June 2014 *SURPRISE* First time for everyone

[Bigmo]

This will be my families first Disney vacation but fortunately for us I have a brother who is a Disney veteran. I also have the wonderful people on here who have given me so many ideas. I know even the best laid plans will not work out 100% but I hope I leave enough flexibility in my planning to make it a great trip for everyone in my family.

I myself am 35 years old and have never been to Disney. We grew up pretty poor so if we even went on a summer vacation it was usually something less expensive like camping. I do not even recall ever staying in a hotel of any kind on family trips much less a Disney resort. If we could not camp somewhere it wasn't considered for going on vacation. I know that this trip is going to be about giving my kids a chance to experience the magic that I wanted to be a part of growing up but never had the opportunity. I myself have already warned my wife that she can probably count on me being the biggest kid to deal with the entire week. Even though the trip will be for the kids it is also very much so for me.

My wife is also 35 and has actually been to Disney when she was in the 6th grade. She does remember some about her trip from then but only spent one day in MK and that was it. She does have reservations about being in crowded places so this is going to be a challenge for her. We have worked the option for her to take breaks into our plans if it gets to be too much for her or any of the kids. She is getting very excited about the trip though and can not wait for the day we leave to come along as well. She has been along for the planning of the trip but mostly just to nod her approval of what we have planned so far.

Ours kids consist of our son who is 10 and our daughter who is 3. My son really likes the Avengers and Pirates of the Caribbean. He never even knew that most of his favorite movies are Disney or tied to Disney. I have been dropping alot of those bits of knowledge on him lately just to prepare him for the trip ahead. He has asked several times in the past if we can go to Disney one day and now that time has come. My daughter, or as we like to call her the Diva of Destruction, is head over heals immersed in most things Disney. She has a deep knowledge base of all the Disney princesses except Snow White. She can be quite eccentric with her behaviors and actions. She does have a flair for the dramatic and is a little dare devil. She is tall enough at 41 inches (last month) for most rides so getting her on them will not be a problem but convincing her it is time to get off may be a challenge.

We will be going to Disney the day after school lets out for the summer and staying for 5 days. The kids are not aware that we are taking this trip but instead think we are going to Florida for a medieval reenactment group that our family participates in regularly. They enjoy those activities but believe me they will not be disappointed that we are doing Disney instead. We even have passed around several different ideas about how we are going to suprise them with the trip and are working out the last minute details on that. We have gotten them both new backpacks (Avengers for my son and Princesses for my daughter) and have already got them both overloaded with Disney goodies for our upcoming trip. I will discuss our surprise plans in one of my upcoming post because it does play into our arriving at Disney.

 

[JessseJ]

How exciting! I always want to try to surprise my 10-daughter with a trip, but I that's one secret I just can't keep from her!

You are going to have a great time!

 

[Bigmo]

We will be planning on arriving on the Disney property around 8-9am on Friday the 7th of June. We will be driving so in order to get there at this time we will leave around 2AM from my hometown in Aiken, SC. That means that the day before I am getting to bed rather early but I am encouraging my wife to keep the kids up and active so they sleep well on the way to Orlando.

My son already knows that we will be traveling through Orlando and even knows that I plan to stop there for "lunch". Both of those are absolutely true but maybe a little bit of a stretch of the truth. He even is aware that the place we are going has a castle and there may be some royalty about such as princes and princesses. All of these things are common to our reenactment events especially the ones we may travel a little distance to go to. There is a local lady who does the events as well and I have packed all my stuff before to travel to events on here travel trailer. With only bringing some suitcases with us, it will not be unusual. He already knows that everything is traveling in the trailer to our "event" so all we need is our regular clothes.

With our elaborate smudging of the truth in place we plan to drive with the kids overnight to arrive in Disney about the time they would be waking in the car. We have two scenarios for the surprise worked out. One is that our friends truck has broken down and now she is not going to make it so we must take this exit (the Disney exit) and find a place to decide what to do. Our other scenario just has us proceeding to head for somewhere to eat and see how long it takes our sometimes oblivious son to figure out that we are not just stopping for a quick bite. Either way I want them to find out at the last possible moment the true nature of the trip is to go to Disney. That is only the first surprise because almost every detail of this trip was meant to be a surprise for them to really get some magic going.

