~The Man Report 2006~~~~~End & Summary~~~~~Lots of Pictures

[Montana Disney Fan]

October 17 – 28, 2006

Continuing the trend, I will have just one thread for all segments.

How, exactly, does a man end up writing trip reports? Well, for one thing, I am no ordinary man. For another, I can’t trust my wife to relay the events properly. Besides, I’m way too “controlling” to let anyone else write these. The wife, however, is sure to chime in.

I couldn’t care less about Disney Characters or Movies (although the Lion King does RULE). I just really enjoy being on vacation, secluded from the rest of the world & my business, and alone with my family in the sun. Orlando is about as far away from Montana that you can get without leaving the country. That helps.

Sure, we could spend an October in northern Canada near a frozen lake but have found it would probably be more enjoyable to stay home and lock ourselves in a freezer with a butchered antelope. Besides, the “Elk Sausage & Moose Drool” Festival isn’t near as fun as it sounds. Nope, it’s Disney World or bust for Clan Mills. If the family gets sick of it, screw ‘em, I’ll go alone.

So that begs the question “Why Disney World”? For me it’s pretty simple. Sparkling clean, world-class service (most of the time), engaging visual effects, plenty of activities, sunshine, Food & Wine Festival, and we dumped an astronomical amount of money joining the DVC (DVC or Vette? I was the only vote for the Vette).

For the rest of the family, it’s even simpler to answer. Rides, pools, characters & Test Track (the boy).

Some of you may remember my trip reports from last year (Montana Invades the World). These trip reports will not have the charisma, emotion or charm of ZZUB’s nor the drunken hilarity of Vettechick’s but will hopefully provide you with some worthwhile information that you may be able to use on your next trip down. I will also toss in a few picture posts to do nothing more than add some color to the thread. Finally, since this will be a LIVE report, I can answer any questions you may have and might even be able to investigate something for you also.

We also thought it would be nice to mail off a few post cards to your children as if sent by their favorite character. Since we can’t possibly send postcards out for EVERYONE we will do one per day (11 postcards) for the first 11 people who Private Message (PM) me with the following information:

· Children’s Name
· Address
· Name of Character you want the postcard to be “FROM”.
· SHORT message

No, we’re not psychotics looking to stalk your children. We’re really just trying to be nice as in “Pay if Forward”. I also promise not to have any of my Montana friends (remember “Ted”?) mail you a mysterious “package”. If you don’t get a PM back from me, then I’ve already received the 11 requests. Sorry

All we ask in return is that you do the same for us or somebody else when you’re in WDW.

Ok, enough yammering, time to implement the official DIS “Trip Report” template….

** Right Click, Copy. Right Click, Paste **.

There!

Cast

Me – MDF -Buzz – 39 y.o. -Obsessive – Compulsive type who enjoys Disney Vacations, Planning Disney Vacations, thinking about Disney Vacations, implementing the perfect Disney Vacation, and finally, Disney Vacation trip reports. Big fan of the dancing banana for no particular reason other than he’s kind of cute. Avoids trips to Canada from Aug 3rd thru June 25th (that’s their winter).

DW – Linnie – 38 y.o. -Another Disney fan who enjoys Disney Vacations, NOT planning Disney Vacations, and correcting my descriptions of events on trip reports. Will sometimes make her own posts disputing my perceptions & exaggerations of events. DIS handle is “Linnie the Pooh”. Watch out though… She’s Mean!! Proof? Remember the butchered antelope I talked about earlier…??

DS – Trey – 7 y.o. -Great little boy with a speech and language disability (similar to Autism). Should be Disney’s official poster boy for “Test Track”. Enjoys Test Track, fried food, pizza, Test Track and sneaking into bed with mom and dad. Thrill seeker who’s never met a ride he’s afraid of. Aka: “Moan Boy”

DD – LeeAndra – 4 y.o. -Bossy little thing with an A-Type personality. Enjoys laughing, having fun, and being loud. A cross between Godzilla & Tigger. Aka: “Loud Girl”

One year ago at the "Fish"


Trip Facts

-First Four Nights / Caribe Royal – 2-Bedroom - Off Site - $279/night – (Got discount code off the DIS website)
-Last 7 Nights at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort 2-Bedroom – DVC Points
-Rental Car from National – S.U.V. for $350 (11 days)
-Disney Dining Experience card from last year
-Brand new annual passes
-Flying Down on 4 Semi-Free United Airline Tickets purchased w/ FF Miles

How we differ from you:

