Nazran
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2007
Welcome to my first Disney trip report. I will first apologize for my writing style (or lack of). I am not a writer by any stretch of the imagination. I have read many trip reports and so many of you have a real gift for telling a story. This report will probably not be a great read but I hope some of you get some enjoyment out of it.
This trip was YEARS in the making…. But let us get the details out of the way. I hope you don’t mind reading a bit of pre-trip before getting to the main trip report.
WHO?
My name is Jay. I am a 41 year old husband and father of three. I work in the IT industry in Dallas Ft Worth area. My wife’s name is Jennifer and she is 41 as well.
Our oldest son is Michael and he is 11. He is on the Spectrum (PDD-NOS), has the biggest heart, and is a great kid.
Nathan is 7. He is an extrovert, always on the go, and a big goof.
Mattie is 3 and she is our surprise princess! You see, we thought we were past the point of having more children but in 2011 we became a family of five much to our shock!
Also joining us on this trip were our friends: Chad, Leslie, CJ 11, JD 11, and yes JUST like us… a surprise baby boy Zane who is 2.
WHEN?
November 29 through December 4
WHERE?
Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou Rooms for my family
Art of Animation Cars family suite for our friends
HOW?
This will take a bit to explain but I feel I need to give a little bit of my back story to my relevant Disney life. My father was a United States Marine for 22 years. You can imagine the life of the military kids typically involves a lot of moving. We were no exception. In 1983 we found ourselves living in Redlands CA as my dad was stationed at what was then Norton Air Force base (San Bernardino Airport now). I was 9 and my brother was 14. My parents never really took us on many vacations as a family. I don’t have a lot of memories of us going to places as kids. I am not saying I had a bad childhood or had bad parents… we just didn’t do a lot of vacationing.
Except for that one time while living in southern CA my Aunt and her daughter came to visit. My parents decided to take us all to Disneyland for a day. I don’t have a ton of specific memories from that day but some of my favorite were:
I remember walking down Main Street USA with that sucker feeling like this was the best day ever as a family.
Fast forward to roughly 2006… Michael my oldest son was 3 ½ years old, and Jennifer was pregnant with Nathan. I think I could honestly say I had not thought about nor paid attention to ANYTHING Disney Park related until one night I was watching the Travel Channel and a show came up about Disney World. I think it was Ultimate Disney World or maybe something Samantha Brown was hosting. Michael was in the room and I noticed he looked up at it and was watching it. Well I left it on and the more and more I watched I was absolutely amazed. I had no ideas about Disney World. I mean I had seen pictures of Spaceship Earth but never equated it to being at Disney World. I always assumed Disney World was another Magic Kingdom.
The more I watched the more I was transported back to 1983 walking down Main Street USA holding that sucker in my hand…
I started thinking to myself: Jeez I have been married since 2001. We didn’t go on a proper honeymoon (No Money) Jennifer and I have NEVER taken a vacation outside of a trip to Colorado in 2002 to see her step sister get married . . Jennifer was pregnant with Michael for that trip to Colorado so Michael had NEVER been outside of Dallas and Longview areas of Texas with the exception of 3 or 4 trips to Jennifer’s mom and stepfather who live in Louisiana. I was turning in to my parents in that I was not developing any memories for my kids with vacations, car trips, plane rides, etc. I decided that we would take a summer family trip by that summer (2007).
Nathan was born in Jan 2007 and guess what?! Children are expensive! So... Summer 2007 came and guess what?… No money!! Then 2008 summer came and went and Michael’s issues became very evident while in preschool and kindergarten. We decided that it might be better for Jennifer to become a SAHM and homeschool Michael. Obviously we lost Jennifer’s income but to us it was worth it, but as a result… You guessed it! No money for a trip.
So starting with 2009 we took a portion of our income tax refund and placed it down for a June trip to Corpus Christi Texas. Just a quick, cheap, 4 day trip to the coast from Dallas. We had a great time! So that was became our M.O. for vacations. I started to make a little more money, things became a bit easier. My wife took a part time evening job as a swim instructor for special needs children.
We did the following…
2011 Galveston TX 4 day trip on Beach Front hotel.
2012 Surfside Beach TX in a Beach House for 7 days (Mattie now with us)
2013 Surfside Beach TX in a Beach House for 7 days
All of the while since 2006…. I was becoming OBSESSED with Disney World. I cannot tell you how many fake trips I planned on the Disney World site. Trying to find the cheapest way to get there or day dreaming for the biggest most expensive trip at a deluxe I could find. Money was always an object. $4000 for 5 to 7 days just seemed sooo out of realm of possibility for us.
