Dogs and Disney - My Two Favorite Things! 12/12 - 12/19 PTR - UPDATED 12/9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Dogs and Disney - My Two Favorite Things! 12/12 - 12/19 PTR - UPDATED 12/9
Before I begin, I have to say what I’ve been repeating to myself over and over again…..This is not a regular Disney vacation. I have to keep telling myself that or else I’ll start getting depressed at all the changes from our normal Disney trips! (But don’t worry – there will be a LOT of park time too!)
This year, instead of a 100% Disney trip, the primary reason for going is for the American Kennel Club’s 2012 Agility Invitational. Agility is the sport that you may have seen on TV from time to time, where a dog and their handler have to negotiate an obstacle course in the fastest time. Believe me – it’s hard!! At the highest level (which we are in), you can have 0 mistakes.
For the Invitational, they take the top 5 dogs per breed for the 2011-2012 qualifying time. This is the first year that we’re going (and the first year we were eligible to go) so I’m very excited, but very nervous!
Since the Invitational is in Orlando at the convention center, I couldn’t possibly NOT go to Disney! : I haven’t been to Disney in over a year, which is causing some very bad withdrawl symptoms. Plus, I have had some park tickets waiting for me at Will Call since 2009. There was a huge error on Disney’s part that really ruined some of our dining experiences. I proved it was their mistake and as part of their apology they gave me two 5-day park hopper passes. However, whenever we go to Disney we always get the MYW package (hotel, park tickets, dining, etc) so I’ve never needed to use these tickets. But now it’s just extra incentive
CAST (including the dogs, since they’re the stars of this trip.)
Me: Amy, 26. I'm a Senior Pharmacy Technician and college student I've loved Disney for as long as I could remember. One of my favorite parts of Disney trips is the planning. My favorite rides are Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain in MK, Soarin and Living with the Land in Epcot, Tower of Terror in DHS, and Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest in AK. My favorite characters are Mickey and Eeyore.
Me and DBF, Pat. He's very upset that he can't join us this year. Not because he wasn't invited (well, not necessarily for that reason ) but because his work blocks out any vacation days in December. I promised him we'll have to go back next year together.
Layla: The love of my life , my Alaskan Malamute and the one in my signature pic. She’ll be turning 6 in September. This will be her first trip to Florida. The longest trip we’ve taken together was to Michigan. She does love traveling and I think she’ll have a LOT of fun. She doesn’t have a favorite Disney character. She loves agility, and also is a therapy dog at a local library and elementary school where the children read to her. Layla (and I) also compete or participate in conformation (regular dog shows), obedience, tracking, weight pulling, rally and most recently lure coursing.
Lisa: My friend that I met through agility class. This is her first year going too – and also her first trip to Disney!.
Anna: Lisa’s 3 year old Norwegian Elkhound. Anna is Lisa’s first agility dog (like Layla is mine) and she’s doing AMAZING.
Anna with all her ribbons from only one weekend of agility!
Mary: Lisa’s mom. This is also her first trip to Disney.
Ann: Our trainer and friend. We’ve traveled together on many trips before but this is the first time we'll be going to Florida together. She loves Disney and planning like I do! Her husband (Mike) and two children (Kyle and Kaitlyn) are coming too. Her two kids will be competing in the Juniors Invitational.
Wolf: A 6 year old Swedish Valhund. Ann isn’t the owner, but she runs him for a woman who can’t run him anymore. I’m not even sure if his owner will be coming.
Wolf
Ruby: A 2 year old Border Collie that Kaitlyn will be running. Ruby is technically Ann’s dog.
Chancy: Kaitlyn’s 9 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi. She’s been running him since she was 7 years old or younger, I think.
Chancy
Dash: A 5 year old Belgian Malinois. Kyle has had him since he was a puppy.
Dash
Ty: A 7 year old Border Collie. Ty is Ann’s dog, and one of Layla’s boyfriends . He’s ridiculously fast. Kyle will be running him in the Juniors as well as Dash.
