Chelley00
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2005
The cast for this pre-trip report is pretty simple:
I'm Shel, mom of 4, wife to Dave. This trip will be a girls only trip (yay)
DD Riley, who will celebrate her 8th birthday while we're gone. Riley is a total tomboy (with 3 brothers, no surprise) She LOVES Minnie Mouse and has since she was 2, plays soccer, loves swimming and animals.
If you've read my trip report from Oct/Nov you know we had the worst trip ever. We did manage to squeak out some fun here and there, but for the most part, it was cold, full of accidents and vomit
and honestly, I wasn't sure I'd ever want to go back again.
Until we realized it was DD's year for her "big birthday".
When oldest DS was in second grade, we threw him a huge blowout birthday party with tons of friends. Not sure why it worked out for his 8th birthday, but it did. We usually do just family birthday parties, so it's unusual to do something that big. We followed suit with DS #2 when he turned 8, and both of those boys had huge 13th birthday parties as well. DD will be 8 this November, and we started talking about her party.
She laughingly said "well, I'd rather go to Disney, but since I know I can't, let me think about a party" (sigh) Poor Disney addict already at 7!!
Then I realized that Disney had released both room discount codes and a free dining code, and if I used one or the other and took her myself, we could swing a quick Disney trip for her birthday. Then she would also get the birthday fun giftcard if I registered her for "What will you celebrate". The wheels started turning, and I presented it to DH, who gave me the go ahead. I asked the other kids, and no one said they'd be upset if I took just their sister (youngest DS was so excited about going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa!) and so it's apparently a go.
I usually plan our WDW trip a year in advance, so having this short amount of time is beginning to stress me already! Our first major decision was easy, dates, since we wanted to go over her birthday. This will put us there Nov 28-Dec 4 or 5th.
Now I have to decide where to stay. We've never stayed onsite before.
What would you recommend? Value or moderate?
For moderate: DD is a big swimmer so I know she would enjoy the themed pools of the moderate. Plus we'd get the dining plan instead of just quick service, which means we could do special meals with our TS credits for her birthday the entire week, not just one a couple of times.
If we do value, we would save about $400, but have only quick service credits. We could take the extra money we'd save to do a TS or two, and then maybe hit a MVMCP (We LOVE MNSSHP!) Plus, I think the value themes are little more "kid friendly?"
Help me make the big decisions, then we'll plug through the little stuff, like ADRs, events, travel and if I should surprise her or let her in on our secret.
I'm Shel, mom of 4, wife to Dave. This trip will be a girls only trip (yay)
DD Riley, who will celebrate her 8th birthday while we're gone. Riley is a total tomboy (with 3 brothers, no surprise) She LOVES Minnie Mouse and has since she was 2, plays soccer, loves swimming and animals.
If you've read my trip report from Oct/Nov you know we had the worst trip ever. We did manage to squeak out some fun here and there, but for the most part, it was cold, full of accidents and vomit
and honestly, I wasn't sure I'd ever want to go back again.Until we realized it was DD's year for her "big birthday".
When oldest DS was in second grade, we threw him a huge blowout birthday party with tons of friends. Not sure why it worked out for his 8th birthday, but it did. We usually do just family birthday parties, so it's unusual to do something that big. We followed suit with DS #2 when he turned 8, and both of those boys had huge 13th birthday parties as well. DD will be 8 this November, and we started talking about her party.
She laughingly said "well, I'd rather go to Disney, but since I know I can't, let me think about a party" (sigh) Poor Disney addict already at 7!!
Then I realized that Disney had released both room discount codes and a free dining code, and if I used one or the other and took her myself, we could swing a quick Disney trip for her birthday. Then she would also get the birthday fun giftcard if I registered her for "What will you celebrate". The wheels started turning, and I presented it to DH, who gave me the go ahead. I asked the other kids, and no one said they'd be upset if I took just their sister (youngest DS was so excited about going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa!) and so it's apparently a go.
I usually plan our WDW trip a year in advance, so having this short amount of time is beginning to stress me already! Our first major decision was easy, dates, since we wanted to go over her birthday. This will put us there Nov 28-Dec 4 or 5th.
Now I have to decide where to stay. We've never stayed onsite before.
What would you recommend? Value or moderate?
For moderate: DD is a big swimmer so I know she would enjoy the themed pools of the moderate. Plus we'd get the dining plan instead of just quick service, which means we could do special meals with our TS credits for her birthday the entire week, not just one a couple of times.
If we do value, we would save about $400, but have only quick service credits. We could take the extra money we'd save to do a TS or two, and then maybe hit a MVMCP (We LOVE MNSSHP!) Plus, I think the value themes are little more "kid friendly?"
Help me make the big decisions, then we'll plug through the little stuff, like ADRs, events, travel and if I should surprise her or let her in on our secret.
) Or maybe a gift basket from somewhere? I don't want to spend a ton of money, but just little something to add to her "party"
