4 Parks, 3 Generations, 2 Sets of Twins, 1 World and record cold temps.

[carstinsmom]

Well here goes nothing. I have gone back and forth over the last 8 months since our trip the first week of Feburary deciding to start this trip report and I finally decided why not. Let me give you a little background before I begin. I think more thought and planning went into this trip than any other Disney trip we've ever taken. My sister and I started planning our next trip I think before we had left our last trip in Dec. of 2006 but, started with real plans in August and never stopped. We stumbled onto the creative thread here on the disboards and became instantly addicted. We made matching shirts for all of us for everyday, we made autograph books, pressed coin holders, pillowcases, invites for every sit down dinner, welcome letters and activity books to entertain the kids on the trip down and character nuggets to put on everyones pillow at night when we came back to the room. My sister and I kept all this stuff a surprise to all the kids, we also surprised my dils they didn't even know our daily schedule. I wrapped up a package for them to open each night, it had the shirts for the next day, their good night note with their character nuggets, their invite for dinner or breakfast the next day and what park and what time to meet us the following morning. I wanted it to be as fun for them as it was for the kids. We had originally planned to all stay at the Pop but my ds needed the family suite at asm and we decided in Sept. to buy into DVC so we got all spread out, which is why I gave my dils the packages in advance and marked what night to open what. So let me start by introducing my cast of 13, yes I said 13 characters:

my dmil and dfil - aren't they sweet

me (the disney nut) and my dh (who puts up with my craziness)

ds -13 (he never knew breakfast could be so much fun)

dd - 9 going on 19 don't let the sweet smile fool you

my dbil and ds - the picture says it all

dn -9

dn -5

dn -5 such a little princess

dn- 2

dn - 2

ok that's all 13 do you have that straight, there will be a quiz at the end of the trip report and yes my sister has two sets of twins. It was a wonderful, very planned out trip, maybe one of our best but we say that after every trip. Coming soon, day one and I hope you enjoy our trip as much as we did..

 

[carstinsmom]

The whole gang, ready to take on the world.

 

[carstinsmom]

Well needless to say we were all beyond excited. I think we probably started planning this trip after we got home for our last trip in Dec. 2006. We even left a half an hour before we needed to just because we were ready and if you knew me, you know that’s a miracle in it self. My husband travels a lot with work so fortunately, we had enough miles for 3 out of 4 of us to fly free, and free is always a nice bonus. My inlaws also flew with us. My sister and her family drove and started their day at 5:00 a.m. Our flight left at 3:10 p.m. and we arrived in Orlando at 7:20 where we were greeted by the oh so wonderful Disney’s Magical Express, it is great coming this time of the year no lines, no waiting, we just walked right out to the bus. Oh, I forgot to mention that right before the trip we decided to become DVC members, if I can't live there year round, well it's the closest I could get for now, lol. We loved being welcomed home for our first stay as members at Saratoga Springs. We then grabbed a quick bite to eat at the resort and for those of you use to the variety that the value resorts offer, it is small in comparision but it was late so it was fine. We then went in search of our room, I had no idea how big the resort was, after taking a tour in the dark of Saratoga Springs, our room was so close to the lobby and we walked in the totally opposite direction, we found it, got settled in and went to sleep so we’d be fully rested for our first day in the parks.

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[MouseKTeer]

Yay--I'm first!

That is some group! And your DS has 2 sets of twins. Do they run on your side of the family, or DBIL's?

Can't wait to read about your adventures, and to see all the matching shirts

 

[carstinsmom]

Yay--I'm first!

That is some group! And your DS has 2 sets of twins. Do they run on your side of the family, or DBIL's?

Can't wait to read about your adventures, and to see all the matching shirts

congrats on being first and to my knowledge they don't run on either side. Wearing the matching shirts was so much fun, we had no idea how many people would stop and talk to us about them, it was really fun and unfortunately, it looks like we have started a new tradition.

 

[carstinsmom]

We met bright and early, for us anyway, at 10:00 and hit the future world running. Our first stop was the famous ball, they had updated this ride since we were last here with cute features of you in the future that you can have sent to your email, be sure to stop and look for your picture after the ride and input your email. We spent most of the day in future world visiting all the usual’s, everyone especially loved Soarin. We tried staying together the best we could but as you can imagine a group of 13 is hard to keep together. We headed towards the countries near the end of the day for our first time eating at Le Cellier, we couldn't get reservations all together because my ds was back and forth on going and didn't make her adr as soon as we did but she did get in 30 minutes later. I think it will now become a regular on our future trips, it was wonderful, the best steak I had ever had and cooked to perfection. After dinner my sisters little ones were worn out so they headed back to the room, while us and my dils walked around Canada and England waiting for illuminations to start. It was a long full day but very enjoyable.

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[carstinsmom]

Today was another early day, we had breakfast reservations with Cinderella at her castle. We planned to be there for the opening ceremonies, be first in line to the barbershop and to wake Tinkerbell up but, only half of us made it, my family just aren't morning people. We headed to the barber shop for a special treat for the kids, which we learned about here on disboards. They will give you magical hairdoos for girls and boys complete with colored gel, confetti and even a hidden Mickey, you will see the beautiful work they do in some of the pics. They only have two chairs so you must get there first thing if you don't want to wait. My ds kids were already done by the time we arrived and since they called for rain we convinced our kids to wait for another day.Next on to the castle, it was a first for most of our group and even though it is an experience to eat inside the castle, if on the ddp I don't think it is worth the 2 ts credits. From there we headed to the rides but the day got wetter and wetter and the rain wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. Since we missed waking Tinker Bell we found out you can still call her and wake her from an occasional nap and that seemed to make my daughter just as happy, she also like the pixie dust the cm sprinkled all over her head. We persevered for a while longer but we had an extra day built in so we decided to come back when we had drier conditions. We made one last stop at a recommended photo pass stop on our way out, the train station. It is such a beautiful view in the evening with the lights on, rain or not. Amazingly it stopped raining after we returned to the hotel so we headed to downtown Disney for some pin trading before turning in for the night.

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