How do you get ready?

[dizneeluvr]

We leave in 5 days for a week at VWL. We have had the countdown calendar going for a week or so, the girls get to put stickers on each day at bed time and then countdown how many more bedtimes are left...Back to school today, and I'm packing a lunch for DD 8, with Disney Magical Middle cookies, Princess Fruit Snacks and hidden Mickey's on her note...

What else do you do to build the excitement (as if it is needed) prior to a trip "home"?

 

[betslinc]

Our family unfortunately suffers from first day frenzy. Our first day at Disney is almost always a disaster. My kids get so excited and have such high expectations that the first day they conisistently have a melt-down. I have had to resort to minimizing pre-trip build-up to preserve my sanity. The following days are always wonderful, which makes up for it.

 

[DVCDAVE]

We do two things;

First, We always make sure that we have the latest Disney World Vacation planning video on hand. We watch it over and over again during dinner about a month before we leave for WDW. (this can be ordered on the WDW home page)

Second, I print a calander using my MicroSoft Outlook, and we pencil in what we want to do (parks, dinners, mini-golf, pools, bike rides, water mice..etc.) for particular days and times. We think this is very imporant, as it affords the kids a major say in the vacation, AND we don't get any complaints coming home that they didn't get to do something that THEY wanted to do.

PS, you'd be surprised that the kids DON'T always want to go to the parks. Sometimes they just want to be by the pool or riding bikes etc. So think twice about buying Length of Stay passes. ParkHopper passes may make more sense as they never expire, and relieve the preasure of always going to a park for maximum value.

 

[OKWKirt]

I do the same as DVCDave's second thing. I make a day-by-day chart showing what parks to go to on which days, where we will eat, the days we stay away from the parks and do other things, etc. I have done this since 1997, eight trips, and I think we follow the plan 10% of the time, and that is probably by accident. I do enjoy thinking and planning about it. We tried twice to get the kids to sit and help plan out the things we will do and both times nothing was planned - they just say whatever is fine. This is probably the problem with going so many times and having teenagers. They know we will just go and have fun what ever we do. several times each trip we let WDW decide where to go by which bus comes first.

I know you are going to have a GREAT trip and a lot of fun. It will be hard topping your last surprise trip though.

 

[yasuern]

I continously visit these boards - reading recent trip reports and everyone here just as in love with WDW as I am - Thats what gets me more excited and hyped about going - If thats possible?
As for the kids - I keep it low key with them - The mention of WDW usaully - at least my DD - has them heading to their rooms to pack there vacation gear! - So I usually don't mention the trip until about 2 weeks before! What can I say - My whole family LOVES WDW!

 

[JimC]

When we visited with our girls, we would buy the Birnbaum guide and let them put together an itinerary. It was great fun listening to them discuss (negotiate) how to spend our time together.

Now we use the Intercot Disney Vacation Planner to broadly plan our days to facilitate using early entry, PS and any special activities we might want to do. We generally end up following 80% of it once we are there. The other 20% is just going with the moment and how we feel.

We also use the Disney Time countdown clock on our computer.

 

[DVC-LEROY]

Here's our ritual that begins about 120 days out --
1) constantly check postings on the boards.
2) watch videos of previous trips and look through photo albums
3) visit the Disney Store more often
4) check my countdown clock
5) made a countdown calendar (at 60 days) for my 4 yr old DS - he's already dancing around with only 34 days to go!
6) I also make a calendar with all the PS #'s, early entry days, events, and emergency #'s - I fill it in as I make each PS
7) At 30 days I start to put together goodie bags - one for the plane ride and one for a surprise once we get unpacked.
8) The week before we'll be making Mickey shaped pizza and Mickey shaped cookies - at that point the insomnia starts!