We ended up booking a 3 bedroom suite/condo at the Lake Buena Vista Resort Village and Spa in Downtown Disney. We are going the middle two weeks in March and clearly we should have researched and booked a long time ago if we wanted to stay in Disney. The only rooms that we could find in Disney to accommodate a family of 5 that they had left were close to $500/night and still too small for my liking! On the upside - we got the place above at a great deal and ended up booking for 6 nights! We had originally intended to stay for 3 nights but we just couldn't resist! We haven't booked our theme park tickets yet but we intend to get the 7 day pass for the four Disney theme parks. We went to Sea World, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure last year so this year it will be all Disney parks. I can not tell you how I excited I am! The hotel has a shuttle that goes back and forth to the parks but we are driving to Florida (yikes I know!) so we will also have our van with us for convenience while we are there. A whole week at Disney!!! We were also really excited about the suite we booked because it has a full kitchen. We rarely take our children to restaurants, mostly because it is more annoying than fun and they never end up eating anything so we would prefer to not waste a bunch of money on dining out. We will probably go out a few nights but most days I can see us going to the parks as soon as they open and then coming home for a few hours in the late afternoon to swim and have something to eat and then go back out again. Am I dreaming?!!! I know I have already said it but I am so excited!!!
Hubby is not too happy that I ended up talking him into 7 days from the original 3 and apparently it is all my fault that we have had so much trouble finding a room that allows 5 people. When we started doing IVF and the doctors talked about twins Brent and I had a whole conversation that went something like this:
Brent - we can't have twins because then we would have a family of five and the world is made for families of four
Me - what do you mean?
Brent - picture a booth at Burger King, a roller coaster, a car, the hot dog stand, anything, they are all made for four people
Me - you are ridiculous
Looking back, I guess he had a bit of a point but I never quite understood the hot dog stand logic - I guess I have never been to a hot dog stand so I just didn't get it. Maybe I should have suggested that he stay home and that I go with our three children alone - a family of 4 lol!
Michele emailed me a site that she had used called www.tourguidemike.com where you pay $20 and there are so many tips, tricks and itinerary planners to help you with your Disney vacation by saving time and money. I immediately signed up for it and I already feel like I have got my moneys worth!
Some other valuable links that have been left for me are:
www.mousesavers.com(I went there first and got a coupon code to save me $3 off of the tourguidemike.com site!)
By the time we go I am going to know the place inside and out!!!! I also saw in a Fodor's book that I had used for the Universal Parks last year (it has several chapters about Disney too) that there is a store in Downtown Disney geared toward Disney scrapbooking and memory keeping!!!! Let's hope they have some digital too so I don't have to go hybrid!
I will of course be taking my trusty pink laptop with me on vacation and will still be posting almost every day - just like last year :) I wouldn't have booked the hotel above if they didn't have high speed internet lol!
Here is a picture of what it looked like here in Ontario, Canada last week:
Not Florida at all! This is me picking Abby, Joshua and Brady (he took the picture) from school ... by sled because the roads were so bad! (looking at that picture right now I am surprised I am posting it .... snowsuits are not one bit attractive or flattering!)
The final thing I want to share with you before my wrists collapse is these adorable clocks that Vickey made:
Aren't they sweet?!!!! Vickey used the personalized sets she had purchased from me. I am not currently taking new orders for the Run, Skip and Jump personalized sets but you can certainly still buy the names I have already done!!!
Download expired but you can still find it in my Digitreats Store
Update on file naming policy for add-ons: a number of you were concerned about how people would recognize your add-ons as being the Shout, Smirk and Giggle colour schemes if the file names didn't contain the set names. I think I have a solution - how about we use a short form like this:
yourname_gg_description eg. digitreats_gg_janaddon (obviously you will put your name, not digitreats and gg would indicate that the set is Giggle)
gg for Giggle sm for Smirk and sh for Shout!
Kendra- the week 3 template had M, T, W, Th specifically labeled on it but the 3 smaller circles in the middle were intended for you F, S, Sun pictures.
KristiYaYa - I HAVE to see pics of you renewing your vows in costume!!! Pretty Please?!!!!
Cecilia - week 4 was given out just a few days ago and week 5 will be in the next couple of days :)
Melissa- Brent did go to the Riverwalk and wen on the barge cruise. He said it was beautiful!!
Patricia asked about companies in the U.S. who print 12x12 digital scrapbook pages for the U.K. - any suggestions for her?
