"Surprise! You're going to Disney, on your birthday, with your favorite cousin!"

[emyrus2004]

If you hadn’t guessed yet this will be a HUGE surprise for Emrys. She will have no idea this trip is coming. Since I have moved back from Florida, both her and Maeve mention to me frequently that they would like to visit Disney World. I have always told them “Someday we will get to go”. Now that this trip has been planned, whenever they mention it I have to hide my smirk when I reply. My aunt and I definitely egged Emrys on this past weekend by asking her what she wants for her birthday. She sat there and thought and thought and finally decided she will be asking for a waterproof camera. That’s not all she’s going to get

So how is the surprise going to happen? I debated when the best time to tell her would be. I have heard stories about how some kids were upset or not that excited when they were surprised with a trip and I didn’t want that to happen. I also had to think about the other two girls. Sloane won’t really know any different since she is just 2 and doesn’t really have any comprehension of Disney but Maeve is a different story. After talking with Emrys’ mom and my aunt, I decided that it would be best for everyone to tell Emrys very close to the departure date.

Since the whole family is contributing something to the trip, I wanted to try and make it so that they could all see her reaction. The easiest idea I came up with is to have her family birthday party the evening before we leave. I then made a list of things that I thought would be nice for her to have for her trip and some things that would be nice Disney surprises. I sent this list to my family and everyone selected something that they would get her. So on Friday, May 27th the whole family will gather at my mom’s house for pizza, cake and a GIANT surprise for Emrys. When it comes time for the presents she will get them in the following order:

A couple of good theme park outfits (shorts, tank-tops/t-shirts, sundresses)
Swimsuit, sunscreen, flip-flops
Back-pack with activities for the plane
Carriage necklace
A fake plane ticket to Orlando
And finally the surprise

First I will give her a letter from Mickey that will kind of set the stage and let her know that this big gift is from me. Then she will open a big box with a Mickey head balloon and helium balloons, her new duffle bag, the Princess shirts and a shirt that says "I'm going to Walt Disney World!"

I arranged it so that the presents are the least obvious to the giant balloon filled Disney box. Then once the surprise is revealed, she will get some Disney gift cards and spending money. It is going to be so flipping awesome. And if that wasn’t enough she is getting a surprise similar to this in our hotel room when we get there on Saturday, May 28th from her grandparents.

(A surprise for me from my friend’s aunt on our October 2009 trip.)

Then on the morning of her birthday she is getting a surprise certificate for a very special Princess Storybook Breakfast at Akershus and on the next day she is getting a surprise certificate for her to Pick-A-Pearl for her necklace.

For Maeve, I have decided to take her aside right before present time and let her in on the big secret. Maeve has always been really good with keeping surprises; it makes her feel like a big girl. I will have a letter from whoever is her favorite Princess at the time letting her know that now is Emrys’ turn to go but that when she reaches the “Big Girl” age of 8, she will get to have her very own special trip. The surprise for her will be that, if all goes as planned, she will get to go for her 7th birthday. Both she and Sloane will get the stuffed toys from Mickey.

That night we will look over all of the maps and watch this little DVD (or the new one when I get our Mickey mail).

(This picture (in the picture) is of me and my roommates during our College Program )

I’m thinking of getting or making her a little diary so she can write down all of the things she wants to do and to write in during our trip. I also may do nightly videos with like a Top 3 favorite things she got to do to send to our family during the vacation. A couple trips ago, I started a Twitter so that one of my coworkers could follow along with my trip and I am going to update it this time with updates and pictures of Emrys so that my family can follow along. I want them to feel like they are getting to be a part of the trip too. I will also post the link here before we leave for anyone interested in following along live.

I really hope everything will work out as planned. I hate when things don't go as planned, just ask my family. It will be ok; as long as we make it to Disney it will all be good. I’m so looking forward to sharing this experience with her.

Side note: Tomorrow I’m getting to see Wicked! It’s one of my favorite musicals; I saw it two years ago and can’t wait to see it again. I probably won’t get to post again until later in the week but up next are our Arrival Day plans!

 

[CreightonsMomma]

Oooh, the surprise is going to be great! I think it's going to be a room full of tears of happiness. I love the surprises. Make sure you get it on video! I think it is all going to go swimmingly.

 

[marymac123]

Love it! Sounds Perfect!

 

[britt_ji]

Your plans for the surprise sound great It's really good that everyone gets to be involved in some way! Have fun at Wicked!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Wow that sounds like a great way to surprise Emrys!! She is going to feel like a princess

 

[emyrus2004]

Oooh, the surprise is going to be great! I think it's going to be a room full of tears of happiness. I love the surprises. Make sure you get it on video! I think it is all going to go swimmingly.

