lklasing
Told that I need DA meetings - Disney Anonymous
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2005
Hi everyone! 
Welcome to my fourth trip report! (If any of you need any bedtime reading, the first three TRs are linked in my signature below.) This time, as we did the past two times before this trip, we were back at Fort Wilderness, staying in a cabin. We used to be Poly Concierge people, and certainly loved it there, but once we found the cabins at FW, we knew thats where we would be staying on all future trips. We just love 
the Fort!
Anyway, heres the cast of characters for the trip:
Me: a 42 year old Disney nut. While I had fun on my childhood trips to the World, I never knew how much I would love it once I started taking my kids. Somehow, its a completely different kind of thing to get to have fun at WDW with your kids, and amazingly better than it was when I was their age. I love everything about it the planning
, the thinking, the ADR-ing, the thinking some more, the re-doing of ADRs
. All of you know the drill. Anyway, heres me:
DH Ray: a 48 year old who tolerated WDW on the first couple of trips, but who has now really come to love it as much as me. That doesnt mean he likes to plan the trips like I do, but he sure does love being there. Finding the cabins at FW was really the tipping point on Ray loving the trips his ability to spread out in the cabin, not hear any kids running down the hall and just being out in nature (with a golf cart, of course!) increased his enjoyment of these trips tremendously. Ray (driving said golf cart):
DD13 Danielle: Danielle is now officially a teenager and this was her first trip to the World with that designation. (She makes sure to remind me of her status frequently, in case I ever forget.
) She is full of energy and life and definitely loves going to WDW as much as possible. Heres Danielle:
DD11 Jodi: Jodi is by far my more laid back daughter, but she is equally enthusiastic about WDW. In her writing journal for school this year, she has already written about how much she loves going to the World, even though at the time she wrote it, she had no idea there even was going to be a trip.
Heres Jodi:
Over the past few trips, weve waited as long as we could before telling the girls we were going. Youd think that the obsessive amount of time I spend on the Disboards planning would tip them off, but happily we managed to keep it a secret again. Since Danielle is now in 8th grade (and since Im a terrible mom who pulled my girls out of school for a Disney trip AGAIN), I had to tell Danielle about the trip a little over a week in advance so she could have her teachers sign the form that is required by her school so she would get to make up the work. We told her on a Sunday evening, 10 days out from the trip. Her face turned bright red with shock (or, it could have been a little too much sun from a beautiful weekend, but I choose to think it was shock). She was definitely surprised. It was about as much fun as Ive had in a long time.
(Yes, thats me in my pajamas she didnt get back from a friends lake house till late that evening nothing like putting yourself out there on the web in your jammies! )
Jodi, on the other hand, is only in 6th grade and therefore in her last year of elementary school. I knew that I would be able to handle her absence with her teachers directly, so we didnt tell her until the morning that we left! By the night before the trip, it became apparent that Jodi had no idea what was coming. I was sure she had figured out that there would be a trip to WDW at some time, but she clearly had no idea as to when it would happen. So, on Tuesday night, Jodi went to dance class just like always, bickered with her sister, took a shower, bickered with her sister some more, and then went to bed. Not too much later, Danielle, Ray and I all followed suit, trying to get some sleep before our big day the next day.
Wednesday morning came bright and early. Ray, Danielle and I all got together for the big reveal. Danielle and I wore Mickey t-shirts and had Jodys Tink shirt ready for her. When she finally woke up and figured out that we were seriously going to WDW instead of school, it was great.
Jodi wondering why the whole family has invaded her room before her alarm even went off:
And then the fun began when she figured it out:
We were at WDW from Wednesday, September 2 through Monday, September 7 (Labor Day). We hit all four main parks, plus Typhoon Lagoon and DTD. Happily, we were there for Free Dining, and even upgraded to Deluxe, so we got to go to some restaurants and shows we had always wanted to go to but never had before. More on all those later.
Anyway, thanks for joining in! More to come soon!
(PS And for the record, this report DOES involve me swimming in Bay Lake!
And, I lived to tell the tale!)