TYVM for the alpha, and the room you booked looks NICE. :)
A friend of mine and her hubby had a convo similar to you and your hubby's about family size: she wants 3 kids, he wants 2. His reason: cars. Cars are made to fit four people comfortably (he refuses to buy a mini van, BTW, so even though there are vehicles that fit more than 4 ppl, he won't acknowledge them in his line of thinking).
Ah, the logic of Man. ;)
Posted by: Sara, aka Scrapping all the Way | February 01, 2009 at 09:46 PM
Are there no places in the UK that print 12x12? Creative Memories photo center (http://www.cmphotocenter.com/) prints 12x12 and other poster size enlargements, but I don't know if they ship to the UK. You do get 20 free prints when you sign up though, and you can prepay for prints 4x6 so that they are only $0.12 each! Quality is good too. :)
Posted by: Rose | February 01, 2009 at 10:28 PM
That hotel looks fantastic! I haven't stayed there, but I might just add it to my list of places to try! I highly recommend using your own van to get around to the parks. You will have to pay for parking, but it is worth it for the flexibility factor. Also make sure to check out www.touringplans.com (similar to TGM, but a little different and good, too) and the book, the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.
Disney doesn't offer their own digital scrapbook supplies yet. I have tried to compile a list of my favorite Disney-ish Digital kits on my blog. Feel free to check them out! I need to add a few more. I'm a lazy blogger! Bad me!
Posted by: Jessica | February 01, 2009 at 11:28 PM
I printed 12x12 pages at www.sbtoshare.com. They were 1.50 apiece and turned out great. pretty quick shipping too. I was very happy. Shipping was $6.00 but it's a flat fee so you can print as many pages as you want for that amount!
Thanks for the alpha. I love it!
Posted by: Samy | February 01, 2009 at 11:34 PM
Looks like you are all set. You will be very glad you have a car. Saves a lot of hassle. One tip - take the boat not the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. No one does and it is fast. I strongly recommend the Unofficial Guide and their website www.touringplans.org. Made our whole trip! They plan out what rides are busy when and what order to go to each thing. We never stood in lines and it was fabulous! Nothing worse than lines with a 5-year-old. We walked onto most things - awesome!
Posted by: Terebene | February 01, 2009 at 11:40 PM
Wow, you will have a great trip. Have fun. thank you for the alpha, it really fun. Good job.
Posted by: April | February 02, 2009 at 12:22 AM
Thanks for the great stuff as always! I love reading your comments and laugh because I can hear myself saying them - as a mom of 3 kids too. Especially the eating out - I'm right there with you.
I've loved reading all the Disney stuff, we're hoping to be able to afford it in 2010 and by then our youngest will be 4, so I think that's good. We're heading to Hilton Head this summer - we saved 3 years and got all our tickets free (credit card points - hubby buys products for clients on our cards) and we're staying at my parents timeshare - so far we've gotten our week and 5 tickets for $200 for fees! Not bad! We can't wait and I can't wait to take the kids to Disney next year. I saved all the websites that people suggested to start doing research well in advance.
Posted by: Leslie | February 02, 2009 at 12:54 AM
Thank you Pamela. These are really nice.
We just drove from Delaware to North Carolina, to Florida and then the same route home. Enjoy the ride. Of course, we traveled with a small dog--no children. Good luck! lol
Feel free to stop in DE. We live right off of I-95. You and your family will have a great time. I must have missed this--when do you go?
Posted by: Denise | February 02, 2009 at 12:55 AM
Sounds like you guys are going to have a wonderful time! I don't envy your drive, though. I would be ready for the funny farm by the end of the trip!
I have just had some 12x12 printing done at http://www.scrappingsimply.com./. The shipping is a flat $6.00 rate (not sure if that is only US or not). The customer service is amazing! I uploaded a number of layouts, but I could not get 6 (of my favorites!) to upload. I emailed the address on the contact list, and I had a response in an hour (on a Saturday night). The person emailing me was the owner. He and I emailed back a couple of times. He had me send one of my layouts to him, so he could see what the problem was. Since he could do it at his end, he had me email him my layouts, and he added it to my order. I have never had anyone work as hard with me before. I will continue using them for sure!
Another thing...you have your choice of having the white border around it or not. Most places have white borders for the cheaper prints. These prints are $1.99.
Sharon from Texas
Posted by: Sharon | February 02, 2009 at 01:37 AM
Really love your snowsuit! And also love the snow!
