Five Vincelettes are Going on a Trip!

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I am thinking about doing a Pre-Trip/Trip Report. I have never done one before, and I am not so sure I'll be good at it-or that anyone will care.

I'll introduce my family, and you guys can tell me what you think!

This is me:

I am a stay at home mom-to three beautiful girls, but you'll see them later! I used to be a teacher, but have been fortunate enough to be at home since my youngest daughter was born.

This is my hubby and my middle daughter:

DH is named Jason, and he's a great guy!
That's my Ruby with her Daddy! She is currently in love with Troy Bolton, and aspires to be a songwriter a la Taylor Swift. She is thoughtful and kind, but can be a real grouch when she's hungry. Oh, she's also very dramatic-as in "You guys treat me like I'm just a piece of garbage!" and "I want to wear a dress, and if I can't wear a dress than I'm not going to school!" She's six-someone help me when she hits 13!

My oldest daughter, Faith:

My dad says she's just like me. She's smart and funny and beautiful and....See how great I am??? Seriously-she is all of those things, but she is also a picky eater and a worry-wart. She loves thrill rides, but is scared of being in the dark or going upstairs by herself.

Finally, my baby:

She's a sweetie, too! She talks up a storm and loves her sisters to pieces. She is also quite a ham, and loves to make jokes. She is only 2, but she already thinks poop jokes are funny!

Well, that's us! We are headed to Wilderness Lodge in just 45 days! Do you want to know more??

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

My first trip to WDW was in February 2007. At the time, my daughters were 5, 4, and 8 months. My husband had been to Disney several times before, but always in the middle of the hot, crowded summer. I planned our trip with a lot of help from the internet-but not the DIS because I hadn't discovered it yet.

On that trip we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and we had a great vacation! I enjoyed the trip, but I didn't realize until I came home just how much I loved it-or how obsessed I would become. Pretty much from the time we came home I was trying to figure out how and when we'd get to go back.

Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from that trip:

Faith and Ruby playing Viking in Norway

Johanna looking like she is going to lick Mary Poppins

The girls goofing off at DTD

Our 2007 trip was lots of fun-but I am sure this one will be even better. We are staying an extra day, we have great ADRs, and Jo is super excited! She loves Playhouse Disney and I have indoctrinated her. EVERYDAY she says, "We're going to see Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Goofy and Pluto and Daisy and Cinderella and Darby and Pooh and Little Einsteins and....."It goes on and on!

Jo will tell anyone who will listen-I think the guy working at Target wanted to scream! She must have told him we were going to Disney World about 15 times while he was ringing up our purchases. And, she's not content until you respond to what she is saying, which meant that he had to say, "Oh, that sounds fun" about 15 times, too! LOL

I hope someone reads this!

 

[TxRabbit]

My DS does the same thing. He will repeat himself over and over until you acknowledge what he is says. And you can't just nod your head...you have to SAY SOMETHING.

You said Hi on my PTR. You said you were going to Donald's breakfast and CRT. So where else are you going? What are your plans?

I really enjoyed CRT when we went. DS had such a good time with the princesses. I wrote a review of that one experience because it was so good. The highlights were that he had a sword fight with Belle and he got kissed twice by Snow White. He walked around with two bright red lip prints on his cheeks. All the CMs in the know asked which princess kissed him. He loved it! It was so special, I don't think I can mess with the memory and go again. All other visits will just fall short.

Your PTR lacks details! We need dates. We need ADRs. LOL

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

You are right-I haven't given a lot of details yet.

Who: The Vincelette Five
What: Second Family Trip to WDW
Where: The Wildernes Lodge
When: January 24-31, 2009
Why: Do you have to ask??

When we went in 2007 we traveled at the beginning of February. The weather was great-light jackets/sweatshirts in the mornings and evenings but short sleeves were fine during the day. We only had a tiny bit of rain on one day (our last!), and the crowds were pretty light too-at least it seemed that way to us. SO, we decided to travel around the same time again for 2009. Besides the good weather and low crowds, it's also value season and cheaper flights. My girls have off two days of school during the last week of January, so that is why I picked that week. I knew they were going to miss a day in October 08 because my sister in law was getting married, and by traveling that last week of January they will only miss 3 days of school. They are in 1st and 2nd grade.

