Pilgrms on the Move-updated 11/21-leaving in the morning!

[cam&phoebsmom]

Hello Everyone-thanks for reading our pre-trip report. As you could probably tell from the title, we are traveling down this year for Thanksgiving. I have been anxiously waiting for the 4 month mark to start the pre-trip-somehow in my head 4 months was the right time to start.

I decided to write the pre-trip because this trip wil be different than our past 3 (4 if you count our one day trip to Disneyland) because:

*we are traveling down during a busy week-the week of Thanksgiving. In the past we have always traveled during relatively slow times (twice in September, and last year in January)

*we are finally able to stay in a Deluxe rather than the moderates we have stayed in previously

*we are not going alone-we are traveling with friends who are also meeting some of their family down there

*this trip is a SURPRISE! We have always talked about our trips with our kids to get them excited and ready for the trip but this time we decided to surprise them.

Here are the particulars of our trip:

Arrival: Wednesday, November 22nd (day before Thanksgiving). Driving down means the time we get there will totally depend on us.
Where: Wilderness Lodge
Why: To see the Holiday decorations (plus we have been to a Disney park in 2008, 2009, 2010 and we did not like the idea of skipping a year, LOL)
Who: The 4 of us! I will do a better introduction later on, but we are a family of 4. DH, me, DS9 and DD4.

Here is a pic of us on our last trip In Jan. 2010 in EPCOT

I am hoping some of you who are either going Thanksgiving Week or have been during this time will pop in from time to time and critique our plans or give us some advice. I am also hoping that the other family we are traveling with will also pop in and add in to the pre-trip. They have traveled to Disney more than we have and we are all excited to be going together

 

[StephaniexMarie]

Nice title!! I'm totally subbing.

We'll be there from Thanksgiving to the 3rd! & We are also staying at a deluxe. Well, for 6 nights of the trip, thanks to a lovely PIN code.

Can't wait to hear more of your plans!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Thanks! We also got a pin and my son REALLY wants to stay at the WL. We are doing a split stay as well which I will explain later on.

And WOOHOO for you-your 1st 2011 trip is coming up and then you have another trip to look forward to-lucky you!!!

 

[mommyof3princess27]

I am so subscribing to this! I cant wait to hear more! Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to see the Christmas Lights in WDW! Well last October(10th ann) we went to WDW for our ist trip! What in the world had I been missing all these years???? So I did what I always wanted to do! Go during the holiday season! Dont get me wrong, the MNSSHP was fun but i want to go to the MVMCP more hehehe. Cant wait to hear more. P.S.- my trip is also a surprise!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

I am so subscribing to this! I cant wait to hear more! Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to see the Christmas Lights in WDW! Well last October(10th ann) we went to WDW for our ist trip! What in the world had I been missing all these years???? So I did what I always wanted to do! Go during the holiday season! Dont get me wrong, the MNSSHP was fun but i want to go to the MVMCP more hehehe. Cant wait to hear more. P.S.- my trip is also a surprise!

I just saw your ticker-we may be there next year at the same time! I am working on doinga girls' trip with my DD, my mom, and maybe my sis, her DD (who is 23) and my neice to be (my oldest nephew is getting married next year and I would love her to come too!). I think we may go the week before Thanksgiving

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

So who are the "pligrims" on this trip:

Me-a SAHM who has 3 jobs all in the same day, LOL. I teach a kids class at the gym, am a demonstrator for a rubber stamp/scrapbook company (and I have 2 clubs that always meet on Wednesdays), and during the school year I teach an after-school science class on (you guessed it) WEDNESDAY! I used to be a full-time teacher but after a few years juggling grad school, full-time work, and teaching I was able to stay home with my kiddos. I had gone to WDW a few times as a child (I remember using tickets!) and looking back wish we had gone a few times when it was just DH and I.

Faves:
Princess-Tiana
Ride-Tower of Terror
Restaurant-Biergarten

DH-I am lucky enough to have a DH that LOVES Disney World as much as I do! He went to WDW one time as a kid, but like me his love of WDW did not really start until we went on our 1st trip as a family in 2006. A funny thing about him is when he smiles at Disney for pictures it is a HUGE smile I refer to it as his, "Disney Dave" smile.

Faves:
Character-Mickey
Ride-Splash Mountain
Restaurant-'Ohana's

Looking through our pics I realized almost all of our pictures are of the 4 of us or just the kids-I will have to get some of just us on our next trip!

DS-or "TheBoy" as we generally call him is a reluctant Disney fan. He is one of those kids who gets nervous at the thought of a new ride, and once he rides it he likes it. He is our triple threat=>smart. cute, and athletic. Add in a goofy sense of humor, love of fantasy books, and the ability to play vieo games until his brain turns to ooze and you get a pretty clear picture of him. His favorite sport is baseball and his fall ball season will be over when we travel to Florida.

