Planning a trip for newbies! About This Page:

[poohbr2015]

Okay, so we (me, dh, ds 4 1/2, dd 8 mnths and my parents) are regulars at Disney, and even own DVC now. Our next trip is Sept 2013. I just plan our meals and we know what we like to do and just sort of relax and stroll thru the parks. Since we are there so often we don't try to do every single thing. Now this trip will be different. My cousin, her husband, 4 year old daughter and her parents are coming along. It is basically like the first trip to disney for them. My cousin and her husband were each down at kids but only once. So here I am planner extroidinare. We are using our dvc points to try for 2 two bedroom villas at beach club which I will handle. I have touched base with them about the restaurants and we plan to meet on the 16th to come up with a list of the places that I will try for when we reach our 180 day mark. We have also talked about the guys doing the fishing excursion and the girls doing afternoon tea. This is a pretty special trip because my mom will get to spend it with her oldest brother who is the only one out of her 5 siblings, she has never been to disney with. With that being said, I guess what I am looking for is some ideas on how to make this fun for them, not just the trip itself, since we always have fun once we are there, but the planning too. What are some things that I could do or have for when we meet on the 16th. I was thinking that I need to print out some of the restaurant info. I don't know if I have time, but it would be neat to make them a countdown that contains alot of info, things that they probably wouldn't know and that would make the trip even more interesting. Any ideas?

[debic]

Very excited for you. Sounds like a lot of fun. The fun fact countdown sounds like a great idea and if you don't have time to get it together 100% by the 16th maybe you could break it down in stages. Before my last trip with dbff I sent daily emails with countdown (only about 30 days out though) and some fun facts or photos of places we would eat or visit. Have fun planning!!

[poohbr2015]

that is a great idea, maybe once we finalize where we will be eating and everything, I can use that in the fun facts as well and create a countdown that I can give them at a later date. On our last trip we had a couple go with us that hadn't been in over 20 years. When we met with them to go over dining and stuff, I had printed out the menues for the places that we had talked about, as well as a rough schedule of each day and what adr's I had already made (since it was closer to the trip). I also had the park hours. I am usually pretty creative but I just can't seem to think of how to provide all of that info without having this stack of stapled menues!

[MikeL]

Great that you are getting EVERYBODY together for this trip I would recommend getting all families their own copy of PP so if somebody wants to have a day for just their crew well they can have ideas on how to do it.
BTW I work in NC county live outside of Smyrna where are you ?

[Nova]

The passporter has such good info on the resort and the park rides, they could check out what rides are most important to get on so you have an idea where to head when you hit the parks. Kinda like ok if most want to ride the same ride head there first. What kind of shopping do they enjoy check out the store listings of course a major attraction is where are all the bathrooms. I can remember one trip Hubby and I went on I swear we hit every bathroom in every park that trip, and with the Grandkids the quicker you know where they are the better. Hope you can get the reservations you want and it is great to be able to walk to Epcot. Have a great time planning and a wonderful trip. We go in Aug and I have already started to gather stuff for the trip. Have the Grandkids new tooth brushes and paste, just took GD for some summer clothes so got 4 sets to put away for the trip. The boys are much easier to buy for they really dont care much what they wear so not so hard shopping for them. Maybe you could also do something cloths wise a theme shirt or something like that.

[Kelly66]

I like all these ideas above -especially the t-shirt idea. One time my daughter planned out her wardrobe to match the events-like she wore an animal shirt to AK, and the pics turned out so well. It sounds like a great opportunity for a fab photo-pass too-a bunch of people and bunches of photos makes the total overall cost easier for me to handle, and perhaps you could split the cost! The first time we went, I made index cards for my family to describe the ride and put them in order of what we would tour for what day. They were excited about reading the 'backstory' before each ride. And if you are like I am it would be a fun way for you to help them plan.

[Miss Alaska]

We had a planning night once I booked our last trip with Minnie Mouse paper plates, napkins, and cups... AND polka dot balloons scattered all over the down stairs to match Minnie's attire. My girls were surprised and loved it... Created excitement and made a fun memory. I booked at 54 days out and we are now 36 days out... Each day I send a fun text to both teenage girls and my husband declaring the number of Days to Disney and state that we will soon be on our way to _____. Filling in the blank with something different each day to keep the anticipation and excitement going.

So happy that all of you will have this special vacation together to make last memories. And I think your efforts to make the planning fun will just add to the excitement of it all!

kim