To Griswold or not to Griswold, that is the question...our first trip to WDW!

[Nezgrrl]

Every vacation our family takes, I do my best not to "Clark W. Griswold" it, or in DIS speak go commando. Often I fail, much to the chagrin of everyone's collective feet. I treat every trip as it is somewhere I will never see, ever again. There is a good reason for this: when I was a child we went to Disneyland in 1982 (I was 6, do the math ) and that was that!

Fast forward to today and let's meet the cast:

Me aka Jen (31) - I love to travel. Before I got married, I had planned to become a foreign service officer with the Department of State so I could spend my life travelling from country to country, seeing the world. I have taken a train trip to Boston on a bet. I've seen Europe five times, been from sea to shining sea...well, you get the idea. In the words of my mentor in grad school, I am "serious traveler" (his highest compliment). Preplan everything, down to the hour. Imagine my glee when I discovered the DIS! I am not alone!
DH aka Michael (32) - God knew what he was doing when he gave me a husband whose most common response to me is, "Sounds good, dear." He is easy going, always will to go along for the ride and wear the sixty pound backpack. He went to WDW as a kid twice, so he has one up on me. His only fault: no preference about 99% of things leaves me to make all the decisions...wait, is that a fault?

And, of course, the star of the show, DD aka Princess Ariel (4) - Princess has been her nickname since the day she was born. She believes she is the center of everyone's world, she is funny, outgoing, extremely articulate...and the biggest drama queen to walk this earth. Her favorite phrase is, "Oh no, I will never get to play with my toys ever again!" A skinned knee elicits the same response as a broken bone: absolute panic and terror. She also obsessed with the Little Mermaid (replacing the Wiggles, sorry Greg).

This spring, DH and I took a trip to France and Italy and left the princess with our in-laws. Her forlorn face at the airport made us realize, we have to do something big! I said to myself, Self, why don't we go to Disney World? Then, I remembered the time my mom ordered the vacation planning packet from WDW back in 1988, and how my hopes were briefly raised that we'd have another family trip. Oh, my preteen self had poured through the brochure of resorts over and over again, dreaming about soaking up the sun at the Polynesian or maybe enjoying a grand meal at the Grand Floridian. I was eager to ride Space Mountain and see the wonderful educational yet fun attractions at EPCOT (I was a nerd).

I suddenly realized, "Wow, you know, I really always wanted to go to WDW. I think we should!" My husband, being the patriotic man he is, agreed on the plane over the Atlantic to drop a ton of cash in the US this year on travelling, too! I hadn't won the Super Bowl, but I knew that I was going to Disney World!

Next post: OCD and planning a WDW vacation do not mix.

Jen

 

[popcenturycp07]

sounds great so far!

 

[OhMari]

I was a little OCD about our trip, and I had to shake off the feeling of doom the first day there and try to relax. Half the fun of a WDW is planning-but I really panicked on my first day thinking I forgot everything, but like us OCD'ers we write everything down and then I simmered downed and relaxed.

 

[Nezgrrl]

Ahem. Well, life got busy awful quick, but I want to finish my pre-trip.

OK, so to pick up where I left off, DH said, "Sure!" to going to WDW this year. After we returned home from Europe, I immediately began to ponder when to go. First thought was November, as it would be nice and cool and we'd easily have the cash flow from DH's storytellings (Michael tells stories professionally, mostly at schools and libraries during the summer and Halloween). That would give me plenty of time, I thought. But hmm, nope, Thanksgiving would be horrifically busy and being in grad school, I couldn't just skip class near finals to go on another vacation.

Then the thought was August, but oof, that'd be too hot for my tastes. Whenever we go to Austin to visit the in-laws, I want to die from the humidity and I know FL is much worse. The solution fell into my lap when I found that American Airlines Vacations was having a sale for trips to WDW during May! With my biggest puppy dog eyes and promises of frugality, I was able to convice Michael that I was right and Dave Ramsey was wrong (he has brainwashed DH into believing that credit cards are the work of Satan. The nerve!).

This is where my OCD kicks in. I spent two days on the AA website checking every possiblity and permutation of when we could go, how many days to say, which hotel to stay at, whether to get the Dining Plan or not, what time to fly in or out, etc. etc. etc. Finally, I bit the bullet, and purchased our vacation: May 17-22, Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney Dining Plan, 6 Day Park Hoppers. It was almost physically painful to hit that submit button! But I did it. Our trip was finally real.

Oh, but my friends, the planning had only just begun!

 

[Nezgrrl]

First, as usual, DD. Our princess decided to do her own hair.

My DH, the most patient man in America, in front of the Pantheon in Rome.

And yours truly, with the smells of Venice all around me!

