Disney Obsessed...Bring on the madness!

As I sit here and write about my Disney obsession, Olivia is walking around the house with Minnie ears on, a Minnie doll, and the contents of her clothes basket that contain "Mimmie".....

As most of you know, I am admittedly TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, 100% OBSESSED with Disney and anything to do with going there. I am in full planning mode now for our September trip to "the World"....

I actually started planning this trip THE DAY we got back from our February trip. This time we are staying at Pop Century. I have never stayed here myself, but have toured with friends. I have done so much research I have made some very specific requests: 70s building #6, ground floor, king bed, mini fridge and noted that I would like a late check-out. We are staying for 4 nights (that is all I could get Toby to agree to b/c he is unfortunately not as Disney obsessed as I am and did not want to spend his whole vacation at Disney). We got 4 day park hopper (PH) tickets (that we are going to upgrade to seasonal passes (SP) while we are there), and best of all the dining plan FOR FREE!

I have wanted the seasonal passes for a while now, but we just never had that much money laying around with no other purpose for it. I added the PH tickets since we are paying about $20 weekly for the trip they will be paid for in August, but we couldn't add the SP and pay as we go so we will just upgrade for a few bucks when we get there. We are planning to go back for the holidays to see all the decorations so the SP will work out well, plus we can go back pretty much whenever (except for the busiest time of year-but I don't want to go during the madness anyway)!

Disney has recently instituted the 90 day reservation window, meaning that 90 days from your arrival (and the first 10 days of your stay if you are staying on property) you can make all of your sit down dining Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) up to 90 days ahead of time. The ADR name is a bit deceiving to those who don't do their research. All an ADR means is that when you get there, you will be given priority over the walk-ins. This usually isn't an issue, and I have always found that we were seated quickly with not much of a wait. This also means that you have to plan where you will be and where you will want to eat more than 3 months before you get there! Well, I did do that planning! I started out getting the park hours to decided which park I mainly wanted to visit on which days and thought about where we would like to eat after that. After deciding where we were going to want to eat, we then made backup plans in case our first choices were not available (good thing too). The real madness began when I got up at 5:30am on Sunday morning to begin making reservations online at 6:00am...yes 6:00am! I wanted Teppan Edo (at EPCOT in Japan) (Dinner), Chef Mickey's (breakfast), Cape May Cafe (dinner), Planet Hollywood (lunch) and Whispering Canyon Cafe (dinner). Well, I didn't get exactly what I wanted. Teppan Edo was totally booked so I took Cape May instead. Chef Mickey's was totally booked so I took Cape May character breakfast instead. I did get Planet Hollywood exactly when I wanted, and then got Whispering Canyon (not at the time I wanted or the day, but I took it anyway. Chef Mickey's was the ONE reservation I really wanted!!!! I was on a new quest to get it one way or another. So I was calling the dining number and checking online multiple times a day, but with no luck. So I posted online to a Disney related chat board and a lovely lady didn't want her Chef Mickey, so I am now the lucky owner of a Chef Mickey's ADR for 9:50am on 9/27 (the day I wanted)!!!!

This is only the beginning of the madness for our trip, but I will leave it at this for now.....

Well, it's been a little while since I've posted so I thought I would give a quick update.
Olivia started back with swimming lessons last week. She has been doing them since she was about 6 months old, so in her mind she is an old pro and should be able to do it all on her own (did I mention she is pretty darn independent?). Her instructor thought she should be moved up to the 2 year old class since she has the hang of kicking and moving her arms (now if she could just stay above the water while doing both). She really is quite the little fish-she will even try to swim in the bathtub!
Last week Olivia also got another double ear infection/pink eye diagnosis. This is the 2 time in 3 months, so we are hoping this doesn't continue and lead to tubes. She was not acting like she didn't feel good at all. No fever, no ear pulling, just rubbing her eyes, and waking up with the lovely crusty eyes. The worst part is trying to put drops in her eyes 3 times a day....what a joke! Hopefully we will be over the ear/eye stuff for a LONG time!
I think that is about all going on for now...I will be posting about my new money making idea though....kids crafts/clothing/hair bows.....etc