How to enjoy Disney with 5 little kids! (Sept 2013)

[dr&momto2boys]

I'm sorry I haven't been back here to continue with plans for this trip. The only Disney planning I have done lately is for an extended family trip at Thanksgiving time.
We have booked a Grand Villa at Animal Kingdom's Jambo House. The villas look awesome! Besides the 7 of us (that just doesn't sound right yet!), my MIL, FIL, SIL, BIL, and their 2 kids will be coming too! So a total of 13! This will be our 3rd Disney trip together (except we keep adding an infant or two along the way.)
Anyway, we got our room all set and recently MIL and SIL bought their Disney tickets. We already have APs so we're set. We do plan to add the dining plan to this trip simply because it is easier for our group to pay that way. It will actually cost us a bit more since we usually get our best deal with out TIW card, but that's okay. It will also probably "force" me to eat more food (drinks, desserts, snacks) than I normally would just so I get my money's worth!
I have to make dining reservations for this trip soon and that will be the hard part. I have already roughed out a plan for which park to visit on which days so the first step is done. I better look at the deadline again to see when I have to make ADRs. I know it is sometime this month!
I still can't decide where to eat Thanksgiving dinner. MIL even talked about cooking it in our villa. I'd hate to do that, since we'll be leaving the next day and I am sure we would waste a lot of food that way.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

No sooner do I announce that our trip for November has shaped up that we decide to change it! We're adding on extra days of course...a common occurance for us. It doesn't take much to convince us to do it. This time it was because we went to book our airfare for November and found out that it was almost $100 per ticket cheaper to fly out 2 days earlier. Thats almost $600 for our immediate family. That means we have to book a value resort for 2 nights before we move into the Grand Villa at AK! That will be quite a difference in accomodations! We're happy with both though! As you can see from previous trip reports we have quite a range of places we have stayed! Last time we camped in our motorhome at Fort Wilderness.
Anyway... I'm very excited we have extended another vacation! 7 nights at Thanksgiving time would have seemed quite rushed. This will be great!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

DH booked Art of Animation resort for the nights we added on to our November trip (because that's where his sister wanted to stay.)

Since we also have AoA booked for this trip, I think we are going to change it. We don't often stay anywhere besides DVC so it's a chance for the kids to see another resort (maybe a new one for us too.) We're deciding between AS Movies and Pop Century. We did stay at ASM once when our oldest was 5 mos. old and I know the kids would love it. But I also think they would like Pop and it would be new to us too. Any recommendations for me?

 

[blessedby3]

DH booked Art of Animation resort for the nights we added on to our November trip (because that's where his sister wanted to stay.)

Since we also have AoA booked for this trip, I think we are going to change it. We don't often stay anywhere besides DVC so it's a chance for the kids to see another resort (maybe a new one for us too.) We're deciding between AS Movies and Pop Century. We did stay at ASM once when our oldest was 5 mos. old and I know the kids would love it. But I also think they would like Pop and it would be new to us too. Any recommendations for me?

We havent stayed at the All Stars, but have stayed at POP 3 times. We love the atmosphere there. We have stayed in the 50's and the 70's buildings. I think we like the 70's best

 

[dr&momto2boys]

We havent stayed at the All Stars, but have stayed at POP 3 times. We love the atmosphere there. We have stayed in the 50's and the 70's buildings. I think we like the 70's best

How was the food court? (I've heard good!) How about the buses?

 

[blessedby3]

We have always enjoyed the food court offerings and the busses were okay. I have heard that the All Stars share a bus, but POP doesnt. That said, we have waited for a while at the bus stop at times (but that has been the case even when we have stayed Deluxe). We tend to drive our own car even when staying on property.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

We did end up booking at Pop. Excited to see a new place! I'll have to look into which building to request now.

Sometimes the buses are frustrating anywhere. We've waited an eternity at Deluxe resorts too. Although thinking back, I seem to remember having a harder time packing into the buses on the way to the parks at the All Star resort. Whatever! It will be great! After all it is DISNEY!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Our new baby is here! I'll post a picture soon. I promise to get back to planning now (even if it's just a few minutes at a time) as we're getting super excited about this trip!

 

[Lisa29]

Congratulations!! Very exciting news.

Will read back over the rest of your report later and will comment then.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

The only plans I've been able to work on have been to make final payment on our cruise. Yay! By the way, babies have to be 12 weeks old to cruise, and baby Zach made his arrival one day before the cut-off! He'll be 12 weeks and one day old when we board...whew! He was "due" a week before that, but he really made us sweat it out!

