I am so excited to share our plans with everyone for our first family vacation to Walt Disney World.
Background:
My DH went to WDW when he was small but his family always got to the park after five and left right after the fireworks. They never stayed overnight and did not go on any rides with long lines. Lets just day DH have never been to WDW! I on the other hand went twice. I do not remember either trip. All I remember is sitting in the parking lot on the side of our VW bus having my grandfather tie my shoes. My DH thinks my parents just took us to the parking lot. We do not have in pictures from that trip!
Anyway, we are thrilled to take our girls to WDW. This is a dream come true for me. Our oldest is three and our youngest will be 11 months. DD3 remembers everything. It actually drives us crazy!!! We are not concerned of her not remember because I think she will remember just enough. Our 11 month old will enjoy the sights and sounds and we will remember her happiness.
Whos going?
We are going with a blended family. My father, girlfriend, her daughter and granddaughter will be going as well. They are driving. We are flying. They are staying on site. We are staying at a timeshare. They are also not really into planning or preparing. I am a firm believer of preparation is the key to success.
That being said I am the first one to throw the plan out if it does not work! Lets go to the pool! So I am making our family plan and they can fit in when they can. My DH made it very clear he is not paying for this trip and going without a plan. We are not going down and saying okay what do you want to do today- too bad we needed to make reservations six months ago!
Transportation:
We are flying on southwest. I signed up for a DING! Then we booked the first night summer flights were announced. Our flights are just over $500 for three of us to fly. We are flying out on Saturday night. Our timeshare does not begin to Sunday but due to the flight schedule we did not have a choice. We are going to stay in a cheapy hotel for the night. Sunday we check into our hotel. We are renting a car. I am not comfortable with a baby on a bus. Mousesavers had a great code for car rentals. Our rental for the week is about $160.
Books:
I went to Barnes and Books and bought several planning books. The one I found most helpful is the Unofficial Guide. I also bought the Unofficial Guide for kids. My DD loved it! We also bought the Hidden Mickeys Guide
Websites:
After reading these books I hit the internet. Of course I found this site to be the best! I have also found allears.net, mousesavers.com, mouseforless.com, wdwautographs.com to be really great websites.
Reservations:
After reading a lot and asking questions I found started to make reservations. This was back in January. So, I had about a five month head start. We booked a lot of Character meals. They are expensive and time consuming but to us they are worth it. In 10 years our girls are not going to want to eat with Pooh. Right now our DD believes Cinderella really lives in that Castle!
Park Tickets:
We are getting our tickets through undercovertourist.com. We signed up for the mousesavers newsletter to get the link. We are saving a good amount on our tickets that way. We have chosen to go with eight days of park tickets instead of five. We were originally thinking about going to Sea World but when we compared costs there was not a question to add the days to WDW.
Bags:
I am making my DDs the cutest bags for the plane. They are plain canvas craft bags. I am adding trim and ribbon bows. On the center of the bag I am using photos of the girls. I am going to transfer the photo onto the bag. Then I am going to fill the bag with plane goodies! They can then use the bags at the park to carry stuff. I am doing a Minnie Mouse theme and a Cinderella theme.
Costumes:
My older daughter loves to dress up! We bought her a couple dress up dresses. She already knows we are going to Cinderellas Castle. I told her Cinderella invited her to a ball. I bought her a dress, tiara, and little purse. She knows all about those. We also have a surprise Tinkerbelle costume and Alice Costume for her. Her Grandmother bought her rolling Tinkerbelle luggage to take her costumes on the plane.
Autograph Books:
Other than Cinderellas Castle my daughter is most excited about meeting the characters. I made her a custom Autograph Book. It has 125 characters in it. Here is the tread if you want to check it out.
Pin Trading:
Knowing my little one I knew pin trading is something she would love. She is very social. I found 25 pins on ebay for 50 bucks. That is going to eliminate buying expensive pins at the park. Of course if she cannot trade for a Princess we will get her one!
Countdown Clock:
For the last week my DD has asked to go to Cinderellas castle on the hour. We watched the WDW shows on the Travel channel. We made a paper chain. Everyday we cut a bracelet off. It is helping with the concept of waiting.
Scavenger Hunt:
DH has not helped at all with any of the plans. Thats okay. I was really uspset at first but, I am over it now. After a nice cry he did help me with a photo scavenger hunt. OMG, some of the stuff he came up with was hilarious! Some of the items are for our DD but most are for us. Like black socks and sandals, a really bad sunburn, grandma in mouse ears, a man with a hiking stick etc . . .
Well, that is the plan so far . . . I am still working on the day to day stuff. We know we are going to AK, MGM, EC for a day each. We are going to the MK for five days. I know that seems a lot but we have other things at the park scheduled as well.
