Pepefan
01-28-2010, 04:13 PM
I’m a little short on time, since we planned this trip yesterday, and are leaving on February 1. But one of my favorite parts of my recent Disney trips is being able to do a trip report. So stress or not, here is my Pre-Trip Report!
Background:
As a child, my parents – Dad especially – raised me as a true Disney fanatic. My parents were airline employees, so we got to fly for free. This worked out well, as we had 10 kids in our family. But every single winter, no matter how tough times were, we went to Disneyland. Every once in a while we splurged on Walt Disney World.
When I grew up and met my future husband, I got him hooked on Walt Disney World, despite very strong protests in the beginning. Now he is a die-hard fan, and I believe this will be our 5th trip to WDW together. The last time we went, it was even more magical, because we were able to bring our two little nieces, aged 7 and 8 at the time, along with both sets of our parents. One other thing made our last trip especially magical – we had just found out that we were going to be parents. Knowing that some day I would be bringing my little boy or girl back to experience this together made the whole trip like a dream.
Yes, a little child is a dream come true, but it is also a real drain on the budget! We just didn’t think we could make it fly this year, when a very nice family came along and bought my show horse, just last weekend. Suddenly we had enough money for a trip! I have never had to plan a Disney trip at the last minute, so this was quite a challenge. Flights and hotels were all full on the dates we could get away from work, so we got the last seats on the flights and the last room at the resorts for next week (February 1 – 8) praying that our respective bosses would let us go on such short notice. Well, never underestimate the influence that an adorable two-year-old-girl who really, really wants to see Mickey Mouse can have on people in power. We were granted special permission, and threw together a trip in just a few hours. It’s not exactly when we wanted to go, and it’s not exactly where we wanted to stay, and it is quite a bit over our original budget. But luckily, this was a really nice horse, so we got enough money to go over budget – just this once!
Apparently way back over a year ago, my husband mentioned to our babysitter, a very nice, straight-laced middle-aged small town lady who hasn’t done a lot of traveling, that we would like to some day take our little girl to Walt Disney World, and if she ever wanted to she could go along. So when she found out about the upcoming trip, she wanted to know if we still wanted her to go along. Of course, we said, the more the merrier! So she joined the group. Later that day – the day after we quickly threw together room and flight reservations – we found out that my husband’s mother wanted to go along, too. She had been with us on our last trip there, and had so much fun. My husband’s dad, who is a farmer, couldn’t get away on that short of notice, but he encouraged his wife to go and have a wonderful time. So I booked two more tickets on our flight out of Minneapolis – apparently two of the last 4 tickets available on the flight. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!
Now, my parents, who started this whole thing decades ago by bringing me to a Disney park every year, certainly can’t be left out of the excitement. So they will be joining us, too. They are off in Hawaii right now, so I can’t get a hold of them to make any plans, but they said they’ll “meet us somewhere” and stay for “part of the time.” That’s about the best commitment I can get from them.
So it’s shaping up to be a really exciting, albeit last minute, trip. Usually I spend months researching prices, the best dates to go, etc. But this time it was just thrown together, and I really hope I can get everything to work out. Even if it doesn’t, we’ll be in the Happiest Place on Earth with our little girl and some of the people we love most. And our little girl, who on this trip, at least, seems like the “World’s Only Grandchild,” will have the hugest entourage of people who love her. I don’t know how it could get any better!
So we will be leaving Minneapolis on Delta/Northwest on Monday, February 1. We will drive the two hours from our house to my sister’s, and she will give us a ride to the airport that morning. She will park our car at her house for the week. She lives about 10 minutes from the airport. Our flight departs at 10:10 am, and theoretically arrives at 2:19 pm. From there, we will either meet our parents and their rental car, or if they haven’t been able to get on a flight to MCO, then we are scheduled to catch Magical Express. This will be our first time doing this, but I’m sure it will go smoothly.
Once at Port Orleans Riverside we’ll either just hang out, swim and maybe grab a bite to eat or we’ll take the rental to Wal Mart and get our supplies and groceries for the week, depending on whether or not my parents have made it to town. Knowing my husband, he’ll want to have a huge supper at some restaurant chain we don’t have at home. Then, depending on the little one’s stamina, we’ll either end the night at Downtown Disney or just go back to the resort.