So we were able to check-in for our cruise and opted for the earliest arrival time 11-11:30am.

I also made reservations for the kids over 3 to get pirate makeovers on pirate night at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique onboard. We're not doing the full costumes though. Since we were waiting around for Zach's arrival before we paid and checked-in, we missed the best times. Our times are kind of early 1:30 and 1:45 but that's fine. We'll swim early and then clean up and send the kids to the kids club after the makeovers. The biggest problem is Zoe is only 2 and too young to do this...but she will really feel left out.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Congratulations!! Very exciting news.

Will read back over the rest of your report later and will comment then.

Thank you!

 

[blessedby3]

Congrats on the new little one

 

[Lisa29]

Zach is a lovely name. I bet you were starting to worry with the 12 week deadline getting nearer.

The early arrival time is good. We are hopefully doing a cruise in 2016 and I will want to be on the ship as soon as I can!

 

[blessedby3]

Just checking in to see if anymore planning has been done...and to see if you are ready to post a picture of the new cutie

 

[dr&momto2boys]

So sorry I dropped the ball! It's been crazy busy here and not just because we have 5 kids! I fill in details soon.

But I feel bad I've left you hanging so long on the new baby picture...so I'll get right to that!



Here's the "big" kids meeting the new "little" guy in the hospital.



And here's Zach. I'll post more recent pictures of him during my TR if not before.

Also, sorry the pictures are so big. I haven't used PB in a while and it's changed a lot so I don't know how to change the size yet.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

What's been keeping us so busy?
Did I mention yet that we listed our little vacation log cabin in central WI for sale in early May? We didn't have any lookers at first, but finally in July, people started looking. We had two couples look and they both made an offer.
At the same time we listed the cabin for sale, we had contracted to buy a lake house in northern WI. The house actually was originally my husband's grandparents. Some other couple has owned it for the last 20 years though. My DH and all his family have such good memories from their time there. Unfortunately/fortunately the house is in bad shape but structurally it's sound. (If it wasn't in bad shape and on the market for 2 tears we couldn't afford it.)
Anyway, we must be crazy to trade our cute log cabin for "the smelly vacation house" as we call it! But the location is amazing and in a year after we pour a lot of work into it, it will be great!

We're moving all our stuff out of the cabin on Monday and closing on the houses before this big trip!

 

[blessedby3]

Awwww....he is a cutie! I love his hair...so sweet Sounds like your life is in crazy mode. Cant wait to read all about the trip. We just got back from Hilton Head Island, SC today and I am so looking forward to our next WDW vacation next June. I really need to get planning that and booking somewhere to stay!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Awwww....he is a cutie! I love his hair...so sweet Sounds like your life is in crazy mode. Cant wait to read all about the trip. We just got back from Hilton Head Island, SC today and I am so looking forward to our next WDW vacation next June. I really need to get planning that and booking somewhere to stay!

Thank you!

Hope you had a great vacation! Yep, time to start planning next for next June!

 

[dr&momto2boys]

We've finally kicked our Disney preparations into high gear around here! I made 11 t-shirts yesterday and have 24 left to go. But my printer won't pick up the light transfer paper, so DH says time to get a new printer anyway. I hope the new one will pick it up.

We're making FE gifts for our Disney cruise today too. For those uninitiated, FE stands for Fish Extender. There are fish shaped clips next to every cabin door on the Disney cruise ships and people hang bags usually nicely decorated with a pocket for each person in the cabin and these are called fish extenders. Then through social media like these DISboards you join a group that exchanges gifts by delivering to your FE.

We burned CDs with various Disney music from movies, rides, etc. and made a customized CD case cover for it. That is the gift we're passing out. I'll post a pic when I get time. So today we are burning 47 CDs and printing, cutting, and inserting the cover. It turned out well, if I say so myself! Hope people like them!

But the most EXCITING news is that we get to use Magic Bands and fast pass plus on our trip! Our bands are already customized and on their way. I still have to pick out our fast passes. It's cool that we get to test it out, but I am also worried about wasting a bunch of time working out the kinks. I guess since we have 10 days at WDW it's a great time to be slowed down.

 

[dr&momto2boys]

Well, we leave tomorrow! I'm finishing printing my magnets right now and still have to jam our suitcases closed! I intend to do a REAL trip report when I return! I'll be much better at that than this pre-trippie, I promise! My DH blogs while we are gone, so I just add pictures and my commentary when we get back!
See you September 15th!