McGoofy's scattered pre-trip report

[McGoofy]

Scroll down a few posts to read the addendum with the real plans--addendum added 5/18/08.

Our family of 3 is heading back to WDW in 12 days. Before today, our plan was to stay 5 nights. We are renting points from our friends DVC, so we are staying at OKW. My DH and I have had a lot going on lately with different things, and we are just looking forward to our favorite get away. We are not hitting the parks commando style. We just want to be able to sleep in, take advantage of the resort swimming pool, relax and truly make this a vacation. The other night I said to DH, "I sure wish we could stay at WDW longer." I was joking, but DH took me seriously and said, "why can't we?" My work schedule didn't have me back to work until 3 days after we got home. DH's schedule is very flexible. So DH called today and when our time at OKW is up, we are going to move over for 2 more nights at Pop Century. I am too excited about getting 2 bonus days that I hadn't planned on!!

We'll be on the dining plan the first 5 days. We have ADR's for Rose and Crown, Hoop Dee Doo Revue, dinner at Ohanas, and a breakfast at Chef Mickey's.

We are leaving our home at noon on May 28th. I have to work night shift on the night before, so I will come home and sleep that morning. DS will be at his last day of school for 4th grade. They are dismissed at noon, so hopefully by 12:05pm we will be on the road to Disney! On the night we arrive, we want to go to POR to catch crazy Bob Jackson at the POR lounge. On the other days, we will go into the parks, but we are keeping it all very laid back as we know it will be hot and maybe crowded.

On that Saturday we have a big surprise for DS. He has made "A's" in every single class all year long. As a reward for making "A" honor roll, we are taking him to Blizzard Beach. We have never been, and he always begs to go. I'm really looking forward to that.

Saturday night is going to be our Downtown Disney night. Our AMC theatre closed here in town, and somebody had given us AMC gift cards that we were not able to use. It so happens that the theatre on the West Side is an AMC theatre, so we are going to catch Indiana Jones that night.

I'm still in shock that I have two extra Disney days, so I haven't really made any plans. I do know that we are going to have a blast the whole week, and I cannot wait for May 28th to get here!

[KineGirl]

2 extra days! So cool :cool: Sounds like you got a great vacay ahead of you. One of these years Im going to slow down a bit more like youve got planned. Congrats to DS too on his A-wesome grades!! I know he will just love BB as much as hes always knew he would! Im not sure if they do it there (they do at TL) but check out the message board when you get there and see if they have a treasure hunt going on. DD and I did it last year (at TL) and not only do you get to see all the "little things", theres no time limit and when you complete you get a prize.. ours were blow up fish balls. Well, have so much fun its crazy no matter what you do and be sure to tell us all about it when you come back! :wave:

[McGoofy]

2 extra days! So cool :cool: Sounds like you got a great vacay ahead of you. One of these years Im going to slow down a bit more like youve got planned. Congrats to DS too on his A-wesome grades!! I know he will just love BB as much as hes always knew he would! Im not sure if they do it there (they do at TL) but check out the message board when you get there and see if they have a treasure hunt going on. DD and I did it last year (at TL) and not only do you get to see all the "little things", theres no time limit and when you complete you get a prize.. ours were blow up fish balls. Well, have so much fun its crazy no matter what you do and be sure to tell us all about it when you come back! :wave:

Hello fellow Carolina Girl!

Sometimes we do parks commando style, but not always. Having AP's helps us not feel so "obligated" to stay from opening to closing to get our money's worth.

Oh thanks for the great info regarding BB! We went to TL two years ago, and I did not know they did that!

[KineGirl]

Hello back at you!!

Even when we do APs I still cant manage to slow down.. no matter if its 1 trip a year or 3. Maybe when I can get my DH to run away to the World, just me and him :cloud9: But DD17 and I get in this mode and its just go go go! Honestly I love that time with her so I wont rush it off too quick...

Just to clarify it was a scavenger hunt (not treasure..oops). It was set up right outside the gift shop at a table. The CM gave us a list and some crayons so we could fill our answers in. We really learned alot about everything TL and whenever we wanted to ride something or get wet it was easy to find a place to put them down while we did it. (who wants to steal paper and crayons at a water park?) My DD was 16 so the fish balls were kinda kiddie for her but it was alot of fun none the less! She easily reverts to 6 when it comes to all things Disney. We gave the balls to our neighbors son when we got home and it just gave us another way to share the magic! :magic: I wouldnt be surprised that BB will have something going on so be sure to check :mickey:

[vizsla]

Have a great time and a safe trip.

[TBY2225]

Tara,

I am so happy and excited for you! I wish I could be on this trip with you! I know you will have a much deserved relaxing and fun trip! I can't wait to hear all about it when you get back! DS got straight A's! I know you are so proud (and you should be!) That is so great and I know he will love BB! Talk to you soon!

[DizNee143]

yay!! two extra days!! thats awesome..
hope you and your family have a wonderful time!! :mickey:

[ChipnDaleGal]

Two last minute bonus WDW days sounds like a slice of Disney Heaven!! Sounds like you have some nice, relaxing plans made. I love the way you are rewarding your son for all his hard work in school this year. Wonderful idea! Hope you all have a great time. :mickey:

[DisneyorBust]

Enjoy your trip to WDW! Especially the two extra days!:mickey:

[faline]

The two extra days are a true Disney bonus! Enjoy them!

[wdwgrl377]

WOW! You get extra days- that's really cool!Hope you can relax like you want and take it easy! Have a great trip and can't wait to hear all about it once you get back! :mickey:

[McGoofy]

Here it is...an Addendum to my original post:

Our family of 3 will now be at WDW from Wednesday, May 28 - Wednesday, June 4, 2008.