-Do you pack a printer all the way down so you can print post cards from the Digital Camera?
-How about Duct Tape (so many wonderful uses)?
-Do you pay $10 per day for Internet access just so you can post Trip Reports “Live”? Ok, Ok, I use it for work also (can you say expense report??? )
-Do you bring Baggies of laundry detergent even though you go grocery shopping at Gooding’s for food and dishwashing soap?
-Does your family color coordinate prior to leaving the hotel room each day just so the pictures will look better?
-Does your family undergo mandatory “training” prior to leaving on vacation?
-Does a beer & a brat at 11 a.m. sound good to you?
-Do your young children enjoy Dill Pickle Potato Chips at breakfast-time?
-Do you ride the boats at Norway & Mexico along with the TTA at MK at least 4 times each and probably more?
-Do your children squeal “Wheee” on those rides?

You get the picture…

Now that you understand what you’re dealing with, we can move on.

Summary:

Man-Author – That’s right. I’m ashamed to say it. I should be slurping beer and cleaning my rifle right now but here I sit (I do have Sportscenter on. Does that count as being manly?). Besides, I’m still in training and only allowed to drink water and gargle with mouthwash (sometimes I swallow it though. Don’t tell the wife ).

Clan Mills – As you read, we were destined for one another as nobody else could love us.

Pay if Forward – Our attempt to give back a little to all of those who’ve given us so much (info).

 

[pumba]

do you really take a printer with you? You are WAYYYYYY GOOD.....thanks for taking the time to do this......anxious to see your way thru disney

 

[Foohound]

You have a beautiful family. My DD (5) also had Developmental speech delays, and has a DX of Austim.
We also do everything over and over again, and have similar vacation habits as your family, except for the printer!!!

 

[OhMari]

Looking forward to your Live reports.

And, a Brat at 11:00 does not sound good. I am so sick of brats, the smell of brats on the grill I could cry. And on Fri, Sat. & Sunday, there has to be a Brat Fry Fundraiser, within a quarter mile in every direction, and if I would go to a bigger town north of here, then there are brats frying for sale at every gas station, outside Walmart, at the local convinent store.

rant over sorry,

 

[serendipity]

I love it so far! thanks so much for sharing!

 

[Cass]

Hey it's not frozen in Canada... yet

 

[MomofCKJ]

Looking forward to your trip and report!

And for our Dec trip I am packing our Kodak Docking Station/Printer to print pics off. I am making our Disney themed Christmas cards now and will bring them along and print off a pic of us with the Mouse or the Castle, print those puppies off and mail them from there!

Allyson

 

[sherreis]

Looking forward to your TR. You have a beautiful family.

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

Ok, let me clear a few things up before we get too far into it.

1. We do NOT color coordinate our outfits every day, but I do like it when we all match because it looks neat in pictures that way.

2. We own no guns. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but the thought of MDF sitting around cleaning a gun is hysterical. Cleaning the foam off a beer can is more his style.

3. I do not butcher antelopes. In fact, I hate touching raw meat of any kind and use plastic gloves when I have to, to avoid getting any on my hands or in my fingernails.

4. I am NOT a mean person, except when I drink whiskey, which is never.

This trip is much needed this year. At first I wasn't really looking too forward to it b/c I was so depressed, but I think I am ready now. This was a hard summer in that I lost my grandma due to pancreatic cancer and then 6 weeks later, my dad died unexpectedly. Was tough.

I am ready to get away from life for awhile and enjoy a brat at 11:00 am. I don't like having beer that early though. I'm more of a wine person. Still, not that early in the day though. Unless I'm on a plane shooting through the air with my 2 kids screaming and fighting over which DVD to watch on the portable player. Then a glass of merlot is quite lovely.

Wish us luck!

 

[Linnie The Pooh]

One Week To Go!!!

Not that I'm counting or anything.

 

[LYNSUE]

From a fellow Wisconsinite..... I hear you about the brat overload. That's all you get at every picnic all summer long. DH and I would never consider having a brat while in WDW. Although we do enjoy the German Octoberfest.

 

[Goofster57]

I’ve got a feeling this is going to be good!!!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

do you really take a printer with you? You are WAYYYYYY GOOD.....

Yes we do. I'm not sure "GOOD" is an accurate description. "IDIOTIC" may be more appropriate.

I see the wife is already starting to "chime" in. Didn't take her long.

No, I don't own a gun and even if I did, I'd probably pay to have it cleaned. I was given a nice shotgun by a customer but I gave it to an employee.

She may not have butchered the antelope, but she sure as heck butchered that casserole last night!

I guess I was jumping the gun a little on the trip report. Should have waited until this weekend to start it. I'm bored at work so I'll whip up the pre-trip and post it.

