my2disneyboys
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2008
- Messages
- 2,173
With 366 days to go until our next trip to Disney, I thought maybe a Pre-Trip Report might help share some of my excitement for our upcoming trip.
OUR CAST:
Me (Nickie) DH: Wayne, DS: Myles (8) and DS: Owen (4)
OUR DISNEY HISTORY:
We are a VERY lucky family. A trip to Disney in a lifetime is something that so many kids/adults dream of their whole lives and some never go. We are so fortunate to have been able to go every year (sometimes twice a year!) and I have never taken for granted how lucky we are. People will say (family and friends) "Why are you going there AGAIN!??" or "Don't you want to go anywhere else!?" But our answer is NO! To have a place that we know... that we love... that we plan and look forward to for the whole year... that we have watched our children grow at... a place that makes us feel like kids again... to feel the magic and excitement of Disney... to going back to our favorite restaurants... to seeing our favorite characters and meeting new ones... to seeing our kids each reach 40 inches and go on their first thrill rides... to watching Wishes holding onto to my then 8 week old and each year since including this past year when he was 4 and still listening to his sweet little voice sing along to "Wishes" ...to making memories that we talk about and laugh about for years and years. To us, there is no better vacation out there. We JUST LOVE IT!
My husband and I both went to Disney with our families when we were young-actually we both did the 95 South Drive from Boston to Florida and stopping at South of the Border... only we didn't know each other then. We also both went as young adults with our friends... but still hadn’t met!
December 2004:
A year and a half after we got married, with our 9 month old baby we decided to go to Disney. The whole family wanted to come too. Great! So we thought..... It actually was a bit of a nightmare trip. This was back when I had never heard of The DIS Boards! This was back when I didn't PLAN the trip- I thought; you book the hotel and get your park tickets and go. LOL!!! We went, which I now know is the worst week to go to Disney, the week after Xmas. UGH! We couldn't even ride anything- couldn't get into any restaurants because who knew you needed to make reservations AHEAD of time LOL! The whole family ended up fighting. I did however get one of my ALL TIME favorite pictures on this trip... so I guess as much as it was a nightmare for me, this picture made it all worthwhile!
September 2007:
3 years later (recovered from the previous trip) we go back! This is the trip that hooked us in for life. I had just had Owen in July and he was only 8 weeks old. People thought we were crazy taking an 8 week old to Disney. I can't even tell you the amazing time we had. What a way for a family to bond!! Myles was 3 1/2 and was at a great age for Disney. We had lot's of time to cuddle and to laugh together. We stayed at POR and LOVED it! We loved the boat to DTD and the resort was beautiful and relaxing to us. We did the dining plan on this trip and booked lot's of character meals and some really nice dining. Who knew Disney had such great places to eat!!?
I remember we went to DTD on our last night and we were on the boat on our way back to the resort and Wayne and I cried because we didn't want to leave. We were hooked for life! We made a deal that night that we would return to Disney every two years.
May 2009-POFQ:
2 years later we came back! We celebrated Wayne's birthday and Mother's Day and we had an AMAZING trip! This was my husband’s all-time favorite Disney trip. We did the deluxe dining and we ate at so many signature restaurants - Narcoosees, California Grill, and we ate at almost every single character breakfast! We rode up front in the monorail (back when you could do this!) We watched Wishes from the beach at the Poly! We had so much fun on this trip. Myles went on Splash Mountain for the first time! We also FELL IN LOVE with POFQ on this trip. What a beautiful little resort. It was perfect for our family. We especially loved the Beignets and Muffaletta!
We made a deal on this trip that from now on we would come back every year!
January/February 2010-POLY:
We had another amazing trip to Disney. We stayed at the Polynesian and fell asleep every night watching the castle change colors. When I am at the dentist and they tell me to "go to your happy place" this is what I imagine in my head! This year was a little different for us because the weather was AWFUL! It rained every day of the trip and it put a little damper on it, for me at least. We still had an amazing time but the cost of this trip was too much for me to REALLY enjoy it - especially when things went wrong in the room and the Poly didn’t have a hot tub and it was too cold for the pool. We decided that next trip we would scale back and go back to the moderate hotels and basic dining!!
January/February 2011-POFQ:
We are back again! By now we consider ourselves EXPERTS! Our family and friends think we are nuts but who cares..... WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!!!!! We talk about our love for Disney and share our 'Disney Nights" with the family and before we know it, they have ALL BOOKED. OMG - Another Family Trip! This time was different though. I knew how to plan a trip and the family let me plan the whole thing. What parks we went to- what we ate. I did it all! I made t-shirts for all 14 of us. WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!
