skojo
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2014
Hi All!
So I've been planning this trip for over 2 years. Actually, I've been planning this trip in my mind since I first became pregnant. Okay, maybe my whole life to be honest. This is my first time at DW. I've always dreamed of visiting DW but it just never happened. Once I had children, it was finally time. I waited until they would be over 40" in height to enjoy most of the rides and young enough that they would still believe in all the magic. Thank you so much to all on this board. It's helped me plan the most unforgettable vacation my family and I could ever ask for. It may have started with a few hiccups, but the magic definitely came through for us.
So who are we? Let me start the introductions.
Our trip consisted of my hubby Peter, our two kids, Justin and Maia, and myself. I don't have a picture of the 4 of us on the way to DW. It was in my plans to snap tons of pictures, but our departure was a little rocky. This is one of the few hiccups in my plans, but more on that later. So here is a picture of all us in MK.
A few details on each of us:
Justin, 5 years old.
Favorite character: Lightning McQueen
Favorite Princess: Cinderella
Favorite movie: Cars
Favortie ride: Toy Story Mania and Soarin'
Favortie park: All of them
Maia, 4 years old
Favorite character: Baymax
Favrotie Princess: Ariel
Favorite movie: The Little Mermaid
Favortie ride: 7DMT and Soarin'
Favortie park: MK
Peter
Favorite character: none
Favorite movie: none
Favortie ride: Toy Story Mania and Soarin
Favortie park: Epcot
He's indifferent to the whole Disney thing. Only did this trip for the kids. Not where he would choose to vacation. He did have fun on the rides but he never really got into it.
Me, Joanna
Favorite character: Donald
Favrotie Princess: Aurora
Favorite movie: love them all
Favortie ride: Soarin'
Favortie park: MK
One disclaimer before I continue. I am a terrible writer. So I apologize in advance for my terrible storytelling. You've been warned.
I planned a 10 day vacation. Enough time to visit jsut about everything without exhausting ourselves each day. I wanted half days in the park and time to lounge by the pool. I didn't want cranky kids from long days or a cranky husband for that matter. I know my kids and as much as I would love them to take afternoon naps and head back to a park in the evening, naps would not happen. So 10 days was the perfect amount of time.
Travel dates: October 24 to Nov 3
I picked this time of year based on historical low to average attendance and great weather without being too humid. I planned all our MK days on days where there was a Halloween party night so the crowds would be less during the day. I didn't book MNSSHP. I decided that it was just too pricey. Especially with the Canadian dollar being so weak against the US dollar.
Where were from: Montreal,Canada
I had enough points with Air Canada to book 1 ticket on points. I am lucky to work for an amazing boss who gave me his points to book the other 3 tickets. Originally I had booked a flight that had us arriving in the evening. We were just going to enjoy the hotel pool, relax and start our adventure the next morning. I had ordered a custom puzzle for the kids to put together of the Fab 5 for the surprise reveal of our trip. Then Air Canada canceled our 6pm flight and put us on the 8am flight to Orlando. Seeing how we would now need to be at the airport by 6am to have enough time to pass security and customs, making a puzzle at 5am was not going to happen. This plan went out the window. So I added another ticket day to our vacation since we were now landing in Orlando before noon. Now my plan was to just wake up the kids and just surprise them with the vacation.
Here is the pic of the puzzle I had made. Hopefully I'll get to use it on a future surprise trip.
Where did we stay/what we booked:
DAY 1: Art of Animation, Little Mermaid section. 10 day ticket, with the regular Dining Plan
Day 2 on: Bay Lake Tower, Lake View Studio room and I added the 9 day regular Dining plan.
- also booked Memory maker, no park hopper
I used the online Disney dining calculator to figure out which dining plan was best to book. Once I put in all the restaurants and QS meals I had planned, the Dining Plan with one QS per day and one Table meal per day was the best option. I would have to pay approximately $600 out of pocket with this meal plan. If I booked the Deluxe Dining plan it would have cost us a little over $1000 more.
I found a great DVC owner on another website and rented BLT directly through him. He didn't have the whole 10 days available. I really didn't mind as I wanted the kids to visit AoA to see the Cars section as my boy is such a huge fan. So spending our first night there was perfect.
Okay so let's get on with the vacation. How did it begin....with a sick kid and just barely making our flights......
