1st DISfunctional Family Trip!!!

[Along4theRide]

Ok, I’ve been on the DISboard now for a few months and have posted here and there for a few months and have gotten some great advice/information. Anyway, this is my first attempt at a trip report as this is our FIRST DISNEY TRIP!! I make no promises to entertain you, I may chase bunnies, I may add my opinion and that's all it is-mine! I’ll write this TR because I love this board and I think this will be fun. I love pics so I'll add what and when I can. I know I'm off to a very late start, but hey...better late than never!!

Ok, with that out of the way I can start. Before I even give an intro into our first family WDW trip I need to back up into my childhood. Sorry, it just has to be done in order to understand my family dynamics and why I’m so ecstatic to finally be going. Ok. I had one of those “do as I say, not as I do”…”I bring home the bacon so you raise the kids” type father figures. He wasn’t home much and when he was-he wasn’t. You know he’s propped up in the front of the TV, no one to disturb him or even be able to break the TV zone barrier. Most of the time his eyes were bugging out of his head, glazed over, only to look away when there’s a plate of food in front of him. Anyway, he hates crowds therefore forbid my little sis and I never to even talk about the possibility of going to WDW. So, when my DH and I had kids we knew (ok, I knew) we had to go at some point. Well, last June some friends of ours went and came back with all the great stories. I heard all about the rides they loved, the places they ate, the resort they stayed at (Pop btw), I wanted all the info they wanted to give me! I tried asking some questions, but they didn’t really have the answers. Her mom paid for the trip and they just went with the flow-no research on their part. They did mention the “food plan” and I was very interested, but wasn’t sure what it was and if it was for us. Anywho, after probing for any info I could get from them I did a little searching for info. The next day I tried to drop hints to my DH. You know, that the kids (at the time were 5 and 3) would LOVE to go, that we need to go before DD outgrew the princess phase, and (my personal favorite) it wouldn’t cost us as much as I first thought!! After much hint dropping and probing, heck I could have written it on his forehead and he still wouldn’t have gotten the fact that I wanted to go…now!! Or did he!?


Next up…will he get the hints!?

 

[Along4theRide]

I should have learned in the (almost) 12yrs we’ve been together that he doesn’t take hints! Heck, I have to type up a birthday or Christmas list complete with a picture of the item, its serial #, what store it can be found, what color/size, etc. So, I should have seen that coming…

Ok, so he probably knew that I wanted to go, he just didn’t want to indicate that. That would mean a Disneyworld trip!! He’s not exactly a Disney person. Although he does like certain Disney movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story and even Lion King. I think it was the fact that it would mean a whole vacation around Disney that didn’t exactly excite him.

So when I finally asked when we’d go I had him captive-literally!! We were driving (to where I don’t remember) with the kids and my mom. The conversation was somewhat short. The kids had no idea what we were talking about, but my mom and I definitely were on the same page! Dh finally gave in and is going along with the conversation of a Disney trip…it’s a start! Now just to figure out when!! We talked about many scenarios, but in the end decided to wait until DS is 5yrs old (“so he’d remember it”)

That would mean an almost 2yr wait, but then by then he could ride all the rides he wants to. I was bummed about that, but at least we'll have something to look forward too!

We got home (mom came in) and turned on the TV. Dh was flipping channels and on came the Disneyworld’s resorts overview show. I got excited and jumped on the computer right then to look up Disneyworld.com. After looking into all the resorts in as much detail as I could find I tried to price a package, only it wouldn’t let me price a package for 2008. I became frustrated, I just wanted to get price quote to see if it would be possible to go dang it!! I got frustrated and...
my dh: What’s the problem?!
Me: The Disney site won’t let me price a package for 2008!!
Dh: Why do you want 2008?
Me: In my smart mouth voice Uh cause that’s when we’re going!!! We can move it up a year if you want!!
Dh: I thought that’s what we decided, next year!?
Dmom: Yeah!
Me: We did!?!
I totally did not remember that part of our conversation and I believe I would have remembered that if I’d heard it!! I still think they conger that up behind my back, but what do I care….WE’RE GOING TO DISNEYWORLD!!

Okay, here’s the cast…
Me: aka Along4theRide-Also known as MuddyBlonde on other boards due to my speediness (or lack there-of) to put two & two together sometimes. Also, I’ve got darkish blonde hair (right now anyway)! I became Along4theRide when we (dh & I) joined a Jeep Club and forum. I love to go on trips and trails, I just don’t like to drive-I’m just Along4theRide. It also pertains to life in general. I’m pretty adventurous and I’ll try just about anything once. I’ve been mtn biking, sky diving, rock climbing, repelling, etc. In fact DH and I’s first “date” was repelling!! Anyway, I’m a fun loving, family oriented, list upon list maker-yet I know how to be spontaneous, mom of two. I like to live life one day at a time. Life is too short to spend it worrying about pittly things. I’m on that believes that your age is only what you make of it. With that said, I work at home part time so I’m able to tend to my DIS cravings from time to time!! Enough about me….

DH:aka MilkMan-Always busy, can’t say “no” to anyone (especially family), very generous (most of the time), most unselfish person I know. He doesn’t care what other people think of him and thrives to be different any chance he gets. He’s great at making people laugh and can always put a smile on my face!!

