caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
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- 411
Last edited:
"If this is your first trip, you're spoiled!" (Sept. 2019 TR)
- Thread starter caylene44
- Start date
caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
- Messages
- 411
INTROS
Greetings and welcome to my first WDW trip report! I’m going to try to make this a little more exciting than the PTR for this trip (linked here) but no promises because I’m not very funny
We also have a large cast of characters to meet so let’s make this brief…
Who:
I’m Caylene, designated leader of this TR as well as the entire trip. I was originally ecstatic to plan a week-long trip for 11 people of varying ages and tastes...Now I'm starting to wonder what I was thinking!
My BF, Jake, was dragged along on this trip much to his dismay. Consider this was his first time to WDW, he wished the trip was just the two of us rather than a family trip. He had a lot of fun but I think we both agreed we will never go to Disney with my extended family again. You'll hear why later in this TR...
For privacy, I’ll reference everyone by their favorite Disney characters in this TR.
From left to right as best as I can starting with the back row: One of my cousin's BF (Aladdin) who had NEVER been to a Disney park in his life. He basically hated the parks but my family tried telling him it's because they were doing the park touring all wrong...
My dad (Mickey) who LOVES Disney as much as my sister and I do. He was as frustrated as I was this trip and also agreed we're sticking to immediate family trips to Disney in the future.
My uncle (Mr. Incredible) who hasn't been to Disney since we all went to Disneyland in 1999. He's more interested in drinking beer than wanting to wander around the parks and ride rides.
Row 2: My cousin (Jasmine) had her 30th birthday about 2 weeks before the trip. She was the catalyst for this trip and an absolute saint because she agreed to choose dates that fell on my sister's real birthday (considering it would be pointless to celebrate her 21st before it even happened).
My mom (Minnie) who has a huge sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and tries to include everyone even when it's nearly impossible to sync up 11 people at once. She really likes to go to Disney but mostly for the ambiance since she can't do most rides due to motion sickness.
My aunt (Mrs. Incredible) who also hasn't been to Disney since 1999. She acquired a great deal of food allergies later in life so she spent a lot of the trip struggling to find things to eat.
My other cousin's BF (Kocoum) who had only been to Disney in Tokyo before this. He loves to ride rides but my cousin has extreme sickness (like my mom) so he sat out with her a lot of the time.
First row: My sister (Stitch) is my only sibling and is 6.5 years younger than I am. After growing up with me and our cousins who are much older than her, she’s excited to finally be 21 and be able to go to the bars with us (except we’re older now and would rather stay home
)
Jasmine’s sister, Pocahontas, also came on the trip. As mentioned above, she has extreme motion sickness and so prefers to spend most of the time at Disney shopping and pressing pennies. .
To try to connect the dots a bit on how we're all related: Mickey and Minnie are my parents and Stitch is my sister. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible are my aunt and uncle as well as the parents of Jasmine and Pocahontas. Jasmine is dating Aladdin and Pocahontas is dating Kocoum. Hopefully that makes sense, I tried to keep everyone's character names as couples.
When: August 29 – September 5, 2019
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort, but we ended up moving to Wilderness Lodge for the last 3 nights!
What/Why: Family trip to celebrate Jasmine turning 30 and Stitch turning 21!
Stay tuned for...
Greetings and welcome to my first WDW trip report! I’m going to try to make this a little more exciting than the PTR for this trip (linked here) but no promises because I’m not very funny
We also have a large cast of characters to meet so let’s make this brief…Who:
I’m Caylene, designated leader of this TR as well as the entire trip. I was originally ecstatic to plan a week-long trip for 11 people of varying ages and tastes...Now I'm starting to wonder what I was thinking!
My BF, Jake, was dragged along on this trip much to his dismay. Consider this was his first time to WDW, he wished the trip was just the two of us rather than a family trip. He had a lot of fun but I think we both agreed we will never go to Disney with my extended family again. You'll hear why later in this TR...
