Fifth bday and grandma in a wheelchair... our post-Thanksgiving trip

[heather13]

Our trip included my 5 and 2yo daughters, DH, me and my mom who used a wheelchair in the parks b/c she can't walk long distances. This was a surprise trip for DD who turned 5 the day we left and didn’t find out about the trip until we were through airport security. Not a big external reaction when we told her, but she was still very excited. We arrived at Orlando airport on Monday at 9 am, took DME, checked in, and were walking into the MK by 11:30. Tuesday we spent the day at MK with 10:20 CRT reservations, Wednesday was AK day (perfect for kids who love animals - wish we’d had more time because we didn’t see half of what’s there) with 5pm reservations at Tusker, and Thursday we spent at MK until 3pm when we had to leave for DME pickup. Although the hours we were at MK could have been better, the total time spent there was just perfect. Girls rode everything they wanted at least once, and some things four times!

The good:
What can be better than the reaction of a 2 and 5 year old seeing Cinderella’s castle, Minnie Mouse and Peter Pan’s Flight for the first time? That was the most magical experience. One moment while the toddler was throwing a fit at CRT, her sister looked around and said, “This is the best birthday ever.” Out of the mouths of babes.
On the planning side, we LOVED the Contemporary. I’d stay there again. Rooms were very clean and comfy, we got connecting rooms which was a lifesaver, and having the monorail in the hotel was a blessing in the winter. No waiting in line outside in the cold (especially important on our last day when the trains weren’t operating for 40 minutes - missed AM EMH as a result but oh well). DH took the girls back for a nap the one day we were able and it made for a very happy evening for everyone. While they were napping, mom and I walked around the parks, got FP, Christmas shopped and ate. Great way to spend our time. Bay Lake view had sunrise which was a great way to start the day, and we walked out onto the fire escape stairs to for our own private viewing of Wishes at night.
Renting a wheelchair was easy. Also pretty easy to get around although the trolly tracks were an unexpected hazard. Finding the spots where the track gaps were filled a little bit (intentionally done for strollers & wheelchairs) was key. And the wheelchair lines were great. CMs were wonderful.
Fast pass was a lifesaver. Between pushing two items through the parks and stopping for characters every ten minutes, we would have spent our whole vacation in lines without FP. We did photopass too but haven’t checked the pics yet so I don’t know how they turned out.
DME was fantastic - definitely will do that again too. Traveling with our crew and no luggage or car seats made the trip bearable. When DD5 asked when we were picking up our suitcases I told her they would magically appear in our hotel room. Her response: Wow, Disney is awesome!

... up next - the bad and the ugly!!

 

[heather13]

The bad:
Lines were probably 10 minutes longer than the touringplans.com app suggested, and at least 20 minutes longer than the wait times listed at the attractions. We tried using a touring plan but it doesn’t take into account pushing a stroller and wheelchair around the park! Lines were so bad trying to follow it our first full day (waited 30 minutes at Dumbo and went there straight from rope drop) that I chucked it after two rides and just did what we wanted to do. Even at AK it wasn’t at all helpful. We were better able to follow it since we weren’t able to ride much, but even skipping at least half of the list we still didn’t see everything even though the park closed at 8.
Longest line though was for fairies. No alternative, since they open at 10 and with our other schedules we had to choose between Tiana and fairies on the last day (Tiana won). Wait was 1 hour at lunchtime, but at least it gave the girls some quiet time in lieu of a nap. Somewhat worth it - Vidia was amazing and quite realistic, Fawn was very sweet, Tink was so-so and a bit of a flake. The adjacent princess line went very quickly but we’d already met them at CRT.
Overall crowds the week after Thanksgiving were much worse than I’d expected. I can’t even imagine what summer must be like and will avoid it at all costs.

The ugly:
I’ve renamed it the Devils Dining Plan. Probably the worst part of the trip. I spent more time trying to figure out how many credits we had available to split between five people, using cards for two rooms while also trying to remember what everyone wanted to order (my mom in the wheelchair staked out a table while DH kept kids occupied). I think it’s a great idea for a couple traveling without kids, or someone traveling with teenagers who are likely to go off on their own and eat without their parents. But for parents with small kids not standing together in line it was a nightmare. The $50 or so I saved on the plan was completely negated by the 45 minutes or so I spent trying to figure out how many meals were left on each card, or where to get healthy snacks, or how to maximize our money. In the future I’ll just pay cash and won’t worry about buying the most expensive thing on the menu that everyone will eat. CMs were either very sweet about the DDP and allowed me to sub milk for dessert, or very unknowledgeable and told me they couldn’t ring it up without an actual dessert (finally ordered cookies, which we never even got and I’m still ticked about since we had to pay for two milks). That was the same CM who told me we had 3QS credits left when we actually only had 1, which was the beginning of the downward spiral of hate.

.... up next - what I learned...

 

[heather13]

What else I learned...
if the weather is cold the night before, plan on monorails being slow to start the next day. DH was told that there are 20 trains but only room to store 16 of them, so if the temp dips near freezing the 4 trains left in the cold must be taken off the track and replaced with “warm” ones. That was the cause for our missing EMH - not a big deal but if we’d known the why and when, I would have planned for us to walk or sleep that extra hour.

You don’t need to be at CRT until 10 minutes before reservation and can show up 10 minutes after without issue. Our reservation agent told us to be there 20 minutes early so we spent an additional ten minutes lolling about. Fortunately the Tremaines showed up and we got to meet them (hysterical!) outside the castle during that time, but we could have spent that time waiting for Tiana instead and then could have waited for fairies or Rapunzel at 10am the last day.

Having a birthday button at Disney didn’t seem very special. Quite a few people told DD happy birthday, and she got a little cupcake at CRT, but three other girls around us also got cupcakes (a bit deflating when you’re hearing the birthday song for the fourth time). It probably wasn’t a big deal to DD, but it all felt rather impersonal to me. The little things we did for her (stuffed animals on her pillow each morning when she woke) meant more.

Tusker was good, but I think some of the QS meals were better. The best thing about it was being able to eat fruits and veggies, although the fruits at the TS meals were not very good - either not ripe enough or too squishy. I know it's off season, but paying $30+ for a meal that's partially inedible is a serious flaw. We all came home feeling less than healthy after eating junk for four days. One benefit to no DDP is I would have stocked up on fresh fruit when I saw it at the snack stands. Plenty of those at AK, didn't see any at MK. Probably would bring our own fruit in the future too.

It is possible to overplan. I felt like I had every detail covered and nothing could go wrong. I listed to podcasts, read three books and stalked the DIS boards daily. Still obviously there were things I missed, mostly because it’s tough to compare a trip for two adults or parents with older kids to our situation and also there’s no way to plan for every scenario. On any other trip I would have been okay with that, but with Disney there’s so much information out there I felt I couldn't possibly leave a stone unturned. On the plus side when we return in 2-3 years (I think I need that much time to decompress) I’ll feel much more prepared. I'll also plan for two days at AK, two days at MK and a day at HS. We're waiting until the kids are older for Epcot.

Any questions, feel free to ask! Thanks to all the DISers who helped make the trip almost perfect!!!