Whit's Wisdom

Don't Hate - Educate!

Did you know you are supposed to floss your teeth BEFORE you brush them?  Seriously.  I've had teeth for how long?  How did I not know this?

My job is done.  Now go out there and save some teeth!!

Whit's Wisdom Disney 2011 Blog Special

Day 1 - Travel Day

I hope you enjoyed my family history yesterday and are ready to travel!

We normally travel early in the morning (ok, we PLAN on leaving early in the morning, but it's usually no earlier than 10 a.m.), but school constraints on Steph pushed us to an afternoon departure.  Since we knew this before we booked our reservations, we decided to drive most of the way to Disney on Tuesday, spend the night in Gainesville, FL, and drive the remaining 2 hours in the morning.  (Which provides me with a nice segue into my tips section!)

Tip #1 - Hotels.com

Use it!  I have booked two hotel rooms recently and I have gotten exceptional deals on each and they were both very nice, clean rooms.  It is so much cheaper, and easier, to book online ahead of time instead of being tired and grumpy and trying to find a decent hotel once you are worn out.  We have done it both ways before, and, well, let's just say Gary didn't end up sleeping in a window seat THIS trip.  If you are a super saver, create an account on Ebates.com and then link through them to Hotels.com to receive a cash back rebate!  http://www.ebates.com/index.htm, http://www.hotels.com/  (and if they ask who referred you, please say me!)

Tip #2 - Eat a good breakfast (or lunch or dinner) BEFORE you leave your home.  Gary cooked us some bacon and big, fat, yummy cinnamon rolls about an hour before departure.  (And with it being vacation food, it didn't matter how many calories - right??).  One of my biggest pet peeves is getting 20 minutes from the house and having to stop to eat.  Not only is it money wasteful, but it wastes time too!  I don't love the car ride - don't make it last longer than it has to be!  So make sure your bellies are good and full before you leave.

Tip #3 - Bring along a cooler of drinks and a bag of snacks.  Why, yes, I DID just say my belly was full, but it's VACATION...and you are traveling....in a car.  MUNCHIES - duh.  You'll save so much money bringing your own instead of stopping at a convenience store.  So.MUCH.Money.

(sssshhhh.....hidden tip #1 -  if worse comes to absolute worse, you can always use the cooler to, uhm, empty your bladder when there isn't a bathroom in sight for the next 100 miles.  It happens to the best of us.  I line my cooler with a large plastic garbage bag.  That way you aren't actually 'relieving' in the cooler - but in a garbage bag.)

Tip #4 - If you have a traveler who can't seem to pass a bathroom without having to stop and check it out, check this out - Uricalm. http://www.everydayhealth.com/drugs/uricalm.  By all means, READ THE LABEL and if this is something you think isn't for you - don't try it.  But I am here to tell you - it keeps the urges at bay!  It also turns your urine bright orange and can stain the toilet if you don't flush quickly...just so you know.

Tip #5 - Movies, movies, movies!  I don't know who came up with the idea of those little tv's in vehicles, but they were geniuses!!  We actually just use my laptop now to watch dvd's (Disney movies - what else???) but back in 1999, Gary actually bought a small tv, an outlet adapter, and a vhs and shoved them all between the front seats of his Jeep!  Kept two little ones quiet for hours.  What is an added bonus is that the driver (in our case, Gary) has something to listen to also.

Tip #6 - Trivial Pursuit cards.  The last time I went to the Thrift Store I noticed they had tons and tons of old Trivial Pursuit games that people had given away.  I bought one and we take a packet of cards (there's like a bazillion questions in one pack) with us when we travel long distances.  It's really quite entertaining, and, heck yes, even a bit educational.

Tip #7 - Regardless of whether your Uricalm is working or not, take a couple of breaks from riding and stretch your legs.  The driver gets tired -  regardless of  his He-Man status the fact that he can sit for hours and hours and hours at the computer playing a game.  It's good for your mind to focus on something other than the road for a few minutes.

Tip #8 - I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but since you haven't left on vacation yet, you still have time to heed my advice.  If you are splitting your trip up like we did, pack a 'take in the hotel for the night only' suitcase, which will contain ONLY what you need for that one night.  Everyone packs jammies, the next days clothes, toiletries (and not all of them - only what you absolutely need), into one suitcase....and then place that suitcase on top of all the other suitcases.  Believe me, when you are tired and just want to get some sleep, grabbing that one bag is going to make you sing my praises for weeks!  (But actually Steph came up with this idea - so sing about her a little too.)

(ssshhhhh - hidden tip #2 -  Pack a couple of garbage bags for dirty clothes.  But keep socks and undies separate from all other clothing.  Why??  Well, if you need to re-wear blue jeans - eh, no big.  If you need to re-wear blue jeans and your Dad's undies have been laying next to them for a week....gross.)