Fave character-anyone he does not have to pose with
Movie-Star Wars (okay technically not a Disney movie-but those are by far his fave)
Ride-Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Sum of All Thrills (he loves simulators)
Restaurant-Boma and anywhere he can eat "meat on bones"


DD-she has a bunch of nicknames but for this trip the easiest thing is to call her what we call her the most-SASSY! She is 4 and will be almost 5 on our trip. She is cute and funny and LOVES all things Disney. She is still a bit nervous on rides and we will have to see if she makes the height requirement when we go as she is just 40" now and I do not know if she will stand up tall to get measured. She likes the characters and especially the princesses. One of my favorite memories of our last trip is when she met Jasmine and Aladdin and SQUEALED with excitement as she ran back to me,.

Fave Characters-all of them
Fave Movie-Little Mermaid (but anything princessy)
Favorite Restaurant-anywhere she can get lemonade and dessert!

I do not have permission from the other trip members to post their pictures, so for now I will just describe them and our relationship. We became friends with "D and S" many years ago when we were all 1st married and we lived in Germany. After the tours were over, we moved back to MD 1st, then a year or so later D and S moved here and we now live about 35 minutes from one another. They have a daughter I will call Rapunzel (she has beautiful long, curly hair) who is 7 and is a fantastic little girl. She is a great complement to my 2 kids as she is in between them in age and plays great with both of them. We feel lucky that not only have we remained friends with them for about 15 years, but that our kids can grow up together.

So that is our group of pilgrims-S also has family going down at the same time, so some of our dinner reservations are for 16 people-8 of those are folks I have never met. But we always have a wonderful time at Disney so I think it will just be part of a new experience for us and am looking forward to the challenge!

 

[ZFamily5]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[mommyof3princess27]

Me neither---i know look to u to give me my disney 'fix' each day lol

 

[ShaylaLynn]

Joining In!!!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Since we have always gone during a low attendance time (September and January) our original plan was to skip 2011 and travel down in Jan. 2012. We have a group of friends we tend to call the "4 families". Our family, the family of D and S (the other traveling pilgrims ), another family who we also were friends with in Germany and now live 6 minutes away from us, and another family who joined our group a few years ago. When we say we are having a, "family party" it usually means the 4 families. We do birthdays together, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, and well-you get the picture.

So originally we had all discussed going down together, but then one family could not go as they had a big trip planned this summer, and then the other was not sure if they would go down again in Jan. (they traveled down with us in Jan. 2010 and camped in their pop-up at Ft. Wilderness.). SO it was us and D and S and their DD.

*three of our 4 kids watching fireworks from the balcony of the CR after Chef Mickey's last Jan 2010*


Then something happened-I got a Christmas card in Dec. 2010 in the mail from a friend who had been at WDW during the Christmas holiday season and sent a card featuring her family with the Osborne Lights behind her. I kept thinking about how fun it would be to see the lights and be in WDW during my favorite time of year. However we had already made plans with D and S so I was not sure if they would want to go then as they had already been there during Thanksgiving the year before. I casually mentioned going around Thanksgiving to S and she was all for it. I giess we kind of had to clear it with our DH's (or at least get their opinion) but once I knew S was in I knew we would be able to pull it off.

I remembered that my DH and I had wanted to stay at Widerness Lodge after our visit to WCC for dinner last year. We loved the theming and the fact that they had bunk bed rooms so our kids could each have their own space. After doing some research I found that WL is supposed to be one of the best decorated for Christmas. Add in the boat to MK and we were sold. We are driving down and last year drove to the parks from CBR and LLOOOVVVEEEDDD having our car, so even though there is no monorail we will be okay.

*kids at WCC before called for our table*

Once plans were starting to come together we got a PIN code for a deluxe starting the Sunday AFTER Thanksgiving. Calling the helpful Disney travel folks we came up with a way to split stay without having to move resorts. We will arrive at WL on Wednesday before Thanksgiving and start our 7 day tickets. Our room reservations will be Wed-Sunday and we bought the meal plan for those 4 nights. Then we will check out of WL and check back in using the PIN code we got for 40% off and stay until Wednesday morning and pay for our food OOP. So we will get the hustle and bustle of a busy holiday week and then (hopefully) the crowds will die down some fo Sun- Tuesday as we end our stay.

We have a courtyrd view bunk bed room booked and are hoping we will not have to change rooms. If anyone has experienced a same resort split-stay and has any words of wisdom I would appreciate hearing your thoughts!

