WDW Jan '10 - 1st Family Trip with a 4, 2, and 1 year old!

[cheryterese]

Hello everyone! I'm so excited to be planning our family's 1st trip to Walt Disney World! Our family consists of my husband Rick and I and our 3 kids, Sam (4.5), Madeleine (2.5) and Matthew (1). Here we are below:

Me (Cheryl), age 37.
I'm a former music teacher turned full-time stay-at-home mom to our kids. I'm a complete ultra-planner and have stacks of Disney info. for our upcoming trip. I've been to WDW 4 times - twice as a child/teen on family trips my parents took us on, and twice as an adult with my husband. We honeymooned there at The Wilderness Lodge in '02 and returned again in '04, staying at Port Orleans French Quarter. I've been to Disneyland once as well, on a singing tour back in college.

DH (Rick), age 38.
His first trip to WDW was on our honeymoon. He loved it, and is very excited to take our kids for their first WDW experience, but could care less about the trip planning. Rick and I can't wait to experience Disney through the eyes of our children!

Sam, age 4.5
Sam has a Sensory Processing Disorder, so we are a bit concerned about how he will do with all of the stimulation at WDW, but he is extremely excited about the upcoming trip. He loves to watch the Disney planning DVD, see pictures of WDW on the computer, and talk about what we will do there. He tells me that he dreams about it every night. Sam loves to go on rides and will ride anything he is tall enough for. He and Madeleine have a piggy bank they are using to save money for treats at Disney. He was so excited when he found out that WDW has treats (candy, ice cream, balloons, etc.) Boy, is he in for a surprise!

Madeleine, age 2.5
Madeleine is our little princess and can't wait to "fly on the airplane to Disney World." She is an extremely easy going and happy little girl.

Matthew, age 1 (will be 18 months at the time of our trip).
Matthew will most likely be our biggest challenge of the trip as he is a very high-needs baby. Maybe Disney will work it's magic on him! We can only hope.
We are hoping he grows enough hair by January to have his first haircut at the Main St. Barber Shop!

 

[02AggieGirl]

Hope you have a magical trip. Love seeing Disney thru my children's eyes!

 

[cheryterese]

When to go?
The first thing we did was decide on when to go. Since none of our kids are in school yet we wanted to take advantage of the off-season and go when there was a good chance of lighter crowds. We were originally planning to go in September '09 and were all set to book a 5 night/6 day free dining package at Pop Century when I read about how hot and humid it can be in Florida in September. Since DH and I had honeymooned at WDW in August '02 we knew just how miserable a hot and humid day in the World could be! Factor in the addition of 3 small children and our plan no longer sounded so appealing! We decided to wait until January figuring we would avoid the heat and humidity but still have a chance at decent temps. and escape the Western NY winter for awhile (We're coming from near Buffalo, NY, so almost anywhere is better than here in January!!!). We figured it would still be a low crowd time and would give us more time to pay for things and plan as well.

 

[cheryterese]

Where to stay?
With more time to plan, I ended up looking at all sorts of accomodation options. We went back and forth between staying on-site or off and eventually decided to rent a home in an off-site rental community called Indian Ridge Oaks. What we love about this is all of the room we will get - 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, living room, game room, private pool and hot tub! And all for the price of $122 a night (including taxes and pool heat). More than our original choice of Pop Century but less than a moderate resort on-site, and did I mention all the room?

Rick and I were so concerned about being cooped up in a single hotel room while the kids napped and when they went to bed (and we knew we couldn't afford two rooms), so while we'll miss the magic of the on-site WDW hotels, we're happy to have a room for everyone and the option of the pool, hot tub and TV for ourselves once the kids are in bed. We also love that we can prepare our own breakfasts each morning and pack lunches for the kids to eat in the car while we're returning to our house each afternoon for a nap. With 3 kids ages 4 and under we didn't love the thought of eating out for all of our meals. Way too time consuming, too expensive, and just not all that fun with little kids! We do plan to eat out for dinner each night though or else it wouldn't be a vacation for me! We plan to do a mix of ADR's in the World, off-site dining, and take-out for those.

Indian Ridge Oaks is about a 15 minute drive from all of the parks (I mapquested our actual rental house address to each park parking lot to be absolutely sure!) so our actual transport time won't be much different than if we were taking Disney transportation, and we've reserved a Budget Rental car (mini-van). We'll bring each of the kids carseats on the airplane so will have those with us to use. We figure the money we'll save by preparing our own breakfasts and lunches will pay for the car.

We were also able to extend our vacation from 6 days to 10. Yippee!!!!! Less rushing and more time to enjoy. We were able to do this by waiting to go in January rather than in September (more time to save). We are a single income family right now while I am home with the kids, but by giving up certain extra's and cutting out little family trips and outings we would normally be doing now we've been able to save quite a bit. We decided on Tuesday, January 26th through Thursday, February 4th for our trip dates. Rick said he wanted to go when there would be the lowest crowds, so we're hoping this time frame falls in that category!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I'm subbing. I can't wait to hear your plans.

