A fast and furiously wet Disney Christmas extended family adventure!

[jvz82]

Greetings from Minnesota! We've just returned from a 2 week vacation in Florida and I can't wait to share our Disney vacation with you all.

This was our big extended family trip, with 17 people. My family of 6 has been to Disney several times together, but I was a little nervous including the whole crew. Below you can see the whole group! I am in the middle with the dark brown hair, holding my sweet 5 year old on my lap. The group included my family (me, my husband, 3 sons and a daughter), my sister, her husband, and her 3 kids, my brother and his two kids, my other sister, and my parents. The youngest was my nephew (2.5) and the oldest kids were 13 so we had lots of interests and abilities to work around!



**My husband is the super tall guy, he's 7 feet tall but he hates this picture of himself because he looks way taller than usual. We think it's because of the photographer's wide lens and where my husband was positioned. Even my daughter, standing in front of him, is way taller and bigger than everyone else because of where she's standing.**

Thanks for joining me as I take you through our fabulous vacation!

 

[jvz82]

Our journey begins in Minnesota on Friday December 20th. We drive from Minnesota to Orlando, which is about 24 hours. We drive straight through the night!

Here are my four kiddos, all packed in and ready for the trip. We have 3 sons, ages 5, 7, and 10 (almost 11), and my daughter who turns 9 in a couple weeks.



It was a relatively easy drive. We even made great time, arriving at our hotel in 23.5 hours (that's our record!). We did have a couple of puking incidents from my 5 year old, who gets motion sickness but fortunately not until close to the end of our trip.

This year we decided to stay at All Star Music resort. We have never been there before but everyone was on a bit of a budget. My family got 2 standard rooms connected.

We arrived around 10 am, a few hours before my other family members.



We had a chance to walk around and explore the resort. It was a beautiful morning and we needed to move our legs!







Around 10:30 we got the text that our rooms were already ready! We were in the Country music section of the resort (see giant boots above!). We could not wait to find a place to call home.

Up next: Mickey waffles and the pool!

 

[jvz82]

After getting the text that our room was ready, we decided to get a quick meal before unloading and unpacking. It was just before 11 and they were still serving breakfast. Mickey waffles FTW!!!



With full tummies, we felt ready to start unloading into our rooms! The kids then almost immediately wanted to swim. The resort has two pools, the one closest to our room was shaped like a grand piano and smaller. We started there.





Then we decided to head over to the bigger pool, shaped like a guitar. Here are my 4 kiddos trying to get squirted by the 3 caballeros.


During this time, the rest of my family started showing up! My parents, sisters, brother in law, and their kids had made it to Florida. It sounded like their road trip had gone smoothly as well and they were very happy to be out of the car. We all swam for a while longer until we got too cold and headed back to our rooms to finish unpacking. We got lucky with our room assignments, because all of us had rooms right in a row. It worked out perfectly.

That evening we went to our resort's quick service area and ordered pizzas for dinner. It was soooo tasty! It came with salad and breadsticks, all of it quite delicious. My brother, who lives in Florida, also joined us for dinner with his daughters.










Next up: Animal Kingdom! And we finally see why I named this trip report "Furiously wet".

 

[Megan138]

Hi! I can’t wait to hear about your trip! I also have 4 kids around the same age and am considering a Christmas trip in 2020. Your vacation looks so fun already with the big group.

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in as well! You really lucked out in getting all of your rooms in a row which is so helpful when traveling with several family members Your first day looks like such fun having time spent together at the pool!

 

[sparkle78]

I’m curious to how you spent your time over 14 days. We just traveled on thanksgiving and the 10 days after, but may need to do after Christmas on a future trip.

 

[Minniemoo15]

Following along! I loved your report last year. We are heading down in March with a big group too so I’m eager to read all about your family trip.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Joining in!

We drive sometimes from NY and it's a 16 hour ride for us. I can't imagine 24 hours!

 

[DLo]

Following along. Read your last TR and looking forward to reading this one and how you corral that many people !!!

 

[jvz82]

Hi! I can’t wait to hear about your trip! I also have 4 kids around the same age and am considering a Christmas trip in 2020. Your vacation looks so fun already with the big group.

Thanks for reading! Have you guys been to Disney before? It's definitely a lot of work with 4 kids but totally worth it.

Joining in as well! You really lucked out in getting all of your rooms in a row which is so helpful when traveling with several family members Your first day looks like such fun having time spent together at the pool!

Yes we were super lucky! It felt like the whole floor just belonged to us. Thanks for joining in!

I’m curious to how you spent your time over 14 days. We just traveled on thanksgiving and the 10 days after, but may need to do after Christmas on a future trip.

We decided to do a short trip to Disney this year because the cost of the resorts at Christmas time is just ridiculous. We stayed at the cabins at FW last year, the week after Thanksgiving, but they were twice the cost at Christmas! Ugh. So we only did 3 nights at Disney, then my extended family and I rented an airb&b property in Melbourne for 5 nights, and then the 6 of us in my family got a suite at Universal for 5 nights (much cheaper than Disney). Christmas is an amazing time to go to Disney, but everything is more expensive for sure.

Following along! I loved your report last year. We are heading down in March with a big group too so I’m eager to read all about your family trip.

Yay! Thanks for reading again! How big is your group in March?

Joining in!

We drive sometimes from NY and it's a 16 hour ride for us. I can't imagine 24 hours!

16 hours is long too. Fortunately my kids are sleeping for 8ish hours of the trip so it goes by more quickly for them! Thanks for joining in!

Following along. Read your last TR and looking forward to reading this one and how you corral that many people !!!

Thanks for following again!! Corraling that many people is like herding cats, lol.

 

[jvz82]

Hello! It's finally that time in the trip report where we get to go to the park!



