Celebrating our very first family trip to Disney!! June 1-7, 2009

[mamarissa]

Hello All!!

We are leaving for our first family Disney trip in 20 days! I started planning this trip in February with the help of a family friend who is a travel agent, and she suggested I look online at a place called disboards.com to get some great info on Disney. Well, little did I know, I was being introduced to my new obsession!! From that moment on, my life has become all things Disney and these boards. I have learned SO much--there are things discussed here that I never would have thought of in a million years, but now that I know them, do not know how I would manage my trip without them!!

Ok, so where to begin? I was so nervous about starting a pre-trip report, I actually went back and forth for days (ok, weeks!) about it! What if no one found me and my family interesting?? The HORROR! But now I have decided that this is for ME, and if by chance some dissers would like to come along for the ride, well then even better!!

Here is a brief description of our family:

Me: "the mom"
29 & 3/4 (yes, I am fighting for every last day of my 20's!!!), married to my high school sweetheart. I work part time (3 days/week) for a state agency...aka my time to do all things dis! I have a slight case of ocd, a little manic, but a damn good time, if I do say so myself! I love spending time with my family and my girlfriends! We love to entertain. I am a freelance makeup artist, and hope to make this my "full time" career someday. I love to make hairbows, plan parties, decorate, shop, anything girly, but I also enjoy relaxing with my husband, a cold beer and a Red Sox/Bruins/Pats game. Went to Disney several times as a child with my family but haven't been in almost 20 years!!

My husband: "the dad"
30, married to HIS high school sweetheart (haha). I have no idea what my husband does at his regular job. He has this long title that makes no sense what so ever....basically he manufactures carbon fibruls (sp?) nanotubes....yeah ok. He also owns a landscaping business, which basically means he works 24/7, but he does it all for his family so I really cannot complain! He loves motorcycles, sports, typical guy things. He thinks I am completely obsessed with this whole Disney trip, but he appreciates all the hard work I have put into the plans as well. He almost fell over when I brought my Disney binder home to show him "our" plans!! And he was so grateful the day AFTER our 90 day mark so he didn't have to answer my 9 million questions about where he wanted to eat in 3 months! Last time he went to Disney was over 13 years ago!

DD 9: "our princess"
She is just a fabulous little girl! She is a perfectionist! She loves every activity she has ever tried and is a very busy little girl! She is a very sensitive little girl, always looking out for other people and their feelings. She loves, loves, loves school, math and science are her favorite subjects, but she is also a wonderful writer. She loves dance, cheerleading, gymnastics and just recently started playing girls hockey! Oh boy! She loves Disney and is probably the most excited to go! She loves Tinkerbelle and Cinderella, Hannah Montana, HSM and of course the JoBros!

DS 6: "the wild one"
Typical BOY! He has been rough and tumble since day one and I love it! He could not be more opposite of his sister! He could sleep all morning, could take or leave school (he is in Kindergarden, so I am hopeful this will change!). Tells you like it is! But definately not rude!! Is obsessed with Legos!! Loves Star Wars, Cars, playing hockey, watching the Red Sox, digging in the dirt and trucks!

DS 9 months: "the baby"
We waited so long for this little angel!! It was a very rough road, but we are so grateful everyday!! He truly is the "best" baby. Always very pleasant, sleeps, eats, smiles. He has completed our family perfectly! Each day his little personality comes out more and more and we are just delighted to have him!

Coming Up Next:
Our Trip Details!!

 

[mamarissa]

So, as I said before an old family friend is a travel agent and she takes her kids to Disney at least twice a year...since I haven't been in almost 2 decades, I figured I needed guidance and enlisted her to help! I started off so naive about cost and timing, etc. (I actually thought it was going to be a LOT more expensive than what it turned out! Happy surprise!).

