two OTHER ADRS...one for a breakfast at the Wave because I've read good things about that and the second is lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe because I don't think we've eaten there since maybe 2003 or 2004? I'm pretty sure at the time we only had two kids so that would be pre-summer-2004 timeframe.

I don't know what we'll do here. I don't think we need both of those ADRs. Having the breakfast at the Wave would allow us all to head over to the Contemporary, meet my parents there, have breakfast together, then hit a park and if we choose EPCOT or HS they could just ride over in the car with us which would be easier for them.

I already have a dinner ADR also on Tuesday at the Wave...but I'm not really sure I want to keep that one anyway. Besides it conflicts with a TOT FP+ reservation I have for that same evening.

Bottom line is just when I thought the schedule was pretty much set and I wouldn't be making too many changes...this ONE restaurant change has made me completely revamp an entire vacation day. Yes my husband thinks I'm a bit nuts about this, but if the only reason for keeping the lunch ADR is really gone...and it won't save me money or allow me to eat what I want...then there's no reason to force it into the plan. Tuesday might just be an open day that we change on the fly based on what we get done on Sunday and Monday.

 

[ariane37]

Well, you know I certainly understand plans changing and being up in the air so close to a trip We have LTT lunch for our departure day on the 26th (which I haven't gotten to yet in my PTR) but after I read about those changes I decided we're not doing it - I just need to drop it. The app and dessert I want are still there but not the entrees we would get and like you, none of us are interested in the HUGE meat platter lunch thing they're now offering. Very disappointed. And as we're spending that last day in MK I'm trying to decide if I want to look continuously for something else there TS-wise, or just do QS our last day. So it doesn't screw me up as much as you but still very annoying!!

For you I think doing the Wave breakfast sounds like it would work, and I've read such great reviews. However that would probably mean cancelling/replacing your Wave dinner with something else and that's more work.......lol good luck! I feel for ya!

 

[kittylady1972]

Well, you know I certainly understand plans changing and being up in the air so close to a trip We have LTT lunch for our departure day on the 26th (which I haven't gotten to yet in my PTR) but after I read about those changes I decided we're not doing it - I just need to drop it. The app and dessert I want are still there but not the entrees we would get and like you, none of us are interested in the HUGE meat platter lunch thing they're now offering. Very disappointed. And as we're spending that last day in MK I'm trying to decide if I want to look continuously for something else there TS-wise, or just do QS our last day. So it doesn't screw me up as much as you but still very annoying!!

For you I think doing the Wave breakfast sounds like it would work, and I've read such great reviews. However that would probably mean cancelling/replacing your Wave dinner with something else and that's more work.......lol good luck! I feel for ya!

Yes it definitely made me rethink a lot of my plans, so I went ahead and searched all of my days again just to look for options.

Needless to say I've made some changes...and I'll post an updated PLAN soon!

 

[kittylady1972]

Some slight modifications to the plan...had to move some ADRs around, cancel some, make new ones. So we have some changes for now.

THE PLAN v2.1

• FRIDAY Nov. 18th: Depart our house no later than 7am and start our 14+ hour drive to Florida. We'll pack a cooler with food and snacks to limit our stops. We are hoping to arrive at Universal's Royal Pacific Resort by 11pm. If my DH has it his way, we plan to tell the kids the night BEFORE that we are leaving Friday and maybe even be on the road even earlier...his hope is 4am but I'd be good with 5am. Northern VA traffic sucks so getting through it earlier would be preferable.

