losfp
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 25, 2014
Hello!
I'm using this forum to type up a barely coherent PTR so I can bounce around some ideas and give interested parties an insight into the chaos in my mind when planning these trips.
We're a family of 4 - me, wifey, and two tolerable daughters: Superseded Model (6) and Baby 2.0 (13 months).
Our last big family holiday was in 2012, when Superseded Model was 4 and Baby 2.0 was -8 months old. Yes, we found out that wifey was pregnant 2 days before we left. We had a fun almost-5-weeks driving through the US south-west. So good. We ended up with a week in Anaheim which kickstarted the Disney obsession. I knew I'd like it, but I didn't expect to LOVE IT so much that I was teary at my first Disneyland parade wondering why my parents never brought me as a kid. I remember walking from the Hojo to the main concourse on the first day we were in Anaheim to pick up the tickets and being so, so, inexplicably excited.
Superseded Model at the Halloween party!
Full day-by-day blog here -> http://blog.thesystemisdown.com/?cat=15 if you have time to kill
Ever since then, I've been looking for an excuse to go back. I figured that in 2015, Baby 2.0 will be 2.5 and ready to do a bit 5-week trip! What could go wrong?
I had a lot of research to do and a lot of persuading to get wifey to agree to an East Coast trip. I think I may have sort of agreed to sit with the kids during the 20 hours of flights each way while she got a separate seat at least 10 rows away, preferably in business.
The whole thing got real when I looked into Disney cruises and put a deposit on a Western Caribbean cruise! Obviously a trip to WDW had to figure into the plan, plus a short visit to Universal, and a few other Orlando attractions. Just for the hell of it, I thought I'd try to sneak in a quick trip to LA on the way back so we can hit DLR as well.
This is what the trip looks like right now:
fly SYD-MCO (probably SYD-DFW-MCO)
10-12 nights WDW - Maybe 5-6 nights at Art of Animation (Superseded Model freaked out when she saw photos of that place and insisted that we stayed there). And 5-6 nights at either Wilderness Lodge or Bay Lake Tower
2 nights staying with my cousin in Orlando
3 nights Universal (don't know which resort.. Whichever is cheapest probably. I'm most interested in early entry to WWoHP, with 2 younger kids, we won't be going on many thrill rides anyway)
1 night Port Canaveral
7-night cruise on the Disney Fantasy (only thing booked so far!!)
5 nights WDW - WL or BLT, whichever one we didn't stay at before
Fly MCO-LAX
7 nights Anaheim - either Hojo or if I can manage it, VGC.
Fly LAX-SYD
I have a stack of "need to do" items for Orlando that I will find a way to incorporate into the days in Florida, like visits to the outlet malls, Wet and Wild, Sea World, Discovery Cove, etc etc etc.
This schedule is still very much in flux. I might decide that we'll go straight from the cruise ship to the airport and spend 12 nights in California, or maybe split up the WDW stay and stick Universal between AoA and BLT/WL.
Thanks for reading, I would love any suggestions or ideas relating to things like split stays, flights, or whatever I'll try to remember to come back in and update this post if/when things change
I'm using this forum to type up a barely coherent PTR so I can bounce around some ideas and give interested parties an insight into the chaos in my mind when planning these trips.
We're a family of 4 - me, wifey, and two tolerable daughters: Superseded Model (6) and Baby 2.0 (13 months).
Our last big family holiday was in 2012, when Superseded Model was 4 and Baby 2.0 was -8 months old. Yes, we found out that wifey was pregnant 2 days before we left. We had a fun almost-5-weeks driving through the US south-west. So good. We ended up with a week in Anaheim which kickstarted the Disney obsession. I knew I'd like it, but I didn't expect to LOVE IT so much that I was teary at my first Disneyland parade wondering why my parents never brought me as a kid. I remember walking from the Hojo to the main concourse on the first day we were in Anaheim to pick up the tickets and being so, so, inexplicably excited.
Superseded Model at the Halloween party!
Full day-by-day blog here -> http://blog.thesystemisdown.com/?cat=15 if you have time to kill
Ever since then, I've been looking for an excuse to go back. I figured that in 2015, Baby 2.0 will be 2.5 and ready to do a bit 5-week trip! What could go wrong?
I had a lot of research to do and a lot of persuading to get wifey to agree to an East Coast trip. I think I may have sort of agreed to sit with the kids during the 20 hours of flights each way while she got a separate seat at least 10 rows away, preferably in business.
The whole thing got real when I looked into Disney cruises and put a deposit on a Western Caribbean cruise! Obviously a trip to WDW had to figure into the plan, plus a short visit to Universal, and a few other Orlando attractions. Just for the hell of it, I thought I'd try to sneak in a quick trip to LA on the way back so we can hit DLR as well.
This is what the trip looks like right now:
fly SYD-MCO (probably SYD-DFW-MCO)
10-12 nights WDW - Maybe 5-6 nights at Art of Animation (Superseded Model freaked out when she saw photos of that place and insisted that we stayed there). And 5-6 nights at either Wilderness Lodge or Bay Lake Tower
2 nights staying with my cousin in Orlando
3 nights Universal (don't know which resort.. Whichever is cheapest probably. I'm most interested in early entry to WWoHP, with 2 younger kids, we won't be going on many thrill rides anyway)
1 night Port Canaveral
7-night cruise on the Disney Fantasy (only thing booked so far!!)
5 nights WDW - WL or BLT, whichever one we didn't stay at before
Fly MCO-LAX
7 nights Anaheim - either Hojo or if I can manage it, VGC.
Fly LAX-SYD
I have a stack of "need to do" items for Orlando that I will find a way to incorporate into the days in Florida, like visits to the outlet malls, Wet and Wild, Sea World, Discovery Cove, etc etc etc.
This schedule is still very much in flux. I might decide that we'll go straight from the cruise ship to the airport and spend 12 nights in California, or maybe split up the WDW stay and stick Universal between AoA and BLT/WL.
Thanks for reading, I would love any suggestions or ideas relating to things like split stays, flights, or whatever I'll try to remember to come back in and update this post if/when things change