I must be crazy. Planning a trip for 11 people! - PTR

[sunnygirl8503]

Hello everyone! This is my first pre-trip report so please bear with me. I am really excited to start planning this trip.

The who: Me – I am 26 years old and absolutely love anything Disney. I will be doing most of the planning for this trip will some input from others. This will be my 6th trip.

DH – My husband is 27 years old and tolerates Disney because it makes me happy and he knows this trip means a lot to me. This will be his 5th trip.

SIS – My sister she is 24 years old and the mother of two beautiful boys. She recently retired from the Navy and is now a stay at home mom. This will be her 4th trip.

BIL- My brother in law who recently joined this crazy family in March. He is in the navy and is very excited to return home and go to Disney. This will be his first trip visiting the world and I think he is more excited to go than any of us.

Nephew1- Jackson Andrew he will be 2 ½ when we go to the world. Typical 2 year old. He loves the Toy Story movies and Mickey Mouse Club House.

Nephew 2 – Issiah he will just be 1 ½ when we go but I know he will have loads of fun. He is a very easy going happy little boy.

Dad- My dad will be joining us on this trip as well. We are celebrating his return from Iraq. He is also very excited to be taking his two grandchildren to the World.

The others joining may a bit confusing do to some family drama. My parents have been divorced for 4 years so my dad girlfriend and her three kids will be joining us on this trip. Dads Girlfriend Cindy and her three kids Melissa, Cody, and Cassidy will be joining us as well. Her kids will be 16,16, and 14. This will be there first trip to Disney too.

The reason: We are going on this trip as a celebration trip of many special occasions that have happenedd in the last few years. We are going in celebration of my dad and brother-in-laws return from deployment. My dad returned from Iraq and my Brother-in-law has returned from Samalia where he has been fighting pirates. We are also celebrating two very special additions to our family. My nephews Jackson who will be 2 ½ when we go and Issiah who will be 1 ½. We are all thrilled to be going as a family to share in the boys first memories.

The When: Right now we are planning on going February 4-12th. This date is still tentative due to my brother in law still be out at sea. We should know if his tour will be extended in the next month then we can make reservations.

The Where: Right now the plan is to get two regular rooms at All Star Music and one Family suite.

 

[sunnygirl8503]

Post 2…. Some ideas we are throwing around.

Me being the obsessed planner on here which I know many of you can relate to, I have been doing some planning already.
The Plan….so far!

Travel: We have thrown ideas around on how to get there. As of now…..My husband and I are going to fly down on Saturday the 4th and will leave on Sunday the 12th. We are hoping to get nonstop flights on both days and leave early early on the 4th and late on the 12th. I have received quote form Triple A and the quote for tickets was $550.00 which yes is more than I would like to spend but to get to Disney in 2.5 hours it is worth it.

My SIS and BIL are going to be driving from Virginia. This make a lot of sense for them with two little ones and the extra stuff I know my sister will bring makes the most sense financially. The plan is for them to arrive on Monday the 6th.

My dad, his girlfriend, and the kids will more than likely be driving again it just makes more sense for them to drive and my dad really likes road trips. They will probably join us on the 4th or the 5th.

Accomodations: My husband and I will be getting a regular room at Music. We actually stayed here in 2008 for 3 days and actually enjoyed the resort. We feel it fits our needs and since we don’t really use it for more than sleeping it works for us. We like to spend as little time in the room when we are on vacation period.

My sis and her family will also be getting a regular room at Music.
My dad, his girlfriend and kids will be, hopefully, getting a family suite. I think this will work out nicely for them.
If this does not work out we will probably switch to Port Orleans Riverside, but fingers crossed all will work out!

