Planning Princess Raelee's 5th birthday trip!

[cajunrose]

Ok, time to get back on track with my pre trip report! I have a few changes and updates since last time.

Back in October, I invited my Inlaws from Oregon to go with us. They declined then. My FIL got deathly ill around Christmas time and we thought we would loose him on 2 different occasions. After all was said and done, he ended up having a heart attack. He is getting better now. He still can't walk very far (across the room is a struggle) and is and always will be on oxygen 24/7. He only has 2 heart valves working and isn't a candidate for surgery.

On to to the rest of the story. He changed his mind about disney at some point and decided to go. Well, most of us kind of blew it off thinking he is much to sick to attempt to go. He kept insisting. I never gave it a second thought. He can't even walk! I got down to crunch time on booking the trip. I went ahead and booked for 9 nights at Pop (YAY!) My first hotel stay! We have always stayed at Fort Wilderness before. This a whole new ball game. I started getting meal ressies made. I was 100% successful on getting everything I wanted. I hadn't talked to my inlaw's so they didn't know I booked.

Fast forward to about a week after I book ressies. My FIL calls me and says "I want to book my flights today. Can you give me your dates?" Now mind you, I'm a photographer and was in the middle of a shoot and was STUNNED.

To be continued (I have a habit of accidentally deleting my post before it's done, so I am going to save it and start another post)

 

[cajunrose]

Ok, back to it.

I rattled off some dates and asked him not to do anything until I got home to triple check it. I couldn't chit chat because I was in the middle of a shoot.

This starts my panic attacks. A billion and one things go through my mind the rest of the day. I had already made meal ressies. Could they be included? How was my DH going to react? They don't get along well. My DH turns into a monster on 1. Vacation and 2. even more of one when on vacation with his father! My normally sweet and easy going husband turns into a crazy man that makes those around him miserable.

Not to mention, my FIL is anal retentive. He has to have things just so. Vacations with him are miserable at best. What was I thinking when I invited them?

How could he navigate the parks? How would he do with all of those people? UGH! I was SOOO looking forward to my only 2nd vacation with my small family alone and nobody else but us.

I get home from work to find out that he booked the flight. He was one day off. He just COULDN'T wait until I got home to book. I can't talk about any of this with my DH because he is offshore (works in gulf of mexico for 2 or 3 weeks a month..this month is 3 weeks) and doesn't have much time to discuss this with me. I was flying solo on this one.

I try to discourage my FIL and MIL from coming..telling them I didn't think he could make it. "We'll just take a lot of breaks" Yeah...but the POP busses are far from the gates and I don't think he coudl even make that walk! UGH No dice on talking them out of it. THey want dates that they need to book POP for.

I give them dates. I tell them I'll take care of the meal ressies. My FIL said "I'm not eating every meal in Disney world. We are going to have to eat off of the property some times." NO. I told him my family and I are eating in the park for every meal, HE can eat off property if he chooses. I choose not to. I will NOT change my plans for them...sorry. Yes, I'm being selfish. I don't care.

He just can't figure out why we are staying on property and in the parks for the full 8 days. "Aren't you going to get bored?" NOOOOOOOOO I will NOT get bored. There will likely be a lot of things I will not get to do that I want to. Not enough time. He said "Well I'm not staying the whole time. I want to go to universal too" Good. You can do that MY family is staying in the park the whole 8 days.

Yes, I'm probably being unreasonable. I don't care. I had the perfect trip in my mind and it's all messed up now. Yes, I know I'll have to get in a better frame of mind about it, but I'm still in shock and cant' see how this will work out.

So he books his flight down to LA. They are staying here for a few days before we drop them off at the airport in NOLA to fly to disney. We are driving (12.5 hours). They offered to buy us a plane ticket, but we didn't want one.

To be continued.

 

[cajunrose]

I get all of my thoughts together and decide to give the dining ressie people a call and see what I could work out with them. I explained to her what happened and she was very polite and we reworked everything.

Here is what I have reserved (we are staying on property May 27-June 5 by the way):

Day 1: CP breakfast (I have always wanted to enter the park before it opened for an early morning ressie..LOL)

Day 2: Sci Fi (I'm reading mixed reviews about this. It looks fun though)

Day 3: Coral Reef

Day 4 (DD's 5th bday!!!): CRT for lunch (couldn't get In laws in for this one)

Day 5: No park: Tea party at GF with DD and MIL WCC that night for dinner

Day 6: Akershus Lunch

Day 7: nothing yet

Day 8: Hoop Dee Doo Revue

I can't figure out the dining plan thing. I think I need one more meal to use all of my credits? Can anybody clarify that for me?

