Marlea98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2011
Okay. I've decided to jump in and do my first ever pre-trip report.
Let's get the housekeeping stuff out of the way first, shall we?
Me - full time wife and mum, casual teacher, full time daydreamer. I'm 42 this year and this will be my second trip to America. I love chocolate and Goofy. I am proud to say that I will be funding (most) of this trip. I also do not take myself very seriously half the time
I'm a researcher, list maker and checklist person, but I'm usually happy to go with the flow just as long as I know there's a back up plan in the back of my mind...
DH- He's just coming along for the ride. It's a compromise, he'll go along with the Disney stuff because he knows that there will be skiing and possibly AMA Supercross involved. He's my voice of reason when I have none and knows when to reign me in when I get too carried away. He will make up any $ shortfall I have
DD- Will be 13 on the trip and possibly going on 16... She has well and truly developed that pre-teen attitude and it scares me to think of what she will be like when she's older. But generally, she's really loving and caring and kind, except when she's in the mood to annoy her brother
She's my hand-holder when things get too much for me and keeps me company on the bunny slope on the ski field.
DS - My shy, reserved baby who can also be a real wild thing when he comes out of his shell. My proudest moment with him came on our last trip when he was not only called up to be on stage at the Nathan Burton show in Vegas, BUT he was also part of a street performer's act on the Strip - he got to dance with the performers and had his own 'showgirls' and earned $4 for his efforts
He loves motocross and his mummy 
But he won't admit that in public...
At the end of November '11 we embarked on what we believed at the time to be our "once-in-a-lifetime" trip to America. We went to Disneyland, took a trip on the Wonder to the Mexican Riviera, rode the roller coasters at Knott's, Legoland and lots more. We spent a few weeks in Montana visiting with family and I had my first experience at being a human snowball - oops, skiing. A trip to see Old Faithful (which DD remarked was rather disappointing
) and the Wolf and Grizzly centre at West Yellowstone was also included. January saw us head off to the big bright lights of Vegas for a few nights where we discovered Margaritaville and wore balloon creations on our heads. And yes, some alcohol was involved, but not too much in my case 
. I hyperventilated over the height of the Hoover Dam and we did a road trip to San Francisco via Fresno with an overnight stop in Bakersfield. I loved SF and can't wait to go back. Eventually we made our way down the coast over a few days, with a visit to Solvang high on our list (we couldn't make it to Denmark for a family wedding the year prior so that was my consolation trip). And then we came home happy with the fact that we had had so much fun and would dine out on our memories and recollections for years to come.
That was until that longing for another trip kicked in...
The reasoning behind my PTR title, "There's a squirrel in my head", is because I've usually got a million things spinning around in that little mind of mind that I often lose track of where I was going with those thoughts. But, like Billy Connolly, I usually make my way back eventually having had a delightful road trip in the meantime.
So, without further ado, here's what I've got planned for the next trip. You might just wanna strap yourself in for this, is going to be a bumpy ride with my scattered thoughts... popcorn:
Sometime before 30/11/13 we will be flying to Orlando - no flights booked this early
30/11-7/12 - Check in to Kingstown Reef Orlando and spend week at WDW
7/12 - 14/12 - Disney Fantasy - Western Carribbean - Margaritaville Cozumel here we come
Now here is where it gets a bit murky...
14/12- 18 or 19/12 - Universal, IOA, Space Centre, Richard Petty for DH.
We had originally planned to do a road trip through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and end up at Texas. But DH decided he wanted to be back in Montana for Christmas and New Years so I tried to somehow work something out that would fit in within a 4 or 5 day time frame but just couldn't work it to suit our wants.
So as of yesterday the kids and I definitely decided on going to New York City instead. I told DH about the change of plans last night and he was
He just goes where he's told to go 
So now...
18 or 19/12 - 23 or 24/12 - NYC. Nothing planned or booked yet but we would like to see the WTC memorial, Rockefeller Centre and wave hello in the background of the NBC Morning Show taping, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge walk complete with hubcap sized pizza at Garibaldi's (thanks Ms Shuttergirl
), Central Park, Statue of Liberty and the usual touristy things. I'm nervous about NYC as DH really hates crowds and gets a bit claustrophobic so I've got my fingers crossed he'll cope. If not he can find a bar somewhere and the kids and I can do our thing.
