Festing with the Mouse . . . and a gaggle of other people, too. **Updated 1/29** About This Page:

[DopeyGirl]

Eeeek!



So, normally, I would have started my pre-trip report a couple of weeks ago (heck, one time I posted a pre-trip something like 6-7 weeks before my trip! ) but HOLY HECTICNESS!!!! I have let my other report about my summer trip to Washington DC go by the wayside, but am going to make a conscious effort to finish this report once I start it, dang it.


So, um . . . I’m going to WDW for MouseFest on Wednesday!!!

With that, I bring you another two-headed report from myself and Terri (DrDolphin)!

The first time I went to WDW during the holiday season was 2003. The week of Christmas, to be precise. Yeah, I was either brave or insane . . . one or the other . . . but being that the trip was my parents’ gift to my family and both of my sisters, I couldn’t complain! I did, however, tell everyone at the end of the trip that, unless I got another deal that I just couldn’t refuse, I would NEVER go to WDW during Christmas week again. I don’t really fancy the “Sardine Can” feeling that I felt frequently during the trip.

Not long after that trip, I found PassPorter and started planning for a trip in Oct. 2004 . . . then upon returning from that trip, heard about this little gathering called MouseFest. At that time, it was in its infancy, so there wasn’t really TOO much to hear about it, but I decided that I might like to try a trip during that time of year instead. So, we headed down for MouseFest in 2005. I went with DH and DD and had a great time. While we didn’t make but a couple of the PassPorter events, we still had a wonderful time! When it was time to head home from that trip, I vowed to myself that one of these years I WOULD get back during that time of year again.

I started reading about folks’ plans for MouseFest 2007 in late August/early September ’07 and got a bit of a pang of jealousy reading about the fun everyone was going to have (not to mention thinking about the fact that I hadn’t been to The World since March 2006!) So, I decided right then that, dang it, “I’m going to go in 2008!”

As soon as I decided this trip was going to happen, I added a countdown in my signature on the boards and started looking into hotels. I was fairly sure that I was going to go with either Shades of Green or Pop Century, and was floundering between the two of them when I received a PM one day from Terri that read “What’s this I see about MouseFest ’08?!” Terri offered to “introduce” me to a DVC resort this trip, if I was interested. As many of you know, this is not the first time that Terri and I have “done Disney” together . . . we’ve been hanging out together at The World since early 2005 and traveled there together for my last trip in March 2006 as well as to Disneyland in February 2007! Of course, when Terri offered the chance to be roomies again, I could not pass her up! And so, the trip planning was in full swing! Originally, the trip was planned to be myself and DD, as we were going to be “home alone” in Virginia (DH deployed on an aircraft carrier in the fall. )

In January, at 11 months out, Terri made a DVC reservation at her home resort of Saratoga Springs and then it was pretty much the usual “hurry up and wait” game while we waited for the early summer to roll around so we could make our ADRs. On February 1st, DH and I received the good news that, after 5 years of attempts, we FINALLY were expecting our 2nd child! So the trip became myself, DD and “baby to be named later” (aka: Evan, who was born on October 9th! ) However, being that we were coming out to Oregon to stay with my family for a few months (rather than DD and I stay in Virginia and me have to have a baby “alone”) and because we’d be here through the holidays, my mom put her foot down and said DD, Emilie, needed to stay in school and that she would NOT let me pull her out to go. So, after I explained to Emilie about not being able to miss school and promising to make it up to her once her dad got home from deployment, the trip became myself and DS only. She did help me make reservations for our next trip after school gets out in June though I know that she is still having a hard time with the fact that mom’s going to Disney World and taking her brother . . . and she can’t go. I have a feeling my parents will be dealing with a lot of utterings of the words “It’s not fair!” next week.

SO . . . around the end of April, Terri and I started tossing out thoughts on ADRs, by the end of May had nailed down a good list of places we’d like to eat and in mid June, I called and made our ADRs! It was the first time I had called Disney for anything since . . . maybe Christmas time 2005 when we got home from MouseFest. I tell you what, I sure did like calling and hearing “Thank you for calling Disney Dining . . . “ and hearing “You’ve Got A Friend in Me” when I was put on hold! Now, normally, I HATE being placed on hold when I call someone/someplace . . . but there’s just something about calling Disney and being put on hold that makes everything OK! Seriously . . . even when you have the grumpiest CM alive on the other end of the phone once you talk to a real, live person, it STILL is sort of OK . . . because it’s Disney World trip related.





CONTINUED IN NEXT POST . . .