Planning Rapunzel and Flynn Rider's Best Days Ever! {November 2018 Trip Planning Report}

[BellesLibrary]

The countdown is on, and I couldn't be more excited! My family and I are headed down to the House of Mouse in November for a fun-filled, educational trip which should be nothing like any of our other Disney trips.

My husband and I have decided to surprise our two kiddos with the news, so we've sworn our family and friends to secrecy. This means I can't talk about the trip with anyone (other than in hurried whispers while my kids are just out of earshot), and it's KILLING ME!

I decided that a pre-trip report might be just what the doctor ordered as I could share our incredible trip with other Disney fans without breaking down and telling my children.

As a family, we are about learning and seeing the world. We also cheer for the Clemson Tigers since my husband and I are both Clemson alums! Expect to see lots of orange in our pictures. (Rest assured, though, we play nicely with other college football fans ahaha so we can still be friends even if you don't love the Tigers like we do.)

We live in Charleston, South Carolina; I grew up here while my husband is from the upper part of the state. We all enjoy living on the coast and being near the beach! The whole hurricane season thing kinda stinks, but you learn to work around it.

THE CAST



At the helm of this expedition is yours truly, Natalie. I'm a stay at home parent who moonlights as a freelance writer when I have a spare moment or two. Before I had kids, I taught college literature, public speaking, and composition; nowadays, I homeschool our older child, which I LOVE. I am obsessed with reading, writing, crafting, and planning new trips.

Walt Disney World was a big part of my family travels growing up, and I've been upwards of 35 times. I'm so happy that my kiddos get to share in this tradition!

Favorite travel destination: Walt Disney World, the UK, and Ireland
Favorite book: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Favorite Disney ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Disney snack: churro (followed closely by a Mickey pretzel with cheese)
Favorite Disney character: Merida



Next up is my husband, Landon. He and I have known each other for 15 years (egads!), and we met on the first day of college (all together now: aawwwwww!).

He loves the outdoors and can often be found camping, fishing, and hunting. He loves to travel with the family, and, while his level of Disney love isn't anywhere near mine, he happily agrees to a WDW trip every few years. He works in finance and is the number cruncher of the family. He recently picked up playing the ukelele!

Favorite travel destination: Ireland and any national park
Favorite book: none (Landon is not a reader!)
Favorite Disney ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Disney snack: all of the sweets
Favorite Disney character: Simba



Our older child is Princess B, who is 5 going on 25. She wakes up talking and is the queen of questions!

She is a Disney-phile through and through, and went on her first WDW trip when she was 18 months old. She's quite the traveler and has been to Germany, Austria, and Luxembourg, as well as to 11 U.S. states so far. Princess B really believes she's a princess and continually asks when Landon and I are going to be the king and queen! She LOVES a good dress, and very, very rarely wears anything else.

In school, she loves reading the most and often makes little books in her spare time. She just started soccer this year and is sure she's destined for ESPN. Princess B is my daredevil and will try anything once.

Favorite travel destination: Walt Disney World and Great Wolf Lodge
Favorite book: Curious George
Favorite Disney ride: Splash Mountain
Favorite Disney snack: Mickey ice cream
Favorite Disney character: Elsa and Anna (and Rapunzel)



The youngest member of our clan is Little G, who happily goes along with whatever fun his big sister has schemed up (aka he's too little to argue ). He's going to be 2 in November: he and I will both celebrate our birthdays on this trip as they fall on back-to-back dates while we're in the parks! Little G is a happy kid who loves trucks, cupcakes, being read to, and Legos.

He's been to Walt Disney World twice, but both trips were before he was 1, so I doubt he remembers anything. He was terrified of the characters on the last trip, so we will have to see how he adjusts this time. Seriously: he gave Mickey Mouse at the 'Ohana breakfast the MAJOR side eye.

