Less than 2 weeks to go! A Not Colonial Williamsburg pre-trip report: 9/19-27

[kokotg]

Update: trip report started here: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=33785451#post33785451

Well, since it's less than six months away , I guess I'd better hop right on this pre-trip report thing!

Cast:
Me: Gretchen. I’m…wow, I’ll be 34 this weekend. I homeschool the 3 kiddos and am a little bit of an obsessive planner when it comes to vacations and such.

DH: Dave, 33. Dave teaches high school math and likes Disney vacations way more than he thought he would. Patiently listens to me tell him all of my plans, then forgets what I said immediately so that I can tell him all over again a week later.

DS#1: Ari, 7 (turning 8 before our trip). Our sometimes cynical but always amusing eldest boy. Is having a hard time getting excited about this trip because he hates flying (I can relate).

DS#2: Milo, 5 (turning 6 before our trip). The easy to delight, usually easygoing (except when he’s not; then watch out!) middle kid. He doesn’t like planes, either.

DS#3: Gus, 3. The littlest. Exhaustingly 3 at the moment, but at least he doesn’t mind airplanes. Adorable and maddening.

That’s for starters. More to come, but I’ll start with just the five of us. Here we all are, last November:

We live just north of Atlanta, about an 8 hour drive from Disney World, so that’s our “home park” so to speak. Our first family trip there was in September, 2006 (the school district DH teaches in has a funky fall break, perfect for uncrowded WDW trips with free dining), and we all had an amazing time and were eager to go back the next year. Here are the big boys in front of the castle on a rainy day:

Here’s little August with his first set of mouse ears:

We went again in September of 2007. Also known as the year Milo got to be in the Lion King show:

Here are all the boys somewhere in the World Showcase at Epcot:

We had a great time, and were eager to go back the next year.

In September of 2008, we dragged…umm, I mean invited…along my in-laws. Everyone except for me waiting for Mickey’s Philharmagic to start:

Gus on the monorail after a long, hot day:

The kids and I had a great time and were eager to go back the next year. Dave said, “why don’t we go somewhere different next year?”

Different?

As in…NOT Disney World?

But…why?

Okay, maybe he had a point. I hear some people say that variety is the spice of life. I’ve never really understood those people, but….

Really, I always figured we’d eventually depart from our all Disney all the time vacation schedule, but it really is a great family vacation for young kids and, since we go in the off season and live so close, it’s pretty cheap compared to a lot of places we could go. Still, Dave had gone along with me 3 years in a row, so I figured he could have his way this time and try somewhere different.

How about a nice trip to Colonial Williamsburg, we thought. We’re studying American history this year, so that seemed like it might fit in nicely. It also happened to be Homeschool Days the same week we’d be going, so admission would be cheap. I planned it all out: hotels, what to see, where to eat….and then, I started to have second thoughts. It sounded fun enough, but the kids are not really history buffs (despite my best efforts), and they would still be pretty young to appreciate a whole week of historical reenactments (especially the two youngest). We would add in a couple of days at Busch Gardens for our theme park fix, but the height restrictions there might result in a very disappointed three year old. Maybe the history extravaganza should wait a few years.

Okay, thinking caps back on! (Really, I am the only one with a vacation planning thinking cap. Dave lost his somewhere, around the time he was born. The main thing he brings to vacation planning is being open to suggestion and easy to please). How about…a Disney cruise? I’ve always sort of wanted to go on a Disney cruise (as opposed to any other cruise, which holds little appeal for me). I had assumed it would be way too expensive, but I priced it out and it seemed that a 4 day cruise would fit into the budget nicely. Well, at least until we decided to add on parasailing. And a night camping at WDW and eating at Boma on the way back. And, hey, I wonder if there’s going to a be a Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party that same week? Oh, and passports. Okay, but still, not TOO much more than the Williamsburg trip would have been. I called a travel agent and booked it. I read the cruise forum voraciously. I fantasized about dropping the kids off at the kids’ club and having actual grown-up time on our vacation.

But, somehow…the cruise started to feel not right, either. I don’t know why exactly. It seemed like a lot of money for what we were getting (i.e. a shorter vacation than we’d get for the same price at WDW). I felt a little guilty about the environmental stuff with cruising. I remembered that I have a tendency to be a little paranoid about boats and am generally convinced they’re going to roll over anytime I can feel them move. I spent much of one evening googling “cruise ship disasters” and watching terrifying videos on YouTube. But there wasn’t any one thing that made me think we should actually cancel.

