Ian
06-01-2011, 10:40 AM
Hi all ... just got back from 11 glorious days in The World and thought I'd post some trip reports so folks could hear the good, the bad, and the ugly from our most recent stay.
First, the basics ...
Who: The whole clan! Myself, Ian, 41 year old Father of four. DW, Mother and epic Disney World trooper. Our four kids, DD9, DS4, and my DD twins both 10 months.
What: A 10 night/11 day stay at The Walt Disney World Resort!
When: Left home the night of May 19th and didn't return until last night, May 31st.Where: First night was at the Villas at Animal Kingdom Lodge (Kidani) and the rest of the time we were in a one bedroom at the Boardwalk Villas, boardwalk view.
Why: DD's 9th birthday celebration! More on that in a minute ...
Okay, so this trip report requires a little bit of set up. The planning for this trip started (as so many other have) immediately upon returning from our last trip in December. DD had been begging us for years to take her to Disney World "on her actual birthday!!!" She'd been many times right around her birthday (usually a week or so before), but she really wanted to spend her actual birthday in Disney World. Since it's so close to Memorial Day Weekend, though, Mom & Dad were reluctant. Not only that, but when we go in May we normally want to hit the Flower and Garden Festival and that typically ends the week before her birthday.
However, she was so excited about the idea that she eventually got Mom and Dad excited, too. We started toying with the idea of going for her birthday and soon toying morphed into actual planning. By coincidence, as the planning evolved, we started seeing the new Disney World commercials where they show the videos of the parents surprising their kids with trips and we thought, "Man ... wouldn't it be cool if we could surprise the kids with this trip??" And so it was born ... The Great Surprise Birthday Trip of 2011.
Not simply satisfied with planning a surprise trip, we started telling the kids that we'd be taking them to Colonial Williamsburg in May for a week's vacation. We worked double overtime to make the trip sound as terrible as we could! By the time we were done (perhaps to our future detriment ;) ) the kids were fearing a brutally boring week spent touring moldy old buildings.
So that's the set-up. And now, the adventure begins ...
Day One - Originally we had planned on setting out on the afternoon of Friday, May 20th but the truth is Mom and Dad were so excited to get things underway that we ended up leaving Thursday night instead and driving about 6 hours before stopping for the night in Emporia, VA. We got back on the road around 8AM the following morning, waved to Pedro as we passed through South of the Border, and motored into Disney World around 6PM.
Believe it or not, despite driving past many purple signs prominently featuring the word "Disney" on them, DD had no clue where we were. She and her brother were happily playing on their iPad until, quite literally, we pulled up to the guard booth at VAKL. At that point, I turned on the video camera and proclaimed that, "We must be lost!" I pointed out the welcome sign to the kids and they both lit up and shouted, "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD?????"
Priceless ....
Stay tuned for a wrap-up report of our arrival as well as a full report on our first day in the parks!
First, the basics ...
Who: The whole clan! Myself, Ian, 41 year old Father of four. DW, Mother and epic Disney World trooper. Our four kids, DD9, DS4, and my DD twins both 10 months.
What: A 10 night/11 day stay at The Walt Disney World Resort!
When: Left home the night of May 19th and didn't return until last night, May 31st.Where: First night was at the Villas at Animal Kingdom Lodge (Kidani) and the rest of the time we were in a one bedroom at the Boardwalk Villas, boardwalk view.
Why: DD's 9th birthday celebration! More on that in a minute ...
Okay, so this trip report requires a little bit of set up. The planning for this trip started (as so many other have) immediately upon returning from our last trip in December. DD had been begging us for years to take her to Disney World "on her actual birthday!!!" She'd been many times right around her birthday (usually a week or so before), but she really wanted to spend her actual birthday in Disney World. Since it's so close to Memorial Day Weekend, though, Mom & Dad were reluctant. Not only that, but when we go in May we normally want to hit the Flower and Garden Festival and that typically ends the week before her birthday.
However, she was so excited about the idea that she eventually got Mom and Dad excited, too. We started toying with the idea of going for her birthday and soon toying morphed into actual planning. By coincidence, as the planning evolved, we started seeing the new Disney World commercials where they show the videos of the parents surprising their kids with trips and we thought, "Man ... wouldn't it be cool if we could surprise the kids with this trip??" And so it was born ... The Great Surprise Birthday Trip of 2011.
Not simply satisfied with planning a surprise trip, we started telling the kids that we'd be taking them to Colonial Williamsburg in May for a week's vacation. We worked double overtime to make the trip sound as terrible as we could! By the time we were done (perhaps to our future detriment ;) ) the kids were fearing a brutally boring week spent touring moldy old buildings.
So that's the set-up. And now, the adventure begins ...
Day One - Originally we had planned on setting out on the afternoon of Friday, May 20th but the truth is Mom and Dad were so excited to get things underway that we ended up leaving Thursday night instead and driving about 6 hours before stopping for the night in Emporia, VA. We got back on the road around 8AM the following morning, waved to Pedro as we passed through South of the Border, and motored into Disney World around 6PM.
Believe it or not, despite driving past many purple signs prominently featuring the word "Disney" on them, DD had no clue where we were. She and her brother were happily playing on their iPad until, quite literally, we pulled up to the guard booth at VAKL. At that point, I turned on the video camera and proclaimed that, "We must be lost!" I pointed out the welcome sign to the kids and they both lit up and shouted, "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD?????"
Priceless ....
Stay tuned for a wrap-up report of our arrival as well as a full report on our first day in the parks!