Favorite travel destination: anywhere his family is!
Favorite book: B is for Bulldozer
Favorite Disney ride: Winnie the Pooh
Favorite Disney snack: rice krispie treats
Favorite Disney character: Lightning McQueen

______________

We're doing this trip as a part of a huge homeschool group, so there will be some educational stuff along the way! I'm totally THAT mom who turns everything into a learning opportunity--you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but not the classroom out of the teacher. (Or something.)

Be prepared for the coolest field trip EVER, lots of custom Disney clothes, and plenty of Disney crafts as I make sure that my little Rapunzel and Flynn Rider have their best day(s) EVER!

TABLE OF CONTENTS​

Homeschooling Meets House of Mouse
DAY 1: Let's Go!​

 

[BellesLibrary]

Homeschool meets the House of Mouse
​

I fully subscribe to the idea that anytime is a good time for a Walt Disney World trip.

However, I occasionally run into a really, really awesome reason for heading to Lake Buena Vista, which then causes me to head out on a full-on campaign to convince DH that WE HAVE TO GO. NOW.

As I mentioned in the introduction post, we're homeschooling our 5 year old, Princess B. I had the chance to homeschool a local family of 5 kids before my own children were born, and it was eye-opening to see just how many amazing things you could do once you got into homeschooling. As a former teacher, I loooove curriculum and education and all things learning. (I tried SUPER hard to be a career student back in the day since I am one of those weirdos who loves the smell of books and learning new stuff.)

It was a no-brainer to choose to homeschool my own kid since we travel a lot and I am a curriculum junkie and I get all of the feels when it comes to showing my kiddo the world (and the World!) and all of that.

image1.JPG
(hiking near Moab, Utah)


(another field trip to Congaree National Park in South Carolina)


(learning about rainbows in a recent science lesson!)

Anyway, here in South Carolina, you have to send your kid to some kind of school for kindergarten, so we officially started homeschooling Princess B for kindergarten in June. So, we're 4 months into this gig and we're all loving it. In addition to the super awesome trips we've been able to plan, we've also been able to plug into some fantastic homeschool groups here at home, so that takes care of the socialization that everyone is always so worried about with homeschoolers.

Full disclosure: before we even officially got started with homeschooling, I was already scoping out the homeschool trips that we were eligible for wen Princess B hit kindergarten. And I may or may not have signed up for the Disney World one the same week that we started our homeschool kindergarten.

When you know, you know, right?!

I convinced DH that we HAD to go on this trip and that November would be the most perfect time ever (because it is!) for a few reasons:
A) It's Prince G's 2nd birthday
B) My (ahem) 34th birthday the day after Prince G's bday
C) The weather is awesome in mid-November
D) We could get a killer discount if we went through the homeschool traveling group.

He is such a fantastic husband and agreed that yes, we could go to Disney World AGAIN. He loves me, but he was mostly won over by the sweet discount we get for going with an educational group. What can I say? He's cheap!

It was a bit daunting to send hundreds and hundreds of dollars to the organizer of the trip, a woman I hadn't ever met and didn't know from Adam's house cat, but I did. And it was legit!

A few weeks later, I got our tickets in the mail, and I was able to go online to book our discounted hotel rooms. I've been to WDW lots and lots of times, so it's hard to find new ways to experience the planning process. This trip was going to be different, I promised myself, and I set out to find brand new magic. I found it (in an ever so tiny way) through the booking process: since we're going through an educational group, we got to go to a special booking section on the Disney website to get our rooms.

The interface of the site looks like it hasn't been updated since the late '90s, but, hey, NEW MAGIC!

As a part of the homeschool group package, we get to do a behind-the-scenes tour of Animal Kingdom one morning, and we get VIP passes for the group to the Frozen Illuminations Dessert Party one night. These are 2 more instances of brand-new-to-me magic, and I am giddy with excitement.