Then I mentioned my second thoughts one night to my sister-in-law. Amy lives in California, outside of San Francisco, and was, at the time, due to have her second baby any second. When I had been trying to figure out vacation plans months earlier, Amy had mentioned all of us—our two families plus my mother-in-law—meeting up at Disneyland. It sounded fun to me; I would LOVE to see Disneyland, but I hadn’t thought it could work out because 1. There are five of us, and once we pay for plane fare, at least half our vacation budget is already gone and 2. My mother-in-law had just gone to WDW with us last year, and I didn’t think she’d be up for another Disney trip so soon. But now, in the midst of my cruising crisis, Amy mentioned Disneyland again. “You don’t understand how much my mother loves having all her grandkids together,” she said. I suggested she bring it up to her mom and see what she said.

Turns out, Nana was very enthusiastic about the idea. She had been a maybe for coming on the cruise with us, but Disneyland and all the grandkids in the same state held much more appeal for her. And she offered to pay for our plane tickets! Okay, so, umm, was Disneyland really “something different”? What would Dave say?

Dave was all for it! We would, for one thing, get to see his sister’s family, new baby included. For another thing, Disneyland being so much more manageable in size than WDW, we could take the second half of the week to see other So Cal things. So it was sort of the same and sort of different—the best of both worlds!

So there you have it, in a very big nutshell: how we east coasters came to plan a trip to Disneyland. Next up: the rest of the cast (including the new baby!) and our plans so far.

 

[charmama4]

*homeschool* caught my eye so I was sucked into the vortex of your preTR. Love it, by the way. Isn't it funny how travel plans can change so much. From a history theme, to a "oceanography" theme, then to a really cool physics theme!!!
I also homeschool. Four kids and my first 3 are boys (12,10,8) also and spaced out just like yours. Makes life interesting to say the least. Then I finally had a little princess (5). Did you say that you are expecting also?
Are you going to be there during the "not back to school days"?? I hear it's a blast. Won't be able to go myself, already planned this trip out for May with the Salute to the Armed Forces deal that we have to use before June 12.
Well, glad to see another homeschooling family on the boards. Keep us posted on your upcoming trip.

 

[kokotg]

Yay--I have a reader!

Nope, the new baby's not mine; he's my sister-in-law's. DH insists that we're all finished with babies!

I think we're missing the homeschool stuff by a week...we don't have any flexibility on dates since DH is a teacher.

Thanks for the comments, and I hope to read about your trip in a couple of months...I always love hearing about other trips with lots of kids, esp. lots of boys!

 

[kokotg]

…And really, the very best part of changing our travel plans (for me, anyway) was having a brand new trip to plan. I have a little bit of a guide book fetish. I immediately started reading through every website I could think of with Disneyland information, I listened to podcasts, and I rushed right over to Barnes and Noble to buy The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland and Fodor’s Disneyland & Southern California with Kids.

We hit a slight snag in our planning when Milo found out we wouldn’t be going on the cruise. He was not happy. He’d been watching the Disney Cruise Line video and telling everyone about the bed that pulls down from the ceiling for weeks now, and suddenly his plans were pulled out from under him. And of course, he doesn’t like flying. We took Amtrak last summer when we went to Cape Cod to see my in-laws, and all the kids were completely sold on train travel then. “Because you can walk around and eat a lot,” Milo explains. But we don’t have time to take a train to California, so flying is really the only reasonable possibility.

I spent a couple of days trying to get Milo excited. On one hand, I totally understood the disappointment of really EXPECTING one thing and then being told you can’t have it. On the other hand, there was a limit to how much whining about the injustice of being forced to go to Disneyland I was willing to listen to from a 5 year old. Then, in an inspired moment, I sat him down to look at the Legoland website. He was immediately converted. Later that day I e-mailed the travel agent to officially cancel our cruise reservations. “I canceled the cruise,” I told Milo. “YAY!” he replied.

So now everyone was on board with the plan (well, sort of. Ari still doesn’t want to fly anywhere, but he hadn’t been thrilled about the cruise idea, either: “I don’t like boats” …so it was all kind of the same to him. Like I said, he’s a bit cynical. The Legoland website impressed him, too, though).

