[packerbeth]

Before I get started on the actual trip, I thought I'd share how this trip came to be.

When: Wednesday, September 19 - Sunday, September 23
Where: All Star Music
Why: MOPS convention, with the added bonus of MNSSHP and free dining thrown in!

Cast of characters (it's a short one this time!):
Beth, 37 - SAHM to 4, homeschools DD6 & DD8, loves scrapbooking (especially Disney trips: I did 6 books for our January trip!)
Stacy, 35 - best friend/college roommate, SAHM to 3 kids

Stacy and I met at the University of Michigan in 1989. Stacy was a freshman, and I was a sophomore. I was in a group called University Christian Outreach, which asked students to fill out surveys at the beginning of the school year to find out if they were interested in more information about our group. Stacy did, and I was one of the people who called on her in her dorm room later that week. We hit it off right away and have been friends ever since.

I moved away for a few years, but now we're both back in Michigan and live only about 25 minutes away from each other. My two youngest kids are about the same ages as her two youngest, and we've gone through the whole mom-of-young-kids thing together. We try to get together at least once a month, and always invite the other to our kids' birthday parties. We take all the kids on field trips together, to the zoo or the state fair, a few times a year. Our kids get along great, so we have even more of an excuse to get together, you know, "for the kids."

Our birthdays are both in October, so every year, we go out, just the two of us, for a birthday lunch. Last year, we hung out for several hours at Cheeseburger in Paradise and discussed her recent trip to WDW, and my upcoming trip. She'd brought maps of each park and all the pictures from her trip. We had a lot of fun discussing where to go, what to do, what she'd enjoyed the most, what I was looking forward to the most. Little did we know then that less than a year later, she and I would be planning a trip together!

I belong to a group called Mothers of PreSchoolers (MOPS) which is a Christian support organization for mothers of, well, preschoolers! I’ve been involved with MOPS since my son was a baby, and am currently on the Steering team, in charge of Publicity, which basically means I put the newsletter together. Steering team members are encouraged to attend a convention, and wouldn’t you know, in 2007, the MOPS convention was scheduled to be held in Orlando! I’ve never been to convention, and thought this would be a perfect time to go. (Note that if convention were going to be held anywhere else, I most likely would have skipped it!)

My fellow MOPS steering team member and good friend, Josie, decided that we would ask her dad if we could use their DVC points for our stay. He agreed, and the planning began. Josie had only been to Disney once or twice, and we were really looking forward to going on an adults-only trip! We tried to get some other MOPS friends to come along, but it was so far in the future, no one would commit, so we planned it as if it were just going to be the two of us. Josie’s dad made the reservation for us at Old Key West, we talked about going to MNSSHP, and tried to figure out just how much Disney we could fit in around the convention.

One morning, Stacy and another friend were coming over for lunch. They had just arrived when I got a call from Josie. She had good news and bad news. The good news was that her sister was getting married! Can you guess the bad news? The wedding was the weekend of MOPS convention, and they’d already booked the hall, so Josie was going to have to back out of our trip. I was devastated, but only temporarily. After all, my Disney-loving friend Stacy “happened” to be under my roof when this news came in. I immediately explained what happened, and asked, “Do you want to come with me?” She told me later that this thought popped into her head, as well, as soon as she heard the news. (What a good friend!) She said she’d really like to, but had to discuss it with her husband first. (What a good wife!) If you’ve read this far, you know the answer was yes, and we were good to go!

Now we had some reservations to make! Her husband is the one who scans all the Disney websites looking for good deals. I believe it was he who first heard about the special Free Dining offer, which was available first for Disney Visa card holders, sometime in early April. They have a card, so they jumped right on that and got us booked at All Star Music with FREE DINING, baby!

Of course, the park ticket thing wasn't quite as easy to figure out. I had to spend two days at the MOPS convention, the whole reason I was down in Orlando to begin with. We had to figure out how much park time we would be able to fit in, and how many days of park tickets we would need. Park hoppers or not? 2-day or 4-day? They had special half-day tickets offered for the convention, so we considered whether or not to use those instead of getting regular tickets.

We also wanted to go to MNSSHP, and I think this was what helped us make our final decision about how many days we'd need. My conference meets Thursday night, all day Friday and Saturday. If we arrive early on Wednesday, we could get two almost-full park days in before convention started. Then we could tack on some extra park time on Saturday afternoon, plus all day Sunday if we take a late flight. We wouldn't need a park pass on Friday, because that will be our MNSSHP night, and with our party ticket, we can get in as early as 4 p.m. So, four-day passes would fill the bill.

Now, park hoppers or no? We decided to park hop, mostly so we could try to fit in as much park time as possible. I had some things that I had missed in January (namely Fantasmic, Illuminations and Spectromagic) so we had to really try to fit those in this time around.

