Pre-Trip Nov '13 - The surprise, 1/2 Marathon, Paraguayan Family, likely a clusterfudge trip of a lifetime

For my last trip, I had decided to go the lazy-person's route for my post-trip report, and just post a photo collage and called it a day.
This trip though is going to have a few little interesting tidbits that lead me to believe that there might be something worth building a full-on trip report, even starting with a little pre-trip action (due to some of the interactions and conversations I've had trying to set up my MagicBands as well as some of the other fun planning tidbits).

So, here we go. First post, a little background information on the trip. Who we are, who is going, how it came about, etc. Then I'll delve into a little of the details of getting the trip set up, planning, tech support, etc. Hopefully some of it might be interesting to some people, who knows, maybe a little informative.

After our last trip, we had decided that 2013 was going to be one of the very few years that we were going to skip our trip to WDW. Not because we had a bad experience on our last trip, not at all. For strictly financial reasons, we were going to take a year off. Of course, April wasn't even fully finished when all that changed. My wife got a message on Facebook from one of her cousins that altered our whole year. My wife's mother and father are originally from Paraguay. They moved up to the US in the mid 70s, right before they had kids, so my wife is officially 2nd generation US, but other than her immediate family (mother, father, brother), the rest of her family all still lives in Paraguay. As a child, she used to travel down there quite often, yearly, but as an adult, financially it became quite cost-prohibitive to make the trip. Her last trip down there would have been around 12 years ago. She has one cousin (her closest cousin) who has made several trips to the US (she's trying to eventually immigrate here, has been working on trying to make that legally happen for many years), and her uncle comes up once every few years to attend a conference. One other cousin came up with her husband once a couple years ago for a quick weekend trip to NYC that we joined them in. Other than that, the rest of her family she has not seen in well over a decade. She has cousins who have grown up, gotten married, even had kids in that time, yet barring Facebook and Skype, has not really seen them in a LONG time.

In April we find out that one of her cousins is planning on coming up and doing a week in Orlando, bringing her kids. We started talking to see if we could make the trip immediately. Then, the next thing we know, that entire branch of the family has decided they are coming! Her aunt and uncle, their 4 daughters (along with husband/children). At this point, I told my wife that there is no way in the world that we are NOT going to be there. We'll find a way. I'm not letting her family be here in the US, in our favorite place, and not have her there with them. We will drive, cut as many corners as we can, etc. The drive from Chicago to Orlando is possible to do in one day, if we're crazy, we can do it.

Thus, the gears for the great-'13-clusterfudge trip start turning. They have one week in November in mind, and we start planning that way. A few weeks later, they shift it and decide that they are coming the week of Thanksgiving (which I thankfully put the kibosh on as soon as I could). Finally they decide on the week of Nov 10-17th and we get them to book their plane tickets to lock in the dates. They have a timeshare in the Orlando area, we can jump in with them in the timeshare, so we have a cheap place to stay (the Westgate Vacation Villas). We'll grab one villa to share with some of her cousins and their kids, they'll have a 2nd villa for the rest of the family.

So, by late May 2013, this is where we stand. My wife, myself, my 2 children (5 and 2 year old daughters), and the Paraguayan contingent, aunt, uncle, 4 cousins, 1 husband, 1 boy and a fairly newborn girl. We decided we were NOT going to tell our kids, we're going to surprise them with the trip.

That's the beginning of the fun. Stay tuned. Breaking this apart into separate posts.

 

[sshindel]

Continued... When last we left, it was late May 2013, and the Paraguayan Family Trip had been set in motion.

Doing some research into this time of year, I figure out that the day before we were planning to arrive is the Disney Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon. Now, I'm not the worlds best runner, I just have always been able to run halfway decently. This year I had made a big play at getting more in shape. I'd been riding my bike to work (18.5 miles round trip) 4 or 5 days a week. I'd done no running at this point in the year, but I've always been able to get out and jog a 5k without too much training. The thing is, my dad is an avid runner and loves road-races. He's completed a 1/2 marathon in the past, and typically runs 5ks and 10ks nearly every weekend in the fall. He is also a Disney fanatic. My folks are the ones that gave us the Disney bug. They go on trips with us quite often, and they typically make a trip themselves once or twice a year without any of us.

