tdzaleski
DCP Spring '15
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2012
- Messages
- 29
~Table of Contents~
- Leading up to the Trip (This post)
- Day 1
-Day 2
Hi. I don't want to bore anyone with useless information, So I'll keep it simple. I'm Tyler, and I just came home from my first family vacation to WDW in December. (It's a little late, but I like to live in the past) BTW, for any parents, this is an EXCELLENT method to have your kids plan a Disney Vaca without them even knowing.
Here's the Family:
From Left to Right: Joshua (9) - Lori (Mom, 42) - Matthew (12) - Kenneth (Dad, 42) - Justin (14) - Tyler (Me, 16)
Hmm, where to start... Ok, seems like I may need a little bit more background info. My parents and I loved the idea of going to WDW. I was promised when I was 8 that we could go. But, my parents ended up having a new child and said that we wouldn't go until he was old enough to ride all the rides. Well, 8 years later, we started planning. "We didn't have the money for a major Disney vacation" was my moms favorite excuses, and she was right. With a family of 6, it was big bucks, especially with airfare. Well, the vacation my mom made us think we were going to is down to Atlanta to see our Aunt we haven't seen in forever. We would be driving 10 hours down, staying there for a week and a half, going to the beach, then coming home. We couldn't fly, no non-stop to Atlanta from where we were and it was EXPENSIVE to go there from BGM (Come on, Atlanta is the worlds busiest airport, no non-stop to ATL) I tried to convince my mom that we could just drive down to Orlando while we were down there, but she said that it would be another 7 hours, and she was right. So, she said (and has said for 2 years now) that we would fly down for my graduation party this year.
So, I've been sitting down with my mom, planning what our disney vacation be like. I got an Unofficial Guide to WDW, 2011 book (HIGHLY recommend it, the guides saved us HOURS of waiting) and started showing here what we could do. She hasn't been down there since she was 10, so she didn't really think that there was much to do. Well, I convinced her otherwise and we agreed that we would go down. Along side this, I was looking up thing that we would do while we were at our aunts house.
Fast forward to December 15. Its the night before we "leave to our aunts house". Our grandparents have set up a tradition that they give us our Christmas gifts on Christmas eve. Well, we would be at "Atlanta" until the 28, so they gave them to us before we left. It was stuff like car games, a usual pair of Pajamas, and stuff to keep us occupied in the car. Now, by this time, I was kinda bummed. Usually, I get things like some cash, or an expensive present (being the oldest has some perks) along side that. My uncle, who has the same tradition as my grandparents didn't even give anything to us yet.
Well, there was one more present. It was in a good sized box. Me and my 3 brothers all grabbed a side and tore it open. Up comes a mickey balloon with a mickey mouse ornament tied to it. (My mom gets 1 ornament for the tree based on what happened in the year, just a small explanation there) We weren't jumping up and down or anything, we knew that we were going in a few months. So, my parents look at us, asked us what it is, why they got it, and every other question about it in the world. We knew it's an ornament, we knew why she got it. We were going to WDW in a few months, that was the major event for next year. Or, so we thought. The surprise, we were going down the next day. Now, I'm 16, but my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I thought they were dead set against going this year. But, we went, and it was PERFECT.
Now, this is the first time anyone in our family has ever been to WDW (except our mom). The drive down was irritable. Getting stuck in a SUV with 5 other people for 10 hours isn't what you call a "vacation". Add to the fact that my dad got sick going down was was throwing up, not the best. But, by the time we got to Charlotte, everyone was fine. We stayed at a Homewood Suite (Free night from Hilton Honors) and packed up the next day and hit the road again. Now this time, everyone was anxious. We wondered everything about WDW. I've seen Disney Parks about 100 times on Netflix already, So I think I was the one who was the most anxious. Eventually (what seemed like a lifetime), we got to our hotel. We stayed at the homewood suite, run by hilton, on I-Drive. The first day, we just stayed at the hotel. We were all tired from the 19 hours in the car, so we took some swim time, ate dinner, and called it a night. The next morning though, Disney it is.
Pictures and Day 1 are in another post.
