The Trip That Bambi Tried to Prevent!

[dragitoff]

We just got back from our 8 day trip to WDW (June 6-13). My DW, DD8, and DD4 went with 2 other families that had alot of 1st timers. We were set to leave Saturday morning @ 10AM. The night before, my wife and I were in town gathering up the last minute items we needed. We were on our way to pick up our kids when a HUGE deer crashed through the front windshield of our Toyota Sienna. It came out of nowhere! We live in the country and see deer on the road all the time, but what made this extremely weird was this happened in the middle of town. Very little wooded areas nearby!

We could not get a rental car big enough to accomodate our family and stuff (we had alot of grocery items because we had rented a house in Windsor Hills), but fortunately my father loaned us his new Escalade!

I must say, even being a griseled Disney vet, I learned alot on this trip. I knew proper planning was essential, but didn't fully appreciate the value of it. We had a group of 12, with 6 adults and 6 kids and we did EVERYTHING we wanted to do. The kids ranged in age from 2-11. 5 of the kids were girls with the only boy being the 11 year old. He was also the only kid (other than my 2) that had ever been to Disney. Here's a list of what all we were able to do, despite the large party and heavy crowds.

1st Day-Animal Kingdom
Kilamanjaro Safaris
Kali River Rapids
Expedition Everest
Triceratop Spin
Primievel Whirl
Dinosaur
Finding Nemo: The Musical
It's Tough to Be a Bug
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade
Festival of the Lion King
ADR @ Rainforest Cafe

2nd Day-Magic Kingdom
Magic Carpets of Alladin
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
Splash Mountain
Country Bear Jamboree
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Haunted Mansion
It's a Small World
Mickey's Philharmagic
Cinderella's Golden Carousel

3rd Day-Hollywood Studios
Aerosmith's Rock 'n' Rollercoaster (3 times!)
Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania
Lights, Motors, Action!
Backlot Studio Tour
Great Movie Ride
Voyage of the Little Mermaid
Walt Disney: One Man's Dream
Star Tours
Muppet Vision 3-D
Fantasmic!

4th Day-Epcot (short day because someone in party got sick on Mission: Space)
Soarin'
Living with the Land
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
Turtle Talk with Crush
Kids spent time @ Aquarium
Test Track
Mission: Space
Universe of Energy
Spaceship Earth

5th Day-Hollywood Studios (1/2 day)
Aerosmith's Rock 'N' Rollercoaster (2 more times)
Tower of Terror
Star Tours
Beauty and the Beast show
Indiana Jones Stunt Show

6th Day-Magic Kingdom (1/2 day)
Dumbo
Snow White's Scary Adventures
Goofy's Barnstormer
Characters!!!!!!!
Minnie and Mickey's houses
Walt Disney World Railroad
Pool @ Windsor Hills (kids loved the slide)
Downtown Disney (including dinner @ Rainforest)

I have an interesting story about our last night dinner @ Rainforest. We had decided we were all too tired to go back to the Magic Kingdom and fight the crowds to watch Spectromagic and Wishes, so 2 of the 3 families decided we'd go to Downtown Disney and do a little shopping and have dinner. We passed T-Rex and thought the wait looked really long so decided to try Rainforest. When we got there, I asked how long the wait was. The hostess said 1 hour and 20 minutes and handed me a ticket. I talked it over with my party and we decided none of us wanted to wait that long to eat. I went back up to the hostess stand and told them I wanted to turn my ticket back in because we weren't going to be able to wait that long. They took us in and immediately sat us! Our dinner was great and we were leaving the restaurant at the time they would have originally been seating us!!

As for the Disney magic, we go every year and look forward to each and every trip we make. My wife summed it up best when she said, she didn't even think about our van being in the shop being repaired (despite the fact that we were driving someone else's vehicle everyday) until the insurance company called with the estimate. Disney is truly a place to go and be in another place! It's not a theme park, it's a magical world!

It's funny because we started the week out strong, doing more and more and staying pretty late each day, but as the trip progressed, we got more tired and did less each day! The kids loved the pool @ the house so much, we spent almost every afternoon letting them enjoy that.

I must recommend the house we stayed in. It was a great value and a wonderful home. The owner was extremely nice and easy to work with. Please, check it out if you're looking for a house. Tell him Brandon that just stayed in the house sent you!

http://www.vrbo.com/82895

Thanks for reading!

 

[holyschmolly]

WOW. That is quite a long list of stuff done with such a large group!

So, just how bad were the crowds & wait times?? We are planning for the same time frame in 2010.

TIA!

 

[dragitoff]

The crowds were a little on the heavy side. We made the decision to stay together despite having such a large group since we had so many 1st timers. My family was really the only vets we had on the trip. We didn't stand in line for anything longer than 40 minutes and that was Soarin' (which had a posted time of 20 minutes). Most of the rides we only waited 20 minutes or less. We took full advantage of the Rider Swap program, but beware that Disney is cracking down on people who abuse this and are watching it more closely.

 

[OhMari]

We rented a home from the company in 2000.
We couldn't find anything to accomodate our family of 6.
Glad things worked out and you found the Disney Magic.

 

[dragitoff]

We always know where to find that Disney Magic! lol. The day after we got back, one of the families we went with were already wanting us to plan next year's trip! We've created another Disney family monster!!!!!