Our Big Fat Family Vaca!! :)

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

Welcome to My Big Fat Trip Report!

WHO
Me : 13…I’m a huge planner!!! I absolutely LOVE Disney! I’ve been 5 times & can’t wait to get back!
Mom : She’s a huge planner, loves Disney & can’t wait to get there! (wonder where I get it from)
Matt : 10…my little bro doesn’t like to plan, but loves Disney & has been 4 times
Dad : the daredevil & biggest kid in the group
Andrea : hates planning but loves Disney; my mom’s DSis
Robbie: : huge planner; Andrea’s DH
Emyle : 15…says she would rather go to the beach than Disney, but we’ll see how long that lasts! Andrea’s DD
Kelsey : 12…6 months younger than me but taller than me, Mom, Emyle & almost Andrea (her DM)
Lisa : loves Disney; not as big of a planner as me but more than Andrea; DSis of Mom & Andrea
Brad : Lisa’s DH; Matt’s best friend
Noelle : 2…this will be her first WDW trip!!! Lisa & Brad’s DD; loves princesses, especially She-Doe (that’s how to say Cinderella in her world)
Gma : loves spending time with us & is going to do just that; DM of Mom, Andrea & Lisa; DGM of Me, Matt, Emyle, Kelsey, & Noelle
Gpa : is going to Disney ‘cause everyone else wants to; DF of Mom, Andrea & Lisa; DGF of Me, Matt, Emyle, Kelsey, & Noelle
That brings our head count to 13.

WHERE
We are staying in house offsite. Kelsey & I will share a room; Emyle & Matt will share, too. The 4 of us have 1 ½ bathrooms to share. There are 4 mater bed & bath, enough for all couples to have their own.
We are all going to MK, BB, & Epcot. We’ll split up some, because not everyone wants to go to DHS or AK.
Mom, Dad, Matt, & I are going to Universal & Wet ‘n’ Wild before everyone else gets there. I’m especially excited about WWHP!!! I’ve read & seen ALL things HP. I went to the midnight premier of the last movie in July 2011. I am…obsessed…if you wanna put it that way.
Next up…WHEN & WHY….

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

Some pics of my fam from previous WDW trips...

 

[2Monkeys]

Good start! Keep the details coming!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

WHEN
This year, we’re leaving on June 6th and arriving on June 7th. At least Mom, Dad, Matt & I are. The 4 of us will be staying at a resort at Universal until Saturday June 9th when we check into the house. Andrea, Robbie, Emyle, Kelsey, Gma, & Gpa are arriving on Saturday. Lisa, Brad, & Noelle are uncertain of their arrival date.
This is the first time we have ever gone in June, so I’m a little worried about the temperature in Florida that time of year. If it’s anything like what I’m used to, Splash will feel amazing!


WHY
We usually take a big family vacation every other year. The last one we took was 4 years ago (a cruise to Mexico) and Lisa, Brad, & Noelle weren’t with us…partially because Noelle wasn’t even born yet!! Mom absolutely hated the cruise, and thus informed us that all future vacations would have to be on land. So, shockingly, it was Andrea who suggested WDW. I haven’t been since 2009, so naturally I jumped at the chance to go…and so did everyone else. The suggestion was given in June of 2011…and thus the planning began!


OUR COUNTDOWN
As part of our May 2009 trip, we created the Great Mouse Down. We took a piece of poster board & decorated it with Disney stickers. We then took 2 different colored sticky notes, numbering the days we had left until our trip.
Well, the Mouse Down has made its reappearance! We have green & neon yellow sticky notes this year. I take off the green ones & Matt does the yellow. Under the last sticky note there’s a note that says “Let’s Go!” Each night a sticky note is removed. I usually will make some sort of announcement about it. I am the more excited child!!

This year's Great Mouse Down...as you can see...we need to make a new one!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

Good start! Keep the details coming!

Thanks for reading!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

THE TRAINING
As those of you regular Disney go-ers know, WDW takes A LOT of walking. My family, that is Mom, Dad, Matt, & I, are well aware of this. We make sure to train for this part of our trip. Whether it’s walks through the sand on the beach (which is actually pretty difficult), walking through the neighborhood, or walking at the park, we take a couple months to prepare. The others….well I’m not sure if they are preparing…

THE LISTS
Lists, lists, & more lists! That is my life when planning for a WDW trip. I make packing lists for EVERY trip, but a WDW packing list is one of the most important. With a big trip like that, you don’t want to get to Orlando & realize you’ve left your toothbrush at home. Now obviously that’s a minor problem, but anything can happen if you don’t have a checklist of some kind. A packing list is just the beginning. If you’re staying off property as we are, there are things that you have to bring that you wouldn’t if you were staying on-site i.e. paper products. Mom & I talk weekly (at least) about the things we need to remember to bring to the house & Mom has a list for that kind of thing on her laptop. We will NOT be caught unprepared.

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

WARDROBE
Now, those of you who actually read the subtitles may be thinking “Is she gonna give us fashion advice?” No..No….NO!! Well…sorta…. Now when you go on a trip like this, where there’s an icon character(s) or theme, you want to have a shirt/outfit that displays it. Take WWHP for example, I would LOVE for my family to go wearing HP shirts, but that probably won’t happen …my mother is making Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3, & Thing 4 shirts for us (Suess Landing is there as well). I’m not overly thrilled about this, in fact I would rather NOT, but no dice. I drew the line at all of us having red shirts; that’s just TOO much. I did get Mom to agree to make the “Thing” symbols small on the front of our shirts (insert hallelujahs!).

