After a three year absence, The Matty30 clan is making the long trip from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and finally heading back to WDW! Our last trip to the world took place in September 2011, just before all the major work on the New Fantasyland took place. Keeping close tabs on the progress and now seeing the results thanks to this great site has me very excited to return and see things for myself.
Anyways, here are all the details for the big trip!
Cast of Characters
Wise or not, likely not, we've made this trip into a big family event which will see 10 of us taking part in this trip. That said, the crew consists of Me and my wife, Kelly (Pic of from our 2011 WDW trip).
Our oldest daughter Ella, whose first Disney parks trip was WDW in 2011 when she was just under a year.
She is now a seasoned Disney veteran with an additional 3 trips to Disneyland under her belt, this from 2013.
And our youngest, Lennon, who had her first taste of Disneyland last year. Here in one of the rare moments she wasn't asleep!
She's gotten a little bigger since then and is quite excited to be headed to WDW!
We will also have the pleasure of enjoying this trip (or regretting the decision...could go either way!) with my in-laws Mindy (Kelly's sister), her husband Jason and their two daughters Hayden and Kendall. All four kids are very close in age so they should have a good time together. If not, I'm sure I will be more than sampling a few of the beers at Epcot throughout the week! I'd post pics of this group but there are already too many pics of the dwarfs floating around on this site, no need to add anymore.
My mom, Ally, and my mother in-law, Deb, are also making the trip to soak in all the Disney memories that are sure to be made while we are there. They also accompanied us on our 2011 trip and are very much looking forward to seeing the changes as well.
Travel Dates
September 12-21. This was originally slated for September 13-21 but the wife got an extra day off work so we decided to add an extra day to the trip. The rest of the group is still travelling down on the 13th together so we get an extra day in the park to ourselves while they are flying in. By the time we leave Edmonton at 6:00am, we finally land in Orlando after a quick layover in Houston around 4:00pm. Long day...better have the iPad's fully charged for the kids.
Resorts
When we first started planning this trip back in January, the idea was to book a few Suites in one of the DVC resorts to make things easier with the kids. We ended up using a site called dvc-rental.com to rent points for the trip. It took quite a while and eventually Mindy decided it wasn't worth the wait and told our rep to stop looking for her. Two days later he called to inform me that our suite had been secured and we were all set at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge in a one-bedroom.
Bitter that things worked out for us, Mindy tried again, but Scott at DVC-Rental was unable to find accommodation that would work for them so they settled on booking standard room with bunk beds at the Wilderness Lodge. Can't wait to get back to this resort...we stayed there in 2011 and I feel in love with the place.
Because we added an additional day some time after we had already secured our suite, we will be spending our first night at Port Orleans French Quarter before making the move to the Villa the next day.
Below is our running itinerary if you are so inclined to continue reading. I thank all of you for taking the time to read about our upcoming trip and am certainly excited to report back when all is said and done!
Anyways, here are all the details for the big trip!
Cast of Characters
Wise or not, likely not, we've made this trip into a big family event which will see 10 of us taking part in this trip. That said, the crew consists of Me and my wife, Kelly (Pic of from our 2011 WDW trip).
Our oldest daughter Ella, whose first Disney parks trip was WDW in 2011 when she was just under a year.
She is now a seasoned Disney veteran with an additional 3 trips to Disneyland under her belt, this from 2013.
And our youngest, Lennon, who had her first taste of Disneyland last year. Here in one of the rare moments she wasn't asleep!
She's gotten a little bigger since then and is quite excited to be headed to WDW!
We will also have the pleasure of enjoying this trip (or regretting the decision...could go either way!) with my in-laws Mindy (Kelly's sister), her husband Jason and their two daughters Hayden and Kendall. All four kids are very close in age so they should have a good time together. If not, I'm sure I will be more than sampling a few of the beers at Epcot throughout the week! I'd post pics of this group but there are already too many pics of the dwarfs floating around on this site, no need to add anymore.
My mom, Ally, and my mother in-law, Deb, are also making the trip to soak in all the Disney memories that are sure to be made while we are there. They also accompanied us on our 2011 trip and are very much looking forward to seeing the changes as well.
Travel Dates
September 12-21. This was originally slated for September 13-21 but the wife got an extra day off work so we decided to add an extra day to the trip. The rest of the group is still travelling down on the 13th together so we get an extra day in the park to ourselves while they are flying in. By the time we leave Edmonton at 6:00am, we finally land in Orlando after a quick layover in Houston around 4:00pm. Long day...better have the iPad's fully charged for the kids.
Resorts
When we first started planning this trip back in January, the idea was to book a few Suites in one of the DVC resorts to make things easier with the kids. We ended up using a site called dvc-rental.com to rent points for the trip. It took quite a while and eventually Mindy decided it wasn't worth the wait and told our rep to stop looking for her. Two days later he called to inform me that our suite had been secured and we were all set at the Villas at Wilderness Lodge in a one-bedroom.
Bitter that things worked out for us, Mindy tried again, but Scott at DVC-Rental was unable to find accommodation that would work for them so they settled on booking standard room with bunk beds at the Wilderness Lodge. Can't wait to get back to this resort...we stayed there in 2011 and I feel in love with the place.
Because we added an additional day some time after we had already secured our suite, we will be spending our first night at Port Orleans French Quarter before making the move to the Villa the next day.
Below is our running itinerary if you are so inclined to continue reading. I thank all of you for taking the time to read about our upcoming trip and am certainly excited to report back when all is said and done!
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