Kelly Sullivan
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2016
I'm going nuts over here!
In a good way mind you.
Not like planning a Disney vacation is torture or anything
We're not planning on going until Fall 2017 to celebrate my #2 kids high school graduation like we did for #1 kid.
Our first trip we were THAT crazy first time family. I was a horrible Mom and crammed everything I could into those 6 days. We did it all. Park Hoppers, Water Parks Downtown Disney. I didn't want my kids to miss anything!
Luckily I have the BEST husband in the world and he did not once complain about all the running and whip cracking. Now four years later in retrospect I look back on that trip with such sadness because I was horrible to my family. My poor children who were 10, 13 & 16 at the time were miserable and couldn't wait for the trip home so they could SLEEP! I force fed them caffeine all day long as we raced from one end of the park to the other catching those rides that had short wait times and then sprinting to the other side to utilize our fast passes and hauling butt to the front of the park to make our dinner reservations. (I am the Mom who forbids caffeine at home so that's double extra bad!)
to be honest, I'm surprised I didn't kill them with all the "fun" I crammed into that 'vacation' I'm even more surprised they didn't tie me up and leave me in our cabin while they went out and relaxed at the pool LOL
We all survived that trip (although I did have a gallbladder attack the day we went to Blizzard Beach and had dinner at Shutters. WOW you ever try walking with your gut wrenched up around your heart after a full meal and a day bouncing around on water slides? I did have my gallbladder removed 6 weeks before our second trip with no ill effects... surprisingly I can eat whatever I want without giving it a second thought and from what I hear that is rare! I was so worried that would ruin our second trip. My heart breaks for those of you who have to watch what you order and are limited because of allergies etc)
I learned alot from that first trip, and our second was more enjoyable by far! I allowed for some down time and was better at scheduling and sticking to a plan so we could see/do more and walk less. Funnily enough we created some traditions accidentally. Both trips we planned on visiting Animal Kingdom on our first day with dinner reservations, Rain Forest Cafe and Tusker House respectively. Both trips those plans tanked for reasons beyond our control. Well... almost. First trip we had reservations at 4:30 and I figured check in at 3 at our cabin and drive to AK - go eat.
um. noooooooooope. we drove our car. got lost. called the restaurant from the tram to let them know we were on our way and still planning on being there. I SOOOO did not want to get charged for missing our ADR! We check in and they forgot about us
finally got seated 45 minutes later and after we ate a rushed meal with a quick panic at the end when we got the bill and wondered if our free DDP was really going to work we head out to explore the park for a 1/2 hour before it closed with an animal loving 10 y/o who wanted to stop and lovingly gaze at all the animals (even the squirrels mind you were exotic here at AK!) We made it onto the dinosaur. Previously mentioned 10 y/o's first ride ever btw! OMG I was feeling like a horrid Mom during that ride! But he loved it and all was well. We had time to squeeze in Primeval Whirl before the park closed and they gave us the boot.
The second time we went we drove from NY in our RV for the first time and left a day late and DH would NOT go over 55mph. I swear our 19 hour drive took 30. That trip was a surprise to the kids as we had told them we were touring historical sites for homeschooling. ha!
I had to secretly call and cancel all our reservations for our first day and we arrived at Ft. Wilderness around 11pm and lost an entire day. Including our reservations for Tusker House which we had thought we'd had reservations for our first trip but silly me made reservations for Boma at AKL so when we showed up at Tusker House our first trip and it didn't say Boma I was sooooooooooo confused and my starving family was a little perturbed that we had no idea where we were going. We did figure it out btw and ended up with a wonderful dinner at Boma that trip but I wanted to die inside when I had to cancel my reservation for Tusker House for this trip. Fortunately on our last day we were able to get a campsite and take extend our trip by a day to make up for the day we lost! We were able to go to Animal Kingdom and I scored FP's for everest and reservations at Tusker House YAY!!! and we were even able to squeeze in the festival of the lion king! phew!
My poor husband! I was irrate with him for days for driving so slow and not being able to leave the day we had planned. OY!
I digress.
Alas, my point is, the tradition we created was....... the last day of our trip is at Animal Kingdom and the first day we always plan at animal kingdom..... never works out
This time we are planning on adding four more days for a total of a 10 day stay but only doing tickets for 7 so we are forced to relax at least one day in the middle and no parks on the day we check in or out.
I am planning on doing the park hopper with water park passes.
We'll have 7 days in the parks and way too many dining choices to choose from and I'm running into walls every time I think I have a solid game plan.
