Mommydaddyjana
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2014
I'm excited! On the last day of a trip home, and it looks like the next time my family gets together it will be in Orlando. The trip my brother, sister and I (and my oldest niece) have been dreaming of for almost a decade may actually happen in 2016! Tentatively planned for the first week of February 2016, we will be three familes travelling from two sides of the continent and meeting up in Orlando for one massive and chaotic Disney vacation.
Cast of characters:
--- me, hubby, J (girl, who will be 4) and baby M, unknown gender, due January 2015, who will be just 1. We've been once, with our two year old, and like to move at a moderate pace with lots of downtime. Hubby liked Disney way more than he thought he would when we brought our two year old, but is still of the nature hikes and afternoons by the pool persuasion.
--- brother, wife, and two boys, who will be 3 and 18 months. Ambitious goals, like to have lots of plans and think they can move fast (ha)...wife likes Disney ok, but would rather see things she hasn't seen before. They've never been to Disney with kids.
--- sister, husband, K1 (girl, who will be 9), K2(boy, 6) and K3(boy, 4). If she had her way, my sister and her kids would do dawn to dusk theme parking running from ride to ride nonstop for a week. What I'm slowly convincing her of is that someone (probaby K2) would melt down after two days of that. Her husband, like her, is a big kid who will love the theme parks, but who could also go for some of those afternoons sipping beer by the pool with my hubby. He's never been, nor have the kids, and this will be my sister's first trip in 14 years.
For those counting, thats 6 adults and 8 kids (six of whom will be 4 or under) for a total of 14 people.
All of us are fairly budget conscious, but recognize this is going to be one expensive endeavour.
The current plan: get a massive vacation home rental in Windsor Hills with a private pool for 7-10 nights, each family having its own rental car.
Thoughts of doing everything together disappeared this trip as we tried for a museum day, theme park day and even playground time and realized we and our kids just move at signficiantly different paces (and when we're all together someone is hungry or needs to use the bathroom every 5 minutes). So, we're thinking of heading to the same theme park each day but splitting up fairly early (if not right away), allowing every family to tend to itself and meeting back up at the rental for early dinners together.
Everone is keen on getting at least one "couples night" kidfree at the theme park, so that eats three nights, and other nights there may be attempts to take all or some of the kids to fireworks and night rides.
We also want to do a couple of character meals, a parade or two, and ride Dumbo all together. We are considering purchasing a Photopass so we can have full family pictures done in each theme park.
Being the obcessive type-A planner that I am, I will probably be the one outlining the schedule, ordering the tickets, make reservations for restaurants and fastpasses, and keep up on the latest Disney developments over the next 18 months.
I also like to plan fine details, like making sure each kid has his or her own special new Disney towel, colouring packs and other trinckets, daily "suprises", disney themed food for the rental, coordinated daily outfits (I know, this won't happen with 14 people, but my immediate family is usually on board!), etc. I already have a "disney box" started (though all it has in it is hand-me-down Disney clothes that should fit my new baby at 1) and will pick up trinkets and additions over the next 18 months.
Would love to hear the successess and challenges of anyone who has attempted anything like this before!
Cast of characters:
--- me, hubby, J (girl, who will be 4) and baby M, unknown gender, due January 2015, who will be just 1. We've been once, with our two year old, and like to move at a moderate pace with lots of downtime. Hubby liked Disney way more than he thought he would when we brought our two year old, but is still of the nature hikes and afternoons by the pool persuasion.
--- brother, wife, and two boys, who will be 3 and 18 months. Ambitious goals, like to have lots of plans and think they can move fast (ha)...wife likes Disney ok, but would rather see things she hasn't seen before. They've never been to Disney with kids.
--- sister, husband, K1 (girl, who will be 9), K2(boy, 6) and K3(boy, 4). If she had her way, my sister and her kids would do dawn to dusk theme parking running from ride to ride nonstop for a week. What I'm slowly convincing her of is that someone (probaby K2) would melt down after two days of that. Her husband, like her, is a big kid who will love the theme parks, but who could also go for some of those afternoons sipping beer by the pool with my hubby. He's never been, nor have the kids, and this will be my sister's first trip in 14 years.
For those counting, thats 6 adults and 8 kids (six of whom will be 4 or under) for a total of 14 people.
All of us are fairly budget conscious, but recognize this is going to be one expensive endeavour.
The current plan: get a massive vacation home rental in Windsor Hills with a private pool for 7-10 nights, each family having its own rental car.
Thoughts of doing everything together disappeared this trip as we tried for a museum day, theme park day and even playground time and realized we and our kids just move at signficiantly different paces (and when we're all together someone is hungry or needs to use the bathroom every 5 minutes). So, we're thinking of heading to the same theme park each day but splitting up fairly early (if not right away), allowing every family to tend to itself and meeting back up at the rental for early dinners together.
Everone is keen on getting at least one "couples night" kidfree at the theme park, so that eats three nights, and other nights there may be attempts to take all or some of the kids to fireworks and night rides.
We also want to do a couple of character meals, a parade or two, and ride Dumbo all together. We are considering purchasing a Photopass so we can have full family pictures done in each theme park.
Being the obcessive type-A planner that I am, I will probably be the one outlining the schedule, ordering the tickets, make reservations for restaurants and fastpasses, and keep up on the latest Disney developments over the next 18 months.
I also like to plan fine details, like making sure each kid has his or her own special new Disney towel, colouring packs and other trinckets, daily "suprises", disney themed food for the rental, coordinated daily outfits (I know, this won't happen with 14 people, but my immediate family is usually on board!), etc. I already have a "disney box" started (though all it has in it is hand-me-down Disney clothes that should fit my new baby at 1) and will pick up trinkets and additions over the next 18 months.
Would love to hear the successess and challenges of anyone who has attempted anything like this before!
