The cast of this trip report...
Enjoying our favorite country at Epcot World Showcase
How did we get here? I'd love to share it!
So you may or may not know my past ‘Disney habits’, but our family has been a pretty regular ‘every other year’ Disney trip family. However, our last trips being Dec. 04, April 06, and Jan. 08, they’ve been more like every year and a half. I don’t think we’ll be able to make it until mid-late 2010 as we originally planned, just no way!
But whining about the next trip will have to wait, this is about now. So we have Me (Kit, mom, newly 32 and Disneyphile since 1984 on my first trip at 8 years old)….. DH (Steve, pushing 30, introduced to Disney by me and every trip is our ‘last one for a LOOOONG time’ until we’re there and he declares we have to come back soon LOL). The kids are Chloe (10), who in her short 10 years has been to Disney as many times as I have, starting with a trip in utero and being taken by my parents in our off years and then some), and Gavin (6), on his third trip but only the second that he remembers.
So this trip wasn’t supposed to be, it was supposed to happen in June. My daughter’s dance company is doing a performance trip to Disney combined with a cruise, which sounded wonderful – until it conflicted with our family reunion. So when my sister announced she was getting married on Jan. 19, MLK weekend, in Gainesville…. We decided, ‘hey, how about we go to Disney then, since we’ll have to buy the airfare down then anyway’. Plus, we aren’t big fans of going during school vacations, so it seemed like a better fit for our family. But every time I thought about the perfect time for telling the kids about my plan, I thought, "but, wouldn't it be fun to surprise them? Yes, that's perfect!"
The kids before the wedding, absolutely ignorant to the week that lay before them!
So we flew down to Orlando from Chicago on Friday, January 18, and enjoyed a wonderful wedding on Saturday. On Sunday, we told the kids that we were driving the 2 hours back to Orlando to head to the airport around 10 a.m. The kids begged if we would please get in a round of miniature golf at Disney before we went to the airport, and we said, sure, we could probably fit that in today. They were both really bummed that we’d be so close to Disney World and not stay there but I told them there was just no way we could have swung it.
So they didn’t really say anything about us pulling onto the property at first, and then I pulled out the video camera/still camera and told them I wanted to get a picture of them together before I had to pack it away for the flight. While I had it on them, DH started driving toward the Wilderness Lodge. I said, ‘hey, guys, you know, I really think we’re going to have to reschedule our mini golfing’. Chloe’s face dropped, so before she got sad, I added, ‘How ‘bout we do it next weekend, since we’re going to be staying at DISNEY WORLD ALL WEEK?!’. They squealed, held their breath, and looked at each other for a minute, then Chloe said, ‘I think I’m going to puke!’, and Gavin said, ‘I think I’m going to say ‘holy crap’ like thirty thousand times’.
Just then we pulled up to the guard gate at the Wilderness Lodge. I told them we’d be staying there, and they just really didn’t know what to say. Such a satisfying, silent smile on each of their faces made me realize that the struggle of keeping my mouth shut was worth the wait, and they were going to have an amazing time.
To be continued...
Links to updates below!
Sunday, January 20 (Part I) - Hollywood Studios
Sunday, January 20 (Part II) - Mama Melrose, Wilderness Lodge Check-In
Sunday, January 20 (part III) - EMH at MK until 2 a.m.!
Enjoying our favorite country at Epcot World Showcase
How did we get here? I'd love to share it!
So you may or may not know my past ‘Disney habits’, but our family has been a pretty regular ‘every other year’ Disney trip family. However, our last trips being Dec. 04, April 06, and Jan. 08, they’ve been more like every year and a half. I don’t think we’ll be able to make it until mid-late 2010 as we originally planned, just no way!
But whining about the next trip will have to wait, this is about now. So we have Me (Kit, mom, newly 32 and Disneyphile since 1984 on my first trip at 8 years old)….. DH (Steve, pushing 30, introduced to Disney by me and every trip is our ‘last one for a LOOOONG time’ until we’re there and he declares we have to come back soon LOL). The kids are Chloe (10), who in her short 10 years has been to Disney as many times as I have, starting with a trip in utero and being taken by my parents in our off years and then some), and Gavin (6), on his third trip but only the second that he remembers.
So this trip wasn’t supposed to be, it was supposed to happen in June. My daughter’s dance company is doing a performance trip to Disney combined with a cruise, which sounded wonderful – until it conflicted with our family reunion. So when my sister announced she was getting married on Jan. 19, MLK weekend, in Gainesville…. We decided, ‘hey, how about we go to Disney then, since we’ll have to buy the airfare down then anyway’. Plus, we aren’t big fans of going during school vacations, so it seemed like a better fit for our family. But every time I thought about the perfect time for telling the kids about my plan, I thought, "but, wouldn't it be fun to surprise them? Yes, that's perfect!"
The kids before the wedding, absolutely ignorant to the week that lay before them!
So we flew down to Orlando from Chicago on Friday, January 18, and enjoyed a wonderful wedding on Saturday. On Sunday, we told the kids that we were driving the 2 hours back to Orlando to head to the airport around 10 a.m. The kids begged if we would please get in a round of miniature golf at Disney before we went to the airport, and we said, sure, we could probably fit that in today. They were both really bummed that we’d be so close to Disney World and not stay there but I told them there was just no way we could have swung it.
So they didn’t really say anything about us pulling onto the property at first, and then I pulled out the video camera/still camera and told them I wanted to get a picture of them together before I had to pack it away for the flight. While I had it on them, DH started driving toward the Wilderness Lodge. I said, ‘hey, guys, you know, I really think we’re going to have to reschedule our mini golfing’. Chloe’s face dropped, so before she got sad, I added, ‘How ‘bout we do it next weekend, since we’re going to be staying at DISNEY WORLD ALL WEEK?!’. They squealed, held their breath, and looked at each other for a minute, then Chloe said, ‘I think I’m going to puke!’, and Gavin said, ‘I think I’m going to say ‘holy crap’ like thirty thousand times’.
Just then we pulled up to the guard gate at the Wilderness Lodge. I told them we’d be staying there, and they just really didn’t know what to say. Such a satisfying, silent smile on each of their faces made me realize that the struggle of keeping my mouth shut was worth the wait, and they were going to have an amazing time.
To be continued...
Links to updates below!
Sunday, January 20 (Part I) - Hollywood Studios
Sunday, January 20 (Part II) - Mama Melrose, Wilderness Lodge Check-In
Sunday, January 20 (part III) - EMH at MK until 2 a.m.!