'OHANA means CHUNKY! An Aug 2017 Family TR THE END 4/26 - The Last Day and Trip Epilogue!

[LindseyJo22]

Can't believe you're already on page four!

Hate that the flight down was delayed, but I'm glad everyone arrived safely even if you were tired! Still can't believe you had a trip with quite this many people, but I'm glad it seems to have gone well (perhaps despite some weather).

I also loved your friends' reaction:

they kept saying "We never ate like this on our other trips!"

I think that is part of the reason I am so into Disney dining - my family always did pretty much quick service aside from maybe one meal, and now I can do all the fancy eating if I want It's also easier with just the two of us and not a family of four though!

Can't wait to read more

 

[Tracy161]

We both work in banks, myself in IT and Steve in Risk, we're both in our early 40s, and we both love Disney!

Oh, I get it. Is this the game where you list a bunch of things and we have to guess which one isn't true?! You continue to say your approximate ages and I continue to not believe you!!!

Steve's is: Gaston, hahaha.

How could we forget?!

Steve's are: All of the above aside from Peoplemover. He likes it but doesn't understand the fascination.

What!? I don't comprehend this. I could seriously ride that thing around Tomorrowland ALL day EVERY day!

Loving this shirt

Eva was the birthday girl and she absolutely LOVED Disney.

I'm SO glad to hear this!!! And it also gives me so hope that my little niece might surprise us in January, too

Steve and I stayed an extra 9th night because, well, DISMeets!

YAY!!! I am SO glad you did. Seeing you two was one of the highlights of my trip

I hope you're on board for this crazy, crazy ride with my ohana!

Yep!

We arrived at 7:30pm which was our original departure time. Our new departure time was closer to 9:30pm.

Ugh, that's such a bummer. My flights were delayed a bit yesterday, and nearly cost me my connection in Charlotte, but at least it was on the way home.

Stunning picture!!!

Me saying "We're all here! My job is done! (NOT)"

As you can see Steve is thinking "What did I get myself into?" or "Here we go all over again" or "Stop taking pictures already!"

So excited to hear all about your trip!!!

 

[xlsm]

Just saving my spot...I need to go read what you have up so far! I will get behind, life is too crazy right now, but I look forward to following along. I LOVED seeing all your pics on facebook and instagram!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Wow, what a crazy travel day and with a group that big... I cannot believe you all managed to stay sane, but everyone looks so excited so I guess that helps and how nice you all ended up in nearby rooms at the Poly. Looking forward to hearing about your first full day!

Haha it was crazy of me to agree to planning it all but since I'm the only one who knows anything about WDW planning it just made sense otherwise no one would get anything done otherwise! It wasn't so bad because no one really had any opinions about anything and left it up to me.

Can't believe you're already on page four!

It's crazy! I've only written two posts! But I love to read everyone's comments!

Hate that the flight down was delayed, but I'm glad everyone arrived safely even if you were tired! Still can't believe you had a trip with quite this many people, but I'm glad it seems to have gone well (perhaps despite some weather).

Ugh it was just so unfortunate but we knew going into this that it may be delayed and we'd have a harrowing trip down but the extra full day at WDW kinda made up for it.

I also loved your friends' reaction:


I think that is part of the reason I am so into Disney dining - my family always did pretty much quick service aside from maybe one meal, and now I can do all the fancy eating if I want It's also easier with just the two of us and not a family of four though!

It's the truth! Food makes people happy and I'm glad I made us a ton of ADRs especially in the heat when you kinda need a break and lots of drinks to look forward to.

Oh, I get it. Is this the game where you list a bunch of things and we have to guess which one isn't true?! You continue to say your approximate ages and I continue to not believe you!!!

LOL One day I'll have to show you my driver's license! But I just tell people that Disney keeps me young...and lots of sunscreen!

What!? I don't comprehend this. I could seriously ride that thing around Tomorrowland ALL day EVERY day!

