Like...They are Going with STRANGERS?!?! Sayonara Part 1- Join Us on the new thread!

What would you do with the $350??

  • Upgrade our resort

  • Spend it on 2 signature dinners

  • Get park hoppers and 1 signature dinner

  • See Cirque du Soleil

  • Rent a car


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Sheesh, I just looked at my response and realized I didn't answer your question one iota. Our planning is going well! Life is very uncertain for me right now, as we have just decided to move back to the US right about the time of our trip! But, if all goes as planned our ADR date is coming up in about one month!! YIKES!!

Time to nail down those touring plans!

One month till ADR's?
Sweet!
And congrats on moving back to the States!
It'll make your "commute" much more manageable!
 
One month till ADR's?
Sweet!
And congrats on moving back to the States!
It'll make your "commute" much more manageable!

It is exciting!! After all these months and months of waiting and pining (who said that recently?) it's almost finally time to put in writing!

ha! our commute!! :lmao: Yeah, I commute regularly to my daily command post right here! And it's a heck of a long way!! :rotfl2:
 
Thanks for the honorable mention. :blush:

Congratulations on your son getting accepted to his college!! That's such amazing news. :cool1: Being surrounded by children, I really can't imagine being on that end of the parenting journey...

As to birth stories, my water broke with Morgan exactly 1 month early. My doctor (who was a piece of work...) was sure that I had been cheating with my gestational diabetes and so was completely unconcerned. He turned out to be 5lb 13oz, and she had to eat her words! "Oh, maybe you were following your diet!"

Lily was induced 1 week early because my blood pressure was going up. She weighed 7lb 15oz.

Both times, I bowed to the amazing Epi Gods!!
 


Congress, some years ago, passed a paper reduction act, and for that many tax payers are quite grateful! Fewer forms, less waste of time and financial burden on the public, and control and monitoring of the gathering of information from the citizens are supposed to help to ensure the streamlining of such procedures. Likewise, the powers that be here in the Kingdom of DISBoards, in order to ensure smooth running threads and the best possible way to disseminate information to their constituency, have put a limit on the number of pages allowed in one thread. This archive has now reached that limit, and will eminently be closed. Therefore, as we look to begin a new volume of Tactical Planning, we the TC3, have formulated a last chapter for this part, meant to summarize and conclude before we begin afresh.

Let’s take a look back over the last months. We’ve fought and won many battles since the inception of this chronicle on May 4th, 2009, in our Quest for our Week of Freedom!! We spent some time introducing ourselves to you, but since then, I imagine, you know us quite a bit better. Getting better acquainted with you, our fellow compatriots, has been both rewarding and exciting! :dance3:

See that census poll at the top of this thread?? The reason for that was revealed in a post not too long after you were introduced to us. A surprise bonus came to Soldier #1 by way of a bank snafu that ended in her favor!! (That sounds like a game of Monopoly! :rotfl2:) Now Soldier #1 has $350 extra bucks to play around with (wouldn’t the US military LOVE that?!!), and as a group we decided that that would help pay for a resort upgrade. Little by little this is becoming a trip beyond our wildest dreams and fantasies!! :woohoo:

Next, we took a look at just what Enemies we are fighting against in order to claim our victory. Soldier maroo contemplated long and hard, but has very few to claim. 2nd Lieutenant Liesa, on the other hand, has many Enemies constantly rearing their ugly heads. Living outside of the US, homeschooling day after day, cooking, laundry and lack of entertainment are just a few that were spelled out. :sad2:

In June, Soldier #1 had to return to the US for a quick trip to attend the funeral of her grandmother (It’s been a VERY difficult and painful year for those who are just joining in). It worked out that the troops of the TC3 (2 of them, anyway) would be able to meet in person for the first time!!! What an exciting sojourn that was in Nashville! We planned our little hearts out, shared a super fun lunch AND dinner, all the while practicing the photographic documentation techniques required for a successful Report upon our return from our Tour of Duty. :surfweb:

The TC3 then catalogued the many snacks that they, with much anticipation, are planning to eat while on their trip. Much hilarious conversation between our comrades ensued as we discussed the merits of eating vegetables, and we concocted creative ways of supplying said vegetables through the various Disney snack options. It was unanimously decided that chocolate is most definitely a vegetable as it comes from the cocoa bean (a plant). :thumbsup2

Every governing body must have an acting Constitution, and as ours is quite hearty. We also drew up a document that we aptly named The Constitution of the TC3. In it are such bylaws that spell out our qualifications, the adamant belief that freedom to tour as one wishes are paramount, that no whining or complaining is allowed, and that the laws of grace and understanding will be the paradigm that the regiment will operate under. Added to this were some very important amendments that might have included such guidelines as to where one might expel internal air buildups and how the matter of unflattering pictures is to be handled. :rolleyes1

