Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho. It's off to the Grand Floridian We Go! (Update: TR Started)

[MarbleBob]

Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho. It's off to the Grand Floridian We Go!
June 6 -14, 2014


Update: We're back from the trip! We had a wonderful time!
Click here to go to the trip report thread.



Welcome to my pre-trip report for our upcoming family vacation. We’ve visited WDW many times through the years, but I think this trip just might be our most interesting one yet! When I said family vacation, I guess I should have said family gathering, because there’ll be 19 of us in total.

My parents and my aunt & uncle decided that they wanted to have a gathering at WDW this summer with their kids/grandkids, and they wanted to do it in style. Mom and dad taking us to Disney?!?!? And my sister and her family are going too?!!?!? And my awesome aunt and uncle who I haven’t seen in a few years?!?!? Terrific! And my cousin and her kids too?!?! Staying at a deluxe resort? Sounds cool to me! Oh, and my youngest turns 7 while we’re there and we’re going to have a birthday party like none other? Wait, Star Wars weekends too? Pinch me…and then count us in!

A little background on our families for some initial perspective. I’ve been to WDW with my wife and kids a lot over the years, but it’s been a few years since we’ve done a traditional week-long WDW trip. My parents have been visiting WDW a few times a year for the last 10 years or so. My sister and her family have been there more than a handful of times and know the ropes too. My aunt/uncle/cousin have all visited at least a couple times too.

On the one hand, we are very familiar with WDW, have stayed at many of the resorts, know how we like to tour the parks, how we like to eat, take breaks, take advantage of early entry, transportation, prioritizing the order in which we ride rides, etc. But on the other hand, my parents are the only ones who have seen the new Fantasyland and have experienced FastPass+, we haven’t stayed at the Grand Floridian before, never visited in the summer, never been to Star Wars Weekends, never visited in such a large group, etc. We have a lot of planning and new stuff to look forward to as well.

So, we’ll be arriving at the Grand Floridian on Friday, June 6 and visiting the parks that evening through the next Friday, and then heading back home on Saturday, June 14.

As a teaser, some of the highlights we are planning include visiting Star Wars weekends while Mark Hamill is there; youngest DD turns 7 and to celebrate, she’ll be doing Bibbity Bobbity Boutique first thing on her birthday, having breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table, fast pass for Anna and Elsa, and dinner at Be Our Guest with the entire group; taking DS 11 on “Disney's The Magic Behind Our Steam Trains Tour” with my dad and uncle; and another big meal with the entire family at 'Ohana (because of course it means family, right?) Stay tuned as we ponder our options for how we’ll break into groups and plan out our activities in-between all that stuff

 

[MarbleBob]

Reserved for Table of Contents

 

[MarbleBob]

Meet the Family

About My Immediate Family

DW and I have been Disney fans most of our lives. Both enjoying the classic movies and cartoons as kids, and we each went on family vacations to WDW several times. (She had gone 4 times and I had been twice.) The first movie that we saw in a theater together was 101 Dalmatians in 1996. And when we were first dating, I remember she mentioned that as a little girl, she dreamed of going to WDW on her honeymoon. So, later when get got married, the decision on where to go for our honeymoon was a no brainer! That started the tradition of including Disney in our family vacations and we've been going back for more ever since. In more recent years, we’ve done a Disney cruise and we took our first family trip with all three kids to Disneyland last October. (It was awesome, you can read my trip report it here.)

Matt (me) - Please don’t ask how/why I came up with the MarbleBob screen name, because I don't really remember. (It’s hard to believe I joined disboards over 10 years ago.) I'm not related to anyone named Bob and I don't even own any marbles. Some might argue, that I've lost a few marbles, but that's a different story. About me? I'm a web applications developer, skateboarder, gardener, and of course, a Disney fan. I tend to go through phases where I'm super into Disney, and then I focus my interest on other things. But I always come back.



Stephanie (DW) - My best friend and awesome mother to our 3 kids. She’s isn't really any more or less into Disney than I am, but she's certainly more consistently plugged in. I think she's listened to almost every DIS Unplugged podcast through the years (both WDW and DL) and she's probably listened to every one of Ricky Brigante's Inside the Magic podcasts too.



