It's been 6 years, but we're finally going back: a PTR! UPDATED 2/9 change to August dates?

[tabrizia]

Okay so I was apparently able to get everyone's FP+ done today, I wonder if I had used copy if I could have done them days ago. Anyways, they are done, I'll post more in the morning since it is 1am. I do have a couple of weird combos set up, just because of the large number of people and various ages of people in the group. We have 16 (maybe 17, but we're sticking with 16 for now) people from 3 months to 65 going, so there are a few rides where not everyone wants or can do the same thing.

 

[tabrizia]

Look what just showed up! The package was sitting with other packages this afternoon when we got home. Since it had attriel's name on it I figured it was a gift for me and didn't open it, just moved it to where the gifts are being stored right now. This evening after the kids went to bed he opened the brown box they came in since he wasn't sure what it was either. We were guessing a kickstarter game. Anyways he handed it to me, I may have jumped with joy.

I have decided I am not thrilled with the blue for mine. The minions haven't seen theirs yet. Everyone but me has a new one from the Disney Store they are getting on Christmas, so even if they aren't happy with the color they are set. I don't have a Disney store one, since I didn't like my options and decided to make one at Magic Kingdom, which means I am stuck with the blue, which isn't bad, just kind of meh, until the 14th. On the plus side then I'll get to design my own! I may buy a band cover though I haven't decided yet, I am just really not a huge fan of the blue, I should have gone for green like minion 1.

We all got the grey luggage tags which are cute, but I was hoping for the various colored ones. No biggie though, I like the grey ones.

And on that note I am really heading to bed. I plan to have a real update about the FP+ tomorrow plus I may start on day 6 plans since I now have all the FP+ done.

 

[tabrizia]

So updates. First my friend finished the next set of shirts. They are great.

I love that they aren't quite as in your face as other shirts and who doesn't like a cupcake?



As for the whole FP+ thing. I got them all done last night, yay! I still wonder if I could have done them before that. I used the copy feature and then modified to get everyone what we needed at the right times.

On Saturday the 16th I got my sister, brother in law, and cousin FP+ to Test Track, the Character Spot and Spaceship Earth. The Character Spot one is probably for before they get there from 11:30 to 12:30, but the other two are between 3:30 and 5:45 so they should be able to do those easily. I got no one else Fastpasses for that day.

Sunday which is our first Magic Kingdom and first everyone going to the parks together day, I got everyone the same FP+ as us at exactly the same time, so we all have Buzz (which goes down the following day I believe), Rapunzel and Cinderella and Peter Pan. It wasn't hard to get any of those.

Monday I got most people Star Tours, I got the Disney Jr show for my Mom and sisters for the littles, I figure my sister can ride swap to ride Star Tours, and that way it gives a bit more room to get someone in. Everyone has Toy Story Mania in overlapping times right before our lunch and then, everyone but my sister (the one from Saturday), brother in law and cousin have the Frozen Sing-Along. I got them Tower of Terror, since I figured they would much prefer that.

Tuesday there are no FP+, I know my sister (the Saturday one) will go to the parks, probably my other sister, Mom and cousin will go with her, but since only one sister has a ticket for that day, they can figure it out then. I am probably going to meet an online friend that day who lives in the area. I apparently have 2 or 3 on-line friends going at the same time as well as friend I see all the time whose daughter is the same age as minion 2.


Wednesday everyone got the same FP+ as we had, which means Character Spot, Spaceship Earth and Test Track. I am not sure when my sister (Saturday sister), niece or cousin leave so they have the same time as us for FP+ even though they may have left by those times or even by that day. That being said I did get my Mom, and both sisters FP+ to Living with the Land instead of TT, since they will end up with the littles (actually it might be my other brother in law I got this one for, but same concept).


Thursday all extra people will have left so it will just be us, my parents and my middle sister with my nephew and niece. Everyone has Big Thunder Mountain FP+, I thought about getting my sister and mom something else, but realized there is nothing in that area they will end up taking my niece on anyways, so they have the FP+ and if my sister gets a baby swap there is a possibility a random assortment of people will ride a second time. After that my Dad, Brother in Law and nephew got overlapping times for 7 dwarfs with our FP+ so we'll all do that, while my Mom and sister have FP+ for Winnie the Pooh. Everyone has FP+ for Tinkerbelle and then I am going to suggest Anna and Elsa line to my sister and mom and possibly minion 2, my nephew wants to see them but no FP+. Since it will be parade time the lines might be shorter then.

