First trip with our kids - June 13-20 (starting those must do lists!)

[summermac]

I'm not exactly sure how to do these fancy PTRs but I'll give it a whirl. This trip has been in the works for about 3 years and we actually originally figured we'd take a 2007 trip when our son was 3. But instead we had our 2nd child - a wonderful little accident to have. My husband wanted to wait until she was 3 but I refuse. We haven't been to WDW since 2001. I was not waiting another year. So 2009 it is!

Seeing as how I'm down to less than 90 days, I've got a lot of stuff done already but I'll still post about it - the best I can remember it.

But for now....here's the CREW!

Summer (30) - that's me. DUH. I LOVE Disney. I always have & I always will. As a kid, I dreamed of going to WDW. My family just never could afford it. Finally the day came, in May 1998, my parents took us all for a dream trip. And I've been even more hooked ever since. I'm sentimental in a hard-butt kind of way. Heck I still cry when Mufasa dies so you know there's going to be plenty of tear jerkers on this trip!

Bryan (35) - that's my super awesome hubby. He LOVES amusement parks - in particular Cedar Point. But he also very much enjoyed WDW when we went in '01 (dating) with my family. And tell you the truth, I've seen tears in his eyes when Mufasa dies too. And he'll watch just about any Disney movie with me - what a keeper!

Tyler (soon to be 5) - my super energetic daredevil child. LOOOOOOVES Peter Pan & Captain Hook like they're his own parents. And also has a really sweet baby side because he loves his precious stuffed Tigger more than anything in this world (well besides me, that is) and carries it everywhere. It's looking its age these days since he's had it since he was 1 but Tigger is coming with us to Disney that's for sure. He's also really been enjoying Cars lately. And if there's a rollercoaster to be found, he'll ride it.

Delana (soon to be 2) - my shy & reserved, sweet but not so sweet child. Ah the joys of 2, right? She really is kind of just a bystander but she is showing some interest in Tigger & Pooh and at times, Mickey. So.....I'm sure she'll be a convert. And in case you're wondering her name is pronounced De-layn-uh (everyone asks, LOL) But we call her Sis.

And not pictured but also on our trip will be my dad (51), my mom (50) and my two sisters (27 & 20). This will be their third trip as well. We're all very excited.

-----------------------------
Where to find what:
Early planning and resort choice
We're driving. No wait, we're flying!
Our Park Days & ADRs (and a discussion topic!)
What park on our first day?
The first Disney box purchase
Where have I been? Sorry, MIA!
Magic Kingdom must dos
Trip PAID off!
Animal Kingdom must dos

 

[summermac]

Our plans were to stay offsite (boo-hiss!) at a nice big house at Windsor Hills and we even had the reservation all set up and deposit paid and then

DISNEY CAME UP WITH THE 4/3 DEAL

And hallelujah. What a fantastic day that was. I found the DisBoards right around the time of learning about this new deal (again another hallelujah) and for two weeks I debated with other DISers about offsite vs. onsite, crunched numbers like crazy, trying to estimate the costs for the two different scenarios. In the end, I estimated about $150 more to stay onsite with DDP and I remembered how magical our first trip in '98 was onsite. For $150 more, I'm onsite.

So we finally booked onsite - CARIBBEAN BEACH RESORT for June 13-20. We booked through a travel agent at Small World Vacations. Sherri is her name and she's fantastic.

This all took place in January. And then..the wait for that precious 90 day ADR window began. Duh-duh-duh. Constant surfing on the restaurant board, reading dining report after dining report until I felt like my head was spinning. Not knowing what restaurant was what. Scouring AllEars for menus, entrees, breakfasts. Worrying about ridiculous things like oh I don't know, what kind of syrup is served at breakfasts. Oh wait, that was today's worry. But you know how it is. Right?

Not only did I need to know those ADRs but I HAD to have some kind of agenda. What park & what day - AHHHH!!! Man did I ever miss that '98 trip when we got off the Mears shuttle at All Star Movies and my dad said, "okay where are we going tomorrow? How about Animal Kingdom?" And we went. The same for the rest of the trip. And in Epcot one day, "Where do you want to eat?" Well we're right by LeCellier so let's do it. That's right folks - we walked right up and were seated immediately. Can you imagine?

