1 Aunt, 1 Mom, 2 kids - will we be sane?

[Donald is #1]

Hi everyone! I am going to attempt my second pre-trip report.

This trip will be in November 2008 so it is still a long ways off.

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 am currently planning 3 trips in '08 to the world.

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 currently 10 and will be 11 at the time of the trip. 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 currently 9 and will be 10 at the time of the trip. 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 can spend a lot of timing plotting ...er I mean planning... the trip.

 

[Donald is #1]

So, now that we have decided who is going, it is time to decide when.

Well we agonized over this for at least a month. We didn't want to go during the summer so we decided to go for a long weekend to minimize the amount of time that the kids miss school. Again, to minimize the lost school days, we focused on either Columbus Day weekend or Veteran's day weekend. Well after a few threads to try to find out about crowds, we finally decided on Veterans day weekend dispite is being Soap Opera Weekend and Jersey week. So let's hope that the crowds are low.

Our plan is:

Friday 11/7 : Fly down to Orlando, hang out at the hotel or something

Saturday, Sunday, & Monday : Go to the parks (not sure if it will be all 4 parks yet)

Tuesday 11/11 : Fly home

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, the resort itself was easy. I have my DVC points at AKV so AKV it is. Yes, I know that I could book another resort but I wanted the kids to experience the animals at AKV. Now the big question: studio or 1 bedroom. When it was only 2 or 3 of us I was assuming that I would book a savanna view studio. But when I was on the trip with my sisters in October, we had a 2 bedroom at OKW. It was a great splurge for us! A 2 bedroom vila for only 3 of us. Anyways, with that stay and adding my sister to the trip, I quickly decided to book a 1 bedroom savanna view so that we could have some extra space.

 

[ChevyNat]

Wow, great pre-trip report... I too am going with my sister (the aunt) and my 2 kids, just the 4 of us...
And it's never too early to plan a trip to the World

 

[Donald is #1]

Wow, great pre-trip report... I too am going with my sister (the aunt) and my 2 kids, just the 4 of us...
And it's never too early to plan a trip to the World

Thank you! Has your sister been on vacation with you and the kids before?

 

[ChevyNat]

Always ha! ha! She brought me there the first time in 2003, and her husband was there, then in 2004 we added our Mom and Dad and my then husband... when we went to Disneyland, it was my sis, b.i.l, mom, the kids and I and then again in 2007 (Jan) except my mom and dad... this time it's just us 4 and I can't wait for it.
She was the one always giving the kids the park tickets or plane tickets for either Xmas or their birthday... so I taged along.

 

[Donald is #1]

Always ha! ha! She brought me there the first time in 2003, and her husband was there, then in 2004 we added our Mom and Dad and my then husband... when we went to Disneyland, it was my sis, b.i.l, mom, the kids and I and then again in 2007 (Jan) except my mom and dad... this time it's just us 4 and I can't wait for it.
She was the one always giving the kids the park tickets or plane tickets for either Xmas or their birthday... so I taged along.

Thats awesome! I have been with this sister and her famiily once during their first WDW trip and we had a great time. My other sister & I have also taken her son to WDW once and on a Disney cruise once.

 

[Donald is #1]

So how did we tell the kids? Well, they knew that I was going to take them
"sometime". Also, when I switched to taking both kids together, DSis had broached the subject with them. But they had no idea when I was taking them. So as we were trying to figure out when to go, DSis had to be careful not to let them over hear you. Let me tell you that had to be difficult because it seems that Belle is always bugging her when we are on the phone!

Well, I decided that I was going to tell them via their christmas present. So I bought a WDW for Kids guide book and then created an invitation in power point. Here was the invitation with the names updated:

I then placed the guide book and the invitation in a box and wrapped it up with the tag for both of them.

Well, we exchange gifts on Christmas Eve. So we were all over DSis's house in the afternoon to celebrate Christmas. When it came time to open the presents, Belle decided to hand them out and it went through them one at a time. The way that we are currently doing it is that whoever is handing out the gifts, selects a gift and gives it to the person that it is for. Then we all watch that person open their gift before moving on the next gift. Anyways, for some reason, this was either the last gift or almost last gift to be opened. Belle notices that it is for both her and Pluto so she sits down next to him on the couch to open the present. Well they open it with Belle doing most of the work and see what it is and get all excited. They were so excited that Belle was actually virtually speachless which is a very un-common sight!