So, heading back to visit my parents for Memorial Day weekend, as the kids slept in the backseat on the drive, we start wondering aloud if we could talk my folks into joining us, and if I thought I could run the 1/2 marathon. Turns out, my dad didnt even have to think about it. Before I pulled the 2nd kid out of the carseat at their place, my wife had already mentioned it to him and received an immediate "I'm in". We talk it through a little at their place and decide, if we can get into the race, they're willing to join us for at least part of the trip. That way they can meet the family, have a nice little father/son 13.1 mile run, get another Disney trip with the grandkids, etc. I'll even sign my kids up for the kids races, so they can be a part of the fun.

Now, the trip has to change slightly. Since we are driving, I don't have to shuffle plane tickets around at all, but we have to plan on getting there a few days before the original plan.

First thing's first, I have to get into the race. This being my first RunDisney race, I had no idea how fast these things book up. I get back to work after the long weekend and start looking into registering for the race, only to find it's full. D'oh, there goes that idea. I pop into the wonderful running forum here on WDWMagic and blast a quesiton out to see if there are still any ways in. The helpful members of that community let me know that a specific set of travel agents may still have available entries, if you book a package through them. I start tracking that down. Turns out, there are a handful of authorized TA companies that get a certain quantity of entries, as long as you book through them. I make a couple calls, and find the one I'm set to go with. They have availability, and have rooms at the CBR for a decent price. One final call to my dad and another "go for it" and I'm booking my race entry and rooms at the CBR. So, now, here's how the trip stands.

My folks are planning on staying 4 nights at the CBR, checking in on 11/8, out on 11/12. We are staying 2 nights at the CBR (11/8-11/10) and then checking out to join the Paraguayan family over at the timeshare. My folks will stay a couple days with just us, a couple days with the large group, then check out and head off on their own little retiree vacation in Florida. We'll stick around from 11/10-11/17 as initially intended over at the Westgate.

Since my folks live in Michigan, we live in Illinois, we can meet up with them on the drive down, split the drive up into 2 days staying a night around halfway (Chattanooga, TN), and caravan ourselves down. That'll help the drive not be so brutal. An aside, we were initially intending to do something similar to what my folks did when I was a child, and basically drive through the night and all day the next day, and make it in one day. I'd wake everyone up around 2:30am (being a morning person), throw them all in the car in their PJs, and then drive until I couldn't. Swap off with my wife, who can drive while I nap, switch, rinse, repeat. Now that my folks are going, we don't have to do that. My dad has a few hundred thousand "points" at the Holiday Inn group of hotels, we can just get rooms and not worry about killing ourselves on the drive. Excellent.

So, early June 2013, I've added a few extra days to the trip, made the drive easier, added family members to the trip, changed my trip to be a mix of on-site/off-site hotel stays, and now I have to be able to run twice as far as I ever have in my life.

2013 keeps getting more interesting...

 

[sshindel]

Let's talk a little about logistics here in part 3. As I mentioned, we're trying to save a little coin here, which is why we're driving, why we're not staying on-property for the whole trip, etc. My wife and I have a couple days left over on some non-expiring tickets we have a from a few years ago. My oldest child does not have any tickets. My youngest still qualifies as an "infant" in the eyes of Disney for a few more months, starting in Jan 2014 we lose the ability to get her in free.
Also, we decided, as a break from the norm, we're going to give UNI a try this trip. We're off-site, a few of the PY cousins LOVE Potter (one has a Deathly Hallows tattoo...), and my oldest daughter loves Spider-man. I've not been to a Universal park in likely 20 years, so this will be nearly a new experience for me. We're hitting up IoA. I'm not ready to give up 2 Disney days for this trip, but I'm ready to give up 1 to try out IoA.