Friday everyone got the same FP+ as us at Nemo, Characters and the Safari.

Saturday we are the only ones with FP+.

Honestly it was fairly easy to get matching FP+, the only one that I had much trouble getting with 7 Dwarf, but even that when I did everyone individually everyone got one who needed one.

 

[tabrizia]

20 Days! 20 DAYS! That is less then 3 weeks!

So we're 20 days away now. It is getting close. My friend is doing the last set of shirts today. I realized I still don't really have many Disney shirts for me, I may have to visit the Disney Store after Christmas. My new shoes have all arrived, I've been wearing them to help break them in. My feet are flat and it makes them wider then normal, so it helps to get my shoes stretched out to comfortable level before we go to Disney.

We are on break now until the 4th of January, no extra, and only 2 planned activities from today until then. We are still doing schoolwork though because we are taking 2 weeks off in January for Disney. It is nice not to have any activities to deal with though. The elder two had their winter showcase at dance last night. They had been doing a homeschool Modern class, which they both enjoyed. Unfortunately the time just didn't work for us so we are switching to a different class come January. That means the homeschool class ended because my 2 were half the class. They had a great time and really enjoyed the instruction and the class.

I need to start pulling clothes and packing for Disney. I haven't done so yet though because the weather is so weird right now. I want to make sure I am bringing the right type of clothes for the trip. I will probably pack minion 2s dresses in a bag soon though. They are getting their own suitcase and I am going to try to line it in plastic so I don't get glitter everywhere! She has Anna, Elsa, Belle, Cinderella, Ariel, Snow White and Rapunzel dresses I think that should be enough. Though she doesn't quite agree.

There really isn't a ton to prepare for or plan at this point since FP+ is done. ADRs are done. Magic Bands are here. We are still debating if some of us take the bus to the resort or if we all just take the car. We have a rental car now for the length of our stay since it was cheaper then for just our offsite time, so we figured we might as well. It will be nice since it means I don't need to pack food in our bags now for the first few days we can just stop on our way to the parks to get snacks and breakfast foods.

I am going to do day 6 plans in the next post. That will cover day 1 with the whole crew in the parks.

 

[tabrizia]

Day 6, Disney Park Day 4: Magic Kingdom with 11 more people, that make 16!
Sunday January 17, 2016

So the whole gang is now here. We only have a couple of days with all 16 (or 17 depending on what my niece's Mom does) of us. This is day 1 in the parks with everyone.

Here are all the children minus the baby who wasn't born at the time of this picture. They are all a year older then they were in this picture now. We will have a 10 year old, 8 1/2 year old, 6 1/2 year old, 5 year old, 4 1/2 year old, 2 year old and 3 month old with us for this day.

We are starting traditionally with Magic Kingdom.

The original plan was to start the trip with breakfast at Crystal Palace. However, it was a 9:30 breakfast and Magic Kingdom is likely to be fairly crowded on this Sunday because it is MLK weekend. So we changed our plans. We will now be doing a Crystal Palace lunch. The plan is for everyone to arrive at rope drop, but I'm not holding my breath they can all catch up to us when they get there. The current plan is to head back to Fantasyland. If my sister makes it early enough I am going to tell her to head to Anna and Elsa so my nephew can meet them, if they don't make rope drop I am going to suggest they wait till we come back on Thursday when it should be less busy.

I plan to try to visit Peter Pan first, unless the girl desperately wants to do Anna and Elsa again. Then I figure we'll visit a bunch of Fantasyland attractions including Dumbo, the Teacups, Barnstormer and others. We will then head to Tomorrowland and hopefully do a quick ride on People Mover and depending on the line, those who want can do Space Mountain. We have a 10:35 to 11:35 FP+ to Buzz Lightyear, I figure we'll do that around 11 or 11:15. The ride goes down the following day so I wanted to make sure we had a FP+ to do it because it is one of those rides that both attriel and I like and I know the kids will too. After we are done we'll head over to Crystal Palace for our 11:40 and 11:50 ADR. We actually have 2 ADRs for Crystal Palace, when I first made the reservation I had 11 confirmed people who wanted it. Once we had everyone else's confirmed dates I added a second reservation for the other 5 people. I figure if they can't make a big enough table for all 16 of us they should hopefully be able to seat us all in the same area at least.

