Alice, Mickey, and Pooh Bear ... Oh my! A First Timer's Trip Report -- Updated 8/19 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Alice, Mickey, and Pooh Bear ... Oh my! A First Timer's Trip Report -- Updated 8/19
Hi all!!
I have gotten so much from these boards to help me plan my very first trip to Disney World, so I thought I would return the favor by creating a trip report! This may help someone else, provide entertainment for the masses, or just give me a way to get my excitement out to people that will enjoy it (instead of my family, who will say "oh yeah? cool."). LOL
We officially leave in about a week, but I thought I would get this party started with some of my planning ideas (that way you can say to me "Oh my Gosh what a NooB choice!! You have to do this instead, it's what all the cool kids do." )
But first today, I have for you the cast of characters::
First off there is me, Rachel. I am the mom in this story and this is my very first time at Disney World. I am beyond excited to be going, and am pretty much the sole planner. I am okay with this though, as it extends the trip for me. My family does think I am a little nutso, but the good news is, I am flexible in all our plans, and even if none of it gets used, it's fine. I mean come on!! We'll be in Disney World for goodness sake, that is way better than anything else we could be doing at that time!!
Secondly, there is my husband Kris. He plays the role of "dad". We will be celebrating our 10 year anniversary on the trip. Well honestly, it's our 10 year anniversary of the day we met, not the day we got married (married for 9), but we want to celebrate something while we are there!! So we are going with this. Plus if we had never met, none of this would be possible. Kris has been to Disney World a few times with his family when he was a wee boy, but has not been to the world in over 15 years, so it's almost like he is a born-again-first timer.
And lastly there is Kolby. Kolby is the 8 year old child-unit, and the love of our lives. This will be his first time in the World as well. I don't usually share this with people, but Kolby has recently been diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder. We have always dealt with this, but it is nice to know what it is now. SID presents many issues for us, the biggest being that he hates loud noises and fast rides. We are taking many things into consideration regarding this for our trip to Disney, and while I normally don't like talking about his disorder (it's still surreal to me to have a name for it), I did want to include it in my TR, because it will have a huge toll on our trip. Plus our plans and ideas may help others who have a similar child in tow.
Here is a picture of the three of us from about a year and a half ago. (I've been kind of slack on getting pic lately of all of us together. )
When I have time to sit down again tonight, I will also type up some of our plans.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
First off, thank you to everyone for the kind comments. I think this will be fun to have a place to share all the memories from the trip. Being a scrapbooker, I am acutely aware of how fast a vacation can go, and once all is said and done the things you take pictures of and write down tend to be the moments you remember the most. I am excited to have this TR as my own mental record of this trip. I am not sure if we will be able to head to Disney again anytime soon, so I want to be able to cherish every moment and memory for years to come.
Okay on to the planning!!
The Journey Begins
Have you ever met a person who is all gung ho about an idea? They will come up to you and say “We are taking a cruise next year!! Yay!!” and then 4 months later, you ask them how the planning for said cruise is going and they forlornly tell you that the cruise is off. They just didn’t have the [insert any reason here] to do it. Well if you and I were friends in real life, that person would be me. I am notorious for coming up with big, huge vacation plans, and then deciding for one reason or another (money, no vacation time, too much work) that we can’t do it. So when hubby decided that we should plan a vacation to celebrate me quitting my job and staying home to homeschool my son, I thought small. I now try and follow the KISS method when planning vacations, so my friends don’t have to give me the leery eye when I tell them what we intend to do. So our plan was to stay local and maybe do a camping trip or rent a hotel in a bigger city. As I was perusing our options on the interwebs I happened across an ad online (I guess those really do work!) for free dining at Disney. First I laughed at myself for even considering it, I mean really? Could I commit to such a trip? But I figured I would at least check out the prices. They had to be expensive right? Disney is popular, but this isn’t like going three towns over to Six Flags … this is Disney! Once I plugged in our selected dates, my jaw hit the floor. Even with the extra money for plane tickets, the total cost for a trip to Disney would be less or about the same as what I was thinking for our other options, especially when you took food and entertainment into consideration. But could I really commit this time?
I hemmed and hawed over this for quite a while, but I finally decided to go ahead and make the reservation. I didn’t buy the plane tickets yet, figuring if I wanted to back out, I could still do so. At that point my other half and my baby boy had no idea what I did. Our plan was to meet up and write our trip ideas on little slips of paper and put them in a hat. We each had the chance to write down 5 things we might want to do, and we threw them all in the hat. I wrote DISNEY on all 5 of mine. I let my son choose first, and he pulled out a camping/fishing trip in Maine. Both guys were all set to go with that, but I suggested that perhaps they may want to maybe choose two or three and then decide. They objected at first, but finally conceded. Hubby picked next and he got one of my slips. He opened it, read it, and looked at me with shocked, wide eyes. He says “Really???” and of course the boy is jumping all over him to see what it is. I gave him the nod, and he fessed up what was on the paper. Well they both hit the ceiling!! I told them we just had to pick one more slip….. well you can guess what happened to the rest of the slips, yeah, into the circular filing cabinet they went.
Since the boys were so excited for this trip, I went ahead and bought our plane tickets. With these bought, there was no going back. Plane tickets are pretty much impossible to cancel, so losing that kind of money is high on my “never will do” list. This cemented it. Finally, a big trip that we were saying we were going to do, we were actually going to do!!
We are all excited to be staying at the All-Star Movie resort for 6 nights, 7 days with park passes for 6 days (no hopper pass). We decided against the hopper pass since this is our first time going and figured we will have enough to see and do in each park for a full day. If this wasn't our first trip, I might see that the hopper pass had more value, but I just couldn’t see the extra expense this time.
The Quick Service Dining Plan came with our package, but my family insisted upon doing a character breakfast. Then I thought it might be nice to do one sit down lunch. After looking at the prices of paying for these two meals out of pocket (!), it made more sense to upgrade our dining. We would get more sit downs (which we really enjoy) for the same price of the two meals.
So our trip is as follows:
Resort: Disney All Star Movies
Length of Stay: 7 days, 6 nights
Park Tickets: 6 Day Passes with no hopper
Dining Plan: Disney Dining Plan
Now that the tickets are bought and the family is excited, it’s my job to make a skeleton plan for our trip. Up next Act II: Making Plans.
Sounds like you are going at a good time for Kolby--not so crowded. We've seen kids with headphones--to block out noises--and earplugs.
You are on your way to a magical first time trip!
We have picked up some earphones for him, and are glad that the crowds will be lower that time of year as well, these are things that will help us out a lot. We have already told him that he does not have to go on any rides if he doesn't want to, but we are also going to get him some help with not having to wait in line. The few rides that he can ride would immediately be ruined with a wait, it's too much anticipation for him (at least the first time, after he knows what it's like, he's usually fine). Luckily most of the rides should have a short wait anyway, but we want to make it as fun for him as possible.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackid2
Great start! We're leaving in a week from today as well!
Awesome!! We'll "see" you there!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot0001
Great start! Can't wait to read more. Every time at Disney is magical, but nothing can compare to the first time! So excited to read about yours!
Thank you so much, I am beyond excited for this trip and I can't wait to share it as well.
What a great story about surprising the boys with your trip plans! I'm glad you committed and I'm sure you guys are going to have a great time. The best advice I can give a first time Disney traveler is: take your time, take breaks, and don't try to over do it. It's impossible to see everything in a week.
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Kris has been to Disney World a few times with his family when he was a wee boy, but has not been to the world in over 15 years, so it's almost like he is a born-again-first timer. 
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