Trip Report Huge July family vacation TR

And by huge I mean 12 of us on this magical trip. My 9th trip and a first for half our group! With 11 days to go I figured I could get this thing started as I'll be off work until we get back from our trip so I have been keeping myself busy with all things Disney.

First I'll introduce myself and the gang. I'm Branson, 23 and been going to Disney with my parents since I was 9 and been obsessed ever since. This trip will be a first for much of my group including my girlfriend Samantha (19) and my daughter Baileigh (4) so I decided to plan it around so they can see as much as possible with a few extra free days for them all to choose where they would like to go back and see.
Samantha and myself have decided to let our 2 month old baby girl Avery to sit this trip out due to the heat and not having to put her through misery. But this gives us another reason to go back and visit in a year or so.

Here are my parents and the ones that help make this trip happen for their grandkids. Along with my daughter Baileigh (4) and nephew Bronx (1).

I will have pictures of the rest of the group as our vacation begins.
Not everyone's schedule could accommodate for this trip so for the first 5 days it will include myself, my girlfriend, my daughter, my parents, and my two nieces Briley (5) and Ashlynne (9) with their parents joining us on our 6th day. So we will get to them later. Now on to our plans!

Day 1
Our flight leaves out of Midland Texas at 6:00am sharp so the alarm clocks will be set for 2:30am We have a short flight to Dallas landing at 7:05 then change planes for Orlando at 7:30. This worries me as with only a 25 min layover our second plane will most likely be boarding so I'm trusting Southwest that this is enough time as they booked us for these flights. Hopefully our gates are in close proximity and we can find some seats with the kiddos. Finally we will touch down in Orlando at 12:05 and board the Magical Express to the Boardwalk Villas where we have a 2 bedroom lock off awaiting. Once we settle in we will head over to Magic Kingdom (don't think I'll ever be able to go to Walt Disney World without visiting Magic Kingdom first). Then at 7:55 Dinner at Crystal Palace for the character dining.

Day 2
Stroll over to Epcot in the morning then head over to Hollywood Studios around 3 or 4 (possible nap time in transition). With dinner at Sci-Fi for 5:15.

Day 3
A Full Day at Magic Kingdom with the girls visiting the Bibidi Bobidi Boutique at 11:40 and dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table for 5:35.

Day 4
Animal Kingdom by morning and then Hollywood Studios by 5:40 to make our reservation for 50's Prime Time. Again with or without a nap in between.

Day 5
Typhoon Lagoon (hopefully by 8am to make the EMH) then Epcot For dinner at 4:35 at Le Cellier

Day 6
Animal Kingdom by morning with a early lunch at Yak & Yeti before heading back to the Boardwalk to meet up with the rest of our group. This includes my 2 older sisters and their husbands and my nephew (1). They too touch down at 12:05 and with this being a first time trip for all of them but one of my sisters will need some guidance. Once they get settled in we will head over to Hollywood Studios.

Day 7
Animal Kingdom one more time so the rest of the group can experience the park. Then head over to Downtown Disney for dinner at Fulton's at 5:00 and then Cirque Du Soleil at 9:00.

Day 8 Blizzard Beach in the morning then once tired of that head over to Magic Kingdom for dinner at 6:15 for Park Fare.

Day 9
A free morning the group to decide where they want to spend an extra day at and head over to Epcot for dinner at the Coral Reef for 4:40.

Day 10
Spend the morning at Epcot until our reservations for Akershus at 1:25 then back over to Magic Kingdom to spend the rest of the day. Park open till 1am!

I am going to try my hardest to video document this trip and make some youtube videos. Unless otherwise it gets too in the way of enjoying my tip with my family, even though I want to capture all the memories so we will see how that goes. 11 Days and counting!

 

[Zipadeelady]

Sounds like a great trip, can't wait to read the report when you get back!

Also, I never want to criticize the way other people use grammer or punctuation and especially what they write but I'm getting older and my eyes aren't as good as they used to be so if you could up the font size it would make it so much easier to read your report.

 

[olinecoach61]

Sounds like a great plan, I hope all goes well. Sometimes traveling to WDW with a large group creates unanticipated situations (speaking from experience). Can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[BransonJ]

Sounds like a great trip, can't wait to read the report when you get back!

Also, I never want to criticize the way other people use grammer or punctuation and especially what they write but I'm getting older and my eyes aren't as good as they used to be so if you could up the font size it would make it so much easier to read your report.

