Day 1 of Our Disney trip continued

One of the nice things about this anniversary vacation was that I got to spend most of my time behind the camera. Normally when the kids are with us, I don't have a free hand for the camera or the time and attention to taking pictures. Since it was just the four of us, I had a blast snapping to my hearts content.





Once we left visiting our CM friend at the Boardwalk we headed for Epcot for the rest of the day. LJ and Sonny were so excited to be in Disney World that they decided to do a dance. This would have been a perfect time to film them for blackmailing later.

More to come...

Day 1 continued of Jan 08 WDW trip

It took a sec to get LJ to register what Sonny told him and I don’t think he every got to a point where he understood my need to take pictures of everything that we eat. At this point Sonny just takes it in stride. It is the least of my addictions and quirks.

My corn chowder

Sonny's philly cheesesteak & fries
My side salad

LJ and Brianne’s Food

We enjoyed our lunches and moved back to the room.

After checking our keys again to see if they actually worked we decided to exchange anniversary gifts with LJ and Brianne. Our personal couple gifts were going to be exchanged later in the week.

Our gift from LJ and Brianne:

I love the way that they wrapped our gift. She kept apologizing and we kept laughing. Inside was Yankee Candles, Godiva hot chocolate, peppermints, Dove chocolates, two coffee mugs, and a big fat Visa gift card!

The card they got us was too cute.

LJ and Brianne’s gift from us:

I posted most of the stuff that was in their gift bag, but I will do a quick recap. There were pajamas for LJ, a robe for Brianne, wine, chocolates, a calendar, aromatherapy candles, a set of personalized Minnie mouse gloves and hat for Brianne, and anniversary pins that we picked up on our last trip.

After the gifts were opened and thank you's were exchanged we plotted out our next course of action. We originally had planned to go to Downtown Disney, but the plans were further changed when Brianne suggested that we go to Epcot and start our tour of the World Showcase. Epcot is my favorite park, so it didn’t take long to convince me. The guys wanted to do whatever was necessary to make us happy, so they went along with no complaints.

So this is an example of things changing minute by minute. We were in the truck headed toward Epcot when Sonny suggests that we head to the Boardwalk to visit with a CM friend. Then we could go into Epcot through the International Gateway.

Up next: The Boardwalk & Epcot through another’s eyes.

Jan 08 WDW Trip Re-visited/ Day 1 continued

This trip report of our Jan 08 Walt Disney World trip has been written since we came home, but I have just been too lazy to update my blog. Since we have a new trip coming up in December, I thought it would be fun to look back at our last anniversary trip.

First some more pictures from the All-Star Movies Resort.

If you revisit the itinerary I posted months ago you will note that we were planning to check in and then head to Downtown Disney to have lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We didn’t follow today’s plan at all. I should know by now that the itinerary is just a loose plan -- subject to change at any moment. This trip the plans sometimes seem to change minute by minute, but we still had a great time.

Everyone agreed that the best thing to do was to just head to the food court and eat quickly.



I don’t know about you but I actually like the hustle and bustle of the All-Star Movies food court. I don’t always like their prices, but I know what to expect. Brianne and LJ on the other hand got sticker shock. Even after months of reading, planning, and chatting the reality of the prices were completely different. They were also surprised by the generous portions. No surprises on either front for me and yet I still ordered too much food.

The crowds in the food court were sparse, so we had no problem finding a table. As we approached the table I saw Brianne open her camera case. LJ reached for his food. Brianne had already been briefed about my addiction to food porn, so she knew the drill. LJ was totally in the dark and was a bit befuddled when his hand got slapped for starting to eat.

“I said my prayer!” he exclaimed as he nursed the effected hand.

Sonny laughed at the newbie mistake and calmly told him the offense he had committed. “You can’t eat anything without taking a picture first.”

Picture taking freak say what?

Be back with another update tomorrow!

Savannah Side Trip pt. 4--One More Wish Granted

After we left the taping my MIL thanked Sonny and I profusely for bringing them to Savannah. She commented that the cherry on the top of the trip would be getting to eat at The Lady & Sons before we went home. I pulled out the map and got directions to the restaurant. As we circled the corner we could see that the line from the check-in stand went around the block. We all agreed that the line was too long to wait, so we would just grab a bite to eat elsewhere and go back to the hotel.

We parked the truck in the garage and walked over to the Whistle Stop Café located behind the Savannah Visitor Center. You can’t eat at the Whistle Stop without trying the Fried Green Tomatoes, so that was our appetizer. My smart thinking FIL ordered three baskets for us to share. Each basket was hipped high with crispy dip fried tomatoes with a raspberry dipping sauce. I think that the tomatoes rated as some of the best I have eaten, but none of us really cared for the raspberry dipping sauce.

