Sidetracked from planning to make DD's birthday invitation. What do you think?

[ineedmyblankie]

I don't think I'd be very good at keeping up my own pre-trip planning thread (as evidenced by my poor neglected blog)...SO I want to plan with others! I'm looking for a few people that have small kids that are going in April/May. I would love to bounce planning ideas off of a few people and have you share yours too on this thread. Obviously I would love, LOVE ANY comments, suggestions, etc. would be great, especially since I have not travelled to WDW w/ small kids before. Well, let me start this off properly...

Hi! I'm Kate! I live in CT and would like some warmer weather ASAP. I've been to WDW twice w/ my DH before we had kids. We stayed at CBR then, but this time we are going to stay at POP! I have a DD who will turn 4 in April and a DS who turned 1 in January. We just booked our plans last week for April 27-May 4 and I'm SUPER excited.

This weekend DD and I made a paper chain link (like the ones you make at Christmas) to count down the days until we go. Actually, I had an extra link, so I made one for the day we actually leave. I wasn't planning on it, since we will have to leave our house around 4:30am. Oy. DH said that we could let DD wear that one though when we are leaving. I mentioned that to her today and she LOVED the idea.

I've been scoping out the Groovier POP thread and am currently around page 32...of 91. I have a lot of reading ahead of me. The first post though was more helpful than you can even imagine though. So, if your reading this, and you're staying at POP, here it is: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1991543. It's very worth it.

Alright, that's enough for now. Anyone want to plan with me? Heck, if you're going in June, I'll take you too.

 

[bertegirl]

Awesome...I can't wait to keep reading! Did you put it in your signature so when you post others can come over? I will tell a couple others I know to come over!

 

[ineedmyblankie]

I'm a newbie. I just joined the board a couple of days ago...actually...it may have even been yesterday. I will put it in my siggy now. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm very excited to have people to plan with!

 

[bertegirl]

We just requested top floor lake view. Hopefully we get it since its pretty wide open. I want top floor and lake because I was told that would be the quietest location. I have light sleepers!!!

 

[ineedmyblankie]

I have to call my TA to make a room request. I would love to get a 4th floor fireworks view in building 4. I don't know how in demand those are though and if it's busy at that time.

BTW - I fixed my siggy now.

 

[BridetobeDisney]

Hey!! I'd love to help you plan and think up some tips. My son is about to be two but we took him for a week last June when he was 14 months old. It was loads of fun! I have plenty of tips. Also, come over to the May PTRs. Bertegirl, Wlwilliams9, Kgle, 3Princesses+aprince and Lauren Elizabeth are all DIS friends with small children. We even have a Dis Meet on May 13 at AK. I look forward to talking with you!

 

[GrumpyGoofy]

I'll be down in June with my 2 boys (4 and 1 1/2). Any advice would be great. We can't wait to go

 

[Dopeys1stLove]

I'm here with GrumpyGoofy. We're looking for tips for our two little ones. And, I'll take any tips on how to control my Disney Geek husband.

 

[bertegirl]

Check out this thread. It has been so helpful...They took 2 under 2 to WDW and stayed at POP!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2030396

 

[ineedmyblankie]

BridetobeDisney - That sounds great! I'll have to check it out in a little bit!

What GrumpyGoofy fails to mention is that he is a friend of mine who has been addicted to finding information about Disney. I have tried to suck him into my thread b/c I know he has a lot of useful information that he found that would be great to share. I will try to post what I've done up until now later on tonight. For now, I'm off to play w/ the kiddos and DH until bathtime and bedtime. BBL!

P.S. Thanks for all who are jumping in! I think that this is going to be great!

ETA: HA! I just realized that Dopeys1stLove is also a friend of mine. I'm feeling extra slow tonight. She is not kidding when she says that her husband is a Disney geek. You should've seen the Disney novel he sent me via e-mail...oh wait!...that was GrumpyGoofy. Yeah, I'm seriously slow. I know she said she was w/ GrumpyGoofy, but I thought it was in the "mindset" of wanting more info on traveling w/ two kids. Sorry Dopey (can I just call you Dopey? ), there's no controlling your husband.

 

[ineedmyblankie]

Here's how it all began:

TAX REFUND! Woohoo! We didn't expect to get one at all and realized that we're going to be getting a big one. (Now I just need to finish the taxes and file them.) We decided that we really needed a family vacation. Living in CT, it has been quite cold so we wanted to go somewhere warm. Since DD has only been away from both of us about 5 individual nights total and DS has never been away from us for a night yet, we decided they would come with us. We'd miss them too much anyway. We thought about the Caribbean or somewhere like that, but we like to snorkel and wouldn't be able to easily do that w/ two small kids in tow. We'll save a trip like that for when they're older or when we go w/o them. We thought of Florida for just a beach trip, but although DD loves the beach, I'd get bored of doing nothing. We though of CA, but didn't want to feel like we had to leave the hotel everyday to go somewhere. So we needed some place that we would all enjoy, that would keep us busy, but we could just hang out at the hotel for a day if we felt too exhausted to do anything else. The logical choice was...WDW!!! YAY!

