Finally trip preparations as we leave in 2 days! A party of 8.

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Wow, where do I start?

This trip was booked last Christmas Eve, has had many changes, was in limbo of being canceled and had the members of the party changed 2-3 times. Man, but for now, it seems to be set. So I figured I'd do a little (long) trip report. So thanks for coming along, and lets get to rolling.

To lead things off, my wife and I have been to Disney World 10 times since 2013. We had never been prior to that despite her asking me year after year to go on our anniversary, our birthdays, the holidays, our honeymoon, any chance we could. I thought it was too much like Six Flags, and I don't like Six Flags. So I didn't want to go. Finally decided in late 2012 to book a trip. However, every trip has only been us two. That is until now.

How'd the trip come about:
My wife and I sat down last Christmas Eve at my parent's house and decided to book a Christmas trip for this year. My niece and adopted niece overheard us and decided they wanted to go. Then my parents and my sister and her husband decided they'd want to go. Then my nephew and his wife. So within about a half hour, our trip of 2 had turned into a venture of 10. So we settled on dates and started planning.

The when, where and how:
My wife and I decided to go down Dec. 17, however, my sister and mother are teachers. So they couldn't leave that early. DW and I decided we'd go ahead and keep our trip flying down earlier, then the rest of the family would drive and join us on Dec. 22 (Thursday). We would all stay until Dec. 28 (Wednesday) then we'd fly home, and they'd start the drive. So our dates were set as Dec. 17-28 for 2 of us, with the rest having set dates of Dec. 22-28.

The crew:
First off is myself. I'm 47, and I do all the planning for our trips to Disney. DW is Emily and she's 40-something. She tells me to plan a trip to Disney, tells me the date she wants to go then I handle everything else. DW's favorite character is Cinderella, while her favorite villain is Maleficent. My favorites are MIckey because it all started with him and Donald. Our favorite park is Magic Kingdom. As I said, we have been 10 times in 9 years after not having gone prior to 2013.


Meeting her favorite the first day of our very first trip in 2013. I'll never forget her crying the first time she saw the castle.

This is us while on a trip during the holidays a couple of years ago:

This is us on our first and only Disney cruise in Sept. 2019:



Then there's my parents DD (Disney Dad) and DM (Disney Mom). They're in their ealry 1970s and have never been to Disney. They're not park people, but they like to be with the family. Additionally, there's my sister (DS) and her husband (DBIL). They're both in their 40s and aren't much on the parks either. I'm not sure either has ever been, although their kids went with DBIL's sister a couple of times. The "kids" are my niece (DNC), adopted niece (DAN), nephew (DNP) and nephew's wife (DNPW). As I said, DNC and DNP have been a couple of times with their aunt. DAN and DNPW have never been. All 8 of them are driving in 2 different vehicles. They're going to leave Dec. 21 and stay overnight in north Florida, perhaps Tallahassee. DW and I are flying down on a 6:30 a.m. flight out of Dallas' Love Field.

This is a photo of DM, DD, DS and I (I don't have one with my entire family together):



Where we're staying:
DW and I are staying the first few days at All Star Movies. Then we're moving into an Air BNB whenever the rest of the family arrives. We found a great deal when we checked on Christmas Eve last year. We were able to get a 5 bedroom, 6 bath house for 6 nights for $1200 total. So roughly $300/family for the entire 6 nights. Can't beat that by staying on property.

The park plans:
DW and I have 8 day park passes, while DS and DBIL have 2-day park plans. DNC and DAN have 3-day park plans, DM, DD, DNP and DNPW each have 1-day park plans. As I said, they're not big on going to the parks. But they wanted to join us one day so we could get a big family picture. We're doing it at Epcot as all 10 of us have plans to go there on Dec. 23. DNC and DAN are joining us at Epcot (Dec. 23) then Hollywood (Dec. 24) and Magic (Dec. 26). DS and DBIL will be going with us to Epcot and Hollywood (Dec. 24).
The DW and I are planning 1 day each at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood, 2 days at Epcot and 3-1/2 days at MK. As I said, MK is our favorite park. I say 3-1/2 because we'll have 3 full days there as well as attending the Christmas party on Dec. 22 with DS, DBIL, DNC and DAN. It will be their arrival day. But here and DW and I in front of the castle on our first trip ever to MK.

