Wait the Blizzard wasn't in my plans! A January 2016 TR. Updated 4/20 Day 4 Animal Kingdom

[tabrizia]

Hi all we just got back yesterday from our trip. It was a bit longer then expected, but if I had to wait out a blizzard, Disney is definitely a good choice. I did a pre-trip report, that is actually still ongoing since I we are going to Universal this summer (just me and attriel) and Disneyland in December most likely.


Our trip took place from January 12, 2016 - January 26, 2016


Anyways I guess I should do introductions.

Hi I'm Sarah, also known as tabrizia. I am the crazy planner in my family though I am training up the next generation well, much to my husbands annoyance . I am 37, and this trip was my 8th trip to Disney World. I love almost all of Disney and can't really pick my favorite part. I also homeschool the minions, so missing school was not a concern for our trip and made it easier to chose a time to go.

Next up is my husband, Dan, also know as attriel. He likes Disney, but doesn't like listening to me plan and obsess. He is 38, and this year is our 15th wedding anniversary and 20th year together. This was his 7th trip to Disney World. 4 of those trips have been together.

Next up are the minions.

Minion 1 is Desmond. He is 8 1/2. He is awesome. Desmond has an accident when he had just turned 5 and fell 3 stories out a window onto concrete. He was in the hospital for 7 weeks. He is our miracle boy. His current interests are theatre, he really wants to be in Les Miserables, he is currently in a theatre class that is producing The Adams Family, and swimming. He also loves minecraft, disney, puss in boots, star wars, dr who, stitch and various and other assorted things. This was his 3rd trip to Disney, his first trip was at 5 months and his second trip was when he was 2 1/2.

Next up is Minion 2, Eloise. Eloise is 6 1/2 (she turns 7 in 6 weeks or so). She loves princesses. She is big into dancing and swimming. She also loves minecraft, Frozen, playing with her siblings, Frozen, reading, Frozen, disney, Frozen, princesses, Frozen, stuffed animals, Frozen, and bunches of other things. She also really loves Frozen. This was her second trip to Disney, her first trip was when she was 7 months old.

Last up is Minion 3, Sully. Sully is 4 1/2. He is very 4. He loves Skylanders and Olaf. He also enjoys minecraft, playing on his iPad, watching videos of other people playing Skylanders, Star Wars, stuffed animals, Sulley (from Monster's Inc) stuff, and cars. This is his first trip to Disney World.

This trip came about as a way to celebrate my Father's 65th birthday. My Mom took us, and 2 of my 3 siblings, the last one couldn't get time off work, to Disney for a week. We decided to add a bit to the trip, so we came down 4 days before everyone to have some family time at Disney. We also ended up staying 3 days after everyone, but that wasn't in the plans. I ended up planning most of the trip, including FP and ADRs. At times we had 18 people there, our numbers varied day by day from 5 to 18, there were a total of 19 people involved in the trip.


The main members who were there for 8 of the days we were there included my parents, my middle sister Laura, her husband Miles (BIL 1), their son Reese (5), and their daughter Eva (2), and my sort of niece Ruthie (10). Other main players include my other sister Nancy, her husband David (BIL 2), and their son Freyr (3 months). The other people joining us include Peggy, Ruthie and Miles' Mom (it's complicated), my Uncle Jay, my Aunt Debbie, and their Grandson (my cousin's son) Hudson (17 months).

Here is a picture of most of the above people, it does not include, Peggy, my uncle, aunt or their grandson or Freyr (it was taken before he was born) and it does include my cousin who was stupid so ended up not coming and my brother and sister in law who couldn't make it.

 

[tabrizia]

No real pictures in this post, sorry.

So here are the basics of our trip. My Mom planned the trip to be January 16, 2016 - January 23, 2016, after various discussion with everyone. We decided those dates would be nice since the baby would be old enough to come, my sister should be recovered from birth and since it was over MLK weekend, people won't have to take as much time off.

After the dates were planed I remembered how much I hated my last trip to Disney with my parents and brother and sister in law, 6 year ago. Attriel and I decided we should add a second trip in the fall so we would be sure to do Disney how we liked it. We also decided to add a couple of days to the January trip. In the end we decided to change the December trip to Disneyland, and due to airfare costs it made the most sense to come up on the Tuesday before everyone else, rather then Thursday evening like we had planned.