We started looking around at prices knowing that are dates were flexible. We were looking for the end of March though. Everything looked more expensive than we really wanted, until I found US Airways vacation packages (http://www.usairwaysvacations.com/bookingEngine/ETD.aspx). The prices were awesome! (Mental note: If you are from the NY area, pricing out of White Plains (HPN) is cheapest.) When I called Disney, they said they couldn't come near those prices. The AAA agent we had couldn't come close to the deal either and instead of determining what she COULD do for us, she kept going on about how she really wanted to get us the 7 for 4 deal. We had the dates we wanted...and then DH (btw, his name is John) found out that the guy that would cover for him at work was already scheduled to take that week off. So that was a no-go.

It was back to the drawing board. Due to peak times, and the fact that we wanted to try to keep the price down, we pushed back until the end of April. Again we found a great deal w/ US Airways, but then I decided to call AAA again just to check prices. I asked for the office closest to us (it batches you to whoever is available otherwise) and got Jerry. Jerry rocks. He found us direct flights from LaGuardia, 7 nights at POP, 7 day hoppers (we don't plan on going to the parks our last day), travel insurance and DME for $1975 (we don't really have to pay anything for DS). I don't usually get travel insurance, but my son just got tubes in his ears yesterday and I would hate for something to happen and for us to have to shell out even more money to change things.

No dining plan? That's blasphemy! Well, we had the DP a few years ago when John and I went down. The AAA agent we had then had totally screwed up when she had explained the package to me. She said that we would have breakfast everyday and then we had two mouse ears (or whatever it was) to use on either a regular (quick serve or sit-down) lunch and dinner, or one really nice meal. Um...no. When we got there, we were not so pleasantly surprised. (Needless to say even though that was a few years ago, I cringed when I heard her voice when I got connected to her AAA office one day.) Have I mentioned I love Jerry though. Anyway, I went through the restaurant dining menus (http://allears.net/menu/menus.htm) and calculated how much I thought we would realistically spend. I'm sure that we would use every penny of a DP, but in reality, we probably won't spend that much when we buy our own food (based on the portions we usually eat). We also didn't want to get locked into either quick service only or table service, since we may eat a lot of breakfasts in our room. We want to be able to have a couple of table meals, but mostly quick service, w/o feeling obligated to do one or the other b/c a meal plan dictates it. Call me wrong or insane...that's just my take. Oh yeah, we will have a fridge in our room too b/c DS has a medication that needs to be refrigerated. Hey! That $40/month bottle of medication is paying off! Of course I wish he didn't have to take it, but he does.

OK...must focus...US Airways...AAA...love Jerry...no meal plan...BOOKED THE TRIP last week! I think that's enough for this post for now. Holy crap, this is long. Is this how long other people's are? I have a feeling I'm just long-winded...sorry. Next I'll probably talk about rental cars. To rent or not to rent.

 

[miprender]

Hello fellow New Englander.... I am so with you on this winter. We live in RI, but my sister in law lives in Hamden,CT so we go there quite frequently.

My DD and DS were about the age you are taking yours for the first time. My DD still talks about it. She blows my mind on some of the things she remembers, DS says he remembers too but he was only 10mths so I think he just thinks he remembers.

I think the one important tip to remember, it wont be the same as when you and DH went. You just cant move at that kind of pace, but just seeing their little faces light up makes the whole trip worth it.

 

[ineedmyblankie]

Hi there! I have a feeling that I came across you on a different thread (I recognize your siggy). Are you the one whose brother looks like Ben Stiller? I would love any insight about traveling w/ the two kids.

Fortunately, even though DH and I love roller coasters, our stomachs can't usually take them anymore. That's a good thing, b/c we won't feel like we've missed out on some of "the good rides" b/c of the kids or b/c we didn't feel like dealing w/ child swap. We will use child swap on some things (like Splash Mountain), but I think it would be a pain (and no fun for the kids) if we tried to do it a lot.

As for remembering things, DD has a great memory...it's scary sometimes. I think that she'll have an awesome time and be talking about random things from the trip for at least a year.

 

[miprender]

Yeah that's me with the brother that looks like Ben Stiller!!! That's too funny that you remember that. I think I wrote about that when they were talking about the Disboard stare (like the one from Meet the Parents)

 

[GrumpyGoofy]

Sounds like a good start so far blankie. I just made some dining reservations for our trip so I'll be excited hear what you have to say about what you found for meals. I also have found a few company's in Orlando to rent strollers form cheaper and was wondering if anyone had experience with the rental companies there.

