Bunch of Brooks Bounce Back.... Third time's the charm! An August Pre-Trip Report for a Family of 13!

canuckgirl

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 20, 2014
Hello Everyone!

This is a PTR for our trip to the world from August 19th-30th. We have travelled to Disney twice previously and are thrilled to be heading back again! Our first trip was in 2014 and we stayed club level at the Grand Floridian :earseek:(way to ruin expectations for subsequent trips! :rotfl2:) that trip was our immediate family along with my MIL & SIL) we were bitten by the Disney bug and booked our second trip 4 years later again for August in 2018. We stayed at the Polynesian (not my fav monorail resort.. I know! :stir:) and while there, booked a bounce back offer for August of 2019 at the Contemporary..... if you can't tell yet, MK is our favourite park and we adore staying at monorail resorts! 🤑 We got pregnant shortly after that trip and cancelled when we learned we were due with baby #10 in August of 2019 👶 We then decided to book the Contemporary again for August of 2020 to celebrate his very first birthday at Disney World! We were so thrilled for this trip and had even gotten the dining plan and had ADRs for Cinderella's Royal Table for his first birthday dinner! Sadly, we know how this ends, as C happened and all travel stopped :sad: While stuck in lockdown for years, we watched countless Disney videos and dreamed about our next trip! We decided in October of last year to finally book our long-awaited bounce back and decided on Wilderness Lodge!!!

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When we had stayed at The Grand Floridian in 2014, we had shared a bus with WL and when we saw it, we loved it instantly and knew we wanted to stay there one day! Also, in full disclosure,
Contemporary was booked! :rotfl:We still hope to stay there one day!

So, a little bit about us! We are a LARGE family with myself Cheryl, my husband Ryan and our *11* children Alicia (25), Ethan (23), Charlie (17), Lily (15), Juliet (14), Eloise (11), Maisie (8), Mabel (6), Gus (4), Teddy (2) and Winnie 11 months).

Here's some answers to our most asked questions!

No, we aren't religious
Yes, they were all planned
Yes, they are all ours together
Yes, we "know how it happens"
Yes, our grocery bill is huge
Yes, we eat the same food as everyone else, just insanely large
quantities
No, none of them are twins..... but I'd love a set!:jumping1:


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On this trip it's going to be Teddy's 3rd birthday on the 26th, and Winnies first birthday on the 23rd - a big celebration trip for our return! We have a habit (I'm sure like a lot of others!) of booking a cheaper "gateway" hotel and then switching to a more expensive resort somewhere along the way! Haha! This trip we had originally booked Wilderness Lodge back on Halloween of 2021, with the intention of only keeping the reservation *if* we could get free dining or a really good discount on the room! When the summer/fall discounts came out and we saw that Wilderness was only 10% and not 25% like the other deluxe resorts, we were bummed and decided to save money and switch to Animal Kingdom! It was short lived though, since our absolute favourite park is MK and we spend half of our vacation there! We had also grown used to the ease of the monorail for transportation and didn't want to have to use the buses everyday. So back to Wilderness Lodge it was!

Since we are a family of 13, air travel was just completely out of the question... it would have been over $7000! :scared1: We had driven down on our previous trip and really loved the family road trip, even though it was incredibly stressful at times, we have really wonderful family memories of the drive! So, of course driving down again was the only choice.... except our van doesn't fit all of us! :rotfl2:So, unfortunately our oldest daughter is missing out on the fun and is flying down separately on the same day! It's about a 24 hour drive total and we plan on leaving around midnight of the 19th and arriving at Wilderness Lodge around midnight of the 20th, getting a few hours of sleep and heading straight to MK for an open to close park day! Totally reasonable, right?!??! Because our daughter is arriving before us, she will be able to get the rooms organized and grab us a late dinner if we need etc. We have 10 park days booked plus MNSSHP! We had attended MNSSHP for the first time in 2018 and loved it so much. Our youngest son also *ADORES* Halloween, so we booked it for his 3rd Birthday! 🎂 🎃