The basics:
-We'll be staying for 9 days/ 8 nights. MAGIC MOMENT: I haven't been for this long of a trip in probably 20 years (P.S. I AM A GEEZER.)
-We're calling All-Star Music our home away from home. MAGIC MOMENT: I haven't stayed in All-Star Music since I was about 11. (Ditto the geezer comment.)
-We will be celebrating not one, but two birthdays during the trip. MAGIC MOMENT: toddler bday (cuteness) and my bday (welcome to geezerdom).
-We've snagged a few awesome ADRs. MAGIC MOMENT: we'll be doing the two I'm most excited about on the actual birthday days!

If you haven't noticed, I'm not thrilled about turning 34 because I definitely cannot pretend I've just graduated from college anymore, but it's better than the alternative, I suppose.

Get ready for a day by day itinerary because you're about to get your socks knocked off of ya!

See Day 1 itinerary here.​

 

[dnllmz]

Following along!

 

[deedee2177]

Following along!! Your kiddos are so cute!!

 

[BellesLibrary]

Following along!

Yay! Give me ALL of the Disney advice!

 

[BellesLibrary]

Following along!! Your kiddos are so cute!!

Thanks so much! We think they're pretty fab, but we're definitely biased.

So glad to have you along for the journey!

 

[BellesLibrary]

Day 1 Plans
​

This is the day where it's all revealed! If I can keep my mouth shut until then, this is the day when my two kiddos discover where we're going!

The current plan is for my husband and I to wake up suuuuper early (like 4 AM early--EGADS) and put the last few pieces of luggage in the car.

Then, we'll wake up Princess B and Prince G and hustle them right into the car, jammies and all. With any luck, they will go back to sleep until it's time for us to stop for breakfast and to change them into their clothes for the day.

With stops (and there are SO many of them when you're roadtripping with little kids), the drive from Charleston to Orlando usually takes us about 7 hours. We're hoping to make it to Disney around noon and head straight to Disney Springs for some lunch since our hotel check in isn't until 3 PM. It's always easy to putter around Disney Springs for a few hours, so that should keep the littles happy until we get to head over to All-Star Music for check-in.

Once we check in and get to our room, we're planning to hang out around the hotel for the rest of the afternoon/evening. I know that Princess B will HAVE to try out the pool and the playground, so we can investigate both of those while we recover a little from our very early morning and travels.

At some point on Day 1, I would like to decorate our hotel window with some cute banners and such since it's Prince G's birthday during the trip, and I'm trying to get every drop of magic out of our time in WDW!

Then, it's an early night for all of us so we can be ready for our first day in the parks: on Day 2, we've got our first ADR, a birthday celebration, and Princess B's first try at an iconic thrill ride! (So, stay tuned.)

And just because I want to include it, here's a picture of my dad and I in our old RV at Fort Wilderness back in the mid-1980s!




A few questions:

1) How warm are the pools in November? I think I remember reading that they're headed, but are they super heated or just tepid? My 5 year old won't care either way since all she cares about is splashing around, but it's good to know exactly how cold we're going to be in the process.

2) When should we tell the littles where we are going?!

• Option 1: we tell them as soon as they wake up and have some fun "We're Going to WDW" t-shirts for them to wear. The downside to this ----> we have to deal with "WHEN ARE WE GETTING TO DISNEY WORLD??!!" for 7+ hours.
• Option 2: we wait until Princess B figures out where she's going. This might take 15 minutes or it might take 6 hours depending on how focused she is that morning. Plus, the suspense might keep the minute-by-minute questions down (in my dreams). The downside to this ----> we can't do on-the-way shirts. (But an upside to the downside is that I don't have to make yet another craft hahaha).

3) Should we do the online check-in through My Disney Experience? I don't think this was an option during our last few trips, and I'm wondering if it speeds up the process as it claims.

4) Any advice on decorating the ASM hotel window?

 

[KailaH]

Hi! I'm following along !
Hopefully I can help answer some of your questions
1. I am no help here
2. When my brothers were younger, my parents would tell them that we going to my grandparent's house (they live in Florida). I'm wondering if you could somehow have them believe you were going o visit a relative if you have any that live in different states.
3. We never do online check-in. The one time we did we still had to go up to the counter, and for us, it looses the cast member interaction.

