How to make EVERYONE happy at WDW

We just returned from our latest trip to Walt Disney World in August. Our family is unique in that our children are fairly spread out in age. Thus, their interests at WDW are also varied. We have a daughter who is a sophomore (almost 16), a 12 year old son in 7th grade, and a 5 year old son. As you can probably guess, they are not all interested in the same things that Disney has to offer. So, my advice to you is to be flexible...realize this is EVERYONE's vacation. So let everyone have a say in what to do. How did we make it work on this trip? Let me tell you.First of all, we allowed our 15 year old to take a friend with her this time.Why? Because together they are old enough to navigate the parks and the transportation systems on their own. If you are doing Playhouse Disney with your preschooler, your teenager can be riding Tower of Terror. It makes everyone happy and maximizes your time in the parks. Teens also seem to be at their peak after 9pm and totally unresponsive before 11am. Let them use some late night Extra Magic Hours and sleep in the next day. The rest of the family can hit the parks early in the morning. Meet up for lunch, some time in the pool, and spend the rest of the day together.With three kids there is always the "middle kid". Not old enough to hang with the older sibling, but too old to want to ride Dumbo five times in a row. What do you do? We split up at times during the day. Again, it allows everyone to do what they want to do and you get special one-on-one time with each child. We are also fortunate enough that most times my parents travel with us. Never underestimate how special time at Disney is for grandparents and their grandchildren.You are probably wondering "What kind of a family vacation is it if everyone is going their own way?". This is not an "all day, every day" plan. We spend the majority of our time all together in the same place at the same time. But this little bit of flexibility makes everyone happy and creates magical memories. (Remember, this is Disney World..."the happiest place on Earth"). Besides, isn't that what a family vacation is supposed to do?

A May Disney Adventure with Grandparents

Traveling with the family “A May Disney Adventure"

I am usually the type of person who is somewhat selfish with my time at Disneyworld. I like it to be myself, husband and kids. This time was going to be different; grandma and grandpa were coming with us. 2008 was a rough year for all of us, due to Hurricane Gustav flooding my in-laws house. My husband, I and the kids were at Disneyworld when Hurricane Gustav made his appearance. My husband’s parents had to live with us for three and a half months after Gustav, so that their house could be repaired. It was a very stressful time for all of us but we survived. And how does one celebrate surviving the storms of life, a trip to Disneyworld of course.

When we returned from Disney in Sept of 2008 I was already dreaming of my next trip to the world. Not thinking I would return less than a year later. Well Mickey had some tricks up his sleeve for us. In early November I received one of the sought after “pin code” promotion emails. I read it and it was a really good offer. I did not even tell my husband but I booked a package with the “pin code” and put down a deposit. I kept the secret to myself for a while, and then finally spilled the beans to him. He thought I was crazy but he was right. Our trip in 2008 was somewhat overshadowed by all that was going on back home so I vowed a do-over trip.

Jump ahead to Jan 2009, my in-laws mentioned that they would like to go with the grandkids at least once, so I said come on and we will see what it will cost for the two of you. You see Mickey was good to the public this year; he has made some great deals on packages like the “Buy 4 and get 3 free deal.” So I went online and made them a reservation at Caribbean Beach Resort, Pirate room. We were staying there in the newly remodeled rooms and I was excited to get it for them to.

May 20, 2009 we hit the road bound for Disneyworld. We live in Louisiana so it is a little over 800 miles to drive. The four of us would have driven all the way there but being that the in-laws were with us we decided to drive to Tallahassee and spend the night. The ride to Tallahassee was uneventful and we woke up the next morning and drove on into Disney.
May 21, 2009 check in day at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, I am so excited. Check in was smooth and it was early so our room was not ready. No worries though we decided to grab lunch at the resort before heading out to the parks. This was my first time staying at Caribbean Beach and I thought the resort was beautiful. I think CBR gets a bad rap because it is a very large resort but I really enjoyed it. We stayed in Trinidad South which is the location of the Pirate rooms. I think we got the best location on the property in my humble opinion, first floor room of building 37 facing the bus stop. I mean we were literally 50 yards from the bus, maybe closer. We were also right next to the laundry facility and quiet pool. Each set of buildings has its own quiet pool, if you don’t want to go down to the main pool for a swim.
The day we arrived we had arranged to have scooters for my in-laws because as many of you know you probably walk 100 miles while on a Disney vacation. They would not be able to walk all that way so we rented scooters from an outside company and they were waiting for us at bell services when we arrived. I highly recommend this for anyone who is mobility challenged. My kids enjoyed the scooters maw- maw and paw-paw had, when the kids got tired of walking they would hop on with them. It made it easier to keep up with them that way.
After lunch we headed out to Magic Kingdom for some fun. I thought it would be rough loading and unloading the scooters on the Disney bus system but that was not to be. All of the bus drivers were great at getting us loaded and unloaded from the busses.

This was the year of “What will you Celebrate”: well the day we arrived it was my mother-in laws birthday and she went to the ticket window at Epcot and got her birthday fun card to spend. This year each person can receive a free one day park admission on their birthday, but if you already have tickets you can exchange it for the birthday fun card or a special birthday fastpass. My mother-in law chose the fun card; it was worth $75 dollars. That was a really cool thing for her. We also had made and Advance dining reservation that night at Chef Mickey’s and we had a birthday cake for her while we were there. You don’t have to be a kid to have a birthday with Mickey it is a great thing to do at any age.

We spent the next day’s exploring the parks sometimes with the in-laws and sometimes without. I think it is good if you travel with family especially large groups to be willing to split up and have some time apart. Disneyworld is 47 square miles of fun and there is so much to explore. I think the key to a good trip with family is to spend time together such as dinners at Table service restaurants and time apart in the parks. Grandma and grandpa don’t necessarily want to ride the Teacups in Fantasyland 10 times. This is exactly what we did, we would generally start out the day together and then they would go back to the resort for a rest and we would meet back up for dinner at night. Let me tell you dinners at Disney are delicious. Some of the ones we attended were Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort, Whispering Canyon Café at the Wilderness Lodge, Ohana at the Polynesian; one of my favorites. Cinderella’s Royal Table for breakfast and Le Cellier in the Canadian Pavilion at Epcot. Being from Louisiana we love to eat and we were not disappointed in any of our choices. I highly suggest making advance dining reservations as soon as you are able so that you can get in to the great places to eat in Disney.

So as you can see traveling with family can be great at Disneyworld, because there is so much to see and do there. Whether you are 5 or 95 you can’t possibly have a bad time. I always say a bad day at Disney is better than a good day anywhere else. It is my happy place and luckily my family loves it as much as I do. I can’t wait until our next trip to the World. We are shooting for Oct of 2010, maybe a Land and Sea package. Who knows if we will make it that long; I hope not.