I already had a couple of ADRs booked for Josie and me; I kept one (lunch at Le Cellier) and changed one (Boma) from breakfast to dinner. We loved Le Cellier on our last trip, and were not able to eat at Boma, so I really wanted to make it over there this time. We had two more Table Service credits to use, so I asked Stacy if she had any requests. She knew that I really wanted to see Fantasmic this trip, so she suggested we do the dinner package and requested Mama Melrose.

In 2001, my family stumbled upon Liberty Tree Tavern and enjoyed a lovely lunch there. I have been wanting to go back ever since. I actually had it booked for two separate meals in January, but we were unable to make it. I was not going to miss out on LTT this trip, and what better evening to go than the night of MNSSHP! The characters are in Halloween costumes and everything! I absolutely love Halloween, and can’t imagine a more fun and festive way to start the party than by hanging out at LTT with the characters in special costumes.

I was not able to book LTT for the evening of MNSSHP when I made my other ADRs. The CM said I had to wait until the dates were officially announced and the tickets went on sale. We were not planning on being in MK until party time (or as soon as they would let us in with MNSSHP tickets!) so she would have to make a special MNSSHP reservation, since they set aside a certain number of reservations for MNSSHP-goers, and she couldn’t do that until everything was official.

You can bet that I called back on the very first day that I was allowed to. In fact, to let you know my commitment to getting these reservations, I called Disney Dining from my son’s hospital room. (He’d been in the hospital for three days for dehydration and was doing better, so it wasn’t life-threatening; plus I was really going stir-crazy and it gave me something fun to think about!) I couldn’t get anything earlier than 5:50, but that was okay because we’d planned on arriving at 4 p.m. and going on a few rides before changing into our costumes and getting ready for dinner. (Oh, yes, there will be costumes!)

So here’s how it stacks up:

Wednesday, September 19: Fantasmic dinner package at Mama Melrose
Thursday, September 20: Dinner at Boma
Friday, September 21: MNSSHP dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
Sunday, September 23: lunch at Le Cellier

Our birthdays are in October: mine is the 20th and Stacy's is the 23rd, so we've decided to celebrate on September 20th and 23rd. We're planning on getting birthday buttons, and I've already informed Disney Dining so we'll see what happens. I had thought that it would be great fun to spend my 40th birthday at Disney World, but as it turns out, I'm getting to go two full years early! I can't wait!

We are first-flight-out-ers. We leave at 6:35 and should arrive around 9 a.m. We're taking SWA, both for the first time, so we'll see how this no assigned seat business works for us. We're also taking DME, just because I hate to wait for luggage. (I think you'll notice a theme - I HATE to wait!) I will be picking up my rental at the Grosvenor in the DTD area a few hours after we land, even though I could have gotten it at the airport, just because I don't want to wait for our luggage, and DME worked really well for us in January.

I really went back and forth about renting a car, originally thinking I'd just take a taxi to/from the Gaylord Palms, where my conference is being held. Eventually, I decided that since I hate waiting, I'd be happier if I were in control of my own transportation. I'm still kicking around the idea of taking Disney transportation on our big park-hopping day. We may not make the decision until the day before.

I was going to rent the car just for the portion of the trip that requires me to be off-property, but that was going to be more of a hassle and only a little less money in the long run, so I decided to get it for the whole five days. I got a really good deal from Dollar ($19/day).

OK, here's our vacation overview:
Wed, Sept 19: Arrival / DTD / MGM Fantasmic!
Thurs, Sept 20: MK E.M.H. / AK / Epcot Illuminations
Fri, Sept 21: conference / MNSSHP
Sat, Sept 22: conference / MK Spectromagic
Sun, Sept 23: Epcot / Departure

Come back later for more about what actually happened!

[yankeevttch]

Welcome back!! Can't wait to hear more about your trip.

[Dopey]

Welcome back
This is already a good read and you're not even at the parks yet. Can't wait to read about the actual trip

oh, and thank you for the intro

[Experiment6-2-6]

Um, like, wow.

You know, if you had just skipped the convention completely, there'd have been even more Disney time!

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by Experiment6-2-6

Um, like, wow.

You know, if you had just skipped the convention completely, there'd have been even more Disney time!

Believe me, the thought did cross my mind. However, it turned out that both the conference AND my Disney time were very beneficial to me.

More soon!

[allirella]

Sounds great already! Looking for the details to follow...

[packerbeth]

Day one – Wednesday, September 19 - travel day

Our flight was at 6:35 a.m. I live an hour away from the airport, and Stacy lives about 30 minutes from me, so she planned to pick me up at 3:30. Now, Stacy and I both have the tendency to run late, so my DH was skeptical that she would arrive on time. Her response to him was, “Hey, I’m going to Disney without my kids; I’ll probably be early!”