I know, right? It's not that he doesn't like it, he'll go on it as much as me, but I think he would rather do a thrill ride vs the peoplemover!

Loving this shirt

They need this for adults!

I'm SO glad to hear this!!! And it also gives me so hope that my little niece might surprise us in January, too

She absolutely loved it. She's been tell everyone she meets that she went to Disneyworld and how much fun she had!

YAY!!! I am SO glad you did. Seeing you two was one of the highlights of my trip

Ours too!! Always happy to share a meal with my Disney friends!!!

Ugh, that's such a bummer. My flights were delayed a bit yesterday, and nearly cost me my connection in Charlotte, but at least it was on the way home.

It was sucky for sure, but we got an extra day at Disney out of it and so it was worth it at least for me, hehe.

Stunning picture!!!

Aww thank you, it's the calm before the storm.

Just saving my spot...I need to go read what you have up so far! I will get behind, life is too crazy right now, but I look forward to following along. I LOVED seeing all your pics on facebook and instagram!!

Hi XLSM! Thanks for following along! I'm sure you are super busy with school starting and everything!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

I'm here!!! Love your TR's by the way!!! I took a break from DIS for a year and went back and re-read your TR's... Didn't post, but I did read them! We will be down there when you are... Headed to MNSSHP on the 1st... If I see ya, I'll say hi!!! I'll have my DH and DS with me so it may be a quick hi and bye!

Thank you so much!! Yes please say hi if you're going to be there! I'll be meeting other Disboarders as well during the party

Following! Love your trip reports!!

Thank you so much!!

Yay for new TR!! Sorry we didn't get a chance to meet up-that day in AK with the rain was a bit of a bummer, and we were tired. Still haven't seen RoL yet-but there is always next trip LOL!

Yes I'm sorry we didn't get a chance to meet! It was so crazy sometimes and especially in the rain and I'm trying to direct people in one direction while in a poncho (which was like wearing a steam room blech).

this made me ! Probably best this way if the people you are planning for aren't veterans. DH texted me a question from a friend of ours the other night on choice of restaurants: Hollywood and Vine or Chef Mickeys. I thought it was a planning question, but no, they were there right now!! and wanted to know which. UGH. Haven't heard how it went yet...although DH and son got a walkup at Via Napoli for for lunch so I guess stuff can happen!

Looking forward to how week went. GREAT family picture BTW!!

Wow a walk up for Chef Mickeys...hope they got to eat somewhere at least! I know, planning for the newbies is easier than planning for veterans who all have their own opinions.

Thank you for following along!

I am looking forward to reading how this trip went with coordinating so many people. I need to go back and read the pretrip report too.

It was a challenge but it was good. It all came together in the end and even though it wasn't perfect, it was still a great trip!

I always wish we had later flights like that because I get out of work at 6pm, and we could go down the night before if they did. But here the last direct flight out is earlier than 6, and the latest flight that leaves ever is a United flight that leaves at 7:20 but has a layover.

Yeah it's tough when you can't find a direct flight...that's the only way I'd fly to orlando.

Ugh. I've heard JetBlue has delays often, not sure if that's true or not because we haven't flown with them though.

Usually they are ok. It was actually due to the weather from the plane's original location and all flights were delayed coming in so we didn't have a plane to get on to!

Flight delays are no fun. And really no fun when the airport is... not very interesting? I've had a few delays in teeny airports, one was so small they sent us out of the secured area because the secured area only had vending machines and no bathrooms. I didn't fly anywhere until I was 15, so I have no experience as a kid, but I imagine it's something you would hype up in your head and then when you get there it's like, oh... this is a lot like a car ride, except mom and dad are next to me It seems weird to me that the faux-norail stops running at night What time was that? We're getting in pretty late for our trip.

Yeah sucky airports are even worse when there is a delay.
I think it's because they are doing monorail construction so they shut it down at night. Never heard of this happening previously either since we've gotten in pretty late before too.

