Whit64130
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 30, 2015
Hello All!
Welcome to my second Pre-Trip Report!
As you can tell by the title we are Christmas Vacation fans in this family. So what better way to name the official Christmas trip. This bunch had traveled to Disney together back in 2011 minus the smallest member of our group who wasn't born yet. We had went to celebrate my nieces birthday back in Feb 2011. Once the little one came along it was decided that we would go back as a family when she turned 5. She turns 5 this September so the planning has been in talk for awhile. After hearing how awesome my pre-Thanksgiving trip last year we decided on post Thanksgiving this year to get in the Christmas Spirit! If you have read my other PTR or either of my TR you will note that my husband does not have any desire to do Disney and yes this is his family I am going with.
Let's get on with it...
Introductions goes like this...
I am your host, Whitney
Welcome to my second Pre-Trip Report!
As you can tell by the title we are Christmas Vacation fans in this family. So what better way to name the official Christmas trip. This bunch had traveled to Disney together back in 2011 minus the smallest member of our group who wasn't born yet. We had went to celebrate my nieces birthday back in Feb 2011. Once the little one came along it was decided that we would go back as a family when she turned 5. She turns 5 this September so the planning has been in talk for awhile. After hearing how awesome my pre-Thanksgiving trip last year we decided on post Thanksgiving this year to get in the Christmas Spirit! If you have read my other PTR or either of my TR you will note that my husband does not have any desire to do Disney and yes this is his family I am going with.
Let's get on with it...
Introductions goes like this...
I am your host, Whitney
I have been going to Disney since the age of 5. I was obsessed then and I am now. Probably more so now than then. I have been traveling with my cousin lately and last year's trip we upgraded to AP's. Sooooooo that means extra trips thrown in between.(I have another trip planned in September before I go on this one. I will probably throw a few updates in this PTR for that one if you don't mind.) Anyways enough about me...
The rest of the gang includes my mother in law Carol, Nick's brother Corey, his wife Laura, their two girls Ashton and Finley, and Laura's mother Charlotte. Here are some pictures from our last trip as a family back in 2011.
We went for Ashton's 5th birthday. It was a blast and we knew once Fin came along we needed to do it all over again! Nick and his dad have both opted out of the family fun again. I mean we don't need them raining on our Disney parade by day 3 so we are ok with leaving them at home.
This time around we are using a Travel Agent to help plan and I enlisted the help of my friend @ariane37 to help me out! Long story short after planning and talking with her she gave me some advice on becoming a TA myself. I started that back in March and I am really enjoying it so far. It is harder than I thought but still fun to help people, especially if they aren't too familiar with Disney. Anyways back to the plans...
The When:
This is probably the most changing. We initially had planned on doing Nov 26-Dec 4. Then we talked about driving down and staying the night near Disney and being there first thing Sunday the 26th. I had just got back from Disney when we were talking about plans for that Saturday. I had spent one night in the Ariel rooms at Art of Animation and was telling Laura how the girls would LOVE it. Then she had the genius idea to surpise the girls and stay at
Port Orleans Riverside in the Royal rooms for one night. Ahhh I think I will be more excited than the girls. We aren't telling them this part until they walk into the room for their selves. So back to the plan. Part of us still are doing that. Once the Nick and his dad officially decided not to go, Carol talked how me might possibly want to fly down instead of drive since it would be the two of us. She has a bad back and 10+ hours in a car didn't sound appealing to her. I was nervous to price out flights since it was the weekend after Thanksgiving. Not to mention I am a little nervous to fly since it has been 5 years since the last time I was on a plane. Side note-I may or may not have been medicated and had partaken in a few adult beverages at 10am. So I checked on flights and good news was flying home was very reasonable. Bad news Flight there was outrageous. So we just settled on driving. I had gotten an email from Southwest about a sale. I almost deleted it but then I decided to check again. The prices were still kind of crazy for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Then I had a slightly genius idea. Check Friday. Well I checked Friday and prices were about $200 less. I almost booked them right on the spot but I checked another airport just to be sure. (The only airports that do nonstop flights to MCO are both 2 hours away. Literally get on the interstate and head North or South and its exactly 2 hours.) I checked the other place and it was even cheaper to fly down but more expensive to fly home. So we ended up booking a flight down from one airport and the return flight to another airport. since the boys aren't going with us guess who will be dropping us off and picking us up!