That means, we're buying tickets outside of a "package". We need 3 days of Disney tickets for us, 5 days for my daughter, and 1 day of tickets to Islands of Adventure for all of us. We're splitting ticket media, using pre-existing and tickets we purchased just for this trip. Knowing Undercover Tourist is trustworthy and cheaper than direct ticket sales, I went that route for my tickets.

I've also been warned, and know from little bits of experience, that it will be nigh-unto impossible to "plan" any portions of the trip where the PY family is involved. From the one trip I had to NYC with a small subset of them, I understood this as soon as I bought into this trip. You've heard the expression "herding cats"? That would be child's play compared to what happened to us in Times Square with just 3 of them. There is nothing I will put out of the question here as to what may happen. I could be walking up to the gates of Epcot, with everyone, and the next thing I know, they're gone and in DAK or something. I just don't know. I tend to be a mega-planner when it comes to travel, and WDW, so this is going to go against everything I know.

I asked them to answer 3 questions for me, then I'd leave it be:
1) Do they want to do MVMCP, as I think they would like to do
2) How many days at UNI did they plan on?
3) Was there any dining at all that they REALLY wanted to try.

3 months later they answered those questions.
1) Yes, MVMCP
2) 2 days at UNI
3) They want to eat in the castle.

Sorry on #3 there champs, you lost that chance the moment we crossed 180 days. I did find a lunch at Akershus on the last day there that I could get for our group of 12. Hope they like semi-Norwegian food!
As to the others, I got our MVMCP tickets, told them to buy theirs, and I told them that we were only doing 1 day at UNI. I think they may try and go to one of the parks on the morning of MVMCP. We will be sitting by our pool, waiting for 4pm to enter the park.

So, here's how the trip is looking so far.

11/7 -- Start driving -- Meet up with my folks somewhere just south of Indy -- Stay in Chattanooga for a night
11/8 -- Drive -- Arrive at CBR -- get dinner, let the kids swim
11/9 -- Kids runs start at around 10am at ESPN zone. Get there early, pick up our race packets, check out the expo, cheer my kids along for the run. Go back to the hotel, rest, swim, eat a light-ish dinner. 10pm it's go-time, 13.1 miles. Stick around Epcot a little for the post party with my dad, enjoy.
11/10 -- The only day I could plan. Check out of CBR. 10:30am breakfast at O'hana. Probably over to the MK for the rest of the day. The family from PY will join us at some point, I think. Check into the Westgate.
11/11 -- ???
11/12 -- ???
11/13 -- ???
11/14 -- Swim/Shop -- MVMCP
11/15 -- ???
11/16 -- Epcot -- Akershus @ noon.
11/17 -- say our goodbyes and start the drive back. I think by the time we hit Georgia my wife will be done crying. Make it to Chattanooga again for the night
11/18 -- Finish the drive and arrive back in IL.

 

[sshindel]

I mentioned Disney and Tech Support right? Ok, I'll cover that here.

Unlike many, I fall directly in the pro-NextGen/MagicBand/MyDisneyExperience camp. They've invested the money, I want this to work for them.

Due to the fact that we booked through a TA, it was not until about 2 weeks ago that I finally (by calling the TA) got my Disney reservations number. I went in to link it into My Disney Experience, just to see what would happen when I linked it. So, reservations linked. I then noticed that for my portion of the reservation, my room is booked as 4 adults (my folks reservation is separate and is correct), where really it's 2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant. Since I got a package deal, it really doesn't matter, we didn't pay anything different for this. Still, if I want to link the reservation to the people in my party in MDE, I have to fix this. It will not let me link a child into an adult "slot". It does tell me that I can order my MagicBands and customize them, so I go ahead and do that. My kids are obsessed by their favorite colors, so I need to make sure they get them. You know kids. The MagicBands arrived I believe 2 days after I ordered them on the site. It was amazing how quickly they came.

