~*^~*^"Surprise! We're Going to Disney....in 1/2 an hour! Get in the car!"^*~^*~

[PSMC]

We are planning our first family trip to Disney World, leaving almost immediately upon getting up on Christmas morning.

"We" are myself and my husband, who went to Disney World for our honeymoon, way back in 2001:

(yay for the cheesy photos taken in Epcot! )

and our children, DD, who will be 5 1/2-years old and, DS, who will be nearly-3-years old at the time we travel.

We live in Atlantic Canada and, because we are flying with Aeroplan and flights are unreasonably costly out of our hometown, we are flying out of a bigger airport several hours away and so will be "spending Christmas with grandpa and grandma" so we are close to the airport. I know that they are pretty excited to get to see the kiddies reactions (no matter what they end up being...and I am prepared for everything from exuberation to confusion to disappointment).

I have a ton of crafty endeavours underway in preparation for our trip: autograph books, a family set of "1st trip to Disney" shirts for our travel day, a family set of "team *ourlastname*" shirts for one of the days in the parks, a Jessie-inspired skirt for DD and a Buzz-inspired shirt for DS.

I look forward to updating this thread as things move along. I also look forward to reading others' threads to get ideas of other planners' techniques.

What day is it again?
Still a surprise, but hopefully a better one
The complicated bit
June is a big month for me

 

[OrangeJuice]

Welcome PSMC (from another maritimer)
Like the PTR so far and I love your craft ideas I'm joining in and looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

 

[PSMC]

Hi OrangeJuice (may I call you OJ )

Thanks for popping in. I would have been just as happy to talk to myself , but am glad it didn't come to that.

 

[OrangeJuice]

It's definitely better to have someone to talk to

 

[PSMC]

The Plan so far: (feel free to make suggestions!)

When: Dec 25-Jan 3
Where: Comfort Suites Maingate, Kissimmee
Still up in the air: MYW or PHP tickets, rental car for the week

Day -1 (Dec 24)
~Pack car after kids go to bed....until some ungodly hour, I suspect
~Prepare announcement
~Try to sleep

Day 1 (Dec 25):
~Wake kids around 5am (as if they won't already be up )
~Huge announcement involving 1 giant present under the tree....present will be full of Disney-themed balloons and attached to the ends of the ribbons will be a simple print-out that, I expect, my daughter will be able to read ("We are going to Walt Disney World" with Cinderella's castle in the background and WDW written in Waltograph, so she will recognize it)
~Everyone pile into the car (kids still in jammies) and drive the ~2 hours to the airport. On the way to the airport, kids will open next present, which will contain our "1st trip to Disney World" travel day t-shirts
~Change at airport
~Fly to Orlando (via Boston & Cleveland...two stop-overs with two small kids=ack!....methinks, I will be using every creative thing in my bag o' tricks to get us all there in one piece)
~Arrive around 5pm
~Car service to hotel with a groceries stop on the way
~Relax at hotel for evening (kids will open 3rd present at hotel, which will include more themed clothing, autograph books, tattoos, cash from grandparents to use at Disney, etc.)

Day 2 (Dec 26)
~Epcot (Attractions: Turtle Talk, The Seas, Soarin, Maelstrom, Mission: Space, Illuminations, World Showcase Players)

Day 3 (Dec 27)
~Animal Kingdom (Attractions: EVERYTHING!! I AK and I know that the kids will too)

Day 4 (Dec 28)
~Magic Kingdom (Attractions: Too many to list; Staying late for Tomorrowland Wishes Dessert Party)

Day 5 (Dec 29)
~Hollywood Studios (Attractions: Toy Story Mania, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Beauty & the Beast...toying with Fantasmic!, but not sure it will be worth keeping the kids up)
~Downtown Disney

Day 6 (Dec 30)
~Rest Day (Chilling at hotel and maybe some shopping)


Day 7 (Dec 31)
~Magic Kingdom (Attractions: Whatever the kids want, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Mainstreet Electrical Parade, NYE fireworks)

Day 8 (Jan 1)
~Epcot (Attractions: World Showcase wandering) OR Animal Kingdom....depending how the first days went at each park

Day 9 (Jan 2)
~????

Day 10(Jan 3)
~Plane leaves Orlando around 11am , but I am sure we will be ready to head home by then.


OMG....I just "found" an extra day! I have no idea how I have been a day short for the last 3 weeks of planning , but when I wrote it out here with the dates included (instead of just day 1, day 2, etc.), I have an extra day to play with Best. Day. Ever.