23 or 24/12 - 6/1/14 (?) - Fly to Montana for Christmas and New Year. There will be tumbling down bunny ski slopes for me, accompanied by DD who will ski down and wait for me to make my way to the bottom in one piece, while DH and DS will effortlessly glide down the diamond slopes and buy a Face Plant beer in my honour when I crawl into the lodge. I will consider my efforts a roaring success if I don't have to have the chair lift stopped to allow me to untangle myself when I attempt to get off the lift and fall flat on my face, or if I do manage to successfully get off the chair lift manage to not take out the rubbish bin/barriers/other skiers after having done so. We also get to meet his cousin's son for the first time who will be turning one before we arrive
6/1 - 14/1 - Leave Montana and fly to Seattle. We are toying with the idea of driving up to Vancouver for the night to visit friends or having them meet us in Seattle. We plan to spend a couple of nights in Seattle doing some touristy things like Butchart Gardens (having trouble convincing the others to get excited about that), the Sky Needle (if it's anything like the Auckland Tower I'm not too excited about that - I don't like heights), the Pier Marketplace and whatever else takes our fancy at the time. Then we'll make our way through Oregon until we get to San Francisco and catch up with some lovely friends we made on the Wonder who've basically adopted us as their own family We might spend a night or two there before moving on. We missed doing the zig zag street and I wanted to go to Haight Ashbury last time as we only had two nights in SF. The trip from SF to LA will probably be done in a day, possibly stopping at the Hurst place if we feel like it.
14/1 - 21/1 - We are basically only hanging out in Anaheim for the AMA Supercross as we missed out on it last trip. The dates for 2014 haven't been released this early but going on previous years it will be in Anaheim on the 1st and 3rd weekend in January. So, we'll arrive in Anaheim and go back to Disneyland until Friday (no way are we going in to the park on the weekend with it being the MLK holiday
), then we'll just spend the weekend doing some shopping, going out to the La Brea tar pits, maybe heading down to San Diego for the day or just hanging out doing whatever.
So, that's what we've got planned so far. Other than the cruise and our first week in Orlando, nothing else is booked or set in stone. I'm a child of indecision so it'll be interesting to see how this pans out over the year. And how it ends up by the time we get home.
If my indecision doesn't do your head in, come along for the ride. Grab a
or 
, do your 
or park yourself in front of your 
or just walk away and 
. Whatever you like.
Credits - thank you to my fellow DISers (you know who you are) for leading me astray, especially Ms Shuttergirl and her hubcap pizzas
If anything goes wrong on the trip I'm just going to hang all the blame on that pizza!
Now, off you go. Grab a and go back to reading DIS while I recover from my scattered thoughts being put down on paper/screen 
Let's get the housekeeping stuff out of the way first, shall we?
Me - full time wife and mum, casual teacher, full time daydreamer. I'm 42 this year and this will be my second trip to America. I love chocolate and Goofy. I am proud to say that I will be funding (most) of this trip. I also do not take myself very seriously half the time
I'm a researcher, list maker and checklist person, but I'm usually happy to go with the flow just as long as I know there's a back up plan in the back of my mind...DH- He's just coming along for the ride. It's a compromise, he'll go along with the Disney stuff because he knows that there will be skiing and possibly AMA Supercross involved. He's my voice of reason when I have none and knows when to reign me in when I get too carried away. He will make up any $ shortfall I have
DD- Will be 13 on the trip and possibly going on 16... She has well and truly developed that pre-teen attitude and it scares me to think of what she will be like when she's older. But generally, she's really loving and caring and kind, except when she's in the mood to annoy her brother
She's my hand-holder when things get too much for me and keeps me company on the bunny slope on the ski field.DS - My shy, reserved baby who can also be a real wild thing when he comes out of his shell. My proudest moment with him came on our last trip when he was not only called up to be on stage at the Nathan Burton show in Vegas, BUT he was also part of a street performer's act on the Strip - he got to dance with the performers and had his own 'showgirls' and earned $4 for his efforts
He loves motocross and his mummy But he won't admit that in public...At the end of November '11 we embarked on what we believed at the time to be our "once-in-a-lifetime" trip to America. We went to Disneyland, took a trip on the Wonder to the Mexican Riviera, rode the roller coasters at Knott's, Legoland and lots more. We spent a few weeks in Montana visiting with family and I had my first experience at being a human snowball - oops, skiing. A trip to see Old Faithful (which DD remarked was rather disappointing
) and the Wolf and Grizzly centre at West Yellowstone was also included. January saw us head off to the big bright lights of Vegas for a few nights where we discovered Margaritaville and wore balloon creations on our heads. And yes, some alcohol was involved, but not too much in my case . I hyperventilated over the height of the Hoover Dam and we did a road trip to San Francisco via Fresno with an overnight stop in Bakersfield. I loved SF and can't wait to go back. Eventually we made our way down the coast over a few days, with a visit to Solvang high on our list (we couldn't make it to Denmark for a family wedding the year prior so that was my consolation trip). And then we came home happy with the fact that we had had so much fun and would dine out on our memories and recollections for years to come.That was until that longing for another trip kicked in...