I have blocked a 2 hour time period for lunch. Just in case since with 16 people, things can take longer. After lunch we'll head back towards Fantasyland. I think we'll try to do Haunted Mansion at that point. Then we have a FP+ for Rapunzel and Cinderella at 1:50 and a FP+ for Peter Pan at 2:50. My sisters will figure out napping and small children and the rest will do anything else in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland they want to do. I am actually planning on hitting Adventureland on Thursday so I am not focusing on it at all on Sunday. We might grab the Sorcerer Mickey cards and do that some as well. I have no plans to do any of the parades, because they bore me. Everyone else is welcome to go and watch them though.

After Peter Pan our FP+ are done, we might try for more, we might just wander and some people might head back to the timeshares. I figure whoever wants to can go their own way and do other rides or areas, either in the morning or in the afternoon. I figure my younger sister and her husband may since this is their only Magic Kingdom day. They also could stay super late since the park is open until 11 and just wear the baby while they do rides and baby swap for the height limited rides.

Either way I figure my kids will be done by 8 or so. I also figure my middle sister and her kids will leave by 5 or 6. I am not sure what my parents will do in the evening. The 5 of us may just do quick serve in the parks for dinner or we may stop on our way back to the room. Either way I hope to have the kids in bed by 9 or 10 at the latest because we are doing rope drop in the morning.


In general I am trying not to overschedule everything so other then deciding what area of the parks to focus on and FP+, we'll just kind of go with the flow as far as what order we do rides in.

 

[Elevationist]

I love love love the cupcake shirts!!!

 

[tabrizia]

I love love love the cupcake shirts!!!

They are cool aren't they. My friend gave me the link to a huge database on Disney images that she could buy to use in the embroidery machine. I was a bit overwhelmed because I wanted them all! I decided the cupcake were too cute not to do though, once I narrowed down my choices to 4.

 

[tabrizia]

16 days! That is just over 2 weeks, eek! I am so ready!

We had a good Christmas and Christmas eve, other then the fact everyone came down with the plague. I am still recovering from it today, hopefully I'll be better tomorrow. On the plus side at least it hit now and not in 16 days.

I still need to put in an oriental trading order to get glow stuff, I still also need to get ponchos. Otherwise we are mostly ready. My friend finished the last set of shirts, they are awesome. This is the set I got for all the nieces and nephews too.

I think they are fun and will all look cute in pictures wearing them at the same time .


One of the things the kids got in their stockings was their special magic bands. Each of them had requested one from the Disney Store. Attriel also has one, but I can't find it anywhere. I know we had it, but I have no clue where it wandered off to. It was not where we had put it when I went to put it elsewhere Christmas eve. It does not appear to be anywhere in the room it was in. I am kind of baffled as to where it went. Here are the kids' bands though.

Minion 1 has Stitch.

Minion 2 unsurprisingly went with Elsa.

Minion 3 went with Olaf.

Attriel got a storm trooper, hopefully we'll find it. I am waiting to get mine until we are there and I can make my own.

They got a bunch of other Disney stuff for Christmas including stuffed animals and tsum tsums. Minion 2 got the Lego Elsa's Ice Castle. The elder 2 got Disney infinity Inside Out characters. There was a bunch of Star Wars stuff. Minion 1 got an Origami Star Wars book. It was a successful holiday.

Minion 1 got his robots. He has really enjoyed playing with Dot and Dash so far. They are super cool.

I'll try to post an actual update later. I hope everyone had a great holiday, whatever you celebrate.

 

[tabrizia]

Day 7, Disney Park Day 5: Hollywood Studios, we are still 16!
Sunday January 17, 2016

So today is our Hollywood Studios day. Everyone should still be there from the huge group. We are going to try to get there well before rope drop. I know that minion 1 would love to do the Jedi Training Academy. I am not sure about minions 2 or 3, but we are going to try to get there early so they can do the first one at 9:30ish. I figure everyone else will get there by rope drop or not to long after that.

Our Fastpass plans for the day are different depending on who they are for. We start off with a 9:30 FP to Star Tours for my nephew, BIL1 and niece (10). I did theirs a bit earlier then everyone else's because one of my sisters request was Disney Jr things for my nephew. So both my sisters and my Mom have FP+ at 10:10 to 10:25 for the Disney Jr show. That way my niece (2), my nephew and whoever else can see it. I am hoping lines won't be bad so my nephew and BIL can get in with the FP+, if not my other sister will probably give up her FP for my nephew and my Mom and sister (his Mom) can take them to see it. I am not sure what my niece (10) will want to do, but I figure she can always get stuck seeing the show or she can hang out with everyone else.

