Geaux Tigers!

Hubs and I both went to LSU. We loved, lived, and breathed LSU. Our babies’ birth announcements were both LSU themed.

We brought 9 as an infant to a tailgate party. I was still breastfeeding at that time and had to escape to my car to pump. It was sheer misery. It was so much Hell that we never took them back.

Until this weekend. You know… for the Tennessee game that ended in one of the most effed up victories I’ve ever seen or heard of. Yeah. THAT game :-)

I called my sister and she met us in Baton Rouge. It was awesome to see her. I’m sure my girls chatted her ear off and probably even scared her a little. My kids are… insane exuberant. A bonus to having your sister meet you? You get to be in pictures :-)

      

         

Boy did they have an awesome time. The look on 9s face when the Golden Girls marched down the hill… Priceless. 6 got so crazy and into it that she yelled “Tiger Bait!” & “Peace out! Tennessee!” at some of the Tennessee fans… Sorry folks… We didn’t teach her that one… 

    

And because my sister is a genius at coming up with clever pics we got THIS shot…

What a weekend. We are still trying to recover. It was so amazing to have our girls walk around campus with us and have them actually enjoy being there. At one point we realized that there’s a good chance both of the girls will be there for a couple of years together… in that crowd… as students… I nearly got teary until one coed sloshed up next to us and told us how cute the little Tigers were through liquored up breath. That’s just NOT something this Momma is ready to think about… Especially with THIS one…

Yeah. She’s a lil crazy. She’ll need a very VERY short leash.

Mainland Mexico

Back to the vacation shots…

Our last port of call was Cozumel. Because Hubs just LOVES historical crap we decided to go to the Mayan ruins of Tullum over on the mainland. This was the only Mayan city ever built on the water, so it had these amazing beaches below the cliffs. They reminded me of that Leo movie The Beach.

Ok, so call it an ADD moment, or whatever, but this place smacked of our visit to Pompeii where I had to practically drag his ass away from square rocks. Don’t get me wrong. I usually like this stuff too… until I’m done taking the pictures I want, THEN I’m ready to move on to the next fun thing. That’s what I get for marrying an intellectual.

Anywho, the place was neat, and I got some good shots. The theme of the day was “spot the iguana” because they were simply EVERYWHERE!

I felt so artistic and quirky taking this wonky crooked shot :-)

Now check this out… this was actually cool. See the corner of this temple? It’s a friggin FACE! One corner had a smilie face, they other had a sad face!

This is the same temple shot at a profile that I’m blowing up to go with our travel “gallery” in the hallway upstairs… Cool, no?

To no surprise to myself… I have a very similar shot from Pompeii… ;-)

This is the main temple that most people associate with Tullum. You used to be able to climb those steps, but a couple of years ago they stopped letting people go up.

And there you go. That’s my summer vacation. Quick. Easy. Relaxing. It was also probably the last time we’ll get to go someplace really cool without our kids… they are old enough now and they were sort of peeved they missed this cruise, but it was sure nice to get away and be with sister and Hubs. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Grand Caymen

By far, my favorite place to visit on the cruise was Grand Caymen. WHAT a beautiful place. I seriously wish we would have had more time here. There’s the biggest problem I find with cruises… when you find a place you can stay in, you’ve gotta hop back onto the ship.

Because of reef protection, you have to take a tender boat to the actual dock. Walk straight through to the street and you can hop a van taxi for $4 each to 7-Mile beach. This beach is beautiful… and convenient. We stopped at the Royal Palms beach club and claimed a spot by the water. The RP has a bar, restaurant, jet skis, lounge chairs, umbrellas… anything you need to hang out for a while, they’ve got it. 

The locals are friendly too…

We booked an excursion to go to Stingray City and the Coral Gardens through Captain Marvin’s. Again, go through the dock, to the street… look left and across the street, you’ll see Captain Marvin’s.

The biggest thing you should know about this excursion is that STINGRAYS SKEEVE ME OUT!