Here are our ADRs:
Sat. 1/24: Check in day- Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe
Sun. 1/25: Lunch at CRT
Mon. 1/26: Lunch at Hollywood N Vine
Tues. 1/27: Dinner at Crystal Palace
Wed. 1/28: Dinner at Ohanas
Thurs. 1/29: Breakfast at Tusker House
Fri. 1/30: Dinner at Garden Grill
Sat. 1/31: Breakfast at Chef Mickey's before we head to the airport

In another post I'll explain why we chose these meals, and tell you which ones are new to us.

 

[GRUMPY D]

it sounds like a fun trip can't wate to hear more about it , your girls are going to love the new high school musical show

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I just put Johanna down for a nap and am eating lunch....a yummy roast beef sandwich. While I have food on the brain I figured this would be a good time to talk about our ADRs in more detail

Whispering Canyon Cafe--I have to admit that I am not too excited about this meal. But, I am not really sure why either. It seems like food my family likes. My kids think it sounds fun. It's convenient because it is at the hotel....but I feel MEH about the whole thing.

Originally we had an 8 o'clock ressie here because our flight wasn't going to arrive until 5:15, but I changed out flight to a morning flight and made an earlier ADR. This will definitely work better for us!

CRT --What can I say-It's the castle, there are princesses, and I have 3 daughters. We ate luch here in 2007 on our first full day-and DH and I decided we'd make that a family tradition. I know some people say the food isn't that great, but we loved ours. I remember that I had salmon and Jason ate the Major Domo's. I am already trying to decide if I want salmon again 'cuz I tried his last time and thought it was delicious!

Hollywood N Vine--We ate here in 07, too. We enjoyed it, and now that Jo is super into Playhouse Disney and Little Einsteins it is a must. But, why do they still have JoJo there? I mean it's cool for us because we often call Johanna JoJo, but she is only on at 6 a.m. and doesn't seem to be one of the "major" players anymore. I wish Handy Manny, Darby, or Lou and Lou were there instead.

Crystal Palace--We ate here in 2007, too, and I ate here with my sister in October. (Yes, I managed to have an adults only 3 day get away with my sister!) Love it-love Pooh, love the location, love the pulled pork!

'Ohanas--New to us! I am very excited about this meal, and I hope it lives up to my expectations! I think my kids will love the atmosphere of the Poly-I checked it out in October, but didn't eat there. Everything looks so delicious on the Food Reports and Reviews.

Tusker House --Also new to us, although we did Donald's breakfast at Animal Kingdom in 2007. We are excited about this meal because Daisy is there-and we'll be in the park early!

Garden Grill--I made this ressie because my daughter Faith's favorite characters are Chip and Dale! 'nuff said -besides I hope that it is good!

Chef Mickey's--We are having breakfast here on our last morning before our flight. It will be one last chance to see the Fab Five-and I have heard it's yummy!

So, that's where we're eating and why--Do you have any thoughts???? I was worried that it is too many Mickey and friends meals in a row at the end of our trip (Tusker House, Garden Grill, and Chef Mickey's), but I want to keep all of them for different reasons.

Thanks for reading!

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

it sounds like a fun trip can't wate to hear more about it , your girls are going to love the new high school musical show

Hey, Thanks for posting! I know they'll love the HSM3 show-I took them to see the movie when it opened, and Ruby's getting the soundtrack for Christmas. SSSHHHH! Don't tell her!

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I really enjoyed CRT when we went. DS had such a good time with the princesses. I wrote a review of that one experience because it was so good. The highlights were that he had a sword fight with Belle and he got kissed twice by Snow White. He walked around with two bright red lip prints on his cheeks. All the CMs in the know asked which princess kissed him. He loved it! It was so special, I don't think I can mess with the memory and go again. All other visits will just fall short.

So cute about the Snow White kisses! How old was your son at the time?

What meal did you eat at CRT-breakfast or lunch? What other princesses were there? We had Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Mary Poppins. We ate in Norway in 2007, too, but we didn't like that food so much. The only thing good about it was that we saw Ariel and Aurora. (Plus Jasmine, Belle, and Snow White again!)

I understand your concern about "messing with the memory"- I feel that way about our entire trip! Seriously-what if we have an awful time this time?????

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I am waiting for my trip info/magical express tags to come in the mail. We are less than 45 days out, so they should be coming soon, right?