Tuesday, February 2
Magic Kingdom day! No plans or priority seatings – we’ll just see where the day, and our little girl, will take us! I’m so excited to see her face as we approach the Magic Kingdom closer and closer on the ferry, seeing the castle get bigger and bigger. I know she’ll be as excited as I am!
Wednesday, February 3
Epcot. We have 8:30 Priority Seating for the Storybook Princess breakfast at the Norway pavilion. I reserved for all 6 adults and 1 child in our group, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just me and the little one. Nobody else probably needs to see any princesses.
Thursday, February 4
Day off. Usually we like to take a day to drive to the beach or go sightseeing in the area. But this time, we may or may not have a car, and even if we do, we’ll have 7 people with us! So we probably will split up. I made Priority Seating for Cape May’s breakfast, again for everyone. But I would be surprised, again, if the whole group wants to go. For sure Daddy and I and little girl will go. There may be some grandparents who won’t want to miss out, either. Then we’ll just see where the day takes us. Maybe we’ll explore some other resorts, maybe we’ll spend a little time in a park. We’ll just see what happens.
Friday, February 5
Studios. I think because this trip is mostly focused on the World’s Only Grandchild, we won’t need to spend a lot of time here. I love the attractions here, thrill rides, shows, you name it. But she will probably mostly be interested in the Muppets and Playhouse Disney. Otherwise, the rest will be just doing things the adults like to do. Since Epcot’s EMH are that evening, we may leave the World’s Only Grandchild with one of her many grandparents for a few hours and spend some time doing the more adult things at Epcot. It is our favorite of the parks, and there’s just way too much to do there on one trip.
Saturday, February 6
Animal Kingdom. Our little girl is, like most little kids, crazy about animals. She has a cat, a dog, several of her own ponies, and a fish. But none of these can compare to monkeys, lions, and zebras! So I think a whole day is in order here. If the group still has the stamina, we hope to proceed to Epcot to close out the night.
Sunday, February 7
Favorites Day! Our last day is always so sad. But we’ll end it on a great note, going back to our favorite parts of Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Magic Kingdom has EMH until midnight, but we fly out at 7:40 the following morning so we probably won’t stick it out until the very end!
Monday, February 8
Back to Minnesota, where the highs have been in the 10’s this week, lows in the 10’s below. Should be great to get back home, do chores, and get to work early the next morning!
Background:
As a child, my parents – Dad especially – raised me as a true Disney fanatic. My parents were airline employees, so we got to fly for free. This worked out well, as we had 10 kids in our family. But every single winter, no matter how tough times were, we went to Disneyland. Every once in a while we splurged on Walt Disney World.
When I grew up and met my future husband, I got him hooked on Walt Disney World, despite very strong protests in the beginning. Now he is a die-hard fan, and I believe this will be our 5th trip to WDW together. The last time we went, it was even more magical, because we were able to bring our two little nieces, aged 7 and 8 at the time, along with both sets of our parents. One other thing made our last trip especially magical – we had just found out that we were going to be parents. Knowing that some day I would be bringing my little boy or girl back to experience this together made the whole trip like a dream.
Yes, a little child is a dream come true, but it is also a real drain on the budget! We just didn’t think we could make it fly this year, when a very nice family came along and bought my show horse, just last weekend. Suddenly we had enough money for a trip! I have never had to plan a Disney trip at the last minute, so this was quite a challenge. Flights and hotels were all full on the dates we could get away from work, so we got the last seats on the flights and the last room at the resorts for next week (February 1 – 8) praying that our respective bosses would let us go on such short notice. Well, never underestimate the influence that an adorable two-year-old-girl who really, really wants to see Mickey Mouse can have on people in power. We were granted special permission, and threw together a trip in just a few hours. It’s not exactly when we wanted to go, and it’s not exactly where we wanted to stay, and it is quite a bit over our original budget. But luckily, this was a really nice horse, so we got enough money to go over budget – just this once!
Apparently way back over a year ago, my husband mentioned to our babysitter, a very nice, straight-laced middle-aged small town lady who hasn’t done a lot of traveling, that we would like to some day take our little girl to Walt Disney World, and if she ever wanted to she could go along. So when she found out about the upcoming trip, she wanted to know if we still wanted her to go along. Of course, we said, the more the merrier! So she joined the group. Later that day – the day after we quickly threw together room and flight reservations – we found out that my husband’s mother wanted to go along, too. She had been with us on our last trip there, and had so much fun. My husband’s dad, who is a farmer, couldn’t get away on that short of notice, but he encouraged his wife to go and have a wonderful time. So I booked two more tickets on our flight out of Minneapolis – apparently two of the last 4 tickets available on the flight. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!