So now the kids know when we are going and that they will be going with both me and their Mom. Dad of course is probably plotting what he can do that weekend.

This should be a real experience for them because this will be their first time staying in a hotel. Their previous vacations have either been in a vacation house or an RV.

 

[swwake]

Thanks for stopping by my PTR. I have been enjoying yours too (I'm subscribed already) and looking forward to hearing more!

 

[Donald is #1]

Thanks for stopping by my PTR. I have been enjoying yours too (I'm subscribed already) and looking forward to hearing more!

Welcome aboard!

 

[Donald is #1]

OK, I have been talking or is it writing long enough. It is time to post a couple of pictures so that you can see who we are.

First here is a picture of me & DSis:

DSis is on the left, I am in the middle and our other sister is on the right. This was taken during our trip last October.


Here are the kids:

This photo was taken during the kids first trip (Oct 2006).



Now comes the test: Can anyone guess where the picture of the kids was taken?

 

[Donald is #1]

For me personnally, the ticket decision was easy. I have 3 WDW trips planned for '08. So, I bought a new AP using my DVC discount! This AP will last me for my May, November, and December trips plus even an late winter '09 or early spring '09 trip if I decide to do one.


Now for DSis & the kids, we talked about it a bit and then decided to get them all 10 non-expiring hoppers. We figure that they can probably get 3 trips out of them: two 3 park day trips plus one 4 park day trip. Since this started off as a trip for me to take the kids, I will jsut re-imburse DSis for the portion of the kids tickets that I would have bought for this trip only.


By the way: After this post, we will be moving into the areas that we haven't already decided on: DDP versus DDE, itinerary, meals, etc.

 

[Donald is #1]

Do we have an itinerary? .... Well the answer is no.

Basically, all we have at this stage is that we will fly down on Friday and then spend the rest of the day not at a park and that we will fly home on Tuesday.

For the first afternoon/evening, we are thinking about the following options:
1) Stay at the resort
2) Play mini-golf
3) DTD
4) maybe a Character meal for dinner.

For the 3 park days, we don't have any plans yet. Basically, we have told the kids that they each get to pick a park and then I will pick the 3rd park. Once they have picked their parks, DSis & I will decide which day we do each park depending upon EMH, Soap weekend (i.e. want to avoid this), etc. The park that I pick will depend upon which parks the kids pick. Also since we have hopping tickets, it is possible that we may do 2 parks in one day.

The only rules that I have given the kids so far is that they are going to have to get up early because I would like to get to the parks at opening. Pluto's response "We get up at 6 for school." So maybe we can actually get the kids to get up an 6:30 or so and may actually have a chance to see park openings. Of course, I won't be surprised if that doesn't happen. But I can hope.

 

[Donald is #1]

We are still trying to decide on a character meal for the trip. The kids want to do one but we haven't figured out which one or when.

As for when, our thoughts are either dinner on arrival day (Friday) or the first breakfast time of the day on one of the other days. I suppose depending upon our flight time we could also maybe do one on the day we leave. We really hadn't considered one on departure day. The restrictions on when we can do one is mostly due to me. Since we only have 3 park days, I want to minimize the impact on our park time.

Now how to pick one? Well the biggest issue is that Belle is an extremely picky eater. With Pluto, we can eat pretty much anywhere. But not with Belle. Basically she only eats pancakes, waffles, pastry, breakfast sausage (but not hot dogs, does that make sense? ), fruit, chicken fingers, french fries, sometimes pizza and dessert. Add to it that she will be 10 so will be eating as an adult and it really makes it difficult to figure out where to eat. By the way, you will see this same problem repeated when we start to discuss other meals.

So, let's go back a couple of months when DSis & I started planning this. Belle had mentioned to DSis that she would like to do a princess meal sometime (this was before Belle knew that we were going this year). So DSis & I started looking into the princess meals and found that there really aren't many options for a picky eater like Belle if we want her to eat more than fruit and bread for $20-30. We had a thread going for a while and people gave us excellent suggestions and we were leaning towards either Park Fare or the Castle.

OK, let's fast forward to a few weeks ago. The four of us were at a local restaurant getting lunch and we started talking about the trip. DSis mentioned the possibility of a character meal and both kids looked excited. When she mentioned doing a princess meal, well you should have seen the look on Pluto's face! It was priceless but I guess that we won't be doing a princess meal.

