Walt Disney World in November

Recently I posted about an upcoming trip to Florida.  We have decided on November and started making our reservations now.  We will be back up here in time for Thanksgiving so my sister doesn't have to spend it alone, but will be gone for the month up to the day or two before Thanksgiving.  In fact, we will be leaving here at the end of October, and spending Halloween in Missouri.  Elliott has decided that he wants to see Casting Crowns in Missouri instead of trick or treating, so if we can get tickets, that will be our Halloween plans.  Since Elliott can't have anything with artificial dye anyway, I can see why trick or treating would lose some of its appeal.  We'll just take him and buy him a bag of his one of his favorite dye free candies instead. :)

As for our time in Florida, we will be staying 11 nights.  Part of them will be on Disney property, and part of them will be nearby in Celebration.  We'll be going to Disney World, the Disney water park that is open, and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas.  We'll also be visiting Sea World (we all get in free through the military appreciation program) and Lego Land (Carl's ticket is free there as well) while we are there.

Elliott and I have been having a lot of fun planning our trip.  Almost every day when we take a break from school work, we work on vacation plans.  Elliott has been putting together a list of must rides, and characters he must meet.  We met many of his favorite characters last time, but he's looking forward to seeing many of them again.  Plus there are characters that we missed that he wants to see this time.  Then of course there are also some new characters that weren't there 3.5 years ago.

As for rides, last time we went he was barely 5, and was afraid to ride a lot of the rides.  He was also really afraid of the dark.  This time he will be almost 9, and is no longer afraid of the dark.  There are still several rides that he thinks would be way too scary, but his list is much longer this time. 

Last time we didn't make it to any of the water parks, and that is on Elliott's must do list this time.  He's pretty excited about some of the rides there as well.  He hasn't ever been to a water park, but has really enjoyed water slides at hotels we've stayed at, and birthday parties he's attended.  One of the places we are staying has a water slide at one of their pools.  Elliott's really looking forward to that.

Over all, we can't decide what we are most looking forward to, but we are all definitely looking forward to our vacation!

Throw Back Thursday: Walt Disney World March 2011

Since we are currently planning another trip to Disney World, Elliott and I have been going through our pictures from last time over the last few days.  We thought we would do a throw back Thursday post with a few of our favorites.  We literally have hundreds, so it was hard to narrow it down, but for various reasons, here are a few of our favorites.

Waiting in line to meet one of his favorite characters.

He loved Chip and Dale and never missed an opportunity for a picture.

This was the first character hug he initiated.

Handy Manny was the only Disney Junior character we got to meet, but that was fine, because he was Elliott's favorite at the time.

When Elliott looked at this picture he told me that he almost completely disappeared into Lotso's belly!

Pooh was another favorite to hug.

Elliott had a lot of fun with Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen.  Here Prince Naveen is asking if Elliott is trying to steal his princess after she hugged him.

Elliott's response was "maybe"

Naveen decided they could still be friends, because Elliott had an awesome name, just like their friend, the dragon (from Pete's Dragon)

Pluto was the first character Elliott went up to by himself (he had already met Snow White and Daisy Duck, but wanted an adult with him for those)

He couldn't believe it when Cinderella wanted to dance with him.

Dancing with Cinderella

All smiles after their dance.

Stitch was Elliott's favorite character to meet, but we only got to meet Lilo the one time, he was soo excited!

Maleficent

It seems like our family used to go to the movie theater nearly every weekend.  Over the last several months (maybe a year?) we have cut way back, though, and go more like once a month.  Part of that is because there just haven't been as many movies that we have wanted to see, and part of it has just been that we haven't had as much time, with the insane work schedule Carl has been on so much of the time.

Over the weekend we did go see a movie, though.  Elliott had been really wanting to see Maleficent.  He mentioned how great it looked every time we saw a commercial.  So when he saw that it would be on base opening weekend, he begged to go see it.  Since we have been trying to support the base theater when possible, we agreed to take him to see it.

Elliott loved it.  He said part of it was scary, and part of it was kind of weird, but over all he loved it.  He has never seen the original Sleeping Beauty, though, so he went in there with no real ideas about what to expect, or how Maleficent had appeared in the original movie.  He viewed it completely as a movie on its own, and thought it was great.

  My husband and I both thought it was okay.  Neither of us thought it was as great as Elliott did, though.  I typically enjoy books and movies told from a different point of view than the one we've heard before, so I did find it interesting.  The acting was good for the most part, and some of the special effects were really good.

