When: 7 December, 2018 through 14 December 2018
Where: Disney’s Pop Century Resort, 90’s section with adjoining rooms
Cast of culprits:
Me (Glen): Dad /Daddy
Katie: Mommy (DW)
E (DS#1)
The Princess (DD)
The Prince (aka “Bug” or “Dec”) (DS#2)
Natalie (Fairy Godmother)
Emma (Little Miss Sleeps Alot) – Natalie’s Daughter
Mode of transportation: Drive down in rental car.
Been a long time since I wrote a pre-trip report… after getting into the swing of regular trips to our Happy Place, we were forced to take a Mickeyus Interruptus and relocate our family from the Philadelphia, PA area to near Memphis, TN (no culture shock there).
A little background. My wife is a Disney Fanatic. I went once as a kid to EPCOT (Since there was edutainment, he thought it was worthwhile and that the rest of Disney was a waste of money and no better than amusement parks) and had not been back. When I married my wife, she convinced me to take a trip to take my son (from a previous marriage) to Disney… She had already been multiple times and was a fanatic about Disney. Our first trip was in early December 2010… Originally planned for CBR with free dining… but right after we booked (like next day), we got a code for a major discount off deluxe rooms for the same time frame.. so we upgraded to AKL and dropped free dining (it turned out to be cheaper).
Where all this ties in…. Well my wife (being the Type A personality, Disney trip planning, control freak she is) looked at the forecast the day before we left... lows in the upper 50’s highs in the 70s… Ok, we will pack light jackets for the evening and jeans….. leave our winter coats in our car at the airport. we get there and 2 days in.. BAM!! Surprise cold snap!! Caught everyone off guard… So there we were, with no winter gear.
Oh, and that trip was where we met the twins future Godmother and our lifelong friend and source for Tim Horton’s coffee (yummm).. Natalie.
Obviously not learning from that experience.. here we are 8 years later and planning a trip for the same time frame! (I know - silly us). This is also the tail end of Pop Warner… and, of course, we are planning on staying at a Value resort (yeah, we are really pushing our luck on this one – sleep? What is that?)
Did I mention that I do not do well in crowds??
With 3 year old twins (4/12) at time of trip, we know we will still, probably, need nap time. So we are planning on taking a car and driving down. Given the large number, we are looking at a full size SUV.. Current vehicle of choice is a full size NISSAN Pathfinder. We rented one on a trip to Philadelphia area last year and it fit all 5 of us, plus our luggage. So we will drive down from the Memphis area. DS#1 will fly in from Philly (with me picking him up at the airport – unaccompanied minor and all, even though he is 16). Natalie will fly down and take DME to the resort… That way, we have a vehicle that can transport all 7 of us around the property, if we need to – in addition to using Disney transport – and can take the twins back to the room for mid-day nap without having to rely on Disney transport.
So there is the basics.. Next step, room booking (yeah, didn’t do that yet), looking at restaurants, crowd calendar, and park days…
reserved for adding links to updates
Where: Disney’s Pop Century Resort, 90’s section with adjoining rooms
Cast of culprits:
Me (Glen): Dad /Daddy
Katie: Mommy (DW)
E (DS#1)
The Princess (DD)
The Prince (aka “Bug” or “Dec”) (DS#2)
Natalie (Fairy Godmother)
Emma (Little Miss Sleeps Alot) – Natalie’s Daughter
Mode of transportation: Drive down in rental car.
Been a long time since I wrote a pre-trip report… after getting into the swing of regular trips to our Happy Place, we were forced to take a Mickeyus Interruptus and relocate our family from the Philadelphia, PA area to near Memphis, TN (no culture shock there).
A little background. My wife is a Disney Fanatic. I went once as a kid to EPCOT (Since there was edutainment, he thought it was worthwhile and that the rest of Disney was a waste of money and no better than amusement parks) and had not been back. When I married my wife, she convinced me to take a trip to take my son (from a previous marriage) to Disney… She had already been multiple times and was a fanatic about Disney. Our first trip was in early December 2010… Originally planned for CBR with free dining… but right after we booked (like next day), we got a code for a major discount off deluxe rooms for the same time frame.. so we upgraded to AKL and dropped free dining (it turned out to be cheaper).
Where all this ties in…. Well my wife (being the Type A personality, Disney trip planning, control freak she is) looked at the forecast the day before we left... lows in the upper 50’s highs in the 70s… Ok, we will pack light jackets for the evening and jeans….. leave our winter coats in our car at the airport. we get there and 2 days in.. BAM!! Surprise cold snap!! Caught everyone off guard… So there we were, with no winter gear.
Oh, and that trip was where we met the twins future Godmother and our lifelong friend and source for Tim Horton’s coffee (yummm).. Natalie.
Obviously not learning from that experience.. here we are 8 years later and planning a trip for the same time frame! (I know - silly us). This is also the tail end of Pop Warner… and, of course, we are planning on staying at a Value resort (yeah, we are really pushing our luck on this one – sleep? What is that?)
Did I mention that I do not do well in crowds??
With 3 year old twins (4/12) at time of trip, we know we will still, probably, need nap time. So we are planning on taking a car and driving down. Given the large number, we are looking at a full size SUV.. Current vehicle of choice is a full size NISSAN Pathfinder. We rented one on a trip to Philadelphia area last year and it fit all 5 of us, plus our luggage. So we will drive down from the Memphis area. DS#1 will fly in from Philly (with me picking him up at the airport – unaccompanied minor and all, even though he is 16). Natalie will fly down and take DME to the resort… That way, we have a vehicle that can transport all 7 of us around the property, if we need to – in addition to using Disney transport – and can take the twins back to the room for mid-day nap without having to rely on Disney transport.
So there is the basics.. Next step, room booking (yeah, didn’t do that yet), looking at restaurants, crowd calendar, and park days…
reserved for adding links to updates
