Good Ol Gal
A Longhorn living in Buckeye Country
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2004
- Messages
- 20,350
We just returned from our 3rd annual WDW Trip and I am going to make my frist trip report! Our trip was from December 9th - December 16th.
Cast: DH, myself, DS11, DD9, DS7, DS6.
Missing Cast members: MIL / FIL from California
Location: Columbus Ohio to a 2 bedroom villa at Disney's Old Key West
We originally planned our trip to include my DH's parents. We booked our vacation back in January 2006, and got the In-laws a campsite at FW.
Then in October our youngest ds5 got a real bad case of pnemonia that caused him to be in the hospital for 13 days! His pnemonia was so aggressive it ate holes in his lung and killed it in 3 different parts! We had to make some serious Disney decisions while he was in the hospital. The final payment was due on their campsite and we had a banking deadline for our DVC points that we had to consider. So, we decided that we had better cancel their portion of the trip. We also cancelled our Friday and Saturday night stays at OKW so that we could bank those points.
It was a hard decision, and we were all bummed, but the doctor's couldn't tell us if he would be well enough for such a long trip by then. We did NOT tell him at the time, he would have been crushed.
Fast forward to December, and after weekly x-rays and bloodwork, his doctor's give him the O.K. to go
NO restrictions on our little fellow 
I called WDW and they DID have the exact same campsite available for MIL/FIL!! I was ready to book it!! MIL/FIL were driving their motor home from CA to Ohio and were going to be arriving here the next day. Hmm... should I just book it and tell them their going?? Or should I ask them??
Well I reserved it, but they said they didn't want to go now
They decided to just stay at our house and watch our pets while we go. Now, that is real nice of them, but we'd rather they come with us! We knew we could find someone to watch the doggies, but they insisted that they just stay behind. So, now we are missing two cast members.
I called Disney sooo many times the week before our trip. I wanted to verify our Dining ADRs were still there, that our reservation was all in order at OKW, and that they could take gift cards for payment at OKW. I had just ordered $1000 worth of gift cards from our kids school and I wanted to make sure I could use them to pay for our dining plan and any charges we made there. Good thing I did, b/c they didn't have all of us correct on the reservation and they didn't have the Dining Plan!
DH would DIE if we didn't have the DDP. He LOVES it!! Thank goodness we have DVC, I was able to add it on no problem.
Friday, Dec 8th: Our plan is to go to sleep about 8pm and sleep till 3am, and get on the road by 3:30am. Yes, we're driving to WDW from Central Ohio, with 4 kids! I know, we're crazy
Of course no one in the house can't get to sleep at 8pm. I am still packing, trying to figure out what exactly to pack. Since we have a washer and dryer I want to pack lightly so we can just wash clothes each evening. I figure two pairs of shorts per person. Well guess what? That's 12 pairs of shorts total!! What was I thinking? Can I really pack lightly for 6 people? I tell you, my dh thinks clothing just magically appears at WDW. He has NO idea how much time and effort goes into planning and packing for 6 people.
I ended up packing three suitcases and one very large overnight bag.
Each kiddo had a backpack with gameboys and music in them. We packed 4 portable DVD players, thanks to a friend letting us borrow some. 4 pillows, 5 blankets, snacks and water bottles. My dd packed 5 build a bears and a suitcase dedicated to just BAB clothing for herself and her younger brothers.
The car got packed up with everything except the electronic stuff and pillows Friday night. FIL complained and complained that I was packing too much stuff. How I just needed one suitcase and that was it. Again, a man. They just don't understand.
Off to bed we all went at about 9pm. Sleeping did not ensue.
Saturday, December 9th: I got about 3 hours of sleep. I was all restless, and finally got out of bed at 2am. I came downstairs to find dh and two kiddos asleep on the couches. They all wake up and we get all set to head out. I made sure the kiddos were dressed in traveling clothes when going to bed, so we didn't have to get them all changed in the middle of the night. So, this should have been an easy transition. Get up, brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, get in the car.
Easy enough right? Well, not if you're a kiddo who didn't go to sleep till after midnight. Yep, seems like they partied all night with dh. They all had midnight snacks of french fries and honey buns.
It took a little time to get them all transitioned from one room to the other, but once it registered that we were leaving for WDW they were all excited and awake!
2:15am: we're all getting loaded in the car. DD is in the back and all of a sudden says "I don't feel so well." Oh yeah, you know what's coming next......she started to throw up! Luckily my DS11 was just climbing in with garbage bags! He threw one back to her and most of it made it into the bag. After about a minute of puking she goes "Oh, I feel so much better now! I guess I shouldn't have had that midnight snack."
Now, being the great mom that I am, I go to get the bag from her so she can get out and get cleaned up. But what do I do??? I take the bag at a weird angle and you know what comes spilling out all over her! Thank goodness she was sitting on a blanket, or the car would have been covered with it!