Unfortunately, the rain decided to unleash on us. For the entire trip.


We had brought a couple of ponchos, but not enough so we had purchased a couple of the expensive ones from the gift shop the night before. We were as prepared as we could be for a wet day.


We woke early, hoping to arrive as early as possible at Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9 am, but we were unable to get fast passes for Flights of Passage and our goal was to get to the park early and hopefully get on the ride without having to wait several hours!!!

We got to the bus stop around 7:45. Here are me and my sisters, looking pretty hot in our ponchos (being photobombed by my nephew).


And my oldest and middle son!


Fortunately we didn't have to wait long in the rain!

Here is my 2 year old nephew, on his first Disney bus ride! <3


We arrived at Animal Kingdom at about 8:20. I was super confused when they immediately let us into the park. I fully anticipated having to wait outside the gates for a while, especially since we were so early.

Check out this gloomy scene! It was sooooo wet.


My Na'vi princess, who refused to wear a poncho!


So we made a beeline for Pandora, and were stopped at the entrance to Pandora along with a big crowd of people. I figured they would keep us there until the park opened at 9. But that ended up not being the case! We waited maybe about 10 minutes when they let us all through.



Disney was really good at directing the crowd. I knew we weren't going towards Flights of Passage, but we were basically just in one huge line that was weaving around the Pandora area. It took a while before we got to the actual entrance of Flights of Passage, but the line never stopped moving so it actually didn't feel that bad.

My oldest and I, soaked in the rain in line!


Once we got to the entrance, my sister and her husband and their 2 year old left because they were doing child swap, but the rest of us continued on.

My 5 year old was just tall enough to ride this year, but he was really scared. Knowing him, I really thought he would enjoy the ride so I was trying to encourage him but he kept crying that it was going to be too scary. I was trying to explain the ride to him, but he didn't even seem to be listening to me. Finally, my 7 year old jumped in and told him that Flights of Passage was a lot like the Star Wars ride we went on last year. That was the first thing that finally got my 5 y/o to pause, and then agree that he would try it.

And finally we made it! My 5 year old continued to seem worried right up until the ride started, but I sat next to him and held his hand throughout. FoP is still one of my favorite rides, I absolutely LOVE it. And when I glanced over at him, I did see he was smiling most of the time! Yay!

By the time we got out of the ride, it was 9:40. So it took us from 8:20 entering the park until 9:40 getting off the ride. Honestly, I was super happy about this considering the park didn't even officially open until 9. I definitely called this a win for our big group!!

Up next: More Pandora!

 

[Wayland10]

Following!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Awesome that you made it onto FOP and that your 5 year old liked it!

 

[sparkle78]

We haven’t been to Universal yet, thanks for the tip about cheaper rooms
Great job at rope dropping

 

[rdkeim]

Following!

 

[jvz82]

Following!

Thanks for joining in!

Awesome that you made it onto FOP and that your 5 year old liked it!

He was very brave!

We haven’t been to Universal yet, thanks for the tip about cheaper rooms
Great job at rope dropping

Definitely depends on what hotel you stay at! They've built new hotels that are similar to Disney's value resorts and the 1 room suite we got at Universal was way cheaper than the suites available at Disney.

Following!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[jvz82]

Hello all! Who's ready for another Animal Kingdom chapter??

When I left off, we had just gotten off FoP. We had an upcoming Na'vi River Ride FP coming up, but first my sister and her husband delivered their 2 year old to us so they could use child swap to get on FoP. While we waited, we did some shopping in the gift shop and then discovered there were a couple of cast members outside who were putting on a presentation about the different creatures of Pandora. They were asking for volunteers, and my 10 year old niece volunteered and was chosen! Each child held a picture of a Pandora creature and the cast members would ask the audience if we should "Run, freeze, or pet" when we see the creature. It was really fun!

My niece was holding the banshee, which they said was actually a trick question because no matter what you did, you would probably be a banshee snack.

Here's a few pictures of the kids posing with the cast members after the show.






After my sister and her husband got done with the ride, we had to wait another few minutes because my nephew wanted to buy something from the gift shop. I took a picture of my 5 year old by the floating islands while we waited.



We made our way over the Na'vi river ride, which was tricky because it was so crowded. The line for FoP was still weaving all over the place. But our FP line went quickly. This was my first time on Na'vi river ride. It was a very pretty ride!




After the ride, we decided to leave Pandora. We started heading towards Dinoland because some people wanted to ride Dinosaur, some kids wanted to go to the play area, and we wanted to find a place to eat.

On the way, we paused for some people to use the bathroom. That was when Kevin walked by! So of course I needed his picture!


We found Restaurantasaurus in Dinoland and decided to eat an early lunch here. It was relatively uncrowded, which was a plus. The kids meals were served in beach pails with shovels, which was kind of fun.

We took our time at lunch and made a plan. Some people wanted to go on Dinosaur. My nephew was too short for the ride, so my sister decided she'd take him on Triceratops Spin. My 5 year old had gone on Dinosaur last year and had thrown up afterwards (maybe motion sickness? Maybe virus? We weren't sure) so he refused to go on this year. We decided to join them on Triceratops spin while everyone else went on Dinosaur.





So I think that's it for tonight! I better go get some work done. Thanks for reading!!!

 

[Isabelle12345]

Following!
I love your son’s Mickey ears! Where did you get them?
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

What a cute activity for them to do with the kids in Pandora!

 

[jvz82]

Following!
I love your son’s Mickey ears! Where did you get them?
Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

Thanks for reading! I think we got the ears at Disney Springs, but it was a few years ago now!

What a cute activity for them to do with the kids in Pandora!

Yes, it was actually super cute! They did a great job.