 

[ineedmyblankie]

Sounds like a good start so far blankie. I just made some dining reservations for our trip so I'll be excited hear what you have to say about what you found for meals. I also have found a few company's in Orlando to rent strollers form cheaper and was wondering if anyone had experience with the rental companies there.

Have you tried looking at some of the stroller swaps here?

I guess I will talk about strollers real quick before rental cars.

We have decided to bring our Graco stroller (like the one that follows, but in a different color)

and our Silver Cross Pop stroller (it's like the Cadillac of umbrella strollers).

We had opted not to rent in the parks, because we will need them if we are going for a walk around the resort or going to DTD. We have a small cheap umbrella stroller also, but it is just that...small and cheap. We opted against the double stroller b/c it is just too big and we may not always need a double. The Silver Cross can be folded up like an umbrella stroller and even has a shoulder strap, which will be nice. The Graco will be able to carry all of our crap underneath, which will be essential. Both strollers recline, so if someone falls asleep, they can still be comfortable...and we can keep going. I think that the two strollers will be extremely helpful in the airport too, especially since we're flying out of LaGuardia and it's a huge airport. We plan on just gate checking them. The only time I forsee that the Graco will be a PITA is when we have to collapse it to get it on and off the Disney shuttle. But, well, that's what John is for.

 

[bertegirl]

We were going to rent one, too. Until I learned the cost. So I started a stroller swap. Its been pretty easy. Can't wait to keep reading!

 

[ineedmyblankie]

Grumpy has me doubting my decision for the two singles (via e-mail). I'm sure his intent was not to make me doubt myself. He just asked me if I was serious about taking the two. I'm only doubting myself b/c I see other people taking doubles. (Like I said, he's a friend of mine.) He is planning on renting a double stroller for his two kids, who are the same ages as my two kids. He was wondering if we don't have a double stroller and if we plan on bringing the two into the parks daily.

As for the double stroller, we do have one:

I'm just thinking that the singles are the way to go for us. John and I think that there are obviously pros and cons to each. I don't think that Evelyn (DD) will be in the stroller a lot, so we can collapse the umbrella and carry it using the shoulder strap. The double just seems like it would be so big, esp. at the airport. It is a lot heavier than either of the singles and bulkier. I think that could be a problem when we are trying to use Disney transportation. I really can't carry it easily by myself.

With the two singles, the main problem that I could foresee is if one of us is going on a ride, then the other has two kids in separate strollers. I can't imagine that I would need to go far anyway w/ the two kids if he was on a ride. However, I could always make Evelyn walk and collapse/carry that stroller. The other time would be at meals if one of us went to get a table while the other went to get food. One would have two kids in 2 strollers while the other would have the food. I think I may see if there's an easy way that we can strap the umbrella to the bigger stroller so we wouldn't have to carry it. That would be ideal.

Another pro for the two would be that if one of us were in line with Evelyn for a ride that Braeden (DS) couldn't go on, the other could take Braeden for a walk or to check his diaper. It would obviously be easier then to have the 1 stroller vs. a double.

Why do you prefer a double over singles?

What are your thoughts? Pros/Cons/random thoughts? Hellllllllllllp meeeeeee!

 

[GrumpyGoofy]

As for us, i think anytime you have a choice between carrying 1 bigger or 2 smaller of something, i will go for 1. My thought is getting on buses, you will have 2 kids, 2 strollers and at least 1 bag. Obviously the little guy will be on your lap. Dad will be lugging the big stroller the bag and a another stroller on his back. Evelyn will be holding on to mommy. So now John has to sit with the stuff and Evelyn wants to sit on someone's lap cause she's tired.

In the park, I would expect Evelyn to walk a bit. So you are pushing a double stroller with an empty seat, that just gives you a place to put more stuff, keep the cameras handy there etc. Why if your not pushing her around in it would you want to add it to list of stuff you have to carry and remember?

As far as dragging it all around, the double is not that much bigger than your larger single collapsed. Sure it is a bit bigger and heavier, but dealing with a second item is not for me.

While we have not been to Disney with our little children, we do frequent Hershey Park often. Since the birth of our second one, we have never taken 2 strollers over our double.

Also, we are now looking at buying a new double stoller rather than renting because we will most likey be headed back to disney again next year and the double rental fee easly justifies the cost. Also we are thinking that some containment in the airport would be good.

I have not looked into stroller swaps here. What are they? how does that work? Where are the strollers kept?

 

[ineedmyblankie]

GAH! You're trying to confuse me. Now I'm going to have to discuss all of this with John and see what he thinks again. I may need to start a double vs. 2 single stroller thread.

As for the stroller swaps, here's a thread about them:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1885802