1 Aunt, 1 Mom, 2 kids - Will we be sane? - Updated 2/3

[Donald is #1]

Hi everyone! Well I downloaded my pictures this weekend. So it must be time to start my trip report.

This trip was over Veteran's day weekend. We left on Thursday night after school and returned on Tuesday. This way, the kids would only miss 2 days of school.

For the intro, let's steal the beginning of my pre-trip report, with a little editting. 1 Aunt, 1 Mom, 2 Kids - Pre trip report


Well, let's start with the main characters:

Me - Donald is #1 - I am in aunt in the title. I love WDW, bought into DVC last year, and will have had 3 trips to WDW in '08. My third trip will be starting in only 2 weeks!

DSis - Princess Power - my sister & mom to the kids. She also loves WDW but didn't have a chance to go to the world until 2006. This, however, will be her third trip in 3 years!

Pluto - my nephew, he is 11. He is a great kid who loves video games. His favorite characters are the villians. This will be his second trip to WDW.

Belle - my niece, she is 10. She is also a great kid who loves the princesses but is a very picky eater. This will also be her second trip to WDW.

How did this trip come about?
Well, when my sister & her family were planning their trip to WDW for Oct 06, I realized that it had been 6 years since my last trip to WDW. Since I didn't have any vacations planned for '06, my sister and I talked about it and I decided to go to WDW at the same time as them. That was a great trip, I ended spending about 1/2 the time with them and 1/2 the time solo. During that trip, I decided to do another trip the next Spring so I bought an annual pass. Well prior to that Spring trip (May '07), I started researching DVC and decided to buy in. So I ended up spliting my May trip between SSR and AKL and decided to buy into AKV while I was down there. So this was a long winded way of saying I bought into DVC and I started plotting.

I really wanted to take the kids with me. Originally when my sister and I were talking about it, I was going to take one kid at a time. However, with more thought, I realized that if I took them separately, it would be 6-12 months in between the trips and Belle would drive her parents and brother crazy when her brother went and she had to wait.

So I started thinking about taking both of them at the same time. Now, I think that although DSis figured I could handle one kid, she had some doubts over whether I could handle both kids.

So now we have me plus the kids. Well in October 07, my sisters and I went for a long weekend down to WDW. We had a great time and DSis got to see a lot of things that she didn't get a chance to see. So I decided to ask her if she wanted to come to. She jumped on the bandwagon right away. So now we have : me, DSis and the kids. This also means thad DSis & I could spend a lot of timing plotting ...er I mean planning... the trip.



Index
The Plan - Post 2
Day 1 - Travel to WDW - Post 14
Park Strategy
Day 2 - WL & Winterland/Summerland
Day 2 - AKV Finally!
Day 2 - Our Room
Day 2 - The surprise and Chef Mickey
Day 3 - DHS
Weather and Crowds
Day 3 - MK
Day 4 - AK part 1
Day 4 - AK part 2
Day 4 - MK

 

[Donald is #1]

OK, our plan was:

Thursday
- Evening flight from Logan to MCO on Jet Blue
- Stay at WL for 1 night

Friday
- Check out of WL
- Play mini-golf at Winterland Summerland
- Check into AKV (2 BR villa)
- Hang out at the pool
- Chef Mickey's for dinner

Saturday
- DHS
- Lunch at 50's Prime Time Cafe

Sunday
- AK during the day
- MK in the evening

Monday
- EPCOT
- Spoodles for dinner

Tuesday
- Check out of AKV
- Surprise for breakfast (yes, my pre-trip readers, you know what the surprise is)
- Fly home

 

[CJsMom]

I decided to come on over and check it out. Very interested to hear about how the crowds were over Veteran's Day! The plans sound great so far!

 

[Donald is #1]

I decided to come on over and check it out. Very interested to hear about how the crowds were over Veteran's Day! The plans sound great so far!

Welcome!!

 

[eeyoresnr]

 

[brookelizabeth]

Count me in!

 

[Flossbolna]

Great start! I am excited to read about your trip and see your pictures!!

 

[PNO4TE]

I'm here!

 

[tiggrbaby]

What a great aunt! Can't wait to read more!

 

[RachelTori]

I'm here too! Looks great so far -- except that "fly home" part.

 

[pilferk]

Subbing because I love trippies!!

Good job so far!

 

[John's Mom]

I'm in!

 

[Donald is #1]

eeyoresnr, brookelizabeth, Flossbolna, PNO4TE, tiggrbaby, RachelTori, pilferk, John's Mom

Welcome everyone!

Princess Power, are you here yet?


I should have an update up tonight!

 

[Donald is #1]

First off, here is a picture of us. It was actually taken a little later in the trip, but it is the only picture that I think that I have of all 4 of us.

The order is: Me, Pluto, some famous mouse , Belle, and Princess Power

OK Day 1 (Thursday):

Well, our original plan had been to fly down on Friday morning, but when the Jet Blue flights came out, it was slightly cheaper to fly on Thursday night plus we found a flight time that would let the kids get in a full day of school. (Boy we are mean! )

So, we changed plans, booked the flight down on Thursday night and then booked the night at Pop so that I could save my points. Also, I knew that we were arriving late and I wanted the kids to see AKV when they weren't as tired. Then the AP rates came out and I decided to switch to WL since then we could have queen beds instead of full size beds. Remember this! It will come up later in this post!


Anyway, back to day 1.

So mean adults that we are, we made the kids go to school all day while DSis took a full day of vacation and I took a half day of vacation. When Belle found out that we were taking vacation that day, she mentioned that it wasn't fair. Oh well, those are the breaks!