After the green tomatoes I can’t remember what anybody ate. The food wasn’t bad. It was just that we were exhausted after the long drive and then getting up super early for the taping. We browsed the Savannah Visitor Center some more and peeked at the museum.

Everyone agreed that it was time for a nap and the sight seeing would have to wait for later in the evening. It was so refreshing and we almost felt naughty about taking a nap in the middle of the day. The best part was that we didn’t have little people with their feet in our back or pestering us to wake up.

We woke up pretty late from our nap hungry as a pothead with the munchies. Not that I would know what that is like! Anyways, we decided to take a ride to see what we could nosh on and rode past The Lady and Sons again.

The plan was to jump out, get some cookbooks, and head somewhere to eat. Once we turned the corner, there was no line. Not one single person was waiting to get in and I made Sonny stop the truck in the middle of the street so I could inquire at the podium.

The young lady was less than enthusiastic to see me and told me that she could not seat us as they were booked up for the rest of the night. I must have been dragging the jowls because she immediately asked how many we had in our party. When I said four adults she handed me a laminated card and directed me back to the front entrance. At the front entrance the hostess stopped us dead in our tracks. When I presented my magic ticket she cleared the way and told us to take the elevator to the third floor. Yeah!!!!

We were seated right away near the bar and the buffet. These people know how to make a fat girl happy. Our server soon followed with hoe cakes and garlic biscuits and took our order. Today’s success with the Fried Green Tomatoes prompted us to try another order at the home of the Southern Fried Queen. Sorry Paula, but I have to admit that the tomatoes were lacking. Especially after the ones we had earlier in the day.

Except for DH, we opted to eat the southern buffet. We enjoyed every morsel and almost didn’t have room for dessert. I will now submit for your viewing pleasure some food porn.

Hoe Cakes and Garlic Biscuits

Sonny’s Wedge Salad

My big plate from the buffet

Overall, our meal at Lady and Son’s was good, but it will probably be a one time thing. Most of the food we ate is food that we cook at home on a weekly basis. When we go out to eat we want to feel like we are eating something different and extraordinary. My MIL was happy thought because she got one more wish granted.

That ended our wonderful time in Savannah and we are making plans to go back soon and explore the city.

I guess I have digressed long enough (I am trying to drag it out so you have plenty to entertain you in the next 70+ days till we leave.) and it is now time to start talking about my plans for Disney.

Side Trip to Savannah--Part I

Sonny and I had the opportunity to take a side trip to Savannah at the end of September. Can you keep a secret? Only a few of my closest friends know about this, so shh!!!! We went to see Paula Deen on the set of her show Paula’s Party. I love me some Paula Deen and so does my MIL. She about permanently turned green when she found out we went to see Paula Deen in January and begged us to take her. Being the wonderful DIL that I am I obliged and planned a trip. I think that this has earned me the place of favorite DIL from here on out.

We were all set to go when I get a phone call from my sister (read “babysitter”) that she and my mom are in South Carolina and will not be back until the end of the month. What?!!! So both options for babysitters are gone and it looks like we are not going to be able to make the trip. Just a few days before we are scheduled to leave we are able to coerce my brother and SIL to keep two of the kids and one of my bestest friends agrees to keep the baby.

Then my MIL calls and says that the doctor is threatening that she will not be able to go if she can not get her blood pressure down. In the end he prescribed some different pills and told her to rest as much as possible, but she could go ahead with the trip.

A few days before we were scheduled to leave, Sonny tells me that he and his father can’t find anything that they want to do while we are at the taping. So….? Well, he was thinking that maybe I could call the producer and get their names added to the guest list. I got knots in my stomach just thinking about having to call and ask a favor. Much as I love him I don’t know if I can do this.

I let him talk me into calling and the producer was nothing but nice. She just asked me to send her an email with all of their pertinent information and pictures for security and she would see what she could do. The last thing she told me on the phone is to be careful that I typed in the correct email address. Her email address had a “s” on the end that people usually left off. Also, I was to call on Wednesday afternoon to confirm the changes with her.

We were hoping to leave home bright and early on Wednesday morning since we had an almost 10 hour drive to Savannah, but you know what they say about the best laid plans. We actually got on the road around 11:00 a.m. and headed to Sonny’s job to drop off a package. A quick stop turned into a 30 minute gab-fest and then we forced ourselves to get back on the road.

Stay tuned for part 2...

Where Will We Lay Our Heads?