Everyone else has a FP+ to Star Tours at 10:00. That way if we do get the first Jedi Training Academy, we can do Star Tours right after. I have no current plans for my kids to do the Disney Jr show. Minion 1 is basically to old and I don't think minion 2 or 3 will miss much not seeing it. We will try to hit the Cantina I think and get pictures with Chewy and Darth.

We will then head over to Toy Story Mania, I was not able to get everyone FP+ at exactly the same time, but we all overlap from 11:30 to 12:15. I figure we'll either try to meet Woody and Buzz before or after the ride. We want to do the ride by 11:45 though since we have lunch reservations at 12:15 at Hollywood and Vine. I was not able to get everyone a reservation, so my cousin, sister (2), BIL (2) and the baby will not be eating with us. I figure they will be fine with that, since they probably have little interest in the Disney Jr Characters anyways.

After lunch my sister (2), BIL (2) and cousin have Fastpasses for Tower of Terror starting at 1:50. The rest of us have Fastpasses to the Frozen Sing-Along from 2:05 pm (which is just the line I think the show starts at 2:30). After that all the Fastpasses are done. I figure we'll split up at that point. We have some other characters the kids want to meet and minion 1 would love it if we made it to the Indiana Show. We might hit Star Wars stuff again as well depending on what we get done in the morning. I have a Disney Visa, so hopefully we'll get the private meet and greet too.

I guess that by 5 or so most of the group will be heading back to their room. We may actually stay through fireworks though, since I think it will be the Star Wars ones and the next day is sort of a down day. This is my BIL's (2) last day as well since he has to get back to work. We still have 2 more days with my sister (2), niece (10) and cousin though (actually not positive on my cousin or niece, but probably).

 

[tabrizia]

14 days till we leave!

In 2 weeks at this point in time we will have just landed in Orlando and we'll likely still be taxiing to our gate. We'll be almost to Disney! 2 weeks! I can't believe it is almost time. Only 5 more days until we are at single digits!


I talked to my Mom Sunday evening and got a bit more info about arrival and departure times for people. My cousin and niece will probably be leaving Wednesday morning so not joining us on Wednesday. I am still not changing any of our plans, they'll just have to figure out what works for them. I did cancel our 2 person reservation for Tusker House on Friday, since our original 11 person reservation will cover everyone who is still there.


Day 8, No Parks again: Now we are 15!
Tuesday January 19, 2016

So our plans for this day don't involve going to a theme park. A couple of the people in our group may go, but the 5 of us are unlikely to go. We'll start the morning with a 9:30am reservation for 5 of the kids (my 3 and the elder 2 cousins) at The Grand Floridian Hotel. They will be doing the 2 hour long Disney Pirate Adventure. My sister mentioned it when I was making ADRs and said that my nephew would really enjoy it. I figured all the kids would like it so we booked it for all of them.

While they are there, attriel and I may have breakfast at the Grand Floridian Hotel, or we may just hang out at the hotel and wait for them. I am not sure what my sister (1) or BIL (1) will do, my guess is only one of them will drive the other two kids over. After they are done around 11:30 we'll decide what to do next. I think our hotel has a waterpark which they built where the sinkhole took out two of their buildings. We may go back and if the weather is warm enough just let the kids do that. We may visit Disney Springs or we may just be lazy and hang out in our room and relax. Either way it will be a fairly quiet day.

I think my sister (2), my Mom and my cousin, possibly with my other sister and my elder niece may visit a park this day, but I really don't know, and honestly I am not really worried about what they plan to do. My BIL (2) will have left early in the morning to get back to work, so that is what pulls our numbers down to 15. We will lose 4 more people on the 20th, 2 in the afternoon and 2 likely in the morning (though the second 2 are driving so they may do part of the next day with us).

I do know that come evening we will be leaving the minions with my parents and attriel and I will be heading back to The Grand Floridian Hotel for our dinner. We have a 7:30pm reservation for Narcoossee's for just the two of us. We love Narcoossee's and have had an amazing meal there every time we have gone. It is the one restaurant we make sure to book every trip. I figure my parents will hang with the minions and eventually put them to bed. Attriel and I should be done by 10 or so and back in the room not that long afterwards.