Princess (DD14) - My oldest daughter. Obviously, that's not her real name, but that's the name that we'll use for this trip report. (We went with "Ninja Potato" on the last trip report, and apparently she's moved on from that silly name. ) As mentioned above, she's grown up going to Disney World, and loving Disney princesses. She outgrew the princess loving stage a few years ago, but her love for Disney hasn't diminished. She also loves everything Nintendo and Japan, and of course, her favorite Disney attraction is the Japan Pavilion in Epcot.



Buddy (DS11) - Also not his real name, but this is what we usually call him around the house. He's our engineer. He loves building things with his monorail sets, Legos, Rokenbok, trains, etc. And of course, his favorite past time is playing Minecraft on the computer. Visiting the various Disney World Minecraft servers makes it ever better His favorite Disney attractions are the trains, monorails, Expedition Everest, and California Screamin’. He’s really looking forward to the Steam Train tour on this trip.



Pickle (DD7) - We don't really call her this too much in person, but she owns up to her nickname, and it fits her well. Very sweet and loving, but she can be a bit ornery and spicey too! She's very much still in the princess stage, and her favorite is Cinderella. She’s very much looking forward to spending her next birthday at the Magic Kingdom!



The rest of the cast

My Parents

Guy (my dad) and Karen (my mom, who goes by DisneMimi on the boards. We’ll call her by her disboards name from here on out.) They are the the best grandparents in the world. They’ve been to Disney many times, with kids/grandkids and without.



My sister’s family

Cassie (my sister) and Randy (my brother-in-law) will be joining us too. I couldn’t ask for a more awesome big sister and I’m looking forward to spending a week with her gang. They have three boys. We’re gonna call them Huey (15), Dewey (14), and Louie (10). (I guess that makes me Uncle Donald?)

This photo is quite a few years old now, but I didn't have a more recent one...


My Aunt and Uncle

My mom’s sister, Denise, and her husband Steve will be coming down from Pennsylvania. They are kindred spirits and we always have a blast with them.



My Cousin Beth and her family

My cousin Beth and her husband Steve will be coming down from New York. They have three kids, twin boys and a baby girl. The boys turn 3 in July. We’ll call them Chip and Dale. And then the baby will be about 3 months old, we’ll call her Baby. This will be their first WDW trip as a family.







I guess that’s it for the intro posts. Next up, I plan to gather some “interview” questions for the family. What’s your favorite, Disney movie, ride, food, etc? It’ll be fun to see what they say and share it here.

Then we’ll start with what plans and Fast Passes we have so far, and probably look for input and advice as we look to get those details more finalized.

Thanks for joining along so far

 

[jedijill]

I'm in! Sounds like a fantastic family gathering!

Jill in CO

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great looking cast.

 

[KelleyK75]

Just read through your last TR the other day, and jumping in on this one.

Loved hearing about your Disneyland experiences. I was at CA Adventure several years ago for an event, but hadn't been in Disneyland, so it was neat seeing all of the things you did and your family looks like they had a blast! Hope you have fun at WDW!

 

[tksbaskets]

WOW! What a great start. How do you do the awe-inspiring collages?

 

[MarbleBob]

I'm in! Sounds like a fantastic family gathering!

Thanks Jill, we're glad to have you along!

Great looking cast.

Thanks PrincessInOz! We think it's a great looking cast too I'm looking forward to getting lots of pictures of everyone!

Just read through your last TR the other day, and jumping in on this one.

Loved hearing about your Disneyland experiences. I was at CA Adventure several years ago for an event, but hadn't been in Disneyland, so it was neat seeing all of the things you did and your family looks like they had a blast! Hope you have fun at WDW!

Thanks Kelley! Yes, that Disneyland trip was a blast. I really love the vibes and atmosphere in Southern California. Such an amazing place

WOW! What a great start. How do you do the awe-inspiring collages?

Thanks tksbaskets!! I used some free software called CollageIt. It's actually really easy to use. There are a bunch of different templates for how to arrange the photos. You pick one, tell it the number of photos that you want to use, and then drag and drop photos onto the "canvas". You can adjust the final image size, set the margins, backgrounds, etc., and then export it to a jpeg (or whatever format you need.) Pretty nice tool for free

 

[MarbleBob]

Getting to Walt Disney World

OK, so I sent the following questions to my family:

• What is your favorite Disney memory?
• What is your favorite Disney ride?
• What is your favorite Disney food?
• What is your favorite Disney song?
• What is your favorite Disney movie?
• What is your favorite Disney hotel that you've stayed at?

