Let's Invite the Family!!!...What was i thinking??

[myhouseofmouse]

This will be my families 10th Trip to Disney World, But my 1st trip report. The closer it gets to the trip, the more I feel this just might make a good trip report. My family consists of myself, DW, DS(4 years old) and DD(11years old).

We have gone every year to Disney since our daughter was 2 years old.
For the last couples years I have been suggesting to my DW that we should invite the family to come with us. So the first thing we talked about; OK if we DO go with some of the family....WHO??? Not just WHO do we want to go with, but WHO can go with US!!! Even after 10 years of trips we still hit the parks full fledged commando style. (At the park at rope drop, time tables, spread sheets, touring plans in hand and leaving the parks at close, collapsing in bed and then waking up at the crack of dawn to do it again.)

It came down to to wifes' brother and his family. (He is also one of my best friends; i actaully meet my wife thru him, but thats another story) His family is his wife, a 2 year old daughter and a 4 year old son.
So around Last December my brother in law and I start talking about the possiblity and he is all excited because he would love to take his family, but the size and scope of Disney makes him nervous. He is more then happy to so with us and after talking about it for month or so we sprung it on the wives, who reluctantly go along with it. But not without stressing some of their concerns. (More concerns will continue to pop out during the following months)

 

[myhouseofmouse]

So on to the planing and concerns...

the time line is about the end of January here.
Concern #1: Was originally brought up by my Brother-in-law during his and my talks about the possible trip: "Are his Kids going to behave at Disney??? (and will he be able to keep them in line) Now this may seem like a funny concern, but my Brother-in-law is (how do I say it nicely) wound very tight when it comes to his kids, very strict, very proper, very orderly. Now of course I told reminded him that it is Disney and how you can't walk 5 feet without walking over some kid running in front of u. what was funny was that when we brought this idea up to the Wives, HIS wife's first concern was: Will my brother-in-law be able to handle going away with the kids??? knowing that they are going to be bouncing off the walls with excitement and exploring the new world in front of them.. So I again assured her that the kids will be fine and I will keep her husband in check with the kids. (I've already mapped out the best alcohol spots for each day to help ease the rubber band of my Brother In-law) *** We also also agreed that even though my family goes down for 6nights/7days they would only go down for 4days/3nights....just in case!!! (Which also worked out to give my family some "Family-time" in the world to ourselves!!! Perfect or is it????

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Concern #2 When should we go??? Now you would think this would have been the first concern seeing how my Sister-in-law is a teacher. (Just goes to show how strict my Brother-in-law is.) Over the last 9 years my family has gone once in September (to be at the world to celebrate my DW and DD b days) and once in August (Only reason we did this was because we had to move our December date up because my DW was due to delivery our DS in November. Besides those 2 times every other visit to the world has been the week after thanksgiving. Its our favorite time to be at the parks. My DW Loves the whole Christmas in FL mood that the time of year brings. As she always says, it just extends the whole holiday experience a month a head of time. Besides that, the crowds are manageable, the weather is usually nice. (not many 90+ days in December)
So of course we pushed for the week after thanksgiving. Also note in our part of the world kids have off school the Monday (and sometimes Tuesday) after Thanksgiving as well, so it cuts down the days we would have to take our daughter out of school. to my surprise, this was an easy sell, my sister- in -law is able to take up to 3 personal days in a row, so all was set we had our dates...

We would leave Sunday 11/27/2011 (we would arrive when everyone else leaves after the Thanksgiving holiday) and my Brother-in-law and his family would go home Wednesday 11/30 and Our family Saturday 12/3.....Or so that was the plan at the time!!!!!!

 

[myhouseofmouse]

So with the dates picked a plan begins to take shape...

We have decided to stay at POP Century...by far our favorite value resort. (we also decided a Value resort since they were planning only going for 4 days, not enough time to enjoy the parks and hotel!)

We also decided to visit HS, Epcot and MK since they would only have 3 days of park touring to do (we were planning on flying in first thing Sunday morning so we could get the whole day in, then they were going to fly out Wed. afternoon.

We are also going to book thru AAA. (not for the discount, because I always seem to be able to find a better discount then AAA gives, but for the Merch. discounts at the park, AAA benefits and the AAA preferred Parking!!! Love not having to take a tram) The only problem with going thru AAA is having to use their Travel agent. I'll get into more of that later.

We also planned to get a package with the dining plan. hoping that Disney would come out with FREE dining and make it easy to move things around when that time came.

We were also planning on flying down and Each renting cars. Which brings me to CONCERN #3...

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Concern #3: As we talk about flights and times we should fly, My brother-in-law starts to worry about "How the kids are going to be on the plane?" (This since they have never flown before) After a lengthy discussion, we all decide it would be best if I and My Sister-in-law sit with the kids, while my Brother-in-law sits with my wife. This way all the kids can be together and I can help My sister-in-law with the kids. This way he is not right next to them and he can pretend that they are someone else's kids if he chooses. sounds wierd, but it makes all parties happy...

 

[myhouseofmouse]

OK, so now all the Major planning decisions are made. Now its time to book everything... First thing I like to book is the Airfares!!
Does this makes sense? Air Flights are so much harder to move then hotel packages, right???
....so we wait till May when Air tran and southwest put out their flights for November/December. When the flight info comes out...I face my First Kink in the plan...we live about an hour north of Philly..so the plan was to fly out of philly....However because I like to be thorough, I also check flights to Orlando from another local airport (only 45 minutes away but smaller airport) As my luck would have It I find round trip flights out of this smaller airport, that fit the "times" of flights I wanted (7am flight out, later flight back) for about $500 cheaper (round trip, $500.00 each family family of 4))...Only problem is WE would have to fly out Saturday 11/26 instead of Sunday 11/26.
So what would you do here???