And so the madness had offically begun.

 

[summermac]

Just when you think you've got everything planned out on the front end, you catch yourself online way too late one night, talking to your mother on the phone about driving to WDW with two young kids. Now my kids have been on many, many trips already. They've done 8 hours twice to Tennesee, 3-4 hours every other weekend on camping trips practically since birth and my son did wonderfully for 12 hours to Myrtle Beach when he was 2. We were committed to driving it because darn it, we were saving MONEY. MONEY. We are leaving Friday, June 12 and by gosh it's WDW or bust. All night. Chill at the resort that day & hit a park first thing Sunday morning. Leave CBR (well at the time it was still Windsor Hills but...) on Saturday and drive halfway to somewhere, spend the night and finish the drive home on Sunday. We were going to do it and we were going to LIKE it. And we were going to save a lot of money because airfare was ridiculous, especially given the fact that we'd have to pay for my 2 year old (and 2 months) daughter. What a ripoff.

And then (notice a theme here folks, this is how a $2000 trip grows & grows, LOL)

I'm online one night just looking at stuff on Travelocity and Expedia. My mom is on the phone with me. "Uh oh," I say. My mom says, "What?" "I found airfare from Pittsburgh to Orlando for $212." Mom says, "Yeah but that's still almost $900 total. That's a lot of money you know." Me, "Yeah, you're right. I could handle up to $800 though." I should have never spoken these next words:

"You know maybe I ought to just check Columbus. It's just as close as Pittsburgh for us."

Expedia gives me $209. That's not too bad. Not great times but decent - both with layovers of about 2 hours

And then again, I say another stupid sentence

"Maybe I should just AirTran's site. Why not?"

And there it was, calling out my name, begging me to book:
11:00a departure, 1:00p arrival
8:10a departure, 1:15p

$199 per person, all fees included. Do my eyes deceive me? Someone at AirTran had to have had my phone tapped.

So at 1:30a on January 21, 2009 I receive a confirmation email for airline reservations for 8 people on AirTran. Oopsie. No one knows about this yet but my mom, my dad (who was up getting ready for his midnight shift at the mine when this first unfolded) and me.

I fwd the email on to my husband & my sisters. But I'm too excited. I wake my husband up at 1:45a and I tell him, "Guess what, we're flying to Disney." He then listens to me jabber for at least another 15 minutes which is pretty nice of him since he gets up for work at 5:30a. I proceed to lay in bed excited beyond belief. This is a true addiction people. I need help.

 

[summermac]

So let's see, I've told you how we booked CBR and how we wound up flying. So I guess I should just shut up and fast forward to the ADRs. Yeah, I'll do that.

After reading through someone else's UOG, I decided I liked their style so I subscribed to Touring Plans website. Honestly a lot of of it is common sense and stuff I'd already read on the Dis. Still though, for $8.95 it sure is nice to have their touring plans right there for you to read over.

I basically used their recommended park days to pick our park days and our ADRs. There were only THREE requirements as laid down by the family members going. They were:
Hubby - MUST HAVE 50s PTC
Sister (27) - MUST HAVE LECELLIER
Me - MUST HAVE CRYSTAL PALACE

And after scouring the restaurant board and reading all those dining reviews, I also decided that I must have WCC cheesecake (LOL) & that 1900 Park Fare looks like lots of fun for dinner and a great match for our family since the characters are a bit more "grown up."

My family loves fun meals and if I've got to give up an hour to an hour and a half of park time, I'd like the majority of the meals to be something beyond just sitting down and eating. So that's how I approached my ADRs.

I spent a good month reading and reading, revamping park days & times. You ought to see my page where I finally worked it all up (I used a page from Touring Plans free online planner). And even when I had it finalized, I still didn't have it finalized. Heck I still debate things. And like all DDP first timers, I wanted maximimum benefit of the DDP. But the more I read, the more I realized that the best DDP benefit is eating food you want & where you want, not cashing out a $200 profit. So again, I revamped my ADRs to include some breakfasts even though they're not the best bang for your buck on DDP. But we like breakfast and we're early risers.