Dmom: aka Pepsi Nana-Her name says it all! My kids call her Nana and she’s a very loving, most patient person I’ve ever known. Doer of all things for other people. She’s always put herself last, only in the past few years (since she divorced my father) has she become a happier person and has started paying more attention to herself. Anyway, she LOVES Pepsi, especially Cherry Pepsi. She was devastated when she heard there wasn’t going to be any Pepsi products on the property!!

DD: aka Princess Boo-She’s a very caring and helpful 6yr old girl. Although with her brother she’s the bossy teacher/mother “figure”…sometimes both!! She loves to dress up, especially in frilly dresses (or night gown) and any shoes with a heel!! Her favorite thing to do in the evening is to put her layered frilly Ariel night gown and her “princess shoes” and clonk, clonk, clonk up and down the hallway. It drives my Dh nuts…I think its cute!! She’s been called Boo since she was really little. When she was about 2yrs old Monster’s Inc came out on DVD and she LOVED the movie. She has brown hair that I used to always put up into two small pig tails on the top of her head. Her coat that year happened to be light purple and in it she looked just like Boo from Monster’s Inc.! Even strangers would tell her that!! So she has become Princess Boo!

DS: aka Little Man-A fearless, extremely observant yet very sensitive newly 4yr old boy. He looks and acts just like his daddy!! He’s small for his age (50% in height and 25% in weight) even though Dh and I are 6’1” and sissy is tall, yet very bright little boy. He picks up on everything!! His aunt once called him “Little Man” and it stuck.

Next up: Where to stay!?

 

[prncssmel]

Hey, I am the first one to respond to your pre-trippie! That has never happend to me before.

I totally understand about your DH; my DF is sometimes anti-Disney. Yay that he agreed to go! And a year early!

 

[Along4theRide]

Hey, I am the first one to respond to your pre-trippie! That has never happend to me before.

I totally understand about your DH; my DF is sometimes anti-Disney. Yay that he agreed to go! And a year early!

Thanks! I feel honored that I actually have a reader!!
Yeah, he wasn't totally sold on the idea of a Disneyworld trip, but hey wants the kids to have they experience so he caved!!

 

[Along4theRide]

With Dh on board, there’s only one thing to do from here….start planning! There was no question about it; we were going to stay on the Disney property. We had decided that this was going to be a “once in a lifetime” type trip!! So...when to go…how many days…where to stay…DDP or no DDP…so many choices, so little time!!

After going through several websites it looked to me that the best time to go (weather wise) would be in May. It would give us the most light during the day, but not too rainy yet…hopefully! Princess Boo doesn’t get out of school until May 24th and I wanted to allow plenty of days in case of any snow days so May 31st-June 7th it is. Ok, the date is set, now where to stay!!

That wasn’t a heard choice for us. After looking through each resort very carefully, there’s only one that “fits” us…Wilderness Lodge!! My Dh grew up in Wyoming and we all love the mountains. We live in the middle of the mid-west, but LOVE to get into the mountains (usually Colorado) when ever possible. We’ve stayed in a few cabins and love the look and feel to them! So WL was a no brainer for us…it just HAD to be!! Ok, so now which room will accommodate all of us? Since my mom was coming with us we’d have 3 adults and 2 kids. I know the kids would have loved to have a bunk bed room, but that wouldn’t accommodate the 3 adults and I wasn’t going to put my mom in a room by herself. You gotta understand, my mom is my best friend and we’re together everyday. We live about 1.5 miles from each other, so she picks up Princess Boo everyday from school and also comes and gets Little Man sometimes so I can work in peace for a couple hrs. We usually do dinner together too. It’s no fun making dinner for one, so we do a slightly bigger dinner for 5 instead. The kids love it and it gives my mom company too.

Anyway, we decided on a deluxe room (Jr Suite). It would give us enough room, plus have a separate room that we can put the kids down for bed and still be able to stay up and do what ever we need to do. That was always a problem before when staying in a standard room when we went places. So already I was getting really excited!!

I looked into the Dining Plan and then found the menus on allears.net and after seeing some of the prices I decided that the DDP was the way to go for us. I didn’t want to have to worry about the amount of money we were spending on food while we’re there. With the DDP it would all be paid for before we even left home and I liked that!!

Tickets were next on the agenda! I knew wanted to go to MK, AK, Epcot and MGM. I would have liked to have gone to one of the water parks, but wasn’t sure if we could fit it all in so we passed on the water parks. We opted for 8 day MYW+PH. We may not use all 8 days, but they’re there if we want to use them (it was only a few $ difference).

I put all that together in a package online and wasn't too shocked at the $$. I had no clue what a Disneyworld trip would normally cost...for some reason I always thought it would break the bank to go, but this is do able. With all of our tax return and saving here and there we could do it! So, by August I our reservation with the package that we wanted and made our deposit!! It seemed so far away

I think it's about time to load some pics
Here is Little Man and Princess Boo:

Little Man being a monkey:

Princess Boo's first day of school:

MilkMan and I in Colorado last October:

Next up: Planning?? For a vacation!?

 

[prncssmel]

Thanks! I feel honored that I actually have a reader!!
Yeah, he wasn't totally sold on the idea of a Disneyworld trip, but hey wants the kids to have they experience so he caved!!

Yeah, I am hoping DF is more into it when kids come along.

Speaking of kids, yours are so freakin' adorable. Oooh, a suite at WL - sounds wonderful!