We are going to be checking in at the Pop Century Resort. I did my online check in already and did put down that we plan to arrive early but I still am not expecting a room to be ready. It would be great though. I have also reserved a stroller from Kingdom strollers to be delivered that morning before 8am so that we can have that for our entire resort stay. Even though my daughter has long outgrown a stroller at home we do expect her to have to take breaks and if lucky even a nap at some points in the stroller during our stay. Hopefully up to this point everything will be smooth and we will have a great setup for our first day and even more surprises.

 

[Bigmo]

How exciting! I always want to try to surprise my 10-daughter with a trip, but I that's one secret I just can't keep from her!

You are going to have a great time!

It has been hard to keep it a secret but everyone is having a great time going along with the surprise because our kids are the ONLY ones who do not know about it. We are even meeting more family there who they see occasionally but have no idea that they will get to spend time with them at Disney. Its is quite funny that me and my wife can knowingly talk about the castle (or now castles) right in front of him and we are talking about one thing and he completely thinks we are talking about something else. Revealing all of the little comments to him is going to be apart of the fun in keeping it such a surprise too.

 

[AAshleySEG]

That sounds like a fantastic surprise! I hope everything goes really well for you! June is one of my favorite months to go to Disney, it is quite a bit crowded, but if you know where to go, there are actually a lot of nice places to rest away from the crowds too!

We usually go every June, our anniversary is that month, so it works out great for us! If there is anything you need to know just ask, there are plenty of us around to help out when needed!

 

[Bigmo]

If our rooms are ready we will get in our rooms and check them out. If not we will enjoy walking around and taking some pictures at different spots in the Pop Century resort until lunch time. We will just grab a bite to eat at the Resort prior to striking out for the day to our first of several more surprises. If our rooms are not ready we will check our bags in and get our stroller and a back pack ready for our first stop

We will take the resort buses over to Downtown Disney and check out some of the cool stores and shops. I am sure the kids will love the Disney store and perhaps we have a couple of surprise for the there as well. First off will be my brother and his family. They are meeting us at Downtown Disney and are even staying at Pop Century starting the next day. They plan on staying off site the first night so when we just happen to bump into them here it will be a huge surprise for my kids. My nephew is the same age as my son and he is also my daughters favorite cousin so just getting to have him there will be a huge plus for my kids.

Another surprise will probably be the fact that the kids will get to get things from the stores instead of being told no for the most part. They have always been told we can not get this or do not have the money for that. Well we budgeted and saved to make sure they get to have things they want this time. I do not know when we may get back to Disney so making sure they are able to have a few things they may not get the chance to have again is high on my list of daddy duties this trip. As I said in a prior post I did not have much growing up so even if the object will not last forever the happy memories will for sure.

The next surprise is really for our little Diva of Destruction. She tells me everyday that she is a princess. We plan on making sure she can have the experience to back it up too. We have her scheduled for a 1:30 appointment at BBB and are going to get her the Belle dress and makeover. She loves Beauty and the Beast and watches it ALOT. Her makeover will be short lived (for today) though because after pictures she will change out of her costume dress and back into clothes more suitable to play in for a while.

Depending on time we are then going to take kids and adults all to Disney Quest. Both my kids love video games and can spend the whole trip just playing here. We do have a early ADR at Rainforest Cafe for all of us at 4PM. After dinner we will be back to Disney Quest and shopping for those not wanting to play games (maybe the wives). I also plan on getting some ice cream from Ghirradeli chocolate shop before heading back to the resort at some point. We do have quite the day scheduled for the next morning so even though we may be having a great time I am sure that heading in to get some rest sometime before midnight might be in all our best interest.

 

[Bigmo]

That sounds like a fantastic surprise! I hope everything goes really well for you! June is one of my favorite months to go to Disney, it is quite a bit crowded, but if you know where to go, there are actually a lot of nice places to rest away from the crowds too!

We usually go every June, our anniversary is that month, so it works out great for us! If there is anything you need to know just ask, there are plenty of us around to help out when needed!

