11 years and 3 kids later, we POP back FEB 2015

[rideswithchrist]

I have never done a trip report or even really discovered them until a few weeks ago!

I have been mentally planning a Disney trip for the last year. We bought our house in May and wanted to wait until we were in and settled to think about going to Disney.

My hubby has been to DW about 11 times since he was 3 and I have been ONCE- on our honeymoon Feb 29 2004. We stayed at POP (it was only 3 months old) and we originally planned on returning every 4 years for our leap day anniversary. We celebrate our anniversary 2 days, on the 28th because it is the LAST day of Feb, and on Mar 1 because that is when we finally checked into POP at Disney after our flight and town car ride- at midnight
Life, school, kids were in the plan instead and now we are making a go for it in February again.

We will be leaving Texas on Sat Feb 21 early in the morning - driving for 12-13 hours or so then staying overnight in a hotel and checking in Sunday.
We will spend the first day just hanging out at the resort, prepping foods as best as we can and maybe jumping over to Fort Wilderness (where we WANTED to stay). Google Maps says this is a 16-17 hour trip so we are estimating 19-20, not including the 8-10 hour sleep/eat break.

Plan so far- aaaa....I don't have much of one. We will be working with an agent this week, but this is my idea for each day of the week:
*edited
S- Check in after our drive from Texas, tour the POP and hit DTD for dinner and try to catch some smores at FW
M- MK rope drop- walk/run down main street and then It's a Small World, Dumbo and Tea party for sure
T-Epcot, My 4YO was so happy when she hit 40" so she can ride Test Track- broken every time DH and I tried it
W- Epcot day 2- World Showcase
TH- HS
F- Magic Kingdom
SA- We will eat a nice breakfast and hit AK as a half- day park and then...sniff sniff, travel home

We want a game-plan but at the same time, we are a family with littles so we have to be flexible for meltdowns.

We are renting a stroller from Apple so we can lug the kids around and let them nap or whatever!

I have budgeted
$150 spending money ($30 each plus their $15 gift cards from Christmas and whatever change they have saved and cans collected)
$600 food, includes packed lunches and eating dinners in DTD and Parks

I am going to be ordering lanyards and pins next week so they can do some trading too AND we will be making some autograph books to take with us- I love personalized DIY stuff!


I LOVE Christmas, but have been distracted by Disney Planning this month haha

*** I guess I could introduce us a little more***
These are my littles that will be visiting for their very first time
IMG_3388 by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

This is my handsome hubby and I...and our son again
IMG_3391 by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

The last time we went to DIS, all our pics were taken on an older digi camera that did not sync with our new computer, and we lost half our photos All we have are the ones we printed out.

To prep our kids for our Disney trip, we made a Disney trunk for Trick or Trunk. I WANTED to do Frozen, but DD1 wanted to be Merida and DD2 wanted to be Minnie (no surprise there) and my son was Olaf...SO DH and I were tourists LOL
10612755_10202948468214230_4712105668646500015_n by rideswithchrist, on Flickr
11009_10202948470054276_2666293987275875627_n by rideswithchrist, on Flickr
10603246_10202948470974299_5783700036665183658_n by rideswithchrist, on Flickr They even got a visit from Elsa while there (really, she wanted to take a pic with Olaf)

The only picture I have of DH and I is my rear end and I am not posting that!

 

[rideswithchrist]

It is more real ! I just booked our room -only ressie.
AND We got our Disney DVD for the kids to watch today, AND they got money in the mail for Christmas. That gives them a total of $60 each for spending money. (They are young so that is plenty)

We will be buying our tickets later in Feb before we go. Our TA is amazing so she is going to work it all out last minute for us!

Screen Shot 2014-12-27 at 12.07.05 PM by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

 

[ursalita]

Hi there! Joining in to read all about your plans. Your kiddos are so cute, you have a beautiful family!

 

[rideswithchrist]

Yay!!!! Thank you They are SO excited to go. (me too, can't lie!)

I will need all the good tips I can get, when DH and I went in 2004- we literally just walked in the place and we just wandered while he told he what all they did as kids- he has been like 10 times.

 

[rideswithchrist]

Ok, since AK is only open until 5 during Feb, that is enough of a half-day so I am amending our plan:
SUNDAY: arrival, check in, hit DTD and eat and stuff
MONDAY: Rope Drop MK, try to find Ana and Elsa if we don't get FP+, It's a small world first (I did not ride it on our last trip)
TUESDAY: Epcot
WED: AK then heading to the room for a nap and break, then over to FW for smores and to catch the electric water pageant
THUR: Hollywood studios, taking my girls on Tower of Terror
FRI:Epcot round 2
SAT: time to say good bye, check out and spend the last of our hours in MK before starting the trip back. We will stay as long as we can for sure and hit a hotel off on the way back

We won't be able to book our FP+ until we get the tickets which will be around Feb 12th ish...so I hope we get some good times, but last time we went(Same week), we only used FP twice, the lines were so short anyway.

 

[rideswithchrist]

AHHHH MAN!
The people mover is closed for refurb during our trip we were going to eat lunch on it.

And I AM so bummed that Maelstrom is down, I have Norwegian family so I wanted the kids to ride it...oh well, we will be back for the Frozen Ride for sure

 

[rideswithchrist]

Ok- I tweaked my schedule some because Friday is EMH at Epcot.
This leaves us hanging at AK with only one stroller, but it will be easier for us to leave that park!

