Changes, Changes, and More Changes

OK, I'm ready to pull my hair out. What was originally just myself, DH, our 2 boys, my mother and her fiance, is now our original 6 plus my sisters, oldest sister's 3 kids, oldest sister's best friend and her 3 girls, the fiance's sister and her hubby, plus 4 kids. On top of that my grandma, aunt, and 2 cousins will be joining for 2 full days. 

Now if that is not scary enough I have been asked to come up with Itineraries for several different sub-groups.

We are going to have our Commandos - myself, DH, our 2 boys, my youngest sister and our nephew who is the same age as my oldest son.

Next we have the Parents - my mom, her fiance, his sister and her hubby, (Granny and my Aunt will join in for part of two days of this trip)

Next group is the Girls - my oldest sister  and her 2 daughters with sister's friend and her 3 daughters. Oldest kid in this group is 7, youngest will be 2 at the time of the vacation.

Last groups are Tweens and Young Adults, they have said they know what they want to do just asked for ADRs made for them for a few places. We have a while to go before we can do this (161 more days in fact) so no worries there.

Well at least I know this all now and not 2 weeks out.....

I'll post more soon....
 

Vacation Planner

Well here we go. Watch out I've gone about plum loco... 300+ days to go and my planner is HUGE...

This is a 3" - 3 ring binder. I love it I bought it at back to school time and only paid about $2 for it. It has a zipper to keep everything inside and lots of extra pockets.

Now I haven't done much to decorating it but I will add to it as I go.

It will end up with pictures and captions. I found that my last one made a really cool keepsake after the trip was over.

I love iron on sheet that I can run through my printer only problem it once you iron them on to a dark surface it bleeds through. I guess I should have bought the ones for dark colors.

Oh well I still like it and that is all that matters.

Next pictures are of my inserts...

Like I said I have gone a might bit crazy with it. LOL I can't wait to be able to make my ADRs. 

I'm going to go stir crazy before our trip gets here.

Next Update....???

Oct 1,... 348 days and counting....

Just a little update here. I have been obsessively pouring over forums (especially the Dis). Checking, rechecking, figuring and reconfiguring.

I have it down to a couple different options and just have to commit to one of them. I am trying to wait and see what my end of the year bonus is going to look like. Keeping fingers crossed.

Here are the options I have come up with...

Consistent with all options - 8 nights, 5 day Disney Tix, 2-3 day Universal Tix, MNSSHP Tix

1.   Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside,  water view,    W/  DxDDP

2.   Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort - Pirate Standard,  W/  DxDDP

3.   Disney's Wilderness Lodge Resort - Standard,  W/ DxDDP

4.   Disney's Wilderness Lodge Resort - Club level,  W/ DDP

I would love to get a Pin or some special like FD. With the way my boys eat I could really use the DxDDP and it would help. But a 40% off room would be great too. 35% off vs FD then FD would be my better bet. 

I have us figured with no specials though.
 
I will have to make a decision soon for my quotes will not be valid for much longer. 


Next Update will be my Planner......

Happy Dance

I have so decided to do the DxDDP (deluxe dining plan) no matter what. I think it is a good possibility for FD (free dining) that I can just upgrade.

Ok here we go....just OOP (out of pocket) I am looking at spending between $1550 to $1750 conservatively speaking. This is doing a light breakfast mostly at RF (Roaring Forks) (which will get old after a couple times) and then not eating again until dinner time mostly eating at TS (table service) restaurants but no appetizers (ever) and few if any deserts, a few snacks and drinks.

Where as if I go with the DxDDP with no discounts I'm looking at about $2071.68 but we will have possible 3 meals credits a day and 2 snack credits a day per person. Which is only about a $321 difference or only about $40 a day more. But we would have the opportunity to eat so much better and I would have to worry about who is ordering what and how much is it going to cost. I have already made out a tentative meal schedule including a estimated tip figuring towards the higher end entrees. Especially since my oldest loves steaks, he would order the cheapest thing on the menu without even a grumble but it would be really nice to be able to indulge him some. He is such a good kid (most of the time LOL), works hard, does his studies with out too much argument, helps around the house and farm.

Anyways I digress. 

Here is what I have come up with so far...

