Sarilas' O-fficial Pre-Trip Report -1/2009 (a.k.a. Vacation, Take TWO!) - Page 16 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Go out for Thanksgiving?!?!?!I almost fell out of my chair...I am from the same school as you...cook/bake for 2 days everything home made...oh my!!! It will be an adventure!
I love all the little Disney things from the dollar store....I have been hitting there myself for our trip too (but mine's not till Dec 09!!!!). Those shot glasses are a great idea for dessert!!
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Go out for Thanksgiving?!?!?!I almost fell out of my chair...I am from the same school as you...cook/bake for 2 days everything home made...oh my!!! It will be an adventure!
I love all the little Disney things from the dollar store....I have been hitting there myself for our trip too (but mine's not till Dec 09!!!!). Those shot glasses are a great idea for dessert!!
My husband says the look on my face when my SIL said that about Thanksgiving was PRICELESS! "It'll be an adventure" has truly become my motto though... and maybe, JUST maybe the kids (and hubby!) will appreciate all the work that goes into those special meals that much more!
We made the latest revision in hopes of the Pirate and Princess party, but it now looks like they may not be happening. AND we're paying full rack rates because of the buy 4 get 3 free deal, and it just so happens that the week we chose was not a value season.
Well we're all kind of over the P&PP thing at this point- it's just not worth it to pay so much more for something that may or may not happen for three hours one night of our trip.
So... I'm looking at January 30-February 8! That'll put us back in the value season and save us some moolah for the room rate, and should still qualify us for the buy 4 get 3 deal.
I've emailed Michelle The Super Agent... we'll see what happens!
We've changed our dates again! (Insert eye rolling and spontaneous bursts of laughter here!)
DH and I talked it over in depth yesterday and as bummed as we are about no P&PP (or the potential for their not being one) we just can't base our whole FIRST vacation around something that may or may not happen. Maybe Disney will bring them back. Maybe they'll shorten the length of time they extend the parties to only a month or two. But we can't work on 'maybe' so as of yesterday the NEW plan is:
January 30-February 8, 2009, Port Orleans Riverside!
AND... because we'll now be there in the value season, we're saving about $310 off the P&PP plan, plus we're getting three days free PLUS the $200 gift card. Yeah, that works for me.
I think what we'll do is take the Disney florists up on one of their new room decorating packages that cost an arm and a leg but will make the kids absolutely flip out. I LOVE the giant 36" Mickey plush they can set on the bed and such... but how would we get it on the plane home?! Is it WRONG to convince my husband to drive all the way down there JUST to more easily bring home souvenirs? Me thinks not.
I may be surprising the kids with our altered plans, too. As of now, I've restructured our giant Mickey Head countdown calendar for the February 20th leave date... I'm thinking of leaving it the way it is, letting them countdown THINKING we're not leaving till February and putting a note under the January 29th Mickey head saying something like "SURPRISE! We're leaving for Disney TOMORROW!" I could tape down that Mickey Head so nobody peaks between now and then, but it'd be the surprise we never got to give them since we can't keep a secret!
At least they know they're going but they won't know WHEN!
So you all know what this means, right? ADR time AGAIN!
Congratulations on getting your new dates...I am with you, saving money is definitely worth a change in plans (and it gets you to WDW sooner - that is a clincher for me )
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Thank you all! I'm surprisingly at peace with these changes... And that's saying a lot considering how many changes I've actually made! This is a nice long trip with plenty of days to squeeze everything in and for everyone to enjoy something; saving money with the 4/3 deal was a huge blessing for us. My DH wasn't too gung ho when I started planning this adventure but he's slowly started coming around and now is actually getting excited! Which gets ME excited because, let's face it... I'm the type who'll cry at the first sight of the MK sign, you know?
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Lots of drama here over the last week; I ended up staying in town for Thanksgiving; our transmission case CRACKED for no reason last weekend! We just had it repaired over Memorial weekend and it's under a 1 year warranty- we're having to really fight with the place that fixed it (in Knoxville- it happened while we were on what was SUPPOSED to be our first real vacation, which is why THIS vacation is supposed to be TAKE TWO!). The transmission place that did the repair is claiming we'd have had to hit something (or be hit) for the case to crack! But I've gotten two statements from local repair places refuting that, saying that it's entirely possible for it to crack of its own accord, especially if THEY were negligent. I'm so over transmissions, TRULY.
So yeah, no trip to Tulsa. We're trying to reschedule to drive out there in December, vehicle willing!