- Leading up to the Trip (This post)
- Day 1
-Day 2
Hi. I don't want to bore anyone with useless information, So I'll keep it simple. I'm Tyler, and I just came home from my first family vacation to WDW in December. (It's a little late, but I like to live in the past) BTW, for any parents, this is an EXCELLENT method to have your kids plan a Disney Vaca without them even knowing.
Here's the Family:
From Left to Right: Joshua (9) - Lori (Mom, 42) - Matthew (12) - Kenneth (Dad, 42) - Justin (14) - Tyler (Me, 16)
Hmm, where to start... Ok, seems like I may need a little bit more background info. My parents and I loved the idea of going to WDW. I was promised when I was 8 that we could go. But, my parents ended up having a new child and said that we wouldn't go until he was old enough to ride all the rides. Well, 8 years later, we started planning. "We didn't have the money for a major Disney vacation" was my moms favorite excuses, and she was right. With a family of 6, it was big bucks, especially with airfare. Well, the vacation my mom made us think we were going to is down to Atlanta to see our Aunt we haven't seen in forever. We would be driving 10 hours down, staying there for a week and a half, going to the beach, then coming home. We couldn't fly, no non-stop to Atlanta from where we were and it was EXPENSIVE to go there from BGM (Come on, Atlanta is the worlds busiest airport, no non-stop to ATL) I tried to convince my mom that we could just drive down to Orlando while we were down there, but she said that it would be another 7 hours, and she was right. So, she said (and has said for 2 years now) that we would fly down for my graduation party this year.
So, I've been sitting down with my mom, planning what our disney vacation be like. I got an Unofficial Guide to WDW, 2011 book (HIGHLY recommend it, the guides saved us HOURS of waiting) and started showing here what we could do. She hasn't been down there since she was 10, so she didn't really think that there was much to do. Well, I convinced her otherwise and we agreed that we would go down. Along side this, I was looking up thing that we would do while we were at our aunts house.
Fast forward to December 15. Its the night before we "leave to our aunts house". Our grandparents have set up a tradition that they give us our Christmas gifts on Christmas eve. Well, we would be at "Atlanta" until the 28, so they gave them to us before we left. It was stuff like car games, a usual pair of Pajamas, and stuff to keep us occupied in the car. Now, by this time, I was kinda bummed. Usually, I get things like some cash, or an expensive present (being the oldest has some perks) along side that. My uncle, who has the same tradition as my grandparents didn't even give anything to us yet.
Well, there was one more present. It was in a good sized box. Me and my 3 brothers all grabbed a side and tore it open. Up comes a mickey balloon with a mickey mouse ornament tied to it. (My mom gets 1 ornament for the tree based on what happened in the year, just a small explanation there) We weren't jumping up and down or anything, we knew that we were going in a few months. So, my parents look at us, asked us what it is, why they got it, and every other question about it in the world. We knew it's an ornament, we knew why she got it. We were going to WDW in a few months, that was the major event for next year. Or, so we thought. The surprise, we were going down the next day. Now, I'm 16, but my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I thought they were dead set against going this year. But, we went, and it was PERFECT.
Now, this is the first time anyone in our family has ever been to WDW (except our mom). The drive down was irritable. Getting stuck in a SUV with 5 other people for 10 hours isn't what you call a "vacation". Add to the fact that my dad got sick going down was was throwing up, not the best. But, by the time we got to Charlotte, everyone was fine. We stayed at a Homewood Suite (Free night from Hilton Honors) and packed up the next day and hit the road again. Now this time, everyone was anxious. We wondered everything about WDW. I've seen Disney Parks about 100 times on Netflix already, So I think I was the one who was the most anxious. Eventually (what seemed like a lifetime), we got to our hotel. We stayed at the homewood suite, run by hilton, on I-Drive. The first day, we just stayed at the hotel. We were all tired from the 19 hours in the car, so we took some swim time, ate dinner, and called it a night. The next morning though, Disney it is.
Pictures and Day 1 are in another post.
)
Is that info on the Disney website?
) Well, the ride was cool. I liked it, although it seemed like a episode of jetsons on the theme of "This is how earth will be in X amount of years". Non-the-less, it was good.
