Let's see what this family does flying solo - pre trip/trip report April 2010!

[nilla]

April 21st marks our family's 5th consecutive yearly Disney trip, but this one will be different from the others in that it will just be us. No siblings, no grandparents...just us. Before we get started, let me introduce you to our protaganists:

Me

Age: 36
Favorite Attractions: Splash, Everest, Haunted Mansion, Dinosaur, Small World
Favorite Restaurants: Biergarten, Le Cellier, Kona
General Likes: Theming, little details, dark and scary stuff, exoctic beers. Likes the thrill rides; not so much the spinning
General Dislikes: People who are "too old for Disney" (including kids). Country Bears Jamboree. HS layout.


Wifey

Age: 35
Favorite Attractions: Splash, Tower of Terror, Everest, Pirates, Carousel of Progress
Favorite Restaurants: Le Cellier, Kona, Biergarten
General Likes: Trip planning (and execution), Epcot girly drinks, DISboards
General Dislikes: Rides that "beat her up" (RnR, BTMRR), Country Bears Jamboree. Also, probably won't like the fact that I'm referring to her as "Wifey" in this trip report.


The Boy

Age: 8
Favorite Attractions: Splash, Everest, RnR, TOT, BTMRR
Favorite Restaurants: None. Hates to eat. We call him a "vegetarian who doesn't like vegetables"
General Likes: Thrill rides, characters, video game type stuff
General Dislikes: Eating. He will also claim to not like Princesses prior to the trip, but changes his tune when he sees them for real.


The Girl

Age: 4
Favorite Attractions: Small World, Splash, BTMRR, Test Track, Soarin'
Favorite Restaurants: Askersus (sp?) Princess Dinner, Chef Mickey's
General Likes: Princesses, base characters, snacking
General Dislikes: Being told "no"


Ok, now that's out of the way, let's get down to the actual trip plans. But wait - we can't tell you where we're going until we tell you how we got there. Next post...

 

[nilla]

2006 - Our first trip together

The Girl was 0, The Boy was 5, and we were in love. Wifey's Mom came along. She's pretty easy going, though can require a kick in the backside at times, especially when rollin' with Disney warriors like us. The Boy rode everything he could get on, including EE and Space Mountain, and LOVED them. We knew he was our son. Only thing he was too small for was Primeval Whirl - we skipped HS that year because we were conned into thinking there was nothing there for kids. Silly us.

Great trip in all. Stayed at POR and loved it. Wifey and I wondered why we didn't honeymoon at Disney. She was still a rookie at trip planning but was remarkebly adept at it for what little experience she had. Trip was in April/May, which became the standard for years to come.



2007 - Plus one

Stayed at POFQ this time. Liked the smaller layout as compared to POR. The big difference in this year was the addition of Wifey's Dad, who is a great, funny guy, but can also be a major pain when he gets going. His favorite hobby is telling us how much we could save by staying at a Howard Johnson's. Basically, he doesn't "get it". However, we once again get rider swap opportunities and can get out for a drink at night if we really want to, so it's generally positive. I mistakenly start disliking Le Cellier because the wait is long and the kids are just awful. We make an unscheduled stop at HS the day we leave to come home. The Boy hits TOT and loves it.



2008 - 2007, part two

Again at POFQ, again with both of Wifey's parents in the mix. The Boy ALMOST gets himself onto RnR, but backs out at the last minute. He also backs out of Space Mountain, which was surprising. He was braver at age 5. It was this year we discovered the Biergarten, and fell in love instantly. We got our first time in the park without extended family on the last MK day, when the in laws slept in. We were amazed to see that it was actually easier without the extra "help" they provided.



2009 - An all new cast of characters

This trip started out with us on our own at WL. My parents, Brother, SIL, and 1 year old nephew joined us later in the week, but stayed at POFQ. As usual, the extras cannot keep up with our frenetic pace. Our kids, however, are just as hardcore as we are and have no problem. The week ended with just us.


and now...

 

[nilla]

2010, and we're a month out of our fifth trip. No parents. No in laws. Just the four of us. Wifey is a trip plannin all star and has everything locked down, for the most part. There is always the opportunity for adjustments.

The details:

Lodging: CS (first time). Not scared of the conventioners; rather, I'm intrigued. Our kids have seen their share of bad adult behavior, so that's no worry. I'm interested to see what types we'll see, and how it affects the overall dynamic of the stay.

