Our first family Trip report (long overdue) with photos!

[Mrs.viv07]

WOW we have about 4½ months till our next trip and I am still writing our first trip' report.
Let me begin by introducing my crew:

Meee – Vivian 28

yes i'm a red head and proud of it!!!
I had not been to Disney since I was oh maybe 12 and let me tell you I have always loved anything Disney related but this time aside from so many years having gone by, I had my own son to share this milestone with…oh yeah and a new husband. Those who know me, know I always said I was not the marrying kind so the fact that this man went and threw my world upside down was a task

MH (my husband) – Michael 37

He had not been to Disney since he was 18 and had it not been for me he probably wouldn’t have thought about it on his own, let alone plan a trip. I love this man he made my life do a 180 and I am so thankful for it because I LOVE being married. I found that I am a natural cook, I love experimenting new things (food –wise) to satisfy his Italian side. And for my own mother to say I cook better that her…WOW!
We both worked 2 jobs to be able to afford our wedding for a whole year and he was so exhausted all the time, plus we had never had a vacay, not a real one anyway, one that lasted past Sundays, so i finally convinced him that this was do-able and Darren was the right age ect ect ect. He agreed wohoo so as time went by, he was getting more and more excited especially after he started seeing all the ADR’s I had planned out. and the spreadsheet with what parks which day and what shows. I’ll be the first to admit we are foodies, we love food and I blame it all on him. oh yeah and being married too!


DS (dear son) - 6

the love of my life, my little man Darren, who at the time of the trip was 5 going on 6 at Disney. He was excited but I guess he didn’t know what to expect UNTIL he saw the planning DVD and all he could was talk about Disney. Yeay for me I found one like me!
I showed him clips on you tube of rides he wanted to do like HM and ToT so he knew what to expect, he was loving it, he also made one of the sweetest comments when I told him we would also spend a day at seaworld…”mommy that’s great now you can be with dolphins isn’t that your dream?” OMG I was bawling when he said that. He is such a sweet loving gentle boy, don’t get me wrong he’ll rough house wit daddy any day but he’s my little man!

Also joining us were my best friend’s family and BF

Alan & Jackie

disclaimer: out of respect (and to prevent a beating) …their ages shall remain unknown) I can say whoever that these two are the biggest kids you’ll ever meet.. Alan is a big kid at heart, and he makes ribs to die for.
Jackie is super funny, she kept us entertained thru the trip and we both took care of her daughter Julie (did I mention julie’s 25?) I guess the mommy in me kicks in every now and then. Like Julie says I am the big sister she is happy she never had!

Julie - 25

she is what I used to be like before life kicked in..you know kids, pets a husband, BILLS!!! I love her to death, she has been there for me in a lot and although I’ve only known her for about 4 years, we clicked instantly, enough that even MH got jealous of her.
She is insane and she reminds me of a cartoon carachter. She always manages to make me crack up even at my lowest.

Alex – 28

somehow i don't have a pic of him by himself, but he’s my big brother or little? I don’t know at times, I have scolded him and my son for both climbing on things they should know not to climb..like the big coke bottles at MGM… He is the best babysitter in the world. He is the ONLY person that manages to get my son to say mommy I’m tired can we go home to bed (insert shining light down on my head from the heavens and the choir signing Hallelujah) Thank you Alex!

Ok so now we had decided to do this as a BDay trip for our son, now we had to plan and book it all. little me had to plan for 7 people
I AM A PLANNER, I am OC when it comes to planning anything and everything, I need to know where I’ll be, at what time, in what order…I planned my wedding and man as much as I loved every second of it, I don’t think I can say the same for those thisclose to it all. Here are some of my faves from the glorious 72 weather day we had in Novemeber in NY! MH is trully a blessed man since i HATE winter! someone up there loves him!

So naturally planning our Disney trip was something i wouldn't allow anyone else to do for me, I had to do it all or i would freakout. I found the disboards by chance, I used to be on the knot, which is kinda like the dis but for brides to be, and another knottie who is also a disser (Steph1976) referred me, I checked it out, joined and lurked, but in the process learned so many helpful things. Needless to say, I was hooked
I would come home and since the wedding was over all I talked about was the dis this and the dis that and my poor husband looked at me and just nodded.
See I need to have projects to keep my purty little head occupied and this was awesome as far as he was concerned since it had nothing to do with him…unlike the wedding!
AND Julie, who was also my co-worker at the time, endured most of the planning process with me. I talked ADR and MH and LGMMH and ME and …well you get the idea. I was crazy to them.
I loved the dis, there so many people willing to help out a newbie and I learned so much there, like:
How to make my own autograph and personalized it for DS birthday at Disney. Oh yeah that was the whole reason our trip was planned in the first place!

Oh and attach a sharpie so it never gets lost and also to carry a jumbo sharpie for characters with gloves (think Mickey, goofy ect) I attached mine to the back of the book with a Velcro circle

How to make LGMMH luggage tags (ok so maybe not LG but still)

I devised my own spreadsheet itinerary which a CM laughed at me for and called me obsessed...ummm ya think?

it looks prettier in color

I went crazy at the dollar store and bought glow sticks, crayons, ponchos, shower curtains to separate the bathroom at ASMo from the “bed” area, and so much more

and stuff you should NEVER leave home without!