 

[Hound 109]

.....for the following reasons:

I can’t trust y wife to relay the events properly. Besides, I’m way too “controlling” to let anyone else write these.

I resemble that remark.

Besides, the “Elk Sausage & Moose Drool” Festival isn’t near as fun as it sounds.

We also thought it would be nice to mail off a few post cards to your children as if sent by their favorite character. Since we can’t possibly send postcards out for EVERYONE we will do one per day (11 postcards) for the first 11 people who Private Message (PM) me with the following information:

That's really a nice gesture.

Big fan of the dancing banana

-How about Duct Tape (so many wonderful uses)?

-
Doesn't everyone pack DT??!!

-Does your family undergo mandatory “training” prior to leaving on vacation? -Does a brat at 11 a.m. sound good to you?

They are now on my list.

Man-Author – [/b] That’s right. I’m ashamed to say it. I should be slurping beer and cleaning my rifle right now but here I sit (I do have Sportscenter on. Does that count as being manly?).

Scratching & Burping while your typing will also help.



I'm looking forward to reading from another father's perspective. I'm in.

 

[Goofster57]

She may not have butchered the antelope, but she sure as heck butchered that casserole last night!

No, I don't own a gun

Probably a good thing after the casserole comment or we may never get to read your report.

 

[mommic32]

Looks good,,, I cant wait to read as you go along!

 

[Montana Disney Fan]

Exactly how long does it take to plan a WDW trip? For most people, maybe 5 or 6 months. For Clan Mills it’s 11 ½ months.

Pre-Trip

Warning!!!Unless you’re a zealot, like me, you may want to skip the following post as it’s just an 11 ½ month account of the absurd preparations I make on an annual basis. I only write this portion because I’m at work, bored, and have already committed to memory the entire magnum opus, “Battle for My Wallet III & IV”. I suspect that only those without real lives or fanatics will enjoy the following. Hint: even my wife skipped this part

11 ½ months of preparation? Yes. So basically, I live my life in constant vacation preparation mode. My “real” vacation is actually the two weeks after we get home when I’m not preparing for the following year.

Some tell me I should plan vacations for a living. For a brief moment, I think, “yah, good idea”. Then I visit the DIS boards and find out how little I really know. Besides, I’d hate being broke.

Captains Log:

11-4-2005 – Yes, 11 ½ months ago we started!!– With the help of the DIS DVC boards, have decided to try & get Beach Club Villas at the seven-month window (DVC lingo). Figured, “If it’s good enough for Beca, it’s good enough for me”.

11-27-2005 – Try to book the 11 month window at our “home” resort of Saratoga Springs and find out I apparently can’t count very well. I’m one day early. The agent seemed to really enjoy telling me this… maybe a little too much…hmmmmm.

11-28-2005 – Book the SSR 2-Bedroom at the eleven-month window. We’ve yet to stay at our home resort & are excited to even see what it looks like. That’s correct! We made a $30,000 purchase sight unseen. Another reason we’re different from you.

1-20-2006 – Used miles earned from United Credit Card plus frequent business trips to get 4 “semi”-free airline tickets to Orlando. They now make you pay $10 each for processing?!?!?!

3-28-2006 – Put our name on the waitlist for BWV (sorry Beca) 2-Bedroom at exactly the 7-month window. I can’t believe it’s already booked up!! Don’t you people have anything better to do than plan vacations?! It’s difficult to book this resort during the F&W Festival unless it’s your “home” resort.

4-14-2006 – Book National rental car (SUV) special for $350 for 11 days. Argue with reservations agent for 10 minutes about my coupon. She finally gets the manager, as I’m obviously not going to give up. After much confusion, he finally just gives me the rate. Why does everything have to be so difficult?

4-14-2006 – Three Hours Later – Looking thru my very well organized Vacation folder, I realize my rental car coupon is for Hertz, not National. Oops. Well, got the price anyway.

July 20-29, 2006 – Booked all of our Meals via ADR with the majority of them being first-time restaurants for our family. Also booked the Fireworks Cruise for Wishes on the first try. Woot, getting excited!! Why does food = excitement in our family? Once again, we’re different. First-time restaurants for us include:

Mama Melrose – I don’t even know where to find this restaurant!

Cape May Café - Buffet! Remember, food = Excitement. We’ll try not to eat the plastic display lobster.

Whispering Canyon – I heard the waiters purposely mistreat you. I’m always up for some steak & sarcasm. This isn’t Canadian food is it?

Marakesh – Who wouldn’t look forward to a little scantly clad, belly-dancing and lamb-on-a-stick?