September/October 2011-CBR:
We had SUCH an amazing time in January that we decided to come back in September. We broke our rule of one Disney trip a year but the 1/2 Marathon (Wayne and his niece did) and the 5K (Which I trained for and signed up for and then after MNSHHP and being up and walking around MK until 1AM I couldn’t get up for the race!!!) was happening and almost ALL of my really good friends that I have met here on the DIS were all going at this time too. We HAD to go!!! So we told the family and they ALL said they were in too. We had another amazing trip. We all LOVED the Caribbean Beach Resort. The only negative about this trip was that it was BUSY! The parks were packed and we had to actually wait in lines!
Going at the end of January has SPOILED us!
January/February 2012-WL and DREAM CRUISE:
We had always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. When we booked this trip we had booked the cruise only and then decided we couldn't NOT go to Disney World because we would be so close. We had always wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge and we were only planning on going to the Magic Kingdom so we booked the Wilderness Lodge and stayed there two nights before our first Disney Cruise. I have to say we spent THE MOST PERFECT, AMAZING, MAGICAL two days in Disney. I woke up the morning we were being picked up by our limo to take us to the Disney cruise, and after a year of dreaming of the cruise, I just DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE DISNEY! Two days and I felt robbed. It was just too perfect. We had gone with our best friends and it was their first time. They have two little boys too and we had perfect weather- no lines- so much fun! So I guess I need to write a little about the cruise
We went for a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas and it was just OK. It was REALLY crowded and loud and busy! There were lines for everything and the pools were so crowded that you couldn't swim and there were no chairs available. We spent a lot of time on our verandah which was relaxing and beautiful and the ship was just gorgeous. We all decided as a family that Disney World was the best part of our vacation and that next year we would be going back and staying at Disney for the whole vacation!
Up Next - April 2013-WL 10th Year Anniversary Trip!
So that brings us to our upcoming trip!! 10 days at the Wilderness Lodge celebrating our 10th Anniversary and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
366 Days left to plan, and dream! I hope you stick around!!
OUR CAST:
The Goody Family!!
Me (Nickie) DH: Wayne, DS: Myles (8) and DS: Owen (4)
OUR DISNEY HISTORY:
We are a VERY lucky family. A trip to Disney in a lifetime is something that so many kids/adults dream of their whole lives and some never go. We are so fortunate to have been able to go every year (sometimes twice a year!) and I have never taken for granted how lucky we are. People will say (family and friends) "Why are you going there AGAIN!??" or "Don't you want to go anywhere else!?" But our answer is NO! To have a place that we know... that we love... that we plan and look forward to for the whole year... that we have watched our children grow at... a place that makes us feel like kids again... to feel the magic and excitement of Disney... to going back to our favorite restaurants... to seeing our favorite characters and meeting new ones... to seeing our kids each reach 40 inches and go on their first thrill rides... to watching Wishes holding onto to my then 8 week old and each year since including this past year when he was 4 and still listening to his sweet little voice sing along to "Wishes" ...to making memories that we talk about and laugh about for years and years. To us, there is no better vacation out there. We JUST LOVE IT!
My husband and I both went to Disney with our families when we were young-actually we both did the 95 South Drive from Boston to Florida and stopping at South of the Border... only we didn't know each other then. We also both went as young adults with our friends... but still hadn’t met!
December 2004:
A year and a half after we got married, with our 9 month old baby we decided to go to Disney. The whole family wanted to come too. Great! So we thought..... It actually was a bit of a nightmare trip. This was back when I had never heard of The DIS Boards! This was back when I didn't PLAN the trip- I thought; you book the hotel and get your park tickets and go. LOL!!! We went, which I now know is the worst week to go to Disney, the week after Xmas. UGH! We couldn't even ride anything- couldn't get into any restaurants because who knew you needed to make reservations AHEAD of time LOL! The whole family ended up fighting. I did however get one of my ALL TIME favorite pictures on this trip... so I guess as much as it was a nightmare for me, this picture made it all worthwhile!
September 2007:
3 years later (recovered from the previous trip) we go back! This is the trip that hooked us in for life. I had just had Owen in July and he was only 8 weeks old. People thought we were crazy taking an 8 week old to Disney. I can't even tell you the amazing time we had. What a way for a family to bond!! Myles was 3 1/2 and was at a great age for Disney. We had lot's of time to cuddle and to laugh together. We stayed at POR and LOVED it! We loved the boat to DTD and the resort was beautiful and relaxing to us. We did the dining plan on this trip and booked lot's of character meals and some really nice dining. Who knew Disney had such great places to eat!!?
I remember we went to DTD on our last night and we were on the boat on our way back to the resort and Wayne and I cried because we didn't want to leave. We were hooked for life! We made a deal that night that we would return to Disney every two years.