So as to not frighten our fellow compatriots while touring together, we each made a compilation of our deepest confessions. It was discovered that Soldier #1 gets impatient with morning stragglers and gags on her toothbrush regularly. And tsk, tsk, Soldier #2 keeps messy quarters! ;)

Each soldier has a different style of touring, and a different set of hopes and dreams for her Freedom Tour. Therefore each laid out her “tenets of touring” which will be the guiding principles of how she tackles the week. They are too numerous to list out here, but let’s just say, for the record, Soldier #1 is still NOT calling home while she’s there! :eek:

Finally, the secret bases of the TC3 were revealed. These are no ordinary base camps, no indeed! Being the high class outfit that we are, we chose to be quartered in style and luxury. Let them eat cake, we say! Home base #1 will be at the Southern themed resort of the Port Orleans Riverside, and from there we’ll make camp at the exquisite Polynesian- staying at each for 4 nights. The first will be with free dining, the next without, but with 40% off! :cool2:

Continued in next post…. But you may have to wait a little while! (The administration needs more time- Yeah, isn't that what they all say?! :lmao:)
 
When a military wants to succeed in its campaigns, it must take to the task of comparing strategies and plans, and collaborating whenever possible. As a mock drill, the TC3 each posted a battle plan for our Tour of Duty, then compared them to see how similar they were. It should come as no surprise that maroo and Liesa think almost identically, and the plans were very close- almost scary close, in fact.

Following that, we began an exciting contest to reveal where our Rations Drops would be held. I mean an army marches on its stomach, right? Do you think the TC3 would settle for anything less than the best our host nation could muster!? Not on your lives! We chose, over the course of many weeks, (ok, it actually took months) 20 fabulous mess halls to indulge in the finest cuisine (we hope!) Disney has to offer. Just so we have a list all in one place, here they are again:

Caseys, Flame Tree BBQ, Pecos Bills, Grand Floridian Tea, ‘Ohana, Tangierine Café OR Cantina de San Angel, Crystal Palace (you guessed it, but we axed it), Columbia Harbor House, Biergarten, Kona (breakfast and sushi bar), Riverside Food Mill, Teppan Edo, Wolfgang Puck Express, Beaches and Cream, Sanaa, Starring Rolls, Boma, and Jiko

Phew!! Are we up for the challenge? We shall all certainly see!

Congratulations to eandesmom, that’snice, Shannn, and Piper’sMom for their winning guesses!

For those of you who’ve been with this illustrious outfit for quite some time, you know that each month that gets us closer to D-Day, we give ourselves a ranking upgrade; a self-promotion so to speak. As of now, we are 2nd Lieutenants, but will shortly be upgraded again as our 7 month mark is coming up soon!

Some of you also know that Soldier #1’s life in general has been one of uncertainty and full of unclear plans. It was not long ago that we were planning a trip to Thailand right after our Week ‘O Freedom, but that came and went as fast as Sarah Palin’s run for office. Instead, they are planning a permanent move back to the US, and it happens that this impending move is dangerously close to our trip dates!! It is looking now like Lt. Liesa’s coveted solo portion is out the window like the Democrats in Massachusetts. There’s about the same chance of the POP solo stay happening, as her running a marathon in the next 2 years. Stranger things have happened though- we shall see.

No DIS Planning Document would be complete without a complete narrative of each participant’s Must-Do’s. It was completely enjoyable to contemplate what our top Mission Priorities are and list them out here for you -our constituency. Here in the preceding pages, you can find all of our desires to see and do at each park, each resort and even some miscellaneous places around the WDW property. Do you remember what Soldier #1’s top Must-Do is for her stay at the Poly?? It is watching Wishes from the beach, but is followed very closely with watching the little cheesy Tiki lighting ceremony.

Filling in the holes and rounding out our lineup of zany posts was a retelling of the incident of fart bomb misfires in an operating room, a narrative of a free peep show at the Hoop de Doo Revue, and an account of the cream cheese delivery that inspired a leaky bladder. It has been a lot of fun checking in here each day as we shared our stories and joked with one another. Thanks for all the laughs, our friends!

More planning recap from Part III coming up!

Continued in next post, but you may have to wait a spell. Administration is working feverishly!
 
Every branch of the military has an academy where young men and women train to be honorable and knowledgeable officers. It goes without saying that they must study military history in quite some detail, so as to learn from past mistakes and be better prepared for the next engagments. This Pre-Battle Plan included a 12 part series on a foray into WDW taken 10 years ago. Although exciting and fun, it taught soldier #1 many things about basic touring manuevers, the dangers of going in ill-prepared, and how proper planning can assure a sound victory!

