Pre-Trip It’s a trap?!

dizfan917 · Mar 26, 2019

This past July we took a family trip to celebrate the 50th birthdays of myself, my cousin and my friend. Our bunch included Cousin 1, (her sister) Cousin 2 and her hubby and three kids, my brother and his wife and two boys and his niece, my bf and me (13 of us!!)!

My friend brought along her son and her Dad, his wife, their adult daughter, her husband and their 1 year old little girl (7 of them...). Oy! It could have been a recipe for disaster. We had NO idea how it would go.

Much to basically everyone's surprise, we had a BLAST! Not a single instance of arguing or frustration or short temper... nothing! AND we basically spent 1/2 to 3/4 of every day as a large group.

My friend had a terrible time as everyone was CONSTANTLY worried about the 1 year old (they're incredibly over protective to begin with...) and how every decision related to her well being. I totally thought we'd have the drama and they'd be kosher. Not so much.

We all ate one meal together at Be Our Guest Restaurant. ALL TWENTY OF US!! :geek:

So, I hope you have the same kind of experience we had. Hope it's ALL magical!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Mar 26, 2019

aliceismad said:
Aww. What a nice thing to do. A night at AKL and a good Jiko/Boma/Sanaa meal sounds like the perfect start for a magical vacation.

Agreed. We arrive to AKL on Friday with plans to just have it as a resort day and then I booked breakfast at Boma that Saturday. We plan to make the most of our one night.

dizfan917 said:
This past July we took a family trip to celebrate the 50th birthdays of myself, my cousin and my friend. Our bunch included Cousin 1, (her sister) Cousin 2 and her hubby and three kids, my brother and his wife and two boys and his niece, my bf and me (13 of us!!)!

My friend brought along her son and her Dad, his wife, their adult daughter, her husband and their 1 year old little girl (7 of them...). Oy! It could have been a recipe for disaster. We had NO idea how it would go.

Much to basically everyone's surprise, we had a BLAST! Not a single instance of arguing or frustration or short temper... nothing! AND we basically spent 1/2 to 3/4 of every day as a large group.

My friend had a terrible time as everyone was CONSTANTLY worried about the 1 year old (they're incredibly over protective to begin with...) and how every decision related to her well being. I totally thought we'd have the drama and they'd be kosher. Not so much.

We all ate one meal together at Be Our Guest Restaurant. ALL TWENTY OF US!!

So, I hope you have the same kind of experience we had. Hope it's ALL magical!

Aww thanks. Glad your trip worked out so well and I hope mine goes smoothly too. I’m trying to mentally prepare myself for the worst case scenarios and so then when/if it is better than that I can be pleasantly surprised.

LeighM · Mar 27, 2019

My husband and I went with his brother and SIL last year. Kept it to a small group, couples only for easy planning. The trip went well considering it was the first time the 4 of us vacationed together. The drama came from back home with the other brother and SIL who weren't invited (we don't get along and I had planned the trip for our 15th anniversary) and other family who thought we should've gotten the other brothers permission. I was like I'm a grown a$$ woman - I don't need to ask anyone's permission LOL. We aren't kids in a sandbox. I'm looking forward to reading more about this trip report LOL.

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 1, 2019

During my solo trip I upgraded my ticket to an annual pass. After I returned home I found I could change our May night at AKL from a standard view to a savannah view for $8 less with the AP discount.

Better view and some extra zebra dome dollars? I was pretty pleased with myself. Shared the good news with the family. A couple of days later I got a text from my mom:

”We are at Jambo House- not Kidani Village?”

I know this seems like an innocent question. There’s a chance it was. There was also a chance it wasn’t. A younger BES might have tried to get to the bottom of that and changed rooms etc.

Current day BES just said “Yep. Jambo” and gave my reasoning. She gave no response. Which is better than an infamous “ok” text.

Time for a dog picture/palate cleanser.

Hmm. Let’s try again.

Third time’s a charm?

Good enough.

Around this time I got an email from Universal with their equivalent of a pin code. I had my SIL show it to the travel agent she is using for the Universal trip and we ended up saving almost $200.

