Planning another magical 5th birthday

[annegirl]

I made it over! ON YOUR ADR DAY!!!!

You have a beautiful family!

The girls are precious, and are going to flip out with all the goodies!!!

So happy for you you got all your ADR'S!!!!

Excited to follow along oh and Hi Terri...

Thank you! And welcome! Glad you came over!!

Congrats on getting your ADR's in! I love your final list and looking forward to reading about your experiences with them in your final trip report

Yahoo!

Thanks! I am so happy. I was really worried about getting all of them. So relieved today!

Woohoo! Your list looks AWESOME! So happy you got all that you wanted! Props to the hubby for helping out too! Mine was snoozing like no tomorrow in the midst of my ADR craziness!!

Thank you!
I was surprised he woke up! Usually he sleeps through these kinds of things. I think he was as anxious as I was to get Be our Guest. And it definitely helped to have some support during the craziness of trying to get online to work.

 

[annegirl]

You haven't said HOW you were going to reveal to the girls they are going to Disney? ya know i am so curious in how everyone else is doing it to tweak my reveal...

I do need to do an update about that. I will do that next!

 

[annegirl]

The Reveal

As Doug and I talked about this trip I was more inclined to tell the girls this time and let them be part of the planning. But Doug really wanted to keep it a surprise again. Finally I agreed.
I told him I didn't want to wait until we get to the parks though. I want to tell them before we leave to go to the airport.

This is the plan I have come up with:

Abi will go to school on Monday like usual. I will have to talk to her teacher about her missing school so I will have to stress that she not say anything to Abi about it.
We will let her think that the week is like any other week and that she will be going to school again the next morning.
I will have everything ready to go for Tuesday morning.
My parents will probably meet us at our place so they can join in for the reveal.

I am going to set up the table with balloons if I can. I am going to get some Krispy Kremes (or some other kind of bigger donut) and then some smaller donuts to put out plates with mickey heads made out of donuts for breakfast.

I plan on having their backpacks (maybe new for Abi since hers isn't Disney themed) on the table full of the Disney themed things to do on the plane.
I also want to make some princess dresses for their American Girl dolls and have them sitting there wearing them.

Then I am going to make some t-shirts with this iron on.

I got this from Mr. Joe's printables on Etsy.
It says "I'm going to Disney World".

So when they come out thinking it's time to get ready for school, we will just try to be filming them when they find all the stuff.

We will eat a quick breakfast and then head out to the airport.

Does this sound good? Any suggestions?

 

[MarbleBob]

I LOVE the reveal!!! I think it sounds great and I don't have any suggestions, but I'd be interested to see what your other readers say.

I love the idea of the dresses for the American Girl dolls, the doughnuts, balloons, and everything. I can imagine the initial confusion, "what's all this for?", and then the moment when the light bulb clicks and they "get it". You HAVE to get it on video.

(We've only done one surprise trip before. The only time we've flown to WDW. I would have rather have been able to do the reveal more along the lines of what you were doing, but we had to leave the house at like 4:00 AM to catch an early flight. Instead, DW got out the old "boom box" and blasted the Mickey Mouse March very loudly at 3:30AM. They stumbled out of their rooms all dazed and confused. It took a couple of minutes for them to wake up enough to accept that it wasn't a cruel joke. Having their expressions on video is priceless though )

 

[annegirl]

That is hilarious. I can just imagine being woken up that way. So funny!

 

[annegirl]

Doug called me from work a little while ago to tell me that he had decided to check Be our Guest and he was seeing something open on the day we were hoping to get our reservation.
I called in right away
AND THERE WAS!

So I was able to get a new Be Our Guest reservation for dinner at a really good time on a night when my parents will still be there. I cancelled the other one.

I am so excited! Now the only thing I have planned that isn't exactly what I wanted is the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment being at 1:10 in the afternoon rather than the first thing in the morning.

 

[Denovagirl]

Doug called me from work a little while ago to tell me that he had decided to check Be our Guest and he was seeing something open on the day we were hoping to get our reservation.
I called in right away
AND THERE WAS!

So I was able to get a new Be Our Guest reservation for dinner at a really good time on a night when my parents will still be there. I cancelled the other one.

I am so excited! Now the only thing I have planned that isn't exactly what I wanted is the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment being at 1:10 in the afternoon rather than the first thing in the morning.

WoW!!! What luck!!!!

The BBB in the afternoon is not so bad, you can ride some rides and stuff first and not have to worry about all the Fairy Godmother-in-Training's work being undone!

 

[annegirl]

That is true! Plus, it is an early morning hours day in that park. I tend to avoid those but since it is her actual birthday we really wanted to be there that day.

This way we will be able to ride some rides... maybe meet some characters before it gets too crowded.