So, since I have wanted to go to Crystal Palace, I suggested that one. Well that got shot down because the kids don't want to see winnie the pooh. What!
Pluto mentioned that he wanted to do Chef Mickey's again.

So after looking over the various options we are currently looking at:
1) Chef Mickeys for dinner on arrival day or early breakfast on one of the park days

2) Cape May for an early breakfast

3) Garden Grill for either lunch or dinner -> this violates one of my rules but it is a possibility.

I have never eaten at any of these places so no matter which one we pick, I will get to try out another WDW restaurant.

 

[Donald is #1]

We are still debating whether to add the DDP on to our reservation. Since we are staying at a DVC resort on points, we have up until a couple of days before the trip to decide.

I will be getting a new DDE card during my May trip to use during that trip, my December trip and possibly this trip. So I will already have the card.

The changes to the DDP weigh in our decision a bit but in reality, the old DDP would have been too much food for me every day. When I eat out I normally get an entree with maybe an appetizer. Once in a great while I will get dessert instead of an app. However, I almost never get both an app & dessert.

I started looking at menus to get an idea on prices and I was really surprised how hard it was to get the price close to the DDP price. In order to get it close , I had to add in desserts which we probably wouldn't eat at every meal without the DDP. I also chose a rough average price for the meals since not everyone would choose something expensive.

Of course my biggest surprise was seeing how few places there are that had something that Belle would eat!

 

[Donald is #1]

Well, so after my first analysis, our plan is to spend some more time picking out restaurants over the next couple of months. Then, using those menus I will redo my analysis to see which one is cheaper for us.

Another thing I am trying to figure out is whether for a 4 night trip, we should get the resort mugs or not. Most of my trips are longer, usually a week plus so the resort mug is a no-brainer. But with only 4 nights, I will need to figure it out.

 

[Donald is #1]

Does anyone have a recommendation on whether resort mugs make sense for such a short trip? Until recently, my trips have been 7-12 days in length. So the resort mug decision has been easy. However, this trip will only be 5 days total including travel. I am just not sure what to do!

Since we will be at AKL, I think that we will have breakfast each morning at Mara even though we will have a kitchen in the room.

So the figures are:

Mugs = $12 each plus tax = basically $50 plus tax, holds 12-16 oz

Soda = $2 each size = ?

I believe that the mug works for soda and coffee. I don't think that it covers milk or juice.

So what would you do? Does anyone have a recommendation?

 

[Donald is #1]

So, as I posted earlier, we decided to let each of the kids pick one park and then I would pick the third park. Anyways, I saw DSis, Belle, and Pluto yesterday for a little while and DSis and I asked them if they had thought about which parks that they will pick.

Well, Pluto picked HS (is that the right abbreviation?). This wasn't much as a surprise since for some reason (can you tell that HS is not my favorite park?) it was his favorite park during his first trip.

Belle on the other had really surprised us. We had assumed that she would pick MK or maybe even AK. But yesterday she said EPCOT! Now EPCOT is my favorite park but we didn't think that we would be going on this trip since we only had 3 days (plus I will be going for 10 days in December). Really very surprising since they didn't spend too much time in EPCOT on their first trip.

Hmm, this could be interesting. If they stay with those 2 picks, then I will probably pick MK since I know that they loved the park. But, I was actually hoping that Belle was going to pick MK and then I would have picked AK since there are some things at AK that they didn't get to do on their first trip.

 

[ChevyNat]

Great Pre-trip, and a lot of decisions to make.

I ate at Chef Mickey's for Breakfast only once, and I loved it.
I also did Garden Grill for lunch... the tables up-stairs are a little cramped (that's where we were). I loved the food, mashed potatoes, cat fish, turkey and some more things... the characters were a lot of fun.

 

[Donald is #1]

Great Pre-trip, and a lot of decisions to make.

I ate at Chef Mickey's for Breakfast only once, and I loved it.
I also did Garden Grill for lunch... the tables up-stairs are a little cramped (that's where we were). I loved the food, mashed potatoes, cat fish, turkey and some more things... the characters were a lot of fun.

Thanks for the input on Chef Mickey's & Garden Grill. DSis and the family did Chef Mickey's for breakfast also and really enjoyed it. But none of us have tried Garden Grill.