I lost 20 pounds! There's only one way to celebrate something like that! Pre trip report 7/23-8/5 - UPDATED 7/19 w/pics! - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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I'm in, Jill! I really enjoyed reading your last TR, even if you never finished it. (Who would I be to complain, after I abandoned TWO trip reports! I think there are quite a few just like us... maybe we should start a support group or something.) Anyhoo, you have a beautiful family (those kiddos are precious) and I can't wait to hear all about your plans!
Aimee! Yes, support group is a great idea!
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Originally Posted by KMB733
Great Start!! Can't wait to hear about your plans!
Kathy! Good to have you aboard!
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Originally Posted by Nimros
Me too, Jill - I remember your last TR AND your beautiful family.
How nice! Thanks Cathy
I am anxious to hear how you're doing this loonnnnggg trip and saving money!!!
Hint: I have awesome family and friends
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Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Great start Jill!
Thanks, Marnie! I'll be bugging you soon for title updates.
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Originally Posted by wayneava81
I'm definitely on board, Jill! I was one of those dissappointed ones
when I couldn't read anymore about your trip and see your beautiful
kids in those pics!
No help here on how to resize pics ( I've had the same sig pic for almost
3 years because I don't know how to change it). But I think they are
a good size!
Can't wait for more!
Amber! I'm going to do it this time!! (I'm glad someone else has as much trouble with photos as I do! It makes me feel old).
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Read all about it in my TR, "Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" Jill Phil. 4: 13
Originally Posted by mom to 3 princesses and 1 prince
Oh, I can't wait to read all about this one! Your kiddies are soooooo cute!
Hi Beth! So sweet, thank you
I'm also looking forward to reading about your preparations for the drive down, as we're attempting that for the first time this year. Any and all tips on surviving such a long drive would be appreciated!
Re: photobucket: I always resize my pics to 'large' and that works for me! Your photos looked fine.
Hi Beth! So sweet, thank you I will be talking more about our driving plans; what we learned from last year, and will hope to improve on this year! And, thanks for the photo tip, I did try that, and my pics turned out a little larger than I'd thought, so I think I'll stick with what's working !
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Originally Posted by Princess_Wantabe
Great start Jill! What a beautiful family you have! Can't wait to read more
Sherri!
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Originally Posted by Luvsun
Great start Jill!
Your children are absolutely adorable!
I can't wait to find out how you are able to go for such a long period of time!
Looking forward to more!
Hi Ann! Thanks for reading. I've already got my next installment typed up, hope to post in the morning!
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Originally Posted by tammyd_rn
:
Hey Tammy!
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Originally Posted by DonaldGirl1
Great start! What a beautiful family you have! Your kids are too cute. I'm anxious to hear how you got double days for half the $$. Don't keep us hanging! The suspense is killing me!! Hehehe LOL just kidding. More please!!
Soon! I promise. And, thanks .
Quote:
Originally Posted by lissybri
Hi Jill, I'm so excited you are doing another TR. I loved your first one (finished or not) and I fell in love with your family. Congratulations on your weight loss! I know it's no easy task. How did you do it if you don't mind me asking? I've been on weight watchers and that combined with a lot of exercise is still taking me way longer than I would've liked. I can't believe we are missing each other by just a few days. I think the same thing happened last time. Anyway, can't wait to read more about your beautiful family (I just want to kiss your kids, they are so adorable) and your Disney plans.
Hi Liz! I'm a weight watchers girl, too! Like you, that and exercise and the weight is s-l-o-w-l-y coming off .
One of these years, we'll have to overlap!
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Read all about it in my TR, "Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" Jill Phil. 4: 13
Great start Jill, so glad you decided to do another TR Loved reading the last one and enjoying seeing all the great pics of your family. Congratulations on the weight loss, looking forward to hearing all about your adventures and how you ended up with such a wonderfuly long trip.
so much! I love writing them!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
Great start!
Hi Cheryl! Thanks for reading.
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Read all about it in my TR, "Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" Jill Phil. 4: 13
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Just wanted to say that I am on board for this trip report! Your children are adorable and I can't wait to read about your adventures. Happy planning and have a great trip.
I'm so glad you're doing a TR! We'll just miss each other by a few days! I can't wait to hear about everything that went into planning this trip - and taking advice on driving as I'm sure we'll be doing that in the next few years.
Great start and I'm looking forward to hearing about your plans. Driving does make financial sense. I keep taking a look at airfares and I just can't seem to justify spending that kind of money, especially since I want to spend it at Disney. By the way, your family really is beautiful(do people tell you that all the time?)
How are we staying longer than we’ve ever stayed for less than half what we’ve ever paid!?!
As a teacher and a nurse with 3 small kids, budget is always the deciding factor for the where, when and how (even if) we’ll vacation. This year was the first in a few that my husband did not coach a sport because he started a Master’s program in Administration (yeah Shannon) . Those extra checks were what we had set aside for vacation, so we knew when the program started, the expensive vacations would have to be put on hold for a while. Well, when my sweet Dad got wind that we weren’t planning anything, he thought that maybe he might be able to swing us a bonus week from his time-share! (My parents love vacationing! They firmly believe that if you work hard all year, you deserve to get away for at least one week. I strongly agree!) After a few phone calls, (it wasn’t even necessary to ask us where we’d like to go disney, disney, disney) he let us know that we could get a week at Vacation Village @ Parkway for a total of $200! How could anyone pass up that deal?! So, it was decided, we would go on a summer vacation.