Love it! Sounds Perfect!

Your plans for the surprise sound great It's really good that everyone gets to be involved in some way! Have fun at Wicked!

Wow that sounds like a great way to surprise Emrys!! She is going to feel like a princess

Thanks y’all! I really hope that the whole family enjoys the surprise. Wicked was wonderful last night but the morning came super early I am going to try and get a quick trip update up tonight.

 

[emyrus2004]

Alright, it’s time to get into the real trip plan. As I’m sure you have gathered we will be arriving on Saturday, May 28th. Our flight leaves out of Austin around 3ish. I figured that would give us plenty of time to get everything together, eat lunch, say our good-byes (since the whole family will still be at my mom’s house), make any last minute stops and get to the airport. I don’t think I have mentioned it but this will also be Emrys’ first time flying where she can remember it (her first flight was when she was only a month old). This will be her view out the window.

We should be arriving in Orlando around 6:45. We will make our way to the Magical Express and hopefully won’t experience any crazy waits and be seated and seeing this.

Once we get to the hotel we will check-in, find our room, and eat dinner here.

Then we are going to explore the resort and go swimming if the weather is nice here.

We will call it a fairly early night since we have to be up bright and early the next morning to head here

to celebrate Emrys’ birthday with some very special ladies

Up next... First Park Day/Emrys' 8th Birthday! - Sunday, May 29th

 

[TanzUnited99]

I hope Emrys enjoys her time on the first flight she remembers. Your travel day plans sound great and how cool for Emrys to meet the princesses on the morning of her birthday!

 

[emyrus2004]

I have created a VERY detailed trip itinerary (I’m talking pretty much a hourly one) but I won’t bore you with every detail. Instead I’ll just give you an over view of what the plan is for the day and some must do’s. You’re welcome

Today we will wake up early and get ready for our first park day at Disney! Emrys will get a special birthday certificate from her aunt and uncle (my cousins) who moved to Canada this past October. This certificate will lead us here

where we will begin our day at the Princess Storybook Breakfast at Askerhus in Norway. We will get to see some pretty Princesses and eat some yummy food. I don’t know who will enjoy this more me or Emrys. It will definitely be a very special morning and a great way to start off her birthday.

As soon as we are finished saying hi to our Princess friends and stuffing ourselves with cinnamon rolls we will speed walk over to the Land to snag some Fast Passes for

This is definitely one of my favorite rides and I know Emrys will be in awe of it. It will be a completely new experience than anything she has experienced. We will spend the morning exploring Future World and Innoventions. We will be sure to hit the following attractions

Finding Nemo

Spaceship Earth (my nerdy favorite)

Test Track

The Great Piggy Bank Adventure (another nerdy favorite)

The plan is to leave around lunch time and head back to the resort to eat and rest. This is an early morning/late night day so we will definitely need the rest because once we are up we are headed the Magic Kingdom!!!

We are going to take a round about way to get to there because I want Emrys to get to ride the monorail. So we are headed back to Epcot to catch the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom.

Then we will head in to one of my favorite places. I can not wait to see Emrys’ face when she sees this for the first time.

After taking in the castle we will probably head to my FAVORITE ride to see if there are any Fast Passes to be had.

I’m not sure how Emrys is going to handle roller coasters so I will probably try to get her on to Big Thunder Railroad Mountain first since it is kind of the tamest. She hasn’t really had a lot of experience with roller coasters but I think she will do fine. I’m pretty good at convincing her to try something once. We will see how well that will work out at Disney.

We will try to do all that we can this evening. I’m expecting it to be pretty crowded but we will be coming back to Magic Kingdom so I’m not too worried about getting everything done. We will try to hit the following.

Monsters Inc. Laugh Factory (I love this little door )

TTA

it’s a small world

Haunted Mansion

We will definitely be catching the nighttime parade. Does anyone know if it will still be the Main Street Electrical Parade? I sure hope it is since I have never seen it before and as much as I love SpectroMagic, it will be neat to see MSEP. And of course

WISHES!!!

I love Wishes and know that Emrys will love it too. This night the Magic Kingdom is open until 2 a.m., I think. We will stay as late as we feel like it. Since it’s our first full day, I don’t want to stay too late and make us tired for the rest of the trip and because the next morning…

We are headed right back to the Magic Kingdom!

Up Next…Day 3, “Wait, I feel like we have been here before.”

 

[britt_ji]

Your first day plans sound so great! It will be a really magical day for Emry...starting with Princesses at breakfast and ending with Wishes at MK The parade is listed as Main Street Electrical Parade on the calender, so I'm pretty sure you'll get to see it.