The first decision we had to make was when we were going. L.J. had recently started a new job and with no vacation days built up yet, he wanted to miss as few days as possible. The easiest solution was to plan around the holidays when everybody would already have a few off days scheduled. Plus, Sonny and I could get in another trip on our AP’s from January. December 28- January 4 started looking like our target dates.

The first time we celebrated our anniversary at Disney it was right after the Christmas holidays. The crowds were unimaginable and we said that we would never go back to Disney during the holidays. Never say never because here we are. But our reasoning this time is that with four adults we should be able to handle the crowds with proper planning.

We recently became Disney Vacation Club members and our first trip home was this past January 2007 at Saratoga Springs. Then in May 2007 we stayed at BWV. For all of the SSR lovers let me just put it out there: The resort is absolutely beautiful! The rooms are absolutely beautiful! But this resort and the Downtown Disney area is just not where we are absolutely happiest. Given a choice we prefer the Epcot Area and Boardwalk Villas, but every trip we tell ourselves that we will try somewhere new and every trip we end up right back at the BW. This trip I figured there is no sense in pretense—we wanted to stay at BWV again.

So our challenge now was finding a 2 bedroom villa at BWV for December 30, 2007 – January 4, 2008. But so did everyone else in the free world! The best the CM could do was to book us at Saratoga Springs for the first and last two nights. We went on the waitlist for the middle days that we needed and hoped for the best.

As any true Disney Planaholic knows, we don’t do well with waitlists or probability. I will play nice for a little while, but I need a confirmation number NOW to write in my Passporter! I sweated my husband something fierce about what I should do about the room situation. Out of desperation the poor man suggested that I just book concierge rooms at the BWI. That sounded really nice at first, but as I started checking out prices I realized that the cost of the two rooms was outrageous during the holiday season. No thanks. I will have to find better way.

To save points I did go ahead and book All Star Movies for the first two days of our trip (Friday and Saturday night). We stayed here last September with the kids and thought it would be a nice start to our trip.

But I started to get really antsy about not having our room booked so I called Member Services constantly. After a few weeks, I was on a first name basis with several of the cast members. Finally, the first of September I confessed to Sonny that I was afraid that the waitlist would never come through. Several phone calls to Brianne and we decided to move the entire vacation back one week. So our dates changed to Jan 4-11, 2008.

I called Member Services and received the bad news that they could not get us into a 2-br at BWV for the week. We would again have to go on the waitlist, but our chances would seriously improve with this being the start of value season. The waitlist came through for all but the last night! I am so excited that I would not be upset if we were at SSR for the last night.

Let the Planning Begin...

One of the hard parts about taking relative newbies to Disney World is impressing upon them the sheer amount of planning and the endless decisions to make the trip magical. Brianne’s first questions to me was, “How much money do you think that we will need for the week?” How do you answer that question? It is almost impossible to succinctly answer that question. So instead I begin to ask her questions. I asked her how many days she thought they would like to go to the parks. What kind of eating habits do they have on vacation? Do you see yourself wanting to do a lot of side things like Disney Quest, Pleasure Island, the Water Parks, Cirque…? Well you get the idea.

Her eyes got big and she said she had no clue as to how to answer any of those questions. So I replied that I didn’t have a clue how to answer her question either because it is not a simple equation one does to come up with a definitive number. My suggestion to her and request of her was to educate herself on Disney.

I pointed her to Mousesavers and Allearsnet to start her research. She called me a few days later in awe. It never dawned on her that Disney was so big and offered so many things to do. As she started reading she started making a list of the places they might like to eat, rides they would be at the top of their wish list, and nighttime activities they wanted to check out.

Let me digress here for a moment. My DH and I have taken quite a few people to Disney with us over the years and we always end up being the designated tour guides. The “keeper of the schedule” as it were. Everyone blindly follows us everywhere we go and never once volunteers preferences or opinions. So every trip we feel responsible for everyone’s’ good time. That is a lot of pressure on two people who are struggling with their own good time. So DH decided to make one condition on Brianne and LJ if they were to come with us. Their vacation happiness was dependent upon them. We were going without our children and so we aren’t planning on babysitting anyone else. Does that sound harsh?

Anyways, Brianne decided that she liked the process of getting ready for our trip, so I ordered her a Passporter to do some serious planning. I also through a recommendation from timandlesley decided to sign up for Tourguidemike. The jury is still out on whether or not I feel like this was money well spent.

“Disney Through Another’s Eyes”

I have been reading trip and pre-trip reports over on the disboards and I have to admit that I would love to achieve the following that some of the reports have gained. Admitting that may sound vain, but at least I am being honest.