Tip #8 - (again, probably should have mentioned this earlier) - but try to limit your trip to "bearable".  Don't drive until the wee hours of the morning and expect to wake up refreshed and ready to tackle DISNEY.  You are going to want to check in and hit the parks as soon as you can.  Don't waste that time - and money - being tired and grumpy.  Eat a good dinner and get a decent night's sleep so you are ready to seize the day!

And who else always seizes the day?  Why, that'd be Winnie the Pooh!  So let's finish with words of wisdom - courtesy of Edward  Bear.  

“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?"”

Whit's Wisdom Disney 2011 Blog Special

Hi-Ho All!!!  I have definitely been MIA these last few months but I sure hope to get back in the blogging groove and start sharing all the little tidbits I pick up in this Wonderful World of Whitdom.  My Family and I just got back from a fabulous vacation in Walt Disney World, Florida.  The whole time we were there I kept running across things that I just knew I had to share with my readers....mainly because I love to talk (type?) a lot!  So here we go - off to Neverland!!!

Disney Vacation - The Back Story

I figured the easiest way to share our hints and tips was to take it day by day....we'll see how this goes.  But before I can begin, I have to give you the Reader's Digest version of US.  We are a family of 4.  A Husband, a Wife, a 21 year old Daughter (who celebrated her 'birthday week' in Disney) and a 16 year old Daughter.  We are also known as Gary, Whitney, Stephanie and Samantha.  (You'll probably hear a lot about us in the next few days.)  Gary and I were married on June 15, 1999 and he was fortunate enough to not only marry me, but my two girls as well.  We spent our Honeymoon - ALL OF US - in Disney.  It was the beginning of a wonderful relationship!  Not just our love for each other but our love for Disney!!!  

We have traveled back 3 times since (including this trip) and always swear we are going back every year.  Of course, we said that back in 1999 and, because of money restraints, it obviously did not happen.  But we are older and wiser now.  Wiser because the first year we paid for everything using a credit card...and probably spent the next two years paying it off.  We don't do things that way anymore!  Older because our kids - who aren't kids anymore - understand that if we want to go on vacation then we have to make sacrifices throughout the year to pay for it.  If we go on vacation it is PAID IN FULL --- money in the bank to cover all charges -- before we pull out of the driveway.  It saves a ton of money, a ton of worry and a ton on wrinkle cream!! (Worry = wrinkles; wrinkles=wrinkle cream!!)

I'm pretty big into couponing (not extreme - please don't put me with those crazies!) - and one day in my search for great deals I ran across a website called www.couponingtodisney.com.  The lady that runs the site, Kristen, had started noting how much money she was saving using coupons.  She began socking that money away for a trip to Disney for their family.  Wait...what??  I coupon.  I save money.  I could do that too!!  So, before I go any further with my narrative, you should totally save the link up there and visit her website.  (When you are done with me, because I'm still talking.) I could re-write her entire guide, but why in the world do I want to do that??  Go straight to the source, I always say!  

I will tell you what I started doing though.  For every coupon I used, every paid survey I did, every rebate I received, every cash back bonus we got, I kept a running total of how much I had "earned".  (For the record, Gary makes the money....it's my job to SAVE it.)  Each month I transferred the monthly total from checking into savings...and then we.did.not.touch.it.  We didn't use it to go out to eat, or buy a new outfit, or pay our bills with that money.  That was our vacation fund and we just pretended it wasn't there. I started saving on June 1st, 2010 and paid $3,088.14 in full on October 8, 2011. It took 17 months to save the money but it was soooooooo worth it!  I'll be honest with you too - the trip was 100 times sweeter knowing that it was paid for (with quick service dining plan - but we'll talk about that later) before we left the house, and that I had been an integral part in paying for this.  It was even sweeter when my daughters thanked their Daddy for taking them and ME for saving the money so we could go.  Sometimes nothing feels better than a job well done and a great big pat on the back!

You know what?  It honestly was not that hard.  Oh, I got really burnt out a few months ago and not only didn't want to coupon, but didn't want to even go grocery shopping!  That's when Stephanie stepped in.  For some strange reason, she LIKES to buy groceries.  So she guilted me back into clipping and she started shopping.  The great thing that happened was that she got a fabulous lesson on saving and couponing! She's great at it too!  But all in all, it was pretty simple to put a few dollars here and there away each month and just pretend it didn't exist.  Once I hit the $1,000 mark it actually started to be fun!

Ok - so now you know HOW we went to Disney.  Tomorrow I'll start with Day 1 - Travel Day -  and share our hints and tips on packing, snacks and how not to kill each other on a 8 hour road trip!  As Tigger would say TTFN!!