Ten Years Later....A Pre-Trip Planning Report

[scanne]

Hi everyone! Welcome to the PTR entitled "Ten Years Later...."

So WHAT exactly is ten years later? The marriage to my wonderful husband! That's right. We're in the midst of planning our 10 year anniversary trip!

Let me introduce our amazing cast of characters.

First there is me. I'm donning the bridal smiley due to the celebratory reason for the trip. I'm 35, a music teacher, Disney lover, Twilight fan, I love to sing, read, bake and spend time with my family.

Next up is my DH. Did I mention how wonderful he is?? He is 40 (probably will not be happy that I posted his age), loves all things Disney, animation, Star Wars, movies, magazines and his family.

In 2002, we added to our family with our DS. He is now 7!!! He loves Disney, magic, video games, books and he's now into Ghost Hunters. Hmmm, perhaps he will visit the Haunted Mansion after all!

And in 2004 our Princess was born She is an amazing little girl with lots of spunk and attitude. Yeah, she's more spirited like Tink than demure like Belle, but she's loving, funny and affectionate.

More to come...we'll delve into our favorites, the 3 summer birthdays, the 10th anniversary plans and the decision to go concierge!

 

[scanne]

I'm back....LOL....like my intro was enough to make you miss me. NOT!!!

But anyway, as promised, here is some more on our travelling party.

#1 - Me. The wife, mom and OCDP. My favorite "Disney" things are....

1. The castle.
2. Popcorn on Main Street USA.
3. The Haunted Mansion.
4. Tinker Bell
5. The monorail.

#2 - DH. My even-tempered and ever-so-patient love. His favorite Disney things are...

1. The Haunted Mansion
2. Animation
3. Dole Whip
4. The Polynesian
5. Being a goof ball because he can get away with it in WDW!

#3 - DS - age 7 (but almost 8 when we go). His favorites....

1. Goofy's Barnstormer/Toy Story Mania
2. Mickey Bars
3. The resort arcades
4. The arcade at the Contemporary (even though we've never stayed there).
5. The Disney hotels

#4 - DD - age 6 (when we go!!!)

1. Princesses
2. Mad Tea Party
3. Bibbidi Boppity Boutique
4. Minnie Mouse strawberry ice pops
5. The Fairies

Now, my DS, my DD and I all have summer birthdays. I'm Aug. 2nd, DS is Aug. 8th and DD is July 14th. Plus, my anniversary with DH is June 25th, so these summer trips become "celebration" trips every year! And since we're celebrating a milestone in our marriage, we're kickin' up our resort stay with club leve at the Polynesian. So far, I'm very impressed with the early perks of club level. It's so nice to not stress about making dining reservations. Plus I won't have to order from Garden Grocer this trip.

I'm planning on a few birthday and anniversary surprises, but I am not 100% sure what I want to do yet....any ideas are WELCOME!

We're making this trip longer than any other (besides our honeymoon), too! 11 nights!!!! Night #1 is at the Nick Hotel just so we can swim and so the kids can get the experience. Nishts #2 and 3 are at Portofino Bay at Universal. We're just doing a standard room here. We're REALLY looking forward to Harry Potter World at US/IOA. My kids both want to go to Olivander's and get wands. Personally, I'm looking forward to pumpkin juice!!! LOL!!! DH is excited about all the detail that's being put into the HP world. He loves his details!

The last 8 nights are at DH's favorite resort - the Polynesian. It took a while to settle on a resort. I also suffer from ODHSD or Obsessive Disney Hotel Switching Disorder. I think I changes our WDW resort about 5 times before I felt that I had made the right choice.

Along the planning way we were at....
Grand Floridian theme park view with the DxDP.
then....
Grand Floridian Sugar Loaf (no dining plan)
Contemporary MK view with DxDP
Tried to get AKL concierge to no avail
Then....
WL deluxe room....
And finally....
Polynesian Garden view club level.

Once I had that last one booked, I knew it was the right choice for us!!!!
So now I'm playing the airfare waiting game, but I think I'll be buying our plane tickets sooner rather than waiting that much longer. We're also renting a car for the first five days just to get from the airport to Nick Hotel then to US then to WDW. We're dropping the car off at the Dolphin and plan to take Magical Express back to the airport.

You know, I'm really going to miss putting those yellow tags on our suitcase for DME....

So that's the plan so far.
Next installment will be our dining plans...and our Disney dislikes. (Obsessive, compulsive, Disney planner).