Hubs was lucky to get smoochin after this… Disgusting!

But he was totally loving it… Massage by stingray anyone?

Excuse me while I {shiver}…

Coral Gardens snorkeling was for SURE more my speed than playing with face–sucking ray-stabbing stingrays…

        

I’ll be posting on how I took the underwater shots later… You’ll really think I’m smart then :-)

After our excursion, we had to race to grab shirts at Margaritaville and then get back in line to grab the tender boat to make it to the boat. There was LOADS of shopping right there by the dock. A guy Hubs knows even stopped into a place to buy a new duty free HUGE diamond to replace the one his wife lost out of her engagement ring. Duty free is GOOD people… Real good.

If I can finagle a way to get back to the Caymens for an extended period of time, you can bet good money I’ll do it. The place was beautiful and the people were super nice. If you have a chance, Go!

Yeah Mon!

Our first real stop on the cruise was Montego Bay, Jamaica. We read a lot of posts on Cruise Critic that scared us a bit about getting off the boat in Jamaica. We’ve been to Jamaica before, but it was 8 years ago and it was to an all-inclusive resort that we didn’t leave for a few days. There were several warnings on the CC message board about invasive searches on your return to the ship. Considering we had an 18 year old girl with us, we didn’t think it was a good idea to get off the ship there. Luckily after a few days at sea with some rain, we were bored and ready to get onto some land.

We booked an excursion through Carnival for the Irie Mon Beach Party. Basically, Carnival threw some dj’s and rum punch into a blender and said Yeah Mon! It was fun. Hubs caught a boat to go out snorkeling, while sister and I soaked up some rays. The key to getting a great spot on Irie Beach was to get up and get off the ship early. We were on the first bus out and had primo beach chairs. That first picture up there? The view from my chair. NICE.

Sister had a good time playing on this big jumbo floaty trampoline thing they had anchored off the beach…

Mostly, while they snorkeled and jumped around, I read my Kindle and enjoyed the breeze and rum punch. They had lunch included for us… which usually scares me… but this was pretty good. Burgers & hot dogs, jerk chicken & pork, and all the fixins. The open bar was mostly beer, mixers and rum punch. The DJs were pretty good about including everyone. They had sand castle building contests and dance lessons for the smaller kids… and Red Stripe beer chugging contests and beach volleyball for the grown-ups. There was even a photographer there taking pictures for you.  I think there was enough to do here to cover a wide age range. The smaller kids really enjoyed the ocean. Us older kids really enjoyed doing NOTHING.

Hubs even found this place right next door…

The best part? NO INVASIVE SEARCHES. Hubs just had to lift his cap up off his head. We went through security with no problems, mon!

Cruisin…

Hey guys! We just got back from a trip to the Caribbean! I was in such HUGE need of a vacation away from my children… you have NO IDEA. Well, unless you are my mother, who kept said children for a week and a half. Ever since we’ve had kids, Hubs and I have tried to make a point of ditching them and going on vacation at least every year or so. Even if it is just a weekend in The Quarter.

This year, as a graduation gift to baby sister, we decided to take her on a cruise. It was going to be a “sister’s trip” but our big sister went and got herself knocked up and had a baby at the exact wrong time to be going on a cruise with us. (He’s a cute bugger, so I don’t think she’s too disappointed)

Since we live so close to Galveston, we booked the 7 day Western Caribbean cruise on Carnival’s Conquest ship. Unfortunately for us, we neglected to think about hurricane season… The first few days at sea were ROUGH… I’m 4 days off the ship and I’m still swaying people. I NEVER felt like this when we were on the Mediterranean cruise. NEVER.

I’ll show you some cool pics in my next few posts. Until then, can one of you grab me some Dramamine or something? Bleck…

Summer Fun!

Boy howdy! Have we been busy around here… but I have about 183 new posts coming, so keep an eye out.  One will be to let you know how I took that cool picture of my baby cooling off in the pool.