The parks: 4 days Epcot, 3 days MK, 2 days HS, 1 day AK

The full service restaurants: Le Cellier, Biergarten, Askersus, Coral Reef, Chef Mickey's, Kona, Grand Flo Cafe, Mama Melrose, Sci-Fi (lunch), Maya Grille. Latest adjustment has Maya Grille getting pushed aside by Jiko, which is very exciting.

The counter service restaurants: Sunshine Seasons, Tangier House, Harbour House, Pizza Planet, Pepper Market, Flame Tree, Cosmic Ray's. Others will be game-time decisions.

What's new for this year:

Year 5, and we're FINALLY seeing Fantasmic.

The Girl will finally be (legitimately) tall enough to ride most rides, and swears she is going on TOT and Dinosaur. She also wants to go on Everest, but is a few inches shy of the height requirement. I think her sense of adventure comes from being breastfed on dark rides as a baby.

Before you yell about that last comment, please note that we will be buying NEW refillable mugs.

Jiko, Grand Flo Cafe, Maya Grille/Jiko, and Pizza Planet will all be first visits for us.

We're officially under a month away, and it's starting to feel real. I started counting down last fall.

More to come...

 

[kristin t]

Great so far!!

 

[cmp1111]

You have a way with the intros - nice job! can't wait to hear more!

For now, I'm going to move you to the pre-trip board. Once the actual trip has happened, we can move you back.

 

[nilla]

3 1/2 weeks to go, and Wifey and I starting to go nuts. I already had all my clothes picked out and coordinated a month ago, and the kids are almost in the same boat. Wifey does not want to wear the same clothes every day between now and then, so she's holding off. I'm really itching to be able to organize the clothing into "what outfit on what day", but I need here to tell me what she wants the kids to wear for me to take that step.

She has taken to sewing kids' dresses to take her mind off the trip. I think this is one of the worst times - before this, it was too far out to feel real, and once we get within two weeks we'll be busy making sure we're ready to go.

Soon, we'll get into "stay healthy at all costs" mode, though it didn't help last year when three of us got stomach viruses right at the beginning of the trip. I nearly lost my Pecos Bill's lunch on IASM, and did have to lean over a railing outside of Adventure Land to do my business. I now refer to that spot as "Dad's Pukeful Spot". I was laid out the rest of that day, but got so sick of watching Spiderman on Disney XD (I REFUSED to watch the park propaganda channel, since it was too depressing) that we slept late and I made a go of it the next day. I was ok after that, but lacked the appetite I needed to fully appreciate Askersus and Mama Melrose. I sincerely believe the Franziskaner hofbrau I downed the next day fully cured me.

It probably doesn't have to be this stressful, but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be as fun, right?

Wifey is going to get her color-coded day by day planning sheets laminated today, and I'll have a pic posted on here probably tomorrow.

More to come...

 

[nilla]

Wifey's touring plans are organized, colarized, and laminatized, but never, ever finalized! After the first printing, I asked her what she had against Journey into Imagination, since it was absent from all four of our Epcot days. Turned out to be an oversight. Then again, you can plan using little plastic cards, or you can plan using your...imagination!

Here's the worth-more-than-gold Fan of Plans:

(stand by while I figure out how to upload a stinkin' image)

 

[nilla]

Ok, so apparently I do not have Level 1 clearance to crash the server with my single image, so I'll do my best to describe the fan-shaped pile of laminated, color-coded day-to-day touring plans, complete with reservation numbers and attraction strategies. Oh, wait - I guess I just described it!

Anyone know how I can be deemed cool enough to post pictures? Thanks!

 

[cmp1111]

You need to have 10 posts before being able to post pictures. Just a couple more! If you need help when the time comes, let me know.

 

[nilla]

10 in this thread? I've got a whopping 36 now overall.

(If so, I guess I'm one closer!)

Thanks again!

 

[nilla]

Disney is the number 1 topic (and nearly the only topic) in our house now. I asked The Boy is he was going to get Princess autographs this year, something he wanted no part of last year until faced with actual Princesses. He replied, "yeah." I then asked if he would let them kiss him, and he replied, "no." About ten seconds later, he recanted with a "yes."