I'm glad the only opinion I've had to consider for our upcoming trip is Zack's That was what made the DLR trip last summer so hard... Certain people didn't have opinions when I did the planning, but they had plenty of them during the trip!

Yeah it's hard to please everyone but at least during the planning process it wasn't too bad.

And hey, all people and all bags made it to the Poly that night, which is what's most important

Exactly!! Whew!

I'm excited to follow along on your adventure. I'm amazed that you were able to organize the trip for that many people! It looks like a lot of fun and the kids are adorable.

Thank you for following! It was definitely a fun and crazy trip! I'm glad I don't have to do it again anytime soon.

Okay! Unsubscribing now, since I know the whole story now...

Yeah just insert several thousand words in between each emoji. LOL

no dice??? What kind of games is he playing over there????

They have mental dice.

Thanks for the tip! Seriously!

It's what got us our FP so I guess it worked!

Ingrates.
I'm cutting them out of the will.....


Nah... On second thought, I'll keep them in the will but spend every single penny before I croak.
That'll show 'em!

Haha even better!!

That's kinda how I feel.

I mean, get us to WDW already!!

This looks like so much fun! We just started planning a family reunion trip so I'm looking forward to seeing your plans and strategies.

Thank you for reading!!

Our Steve's are good men

They sure are!

I noticed all her outfits in your FB posts, love them! I also noticed her sweaters and I started sweating myself lol

We all know she's just a slave to fashion and self conscious so she'll wear the sweater for a picture then take it off to walk around, LOL.

Funny! We never used rider swap when the boys were little so I wasn't very familiar with it either, until I had to start explaining it to clients.

We learned all about it on this trip! It was the best thing ever.

Yup, those texts suck. Our delay on the way down this month was only an hour but the way back started out being much worse. Thankfully it ended up not being that way but it's always a crap shoot!

It sucked but oh well.

Huh? I had no idea there WAS a last airport monorail to the main terminal??? Is this only for JetBlue now because of the work their doing? That makes no sense with flights arriving at all hours.
Sorry arrival night didn't go nearly as planned, I'm feeling you on that due to our arrival night. But thankfully it didn't seem to dampen anyone spirits, and you had a whole wonderful trip ahead of you

It's because of the monorail replacement at the airport. They are replacing all the old monorails with the new cars but I guess they haven't gotten around to doing it with jetblue yet. It was the mad dash at midnight!

 

[pkondz]

Yeah just insert several thousand words in between each emoji. LOL

Pretty much what I do.

Haha even better!!

Just gotta make sure I spend it at the right time.

I mean, get us to WDW already!!

 

[chunkymonkey]

Day 1 Part 1: And so it begins...an MK morning

When I'm in Disney I usually have an internal alarm that gets me up early, not like race-day early but usually around 7am. But of course on that morning of our first day all I wanted to do was sleep. It was no help that we had a connecting room to CT1 and her family because Caylee and Bryan absolutely LOVED to wake us all up when they woke up. It is actually really cute to be woken up by your niece and nephew who think your room is a new playground. So as I was awoken by their banging on the connecting door, I opened one eye and asked Steve to call the bellhop to deliver our Garden Grocer order and then promptly pulled the sheets up over my head to catch another 10 minutes of shuteye before my niece and nephew decided to pull them off me. It was 8am. Yawn.

Today was a late start, since we had such a late night (later than I anticipated) but we still had to make it to breakfast at Crystal Palace by 10:20am. Chunkysis, who was sharing the room with Steve and I, was already up and about, laying out her outfit for the day. So I got up, showered, and when I got out the groceries had been delivered. We texted everyone to come to our room to pick up the stuff they ordered and that we'd all meet at the monorail by 9:30am. I knew they started the bag check at the monorails now so I thought we should get there with ample time to do so. We found out that Sienna's crib wasn't delivered until 2am which is when she finally went to sleep, and I'm assuming when everyone else in that room did too. Poor family, but Disney calls!