Hope I was some help! I know you said you taught college, so do not hate me if my grammar is not great! I'm in my freshman year, and I think my brain has turned to mush!
I hope y'all have a great trip

 

[deedee2177]

1. Yes the pools are heated. I think they keep them right around 80 degrees. I have been to Disney in November twice before and I swam both times (and plan on doing so again this November).
2. We are planning on telling my son as soon as we wake him up. I know this will lead to "are we there yet?" questions, but I have kept it a secret this long...not sure I could keep quiet during the drive.
3. We always do on-line check in and have been happy with it every time. We usually get our room number before we even arrive (via text or email), even prior to the 3pm check in. We can then just go straight to the room and dump off our stuff. It helps avoid waiting in line in the lobby.

 

[BellesLibrary]

Hi! I'm following along !
Hopefully I can help answer some of your questions
1. I am no help here
2. When my brothers were younger, my parents would tell them that we going to my grandparent's house (they live in Florida). I'm wondering if you could somehow have them believe you were going o visit a relative if you have any that live in different states.
3. We never do online check-in. The one time we did we still had to go up to the counter, and for us, it looses the cast member interaction.

Hope I was some help! I know you said you taught college, so do not hate me if my grammar is not great! I'm in my freshman year, and I think my brain has turned to mush!
I hope y'all have a great trip

Thanks, Kaila!

I love the idea of possibly telling them that they're going to go see someone. We've got friends who live out of state as well as a few aunts/uncles, so that's definitely believable. Or, we could tell them, "We're off to visit someone. Time to guess who!" I'd love to hear exactly who they'll guess!

As for the online check-in, I was worried about that we'd still have to do more when we got to the resort. I do like the cast member interaction that you get from the in-person check-in, but I have the worst timing and ALWAYS seem to get there as a huge group is checking in!

That's so exciting that you're in your freshman year! I loooooved college--both going as a student and teaching--and that first year is exhausting and phenomenal all at the same time!

P.S. No judging here on the writing and grammar (which is actually fantastic!)--I've taught freshman who wrote like 2nd graders, so you're lightyears ahead of them!

 

[BellesLibrary]

1. Yes the pools are heated. I think they keep them right around 80 degrees. I have been to Disney in November twice before and I swam both times (and plan on doing so again this November).
2. We are planning on telling my son as soon as we wake him up. I know this will lead to "are we there yet?" questions, but I have kept it a secret this long...not sure I could keep quiet during the drive.
3. We always do on-line check in and have been happy with it every time. We usually get our room number before we even arrive (via text or email), even prior to the 3pm check in. We can then just go straight to the room and dump off our stuff. It helps avoid waiting in line in the lobby.

Super, super helpful info!

1. That's good to know that we won't all be human popsicles when we get into the water! My daughter wouldn't care if the water was 40 degrees--she'd still want to get in. But Mama likes nice, warm pool temps, so I think we'll all be happy with the heated pools!

2. YES! This is what I am thinking, too! I am trying sooooo hard not to spill the beans, especially now that we only have a few weeks to go. I don't know how much self-control I'm going to have the day of, but I'm going to try very, very hard to at least give her some time to guess where we're going. Let's see how successful I am. Haha

3. Good to know that you've had good experiences with the online check-in. I would LOVE it if we just rolled onto the ASMu property and already had a room available. That would make our entire first day so much easier, and we'd likely get some extra pool time in that way!

 

[Bama Mom]

First off, I have to day it...ROLL TIDE! But don't worry, I'm one of the Bama fans that gets along with other team fans as well.
Secondly, following along. How fun to surprise your kiddos. My hubby and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary at DW next September (even though our actual anniversary is in May) but it will also be my birthday while we are there so I'm super excited about that. You get to celebrate two birthdays there, that's so cool.