(What’s the universal version of pixie dust- floo powder?)

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 3, 2019

Universal trip planning:

We got MIL a Universal book for Christmas. SIL and I plan to let MIL run the show. I’m guessing it will be early mornings, perhaps a midday break and probably turning in early too.

MIL wanted to know what SIL and I wanted to do during the trip

My sole request- Toothsome Chocolate Emporium.

I wish I could find MIL’s exact text response but I’m pretty sure it was along the lines of: “Of course! You had me a chocolate.”

And that’s about it for Universal preplanning. Loving how laid back this part of the trip will be (as compared to all of the prescheduling with Disney).

I think the only thing left to do for this part of the trip is to set up my Superstar Shuttle transportation from and to the airport.

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 4, 2019

Disney trip general planning:

My mom had asked me if I would do a special thing with her during the trip. “You know.. for Mother’s Day.” (How can you say no to that? I had already bought her tickets to a musical at home for the day after we get back but oh well.)

The special thing is a cake decorating class at Amorette’s. I hesitated at the price but my mom was quick to point out that it was for both of us and included coffee and mimosas.

️

More reasonable. I guess.

I had a savory crepe at Amorette’s during my Feb trip that was great so I’m hoping this will be a good experience. At the very least I get booze and cake.

Nala06 · Apr 4, 2019

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
Disney trip general planning:

My mom had asked me if I would do a special thing with her during the trip. “You know.. for Mother’s Day.” (How can you say no to that? I had already bought her tickets to a musical at home for the day after we get back but oh well.)

The special thing is a cake decorating class at Amorette’s. I hesitated at the price but my mom was quick to point out that it was for both of us and included coffee and mimosas. More reasonable. I guess.

I had a savory crepe at Amorette’s during my Feb trip that was great so I’m hoping this will be a good experience. At the very least I get booze and cake.

Mmmm we love the cakes at Amorette’s. We usually get the mini mickey chocolate dome cake, which I believe you get to decorate a full sized one at the class. Its so unique and yummy! And booze and coffee are always good

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 5, 2019

Disney FP booking:

I had our FP booking day off from work and the plan was to touch base with my parents the weekend before about FP goals. All was good.

Then Disney made the change with the FP windows only being for the length of stay for each hotel reservation. That now meant the bulk of our FPs would be bookable a day later due to our split stay.

That day I was scheduled to work. Starting at 7am EST and it was a shift that really hits the ground running right at 7.

I was considering all my options. Do a crazy work trade? Try and set my mom up for doing it all herself? Wait until my lunch break that day and hope for the best?

Luckily @ELeigh tagged me in a post about the FP booking glitch. I tried on my account and.... was able to book FPs more than a week ahead of my 60 day mark.

I was at work (as per usual) but was able to contact my parents and explain our good fortune.

I told them I was just going to book a bunch of stuff as fast as I could in case the glitch was fixed quickly and for them to think about what they wanted and we could edit later as able.

Their only requests absolute requests were: Soarin’, FEA, SDD and “whatever the boys would like” (aka all the Mountains)

I booked my preliminary choices that night and when I got up in the morning my FPs were still there and I was still able to book.

It was amazing. Everything was available. Everything. And I wasn’t rushed. I could really take my time and make changes without fear of losing stuff. Decided to try late morning/ early afternoons for my FP times. That way we can rope drop or sleep in.

As the kids say my FP choices were on fleek. (I’m pretty sure by the time I hear slang it’s outdated so that is probably what the kids would have said years ago)

Much thanks again to @ELeigh for some sweet info at the perfect time.

ELeigh · Apr 5, 2019

Glad I could help! I also had my pick of FP and times and it felt so surreal I was waiting for them to disappear but we are 31 days out and all FP are still on MDE

Darstarr · Apr 5, 2019

ELeigh said:
Glad I could help! I also had my pick of FP and times and it felt so surreal I was waiting for them to disappear but we are 31 days out and all FP are still on MDE

And the glitch didnt work for me this time

ELeigh · Apr 5, 2019

Darstarr said:
And the glitch didnt work for me this time☹

Boo!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 10, 2019

I promise after these next 2 posts things will lighten up.

