For the First Time In Forever... Updated 9/10

[Disney Mommy 3]

She is Nana's mini for sure!

That would be awesome! We had a rough day yesterday with both baby girls having accidents, coupled with Belle having a stomach bug. Lot's of bleach and lysol! Calgon take me away!!!




oh Lordy!! I am sorry you had such a rough one!!! Hopefully Belle will have gotten over the worst now! poor all of you!!!!

 

[aharbin88]

Your itinerary sounds perfect! I love that you've built in pool time. I'm always so nuts about getting there at rope drop! I need to try to get some pool time in next trip, but since we're going in December, it might be best to wait and see about doing it in the afternoon when it might be warmer. We have Stormalong Bay at our disposal; I have to spend some time there!

 

[BellaSoleil]

Hi! Joining in the PTR fun! This will be the first year in a long time we aren't going in the fall so I'll be living through your family

We are a take it slow family! We are also not really a rope-drop family, unless there's food invloved-and swim time later!

Enjoy the princesses, I am blessed with princes

Welcome! Your family sounds awesome!

Yay, glad your mom is able to come along! That'll be a lot of fun.

Your plans look great! Sounds like a super fun time.

For groceries, I haven't been to a store but we have ordered a few times from Garden Grocer. Super easy, you go on their site and order what you want, and they bring it right to the hotel! There is a $40 minimum order and deliver is $14 but I think it's worth it to not have to take the time out of vacation to go to the store.

I don't know if we will need $40 worth of stuff. I have GG in mind and will figure it out before we go. The thought of NOT having to go to the store is very appealing.

oh Lordy!! I am sorry you had such a rough one!!! Hopefully Belle will have gotten over the worst now! poor all of you!!!!

The are outback dressed in pink and having a picnic now. She seems better.

Your itinerary sounds perfect! I love that you've built in pool time. I'm always so nuts about getting there at rope drop! I need to try to get some pool time in next trip, but since we're going in December, it might be best to wait and see about doing it in the afternoon when it might be warmer. We have Stormalong Bay at our disposal; I have to spend some time there!

Our last trip was in February and it was only warm enough to swim once. Such a bummer! I can't wait to enjoy the pools this time. Stormalong Bay is a must when my girls get older.

 

[Dancegrl624]

It's taken several months to get the thumbs up, but I am excited to say that our number six traveler with be my mama....



(This was taken at her school on Valentines Day. All of the teachers wore red tutus for the occasion.)

So now that we have our number six set in place, it's time to discuss plans...

I had to plan a 'rough' schedule in order to make a few ADRs. I knew we would have a guest, I just didn't know who or how long they would be staying. I did my best at guessing and it ended up working out pretty well.

Day 1: Belle and Evie will be in school. Gregg will take off half a day to help me pack up and then we will pick up the girls early. We plan to be at my mom's school by 2pm, so she can sneak out a little early. (The girls don't know that we are going to Disney World and they don't know my mom is coming, either.) We are driving halfway and staying the night.

Day 2: Head to Disney at 8am and arrive around 3pm. Check into resort and let the girls swim and play on the playground. Eat dinner at LoF. (I'm dying to try the surf and surf burger.) Gregg and I will take a trip to the grocery store to pick up a few perishable items. (Grocery store suggestions are welcome. )

Day 3: Sleep in and spend the morning at the pool. Head to MK around 1pm for parade and new Fantasyland. Head back to room after dinner. (We have found that the drive always make us very tired. We don't sleep well in hotels and we always end up crashing somewhere in the middle of the trip. This time I made the decision to rest and relax for a bit before we went gung-ho at the parks.)

Day 4: Animal Kingdom park opening, hang in as long as we can and a date night for us.

Day 5: Magic Kingdom for park opening, afternoon nap and MNSSHP. (I wanted to save the party for our last night, but my mom is flying home early.)

Day 6: SLEEP IN!!! Head to Epcot around 10am and spend the day there. Fingers crossed that we make it to Illuminations!

Day 7: Park opening at Hollywood Studios. Break in the afternoon and back for Fantasmic.

My mom is either flying home on Day 7 or 8. Hopefully 8!!!!

Day 8: Another Magic Kingdom day. If we finish up in the morning, we may head to DTD for the evening.

Day 9: Depart from Disney... hoping to head to the beach for a few days.