So, after a crazy morning at work that included an interview for a new position (no, I didn't get it but it was great experience), I headed out about 11:30. It takes me about 90 minutes to get to DSis's house but since work is a few minutes closer I ended up getting to her house about 12:45. I quickly changed into my travel clothes, i.e. jeans, and we headed out for lunch. We ended up going to Friendlys and although the service was incredibly slow, our sandwiches were actually very good!

By the time that we got back from lunch we only had about 30 minutes before picking up the kids. I should mention that it was raining all day. (this point is also important.) Since it was only raining lightly after lunch, we loaded up my car with the suitcases and then sat down to watch TV for about 30 minutes.

When we picked the kids up from school, they were very excited! We stopped briefly at their house so that they drop off their school backpacks and make any necessary bathroom breaks. I think that we were probably out of the house and heading to the airport within 30 minutes of them getting out of school! Can you tell that everyone wanted to be on their way?

Well, we had my Garmin set for PreFlight parking outside of Logan. This was our first time driving and parking by Logan. In the past, I have taken a limo. But PreFlight parking ended up being not too difficult to find with the Garmin. (Their on-line directions ended up being the same as the ones from my Garmin.) It was raining pretty good when we got there. But the shuttle driver followed us to the parking spot and then took our bags for us. He also gave us a paper with our parking spot number on it to be used when we got back. He dropped us off at the Jet Blue terminal very quickly. I think that it probably only took us 1.5 hours, maybe less, from DSis's house to the terminal including dropping off the car.

I had already checked us in on-line but we still needed to check the bags. Well the baggage check line was very long but seemed to move quickly. We had plenty of time so we weren't in a hurry.

Surprise #1: When we get to the counter, we check our bags and the woman at the counter told us that our 7:35 flight was delayed until about 9 PM. Oh well, I guess that we will be arriving later than we thought.

Well, the security line was pretty short and we got through without any problems. We then stopped to pick up dinner at one of the restaurants. Pluto got a cheeseburger, Belle got a yogurt parfait, and both DSis and I ended up getting salads. We took the food to our gate and settled in for a long wait. Although a bit long, the wait was ok and our plane finally got in a bit after nine. So by the time they loaded the plane, we finally took off at about 9:30. We bascially watched TV for most of the trip and the trip down was fine except that Belle had a lot of problems with her ears on the landing.

The flight is about 3 hours from Boston to MCO, so we landed between Midnight and 12:30. On our way to baggage claim, we stopped to use the restrooms and it seemed that every ladies room we came to was closed for cleaning. Well, we make it to baggage claim and our bags are one of the first ones off! 2 of our bags were duffle bags and they were extremely wet. I guess that they got soaked as they were waiting to be put on the plane in Boston. Once we had the bags, it was off to Alamo. By this point it was getting close to 1 AM. The kiosk was easy to use and then it was off to the garage. Since I have never used Alamo before, it was a bit confusing, esp at 1 AM, but eventually we found our category of car and picked one out. We were then off to WL with just 1 or 2 wrong turns. I just love my Garmin. If you screw up, it just calmly recalculates for you!

Well we got to WL at sometime between 1:30 and 2 AM. When we checked in, we got our keys, left the car with the valet (thank you free valet parking for DVC members) and headed to the room. We opened the door to the room and found that we had been up-graded to a bunk bed room! This should have been a good thing but ended up not being so great.

Of course both kids wanted the top bunk. So instead of fighting over it, I flipped a coin. Belle won so she choose the top bunk. (Not a good thing -- wait until my next post!) Pluto had the bottom bunk but didn't like it. So I ended up on the bottom bunk while DSis and Pluto were in the queen bed. So 2:30 AM and finally to bed!

 

[Princess Power]

I'm here, I'm here!!!!!

It sounds like you have not left anything out yet! Can't wait to hear more. Of course I was there but still want to hear it from your side......

 

[Donald is #1]

It sounds like you have not left anything out yet!

Forgetting stuff will come in the second part of the trip when I didn't update my notes. We will probably have to brainstorm on the last couple of days.

 

[dundeehunter]

I'm in. My sister and I have did a similar trip in January, 2007 with my DD's. Great start!

 

[Donald is #1]

I'm in. My sister and I have did a similar trip in January, 2007 with my DD's. Great start!

Welcome!

 

[Donald is #1]

Trust me really there will be photos!

But unfortunately, I am on my laptop tonight and not my desktop. Hence no photos.

Besides, Daisy feels like she needs lots of attention tonight. Did you ever try to type with a cat that wants to be paid attention to?

So I figured that I would discuss our touring strategy a bit.

I wanted both of the kids to have a part in determining what we were going to do. So since we only had 3 park days, I asked each kid to pick their favorite park and then I picked a park. Pluto choose DHS, Belle choose EPCOT, and I choose AK. I expected Belle to choose MK, so I was really surprised when she made her selection. Hence we focused on those 3 parks and then MK in the evening.

I took a similar approach on the attractions in the park. My style is not to do touring plans. Basically, if I am with friends or family, we decide on a couple of highlights in a park and make sure that we see those. Then we go off and do whatever else catches our fancy. For me this strategy works well since I don't have to run across the park plus mentally I feel happy about what I see instead of sad about what I missed. Taking this strategy in mind, I wanted to make sure both kids went on their favorite attractions. So I had each of them pick their top 2 attractions in each park.

Also, I like to get to the park at opening because I feel that I can get a lot done in the first 1-2 hours before the crowds arrive. I had warned the kids about this and told that that we would be getting up early. Do you think that I was successful?

 

[Flossbolna]

Sounds like a great strategy, I hope it worked out fine!