We just got back from a September trip and you know what...it was HOT, really, really HOT! DH wants to change our family vacations to the month of February after this last trip! We'll start in 2011 since we have booked bounce back for Sept 2010 already. I think you made a great choice to go in January.

Looking forward to hearing more.

 

[cheryterese]

Hope you have a magical trip. Love seeing Disney thru my children's eyes!

Thanks!!
Have you written any trip reports? I'd love to read them and gain some tips from you seeing that your children are similar ages to mine!

 

[cheryterese]

I'm subbing. I can't wait to hear your plans.

We just got back from a September trip and you know what...it was HOT, really, really HOT! DH wants to change our family vacations to the month of February after this last trip! We'll start in 2011 since we have booked bounce back for Sept 2010 already. I think you made a great choice to go in January.

Looking forward to hearing more.

Glad to have you joining me in my trip-planning mania!

I'm sorry it was so hot for your trip. We had no idea it was still that hot in Florida in September, so I'm glad I came across that information before I booked our original trip.

 

[02AggieGirl]

Thanks!!
Have you written any trip reports? I'd love to read them and gain some tips from you seeing that your children are similar ages to mine!

No I haven't ever written a trip report. I always mean to . I'm looking forward to yours though. We've been taking our kids to Disney since our oldest was 20 months so I'll be happy to answer any questions I can.
We've taken 4 trips with the girls.

From your report so far, it sounds like you've got a great plan. Going in the morning and then back to rest after lunch was always a must for us! We didn't have any meltdowns. The only thing we had issue with the fireworks were too loud and scary for them which makes me very sad b/c I love them. Maybe when they are older......

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more about your trip. I'm really working on my husband to go around that time too but I don't think he's going for it.

 

[cheryterese]

No I haven't ever written a trip report. I always mean to . I'm looking forward to yours though. We've been taking our kids to Disney since our oldest was 20 months so I'll be happy to answer any questions I can.
We've taken 4 trips with the girls.

From your report so far, it sounds like you've got a great plan. Going in the morning and then back to rest after lunch was always a must for us! We didn't have any meltdowns. The only thing we had issue with the fireworks were too loud and scary for them which makes me very sad b/c I love them. Maybe when they are older......

Anyway, looking forward to hearing more about your trip. I'm really working on my husband to go around that time too but I don't think he's going for it.

What is it with husbands? I told mine I'd like us to go every other year and he shakes his head no. I'll have to work on that!

Here's a question for you.....Have you ever taken your girls to Fantasmic? Maybe you posted on my other thread about it, but I REALLY want to see the show but am concerned it will be too intense for the kiddos. If you've taken them I'd love to know how it went. I'm thinking with the issues they had with the fireworks you probably haven't gone.

 

[cheryterese]

How to get there
This was an easy one - we got a great deal (we think) on Southwest right out of Buffalo, which is an hour north of us. $124 per person, round trip (plus taxes and fees) and the baby will sit on our laps. Rick absolutely hates to fly so attempted to convince me we should drive, but out of Buffalo in the winter for at least a 2 day non-stop drive with 3 kids.....I quickly vetoed that idea! This will be the kids first trip on an airplane (I didn't fly until I was in high school!) and they are very excited. Every time we are outside and they see one fly overhead they tell me that it is going to Disney World. And wouldn't that be a nice thing too.....if all of the planes flew to WDW? What a happy world we'd be living in!

Southwest, AirTran and JetBlue all had the same priced nonstop flights, but we went with Southwest for the free baggage. Hopefully we won't be sorry when we try to board and don't have actual seat assignments! I do plan to be online 24 hours ahead of time to get our boarding passes though.

I'm a bit scared of the airport logistics, considering we will have the 3 kids, 3 carseats, 1 stroller, and all of our bags. I guess we'll just be sure we're plenty early and one of us will make several trips while the other sits with the kids.

 

[02AggieGirl]

No we have never tried Fantasmic. I've tried the Illuminations 2 times (on different trips) with the girls and both times they cried--it was just too loud for them. I tried Wishes in MK too....still crying. So I just figured it was best to wait and try until they are older. We did watch the fireworks from our WL room when we stayed in Dec '07 and they loved them from a distance....so there is hope for us!
But Fantasmic is different and does have lots of characters mixed in with the fireworks and special effects--so it is more like a "show". I assume you have done it before, since you went with just your husband. And you know how your kids react to sounds and new situations, so go with your instincts. If you haven't seen it, you can always go to youtube and watch it. Or watch it again to help you decide if you think it would be too scary/loud for you kids. You could also let them watch it so they could know what to expect. (My kids tend to be on the shy/cautious side, just to help you compare with your own).

And carrying all that stuff through the airport!! Been there done that! We were sweating and exhausted by the time we got to the gate. That was the last straw for my husband (so we now own a mini-van and just returned from our first road trip to Colorado--18 hours). I hope it all goes smoothly for you though and definitely give yourselves plenty of time and you will be fine.