2017 "must do" rides

There is nothing worse than finishing a Disney vacation and someone is disappointed because they didn't get to do something they were really looking forward to doing. Sometimes in all the excitement and running around, individuals get lost and forget about that one special thing until it is too late.

We developed a strategy to avoid that disappointment. At dinner time we take one park and review the rides each person wants to do. This gives everyone a chance to talk about what they like and do not like.

This is our 2017 "must do" rides:

Magic Kingdom	Epcot	Hollywood	Animal
Railroad	Spaceship Earth	Great movie ride	Lion King
Aladdin	Test Track	India Jones	Tough to be a bug
Jungle Cruise	The Seas with Nemo & Friends	Star Tours	Kilimanjaro Safaris
Pirates of Caribbean	Imagination	Muppet Vision 3D	Finding Nemo
Haunted Mansion	Mexico	Anything Star Wars	Avatar
It’s a small world	Norway	Toy Story Midway Mania
Peter Pan’s Flight	Captain EO (if available)	Voyage of Little Mermaid
Philhar Magic		Beauty and Beast
Carrousel		Street Performers
Winnie Pooh
Dumbo
Mad Tea Party
Snow White
Indy Speedway
Tomorrow land Transit Authority
Buzz Lightyear
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
Carousel of Progress
Shooting Range
Tom Sawyer Boat
Pirate Map Tour
Mystery Card Game

2017 Grocery List

It happens every year: we arrive to the Florida villa after several long days of driving and there are a million things to do. We are exhausted and want to relax. The last thing we want to do is go to the crazy Walmart on Rt. 27. To make the grocery trip quick and efficient (and to make sure we don't have to return in a day or two to get something we forgot) the family meets to create our grocery list. We look at what we purchased in the previous years, what we did and did not use, what we plan to bring with us, and what changes we would like to make.

I am proud to announce the 2017 Grocery list is finished! I share this with you so that you can benefit from our efforts by considering a similar activity for your trip.

====DAIRY====	====CANDY====	====BEVERAGE====	====PRODUCE====
Bologna	Werthers x2	Soda 2l x3	Angle food cake
Butter	.	TeaPalmer	berries
cinnamon rolls x2	====BAKING====	Water case x5	Apple Slices?
Cheese Slice	Coffee sugar	Water Gallon x3 and Distilled	Bananas
Coffee Creamer	PAM spray	Crystal Light Indv	Fruit Bowl
Cookie Dough	Taco Seasoning	FG Juice Boxes	Salad x2
Dip x2		diet Coke 6p	====MEAT====
Eggs	====BAKERY====	Gatorade 32oz x4	Hamburger
Hotdogs turkey	Bread	Lemonade	====MISC====
Milk	Donuts x4	.	DVD R
Pepperoni	HamBuns x2	====PAPER====	Shampoo
Shrd chz Fietsax2	Swiss Rolls	Coffee Filter
Shrd Chz Mozzx2	BrownieWalmrt	Napkins	====GROCERY====
Sour Cream light	Brownie Bites	Paper Towels	Coffee
Tortillas/wraps		Tissues big&small	Apple Sauce
Turkey Bacon	====BREAKFAST====	Toilet Paper	Cranberry Juice
whip cream	Cereal	Coffee Cup & lids	Crancherry
Yogurtx10	Maple syrup	Ziplocks Giant	Fortune Cookie
.	Pancake Mix	Kitch Trash Bags	Hershey syrup
====FROZEN====	Poptarts x5		Mac&Cheese Cups x3
Break Sand x2	====CHIPS====	====SOAP====	Mini Rav x2
Chicken Patties	Corn Chips x2	Finish	Pizza sauce x2
Frozen Pizza	potato chips x2	Tide	Pudding x6
ice cream	Pretzels	Bathroom Spray?
ice cream Sand	Salsa	bathroom cleaner	====CONDIMENTS====
Popsicles	====CRACKERS====	Bounce	Ketchup
smiles x2	Cheezits	Palmolive	Mustard
Waffles	Cookies	Shout Color Catch	Salad Dressing
Sundae cones	Teddy Grams		.

Selecting the 2017 Villa

The purpose of our long stays in Florida is to get a feel for what it might be like to live there some day. We visit various towns and neighborhoods to understand where we might like to live.

People who have made the move complain about tourists and traffic. I have to admit that getting behind a slow moving car, someone who doesn't know where they are going, or standing in incredibly long lines does get frustrating after a while. The suggestion most people make is to live a further away from Disney. Live far enough away where the tourists won't be a problem, but don't live so far away that going to Disney becomes a major adventure.

We decided to embrace this advice as part of our research into relocating to Disney. We selected two locations that are further away from Disney than we have ever stayed before.

Our first villa is a house near Champion's Gate in Davenport at a place called Solana. The community is a 15 mile drive that, traffic depending, will take 30 minutes to get onto Disney.

The second villa is a condo near Melbourne Beach. This 81 mile drive could take 90 minutes to get to Disney. The benefit of this second location would be a combination of beach life and Disney life.

Join us on this adventure as we continue to explore relocating to Disney.

2017 Trip to Disney: The To Do list

I haven't posted anything about our 2017 Disney trip because life has been CRAZY busy. I don't know how we cram 25 hours into a day, but it happens and there still isn't time to blog.

This is going to be our longest trip ever at 7.5 weeks. We have done 4 weeks and 5 weeks but never 7.5 weeks.

Planning for such an activity started back in January.  How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. There are many things that have to get done before we leave, so, I list everything out and assign different tasks to get completed every week. Somethings are for the Disney trip, somethings are just activities we have to get done.

The great thing about this list is that it is reusable year after year. There are a few things that change from one year to the next, but, for the most part - it is all the same!

Here is a short list of activities to perform before a Disney trip

- Research villas

-Rent a villa

- Plan the drive

- Buy Trading Pins online

- Plan our day trip to see friends in Florida

- Plan a day at Universal Studios

- Plan a day trip to go to a beach

- Plan what groceries we will be buying

- What rides do we want to ride: Magic Kingdom

Get Travel insurance

- Disney Restaurant Reservations

Make final villa payment

- Get the park schedules (open, close, parades, etc)

- What rides do we want to ride: Epcot

- Clothes shop for trip

- Plan a day-by-day, park-by-park plan for the Family Vacation Trip Guide Book

- What rides do we want to ride: Hollywood Studios

-Submit time off at work

- Water shoes: clean up or buy new?

- What rides do we want to ride: Animal Kingdom

- Buy video games for the drive

- Check our Disney card reward points

- Print the packing list

- Decide what DVDs we will take with us

- Pick a book for the trip

Final numbers to Caterer

-Prepare laptop to take

- Get a TripTik from AAA

- Decide what towns we would like to visit.

- Plan the morning checklist for the Family Vacation Trip Guide Book

- Hair cuts for everyone

- Refill all prescriptions

- Van oil change and checkup

- Check the weather for July

- new windshield wipers for van

- Buy snacks for the drive down

- Tell credit cards about our travel dates

- Reserve Hotels for drive down and back

- Pack, pack, and more packing!

- Backup and empty all of the cameras

- Kids clean out the van

- Grocery shop for the groceries we want to take to Florida

-Pay bills and/or take wth us. Take extra checks

- Charge all batteries (camera, laptops, games, rechargers)