TR with the Man Who Said He Would NEVER Go To Disney! COMPLETE!!! 12/3-12/10 NEW 5/19

budafam

DIS Veteran
Joined
Feb 23, 2009
Hi everyone! Welcome to my 5th trip report (FIFTH!?) Sometimes I can't believe it myself.

A little quick background...

May 2011 was our very first trip to Disney World (the beginning of the end as DH calls it). I fell in love. My mom had passed away unexpectedly in November 2009 and I felt like something was missing... I'm not saying Disney filled that void but it was the first time I was truly happy since I lost her. I wanted to go right back after our first trip. I surprised DS with a mother/son trip in October 2011. We did the deluxe dining plan and I bought myself an AP. We returned as a family (along with my MIL for her first time) in May 2012. As a side note, in July I became a Disney travel agent! Then in October 2012 I surprised DD with her own mother/daughter trip.

Since the beginning of this journey, I had been after my dad to come with us. His world was turned upside down when mom passed away. He was always so well taken care of with her around. Let me tell you, the first time he walked into a grocery store after she passed was quite the shocker for him. Over $3 for a gallon of milk!?! He's come so far in the years since she's been gone. He learned how to do his banking online, he takes his grandkids whenever we need him to... he's just been GREAT. The only problem is getting him out of the house.

One day my sister was over and we were talking about Disney (imagine that)... he said he would go. I knew this wouldn't last long so I went home and booked the trip. By the time he called me to tell me he had changed his mind, it was booked. There was nothing he could do. Haha... we had him!

Disney would've been the kind of place my mom would have loved. She got so excited every 4th of July for fireworks... she loved to talk and her kindness outshined anyone else's that I've ever known. I knew dad would see this in Disney when we went.

DH chose to opt out of this trip. Someone needed to stay home in case it snowed... lol. It also made the trip a lot cheaper for us.

Here are the details:

December 3rd-10th, 2013
Animal Kingdom Lodge – Kidani Villas
1 Bedroom – Savanna View
Deluxe Dining Plan
6 Day Base Tickets
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
Tomorrowland Dessert Party
Disapalooza
Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in DTD
Pirates League

The Lucky Ones:
Me (age 30) - 5th trip
DD (age 5) - 4th trip
DS (age 7) - 4th trip
Sister (age 54) - 2nd trip
Dad (age 76) - 1st trip

I know, HUGE gap between my sister & I. She's actually my half sister. Dad had her with his first wife. She has a son that's 3 months younger than me. So I'm an aunt to him but we're actually the same age. It's so weird, I know.

I've traveled with my dad before (we went to Vegas 3 times in my teens) but I never went anywhere with my sister. Before we left, her husband told us that we need to keep a leash on her... lol. They went to Disneyland in May and when it was time to board the plane, her husband couldn't find her. She was in the gift shop totally unaware that it was time to board. I knew I would have my hands full with this group.
I planned from about 300 days out. We did movie nights leading up to it. We even had a 100 days till Disney party... I will post pics in a bit. I could not have been more excited about a trip. I knew this was the big one. This would be the one that my kids remember the most... especially with their grandpa along.

The majority was planned according to what my dad likes. I know my sister was coming along but more than likely this would be my dad's only trip.

Sooo enough talk! Expect a lot of food (I already did a dining report if you want to check that out here). Expect a lot of surprises. As always, expect a LOT of pictures. I do get a little camera happy whenever I'm in the World.

Enjoy our trip! Thanks for reading along!!!

