When is our BOMA dinner? 5 5 5! When is it? 5? No, 5:55!! UPDATE May 28

[maryandtyson]

Welcome and Hello!

I’m the super-planner, deal finder, ADR stalker and FP+ maker – Mary.

Here’s DH, Tyson who very sweetly trusts my planning and goes along with pretty much everything. He loves it as much as me!


And, our two semi-pro Disney daughters – Emma, 13 and Kathleen, 10 (almost 11).


Our family has visited the World many times before and since our children were born – but never in the Spring. We always travel in the Fall. Sometimes we get Free Dining! This will be our last year for that schedule, however, since our oldest will be going to High School next year and that will be the end of year-round school and three week breaks in October.


Being a teensy, tiny bit sad over this change in our comfortable routine of Disney trips (okay completely heartbroken!), we decided to go a wee bit crazy this year. We bought Annual Passes and planned a quick getaway in April!


Being a super-planner, I’ve gotten pretty good at planning my ADRs 180+10 days out. I always follow a crowd calendar and the set up is easy now.


This time, we planned about a month ahead and got FP just two weeks ahead.


PLUS – THIS WAS ALL A SURPRISE TO OUR DDs. So HARD to keep it SECRET!


DATES: April 11-16 (the 16th got added at the last minute by DH who thought, why not? Gotta love it!


RESORT: Wilderness Lodge. We’ve stayed here before and love the boat to Magic and the gorgeous lobby. Love staying Deluxe at this price point too!

 

[nilla]

Reading!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Sounds like fun, we're following along from the WL thread.

 

[NJlauren]

Following along! Can't wait to hear how the surprise went!

 

[HSMndLKfan92]

Being a teensy, tiny bit sad over this change in our comfortable routine of Disney trips (okay completely heartbroken!), we decided to go a wee bit crazy this year. We bought Annual Passes and planned a quick getaway in April!

As a fellow superfan, I thought I'd get really wonked out once our routines started changing. Back in the day, my family was very ADRs IMMEDIATELY, GET TO THE PARK BEFORE ROPE DROP, etc. But over time we've relaxed with our logic being, "well, we're just gonna come back anyway." You'll get over those changes soon enough!

PLUS – THIS WAS ALL A SURPRISE TO OUR DDs. So HARD to keep it SECRET!

I'm really excited to hear how you broke the news. My mom tried to plan surprise trips when I was growing up but I always managed to find out like 60 days out.

 

[solana131]

Following along from the WL thread too
This fall will be our first time staying at the Lodge, so I'm interested to hear about transportation, food, etc! Well, and everything else too of course

 

[jchurch0409]

Following along!

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

Woot! Another first-timer to WL later on this year, and a sucker for surprise trip stories!

 

[maryandtyson]

There’s a Disney Trip in my Easter Basket


We considered keeping the trip a secret until the morning we were to drive down. Ummm, no. Our girls would completely stress about having everything they needed with them. PLUS, how would we pack? They were off school at this point and there is no way to sneak a 13 year olds underwear and socks out of her room without raising some suspicions.


We talked about how to reveal the BIG NEWS and finally decided on Easter Baskets! What’s better than finding a trip to Disney in your Easter basket, after all?


We bought a blank puzzle at the craft store to write the message on. Not puzzling enough, I say! So we decided to encode the message using a cryptography wheel we purchased at Colonial Williamsburg (though I think I’ve seen it at the America pavilion in EPCOT too).



The wheel has 12 characters across. Each character moves independently around and each letter appears only once. You can encode and 12 character message in this way.


The decoded message said (in two lines, decoded separately) THIS SATURDAY. U R GOING TO WDW.

They were SHOCKED, to say the least. At first, Kathleen thought we were kidding. Would I kid about a trip to Disney? Heck no!


Soon enough they got to work planning and packing. This would be our first time driving the WDW in years. It’s about a 9 hour drive, if you don’t stop much.

 

[NJlauren]

Omg I love that surprise what a cool way to do it! So creative

 

[AllyinWonderland]

What a fun way to reveal a trip!

 

[pas130]

Very cool surprise!! Joining in from the BC thread, but I am a HUGE WL fan as well Lovely family!!

 

[maryandtyson]

Omg I love that surprise what a cool way to do it! So creative

What a fun way to reveal a trip!

Very cool surprise!! Joining in from the BC thread, but I am a HUGE WL fan as well Lovely family!!

Thank you everyone!!

 

[maryandtyson]

In Which the dog gets NO’HANAed


For this quick getaway, we were trying to save a little money by driving. It’s a 9 hour drive from our home, so we thought it would be okay.

We dropped our sweet dog, Finnigan at the vet’s on Friday evening. He was NOT happy about that. He has even coined a term for it: being NO’HANAed – the dog gets left behind.

I always stress about leaving him. He’s such a sweetheart and very sensitive! This time I brought his bed from home so he could be more comfortable.

Friday night, the car was all packed up. We got to bed at a good time and, surprisingly, got a good night’s sleep. DH and I woke up around 5:30, showered and made the essential elixir of life: COFFEE.

A quick breakfast later, we were on the road! It took us about an hour to reach I-95 and, by then it was getting lighter out despite the clouds and rain. We cranked the Disney play list and headed South!

