Pre-Trip Thor Takes On the Mouse

I know many of you ladies are probably asking “When is Chris Hemsworth going to Disney and how do I plan a trip for the same time?!?!?!” Well sorry to disappoint, but that is not the Thor that I am referring to…but close We’ll get to that part a little bit later.

I guess the best way to start this PTR is with the Cast of Characters:

Me- Stacy: Mom and Wife to this crazy bunch and the vacation planner of the family. It is my love for Disney that has spread to the rest of the family. I even get to put those skills to use daily working for Kingdom Konsultants.

DH/Dad- Adam: He’s the guy who works hard every day to make sure we can afford all of our Disney trips. He can be a bit cranky after long business trips or before his morning coffee so the kids have affectionately named him “Grumpy” (and he has the coffee mug to prove it). In addition to working full-time and traveling most weeks, he is in the final year of his PhD and I cannot wait for it to be over!

DD (and oldest child)- Kayla (Age 9): She is my quiet, reserved, rule-following child. If you were to take Violet from the Incredibles and make her hair blond, that would be my Kayla. She absolutely loves all things Disney, but her favorites are Minnie Mouse, Tower of Terror and Chip and Dale.

DS (and middle child)- Carter (Age 8): This kid is my own personal Dennis the Menace He is curious, adventurous, loves to explore, and occasionally breaks things, blows them up etc. In fact, he is very similar to Dash on the Incredibles as well.

That brings us to the youngest member of the family, and the reason for the title of this PTR….

DS- Jackson AKA Baby Thor (Age 4 months when we travel):

This fella earned his nickname in-utero when the Dr’s were predicting he would surpass his brother’s 10lb 5 oz birth weight, and he loved to punch and kick me all day (especially when I used a hammer). Luckily for me he came out a bit smaller than his big brother, but he still loves to swing those arms. This will be his first official Disney trip. I call it that because he will be with at WDW me 2 weeks prior for work, but it’s not official unless the whole family is here

So when is this epic battle occurring? November 28- December 9. We had a vacation planned for this past summer, but Thor’s imminent birth put the kibosh on that, so we moved it to my favorite time of year at WDW. This vacation is going to be 12 days long and we can use that break! We added on to our DVC membership late in 2013 and banked that years new points so we have lots of points to get used this year. Plus, we homeschool, so we have the flexibility to take a longer vacation during the slower times of year at WDW.

Now on to the where- We are staying our first night at SSR and then moving to Boardwalk Villas for the remainder. Our original plan was to fly in on Saturday the 29th, but airfare was absolutely ridiculous that day. By flying 1 day earlier, I saved us almost $500!!! Since we made this change about 4 months prior to vacation time, BWV was full and as of yet our waitlist for the 28th has not come thru yet. I don’t mind being at SSR for 1 night since we will use that for some DTD time before we head in to the parks the next day. At both locations we have a 1 bedroom villa which will provide lots of space for us as well as a washer and dryer so I do not have to pack as much.

As a side note, to go along with the Incredibles theme above, we are dressing as the Incredibles for Halloween. I’m not a huge fan of wearing a body suit post-baby so DH and I will just be wearing t-shirts and masks. The kiddos all have Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack costumes.

 

[mammaminnie]

Dining:

Our big debate on this trip was whether or not to do the dining plan, or Tables in Wonderland. This is the first trip where we will be going long enough (and often enough during the next year) to make it worthwhile. We typically do Plus Dining because I like to eat 1 TS per day as our break and I like having it all paid for ahead of time. We prefer to not go back to the resort during the day except for some pool time once or twice. TS meals give us a nice break from the day instead of resort time.

I ended up going thru all of the menus for our TS meals and pricing out what I would eat and most likely what one of the kids would eat. For just the 2 of us, we saved so much more with TIW that it was a no-brainer which we will be using this trip!

For the most part, when our 180 day mark hit, I was actually able to get everything that we wanted. We make a point of trying new restaurants each trip in addition to some of our favorites.

Here is what we have planned so far (I say so far because I seem to tweak these plans weekly):

Friday Nov 28- Dinner at Splittsville Luxury Lanes (2 of us have to eat Gluten Free and I have heard rave reviews about their GF menu options)
Saturday Nov 29- Breakfast at Kona Cafe
Sunday Nov 30- Dinner at Teppan Edo
Monday Dec 1- Dinner at Kona Cafe
Tuesday Dec 2- Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s (this is a large meal with 3 other families we know that are at Disney at the same time)
Wednesday Dec 3- Dinner at Sanaa
Thursday Dec 4- Dinner at Rose and Crown (hopefully we can get outside seating for Illuminations)
Friday Dec 5- Lunch Split Reservation- DH and DD at Via Napoli and DS and I at T-Rex since we can’t eat at Via Napoli (sadly it’s one of the few places at WDW unable to safely do GF meals)
Saturday Dec 6- Dinner at the Wave
Sunday Dec 7- Lunch at Tusker House
Monday Dec 8- Dinner at Be Our Guest

I can’t really say that there weren’t any reservations that we couldn’t get. I did have to swap out some for others to fit some of our other plans, but over all I am very happy with our choices

 

[mammaminnie]

Special Events:

This particular trip will be full of special events and experiences for our family. Some of them everyone knows about, and others will be surprises when we are at WDW!