I’ll stop here to introduce rest of the group:

D-MIL: Ann or Nana. She came to WDW with us last year and is much more a fan of her grandchildren than of Disney. Still, she apparently had a good enough time to venture back to a Disney theme park one more time.

D-SIL: Amy. Dave’s big sister. I don’t think she’s ever been to Disneyland. Took a couple of short trips to WDW as a kid/teenager. She actually seriously considered coming along on our WDW trip last year, but ultimately held out for something closer to home.

D-BIL: Craig. I don’t have the full story about Craig’s Disney history nor his current feelings toward it. Word is he is a big fan of spontaneity in travel and does not like over-planning. Interesting.

DN (is that how one abbreviates “dear nephew”?): Benjamin, 3. Benjamin is 10 days younger than Gus, and we all wish they lived closer so we could see them more. This will be his first Disney trip.

DN: Louis, 2 days old (but will be 6 months old for the trip). Yep, he was born just 2 days ago, in the midst of all our trip planning. Meeting him is one of the big reasons we’re excited about the trip!

Here are all the cousins, minus the newest one, on a trip to the zoo a year and a half ago. Benjamin’s the one on the end in the striped jacket:

Now the real planning could begin! I knew, umm, a LOT about WDW, but very, very little about DL. I started researching hotels and was delighted to learn how close so many hotels are to the parks. Every year at WDW, I’d lamented that our budget didn’t allow us to stay anywhere on the monorail or walking distance to any of the parks. I checked out the HOJO after reading all the raves about it here, and was won over by the price and location and particularly by the waterpark area and the promise of pirate-themed kid suites. We booked two kid suites plus a regular room for Nana for Saturday through Wednesday nights. We had originally planned to settle in on Saturday, spend Sunday through Wednesday at the parks with 4 day park hoppers, then head out early Thursday morning for points south. But then came the timely announcement of the buy 3 days get 2 free ticket deal. So now it looks like we’ll at least spend some time wandering around in the parks on Saturday, maybe catch some shows/fireworks/etc. since we’ll have the 5th day anyway…but I’m anticipating saving our heavy duty touring for the less crowded weekdays.

On to plane tickets! This was relatively straightforward. I was really hoping to avoid LAX, and, fortunately, the cheapest possibility I found was flying into the Orange County airport and then back out of San Diego. Perfect! So we’ll be getting in around 10 AM on Saturday (that might have been a misstep….it means leaving Atlanta around 8 AM our time, which is going to make for a very early morning, since we’re an hour north of the airport here. At least the airport shouldn’t be super busy that time of year) and then we’re flying back home the next Sunday afternoon.

That’s where we are so far. The next steps (for which I am very much open to suggestion!) are to find a place to stay in the San Diego area for Thursday through Saturday nights (preferably walking distance to a beach), rent a car (we’re trying to decide between a much more expensive minivan and stuffing the five of us into a smaller car to save a few hundred dollars), and work out the itinerary for the rest of the week. A work in progress!

So, to sum up, our itinerary so far:

Saturday: get in around noon, get to hotel and settle in, explore!
Sunday-Wednesday: DL
Thursday: check out of hotel, go to Legoland, check in to next place
Friday and Saturday: ????? (the kids are interested in seeing the Wild Animal Park, so maybe that on Friday?)
Sunday: fly home, spend a week recovering from jetlag, post trip report

West coast cultural difference observation: I was listening to the Dis Unplugged’s DL podcast the other day, and they had a guy on there talking about how to get from Anaheim to San Diego without driving. I knew West coasters called interstates “The (insert number here)” (whereas we just say the number without the article), but this guy also kept referring to “the Amtrak” instead of just Amtrak. Fascinating! Well, to me anyway.

Next up: I’ll let everyone know what we decide to do about a car rental, so you can all stop lying awake at night wondering and then maybe I’ll write up some reviews of all the DL reading material I’ve acquired (I, umm, have another few books coming from Amazon now. It’s my birthday present to myself!)

 

[californiamomof4grls]

LOL! Sounds like you have quite the adventure ahead of you. Simply traveling down to DL from northern Ca is daunting enought for us and our 4 dd's. I look forward to reading your progress. Tell your DS that plane travel is only weird at take off. Once your in the air, its no big thing. Also if you get motion sick, sit by a window, it helps.