I'm SOOOOOOO not sure about the dining plan. I can't figure out if it's a good value or not for us. It just seems like SO much food.

Coming up next: Pictures of my family

 

[cajunrose]

Ok, here is my almost 5 year old DD:

Her name is Raelee. She is named after me (Stephenie Rae) and her dad (Todd Lee). Ironically enough Todd and I are named after our fathers. My dad's name is Stephen Ray and his dad is Gary Lee.

Next is my DH:

My Inlaws:

One of me with DH and DD:

One of us all together (well, his brother isn't going with us. He lives in Paris France. I guess that's enough of a vacation..rofl)

UGH...why is it that I have trouble posting pictures on this board? I don't have that trouble on any other board.

 

[cajunrose]

I have to start thinking about Raelee's 'Welcome to Disney World" basket that Mickey and the Princesses will leave her.

Here is my preliminary ideas. I'm putting them down here more for my own benifit. If you can think of anything, let me know.

Disney Crocs
with
Princess Jibbitz

My Pal Mickey

I need to start buying/gathering thing for her basket! UGH

 

[swwake]

So much to comment on!!

1 - No, you are not being selfish or unreasonable. Large groups on vacation are tough. We took a cruise last year with 11 of us. You have to establish the expectations up front that there will be times when the group will separate so that everyone can get their own individual experiences out of it. I think it's perfectly fine to let the ILs know that you have already planned much of this trip and that they are still welcome to join you where they can, but that a lot of thought has gone into how best to make the memories for your family. Let them know that you are glad they will be able to join you and keep in mind that it will be good for Raelee to experience part of this vacation with her grandparents, and vice versa. If everyone stays relaxed and easy-going, it can work. The big mistake we made on our cruise was trying to keep up with everyone all the time. The last half of the week, we just told people where we (our family of 3) were going to be and said "you can meet us at 6pm in the Bolero bar for a cocktail before dinner". If they showed up, great. If not, we didn't worry about them. Oh, one other thing. In order to make sure that we saw the whole family every day, we established one activity/time that we would all be together daily. For us, it was dinner in the dining room. That was just a must, and everyone participated. This may not work for Disney or on your schedule, but maybe you make it coffee in the morning or something. Then just go on with your day. If they are there to watch Raelee ride Dumbo, great! If not, that's ok too.

2 - ADRs and TS. I would think that you could just wing it for the last TS and just see where you are and when, not worrying about the ADR. As for us, I ended up deciding the DDP didn't really work for us because we won't eat dessert at every meal. Mind you, I went through this HUGE spreadsheet to get there!

3 - Sci Fi - It has obviously been awhile since we've been to DHS, but we did eat at Sci-Fi when we were there. I think it is a cool and unique experience. Just don't get hung up about the food. It's not bad food, but no gourmet meal. It's more about the atmosphere. I think your family will enjoy it!

4 - Pics - Raelee is absolutely adorable and gorgeous!! I couldn't see the pic of the whole group together. You have a nice-looking family!

5 - An idea for the basket - At an airport I found these "Yes and Know" brand books. They are the ones with the invisible pen that you use like a highlighter to make numbers, letters, pictures and colors appear. Well they had two small ones with Disney Princesses for 4.99. They come with the pens and when you "color" with the invisible pen, the dresses and hair and backgrounds become colored and come to life. (Bonus - the pen ink is invisible so it doesn't get on clothing, etc.) I bought these books for our "girls" to play with on the airplane. I know they are way too old for this, but it is one of my ways of being corny, silly and fun, and getting them into the Disney spirit on the way. I will "surprise" them with these books when we get on the plane. They will roll their eyes, then they will play with them, I'm sure. Anyway, I digress. Just thought that might be a good idea to include in the welcome basket. Another idea might be some mickey head confetti. You can also go to the party supplies aisle at Wal Mart or similar and pick up some of the princess or Mickey party favors for really cheap, several to a package - like blowers and things. I would just keep a look-out for little inexpensive things that you can throw in there.

 

[cajunrose]

Great idea! Funny story about the Mickey Confetti. We got some on our last trip when DD was 2.5. We were staying in the camper at FW then. Some of it spilled into one of the storage compartments. Still...to this day....when we go to my mom's, she RUNS outside, opens that storage door, and gets a handfull of 'Mickey Magic" We can't figure out how there is any left, but there is! I'll definetely have to buy more!