That meant we had either 3 or 4 days to do Disney before everyone else arrived, they all live closer then us and everyone but Nancy, David and Freyr were driving down. Since we were on our own for those first few days we decided to stay on property since we prefer it to off property. We decided on Caribbean Beach Resort, due to it fitting 5 people and overall cost. We did get the dining plan for those 4 nights, since we were able to get the Play, Stay and Dine deal, which made it worthwhile.

The plan was to switch to the timeshare on Saturday the 16th and stay there until the 23rd when we would fly home. My parents bought a timeshare years ago at Cypress Point, they were able to get one unit there for the trip, they could not find another unit though, and for awhile it looked like we might be staying at POP! Century. Unfortunately for the Disney bubble my Mom found 2 units at Summer Bay, so we had enough rooms off property for all. This was good for her since she was paying for 15 of the 19 people coming so it saved her a bunch of money, though it was sad for my Disney bubble loving heart.

Our family got 9 day passes, which we ended up adding the last day to to make them 10 day passes, we did not get park hopper, we decided we really didn't need it this trip. Everyone else on the trip had between a 3 and 5 day ticket, a few of the 5 day tickets were changed to 6 day tickets, and one of the 3 day tickets was changed to a 5 day ticket.

All the planning info is at my pre-trip report. The basics didn't change much from my planning until January 16th, and didn't really start to change a lot until January 22nd.

Anyways off we head to Disney!

 

[tabrizia]

Saved for links if I'm ambitious.

 

[bcwife76]

Here and following

 

[tabrizia]

Day 1: Travel Day! Part 1
Tuesday January 12, 2016


So we had packed most of our luggage Sunday night and Monday, which meant Tuesday morning we were mostly ready to go. Thinking ahead we dropped the dog off at the kennel on Sunday, so we didn't have to worry about it Monday or Tuesday morning, we use a kennel 45 minutes from the house, because it is worth it, except for the drive. I decided when packing that it would be easier to take both of the younger kids car seats, rather than to travel with a high back booster for minion 2. That meant we had 6 bags to check, 2 car seats, 1 stroller, 1 overhead bag and 5 backpacks. It was a lot of luggage, since it was a 12 day trip, it wasn't too much luggage, but it was a lot of luggage. I decided against packing any jackets other then the kids' fleece jackets and my and attriel's general use hoodies, it worked, but there were a few cold days, and a very cold return.

The cute primary colored blue bag was our carry on suitcase, packed with extra clothes. There was one more suitcase not in this picture we took as well and was checked.

My Father in law arrived around 10am, our flight was at 1 and we wanted to be at the airport by 11, so it was great timing on his part. The car was mostly packed because attriel had done it the night before, so just the backpacks and 2 last suitcases needed to be put in, after my Father in Law arrived. The kids were more then ready to go. They were in matching shirts to make it easier for me at the airport.

I made sure I had my planning book of doom before we headed out. I ended up not really needing it, other then for the extra autograph paper I put at the end, but having it all printed made me feel better.

We were on our way by 10:30 and at the airport shortly before 11am. We pulled all the luggage out of the car and put the small people to work. My Father in Law wishes us a good trip and headed out in our car after having attriel have to go back to show him how to move the seat forward.

We dropped off all the luggage, but the backpacks, stroller, small blue carry on and minion 3s car seat since he insisted he needed it on the flight. We then made our way through security, it was fairly empty for a random Tuesday morning in January, which was nice. Once we were through security the minions wanted food, because they always want food. We stopped at everyone's favorite stop and got McD's for them. They all got the kid's nugget meal with apple slices, minion 1 and 3 got chocolate milk and minion 2 got apple juice. We also got them an order of cheese sticks. They had also all gotten drinks from the newstand, minion 1 got lemonade, minion 2 got berry punch and minion 3 got orange juice. Attriel and I had gotten a rootbeer to split.

The kids got settled with their food. They rated it as good, then again they like McD's so...