May 2009-POFQ:
2 years later we came back! We celebrated Wayne's birthday and Mother's Day and we had an AMAZING trip! This was my husband’s all-time favorite Disney trip. We did the deluxe dining and we ate at so many signature restaurants - Narcoosees, California Grill, and we ate at almost every single character breakfast! We rode up front in the monorail (back when you could do this!) We watched Wishes from the beach at the Poly! We had so much fun on this trip. Myles went on Splash Mountain for the first time! We also FELL IN LOVE with POFQ on this trip. What a beautiful little resort. It was perfect for our family. We especially loved the Beignets and Muffaletta!
We made a deal on this trip that from now on we would come back every year!
January/February 2010-POLY:
We had another amazing trip to Disney. We stayed at the Polynesian and fell asleep every night watching the castle change colors. When I am at the dentist and they tell me to "go to your happy place" this is what I imagine in my head! This year was a little different for us because the weather was AWFUL! It rained every day of the trip and it put a little damper on it, for me at least. We still had an amazing time but the cost of this trip was too much for me to REALLY enjoy it - especially when things went wrong in the room and the Poly didn’t have a hot tub and it was too cold for the pool. We decided that next trip we would scale back and go back to the moderate hotels and basic dining!!
January/February 2011-POFQ:
We are back again! By now we consider ourselves EXPERTS! Our family and friends think we are nuts but who cares..... WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!!!!! We talk about our love for Disney and share our 'Disney Nights" with the family and before we know it, they have ALL BOOKED. OMG - Another Family Trip! This time was different though. I knew how to plan a trip and the family let me plan the whole thing. What parks we went to- what we ate. I did it all! I made t-shirts for all 14 of us. WE HAD AN AMAZING TIME!!!!!!!!!!!
September/October 2011-CBR:
We had SUCH an amazing time in January that we decided to come back in September. We broke our rule of one Disney trip a year but the 1/2 Marathon (Wayne and his niece did) and the 5K (Which I trained for and signed up for and then after MNSHHP and being up and walking around MK until 1AM I couldn’t get up for the race!!!) was happening and almost ALL of my really good friends that I have met here on the DIS were all going at this time too. We HAD to go!!! So we told the family and they ALL said they were in too. We had another amazing trip. We all LOVED the Caribbean Beach Resort. The only negative about this trip was that it was BUSY! The parks were packed and we had to actually wait in lines!
Going at the end of January has SPOILED us!
January/February 2012-WL and DREAM CRUISE:
We had always wanted to go on a Disney Cruise. When we booked this trip we had booked the cruise only and then decided we couldn't NOT go to Disney World because we would be so close. We had always wanted to stay at the Wilderness Lodge and we were only planning on going to the Magic Kingdom so we booked the Wilderness Lodge and stayed there two nights before our first Disney Cruise. I have to say we spent THE MOST PERFECT, AMAZING, MAGICAL two days in Disney. I woke up the morning we were being picked up by our limo to take us to the Disney cruise, and after a year of dreaming of the cruise, I just DID NOT WANT TO LEAVE DISNEY! Two days and I felt robbed. It was just too perfect. We had gone with our best friends and it was their first time. They have two little boys too and we had perfect weather- no lines- so much fun! So I guess I need to write a little about the cruise
We went for a 3 night cruise to the Bahamas and it was just OK. It was REALLY crowded and loud and busy! There were lines for everything and the pools were so crowded that you couldn't swim and there were no chairs available. We spent a lot of time on our verandah which was relaxing and beautiful and the ship was just gorgeous. We all decided as a family that Disney World was the best part of our vacation and that next year we would be going back and staying at Disney for the whole vacation!
Up Next - April 2013-WL 10th Year Anniversary Trip!
So that brings us to our upcoming trip!! 10 days at the Wilderness Lodge celebrating our 10th Anniversary and I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
366 Days left to plan, and dream! I hope you stick around!!
your description in the first paragraph of why you keep going back!
I REALLY hope this year goes quickly!! Watching all of my DIS Buddies go from now until then is going to make me very jealous! 
WOW - We have expensive taste! So we are going to book through DVC rentals and rent points and stay at Wilderness Lodge Villas instead of Wilderness Lodge and we will be going for 8 days instead of 10. Now that is more in our happy price range !! 
because both DS and DD are on the Autism Spectrum, and DD is a former 1 lb 2 oz preemie and also has mild cerebral palsy and other complications from her prematurity. We've had so many magical moments and firsts at Disney. It's truly been a place to let go, forget about the struggles and challenges of their everyday lives, and have FUN!
