Disney with 3 under 3! I just might be crazy! My first PTR.

[TinkerKeeks]

So this my first PTR. I still feel crummy for never finishing our jan 13 trip report. life took over and I had probably the craziest year of my life, but now I have a second chance at trip reporting! Yay

So without further ado, let The planning begin.

First some background and introductions...

A lot has changed since my January 2013 trip. For one thing our family has grown by two!!!! We went being a cute family of 3, mom dad and toddler, to a jumbo family of 5, all in a matter of a year. Our twins were born January 2014.



I've had a pretty hard year. I lost my best friend in August 2013, and found out I was pregnant with twins a week later. It was kind of surreal to think about now. My pregnancy was rough and the twins were born 8 weeks early via emergency csection. Both babies overcame so much and are healthy chubby little 4 month olds now,

So why disney now?
We are planning a November 2014 trip. After everything I've been through I really need a vacation. We went to Dominican Republic last summer and our first day there I found out my best friend had passed away, so that vacation was awful. I need to make some happy memories. And if this last year has taught me anything it's that life is short and tomorrow is not guaranteed. So I don't want to wait a couple of years until my kids are older.(I mean I want to go to disney again then too lol) I want to seize the moment and make great family memories now. So maybe it's a little nutty to go to disney with a 3 year old and 9 month old twins and I'm sure I'll be getting a lot of "you're crazy!" But oh well I'm ready!

So right now are dates are November 11-20. This could change as we are planning on driving so it's flexible right now.

 

[TinkerKeeks]

Who's coming?


Okay let's meet out lovely cast...

There is me, Kristie (25). I am a lifelong disney addict. I lived in Florida for part of my childhood and even had an AP for one year when I was 9. I can't count the number of times I've been. Our last family trip was January 2013, but I also did two day trips one on April 2013 and one in July 2013. My grandmother lives in Kissimmee so I try to squeeze I disney time whenever we visit her. Right now I am a stay at home mom. I have a degree in film and do freelance videography. My favorite characters are tinker bell, aurora, maleficent, and lady and the tramp. I collect those pins too.


Me and DH

Here's DH, Chris (27, will be 28 at the time of our trip) he is not quite the disney addict I am. He went a couple times as a kid and one time as an adult on our trip last year. He tolerates my obsession. He likes vacations but prefers to go places he's never been. He also is one of those people that likes to actually relax on vacation. ::gasp:: I know! How dare he! Lol so I have to make sure to schedule pool time for him. He does like disney and the movies and characters. He's a big toy story and Star Wars fan. He also loves Pluto.


Gabriel

Then there is my oldest DS Gabriel ( he will be 3 at the time of our trip, his birthday is in August). He is disney obsessed just like his mom. I may or May not have trained him to tell his father he wants to go to disney world lol he's loved Mickey since he was a baby, he also has a serious obsession with cars. I can't tell you how many times I've had to sit through the movie and let me just say I am not cars fan lol. He also loves wreck it Ralph, another one I've watched on repeat, but at least I actually like that one. He also recently got into toy story. He was still little in our jan 13 trip, but when I took him in July for a day he loved it. He loved the disney junior show. His character interactions were really good that day so I'm excited to see how he will interact now that he is older.


Savannah


Matteo

And of course our littlest members
Savannah and Matteo (will be 9 months,7 adjusted at time of trip)
For those of you unfamiliar with preemies. They have an adjusted and actual age. Since they were born 8 weeks early we use their adjusted age to gauge how they are doing milestone wise. At some point they catch up to their actual age. As far S being disney fans go, I can at least say they are fans of the music. I've been singing to them since they were in my belly

Joining us on the trip will also be my mother in law Gladys


Me and Gladys at the twins christening

There's really no way we can do this trip without her. She will definitely be helping us with the kiddies. She hasn't been on a real vacation in years. She splits her time between here and Ecuador. Fil and her have a farm down there and she has to spend a lot time working there.


Nanny

Then we have my grandmother, nanny. She is as much a disney addict as myself.she lives in Kissimmee. She has had an annual pass for years. She is 81 years old and still loves the parks. She also .has a mild obsession with Walmart. It is her second favorite place in the world and she could seriously spend hours in there shopping. I can't tell you the number of times we have lost nanny in Walmart lol.

That's all for now. My mother is still debating if she wants to come. My father lives in Naples Florida so there is a likely chance he will pop in for a visit or two.

 

[TinkerKeeks]

Where are we going to stay?