Ok folks...I couldn't stand it...I'm not a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of person! My DH and I decided to sit down and plot out our trip. While we are still on the "relaxation plan," now we have made the plans to relax!:mickey:

As mentioned before, we are arriving Wednesday evening and will check into OKW. Once we get settled, we are going to head over to POR for a little fun with Bob Jackson in the POR lounge.

Thursday morning we are going to hit the only early EMH that we are going to do in the entire visit. We'll still be on "school time," so we won't be spoiled to sleeping in yet. We want to catch the opening ceremony for MK and then ride whatever major attractions that we can while we have the early EMH. After that, DS desperately needs a haircut. He has needed one for a little while now, but he knew we were going to Disney and loves to get his haircut there. We plan to stay at MK through lunch time. Casey's is a traditional stop for us, so that is most likely where we will have lunch that day. After lunch, we are going to head back to the hotel to swim and relax. The Flower and Garden Festival is in it's last few days at this time, so we would like to get to the ladybug release by 3pm. DS had a blast with that last year, and he wanted to do it again. We want to catch the Flower and Garden Festivities before that all goes away on June 1. That evening we have an ADR for Rose and Crown at 7:50pm. I'm looking forward to trying the bangers and mash. I've heard many good things about that dish, but I have never had it. We're hoping that we will have a good table to catch Illuminations at 9:00pm. :fworks: Epcot is having EMH that evening, so we plan to stay until midnight.

And now begins the sleeping in:sleepin:...After being out until midnight and most likely not in bed before 1am, we are going to sleep in on Friday morning. We are going to swim and do things around the hotel. We have a 7:15pm ressie for Hoop Dee Doo. That will require heading out to Ft. Wilderness around 5:15 to allow ourselves plently of time to get there as well as arrive early to look around Ft. Wilderness. After dinner, we plan to go play at MK. Spectromagic is at 9pm and Wishes is at 10pm. There are evening EMH's that night, so we plan to stay the full time until 2:00am. We're hoping it will be cooler and less crowded by staying late. DS always thinks that it is really a treat to be out so late at Disney.

Saturday, of course we will be sleeping in again after being out half the night. Whenever, we get up, we plan to do the surprise trip for DS to Blizzard Beach.:secret: We'll be done there by that afternoon and then we will come back and clean up to go to our 6:35pm ressie at Ohana's. The evening will still be young when we finish dinner, so we will head to Downtown Disney for some shopping and a movie.

On Sunday, we will sleep in and then head to DHS for the day. I am looking forward to checking out the new Toy Story Mania as well as the new Block Party Bash. Unfortunately, since we had to use two TS credits on Hoop Dee Doo, this is the day that we will only be doing 2 CS meals. Personally, I am not a big fan of any of the CS meals at DHS, but we'll figure something out. We plan to stay through the 9:00pm showing of Fantasmic.

Monday, we don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, but we do have to get moving early enough to make out 10:25am ressie for breakfast at Chef Mickeys. Now, this is when we were supposed to originally go was after we had breakfast. But yea :yay: ..... this is now where our bonus time is going to start!! After breakfast, we are going to move over to Pop Century. We may work in a little swim in the Hippie Dippy Pool before heading out to AK. AK is having evening EMH, so we may stay until park closing at 11pm unless we have done everything that we wanted to do there.

Tuesday we are going to sleep in and then do our last day tradition. First, we will agree on a park of choice that we all want to go to in order to get one last ride on something or do something that we missed. Then we will come back to Pop and swim. After that, we will head to Epcot where we love to spend our last night sitting at Rose and Crown pub outdoor seating area and watching Illuminations. It also happens to be another evening EMH, so we may take advantage of that as well.

On Wednesday, we do not have a choice. We cannot extend our stay any longer. :( We have to drive home.

The only thing I have not figured out is what exactly we are planning to do about meals for the two days that we are at Pop. We will not have the dining plan and we do not have any ADR's. Not a good situation. I may have to call Disney this evening to see what can be done about that.

Well, thanks to anyone who has read this lengthy report. I am just excited to go to Disney!!! 9 more days, 17 more hours......:cloud9:

[MauiMouse]

Have a great time. I got to see Bob Jackson a year ago and he's hiliarous enjoy! :mickey:

[Bethanymouse]

2 Extra days! What a great surprise! Does it get any better than adding on more time? I hope that you have a truly magical trip. Enjoy your time and have fun! Cant wait to read about it when you return!:mickey:

[pogo]

Tara..... your pre-trip plans sound excellent ! :thumbsup:

Travel safe and enjoy ! :D

[KylesMom]

What an excellent plan - with two extra days to play with, nonetheless! I know you guys will have a wonderful time! :mickey:

[McGoofy]

And now I'm trying to decide should we change DHS day to Saturday since that will be the grand opening of Toy Story Mania? I just found out today that that will be going on while we are there (Saturday, May 31). Any opinions? Does anybody know if there may be anything special going on that day? I would have to flop Saturday and Sunday around I guess.:confused:

[BluewaterBrad]

Love bonus days! Have fun and relax!:mickey:

[DISFREAKS]

Hey neighbor! We hope you guys have a great time.
You should go to the grand opening. Its going to be crowded but you will always be able to say you were there.
We are Disney Commandos too and find it hard sometimes to slow down while we are there, so good luck and come home safely.:mickey:

[eeyorelovesme]

Wow have fun at Disney. I'll get there on June 4th and I don't know what we're doing yet!:mickey:

[Bethis26fan]

Have fun.

[mouseketeer mom]

2 days more! Awesome! Bet it feels like winning the lottery! I know I would feel like that with unexpected add on days. Enjoy!