Disney102015
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2015
Hi all! I’m H - welcome to my third trip report! I’ve previously written about our 2021 Memorial Day getaway as a family of 4, and our winter 2022 trip with a baby on board. This time, we were at Disney for the first time as a family of 5, from 9/24/22-10/3/22!
But it wasn’t just the 5 of us this time - we were joined by my mom, my sister, brother-in-law, and 3 nieces! Hence the title - we were outnumbered, 6 kids to 5 grownups! (For most of the trip, anyway - my mom’s best friend joined for the first couple days and evened out our numbers.)
You’ll also notice from the TR title that Hurricane Ian rolled through and disrupted our trip. I hesitated a little in starting this TR because I came home still feeling a bit bummed about the ways our trip did NOT go as planned. (Testing positive for Covid the day after we came home didn’t help, either.) Don’t get me wrong, we still had a great time and are SO grateful we were somewhere safe and didn’t experience any of the more damaging effects - but I think when you spend so much time planning something (especially a Disney vacation which requires SO MUCH detailed planning) it’s normal to feel a bit bummed when things don’t go exactly according to plan. #First world problems, I know. But starting to go through my photos and write up this report has reminded me how much we DID get to do, and the many many magical moments we did experience, so I’m ready to re-live the fun with you all!
Let’s start with our cast of characters. Like I said, I’m H. I’m a huge WDW fan and usually the main planner of these trips, but this time I had a partner in crime in Sister! I can’t choose a favorite park, but my favorite rides are Cosmic Rewind, Flight of Passage, and It’s a Small World. I love planning our dining for our Disney trips - good food and drinks are a huge part of vacation for me - and especially love watching my kids’ interests change every trip we take.
Husband likes to pretend he just goes along with my love for Disney, but we bought DVC this year so I think he likes Disney a bit more than he lets on He’s not a roller coaster guy but loves Test Track, and he’s always happy to find a cold beverage while watching the little kids so I can get my adrenaline fix.
We have 3 kids - C is 4.5 and he’s got a need for speed! He also loves to see characters, but from a distance (although Mickey high fives became a favorite this trip). Little G is my wild woman - she turned 2 the day after this trip ended (had to get in one last flight with her as a lap baby!) She loves Frozen and Rapunzel, and her favorite characters are Groot and Beast. Last but not least is Baby E, our 3 month old! She seemed to enjoy things with music, like It’s a Small World, and otherwise was along for the ride, being her smiley and easygoing self!
Next up is Sister and her family. As I mentioned, Sister is my partner in crime and BFF. We planned this trip together for over a year and had SO much fun doing it. Her and her husband, my BIL, also have 3 kids, my nieces J (8), S (4), and H (2). J is the coolest 8 year old you’ll ever meet, S is into all things pink and princess, and H is just a hilarious little ball of energy who seemed to enjoy just about everything. It was so, so special to get to take this trip with all of them. It was H’s first trip, and on our last extended family trip J was 5 and S was just a baby - so it had been a while. Rounding out our crew was my mom, and for the first few days of the trip, my mom’s BFF, D. Mom also hadn’t been since 2018, so a lot was new to her.
So that’s our crew, which required 3 strollers and a wheelchair, so all our arms got a workout this trip. It was a bit of a learning curve, especially getting on and off the buses with so much STUFF, but we figured it out and made it work. We did a 9 night split stay between the Polynesian and Animal Kingdom Lodge. At the Poly, we had 3 studios - we were supposed to be there for 5 nights but ended up staying 6, due to the hurricane. Our original plan way back when we started planning was to rent a 2 bedroom at AKL, but then we found out we were expecting Baby E and that pushed us over the room capacity limit! (I told you we had been planning this trip for a long time, haha.) So for the second half of our trip at AKL (Jambo House) we had 1 studio and 1 one-bedroom (savanna view) - this was supposed to be for 4 nights, but ended up just 3.
