Thursday, May 09, 2013
Help me with the happy
As you know, we are Disney bound in a few weeks. And, y'all. I am completely overwhelmed. Several people have told me that planning is half the fun. And that makes me a little worried about the whole trip, because I am not finding the planning part all that fun. I'm finding it rather maddening. Since it's my first (and probably my last) time to go, I have no idea what to expect in terms of lines or crowds or how long it takes to get from one end of a park to another (or anything else, for that matter). I mean, is it even possible to meet Mary Poppins in UK at 1:00 and Mulan in China at 2:00? Of course, there are millions of people on the worldwide web expressing their opinions about must-dos and definitely-avoids, but they are all over the board. And, frankly, some of it doesn't sound like "Happiest Place on Earth" type stuff. ("30 minute lines for bathrooms"). Not to mention, I can't really make Disney planning into my full-time job. (And, of course, I didn't start 6 months ahead of time, as has been suggested as the best course of action in various places on the Internet). Pretty much everyone says, "Don't go without a plan," but they fail to actually give me a plan. I am using the Disney planning tool, but what I really want is for someone else to tell me exactly what I should do, how much time it should take and, basically, give me an exact plan for my exact family that will actually work, without anyone in the group getting overstimulated or overtired and going into meltdown mode. I mean, really, is that too much to ask?! Almost everyone we talk to and most of the things we read online indicate that people LOVE this as a family vacation, so I'm hopeful that we will find that to be the case as well. If you've done this before, don't hesitate to send some encouragement my way. And, if you've got a fool-proof plan that will work for my family, you'll become my new best friend.
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Well I can share my experience in hopes it might help some. We did not have to plan our trip because we tagged along with my daughters high school band when Nicole was 14 months old. I can tell you what I loved though. For us there was a bus that took us to the park from the hotel everyday. Gerard absolutely loved that as the only thing we had to do was load two strollers on the bottom of the bus for Nathan and Nicole. He was three. They had strollers there. I personally liked mine better. Nicole could take a nap in hers and so could Nathan. Our package included a breakfast at the hotel before leaving everyday and it also included a voucher for a meal at the park. This made things easier. Another favorite thing of mine was the family pass. This was where if you had a baby or child too young to go on a ride you could leave the baby with one parent while the other children go with the other parent. Then the parent could switch off and go again with same children without waiting in line. The fast pass was ok too. My favorite park was epcott that year. We went to three different parks. Epcott, magic kingdom and the other slipped my mind right now. Another time while this same daughter was living in Orlando attending school we came to visit her and went to the animal kingdom I believe its called. I liked that too as there was a neat faux but realistic safari. At epcott the show "honey I shrunk the kids was fun." Those are some of my memories. All in all we enjoyed it. Gerard does not care much for theme parks but I think he enjoyed it alright. I think it was epcott that had a big aquarium too. Our older kids besides my daughter in band were 13 and 11 at the time and loved it. I think for Gerard not having to drive but being shuttled was a big plus for him. I don't know if that would be important to Jeff. I think you will make some great memories. Hope this helps!
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