Well we basically wrap it all up and she goes in to get cleaned up and changed. I don't think I've seen DH move so fast in awhile. He had her cleaned up and changed within 5 minutes.
Here it was 2:25 and we were all ready to pull out of the driveway!!
DH takes the first leg of the driving. Ok, I really wanted to drive, b/c I'm the early bird, but being a M.A.N. he has to drive. After about 3 hours I tell him that I want to take over. He looks sleepy and dazed, so I force him to pull over at a rest stop and let me take over.
Well here I am jetting down the highway and our little gas light comes. Ok, so let's find a good place to stop. I tell my dh to look up in the best book we have, I-75 and tell me where to stop at. He tells me exit 160. Great. drive, drive, drive...... ACK!!! there went exit 160!! Ok, fine. Where's the next exit hon? Not for almost 20 miles???!!! Our light has already been on for over almost 20 miles!
I drive the best I can, trying to keep a steady pace, up and down the mountains. All the while dh is mumbling to himself how a man would not have missed that exit. I'm mumbling how if he had told me it's the last exit for 20 miles I would have slowed down and made sure I didn't miss it.
Well we get over the mumbling and start praying. We finally pull into the gas station and dh fills the car up. I have an 18 gallon tank, and it takes 17.93 gallons!!! Angels were pushing our car all the way to the gas pumps!
Guess what happens next?
Yep, dh takes over the driving
We head back out and now that it's daylight we plug in the iPod and start listening to some good music. Well after about an hour, the music stops. What the heck??? Can my iPod be dead already? How can that be? I charged it all night long. Ok, we plug dh's iPod in. Can't hear it either
What the heck is going on? Ok, pop the iPod out and let's see what's one radio. NOTHING!! WHAT??!! All of the speakers in the car have stopped working??!!! ACK!! How in the world are we going to travel for over 15 hours with NO MUSIC?!
to be continued later...........
Coming soon:
Day 1 continued: changing plans again? the drive to WDW
Day 2: Do we have to eat here? Epcot and MK
Day 3: What do you mean we can't have trans fat? MGM day
Day 4: How come we can't do what I want to do? Animal Kingdom and MVMCP
Day 5: We're eating at MY favorite place! Epcot
Day 6: Rain, rain go away! MK and DVC Merry Mixer
Day 7: Do we have to go home?!
our last day
Day 8: Ack!! The alarm didn't go off!! the long drive home
Cast: DH, myself, DS11, DD9, DS7, DS6.
Missing Cast members: MIL / FIL from California
Location: Columbus Ohio to a 2 bedroom villa at Disney's Old Key West
We originally planned our trip to include my DH's parents. We booked our vacation back in January 2006, and got the In-laws a campsite at FW.
Then in October our youngest ds5 got a real bad case of pnemonia that caused him to be in the hospital for 13 days! His pnemonia was so aggressive it ate holes in his lung and killed it in 3 different parts! We had to make some serious Disney decisions while he was in the hospital. The final payment was due on their campsite and we had a banking deadline for our DVC points that we had to consider. So, we decided that we had better cancel their portion of the trip. We also cancelled our Friday and Saturday night stays at OKW so that we could bank those points.
It was a hard decision, and we were all bummed, but the doctor's couldn't tell us if he would be well enough for such a long trip by then. We did NOT tell him at the time, he would have been crushed.
Fast forward to December, and after weekly x-rays and bloodwork, his doctor's give him the O.K. to go
NO restrictions on our little fellow I called WDW and they DID have the exact same campsite available for MIL/FIL!! I was ready to book it!! MIL/FIL were driving their motor home from CA to Ohio and were going to be arriving here the next day. Hmm... should I just book it and tell them their going?? Or should I ask them?? Well I reserved it, but they said they didn't want to go now
They decided to just stay at our house and watch our pets while we go. Now, that is real nice of them, but we'd rather they come with us! We knew we could find someone to watch the doggies, but they insisted that they just stay behind. So, now we are missing two cast members. I called Disney sooo many times the week before our trip. I wanted to verify our Dining ADRs were still there, that our reservation was all in order at OKW, and that they could take gift cards for payment at OKW. I had just ordered $1000 worth of gift cards from our kids school and I wanted to make sure I could use them to pay for our dining plan and any charges we made there. Good thing I did, b/c they didn't have all of us correct on the reservation and they didn't have the Dining Plan!
