Our Disney Trip Report – Our Magical Vacation for 23 people!

[ceb104]

(Not a very exciting title for a thread, huh?)

Two years ago I convinced my extended family to go on “the best vacation ever!” and they all agreed. After a year of planning, we decided when to go, where to stay, what to do…and I was the one designated to do the majority of the planning. So here we go!

The basics…

WHO:
Me, my husband and 2 year old (the cool people)
My in-laws.
My mom (aka babysitter)
My sister in law, her husband and their two kids, 3 and 6.
My uncle.
My aunt and uncle.
My uncle’s sister and her husband.
My uncle’s other sister and her husband.
My uncle’s daughter and her husband and four kids, 1, 5, 7 and 9.

Got that? Good, because I still confuse myself on a daily basis. :-)

WHERE:
Half of us are staying onsite at Old Key West in 2 two bedrooms thanks to a great renter. The other half has a house rental off property.

WHEN:
IN FOUR DAYS!!! Technically 10/1 to 10/10. My family is driving down on the 30th and overnighting along the way and then flying home; everyone else is flying and is at the mercy of Magical Express.

PLANS:
Too many to list. I’m hoping to do reviews on the resort, on dining, and at least attempt to finish a trip report. HA! We'll have internet access at the end of our trip so I'm hoping to upload and update while we are there too.

We have group meals planned at Tusker House for breakfast, Crystal Palace for lunch, and a private Illuminations Dessert Party!
Other meals that I’ll be at are the Plaza, Ohana, 50’s Prime Time, Liberty Tree Tavern, Yachtsman Steakhouse, La Hacienda, and Garden Grill.

It’s my last day at work today until the 12th (HORRAY!) so I’ll be able to send DS to daycare, pack in peace for the next two days and get the house and fridge cleaned out before leaving bright and early on Friday morning.

[JulieC]

Wow! I don't think I have that many relatives that could all get along for 4 days! Uh, I hope you do!

[ceb104]

In reality, we are only going to be "together as a group" three times...but basically we are all at the same park most days. I'm PETRIFIED that we are going to come home hating each other. I've repeatedly told everyone that we are all following our own (family) plan and that we need to meet up for the two meals and the dessert party. If they aren't there 5 minutes prior, then they won't be checked in. Everyone's agreed to that...but we'll see how that works. HA!

[JulieC]

Good thinking! I hope it is a great vacation!

[ceb104]

I picked up our t-shirts today! I had a friend of the family screen print these for us.

Front:


Back:

[drischar]

LOVE the back! I am so stealing that for our next trip (whenever that is??but there's always a next trip, right?!?!)

[jillyb]

Two days!!!!! Cute shirts!

[ceb104]

We left Ohio yesterday around 6am and made it to Savannah (Townhome Suites, Savannah Airport). The room is HUGE which worked great for our 2 yr old after being cooped up in a car for so long. He ran and climbed over everything before we got Wendy's for dinner.

The kid did awesome in the car, thanks to movies and "I-eggo" (Diego) on DVD, flashcards, some new toys and his Leaptop.

We have 5 hours to go!!! Hoping the room at OKW is ready around one so we cam drop the everything off (and my dh and ds) so mom and I can hit Walmart on Vineland...

In the car:


At the Townhome Suites:

[ceb104]

Helllooo!!!!

One Margaritaville Spiked Lemonade and I've had too many typos to mention in just typing this. LOL!

We've checked in at OKW and are in our two bedroom. I forgot that we are on points, so we have FREE INTERNET!!! We are in Building 13 ground floor - and have an AMAZING view of the 8th hole and an awesome water hazard. The other family is is on the second floor but right above us. Would have been nice to be "next" to each other but oh well.

Our view:


Stopped at the Vineland Road Walmart. UGH!!! For a large store, they didn't have the coffee we normally drink but the liquor store was a nice touch. Check out went fast, but everyone was extremely rude (employee's on cell phones, a woman in the bakery had her 3 kids working with her it seemed like, and just people who weren't very nice.

We didn't make it to the Plaza for dinner tonight. Ate at Olivia's tonight; I had the mixed green salad and conch chowder. The salad was peppery to me, the conch chowder was good but not worth the price...I expected a bowl, not a cup for what I paid. DS had a pizza with veggies and yogurt, DH had the steak of some sort that came with a pesto sauce that wasn't the best, but the steak was good. Others in our party had the motzarella salad (boy, I butchered that word!) and crab cakes; mahi mahi, shrimp and grits and prime rib. No one complained about their food, and all the plates were cleaned so the food must have been good.

TOMORROW: Tusker House (8am!) Animal Kingdom and Ohana for dinner....

[december]

Now I have to research the leaptop:D. Sounds neat. Katie loves playing with my laptop, but seems to have outgrown her play ones.

Glad you made it ok! Shrimp and grits sounds wonderful! I need to hear more about renting points-never done that!

With me hearing about your trip, Katie asking to go see Donald tonight, then Kimberly telling me all she wanted for Christmas was to have breakfast at Ohana......well, my fever is pretty bad right now!

[ceb104]

Today was our Animal Kingdom day! We had breakfast at Tusker House and met Donald outside (and got a GREAT picture of all 23 of us) and then Daisy and Goofy and Mickey inside. DS was fine "looking" at the characters, but once it was picture time, he wanted nothing to do with them. Hoping for a better character day tomorrow. :-)

Not sure of the characters...


Dude, get your hand off me...


Too close to Goofy Momma!