I went crazy whenever Target had dollar sales and there was Mickey stuff
I stocked up on Mickey thing when the Disney store had sales so I could surprise my DS

I made “the best tips in WDW” booklet to know where to find “hidden magic” at each park or info tidbits.

I learned how to make T-Shirts for us all. we all picked out a design and i trasfered it to a heather grey t-shirt that i got at AC moore

I had the perfect trip planned out.

Cute note, this pic was take on a trip to little Italy NYC and we had ordered calamari, well if we ever needed a sign that Disney wanted us to come back in 2008 we got it

 

[chiefdragon]

What a great start. I can not wait to read more. You are an amazing writer

 

[ferfer76]

I agree, really great report! Your story is so sweet, and I love the pics! And you just prompted me to start a planning spreadsheet of my own! Thank you I used the format that you have, it is great!!!!!! And I also just made a trip to the dollar store LOL. $10 later, I think I am set.

Can't wait to hear more

 

[Enchanted]

You guys look like a fun group, and your little guy is SO ADORABLE! Seriously, what a cutie! Anyway, I'm totally intrigued now. Must. Hear. More.

Your wedding pictures are gorgeous by the way.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Great start! Love the hidden Mickey in the calamari!

 

[disneydance]

What a great start my mom did the same exact thing with a spreadsheet loving this start

 

[winkers]

I can't wait to read more!

 

[BeautyNBeast]

I was a knottie too. That website was priceless for weddings. Cannot wait to read more. I cannot evem fathom 7 people.

 

[Mrs.viv07]

So we begin the night before our trip Tuesday Jan 9 2007. I did not sleep at all and not because of excitement but because I am deathly afraid of flying, I got sick to my stomach that night and was a nervous wreck. In other words I HATE FLYING
Fast forward to 5 am and our friends are at our house and the car is waiting to take all 8 of us to the airport. I am ok at this point we checked in had some light breakfast and sat to wait, 20 minutes to board I send my wonderful hubby to get me some chamomile tea or I think he’ll have to carry me to the plane.
He gets me the tea and this is what I look like 10 minutes before boarding!

My son on the other hand…well

Ok so after 2 hours that seemed like an eternity, oh the bottle of chardonnay (mini) helped out too.

WE were in Orlando!!!! We made it to the ME, got our things together and waited for the bus; wow wow wow is all I could think. We made it!
We got into the bus, and then the music started M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

We got to our final destination

We were able to check in right away at 10 am, the rooms are so much fun, and although I’ll be the first to admit I am dying to stay at the AK lodge, for the amount of time we spent in the room this was perfect. I just can’t see myself spending…well whatever the rate is over there just to sleep in the room, if it was a honeymoon the honey upgrade me to the penthouse suite, but for family vacay, as long as I have running water, a toilet and 2 beds we are good to go. That may also be called cheap which I can be at times!
We dropped our bags off and head to our first park...MGM here we come

The bus ride over was uneventful, exciting though! We get to MGM about 11:30

we start walking around but heading towards the SCI-FI we are starving at this point... We get to the host stand and I get my handy dandy spread sheet with our ADR # and we are told we will be seated in about 20 minutes…yeah right! More like 7!
We go thru what looks like the back of a movie theater at least that’s what I think I was a good girl in HS. Then we get to main area…wow this place is amazing I tell MH as he stares aimlessly at the screen. Keep moving hon!!! We get to our car well actually two, Jackie Alan Julie & Alex take on, we take another, Darren is in the front seat …alone, me & daddy are in the back seat…how appropriate!. We love this place and had a blast, we ordered burgers, a reuben and a margarita and a milk shake, the food was great This was one of our OOP (out of pocket ) meals I think we paid about $45. My son had to have the glow ice cube to protect him from the monster on the screen.

after lunch we walked over to meet..who else but the mouse himself!

We walked around some more and got other autographs.

We saw the parade and DS got so excited when he saw woody he almost snapped my hand trying to get closer to him...until he saw his obsession of the moment HERBIE!

At the end of the night we had a 7pm ressie at the 50’s prime time. We choose this place to celebrate Allan’s bday since it was that day. We had and awesome cousin! He played his part so well... as he was explaining the menu to us Allen kept talking to Jackie which got our cousin so mad he made Allan sing “I’m a little teapot”

The he left us there to eat. I was so full from the yummy cheese herb app I had and my meatloaf which was delicioso! I could not finish my veggies and of course when cousin came back I was the first to ask for dessert which got me into trouble and I was forced to eat my veggies, actually I was fed my veggies!

You know for having such a big mouth you would think I could hold green beans in huh?
After being made fun of he finally took our dessert order.
And then to Allan’s surprise he was presented with his own bday cake!

I think we paid about $25 for this cake; I have to look up the info of the baker that made it since there isn’t one at mgm when I checked
My hubby got the make your own Sunday to share with our son….

Who also got a birthday cupcake that he was so crazy about since the sprinkles are Mickey shaped

I piggy that I am and dessert ***** got the marshmallows

And Julie got the Sundae to share with her mom

ok did i make you mouth water yet? mission accomplished!

That concludes our first official day at MGM
Stay tuned for another un-merry birthday and argh pirates!