Disneyland 2019 - the 4th 5th bday celebration: PTR

Budgety stuff for people who are interested in numbers:

Initial rough budget was 10k. Ticket promo has helped keep costs down, so we are looking about like this:
5500: lodging & tickets (5 bedroom rental house, 4 day discount hoppers + MP at the $10 rate purchased online)
2500: food (this includes all the foods from travel snacks to character meals to vacation packages)
1500: souvenirs (this includes the BBB makeovers)
400: fuel

I was able to add the BBB and an extra character meal because of the promo deal, which was nice. If we'd been able to book earlier/known exactly how many people we would have, I probably could have gotten a better deal for lodging, but it is still within budget. It is so crazy though - our first trip, I'm pretty sure our entire spend was 5500, and that included airfare!
 
If you stop in Tucson for dinner, at the Cortaro Rd exit off of I-10, there are a lot of various restaurants on the west side of the freeway. In the Walmart supercenter shopping center off of that exit is one of THE best ice cream shops around. It's called the Screamery. They just sell ice cream. It's counter service and they have 3 tables outside where you can sit and enjoy the yummy goodness.

In the Phoenix area, the Ray Rd exit has a LOT of restaurants on both sides of I-10...both table service and counter service. There's a Rubio's (really good fish tacos, counter service, reasonable prices) just west of the freeway at that exit. And east of that exit is an In-and-Out Burger. AND a Habit Burger, too!
 
... And east of that exit is an In-and-Out Burger. AND a Habit Burger, too!
And if you need In'N'Out close to the parks (on the budget theme, this is one of the MOST budget friendly dinners in the DLR area), the closest location is at the intersection of Ball Rd. and State College, about 5 minutes NE of the parks. (And there is a WalMart supermarket right behind it, so you could pick up a few groceries after dinner if you need anything.)
If you try the Habit and like it, there is a Habit food truck in DTD! It is located on the far west end between Starbucks West and the empty AMC building. There are tables where the AMC ticket booth used to be.
 


Here for your trip!! Instead of scrapbooking, maybe look into doing a photo book with all the pictures you take?

Welcome to the crazy :) And yes - I think a photo book is going to work much better for me. I figure if I want any of the journal pages I can just scan them in and include them that way!

It is getting real now - our first day in park is on the 14 day forecast!! I cannot wait!
 
I think I might blow my souvenir budget. I just spent $50 on car decals so I can decorate our passenger van and surprise the kids when I pick them up from school. It has been a mega prime/amazon week for me - but I can justify the other items as not necessarily just for Disney (rain gear is always useful, right? plus who doesn't need an instant camera?). I still have time to throw together some matching shirts, possibly order a couple princess accessories for the kiddos, maybe some new jammies, but the biggest expense left pre-trip is printing out those journals. If I print and slice myself, and 3 hole punch, it'll be cheaper but I am not sure I have the time left (got a 3 day business trip plus quite a bit of cleaning left to do), and really I have kind of talked myself into spiral binding as THE way to go, which means having a store like Fedex/Office Depot/Staples print it, or buying one of those punching machines myself. And I'd originally planned on half sheet size pages, but in looking at the printing options, full sheet seems like less hassle. Oh the choices - if I think I might do more stuff like this, it would actually make sense to buy the punching machine.

Overall, I'm disappointed with myself for not having more cleaning done (and more so that some of the stuff I had previously done got undone - I'm looking at you, dressup/camping/swim stuff closet and nursery toy shelves), and for not getting something figured out for matching shirts, but pretty happy with the plan and the pre-work that I have done.

10 days until we leave for Disney, 13 days until we are in Disneyland. I cannot wait!
 
I can't believe it's coming up so soon! I'm so excited for you!I keep spending money too. :-o Cute ribbon to customize our ears, a Minnie Mouse hat for the youngest that actually fits her, some toys that were on clearance at the Disney Outlet, blah blah blah... :)
 


Your in the single digits now!

Yep...I can relate to the Amazon buying. Usually not. But for some reason this time...yep. New iPhone cables, portable charger, rain shoe covers, inflatable pillow (for the wheelchair), locking pin backs.

Not sure about the spiral punch. I used one for work and they can be a pain. Really, three hole punching can be easier and MUCH less frustrating.
 
Only 3 more sleeps until we load up the van and start the journey and I haven't printed anything yet! Today is THE DAY. I WILL get those things printed, one way or the other.

DD11 finally picked out boots (she has been swinging WILDLY from pretty much hating on everything and everyone to being almost manic and clingy to me - fingers crossed she can enjoy the trip and allow the rest of us to enjoy it too!). So for rain gear, just waiting on her's to arrive on Thursday and I can get all of that packed. We've got shoe covers for DH and I, and rain boots for the kids. Two different brands of ponchos w/ arms bought in bulk from Amazon, and still thinking through what to do for the strollers - the rental has 2 double strollers, so we might not even bring our normal sit & stand, but I should have room for it so maybe I will. And maybe we'll just bring garbage bags to cover it - still thinking it through. Also bringing the raincoats that kids have - the littles have actual rain jackets, but the bigs only have winter coats, but I think that'll work out fine for them anyway.