I'll give them a few days to respond, and then post up the responses this weekend.

In the meantime, I'll share our plans for our early arrival.

We originally planned to make this a two week trip where my family would have arrived in Orlando the week before everyone else. We hoped to use the extra time to visit the beach, hit the outlet malls, go to a water park, explore Orlando, etc. But, we had more snow days this winter than I can remember. They ended up pushing the last day of school out by about 1.5 weeks later than we assumed they would. So, scratch that idea!!!

Our first night at the Grand Floridian is Friday, June 6. The kids last day of school is on Tuesday the 3rd... So we could have waited to leave St. Louis until Thursday morning and arrive in time for check in on Friday afternoon. Or we could leave on Tuesday as soon as the last kid gets off the bus, and then arrive in Florida Wednesday night. That would give us 1.5 extra days to do something fun/interesting. Heck, lets just leave on Tuesday!!!!

We considered several options for how to spend that extra time.... Harry Potter at Universal, Sea World, Legoland, Busch Gardens, turn our 7-day park hoppers into 8-day tickets, spend the day at the beach, shopping at the outlet malls, etc. In the end, the kids really wanted to go to the beach and we didn't want to spend too much money on additional park tickets. So, the beach it is! But which one? Well, how about somewhere near Tampa, like Clearwater Beach? Or maybe something on the Pacific like Cocoa Beach? Hmm... You know, the legendary Kona skatepark isn't too far out of the way, how about Jacksonville Beach?!?!? (fingers crossed ) Stephanie was cool with that... YES!!!! One of my skateboard dreams is going to come true! (I've never been there in person, but I've spent countless hours skating that place virtually on the Tony Hawk Pro Skater video game back in the day.)

Click here for the Kona skatepark facebook page

If you read my last trip report, you know that I'm into skateboarding. As much as I'm still a kid at heart with Disney stuff, I'm a kid at heart in other areas of my life too!! Since we visited the Vans skatepark (near Disneyland) last fall, Princess has gotten really interested in skateboarding and has been skating with me pretty much every week. That in turn peaked the interest of Buddy and Pickle too. So... the four of us have been hitting the local skatepark nearly every weekend since it stopped snowing this winter.











They are super excited about visiting the beach in the morning and then Kona in the afternoon on Thursday. This is going to be awesome!!!

Has anyone ever visited the Jacksonville Beach area before? We have hotel reservations near the skatepark but I'm not sure which beach we should pick and/or where to park. Any suggestions? Also, any suggestions for seafood restaurants near the coast?

After our beach/skateboarding day, we'll stay a second night in Jacksonville, and then get up early and head to Orlando.

We considered moseying along the coast and then heading directly west once we hit Cocoa beach, and then maybe visit St. Augustine or something on the way, but ultimately, I think we'll just get up early and bee line straight to Orlando. (It's about 2.5 hours.) That way, we'd arrive in Orlando around 10:30 am. We'll probably stop at the two outlet malls along International Dr. (because you have to visit BOTH Disney outlets, right?!?!?) Normally, we take a break in the middle of our WDW trips and do a little shopping. But this time we want to stay in the bubble and spend as much extra time enjoying Grand Floridian resort as possible. So, let's just get the shopping out of the way early We'll probably shop, eat lunch, and then plan on meeting everyone at the resort around 2 or 3pm.

As far as the actual travel goes, we usually drive to Florida from St. Louis... and we'll be doing the same on this trip. We plan to get out of Dodge as soon as the last kid gets off the bus sometime around 4pm or so. We'll drive to Nashville and spend the night there, and then drive to Jacksonville on Wednesday.



I've got the hotel reservations made in Nashville and Jacksonville, so we are good to go in that respect. At this point our first day and a half are mostly planned out. I think we'll all visit at the resort Friday afternoon, eat dinner at the pool area, and then probably head to the Magic Kingdom for a couple hours. Time to start thinking about FastPass+ arrangements! (The only one set in stone for the whole week is meeting Anna & Elsa on Pickle's birthday. Everything else is penciled in, but we haven't put too much thought into it yet. Or at least, I haven't yet

The rest of the crew will arrive at the resort Friday afternoon. My parents and sister's group will be driving in from St. Louis, leaving a day or so later than us. And then the rest will be flying down from NY/Philly.