So I have been to disney more times to count and have only stayed on disney property once. Our last trip we stayed at the pop. I was so excited to finally stay on property and be immersed In disney magic nonstop. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

DH and I are a bit of luxury snobs, we like nice hotels and suites and like to spread out and relax. So the pop was not our cup of tea, definitely had a motel feel and the room was too small for us. I get how the values would be great for people who spend a lot of time in parks and just need a place to sleep but for us with small children we do spend a significant amount of time in the room. Unfortunately at disney, luxury and space do not come cheap. Soooo we will be staying off-site. ::gasp:: I know how evil of me. But we are able to rent a house with a private pool for the same price as staying at a value in disney. So it really was a no brainer.

This was dh's idea and how the trip came about. I have been nagging for awhile now about wanting to go to disney and of course Dh was not drinking the kool aid. I was trying to convince him to go I'm august right before DS's bday. (But babe, you don't understand all our kids will be free still!) we got a pin code in the mail(please,look free upgrade to parkhoppers). He dismissed me, and threw my pin code out

Then the free dining offer came out. ( please it will cost us 2800 for everything and that includes free food! Can we go please.) of course he said no that those tiny disney rooms were not worth the price tag,

So then a few nights later out of the blue he says to me " now don't get excited but...
I was looking into how much it would be to rent a vacation villa and we could get a whole private house with our own pool for much cheaper then staying at disney"

Whatttt?ahhh you were considering a disney trip and actually doing some research on your own. Sometimes my dh just surprises me.

Anyways, you know once he suggested that I took off with the idea running lol so we have decided to rent a vacation villa. We have been looking at several places and haven't quite decided on the one yet. Dh has promised we will book by the end of this month yay

I think having a house will work well for us. Gabriel loves to swim and wil enjoy having his own pool. And since the babies will be taking naps still we can take a dip while the kids are napping. We wouldn't be able to that if we stayed at a resort. Dh was bummed he didn't get pool time on our last trip because he has to stay in the room with ds during nap time. At least renting a house we can bring the baby monitor and go sit by the pool while babies are asleep.

Also it will be nice to have some place for us to relax at night. The kids all sleep by 9/10. So we would be confined to being quiet and in the dark in a regular resort. Here we can put the kids to bed and go have a drink and a dip in the pool or watch a movie without disturbing them.

Since we are driving we will have a car and all the places we are looking at are within 15 mins to the parks so I am really excited.

 

[TinkerKeeks]

The game plan so far...

We haven't bought tickets yet. Right now I am contemplating whether to get an AP or a 6 day park hopper. I might just spring for the AP because I have a feeling we will be back in Florida in the summer and I will be wanting to visit the parks. As I said earlier my grandmother lives in Kissimmee and my dad lives in Naples. Some how i always wind up back In the state.

Let me first say that I am going into this trip fully realizing I am not going to be able to do everything I want. I know with the little ones plans can change unexpectedly. I am just looking forward to quality disney time and vacation with my family. So without further ado, my very loose guideline.

Tuesday November 11
Arrive at our vacation home. We will be driving down and arrive sometime midday. I am sure we will be tired so I think we will probably just relax and get acquainted with our surroundings. We will also have to pick up nanny at her house in Kissimmee and bring her to the rental we are staying at. I am hoping for dinner at Cracker Barrel. I loooove Cracker Barrel and there are none where I live so I am so hoping for a meal there.

Wednesday November 12
Hollywood studios
I have a lunch ADR for Hollywood and vine so Gabriel can get his disney jr. Fix in.

Thursday November 13
Magic kingdom morning

Possible date night In Epcot while Mil watches the kids

Friday November 14
Not sure about the morning yet
But MVMCP at night.

Saturday and Sunday
Pool time, shopping, maybe some downtown disney time or meet up with local friends in the area.

Monday November 17
Epcot
It is mil's bday. So I made a dinner ADR for San angel inn. She loves Mexican food.

Tuesday November 18
Hollywood studios
Made a lunchtime ADR for 50s prime time

Wednesday November 19
Breakfast adr at kona cafe
Magic kingdom day

And on Thursday nov 20 we will head home.

I am stalking for a chef Mickey ADR or trex ADR for DS. I'm sure I will firm up and change plans a bunch of times. There are also talks of a possible Harry potter day or blizzard beach. We will see what happens as the planning continues...

 

[leftaslide]

Cute family! I can totally see renting a villa with a group your size. Much more affordable i would think. Sounds like fun so far!

