So let me start off with a little background info.......
We had plans for 11 of us (total of 5 kids and 6 adults) to go down to celebrate my 40th b-day. We had ressies to stay at the BWPPI. Someone on the boards put up a thread about the Disney Theme Home and I emailed it to my mom to show her how cool it was. She checked into staying there instead of the hotel and it was only about $300 more to stay in a house vs. the hotel rooms. So we jumped on it!!!
Ok, so we leave Friday, March 20th around 2:30 pm-ish and start driving. Nothing of any importance happened on the way down, in fact we made really good time! We did stop at the Magic Mtn. Parkway to eat dinner at Marie Callenders......good dinner as usual! (I had some spicy chicken salad that was a special...something like Kickin' Chicken? It was tasty!)
We arrive at the Disney Theme Home (http://www.disneythemehome.com) around 8:30-ish. Oh, and we did not tell the kids about the house. Up until this point, they think we are staying in a hotel! So we pull up to the house and they're saying "ummm.....why are we here? who's house is this? etc, etc". So we unlock the door and go inside and the kids start going CRAZY 
!!!!! The house is sooooo cool!!! It is 100% Disney all the way through. The owners are so gracious too.......they had a bag of goodies waiting for us!! The kids all got matching shirts and since it was my birthday, I got a birthday princess hat, a tote bag, and some other extra amenities for emergencies (like safety pins, aspirin, chapstick, etc). They also said to help ourselves to anything there (surprisingly, the wall of candy was a bigger hit with the adults than the kids!).
We all get ready for bed........DH and I are in the master bedroom, my parents are in the other master bedroom, all the boys are in the jungle bedroom, and the rest of the girls are in the princess room. And I might add, the beds there are top quality and comfy!!! I slept like a baby every single night. The linens were very niiiiiice too........and I'm sure cost a ton more $$$ than the cheapo Target sheets that are on my bed at home!
First Day in the Parks, Saturday, March 21, 2009
First off, it's our first day, so instead of driving to the parking garage, we decide we'll walk in to the parks since we're fresh & ready. It took us about 30 mins to get from the house into the front gates. (this is probably the only downside to the house.......the walk is definitely do-able, but it's a long one)
Since it's a Sat., we decide to go to DCA and spend the day there (you know, to avoid the crowds at DL
). Ummmmmmm.........NOT!! DCA was crowded and busy. It appeared to be lots of locals (the crowd mix was different on the weekdays) and lots of students (like high school age, maybe college).
We got FP's for Soaring and started to head to Monsters Inc and caught the HSM3 show. We watched part of it and then went to the ride. My kids thought that the actual HSM actors would be in it, so they kinda lost interest. So off to Monsters Inc.....
We got into Aladdin right before the show started. So our group split up and we were sitting all over the theater. Somehow I ended up with 4 of the kids and we got great seats in the 2nd row. The rest of the adults sat near the back. Great show and the kids were entertained despite being hungry for lunch! After Aladdin, we went over to the stage area near Monsters Inc & the Muppets 3-D and we ate our lunch that we packed in while some high school students in band played a musical performance. They were pretty good! I might mention here that the weather was kind of yucky that day......cool and overcast.
We headed over to the Bug's Land area. We watched the show and only did Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. It was just busy and crowded with long lines. Some of us did CA Screamin' and Tower of Terror.......the rest of us went to see Crush. I just love that show! It's different every time you see it and it can be sooo funny!
We stayed until about 5-ish and then walked back to the house. At the end of the day, the walk is long & painful! We made spaghetti for dinner, bathed the kids, and went to bed. The next day called for rain so we decided to wait and see what happened.
***I thought I'd add that we LOVED being able to come back and make dinner each night. It was soooo much cheaper than going out to eat every night. We also didn't get out the door very early each morning, which was very much a disadvantage considering how busy the parks were. But part of the vacation was staying at this house and frankly, the kids had soooo much fun in the toy room.
I am getting tired, so I'll post more in the morning......