BTW, the "the (inserstate #) " thing is a SoCal thing. We are from NorCal and we jsut use the number; take the 5 to the 101 to the 580, etc. No idea why SoCalers fell the need to add 'THE'; "the 5 to the 101 to the 580, " wierdos! I mean you dont say "take THE 1st st, to THE H st, turn right on THE main street." LOL

 

[charmama4]

Glad to hear Milo is now on board with the whole DL thing. I wish I had suggestions about flying anxiety. All my kids get really excited when they hear we are getting on a plane. This trip they get it all!! Planes, trains and automobiles!!
Legoland: I have only been once when the boys were real young and of course *they* had a good time, but personally I thought it was a waste of money. PLease don't take my opinion to heart, it was 6 or so years ago and things could have changed. The Wild Animal Park now that's our kind of place!! Love love, did I say love the place. It's more than just a zoo it's a research zoo. They have done so many wonderful things to help save certain species (not just animals-plants too) it makes me cry tears of joy!!! Sorry the conservationalist coming out of me. I also love the SD zoo with the ability to spend some time at Balboa Park. That would be ideal for us. The museums are incredible!!!! Yes, that used to be our old stomping ground before the AF transplanted us here in good ole Wyoming.
I"m enjoying ready your pre-TR and seeing the wonderful pics of your boys. keep them coming.

 

[kokotg]

BTW, the "the (inserstate #) " thing is a SoCal thing. We are from NorCal and we jsut use the number; take the 5 to the 101 to the 580, etc. No idea why SoCalers fell the need to add 'THE'; "the 5 to the 101 to the 580, " wierdos! I mean you dont say "take THE 1st st, to THE H st, turn right on THE main street." LOL

Interesting! I had no idea!

The funny thing about the flying is that, since DH's family is spread out all over, they're all experienced fliers; each of them has flown several times. This plane anxiety is new. I think it started with Ari, and Milo is just following his lead. We're flying this summer, too (taking the train up to Massachusetts and then flying back down), so we'll have to hope that shorter flight goes well so they'll be in good spirits for the longer one in September.

Thanks for the warning about Legoland, Charmama! I'll keep my expectations low; I'm mostly looking at it as being for all the little boys rather than fun for the grown-ups. I just hope it doesn't disappoint them after 5 days of DL! I'm excited about the Wild Animal Park...I don't think I've heard any bad reviews of it (yet, anyway).

 

[charmama4]

When you go to WAP (wild animal park) go to the nursery. There's bound to be new babies in there!!!! The shows are incredible and you may catch people out and about introducing animals (like birds, reptiles...) to answer questions and teach you a little about the animal.

So, inquiring minds want to know....where ya staying, what PS's have you made, what is on your "not to miss list" and all that jazz?????

 

[kokotg]

When you go to WAP (wild animal park) go to the nursery. There's bound to be new babies in there!!!! The shows are incredible and you may catch people out and about introducing animals (like birds, reptiles...) to answer questions and teach you a little about the animal.

So, inquiring minds want to know....where ya staying, what PS's have you made, what is on your "not to miss list" and all that jazz?????

yay--animal babies! thanks for the tip!

For the Disneyland part of the trip, we're staying at the Howard Johnson. Second half of the week we haven't decided yet. No PS's yet (we're still way too far out; I'm just starting the Pre-trip super early to help pass the time ). And I'm open to suggestions on the "not to miss" list!

 

[kaoden39]

I'm on board. I have to tell you that picture of Gus on the Monorail is one of the cutest pictures. He just looks like he was getting a little worn around the edges.

 

[charmama4]

yay--animal babies! thanks for the tip!

For the Disneyland part of the trip, we're staying at the Howard Johnson. Second half of the week we haven't decided yet. No PS's yet (we're still way too far out; I'm just starting the Pre-trip super early to help pass the time ). And I'm open to suggestions on the "not to miss" list!

Sorry, have Disney on the brain and forgot that you aren't going for 6 months.
I keep hearing about HOJO on this board. You'll have to enlighten me about it. What is sooooo great about it and so forth.
If you have any questions about SD and the surrounding area, just ask. I miss *home* and it helps to talk about it.

