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PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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This trip was a last minute “surprise” for my husband’s 40th birthday. I had saved up some money to do something special for his big 40 but I need to keep us on a tight budget. I told him about the trip after I had it all set and booked but did not tell him that his brothers were meeting us there to celebrate. One of them was not very smart about this and although I told him it was a surprise and that I would book everything for him he email my husband to ask airfare questions. So the only true surprise was his younger brother who was great with the hush-hush factor.
I had planned this as a gift to my husband whose birthday is exactly one week before mine. That said, since we were on a tight budget and in order to pull this off I had to really look at every expense. Prices were working out to be so much less for the week after my husband’s big day. I could save almost $700 in hotel and airfare by looking at dates other than my husband actual birthday. So even though this was very much for him, we ended up going over my birthday. I said we would not celebrate it (mine) at all and it would be all about my hubby but I knew this would not be easy for my husband to do.
With quite a bit of sneaking around online I got all of our frequent traveler info off of my hubby’s laptop! We got to use one free flight we had on Southwest and a free night we had at La Quinta Hotels. I had read a bunch of good and bad and ugly about the La Quinta in near DLR but I could get a great deal and a free night and a kiddo room with bunkbeds and a playtable for the boys. I decided to take a chance. My big worry was the walk from the hotel to DLR/DCA since we usually stay onsite but I just had to hope it was not a nightmare of overtired kiddos during the walk back to the hotel every night. We would also have to hope the boys could nap on the go as we would not be going back for naptime. Our 3yo is good at napping in the stroller and 1yo would be in the baby bjorn (thankfully he is little for his age) during prime nap hours so hopefully and will just snuggle up and sleep. Fingers crossed for all of that to go as planned.
Who is who:
Me – Minnie Jen – 38 and the planner of the family
My Husband _ the big 40 birthday boy!!
Our sons – 3.5 and 1.5 – their 3rd trip to the “land”
The brothers – not the biggest Disney fans and both single with no kids – we will call them DB1(the older-42) and DB2 (the younger-38)
Plans:
We will arrive on Wednesday night and stay until Sunday afternoon. Wednesday we would arrive at bedtime and get settled for the night. The next day we would hit the parks and it would only be the "main four" of us. Friday DB2 would arrive and surprise hubby and we would spend the day together. He lives about 50 miles away so he decided not to stay at the hotel with us. Then Saturday DB1 will arrive and all of us would spend the day together. DB1 wanted to stay at the hotel but he really had no other choice since he lives up in San francisco. On Sunday it would be the main four plus DB1 since DB2 can only stand so much Disney, shocking I know!
Meals:
Again in order to keep our budget low we planned to eat breakfast in the room, lunch in the parks and dinner take out or the like from a restaurant near the hotel. This way we would only be buying one meal a day in the parks. I set up some ADRs or PS in DLR speak. I set a lunch on Thursday at Café Orleans, lunch Friday at Big Thunder BBQ. The only day we would all be together for dinner would be Saturday night so I decided we would do an early dinner at Storytellers. I was hoping the brothers would be aware that they should pitch in for that meal cost. Also hoping we would do small snacks throughout that day instead of a more expensive lunch. Now if I could keep us on or under budget for food then some shopping would not be out of line, especially if I could get some Christmas gifts.
Good luck on this. It seems like you have it under control. It will work out if you don't think about the "expense" while you are there but on the time you are spending together.
You put so much thought and effort into this trip. I'm so excited to hear how it all panned out! Aren't brothers dumb? I shouldn't say that since I don't know your BiL, but I have 2 older brothers so I totally understand!!!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
Our flight was later in the day around 5pm so my 3yo could still go to preschool and not miss a day. He had the next two days off for teacher conferences. I was getting us all packed up and trying to text DB2 to firm up our plans. He is a flake so not always an easy task. He finally texted me back to say he would meet us on Friday morning to do the surprise. Fingers crossed!
