A random person kissed my baby's head, or wait you mean Mickey Mouse is not real?

[tabrizia]

Okay I am going to try a trip report again. I've tried with my last two trips as well and kind of forgotten/gotten busy and never finished. I am really going to try to finish this one though.

Now for a bit background, we went on this trip with my parents, my brother and his fiance and our two little ones. So there were 8 of us in total, though rarely were all 8 of us together at the parks. We stayed mainly off site, though DH, the short ones and I did stay on site for 3 nights, 1 at the beginning of the trip and 2 at the end. We were there from October 23rd till November 2nd, but we drove so we left on the 22nd and got home on the 3rd. I did take notes, I did not take many food pictures though.

Oh and DH and I decided we are never staying off site again, we just didn't like it, even if it was free, which was debatable anyways since we had to pay for food instead of getting free dining. Anyways onto the cast of the trip.

 

[tabrizia]

All of the following people show up in my trip report:

Main Characters:

Me - Hi, I'm Sarah and I'm writing the trip report. I am a 31 year old SAHM of 2. We live in Maryland in a DC suburb. DH and I have been married for 8 years now and we went to Disney for our honeymoon, and our 5 year anniversary and the following year with DS when he was 5 months old, because we didn't get to do everything we wanted to on our anniversary since I was pregnant *grin*. I like to plan things, but not over plan, I do like a nice loose plan and I enjoy choosing where we will eat and having a basic idea of what we will do with our days. I also like to have at least 2 down days in our plans, and arranging things so they work well for our family. Too bad we had more then our family on the trip.

DH- Dan, he is 32 and a computer programmer. He works in downtown Washington DC. He is a great Dad and helps out a ton with both the small ones and with the housework. He gets a bit tired of my Disney planning and talking about Disney, but he likes Disney and enjoys going when we go. He prefers a bit more spontaneity then me, but can deal with my loose schedule.

DS- Desmond is 2.5, he is a great little boy. He is opinionated like most 2.5 year olds, he loves going on rides and he knows his own mind. He also likes Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger, plus other characters.

DD- Eloise is 1/2. She is great, she is crawling and cruising and loves doing what her older brother does. She likes cuddling and giraffes.

My Mom- Nonnie she is my Mom, her birthday was while we were in Disney, not while she was in Disney though. My parents had to go to a wedding the weekend we got to Disney so they arrived late, which means my Mom missed celebrating her birthday in Disney. My Mom is great and helps a bunch with both small ones.

My Dad- Grandpa he is my Dad. He is okay, he is a bit cheap, not really frugal, just cheap, which causes arguments between my parents. He is not that much help with the small ones unless you tell him exactly what needs to be done. He is a great guy though.


Supporting Cast:

My Brother - Noah, he is 26 and lives in the DC metro area as well. He was going because his fiance had never been. We did some meals with them, but in general they weren't around that much, which was fine.

My Future Sister in Law- Clare, she is 22ish. This was her first visit to Disney World. I think she had fun, but not positive since as noted we didn't really hang around with them a lot, we were with the small ones and my parents a lot more.


Minor characters:

Mommom - My grandmother on my Mom's side. We drove and her house is about 3 hours from ours so she is the perfect stopping point for a rest, so we visited with her on the way down and back. We just recently lost my Grandfather, the month before DD was born actually, so it was kind of weird going to her house and not having him there.


People probably not mentioned in the trip report:

My sisters- Laura and Nancy, Nancy and Noah are twins. Laura is married and a lawyer, Nancy is in law school.

K-Line - Our dog he is 7 years old and stayed at a friend's house with their 3 dogs

Roo - My parent's dog

Nixon - Noah and Clare's dog

 

[tabrizia]

Here was our basic plan for while we were at Disney. It changed some, but worked fairly well. Note that there are no real off days because of my parents only being there for 6 days.

October 22nd: Leave drive to North or South Carolina
October 23rd: Arrive in Florida, stay at the POP!
October 24th: Magic Kingdom or Animal Kingdom and check into the resort, 9pm dinner at Chef Mickey's
October 25th: Disney Studios, Magic Kingdom or EPCOT
October 26th: EPCOT maybe or day off, parent's arrive dinner at Raglan Road
October 27th: Animal Kingdom
October 28th: Magic Kingdom Breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at Narcoossees just me and DH
October 29th: EPCOT dinner at Tutto Italia
October 30th: Magic Kingdom or where ever people want to go, dinner The Wave
October 31st: Noah, Clare and my parents leave, we check into POP! MNSSHP that evening
November 1st: Whatever we feel like doing
November 2nd: Head home
November 3rd: arrive home