Basically the plan for the day is a fairly quiet relaxing day for our family at least. My guess is my sister (1) will try to keep it semi-quiet for her kids too so they have a bit of down time since they still have 3 more park days to go.

 

[Elevationist]

2 WEEKS DANCE!

I love that you're having a relaxed day followed by DATE NIGHT!!! That's going to be so nice for ya'll! And after reading @kastoney 's recent Narcoossee's review, I'm suuuuuuuuuuuuuper jealous!

 

[tabrizia]

2 WEEKS DANCE!

I love that you're having a relaxed day followed by DATE NIGHT!!! That's going to be so nice for ya'll! And after reading @kastoney 's recent Narcoossee's review, I'm suuuuuuuuuuuuuper jealous!

I am really looking forward to our date night. It is going to be super nice. We love Narcoossee's it is the best!

My only issue with this day is I would have made our down day on Wednesday the 20th if I hadn't had to arrange this part of the trip for everyone. I set up our days and ADRs for the huge group before we added our extra days to the beginning. Once we added the extra 4 days at the beginning we realized that Wednesday would be a better down day, with reservations for 11+ though and having to change everything and then inform everyone though I decided it was just easier to go with the slightly less optimal down day on Tuesday rather then Wednesday.

 

[NJlauren]

13 days! I LOVE all of your shirts! So fun and festive!

 

[tabrizia]

13 days! I LOVE all of your shirts! So fun and festive!

They are great. I am still debating either making tie dye mickey heads, probably have to do them this weekend, I think we have the stuff so we might, or buying them. Otherwise I think we're set shirt wise at least for the kids. Isn't my friend awesome?


I can't believe it is now less then 2 weeks. In 2 Tuesdays we'll be at Disney!

 

[tabrizia]

13 days!

So we got a letter a few days ago that the main pool at CBR is going to be down for maintenance between the 13th - 16th. Of course those are the days we are at CBR. I am not overly happy about this. I am not sure if it is worth calling to see if something can be done about it or not. I really thought the minions would love the main pool and splash pad area (minion 1 is just a drop to tall, minion 2 and 3 are well within the height limits for it). I know that it is January which means it might not even be decent weather for the pool, but as long as it ends up warmer then 75 or so my kids would totally swim, maybe even cooler, I mean they do swim team in June around here in 65 degree weather, 75 and a heated pool should be amazing for them!

I'm not sure it is worth complaining about, since they have to do maintenance sometime, but if I had known it might have changed my plans on where we decided to stay.

In other news I just saved $30ish on our minivan rental which is nice. I also saved over $10 a ticket on our flight down. SouthWest had dropped the price on the ticket on the way down for our flight to $59, so I quickly changed that, it means we have about $25 per person in credit based on my changing of our flights whenever the cost on them drops. Not a ton, but it will be nice for a flight to Atlanta or such later this year.

I still can't find attriel's awesome stormtrooper magic band. I will search more for it later. I also need to run to Joann's or Michaels to get stuff so I can make the kids autograph books. I think I will pick up white t-shirts for everyone and tie-dye mickey heads too. I just need to check with attriel on that one. I think we have everything else we need, we did a huge dharma trading order a few years ago, so we still have a ton of dye and such.


I'm thinking about starting a Disney movie marathon tonight and continuing till we go. We can do a movie a night for the next week or so, well at least this week, next week life starts again which means extra-curricular activities Monday - Wednesday and then Friday. Plus swimming on Saturday and Hebrew school on Sunday.


I can't believe we are so close, only 2 weeks and we'll be having dinner here:

 

[tabrizia]

Since it is almost trip time I'll do our next day plans as well. Plus really day 8 wasn't all that interesting.

Day 9, Disney Park Day 6: Now we are losing people!
Wednesday January 20, 2016

So today is day 3 of parks with the whole group, well those that are left. My BIL (2) will have already left. My cousin and niece may or may not have left in the morning or may come to the parks with us for a bit. My sister (2) and nephew (the baby) will be heading out sometime in the afternoon for their flight home.

Anyways it is Wednesday and our park plans for today call for EPCOT! This is the only EPCOT day planned for my sister's (1) family and it is my family's 2nd EPCOT day. I really like EPCOT but I couldn't figure out a good way to fit a third day in this trip without giving up a down day, so 2 days it is.