So I call the TA to get it fixed, they tell me to call Disney. So I call Disney to try and get it fixed. They kindly let me know that they could not modify the reservation, since it was made via a TA, the TA would have to fix it. Back on the phone to the TA. They take my kids ages and say that they will send them over to Disney.
A few days goes by.
I log in and finally see the change take affect. 2 adults, 2 children. I try and link, and can link my oldest child to her profile. My youngest though, nope. She's an infant. I can't link her to a child.
At this point, the TA seems sick of me calling about this. I've tried to explain that I want to use the MagicBand, I want to help Disney test this out, and I just want it right. They seem annoyed. So I don't call them, I call Disney again. Once again, nothing they can do. Seems they sent both of my kids age as 17. I have a few other questions to ask, so they send me over to their tech support, who are handling the MagicBand stuff.
Now, it's at this point that I realize that all this doesn't really matter. My infant does not have a ticket to link, she's free. She will not be charging to the room. She will not be getting FP+ (in fact, due to the "you can't plan" edict, none of us will be). Also, we will not be using FP+ due to the aforementioned clusterfudge nature of the trip.
Here are a few interesting things I learned in the conversation with tech support.
1) I am correct, other than the fact that my youngest child will want a MagicBand because her sister has one, she has no use for it. I can just keep the one I have. It might be helpful to have her take it off when we're going through turnstiles, just so there are no questions on her age (why does she have a band with no ticket, are you trying to scam us?).
2) I asked about my ability to link multiple tickets to one magicband, which I am told is totally fine, BUT (and this might be interesting to some), currently there is no way for the system to pick which ticket is used. It could just choose one or the other. If one was a hopper, one was not, I wouldn't know which one I'm using. That does not affect me for this trip, but it was interesting. He told me that what he suggests is link one ticket at a time. Link the ticket, use it until it's done, then link the second. That way you control which ticket is being used, and there is no confusion.
3) He also told me my assumption was correct, that once I check out of the room, I can no longer (currently) use the band as a "touch-to-pay". The charge will cash out when I check out, then it will no longer be useable as a payment option.
4) The magicband stays "live" for life. I can theoretically keep using the same MagicBand over and over, year after year, if I like. If I want, I can get another and link it on a future trip, but dont have to.
5) The magicbands are always live. Even if I didn't link in anything, it's still collecting data. I liked this. Again, I'm pro-data-mining. Even if I don't link anything to the band, I'll likely wear it still, give Disney a little more data.
6) He suggested, for the time being, requesting a Key to the World card, as a backup. Just to be safe. I will do this if I can. I will carry a KTTW, I will carry my original ticket media, I will carry everything I can to be safe.

So, where do I stand?

I don't care about swapping the infant / child, though I might decide to make one last call, they gave me a number at Disney that might be able to do it.

I've linked in my daughter's 5-day ticket to her band. I've linked my wife and my 3-day tickets to the band. I have not linked our remaining 2 day non-expiring tickets, though I may do that once I get to the resort, and have the guest relations do it for me. I've not booked any FP+ reservations. I might see what I can get in the morning of each day when we get there. Even if I get "bad" FP+ selections, at least they are there. I can still, for the time being, get regular FP with my KTTW/ticket.

 

[sshindel]

So, where do we stand today?

2 weeks from right now, I'll be driving south, hopefully making good time.

Outside of a nasty chest cold, I think I'm all ready for the 1/2 marathon. I've made it up to 12 miles in training, kept pretty solid in training / riding my bike to work. At this point, I think I'll make it one way or another. I decided not to shoot for a specific time. I'd like to run it under 2h:15m, and probably can, but if it comes between a sweet nighttime picture with a character, fun with runners, etc, I'd rather enjoy the experience of my first 1/2 marathon, run with my father, and maybe shoot for a "time" the next 1/2 marathon I run.