Sat - DHS

Breakfast: Starring Rolls Café 

Lunch: Sci-Fi Dine In

Dinner: 50’s  Prime Time Café

Sun - DTD
Breakfast - Whispering Canyon
Lunch - Earl of Sandwich
Dinner - Planet Hollywood

Mon - Animal Kingdom
Breakfast - Tusker House
Lunch - Flame Tree BBQ
Dinner - Whispering Canyon

Tue - MK + MNSSHP
Breakfast - Crystal Palace
Lunch - Casey Corner ?
Dinner - Tony's

Wed - Epcot 

Breakfast -Roaring Forks
Lunch - Rose and Crown
Dinner - Akerhus

Thur - IOA
Breakfast - ? Room Service 

Lunch - Three Broomsticks (OOP)
Dinner - After we get back from IOA

Fri - Epcot
Breakfast - Sunshine Seasons Food Court
Lunch - Coral Reef
Late Dinner - Beirgarten

Sat - USF
Breakfast - Roaring Forks
Lunch - (OOP @ USF)?
Dinner - HDDR

Sun - Check out
Breakfast - Chef Mickey's 

I know it seems like a lot, but even if we deviate a little I think we will get our money's worth.

I just have to remember my new mantra "Flexible is good. Flexible is good. Flexible is good."

Here We Go Again

Howdy Howdy,

Getting ready for another round with the Mouse and Mr Potter. I think I am more excited this time then I was last time if that is possible. lol

I have been working on the planning phase for a while now but have not had a chance to start this blog until now.

I have started my vacation book or as my hubby jokes my Disney bible...lol. I will share pics in my next blog entry. And my family thinks I'm totally nuts because we are not planning on going until next year, September to be exact. I really enjoyed going last Sept. It was a good time to go, the parks were not all that busy even on the weekends. It was still pretty hot but not so hot that we were going to pass out. All major school districts were back in session. But we are going to have a couple major differences this next trip and a couple minor changes.

First minor change (or maybe major change...lol) is no nephew this trip. I kinda got used last time by my darling nephew, being included on the trip was a graduation present. The stipulation that I would stay off his back about no life direction was that as soon as we got back he would either get a job or apply to college. He did neither until about 10wks ago when he finally decided he wanted to try art school. Anyways off subject. Story for a different blog.

Next minor change is that we are adding 2 days going from 7 days last trip to 9 days this next trip. But one of our major changes is that we have decided to stay on site @ Disney. We are also going for the Dining Plan. I am hoping for Free Dining because I really want to go with the Deluxe Dining and want to save some $$.

I have run all the numbers at least 50times, and without the nephew and his extras we will have more then enough to stay on site. Also we are going to spend the entire trip accommodations at Disney. I did debate on a few days at a Universal Resort but with the dining plan at Disney it is going to be a better bet for us to stay at Disney and visit Universal a couple days. I love Universal but with a younger child still and myself being more of the pooh sized (but working on my Roller Coaster Diet...by heavens I want to ride everything!!!!). I think Disney is a better bet, this time.

We are going to do 5 days @ Disney and 2 days @ Universal, giving us 2 blank days. Those two day were really needed last time and maybe we would have wore ourselves out so much that most of us ended up sick by the end of the trip. Hubby and I were the worst both coming down with bronchitis by the time we arrived home.

We are going to drive down again, it was a long haul with myself being the only driver but I'll do it again in a heart beat. I don't think I'm going to worry about renting a vehicle and just plan on driving my Explorer again. Another difference though is that we are not telling the kids until the last min. I will pack their bags is secret and maybe I'll be able to sleep some the day we plan leave out (even if I have to take a sleep aid to get some rest. I am not doing 48hrs+ on only an hour and a half of sleep). I have been keeping close care of my vehicle maintenance and I will be buying 4 new tires before we go. (Trying for no ugly surprises this time at least not anything that I can possibly help)

Also my mother will not be with us on the drive. She and her BF will be joining us down there but we will not be traveling together. YEAH!!! LOL. My mom is not totally horrible to travel with unless it is by car. She rarely drives anymore and has to stop every 50 miles or so.  Will we really have less stops without her in the vehicle? IDK but I can hope...  :)

I will go into more details of the planning next time. But I think I have rattled on enough for tonight. 

Until Next Time....