It was June of 2012. I was on maternity leave. We had a two month old, a (barely) one year old, a 9 year old and a ten year old. Life was pretty busy. And, for some reason, it was then that we embarked on our first trip as a family. A complete family. All of our children together for the first time on vacation…to Walt Disney World. Little did I know that this would be the trip that cemented our future as Disney Addicts… and, it was probably the hardest trip we have ever taken.

I was recovering from a c-section birth, my second in an 11 month span. We had two very young children that required a double stroller, car seats, pack-n-plays, diapers, bottles, etc. We packed all 6 of us plus Nannie into a mini van with a luggage rack and made our way to Port Orleans Riverside. It was a long trip, filled with lots of potty breaks and diaper changes. Luckily, our kids have all been really good at traveling so there wasn’t too much complaining.

I remember unloading when we got to the resort and taking so many trips from the room to the van and back. We had a lot of stuff! I may have questioned our sanity a few thousand times with those steps. It took a while to get settled and make sure everyone had some space so that we could all be well rested for the busy days ahead.

What a busy few days they were. We ran from one side of the park to another and back again. We sprinted from rides to dining reservations. We sweated our tales off. We pushed a double stroller through pouring down rain in our Disney ponchos. We changed diapers in possibly all of the Disney bathrooms. We stayed up late for super late fireworks and got up super early to rope drop. We packed everything that we could manage into that once in a lifetime trip because we thought we could never afford to go back.

Here we are in 2025. We took 4 trips last year and have two already booked for this year and are working on plans for the third. I think back to that first trip and can’t even believe we did it. No chance I would put that many people in one room now and especially not have that many people sharing a bathroom. But, I have learned so much about planning these trips. Planning the efficiently. Planning them appropriately. And, even how to NOT overplan them. I love helping other families plan their DREAM DISNEY VACATIONS. I will always cherish that first family Disney Vacation as crazy as it seems to me now. It was beyond tiring and I wouldn’t change a single thing.