Monday Dec 1st- We will be attending our first ever DVC Merry Member Mixer party in EPCOT. I have heard some many great things about this event nd I am really happy that there is one offered during our stay.

Tuesday Dec 2nd- We are going to MVMCP!!! I am so excited to finally take the whole family to the party. We love Christmas time so it will be lots of fun to see the parade and fireworks etc.

Wednesday Dec 3rd- This is the big surprise! Part of my kids Christmas will be an early gift they receive at WDW. They (along with DH) will be doing the Wild Africa Trek tour in AK. It’s jus the 3 of them because the baby is obviously too little He and I will be strolling around the park just enjoying the scenery and taking in a few shows. My kids love animals so much, I can’t wait to hear what they think of this surprise!

Thursday Dec 4th- Now it’s DH turn for some thrills! He has always dreamed (dreamed being the key word) of driving/owning an Audi R8. Well since there is ZERO chance of us every owning one, for Father’s Day this year we gave him the next best thing. We scheduled him for the Exotic Driving Experience where he will get to drive an R8 for 10 laps around the exotic course located with the Richard Petty Driving Experience. He is so excited for this!!!

Saturday Dec 6th- This will be the first time we have been at WDW while they are taping the Christmas Parade, so we plan to spend the day at MK experiencing this. I have already prepared everyone for the crowds, expectations etc, but we are all very excited to possibly get to see ourselves Christmas morning!

Sunday Dec 7th- Final fun experience I booked us for a Sleigh Ride thru Fort Wilderness. I’ll be honest, the free commemorative pin helped seal the deal on this one for me I just think this will be such a neat experience as we start to wind down our vacation.

So there you have it all…I told you there would be a lot!!!

 

[sissa216]

You definitely need to bring the cape with for some fabulous photo opportunities

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

I LOVE that picture of Thor! So cute!

12 days in WDW?! So jealous. And it will be Christmas time too?! Oh man... I hope you all have the most amazing time. With all those activities planned, surprises and dining reservations, I think it would be hard not to! Make sure to take tons of pictures for us.

 

[mammaminnie]

I am soooooo looking forward to 12 days of vacation!!!!

 

[mammaminnie]

I know lots of times, people wonder about taking their kids out of school for a WDW trip and/or how to incorporate educational aspects to the trip. I thought that I would share some of the things that we will be doing during this trip for anyone curious.

We homeschool (first year and loving it!!!!) so I have been able to tailor some of our lesson plans in preparation for our trip.

To start with, in science, we are going thru the 6 main Animal Kingdoms. We won’t finish all of them before our trip, but my plan is to for sure have Vertebrates finished. I want to make sure that they have lots of information to take with them to Animal Kingdom. We are saving 2 of our labs/activities for Animal Kingdom days. The kids will be doing a bird hunt where they have to find various birds based on clues and descriptions, and then when they find them, they have to record some observations about each.

The next activity will deal with mammals and their names. You can learn a lot about a mammal by its name (location, descriptions etc). The kids will have to record various mammals that they see and if any of those types of words are in the name. They will also have to list any baby mammals that they find and the name for that baby if it is different than the adult bear (ie. Kid for goats). I also plan to have them do the Wilderness Explorers badge activities to learn even more about biology, conservation etc.

In addition, I am hoping to squeeze in a “Behind the Seeds” tour at Epcot in preparation for our plant kingdom unit in January. We have taken the tour before, but now that the kids are older, I would like to have them take it again so the information is fresh in their mind, and they understand it more.

Another aspect that we are tying in deals with foreign languages and cultures. Each of my kids are learning a foreign language of their choice. Carter is learning German and Kayla is learning French. We have talked about both countries being in the World Showcase and the fact that the CM’s in each are from those countries. The kids are hoping to practice some of their newfound language skills with the CM’s as well as asking them questions about their country, language and culture.

I also want to use the World Showcase to teach them about how various countries celebrate Christmas and other December holidays. We will be listening to the many storytellers as well as observing how each country decorates and any unique items they may sell related to the holidays.

Finally, each of my kids love to build Power Point slideshows, so after the trip, they will need to put together a presentation on the various things they learned during the trip. This is a great way to practice spelling and grammar as well as public speaking skills. It also is a great way to see how much information they retained.

That’s most of the big topics that we are hoping to cover, but I am positive that we will come away with so much more!