So that's how everything got started and a little bit about who all is going and a rough estimate of our plans.

 

[DLo]

Following along. Looking forward to reading more.

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

Things start to change, but we somehow keep it all on track.

We booked this trip during Christmas Eve of 2021. Here's a picture of DW and I at one of our recent Christmas parties at the Magic Kingdom.

Stepping back to Christmas Eve of 2021, my wife and I were sitting at my parent's house and looking online at hotels for Christmas time this year. DN, who has been to Disney a couple of times before, leans in and says she wants to go. Then DAN does the same as do DS and DBIL. DM and DD have never been and said well since everyone wants to go, lets just make it a family trip. DN and DNIL had never been, and they are newlyweds, so they don't really have the money to go. After talking about it, everyone else decides to pitch and help pay their way to make it a full blown 4 alarm family Christmas event.

We figured out housing, ticket and transportation options
With 10 people now in tow, we decided to look at off-site properties. DW and I have never stayed off site and were booked into all Star Movies for Dec. 17-22. The rest of the family will be there that day, and we found a nice 5 bedroom, 6 bath house for rent. The house cost $1300 total for all 6 nights (Dec. 22-28). Gather the money, make the down payment and book it.

Next up is purchasing tickets. Since DW and I decided to do a split stay, we decided to just buy our tickets on a different website (don't know if it's allowed or not, so won't post that site). But eventually we bought 8-day tickets and bought tickets for everyone else. So resort and then house and now tickets booked.

Then it was time to figure out transportation options. DW and I decided we'd never drive again as it's about a 15-hour drive from Texas. Plus, we were going down a few days earlier, so we're flying. The rest of the family is driving, and they decided to take 2 vehicles. They're staying in Tallahassee somewhere. On the way back, they decided to venture into Tennessee since they're all teachers and have a few additional days off. Housing, tickets and transportation booked. Case closed right?

Wrong!

Things that can knock the trip off track
DN takes on a new job and doesn't know if he can take the time off. We move to DFW to start new jobs in July, so not sure we can get the time off. DN and DAN don't think they can save enough money to be able to make the trip (they're responsible for their tickets and souvenirs as housing and food are being taken care of by DS and DBIL. DM and DD are still on the fence (as they have been since the beginning) then one of their dogs has puppies. So not sure if they'll be able to sell the dogs in time.

Meanwhile, time keeps on ticking away.

DW and I both mention the vacation during our job interviews, so we're granted time off. DN is eventually given time off, but they still don't know if they can afford it. So everyone sits down at DM and DD's 50th wedding anniversary weekend, and we decide to keep the trip and help each out if need be. So seems everything is back on pace for go. So we decide that DS, DD, DAN, DN, DW and I want to go to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party. We book those tickets for Dec. 22 (arrival day for everyone).


Up next: Time to make plans and stick to them or cancel it all together!

 

[WDW_fan_in_TX]

This is a very long read, and I apologize in advance. Time kind of got away from me on this one, so I just threw everything up at once. As you can tell, plans changed. And they kept changing and changing and changing.

So I guess it's about time to finish this pre-trip report since we leave in 2 days. It's nuts to me that it's gotten so close. Seems like not that long ago that we booked it, although it was nearly 360 days ago. But here it goes.

DW and I were originally scheduled to leave Dec. 17 (today). But we found flights to be cheaper if we flew out Tuesday. By bumping our trip back 3 days, we saved $150 round trip apiece on flights and also didn't have to pay for 3 additional nights of hotels in the bubble. While it sucks to cut the trip 3 days shorter, we're still planning on being there 8 days. And that's plenty. Plus, we saved about $900 flying out 3 days later that we can put towards food, souvenirs or another trip in 2023.

Our flight out of Dallas is scheduled to leave at 6 a.m. on Dec. 20 (Tuesday). Even though we live about 30 minutes from the airport, we decided to stay at a hotel across from the airport overnight. So we got a hotel room and a park and fly rate. We were going to have to pay for parking anyway, so it was about $100 more to do the park and fly rate and a night at the hotel. That way we can just go downstairs to the shuttle, they'll take us to the lower curb side check in (instead of going upstairs and waiting in a long, long line to check). If we were to do airport parking, we'd have to find a parking spot and wait on the bus. So we think this will save some time.

