The Year of the Mouse! A SURPRISE trip, with another one in the making! COMPLETE 8/11

[bbak30]

October trip update!!!
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69 days left until we leave! I am soooo excited for this trip. We will be celebrating my daughter's 10th birthday and my parents, as well as DH's parents and sister are joining us. I'm a little apprehensive with so many different personalities, but hoping we will all have a great time. We all like to vacation very differently.

My in-laws weren't able to secure anything through their RCI timeshare (I'm not surprised, I figured it was a longshot). So we booked 2, 2bedroom condos at Saratoga Springs with free dining. I'm super excited about this. New resort and I've never stayed in a 2 bedroom before. We will share with my parents and they are bringing my 6 year old niece. My in-laws and SIL will be in the other one.

The only hiccup is that our package doesn't start until Sunday the 25th. We ended up booking a late flight out on Friday the 23rd. I was hoping to book at POFQ for those first 2 nights. My father in law really wanted to use his points on something, so he got us 2 2 bedrooms at The Fountains on International Drive. It looks really nice, I'm just not looking forward to the hassle of transportation when we don't have a car. If I knew it was going to end up like this, I would not have booked flights and would have drove instead. Oh well!

We are set to fly out Friday evening at 5:00 and landing in Orlando at 7:55 local time. We will rent a car service to bring us to and from the airport. No real plans this night, it will be late when we make it to the resort.

Saturday, October 24th:
Morning: explore the resort, swimming
Lunch: Rainforest Cafe at AK
Exploring AK, possibly hopping to EPCOT. Sis in law and I want to see Tiffany who is playing there that night! We may go and send the parents back with the kiddos if they are willing!

Sunday, October 25th:
I'm still torn about this day. This is the day we will move to Saratoga. I managed to get an 8:00 BOG reservation that I really really want to keep. It would mean getting a cab around 6:30am to Saratoga, checking in and dropping off our luggage. Then getting on a bus to MK for our pre-park opening reservation.
Then we have the Hoop Dee Do Revue at 4pm.
It will be a long day and I'm up to it, just not sure about everyone else. I talked to DH about it and he loved our pre-park opening BOG reservation last trip and wants to do it again. We may just offer it up and plan to go ourselves. They can meet up with us later if they don't want to come that early. I need to get in the mindset that we don't all have to stay together the entire time.

More later!

 

[Lori74]

thank you for sharing! what a cute family! we are staying at saratoga for the first time in nov. our first family vacation to disney, we also got an early reservation at bog. not thrilled so much with the menu and prices, but worth getting in early and seeing mk not so crowded. have a great trip in oct! can't wait to hear about it!

 

[sara1215]

What a great trip! I loved your daughters' reactions to the surprise. It brought a tear to my eye! I plan on surprising my girls too.

 

[mousehappync]

We are going the same days as you-- this is our second trip with nearly those exact dates, and the weather was perfect last time--hoping for a repeat! Getting excited about making FP+-- and planning our surprise reveal. We have told the kids no Disney this year, so this will be a HUGE surprise!

 

[kastoney]

Looks like Ohana was a good second to last meal and love your night in MK and all the snacks the next day. We hated Akershus too, but did breakfast was hoping maybe the other meals were better but now I know. Stay far, far away!

Looks like your next trip is shaping up nicely. Even with switching resorts, you're in DISNEY!!!