Half surprise first time trip to the house of mouse! April 2014 PTR

[Jennifer84]

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. Let me introduce you to everyone, then I will fill you in on the title!

First, there is me! My name is Jennifer. I am the mom, and the only planner for this trip. I am very detail oriented, and have already started the touring plan process! Yeah, I think I may be Disney crazy!






Next we have my oldest, Joey. He is 8 (will be 9 before our trip). He is excited about the Jedi training and riding the rides!



Then there is my princess, Lexi! She is 6 and we will be celebrating her birthday on our trip (her actual birthday is a couple weeks after we get back, though) She LOVES food and is obsessed with looking at Disney food photos! She also loves the princesses, especially Cinderella! She is most looking forward to meeting the characters and eating the food. She isn't much of a ride person.





Next: Where and When!

 

[Jennifer84]

Where: Originally, my mom and my youngest DD were going to come with us, so we were going to stay at POR. Unfortunately my mom has decided she does not want to go, and she has offered to keep the 2 year old, so that my older two won't be held back by her. I wish they were going, but we will still have fun. Since it's just the 3 of us, I am now planning to stay offsite at the Baymont Inn & Suites, just 3 miles from Disney!

Our dates:
We are driving down on April 3rd, which will get us there around 8-9pm.

We will be checking out on the 11th and driving up to St. Augustine, FL. St. Augustine is my favorite city! We will spend 2 nights there, at the Best Western before heading home on the 13th.



We are planning on Disney for 6 days and SeaWorld for 1.

 

[Jennifer84]

Now to explain the title...

The kids know that I am planning a Disney World trip. I wanted their input (the older two) on where to stay, eat, etc. So, I HAD to tell them why I wanted to know. BUT, they think we are going next summer when school is out. When it gets closer to April, I will tell them we are going to St. Augustine for a few days (not a lie, technically!). This will cover my tracks in regard to packing for Florida weather and driving south They have never been to Florida, so they won't know that we aren't going there right away. This way they get to be part of the planning process AND be surprised! There will also be a few smaller surprises for them while we are there (celebrating my DD's birthday early, doing BBB and PL- things like that)

I bought these goodies for this year's trip that got cancelled, so I will share some pictures with you!

 

[DisMomJill]

Sounds like fun! Following along...

 

[Jennifer84]

Sounds like fun! Following along...

Welcome! I am going to go check out your PTR as well!

 

[Jennifer84]

Edit: I have decided to NOT do the dining plan. I am currently pricing off property hotels/ rentals to save some money.

 

[Jennifer84]

While a few aspects of this trip may be changing soon, due to my mom REALLY not wanting to go again, some things won't change. Here is how our first day is going to look:

Leave home around 4am
Stop for breakfast around 8am (something quick like donuts or poptarts)
Stop for lunch around noon (sandwiches packed in the cooler)
Stop for dinner around 5pm (probably fast food somewhere)
Arrive/ Check-in around 8pm

Obviously there will be gas/restroom stops as well, but I can't really plan those I will pack up the van the night before, and go to bed right after dinner, so I can get enough sleep. I am hoping the kids go back to sleep for a few hours at the beginning of the trip. They will have a DVD player with movies, as well as a bag of special road trip goodies like snacks, toys, word searches, color wonder markers/paper (LOVE THESE!!!), etc.

 

[Jennifer84]

Here's the plan for our first Disney day:

Wake up around 7am, grab breakfast at the hotel, then drive to MK.
Arrive at MK around 8:30
Have lunch at BOG around 11
Have dinner at either Pecos Bill or Cosmic Ray around 4
Head back to the hotel around 5
Swim
Go to bed by 9pm

Our top 5 rides/attractions to hit:
1. Big Thunder Mountain RR
2. Splash Mountain
3. Space Mountain
4. It's a small world
5. Celebrate a dream parade


*Photo borrowed from the net

 

[Jennifer84]

Here's the plan for our HS day:

Wake up around 7am, grab breakfast at the hotel, then drive to HS.
Arrive at HS around 8:30
Have lunch at Starring Rolls around 12
Have dinner at Pizza Planet around 6
Head back to the hotel around 7:30
Go to bed by 9pm

Our top 5 rides/attractions to hit:
1. Toy Story Midway Mania
2. Jedi training academy
3. Tower of Terror
4. Star Tours
5. Lights, Motor, Action stunt show

 

[Corjack]

We will be arriving on April 3rd also! Looking forward to following your PTR!

 

[Jennifer84]

We will be arriving on April 3rd also! Looking forward to following your PTR!

I felt like I was talking to myself! I will have an update either tonight or tomorrow! We had a "practice run" today by visiting a local amusement park... it was interesting, to say the least!