Despite a few near-slips, we've still been able to keep the kids from knowing that we're going to Disney. There's been an accidental "Disney" thrown out occasionally, but so far it feels like they've not figured it out yet. We've covered our tracks pretty well. We've started pulling things from their closets so we can pack at night, and are trying hard to keep it under wraps. The plan is to wake them up like normal 2 weeks from today, just like they're heading to school, and spring it on them somehow at that point. I think I'm going to throw in the Disney Vacation Planning DVD and see if I can't elicit a "I wish we could go back to Disney" from my daughter, and then do some sort of wishing ceremony or something with a magic wand, then tell them to hop in the car, it's packed, we're on our way. We'll see if I dont narrow it down.

I've made their autograph books and a book of coloring pages and activity pages for the ride. Last trip I made the autograph books, and it was a big hit. They serve as a autograph book and a daily journal for them. I tried to take it one step further this year by adding in the activity book for the drive:



And that's about it. T-minus 2 weeks. We're nearly there. It can't come soon enough.

 

[stevehousse]

We will be there same time you are! Nov 11-17. We are also driving from Chicago and doing it in one day! Crazy right? But we can do it...

As for the magic bands, my kids are the same age as yours, 5 and 2 year old boys. My 2 year old was given a magic band. Your comment about why does he have a band and no ticket and scamming really had me thinking for a moment, but I'm sure it'll be fine! Enjoy your trip and maybe we will run into each other!

 

[RandomPrincess]

My 2 yo also received a MB but he can not book any FP+ times. The rule on the Disney site says a child under 3 can go with an adult through the FP+ line. Disney sent him a band and he's excited to use it (for now).

 

[sshindel]

We will be there same time you are! Nov 11-17. We are also driving from Chicago and doing it in one day! Crazy right? But we can do it...

As for the magic bands, my kids are the same age as yours, 5 and 2 year old boys. My 2 year old was given a magic band. Your comment about why does he have a band and no ticket and scamming really had me thinking for a moment, but I'm sure it'll be fine! Enjoy your trip and maybe we will run into each other!

My 2 yo also received a MB but he can not book any FP+ times. The rule on the Disney site says a child under 3 can go with an adult through the FP+ line. Disney sent him a band and he's excited to use it (for now).

I talked to the tech support folks on my one long call and they had confirmed that it shouldn't be a problem with the 2 year old and the MagicBand. They will likely be totally accommodating at the turnstiles. I think for me, I just want to make it as small of a chance as I can to have to dig out her birth certificate or something to prove we're not trying to pull one over on them. I really think just saying "she's 2" will be enough, but I'm always paranoid about this for some reason.

 

[sshindel]

We will be there same time you are! Nov 11-17. We are also driving from Chicago and doing it in one day! Crazy right? But we can do it...

How many days are you taking for the drive? I think we're going to do it at a good pace, but we've just got the 2 days to get down there. We should be OK, I think!

 

[RandomPrincess]

I talked to the tech support folks on my one long call and they had confirmed that it shouldn't be a problem with the 2 year old and the MagicBand. They will likely be totally accommodating at the turnstiles. I think for me, I just want to make it as small of a chance as I can to have to dig out her birth certificate or something to prove we're not trying to pull one over on them. I really think just saying "she's 2" will be enough, but I'm always paranoid about this for some reason.

My DS is 2 but for the life of me I can't get him to say he's 2. He's always saying he's 3. I'm worried too.

 

[sshindel]

My DS is 2 but for the life of me I can't get him to say he's 2. He's always saying he's 3. I'm worried too.

I swear, I'm taking a copy of her birth certificate to be able to present if questioned. Just in case...

 

[stevehousse]

How many days are you taking for the drive? I think we're going to do it at a good pace, but we've just got the 2 days to get down there. We should be OK, I think!

I am an insomniac so we r actually leaving Sunday night about 830-9 after I get off of work. I will drive till about 5am and the switch with my wife while I sleep. We should arrive in Orlando anywhere between 5-7pm...we r staying at an offsite hotel for the night and then checking into our disney resort in te morning an heading to MK. Our first official Disney day is Tuesday the 12th.

 

[sshindel]

I am an insomniac so we r actually leaving Sunday night about 830-9 after I get off of work. I will drive till about 5am and the switch with my wife while I sleep. We should arrive in Orlando anywhere between 5-7pm...we r staying at an offsite hotel for the night and then checking into our disney resort in te morning an heading to MK. Our first official Disney day is Tuesday the 12th.

