It's All Part of the Plan...A Thanksgiving Grand Gathering for DH's Family of 20!

[tink519]

Ok, this is my first Pre-Trip Report....in fact my first report at all! I've been reading and posting on and off for a few years but I am in full Disney mode now with only 39 days left and hope this will help pass the time .

So yes, GRAND Gathering. To the Extreme. And I am the planner. We are going with almost all of DH's family and my sister. We are DVC members and decided about 2 years ago that we would love to go down to Disney as a family. It will also be a lot of the kids first visits so we are really excited to see them take it all in. I guess we'll start with the cast of characters:

Our immediate family (4 people): Me, 34, this will be my third time to Disney since my first visit ever in 2006. To say I caught the Disney bug is an understatement. I couldn't wait to plan my next trip the minute I got there. There was just so much to see and do and we only touched the surface. Since my first trip was with just my DH, we focused mostly on “adult” attractions and some dining since we hoped to be back with kids someday. We are fortunate to now have 2 beautiful children, DD almost 3 (she turns 3 on Halloween). This will be her second trip to Disney but she really “gets” it this time. She loves all things Disney, especially princesses. DS will turn 10 months while we are in the World. This is his first trip and while he is very young I think he will love seeing it all. He's crawling and almost walking so he'll be all over everything. DH turns 41 tomorrow and has been to Disney 6 times, 3 times with me, twice as a child and once as an adult with his parents, brother and a friend.

Here we are on vaction this summer:

And the rest of the cast:

My sister: 31, single...this will be her first time to Disney. I'm so excited she is coming with us.

DH's mother: 65, widowed. She is also a DVC Member so they have been do Disney enough, but not a ton of times. They spent more time at Vero and HHI. We decided to go to Disney in 2008 when DD was 18 months and MIL/FIL decided to come with us. My FIL passed away two months after we went to Disney. So this upcoming trip is probably going to bring up so pretty strong emotions, but good ones too. I'm so happy they decided to come with us last year when went. They had so much fun seeing our DD at Disney for the first time and even though she was only 18 months, she still remembers that he was there.

DH's sister and family: His sister hasn't been since she was a teenager. Not sure if her husband has been before, but this will be her four kids first. Two girls (18, freshman in college and 15, sophomore in high school) and two boys (11 and 10.)

DH's brother and his family: They are also DVC Members so him and my SIL have been to Disney a few times, but this will be the first visit for their 3 boys (14, 3 and 1.) They may also be bringing SIL's mother.

DH's two uncles: Neither are married, they are clergy. 60's.

I think that covers everyone....coming up next: How we decided to go for Thanksgiving week and where we are staying.

 

[tink519]

We started tossing around the idea of doing a big family trip at least 2 years ago. As DVC Members we have enough points to cover quite a few people, but we would talk about it, but then never really got anything planned. Finally we said we really wanted to try to go before my niece graduated high school. So we started throwing out some dates, but there wasn't a lot of agreement on when to go. Trying to coordinate 4 different families and grandparents isn't easy...yes I said 4 families. There are only 3 families listed above because one of DH's brothers is not joining us (I'll refer to them as Brother2 and SIL2). First we talked about going in June 2009 (yes it killed me last June to think we could have been there then and had to wait another 5 months!) but I couldn't take vacation until after the 5th, DH's sister wanted to be back home by the 12th for the kids last day of school dnd my other SIL didn't want go until the 13th when her finished school....

Summer was out because DH's sister works at a summer camp. January through end of March are out also because our niece and nephew on are a ski team and have races every weekend. So I threw out the idea of Thanksgiving Week 2009. Even though our old niece would be in college, it's a short week and missing two days of classes shouldn't be that difficult. So we all agreed, yay let's go!!! Brother2 was fine with it until SIL2 said, are you kidding? Airfare will be way too expensive Thanksgiving week. We aren't going....

We tried to convince them to just see what happens with airfare. At the time it was October 2008 and I was able to look at airfares for Thanksgiving 2008 and was seeing things for the $200 range and definitely below $300. Which certainly isn't the cheapest time to fly, but not really horrible. But she was adamant they weren't going...and they aren't. Which is too bad because we are flying rt for $189 pp.