I feel like when you drive, you need more than a week to feel like you are ‘there’ and not just driving back and forth for days on end. After you finally get out of the car, you need a recovery period! I started thinking about where and how we could fund a few more days. Last year (in order to save $, but still get to have a Disney vacation) we decided to stay off property and really ended up enjoying the townhome we rented (more on that trip later). We got a great price, so we chose to add 5 nights onto the front of our time-share reservation. Everything was set and I was in full planning mode when our little world was turned upside down for a few months.
Apparently my husband works for an “unstable” school district….When the teachers’ contracts were up and negotiations took an ugly turn, the union decided to strike! To make a long story shorter, after a little over a week, they finally reached an agreement and went back to work. That interruption, however, meant that school would need to go longer into the summer (which meant that summer school would be pushed back a week—something which DH needed to teach in order for us to afford this trip) messing up my Disney dates! Of course, when I called to attempt to change the dates for our townhome from 5 days before our VV@P rese to the 5 days after, there was no availability! I had to cancel and lost our down payment.
Wait! Things get worse. (for a while)
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Read all about it in my TR, "Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" Jill Phil. 4: 13
Hi Jill! Congrats on the weight loss! Glad to see you writing a PTR! I love reading about your family (and hopefully will get to meet you this time). How awesome of your Dad to arrange for you to stay at their timeshare. But too bad your plans had to be changed. And now I'm worried about what comes next! Hurry back!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
I’m still attempting to explain how we are staying longer than we’ve everstayed, while paying less than we’ve ever paid
So, things got worse! Way worse. Remember how I mentioned the word “unstable” to describe my husband’s school district? About the same time we had to cancel our town home rese….something happened that looked like it would end the dream of ANY vacation at all! My husband was blindsided with a ‘pink slip.’ In the world of education, it is called ‘rifted,’ and thanks to lack of state and federal funding for our extremely messed up education system, it means that jobs and courses needed to be cut. More than 60 teachers from his district were suddenly told that they would not be returning the following school year!
We were devastated! No job definitely means no vacation. Again, long story made much shorter; after months of uncertainty, and the students rallying for my DH’s job—a teacher in his dept. decided to retire 2 years early so that Shannon could keep his job! That cannot be described as anything less than a blessing from the good Lord himself! And, we are so grateful.
Don’t ya just love a happy ending?! It gets better…
So, during those months of being frightened and unsure and basically crying and worrying about our family’s future—another angel stepped up and blessed us in a big way! Of course, my work friends (who I share my life with) got word of the drama of DH’s job situation. I was mourning losing our down payment for the townhome, and the extra days one day and one of the CRNA’s overheard and started talking about how she (a DVC owner) had some points that might be expiring in Sept. if not used! Are you kidding me! Of course, I offered to pay her whatever she wanted for them, and we started looking into what might be available. I was over the moon excited about the thought of getting to stay at a Disney Deluxe property!
A few days later, she calls to let me know that we are booked in a studio at Old Key West for 5 nights. She had enough points for 4 of them, if I could pay OOP for 1—DEAL!! (And, she would not accept a penny more! (I sent her a huge edible arrangement the next day). Cathy!!
So, how’s the money situation shaping up? 7 nights VV@P= $200 5 nights OKW= $225 2 travel nights at reg. hotels in TN or GA= $160 14 night total= $585 avg nightly rate= $41.80
Does God take care of us or what! So, thanks to the generous spirit of family and friend—we are going to have a very good vacation!
Up next: A trip down memory lane!
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Read all about it in my TR, "Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!" Jill Phil. 4: 13
Wow!! What amazing friends and family!! Not only to allow you to use their timeshares, but retiring early so your DH could have a job?! Incredible! This will certainly be the best vacation ever!!
I this story!!! And I hope you don't mind if I share it with others, because people NEED to hear things like miracles occurring (this qualifies as 'miracle' to me ) and our needs being taken care of in ways we couldn't imagine or work out on our own. Yahoo!!!
About This Page: 
) Anyhoo, you have a beautiful family (those kiddos are precious) and I can't wait to hear all about your plans!
Aimee! Yes, support group is a great idea!
Kathy! Good to have you aboard!
). But I think they are 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
!
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Loved reading the last one and enjoying seeing all the great pics of your family. Congratulations on the weight loss, looking forward to hearing all about your adventures and how you ended up with such a wonderfuly long trip.
Andrea
I can't wait to hear about everything that went into planning this trip - and taking advice on driving as I'm sure we'll be doing that in the next few years.
Disney Magic - Oct 2015
*Melissa
got wind that we weren’t planning anything, he thought that maybe he might be able to swing us a bonus week from his time-share! 
Last year (in order to save $, but still get to have a Disney vacation) we decided to stay off property and really ended up enjoying the townhome we rented (more on that trip later). We got a great price, so we chose to add 5 nights onto the front of our time-share reservation. Everything was set and I was in full planning mode when our little world was turned upside down for a few months.
Of course, when I called to attempt to change the dates for our townhome from 5 days before our VV@P rese to the 5 days after, there was no availability! I had to cancel and lost our down payment.
and the extra days one day and one of the CRNA’s overheard and started talking about how she (a DVC owner) had some points that might be expiring in Sept. if not used! Are you kidding me! 
Of course, I offered to pay her whatever she wanted for them, and we started looking into what might be available. I was over the moon excited about the thought of getting to stay at a Disney Deluxe property! 
this story!!! And I hope you don't mind if I share it with others, because people NEED to hear things like miracles occurring (this qualifies as 'miracle' to me 
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