I watched everything I could on Travel Channel. I lived for Disney Week on Destination America network like others lived for Shark Week. Working in the IT industry I was pretty ahead of the curb and watched every early 240p definition grainy video I could find about the resorts and theme parks. I planned trips and created itineraries. I ordered planning DVD’s, I bought Frommers Disney travel books. I created Google maps with driving plans since gas prices appeared to preclude us from airline travel. I read a metric ton of DIS trip reports. I started getting on Jennifer’s nerves, my oldest was even getting tired of me showing him YouTube videos and pictures. I was...
Disney Obsessed ™
So now fast forward to January of 2014…
Our family friends (Chad and Leslie) knew of my interest in Disney World. I am sure I probably talked their ears off about it at a BBQ or our annual Halloween bash. Leslie called me out of the blue. She told me they planned on using Chad’s annual bonus check to book a trip to Disney World and wouldn’t be awesome if we could go.
My first and true instinct came out… “I’d ABSOLUTELY love to but we simply can’t afford it. Our annual vacation budget is about $1000.” So we hung up. I was down about it. When would it be our time to go?
Later that night after everyone was asleep I was reading info on your first visit dot net with the idea of getting some basic plans for our friends when an ad on the right hand page came up for the Chase Disney Visa. “Come check out all of our benefits for signing up” or something like that. I did check it out and decided to sign up. I was a bit shocked when they came back and gave me a few minutes later and said… here is your limit… (it was double what I had thought I might need) I then rationalized in my head OK how can we do this responsibly? I said.. Got to be after Thanksgiving in the low priced times up to Christmas. Then I will just pay back with the following year’s income tax return. I was ok with carrying a balance for 3 months or so.
WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pre-Trip Planning
Introductions!
Jan 2014 and Planning
The Shawshank Kitchen
Kitchen done and trip back on?
Dining Reservations and 180+10 days to Disney!
Oops I almost forgot one important detail
Travel Day 1 - Wed Nov 26th - 10 Hours to go 300 Miles
Thanksgiving Day. Michael's Big Day. Dreaming Disney
Big Reveal? and 5 Hour Energy is the Devil!
A bad breakfast, some sleep, and some happiness!
Day 1 - Nov 29th
Check In, Resort Exploring, A Very Uncomfortable Scene, and Our Room is Ready
Epcot Evening Day 1 and Dinner Surprise!
Date Night: Dinner and a Test Track
Illuminations and Exhaustion Sets In
Day 2 - Nov 30th
Rope drop you say? Searching for Food and a visit with Woody and Buzz
Monsters! Lunch and that Vacation Altering Change Thing...
Honey I Lost the Kids, Aerial, Ho Hum Dinner, a Fantastic Fantasmic, and Christmas Lights!
Day 3 - Dec 1st
How to crush your child's tiny little heart
A Trip down Memory (Main Street) Lane!
Adventures in Adventureland Part 1
Adventures in Adventureland Part 2
Adventures in Adventureland Part 3
A Little bit of Frontierland
Jennifer and Mattie Explore Frontierland and Liberty Square and Lunch
Crisscrossing the Magic Kingdom!
Ohana and a Surprise Boat Ride!
2015 Galveston Mini Trip Report
Day 1 - Driving to and Arriving in Galveston + Day 2 Beach
Day 3 - Moody Gardens and Beach, Day 4 - Shopping, and 5 - Coming Home.
Day 3 - Dec 1st Continued
Wrapping up the day at Magic Kingdom - Wishes and Celebrate the Magic
Day 4 - Dec 2nd
Back to Epcot and Lunch at Sunshine Seasons
Wandering Around the Showcase. Canada, UK, and International Gateway Bridge
Wandering Around the Showcase. France, Morocco, and Japan
Flying Around the Showcase. MURICA, Italy, Germany, China, Norway + Akershus Dinner!
Good Night Epcot! One More Day to Go!
Day 5 - Dec 3rd
Our last full day at Disney World Magic Kingdom All Day!
Day 5 Part 2 - Be Our Guest lunch
Day 5 Part 3 - Tomorrowland Rides
Day 5 Part 4 - I NEEEDDD BUZZZ and bad things!
Day 5 Part 5 - Dinner and Our Last Hours at the Park
Day 6 - Dec 4th
Downtown Disney, Leaving Disney World, Destin Visit, Final Ride Home.
This trip was YEARS in the making…. But let us get the details out of the way. I hope you don’t mind reading a bit of pre-trip before getting to the main trip report.
WHO?
My name is Jay. I am a 41 year old husband and father of three. I work in the IT industry in Dallas Ft Worth area. My wife’s name is Jennifer and she is 41 as well.
Our oldest son is Michael and he is 11. He is on the Spectrum (PDD-NOS), has the biggest heart, and is a great kid.
Nathan is 7. He is an extrovert, always on the go, and a big goof.
Mattie is 3 and she is our surprise princess! You see, we thought we were past the point of having more children but in 2011 we became a family of five much to our shock!
Also joining us on this trip were our friends: Chad, Leslie, CJ 11, JD 11, and yes JUST like us… a surprise baby boy Zane who is 2.
WHEN?
November 29 through December 4
WHERE?
Port Orleans Riverside Alligator Bayou Rooms for my family
Art of Animation Cars family suite for our friends
HOW?
This will take a bit to explain but I feel I need to give a little bit of my back story to my relevant Disney life. My father was a United States Marine for 22 years. You can imagine the life of the military kids typically involves a lot of moving. We were no exception. In 1983 we found ourselves living in Redlands CA as my dad was stationed at what was then Norton Air Force base (San Bernardino Airport now). I was 9 and my brother was 14. My parents never really took us on many vacations as a family. I don’t have a lot of memories of us going to places as kids. I am not saying I had a bad childhood or had bad parents… we just didn’t do a lot of vacationing.
Except for that one time while living in southern CA my Aunt and her daughter came to visit. My parents decided to take us all to Disneyland for a day. I don’t have a ton of specific memories from that day but some of my favorite were:
- The first theme park ride I ever rode was POTC. I nearly came out of my skin on the first ‘drop’ I was amazed at the ship fight scene.
- I remember being fairly uneasy about the Haunted mansion, but coming away thinking it wasn’t so bad.
- My mom and I really enjoyed It’s a Small World.
I remember walking down Main Street USA with that sucker feeling like this was the best day ever as a family.
Fast forward to roughly 2006… Michael my oldest son was 3 ½ years old, and Jennifer was pregnant with Nathan. I think I could honestly say I had not thought about nor paid attention to ANYTHING Disney Park related until one night I was watching the Travel Channel and a show came up about Disney World. I think it was Ultimate Disney World or maybe something Samantha Brown was hosting. Michael was in the room and I noticed he looked up at it and was watching it. Well I left it on and the more and more I watched I was absolutely amazed. I had no ideas about Disney World. I mean I had seen pictures of Spaceship Earth but never equated it to being at Disney World. I always assumed Disney World was another Magic Kingdom.
The more I watched the more I was transported back to 1983 walking down Main Street USA holding that sucker in my hand…
I started thinking to myself: Jeez I have been married since 2001. We didn’t go on a proper honeymoon (No Money) Jennifer and I have NEVER taken a vacation outside of a trip to Colorado in 2002 to see her step sister get married . . Jennifer was pregnant with Michael for that trip to Colorado so Michael had NEVER been outside of Dallas and Longview areas of Texas with the exception of 3 or 4 trips to Jennifer’s mom and stepfather who live in Louisiana. I was turning in to my parents in that I was not developing any memories for my kids with vacations, car trips, plane rides, etc. I decided that we would take a summer family trip by that summer (2007).
Nathan was born in Jan 2007 and guess what?! Children are expensive! So... Summer 2007 came and guess what?… No money!! Then 2008 summer came and went and Michael’s issues became very evident while in preschool and kindergarten. We decided that it might be better for Jennifer to become a SAHM and homeschool Michael. Obviously we lost Jennifer’s income but to us it was worth it, but as a result… You guessed it! No money for a trip.
So starting with 2009 we took a portion of our income tax refund and placed it down for a June trip to Corpus Christi Texas. Just a quick, cheap, 4 day trip to the coast from Dallas. We had a great time! So that was became our M.O. for vacations. I started to make a little more money, things became a bit easier. My wife took a part time evening job as a swim instructor for special needs children.
We did the following…
2011 Galveston TX 4 day trip on Beach Front hotel.
2012 Surfside Beach TX in a Beach House for 7 days (Mattie now with us)
2013 Surfside Beach TX in a Beach House for 7 days
All of the while since 2006…. I was becoming OBSESSED with Disney World. I cannot tell you how many fake trips I planned on the Disney World site. Trying to find the cheapest way to get there or day dreaming for the biggest most expensive trip at a deluxe I could find. Money was always an object. $4000 for 5 to 7 days just seemed sooo out of realm of possibility for us.