Originally I told her we had to go the first week of June, after dance recitals and school tests, before cheerleading and t-ball, and told her we wanted to stay at one of the All Star Resorts. Now, keep in mind, I had not yet been introduced to the wonderful world that is disboards....I just heard a lot people talking about staying at the All Stars and figured that was THE place to be with little ones. She does some figures for us and sends me the link for these boards and I started to research, A LOT! I decided that the All Stars just wasn't for us. I was torn between CBR and WL. I loved the themes at both, but my son loves all things pirates and with this being our first trip, I don't know how much time we are going to spend inside the room so I figured I would save a little $$, skip the deluxe and go CBR in a pirate room. My husband thought this was a great idea, he loved the pictures other dissers had posted in their trip reports and thought our kids would just love pool. I got really excited about the "island feel" too!

Ok, we had our room--what about dining?? My friend recommended the basic dining plan, which at first I thought would kind of be a waste....again, thank you fellow dissers!! Boy was I wrong! I didn't realize the whole table service, adr, dining "event" system! I thought we would just be eating "whatever" everyday! There were no adr's the last time I was there! So, we added basic dining and with the trip now being less than 3 weeks away, its such a relief knowing that (almost) all of our food is taken care of/paid for already!

Up until a couple of days before our 90 day mark for adrs we didn't have hoppers. I thought with the kids, we would take our time, one park one day at a time....and then I started to plan our adr's and started freaking out! We upgraded to hoppers, which was such a small price difference anyway (again I had no idea coming into this the cost of ANYTHING!) that just for my sanity alone, it's well worth it!

Now with all of this information just floating around in my head, my ocd started to kick in! I need to get this all organized and fast! Just like a sign from above, I stumbled upon a thread on Disney binders! Yay! I knew then I was in the right place, these were MY people! I started to collect different ideas, and made some adjustments and came up with our binder. It has 8 tabbed sections:

PreTrip Organizing
packing lists, shopping lists, fairy godmailer info--thanks dis!, organizational tips, garden grocer info--again, thanks!
Travel Info
flight information, Magical Express
Hotel Info
map, boat & bike rental info, Shutters menu, Pirate Cruise info
Park Info
maps, Fast Pass info, not-to-miss stuff, counter service meal preferences, shedules, EMH, Parades, Fireworks, etc.
Daily Schedule
where we are going, when
ADRs
schedule, reservation #s, dining and BBB
Photopass
group info, where photographers are
MISC
everything else!!!!

NEXT UP:
ADRs!!

 

[mamarissa]

I was so intimidated by the ADR process! I did a ton of reading on the restaurants thread and had a plan--and I was determined to get it done! I thought about fun places my kids would want to go, characters they would want to see and places that we could make memories at..."remember when we went to....."

So I had my list, in order of preference for each day. I figured which ones would probably give me the most trouble and figured I would ask for them first. I hadn't made our daily schedule yet--I figured I wasn't 100% sure how this ADR process was going to pan out, so I decided to let the ADRs determine our daily schedules. I called reservations at 8:59 on March 1st and was only on hold for about 5 minutes, but the whole phonecall probably took about an hour. Not bad for all I had to do. The CM was VERY nice and VERY patient!

Here is what we got (I will go into greater detail when I post our schedules)

Breakfast
Tusker House
1900 Park Fare
Kona

Dinner
Chef Mickey
Teppan Edo
Whispering Canyon
50's Primetime Diner
Ohana

Most days we will either do counter service for lunch, or eat at the pool (or be so full from breakfast we may just get a snack).

Can't wait! The only thing I am a little bummed about is not getting Le Cellier (sp?). I have called back several times to see if they have had any cancellations, but to date, no luck. Oh well! I might keep trying, but I really like the schedule I have now, so I'm not sure if its worth throwing a wrench in at this point....Any thoughts??

 

[mamarissa]

Today's Mission:

Find some designs for the kid's tshirts! I have been looking through all the disigns and cannot believe the talent! They are so cute! I have special requests from each child (well, the 2 that can talk at least!). DD wants tinkerbelle and minnie and some sort of princess-theme.....DS wants starwars, legos, indiana jones.

I also have to do the tip envelopes today too....marking stuff off the list!

 

[OhMari]

I hope you have a great trip.
Haven't heard from you in a couple of days,
are you packed yet?