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about things my family didn't get to do last time that I want to do this time:
-Turtle Talk with Crush
-Toy Story Mania (Wasn't there in 2007)
-Expedition Everest
-Half of the countries in EPCOT!-We spent so much time in each one that we only made it part way around the lake
-Primeval Whirl
-Dumbo
-Spectromagic
-Jammin' Jungle Parade
-Festival of Lion King
-Finding Nemo show at AK
-Meet Tinkerbell ??
That's my list at the moment. We only went to AK one day on our last trip, and it was our worst day. It was the 2nd day, and we spent about 12 hours at Magic Kingdom on the first day. The kids were all cranky, and we left early to rest at the hotel. I certainly learned from that experience!
I love Animal Kingdom, and I hope to spend a bit more time there on this trip.

There are a few things we did that we aren't repeating, too:
-La Nouba
-Akershus Royal Banquet dinner
-Boma
-Sounds Dangerous
-Indiana Jones (We enjoyed it but I don't know if we need to repeat it on this trip.)
-Pirate and Princess Party (They aren't having them while we are there.)

My oldest two daughters want to do autograph books on this trip, too. I purchased the books when I visited in October, and they are getting them in their stockings.

That's all for tonight I guess. I have to leave something else for me to post about on another day!

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I'll just keep talking to myself and hope that someone eventually responds! Not too different than my "real" life!

Here are my tentative plans for Day 1 (Saturday, Jan. 24th)
-Flight leaves at 7:00 AM!! We live about 45 minutes from the airport, so we'll have to get up very early-Probably leave our house around 4:45 AM The kids will LOVE that!

-We'll arrive in Orlando at 9:10, and we are taking Magical Express. Should be checked in to the hotel by 11-ish....

-Lunch somewhere??? -maybe at AK-I am thinking we'd head over to AK for a little while-play on the Dinosaur playground, see some characters, maybe do the safari, eat lunch. If the kids are holding out we might try to see the parade-One of the things I want to do this trip that we missed last time.

-If the kids are fading by this time (which I expect they will be), we will head back to WL around 3-hopefully our room will be ready and we can freshen up and rest for a bit.

-5:20 dinner ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe

-After dinner we'll probably just chill out around the resort

How's that sound for a first day??

 

[TxRabbit]

So cute about the Snow White kisses! How old was your son at the time?

What meal did you eat at CRT-breakfast or lunch? What other princesses were there? We had Belle, Jasmine, Snow White, and Mary Poppins. We ate in Norway in 2007, too, but we didn't like that food so much. The only thing good about it was that we saw Ariel and Aurora. (Plus Jasmine, Belle, and Snow White again!)

I understand your concern about "messing with the memory"- I feel that way about our entire trip! Seriously-what if we have an awful time this time?????

DS was 6 at the time. It was during spring break in kindergarten. It was a last minute trip. I say last minute, we had about a month to plan. I seriously didn't even consider TRYING to get CRT ressies because I had read about how hard they were to get, I thought, he's a boy, he won't really care...but I really wanted to go! And it turns out that eating in the castle sounded awesome to him! He didn't even really understand what that meant because he hadn't been to WDW before. We had Belle, Jasmine, Snow White and the Fairy Godmother. We ate lunch there and loved it. DH and I both had the salmon. The fact is that I would probably do it again for a dinnertime because that isn't as much of a character meal. If we could sit so we could look out the windows in the evening, I think that would add a new dimension to the experience, but there are so many other things to try. That can wait a while.

I am waiting for my trip info/magical express tags to come in the mail. We are less than 45 days out, so they should be coming soon, right?

Meanwhile, I keep thinking about things my family didn't get to do last time that I want to do this time:
-Turtle Talk with Crush You MUST do this. It is REALLY really cool. The kids loved it. DS wanted to sit with us and didn't sit on the floor with the other kids.
-Toy Story Mania (Wasn't there in 2007) Same here. Wasn't there in 2007. I can't WAIT for this one!-Expedition Everest We will do this for the first time on our next trip too! I don't think that DS was tall enough the last time we went.
-Half of the countries in EPCOT!-We spent so much time in each one that we only made it part way around the lake I can totally relate!
-Primeval Whirl Ditto
-Dumbo We didn't do Dumbo either. There is a similar ride in AK with a typically shorter line, and we did that one. And we did the Astro Orbitor, which is really fun up high like that. Get there early before the line is too long.
-Spectromagic Ditto
-Jammin' Jungle Parade Ditto
-Festival of Lion King We caught this show. Very fun. I would do this again, definitely.-Finding Nemo show at AK
-Meet Tinkerbell ??