Each time we've gone we've made a point to go to Tony's because it was "our favorite"
Well I just discovered, it's not.
So just yesterday, in casual conversation while frantically reviewing our trip plan so far DH declares that Tony's was his LEAST favorite. ugh! Finally after four years and many Disney conversations later the truth comes out! The rest of the family declared they could give or take. meh. whatever. So, now I have a HUGE gaping whole in my plan! I can't just "fill" it.
Disney planning is not that easy.
This changes everything!
My poor Husband is now being attacked with non-stop questions and menu options (this guy orders STEAK and only STEAK where ever we go)
He did share that he enjoys the buffets the most.
Trails End Restaurant is his absolute FAVORITE and he'd eat there for breakfast lunch AND dinner with no remorse!
He's an outdoorsy kinda guy which is why we stay at the cabins.
So now I'm torn.
We're planning a Wednesday at MK during magic hours.... ( I know, everyone says stay away from parks that have magic hours because that when everyone else is planning on going there..... but we're going in September and the crowds are SUPER low so it hasn't been an issue)
My options are........
Be Our Guest
Crystal Palace (had the breakfast buffet and it was amazing!)
or taking a break on the monorail and hitting up
Chef Mickeys (last time we went wasn't a good experience, #2 kid wasn't feeling good and I was mad at DH for drinking (ha ha, ok having had a taste of my personality can your really blame him? and the Happy Birthdays every five minutes made me INSANE and I couldn't wait to leave, can't even remember what I ate! In retrospect I probably shoulda had a few drinks myself! Topping it off poor kid #2 had to suffer through the boat ride back to Ft. Wilderness and our sweet, kind hearted captain stopped to let us enjoy the fireworks at MK from the lake as well as the electric water parade and all I could do was pray DS wouldn't hurl all that expensive food off the side of the boat! Our prayers were answered and he didn't but poor kid spent the night curled up next to us on the couch.. he blamed the sushi.)
It amazes me how this one simple ADR changes how I plan this entire day. Where we start, what fast passes we select and when.
I've got most of my other days planned but bouncing around a little with our evening TS meal to take advantage of our park hopper on days we are using tickets and dining at resorts & DS the days we don't.
I only have 328 days until we check in.
In a good way mind you.
Not like planning a Disney vacation is torture or anything
We're not planning on going until Fall 2017 to celebrate my #2 kids high school graduation like we did for #1 kid.
Our first trip we were THAT crazy first time family. I was a horrible Mom and crammed everything I could into those 6 days. We did it all. Park Hoppers, Water Parks Downtown Disney. I didn't want my kids to miss anything!
Luckily I have the BEST husband in the world and he did not once complain about all the running and whip cracking. Now four years later in retrospect I look back on that trip with such sadness because I was horrible to my family. My poor children who were 10, 13 & 16 at the time were miserable and couldn't wait for the trip home so they could SLEEP! I force fed them caffeine all day long as we raced from one end of the park to the other catching those rides that had short wait times and then sprinting to the other side to utilize our fast passes and hauling butt to the front of the park to make our dinner reservations. (I am the Mom who forbids caffeine at home so that's double extra bad!)
to be honest, I'm surprised I didn't kill them with all the "fun" I crammed into that 'vacation' I'm even more surprised they didn't tie me up and leave me in our cabin while they went out and relaxed at the pool LOL
We all survived that trip (although I did have a gallbladder attack the day we went to Blizzard Beach and had dinner at Shutters. WOW you ever try walking with your gut wrenched up around your heart after a full meal and a day bouncing around on water slides? I did have my gallbladder removed 6 weeks before our second trip with no ill effects... surprisingly I can eat whatever I want without giving it a second thought and from what I hear that is rare! I was so worried that would ruin our second trip. My heart breaks for those of you who have to watch what you order and are limited because of allergies etc)
I learned alot from that first trip, and our second was more enjoyable by far! I allowed for some down time and was better at scheduling and sticking to a plan so we could see/do more and walk less. Funnily enough we created some traditions accidentally. Both trips we planned on visiting Animal Kingdom on our first day with dinner reservations, Rain Forest Cafe and Tusker House respectively. Both trips those plans tanked for reasons beyond our control. Well... almost. First trip we had reservations at 4:30 and I figured check in at 3 at our cabin and drive to AK - go eat.
