Getting Ready for my Christmas Trip!

I’ve written about preparing for a trip before, but this time around the circumstances are a little different.  At this time of year the stress levels are a maximum for most people.  So why not throw in 8 days at Walt Disney World for good measure?  I’ve tried to get all of my Christmas preparations finished before I shove off on the 13th.  I’m pretty close, but I’m afraid some tasks will have to wait until I get home on the 20th.  As if the usual holiday hubbub wasn’t enough I was knocked out with the flu for over a week around Thanksgiving.  Getting ready of for this trip is going to be a rush job to say the least!

For example, last time I wrote about packing I was expecting hot May weather, but at this time of year the weather is less predictable.  I have visited in December twice before; once the weather was lovely and last year it was freezing.  Now, I’m a northeasterner so I don’t mind a little chill in the air, but to stand outside for hours in 40 and  50 degree weather gets to me after a while.  So for this trip I’ll be packing lots of layers including short and long sleeve shirts, sweaters, a fleece jacket, and a pair of gloves just in case.  The weather forecast includes some rain so I’ll be sure to pack my poncho as well.  As I’m writing things (on December 11th) I hardly have anything packed.  It’s going to be a whirlwind of packing tomorrow to try to get everything done!  I’m usually much more organized, but this year I’m so behind.  Hopefully I won’t forget anything!  I’ll be making lists and checking them twice!

One of my traveling mates usually creates a spreadsheet with all of the park hours, ADRs, and other important information.  We tease her about her tyrannical spreadsheet all of the time, but its important at least have a list of your dining reservations.  With the holiday madness of December, she didn’t have time to make it up this time.   Luckily we already had a shared Google calender which included all of our important events so we just printed that out for this trip.  We’ll see which version we prefer after some testing.

I’ve arranged with my parents for them to retrieve my car from the Newark Airport parking lot.  My flight to Orlando departs at 7 a.m. and I just can’t ask my dad to get up that early to drop me off by about 5:30.  So our solution is for me to drive myself at that ungodly hour, call and leave a message as to where I’ve parked, and then they will come get my beloved Volkswagen at a time convenient for them.  We’ve done this before and it worked out well.  I’ve just got to make sure to get my tush out of bed at 4:15ish when its still dark and freezing.  I think the excitement of getting to WDW should make getting up so early a little easier to take.

Of course, there are plenty of odds and ends to accomplish between now at early, early Sunday morning.  Writing this entry reminded me to arrange to put a hold on mail delivery so I just checked that off the list.  However, there are plenty of other chores to tackle before the big day so I’d better get going…

Next week keep an eye out live blogging from WDW!  I’ll try to check in as often as possible to report on my trip and you can also follow me on twitter at @khelmstetter to keep up on my adventures.