I’m getting ready to go on a lovely week long cruise on the Carnival Conquest. I’ve got a house sitter who was nice enough to take in our garbage cans, check our mail, and swim in our pool.

We’ll see y’all on the flip side!

Destination Disney 2.0- GPS your way around

The name of this post should be “I have balls of steel” because this new app required me to update my iPhone.  Seriously folks. Balls. Of. Steel. So after several minutes of near heart attack level anxiety, I made it through my update. Unlike Hubs, who crashed his and was without a cell phone for 2 weeks. Maybe the title could be “Are you smarter than an Engineer” instead…  Nah… even I wont go that far…

See how much I love you? and Disney? and my iPhone? I’ll jump through hoops! Hoops I tell ya!

This is the GPS app that I think you’ll really love me for suggesting.  The icon on the far right that says WDW Maps… Now I have 4 apps on my “dedicated to Disney” page :-)

This little beauty has ALL of the parks (including the water parks), Downtown Disney, and even Orlando International Airport!!!!! That’s why I think it’s worth the $3.99 purchase price.  Anything to get us in the right direction at that airport…

Here’s a sample shot of the map… This one shows one of our favorite attractions at the Magic Kingdom. Mickey’s Philharmagic! It’s number 22 on the map… you just tap, and it pulls up what is located in that spot… The blue arrow takes you to a detailed information page where you can even plan your trip down to the attraction priority! (Not that I’d ever be that controlling and obsessive while at Disney…) You can see in the upper center portion of the pic that it also locates restrooms that are nearby. And we all know how important THAT is! Restaurant locations are also lettered on the map, AND you can see a brief description of what is on the menu and how much it’s gonna cost you. Neat, huh?

 

So now you see why I was so nuts about updating ye ole phone… and why I wanted this app.  Anything to make life at Disney more simple and orderly is always high on my list.  You can find yourself bogged down in maps, lists, and balloons… So why not pare down to just your phone and have plenty more room in your hands for more Tinkerbell balloons! (Which were about $12 last time I checked, so be prepared…. just sayin’…)

Destination Disney 2.0 – Apps to make your life magical!

I’ve tweeted and mentioned how much I am in love with my iPhone. My friends think it’s welded permanently to my hand, and that I need a 12-step program to ease the separation.  However, with as annoying as I am with my phone, I’ve found some pretty fun little apps to make your Disney planning easier and give you valuable information at the touch of your fingertips.

I’ve snapped a couple of screen shots to show you some of the features of these apps… to take a screen shot, hold down your “home” button (the round one on the bottom) and then press the power button to “snap” your picture.  

Counting Down:

The one my girls like the best happens to be the most simple one.  It’s just a basic count-down app, but they like to look at it anyway. And yes, those 327 days are from today… I told you I wasn’t a nice mommy telling them about the trip so early. 

WDW Dining:

This is one of my favorite Disney apps… It shows restaurant locations at all of the parks, Downtown Disney, and the resorts.  Now, let me remind you that at most of the sit down restaurants, you’ll need to make seating arrangements ahead of time. This app can help you plan, and even has a direct button to the WDW Dining Reservations phone line. Once you’re at Disney, and are looking for a quick service spot to have lunch, you can pop on and locate a place to dine.  This app has menus and prices, all in an effort to help you plan your meals and schedules.

     

Another cool feature that I’m looking forward to using, once we hit that 180 day out mark, will be the Dining Schedule.  It holds your confirmation number (which I’ve only had to use a handful of times) and your meal date and time. You can even email your schedule once you’ve narrowed everything down.  Set up your schedule, email it to your travel partner (mine is my Hubs) and then they can have the schedule on their iPhone too! That way there’s no excuse to loose each other at lunch time :-)

WDW Times:

This little app basically takes the place of the paper times schedule available in the entrances of all the parks.  We stick that paper in a pocket or purse, and end up grabbing several during the day because we loose it a lot.  This app has the parade schedule, attraction updates, and opening and closing times for all of the parks.  Easy Peasy.