Package: We are planning to get the MYW with regular dining. We will get the park hopper option added to our tickets as well. We are hoping for some sort of discount either free dining or perhaps the military discounts will extend into next year. If no discounts will be offered believe me it will not detour us from going it would just give me more money to spend on my nephews

This is probably a lot planned ahead since we have not made our reservation but believe it or not planning is sort of a stress reliever. I am in school full time and work full time so any free time at work I tend to start planning and looking. My job right now is really stressful so this gives me something to do that I enjoy! Any tips or suggestions for a group of 11 would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ZFamily5]

I'm in! I'm excited to hear all about your plans! We just got back from our trip and we had a group of 8. My biggest tip would be to leave ample time to get everyone to ADRs ontime. Also, the youngest in our group is a very short 6 year old, so we took full advantage of the baby-swap passes. If you want to find out more, you can check out my trip report (link in my signature). Can't wait to hear more about your planning!

 

[sunnygirl8503]

I'm in! I'm excited to hear all about your plans! We just got back from our trip and we had a group of 8. My biggest tip would be to leave ample time to get everyone to ADRs ontime. Also, the youngest in our group is a very short 6 year old, so we took full advantage of the baby-swap passes. If you want to find out more, you can check out my trip report (link in my signature). Can't wait to hear more about your planning!

Yeah my first response!

Thank you for the advice. You have brought up a good point about being at our ADRs on time. I plan on making a list of ADR times and locations and talking with everyone before we leave about getting to each on time. Again thanks for the baby swap reminder. We will definitely take advantage of that perk Disney offers. I will be checking you trip report out too. Thanks!

 

[ZFamily5]

Yeah my first response!

Thank you for the advice. You have brought up a good point about being at our ADRs on time. I plan on making a list of ADR times and locations and talking with everyone before we leave about getting to each on time. Again thanks for the baby swap reminder. We will definitely take advantage of that perk Disney offers. I will be checking you trip report out too. Thanks!

A list and talking it over with everyone is a great idea! There was also a lot of text messaging back and forth between various parts of our group. I'm sure you'll have a great time though, even if you are late to an ADR or two!

 

[sunnygirl8503]

I made all of our reservations last night 184 days till vacation. I had been reading about a new free dining offer possible being announced on the 3rd. I figured it would just be for the rest of the year, but to my surprise the date we check in was one of the dates. We are going February 4th to February 12th. I did not realize that the free dining promotion would save us as much as it did. Wooohooooo!!! Now that it is official I can get down to the nitty gritty planning.

 

[sunnygirl8503]

Made our dining reservations. This is what I got.

Saturday, Feb. 4th - Chef Mickeys - 6:20 pm - Now I have read mixed reviews about this one but we are really going for the characters. I thought this would introduce the characters to my nephews and we can see how they react. All 11 of us should be there by this time if not I will have to change the reservation to just 6. My dad and the other 4 that are coming with him could be a little later.

Sunday, Feb. 5th - Sci Fi - 12:10 pm- I really wanted to do this one because of the atmosphere. DH and I ate there about three years ago, while we were not that impressed with the food the decor did it for me. I really wanted everyone else to see what it was like. i knew my BIL would love it. I had originally scheduled this for the 6th but the time was to late for the little ones to wait. I decided we would just do a sit down lunch instead.

Monday, Feb 6th - 50s Prime Time Cafe- 6:35 - I am really excited to try this one. I have read some really fun things about this restaurant and am ready for all of us to try it.

Tuesday, Feb 7th –Crystal Palace – 6:00 pm – This is our first time at this one. I cant wait to try and let the little ones spend time with Winnie the Pooh.

Wednesday, Feb 8th – Biergarten – 6:00 pm – I chose this one because my DH lived in Germany for a while and my BIL actually grew up in Germany so I thought yes it may be a little cheesy but why not.

Thursday, Feb 9th – Ohana – 6:30 – This may be the one I am most excited about. I have ready great reviews of this one and know we will all enjoy ourselves. This was also a good reason to visit the Poly and check it out.

Friday, Feb 10th- Whispering Canyon – 6:15 pm – This is the one I am still really deciding on. I went ahead and made the reservation, but am still looking to see if another restaurant grabs me.

Saturday, Feb 11th – Wolfgang Puck- - I really wanted to try this one. I thought this would slow down the pace a little since it is not at a park. There will only be 6 of us at this one my dad will be leaving before we eat.

We will be leaving later in the day Sunday so no reservations.

 

[ZFamily5]

Made our dining reservations. This is what I got.

