Are we CRAZY? WDW with a 7, 2, and 1 year old? Pre-Trip report - UPDATED 4/19 About This Page:

[kpgriffin]

Our Party:

Kim: me, 36 and forever a Disney fanatic
Chris: DH, 43 and after two trips and one Disney cruise, quickly becoming a Disney fan
LilliAnna: DD1, 7 and forever my little Snow White
Maggie: DD2, 20 months and excited about her first Mickey meeting. She knows all of the Disney characters but insists on referring to Mickey Mouse as “Hot Dog” (from the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song).
Mylee: DD3, 6 months and already a fan of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Our Journey:

We will be driving from Montgomery, Alabama to Orlando and spending 6 nights at WDW during the free Disney dining period (September 11- September 17)

Our Lodging:

We will be staying at the Pop Century.

Special Plans:

We will be trying several new restaurants (thanks to the FREE Disney dining). Since our three little ladies all have birthdays within a month of our trip, we plan to celebrate a 1st, 2nd, and 8th birthday. Also hope to get tickets to the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party for our last night there.

Planning Phase 1:

Our last Disney experience was a three night cruise in April 2007. Prior to departure, I got a severe eye irritation from my contact lenses so I had to avoid the sun the entire trip. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in the cabin with the curtains drawn (so much for the balcony room). I really enjoyed the trip but felt somewhat cheated from the Disney experience. I started thinking about our next trip as soon as we returned to dry land.

We added Mylee to our family in October and at the time we plan to travel the girls will be 7, 2, and 1…..Are we crazy? In the back of my mind, I know that we will more than likely leave Mylee with her grandparents but I hate the thought of our Disney photos not showing her smiling face. For now, she is included in our ressies and she is gearing (and growing) up to go. When I read on the Passporter boards that it was rumored that free dining would be offered again this year, it pretty much sealed the deal. I made the reservations before the free DDP announcement (and most of my ADRs) and then after 1 ½ hours on hold on the release date, we were set….the planning begins.

Have you ever stopped to add of the hours of planning that goes into a Disney trip? DH finds it quite amusing that I invest more hours in the planning and preparation of the trip than the number of hours we actually spend at Disney. There are times that he has to force me off the passporter boards. I really get caught up in the trip reports.

We did the DDP on our last trip and we really enjoyed it, even though it wasn’t free. It was great not having to worry about the cost of each meal and how much it was tapping into my DW spending money. Since we are getting the plan for free, I decided to try a few different restaurants this trip. After I booked our first round of ADRs, I decided that we should pay for meal at CRT, since it takes 2 tickets, and then we could add two other meals. After several writes and re-writes, here they are:

Day One:
Lunch with Playhouse Disney Characters at Hollywood and Vine

Day Two:
Cinderella’s Royal Table for Lunch
Ohana for Dinner

Day Three:
Chef Mickey’s for Dinner

Day Four:
Akershus royal banquet hall for breakfast with the Princesses
Teppanyaki for Dinner

Day Five:
The Crystal Palace for Dinner

I forgot to mention that my best friend and her family are planning a trip for December and our weekly lunch topies now revolve around everything DISNEY.

Next Time….Can you really overplan?

[mcc0313]

Your plans sound great...

[Jillybean]

Great plans and ADR's! We took Maddie to Disney when she was 1 (she was 3 months old on her very first trip) and she had a blast. No problem whatsoever.

Jill

[DyanKJ130]

Great start!! Your plans and ADRs sound wonderful!

[vvita1]

You are no crazier than we are. We have 3 boys 6, 4 and 1. We are going the same time 9/10-9/20 and we are also staying at pop century. You plans are very similar to ours. We have all the same ADR's as you do (except the CRT). The only one that I am worried about with the kids is the teppan ido. Good luck. You will be fine!

[tammyd_rn]

Your plans look great. We took Dillon on his first trip when he was 15 months and he loved it. I know I can't compare since at the moment we only have DS but I hope to include any other members of the family that could one day be arriving.

[bsblady01]

I hope that you and your family have a magical time at the world

[kpgriffin]

Thanks to everyone for the kinds words of support.

Originally Posted by vvita1

You are no crazier than we are. We have 3 boys 6, 4 and 1. We are going the same time 9/10-9/20 and we are also staying at pop century. You plans are very similar to ours. We have all the same ADR's as you do (except the CRT). The only one that I am worried about with the kids is the teppan ido. Good luck. You will be fine!

Thanks. Cool that we have alot of the same plans. Maybe we will see you at the pop century. We booked the Teppan because that is one of our favorite treat dinners here at home. The girls love it but I have to cover Maggie's eyes when they start the fire.
Other than that they really love it. At first I didn't want to waste a meal at a place we can kinda experience at home but then I thought it would be a great memory that we could relive each time we visit our local hibachi.

Kim

[Lemap760]

Your plans look great.

[RobDVC]

You have a great plan laid out.

[Jookiba]

Sounds like some great plans!!

[wayneava81]

Your plans sound great! Don't worry about Mylee being so little. My daughter was 10 months on her first visit and it was so great!

[jackandjennasmom]

We've been to Playhouse Disney,Chef Mickey's and The Crystal Palace those are all good choices!! Our youngest was almost 10 months old on her fisrt trip and our son was 3 we had a great time just make sure you have time for naps.

[kpgriffin]

Thanks for the responses. I am excited to tell you that I reduced our trip by $300.00. DH and I were discussing the trip the other night and he complained that he didn't want to spend a lot of time going from park to park, etc. just to get to our dinner locals. (Does he really think that I didn't think of that in the 8-9 hours I spent writing up our ADR plans?). Anyway, I quickly told him that we couldn't do that anyway since we did not purchase the Park Hopper tickets. Well, later on that afternoon, I was working on my favorites list on the WDW website and I checked our reservations. I noticed that the tickets were (park hopper and water park included). I then created a sample ressie to see if it was a price break if you excluded the park hopper option and the water park option. It was...about $270.00 less. Now, we are not water park people. In fact, in all of my travels to WDW, I have never visited the waterparks. Also, we do not like to park hop and I am sure that we will not want to add that additional travels with the little ones. The only benefit of the additional expense would be if we decided to go to Disneyquest and honestly I did not have it in our original plans. So I called up and changed our ressies and reduced our package. Apparently the system automatically includes the options when the book. I know it automatically does it online. You have to remove it yourself. So...if you don't mind cutting the water parks and visiting only one park a day, then you can have so additional spending money.

Now, I am also planning to pre-purchase the photopass CD and save an additional 25.00. Ithink the CD is a great money-saver because I am a sucker for all of the photos I review. Even buying the cheapest option at 12.50, it quickly adds up.

Hubby also surprised me this week with the Disney Visa. Now, to some this may seem like no great thing but you have to know DH. He is an avid follower of Dave Ramsey and and VP at a local credit union. Needless to say, he is not a fan of credit cards. In fact, the only reason that he applied for this one was in hopes to get it in time to get early dibs on the free disney dining. Anyway, I encouraaged him not to get rid of it since we could use it to get a great personalized photo session at Epcot during our trip.

Now, I am anxiously awaiting May 1 for the MNSSHP tickets to go on sale.

Since most of my park planning is done, I am now moving on to what we'll all wear. First, I am making the AK outfits. I am thinking white t-shirts with a Minnie head made out of Zebra print fabric and A bow. I made this for LilliAnna for our trip a few years ago and we got so many compliments. I'll add a photo once I complete the outfit.

[DyanKJ130]

Sounds like you racked up some great savings!! The Disney Visa meet & greet is so worth it! Can't wait to see the outfits once you complete them!