First though, I had to figure out those park days. That's very important. We do have hoppers so it's not a huge factor but still...
One week before calling in, I finally decided on park days. They are as follows:
June 13 - 1/2 day at MK but no ADRs
June 14 - DHS (this was not my original intent but my DH really wants to do SWW) - 50s PTC with a backup plan for Sci-Fi
June 15 - Magic Kingdom full day - Crystal Palace breakfast (8:05) with Whispering Canyon Cafe for dinner
June 16 - Animal Kingdom - Tusker House breakfast & again 8:05 (and for dinner, we plan on WPE
June 17 - Epcot - LeCellier (no back up but willing to move to later day or even lunch) Last resort is Tutto.
June 18 - TBD - Dinner at a resort since TBD; my original plan was Ohana but after looking at menus, I decided Kona was a better fit
June 19 - TBD - Dinner at a resort since TBD; 1900 Park Fare is my 1st choice - thought it'd be cool to have a "fun" dinner on our last night


So on March 15, 2009 I was armed with my weekly planner printout, my listed ADRs & a couple of backups. I'm nervous b/c of the new system and the wait times DISers had been experiencing. Plus it's early and I am so not an early person. This is not how I want to spend my Sunday morning. I take my pillow downstairs to our computer room and I dial the number. I'm immediately on hold & continue to hold for 45 minutes. It is NOT a zip-dee-doo-dah morning thank you very much. Heck I took a nap to tell the truth.

And finally, I get through. The CM was so so nice. My strategy (thanks again to DISers) was to start with LeCellier, the Crystal Place & Tusker House and book the rest in order of date.

So you're thinking shut up already and tell us what you got. Alrighty then.

June 13 - 1/2 day at MK but no ADRs
June 14 - 50s PTC (4:35) - A little early. But my hubby really wants it.
June 15 - Crystal Palace breakfast (8:55)* BOO!; Whispering Canyon Cafe (5:50)
June 16 - Tusker House (9:15) BOO!
June 17 - Nothing at LeCellier. Kona (5:05)
June 18 - LeCellier (6:55) - a little late but we'll plan accordingly
June 19 - Crystal Palace (8:20)*; 1900 Park Fare (5:00)

The call took just over an hour total. I was happy with that.

*I was so not pleased with that time for CP breakfast and wound up calling later that evening and changing. I was very happy to be told they had one on Friday at 8:20. That's more like it. If it wasn't our first MK day (the original ressie, I'd have left it alone) but Rope Drop is critical, especially with young early risers.

And now I'm all caught up to today. I've taken a little break from the actual planning and have just been on the boards, reading & replying. Figuring out those ADRs nearly killed me.

I'm still debating that Tusker House ressie though. What do you think? Would you keep it or cancel it? And if you cancel, what would you do in its place?

 

[carissanboys]

Hi Summer!

I have to run and bring my son to preschool, but I'll be back to get caught up.

 

[summermac]

Woohoo!! I have a reply. I figured it would just be me talking to myself.

Wow, 2 days until your trip!! HOLY!

 

[carissanboys]

First off - we've traveled with my parents on our previous two trips and loved it.

We stayed at Windsor Hills on our last trip and loved that too! But, we're excited to try staying on property this time.

We have a lot of similar meals planned. We're doing Tusker House, but we got a late sitting so that we could just eat an early lunch. We're early risers, but we don't worry about getting there right for rope drop (usually avoid a bit of the crowd that way). We'll eat breakfast in our room and then do a few attractions before it's time for our "breakfast/lunch".

 

[summermac]

Well that means I can't wait to read your trip report when you return. How are you not just going out of your mind with the trip so close?

Do you guys camp a lot? We do!

 

[carissanboys]

Well that means I can't wait to read your trip report when you return. How are you not just going out of your mind with the trip so close?

Do you guys camp a lot? We do!

Well, we still have a two day drive ahead of us so that kind of squelshes some of the excitement. I do enjoy the drive - just takes us longer to get there.

My husband took our older two boys camping once this past summer and we went as a family in October. We lived in the Outback in Australia for three years before coming back to the states in 2006 and it was kind of hard to camp there (we tried twice, but let's just say it didn't go well). Now that the boys are older we'll probably try camping more. However, my husband is going to be gone to school in Florida all summer and then stationed on a ship so if I want to take the boys camping - it'll have to be by myself. Not sure I'm up for that!