Dear Friends, One and All,

It's been a wonderfully well spent 9 months (almost) getting to know each of you better and sharing our joys and sorrows each day with you. When we started this journey of trip planning here, we debated a long while about whether it was too early to start a report so far in advance. We wondered what on earth we could possibly talk about for so long and keep your interest over the months.

We needn't have worried! We share much in common, and our passion is fueled with one another's enthusiasm of all things Disney. I have no doubt the next 7 months will be filled with fun stories, many trimphant moments in our planning, huge amounts of "knowledge share", and even a few more "bumps of life" along the way. Be on the look out for the 2nd part of this thread very soon (still no chosen name yet. I'm starting to have indigestion issues...), and until then, the last Installment of the Newbie's Trip to the World- Clueless Style is coming up soon. Meanwhile feel free to yak it up as long as the mods will let us. :goodvibes
 


I saw it on Jordan's and was LMAO!
That could be the funniest thing I ever saw on here.



Give her a few days... I'm sure she'll be off breaking some other ceramics. :lmao:

Not that I know her very well.... just from what I see here and on Jordan's. ;)

She's a hoot, that one!! Her own thread gets some pretty funny stuff going as well.

Shannn!! That was a good story!! I'll bet your doctor was sure eating crow!! My first doc was lucky I didn't sue him! I walked into my first appointment with pregnancy #3, and called me, "a horny little thing!!" :scared1::scared1::scared1: Can you imagine!!?? I should have slapped him and left. I think that was the last time I ever entered his office! I found a nice Catholic midwife after that!
 
Sorry for the big post....you folks were busy on here last night.

First off, I don't think I thanked you for the PTR shout-out....so Thanks Liesa! I'm glad to have you contributing to the antics over there.

Now he's 19 AND JUST GOT HIS ACCEPTANCE LETTER TO THE UNV.. OF HIS CHOICE!!!

That's awesome! Congrats!

(I think we got the idea early on. :lmao:) Why does this not surprise me?? I totally would have done the same thing!! And that's no lie. FREE food is always good! OK, I know your insurance paid far too much than is moral, but hey, you pay too much for IT.

I have a pact with a couple of other guys here at work where if any of us finds free food in the building, leftover from a meeting or something, that we let the others know. We call ourselves "hallway carp".

I got no baby story...although my parents thought I'd be a girl....they had a name picked out and everything..Jennifer Renee.....

A name they considered for Judy was Nellie Belle. I'm not sure I could have married her with that name!

For James, we named him after each of his grandfathers, but we didn't want to tell them until after he was born. But everybody kept bugging us. So I said to Judy, I'm going to open the baby-name book at random, close my eyes, and put my finger down on a name from the left page and then on the right page. That'll be the name we'll tell everybody until he's born. The name: Purvis Quigley.

Somehow they never believed we were really going with that name.

My parents love me. I'm the baby and I play that baby card well even now.;)

Another baby here. :wave:


So when our cute, and quite effervescent, blonde haired, Norse waitress served us, Dad was pleased as punch to engage her in all kinds of talk about Norway. He flirts as far as he can get away with and still call it "being friendly". All in all, it was a fabulous meal!

Note to self: brush up on Norway trivia for small-talk at Akershus, got it.


Rant #328 for this post. Is it always so hard to find just basic, classic Mickey and Minnie designs at the shops? You would think that would be a quick in and out, find it fast sort of thing, but I walked around in there for, like I said, 45 minutes before I could find designs where Mickey wasn’t playing golf or the bagpipes.

So true!
 
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Sorry for the big post....you folks were busy on here last night.

It was a night filled with an overabundance of entertainment! :rotfl:

First off, I don't think I thanked you for the PTR shout-out....so Thanks Liesa! I'm glad to have you contributing to the antics over there.

You're so very welcome!! Where else would I find photos of a close mishap of the ballerina kind? :scared1::eek:

That's awesome! Congrats!

We're pretty pumped. It now seems more possible we can have someone who could repay the Disney kindness (ie. float a trip) to dear old mom and dad. :rotfl2:

I have a pact with a couple of other guys here at work where if any of us finds free food in the building, leftover from a meeting or something, that we let the others know. We call ourselves "hallway carp".

Hallway carp!! :lmao::lmao: but isn't that misdemeanor??!

A name they considered for Judy was Nellie Belle. I'm not sure I could have married her with that name!

Now that right there is playground teasing fodder! :scared1: (Hope I don't have any readers named that!)