Leslie
Welcome to my fourth trip report! (If any of you need any bedtime reading, the first three TRs are linked in my signature below.) This time, as we did the past two times before this trip, we were back at Fort Wilderness, staying in a cabin. We used to be Poly Concierge people, and certainly loved it there, but once we found the cabins at FW, we knew thats where we would be staying on all future trips. We just love the Fort!Anyway, heres the cast of characters for the trip:
Me: a 42 year old Disney nut. While I had fun on my childhood trips to the World, I never knew how much I would love it once I started taking my kids. Somehow, its a completely different kind of thing to get to have fun at WDW with your kids, and amazingly better than it was when I was their age. I love everything about it the planning
, the thinking, the ADR-ing, the thinking some more, the re-doing of ADRs
. All of you know the drill. Anyway, heres me:
DH Ray: a 48 year old who tolerated WDW on the first couple of trips, but who has now really come to love it as much as me. That doesnt mean he likes to plan the trips like I do, but he sure does love being there. Finding the cabins at FW was really the tipping point on Ray loving the trips his ability to spread out in the cabin, not hear any kids running down the hall and just being out in nature (with a golf cart, of course!) increased his enjoyment of these trips tremendously. Ray (driving said golf cart):
DD13 Danielle: Danielle is now officially a teenager and this was her first trip to the World with that designation. (She makes sure to remind me of her status frequently, in case I ever forget.
) She is full of energy and life and definitely loves going to WDW as much as possible. Heres Danielle:
DD11 Jodi: Jodi is by far my more laid back daughter, but she is equally enthusiastic about WDW. In her writing journal for school this year, she has already written about how much she loves going to the World, even though at the time she wrote it, she had no idea there even was going to be a trip.
Heres Jodi:
Over the past few trips, weve waited as long as we could before telling the girls we were going. Youd think that the obsessive amount of time I spend on the Disboards planning would tip them off, but happily we managed to keep it a secret again. Since Danielle is now in 8th grade (and since Im a terrible mom who pulled my girls out of school for a Disney trip AGAIN), I had to tell Danielle about the trip a little over a week in advance so she could have her teachers sign the form that is required by her school so she would get to make up the work. We told her on a Sunday evening, 10 days out from the trip. Her face turned bright red with shock (or, it could have been a little too much sun from a beautiful weekend, but I choose to think it was shock). She was definitely surprised. It was about as much fun as Ive had in a long time.
(Yes, thats me in my pajamas she didnt get back from a friends lake house till late that evening nothing like putting yourself out there on the web in your jammies!
)
Jodi, on the other hand, is only in 6th grade and therefore in her last year of elementary school. I knew that I would be able to handle her absence with her teachers directly, so we didnt tell her until the morning that we left! By the night before the trip, it became apparent that Jodi had no idea what was coming. I was sure she had figured out that there would be a trip to WDW at some time, but she clearly had no idea as to when it would happen. So, on Tuesday night, Jodi went to dance class just like always, bickered with her sister, took a shower, bickered with her sister some more, and then went to bed. Not too much later, Danielle, Ray and I all followed suit, trying to get some sleep before our big day the next day.
Wednesday morning came bright and early. Ray, Danielle and I all got together for the big reveal. Danielle and I wore Mickey t-shirts and had Jodys Tink shirt ready for her. When she finally woke up and figured out that we were seriously going to WDW instead of school, it was great.
Jodi wondering why the whole family has invaded her room before her alarm even went off:
And then the fun began when she figured it out:
We were at WDW from Wednesday, September 2 through Monday, September 7 (Labor Day). We hit all four main parks, plus Typhoon Lagoon and DTD. Happily, we were there for Free Dining, and even upgraded to Deluxe, so we got to go to some restaurants and shows we had always wanted to go to but never had before. More on all those later.
Anyway, thanks for joining in! More to come soon!
(PS And for the record, this report DOES involve me swimming in Bay Lake!
And, I lived to tell the tale!)Leslie
But, I can live thru your tr until then! 
I can't wait. Till then I will live on these boards and read all about everyone else's adventures. 
. Love that you surprised your girls - I'm so bad at keeping my excitement in check that I don't know if I could pull it off but I would so like to try! Can't wait to read more!