 

[TinkerKeeks]

Just a small update I added two more adrs.
I added the plaza for lunch on Thursday nov 13

And I also added dinner at rainforest cafe in dtd for Sunday nov 16. I was hoping for trex since ds has never been but rainforest cafe should be fun.

 

[Alysa]

All your little ones will be free, why wouldn't you go? Excellent planning! They are adorable by the way.

 

[Caradana]

You inspire me! In three weeks, we will also have 3 under 3 ... We have twin girls who are 2.5 (also 31 weekers with a month in NICU - all good now) and are having another girl by June 25. Question: are you going to be breast feeding the twins on this trip? Or packing formula through? The house rental is a good move.

 

[jmskinner]

Thought I would follow along. Beautiful family.

Have you tried calling T-Rex directly? I haven't been in a few years, but seems like there was more availability if you called. Before I hit "submit post", I found this article, T-Rex Tip Even though the article is from two years ago, looks like people have commented recently that it still works best to call. Hope it works.

 

[TinkerKeeks]

Thank you to everyone who commented and is following along. I am so sorry I haven't updated. We had a really rough month. My dog got really sick about. Month ago. I took her to the animal hospital where she stayed a week. She was diagnosed with diabetes and pancreatitis. She is doing well now but it was definitely a busy and stressful time adjusting to the insulin shots and stuff . Not to mention those vet bills ain't cheap We finally got back on track with planning our trip this week. We booked our rental home yay! It's a nice 4 bedroom home about 15 mins from disney with a pool and spa. I'm very excited. The villa also has 2 pack and plays so I will not have to bring mine, which makes more room to pack other things yay. There's a Mickey themed room which I'm sure my son will enjoy. I also decided to go ahead and purchase an annual pass. It's what makes the most sense, since I'm sure I will be back at least one more time within the year and it saves us from having to pay parking. We are planning on doing about 6 or 7 park days. Just a little life update: I took my 3 kids and my niece to get some pics done. Here's the group shot. We did a 4th of July theme.




The little boy and the twin babies are mine, the little girl on the bottom is my niece.

 

[jmskinner]

Hope your doggie is doing better. My little Constanze had Pancreatitis.

Love the pic, the kids are too cute.

The house sounds great!

Any luck on the T-Rex ADR?

 

[TinkerKeeks]

Hope your doggie is doing better. My little Constanze had Pancreatitis. Love the pic, the kids are too cute. The house sounds great! Any luck on the T-Rex ADR?

I'm actually in the process of tweaking our plans a bit. We've decided to do the Christmas party the night we were gonna do downtown disney. So I'm just gonna cancel rainforest cafe since I don't think a 5 pm reservation there will give us enough time to get to the party.

We also ended up adding an extra day to our trip. We will be arriving the 10th instead of 11th, so I'm thinking we will do our downtown disney day on the 11 to ease into disney lol

I am tweaking our plans now and will post our new tentative plans in a little bit.

 

[TinkerKeeks]

You inspire me! In three weeks, we will also have 3 under 3 ... We have twin girls who are 2.5 (also 31 weekers with a month in NICU - all good now) and are having another girl by June 25. Question: are you going to be breast feeding the twins on this trip? Or packing formula through? The house rental is a good move.

I was exclusively pumping. Which took so much time and energy my babies never took the breastfeeding since they started out with tube feedings, then bottles in the NICU. I actually just stopped pumping a few weeks ago so right now they are getting a mix of formula and what's left of my frozen supply. They will just be on formula by the time we go on our trip.

Also hope you had a very safe delivery of your new baby and all is going well. Good luck with everything. I know how crazy it is to have a toddler with two newborns. Can only imagine what it's like to have two toddlers. Lol

 

[TinkerKeeks]

So here is my up to date official itinerary of our trip

Sunday November 9 - hit the road and start our drive

Monday November 10
Arrive at our vacation rental, depending on time of our arrival maybe go out to Cracker Barrel

Tuesday November 11

As of right now this is a pool/relax day, with a trip to walmart for supplies likely
At night we will visit dtd

Wednesday November 12
This is our Hollywood studios day
We will eat breakfast at the house.
We have lunch reservations at Hollywood and vine


Thursday November 13
Magic Kingdom Day
Lunch reservations at the plaza

Epcot night

Friday November 14
Animal Kingdom
I had originally decided to skip animal kingdom since we explored it so thoroughly on our last trip. But I wanted to take DS to a character meal with the fab 5, so we made reservations for tusker house lunch. Also we were only able to get reservation for 3 ppl. So we will prob be leaving the twins home with their grandmothers for this 1/2 day so they can get a break from the parks.