We had plans for 11 of us (total of 5 kids and 6 adults) to go down to celebrate my 40th b-day. We had ressies to stay at the BWPPI. Someone on the boards put up a thread about the Disney Theme Home and I emailed it to my mom to show her how cool it was. She checked into staying there instead of the hotel and it was only about $300 more to stay in a house vs. the hotel rooms. So we jumped on it!!!
Ok, so we leave Friday, March 20th around 2:30 pm-ish and start driving. Nothing of any importance happened on the way down, in fact we made really good time! We did stop at the Magic Mtn. Parkway to eat dinner at Marie Callenders......good dinner as usual! (I had some spicy chicken salad that was a special...something like Kickin' Chicken? It was tasty!)
We arrive at the Disney Theme Home (http://www.disneythemehome.com) around 8:30-ish. Oh, and we did not tell the kids about the house. Up until this point, they think we are staying in a hotel! So we pull up to the house and they're saying "ummm.....why are we here? who's house is this? etc, etc". So we unlock the door and go inside and the kids start going CRAZY
!!!!! The house is sooooo cool!!! It is 100% Disney all the way through. The owners are so gracious too.......they had a bag of goodies waiting for us!! The kids all got matching shirts and since it was my birthday, I got a birthday princess hat, a tote bag, and some other extra amenities for emergencies (like safety pins, aspirin, chapstick, etc). They also said to help ourselves to anything there (surprisingly, the wall of candy was a bigger hit with the adults than the kids!).We all get ready for bed........DH and I are in the master bedroom, my parents are in the other master bedroom, all the boys are in the jungle bedroom, and the rest of the girls are in the princess room. And I might add, the beds there are top quality and comfy!!! I slept like a baby every single night. The linens were very niiiiiice too........and I'm sure cost a ton more $$$ than the cheapo Target sheets that are on my bed at home!
First Day in the Parks, Saturday, March 21, 2009
First off, it's our first day, so instead of driving to the parking garage, we decide we'll walk in to the parks since we're fresh & ready. It took us about 30 mins to get from the house into the front gates. (this is probably the only downside to the house.......the walk is definitely do-able, but it's a long one)
Since it's a Sat., we decide to go to DCA and spend the day there (you know, to avoid the crowds at DL
). Ummmmmmm.........NOT!! DCA was crowded and busy. It appeared to be lots of locals (the crowd mix was different on the weekdays) and lots of students (like high school age, maybe college). We got FP's for Soaring and started to head to Monsters Inc and caught the HSM3 show. We watched part of it and then went to the ride. My kids thought that the actual HSM actors would be in it
, so they kinda lost interest. So off to Monsters Inc.....We got into Aladdin right before the show started. So our group split up and we were sitting all over the theater. Somehow I ended up with 4 of the kids and we got great seats in the 2nd row. The rest of the adults sat near the back. Great show and the kids were entertained despite being hungry for lunch! After Aladdin, we went over to the stage area near Monsters Inc & the Muppets 3-D and we ate our lunch that we packed in while some high school students in band played a musical performance. They were pretty good! I might mention here that the weather was kind of yucky that day......cool and overcast.
We headed over to the Bug's Land area. We watched the show and only did Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. It was just busy and crowded with long lines. Some of us did CA Screamin' and Tower of Terror.......the rest of us went to see Crush. I just love that show! It's different every time you see it and it can be sooo funny!
We stayed until about 5-ish and then walked back to the house. At the end of the day, the walk is long & painful! We made spaghetti for dinner, bathed the kids, and went to bed. The next day called for rain so we decided to wait and see what happened.
***I thought I'd add that we LOVED being able to come back and make dinner each night. It was soooo much cheaper than going out to eat every night. We also didn't get out the door very early each morning, which was very much a disadvantage considering how busy the parks were. But part of the vacation was staying at this house and frankly, the kids had soooo much fun in the toy room.
I am getting tired, so I'll post more in the morning......
I love the pictures you posted of the house!