We had also decided to call each other around 3:00 to make sure no one overslept. I’d put my phone right next to my bed, and set it to go off a little before my alarm clock to make doubly sure I would not oversleep! I may have already been awake when the theme from the Harry Potter movies sounded from my phone.

You see, I’d planned to get to bed early (10 p.m. if possible, 11 p.m. more realistically). Of course, all the last minute things kept me up until 11:30 and then, wouldn’t you know it, I couldn’t get to sleep. I don’t think I fell asleep until 1:00 or so, which meant I was very tired when that alarm went off! Didn’t stop me from bounding out of bed, though, because I was going to Disney World!

Stacy showed up on time, and when I went to the door, I was met with the sight of her dancing down my front walk waving her Mickey Mouse hands at me. We were definitely on our way!

The trip to the airport was uneventful; we parked off property and took a shuttle, arriving to check in to Southwest about 5:00. Now, I’d purposely gotten up early the day before to check us in online, so we’d be in Boarding group A. It turned out that I was able to check Stacy in online, but they needed to see photo ID from me at the airport, so I was unable to check in online. As it turned out, there were 34 people on our flight, so Boarding group A was not necessary. One funny thing about Southwest that I wasn’t expecting was that once you check your bags in, you have to hand-carry them to the screeners. I’ve flown a fair amount, and never seen that.

The time spent waiting to board went by quickly, as Stacy and I are both talkers and we had a lot of catching up to do.



Do we look happy, or what?

On the plane, we watched a few episodes from the end of the fourth season of “Friends” and chatted some more. They gave us a drink, which included a refill (we both got orange juice) and a bag of crackers as well as a little bag of peanuts. Before we knew it, we were landing in Orlando and on our way to the DME counter.

When we were there in January, we had a difficult time finding it, but this time, I knew exactly where to go. Here is the sight that greeted me when we arrived at the counter.


You’ve got to love Disney World in September!

The last time I’d been here, the room was completely packed, and there were probably about 50 people in line ahead of me. Stacy got in line to check us in, and then we were off to the All Stars line. There was no one ahead of us, and we were on a bus in no time. The rain had just begun, but so had our vacation; we were ready to go!

[lovemysons]

Excellent, you have started!

[momofaprincess]

WOW! The DME desk was empty! Last year we went in September and it was overflowing beyond the ropes! Maybe it's since you got there so early??? Here's hoping for it to be like that when we arrive at MCO on Thursday!

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by momofaprincess

WOW! The DME desk was empty! Last year we went in September and it was overflowing beyond the ropes! Maybe it's since you got there so early??? Here's hoping for it to be like that when we arrive at MCO on Thursday!

We were there in January at the same time (9 a.m.), but it was a Saturday then and a lot of people were just starting their vacations. I guess not many folks start their vacations on a Wednesday!

Hope your line is equally empty!

[packerbeth]

We probably waited about 20 minutes before the bus left for the three All Star resorts. It was only about half full, and we hit All Star Sports first. We got off at All Star Music and went to check in, hoping our room was ready at 10:30 a.m. but not counting on it. The theme of hardly any lines continued: Stacy is in the blue shirt in the center.


She literally walked up to the CM and was checked in within minutes. She said it was the quickest check-in ever, AND our room was ready. We were in room in Broadway 7, which turned out to be a bit of a walk, but we would have a car for almost the entire stay, so it was fine.


It was drizzling a little bit, but we took some photos as we walked toward our room. Since we had our carryons with us, we took the elevator, which is in the middle of the building, up to the third floor. Then we walked all the way down to the end of the hallway, thinking that’s where we would find out room. We got a little excited with the thought of a corner room, but sadly, we had to turn the corner and head to the other side of the building before we found our room. Our disappointment faded quickly, though, as we found not one, but two towel animals to greet us, including this familiar shape:


Stacy was particularly excited, since she didn’t remember ever getting any towel animals. Here is the view of our room from the door, before our stuff was everywhere:

You can see my reflection in the picture on the wall!

Though we didn’t end up using this rack, I thought it was adorable:

[Dana]

WElcome home!

[tinkerbelle24]

Welcome back and i cant wait to read about the MNSSHP and see some pics..

[jimbo]

dont got to wdw then. only jokin

stay away from the mouse but dont upset him.

[packerbeth]

More exciting than the towel animals was the fact that our luggage arrived from DME as we were unlocking the door to the room. Now, that’s service! I took a couple more photos of the room, since I usually forget to do that. One of the best things about leaving the kids at home is that I could actually take the time to photograph things I never had the time to do before, thus the 450 photos taken on this trip. Plus, I was always deleting the bad ones to make room for more good ones!

Here’s the border all along the wall:


Here’s a closeup of the picture:


I love the Mickeys in the carpet:


Even the table had a Mickey border: