My brother, Steve, and his family are HUGE Disney freaks. They go pretty much every year. And every year, they nag at me to go with them. My SIL is a goddess with using time shares, and usually ends up getting awesome condos for barely any money. She always tells me if I can get there, she'll have a place for us to stay. I've always said no. I felt the kids were just too young to have a good time, and Aaron just doesn't have that much time off, either.
But now that I know I'm being laid off in July, the stars have finally aligned!
- Between now and July 31st, I have 12 sick days and 3 personal days I need to use (we don't get paid for those days, and I've been accumulating for years!)
- My company has discounted (20% off) Disney tickets. It's my last chance to take advantage
- The free place to stay at a pretty amazing resort (Old Key West Resort)
- Aaron found very cheap airfare!
- The cheap airfare means that we need to travel from Thursday - Thursday. But we don't check into the resort until Saturday. Not a problem, because my other brother lives in Orlando and works a hotel and is getting us an awesome deal on a room for 2 nights!
- Final awesome bit? I'll be in Orlando to celbrate my neices 16th birthday! They are identical twins, and this all works out that we'll be there for their birthday!
The only crappy thing is that one of the guys that works for Aaron had already booked tickets to go to spring training without asking. And Aaron's job is production support, and he can't really have only one person in the office (which is what would happen with both him and this guy gone). But once he took a deep breath, and realized that he would be there for most of the awesome stuff, and once he left, I'd still have both my brothers, my mother (who is coming also) and 4 teenagers to help me with the kids.... we figured it'll be fine.
Aaron and I decided to not tell them anything about it, just because I can't deal with weeks of 'Are we going to Disney today? Soon?" but I sure have been having fun doing the planning. Here are my big plans:
- Friday will be our first park day. I don't have it all figured out, but we figure this day we will just soak in the Magic Kingdom.
- Saturday we will spend the day with my brother and nieces. No park - just getting some family time with kids I rarely get to see.
- Sunday, another day at the Magic Kingdom. I have us signed up for lunch at the "Be Our Guest' resturant, and then a pirate/mermaid markover at the Pirate's League.
- Monday, we are spending the day at the Hollywood Studios. Aaron is super excited to get Cam into Jedi training, and we have lunch planned at Hollywood and Vine (where they will get to meet all the Disney Junior characters).
- Tuesday, Aaron is leaving first thing to go back to work. Us? We are going to Epcot for breakfast with the Princesses and Akershus Royal Banquet Hall (and a bit of exploration around Epcot). Then, Maggie has an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!
- Wendsday we are headed to the Animal Kingdom and any final things the kids want to do
- Thursday I fly home (alone!) with the kids.
I'm guessing that my pal Jen may have some suggestions?
2 comments:
We go to Disney almost every year (Chase will be 9 in March and June will be his 5th trip, Emery is 4 and it will be her 3rd trip, plus one when I was 7 months pregnant with her). Y'all are going to LOVE LOVE LOVE it, and you'll want to go back, I guarantee it. Great thing, you can take your own snacks in, so I recommend hitting up the grocery store and stocking up on light/easy to carry snacks. No need to take water bottles, because you can get free water at any of the places that serve fountain drinks. Jedi training is awesome, but you have to get there when the park opens to sign up. My husband and son were there at rope drop and raced to sign ups (across from Indiana Jones). You don't get to pick the time and they were put at a spot that was only an hour away, so the rest of us had to rush over there. Maggie is actually old enough too, if she'll do it. You have to be 4. Get on disneyworld.com and go to the mom's panel and search for any questions you have. Highly recommend a stroller, you can take your own. We did our Maclaren last trip instead of renting, so much cheaper and worked perfect since it's small and foldable. Toy Story Mania is awesome, but the line is always long. If you want a fast pass, get it first because they run out every single time. Oh gosh, there's so much that comes to mind, but if you have questions you can email me jeff_and_kahlaatyahooodotcome. So excited for y'all!! We haven't been since Dec. 12, June can't get here fast enough!!!
Yay! You are going to have so much fun!
Let's see. I don't have too much advice. You've already signed up for a lot of the things I recommend. Get a pack of glow bracelets from Target and put one on each kid in the morning. We've found it makes a huge difference on "dark rides" and keeps Elizabeth from getting scared during things like Ursula on the Little Mermaid ride and the scary fish on Nemo.
Also, Disney discontinued fastpasses last month. It's Fastpass Plus now, which is better in my opinion, but it does mean that all the advice about fastpasses (like running to Toy Story Mania) is now obsolete. You now book them in advance and you should be able to start doing that now. (We used most of ours on princess meet and greets this last trip.) Feel free to email me if you want to know if certain things are worth signing up for fastpasses for.
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