So at the 7 month mark I was on the phone with Member Services. Because we are trying to accommodate so many we decided to go to OKW and SS since they require the least number of points. I tried to get two 3 bedroom villas but they were all booked. Second choice were a few 2 bedrooms and we ended up with two 2 bedrooms at OKW, a 2 bedroom at SSR and 2 studios at SSR. I actually think this will work out better, especially with the little ones. We can head home and go to bed...and we hopefully won't all get sick of each other since we will have our own space.

Up next: Making dining reservations for 20 people.....

 

[tink519]

Waiting to eat my breakfast (trying to lose 10 lbs before we head south!) so why not talk about all the great meals we are going to have?

Figuring out what meals 20 people are going to have is, well...fun. . Between picking which park to visit on each day and then coordinate who is going to each which meals on which days.

What I decided to do was plan our big meal which will be on Thanksgiving Day when we are all there, except my sister. She decided she wanted to come home for Thanksgiving to be with our family rather than DH's...understandable. So there will be 19 of us for Thanksgiving Dinner. We tossed around a lot of ideas, most of which included fireworks, especially since this will be our last night. From there I worked the schedule around where we wanted to be for Thanksgiving Day.

Here is a list of our ADR's, not all of them are for the full group though. I focused on what me and my immediate family wanted to do and let people join us if they wanted to. Since we have little ones we have 3 character meals, buffets, etc. And tried to not overplan our meals since you just never know what the day is going to bring with children.

11/20
Arrive at MCO in the AM
Lunch: at SSR
Dinner: Right now we have a WCC for 5:25 but think I am canceling because we are going to MVMCP (our first party !) and I want to get to MK earlier. So probably grabbing CS at Cosmic Ray's.

11/21: AK Day
Breakfast: 1900 Park Fare (sister and DD LOVE Poppins)
Lunch: CS
Dinner: CS

11/22: MK Day
Breakfast: In our rooms
Lunch: Packing it in or CS at MK
Dinner: O'Hana before going back to MK for Spectro and Wishes

11/23: DHS Day
Breakfast: In our rooms
Lunch: Depends on how early we head into DHS
Dinner: Primetime Cafe before Osborne Lights

11/24: EPCOT Day
Breakfast: Time to see the princesses! Breakfast at the Akershus
Lunch: Late breakfast so this should double
Dinner: Adult night out Party of 9 at The Wave

11/25: Back to AK
Breakfast: Donald's Safari Breakfast (almost the full group)
Lunch: Again, late breakfast so won't need anything until later
Dinner: No set dinner plans yet

11/26: Thanksgiving Day! EPCOT
Breakfast: Inroom
Lunch: Captain's Grill
Dinner: R&C (19 people for dinner!)

11/27
We depart late in the day but have no ADR's and plan to hang at DTD and/or the pool.

 

[tink519]

I have to admit all of these other PTR's are making me both excited and nervous....I thought I was a planner and then when I see what other people are doing I realize there is so much more to do!

We got some great news tonight though....one of DH's relatives is giving us a "gift" for Disney, which usually means $$$ . We have money saved for spending/dining, etc. and DH gets an extra paycheck in October but any extra cash means that what we have saved will go towards our big screen TV we plan to buy after Thanksgiving....woohoo!

 

[yourMaire83]

You picked a great time to go... I used to live in Orlando and I think the folks that go to Disney in the summer are freaking crazy! It gets too hot! October-March is the time to go. We are saving for our Disney trip and a big screen too, how funny! We hope to score one at a day after Thanksgiving sale.

Enjoy your trip! - Marie

 

[tink519]

Hi Marie! Thanks for respondong on my PTR! There is actually a slight chance that I end up back in Disney when you are down there. My mom is going for a conference I am contemplating a quick trip down. If DH is in it would be great, but I might just take my 3 year old. We'll see .

So we're down to 36 days. And with this chilly weather we are having here in New England, I am so ready to head south for 8 days!

We have been talking with our almost 3 year old a lot and she is getting very excited. Not only does she LOVE the princesses, she gets to go with all of her cousins and her aunt Melissa (my sister) What could be better?