After the kids were settled I went to Quiznos and got attriel and me food. Attriel has a weird allergy, he can't eat land based animals. It sounds like a dietary preference, but it is an actual allergy/intolerance. That means he has to be careful about cross contamination and other issues. Fortunately the worker at Quiznos was good about changing gloves after making my steak sandwich, before making attriel's tuna sandwich. I got both sandwiches and pretty soon it was time to board. We flew SouthWest, if that isn't obvious by the fact we checked a bunch of bags. Attriel had gotten A boarding, the kids and I had gotten B 1 - 4 boarding. Attriel took the car seat and stroller and boarded with A, I waited for family boarding, since both minion 2 and 3 are young enough to qualify and it is before B boarding. As soon as attriel got on they called family boarding and we followed right behind him.

We set up in two rows, the boys in front of me and minion 2. Fortunately it wasn't a completely full flight so no one ended up sitting in the middle seat between me and minion 2, yay! The kids were fine on the trip, they fly all the time to Atlanta and did India in November 2014, so the 2 hour flight to Orlando was only 20 minutes or so more then our normal Atlanta flight. They settled down into iPads and veg mode quickly.

I ate my sandwich after the flight had taken off and attriel did the same.

Standard Quiznos sandwich it was fine.

They came around with peanuts and pretzels as well as drinks fairly quickly. I think the kids got drinks, I am pretty sure I got Sprite, but I don't really remember at this point, attriel likely got Coke. After a short 2 hour flight we landed in Orlando and headed out to get our rental car for the start of our trip.

(I'll continue in the next post since this one is getting long)

 

[tabrizia]

Day 1: Travel Day! Part 2
Tuesday January 12, 2016

We got on the faux-monorail and were on our way to car rental fairly quickly.

We hadn't planned on getting a car until Friday night, but it ended up making more sense to just get it when we arrived, if we didn't want it we could take the bus, if we did then we had it. We got our luggage, went through the Alamo line and were shortly there after in the minivan lane. They said pick whatever car we wanted from the lane. I quickly spotted the 8 passenger Toyota Sienna, rather then the 7 passenger Town and Country, so we grabbed it. We put in the luggage, put in the car seats and were on our way!

We had planned to buy some breakfast stuff so when we saw a sign for Publix after the second toll we got off and stopped. It was around 5 by then and still fairly light out, which was nice. We did a quick shop for some snacks and breakfast stuff. I think it took 15 minutes or so.

We were then on our way to our resort. Not much after the grocery stop this lovely sign came in view.

The lovely Disney bubble, which we didn't leave until Saturday evening. We got a bit confused because the GPS tried to have us go in the bus only entrance to CBR, but quickly figured it out and made it to the entrance and custom house to check in. We got both requests I had made, Jamaica and corner room. Unfortunately we didn't get Jamaica 45, but we were happy with where we were. We checked out the room and it looked nice for our stay. Attriel hauled lots of suitcases up the stairs, sorry about that, and we got settled in, but not to settled in because we had plans for dinner!

And that is where I will end this for the moment, since I have to edit photos for the next piece.

 

[tabrizia]

Here and following

Welcome aboard!

 

[ariane37]

Welcome back, Sarah! Following along

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Joining In!

 

[tabrizia]

Welcome back, Sarah! Following along

Welcome and it is great to be back!

Joining In!

Yay, welcome aboard!

 

[tabrizia]

I will be updating in a bit, I need to get pictures ready. I plan to finish off our travel day at least today. That way we can get to a park day, which is always more fun anyways.

I did start my dining report too. It is over on the dining review board: A table service a day keeps the blizzard away, or maybe not...

That being said I just started it, I haven't started on reviews yet. I need to edit pictures still for our first T-Rex review.

 

[tabrizia]

So I meant to update later, but minion 3 wanted to go up to my room and snuggle for awhile. Which lead to a nap for me. Anyways, after said nap I finally got around to getting all the pictures ready for this post. There are quite a few, hopefully I can finish it in one post.

