Matty_Disfan
Heading ba-ack...!!
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2002
Yup.
My wife and I had taken our precocious 3 and 5 year old girls to Disney World in 2011. There are some memories from that trip that will stay with me until my dying days.
We've been holding off going back, in part because of not wanting to disturb such a lovely set of 'times' as often happens when you try to recreate or layer new memories over old, or try to line up experiences. I think we may have been waiting to have our chalkboards cleared, to cleanse our palettes.
To be honest, the girls recall precious little. The older one has a few snippets, but they are more like stars, the voids between which have been crafted into imaginary constellations of memories by her mind. The youngest remembers only things she has seen in our videos. No actual memories.
We now have a very active 4.5 year old boy. The girls are 11 and 9 and are crossing into the Tween world. It can't help but be a different experience. We couldn't recreate the 2011 trip even if we worked at it.
So we told my wife's folks we were heading back. They decided to join us.
I am the family Dis-Nerd. Most of you reading this are your family's nerd. It astonished me how quickly they leapt aboard. I will cheerfully admit that I banged the drum and we invited my wife's whole family. Her sister and husband and their three kids, her brother and wife and their twins. They all said yes....?!
Their reason: we want to see Disney with you, through your eyes. I was mildly tickled. I also knew there would need be some compromising on all sides.
After people examined their accounts and plans and dreams (all of which needed to be sacrificed for this endeavor) they all happily found their places on the trip, and we were 16.
Grampy to the Rescue: We are a budget-conscious family. Very middle class. Very Canadian. Very Scottish in ancestry. I'm a professional but not rich. We needed somewhere to stay that could accommodate our needs which are as follows: Close proximity (going our separate ways at the end of the day seemed icky), area for meal prep (for breakfasts, picnic lunches and home-made dinners - huge money-saver), Pool, separate bathrooms.
Basically we needed a large rental house, or like 1.5 million DVC points. Grampy (my wife's dad) is a spry, lean and seasoned traveller. He lives for the best possible (thing) at the best possible (price). He scored a diamond. Huge house, 10 minutes to Gates, 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, big pool and hot tub etc.
I had always spent our trips insulated in the bubble. Always onsite. Always with the rocks playing music. Always with the Mickey phone calls. Always with the buses and the itinerant gypsy travelling so achievable with them; at Epcot, want to go to Magic Kingdom, hop monorail, bus will get me home.
So that was a loss: renting a car/van. Paying for parking. One park, vehicle, next park, vehicle. No drinks, no nonsense, highway patrol.
I didn't even dream of booking Hoop Dee Do.
We really didn't book dinners anywhere. We met together, talked about the trip. I tried to distill their dreams from them, they tried to soften to my Disney style (commando, rope drop, sleep, repeat). We reached compromises (2 sleep in days, 2 nights back at the house and I got a Roper Drop at MK for an 8am opening). But we did not book any ADRs, all meals were to be at the house or packed in. Breakfast upon waking, Lunches in the backpacks and Suppers back at the house during the midday break.
I was fine with that, but we wanted one character meal so we asked the kids and they selected 1900 Park Fare for brunch. We told the family: we want this, you don't have to come. They all opted in. Not sure if it was genuine interest, a willingness to defer to my whims and appreciations, or just simply not wanting to deal with their kids missing out.
All other meals are going to be from Publix and our deft hands.
So when we went last time we dealt with paper fastpasses, and it was early May. This trip is the height of Spring Break (crowd levels 8-10 depending who you ask) and we have to plan for 16 souls at the 30 day window. I practiced, worried and examined the internet, pulling crowd charts, fast pass priorities, trying to avoid smug on-siters who worried about their PPOs and EMHs and whether they could get FEA right when their plans dictated it. I just wanted a good stable of E tickets sometime between 10:00 am and 1:00pm. I could fill in the rest.
Very anticlimactic. I got everything I wanted (obvs no FEA or 7D), and within great timing, save for a 1:45 pm TSMM. If this is my only issue then all is well in our kingdom. It was easy, made sense and my spreadsheets only needed minor adjustments. The funny moment came when my day was all messed up as I drove my little fella into preschool (wife usually does it) so I was stuck in traffic at the window opening. It was a Magic Kingdom day I was aiming for, and popped open my phone (sssh - it was literally standstill) and opened the much-maligned App, and bang: Jungle Cruise, Splash, Big Thunder, between 10-12:30.
What a time to be alive!!
So we leave in 1.5 weeks, the kids are pretty excited, my wife is finally getting there and I am bouncing off the walls. I am reserving judgment on the giant house, being offsite in general and bringing our lunches.
I feel like we will break down a few times and eat in the parks, but the family has done so much to placate me and go with my plans that I support their ancillary decisions.