um. noooooooooope. we drove our car. got lost. called the restaurant from the tram to let them know we were on our way and still planning on being there. I SOOOO did not want to get charged for missing our ADR! We check in and they forgot about us
finally got seated 45 minutes later and after we ate a rushed meal with a quick panic at the end when we got the bill and wondered if our free DDP was really going to work we head out to explore the park for a 1/2 hour before it closed with an animal loving 10 y/o who wanted to stop and lovingly gaze at all the animals (even the squirrels mind you were exotic here at AK!) We made it onto the dinosaur. Previously mentioned 10 y/o's first ride ever btw! OMG I was feeling like a horrid Mom during that ride! But he loved it and all was well. We had time to squeeze in Primeval Whirl before the park closed and they gave us the boot.The second time we went we drove from NY in our RV for the first time and left a day late and DH would NOT go over 55mph. I swear our 19 hour drive took 30. That trip was a surprise to the kids as we had told them we were touring historical sites for homeschooling. ha!
I had to secretly call and cancel all our reservations for our first day and we arrived at Ft. Wilderness around 11pm and lost an entire day. Including our reservations for Tusker House which we had thought we'd had reservations for our first trip but silly me made reservations for Boma at AKL so when we showed up at Tusker House our first trip and it didn't say Boma I was sooooooooooo confused and my starving family was a little perturbed that we had no idea where we were going. We did figure it out btw and ended up with a wonderful dinner at Boma that trip but I wanted to die inside when I had to cancel my reservation for Tusker House for this trip. Fortunately on our last day we were able to get a campsite and take extend our trip by a day to make up for the day we lost! We were able to go to Animal Kingdom and I scored FP's for everest and reservations at Tusker House YAY!!! and we were even able to squeeze in the festival of the lion king! phew!
My poor husband! I was irrate with him for days for driving so slow and not being able to leave the day we had planned. OY!
I digress.
Alas, my point is, the tradition we created was....... the last day of our trip is at Animal Kingdom and the first day we always plan at animal kingdom..... never works out
This time we are planning on adding four more days for a total of a 10 day stay but only doing tickets for 7 so we are forced to relax at least one day in the middle and no parks on the day we check in or out.
I am planning on doing the park hopper with water park passes.
We'll have 7 days in the parks and way too many dining choices to choose from and I'm running into walls every time I think I have a solid game plan.
Each time we've gone we've made a point to go to Tony's because it was "our favorite"
Well I just discovered, it's not.
So just yesterday, in casual conversation while frantically reviewing our trip plan so far DH declares that Tony's was his LEAST favorite. ugh! Finally after four years and many Disney conversations later the truth comes out! The rest of the family declared they could give or take. meh. whatever. So, now I have a HUGE gaping whole in my plan! I can't just "fill" it.
Disney planning is not that easy.
This changes everything!
My poor Husband is now being attacked with non-stop questions and menu options (this guy orders STEAK and only STEAK where ever we go)
He did share that he enjoys the buffets the most.
Trails End Restaurant is his absolute FAVORITE and he'd eat there for breakfast lunch AND dinner with no remorse!
He's an outdoorsy kinda guy which is why we stay at the cabins.
So now I'm torn.
We're planning a Wednesday at MK during magic hours.... ( I know, everyone says stay away from parks that have magic hours because that when everyone else is planning on going there..... but we're going in September and the crowds are SUPER low so it hasn't been an issue)
My options are........
Be Our Guest
Crystal Palace (had the breakfast buffet and it was amazing!)
or taking a break on the monorail and hitting up
Chef Mickeys (last time we went wasn't a good experience, #2 kid wasn't feeling good and I was mad at DH for drinking (ha ha, ok having had a taste of my personality can your really blame him? and the Happy Birthdays every five minutes made me INSANE and I couldn't wait to leave, can't even remember what I ate! In retrospect I probably shoulda had a few drinks myself! Topping it off poor kid #2 had to suffer through the boat ride back to Ft. Wilderness and our sweet, kind hearted captain stopped to let us enjoy the fireworks at MK from the lake as well as the electric water parade and all I could do was pray DS wouldn't hurl all that expensive food off the side of the boat! Our prayers were answered and he didn't but poor kid spent the night curled up next to us on the couch.. he blamed the sushi.)
It amazes me how this one simple ADR changes how I plan this entire day. Where we start, what fast passes we select and when.
I've got most of my other days planned but bouncing around a little with our evening TS meal to take advantage of our park hopper on days we are using tickets and dining at resorts & DS the days we don't.
I only have 328 days until we check in.
Having something fun to look forward to and planning is what gets me through the day. The rest of life is so mundane and depressing in comparison 
Sparkle on!