Over all, we found it to be a good way to spend some time on a Saturday afternoon, but it's probably not a movie we will add to our collection (unless Elliott buys it with his own money or gets it as a gift from someone else).

My Husband's Most Exciting Father's Day Present

When my husband and I were talking about what he wanted for Father's Day, he decided to look around on Amazon.  A lot of times he gets new tools for Father's Day, but he finally couldn't think of any that he needed (his tool collection is probably worth more than any of our cars!).  He didn't end up finding anything he wanted that day, but then later that week, he was on Amazon again, and came across this:



This is his favorite Disney movie of all time, and Elliott hasn't seen it.  Carl can't wait to share it with him.  It's just too bad that he won't get it until it's released in August.  Haha.  The price is pretty good right now, though, and it has a preorder price guarantee, so I guess we bought it at a good time.

We did end up giving him a few other things as well, though.  He got an Itunes giftcard, and movies that Elliott picked out for him at Walmart (Tooth Fairy 1 and 2 for them to watch together, and Looper and Water World for Daddy to watch without him).

Disney Movie Deals at Amazon

Amazon has a promotion going on right now, where if you buy 2 Disney movies from a certain list, you save an additional $10.  We actually did this about 2 weeks ago, and spent less than $40 total for 2 Blu Ray/DVD combo packs.  I even live in a state that gets charged tax on Amazon orders.  The list of available movies is here.  This promotion goes through the end of the month, and includes several movies that have just been released from the vault, or have just recently been released on blu ray, as well as newer movies like Chimpanzee. 

The prices have changed a little since I ordered mine, but most of them are still right around $25 each, making the total about $40 if you don't get charged tax.

These could be great Christmas presents!  It's hard to find Disney Blu Ray/DVD combo packs cheaper than about $20 each. We love the combo packs so we have the DVD for in the car on long car rides, and the Blu Ray for when we watch at home. 

Good Deal Alert on Bambi 2 DVD/Blu Ray

Bambi 2 comes out on DVD/Blu-ray tomorrow.  We actually had this one on DVD, but it disappeared in our move into our current house in 2007.  I've given up on finding it now, so I think we might be buying it this week.

If you are interested in buying both Bambi II (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray / DVD Combo) and Bambi (Two-Disc Diamond Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo), there is a good deal on Amazon right now. Bambi 2 is on sale  for $24.99, and when you buy it you can save $8 off the price of the Bambi Blu-ray/DVD combo pack.  It's priced at $20.99 right now, so you get both of them for $37.98 total, which of course has free shipping as well.

Bambi 2 is priced at $14.99 on Amazon for just the DVD.

If you are only interested in buying Bambi 2 and want the Blu-ray, I would suggest printing out the coupon available here.  It's for $5 off the blu ray/DVD combo pack, and combined with the $24.99 price at Target this week, it becomes a good deal.  The DVD by itself is on sale for $17.99.

For the current great deal on The Fox and the Hound and Mars Needs Moms check out my post here.

Great Deals on Disney Movies at Amazon- The Fox and the Hound and Mars Needs Moms

My son has a wishlist a mile long on Amazon.  A lot of the things he chooses are movies, because we do a lot of long road trips, and DVD's are sanity savers when you are in the car for 20 hours in two days.  We also enjoy watching a Blu Ray together as a family 1-2 times every week.  We watch the same movies over and over again a lot of times, so to us, it makes more sense to buy instead of rent, especially when we find good deals.  We love Disney movies, so we always look for good deals on them to add to our collection. 

Right now The Fox and the Hound / The Fox and the Hound Two (Three-Disc 30th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray / DVD Combo) is on sale for $24.99.  Plus if you buy Mars Needs Moms (Two-Disc Blu-ray / DVD Combo) for $22.99, you save $8 on The Fox and the Hound, so you can get both of them for $39.98, with free shipping through Amazon.  Plus, though the end of the month you earn 50 bonus points on Disneymovierewards.com when you enter the magic code for either DVD/Blu Ray!  This deal isn't quite as good as the deal that was available two weeks ago at Target, but if you missed it (like I did, because of my trip), it's still a good deal!

A Discount Vacation to Disney!

My son never missed a chance to meet Goofy!

My husband deployed last May, and was gone for six months. Before he left, we decided that while he was gone, I was going to plan for, and save for a Florida vacation in March. We had been kicking the idea around for a while, but didn't have a set time or plan until that point. He put in for leave, and I started looking for great deals.