My only concern is her growing love of Cinderella. I didn't book the CRT because she will only just be 3 when we go. It just didn't seem worth it since she is still iffy about characters and as much as she is obsessed with the princesses, we could get there and she'll want nothing to do with her. And because we are DVC Members I know we will be down there at least every 2 years, if not more. We are already definitely planning to go in October 2011, and as I mentioned above we might go in Jan 2010 as well. I do have breakfast at the Akershus, breakfast with Mary Poppins (who she adores)....and I'm sure we'll see Cinderella during shows/parades, etc. At least I hope....

 

[Dallas_Lady]

Subscribing!

We will also be at WDW this Thanksgiving, albeit with a much smaller group. We have a 3 year old daughter and a 1 year old son. I am really nervous/excited about how they will do on the trip.

 

[tink519]

Thanks for subscribing Giovanna! Your family sounds very similar to mine . 3 year old girl and an almost 1 year old boy. I am so excited. The little one is such a cool little guy that I'm pretty sure he'll just take it all in. He gets excited about everything, but can easily entertain himself too. I'm just hoping he is still loving his teething biscuits in 35 days...we'll have some pretty relaxing dinners thanks to Gerber

Ok....so update! Where is my ME package?????? My sister's came today. She flys out a day earlier, so maybe ours will come tomorrow? It's killing me!

And DH and I both got paid today (my first real paycheck in 3 years of on and off maternity leave) so we'll be buying our 6 day passes...woohoo! No parkhoppers for us this time. It just doesn't make sense for us with the little ones. I've got a pretty good plan for us based on one park a day and I think it will work. And if we find that we really NEED to go to another park we'll upgrade when we are there.

That's it for right now.

 

[ShannonMB]

Wowza, now that's what I call a GRAND gathering. I hope you get along great with that big family of DH's. But if they start to get on your nerves, so glad your sis will be there, at least part of the time -- that's all I would need!
We are going down the week before you, SOOOO excited!!! Have fun planning!!!!

 

[tink519]

Wowza, now that's what I call a GRAND gathering. I hope you get along great with that big family of DH's.

Yeah, part of me thinks were crazy going with so many people. I just have to keep reminding myself that we can all do whatever we want and just go with the flow. I have my ADR's and my plan for what I would like to do....some people are joining for some ADR's and other days we are on our own. It's funny though, the older cousins that we thought would want to go off on their own want to stay with us and the little ones to see their reactions. Which I like, since it is the big kids first time to Disney and I think they are going to be just as excited, if not more, than the little ones.

But I am so happy my sister is coming, it's nice to have someone in your corner. Not to mention this is her first time to Disney and I'm glad I get to experience it with her.

 

[tink519]

Speaking of my 'plan'.....what are must do's for us this visit. Where to begin....

Well we are starting off with MK on MVMCP night. . I Christmas and Disney, so I was so excited when DH decided we could go down a night earlier than everyone else. Airfare was cheaper, but now we are just spending the money on MVMCP tix Oh well. It's for a good cause...right? So that night I really hope to make it through the parade and Holiday Wishes. Believe it or not I have never seen regular Wishes, we just never made it back to MK at night on our last two trips. So that's a must for me.

As for other MK attractions: Space Mountain isn't set to open until the next day, but maybe we will get lucky and be able to ride it that night. If not, we'll be there for rope drop on Sunday and getting some FP's unless standby is quick..then we'll get both!

Other rides I want to do over the course of the two days at MK: Tea cups, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Carousel, Small World, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Pirates and the Jungle Cruise. We may also try Goofy's Barnstormer if DD is feeling adventurous...oh and maybe the car ride, can't remember the name. We've always bypassed it by think DD will be big enough now. We'll also have to make a stop at Ariel's Grotto and Belle's story hour. I have a feeling it's going to be a long day!

Up next.....our plan for AK, DHS and Epcot...

 

[yourMaire83]

What is Goofy's Barnstormer? Also, where do you go to have breakfast with Mary Poppins?! THAT would be amazing.

 

[tink519]

Goofy's Barnstormer is the smaller rollercoaster in Toontown in the MK. I've never been on it, actually haven't spent much time over in Toontown at all. We went through Minnie's house last year, or shall I say DD (then 18 months) ran through it at warp speed. After that we decided we were done for the day and made out way back to the park entrance.