For privacy, I’ll reference everyone by their favorite Disney characters in this TR.
From left to right as best as I can starting with the back row: One of my cousin's BF (Aladdin) who had NEVER been to a Disney park in his life. He basically hated the parks but my family tried telling him it's because they were doing the park touring all wrong...
My dad (Mickey) who LOVES Disney as much as my sister and I do. He was as frustrated as I was this trip and also agreed we're sticking to immediate family trips to Disney in the future.
My uncle (Mr. Incredible) who hasn't been to Disney since we all went to Disneyland in 1999. He's more interested in drinking beer than wanting to wander around the parks and ride rides.
Row 2: My cousin (Jasmine) had her 30th birthday about 2 weeks before the trip. She was the catalyst for this trip and an absolute saint because she agreed to choose dates that fell on my sister's real birthday (considering it would be pointless to celebrate her 21st before it even happened).
My mom (Minnie) who has a huge sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and tries to include everyone even when it's nearly impossible to sync up 11 people at once. She really likes to go to Disney but mostly for the ambiance since she can't do most rides due to motion sickness.
My aunt (Mrs. Incredible) who also hasn't been to Disney since 1999. She acquired a great deal of food allergies later in life so she spent a lot of the trip struggling to find things to eat.
My other cousin's BF (Kocoum) who had only been to Disney in Tokyo before this. He loves to ride rides but my cousin has extreme sickness (like my mom) so he sat out with her a lot of the time.
First row: My sister (Stitch) is my only sibling and is 6.5 years younger than I am. After growing up with me and our cousins who are much older than her, she’s excited to finally be 21 and be able to go to the bars with us (except we’re older now and would rather stay home
)Jasmine’s sister, Pocahontas, also came on the trip. As mentioned above, she has extreme motion sickness and so prefers to spend most of the time at Disney shopping and pressing pennies. .
To try to connect the dots a bit on how we're all related: Mickey and Minnie are my parents and Stitch is my sister. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible are my aunt and uncle as well as the parents of Jasmine and Pocahontas. Jasmine is dating Aladdin and Pocahontas is dating Kocoum. Hopefully that makes sense, I tried to keep everyone's character names as couples.
When: August 29 – September 5, 2019
Where: Caribbean Beach Resort, but we ended up moving to Wilderness Lodge for the last 3 nights!
What/Why: Family trip to celebrate Jasmine turning 30 and Stitch turning 21!
Stay tuned for...
- Why I will never do a large family trip again
- Our first brush with a hurricane
- Some pixie dust
- My first time staying in a deluxe hotel
- The lowest crowds I've ever seen at Disney
- Opening weekend of SW:GE
- and more!
Last edited:
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
- Messages
- 7,703
Joining in!! Looking forward to hearing about how everything worked out!
MimiMoments
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2019
- Messages
- 13
Joining in!
caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
- Messages
- 411
Thank you! It was definitely a roller coaster ride of a trip.
Welcome!
Welcome and thanks for reading!
Glad I'm not the only one! It sounded really fun in the beginning but it ended up being so frustrating. Thanks for joining in!
Welcome!
How many people are you planning for? Have you ever traveled with them before? My advice would be to try to set expectations beforehand, especially if you know your travel styles are different. That was the one thing that made it really frustrating for us. My mom wanted everyone to stay together but everyone's travel styles were SO different. It was still fun and I'm sure your trip will be as well. Thanks for joining!
mom2cgj
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2012
- Messages
- 520
Joining in! My SIL wants us to plan a family trip with my DH’s parents (who are divorced and don’t get along), his 3 brothers, their wives, our 9 nieces/nephews, the two of us, and our 3 kids. You read that right...22 people, many of whom don’t get along. So no. Not happening. I’m reading along to prove myself right!
caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
- Messages
- 411
My goodness, that is a recipe for disaster! Your SIL sounds like quite the optimist
Thanks for reading! 
Lifelong_Dreamer
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2007
- Messages
- 15,138
Joining in! Looking forward to hearing how all your hard work and planning turned out!
