Who'd have ever thought that this could be? A November 2017 Pre-Trip Report (updated Sept.11, 2017)

[JudyHopps]

HEY! I just got an Akershus so they are opening up!

Thanks! It looks like they're open from the 18th on with tons of availability, but (strangely) the week before is still closed. I'm looking for the 16th. Not sure what's up. I may have to call the dreaded dining hotline again to see what I can find out.

 

[sjs314]

HEY! I just got an Akershus so they are opening up!

Unfortunately it seems they opened up from 11/18 and later today and I need 11/17

 

[JudyHopps]

sjs314, I just got an alert for the 16th a few minutes ago! Try the 17th and see what you get!

 

[annegirl]

Unfortunately it seems they opened up from 11/18 and later today and I need 11/17

aww dang. I was looking for either the 15th or 20th and was able to get the 20th. I didn't see anything for the 15th. I wonder if there will be any later?

 

[sjs314]

sjs314, I just got an alert for the 16th a few minutes ago! Try the 17th and see what you get!

I got a new alert from TP and was able to book the 17th

 

[annegirl]

All right...
Finally back with another update.
Holy cow. Life has been crazy.
I have been really excited about starting this whole new homeschooling adventure with my kids but it is taking up a lot of my time with research and prep. I have a conference to go to this next weekend for the curriculum I will be using for most of the subjects so after that I will be able to really get to the final planning stages. But for now I have been setting up a classroom and organizing the supplies we already have so that I will know what to buy.
We will be starting in July so it is getting close. We will be doing year round school so that we can take a bigger break in the winter (NOVEmber/ December) as we tend to be more cold weather people than hot weather and that is when we like to get out and do things. Also, doing year round gives us a chance to break the school year up into 6 terms with a week break in between each one so that we feel like we have a lot of time off sprinkled throughout the year. Anyway, back to Disney!

I told you all how we decided to book very last minute but I didn't mention yet one of the main reasons we were thinking of doing a trip.
So far we have been to Disney World twice.
The first time was for Abigail's 5th birthday in 2010.

Then we went again in 2014 for Madeline's 5th birthday.

Going with this pattern we would be going four years later again, on Abigail's golden birthday which would be next year. 2018.
But...
Abigail had a hard time in math this past year in school. But she soon found out that when she didn't understand a concept in class that she could come home and do it on Khan academy (the free website if you haven't heard of it ) and she would immediately get it and be able to master it. Because of this we really wanted her to keep up with Khan and get past her grade level so that she would be prepared in class.
She was in an advanced program at school so even though she was in 5th grade they were already doing 6th grade math. So, basically Doug told her that if she could finish the math on Khan through 7th grade that we would go to Disney World. Big words, man. I asked if he was sure he wanted to make that promise and he said yes... so it stood.
She isn't quite done with the 7th grade math yet but she is at about 65%... so we knew that she would be finishing it in the next few months, especially once we start schooling and she will be working on it every day rather than just during free time after regular school and weekends.
So we basically had two options- wait to start booking and planning until she was completely done or book now so that we can go right after she finishes.
When Doug started getting that itch to go, that made the decision for us.

So far the trip is a surprise.
Both of our previous trips have been complete surprises.
During the first trip we told them we were driving to TN to see my cousin.. which we did. But then we kept going south the next day rather than turning around and driving back to Wisconsin.
It was such a surprise that she Abi didn't believe us at first when we told her.
The last trip we had to fly (as we are now in Utah) and we didn't tell them anything. They woke up on the day of our departure and set about the day as if it was any normal school day.
Then at breakfast we surprised them and ,again, they didn't believe us.

Well, this trip can't be a complete surprise because Abi knows we are going at some point after she finishes the goal.
So I asked her, "Do you want to know when we are going and help in the planning or do you want it to be a surprise again?"
She said that she wanted to know that we were going but not the exact date.
So, that has made it a bit easier as I can plan and ask questions but they still don't know it is already booked.

As far as the dates.. we wanted a time in between both their birthdays but, as I said in the first post, I had to go with an earlier time period. So we will be leaving the day after Madeline's birthday.
Our plan is to have them wake up and have the magic bands box wrapped up and set somewhere. We will wait until they notice it and ask about it and then let them open it. Then we will tell them we are going that day.
It will probably be a little bit lower key than our other two trips since those were both big birthday celebrations... but we'll see. I do tend to go overboard when planning!

As of right now I haven't got down to planning out everything for each day or figuring out which fast passes we will try to get but I do have a handle on our dining.
I have had a few instances of magic with deciding to log on randomly and finding exactly what I have been trying to get so as of right now these are the ADR's we have:

Day One: We will be arriving in the late afternoon and decided to try to go to Disney Springs like we did on our last trip. Maddy really wanted to go to T-Rex again so I have booked that for dinner.
They only had a 9:30pm so I grabbed it but I am going to try to call in and get one earlier.

Day Two: I was finally able to book a Garden Grill dinner for 6:35 pm

Day Three: I amazingly found a Crystal Palace for 8:05 am! I had a later one on a different day that I was able to cancel. This was one I randomly found a few days ago.
We also have a 1900 Park Fare dinner this day at 7:40pm

Day four: We have a 1900 Park Fare breakfast at 10:40am (brunch) as it is a day where we plan to go to the park for only a few hours in the morning and then go back to the resort for the rest of the day to swim and stuff. We may cancel this later but for now we are thinking this would be fun.

