The Great Family Return

[TinkerKeeks]

I really wanted a place to organize my planning and since we are just under 3 weeks away I figured this would be a nice way to do it.
I would love to attempt a TR for this trip, but we’ll see. I had written a really nice one for our land and see trip in 2017 but then I fell a little behind and then the whole photobucket change happened and I never got back to it
Anyways I figured a PTR is a good way to get back into trip reporting.
So without further ado, Trip Details:

When:
November 15-22

Where:
Disney’s Beach Club Villas

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I’m super excited to experience all the holiday decorations and Christmas spirit since it’s my favorite holiday!

So a little bit about my family, we are a family of 5 consisting of myself, Tinkerkeeks (30), my DH (33) and our three beautiful children DS(8) and our 5 year old big/girl twins.
Here is a family pic from our last trip in 2017:

I will preface this by saying that our 5 year old twins have special needs. They are both on the autism spectrum and a spectrum it is. DS5 is very intelligent with many sensory issues and DD5 is also very intelligent but is completely non-verbal with her own sensory issues. Both twins also have low muscle tone.
In 2017, the twins were newly 3 and the trip was hard! I have to say the twins have come a long way since then. They have just started Kindergarten this year and while I know there are going to be hiccups, I can’t miss taking them at this magical age.
DH and DD5 have not been to Disney world since our trip in March 2019. I went to Disney World August 2018 by myself with my two sons and my mom. It was a hard call to make but I knew my daughter wasn’t ready to go back, so my husband took a weeks vacation and stayed home with her. It was a bitter sweet trip for that reason, and although we had fun, It definitely was sad we weren’t all together.
Here is a pic from that trip:


That trip we also dealt with a personal family tragedy, when my mother’s significant other passed away on day 2 of our trip. It was absolutely horrible and although we attempted to make the best of the rest of the trip, it was really us pushing through sadness. I knew I needed a re-do.
I booked a bounce back the days before left for December 6-13 2019. It was free dining and I put my husband and daughter on the reservation as well.

Up next I will explain how that bounce back became our currently scheduled trip!

 

[TinkerKeeks]

So I had the bounce back booked for December 6-13. I told my husband and it was kind of like a we’ll see how our daughter is doing and if we think she can handle it. If we don’t think it’s a good idea, I will remove them from the reservation and go by myself with the boys again.

We didn’t think much about the vacation but I knew I wanted so badly to have a trip with all of us. My daughter absolutely loves Disney princesses. She loves to dress up in princess dresses and loves all the music and movies. I knew her coming on the vacation had to happen when I saw she was watching YouTube videos of character breakfasts and other little girls meeting the princesses at Disney world.
My twins this past weekend, princess aurora and jack skellington

It was around March 2019 when an idea arose. My daughter has a com Hab worker that comes a few times a week to work with her. She has been with us for over a year and our family is quite attached. I casually said to my husband one day that it would be great if she could come to Disney with us.
My husband was like, well is that even possible? And I was like actually it is lol
So once I spoke with our worker, (i’ll Just refer to her as S for reporting purposes) I knew I would have to change our plans.
I first called Disney, which I knew was a long shot, to see if we could upgrade our room to a 2 bedroom or add another hotel room. That was no dice. I didn’t want to give up on the dream of bringing support for our daughter, so I started looking into dvc rentals.
I contacted a rental company and again was disappointed to find there were was no 2br availability at any Epcot or magic kingdom area resorts for our dates. I decided to try some different dates, and went with Nov 15-22 and was happy there was much more Availability. In about 2 weeks time we were able to secure a reservation at beach club in a 2 br villa.
With my child’s disability waiver, i knew I would be able to get S’s park ticket and meals reimbursed. S would also get her regular pay for the hours she clocked while on vacation with us. So I would only be responsible for the extra hotel cost. In New York State we are very lucky to have a great Medicaid waiver program for individuals for disabilities. This is actually the field that I work in currently as well.
Anyways sorry for the length just wanted to explain a little background.
So by March everything was settled and we were good to go for November 15-22 at beach club.
As far as park tickets, my plan was to buy 7 day parkhoppers for the kids, dh, and S. For myself I was planning on getting an AP for memory maker and discounts. I purchased the 7 day hoppers for everyone in March and held off purchasing my ap.
Around June I believe they raised the prices overnight for AP. luckily I was able to order an AP voucher from sams club at a discount to avoid paying the new increased price.
And that was the extent of my planning at that point besides the ADRS I did in May which I will go into in my next post.

 

[TinkerKeeks]

So our ADR day was all the way back in May. It seems like a lifetime ago now, (and last year in my head since I am a parent and divide the year by school year’s and not the actual calendar year lol)
Last year I was fully entrenched running the PTA at my twins preschool and throwing our annual raffle auction gala. And wouldn’t you know what weekend our ADR day happened to fall on...yep..the same weekend of said auction gala.
I should also mention that back in January I tore my ACL in Zumba class and had acl reconstruction on my knee in March so at this point I was still hobbling around with a cane, running the PTA, working, and planning our Disney trip.
Anyways I managed to drag myself out of bed bright and early on the Sunday morning after my fundraiser and score some very nice ADRS.
So here is the dining line up for the trip:

Friday Nov. 15: our arrival night I figured we will just get some quick service at the resort.
Saturday nov 16: lunch-be our guest Dinner- chef mickeys
Sunday November 17: breakfast cape May cafe Dinner-sci fi dine in
Monday November 18: dinner-chef mickeys
Tuesday November 19: lunch-garden grill
Wednesday November 20: 1900 pf dinner
Thursday November 21: bon voyage breakfast dinner-homecoming

Storybook dining, bon voyage, 1900pf dinner and homecoming are all new to me. My daughter loves princesses so much and I am so looking forward to these experiences with her.
In preparation for our trip I have added some new buttons to her AAC device. I am really hoping it will give her the help she needs to communicate with some of her favorite characters on her own.

 

[sheri18]

hi...just found this..hope your trip went well