DH would DIE if we didn't have the DDP. He LOVES it!! Thank goodness we have DVC, I was able to add it on no problem. Friday, Dec 8th: Our plan is to go to sleep about 8pm and sleep till 3am, and get on the road by 3:30am. Yes, we're driving to WDW from Central Ohio, with 4 kids! I know, we're crazy
Of course no one in the house can't get to sleep at 8pm. I am still packing, trying to figure out what exactly to pack. Since we have a washer and dryer I want to pack lightly so we can just wash clothes each evening. I figure two pairs of shorts per person. Well guess what? That's 12 pairs of shorts total!! What was I thinking? Can I really pack lightly for 6 people? I tell you, my dh thinks clothing just magically appears at WDW. He has NO idea how much time and effort goes into planning and packing for 6 people.
I ended up packing three suitcases and one very large overnight bag.
Each kiddo had a backpack with gameboys and music in them. We packed 4 portable DVD players, thanks to a friend letting us borrow some. 4 pillows, 5 blankets, snacks and water bottles. My dd packed 5 build a bears and a suitcase dedicated to just BAB clothing for herself and her younger brothers.
The car got packed up with everything except the electronic stuff and pillows Friday night. FIL complained and complained that I was packing too much stuff. How I just needed one suitcase and that was it. Again, a man. They just don't understand.
Off to bed we all went at about 9pm. Sleeping did not ensue. Saturday, December 9th: I got about 3 hours of sleep. I was all restless, and finally got out of bed at 2am. I came downstairs to find dh and two kiddos asleep on the couches. They all wake up and we get all set to head out. I made sure the kiddos were dressed in traveling clothes when going to bed, so we didn't have to get them all changed in the middle of the night. So, this should have been an easy transition. Get up, brush your teeth, go to the bathroom, get in the car.
Easy enough right? Well, not if you're a kiddo who didn't go to sleep till after midnight. Yep, seems like they partied all night with dh. They all had midnight snacks of french fries and honey buns.
It took a little time to get them all transitioned from one room to the other, but once it registered that we were leaving for WDW they were all excited and awake! 2:15am: we're all getting loaded in the car. DD is in the back and all of a sudden says "I don't feel so well." Oh yeah, you know what's coming next......she started to throw up!
Luckily my DS11 was just climbing in with garbage bags! He threw one back to her and most of it made it into the bag. After about a minute of puking she goes "Oh, I feel so much better now! I guess I shouldn't have had that midnight snack." Now, being the great mom that I am, I go to get the bag from her so she can get out and get cleaned up. But what do I do??? I take the bag at a weird angle and you know what comes spilling out all over her! Thank goodness she was sitting on a blanket, or the car would have been covered with it!
Well we basically wrap it all up and she goes in to get cleaned up and changed. I don't think I've seen DH move so fast in awhile. He had her cleaned up and changed within 5 minutes.
Here it was 2:25 and we were all ready to pull out of the driveway!!
DH takes the first leg of the driving. Ok, I really wanted to drive, b/c I'm the early bird, but being a M.A.N. he has to drive. After about 3 hours I tell him that I want to take over. He looks sleepy and dazed, so I force him to pull over at a rest stop and let me take over.
Well here I am jetting down the highway and our little gas light comes. Ok, so let's find a good place to stop. I tell my dh to look up in the best book we have, I-75 and tell me where to stop at. He tells me exit 160. Great. drive, drive, drive...... ACK!!! there went exit 160!! Ok, fine. Where's the next exit hon? Not for almost 20 miles???!!! Our light has already been on for over almost 20 miles!
I drive the best I can, trying to keep a steady pace, up and down the mountains. All the while dh is mumbling to himself how a man would not have missed that exit. I'm mumbling how if he had told me it's the last exit for 20 miles I would have slowed down and made sure I didn't miss it.
Well we get over the mumbling and start praying. We finally pull into the gas station and dh fills the car up. I have an 18 gallon tank, and it takes 17.93 gallons!!! Angels were pushing our car all the way to the gas pumps!
Guess what happens next?
Yep, dh takes over the driving
We head back out and now that it's daylight we plug in the iPod and start listening to some good music. Well after about an hour, the music stops. What the heck??? Can my iPod be dead already? How can that be? I charged it all night long. Ok, we plug dh's iPod in. Can't hear it either
What the heck is going on? Ok, pop the iPod out and let's see what's one radio. NOTHING!! WHAT??!! All of the speakers in the car have stopped working??!!! ACK!! How in the world are we going to travel for over 15 hours with NO MUSIC?!
to be continued later...........
Coming soon:
Day 1 continued: changing plans again? the drive to WDW
Day 2: Do we have to eat here? Epcot and MK
Day 3: What do you mean we can't have trans fat? MGM day
Day 4: How come we can't do what I want to do? Animal Kingdom and MVMCP
Day 5: We're eating at MY favorite place! Epcot
Day 6: Rain, rain go away! MK and DVC Merry Mixer
Day 7: Do we have to go home?!
our last dayDay 8: Ack!! The alarm didn't go off!! the long drive home
