BlueEyes78
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 3, 2009
- Messages
- 172
Well, we've got Disney fever again! After our first family trip in August of 2009 was such a success, we decided to go for #2. We are still a family of 4, but a slightly older family - 32 year old parents Shawn and Becky, 5 1/2 year old Caden and nearly 3-year old Connor.
This will be our oldest son's kindergarten year, and we figured this might be the last year it won't be a big deal to take him out of school for a week, so why not try out Mickey's Christmas party? None of us have been out of Ohio during the fall/winter months so this will make a nice change of scene. Another factor - On November 26, Son #2 will turn 3 - and hence cost much more. So let's capitalize on these excuses and go to Disney. Sounds good to everyone else, right?
We got a "returning guest" offer for 40% off for select dates at the end of 2010 and chose Nov 14th for the reasons listed above - we can do the party AND Connor will still "technically" be two. Returning to our former place of residence, Fort Wilderness cabins, was a no-brainer. We loved the quiet, the privacy, the full kitchen, and the separate bedroom.
Here's what's different from our last trip:
1) It's November, not August. So we're assuming cooler - anyone know how much cooler? Like I said, never been out of Ohio in this season, so any advice would help. I'm assuming also, less crowds?
2) Due to school, we'll do 5 days and not 7...this led to the "is it worth it to drive 4 days both ways for a 5-day trip" discussion. Especially when the northern part of that drive could be in winter conditions. The answer was "no, definitely not" but after finding out that just flying the 4 of us down there would cost the same as the rest of the trip, we resigned ourselves to another long drive and decided to just watch airline prices obsessively. And then - AWESOME hubby Shawn volunteered to be bumped from a business trip flight and in return received 2 free tickets anywhere in the continental US. Happy Dance time!!
Buying 2 tickets is much more reasonable than buying 4. HOWEVER, this may change what stuff we take. Last time we drove down with all of our frozen dinners...we may still take a small cooler, it'll depend on how much it costs to check items. And we'll need to take the stroller and car seat. We have rented a mid-sized car because with the stroller and the kids being the age they are, we don't really want to rely on the bus system.
3) We've invited some of Becky's family (mom and dad, brother and SIL, who is a Disney fanatic) to come along. The jury's still out. But we don't plan to do anything crazy like have all 8 of us very different people move as one unit throughout the vacation. That would be insane. Instead we thought we'd all go, stay in the campground, meet up in the evenings or occasionally visit parks together...more on that when minds are made up.
4) We don't plan to tell the kids. Last time they knew (or at least Caden did) several months out. We decided to pull off a surprise that they can reminisce about later. The plan is to get them on the plane and then get out the mouse ears from the 2009 trip. Caden will know exactly what that means (and he's been begging to go back ever since we got home). Connor will be like, "Hey, cool. My hat!" But he'll have fun anyway!
5) The kids ages - not too much difference other than a couple of inches in height for Caden, but Connor will have transformed from a semi-talking toddler too short for most stuff to a chatterbox 3-year old who will hopefully be at least 38 inches! I think he was around 33 inches last year, and did a lot of sitting in the stroller. He may even be potty-trained by then which would be cool, and may not need to nap everyday. Also, I think he is no longer petrified of the characters. Time will tell!
So as for stuff we're already talking about - we're definitely doing the Christmas party, on our last night there. No idea what to expect there but am sure it'll be fun.
I think we'll do all 4 parks again, hard to say with only 5 days...but we missed a couple of things we'd like to see this time, namely the Lion King show in AK, Space Mountain in MK (was down for maintenance), and possibly some of the world exhibits in Epcot. The great part about this being the second trip is that there are definitely a few things that will NOT be on the priority list since we've been there, done that, and decided it's not that thrilling (like the Figment ride in Epcot, or the boneyard in AK). I don't know, are the world exhibits any fun for little kids? Should we wait for a future trip?
So to sum up the jury is still out on:
Do we buy photopasses again?
Do we take dinners again or buy easy ones at the Winn Dixie?