How's that sound for a first day??

It sounds wonderful. I hope you have such a good time. I'm really interested to hear about your trip. I have been thinking about changing our ressie to WL.

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

Doesn't that make every trip seem that much more real???

I just know these next 5 weeks are going to fly by-Once the kids go back to school, there will be less than 3 weeks until our trip!

Our 30 day mark is Christmas Day-I thought that would be a good point to start our trip countdown, since the Christmas countdown will be over. I want to make a countdown calendar like I have seen on some other trip reports, but I only have about 15 Mickey Heads. I guess that means another trip to Home Depot before Christmas! Luckily it is right next door to the grocery store I have to go to for ham to make ham biscuits for Christmas Eve!

If I get it done I'll post a picture!

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

Johanna opened a Christmas present from her Aunt in Massachusetts today! She said, "Mama, Look what I found!" and then let out an excited little scream! It was a June (Little Einsteins) doll. She has been carrying it around, and telling me she is going to see June and dance with her at Disney World.

I am so excited for how excited she is going to be once we are there!

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

Time is flying! We got out trip paper work in the mail yesterday! Countdown calendar has been made-I'll try to post a picture of it tomorrow. I made it a little different than I planned. Instead of taking off a Mickey Head (thanks Home Depot) each day, we are adding one each day. I think it turned out pretty well.

Has anyone done Mini Golf while at WDW? I am thinking about taking my girls to play on our day off from the parks. Opinions on which course is better? How do you get to them?

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I thought I'd share a picture of our Countdown calendar:

Plus, all of our travel documents have arrived, and I know you are just DYING to see them!

Notice the Little Mermaid placemat in the background?

Finally, do you want to see what happens to my daughters when they put on princess dresses-They are just full of class and grace, aren't they?

(I know these aren't Disney dresses, but I still thought it was funny!)

My 2 year old got the Fairies Canopy Toddler bed that you can see in the background (Thanks Santa! ) However, so far she won't sleep in it-She doesn't want her big girl bed; she wants her big girl crib!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'm here!

First off, your daughters are gorgeous and I love the name Ruby. I have a kitty named Ruby! Not that I am comparing your daughter to my kitty but yeah...you know what I mean. Hehehe.

Your plans sound wonderful. You are going to love Wilderness Lodge!! We stayed there in September and we fell in love with it. The best thing is the boat that takes you to MK. It's wonderful and so relaxing after a day at the parks.

Your countdown calendar is cute. You don't have that much time left now.

 

[Megablocks]

I came over here from Lady Lallie's PTR. Your daughters are soooo cute and I love the picture of them in the princess dresses.

Chef Mickey's breakfast is good. We've mostly done dinner in the past, but we got a late breakfast ADR when we went in April. It's awesome because they have a little bit of everything.

I love getting all the ME documents and tags!!! I, too, will be taking pictures of them as soon as we get them.

Looking forward to more!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Also followed you over from LL's trip report! Great start and super cute kiddos. Can't wait to read more! My only comment so far is that you are brave for a doing a morning ADR the day you are checking out. I'm always so slow moving that day!

 

[Sarilas]

Oh man, we're going to be like ships passing in the night! We arrive the morning of the 30th!

 

[VAisforDisneyLvrs]

I'm here! Hey, Thanks for coming over!

First off, your daughters are gorgeous and I love the name Ruby. I have a kitty named Ruby! Not that I am comparing your daughter to my kitty but yeah...you know what I mean. Hehehe. Yep-I know what you mean. Love the name Ruby-Ruby Cheyenne is her full name, but sometimes we call her Bear. When she was littler we called her Stitch-She used to make a Stitch face. She would show her teeth and kind of growl. It was so cute!

Your plans sound wonderful. You are going to love Wilderness Lodge!! We stayed there in September and we fell in love with it. The best thing is the boat that takes you to MK. It's wonderful and so relaxing after a day at the parks.

Your countdown calendar is cute. You don't have that much time left now.

It's getting close-22 days from tomorrow! I am so excited, and I can't wait to see the WL. I hope we get a good view. We are staying Woods View. I hope that was a good choice!