Our First Trip!

[MagicalMemoriesMama]

I'm so happy to have found this community! To start I'm going to share why I picked the name "MagicalMemoriesMama" and the quick story of my last trip to Orlando.

As my kids are growing up I love giving them the opportunity to make magical memories. Most of these are driven by me, and occur around their birthdays and Christmas. It is also important to me to document these memories so that they can look back and remember the magical times we had as a family, so it will be a heavily scrapbooked trip.

About almost exactly 12 years ago I was vacationing in Orlando with my parents, brother, a few families of friends, and an extra friend. Our ages were just right between 3 families that each of us kids had a friend the same age, plus our extra friend. It was a graduation trip for the 3 oldest in the group, me included. Us 7 kids grew up as a group (church, scouting, a little bit of school) and were staying for a church youth conference after family vacation. We did Kennedy Space Center (all because of me), Universal (hit all the rides in one day), went swimming at the beach, went to GatorLand, had dinner at Medieval Times, rode a fan boat, and visited a college (for my brother). The night before our last vacation day my parents asked if we wanted to do Disney World and I was the only one who said "YES!" so my friend who had come without her parents went with us. I don't remember what we did. I don't know that there are pictures. I couldn't tell you what any of the rides are like. I'm starting from scratch here.

I am super excited to be able to go back for the first time and steer the trip so that my family can make some amazing magical memories. My next post will introduce who gets to go on this trip, where we're staying, and when we're going.

 

[MagicalMemoriesMama]

Up until about three weeks ago this was a completely imaginary trip that I hoped would happen sooner rather than later. I had my Pinterest board, a word document of notes, and a bug in my dad’s ear about resort time, but couldn’t put anything into motion. See, I was waiting on Disney to renew the Armed Forces Salute which my neighbor had filled me in on before their trip sometime in the last year. I wanted to go for our 30th birthdays (October or December), we haven’t had a family vacation that wasn’t back home to visit our families, and it was important to me to go before my oldest got out of the absolutely awestruck age. Disney announced, I called my dad, got some ADRs booked, and we’re on our way to an amazing vacation. Here’s the Who, Where, and When.

The Who:

• SM (that’s me!)-I’m a stay at home mom, my kids are the center of my world so I go all out for them, love experiencing new things, and scrapbooking is my main hobby. I’ll be turning 30 on this trip and want to do it all!
• WL (my hubby)-He is in the Air Force, likes StarTrek more than Star Wars (though his only request was Star Wars), thinks I go overboard with events like the kids’ birthday parties, and his birthday was the October one I mentioned earlier.
• Our kids MJ (5yo girl), EM (3yo girl), and WWR (1yo boy). This is their first trip and it is going to be a surprise! Hopefully they don’t find out until we tell them at the resort in Florida.
• MA and TJ-My parents who will be joining us and booking our lodging. My mom says that their priority is spending time with the kids so will tag along for anything. She also mentioned going to Medieval Times again, but I nixed that since there is one within 2 hours of us now.
• LW and LL-My hubby’s parents might be joining us for a few days but they don’t plan ahead since they have flight privileges with an airline so they always fly standby. His dad’s vacation time starts the 11th but his mom is semi-retired so she has some flexibility to join us more easily.

The Where:

• My dad has us booked off site right now at Reunion (about 25 minutes away), he’s continuing to check to see if a room becomes available at Bonnet Creek (seems to be on property but not Disney owned).

The When:

• We decided on December 1-10 based on crowd calendars and that we’d rather see/do Christmas than Halloween.

Up next is my basic plan of What we will do every day which is where I'm currently in need of expert eye on the plan.

 

[MagicalMemoriesMama]

So this is how I want our trip to work out, but I have no clue if it’s even doable.

• December 1: Drive from the DC area (12 hour drive). My parents will get in earlier and do their own thing.
• December 2: Settle in, get groceries, and hit the outlets. Send the kids on a scavenger hunt around the resort. Spend the afternoon at DTD getting tickets activated, picking up free buttons for birthday/first trip, and looking around.
• December 3: Magic Kingdom for Rope Drop on MY BIRTHDAY! ADR at The Crystal Palace for 2pm. Harmony Barber Shop for First Haircuts (EM, WWR) and either a cut or style (MJ) – could also do on the 8th.
• December 4: EPCOT for Rope Drop.
• December 5: Resort day.
• December 6: Explore day. ADR 11:30am at 1900 Park Fare (my girls love Mary Poppins). See the decorations at the Grand Floridian while we’re there. Then to DTD to play around.
• December 7: Animal Kingdom for Rope Drop. Hop to Hollywood Studios around 2pm. Hop to Magic Kingdom around 7. The hop to MK was added yesterday when I realized that there was nighttime stuff scheduled on a non-MVMCP night.
• December 8: Magic Kingdom for Rope Drop (going to try to get ADR for an early BOG breakfast). Harmony Barber Shop for First Haircuts (EM, WWR) and either a cut or style (MJ) – could also do on the 3rd. Hop to EPCOT for ADR 8pm Askershus and IllumiNations.
• December 9: Stay at the resort and pack up.
• December 10: Drive home. L My parents will stay late and do their own thing.

I also have ADR at Tusker House on the 7th (probably going to cancel or try to get an early breakfast) and The Plaza at 1:20pm on the 8th (might cancel).
We’ll be eating meals at the resort (full kitchen) when we are there, and packing breakfast/lunch/snacks for a lot of our non-ADR meals in the parks.

Also on our to do list is the sing-a-long at Fort Wilderness, getting some grandparent babysitting time, and possibly MVMCP for hubby and I. And of course a handful of other things on the ever growing list.

My list of individual park must dos is barely started so it’s a good thing I still have almost 5 months.

The rest of my current plans are still so fluid but include amazing outfits for at least the kids, and some “over the top” (at least according to WL) Tinker Bell gifts.