Here we are on one of our previous trips out of Love Field. Probably won't be so happy this time as it won't even be 6, and I'm sure no restaurants will be open yet.




We'll get into Orlando at around 9:30 a.m. and we signed up for Mears to take the bus from the airport to All Star Music. We love staying at the value resorts because we're not there long. Plus it saves money. May get a late breakfast in the airport or an early lunch at the resort, but probably will just get off the bus, get our magic bands and head to the parks with our backpack from the airplane in tow.

Here's us on the Magical Express last Novemeber (2021) during the pandemic. It was our last trip using MDE.



We will start the trip at Magic Kingdom Even though it closes early because of the Christmas party, we always start with MK. We will just get there when we get there, maybe grab lunch at Caseys, which is kind of becoming a first day tradition, or possibly another quick service. We're planning an easy day with no ride reservations, and we're not getting Genie+ for the day. Our plan is to take things easy, maybe ride some of the "easy" rides like Peoplemover, Carousel or Progress, It's a Small World, etc and just soak in being back at the parks.

Once we leave there at a little after 6 p.m., we'll walk over to The Contemporary for dinner at Steakhouse 71. Our reservation is for 8:20, but we're going to keep trying to get an earlier time just since we'll have been up since about 3:30 a.m. If we can't get an earlier time, we're hoping to be able to watch the fireworks from there. We'll walk back to MK then bus to the All Stars, and that'll wrap up what hopefully is a laid back first day of just being there and soaking in the Disney bubble. That's what we really like doing it seems.

Day 2 is Wednesday (Dec. 21), and we have plans to go to Epcot. We hope to ride Soarin, Nemo, Spaceship Earth and other things. Have no plans to ride Guardians as I'm very claustrophobic (the same reason I won't ride Mission Space). We will get lunch somewhere at a quick service, then we'll probably head out about 2 p.m. to go to the resort and rest for a bit. We don't have any plans until the evening when we have dinner at Coral Reef at 5:05. We got the Candlelight Processional dining package, and the 8:30 p.m. show. So we'll eat, walk the World Showcase then we'll watch the fireworks after dinner and bus back to the hotel.

There's no plans for Thursday morning as we're checking out of the hotel to head to a house we rented through VRBO not far away. DW and I rented a car through Enterprise. We checked and checked several sites over and over, and it was going to be nearly $100 per day for 7 days. So we held out. We finally found a good deal using my college alumni's partnership with Enterprise. But we have to pick it up at the airport. It was $400 for 8 days if we rented from there, whereas it was nearly $650 for the same car if we rented at Disney then returned to MCO. So we'll have to drop our luggage at Bell Service, Uber to the airport, get our car then return to get our luggage. From there, we'll either go to the VRBO house, which we can't check in until 4 p.m., or we'll head to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party.

Part of my family (DS, DBIL, DN and DAN) will join us at some point that day as they'll be finishing their drive from East Texas to Disney. They're planning on staying in Tallahassee and finishing the drive that day (the 22nd) before joining us at the party. There's zero plans for the party, but I already have the map in hand as I got one on eBay for like $2 shipped just to be able to read over it and make some plans.




We plan on sleeping in a bit on Friday (Dec. 23) then going back to Epcot as a party of 8. My DN and DNW decided they couldn't go, so we had to drop them from everything. We'll all pile into my sister's SUV for the 12 or so minute drive from the house to the parks. Only myself, DW and DN have been to Disney before. So the other 5 wilel be newbies, and this will be their first park. Our only plans are Napolis at 5 p.m. for dinner. Then we'll watch the fireworks. Our plan is to get some "family" photos as it's the only day all 8 of us will be together besides a trip to Downtown Disney later in the vacation.