I reminded everyone to wear their magic bands. Chunkysis reminded everyone to bring their 1) Autograph books 2) Sharpies 3) Pennies and quarters for the pressed penny machines. She was on top of that every day. Good thing though as the parents wouldn't have remembered half the time. I also remembered to leave a mousekeeping envelope. My sister hand-makes these for our trip and she handed a bunch of them to every one else too. Each envelope is a different Disney print which is very cute.

We're ready to go!

Where is everyone else?

Amazingly we were all at the entrance to the monorail by 9:35am. Not too shabby. This was after I sent a couple of "Where is everyone" texts at 9:25am.
To my surprise monorail bag check was not too bad. They still had to check like every stroller and bag but it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be because there were far fewer people on line. The best part was being able to skip the park bag check lines which are usually much worse!

Waiting for the monorail

We got on a monorail and got to MK and reached the turnstiles. It's nice that the strollers can fit on the monorails and this was always why my family preferred the monorail over the buses.
At the ticket entrance I had to show the kids how to scan their band, Mickey to Mickey, and do their fingerprint. All the kids seemed to forget which finger they used all the time, I realized. But the first time was the easiest...and we were in!

I was carrying Eva and upon first turning onto Main Street. she saw Cinderella's Castle for the first time. She had a smile on her face.

She was impressed.

So was Caylee.

Whew!

Bryan and Sienna had the same stoic look of "I'm hot and what's going on?" most of the time, haha.

We had a few moments before breakfast so we got some PP pictures. The PP Photographer was very impressed with CS's outfit so she made her knee on the ground in the center. LOL.

After pictures I managed to herd them all through main street and into Crystal Palace in time, although CS wanted to keep taking pictures, but there was plenty of time for that later!

It was hot. Definitely humid, so it's a good thing our first thing to do is...EAT!

We were shown to our two large tables next to each other. It of course takes us 10 minutes to figure out where everyone wanted to sit as some of the kids wanted to sit next to each other and their parent and since this isn't Twister, not every kid can have their wish. Finally it was decided the older kids would sit together with the younger ones next to their parents. This was a trend at every restaurant we went to.

Of course everyone wants to sit next to me. Cos I'm the cool aunt.

(substitute aunt for mom)

4
I'm not a regular aunt, I'm a cool aunt.

Orange juices for everyone and coffees for the adults (yes!) we headed up in batches for the buffet. I told them Tigger was only a few tables away so we had to coordinate their return in time.

Pics of the buffet. I tried to get more but Eva and Sophie wanted to follow me so I had to help them get food too.

Sorry I should have taken pictures when the food was replenished but I just wasn't there at the right time.

This guy though, this guy makes the BEST omelettes! Everyone had an omelet and we all said, wow this omelet is really good. He fries the filling separately from the egg and then puts them all together. It's great.

I got an omelet with bacon, onion, tomato and some cheddar. It was really delicious and the bacon was crispy.

This was the breakfast lasagna which was layers of cake and fruit and pudding, sort of like a bread pudding with bananas and strawberries but not quite as baked. It was pretty good but not like wow good. The puffy french toast was yummy as were the Mickey waffles, of course!

Our first set of character pictures with Tigger!

Everyone remembered to get their autograph books signed too!

There are more pictures of every family but I'm just showing the ones I have on my phone or camera.

Somehow I missed Eeyore! I was at the buffet I think. Oh well. I love Eeyore though.

And finally Piglet!

We had to chase Piglet down because they forgot their autographs and at first the CM wasn't going to let us disrupt Piglet's flow but Kelly's DH's Honyee is one convincing fellow and somehow hemanaged to finagle the signatures for all the autograph books.

You'll notice that Caylee is not in these pictures because she refused take any. She did NOT like characters. She'd tolerate princesses but that's it.