I watched everything I could on Travel Channel. I lived for Disney Week on Destination America network like others lived for Shark Week. Working in the IT industry I was pretty ahead of the curb and watched every early 240p definition grainy video I could find about the resorts and theme parks. I planned trips and created itineraries. I ordered planning DVD’s, I bought Frommers Disney travel books. I created Google maps with driving plans since gas prices appeared to preclude us from airline travel. I read a metric ton of DIS trip reports. I started getting on Jennifer’s nerves, my oldest was even getting tired of me showing him YouTube videos and pictures. I was...
Disney Obsessed ™
So now fast forward to January of 2014…
Our family friends (Chad and Leslie) knew of my interest in Disney World. I am sure I probably talked their ears off about it at a BBQ or our annual Halloween bash. Leslie called me out of the blue. She told me they planned on using Chad’s annual bonus check to book a trip to Disney World and wouldn’t be awesome if we could go.
My first and true instinct came out… “I’d ABSOLUTELY love to but we simply can’t afford it. Our annual vacation budget is about $1000.” So we hung up. I was down about it. When would it be our time to go?
Later that night after everyone was asleep I was reading info on your first visit dot net with the idea of getting some basic plans for our friends when an ad on the right hand page came up for the Chase Disney Visa. “Come check out all of our benefits for signing up” or something like that. I did check it out and decided to sign up. I was a bit shocked when they came back and gave me a few minutes later and said… here is your limit… (it was double what I had thought I might need) I then rationalized in my head OK how can we do this responsibly? I said.. Got to be after Thanksgiving in the low priced times up to Christmas. Then I will just pay back with the following year’s income tax return. I was ok with carrying a balance for 3 months or so.
WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pre-Trip Planning
Introductions!
Jan 2014 and Planning
The Shawshank Kitchen
Kitchen done and trip back on?
Dining Reservations and 180+10 days to Disney!
Oops I almost forgot one important detail
Travel Day 1 - Wed Nov 26th - 10 Hours to go 300 Miles
Thanksgiving Day. Michael's Big Day. Dreaming Disney
Big Reveal? and 5 Hour Energy is the Devil!
A bad breakfast, some sleep, and some happiness!
Day 1 - Nov 29th
Check In, Resort Exploring, A Very Uncomfortable Scene, and Our Room is Ready
Epcot Evening Day 1 and Dinner Surprise!
Date Night: Dinner and a Test Track
Illuminations and Exhaustion Sets In
Day 2 - Nov 30th
Rope drop you say? Searching for Food and a visit with Woody and Buzz
Monsters! Lunch and that Vacation Altering Change Thing...
Honey I Lost the Kids, Aerial, Ho Hum Dinner, a Fantastic Fantasmic, and Christmas Lights!
Day 3 - Dec 1st
How to crush your child's tiny little heart
A Trip down Memory (Main Street) Lane!
Adventures in Adventureland Part 1
Adventures in Adventureland Part 2
Adventures in Adventureland Part 3
A Little bit of Frontierland
Jennifer and Mattie Explore Frontierland and Liberty Square and Lunch
Crisscrossing the Magic Kingdom!
Ohana and a Surprise Boat Ride!
2015 Galveston Mini Trip Report
Day 1 - Driving to and Arriving in Galveston + Day 2 Beach
Day 3 - Moody Gardens and Beach, Day 4 - Shopping, and 5 - Coming Home.
Day 3 - Dec 1st Continued
Wrapping up the day at Magic Kingdom - Wishes and Celebrate the Magic
Day 4 - Dec 2nd
Back to Epcot and Lunch at Sunshine Seasons
Wandering Around the Showcase. Canada, UK, and International Gateway Bridge
Wandering Around the Showcase. France, Morocco, and Japan
Flying Around the Showcase. MURICA, Italy, Germany, China, Norway + Akershus Dinner!
Good Night Epcot! One More Day to Go!
Day 5 - Dec 3rd
Our last full day at Disney World Magic Kingdom All Day!
Day 5 Part 2 - Be Our Guest lunch
Day 5 Part 3 - Tomorrowland Rides
Day 5 Part 4 - I NEEEDDD BUZZZ and bad things!
Day 5 Part 5 - Dinner and Our Last Hours at the Park
Day 6 - Dec 4th
Downtown Disney, Leaving Disney World, Destin Visit, Final Ride Home.
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