47 Days!!!

Story Time Castle

Windsor Hills Pool and Clubhouse

Our home away from home!!! Or it will be in just 7 short weeks! Where is this you ask? Glad you asked. It is the Story Time Castle in Windsor Hills in Kissimmee, FL. It will hold our grand gathering of family and friends during our week-long stay. I love this house! It is huge...6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms and each room is expertly decorated, especially the kids bedrooms. It has a pool, spa and gameroom too. The resort itself also has a huge pool and clubhouse, playground and manned gate. Best of all its about a mile from Disney property! I am hoping everyone will be happy and comfortable and enjoy the reunion!!! For more detailed info about the house, here is the website: http://www.storytimeorlandorental.com/143552.html. The owners are very quick to answer questions.

Besides sewing, which you all see progress on, I have been pouring over Disney literature and websites planning our vacation. I forgot to mention that due to work, I am missing half of it! Ack! So I am carefully planning the days that I am there so I can fit in everything we need to! I basically have 5 park days. And since the little girls will tire, we are only going to one park a day for half the day. We will get up early and make it to the 9 am "rope drop" (opening of the park), tour according to plan, have a picnic lunch and leave the park between 2 and 3 pm. We are hoping to visit Magic Kingdom twice and the other parks (Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom) once each. Our mantra is to see the best of the best. I made a touring plan based on everyone's likes and will attempt to get the girls to those attractions and visit all of the characters/princesses in that short time frame. The remainder of the day is for visiting with family and friends and relaxing! This vacation has been in the planning stage for almost two years. I just can't believe it is almost here! Wow!

Some things additional things I have added:

Shhhh....Top Secret Trip to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for the girls before the park opening. Additional update...my friend is bringing her daughter too...so we can share the fun and excitment (and tears)!

Stroller Swap...We will pick up and drop off a double stroller to use while on vacation. We pick it up from the person before us on the list and drop it off at the next resort. Best of all, its free!

Photopass Share....I was able to share in this with a small group of people. A friend is organizing it and it really cuts costs. As photopass photographers take pictures at the park, they are saved and eventually loaded onto a website. When we return home, we pick the ones we want...add decorations and whalaaa....pictures from trip!

Special Meals...When we stay on-property we usually get the disney dining plan. It just makes sense. This time, we are not, so I only planned a few formal meals. The first one is with my best friend and her girls. We are spending an entire day together at Magic Kingdom and we are all going to be in matching tees! Then we will be eating lunch at the Crystal Palace! We even have special tees for the meal. I also scheduled a dinner before Spectromagic and Wishes at 1900 Park Fare. Its a character buffet dinner with Cinderella, Prince Charming, and the Step-Sisters. Apparently its a hoot! However, I had to make an early reservation which may end up being cancelled if the girls are too tired. Finally, I scheduled a character breakfast in Hollywood Studios at Hollywood and Vine. The characters from JoJo Circus and Playhouse Disney visit the kids while they are eating. I actually made this reservation for a late breakfast so we could get a good chunk of our touring done before we eat. The only other place I really want to try is the Dinosaur restaurant in Down Town Disney. But we shall see.

Packing...I pack about two weeks ahead of time. This time I will be attempting to fit all those outfits I made into a suitcase or two. A major feat! I am lucky that we will be grocery shopping so I don't need to pack as much as I normally would besides clothing. I am going to try Space Bags. I bought the set that you can either vacuum out the air or roll out the air. I usually do this with plain zip-lock bags and may use them as well. All outfits get tagged and labeled and packaged by person and date/time of wear. An entire outfit including underwear and hair ties and socks or whatever, go in each bag. Makes it very simple and organized!

Lists...love em, need em...I have lots of these. I will keep you updated if you want on what exactly will be listed and checked off...lol! I am not sure how much detail the readers want me to go into....no yawns allowed!

So how was that for a pre-trip report???? I could go on and on but I will stop her for now! Have a great weekend. I am cleaning and organizing!!! Fun Fun!!!! And sewing a little bit!