CJsMom
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- Joined
- May 19, 2003
This trip was taken in November 2014, and yes, I am just now finding the time to finish the trip report that I really did start to write a couple of months after I got back! Life interferes with our addictions, and maybe that’s a good thing, or I’d be on the Disboards 24/7. Many will ask, why bother two years later? My sister is currently planning a trip to Universal and Disney for January, and she's asked me a few questions about it. I thought, I should really get that trip report done since it might be able to help someone else plan their trip. So, I'm determined to finish it now, and I hope it can help a DIS'er out!
Our previous family trip to the World was in 2007, a really fun surprise trip for the kids, who were 5 and 7 at the time (if you've got nothing better to do, the link to that trip report is in my signature). In 2010, I was able to convince my girlfriends to do a portion of our 40th birthday trip at Disney. Epcot Food and Wine is the perfect venue for a girls’ trip! I tried to get them to stay longer than 2 days, but some of them actually wanted to go relax at a beach for a few days (crazy, right?). Once I got back from that trip I started plotting our next family trip to Orlando, but it took me a while to convince the Grump. Speaking of the Grump, I should introduce our cast of characters.
Me – Obsessed with planning my next trip, even though it may be years away. I console myself with season passes to Six Flags, but it’s just not the same. I’m a Systems Analyst stuck in the cold Northeast, but my heart is in Disney.
The Grump – Ah, The Grump. A wonderful man who dislikes theme parks. Not just Disney or Universal, but all theme parks. Rides make him sick, crowds make him annoyed, shows make him sleepy. He puts up with it for us, but after four trips to Orlando, he’s made it clear that he’s done.
The Teen – Too cool for school. Upon hearing about this trip, he asserted that Disney was really for kids and couldn’t we go and visit a city? I informed him that Orlando is a city, to which he replied, “No, a fun city, like Miami”.
The Tween – I called him Tigger in my last trip report, and although he’s older and more “mature”, he’s still pretty Tigger-ish. Excited, but trying not to show it too much lest his older brother give him crap for it.
Grandma – My Disney partner-in-crime! She visited Disney for the first time with my sister and her family in 2012, then came back with us in 2014, and now she’s hooked. So hooked that in 2015 she booked another trip with her best friend. And a couple of months ago, she and I did a long Food & Wine/MNSSHP weekend - so much fun!
I started out my trip planning by telling the Grump that we wouldn’t do Disney. He wanted to bring the kids to Kennedy Space Center, so that’s how I got him to buy in. A trip to the Space Coast, a visit with relatives who live in Melbourne, the beach, and I threw in a day at Universal because we hadn’t been there before. “That’s all we’ll do”, I said. With my fingers crossed behind my back.
Little by little, I added stuff. Like 2 days at Universal, because we’d want to see both parks, right? And a day at Disney, just for me, I told the Grump. You and the kids don’t even have to come if you don’t want to. You can do a beach day instead and I’ll drive over myself.
Enter Grandma. She wanted to go to Epcot and Magic Kingdom, so that’s 2 days. So I told the Grump that my mom wanted to come, and she wanted to do two days at Disney, and of course I wouldn’t let her do that all by herself (fyi Grandma is a young 68 and in perfect physical shape, still works full-time, and is fully capable of doing pretty much anything by herself). So, the Grump smiled knowingly, nodded, and gave up completely. “As long as we’re still going to Kennedy Space Center”, he said, “just tell me when to get on the plane”.
Now I had full control, and the scope creep began. I decided to schedule the trip around Thanksgiving, to give us a couple of extra days without missing more work and school. Flights on the Saturday before and after Thanksgiving were outrageous, but I got a bargain on a Thanksgiving Day flight. Bonus: not hosting Thanksgiving!! I would take the kids out of school the week after Thanksgiving. At 7th and 8th grade, this would be the last time I would take them out for a vacation. My goal was to avoid the busy parks during Thanksgiving week, so we would spend the first part of the trip visiting the Melbourne relatives and the Space Coast, then move to Orlando on Sunday and spend the rest of the trip in the parks. Oh, and I added more parks. All four Disney parks. Because how can you just visit two? The schedule started off like this:
Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Day) – Fly JetBlue out of Worcester at zero-dark-thirty, arrive in Orlando late morning. Pick up rental car. Drive to Melbourne hotel.
Nov. 28 Friday – Kennedy Space Center (The Teen’s birthday)
Nov. 29 Saturday – Cocoa Beach
Nov. 30 Sunday – Drive to Orlando, check in at Hard Rock Hotel, visit Islands of Adventure
Dec. 1 Monday – Universal Studios
Dec. 2 Tuesday – Check in to Fort Wilderness Cabin, MVMCP pm
Dec. 3 Wednesday – Hollywood Studios
Dec. 4 Thursday – Epcot
Dec. 5 Friday – Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs pm
Dec. 6 Saturday – Fly home Jet Blue, arrive Worcester 6:40pm
Over time I decided to switch it up a little and stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for the first four nights. It didn’t appeal to me to switch hotels three times, and it really wasn’t a big deal to drive out to the coast. It also gave us a full day at Islands of Adventure on Sunday. I changed our check-in to Fort Wilderness to Monday night instead of Tuesday morning, so that we’d have some time to enjoy the Fort before heading over to MK on Tuesday night.
