rdancemom... Pam

lol and it could be all yours. It's really just an elevated tent, but so light we can move it in the yard by hand. DH figures it should be easy enough to tow...

I really should confine my impulse buys to purses. At the steam show last weekend, there was a very vintage pup parked in the space next to us. It arrived shortly before a series of thunderstorms rolled in. All canvas topped, I remember hoping they'd waterproofed it well. Friday morning we met it's occupants. Great friendly folks who climbed out of the pup dry, happy, and ready to take on the weekend. Saturday afternoon, things slowed down a bit so I wandered over to chat. I remember saying something like wow, haven't seen one of these in a long time and we all laughed. They lived a little

We do it from northern MD all the time. Once you're past that DC/Richmond congestion, it's a piece of cake until you hit Jacksonville and even then it isn't bad... well, unless you're afraid of bridges like me and take the eastern beltway around the city. I have a mean towing anxiety but the route is smooth and getting familiar enough now that the past two trips have been unbelievably easy. My one suggestion would be to be flexible about when/where you stop. While it's nice to have a goal, it's hard to predict what the road conditions will be like and how long it'll actually take. For me, ha

Just wanted to say :welcome: I've always loved solo trips with the kids. We do it in tents or hotel rooms though due to my refusal to drive the TH (which would have been so much more comfortable if I weren't such a wimp). I'm sure you'll have an awesome time!

Neat! I like it the way it is. Mickey ears might be a nice touch but would it be too crowded?

:welcome: Hope you have a terrific trip! I might be wrong but I think FL is one of those states that doesn't allow overnight parking so walmart wouldn't be an option. You could possibly find a decent off property motel in the area for an overnight though close in price to a Saturday night at the fort. We most always park in the overflow lot at some point during a trip. If you have to stay somewhere else, you could probably even unhitch and leave the rv in overflow Saturday for next day check-in as long as you get a parking pass from the front desk.

As an old dancemom who's planned more than a few of these type trips, and a long-time TA, that's usually how it's done on youth trips for dance/band/chorus/sports. Magic Music Days, Festival Disney, the now defunct Grad nights, and the regular youth education programs are usually run thru one branch or another of wdw group sales, and packaged by a travel agency specializing in groups or youth travel. It makes perfect sense when you consider that these are not normal tickets and often rooms are shared by up to 4 students/chaperones. Plus there's the added expenses in many cases of renting a p

Save your coke codes! Mycokerewards offers Disney GCs occassionally. They also have AMC movie tickets you could use at DTD. I enter points throughout the year but usually only redeem after Thanksgiving when they do their big GC promotion unless I see they have the Disney GCs back up or a free theme park ticket. The pre-Christmas GC promo is terrific. I got over $200 in walmart, McDonalds, AMC, Best Buy, & Dominoes last December with coke points. Enter your Disney movie codes too - both from movie tickets and dvds. Occasionally Disney movie rewards will also offer a Disney GC but those te

lol that's what you think. Give me half a chance. :clint: Now about the marathon purses. You are buying one for dramamama at each race, right? One must have their priorities straight after all...

lol, this is coming from a guy who's met more of us than most. I'd believe him if I were you. If you see me running, you'd better run too because something really big & nasty is chasing me... either that, or they just opened the Disney Dooney marathon purse sales! :holysheep: I suspect you missed the point. Think of those limited edition marathon purses!! :stars-shower-smiley: you mean as they pass Uptown Jewelers and see the Disney dooney & bourke purses right?? :smug: did I mention there are limited edition DD&B purses for three of the marathons? :dogsnicker:

What a sad, tragic way to end a vacation - both for the woman in the car and her family, and for the people on the bus. I've said prayers for everyone involved, including the ME driver. Even when we fly, I try to avoid ME whenever possible for the return trip. I don't have a problem from the airport but the return trips are never anything even remotely approaching magical in my book. Each time, it seems like they stop at too many resorts, where they sometimes have to wait for people who aren't organized, didn't get there beforehand, or take forever with their luggage. The pressure to get peo

every time we've done it, there have been parents, and even a few friends like us, allowed in with the participants. Only the participants get in the water but the family could go along to watch. There wasn't an extra charge for spectators. I'd think with minors especially, they'd require an adult to be present somewhere in the park. DH still talks about how he spent an entire morning with the guy in charge of the wave machine hearing all about the mechanics of how the waves were made instead of watching his son surf. He loves all that mechanical talk so that really made his week. We alway

