Day before Disney Rituals

[sstewart]

What is your "Day before Disney ritual"? We all have one! I thought it would be fun to share what you do on the day before, a day filled with excitement and anticipation!

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

What is your "Day before Disney ritual"? We all have one! I thought it would be fun to share what you do on the day before, a day filled with excitement and anticipation!

Well...There's the obvious:
*Put the finishing touches on the suitcases and line them all up in the hallway. Also check all luggage tags to make sure each bag has one.
*Take the dog to the sitter's house.
*Make sure all laundry is caught up.
*Check in for flight online and print boarding passes.
*Double check all itinerary and reservations.
*Set out everyone's travel outfits down to the socks, shoes, and undies.
*Get out everyone's ears or Goofy hat (as is the case with my son) because it is required that everyone wear them for the flight.
*Make everyone shower so we don't have to rush in the morning.
*Double check lists for items we need to pack last minute, and make a new list of things we need to use till the last second and need to be packed in the morning.
*Check and check again that all gift cards, ID's, money, boarding passes, etc...are all with the luggage. Then check again.
*Shave legs.
*Check with the girls and make sure they have shaved their legs too, so they don't try and do it in the morning.


I guess we don't have any fun rituals for the night before. We just have to make sure everything is ready for the next day. It's tricky with 7 in my immediate family and 12 total with my extended family. I am always in charge of planning and packing and such, so I have to be really organized to get us through security with lots of kids and not enough adult hands to get us through quickly. This year we will have 14 to get through, and next year probably 16! Pretty soon we will take up the whole plane! One year the hubby shoved a bunch of bottled water into the bags last minute without me knowing, and of course security stopped us. What was he thinking? Between the 5 adults that usually go with us, we have 2 c-paps and one auto-pap machine, plus my daughter has a nebulizer, so we have to pack up a lot in the morning since we sleep with the c and auto-pap machines, and then we have to unpack them for security, and repack them while other people are trying to squeeze through security! Anyway, I sort of went off subject there. My point is that usually my night before is a bit stressed as I am trying to make sure nothing is forgotten. We don't do anything magical but get ready I guess.

 

[Mrs K]

We drive from MA, so the day before I pack the car! Everything has it's place. I clean the house, get my mani/pedi and we "try" to sleep for a few hours. We are up and on the road by 4am! It makes me excited just thinking about it!

 

[mreid1974]

I guess our only true ritual would be staying at a hotel near the airport the night before we fly. And we always go to the Papa Gino's around the corner. Its like starting our vacation a day early.

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

We drive from MA, so the day before I pack the car! Everything has it's place. I clean the house, get my mani/pedi and we "try" to sleep for a few hours. We are up and on the road by 4am! It makes me excited just thinking about it!

Yeah, I guess my rituals may have to change if we decide to drive. We are weighing our options. We may weigh them for a while b/c they only way I'm flying this time is if it is really cheap. We usually pay about $3,000 for our immediate family of 7. I have a new house and would like to pay it off in less than 10 years, so I don't want to keep shelling out that kind of money when it would cost us about $1,000 for two weeks of van rental including gas, but not hotel. If we do decide to drive, my rituals will be pretty close to yours!

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

OOh!!! I have a new one! If we decide to fly this time, which we are leaning that way, we will probably fly out of a city that's two hours away. If we do that, we will probably drive there the day before, and stay at a hotel. That way we can be close to the airport!

 

[pepe of ohio]

I'm packed completely at least 2 weeks out......we catch the train at 1:30 am and the only thing to do that day is to pack our lunches and load the goody bag......nothing really special we do...we know we're boarding the train in the am, going to sit back and completely relax and catch so sleep before sunup......we get alot of excitement and enjoyment by riding the rails and a chance to completely unwind for everyday life and to get ready for a fun stay at WDW......

 

[crafty91]

Like others my day before ritual is driving 10 hours! ROFL! Wouldn't trade it for anything though!

 

[xJenna]

Simple: Running around the house like a crazy person. "Did I pack that? I did. Good. Oh wait I need that tomorrow morning." The next morning, "Why did I write to re-pack this? Where did I put it? Is it already in there? It is, okay good." And yes, I do talk to myself in the process.