Did not comment every day downloading, everbody exept me has been sick around here, hubby and both boys nursing on the sofa for a whole week ...
thanks ever so much
Posted by: yvonne | February 02, 2009 at 01:47 AM
Very excited for you and your Disney trip. I sure hope my Airmiles are enough for us to go this year, but I am trying to prepare myself for the 'big let down'.
Thanks for the alpha!!
Posted by: Jewel | February 02, 2009 at 01:59 AM
I think I have stayed there before! Of course I have stayed in so many places in Orlando I can't remember them all..LOL..Have fun! I miss Florida :(
Posted by: Amy (starwarsgirl06) | February 02, 2009 at 02:15 AM
Lovely place you found in WDW! Thank you for all the tips and urls! This is a great alpha Pamela, thank you very much!
Posted by: Nancy P | February 02, 2009 at 02:38 AM
Whoa! Imagine my surprise when you called me out in your blog!!!! The photos are in an old fashioned album and I have been procrastinating getting them scanned and scrapped! I guess you have just give me my next --- Ready Set Goal!!!!! Hugs!
Posted by: KristiYaYa | February 02, 2009 at 03:20 AM
Whoops, I got so excited that I forgot to tell you how much I LOVE this alpha! And you look adorable as a snow bunny! Thanks Sweet Pea!
Posted by: KristiYaYa | February 02, 2009 at 03:22 AM
Thank you Sweet Pea! I love this alpha!!!
I about fell off my chair when I saw that you had called me out on your blog! LOL! I have been procrastinating about getting those photos out of the old fashioned album and scanning them! Guess you have just given me a new --- Ready Set GOAL!!!!! Hugs!
Posted by: KristiYaYa | February 02, 2009 at 03:29 AM
Yes, the world IS made for families of four people.... LOL
But I thought that you americans liked everything big, families aswell, (*giggle*)oh oh, forgot that you are canadian, right?
Have a wonderful week in Florida, hope me and my family will be able to visit USA sometime. Dream dream dream....
thanks again for adding my weekly LO:s in the albums!
Lots of love!
Posted by: Gilla Woksepp | February 02, 2009 at 03:47 AM
For Patricia - I use a company in England to print http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/
They are only 60p a print (less than $1) and they use fuji archival safe paper - EXCELLENT quality!
Posted by: Vicki | February 02, 2009 at 04:36 AM
Pamela, thank you for the alpha, it's beautiful.
Patricia, I also use dsclourlabs and love the quality - and the price, and they are quick too!
Posted by: kaffp | February 02, 2009 at 05:15 AM
Disney sounds like a lot of fun. Before you book your tickets, you should check with AAA. They sell the most Disney travel packages out there and they are usually the most reasonable. If you don't have a membership, it's only $40. But I bet you would save more than that if you get your tickets from them.
Posted by: michiganhill | February 02, 2009 at 06:23 AM
I also use dscolourlabs for my 12x12 prints and my 8x8 prints (which are 30p) and think the prints are excellent Quality too.
Thank you so much Pam for the shout alpha.
Posted by: kim | February 02, 2009 at 07:06 AM
Thanks for the alpha and enjoy your time in Florida.
Posted by: Karen M in FL | February 02, 2009 at 07:59 AM
hi! thanks for the alpha - have fun at Disney - it sounds so nice!!!!!!
Okay, I must be clueless because I didn't know you had twins. Or maybe your doctor was just talking about the option.
I am asking because I have twin boys (7 months). It makes for a very interesting life! But very rewarding! :)
Posted by: Melissa Deming | February 02, 2009 at 08:19 AM
After seeing you picking up the kids on a sled in all that snow - I can certainly see why you're so excited bout going to Florida! It appears to look as though your vacation will be (in my kids vernacular) "wicked awesome"... LOL
Thank you for the great alphabet...it is very versitile and I'm sure I'll use it lots.
Posted by: Diana | February 02, 2009 at 08:23 AM
Wow, that's a NICE place - I'm excited for you! I think you will really like the Lake Buena Vista area and it's convenience (right off of I-4). Since you are staying for longer, check out International Drive. It's basically East of Lake Buena Vista on the other side of I-4 (only about 10 minutes away). There are tons of stores, restaurants (fast food and sit down) and it's great for people watching. You can TRULY experience Florida there.
There IS a store in Downtown Disney (a rather large one, in fact, so if you think you missed something in any of the other Disney stores, they might just have it!) and they do keep a decent amount of scrapbooking supplies stocked. Mostly Disney themed albums and semi-pre-made pages. Definitely enough Disney stuff to help you scrap those pages. Have fun shopping :-)
Posted by: Donna Mook | February 02, 2009 at 08:25 AM