9 Nights, 5 kids, park hopping through Disney! August 2012 trip report.

[Sheaboys]

So this is my first trip report, so here it goes.

Who: Me, Michele (Mom to 5 boys) 41, DH (41) Chris (not a disney lover, not a heat lover, not a line lover), DS (14) Jakob, DS(12) Nickolas, DS(10) Patrik, DS(6) Matthew, and DS(5) Jeremy. My boys share my love for Disney, as you can see, my husband not so much. We did go there on our honeymoon in 1995, he had never been. He is still not a mouse lover, but goes just to indulge us.

When: August 24-September 2. Originally we were booked, Saturday, August 25, but I have family in Hudson, FL (just north of Tampa), so we decided to fly in a day early and go see my Grandmother, who will be 94 in October and my Aunt and Uncle.

Our day, began at the 3:30am, well my day did, thankfully in this house I am the only girl that has to get ready. We had the kids in bed nice early, the night before about 8pm, but of course the only ones that fell right to sleep were the 2 little ones. I am not sure about the 3 olders, I do know I did not get to sleep until after 11 or so. Alarm went off, I got in the shower and moving. DH followed. I woke up the 3 olders, who all showered the night before, got the 2 little guys up and finished up with the last minute packing (toothbrushes, hair and make up items), and they dragged the bags down to the van.
Grabbed some snacks for the road. We were on the road by 4:20am. It takes about 50minutes to an hour to get to Bradley International Airport in CT, from our home. We stop for coffee and drinks for the kids on the way. We arrived at the car lot, which I got for a steal at $54 for 10 days. It was Executive Valet. We were there about 5:20am or so. Unpacked the van, checked the van in, stopped at the bathrooms, hopped on their shuttle bus. We were at the airport, doing curbside checkin about 5:50am or so. Security was not an issue, right on through. I had printed off our boarding passes for Southwest the day before and we got A seating. Stopped at McDonald's in the airport after security. We all ate, did the whole bathroom thing again, and we were seated quickly. Our plane took off right on time at 7:25am. Kids did great. I sat with the youngest, ds1, ds2 and ds4 sat together and dh and ds3 sat together. Flight was uneventful, with the exception of my sinuses. I was fine, until about 1 hour into the flight and the pounding began. DS5 did take a little nap, while I tried to, but the pain was horrible. Once we began coming down, the pain went away and was completely gone once we touched down.
Kids had their kindles, I had the laptop for ds5 to watch a movie, and one of the boys had a dsi. So everyone was happy.

We arrived in Tampa ontime, I think it was about 10:15am. No problem getting off, getting our luggage, and off to the rental car. I originally rented through Enterprise with Southwest for a van for the day, it was a great price at only $68, however, they do not have a place on Disney property to drop off and Dh would have to take the van to MCO to drop off. So I cancelled that and rebooked Alamo. The van checkin process was easy, and then I thanked god I changed from Enterprise as their line was huge. Packed up the van and off we went.
It was gorgeous in Tampa, they had had alot of rain in the past week, so I guess we brought our nice Massachusetts weather with us. More to come.

 

[Sheaboys]

[FONT="Arial Black"][/FONT]Ok, so a little back tracking, how the trip came to be. On June 1, 2011, we were hit with the tornado that hit Massachusetts, Brimfield is where we live. We could not live in our home, moved to a rental house. Which is difficult to do with 5 kids and a Great Dane! We decided not to rebuild there, as the landscape we once had (trees), were all gone. We ended up buying a home across town, but the process took 5 months. We moved in the week before Christmas. We are still going through insurance for the damaged home, so the process has been long. We needed to get away. Plus, we have not vacationed as a family since 2007. I did take the boys to florida in 2008, to see my dad, and we took a vacation with 8 other families in 2010. So you see, it was time...

We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort. How did this come to be, in February this year, ds3, had emergency surgery on his appendix, it had burst. He was in the hospital for 8 days. We rotated who stayed with him at night, it was a long week. I asked him about a vacation, I let him think he was picking Disney, but I had planted the seed a few weeks before. I then gave him 3 options for hotels. First we were going to AllStar Movies, preferred room, and upgrade to the Regular Dining Plan. Then Dh said, how much more for a Moderate, that has the quiet pools near the rooms, so I gave ds3 2 more options, he choose Caribbean Beach for the Pirate Pool. So upgrade I did. We were originally doing Base Tickets, but dh said, you know you want to hop, just get the hopper passes. So, upgrade it was.

Like I said, originally we were planning on leaving August 25th, which was ds4's 6th Birthday, but I talked with my Memere on Mother's Day and decided since we are in Florida, we really should go see her. We had not seen her since August 2009, so it was time, plus she is the boys only great grandmother.

I got the Southwest Rewards Visa, in both my name and dh's. They came with 25,000 points with first purchase. So I bought, 7 one tickets down. A week later, I got an offer for the card with 50,000 points, so I called SW and I told them I just got the card and made my first purchase and it had 25,000 points, they said no problem and added another 25,000 to my points card. As the dates came closer, I was able to buy 7 one way tickets from MCO to BDL, with points. As dates came even closer the flights to Tampa went down, so I cancelled and rebooked, got credits, so all in all I paid $137 roundtrip for each person. This includes the fees and card annual fee. Not to bad at all, if I do say so myself.

I would love to post pictures, but I have no idea how to. Anyone?

 

[Sheaboys]

Ok I got it! So here is a picture of my Fab 5.

This is DH and I.

 

[Sheaboys]

Once we had our rental van, we headed up the SunCoast Highway/Veterans Highway, to Hudson. We got to my aunts right around noon, had a nice lunch there, kids caught gecko's outside, then we hopped in the van again and went to see my grandmother at the assisted living place. It was so great to see her, we had not seen her since 2009 and our youngest was only 6 months old. We had a great visit. We left Hudson about 3. Stopped just outside of Disney on 27, at the SuperWalmart. Oh my god, it was mobbed, it was about 5ish. Shopped very quickly, snacks for the room and beer. Some juice for the morning. We were on the road again and we checked in right in time for the skies to open up with the rain, it was about 5:45 or so. Checkin was so easy, so smooth. I was not asked anything except, if we were celebrating anything, and we were, our 4th son was turning 6 the very next day and it was ds4 and ds5's first visit. Our travel agent, had mouse ears done up as part of our package for the birthday boy and the youngest. Only problem is, they had the wrong name on one. So I said, just keep both until they can get a new one for the youngest. We got a great room in Jamaica 45, they were rooms 4531 and 4532, first floor, right near the bus stop, quiet pool and bridge. Love, love, loved the spot. We decided to make a run for the room, about 10 minutes later, the rain let up, and we went to get our luggage, only 4 bags, and our walmart bags. Not too bad, while I unpacked everything and got the rooms all set up, dh and 2 of the kids, returned the van to the CarCare place, they were gone maybe a total of 30 minutes. We were starving by then, and it was around 7. We walked to Old Port Royale. Since our meal plan did not begin until tomorrow, we just got a pepperoni pizze, 3 soda's, pasta and meatballs and breadsticks. There was plenty for all 7 of us. Took a few pictures on the way back to our room. Then off to bed. While they boys napped short time after leaving my grandmothers, we were all wiped out, so in bed we were and asleep before 9pm.