Wait Times:

The last app I want you to take a look at is the attraction (ride & show) Wait Time app.  This handy dandy little app will let you know if it’s worth the walk from Big Thunder Mountain to Buzz Lightyear.  If you do not have a Fast Pass for a ride or are waiting for your time to come up, this little jewel will help you save loads of time and lines.

By the way… doesn’t this screen shot make you want to be there, like right NOW… no waits!!! Ahhh… such is life…

I’ve also got a hankering to grab a GPS app with the Disney Park info built in.  Alas, that requires an iPhone update… which makes me skiddish, because when Hubs did it, he crashed his phone and was without one for 2 weeks… 2 WEEKS!!!!!! I just don’t know if it’s worth it…. We’ve been to the big D enough to know where most everything is without using a map… so we’ll see if I actually get the app I’m looking at. :-/

 

Destination Disney 2.0 – The BIG tip…

Remember these posts?

Guess what time it is???

You got it! It’s time for another trip to Disney!!! Yahoo! Yippee! Woo Hoo! wait… don’t get your panties in a twist… You’ve got 11 months before the actual trip.

That was pretty much how the conversation went with my girls when we told them that it was time to plan our next trip.  Trust me, they were WAY more disappointed than you are about waiting :-) I’m a mean momma that way, because 1/2 the fun of going to Disney is the planning.  At least, for me it is.

This year, I have a tip so BIG, so GRAND, so stinkin’ FABULOUS that you are going to want to Tweet to the world about it.  Wanna know how to save 44% off of your hotel room? Maybe more, Maybe less? Depends on when you are going and where you are staying, but that’s how much I just saved on our room at Wilderness Lodge for Christmas this year.  Lemme explain…

 We decided long ago that having Christmas at Disney would be one of the ultimate trips to take our kids on… we waited until they were “old enough”… translate as- they are old enough to understand being somewhere on vacation during the holidays and all that will entail…

Hubs decided this year would be a good year for it because Abby will be 9 (yikes) and Jillian will be 6 1/2 (double yikes). 

As soon as he said “OK” I started planning… Where to stay, when to go, how long to stay, what to do???  We nailed down his vacation days and were able to squeeze out 9 days of time. 

I started plugging away at WaltDisneyWorld.com and was not loving the holiday prices of the Deluxe hotel rooms… People, with 2 adults nearing the 6 foot mark, and  2 girls who wrestle for covers, the Moderate and Value resorts have LONG been off our radar… We NEED the queen size beds.  I even *gasp* started looking at off-property hotels trying to save some dough… That nonsense quickly went away though… I love being in the Magic.  And during Christmas, there’s no better place than a Deluxe on-property resort. 

Giant gingerbread house at The Grand Floridian

Generally, Wilderness Lodge is the least expensive of the Deluxe category resorts (and happens to be our favorite).  However, at Christmas, they are all overpriced.  I started poking around the trusty Mousesavers.com.

Totum pole at The Wilderness Lodge

You know those signs they have advertising “The best kept secret at Disney” for the Disney Vacation Club timeshares? Guess what? That’s NOT the best kept secret…

The best kept secret at Disney, is that the owners of said vacation club points RENT OUT THEIR POINTS!!!!!!! I located MouseOwners.com , browsed around and found Barb. Barb is my newest best friend. Barb saved me $1600 on a room.  I’m renting 155 of Barb’s points to get into a Studio (same size as a standard room) at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge.  I may just be in love with Barb.

Disclaimer: It was very easy to locate someone willing to rent points. It’s not so easy to trust a stranger with your vacation $$$, so before you ship someone money to rent their points, ask for references, actually check the references, and do a little bit of investigation to see if you are comfortable with the person you will be renting points from. 