WHEW - that’s a lot of info before even getting into our travel day so I think I’ll stop there and pick up the next update with travel. Thanks for following along!!
But it wasn’t just the 5 of us this time - we were joined by my mom, my sister, brother-in-law, and 3 nieces! Hence the title - we were outnumbered, 6 kids to 5 grownups! (For most of the trip, anyway - my mom’s best friend joined for the first couple days and evened out our numbers.)
You’ll also notice from the TR title that Hurricane Ian rolled through and disrupted our trip. I hesitated a little in starting this TR because I came home still feeling a bit bummed about the ways our trip did NOT go as planned. (Testing positive for Covid the day after we came home didn’t help, either.) Don’t get me wrong, we still had a great time and are SO grateful we were somewhere safe and didn’t experience any of the more damaging effects - but I think when you spend so much time planning something (especially a Disney vacation which requires SO MUCH detailed planning) it’s normal to feel a bit bummed when things don’t go exactly according to plan. #First world problems, I know. But starting to go through my photos and write up this report has reminded me how much we DID get to do, and the many many magical moments we did experience, so I’m ready to re-live the fun with you all!
Let’s start with our cast of characters. Like I said, I’m H. I’m a huge WDW fan and usually the main planner of these trips, but this time I had a partner in crime in Sister! I can’t choose a favorite park, but my favorite rides are Cosmic Rewind, Flight of Passage, and It’s a Small World. I love planning our dining for our Disney trips - good food and drinks are a huge part of vacation for me - and especially love watching my kids’ interests change every trip we take.
Husband likes to pretend he just goes along with my love for Disney, but we bought DVC this year so I think he likes Disney a bit more than he lets on He’s not a roller coaster guy but loves Test Track, and he’s always happy to find a cold beverage while watching the little kids so I can get my adrenaline fix.
We have 3 kids - C is 4.5 and he’s got a need for speed! He also loves to see characters, but from a distance (although Mickey high fives became a favorite this trip). Little G is my wild woman - she turned 2 the day after this trip ended (had to get in one last flight with her as a lap baby!) She loves Frozen and Rapunzel, and her favorite characters are Groot and Beast. Last but not least is Baby E, our 3 month old! She seemed to enjoy things with music, like It’s a Small World, and otherwise was along for the ride, being her smiley and easygoing self!
Next up is Sister and her family. As I mentioned, Sister is my partner in crime and BFF. We planned this trip together for over a year and had SO much fun doing it. Her and her husband, my BIL, also have 3 kids, my nieces J (8), S (4), and H (2). J is the coolest 8 year old you’ll ever meet, S is into all things pink and princess, and H is just a hilarious little ball of energy who seemed to enjoy just about everything. It was so, so special to get to take this trip with all of them. It was H’s first trip, and on our last extended family trip J was 5 and S was just a baby - so it had been a while. Rounding out our crew was my mom, and for the first few days of the trip, my mom’s BFF, D. Mom also hadn’t been since 2018, so a lot was new to her.
So that’s our crew, which required 3 strollers and a wheelchair, so all our arms got a workout this trip. It was a bit of a learning curve, especially getting on and off the buses with so much STUFF, but we figured it out and made it work. We did a 9 night split stay between the Polynesian and Animal Kingdom Lodge. At the Poly, we had 3 studios - we were supposed to be there for 5 nights but ended up staying 6, due to the hurricane. Our original plan way back when we started planning was to rent a 2 bedroom at AKL, but then we found out we were expecting Baby E and that pushed us over the room capacity limit! (I told you we had been planning this trip for a long time, haha.) So for the second half of our trip at AKL (Jambo House) we had 1 studio and 1 one-bedroom (savanna view) - this was supposed to be for 4 nights, but ended up just 3.
WHEW - that’s a lot of info before even getting into our travel day so I think I’ll stop there and pick up the next update with travel. Thanks for following along!!