Background:
My DH went to WDW when he was small but his family always got to the park after five and left right after the fireworks. They never stayed overnight and did not go on any rides with long lines. Lets just day DH have never been to WDW! I on the other hand went twice. I do not remember either trip. All I remember is sitting in the parking lot on the side of our VW bus having my grandfather tie my shoes. My DH thinks my parents just took us to the parking lot. We do not have in pictures from that trip!
Anyway, we are thrilled to take our girls to WDW. This is a dream come true for me. Our oldest is three and our youngest will be 11 months. DD3 remembers everything. It actually drives us crazy!!! We are not concerned of her not remember because I think she will remember just enough. Our 11 month old will enjoy the sights and sounds and we will remember her happiness.
Whos going?
We are going with a blended family. My father, girlfriend, her daughter and granddaughter will be going as well. They are driving. We are flying. They are staying on site. We are staying at a timeshare. They are also not really into planning or preparing. I am a firm believer of preparation is the key to success.
That being said I am the first one to throw the plan out if it does not work! Lets go to the pool! So I am making our family plan and they can fit in when they can. My DH made it very clear he is not paying for this trip and going without a plan. We are not going down and saying okay what do you want to do today- too bad we needed to make reservations six months ago!
Transportation:
We are flying on southwest. I signed up for a DING! Then we booked the first night summer flights were announced. Our flights are just over $500 for three of us to fly. We are flying out on Saturday night. Our timeshare does not begin to Sunday but due to the flight schedule we did not have a choice. We are going to stay in a cheapy hotel for the night. Sunday we check into our hotel. We are renting a car. I am not comfortable with a baby on a bus. Mousesavers had a great code for car rentals. Our rental for the week is about $160.
Books:
I went to Barnes and Books and bought several planning books. The one I found most helpful is the Unofficial Guide. I also bought the Unofficial Guide for kids. My DD loved it! We also bought the Hidden Mickeys Guide
Websites:
After reading these books I hit the internet. Of course I found this site to be the best! I have also found allears.net, mousesavers.com, mouseforless.com, wdwautographs.com to be really great websites.
Reservations:
After reading a lot and asking questions I found started to make reservations. This was back in January. So, I had about a five month head start. We booked a lot of Character meals. They are expensive and time consuming but to us they are worth it. In 10 years our girls are not going to want to eat with Pooh. Right now our DD believes Cinderella really lives in that Castle!
Park Tickets:
We are getting our tickets through undercovertourist.com. We signed up for the mousesavers newsletter to get the link. We are saving a good amount on our tickets that way. We have chosen to go with eight days of park tickets instead of five. We were originally thinking about going to Sea World but when we compared costs there was not a question to add the days to WDW.
Bags:
I am making my DDs the cutest bags for the plane. They are plain canvas craft bags. I am adding trim and ribbon bows. On the center of the bag I am using photos of the girls. I am going to transfer the photo onto the bag. Then I am going to fill the bag with plane goodies! They can then use the bags at the park to carry stuff. I am doing a Minnie Mouse theme and a Cinderella theme.
Costumes:
My older daughter loves to dress up! We bought her a couple dress up dresses. She already knows we are going to Cinderellas Castle. I told her Cinderella invited her to a ball. I bought her a dress, tiara, and little purse. She knows all about those. We also have a surprise Tinkerbelle costume and Alice Costume for her. Her Grandmother bought her rolling Tinkerbelle luggage to take her costumes on the plane.
Autograph Books:
Other than Cinderellas Castle my daughter is most excited about meeting the characters. I made her a custom Autograph Book. It has 125 characters in it. Here is the tread if you want to check it out.
Pin Trading:
Knowing my little one I knew pin trading is something she would love. She is very social. I found 25 pins on ebay for 50 bucks. That is going to eliminate buying expensive pins at the park. Of course if she cannot trade for a Princess we will get her one!
Countdown Clock:
For the last week my DD has asked to go to Cinderellas castle on the hour. We watched the WDW shows on the Travel channel. We made a paper chain. Everyday we cut a bracelet off. It is helping with the concept of waiting.
Scavenger Hunt:
DH has not helped at all with any of the plans. Thats okay. I was really uspset at first but, I am over it now. After a nice cry he did help me with a photo scavenger hunt. OMG, some of the stuff he came up with was hilarious! Some of the items are for our DD but most are for us. Like black socks and sandals, a really bad sunburn, grandma in mouse ears, a man with a hiking stick etc . . .
Well, that is the plan so far . . . I am still working on the day to day stuff. We know we are going to AK, MGM, EC for a day each. We are going to the MK for five days. I know that seems a lot but we have other things at the park scheduled as well.