Barb made my reservation this morning and sent me the confirmation number and the name of the Member Services person she talked to.  Within a week or so, she will be sending me the paper confirmation.  Did I mention I love Barb?

So there you have it. The BIG tip. I’ve got several more posts, so keep your eye out.  Destination Disney 2.0 is well underway!

   Thanksgiving week decorations 2005

Destination Disney

Woooaaaa.... go away for a week and I get 4 new followers! Hi guys!

Now that I've gotten all of the vacation laundry taken care of... and while I'm trying to NOT finish putting away all of the rest of the junk we packed and bought, I thought I'd give you a bit of an overview of how the trip to the Big D went... That's Disney, not Dallas. ;-)

Our flight was wonderfully overbooked, but Jillian did well with her first flight. Except that she kept asking where the penguins and "sapengies" aka chimpanzees were... apparently we've let her see too much Madagascar. And in her lovely "I'm a 5 year old and I talk too much" way, kept asking the attendants when we were going to crash. I'm surprised we didn't get kicked off the plane. The girl was in RARE form.

We stayed at the Contemporary on the Monorail. I was so super excited. We've stayed at some of the non-monorail deluxe resorts before, but this was different. And MUCH more expensive... so I was practically giddy with anticipation by the time the Magical Express bus got us to the hotel. So when we checked into our "refurbished" room (they aren't done with all of the rooms yet) I *gasped* out loud. Folks, this is definately a "lesson learned" moment for me.

As far as Disney goes, More Money does NOT equal Better Room. Yes, it was a little bigger (because there were no dresser drawers). Yes, the bedding was nicer than the themed bedspreads that we've had. and YES, the walkway to the Magic Kingdom was really nice. That's where my praise ends I'm afraid. It was pretty dark in the room, even with the curtains opened. So when I went to turn on the lights I found that 3 of the main light bulbs were blown. Then I reached for the floor lamp. It was broken and the bulb blown too. The bathrooms were ok, but fancy flat sinks (that didn't drain well) and new wallpaper (which is already peeling) do not make a bathroom fabulous. The separate toilet would have been a nice idea, if you could access it while someone was showering. Not to mention the doors... OH the DOORS... Folks, let me be blunt here... Sliding glass doors with an 1 1/2 inch gap at the bottom does NOTHING to muffle sound. And that's ALL I'll say about that.

I really hope that the rooms in the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian are 100 times better. However, we'll never know, because as far as bang for your buck goes, it'll be Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom lodge for us from now on. Those two... totally worth it.

We did a couple of new things that I have been sooo excited to tell you about.

1st and foremost. Toy Story Mania. It's the newest ride at Hollywood Studios. One of the cast members said it cost Disney $80 million to put in. It's possibly the best family ride in DisneyWorld. We'd heard it was hard to get into, so as soon as we got through the gate (30 min after park open) I sent Levi running to grab our fast passes. FOLKS, the fastpass line took 20 minutes!!!! By 10:30 they had sold out of all of the fastpasses for the day. One Hour and Thirty Minutes from park opening. The regular wait line never fell below 180 minutes . Lucky for us, something technical happened while we were riding, so we got to ride two times in a row. That's the ONLY time you'll ever hear me thankful for a ride malfunction! LOL It was super fun and in 3-D... you use a little canon popper to play carnival games... The girls had a total blast.

And FINALLY! Someone wised up and made The WorldShowcase at EPCOT fun for kids!!! We've always enjoyed the performers there... but you can only stand and watch Chinese acrobats for so long. Now they have the Kim Possible interactive game. You go to the little stations set throughout the park, pick up your cell phone "communicator" and mission and off exploring you go! You're guided to different parts in a "country" and follow the clues around until you solve your mission. Along the way, your communicator interacts with different things on and in the buildings... Our mission was in Germany, so we had coo coo clocks to watch for, singing steins, and a fun end surprise to keep us entertained. The girls LOVED it.

