Our September Family-Moon and multiple celebrations trip!

[Goofy Lover]

Who we are:

Me: Turning 40 next week, just married (to the best guy in the world), former single mom to an amazing just turned 8 year old, and a serious over-planner but relaxed when I get there traveler.

B: Just turned 30 (yeah, ten years younger...what can I say), super fun and up for everything.

P: Just turned 8 years old girl, loves to travel, super excited for her second Disney trip!!!

Disney trips:

Me: My mom took us in 1974 and 1977 and although I don't remember much my daughter loves hearing how I went to Disney when there were just three hotels and only Magic Kingdom (she thinks I'm older than dirt)!

B: He's been several times on day trips from relatives home that live nearby but has never stayed on Disney property or gone to Animal Kingdom. He's especially excited to go with his new daughter---to see Disney through the eyes of a child.

P: This is her second birthday trip, having gone once before for her 4th birthday. She did ALL the princess stuff last time and this trip plans to do more 'big kid' stuff.

How this trip came to be:

In May I mentioned to my then fiance that free dining was offered again in September. We'd talked about a future (as in a year or so) Disney trip and I told him I'm too cheap to go anytime that didn't include free dining and that I loved September since the crowds are lighter. So next thing I know we've put a deposit down on a trip THREE WEEKS BEFORE OUR WEDDING! Yeah, we're insane like that [4 weeks after we met we took off to Vegas together]. It may seem like bad timing but my daughter was a little sad that we were honeymooning without her so we told her we'd have a "Family-moon" at Disney! We'll also be celebrating my daughter's 8th birthday and my 40th (both at the end of August) and our 3rd anniversary (since dating).

So no post-wedding depression for me because now I have a Disney trip to plan!!!! Instead of creating seating place cards and favors I'm making handmade shirts, activity books, and 'Mickey Mail'!

 

[Goofy Lover]

If that makes any sense. Since this was our first Disney trip with my husband I wanted to find out what he's done, where he's stayed, his favorite things, etc. It turns out that his visits as a kid were short, since he did day trips while visiting local family and his 'adult' trips consisted of boozing his way around EPCOT so he doesn't remember much about those trips

For our last trip, my daughter and I over did it with the princessness of it all. She partook in the BBB, PPTP, a character meal for every lunch and dinner (including CRT) , and wore her Disney princess dresses every day! Now that she's at the cool 'tweeny age of 8 years old she wants to do different things. I gave her a list of all the activities and she took her time deciding how she'd like to spend her 'specials'.

The Chart. I'm kind of famous among my family and friends for my travel charts. Well truly they mostly make fun of me for it but I'm the first one they ask for travel advice....so there! I started with creating a chart that broke up each day of our trip with which park (we decided against park hoppers), meal ideas (we'll be on QSDP), 'specials', and must sees (broken up into AM, PM, extras, and late night). I studied the EMH and tried to avoid those days to stay away from the crowds, although we'll hit them on our first and last day since we'll be shorter on time and want to stay late when we get there and get into a park early on our departure day to get the last of our Disney fun!

 

[kaylajr]

deleted the other duplicate thread for you

 

[Goofy Lover]

I appreciate it

 

[Goofy Lover]

I've made charts different ways but the easiest is in Word. If I'm going to use more graphics I'll build it in Publisher but I needed room for lots of info so Word worked best. I did add a few pictures from our last trip just because they make me smile . Here's a JPEG of my current chart {hard to read but specifics will follow}.

 

[Goofy Lover]

I started our planning once my 8 year old birthday girl chose her "specials". I made a list of character meals, tea parties, prirate cruises, BBB, etc. and let her decide what she wanted to do. Surprisingly she only chose the Wonderland Tea Party at the GF and the Albatross Pirates Cruise from YC. I asked her why she didn't pick more and she said, "I did most of it last time so I wanted something different". Smart girl Once I called and made the reservations for her specials I just needed to work out a few things before I could start to map out our days.

While we're in Disney my husband and I are celebrating our 3rd anniversary (since dating, not married) so to throw some romance into the trip we wanted to book a romantic dinner for just the two of us. I'm dying to try Artist Point at WL and since the menu is filled with B's favorites we made reservations there and reserved a spot for our little P at the Cub's Den. Once all those reservations were squared away the real planning began

 

[Goofy Lover]

I started by putting in the reservations we had for my daughter's activities and our only ADR into my chart then checked the park hours and EMHs before choosing which days we'd spend in each park. We have six days MYW, non-park hopper----not a big deal in my opinion since I found park hopping exhausting last trip. Lots of reading DIS and other favorite sites and the chart filled up quickly. I love to plan but I'm not one to map out our whole route, although I do have a general idea of how we'll hit each park. Next up.....food

 

[Goofy Lover]

All three of us love food. Unfortunately that's where our eating similarities end. I haven't eaten meat since I was six but it's hard to call myself a vegetarian since I'm not into tofu or other vegetarian stuff. My husband jokes that I survive on olives, tomatoes, bread, and cheese. I've never thought of myself as a picky eater until I met my husband because I always find something to enjoy....it may take me some time. He eats EVERYTHING! Truly, the man says no to nothing. My daughter is a 'borderline' vegetarian---she rarely eats any red meat, doesn't like chicken, but will eat pork products occasionally. She eats her crudités every night and loves most fruits and veggies {I'm a lucky mom}. But her healthy habits often make it hard to find her something when out and about. Since we get free QSDP with our package we'll have more flexibility for meals but I wanted to scope out our best options so we don't end up running around in circles trying to find something for everyone. After much research I've added the following choices to our chart:

Day 1
Breakfast: Eat at Airport
Lunch: Get a snack at Pop; P-Mad Hatter Tea Party
Dinner: Columbia Harbour House [has AC] (Liberty Square) Sit upstairs, window seat

Day 2
Breakfast: for P at Pop before Albatross Treasure Cruise (breakfast for B & me at Ale & Compass or Boardwalk)
Lunch: Pizza Planet [has AC-but limited seating so go early or late] (Streets of America)
Dinner: Riverside Mill Food Court (Riverside) or Sassagoula Floatworks (French Quarter)

Day3
Breakfast: Pop or Sunshine Seasons
Lunch: Yorkshire Fish Shop (Epcot-England) or Sunshine Seasons [has AC] (Epcot-Land)
Dinner: Tangierine Café (Morocco) or Yakitori House (Japan) for B [both have AC]

Day 4
Breakfast: The Mara (Animal Kingdom Lodge near pool) --make sure to get Zebra Domes
Lunch: Flame Tree BBQ (Discovery Island—walk all the way down to the water to eat) for P & B and Pizzafari for me
Dinner: Wilderness Lodge Artist Point - Cub's Den For P

Day 5
Breakfast: Capt. Cook’s (Polynesian) for Tonga Toast or Main Street Bakery (MK)
Lunch: Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn (Frontierland) or Cosmic Rays [has AC] (Fantasyland)
Dinner: Capt. Cook’s (Polynesian) Make your own Dole Whip or WPE at DTD

Day 6
Breakfast: Pop
Lunch: Everyone picks their favorite country to eat at!
Dinner: Sadly at airport

I used symbols to mark each meal with what credit we'd us to keep track of what we'll 'spend'. Also on the chart I added suggested snack since I don't want to miss anything good!!! I will post our "must have" snacks soon.