They gave me all the power! Nov PTR

[SkubaDis]

Welcome to my first Pre Trip Report. Of course, because it is the first, expect it to be completely disorganized, as I'm really not sure what I'm doing.

Let's start with some introductions yeah? This is me, and my DH

We've been married for 8 years, and have two awesome kids. (You'll meet them in a bit). He has never been to Disney, I've been twice. I'm clearly more qualified to plan this trip. Granted, the last time was 15 years ago, but I still have the leg up. We are going with our two children, His sister and her family of four, and his brother and his family of four. Grand total? 12 newbies. And they've put me in charge of EVERYTHING.

Now, I don't mind. I love vacation planning. But it gets difficult when some people *ahem* in laws can be picky about what to do. Luckily, there are 2 7-ish year old girls and 2 2yo girls who LOOOOOOVE princesses. So naturally, we have to make them happy first. Won't be too hard. Right?

Here is my DS7 and my Niece who is also 7. They are best buds, and you can see why.

I realize this is not a flattering picture of my niece. Hopefully in my trip report, you will get to see how beautiful she is.

Here is a selfie of me and my clone.

She is the best thing in the entire world. DD2 is obsessed with horses. How? I have no idea. But we own every stuffed Disney horse. And she likes to ride the poor things around the house.

I don't have pics of the rest of my travel party. I mean I do, but who really cares about them. Let's get down to business!

We are staying in AOA LM room from 11/16-11/22. BIL and his family are staying at the fancy Poly. We are renting a van and from Texas. BIL is flying in a fancy airplane. I would love to fly, but I would also like to spend my extra grand on stuff from Disney. So that's what I'll go with. Plus, with two toddlers-- We have to take a buuunch of stuff. Little girls require lots of accessories. It's good though, I love road trips. Plus we have DVD players, and every single Disney movie, and I think we're gonna be just fine.

The children mentioned above have NO IDEA what is going down. They are going to come home from school, we are going to eat, and have a scavenger hunt (details not finalized) and pack them up in the van and head out. I am anticipating them sleeping through most of the night during the drive because WE ARE NOT STOPPING UNTIL WE GET THERE. No delaying the best vacation ever. There are 4 adults driving the van, so we will be taking shifts. I work overnight as an RN, so I'm used to being awake all night. Coffee is my bestest friend.

I'm planning on arriving at a hotel outside of WDW to sleep/swim/eat before getting up the next morning and checking in. I have GOT to take pictures of everything in AOA, and I need an early start.

After exploring, we are gonna swim in every pool, eat, and see the arcade and gift shop. We are planning to also go down to DTD for the evening do some major shopping. I've been reading TRs, and making a list of things I GOTTA HAVE. We are going to try out the food trucks. Anybody ever done this? Fancy Schmancy BIL is going to eat crab legs. Can anyone sense jealous undertones anywhere? Hope they love it.

Anyway hoping to get to bed earlyish that night because MK is Day 1!

Up next Magic Kingdom plans!
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[SkubaDis]

So. The last time I was in Magic Kingdom, I was 16. 14 years ago. I have been planning this trip since January, and I don't ever remember there being so much planning involved! Ironically enough, I don't remember much from that trip other than riding Space Mountain and finding NSYNC on the leave a legacy rocks. I'm beginning to think there wasn't much planning involved in that trip.

Here is a pic that I found from that trip. You can see here that I was probably trying to figure out what we were gonna do next, because there was NO PLANS!

Anyway, with being in charge of this gigantic family trip, there is a lot of pressure to make sure these Disney noobs get every ounce of magic Disney has to offer.

So this is what we'll be doing on the first day!
Since BIL and Family will only be at MK one day. Anna & Elsa at RD is must. The rest of us have a better chance of getting FP+ later on in the week, so I'm planning for that. If I am unsuccessful, I will also be mad-dashing it to A&E with my 2.5yo with the other girls. I don't want to be THAT person, but I will. LOL.

Since most of the day is dependent on FP+, and I haven't reserved those yet, this day is very much up in the air.

Planning on doing BOG for Lunch, obvs. That is a can't miss.