This was ALMOST what we did. I'm not exactly an insomniac, but more of a morning person. I was going to get everyone up around 2:30 or 3:00 am and throw them in the car, then trade off mid-morning with my wife while I rested. I'm kind of glad we decided for our first drive down, that we'll split it up with a hotel stay, but I was all ready to do it if need be. We'll see how this goes, but the straight-through one might be how we handle our next trip.

 

[stevehousse]

We have family right outside of Atlanta so we normally stop and stay the night, but we decided not to do that this trip...

 

[sshindel]

We are 1 week away. One week from today, instead of hustling the girls off to school, we'll be setting them up for the surprise and getting on the road South.

So, since I last wrote, what has changed? Not a whole lot actually. I decided to just let our MagicBands be as they are for now. I will add the 2nd tickets for my wife and I once the 3 day tickets are gone.

Oh yeah, I cancelled one of the 2 ADRs that we actually had made. I'm keeping the Akershus lunch for the large group on the last day, for now, though I keep looking for a better time to open up. I'd rather honestly hit Epcot earlier in the week and end the trip at MK, but since Akershus was the replacement for CRT, I have to keep that reservation for 12 and hope I can snag a better time as the trip gets closer. The other ADR I had was for O'hana breakfast, get the kids a character fix, but we decided that we just want to keep this trip fairly wide open. I dont know how we'll feel the morning after the race, so I don't know if we really want to have a "planned" breakfast. I canceled that ADR, we'll just do whatever we feel like.

We've started pulling things together a little more for the trip. Our SafetyTats showed up in the mail, which I think I got the idea here in the WDW With Kids forum. I think it'll work miles better than the In Case of Emergency bracelets that we've tried the last few trips (putting a phone number on them in case they get lost, of course, until they play with the bracelets and break them). I also just ordered a portable power charger for our phones yesterday, so that we don't have to fight to find an outlet or one of the few charging stations. We found out with our smaller NYC adventure with a few of the South American family, that not having charged phones is basically the worst thing that can happen ever (ohhh, how did we ever live before cell phones...). That sucker should show up in the mail soon, and it is supposed to have enough charge to fully charge an iphone 3 times for each of it's charges. That should get us through a day.

This weekend I'll go out and do a 1/2 decent clean-job on the car. Try and get it so all of the old crusted fallen french fries are gone, and we can replace them with new fallen crusted french fries on the road. I've started pulling things aside and putting them in a couple boxes so they can be easily packed at night. We'll start packing in earnest this weekend by doing loads of laundry and strategically pulling out the stuff from the girls dressers that they'll need for the trip. I wonder if I need to pack all of the princess dresses that fit, or if it'll just be a moot point when they get there and want a brand new one anyway. I'm going to try and steer my oldest towards the Pirates League anyway. I really have a feeling she'll play in a pirate costume more than her princess dress anyway. I think her Merida dress has been worn a total of once since we left WDW last December. Thatsalottamoneyforafewdays.

I'll check in more after the weekend, as we make it towards our final few days. Happy Halloween y'all.

 

[sshindel]

I love your pumpkins! And your trip is the same week mine will be next year. Excited to hear about crowds

I'm looking forward to seeing how they are. We typically dont go for another month (tends to be more Dec 8th than Nov 8th). Touring Plans shows the crowds on the light side, so I'm crossing my fingers!!!

 

[sshindel]

Tomorrow is the day. The surprise for the girls, the start of the drive South. Friday we arrive at the World. I though it'd be fun for me to write out a list of things I wanted to get out of this trip, things I wanted to see, do, learn. That way, when I come back, I can look over that list and see how different the trip went than I thought it would. So, with no further ado, in no particular order, here we go.