• SATURDAY Nov. 19th: We should be up early to maximum our time in the Universal Parks. We'll have FOTL access which should help a lot. We have to check out of our resort sadly, so we'll get stuff in the car before heading out. First on our list is going to be The Hulk since the kids haven't been on that one yet. We'll do all of our favorites at both parks for most of day and will probably leave around dinnertime. If we get in early, we should try to knock out the Harry Potter rides. After that, I expect we'll want to do The Simpsons, Men in Black, maybe Kong, the Mummy, Rip Ride Rocket...those for sure. My family should arrive close to dinnertime and we will need to meet up with each group as they arrive in town so we can check them into their room at Shades of Green. Perhaps we'll all grab dinner together somewhere, either at a SOG restaurant or maybe ride the monorail around for fun. Perhaps we can head to the Polynesian beach area to catch the fireworks that evening. I read somewhere that the D23 is having a special event at the Polynesian, so this may NOT be an option for us. Instead I have booked an 8pm dinner reservation at T-Rex for everybody except my parents, because I'm not sure they would be up for it. Hopefully if they do want to join us they can squeeze two more people in for our party of 9 currently. I'm thinking this is just for dessert and to see how the boys like all the Dinosaur stuff there.
• SUNDAY Nov. 20th: We'll try to grab breakfast together at SOG that morning. My dad and brother and maybe SIL are golfing at LBV at 9am, so they'll need to leave NLT 8:30am. We'll have to be checked out of the hotel and that leaves the rest of us...possibly with two little ones with us...and my mom. If by chance any of our rooms are ready, we'll go there and get stuff unpacked. If not...then perhaps we'll take the boys minigolfing to kill some time. At some point we should just head over to SSR since that's where most of us are staying...and where golf will be taking place. I have booked a 1pm lunch at Kona Cafe, so everybody can fuel up after golf, so worst case we can kill time at Shades of Green, then walk over to Kona Cafe when everybody else is done. If our room at SSR is ready after lunch, we'll head there to checkin and also see if BLT room is ready for my mom and dad. We will head to EPCOT no later than 4pm since we have some FP+ reservations there. If we have checked into our rooms, we'll hang out longer and have dinner there maybe at Sunshine Seasons or another counter service. If the rooms are ready sometime while we are gone, we'll leave EPCOT a bit earlier, come back and check in and maybe have dinner at our respective resorts. If we are still up for it after checkin, we can try an evening show at a park, perhaps Hollywood Studios Jingle Bell Jingle Jam.
• MONDAY Nov. 21st: The first FULL park just HAS to be Magic Kingdom so with any luck we'll arrive here at park opening, so breakfast will likely be in the room before we leave. Our first FP here doesn't start until after 1pm and that is for Jungle Cruise, so my plan is to hit as many rides as we can in the early morning, most likely starting with Fantasyland. We can have a light lunch/snack somewhere in the park. We have dinner at the Crystal Palace around 4pm, which should be perfect for a rest time. After dinner we have a FP for 7DMT which everybody should be able to ride.
• TUESDAY Nov. 22nd: This is another Magic Kingdom day because I feel like we'll need two of them. Originally had lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern here...now cancelled. Instead we'll catch a boat over to Wilderness Lodge around 11:30am to get lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe around noon. We haven't been here in years...hope we enjoy it. Perhaps a break in the afternoon for dinner and relaxation. We have FP+s for HS beginning at 4pm so we need to head over there no later than 3:30pm. TSM, Star Tours and ToT are the FPs, but the little kids can only do TSM. If we can find the Toy Story characters here, I'd like to try to have the boys meet them. We can grab dinner here...perhaps try to new Pizza Rizzo...or we can head offsite and maybe find something else. If we stick around long enough, and everybody is up for it, we can maybe catch Jingle Bell Jingle Jam here.
• WEDNESDAY Nov. 23rd: This is our Animal Kingdom day and I have a late breakfast (more like brunch) at Tusker House. So I hope we can arrive early at AK and do the safari at least and maybe one or two other rides and/or shows before brunch. I have booked Tusker House for meals for us SEVERAL times on prior trips and I have yet to make it there. I think this one is a priority to keep. After we eat, more time at the park and hopefully catch Finding Nemo and Lion King shows. I have FPs for this day starting after 3pm at EPCOT - that one is Turtle Talk. If we've already managed to see that, then we would need to get to EPCOT no later than 4pm for our next FP which is for Frozen Ever After and we also have one for Spaceship Earth, probably not needed for this late in the day but it's something to have on hold. Older kids may want to do Test Track since I don't have a FP booked for that one at all this trip. We have dinner at Kona Cafe this evening, which I'd like to keep as it's another potential time to do a 70th birthday celebration for my mom.
• THURSDAY Nov. 24th: MK in the early morning if everybody can hang. Our earliest FP is for 7DMT at 9:45am. We also have an 11am at Space Mountain and a 12:30pm for BTMRR but that's probably about all the time we'll be staying at MK this day since I expect by that time the crowds may be crazy. We can try to do another park afterwards or just take a break at the hotel until dinnertime which is early at about 4pm at Boma. Since this is the last day for everybody, we'll see what parks everybody wants to hit after dinner to finish up the trip, like perhaps an evening show like Illuminations, or Wishes from BLT or even Fanstasmic! are all options. If the new show at Animal Kingdom is playing at night, we can catch that.
• FRIDAY Nov. 25th: This is our departure day and right now I'm not sure what we'll do. I've suggested at least a half day at the parks, but DH wants to hit the road early. I'd be okay with staying later and just doing half the drive Friday and the rest Saturday, but we'll see what happens.