 

[KelleyK75]

Sounds like you have a great plan so far! We wanted to make time to head to one of the beaches this last trip, but just couldn't fit it in. That's awesome your family will get to enjoy the skatepark. Looking forward to seeing your pictures and hearing about the Grand Floridian. One day I definitely want to stay there.

 

[ksromack]

I've been to Jacksonville but I was in high school at the time and we stayed at a family friend's home....so I can't be of any help there.

We tried to get in one last Disneyland trip before our APs expire this Dec 1 but we just can't do it. I'll be following your report with envious appreciation! Oh, and guess what? For my coming birthday, my hubby made me buy the leather Dooney sketch purse We did this a couple months ago.....for my May birthday....but I'll probably be getting a new digital SLR for my real birthday present so the purse must me a "pre" present

We are planning a Europe trip next spring which is why I can't rationalize spending the money on another Disney trip this year. Gotta save.......but maybe we'll be able to check our Disneyland Paris

Anyway, Grand Floridian should be an amazing resort....never stayed there although it's on the bucket list!

 

[MarbleBob]

Sounds like you have a great plan so far! We wanted to make time to head to one of the beaches this last trip, but just couldn't fit it in. That's awesome your family will get to enjoy the skatepark. Looking forward to seeing your pictures and hearing about the Grand Floridian. One day I definitely want to stay there.

Thanks Kelley. Grand Floridian has been on our bucket list for a while, but I didn't see us making it there so soon. I plan to take lots and lots of pictures of the resort. As you'll see if you follow along with the trip report, my parents are amazing and generous people. So excited that that they are making this happen!!!

I've been to Jacksonville but I was in high school at the time and we stayed at a family friend's home....so I can't be of any help there.

We tried to get in one last Disneyland trip before our APs expire this Dec 1 but we just can't do it. I'll be following your report with envious appreciation! Oh, and guess what? For my coming birthday, my hubby made me buy the leather Dooney sketch purse We did this a couple months ago.....for my May birthday....but I'll probably be getting a new digital SLR for my real birthday present so the purse must me a "pre" present

We are planning a Europe trip next spring which is why I can't rationalize spending the money on another Disney trip this year. Gotta save.......but maybe we'll be able to check our Disneyland Paris

Anyway, Grand Floridian should be an amazing resort....never stayed there although it's on the bucket list!

Congrats on that Dooney purse! Stephanie has been very happy with the one she purchased in Disneyland last fall. And wow, that would be awesome if you could squeeze in Dinsneyland Paris in your Europe trip.!! Happy early birthday.

 

[MarbleBob]

Elsa dress hunt!!!

OK. It’s been a little while since my last update. I’m still working on the Q&A post, but in the meantime, here’s an interesting mini-quest in our trip planning.

So, Pickle will turn 7 on this trip. I was thinking yesterday morning that I didn’t know what she wanted for her birthday. It turns out that Stephanie didn’t either, so we asked her. She said that she wanted and Elsa dress without hesitation. And that she wanted to wear it on her birthday for when she meets Elsa and Anna. I thought, that sounds reasonable. It’s within our budget and if that’s what she truly wants, then no problem. Stephanie agreed.

So, I thought, I’ll go to the Disney Store website and see what they look like and what it’ll actually cost. Except for… there were none to be found. That’s strange, I guess I better do a google search…. And then I found a couple of posts on Disboards about how people were looking for these and the trouble they were going through to find them. Uh, oh! Looks like we shouldn’t count on showing up to WDW and grabbing one from Downtown Disney on the way in. Then, I found a post where someone stated that the Disney Stores got a limited amount of dresses in this week and that they planned to raffle off chances to purchase one this morning. Hmm… that sounds interesting.