Me and my wife were married on May 31st so we actually plan on celebrating our anniversary while in Disney as well. Instead of doing something the week before that is. I forgot to mention the different type of goodies in the backpacks for each kid. My daughter has princess mouse ears, two princess tee shirt dresses, a Disney princess game for her 3DS, some princess light up sandals, a princess camera, a Baby Merida doll, and her own glow light LED flashlight that works like a glow stick or flashlight. My son has pirate mouse ears, a Disney 2014 character shirt, a spider man under armour shirt, spider man socks, Avengers game for his 3DS, He also has his own flash light. His is a little lighter than hers because he is also getting alot more stuff for a nature summer camp he is going to this summer. Those backpacks are going to double and be there school packs for next year (my daughter is doing pre K where my wife works).

 

[Bigmo]

The next morning we will be up and at it early have breakfast in our room and catch the bus over for Rope Drop at the MK. I know we are all going to be wide eyed and amazed being our first time there but we do have a plan for how we are going to spend our prior to lunch time in the park. At rope drop me and my son will go with my brother and nephew to ride space mountain standby. My wife and daughter(with her Belle dress on) will head for Enchanted Tales with Belle while all the other guest in Fantasyland stands in line for Anna and Elsa or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. After those two attractions we will meet at Peter Pans flight for our first fast pass. We have 7DMT scheduled as our second Fastpass from 10-11. After using our second Fast pass we will head for Frontier land to ride our third Fast Pass at Splash Mountain. We will ride any of the other attractions along the way that have little to no wait. I hope to either use a 4th fast pass for BTMR or POTC if we haven't already got one of these as standby. We also plan on getting snacks as we go here as well and have a BOG FP lunch reservation at 2PM. Hopefully by the 2PM lunch we will have riden most all of the featured rides we want using FP+ and low wait standby lines. After lunch we are open to catch the parade, head back for a nap, or continue riding rides. We are free with no definite plans (flexibility built in here ) until our ADR dinner at Tonys town square at 645. I do intend to meet Mickey at the town square theater and maybe meet some princesses at Princess fairytale hall depending on the wait times. I do plan on trying to time a ride up on Dumbos Flight so that me and my wife may get to sit and rest while the kids play on the playground while we wait standby. We are pretty open to our schedule from 2 on for rides/character meets and hope to get as much in as everyone wants to do. I hope we can all make it to Wishes. I know my wife does not do well with crowds and have tried and checked everyday in hopes that someone cancels a tomorrowland terrace dessert party reservation for her sake. I would love for her to be able to relax and watch the fireworks without feeling anxious and closed in. After the show ends we will head back to Pop by bus and get some sleep for our next day of fun.

 

[Bigmo]

On day 3 we will probably do what my kids may consider the greatest thing we have ever done as a family to date so far. We will head out, after breakfast in out room once again, to Typhoon Lagoon water park. We have gone to few water parks before on other vacations and even though they were not the key attraction to the vacations the kids absolutely love them. I expect this to be no different. Both of my kids love animals and fish so I am hoping to do the swim with the sharks with them both. Of course we will hit all the slides and wave pool and hang out for the day just unwinding a bit. Our lunch that day will be in the water park. We do have to leave sometime late afternoon and head back to the resort because we have a ADR at Chef Mickeys at 645 to meet the Fab Five. I plan on maybe getting there early enough to ride the resort monorail around once for the kids to enjoy the sites and sounds of that. After dinner at Chef Mickeys I did try to reserve the Pirates and Pals firework cruise but did not have any luck because it was completely booked. Just like the Dessert Party though I am gonna keep checking on it up until the day of. If it is not available we are going to head back to Downtown Disney for more Disney Quest and shopping. I also have another surprise coming in that day as my uncle his fiance and his two daughters will be arriving at Disney that day. His girls are just slightly older that my son and absolutely love being around my daughter. So with the entire clan of 11 of us there will be plenty of fun to be had that day. After another full day we will head back to Pop Century happy with even more family members staying at the same resort.