Table Of Contents

~100 Days Till Disney~
~One Day To Go~

Day 1
~Our Journey~
~Speak Up!~
~Dad Loves His Old Cars~
~Our 1st Dancing Lights Experience~

Day 2
~Wake Up! We're On Day 2!~
~We can draw, we can draw~
~Clean Plate Club!~
~Elvis Made Our Night~
~Video #1~

Day 3
~Better Take Your Hat Off For This One!~
~Cutting It Close~
~No Margaritas Before Noon?~
~Always Make a Meeting Place~
~15 Miles!~
~I have no idea what I just ordered!~
~I have no idea what I just ordered! Part 2~
~Video #2~

Day 4
~Dad just left Donald hanging~
~CAN WE RIDE IT AGAIN!?~
~Attack of the Yak~
~Grandma & Grandpa~
~TOO full for Boma???~
~Party's Here! Disapalooza 2013!~
~Breaking the Rules at AKV~
~Video #3~

Day 5
~You're Going DOWNtown?!?~
~Buying Out Goofy's~
~Prehistoric Headache~
~Nail Polish Incident~
~This is NOT what I ordered (take 2)~
~Video #4~

Day 6
~Halting Haunted Mansion~
~Someone's Tired...~
~First Mickey Bar~
~Can You Handle It?~
~Perfect Timing~
~5 MINUTE WAIT for the DWARFS!!!~
~One Foot Talent~
~Video #5~

Day 7
~Sleeping in Odd Places~
~Great Start to Our Last Day~
~The Forgotten Wand~
~All Aboard!~
~Center Table~
~15 Hours at MK~
~Creepy Eel Eyes~

Day 8
~Explore the Resort~
~Tragical Express~
~Video #6~
 


Great start! Isn't it neat when you take your parent to disney!? Love it! looking forward to the rest.
 


Signing on, can't wait to read more! :thumbsup2

Yay! Welcome!
Joining in...

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for joining!

I'm in!

Thank You I need a good Disney Fix.

Don't we all? ;)

I loved your DR! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!!

Thank you! So glad you enjoyed it!

popcorn:: joining in popcorn::

Welcome!

Great start! Isn't it neat when you take your parent to disney!? Love it! looking forward to the rest.

I was SO excited to show my dad everything and why I love it so much :)

Subbing here too :)

Welcome!
 
We threw a "100 Days till Disney" party during the summer. We revealed our big countdown and ate lots of Disney food plus played some Disney games. Here are pictures from that day :)



Our spread:

















We played "Guess Which Park" where the kids each had to guess where certain things were located...



They both won...



A Disney Infinity Starter Pack.

And the shirts...





We were soooo ready for this trip.
 
We left the Tuesday after Thanksgiving Day weekend. This year Thanksgiving landed on the anniversary of my mom's death. It was rough. I volunteered to do dinner at my house so it kept my mind off of everything. Saturday I went and got my nails done with a gift certificate I had been holding onto for a Disney trip.



The kids had school on Monday and they wore matching shirts. Fortunately, they do not attend the same schools.. lol.



This would be our first time going to Disney during the “Christmas season”. Very excited!!! It was almost time!!!

Our flight left at 10:15am on Tuesday morning and the weather was looking good... time for the last sleep at home!
 
What cute ways to get psyched up for the trip! The hear/see/speak no evil Mickeys made me laugh, and their matching shirts were cute. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip, and I hope your dad had an excellent trip.
 
Great start! Loved the idea of the "100 Days Till Disney" party and all the treats looked yummy! The kids looked like they had a blast. :thumbsup2

It's always so hard to lose someone you love and when the anniversary falls on a holiday, it makes it especially difficult. My heart goes out to you. :hug:

Love your nails and the kids matching shirts, awesome!

Looking forward to more. :goodvibes
 
Oh wow the food at your party looks amazing - so much detail :thumbsup2

I love your countdown and all your family T-Shirts too :goodvibes
 
Your 100 days to Disney party was so cute!! And my gosh, your kids are adorable. Love the shirts!
 
What cute ways to get psyched up for the trip! The hear/see/speak no evil Mickeys made me laugh, and their matching shirts were cute. I'm looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip, and I hope your dad had an excellent trip.

Thank you! The shirts were only for the first day.. I wish I had made more to be honest... the reaction from everyone in the parks is just great over matching shirts.. and it's so much easier to spot each other.. lol.

