Verstehen
I break for the Nautilus
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2008
What do you get when you combine a hurricane, a toddler, and a Weird Al concert?
My family’s Fall 2022 Disney trip, apparently.
Anyway, hi! I’m Rachel, and I sometimes write trip reports. This is one of them. Thank you for joining me! I'm the one with blue hair.
I’m an Orlando local but not a native. My husband and I moved to this city in 2016 and I’ve lived in Florida across a couple of different locations since 2010. We bought a house earlier this year at the north end of Orlando, about 35 minutes from Disney (without traffic, and there’s always traffic). We like this area a lot. I have an AP and am at the parks pretty regularly, usually just for an hour or two in the afternoons. I work from home part time doing client management and other tasks for a local software company.
Joining me on this trip is my mostly companion, my daughter April, who is just over 2 ½. She loves Disney as well and her favorite ride hands down is Small World. She is learning to love characters now that hugs are back and she loves spending time with the drums at Epcot.
As I said, she and I go to Disney a fair amount, but I don’t tend to write about our random outings here. However, a few years ago, my dad bought DVC so he could come visit us more often without us having to host him, and now comes once or twice a year and stays for a few nights. It’s a good excuse for April to spend time with her grandfather and for me to have a few days in a row going to Disney without having to drive. He has not been a Disney fan for very long, but warmed up to it when he learned about the Disney foodie/drinking culture, and especially loves it now that he has a grandkid to share it with. He lives in upstate NY where I grew up, and he is a semi-retired dentist and volunteer firefighter.
Also joining us on this trip is my younger sister, who I’ll call DS. She has some medical issues which make life difficult for her, and Disney is one of the few places she can vacation without having to worry about things not being accessible or accommodating. She loves Olaf and the Carousel of Progress, but is usually up to try anything at Disney as long as it’s not a thrill ride.
If you’ve read my reports before, you know that my husband, who I’ll call DH, doesn’t usually accompany us to Disney. He isn’t a fan and doesn’t have a pass, but he doesn’t have an issue with me taking April, though of course he misses her during the multi-day trips. To help with this, he will usually join us for our non-park day, which he did on this trip as well!
Now for the trip details. We stayed at the Polynesian Village in a studio for six nights, from October 12th to the 18th. My dad and sister flew in on Tuesday the 11th because they couldn’t get any direct flights on the 12th (due to my sister’s condition, it’s not good for her to do multiple plane trips in one day because of the pressure changes) and stayed overnight in a local hotel.
The plan, originally, was for them to stay in our house. But in case you haven’t heard, about a week and a half before our trip we got visited by Hurricane Ian. I don’t want to make light of this storm because as you probably know, it was devastating for a lot of Floridians, but I also don’t want to bring down the mood too much because for our particular household, we got relatively lucky. However, we did end up flooding and despite the small amount of water, it does look like all our floors will need to be replaced, which is pretty disruptive news.
But going back to the time before the trip, all we knew was that our lives were temporarily upended due to the power outage and a lot of our stuff getting wet, including our air mattress. Quite frankly, I didn’t have the emotional energy to host anyone at our house, nor could I vouch for the sanitariness of our air mattress any longer. So that plan was changed and my dad ended up booking a night at a hotel near my house. I would pick him and my sister up at the airport when their plane arrived Tuesday evening, and then on Wednesday I would go get them and our trip would begin in earnest.
Other than that, the plan all along had been for this to be a fairly low key trip. I was glad to be back at the Polynesian but nervous about us all sleeping in the same room. Our last couple of trips were in a one bedroom and I’d gotten spoiled having a separate sleeping area for me and April, and I suspected she would not sleep as easily if she could see us all milling about.
I didn’t make many ADRs for this trip but there were a few new things we got to try, which I’ll go over in more detail in my report. Suffice it to say, we don’t do Disney the way a lot of other families do Disney. We take our time. We don’t rope drop. We have very few “must dos” every trip. This is partially due to the fact that we’re lucky enough to be able to go often and partially due to the fact that we’ve learned it’s just how our family functions best. Some of us are old and tire easily, others are toddlers who also tire easily.
Overall, this trip was one where real life creeped in more than usual, between the hurricane aftermath and some other events I’ll get into during the report. Those of you who have read my reports before know I try to be honest about my experiences and provide insights that may help you, but in this particular case, we dealt with some things I think most of you will not have to think about during your trips, but either way, I promise I will do my best to make it a fun read.
