Welcome.
We are just back from our Family's first trip to Disney. My last trip was when I was 9, 21 years ago, so needless to say this is also my first trip report. My goal here is to document our trip primarily for my on recollection later, but I also hope it can be as helpful to others planning trips as the various trip reports I've read over the last 18 month have be for us. That's right folks I said I've been planning for 18 months, not because I needed that long or because we needed to save, the reality is that we had planned to go to Disney in the early spring of this year, but had one major hiccup what lead to the postponement of this trip to Sept 26th - October 4th.
Cast:
Me: 30 y/o, Born and raised in NC and now living in Concord, NC a suburb of Charlotte. I'm the planner, the photographer, the guy who was more excited about this trip than my kids. I'm a Purchasing Manager for a manufacturing company with a background in Research and Engineering. My life outside of work revolves around my girls (wife & two daughters). I'm the details guy, the guy who read the unofficial guide almost cover to cover, has memberships at disboards, touringplans, tourguidemike and ride max, and who realized that most of that stuff is totally overrated when traveling in late September.
DW: 31 y/o, Also born and rased in NC. Stay at home Mom who has a very part time career as a pharmacist. She is awesome at both of her jobs. Was worried that I would over plan which would hinder the fun and freedom of the trip. Made a comment half way in that this was the best vacation of her life. Made one of the best planning decisions of our trip by directing that a Family Suite as ASMu was her preference over a standard room at Coronado Springs. Two rooms vs. One.... Great Call.
DD5: AKA: Ariel. 43.75 inches tall. Just started kindergarten. Loves all rides, well unless they involve getting wet when wearing clothes. Loves all characters. Is very self aware and assertive. She is learning to try new foods, but apparently not this trip. Has been ready for this trip since she was 3.
DD3: AKA Dora. 38.5 inch tall. Also loves all rides without exception, problem being she is just a little to short. Very stubborn, but can also be easy going. Very picky eater, we are luckly she did not starve while we were a way from home; she basically lived off of French fries and desert.
Focused on characters. This is interesting because it relates to why we postponed the trip from early spring. You see, DD3 developed a fear of the Chick-fil-a Cow last fall. We thought it would pass, but it only got worse. We decided to postpone the trip after an encounter with said cow which resulted in a 30 minute fit. There was no way we were going to spend the money on a trip where we had to avoid all the characters. To be sure she was ready for the fall we bought season tickets to Carowinds, a local theme park, and slowly introduced her to characters there. We made a wise decision, as first her reaction was manic fear. Even if the character was far away, but within eye sight she would clinch up ang grab on to ether DW or me and cry/scream until the character was no longer visible. After showing her that she was in control, she slowly warmed. On our 4th trip she gave Dora and Boots a "5" while being held and on or 5th visit she got down and gave them hugs. After this milestone she became to polar opposite and would run to hug and kiss any character. Her confidence and affection were slightly rattled while at Disney, but I'll get into that later.
The Plan:
9/26: Drive down from NC Prelude
9/27: Animal Kingdom and Dinner at Chef Mickey Part 1 - Part 2
9/28: CRT Breakfast, Magic Kingdom and Dinner at Whispering Canyon Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Dreams Parade - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
9/29: Epcot and Dinner at Le Ceiler
9/30: Magic Kingdom and Dinner at Ohana
10/1: Disney Hollywood Studios and Dinner at 50's Prime Time
10/2: Princess Storybook Breakfast, Epcot and MNSSHP
10/3: Open Park Day
10/4: Crystal Palace Breakfast, Magic Kingdom and return home
The Package:
Originally we did not plan to hop and had an 8 day base ticket with dining in a Family Suite at ASMu for about $3350. Fortunately I was able to take advantage of the late Disney Visa free dining offer, we had split our reservation which gave us an extra 1 day ticket which we ended up using as a pseudo hopper. I know in a sense that its not cost effective to do this, but it required no additional cash out of pocket and meet our hopping needs. Cost of the modified package $2995.
So there you have it the background of this trip, which I suppose amounts to a pre-trip report. I hope you stick around to check out the report itself. You should expect to see a lot of detail of not only the what and when of our trip but the why as well. Also there will be lots of pictures. I took almost 4000 pictures over the course of our 8 days, this does not include the nearly 700 additional pictures taken by the photopass folks.
BTW the pictures of my girls above are from the day before our trip when they recieved a "package from Mickey and Minne" to prepare them for our trip.
Until then...
