From the World where Dreams come true to the Field of Dreams

[CopasFamily]

What: 5 night trip to WDW ending with a drive to Tampa Bay to see the TB Rays take on the Florida Marlins

When: June 6-11, 2010

Where: Animal Kingdom Villas-Kidani and my FIL house in Tampa.

Why: DNiece 7th birthday, DH's 32nd birthday, DNephew1, DNephew2, and DNiece's first trip ever to the World. 1st MLB game for everyone but DH and me.

Cast:

Me- Ashley, 26...was a self-proclaimed Disney grump. I grew up in a house where cartoons weren't watched often and we weren't ever encouraged to believe in fairy tales or make-believe. My parents took us on a trip to Disney when I was 8, and I must've been pretty cynical even from that age because I only saw this large carnival with no magic. At 16, I was drug again to Disney to perform with our school. It didn't help the disillusion I had with Disney when they took us back stage to get ready for the parade and some of our cameras were confiscated for taking photos of decaying Disney props and trash...and at that point I found Disney a place for people who needed to grow up and girls who's greatest ambition was to be a princess...Ugh...

My outlook has completely changed now that I have two daughters of my own. I love watching the magic that lives at Disney through their eyes. I understand everything now.

DH- Nick, 31 (35 days until #32). Raised in central Florida, grew up loving Disney, Disney fanatic, dreams of the day his daughters get married at Disney and he retires from his state job to move to Lake Buena Vista and works for "The Mouse."

DD1- Shelby, 7, born and raised in sunny Florida. Loves Disney. Favorite Character: Belle, because she's smart. Has probably been to Disney 20 times with me and her dad. (Technically, I'm her step-mom.)

DD2- Aria, 2, complete princess. Loves all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters, princesses, Tinker Bell, and Alvin (Chip and Dale). I'm hoping she likes the characters as much as she did when she was a baby...

Mimi and Papaw- My mom and dad, both celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 21st birthdays...Haven't been back to Disney since 1992. Definitely more open to Disney, cartoons, and make-believe now that they have grandchildren than when I was younger.

My sister- Brittany, 24...Hasn't been to Disney since she was 6. I hope she enjoys the trip and doesn't spend too much time trying to wrangle her kids.

DNiece- Bailey, 6 (35 days until #7...She shares a birthday with my DH)...Never been to Disney, but she is 99.99% girl. The other 0.01% likes four-wheelers, beating her brother up, and fishing.

DNephew1- Mason, 7...Never been to Disney...He's completely a wired child...meaning Ipod, laptop, ect. The youngest of my brother's children and a complete sweetie.

DNephew2- Braydon, 5...This is my birthday buddy and my sister's baby. Again, never been to Disney. Trillion percent rough and tumble boy...Will probably be the one that we lose in Disney because he'll be up to some mischief.

Possible add-on: DNephew3 - Beau, 15, my brother's oldest. Music and Pop culture lover...He's never been to Disney either, but may have plans with another portion of his family this week.

 

[CopasFamily]

After careful consideration of all of our dietary situations (i.e. picky eaters), I've canceled all of our ADR's and changed our dining plan from the Deluxe DP to QS only.

And by picky I mean to the extreme...One of our three 7 year old's diet includes peanuts, granola bars, popcorn, apples, milk and water...In rare form, they'll eat chicken, but only if they are hungry enough and don't have one of the above options available. A second of the 7 year old's will only eat things they've previously had and it must be in the same form (Example: Breakfast sausage must be links and not patties.) That 7 year old and our possible 15 year old do not eat any form of cheese.

I earnestly hope that everyone will be able to find something to eat at the QS restaurants without someone having to run across the park to get one child something else.

On with the plans...
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T minus 24 hrs...

The entire gang (Mimi, Papaw, Brittany, Bailey, Braydon, Mason, and maybe Beau) from my hometown will head out in my parents van and make as much of the drive as they can before one of my parents snap and declare day one of their drive is older and they'll search interstate hotels for a vacancy.

Meanwhile in Florida, I'll be running around finishing the packing, making sure I've got our vacation funds transferred into the correct bank accounts, and probably searching for misplaced AAA vouchers that we bought earlier this week.

Day 1-June 6, 2010

My parents with crew in tow are to set out to finish what they left of the 624 mile drive to our house. We'll meet somewhere in town and grab lunch. As quickly as we can get everyone fed, we'll head out to make the 3.5 hour drive from our house to WDW. We hope to check in at our AKV in Kidani around 4 and give the kids a bit of time to get some energy out in the pool before heading to DTD for dinner.

Hopefully, we'll get the kids to bed at a decent hour so we can drag them to rope drop the next morning...

 

[CopasFamily]

Day 2- June 7, 2010

DH (Nick) really wants to go to DHS this day. I say no, because I think it would be easier on the newbies to put as much space as possible between our two planned MK days as possible. He wants to do HS that day because of the evening EMH. If we change our current plan of MK to HS this day, we'll hit EMH every day this week, and I'm not sure I like this. I really want to be able to see some of the shows that we normally miss because we are standing in line for TSM, so I think this may be the only way.

Assuming we do go to DHS this day the plan is to make rope drop and head straight to TSM, getting them in line while I get fastpasses for TSM, and then when we are all securely in line for TSM looking at the show schedule and planning the day. If I could get the show line up right, I only need half a day in this park myself, but I don't do ToT or RnR.