We had a great time at CP. It was our first real meal after our long travel night and airplane food. It was also the first character experience and most of the kids loved it. I thought it was a nice relaxing way to "ease" everyone into the Disney experience! It took an hour and a half total for breakfast - and I had to usher everyone out because our FP for our very first ride, Peter Pan, was about to expire. On to Fantasyland!

Of course nothing is that quick...we have to make sure all the kids go to the bathroom, we have to get everything packed up, have to get the stroller. Have to figure out who actually wants to ride the stroller or who wants to be carried and who wants to walk. All that takes another 15 minutes before we actually leave the restaurant.

But no worries as I was in my Happy Place!

I love this picture of the realities of traveling with small kids...

Sienna and Eva in the double stroller, Bryan with his portable neck fan who wanted to walk on the ledge being helped by CS. Cooling towels worn by almost everyone. Stroller fans at full blast. Disney in the summer is a glamorous time!

Oh yeah, you want to know what a sweat blanket feels like? Go to Disney in August. Good times.

We finally make it to Peter Pan. Oh but guess what, we have to get the kids out of the stroller and park the stroller and then get on line. Well some of us without strollers just got one line.

Eva then decideed she wants to ride with me. So I got to take her on her first official Disney World ride!

Her first words: "I can't see a thing!"



But after she gets off, she decided she LOVES this ride and wants to go back on. I distracted her from the 70 minute wait time by suggesting, wow, Small World is only 15 minutes! So we walk across and ride IASW.

I think we took up an entire boat!

Oh look who's awake!

Coming Up, 7DMT - do I lose Cool Aunt status?
​

 

[buzzrelly]

Chunkysis reminded everyone to bring their 1) Autograph books 2) Sharpies 3) Pennies and quarters for the pressed penny machines. She was on top of that every day

That must be nice to go with someone who is helpful! I am always the only one who remembers everything, times everything, plans everything…I don't mind but once in a while it would be nice for someone else to have a job!

I also remembered to leave a mousekeeping envelope. My sister hand-makes these for our trip and she handed a bunch of them to every one else too. Each envelope is a different Disney print which is very cute.

Those are ADORABLE!

To my surprise monorail bag check was not too bad. They still had to check like every stroller and bag but it wasn't as painful as I thought it would be because there were far fewer people on line. The best part was being able to skip the park bag check lines which are usually much worse!

I am weirdly so excited about this! I hate bag check at the park!

We had a few moments before breakfast so we got some PP pictures. The PP Photographer was very impressed with CS's outfit so she made her knee on the ground in the center. LOL.

Great pictures! Your sister's outfit is to die for! I love it!

I'm not a regular aunt, I'm a cool aunt.

Cute pic!

I love this picture of the realities of traveling with small kids...

So true, but seeing their little faces makes it so worth all the extra effort!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Yay!! What a fun morning! The group, so far at least, seems pretty cooperative and listens to instruction- that's good! I have to admit I've never been to CP but I love an omelette and Tigger is my favorite so I may have to try it. I was just reading on another thread that they don't sign autographs anymore. I guess they hand out a card shaped like a honey pot with all the autographs on it.

Peter Pan is a great first ride!! Did you bring the fans and cooling towels from home? You were prepared!!

Traveling with kids -and so many - must offer a different perspective on touring - both good (their reactions) and bad (stroller parking!)

 

[Mich123]

Great update--so. much. fun! The Eeyore pic with the baby looking at Eeyore is the cutest. The wonder and the awe and admiration! Or is it the wary eye? I'm going with wonder and awe and admiration!

I love that you're the cool aunt! I might not be the cool aunt, but I'm definitely the Disney aunt. My family loves that I'm their personal tour guide when they go with me. It's probably just because I know where every bathroom on property is located. You're doing an awesome job of moving everyone along, that is no easy job.

Poor Caylee! We actually didn't visit WDW until my youngest was 7 because she didn't like anyone in costume--we thought she'd be terrorized by the experience. Once in NYC, we saw a person in a dog costume at a parade and my youngest who was 4 at the time started screaming at the "dog" and waving her arms for him to go away, yelling "BAD DOG, BAD DOG!!!" She was absolutely frantic, it was awful. My older daughter was not happy that she had to wait until she was 10 to go to Disney!