So back to the when: Nov 24- Dec 4
Me and Carol are arriving Friday night at POR via Magical express. We will stay their for 2 nights with the rest of the gang arriving by car on Saturday. So essentially that is 11 days in Disney for us !
The Where...Obviously you know part of this already. Two nights for me and Carol at POR, one night for the rest of the gang and then on Sunday we are all checking into the Wilderness Lodge for the remainder of the stay! I am beyond excited to be staying here again, especially with the Christmas decorations up!
This is where we stayed when we took Ashton for her birthday and everybody loved it so the decision was mutual.
(I borrowed some of these pictures from google)
I'll leave you with a few of my personal and memory maker pictures from last years trip to get you in the Christmas Spirit!
The rest of the gang includes my mother in law Carol, Nick's brother Corey, his wife Laura, their two girls Ashton and Finley, and Laura's mother Charlotte. Here are some pictures from our last trip as a family back in 2011.
We went for Ashton's 5th birthday. It was a blast and we knew once Fin came along we needed to do it all over again! Nick and his dad have both opted out of the family fun again. I mean we don't need them raining on our Disney parade by day 3 so we are ok with leaving them at home.
This time around we are using a Travel Agent to help plan and I enlisted the help of my friend @ariane37 to help me out! Long story short after planning and talking with her she gave me some advice on becoming a TA myself. I started that back in March and I am really enjoying it so far. It is harder than I thought but still fun to help people, especially if they aren't too familiar with Disney. Anyways back to the plans...
The When:
This is probably the most changing. We initially had planned on doing Nov 26-Dec 4. Then we talked about driving down and staying the night near Disney and being there first thing Sunday the 26th. I had just got back from Disney when we were talking about plans for that Saturday. I had spent one night in the Ariel rooms at Art of Animation and was telling Laura how the girls would LOVE it. Then she had the genius idea to surpise the girls and stay at
Port Orleans Riverside in the Royal rooms for one night. Ahhh I think I will be more excited than the girls. We aren't telling them this part until they walk into the room for their selves. So back to the plan. Part of us still are doing that. Once the Nick and his dad officially decided not to go, Carol talked how me might possibly want to fly down instead of drive since it would be the two of us. She has a bad back and 10+ hours in a car didn't sound appealing to her. I was nervous to price out flights since it was the weekend after Thanksgiving. Not to mention I am a little nervous to fly since it has been 5 years since the last time I was on a plane. Side note-I may or may not have been medicated and had partaken in a few adult beverages at 10am. So I checked on flights and good news was flying home was very reasonable. Bad news Flight there was outrageous. So we just settled on driving. I had gotten an email from Southwest about a sale. I almost deleted it but then I decided to check again. The prices were still kind of crazy for the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Then I had a slightly genius idea. Check Friday. Well I checked Friday and prices were about $200 less. I almost booked them right on the spot but I checked another airport just to be sure. (The only airports that do nonstop flights to MCO are both 2 hours away. Literally get on the interstate and head North or South and its exactly 2 hours.) I checked the other place and it was even cheaper to fly down but more expensive to fly home. So we ended up booking a flight down from one airport and the return flight to another airport. since the boys aren't going with us guess who will be dropping us off and picking us up!
So back to the when: Nov 24- Dec 4
Me and Carol are arriving Friday night at POR via Magical express. We will stay their for 2 nights with the rest of the gang arriving by car on Saturday. So essentially that is 11 days in Disney for us !
The Where...Obviously you know part of this already. Two nights for me and Carol at POR, one night for the rest of the gang and then on Sunday we are all checking into the Wilderness Lodge for the remainder of the stay! I am beyond excited to be staying here again, especially with the Christmas decorations up!
This is where we stayed when we took Ashton for her birthday and everybody loved it so the decision was mutual.
(I borrowed some of these pictures from google)
I'll leave you with a few of my personal and memory maker pictures from last years trip to get you in the Christmas Spirit!
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