 

[Tiggeye]

Waiting to hear more. We have a big family and 28 of us went for Christmas, we had a blast.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

wow 28...now thats what I call a "grand gathering". glad the trip went well for you.

 

[ellajeansmom]

We'll be there the same time as you, arriving on the 26th. We are bringing my parents and DH's mom with us - it will be interesting to see how we both manage with extra people along!

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Nice to hear...first time going with someone else??

 

[myhouseofmouse]

So we decided to save the $500.00 and go down a day earlier. This however presented 2 problems:

Problem: #1 Going down on the Saturday after Thanksgiving (A 10 on the Crowds scale!!!) Our flight leaves at 8am and gets down to Orlando at 10:30am so if all goes well we should be in the parks between 12-1pm...Basically the same time as 100,000 other people!!! great!!!

Problem: #2 This adds an additional day that we are there with In-Laws. Now this is fine with me, however not as cool with my Wife. ( Her issue is it will now cuts into how much time we will have after they leave. See of my selling points to my wife about letting her brother family come down with us, was that they would only be there for three days and it would give us 4 days without them, so now we will have 3 days without them. (We decided to now leave on Friday to keep our trip to 7 days) This is also when my wife starts the whole "Its another day she has to spend with the Sister-in-law" campaign....and only the start of it...

 

[myhouseofmouse]

OK, so we got the Airfare booked, now its time to go to AAA and book the hotel and ticket packages.

No real issues here pretty painless; we both book:

Resort: POP (this will be our third time at POP, so looking forward to going back!!! Even though I still miss POR, which is where we stayed last year and LOVED it!!!)

Tickets: Basic (no Park hopper, I feel that with little kids its nice to do one park a day, focus on what is there and then move to the next one the following day! why waste the money for the Hopper and the Time of traveling to different parks???)

Dining Package: Table service dining (Again hoping that Free dining will come out and get this included!!!)

 

[myhouseofmouse]

As I said in my first Post, i am all about the "planning" so here are the Parks days and sit down meals:

Sunday: Animal Kingdom (again planning on getting to the park sometime between 12noon and 1pm) Now hoping (but knowing I will probably be out of luck) to snag some fast passes for Everest as soon as we get there.(Maybe I can find a scalper in the parking lot)
We are only planning on being at the park for a few hours, so besides Everest I only have a few other items to hit there: dinosaur, lion king, tough to be a bug, Rafiki's Planet Watch and bone yard play area. Knowing how crowded it is going to be, trying to keep it relaxed and expectations small.

Dining Sunday: Either quick bite at POP food court or Pizzafari at AK. For our sit down meal we are going to start off the way we usually end our trip; Dinner at Chef Mickey's.

*So what do you think my chances are for being able to get fast-passes for Everest? or that the line will be under 30minutes on the Saturday after Thanksgiving???? Everything else on the list is easily do-able right???

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day two Plans:

Sunday 11/27: Hollywood Studios (highlights: rope drop TSM, sign boys up for Jedi, TOT and RR, Stunt show, Star Tours, Muppets, Playhouse and Fantasmic)
*Note: HS has Extra Magic hours, so park open til 11pm (not that we will make it that late with a 2 year old and 2 four year olds.)

Dining: Breakfast in bed, Lunch at Pizza Planet, and Early dinner at Sci Fi.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Not sure if anyone is still reading this, Sorry for the delay the last couple days but here are the rest of the day's plans:

Day 3: Epcot Highlights: sourin, test track, mission, land, world showcase; Kim possible, maybe a little drink around the world (This will be the first visit to world for me with another adult male..So you have to have a drink or two around the world right???) illuminations, spaceship earth.

Dining: Lunch, somewhere inworld showcase. Any good suggestions for 2 families with same kids...something quick and not to far from chicken tenders and kid options????
Dinner: Coral Reef

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 4: 15 hours of MK

Highlights: As many of the Mk highlights as we can: Dumbo, the Mountains, Mansion, small world, peter pan, Pooh, Buzz, tiki, pirates.

Dining: lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus
Dinner: Crystal palace

What better way to cap off a day at MK, then to stay the night and do Mickey's Xmas Party. So after dinner we will sit out of the parade and then follow up with wishes and enjoy some of the other party events before everyone falls asleep.
*This is my brother-in-laws last full day at Disney.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 5 plans: "pirate tour" for the kids and relaxing day at MK

*Going to do one of the Pirate tours from GF for our kids, this will give Mommy and i a nice quiet lunch and then will head over to MK for some relaxing ride time.

Dining: Lunch at GF cafe Dinner: back to GF at 1900 Park Fair (Strawberry Soup....aaawww!!!!!!! one of the things that i just have to have every year)

*Since this will be an early park day, after dinner we will most likely head over to Downtown Disney for some shopping.

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Day 6: Hollywood Studios (this is our DD (11) favorite park so we always go back a second day to hit all her favorites one (or two or three) time!!!
(highlights: TSM, Tower, RaR, Idol and ST)
Dining: Breakfast: at Hollywood and vine. Lunch: Wherever we are when we get hungry! Dinner: 50's prime time Cafe

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Just Added: Just added a surprise trip to the Wishes dessert party for the night we do the Xmas party. Should be an added surprise and a nice treat. We did the dessert party a few years ago. Hope its still as good as it was then. (For me, as long as they still have the Chocolate covered Strawberries, I'll be fine!!!)

 

[myhouseofmouse]

Also: just saved another $30.00 thanks to Mousesavers.com and now have my rent-a-car for the week for: $54.22 (base rate plus taxes!) Really happy with that price!!!