I had the boys all packed and all the laundry done and myself just about done. I do these gallon ziplocks of individual snacks for everyday park day for the boys. I put in small packs of granola bites, pretzels, travel packs of peanut butter, crackers, fruit bars and rollups, juice boxes, cookies and last but not least m&ms if things get really grumpy. I also add the plastic sticky placemats for my little guy since he usually eats off his highchair tray and it makes quite a mess plus I can never even at Disney be sure how clean table are. I put two of these in everyday's snack pack. I made one gallon sized pack for each day we would be on the go. At some point I will make separate bags for each boy but for now they share it all anyway. I got these all set as well as extra food items for our room. The nice thing about the suitcase that carries this stuff as well as diapers, is that it is empty at the end of the trip and we can use it for anything we buy. I finished all of the packing and checked on my husband to make sure he packed the important things (socks, underwear and at least one sweater) and all the various chargers we need, cell phones and cameras and the like. I finished picking up the house and getting the guest room ready for our house/dog sitter and we were off to the airport!
We arrived at the southwest counter got checked in and headed through security, no lines! We picked up some dinner for the boys and went to our gate. About now we realized we had left the baby bjorn at home. Hubby was supposed to pack it in his bag. This is not good. They are not cheap and it is the only kind that really fits my husband. I am very petite so we usually share the “bjorn” duty with our 18 month old so I do not have a sore back at the end of everyday. This means if we find another brand I will be the only one able to carry our “little guy” around for naps and when our older guy needs to be in the stroller (a lot). Our little guy is not a fan of napping in the stroller or I would just rent a double stroller from Disney. I decided we had to just suck it up and pay for a new one. Now I had to find one as we would not have a car to check multiple places. We planned to take a cab to the hotel in order to get the boys to bed as soon as we could. Our plane lands right at their time zone adjusted bedtime. I called the closest DLR Walmart while hubby got the boys to eat. They were not helpful at all, hanging up on me twice and then telling me they had no idea what a baby bjorn was. They lost my business. I know Target carries them here but we have a Super Target here in CO and it is just a regular Target in CA so they might not carry the same variety on baby things. I didn’t have time to call them before we needed to get on the plane. We got the boys and all the carry on bags and the gate checked stroller onboard and then I just had to hope things would work out when we get there.
We landed and got our bags in a snap. John Wayne Airport is nice and easy. There was a big line of cabs and two guys helping people into them and keeping the whole (very short line) moving, great system! We got our cab and asked the driver to stop quickly at Target. I am sure this happens a lot and he was fine with it. The boys were doing well considering the time of night. I ran inside like a crazy woman as the meter was running. Yes, they had the carrier we needed! I grabbed some bottled water and milk as well and got back to the cab in under 5 minutes. We got to the hotel and my husband asked the driver if he was available to take us back to the airport on Sunday. He was and gave us his card to call him directly.
Check in was fast and easy and the woman working chatted with our boys and was very nice. The hotel was fine so far. The halls were a bit narrow and the room doors felt cheap for lack of a better word, like it would not be much of an effort to push one open without a key. Everything was clean and the elevators required your keycard which goes a long way to make up for the lack of security with the room doors. We got up to our room with boys starting to lose patience and we needed to get settled.
Wow, what a chaotic start! I'm so glad you were able to get another carrier though. I remember those days, and it is absolutely necessary to have one!!! Fast shopping at Target - good work! I'm curious as to how your room is.... stinky? Oh no.....
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
We entered the room and immediately the smell of cigarette smoke hit me. It was strong and although the room was fine otherwise it would be an issue for me. I am very sensitive to that kind of thing. We called down and explained the issue, they gave us a new room but hubby had to go back down to get new keycards. Just as he left me with a full luggage cart and two kiddos melting down a guy showed up with the crib we requested. I explained that yes we needed the crib but that we would not be staying in this room. He asked if I knew the new room number and since I did, he brought me there, helped with the cart and let us in.
Thank goodness it smelled just fine and was a bit bigger since the bathroom was smaller. It was a room with a king bed in the main part with a smaller room attached through glass window type doors. That room had a twin over full bunk set in it with a small dresser and a cabinet with fridge and microwave in it. There was also a cute little kid table and chairs and a 2nd tv. It did also fit the crib in that room even though it was not a pack and play. I love when hotels give you a “real” crib. The bathroom was a tub/shower and the potty. The sink was outside the door, which is what made this room bigger than the first room. Hubby found us as I got the boys in jammies and he started to settle them into bed so I could get us organized. He knew I would not sleep until we were unpacked and set up. I set our clothes for all of us for the morning and got the stroller all stocked up and ready to hit the sidewalk rolling!