 

[Bigmo]

We begin our 4th day with a breakfast reservation at Hollywood and Vine. My son is actually going to head out with my brothers family to the Star Wars character breakfast while my wife and daughter will be with me and we get to meet the Disney Jr stars. These are gonna probably be some of my daughters favorite characters because she loves watching Disney Jr shows and especially loves Sophia, Jake, and Doc McStuffins. After breakfast my brother is going to sign my son and his son up for Jedi Academy (breakfast reservations before rope drop will help here). The first 3 FP+ I have for this day are TSMM, Great Movie Ride, and Star Tours. After those rides and the Jedi training academy we will evaluate our opportunities to grab more rides like RRRC or TT and shows. We also plan on leaving the park at some point that day and coming back for EMH that night for more rides and watching Fantasmic.

 

[MarbleBob]

I'm loving your PTR so far! It's fun to think that everyone but your kids are aware of the plans and that you have such a great surprises lined up for them. You gotta wonder if they'll be thinking that it's a shame to pass through Orlando and not get to visit Disney World. Hahaha. I also love that you've prepared so much in advance to make the trip as special as possible for them. The chance for special events like BBB and unexpected souvenir money. They are going to have great memories of this. And then top it off with family too. Awesome! We went with my sister and her family back when my now DD14 was 3. (My nephews and my kids are very close in age and also great friends.) Such fun memories of them experiencing the parks together when they were little. And now, about 10 years later, we get to do it again next month. I'm sure your kids will have a blast with their cousin too

 

[RalphinSC]

Hey bro, nice PTR. Our bands finally got here in the mail today and we are all set. Also got the Disney shirts my wife ordered from the Disney store.

The coolest thing I've seen out of all of this has been a brother that has went from being pretty oblivious to Disney to an absolute nut inside of six months... My only wish for you bro is that you had the time off to really extend this trip and turn it into a more relaxed 8-10 day run. As it is, you'll just scratch your itch and you'll be making plans for the next trip before you know it!

I actually actively his all of our impending Disney tip references yesterday when you came over just to make sure your kids didn't even pick up the hint that WE were going to Disney. No need to coddle suspicion.

I love the surprise aspect, and even though we finally get away form surprising ours this time so he could share in the trip planning excitement, I can't wait to see yours go crazy as they experience their first taste of Disney magic!

You MAY be able to squeeze out a Wishes fastpass with your fourth or fifth FP+ to save some of the crowds. Between that and the ropedrop at MK, that's where I'm worried your wife might freak out.

And I wouldn't get too excited about EMH at Hollywood Studios. Only a few rides are open after hours and the crowds make the waits stay really long. The most we might do for that is catch the late Fantasmic and jump in line for RnRC right before they close it. And you may even be hitting that third day touring exhaustion wall and just cut it short that night. Be sure to take as many breaks as needed.

Either way, we'll be generally right there alongside you guys. It's gonna be fun. Let's make some really goofy photos and save them for mom!

 

[RalphinSC]

Just for clarification's sake, I'm the brother

We are arriving on June 6th at about 1pm and plan on staying in Orlando for about 13 days. Onsite at Pop from the 7th-13th. Third trip, we had an eight day trip in 2011 and a 15 day trip in 2012.

It's really, REALLY cool that I get to go with my brother and his family (as well as my uncle and his family)

I started off this trip by pretty much spoon feeding everything to get everyone's reservations and plans straight. But along the way here, my dear brother has turned into an absolute Disney nut and he's calling me almost every single day and sometimes getting ME on the ball about keeping abreast of what's going on.

I've created a monster, and I love it!

 

[Bigmo]

Just for clarification's sake, I'm the brother

We are arriving on June 6th at about 1pm and plan on staying in Orlando for about 13 days. Onsite at Pop from the 7th-13th. Third trip, we had an eight day trip in 2011 and a 15 day trip in 2012.

It's really, REALLY cool that I get to go with my brother and his family (as well as my uncle and his family)

I started off this trip by pretty much spoon feeding everything to get everyone's reservations and plans straight. But along the way here, my dear brother has turned into an absolute Disney nut and he's calling me almost every single day and sometimes getting ME on the ball about keeping abreast of what's going on.

I've created a monster, and I love it!