I hope everyone got their fill of holiday goodies and if you braved the Black Friday crowds you were able to find all you sought! I was able to pull off quite a feast for Turkey Day, considering I wasn't PLANNING on it at all... and this morning I made a sizable dent in my Christmas shopping as well! Kyle and Tatiana will have quite a new wardrobe come Christmas morning! I wish I'd thought to take pics of some of the clothes - including Pirates of the Caribbean shirts for Kyle and Tinkerbell shirts for Tatiana (from Sears of all places- one of the Tink shirts is a tattoo, Ed Hardy inspired design... really cute and unusual).
But then I got home and found an email from DisneyShopping.com about their one day sale and I found a few more things I'd been eyballing had been discounted! SCORE!
First, the items I actually went to the site for:
They have 50% off personalized items, so I made Alexandra a lavender colored blankie with Mickey Mouse stitched on it (it will make a great travel blanket for WDW):
Then I got this pillow for Anastasia- Tinkerbell's hair is 'raised' for texture and it comes with a lightening bug attached by a short string (in a pocket of the pillow; she's got a Diego pillow just like it and LOVES it):
Then I got this hair clip for Tatiana - it's a Hannah Montana faux hair thingamabobber, and she's SO into Hannah Montana but I just can't bring myself to actually buy her the clothes and such. Why is it I don't mind her covered in Tinkerbell or Princesses but a teenager in a blond wig makes me stop cold? Nonetheless, I give you the guitar hair clip:
Then, because I hadn't completely expired my gift card with those three items I HAD to buy two more t-shirts for Stasia and Lexi... HAD TO you understand, HAD TO!
Stasia's Jasmine shirt:
Lexi's Cinderella shirt:
I came... I saw... I SHOPPED!
On a side note, it's getting hard to differentiate between our ACTUAL travel date of January 30 and the date the kids THINK we're traveling which was February 20! For instance, my Deluxe edition PassPorter came in the mail (LOVE IT) and I had to stop myself from writing dates in it so the kids don't catch on! Now I know why I don't keep secrets from them... it's TORTURE!
Here's some more retail therapy I indulged in as my car was crumbling down around me!
On the last day of DisneyShopping.com's 25% discount I wanted to see what I couldn't live without. (A friend gave me a similar discount that's only good for in store purchases for two weeks from now so hopefully I'll find something at Opry Mills I can't live without then as well!)
But I digress... this was about tying off loose ends and picking up some things I haven't yet had the chance to find.
I want all of us to have new pajamas for the trip, but so far I'd only purchased for the little girls and Kyle. Today I picked up something for DH:
Grumpy bottoms!
And something for Tatiana:
Snow white pj top!
I still need something for me... but I'm hard to shop for even if it's ME doing the shopping!
Then I found these flip flops for Tatiana:
And I got one of these for myself with an "L" on it and one with a "T" for Tatiana- I think we'll start a charm collection from the parks!
Now you know I've said I haven't bought much for myself... I really mean that! But I have HIPS people... big ol' Russian peasant breeding hips and clothes fit me awkwardly much of the time. I want to be comfy in the parks, not self conscious! I'm a big girl and I really don't like t-shirts. (I have a boxy shape as it is- I don't need a square shirt to emphasize it.) The only ones I own are from the Susuan G. Komen race last year and one from girls weekends that my friends and I take once a year or so. That's it. So my Disney attire situation is looking dire! That being said, I found a couple of things I liked on the DisneyShopping.com website with the right silhouette and cut, only to discover they were meant as maternity clothing! The heck with that! Maternity clothing is cut to give space to hips and butts and tummies... that's what I'm talkin' about! So I bought two items and we'll see how they fit on regular ol' Big Mama hips!
The first is this 'dress' (which I would wear with jeans or pants of some sort, let's face it... I'm too old to pull this off as a dress in public!):
Tinkerbell! Cute v-neck, empire waist... good stuff for chasing after the little ones in the parks.
Next is a v-neck tee that may become my night shirt, depending on how in love I am with it when it arrives:
Black and pink! I wear a lot of black and the contrast stitching makes me happy without being an overly excited burst of color. (I'm not a colorful person- my house is, my kids are but I'm a gothic punk chick in a 34 year old mother's body. My Mom spent her entire life trying to get me to wear pastels and embrace cuteness... She finally came to terms with the fact that I'll always wear black clothing and have diminutive skulls hidden amongst my accessories. Sorry, Mom!)
I feel pretty accomplished with this lot of purchases though. And I can't believe we're just over two months from the trip! WOW!
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Good luck!!!
Is it WRONG to convince my husband to drive all the way down there JUST to more easily bring home souvenirs? Me thinks not. 
That would be a big surprise for the kids!! 
Reese
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