Transportation:

The original plan:

I fly to MCO on Tues.
MIL and SIL are driving together. Getting there Tues afternoon, leaving Fri.
My family flys in Fri.
All of us fly out together the following Fri.

I had the option of flying to MIL and SIL and driving with them. A flight and a 6+ drive? No thank you.

For direct flights Delta and Spirit were our options. Initially Dad was reluctant to book flights. He preferred Delta but said it was too expensive.
Looking at Hopper we had some time and potential price drops so I was good with waiting.

We waited. I pointed out that Spirit would have saved him hundreds of dollars even including bags and picking seats. No. He said that my mom didn’t want to fly Spirit.

More waiting. Dad stated he was now waiting to book until bro finalized his spring/summer semester situation. Ok. Cool.

I was really starting to get antsy as we were now less than 60 days out. I almost booked my flight down because I really just needed to coordinate the flight home.

Finally Dad was ready to book. I jumped on our computer and called him. I had an idea of what Delta times he would pick. I was totally and utterly wrong.

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 10, 2019

Transportation Continued

How could I be so wrong? Well. In all of our many flight conversations an option that had never been mentioned (because it didn’t make any sense) was to fly out of a smaller regional airport.

It’s maybe like 30 min closer than the main airport but the flights are more expensive and there are no direct flights to MCO.

Needless to say I was flabbergasted when Dad said that what they wanted to do.

The only flight out that made sense leaves at 6am.

And has a layover in ATL. (My family will be taking the same flights on that Friday)

Our shared flight back has a two hour layover in ATL.

This ends up being about $200 more

and an extra 5 hours of travel time.

Connection at ATL? Really. DH and I fly into ATL a couple of times a year. It’s nice but huge. My parents are not seasoned or good travelers. This should be interesting. I feel bad for my bro that he has to navigate this solo. (And so early in the morning.)

The icing on the cake is that my mom stated she told my dad to book Spirit months ago. She didn’t care about the airline or airport.

Also ATL is where I would have flown into to meet MIL and SIL if I would have driven with them. I’m hoping they never find out my layover is there.

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 10, 2019

Ok. Enough complaining (but thanks all for the opportunity to vent a little).

For this trip I’m going to shoot for trip goals instead of rules.

Trip Goal #1: unabashed alcohol consumption.

I like to enjoy an occasional on vacation so I’m going to try to drink what I want and not feel guilty or weird about it. (My parents and MIL rarely drink so I usually feel a little odd drinking in front of them.)

I also may be taking a drinking hiatus some time in the next year so this might be a final opportunity to ‘live it up’ for a while.

Drinks I have in mind so far:

Tipsy Ducks in Love
Soft Parade (at one of the F&G booths)
Manhattan at Cabana Bay’s Swizzle Lounge.

Other drink suggestions welcome.

Darstarr · Apr 10, 2019

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
I also may be taking a drinking hiatus some time in the next year

About this....care to elaborate????

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 11, 2019

Darstarr said:
About this....care to elaborate????

As a politician might say “we are in the process of forming an exploratory committee.”

StitchSNK · Apr 11, 2019

I'm in for the long haul! I never knew about this "glitch" and have my first night (106 days to go!) at the Poly and then the rest at Boardwalk! :O I'm happy to hear your MDE app shows the FP are A-Okay! I look forward to your trip report!

StitchSNK · Apr 11, 2019

I also have a Universal trip planned this year...my bestie is obsessed with Harry Potter and I told her I'd be more than happy to take a trip to FL...with potential to go to Disney as well

So we booked in September!

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! · Apr 11, 2019

StitchSNK said:
I also have a Universal trip planned this year...my bestie is obsessed with Harry Potter and I told her I'd be more than happy to take a trip to FL...with potential to go to Disney as well So we booked in September!

That’s great. You’ll have a blast! (And hopefully you can talk her into some Disney days too)

Thanks for reading.

Darstarr · Apr 11, 2019

Back!Elbow!Shoulders! said:
As a politician might say “we are in the process of forming an exploratory committee.”

Thats the funnest part!

Pre-Trip It’s a trap?!

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