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
- Messages
- 3,605
Joining in. I can't wait to hear all about it. Hopefully, you guys were able to pack in some quality family time despite all the differing preferences.
caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
- Messages
- 411
Thanks for joining!
Thank you! I think we did end up with some good memories regardless. I just noticed in your signature that you started your August TR, I'm excited to read it!!!
caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
- Messages
- 411
PRE-TRIP (8/28): And we're already off to a bad start
Just to preface, this post will mostly be about the prep leading up to our trip so feel free to skip if you're just here for the Dis stuff! Jake and I both worked the day before we left. Our original plan was to come home, drop the puppy off with the Rover sitter before Jake's fantasy football draft started (huge priority in his book, definitely not in mine), and finish packing before turning in early since our flight was leaving at 8 am the next morning.
The Rover sitter we chose was about a 5 minute drive from where we live. We loaded up our puppy (Bennett) and everything he would need for the week away from us. We travel pretty frequently so, at 10 months old, Bennett is pretty used to being away with us. He has already stayed with a different Rover sitter, our dog trainer, and at his old daycare on different occasions. However, this was our first time leaving him for a week and we were pretty sad. Cue car photo shoots (and because I want to show off my cute pup!).
We had met our sitter and had a doggy play date a couple weeks before to make sure the dogs would get along. They did well and she reiterated multiple times that her dog loves small dogs. Great, sounds good. Yeah, it definitely wasn't... Immediately upon opening her door, her dog had peed in the entry which she said wasn't normal for him and he also started barking so loud that my dog actually ran down her hallway to get away from him. We brought Bennett and his things inside and just kind of hung out to make sure they were going to adapt to one another. Unfortunately, her dog kept barking at Bennett to the point where he was laying down to show submission and running away from her dog. At one point, her 90 lb Husky had gotten his jaw around Bennett's throat and we knew that it wouldn't work for Bennett to stay there.
So, we made our awkward goodbyes and headed home wondering what the heck we were going to do. At this point, it was about 12 hours before our flight was scheduled to take off. We started texting and calling our old daycare provider (yes, we are those dog parents) as well as our dog trainer. However, we were extremely worried about him being in a household with other dogs for a week after what had just happened. It finally occurred to me that we could ask my best friend's little sister (who also happens to be my little sister Stitch's best friend) to come stay at our apartment for a week and hang out with Bennett. Luckily, she was ecstatic to have a place to herself for a week and make a little extra money while doing it. After sorting that out, running to the store to make sure she had groceries for the week, and having her come over to show her Bennett's routine, it was about 11 pm and we still had to finish packing
I don't even know how many hours of sleep we got before we were running around trying to get things all packed and Bennett squared away. I snapped this picture from our rooftop at about 5:45 am while I was waiting for Bennett to do his business.
We loaded up our car and started driving with the intention of parking it at my work for a week. I work about 10 minutes from the airport and we have a secured parking lot so it didn't seem like an issue. The only problem was going to be that I'd have to drop Jake off somewhere because I wasn't sure the rules on bringing visitors through the gate to my work. Less than a couple miles from my work, Jake changed his mind and decided that he just wanted to pay to park. We literally pulled off the side of the road so we could figure out which parking place to go to. Jake found a Groupon online that was $90 for 7 days so we scooted over there, jumped on their shuttle bus, and made it to the airport about an hour or so before our flight. This was the first of many times on this trip that my pre-planning got thrown to the wayside. We're lucky to be pre-checked so we made it through security with more than enough to grab some coffee and mimosas from the lounge before boarding our flight.
Stay tuned for our arrival day and the beginnings of the trip that felt like it would never end
Just to preface, this post will mostly be about the prep leading up to our trip so feel free to skip if you're just here for the Dis stuff! Jake and I both worked the day before we left. Our original plan was to come home, drop the puppy off with the Rover sitter before Jake's fantasy football draft started (huge priority in his book, definitely not in mine), and finish packing before turning in early since our flight was leaving at 8 am the next morning.