It was grandparents day at Pickle’s school yesterday and my mom was at our house when I got home for work, so we chatted about it and decided to call our local stores to see if they planned to participate in the raffle. The big Disney store at the St. Louis Galleria was indeed participating. YES! But, it’s about 30 minutes from our house. We have a Disney Outlet about 10 minutes from our house, let’s call them too! Except for they weren’t really with “the program”. It was like pulling teeth to get them to admit that they didn’t actually have any dresses and wouldn’t have a raffle. Oh well, St. Louis Galleria it is.

The deal with the raffle is/was: you show up at the store between 10:00 and 11:00am and put your name on a ticket for the size that you want to purchase. They collect tickets and then at 11:15, they would start with the smallest size dresses and call out names. If you were selected, then you could purchase a dress. One ticket per person, and you had to be at least 16.

My parents are good sports and always up for a challenge, so we decided to increase our odds and get a raffle ticket for each of us. So, we had a plan to arrive up at the mall around 10:30 and see what happens.

We met with my parents on the way and then car pooled to the Disney Store. We arrived around 10:15 am and headed inside. This is going to be fun!!



We arrived at the store around 10:20am, and wow, there are a lot of people here!!!



We were sort of confused by the line. It was about 30 adults or so deep. (not counting kids). Is this the line for the raffle tickets!?!?!?

It turns out that they got a shipment of general Frozen merchandise too. They kept it behind the counter and were letting people go up one cash register at a time to purchase stuff. The raffle ticket line only had a couple people in it, so we went over and got our names in.



Fingers crossed!!!

So, what are we going to do for the next 45 minutes? Well, we might as well get in line for the frozen stuff. It turns out that they had a tiara to go with the Elsa dress, so we defiantly wanted to get in line. Too bad we didn’t know about this part of the event, or we would have arrived a lot earlier. Oh well, we’re here now… Let’s see what we can come up with. Eventually it was our turn and they had a few items left. We actually got the last tiara. (Big relief!) They still had some Elsa barbie style dolls and a few Anna Animator’s collection dolls. (As well as Olof and Sven plush dolls.) We decided to get the tiara, Elsa doll, and Anna doll.

After that, we had about 10 minutes until the drawing started, so we just browsed around. We asked one of the workers if they know how many dresses were available. They said that they didn’t get any of the smallest 2/3 size, but they did get some the others. Only four of the 4 size, but about 14 each in the 5/6 and 7/8 sizes, and then about 4 of the 9/10 sizes. Luckily, we wanted the 5/6 and were feeling pretty good.



They started with the raffle and went through the smallest ones pretty quick. Unfortunately, the family next to us actually brought their little one with them and she obviously had her hopes up. She was pretty upset when they didn’t get one.

Next up was the 5/6 group. They called out a few names and I was starting to get nervous. But then bingo!! They called us. We went in and got the dress and were good to go. Mission accomplished!!



So, that made for a fun adventure. Very happy to know that Pickle will get that dress on her birthday, and it wasn’t too much trouble after all. And thanks to my parents for coming along and hanging out with us!!!

 

[disnemimi]

What a fun morning with you guys!! You know I love a mission and so glad you were able to score an Elsa dress. Pickle will be so thrilled on her birthday. We are going to have a blast at Walt Disney World. I am getting excited about the Star Wars Weekend we will be attending. Sorry to say, no luck getting tickets to "Feel the Force" dining event on our date. I tried 2 or 3 tickets and no luck. I will call back the end of May and see if there are any cancellations. Bummer, after we had it all worked out. Maybe I will call on May 4th and maybe "the fourth will be with me." Lovin' your pre-trip report.
Mimi

 

[MidnightParade]

Joining in! Your family seems great! Nice when everyone has the disney bug too! I love that you got the kiddos into skateboarding, thats so cool!
Also, yay for GF! That will be incredible!

 

[MarbleBob]

What a fun morning with you guys!! You know I love a mission and so glad you were able to score an Elsa dress. Pickle will be so thrilled on her birthday. We are going to have a blast at Walt Disney World. I am getting excited about the Star Wars Weekend we will be attending. Sorry to say, no luck getting tickets to "Feel the Force" dining event on our date. I tried 2 or 3 tickets and no luck. I will call back the end of May and see if there are any cancellations. Bummer, after we had it all worked out. Maybe I will call on May 4th and maybe "the fourth will be with me." Lovin' your pre-trip report.
Mimi

Thanks Mimi! Sure was a fun day on Saturday. Disney Store with you guys in the morning and then we all went and met friends at the skatepark. My two favorite past times in one day!!!