Forecasts for next week are still all over the place - weather.com has mainly sunny and 60s; accuweather has it even warmer most of the time, but higher chance of rain on Monday (and this changed this morning because last night it had rain for a couple of days), and dark sky has it even hotter (last night it had it cooler AND higher chances of rain....). I'll be packing all the rain gear AND all our swim suits and beach gear. Good thing we aren't flying or I would be stressed about that too. Also good that we're taking a ridiculously large vehicle and I don't have to worry about luggage racks and/or luggage trailers.

Snacks have been acquired for the trip, but DD11 had an awesome idea 2 weeks ago about putting together decorated and personalized lunch sacks full of snacks for each kid. Since that initial idea, she's wanted to do it RIGHT NOW (usually at really inconvenient times, like the middle of making dinner, or when she is supposed to be doing homework), but then when we DID have good times (Sunday afternoon) she wanted nothing to do with it. Hopefully she'll get interested again, because putting the bags together with her could be a lot of fun after the littles go to bed, but if not that'll be on my list for Thursday evening/Friday morning.

Still need to firm up a few trip details surrounding visits with extended family, and we had an early arrival of the newest niece of our family in Austin, which is a stop on the way. I don't want to overwhelm them with our whole brood too early (little one will only be a week old when we go through town), so I'm not sure if our plans will change or not. Also - one BIL let me know he wasn't able to get all the time off, so he'll be joining us for the big drive but only 1 day in park. REALLY glad right now that a) Disney only let me get 8 tickets and once and b) I had procrastinated getting that 9th ticket and c) I put in everyone else's names. Other BIL has been having a bit of alcohol issues since his birthday, so I'm stressing over that, but DH has my back and worst case we put his butt on a plane home early. I don't think it will come to that - he REALLY loves the kids, I think he's just having some of his own stuff going on right now and will be good to go with the fam by Friday.

And the spending continued: school has book fair this week, so I let the kids pick out books today during a special breakfast at school + book fair event ($10 limit each doesn't go as far as it used to sadly), and as an added motivator, they can pick ANOTHER book out Thursday during the open house event after school if they have cleaned their rooms and packed their stuff for the trip.

But the biggest stresser now is my paying job. We've got a big sprint demo due on Thursday, and while I'm only halftime usually, I'm spending a lot of time on it. Fingers crossed testing today goes well and I can relax the rest of the week!
 
But the biggest stresser now is my paying job. We've got a big sprint demo due on Thursday, and while I'm only halftime usually, I'm spending a lot of time on it. Fingers crossed testing today goes well and I can relax the rest of the week!

Rest before a trip???!??!! haha.....

I know you can handle it!
 
Rest before a trip???!??!! haha.....

I know you can handle it!

Thanks for the faith :) DH has added 'fix up suburban that has been sitting in driveway for 6 months so we can give it to his brother Thursday night while dropping off bunny for house sitting' to our list of errands this week... And I thought *I* was the one most likely to decide to overload us. The thing is at Costco now getting 4 new tires. This weekend he spent tinkering with it instead of moving furniture that needed to be moved before our house guests arrive a couple days after our Disney trip (my sister's family is visiting us right after we get back from DL, which hopefully will help me get through the post Disney blues).
 
For local weather for Anaheim, try checking abc7.com -- that should give you a better idea of what's happening right there in Anaheim, by the parks.
 
So, so excited for you! I hate the last day or two before a trip when you're trying to get so much done! And we're also usually trying to get our house all cleaned up, with no laundry in the washer/dryer and no dishes int he sink, etc. No one like to come home to a mess, but it's a little ridiculous with 7 people.... I hope your 11-year-old has a good trip, and that everyone can have good attitudes!
 
We are on the road! 2 hours late, and despite all my efforts and mindfulness today I think I’ve yelled more in the last 4 hours than the previous three weeks. Baby unpacked faster than we could pack, even the big girls struggled and needed hands on help - just saying 2 pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shorts, etc was too much I had to review their choices and make a lot of corrections. Never did make it to the Disney store so if we do autograph books and whatnot we will have to buy it there.

And I skipped food, coffee and showering today to try to get stuff done.

But all of that stress melted away when I picked up the journals on our way out of town! This might be the most awesome thing I’ve ever done I’m thrilled with how they turned out.
 
Just checked my suitcase and apparently half my clothes are still sitting on the couch at home off to target I go!
 
Just checked my suitcase and apparently half my clothes are still sitting on the couch at home off to target I go!
Oh no!!! Just you? We accidentally left our Hogwarts robes hanging by the back door when I took the older 3 to Universal last year... it was ridiculous.
 
I opted to only buy socks and bras - I’ll just buy more Disney shirts when I get there unfortunately they had no selection of rain boots for DS so we will be shopping again today. Which is fine - we need to buy a case of water and some groceries for the week anyway.
 
We made it yesterday! Still no boots for the boy - target here had no selection either, but the forecast no longer had so much rain so I just got him another pair of shoes (he is due anyway).

Kids insisted on swimming when we got to the house - hooray for heated pools! I assume everyone got to bed at a reasonable time because I went to put the baby down at 7:30... and woke up at 2am so much for checking if we can see fireworks from the house
 

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