 

[kastoney]

d everyone to bring their 1) Autograph books 2) Sharpies 3) Pennies and quarters for the pressed penny machines. She was on top of that every day. Good thing though as the parents wouldn't have remembered half the time. I also remembered to leave a mousekeeping envelope. My sister hand-makes these for our trip and she handed a bunch of them to every one else too. Each envelope is a different Disney print which is very cute.

Love the juxtaposition of what you and chunkysis think is important Also loving the mousekeeping envelopes she made. We usually don't tip until the end of the trip. Do you find you get better service doing it all along?

At the ticket entrance I had to show the kids how to scan their band, Mickey to Mickey, and do their fingerprint. All the kids seemed to forget which finger they used all the time, I realized. But the first time was the easiest...and we were in!

After all of Casey's time in the world you'd think she'd have it down, but she gets the finger wrong at least every other time and we are good for for having to flag down a castmember to look her up on the ipad at least a few times a trip So for novices I'm sure your brood did great!

4
I'm not a regular aunt, I'm a cool aunt.

Great picture cool aunt!

This was the breakfast lasagna which was layers of cake and fruit and pudding, sort of like a bread pudding with bananas and strawberries but not quite as baked. It was pretty good. The puffy french toast was yummy as were the Mickey waffles, of course!

Yum as I sit here on a Sunday morning starving and wanting to eat everything for breakfast and having only cereal in the house I think I'd do just about anything for some of that lasagna right about now. Looks awesome!

There are more pictures of every family but I'm just showing the ones I have on my phone or camera.

Love chunkysis's outfit. Did she make it or buy it somewhere?

I love this picture of the realities of traveling with small kids...

Welcome to the club!!!! They sure are cute, but they most definitely take up a lot more time. Traveling with only 1, I can only fathom what you all endured

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I hope you're on board for this crazy, crazy ride with my ohana!

I can't wait to hear all about the Family Fun!

Plus, I learned A LOT about stroller parking and Rider Switch! Our next trip should be a piece of cake, right?

It really is a whole thing! And a world you probably didn't even knew existed!

Great pic of you and your sister! Love the hair!

So, we all basically grabbed a carry-on, grabbed a kid, and huffed and puffed our way out of the airplane and ran for the monorail with me leading the way and DH guiding people in the back. Thank goodness we were in the front of the plane as we made it on the (crowded) monorail with a few moments to spare. Yup all 15 of us, I didn't lose anyone yet!

I have a very humorous image of all of you running threw the airport. Very cartoon style with hijinks and all... Ha! Glad you made it in time!

Eva was ready for the week!

Too Cute!

Waiting for our ME bus!

Man, You guys took up most of the line!

Me saying "We're all here! My job is done! (NOT)"

Ha! It was just starting!

As you can see Steve is thinking "What did I get myself into?" or "Here we go all over again" or "Stop taking pictures already!"

I think Steve has the same face in most of your pictures.

So as I was awoken by their banging on the connecting door, I opened one eye and asked Steve to call the bellhop to deliver our Garden Grocer order and then promptly pulled the sheets up over my head to catch another 10 minutes of shuteye before my niece and nephew decided to pull them off me. It was 8am. Yawn.

As long as you guys thought it was cute. And 8am would be a miracle for my girls to wake up there aunt in disney!

This pic is great!

4
I'm not a regular aunt, I'm a cool aunt.

Def the Cool Aunt!

Great pic of you and your sister! As a side note, I know there has been talk before about the skirts you wear at the parks. But I don't remember now. Where do you get them?

Love the girls shirts!

I love this picture of the realities of traveling with small kids...

Walking around Disney with that many people must have been interesting at times! The struggle is real!

Awesome Pic!

Oh but guess what, we have to get the kids out of the stroller and park the stroller and then get on line. Well some of us without strollers just got one line.