So I've been planning this trip for over 2 years. Actually, I've been planning this trip in my mind since I first became pregnant. Okay, maybe my whole life to be honest. This is my first time at DW. I've always dreamed of visiting DW but it just never happened. Once I had children, it was finally time. I waited until they would be over 40" in height to enjoy most of the rides and young enough that they would still believe in all the magic. Thank you so much to all on this board. It's helped me plan the most unforgettable vacation my family and I could ever ask for. It may have started with a few hiccups, but the magic definitely came through for us.
So who are we? Let me start the introductions.
Our trip consisted of my hubby Peter, our two kids, Justin and Maia, and myself. I don't have a picture of the 4 of us on the way to DW. It was in my plans to snap tons of pictures, but our departure was a little rocky. This is one of the few hiccups in my plans, but more on that later. So here is a picture of all us in MK.
A few details on each of us:
Justin, 5 years old.
Favorite character: Lightning McQueen
Favorite Princess: Cinderella
Favorite movie: Cars
Favortie ride: Toy Story Mania and Soarin'
Favortie park: All of them
Maia, 4 years old
Favorite character: Baymax
Favrotie Princess: Ariel
Favorite movie: The Little Mermaid
Favortie ride: 7DMT and Soarin'
Favortie park: MK
Peter
Favorite character: none
Favorite movie: none
Favortie ride: Toy Story Mania and Soarin
Favortie park: Epcot
He's indifferent to the whole Disney thing. Only did this trip for the kids. Not where he would choose to vacation. He did have fun on the rides but he never really got into it.
Me, Joanna
Favorite character: Donald
Favrotie Princess: Aurora
Favorite movie: love them all
Favortie ride: Soarin'
Favortie park: MK
One disclaimer before I continue. I am a terrible writer. So I apologize in advance for my terrible storytelling. You've been warned.
I planned a 10 day vacation. Enough time to visit jsut about everything without exhausting ourselves each day. I wanted half days in the park and time to lounge by the pool. I didn't want cranky kids from long days or a cranky husband for that matter. I know my kids and as much as I would love them to take afternoon naps and head back to a park in the evening, naps would not happen. So 10 days was the perfect amount of time.
Travel dates: October 24 to Nov 3
I picked this time of year based on historical low to average attendance and great weather without being too humid. I planned all our MK days on days where there was a Halloween party night so the crowds would be less during the day. I didn't book MNSSHP. I decided that it was just too pricey. Especially with the Canadian dollar being so weak against the US dollar.
Where were from: Montreal,Canada
I had enough points with Air Canada to book 1 ticket on points. I am lucky to work for an amazing boss who gave me his points to book the other 3 tickets. Originally I had booked a flight that had us arriving in the evening. We were just going to enjoy the hotel pool, relax and start our adventure the next morning. I had ordered a custom puzzle for the kids to put together of the Fab 5 for the surprise reveal of our trip. Then Air Canada canceled our 6pm flight and put us on the 8am flight to Orlando. Seeing how we would now need to be at the airport by 6am to have enough time to pass security and customs, making a puzzle at 5am was not going to happen. This plan went out the window. So I added another ticket day to our vacation since we were now landing in Orlando before noon. Now my plan was to just wake up the kids and just surprise them with the vacation.
Here is the pic of the puzzle I had made. Hopefully I'll get to use it on a future surprise trip.
Where did we stay/what we booked:
DAY 1: Art of Animation, Little Mermaid section. 10 day ticket, with the regular Dining Plan
Day 2 on: Bay Lake Tower, Lake View Studio room and I added the 9 day regular Dining plan.
- also booked Memory maker, no park hopper
I used the online Disney dining calculator to figure out which dining plan was best to book. Once I put in all the restaurants and QS meals I had planned, the Dining Plan with one QS per day and one Table meal per day was the best option. I would have to pay approximately $600 out of pocket with this meal plan. If I booked the Deluxe Dining plan it would have cost us a little over $1000 more.
I found a great DVC owner on another website and rented BLT directly through him. He didn't have the whole 10 days available. I really didn't mind as I wanted the kids to visit AoA to see the Cars section as my boy is such a huge fan. So spending our first night there was perfect.
Okay so let's get on with the vacation. How did it begin....with a sick kid and just barely making our flights......