 

[PSMC]

Slight change of plans....I have been hesitating about our surprise plan for a while mostly because I know they will not respond in a great way after having been woken up. So after reading the "surprise" thread, I decided to go back to the drawing board.
We will inevitably have supper the night before with some of DH's family. I think that, while we are dining, the large balloon-filled box will appear in front of the tree in the next room. It will have a note on it that says "Open Me!!" (nod to Alice in Wonderland). The kids will find it quite quickly after dinner, I expect. The announcement will be done then so they will be awake and better-mentally-prepared for it It will also give the family the opportunity to witness the announcement :clap:
Everything else will be done the same way.

 

[PSMC]

A complicating factor:

My son has a kidney condition called Nephrogenic Diabetes Insipidus. The short version: his kidneys don't concentrate his urine properly, which means that his body builds up minerals and he can dehydrate to the point of needing IV rehydration after only a few hours without water. As a result, he is on an extremely low-sodium diet (between 750-1000mg/day - hard to come by when eating out) and drinks about 4L of water each day (at 2-years old and 26lbs, he can already drink me under the table ). He is also very sensitive to extreme temps, so going in the summer was absolutely out (even though it would be cheaper, more convenient (I am a teacher) and less crowded if we timed it right).

With this in mind, we booked a hotel with a fridge and microwave in order to expand our selection of foods we can prepare for him. I will also be contacting the folks a Special Diets and, hopefully, speaking with the chefs at our ADR restaurants in order to make them aware of our needs and hopefully get some NDI-friendly sorted out. In a lot of instances, it is just a matter of eliminating salt-based spices and sauces, but in the case of baked goods, salt, baking soda and baking powder (and a few other leveners used in mass-production) abound and make our life rather difficult. My biggest goal is to see if I can get them to make sodium-free waffles. The boy covets waffles like nobody's business, but can only have ones made at home because we use sodium-free BS & BP. It would be amazing for him to eat waffles at a restaurant with us and have them be Mickey-shaped to boot.

In addition, we are buying three hydration bladders for our backpacks: one for DS, one for me (carrier of the gene that causes the condition and also symptomatic, but not as much as DS) and one for DD and DH to share. This should keep us all well-hydrated and happy

I think we have planned around "the complication" as much as possible....now, we just cross our fingers that the magicians in the kitchens at Disney can make dining accessible to my boy so we can have our dinners in the park

 

[PSMC]

Forget the end of the school year (and graduation and all that goes with it, as a high school teacher) or my own graduation from my university program or even my DH or Mother's birthdays.....June 28th is the date I am most looking forward to....ADR day
This is a short list of our preferred dining locations

Epcot:

• Le Cellier
• Rose & Crown
• Akershus
• Coral Reef
• Holiday Around the World - The Candlelight Dinner package

Hollywood Studios

• Hollywood & Vine
• Sci-Fi Dine-in Theatre

Animal Kingdom

• Rainforest Café

Magic Kingdom

• Be Our Guest
• Aloha Isle
• Crystal Palace
• Tomorrowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party

**Also of note, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique needs to be booked

 

[FairestOfThemAll]

I love your PTR so far - I laughed out loud several times! Also love your idea of the Alice balloon... if I saw something like that as a kid, I would have been bouncing off the walls, doing cartwheels around the house.

What a fun time of year to visit Mickey - but I'm not brave enough to face those crowds. My trip this August is going to be the busiest time of year I've ever gone and I was recommended by several people to check easywdw for what to do, in which order and where not to go on certain days. I've never used the site before, but I planned my entire next trip around what it recommends. And the blogs Josh writes are very funny. Anyway, if you haven't been there yet, I highly recommend checking it out: click here (it only goes through September so far, but in a couple months, December will be up).

And your list of restaurants looks great! I also am really looking forward to checking out Be Our Guest.

I've read many, many stories of Disney chefs making special-order food for all kinds of dietary restrictions and don't see any reason why that couldn't find some work-around for your little guy. Maybe call before going so that something can be ready for him when you arrive?

 

[PSMC]

Thanks for the recommendation of easywdw, Fairest. I need all the help I can get

 

[PSMC]

Long time no chat! I ended up putting some of my Disney planning on hold because my daughter and I took a last minute trip right at the end of the school, so my efforts had to be put into that.

I am now in full-fledged planning mode for this trip (DH and I have an anniversary trip in August, but it is pretty low-key).

I made all of our ADRs at the 180 mark (literally, woke up each morning and booked our dining res while sipping mu coffee lol). After more reading and some convos with DH, some changes were made to our schedule, but nothing significant.

I have a stash of goodies for the kids' presents in my closet. I also have all of the materials for the t-shirts, autograph books and a couple of other projects.

I had an idea for a souvenir for the kids' friends: I was thinking that it might be fun to buy a story book for each class and get some signatures in them to bring back for their friends to share.

I am trying to attach my spreadsheet, but can't seem to get it to work.