For James, we named him after each of his grandfathers, but we didn't want to tell them until after he was born. But everybody kept bugging us. So I said to Judy, I'm going to open the baby-name book at random, close my eyes, and put my finger down on a name from the left page and then on the right page. That'll be the name we'll tell everybody until he's born. The name: Purvis Quigley.

Sounds like something out of a Ramona the Pest book.

Note to self: brush up on Norway trivia for small-talk at Akershus, got it.

Judy still has her knives... ;):rolleyes1
 
Holy chatty Kathys people! I miss 24 hours and this thing explodes!

I got no baby story...although my parents thought I'd be a girl....they had a name picked out and everything..Jennifer Renee.....

This made me laugh! My name is Jennifer and my DD's name is Jordan.

Now he's 19 AND JUST GOT HIS ACCEPTANCE LETTER TO THE UNV.. OF HIS CHOICE!!!

:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2: That's great news! Congrats!

If I don't show up on the new thread right away, can someone please escort me to it via pm? thanks! :thumbsup2
 
Holy chatty Kathys people! I miss 24 hours and this thing explodes!

I am a little in a panic, as there are a few things left that I want on THIS thread- hence the hurry :)

We've gotcha covered with leading you to the Motherland. Full speed ahead, Captain!
 
called me, "a horny little thing!!" :scared1::scared1::scared1:
:scared1::scared1::scared1::scared1:

I think I'd be so astonished I wouldn't know what to say or do untill way after the fact.

I worked in l&D as a CNA for awhile and we had 1 doctor who said things like that. One day he was breaking someone's "water" and when the girl let out a little "yelp", he told her to be quiet because it doesn't hurt....

I wanted to say, ok buddy...let me stick a crochet hook up your rear end and wiggle it around and see if you think it doesn't hurt.:headache:

we also had a guy call and say he thought his wife's water had broke and what should he do. The nurse asked him why he thought ...looking for typical signs....his answer..........
"because it tastes different than usual"


That'll be the name we'll tell everybody until he's born. The name: Purvis Quigley.

:lmao: I think that is the worst name I've ever heard! Purvis???
 
Okay, Liesa...
I'm still playing catch up and I'm about 100 pages back and I just read your post about the cross-country drive from Portland to Orlando. I cracked up at your description of the Texas part of the drive. Now, I'm a born and raised Texan and I really have no desire to live anywhere else, but... I'm totally with you on the lack of amusing scenery. There are some really beautiful areas, but the stretches of highway that we usually drive are FLAT-out BORING - pun intended.

We live in Waco and drive the 90-something miles north up I35 to Dallas somewhat frequently to visit DH's sister's family. We are bored to death with that drive. A couple of years ago we bought me a new car and instead of trading in my old car we garaged it at my folks' house in Mexia (about 40 east of Waco) with the intention of selling it to our niece (SIL's daughter) a couple of months later. Well, the time came to deliver the car to our niece up in Dallas, so we drove in DH's car over to my folks' house (also a boring, flat, uninteresting drive) and then I followed him in my old car from there to Dallas, north up I45 instead of our usual trek up I35.

When we arrived up in Dallas, we both had the same comment - "That was still SUCH a boring drive with absolutely NOTHING interesting to look at, but at least it was DIFFERENT nothing!"
 
Honestly, there's not a whole lot new. Mostly just a lot of chatter and fun. I think there's only a couple of real updates. My water situation is all resolved, well at least for today. Last night I heard a drip, went to check and in my enthusiasm for finding the leak, ended up snapping a whole hose all the way off. Water sprayed everywhere, and before I had the wherewithall to aim the spewing gusher at the tub it has soaked my walls- ugh, not again...

Anyway, our system does not have shut off valves for every sink, toilet and tub, so the whole house had to be shut off. Luckily, this morning one of Mike's co-workers was kind enough to come over and get it fixed!! :yay::yay::yay:

So glad to hear that!

[/COLOR]
His name was Robert Ray, but we all called him Bobby. I tried to Google him last night, but found nothing. I've been told that many of the animators remained relatively anonymous, and only the lead drawers really got any credit. No matter, it's something I'm totally going to frame and cherish.

That is so cool! You've got to post a pic of that when you get it!

Hey, thanks for pimping out my PTR!
 
