2 Days to Go - Preparing to Drive from Maryland to Florida

The longest drive we have ever had to make with all 3 kids has been about an 8 hour trip to North Carolina. They've always done pretty well in the car. Now we're preparing for a trip about twice as long, so it requires extra planning to keep everyone happy and comfortable. We also won't have the luxury of spacing them out more in the minivan and instead they will all have to sit NEXT TO EACH OTHER in the back seat for the entire trip. That alone may be tough for them to handle.

First of all, I've stocked up on movies for the trip. Yes, most of them are Disney movies. Even though our minivan is equipped with an entertainment system, it is old enough to be VHS-based and of course most of what we have these days is DVD-based. This is easily rendered by hooking up a portable DVD player to the system and that works just great. However, I thought it would be nice if kids could be watching different movies, so I've purchased an additional DVD system with a second external screen. This will be hooked to the back seats and only used for the entertainment of the back seat passengers. The external screen has the ability to hook up other devices, and we'll take along some TV-based battery-operated travel games to add a little fun for the trip for the boys.

We also have older Gameboy Advance systems. Along with the games we already own, I purchase a few new games the kids haven't seen yet and also some cartridges that just have tv show episodes on them. They aren't the highest quality, but they should keep the boys entertained especially.

All this talk of the boys, but what about the girl? Well she is not really interested in television or movies so much, so for her there is a bag packed with coloring books, sticker books, stickers and crayons and markers. They are contained in a small travel lap desk that I know she'll enjoy using.

Of course, there are also snacks for the trip and drinks which we'll try to keep to a minimum so we don't have to stop every hour for bathroom breaks.

I also found a cool site online that allowed me, for a small fee, to download a PDF booklet which details all exit stops from Maine to Florida along I-95. Each exit gives details about restaurants, hotels and gas stations there. This will be very helpful for those times when somebody needs a bathroom, or we need food or fuel and we'll know exactly how far we can drive to get to the appropriate exit without having to rely on those signs on the side of the road to tell us where to exit.

I also have the GPS programmed with some potential stopping points and our route to Disney is mapped out on it as well. I'll be packing some books to read for myself but I'm sure I'll keep busy trying to keep the kids busy also.

I know my husband is dreading this drive, but I'm hoping that he'll be surprised at how well everybody does for the trip. I'll be updating my mobile blog during the trip as much as possible too.

9 Days to Go - Dining Plan Here We Come!

So it's been a while, but not too much has changed.

Ok, so it's me, and you know I have made changes.

First of all, I finally broke down and decided to schedule Noelle for some princess pampering at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. I figured since each of the boys had their very first "professional" haircut at the Main Street Barber Shop in Disney, why shouldn't Noelle get a chance for a professional style at Disney. The prices ranged from $44.95 to (get ready for it) $179.95. Now, that last package would include a costume and accessories and her very own photo session with photos. Well, she has a perfectly good Snow White costume from Halloween and I have plenty of camera power, we opted for the middle package, because that includes nails at a price of $49.95. I think she'll be thrilled. We're having this done just a few hours before a planned dinner at 1900 Park Fare with Cinderella, so even better. I can't wait to see her face when she is being pampered by the Fairy Godmothers at Disney!

Next, after going back and forth many times I decided to bite the bullet and get the Disney Dining Plan for the first part of our stay. I know it will be way too much food, but it will still save us money based on the meals we have already scheduled for the first part of our trip. I am sure just having it to use for our meal at LeCellier steakhouse will be worth it. It will be nice to not have to really worry about buying food for the most part for those first five days of the trip. Plus, I have the Disney Dining Experience card on it's way to me as well, which will save us 20% off the rest of our restaurant meals, and includes the alcohol which I know we'll have a few times. I will be sure to save my receipts later so I can really calculate the true "savings" from our trip and share them here.

31 Days to Go - Disney Planning Spreadsheet

I'm the biggest procrastinator in the world when it comes to most things EXCEPT travel. I always plan trips way in advance, and Disney is no exception. Disney trips made with me are planned out quite a bit. See below:



This is my typical Disney spreadsheet. At the top, you'll notice the dates of travel. The next row, in light orange, are each Disney parks operating hours during that day. Park hours in the darker bold font are the parks operating under Extra Magic Hours, which means they are open earlier or closing later than normal.