We are just back from our Family's first trip to Disney. My last trip was when I was 9, 21 years ago, so needless to say this is also my first trip report. My goal here is to document our trip primarily for my on recollection later, but I also hope it can be as helpful to others planning trips as the various trip reports I've read over the last 18 month have be for us. That's right folks I said I've been planning for 18 months, not because I needed that long or because we needed to save, the reality is that we had planned to go to Disney in the early spring of this year, but had one major hiccup what lead to the postponement of this trip to Sept 26th - October 4th.
Cast:
Me: 30 y/o, Born and raised in NC and now living in Concord, NC a suburb of Charlotte. I'm the planner, the photographer, the guy who was more excited about this trip than my kids. I'm a Purchasing Manager for a manufacturing company with a background in Research and Engineering. My life outside of work revolves around my girls (wife & two daughters). I'm the details guy, the guy who read the unofficial guide almost cover to cover, has memberships at disboards, touringplans, tourguidemike and ride max, and who realized that most of that stuff is totally overrated when traveling in late September.
DW: 31 y/o, Also born and rased in NC. Stay at home Mom who has a very part time career as a pharmacist. She is awesome at both of her jobs. Was worried that I would over plan which would hinder the fun and freedom of the trip. Made a comment half way in that this was the best vacation of her life. Made one of the best planning decisions of our trip by directing that a Family Suite as ASMu was her preference over a standard room at Coronado Springs. Two rooms vs. One.... Great Call.
DD5: AKA: Ariel. 43.75 inches tall. Just started kindergarten. Loves all rides, well unless they involve getting wet when wearing clothes. Loves all characters. Is very self aware and assertive. She is learning to try new foods, but apparently not this trip. Has been ready for this trip since she was 3.
DD3: AKA Dora. 38.5 inch tall. Also loves all rides without exception, problem being she is just a little to short. Very stubborn, but can also be easy going. Very picky eater, we are luckly she did not starve while we were a way from home; she basically lived off of French fries and desert.
Focused on characters. This is interesting because it relates to why we postponed the trip from early spring. You see, DD3 developed a fear of the Chick-fil-a Cow last fall. We thought it would pass, but it only got worse. We decided to postpone the trip after an encounter with said cow which resulted in a 30 minute fit. There was no way we were going to spend the money on a trip where we had to avoid all the characters. To be sure she was ready for the fall we bought season tickets to Carowinds, a local theme park, and slowly introduced her to characters there. We made a wise decision, as first her reaction was manic fear. Even if the character was far away, but within eye sight she would clinch up ang grab on to ether DW or me and cry/scream until the character was no longer visible. After showing her that she was in control, she slowly warmed. On our 4th trip she gave Dora and Boots a "5" while being held and on or 5th visit she got down and gave them hugs. After this milestone she became to polar opposite and would run to hug and kiss any character. Her confidence and affection were slightly rattled while at Disney, but I'll get into that later.
The Plan:
9/26: Drive down from NC Prelude
9/27: Animal Kingdom and Dinner at Chef Mickey Part 1 - Part 2
9/28: CRT Breakfast, Magic Kingdom and Dinner at Whispering Canyon Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Dreams Parade - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6
9/29: Epcot and Dinner at Le Ceiler
9/30: Magic Kingdom and Dinner at Ohana
10/1: Disney Hollywood Studios and Dinner at 50's Prime Time
10/2: Princess Storybook Breakfast, Epcot and MNSSHP
10/3: Open Park Day
10/4: Crystal Palace Breakfast, Magic Kingdom and return home
The Package:
Originally we did not plan to hop and had an 8 day base ticket with dining in a Family Suite at ASMu for about $3350. Fortunately I was able to take advantage of the late Disney Visa free dining offer, we had split our reservation which gave us an extra 1 day ticket which we ended up using as a pseudo hopper. I know in a sense that its not cost effective to do this, but it required no additional cash out of pocket and meet our hopping needs. Cost of the modified package $2995.
So there you have it the background of this trip, which I suppose amounts to a pre-trip report. I hope you stick around to check out the report itself. You should expect to see a lot of detail of not only the what and when of our trip but the why as well. Also there will be lots of pictures. I took almost 4000 pictures over the course of our 8 days, this does not include the nearly 700 additional pictures taken by the photopass folks.
BTW the pictures of my girls above are from the day before our trip when they recieved a "package from Mickey and Minne" to prepare them for our trip.
Until then...
I know all about being more excited than your kids! When we arrived in the Magic Kingdom the first day, I yelled, "there it is, there's the castle!" and started jumping up and down.