 

[Disneyfan71]

Hi summer..i'm on here...Looks like we'll be at Disney same time you are..well, we're coming in on the 15th..and will be at Epcot on the 18th..and having dinner at Rose and Crown

 

[summermac]

First off - we've traveled with my parents on our previous two trips and loved it.

We've done many, many trips with my parents but never something that requires the planning WDW does. I'm really worried about pleasing everyone. I need to let that go, huh? We camp all the time but we own a travel trailer - just a popup but we love it. We bought a new-used one last year to replace the one my parents gifted us for our wedding when they bought their new-used one. This one has A/C & heat which is great!!


DisneyFan71 - maybe I'll see you in Epcot! By dinner, I'll be the frazzled mom with a double stroller and two crazy kids. LOL!

 

[summermac]

This is for my own knowledge but today I googled "Disney with toddlers" and I came across a couple of links that talk about Disney and kids at Passporters. I'm sure I've read all this is on the DIS but I found it helpful all the same:

Taking Toddlers to Disney:
http://www.passporter.com/articles/taking-toddlers-to-walt-disney-world.asp

Preparing Kids for Disney:
http://www.passporter.com/articles/childprepforwdw.asp

 

[Crisgw]

Isn't AirTran great! It'll be our first time flying with them but RT each ticket was just under $180! What a STEAL!

I'm subscribing to your PTR

 

[summermac]

Idle time makes for wandering minds.

Lately, I've been rethinking my plan to go to the Magic Kingdom on arrival day. I'm actually considering Animal Kingdom in the afternoon now instead. I'm sentimental about AK because it's always been our first park. And I thought maybe, just maybe we'd luck out and AK wouldn't be TOO busy so we could get some things out of the way and then that Tusker House reservation so close to park opening might not be such a big deal.

Any opinions on THAT?

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

I'm really worried about pleasing everyone. I need to let that go, huh?

I know what you mean, I feel the same way about my family's trip! We'll be going in July with 3 kids (dd is 1, nephew 10 months, nephew 2) so I will definitley be waiting for your TR!

 

[summermac]

I know what you mean, I feel the same way about my family's trip! We'll be going in July with 3 kids (dd is 1, nephew 10 months, nephew 2) so I will definitley be waiting for your TR!

Wow, that's quite the group. I don't know if I'm that brave.
Welcome!

 

[moparop]

Well hello there! I've been reading and responding on your threads all over the DIS and have finally made my way here. My kids are pretty close in ages to yours and we did two family trips last year so I feel pretty well versed.

Our August trip was with my parents and my bro and fam (his wife and 9 year old). What I did was told the fam that for my kids, it was best to have a plan and be at every rope drop. My bro was not down with and wanted to sleep in every day. they would just call us when they were on the bus to the park we were at. We used a lot child swaps with our FPs so that the whole group could ride together (or close to), even if we didn't have their tickets with us. I liked it because it gave me control of my vacation, but didn't force my brother to have to change his for us.

 

[moparop]

Oh and on changing the first day to AK, I found that until my kids saw the castle, they did not "get" they were at Disney. Plus, at AK, it's really hard to accomplish a lot if you aren't arriving til afternoon. We did Epcot on our first day on the August trip and everyone was dragging. It was by far our worst park day.

Your family is ADORABLE btw!

 

[summermac]

I agree with you on the late arrival thing. I wasn't thinking clearly at first & keep thinking of our arrival time as our landing time. Whoopsie!!

I'm glad you're checking out my PTR - you've been so helpful on other posts!!

 

[moparop]

Yeah, the eariest you'll get to CBR is 3:00. So the earliest you'd get to a park is about 4. That's going to make it hard to get much of anything done. You might want to go against the grain and head to the park with PM EMH just to soak up atmosphere.

Have you put in a request for a room at CBR? We stayed in Barbados on our last trip. It was such a hike to the food court that I think we went twice.

I grew up in MI and hearing mention of Cedar Point makes me nostalgic. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!