The only think I am worried about is carrying the dresses around. I called and asked them if I could leave them at the BBB until our appt but they said no.

I am sure we will be fine just sticking them in the bottom of the stroller though.

 

[Denovagirl]

That is true! Plus, it is an early morning hours day in that park. I tend to avoid those but since it is her actual birthday we really wanted to be there that day.

This way we will be able to ride some rides... maybe meet some characters before it gets too crowded.

The only think I am worried about is carrying the dresses around. I called and asked them if I could leave them at the BBB until our appt but they said no.

I am sure we will be fine just sticking them in the bottom of the stroller though.

Hmm, that is a bummer, but if you are going for EMH, I would go straight to the BBB and see if they have a spot for a walk in or maybe someone will be running late and not show up! 20 mins of waiting could get you in first thing!

 

[MidnightParade]

Congrats on the ADR's! Sorry to hear they were a pain to do online. That happened on my ADR day. The system was down and couldn't even do it on the phone when they opened up. So frustrating! Happy that not only you got everything you wanted but the extra Pixie Dust of BOG opening up on the day you wanted it! Yay!

Love the reveal! Its going to be so much fun! Best morning wake up ever!!

 

[Denovagirl]

Wow! I totally missed a chunk of your updates today!! I didn't realize until someone mentioned loving your reveal, and I was like "when did she say the reveal?!?!?!"

Excited to follow along oh and Hi Terri...

Mo's here!!!! Hola, my friend!!!

The Reveal

As Doug and I talked about this trip I was more inclined to tell the girls this time and let them be part of the planning. But Doug really wanted to keep it a surprise again. Finally I agreed.
I told him I didn't want to wait until we get to the parks though. I want to tell them before we leave to go to the airport.

This is the plan I have come up with:

Abi will go to school on Monday like usual. I will have to talk to her teacher about her missing school so I will have to stress that she not say anything to Abi about it.
We will let her think that the week is like any other week and that she will be going to school again the next morning.
I will have everything ready to go for Tuesday morning.
My parents will probably meet us at our place so they can join in for the reveal.

I am going to set up the table with balloons if I can. I am going to get some Krispy Kremes (or some other kind of bigger donut) and then some smaller donuts to put out plates with mickey heads made out of donuts for breakfast.

I plan on having their backpacks (maybe new for Abi since hers isn't Disney themed) on the table full of the Disney themed things to do on the plane.
I also want to make some princess dresses for their American Girl dolls and have them sitting there wearing them.

Then I am going to make some t-shirts with this iron on.

I got this from Mr. Joe's printables on Etsy.
It says "I'm going to Disney World".

So when they come out thinking it's time to get ready for school, we will just try to be filming them when they find all the stuff.

We will eat a quick breakfast and then head out to the airport.

Does this sound good? Any suggestions?

I LOOOOOOVE this! Simple, cute, not too much work, and I bet Abi will get it pretty quickly!! I absolutely love dressing the dolls and everything, sounds adorable, I can picture it all! I really want to surprise my kiddos now, but I dont think I could, I would sooo let it slip, and Olivia hears EVERYTHING! I swear, that child... *sigh* Anyway, I cant wait to read the TR afterwards! popcorn:

 

[Denovagirl]

Oh yea, and I have shirts like those, only I painted mine! We plan to wear them again on the way there, only I will have to paint Maddie a new one, I think she outgrew her old one!

 

[annegirl]

Congrats on the ADR's! Sorry to hear they were a pain to do online. That happened on my ADR day. The system was down and couldn't even do it on the phone when they opened up. So frustrating! Happy that not only you got everything you wanted but the extra Pixie Dust of BOG opening up on the day you wanted it! Yay!

Love the reveal! Its going to be so much fun! Best morning wake up ever!!

Thanks! It is so frustrating. But I am so happy that I got lucky. I hope others did as well.

 

[annegirl]

Wow! I totally missed a chunk of your updates today!! I didn't realize until someone mentioned loving your reveal, and I was like "when did she say the reveal?!?!?!"

Haha.

I LOOOOOOVE this! Simple, cute, not too much work, and I bet Abi will get it pretty quickly!! I absolutely love dressing the dolls and everything, sounds adorable, I can picture it all! I really want to surprise my kiddos now, but I dont think I could, I would sooo let it slip, and Olivia hears EVERYTHING! I swear, that child... *sigh* Anyway, I cant wait to read the TR afterwards! popcorn:

Thanks! I hope I can keep it secret! I am so worried about that too. Now that I have made our plans for it I am excited for that morning so I don't want to mess it up.

Oh yea, and I have shirts like those, only I painted mine! We plan to wear them again on the way there, only I will have to paint Maddie a new one, I think she outgrew her old one! :

I just saw those on your report! So cute. I need to learn how to do the painting. I am going to do some shoes and maybe a couple shirts this summer. All of your painted projects are inspiring.