Day 1: Travel Day! Part 3
Tuesday January 12, 2016

After getting settled in the room, it was around 6:30 or so I believe. We decided everyone was good to head to Disney Springs and eat at T-Rex. We figured it would be a fun start to the trip. We all got in the car and headed out to Disney Springs. Now we knew that only the West Side parking lot was open, but you don't really realize how far the walk is until you have done it. I guess it was good practice for the next day at the parks. Anyways we noted where we parked, 4th floor row something or another and headed down. There was a nice cast member at the exit to the garage handing out maps and stickers, so we got both. It was useful, since while the stuff we wanted hadn't moved, it had been 6 years and we rarely went to the West Side anyways.

Hats on and ready to go.

We headed towards our dinner option of T-Rex. We got there and I got into line, I heard them telling the people in front of me that it would be about an hour. I showed my card and we were immediately sent to the line to be seated. In all it took about 3 minutes from getting in line to getting a seat. I am kind of in love with the Landry card. We were seated across from the T-Rex in a booth right as you enter the restaurant.

This was our view.

After being seated we perused the menu.

I got a Cottontini based on a recent review I had read on @Elevationist 's dining report. I went with the Apple Cottontini, it was good, don't try it, just go straight to the tropical option (I learned that later in the trip). Attriel got a margarita.

Attriel and I decided to share the fish and chips, since we wanted to get dessert. The kids each got kid meals. There is more info on the meal in my dining report. It was a great meal. We had a minor issue, minion 2's meal and our shrimp addition ended up at the wrong table. We weren't overly worried things happen, but they quickly took care of it, and took the price of this beauty off our bill because of it.

All in all it was a great meal the food quality was good, the food quantity was huge and we all enjoyed ourselves. We would definitely go back, in fact we did go back later in the trip.

After we were done we had the leftover chocolate cake boxed as well as the rest of minion 2s corn dogs, since we had a fridge. We then headed over to the World of Disney. Minion 1 and 2 had ears, the Pluto and Mickey ones, from their first visit we were looking for something similar for minion 3. We headed in and explored the shop.

We visited stuffed animals and the princess section first.

We didn't get any of the above, though minion 1 did eventually get the yoda stitch later.

We headed to hats to explore for minion 3. Minion 2, fell in love with a set of Elsa ears, we promised her we would get them later. We didn't, I feel a bit guilty about that, but she doesn't seem to upset, so maybe next trip.

We actually looked for this Stitch hat later on and couldn't find it, if we had, minion 2 likely would have gotten her Elsa ears.

We found the hat!

We couldn't find any pirate hats in the style of the two we had, but we found this Mike hat. Now Minion 3's name is Sully and he loves Monsters Inc. We couldn't find a Sulley hat, but the second best thing is a Mike hat. So Sully got a Mike hat. It was the perfect choice, he loved his hat, even if I ended up wearing it a bunch. After we bought the hat we headed over to Goofy's candy store. We had snack credits and what better way to spend them, then on a make your own treat?

Minion 3 saw the marshmallow snowmen and fell in love, so he didn't make his own, but how cute is this?

Minion 1, did a gingerbread mickey with milk chocolate, m&ms and white chocolate drizzle

Minion 2 went with a gingerbread mickey with white chocolate, oreos and a dark chocolate drizzle

I went with the rice crispy treat in dark chocolate, with dark and white chocolate chips and a white chocolate drizzle

Attriel decided not to make anything, his loss. We then did the long walk back to the car. On the way back minion 1 had a minor meltdown because a lady was standing with a cigarette in the middle of the walk way and he was dancing a bit too close to the lit cig. I felt bad, but would have felt worse if he had gotten burnt. We headed back to the car and drove to the resort. The minions were asleep shortly after we made it to the room around 10pm.

Attriel went out to the food court once they were out and got all of our reusable mugs. The only reason we go these was because they were free with the dining plan. We used them oncefor me and attriel, the kids never even used theirs at all.

We went with 2 purples, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 red. My Mom ended up taking this back to her house since we didn't have suitcase room for them.

Attriel also noted we were right by the beach. We were at CBR such a short time I never really ended up exploring it at all. I would like to go back at some point and explore the resort some, it seemed very nice.

After attriel got back we both got ready and headed to bed, we were both out by 12:30 or so. Which was good we had plans for a fairly early day the next morning. It was our first park day!

