The Nelson Family: We're Going to Disney World!

Surprise! Guess where we're going?!

Fair Warning: This is going to be long and detailed. I want to try to keep record of everything we saw and did for Ruby and Ada to look back on. It will likely be several separate posts!

Steve and I have been tossing around the idea of going to Disney World for several years now. We contemplated the best time to go; when girls were old enough to remember it all or young enough to believe in the magic of it all. Our girls are pretty notorious for horrible sleep, especially in strange places, so there was that too. We also needed to wait for our pocketbook to get big enough for it all!

We finally got to the point where it seemed feasible and the girls were to the point where we thought it could actually be a fun vacation for all (i.e. sleep some). Our plan was to go at the end of a semester so that I was done with work but schools weren't out yet, meaning there would be lower crowds. Either May or December. As I mentioned before, we were consistently told Sunshine wouldn't be with us long and specifically told they would make a decision about her move by the end of January. Since we didn't know any better, we believed it, and tentatively started planning a trip for May. As the weeks and months went on without any solid info, we really weren't sure if the trip would happen. This was one reason we said nothing about it to Ruby or Ada. I did talk briefly with our social worker about the possibility of the trip and her first response was that we needed to go and we couldn't take Little Miss. Not because she wasn't allowed/able to go, but because our social worker knew it would have been very difficult traveling and partaking in all of the stimulation that is Disney with a sweet little one who had some challenging trauma-induced behaviors and she wanted us to have a fun family vacation. My plan was to delay the trip if Sunshine was still living with us when it came time to "pay in full". As it looked more and more likely (really, truly!) that they were going to move her in with her sibling, we moved forward with our plans. After she left, we realized how much the four of us really needed this trip together.

I used a Disney travel agent to help with the planning. I did a lot of research of my own (yay Pinterest) but was overwhelmed with the whole Fast Pass booking. It had been around 20 years since either Steve or I had been, so I left the details to an expert. I would HIGHLy recommend using a Disney agent. They are free (they get paid by Disney) and ours did an incredible job organizing everything for us. (My other recommendation for the planning part would be to get a Target Redcard and buy Disney gift cards with it to pay for the entire trip- 5% off adds up!) After telling our agent which character meals and types of rides I thought we'd like best, she scheduled it all perfectly.

Knowing that Ruby and Ada would have had a hard time sleeping for weeks leading up to the big trip, we decided to wait and surprise them. We strategically planned our flight to leave after my semester and Ruby's state testing and get back before the end of the school year shenanigans so as not to miss out on too much. However, you know how the month of May is, it was impossible not to miss some things. I was pretty sure at least our eldest would have a hard time swallowing the surprise at first and I knew they would be disappointed to miss out on the "beach bash" at Wacky Wednesday (an after school program they went to at a local church that they loved). Ada missed a pizza party and Ruby also missed a volleyball game, reward field trip, and her piano recital. (Steve and I were way more disappointed about the recital than Ru. We told her ahead of time that she wasn't going to do the recital because she started piano mid-year and she was fine with that.) We braced ourselves for the disappointment we expected when they realized what they would be missing.

I sneakily packed all of our bags when the girls were at school/in bed and put everything out in the office the night before we were to leave; suitcases, t-shirts, and magic bands. Our flight time worked out perfectly in that we basically had to wake up the girls the same time as usual to leave for the airport. I woke Ada up first and told her we had to show them something. She said, "Is it a present?!" and hopped up to get Ruby. Ruby was a bit slower to get out of bed, but she got up and asked, "Is it a cat?" You can see in the video that they were pretty shocked and didn't know what to think, but they really didn't get upset at all.

I think one reason they didn't react a whole lot was because they really didn't know what to expect. They had just an inkling of what Disney World is all about. On our drive to the airport, I told them all about our itinerary; which parks we would go to each day, which rides we had Fast Passes for, and which characters we would meet at our meals. They studied the park maps and info I brought along.

Let me tell you, staying on Disney property was so worth it for so many reasons for us. One perk was the luggage tags they send which allows you to check your bags and then have them just appear in your room when you arrive-magic. No waiting for your bags, just scan your Magic Band- amazing- and board the waiting shuttle that takes you directly to your resort. We decided to stay at Port Orleans Riverside, one of the moderate level resorts. We couldn't justify the price tag of the deluxe resorts as we knew we wouldn't be there much. I think our girls would have liked the giant characters and theming of the value resorts, but we thought the nicer/bigger accommodations and shorter transportation to the parks would be worth it. Our room was great, the resort was beautiful (we looked out over a river), there were good restaurants and shopping, a fun pool, and a quick boat ride to Disney Springs. It was perfect for us! (I think I'm going to repeat that phrase often, but it was just really true. I am certainly not an optimist about a lot of things but this whole trip was incredible. I'm still blown away by how great everything was.)

So excited!

Getting on the Magical Express at the Orlando airport

On the way to our resort

Walking to our room

This river was the view out our front door. We packed our swim suits in our carry on bags so we could go swimming when we arrived.

Again, the timing worked out so well for us on our arrival day. We were able to check in, explore the resort a bit and go swimming. Ruby and Ada each picked out an autograph book so they could collect signatures of any characters we would meet. We then took the boat ride to Disney Springs for a yummy dinner. We ate BBQ at the Polite Pig and used our dining plan for the first time. Along with staying on property we got the Disney Dining Plan. While I'm sure we could have spent less staying elsewhere and being more frugal with meals, it was such a relief to have everything paid for up front. We never once had to think about how much we were spending or second guess our choices because it was already paid for. This meant we got to say "yes!" every time Ruby or Ada asked for a snack as well, making it special and so fun! After dinner we enjoyed some of the sights and then headed back to our resort for bed. We surprised them with the cutest princess nightshirts, but I didn't get a picture of them!