 

[Chicago Mo]

I didn't realize how HARD it is to keep it all a secret.. Yet it makes the reveal THAT MUCH BETTER!!!

I am more excited about finally telling them they are going to Disney then i am about anything!!!

I LOVE the way MarbleBob told his kids...

Maybe get a stuffie of their favorite character holding a sign saying something in the lines of we missed you can't wait to see you again? i am sure someone can come up with something better.. cut out mickey head and spell out SEE YA REAL SOON in streamer fashion?

Oh the possibilities!!!


On getting your extra BOG!!!! SCOOOOOOOOOOORE!!! So happy for you.


LOVE the tee shirts. are you going to have them part of your reveal?

 

[annegirl]

I didn't realize how HARD it is to keep it all a secret.. Yet it makes the reveal THAT MUCH BETTER!!!

I am more excited about finally telling them they are going to Disney then i am about anything!!!

I LOVE the way MarbleBob told his kids...

Maybe get a stuffie of their favorite character holding a sign saying something in the lines of we missed you can't wait to see you again? i am sure someone can come up with something better.. cut out mickey head and spell out SEE YA REAL SOON in streamer fashion?

Oh the possibilities!!!


On getting your extra BOG!!!! SCOOOOOOOOOOORE!!! So happy for you.


LOVE the tee shirts. are you going to have them part of your reveal?

Me too! I have Disney on the brain constantly and it is so hard not to say something to them and I can't wait to see their faces when they find out!!

Those are great ideas for the reveal. Thanks. I think they would love seeing stuffed animals with a sign.

 

[Chicago Mo]

Yes!!! the possibilities are endless what you can do for a reveal!!!

Thankfully i have the Dis to talk too... otherwise i would BLOW!!!

Plus i have all my projects keeping me busy..

 

[annegirl]

YES! I am so glad I can talk to my parents and Doug and the DIS about it. I will be much busier with projects once we are in our house in two weeks. But then it will also be a challenge to keep the kids from seeing what I am working on.

 

[annegirl]

First Day​

I am working on putting all my notes together to start making my touring plans. I will try to update a couple of times a week with my ideas.
For our first day this is what I am thinking:

Our flight leaves at around 10am. We will arrive at MCO around 4:30pm.
Because of the slightly late arrival I have not planned any ADR's for that night.

First things first. I came up with an idea that I pitched to my parents over the weekend. I thought instead of having both of our cars parked at the airport that we should just take one car.

To do this I will need to leave my car at their house and have them drive it to ours on the morning of the trip. They can come over really early (not really a problem because we are mostly early risers) and they will be there to see the girls surprise. They can have breakfast with us and then we will all drive to the airport together in our van.

The problem with this plan is that they get home three days before us. Our solution is that they will come back to the airport to pick us up. One of them can drive their car and one can drive our car to our house, drive one of them to pick us up, and then we can go back to our house and they can drive home from there.

It is a lot of driving around. That is the drawback. However, it gives us less time parked at the airport and we can split the cost of parking.

Back to the actual traveling:
I am not sure what we will do for lunch for the girls since it will be mid flight. I have never bought food on the airplane so I don't know what prices are or the quality of the food. We will be flying Delta so I would love to hear if any of you have experience with this.
I am thinking of taking something along with us rather than buying but I don't know how difficult that is.
I don't fly much if you can't tell.

Once we get to Florida, we will be using Magical Express.
My parents used it last time but this will be our first time using it. I am really excited. I would love to have a car there but this time we are going to rely completely on Disney transportation.

We will check in and get settled into our rooms.

Then I have a few ideas for the rest of the evening.
One is to just hang out at the resort. Doing nothing. Dinner at the resort.
Another is to go over to Beaches and Cream because my parents really want to do the Kitchen sink again.
Another idea is to go to Downtown Disney. Do any of you know how busy it is on a Tuesday evening?
If it is warm enough I think the girls would love to swim a little before any of these options.

So, that is what I am thinking about. Any suggestions?
What do you usually do on your first night?

 

[Denovagirl]

If you live close enough I'd do all the crazy car hopping, saves money on the parking, which I like! We're fortunate to have family that lives bear the airport so we leave our car at their house and they drive us over and pick us up!

Arrival night! I personally would just stay at POP! I'd go swimming, eat, and if your antsy I would walk over to AoA and check things out over there!

Your plans are sounding so good and coming together nicely! I can't wait for more updates! I'm working on touring plans for us as well, we didn't use them last time bc we had a GAC, so this will be our first time, not sure how necessary they'll be with the low crowds, but it can't hurt to be prepared! So far I have 2 mornings at MK mapped out and 1 at AK!