 

[tabrizia]

I forgot to mention that this night was the first of a couple of nights when I had to redo fastpasses for my sort of niece. You will note we were already in Disney everyone was arriving in 4 days and her Mom still wasn't quite sure of their plans for how long they were staying. I got a text from her Mom and I moved her Wednesday fastpass to Saturday since at that point, she was leaving Tuesday night. I rolled my eyes a bit but moved thing around. I then got a message from my Mom after I did so to just ignore it, but since I had done it, I let it lie for the moment.

Yes, not knowing exactly what she was doing 4 days before Disney did totally make my little planning heart go eek! It gets worse though, oh so many changes occur, though a few I was semi-expecting at least.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Yes, not knowing exactly what she was doing 4 days before Disney did totally make my little planning heart go eek! It gets worse though, oh so many changes occur, though a few I was semi-expecting at least.

You know its stuff like this that make me grateful that my parents are okay to not experience Disney with us.

 

[tabrizia]

You know its stuff like this that make me grateful that my parents are okay to not experience Disney with us.

My parents weren't too bad. The rest of the group however caused me to change things quite a few times. That being said, I did not tell anyone how to get their own MDE account so if things were changed it was all on me. I really didn't want to give them the ability, since then I'd be dealing with people changing all sorts of things and it was easier to just have me do it, so I knew what everyone was doing.

 

[NJlauren]

I'm here! Sorry I'm a little late but happy to be here!

Great travel day, nothing crazy and seemed to work out pretty well!

Great pictures and good time at Disney Springs!!!

Can't wait to hear more.... Especially if the always moving arrival day for your niece changes again! Or makes anything difficult

 

[tabrizia]

Day 2: EPCOT, Part 1: Mickey Waffles for Breakfast
Wednesday January 13, 2016

It was our first full day at Disney which means it is a park day. I had debated between EPCOT and Magic Kingdom for our first day, but in the end EPCOT worked best and based on the crowd calendar I was using it was also the best choice. So today was our first park day and we would be going to EPCOT.

Around 5:50am Minion 1 woke up. This wasn't actually that surprising the boy tends to wake early. He grabbed his iPad and got a bit of screen time in since everyone else was asleep. He did wake me up, but really it was our first Disney day I didn't mind waking a bit early. Around 6:45 attriel and minion 2 woke up. Attriel waking up then isn't a surprise he normally gets up a bit earlier then that to get ready for work. Minion 2 on the other hand likes to sleep in, one of her favorite parts of homeschooling is she doesn't have to get up super early, I guess the excitement of Disney was working on her. Minion 3 was still asleep. Minion 1 took his meds and got dressed as did attriel, the two of them then walked over to Port Royal Food Court to get some breakfast for us. We got 2 adult waffle meals with bacon on a different plate and 1 child waffle meal. Everyone was happy with our breakfast choice and we were all ready to go by 8:15 or so.

We headed to EPCOT and parked. I took a quick photo of where we parked and walked to the park, we were close enough to do so and the tram were not yet running. We made it right around rope drop.

We headed to TT. When we got there we saw that the wait said 30 minutes. We didn't want to deal with that long of a wait, though we later realized that it wasn't actually a 30 minute wait, the default was just 30 minutes. Either way the minions decided against a 30 minute wait. I did mention that minion 1 could do single rider which had no wait and he was on board with that option. Minion 1 and I headed into the single rider line while attriel entertained the other two. After a walk on ride, we grabbed our ride photos for our first photopass pictures of the trip. We hadn't stopped for pictures when we entered.

After we got off we headed over to to Spaceship Earth. There was no line so we quickly got on our vehicles. I rode with minion 1 and attriel rode with minion 2 and 3 for this trip through time.

I am not quite sure what happened to my hair in this future, but minion 1 and I had fun choosing our future.

Once we got off we played with some of the games. The kids really enjoyed this energy one, where they basically played shuffle board to get energy circle to keep a city powered.

After heading out we did our FP+ for Spaceship Earth, we didn't really need the FP for this, though there was a small line on our second go around. This time I had minion 2 with me, attriel had minion 3 and minion 1 went alone. Minion 2 and I also had fun determining our future, and I got to keep my hair this time.

