It’s a working title...
Hello! We are 199 days away from our trip. 19/20 days from our ADR date.
Who:
My family unit of four consists of me (RW), my wife L, and our two kids (DS6 and DD18mo). DS has been three times in his short life and has been asking when we can go back. DD has never been, and we wanted to take her before she needs a ticket. Baby’s first trip! The kids won’t know about the trip until Hanukkah (if we can keep it secret that long)!
Side note: our family unit is Jewish, but the rest of the group is not.
We will be joined by some of my family.
Mom, long-time DVCer and Disney lover.
Dad, long time Disney visitor and wanderer (how can he have been so many times and still get so lost?!).
Sister A1, two years younger than me. She’s an artist and lives in Seattle.
Sister A2, nine years younger than me and in school.
When:
Edit: We added Thursday night when Southwest flights went up. Flying down Thursday saves us several hundred dollars, even after the cost of a room for one night at All Star Movies (my first trip to a value!)
Friday, December 21st-Saturday, December 29th ie, Christmas week!
Where:
Mom is a long time DVCer, so we’ll be staying at the Boardwalk in a two bedroom. It’s going to be a smidge tight, but we’ll make it work. This trip (as is true for all of our trips) would not be possible without a free hotel room.
Why:
That is a great question. Who in their right mind would go to Disney at Christmas if they know better? Well, L started a new job in January at a local college. One of the perks is that along with regular vacation time, the college is closed between Christmas and New Years. So bonus vacation time!
We had been wanting to take the kids for their birthdays in a couple years when DD would turn 3. Their birthdays are 6 days apart in May. But DS started kindergarten this year at a pretty academically intense school and we realized we just can’t pull him out for a week. (We may change our minds depending on my Disney withdrawal). So we floated the idea past my mom about a Christmas Disney trip.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: so, have you ever considered going to Disney at Christmas?
Mom: I would love to go at Christmas. Would you guys go at Christmas?
Me: well, we were thinking about it since L has the time off...
...two min pause...
Mom: Boardwalk is available. Should I book it?
Me: ! I don’t know! Yes?
Mom: I’m booking it.
Originally it was Saturday to Saturday, but my mom really wanted to go to the Christmas party, so we added on the Friday. DD, my dad and I will not go as it will just be too late for the baby but everybody else will. Then when Southwest released their flights for December it seemed crazy to pay so much when we could save money by going a day early. This will mean that we will have to pull DS from school, but he will only miss half of Thursday and the half-day on Friday. They won’t be doing anything anyhow.
So, yay!! Time to get planning our 8 day Hanukkah Disney reveal! Hanukkah is about 2 weeks before we leave for our trip. Enough time for DS to be excited, but not so much time that he’ll feel like it’s a long time off. We may not tell them about all the other people coming. It would be a fun surprise for the Aunties and Grandma and Grampa to just show up. Especially as we’re going down a night early.
I’ll try really hard to take notes and write up a trip report. I’ll also keep you posted on our ADR successes.
Hello! We are 199 days away from our trip. 19/20 days from our ADR date.
Who:
My family unit of four consists of me (RW), my wife L, and our two kids (DS6 and DD18mo). DS has been three times in his short life and has been asking when we can go back. DD has never been, and we wanted to take her before she needs a ticket. Baby’s first trip! The kids won’t know about the trip until Hanukkah (if we can keep it secret that long)!
Side note: our family unit is Jewish, but the rest of the group is not.
We will be joined by some of my family.
Mom, long-time DVCer and Disney lover.
Dad, long time Disney visitor and wanderer (how can he have been so many times and still get so lost?!).
Sister A1, two years younger than me. She’s an artist and lives in Seattle.
Sister A2, nine years younger than me and in school.
When:
Edit: We added Thursday night when Southwest flights went up. Flying down Thursday saves us several hundred dollars, even after the cost of a room for one night at All Star Movies (my first trip to a value!)
Friday, December 21st-Saturday, December 29th ie, Christmas week!
Where:
Mom is a long time DVCer, so we’ll be staying at the Boardwalk in a two bedroom. It’s going to be a smidge tight, but we’ll make it work. This trip (as is true for all of our trips) would not be possible without a free hotel room.
Why:
That is a great question. Who in their right mind would go to Disney at Christmas if they know better? Well, L started a new job in January at a local college. One of the perks is that along with regular vacation time, the college is closed between Christmas and New Years. So bonus vacation time!
We had been wanting to take the kids for their birthdays in a couple years when DD would turn 3. Their birthdays are 6 days apart in May. But DS started kindergarten this year at a pretty academically intense school and we realized we just can’t pull him out for a week. (We may change our minds depending on my Disney withdrawal). So we floated the idea past my mom about a Christmas Disney trip.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: so, have you ever considered going to Disney at Christmas?
Mom: I would love to go at Christmas. Would you guys go at Christmas?
Me: well, we were thinking about it since L has the time off...
...two min pause...
Mom: Boardwalk is available. Should I book it?
Me: ! I don’t know! Yes?
Mom: I’m booking it.
Originally it was Saturday to Saturday, but my mom really wanted to go to the Christmas party, so we added on the Friday. DD, my dad and I will not go as it will just be too late for the baby but everybody else will. Then when Southwest released their flights for December it seemed crazy to pay so much when we could save money by going a day early. This will mean that we will have to pull DS from school, but he will only miss half of Thursday and the half-day on Friday. They won’t be doing anything anyhow.
So, yay!! Time to get planning our 8 day Hanukkah Disney reveal! Hanukkah is about 2 weeks before we leave for our trip. Enough time for DS to be excited, but not so much time that he’ll feel like it’s a long time off. We may not tell them about all the other people coming. It would be a fun surprise for the Aunties and Grandma and Grampa to just show up. Especially as we’re going down a night early.
I’ll try really hard to take notes and write up a trip report. I’ll also keep you posted on our ADR successes.
