PurpleKomodo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2015
- Messages
- 477
We are headed to Disney World this July, 2015. I had started blogging about my planning process and quickly realized that no one that usually reads my blog (family and friends) really care about my neurotic Disney planning process. I figured here was a better outlet and, heck, maybe we can learn from each other along the way. So follow along as I give our planning process and continue on to Disney!
The Cast:
Me (Elizabeth), My Husband (Kory), and our sweet little almost 3 year old (Caedmon)
My Dad (Dan) and Step-Mom (Deb)
My Step-Sister (Jenni) and Step-Nephew (Christian)
My Step-Brother (James) and his girlfriend (Shaleah)
Some Backgroud:
The people going on this trip are myself, Elizabeth, my husband Kory, our not quite 3 year old kiddo Caedmon, my Dad, Step-Mom Deb, Step-sister Jenni and her son Christian who is 10. My Step-brother James and his girlfriend are also along for the ride. So if you followed all that we have a total of 9 people going that fall into 3-4 distinct family groups. We have gone with this crew 2 other times (pre-kiddo) and my Dad has always taken the lead when planning. This time, I am taking the wheel! I am super type-A and a pretty serious planner so I was ready for the challenge.
The First Meeting:
Meetings a crucial for planning a trip with such a large group. Currently, my little family live in Kentucky and everyone else lives in Missouri so planning is best accomplished when we are all together. Our first meeting was while we were in Missouri for Christmas. We had figured out travel dates prior to this meeting so we were able to skip that discussion. We are usually pretty limited to summer due to my nephew being in school and my work in the schools. We chose the end of July this year because it gave my family time to transisition to a new home in Missouri before we go.
The first decision to be made was where to stay. There are 9 of us so our options are villas or multiple rooms. We are usually a value resort crew. We often spend almost all our time in the parks and just need some place to rest our heads at night. But, I am anticipating some mid-day breaks with Caedmon and maybe some early nights, so I spent some time researching villas. We also know from previous hotel experiences with him that he does not sleep well if we are trying to sleep in the same room. And if Caedmon isn't sleeping, ain't nobody sleeping! By doing some prior research, I narrowed our options down to:
Saratoga Springs: Treehouse Villas
Art of Animations: A family suit+a standard room
Pop Century: 3 Rooms
Of those options, Pop Century was the cheapest, but Saratoga Springs appeared to be the most comfortable. Because the cost difference was not much per person, we opted to try something new and go for the treehouse villa. We can all stay in one villa (which will be tight, but doable) and we will have a great place for Caedmon to nap and sleep at night without everyone in the room having to sit and stare at the wall in the dark. It also gives us the option to cook some breakfasts and do laundry which will be great. So, resort chosen!
Next up was deciding on whether or not to do the dining plan. This was an easy choice because we have used it before and enjoyed it. Many of the families in this trip are on pretty tight budgets so anyway we can keep the actual cost predictable is helpful. We usually opt for the Disney Dining Plan and find it plenty sufficient to feed us. We also needed to choose what ADRs we were going to make. We chose our ADRs based on a basic plan for which parks we would like to visit which days. I was unconcerned with any evening EMHs because little man will not last that long so I chose parks that didn't have EMHs to help avoid some crowds. Below are the restaurants we selected and briefly why:
Coming Up: Making reservations and Disney's Super Awesome IT!
Come along! We would love to have you! Feel free to follow me on Pinterst to see my idea board for the trip at https://www.pinterest.com/elizabethwilcox/
You can also find my blog at www.purplekomodo.blogspot.com for more info on our planning process.
The Cast:
Me (Elizabeth), My Husband (Kory), and our sweet little almost 3 year old (Caedmon)
My Dad (Dan) and Step-Mom (Deb)
My Step-Sister (Jenni) and Step-Nephew (Christian)
My Step-Brother (James) and his girlfriend (Shaleah)
Some Backgroud:
The people going on this trip are myself, Elizabeth, my husband Kory, our not quite 3 year old kiddo Caedmon, my Dad, Step-Mom Deb, Step-sister Jenni and her son Christian who is 10. My Step-brother James and his girlfriend are also along for the ride. So if you followed all that we have a total of 9 people going that fall into 3-4 distinct family groups. We have gone with this crew 2 other times (pre-kiddo) and my Dad has always taken the lead when planning. This time, I am taking the wheel! I am super type-A and a pretty serious planner so I was ready for the challenge.
The First Meeting:
Meetings a crucial for planning a trip with such a large group. Currently, my little family live in Kentucky and everyone else lives in Missouri so planning is best accomplished when we are all together. Our first meeting was while we were in Missouri for Christmas. We had figured out travel dates prior to this meeting so we were able to skip that discussion. We are usually pretty limited to summer due to my nephew being in school and my work in the schools. We chose the end of July this year because it gave my family time to transisition to a new home in Missouri before we go.
The first decision to be made was where to stay. There are 9 of us so our options are villas or multiple rooms. We are usually a value resort crew. We often spend almost all our time in the parks and just need some place to rest our heads at night. But, I am anticipating some mid-day breaks with Caedmon and maybe some early nights, so I spent some time researching villas. We also know from previous hotel experiences with him that he does not sleep well if we are trying to sleep in the same room. And if Caedmon isn't sleeping, ain't nobody sleeping! By doing some prior research, I narrowed our options down to:
Saratoga Springs: Treehouse Villas
Art of Animations: A family suit+a standard room
Pop Century: 3 Rooms
Next up was deciding on whether or not to do the dining plan. This was an easy choice because we have used it before and enjoyed it. Many of the families in this trip are on pretty tight budgets so anyway we can keep the actual cost predictable is helpful. We usually opt for the Disney Dining Plan and find it plenty sufficient to feed us. We also needed to choose what ADRs we were going to make. We chose our ADRs based on a basic plan for which parks we would like to visit which days. I was unconcerned with any evening EMHs because little man will not last that long so I chose parks that didn't have EMHs to help avoid some crowds. Below are the restaurants we selected and briefly why:
Day 1: Arrival - O'Hana: This a favorite! We are carnivores and just love it!
Day 2: Magic Kingdom - Crystal Palace: Mainly for the characters but a decent buffet too.
Day 3: EPCOT - Coral Reef: Love the big fish tank!
Day 4: Animal Kingdom - T-Rex: Heading to DTD in the evening for some Dinos.
Day 5: Hollywood Studios - Hollywood and Vine Breakfast: We are traveling with a preschooler...
Day 6: Universal/Resort Day - Sanaa: New since we have been and sounded awesome!
Day 7: Magic Kingdom - Chef Mickey's Breakfast: Another one for little man.
I will talk in another post about how we did getting these reservations, but for now, this was our initial plan. We always end every initial meeting with watching the vacation DVD so we did that, collected $25 per person for the deposit and called it a day.Day 2: Magic Kingdom - Crystal Palace: Mainly for the characters but a decent buffet too.
Day 3: EPCOT - Coral Reef: Love the big fish tank!
Day 4: Animal Kingdom - T-Rex: Heading to DTD in the evening for some Dinos.
Day 5: Hollywood Studios - Hollywood and Vine Breakfast: We are traveling with a preschooler...
Day 6: Universal/Resort Day - Sanaa: New since we have been and sounded awesome!
Day 7: Magic Kingdom - Chef Mickey's Breakfast: Another one for little man.
Coming Up: Making reservations and Disney's Super Awesome IT!
Come along! We would love to have you! Feel free to follow me on Pinterst to see my idea board for the trip at https://www.pinterest.com/elizabethwilcox/
You can also find my blog at www.purplekomodo.blogspot.com for more info on our planning process.
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