 

[Jennifer84]

This morning we decided to go to Kings Dominion. My mom, my daughters and myself and drove the hour and a half to get there, arriving at 10:08am. They were scheduled to open at 10:30, but when we got there, people were already riding the rides. I figured this would be a good "practice" for Disney. Yes, I know that Disney is much larger, but walking is walking, no matter where it is! They have a brand new kids area and there were NO LINES!!! Almost every single ride was a walk-on. We had to wait maybe 5-10 minutes for a couple. The Charlie Brown characters are there, so the girls got to experience "meeting characters", even though it didn't go over as well as I thought it would. Then, my 6 year old and I decided we wanted to go on a water ride because we were getting really hot. My mom took the 2 year old to the carousel. The water ride we went on had OVER AN HOUR LONG LINE!!! Oh. my. goodness.

I don't know what I was expecting, but the plan was to do rides until lunch time, then eat and hit the water park to relax and end the day. Well, by lunch time everyone was exhausted!!! So, we decided to just go on home. We grabbed some McDonalds on the way.

A few things I learned today...

1) My 6 year old needed to ride in the stroller some, so a stroller will be needed on our trip.
2) I cannot handle spinning rides. At. All.
3) We will definitely need a midday nap/break every day!
4) If it's going to be above 85 degrees, misting fans are a must.
5) Fastpass is your friend!
6) My 2 year old begs to meet the characters, but when it's her turn she clings to me and won't go near them.
7) Apparently for my 6 year old no matter how tight the seatbelt is, nothing is safer than mommy's arm around her!
8) Never get in a line without a water bottle, or else the 6 year old will whine the entire time about how she is going to die of thirst.

We are going to attempt a 2-day trip in July. They have a hotel on property, so we will stay there. We will try the park in the morning, nap at the hotel in the afternoon, then park again in the evening to see how that goes! These are lessons I am glad I learned BEFORE our trip!

I forgot my camera at home this time, but I will post a couple pictures from a few weeks ago when I took my older two kids.





I uploaded my entire album of KD pics from Facebook onto Photobucket, but it only added these two. Now there's no option to add the album again, so the rest of my pictures are lost somewhere. Oh well, you got two of them!

 

[Corjack]

We went to Disney in Nov 2012 and my 2 year old was petrified of all the characters, but in April 2013(she was almost 3) she was TOTALLY into it and LOVED meeting them! Kids are unpredictable.

 

[Overexcited]

My 4 year old was terrified of the characters last trip, this trip could be hit or miss.
Hope you have a good trip.

 

[Jennifer84]

We went to Disney in Nov 2012 and my 2 year old was petrified of all the characters, but in April 2013(she was almost 3) she was TOTALLY into it and LOVED meeting them! Kids are unpredictable.

She isn't going this trip. The older two want to go on some big rides, and since I am the only adult going and I can't be in two places at once, she is staying with grandma. She will be 4 or 5 by the time she goes, so hopefully she will love them by then!

My 4 year old was terrified of the characters last trip, this trip could be hit or miss.
Hope you have a good trip.

Thank you I hope she will be fine by the time she gets her turn in Disney! She loves the fab 5, so it would be awesome to see her interact with them.

 

[Corjack]

Oh I remember reading that your mom decided not to go. I have been eyeballing the Disney Store online. My kids are going to outgrow all their cool Disney shirts from this year. They just had the twice upon a year sale but I didn't get anything. I think I will wait until Christmas time, they have great deals then.. I can give them to them for Christmas and use them for DISNEY!

 

[Jennifer84]

Oh I remember reading that your mom decided not to go. I have been eyeballing the Disney Store online. My kids are going to outgrow all their cool Disney shirts from this year. They just had the twice upon a year sale but I didn't get anything. I think I will wait until Christmas time, they have great deals then.. I can give them to them for Christmas and use them for DISNEY!

I had a $25 gift card to spend, so I ended up getting 2 t-shirts ($5 ea) and 4 pins (they were $4 ea) from that sale!

 

[Corjack]

I buy my pins on Ebay in lots of 25 or 50. It is exciting to see what you get!!! Then we are not overly attached to them and can easily trade them.

 

[Jennifer84]

We are going to our local Drive-In theater tomorrow night for a Disney double feature!! For just $12, we will get to see...



AND



AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! So excited! I will post pictures this weekend. I hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July!

 

[HappyGal]

A drive-in would be so cool! We saw Monster's University yesterday but I'm curious to see if your daughter enjoys Lone Ranger (my girls are 12 and 10). I always bring my daughter's to WDW on my own and we have a blast - totally do-able!

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