As you guessed, a previous trip to Epcot (I think this was in about 2016 or so)



On to Saturday Dec. 24. Whoop! It's Christmas Eve. We're going to Hollywood Studios for the day. There will be 6 of us this time as DD and DM are not going to anymore parks (they feel they're too old and don't want to hold us up, plus they're not big into Disney to begin with). So it will be myself, DW, DN, DAN, DS and DBIL. All 4 of them love, love, love Star Wars. Me and DW don't. But I have to admit, I've never seen any of them. I tried to watch about one movie once, but I was lost about 15 minutes in, so I turned it off. I want to do One Man's Dream (love Walt and all the behind the scenes stuff). They'll all ride Tower and RNRC then we'll try to get on Mickey's Runaway RailWay and Toy Story Mania. Not going to even attempt the roller coaster.

Myself at One Man's Dream a few years ago:



We have dining reservations at Sci-Fi Dine In Theatre at 4:45 p.m. as part of the Fantasmic Dining Package. Then we're planning on catching the first show. I believe that starts at 7:30. The only other thing we feel like we "must" do at HS is Beauty and the Beast. If it were just DW and I, we'd go early, get everything in then leave mid-afternoon. It's not really a full-day park for us because we only like to do a couple of things (mainly ToyStory Midway Mani, RNRC and Tower).

After the Fantasmic show, DW and I are planning to go to Downtown Disney to meet up with my boss and his wife and watch the Cowboys game against Philly. It begins at 8:30 eastern. So maybe won't miss too much of it. They're going to be in Orlando for a cruise (they left today and won't be back until Dec. 24, then are going to DD to eat before flying home to DFW on Christmas Day). So we're going to try and meet them at Downtown Disney somewhere to watch the Cowboys game. I'm sure the rest of the family will go back to the house.

That brings us to Christmas Day, one of our favorite days of the entire year. We're not doing presents/gifts this year as we're instead doing experiences, mainly this trip to Disney. But we plan on getting up and cooking breakfast as a family. Then we'll head back to Downtown Disney early in the afternoon to spend the day there. All 8 of us are planning on going, and we have Boathouse reservations for 3:30 p.m. Then we'll just hang out there the rest of the afternoon, try to get some more family shots since all 8 of us will be there and head back to the house to maybe get in bed early.

DW and I changed our plans on Dec. 26 (Monday). We were originally scheduled to go to MK with DN and DAN. But that was going to leave us without a day at Animal Kingdom (that again is a half day park for us). I checked and checked for reservations for Tuesday at MK without success. Finally, spots opened up on a random check while I was at work one day.

So DW and I decided to spend Monday at Animal. There were no plans until we booked a last-minute breakfast last night at Tusker House at 8 a.m. We had been trying for weeks to get this without any success. Only things we have to do are ride Kilimanjaro Safari and watch The Lion King show. Don't care about Avatar, Pandora or anything like that. Never ridden Dinosaur. So not interested there. DW will ride Expedition by herself, we'll watch the show then grab lunch at Flame Tree and head out to spend the rest of the day as a family. We plan on cooking dinner at the house that day.

Obligatory Animal Kingdom shot (taken last year):



Our final park day is Tuesday Dec. 27. DW, DN, DAN and I are going to MK. We were able to get dining at Crystal Palace for late in the afternoon (4:55). We like to take breaks from the parks midday, but since it's our last day, we might just use our break to ride the monorail over to Contemporary, Poly and GF. Our plan is to get Genie+ on this day, our only day using it this trip.

This is the day we will try and ride all of our favorites like Big Thunder, Peter Pan, 7DMT. The girls will try and ride Space Mountain, while none of us will ride Splash. DW and I have never ridden Splash, and we don't plan on starting this trip (if it's open, not sure when it closes). We'll also try and do Jungle Cruise, watch the fireworks and parade. Sadly we will miss the flag ceremony due to our dining reservation. We will probably wind up closing the park down that night then head back to the house and pack to head home.

A ride on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin last year:



We check out on Wednesday, Dec. 28. Myself and DW will drive the rental back to the airport and drop it off before our 1 p.m. ish (can't remember exact time) flight back to Dallas, while DN, DAN, DS, DBIL, DD and DM will all start drive back to East Texas.

Wow, that's a whirlwind trip. And I'm sure it will absolutely fly by. Things will change, things will not go right at times. But that's the fun of it. It's as fun as you make it, right? Thanks for chugging along on this long read. Hopefully I'll remember to take notes and do a postgame, er post trip, report.