Ty
Pete & Denise: Two people who also train with Ann and love Disney. I think they’re just coming for the experience (and the Disney trip!) but they have two dogs that they’ll be bringing.
Essex and Louie: Old English Sheepdogs. They do obedience and agility.
Not Essex or Louie, but I don't have a picture of them personally.
WHEN
December 12th – 19th, 2012
WHERE
Lisa and I will be sharing a rental house with her mom, Mary. Ann and her family are sharing a house, and Pete and Denise will be sharing the third house. All of our houses are within a block or less of each other, and Ann’s and Pete/Denise’s are even on the same street!
Coming up…
Plans, plans, plans! ADRs, itinerary, and how we’re getting 9 people and 12 dogs down to Disney! Plus, what’s so special about this Invitational, anyway?
Disney and the Puppies It DONT get ant Better than that. I would love to do Disney and have my 2 with us Unfortunately we have 2 Certified Delaware Heathen Hounds and the younger one in the past several years has gotten more and more afraid when fireworks are going off so overall their behavior makes it less and less realistic. Best of Luck at trials
Looking forward to this one! Quite a cast-- both with fur and without. All the dogs are beautiful. I LOVE watching Agility trials. Congratulations on making it into the Invitational!
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I hope that's a good wow, and not a "Oh boy this girl is a nutjob" wow
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kobeychiev
This sounds like so much fun! Don't you love when you are just forced to go down to Florida for something!
Lol yes, isn't that the worst!!?
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Great start - this sounds like a really special trip!
Thank you! Yes it's going to definitely be a trip that we'll treasure forever.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
Great start and such beautiful dogs!
Thank you
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeL
Disney and the Puppies It DONT get ant Better than that. I would love to do Disney and have my 2 with us Unfortunately we have 2 Certified Delaware Heathen Hounds and the younger one in the past several years has gotten more and more afraid when fireworks are going off so overall their behavior makes it less and less realistic. Best of Luck at trials
Lol I love the description of the dogs! I'll have to remember the "heathen hounds". My friend has a dog that's terrified of fireworks too. It's very hard for her.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lauriep
Looking forward to this one! Quite a cast-- both with fur and without. All the dogs are beautiful. I LOVE watching Agility trials. Congratulations on making it into the Invitational!
Thank you very much!
Quote:
Originally Posted by disneyfreeeak
Sounds like this is going to be a very fun trip! All the dogs are gorgeous.
Thank you! Yes I think we'll all have a great time
Quote:
Originally Posted by bsblady01
great start
Thank you!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly66
Awesome!!! I can't wait to hear more!!!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by GinnyMouse
I agree with Mike - nothing is better than Disney and Dogs, two of my absolute favorite things.
I love watching agility trials - those dogs are amazing! And the dogs in the photos you shared are just gorgeous!
I've had a rough few weeks. My black lab Casey was diagnosed with bone cancer in July and steadily got worse. We finally had to have him to put to sleep this Sunday (my birthday ).
My sweet boy
Thank you very much to all who've written such beautiful things in the Family Room forum. I really appreciate your words of sympathy and compassion.
Anyway, on to the trip!
The original plan was:
Lisa's mom Mary would fly into NJ from Canada and drive to FL with Lisa. I would drive myself. Ann and her family and bunch of dogs would be in their van, and Pete / Denise separate in theirs. I think we were all going to caravan in a row, but now I'm not sure.
Now , however, Mary would rather fly directly into Orlando. I don't blame her one bit. Honestly, I hate the idea of driving down there I've never driven to FL before and I hate that it'll take me 18+ hours to drive what it would take 2 hours to fly.
But, it's significantly cheaper to drive this time . When I add in the cost of the rental car for the week, the luggage, flying all of Layla's stuff down (her crates are heavy!), and - oh yeah, plane tickets - it's almost $1,000 more to fly than it is to drive. For a few hundred dollars I might have considered just paying extra for the convenience, but not for almost $1,000!