 

[georgesgirl1]

Wash any last minute laundry
Finish packing the suitcases
Load up the car
Straighten the house up a bit
Try to get to bed early since we leave at 3 or 4 am
Of course, I can never sleep, so I read through my plans, Unofficial Guide, etc until my alarm goes off!

 

[Safari Queen]

Waiting until the last minute and then staying up half the night frantically packing, stopping mail, loading and running the dishwasher, filling pill boxes and finding all the trip paperwork that goes in our carry-ons. We do it every time, then once we get to WDW, we take a nap, either in our villa or in comfy chairs at the resort.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

I have two last-minute items, and my DH has one. I do any last minute laundry/dishes, and always make sure the house is spotless before we leave. I want to come back to a clean house.

DH unplugs the automatic garage door opener.

 

[dISNEYlOveer]

We live Daytona Beach, so we just pack the day before, my grandparents(the ones that always take me) stay at my house and then we leave around 7 in the morning and then get to Disney and go to the park...
Yep nothing that special the day before....

 

[TinkTink78]

I get my nails done in Minnie Mouse

 

[Dodge34]

I can't sleep the night before I leave for a trip to Disney so I usually get at the airport quickly and surf the Internet over free wifi and try to catch some sleep on their not so comfy chairs that have been modified recently to add extra arms on each chair so you can't lay down in any of them. Then 2-3hrs before official boarding time, I'm crossing the security to get near the boarding gates, grab a Red Bull or similar and drink it to wake me up, I also pack an extra Red Bull in my carry-on (Since the security is done they have no problems) and drink it just before we land at MCO so I can make it to my hotel location without falling asleep. Once I'm there, if I'm too tired I usually sleep a few hours or try to get in a whirlpool for a relaxing moment before getting back to the room and sleep for a few hours.

 

[Couchy]

Our day before is actually 2 days before since we normally drive and it is an 18 hr trip. Before the 18 hr drive it looks like this


Order in take out- no cleanup
Pack the car with the suitcases and water and such
Go to sleep, wake up got to work
Leave work and get on the road by 3:30pm. Drive
We are usually in Disney early the next morning

 

[ocean134]

Sounds like all do similar things to prepare:

- Make sure things needed for the trip are packed in the suitcases
- Finish laundry
- Clean house
- Take out all trash from every trash can
- Make sure the dishwasher is clean and empty (you do not want to leave dirty dishes in there, it will stink up the house)
- Place all luggage tags on suitcases
- Make sure boarding passes, etc. are ready to go
- Pull all items together that will be needed in the morning and then packed
- Make sure the list is ready for the cat/house sitters with all instructions and emergency contacts

Then it's time to go! 22 Days today!!!!

 

[>Ash<]

rituals....

my rituals are as follows...

Day before the big Dis trip we have to HAVE to watch House Of Mouse cartoons or... listen to some old disney tunes like when u wish upon a star,

look back on old photos

get last minute tips from the DIS community.

the usual stuff (check cases, tickets,)

before bed my DW & Me both have to wish upon a star and wish for a happy stress free vacation.

 

[ChefMickey123]

Well, for our next trip, I'll be graduating from seminary the night before. That's kind of a one time thing though, not a ritual.

I empathize with the cpap folks, because I use one myself. It's a little extra pain at the last minute, but sleep is is wonderful thing.

All the packing will have to be done way ahead, and we will drive from Ft. Wayne to Indy and stay at Kelly's folk's house.

 

[CamoMama]

OOh!!! I have a new one! If we decide to fly this time, which we are leaning that way, we will probably fly out of a city that's two hours away. If we do that, we will probably drive there the day before, and stay at a hotel. That way we can be close to the airport!

We're doing exactly that. Our flight leave Sacramento a little after 6am, and I do not want to have to get up at 2am in order to be there by 5. We're staying at a hotel with a shuttle, which also currently has a deal allowing guests to leave their cars in the secured hotel lot during their vacation, up to 14 days. Way less expensive than airport parking, and less stress letting the hotel shuttle drivers worry about navigating the airport. We'll also be spending the night that we return at the hotel as our flight gets in after 11pm and I will not want to drive after losing 3 hours to the time change.