My wife and I had taken our precocious 3 and 5 year old girls to Disney World in 2011. There are some memories from that trip that will stay with me until my dying days.
We've been holding off going back, in part because of not wanting to disturb such a lovely set of 'times' as often happens when you try to recreate or layer new memories over old, or try to line up experiences. I think we may have been waiting to have our chalkboards cleared, to cleanse our palettes.
To be honest, the girls recall precious little. The older one has a few snippets, but they are more like stars, the voids between which have been crafted into imaginary constellations of memories by her mind. The youngest remembers only things she has seen in our videos. No actual memories.
We now have a very active 4.5 year old boy. The girls are 11 and 9 and are crossing into the Tween world. It can't help but be a different experience. We couldn't recreate the 2011 trip even if we worked at it.
So we told my wife's folks we were heading back. They decided to join us.
I am the family Dis-Nerd. Most of you reading this are your family's nerd. It astonished me how quickly they leapt aboard. I will cheerfully admit that I banged the drum and we invited my wife's whole family. Her sister and husband and their three kids, her brother and wife and their twins. They all said yes....?!
Their reason: we want to see Disney with you, through your eyes. I was mildly tickled. I also knew there would need be some compromising on all sides.
After people examined their accounts and plans and dreams (all of which needed to be sacrificed for this endeavor) they all happily found their places on the trip, and we were 16.
Grampy to the Rescue: We are a budget-conscious family. Very middle class. Very Canadian. Very Scottish in ancestry. I'm a professional but not rich. We needed somewhere to stay that could accommodate our needs which are as follows: Close proximity (going our separate ways at the end of the day seemed icky), area for meal prep (for breakfasts, picnic lunches and home-made dinners - huge money-saver), Pool, separate bathrooms.
Basically we needed a large rental house, or like 1.5 million DVC points. Grampy (my wife's dad) is a spry, lean and seasoned traveller. He lives for the best possible (thing) at the best possible (price). He scored a diamond. Huge house, 10 minutes to Gates, 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, big pool and hot tub etc.
I had always spent our trips insulated in the bubble. Always onsite. Always with the rocks playing music. Always with the Mickey phone calls. Always with the buses and the itinerant gypsy travelling so achievable with them; at Epcot, want to go to Magic Kingdom, hop monorail, bus will get me home.
So that was a loss: renting a car/van. Paying for parking. One park, vehicle, next park, vehicle. No drinks, no nonsense, highway patrol.
I didn't even dream of booking Hoop Dee Do.
We really didn't book dinners anywhere. We met together, talked about the trip. I tried to distill their dreams from them, they tried to soften to my Disney style (commando, rope drop, sleep, repeat). We reached compromises (2 sleep in days, 2 nights back at the house and I got a Roper Drop at MK for an 8am opening). But we did not book any ADRs, all meals were to be at the house or packed in. Breakfast upon waking, Lunches in the backpacks and Suppers back at the house during the midday break.
I was fine with that, but we wanted one character meal so we asked the kids and they selected 1900 Park Fare for brunch. We told the family: we want this, you don't have to come. They all opted in. Not sure if it was genuine interest, a willingness to defer to my whims and appreciations, or just simply not wanting to deal with their kids missing out.
All other meals are going to be from Publix and our deft hands.
So when we went last time we dealt with paper fastpasses, and it was early May. This trip is the height of Spring Break (crowd levels 8-10 depending who you ask) and we have to plan for 16 souls at the 30 day window. I practiced, worried and examined the internet, pulling crowd charts, fast pass priorities, trying to avoid smug on-siters who worried about their PPOs and EMHs and whether they could get FEA right when their plans dictated it. I just wanted a good stable of E tickets sometime between 10:00 am and 1:00pm. I could fill in the rest.
Very anticlimactic. I got everything I wanted (obvs no FEA or 7D), and within great timing, save for a 1:45 pm TSMM. If this is my only issue then all is well in our kingdom. It was easy, made sense and my spreadsheets only needed minor adjustments. The funny moment came when my day was all messed up as I drove my little fella into preschool (wife usually does it) so I was stuck in traffic at the window opening. It was a Magic Kingdom day I was aiming for, and popped open my phone (sssh - it was literally standstill) and opened the much-maligned App, and bang: Jungle Cruise, Splash, Big Thunder, between 10-12:30.
What a time to be alive!!
So we leave in 1.5 weeks, the kids are pretty excited, my wife is finally getting there and I am bouncing off the walls. I am reserving judgment on the giant house, being offsite in general and bringing our lunches.
I feel like we will break down a few times and eat in the parks, but the family has done so much to placate me and go with my plans that I support their ancillary decisions.
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