 

[kittylady1972]

I will not change any more plans.
I will not change any more plans.
I will not change any more plans.
I will probably not change any more plans.

So I'm ready to get this vacation party started!

We are officially in the SINGLE digit countdown for days left until we leave.

I think we may have to consider sending a form with the kids to school this week to let them know about the days the kids will be missing. YES we have a school form for that. This way the teachers can (if they choose) send work with the kids are help them make arrangements to make up work if they choose. Keep in mind the school can choose NOT to let the kids make up the work..that's the chance they take. However they just started a new quarter so they should have plenty of time to make up for stuff that they miss on Fri, Mon 7 Tues. I really think we'll need to tell the kids NOW that they will be missing Friday next week.

I will still save the surprise of the hotel where we are staying Friday night though.

My friend that works at Universal got our 1 day 2 park passes ordered for us for Saturday, so we pick those up at a kiosk. I got the email notification about them. So kind of her to offer these to us.

I really think I want to try to eat at that Toothsome Chocolate Emporium while we are there, but don't know if we'll be able to squeeze it in this time.

I went ahead and got a new membership to TP this morning and planned out some daily schedules for us so we can maximize our park time. I like having those TPs as a guide to help us figure out the order to do things. I think it's going to work out very well.

I have one more day at work this week (tomorrow) and I'm playing tennis tonight and tomorrow night. Then tomorrow night I'll be up late watching my Ravens play football, then one of us has to get the kids to school on Friday morning since we don't have to work. Saturday I have a small tennis party planned for my house. It's such a small group that I'm wondering if we shouldn't just go out instead though.

More tennis Sunday morning, Monday night and Wednesday night next week too. I'm trying to drop a little bit of weight in the next week because I know the bad eating will be commencing the minute I'm on vacation!

Packing will most likely start this Sunday!

 

[kittylady1972]

8 MORE DAYS!!

We must just be a TAD bit excited here.

I was talking with the kids on the way to school this morning. My daughter brought up the plans for next Friday, how she was sure she would have a quiz in math as they do every Friday. They all have the same match teacher (7th, 8th and 11th graders). Then I started talking about what if we just had them ditch school on Friday too.

Resounding sounds of joy...go figure.

However I cautioned that they would need to press their teachers for work that they needed to have done by Friday and if there was something due on Friday they would need to turn it in early.

I also mentioned that if we left on Friday, their dad would probably want to leave by 4am. They asked why? To beat rush hour traffic. Yes, they were fine with that as well.

Ok then. They even said then they could all be around to help us pack the car.

I guess that means we just might let them know of our plans to leave Friday morning. I'm still saving the resort that we've booked as a surprise. They do know that we'll meet up with the family on Saturday at Shades of Green.