The Must-Do List-
Gregg: Food & Wine tasting, Mine Train
Me: Soarin', Festival of Fantasy Parade
Belle: Living With the Land, Haunted Mansion, Enchanted Tales with Belle
Evie & Zoë: Meet Elsa and Anna and ride Journey of the Little Mermaid
Nana: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

On our last trip our grocery order was absolutely necessary. We didn't have a car so we used GG. We ordered diapers, Cheerios, apple juice, 1/2 gallon of milk, paper towels, case of water....I don't remember what else. I brought a small bottle of dish soap so we could wash out our refillable mugs and Cole's sippy cups (hence the paper towels we ordered). We brought some favorite snacks from home too like granola bars, breakfast bars, fruit snacks and things like that.

We stuck to our normal park touring routine...even with a 15 month old. We are TOTALLY a rope drop family because we love it! No lines and the parks are so pretty first thing in the morning. We love our midday rest times too....I nap with Cole and Tony takes Maddie swimming. Yes, we are a go, go, go family but that is always how our kids have been. We can't sit still for too long around here!

 

[Jennifer48]

Hooray for mama joining the fun!

I think your itinerary sounds great especially giving yourselves down time before running around the parks.

I hope you get to make FP+ reservations for all your Must-Dos!

 

[BellaSoleil]

On our last trip our grocery order was absolutely necessary. We didn't have a car so we used GG. We ordered diapers, Cheerios, apple juice, 1/2 gallon of milk, paper towels, case of water....I don't remember what else. I brought a small bottle of dish soap so we could wash out our refillable mugs and Cole's sippy cups (hence the paper towels we ordered). We brought some favorite snacks from home too like granola bars, breakfast bars, fruit snacks and things like that.

We stuck to our normal park touring routine...even with a 15 month old. We are TOTALLY a rope drop family because we love it! No lines and the parks are so pretty first thing in the morning. We love our midday rest times too....I nap with Cole and Tony takes Maddie swimming. Yes, we are a go, go, go family but that is always how our kids have been. We can't sit still for too long around here!

We will have to have milk for sure! We are going to have breakfast in the room almost every morning. It's just easier all around.

Hooray for mama joining the fun!

I think your itinerary sounds great especially giving yourselves down time before running around the parks.

I hope you get to make FP+ reservations for all your Must-Dos!

Me too!!! I'm so nervous about our Frozen fastpass+. Yikes!

But let me be perfectly clear... I am not one of the parents who will spend 3 hours in line. If we don't get a fastpass and if the line is longer than 30 minutes- it's not happening.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

It's taken several months to get the thumbs up, but I am excited to say that our number six traveler with be my mama....



(This was taken at her school on Valentines Day. All of the teachers wore red tutus for the occasion.)

So now that we have our number six set in place, it's time to discuss plans...

I had to plan a 'rough' schedule in order to make a few ADRs. I knew we would have a guest, I just didn't know who or how long they would be staying. I did my best at guessing and it ended up working out pretty well.

Day 1: Belle and Evie will be in school. Gregg will take off half a day to help me pack up and then we will pick up the girls early. We plan to be at my mom's school by 2pm, so she can sneak out a little early. (The girls don't know that we are going to Disney World and they don't know my mom is coming, either.) We are driving halfway and staying the night.

Day 2: Head to Disney at 8am and arrive around 3pm. Check into resort and let the girls swim and play on the playground. Eat dinner at LoF. (I'm dying to try the surf and surf burger.) Gregg and I will take a trip to the grocery store to pick up a few perishable items. (Grocery store suggestions are welcome. )

Day 3: Sleep in and spend the morning at the pool. Head to MK around 1pm for parade and new Fantasyland. Head back to room after dinner. (We have found that the drive always make us very tired. We don't sleep well in hotels and we always end up crashing somewhere in the middle of the trip. This time I made the decision to rest and relax for a bit before we went gung-ho at the parks.)

Day 4: Animal Kingdom park opening, hang in as long as we can and a date night for us.

Day 5: Magic Kingdom for park opening, afternoon nap and MNSSHP. (I wanted to save the party for our last night, but my mom is flying home early.)

Day 6: SLEEP IN!!! Head to Epcot around 10am and spend the day there. Fingers crossed that we make it to Illuminations!

Day 7: Park opening at Hollywood Studios. Break in the afternoon and back for Fantasmic.

My mom is either flying home on Day 7 or 8. Hopefully 8!!!!

Day 8: Another Magic Kingdom day. If we finish up in the morning, we may head to DTD for the evening.

Day 9: Depart from Disney... hoping to head to the beach for a few days.