Ancient picture of me at EPCOT, ignore how frizzy my hair is.

The plan is to get to the park when everyone gets there. I figure we'll probably make it close to rope drop, but if we don't it isn't a huge deal. We have a 9:30 FP+ for the Character Spot. I hope to get Baymax at this time as well. If we get there at Rope Drop we'll probably follow the herd to TT first, or maybe not since we do have FP+ for it later in the day.

At 10 or so we'll head towards Norway for our 10:30 breakfast at Akershus. I actually have 2 reservations here the 10:30 one and a 10:45 one. The 10:30am one was the first one I made, once we sort of knew everyone's plans I added a second 5 person reservation and the closest I could get it to our 10:30 one was 10:45. This means everyone who is there should be able to eat, either my sister (2) and nephew or both of them plus my cousin and niece. This is the only princess meal we have planned with my sister (1), I figured breakfast worked best for this meal since everyone will eat something on the menu.

After breakfast with the princesses. We'll probably explore the World Showcase some. We'll run back and get the Perry the Platypus communicator for the minions to play while we look around at at least some of the countries. I really want to do the pick a pearl in Japan for minion 2 and my niece (the 2 year old). Sometime later in the afternoon I figure we'll head back towards the front of the park we have a 2:45 Spaceship Earth FP+ and my sisters and mom have a 3:45 Living with the Land FP+, I want to do Living with the Land as well, but we got everyone else Test Track FP+ at 3:55. So we'll figure out how to do thing so everyone gets to ride what they want. At some point in here I expect my sister (2), nephew, niece and cousin to leave, if my niece and cousin haven't already left in the morning.

After we're done with TT, I figure we'll try for Nemo, Crush and other things in that area. I figure most people will leave by 6 or so. Though we might stay a bit later, we probably won't stay until 9 since the minions will likely be done long before that.

We'll either do dinner at the park or somewhere on the way back to our room. Who knows we might just pick up pizza and eat in our room. We only have 3 days left until we head home, so my guess is my kids at least will be somewhat tired even with the down day the day before.

 

[tabrizia]

So I did decide to tie-dye some shirts. I also picked up a few shirts from Target for me and one for attriel. Our order from T-shirt Fury also came in which had a couple of Disney t-shirts for me that I had forgotten about so now I have a reasonable number of t-shirts for the trip! We are having a quiet New Years Eve here. The kids did school, mwhaha homeschooling means we don't get a winter break (we do, but it is in 12 days at Disney World!).

Otherwise I bought the stuff to make the kids' autograph books at Joann's yesterday and the rest of the stuff needed for tie dye shirts. Target was out of the cheap $1.50 ponchos so we'll have to go back at some point and hope they have restocked. I think we're basically ready as far as stuff other then that and glow sticks, which I'll grab from the dollar store if I don't see them elsewhere. I am planning to start packing the girl's dress up dresses soon since they get their own suitcase anyways.

We're going to make the tie dye t-shirts and I'm going to make their autograph books this weekend. Oh I need to buy some big sharpies for the characters to use to sign still too. Otherwise as soon as I actually figure out what the weather will be like and conquer Mt. Laundry I think we're ready.

 

[tabrizia]

Day 10, Disney Park Day 7: Now we are 11! Or time to enjoy the People Mover!
Thursday January 21, 2016

So we are down to my sister (1), BIL (1), niece (the 2 year old), nephew (the 5 year old), parents, and us. It is going to be so much quieter with just 11 of us. Today is our second day for my parents and sister's family at Magic Kingdom, it is our 3rd day there.

The plan is rope drop, but if it doesn't happen it isn't a huge deal. We'll be heading toward adventure land today. We'll probably ride Aladdin's carpets and Jungle Cruise on our way through. We may even do Pirates depending on the line and the reports of water in boats. We then have a 9:45am FP+ for Big Thunder Mountain. I figure there probably won't be much of a line, but we'll probably use our FP+ anyways. I got this for everyone. I know my Mom won't do it, but if my sister gets a rider swap since my niece can't do it either, we can have at least some of the kids ride a second time with an adult and my Mom's FP+.