The next row in the purple and yellow background are the resorts information. For this trip, we are splitting our stay between Old Key West and Saratoga Springs. We haven't had the opportunity to stay at either one of these resorts in the past, though we've visited both before.

The next row with the light green background shows the planned parks for that day. These are always subject to change depending on weather and other factors, so it's just a guideline and some of these are due to restaurant dining reservations.

The next few rows are just open places for different information. The yellow background in these rows are planned tours. For this trip we have planned a Family Magic Tour one morning and Frank will dive at EPCOT on another day. The light blue background indicates our dining reservations. These are restaurants where we have secured ADRs - Advanced Dining Reservations. I indicate in these blocks the time of the reservation, the restaurant, it's location, the number of people as well as the ADR number that was assigned when I made the reservation. This comes in handy if I ever have to call back Disney for any changes as sometimes they have trouble looking it up by name or phone number. I have a green background block do indicate the day that we plan to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party this year also, and a gray block to indicate the day other people will arrive to join us, specifically my brother and his girlfriend on this trip. The last row contains times for other special evening events, such as nighttime parades, fireworks, etc. including the Wishes fireworks show at the Magic Kingdrom and Fantasmic! at MGM Studios. There is also Illuminations at EPCOT in the evening but that is usually run at the same time every night, where Wishes and Spectromagic can change times depending on the park hours.

I'll make several copies of this in a final version and distribute them to be used during our trip to make sure everyone knows our gameplan. I don't expect everyone in our group (which will be 11 people at it's maximum) to have to follow this exactly. Dining reservations are there if they want to join us on some dates, but they certainly don't have to if they want to try something else.

SIXTY DAYS AND COUNTING

Well my plan for posting here daily went by the wayside over the weekend but I'm back!

The best news about today in particular was that I arrived home to find a piece of mail for me from the Disney Vacation Club. Now I've been waitlisted for any available studio room in Disney during Thanksgiving week. My brother and his girlfriend are arriving the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and I wanted to be able to use my Vacation Club points to reserve a room for them as well, since our 3 bedroom villa for that week was already booked. I had even arranged our original reservation into a split stay at two different room types in two different resorts just to have the points available to borrow for this purpose. Anyway, today the letter arrived confirming a reservation for a studio room for my brother to use. I couldn't wait to call him tonight to share the good news. It's nice to be able to basically pay for the rooms for everyone in our family that will be joining us during Thanksgiving.

So, we arrive the Thursday before Thanksgiving, probably sometime that evening after a long drive from home. It will be our family of five plus my mother-in-law and father-in-law. We will check into our 2 bedroom room at Disney's Old Key West for that weekend and the first 4 nights of our stay, checking out on Monday morning.

Monday afternoon my parents will join us in Disney. At that point, we will all be checking into a 3 bedroom vacation villa at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort for the remainder of our vacation, or four more nights. My in-laws will take one bedroom, my parents will take another bedroom, Frank and I will take the 3rd bedroom and the kids will use the pull-out sofa. It should work out just fine for all of us, considering most of our time will be spent in the parks anyway. My brother arrives on Tuesday and they will check into their studio room at Saratoga Springs for 3 nights.

I have already made plans for a few meals for all of us together, especially on Thanksgiving day. It seems a bit strange to not be eating at home on Thanksgiving considering Frank and I have been hosting Thanksgiving dinner together ever since we were married for our whole family. At least we will all be together for Thanksgiving. We'll just be paying somebody else to cook and the menu will be much bigger considering we're eating in a steakhouse. They will still have traditional Thanksgiving fare there, but I wonder what the chances are that I can get that coveted turkey drumstick as I always do for Thanksgiving? Probably not.

I guess that's just the sacrifice I'll have to make to be able to have Thanksgiving dinner away from home. The important thing is that most of our family will be there with us this year. I'm really looking forward to that.