The Must-Do List-
Gregg: Food & Wine tasting, Mine Train
Me: Soarin', Festival of Fantasy Parade
Belle: Living With the Land, Haunted Mansion, Enchanted Tales with Belle
Evie & Zoë: Meet Elsa and Anna and ride Journey of the Little Mermaid
Nana: Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

Your itinerary so far sounds great! I love that you have scheduled down time. It is always the one thing we don't get enough of on our Disney trips

Forgive me if I missed this, but are you keeping the trip a surprise until the departure day? Do the kids currently have no idea you are going?! How awesome! I have always wanted to do a fall trip but never seem to make it through the winter without a trip Maybe I just need to figure out a way to make two trips per year possible!

Oh, and our most recent trip was a bit unexpected. We weren't planning to go back to the world this year (we had an AMAZING trip in Feb 2013) but some close friends decided to bite the bullet and make their first ever trip to WDW and asked if we would come along. How could we say no?? It ended up being a fun trip, but a bit crazy for me, as I was doing all the planning for our two families of 5. Also, I was sooo determined to help the newbies love Disney that I think I lost sight of it being our family vacation as well. Our dd (2) also ended up sick while we were there (doesn't it always seem like 1 kid is off?!) so we were forced to have some down time and lost one of our MK days. This made our one day at MK pretty stressful. Meeting Anna and Elsa was definitely a highlight of our trip along with lunch at Tusker House-first time there. Awesome character interaction and delicious food! Will def be back to that one! Next on our Disney agenda is a Cruise. Would love to hear more about yours. Thinking winter of 2016. Need some time to save some $$$$.

Hope you had a nice Father's day. Looking forward to hearing more as the planning continues.

 

[BellaSoleil]

Your itinerary so far sounds great! I love that you have scheduled down time. It is always the one thing we don't get enough of on our Disney trips

Forgive me if I missed this, but are you keeping the trip a surprise until the departure day? Do the kids currently have no idea you are going?! How awesome! I have always wanted to do a fall trip but never seem to make it through the winter without a trip Maybe I just need to figure out a way to make two trips per year possible!

Oh, and our most recent trip was a bit unexpected. We weren't planning to go back to the world this year (we had an AMAZING trip in Feb 2013) but some close friends decided to bite the bullet and make their first ever trip to WDW and asked if we would come along. How could we say no?? It ended up being a fun trip, but a bit crazy for me, as I was doing all the planning for our two families of 5. Also, I was sooo determined to help the newbies love Disney that I think I lost sight of it being our family vacation as well. Our dd (2) also ended up sick while we were there (doesn't it always seem like 1 kid is off?!) so we were forced to have some down time and lost one of our MK days. This made our one day at MK pretty stressful. Meeting Anna and Elsa was definitely a highlight of our trip along with lunch at Tusker House-first time there. Awesome character interaction and delicious food! Will def be back to that one! Next on our Disney agenda is a Cruise. Would love to hear more about yours. Thinking winter of 2016. Need some time to save some $$$$.

Hope you had a nice Father's day. Looking forward to hearing more as the planning continues.

Surprise? Kinda. Sorta. Hopefully. Belle knows that we are going for 'Halloween'. I may or may not be leading her to believe that we will be there on October 31. We are checking her out of school early and hopefully letting the cat out of the bag then. This is mostly because she would act like a fool at school if she knew we were leaving for Disney that day. She also doesn't know that Nana is coming, so that will be a fun surprise, too.

As far as the littles- they are too young for anything like that. It would totally go over their heads.

Hooray for last minute trips! We also had a sickling on our last trip and it was not fun! I will be posting mini past trip reports in July.

 

[aharbin88]

Me too!!! I'm so nervous about our Frozen fastpass+. Yikes!

But let me be perfectly clear... I am not one of the parents who will spend 3 hours in line. If we don't get a fastpass and if the line is longer than 30 minutes- it's not happening.

Girl, you and me both! I'm already worried sick about it. I feel like we'll be the goobers standing in some nutso line, especially if Rapunzel is in there with them. This new FP+ system is nerve-wracking!

 

[BellaSoleil]

There was really only one ADR I HAD TO HAVE on this trip....

Ohana potstickers.... how I've missed you!

​

photo credit: pixie and pirate destinations​

I knew that I wanted to start our first day lounging around the resort and end it with dinner at my favorite family style experience.

Other than that I had a few other places in mind, but they were just iffy.

Gregg wanted our date night to take place at California Grill, so that became a must on the list. (Ya'll the last three times we've booked it we have had to cancel at the last minute. Here's to hoping fourth time is a charm.)

On ADR day, I woke up at 5am and booked O'Hana and Cali Grill. I had to take an earlier than desired ressie for O'Hana and got Cali Grill at a perfect time.

I woke up later and booked a few more-

Mama Melrose (We may or may not do.... We haven't visited since our Honeymoon and my mom loves it.)

