Past 30 day mark...time to finally do a PTR for you!

[Jennasis]

I hope you all will forgive me. Hopefully I am able to put my first pre-trip report together correctly for you...

Allow myself to introduce....myself...(ahem):

We are the Griswold family. Like, totally. Have you ever watched Vacation? European vacation? Christmas Vacation? That's us. My dad, bless him, IS Clark Griswold. He even looks like him. And our zany madcap adventures would crack a smile from even the dourest of curmudgeons. This trip is comprised of the extended Griswold family. On to the introductions.

First we have my Dad, who we will naturally refer to as "CLARK". Dad is 64 years old and finds himself very amusing. give the man an audience and he's in heaven. This guy is hammier than Honeybaked.

Next we have my Mom, who will of course be "ELLEN". This trip is mostly to celebrate her 61st birthday. We wanted to take the trip last year for her 60th, but we had to wait for many reasons too zany to get into. She has been a good sport dealing with Clark all these years, and generally goes with the flow...generally.

Next in line are me and DH. You can call us "ANNETTE and CUBBY" since that is what we are dressing as for MNSSHP. I am a die-hard over-the-top Disney fan who believes you go commando or go home. No, I ain't talking about my underwear. I am talking about the tactical military-like strike I plan and carry out with surgical precision to ensure we maximize our fun intake each and every time. Cubby...well he's like a little me, only more likely to leave behind any family member who slows us down with nonsense like wanting to shop. Seriously, we will cut that person off like a coyote gnawing his leg off in a trap if need be.

Don't test us.

And that brings us to my older sister (37) and her new DH (40). I will loving refer to them as "SUPERMAN and LOIS", but only because the name Clark was already taken. Seriously, my new DBIL is built like a brick out-house but he is so mild-mannered that it's a little scary. I guess that's okay, becuase my uber-Sex and the City wannabe DSis needs a big guy who is tough enough to withstand her flakey behavior, her need to shop at every dang shop we come across, to protect her from bugs and cater to her every whim...without crumpling to the ground. Trust me...a lesser man would. Others have tried and failed. But theses two just got hitched in July, so the trip is "sort of a honeymoon"...but not really.

Lastly, we have my younger sister (28). She is very grudgingly coming along on this trip. She's done Disney many times with us as a kid, but has ZERO interest in it now. She's only going because mom Ellen wanted all her girls together for this trip. My sister would rather be on a beach somewhere tanning with a alcoholic beverage in her hand...preferably while MTZ was taping a Spring Break special. For that reason, my Dsis number two gets to be "SNOOKI".



So I am really the point man for all the trip planning. I arranged everything with our super duper travel agent at AAA. Even arranged for the DDp to be added for free even though Disney only had it in their system under my name (the pin).

We are staying at Pop Century and will be there from 10/13-18. I asked for the 80's section, mostly to appease Superman and Lois as children of the 80's.

Cubby and I are driving down from NC, while the others all fly. And that already has caused issues. Clark and Ellen are arriving the same day me and Cubby do, but the others have decided to work all day on the 13th and aren't coming in until that night around midnight! Craaazy. And it messed up my ADR planning, but I'll get to that next.

So there you have it folks. The Griswolds take on WDW in just about 26 days and a wake-up. Don't get me wrong...I love my family, but I may have to have them bound and gagged and stuffed in a closet in our hotel room before the trip is over. just wait...you'll see.

 

[Jennasis]

Now, where was I?


Oh yeah! Planning the trip. Well we bought tickets to MNSSHP (a whole fiasco there), and after much gnashing of teeth we have settled on costumes. Clark has decided he wants to go as Walt Disney. Frankly, he DOES look the part. However, that left the rest of us in a quandry about we should dress as. Cubby and I were pretty much set on going as Annette and Cubby from the Mouseketeers, but naturally Snooki and Lois had other ideas. Apparently, mouseketeers aren't "sexy" or "cool". So they dragged their feet right up until two days ago, when they finally agreed to be mousketeers with us. Ellen is going as a mouseketeer too. However, this meant that I have to do all the costume shopping because it's just TOO stressfull for Snooki and Lois.

I bought the t-shirts (I wanted historically accurate short sleec mock turtle necks, but Lois griped that Superman would be a hot cranky mess in that and also Supes refused to wear blue slacks and wanted to wear jeans).

FINE.

So now instead of accurate costumes, Cubby and Superman are wearing light denim blue jeans, the ladies are wearing light blue denim skirts, black mary janes with white frilly bobby socks and I just bought everyone's t-shirts and the iron on letters for their names.

Meanwhile, Cubby and I created a name tag for Clark that looks like a CM pin and put the name "Walt" on it for him. Don't despair...the pin is bigger than a real CM pin, and the wrong design...and it's just laminated white copy paper.

So the costumes are covered. Still stewing a bit over the rest of the family and their messing up of my historical accuracy, but it's just costumes right? moving on...

When it came time to buy the party tix, everyone got it done in a timely manner. And by that I mean, I bought tix for me and Cubby and Clark and Ellen. I harassed Lois for days until she finally made Superman call WDW and order them. That left only Snooki...who dragged her feet for weeks. Snooki is paying NOTHING for this trip, but griped about the $57 for the party she would have to outlay and the $135 for Universal tix I told her she'd also have to pay...(ps...Clark bought them for her and Lois paid for the MNSSHP ticket).

Lois finally gave me her CC # and I ordered Snooki's ticket for MNSSHP and had it sent to me so I was sure it wouldn't be left at home. So as of right now, Snooki hasn't paid a dime for her trip.

Then we had to buy tix for our side-trip to Universal. Cubby and I went with Costco tix. Three day/2 park tickets. We are only using two days on this trip and saving the remaining for our 2012 trip.

Unfortunately the Costco up in NY didn't have the discounted tix so yesterday Clark had me order 2 day/2 park tickets for the rest of the family online. So all that is DONE!

Finally, we are all set with hotel (Pop), park tix to WDW and USO, transportation, Dining Plan, and my beautifully crafter attack plan for all six days. Wanna see it? You know you do! Coming right up!