 

[ZFamily5]

We have a group of 3 families we do everything with too! Thanksgiving sounds like a great time to visit! Never done a same resort split stay, so no advice there...

 

[sbynon]

Consider D and S here--or at least S. You can post our picture, as long as it's one I would approve of .

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Since I now have permission from S, I am trying to pull this off of facebook so let's see if it works:

This is (l to r) D, S, me, and my DH waiting for the Aziz Ansari show last summer. Please pardon the poor phone picture, it was before I got my beloved iPhone. Also you may note that D is not smiling with teeth-this has become a bit of a joke between us because he always does a "toothless" smile. Now when I tell him to smile with teeth he does a big cheesy grin-hopefully I can catch him with some, "Disney Dave" expressions


And here are the 2 little princesses of the trip:

at the Amercian Girl Doll store a few weeks ago. Rapunzel on the left (you can see a bit of her beautiful curly hair) and Sassy on the right.

 

[Missyrose]

I'm joining in, it sounds like you've got a great trip planned! Deluxe, i'm so envious

 

[MickeyFanIncognito]

 

[MickeyFanIncognito]

It's me, the DH of D and S. Also known a MickeyFanIncognito on the boards. Although, I'm not sure how incognito I am with the pics that cam&phoebsmom is/will post.

Thank you for starting this PTR. It will be fun to see it develop and read the replies.

We are already having fun keeping this a secret and planning the actual trip. We planned our meals for the DDP by getting a babysitter for the three kids and making our decisions over a nice meal and great beer from one of my favorite restaurants. The waitress must of thought it a bit strange as we, obviously not on a business trip, combed over notes, created "spreadsheets," and consulted our smartphones for the latest and greatest information about WDW. Traveling with Disney veterans made it easy to use acronyms such as EMH and MVMCP.

A note about WDW during Thanksgiving. Not a problem at all. The past two years our average wait time (minus Toy Story Mania, and with efficient Fast Pass usage) was easily 15 minutes. In fact, two years ago during MVMCP, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we were told by a CM that if we wanted to go on Splash Mountain again to just stay seated. Yes, it was that empty.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Now if Dave can figure out what his username is we can all post on the trip report, LOL.

D-it was totally fun to plan out the trip with people who not only understand the Disney acronyms, but are excited to plan. I wish I had taken pics of our meals during the dinner-it could be the 1st food porn on our pre-trip report!

And as D mentioned (and is in my ticker) the trip is a SURPRISE for the kids. Both families have gone down to Disney a few times so I think all of our kids were wondering WHY we couldn't go down this year. My oldest and I priced out the trip one day (staying at WL in a bunkbed room, tickets, dining plan) and so now in his mind we are saving for Disney.

I don't think we have a definite plan yet for how to let the kids know that we are actually heading to Disney. I have seen some surprise videos but most likely won't tell them until we are all together so not sure how to let them know.

In the meantime I will leave you with a link to how I feel about keeping this surprise courtesy of SNL and Kristen Wiig. I totally identify with her character with this surprise!

http://www.hulu.com/watch/16388/saturday-night-live-surprise-party

"I forgot about her face-THAT'S THE BEST PART!!!!!"
And really an SNL skit that features Christopher Walken can brighten anyone's day!

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

Our last trip was in Jan. 2010 and the 1st trip where we drove vs. flying. We loved having the freedom to move around and pted for driving again. I can't handle driving through the night on one swoop, so we are daytime drivers who take a break.

Last time we were on the road by about 5:45 and loaded the kids up in their jammies and let them sleep for the start. As you can see my kids have different opinions about getting up early!

We stopped at a dirty little McDonald's to let them play while we ate after they changed into regular clothing, then got their food to go. How dirty was it? Well I was considering spraying down my kids with Lysol before we got back in the car. Chck out the nice clean window in the play area:

This time we are a little more concerned about how long it will take since we will leave 2 days before Thanksgiving so our goal is to be on the road by 4am and drive down to Brunswick, GA to sleep. Brunswick is just under 4 hours from WDW so the next morning the drive will not be so bad. D and S will do the same and we will meet them at the hotel where we will finally be able to revela the plan to head to WDW!

We do not yet have a clear plan on how to tell the kids. I have seen lots of videos on surprising kids and am excited to finally let the cat out of the bag. I think it will doubly exciting-not just a surprsie trip to WDW but that we get to go with D and S and Rapunzel! Although knowing my son he will try and be the cool guy and barely react and the adults will be the ones going nutty, LOL.

 

[ZFamily5]

I can't wait to see what you come up with to surprise your kids!! When we went at Christmas time, my parents woke us up and told us it was Easter! They had hidden Easter eggs around the house. Each egg had a letter in it and unscrambled, the letters spelled You're going to Disney World (or something like that).