I admit that I am late to the game and not usually up on the cool places to be, so I only recently read UtahMama’s trip report from 2006. And I am going to follow her admonition and not post any “disclaimers, warnings, or apologies”.

So let’s jump right in by introducing the crazy cast of characters:

There’s me your storyteller and vacation planner. I am a Domestic Goddess with three genius level children, a miniature Dachshund that I believe has ADHD, and a wonderful husband who deals with my ever changing moods and obsessions. I can honestly admit that Disney is one of those obsessions and at times I have been known to start planning our next trip before we are home from our current trip. I never get postcards or pin codes attached to my name because Disney knows two things about me. They know without a shadow of a doubt that I will keep coming back year after year. And two that I have been known a time or two to pay rack rate.

Sonny my DH is the person who started my Disney obsession and he recently told me that some days he wishes that he had never taken me to Disney World the first time! He was only half-way joking. He funds our trips by working as a Drafter for a small company and occasionally does free lance work on the side.

We are planning this trip to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary and I can’t wait to see what surprises he has in store for me. I guess that sounded a bit egotistical, but my DH has planned a wonderful surprise for my anniversary almost every year. Check out what he did one year that we stayed at Disney's Boardwalk Inn.

Joining us this trip will be Brianne and her husband LJ who are celebrating their 5^th anniversary. Brianne and I have known each other all of our lives. As most friends do we have experienced some rocky times, but we always manage to get through it. When Brianne and LJ were dating we would all get together and go on date nights. After about 6 months of dating LJ decided he wanted to pop the question, so he asked me first what I thought she would say. Ah…yes!!! So I got to help him plan the proposal and her to plan the wedding.

One of the things they thought would make their wedding special would be for me to be a bridesmaid and Sonny to perform the ceremony! We still talk about how sweet it was to watch their relationship develop and then to have such a special place on their wedding day. Plus, our anniversaries are in the same month 9 days apart.

This past summer Brianne and I worked really hard to surprise her parents with an awesome anniversary party. During the planning phase we would talk on the phone and email each other daily. Once the party was over we found that we really missed talking to each other, so our friendship grew.

Through the course of the daily conversations between Brianne and I, we started talking about plans for our anniversaries. With our recent purchase of DVC, Sonny and I knew that we would be spending a week visiting our favorite cast members at the BWI and Villas. Brianne and LJ are in the process of trying to buy a house, so Brianne was unsure of what they would be able to do.

The last few years we have taken different couples with us to Disney World for our anniversary. One year we took my brother and his wife, one year we took my parents, and earlier this year we took DH’s parents. I don’t remember how we came to the conclusion to invite Brianne and LJ, but I am so glad we did.

Since my first trip to Disney in 2001 I have done whatever is necessary to go back at least once a year. In total we have gone as a family or as a couple a total of 11 times. When someone asks us, “You’re going to Walt Disney World again?!!” we point out all of the new things there are to do and see.

LJ and Brianne, on the other hand, are relatively newbies when it comes to WDW. The last time LJ went he was 10 and has only vague memories of the parks. Brianne was 3 and remembers little to nothing. There is nothing better to a Disney Planaholic than planning a trip as if you are showing someone the world for the very first time. This trip we will get to see Walt Disney World through another’s eyes.

Come H*&% or High Water

This weekend will be added to the ever growing list of things I thought I would never do, but did.

From the time that I can remember a group of my parents friends would get together twice a year and go camping. In all the years that they went my family and I never joined them except for an occasional day trip of swimming and bar-b-que. My mother's assement of camping was heat, bugs, snakes, and general discomfort, so that is what camping meant to me.

My husband on the other hand had very fond memories of his parents taking him and his five siblings camping in a renovated school bus. Since we have been married he has longingly talked about how fun it would be to go camping. Later when the kids came along his enthusiam increased. I was always the wet blanket on his excitement and vetoed the idea every time.

Within the last year my mother and father became the proud owners of a used travel trailer and set out on several camping trips across our home state. Nothing surprise my siblings and I more than hearing my parents talk about how much they enjoyed their camper. If my mother found enjoyment out of this new hobby then maybe I needed to reexamine my stance.

I started by just taking a look at the inside of their camper to gauge how many creature comforts such a contraption could offer. I was pleasantly surprised to see all the amenities a girl could ever want. This jarred my long held notions of what camping was about.

Around this time we received an invitation to go camping with a group of our friends. The more I pondered the invitation the more I leaned toward going. Don't think for a moment that there weren't moments were I questioned my decision and my sanity. I tried on several occasions to back out, but how do you tell three children that mommy is too scared to sleep in a travel trailer for the weekend?

I guess come h*&% or high water we are going on this trip.