Yup. Everything with kids take longer than you would think!

I distracted her from the 70 minute wait time by suggesting, wow, Small World is only 15 minutes! So we walk across and ride IASW.

It is probably a life saver for a lot of people that IASW usually isn't too long of a wait. I do hate that que, though, even if there is a small line, it's kind of a hot mess.

I think we took up an entire boat!

I think that is Awesome!

Def the Cool Aunt!

 

[nettii]

LOVE LOVE LOVE that your family is with you! It is exhausting to be the tour guide...but so many great memories!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Hi Su-Lynn. I can't imagine traveling with that many people...You have done such an awesome job of preparing for the trip...And, it looks like it's off to a great start!

 

[annie170]

First of all, I'm so happy Eva had a good trip. Such a sweet girl.

Of course you're the cool aunt! You're just plain cool!

Love CS's outfit! Can't wait to see more.

I enjoy Crystal Palace, but have never had breakfast there. Too bad you missed Eeyore. He's one of my favorites.

We've traveled with our daughters and grandkids numerous times and it can be so exhausting, but totally worth it. Doing rides in shifts because of little ones is very time consuming.

I love your bag. Is that LeSportsac Everyday Bag? I had one I used for at least five years. I used to find them at TJ Maxx, but haven't seen them there in a while.

I've only been at Disney in August once. 1995 with 99 degree heat and record capacity crowds. This was, of course, before fast passes were around and most of the rides had two hour waits. Yeah.....

 

[Tracy161]

It's not that he doesn't like it, he'll go on it as much as me, but I think he would rather do a thrill ride vs the peoplemover!

Tell Steve about my last TR title : PeopleMover is my kind of thrill ride!

She's been tell everyone she meets that she went to Disneyworld and how much fun she had!

Awww, so glad to hear this!

Aww thank you, it's the calm before the storm.

Uh oh...

My sister hand-makes these for our trip and she handed a bunch of them to every one else too. Each envelope is a different Disney print which is very cute.

That's amazing! Typically I get a little creative with my Mousekeeping envelopes but I kinda left this for the last possible minute so they weren't quite as cool as usual, but a step above just leaving money on the counter

Of course everyone wants to sit next to me. Cos I'm the cool aunt.

I'm not a regular aunt, I'm a cool aunt.

Duh! I like to think of myself in the same club - the Cool Aunt Club!

I tried to get more but Eva and Sophie wanted to follow me so I had to help them get food too.

Oh I remember this with my nephew. I had him on one hip and I'm pretty sure two plates in the other hand

Of course nothing is that quick...we have to make sure all the kids go to the bathroom, we have to get everything packed up, have to get the stroller. Have to figure out who actually wants to ride the stroller or who wants to be carried and who wants to walk.

Ahhh, yes... you're bringing back memories of my January trip, except we only had TWO kids with us!

Sounds like a great start to the trip, I'm hoping the Disney spirit continues for everyone!

 

[Dentam]

Looks like a crazy but fun morning! Where did you get the fans that go around your neck?

 

[Gina Starr]

I have followed lots of your reports but have never commented. I just had to say how much I relate to the 10 minute process of deciding who sits next to who! I have 5 nieces and nephews (all from the same sister) and it is always an argument who gets to sit next to me and my husband. They usually argue over him more than me though. We went to Disney with them in January and I understand the pain of it taking ten times as long to do anything between a million bathroom breaks and parking the stroller then finding the stroller when it inevitably gets moved! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Bambi-NY]

Great family photos. Love your sisters mousekeeping envelops. Such a great idea. You're definitely a cool aunt,which is something I can relate to.
I'm getting so excited reading your trip report and seeing photos. I leave tomorrow for Disney with my niece (13). Just her and I this trip.

 

[BabyPiglet]

You are actually making me think of bringing the whole extended family to Disney, even though I know it would be NUTS. You make it looks so easy and fun!