LOL lets see how the plans come together first. I always run things by you just to see how realistic they are. We have agreed not to mention any princess activities to our littlest one because we do not want her to get disappointed if she is not able to stand in a really long line to meet one. I will keep a vigilant eye on those wait time though because seeing her meet any of the princesses will be just too cute.

 

[Bigmo]

On our last day at WDW we plan to check out of the rooms early morning and head for rope drop at Animal Kingdom. My kids are animal nuts and absolutely love a zoo but this is unlike anything they have ever done. At rope drop we will head off to my daughters and wifes first FP+ to meet Mickey and friends at Disney Outpost. If there is no wait we will all do this as a family and move the FP to something else for them later in the day probably a show. Then me and my son will continue on to our first FP Everest. Same principle here if there is little to no wait we will change it to Primeval Whirl later in the day for us. Our second FP is at 10 am for Kilimanjaro safari for the entire family. Or last FP is for Kali River Rapids for all of us. After the FP are done and lunch at Flame Tree we are open the rest of our time to get more FP+ and enjoy everthing else the park has. Me and my son would like Dinosaur but that is one of the definite no's on my daughters list. She really freaked out at an animatronic dinosaur exhibit at an aquarium a few years ago. There are still alot more things for her at AK but we will probably be out of the park by 4 pm heading back to POP to grab a quick bite before hitting the road home. I really wished for more time this year for a trip but it is all the vacation time I have left. I will probably start planning my next trip as soon as possible when I get back.

 

[Bigmo]

Either way, we'll be generally right there alongside you guys. It's gonna be fun. Let's make some really goofy photos and save them for mom!

I forgot to ask, even though I know we kinda planned everything together to start with. If you guys are hitting the water park the same day as we are on Sunday would you like to try and rent a cabana or something? Seven of us with a home base of operation might be good idea.

 

[Bigmo]

On our last day at WDW we plan to check out of the rooms early morning and head for rope drop at Animal Kingdom. My kids are animal nuts and absolutely love a zoo but this is unlike anything they have ever done. At rope drop we will head off to my daughters and wifes first FP+ to meet Mickey and friends at Disney Outpost. If there is no wait we will all do this as a family and move the FP to something else for them later in the day probably a show. Then me and my son will continue on to our first FP Everest. Same principle here if there is little to no wait we will change it to Primeval Whirl later in the day for us. Our second FP is at 10 am for Kilimanjaro safari for the entire family. Or last FP is for Kali River Rapids for all of us. After the FP are done and lunch at Flame Tree we are open the rest of our time to get more FP+ and enjoy everthing else the park has. Me and my son would like Dinosaur but that is one of the definite no's on my daughters list. She really freaked out at an animatronic dinosaur exhibit at an aquarium a few years ago. There are still alot more things for her at AK but we will probably be out of the park by 4 pm heading back to POP to grab a quick bite before hitting the road home. I really wished for more time this year for a trip but it is all the vacation time I have left. I will probably start planning my next trip as soon as possible when I get back.

I actually just noticed park operating hours were updated to open at 8am. I plan on doing Dinosaur and possibly Primeval Whirl at rope drop with my son while DD and DW do triceratop spin and have fun at Chester and Hesters Dino-Rama before heading to Everest and their meet and greet. Gotta stay vigilant with those plans I do consult the maps to try and limit the going back and forth but I was unable to get the Safari in before Everest so that means I will actually do a little bit of back and forth walking here to go from everest to the Safari then back to Kali River rapids.

 

[RalphinSC]

I forgot to ask, even though I know we kinda planned everything together to start with. If you guys are hitting the water park the same day as we are on Sunday would you like to try and rent a cabana or something? Seven of us with a home base of operation might be good idea.

Chairs are plentiful and we can get a decent shaded spot without trying too hard. Cabana rentals are not worth it IMO since you'll be in the water or doing the slides the whole time. You can also bring a cooler to the waterparks and bring your own drinks and stuff with you. Works out good.

 

[RalphinSC]

Just got your son added to our breakfast reservation brother, so yay for that!

 

[Bigmo]

Just got your son added to our breakfast reservation brother, so yay for that!

Good I will pay out of pocket for his dinner the first night so you can use the two table service credits for his breakfast that day.