Tracy's Running Journal

Hi everyone!

Since we are leaving in 5 days, I figured it would be a good time to start my pre-trip report. Let see where to start, how about introductions.

Me - Tracy, your tour-guide. I am 38 years old. I am the Disney obsessed member of the family (big shocker). I am usually super anal about planning all of my vacations. Not this year, for some reason, I just can’t focus. See I started a new job back in November. I am a chemist with many years lab experience, formerly lab manager for a major paint company. One day one of my suppliers called me a offered me a job in sales. I accepted his offer, and here I am in a new job, working from home and learning as I go. Needless to say, the new job took up a lot of my “free time” that used to consist of vacation planning time. I’ll get more into that later.

DH - Steve, 39 approaching the big four “o” this year. The best husband in the world. Steve supports me in all of my interests, whether it be college, fitness, kids, vacations, anything..... In fact, it was his idea to go on this vacation. He thought we should go all out to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary, I of course thought it was a wonderful idea.

DD11 - Ashley. Ashley just got braces last week, so she is having difficulty eating. Her diet has been consisting of strawberries, applesauce, spaghetti, yogurt, etc for the past week. It should get better with time, right? Maybe by next week? Ashley loves to know about the plans. She is my big helper when it comes to planning. I excluded her from a few surprises on this trip and she is totally onto me. She is getting way too smart.

DD7 - Elise. Elise is our drama queen. She visits the nurses office on a daily basis. Did you know band-aid’s can cure almost anything? Yes, we should own stock in the band aids. Elise now enjoys bigger rides which is nice. We can go on a ride as a family and skip the child swap.

Here we are after we won our dream FP’s last year:

The Plan - DCL and WDW

DCL - Steve and I decided to book the Disney Cruise. Since we love Disney so much we decided to spend a little more money then we would typically spend on the usual family trip to Disney. We wanted to book a 4 day cruise on the Wonder. See the kids do not know about the cruise portion of the trip. They know we are going to WDW, but we hope they will be shocked when we tell them about the cruise. Ashley is totally onto me. She came out and asked if we were going on a cruise this year. We told her that we spent all of our extra money on braces for her teeth. We are such liars. We plan to go to Atlantis for the day, and we are so anxious to see Castaway Cay.

WDW - After the cruise we will be, going to my parents house. They live 12 miles from Disney. We are hoping to get 3-4 park days in, If the plan does not work, I will not be too upset about it. The cruise is the real vacation, WDW is an added bonus.

At this point in the pre-trip report, I normally would be sharing with you the plan on my laminated index cards, but I do not have any. All I have is the info in my head and that is about all I plan to bring with me on vacation. Here goes:

4/25 - fly into MCO and drive to Cape Canaveral We have reservations at the Radisson
4/26- We board the Wonder
4/27 - Nassau Bahamas - Atlantis
4/28 - Castaway Cay
4/29 - at sea
4/30 - disembarkment, drive to my parents and maybe, just maybe DQ
5/1 - MK
5/2 - AK
5/3 - DHS
5/4 - Epcot or TL (not sure)
5/5 - fly home

It is a full schedule, but I am of course willing to scratch a day if rest is necessary.

Lets see, I am not packed, I have no laminated index cards, I have nothing printed out, and I am nervous wreck. I do however, have our passports, I checked in online with the DCL, and I have all reservations written down on various pieces of paper. I am not prepared at all, but am i ready? You bet your %^& I am ready.

Thats enough for tonight, I am tired.