Mary Poppins is at the 1900 Park Fare Breakfast (Supercalifragilistic Breakfast) at the Grand Floridian. I wasn't originally planning to do this one, even though DD loves Poppins. But when my sister decided she was coming I had to adjust our plans. Alice, the Mad Hatter and Poppins in one place is like her dream come true! Something to the effect "You had me at Poppins..." And now I've learned on another thread that Tigger & Pooh will likely be there as well.

 

[tink519]

ME luggage tags are here!!!!! This is the first time I have actually registered for ME far enough in advance to have the luggage tags ahead of time. The first time we went we had no idea what we were doing...second time I was so busy with work I completely forgot. We were able to still book it, just not in time to get the tags ahead of time.

I feel like it is all coming together an so much more real now .

I think we also made a definite decision to cancel our WCC ressie on the 20th and just do CS at SSR and at MK. I read the thread on MVMCP and Cosmic Ray's seems like a great options so we'll hope for that. Probably like the rest of the party

 

[tink519]

We are in the parks for 7 days. 2 days are MK (one of them is MVMCP), 2 days are AK, 2 EPCOT and one DHS.

Here is my plan for the Animal Kingdom:

I would say AK is my second favorite to MK. I do love Epcot as well, but in a different way. And Epcot just doesn't have a ton of stuff for the little ones. She did ok last time, but we actually only spent an afternoon and evening there. I could spend all day going through each country but that just doesn't work with kids.

We went to AK last on my first trip...DH hadn't been there either and I think we thought it was really for kids. I was beyond impressed. I just love it there...I love the animals but the rides are fun too and the whole atmosphere. The only thing I don't like is the crowds in Africa & Asia, but I wonder if that is part of the design...almost like how crowded it really would be in a market place there. Just my random thinking and it gets me through it as part of the experience.

What we haven't done at AK is any of the shows and I want to do Lion King and Nemo on this trip. Lion King the first day and Nemo the second. We will probably end up doing the full run of rides on both days as my sister will be with us the first time and then we'll go back with our nieces and nephews on the second day. Safari is top on my list, followed by Kali Rapids, EE, Dinosaur, and the Triceratops. We might save Rafiki's Planet Watch for the second day.

So that's AK...DHS will be up next.

 

[tink519]

I thought I would share a few of my favorite photos from our past trips. Can't wait to add new ones to the album!

Family shot

DH, after riding the Maelstrom

Me and DD at the MK

In front of Playhouse Disney

DD was a little shy around the characters last time...hopefully she likes them more this time since we have 3 character breakfasts!

 

[tink519]

28 days!!! I can't believe it's that close....4 weeks from right now I will either be at my mom's house or on the way to spend the night so she can bring us to the airport in the morning.

And....our tickets came today from Undercover Tourist!!

 

[ILUVDSNYWRLD]

My daughter and I are going for Thanksgiving!! I would love to go together with my whole family!! Maybe we will see all of you down there lol!!

 

[tink519]

Thanks for responding to my PTR ! The family trip will be fun I think....everyone is getting excited and everything is coming together.

It just doesn't seem real since we've been planning/thinking about this trip for a few years.

So what else is going on? As the family planner I just took care of the ME for our uncles. I also officially canceled our dinner ressies at WCC. DH and I agreed that we would prefer a late lunch at SSR and get to MK just after 4 pm for MVMCP. Then we will eat CS whenever we get hungry. I can't wait to find out what the real schedule is for MVMCP....I'm guessing we'll find out more once the parties actually start? I'm glad there is a week or two of parties before we get there.

I also got a bag of clothes from a friend of mine filled with summer clothes for DS. He'll need a bigger size in shorts than what he wore this summer and I didn't want to go out and buy a bunch of stuff he was going to wear for a week since they won't even fit him next summer either.

In non Disney related planning, DD's birthday is on Halloween so we're in major party planning mode here. We got her a playhouse today. We are having two parties this week, one on Wednesday with 15 friends from playgroup with their moms (about 25 total) and then Saturday we are having between 30 and 40 people....please send some pixie dust that we have good weather!

 

[MomsOf2boys]

I'm in...subbing... also will be there while you are.