Joining in! Your family seems great! Nice when everyone has the disney bug too! I love that you got the kiddos into skateboarding, thats so cool!
Also, yay for GF! That will be incredible!

Hi MidnightParade! Great to have you following along

 

[MarbleBob]

Nice when everyone has the disney bug too!

Oh, and you can say that again. We've all got the bug real bad and having lot's of fun getting our dinner and FP+ reservations in order

 

[MarbleBob]

Q & A with the Family

OK. This took a little longer than I thought, but here are the responses to the various questions. I asked a similar set of questions to my family in our last trip report, and it's fun to see what changed and what stayed the same

What is your favorite Disney memory?

Guy: Being at WDW with grandkids.

(Bonus points for anyone who can tell the difference between Princess and Pickle. They look so similar at when they were little.)

Disnemimi: First time eating at Ohana's with the whole family in 2003


Matt & Princess: Princess meeting Snow White for the first time at Cinderella’s Royal Table. She took Princess up to the front to get Pixie Dust (Mickey mouse confetti) and then they paraded back to the table and compared their dresses.


Stephanie: Waking the kids up in the middle of the night with a surprise trip to WDW when they least expected it.

Buddy: Going on the Disney Dream (Thanks Mimi and Papa!)


Pickle: Riding Autopia in Disneyland.


Beth’s Steve: family trip and the 20,000 leagues under the sea

Beth: meeting Minnie Mouse at a character breakfast in our first Disney trip. I also remember being so excited about the invisible dog leash that we took home.


What is your favorite Disney ride?

Guy: Soarin'

Disnemimi: Big Thunder Mountain

Matt: Spaceship Earth at Epcot

Stephanie: Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom

Princess: Radiator Springs Racers

Buddy: California Screamin' - California Adventure

Pickle: Peter Pan

Steve: teacups

Beth: thunder mountain

What is your favorite Disney food?

Guy: French Onion Soup at LeChef's de France, Epcot

Disnemimi: Dole Whip Float at Magic Kingdom

Matt: It's too hard to narrow it down to just one, but I don't think I've ever gone to Epcot without getting getting Kaki-Gori (shaved ice) in the Japan Pavilion.

Stephanie: Strawberry Shortcake at the Sunshine Seasons in Epcot!

Princess: Churros at Disneyland

Buddy: Corn Dogs at Disneyland

Pickle: Disney Bacon


What is your favorite Disney song?

Guy: Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it's off to work we go

Disnemimi: When you wish upon a star

Matt: Not really a song, but I've always loved the spacey music that they play in the line for Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom.

Stephanie: When you Wish Upon a Star. ("There are many good versions, but the original by Ukulele Ike is probably my favorite.")

Princess: It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (she said that she sings it to herself all the time)

Buddy: “I guess... I like 'Let it Go'"

Pickle: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes (because Cinderella sings it)

Steve: Be our Guest


What is your favorite Disney movie?

Guy: Rocketeer

Disnemimi: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Me: Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior, just kidding... it's Swiss Family Robinson

Stephanie: The Even Stevens Movie

(If you've never seen this Disney Channel movie, and you like silly/funny movies, then do yourself a favor and rent this ASAP!!)

Princess: The Even Stevens Movie

Buddy: Frozen

Pickle: Little Mermaid

Steve: Miracle

Beth: Cinderella


What is your favorite Disney hotel that you've stayed at?

Guy: Polynesian

Disnemimi: Polynesian

Matt: Wilderness Lodge

Stephanie: Disneyland Hotel

Princess: Grand Californian

Buddy: Disneyland Hotel

Pickle: Disneyland Hotel

Beth: Beach club- sand bottom pool and slides were cool!



OK. Next up we'll start talking about our plans for the week...

 

[PrncessA]

Subbing, to go back and catch up.

 

[MidnightParade]

Thumbs up on Swiss Family Robinson! We always watched it as kids growing up when we visited my grandparents as they had it on tape. I have it on DVD now as well, been awhile I may need to watch it again. DBF hasn't seen it yet either, although I find a lot of people haven't which makes me sad.

Some great answers! Now I need to contemplate my own! lol