Now, my parents, who started this whole thing decades ago by bringing me to a Disney park every year, certainly can’t be left out of the excitement. So they will be joining us, too. They are off in Hawaii right now, so I can’t get a hold of them to make any plans, but they said they’ll “meet us somewhere” and stay for “part of the time.” That’s about the best commitment I can get from them.
So it’s shaping up to be a really exciting, albeit last minute, trip. Usually I spend months researching prices, the best dates to go, etc. But this time it was just thrown together, and I really hope I can get everything to work out. Even if it doesn’t, we’ll be in the Happiest Place on Earth with our little girl and some of the people we love most. And our little girl, who on this trip, at least, seems like the “World’s Only Grandchild,” will have the hugest entourage of people who love her. I don’t know how it could get any better!
So we will be leaving Minneapolis on Delta/Northwest on Monday, February 1. We will drive the two hours from our house to my sister’s, and she will give us a ride to the airport that morning. She will park our car at her house for the week. She lives about 10 minutes from the airport. Our flight departs at 10:10 am, and theoretically arrives at 2:19 pm. From there, we will either meet our parents and their rental car, or if they haven’t been able to get on a flight to MCO, then we are scheduled to catch Magical Express. This will be our first time doing this, but I’m sure it will go smoothly.
Once at Port Orleans Riverside we’ll either just hang out, swim and maybe grab a bite to eat or we’ll take the rental to Wal Mart and get our supplies and groceries for the week, depending on whether or not my parents have made it to town. Knowing my husband, he’ll want to have a huge supper at some restaurant chain we don’t have at home. Then, depending on the little one’s stamina, we’ll either end the night at Downtown Disney or just go back to the resort.
Tuesday, February 2
Magic Kingdom day! No plans or priority seatings – we’ll just see where the day, and our little girl, will take us! I’m so excited to see her face as we approach the Magic Kingdom closer and closer on the ferry, seeing the castle get bigger and bigger. I know she’ll be as excited as I am!
Wednesday, February 3
Epcot. We have 8:30 Priority Seating for the Storybook Princess breakfast at the Norway pavilion. I reserved for all 6 adults and 1 child in our group, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just me and the little one. Nobody else probably needs to see any princesses.
Thursday, February 4
Day off. Usually we like to take a day to drive to the beach or go sightseeing in the area. But this time, we may or may not have a car, and even if we do, we’ll have 7 people with us! So we probably will split up. I made Priority Seating for Cape May’s breakfast, again for everyone. But I would be surprised, again, if the whole group wants to go. For sure Daddy and I and little girl will go. There may be some grandparents who won’t want to miss out, either. Then we’ll just see where the day takes us. Maybe we’ll explore some other resorts, maybe we’ll spend a little time in a park. We’ll just see what happens.
Friday, February 5
Studios. I think because this trip is mostly focused on the World’s Only Grandchild, we won’t need to spend a lot of time here. I love the attractions here, thrill rides, shows, you name it. But she will probably mostly be interested in the Muppets and Playhouse Disney. Otherwise, the rest will be just doing things the adults like to do. Since Epcot’s EMH are that evening, we may leave the World’s Only Grandchild with one of her many grandparents for a few hours and spend some time doing the more adult things at Epcot. It is our favorite of the parks, and there’s just way too much to do there on one trip.
Saturday, February 6
Animal Kingdom. Our little girl is, like most little kids, crazy about animals. She has a cat, a dog, several of her own ponies, and a fish. But none of these can compare to monkeys, lions, and zebras! So I think a whole day is in order here. If the group still has the stamina, we hope to proceed to Epcot to close out the night.
Sunday, February 7
Favorites Day! Our last day is always so sad. But we’ll end it on a great note, going back to our favorite parts of Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Magic Kingdom has EMH until midnight, but we fly out at 7:40 the following morning so we probably won’t stick it out until the very end!
Monday, February 8
Back to Minnesota, where the highs have been in the 10’s this week, lows in the 10’s below. Should be great to get back home, do chores, and get to work early the next morning!