Screen Shot 2014-12-29 at 10.37.33 AM by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

 

[ursalita]

That is a bummer that People Mover is closed. That's one of our favorites. Hopefully you will be having so much fun you won't even notice.

 

[rideswithchrist]

That is a bummer that People Mover is closed. That's one of our favorites. Hopefully you will be having so much fun you won't even notice.

I know-that was such a bummer because my son would have loved it, but as long as he gets to ride the Monorail, he will be happy!

 

[rideswithchrist]

I had a dream that I left all my girl's Disney shirts at home.
SO- that motivated me to get cracking on our DIY shirts.
The girls are ready to go but The hubs and I and our son only had 1-2 character shirts.
(My husband's shirt is FROM our Honeymoon trip 11 years ago when the only thing he packed was underwear and clothes for our nice dinner, so he had to buy shorts and a tee and wear them everyday)

The two "negative" images on the end we for my girls so they could have a custom shirt too- AND as a bonus, it covered up some stains! WIN WIN.

I am going to do an aqua Frozen shirt too and my husband is going to have Mickey ears with a beard and probably something Star Wars.
My ears will get a ribbon bow added once they dry.

Oh- I used the freezer paper stencil technique and multi-purpose acrylic paint.

image by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

image by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

 

[rideswithchrist]

Since we are 7.5 weeks away from our trip, I figured I would give myself a task a week. So far, this is my list of need to dos but not in any order
1. DIY shirts
2. Print and laminate road trip games, get new crayon sets
3. Make felt activities and lego activity boxes
4. Pick up Trip Tix from AAA, order lanyards and pins
5. Fix travel mats, make magnet sheets, buy new crayon
6. Download some Disney movies onto ipads and Kindles for the trip
7. Grocery shop and PACK (Monday the week we leave)

WOW! Just looking at this and realizing I have quite a bit more than this to do...things are getting cra-zy close!

 

[ursalita]

Those shirts are super cute! That's one thing we never seem to do - get Disney clothing to wear when we're there. We usually pick up some souvenir clothing when we're there but I think for this trip I'll try to get some Disney garb.

That's a great idea to do Disney related tasks every week, it should help the time go faster.

 

[rideswithchrist]

Those shirts are super cute! That's one thing we never seem to do - get Disney clothing to wear when we're there. We usually pick up some souvenir clothing when we're there but I think for this trip I'll try to get some Disney garb.

That's a great idea to do Disney related tasks every week, it should help the time go faster.

That's what I am hoping

 

[rideswithchrist]

Awesome! My husband got his time off approved and got so excited about the trip, he decided to leave a day early just for fun! So we will be heading out Friday as soon as possible- maybe noon and then taking the drive there easy.

As part of my weekly countdown, I went to AAA and picked up our Trip-Tix (for me it is pretty much a free map)
We will still use a GPS but I am an OCD Navigator and HAVE To have a paper map in my hands.

While I was there, the kids saw these magic coloring pages so I tossed them in the bag for the trip too.

photo by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Hi there! Joining in!

Great job on the shirts! I too have a plan to do a castle stencil on a shirt to cover up a stain! Glad to see it worked already! (Yay for extending the life of clothes!)

Such a bummer about people mover!

 

[rideswithchrist]

After I ironed the image, tossed it in the dryer for 30 mins and then washed it, the paint softened up some too!

I am about to make an Olaf and a Mater for my son too.

 

[ksl5f123]

Hi! I just found your TR! Your kids are adorable. I love reading "first trip" reports with little kids. There is so much magic in a first trip.

Your shirts look great! I used that technique with my Girl Scout troop to make their troop shirts. They seem to hold up pretty well.

We have a similar drive to you and also do it in two days. I have friends who leave at 3 AM and drive straight through. We could never do that.

I am looking forward to hearing more of your plans!

 

[rideswithchrist]

Hi! I just found your TR! Your kids are adorable. I love reading "first trip" reports with little kids. There is so much magic in a first trip.

Your shirts look great! I used that technique with my Girl Scout troop to make their troop shirts. They seem to hold up pretty well.

We have a similar drive to you and also do it in two days. I have friends who leave at 3 AM and drive straight through. We could never do that.

I am looking forward to hearing more of your plans!

Thanks! I read your pregnant and camping TR- that is our plan next time, to stay at FW in a pop-up!
I added a bit of water to the Olaf and Mater shirts for my son and they were more flexible. I think they are my favorites! I just have 5 for my hubby and 1 more for my son and we are done with the shirts.

IMG_3515 by rideswithchrist, on Flickr

We can't do the straight through either, we tried on a trip to MN and realized we were crazy. We will drive out until dark and then crash for the night and get another early start the next day since both of us have bad night vision

 

[jhoannam]

Your kids are adorable... we were just there last October for our first WDW vacation, we stayed at the POP and our girls loved it! DH on the other hand fell in love with the monorail resorts, we are now saving to stay at a monorail resort.

 

[rideswithchrist]

I think I have it planned where we will eat, but we are a "ooh- let's do that" spontaneous family so it is flexible too.
MK (2 days)- The Plaza and Cosmic Rays (Maybe BOG)
Epcot(2 days): Sunshine Seasons , Tangierine
HW: Rosies, because that is where my hubby and I ate for our honeymoon
AK: Yak and Yeti Local Cafe
DTD: Earl of Sandwich