May the Mouse be with You (April 2016 trip report)

[Mickeyrookie16]

Cast of Characters – Six of us are on this adventure ranging in age from my 69-year-old father to my 8-year-old son. It’s my kids first time going – I have a 12-year-old daughter in addition to the boychild. The last time my parents and I were at Disney – there was only Magic Kingdom and we could see Spaceship Earth being built in Epcot - so it’s really our first time at Walt Disney World as well. My husband went in late middle school or high school.

The trip came about 18 months ago when my father informed me that he and my mom needed to know when the kids had their April vacation in 2016 because they were taking them to Disney and my husband and I were welcome to join them. A few months later my dad gave the kids a choice between a Disney Cruise (what my father really wanted to do) and a trip to Walt Disney World – being kids and never having been to Disney to them it was an obvious decision and my father didn’t get the vacation he wanted. Apparently my father failed to factor in my son’s vivid imagination – he imagined a humongous shark would be able to take a bite out of the cruise ship and we would sink. Not sure where that came from because the child has never seen Jaws or Sharknado.

Dad (aka Papa) – as I said he’s 69. He really wanted to share a trip like this with my kids, just like his parents went with us on the trip we took when I was a child. His requests for my planning was that we eat dinner or lunch every day at a sit-down restaurant and that I make sure “It’s a Small World” was on our to-do list.

Mom (aka Grammie) – she just turned 68. She’s also looking forward to sharing this with the kids. I had not requests from her but when I told her some of the plans included the classic characters, her eyes lit up.

B (my husband) – Just turned 55. He’s even out done his usually easy going self when it came to the planning, pretty much telling me to just him where he needs to be and when.

N (my daughter) – While 12, she’s the reason I’ve done as much planning and worrying about if I’ve gotten this right as I have. She has Down Syndrome with a side of anxiety and sensory issues. Still loves things that most of her peers have a more blasé attitude over but at the same time is a pretty typical tween in that mom knows nothing. Elsa, Anna and some of the princesses are on her list of things to see. Hopefully I’ve balanced her needs through the planning and tips I’ve found on various boards and still have packed enough fun for everyone else. And as always with N we have plans B, C & D that all adults are on board with.

J (my son) – As I said he’s 8 and is my funny, active dude. He’s at that in between stage for kids – not a little kid but not quite a big kid either. One moment he’s about all things Star Wars right (and is hoping we can get him into the Jedi Training Academy and can’t wait to try and meet Kylo Ren and Chewbacca) and then the next he’s asking if Woody, Buzz and Jessie have Bullseye with them at any of the meet & greets.

And then there’s me – I’m A in this story just in case I ever need to refer to myself in third person (can’t image but you never know). I’m coming up on my 41st birthday in about 3 weeks. I’m on a mission to get a photo with Alice & the Mad Hatter.

We’re staying at the Doubletree near Disney Springs – the hotels in the area run their own bus system to the parks on a schedule pretty similar to that of the Disney system. Dad decided that for about the same cost as a value resort room we get suites, allowing us more room and flexibility with the kids, and breakfast is included. We arrive on Sunday and leave on Friday and have four days of park tickets. We opted to spend two of those days in Magic Kingdom and one in Epcot with all six of us and then my parents are doing a third day at Magic Kingdom while my kids, husband and I head off to Hollywood Studios.

My dad made the basic reservations – transportation, hotel and park tickets and then turned over the rest of the planning to me in terms of what parks to visit, where to eat, fastpasses and park planning.

I’m really happy with the plan we have – now I’m just hoping that everyone else is happy when it’s all said and done.

I’m attempting to keep this up while we’re actually on the trip – at least short report-ins and going back and doing longer fill-ins.

Ch 1. - All Aboard

 

[Mickeyrookie16]

Ch. 1 – All Aboard

Apparently I could not accomplish the whole update while at Disney thing as we are now home. But here we go:

So the majority of people get to Disney by driving or flying – but not us. We go by train. This is how we went as kids and it’s how we’re going this time around. I have to admit not my idea and both my husband and I were sort of dreading the trip with this means of transportation.

My kids are generally well behaved but with all the excitement and building anxiety for my daughter – I mean how much further off schedule could we take her – it could have gone downhill fast. A plane ride was a direct flight of 3 hours and we’re done. I can entertain or distract her for 3 hours. The trip by train requires two trains and almost 26 hours – if everything is running on time.

But I have to say the trip down was mostly pleasant. Dad arranged for a car to pick us all up so we didn’t have to leave the cars for the week at the train station. The trip from our originating station to New York was in business class and that has it all over taking a plane. Wide enough seats and plenty of leg room. In New York we checked our larger bags and went to go hang out in the Acela lounge for an hour. We grabbed some snacks and some drinks and just relaxed.

Soon enough they called our train and all the sleeper car passengers were lead down to our platform. We have what Amtrak calls roomettes – essentially during the day there are two seats facing each other and a toilet with the lid down does triple duty as a third seat and stool to reach the baggage storage area. The top bunk pulls down at night, while the two seats form the bottom bunk for sleeping.

Our porter, Vic, was extremely pleasant and immediately started teasing all the kids, because much to my relief my kids were not the only ones in our car – thank you New England spring break week, that our car was the super special quiet sleeping car and that the kids would be the first passengers to try the new ice cream flavor – brussel sprouts.



From New York it was supposed to be 21.5 hours to Orlando. Thanks to some freight train breakdowns and other delays it became a 24 hour trip. Those added hours were the roughest ones on the train – the kids knew we were close and the anticipation was killing them. My son couldn’t sit long enough to focus on anything and was all sorts of pent up energy. We took advantage of the longer stop scheduled in Jacksonville to let him walk the platform, but it wasn’t nearly enough

I think we packed everything but the kitchen sink with keeping them entertained in mind. Movies, small games, playing cards, coloring books, Kindles. Overall they did really well with the trip. Fingers crossed that after a week of family togetherness they do as well on the way home.