 

[kokotg]

I'll have to hold off until I get back to say whether the HOJO lives up to hype...but the things that drew me to it are the good reviews here, the little waterpark area (the kids really liked the looks of this when I showed them pictures), and the kid suites. I really, really, really prefer having a suite when we travel, as we all sleep much better that way, and the HOJO prices for a 2 bedroom suite seemed very good (and I figured the kids would love that they were pirate-themed).

 

[pmama]

You seem to be almost as indecisive as I am. What's funny is we had a Disney Cruise booked then postponed it for DLR instead too. It really is fun to have somewhere new to channel your Disney obsession. We are flying into San Diego and flying out of Anaheim. We are staying at HoJo. There are pictures of the hotel we chose in Coronado/San Diego on my PTR. It gets really good reviews. Nice of your MIL to buy the flights. That really will free up tons of $.

 

[charmama4]

I'll have to hold off until I get back to say whether the HOJO lives up to hype...but the things that drew me to it are the good reviews here, the little waterpark area (the kids really liked the looks of this when I showed them pictures), and the kid suites. I really, really, really prefer having a suite when we travel, as we all sleep much better that way, and the HOJO prices for a 2 bedroom suite seemed very good (and I figured the kids would love that they were pirate-themed).

I am going to have to check out HOJO myself. Not for this trip but for future ones. It's sounds like fun and isnt' there a little convienence store in the hotel also?

 

[DizNee Luver]

I'm here now!!! Finally had a few minutes I could look. I am a mom of 3 boys that are spaced out at 19mths between, then 2 1/2 yrs between......granted my boys are now 23, 22 & 19!! I also added 4 more kids later on thru adoption/foster care. So my kiddos are son 8, daughters 3, twin 22mths. Looking at your boys reminded me of mine when they were younger........

Ok, back to the Pre TR. I love when people toy with vacation ideas & then excitedly choose Disneyland. We're huge DL fans in our home & in fact hubby is interviewing with them next week!!!!!!

Anywho.....you love researching........give yourself about 2 hours & look over my TR.....it's lengthy but full of info. Reviews of dining places, the tour we took & the Pat E. Cake Bday party. There are also probably about 700-800 pics now.....still have one more day to get uploaded before we take off Sunday for our mini-trip.

What's great about these boards are all the helpful people. So ask questions, ask for opinions, etc etc.......we all get joy out of knowing we helped someone have the perfect trip!!!!

Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[kokotg]

You seem to be almost as indecisive as I am. What's funny is we had a Disney Cruise booked then postponed it for DLR instead too. It really is fun to have somewhere new to channel your Disney obsession.

I joked to my SIL that, once this trip is all planned out, we'll have to cancel it and decide on a new destination altogether so I'll have something else to plan. Really, though, the plane tickets are bought and paid for now, so there's no going back this time!

 

[kokotg]

Anywho.....you love researching........give yourself about 2 hours & look over my TR.....it's lengthy but full of info. Reviews of dining places, the tour we took & the Pat E. Cake Bday party. There are also probably about 700-800 pics now.....still have one more day to get uploaded before we take off Sunday for our mini-trip.

I read through a lot of your trip report when we were first considering DL--loved it!! I'll have to go through and read more carefully now that we're decided for sure. Thanks for reading mine!

 

[kokotg]

I am going to have to check out HOJO myself. Not for this trip but for future ones. It's sounds like fun and isnt' there a little convienence store in the hotel also?

little convenience store sounds familiar...I've done so much reading lately that it all kind of blurs together

 

[kokotg]

I'm here now!!! Finally had a few minutes I could look. I am a mom of 3 boys that are spaced out at 19mths between, then 2 1/2 yrs between......granted my boys are now 23, 22 & 19!! I also added 4 more kids later on thru adoption/foster care. So my kiddos are son 8, daughters 3, twin 22mths. Looking at your boys reminded me of mine when they were younger........

that's almost the same spacing as our boys, btw--except you're even closer with the first two. My first our almost exactly 2 years apart (minus 4 days) and then exactly 2 1/2 years for the next two. It's nice to see tales of people who've been there and come out the other side alive And even ready to take on another round! I always keep the idea of fostering and/or adopting someday in the back of my mind...it's hard to imagine that we're really all done with babies!

 

[charmama4]

little convenience store sounds familiar...I've done so much reading lately that it all kind of blurs together

Things are getting blurred for me too. I remember reading or hearing something but can't seem to remember where from. I don't wait I can blame it on, SpringFever, Disney planning or just plain mommy brain