The boys were sleeping at last and I was fading fast. Hubby was checking out the wifi to make sure we could get online, it was just fine and I think he caught up on a few emails while I got all of our pin lanyards set for the next day. I keep one lanyard with only the pins we want to trade, so I got that all organized. My husband says I trade pins but he does as much of it as I do and having the one “trading” lanyard keeps him from trading pins I want to keep. I checked my passporter to see when our lunch plans were for the next day, put on my pjs and crashed.
Sorry I never did get pics of our room and I meant to for this TR. I would say we would give the hotel a 3 out of 5 on TripAdvisor. The service was very good and the housekeeping was on top of anything we needed including extra hand towels, extra pillows, the crib and an over turned packet of instant oatmeal too!
Coming up….a bad hair day
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Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
Last edited by MinnieJen; 12-16-2009 at 11:53 AM..
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Finally catching up here.... your room sounded really nice - once you got the good one! Those real cribs are so nice. We've gotten that a few times and it makes a difference. You're just like me - get everything ready for tomorrow so there's little room for error in the morning. Or crabby kids will follow crabby mom! Well, at least that's how it works for us. Bad hair day? I tell ya, wouldn't be a vacation without one!
__________________
Tanya
Every click helps feed .6 bowls of food to rescued animals. Give a quick click every day and help animals in shelters! www.theanimalrescuesite.com
So obviously I totally dropped the ball on this TR. So now I am two days away from going back to DLR and want to do a TR for that trip as well but I will ask all of you which I should do, finish this one first or do the new one first? I am sorry for leaving this one hanging....I suck
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Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
Last edited by MinnieJen; 05-08-2010 at 09:01 PM..
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So the only true surprise was his younger brother who was great with the hush-hush factor.
I said we would not celebrate it (mine) at all and it would be all about my hubby but I knew this would not be easy for my husband to do. 
shocking I know! 
Waiting to eat with Goofy - DLR May 2010
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I shouldn't say that since I don't know your BiL, but I have 2 older brothers so I totally understand!!!
He finally texted me back to say he would meet us on Friday morning to do the surprise. Fingers crossed!
We picked up some dinner for the boys and went to our gate. About now we realized we had left the baby bjorn at home. Hubby was supposed to pack it in his bag. This is not good. They are not cheap and it is the only kind that really fits my husband. I am very petite so we usually share the “bjorn” duty with our 18 month old so I do not have a sore back at the end of everyday. This means if we find another brand I will be the only one able to carry our “little guy” around for naps and when our older guy needs to be in the stroller (a lot). Our little guy is not a fan of napping in the stroller or I would just rent a double stroller from Disney. I decided we had to just suck it up and pay for a new one. Now I had to find one as we would not have a car to check multiple places. We planned to take a cab to the hotel in order to get the boys to bed as soon as we could. Our plane lands right at their time zone adjusted bedtime. I called the closest DLR Walmart while hubby got the boys to eat. They were not helpful at all, hanging up on me twice and then telling me they had no idea what a baby bjorn was. They lost my business. I know Target carries them here but we have a Super Target here in CO and it is just a regular Target in CA so they might not carry the same variety on baby things. I didn’t have time to call them before we needed to get on the plane. We got the boys and all the carry on bags and the gate checked stroller onboard and then I just had to hope things would work out when we get there. 
There was a big line of cabs and two guys helping people into them and keeping the whole (very short line) moving, great system! We got our cab and asked the driver to stop quickly at Target. I am sure this happens a lot and he was fine with it. The boys were doing well considering the time of night. I ran inside like a crazy woman as the meter was running. Yes, they had the carrier we needed! I grabbed some bottled water and milk as well and got back to the cab in under 5 minutes. We got to the hotel and my husband asked the driver if he was available to take us back to the airport on Sunday. He was and gave us his card to call him directly. 
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