The Grand Adventure of our Grand Gathering.. WDW August 13-20th. About This Page:

[guitardiva]

Our Disneyworld Grand Gathering 2011

The Pre trip
AKA
The What the heck was I thinking report

Cast;
Myself/ Trisha …..aka Mom. 44 years old overworked Mom of 4 and full time student.

Kenny….. 46 year old father of 4, hubby of Trisha; He is a hardworking man who drives and fixes trucks. He is also an avid NASCAR fan.

Heather …. 23 year old eldest daughter of Trisha and Kenny and Manager at Arby’s aka keeper of the “Good Mood Food”.
Sara ….. 19 year old daughter of Trisha and Kenny, Student at U of M and pt butcher assistant
Kenneth …. 17 year old son of Trisha and Kenny; He is entering his senior year of high school this fall. He is a gamer and a card duelist. He is hoping to pursue art in college.

Santina … At 9 years old, she is the baby of Trisha and Kenny’s clan. She is creative and loves old musicals and Godzilla movies.
Dennis … He is 26 year old IT guy. He is fiancé of DD Heather. We figure this will be a trial by fire for him to spend concentrated family time in a car with us. If he passes, we will allow her to keep him. Lol



Left to right..Trisha (Me), Santina , Sara, Heather, Kenny and Kenneth


Heather and Dennis

Adreanna… She is my 35 year old sister. She is also overworked. She is a mom of 2 very active young’uns and a full time student.
Andy…. He is Adreanna’s husband. He is 35 years old and recently started working where my DH does. He is a truck driver.
Amanda… My 7 year old niece. She is a little sweetie. She loves Justin Bieber (He’s dreamy).
Blaine… My 4 year old nephew. He calls me G’Ma and is anxious to see the Toy Story gang.


DSIS – Adreannna (in back) Amanda, Blaine and Andy


Damon … Is my 43 year old brother. He is a Gulf war Vet and is a practicing masseuse. Busy guy who I know needs this trip.
Alma…. My 39 year old sister in law. Also a Gulf War Vet . She is a PTA and an actress, doing community theatre.
Michaela….. My 18 year old niece. She is graduating high school in a few weeks. She aspires to be a singer /actress. She will be starting Millikin U in the Fall
Natasha…. Is my 17 year old niece. She will be a senior this fall. She is graduating when My Son Kenneth does. She wants to be a screenwriter / director/ actress.



Alma, Damon, Tasha and Micki


Well there is is the entire Cast. If you read all of that, thanks. They are mine and I love them all.

How this ideal began
In a nutshell, we have all had some tough times in our recent, collective family history. In our family we have dealt with Illness, job loss, income decreases, and divorce among other trials. Going back to school was and still is a daunting task.ect. In other words we have all been pretty spent…. The answer?

A FAMILY TRIP to Disney World!
The first part of the fun was coming up with a date. Now we love to go in the winter. Low crowds and what is for Floridians cold temps are our tropical weather coming from winters in Michigan. Unfortunately we had to work around breaks. No easy task, because everyone’s mid-winter breaks were at different times. We thought about June and July, but eventually settled into August. The prices were better and it is value season for the moderates. Hurricane season always concerns me, but we are sure that it will be fine. So last August we booked the rooms for my family and my Dsis’s family.. At that point my DB had not come on board yet. He wanted to but was non-committal. I chose the Caribbean Beach resort for simple reasons. First of all we have not stayed there yet. Second, we REALLY wanted to stay at the Poly again (meaning we wanted a somewhat tropical theme), but we had to consider was would be reasonable for other families also. It is one thing to commit yourself to expensive, it is quite another to commit others to expensive. Booking the CBR was a bit scary at first. I read lots of reviews (mainly on another site) and many were not flattering. After a while I realized that the lion’s share of the criticisms were merely about the size of the resort. Well, that does not bother us. I would rather have that than the chaos of the values in the summer. So all was good. CBR for August 14th to the 20th. Let the planning begin!
Sometime in April…
Yay pin codes! Both my DSIS and I received one in the mail. Free CS dining. Since we received it we were able to add another day and we paid for the upgrade back to standard dining. It saved us a bit once we added the extra day. We only had to pay a pinch more for the additional day. I had already whittled our costs down by keeping an eye on every deal. Just an FYI, if you have a pin code, you can use it for up to 3 reservations as long as they are connected to yours. Disney does make sure that it is YOU using the pin code too. Disney can be affordable if you just take the time to keep up on all your options and special deals that come out. Even if you use an agent, know what you want and how much before you talk to them.
May 24, 2011
Man am I disappointed…..My brother and his family had to pull out. I was so looking forward to spending time with my nieces. We don’t get to see them often, now they are almost grown up (17 and 18).
So here we are…. our party is back down to 11. It is a good sound number. I called this morning to make the deletions on our ADRS. I am quite sure another family will be happy. 4 seats are open. Just a quick soapbox moment….. If you are not going to use them, cancel them. Let others have the fun.


We now have 80 days before we leave. I can’t wait.
Here is our itin as is.

