Will We Make It Out Alive: A Family "First Vacation" - December 2010

[JilyBean]

Hello! Tis the season to be Jolly, right? Let's hope so! My whole family is scheduled to take on the World for our first ever family vacation in December. Fingers crossed that attitudes and personalities don't clash.

Cast of Characters: Me, Jill (aka JilyBean), my DH Pat, our 2 children Patrick and Haileigh (aka Ham and Peanut), my mom (aka Mama LuLu or Oma as my children call her), my dad (aka Opa - we don't have a nickname for him), my oldest sister Shannan (aka stichy), her husband Jon, and their son James. The only one missing is my little sister, Alana. She is away at grad school in Utah and can't miss class.

When: December 5 - 10, 2010

Where Are We Staying(?): My sister and brother-in-law are a part of DVC. They have graciously rented us their points so that we can all stay at a nice resort. We are currently scheduled to stay at Saratoga Springs, but are waitlisted for Animal Kingdom.

Special Plans: We will be going to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on Tuesday, December 7, 2010. My mom has planned for us to go have afternoon tea that day at the Grand Floridian. I should say my sister did the planning, but my mom is paying for it. In fact my sister has planned pretty much every part of this trip. Thanks Shan!

Dining Reservations: These have been made, but I don't know them off the top of my head. I will do an update once I pull my phone out and look through it for the email about them.

Side Note - My family, me, DH and children will be flying down on the 3rd of December with my DH's mother to let her experience The World in all its Christmas glory. We are really excited for this. We are taking her to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party on the 3rd. We will be staying at the Grand Floridian from the 3rd to the 5th. Super excited for this too. I have always wanted to stay there. My mother-in-law is fussy about hotels so I think this will blow her mind. We are going to take her to see the Osbourne Lights display on the 4th. We haven't even seen this so this is a first for all of us. Good times to be had by all. My mother-in-law will depart on the 5th just in time for my family to gather.

I cannot wait...Disney Here We Come!

 

[stichy]

Older sister here. Baby sis will be missed but points offer has been extended to her and Jason should they like to someday take their own disney vacation. (Sorry Jill, offered AJ points as a gift since she's still sponging off of mom and dad).

We are staying at SSR. Can only waitlist 2 reservations at a time so Jilybean and Oma and Opa are waitlisted. Not counting on it coming through. Never had a problem with the wailist that time of year in the past. Guess they're being difficult this year. Totally jealous of Jily staying at GF. Priced a night there for my fam and they wanted $315 with the room only discount. Didn't even suggest to Jon since I knew the answer would be no.

We are arriving on Sunday the 5th. Mom and Dad will already be in the area visiting family so we will be the last to arrive but the first to check in. DH insists on leaving at 9pm at the latest to drive and we only live 7 hours away. Sometime around 4am he'll stop in Jaxville to sleep a little at the rest area (I know Jill, someday we're going to get murdered in our sleep there. I
ll leave you my points in the will). We usually roll into disney right when the computers flip to the next day at 6:30am. Our rooms probably won't be ready until late since I have to try and finagle rooms near each other. Maybe that's a bad idea if Dad is going to be grumpy (Dad's new offical nickname, just don't tell him).

We have AP's so we'll be at MK for rope drop. Nothing like a carmel apple for breakfast. Since we are seasoned vets of wdw we'll only be there for 3 hours max. Maybe we'll meet up with sis and family. If they manage to roll out of bed by then. (Sis and family have a hard time getting out of the house which drove dad and Jon crazy last xmas) Maybe hit up DTD for a sundae and legos. DS is a super huge lego fan right now (I miss the days of $5 pack of pokemon since he tends to go to for the larger sets.

No one else is scheduled to go to the park that day.

ADR's:
Ragland Road on Sunday (BIL is Irish so he'll love it. Dad is English, he will hate it. He wants to go to Rose and Crown but the food sucks)

We have Whispering Canyon Cafe scheduled for Monday in case they add a 8:00 Fantasmic. If not then we are going to Prime Time Cafe.

Tuesday the ladies and cousins have the Gardenview Tea Room scheduled. I couldn't get a ressie for 5 so we have 2 10 minutes apart. Our ressie is for right when they open so I'm hoping we can sit near each other. If not we'll sit the kids by themselves.

Biergarten scheduled on Wednesday. One of my favorite places. Where I just had my bday dinner. Since the cousins are going I may get out of dancing with DS to the band. Last time we got so dizzy we both tripped and fell on the dance floor. Then we'll catch Illuminations. I think it's not work the time but I have to think of others.

Thursday is Narcoossee's. A requirement for my DH. It must always be the night before we leave. Last May they were closed that night and he still occasionally complains about it. Scheduled around Wishes so we can catch it again.


We're supposed to go to the MVMCP on Tuesday. Not a discount day which is a bummer since the tixs are so expensive. Luckily we had enough visa rewards to cover our cost.

At some point we'll all go mini golfing. We get half off since we have AP's and can get it for up to an additional 6 people.

We're hoping everything goes well so dad will be willing to do another family trip someday. Dad can be grouchy and easily set off. Once we were going to VA and he got a ticket in DE and wanted to turn around and go home. The goal is to get dad onto Dumbo and in a pair of ears. Maybe he'll wear my pluto reindeer ears.

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I am going to move you over to our pre-trip board. And I just opened up December dates on our Sticky thread on the pre-trip board, so I can put your dates up too.
Hopefully you will find other's going around the same time, and see what other's are planning.
When you return, give me a PM, and I'll move you back to our regular TR Board.
OhMari

 

[stichy]

Hi,
I am going to move you over to our pre-trip board. And I just opened up December dates on our Sticky thread on the pre-trip board, so I can put your dates up too.
Hopefully you will find other's going around the same time, and see what other's are planning.
When you return, give me a PM, and I'll move you back to our regular TR Board.
OhMari

Thanks

 

[JilyBean]

Since starting my trip report a war has errupted with my sister (aka sticky - now known as jbear'smommy). To make a long story short she was spouting off about MY family. Putting my private matters on the disboards and ***** boards without my consent IS NOT ok. And the information that was put out in her rants was far from accurate. Attack me and my family and I will attack back.

Enough said about that...on to the planning.

We are still planning to go during the original dates. We will just be limiting our interaction with her and her family. My sole purpose of going was to bring everyone closer and have the cousins get a chance to hangout with one another and their grandparents. My parents are very busy people running separate companies that leaves little time for visits.

I am taking the high road by not bashing my sister. She needs help. I hope that things can turn around before our trip to the World.

I have hope, faith and pixie dust....that should help right? We'll see. Stay tuned.....