The Rover sitter we chose was about a 5 minute drive from where we live. We loaded up our puppy (Bennett) and everything he would need for the week away from us. We travel pretty frequently so, at 10 months old, Bennett is pretty used to being away with us. He has already stayed with a different Rover sitter, our dog trainer, and at his old daycare on different occasions. However, this was our first time leaving him for a week and we were pretty sad. Cue car photo shoots (and because I want to show off my cute pup!).
We had met our sitter and had a doggy play date a couple weeks before to make sure the dogs would get along. They did well and she reiterated multiple times that her dog loves small dogs. Great, sounds good. Yeah, it definitely wasn't... Immediately upon opening her door, her dog had peed in the entry which she said wasn't normal for him and he also started barking so loud that my dog actually ran down her hallway to get away from him. We brought Bennett and his things inside and just kind of hung out to make sure they were going to adapt to one another. Unfortunately, her dog kept barking at Bennett to the point where he was laying down to show submission and running away from her dog. At one point, her 90 lb Husky had gotten his jaw around Bennett's throat and we knew that it wouldn't work for Bennett to stay there.
So, we made our awkward goodbyes and headed home wondering what the heck we were going to do. At this point, it was about 12 hours before our flight was scheduled to take off. We started texting and calling our old daycare provider (yes, we are those dog parents) as well as our dog trainer. However, we were extremely worried about him being in a household with other dogs for a week after what had just happened. It finally occurred to me that we could ask my best friend's little sister (who also happens to be my little sister Stitch's best friend) to come stay at our apartment for a week and hang out with Bennett. Luckily, she was ecstatic to have a place to herself for a week and make a little extra money while doing it. After sorting that out, running to the store to make sure she had groceries for the week, and having her come over to show her Bennett's routine, it was about 11 pm and we still had to finish packing
I don't even know how many hours of sleep we got before we were running around trying to get things all packed and Bennett squared away. I snapped this picture from our rooftop at about 5:45 am while I was waiting for Bennett to do his business.We loaded up our car and started driving with the intention of parking it at my work for a week. I work about 10 minutes from the airport and we have a secured parking lot so it didn't seem like an issue. The only problem was going to be that I'd have to drop Jake off somewhere because I wasn't sure the rules on bringing visitors through the gate to my work. Less than a couple miles from my work, Jake changed his mind and decided that he just wanted to pay to park. We literally pulled off the side of the road so we could figure out which parking place to go to. Jake found a Groupon online that was $90 for 7 days so we scooted over there, jumped on their shuttle bus, and made it to the airport about an hour or so before our flight. This was the first of many times on this trip that my pre-planning got thrown to the wayside. We're lucky to be pre-checked so we made it through security with more than enough to grab some coffee and mimosas from the lounge before boarding our flight.
Stay tuned for our arrival day and the beginnings of the trip that felt like it would never end
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
- Messages
- 7,703
Aww poor Bennett! Thank goodness you were able to form a different plan so quickly!
TNGirlwCamera
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2017
- Messages
- 230
Following along 
Your puppy is adorable. Glad you were able to handle the sitter situation quickly.
Your puppy is adorable. Glad you were able to handle the sitter situation quickly.
caylene44
Aspiring Disney Travel Planner
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2015
- Messages
- 411
Following!
So up to this point, absolutely nothing came out as planned, and you just only boarded the plane? Did Jake at least get his Fantasy Football draft done?
Why yes, you did read all of that right
I'm super type A+ too so my little heart was already working double time at this point. Yes, he did! That dang thing took precedence over finding a new dog sitter, I might add, so he better win!
Forgot to mention the poor little guy survived an unprovoked bite at daycare a couple months ago, I'm surprised he still likes other dogs at this point! I am so very thankful to my friend's sister that she was able to step in so quickly.
Following along
Your puppy is adorable. Glad you were able to handle the sitter situation quickly.
Welcome! Thank you, he's very cute but quite the little ball of energy.
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