DH was super smart and purchased a HooToo TripMate drive that held movies and TV shows for the DDs to watch on the way down. AWESOME purchase and I highly recommend it for long car trips! It holds about 20 movies and up to 6 people can stream from it at the same time.

Since this was the Saturday after Easter, the other side of 95 (going North) was at a crawl! We use the WAZE app, and watched traffic build and build, going along at 35 mph or at a complete stand still.

NOTE TO SELF: Never attempt to drive North on I-95 on the weekend after Easter.

We made great time and were on track to be at Wilderness Lodge by about 3:00. When we hit construction and crazy traffic right around Orlando. The good news was we also got a text that our room (#5142) was ready!!


We pulled in right around 4:00 and headed right to our room. A short wait for our bags later, we were heading to the pool for some relaxation!

 

[solana131]

Oooh, a coded message would be FUN! I am surprising my son on his birthday (we will leave 4 days later). He thinks our next trip is April 2016

Yay for arrival day!! There is nothing like driving through those magical "gates" and pulling up to your home away from home. I love being onsite. I can't imagine staying offsite and not having that "we are here" feeling upon arrival.

Good timing.....even with construction and traffic

 

[Fastpassminus]

I love this trip report already!! What a fun way to surprise the kids!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Joining in.

 

[kastoney]

Subbing in and catching up. Any chance you all eat at Boma during the trip ; )

Love the way you all surprised the girls.

Glad you made such good time on the road. Will have to check out that app. We live in the DC area so 95 is often my nemesis.

Cant wait to hear more.

 

[maryandtyson]

In Which We Ignore the Crowd Calendar and Conquer Magic Kingdom


This was our third stay at Wilderness Lodge, but the last one was five years ago. When I planned this trip, I wanted to keep the budget down, but we are totally spoiled by Deluxe Resorts.

My three favorite resorts (in no order because I can never pick favorites) are: Beach Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge and Wilderness Lodge. This stay reminded me of how wonderful WL truly is! The beauty of the lobby, the landscaping and all the hidden seating areas combine for a relaxing oasis right near all the magic.

The Wilderness Lodge pool was lovely that afternoon! Last year, we were booked there but the pool construction had us running to the Beach Club. Now complete, it looks great. The new fence blends nicely with the look of the resort. I felt that the seating area around the pool was a little more crowded, however. The new splash pad looks adorable and a lot of fun!

After a quick dip, we changed and headed to the boat dock.

We absolutely LOVE taking the boat to Magic Kingdom! The boat captains are so nice and the ride is peaceful too. On this late afternoon, we even caught a glimpse of a family of otters on the shoreline! Plus, a baby heron was fishing in the marsh. Totally made my night!

Don’t we all love arriving at Magic Kingdom? It’s a feeling like no other! The sights, the smell of the Confectionary – just magical.

I had booked Fast Passes for Peter Pan, Big Thunder and Pirates. We decided to eat first though. Our family tradition is to eat at Casey’s at least once on every trip. It’s such a classic. We got a table in the expanded seating area outside and ate our fab hot dogs while listening to the piano man.

Next, we headed to FantasyLand to use our Peter Pan Fast Pass. The ride was great, as usual, but we decided to come back another day to see the new queue (more on that later). We also went to Philharmagic , which is DH’s favorite attraction. Poor Donald losing that hat!! Then we did Big Thunder. Kathleen doesn’t love big rides, but she will go on BTMRR and, this time, she loved it! We win!!

Now, we headed to Pirates, hoping it wouldn’t shut down. We still bear the scars from last October when we waited in line, with a tour group, for 40 minutes, only to have it shut down! Never did ride it that trip!!

After Pirates, Emma wanted to go to the Tiki Room. The weather looked like it could turn for the worse, but we decided to risk it anyway. As we waited for the opening show, a pair of ducks waddled out, right down the ramp in front of the waterfall! Cutest thing ever!


Well, it started to rain pretty hard while we were in Tiki Room, so we hopped from shop to shop, thru the Emporium and headed to the boat launch and home.

It was a GREAT night! We felt so accomplished for a travel day.

Back at Wilderness, DH and I decided to get an adult beverage in the beautiful Territory Lounge while the DDs got ready for bed. I love that Wilderness is all one big building and that our kids are old enough to get themselves to the room. I highly recommend this wind-down time for the adults! The CMs at the Lounge were terrific and they have squishy chairs to sink in to at the end of a long day!

FitBit Report: 9,854 steps. Not bad for a driving day!

 

[natebenma]

I'm in, from the Beach Club thread. I have never been to the Wilderness Lodge- my DH and I would love to check it out sometime, but the boys are not interested in a "resort tour". We stayed at the somewhat similar Grand Californian Hotel at DL and loved the vibe (and location). Can't wait to hear more and see some pictures.

He has even coined a term for it: being NO’HANAed – the dog gets left behind.

That's hilarious!

the essential elixir of life: COFFEE.

Oh, yeah!

I had booked Fast Passes for Peter Pan, Big Thunder and Pirates.

Great choices!

Visiting Mk first is just the right thing to do!