Missing a couple of pictures here...so to be continued tonight...
Our previous family trip to the World was in 2007, a really fun surprise trip for the kids, who were 5 and 7 at the time (if you've got nothing better to do, the link to that trip report is in my signature). In 2010, I was able to convince my girlfriends to do a portion of our 40th birthday trip at Disney. Epcot Food and Wine is the perfect venue for a girls’ trip! I tried to get them to stay longer than 2 days, but some of them actually wanted to go relax at a beach for a few days (crazy, right?). Once I got back from that trip I started plotting our next family trip to Orlando, but it took me a while to convince the Grump. Speaking of the Grump, I should introduce our cast of characters.
Me – Obsessed with planning my next trip, even though it may be years away. I console myself with season passes to Six Flags, but it’s just not the same. I’m a Systems Analyst stuck in the cold Northeast, but my heart is in Disney.
The Grump – Ah, The Grump. A wonderful man who dislikes theme parks. Not just Disney or Universal, but all theme parks. Rides make him sick, crowds make him annoyed, shows make him sleepy. He puts up with it for us, but after four trips to Orlando, he’s made it clear that he’s done.
The Teen – Too cool for school. Upon hearing about this trip, he asserted that Disney was really for kids and couldn’t we go and visit a city? I informed him that Orlando is a city, to which he replied, “No, a fun city, like Miami”.
The Tween – I called him Tigger in my last trip report, and although he’s older and more “mature”, he’s still pretty Tigger-ish. Excited, but trying not to show it too much lest his older brother give him crap for it.
Grandma – My Disney partner-in-crime! She visited Disney for the first time with my sister and her family in 2012, then came back with us in 2014, and now she’s hooked. So hooked that in 2015 she booked another trip with her best friend. And a couple of months ago, she and I did a long Food & Wine/MNSSHP weekend - so much fun!
I started out my trip planning by telling the Grump that we wouldn’t do Disney. He wanted to bring the kids to Kennedy Space Center, so that’s how I got him to buy in. A trip to the Space Coast, a visit with relatives who live in Melbourne, the beach, and I threw in a day at Universal because we hadn’t been there before. “That’s all we’ll do”, I said. With my fingers crossed behind my back.
Little by little, I added stuff. Like 2 days at Universal, because we’d want to see both parks, right? And a day at Disney, just for me, I told the Grump. You and the kids don’t even have to come if you don’t want to. You can do a beach day instead and I’ll drive over myself.
Enter Grandma. She wanted to go to Epcot and Magic Kingdom, so that’s 2 days. So I told the Grump that my mom wanted to come, and she wanted to do two days at Disney, and of course I wouldn’t let her do that all by herself (fyi Grandma is a young 68 and in perfect physical shape, still works full-time, and is fully capable of doing pretty much anything by herself). So, the Grump smiled knowingly, nodded, and gave up completely. “As long as we’re still going to Kennedy Space Center”, he said, “just tell me when to get on the plane”.
Now I had full control, and the scope creep began. I decided to schedule the trip around Thanksgiving, to give us a couple of extra days without missing more work and school. Flights on the Saturday before and after Thanksgiving were outrageous, but I got a bargain on a Thanksgiving Day flight. Bonus: not hosting Thanksgiving!! I would take the kids out of school the week after Thanksgiving. At 7th and 8th grade, this would be the last time I would take them out for a vacation. My goal was to avoid the busy parks during Thanksgiving week, so we would spend the first part of the trip visiting the Melbourne relatives and the Space Coast, then move to Orlando on Sunday and spend the rest of the trip in the parks. Oh, and I added more parks. All four Disney parks. Because how can you just visit two? The schedule started off like this:
Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Day) – Fly JetBlue out of Worcester at zero-dark-thirty, arrive in Orlando late morning. Pick up rental car. Drive to Melbourne hotel.
Nov. 28 Friday – Kennedy Space Center (The Teen’s birthday)
Nov. 29 Saturday – Cocoa Beach
Nov. 30 Sunday – Drive to Orlando, check in at Hard Rock Hotel, visit Islands of Adventure
Dec. 1 Monday – Universal Studios
Dec. 2 Tuesday – Check in to Fort Wilderness Cabin, MVMCP pm
Dec. 3 Wednesday – Hollywood Studios
Dec. 4 Thursday – Epcot
Dec. 5 Friday – Animal Kingdom, Disney Springs pm
Dec. 6 Saturday – Fly home Jet Blue, arrive Worcester 6:40pm
Over time I decided to switch it up a little and stay at the Hard Rock Hotel for the first four nights. It didn’t appeal to me to switch hotels three times, and it really wasn’t a big deal to drive out to the coast. It also gave us a full day at Islands of Adventure on Sunday. I changed our check-in to Fort Wilderness to Monday night instead of Tuesday morning, so that we’d have some time to enjoy the Fort before heading over to MK on Tuesday night.
Missing a couple of pictures here...so to be continued tonight...
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