1900 Park Fare - Characters + Buffet + Booze = Our Kinda Fun

Citricos - – not a big fruit fan but we’ll give it a whirl.

Chef Mickey’s – Yet another buffet. We will starve our children prior to this meal then turn them loose like freed badgers.

Narcoosees – Not sure if this is even a restaurant. The name evokes images of the Loch Ness Monster for some reason. Hey! Maybe that’s the specialty.

Artist’s Point – Why not? It’ll be like the Beverly Hillbillies showing up at the Met. Besides, it might be fun to see the reaction of those around us when Moan Boy starts yelling for Test Track.

For those of you who know, booking ADR’s is not a lot of fun anymore. It probably never has been and never will be. Trips to the dentist have a better chance of being fun.

You have to dial the non-800 number very early in the morning (4:55 a.m. my time) exactly 90 days prior to make sure you get what you want. Disney’s 90 days are different than the rest of the world so you have to get help from the DIS boards just to figure it out. After dialing, you have to push many buttons which you soon come to memorize (over 11 days of making reservations) so you don’t even need to listen to the prompts. Finally, after being put on hold, you either end up with a booking agent who is wonderful (I always picture they look like my grade school librarian with Mickey Ears on) or one who doesn’t speak English and is frustrated because you don’t speak Swahili (think Iggy Pop meets Benicio Del Toro). Wouldn’t it be nice if we could book these ONLINE???

8-1-2006 – Purchase two brand new “wheelie” baby blue (very girly) suitcases from Costco (Kirkland brand). They are fairly big and should be able to spot a mile away. Since 98% of all luggage to roll off the carousel is black, we want to be able to spot ours. Just to make sure, I’ll wrap ours real good with duct tape.

8-7-2006 – Call Fairy Godmothers and book our babysitter for Mom & Dad’s big night out (Citricos, Pleasure Island, and a lot of red wine). We request our favorite sitter who we’ve used each and every year we go down. Every year I’m surprised to learn that she’s still doing this (you’ll learn about my kids soon enough).

9-18-2006 – The wife starts the countdown board. The kids put stickers on each day until the 30 days are up and then we go. One day I’d like to mess with their heads and leave with 4 days remaining on the board.

9-20-2006 – The wife starts packing (27 days prior to leaving???)! I walked into her closet and saw the luggage on the floor so I opened it and sure enough, it had clothes in it. I got the pix to prove it!

Hmmm… What’s this?

What a nut! She’s already packing?!? We don’t leave for 4 more weeks!

9-23-2006 – Training Begins! For the adults, no wine, beer or booze of any kind (this is by far the hardest part). Also, the adults are now eating healthy whole grain foods with no red meat. We usually eat out as a family a couple of times per week but that is now “off”. All meals are at home. Mom and dad are running and walking one hour per day and the kids are riding bikes and playing but they always do that.

10-1,2,3-2006 –I head to Vegas for three days on business and go absolutely crazy, breaking the training regimen every step of the way. The first week of training was hell so I had to let loose. Steak… Booze… Taking Cabs everywhere… Don’t tell on me though Going to Vegas during “training” is not one of my brighter moves.

10-4-2006 – Cancel Vacation due to gambling losses j/k Back to training. It was hard not to look all bloated and puffy as I met my wife and kids at the airport. Told them I had the flu and nobody suspected a thing.

10-12-2006 – I start the trip report. I’m ashamed to call myself a man.



Summary:

Preparation - Almost as much fun as the vacation itself. Like I said, “…who could love us?”.

Rental Car - I actually argued my way to a better rate. National is better than Hertz anyway since the cars are actually AT the airport and you don’t need to shuttle to a lot.

Vegas - 72 hours in Vegas is plenty! And I’ll never bet on the SeaHawks again (took a beating from da Bears).

 

[pumba]

I am female and have shot and butchered both a moose (the other six have gone to a butcher) and we always did the deer at home on the kitchen table....but not lately.....to tired.....
Thanks for your report.....I have enjoyed knowing that you did for sure bring a printer and did it all ...
never mind the early packing......my husband has a perpetual suitcase with just Disney tshirts and Disney Shorts.....and our raincoats....and our blow up seats from Beans so we wont sit on hard bleachers at Fantasmic......he is a disney freak for sure

Thanks again

 

[melk]

I'm so glad I found this, I remember your TR from last year (I can't remember anything specifically of course, but I think I liked it ).

Have a great time, can't wait to read about it. BTW, that is the neatest and most color-coordinated closet I've ever seen.

 

[Redbudlover]

Love that closet! I am almost inspired enough to enter mine!!! (other than sideways that is...) Great report! Looking foreward to more.