Liesa~

Great posts!! I enjoyed the recap of events on here since I have yet to get through them all. I'll catch up when all the fodder from Joryd's, Blue's and Winkers PTR's die down with their coming up trip. :laughing:

I really enjoy reading your PTR and I'm sure I'll enjoy even more as the months go on. :goodvibes

I wish I could meet you all in Sept., but we'll have to wait and see what Peeps Fest 2012 brings us. :goodvibes

Good work soldier! Keep your powder and your feet dry.:confused3 (It sounded good) Carry on! <salute> :laughing:
 
Hey Everyone! I was up to 3:00 last night trying to get caught up on posting, so I'm super tired! I will be up later today AFTER I sleep in a whole bunch more. I'm going to write up the last installment for the Retro Trip and respond, but I need more sleep first. :guilty:

Meantime, here's your assignment...

SEND MORE TITLE IDEAS!!
 
We last left off with the bilking of way too much of our cash in a Disney gift shop. How easy it is to spend far, far more than for something identical you can get at your local Target. Rule #1 had been broken on this trip: “Check your weather forecast and pack appropriately”. One funny anecdote I should add here: After several hours on the road, in the house on wheels, much, much too far to turn back for forgotten items, we discovered that I had completely overlooked my daughter Rebekah’s entire bag of clothing! It was a costly and inconvenient mistake, as we had to basically replace her entire 3 weeks of clothing at a Walmart on the way. Luckily, the rollback pricing treated us nicely, and she didn’t have to tour Disney World in her birthday pajamas.

3 days of making magical memories were behind us; we had 1 day left to capture the enchantment of what Disney had to offer. We had already been to the Magic Kingdom twice and had visited the Animal Kingdom for a pitiful half day before leaving quite bored. DHS was not even considered, since I was pretty convinced, as I said before, that it was all about thrill rides and geared more toward the teenage crowd. Obviously, I was wrong on both accounts in my hasty and prejudicial estimation of it. Rule #2 had been broken; that of “Know before you go.”
So, what should we do with our last day’s ticket? Honest to goodness, I wish I remember where we went and what we did, but it just won’t come. If I were to make an educated guess, it was probably either the Magic Kingdom or back to EPCOT. Both were great parks that we loved being in. But as you see, rule #3 had been broken; that of “take notes if you want to remember anything about your trip”.

Memories are like flowers; some are bright and fresh, others seem withered and dying. One last recollection of this trip stands as a defining moment; clear and fresh. I’ll include it here, as it really doesn’t matter when this occasion took place. It could have been on the first day or the last, I don’t remember. Like anyone who has been cooped up with 4 children and 2 parents for 2 weeks straight, I needed a quiet break all to myself. I asked Mom and Dad if they minded if I took off for a couple of hours. Being the kind of people that will give you the moon if you asked, said of course, but only if you take the baby.

So it was, with baby in stroller and time to kill, I started off to nowhere in particular. I really didn’t have a destination, and it was bliss. Realizing I basically had only two options, the boat or the bus, I opted for the easier of them- the boat. The awning topped little launch swing into its berth and on we went. The nice thing about the boats is that you don’t have to fold up your stroller for the ride across the Seven Seas Lagoon. Every parent can certainly appreciate that. But where were we going?? I couldn’t use my ticket to go to a park, and this boat, I soon found out, wasn’t going there anyway. It was headed for the Wilderness Lodge and the Polynesian Resorts. I don’t know what made me decide, but as we pulled up beside the dock at the tropical looking resort, an inner calling took hold of my every urge to explore.

For over an hour, which I had all to myself now since the baby had asleep, I slowly meandered around the lush, yet impeccably groomed grounds of the Poly. The soft Hawaiian and Tahitian background music just added to the overall effect of completely immersing me into a far away, exotic place. Flowers were in bloom, the happy sounds of children frolicking in the pool echoed a bit, and the general sense of peace overwhelmed me; I couldn’t think of a lovelier place to come to and vacation. I cannot begin to really put into words the longing I felt to return here someday, but that would have to wait until almost 11 years later when another chance would arrive. However, as good as all that was, rule #4 had been broken. “Always take your camera with you wherever you go on vacation!” I have no pictures of this first encounter with a resort property. And as good as memories are, they fade like flowers.

To sum up our very first Walt Disney World, I’d say it served to whet our appetite for many more future trips. We made a lot of amateur mistakes, but those by no means ruined our trip. The most important lesson it taught me was that all of us who have done the research, know what we want to do, have plans for touring, make our dining reservations 6 months ahead of time, and even go so far as deciding what we might eat, all have something in common; we all had a first trip. At one point in our own past trips, we didn’t know as much as we did that first time. We’ve all had those moments of getting lost, or not being completely, might I even say “obsessively” prepared. Every day there are Clueless Newbies all around at every park, resort, and property. And they might just be someone who will be at that very moment be having Disney defining moment. And those are quite special- quite special indeed.
 
"They're Not Strangers Any More!"

"Strangers in Paradise"

:banana::banana::banana: For the great college news!!!
 
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