Abby ended up with an awful cold, so Thurs. and Fri. Levi and I split up time with Jillian so that she had something to do while Abby was stuck in bed. For a Daddy who rarely takes the girls out without me for very long, he did really well.

All in all we had a great time. We covered most of our favorites, and enjoyed the new surprises. We'll go again next year, I'm sure. But for now, I'm Disney'd out. If you have any questions about your own upcoming trip, please feel free to email me. Planning is 1/2 the fun! I'll post pics as soon as I locate my camera in all of this luggage mess!

Destination Disney Part 2

O'hana Character Breakfast

This is the 2nd posting on my Disney Tips. (See Part 1)

So you have figured out the best hotel for your family (and budget). If you've chosen an on-property resort, your next decision will be your ticket type. Many factors will play a part in which ticket you choose... and as with ANYTHING Disney, you'll have several options to choose from. Decide if you intend to go off property to that OTHER theme park in Orlando. If you are, then you may or may not want to get Disney passes for those days. Decide if you will want to go to one of the water parks too. Because my girls have been younger and not the strongest of swimmers, we haven't been to the water parks. The option we ALWAYS choose is the Park Hopper option. This will allow you to have breakfast with Cinderella and a late night at the Fantasmic! show at Hollywood Studios. Also, Animal Kingdom generally closes much earlier than the other parks. You can go there for the day, leave to eat dinner, and then have a wonderful night at another park. A couple of my friends and I have debated another option... When you get above 5 or 6 days the cost to add additional days becomes shocking... shocking as in CHEAP. You can buy up to 10 days and then choose the No Expire option and have your tickets for pennies ready for your next trip! This works especially well if you are psycho about Disney like we are. We know we'll be there at least once every year or so, and we've saved 100's of dollars by doing this.


Mad Hatter Tea Party... look in the back... Yep! that's the Mad Hatter and Alice!

One of our favorite vacation options wasn't available when we first started taking the girls to Disney. The Dining Plan.



I put people into 2 categories when it comes to dining advice. Are you comfortable and perfectly happy eating a quick burger/hot dog/chicken strip etc. and getting on with the business of Disney? Does taking your child to a restaurant normally mean taking them to some place like Chili's or the like? Then the dining plan may not work to your favor.


Abby's favorite place, Coral Reef in EPCOT. She loves the lobster bisque.


However, if you like to sit and relax at a quiet dinner, and your children are used to a longer meal in a restaurant, then go for it. Here's our favorite example of why the Dining Plan works for us. Picture your family of 4 eating in a nice steak restaurant. You order the normal appetizer, salads, steaks (or whatever), and maybe a couple of deserts. You also order a bottle of wine. Then picture your lovely waiter bringing your bill. We've personally had a bill from Jiko that hit upwards of $250 for our family of 4, and that was with Abby eating mac and cheese. Surprisingly enough, we've had this scenario happen several times at O'hana, Le Cellier, and other nicer places too. Now picture you and your family stopping for lunch and getting a hot dog, fries, and drink (We always have to go to Casey's Corner). And you realize you will be paying over $30 for hotdogs. Nice. IN COMES THE DINING PLAN... If you like to have that break from the hustle and bustle at dinner, and prefer a nice sit down restaurant - GET THE DINING PLAN. It covers character meals, wonderful restaurants, and even a snack and another counter-style meal during the day. (some places require 2 points for the meal like Jiko and Cinderellas Royal Table) We like to hit the parks early in the morning after breakfast at the hotel, then work our way through lunch and early afternoon. Then around 3 or 4pm, we'll go back to our room, rest/nap, freshen up for dinner, go to dinner and then go back out to the parks for the nighttime festivities. It keeps our kids (and mom) sane when 9pm hits, and gives us some quiet vacation time together.


Disney ice cream sandwich bars do not rot your teeth...

And to answer your question of "Is it really worth the $$$?", my spreadsheet and number obsessed husband would answer a resounding YES. Trust me folks, it's worth the money.


Tuckered out with Lady...