All that out of the way, let’s get this report started!
My family’s Fall 2022 Disney trip, apparently.
Anyway, hi! I’m Rachel, and I sometimes write trip reports. This is one of them. Thank you for joining me! I'm the one with blue hair.
I’m an Orlando local but not a native. My husband and I moved to this city in 2016 and I’ve lived in Florida across a couple of different locations since 2010. We bought a house earlier this year at the north end of Orlando, about 35 minutes from Disney (without traffic, and there’s always traffic). We like this area a lot. I have an AP and am at the parks pretty regularly, usually just for an hour or two in the afternoons. I work from home part time doing client management and other tasks for a local software company.
Joining me on this trip is my mostly companion, my daughter April, who is just over 2 ½. She loves Disney as well and her favorite ride hands down is Small World. She is learning to love characters now that hugs are back and she loves spending time with the drums at Epcot.
As I said, she and I go to Disney a fair amount, but I don’t tend to write about our random outings here. However, a few years ago, my dad bought DVC so he could come visit us more often without us having to host him, and now comes once or twice a year and stays for a few nights. It’s a good excuse for April to spend time with her grandfather and for me to have a few days in a row going to Disney without having to drive. He has not been a Disney fan for very long, but warmed up to it when he learned about the Disney foodie/drinking culture, and especially loves it now that he has a grandkid to share it with. He lives in upstate NY where I grew up, and he is a semi-retired dentist and volunteer firefighter.
Also joining us on this trip is my younger sister, who I’ll call DS. She has some medical issues which make life difficult for her, and Disney is one of the few places she can vacation without having to worry about things not being accessible or accommodating. She loves Olaf and the Carousel of Progress, but is usually up to try anything at Disney as long as it’s not a thrill ride.
If you’ve read my reports before, you know that my husband, who I’ll call DH, doesn’t usually accompany us to Disney. He isn’t a fan and doesn’t have a pass, but he doesn’t have an issue with me taking April, though of course he misses her during the multi-day trips. To help with this, he will usually join us for our non-park day, which he did on this trip as well!
Now for the trip details. We stayed at the Polynesian Village in a studio for six nights, from October 12th to the 18th. My dad and sister flew in on Tuesday the 11th because they couldn’t get any direct flights on the 12th (due to my sister’s condition, it’s not good for her to do multiple plane trips in one day because of the pressure changes) and stayed overnight in a local hotel.
The plan, originally, was for them to stay in our house. But in case you haven’t heard, about a week and a half before our trip we got visited by Hurricane Ian. I don’t want to make light of this storm because as you probably know, it was devastating for a lot of Floridians, but I also don’t want to bring down the mood too much because for our particular household, we got relatively lucky. However, we did end up flooding and despite the small amount of water, it does look like all our floors will need to be replaced, which is pretty disruptive news.
But going back to the time before the trip, all we knew was that our lives were temporarily upended due to the power outage and a lot of our stuff getting wet, including our air mattress. Quite frankly, I didn’t have the emotional energy to host anyone at our house, nor could I vouch for the sanitariness of our air mattress any longer. So that plan was changed and my dad ended up booking a night at a hotel near my house. I would pick him and my sister up at the airport when their plane arrived Tuesday evening, and then on Wednesday I would go get them and our trip would begin in earnest.
Other than that, the plan all along had been for this to be a fairly low key trip. I was glad to be back at the Polynesian but nervous about us all sleeping in the same room. Our last couple of trips were in a one bedroom and I’d gotten spoiled having a separate sleeping area for me and April, and I suspected she would not sleep as easily if she could see us all milling about.
I didn’t make many ADRs for this trip but there were a few new things we got to try, which I’ll go over in more detail in my report. Suffice it to say, we don’t do Disney the way a lot of other families do Disney. We take our time. We don’t rope drop. We have very few “must dos” every trip. This is partially due to the fact that we’re lucky enough to be able to go often and partially due to the fact that we’ve learned it’s just how our family functions best. Some of us are old and tire easily, others are toddlers who also tire easily.
Overall, this trip was one where real life creeped in more than usual, between the hurricane aftermath and some other events I’ll get into during the report. Those of you who have read my reports before know I try to be honest about my experiences and provide insights that may help you, but in this particular case, we dealt with some things I think most of you will not have to think about during your trips, but either way, I promise I will do my best to make it a fun read.
All that out of the way, let’s get this report started!