On the topic of Princesses, The Girl asked tonight if Tink is a Princess, and I explained that she is a fairy. I then began naming characters who are Princesses, to which she added, "me!" Wifey thinks it's a bad thing to encourage the belief that she really is a Princess, but I feel that The Girl knows the truth deep down anyway, and who am I to get in the way of a little fantasy?

Tomorrow is the official 3 week mark. Tick, tick!

 

[nilla]

We're within 3 weeks now, and I'm starting to wonder what the big worry concerning what might cancel our trip is going to be this year. Last year at this time, everyone was worried about what was called "swine flu" before it was given a scary-sounding, scientific name. I kept reassuring Wifey that it hadn't hit WDW yet, and then it did, just days before we were set to leave.

Nevertheless, we braved the trip. When boarding the monorail in the Orlando airport, Wifey heard a little kid cough and told me to move up to a car closer to the front, away from him. I asked her if she happened to notice the 30+ Mexican-looking teens standing up near the front with surgical masks on. Apparently not.

All said and done, we managed to avoid the swine, though three of us did come down with stomach viruses. Darn CDC never warned us about that one!

I put together a timeline in Excel yesterday of things we need to get done before we leave and when the best times will be to do them. Two more weeks until I need to start thinking "haircut". Lawn is pending. Gotta recharge those prepaid cell phone minutes.

Oh yeah - and I have to finish this silly trip report! I'm also wondering at what point in this thread I will be able to actually post some pictures. I'm hoping that day will come before I write the post trip report!

Ok, enough complaining. More to come!

 

[cmp1111]

I did some searching of the rules after your last question about pictures. I think you should have been OK after your first 10 posts (not just on this thread...) What is the error you're getting when you try?

Pictures cannot be uploaded directly to the DIS - you have to put them on a photo storage site first (photobucket, snapfish, flickr, even Facebook) and then use the picture icon to load up a link to where the photo is stored. I can help with that if that's the problem. If there's some other error, we'll have to research it further!

I hope there are no big cancellation worries!

 

[nilla]

Pictures cannot be uploaded directly to the DIS - you have to put them on a photo storage site first (photobucket, snapfish, flickr, even Facebook...

Ahhhhhh, there it is! Thanks!! The FAQ sent me down the path of trying to add images as attachments, and attachments are apparently a no go on this forum, so what you say is true. I'll get that rockin' and get some pics on this otherwise naked thread!

Of course, I think it's only you and Wifey reading this thread, so maybe I'd be better off just sending them directly

 

[nilla]

HERE THEY ARE!! Wifey's brillaint, laminated, color coded, day to day planning cards! Behold the preparedness! Revel in their detail!

Ok, without any further ado, here they are:

Well damn. Apparently my FB privacy settings don't play nice with posting images to this site. Looks like I need a plan B...

 

[nilla]

Two weeks out and we're about 95% packed. We matched the clothing up to each day yesterday and got most of our stuff in suitcases today. I say "we", but Wifey really did most of the work. Now we need to find another way to take our minds off the next 14 days of waiting!

As I mentioned before, I'm intrigued by the prospect of conventioneers at CSR, so I did a brute force Google search on "Coronado Springs Convention April" (and other variations on that phrase) and came up with the following. Please note that these are for entertainment purposes only and may not be entirely accurate, so don't blame me if there are Moonies there when you arrive!


April 19th-21st
InfoSec

Information Security. Computer losers. Also a fun bunch for this computer loser to laugh at, envy, or avoid.


April 29th - May 2nd
SOBI - Ortho Bionomy

Topics include "Aura Dancing" and "Ortho-Bionomy and the Social Nervous System: How Our Work Rewires The Brain" .

Oh no, this brings back memories of our last (non Disney) trip out of state, when a Women's Health convention was in our hotel, with a meditation room set up next to our room. After listening to about 30 minutes straight of a 5 second loop tape of "ohhmmmm (drip drip drip)" that was left on late at night after the even was over, Wifey took action and called the front desk. HOPEFULLY we'll be well away from all of that this time. All in all, I wouldn't expect this bunch to be raising hell at the pool at night, but you never know. Aura Dancing can get pretty rough, especially in the middle of the pit, I've been told.


April 28th - 30th
Navigator 2010

Fire and Medical Dispatch technolgy. The good news is if there is a fire or an accident at the resort, there will be plenty of qualified people to dispatch help to take care of it. No one to actually dispatch, but plenty of people qualified to dispatch.


Should be interesting! Now, what can I do for the next 13 days???