And on another note...I'm also looking into the POSSIBILITY of changing our Thanksgiving Day dinner reservations. Shades of Green has a good sounding Thanksgiving Day buffet...that is of course MUCH cheaper than Boma. I'm not 100% sure we can eat there if we aren't staying at Shades but I don't see why not. I also don't know if they can take our party of 11 people for our timeframe. I've emailed them to check into it.

With mom and dad staying at BLT, we can always drive over and pick them up and then head over to Shades of Green easily enough. I actually really like this as an option.

Stay tuned to see if I end up making this happen!

 

[kittylady1972]

Just for fun I was cleaning out one of my bedroom drawers...I am a packrat by nature and can't part with anything....see?

That's not even all of them...and I'm sure I have all of them. Among those NOT listed...I have a park ticket from Sept 2001 that was a Magic Your Way + 2 options. So you had park tickets plus each ticket had 2 extras to be used for waterparks. We never used them that Sept 2001 and in fact we went back to the parks I think in May one year and decided to take the kids to a waterpark. We used on of the adult options from each ticket and one child option and only had to pay for two kids to enter the waterparks.

So as of now we still have 2 additional adult options and 1 child option (and all of my kids are now 'adults') so I'm thinking if we take a trip this spring or summer we will use those 3 options for the waterparks and just pay the upgrade price for one kid to adult and two additional adults.

Fun huh?

 

[kittylady1972]

FOUR MORE DAYS!
By this time Friday we'll be on the road making that LONG drive south to Florida.

While the kids and I continue to grumble about it, it sounds like DH will get his wish to leave the house by 4am or at least that is the plan.

I know the excitement of vacation will probably have me up early...I'm not sure about the kids.

I'm still debating a resort change (SHOCKING!) but since the waitlist has expired it means I have to just check every day to see if there is a place to go. I would just prefer that we move to a resort closer to Bay Lake Tower, even if it's WL, or one of the monorail resorts. I would LOVE to switch to a 3BR that is currently available at BLT...but it's only open for 3 nights and we need 5 nights. I'll continue to stalk it just in case. Even having one more night (it isn't open for Thanksgiving night right now) would be okay and very cool to stay in a 3BR there...but the chances probably aren't that great right now.

I never heard from SOG about my Thanksgiving Dinner request, so I guess I need to call them about that one.

The weekend was reserved for pre-vacation housecleaning and laundry...and my DH actually did most of that! Unfortunately during all of his housekeeping stuff this weekend he managed to break our oven AND our vacuum cleaner! Ok so really most likely it wasn't his fault. He was cooking some chicken on Saturday and mentioned it looked like the oven burner was about to go soon. As if by MAGIC, next thing there was a flash of light and small fire and we watched the oven burner put on a nice display of light and fire for quite some time. He turned off the oven just to be safe...leaving the residual heat and fire to cook his chicken wings! Since this is a double-wall oven, and we aren't feeling good about having it on at all right now, currently we have no working oven...so I guess it's a good thing we are going out of town instead of cooking a huge Thanksgiving dinner as we normally would be doing at our house. Hoping we can order the new burner and DH can install it after we get back from vacation.

Then I came home YESTERDAY and he mentions to me he wants me to come look on the computer with him for vacuum cleaners. He was doing our carpet, smelled something and heard a pop...and he thinks the motor is done! So time for a new vacuum! Now with 4 cats and 1 dog we do put our vacuum to some heavy use on all the carpet areas of our house, but honestly we don't vacuum nearly as often as we should I'm sure. Anyway spent last night at Walmart checking out new vacuums and ordered one that I'll pick up from there today. So funny that I could have bought one off the shelf in the store for one price, but when I order online Site-to-Store and select the same one...it's about $50 cheaper to order it and then pick it up at the store today after I wait for them to pull it from the exact same place I saw it last night! Oh well!

Anyway I guess today I'll come home and try out the new vacuum and finish what DH started. I'll do some more cleanup and MAYBE start packing...we'll see.