Great start! Loved the idea of the "100 Days Till Disney" party and all the treats looked yummy! The kids looked like they had a blast. :thumbsup2

It's always so hard to lose someone you love and when the anniversary falls on a holiday, it makes it especially difficult. My heart goes out to you. :hug:

Love your nails and the kids matching shirts, awesome!

Looking forward to more. :goodvibes

Thank you so much :) I miss my mom so much.. everyday I think of her.

Oh wow the food at your party looks amazing - so much detail :thumbsup2

I love your countdown and all your family T-Shirts too :goodvibes

Thank you! The food was so much work but a lot of fun..

Your 100 days to Disney party was so cute!! And my gosh, your kids are adorable. Love the shirts!

Thanks!! I like to make a big deal out of every trip.. no matter how many times we go, it's still a BIG deal. :)
 
It was time. FINALLY time! I'm not sure how I slept the night before... I think I may have gotten a whopping 3 hours which is a lot for the night before Disney to me!

I got up at 4am and started baking cinnamon rolls (this has become a tradition for us). I had no issues waking up the kids.. imagine that. Our suitcases were all ready to go and it looks like our elf, Jingles, had packed away a few surprises for the kids in their backpacks...







After some tag cutting and last minute packing, we were ready to go.



We are from Wisconsin. Winter did not completely hit us yet. We didn't really have snow... just a few flakes. The weather wasn't awful... 30ish most days. We were still VERY excited to be leaving.

DH was driving us to the airport which was about a 90 minute drive. We picked up my dad first. He only lives a block away from us. He was all smiles and ready to go! Next we picked up my sister. She was ready as well.. coffee in hand. The drive went fairly quick. DH helped us with our luggage and took one last picture of us in Wisconsin...



My dad was most nervous about going through security. He has not flown in an airplane since 1963. He's never been in a jet. Everything went smoothly in security and then I could see he was much more relaxed. After we got through security, we found ourselves walking next to an older couple. Both of them were wearing Disney shirts. We laughed and chatted... they gushed about how much they love Disney. It was nice to have my dad see that he's definitely not the only older person going! We found our gate and relaxed for a bit.





We found some food to munch on and the kids got their coloring books out. Before we knew it, we were boarding the plane. As we were standing in line to board, an older lady asked my dad if this was his first time going to Disney ;) They were chatting for a bit.. so cute!

I sat with DD on the plane. We took off right at 10:15am. We arrived in Orlando just before 2pm (I hate that time change!) We took our first monorail ride and found our way to the escalators...



The kids took their pictures in front of this famous landmark... my dad joked that we were THERE! REALLY THERE! Lol.. time to go home he said! HA!





We started getting close... real close.







The magic bands worked perfectly for checking into Magical Express. We were given line 6. There were a few people in the line but not too many. We waited about 5 minutes and they started loading up the bus.



I was in a bit of a hurry. I've never taken longer than an hour to get to our resort from checking into ME. I had planned to check in at Kidani, dump our stuff and go off to the parks with some time maybe for a Great Movie Ride before Fantasmic at 6:30.

This plan did not work out.

We made 5 stops. Of course, we were the fifth and final stop :(





I almost got off at this stop. We always stay at Pop Century so this is home to us. It was weird not getting off.

Finally we saw our sign.



Unfortunately we stopped at Jambo first. There was a couple on the bus that did not know where they were staying! I know, only on my bus! Ugh! They spent a good 10 minutes looking at their documents and trying to get the bus driver to figure out where they were supposed to get off the bus. I almost got up to check it myself and tell them... I just wanted to get there already. We could've walked to Kidani in the time it took them to figure it out.

Finally. We were there.



Our first view...



I had never been at this resort. Not even for Sanaa. I took 2 steps off of the bus and was greeted by someone with an electronic clipboard asking our name and telling us “Welcome Home”.



I just wanted to hug her. Lol... she took us to the counter and I checked in while everyone else awww'd at the lobby.
 
Aww it sounds like your Dad is really enjoying going to Disney :)

What a pain about the bus journey but it sounds as though you got a nice welcome :goodvibes
 

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