10 Days, 4 Kids Under 5, & Disney....Will We Survive?

[KariAnn0613]

Alright, let's try this again. For those of you who remember me (anyone?) I started a PTR about a year ago. Well, I'm sad to say that trip fell through . Long story short: I was pregnant and had complications that we feared would disrupt our trip. We made the decision to reschedule before the 45 day mark. So here we are.....OUR NEW PRE-TRIP REPORT!!!!!!


Now, I'm REALLY excited this time because our trip will be longer (the bonus of having almost an extra year to save) and my youngest will be older making him less needy! Let's start with 'Introductions'


INTRODUCTIONS

Kari - That's ME!
I'm 24 years old and LOOOOOVE Disney! I have only been on one day trips and truly only remember one of them. I went (maybe) 2 times as a child to Magic Kingdom, but all I remember is The Crystal Palace & Space Mountain. As an adult I took a one day trip with my 2 oldest children who at the time were 2 years and 6 weeks old. It was a very magical trip! That would be the only trip I really remember. It was THAT trip I vowed to take my children to WDW as often as we could afford. One little tid bit about me you should know. I'm an OCD planner. You can never over plan is my motto. Of course I usually end up not following my plans to a "T" but I like to have them.


Rick
My wonderful Significant Other!!! He has been to Disney once! That trip I was telling you about, that was his first time! He loved it! He was in so much pain he could barely walk at the end of our one day tour but he wanted to stay! He is not quite as big of a Disney freak as me, but he is in love!!!! He thinks I'm nuts for all my planning, but he is also grateful!

Joe
My oldest child! Originally this trip was to celebrate him starting Kindergarten. Well, that obviously didn't happen. Looks like we will be celebrating him finishing Kindergarten instead He still remembers bits and pieces from his first trip at the age of 2. He doesn't remember much but the three things he consistently talks about are 1) Grandma kissed Mickey 2) Buzz Lightyear ride 3) Shamu at SeaWorld

Nate
Nate made his first WDW trip when he was 6 weeks old. That's right, I braved Disney with a newborn! Joe talks to him about it still so he 'thinks' he remembers things, but we all know he doesn't. He is going to have the time of his life!!!! He will be 3, almost 4 years old this trip!

Ellie
My precious baby girl. My ONLY girl! She has never been to Disney. Her favorite chartoon character......'MOUSE!' Anytime Mickey comes on or she sees a Mickey toy she squeels 'MOUSE!' as loud as she can as many times as she can! She's already a die hard fan! She will be 2 on this trip!!!

Chris
The littlest of our family, the one that delayed our trip! He will be almost 1 year old when we arrive at WDW! I don't expect him to remember this trip, but I fully intend to take enough pictures for him to piece it together as an adult.

Debbie - Grandma
We are lucky to have Grandma join us on this adventure! Honestly, it was a strategic move on our part. 3 sets of eyes is better than 2 when you have 4 little ones running around! We offered to pay for room if she bought food & park ticket. She agreed!!!! She has also only been to Magic Kingdom a handful of times.


So that's our crew! Me & the 3 boys have birthdays really close to our trip! I'm considering making this a birthday trip and celebrating while there. It'd be really awesome to have 1 big birthday party! But I dunno. I'd hate for my girl to feel left out. Hmmmm. Anyways, this is our first trip staying on property and seeing more than Magic Kingdom! Grab a seat & a coffee and hold on for the ride!!!

**SEE POST #4 FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS**

 

[bkandreu]

I'm in, and I'm so excited! This sounds like a great bunch I have been trying to find either a pretrip report or a trip report that has a family with little children and I think I hit the jackpot! It just always seems more magical when the children are little! I can't wait to see the pictures! They sound adorable! I think it's going to be a handful, so it's a good thing you've got an extra adult coming so you're not too overwhelmed.. I can't believe you braved Disney with a newborn in tow! You are a much braver woman than I! I can't wait for more, keep em comin!

 

[KariAnn0613]

I can't believe you braved Disney with a newborn in tow! You are a much braver woman than I! I can't wait for more, keep em comin!

Best Part is.....we planned a 2nd trip with a newborn! This trip was supposed to happen when baby Chris was only 5 weeks old, but when I went into pre-term labor we were afriad we'd be in the NICU. Thankfully, he made it full term! I actually loved my newborn trip. Granted we only spent one day in Magic Kingdom. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat!