We made our park reservations as follows:
Day 1, 20th: MK
Day 2, 21st: EPCOT
Day 3, 22nd: EPCOT
Day 4, 23rd: MK (Winnie's birthday!
🎉)
Day 5, 24th: MK
Day 6, 25th: HS
Day 7, 26th: MK & MNSSHP (Teddy's birthday! 🎉)
Day 8, 27th: AK
Day 9, 28th: EPCOT
Day 10, 29th: MK

We had used the dining plan previously and really enjoyed it, but obviously its not back yet, so that
wasn't an option. We only have 2 TS meals planned, O'Hana for dinner on Winnie's 1st Birthday and Beaches & Cream on our last EPCOT day! We went to Beach & Cream on our last trip and got the Kitchen Sink and the kids still talk about it! So fun, so we're excited to do it again this trip! Other than that, we are doing QS and TONS of snacks! When we've gone to Disney at the end of August previously, F&W was never up and running. We are super thrilled to get the chance to see it for ourselves, and we're going with a list a mile long of all the snacks we want to try!
 
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Beautiful family---I love your kids' names! We will be down in "the World" August 14-20. So looking forward to it!!!! Your plans sound very fun, are you counting down too?? Ha, we love Beaches and Cream, and are doing it twice during our stay....convenient since we'll be at the Beach Club Villas!
 
Beautiful family---I love your kids' names! We will be down in "the World" August 14-20. So looking forward to it!!!! Your plans sound very fun, are you counting down too?? Ha, we love Beaches and Cream, and are doing it twice during our stay....convenient since we'll be at the Beach Club Villas!
Thank-you so much for the kind reply! Mid-end of August has always been a favourite time for us and we are beyond thrilled to be going back!! Beach Club is a beautiful resort and we’d love to stay there one day because the kids would LOVE storm-along bay!! Our countdown is on our family chalkboard in our kitchen!image.jpg
 
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Great plans lined up! Tell me: did you book Cinderella's Royal Table for this trip? I have it, and am beyond excited! Ugh, can't wait to go, literally counting down here. Speaking of, your countdown chalkboard is adorable!!!! Are the kids just so excited?? I am surprising my little boy (10), he has NO clue we are going! Oh----do you plan to do a trip report after it's all said and done? Come on August, is all I can say :)
 


Great plans lined up! Tell me: did you book Cinderella's Royal Table for this trip? I have it, and am beyond excited! Ugh, can't wait to go, literally counting down here. Speaking of, your countdown chalkboard is adorable!!!! Are the kids just so excited?? I am surprising my little boy (10), he has NO clue we are going! Oh----do you plan to do a trip report after it's all said and done? Come on August, is all I can say :)
Thanks for your reply! Ugh, we had Cinderellas Royal Table booked for our 2020 trip that got cancelled! It was for our sons 1st birthday! We aren’t going this time because with the exchange 1 meal there for all of us is over $1000! Hopefully one day we’ll eat in the castle. I am so thrilled for you, I can’t imagine a better meal than one in the castle looking over MK! Your son will be SO excited, you’ll definitely have to video his reaction! What are your dates for your trip??
 
Awwww, that's a bummer all around about your 2020 trip....hopefully someday you will eat in the Castle :) Two weeks exactly and counting! We will be in the air at this time---fingers crossed----two weeks from RIGHT NOW. Beyond excited!!!! Can't wait to read more about your trip, I know it will be incredible!!
 
Countdown is at... 15!!!!!

We called Disney earlier this week to be able to sort out our rooms - we put in the requests to have two kids rooms connected, and in the room adjacent, will be me, DH, and the babies. This way, the little ones will be able to get to sleep earlier, and the kids can party all night long if they want!
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(just kidding, they'll be wiped after rope drop to park close!)

We were also SO excited about the Magicband+ drop, and we all woke up early on the 27th to pick our bands.


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The little ones all got Magicband- :rotfl2: because even though they're not necessary for us (no Genie+ for us!), it's just not a Disney trip without them!



Speaking of the Genie... After months of research and discussion, we have decided against purchasing it. First of all, the cost: 150$ a day is just ridiculous!!! Plus all of us riding together when possible is SUPER important, and from what we've heard, coordinating times to overlap is basically impossible. Also, when we did use FastPass+ on our previous trips, we would often ride attractions several times in one day, *especially* quiet rides (IASW, Dumbo, BS) so being able to ride each attraction only once per day is really upsetting, especially considering the total cost for our length of stay 💸💸💸.

