First timers trip to Disney World! A July 2014 Pre Trip Report

[Jessicavoet]

Hello! My name is Jessica, and this is going to be my family's first trip to Disney World! I was taken there as a child, I think I was around 3 years old at the time, but I can't remember any of it so I'm considering it my first trip too lol. We are very excited, and I am completely overwhelmed about all the choices in dining, rides, etc that are available lol. On to the introductions!

This is me and my husband, Jeff



we were introduced to eachother several years ago by mutual friends, I was dating someone else at the time though. That guy and I broke up, Jeff helped me move..... and 2 years later I let him take me out on a date and it was happily ever after! We got married in Nebraska Thanksgiving 2013. Jeff is in the military here at Barksdale AFB and I work at a dental office as a scheduling coordinator.

We have a combined total of 3 children



Dacey is the furthest to the left (DD17), in the middle is Dylan (DS15) he will be turning 16 on the last day of our trip, and Jacob is on the bottom/right (DS8).

Not attending the trip, but still family members are:

Reno, he's a 5 year old boxer/shepherd mix.



Marley, he's a 1 year old Black Mouth Cur. Weighs almost 60 pounds but insists on sitting in peoples laps to cuddle.



And Blankie the cat. My son, Jacob, picked her out from the shelter when he was 3 and named her. Not really sure why but it was cute so we left it!



We are very lucky and live around a lot of family and friends who will be coming to take care of the animals while we're away!

Dylan and Dacey both live with their mom in Nebraska,so they'll be traveling to Louisiana before the trip. Dylan spends most of the summer here with us, the plan is to meet Jeff's mom in OKC sometime early to mid June and pick him up (OKC is the halfway point between our houses) and we'll do the same thing when he returns near the first of August. Dacey is graduating this year! She's wrapping all of that up and prepping for her first semester of college in Colorado, plus she is having knee surgery on April 18th. Her recovery time is between 6-12 weeks, but her surgeon says that with her age and activity level it should be closer to the 6 week mark and that he doesn't forsee her having any problems with going to Disney World, or with the car ride there. But she will be flying in a week before the trip, and will fly home a week after the trip.

So here we go!!!

 

[Jessicavoet]

Links

The travel Plans and Resort
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=51078571&postcount=3

 

[Jessicavoet]

Travel plans!

There is a LOT of traveling involved in getting us all to Disney World. The first leg of travel is getting Dacey and Dylan here to Louisiana (Dacey's flying, Dylan's being picked up in Oklahoma City). The second part is getting us to Disney! We looked into plane tickets, waaaay to expensive. Like we could have added an extra week at the resort with the amount it would cost for all of us to fly. So our only option is driving. And boy is it a long one.... Total of 14-15 hours depending on traffic. Initially we were planning on leaving really early morning Saturday July 19. BUT this means that even if we left at 5:00am, we could potentially not get there until 8:00pm that evening. We would be so exhausted at that point from being in the car all day that all we would do is go to the resort, eat, and go to bed. So we changed the plans and we're now leaving after work on Friday July the 18th! We should be able to leave by 5:00pm, and we'll just drive as far as we can make it before we get tired, then we'll stop for a hotel. The goal is to make it to Mobile, AL which is right at 7 hours, so we'd have 7-8 hours the next day to finish the drive to Disney. If we can get up and be on the road by 9am that means we'd be at Disney just in time for dinner! I'd really like to either explore the resort more and eat there, or go to Downtown Disney for dinner and hang out.


Resort!

We are staying at the Port Orleans Riverside!


(image borrowed from the web)
We'll be in the Alligator Bayou section in a room for 5 people


(image borrowed from the web)

When we started looking at where to stay, we were pretty limited because we have 5 people in 1 room. I had looked at getting 2 rooms at a value resort, but after looking at the resorts I really thought we would enjoy a moderate or a deluxe more because of the theming and amenities. Turns the out the deluxe resorts are out of our budget range, so moderate it was! The Port Orleans Riverside is the only moderate that can sleep 5 people so it was a pretty easy decision. It helps that I absolutely love south Louisiana and New Orleans! Jacob (DD8) found out that you can fish at the resort so that is at the top of his priority list now!

Does anyone know if the mini fridges have been put back in the rooms? I read somewhere that they were removed.....

 

[Jessicavoet]

Dining!

I will admit, one of the things I am most excited about this trip is EATING! I like food. A lot. About 85% of my day is spent thinking about food. So after picking a resort and our days, the very next thing I planned was where we were going to eat! Originally the list was much smaller than this, but we told the kids that we wanted this to be the "trip of a lifetime" for them! We let them pick out several places that they wanted to eat and our food budget ballooned.... but it will be worth it!!! So food plans are as follows!

Friday 07/18/14
Dinner - Will be something quick at the house that we can eat while packing up the car since we're leaving the house at 5:00pm to begin our trip!

Saturday 07/19/14
Breakfast - Breakfast buffet provided by Hampton Inn!
Lunch - We'll stop somewhere for fastfood on the road
Dinner - Unknown yet, either somewhere down town Disney or at the resort

Sunday 07/20/14
Breakfast - Ohana! DD17 requested this ADR. She's a big Stitch fan!
Lunch - Pizza Planet! DS8 request
Dinner - Trail's End Buffet No ADR time, but we don't really plan on being at Hollywood Studios all day today, so whenever we're ready to call it quits for dinner time we'll check the wait times and head over.

Monday 07/21/14
Breakfast - Cape May Character meal!
Lunch - we'll be dining around the world at Epcot!
Dinner - Via Napoli ADR. I am a huge pizza lover, as is the rest of my family s there was no way we could pass up eating here!

Tuesday 07/22/14
Breafkast - Late ADR time at Chef Mickey's character breakfast, DS8 request
Lunch - We will be in Legoland so we will be eating wherever we find food there
Dinner -Unknown yet, possibly downtown Disney, offsite completely, or at the resort

Wednesday 07/23/14
Breakfast - Kona Cafe!
Lunch - I am REALLY hoping to get a BOG fast pass.... otherwise somewhere in the park
Dinner - Counter service in the park, somewhere we can grab something fast and get back to exploring!

Thursday 07/24/14
Breakfast - Grabbing food at the resort for breakfast (Riverside Mill Food Court)
Lunch - Counter service, I'm dying to try Flame Tree BBQ, the kids want pizza
Dinner - Back to Ohana! I debated about booking this ADR for a LONG time because I was concerned about the price, and also about the quality because of a few reviews I had read. But, in the end I decided to go for it. It seems like a very neat experience!

Friday 07/25/14
Breakfast- Grand Floridian Cafe
Lunch- We will be departing Disney this day and heading to the beaches of Destin, FL! Hopefully by dinner time we will have settled into our hotel and we will be beach bums for the next few days!