Celebrating 60 and Going with First Timers

[Gma570]

Getting down to the wire for our trip to Disney. Leaving 2 September which is my hubbies 60th Birthday. Joining us will be our daughter, son-in-law and their 4 kids (11, 9, 7, 2). The kids have never been before. We're so excited

We have learned soooo much from this website on tips for things to pack and places to stay. I've got the large baggies, the D-ring for the stroller. We rented a stroller from Magic Stroller so I'll let you know how that goes.

I've been shopping and have a little gift bag for each kid. We've put in t-shirts, little personal fans, things like that. My daughter is getting a cake made at her local Wal Mart (she lives 90 miles away) with a Disney theme (cars) for my hubbies birthday cake.

I've been looking at all the places to eat. I think we're going to get on some of the buses to different hotels and try the different restaurants.

Packing snacks for the hotel room, some to munch on there and some to take to the parks. I found a nice little bag in the camping section of Wal Mart that is half "dry" and half "cold". I am going to get those icy packs and freeze in the hotel and put in there for snacks I've found, but if the 2yr old gets hot I'm going to try the tip I read about placing the gel pack behind his back (with a towel) to cool him down

We're excited.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

My mom went down for our first trip with our son nad has a lot of great memories with her grandson. It sounds like you have planned well.

Do you have any dining reservations?

 

[Gma570]

No, since we are staying at Shades of Green we can't get the Disney Dining Plan. We had thought about a reservation at Ohana's since it is across the street, but we decided to just wing it.

We are planning to do 4 parks, some more than others, and eat at the hotel as well. Do you think its going to be too hard to eat somewhere without a reservation? Is it too late to make them for Labor Day weekend? (3 weeks)

 

[Gma570]

Well, I just returned from a shopping trip and I think I've got just about everything we'll need (except snack food).

Went to Party City and got Pirates of the Carribean cups, a Hannah Montanta cup, a princess plate, and a cars plate for $0.99 each. We can use these in the hotel room for drinks and snacks. Also got fake tattoo stickers of Pirates for the boys.

Went to WalMart and got a lot, but let me tell you what I discovered. I had read about buying large D-rings to hang on the strollers. You could clip your purse, bags, water bottle, whatever to the ring. Well in shopping at WM I found that the large D-ring in the baby dept is $6.00, in hardware/fastners it is $4.25 and in camping it is $2.88. Same ring! amazing.

I also purchased in camping a bag that is half dry/half "cooler". It was $8.88 they had tons of them. Very soft sided and will allow for treats to stay cold or a place to put a wet shirt if we have to.

I bought the bandanas so we can soak them in water and wear around our necks to cool off. I also got fanny packs (hip packs/waist packs) whatever you call them.

One thing I didn't think about until I got to the store was those little things you wear around your neck to hang your sunglasses. Bought them for the kids. Going on/off rides, glasses going on/off, just seemed simpler to use these. I'll let you know how it works out.

As for snacks in the park I found another little surprise at WalMart. In the produce section they have these tiny bags for $0.99 each that have about 4-6 slices of apple and a couple of grapes. BUT!!! if you look down below where they are found, you will find a container of 5 of these pouches for $3.48 big difference. We thought we'd throw some of these and another one they had with apples/peanut butter, into our little cooler bag for the toddler in the group. Older kids can hold off hunger a little better while you're in ine, but little ones get antsy.

More pre-planning to do. 23 days and counting