After we got off a second time we headed over to check out the character spot. The line was long enough we decided against waiting. We did get into line for Baymax though for our first character meet of the trip. Minion 2 decided she was not interested in meeting Baymax, but minion 1 was looking forward to it and minion 3 was happy to meet him as well.

We then headed over to The Seas. We had a 10:45 FP+ for Crush and we wanted to do Nemo first and explore the Aquarium. We got our picture taken in front of Nemo after we dropped off the stroller, we tried to get as many photopass pictures as we could, if we saw a free photopass person we almost always headed over unless we had a reason that we couldn't stop.

After our picture we headed onto Nemo. There was no line and after a walk through the queue we were quickly on the ride. Minion 2 rode with me, minion 3 rode with attriel and minion 1 rode by himself. Everyone enjoyed the ride.

After we got off we looked at the aquariums for a moment or two before heading to Crush. We got there just as they were letting people into the theatre, so perfect timing. Minion 1 and 2 happily sat in the front. Minion 3 decided to sit with us at first and then changed his mind and ended up with his sister and brother. It was a fairly crowded show and mostly full. None of the minions ended up picked by Crush, but minion 2 was clearly heard when Crush asked "What can you do at the beach?" She answered with "play in the sand." One of the kids that was picked did try to explain what a movie was to Crush, it was rather amusing, ending up with the kid going, "Yeah, I guess you won't have that in the ocean." After Crush we did a bathroom break and then explored the aquarium for awhile. They played the shark playground area and we got pictures of everyone in Bruce's mouth.

Everyone was a bit hungry since it was around noon. We stopped at the gift shop and somehow minion 2 ended up following someone who wasn't us out the door. Apparently the woman was wearing a grey hoodie, similar to mine and she went to follow. It took us about 10 seconds to realize she wasn't there. Fortunately she was easy to spot in the tie-dye shirt when I ran outside and I yelled her name and freeze. She didn't hear me the first time, but the second time she startled looked around and came running back. I then had 1 very upset child, because she realized she had almost gotten lost at EPCOT and 2 very relieved parents because she hadn't gotten lost at EPCOT.


We then headed to the Land for lunch, which I'll continue in the next post.

 

[tabrizia]

I'm here! Sorry I'm a little late but happy to be here!

Great travel day, nothing crazy and seemed to work out pretty well!

Great pictures and good time at Disney Springs!!!

Can't wait to hear more.... Especially if the always moving arrival day for your niece changes again! Or makes anything difficult

Welcome aboard.

The crazy doesn't start for another few days, with my niece, my cousin who was suppose to come, and with our return!

 

[Mainemama]

Joining! Sounds like an eventful trip! Coming from a snowy state, it is my not-so-secret dream to get stuck in Disney. I bet they reality isn't quite as easy as my fantasy, though. My family also has weird allergies. My ODD has poultry allergies, among others. I look forward to reading your reviews with that in mind. I love that you put the kids to work. Yup, flying with three kids means if you can walk, you can lug, right? I love the Stitch Yoda, my 8 year old DS would love that! I did not see that on our December trip!

 

[tabrizia]

Joining! Sounds like an eventful trip! Coming from a snowy state, it is my not-so-secret dream to get stuck in Disney. I bet they reality isn't quite as easy as my fantasy, though. My family also has weird allergies. My ODD has poultry allergies, among others. I look forward to reading your reviews with that in mind. I love that you put the kids to work. Yup, flying with three kids means if you can walk, you can lug, right? I love the Stitch Yoda, my 8 year old DS would love that! I did not see that on our December trip!

Welcome.

The extra days worked out better then I expected, but it was a bit harder to arrange everything to make them work best, since we were dealing with 10 other people at the time, they didn't stay for the extra time, but they were there and made it harder to drop a day or two to save for later.

The only child they didn't end up overly put to work in the airport either time was the 4 year old, since staying out of the way is a lot of help at that age. Fortunately since we fly frequently to Atlanta with just me and the 3 kids the other two are quite use to having to help out when we fly.

The Stitch Yoda was awesome and it was the perfect choice for an 8 year old boy. Minion 1's main interests as far as stuff went this trip were Stitch, Star Wars, Oswald and Baymax. The Stitch perfectly covered 2 of those 4 interests.