The good news is that now Mary wants to fly directly in, Lisa asked if I would share her car with her. Fine with me!! I love the idea of splitting the cost of gas and tolls. Her car is a hybrid, so that should help. My car is a V8 gas guzzler that would have cost a fortune to drive down there. Plus, no wear and tear on my car. So that's a great piece of news for us!
I was (and am) a little concerned about fitting all of our stuff into Lisa's SUV. It's not gigantic like a Suburban, but she says she has something that hitches to the back of it that is like extra storage. If she thinks it'll work, that's good enough for me!
Lisa and I will alternate driving. Anna's crate is in the backseat. Layla will also be in the backseat, but loose. She's loose in my car all the time so I'm not concerned about it. We'll pack what we can into the car, and then use the trailer/whatever/thing to carry the rest.
Ann and her family are still driving together (of course) and so are Pete and Denise. I'm not sure if we'll all be driving at once. I'm not opposed to it, since they've been there before and we have not. We could always meet up somewhere on the way though.
I did have some ideas for us but they were all shot down None of them were anything fantastic, but just ideas to possibly make the planning easier. Such as:
Splitting the cost of the Photopass CD. Since there's no limit to how many cards you put on the CD, I thought we'd hardly pay anything for it if we split it so many ways. But they want to use their own cameras . Okay...
Ordering groceries ahead of time from Garden Grocer. After the 18+ hour drive, I will NOT want to be going grocery shopping , but we'll need stuff in the house. Since there's a Walmart near the development, everyone opted to shop there instead.
I told them what day Lisa, Mary and I are doing MVMCP to see if they wanted to come. I haven't gotten an answer either way yet
It was no big deal, and nothing fantastic, just things to try and make the trip easier. Oh well! I'm not worried about it!
Coming up ....
How hard can it be to find a rental house in Orlando??? (You'll be surprised!!)
Just in case anyone wanted to see, here's a video of Layla and I last month. We didn't qualify but it was such a pretty run I saved the video. She did everything perfect but took one wrong jump when I took my eyes off of her for a split second
We have a two-day competition this weekend, so wish us luck please!
About This Page: 
I have to keep telling myself that or else I’ll start getting depressed at all the changes from our normal Disney trips! (But don’t worry – there will be a LOT of park time too!)
At the highest level (which we are in), you can have 0 mistakes. 
: I haven’t been to Disney in over a year, which is causing some very bad withdrawl symptoms. 
Plus, I have had some park tickets waiting for me at Will Call since 2009. There was a huge error on Disney’s part that really ruined some of our dining experiences. I proved it was their mistake and as part of their apology they gave me two 5-day park hopper passes. 
I've loved 
Disney for as long as I could remember. One of my favorite parts of Disney trips is the planning. My favorite rides are Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain in MK, Soarin and Living with the Land in Epcot, Tower of Terror in DHS, and Kilimanjaro Safari and Expedition Everest in AK. My favorite characters are Mickey and Eeyore.
. He’s ridiculously fast. Kyle will be running him in the Juniors as well as Dash.
with her mom, Mary. Ann and her family are sharing a house, and Pete and Denise will be sharing the third house. All of our houses are within a block or less of each other, and Ann’s and Pete/Denise’s are even on the same street!
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
). 
, however, Mary would rather fly directly into Orlando. I don't blame her one bit. Honestly, I hate the idea of driving down there 
I've never driven to FL before and I hate that it'll take me 18+ hours to drive what it would take 2 hours to fly. 
. When I add in the cost of the rental car for the week, the luggage, flying all of Layla's stuff down (her crates are heavy!), and - oh yeah, plane tickets 
- it's almost $1,000 more to fly than it is to drive. For a few hundred dollars I might have considered just paying extra for the convenience, but not for almost $1,000! 
None of them were anything fantastic, but just ideas to possibly make the planning easier. Such as:
. Okay... 
, but we'll need stuff in the house. Since there's a Walmart near the development, everyone opted to shop there instead. 
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