Shhhh....It's a Surprise Trip 11/9-11/17

[Aristomommy]

Disney Trip Report

Cast of Characters:

Me- I am the organizer, the obsessor (is that even a word?) and the ultimate planner in our family. I spend way too much time on the DIS planning and obsessing over every detail of our vacation. Once at WDW though, I relax and as I’ve memorized our plans a million times over, can enjoy our vacation fully.
DH- Loves Disney as much as I do, offers suggestions in the planning phase, but lets me do all the research and planning. As long as he’s fed, he’s fine.
DD8- will turn 9 during this trip. This will be her 3rd trip to WDW, 1 trip to DL earlier this year. Does not know we are going and hopefully we can keep the secret. She is a daredevil and will ride anything I will let her . Still loves princesses (yeah!!!) but this may be the last year.
DS2- loves all Disney preschool stuff: JoJo, Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse etc. Yes, the brainwashing has begun…This will be his 2nd trip to WDW, 1 trip to DL. Thinks Minnie Mouse is his girlfriend.
DGM- grandma, my mom, went with us in 2005, loves everything Winnie the Pooh. Great travel companion as she wakes up super early, has more energy than all of us combined, doesn’t like fast rides and stays with DS and goes with the flow in general (i.e. my plans)

Background:

Planning for this trip has been challenging and I’ve had much less time than before. DH has been working out of state and what was supposed to be 4-6 weeks away was extended several times . The kids and I have missed him terribly and we knew we needed some family time in the fall when he was back home. I began to look at DDs school calendar and found a week in Nov. she is already off 2 days. So she would miss only 3 days . Then Disney came out with their special (40% off) and I was able to secure POP during the Disney Visa member’s period. We added the dining plan and I am glad considering the changes to DDP in 2008. Previous to this, we’ve stayed at AsMu, AKL and CR. While we love AKL, we wanted to be more budget conscious as we have a new house and lots of furniture to buy. We drove by POP last time and it looked like a fun place to stay at. Later I added my mom, as DH suggested it would be great if she joined us again. I was able to add her to the ressie and all but one ADR. We’ll take our chance with that one once we get there.

So I had about 2 months to plan which to me is last minute for WDW. The 180 day mark for ADRs is long gone, but hoping that the time of year is slow, I called and secured most of our desired ADRs. I also secured Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for DDs birthday the day we will be going to MVMCP (our first!!!) I made our park plans on based on a few different factors:

1. I wanted to avoid MGM during soap weekend (sorry, just can’t bring myself to call it Hollywood Studios or whatever the new name is)
2. I wanted to attend last weekend of Epcot F&W festival
3. I wanted to attend MVMCP
4. I wanted to see as many holiday things as were available to us that week.

So here are our park plans so far:

11/9 Arrive, dinner at Ohana (during Wishes)
11/10 Epcot, lunch at Coral Reef, dinner at F&W festival booths
11/11 Magic Kingdom, lunch at Kona Café, no dinner plans
11/12 Animal Kingdom, lunch at Flametree BBQ, dinner at Boma
11/13 MGM, lunch at Scifi Dine-in
11/14 Magic Kindom AM, swim break, then Epcot for Akerhus dinner and Illuminations
11/15 BBB in the morning, shopping and MVMVP (so far unable to obtain a good ADR for early dinner before the party )
11/16 MGM, Hollywood &Vine breakfast we may or may not stay long in the park. DGM will have an evening with the kids!!!
11/17 Return home.

Now this may look too busy, but we are usually the type of people to take breaks/naps during the busy time of day. We tend to be super busy in the morning, cram lots of rides in and then slow down the rest of the day.

SO what do you think of our plans so far?

 

[Aristomommy]

Ok, so I wrote this pre-trip introduction a couple of days ago and I already have a change in our plans. Please help me figure this out. So I have been looking for reasonable flights for our dates. Well, yesterday I found the cheapest flights yet, but the return is not 11/17, it's 11/18. So we get an extra day at Disney

With this decision, comes another: where to stay our last night????

While a night at POP may be added, my mind started longing for AKL again. We could spend our last day enjoying a beautiful resort, viewing animals, swimming and dinner at Boma's. It would be such a great ending to our trip. Or how about Poly? We could still be close to MK and view fireworks from the beach and relax by the pool. Or something else altogether? What should I do????

 

[HappyTrouble]

Jen,
How can you pass up an extra day at DW? We love AKL but stayed at the Poly in Aug. and really liked it. Have to say my DD's could have cared less about watching fireworks from the beach but they are older. I would just stay at POP, we've stayed there as well, for 1 more night and enjoy the pool time and a nice dinner somewhere. Kona at the Poly is fantastic!!!! and then you could watch fireworks from the beach and the Electrical Water Pagent. Your kids would enjoy this alot esp. at their ages. Hope this helps!!!!