The reasoning behind my PTR title, "There's a squirrel in my head", is because I've usually got a million things spinning around in that little mind of mind that I often lose track of where I was going with those thoughts. But, like Billy Connolly, I usually make my way back eventually having had a delightful road trip in the meantime.
So, without further ado, here's what I've got planned for the next trip. You might just wanna strap yourself in for this, is going to be a bumpy ride with my scattered thoughts... popcorn:
Sometime before 30/11/13 we will be flying to Orlando - no flights booked this early
30/11-7/12 - Check in to Kingstown Reef Orlando and spend week at WDW
7/12 - 14/12 - Disney Fantasy - Western Carribbean - Margaritaville Cozumel here we come
Now here is where it gets a bit murky...
14/12- 18 or 19/12 - Universal, IOA, Space Centre, Richard Petty for DH.
We had originally planned to do a road trip through South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and end up at Texas. But DH decided he wanted to be back in Montana for Christmas and New Years so I tried to somehow work something out that would fit in within a 4 or 5 day time frame but just couldn't work it to suit our wants.
So as of yesterday the kids and I definitely decided on going to New York City instead. I told DH about the change of plans last night and he was
He just goes where he's told to go So now...18 or 19/12 - 23 or 24/12 - NYC. Nothing planned or booked yet but we would like to see the WTC memorial, Rockefeller Centre and wave hello in the background of the NBC Morning Show taping, Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge walk complete with hubcap sized pizza at Garibaldi's (thanks Ms Shuttergirl
), Central Park, Statue of Liberty and the usual touristy things. I'm nervous about NYC as DH really hates crowds and gets a bit claustrophobic so I've got my fingers crossed he'll cope. If not he can find a bar somewhere and the kids and I can do our thing.23 or 24/12 - 6/1/14 (?) - Fly to Montana for Christmas and New Year. There will be tumbling down bunny ski slopes for me, accompanied by DD who will ski down and wait for me to make my way to the bottom in one piece, while DH and DS will effortlessly glide down the diamond slopes and buy a Face Plant beer in my honour when I crawl into the lodge. I will consider my efforts a roaring success if I don't have to have the chair lift stopped to allow me to untangle myself when I attempt to get off the lift and fall flat on my face, or if I do manage to successfully get off the chair lift manage to not take out the rubbish bin/barriers/other skiers after having done so. We also get to meet his cousin's son for the first time who will be turning one before we arrive
6/1 - 14/1 - Leave Montana and fly to Seattle. We are toying with the idea of driving up to Vancouver for the night to visit friends or having them meet us in Seattle. We plan to spend a couple of nights in Seattle doing some touristy things like Butchart Gardens (having trouble convincing the others to get excited about that), the Sky Needle (if it's anything like the Auckland Tower I'm not too excited about that - I don't like heights), the Pier Marketplace and whatever else takes our fancy at the time. Then we'll make our way through Oregon until we get to San Francisco and catch up with some lovely friends we made on the Wonder who've basically adopted us as their own family
We might spend a night or two there before moving on. We missed doing the zig zag street and I wanted to go to Haight Ashbury last time as we only had two nights in SF. The trip from SF to LA will probably be done in a day, possibly stopping at the Hurst place if we feel like it.14/1 - 21/1 - We are basically only hanging out in Anaheim for the AMA Supercross as we missed out on it last trip. The dates for 2014 haven't been released this early but going on previous years it will be in Anaheim on the 1st and 3rd weekend in January. So, we'll arrive in Anaheim and go back to Disneyland until Friday (no way are we going in to the park on the weekend with it being the MLK holiday
), then we'll just spend the weekend doing some shopping, going out to the La Brea tar pits, maybe heading down to San Diego for the day or just hanging out doing whatever. So, that's what we've got planned so far. Other than the cruise and our first week in Orlando, nothing else is booked or set in stone. I'm a child of indecision so it'll be interesting to see how this pans out over the year. And how it ends up by the time we get home.
If my indecision doesn't do your head in, come along for the ride. Grab a
or , do your or park yourself in front of your or just walk away and . Whatever you like. Credits - thank you to my fellow DISers (you know who you are) for leading me astray, especially Ms Shuttergirl and her hubcap pizzas
If anything goes wrong on the trip I'm just going to hang all the blame on that pizza! Now, off you go. Grab a
and go back to reading DIS while I recover from my scattered thoughts being put down on paper/screen 
to you for being the first to comment 
) beginning to plan our 3rd trip of a lifetime, so very interested in your plans.
