A few years ago my Mom confessed to me that she had been secretly saving money so that we (my mom, dad, brother,DH,DS,DD's and I) could go on a family vacation. When she told me how much that she had saved I was shocked! Well, this past summer my mom got tired of waiting so the planning and negotiating began. We thought about Disneyland and then a coastal cruise up to Vancouver, where we live, and we discussed a few other options. We briefly thought about Florida and a Disney cruise but we all thought it was out of our budget. I did the number crunching and discovered that if we flew out of Seattle, Disney world and a DC were not much more than the other option. Since none of us have ever been to Disney on the east coast but we all have done west coast Disney we booked 4 days in Disney world and a three night cruise on the Wonder.
We are leaving on February 23 and setting sail on the 28th. So here is where the sneaky part comes in. OUR KIDS DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE TRIP!!!!! My husband and I attribute it to having very little patience, and maybe now it's just the thrill of seeing the look on our kids faces when the surprise is revealed, but for whatever reason, we don't tell our kids about BIG trips. We can't handle the "how much longer?" or "how many more sleeps?" so we just go on trips when it is time to go. The first time we did it was to Disneyland a few years ago. Our kids at the time were 6,3 and 1 and they knew we were going on a summer vacation, they just didn't know when or to where. In fact they were all to young to really understand that boarding the plane for LA meant Disney and they didn't really know what was up until they saw the golden Mickey in the hotel Lobby. The best surprise so far was last May when we surprised the kids with a three night cruise but went so far as to let them go to school that morning and then took them out and drove to the pier. We came up with a story about going into the city for my daughter's birthday lunch. When we got to the terminal we told them we were going for lunch on the ship that they were gawking at. It was then that our kids were hooked. They love vacations at sea as much as my DH and I do. It didn't hurt that we had been upgraded to a Penthouse on that trip
For this trip we are going to do our normal Saturday routine, which consists of breakfast together and hen 2 soccer games, before we tell the kids that we are going to Seattle for the afternoon. We have a red eye flight to Orlando and then we start our Disney vacation. The next surprise will come when we arrive in Orlando and see my parents there and then my brother will show up later in the day. We will only tell then that we are going to Disney world for 4 days and let them believe that we are going home after that. Driving to Port Canaveral (when they think we are heading back to the airport) will be the first time that they will suspect that we will actually be boarding the Disney Wonder. I can't wait!!!!!
So here we are, about 6 weeks before we leave and I am bursting with excitement. After being on one cruise, my kids constantly talk about someday going on a Disney cruise. Thanks to a 10 year old and Google My 4 year old DD has been saving her money for the trip that may one day happen. My DH and I sit at dueling laptops at night looking for every bit of useful information that we can find and now I have taken the plunge and posted here on the DIS boards. I feel like I have truly arrived
Having never done Disney world or DCL I would appreciate tips and advice. I'm doing the Tourguide Mike thing and read up on other's posts here daily but really, I don't want to go on this "trip of a lifetime" and feel like I've missed something. My kids are good travelers and my DH and I have a "well, what can you do ?" kind of attitude. We did a 8 night cruise in October that had terrible weather and a missed port of call due to our ship having to come to the aid of another ship, and still came home saying we had a fantastic vacation. I just want to make sure that I have planned a good balance of really experiencing Disney and enjoying my family.
So this is the beginning of my trip report. I will try to keep up with our planning process and then I am looking forward to reporting on the AMAZING Disney vacation that I am going to have in February.
We are leaving on February 23 and setting sail on the 28th. So here is where the sneaky part comes in. OUR KIDS DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE TRIP!!!!! My husband and I attribute it to having very little patience, and maybe now it's just the thrill of seeing the look on our kids faces when the surprise is revealed, but for whatever reason, we don't tell our kids about BIG trips. We can't handle the "how much longer?" or "how many more sleeps?" so we just go on trips when it is time to go. The first time we did it was to Disneyland a few years ago. Our kids at the time were 6,3 and 1 and they knew we were going on a summer vacation, they just didn't know when or to where. In fact they were all to young to really understand that boarding the plane for LA meant Disney and they didn't really know what was up until they saw the golden Mickey in the hotel Lobby. The best surprise so far was last May when we surprised the kids with a three night cruise but went so far as to let them go to school that morning and then took them out and drove to the pier. We came up with a story about going into the city for my daughter's birthday lunch. When we got to the terminal we told them we were going for lunch on the ship that they were gawking at. It was then that our kids were hooked. They love vacations at sea as much as my DH and I do. It didn't hurt that we had been upgraded to a Penthouse on that trip
For this trip we are going to do our normal Saturday routine, which consists of breakfast together and hen 2 soccer games, before we tell the kids that we are going to Seattle for the afternoon. We have a red eye flight to Orlando and then we start our Disney vacation. The next surprise will come when we arrive in Orlando and see my parents there and then my brother will show up later in the day. We will only tell then that we are going to Disney world for 4 days and let them believe that we are going home after that. Driving to Port Canaveral (when they think we are heading back to the airport) will be the first time that they will suspect that we will actually be boarding the Disney Wonder. I can't wait!!!!!
So here we are, about 6 weeks before we leave and I am bursting with excitement. After being on one cruise, my kids constantly talk about someday going on a Disney cruise. Thanks to a 10 year old and Google
My 4 year old DD has been saving her money for the trip that may one day happen. My DH and I sit at dueling laptops at night looking for every bit of useful information that we can find and now I have taken the plunge and posted here on the DIS boards. I feel like I have truly arrived Having never done Disney world or DCL I would appreciate tips and advice. I'm doing the Tourguide Mike thing and read up on other's posts here daily but really, I don't want to go on this "trip of a lifetime" and feel like I've missed something. My kids are good travelers and my DH and I have a "well, what can you do ?" kind of attitude. We did a 8 night cruise in October that had terrible weather and a missed port of call due to our ship having to come to the aid of another ship, and still came home saying we had a fantastic vacation. I just want to make sure that I have planned a good balance of really experiencing Disney and enjoying my family.
So this is the beginning of my trip report. I will try to keep up with our planning process and then I am looking forward to reporting on the AMAZING Disney vacation that I am going to have in February.
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