WIll we need to pack diapers?
What kind of clothes to pack for November?
Can we keep our mouths shut in front of the kids for 4 months??
Stay tuned!
This will be our oldest son's kindergarten year, and we figured this might be the last year it won't be a big deal to take him out of school for a week, so why not try out Mickey's Christmas party? None of us have been out of Ohio during the fall/winter months so this will make a nice change of scene. Another factor - On November 26, Son #2 will turn 3 - and hence cost much more. So let's capitalize on these excuses and go to Disney. Sounds good to everyone else, right?
We got a "returning guest" offer for 40% off for select dates at the end of 2010 and chose Nov 14th for the reasons listed above - we can do the party AND Connor will still "technically" be two. Returning to our former place of residence, Fort Wilderness cabins, was a no-brainer. We loved the quiet, the privacy, the full kitchen, and the separate bedroom.
Here's what's different from our last trip:
1) It's November, not August. So we're assuming cooler - anyone know how much cooler? Like I said, never been out of Ohio in this season, so any advice would help. I'm assuming also, less crowds?
2) Due to school, we'll do 5 days and not 7...this led to the "is it worth it to drive 4 days both ways for a 5-day trip" discussion. Especially when the northern part of that drive could be in winter conditions. The answer was "no, definitely not" but after finding out that just flying the 4 of us down there would cost the same as the rest of the trip, we resigned ourselves to another long drive and decided to just watch airline prices obsessively. And then - AWESOME hubby Shawn volunteered to be bumped from a business trip flight and in return received 2 free tickets anywhere in the continental US. Happy Dance time!!
Buying 2 tickets is much more reasonable than buying 4. HOWEVER, this may change what stuff we take. Last time we drove down with all of our frozen dinners...we may still take a small cooler, it'll depend on how much it costs to check items. And we'll need to take the stroller and car seat. We have rented a mid-sized car because with the stroller and the kids being the age they are, we don't really want to rely on the bus system.3) We've invited some of Becky's family (mom and dad, brother and SIL, who is a Disney fanatic) to come along. The jury's still out. But we don't plan to do anything crazy like have all 8 of us very different people move as one unit throughout the vacation. That would be insane. Instead we thought we'd all go, stay in the campground, meet up in the evenings or occasionally visit parks together...more on that when minds are made up.
4) We don't plan to tell the kids. Last time they knew (or at least Caden did) several months out. We decided to pull off a surprise that they can reminisce about later. The plan is to get them on the plane and then get out the mouse ears from the 2009 trip. Caden will know exactly what that means (and he's been begging to go back ever since we got home). Connor will be like, "Hey, cool. My hat!" But he'll have fun anyway!
5) The kids ages - not too much difference other than a couple of inches in height for Caden, but Connor will have transformed from a semi-talking toddler too short for most stuff to a chatterbox 3-year old who will hopefully be at least 38 inches! I think he was around 33 inches last year, and did a lot of sitting in the stroller. He may even be potty-trained by then which would be cool, and may not need to nap everyday. Also, I think he is no longer petrified of the characters. Time will tell!
So as for stuff we're already talking about - we're definitely doing the Christmas party, on our last night there. No idea what to expect there but am sure it'll be fun.
I think we'll do all 4 parks again, hard to say with only 5 days...but we missed a couple of things we'd like to see this time, namely the Lion King show in AK, Space Mountain in MK (was down for maintenance), and possibly some of the world exhibits in Epcot. The great part about this being the second trip is that there are definitely a few things that will NOT be on the priority list since we've been there, done that, and decided it's not that thrilling (like the Figment ride in Epcot, or the boneyard in AK). I don't know, are the world exhibits any fun for little kids? Should we wait for a future trip?
So to sum up the jury is still out on:
Do we buy photopasses again?
Do we take dinners again or buy easy ones at the Winn Dixie?
WIll we need to pack diapers?
What kind of clothes to pack for November?
Can we keep our mouths shut in front of the kids for 4 months??
Stay tuned!
