A Perfect Pre-Christmas Trip with the Grandparents

[cutigerlady]

Hi! My family spent several days at Disney before the holidays with my parents and all of the planning paid off! My father was extremely impressed with how smoothly everything went and he said he would do it again (which is huge, because he doesn't like theme parks). I thought what I learned might be helpful to anyone else planning a trip with the grandparents. The biggest things I learned: 1. Know the limits of what the grandparents can do, 2. Know what the grandparents want to avoid, and 3. Be prepared when you need to make changes to your plans.

I knew going into to planning this trip that my Dad doesn't like to eat a meal off a tray, so I knew CS meals, especially in the parks were out. I also knew that my Dad can only walk for about 4 hours at a time, so mid-day breaks were going to be critical. I also knew that my Dad goes to bed early and wakes up really early. I also knew that picking a resort to stay at was going to be key. We decided on an EP area resort, so that we had easy access to two parks, plus access to a variety of restaurants and activities near the resort. In the end, we stayed at the Beach Club because that was the resort that I got the best rate for.

Our dates were planned for 12/18-12/21. I thought this was the right amount of days with my parents. They were ready to go home on our check-out day!

Our crew included: me, DH, DS (10), DS(5), Grammie, Papa

 

[cutigerlady]

Pre-Arrival: I found out about a month before our trip that despite my plans for a Sunday check-in to allow for the boys basketball game schedule, my older DS was in fact going to have two games on our arrival day! I was able to book two one way tickets for a decent price to MCO for early Monday morning. I also used some hotel points to pay for a hotel near the airport so that they wouldn't have to wake up so early for their 5:50 am flight.

Then my other DS was invited to a birthday party on Saturday afternoon, so we didn't begin our drive to Orlando until 4:00 pm. I made reservations to spend the night at the TownPlace Suites at Flamingo Crossings because that is where I would be getting off of 429. I'm glad I made a reservation because the resort was packed! This is a brand new hotel and it was very nice! My DS loved the make your own mickey waffles (well, I think he loved that they had whipped cream and chocolate chips to put on top of the waffles). I had enough Marriott points to stay here for free and it was well worth it.

Arrival: We left the hotel and headed to the Beach Club at about 9:00 am on Sunday. I dropped our luggage off with bell services because I had the bags for everyone and there was no way I could manage them all from the parking lot by myself! My parents had driven about half way from their home on Saturday and spent the night in a hotel. They got up early and were on their way to the BC.

I was shocked to get the text message while hanging out in the lobby that our room was ready! I had two requests for rooms: near my parents and with a day bed. My boys can't share a bed. They both are crazy wild sleepers and it just doesn't work. At BC, daybeds are requests only when you don't have 5 people in a room. I had my travel agent request it for us. I also marked on our online check-in that I wanted to be near my parents. I was thrilled to find a day bed in our room and it had a connecting door. I had high hopes that my parents would be right next to us (which they were). We really liked the renovated rooms!

My parents arrived around 10:00 and we got everyone settled and the luggage delivered. My Dad was now hungry and wanted lunch. I figured this would happen and off we went to the Boardwalk to find a place to eat. The Boardwalk has two sit down restaurants that don't take reservations. We ended up at ESPN because we came to that first. This restaurant opens at 11:00 on Sundays, so we got in with no wait/problem. Everyone had burgers and it hit the spot. My DS declared that he wanted to spend the afternoon at the pool and not at MK like I had planned. It actually worked out perfectly! My Dad took a nap by the pool, my mom enjoyed sitting in the sun (it was rainy/cold at their house), and I spent some quality time with my DS. My mom said later that she really liked having some down time before hitting the parks.