June Suprise Trip for my Daughters - Updated 5/28 with pictures and more plans

[RMColosimo]

So this trip has been in the planning stages for a while now. My sister and I have wanted to take our kids to Disney for a while, and we finally have all our kids old enough to go. Our youngest kids for both of us is 4, and all the cousins get along great.

So here are the actors, I'll add pictures later when I have them.

Myself - 40 years old, and the oldest 'kid' in the group.



My Wife - 35 years old, and the care free spirit who is excited about the trip, but is finishing up here classes(she is a teacher) so is stressed.



Our kids:
DD - 9, DD - 6, DD - 4







My Sister - 38 years old, and a planner like myself.


My BIL - 36 years old, and not a Disney person, but is coming along.


My sisters kids:
DD - 7, DD - 4

And last but not least, my mother.
DM - 68 : She took my sister and me when we were kids, and she lives with my wife and myself. She is finally retiring from work, so it is a perfect time to make her take a vacation.




The time frame: June 15, 2013 - June 22, 2013

The place: A rented home in Windsor Hills: Our home for a week

The surprise plan:

Everyone but myself and my mother are school teachers, so we planned this trip based on when all my other adult companions are finished with school. But we all agreed to not tell our kids we were going to Disney. My sister keeps asking when we are going to tell our kids.

My plan is currently as follows:
We live in Ohio, and have told all our kids we are going to Savannah, GA for a vacation. They have all been, sooooo not excited for that vacation.
But we leave for 'that' vacation on June 13th around 4am. It should be about a 12 hour drive, so with our three kids it will be about 15 or so.

That puts us into GA about 7pm or so, and we have a hotel for two days in Savannah. We are going to the beach, on Friday 14th and just going to see the sights and sounds of GA. We are really using this time to get our kids calmed down from the long car drive, and getting ready to go to Disney.

Then on Saturday morning, we will get ready for the **Day** and right before we leave for Orlando, we are telling the kids that we are going to Disney for the week. Then, we are going to drive the 4 hours down to Orlando.
My 9 year old, has seen my book for Disney and is getting a little suspect of what this vacation might entail. She actually googled how long it would take to go from Savannah to Orlando, and suggested it was a quick drive of a mere 4 hours and we should go. She is my child, the inquisitive little git.

Once we get to Orlando, and since our house is not available until 4pm, we think we are going to Down Town Disney for the afternoon. <shrug>

Also, we will meet my sister, mother, and the rest of the crew at the house. My kids will still have no idea that they will be there with us as well.

Prep for the girls:

5x Autograph books purchased
5x Disney nightgowns purchased for the girls
5x Princess dresses purchased for BBB reservation

Prep for the rides:

I measured all the girls, on our 'wall' at home. We keep a measurements of all the girls and the heights they have. So I measured all of them. It looks like our shortest is right around 41 inches without shoes. So she might be tall enough for the 42 inch rides, or not depending on the shoes she is wearing.

Prep for the drive:

Purchased a cooler for the minivan to fit between the front seats.
Tested out the DVD player, and the two displays.
Getting nick nacks for the kids to 'dole' out on the trip as needed.

More updates to come in the next days/weeks leading up to the trip. As well as pictures, and insights into what we plan to bring, etc..

 

[Shock13]

RMC - what a great surprise for your daughters. I come from a family with 3 girls too (I'm the middle one) and there's just something really special about seeing a bunch of little girls and princesses. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans.

 

[RMColosimo]

RMC - what a great surprise for your daughters. I come from a family with 3 girls too (I'm the middle one) and there's just something really special about seeing a bunch of little girls and princesses. Looking forward to hearing more about your plans.

Thanks! I hope it is exciting for them. Less than a month to go. Will post pictures soon of everyone. Except my Sister and BIL, I don't have any pictures of them right now.

 

[RMColosimo]

So we are getting closer, and getting all of our different items together.

We have gotten our DVD player out and tested it for the trip. We are also dusting off our DVD's (the kids use netflix mostly now.) to ensure that the kids have all the disney movies on the way down.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to surprise our kids in GA?

We will only have about a 4 hour drive to WDW from there, so my wife and myself can deal with that level of excitement.

I was thinking of doing some type of game, where they get to guess or something. It's hard to search for this stuff at home, as my 9 year old really keeps an eye on what I am doing.

More to come over the next two weeks.

 

[RMColosimo]

So here is the plan so far for our adventures at Disney:

June 15 - Arrive in Orlando - Visit Downtown Disney

June 16 - Go to Magic Kingdom, be at:
1) Rope drop to see the opening of the park
2) 1:50 pm - Lunch at Tony's
We are going here, because we fell in love with this restaurant on our honeymoon. Will be way different with 3 kids.
3) 3:00 pm - Celebrate Parade (Maybe)
4) 9:00 pm - Electric Light Parade (Maybe)

June 17 - Animal Kingdom

June 18 - BBB 11:30 in DTD - Most likely just the house afterwords

June 19 - Epcot

June 20 - My wife and I go out. The kids spend the day at the house with my mother. [Might go to Universal, but not sure if want to spend the money]

June 21 - Disney Hollywood Studio

1) Character Dinner at Park 1100 - 5:45 (I think have to check reservation)

June 22 - Check out and drive home

 

[bmbmd]

You're my kind of dad. Have fun!