Next up… PIN TRADING

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

PIN TRADING
On our last Disney trip (which, by the way was three years ago!! AHHH! I’m having withdrawals!) Matt & I were introduced to pin trading. Mom bought us a grab bag of 25 pins before we left. I already had a pin that I had bought on a previous trip, so I gave the extra to Matt. (Aren't I an awesome sister? ) As we walked around the parks, we watched for CMs with a green lanyard. If we spotted one, we would go over and say I’ll give you this one for that one. It’s all up to you! The pins are a great souvenir and fun to trade, too!

These are my pins for this year & from our trip in 2009...

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

We are leaving in....drumroll please....

23 DAYS!!!!

Here are some pics that go with earlier posts...

My collection of Mickey shirts for this trip

This year's custom T-shirt

 

[Moodyzblu]

Joining in !!

I love that so many people are going .. I'd love to do that some day.

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

Joining in !!

I love that so many people are going .. I'd love to do that some day.

Thanks for reading!! I was worried nobody was ever going to read this! This is the first time we've ever gone with this many people, so we'll see!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

THE PLAN

So, my faithful readers, you've probably caught on to the fact that I never go anywhere without a plan. So here's our plan for this 10 day adventure!

Weds: ride in the car until we reach our overnight hotel in...I'm not sure where actually...

Thurs: ride in the car for a couple more hours & arrive at Universal resort around lunchtime; eat a quick meal & hit Universal Studios!! (& WWHP )

Fri: Wet 'n' Wild!!

Sat: Islands of Adventure; check into house possibly DTD??

Sun: Mom & I (and anyone else who wants to come) are going to MK at opening; possibly DTD (not sure if this day or Sat)

Mon: Epcot!! eat our way around the world

Tues: BB: fun in the sun!!

Wed: some of us may be going to DHS...other than that not sure

Thurs: MK with EVERYBODY...Breakfast with "She-Doe" haha

Fri: no plan for today really...I know what you're thinking...WHAT?! This is so unlike me or Mom....we've been talking about going to Typhoon Lagoon but no one really knows

Sat: leave the magical world and head back to reality



Next up......uhh.... uum.......I guess it'll be surpries to everybody!!

 

[Moodyzblu]

Sounds like a great plan !

I'm never that organized .. We pretty much go with the flow each day.

Your family is very lucky to have a wonderful planner !

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

Sounds like a great plan !

I'm never that organized .. We pretty much go with the flow each day.

Your family is very lucky to have a wonderful planner !

Thanks...It's not all me though...I get my organization from my mom, and she & I have been planning this trip together for over a year...my dad just goes with the flow b/c he knows he'll give in eventually

It's very unusual for me or my mom to not have a plan for Friday...but we'll see.....

Thanks for reading!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

I am going CRAZY b/ we leave in...........



17 DAYS!!!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

So I discovered, as I was reading back over my TR, that I made a major boo boo in my plan...we are actually going to Islands of Adventure on Thursday and Universal Studios on Saturday.. oops!!

PACKING

So today was the beginning of a crazy weekend/week...We started packing because we leave in.....wait for it...


4 DAYS!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!

 

[Moodyzblu]

So excited for you !!

You're going to have such a great time!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

So excited for you !!

You're going to have such a great time!!

Thanks!! We are going a little bit crazy trying to get everything done!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

So today was our last day at home!!! We are almost done packing and we leave...drum roll.....


TOMORROW!!!

 

[PeaceLuvTheMouse]

DAY 1

ISLANDS OF ADVENTURE

Yesterday was full of driving, driving, and more driving.

We arrived at the Universal hotel around 11:30, but our room wasn't ready. We grabbed our Express Passes (a.k.a. our room keys) and hit the park. First thing we rode: Spiderman! The wait was 75 minutes!!! Ick! But with out unlimited express passes, we were in & out of the ride in 15. Very cool! The ride is kind of like Soarin' but much more intense. There was a lot of spinning, too. I rode it twice, then had to be done. Too much spinning doesn't settle with me.

After riding Spiderman, we decided to get something to eat. Mom, being the A student that she is, had been doing her homework on places to eat in the parks & at City Walk. Pastamore: delicious!! I did the "Create Your Own Pasta" & made chicken alfredo. So good!! After lunch, we went & did more rides....Maybe we ate lunch before Spiderman...oops!! I'm totally sure on that one... Anywho, we went all over Islands of Adventure, excpet WWHP (which was killing me!!)... Suess Landing is great if you want to sit down & take a break. The rides there are very cute & relaxing...except The Cat in the Hat....it spins...a lot!! After a while, we finally headed over to WWHP!! I was soooo happy!! Unfortunately, it had rained before & it would rain again. We hardly got any pictures!! We did get to ride Forbidden Journey . I think we waited maybe 25-30 minutes...not bad at all. It didn't even feel that long because you are constantly moving & looking around Hogwarts & the Green House. After a little while longer in the pouring rain, we raced back to the hotel, showered & got ready for dinner at Margaritaville. Dinner was super yummy!! For those of you who have been to Lulu's in Gulf Shores, AL, it is similar to that, just not quite as loud. I had a chicken caser salad...very pleased with my experience! We headed back to the hotel and hoped the next day would be sunny for the water park!!