Scott's list of things he thinks he wants to do on the 2013 WDW half-marathon Paraguayan clusterfudge trip:
1) Meet and get to know my wife's family much better. Get the kids some real quality time with their South American family. Learn as much as I can from them, laugh, not get overwhelmed when they're speaking Spanish a million miles an hour, and just enjoy the time with them.
2) Have my first real "unplanned" WDW trip, and learn to relax a bit on my ultra-planned vacation methods. Not worry if I wake up not knowing what park we're going to, where we're eating every single meal, the best path through the parks, etc. Enjoy the time in the moment.
3) Take my daughters into the Tiki Room. My favorite attraction, and they have not been since the nightmare of Under New Management was burned by the ire of the tiki gods. Last trip I sacrificed the tiki room just because we were with some folks who were not interested in it. This trip, I'm taking them in. I'm sitting with both of them, embarrassing them just like my mom did with me by singing "Lets all sing like the birdies sing" a little too loud (heck, I time this right, I can have her with me to do it).
4) Give the old college try and use the MagicBand as much as I can. Try scheduling FP+ reservations on the fly. Charge something to the room with it. Form my own opinion of the system.
5) Spend a little more time focusing on some of the little details that get lost in the hustle and bustle of a typical trip. The detail work, from the physical details, the background music, the strategic placement of things etc. Remember how much work people have put into this park, and try and notice at least 5 things I've never noticed before.
6) Finish the 1/2 marathon. I don't think this one needs explanation.
7) Enjoy my first trip to Islands of Adventure. Try and judge it on it's own merit, not based on what everyone online says, nor comparing it with Disney too much.
8) I've mentioned this to folks before, but somehow in some sick way, I'm hopeful my trip off-site proves to me that it's worth all the extra $ to stay on property. I guess if it's terrible, I can justify staying on-site next trip. If it's really THAT much cheaper, and nearly as good, who knows, maybe I start being an off-site guest.
9) Try not and hate my time in EPCOT Future World. Maybe even try and give Soarin' another chance.
10) Get my youngest on a few dark rides this trip. She was terrified of all dark rides last trip. We've worked (quietly) nonstop since last year to try and help break this fear down a little, extolling the virtues of these magnificent rides. If she makes it through Its a Small World, I'll be thrilled. If I can get her on Peter Pan, Pooh, Little Mermaid, and (gasp) Pirates (I had my oldest working on her on that one this week, unbeknownst to both of them)...
11) Tom Sawyer's Island. I've not been out to it in YEARS, my kids have never been. We've just never made the time. I loved that place as a child. I can't explain why I've not been back really.
12) Take the Magic Kingdom Railroad for a full loop.
13) Utilize our Photopass+ to get a million pictures of this trip, with the huge family all together like this.
14) Make it home in one piece, both children and both parents alive, unharmed, and relatively sane.
15) A new set of mouse ears for us to put on our living room wall. We collect them and hang them up on the wall, and this year we should have a nice new set to add to the collection. I'm running out of room on the wall.

 

[Tiggerish]

Excellent list.

 

[sshindel]

The surprise went off perfectly. We got my daughter to say "I wish I could ride Space Mountain", then we got out some "Magic Wands" and wishing stars (from CRT) and had them wish we could go to Disney World. When we said "Ok, lets get dressed, we're going to Disney World right now", Charlotte went sprinting out of the room as fast as I've seen her move.
Teachers can be proud though, she did get a little sad when she found out she would not be going to school today.
I wonder how long that will last.
We're 99% packed and ready to go!!! Two more bags into the car and we're off!

 

[Master Yoda]

The surprise went off perfectly. We got my daughter to say "I wish I could ride Space Mountain", then we got out some "Magic Wands" and wishing stars (from CRT) and had them wish we could go to Disney World. When we said "Ok, lets get dressed, we're going to Disney World right now", Charlotte went sprinting out of the room as fast as I've seen her move.
Teachers can be proud though, she did get a little sad when she found out she would not be going to school today.
I wonder how long that will last.
We're 99% packed and ready to go!!! Two more bags into the car and we're off!

If my kids align with the statistical norm, you have until about 6th-7th grade.