Saturday, Feb. 4th - Chef Mickeys - 6:20 pm - Now I have read mixed reviews about this one but we are really going for the characters. I thought this would introduce the characters to my nephews and we can see how they react. All 11 of us should be there by this time if not I will have to change the reservation to just 6. My dad and the other 4 that are coming with him could be a little later.

We've never done Chef Mickey's for dinner, but I've heard good things from other people!

Sunday, Feb. 5th - Sci Fi - 12:10 pm- I really wanted to do this one because of the atmosphere. DH and I ate there about three years ago, while we were not that impressed with the food the decor did it for me. I really wanted everyone else to see what it was like. i knew my BIL would love it. I had originally scheduled this for the 6th but the time was to late for the little ones to wait. I decided we would just do a sit down lunch instead.

Good choice!
Monday, Feb 6th - 50s Prime Time Cafe- 6:35 - I am really excited to try this one. I have read some really fun things about this restaurant and am ready for all of us to try it.

The food looks really good here!
Tuesday, Feb 7th –Crystal Palace – 6:00 pm – This is our first time at this one. I cant wait to try and let the little ones spend time with Winnie the Pooh.

Again, we've only done breakfast here...
Wednesday, Feb 8th – Biergarten – 6:00 pm – I chose this one because my DH lived in Germany for a while and my BIL actually grew up in Germany so I thought yes it may be a little cheesy but why not.

Heard good things about this too...
Thursday, Feb 9th – Ohana – 6:30 – This may be the one I am most excited about. I have ready great reviews of this one and know we will all enjoy ourselves. This was also a good reason to visit the Poly and check it out.

Yum!
Friday, Feb 10th- Whispering Canyon – 6:15 pm – This is the one I am still really deciding on. I went ahead and made the reservation, but am still looking to see if another restaurant grabs me.

What are you doing this day? Because if you're going to be in the MK area, we LOVED 1900 Park Fare for dinner!
Saturday, Feb 11th – Wolfgang Puck- - I really wanted to try this one. I thought this would slow down the pace a little since it is not at a park. There will only be 6 of us at this one my dad will be leaving before we eat.

Never been here either...
We will be leaving later in the day Sunday so no reservations.

ADRs sound good!

 

[sunnygirl8503]

This is probably the most recent and best picture of DH and myself this is from March at my sisters wedding

The above picture is of my siblings, BIL and SIL, and Nephews. My sisters is on the far left and her husband is behind her. These are the two that are going and my nephews of obviously are the two little ones. My brother and his wife or on the right. They will not be joining us this time

I will have to find a picture of the rest of the gang. I don't know that I have have one. My nephews have grown a bit since Christmas. I know I have other pictures of them but I will have to look for them

 

[sunnygirl8503]

ADRs sound good!

Thanks!! I think on Friday we are going to do Epcot and Magic Kingdom on Friday. This is the plan thus far. I thought about doing 1900 Park Fare but just did not know. I might check it out. Thanks!

 

[sunnygirl8503]

I noticed that the dates for FD had changed and our dates were no longer on the list. I worried a little but knew Disney would let us who already booked with FD keep the promotion. I went a head and called just to be sure and yup we get to keep FD. Upon further inspection I have read that there is a cheer and dance competition the week of Feb4th -11th. So my question to all you is do these competition really affect crowd levels? This is our first time going in February. We normally go in summer so I am still anticipating lower crowd levels than summer even with the added competition. thanks in advance for your input!!

 

[sunnygirl8503]

Well not getting a lot of readers but oh well mainly doing this for myself. Well since we are about 129 days out I have been trying to get things bought and lists made. I know once we get into the holiday season I will have less and less time to do things. I am now engaged in the great bad debate. I have been trying to decide what bag to purchase for the park. I really dont take a lot into the park but one a bag that will fit ponchos, snacks, bottle of waters, you know the normal stuff. So, I need advice! I have been keeping an eye out on baggalini's on ebay and ebags to get a good price, but have know idea if that is something that is a good buy. So weigh in if you have any advice on bags for the park. Thanks!