The safari ride was the best I've ever been on. Many active animals out and about. Rode a coaster a few times then to Dino-Dumbo for DS twice. DH and mom rode DINOSAUR while we played by a dinosaur of some sort and then saw the noon Festival of the Lion King. DS LOVED this one - clapped and danced. But by the end he was exausted and fell asleep on my shoulder. Slept for almost 2 hours in the stroller while we toured the Tree of Life and EE again.

Safari ride shots:




He LOVED Festival of the Lion King!


We had dinner at Ohana, got there at 5pm and seated very quickly. Food was good and actually got out of there by 7pm to meet up on they Poly beach with a few of DH's high school friends in town.

It was a wonderful first day! I'm waiting on Photobucket to upload to get you some pictures...

[ceb104]

Tomorrow: A little mania, a drop or two and a giant playground! :-)

[december]

Love the pics! Looks like you are having a great time:)

[mommyto4princess]

following along.

[DoctorK]

Great pictures! The one with your husband and son is great. I'm making a mental note to take more candids and less "smile and say cheese" shots this trip.

[ceb104]

Today was Hollywood Studios! We got there at park open and had DH head to TSM for a FP (11:15am by the time he found it...) while three of us and DS headed to RRC. We met up with other family members for a ride on the ToT, then off to the playground for the little one to burn off some steam. :-) A few did Muppets, then it was off to lunch at 50's Prime Time. DS decided to nap right then (by a VERY forceful "I nap now Momma") and 50's was nice enough to let us bring our stroller in for lunch. Three of us had the sampler, one had the fried chicken. I wish I would have just stuck with the meatloaf...that is and always has been my favorite. After lunch we headed to Star Tours, then over to Playhouse Disney which DS adored.

We headed back to Tower of Terror and had the BEST bellhop named Sarah (besides TJ - whose over at Star Tours for awhile). She would not stop staring at DH who was just laughing at her with this look of "dude, leave me alone" so I butted in on her flirting and told her it was our 3rd anniversary and that the other gentleman behind her might be her type. LOL! She proceded to stare at us both then for the rest of the library pre-show, but then escorted us to the "concierge elevator" just for us. Totally weird riding ToT with just your husband!

Mom took DS back to the room to relax and DH and I finished off 2 more rounds of Star Tours and another ToT before heading out.

Wait times were walk on for ToT, RnRC was at 30 in the afternoon, but single rider was a walk on and Star Tours was only at 20 minutes out with a FP return time maybe 35 minutes out from that. Josh is spot on on his best days/touring plans.

[ceb104]

Tomorrow - finally - is Magic Kingdom.

[ceb104]

Home now! Photo's uploading to Photobucket as I type, so hoping to get more pictures in soon. We also ordered the Photopass CD, but still have family at the parks today; waiting until the weekend to upload the Photopass pictures...I hope. LOL!

[ceb104]

Magic Kingdom!
We all wore our matching shirts today! There was 23 of us walking around! (Did anyone see us?) :-) We got tons of compliments, and overheard many "didn't we just see them?!" so I'm glad we got the shirts.

Waiting for the preshow:



Dumbo!


its a small world...not sure what to think.


And we had our first haircut! Beverline was wonderful.





We ate lunch at Crystal Palace - DS did this the whole time:


Played a little in Pooh:



Saw Peter Pan and still just as shy with a face character...


...and we rode the "horses" about 12 times...


We did other things too - DS adored Philharmagic, we rode Space Mountain and Big Thunder; DS didn't like Pirates (it was worth a shot...) or the Teacups. Naptime was always during lunch/parade time, so we missed the parade here. Since we had a big lunch, we skipped Liberty Tree Tavern.

[ceb104]

Wednesday! This was our break morning. We had done some grocery shopping before we got in and picked up some sausage and pancakes and had the other room down for breakfast. We spent some time at the pool and then DH and I headed out to Hollywood Studios while grandma stayed with DS.

We caught the parade...




...and had a few rides on Star Tours before heading over to the Yachtsman Steakhouse for our anniversary dinner. Food was YUMMY and the drinks plentiful. :-)

Then it was time for our private Illuminations Dessert Party!! I've had this scheduled for this day for over SIX MONTHS and lo and behold Disney decides to change Epcot's EMH's for this evening. Grrrrr.... But we had Norway roped off for us and had to kick out only a few people. :-)

Some of the spread:






All in all, a very relaxing day and it was a great time with family!

[ceb104]

The next morning was our Epcot day! We still were up early and only missed rope drop by 15 minutes. DH headed to Soarin', grandma, DS and I headed to the Character Connection with only a (fast) 10 minute wait. Pictures still on Photopass and, because of a shy child, momma is in all the pictures. :-)

And I have no pictures from today...we did the normal stuff - East side first, then FP'ed and single ridered Test Track. (Don't forget your pen Bill!) The boy decided to nap and we hit the World Showcase for lunch. :-) Again, no picutres, but we sampled quite a few things. Everything was good except the Singapore Sling! UGH!!! It tasted like cough syrup. Blah.

We finished up by using our Fastpasses before heading back for a break. Grandma and DS stayed home for pool time and DH and I met up with the rest of the family for dinner at La Hacienda! DH and I had the La Hacienda for two. I got a Magno Blueberry Basil Margarita (mostly mango and basil) and DH got the Avacado Maragrita. OMG!!! The Avacado margarita was SOOO GOOD! I could have had a dozen of those...

That was Thursday...and I don't have pictures on Friday either...The four of us went to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours before DH and I went over to Universal for Halloween Horror Nights (we had a private RIP Tour).

...and that is when the rain came.

[jillyb]

...and that is when the rain came.

Love the picture of ya'll with the hat in the background!