 

[KariAnn0613]

**this post reserved for my table of contents**

Disney Knowledge.....Post 5

Planning Finding Nemo Movie Night.....Post 8

Change of Plans.....Post 10

October, YES October.....Post 11

 

[KariAnn0613]

So I've been thinking....my kids have only seen the most recent popular Disney movies plus Mickey Mouse on TV. I really think I need to expose them to a more wide variety of Disney characters before our trip. Here is a list of movies that I'd like to watch before our trip!

- Aladdin
- Alice in Winderland
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bugs Life
- Cars 1 & 2
- Cinderella
- Country Bear
- Disneyland Sing Along Songs (YouTube or Amazon)
- Dumbo
- Fantasia
- Finding Nemo
- Haunted Mansion
- Lilo & Stitch
- Lion King
- Mary Poppins
- Monster's INC
- Muppets
- Peter Pan
- Pirates of Caribbean
- Sleeping Beauty
- Snow White
- Star Wars
- The Little Mermaid
- Tom & Huck
- Toy Story 1, 2, & 3
- Winnie the Pooh


WOW! That's a lot!!! Hopefully we can get these all watched! We are getting ready to have our cable turned off (our choice) so this will give us something to watch. My tentative plan is to have a themed party once a month with one of these movies. I'll probably try to focus the party on some of the movies that have the more prominent characters at WDW. We shall see how that turns out! I'm open for suggestions on what to have at our themed parties or which movies to use!!! I'm also afraid to ask......but did I miss any movies???

 

[bkandreu]

The movies seem like a perfect idea! That is a really great idea to have them get more excited about the character's they will be seeing! They're going to be so excited!!! I'm sure you missed some movies (how could you not, there are SO many Disney movies!) But I would just focus on the main characters, like you said. Once again, great idea I've always planned on doing something along those lines every time I go to Disney.. have somewhat of a Disney movie watching marathon or week or month.. Something like that, but I never get around to it!

 

[KariAnn0613]

Apparently I'm computer illiterate because I'm having issues getting my pictures on here! I 'thought' I had them uploaded, but it's not working today. As soon as I figure this out (I'm taking suggestions on how to fix the issue) I'll get them up. HMPHF!

 

[KariAnn0613]

We are planning our very first Movie Night!!! The feature will be Finding Nemo!!! The plan is to have movie night on Saturday, Oct 1st. I'm very excited to see how the kids take to this. We still haven't told them about WDW so they are just going to think this is something fun we are doing for no apparent reason. I'll update my PTR as soon as we've had our 1st movie night!!! Here are the tentative plans:

Menu:

Ocean Water (Sprite w/Blue Food Coloring)
Anemone Snack Crackers (Goldfish)
Hot Dog Squids (Hot Dogs Cut in Sections)
Sea Shell Mac & Cheese (Shells & Cheese)
Nemo’s Tank Friends Jello (Blue Jello w/Nemo Fruit Snacks)


Craft:

~Paint Nemo & Dori paper plate fish
+ Blue & Orange Paint
+ Paintbrushes
+ Paper Plates (2 for each fish)
+ Cut out Eyes

Decorating Supplies:

- Blue Plastic Table Cloth – decorate with fish pictures
- Blue Streamers – hang in doorway

 

[bkandreu]

That sounds so cool! Your kids are very lucky! That is an amazing idea, and an amazing sounding party!

 

[KariAnn0613]

WOW! It's been a LOOOONG time since I updated!!! Life got crazy & hectic!

On a good note, my significant other got a job!!! This was a HUGE blessing! So, with the new job meant moving our Disney trip BUT it's worth it! So now that we are back on track, let the planning begin again! Hope you're still with me!!!

 

[KariAnn0613]

So.....with Rick getting a new job, June was no longer an ideal time for us to travel. We were not sure if he'd be able to take off work during that time frame AND I really did not want to take the kids to Disney alone! So we had to come up with a new date. Problem was......1) I really didn't want to take the kids out of school 2) I did not want to go during PEAK season and 3) I wanted to go in 2012. So that really narrowed our options. After much debate we decided that my oldest can miss 3 days of school and we'll go during fall break! Oct. 15-22 is our current plan. Now, I still haven't changed our reservations through our travel agent. These plans recently have been decided


Now, I'm REALLY excited about October for a few reaons. The main reason is because it's a VERY slow time!!!! This means we can worry less about strict schedules and more about fun! Of course I'll still have a touring plan to keep us on track and to make sure we see everything but we should have more than enough time to do everything we want!!! Those of you that are going to tell me about Hurricane Season, I'm not worried about it. I have family on the coast, and they fair quite well. We've been to FL during Hurricane season as well. And I don't melt so we're cool with rain!