Fixed. Sorry about that, was on a different computer with a huge screen and scale.

Sounds like a great plan, I hope all goes well. Sometimes traveling to WDW with a large group creates unanticipated situations (speaking from experience). Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Yes, this being our first huge family trip I am expecting some problems to occur. I've made up a couple schedules and free days for each part of our group to enjoy if they so decide to give everyone some alone time if needed. Will be interesting to say the least.

 

[farrellbarrel]

Have fun!!

 

[BransonJ]

Well we are finally at our gate ready to head back in a hour. The trips never seem long enough but the kiddos are worn out. Overall it was a great trip, and I'm finally engaged. Will be uploading pictures and videos within the next week or so. Oh and my mission was accomplished, my fiancé can't wait to go back in 2-3 years and will be bringing her sister and her brother in law. Knew she had disney locked up somewhere inside her. now the planning begins, well after some rest of course.

 

[beautybutafunnygirl]

Congratulations! It sounds like a great trip, can't wait to hear more about it!

 

[BransonJ]

Okay, after roughly 3 days of being back and still having the post vacation blues I have finally gotten some of the photos uploaded to share. I'm finally getting over the fact that I am no longer in the most magical place on earth and have settled back down to reality.

Day 1
I have come to realize that I do NOT do well on early morning flights. Our little precious Avery would NOT sleep, guess she knew something was up and decided to keep us up till 1 am, with us waking up at 2:30. We were ready to head to the airport by 4:00 for our 6am flight and as soon as we make it to the airport, I get anxiety like no other. Lets just say the whole trip from Odessa to Dallas to Alabama and then Orlando was miserable for me. I blame the shortage of sleep and lack of food as we had only a 25 min layover in Dallas and BARELY made our connecting flight. Our group numbers were literally boarding as we ran up to gate. But when we finally made it to Orlando and grabbing a quick snack I felt instantly better.

Was like being back home when we walked into the lobby. Crazy how sometimes it feels like you were there yesterday after so many years. Everyone loved the Boardwalk, had a view of the main pool and had plenty of space for everyone.

My first stop after getting some food was to try the margaritas. I guess I shouldn't of expected much being pre-made drinks that just slur around but after paying nearly $13 for a patron margarita I was disappointed. So I learned to get them straight from a bar from now on.

Still working on getting all my videos organized so with only my pictures uploaded so far I'm lacking in certain areas. But our first day was great with dinner at Crystal Palace and the girls loved it. Had to snap a quick photo while waiting for dinner.

As did mimi and papa

Was a great start to the trip spending it at the Magic Kingdom and with some characters. And on a side note, I previously mentioned how I would be proposing in the early stages of our trip, well didn't pan out that way. Unfortunately every time I tried or made an attempt something would go wrong and I couldn't get her alone. But to make her pay for being difficult I changed up my original plan that I will get to later.

 

[WDW_Princess24]

Congrats on your engagement, can't wait to read all about it

 

[marrythomas]

Congrats, i really enjoyed while reading this.

 

[BransonJ]

Day 2

We spent the morning in Epcot to get on Soarin before it got too busy. We then managed to hop right on to the Seas with Nemo, Journey into Imagination, and do some shopping. Kids loved the rides and the seas pavilion. Having 3 aquariums at home myself and Samantha were just like the kids in there.

The girls wanted a picture of Pearl.

We only got to around half of future world before we headed back to International Gateway stopping at Canada and the UK pavilion. We attempted to get a nap in but the kids were not having it. So we decided to head to Hollywood Studios to catch our reservations at Sci-fi. We started by waiting for the boat but after waiting nearly 15 minutes watching the boat docked at the Yacht and Beach club with storm clouds moving in we decided to walk since we were already cutting it close to being late for dinner. Sure enough right when we make around the Boardwalk pool it starts POURING, our ponchos were useless as we had to step through puddles which just soaked our shoes and shorts. However we made it to the gate only to hear the boats were docked due to lighting so we made the right call. And what do you know? Stops raining right when we get in.

The girls started dancing to pass the time while we waited.

Once Sam found out about the hidden Mickeys she was instantly hooked and determined to find more. We bought her a hidden Mickey book and she managed to find all of them in Sci-fi. This is her after dinner asking where the last one in the lobby was that she spent 5 minutes looking for. The look on her face after discovering it is priceless.