And we have reservations for Crystal Palace at 5:45. I didn't realize until recently that MK was closing at 7pm this night, so I was really bummed that there wasn't going to be much else we could do after dinner. I have a feeling that the kids/husbands would be worn out anyway, so at least they will get to see the castle lighting, and we can get to bed early again.

Next Post: Animal Kingdom Tuesday!!

 

[SkubaDis]

Now I'll admit I have never been to this park. So this experience will be completely new to muah. Here's the plan for the day:

Breakfast at Ohana 8:30
Drive to AK
Dinoland
Expedition <--- This ride scares me, I love roller coasters, but I have never seen this one in action, so maybe that's why. My kids will be too short, and my husband will be too scared, so I'm hoping the SILs will have the guts to ride this with me.

I think we'll skip KaliRR, I have a feeling it will make everyone cold and grumpy. But who knows, maybe the'll surprise me.

I think from there we are going to head to the TOL, and maybe find some characters.

We have lunch scheduled at Tusker House at 2:05.

After this, hopping on Kili Safari, and maybe to Rafiki if there's time. The park closes at 5 this day, which again, gives us a little less time. Oh well!

That night we will be having dinner at 1900 Park Fare at 7:45pm! I'm so excited to see the Stepsisters! I've heard they are best at being in-character!

And then it's back to bed to get ready for DHS!

 

[SkubaDis]

Maybe if you haven't noticed at this point that this trip is going to be very character heavy. We are doing so many character meals, because the best thing I remember about my whopping 2 trips to DW is the autographs. After our trip, my sister and I would just stare at our signatures for hours!

We only had a few, I remember Daisy, and Mickey, and at the time: Rescue Rangers was huge.

So for this trip, I wanted my kids to have at least as many of those experiences as possible. (This was originally just going to be a one-time trip, I have quickly realized that isn't going to happen--DH gave me the green light for a trip next year!) Anyway, it's one of my favorite memories of my trip.

Now, on to Hollywood Studios! The last time I was here, it was called MGM. I think I was 7 or 8? Anyway, the only part of this park I remember is Indiana Jones annnnd Honey I shrunk the kids play area.

So DD2 is HUUUUUGE Doc McStuffins, Sofia, Jake & NLP Fan. So Hollywood & Vine for Breakfast is on the schedule for 8:20 Early ADR dudes! I cannot wait to see her reaction to her people! I hope it's a little better than this:

I should also mention that at this point in the trip I will have cried about 800x. I know this because I read other DISers TRs and see the photos and videos of their children (who I don't even know) meeting characters and I cry.

DD knows exactly what to do to pull at my heart, and this trip will be no different.

Anyway, after the breakfast in which I ruin my makeup, we will head to DJR live, while the older people find grown up things to do.

We are planning to eat at Pizza Planet, and 50's Diner for dinner!

At this point I will try to convince someone in my group to ride TOT with me. We'll see if anyone will step up.
I also really, really wanted to see Fantasmic on this trip. But as it turns out, it is closed the exact week we are there.
I'm finding a lot of my plans being thwarted by closures!

 

[SkubaDis]

This is the last day of the trip for my BIL and his family, so hopefully he will have had an awesome time this week, and if not, then there is always lots of beer in the WS.

But first we must see the Princesses! Breakfast at Akershus at 9:25, and hopefully after this meal, we will have been princessed out. Is that possible? We'll find out.

This day is going to be really relaxed, I doubt there's going to be much the kids will be interested in, so maybe they'll be content in hanging out in the strollers and seeing the sights.

Once that is done, we have dinner at Chef Mickey's! Yay! More characters! I'm hoping the kids will still think this is cool.

Since we won't be able to see Wishes on Monday due to the park closing early, I'm really hoping we will at least be able to see them from the Contemporary. I have been searching to see if this is a possibility, but I'm getting mixed answers. Anyone have any idea? I really wanted BIL and family to see the fireworks, and the electrical parade. Neither of these things look like they are going to happen. There's always next time right?

Anyway, it doesn't matter because the next day, the rest of us will be at MK ALLLL DAYYYY LONGGG And we will experience the best part: Holiday Wishes, Holiday Parade and Snow!