Nighttime plans are up in the air at this point

Saturday November 15
Pool day

Sunday November 16
I figured we would relax and swim in the morning. Maybe do a little shopping.
Planning on going to the Xmas party at night. May or May not decide to leave twins home with grandmothers.

Monday November 17
Epcot day
Dinner reservations at San angel inn

Tuesday nov 18
Hollywood studios
Lunch at 50s prime time

Wed nov 19
Magic kingdom

Thurs nov 20
Leave for home

Right now I'm making lists of all the attractions we want to do. My son is currently 38 inches tall. I know he is tall enough to do mine train but I'm not sure he will like it, we did his first kiddy coaster at the jersey shore a few weeks ago and he wasn't really into it. He didn't cry or anything. But when I asked him if he wanted to go again he said no. I'm gonna show him a video if it and see how he reacts.

I'm also trying to figure out what do with the stroller situation. Right now I have 3 strollers, I have a huge joovy caboose triple stroller, a double snap and go for the twins, and a cheap single umbrella stroller my son still uses. My triple stroller is huge and will not fit in the minivan with all our luggage and stuff. I was considered renting a double stroller through one of the Orlando area stroller rental companies and bringing my cheap umbrella stroller for my 3 yr old. This would mean having two strollers at disney which seams like a lot but I'm not sure what else I can do. I'm not seeing any options for renting triple strollers on any of the stroller rental sites either I must be the only nut with 3 little kiddies going to disney lol

 

[LB1122]

In now way shape or form is it crazy. Just think of the photos and the memories you will be able to share with them.

I hope your Chef Mickey stalking works out as it is such fun. If not I would suggest a Fastpass at Epcot for meeting Mickey and the gang - it is great place to meet them.

Your little ones are adorable. Happy planning

 

[jmskinner]

Plans look great!

Sorry, can't help with the stroller issues, I only have one and he was 7 the first time we went. All we have ever needed/wanted were wheelchairs for us adults.

 

[rebekahsd]

Subscribing! It looks like our trips will overlap! (We're November 15-20). This will be our first trip with our boy/girl twins as well- they'll be turning 14 months while we're there!

 

[BecBennett]

You have beautiful kids! My DD was born at 34 weeks, so we went through nicu/tube feeding/adjusted ages and everything too. We were lucky though, she caught up to her age when she was around 10/11 months (actual age) so we don't bother adjusting any more (she's 14.5 months now).

I like your idea of being able to swim while the little ones are asleep, I had a similar idea in that we're going to stay at the Boardwalk so one of us can stay in the hotel room, while the other can explore.

I'm also trying to convince DH to invite a grand parent along as a baby sitter, however DD will almost be 2 by our trip so hopefully she'll be easier to "handle"

With the strollers, do any of the twin ones come with the stand that your DS can stand on? It might not be suitable for every day, but might make it handy for if you're just going out for a little while you could still use the umbrella stroller on the long days.

 

[Ali3jr]

How fun!!

 

[TinkerKeeks]

You have beautiful kids! My DD was born at 34 weeks, so we went through nicu/tube feeding/adjusted ages and everything too. We were lucky though, she caught up to her age when she was around 10/11 months (actual age) so we don't bother adjusting any more (she's 14.5 months now).

I like your idea of being able to swim while the little ones are asleep, I had a similar idea in that we're going to stay at the Boardwalk so one of us can stay in the hotel room, while the other can explore.

I'm also trying to convince DH to invite a grand parent along as a baby sitter, however DD will almost be 2 by our trip so hopefully she'll be easier to "handle"

With the strollers, do any of the twin ones come with the stand that your DS can stand on? It might not be suitable for every day, but might make it handy for if you're just going out for a little while you could still use the umbrella stroller on the long days.

Aw yay I love hearing about preemies doing well and catching up. I'm sure you will do well with your almost 2 year old. My son(who will be 3 this coming trip) was 1 1/2 our last trip. He loved everything and was soooo good.

As far as the stroller, I think I am going to rent a double stroller from one of the local rental companies. They have a glider board stand on you can add on for the back, I think it is only an extra 25. The villa we are staying at has an umbrella stroller included so I will always have that option too.

Subscribing! It looks like our trips will overlap! (We're November 15-20). This will be our first trip with our boy/girl twins as well- they'll be turning 14 months while we're there!

Yay for twins! That's a perfect age to take them for the first time. They will be so mesmerized with everything. Let's hope for some good weather. Where will you be staying?