I also have pictures of myself with the Mouse back in 1982, but I've seemed to have lost my scanner. I've had a digital camera for so long, I haven't needed to scan anything in ages!

 

[Punky's Mama]

Another Griswold with OCD signing on! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Nezgrrl]

Wow, only 8 more days to go. I better get cracking before this becomes my post trip report! Thanks to all you guys reading this.

So, I have gone nuts with the preplanning. I have subscriptions to two different touring websites. I bought a subscription for the RideMax program. I have bought three different books. I ordered the Disney Planning DVD even though I already had bought my airfare, hotel, and tickets...just in case I missed something! By the time I am done, there will not be a tip or trick out there about touring WDW that I do not know!

The major problem in my plans has been the fact I booked a trip for May in the beginning of April. No way am I getting Cinderella's Royal Table ADRs. I have had to resign myself for very late ADRs for Akershus and 1900 Park Fare, both at 8pm-ish. Plus, the big unknown is exactly how much can my little princess stand in one day? Can any of this be done with a four year old girl who usually eats every single day at 5:30pm on the dot and is in bed by 9?!?

So, we took a trial run at Silver Dollar City, in Branson, MO. I grew up in Springfield (my husband is from Austin, TX, but graciously moved to Oklahoma City to marry me. Once again, can I say how easy going this guy is? ), so I've been to "Steal Your Dollar City" about a bajillion times. We took the Princess and my mom there April 20, the day after DD's 4th birthday to see how it would work. First, we kept her up to 10pm in order to see Dolly's Dixie Stampede show (really, it's the least cheesy of all the Branson shows, and the only one I'll pay to go to). Then, the next day, we all got to SDC at 9 am for a day of fun. I even (accidently) picked the weekend all of the Ozark area schools send their preteen music students to the park for some fun, so I approximated semi-busy crowds!

We learned several things:
1) Do not take your child on the scariest ride first. I should have known better, but "Fire in the Hole" was my favorite ride as a kid, and I took Isabel there first. The name itself should tell you it probably wasn't the best first ride choice for a young kid.
2) Stroller. The child who will not ride in the cart at the grocery store without a bribe was complaining that her "legs are broken" within an hour.
3) Naps. By 1 pm, she wanted to go back to the hotel. Princess hasn't even taken naps on a regular basis since she was 2 years old, and she was ready to go back and sleep by that time. It was probably a combo of the 10pm bed time and 6:45 wake up (lucky me, the later DD goes to bed, the earlier she wakes up!).
4) I am so going to use the Photopass. I only got one picture of the child at the park because I was too busy navigating my family throught the teen mobs.
5) Crocs rule! I wore a pair of Mary Jane Crocs the entire time, and even climbing up those huge Ozark hills, my feet had no blisters and were only slightly sore by the time we went back to the park. This is a huge improvement over the usual state of my flat feet after a trip.

It was a good practice run, and we were out of the park by 3pm. It also reconfirmed that if I try to be Clark W. Griswold at WDW, things will go very, very bad, very, very quickly.

So, do I even have a plan yet, dear reader? Well...kind of. This is my idea so far:

17 May - Arrive MCO at 12:45, pick up rental car (my mom works for Hertz, so I got a rate for an entire week that was waaaaay cheaper than taking a town car), hopefully get to AKL at 2 pm, and off to MGM-DS by 3. This is an optimal situation, but I am ready to not get there until 4pm. We have ADRs at 50s Prime Time Cafe for 7pm. I do not think DD will be able to watch Fantasmic as the brief clip on the vacation planning DVD frightened her, so we'll be skipping that.

18 May - MK and dinner at 1900 Park Fair @ 8:10pm

19 May - MK again!

20 May - AK and relaxing by the pool. That evening, I am pondering taking DD to the Neverland Club at dinner time while DH and I try to ride the scary rides at MGM and MK that we won't get to do otherwise (child swapping will be out of the question for our drama queen. She inherited her mom's inability to wait ).

21 May - Morning, fun at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, afternoon at Epcot (we can't ride any of the major rides with our short child, so no reason to go early), and then dinner at Akershus at 7:50pm.

22 May - Back to MK to say goodbye to Ariel, and then off to the airport that afternoon (plane doesn't leave until 4:55). Bye-bye, happiest place on earth! Hello, tornado alley!

I want to squeeze as much as I can out of this trip. I will always feel like this is the only time I will get to go, even though DH promised if we both love this vacation, we can come back for two weeks in 2008 (I'll probably do a week at the Polynesian and a week at Wilderness). But I will not, will not, will NOT wear out my family and turn my beloved princess into a monster

OK, a thunderboomer is coming, so that is all for now. Next up: my big ideas for revealling all of this to DD and the phat lewt I've bought for her