Akershus (Another may or may not... we've done it so many times. My dirty little secret- I'm over character meals.... )

Garden Grill (Okay, I know I'm over character meals, but I'm not counting this as one. Living With the Land is one of our favorite rides as a family and the menu sounds divine! I am so excited to try this place!)


On a totally non-food related note.... here are two of my princesses on their way to Disney on Ice.

​

We forgot Belle's special ears and so she was bothered in a couple of spots, but did great otherwise. Evie had never been to anything like that, so I braced myself for her reaction.... and she did awesome. She loved every second. I think we just might survive this trip!

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

You are going to loooove the Garden Grill!! It's a top pick for us usually….
And I love your kids.. too stinkin' cute!

 

[DWGal210]

What sweet little girls! Hope they had a great time.

I had Mama Melrose for the first time in March and really enjoyed it. I got the Pasta ala Vodka (I think that's what it was called) and it was quite good.

OHana is one of our family "must do" places, too.

 

[Jennifer48]

Great ADR choices! Love, Love O'hana.

*fingers crossed* that you get to keep your California Grill ADR!

 

[JPFamilyMom]

for getting your top two must have meals.

hoping you get to keep your California Grill this trip.

The girls look adorable for their Disney on Ice fun.

 

[BellaSoleil]

You are going to loooove the Garden Grill!! It's a top pick for us usually….
And I love your kids.. too stinkin' cute!

I can't wait!!! The bread...the salad...the cobbler. Sigh....

What sweet little girls! Hope they had a great time.

I had Mama Melrose for the first time in March and really enjoyed it. I got the Pasta ala Vodka (I think that's what it was called) and it was quite good.

OHana is one of our family "must do" places, too.

I wish they were always as sweet as they look.

There are so many things that look good at MM and the prices are great, too. My mom and I could split and entree and it would even better.

for getting your top two must have meals.

hoping you get to keep your California Grill this trip.

The girls look adorable for their Disney on Ice fun.

Yes! We need a good anniversary meal. This year I ruined our dinner at home and we ended up eating Whataburger.

 

[kkayluvsdis]

Oh man. Those potstickers are so good! O'hana has become our "kick-off" vacation meal. We all absolutely love it! On our most recent trip my husband forgot to take his stomach acid pill before our meal there. We had to do an emergency stop at the Poly gift shop prior to checking in for our reservation. CM waiting on my dh said, "Someone is eating at O'hana tonight"

We haven't eaten at California Grill since pre-kids. Hopefully we'll make it back there some day. I would love to see the changes since it's been re-imagined.

Can't wait to hear about your experience at Garden Grill. My kids seemed very interested in trying this meal as while we were riding Living with the Land they saw Pluto making his rounds up in the restaurant. Can't beat lunch with Pluto!

 

[Dancegrl624]

Garden Grill is one of our absolute favorites! The last time we were there, we were picked as the Family of the Day and we got a great group photo with all 4 characters. SO YUMMY! We have had 2 different desserts there and both were amazing.

We have been to almost all of the character dining locations and we just can't seem to stay away from them. I'm sure we will keep going to them for awhile since Cole is only 3. It sure beats waiting in line to meet the characters!

 

[BellaSoleil]

Oh man. Those potstickers are so good! O'hana has become our "kick-off" vacation meal. We all absolutely love it! On our most recent trip my husband forgot to take his stomach acid pill before our meal there. We had to do an emergency stop at the Poly gift shop prior to checking in for our reservation. CM waiting on my dh said, "Someone is eating at O'hana tonight"

We haven't eaten at California Grill since pre-kids. Hopefully we'll make it back there some day. I would love to see the changes since it's been re-imagined.

Can't wait to hear about your experience at Garden Grill. My kids seemed very interested in trying this meal as while we were riding Living with the Land they saw Pluto making his rounds up in the restaurant. Can't beat lunch with Pluto!

I love it as a kick-off, too. Hoping it becomes a tradition.

Garden Grill is one of our absolute favorites! The last time we were there, we were picked as the Family of the Day and we got a great group photo with all 4 characters. SO YUMMY! We have had 2 different desserts there and both were amazing.

We have been to almost all of the character dining locations and we just can't seem to stay away from them. I'm sure we will keep going to them for awhile since Cole is only 3. It sure beats waiting in line to meet the characters!

Everyone is getting me so pumped about Garden Grill. What were the desserts you had?

 

[fernfritters]

Following along! What a beautiful family!

 

[BellaSoleil]

Following along! What a beautiful family!

Thank you so much! I love your avatar!