I meant the lot in the middle, next to the Planet Hollywood bus stop where it was all blocked off? in between movies/Splitsville and WODS/MP parking lots

and those waiting crowds eager to board the bus while the ecv is being loaded can make it even worse. DH didn't do a single park in the 5 weeks we were there b/c he didn't want to deal with the ecv on the busses and boats... and that was without even considering the chanting, obnoxious flag people who'd block passage or fall into him once inside the park gates. I'm so glad we stay at the fort now where he can use the GC to freely enjoy the comforts of the fort instead.

aha! Mystery solved... it looked like a bus parking lot or maybe remedial driver magic training. Are you saying they'd mess with hundreds of families driven by cranky dads who don't want to shop anyway every day in order to do something for a resort that hasn't even started yet? why that's downright magical...

the tow trucks for the busses aren't nearly as cool to watch either but at least I can choose whether to hang around - literally in the case of the monorail - and watch them or go on about my way... then again, I've never had to sit thru a waterpark detour and be dripped on by grumpy, wet, questionably (and often laughably) clad people after leaving a park with a lever puller at the wheel...

I've been out of the loop - not to mention being told to sit down & shut up by some joker of a bus driver - but why have they blocked off that huge area of parking at dtd and created such a mess?? I suspect it must have something to do with you bus drivers, as the lever pullers couldn't keep their vehicles running long enough to get there even if there were enough track...

lol that's exactly what I was thinking. Sadly, after this last trip, I may have to **gulp** join Lou's monorail anonymous meetings. Seemed like each day we were over there, there was some sort of breakdown. Disney is still selling it as an amenity so they need to work at resolving the maintenance issues.

Good point. Since DS was older I never gave the trip back up a thought. I've never seen a parent do that before. Kudos to you for being a terrific dad! One thing's for sure, there's no way I'm carting one for the smallest princess either. On the plus side, it is a really light board in comparison to the ones that live in my garage...

:naughtywave:hehehe :poke2: :lmao1: priceless! :rotfl6:

DS35 did it during the soft opening with two other guys and five CMs when they first started offering it many years ago. Not sure exactly but I know that was probably 15 years ago. They had Ron Jon instructors come in to do the lessons in the beginning but I think I heard something in their arrangement has changed since. In any case, it's always been a must-do since if he's with us - and it's always been a good time. One of the few extra tours that I can honestly say is more than worth the cost. TL is often privately rented for world class surfing competitions to be held there b/c they can ens

Minor tweaking going on. We need to hit BOG to look around (not to eat) before 2:30. You know us lazy-butt fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants tourists are a spreadsheet lover's worst nightmare. Not saying we'd follow it but if anyone wants to suggest a plan of attack, taking into account our relaxed slow moving style, we always enjoy suggestions. And to any naysayers - We're not indecisive, we're flexible... well, that's my story at any rate and I'm sticking to it.

We will take pookie for photo evidence. He's getting tired of hanging out on the bed anyway...

No doubt the WW could make it fun. I figure most fiends could have done it better. After watching the vid Starla and I doubted some of their MK morning times but we figured they seemed miserable enough by the end of the night that it doesn't matter if they fudged a few morning times...

Tomorrow is our target day to give this a shot. We'll begin the day 8am at AK, then grab either DS or Epcot, then the other park and close MK at 11. DH will drop us off at AK but we're thinking we'll use Disney transport for the rest to make up for using our red card. It's our last park day so plans could change if my cousin who's at the Poly this week decides to meet us for the day or if it stops being fun. LOL we've been taking about it all week but can't manage to get out before noon. Guess this means we should get out of the hot tub before 1 am tonight...