declansdad
DIS Dad #639 New Brunswick, Canada
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2004
- Messages
- 31,304
Hello all,
We been back about a month now and things are starting to slow down so I thought it would be a good time to start on another family trip report. I hope that I can get through it without too much delay and keep you interested should you decide to follow along. There will be lots of pictures and some commentary that I hope you will enjoy.
The Cast
Some of you may have read our past reports so you know the players but just in case...
Declan, our son. He is 12 years old sport fanatic. He plays soccer and basketball mostly but added a bit of volleyball in this past winter. As a dad, I am happy with whatever he plays but it made me proud to see him on the volleyball court.

IMG_8313 by declansdadca, on Flickr
DW or pooksma here on the Dis. She is a French Immersion Math teacher by day and has put up with me for about 20 years give or take. Somehow I convinced her to marry me and we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on this trip.
As for me, I live the dream. Not only to I have a wonderful family, I get to work in the provincial amateur sport system every day and meet some truly gifted people throughout the province.

IMG_8299 by declansdadca, on Flickr
This is one of the few pictures you will see of either of us in this report. I am usually behind the camera and DW prefers not to be in the pictures at all. A shame I tell her but I know what is best for me so few if any pictures of DW.
The Trip
As some of you may know in March we did the 4 day cruise on the Disney Dream as well as a 1 day visit to MK with DWs parents in March. We had talked about a July trip as well but decided to put it off until next year as this was going to be a busy summer and 2 Florida trips (3 for me) in less than 5 months would be a lot. At the end of March I returned to Kissimmee to drive my FIL back while MIL flew. I think I received a message from DW saying she was looking at prices again and maybe we should do the trip in July. As I was actually at Pop Century meeting up with a long-time Dis friend, MeMom, I decided to look around AoA because that was one of the resorts we were considering. In order to help with the decision I texted a couple pictures from the Little Mermaid section back to pooksma to help with the decision. Pics from that Day.
By the time I returned from Florida a week later it was decided that the trip was a go but it would be a surprise for DS. We did look at different options for the trip, AoA, POFQ, Pop, 7 day, 10 day, split stay but in the end we decided on July 16th to 23rd at Pop Century with a 6 day park hopper and the quick service dining plan.
A quick message to our fantastic TA, Liz, and we were all booked. WE only wanted on ADR and she took care of that for us so there wasnt much other planning to do. Just had to make sure we kept it a secret until the day we left.
More to come later, have to head out for a bit.
We been back about a month now and things are starting to slow down so I thought it would be a good time to start on another family trip report. I hope that I can get through it without too much delay and keep you interested should you decide to follow along. There will be lots of pictures and some commentary that I hope you will enjoy.
The Cast
Some of you may have read our past reports so you know the players but just in case...
Declan, our son. He is 12 years old sport fanatic. He plays soccer and basketball mostly but added a bit of volleyball in this past winter. As a dad, I am happy with whatever he plays but it made me proud to see him on the volleyball court.

IMG_8313 by declansdadca, on Flickr
DW or pooksma here on the Dis. She is a French Immersion Math teacher by day and has put up with me for about 20 years give or take. Somehow I convinced her to marry me and we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary on this trip.
As for me, I live the dream. Not only to I have a wonderful family, I get to work in the provincial amateur sport system every day and meet some truly gifted people throughout the province.

IMG_8299 by declansdadca, on Flickr
This is one of the few pictures you will see of either of us in this report. I am usually behind the camera and DW prefers not to be in the pictures at all. A shame I tell her but I know what is best for me so few if any pictures of DW.
The Trip
As some of you may know in March we did the 4 day cruise on the Disney Dream as well as a 1 day visit to MK with DWs parents in March. We had talked about a July trip as well but decided to put it off until next year as this was going to be a busy summer and 2 Florida trips (3 for me) in less than 5 months would be a lot. At the end of March I returned to Kissimmee to drive my FIL back while MIL flew. I think I received a message from DW saying she was looking at prices again and maybe we should do the trip in July. As I was actually at Pop Century meeting up with a long-time Dis friend, MeMom, I decided to look around AoA because that was one of the resorts we were considering. In order to help with the decision I texted a couple pictures from the Little Mermaid section back to pooksma to help with the decision. Pics from that Day.
By the time I returned from Florida a week later it was decided that the trip was a go but it would be a surprise for DS. We did look at different options for the trip, AoA, POFQ, Pop, 7 day, 10 day, split stay but in the end we decided on July 16th to 23rd at Pop Century with a 6 day park hopper and the quick service dining plan.
A quick message to our fantastic TA, Liz, and we were all booked. WE only wanted on ADR and she took care of that for us so there wasnt much other planning to do. Just had to make sure we kept it a secret until the day we left.
More to come later, have to head out for a bit.