This trip is going to be very different for us, because we're used to FP+ and DDP, so planning out every day basically down to the minute is what we're used to. We're actually looking forward to having a more chill experience, and that it might be nice to get up in the day and just do what we're feeling like, rather than running to and from various reservations.

With only two weeks left to go, we're getting our packing lists finalized and buying our last minute items! We are also *still* waiting to receive all the kids passports which is such a stress for me right now! We applied in person in May and were told we would have *no issue* receiving them in time :sad2: Come on Canadian government!!

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HA...I love the Zootopia sloth, very clever! Can I just say I very much agree with your decision not to do Genie? The money part is ridiculous, along with it being something I can't wrap my head around. I realize it's not brain surgery, but I kind of don't understand the whole thing. I don't want to pay extra to ride the rides I paid for, to begin with. Moreover, I don't feel like having to get up every day at 7, picking out selections, etc. This trip is me and my son, and we'll just take it as it comes I guess. 10 days to go here, whooooohoooo!! Hope the kids passports come SOON for you!
 
Hey everyone! Long time no see :laughing:

We haven't forgotten about this, it's just that the last few weeks have been SO busy, with coming back and getting back to real life, and then school starting up again!

We are super excited to do our trip report, because we get to relive literally the *BEST* Disney trip EVER!!!


Let's go back in time to departure day....

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DAY ONE: TRAVEL DAY

So on our previous trip, we had gotten up the day of really early, and had put the kids to bed really early in their clothes, in the hope that when we left at midnight, they would keep sleeping when we transferred them to the car. BAD IDEA!!!!!!! No one slept AT ALL and were all just cranky. So this trip, we decided to switch it up and keep them up until we left at midnight, and DH and I went to bed at about 7 to get a few hours of sleep in. SURPRISE, this was ALSO a bad idea... we're full of them apparently :crazy:

We were too wired and excited to get much sleep, and so that's how we left on our 24 hour road trip: with only 90 minutes of sleep in 24 hours!

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We had packed the car that afternoon, and it was FULL to the brim with everything and the kitchen sink. But we were *FINALLY* on our way!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!


Alicia was catching her flight in a few hours, so she stayed home. She also had had only 2 hours of sleep in the past 24 hours, but her drive to the airport was much shorter. Her flight was at 7am, and she got to the airport at about 4am. The wait was not bad at all, and security was only taking a few flights at a time to keep the lines short. The flight was fine, and she got to Orlando just before 10am, and was at the Wilderness before noon!

For us, it was a *much* longer travel day! We had purposefully left around midnight, because we found it was a generally good time to leave, traffic wise. We got through the border around 2am, and were just getting out of PA when the sun came up. DH and I started the drive together, but then I got exhausted around 3am and napped for a couple of hours. I took over driving as we were hitting WV. One thing that drives me *nuts* about driving in the US, is the lack of ONroutes. They are these magical places, where on the side of the major highway, it has gas, bathrooms, and a ~variety~ of food and coffee. ALL. IN. ONE!!!!!!!! I missed them so much on the drive. The kids were all doing SO well and had slept for the first 7ish hours of the trip. We pushed hard and stopped for lunch at Shake Shack just outside of Charlotte. We got out of the car and sat down to eat to let the kids have a break and stretch their legs. They were all super excited about burgers and chocolate milkshakes! But I wasn't excited about the 175$ USD price tag

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The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, and we got *amazing* gas mileage on the NV! We had stopped for the night on our last trip, and had decided not to do that this time around. It just made it harder in the morning to get the kids back in the car. Not to mention the added cost of the hotel rooms!

It only got really hard for the last four hours of the trip, when Gus(4), was crying that he didn't want to go to Disney World anymore, and just wanted to go back home instead. Even I started to question whether or not the road trip was a good idea with all the kids crying! But, our first sighting of a sign with "DISNEY WORLD" written on it made us forget about all the hardship, and I cried when I saw the EPCOT ball!!!




 
I love that you are doing this as a big family! I have never tried an overnight road trip with kids! I don't think my DH would go for that but we have taken road trips with our kids since they were babies, and they now love them!

Looking forward to seeing what the rest of your trip looks like!
 

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