Day five: No ADR's

Day six: Ohana's dinner at 7:05

Day Seven: aKurshus breakfast at 8:20am

Day Eight: We have a CRT breakfast at 8am, Be Our Guest lunch at 12:25, and a Be Our Guest dinner at 6:55pm

Day Nine: Our last day. Boo hoo. We will be going to the park for a few hours before our late afternoon flight home so I also got a Be Our Guest lunch at 1:00.


So, that's it. I am starting to think of things for Tinkerbell gifts and we have already bought some pins on Ebay... I will post about them next time!


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[missangelalexis]

Your plans sound great! Love that you are doing three castle meals in one day on Day 8!

 

[JudyHopps]

Your girls' precious pics from the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique are making me so excited to take my little girl!

 

[annegirl]

Your plans sound great! Love that you are doing three castle meals in one day on Day 8!

I know! It seemed like a bit of overkill at first but since that was when I was able to book them, I went with it.

 

[annegirl]

Your girls' precious pics from the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique are making me so excited to take my little girl!

We loved it so much! It's such a fun experience!

 

[annegirl]

I have been SUCH a slacker on here! So sorry, teaching the girls is taking up so much time.
I plan on getting on here this week to update a bit and I have to start getting ready for fast pass as we will be making those on the 15th!

 

[sjs314]

I have been SUCH a slacker on here! So sorry, teaching the girls is taking up so much time.
I plan on getting on here this week to update a bit and I have to start getting ready for fast pass as we will be making those on the 15th!

I make my FP on the 15th also

 

[mdsouth]

Hi, I just found your pre-tr and thought I would follow along even though I do not have any plans for a trip right now. My last trip was in Feb. 2014. I am planning to go back in 2019. I would love to go sooner but it does not look like it will work for us for various reasons.

Your daughter Abi and mine sound like they have some personality traits in common. My daughter is now 14. She is quiet and shy. She used to be into My Little Pony and will still occasionally watch the tv show from time to time and when she does she enjoys it. She loves to draw and has sketch books filled with her own characters. Right now she likes to play Pokemon Go. She has done some coding and she likes it too.

 

[annegirl]

I make my FP on the 15th also

NICE! Im excited and nervous...

 

[annegirl]

Hi, I just found your pre-tr and thought I would follow along even though I do not have any plans for a trip right now. My last trip was in Feb. 2014. I am planning to go back in 2019. I would love to go sooner but it does not look like it will work for us for various reasons.

Your daughter Abi and mine sound like they have some personality traits in common. My daughter is now 14. She is quiet and shy. She used to be into My Little Pony and will still occasionally watch the tv show from time to time and when she does she enjoys it. She loves to draw and has sketch books filled with her own characters. Right now she likes to play Pokemon Go. She has done some coding and she likes it too.

They do sound a lot alike! Welcome!

 

[annegirl]

Okay time to at least get something on here!
The girls love doing pin trading when we are at Disney and on both of our previous trips we have bought big lots of pins from ebay to use.
I decided to do that again this year.
After we got them they knew they wanted to keep quite a few of them so we ordered one more to make sure that we would have an abundance of pins to take and trade.
Here are our two "lots" of pins:

I can't believe we are at 64 days!
It still seems a bit unreal.
On our last two trips we were doing a lot more. I was sewing clothes and painting shoes. I was making hair ribbons. We were doing it big because, first we did it that way for Abigail and then we wanted Maddy's 5th bday to be just as special and spectacular.
This trip will be quite different. We will still be celebrating Maddy's bday as it is right after and they told us they would have a bday button for her and all the perks of that... but we are mostly celebrating Abi's hard work.
Also, it's a shorter trip and the first trip where we won't have family there with us. Our plan is to still make it really cool with all of our traditions (like pin trading and cute outfits) but I won't be going all out like I have on the other two trips. Plus, with the clothes... Maddy still fits into them. So I don't really need new ones. Abi doesn't really want to be dressed up in costumes the whole time. She may change her mind so I may throw some things together last minute.. but as of right now that's not going to be a thing.
Because I haven't been doing as much for this trip I keep losing track of where we are in the planning stages and what I still need to think about!
And it doesn't quite seem as real.
But I plan on taking a couple hours this week to prepare myself for the upcoming fast pass day and then I will post about our fast passes and more concrete plans!




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[missangelalexis]

Looks like you are ready for pin trading! Good luck on FP day! How exciting to be almost 2 months away

 

[annegirl]

FAst passes done. Whew. I realized at the end that I was trying to make 9 days worth on 8 day tickets. Originally we were planning on either not going to any parks on arrival night and/or having a full day off but we have since modified our plans to go for a couple hours on our first night and going just for the morning hours on our "day off" and I hadn't thought about the fact that I would now need one more day. Duh. So luckily I was able to quickly add a day and then still get the fp I wanted for that day. Now that I have our dining and fast pass reservations locked down I will start finalizing our daily plans. Woo hoo!

 

[mdsouth]

Sounds like everything is falling into place, ADR's set and FastPasses obtained! The trip is getting that much closer.

 

[annegirl]

Our trip is 8 days away! I can't believe it. I don't feel nearly as prepared as I have on our last two trips. Starting to freak out hoping I have everything done that needs to be done.
Also, I have neglected this pre trip report so much! I will definitely be doing a trip report so at least that will get done!
As of right now I have finally finished planning out what the girls will wear each day. I have rough ideas of our daily plans- I need to really get on that!
Packing is really hard because I am looking at weather for people there right now and it is in the eighties but both times we have gone to Disney- once in november right now and once in the beginning of december it has been warm for part and really cold the rest of the time. I honestly prefer colder weather so I kept thinking of it that way and then remembered that we have kind of been there during two flukes!
So I'm planning on warmer weather but hoping for a little cooler