S-arrival! Free for all day while drivers sleep of the drive... Shutters for dinner.
Su- DHS- Chef Mickey’s then back the DHS for Fantasmic.
M- MK- 1900 park fair
T- 1st day of Epcot - Kona Café for breakfast, Teppan Edo for dinner
W- Free day. DH and the kids are planning on the water parks and Disney Quest. I want to take DD9 off for Mom/ Daughter time. I thought about the tea party at the GF, but too pricey. It is like $280. A bit steep. Instead we might hang out at the resort pool and may shop a bit. It will be her call. From previous experience she will need the down time by then.
TH- AK – Ohana for dinner, then off to the Poly beach to watch the fireworks and Lagoon parade.
Fri 2nd day. Of Epcot- Grand Gathering dinner
Sa- departure day. L


May 29 2011
They are dropping like flies! … Now I am informed that DSIL2b has to cancel. The great news is that he found a really good job. The bad news is that the trip falls within his 90 probationary period. He said he can’t now and I don’t blame him at all. The second part of the pain is that now I have to reshuffle the rooms. Cancel their room (which they just had me change) and add DD23 to one of our rooms. Oh well at least she is still going. ..I am excited that all my “babies” will be there with me. .
So a recap on the cast now. We are down to 10 people now. My family and my sister’s family. Off the gathering are my DB and his group and DSIL2B. Oh well, 10 is a great number too! 2 people per seat on a ride…yeah…even numbers work well.

June 18 2011
One month, three weeks and three days to go…
My DSis just had me downgrade them to the All Star Music. It saved them about $500. I don’t blame her, that is a nice sum there, but I think we will stay put. On a positive note, it gives us multiple pool options. It is tempting to move up to a deluxe. We agreed to a mod, because that is where the entire family’s budget was. But what can ya do? Lol….mmm wonder how mad they would be if we moved up? Mmm?
I FINALLY found a Cinderella dress for Santina! It was a chore. I ordered it through Amazon. It is an adult size. I am a bit annoyed now that I have it It is not a quality piece. Too close to the trip to keep looking so I keep it. It is from the Disney Company, but nowhere near the quality that we are used to getting in their costumes. It needed a lot of alterations. I need to bust a move on her dress. Besides shortening the length, I have to cover a couple of the “itchy” spots. Off to JoAnn Fabrics today!



Well there it is a quick wind up of our waiting . We are now nearing the 1 month mark. The "am really I ready? What are we doing? " phase

Next chapter…. Hopefully everything is going smoothly. J

[lazanya]

Great start!

[chezp]

Great start! Sorry some of them have dropped out though.

[guitardiva]

Thank you Ladies.

Yes, it is a bummer about the people who dropped out. I am still dissapointed for what I guess is a weird reason. I was looking forward to getting some big family photos for my Mom and Dad. we "kids" and our kids never seem to be able to get together to get one done. This was going to be the perfect chance . I preordered the photopass and thought "ah ha!'. Oh well I guess we could have their face shots on sticks and hold them up in the group photos. lol

It will still be quite the trip. I am looking forward to watching my Niece 7 and nephew 4. It will be their first trip.

[Disney Dork]

Sounds like you have a lot of fun things planned. Sorry your grand gathering has shrunk. I know what you mean about the family photo. We've never been able to pull it off either. I like your idea about the stick figure faces.

[Cam22]

Great start! Sorry some of your folks have had to back out!

[Big Baloo]

Terrific start to your TR. Sorry they had to pull out b/c it sounds like you're a great group. And more pool options? Sounds like a plus to me!

[OCEANGRLLG]

Great start! Thats a large family you have goin there!

[mcc0313]

Sorry you have lost some of the trip memebers but sounds like a great group, glad you and your sister will get to travel together and as you said...10 is a nice even number (we are usually an odd # when we travel so you can guess who always gets the "computer generated" friend on SE...lol)

Can't wait to hear more of your plans.

[jennie622]

I think the faces on sticks photos would be a hoot! Go for it!!!!

[KMB733]

Great Start! Sorry some of your party has had to drop out.

[guitardiva]

Originally Posted by jennie622

I think the faces on sticks photos would be a hoot! Go for it!!!!

lol. It is tempting. The only issue is guess who would get stuck with the bag of heads. lol

[guitardiva]

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Sorry you have lost some of the trip memebers but sounds like a great group, glad you and your sister will get to travel together and as you said...10 is a nice even number (we are usually an odd # when we travel so you can guess who always gets the "computer generated" friend on SE...lol)

Can't wait to hear more of your plans.

It will be fun. Thanks. Yup no Computer generated buddies for us.
Traveling with my sister should be interesting. Last time we did we got in a couple of fusses over something (don't remember what). Let's see if we make it home still talking.



Thanks everyone. I think we are down to a secure number.

[jennie622]

Originally Posted by guitardiva

lol. It is tempting. The only issue is guess who would get stuck with the bag of heads. lol

"C'mon, it's your turn, I've been carrying the heads all morning!!" That would be hysterical to overhear.

[guitardiva]

Originally Posted by jennie622

"C'mon, it's your turn, I've been carrying the heads all morning!!" That would be hysterical to overhear.

Love it! haha