After we are done I want to head over to Haunted Mansion. I am not sure who will ride, but hopefully at least all my minions will. After that we'll head over to Fantasyland for our 10:50 FP+ for 7 Dwarf Mine Train. I got my sister and Mom FP+ for Winnie the Pooh at the same time with my niece. I figure we may or may not rider swap this one as well. We will then ride some of the rides that the kids want to do, based on what they did the last time we came on Sunday. At 11:55 we have our reservation for lunch. Lunch will be at Be Our Guest. I figured everyone would enjoy eating in the castle, even my kids who will have already done it once.

After lunch we have a 1:10pm FP+ with Tinkerbelle. We really enjoyed meeting Tink last time we went to Disney and the girl requested a lot of character meets so we tried to follow through with her request.

We'll be done with FP+ after the meet. We might try for talking Mickey Mouse, but I am not sure yet. If people want to do the parade today will be a good day to do it. If my nephew still hasn't met Anna and Elsa I will suggest to my sister that she takes him during the parade time. Otherwise we'll just explore and do whatever rides and such the kids are interested in. I figure we'll probably be done by 5 or 6, but if the kids are up for it tonight is one of the few nights we might stay for Wishes since they are at 8pm. We'll have to see what we feel like doing. Either way the next day is the last day in the parks for everyone but us, but does not require rope drop unless everyone wants to get there for it.

 

[tabrizia]

Happy New Year 2016!

11 days to Disney!

The eldest minion was underwhelmed with my Happy New Year, now go to bed passing of 2015 to 2016, I think he was expecting more. We had a small Disney marathon this evening, we watched Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty then the boy minions claimed the tv for playing on the WiiU. All 3 kids made it to midnight, now they are heading to bed.

I spent most of the afternoon and evening making autograph books. I think they turned out nicely. The mickey heads on front are not perfect, but I think they work fine. The nice piece is I used card stock for the pages to sign (35 pages per book) so that you can then put them in an album next to the picture you take with the character. I also realized once my amazon box arrived that I bought glow sticks last night so that piece is done too.

I packed all of minion 2's costumes, Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, Cinderella, Jesse, Ariel, Belle and Snow White. I feel like I might be missing one in that list, but I am not sure. I packed minion 3's costumes too, Olaf and Buzz Lightyear I may try to find him a Sulley costume before we go because Sully wearing a Sully costume amuses me.

Nothing else to report in the first minutes of 2016, so here are the autograph books I made.


Minion 1 chose his colors and stickers. I organized them. He is pleased. Though he would have preferred if the Chip and Dale stickers had been rescue ranger based.

Minion 2 approved her stickers and colors. She got all capital letters for her name because I ran out of lower case letters and Michaels and Joann's did not have Disney letters in scrapbooking.

Minion 3 approves his as well. He chose color and stickers as well. I figure spiderman is a Disney property so it works.

These are for my younger nephew and niece.

These are for my older nephew and niece. I made my niece's generic because she may decide at 10 she is too old for characters, so I can steal it.

 

[tabrizia]

Day 11, Disney Park Day 8: Last Day for most, wait we leave tomorrow?
Thursday January 21, 2016

So we will start our day in the one park everyone else hasn't done yet. Animal Kingdom Park.

There are no plans to get there for rope drop, if we do that's great, if not I am not too worried about it. We have a 10:30 FP+ for the Safari and an 11:45 ADR for Tusker House lunch.

We'll do it with a bit less baby sleeping on us in a carrier this time. I figure depending on what time we get there we can either explore the trails before the Safari or just head right to the Safari and then explore the trails. If we get there early enough and minion 1 is interested we might do Everest, but probably not. We could also do the first Lion King show I believe. Either way by 11:45 we'll be making our way to lunch. I figure Safari Mickey is a good way to end the trip.

After our lunch we have a 1:30pm FP+ with characters. I know this has changed so you get both Mickey and Minnie which will be nice. The kids then can play in the boneyard or do the dinosaur dumbo. The eldest minion might right Primeval Whirl. Both attriel and I actually like this coaster.

We have an FP+ for Nemo at 2:30 to 2:50, which leads me to believe the show starts at 3. Either way I needed to chose something and since I chose Lion King for our first day this was my choice for our second AK day. My kids like Nemo so I figure they might enjoy this, if not and we skip it no huge loss, except I still won't have seen it. After the show people can do what they wish. The park is open until 5:30, I am not sure how late anyone will stay or what they will do. Once we get back to the room though it is time to pack, because we head home the next day.

I figure the kids will likely be in bed by 9 and I hope to be mostly packed by 10 or so, so that we can easily put our stuff in the car in the morning. Last night before we head home.