Saturday, May 5, 2012

Disney Trip Take Two!

So we decided to go to Disney again this year.  Last year... we went because husband had a conference and we decided to tag along.  This year should be a pretty different trip because last year, I was pregnant and had a one year old and three year old.  Mother in law came with us and we stayed in a huge 4 bedroom townhouse with a pool... took it easy with naps and only did the park in the morning mainly... you can read about it here.

This year, we decided to do the "disney experience" from beginning to end.  So Magic Express us to our living quarters... meal plan... let's see maybe we'll do more park stuff...  paying an arm and a leg but we'll see if it is worth it!  Well so to save as best as we can I subscribed to Mousesavers.com and got our pass tickets there... and ended up renting from David's Vacation Rental (since we really wanted a 1 bedroom villa with full kitchen and washer/dryer.. just makes life a little easier with so many little ones...).  We flew Southwest which is the best because you can check bags in for free... but boy since there is no assigned seating, it is up to fate whether you can get seats together.  Luckily we did!  The flight here went well overall.  My youngest is the best traveler out of the 3 kids.. he smiled and clapped and wooed all the passengers.. then fell asleep for an hour.. then woke up and smiled and clapped and wooed all the passengers again =)  I have vivid memories of my other two when they were around the same age crying and needing us to bjorn and bounce up and down the aisles!

Oh, so here is an interesting tangent... while flying here they announced on the intercom for any medical professional to make their way to the center of the plane because a passenger needed help.  This is probably the third time I've "responded" to a call like that... Thankfully, it ended up being a false alarm.  For a while there, the attendants were concerned that a gentleman was having a heart attack but he was only feeling faint because he cut his finger.  Whew!  Really did not want to be managing a heart attack in the middle of a flight with not even a stethoscope on hand to listen to his heartbeat... though maybe these airplanes have one stashed somewhere...

Oh and another tangent... I posted about having to pump on the go earlier... but here is a photo of my crazy bag that is falling apart.. hehe... and how I set it up in the airport stall!  Two more months then I'm throwing this away!  Whoo-hoo.. what freedom!



So actually.. planning for a Disney trip can be quite time consuming and crazy.  Since you are allowed to book character dining like 180 days before the trip.. that's what I did since that is what my girls are into... princesses...  though I don't know why since I was not very girly growing up and I did not even push the princess stuff.  My oldest is just such a girly-girl who loves everything pink, twirly, princessey, shiny, shimmering, glimmering etc!  The second is more like me I think but she is kinda into it because her sister is into it...  There are a million blogs out there about Disney and great advice about going there with small kids.  I've read them all I think.  We'll see how it goes... I pretty much use my "research" to make an excel file that has our schedule planned out.  Since I did not think it was worth the extra money to park hop, I tried to plan it so that the dinners and all lined up on the same days.  We'll prob spend most of our time in Magic Kingdom but plan to hit the other parks once.  More on that as we go...

So I should sleep since everyone is sleeping.  It is crazy how many small kids are roaming around awake. I'm torn about whether or not to just push it and keep my kids up longer so we can do more or try to stick to their schedule so they are not over tired and cranky.  We did the latter last year but it really was hard getting them down tonight even though I know they must be tired for skipping naps.  So... we'll see what tomorrow brings...