Introductions
So, as the title suggests, my family was supposed to skip Disney this year. For our Disney loving family, it may sound a little harsh, but we could understand. Last year, in 2022, we were fortunate enough to go on two trips. We had a 7-night stay at the Art of Animation in the Finding Nemo Family Suites for my nephew's 3rd birthday and then in September we had a literal 2-night stay at the Boardwalk Inn just so we could attend Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and have one day in Epcot for Food and Wine. Yes, my family might have been slightly crazy with that one as we planned and booked the second vacation in July.
Still, since we had kind of just gone, and had two trips at that, we made the decision that we were going to skip this year and potentially go again in 2024 for my nephew's fifth birthday. But well...how things do change.
What ended up happening was I started saying we should go on a cruise for my mom's birthday as a joke. That turned into her agreeing, which then my youngest sister started asking for numbers. The one joking comment I made suddenly turned into me looking up prices and crunching some numbers for the family on what the price would be. Looking at the cruise then became looking at Disney World as well because, according to my mom, you can't go to one and not the other. Then I made the suggestion that we should pay for my parents portion as their anniversary gift and the spiral kept continuing. That's how we came across the dates for our two week vacation, from Monday, December 4 - Friday, December 15.
Before I get into actual details of the trip, let me introduce the people that will be going with us.
First, there will be my parents. Unlike in trips of the past, my parent's aren't going to be paying for the trip. Even the last time, when us children paid for our parts, they still paid for all of the food and didn't let us contribute anything for that. To repay their generosity, we are going to be paying for their portion of this longer vacation. As much as we would want to book them a nice dinner someplace for the two of them, as part of the celebration for their wedding anniversary, they just aren't those kinds of people. My mom would much rather prefer to have a quiet night in or go out to one of her favorite bars rather than sitting at a fancy restaurant. My dad is the same. They would also rather spend their time with family rather than spend it by themselves. And while my parents do love Disney, they don't always love talking about it. That means that once the trip is planned, we aren't going to really be discussing anything until it gets closer, which is completely understandable.
Next, in birth order, I am the oldest and a Disney lover. I just love mostly everything Disney with the parks probably being my ideal vacation location, honestly. All of my friends joke with me about how much I love Disney and have Disney merch, which admittedly isn't as much as one would think. I'm typically the planner of the family as I look into different options and do all of the numbers and spreadsheets for everyone. I also feel like I have the most Disney knowledge in the family, partly due to me always planning and watching videos so I know mostly what to expect.
For this trip, my best friend will be coming along with us. We were supposed to go to Disney in May 2020 and I'm assuming we all know what happened before that. This will be her first trip in over ten years with the last one being when we had traveled with the band to march down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom our senior year. Therefore she's very much looking forward to the trip. To give a perspective of how long it's been since she's gone, she never knew MagicBand and never had one because they weren't around the last time she had gone. She always lived vicariously through me as my family went to trips since then, but this time she gets to join in on all of the fun.
My younger sister is also a Disney lover and is in charge of being the list maker in our family. She always makes sure that everyone has everything they need and that we're not leaving things home that we might need. She does try not to spoil herself by looking at videos and experiences because she's one who likes to see things first-hand and to have a genuine reaction to what is happening rather than expecting it beforehand. Still, because I like to watch everything, I might give her a heads up on what she may or may not need, depending on what we're doing.
My brother is third and while he likes Disney, he's definitely not into it like the rest of us are. He's also not very in to cruising, but I know he goes along because it's what the family is doing. He's very family focused. So while he may not actively want to go to Disney, he does like the parks and he does like experiencing the festivals and the food. He and my dad are big foodies so they will always try things at the booths, whether it be something new or something that they've had a thousand times before. Either way, he will always be up to try something along the way.
Finally, there's my youngest sister and my nephew. She's probably almost as Disney obsessed as me, but in a different way. While I do like the characters, and the parks, my sister is more of a parks person. She loves going and the whole experience, especially now that she has a child. Going in May with him was incredible and seeing the way he looked at everything was definitely exciting. Now that he'll be a little taller for this trip in December, he's turning 4 at the end of May and is already measuring around 42" tall, we know he'll be able to ride some of the bigger roller coasters he's been constantly talking about.
And to round out our party of 9, my youngest sister's boyfriend is coming along. He joined us for our trip in September, that being his first trip staying on-site and kind of his first time really seeing the parks, despite it only being one park for really one day. He's excited to do a longer trip this time and experience his first
Disney Cruise.
But that is everyone attending this trip. It's a lot of people with a lot of logistics to figure out, such as, how are 9 people managing to take off 10 days at the same time? That's a mystery in itself, which also contributes to good bosses and excellent workplaces. That's a story for another time, though.
Up next, how we determined dates and what to do.