The van is ready to go!

The vehicle should be serviced before every trip to Florida to make sure it is OK for the journey.

After spending $140 last week to get my car's heater fixed, it was the car's turn. Normal service, air filter, leaking power steering, replace the transaxle, and a bad tire pressure sensor causing a valve stem to leak, I left the garage $550 poorer.

At least I feel good that the van should deliver us safely to Florida and get us home.

Annual Pass Holder

Something that is helping our Christmas trip to Disney to be cheap? We are annual pass holders.

The only way we could have afforded to visit Disney over the summer for five weeks was to buy the annual pass. That means we get into Disney this winter for F R E E ! Well... Technically it isn't free, but it feels free!

Pre-trip checklist

A successful trip to Disney requires three things: planning, planning, and planning. Here is a checklist that I used in the past. I hope it gives you some ideas:

T minus 14 weeks

Money diet. We need to save as much as we can for this trip!

T Minus 13 weeks

 Buy trading pins online

T Minus 12 weeks

Disney Restaurant Reservations

T Minus 11 weeks

Plan the drive home 

 reservations for drive home

T Minus 10 weeks

Plan any day trips outside of Disney

T Minus 9 weeks

Plan a day trip to go to a beach

Research Fast Pass Plus bands

T Minus 8 weeks

Plan what groceries we will be buying

Plan the morning checklist to get us up and out each day

 What rides do we want to ride: Magic Kingdom

T Minus 7 weeks

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

What rides do we want to ride: Epcot

T Minus 6 weeks

Plan a day-by-day, park-by-park plan for the Itinerary 

What rides do we want to ride: Hollywood Studios

T Minus 5 weeks

Clothes shopping

Water shoes: clean up or buy new?

What rides do we want to ride: Animal Kingdom

T Minus 4 weeks

Backup and empty all of the cameras

Buy video games for the drive

 Get a TripTik from AAA

Our shoes OK? Or order new?

T Minus 3 weeks

Check our Disney card reward points

Print the packing list 

 Print the itinerary 

Decide what DVDs we will take with us

T Minus 2 weeks

Hair cuts for everyone

Refill all prescriptions

Van oil change and checkup

Check the weather for the trip

Buy snacks for the drive down

T Minus 1 week

 Pack, pack, and more packing!

What Happened To The Relocated Tourist?

I was a fan of Amy Petterman's Relocated Tourist Blog for years! Amy became a celebrity to many Disney fans as she chronicled her family's transition from Michigan to living at Disney. She originally blogged under an alias (Carl and Ellie Peters, I believe) but it wasn't log before everyone knew Amy!

After her move, she helped many people realize their dreams by giving advice for their own moves. She was an inspirational hope to many. She blogged, appeared on podcasts, and did meet and greets in the park.

Then in early 2014 there was talk of a book. A Relocated Tourist book!

In preparation for the book, I assume, all aspects of The Relocated Tourist came off the internet: the blog, tweats, facebook, and even the app stopped functioning.

The book never came out. Amy has disappeared from the social networking. The last word I heard from her was in fall of 2014 when she told me that moving to Disney is not all the it is cracked up to be.

I believe Amy's interests are taking her life in new directions. She has left many loving fans missing her stories. We all hope she returns to us someday.

Count Down: 9 days

I can't believe that in nine days I will drive a loaded van to Florida! There is so much that needs to get done. Usually just getting ready for Christmas is enough work. But now are preparing for an early Christmas next weekend and getting ready for the Disney trip at the same time!

We are renting a condo this year instead of a villa (house). The property managers have a funny rule: they want us to fill out a form and write our credit card number on it so that if we cause any damage, they can charge us up to $300. Usually, most people would have us pay the $300 and then they refund it if there is no damage. The problem we have with the condo's arrangement is that we don't want our credit card information sitting on some piece of paper at the property management office for an unknown length of time!

To solve that problem, we have requested that they accept a check. If not, we will get an America Express gift card with $300 on it and submit that. In the end, they will not get our credit card!

I have heard the crowds at Disney are very bad, so, I have lowered my expectations. I understand we might not get into the Magic Kingdom if the part closes due to capacity. Therefore, we will hit the Magic Kingdom every day until we can get in! For the first day, we are going to hit in the afternoon with the hope that part of the morning rush might have left allowing us to get in.

Also, setting my expectations correctly, I am not expecting to ride any rides. If we can - great! I would love to ride the Christmas version of the Jungle Cruise! However, I am setting my expectations to just be happy to be at Disney during Christmas and to enjoy the decorations.

Our last several trips to Disney have been long stays to explore what living at Disney might be like. While we are still staying outside of Disney World (staying in the West Gate area of Kissimee), this is going to be a vacation. I'm not setting up an office to do work. We aren't staying for 5 weeks. We are here for one purpose: see the Christmas Decorations at Disney World. Nevertheless, I am interested to see how our family fits into a condo versus a villa. Under a temporary move or vacation home could a villa be an option?

It snowed this week. I am looking forward to leaving the cold weather behind and getting some sunshine!

Christmas 2014 Itinerary

The plans are settled! We'll have an early Christmas in New York and then drive to Florida two two days.

Then six nights in Kissimmee, just minutes from Disney. That will allow us to see the Disney World Christmas decorations.

Then we head to Ft Lauderdale for four nights to stay at a resort and visit the beach.

On New Year's Day, we go to Melbourne Beach to have dinner with friends.

Then we take a detour an go to West Monroe, Louisiana, home to Duck Dynasty. We'll spend a day touring the locations shown on the TV show.

Then we head North to go home. 

Merry Disney Christmas!

Merry Disney Christmas!